Abstract
How does the brain control an effector as complex and versatile as the hand? One possibility is that neural control is simplified by limiting the space of hand movements. Indeed, hand ...kinematics can be largely described within 8 to 10 dimensions. This oft replicated finding has been construed as evidence that hand postures are confined to this subspace. A prediction from this hypothesis is that dimensions outside of this subspace reflect noise. To address this question, we track the hand of human participants as they perform two tasks—grasping and signing in American Sign Language. We apply multiple dimension reduction techniques and replicate the finding that most postural variance falls within a reduced subspace. However, we show that dimensions outside of this subspace are highly structured and task dependent, suggesting they too are under volitional control. We propose that hand control occupies a higher dimensional space than previously considered.
The impact of near‐surface hydraulic gradients on interrill erosion is still obscure. The objective of this study is to distinguish the dominant interrill erosion process in areas impacted by ...near‐surface hydraulic gradients. A series of rainfall simulations were conducted on a clay loam soil subjected to near‐surface hydraulic gradients that shifted from drainage/saturation conditions to seepage conditions under three rainfall intensities (30, 60 and 90 mm hr−1) and two slope gradients (5° and 10°). The results showed significant differences in soil loss between all the treatments. The sediment concentrations for seepage conditions were 0.57 to 7.02 times greater than those for drainage conditions. The correlation analysis indicated that the near‐surface hydraulic gradient was a governing factor affecting interrill erosion. The critical flow rate was larger than 90 mm hr−1, suggesting that thin sheet flow does not have sufficient power to detach soil particles without raindrop impact. Furthermore, the detachment rates by raindrop impact were 1.12 to 4.60 times greater for seepage conditions than for drainage conditions. As the near‐surface hydraulic gradient shifted from drainage conditions to seepage conditions, it transitioned from transport‐limited to detachment‐limited, and the contribution of interrill erosion to overall erosion increased from 20.19 to 75.30%. The critical point of dominant interrill erosion process transition existed between saturation (SA) and artesian seepage in 20 cm of hydrostatic pressure head (SP20). The results emphasize the importance of the near‐surface hydraulic gradients’ impact on the interrill erosion process. Further investigations need to be verified in different soil types, steeper slopes and natural storms.
Highlights
The impact of near‐surface hydraulic gradients on interrill erosion is only partially understood.
Dominant interrill erosion processes are identified under near‐surface hydraulic gradients.
The critical point of dominant interrill erosion process transition exists between SA and SP20.
The dominant erosion process varied as a function of near‐surface hydraulic gradients.
is a pathogenic fungus that causes significant harm, leading to crop yield reduction, fruit quality reduction, postharvest decay, and other diseases. This study used potato glycoside alkaloids (PGA) ...as inhibitors to investigate their effects on the mitochondrial structure and tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle pathway of
. The results showed that PGA could inhibit the colony growth of
(54.49%), resulting in the disappearance of the mitochondrial membrane and the loss of contents. PGA significantly decreased the activities of aconitase (ACO), isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH), α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase (α-KGDH), succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), fumarase (FH), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), succinyl-CoA synthetase (SCS), and increased the activity of citrate synthase (CS) in
. After PGA treatment, the contents of acetyl coenzyme A (CoA), citric acid (CA), malic acid (L-MA), and α-ketoglutaric acid (α-KG) in
were significantly decreased. The contents of isocitric acid (ICA), succinyl coenzyme A (S-CoA), succinic acid (SA), fumaric acid (FA), and oxaloacetic acid (OA) were significantly increased. Transcriptomic analysis showed that PGA could significantly affect the expression levels of 19 genes related to TCA cycle in
. RT-qPCR results showed that the expression levels of ACO, IDH, α-KGDH, and MDH-related genes were significantly down-regulated, and the expression levels of SDH and FH-related genes were significantly up-regulated, which was consistent with the results of transcriptomics. In summary, PGA can achieve antifungal effects by reducing the tricarboxylic acid cycle's flow and regulating key genes' expression levels. This study reveals the antifungal mechanism of PGA from the perspective of TCA cycle, and provides a theoretical basis for the development and application of PGA as a biopesticide.
Background The treatment of brucellosis suffers from a high recurrence rate and drug resistance. Our study researched the differences in efficacy and side effects between triple antibiotics therapy ...and dual antibiotics therapy in the treatment of brucellosis through a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods We searched 4 English electronic databases and 2 Chinese electronic databases for randomized controlled trials and cohort studies published through September 2022 on the use of triple antibiotics versus dual antibiotics in the treatment of brucellosis. Overall outcome indicators were therapeutic failure rate, relapse rate, overall therapeutic failure rate, and side effect rate. Relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were used as summary statistics. A fixed-effects model was used to combine the overall effect sizes. Results The meta-analysis included 15 studies consisting of 11 randomized controlled trials and 4 cohort studies. Triple antibiotics showed better efficacy than dual antibiotics in a comparison of 3 overall outcome indicators (therapeutic failure rate (RR 0.42; 95% CI 0.30 to 0.59 heterogeneity P = 0.29, I.sup.2 = 15%), relapse rate (RR 0.29; 95% CI 0.18 to 0.45 heterogeneity P = 0.88, I.sup.2 = 0%), and overall therapeutic failure rate (RR 0.37; 95% CI 0.28 to 0.48 heterogeneity P = 0.35, I.sup.2 = 9%)). The incidence of side effects in patients with brucellosis treated with triple antibiotics was not significantly different from that in brucellosis patients treated with dual antibiotics (RR 0.85; 95% CI 0.67 to 1.06 heterogeneity P = 0.1, I.sup.2 = 35%). Sensitivity analyses showed robust results and Peter's test showed no publication bias. The results of subgroup analyses for the research type, drugs, and type of brucellosis were largely consistent with the overall outcome indicators, indicating the reliability and robustness of the overall results. Conclusions In the treatment of brucellosis, triple antibiotics have better efficacy than dual antibiotics and do not increase the incidence of side effects.
Purpose
This study summarized the previously-published studies regarding the use of radiomics-based predictive models for the identification of breast cancer-associated prognostic factors, which can ...help clinical decision-making and follow-up strategy.
Materials and methods
This study has been pre-registered on PROSPERO. PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were searched, from inception to April 23, 2022, for studies that used radiomics for prognostic prediction of breast cancer patients. Then the search was updated on July 18, 2023. Quality assessment was conducted using the Radiomics Quality Score, and meta-analysis was performed using R software.
Results
A total of 975 articles were retrieved, and 13 studies were included, involving 5014 participants and 35 prognostic models. Among the models, 20 models were radiomics-based and the other 15 were based on clinical or pathological information. The primary outcome was Disease-free Survival (DFS). The retrieved studies were screened using LASSO, and Cox Regression was applied for modeling. The mean RQS was 18. The c-index of radiomics-based models for DFS prediction was 0.763 (95%CI 0.718-0.810) in the training set and 0.702 (95%CI 0.637-0.774) in the validation set. The c-index of combination models was 0.807 (95%CI0.736-0.885) in the training set and 0.840 (95%CI 0.794-0.888) in the validation set. There was no significant change in the c-index of DFS at 1, 2, 3, and over 5 years of follow-up.
Conclusion
This study has proved that radiomics-based prognostic models are of great predictive performance for the prognosis of breast cancer patients. combination model shows significantly enhanced predictive performance.
Systematic review registration
https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/
, identifier CRD42022332392.
Background
Choriocarcinoma is a malignant tumour of trophoblastic origin. Most are gestational choriocarcinomas, which usually occur in women with an epithelial origin of the placental chorionic ...villi and are associated with pregnancy. It mainly originates in the gonads such as the ovaries and testes. However, it rarely occurs in the stomach and is known as primary choriocarcinoma (PGC).
Case presentation
A 69-year-old man complained of abdominal distention for 3 years, which worsened 1 week later. Gastroscopy showed chronic atrophic gastritis C1 (C1: indicates atrophic gastritis involving the sinus region); the pathology report of the gastroscopic specimen showed high-grade epithelial tumours in the mucosal glands. We diagnosed an occupying lesion in the stomach and performed a laparoscopically assisted distal gastrectomy and Billroth type 1 anastomosis. Postoperative pathology showed “gastric choriocarcinoma with cancerous tissue invading the entire gastric wall”. The patient was discharged on the 11th postoperative day as there were no postoperative complications. The patient was followed up until June 2022 with a good recovery and no recurrence.
Conclusion
We encountered a case of Primary Gastric Choriocarcinoma, where the cancerous tissue invades the full thickness of the gastric wall.
Balancing the potentially serious outcomes of asymptomatic brucellosis and "waiting" for treatment in clinical practice is an urgent issue. Therefore, we assessed the follow-up outcomes and ...epidemiological characteristics of asymptomatic brucellosis in the absence of treatment to provide evidence-based clinical clues. We searched eight databases in which 3610 studies from 1990 to 2021 were related to the follow-up outcomes of asymptomatic brucellosis. Thirteen studies, involving 107 cases, were finally included. Regarding the follow-up outcomes, we examined the presence or absence of symptoms and decreased serum agglutination test (SAT) titre. During the 0.5-18 months follow-up period, the pooled prevalence of appearing symptomatic was 15.4% (95% CI 2.1%-34.3%), cases that remained asymptomatic were 40.3% (95% CI 16.6%-65.8%), and decreased SAT titre was observed in 36.5% (95% CI 11.6%-66.1%). Subgroup analysis indicated that the pooled prevalence of appearing symptomatic with follow-up times of less than 6 months, 6-12 months, and 12-18 months was 11.5%, 26.4%, and 47.6%, respectively. The student subgroup had a higher prevalence of symptoms (46.6%) than the occupational and family populations. In conclusion, asymptomatic brucellosis has a high likelihood of appearing symptomatic and its severity may be underestimated. Active screening of occupational and family populations should be enhanced, and special attention should be paid to high-titre students for early intervention, if necessary. Additionally, future prospective, long-term, and large-sample follow-up studies are essential.
PDF
