On Tutte polynomial uniqueness of twisted wheels

AbstractA graph G is called T-unique if any other graph having the same Tutte polynomial as G is isomorphic to G. Recently, there has been much interest in determining T-unique graphs and matroids. For example, de Mier and Noy [A. de Mier, M. Noy, On graphs determined by their Tutte polynomials, Graphs Combin. 20 (2004) 105–119; A. de Mier, M. Noy, Tutte uniqueness of line graphs, Discrete Math. 301 (2005) 57–65] showed that wheels, ladders, Möbius ladders, square of cycles, hypercubes, and certain class of line graphs are all T-unique. In this paper, we prove that the twisted wheels are also T-unique

Technetium-99 Conjugated with Methylene Diphosphonate Ameliorates Ovariectomy–Induced Osteoporotic Phenotype Without Causing Osteonecrosis in the Jaw

Technetium-99 conjugated with methylene diphosphonate (99Tc-MDP) is a novel bisphosphonate derivative without radioactivity and has been successfully used to treat arthritis in China for years. Since bisphosphonate therapy has the potential to induce bisphosphonate-associated osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ), we examine whether 99Tc-MDP represents a new class of bisphosphonate for anti-resorptive therapy to ameliorate estrogen deficiency–induced bone resorption with less risk of causing BRONJ. We showed that 99Tc-MDP-treated ovariectomized (OVX) mice had significantly improved bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone volume in comparison to the untreated OVX group by inhibiting osteoclasts and enhancing osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs). To determine the potential of inducing BRONJ, 99Tc-MDP/dexamethasone (Dex) or zoledronate/Dex were administered into C57BL/6J mice via the tail vein, followed by extraction of maxillary first molars. Interestingly, 99Tc-MDP treatment showed less risk to induce osteonecrosis in the maxillary bones compared to zoledronate treatment group, partially because 99Tc-MDP neither suppressed adaptive regulatory T cells (Tregs) nor activated the inflammatory T-helper-producing interleukin 17 cells (Th17). Taken together, our findings demonstrate that 99Tc-MDP therapy may be a promising approach in the treatment of osteoporosis with less risk of causing BRONJ

Technetium-99 Conjugated with Methylene Diphosphonate Ameliorates Ovariectomy–induced Osteoporotic Phenotype without Causing Osteonecrosis in the Jaw

Technetium-99 conjugated with methylene diphosphonate (99Tc-MDP) is a novel bisphosphonate derivative without radioactivity and has been successfully used to treat arthritis in China for years. Since bisphosphonate therapy has the potential to induce bisphosphonate-associated osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ), we examine whether 99Tc-MDP represents a new class of bisphosphonate for anti-resorptive therapy to ameliorate estrogen deficiency–induced bone resorption with less risk of causing BRONJ. We showed that 99Tc-MDP-treated ovariectomized (OVX) mice had significantly improved bone mineral density (BMD) and trabecular bone volume in comparison to the untreated OVX group by inhibiting osteoclasts and enhancing osteogenic differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs). To determine the potential of inducing BRONJ, 99Tc-MDP/dexamethasone (Dex) or zoledronate/Dex were administered into C57BL/6J mice via the tail vein, followed by extraction of maxillary first molars. Interestingly, 99Tc-MDP treatment showed less risk to induce osteonecrosis in the maxillary bones compared to zoledronate treatment group, partially because 99Tc-MDP neither suppressed adaptive regulatory T cells (Tregs) nor activated the inflammatory T-helper-producing interleukin 17 cells (Th17). Taken together, our findings demonstrate that 99Tc-MDP therapy may be a promising approach in the treatment of osteoporosis with less risk of causing BRONJ

Rehabilitation treatment of multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is a slowly progressive disease, immunosuppressants and other drugs can delay the progression and progression of the disease, but the most patients will be left with varying degrees of neurological deficit symptoms, such as muscle weakness, muscle spasm, ataxia, sensory impairment, dysphagia, cognitive dysfunction, psychological disorders, etc. From the early stage of the disease to the stage of disease progression, professional rehabilitation treatment can reduce the functional dysfunction of multiple sclerosis patients, improve neurological function, and reduce family and social burdens. With the development of various new rehabilitation technologies such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, virtual reality technology, robot-assisted gait, telerehabilitation and transcranial direct current stimulation, the advantages of rehabilitation therapy in multiple sclerosis treatment have been further established, and more treatment means have also been provided for patients

The Monoclonal Antitoxin Antibodies (Actoxumab–Bezlotoxumab) Treatment Facilitates Normalization of the Gut Microbiota of Mice with Clostridium difficile Infection

Antibiotics have significant and long-lasting impacts on the intestinal microbiota and consequently reduce colonization resistance against Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). Standard therapy using antibiotics is associated with a high rate of disease recurrence, highlighting the need for novel treatment strategies that target toxins, the major virulence factors, rather than the organism itself. Human monoclonal antibodies MK-3415A (actoxumab–bezlotoxumab) to C. difficile toxin A and toxin B, as an emerging non-antibiotic approach, significantly reduced the recurrence of CDI in animal models and human clinical trials. Although the main mechanism of protection is through direct neutralization of the toxins, the impact of MK-3415A on gut microbiota and its restoration has not been examined. Using a CDI murine model, we compared the bacterial diversity of the gut microbiome of mice under different treatments including MK-3415A, vancomycin, or vancomycin combined with MK-3415A, sampled longitudinally. Here, we showed that C. difficile infection resulted in the prevalence of Enterobacter species. Sixty percent of mice in the vehicle group died after 2 days and their microbiome was almost exclusively formed by Enterobacter. MK-3415A treatment resulted in lower Enterobacter levels and restoration of Blautia, Akkermansia, and Lactobacillus which were the core components of the original microbiota. Vancomycin treatment led to significantly lower survival rate than the combo treatment of MK-3415A and vancomycin. Vancomycin treatment decreased bacterial diversity with predominant Enterobacter and Akkermansia, while Staphylococcus expanded after vancomycin treatment was terminated. In contrast, mice treated by vancomycin combined with MK-3415A also experienced decreased bacterial diversity during vancomycin treatment. However, these animals were able to recover their initial Blautia and Lactobacillus proportions, even though episodes of Staphylococcus overgrowth were detected by the end of the experiments. In conclusion, MK-3415A (actoxumab–bezlotoxumab) treatment facilitates normalization of the gut microbiota in CDI mice. It remains to be examined whether or not the prevention of recurrent CDI by the antitoxin antibodies observed in clinical trials occurs through modulation of microbiota

Predictive value of SII and sd-LDL for contrast-induced acute kidney injury in STEMI patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention

Aim: To investigate the relationship between the incidence of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) and the level of small dense low-density lipoprotein (sd-LDL) and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and to further compare the predictive values of SII, sd-LDL and their combination for CI-AKI. Methods: A total of 674 patients were assigned to a training and a validation cohort according to their chronological sequence. The baseline characteristics of the 450 patients in the training cohort were considered as candidate univariate predictors of CI-AKI. Multivariate logistic regression was then used to identify predictors of CI-AKI and develop a prediction model. The predictive values of SII, sd-LDL and their combination for CI-AKI were also evaluated. Results: Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), sd-LDL, uric acid, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and SII were predictors of CI-AKI. The area under the curve (AUC) of the prediction model based on the above factors was 0.846 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.808–0.884], and the Hosmer-Lemeshow test (P = 0.587, χ2 = 6.543) proved the goodness of fit of the model. The AUC combining SII with sd-LDL to predict CI-AKI was 0.785 (95% CI 0.735–0.836), with a sensitivity of 72.8% and a specificity of 79.8%, and was statistically significant when compared with SII and sd-LDL, respectively. The predictive efficiency of combining SII with sd-LDL and SII were evaluated by improved net reclassification improvement (NRI, 0.325, P < 0.001) and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI, 0.07, P < 0.001). Conclusions: Both SII and sd-LDL can be used as predictors of CI-AKI in STEMI patients undergoing emergency PCI, and their combination can provide more useful value for early assessment of CI-AKI

Local Geometric Structure Feature for Dimensionality Reduction of Hyperspectral Imagery

Marginal Fisher analysis (MFA) exploits the margin criterion to compact the intraclass data and separate the interclass data, and it is very useful to analyze the high-dimensional data. However, MFA just considers the structure relationships of neighbor points, and it cannot effectively represent the intrinsic structure of hyperspectral imagery (HSI) that possesses many homogenous areas. In this paper, we propose a new dimensionality reduction (DR) method, termed local geometric structure Fisher analysis (LGSFA), for HSI classification. Firstly, LGSFA uses the intraclass neighbor points of each point to compute its reconstruction point. Then, an intrinsic graph and a penalty graph are constructed to reveal the intraclass and interclass properties of hyperspectral data. Finally, the neighbor points and corresponding intraclass reconstruction points are used to enhance the intraclass-manifold compactness and the interclass-manifold separability. LGSFA can effectively reveal the intrinsic manifold structure and obtain the discriminating features of HSI data for classification. Experiments on the Salinas, Indian Pines, and Urban data sets show that the proposed LGSFA algorithm achieves the best classification results than other state-of-the-art methods