Pair Segment Research Articles

Effects of chemokine-binding protein in visceral ovine aphthae on immune regulation response.

ORFV of the family poxvirus，which produces a pustular dermatitis both in humans and animals.,Previous studies have found an fatal case caused by the infection of ORFV in the viscera. However, the mechanisms of ORFV how to infect the viscera remain unknown. Our sequencing results revealed that the CBP of the visceral infection strain lacked a 24-base pair segment at position 217 comparison to the oral infection strain. Subsequently, we successfully packaged the recombinant adenoviruses pAd-CBP-K and pAd-CBP-N in HEK-293A cells and carried it to infect lymphocytes. RT-PCR analysis showed that the CBP protein was expressed in lymphocytes, and pAd-CBP-N group exhibited a significantly higher CBP expression level compared to the pAd-CBP-K group. At 4, 8, and 12hours post-infection, both pAd-CBP-K and pAd-CBP-N were found to downregulate the expression of MIP-1 and CCL-5 in the supernatant of lymphocytes. However, the expression of IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12, INF-γ, and TNF-α showed a significant up-regulation. Furthermore, the inflammatory factors relative expression levels of IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-8, IL-12, IFN-γ and TNF-α were significantly up-regulated in the both group. Interestingly, a significant increase in the expression of IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α were detected in the pAd-CBP-N group at both 8 and 12hours compared to pAd-CBP-N. Taken together, these findings showed that CBP can regulate the expression of free chemokines and activate the expression of inflammatory factors, and provide a basis for follow-up research.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy using endocardial versus trans-coronary sinus, epicardial left ventricular pacing: the Epi-Endo study

Abstract Aims Some studies have suggested that cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) using endocardial left ventricular (LV) pacing (Endo-CRT) is superior to a conventional transvenous, epicardial CRT (Epi-CRT). To determine whether, in CRT recipients, endocardial LV pacing is haemodynamically superior to trans-coronary vein (trans-CV) LV epicardial pacing. Methods and results At implantation patients (n=16; aged 68.9±8.32 years; 13 male) underwent Epi-CRT and Endo-CRT in basal, mid and apical myocardial segments, delivered using the trans-CS lead and an intra-cavitary, roving EP catheter to achieve juxtapositions of the epicardial and endocardial side of the LV free wall respectively. Myocardial scar was quantified using cardiovascular magnetic resonance. An acute haemodynamic response (AHR) was defined as a ≥10% increase in the maximal rate of rise of LV pressure (%LV dP/dtmax) in relation to RV pacing (DOO). When the 84 paired segments were taken together, the %ΔLV dP/dtmax was higher with Endo-CRT than with Epi-CRT (9.9±8,6% vs 7.9±8.3% respectively, p<0.002; 52.3% vs 28.6% responders [p<0.045). However, Endo-CRT was not always superior to epi-CRT in individual patients. For example, in basal segments, only 5/10 (50%) patients were converted from non-responders with epi-CRT to responders with endo-CRT whereas 1/4 (25%) epi-CRT responder was converted to a non-responder with endo-CRT (Figure). There was no difference in ΔLV dP/dtmax between Epi-CRT and endo-CRT in segments with myocardial scar. Conclusions On average, endo-CRT provides a better AHR than epi-CRT. Within patients, however, endo-CRT is not always better.Epicardial versus Endocardial CRT

Quantitative Proteomic Analysis Identifying and Evaluating TRAF6 and IL-8 as Potential Diagnostic Biomarkers in Neonatal Patients with Necrotizing Enterocolitis.

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a common gastrointestinal complication in premature infants, resulting in high morbidity and mortality, and its early detection is crucial for accurate treatment and outcome prediction. Extensive research has demonstrated a clear correlation between NEC and extremely low birth weight, degree of preterm, formula feeding, infection, hypoxic/ischemic damage, and intestinal dysbiosis. The development of noninvasive biomarkers of NEC from stool, urine, and serum has attracted a great deal of interest because to these clinical connections and the quest for a deeper knowledge of disease pathophysiology. Therefore, this study aims to identify protein expression patterns in NEC and discover innovative diagnostic biomarkers. In this study, we recruited five patients diagnosed with NEC and paired necrotic segments of intestinal tissue with adjacent normal segments of intestine to form experimental and control groups. Quantitative proteomics tandem mass tagging (TMT) labeling technique was used to detect and quantify the proteins, and the expression levels of the candidate biomarkers in the intestinal tissues were further determined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), Western blot analysis, Immunofluorescence methods and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). A total of 6880 proteins were identified and quantified in patients with NEC. A significant disparity in protein expression was observed between necrotic and normal segments of intestinal tissue in NEC patients. A total of 55 proteins were found to be upregulated, and 40 proteins were found to be downregulated in NEC patients when using a p-value of < 0.05, and an absolute fold change of > 1.2 for analysis. GO function enrichment analysis showed the positive regulation of significant biological processes such as mitochondrial organization, vasoconstriction, rRNA catabolism, fluid shear stress response, and glycerol ether biosynthesis processes. Enrichment analysis also revealed essential functions such as ligand-gated ion channel activity, potassium channel activity, ligand-gated cation channel activity, ligand-gated ion channel activity, and ligand-gated channel activity, including molecular functions such as ligand-gated ion channel activity and mitotic events in this comparative group. Significant changes were found in endomembrane protein complex, membrane fraction, mitochondrial membrane fraction, membrane components, membrane intrinsic components, and other localized proteins. Additional validation of intestinal tissue and serum revealed a substantial increase in TRAF6 (tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6) and IL-8(Interleukin-8, CXCL8). The quantitative proteomic TMT method can effectively detect proteins with differential expression in the intestinal tissues of NEC patients. Proteins TRAF6 and CXCL8/IL-8 are significantly upregulated in the intestinal tissues and serum samples of patients and may serve as valuable predictor factors for NEC's early diagnosis.

Characterizing identity by descent segments in Chinese interpopulation unrelated individual pairs.

Identity by descent (IBD) segments, uninterrupted DNA segments derived from the same ancestral chromosomes, are widely used as indicators of relationships in genetics. A great deal of research focuses on IBD segments between related pairs, while the statistical analyses of segments in irrelevant individuals are rare. In this study, we investigated the basic informative features of IBD segments in unrelated pairs in Chinese populations from the 1000 Genome Project. A total of 5922 IBD segments in Chinese interpopulation unrelated individual pairs were detected via IBIS and the average length of IBD was 3.71Mb in length. It was found that 17.86% of unrelated pairs shared at least one IBD segment in the Chinese cohort. Furthermore, a total of 49 chromosomal regions where IBD segments clustered in high abundance were identified, which might be sharing hotspots in the human genome. Such regions could also be observed in other ancestry populations, which implies that similar IBD backgrounds also exist. Altogether, these results demonstrated the distribution of common background IBD segments, which helps improve the accuracy in pedigree studies based on IBD analysis.

Using metal nanoparticles (ZnO and Ag) to enhance DNA isolation and amplification

Recently, there have been significant improvements in the methods used to isolate and purify genomic DNA. The implementation of high-throughput facilities has accelerated the advancement of technology, enabling more rapid and effective DNA processing than ever before. The study's goal was to develop a cost-effective and efficient technique to enhance the characterization of isolated DNA that is suitable for subsequent molecular downstream applications. The DNA used as study object obtained from suspensions of pathogenic bacteria, Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) and the Enterobacter cloacae complex (E. cloacae) using a manual salting out method. The method includes utilizing ZnO and Ag nanoparticles (Nps), to enhance isolation of genomic DNA. The study showed that using Nps at concentrations of 0.02 mg/ml for Ag and 0.004 mg/ml for ZnO led to better DNA quality and quantity compared to the control group without Nps, resulting in ideal outcomes. In addition, the presence of these Nps greatly increased the efficiency of PCR amplification for detecting the 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) of K. pneumoniae and E. cloacae. This resulted in the effective amplification of a 709 base pair segment in both type of Nps. The incorporation of nanoparticles technology into DNA extraction methods is in line with the current demands of the fast-progressing fields of molecular biology and biotechnology.

Assessment of genetic diversity of Trypanosoma evansi in the domestic animal populations through ITS-1 gene sequence analysis.

Trypanosoma evansi infects domestic animals, causing a debilitating and occasionally fatal disease. The disease leads to significant economic losses to farmers and poses a substantial impediment to the growth of livestock production in developing nations, including India. Considering the challenges associated with managing this infection, there is an urgent need to enhance our understanding of the molecular and genetic diversity of T. evansi. Therefore, this study was planned to analyze the genetic diversity of T. evansi using available internal transcribed spacer-1 (ITS-1) gene sequences from India and compare them with sequences from around the globe. Blood samples used in this study were collected from naturally infected animals including dogs, cattle, and buffaloes in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Using the ITS-1 gene, we amplified a 540 base pairs (bp) segment using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), sequenced it, and identified intra-specific variations. Phylogenetic analysis of 90 sequences, including 27 from India, revealed three distinct clusters with high bootstrap support values. A haplotype network analysis identified 34 haplotypes, with H7 being the most prevalent, indicating a complex evolutionary history involving multiple countries. The genetic analysis of the Indian population revealed distinct characteristics. Despite low nucleotide diversity, there was high haplotype diversity in comparison to other populations. Tajima's D, Fu and Li's D, and Fu and Li's F exhibited non-significant negative values, indicating potential stability. Additionally, the slightly positive values in Fu's Fs, Raggedness (r), and Ramos-Onsins and Rozas (R2) statistics suggested a lack of recent significant selective pressures or population expansions. Furthermore, the presence of genetic differentiation and gene flow among T. evansi populations highlighted ongoing evolutionary processes. These findings collectively depicted a complex genetic landscape, suggesting both stability and ongoing evolutionary dynamics within the Indian population of T. evansi. The findings of this study are important for understanding the evolutionary history and population dynamics of T. evansi, and they may help us develop effective control strategies.

DNA barcodes of Saudi Arabian birds: Implications for species identification and diversity analysis

ObjectivesDNA barcoding using cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene is an effective tool for species identification with additional power of measuring molecular diversity and phylogenetic inference. In this study, we evaluated the performance of COI gene sequences for species identification and molecular diversity analysis of some Saudi Arabian birds. MethodsWe sequenced the 694 base pair segment of COI gene from 5 samples of white cheeked bulbul (Pycnonotus leucogenys), 4 samples of black scrub robin (Cercotrichas podobe), and 2 samples of crested lark (Galerida cristata), all belonged to the same Order. We also included all the COI sequences available in the GenBank for these birds with the aim of studying molecular diversity across geographies. For species identification, we enriched our dataset by including COI barcodes of other Saudi Arabian bird species, including Arabian partridge (Alectoris melanocephala), houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata macqueenii), green bee-eater (Merops orientalis), laughing dove (Streptopelia senegalensis), namaqua dove (Oena capensis) and collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto), representing different genera. ResultsWhite-cheeked bulbul from Saudi Arabia showed more diversity than the same birds from Iraq. The mean nucleotide difference and nucleotide diversity were 5.20 and 0.009 respectively with as Tajima’s D score of 1.6549 indicating the scarcity of rare alleles. The specimens of black scrub robin from Saudi Arabia and Djibouti showed mixed phylogeny with only two segregating sties and a near zero Tajima’s D score indicating no major selection. Out of 18 samples of crested lark, 13 birds from 4 different geographical regions showed identical sequences, while 3 birds from Russia and 1 from Cyprus grouped in a separate cluster and 1 crusted lark from Djibouti differed from all. The mean nucleotide difference and nucleotide diversity were 0.6993 and 0.0014, while a negative Tajima’s D of −1.1956 indicated the presence of rare alleles. Phylogenetic analysis of 9 different species of Saudi Arabian birds showed the discriminatory power of COI barcodes as all the different species grouped separately in specific clusters. ConclusionsCOI barcodes are not only indispensable tools for species identification but can also be used for analyzing molecular diversity and phylogenetic inference.

Studying the genetics of participation using footprints left on the ascertained genotypes.

The trait of participating in a genetic study probably has a genetic component. Identifying this component is difficult as we cannot compare genetic information of participants with nonparticipants directly, the latter being unavailable. Here, we show that alleles that are more common in participants than nonparticipants would be further enriched in genetic segments shared by two related participants. Genome-wide analysis was performed by comparing allele frequencies in shared and not-shared genetic segments of first-degree relative pairs of the UK Biobank. In nonoverlapping samples, a polygenic score constructed from that analysis is significantly associated with educational attainment, body mass index and being invited to a dietary study. The estimated correlation between the genetic components underlying participation in UK Biobank and educational attainment is estimated to be 36.6%-substantial but far from total. Taking participation behaviour into account would improve the analyses of the study data, including those of health traits.

A new species of Hemiphyllodactylus (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from Ha Giang Province, Vietnam.

An integrative analysis recovered a new species of the Hemiphyllodactylustypus group from a karst formation in Lung Cu Commune, Dong Van District, Ha Giang Province, northeastern Vietnam. Hemiphyllodactyluslungcuensissp. nov. is embedded within clade 6 of the typus group, bearing an uncorrected pairwise sequence divergence of 4.6-20.2% from all other species based on a 1,038 base pair segment of the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 gene (ND2). It is diagnosable from other species in clade 6 by statistically significant mean differences in normalized morphometric, meristic, and categorical characters. A multiple factor analysis using the three aforementioned character types recovered its unique, non-overlapping placement in morphospace as statistically significantly different from that of all other species in clade 6. The description of this new Hemiphyllodactylus species contributes to a growing body of literature underscoring the high degree of herpetological diversity and endemism in karst landscapes in Vietnam as well as in the genus Hemiphyllodactylus.

Stability of interlinked neutron vortex and proton flux-tube arrays in a neutron star – III. Proton feedback

ABSTRACT The coupled, time-dependent Gross–Pitaevskii and Ginzburg–Landau equations are solved simultaneously in three dimensions to investigate the equilibrium state and far-from-equilibrium, spin-down dynamics of an interpenetrating neutron superfluid and proton type-II superconductor, as an idealized description of the outer core of a neutron star. The simulations generalize previous calculations without the time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau equation, where proton feedback is absent. If the angle θ between the rotation and magnetic axes does not equal zero, the equilibrium state consists of geometrically complicated neutron vortex and proton flux-tube tangles, as the topological defects pin to one another locally but align with different axes globally. During spin-down, new types of motion are observed. For θ = 0, entire vortices pair rectilinearly with flux tubes and move together while pinned. For θ ≠ 0, vortex segments pair with segments from one or more flux tubes, and the paired segments move together while pinned. The degree to which proton feedback impedes the deceleration of the crust is evaluated as a function of θ and the pinning strength, η. Key geometric properties of vortex-flux-tube tangles, such as filament length, mean curvature, and polarity are analysed. It is found that proton feedback smooths the deceleration of the crust, reduces the rotational glitch sizes, and stabilizes the vortex tangle dynamics. The dimensionless control parameters in the simulations are mutually ordered to match what is expected in a real neutron star, but their central values and dynamic ranges differ from reality by many orders of magnitude due to computational limitations.

Mouthpart palp sensilla of basal Trichoptera families

A comparative SEM study of palp sensory surfaces in 25 caddisfly species representing seven families reveals seven types of sensilla: long trichoid, blunt chaetoid, campaniform, mushroom-like pseudoplacoid, petaloid, thick basiconic and thin basiconic sensilla. Long trichoid and chaetoid sensilla are present on all segments of both pairs of palps. First and second segments of maxillary palps bear groups of long and sclerotised chaetoid sensilla on their medial surface. Other segments of maxillary palps and all segments of labial palps have shorter and thinner chaetoid sensilla mainly on their ventromedial surfaces. Campaniform sensilla usually occur on the first segment of labial palps and second segment of maxillary palps. Mushroom-like pseudoplacoid sensilla may occupy all palp segments or only distal ones. Petaloid sensilla form sensory fields on apical segments of both pairs of palps in most studied species. Thick basiconic sensilla occur only in apical sensory complexes on tips of maxillary and labial palps. A comparison with the Lepidoptera suggests the similarity in palp sensilla and conservative evolution of the palp surface. The reconstructed ground plan for the palp sensory surfaces in Trichoptera and Amphiesmenoptera is provided.

Synchronous Medical Image Augmentation framework for deep learning-based image segmentation.

Various deep learning (DL) models are widely applied in medical image analysis, and their performance depends on the scale and diversity of available training data. However, medical images often suffer from difficulty in data acquisition, imbalance in sample categories, and high cost of labeling. In addition, most image augmentation approaches mainly focus on image synthesis only for classification tasks, and rarely consider the synthetic image-label pairs for image segmentation tasks. In this paper, we focus on the medical image augmentation for DL-based image segmentation and the synchronization between augmented image samples and their labels. We design a Synchronous Medical Image Augmentation (SMIA) framework, which includes two modules based on stochastic transformation and synthesis, and provides diverse and annotated training sets for DL models. In the transform-based SMIA module, for each medical image sample and its tissue segments, a subset of SMIA factors with a random number of factors and stochastic parameter values are selected to simultaneously generate augmented samples and the paired tissue segments. In the synthesis-based SMIA module, we randomly replace the original tissues with the augmented tissues using an equivalent replacement method to synthesize new medical images, which can well maintain the original medical implications. DL-based image segmentation experiments on bone marrow smear and dermoscopic images demonstrate that the proposed SMIA framework can generate category-balanced and diverse training data, and have a positive impact on the performance of the models.

A new species of the Cyrtodactylusbrevipalmatus group (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from the uplands of western Thailand.

An integrative systematic analysis recovered a new species of the Cyrtodactylusbrevipalmatus group from the uplands of Thong Pha Phum National Park, Kanchanaburi Province in western Thailand. Cyrtodactylusthongphaphumensissp. nov. is deeply embedded within the brevipalmatus group, bearing an uncorrected pairwise sequence divergence of 7.6-22.3% from all other species based on a 1,386 base pair segment of the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 gene (ND2) and adjacent tRNAs. It is diagnosable from all other species in the brevipalmatus group by statistically significant mean differences in meristic and normalized morphometric characters as well as differences in categorical morphology. A multiple factor analysis recovered its unique and non-overlapping placement in morphospace as statistically significantly different from that of all other species in the brevipalmatus group. The description of this new species contributes to a growing body of literature underscoring the high degree of herpetological diversity and endemism across the sky-island archipelagos of upland montane tropical forest habitats in Thailand, which like all other upland tropical landscapes, are becoming some of the most imperiled ecosystems on the planet.

ESCNet: An End-to-End Superpixel-Enhanced Change Detection Network for Very-High-Resolution Remote Sensing Images.

Change detection (CD), as one of the central problems in Earth observation, has attracted a lot of research interest over recent decades. Due to the rapid development of satellite sensors in recent years, we have witnessed an enrichment of the CD source data with the availability of very-high-resolution (VHR) multispectral imagery, which provides abundant change clues. However, precisely locating real changed areas still remains a challenge. In this article, we propose an end-to-end superpixel-enhanced CD network (ESCNet) for VHR images, which combines differentiable superpixel segmentation and a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN). Two weight-sharing superpixel sampling networks (SSNs) are tailored for the feature extraction and superpixel segmentation of bitemporal image pairs. A UNet-based Siamese neural network is then employed to mine the different information. The superpixels are then leveraged to reduce the latent noise in the pixel-level feature maps while preserving the edges, where a novel superpixelation module is used to serve this purpose. Furthermore, to compensate for the dependence on the number of superpixels, we propose an innovative adaptive superpixel merging (ASM) module, which has a concise form and is fully differentiable. A pixel-level refinement module making use of the multilevel decoded features is also appended to the end of the framework. Experiments on two public datasets confirmed the superiority of ESCNet compared to the traditional and state-of-the-art (SOTA) deep learning-based CD (DLCD) methods.

Sensory Structures on the Antenniform Legs of Whip Spider, Phrynichus phipsoni (Arachnida, Amblypygi), from the Indian State of Goa: Scanning Electron Microscopic Elucidation

Amblypygi have a tropical and sub-tropical distribution and their first of the four pairs of legs, is modified as feelers. Their activity period and dark habitats render visual cues ineffective and they rely on non-visual sensory perception. There is agreement among researchers that the whip spiders invest in olfactory and tactile senses imparted by sensory structures concentrated on the tarsal segment of the first pair of long, well-articulated non-ambulatory legs that are constantly moved in all directions to sample the environment for detecting location of prey, as also for navigating. This is the first attempt to elucidate the sensory structures present on the antenniform legs of the whip spider, Phrynichus phipsoni (Pocock, 1894), collected from the state of Goa, India; using scanning electron micro[1]scope, and paves way for further research on sensory biology of this cryptic arachnid order. The examined specimen generally conforms to the diversity and morphology of sensory assemblage on the antenniform legs reported in other amblypygi species. Sensory structures elucidated include terminal trident tarsal claws, tarsal organ, bristles, porous sensilla, club sensilla, rod sensilla, slit sensilla, trichobothria, plate organ, pit organ and foliate leaf like hairs.

A LARGE SCALE METHOD FOR EXTRACTING GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES ON BUS ROUTES FROM OPENSTREETMAP AND ASSESSMENT OF THEIR IMPACT ON BUS SPEED AND RELIABILITY

Abstract. Geographical features on bus routes impact a bus’s performance, and as a consequence affect human mobility through cities. Analysis of these geographical features is non-trivial because they often must be manually recorded, limiting the ability to extract these features on a large scale. This paper proposes a novel method of extracting features from crowd-sourced OpenStreetMap (OSM) data and compares this method to the ground truth data for 539 stop pair segments in Dublin, Ireland. This paper also proposes algorithms to detect turns and the direction taken by buses at roundabouts, using the angle between points on the segment lines. Statistical analysis was performed, and elastic net linear regression models were developed with a subset of the route features to show their effect. The results show over 97% accurate identification of most individual features using the novel technique, with most errors resulting from OSM quality issues. The features that most negatively affected the average speed and reliability of the bus with statistical significance (p &lt; 0.025) were: retail land use, turns, traffic lights, and roundabouts. The average speed limit and the length of the segment had a positive impact on the average speed but not on the reliability. This method can be used with any bus performance metric to obtain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of bus travel, provide detailed information for bus travel time simulations and more accurately predict bus journey times to improve scheduling on the overall bus network.

The distal central pair segment is structurally specialised and contributes to IFT turnaround and assembly of the tip capping structures in Chlamydomonas flagella.

Cilia and flagella are dynamic organelles whose assembly and maintenance depend on an activetrafficking process known as the IntraFlagellar Transport (IFT), during which trains of IFT protein particles are moved by specific motors and carry flagellar precursors and turnover products along the axoneme. IFT consists of an anterograde (from base to tip) and a retrograde (from tip to base) phase. During IFT turnaround at the flagellar tip, anterograde trains release their cargoes and remodel to form the retrograde trains. Thus, turnaround is crucial for correct IFT. However, current knowledge of its mechanisms is limited. We show here that in Chlamydomonas flagella the distal ∼200nm central pair (CP) segment is structurally differentiated for the presence of a ladder-like structure (LLS). During IFT turnaround, the IFT172 subunit dissociates from the IFT- B protein complex and binds to the LLS-containing CP segment, while the IFT-B complex participates in the assembly of the CP capping structures. The IFT scaffolding function played by the LLS-containing CP segment relies on anchoring components other than the CP microtubules, since IFT turnaround occurs also in the CP-devoid pf18 mutant flagella. During IFT turnaround in Chlamydomonas flagella, i) the LLS and the CP terminal plates act as anchoring platforms for IFT172 and the IFT-B complex, respectively, and ii) during its remodeling, the IFT-B complex contributes to the assembly of the CP capping structures. Our results indicate that in full length Chlamydomonas flagella IFT remodeling occurs by a specialized mechanism that involves flagellar tip structures and is distinct from the previously proposed model in which the capability to reverse motility would be intrinsic of IFT train and independent by any other flagellar structure.

Fibrous Cap Thickness Predicts Stable Coronary Plaque Progression: Early Clinical Validation of a Semiautomated OCT Technology.

Imaging-based characteristics associated with the progression of stable coronary atherosclerotic lesions are poorly defined. Utilizing a combination of optical coherence tomography (OCT) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging, we aimed to characterize the lesions prone to progression through clinical validation of a semiautomated OCT computational program. Patients with stable coronary artery disease underwent nonculprit vessel imaging with IVUS and OCT at baseline and IVUS at the 12-month follow-up. After coregistration of baseline and follow-up IVUS images, paired 5-mm segments from each patient were identified, demonstrating the greatest plaque progression and regression as measured by the change in plaque burden. Experienced readers identified plaque features on corresponding baseline OCT segments, and predictors of plaque progression were assessed by multivariable analysis. Each segment then underwent volumetric assessment of the fibrous cap (FC) using proprietary software. Among 23 patients (70% men; median age, 67 years), experienced-reader analysis demonstrated that for every 100 μm increase in mean FC thickness, plaques were 87% less likely to progress (P = .01), which persisted on multivariable analysis controlling for baseline plaque burden (P = .05). Automated FC analysis (n = 17 paired segments) confirmed this finding (P = .01) and found thinner minimal FC thickness (P = .01) and larger FC surface area of <65 μm (P = .02) and <100 μm (P = .04) in progressing segments than in regressing segments. No additional imaging features predicted plaque progression. A semiautomated FC analysis tool confirmed the significant association between thinner FC and stable coronary plaque progression along entire vessel segments, illustrating the diffuse nature of FC thinning and suggesting a future clinical role in predicting the progression of stable coronary artery disease.

The microbiome of lower respiratory tract and tumor tissue in lung cancer manifested as radiological ground-glass opacity.

Recent studies have confirmed the existence of microbiota in the lungs. The relationship between lung ground-glass opacity (GGO) and microbiota in the lung microenvironment is not clear. In this study, we investigated the microbial composition and diversity in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of diseased lung segments and paired contralateral healthy lung segments from 11 GGO patients. Furthermore, lung GGO and paired normal tissues of 26 GGO patients were explored whether there are microbial characteristics related to GGO. Compared with the control group, the community richness of GGO tissue and BALF of GGO lung segment (α-diversity) and overall microbiome difference (β-diversity) had no significant difference. The microbiome composition of BALF of GGO segments is distinct from that of paired healthy lung segments [genus (Rothia), order (Lachnospiraceae), family (Lachnospiraceae), genus (Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, Faecalibacterium), and species (Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Bacteroides uniforms)]. GGO tissue and adjacent lung tissue had more significant differences at the levels of class, order, family, genus, and species level, and most of them are enriched in normal lung tissue. The area under the curve (AUC) using 10 genera-based biomarkers to predict GGO was 91.05% (95% CI: 81.93–100%). In conclusion, this study demonstrates there are significant differences in the lower respiratory tract and lung microbiome between GGO and the non-malignant control group through the BALF and lung tissues. Furthermore, some potential bacterial biomarkers showed good performance to predict GGO.

Dynamical magnetic response in superconductors with finite-momentum pairs

We derive the dynamical magnetic response functions in the Fulde-Ferrell (FF) state of a superconductor with inversion symmetry. The pair momentum 2q is obtained by minimization of the condensation energy and the resulting quasiparticle states and spectral functions exhibit the segmentation into paired and unpaired regions due to the finite q. The dynamical magnetic susceptibility is then calculated in linear response formalism in the FF state with finite-q condensate resulting from s-wave or d-wave pairing. We show that quasiparticle excitations inside as well as between paired and unpaired segments contribute to the dynamical response. We discuss its dependence on frequency and momentum transfer which develops a characteristic symmetry-breaking parallel to q. Furthermore, we investigate the possible influence on Knight shift and in the case of d-wave pairing on the spin resonance formation in the FF state.