Learning a sports skill is a complex process in which practitioners are challenged to cater for individual differences. The main purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of a Nonlinear ...Pedagogy approach for learning a sports skill. Twenty-four 10-year-old females participated in a 4-week intervention involving either a Nonlinear Pedagogy (i.e.,manipulation of task constraints including equipment and rules) or a Linear Pedagogy (i.e., prescriptive, repetitive drills) approach to learn a tennis forehand stroke. Performance accuracy scores, movement criterion scores and kinematic data were measured during pre-intervention, post-intervention and retention tests. While both groups showed improvements in performance accuracy scores over time, the Nonlinear Pedagogy group displayed a greater number of movement clusters at post-test indicating the presence of degeneracy (i.e., many ways to achieve the same outcome). The results suggest that degeneracy is effective for learning a sports skill facilitated by a Nonlinear Pedagogy approach. These findings challenge the common misconception that there must be only one ideal movement solution for a task and thus have implications for coaches and educators when designing instructions for skill acquisition.
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•I-type lysozyme from regenerated earthworm tissues on wound healing process was explored firstly.•I-type lysozyme showed significant acceleration of epidermal and dermal regeneration ...in wound repair process.•I-type lysozyme could attenuate excessive collagen deposition and fibrosis in the surgical lesion.•I-type lysozyme may be a promising therapeutic agent for wound repair.
This study aimed to assess the effect and mechanism of i-type lysozyme on cutaneous wound healing animal model and Multiple cell models both in vivo and in vitro.
Therefore, to evaluate its regenerative efficacy on wound healing process, we daily applied i-type lysozyme on murine full-thickness excisional wounds. After sacrifice on indicated days, skin tissues around surgical defects were harvested and assessed for re-epithelialization, granulation tissue formation, neovascularization and remodeling. To elucidate the underlying mechanisms, i-type lysozyme was analyzed for its tissue regenerative potency on the proliferation, invasion, migration and tube formation against keratinocytes, fibroblasts and endothelial cells. Antioxidant and antimicrobial experiments were also conducted to elucidate protective ability of i-type lysozyme to wound bed.
It displayed excellent bi-directional regulation in wound repair, with significant acceleration of epidermal and dermal regeneration as well as the efficient attenuation of excessive collagen deposition and fibrosis in the surgical lesion. I-type lysozyme treatment augmented the proliferation and migration of HaCaT, NIH 3T3 and HUVECs, enhanced the invasion of HaCaT and HUVECs as well as accelerated tube formation of HUVECs. Additionally, it significantly recovered the proliferation of H2O2-damaged cells, whereas represented no microbicidal effect under effective concentration of wound healing.
Our findings demonstrate the bi-directional regulation of i-type lysozyme in wound healing process through promoting tissue regeneration while hampering scar formation, implying that it is a promising therapeutic agent for wound repair.
Food grinding is an abnormal behavior in rodents and its influencing factors are unknown. Our study investigated the potential relationships between gut microbiota and food grinding in Brandt's voles ...(Lasiopodomys brandtii (Radde, 1861)) by comparing the differences between groups with different degrees of food grinding. The strong food-grinding group showed more relative food ground, higher ratio of ground food to food consumption, and lower percentage of time spent in the central area. The structure of fecal microbiota community differed between the strong and weak food-grinding groups. Strong and weak food-grinding voles showed higher abundances of Alistipes and Aerococcus and Atopostipes, Paenalcaligenes, Un--s-Clostridiaceae bacterium GMl, and Streptococcus, respectively. Strong correlations between the food ground to consumption ratio and abundances of fecal microbiota were found in Streptococcus and Paenalcaligenes. Fecal acetate and isobutyrate contents were higher in strong food-grinding voles and positively correlated with relative ground food and food ground to consumption ratio. Our study suggests that gut microbiota and short-chain fatty acids may contribute to the regulation of food-grinding behavior.
The study of gene diversity in interspecies contributes to our understanding of the environmental adaptation, evolutionary history, origin, and stability of biodiversity. Crabs are the main component ...of the macrobenthos community; therefore, how crabs adapt to different environments can be a guide to understand how to maintain community diversity. Previous studies on environmental adaptation have focused on differences in morphology, organ structure, and function, but there is a lack of research that explores this topic from the perspective of gene diversity in benthonic crabs. In this study, the leucosiid crab was selected for transcriptome assembly and was analyzed as this superfamily is one of the main clades in brachyuran crabs. Their transcriptome data were used to understand the gene diversity, phylogeny, and divergence time estimations. Subsequently, candidate gene families for depth adaptation were found in eight species that live in habitats with different depths. The results indicated that the number of total unigene sequences was between 65,617 (Philyra malefactrix) and 98,279 (Arcania heptacantha) in eight species. The total length of the genes was counted to be between 48,006,211 and 95,471,088 bp. The age of the superfamily Leucosioidea is over 150 Ma, dating back to at least the Jurassic geological period. The divergence of the family Leucosiidae would have occurred in the middle Cretaceous (around 100 Ma). After dividing into groups of three depth types, which carried the gene families, it was found that the three groups shared the solute carrier family, whereas bile acid secretion, organic solute transporter subunit alpha-like, and solute carrier organic anion transporter families only existed in the shallow group. This result shown that the gene function of ion concentration regulation might one of the candidate gene families related to the environmental adaptation of the leucosiid crab. Hence, these gene families will be analyzed in future studies to understand the mechanism of depth adaptation regulation in crabs.
The oral microbiota has been observed to be influenced by cigarette smoking and linked to several human diseases. However, research on the effect of cigarette smoking on the oral microbiota has not ...been systematically conducted in the Chinese population. We profiled the oral microbiota of 316 healthy subjects in the Chinese population by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The alpha diversity of oral microbiota was different between never smokers and smokers (
P
= 0.002). Several bacterial taxa were first reported to be associated with cigarette smoking by LEfSe analysis, including
Moryella
(
q
= 1.56E-04),
Bulleidia
(
q
= 1.65E-06), and
Moraxella
(
q
= 3.52E-02) at the genus level and
Rothia dentocariosa
(
q
= 1.55E-02),
Prevotella melaninogenica
(
q
= 8.48E-08),
Prevotella pallens
(
q
= 4.13E-03),
Bulleidia moorei
(
q
= 1.79E-06),
Rothia aeria
(
q
= 3.83E-06),
Actinobacillus parahaemolyticus
(
q
= 2.28E-04), and
Haemophilus parainfluenzae
(
q
= 4.82E-02) at the species level. Two nitrite-producing bacteria that can increase the acidity of the oral cavity,
Actinomyces
and
Veillonella
, were also enriched in smokers with FDR-adjusted
q
-values of 3.62E-06 and 1.10E-06, respectively. Notably, we observed that two acid production-related pathways, amino acid-related enzymes (
q
= 6.19E-05) and amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism (
q
= 2.63E-06), were increased in smokers by PICRUSt analysis. Finally, the co-occurrence analysis demonstrated that smoker-enriched bacteria were significantly positively associated with each other and were negatively correlated with the bacteria decreased in smokers. Our results suggested that cigarette smoking may affect oral health by creating a different environment by altering bacterial abundance, connections among oral microbiota, and the microbiota and their metabolic function.
Background
Apatinib is an oral small‐molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor that blocks vascular endothelial growth factor receptor‐2. Oral vinorelbine is a semisynthetic chemotherapeutic agent of ...vinorelbine alkaloids. Apatinib and oral vinorelbine have been proved to be effective in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer (mBC). At present, several small sample clinical trials have explored the efficacy of apatinib combined with oral vinorelbine in the treatment of mBC.
Methods
This retrospective study included 100 human epidermal growth factor receptor‐2 (HER2)‐negative mBC patients who received low‐dose apatinib (250 mg orally per day) plus oral vinorelbine until disease progression or intolerance during February 2017 and March 2023. The progression‐free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), clinical benefit rate (CBR), disease control rate (DCR), and safety were analyzed by SPSS 26.0 software and GraphPad Prism 8 software. Cox proportional hazards regression model for univariate and multivariate was used to identify factors significantly related to PFS and OS.
Results
The median follow‐up time for this study was 38.1 months. Among 100 patients with HER2‐negative mBC, 66 were hormone receptor (HR)‐positive/HER2‐negative and 34 were triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC). The median PFS and OS were 6.0 months (95% CI, 5.2–6.8 months) and 23.0 months (95% CI, 19.9–26.1 months). There were no statistical differences in PFS (p = 0.239) and OS (p = 0.762) between the HR‐positive /HER2‐negative and TNBC subgroups. The ORR, CBR, and DCR were 21.0%, 58.0%, and 78.0%, respectively. Ninety‐five patients (95.0%) experienced varying grades of adverse events (AEs) and 38.0% of patients for Grades 3–4. The most common Grades 3–4 AEs that we observed were neutropenia (30.0%) and leukopenia (25.0%).
Conclusion
Low‐dose apatinib combined with oral vinorelbine demonstrates potential efficacy and well tolerated for pretreated HER2‐negative mBC.
This retrospective real world study included 100 patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor‐2‐negative metastatic breast cancer who received low‐dose apatinib (250 mg daily) in combination with oral vinorelbine. The median progression‐free survival and overall survival were 6.0 months (95% CI, 5.2–6.8 months) and 23.0 months (95% CI, 19.9–26.1 months), while the objective response rate, clinical benefit rate, and disease control rate were 21.0%, 58.0%, and 78.0%, respectively. The majority of adverse events were Grades 1–2 and the patients was well tolerated.
•A novel harvest scheduling problem with straw returning for sustainable agriculture.•An integrated scheduling approach for synchronizing harvesting and straw returning.•A modified Particle Swarm ...Optimization algorithm proposed to solve the joint optimization problem.•The high effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed framework in reducing in the total working time and travel costs.
As an eco-friendly method of treating straw, the straw returning has become increasingly popular because of its contributions to reducing stubble burning and improving soil fertility. The applications of straw returning machines have been promoted for farmers. In practice, it is common for farmers to determine the working plan for straw returning after optimizing the harvest schedule, described as a two-step decision-making procedure. Such a two-step procedure has the potential to increase the total working time but decrease the straw decomposition time. The decomposition rate would be higher with the increasing straw decomposition time. This study develops an integrated scheduling framework for synchronizing harvesting and straw returning. A mathematical model is proposed to minimize the travel cost and working time, considering the characteristics of heterogeneous harvesters and straw returning machines. A modified particle swarm optimization algorithm is developed to solve the problem. Numerical experiments are conducted with the data captured from Hubei, China. The results show that, compared with existing solution approaches, the proposed solution approach provides high-quality solutions with reasonable computing times. The comparison between the solutions obtained by our framework and those found by the two-step procedure indicates that our framework reduces the travel cost significantly and particularly, the total working time. We observe that the travel cost decreases with the increasing number of straw returning machines and harvesters from the computational study while only the number of harvesters reduces the total working time significantly.
The effect of trace Ce addition on the microstructure evolution and corrosion behavior of dilute Mg-0.6Al-0.5Mn-0.25Ca-xCe (x = 0.1–0.3 wt%) alloys were investigated using immersion tests and ...electrochemical measurements. The Ce addition caused the formation of Al8Mn4Ce and Al11Ce3, which were less noble than Al8Mn5. Strikingly, the alloy containing 0.3 wt% Ce exhibited the lowest average corrosion rate of 4.13 mm y−1, which was 6.5 times lower than that of Ce-free alloy. The outstanding anti-corrosion properties were attributed to the low potential difference between Ce-containing phases and matrix, the compact composite oxide film (MgO-CeO2-Al2O3), and the enrichment of Fe in Ce-containing phases.
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•Corrosion resistance of Mg-0.6Al-0.5Mn-0.25Ca alloy was improved by adding trace Ce.•The Al8Mn4Ce and Al11Ce3 were formed instead of the nobler Al8Mn5 in Ce-free alloy.•Dense composite oxide film (MgO-CeO2-Al2O3) hindered the spread of corrosion.•The enrichment of Fe in Ce-containing phases weakened the harmful effect of impurity.•A new method was proposed to improve the corrosion resistance of dilute Mg alloys.
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•Cynomorium songaricum Polysaccharide (CSP) exhibited promising anti-diabetic activity.•Lipidomics was used to explore the mechanism of CSP on improving T2DM.•35 potential biomarkers ...were identified in response to T2DM.•Phospholipid metabolism were filtered out as the potential target pathway.
Although Cynomorium songaricum Rupr. polysaccharide (CSP) has been examined for its effects on glucose regulation, its underlying mechanism is still unclear. To address this issue, a MS-based lipidomics strategy was developed to gain a system-level understanding of the mechanism of CSP on improving type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). UPLC-QTOF/MS and multivariate statistical tools were used to identify the alteration of serum metabolites associated with T2DM and responses to CSP treatment. As a result, 35 potential biomarkers were found and identified in serum, amongst which 26 metabolites were regulated to normal like levels after the administration of CSP. By analyzing the metabolic pathways, glycerophospholipid metabolism was suggested to be closely involved. These results indicated that the intake of CSP exhibited promising anti-diabetic activity, largely due to the regulation of phospholipid metabolism, including phosphatidylcholines, lysophosphatydylcholines, phosphtatidylethanolamines and sphingomyelins.
•The time-dependent fragility of a prestressed concrete containment structure under internal pressure is evaluated.•A high-fidelity finite element model with multi-layered shell element is ...established for failure analysis.•The effect of chloride-induced corrosion of reinforcement steel and the uncertainties of material properties are considered.
The prestressed concrete containment structure, serving as the ultimate barrier against nuclear fuel leakage, holds paramount importance in ensuring the uninterrupted operation of nuclear power plants. Particularly in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the influence of material aging and degradation of containment structures has been emphasized. Consequently, a probabilistic performance assessment of containment structures under chloride-induced corrosion condition is of significant relevance. This study presents a method for time-dependent fragility analysis of nuclear containment structures subjected to internal pressure, considering the effect of chloride-induced corrosion of steel reinforcement. A highly efficient and accurate finite element model with multi-layered shell element is formulated for damage and failure analysis. Furthermore, a corrosion degradation model of reinforced concrete, aligned with the attributes of multi-layered shell elements, is derived to reduce the reduce parameter samples generated by Latin Hypercube sampling technique. Material uncertainties and time-dependent effects are jointly integrated into the finite element analysis process, culminating in the establishment of fragility curves for the containment structure under various service lifetimes. The results indicate that within first 40 years of service, the load-bearing capacity of the containment structure has slightly decreased, while the probabilities of functional and structural failures in the containment structure will significantly increase after 60 years of service.
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