Browse Articles
Discover research articles across all indexed journals
Identification of high-risk soil erosion areas in the central Yunnan urban agglomeration and the differentiated driving mechanisms compared to the overall agglomeration
Author Correction: Exploring dihydropyrimidone derivatives as modulators of carbohydrate catabolic enzyme to mitigate diabetes
Amber in the Cretaceous deep sea deposits reveals large-scale tsunamis
How climate change will burden our children: data reveal a lifetime of extreme heat
Highly sensitive method captures rare RNAs in blood to search for disease
Research on agricultural disease recognition methods based on very large Kernel convolutional network-RepLKNet
Multifaceted investigation of esfenvalerate-induced toxicity on Allium cepa L.
The analysis of entrepreneurship evaluation system for talent cultivation in artistic creativity and animation under artificial intelligence
‘Second chance’: convicted US chemist Charles Lieber moves to Chinese university
Neural conduction impairment of the auditory brainstem in babies with bronchopulmonary dysplasia while being diagnosed
Multi-institutional atlas of brain metastases informs spatial modeling for precision imaging and personalized therapy
Abstract Brain metastases are a frequent and debilitating manifestation of advanced cancer. Here, we collect and analyze neuroimaging of 3,065 cancer patients with 13,067 brain metastases, representing an extensive collection for research. We find that metastases predominantly localize to high perfusion areas near the grey-white matter junction, but also identify notable differences depending on the primary cancer histology as well as brain regions which do not conform to this relationship. Lung and breast cancers, in contrast to melanoma, frequently metastasize to the cerebellum, hinting at biological pathways of spread. Additionally, the deep brain structures are relatively spared from metastasis, regardless of primary cancer type. Leveraging this data, we propose a probabilistic brain metastasis risk model to enhance the therapeutic ratio of whole-brain radiotherapy by targeting high risk areas while preserving cortical and subcortical brain regions of functional significance and low metastasis risk, potentially reducing the cognitive side effects of therapy.
The association between Oxford Acute Severity of Illness Score and mortality in critical hemorrhagic stroke patients: a retrospective cohort study
Regulating obesity-induced osteoarthritis by targeting p53-FOXO3, osteoclast ferroptosis, and mesenchymal stem cell adipogenesis
Development of a high performance ethylene glycol gas sensor using cobalt doped porous ZnFe2O4 nanostructures
A self-assembled protein β-helix as a self-contained biofunctional motif
Abstract Nature constructs matter by employing protein folding motifs, many of which have been synthetically reconstituted to exploit function. A less understood motif whose structure-function relationships remain unexploited is formed by parallel β-strands arranged in a helical repetitive pattern, termed a β-helix. Herein we reconstitute a protein β-helix by design and endow it with biological function. Unlike β-helical proteins, which are contiguous covalent structures, this β-helix self-assembles from an elementary sequence of 18 amino acids. Using a combination of experimental and computational methods, we demonstrate that the resulting assemblies are discrete cylindrical structures exhibiting conserved dimensions at the nanoscale. We provide evidence for the structures to form a carpet-like three-dimensional scaffold promoting and inhibiting the growth of human and bacterial cells, respectively, while being able to mediate intracellular gene delivery. The study introduces a self-assembled β-helix as a self-contained bio- and multi-functional motif for exploring and exploiting mechanistic biology.
A cutter contacting point trajectory prediction method combining harmonic functions and dimensionality reduction for improving machining precision in flat-end milling
A novel, covalent broad-spectrum inhibitor targeting human coronavirus Mpro
Effects of metformin on transcriptomic and metabolomic profiles in breast cancer survivors enrolled in the randomized placebo-controlled MetBreCS trial
Abstract Metformin reduces the incidence of breast cancer in patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes. However, our knowledge of the effects of metformin on breast cancer recurrence is limited. Within the randomized double-blind placebo-controlled phase II trial MetBreCS, we examined changes in breast tissue from breast cancer survivors with BMI > 25 kg/m2 after treatment with metformin. To identify metformin-regulated signaling pathways, we integrated the transcriptomic, metabolomic and steroid hormone profiles using bivariate and functional analyses. We identified MS4A1, HBA2, MT-RNR1, MT-RNR2, EGFL6 and FDCSP expression to be differentially expressed in breast tissues from metformin-treated postmenopausal women. The integration of transcriptomic and metabolomic profiles revealed down-regulation of immune response genes associated with reduced levels of arginine and citrulline in the metformin-treated group. The integration of transcriptomic and steroid hormone profiles showed an enrichment of steroid hormone biosynthesis and metabolism pathways with highly negatively correlated CYP11A1 and CYP1B1 expression in breast tissue from postmenopausal metformin-treated women. Our results indicate that postmenopausal breast cancer survivors treated with metformin have specific changes in breast tissue gene expression that may prevent the development of new tumors. Trial registration: MetBreCs trial is registered at European Union Clinical Trials Register (EudraCT Protocol # 2015-001001-14) on 07/10/2015.
Rare earth metals production using alternative feedstock that eliminates HF
Abstract This work reports the successful production of rare earth (RE) metal using Na-RE-F. Presently, RE metals are primarily produced using RE-fluoride due to its higher air and moisture stability compared to RE-chloride. However, its preparation requires the use of corrosive and hazardous chemicals, such as hydrofluoric acid (HF) or ammonium bifluoride (NH4HF2). The present study demonstrates that Na-RE-F is an alternative salt to the typically used RE-fluoride. The Na-RE-F for this work is produced via a scalable hydrometallurgical approach using three different RE salts as feedstock, including acetate, nitrate, and chloride. HF is neither used nor generated during the salt preparation process. Furthermore, the Na-RE-F powder dries in air (without dry HF), and only water evolves during the drying process. Analyses of the Na-RE-F show that NaF liberates as a flux during the heating process, which lowers the salt reduction temperature to <900 °C, thus minimizing or eliminating the need for additional flux. Calciothermic reduction of the Na-RE-F salt is successfully employed to obtain RE metal. This work represents a safer, greener, and more widely deployable approach for producing the RE metals needed for permanent magnets which support the transition to a cleaner society through the decarbonization of the transportation industry.