Multi-Granularity Archaeological Dating of Chinese Bronze Dings Based on a Knowledge-Guided Relation Graph

The archaeological dating of bronze dings has played a critical role in the study of ancient Chinese history. Current archaeology depends on trained experts to carry out bronze dating, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. For such dating, in this study, we propose a learning-based approach to integrate advanced deep learning techniques and archaeological knowledge. To achieve this, we first collect a large-scale image dataset of bronze dings, which contains richer attribute information than other existing fine-grained datasets. Second, we introduce a multihead classifier and a knowledge-guided relation graph to mine the relationship between attributes and the ding era. Third, we conduct comparison experiments with various existing methods, the results of which show that our dating method achieves a state-of-the-art performance. We hope that our data and applied networks will enrich fine-grained classification research relevant to other interdisciplinary areas of expertise. The dataset and source code used are included in our supplementary materials, and will be open after submission owing to the anonymity policy. Source codes and data are available at: https://github.com/zhourixin/bronze-Ding.Comment: CVPR2023 accepte

Modification of m5C regulators in sarcoma can guide different immune infiltrations as well as immunotherapy

BackgroundRecent studies have found that 5-methylcytosine (m5C) modulators are associated with the prognosis and treatment of cancer. However, the relevance of m5C modulators in sarcoma prognosis and the tumour microenvironment is unclear.MethodsWe selected 15 m5C regulators and performed unsupervised clustering to identify m5C modification patterns and differentially expressed genes associated with the m5C phenotype in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) sarcomas. The extent of immune cell infiltration in different clustering groups was explored using single-sample gene set enrichment analysis and estimation algorithms. A principal component analysis algorithm-based m5C scoring protocol was performed to assess the m5C modification patterns of individual tumors.ResultsWe identified two distinct m5C modification patterns in the TCGA sarcoma cohort, which possess different clinical outcomes and biological processes. Tumour microenvironment analysis revealed two groups of immune infiltration patterns highly consistent with m5C modification patterns, classified as immune inflammatory and immune desert types. We constructed m5C scores and found that high m5C scores were closely associated with leiomyosarcoma and other subtypes, and were associated with poorer prognosis, lower PD-L1 expression, and poorer immunotherapy outcomes. The best application was validated against the m5C database.ConclusionWe constructed an m5C score for sarcoma based on the TCGA database and identified a poorer prognosis in the high m5c score group. The stability and good prognostic predictive power of the m5C score was verified by an external database. We found that sarcomas in the low m5C score group may have a better response to immunotherapy

Comparative Effectiveness of the Deqi Sensation and Non-Deqi by Moxibustion Stimulation: A Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study in the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis

Substantial evidence has supported that moxibustion stimulates a unique phenomenon of Deqi, heat-sensitive moxibustion sensation. This study consisted of a multicenter, prospective cohort study with two parallel arms (A: heat-sensitive moxibustion sensation group; B: nonheat-sensitive moxibustion sensation group). All forms of moxibustion were applied unilaterally on the right leg with a triangle shape of three acupuncture points simultaneously (bilateral Xi Yan (EX-LE5) and He Ding (EX-LE2)). After one month the primary outcome parameter GPCRND-KOA showed significant differences between groups: trial group 5.23 ± 2.65 (adjusted mean ± SE) 95% CI [4.44~6.01] versus control group 7.43 ± 2.80 [6.59~8.26], P=0.0001. Significant differences were manifested in total M-JOA score during the follow-up period (P=0.0006). Mean knee circumference indicated significant difference between the groups (P=0.03; P=0.007). Overall, this evidence suggested that the effectiveness of the Deqi sensation group might be more superior than the non-Deqi sensation one in the treatment of KOA. This study was aimed at providing scientific evidence on the Deqi sensation of moxibustion and at showing that heat-sensitive moxibustion sensation is essential to achieve the preferable treatment effects of KOA

A 3-Arm, Randomized, Controlled Trial of Heat-Sensitive Moxibustion Therapy to Determine Superior Effect among Patients with Lumbar Disc Herniation

Systematic reviews of moxibustion for LDH have identified ponderable evidence, especially for heat-sensitive moxibustion (HSM). Therefore, we designed and carried out the large sample trial to evaluate it. 456 patients were recruited from 4 centers in China and were randomly divided into three groups by the ratio of 1 : 1 : 1 to HSM (152) group, conventional moxibustion (152) group, and conventional drug plus acupuncture (152) group. Compared with usual care, there was a statistically significant reduction in mean M-JOA score at 2 weeks and 6 months for HSM (3.8 ± 2.6 versus 8.5 ± 2.9; 3.7 ± 2.2 versus 10.1 ± 2.9) and conventional moxibustion (7.9 ± 3.0 versus 8.5 ± 2.9; 8.9 ± 3.1 versus 10.1 ± 2.9). Compared with conventional moxibustion group, HSM group showed greater improvement in all the outcomes. The mean dose of moxibustion was 41.13 ± 5.26 (range 21–60) minutes in the HSM group. We found that HSM was more effective in treating patients with LDH, compared with conventional moxibustion and conventional drug plus acupuncture. This finding indicated that the application of moxibustion on the heat-sensitive points is a good moxibustion technique in treating disease

Effects of TGF-alpha on the malignant behavior and gene expression profile of U-373 MG glioblastoma cells.

Effects of TGF-alpha on the malignant behavior and gene expression profile of U-373 MG glioblastoma cells

TGF-α differentially regulates GFAP, vimentin, and nestin gene expression in U-373 MG glioblastoma cells: Correlation with cell shape and motility

To begin understanding the regulation and biological significance of changes in the expression of intermediate filament proteins in astrocytic tumors, we have recently shown that TGF-α alters the protein level of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), nestin, and vimentin in U-373 MG glioblastoma cells. Here, we have determined the molecular mechanisms regulating these changes. In addition, to evaluate the significance of these changes we have examined whether TGF-α affects various cellular properties related to differentiation. Our results show that, in U-373 MG cells treated with TGF-α, GFAP gene transcription, mRNA level, and specific protein synthesis decrease by ~50%. This suggests that, in U-373 MG cells, TGF-α down-regulates the expression of this marker of astrocytic differentiation at the transcriptional level, resulting in decreased GFAP mRNA level and specific protein synthesis. In contrast, TGF-α does not change vimentin gene transcription, but increases by about 50% the transcription of the gene for nestin, a marker for undifferentiated astrocytic precursors. This differential regulation of GFAP, nestin, and vimentin gene expression indicates that TGF-α induces further dedifferentiation of U-373 MG cells. This notion is also supported by our findings that TGF-α increases the motility of U-373 MG cells and induces a less stellate morphology. (C) 2000 Academic Press

Band Gap and Vibration Reduction Properties of Damped Rail with Two-Dimensional Honeycomb Phononic Crystals

The prevention of environmental vibration pollution induced by train operation is one of the inevitable problems in the construction of urban rail transit. With the advantage of flexible adjustment, phononic crystals (PCs) have a broad application prospect in suppressing elastic wave propagation of rail transit. In this paper, a damped rail with two-dimensional honeycomb PCs was proposed, and its band structure was analysed with FEM. Then, a parametric study was used to investigate the influences of design parameters of the honeycomb PCs on its band gap property. Furthermore, with a 3D half-track model, the vibration reduction property of the damped rail with honeycomb PCs was discussed. The results show that the damped rail with honeycomb PCs has an absolute band gap in the frequency range of 877.3–1501.7 Hz, which includes the pinned-pinned resonance frequency of the rail internally. Reducing the filling fraction and elastic modulus of the matrix can obtain an absolute band gap in a lower frequency range but also bring a narrower bandwidth. The decrease of scatterer density leads to higher boundary frequencies of the absolute band gap and descends the bandwidth. In order to obtain an absolute band gap which can suppress the pinned-pinned resonance of the rail and keep a wider bandwidth, the filling fraction is suitable to be about 0.5, and the elastic modulus of the matrix is proposed to be not more than 0.6 MPa. Metals with heavy density can be used as the scatterer to obtain a better vibration reduction effect. It is hoped that the research results can provide a reference for the application of PCs in track vibration reduction

TGF-α induces a stationary, radial-glia like phenotype in cultured astrocytes

Transgenic mice studies have suggested that transforming growth factor-α (TGF-α) influences the postnatal differentiation of astrocytes. To understand the role of TGF-α during astrocytic differentiation, it is important to determine how this factor affects astrocytes in the absence of other influences. We have thus examined in vitro under serum-free medium conditions the effect of TGF-α on the properties of astrocytes derived from the cerebral cortex of newborn rats. When TGF-α is added to serum-free medium, most astrocytes lose their polygonal shape and extend two long processes running in opposite directions. This bipolar morphology strikingly resembles that of radial glial cells. Intriguingly, serum inhibits this morphological transformation. TGF-α also triggers an increase in glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) expression and a decrease in nestin expression. Another major effect of TGF-α is to practically abolish the motility of astrocytes. TGF-α, however, does not appear to influence the proliferation and apoptosis of astrocytes. These results suggest that polygonal astrocytes are derived primarily from radial glial cells, and that in vivo TGF-α may be instrumental in determining the shape and migratory potential of radial glial cells. Copyright © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc

The hyaluronan receptor RHAMM/IHABP in astrocytoma cells: Expression of a tumor-specific variant and association with microtubules

Hyaluronan binding to its cellular receptors CD44 and ICAM-1 appears to enhance the malignant behavior of tumors, including astrocytomas. RHAMM/IHABP, another hyaluronan receptor, has been identified in breast carcinoma cells, but its presence in astrocytomas is yet undetermined. Herein, we report that a monoclonal antibody against plectin (a cytoskeletal protein linker) recognizes on Western blots of U-373 MG glioblastoma cells, a 300-kDa band corresponding to plectin and two bands of 86 and 70 kDa. cDNA cloning and Northern blotting reveals that these two bands represent isoforms of RHAMM/IHABP. Sequence comparisons suggest that the plectin monoclonal antibody recognizes RHAMM/IHABP because this protein and plectin share short peptide sequences of similar primary and secondary structure. Western blotting demonstrates that most human astrocytoma tissues and cell lines express the 86- and 70-kDa isoforms of RHAMM/IHABP. Interestingly, the 70-kDa variant is undetectable in normal brain tissues and in primary cultures of astrocytes suggesting that its expression is tumor-specific. Transfection experiments with epitope-tagged RHAMM/IHABP cDNA established that RHAMM/IHABP associates with microtubules in astrocytoma cells, while in normal astrocytes it either co-localizes with microtubules or has a diffuse cytoplasmic distribution. This suggests that RHAMM/IHABP has the capacity to bind to microtubules in normal and transformed astrocytes, and that neoplasia may favor this association