Enhanced drug loading capacity of polypyrrole nanowire network for confrolled drug release

For a conducting polymer (CP) based drug release system, drug loading is often accomplished by a doping process, in which drug is incorporated into polymer as dopant. Therefore, the drug loading capacity is relatively low and the range of drugs can be loaded is limited. In the present work, a polypyrrole (PPy) nanowire network is prepared by an electrochemical method and it is found that the micro- and nano- gaps among the individual nanowires of the PPy nanowire network can be used as reservoir to store drugs. Therefore, the drug loading capacity is dependent on the volume of these micro- and nano-vacancies, instead of the doping level. The range of loaded drugs also can be theoretically extended to any drugs, instead of only charged dopants. In fact, it is confirmed here that both hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs can be loaded into the micro- and nano-gaps due to the amphilicity of the PPy nanowire network. As a result, both drug loading capacity and the range of drugs can be loaded are significantly improved. After being covered with a protective PPy film, controlled drug release from the prepared system is achieved by electrical stimulation (cyclic voltammetry, CV) and the amount of drug released can be controlled by changing the scan rate of CV and the thickness of the protective PPy film.Web of Scienc

Study on temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of water accumulation in coal mining subsidence area with high groundwater level: taking Anhui Province Mining Area as an example

In recent years, with the large-scale and high-intensity mining of coal resources, the problem of water accumulation in mining areas with high groundwater levels has become particularly prominent, which has had a serious impact on the surrounding ecological environment. In order to provide scientific basis for the restoration of the ecological environment, the study on the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics and influencing factors of the coal mining subsidence area with high groundwater level were carried out. Taking the whole mining area of Anhui Province as the research subject, based on Landsat TM/OLI remote sensing data, the NDWI and visual interpretation method were used to conduct surveys on the water accumulation area in the subsidence area from 1995 to 2020 (22 periods ) and 12 months in 2020 (12 periods) and the spatial information of waterlogging in the coal mining subsidence area in Anhui Province in recent 25 years was obtained. Combined with hydrological and rainfall data, the factors affecting the spatio-temporal evolution of waterlogging in the subsidence area were analyzed and discussed. The results show that: ① In the past 25 years, the area of accumulated water in the coal mining subsidence area in Anhui Province has been growing in three stages: slow, fast and stable. During the study period, the average stagnant area increased by about 6 times, from 18.95 km2 to 118.09 km2, with an average annual increase of 3.97 km2. ② From the time scale, the evolution of accumulation area in the subsidence area can be divided into three stages: the first stage (1995—2005), due to the fact that most of the accumulation water has not yet stabilized initially, the growth rate is relatively slow, with an average annual growth rate of 4.65%; In the second stage (2005—2013), based on the rapid growth of coal mining, the area of accumulation water has also entered a period of rapid growth, with an average annual growth rate of 6.64%; In the third stage (2013—2020), the growth rate has begun to decrease, and the accumulation water has gradually stabilized, with an average annual growth rate of 3.42%. From the spatial scale, the accumulation water is mainly concentrated in Huainan and Huaibei cities, accounting for about 70% of the total accumulated water area. ③The long-term factor for the change of the water accumulation is coal mining volume, while the main influencing factor in short time scale is atmospheric rainfall. ④The logistic regression curve was used to establish a prediction model for the water accumulation area of coal mining subsidence in Anhui Province. It is predicted that the coal mining subsidence water area in Anhui Province will still be in a low-speed growth stage in the future. By 2030, the accumulation area in the dry season will reach about 130 km2. The high-precision water accumulation information in the subsidence area was obtained, and its temporal and spatial evolution laws and influencing factors were analyzed, which can provide a scientific basis for the treatment of water accumulation in the coal mining subsidence area with high groundwater level and the ecological restoration of the subsidence area

Adverse Events Associated With Anti-IL-23 Agents: Clinical Evidence and Possible Mechanisms

BackgroundAnti-interleukin (IL)-23 agents are widely used for autoimmune disease treatment; however, the safety and risks of specific symptoms have not been systematically assessed.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to summarize the characteristics and mechanisms of occurrence of five immunological and non-immunological adverse events caused by different anti-IL-23 agents.MethodsThe Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PubMed, and Web of Science databases were searched for eligible randomized clinical trials published from inception through May 1, 2020. Randomized clinical trials that reported at least one type of adverse event after treatment were included, regardless of sex, age, ethnicity, and diagnosis. Two investigators independently screened and extracted the characteristics of the studies, participants, drugs, and adverse event types. The Cochrane Handbook was used to assess the methodological quality of the included randomized clinical trials. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 statistic. Meta-regression was applied to determine the sources of heterogeneity, and subgroup analysis was used to identify the factors contributing to adverse events.ResultsForty-eight studies were included in the meta-analysis, comprising 25,624 patients treated with anti-IL-23 agents. Serious immunological or non-immunological adverse events were rare. Anti-IL-12/23-p40 agents appeared to cause adverse events more easily than anti-IL-23-p19 agents. The incidence of cancer did not appear to be related to anti-IL-23 agent treatment, and long-term medication could lead to mental diseases. The prevention of complications should be carefully monitored when administered for over approximately 40 weeks to avoid further adverse reactions, and the incidence of infection was the highest among general immunological adverse events.ConclusionsThe application of anti-IL-23 agents induced a series of immunological and non-immunological adverse events, but these agents tend to be well-tolerated with good safety profiles

The LAMOST Survey of Background Quasars in the Vicinity of the Andromeda and Triangulum Galaxies -- II. Results from the Commissioning Observations and the Pilot Surveys

We present new quasars discovered in the vicinity of the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies with the LAMOST during the 2010 and 2011 observational seasons. Quasar candidates are selected based on the available SDSS, KPNO 4 m telescope, XSTPS optical, and WISE near infrared photometric data. We present 509 new quasars discovered in a stripe of ~135 sq. deg from M31 to M33 along the Giant Stellar Stream in the 2011 pilot survey datasets, and also 17 new quasars discovered in an area of ~100 sq. deg that covers the central region and the southeastern halo of M31 in the 2010 commissioning datasets. These 526 new quasars have i magnitudes ranging from 15.5 to 20.0, redshifts from 0.1 to 3.2. They represent a significant increase of the number of identified quasars in the vicinity of M31 and M33. There are now 26, 62 and 139 known quasars in this region of the sky with i magnitudes brighter than 17.0, 17.5 and 18.0 respectively, of which 5, 20 and 75 are newly-discovered. These bright quasars provide an invaluable collection with which to probe the kinematics and chemistry of the ISM/IGM in the Local Group of galaxies. A total of 93 quasars are now known with locations within 2.5 deg of M31, of which 73 are newly discovered. Tens of quasars are now known to be located behind the Giant Stellar Stream, and hundreds behind the extended halo and its associated substructures of M31. The much enlarged sample of known quasars in the vicinity of M31 and M33 can potentially be utilized to construct a perfect astrometric reference frame to measure the minute PMs of M31 and M33, along with the PMs of substructures associated with the Local Group of galaxies. Those PMs are some of the most fundamental properties of the Local Group.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, AJ accepte

Risk Factors for Recent Suicide Attempts in Major Depressive Disorder Patients in China: Results From a National Study

Objective: To analyze the factors associated with recent suicide attempts including socio-demographic and clinical characteristics in major depressive disorder (MDD) patients in China.Methods: The data were from a nationwide sample from 13 major psychiatric hospitals or the psychiatric units of general hospitals in China, from September 1, 2010 to February 28, 2011. Melancholic features and suicide attempts in the past month were defined according to the melancholic feature module and the suicide module of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics were compared between MDD patients with and without recent suicide attempts. Further analyses regarding the factors associated with recent suicide attempts in MDD patients were performed via multivariate logistic regression analysis.Results: Among 1,172 MDD patients, 57 (4.9%) were reported to have made a suicide attempt in the past month. Compared to the MDD patients without recent suicide attempt, significantly higher percentage of patients in the recent suicide attempters group had previous suicide attempts (χ2 = 171.861, p < 0.001) and depressive episodes with melancholic features (χ2 = 22.837, p < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis indicated that previous suicide attempts (OR = 20.81, 95% CI: 11.12–38.94, p < 0.001) and depressive episodes with melancholic features (OR = 4.43, 95% CI: 2.09–9.43, p < 0.001) were independently associated with recent suicide attempts in MDD patients.Limitations: Cross-sectional design, retrospective recall of suicide attempt data.Conclusion: Recent suicide attempts are associated with melancholic features and previous suicide attempts in MDD patients in China. These data may help clinicians to identify MDD patients at high risk of suicide attempt behavior

Baichuan 2: Open Large-scale Language Models

Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable performance on a variety of natural language tasks based on just a few examples of natural language instructions, reducing the need for extensive feature engineering. However, most powerful LLMs are closed-source or limited in their capability for languages other than English. In this technical report, we present Baichuan 2, a series of large-scale multilingual language models containing 7 billion and 13 billion parameters, trained from scratch, on 2.6 trillion tokens. Baichuan 2 matches or outperforms other open-source models of similar size on public benchmarks like MMLU, CMMLU, GSM8K, and HumanEval. Furthermore, Baichuan 2 excels in vertical domains such as medicine and law. We will release all pre-training model checkpoints to benefit the research community in better understanding the training dynamics of Baichuan 2.Comment: Baichuan 2 technical report. Github: https://github.com/baichuan-inc/Baichuan

Cohort Profile: Chinese Cervical Cancer Clinical Study

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer worldwide, but its incidence varies greatly in different countries. Regardless of incidence or mortality, the burden of cervical cancer in China accounts for approximately 18% of the global burden. The Chinese Cervical Cancer Clinical Study is a hospital-based multicenter open cohort. The major aims of this study include (i) to explore the associations of therapeutic strategies with complications as well as mid- and long-term clinical outcomes; (ii) to widely assess the factors which may have an influence on the prognosis of cervical cancer and then guide the treatment options, and to estimate prognosis using a prediction model for precise post-treatment care and follow-up; (iii) to develop a knowledge base of cervical clinical auxiliary diagnosis and prognosis prediction using artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches; and (iv) to roughly map the burden of cervical cancer in different districts and monitoring the trend in incidence of cervical cancer to potentially inform prevention and control strategies. Patients eligible for inclusion were those diagnosed with cervical cancer, whether during an outpatient visit or hospital admission, at 47 different types of medical institutions in 19 cities of 11 provinces across mainland China between 2004 and 2018. In a total, 63 926 patients with cervical cancer were enrolled in the cohort. Since the project inception, a large number of standardized variables have been collected, including epidemiological characteristics, cervical cancer-related symptoms, physical examination results, laboratory testing results, imaging reports, tumor biomarkers, tumor staging, tumor characteristics, comorbidities, co-infections, treatment and short-term complications. Follow-up was performed at least once every 6 months within the first 5 years after receiving treatment and then annually thereafter. At present, we are developing a cervical cancer imaging database containing Dicom files with data of computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging examination. Additionally, we are also collecting original pathological specimens of patients with cervical cancer. Potential collaborators are welcomed to contact the corresponding authors, and anyone can submit at least one specific study proposal describing the background, objectives and methods of the study

The complete mitochondrial genome of Ogmocotyle ailuri: gene content, composition and rearrangement and phylogenetic implications

Trematodes of the genus Ogmocotyle are intestinal flukes that can infect a variety of definitive hosts, resulting in significant economic losses worldwide. However, there are few studies on molecular data of these trematodes. In this study, the mitochondrial (mt) genome of Ogmocotyle ailuri isolated from red panda (Ailurus fulgens) was determined and compared with those from Pronocephalata to investigate the mt genome content, genetic distance, gene rearrangements and phylogeny. The complete mt genome of O. ailuri is a typical closed circular molecule of 14 642 base pairs, comprising 12 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes and 2 non-coding regions. All genes are transcribed in the same direction. In addition, 23 intergenic spacers and 2 locations with gene overlaps were determined. Sequence identities and sliding window analysis indicated that cox1 is the most conserved gene among 12 PCGs in O. ailuri mt genome. The sequenced mt genomes of the 48 Plagiorchiida trematodes showed 5 types of gene arrangement based on all mt genome genes, with the gene arrangement of O. ailuri being type I. Phylogenetic analysis using concatenated amino acid sequences of 12 PCGs revealed that O. ailuri was closer to Ogmocotyle sikae than to Notocotylus intestinalis. These data enhance the Ogmocotyle mt genome database and provide molecular resources for further studies of Pronocephalata taxonomy, population genetics and systematics

Association of Adiponectin SNP+45 and SNP+276 with Type 2 Diabetes in Han Chinese Populations: A Meta-Analysis of 26 Case-Control Studies

Recently, many studies have reported that the SNP+45(T>G) and SNP+276(G>T) polymorphisms in the adiponectin gene are associated with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in the Chinese Han population. However, the previous studies yielded many conflicting results. Thus, a meta-analysis of the association of the adiponectin gene with T2DM in the Chinese Han population is required. In the current study, we first determined the distribution of the adiponectin SNP+276 polymorphism in T2DM and nondiabetes (NDM) control groups. Our results suggested that the genotype and allele frequencies for SNP+276 did not differ significantly between the T2DM and NDM groups. Then, a meta-analysis of 23 case-control studies of SNP+45, with a total of 4161 T2DM patients and 3709 controls, and 11 case-control studies of SNP+276, with 2533 T2DM patients and 2212 controls, was performed. All subjects were Han Chinese. The fixed-effects model and random-effects model were applied for dichotomous outcomes to combine the results of the included studies. The results revealed a trend towards an increased risk of T2DM for the SNP+45G allele as compared with the SNP+45T allele (OR = 1.34; 95% CI, 1.11–1.62; P<0.01) in the Chinese Han population. However, there was no association between SNP+276 and T2DM (OR = 0.90; 95% CI, 0.73–1.10; P = 0.31). The results of our association study showed there was no association between the adiponectin SNP+276 polymorphism and T2DM in the Yunnan Han population. The meta-analysis results suggested that the SNP+45G allele might be a susceptibility allele for T2DM in the Chinese Han population. However, we did not observe an association between SNP+276 and T2DM