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Aging (Albany NY) 2021 Apr 20;13. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Science and Education, Shenzhen Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenzhen, China.

The occurrence of portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) is strongly correlated to the staging and poor prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. However, the mechanisms of PVTT formation remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between primary tumor (PT) and PVTT tissues and comprehensively explored the underlying mechanisms of PVTT formation. Read More

Int J Food Microbiol 2021 Apr 15;347:109199. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Food Science Institute, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China. Electronic address:

Zhacai is a traditional fermented vegetable that has been consumed in China for centuries. It is currently manufactured by spontaneous fermentation and therefore mostly relies on the activities of autochthonous microorganisms. Here, we characterized microbial community dynamics and associated biochemical changes in 12% salted Zhacai during a 90-day spontaneous fermentation process using high-throughput sequencing and chromatography-based approaches to identify associations between microorganisms and fermentation characteristics. Read More

J Pharm Biomed Anal 2021 Apr 14;200:114070. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

School of Pharmacy, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei 230012, PR China; National Resource Center for Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, PR China; Research Unit of DAO-DI Herbs, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, 2019RU57, Beijing 100700, PR China. Electronic address:

Heshouwu, derived from root tubers of Fallopia multiflora (Thunb.) Harald., is a well-known herb used for millennia in traditional Chinese medicine. Read More

Mult Scler Relat Disord 2021 Apr 13;51:102936. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Kessler Foundation, West Orange, New Jersey, USA; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Rutgers, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey, USA.

Background: Co-occurring mobility and cognitive impairments are common, debilitating, and poorly-managed with pharmacological therapies in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). Exercise rehabilitation (ER), particularly walking ER, has been suggested as one of the best approaches for managing these manifestations of MS. However, there is a focal lack of efficacy of ER on mobility and cognitive outcomes in persons with MS who present with substantial neurological disability. Read More

Neural Netw 2021 Apr 10;139:326-334. Epub 2021 Apr 10.

Beijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology, Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. Electronic address:

Keyword search (KWS) means searching for keywords given by the user from continuous speech. Conventional KWS systems are based on Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), where the input speech has to be first processed by the ASR system before keyword searching. In the recent decade, as deep learning and deep neural networks (DNN) become increasingly popular, KWS systems can also be trained in an end-to-end (E2E) manner. Read More

J Electrocardiol 2021 Apr 9;66:95-97. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Agnes Ginges Centre for Molecular Cardiology, Centenary Institute, The University of Sydney, Australia.

Athletes sometimes experience transient arrhythmias during intense exercise, which may be difficult to capture with traditional Holter monitors. New and highly portable technology, such as smartphone electrocardiogram (ECG) devices, may be useful in documenting and contribute to diagnosis of exercise-induced arrhythmias. There are little data available regarding the new Kardia 6 lead device (6L) and no data regarding its use in athletic populations. Read More

J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci 2021 Apr 8;1173:122682. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine of Shanxi University, No. 92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, Shanxi, PR China; Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Molecular Engineering of Minstry of Education, No. 92, Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, Shanxi, PR China. Electronic address:

Astragali Radix (AR) has been widely used as bulk medicines in China. Currently, there are mainly two types in the market, wild-simulated AR (WAR) and transplanted AR (TAR). The present work was designed to compare their effects in treatment of blood deficiency with its compatibility with Angelicae Sinensis Radix, a classical formula Danggui Buxue decoction (DBD). Read More

Acta Biomater 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

College of Life Sciences, Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials (Ministry of Education), State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China. Electronic address:

The therapeutic effectiveness of cell transplantation in treatment of diseases and injuries is often limited by low cell retention, survivability, and engraftment. Extracellular matrix (ECM)-derived scaffolds are capable of controlling cell responses, thereby offering potential solutions to current challenges associated with cell therapy. However, it remains a technical challenge to produce ECM scaffolds with highly interconnected porous structure specifically required for cell transplantation. Read More

J Ethnopharmacol 2021 Apr 17:114129. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, 310053, China; School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433, China. Electronic address:

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Curculigo orchioides Gaertn is used for the treatment of impotence, atrophic debility of bones (osteoporosis), limb limpness, and arthritis of the lumbar and knee joints in traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medical system. Curculigoside (Cur) from Curculigo orchioides Gaertn has been shown to have regulatory effects on bone metabolism via anti-oxidative activities in rats and osteoblasts. However, little is known about the molecular pharmacological activity of Cur in osteoclastic bone resorption. Read More

J Ethnopharmacol 2021 Apr 17:114118. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, 300139, China; NMPA Key Laboratory for Quality Control of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai Institute for Food and Drug Control, Shanghai, 201203, China. Electronic address:

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Realgar, a famous traditional Chinese mineral medicine, has been toxic to the renal system. However, the underlying mechanism of Realgar nephrotoxicity is still unclear.

Aim Of The Study: This study aimed to investigate the potential mechanism of Realgar-induced nephrotoxicity by using a label-free quantitative proteomic method. Read More

J Control Release 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University and Collaborative Innovation Center, Chengdu 610041, China; Experimental and Research Animal Institute, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China. Electronic address:

The treatment of large established tumors remains a significant challenge and is generally hampered by poor drug penetration and intrinsic drug resistance of tumor cells in the central tumor region. In the present study, we developed bacterial particles (BactPs) to deliver chemotherapeutics into the tumor mass by hijacking neutrophils as natural cell-based carriers. BactPs loaded with doxorubicin, 5-fluorosuracil, or paclitaxel induced significantly greater tumor regression than unconjugated drugs. Read More

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules and National Center for Translational Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.

The mechanical properties of nanoscale drug carriers play critical roles in regulating nano-bio interactions. For example, the superior deformability of the softer nanoparticles enables them to pass through the biofilters efficiently, facilitating their long blood circulation and better tumor penetration. However, as a novel nanocarrier system, the elimination efficiency of soft nanoparticles from cells is poorly investigated. Read More

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Science and Technology, Aarhus University, Gustav Wieds Vej 1590-14, Aarhus C DK-8000, Denmark.

Thrombin, a serine protease playing a central role in the coagulation cascade reactions and a potent neurotoxin produced by injured brain endothelial cells, is a recognized cardiac biomarker and a critical biomarker for Alzheimer's disease development. Both in vivo and in vitro, its low physiological concentrations and nonspecific binding of other components of physiological fluids complicate electroanalysis of thrombin. Here, femtomolar levels of thrombin in serum and an artificial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were detected by the indicator-free electrochemical methodology exploiting the O reduction reaction directly, with no electron transfer mediators, electrocatalyzed by the covalent G4-hemin DNAzyme complex naturally self-assembling upon thrombin binding to the hemin-modified 29-mer DNA aptamer sequence tethered to gold via an alkanethiol linker. Read More

Surg Technol Int 2021 Apr 20;38. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, Lichtenstein Amid Hernia Institute at UCLA Santa Monica, CA, USA.

Introduction: Chronic postherniorrhaphy inguinal pain (CPIP) is common following inguinal hernia repair. As even primary minimally-invasive inguinal hernia repairs carry a risk of significant intra-operative bleeding, it is unsurprising that reoperative groin exploration and mesh explantation for chronic post-inguinal herniorrhaphy pain confers an even higher risk of arteriotomy or venotomy due to a distorted anatomy and the presence of adhesions. In this report, we present a single institution's experience with the management of intra-operative vascular injury encountered during minimally invasive groin exploration and mesh explantation for CPIP. Read More

Am J Epidemiol 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Monitoring survival in cancer is a common concern for patients, physicians, and public health researchers. The traditional cohort approach for monitoring cancer prognosis has a timeliness problem. In this paper, we propose a survivorship-period-cohort (SPC) model for examining the effects of survivorship, period, and year-of-diagnosis cohort on cancer prognosis and to predict future trends in cancer survival. Read More

Aging (Albany NY) 2021 Apr 20;13. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325000, China.

Mounting evidence suggests that mitochondrial dysfunction and impaired mitophagy lead to Parkinson's disease (PD). Quercetin, one of the most abundant polyphenolic flavonoids, displays many health-promoting biological effects in many diseases. We explored the neuroprotective effect of quercetin in the 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-lesioned rat model of PD and in 6-OHDA-treated PC12 cells. Read More

J Med Internet Res 2021 Apr 15. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Surgo Ventures, 1701 Rhode Island Ave NW, Washington, US.

Background: The coronavirus pandemic has impacted our lives at unprecedented speed and scale - including how we eat and work, what we worry about, how much we move, and our ability to earn. Traditional surveys in the area of public health can be expensive, time-consuming, and rapidly go out of date. Analyzing big data sets (such as electronic patient records, surveillance systems) is very complex. Read More

IEEE Trans Cybern 2021 Apr 20;PP. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Based on the fact that the traditional probability distribution entropy describing a local feature of the system cannot effectively capture the global topology variations of the network, some indicators constructed by the network adjacency matrix and Laplacian matrix come into being. Specifically, these measures are based on the eigenvalues of the scaled Laplace matrix, the eigenvalues of the network communicability matrix, and the spectral entropy based on information diffusion that has been proposed recently, respectively. In this article, we systematically study the dependence of these measures on the topological structure of the network. Read More

IEEE Trans Cybern 2021 Apr 20;PP. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is a classical statistical machine-learning method, which aims to find a linear data transformation increasing class discrimination in an optimal discriminant subspace. Traditional LDA sets assumptions related to the Gaussian class distributions and single-label data annotations. In this article, we propose a new variant of LDA to be used in multilabel classification tasks for dimensionality reduction on original data to enhance the subsequent performance of any multilabel classifier. Read More

IEEE Trans Image Process 2021 Apr 20;PP. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Point clouds are the most general data representations of real and abstract objects, and have a wide variety of applications in many science and engineering fields. Point clouds also provide the most scalable multi-resolution composition for geometric structures. Although point cloud learning has shown remarkable results in shape estimation and semantic segmentation, the unsupervised generation of 3D object parts still pose significant challenges in the 3D shape understanding problem. Read More

Acta Med Port 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Pharmacology Department. Faculty of Medicine. University of Coimbra. Coimbra. Portugal. Institute for Clinical and Biomedical Research Coimbra. Faculty of Medicine. University of Coimbra. Coimbra. Clinical Academic Center of Coimbra. Coimbra. Dom Henrique Research Centre. Porto. Portugal.

Introduction: The Modified British Medical Research Council Questionnaire is considered an adequate and simple measure of breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It is widely used in clinical practice in Portugal, but it still lacks confirmatory evaluation for the Portuguese setting. The aim of this study was to perform a cultural adaptation and validation of the Modified British Medical Research Council Questionnaire so that its most suitable version can be made available to researchers and clinicians in Portugal. Read More

Ear Nose Throat J 2021 Apr 20:1455613211010075. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

International Master/Ph.D. Program in Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei.

Objectives: Holmium: YAG laser has gained its popularity throughout the years and is used to treat sialolithiasis, which helps to overcome the limitations of traditional sialendoscopic lithotripsy for larger-sized salivary stones. However, little information is available regarding factors predicting the success rate of Holmium: YAG laser intraductal lithotripsy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the success rates of Holmium: YAG laser lithotripsy for salivary stones treatment in a tertiary care hospital. Read More

J Altern Complement Med 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia.

This metaethnography provides an interpretative synthesis of complementary medicine (CM) practitioners' perceptions toward their health model and the healing process. CM is commonly described on the basis of its distinction from biomedicine with limited research available on CM practitioners' understanding of what the essence of their practice is and how healing transpires as a result. This is despite the significant patronage of CM and high rates of couse with biomedical services. Read More

J Clin Oncol 2021 Apr 20:JCO2003637. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.

Purpose: This study aimed to compare patients with early oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) (tumor category [T] 1-2, node-negative, and no distant metastasis) treated with traditional elective neck dissection (ND) with those managed by sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) using survival and neck function and complications as end points.

Methods: Sixteen institutions in Japan participated in the study (trial registration number: UMIN000006510). Patients of age ≥ 18 years with histologically confirmed, previously untreated OCSCC (Union for International Cancer Control TNM Classification of Malignant Tumors 7th edition T1-2, node-negative no distant metastasis), with ≥ 4 mm (T1) depth of invasion, were randomly assigned to undergo standard selective ND (ND group; n = 137) or SLNB-navigated ND (SLNB group; n = 134). Read More

Anal Chem 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

College of Food Science and Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China.

Nanomaterials-based immunochromatographic assays (ICAs) have gained great commercial success in real-life point-of-care testing (POCT). Exploring novel carriers of ICAs with improved signaling and sustained activity favors the development of sensitive POCT. Herein a potent signal biotag, colored (SA), was created for ICA carriers through a mild self-assembly strategy, providing high luminance and abundant specific binding sites for immobilization of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Read More

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, P. R. China.

Highly dispersed chromium (Cr)-based catalysts are promising candidates for the catalytic dehydrogenation of propane (DHP). However, the easier aggregation of Cr species into crystalline CrO at the high-temperature calcination and reaction process is a big challenge, which severely restricts the improvement of activity and stability of the DHP reaction. Herein, a flowing-air-induced transformation method was first proposed, and the catalytic performance of the prepared Cr/MCM-41 catalysts was found to be significantly improved compared to that of the Cr-based catalyst prepared by the traditional calcination method, even better than that of most of the reported Cr-based catalysts and some noble metal-based catalysts. Read More

ACS Nano 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.

Thiospinels, such as CoNiS, are showing promise for numerous applications, including as catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction, hydrodesulfurization, and oxygen evolution and reduction reactions; however, CoNiS has not been synthesized as small, colloidal nanocrystals with high surface-area-to-volume ratios. Traditional optimization methods to control nanocrystal attributes such as size typically rely upon one variable at a time (OVAT) methods that are not only time and labor intensive but also lack the ability to identify higher-order interactions between experimental variables that affect target outcomes. Herein, we demonstrate that a statistical design of experiments (DoE) approach can optimize the synthesis of CoNiS nanocrystals, allowing for control over the responses of nanocrystal size, size distribution, and isolated yield. Read More