The value of serum uric acid in predicting adverse pregnancy outcomes of women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the clinical value of uric acid in predicting adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) of women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Material and methods: A total of 180 pregnant women with HDP from September 2015 to January 2017 were selected for this study. These subjects were classified into two groups, according to serum uric acid level: high UA group (n = 137) and normal UA group (n = 43). In addition, 180 healthy pregnant women were selected and assigned as the control group (n = 180). The monitored biochemical indices and APOs in these three groups were analyzed. Furthermore, non-conditional logistic regression analysis was performed to determine influencing factors of APOs in women with HDP and hyperuricemia. Results: The non-conditional multi-factor logistic regression analysis revealed that HUA (SUA > 357 umol/L) is the risk factor of APOs in women with HDP (OR = 1.258, P < 0.05). Conclusions: Women with HDP and HUA are often accompanied with a variety of abnormal biochemical indicators, and is correlated with the severity of the disease and APOs

Dimensions of fractals related to languages defined by tagged strings in complete genomes

A representation of frequency of strings of length K in complete genomes of many organisms in a square has led to seemingly self-similar patterns when K increases. These patterns are caused by under-represented strings with a certain "tag"-string and they define some fractals when K tends to infinite. The Box and Hausdorff dimensions of the limit set are discussed. Although the method proposed by Mauldin and Williams to calculate Box and Hausdorff dimension is valid in our case, a different and simpler method is proposed in this paper.Comment: 9 pages with two figure

Proteolytic fragments of laminin promote excitotoxic neurodegeneration by up-regulation of the KA1 subunit of the kainate receptor

Degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) protein laminin contributes to excitotoxic cell death in the hippocampus, but the mechanism of this effect is unknown. To study this process, we disrupted laminin γ1 (lamγ1) expression in the hippocampus. Lamγ1 knockout (KO) and control mice had similar basal expression of kainate (KA) receptors, but the lamγ1 KO mice were resistant to KA-induced neuronal death. After KA injection, KA1 subunit levels increased in control mice but were unchanged in lamγ1 KO mice. KA1 levels in tissue plasminogen activator (tPA)–KO mice were also unchanged after KA, indicating that both tPA and laminin were necessary for KA1 up-regulation after KA injection. Infusion of plasmin-digested laminin-1 into the hippocampus of lamγ1 or tPA KO mice restored KA1 up-regulation and KA-induced neuronal degeneration. Interfering with KA1 function with a specific anti-KA1 antibody protected against KA-induced neuronal death both in vitro and in vivo. These results demonstrate a novel pathway for neurodegeneration involving proteolysis of the ECM and KA1 KA receptor subunit up-regulation

Measure representation and multifractal analysis of complete genomes

This paper introduces the notion of measure representation of DNA sequences. Spectral analysis and multifractal analysis are then performed on the measure representations of a large number of complete genomes. The main aim of this paper is to discuss the multifractal property of the measure representation and the classification of bacteria. From the measure representations and the values of the $D_{q}$ spectra and related $C_{q}$ curves, it is concluded that these complete genomes are not random sequences. In fact, spectral analyses performed indicate that these measure representations considered as time series, exhibit strong long-range correlation. For substrings with length K=8, the $D_{q}$ spectra of all organisms studied are multifractal-like and sufficiently smooth for the $C_{q}$ curves to be meaningful. The $C_{q}$ curves of all bacteria resemble a classical phase transition at a critical point. But the 'analogous' phase transitions of chromosomes of non-bacteria organisms are different. Apart from Chromosome 1 of {\it C. elegans}, they exhibit the shape of double-peaked specific heat function.Comment: 12 pages with 9 figures and 1 tabl

Mirror QCD phase transition as the origin of the nanohertz Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background detected by the Pulsar Timing Arrays

Recent independent announcements by several collaborations have shown strong evidence of a Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background (SGWB) detected through Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs). In this study, we investigate the implications of a first-order phase transition occurring within the early universe's dark quantum chromodynamics (dQCD) epoch, specifically within the framework of the mirror twin Higgs dark sector model. Our analysis indicates a distinguishable SGWB signal originating from this phase transition, which can explain the measurements obtained by PTAs. Remarkably, a significant portion of the parameter space within the mirror twin Higgs model that accounts for the SGWB signal also effectively resolves the existing tensions in both the $H_0$ and $S_8$ measurements in Cosmology. This intriguing correlation suggests a possible common origin for these three phenomena. Furthermore, the parameter region, $0.2 < \Delta N_{\rm eff} < 0.5$, where the mirror dark matter component constitutes less than $30\%$ of the total dark matter abundance, can accommodate all current cosmological observations and PTA measurements.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Ultrasonic frogs show extraordinary sex differences in auditory frequency sensitivity

Acoustic communication plays an important role in the reproductive behavior of anurans. Males of concave-eared torrent frog (_Odorrana tormota_) have ultrasonic communication capacity 1, 2, but it is unknown whether females communicate with ultrasound. Here we show that _O. tormota_ exhibits great sex differences in the auditory frequency sensitivity. Acoustic playback experiments demonstrated that the male&#x27;s advertisement calls evoke gravid females&#x27; positive phonotaxis and vocal responses, whereas ultrasonic components of the male&#x27;s calls (frequencies above 20 kHz) do not elicit female phonotaxis or vocalization. The behavioral study was complemented by electrophysiological recordings from the auditory midbrain and by laser Doppler vibrometer measurements of the tympanic membrane&#x27;s response to acoustic stimuli. These measurements revealed that females have an upper frequency limit up to 16 kHz (threshold 107 dB SPL) and no ultrasound sensitivity, unlike males which have an upper frequency limit of up to 35 kHz (87 dB SPL). Single units in the female auditory midbrain have the best excitatory frequencies (BEFs) peaked around 5 kHz, corresponding to the fundamental frequency (F0) of male&#x27;s most calls, whereas the male auditory midbrain units have BEFs mostly above 8 kHz, largely consistent with the F0 of female courtship calls. Females have a frequency sensitive bandwidth (10 dB above threshold) ranged from 2 to 6 kHz, narrower than that males have (5-20 kHz). The velocity amplitude of the tympanic membranes peaked around 5 kHz in females, whereas 7 kHz in males. The results suggest that the frog species O. tormota is an example of a vertebrate, which demonstrates well phonotaxis and extraordinary sex differences in hearing

Multi-frequency test of dark matter annihilation into long-lived particles in Sirius

New long-lived particles produced at the colliders may escape from conventional particle detectors. Using satellites or ground telescopes, we can detect the photons generated from the annihilation of the star-captured dark matter into a pair of long-lived particles. When the propagation length of these long-lived particles surpasses the interplanetary distance between the Sun and Jupiter, it becomes unfeasible to detect such dark matter signals originating from the Sun or Jupiter on Earth. Our analysis of the dark matter-induced photons produced by prompt radiation, inverse Compton scattering, and synchrotron radiation mechanisms reveals that a decay length of about $10^{-3}$ pc for long-lived particles is required for maximum detectability. We investigate the parameters that allow the long-lived particle's lifetime to be consistent with Big Bang nucleosynthesis while also allowing it to escape the confines of our solar system. The Sirius system is proposed as a promising target for the indirect detection of such long-lived particles. Utilizing the prompt, inverse Compton scattering, and synchrotron radiation, upper limits on the dark matter-proton spin-independent and spin-dependent cross section are estimated with the Fermi-LAT null-signal observation and the capabilities of the upcoming Square Kilometre Array radio telescope.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures, JCAP accepte

Comprehensive evaluation of deep and graph learning on drug-drug interactions prediction

Recent advances and achievements of artificial intelligence (AI) as well as deep and graph learning models have established their usefulness in biomedical applications, especially in drug-drug interactions (DDIs). DDIs refer to a change in the effect of one drug to the presence of another drug in the human body, which plays an essential role in drug discovery and clinical research. DDIs prediction through traditional clinical trials and experiments is an expensive and time-consuming process. To correctly apply the advanced AI and deep learning, the developer and user meet various challenges such as the availability and encoding of data resources, and the design of computational methods. This review summarizes chemical structure based, network based, NLP based and hybrid methods, providing an updated and accessible guide to the broad researchers and development community with different domain knowledge. We introduce widely-used molecular representation and describe the theoretical frameworks of graph neural network models for representing molecular structures. We present the advantages and disadvantages of deep and graph learning methods by performing comparative experiments. We discuss the potential technical challenges and highlight future directions of deep and graph learning models for accelerating DDIs prediction.Comment: Accepted by Briefings in Bioinformatic

Surface Passivation and Antireflection Behavior of ALD on n-Type Silicon for Solar Cells

Atomic layer deposition, a method of excellent step coverage and conformal deposition, was used to deposit TiO2 thin films for the surface passivation and antireflection coating of silicon solar cells. TiO2 thin films deposited at different temperatures (200°C, 300°C, 400°C, and 500°C) on FZ n-type silicon wafers are in the thickness of 66.4 nm ± 1.1 nm and in the form of self-limiting growth. For the properties of surface passivation, Si surface is effectively passivated by the 200°C deposition TiO2 thin film. Its effective minority carrier lifetime, measured by the photoconductance decay method, is improved 133% at the injection level of  cm−3. Depending on different deposition parameters and annealing processes, we can control the crystallinity of TiO2 and find low-temperature TiO2 phase (anatase) better passivation performance than the high-temperature one (rutile), which is consistent with the results of work function measured by Kelvin probe. In addition, TiO2 thin films on polished Si wafer serve as good ARC layers with refractive index between 2.13 and 2.44 at 632.8 nm. Weighted average reflectance at AM1.5G reduces more than half after the deposition of TiO2. Finally, surface passivation and antireflection properties of TiO2 are stable after the cofire process of conventional crystalline Si solar cells