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Abstract Varicella is endemic worldwide. In China, varicella has not yet been included in the list of legal infectious diseases, nor has a unified national surveillance program been established. And the live attenuated varicella vaccine has not been included in routine immunization. In this study, we analyzed for the first time the varicella epidemiology in Jilin Province in the past 20 years, and the nucleotide site, amino acid site and N-glycosylation site variation of glycoprotein in varicella-zoster virus (VZV) surface 9 in the past 15 years. The results showed that the reported incidence of varicella in Jilin Province in the last 20 years was fluctuating above and below 20/100,000, especially after the epidemic of the COVID-19, and fatal cases appeared in individual years. The genotypic branching of VZV was monitored as Clade 2 in the last 15 years. 9 glycogen nucleotide sites of VZV had different degrees of variability, and the variability had specificity. Therefore, it gives us the idea that in order to reduce the incidence of varicella and herpes zoster, a provincial or even national surveillance program should be introduced as early as possible, and the dynamic monitoring of the variability of the nucleotide sites of VZV should be strengthened at the same time as the vaccine immunization strategy is introduced.

Abstract Prolyl 4-hydroxylases (P4Hs) are a family of key modifying enzymes in collagen synthesis. P4Hs have been confirmed to be closely associated with tumor occurrence and development. However, the expression of P4Hs in head and neck cancer (HNSC) as well as its relationship with prognosis and tumor immunity infiltration has not yet been analyzed. We investigated the transcriptional expression, survival data, and immune infiltration of P4Hs in patients with HNSC from multiple databases. P4H1-3 expression was significantly higher in HNSC tumor tissues than in normal tissues. Moreover, P4HA1 and P4HA2 were associated with tumor stage, patient prognosis, and immune cell infiltration. P4HA3 was related to patient prognosis and immune cell infiltration. Correlation experiments confirmed that P4HA1 may serve as a prognosis biomarker and plays a role in the progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. These findings suggest that P4HA1-3 may be a novel biomarker for the prognosis and treatment of HNSC, which is expected to support the development of new therapies for patients with head and neck tumors and improve patient outcomes.

Abstract We aimed to explore whether superfluous sympathetic activity affects myoblast differentiation, fusion, and myofiber types using a continuous single-dose isoprenaline exposure model in vitro and to further confirm the role of distinct NFATs in ISO-mediated effects. Compared with delivery of single and interval single, continuous single-dose ISO most obviously diminished myotube size while postponing myoblast differentiation/fusion in a time- and dose-dependent pattern, accompanied by an apparent decrease in nuclear NFATc1/c2 levels and a slight increase in nuclear NFATc3/c4 levels. Overexpression of NFATc1 or NFATc2, particularly NFATc1, markedly abolished the inhibitory effects of ISO on myoblast differentiation/fusion, myotube size and Myh7 expression, which was attributed to a remarkable increase in the nuclear NFATc1/c2 levels and a reduction in the nuclear NFATc4 levels and the associated increase in the numbers of MyoG and MEF2C positive nuclei within more than 3 nuclei myotubes, especially in MEF2C. Moreover, knockdown of NFATc3 by shRNA did not alter the inhibitory effect of ISO on myoblast differentiation/fusion or myotube size but partially recovered the expression of Myh7, which was related to the slightly increased nuclear levels of NFATc1/c2, MyoG and MEF2C. Knockdown of NFATc4 by shRNA prominently increased the number of MyHC +, MyoG or MEF2C + myoblast cells with 1 ~ 2 nuclei, causing fewer numbers and smaller myotube sizes. However, NFATc4 knockdown further deteriorated the effects of ISO on myoblast fusion and myotube size, with more than 5 nuclei and Myh1/2/4 expression, which was associated with a decrease in nuclear NFATc2/c3 levels. Therefore, ISO inhibited myoblast differentiation/fusion and myotube size through the NFAT-MyoG-MEF2C signaling pathway.

This paper uses data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) to study the impact of market integration on residents' health. The empirical results based on the probit model show that market integration has a significant dampening effect on resident incidence. For every one-unit increase in the degree of market integration, the probability of residents becoming sick decreases by approximately 1.45%. Moreover, after a series of robustness tests, the conclusion is still valid. This study further analyses the potential mechanism and finds that the promotion of market integration can improve the medical conditions available to residents, optimize the nutritional indices of residents, and reduce labor load of residents, thus improving their health. The results of the heterogeneity test show that there are certain differences in the impact of market integration on the health level of residents of different genders, ages and income classes. At the same time, this study also verifies that there is a synergistic effect between internet penetration and market integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Respiratory tract infections caused by various pathogens remain a significant public health concern due to their high prevalence and potential for severe complications. This study systematically analyzed the epidemiological characteristics of six common respiratory pathogens—Chlamydia pneumoniae (CP), Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP), Adenovirus (AdV), Influenza A virus (FluA), Influenza B virus (FluB), and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)—in patients from Sichuan Jinxin Xinan Women and Children's Hospital between April 2023 and March 2024. Throat swab samples were collected from a total of 22,717 individuals. Each sample was processed using the AUTOMOLEC 3000 analyzer and the PCR-fluorescent probe method. The results showed that 10,171 (44.8%) individuals tested positive for at least one pathogen. MP had the highest overall positive rate (21.83%), followed by FluA (17.50%) and FluB (14.84%). MP showed the highest mean monthly (average) positive rate (16.84% ± 8.41). Significant differences were found between MP and AdV, CP and RSV in average positive rate (p < 0.05). Co-infection analysis revealed frequent associations between MP and AdV, MP and CP, and FluB with MP. Seasonal analysis indicated distinct peaks: FluA and FluB in winter, RSV in spring, and MP in summer, autumn and winter. Age-stratified analysis showed higher positivity rates of RSV in children aged 0–6 years, MP and CP in the 7–17 years group. Gender-based differences were only observed in RSV positive samples. These findings provide crucial insights into the prevalence and seasonal distribution of respiratory pathogens in Chengdu, offering valuable data to inform public health strategies in the post-COVID era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to investigate the association between the Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index (SII) and cataracts. This cross-sectional study analyzed data from the 2005–2008 NHANES to examine the relationship between the SII and cataract prevalence. Covariates included age, race/ethnicity, gender, education level, marital status, Body Mass Index (BMI), smoking, alcohol consumption, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association, while spline curve fitting explored potential non-linear relationships. Threshold analysis identified critical inflection points. To address age-related bias, Propensity Score Matching (PSM) was performed, aligning cataract patients with comparable non-cataract individuals for further evaluation. Our study included 3,623 participants, of whom 730 (20.15%) were diagnosed with cataracts. After adjusting for all covariates, multivariable logistic regression analysis demonstrated that elevated levels of the SII were significantly associated with increased odds of cataracts (Model1: OR = 1.56; 95%CI [1.33–1.85]; Model2: OR = 1.55; 95%CI [1.32–1.84]; Model3: OR = 1.57; 95%CI [1.33–1.86]). In the spline curve fitting model, the relationship between ln-SII and cataract prevalence was non-linear (P < 0.001), with a critical inflection point identified at an SII of 428.38. SII levels remained significantly associated with cataract prevalence following PSM adjustments (Model 1: OR = 1.48; 95% CI [1.21–1.80]; Model 2: OR = 1.48; 95% CI [1.21–1.80]; Model 3: OR = 1.46; 95% CI [1.20–1.78]). Elevated SII levels are associated with a higher prevalence of cataracts, underscoring the pivotal role of systemic inflammation in cataract development. These findings indicate that SII could serve as a valuable biomarker for assessing cataract risk, further emphasizing the significance of managing systemic inflammation as a potential strategy for cataract prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In recent years, more and more deep learning frameworks are being applied to hyperspectral image classification tasks and have achieved great results. However, the existing network models have higher model complexity and require more time consumption. Traditional hyperspectral image classification methods tend to ignore the correlation between local spatial features. In this paper, a new hyperspectral image classification method is proposed, which combines two-dimensional Gabor filter with random patch convolution (GRPC) feature extraction to obtain spatial-spectral feature information. The method firstly performs dimensionality reduction through principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis and extracts the edge texture and spatial information of the image using a Gabor filter for the reduced-dimensional image. Next, the extracted information is convolved with random patches to extract spectral features. Finally, the spatial features and multi-level spectral features are fused to classify the images using the Support Vector Machine classifier. In order to verify the performance of this method, experiments were conducted on three widely used datasets of Indian Pines, Pavia University and Kennedy Space Center. The overall classification accuracy reached 98.09%, 99.64% and 96.53%, which are all higher than other comparison methods. The experimental results reveal the superiority of the proposed method in classification accuracy.

Abstract Generation of attosecond bunches of energetic electrons offers significant potential from ultrafast physics to novel radiation sources. However, it is still a great challenge to stably produce such electron beams with lasers, since the typical subfemtosecond electron bunches from laser-plasma interactions either carry low beam charge, or propagate for only several tens of femtoseconds. Here we propose an all-optical scheme for generating dense attosecond electron bunches via the interaction of an intense Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) laser pulse with a nanofiber. The dense bunch train results from the unique field structure of a circularly polarized LG laser pulse, enabling each bunch to be phase-locked and accelerated forward with low divergence, high beam charge and large beam-angular-momentum. This paves the way for wide applications in various fields, e.g., ultrabrilliant attosecond x/γ-ray emission.