267 research outputs found
Association between prospective registration and overall reporting and methodological quality of systematic reviews: a meta-epidemiological study
Objective: To investigate the differences in main characteristics, reporting and methodological quality between prospectively registered and non-registered systematic reviews. Methods: PubMed was searched to identify systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials published in 2015 in English. After title and abstract screening, potentially relevant reviews were divided into three groups: registered non-Cochrane reviews, Cochrane reviews, and non-registered reviews. For each group, random number tables were generated in Microsoft Excel, and the first 50 eligible studies from each group were randomly selected. Data of interest from systematic reviews were extracted. Regression analyses were conducted to explore the association between total R-AMSTAR or PRISMA scores and the selected characteristics of systematic reviews. Results: The conducting and reporting of literature search in registered reviews were superior to non-registered reviews. Differences in nine of the 11 R-AMSTAR items were statistically significant between registered and non-registered reviews. The total R-AMSTAR score of registered reviews was higher than non-registered reviews (MD=4.82, 95%CI: 3.70, 5.94). Sensitivity analysis by excluding the registration related item presented similar result (MD=4.34, 95%CI: 3.28, 5.40). Total PRISMA scores of registered reviews were significantly higher than non-registered reviews (all reviews: MD=1.47, 95%CI: 0.64-2.30; non-Cochrane reviews: MD=1.49, 95%CI: 0.56-2.42). However, the difference in the total PRISMA score was no longer statistically significant after excluding the item related to registration (item 5). Regression analyses showed similar results. Conclusions: Prospective registration may at least indirectly improve the overall methodological quality of systematic reviews, although its impact on the overall reporting quality was not significant
Synthetic polyspermine imidazole-4, 5-amide as an efficient and cytotoxicity-free gene delivery system
A Search for Double-peaked narrow emission line Galaxies and AGNs in the LAMOST DR1
LAMOST has released more than two million spectra, which provide the
opportunity to search for double-peaked narrow emission line (NEL) galaxies and
AGNs. The double-peaked narrow-line profiles can be well modeled by two
velocity components, respectively blueshifted and redshifted with respect to
the systemic recession velocity. This paper presents 20 double-peaked NEL
galaxies and AGNs found from LAMOST DR1 using a search method based on
multi-gaussian fit of the narrow emission lines. Among them, 10 have already
been published by other authors, either listed as genuine double-peaked NEL
objects or as asymmetric NEL objects, the remaining 10 being first discoveries.
We discuss some possible origins for double-peaked narrow-line features, as
interaction between jet and narrow line regions, interaction with companion
galaxies and black hole binaries. Spatially resolved optical imaging and/or
follow-up observations in other spectral bands are needed to further discuss
the physical mechanisms at work.Comment: 17 pages, 5figures, 4 tables, accepted by RA
Determination of QPO properties in the presence of strong broad-band noise: a case study on the data of MAXI J1820+070
Accurate calculation of the phase lags of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs)
will provide insight into their origin. In this paper we investigate the phase
lag correction method which has been applied to calculate the intrinsic phase
lags of the QPOs in MAXI J1820+070. We find that the traditional additive model
between BBN and QPOs in the time domain is rejected, but the convolution model
is accepted. By introducing a convolution mechanism in the time domain, the
Fourier cross-spectrum analysis shows that the phase lags between QPOs
components in different energy bands will have a simple linear relationship
with the phase lags between the total signals, so that the intrinsic phase lags
of the QPOs can be obtained by linear correction. The power density spectrum
(PDS) thus requires a multiplicative model to interpret the data. We briefly
discuss a physical scenario for interpreting the convolution. In this scenario,
the corona acts as a low-pass filter, the Green's function containing the noise
is convolved with the QPOs to form the low-frequency part of the PDS, while the
high-frequency part requires an additive component. We use a multiplicative PDS
model to fit the data observed by Insight-HXMT. The overall fitting results are
similar compared to the traditional additive PDS model. Neither the width nor
the centroid frequency of the QPOs obtained from each of the two PDS models
were significantly different, except for the r.m.s. of the QPOs. Our work thus
provides a new perspective on the coupling of noise and QPOs.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure
An ultra-sensitive and easy-to-use assay for sensing human UGT1A1 activities in biological systems
The human UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1A1 (UGT1A1), one of the most essential conjugative enzymes, is responsible for the metabolism and detoxification of bilirubin and other endogenous substances, as well as many different xenobiotic compounds. Deciphering UGT1A1 relevance to human diseases and characterizing the effects of small molecules on the activities of UGT1A1 requires reliable tools for probing the function of this key enzyme in complex biological matrices. Herein, an easy-to-use assay for highly-selective and sensitive monitoring of UGT1A1 activities in various biological matrices, using liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (LC-FD), has been developed and validated. The newly developed LC-FD based assay has been confirmed in terms of sensitivity, specificity, precision, quantitative linear range and stability. One of its main advantages is lowering the limits of detection and quantification by about 100-fold in comparison to the previous assay that used the same probe substrate, enabling reliable quantification of lower amounts of active enzyme than any other method. The precision test demonstrated that both intra- and inter-day variations for this assay were less than 5.5%. Furthermore, the newly developed assay has also been successfully used to screen and characterize the regulatory effects of small molecules on the expression level of UGT1A1 in living cells. Overall, an easy-to-use LC-FD based assay has been developed for ultra-sensitive UGT1A1 activities measurements in various biological systems, providing an inexpensive and practical approach for exploring the role of UGT1A1 in human diseases, interactions with xenobiotics, and characterization modulatory effects of small molecules on this conjugative enzyme. (c) 2020 Xi'an Jiaotong University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Peer reviewe
Return of 4U~1730--22 after 49 years silence: the peculiar burst properties of the 2021/2022 outbursts observed by Insight-HXMT
After in quiescence for 49 years, 4U~1730--22 became active and had two
outbursts in 2021 \& 2022; ten thermonuclear X-ray bursts were detected with
Insight-HXMT. Among them, the faintest burst showed a double-peaked profile,
placing the source as the 5th accreting neutron star (NS) exhibiting
double/triple-peaked type-I X-ray bursts; the other bursts showed photospheric
radius expansion (PRE). The properties of double-peaked non-PRE burst indicate
that it could be related to a stalled burning front. For the five bright PRE
bursts, apart from the emission from the neutron star (NS) surface, we find the
residuals both in the soft (10 keV) X-ray band.
Time-resolved spectroscopy reveals that the excess can be attributed to an
enhanced pre-burst/persistent emission or the Comptonization of the burst
emission by the corona/boundary-layer. We find, the burst emission shows a rise
until the photosphere touches down to the NS surface rather than the
theoretical predicted constant Eddington luminosity.
The shortage of the burst emission in the early rising phase is beyond the
occlusion by the disk. We speculate that the findings above correspond to that
the obscured part (not only the lower part) of the NS surface is exposed to the
line of sight due to the evaporation of the obscured material by the burst
emission, or the burst emission is anisotropic () in the burst early
phase. In addition, based on the average flux of PRE bursts at their touch-down
time, we derive a distance estimation as 10.4 kpc.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2208.13556;
text overlap with arXiv:2208.1212
The Inhibition of Spinal Astrocytic JAK2-STAT3 Pathway Activation Correlates with the Analgesic Effects of Triptolide in the Rat Neuropathic Pain Model
Neuropathic pain (NP) is an intractable clinical problem without satisfactory treatments. However, certain natural products have been revealed as effective therapeutic agents for the management of pain states. In this study, we used the spinal nerve ligation (SNL) pain model to investigate the antinociceptive effect of triptolide (T10), a major active component of the traditional Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F. Intrathecal T10 inhibited the mechanical nociceptive response induced by SNL without interfering with motor performance. Additionally, the anti-nociceptive effect of T10 was associated with the inhibition of the activation of spinal astrocytes. Furthermore, intrathecal administration of T10 attenuated SNL-induced janus kinase (JAK) signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3) signalling pathway activation and inhibited the upregulation of proinflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-6, interleukin-1 beta, and tumour necrosis factor-α, in dorsal horn astrocytes. Moreover, NR2B-containing spinal N-methyl D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) was subsequently inhibited. Above all, T10 can alleviate SNL-induced NP via inhibiting the neuroinflammation in the spinal dorsal horn. The anti-inflammation effect of T10 may be related with the suppression of spinal astrocytic JAK-STAT3 activation. Our results suggest that T10 may be a promising drug for the treatment of NP
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