Metabolomics covers a wide range of applications in life sciences, biomedicine, and phytology. Data acquisition (to achieve high coverage and efficiency) and analysis (to pursue good classification) are two key segments involved in metabolomics workflows. Various chemometric approaches utilizing either pattern recognition or machine learning have been employed to separate different groups. However, insufficient feature extraction, inappropriate feature selection, overfitting, or underfitting lead to an insufficient capacity to discriminate plants that are often easily confused. Using two ginseng varieties, namely Panax japonicus (PJ) and Panax japonicus var. major (PJvm), containing the similar ginsenosides, we integrated pseudo-targeted metabolomics and deep neural network (DNN) modeling to achieve accurate species differentiation. A pseudo-targeted metabolomics approach was optimized through data acquisition mode, ion pairs generation, comparison between multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) and scheduled MRM (sMRM), and chromatographic elution gradient. In total, 1980 ion pairs were monitored within 23 min, allowing for the most comprehensive ginseng metabolome analysis. The established DNN model demonstrated excellent classification performance (in terms of accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, area under the curve, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC)) using the entire metabolome data and feature-selection dataset, exhibiting superior advantages over random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), and multilayer perceptron (MLP). Moreover, DNNs were advantageous for automated feature learning, nonlinear modeling, adaptability, and generalization. This study confirmed practicality of the established strategy for efficient metabolomics data analysis and reliable classification performance even when using small-volume samples. This established approach holds promise for plant metabolomics and is not limited to ginseng.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a common respiratory emergency, but current clinical treatment remains at the level of symptomatic support and there is a lack of effective targeted treatment measures. Our previous study confirmed that inhalation of hydrogen gas can reduce the acute lung injury of ARDS, but the application of hydrogen has flammable and explosive safety concerns. Drinking hydrogen-rich liquid or inhaling hydrogen gas has been shown to play an important role in scavenging reactive oxygen species and maintaining mitochondrial quality control balance, thus improving ARDS in patients and animal models. Coral calcium hydrogenation (CCH) is a new solid molecular hydrogen carrier prepared from coral calcium (CC). Whether and how CCH affects acute lung injury in ARDS remains unstudied. In this study, we observed the therapeutic effect of CCH on lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced acute lung injury in ARDS mice. The survival rate of mice treated with CCH and hydrogen inhalation was found to be comparable, demonstrating a significant improvement compared to the untreated ARDS model group. CCH treatment significantly reduced pulmonary hemorrhage and edema, and improved pulmonary function and local microcirculation in ARDS mice. CCH promoted mitochondrial peripheral division in the early course of ARDS by activating mitochondrial thioredoxin 2 (Trx2), improved lung mitochondrial dysfunction induced by LPS, and reduced oxidative stress damage. The results indicate that CCH is a highly efficient hydrogen-rich agent that can attenuate acute lung injury of ARDS by improving the mitochondrial function through Trx2 activation.

Objective:To evaluate the diagnostic performance of radiomics model based on contrast-enhanced ultrasound(CEUS) in predicting pathological complete response(pCR) after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy(nCRT) in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer(LARC).Methods:One hundred and six patients with LARC who underwent total mesorectal excision after nCRT between April 2018 and April 2023 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University were retrospectively included, the patients were randomly divided into a training set of 63(14 pCR patients) and a validation set of 43(12 pCR patients) in a 6∶4 ratios. Radiomics features were extracted from the tumors′ region of interest of CEUS images based on PyRadiomics. Intra-class correlation coefficient(ICC), Mann-Whitney U test, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator(LASSO) algorithms were used to reduce features dimension. Finally, 7 radiomics features relevanted to pCR were selected to construct an ultrasomics model using elastic network regression, based on the R language. A combined model was constructed by jointing clinical feature. The performance of the models was assessed with the area under the ROC curve(AUC). Results:The AUC of the ultrasomics model and the combined model was 0.695(95% CI=0.532-0.859) and 0.726(95% CI=0.584-0.868) respectively in the training set. The AUC of the ultrasomics model and the combined model was 0.763(95% CI=0.625-0.902) and 0.790(95% CI=0.653-0.928) respectively in the validation set. Both univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analyses showed that CA199( P<0.05) and ultrasomics score( P<0.001) could be an independent predictor of pCR after nCRT in patients with LARC. Conclusions:The CEUS-based radiomics scores has certain predictive value for whether LARC patients achieve pCR after nCRT, and may provide a non-invasive imaging biomarker for predicting LARC patients achieve pCR after nCRT.

Objective:To establish a nomogram prediction model for recurrence within 2 years after radical resection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on clinical and ultrasonographic characteristics.Methods:Clinical data from 405 HCC patients (including 327 males and 78 females), aged 60 (53, 66) years old, who underwent radical hepatectomy in the Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, from January to December 2021, were retrospectively collected. The patients were divided into two groups: the training group ( n=283) and the validation group ( n=122). Based on recurrence within 2 years after surgery, the 283 patients in the training group were further categorized into the recurrence group ( n=73) and the non-recurrence group ( n=210). Among the 122 patients in the validation group, 33 had recurrence within 2 years, while 89 did not. Data on age, microvascular invasion, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), AFP lentil lectin-reactive fraction (AFP-L3), protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist-II (PIVKA-II), tumor number, and enhancement homogeneity were collected. Logistic regression analysis was performed on the training group to identify risk factors associated with postoperative recurrence, and a nomogram model for predicting HCC recurrence was constructed based on these factors. Calibration curves were used to compare the consistency between predicted and actual outcomes in both the training and validation groups. Results:Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that younger age ( OR=0.976, 95% CI: 0.953-1.000, P=0.004), higher AFP-L3 ( OR=1.066, 95% CI: 1.014-1.120, P=0.012), higher PIVKA-II ( OR=1.000, 95% CI: 1.000-1.001, P=0.042), multiple tumors ( OR=0.399, 95% CI: 0.225-0.706, P=0.038), and heterogeneous enhancement ( OR=0.472, 95% CI: 0.243-0.916, P=0.045) were significant risk factors for recurrence after partial hepatectomy in HCC patients. The nomogram constructed based on these variables had a C-index of 0.87 (95% CI: 0.81-0.93) in the training group and 0.83 (95% CI: 0.77-0.89) in the validation group. The calibration curves for predicting recurrence within 2 years after partial hepatectomy in HCC patients showed a high degree of fit in both the training and validation groups, indicating a good agreement between predicted and actual outcomes. Conclusion:The nomogram model constructed based on preoperative clinical and ultrasonographic characteristics can effectively predict the risk of recurrence within 2 years after radical resection of HCC.

Objective To observe the correlations of chest CT quantitative parameters in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(AECOPD)with blood eosinophil(EOS)level.Methods Chest CT data of 162 AECOPD patients with elevated eosinophils were retrospectively analyzed.The patients were divided into low EOS group(n=105)and high EOS group(n=57)according to the absolute counting of blood EOS.The quantitative CT parameters,including the number of whole lung bronchi and the volume of blood vessels,low-attenuation area percentage(LAA％)of whole lung,of left/right lung and each lobe of lung,as well as the luminal diameter(LD),wall thickness(WT),wall area(WA)and WA percentage of total bronchial cross-section(WA％)of grade 3 to 8 bronchi were compared between groups.Spearman correlations were performed to analyze the correlations of quantitative CT parameters with blood EOS level.Results LAA％of the whole lung,of the left/right lung and each lobe of lung,as well as of the upper lobe of right lung LDgrade4,middle lobe of right lung WTgrade5,upper lobe of right lung WAgrade4,middle lobe of right lung WAgrade5 and lower lobe of left lung WAgrade3 in low EOS group were all higher than those in high EOS group(all P＜0.05).Except for the upper lobe of right lung LDgrade4,the above quantitative CT indexes being significant different between groups were all weakly and negatively correlated with blood EOS level(r=-0.335 to-0.164,all P＜0.05).Conclusion Chest CT quantitative parameters of AECOPD patients were correlated with blood EOS level,among which LAA％,a part of WT and WA were all weakly negatively correlated with blood EOS level.

ObjectiveTo observe the lower limb muscle activation strategy of healthy middle-aged and old women during stair ascent and descent with surface electromyography. MethodsFrom August, 2021 to February, 2022, 20 healthy middle-aged and old women were measured the surface electromyography root mean square (RMS) and integrated electromyography (iEMG) of bilateral vastus lateral, rectus femoris, vastus medialis, biceps femoris and semitendinosus during stair ascent and descent, and co-contraction ratio was calculated. ResultsDuring stair ascent, the RMS of bilateral vastus lateral, rectus femoris and vastus medialis was higher at starting stage than at following stage (|t| > 6.650, P < 0.001), while the RMS of biceps femoris and semitendinosus was lower (t > 3.559, P < 0.01); and the co-contraction ratio of hamstrings/quadriceps was lower at starting stage than at following stage (t > 8.185, P < 0.001). During stair descent, the RMS of bilateral vastus lateral, vastus medialis, biceps femoris and semitendinosus was higher at following stage than at starting stage (t > 2.345, P < 0.05), as well as the co-contraction ratio of hamstrings/quadriceps (t > 2.405, P < 0.05). ConclusionThe activities of the muscles around the knees are almost symmetrical during stair ascent and descent for healthy middle-aged and old women. The activation and co-contraction ratio of quadriceps and hamstring are various at starting/following stages.

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Er: YAG laser bleaching is a new tooth bleaching method compared with traditional bleaching technology. The Er: YAG laser significantly improves the bleaching efficiency, has the advantages of high safety, short treatment time and excellent bleaching effect and is widely used in clinical operations. This paper summarizes the working principle and bleaching characteristics of Er: YAG laser bleaching technology and its effect on tooth structure. The existing literature suggests that the high absorption of water and hydroxyapatite by the Er: YAG laser makes it work well on water-bearing tissues and dental tissues. When it is absorbed by the bleaching agent on the tooth surface, it accelerates the catalytic oxidation-reduction reaction and selectively acts on the pigment particles deposited on the tooth, thereby achieving the effect of tooth bleaching. Er: YAG laser bleaching can be applied to most discolored teeth. The bleaching process is rapid and effective. During the bleaching process, for the dental pulp tissue, the temperature of the pulp cavity is lower than the critical value of 5.6 ℃, causing no pathological damage to the dental pulp tissue. For the hard tissues of the teeth, laser irradiation will cause changes in the chemical composition of calcium and phosphorus. The enamel presents a unique lava-like shape, and the bonding strength of the tooth increases after bleaching. Compared with other lasers, the Er: YAG laser has a wavelength close to the peak of water, and adding other ingredients to the bleaching agent is not required. Almost all the energy is used for the bleaching agent, with no damage to the surrounding tissues.

With the intensified aging problem, the study of age-related diseases is becoming more and more significant. Alzheimer's disease is a kind of dementia, with senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles as the main pathological features, and has become one of the major diseases that endanger the health of the elderly. This review is concentrated on the research of the early assessment of Alzheimer's disease. The current situation of early diagnosis of the disease is analyzed, and a prospect of the future development of early assessment means of the disease is also made in the paper.
Aged ; Aging ; Alzheimer Disease ; diagnosis ; pathology ; Early Diagnosis ; Humans ; Neurofibrillary Tangles ; pathology ; Plaque, Amyloid ; pathology