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Hand function impairment is a common consequence of neurological diseases. Conventional rehabilitation approaches often suffer from slow progress and large inter-individual variability. Hand exoskeletons have become an important rehabilitation technology, but they still have shortcomings in dexterity, intention recognition, and natural interaction. This article focuses on the development of hand exoskeletons from being unskilled to dexterous, systematically reviewing their evolution in mechanical structure, driving methods, sensor integration, and control algorithms. Through a comparison of technology and clinical applications, it was summarized that it has transitioned from rigid structures and single-drive mechanisms to flexible materials, multimodal sensing, and intelligent control. And generalized the breakthrough achievements in key areas such as tendon-driven mechanisms, soft structures, biological signal analysis, and human-computer interaction. Research has confirmed that flexible actuation, multimodal sensing, and intention-based adaptive control strategies can significantly enhance the naturalness, safety, and multi-degree-of-freedom capabilities, thereby encouraging patients to engage in active training and accelerating the process of neural plasticity reconstruction. The conclusion points out that dexterity is the core factor driving the lightweight, flexible, intelligent design of hand exoskeletons and precise clinical rehabilitation. In the future, there is a need to strengthen the integration of medicine and engineering, as well as standardized assessment.

SRY-box transcription factors (SOXs) are effective inducers for the formation of stem-like phenotypes. As a member of SOX family, SOX9 (SRY-box transcription factor 9) has been reported to be highly expressed and exert oncogenic functions in multiple human cancers. In this study, we hypothesized that SOX9 could regulate the function of cancer stem/initiating cells (CSCs) to further facilitate the progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). Then, stable transfection of shRNAs was used to silence indicated genes. Loss-of-function experiments were conducted to demonstrate the in vitro function of CRC cells. In vivo study was conducted to determine the changes in tumorigenesis and metastasis in vivo. Bioinformatics analyses and mechanistic experiments were employed to explore the downstream molecules. Presently, GEPIA data indicated that SOX9 was upregulated in 275 COAD (colon adenocarcinoma) samples relative to 349 normal tissues. Besides, we also proved the upregulation of SOX9 in CRC cell lines (HCT15, SW480, SW1116, and HT-29) compared to normal NCM-460 cells. Silencing of SOX9 suppressed cell growth, stemness, migration, and invasion. Mechanistically, SOX9 activated the transcription of lncRNA phenylalanyl-tRNA synthetase subunit alpha antisense RNA 1 ( FARSA-AS1 ), while FARSA-AS1 elevated SOX9 in turn by absorbing miR-18b-5p and augmented FARSA via sequestering miR-28-5p . Furthermore, loss of FARSA-AS1 hindered malignant phenotypes in vitro and blocked tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. Notably, we testified that FARSA-AS1 aggravated the malignancy in CRC by enhancing SOX9 and FARSA . Our study unveiled a mechanism of SOX9- FARSA-AS1 - SOX9 / FARSA loop in CRC, which provides some clews of promising targets for CRC.

Acute respiratory failure (ARF) is a common disease in the intensive care units (ICUs) with high risk of mortality. The red cell distribution width (RDW) is one of baseline ICU indicators which can be easily available, and has been used in the long-term prognostic analyses of diseases. However, no studies have explored the role of baseline RDW and its change during hospitalization in in-hospital mortality in ARF. Herein, this study aims to explore the association between RDW and its changes and the 30-day mortality in ARF patients. Demographic and clinical data of 7,497 patients with ARF were extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV (MIMIC-IV) database in 2012-2019 in this retrospective cohort study. Univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses were used to explore the association between RDW and its changes and 30-day mortality with hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Subgroup analyses of different baseline RDW levels were also performed. We then assessed the predictive performance of RDW changes combined with the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score on 30-day mortality using receiver operator characteristic curves (ROCs) with areas under curve (AUCs). Totally, 2,254 (30.07%) patients died in 30 days. After adjusting for covariates, we found that high baseline RDW [HR = 1.25, 95%CI: (1.15-1.37)] and RDW changes [greater than or equal to]0.3% [HR = 1.12, 95%CI: (1.01-1.24)] were both related to an increased risk of 30-day mortality. In patients whose baseline RDW level [greater than or equal to]14.9%, RDW changes [greater than or equal to]0.3% was also associated with an increased risk of 30-day mortality [HR = 1.19, 95%CI: (1.05-1.35)]. Moreover, the predictive value of RDW changes combined with SOFA on 30-day mortality was a little better than that of single SOFA score, with AUCs of 0.624 vs. 0.620. High baseline RDW level and its changes during hospitalization was relate to the increased risk of 30-day mortality in ARF, and the predictive value of RDW changes for ARF short-term mortality is still needed exploration.

With the growing concerns regarding the amount of energy consumption, the manufacturing sector is considered to play a significant role because of the large amount of consumed energy in the sector. As a result, a reliable and precise estimation model of energy consumption that can reflect various machining states is required. An improved energy consumption model that can effectively reflect the relationship between processing parameters (spindle speed, feed rate, and depth of cut) and energy consumption in a mechanical machining process based on empirical modeling is proposed in this paper. Additionally, the physical meanings of the model coefficients are given, making it easier to interpret the model while also being helpful to both manufacturers and designers to achieve sustainable manufacturing. By comparing the energy requirement obtained by the proposed SEC model with the results of the experiments and previous studies, it can be concluded that the proposed model can calculate the total energy requirement in the machining process accurately under various processing parameters. The good fit between simulations and experimental data effectively indicate that the SEC model we proposed can be used to predict the total energy requirement in the mechanical machining process.

Robust segmentation in adverse weather conditions is crucial for autonomous driving. However, these scenes struggle with recognition and make annotations expensive, resulting in poor performance. As a result, the Segment Anything Model (SAM) was recently proposed to finely segment the spatial structure of scenes and to provide powerful prior spatial information, thus showing great promise in resolving these problems. However, SAM cannot be applied directly for different geographic scales and non-semantic outputs. To address these issues, we propose SAM-EDA, which integrates SAM into an unsupervised domain adaptation mean-teacher segmentation framework. In this method, we use a “teacher-assistant” model to provide semantic pseudo-labels, which will fill in the holes in the fine spatial structure given by SAM and generate pseudo-labels close to the ground truth, which then guide the student model for learning. Here, the “teacher-assistant” model helps to distill knowledge. During testing, only the student model is used, thus greatly improving efficiency. We tested SAM-EDA on mainstream segmentation benchmarks in adverse weather conditions and obtained a more-robust segmentation model.

Chronic prostatitis is a prevalent male urinary system disorder characterized by pelvic discomfort or pain, bladder dysfunction, sexual dysfunction, and infertility. Pain and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are the most common symptoms, significantly impacting patients’ quality of life and driving them to seek medical attention. Transient receptor potential vanilloid subtype 1 (TRPV1) is a non-selective calcium ion-dependent cation channel in the TRPV channel family that is widely distributed in neural tissue and plays a role in signal transmission. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the current understanding of the role of TRPV1 in chronic prostatitis. The discussion focuses on the connection between TRPV1 and prostatitis pain and LUTS, and highlights the potential for targeting this channel in the development of novel treatment strategies.

As a major global health concern, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) has garnered widespread attention; However, to date, the prevalence of GERD across different ethnic groups in China has not been comprehensively examined by any large-scale epidemiological studies or meta-analyses. Against this backdrop, the present study draws on data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study to investigate the burden of GERD in China. Data from the 2021 GBD Study were utilized to assess the burden of GERD in China, focusing on key indicators such as prevalence, incidence, Years of Life Lived with Disability (YLDs), Age-Standardized Rates (ASR). Health inequality analyses were used to measure the inequality in the distribution of GERD across countries based on the Socio-Demographic Index (SDI), as well as to determine whether such inequality exists in China. Frontier analysis identified top performers in healthcare systems across different countries when examining the burden of GERD, followed by a comparison of differences in GERD burden between China and these top-performing countries. The trends of GERD from 2022 to 2044 were projected using the Nordpred and ARIMA model. Between 1990 and 2021, the prevalence of GERD in China experienced a notable rise of 60.62%. Correspondingly, the ASR also increased significantly. A similar pattern was Observed in incidence and YLDs, with number and ASR rising. A frontier analysis revealed that China had relatively low prevalence and incidence rates but a moderate-to-high level of SDI. Health inequality analysis revealed both absolute and relative inequalities related to SDI, with a noticeable increase in the inequality of the age-standardized GERD burden from 1990 to 2021. a significantly greater inequality in GERD burden was observed in China compared to other countries, suggesting a disparity in GERD distribution relative to SDI. Projections of GERD in China extending from 1990 to 2044 indicate a steady increase in the combined numbers and ASR of prevalence, incidence, and YLDs. The disease burden of GERD in China has risen steadily over the past three decades, with marked increases in the ASRs of its prevalence, incidence, and YLDs. Given the growing number of individuals affected by GERD, adapting healthcare systems to address the escalating demand for related services and treatments has become an urgent necessity.

Exosomal circular RNAs (circRNAs) can act as biomarkers and play crucial roles in colorectal cancer (CRC) and radiosensitivity. The aim of this study was to explore the functions and regulatory mechanism of exosomal circRNA intraflagellar transport 80 (circ_IFT80) in tumorigenesis and radiosensitivity of CRC. Exosomes were detected using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Protein levels were determined by Western blot assay. The expression of circ_IFT80, microRNA-296-5p (miR-296-5p) and musashi1 (MSI1) was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Cell cycle distribution, cell apoptosis, and cell proliferation were detected by flow cytometry and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, respectively. Colony formation assay was used to determine the radiosensitivity of cells. The interaction between miR-296-5p and circ_IFT80 or MSI1 was verified by dual-luciferase reporter assay. A xenograft tumor model was established to explore the role of exosomal circ_IFT80 in vivo. Circ_IFT80 was upregulated in exosomes derived from CRC patient serum and CRC cells. Exosomal circ_IFT80 or circ_IFT80 overexpression facilitated tumorigenesis by increasing cell proliferation and reducing apoptosis, and inhibited radiosensitivity via promoting colony formation and inhibiting apoptosis. Additionally, circ_IFT80 acted as a sponge of miR-296-5p, and miR-296-5p reversed the effects of circ_IFT80 on tumorigenesis and radiosensitivity. Moreover, MSI1 was a direct target of miR-296-5p. Furthermore, miR-296-5p overexpression inhibited tumorigenesis and promoted radiosensitivity by downregulating MSI1. Exosomal circ_IFT80 also accelerated tumor growth in vivo. Exosomal circ_IFT80 promoted tumorigenesis and reduced radiosensitivity by regulating miR-296-5p/MSI1 axis, which might provide a novel avenue for treatment of CRC.

Supercritical boilers have become a major development trend in coal-fired power plants, and the air distribution strategy is a key factor in the design and operation of making it fully combustible. In this paper, the mathematical and physical models of a 350 MW supercritical boiler is established, and the optimal air distribution mode of the boiler at different load is determined based on the furnace outlet temperature, NOx concentration, and O2 content. The air distribution control strategies were derived and the corresponding procedures were established. 160 MW and 280 MW were selected for positive pagoda and 180 MW and 230 MW for waist reduced. At 290–350 MW load, the effect of adjusting the combustion damper opening on the outlet oxygen is weak, so preferentially adjusting the SOFA damper opening can achieve better results. The results show good thermal efficiency and emission performance and are applicable to adjust the air distribution mode to achieve fuller combustion of supercritical boilers.

Carbon fiber–reinforced plastics (CFRPs) have excellent mechanical and physical properties and are widely used to manufacture structural components and skins in aviation and aerospace. Industrial applications impose high requirements on the quality and efficiency of CFRP drilling. However, it is difficult to meet these requirements with conventional methods, such as drilling and orbital drilling. To improve hole processing quality, a novel cutting tool for orbital drilling was proposed in this research. Replacing the end mill in conventional orbital drilling (COD) with this novel cutting tool can enable an orbital drilling and reaming (ODR) machining process, which can suppress defects and reduce the thrust force when machining CFRP composite laminates. The thrust forces, tool wear, cutting temperatures, and hole quality in the ODR process presented in this paper were studied experimentally. The results indicated that machining with the novel ODR tool effectively reduced the thrust force and cutting temperature observed when machining with the general end mill. Moreover, the hole quality and tool life during ODR were exceedingly better than those during COD. The experimental results showed that processing with the novel tool has immense potential to replace existing processing methods for machining holes in CFRP composite laminates.