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Background Circulating serpinB1 levels are increased in obese mice and have been shown to promote β-cell proliferation in several species. However, the data on serum serpinB1 levels in children with obesity are scarce. This study aimed to determine serum serpinB1 levels in children with overweight/obesity, and to study its association with obesity-related parameters. Methods A total of 54 children with overweight/obesity and 36 normal-weight healthy controls aged 6–14 were recruited in this study. Anthropometric parameters, glucolipid metabolic biochemical parameters, sex hormones, and serum serpinB1 levels were measured in all subjects. The association of serum serpinB1 levels with obesity-related parameters and the risk of overweight/obesity were analyzed using correlation analysis and binary regression analysis, respectively. Results The serum serpinB1 level in overweight/obese children was notably greater than in normal-weight controls (2.03 ± 0.70 vs. 1.41 ± 0.58 ng/mL, p  < 0.001). SerpinB1 levels were positively correlated with body mass index (BMI), BMI Z-score, triglyceride (TG), uric acid, fasting insulin, C-peptide, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) levels. Additionally, we found that elevated circulating serpinB1 levels were associated with the increased risk of childhood overweight/obesity even after adjustment for age, gender, and HOMA-IR (odds ratio, 4.132; 95% confidence interval, 1.315–12.983; p  = 0.015). Conclusions Circulating serpinB1 level was significantly increased in children with overweight/obesity and positively associated with obesity-related glucolipid metabolic parameters. These results indicate a close association between serum serpinB1 concentrations and childhood overweight/obesity.

Introduction:In China, many disaster rescue operations need cooperation between civil forces and military forces. Understanding the key elements of civil-military disaster rescue operations is a basic problem faced by Chinese rescuers and scholars.Aim:To summarize the key elements of civil-military disaster rescue operations in China.Methods:On July 17, 2016, an expert round-table meeting was held on our campus to discuss some basic problems in disaster research. The participants arrived at a consensus that the key elements of civil-military disaster rescue operation under Chinese cultural context should be carefully analyzed using Six Sigma (Why, Who, What, When, Where, and How, 5W1H)Methods:The minutes of the meeting was summarized into a brief report.Results:(1) Why to rescue - it is the responsibility of modern government to protect its people; (2) Who are the rescuers - individuals or groups with passion and ability to do such work, but they should be organized properly; (3) What to do - make vital systems of the community run normally as soon as possible; (4) When to rescue - different disasters have different laws, but it is better to render help in the golden hour; (5) Where to rescue - it depends on the input process (material, human resources, etc.) and output process (patients, waste material, etc.) of the rescue operation, not merely confined to the disaster site; (6) How to rescue - cooperation among all branches of social sectors is vital to succeed, especially civil-military cooperation. Military force is the backbone force in an austere environment.Discussion:The discipline of disaster medicine is developing rapidly in China. The research and evaluation framework should be established carefully. Civil forces and military forces should have an identical understanding of the same question. This abstract is only part of the research framework.

Objective This study investigated the characteristics of newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) related to autoimmunity and the frequency of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in children and adolescents from 2017–2022 in China. Research design and methods Single-center regional data from the Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, Tongji Hospital, were used to compare 88 children and adolescents newly diagnosed with T1DM from 2020 to 2022 (i.e. during the COVID-19 pandemic in China) and 76 children and adolescents diagnosed with T1DM from 2017 to 2019. Auto-antibodies, including glutamic acid decarboxylase-65 and insulin auto-antibodies, were detected by enzyme-linked immunoassays. DKA was defined as a pH < 7.3 and/or a bicarbonate level < 15 mmol/L. Results The median age of the 164 children and adolescents newly diagnosed with T1DM from 2017 to 2022 was 7.0 years (interquartile range [IQR]: 3.8–10.0 years; 51.83% male). The mean annual incidence of T1DM was 2.98 per 1,000,000 child years. The estimated frequency of auto-antibody positivity was 51.22% ( n  = 84), and there was no difference between the 2020–2022 group and 2017–2019 group (55.68% [ n  = 49] vs. 46.5% [ n  = 35]; p  = 0.219). The frequency of DKA among the entire cohort was 57.93% ( n  = 95), and peaked in 2020 at 78.9% (15/19 patients). The frequency of DKA was not significantly higher in the 2020–2022 group compared with the 2017–2019 group (60.23% [ n  = 53] vs. 55.26% [ n  = 42]; p  = 0.521). We found no significant difference in the frequency of DKA between patients who were negative vs. positive for auto-antibodies in the 2020–2022 group (64.10% [ n  = 25] vs. 57.14% [ n  = 28], p  > 0.05). The C-peptide level and HbA1c (%) were positively correlated with onset age (R1 = 0.389, p  < 0.01; R2 = 0.371, p  < 0.01), and the estimated mean C-peptide level was 0.26 ng/ml (IQR: 0.2–0.4 ng/ml) in patients with DKA and 0.370 ng/ml (IQR: 0.2–0.6 ng/ml) in patients without DKA ( p  = 0.044). Conclusions This study showed the annual incidence of T1DM was 2.98 per 1,000,000 child years, gradually increased over the study period, and there was no significant increase in T1DM with auto-antibody positivity in children and adolescents newly diagnosed from 2020–2022 in China compared with the previous 3 years. Furthermore, the frequency of DKA was peaked in 2020, and were not significantly different between patients who were negative vs. positive for auto-antibodies.

Background White matter injury (WMI) induced by intrauterine inflammation can cause adverse neurological outcomes. Fibrinogen-like protein 2 (FGL2)/fibroleukin is an important trigger of inflammatory responses and is involved in some cerebral diseases. However, the role of FGL2 in intrauterine inflammation-induced WMI remains unclear. Methods Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was intraperitoneally injected into wild-type and FGL2 knockout mice to induce intrauterine inflammation. Body weight and brain weight of offspring were monitored. Major basic protein (MBP) expression was evaluated to demonstrate the myelination of offspring. To investigate the regulatory mechanism of FGL2, cytokine expression, microglial polarization, and the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway in the offspring were analyzed. Results Upon LPS exposure, FGL2 knockout offspring showed a significant increase in body weight loss. MBP reduction induced by LPS was prevented in FGL2 knockout offspring. Expression levels of proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor-α, and M1 marker CD86 were suppressed, while the expression levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-10 and M2 marker CD206 were increased. FGL2 deficiency significantly inhibited the phosphorylation of p38MAPK and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) protein. Conclusions FGL2 deficiency can ameliorate WMI induced by intrauterine inflammation, reducing inflammatory cascade and improving hypomyelination, through the regulation of microglial polarization and MAPK signaling pathways. Impact Intrauterine inflammation induces WMI leading to severe neurological sequelae. FGL2 plays an important role in the progression of WMI induced by intrauterine inflammation. FGL2 deficiency can protect against WMI by inhibiting p38 MAPK and JNK phosphorylation, regulating microglia polarization, and reducing inflammation response. FGL2 could be a novel molecular target for protecting against WMI induced by intrauterine inflammation.

Endothelin receptors (ETRs) are activated by vasoactive peptide endothelins and involved in the pathogenesis of hepatic fibrosis. However, less is known about the role of ETRs in Schistosoma (S.) japonicum-induced hepatic fibrosis. Here, we show that the expression of ETRs is markedly enhanced in the liver and spleen tissues of patients with schistosome-induced fibrosis, as well as in murine models. Additional analyses have indicated that the expression levels of ETRs in schistosomiasis patients are highly correlated with the portal vein and spleen thickness diameter, both of which represent the severity of fibrosis. Splenomegaly is a characteristic symptom of schistosome infection, and splenic abnormality may promote the progression of hepatic fibrosis. We further demonstrate that elevated levels of ETRs are predominantly expressed on splenic B cells in spleen tissues during infection. Importantly, using a well-studied model of human schistosomiasis, we demonstrate that endothelin receptor antagonists can partially reverse schistosome-induced hepatic fibrosis by suppressing the activation of splenic B cells characterized by interleukin-10 (IL-10) secretion and regulatory T (Treg) cell-inducing capacity. Our study provides insights into the mechanisms by which ETRs regulate schistosomiasis hepatic fibrosis and highlights the potential of endothelin receptor antagonist as a therapeutic intervention for fibrotic diseases.

Background Schistosomiasis is a serious but neglected parasitic disease in humans that may lead to liver fibrosis and death. Activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are the principal effectors that promote the accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins during hepatic fibrosis. Aberrant microRNA-29 expression is involved in the development of fibrotic diseases. However, less is known about the role of miR-29 in Schistosoma japonicum ( S. japonicum )-induced hepatic fibrosis. Methods The levels of microRNA-29a-3p (miR-29a-3p) and Roundabout homolog 1 (Robo1) were examined in liver tissues during S. japonicum infection. The possible involvement of the miR-29a-3p-Robo1 signaling pathway was determined. We used MIR29A conditional knock-in mice and mice injected with an miR-29a-3p agomir to investigate the role of miR-29a-3p in schistosomiasis-induced hepatic fibrosis. The functional contributions of miR-29a-3p-Robo1 signaling in liver fibrosis and HSC activation were investigated using primary mouse HSCs and the human HSC cell line LX-2. Results MiR-29a-3p was downregulated in humans and mice with schistosome-induced fibrosis, and Robo1 was upregulated in liver tissues. The miR-29a-3p targeted Robo1 and negatively regulated its expression. Additionally, the expression level of miR-29a-3p in schistosomiasis patients was highly correlated with the portal vein and spleen thickness diameter, which represent the severity of fibrosis. Furthermore, we demonstrated that efficient and sustained elevation of miR-29a-3p reversed schistosome-induced hepatic fibrosis. Notably, we showed that miR-29a-3p targeted Robo1 in HSCs to prevent the activation of HSCs during infection. Conclusions Our results provide experimental and clinical evidence that the miR-29a-3p-Robo1 signaling pathway in HSCs plays an important role in the development of hepatic fibrosis. Therefore, our study highlights the potential of miR-29a-3p as a therapeutic intervention for schistosomiasis and other fibrotic diseases. Graphical Abstract

Camera calibration is an essential prerequisite for road surveillance applications, which determines the accuracy of obtaining three-dimensional spatial information from surveillance video. The common practice for calibration is collecting the correspondences between the object points and their projections on surveillance, which usually needs to operate the calibrator manually. However, complex traffic and calibrator requirement limit the applicability of existing methods to road scenes. This paper proposes an online camera auto-calibration method for road surveillance to overcome the above problem. It constructs a large-scale virtual checkerboard adopting the road information from surveillance video, in which the structural size of the checkerboard can be easily obtained in advance because of the standardization for road design. The position coordinates of checkerboard corners are used for calibrating camera parameters, which is designed as a “coarse-to-fine” two-step procedure to recover the camera intrinsic and extrinsic parameters efficiently. Experimental results based on real datasets demonstrate that the proposed approach can accurately estimate camera parameters without manual involvement or additional information input. It achieves competitive effects on road surveillance auto-calibration while having lower requirements and computational costs than the automatic state-of-the-art.

By introducing the mechanical motion into the confined etchant layer technique (CELT), we have developed a promising ultra-precision machining method, termed as electrochemical mechanical micromachining (ECMM), for producing both regular and irregular three dimensional (3D) microstructures. It was found that there was a dramatic coupling effect between the confined etching process and the slow-rate mechanical motion because of the concentration distribution of electrogenerated etchant caused by the latter. In this article, the coupling effect was investigated systemically by comparing the etchant diffusion, etching depths and profiles in the non-confined and confined machining modes. A two-dimensional (2D) numerical simulation model was proposed to analyze the diffusion variations during the ECMM process, which is well verified by the machining experiments. The results showed that, in the confined machining mode, both the machining resolution and the perpendicularity tolerance of side faces were improved effectively. Furthermore, the theoretical modeling and numerical simulations were proved valuable to optimize the technical parameters of the ECMM process.

We study an elliptic problem involving critical growth in a strip, satisfying the periodic boundary condition. As a consequence, we prove that the prescribed scalar curvature problem in R N has solutions which are periodic in some variables, if the scalar curvature K ( y ) is periodic.

Taking a mine in Guizhou Province as the research background, a combination of similar simulation experiments and numerical simulation was used to analyse the spatial distribution of overburden collapse and the development of fissures during the mining process. The results indicate that: (1) During the mining of the upper coal seam, the overlying rock is not affected by faults, the ‘three zones’ are significantly developed, the collapse morphology exhibits a typical ‘trapezoidal’ structure, and the fractures undergo stages of formation, expansion, and closure; (2) The lower coal seam is affected by reverse faults, resulting in asymmetrical overburden collapse patterns and discontinuous fissure development. When mining across faults, periodic pressure is intense, and the stride length is significantly reduced, with severe rock fragmentation near the faults. (3) Under repeated mining activities, the displacement and subsidence of the lower coal seam are greater than those of the upper coal seam. By quantifying the spatio-temporal distribution of mining-induced fractures using fractal dimension, it is clear that their development and evolution follow a process of formation, development, and closure. The research results can provide a theoretical basis for the safe development of coal mines under similar geological conditions.