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In Hawai’i, ecosystem conservation practitioners are increasingly considering the potential ecohydrological benefits from applied conservation action to mitigate the degrading impacts of runoff on native and restored ecosystems. One determinant of runoff is excess rainfall events where rainfall rates exceed the infiltration capacity of soils. To help understand runoff risks, we calculated the probability of excess rainfall events across the Hawaiian landscape by comparing the probability distributions of projected rainfall frequency and land-cover-specific infiltration capacity. We characterized soil infiltration capacity based on different land cover types (bare soil, grasses, and woody vegetation) and compared them to the frequency of large rainfall events under current and future climate scenarios. We then mapped the potential risk of excess rainfall across the main Hawaiian Islands. Our results show that land cover type has a very large effect on runoff risk as excess rainfall conditions are 234% more likely in bare soil and 75% more likely in grasslands compared to woody forests and shrublands. In contrast, projected shifts in rainfall intensity by end-of-century show little impact on these probabilities and thus, the risk of runoff. This indicates that the probability of excess rainfall is primarily driven by differences in land cover and not by current or potential shifts in rainfall patterns across the Hawaiian landscape. The ability to estimate the risk of potentially ecologically and economically costly runoff based on changes of land cover is useful for managers focused on invasive species control and restoration planning, especially for native and endemic ecosystems unique to the State of Hawai’i.

Since 2017, the Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS) has been tested and evaluated during the Hazardous Weather Testbed Spring Forecasting Experiment (SFE) and summer convective seasons. The system has shown promise in predicting high temporal and spatial specificity of individual evolving thunderstorms. However, this baseline version of the WoFS has a 3-km horizontal grid spacing and cannot resolve some convective processes. Efforts are under way to develop a WoFS prototype at a 1-km grid spacing (WoFS-1km) with the hope to improve forecast accuracy. This requires extensive changes to data assimilation specifications and observation processing parameters. A preliminary version of WoFS-1km nested within WoFS at 3 km (WoFS-3km) was developed, tested, and run during the 2021 SFE in pseudo–real time. Ten case studies were successfully completed and provided simulations of a variety of convective modes. The reflectivity and rotation storm objects from WoFS-1km are verified against both WoFS-3km and 1-km forecasts initialized from downscaled WoFS-3km analyses using both neighborhood- and object-based techniques. Neighborhood-based verification suggests WoFS-1km improves reflectivity bias but not spatial placement. The WoFS-1km object-based reflectivity forecast accuracy is higher in most cases, leading to a net improvement. Both the WoFS-1km and downscaled forecasts have ideal reflectivity object frequency biases while the WoFS-3km overpredicts the number of reflectivity objects. The rotation object verification is ambiguous as many cases are negatively impacted by 1-km data assimilation. This initial evaluation of a WoFS-1km prototype is a solid foundation for further development and future testing. Significance Statement This study investigates the impacts of performing data assimilation directly on a 1-km WoFS model grid. Most previous studies have only initialized 1-km WoFS forecasts from coarser analyses. The results demonstrate some improvements to reflectivity forecasts through data assimilation on a 1-km model grid although finer resolution data assimilation did not improve rotation forecasts.

DFT calculations suggest the redox non-innocent role of the ligand and proton-accepting role of HPO42− are beneficial for the water oxidation catalyzed by a mononuclear copper complex.

Background: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease that causes damage to and exfo-liation of the airway epithelium. The continuous damage to the airway epithelium in asthma cannot be repaired quickly and generates irreversible damage, repeated attacks, and aggravation. Vitamin A (VA) has multifarious biological functions that include maintaining membrane stability and integrity of the structure and function of epithelial cells. Our research explored the role of VA in repairing the airway epithelium and provided a novel treatment strategy for asthma. Methods: A mouse asthma model was established by house dust mite (HDM) and treated with VA by gavage. Human bronchial epithelial (16HBE) cells were treated with HDM and all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) in vitro. We analyzed the mRNA and protein expression of characteristic markers, such as acetyl-α-tubulin (Ac-TUB) and FOXJ1 in ciliated cells and MUC5AC in secretory cells, mucus secretion, airway inflammation, the morphology of cilia, and the integrity of the airway epithelium. Results: Findings showed destruction of airway epithelial integrity, damaged cilia, high mucus secretion, increased MUC5AC expression, and decreased Ac-TUB and FOXJ1 expression in asth-matic mice. The VA intervention reversed the effect on Ac-TUB and FOXJ1 and promoted ciliated cells to repair the damage and maintain airway epithelial integrity. In 16HBE cells, we could confirm that ATRA promoted the expression of Ac-TUB and FOXJ1. Conclusion: These results demonstrated that VA-regulated ciliated cells to repair the damaged airway epithelium caused by asthma and maintain airway epithelial integrity. VA intervention is a potential adjunct to conventional treatment for asthma.

Recent studies have shown that, in addition to direct predation, fear of predators alters the physiological behavior of prey. Based on this fact, this paper investigates a three-species food chain based on ratio-dependent and Beddington-DeAngelis type functional responses, which incorporates fear effects and two gestation delays. The positivity, boundedness and existence of equilibrium points of the system are investigated, and the local stability behavior of the equilibrium points and the occurrence of Hopf-bifurcation when the time lag parameters exceed the critical values are studied by analyzing the corresponding characteristic equations. The main results show that Hopf-bifurcation occurs when the time delay parameters attain the thresholds. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to verify our main results.

Krüppel-like factor 2a (KLF2A), a transcription factor of the krüppel-like family, is involved in regulating the immune molecules and is associated with viral infection. However, the function of KLF2A during viral infections in fish remains unclear. In this study, grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) was used to predict the target genes regulated by KLF2A. The results showed that the candidate target genes included four members of the serpin gene family (serpinb1l2, serpinc1, serpinh1a, and serpinh1b). Dual-luciferase experiments showed that klf2a positively regulates serpinc1 expression. Dose-dependent klf2a overexpression in C. idellus kidney (CIK) cells significantly upregulated the expression of serpinc1. Overexpressing klf2a or serpinc1 in CIK cells activated interferon responses and suppressed grass carp reovirus (GCRV) replication. Klf2a and serpinc1 co-expression inhibited GCRV replication. These results show that klf2a upregulates serpinc1 mRNA expression, promotes type 1 interferon responses, and suppresses GCRV infection. This study provides insights into the regulatory role and biological functions of KLF2A in host-virus interactions in fish.

An experimental Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS) ensemble data assimilation (DA) and prediction system at 1-km grid spacing is developed and tested using two landfalling tropical cyclone (TC) events, one springtime severe thunderstorm event, and one summertime flash flood event. To evaluate the impact of DA at 1-km grid spacing, two experiments are conducted. One experiment, namely, the WoFS-1km, generates 3-h ensemble forecasts from the 1-km WoFS analyses while another experiment, namely, the Downscaled-1km, generates 3-h ensemble forecasts from downscaled 3-km analyses. With 1-km DA, the two landfalling TC events and the summertime event show some improvement in predicting high reflectivity, while the springtime event performs worse. Meanwhile, WoFS-1km is slightly better at predicting heavier precipitation (>20 mm h−1) with lower bias. However, heavy precipitation spatial placement error is only mitigated in one TC event and the summertime event with 1-km DA but is neutral or worse in the other two events. Object-based verification for rotation objects indicates that WoFS-1km performs better in one of the TC events, but worse in the springtime event with lower probability of detection and higher false alarm ratio due to fewer strong rotation objects being generated. The forecast skill of WoFS-1km for the springtime event is degraded mainly because the convective cores do not sufficiently develop as the forecast advances. The conditional benefits from 1-km DA in this study highlights the need for evaluation of a larger sample of convective storm cases and further development of the system.

A self-regulated anti-diabetic drug release device mimicking pancreatic cells is highly desirable for the therapy of diabetes. Herein, a glucose-mediated dual-responsive drug delivery system, which combines pH- and H2O2-responsive block copolymer grafted hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSNs) with microneedle (MN) array patch, has been developed to achieve self-regulated administration. The poly[4-(4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolan-2-yl)benzyl acrylate]-b-poly[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate] (PPBEM-b-PDM) polymer serves as gate keeper to prevent drug release from the cavity of HMSNs at normoglycemic level. In contrast, the drug release rate is significantly enhanced upon H2O2 and pH stimuli due to the chemical change of H2O2 sensitive PPBEM block and acid responsive PDM block. Therefore, incorporation of anti-diabetic drug and glucose oxidase (GOx, which can oxidize glucose to gluconic acid and in-situ produce H2O2) into stimulus polymer coated HMSNs results in a glucose-mediated MN device after depositing the drug-loaded nanoparticles into MN array patch. Both in vitro and in vivo results show this MN device presents a glucose mediated self-regulated drug release characteristic, which possesses a rapid drug release at hyperglycemic level but retarded drug release at normoglycemic level. The result indicates that the fabricated smart drug delivery system is a good candidate for the therapy of diabetes.

Intrathecal targeted drug delivery provides effective relief for cancer-related pain. However, its validation in management of craniofacial pain remains much less widely practiced, mainly due to the localized diffusion of analgesic agent with current approach. Here, we report our experience of prepontine cisternal routine for placement and implantation of intrathecal targeted drug delivery in two cases of cancer-related craniofacial pain. Lumbar cannulation was applied and the intrathecal catheter tip was positioned at the prepontine cistern under fluoroscopic guidance during the surgical implantation. Postoperative imaging confirmed that the catheter tip was successfully placed in the prepontine cisternal space. Satisfactory control of pain was achieved after intrathecal therapy, with significant reduction of background and breakthrough cancer pain. None obvious complications were observed in this study. Thus, our novel intrathecal routine may provide an alternative option for craniofacial pain caused by tumor, who were insufficiently treated by oral analgesic agents.

Background. An important feature of aging cells is the gradual loss of physiological integrity. As aging progresses, MSCs change preferring to differentiate toward adipocytes rather than osteoblasts. Oxidative stress accumulation is an important factor in age-related bone loss. Many experiments have demonstrated the good therapeutic effect of Ginsenoside (Rg1) on oxidative stress injury. In this study, we investigated the effect of Rg1 on the osteogenic-adipogenic differentiation balance of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSC). Objective. To analyze the potential application value of Rg1 in the treatment of senile osteoporosis. Methods. BMMSCs were isolated from healthy donors of different ages and identified based on isotype and by multi-differentiation induction. Rg1 was used to treat BMMSCs, The differentiation propensity was analyzed by induction of differentiation assay. Antioxidant capacity of BMMSCs as measured by oxidative stress product assay Related mechanism studies were confirmed by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR), immunofluorescence, western blotting, and inhibitor treatment. Moreover, Observation of the effects of Rg1 on aging BMMSCs under in vivo conditions by treatment of aged mice with Rg1 injections. Results. Rg1 treatment rescued age‐induced switch of BMMSCs differentiation fate in vitro. In elderly people, Rg1 markedly increased osteogenic differentiation of BMMSCs by decreasing oxidative stress, while inhibiting adipogenic differentiation. However, this effect was abolished in BMMSCs by an Nrf2-inhibitor. Notably, aging mice showed a reduction in adipocyte distribution in the bone marrow and a decrease in oxidative stress products after a 3-month period of Rg1 treatment. Conclusion. We have uncovered a novel function for Rg1 that involves attenuating bone loss via Nrf2 antioxidant signaling, which in turn may potentially be utilized as a therapeutic agent for improving osteogenic differentiation in aging BMMSCs.

In China, exploring the relationship between human capital and green economy in the context of economic transformation can promote the construction of an ecological civilization and high-quality economic development. This paper is dedicated to assessing the impact of human capital stock, human capital structure, and the difference between the two on China's green economy. Using the super-efficiency slack-based measure (SBM) model, this paper evaluated the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of 30 Chinese provinces to assess the greenness of its economy and analyzed its spatiotemporal evolution from 2000 to 2017. A spatial error model (SEM) was established to explore the impact of human capital on green economy. The results show that (1) the GTFP of China increased continuously from 0.219 to 0.457, showing a regional spatial differentiation of "eastern regioncentral regionwestern region." The spatial gaps of the green economy in the east-west and north-south directions are narrowing. (2) Moran's I index and Moran's I scatter plot indicate a significant spatial correlation between human capital and China's green economy. The local spatial correlation between human capital and green economy is mainly characterized by "high-high" and "low-low" types of agglomeration. (3) The effects of human capital stock and human capital structure on green economy were both positive, with coefficients of 0.0005 and 0.1601, respectively, but the effects of human capital structure were not significant. (4) The results of regional regression show that the difference between the human capital impact coefficients on green economy in the eastern and midwestern regions is small. The impact of human capital stock and human capital structure on green economy is consistent with the national level results. It can be preliminarily concluded that the development of China's green economy relied more on improving the human capital stock than on the improvement of the human capital structure. This study further enriches the literature on the green economy and provides information that can support government policy-making.

Introduction: Previous research has demonstrated that an isocaloric diet rich in trans-fatty acid (TFA), saturated fatty acid (SFA), and cholesterol (Chol) promoted steatosis-derived hepatic tumorigenesis in hepatitis C virus core gene transgenic (HCVcpTg) mice in different manners. Growth factor signaling and ensuing angiogenesis/lymphangiogenesis are key factors in hepatic tumorigenesis that have become recent therapeutic targets for hepatocellular carcinoma. However, the influence of dietary fat composition on these factors remains unclear. This study investigated whether the type of dietary fat would have a specific impact on hepatic angiogenesis/lymphangiogenesis in HCVcpTg mice. Methods: Male HCVcpTg mice were treated with a control diet, an isocaloric diet containing 1.5% cholesterol (Chol diet), or a diet replacing soybean oil with hydrogenated coconut oil (SFA diet) for a period of 15 months or with shortening (TFA diet) for 5 months. The degree of angiogenesis/lymphangiogenesis and the expression of growth factors, including fibroblast growth factor (FGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), were evaluated in non-tumorous liver tissues using quantitative mRNA measurement, immunoblot analysis, and immunohistochemistry. Results: Long-term feeding of SFA and TFA diets to HCVcpTg mice increased the expressions of vascular endothelial cell indicators, such as CD31 and TEK receptor tyrosine kinase, in addition to lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronan receptor 1, indicating that angiogenesis/lymphangiogenesis were upregulated only by these fatty acid-enriched diets. This promoting effect correlated with elevated VEGF-C and FGF receptor 2 and 3 levels in the liver. c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) 1α, both key regulators of VEGF-C expression, were enhanced in the SFA- and TFA-rich diet groups as well. The Chol diet significantly increased the expressions of such growth factors as FGF2 and PDGF subunit B, without any detectable impact on angiogenesis/lymphangiogenesis. Conclusion: This study revealed that diets rich in SFA and TFA, but not Chol, might stimulate hepatic angiogenesis/lymphangiogenesis mainly through the JNK-HIF1α-VEGF-C axis. Our observations indicate the importance of dietary fat species for preventing hepatic tumorigenesis.

Negative mood states include tension, depression, anger, fatigue, and confusion, which represent the weak internal emotions of a human. Negative mood states exert adverse impact on individuals' ability to make rational decisions, which entails the practicable method of negative mood state detection. The most commonly used negative mood state detection methods are based on the psychological scale, which requires additional work and brings inconvenience to the subject in the application scenarios. To overcome this challenge, this paper proposes a novel non-contact negative mood state detection method according to the knowledge of affective computing. The POMS-net model is used to extract temporal-spatial features from visible and infrared thermal videos, and the negative mood state detection is realized using data reliability-focused multi-modal fusion. The proposed method is verified using the HDT-BR dataset collected in the aerospace medicine experiment "Earth-Star II" and the VIRI public dataset. The experimental results on the datasets verify that our method outperforms the comparison methods.

Picea mongolica is a rare tree species in China, which is of great significance in combating desertification and improving the harsh ecological environment. Due to the low rate of natural regeneration, high mortality, and susceptibility to pests and cold springs, Picea mongolica has gradually become extinct. At present, somatic embryogenesis (SE) is the most effective method of micro-proliferation in conifers, but the induction rate of embryogenic callus (EC) is low, and EC is difficult to differentiate from non-embryonic callus (NEC). Therefore, the EC and NEC of Picea mongolica were compared from the morphology, histological, physiological, and transcriptional levels, respectively. Morphological observation showed that the EC was white and transparent filamentous, while the NEC was compact and brownish-brown lumpy. Histological analyses showed that the NEC cells were large and loosely arranged; the nuclei attached to the edge of the cells were small; the cytoplasm was low; and the cell gap was large and irregular. In the EC, small cells, closely arranged cells, and a large nucleus and nucleolus were observed. Physiological studies showed significant differences in ROS-scavenging enzymes between the EC and NEC. Transcriptome profiling revealed that 13,267 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, 3682 were up-regulated, and 9585 were down-regulated. In total, 63 GO terms had significant enrichment, 32 DEGs in plant hormone signal transduction pathway were identified, and 502 different transcription factors (TFs) were characterized into 38 TF families. Meanwhile, we identified significant gene expression trends associated with somatic embryo development in plant hormones (AUX/IAA, YUCCA, LEA, etc.), stress (GST, HSP, GLP, etc.), phenylpropanoid metabolism (4CL, HCT, PAL, etc.), and transcription factors (AP2/ERF, MYB, WOX, etc.). In addition, nine genes were chosen for RT-qPCR, and the results were consistent with RNA-Seq data. This study revealed the changes in morphology, histology, physiology, and gene expression in the differentiation of NEC into EC and laid the foundation for finding the key genes to promote EC formation.

In complex industrial environments, the vibration signal of the rolling bearing is covered by noise, which makes fault diagnosis inaccurate. In order to overcome the effect of noise on the signal, a rolling bearing fault diagnosis method based on the WOA-VMD (Whale Optimization Algorithm-Variational Mode Decomposition) and the GAT (Graph Attention network) is proposed to deal with end effect and mode mixing issues in signal decomposition. Firstly, the WOA is used to adaptively determine the penalty factor and decomposition layers in the VMD algorithm. Meanwhile, the optimal combination is determined and input into the VMD, which is used to decompose the original signal. Then, the Pearson correlation coefficient method is used to select IMF (Intrinsic Mode Function) components that have a high correlation with the original signal, and selected IMF components are reconstructed to remove the noise in the original signal. Finally, the KNN (K-Nearest Neighbor) method is used to construct the graph structure data. The multi-headed attention mechanism is used to construct the fault diagnosis model of the GAT rolling bearing in order to classify the signal. The results show an obvious noise reduction effect in the high-frequency part of the signal after the application of the proposed method, where a large amount of noise was removed. In the diagnosis of rolling bearing faults, the accuracy of the test set diagnosis in this study was 100%, which is higher than that of the four other compared methods, and the diagnosis accuracy rate of various faults reached 100%.

In-memory computing provides an opportunity to meet the growing demands of large data-driven applications such as machine learning, by colocating logic operations and data storage. Despite being regarded as the ultimate solution for high-density integration and low-power manipulation, the use of spin or electric dipole at the single-molecule level to realize in-memory logic functions has yet to be realized at room temperature, due to their random orientation. Here, we demonstrate logic-in-memory operations, based on single electric dipole flipping in a two-terminal single-metallofullerene (Sc2C2@Cs(hept)-C88) device at room temperature. By applying a low voltage of ±0.8 V to the single-metallofullerene junction, we found that the digital information recorded among the different dipole states could be reversibly encoded in situ and stored. As a consequence, 14 types of Boolean logic operation were shown from a single-metallofullerene device. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the non-volatile memory behaviour comes from dipole reorientation of the [Sc2C2] group in the fullerene cage. This proof-of-concept represents a major step towards room-temperature electrically manipulated, low-power, two-terminal in-memory logic devices and a direction for in-memory computing using nanoelectronic devices.

People living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are more likely to develop tuberculosis (TB), and their co-infection (HIV-TB) increases the risk of death. We aimed to describe the global trends, regional differences and age distribution of HIV-TB. Annual new cases, age-standardized incidence rates (ASRs) and age-specific incidence rates with 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) of HIV-infected drug-susceptible tuberculosis (HIV-DS-TB), HIV-infected multidrug-resistant tuberculosis without extensive drug resistance (HIV-MDR-TB) and HIV-infected extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (HIV-XDR-TB) during 1990–2019 were collected from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. To reveal the trends of HIV-TB by region and age, the percentage change of new cases and estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) of ASRs were calculated. The ASR of HIV-XDR-TB increased significantly by an average of 14.77% (95% CI: 11.05%–18.62%) per year during 1990–2019 worldwide, while the ASRs of HIV-DS-TB and HIV-MDR-TB decreased after 2005. HIV-XDR-TB was a great threat to Eastern Europe for the largest number of new cases (792, 95% UI: 487–1167) and the highest ASR (0.34 per 100,000 population, 95% UI: 0.21–0.50). In addition, Oceania had the largest rise in ASRs of HIV-MDR-TB (EAPC = 22.56, 95% CI: 18.62–26.64) and HIV-XDR-TB (EAPC = 32.95, 95% CI: 27.90–38.20) during 1990–2019. Recently, age-specific incidence rates of HIV-XDR-TB increased in all age groups, especially in the 50–69 age groups among high, low-middle and low Socio-Demographic Index regions. Additionally, the proportion of patients aged

The grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) is the most productive freshwater fish in the world. However, little is known about the functional genes and genetic regulatory systems that control its growth traits. In this study, we used two superior grass carp parents with fast-growing offspring and two inferior grass carp parents with slow-growing offspring to create three grass carp families, namely, the superior-superior family (SS), the inferior-inferior family (II) and the superior-inferior family (SI). The average body weight of the offspring of these families showed a stable ranking (SS > SI > II) under the satiation and starvation feeding modes. Then, the transcriptomes of the brain and the hepatopancreas of grass carp with different growth rates were obtained for each family, and it was found that the number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the different organs showed family specificity. The DEGs were mainly found in the hepatopancreas of SS and the whole brain of II, while they were more balanced in SI. There were 14 common DEGs among the three families, including 3 negatively correlated genes (ahsg2, lect2 and drd5) and 11 positively correlated genes (sycn, pabpc4, zgc:112294, cel, endou, ela2, prss3, zbtb41, ela3, fabp7 and endod1). Deleting ahsg2 in zebrafish significantly increased the upper limit of individual body weight during the experiment, but only slightly increased the average growth rate of the population. In addition, we analyzed the SNP in each family and preliminarily analyzed the potential genetic mechanisms of family-specific regulation of growth traits. This study revealed for the first time the family specificity of the growth regulation mechanism of grass carp at the transcriptional level, verified the function of a growth negative regulatory gene ahsg2, and further analyzed the possible molecular mechanism of growth differences among different families. This study provides new insights into the genetic regulation mechanism of grass carp growth.

Flow Direction Algorithm (FDA) has better searching performance than some traditional optimization algorithms. To give the basic Flow Direction Algorithm more effective searching ability and avoid multiple local minima under the searching space, and enable it to obtain better search results, an improved FDA based on the Lévy flight strategy and the self-renewable method (LSRFDA) was proposed in this paper. The Lévy flight strategy and the self-renewable approach were added to the basic Flow Direction Algorithm. Random parameters generated by the Lévy flight strategy can increase the algorithm’s diversity of feasible solutions in a short calculation time and greatly enhance the operational efficiency of the algorithm. The self-renewable method lets the algorithm quickly obtain a better possible solution and jump to the local solution space. Then, this paper tested different mathematical testing functions, including low-dimensional and high-dimensional functions, and the test results were compared with those of different algorithms. This paper includes iterative figures, box plots, and search paths to show the different performances of the LSRFDA. Finally, this paper calculated different engineering optimization problems. The test results show that the proposed algorithm in this paper has better searching ability and quicker searching speed than the basic Flow Direction Algorithm.

Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) is a rare genetic disorder that affects the development of the male reproductive system in individuals with a 46,XY karyotype. In addition to physical impacts, patients with AIS may face psychological distress and social challenges related to gender identity and acceptance. The major molecular etiology of AIS results from hormone resistance caused by mutations in the X-linked androgen receptor (AR) gene. Depending on the severity of androgen resistance, the wide spectrum of AIS can be divided into complete AIS (CAIS), partial AIS (PAIS), or mild AIS (MAIS). Open issues in the treatment and management of AIS include decisions about reconstructive surgery, genetic counseling, gender assignment, timing of gonadectomy, fertility and physiological outcomes. Although new genomic approaches have improved understanding of the molecular causes of AIS, identification of individuals with AIS can be challenging, and molecular genetic diagnosis is often not achievable. The relationship between AIS genotype and phenotype is not well established. Therefore, the optimal management remains uncertain. The objective of this review is to outline the recent progress and promote understanding of AIS related to the clinical manifestation, molecular genetics and expert multidisciplinary approach, with an emphasis on genetic etiology.

Urogenital sinus (UGS) malformation, also known as persistent urogenital sinus (PUGS), is a rare congenital malformation of the urogenital system. It arises when the urethra and vaginal opening fail to form properly in the vulva and fuse incorrectly. PUGS can occur as an isolated abnormality or as part of a complex syndrome, and is frequently associated with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). The management of PUGS is not well-established, and there are no standardized guidelines on when to perform surgery or how to follow up with patients over the long term. In this review, we discuss the embryonic development, clinical evaluation, diagnosis, and management of PUGS. We also review case reports and research findings to explore best practices for surgery and follow-up care, in hopes of increasing awareness of PUGS and improving patient outcomes.

Human papillomavirus 52 (HPV52) infection is prevalent in the Chinese population, and variations in HPV52 show correlations with oncogenicity. However, no specific variation in HPV52 was reported to show relevancy to infection characteristics. In this study, we retrieved 222 isolates of E6 and L1 full-length genes from 197 Chinese women with HPV52 infection. After sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree construction, we found that 98.39 % of the collected variants belonged to the sublineage B2 and two variants displayed incongruence between the phylogenetic tree of E6 and L1. The analysis of the infection pattern showed that the presence of C6480A/T mutation in the L1 gene was associated with single infection (P=0.01) and persistent infection (P=0.047) of HPV52, while the A6516G nucleotide change was relevant to transient infection (P=0.018). Our data also indicated that variations T309C in the E6 gene and C6480T, C6600A in L1 were more commonly presented in patients with high-grade cytology (P