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ObjectivesHuman papillomavirus (HPV) infection is closely associated with cervical cancer, especially the persistent infection of high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) genotypes. Therefore, investigating the HPV prevalence, age-specific, genotype distribution and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic among large populations was essential for HPV screening and optimising vaccination.DesignThis was a cross-sectional study.MethodsA total of 38 056 cervical epithelial cell specimens were collected in Weifang city from January 2018 to December 2022. The study was divided into seven age groups based on the age of the participants. HPV genotype testing was performed by using a commercial kit which is designed for the detection of 23 HPV genotypes.ResultA total of 8998 women were infected with HPV, with an overall positive rate of 23.64% (8998/38 056). Single infection of HPV was dominant among different age groups, which accounted for 71.33% of total infections. The most prevalent genotype was HR-HPV 16 (4.33%), followed by 52, 58, 53 and 68. Low-risk HPV (LR-HPV) 42 exhibited the highest prevalence (2.19%) among six LR-HPV genotypes, representing a novel finding. There was a significant difference in the prevalence across different age groups (p<0.01), with the highest prevalence in the group under 25 years old. During the 3 year COVID-19 breakout period, the number of HPV samples received in 2020, 2021 and 2022 was reduced by 24.03%, 14.79% and 24.76%, respectively. In 2018–2022, the annual prevalence varied between 21.09% and 25.30%, with a decreasing trend, while the prevalence of HR-HPV 39, 56, 31 and LR-HPV 42 increased.ConclusionThis study indicates a high-HPV infection rate and age-specific distribution characteristics of HPV genotype infections, as well as analyses of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the HPV prevalence, which provides an epidemiological basis for the control and prevention of HPV infection in this region.

Brain metastasis (BM) is one of the common ways of tumor metastasis and has a poor prognosis. This study aims to identify potential biomarkers from the perspective of somatic mutations, providing a basis for the prognosis evaluation and immunogenicity prediction of BM patients. This study collected the somatic mutation profiles and clinical information of a total of 421 patients with BM in Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). Non-negative matrix factorization was employed to extract the mutational process signatures operating in the genome. Consensus clustering analysis was utilized to identify mutation-related molecular subtypes. Through a comprehensive analysis of genomic mutations and copy number variations (CNV), biomarkers associated with outcomes and tumor immunogenicity were screened. Non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, and breast cancer were common primary tumors of BM, and these three tumor types exhibited better prognosis compared to other types. This study found that a higher tumor mutation burden (TMB) was significantly associated with a better prognosis of BM. A total of four mutational process signatures were extracted, and among them, a signature featured by C > T mutations and related to DNA damage repair was proven to be linked with an inferior outcome and a lower TMB. Through integrated genomic mutation analysis, mutation was determined to associate with improved prognosis of BM. More importantly, patients carrying this mutation also harbored a better response to immunotherapy. CNV analysis indicated that deletion and deletion were respectively associated with poorer and better outcomes in patients with BM. By integrating the somatic mutation data of patients with BM, this study identified molecular biomarkers related to outcomes and immunogenicity from three perspectives: mutational process signatures, molecular subtypes, and genomic variations. Our findings provide clues for prognosis evaluation in BM patients. They also establish a theoretical basis for predicting immunotherapy efficacy.

Background Reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV), a member of the family Retroviridae, is a hot area of research, and a previous study showed that exosomes purified from REV-positive semen were not blocked by REV-specific neutralizing antibodies and established productive infections. Methods To further verify the infectivity of exosomes from REV-infected cells, we isolated and purified exosomes from REV-infected DF-1 cells and identified them using Western blot and a transmission electron microscope. We then inoculated 7-day-old embryonated eggs, 1-day-old chicks and 23-week-old hens with and without antibody treatment. REV was administered simultaneously as a control. Results In the absence of antibodies, the results indicated that REV-exosomes and REV could infect chicks, resulting in viremia and viral shedding, compared with the infection caused by REV, REV-exosomes reduced the hatching rate and increased mortality after hatching, causing severe growth inhibition and immune organ damage in 1-day-old chicks; both REV and REV-exosomes also could infect hens, however, lead to transient infection. In the presence of antibodies, REV-exosomes were not blocked by REV-specific neutralizing antibodies and infected 7-day-old embryonated eggs. However, REV could not infect 1-day-old chicks and 23-week-old hens. Conclusion In this study, we compared the infectious ability of REV-exosomes and REV, REV-exosomes could escape from REV-specific neutralizing antibodies in embryonated eggs, providing new insights into the immune escape mechanism of REV.

The therapeutic effects of vitamin D supplementation on Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) aggravation remain controversial and inconclusive. To probe into this contentious issue, we performed the present meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Literature published up to June 2023 was retrieved from Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science and Embase. RCTs assessing mortality, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mechanical ventilation (MV), length of hospitalization (LOH), and inflammatory markers containing C-reactive protein (CRP), D-dimer, interleukin-6 (IL-6), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were included. 19 RCTs were involved in the analysis and were conducted subgroup analyses on the baseline COVID-19 severity and vitamin D administration. In the severity subgroup, statistically significant effects in moderate to severe group were observed in ICU admission (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.23, 0.80; = 0.008), MV (OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.27, 0.72; = 0.001) and LOH (SMD -0.49, 95% CI -0.92, -0.06; = 0.027). In the administration subgroup, effects of ICU admission (OR 0.39, 95% CI 0.16, 0.97; = 0.044), MV (OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.07, 0.46; = 0.000) and LOH (SMD -0.50, 95% CI -0.96, -0.04; = 0.034) were more pronounced in patients supplied with multiple-dose vitamin D than single-dose. Although the result of mortality showed no statistically significant effect, it indicated a reduced trend (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.63, 1.12; > 0.05). The results of inflammatory markers reached no statistical differences. This meta-analysis revealed that moderate to severe COVID-19 patients supplied with multiple doses of vitamin D were less apt to need ICU admission, mechanical ventilation and have shorter hospital stays.

La/Pr co-doped ceria (LCP) is processed to fabricate low-temperature ceramic fuel cell based on industrial-grade rare-earth carbonate electrolyte that is reached above a maximum power density of 750 mW/cm 2 at 520 °C. The charge carriers are investigated through LCP fuel cell having symmetric NCAL (Ni 0.8 Co 0.15 Al 0.05 LiO 2-δ ) electrodes using proton conductor BCZY (BaCe 0.7 Zr 0.1 Y 0.2 O 3-δ ) as a blocking layer and are found protons that dominate during the cell operation. The results of associated characterizations for HCC (hydrogen concentration cell) and the OCC (oxygen concentration cell) reveal that LCP material is mixed conductor of both protons and oxygen ions simultaneously. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis before and after the electrochemical testing of the cell are performed which show an amorphous layer of LiOH/Li 2 CO 3 mixture that is formed after the tests on the surface of LCP structure. Conceptually, it looks that LiOH/Li 2 CO 3 mixture in molten state in the interface region of two-phase material promotes the proton conduction through LCP electrolyte, with negligible oxygen ion conduction.

γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a non-proteinogenic amino acid with important physiological functions, which has been widely used in food, pharmaceuticals, and polyamides production. The fermentative GABA production by Corynebacterium glutamicum was recognized as one of the most promising methods. However, the problems of low catalytic activity of the heterologously expressed glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) and the imbalanced carbon flux between cell growth and GABA synthesis severely limited the GABA production by C. glutamicum . This study applied combinational metabolic engineering and catalytic condition optimization strategies to solve these two major obstacles. The secretory expression of GAD was enhanced using a bicistronic-designed expression cassette. This bicistronic expression cassette was further triply inserted into the genome by substituting the ldhA , pqo , and ack genes, thus stabilizing the expression of GAD and reducing the accumulation of by-products of lactate and acetate. A growth-regulated promoter P CP_2836 was applied to dynamically control the expression of odhA , thus controlling the α-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase complex activity for balanced cell growth and GABA production. The glutamate precursor synthesis and pyridoxal 5′-phosphate supply were also strengthened by promoter substitution. Finally, through a two-stage pH-controlled fed-batch fermentation under optimized conditions, the engineered strain reached GABA titer of 81.31 ± 1.31 g/L with a yield and productivity of 0.50 ± 0.01 g/g and 1.36 ± 0.23 g L −1  h −1 , which was 4.8%, 13.6%, and 11.2% higher than that of the original strain. This study laid a solid foundation for industrial fermentative GABA production by engineered C. glutamicum .

lncRNA metastasis-associated lung adencarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) plays an important role in the metastasis of lung cancer. Yet, its role in bone metastasis and the related mechanism remain unknown. The present study aimed to investigate the role of lncRNA MALAT1 in the bone metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), including the expression pattern in tumor tissues, and the effect on the apoptosis, proliferation, migration and invasion of NSCLC cells. The expression level of MALAT1 in NSCLC tissues with/without bone metastasis and in NSCLC cell lines with (ACC-LC-319/bone2)/without (SPC-A1) bone metastatic ability was determined with qRT-PCR and compared with t-test. si-MALAT1 was used to downregulate the expression of MALAT1 in ACC-LC-319/bone2 cells. The proliferation ability was assessed by MTT assay, and the apoptosis, migration, invasion and tumorigenesis in vivo were also assessed to detect the effect of MALAT1 expression on NSCLC cells. In conclusion, the present study found that MALAT1 was significantly highly expressed in NSCLC tissues with bone metastasis and in NSCLC cell lines with high bone metastatic ability (P<0.0001). Downregulation of MALAT1 expression significantly inhibited proliferation and induced cell apoptosis in comparing with the negative controls. Our results also revealed that MALAT1 significantly increased the migration, invasion and tumorigenesis in vivo, which suggests its important role in the bone metastasis of NSCLC.

In this paper, we focus on building and researching the self-power sensor system based on the tiny energy harvesting technology which can be used in the scenario of ubiquitous power Internet of Things (UPIoT) and prove the possibility and efficiency for the life extension of transmission line intelligent sensing system. Large scale of sensor in the smart grid technology application, especially in high-voltage transmission lines, is not convenient; it is worth mentioning that most of all kinds of sensor node equipment using battery power make the life of the equipment or components limited by greatly. Therefore, low power consumption, long life, no battery dependence, free maintenance, and other requirements are increasingly important to solve the difficulties of deployment and maintenance. At the same time, the problem of the battery case electricity use with low efficiency and short life of sensor node has become the bottleneck of further widely deployed wireless sensor node equipment. The power collection technology based on environmental energy can effectively handle with the problems of energy collection efficiency and management that need to be urgently solved in new application scenarios such as zero-standby power consumption devices, remote active tags, battery-free telemetry and remote control, and ultralong life sensing system. By studying various kinds of environmental energy collection technologies and utilizing the conversion and management technologies of available weak environmental energy, such as solar energy and magnetic field energy, into electric energy, this paper establishes an energy conversion test system and configuration model and verifies the feasibility of the assumption of maintenance-free for the intelligent sensing system of transmission lines.

Noise contrastive estimation (NCE) is a popular method for training energy-based models (EBM) with intractable normalisation terms. The key idea of NCE is to learn by comparing unnormalised log-likelihoods of the reference and noisy samples, thus avoiding explicitly computing normalisation terms. However, NCE critically relies on the quality of noisy samples. Recently, sliced score matching (SSM) has been popularised by closely related diffusion models (DM). Unlike NCE, SSM learns a gradient of log-likelihood, or score, by learning distribution of its projections on randomly chosen directions. However, both NCE and SSM disregard the form of log-likelihood function, which is problematic given that EBMs and DMs make use of first-order optimisation during inference. This paper proposes a new criterion that learns scores more suitable for first-order schemes. Experiments contrasts these approaches for training EBMs.

Carbonaceous materials have long been considered promising anode materials for Na-ion batteries. However, the electrochemical performance of conventional carbon anodes is generally poor because the sodium ion storage solely relies on the disordered region of the carbon materials in a carbonate-based electrolyte. The solvent co-intercalation mechanism for Na ions has been recently reported in natural graphite anodes for Na-ion batteries with ether-based electrolytes, but their capacities are still unsatisfactory. We show here for the first time that by combining regular Na ion storage in the disordered carbon layer and solvent co-intercalation mechanism in the graphitized layer of a commercial N330 carbon black as an anode material for Na-ion batteries in ether-based electrolyte, the reversible capacity could be fully realized and doubled in magnitude. This unique sodium intercalation process resulted in a significantly improved electrochemical performance for the N330 electrode with an initial reversible capacity of 234 mAh.g-1 at 50 mA.g-1 and a superior rate capability of 105 mAh.g-1 at 3,200 mA-g-1. When cycled at 3,200 mA.g-1 over 2,000 cycles, the electrode still exhibited a highly reversible capacity of 72 mAh.g-1 with a negligible capacity loss per cycle （0.0167%）. Additionally, surface-sensitive C K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy, with the assistance of electrochemical and physicochemical characterizations, helped in identifying the controlled formation and evolution of a thin and robust solid electrolyte interphase film. This film not only reduced the resistance for sodium ion diffusion, but also maintained the structural stability of the electrode for extended cycle reversibility. The superior electrochemical performance of N330 carbon black strongly demonstrated the potential of applying ether-based electrolytes for a wide range of carbon anodes apart from natural graphite.