is an important prerequisite for acupuncture to achieve optimal efficacy. Chinese medicine has long been concerned with the relationship between
and the clinical efficacy of acupuncture. However, the ...underlying mechanisms of
are complex and there is a lack of systematic summaries of objective quantitative studies of
. Acupuncture
can achieve the purpose of treating diseases by regulating the interaction of local and neighboring acupoints, brain centers, and target organs. At local and neighboring acupoints,
can change their tissue structure, temperature, blood perfusion, energy metabolism, and electrophysiological indicators. At the central brain level,
can activate the brain regions of the thalamus, parahippocampal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, insular, middle temporal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, etc. It also has extensive effects on the limbic-paralimbic-neocortical-network and default mode network. The brain mechanisms of
vary depending on the acupuncture techniques and points chosen. In addition,
's mechanism of action involves correcting abnormalities in target organs. The mechanisms of acupuncture
are multi-targeted and multi-layered. The biological mechanisms of Deqi are closely related to brain centers. This study will help to explore the mechanism of
from a local-central-target-organ perspective and provide information for future clinical decision-making.
The apparent second-order rate constant with hexavalent ferrate (Fe(VI)) (kFe(VI)) is a key indicator to evaluate the removal efficiency of a molecule by Fe(VI) oxidation. kFe(VI) is often determined ...by experiment, but such measurements can hardly catch up with the rapid growth of organic compounds (OCs). To address this issue, in this study, a total of 437 experimental second-order kFe(VI) rate constants at a range of conditions (pH and temperature) were used to train four machine learning (ML) algorithms (lasso regression (LR), ridge regression (RR), extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), and the light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM)). Using the Morgan fingerprint (MF)) of a range of organic compounds (OCs) as the input, the performance of the four algorithms was comprehensively compared with respect to the coefficient of determination (R2) and root-mean-square error (RMSE). It is shown that the RR, XGBoost, and LightGBM models displayed generally acceptable performance kFe(VI) (R2test > 0.7). In addition, the shapely additive explanation (SHAP) and feature importance methods were employed to interpret the XGBoost/LightGBM and RR models, respectively. The results showed that the XGBoost/LightGBM and RR models suggestd pH as the most important predictor and the tree-based models elucidate how electron-donating and electron-withdrawing groups influence the reactivity of the Fe(VI) species. In addition, the RR model share eight common features, including pH, with the two tree-based models. This work provides a fast and acceptable method for predicting kFe(VI) values and can help researchers better understand the degradation behavior of OCs by Fe(VI) oxidation from the perspective of molecular structure.
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•Four ML algorithms were used for kFe(VI) prediction models building.•Models were built with 437 kFe(VI) values under various pHs and temperatures.•SHAP method was used to identify the pH governing the kFe(VI) values.•Model interpretation showed the key groups interfering the reactivity of Fe(VI).
Tengchong County was one of the counties located at the China-Myanmar border with high malaria incidence in the previous decades. As the pilot county for malaria elimination at the border area, ...Tengchong County is aiming to be the first county to achieve malaria elimination goal. A cross-sectional entomological survey was carried out to evaluate the feasibility of elimination approach and assess the receptivity of malaria reintroduction.
Light traps associated with live baits were used to investigate the abundance of adult mosquitoes in nine villages in Tengchong County. Light traps were set to collect adult mosquitoes in both human houses and cowsheds from dusk till dawn in each site.
A total of 4948 adult Anopheles mosquitoes were collected from May to December in two villages. Of the mosquitoes were captured, 24.2% were in human houses and 75.8% in cowsheds. The peak of abundance occurred in July for An. sinensis and in September-October for An. minimus (s.l.) Ten Anopheles species were collected, the most prevalent being An. sinensis (50.3%), An. peditaeniatus (31.6%) and An. minimus (s.l.) (15.8%), contributing to 97.6% of the sample. Potential breeding sites were also investigated and a total of 407 larvae were collected, with An. sinensis (50.1%) and An. minimus (s.l.) (46.2%) as predominant species. Ponds and rice fields were the two preferred breeding sites for Anopheles mosquitoes; however, the difference between the number of adults and larvae captured suggest other breeding sites might exist. Both An. sinensis and An. minimus (s.l.) were found zoophilic with human blood index as 0.21 and 0.26, respectively. No Plasmodium positive Anopheles specimens were found by PCR among 4,000 trapped mosquitoes.
Although no indigenous malaria cases have been reported in Tengchong County since 2013, there is still a risk from the presence of vectors in the context of human population movements from neighboring malaria endemic areas. The presence of An. sinensis, associated to rice fields, is particularly worrying. Sustained entomological surveillance is strongly suggested even after malaria elimination certification.
During intravascular interventional surgery, the 3D surgical navigation system can provide doctors with 3D spatial information of the vascular lumen, reducing the impact of missing dimension caused ...by digital subtraction angiography (DSA) guidance and further improving the success rate of surgeries. Nevertheless, this task often comes with the challenge of complex registration problems due to vessel deformation caused by respiratory motion and high requirements for the surgical environment because of the dependence on external electromagnetic sensors. This article proposes a novel 3D spatial predictive positioning navigation (SPPN) technique to predict the real-time tip position of surgical instruments. In the first stage, we propose a trajectory prediction algorithm integrated with instrumental morphological constraints to generate the initial trajectory. Then, a novel hybrid physical model is designed to estimate the trajectory's energy and mechanics. In the second stage, a point cloud clustering algorithm applies multi-information fusion to generate the maximum probability endpoint cloud. Then, an energy-weighted probability density function is introduced using statistical analysis to achieve the prediction of the 3D spatial location of instrument endpoints. Extensive experiments are conducted on 3D-printed human artery and vein models based on a high-precision electromagnetic tracking system. Experimental results demonstrate the outstanding performance of our method, reaching 98.2% of the achievement ratio and less than 3 mm of the average positioning accuracy. This work is the first 3D surgical navigation algorithm that entirely relies on vascular interventional robot sensors, effectively improving the accuracy of interventional surgery and making it more accessible for primary surgeons.
Abstract The relationship among polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endometrial cancer (EC), and glycometabolism remains unclear. We explored shared genes between PCOS and EC, using bioinformatics to ...unveil their pathogenic connection and influence on EC prognosis. Gene Expression Omnibus datasets GSE226146 (PCOS) and GSE196033 (EC) were used. A protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed to identify the central genes. Candidate markers were screened using dataset GSE54250. Differences in marker expression were confirmed in mouse PCOS and human EC tissues using RT‐PCR and immunohistochemistry. The effect of PGD on EC proliferation and migration was explored using Ki‐67 and Transwell assays. PGD 's impact on the glycometabolic pathway within carbon metabolism was assessed by quantifying glucose content and lactic acid production. R software identified 31 common genes in GSE226146 and GSE196033. Gene Ontology functional classification revealed enrichment in the “purine nucleoside triphosphate metabolism process,” with key Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways related to “carbon metabolism.” The PPI network identified 15 hub genes. HK2 , NDUFS8 , PHGDH , PGD , and SMAD3 were confirmed as candidate markers. The RT‐PCR analysis validated distinct HK2 and PGD expression patterns in mouse PCOS ovarian tissue and human EC tissue, as well as in normal and EC cells. Transfection experiments with Ishikawa cells further confirmed PGD's influence on cell proliferation and migration. Suppression of PGD expression impeded glycometabolism within the carbon metabolism of EC cells, suggesting PGD as a significant PCOS risk factor impacting EC proliferation and migration through modulation of single carbon metabolism. These findings highlight PGD's pivotal role in EC onset and prognosis.
•K single-atom solid base catalyst (K1/SBA-15) is fabricated by a pyrolysis-free, grafting strategy.•Strong basic sites can be formed at 30 °C, which is much lower than conventional pyrolysis ...method.•Various characterizations confirm that the atomically dispersed K exists in the form of Si-O-K.•K1/SBA-15 shows better activity in transesterification compared with various solid base catalysts.
Solid base catalysts are appealing to a variety of reactions due to their benefits of easy separation, negligible corrosion, and environmental friendliness. However, their activity is compromised because high temperature is frequently required for the formation of basic sites and aggregation of basic components is easy to occur under those circumstances. Herein, K single-atom solid base catalysts were fabricated by a low temperature, pyrolysis-free, grafting strategy, resulting in the catalysts with highly dispersed basic sites and high activity in transesterification reaction. Potassium tert-butoxide (KTB) functions as the precursor and mesoporous silica SBA-15 is employed as the support, K atoms are successfully grafted onto SBA-15 (denoted as K1/SBA-15) at 30 °C. Various characterizations confirm that highly dispersed K single atoms exist in the form of K-O-Si. The amount of basic sites of K1/SBA-15 measured by titration is 1.62 mmol·g−1, verifying the basicity of the obtained catalyst. K1/SBA-15 shows excellent activity (49.1 % yield) in the transesterification reaction of ethylene carbonate (EC) and methanol to produce dimethyl carbonate (DMC), which is superior to typical alkali metal-related solid superbases. The catalyst was recovered after reaction and the yield of DMC over the recovered catalyst decreases slightly (43.4 %) due to the partial deformation of pores. Moreover, the K1/SBA-15 exhibits a turnover frequency (TOF) value of 82.5 h−1, obviously higher than various reported solid base catalysts (0.95–36.2 h−1) under semblable reaction conditions.
A pair of new guaiane-type sesquiterpene tautomers (1) was isolated from rhizomes of Acorus calamus. Meanwhile, three pairs of known compounds, including a pair of dihydroflavone glycoside tautomers ...(2), a pair of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid ester glycoside tautomers (3), as well as a pair of secoiridoid glycoside tautomers (4) were isolated from fruits of Cornus officinalis. Their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic and computational methods. Furthermore, the tautomeric mechanisms were discussed.
Recently, single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has become an indispensable method for determining macromolecular structures at high resolution to deeply explore the relevant molecular ...mechanism. Its recent breakthrough is mainly because of the rapid advances in hardware and image processing algorithms, especially machine learning. As an essential support of single-particle cryo-EM, machine learning has powered many aspects of structure determination and greatly promoted its development. In this article, we provide a systematic review of the applications of machine learning in this field. Our review begins with a brief introduction of single-particle cryo-EM, followed by the specific tasks and challenges of its image processing. Then, focusing on the workflow of structure determination, we describe relevant machine learning algorithms and applications at different steps, including particle picking, 2-D clustering, 3-D reconstruction, and other steps. As different tasks exhibit distinct characteristics, we introduce the evaluation metrics for each task and summarize their dynamics of technology development. Finally, we discuss the open issues and potential trends in this promising field.
Low-cycle fatigue (LCF) behavior of the directionally solidified (DS) nickel-based DZ125 superalloy was studied at elevated temperature (980 °C). Specimens were, respectively, exposed for 0, 2, 25, ...50, and 100 h in air. The fatigue life of pre-exposed specimens is lower than that of unexposed specimens. The result is closely associated with fatigue crack initiation and propagation due to oxygen embrittlement and cycle loading. Detailed fractographic evaluations indicate the fatigue life is closely related to the surface microstructural modification. The resulting changes in microstructure cause the decrease in the effective area and the increase in actual stress. A methodology based on the continuum damage mechanics is developed to describe the correlation between the residual LCF life and pre-exposed time.
Pectate lyases (Pels) have a vital function in degradation of the primary plant cell wall and the middle lamella and have been widely used in the industry. In this study, two pectate lyase genes,
...IDSPel16
and
IDSPel17
, were cloned from a sheep rumen microbiome. The recombinant enzymes were expressed in
Escherichia coli
and functionally characterized. Both IDSPel16 and IDSPel17 proteins had an optimal temperature of 60 ℃, and an optimal pH of 10.0. IDSPel16 was relatively stable below 60 °C, maintaining 77.51% residual activity after preincubation at 60 °C for 1 h, whereas IDSPel17 denatured rapidly at 60 °C. IDSPel16 was relatively stable between pH 6.0 and 12.0, after pretreatment for 1 h, retaining over 60% residual activity. IDSPel16 had high activity towards polygalacturonic acid, with a
V
max
of 942.90 ± 68.11, whereas IDSPel17 had a
V
max
of only 28.19 ± 2.23 μmol/min/mg. Reaction product analyses revealed that IDSPel17 liberated unsaturated digalacturonate (uG
2
) and unsaturated trigalacturonate (uG
3
) from the substrate, indicating a typical endo-acting pectate lyase (EC 4.2.2.2). In contrast, IDSPel16 initially generated unsaturated oligogalacturonic acids, then converted these intermediates into uG
2
and unsaturated galacturonic acid (uG
1
) as end products, a unique depolymerization profile among Pels. To the best of our knowledge, the IDSPel16 discovered with both endo-Pel (EC 4.2.2.2) and exo-Pel (EC 4.2.2.9) activities. These two pectate lyases, particularly the relatively thermo- and pH-stable IDSPel16, will be of interest for potential application in the textile, food, and feed industries.
Key points
•
Two novel pectate lyase genes, IDSPel16 and IDSPel17, were isolated and characterized from the sheep rumen microbiome.
•
Both IDSPel16 and IDSPel17 are alkaline pectate lyases, releasing unsaturated digalacturonate and unsaturated trigalacturonate from polygalacturonic acid.
•
IDSPel16, a bifunctional pectate lyase with endo-Pel (EC 4.2.2.2) and exo-Pel (EC 4.2.2.9) activities, could be a potential candidate for industrial application.
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