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When animals are infected by a pathogen, peripheral sensors of infection signal to the brain to induce adaptive behavioral changes known as sickness behaviors. While the pathways that signal from the periphery to the brain have been intensively studied, how central circuits are reconfigured to elicit these behavioral changes is not well understood. Here we find that neuromodulatory systems linked to stress and satiety are recruited during chronic pathogen infection to alter the behavior of Caenorhabditis elegans . Upon infection by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14, C. elegans decrease feeding, then display reversible bouts of quiescence, and eventually die. The ALA neuron and its neuropeptides FLP-7, FLP-24, and NLP-8, which control stress-induced sleep in uninfected animals, promote the PA14-induced feeding reduction. However, the ALA neuropeptide FLP-13 instead delays quiescence and death in infected animals. Cell-specific genetic perturbations show that the neurons that release FLP-13 to delay quiescence in infected animals are distinct from ALA. A brain-wide imaging screen reveals that infection-induced quiescence involves ASI and DAF-7/TGF-beta, which control satiety-induced quiescence in uninfected animals. Our results suggest that a common set of neuromodulators are recruited across different physiological states, acting from distinct neural sources and in distinct combinations to drive state-dependent behaviors. Pradhan et el report that neuromodulatory systems linked to stress and satiety are recruited to induce sickness behaviours during chronic infection of Caenorhabditis elegans with Pseudomonas aeruginosa .

Purpose This study was designed to evaluate the impact of laparoscopic converted to open colectomy on short-term and oncologic outcomes and to identify risk factors for long-term survival in patients undergoing colectomy for non-metastatic colon cancer. Methods A prospective database of consecutive operations for non-metastatic colon cancer was reviewed. Patients were grouped as conversion (CONV) group, completed laparoscopic resection (LAP) group, or open resection (OPEN) group. The clinical and perioperative parameters, pathologic features, and oncologic outcomes were collected. Univariate analysis was performed for comparing these data. Patients without evidence of recurrence at last follow-up or still alive at the end of study period were censored. Kaplan-Meier curves were utilized to analyze survival. A multivariate analysis was performed to identify predictors of poor disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Results The conversion rate was 15.2 %. The most common reason for conversion was locally advanced cancer (45.5 %). Converted patients were associated with a longer operative time (188 ± 29.1 min, P  < 0.001), greater blood loss (147 ± 14 mL, P  < 0.001), and a higher rate of intra-operative complications (15.2 %, P  = 0.042) compared to the completely laparoscopic or open patients. Days to flatus, early ambulation, and length of hospitalization were significantly shorter in completed laparoscopic resection (LAP) group ( P  < 0.001); however, the outcomes were comparable between conversion (CONV) and open resection (OPEN) groups. The incidence of wound infection was significantly higher in the OPEN group than in the LAP group ( P  = 0.005), whereas there were no significant differences observed between the CONV group and the OPEN group ( P  = 1.000) or between the LAP group and the CONV group ( P  = 0.073). The 5-year DFS in CONV patients (46.5 %) was comparable to LAP patients (55.5 %, P  = 0.138) and OPEN patients (59.1 %, P  = 0.113). Moreover, there were no significant differences noted in terms of the 5-year OS in the CONV group (56.7 %) compared to the LAP group (67.3 %, P  = 0.317) or the OPEN group (66.3 %, P  = 0.420). The multivariate analysis showed that pT3–4 cancer ( P  < 0.001) and poor differentiation ( P  < 0.001) were independent predictors of both lower OS and lower DFS, whereas leakage ( P  = 0.008) and lack of adjuvant chemotherapy ( P  = 0.023) were independent risk factors only of lower DFS. Conclusion Conversion to open colectomy from an initial laparoscopic approach does not worsen the long-term survival in patients with non-metastatic colon cancer.

The diabetic kidney is sensitive to ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury due to microvascular complications, such as cellular apoptosis and necrosis. The aim of this study was to determine if sevoflurane pretreatment could help preserve renal function in rats with diabetes mellitus (DM) by altering non-receptor tyrosine kinases steroid receptor coactivator (Src) and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) expression (Src and FAK are mediators of cellular apoptosis and necrosis). Male rats ( N  = 40) were randomly assigned to one of five groups: Group A, sham operation; Group B, renal I/R injury; Group C, DM + sham operation; Group D, DM + renal I/R injury; and Group E, DM + sevoflurane pretreatment + renal I/R injury. Sevoflurane pretreatment comprised exposure to 2.5 % sevoflurane for 30 min, followed by exposure to air for 10 min. After 24 h, serum creatinine (Cr) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels, and renal Src and FAK expression (immunohistochemistry) were assessed. Compared with rats in C, rats in D had significantly higher Cr and BUN levels, but significantly lower renal Src and FAK expression. Rats in E had significantly lower serum Cr and BUN levels and significantly higher renal Src and FAK expression levels than rats in D. Our findings suggest that sevoflurane pretreatment in rats with DM protects the kidneys from ischemia/reperfusion injury in part due to increased renal Src and FAK expression.

Aligning and annotating the heterogeneous cell types that make up complex cellular tissues remains a major challenge in the analysis of biomedical imaging data. Here, we present a series of deep neural networks that allow for automatic non-rigid registration and cell identification, developed in the context of freely moving and deforming invertebrate nervous systems. A semi-supervised learning approach was used to train a Caenorhabditis elegans registration network (BrainAlignNet) that aligns pairs of images of the bending C. elegans head with single-pixel-level accuracy. When incorporated into an image analysis pipeline, this network can link neurons over time with 99.6% accuracy. This network could also be readily purposed to align neurons from the jellyfish Clytia hemisphaerica , an organism with a vastly different body plan and set of movements. A separate network (AutoCellLabeler) was trained to annotate >100 neuronal cell types in the C. elegans head based on multi-spectral fluorescence of genetic markers. This network labels >100 different cell types per animal with 98% accuracy, exceeding individual human labeler performance by aggregating knowledge across manually labeled datasets. Finally, we trained a third network (CellDiscoveryNet) to perform unsupervised discovery of >100 cell types in the C. elegans nervous system: by comparing multi-spectral imaging data from many animals, it can automatically identify and annotate cell types without using any human labels. The performance of CellDiscoveryNet matched that of trained human labelers. These tools should be immediately useful for a wide range of biological applications and should be straightforward to generalize to many other contexts requiring alignment and annotation of dense heterogeneous cell types in complex tissues.

Young stroke patients have a strong desire to return to the society, but few studies have been conducted on their rehabilitation training items, intensity, and prognosis. We analyzed clinical data of young and middle-aged/older stroke patients hospitalized in the Department of Neurological Rehabilitation, China Rehabilitation Research Center, Capital Medical University, China from February 2014 to May 2015. Results demonstrated that hemorrhagic stroke （59.6%） was the primary stroke type found in the young group, while ischemic stroke （60.0%） was the main type detected in the middle-aged/older group. Compared with older stroke patients, education level and incidence of hyperhomocysteinemia were higher in younger stroke patients, whereas, incidences of hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease were lower. The average length of hospital stay was longer in the young group than in the middle-aged/older group. The main risk factors observed in the young stroke patients were hypertension, drinking, smoking, hyperlipidemia, hyperhomocysteinemia, diabetes, previous history of stroke, and heart disease. The most accepted rehabilitation program consisted of physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, acupuncture and moxibustion. Average rehabilitation training time was 2.5 hours/day. Barthel Index and modified Rankin Scale scores were increased at discharge. Six months after discharge, the degree of occupational and economic satisfaction declined, and there were no changes in family life satisfaction. The degrees of other life satisfaction （such as friendship） improved. The degree of disability and functional status improved significantly in young stroke patients after professional rehabilitation, but the number of patients who returned to society within 6 months after stroke was still small.

Aligning and annotating the heterogeneous cell types that make up complex cellular tissues remains a major challenge in the analysis of biomedical imaging data. Here, we present a series of deep neural networks that allow for automatic non-rigid registration and cell identification, developed in the context of freely moving and deforming invertebrate nervous systems. A semi-supervised learning approach was used to train a Caenorhabditis elegans registration network (BrainAlignNet) that aligns pairs of images of the bending C. elegans head with single-pixel-level accuracy. When incorporated into an image analysis pipeline, this network can link neurons over time with 99.6% accuracy. This network could also be readily purposed to align neurons from the jellyfish Clytia hemisphaerica , an organism with a vastly different body plan and set of movements. A separate network (AutoCellLabeler) was trained to annotate >100 neuronal cell types in the C. elegans head based on multi-spectral fluorescence of genetic markers. This network labels >100 different cell types per animal with 98% accuracy, exceeding individual human labeler performance by aggregating knowledge across manually labeled datasets. Finally, we trained a third network (CellDiscoveryNet) to perform unsupervised discovery of >100 cell types in the C. elegans nervous system: by comparing multi-spectral imaging data from many animals, it can automatically identify and annotate cell types without using any human labels. The performance of CellDiscoveryNet matched that of trained human labelers. These tools should be immediately useful for a wide range of biological applications and should be straightforward to generalize to many other contexts requiring alignment and annotation of dense heterogeneous cell types in complex tissues.

When animals are infected by a pathogen, peripheral sensors of infection signal to the brain to coordinate a set of adaptive behavioral changes known as sickness behaviors. While the pathways that signal from the periphery to the brain have been intensively studied in recent years, how central circuits are reconfigured to elicit sickness behaviors is not well understood. Here we find that neuromodulatory systems linked to stress and satiety are recruited upon infection to drive sickness behaviors in C. elegans. Upon chronic infection by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14, C. elegans decrease their feeding behavior, then display reversible bouts of quiescence, and eventually die. The ALA neuron and its neuropeptides FLP-7, FLP-24, and NLP-8, which control stress-induced sleep in uninfected animals, promote the PA14-induced feeding reduction. However, the ALA neuropeptide FLP-13 instead acts to delay quiescence and death in infected animals. Cell-specific genetic perturbations show that the neurons that release FLP-13 to delay quiescence in infected animals are distinct from ALA. A brain-wide imaging screen reveals that infection-induced quiescence involves ASI and DAF-7/TGF-beta, which control satiety-induced quiescence in uninfected animals. Our results suggest that a common set of neuromodulators are recruited across different physiological states, acting from distinct neural sources and in distinct combinations to drive state-dependent behaviors.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.

This study introduces a novel method of electric field sintering for preparing NdFeB magnets. NdFeB alloy compacts were all sintered by electric fields for 8 min at 1000~C with different preset heating rates. The characteristics of electric field sintering and the effects of heating rate on the sintering densification of NdFeB alloys were also studied. It is found that electric field sintering is a new non-pressure rapid sintering method for preparing NdFeB magnets with fine grains at a relatively lower sintering temperature and in a shorter sintering time. Using this method, the sintering temperature and process of the compacts can be controlled accurately. When the preset heating rate in- creasing from 5 to 2000~C/s the densification of NdFeB sintered compacts gradHally improves. As the preset heating rate is 2000C/s, Nd-rich phases are small, dispersed and uniformly distributed in the sintered compact, and the magnet has a better microstructure than that made by conventional vacuum sintering. Also, the maximum energy product of the sintered magnet reaches 95% of conventionally vacuum sintered magnets.

Recently, radiation pressure acceleration （RPA） has been proposed and extensively studied, which shows that circularly polarized （CP） laser pulses can accelerate mono-energetic ion bunches in a phase-stable-acceleration （PSA） way from ultrathin foils. It is found that self-orgizing proton beam can be stably accelerated to GeV in the interaction of a CP laser with a planar target at 1022 W/cm2. A project called Compact LAser Plasma proton Accelerator （CLAPA） is approved by MOST in China recently. A prototype of laser driven proton accelerator （1 to 15 MeV/1 Hz） based on the PSA mechanism and plasma lens is going to be built at Peking University in the next five years. It will be upgraded to 200 MeV later for applications such as cancer therapy, plasma imaging and fast ignitiou for inertial confine fusion.

Optical gyroscopes are among the most accurate rotation measuring devices and are widely used for navigation and accurate pointing. Since the advent of photonic integrated components for communications, and with their increasing complexity, there has been interest in the possibility of chip-scale optical gyroscopes1. Besides the potential benefits of integration, such solid-state systems would be robust and resistant to shock. Here, we report a gyroscope using Brillouin ring lasers on a silicon chip. Its stability and sensitivity enable measurement of Earth’s rotation, representing a major milestone for this new class of gyroscope.A Sagnac gyroscope based on Brillouin ring lasers on a silicon chip is presented. The stability and sensitivity of this on-chip planar gyroscope allow measurement of the Earth’s rotation, with an amplitude sensitivity as small as 5 deg h−1 for a sinusoidal rotation, an angle random walk of 0.068 deg h−1/2 and bias instability of 3.6 deg h−1.