Extracting damage information of buildings after an earthquake is crucial for emergency rescue and loss assessment. Low-altitude remote sensing by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for emergency rescue ...has unique advantages. In this study, we establish a remote sensing information-extraction method that combines ultramicro oblique UAV and infrared thermal imaging technology to automatically detect the structural damage of buildings and cracks in external walls. The method consists of four parts: (1) 3D live-action modeling and building structure analysis based on ultramicro oblique images; (2) extraction of damage information of buildings; (3) detection of cracks in walls based on infrared thermal imaging; and (4) integration of detection systems for information of earthquake-damaged buildings. First, a 3D live-action building model is constructed. A multi-view structure image for segmentation can be obtained based on this method. Second, a method of extracting information on damage to building structures using a 3D live-action building model as the geographic reference is proposed. Damage information of the internal structure of the building can be obtained based on this method. Third, based on analyzing the temperature field distribution on the exterior walls of earthquake-damaged buildings, an automatic method of detecting cracks in the walls by using infrared thermal imaging is proposed. Finally, the damage information detection and assessment system is researched and developed, and the system is integrated. Taking earthquake search-and-rescue simulation as an example, the effectiveness of this method is verified. The damage distribution in the internal structure and external walls of buildings in this area is obtained with an accuracy of 78%.
Defects can introduce atomic structural modulation and tailor performance of materials. Herein, it demonstrates that semiconductor WO
with inert electrocatalytic behavior can be activated through ...defect-induced tensile strains. Structural characterizations reveal that when simply treated in Ar/H
atmosphere, oxygen vacancies will generate in WO
and cause defective structures. Stacking faults are found in defects, thus modulating electronic structure and transforming electrocatalytic-inert WO
into highly active electrocatalysts. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations are performed to calculate
H adsorption energies on various WO
surfaces, revealing the oxygen vacancy composition and strain predicted to optimize the catalytic activity of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Such defective tungsten oxides can be integrated into commercial proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser with comparable performance toward Pt-based PEM. This work demonstrates defective metal oxides as promising non-noble metal catalysts for commercial PEM green-hydrogen generation.
Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), an immune-mediated disorder affecting the peripheral nervous system, is the most common and severe acute paralytic neuropathy. GBS remains to be potentially ...life-threatening and disabling despite the increasing availability of current standard therapeutic regimens. Therefore, more targeted therapeutics are in urgent need. Macrophages have been implicated in both initiation and resolution of experimental autoimmune neuritis (EAN), the animal model of GBS, but the exact mechanisms remain to be elucidated. It has been increasingly appreciated that exosomes, a type of extracellular vesicles (EVs), are of importance for functions of macrophages. Nevertheless, the roles of macrophage derived exosomes in EAN/GBS remain unclear. Here we determined the effects of macrophage derived exosomes on the development of EAN in Lewis rats. M1 macrophage derived exosomes (M1 exosomes) were found to aggravate EAN via boosting Th1 and Th17 response, while M2 macrophage derived exosomes (M2 exosomes) showed potentials to mitigate disease severity via a mechanism bypassing Th1 and Th17 response. Besides, both M1 and M2 exosomes increased germinal center reactions in EAN. Further
studies confirmed that M1 exosomes could directly promote IFN-γ production in T cells and M2 exosomes were not capable of inhibiting IFN-γ expression. Thus, our data identify a previously undescribed means that M1 macrophages amplify Th1 response via exosomes and provide novel insights into the crosstalk between macrophages and T cells as well.
Nanobubbles, which have the potential for ultrasonic targeted imaging and treatment in tumors, have been a research focus in recent years. With the current methods, however, the prepared uniformly ...sized nanobubbles either undergo post-formulation manipulation, such as centrifugation, after the mixture of microbubbles and nanobubbles, or require the addition of amphiphilic surfactants. These processes influence the nanobubble stability, possibly create material waste, and complicate the preparation process. In the present work, we directly prepared uniformly sized nanobubbles by modulating the thickness of a phospholipid film without the purification processes or the addition of amphiphilic surfactants. The fabricated nanobubbles from the optimal phospholipid film thickness exhibited optimal physical characteristics, such as uniform bubble size, good stability, and low toxicity. We also evaluated the enhanced imaging ability of the nanobubbles both in vitro and in vivo. The in vivo enhancement intensity in the tumor was stronger than that of SonoVue after injection (UCA; 2 min: 162.47 ± 8.94 dB vs. 132.11 ± 5.16 dB, P < 0.01; 5 min: 128.38.47 ± 5.06 dB vs. 68.24 ± 2.07 dB, P < 0.01). Thus, the optimal phospholipid film thickness can lead to nanobubbles that are effective for tumor imaging.
Remnant cholesterol (RC) has been suggested to be implicated in atherosclerosis. The objective of the study was to evaluate the association between RC and first-ever stroke in the Chinese general ...population and to investigate whether the association is mediated
hypertension or diabetes.
This study is a retrospective cohort analysis of participants from the China Health and Nutrition Survey. Participants without previous stroke and myocardial infarction in 2009 were enrolled and followed up in 2011 and 2015. Logistic regression analyses were adopted to explore the association of RC with stroke risk. Propensity score methods and doubly robust estimation method were used to ensure the robustness of our findings. Potential mediators were identified by mediation analyses.
A total of 7,035 participants were involved, and during 6 years of follow-up, 78 (1.1%) participants experienced a first-ever stroke. Participants with high RC had a significantly higher incidence of stroke (1.4% versus 0.8%;
= 0.007). High RC was associated with 74% higher stroke risk after adjusting for multiple relevant variables (odds ratio OR, 1.74; 95% CI, 1.06-2.85). The association was consistent in analyses using propensity score methods and doubly robust estimation method. Hypertension showed a significant mediating effect on the association between RC and stroke, while the mediating effect of diabetes was not significant.
High RC increased the risk of first-ever stroke in the Chinese general population without previous stroke and myocardial infarction, partially through the pathway of hypertension. RC might be a potential target for the primary prevention of stroke.
Phenotypic age acceleration, which reflects the difference between phenotypic age and chronological age, is an assessment to measure accelerated aging. Klotho is a protein related to slower aging, ...but its association with accelerated aging remains unclear.
Based on data from the 2007-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, phenotypic age was calculated using chronological age and 9 aging-related biomarkers. A total of 4388 participants aged 40 to 79 years with measured serum Klotho and calculated phenotypic age were enrolled. The association between serum Klotho and phenotypic age acceleration was estimated using multivariable linear regression models. The possible nonlinear relationship was examined with smooth curve fitting. We also conducted a segmented regression model to examine the threshold effect.
The association between serum Klotho and phenotypic age acceleration followed a U-shaped curve (p for nonlinearity < 0.001), with the inflection point at 870.7 pg/ml. The phenotypic age acceleration significantly decreased with the increment of serum Klotho (per SD increment: β -1.77; 95% CI, -2.57 ~ -0.98) in participants with serum Klotho < 870.7 pg/ml, and increased with the increment of serum Klotho (per SD increment:β, 1.03; 95% CI: 0.53 ~ 1.54) in participants with serum Klotho ≥ 870.7 pg/ml.
There was a U-shaped association between serum Klotho and accelerated aging among the middle-aged and elderly US population.
With the recognition of the key roles of cellular metabolism in immunity, targeting metabolic pathway becomes a new strategy for autoimmune disease treatment. Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an ...acute immune-mediated inflammatory demyelinating disease of the peripheral nervous system, characterized by inflammatory cell infiltration. These inflammatory cells, including activated macrophages, Th1 cells, and Th17 cells, generally undergo metabolic reprogramming and rely mainly on glycolysis to exert functions. This study aimed to explore whether enhanced glycolysis contributed to the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune neuritis (EAN), a classic model of GBS.
Preventive and therapeutic treatments with glycolysis inhibitor, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), were applied to EAN rats. The effects of treatments were determined by clinical scoring, weighting, and tissue examination. Flow cytometry and ELISA were used to evaluate T cell differentiation, autoantibody level, and macrophage functions in vivo and in vitro.
Glycolysis inhibition with 2-DG not only inhibited the initiation, but also prevented the progression of EAN, evidenced by the improved clinical scores, weight loss, inflammatory cell infiltration, and demyelination of sciatic nerves. 2-DG inhibited the differentiation of Th1, Th17, and Tfh cells but enhanced Treg cell development, accompanied with reduced autoantibody secretion. Further experiments in vitro proved glycolysis inhibition decreased the nitric oxide production and phagocytosis of macrophages and suppressed the maturation of dendritic cells (DC).
The effects of glycolysis inhibition on both innate and adaptive immune responses and the alleviation of animal clinical symptoms indicated that enhanced glycolysis contributed to the pathogenesis of EAN. Glycolysis inhibition may be a new therapy for GBS.
There is growing interest in structural analysis of directed networks. Two major points that need to be addressed are: 1) a formal and precise definition of the graph clustering and community ...detection problem in directed networks and 2) algorithm design and evaluation of community detection algorithms in directed networks. Motivated by these, we develop a probabilistic framework for structural analysis and community detection in directed networks based on our previous work in undirected networks. By relaxing the assumption from symmetric bivariate distributions in our previous work to bivariate distributions that have the same marginal distributions in this paper, we can still formally define various notions for structural analysis in directed networks, including centrality, relative centrality, community, and modularity. We also extend three commonly used community detection algorithms in undirected networks to directed networks: the hierarchical agglomerative algorithm, the partitional algorithm, and the fast unfolding algorithm. These are made possible by two modularity preserving and sparsity preserving transformations. In conjunction with the probabilistic framework, we show these three algorithms converge in a finite number of steps. In particular, we show that the partitional algorithm is a linear time algorithm for large sparse graphs. Moreover, the outputs of the hierarchical agglomerative algorithm and the fast unfolding algorithm are guaranteed to be communities. These three algorithms can also be extended to general bivariate distributions with some minor modifications. We also conduct various experiments by using two sampling methods in directed networks: 1) PageRank and 2) random walks with self-loops and backward jumps.
It is known that βig-h3 is involved in the invasive process of many types of tumors, but its mechanism in glioma cells has not been fully clarified. Using immunofluorescent double-staining and ...confocal imaging analysis, and co-immunoprecipitation assays, we found that βig-h3 co-localized with integrin α5β1 in U87 cells. We sought to elucidate the function of this interaction by performing cell invasion assays and gelatin zymography experiments. We found that siRNA knockdowns of βig-h3 and calpain-2 impaired cell invasion and MMP secretion. Moreover, βig-h3, integrins and calpain-2 are known to be regulated by Ca(2+), and they are also involved in tumor cell invasion. Therefore, we further investigated if calpain-2 was relevant to βig-h3-integrin α5β1 interaction to affect U87 cell invasion. Our data showed that βig-h3 co-localized with integrin α5β1 to enhance the invasion of U87 cells, and that calpain-2, is involved in this process, acting as a downstream molecule.
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