Inhibition of fatty acid oxidation promotes macrophage control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Macrophage activation involves metabolic reprogramming to support antimicrobial cellular functions. How these metabolic shifts influence the outcome of infection by intracellular pathogens remains incompletely understood

SNORA38B promotes proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of gallbladder cancer cells <em>via</em> activating TGF-β/Smad2/3 signaling

Evidence has shown that small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) participate in the tumorigenesis in multiple cancers, including gallbladder cancer (GBC). Our results showed that SNORA38B level was increased in GBC tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues. Thus, this research aimed to explore the role and molecular mechanisms of SNORA38B in GBC. SNORA38B level between normal and GBC tissues was evaluated by RT-qPCR. Cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and invasion were tested by EdU assay, TUNEL staining and transwell assay, respectively on human intrahepatic biliary epithelial cells (HIBEpiCs) and the GBC cell lines, NOZ and GBC-SD. Expression of proteins in GBC cells was evaluated by immunofluorescence and Western blot assays. We found that, relative to normal tissues, SNORA38B level was notably elevated in GBC tissues. SNORA38B overexpression obviously enhanced GBC cell proliferation, migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), but weakened cell apoptosis. Conversely, SNORA38B downregulation strongly suppressed the proliferation and EMT of GBC cells and induced cell apoptosis and ferroptosis, whereas these phenomena were obviously reversed by TGF-β. Meanwhile, SNORA38B downregulation notably reduced the levels of phosphorylated-Smad2 and phosphorylated-Smad3 in GBC cells, whereas these levels were elevated by TGF-β. Collectively, downregulation of SNORA38B could inhibit GBC cell proliferation and EMT and induce ferroptosis via inactivating TGF-β1/Smad2/3 signaling. These findings showed that SNORA38B may be potential target for GBC treatment

Association between Serum Uric Acid and Elevated Alanine Aminotransferase in the General Population

Background: Both the serum uric acid (SUA) level and elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) are related to metabolic syndrome. However, the association between SUA and elevated ALT has not been elucidated in the general population. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between SUA and elevated ALT in the general population of China; Methods: A total of 11,572 adults (≥35 years of age) participated in this survey. Elevated ALT was defined as &gt;40 U/L. SUA ≥ 7.0 mg/dL in males or ≥6.0 mg/dL in females was defined as hyperuricemia. SUA within the reference range was divided into quartiles, and its associations with elevated ALT were evaluated by logistic regressions; Results: A total of 7.4% participants had elevated ALT. The prevalence of hyperuricemia was 14.9% in males and 7.3% in females. There was a significantly positive dose-response association between SUA levels and the prevalence of elevated ALT. After adjusting for potential confounders, a positive relationship for elevated ALT was observed in subjects with hyperuricemia (odds ratio [OR]: 2.032, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.443–2.861 for men; OR: 2.045, 95% CI: 1.221–3.425 for women, both p &lt; 0.05). Within the reference range, the association between SUA and elevated ALT persisted in the fourth quartile (OR: 1.467, 95% CI: 1.063–2.025 for men; OR: 1.721, 95% CI: 1.146–2.585 for women, both p &lt; 0.05); Conclusions: Our results indicated that an increased SUA level, even within the reference range, was independently associated with elevated ALT in Chinese adults

Aortic Pressure Waveform Estimation Based on Variational Mode Decomposition and Gated Recurrent Unit

Objective: Aortic pressure waveform (APW) can provide vital indices for the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. Although various APW estimation methods have been reported to avoid the risks of direct invasive measurement, more accurate and practical estimation models still need to be developed to promote the application of APW in routine monitoring. To solve this problem, a hybrid model based on variational mode decomposition (VMD) and gated recurrent unit (GRU) named VMD-GRU was proposed to estimate the APW from the brachial pressure waveform (BPW). Methods: Invasive APWs and BPWs from 34 subjects were used to validate the proposed hybrid model. Initially, new samples were obtained from these measured APWs and BPWs using data augmentation technology. Subsequently, VMD was employed to decompose the augmented BPWs into multiple intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). Next, the GRU network was utilized to learn the complex relationship between the IMFs and augmented APWs. The trained GRU network can be used to estimate the APWs with the IMFs obtained from the BPWs and VMD approach. The root-mean-square-error of total waveform and mean absolute errors of commonly adopted hemodynamic indices in clinic including systolic and diastolic blood pressures and pulse pressure were used to evaluate the proposed hybrid model. The performance of the proposed hybrid model was obtained from leave-one-subject-out cross validation. Results: The proposed hybrid model achieved smaller errors of total waveform (3.33 vs. 3.50 mmHg, P &amp;lt; 0.05) and pulse pressure (3.02 vs. 3.64 mmHg, 0.05 &amp;lt; P &amp;lt; 0.10) compared to the GRU. Conclusion: The proposed hybrid model can provide more accurate APW in comparison to the GRU network.</p

PSO-BP-Based Morphology Prediction Method for DED Remanufactured Deposited Layers

Directed energy deposition is a typical laser remanufacturing technology, which can effectively repair failed parts and extend their service life, and has been widely used in aerospace, metallurgy, energy and other high-end equipment key parts remanufacturing. However, the repair quality and performance of the repaired parts have been limited by the morphological and quality control problems of the process because of the formation mechanism and process of the deposition. The main reason is that the coupling of multiple process parameters makes the deposited layer morphology and surface properties difficult to be accurately predicted, which makes it difficult to regulate the process. Thus, the deposited layer forming mechanism and morphological properties of directed energy deposition were systematically analyzed, the height and width of multilayer deposition layers were taken as prediction targets, and a PSO-BP-based model for predicting the morphology of directed energy deposited layers was settled. The weights and thresholds of Back Propagation (BP) neural networks were optimized using a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, the predicted values of deposited layer morphology for different process parameters were obtained, and the problem of low accuracy of deposited layer morphology prediction due to slow convergence and poor uniformity of the solution set of traditional optimization models was addressed. Remanufacturing experiments were conducted, and the experimental results showed that the deposited layer morphology prediction model proposed in this paper has a high prediction accuracy, with an average prediction error of 1.329% for the layer height and 0.442% for the layer width. The research of the paper provided an effective way to control the morphology and properties of the directed energy deposition process. A valuable contribution is made to the field of laser remanufacturing technology, and significant implications are held for various industries such as aerospace, metallurgy, and energy

Self-Powered Long-Life Microsystem for Vibration Sensing and Target Recognition

Microsystems play an important role in the Internet of Things (IoT). In many unattended IoT applications, microsystems with small size, lightweight, and long life are urgently needed to achieve covert, large-scale, and long-term distribution for target detection and recognition. This paper presents for the first time a low-power, long-life microsystem that integrates self-power supply, event wake-up, continuous vibration sensing, and target recognition. The microsystem is mainly used for unattended long-term target perception and recognition. A composite energy source of solar energy and battery is designed to achieve self-powering. The microsystem&rsquo;s sensing module, circuit module, signal processing module, and transceiver module are optimized to further realize the small size and low-power consumption. A low-computational recognition algorithm based on support vector machine learning is designed and ported into the microsystem. Taking the pedestrian, wheeled vehicle, and tracked vehicle as targets, the proposed microsystem of 15 cm3 and 35 g successfully realizes target recognitions both indoors and outdoors with an accuracy rate of over 84% and 65%, respectively. Self-powering of the microsystem is up to 22.7 mW under the midday sunlight, and 11 min self-powering can maintain 24 h operation of the microsystem in sleep mode

Comprehensive Comparison between Empty Nest and Non-Empty Nest Elderly: A Cross-Sectional Study among Rural Populations in Northeast China

This study aimed to comprehensively compare the general characteristics, lifestyles, serum parameters, ultrasonic cardiogram (UCG) parameters, depression, quality of life, and various comorbidities between empty nest and non-empty nest elderly among rural populations in northeast China. This analysis was based on our previous study which was conducted from January 2012 to August 2013, using a multistage, stratified, random cluster sampling scheme. The final analyzed sample consisted of 3208 participants aged no less than 60 years, which was further classified into three groups: non-empty nest group, empty nest group (living as a couple), and empty nest group (living alone). More than half of the participants were empty nest elderly (60.5%). There were no significant statistical differences for serum parameters, UCG parameters, lifestyles, dietary pattern, and scores of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire, abbreviated version (WHOQOL-BREF) among the three groups. Empty nest elderly showed no more risk for comorbidities such as general obesity, abdominal obesity, hyperuricemia, hyperhomocysteinemia, diabetes, dyslipidemia, left atrial enlargement (LAE), and stroke. Our study indicated that empty nest elderly showed no more risk for depression, low quality of life and comorbidities such as general obesity, abdominal obesity, hyperuricemia, hyperhomocysteinemia, diabetes, dyslipidemia, LAE, and stroke among rural populations in northeast China