Serum β

Objective. To demonstrate the role of Wnt/β-catenin canonical pathway in postmenopausal osteoporosis by evaluating serum β-catenin levels in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis and analyzing their possible relationship with serum OPG, RANKL, the ratio of RANKL/OPG, sclerostin, and bone turnover markers. Methods. 480 patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis and 170 healthy postmenopausal women were enrolled in the study. Serum β-catenin, OPG, RANKL, and sclerostin levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Bone status was assessed by measuring bone mineral density and bone turnover markers. Estradiol levels were also detected. Results. Serum β-catenin levels were lower in postmenopausal osteoporotic women compared to nonosteoporotic postmenopausal women (26.26±14.81 versus 39.33±5.47 pg/mL, P<0.001). Serum β-catenin was positively correlated with osteoprotegerin (r=0.232, P<0.001) and negatively correlated with the ratio of RANKL/OPG, body mass index, and sclerostin (r=-0.128, P=0.005; r=-0.117, P=0.010; r=-0.400, P<0.001, resp.) in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis. Conclusion. The results indicate that lower serum β-catenin and concomitantly higher ratio of RANKL/OPG may be involved in the pathogenesis of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Functional communication between RANKL/RANK/OPG system and Wnt pathways plays an important role in postmenopausal osteoporosis

Determination of the Reduced Creep Function of Viscoelastic Compliant Materials Using Pipette Aspiration Method

Determining the mechanical properties of soft matter across different length scales is of great importance in understanding the deformation behavior of compliant materials under various stimuli. A pipette aspiration test is a promising tool for such a purpose. A key challenge in the use of this method is to develop explicit expressions of the relationship between experimental responses and material properties particularly when the tested sample has irregular geometry. A simple scaling relation between the reduced creep function and the aspiration length is revealed in this paper by performing a theoretical analysis on the aspiration creep tests of viscoelastic soft solids with arbitrary surface profile. Numerical experiments have been performed on the tested materials with different geometries to validate the theoretical solution. In order to incorporate the effects of the rise time of the creep pressure, an analytical solution is further derived based on the generalized Maxwell model, which relates the parameters in reduced creep function to the aspiration length. Its usefulness is demonstrated through a numerical example and the analysis of the experimental data from literature. The analytical solutions reported here proved to be independent of the geometric parameters of the system under described conditions. Therefore, they may not only provide insight into the deformation behavior of soft materials in aspiration creep tests but also facilitate the use of this testing method to deduce the intrinsic creep/relaxation properties of viscoelastic compliant materials

Selection and environmental adaptation along a path to speciation in the Tibetan frog Nanorana parkeri.

Tibetan frogs, Nanorana parkeri, are differentiated genetically but not morphologically along geographical and elevational gradients in a challenging environment, presenting a unique opportunity to investigate processes leading to speciation. Analyses of whole genomes of 63 frogs reveal population structuring and historical demography, characterized by highly restricted gene flow in a narrow geographic zone lying between matrilines West (W) and East (E). A population found only along a single tributary of the Yalu Zangbu River has the mitogenome only of E, whereas nuclear genes of W comprise 89-95% of the nuclear genome. Selection accounts for 579 broadly scattered, highly divergent regions (HDRs) of the genome, which involve 365 genes. These genes fall into 51 gene ontology (GO) functional classes, 14 of which are likely to be important in driving reproductive isolation. GO enrichment analyses of E reveal many overrepresented functional categories associated with adaptation to high elevations, including blood circulation, response to hypoxia, and UV radiation. Four genes, including DNAJC8 in the brain, TNNC1 and ADORA1 in the heart, and LAMB3 in the lung, differ in levels of expression between low- and high-elevation populations. High-altitude adaptation plays an important role in maintaining and driving continuing divergence and reproductive isolation. Use of total genomes enabled recognition of selection and adaptation in and between populations, as well as documentation of evolution along a stepped cline toward speciation

Multiparty Quantum Secret Report

A multiparty quantum secret report scheme is proposed with quantum encryption. The boss Alice and her $M$ agents first share a sequence of ($M$+1)-particle Greenberger--Horne--Zeilinger (GHZ) states that only Alice knows which state each ($M$+1)-particle quantum system is in. Each agent exploits a controlled-not (CNot) gate to encrypt the travelling particle by using the particle in the GHZ state as the control qubit. The boss Alice decrypts the travelling particle with a CNot gate after performing a $\sigma_x$ operation on her particle in the GHZ state or not. After the GHZ states (the quantum key) are used up, the parties check whether there is a vicious eavesdropper, say Eve, monitoring the quantum line, by picking out some samples from the GHZ states shared and measure them with two measuring bases. After confirming the security of the quantum key, they use the GHZ states remained repeatedly for next round of quantum communication. This scheme has the advantage of high intrinsic efficiency for qubits and the total efficiency.Comment: 4 pages, no figure

Multiparty quantum secret sharing with pure entangled states and decoy photons

We present a scheme for multiparty quantum secret sharing of a private key with pure entangled states and decoy photons. The boss, say Alice uses the decoy photons, which are randomly in one of the four nonorthogonal single-photon states, to prevent a potentially dishonest agent from eavesdropping freely. This scheme requires the parties of communication to have neither an ideal single-photon quantum source nor a maximally entangled one, which makes this scheme more convenient than others in a practical application. Moreover, it has the advantage of having high intrinsic efficiency for qubits and exchanging less classical information in principle.Comment: 5 pages, no figure

Early exclusion of major adverse cardiac events in emergency department chest pain patients: A prospective observational study

Background The current evaluation of patients with chest pain presenting to an emergency department (ED) with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a lengthy process involving serial measurements of troponin. Objective We aimed to validate the diagnostic accuracy of a Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) score with single high-sensitive cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) for early rule out of 30-day major adverse cardiac events (MACE), and to compare the TIMI score with combinations of heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP) and a modified HEART (history, electrocardiogram, age, risk factors, troponin) score. Methods We recruited 602 consecutive adult patients with chest pain and suspected ACS in the ED. Each patient had TIMI and HEART scores, and a point-of-care H-FABP test. Results MACE occurred in 42 (7.0%) patients within 30 days. A low risk for 30-day MACE was identified by a modified TIMI score of 0 in 65 (11%) patients, and by a HEART score ≤ 2 in 96 (16%) patients. No MACE occurred in these groups, giving both scores a sensitivity of 100% (95% confidence interval [CI] 91.6–100%), and specificity of 11.6% (95% CI 9.2–14.5%) and 17.1% (95% CI 14.2–20.5%), respectively. Use of combined TIMI and HEART scores improved the specificity further to 22.0% (95% CI 18.7–25.6%) without lowering sensitivity. Early H-FABP measurement > 7 μg/L had a sensitivity of 41.5% (95% CI 27.8–56.6%) and a specificity of 91.1% (95% CI 88.4–93.2%) for predicting 30-day MACE. Conclusions A modified TIMI score of 0 or a HEART score of ≤ 2, incorporating a single hs-cTnT level, will identify patients with low risk of 30-day MACE for early discharge within 2 h of ED arrival

MicroRNA-223 ameliorates alcoholic liver injury by inhibiting the IL-6–p47phox–oxidative stress pathway in neutrophils

Objectives Chronic-plus-binge ethanol feeding activates neutrophils and exacerbates liver injury in mice. This study investigates how recent excessive drinking affects peripheral neutrophils and liver injury in alcoholics, and how miR-223, one of the most abundant microRNAs (miRNAs) in neutrophils, modulates neutrophil function and liver injury in ethanol-fed mice. Designs Three hundred alcoholics with (n=140) or without (n=160) recent excessive drinking and 45 healthy controls were enrolled. Mice were fed an ethanol diet for 10 days followed by a single binge of ethanol. Results Compared with healthy controls or alcoholics without recent drinking, alcoholics with recent excessive drinking had higher levels of circulating neutrophils, which correlated with serum levels of alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST). miRNA array analysis revealed that alcoholics had elevated serum miR-223 levels compared with healthy controls. In chronic-plus-binge ethanol feeding mouse model, the levels of miR-223 were increased in both serum and neutrophils. Genetic deletion of the miR-223 gene exacerbated ethanol-induced hepatic injury, neutrophil infiltration, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and upregulated hepatic expression of interleukin (IL)-6 and phagocytic oxidase (phox) p47phox. Mechanistic studies revealed that miR-223 directly inhibited IL-6 expression and subsequently inhibited p47phox expression in neutrophils. Deletion of the p47phox gene ameliorated ethanol-induced liver injury and ROS production by neutrophils. Finally, miR-223 expression was downregulated, while IL-6 and p47phox expression were upregulated in peripheral blood neutrophils from alcoholics compared with healthy controls. Conclusions miR-223 is an important regulator to block neutrophil infiltration in alcoholic liver disease and could be a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of this malady