Bone marrow niche cells have been reported to fine-tune hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) stemness via direct interaction or secreted components. Nevertheless, how niche cells control HSC activities ...remains largely unknown. We previously showed that angiopoietin-like protein 2 (ANGPTL2) can support the ex vivo expansion of HSCs by binding to human leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor B2. However, how ANGPTL2 from specific niche cell types regulates HSC activities under physiological conditions is still not clear. Herein, we generated an Angptl2-flox/flox transgenic mouse line and conditionally deleted Angptl2 expression in several niche cells, including Cdh5+ or Tie2+ endothelial cells, Prx1+ mesenchymal stem cells, and Pf4+ megakaryocytes, to evaluate its role in the regulation of HSC fate. Interestingly, we demonstrated that only endothelial cell-derived ANGPTL2 and not ANGPTL2 from other niche cell types plays important roles in supporting repopulation capacity, quiescent status, and niche localization. Mechanistically, ANGPTL2 enhances peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptor D (PPARD) expression to transactivate G0s2 to sustain the perinuclear localization of nucleolin to prevent HSCs from entering the cell cycle. These findings reveal that endothelial cell-derived ANGPTL2 serves as a critical niche component to maintain HSC stemness, which may benefit the understanding of stem cell biology in bone marrow niches and the development of a unique strategy for the ex vivo expansion of HSCs.
•Endothelial cell-derived ANGPTL2 is important for the maintenance of HSC activities in bone marrow niches.•ANGPTL2-mediated signaling pathways enhance PPARδ expression to transactivate G0s2 to sustain HSC activities.
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While particular strains within the Bacillus species, such as Bacillus subtilis, have been commercially utilised as probiotics, it is critical to implement screening assays and evaluate the safety to ...identify potential Bacillus probiotic strains before clinical trials. This is because some Bacillus species, including B. cereus and B. anthracis, can produce toxins that are harmful to humans.
In this study, we implemented a funnel-shaped approach to isolate and evaluate prospective probiotics from homogenised food waste - sesame oil meal (SOM). Of nine isolated strains with antipathogenic properties, B. subtilis SOM8 displayed the most promising activities against five listed human enteropathogens and was selected for further comprehensive assessment. B. subtilis SOM8 exhibited good tolerance when exposed to adverse stressors including acidity, bile salts, simulated gastric fluid (SGF), simulated intestinal fluid (SIF), and heat treatment. Additionally, B. subtilis SOM8 possesses host-associated benefits such as antioxidant and bile salt hydrolase (BSH) activity. Furthermore, B. subtilis SOM8 contains only haemolysin toxin genes but has been proved to display partial haemolysis in the test and low cytotoxicity in Caco-2 cell models for in vitro evaluation. Moreover, B. subtilis SOM8 intrinsically resists only streptomycin and lacks plasmids or other mobile genetic elements. Bioinformatic analyses also predicted B. subtilis SOM8 encodes various bioactives compound like fengycin and lichendicin that could enable further biomedical applications.
Our comprehensive evaluation revealed the substantial potential of B. subtilis SOM8 as a probiotic for targeting human enteropathogens, attributable to its exceptional performance across selection assays. Furthermore, our safety assessment, encompassing both phenotypic and genotypic analyses, showed B. subtilis SOM8 has a favourable preclinical safety profile, without significant threats to human health. Collectively, these findings highlight the promising prospects of B. subtilis SOM8 as a potent probiotic candidate for additional clinical development.
Battery management system (BMS) refers to a critical electronic control unit in the power battery system of electric vehicles. It is capable of detecting and estimating battery status online, ...especially estimating state of charge (SOC) and state of health (SOH) accurately. Safe driving and battery life optimization are of high significance. As indicated from recent literature reports, most relevant studies on battery health estimation are offline estimation, and several problems emerged (e.g., long time-consuming, considerable calculation and unable to estimate online). Given this, the present study proposes an online estimation method of lithium-ion health based on particle swarm support vector machine algorithm. By exploiting the data of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) battery samples, this study explores the changing law of battery state of charge under different battery health. In addition, particle swarm algorithm is adopted to optimize the kernel function of the support vector machine for the joint estimation of battery SOC and SOH. As indicated from the tests (e.g., Dynamic Stress Test), it exhibits good adaptability and feasibility. This study also provides a certain reference for the application of BMS system in electric vehicle battery online detection and state estimation.
Reportedly, structural failures in membrane structures have occurred frequently, mostly originating from localized damage caused by intense loads on the membrane surface. It is thus necessary to ...investigate the nonlinear behaviors and load-carrying capacity of membranes with local damage. This study has conducted uniaxial tensile tests for membranes with a variety of original defects by using a specialized experimental setup and photogrammetry technique. The nonlinear relationship between the mechanical properties and the deforming angle of membranes, which portrays the principal axis, tensor, tensile stress, and position of the original defects, is investigated. The entire process of membrane failure has been recorded, and the strain and stress during each test specimen are compared. The new results indicate that the membranes exhibit predominantly elastic deformation before failure but surprisingly impart brittle fracture upon failure. Finally, a novel approach for estimating the load-bearing capacity of initially damaged membranes was proposed through the analysis of the load-bearing capacity of the damaged membranes under various conditions, positions, angles, and other influential factors.
This study aimed to elucidate the effects of long day and night shifts on immune cells in a population of nurses. This cross-sectional study in December 2019 was based on a group of nurses. 1568 ...physically healthy caregivers were included, including 1540 women and 28 men. 1093 nurses had long-term shift work (working in a rotating system for > 1 year). The receiver operating characteristic curve, Ensemble Learning, and Logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate factors related to long-term shift work. The night shift group nurses had significantly higher MPV, PLCR, and WBC and significantly lower BASO%, ELR, MCHC, PLR, RDW-CV, and RDW-SD (P < 0.01). ROC curves showed that WBC, PLR, ELR, RDW_CV, and BASO% were more related to the night shift. Ensemble Learning, combined with the LASSO model, finally filtered out three indicators of night shifts related to ELR, WBC, and RDW_SD. Finally, logistic regression analysis showed that the nurses’ night shift situation greatly influenced two peripheral blood ELR and WBC indicators (ELR: log (OR) = − 3.9, 95% CI: − 5.8– − 2.0; WBC: log (OR) = 0.25, 95% CI: 0.18–0.32). Finally, we showed that, unlike WBC, the relative riskiness of ELR showed opposite results among junior nurses and middle-senior nurses (log (OR) 6.5 (95% CI: 1.2, 13) and − 7.1 (95% CI: − 10, − 3.8), respectively). Our study found that prolonged night shifts were associated with abnormal WBC and ELR, but after strict age matching, WBC remained significantly different. These findings help to confirm that COVID-19 and tumorigenesis (e.g., breast cancer) are significantly associated with circadian rhythm disruption. However, more detailed studies are needed to confirm this.
Microspore culture is one of the important biotechnological tools in plant breeding. The induction of microspore embryogenesis is a critical factor that affects the yield of microspore-derived embryo ...productions. Cold treatment has been reported to reprogram the gametophytic pathway in various plant species. However, the exact mechanism(s) underlying the effect of cold pre-treatment of floral buds on the efficiency of ME is still not clear. In this study, the effects of cold stress on the microspore totipotency of rice cultivar Zhonghua 11 were investigated. Our results revealed that a 10-day cold treatment is necessary for microspore embryogenesis initiation. During this period, the survival rate of microspores increased and reached a peak at 7 days post treatment (dpt), before decreasing at 10 dpt. RNA-seq analysis showed that the number of DEGs increased from 3 dpt to 10 dpt, with more downregulated DEGs than upregulated ones at the same time point. GO enrichment analysis showed a shift from 'Response to abiotic stimulus' at 3 dpt to 'Metabolic process' at 7 and 10 dpt, with the most significant category in the cellular component being 'cell wall'. KEGG analysis of the pathways revealed changes during cold treatment. Mass spectrometry was used to evaluate the variations in metabolites at 10 dpt compared to 0 dpt, with more downregulated DEMs being determined in both GC-MS and LC-MS modes. These DEMs were classified into 11 categories, Most of the DEMs belonged to 'lipids and lipid-like molecules'. KEGG analysis of DEMs indicates pathways related to amino acid and nucleotide metabolism being upregulated and those related to carbohydrate metabolism being downregulated. An integration analysis of transcriptomics and metabolomics showed that most pathways belonged to 'Amino acid metabolism' and 'Carbohydrate metabolism'. Four DEMs were identified in the interaction network, with stearidonic acid involving in the most correlations, suggesting the potential role in microspore totipotency. Our findings exhibited the molecular events occurring during stress-induced rice microspore. Pathways related to 'Amino acid metabolism' and 'Carbohydrate metabolism' may play important roles in rice microspore totipotency. Stearidonic acid was identified, which may participate in the initiation of microspore embryogenesis.
Purpose: The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and feasibility of percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy (PMT) through a below-the-knee (BTK) approach for acute lower ...extremity deep venous thrombosis (DVT).Methods: A retrospective review of DVT patients treated with PMT by the BTK approach at our center from April 2022 to August 2023 was performed. Their preoperative demographics, intraoperative data, and postoperative outpatient outcomes were analyzed.Results: A total of 12 patients (67% men; mean age, 63 years) met the inclusion criteria. The BTK approach was successfully achieved in all patients through the posterior tibial vein (n = 1), anterior tibial vein (n = 2), and peroneal vein (n = 9). PMTs were achieved in 11 (92%) patients. Successful lysis (grade II and grade III lysis) was achieved in all patients with PMT. Four (33%) patients had residual venous occlusion over the popliteal vein. No intraoperative complications or bleeding events occurred in any of the patients.Conclusion: PMT via BTK puncture seems to be a safe and effective approach for treating lower extremity DVT. It is reserved for highly select patients with a low risk of bleeding and is performed at centers that have experience with this procedure.
As a dense instance segmentation problem, rebar counting in a complex environment such as rebar yard and rebar transpotation has received significant attention in both academic and industrial ...contexts. Traditional counting approaches, such as manual counting and machine vision-based algorithms, are often inefficient or inaccurate since rebars with varied sizes and shapes are stacked overlapping, rebar image is not clear for complex light condition such as dawn, night and strong light, and other environmental noises exist in rebar image; thus, they no longer fulfil the requirements of modern automation. This paper proposes MaskID, an innovative counting method based on deep learning and heuristic strategies. First, an improved version of the Mask region-based convolutional neural network (Mask R-CNN) was designed to obtain the segmentation results through splitting and rescaling so as to capture more detail in a large-scale rebar image. Then, a series of intelligent denoising strategies corresponding to aspect ratio of recognized box, overlapping recognized objects, object distribution and environmental noise, were applied to improve the segmentation results. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated on open-competition and test-platform datasets. The F1-score was found to be over 0.99 on all datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective for dense rebar counting and significantly outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods.
A series of selenium-containing clioquinol derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated as multifunctional anti-Alzheimer’s disease (AD) agents. In vitro examination showed that several ...target compounds exhibited activities such as inhibition of metal-induced Aβ aggregation, antioxidative properties, hydrogen peroxide scavenging, and the prevention of copper redox cycling. A parallel artificial membrane permeation assay indicated that selenium-containing clioquinol derivatives possessed significant blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability. Compound 8a, with a propynylselanyl group linked to the oxine, demonstrated higher hydrogen peroxide scavenging and intracellular antioxidant activity than clioquinol. Furthermore, 8a exhibited significant inhibition of Cu(II)-induced Aβ1–42 aggregation and was capable of disassembling the preformed Cu(II)-induced Aβ aggregates. Therefore, 8a is an excellent multifunctional promising compound for development of novel drugs for AD.
Abstract
Background
Ortner’s syndrome refers to vocal cord paralysis resulting from compression of the left recurrent laryngeal nerve by abnormal mediastinal vascular structures. This retrospective ...case series details our experience with Ortner’s syndrome due to thoracic aortic aneurysm.
Methods
This study was a retrospective analysis of a case series. A total of 4 patients (mean age, 65.5 years) with Ortner’s syndrome due to thoracic aortic aneurysm underwent thoracic endovascular aortic repair from July 2014 to May 2020. The patients’ demographics, comorbidities, initial symptoms, time from hoarseness to treatment, aneurysm shape and size, surgical procedures and outcome are summarized.
Results
A total of 4 patients with Ortner’s syndrome due to thoracic aortic aneurysm were analyzed. All the patients underwent thoracic endovascular aortic repair with no complications during the hospitalization period. At a mean follow-up of 26.8 (8–77) months, hoarseness in 3 patients had completely resolved or improved, and the symptoms in 1 patient had not progressed.
Conclusions
Hoarseness due to left recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy can be the presenting symptom of thoracic aortic aneurysm. Early diagnosis leads to timely treatment of these patients which may be helpful in the functional recovery of symptoms.
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