Critical role of FGF21 in diabetic kidney disease: from energy metabolism to innate immunity

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) stands as the predominant cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) on a global scale, with its incidence witnessing a consistent annual rise, thereby imposing a substantial burden on public health. The pathogenesis of DKD is primarily rooted in metabolic disorders and inflammation. Recent years have seen a surge in studies highlighting the regulatory impact of energy metabolism on innate immunity, forging a significant area of research interest. Within this context, fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), recognized as an energy metabolism regulator, assumes a pivotal role. Beyond its role in maintaining glucose and lipid metabolism homeostasis, FGF21 exerts regulatory influence on innate immunity, concurrently inhibiting inflammation and fibrosis. Serving as a nexus between energy metabolism and innate immunity, FGF21 has evolved into a therapeutic target for diabetes, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and cardiovascular diseases. While the relationship between FGF21 and DKD has garnered increased attention in recent studies, a comprehensive exploration of this association has yet to be systematically addressed. This paper seeks to fill this gap by summarizing the mechanisms through which FGF21 operates in DKD, encompassing facets of energy metabolism and innate immunity. Additionally, we aim to assess the diagnostic and prognostic value of FGF21 in DKD and explore its potential role as a treatment modality for the condition

Estimation of Urine Flow Velocity Using Millimeter-Wave FMCW Radar

This study investigated the feasibility of remotely estimating the urinary flow velocity of a human subject with high accuracy using millimeter-wave radar. Uroflowmetry is a measurement that involves the speed and volume of voided urine to diagnose benign prostatic hyperplasia or bladder abnormalities. Traditionally, the urine velocity during urination has been determined indirectly by analyzing the urine weight during urination. The maximum velocity and urination pattern were then used as a reference to determine the health condition of the prostate and bladder. The traditional uroflowmetry comprises an indirect measurement related to the flow path to the reservoir that causes time delay and water waves that impact the weight. We proposed radar-based uroflowmetry to directly measure the velocity of urine flow, which is more accurate. We exploited Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) radar that provides a range-Doppler diagram, allowing extraction of the velocity of a target at a certain range. To verify the proposed method, first, we measured water speed from a water hose using radar and compared it to a calculated value. Next, to emulate the urination scenario, we used a squeezable dummy bladder to create a streamlined water flow in front of the millimeter-wave FMCW radar. We validated the result by concurrently employing the traditional uroflowmetry that is based on a weight sensor to compare the results with the proposed radar-based method. The comparison of the two results confirmed that radar velocity estimation can yield results, confirmed by the traditional method, while demonstrating more detailed features of urination

A null-space-based weighted ℓ1 minimization approach to compressed sensing

It has become an established fact that the constrained ℓ minimization is capable of recovering the sparse solution from a small number of linear observations and the reweighted version can significantly improve its numerical performance. The recoverability is closely related to the Restricted Isometry Constant (RIC) of order s (s is an integer), often denoted as δs. A class of sufficient conditions for successful k-sparse signal recovery often take the form δtk < c, for some t ≥ 1 and c being a constant. When t > 1, such a bound is often called RIC bound of high order. There exist a number of such bounds of RICs, high order or not. For example, a high order bound is recently given by Cai and Zhang [CZ14]: δtk < √  (t-1)/t, and this bound is known sharp for t ≥ 4/3. In this paper, we propose a new weighted ℓ1 minimization which only requires the following RIC bound that is more relaxed (i.e., bigger) than the above mentioned bound:δtk < √  { t-1}  /  { t -(1-ω2)} where t > 1 and 0 < ω  ≤  1 is determined by two optimizations of a similar type over the null space of the linear observation operator.  In tackling the combinatorial nature of the two optimization problems, we develop a reweighted ℓ1 minimization that yields a sequence of approximate solutions,which enjoy strong convergence properties. Moreover, the numerical performance of the proposed method is very satisfactory when compared to some of the state of-the-art methods incompressed sensing

Empirical view of interactions between reselling and agency selling in platform-based retailing

Platform-based retailing markets, such as Amazon, operate in a hybrid mode, which contains both reselling and agency selling. Prior studies have only used theoretical models to discuss how to choose between reselling and agency selling. However, empirical interactions between these two selling modes have not been well studied. We analyze the relationship between reselling and agency selling, the moderating effect of spillovers and the popularity of agency selling by using panel vector auto-regression model. Notably, reselling and agency selling are mutually promotive as a 1 percent increase in sales in reselling (agency selling) upsurges sales in agency selling (reselling) by .052 (.047) percent. We show that different types of spillovers exert different impacts on the main effect. In addition, we find that the popularity of agency selling strengthens the positive relationship between reselling and agency selling. Our results provide important theoretical contributions and managerial implications

Effects of sodium dodecyl sulfate on nano carbon black-filled cement paste: performance and microstructure

The conductive potential of nano carbon black (NCB) in cement paste is restricted due to its tendency to agglomerate. To address this issue, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) is proposed as a dispersant to enhance the performance of the nano carbon black-filled cement paste. Additionally, the microstructure characteristics of the nano carbon black-filled cement paste with SDS are explored systematically from the perspective of micromorphology, hydration degree and pore structure. UV–Vis spectrophotometry (UV–Vis) proves that SDS can enhance the dispersion of NCB in suspensions. Adding 0.4% SDS to the nano carbon black-filled cement paste can effectively improve the fluidity, accelerate the setting time, decrease the resistivity and increase mechanical strength. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) reveal that SDS adsorbed on the surface of NCB plays a dispersing role in cement paste. Thermogravimetry (TG) indicates that well-dispersed NCB promotes the hydration of cement clinker, accelerates the formation of calcium silicate hydrates (C–S–H) and increases the content of Ca(OH)2. N2 adsorption-desorption (NAD) verifies that the accumulated hydration products effectively increase the specific surface area and decrease the total pore volume, indicating that SDS has a positive effect on optimizing the pore structure of the nano carbon black-filled cement paste

Enhancement of magnesium phosphate cement with sintered sludge ash

Magnesium phosphate cement (MPC) is a promising material known for its rapid hardening and high early-strength properties. However, its potential in engineering applications is hindered by its harden at an uncontrolled rate, considerable volumetric distortion and poor water resistance. To address the limitations, this study investigates the influence of sintered sludge ash (SSA) modification on the setting time, volume deformation, mechanical strength and water resistance of MPC composites. Experimental reveals that the setting time of MPC composites increase with higher SSA content, and the inclusion of SSA significantly mitigate volumetric deformation. Moreover, the mechanical strength exhibits improvement at all ages, and combine with water resistance analysis, 15% SSA content is the optimal level. Based on the XRD, TG, MIP and SEM, the enhanced properties of the MPC composites may be attributed to the reaction of SSA in the MPC system, leading to the resulting aluminum-containing gel phase acting as a binder along with guano to densify the microstructure

Number of positive lymph nodes affects oncologic outcomes in cN0 mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the major salivary gland

Abstract The survival significance of the number of positive lymph nodes in salivary gland carcinoma remains unclear. Thus, the current study aimed to determine the effect of the number of positive lymph nodes on disease-specific survival (DSS) and overall survival (OS) in cN0 mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) of the major salivary gland. Patients surgically treated for MEC of the major salivary gland between 1975 and 2019 were retrospectively enrolled from the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database. The total population was randomly divided into training and test groups (1:1). Primary outcome variables were DSS and OS. Prognostic models were constructed based on the independent prognostic factors determined using univariate and multivariate Cox analyses in the training group and were validated in the test group using C-index. A total of 3317 patients (1624 men and 1693 women) with a mean age of 55 ± 20 years were included. The number of positive lymph nodes was an independent prognostic factor for both DSS and OS, but the effect began when at least two positive lymph nodes for DSS and three positive lymph nodes for OS were found. Predictive models for DSS and OS in the training group had C-indexes of 0.873 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.853–0.893) and 0.835 (95% CI 0.817–0.853), respectively. The validation of the test group showed C-indexes of 0.877 (95% CI 0.851–0.902) for DSS and 0.820 (95% CI 0.798–0.842) for OS. The number of positive lymph nodes was statistically associated with survival in cN0 major salivary gland MEC. The current prognostic model could provide individualized follow-up strategies for patients with high reliability