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Under changing environmental conditions, water level is a crucial indicator for assessing the wetland hydrological cycle. However, due to some wetlands being located in remote and widely dispersed areas, acquiring data on wetland water level changes presents significant challenges, making wetland water level monitoring exceptionally difficult. Wetlands are extensively distributed in western Jilin Province, China, and are experiencing significant degradation due to various factors including natural conditions, agricultural activities, and social development. To address this challenge, this study proposes a monitoring method that combines Sentinel-3 radar altimetry satellites with optical remote sensing images to obtain wetland water level data. Additionally, the study takes into account the Chinese government's Interconnected River System Network Project (IRSNP), classifying wetlands in western Jilin Province into three different water recharge scenarios: direct recharge through main and branch canals, indirect recharge through ditches, and no recharge to isolated wetlands. This study analyses the relationship between wetland water level changes and climatic factors, and assesses how IRSNP can mitigate the negative impacts of climate factors on wetland water levels across different recharge scenarios. The results show that: (1) the wetland water level monitoring method, has high accuracy and feasibility. The average difference between the in-situ measured and satellite-monitored water levels was 0.254 m. (2) There was an overall increasing trend in wetland water levels directly influenced by IRSNP, an insignificant decreasing trend in wetland water levels indirectly influenced by IRSNP. (3) Increased precipitation and decreased evaporation are the predominant climatic factors contributing to rising wetland water levels. Conversely, lower relative humidity and higher temperatures primarily lead to declining water levels. The construction of IRSNP can mitigate the impact of climate change on water levels. Thus, under changing environmental conditions, the implementation of IRSNP has positively impacted wetland protection and provides valuable insights for understanding wetland water level changes and managing water resources effectively., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The effects of cast iron pipe corrosion on water quality risk and microbial ecology in drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs) were investigated. It was found that trihalomethane (THMs) concentration and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) increased sharply in the old DWDSs. Under the same residual chlorine concentration conditions, the adenosine triphosphate concentration in the effluent of old DWDSs (Eff-old) was significantly higher than that in the effluent of new DWDSs. Moreover, stronger bioflocculation ability and weaker hydrophobicity coexisted in the extracellular polymeric substances of Eff-old, meanwhile, iron particles could be well inserted into the structure of the biofilms to enhance the mechanical strength and stability of the biofilms, hence enhancing the formation of THMs. Old DWDSs significantly influenced the microbial community of bulk water and triggered stronger microbial antioxidant systems response, resulting in higher ARGs abundance. Corroded cast iron pipes induced a unique interaction system of biofilms, chlorine, and corrosion products. Therefore, as the age of cast iron pipes increases, the fluctuation of water quality and microbial ecology should be paid more attention to maintain the safety of tap water., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: The unmanned aerial spraying systems (UASS) have gained widespread use for plant protection in recent years. However, spray drift from UASS is a major concern when controlling weeds over large areas and warrants a thorough investigation. This study examined the atomization characteristics of the herbicide florpyrauxifen-benzyl under downwash airflow using a UASS spray test platform. Potential spray drift was assessed using a test bench (TB) and airborne drift collectors (ADCs) in the field under low wind speeds (<1 m s -1 )., Results: Atomization characteristics were significantly affected by the spray liquid, adjuvant, nozzle type and spray pressure. The addition of an adjuvant reduced the liquid sheet length, improved physicochemical properties and increased droplet size under the downwash airflow field. Drift evaluation in the field using the TB revealed that sediment spray drift predominantly occurred from the middle to the entire length of the device when fine-to-medium droplets were produced after the sprayer passed. ADC assessment found that higher flight altitudes and finer droplets resulted in higher drift values, whereas the addition of an adjuvant and the use of an air-induction nozzle reduced drift <3 m aboveground., Conclusion: The combination of using TB in the target area and ADCs in the off-target area as an alternative method to determine residual droplets in the current airflow provided valuable insights into airborne drift assessment for UASS. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.)

During the investigation of parasitic pathogens of Mytilus coruscus , infection of a Perkinsus -like protozoan parasite was detected by alternative Ray's Fluid Thioglycolate Medium (ARFTM). The diameter of hypnospores or prezoosporangia was 8–27 (15.6 ± 4.0, n = 111) μm. The prevalence of the Perkinsus -like species in M. coruscus was 25 and 12.5% using ARFTM and PCR, respectively. The ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 fragments amplified by PCR assay had 100% homology to that of P. beihaiensis , suggesting that the protozoan parasite was P. beihaisensis and M. coruscus was its new host in East China Sea (ECS). Histological analysis showed the presence of trophozoites of P. beihaiensis in gill, mantle and visceral mass, and the schizonts only found in visceral mass. Perkinsus beihaiensis infection led to inflammatory reaction of hemocyte and the destruction of digestive tubules in visceral mass, which had negative effect on health of the farmed M. coruscus and it deserves more attention.

Background: Depression is a major contributor to the global burden of diseases, and alcohol intake is often considered to be associated with depression. However, the relationship between alcohol drinking frequency and depression remains unclear. This study aims to explore the association between alcohol drinking frequency and depression., Methods: This study collected NHANES data from 2009 to 2016, involving 17,466 participants. Depression was diagnosed based on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and alcohol drinking frequency was collected through questionnaire surveys. Multifactorial logistic regression models, subgroup analysis, smooth curve fitting, and threshold effect analysis were used to investigate the relationship between alcohol drinking frequency and depression., Results: We divided the alcohol drinking frequency into five groups on average. After adjusting for all covariates, the Q3 group had the lowest odds of depression (OR = 0.68; 95% CI: 0.56 ~ 0.82; p < 0.05). Through smooth curve fitting, we found an "M-shaped" relationship between alcohol drinking frequency and depression. Further threshold effect analysis revealed that the most significant inflection points were 80 and 150., Conclusion: In this cross-sectional study of American adults, we found an "M-shaped" relationship between alcohol drinking frequency and depression, which may partially explain the different effects of moderate alcohol consumption on depression., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study adhered to the ethical principles of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and obtained approval from the NCHS Ethics Review Board. For specific details regarding ethics, please refer to the website: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/irba98.htm . Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The decline in groundwater quality in intensive agricultural areas in recent years, driven by environmental change and intensified human activity, poses a significant threat to agricultural production and public health, requiring attention and effective management. However, distinguishing the specific impacts of various factors on groundwater quality remains challenging, which hinders the effective management and prevention of groundwater pollution. This research integrates a hydrochemical analysis with the Entropy-weighted Water Quality Index, Self-Organizing Map (SOM) approach, and Boruta algorithm to investigate groundwater chemical variations and their influencing factors in the Sanjiang Plain, an important grain-producing region in China. The findings reveal that, compared to 2012, the deep groundwater quality has improved, while the shallow groundwater quality has markedly deteriorated. This decline in shallow groundwater quality is primarily attributable to human activities and is characterized by elevated levels of chloride, sulfate, and nitrate and a shift in the groundwater hydrochemical facies from an HCO 3 -Ca·Mg type to a mixed HCO 3 -Ca·Mg and SO 4 ·Cl-Ca·Mg type. The SOM results suggested that land use type significantly affects shallow groundwater quality. Further analysis with the Boruta algorithm identified increased sewage and manure emissions from expanding livestock operations as well as enhanced pollutant leakage from the expansion of paddy fields as the primary contributors to the decline in shallow groundwater quality. These findings offer new insights into the mechanisms of groundwater quality changes in agriculturally intensive regions and provide a foundation for improved groundwater pollution management in the Sanjiang Plain and similar areas., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

SMARCB1/SMARCA4-deficient malignancies of the female genital tract are rare entities, characterized by similar histologic features, such as sheet-like growth patterns and rhabdoid cells. Previous studies have shown mutually exclusive loss of SMARCA4/BRG1 and SMARCB1/INI1. Herein, we describe a unique cervical mixed carcinoma in a 77-year-old patient. The tumor consisted of 3 components, gastric-type adenocarcinoma, squamous carcinoma, and undifferentiated carcinoma. While the undifferentiated carcinoma was negtive for CK7, CK5/6 and p63, it was positive for pan-CK. DNA-based next-generation sequencing revealed a nonsense mutation in SMARCA4, copy number loss in SMARCB1, and a nonsense mutation in ARID1A. Different molecular alterations of the switch/sucrose nonfermenting complex subunits in the present case may provide further insights into the functions of the switch/sucrose nonfermenting complex in the progression of tumors., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 by the International Society of Gynecological Pathologists.)

Background: Environmental pollution has emerged as a significant determinant in ovarian cancer prognosis. However, limited evidence exists regarding the correlations between heavy metals and ovarian cancer prognosis., Objective: To elucidate the relationship between urinary heavy metals and their mixtures with overall survival (OS) of advanced high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC)., Methods: Within the Ovarian Cancer Follow-Up Study, we conducted a nested case-control study. A sum of 159 deceased patients and an equal number of alive patients were included, matched by sample date, body mass index, and age at diagnosis. Urinary concentrations of five heavy metals were quantified: arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), mercury (Hg), and lead (Pb). Conditional logistic regression models were employed to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and their 95 % confidence intervals (CIs). To elucidate joint effects, we utilized quantile g-computation and Bayesian kernel machine regression models., Results: For the multivariable adjusted conditional logistic regression model, significant associations were found between high urinary levels of As (OR=1.99, 95 %CI: 1.05-3.79), Cd (OR=2.56, 95 %CI: 1.29-5.05), Hg (OR=2.24, 95 %CI: 1.09-4.62), and Pb (OR=3.80, 95 %CI: 1.75-8.27) and worse OS of HGSOC, comparing the highest tertile to the lowest. Analysis of joint effects showed that elevated concentrations of heavy metal mixtures were related to poor OS of HGSOC. Pb exhibited the highest contribution to the overall association within the metal mixtures., Conclusions: High urinary heavy metal concentrations were linked to worse OS of HGSOC. Future research is necessary to validate our findings., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The study proposed a method for determining total nitrogen (TN) content in activated sludge by ultrasound pre-treatment assisted wet method. Based on the single-factor experiment, with the TN content as the response value, the response surface methodology was employed to examine the individual and interactive effects of three factors: the dilution multiple of the sludge mixture, ultrasonic time, and ultrasonic power. At the same time, the physico-chemical parameters and the digestion-oxidation parameters were optimised. The results indicated that the optimal parameters were as follows; sludge dilution multiple of 225 times, stirring rate of 400 r/min, ultrasonic time of 22 minutes, ultrasonic power of 720 W, and optimal added volume of potassium persulfate at 8 mL with a digestion time of 40 minutes. The relative standard deviation (RSD) for the parallel determination of TN in sludge samples using ultrasonic pre-treatment assisted wet method was ≤2.77%, with a spike recovery rate of 98.49-101.43%. The method, ultrasonic pre-treatment assisted wet method to determine TN concentration in activated sludge, was simpler to operate, more accurate.

Background and Objective: Obesity is an important risk factor for the onset of kidney cancer, and the mechanism of obesity leading to the occurrence and development of kidney cancer has been further studied and confirmed in the past decade. The emergence of the "obesity paradox" phenomenon has made the correlation between obesity and the prognosis of kidney cancer survival controversial. This review summarizes the association between obesity and the occurrence and development of kidney cancer based on newly discovered evidence in the past 10 years, in order to provide reference for follow-up research., Methods: A comprehensive, non-systematic review of the latest literature was carried out in order to investigate the progress of the correlation between obesity and kidney cancer. PubMed, Web of Science and Embase were being examined and the last run was on July 15, 2024., Key Content and Findings: The correlation between obesity and the occurrence and development of kidney cancer was discussed in this review, and the newly discovered evidence of epidemiology and related mechanisms in the past 10 years was summarized. The latest evidence suggests that obesity is an important risk factor for the development of kidney cancer. Perirenal fat plays an important role in promoting kidney cancer progression and prognosis., Conclusions: Epidemiology shows that the high rates of kidney cancer and obesity coincide in terms of region and ethnicity. The underlying mechanisms associated with obesity in promoting the occurrence and development of kidney cancer mainly include: abnormal expression of adipocytokines, abnormal lipid metabolism, abnormalities in the insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) axis and hyperinsulinemia/insulin resistance, hypoxia and inflammation. As adipose tissue is adjacent to the kidney, the effect of perirenal adipose tissue on the prognosis of kidney cancer is controversial, and some evidence supports the idea of the "obesity paradox"., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://tcr.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/tcr-24-744/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2024 AME Publishing Company. All rights reserved.)

Background: This prospective cohort study focused on the predictive value of frailty or pre-frailty assessed by Edmonton Frailty Scale (EFS) for postoperative delirium in spinal surgery patients., Methods: The primary outcome measurement was postoperative delirium (POD) evaluated by Confusion Assessment Method at day 1, day 2, and day 3 after the surgery. Secondary outcomes included severity and duration of POD, severe postoperative pain measured by Faces Pain Scale-Revised. Patients scheduled for elective spinal surgery were enrolled and assessed for frailty by EFS before surgery. Demographic data, preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative information were collected., Results: 231 out of 325 patients were enrolled and analyzed in this study at last. The cohort with 36.8% being frail and 28.5% being vulnerable. Postoperative delirium was detected in 41 in 231 patients. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that vulnerable to frailty (OR = 4.681, 95% CI: 1.199 to 18.271, P = 0.026), after adjusted duration of surgery more than 3 h, using flumazenil at the end of surgery, using butorphanol only in postoperative patient-controlled intravenous analgesia, moderate-to-severe pain at day 1 and 2, is a strong predictor of postoperative delirium. Frailty was associated with longer duration (frailty vs. fit, P = 0.364) and stronger severity of postoperative delirium in the first two days (P < 0.001). High EFS score was independent risk factor of severe postoperative pain (Frailty vs. Fit: OR = 5.007, 95% CI: 1.903 to 13.174, P = 0.001; Vulnerable vs. Fit: OR = 2.525, 95% CI: 1.008 to 6.329, P = 0.048). In stratified tests, Sufentanil regimen in intravenous PCA significantly increase the proportion of POD in vulnerable group (P = 0.030), instead of frailty group (P = 0.872) or fit group (P = 0.928)., Conclusions: Frailty can increase the risk, severity, duration of delirium and severe postoperative pain in the first 3 days after surgery of patients., Trial Registration: The protocol of this study has been approved by the Ethic Committee of Shanghai Changzheng Hospital (Approval file number: 2022SL044) and informed consent was obtained from all the patients. The trial was retrospectively registered at chictr.org.cn (ChiCTR2300073306) on 6th July 2023., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters hydrolyse ATP to transport various substrates. Previous studies have shown that ABC transporters are responsible for transporting plant hormones and heavy metals, thus contributing to plant immunity. Herein, we identified a wheat G-type ABC transporter, TaABCG2-5B, that responds to salicylic acid (SA) treatment and is induced by Fusarium graminearum, the primary pathogen causing Fusarium head blight (FHB). The loss-of-function mutation of TaABCG2-5B (ΔTaabcg2-5B) reduced SA accumulation and increased susceptibility to F. graminearum. Conversely, overexpression of TaABCG2-5B (OE-TaABCG2-5B) exerted the opposite effect. Quantification of intracellular SA in ΔTaabcg2-5B and OE-TaABCG2-5B protoplasts revealed that TaABCG2-5B acts as an importer, facilitating the transport of SA into the cytoplasm. This role was further confirmed by Cd 2+ absorption experiments in wheat roots, indicating that TaABCG2-5B also participates in Cd 2+ transport. Thus, TaABCG2-5B acts as an importer and is crucial for transporting multiple substrates. Notably, the homologous gene TaABCG2-5A also facilitated Cd 2+ uptake in wheat roots but did not significantly influence SA accumulation or FHB resistance. Therefore, TaABCG2 could be a valuable target for enhancing wheat tolerance to Cd 2+ and improving FHB resistance., (© 2024 The Author(s). Molecular Plant Pathology published by British Society for Plant Pathology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Global warming is profoundly impacting snowmelt runoff processes in seasonal freeze-thaw zones, thereby altering the risk of rain-on-snow (ROS) floods. These changes not only affect the frequency of floods but also alter the allocation of water resources, which has implications for agriculture and other key economic sectors. While these risks present a significant threat to our lives and economies, the risk of ROS floods triggered by climate change has not received the attention it deserves. Therefore, we chose Changbai Mountain, a water tower in a high-latitude cold zone, as a typical study area. The semi-distributed hydrological model SWAT is coupled with CMIP6 meteorological data, and four shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP126, SSP245, SSP370, and SSP585) are selected after bias correction, thus quantifying the impacts of climate change on hydrological processes in the Changbai Mountain region as well as future evolution of the ROS flood risk. The results indicate that: (1) Under future climate change scenarios, snowmelt in most areas of the Changbai Mountains decreases. The annual average snowmelt under SSP126, SSP245, SSP370, and SSP585 is projected to be 148.65 mm, 135.63 mm, 123.44 mm, and 116.5 mm, respectively. The onset of snowmelt is projected to advance in the future. Specifically, in the Songhua River (SR) and Yalu River (YR) regions, the start of snowmelt is expected to advance by 1-11 days. Spatially, significant reductions in snowmelt were observed in both the central part of the watershed and the lower reaches of the river under SSP585 scenario. (2) In 2021-2060, the frequency of ROS floods decreases sequentially for different scenarios, with SSP 126 > SSP 245 > SSP 370 > SSP 585. The frequency increments of ROS floods in the source area for the four scenarios were 0.12 days/year, 0.1 d/yr, 0.13 days/year, and 0.15 days/year, respectively. The frequency of high-elevation ROS events increases in the YR in the low emission scenario. Conversely, in high emission scenarios, YR high-elevation ROS events will only increase in 2061-2100. This phenomenon is more pronounced in the Tumen River (TR), where floods become more frequent with increasing elevation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Microplastics have emerged as a significant global concern, particularly in marine ecosystems. While extensive research has focused on the toxicological effects of microplastics on marine animals and/or their associated microorganisms as two separate entities, the holistic perspective of the adaptability and fitness of a marine animal metaorganism-comprising the animal host and its microbiome-remains largely unexplored. In this study, mussel metaorganisms subjected chronic PS-MPs exposure experienced acute mortality but rapidly adapted. We investigated the response of innate immunity, digestive enzymes and their associated microbiomes to chronic PS-MPs exposure. We found that PS-MPs directly and indirectly interacted with the host and microbe within the exposure system. The adaptation was a joint effort between the physiological adjustments of mussel host and genetic adaptation of its microbiome. The mussel hosts exhibited increased antioxidant activity, denser gill filaments and increased immune cells, enhancing their innate immunity. Concurrently, the gill microbiome and the digestive gland microbiome respective selectively enriched for plastic-degrading bacteria and particulate organic matter-utilizing bacteria, facilitating the microbiome's adaptation. The microbial adaptation to chronic PS-MPs exposure altered the ecological roles of mussel microbiome, as evidenced by alterations in microbial interactions and nutrient cycling functions. These findings provided new insights into the ecotoxicological impact of microplastics on marine organisms from a metaorganism perspective., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The demand for "online meetings" and "collaborative office work" keeps surging recently, producing an abundant amount of relevant data. How to provide participants with accurate and fast summarizing service has attracted extensive attention. Existing meeting summarizing models overlook the utilization of multi-modal information and the information offsetting during summarizing. In this paper, we develop a knowledge-enhanced multi-modal summarizing framework. Firstly, we construct a three-layer multi-modal meeting knowledge graph, including basic, knowledge, and multi-modal layer, to integrate meeting information thoroughly. Then, we raise a topic-based hierarchical clustering approach, which considers information entropy and difference simultaneously, to capture the semantic evolution of meetings. Next, we devise a multi-modal enhanced encoding strategy, including a sentence-level cross-modal encoder, a joint loss function, and a knowledge graph embedding module, to learn the meeting and topic-level presentations. Finally, when generating summaries, we design a topic-enhanced decoding strategy for the Transformer decoder which mitigates semantic offsetting with the aid of topic information. Extensive experiments show that our proposed work consistently outperforms state-of-the-art solutions on the Chinese meeting dataset, where the ROUGE-1, ROUGE-2, and ROUGE-L are 49.98%, 21.03%, and 32.03% respectively., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Radiomics has been used in the diagnosis of cirrhosis and prediction of its associated complications. However, most current studies predict the risk of esophageal variceal bleeding (EVB) based on image features at a single level, which results in incomplete data. Few studies have explored the use of global multi-organ radiomics for non-invasive prediction of EVB secondary to cirrhosis., Aim: To develop a model based on clinical and multi-organ radiomic features to predict the risk of first-instance secondary EVB in patients with cirrhosis., Methods: In this study, 208 patients with cirrhosis were retrospectively evaluated and randomly split into training ( n = 145) and validation ( n = 63) cohorts. Three areas were chosen as regions of interest for extraction of multi-organ radiomic features: The whole liver, whole spleen, and lower esophagus-gastric fundus region. In the training cohort, radiomic score (Rad-score) was created by screening radiomic features using the inter-observer and intra-observer correlation coefficients and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method. Independent clinical risk factors were selected using multivariate logistic regression analyses. The radiomic features and clinical risk variables were combined to create a new radiomics-clinical model (RC model). The established models were validated using the validation cohort., Results: The RC model yielded the best predictive performance and accurately predicted the EVB risk of patients with cirrhosis. Ascites, portal vein thrombosis, and plasma prothrombin time were identified as independent clinical risk factors. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) values for the RC model, Rad-score (liver + spleen + esophagus), Rad-score (liver), Rad-score (spleen), Rad-score (esophagus), and clinical model in the training cohort were 0.951, 0.930, 0.801, 0.831, 0.864, and 0.727, respectively. The corresponding AUC values in the validation cohort were 0.930, 0.886, 0.763, 0.792, 0.857, and 0.692., Conclusion: In patients with cirrhosis, combined multi-organ radiomics and clinical model can be used to non-invasively predict the probability of the first secondary EVB., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest., (©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Innovative superabsorbent hydrogels were synthesized from watermelon rind (WR), an abundant agricultural waste. The process involved free radical polymerization of acrylic acid (AA) and acrylamide (AAm) with WR particles activated by ammonium persulfate (APS), resulting in (AA-co-AAm)/WR hydrogels with high equilibrium swelling capacities of 749 ± 32 g/g. Notably, after eight cycles, the WR hydrogel maintained 94.88 % of its initial swelling capacity, significantly outperforming the (AA-co-AAm) hydrogel without WR (13.80 % retention). This durability, combined with excellent water retention across various soil textures and high adsorption capacity for methylene blue (MB), underscores the WR hydrogel as a superior soil moisture conservation agent. This study marks a significant advance in recycling organic waste and enhancing water management in agricultural soils, demonstrating the potential for sustainable hydrogel development., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Background: Metastatic cancers with unclear or unknown origins pose significant challenges in diagnosis and management, frequently leading to suboptimal outcomes. Studies have demonstrated that a 90-gene expression assay is effective in predicting the primary origin and guiding the site-specific therapy to improve prognosis. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of a 90-gene expression assay in patients with unclear or unknown diagnoses., Methods: The study encompassed patients for whom a 90-gene expression assay was requested as part of standard care. Data on patient demographics, tumor characteristics, and clinical history were collected. The assay's performance was evaluated by comparing its predicted tumor type with the final histopathological diagnosis., Results: Among 303 cases analyzed, a 90-gene expression assay successfully identified a molecular-based tumor type for 295 (97.4%) patients. Comparison with histopathological diagnosis revealed an overall agreement of 88.5% (170/192). In patients with a single suspected primary site (n = 140), the assay confirmed the suspected diagnosis in 90.7% of cases. For those with a differential diagnosis (n = 52), the assay narrowed down the possibilities in 82.7% of cases. Moreover, in cases where the histopathology report indicated cancer of unknown primary (n = 103), the assay offered a molecular tumor type prediction with potential clinical significance., Conclusions: This study demonstrates the significant impact of a 90-gene expression assay on diagnosis and potential treatment selection for difficult-to-diagnose patients, highlighting its clinical value as a standardized molecular approach to streamline further diagnostic testing for patients with metastatic cancer of unclear or unknown origin. Further prospective study is required to assess whether employing molecular diagnostic classifiers enhances clinical outcomes in these patients., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

Rheumatoid arthritis is a widely prevalent autoimmune bone disease that imposes a significant burden on global healthcare systems due to its increasing incidence. In recent years, attention has focused on the interaction between gut homeostasis and the immune system, particularly in relation to bone health. Dysbiosis, which refers to an imbalance in the composition and function of the gut microbiota, has been shown to drive immune dysregulation through mechanisms such as the release of pro-inflammatory metabolites, increased gut permeability, and impaired regulatory T cell function. These factors collectively contribute to immune system imbalance, promoting the onset and progression of Rheumatoid arthritis. Dysbiosis induces both local and systemic inflammatory responses, activating key pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha, Interleukin-6, and Interleukin-17, which exacerbate joint inflammation and damage. Investigating the complex interactions between gut homeostasis and immune regulation in the context of Rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis holds promise for identifying new therapeutic targets, revealing novel mechanisms of disease progression, and offering innovative strategies for clinical treatment., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Qi, Chen, Tian, Zhong, Qi, Li and Xie.)

Wolfiporia cocos is commonly used as a traditional Chinese medicine for its diuretic, tonifying, and invigorating effects on the spleen. However, the epidermis of W. cocos is discarded as scrap during harvesting because of its low price, resulting in a great waste of resources and environmental pollution. In this work, the epidermis of W. cocos was studied and three new lanostane triterpenoids were isolated. The structures were determined using NMR and HRESIMS, with absolute configurations established by comparison of the calculated and experimental ECD spectra. The three new compounds were evaluated for their antimicrobial activities in vitro against Staphylococcus aureus , Escherichia coli , and Saccharomyces cerevisiae . None of the tested compounds showed inhibition against these three strains of indicator microbes at a concentration of 128 μg/ml. This study provides a reference for further medicinal development and the utilization of the epidermis of W. cocos .

Sporocarps of macrofungi support other diverse fungal species that are termed fungicolous fungi. However, the external environmental factors that affect the diversity and composition of fungicolous fungal communities remains largely unknown. In this study, the diversities, composition, and trophic modes of fungicolous fungal communities residing in host macrofungi from diverse habitats in the Qinling Mountains were analyzed. Additionally, the number of carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) encoded by saprophytic, pathogenic, and symbiotic fungi was also quantified and compared. The results revealed that the diversity and composition of fungicolous fungal communities varied with months of collection and the habitats of host fungi, and saprophytic fungi were more abundant on wood than on the ground. Meanwhile, it was also found that saprophytic fungi possessed higher abundances of cell-wall-degrading enzymes than pathogenic or symbiotic fungi. Based on the above findings, it was hypothesized that the greater abundance of saprophytic fungi on wood compared to the ground may be due to their possession of a more diverse array of enzymes capable of degrading wood cell walls, thereby allowing for more efficient nutrient acquisition from decaying wood.

Watershed ecosystems play a pivotal role in maintaining the global carbon cycle and reducing global warming by serving as vital carbon reservoirs for sustainable ecosystem management. In this study, we based on the "quantity-mechanism-scenario" frameworks, integrate the MCE-CA-Markov and InVEST models to evaluate the spatiotemporal variations of carbon stocks in mid- to high-latitude alpine watersheds in China under historical and future climate scenarios. Additionally, the study employs the Geographic Detector model to explore the driving mechanisms influencing the carbon storage capacity of watershed ecosystems. The results showed that the carbon stock of the watershed increased by about 15.9 Tg from 1980 to 2020. Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC), Digital Elevation Model (DEM), and Mean Annual Temperature (MAT) had the strongest explanatory power for carbon stocks. Under different climate scenarios, it was found that the SSP2-4.5 scenario had a significant rise in carbon stock from 2020 to 2050, roughly 24.1 Tg. This increase was primarily observed in the southeastern region of the watersheds, with forest and grassland effectively protected. Conversely, according to the SSP5-8.5 scenario, the carbon stock would decrease by about 50.53 Tg with the expansion of cultivated and construction land in the watershed's southwest part. Therefore, given the vulnerability of mid- to high-latitude mountain watersheds, global warming trends continue to pose a greater threat to carbon sequestration in watersheds. Our findings carry important implications for tackling potential ecological threats in mid- to high-latitude watersheds in the Northern Hemisphere and assisting policymakers in creating carbon sequestration plans, as well as for reducing climate change., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

The sum of nonspecific physiological responses exhibited by mammals in response to the disruption of thermal balance caused by high-temperature environments is referred to as heat stress (HS). HS affects the normal development of mammalian oocyte and embryos and leads to significant economic losses. Therefore, it is of great importance to gain a deep understanding of the mechanisms underlying the effects of HS on oocyte and embryonic development and to explore strategies for mitigating or preventing its detrimental impacts in the livestock industry. This article provides an overview of the negative effects of HS on mammalian oocyte growth, granulosa cell maturation and function, and embryonic development. It summarizes the mechanisms by which HS affects embryonic development, including generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), endocrine disruption, the heat shock system, mitochondrial autophagy, and molecular-level alterations. Furthermore, it discusses various measures to ameliorate the effects of HS, such as antioxidant use, enhancement of mitochondrial function, gene editing, cultivating varieties possessing heat-resistant genes, and optimizing the animals'rearing environment. This article serves as a valuable reference for better understanding the relationship between HS and mammalian embryonic development as well as for improving the development of mammalian embryos and economic benefits under HS conditions in livestock production., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Cotton fabric has extensive application due to its comfort and breathability. However, the inherent flammability limits its wide application. Durable polysaccharide-based flame retardants with a low impact on the softness of fabrics are rarely reported. In this work, a novel flame retardant ammonium phosphate of lentinan (APLNT) was synthesized and grafted on the surface of cotton fabric. The treated cotton fabric had a high limiting oxygen index (LOI) value of 43.3 % and passed the vertical burning test (VBT) with a 21.1 % weight gain of APLNT. Compared with control cotton, the peak heat release rate and total heat release values of Cotton-APLNT 2 decreased by 92.8 % and 50.9 %, respectively. In addition, the cotton fabric still passed the VBT and kept an LOI value of 27.0 % even after 50 laundering cycles, indicating that the fabric can be used for daily needs. More importantly, the treated fabric remains soft. This research provided a new strategy for preparing bio-based durable flame retardant cotton fabrics., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The central histaminergic system has a pivotal role in emotional regulation and psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression and schizophrenia. However, the effect of histamine on neuronal activity of the centrolateral amygdala (CeL), an essential node for fear and anxiety processing, remains unknown. Here, using immunostaining and whole-cell patch clamp recording combined with optogenetic manipulation of histaminergic terminals in CeL slices prepared from histidine decarboxylase (HDC)-Cre rats, we show that histamine selectively suppresses excitatory synaptic transmissions, including glutamatergic transmission from the basolateral amygdala, on both PKC-δ- and SOM-positive CeL neurons. The histamine-induced effect is mediated by H3 receptors expressed on VGLUT1-/VGLUT2-positive presynaptic terminals in CeL. Furthermore, optoactivation of histaminergic afferent terminals from the hypothalamic tuberomammillary nucleus (TMN) also significantly suppresses glutamatergic transmissions in CeL via H3 receptors. Histamine neither modulates inhibitory synaptic transmission by presynaptic H3 receptors nor directly excites CeL neurons by postsynaptic H1, H2 or H4 receptors. These results suggest that histaminergic afferent inputs and presynaptic H3 heteroreceptors may hold a critical position in balancing excitatory and inhibitory synaptic transmissions in CeL by selective modulation of glutamatergic drive, which may not only account for the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders but also provide potential psychotherapeutic targets. KEY POINTS: Histamine selectively suppresses the excitatory, rather than inhibitory, synaptic transmissions on both PKC-δ- and SOM-positive neurons in the centrolateral amygdala (CeL). H3 receptors expressed on VGLUT1- or VGLUT2-positive afferent terminals mediate the suppression of histamine on glutamatergic synaptic transmission in CeL. Optogenetic activation of hypothalamic tuberomammillary nucleus (TMN)-CeL histaminergic projections inhibits glutamatergic transmission in CeL via H3 receptors., (© 2024 The Authors. The Journal of Physiology © 2024 The Physiological Society.)

The early diagnosis of cancer is vital for effective treatment and improved prognosis. Tumor biomarkers, which can be used for the early diagnosis, treatment, and prognostic evaluation of cancer, have emerged as a topic of intense research interest in recent years. Nucleic acid, as a type of tumor biomarker, contains vital genetic information, which is of great significance for the occurrence and development of cancer. Currently, living cell nucleic acid probes, which enable the in situ imaging and dynamic monitoring of nucleic acids, have become a rapidly developing field. This review focuses on living cell nucleic acid probes that can be used for the early diagnosis of tumors. We describe the fundamental design of the probe in terms of three units and focus on the roles of different nanomaterials in probe delivery., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2024 Shenyang Pharmaceutical University. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Cotton is one of the oldest and most widely used natural fibers in the world. It enables a wide range of applications due to its excellent moisture absorption, thermal insulation, heat resistance, and durability. Benefiting from current developments in textile technology and materials science, people are constantly seeking more comfortable, more beautiful and more versatile cotton fabrics. As the second skin of body, clothing not only provides the basic needs of wear but also increases the protection of body against different environmental stimuli. In this article, a comprehensive review is proposed regarding research activities of systematically summarise the development and research of cotton fabric-based photocatalytic composites for the degradation of organic contaminants in the area of self-cleaning, degradation of gaseous contaminants, pathogenic bacteria or viruses, and chemical warfare agents. Specifically, we begin with a brief exposition of the background and significance of cotton fabric-based photocatalytic composites. Next, a systematical review on cotton fabric-based photocatalytic composites is provided according to their mechanisms and advanced applications. Finally, a simple summary and analysis concludes the current limitations and future directions in these composites for the degradation of organic contaminants., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Blood pressure (BP) is a key factor for the clinical outcomes of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) receiving endovascular thrombectomy (EVT). However, the effect of the circadian pattern of BP on functional outcome is unclear., Methods: This multicenter, retrospective, observational study was conducted from 2016 to 2023 at three hospitals in China (ChiCTR2300077202). A total of 407 patients who underwent endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) and continuous 24-h BP monitoring were included. Two hundred forty-one cases from Beijing Hospital were allocated to the development group, while 166 cases from Peking University Shenzhen Hospital and Hainan General Hospital were used for external validation. Postoperative systolic BP (SBP) included daytime SBP, nighttime SBP, and 24-h average SBP. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), support vector machine-recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE), Boruta were used to screen for potential features associated with functional dependence defined as 3-month modified Rankin scale (mRS) score ≥ 3. Nine algorithms were applied for model construction and evaluated using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy., Results: Three hundred twenty-eight of 407 (80.6%) patients achieved successful recanalization and 182 patients (44.7%) were functional independent. NIHSS at onset, modified cerebral infarction thrombolysis grade, atrial fibrillation, coronary atherosclerotic heart disease, hypertension were identified as prognostic factors by the intersection of three algorithms to construct the baseline model. Compared to daytime SBP and 24-h SBP models, the AUC of baseline + nighttime SBP showed the highest AUC in all algorithms. The XGboost model performed the best among all the algorithms. ROC results showed an AUC of 0.841 in the development set and an AUC of 0.752 in the validation set for the baseline plus nighttime SBP model, with a brier score of 0.198., Conclusion: This study firstly explored the association between circadian BP patterns with functional outcome for AIS. Nighttime SBP may provide more clinical information regarding the prognosis of patients with AIS after EVT., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Xu, Qi, Liu, Yang, Ye, Shan, Lei, Yang, Ding, Liang, Qi, Wang and Lu.)

Activation of the NF-κB pathway is strictly regulated to prevent excessive inflammatory and immune responses. In a well-known negative feedback model, IκBα-dependent NF-κB termination is a delayed response pattern in the later stage of activation, and the mechanisms mediating the rapid termination of active NF-κB remain unclear. Here, we showed IκBα-independent rapid termination of nuclear NF-κB mediated by CLK2, which negatively regulated active NF-κB by phosphorylating the RelA/p65 subunit of NF-κB at Ser180 in the nucleus to limit its transcriptional activation through degradation and nuclear export. Depletion of CLK2 increased the production of inflammatory cytokines, reduced viral replication and increased the survival of the mice. Mechanistically, CLK2 phosphorylated RelA/p65 at Ser180 in the nucleus, leading to ubiquitin‒proteasome-mediated degradation and cytoplasmic redistribution. Importantly, a CLK2 inhibitor promoted cytokine production, reduced viral replication, and accelerated murine psoriasis. This study revealed an IκBα-independent mechanism of early-stage termination of NF-κB in which phosphorylated Ser180 RelA/p65 turned off posttranslational modifications associated with transcriptional activation, ultimately resulting in the degradation and nuclear export of RelA/p65 to inhibit excessive inflammatory activation. Our findings showed that the phosphorylation of RelA/p65 at Ser180 in the nucleus inhibits early-stage NF-κB activation, thereby mediating the negative regulation of NF-κB., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Objective: To analyse and continually improve existing issues in the quality improvement process of medical linear accelerators (LINACs) and enhance the quality control management of LINACs., Methods: Data were collected from eight LINACs (sourced from three manufacturers) at Zhejiang Cancer Hospital using Excel diaries between January 2019 and December 2020. The data description and analysis were performed using the analytic hierarchy process, SPSSAU and Excel software, and mean-time-to-repair (MTTR)/mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) metrics. Continuous quality improvement was executed using the quality control circle (QCC) quality management method., Results: After quality improvement, the risk frequency of 'LINAC down' events decreased by 43.63% and downtime was reduced by 40.45%. The weight of downtime risk improved by 73.69%. The MTTR recovery value increased by 31.90%, and MTBF reliability increased by 2.97 h. The simulation results demonstrated that the proposed quality improvement measures could effectively decrease the frequency and duration of downtimes, consequently extending the normal operational time of LINACs., Conclusion: Transitioning from instant repair to preventative maintenance can enhance the operational efficiency of equipment and yield economic benefits for hospitals. The QCC method and the event risk evaluation model are effective in reducing the downtime of LINACs and improving their quality control management., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Physical exercise is known to reduce anxiety, but the underlying brain mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we explore a hypothalamo-cerebello-amygdalar circuit that may mediate motor-dependent alleviation of anxiety. This three-neuron loop, in which the cerebellar dentate nucleus takes center stage, bridges the motor system with the emotional system. Subjecting animals to a constant rotarod engages glutamatergic cerebellar dentate neurons that drive PKCδ + amygdalar neurons to elicit an anxiolytic effect. Moreover, challenging animals on an accelerated rather than a constant rotarod engages hypothalamic neurons that provide a superimposed anxiolytic effect via an orexinergic projection to the dentate neurons that activate the amygdala. Our findings reveal a cerebello-limbic pathway that may contribute to motor-triggered alleviation of anxiety and that may be optimally exploited during challenging physical exercise., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Over the past decade, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sprayers have emerged as valuable tools for pesticide application across various crops. Despite their increasing usage, the impact of several factors on spray performance and control efficacy in paddy fields warrants further investigation. This study examines atomization characteristics using a UAV spray test platform. Our evaluation of field spraying performance considers three UAV models, two nozzle types, two flight velocities, and adding methylated vegetable oil adjuvant (MVOA), in comparison with the electrical knapsack sprayer (EKS)., Results: Atomization characteristics demonstrated consistency within the downwash airflow field, but were influenced by spray solution, nozzle type, and spray pressure. The eight-rotor UAV sprayer excelled over the quad-rotor model in terms of spray deposition across both upper and lower rice canopies. The six-rotor UAV exhibited enhanced spray deposition, droplet density, and coverage at a flight velocity of 4 m s -1 . The choice of nozzle was pivotal; the flat fan nozzle produced finer droplets with desirable deposition and coverage, whereas the air-induction nozzle created larger droplets with consistent coverage at various flight velocities. Adding MVOA improved the physicochemical properties of the spray and its performance, yielding a more uniform distribution. When compared with the EKS, UAVs showed lower deposition but comparable spray penetration. Control efficacy with the UAV sprayer was less effective against Mythimna separata but achieved 81% efficacy against Laodelphax striatellus within 7 days., Conclusion: This study demonstrates that UAV sprayers, particularly when combined with tank-mix adjuvants and nozzle types, can be highly effective for controlling rice pests. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.)

Generative Large Language Models (LLMs) have achieved significant success in various natural language processing tasks, including Question-Answering (QA) and dialogue systems. However, most models are trained on English data and lack strong generalization in providing answers in Chinese. This limitation is especially evident in specialized domains like traditional Chinese medical QA, where performance suffers due to the absence of fine-tuning and high-quality datasets. To address this, we introduce MedChatZH, a dialogue model optimized for Chinese medical QA based on transformer decoder with LLaMA architecture. Continued pre-training on a curated corpus of Chinese medical books is followed by fine-tuning with a carefully selected medical instruction dataset, resulting in MedChatZH outperforming several Chinese dialogue baselines on a real-world medical dialogue dataset. Our model, code, and dataset are publicly available on GitHub (https://github.com/tyang816/MedChatZH) to encourage further research in traditional Chinese medicine and LLMs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The World Health Organization has updated their classification system for the diagnosis of gliomas, combining histological features with molecular data including isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and codeletion of chromosomal arms 1p and 19q. 1p/19q codeletion analysis is commonly performed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). In this study, we developed a 57-gene targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) panel including 1p/19q codeletion detection mainly to assess diagnosis and potential treatment response in melanoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, and glioma patients. Loss of heterozygosity analysis was performed using the NGS method on 37 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded glioma tissues that showed 1p and/or 19q loss determined by FISH. Conventional methods were applied for the validation of some glioma-related gene mutations. In 81.1% (30 of 37) and 94.6% (35 of 37) of cases, 1p and 19q were found to be in agreement whereas concordance for 1p/19q codeletion and no 1p/19q codeletion was found in 94.7% (18 of 19) and 94.4% (17 of 18) of cases, respectively. Overall, comparing NGS results with those of conventional methods showed high concordance. In conclusion, the NGS panel allows reliable analysis of 1p/19q codeletion and mutation at the same time., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of American Association of Neuropathologists, Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Various polymer substrates have their particular combustion features, therefore, developing an effective universal flame retardant strategy for various polymer substrates is of great practical importance. Meanwhile, as substitutes for petroleum-based products, bio-based flame retardants and biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) meet the requirements of sustainable development. In this work, a fully bio-based flame retardant coating (PAGS) was prepared using phytic acid (PA) and guanosine (GS). PAGS was used as a universal flame retardant coatings for polylactic acid (PLA) fabrics and other substrates, including cotton fabrics, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabrics, polyamide (PA) fabrics, polyurethane (PU) foams, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films, and woods. The PAGS-treated substrates were able to self-extinguish and eliminate molten droplets. Similarly, the PAGS coating significantly suppressed the heat release of each substrate. The P-containing free radicals in the gas phase were able to interact with highly reactive H, HO and alkyl radicals, blocking the chain reaction during combustion. The flammable gas density was also diluted by nonflammable gases. The formed continuous porous and dense intumescent char layer hindered heat and oxygen. It is suggested that this work provides a simple and efficient flame retardant strategy for improving the fire safety of various polymer substrates., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the most common functional injuries observed in trauma patients. However, certain trauma medications may exacerbate renal injury. Therefore, the early detection of trauma-related AKI holds paramount importance in improving trauma prognosis., Methods: Qualified datasets were selected from public databases, and common differentially expressed genes related to trauma-induced AKI and hub genes were identified through enrichment analysis and the establishment of protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. Additionally, the specificity of these hub genes was investigated using the sepsis dataset and conducted a comprehensive literature review to assess their plausibility. The raw data from both datasets were downloaded using R software (version 4.2.1) and processed with the "affy" package19 for correction and normalization., Results: Our analysis revealed 585 upregulated and 629 downregulated differentially expressed genes in the AKI dataset, along with 586 upregulated and 948 downregulated differentially expressed genes in the trauma dataset. Concurrently, the establishment of the PPI network and subsequent topological analysis highlighted key hub genes, including CD44, CD163, TIMP metallopeptidase inhibitor 1, cytochrome b-245 beta chain, versican, membrane spanning 4-domains A4A, mitogen-activated protein kinase 14, and early growth response 1. Notably, their receiver operating characteristic curves displayed areas exceeding 75%, indicating good diagnostic performance. Moreover, our findings postulated a unique molecular mechanism underlying trauma-related AKI., Conclusion: This study presents an alternative strategy for the early diagnosis and treatment of trauma-related AKI, based on the identification of potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Additionally, this study provides theoretical references for elucidating the mechanisms of trauma-related AKI., (Copyright © 2024 Chinese Medical Association. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Biliary tract infection is a common complication of choledocholithiasis. This study aimed to analyse the distribution of pathogenic bacteria in bile cultures from patients with choledocholithiasis combined with biliary tract infection to guide clinical application of antimicrobials and reduce the emergence of drug resistance., Methods: A total of 880 patients were enrolled in this retrospective study from 30 March 2017 to 31 August 2022 at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University in China. Bile specimens were extracted for microbiological culture under aseptic conditions using endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. Bacterial culture, strain identification, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing were conducted according to the standard protocol. Baseline data were retrieved from patient files., Results: Overall, 90.34% (795/880) of bile samples showed positive microbiological results and 37.50% (330/880) demonstrated polymicrobial infections. Among the 795 bile specimens with positive culture results, 1,216 pathogenic bacteria were detected, with gram-negative bacilli accounting for 56.33%, gram-positive cocci for 41.86%, and fungi for 1.81%. The predominant gram-negative bacilli in the bile cultures were Escherichia coli (30.43%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (13.98%), whereas the main gram-positive cocci were Enterococcus faecium (14.04%) and E. casseliflavus (4.28%). The annual trend analysis revealed a gradual decrease in the proportion of gram-negative bacilli and a gradual increase in the proportion of gram-positive cocci, with a concomitant decrease in the dominance of E. coli . Both E. faecium and E. coli showed high resistance to conventional antibiotics but high sensitivity to piperacillin/tazobactam, carbapenems, amikacin, and vancomycin., Conclusions: A significant change has occurred in the bile bacterial spectrum in patients with choledocholithiasis and biliary tract infection. The incidence of gram-positive cocci infections has increased annually, while that of gram-negative bacilli and E. coli infections has decreased. Antibiotic administration should be tailored based on the local bacterial profile., Competing Interests: None declared., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press and Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University.)

Objective: To compare the outcomes of patients undergoing Retroperitoneal laparoscopic Radical nephrectomy (RLRN) and Transperitoneal laparoscopic Radical nephrectomy (TLRN)., Methods: A total of 120 patients with localized renal cell carcinoma were randomized into either RLRN or TLRN group. Mainly by comparing the patient perioperative related data, surgical specimen integrity, pathological results and tumor results., Results: Each group comprised 60 patients. The two group were equivalent in terms of perioperative and pathological outcomes. The mean integrity score was significantly lower in the RLRN group than TLRN group. With a median follow-up of 36.4 months after the operation, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed no significant difference between RLRN and TLRN in overall survival (89.8% vs. 88.5%; P = 0.898), recurrence-free survival (77.9% vs. 87.7%; P = 0.180), and cancer-specific survival (91.4% vs. 98.3%; P = 0.153). In clinical T2 subgroup, the recurrence rate and recurrence-free survival in the RLRN group was significantly worse than that in the TLRN group (43.2% vs. 76.7%, P = 0.046). Univariate and multivariate COX regression analysis showed that RLRN (HR: 3.35; 95%CI: 1.12-10.03; P = 0.030), male (HR: 4.01; 95%CI: 1.07-14.99; P = 0.039) and tumor size (HR: 1.23; 95%CI: 1.01-1.51; P = 0.042) were independent risk factor for recurrence-free survival., Conclusions: Our study showed that although RLRN versus TLRN had roughly similar efficacy, TLRN outperformed RLRN in terms of surgical specimen integrity. TLRN was also significantly better than RLRN in controlling tumor recurrence for clinical T2 and above cases., Trial Registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ( https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=24400 ), identifier: ChiCTR1800014431, date: 13/01/2018., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a disease state that has an unclear pathogenesis, imposes a substantial burden on individuals and society. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most significant triggers of PTSD. Identifying biomarkers associated with TBI-related PTSD will help researchers to uncover the underlying mechanism that drives disease development. Furthermore, it remains to be confirmed whether different types of traumas share a common mechanism of action., Methods: For this study, we screened the eligible data sets from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, obtained differentially expressed genes (DEGs) through analysis, conducted functional enrichment analysis on the DEGs in order to understand their molecular mechanisms, constructed a PPI network, used various algorithms to obtain hub genes, and finally evaluated, validated, and analyzed the diagnostic performance of the hub genes., Results: A total of 430 upregulated and 992 down-regulated differentially expressed genes were extracted from the TBI data set. A total of 1919 upregulated and 851 down-regulated differentially expressed genes were extracted from the PTSD data set. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that the differentially expressed genes had biological functions linked to molecular regulation, cell signaling transduction, cell metabolic regulation, and immune response. After constructing a PPI network and introducing algorithm analysis, the upregulated hub genes were identified as VNN1, SERPINB2, and ETFDH, and the down-regulated hub genes were identified as FLT3LG, DYRK1A, DCN, and FKBP8. In addition, by comparing the data with patients with other types of trauma, it was revealed that PTSD showed different molecular processes that are under the influence of different trauma characteristics and responses., Conclusions: By exploring the role of different types of traumas during the pathogenesis of PTSD, its possible molecular mechanisms have been revealed, providing vital information for understanding the complex pathways associated with TBI-related PTSD. The data in this study has important implications for the design and development of new diagnostic and therapeutic methods needed to treat and manage PTSD., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Platinum-based chemotherapy remains one of the major choices for treatment of ovarian cancer (OC). However, primary or acquired drug resistance severely impairs their efficiency, thereby causing chemotherapy failure and poor prognosis. SH3 domain containing ring finger 2 (SH3RF2) has been linked to the development of cancer. Here we find higher levels of SH3RF2 in the tumor tissues from cisplatin-resistant OC patients when compared to those from cisplatin-sensitive patients. Similarly, cisplatin-resistant OC cells also express higher levels of SH3RF2 than normal OC cells. Through in vitro and in vivo loss-of-function experiments, SH3RF2 is identified as a driver of cisplatin resistance, as evidenced by increases in cisplatin-induced cell apoptosis and DNA damage and decreases in cell proliferation induced by SH3RF2 depletion. Mechanistically, SH3RF2 can directly bind to the RNA-binding protein mRNA processing factor (RBPMS). RBPMS has been reported as an inhibitor of cisplatin resistance in OC. As a E3 ligase, SH3RF2 promotes the K48-linked ubiquitination of RBPMS to increase its proteasomal degradation and activator protein 1 (AP-1) transactivation. Impairments in RBPMS function reverse the inhibitory effect of SH3RF2 depletion on cisplatin resistance. Collectively, the SH3RF2-RBPMS-AP-1 axis is an important regulator in cisplatin resistance and inhibition of SH3RF2 may be a potential target in preventing cisplatin resistance., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Taking Handan, Xingtai, Hengshui, and Cangzhou, four cities in southwest Hebei Province along the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei typical transport route, as examples, we analyzed the variation characteristics of 3a meteorological conditions and PM 2.5 concentration in winter from 2019 to 2021 and used potential source contribution analysis (PSCF) and concentration weight analysis (CWT) to identify the transport characteristics of PM 2.5 in the four cities during the study period. Based on the meteorological air quality model (WRF-CMAQ) transmission matrix method and transport flux method, the contribution of PM 2.5 transport between Handan, Xingtai, Hengshui, and Cangzhou and the surrounding areas was quantitatively assessed; the vertical distribution characteristics of PM 2.5 net transport flux were revealed; and the two main transport routes of PM 2.5 pollution were further identified. The results showed that during the study period, the PM 2.5 concentration decreased by 45.85%, 49.45%, 42.40%, and 31.65%, respectively. The potential source contribution of Handan and Xingtai was mainly distributed in south-central Shanxi (Linfen, Changzhi, and Jinzhong), northern Henan (Xinxiang, Kaifeng, and Zhengzhou), and a small part of Inner Mongolia (PSCF &gt; 0.9). The potential contribution areas of Hengshui and Cangzhou were mainly concentrated in southern Hebei (Handan and Shijiazhuang), central Shanxi (Taiyuan and Yangquan), and some Shandong regions (PSCF &gt; 0.7), and the CWT results were similar to those of PSCF. During the study period, the local contribution (51.11%-62.99%) was slightly higher than the regional contribution (37.01%-48.89%) during winter in the four cities. Affected by horizontal turbulence and vertical diffusion, the impact of regional transmission in 2020 was slightly higher than that in other years (0.50%-9.52%). In 2021, the influence of regional transmission was slightly lower than that of other years (-2.15%--9.52%) due to low PM 2.5 concentration and meteorological factors. For Handan, Xingtai, Hengshui, and Cangzhou, the total inflow (outflow) flux intensity of the four cities during winter and the surrounding areas was in 2020 &gt; 2021 &gt; 2019. For the total net flux, the total inflow (outflow) flux intensity of the four cities in winter was 0.094, -0.070, and 0.087 kt·d -1 (Xingtai:0.212, 0.395, and 0.544 kt·d -1 ; Hengshui:-0.040, -0.228, and 0.185 kt·d -1 ; Cangzhou:0.062, 0.126, and 0.128 kt·d -1 ). During the study, Handan, Xingtai, and Cangzhou were mostly used as transport receptors, whereas Hengshui was mostly used as a transport source. In the range of 0-1 260 m, the net transport flux intensity of PM 2.5 increased basically with the increase in height, and the maximum net flux of the various cities in different periods was different. The maximum net flux of Handan, Xingtai, and Hengshui was 252-1 261 m, 817 m, and 252-817 m, respectively. The maximum net flux in Cangzhou was 252-359 m. By analyzing the transmission characteristics of the four cities, it was found that there were two main transport directions of PM 2.5 , that is, the northwest-southeast direction (Shanxi → Handan → Henan and Shandong; Shijiazhuang → Xingtai → Handan and Shandong; Baoding → Cangzhou → Shandong) and the southwest-northeast direction (Shanxi → Xingtai → Hengshui → Cangzhou → Bohai Bay).

Although flavonoids play multiple roles in plant growth and development, the involvement in plant self-incompatibility (SI) have not been reported. In this research, the fertility of transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing the Ginkgo biloba dihydroflavonol 4-reductase gene, GbDFR6 , were investigated. To explore the possible physiological defects leading to the failure of embryo development in transgenic tobacco plants, functions of pistils and pollen grains were examined. Transgenic pistils pollinated with pollen grains from another tobacco plants (either transgenic or wild-type), developed full of well-developed seeds. In contrast, in self-pollinated transgenic tobacco plants, pollen-tube growth was arrested in the upper part of the style, and small abnormal seeds developed without fertilization. Although the mechanism remains unclear, our research may provide a valuable method to create SI tobacco plants for breeding.

The rectangular packing problem has been extensively studied over the years due to its wide application in industry. However, most of the research efforts are devoted to positioning techniques of the rectangles for various problem variants, the efficient implementation of the packing procedure is relatively less studied. In this paper, we propose an efficient constructive algorithm for the rectangular packing problem with rotations. We design a preprocess procedure with four data structures to store the information used for item selection. The gaps on the skyline are categorized into three types according to their associated edges for the placement procedure, during which the item is searched and packed in a descending order of the fitness value. The entire constructive phase takes a time complexity of O(nlogn). For the packing improvement phase, we optimize the packing through random perturbation on the sequence and orientation of the item. Three classes of stochastic problems are generated ranging from small-scale to extra-large-scale, the recorded running time confirms the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. We also test the proposed algorithm on the benchmark problem C21, N13, NT, Babu and CX, the computational results show that it delivers a good performance., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Zhao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Inter-provincial trade can bring "emission leakage", and consequently influence the air quality and public health. However, there has been a lack of systematic research on air pollution and public health related to emission leakage embodied in inter-provincial trade of China. Here, we systematically evaluated for the first time the influence of emission leakage on national air pollution and related premature deaths in 2012 of China. Unexpected opposite influences of emission leakage on emission and air quality/public health were discovered. Emission leakage embodied in inter-provincial trade in 2012 of China led to an increase of 1.4 % to 4.8 % in national air pollutant emissions, but a decrease of 1.5 % (-0.8 μg·m -3 ) in population-weighted concentration of PM 2.5 , while avoiding 1.1 % (-1.4 × 10 4 people) of premature deaths. Therefore, to reveal the intrinsic mechanism of this opposite influences, we proposed two coefficients, the Concentration per unit primary PM 2.5 emission (CPE, unit: μg·m -3 /t) and the Death per unit primary PM 2.5 emission (DPE, unit: people/t), to characterize the response of air quality and health to emission leakage embodied in inter-provincial trade. Statistical analysis indicated that both the above coefficients showed significant negative correlation (P < 0.05) with provincial PM 2.5 emissions changes. The findings offer a means of adjustment and its related evaluation parameters for the emission transfer caused by inter-provincial trade, thereby contributing to further improvement environmental and health benefits through inter-provincial trade., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A direct and ultra-sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) immunoassay method is introduced for the detection of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. This methodology is based on a sandwich-structured complex probe (SCP) mechanism, combined with target-induced strand displacement. Moreover, by leveraging the amplified SERS signal from gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) corresponding to an increase in bacterial count, we achieve quantitative determination. The SCP demonstrates remarkable specificity, sensitivity, and anti-interference capability in bacterial detection. The detection limits for both bacterial strains are as low as 10 CFU/mL. In our selectivity tests, all peak intensities had standard deviations (n = 3) below 6%. Recoveries in normal human serum were 101-110% for E. coli and 96-101% for S. aureus. In milk, the recoveries were 102-105% for E. coli and 100-105% for S. aureus, respectively, demonstrating a high level of accuracy and resistance to interference. In addition, the SCP offers a dual-detection capability, enabling simultaneous diagnosis of multiple targets, which greatly simplifies the testing procedure. The findings underscore that this immunoassay platform fulfills the demand for rapid and precise pathogenic bacterial diagnosis, holding substantial potential for practical applications., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: The authors compared the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of middle meningeal artery embolization (MMAE) and conventional treatment for chronic subdural hematomas (cSDH)., Methods: The Nationwide Readmissions Database of 9963 patients (27.2% women) with cSDH between 2016 and 2020 was analyzed. Finally, 9532 patients were included (95.7%, treated conventionally; 4.3%, treated with MMAE). Baseline demographics, comorbidities, adverse events, treatment strategies, and outcomes were compared between patients treated with MMAE and conventional treatment. After propensity score matching, the authors compared primary outcomes, including the 90-day treatment rate, functional outcome, length of hospital stays, and cost. A Markov model estimated lifetime costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) associated with different treatments. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was calculated to evaluate the base-case scenario. One-way, two-way, and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate the uncertainty in the results., Results: After propensity score matching, MMAE had a lower 90-day retreatment rate (2.6 vs. 9.0%, P =0.001), shorter length of hospital stays (4.61±6.19 vs. 5.73±5.76 days, P =0.037), similar functional outcomes compared (favorable outcomes, 80.9 vs. 74.8%, P =0.224) but higher costs ($119 757.71±90 378.70 vs. $75 745.55±100 701.28, P <0.001) with conventional treatment. MMAE was associated with an additional cost of US$19 280.0 with additional QALY of 1.3. Its ICER was US$15199.8/QALY., Conclusion: MMAE is more effective in treating cSDH than conventional treatment. Based on real-world data, though MMAE incurs higher overall costs, the Markov model showed it to be cost-effective compared to conventional treatment under the American healthcare system. These comparative and economic analyses further support the consideration of a paradigm shift in cSDH treatment., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

A surface-enhanced Raman scattering nanoprobe has been developed for sulfide detection and applied to  complex bacterial biofilms. The nanoprobe, Au@4-MBN@Ag@ZIF-8, comprised a gold core modified with 4-mercaptobenzonitrile (4-MBN) as signaling source, a layer of silver shell as the sulfide sensitization material, and a zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) as surface barrier. ZIF-8, with its high surface area and mesoporous structure, was applied to preconcentrate sulfide around the nanoprobe with its excellent adsorption capacity. Besides, the external wrapping of ZIF-8 can not only prevent the interference of biomolecules, such as proteins, with the Au@4-MBN@Ag assay but also enhance the detection specificity through the sulfide cleavage function towards ZIF-8. These properties are critical for the application of this nanoprobe to complex environmental scenarios. In the presence of sulfide, it was first enriched through adsorption by the outer ZIF-8 layer, then destroyed the barrier layer, and subsequently reacted with the Ag shell, leading to changes in the Raman signal. Through this rational design, the Au@4-MBN@Ag@ZIF-8 nanoprobe exhibited excellent detection sensitivity, with a sulfide detection limit in the nanomolar range and strong linearity in the concentration range  50 nM to 500 μM. Furthermore, the proposed Au@4-MBN@Ag@ZIF-8 nanoprobe was effectively utilized for sulfide detection in intricate biofilm matrices, demonstrating its robust selectivity and reproducibility., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.)

The neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NTLR) and absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) recovery are prognostic across many cancers. We investigated whether NLTR predicts SBRT success or survival in a metastatic sarcoma cohort treated with SBRT from 2014 and 2020 (N = 42). Wilcox Signed Rank Test and Friedman Test compare NTLR changes with local failure vs. local control (N = 138 lesions). Cox analyses identified factors associated with overall survival. If local control was successful, NLTR change was not significant (p = 0.30). However, NLTR significantly changed in patients with local failure (p = 0.027). The multivariable Cox model demonstrated higher NLTR before SBRT was associated with worse overall survival (p = 0.002). The optimal NTLR cut point was 5 (Youden index: 0.418). One-year overall survival in SBRT metastatic sarcoma cohort was 47.6% (CI 34.3%-66.1%). Patients with an NTLR above 5 had a one-year overall survival of 37.7% (21.4%-66.3%); patients with an NTLR below 5 had a significantly improved overall survival of 63% (43.3%-91.6%, p = 0.014). Since NTLR at the time of SBRT was significantly associated with local control success and overall survival in metastatic sarcoma treated with SBRT, future efforts to reduce tumor inhibitory microenvironment factors and improve lymphocyte recovery should be investigated., (© 2023. The Author(s).)