Left bundle branch pacing vs biventricular pacing in heart failure patients with left bundle branch block:A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND Left bundle branch pacing(LBBP)is a novel pacing modality of cardiac resynchronization therapy(CRT)that achieves more physiologic native ventricular activation than biventricular pacing(BiVP).AIM To explore the validity of electromechanical resynchronization,clinical and echocardiographic response of LBBP-CRT.METHODS Systematic review and Meta-analysis were conducted in accordance with the standard guidelines as mentioned in detail in the methodology section.RESULTS In our analysis,the success rate of LBBP-CRT was determined to be 91.1%.LBBP CRT significantly shortened QRS duration,with significant improvement in echocardiographic parameters,including left ventricular ejection fraction,left ventricular end-diastolic diameter and left ventricular end-systolic diameter in comparison with BiVP-CRT.CONCLUSION A significant reduction in New York Heart Association class and B-type natriuretic peptide levels was also observed in the LBBP-CRT group vs BiVP-CRT group.Lastly,the LBBP-CRT cohort had a reduced pacing threshold at follow-up as compared to BiVP-CRT.

Engineering high amylose and resistant starch in maize by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated editing of starch branching enzymes

To improve the amylose content(AC)and resistant starch content(RSC)of maize kernel starch,we employed the CRISPR/Cas9 system to create mutants of starch branching enzyme I(SBEI)and starch branching enzyme IIb(SBEIIb).A frameshift mutation in SBEI(E1,a nucleotide insertion in exon 6)led to plants with higher RSC(1.07%),lower hundred-kernel weight(HKW,24.71±0.14 g),and lower plant height(PH,218.50±9.42 cm)compared to the wild type(WT).Like the WT,E1 kernel starch had irregular,polygonal shapes with sharp edges.A frameshift mutation in SBEIIb(E2,a four-nucleotide deletion in exon 8)led to higher AC(53.48%)and higher RSC(26.93%)than that for the WT.E2 kernel starch was significantly different from the WT regarding granule morphology,chain length distribution pattern,X-ray diffraction pattern,and thermal characteristics;the starch granules were more irregular in shape and comprised typical B-type crystals.Mutating SBEI and SBEIIb(E12)had a synergistic effect on RSC,HKW,PH,starch properties,and starch biosynthesis-associated gene expression.SBEIIa,SS1,SSIIa,SSIIIa,and SSIIIb were upregulated in E12 endosperm compared to WT endosperm.This study lays the foundation for rapidly improving the starch properties of elite maize lines.

Left bundle branch area pacing combined with implantable cardioverter-defibrillator treatment for heart failure after myocardial infarction

Left bundle branch area pacing(LBBAP)has emerged as a new physiological pacing mode.Previous studies have confirmed the feasibility and efficacy of LBBAP for cardiac resynchronization therapy(CRT)in heart failure(HF)patients with left bundle branch block(LBBB)and a narrower QRS duration(QRSd)to have a higher percentage of super responders,and lower pacing thresholds than biventricular pacing(BiVP).

Unilateral branch retinal artery occlusion in association with COVID-19:a case report

Dear Editor,I am Kunihiko Hirosawa of the Department of Ophthalmology at Juntendo University Hospital.I am writing to present a case of concomitant Coronavirus Disease 2019(COVID-19)with branch retinal artery occlusion(BRAO).BRAO presents as a sudden,painless loss of vision on the afflicted side and is most often focal in nature[1].

Dust Condensation of SiC, SiO in Asymptotic Giant Branch Stellar Winds-SiC Spectrum

We have chosen the Large Scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS) code to calculate the coalescence of silicon carbide (SiC),silicon oxide dust (SiO) in the AGB stellar wind.LAMMPS is a classica molecular dynamics simulation code.At the same time,we consider the effect of temperature on the evolution of molecular dynamics.We also calculated the temperature change of non-spherical SiC,SiO dust coalescence.The condensation temperature range of SiC dust in the AGB stellar wind is[300–500]k and[900–1100]k for SiO Finally,the infrared spectrum of SiC was calculated using Gaussian 16 software.The 77SiC,70Si_(3)C_(3),and 121Si_(3)C_(3) models have clear characteristic peaks of infrared spectra responding at 5,8.6,11.3,15,19,and 37μm.

Thermal pretreatment of willow branches impacts yield and pore development of activated carbon in subsequent activation with ZnCl_(2) via modifying cellulose structure

Development of pore structures of activated carbon(AC)from activation of biomass with ZnCl_(2) relies on content and structure of cellulose/hemicellulose in the feedstock.Thermal pretreatment of biomass could induce dehydration and/or aromatization to change the structure of cellulose/hemicellulose.This might interfere with evolution of structures of AC,which was investigated herein via thermal pretreatment of willow branch(WB)from 200 to 360℃and the subsequent activation with ZnCl_(2) at 550℃.The results showed that thermal pretreatment at 360℃(WB-360)could lead to substantial pyrolysis to form biochar,with a yield of 31.9%,accompanying with nearly complete destruction of cellulose crystals and remarkably enhanced aromatic degree.However,cellulose residual in WB-360 could still be activated to form AC-360 with specific surface area of 1837.9 m~2·g^(-1),which was lower than that in AC from activation of untreated WB(AC-blank,2077.8 m~2·g^(-1)).Nonetheless,the AC-200 from activation of WB-200 had more developed pores(2113.9 m~2·g^(-1))and superior capability for adsorption of phenol,due to increased permeability of ZnCl_(2) to the largely intact cellulose structure in WB-200.The thermal pretreatment did increase diameters of micropores of AC but reduced the overall yield of AC(26.8%for AC-blank versus 18.0%for AC-360),resulting from accelerated cracking but reduced intensity of condensation.In-situ infrared characterization of the activation showed that ZnCl_(2) mainly catalyzed dehydration,dehydrogenation,condensation,and aromatization but not cracking,suppressing the formation of derivatives of cellulose and lignin in bio-oil.The thermal pretreatment formed phenolic-OH and C=O with higher chemical innerness,which changed the reaction network in activation,shifting morphology of fibrous structures in AC-blank to“melting surface”in AC-200 or AC-280.

DCFNet:An Effective Dual-Branch Cross-Attention Fusion Network for Medical Image Segmentation

Automatic segmentation of medical images provides a reliable scientific basis for disease diagnosis and analysis.Notably,most existing methods that combine the strengths of convolutional neural networks(CNNs)and Transformers have made significant progress.However,there are some limitations in the current integration of CNN and Transformer technology in two key aspects.Firstly,most methods either overlook or fail to fully incorporate the complementary nature between local and global features.Secondly,the significance of integrating the multiscale encoder features from the dual-branch network to enhance the decoding features is often disregarded in methods that combine CNN and Transformer.To address this issue,we present a groundbreaking dual-branch cross-attention fusion network(DCFNet),which efficiently combines the power of Swin Transformer and CNN to generate complementary global and local features.We then designed the Feature Cross-Fusion(FCF)module to efficiently fuse local and global features.In the FCF,the utilization of the Channel-wise Cross-fusion Transformer(CCT)serves the purpose of aggregatingmulti-scale features,and the Feature FusionModule(FFM)is employed to effectively aggregate dual-branch prominent feature regions from the spatial perspective.Furthermore,within the decoding phase of the dual-branch network,our proposed Channel Attention Block(CAB)aims to emphasize the significance of the channel features between the up-sampled features and the features generated by the FCFmodule to enhance the details of the decoding.Experimental results demonstrate that DCFNet exhibits enhanced accuracy in segmentation performance.Compared to other state-of-the-art(SOTA)methods,our segmentation framework exhibits a superior level of competitiveness.DCFNet’s accurate segmentation of medical images can greatly assist medical professionals in making crucial diagnoses of lesion areas in advance.

A Light and Simplified Branch Bending Method for Young Pear Trees

Aiming at high cost and low efficiency of conventional branch bending method in the modern intensive planting and labor-saving cultivation mode of young pear trees,this paper provides a new branch bending method with wide source of raw materials,cheap price and simple operation,which is also suitable for the management of low-age branches in the process of high grafting and upgrading of traditional big trees.

Adsorption Effect of Phosphate Modified Grape Branch Biochar on Cd2

Two major problems facing agriculture at present are soil pollution and the disposal of solid wastes generated during plant growth. The method of preparing biochar from solid wastes produced by plants is a means of maximizing the use of resources to combat the problem of soil pollution. In this study, we did not choose straw in the traditional sense but the waste branches from grape pruning, which has higher lignin cellulose, as the raw material. The biochar derived from grape branches pyrolyzed at 300˚C for two hours was utilized as a raw material to prepare modified biochar with varying concentrations of phosphoric acid. The adsorption performance and mechanism of Cd2 were explored through experiments involving different concentrations, addition amounts, reaction times, kinetic analyses, and isothermal adsorption tests. The findings indicated that the optimal adsorption of Cd2 occurred with a 20% phosphoric acid concentration, achieving the highest adsorption rate of 84.62%. At a dosage of 10 g/L, the maximum adsorption capacity reached 7.02 mg/g. The adsorption kinetics and isothermal adsorption of Cd2 on biochar modified with 0.2% phosphoric acid (0.2 PB) closely followed the pseudo-first-order kinetics model (R2 > 0.98) and the Freundlich model (R2 > 0.97), respectively. This suggests that the adsorption process involves both physical and chemical mechanisms. SEM and FTIR analyses revealed that phosphoric acid modification primarily increased the biochar’s specific surface area and enhanced certain original functional groups. The adsorption process predominantly involved rapid ion diffusion and chemical adsorption, as confirmed by kinetic analysis and isothermal adsorption model analysis. In summary, the adsorption efficiency of 0.2 PB significantly improved, showing potential and feasibility for heavy metal remediation in soil. This supports the environmentally friendly concept of “treating waste with waste”.

Left bundle branch pacing set to outshine biventricular pacing for cardiac resynchronization therapy?

The deleterious effects of long-term right ventricular pacing necessitated the search for alternative pacing sites which could prevent or alleviate pacinginduced cardiomyopathy.Until recently,biventricular pacing(BiVP)was the only modality which could mitigate or prevent pacing induced dysfunction.Further,BiVP could resynchronize the baseline electromechanical dssynchrony in heart failure and improve outcomes.However,the high non-response rate of around 20%-30%remains a major limitation.This non-response has been largely attributable to the direct non-physiological stimulation of the left ventricular myocardium bypassing the conduction system.To overcome this limitation,the concept of conduction system pacing(CSP)came up.Despite initial success of the first CSP via His bundle pacing(HBP),certain drawbacks including lead instability and dislodgements,steep learning curve and rapid battery depletion on many occasions prevented its widespread use for cardiac resynchronization therapy(CRT).Subsequently,CSP via left bundle branch-area pacing(LBBP)was developed in 2018,which over the last few years has shown efficacy comparable to BiVP-CRT in small observational studies.Further,its safety has also been well established and is largely free of the pitfalls of the HBP-CRT.In the recent metanalysis by Yasmin et al,comprising of 6 studies with 389 participants,LBBPCRT was superior to BiVP-CRT in terms of QRS duration,left ventricular ejection fraction,cardiac chamber dimensions,lead thresholds,and functional status amongst heart failure patients with left bundle branch block.However,there are important limitations of the study including the small overall numbers,inclusion of only a single small randomized controlled trial(RCT)and a small follow-up duration.Further,the entire study population analyzed was from China which makes generalizability a concern.Despite the concerns,the meta-analysis adds to the growing body of evidence demonstrating the efficacy of LBBP-CRT.At this stage,one must acknowledge that the fact that still our opinions on this technique are largely based on observational data and there is a dire need for larger RCTs to ascertain the position of LBBPCRT in management of heart failure patients with left bundle branch block.

Synthesis of Branched Polyethylene via Bulky α-Diimine Nickel(II)-Catalyzed Ethylene Chain-Walking Polymerization

The catalysis of olefin polymerization through the chain-walking process is a subject of great interest. In this contribution, the successful synthesis of a Brookhart-type unsymmetrical α-diimine nickel catalyst Ni, which contains both dibenzhydryl and phenyl groups, was determined by X-ray crystallography. The compound has a pseudo-tetrahedral geometry at the Ni center, showing pseudo-C2-symmetry. Upon activation with modified methylaluminoxane (MMAO), Ni1 exhibits high catalytic activity up to 1.02 × 107 g PE (mol Ni h)−1 toward ethylene polymerization, enabling the synthesis of high molecular weight branched polyethylene. The molecular weights and branching densities could be tuned over a very wide range. The polymerization results indicated the possibility of precise microstructure control, depending on the polymerization temperature. The branching densities were decreased with increasing the polymerization temperature.

Attribute Reduction Method Based on Sequential Three-Branch Decision Model

Attribute reduction is a research hotspot in rough set theory. Traditional heuristic attribute reduction methods add the most important attribute to the decision attribute set each time, resulting in multiple redundant attribute calculations, high time consumption, and low reduction efficiency. In this paper, based on the idea of sequential three-branch decision classification domain, attributes are treated as objects of three-branch division, and attributes are divided into core attributes, relatively necessary attributes, and unnecessary attributes using attribute importance and thresholds. Core attributes are added to the decision attribute set, unnecessary attributes are rejected from being added, and relatively necessary attributes are repeatedly divided until the reduction result is obtained. Experiments were conducted on 8 groups of UCI datasets, and the results show that, compared to traditional reduction methods, the method proposed in this paper can effectively reduce time consumption while ensuring classification performance.

煤矿设备运行状态在AGB组合模型下的预测分析研究

为解决王坪煤业采煤工作面煤矿设备运行状态评估时出现的预测精度低、单一模型适用范围小等问题,将Arima模型、BP神经网络以及GM(1,1)模型相结合,提出组合下的煤矿设备运行状态预测模型。经过系统对比验证分析,AGB组合模型下煤矿设备运行状态预测较单一预测模型精度更高,能够为现场工作人员提供更好的指导,为煤矿设备的运行安全提供了保障。

观测证据对小质量AGB星^(13)C中子源的约束

^(13)C(α,n)^(16)O反应是小质量渐近巨星分支(asymptotic giant branch,AGB)星(M/M_⊙≤3,M和M_⊙分别表示AGB星的质量和太阳质量)内s过程(慢中子俘获过程)的主要中子源。在对流热脉冲间隔期间,一个储层(即所谓的“^(13)C袋”)内的^(13)C在辐射条件下(约8 keV)燃烧并释放中子。到目前为止,^(13)C袋的物理形成过程仍远未被充分理解,因此^(13)C袋的结构也一直无法被完全确定。在后处理核合成计算中,^(13)C袋通常是利用观测数据通过自由的参数化来约束。从基本原理、主要效果及局限性等方面综述了不同观测证据对^(13)C袋的约束作用,最后展望了^(13)C中子源约束问题未来可能的研究方向。

利用VGC-AGB模型和高光谱遥感的马铃薯地上生物量估算

马铃薯是继水稻、小麦、玉米之后的一种重要的粮食作物,其优化种植和生产对于保障粮食安全具有重要的意义。作物的地面生物量(AGB)被广泛认为与作物的生长状态密切相关,常常被直接用来参与作物产量预测和健康状态参数评估。现有的研究表明,遥感植被指数在中高作物覆盖度时会丧失对作物参数的敏感性,即“饱和现象”,这制约了作物生长中后期AGB的准确监测。采用了一个新型垂直生长作物AGB估算模型(VGC-AGB)结合高光谱遥感开展马铃薯多生长阶段的AGB估算研究。针对多生长时期遥感光谱指数开展作物生物量监测中存在的“饱和问题”,VGC-AGB定义了叶片干物质含量(C_(m))和垂直器官干物质含量(C_(sm))2个参数,分别描述马铃薯叶片和茎的平均干物质含量,并通过叶面积指数(LAI)×C_(m)计算叶片的地上生物量(AGB l),通过种植密度(C_(d))、马铃薯株高(C_(h))和C_(sm)的乘积,即C_(d)×C_(h)×C_(sm)计算垂直器官的地上生物量(AGB v)。基于国家精准农业研究示范基地2019年马铃薯田间实验,分别获取了马铃薯4个关键生长时期的地面ASD高光谱数据、实测株高、AGB和LAI数据等,并利用高光谱反射率数据构建了高光谱特征参数,分别对比了(1)高光谱特征参数+株高,(2)地面测量参数+VGC-AGB模型和(3)高光谱特征参数+VGC-AGB模型的3种马铃薯AGB估算模型的性能。结果表明,与传统的高光谱遥感植被指数+株高的AGB估算方法相比,新型VGC-AGB模型结合高光谱遥感数据可以提供更高性能的马铃薯AGB l、AGB v和总AGB估算结果,该方法可为马铃薯AGB的快速无损监测提供技术支撑。

PpTCP18 is upregulated by lncRNA5 and controls branch number in peach (Prunus persica) through positive feedback regulation of strigolactone biosynthesis

Branch number is an important agronomic trait in peach(Prunus persica)trees because plant architecture affects fruit yield and quality.Although breeders can select varieties with different tree architecture,the biological mechanisms underlying architecture remain largely unclear.In this study,a pillar peach(‘Zhaoshouhong’)and a standard peach(‘Okubo’)were compared.‘Zhaoshouhong’was found to have significantly fewer secondary branches than‘Okubo’.Treatment with the synthetic strigolactone(SL)GR24 decreased branch number.Transcriptome analysis indicated that PpTCP18(a homologous gene of Arabidopsis thaliana BRC1)expression was negatively correlated with strigolactone synthesis gene expression,indicating that PpTCP18 may play an important role in peach branching.Yeast one-hybrid,electrophoretic mobility shift,dual-luciferase assays and PpTCP18-knockdown in peach leaf buds indicated that PpTCP18 could increase expression of PpLBO1,PpMAX1,and PpMAX4.Furthermore,transgenic Arabidopsis plants overexpressing PpTCP18 clearly exhibited reduced primary rosette-leaf branches.Moreover,lncRNA sequencing and transient expression analysis revealed that lncRNA5 targeted PpTCP18,significantly increasing PpTCP18 expression.These results provide insights into the mRNA and lncRNA network in the peach SL signaling pathway and indicate that PpTCP18,a transcription factor downstream of SL signaling,is involved in positive feedback regulation of SL biosynthesis.This role of PpTCP18 may represent a novel mechanism in peach branching regulation.Our study improves current understanding of the mechanisms underlying peach branching and provides theoretical support for genetic improvement of peach tree architecture.

Branched fibrous amidoxime adsorbent with ultrafast adsorption rate and high amidoxime utilization for uranium extraction from seawater

Direct collection of uranium from low uranium systems via adsorption remains challenging.Fibrous sorbent materials with amidoxime(AO)groups are promising adsorbents for uranium extraction from seawater.However,low AO adsorption group utilization remains an issue.We herein fabricated a branched structure containing AO groups on polypropylene/polyethylene spun-laced nonwoven(PP/PE SNW)fibers using grafting polymerization induced by radiation(RIGP)to improve AO utilization.The chemical structures,thermal properties,and surface morphologies of the raw and treated PP/PE SNW fibers were studied.The results show that an adsorptive functional layer with a branching structure was successfully anchored to the fiber surface.The adsorption properties were investigated using batch adsorption experiments in simulated seawater with an initial uranium concentration of 500μg·L^(−1)(pH 4,25℃).The maximum adsorption capacity of the adsorbent material was 137.3 mg·g^(−1)within 24 h;moreover,the uranyl removal reached 96%within 240 min.The adsorbent had an AO utilization rate of 1/3.5 and was stable over a pH range of 4–10,with good selectivity and reusability,demonstrating its potential for seawater uranium extraction.

FixBranchPHT:一种针对BranchScope攻击的软件防御方法

BranchScope是一种基于分支预测机制的时间侧信道攻击,攻击者利用受害者分支在intel双模态分支方向预测器的执行痕迹推断分支方向.现有大多数防护分支预测攻击和时间侧信道攻击的方案无法阻止分支在方向预测器中留下痕迹,因此不能抵御BranchScope攻击;少数有效方案建议移除分支或消除秘密信息对分支方向的依赖,但需要复杂的数据流和控制流转换.本文提出一种可有效抵御BranchScope攻击的软件防护方案FixBranchPHT,详细分析了所提方案的安全性、实用性和效率.与现有方案相比, FixBranchPHT首次通过重复执行分支,刷新分支在双模态方向预测器的秘密痕迹,修改代码的量更少,程序转换难度更低.本文首先系统分析了BranchScope攻击原理和分支方向预测机制.其次,将不同的分支结构转换为统一形式,利用循环结构实现分支的重复执行;同时利用硬件事务内存的中止回滚机制,保证关键代码不被恶意中断.再次,对方案的安全性进行了理论验证.最后,选取了四个公开的BranchScope攻击目标实验验证方案的有效性,基于nbench基准测试套件评估了防护添加后的性能.实验结果表明FixBranchPHT方案可有效抵御BranchScope攻击,平均仅产生34%的性能损耗.

Repair and regeneration of peripheral nerve injuries that ablate branch points

The peripheral nervous system has an extensive branching organization, and peripheral nerve injuries that ablate branch points present a complex challenge for clinical repair. Ablations of linear segments of the PNS have been extensively studied and routinely treated with autografts, acellular nerve allografts, conduits, wraps, and nerve transfers. In contrast, segmental-loss peripheral nerve injuries, in which one or more branch points are ablated so that there are three or more nerve endings, present additional complications that have not been rigorously studied or documented. This review discusses:(1) the branched anatomy of the peripheral nervous system,(2) case reports describing how peripheral nerve injuries with branched ablations have been surgically managed,(3) factors known to influence regeneration through branched nerve structures,(4) techniques and models of branched peripheral nerve injuries in animal models, and(5) conclusions regarding outcome measures and studies needed to improve understanding of regeneration through ablated branched structures of the peripheral nervous system.

Research Progress and Application of Plant Branching

Plant branching development plays an important role in plant morphogenesis(aboveground plant type),the number and angle of branches are important agronomic characters that determine crop plant type.Effective branches determine the number of panicles or pods of crops and then control the yield of crops.With the rapid development of plant genomics and molecular genetics,great progress has been made in the study of branching development.In recent years,a series of important branching-related genes have been validated from Arabidopsis thaliana,rice,pea,tomato and maize mutants.It is reviewed that plant branching development is controlled by genetic elements and plant hormones,such as auxin,cytokinin and lactones(or lactone derivatives),as well as by environment and genetic elements.Meanwhile,shoot architecture in crop breeding was discussed in order to provide theoretical basis for the study of crop branching regulation.