Search

Close-to-nature management (CTNM) has been proposed as a promising forestry management approach to improve the structure and quality of forests, which integrates wood production and ecological service functions. Research on the effect of CTNM on the univariate and bivariate distribution of the spatial structure of forest stands provides a scientific basis for the evaluation of CTNM implemented in forestry. Here, we analyzed and compared the spatial-structure characteristics of Masson pine (Pinus massoniana) plantations (young, middle-age, and near-mature stages) under CTNM 8 years after selective cutting and unmanaged control. We used univariate and bivariate distribution of three spatial-structure parameters: mingling (M), dominance (U), and uniform-angle index (W). Results showed that the effect of CTNM on spatial structure was more remarkable in middle-aged and near-mature Masson pine forests compared with the young forest. CTNM significantly improved mingling degree and promoted the horizontal distribution, thereby changing from a cluster to a random distribution. Moreover, CTNM improved the proportion of trees with a high mixing degree and random distribution and the proportion of trees having a micro-structure of random distribution with a high degree of mixture and dominance with a high degree of mixture in middle-aged and near-mature Masson pine forest. Overall, the implementation of CTNM 8 years ago showed a positive effect on the improvement of the spatial structure of Masson pine forest, but the present spatial structure is suboptimal. Further implementation of CTNM to adjust the mingling and uniform-angle index is necessary, and CTNM according to this method of frequency distribution of stand structure parameters can improve the success of forest management.

Designing reliable and energy-efficient memristor-based artificial neural networks remains a challenge. Here, the authors demonstrate a technology-agnostic approach, committee machines, which increases the inference accuracy of memristive neural networks that suffer from device variability, faulty devices, random telegraph noise and line resistance.

The relationship between height and diameter (H-D) is an important component in forest growth and yield models, and a better understanding of the relationship will improve forest monitoring, management, and biomass estimation. Sixteen nonlinear growth functions were fitted to H-D data for 1261 trees from a Cryptomeria fortunei plantation in the Pingba region of Guizhou Province, China. Of the 1261 trees, 80 % were randomly selected for model calibration, while the remaining trees were reserved for model validation. All models were evaluated and compared by means of multiple-model performance criteria. Although all 16 models showed a good fit to the dataset and each of them accounted for more than 75 % of the total variation in height, a large difference in asymptotic estimates was observed. The Chapman–Richards, Weibull, and Näslund models were recommended for C. fortunei plantations, due to their satisfactory height prediction and biological interpretability.

Twelve multiparous Holstein dairy cows in mid-lactation were selected for a replicated 4×4 Latin square design with a 2 ×2 factorial arrangement to investigate the effects of corn and soybean meal (SBM) types on rumen fermentation, N metabolism and lactation performance in dairy cows. Two types of corn (dry ground [DGC] and steam-flaked corn [SFC]) and two types of SBM (solvent-extracted and heat-treated SBM) with different ruminal degradation rates and extents were used to formulate four diets with the same basal ingredients. Each period lasted for 21 days, including 14 d for adaptation and 7 d for sample collection. Cows receiving SFC had a lower dry matter (DM) and total N intake than those fed DGC. However, the milk yield and milk protein yield were not influenced by the corn type, resulting in higher feed and N utilization efficiency in SFC-fed cows than those receiving DGC. Ruminal acetate concentrations was greater and total volatile fatty acids concentrations tended to be greater for cows receiving DGC relative to cows fed SFC, but milk fat content was not influenced by corn type. The SFC-fed cows had lower ruminal ammonia-N, less urea N in their blood and milk, and lower fecal N excretion than those on DGC. Compared with solvent-extracted SBM-fed cows, cows receiving heat-treated SBM had lower microbial protein yield in the rumen, but similar total tract apparent nutrient digestibility, N metabolism measurements, and productivity. Excessive supply of metabolizable protein in all diets may have caused the lack of difference in lactation performance between SBM types. Results of the present study indicated that increasing the energy degradability in the rumen could improve feed efficiency, and reduce environmental pollution.

Abstract Animals are exposed to many microbes in their environment, some of which have been shown to colonize various tissues including the intestine. The composition of the intestinal microbiota affects many aspects of the host’s physiology and health. Despite this, very little is known about whether host behavior contributes to the colonization. We approach this question in the nematode C. elegans, which feeds on bacteria and also harbors an intestinal microbiome. We examined the behavior of C. elegans towards CeMbio, a simplified microbiome consisting of twelve strains that represent the bacteria found in the animal’s natural environment. We observed that C. elegans raised on E. coli shows a strong preference for three members of CeMbio (Lelliottia amnigena JUb66, Enterobacter hormaechei CEent1, and Pantoea nemavictus BIGb0393) compared to E. coli. Previously, these three bacterial strains have been shown to support faster C. elegans development time than E. coli OP50 and are low colonizers compared to eight other members of CeMbio. We then used gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry to identify that these three bacteria release isoamyl alcohol, a previously described C. elegans chemoattractant. We suggest that C. elegans seeks bacteria that release isoamyl alcohol and support faster growth.

To get enhanced long-wavelength absorption, an impurity photovoltaic (IPV) mechanism was implemented within a transparent conducting oxide (TCO) at the rear of a solar cell. The numerical simulation of the N+/P (silicon)/IPV-TCO device was carried out by using SCAPS-1D program which allows the inclusion of optically active defects. In the proposed heterostructure configuration, ZnTe is a suitable material as back surface reflector. In analyzing the Si/ZnTe interface, lattice mismatch, energy band alignment and defects density were considered with appropriate treatment. In particular, to cure the detrimental 12% lattice mismatch at the interface, a thin silicon amorphous layer was inserted in-between, allowing 22.98% conversion efficiency. With adapted ZnTe Lucovsky's model for the optical capture cross sections and introduction of an oxygen radiative IPV defect (O2 level at 0.4 eV below the conduction band), a conversion efficiency of 27.15% was ultimately achieved. The experimental feasibility of the high-efficiency heterostructure device is evaluated.

Abstract  The PHOBOS collaboration has studied the pseudorapidity and transverse momentum distributions of charged particles produced in heavy ion collisions. Results from Au+Au collisions at various center-of-mass energies and over a broad range of centrality are presented here. The data are compared to Cu+Cu, p+p and d+Au collisions at corresponding energies and centralities. The data are found to exhibit simple scaling properties such as the observed factorization of collision energy and geometry dependences. The presented data help us distinguish between models of particle production in relativistic heavy ion collisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer derived exosomes are reported to promote metastatic dissemination. Here the authors show that cytokines in the tumor microenvironment bind to exosomes via glycosaminoglycan side chains of proteoglycans, and these exosomes are preferentially taken up by specific cell lineages and organs to promote metastasis.

Micronuclear batteries harness energy from the radioactive decay of radioisotopes to generate electricity on a small scale, typically in the nanowatt or microwatt range 1,2 . Contrary to chemical batteries, the longevity of a micronuclear battery is tied to the half-life of the used radioisotope, enabling operational lifetimes that can span several decades 3 . Furthermore, the radioactive decay remains unaffected by environmental factors such as temperature, pressure and magnetic fields, making the micronuclear battery an enduring and reliable power source in scenarios in which conventional batteries prove impractical or challenging to replace 4 . Common radioisotopes of americium ( 241 Am and 243 Am) are α-decay emitters with half-lives longer than hundreds of years. Severe self-adsorption in traditional architectures of micronuclear batteries impedes high-efficiency α-decay energy conversion, making the development of α-radioisotope micronuclear batteries challenging 5,6 . Here we propose a micronuclear battery architecture that includes a coalescent energy transducer by incorporating 243 Am into a luminescent lanthanide coordination polymer. This couples radioisotopes with energy transducers at the molecular level, resulting in an 8,000-fold enhancement in energy conversion efficiency from α decay energy to sustained autoluminescence compared with that of conventional architectures. When implemented in conjunction with a photovoltaic cell that translates autoluminescence into electricity, a new type of radiophotovoltaic micronuclear battery with a total power conversion efficiency of 0.889% and a power per activity of 139 microwatts per curie (μW Ci -1 ) is obtained., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Background: People are very concerned about the adverse effects of Omicron infection on delivery modes, duration of labor, and the postpartum status of pregnant women and neonates., Methods: 382 pregnant women (Omicron group: 136 cases; non-Omicron group: 246 cases) giving birth in our hospital were collected, demographic characteristics, vaccination, clinical manifestation and medication, delivery outcomes of pregnant women and neonates were recorded. Delivery outcomes were compared between the Omicron and non-Omicron groups, acute infection and non- acute infection groups to explore the relationship between adverse delivery outcomes and Omicron infection., Results: Pregnant women in the Omicron group had a longer hospitalization time (6.3 ± 3.6 days vs.5.5 ± 2.3 days), more 2-hour postpartum hemorrhage (291.7 ± 104.9 mL vs.262.7 ± 91.2 mL) and higher neonatal-pediatric transfer rate (20.6% vs. 2.8%), which might be associated with fetal distress, prenatal fever and pneumonia/respiratory distress. Neonates transferred to pediatrics due to jaundice were unique in the Omicron group. Fever-pregnant women have a more prolonged second stage of labor and hospital stay while coughing or expectoration has a shorter third stage of labor. Delivery outcomes did not differ whether the infected pregnant women were in the acute phase and whether to use antipyretics., Conclusion: Omicron infection can increase the 2-hour postpartum hemorrhage volume and the neonatal-pediatric transfer rate. The symptoms can affect the duration of labor and hospital stay. However, whether the infected pregnant women are in the acute phase or use antipyretics do not affect the delivery outcome., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

In the era of 5 G, the rise in power density in miniaturized, flexible electronic devices has created an urgent need for thin, flexible, polymer-based electrically and thermally conductive nanocomposites to address challenges related to electromagnetic interference (EMI) and heat accumulation. However, the difficulties in establishing enduring and continuous transfer pathways for electrons and phonons using solid-rigid conductive fillers within insulative polymer matrices limit the development of such nanocomposites. Herein, we incorporate MXene-bridging-liquid metal (MBLM) solid-liquid bi-continuous electrical-thermal conductive networks within aramid nanofiber/polyvinyl alcohol (AP) matrices, resulting in the AP/MBLM nanocomposite with ultra-high electrical conductivity (3984 S/cm) and distinguished thermal conductivity of 13.17 W m -1 K -1 . This nanocomposite exhibits excellent EMI shielding efficiency (SE) of 74.6 dB at a minimal thickness of 22 μm, and maintains high EMI shielding stability after enduring various harsh conditions. Meanwhile, the AP/MBLM nanocomposite also demonstrates promising heat dissipation behavior. This work expands the concept of creating thin films with high electrical and thermal conductivity., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: The long interspersed nuclear element 1 ( LINE1 ) retrotransposon has been identified as a specific substrate for fat mass and obesity-related gene ( FTO ), which facilitates the removal of N 6 -methyladenosine modifications from its targeted RNAs., Methods: This study examined the dynamic interaction between FTO and LINE1 in yak tissues and muscle satellite cells, utilizing RT-qPCR, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP), immunofluorescence staining, and techniques involving overexpression and interference of FTO and LINE1 to elucidate the relationship between FTO and LINE1 in yak tissues and muscle satellite cells., Results: Cloning and analysis of the FTO coding sequence in Jiulong yak revealed a conserved protein structure across various Bos breeds, with notable homology observed with domestic yak, domestic cattle, and Java bison. Comprehensive examination of FTO and LINE1 gene expression patterns in Jiulong yaks revealed consistent trends across tissues in both sexes. FTO mRNA levels were markedly elevated in the heart and kidney, while LINE1 RNA was predominantly expressed in the heart. Immunoprecipitation confirmed the direct interaction between the FTO protein and LINE1 RNA in yak tissues and muscle satellite cells. The FTO - LINE1 axis was confirmed by a significant decrease in LINE1 RNA enrichment following its expression interference in yak muscle satellite cells. Overexpression of FTO substantially reduced the expression of recombinant myogenic factor 5 ( MYF5 ). However, FTO interference had no discernible effect on MYF5 and myoblast determination protein 1 ( MYOD1 ) mRNA levels. Immunofluorescence analysis revealed no alterations in Ki-67 protein expression following FTO interference or overexpression. However, phalloidin staining demonstrated enhancement in the myotube fusion rate of yak muscle satellite cells upon LINE1 interference., Conclusion: This comprehensive mapping of the FTO and LINE1 mRNA expression patterns establishes a direct interaction between the FTO protein and LINE1 RNA in yak. The findings suggest that FTO overexpression promotes muscle satellite cells differentiation, whereas LINE1 negatively regulates myotube fusion. The study provides fundamental insights into the role of the FTO - LINE1 axis in determining the fate of muscle satellite cells in yak, laying a solid theoretical foundation for future investigations., 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 Ma, Chai, Yang, Zhang, Zhao, Luo, Zhong and Wu.)

In this paper, we address a complex but practical scenario in Active Learning (AL) known as open-set AL, where the unlabeled data consists of both in-distribution (ID) and out-of-distribution (OOD) samples. Standard AL methods will fail in this scenario as OOD samples are highly likely to be regarded as uncertain samples, leading to their selection and wasting of the budget. Existing methods focus on selecting the highly likely ID samples, which tend to be easy and less informative. To this end, we introduce two criteria, namely contrastive confidence and historical divergence, which measure the possibility of being ID and the hardness of a sample, respectively. By balancing the two proposed criteria, highly informative ID samples can be selected as much as possible. Furthermore, unlike previous methods that require additional neural networks to detect the OOD samples, we propose a contrastive clustering framework that endows the classifier with the ability to identify the OOD samples and further enhances the network's representation learning. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves state-of-the-art performance on several benchmark datasets.

With the development of intelligent transportation systems, traffic supervision radar with wide coverage plays a crucial role in traffic management and vehicle-road coordination. The correlation between Doppler frequency and azimuth has been widely validated in wide coverage traffic supervision radar for high-precision velocity measurement. However, angular glint and noise of the nearby targets lead to a decrease in correlation between the azimuth and Doppler frequency, which negatively impacts the accuracy of velocity estimation. Currently, adopting separate filtering strategies for target azimuth and Doppler frequency has limited performance in enhancing correlation. This paper presents a joint observation model for azimuth and Doppler frequency to achieve the extraction of interrelated components from subspaces, which improves the accuracy of velocity measurement. The effectiveness of this approach is validated using data obtained from X-band and Ku-band sensors., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Five undescribed atranones, namely atranones V-Z (1-5), three undescribed dolabellane-type diterpenoids, namely stachatranones D-F (7-9), together with four known congeners (6 and 10-12), were obtained from a coral-associated strain of the toxigenic fungus Stachybotrys chartarum. Their structures were elucidated via extensive spectroscopic analyses, mainly including the HRESIMS and NMR data, single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, electronic circular dichroism calculation, and [Mo 2 (OAc) 4 ] induced circular dichroism spectrum. The cardiomyocyte protective activity assay revealed that compound 9 significantly ameliorated cold ischemic injury at 24 h post cold ischemia (CI) in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, compound 9 prevented CI induced dephosphorylation of phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase and RAC-α serine/threonine-protein kinase at 12 h post CI in a dose-dependent manner. In this work, the undescribed compound 9 could significantly protect cardiomyocytes against cold ischemic injury, highlighting the promising potential to be designed and developed as a novel cardioprotectant in heart transplant medicine., 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.)

Objective: Accurately predicting knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is essential for early detection and personalized treatment. We aimed to develop and test a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based joint space (JS) radiomic model (RM) to predict radiographic KOA incidence through neural networks by integrating meniscus and femorotibial cartilage radiomic features., Methods: In the Osteoarthritis Initiative cohort, participants with knees without radiographic KOA at baseline but at high risk for radiographic KOA were included. Patients' knees developed radiographic KOA, whereas control knees did not over four years. We randomly split the participants into development and test cohorts (8:2) and extracted features from baseline three-dimensional double-echo steady-state sequence MRI. Model performance was evaluated using an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity in both cohorts. Nine resident surgeons performed the reader experiment without/with the JS-RM aid., Results: Our study included 549 knees in the development cohort (275 knees of patients with KOA vs 274 knees of controls) and 137 knees in the test cohort (68 knees of patients with KOA vs 69 knees of controls). In the test cohort, JS-RM had a favorable accuracy for predicting the radiographic KOA incidence with an AUC of 0.931 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.876-0.963), a sensitivity of 84.4% (95% CI 83.9%-84.9%), and a specificity of 85.6% (95% CI 85.2%-86.0%). The mean specificity and sensitivity of resident surgeons through MRI reading in predicting radiographic KOA incidence were increased from 0.474 (95% CI 0.333-0.614) and 0.586 (95% CI 0.429-0.743) without the assistance of JS-RM to 0.874 (95% CI 0.847-0.901) and 0.812 (95% CI 0.742-0.881) with JS-RM assistance, respectively (P < 0.001)., Conclusion: JS-RM integrating the features of the meniscus and cartilage showed improved predictive values in radiographic KOA incidence., (© 2024 American College of Rheumatology.)

Background: Co-morbid hypertension is strong predictor of adverse cardiovascular (CV) outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) but the optimal target for blood pressure (BP) control in this patient population has not been clearly defined., Method: The Cardiovascular Risk reduction in patients with Atrial Fibrillation Trial (CRAFT) is an investigator-initiated and conducted, international, multicenter, open-label, parallel-group, blinded outcome assessed, randomized controlled trial of intensive BP control in patients with AF. The aim is to determine whether intensive BP control (target home systolic blood pressure [SBP] <120 mmHg) is superior to standard BP control (home SBP <135 mmHg) on the hierarchical composite outcome of time to CV death, number of stroke events, time to the first stroke, number of myocardial infarction (MI) events, time to the first MI, number of heart failure hospitalization (HFH) events, and time to the first HFH. A sample size of 1675 patients is estimated to provide 80% power to detect a win-ratio of 1.50 for intensive versus standard BP control on the primary composite outcome. Study visits are conducted at 1, 2, 3, and 6 months post-randomization, and every 6 months thereafter during the study., Conclusion: This clinical trial aims to provide reliable evidence of the effects of intensive BP control in patients with AF., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The principal Investigators of CRAFT study have no disclosures of financial and other competing interests. CSA reports receiving funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Medical Research Foundation (MRF) of the UK, and the National Health and Medical Research (NHMRC) of Australia, and Penumbra and Takeda. AP is the non-remunerated Chair of the Board of George Medicines, a commercial spin-out of The George Institute that is aiming to bring a novel fixed-dose antihypertensive combination to market, and reports receiving funding from NHMRC., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Cellular senescence represents a condition of irreversible cell cycle arrest, characterized by heightened senescence-associated beta-galactosidase (SA-β-Gal) activity, senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), and activation of the DNA damage response (DDR). Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a significant contributor to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) globally, with ongoing unmet needs in terms of current treatments. The role of senescence in the pathogenesis of DKD has attracted substantial attention with evidence of premature senescence in this condition. The process of cellular senescence in DKD appears to be associated with mitochondrial redox pathways, autophagy, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Increasing accumulation of senescent cells in the diabetic kidney not only leads to an impaired capacity for repair of renal injury, but also the secretion of pro-inflammatory and profibrotic cytokines and growth factors causing inflammation and fibrosis. Current treatments for diabetes exhibit varying degrees of renoprotection, potentially via mitigation of senescence in the diabetic kidney. Targeting senescent cell clearance through pharmaceutical interventions could emerge as a promising strategy for preventing and treating DKD. In this paper, we review the current understanding of senescence in DKD and summarize the possible therapeutic interventions relevant to senescence in this field., (© 2024 The Author(s).)

A novel stress suppression design for flexible RF MEMS switches has been presented and demonstrated through theoretical and experimental research to isolate the stress caused by substrate bending. An RF MEMS switch with an S-shaped microspring structure was fabricated by the two-step etching process as a developmental step toward miniaturization and high reliability. The RF MEMS switches with an S-shaped microspring exhibited superior microwave performance and stable driving voltage under different substrate curvatures compared to the conventional non-microspring switches, demonstrating that the bending stress is successfully suppressed by the S-shaped microspring and the island structure. Furthermore, this innovative design could be easily extended to other flexible devices.

Background: The relationship between sarcopenia and frailty among middle-aged and elder adults remains unclear. This study conducted a cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis to investigate the association of sarcopenia and frailty in the middle-aged and elder Chinese population., Methods: Our data were drawn from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Sarcopenia status was assessed according to the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia 2019 criteria and categorised into: no sarcopenia, possible sarcopenia, sarcopenia, and severe sarcopenia. A 38-item deficit-accumulation frailty index was constructed to assess frailty trajectories at each visit. Generalised linear regression models were performed to analyse the cross-sectional associations between sarcopenia and frailty index. The Group-based trajectory modelling was adopted to identify potential frailty trajectories, and we then examined the associations of sarcopenia and frailty trajectories using logistic regression analysis., Results: A total of 13 218 participants were enrolled in the cross-sectional analysis and 4200 individuals were included in the longitudinal study. The cross-sectional study found that possible sarcopenia (regression coefficient (β) = 0.76; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.64-0.87, P < 0.001), sarcopenia (β = 0.56; 95% CI = 0.37-0.75, P < 0.001) and severe sarcopenia (β = 1.35; 95% CI = 0.97-1.73, P < 0.001) were significantly associated with higher frailty index. The longitudinal study indicated that participants with possible sarcopenia (odds ratio (OR) = 2.46; 95% CI = 1.77-3.42, P < 0.001), sarcopenia (OR = 1.87; 95% CI = 1.27-2.74, P < 0.001) and severe sarcopenia (OR = 6.57; 95% CI = 3.14-13.77, P < 0.001) had a higher risk of accelerated progression of frailty compared to those with no sarcopenia., Conclusions: Possible sarcopenia, sarcopenia, and severe sarcopenia were associated with higher levels of frailty and accelerated progression of frailty. Therefore, clinical medical professionals should pay more attention to frailty status in individuals who have possible sarcopenia and sarcopenia., Competing Interests: Disclosure of interest: The authors completed the ICMJE Disclosure of Interest Form (available upon request from the corresponding author) and disclose no relevant interests., (Copyright © 2024 by the Journal of Global Health. All rights reserved.)

β-Carboline heterocyclic amines (β-CHAs), known for their synergistic neurotoxic and carcinogenic effects, are predominantly produced by humans through cigarette smoke and food and are found particularly in meats cooked at high temperatures. Few studies have explored the differences in the mechanisms of accumulation of β-CHAs in smoked meat and meat processed at high temperatures. In this research, the concentration of β-CHAs in smoked meats prepared using a variety of wood materials was measured using LCMS/MS. Additionally, key volatile organic compound markers associated with β-CHAs accumulation in smoke were identified through GCMS and multivariate statistical analysis and subsequently confirmed in a chemical simulation system. Three types of strainers, each with a distinct aperture size, were used to assess the efficacy of particle filtration in reducing β-CHAs levels in smoked meat. The findings indicated that smoke exposure indeed increases the β-CHAs content of meat. However, only the strainer capable of filtering PM2.5-sized particles reduced the amount of β-CHAs present compared to the control group. In contrast, strainers with larger pore sizes facilitated excessive accumulation of β-CHAs. The presence of aldehydes such as 1 H-pyrrole-2-carboxaldehyde, 5-methylfurfural, benzaldehyde, furfural, and nonanal exhibited a positive correlation with the accumulation of β-CHAs. Conversely, phenolic compounds, including 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, 2-methoxy-5-methylphenol, p-cresol, phenol, 2-methoxy-4-(1-propenyl)-, (Z)-, phenol, 3-ethyl-, and phenol, 4-ethyl-2-methoxy-, showed a negative correlation. Thus, filters made from chelated carbonyl trap materials both chemically and physically disrupt the buildup of β-CHAs in smoked meats. The use of this approach will not only improve the quality of these products but will also contribute to decreasing the amount of inhalation pollutants released into the environment., 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.)

Accumulation and subsequent release of nutrients have great potential to trigger algal blooms in lakes and reservoirs. We conducted high vertical resolution (2 m interval) monitoring at ∼monthly intervals over a year for hydrological parameters, Chl-a, ammonium (NH 4 + ), nitrate (NO 3 - ) and different species of phosphorus (P) and manganese (Mn) in a 40-meter-deep subtropical reservoir (Shanmei Reservoir) in Fujian, southern China. In this seasonally stratified reservoir featured with high nutrient loading, the consistent trend in the ratio of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) to dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) between the euphotic zone and the hypolimnion, coupled with its mirrored correlation with Chl-a concentration indicates that upward flux from the hypolimnion affects phytoplankton growth in the euphotic zone. The monthly variation of the depth-integrated multiple species of N and P indicates that during the stratification period in the hypoxic hypolimnion, approximately 80% of the DIP is removed, leading to a remarkable decoupling phenomenon between NH 4 + and DIP. This process effectively increases the ratio of DIN to DIP in the hypolimnion, thereby significantly reducing the potential of algal blooms caused by the upward flux. A robust positive linear correlation between iron-manganese bound phosphorus (CBD-P) and particulate Mn was observed during stratification period implying that DIP was scavenged by sediment-released Mn throughout the water column. Vertical profiles during stratification showed that upward diffusion of Mn 2+ facilitated the formation of Mn oxide zones near the oxycline. The most significant decrease in DIP inventory occurs when Mn oxide zones migrate either upwards from the bottom or downwards from the oxycline, indicating that the migration of Mn oxides on the vertical profile is a key factor in the decoupling of NH 4 + and DIP. Our findings underscore the importance of Mn cycling as an underappreciated DIP self-immobilization process in the water column of reservoirs characterized by high nutrient loading. Furthermore, we propose that denitrification and Mn cycling establish a consecutive feedback mechanism, preventing excessive nutrient accumulation in low oxygen bottom water. In the context of global changes, we anticipate a heightened prominence of this feedback mechanism., 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. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Aim: Given the increasing interest in using large language models (LLMs) for self-diagnosis, this study aimed to evaluate the comprehensiveness of two prominent LLMs, ChatGPT-3.5 and ChatGPT-4, in addressing common queries related to gingival and endodontic health across different language contexts and query types., Methods: We assembled a set of 33 common real-life questions related to gingival and endodontic healthcare, including 17 common-sense questions and 16 expert questions. Each question was presented to the LLMs in both English and Chinese. Three specialists were invited to evaluate the comprehensiveness of the responses on a five-point Likert scale, where a higher score indicated greater quality responses., Results: LLMs performed significantly better in English, with an average score of 4.53, compared to 3.95 in Chinese (Mann-Whitney U test, P < .05). Responses to common sense questions received higher scores than those to expert questions, with averages of 4.46 and 4.02 (Mann-Whitney U test, P < .05). Among the LLMs, ChatGPT-4 consistently outperformed ChatGPT-3.5, achieving average scores of 4.45 and 4.03 (Mann-Whitney U test, P < .05)., Conclusions: ChatGPT-4 provides more comprehensive responses than ChatGPT-3.5 for queries related to gingival and endodontic health. Both LLMs perform better in English and on common sense questions. However, the performance discrepancies across different language contexts and the presence of inaccurate responses suggest that further evaluation and understanding of their limitations are crucial to avoid potential misunderstandings., Clinical Relevance: This study revealed the performance differences of ChatGPT-3.5 and ChatGPT-4 in handling gingival and endodontic health issues across different language contexts, providing insights into the comprehensiveness and limitations of LLMs in addressing common oral healthcare queries., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Zhaowu Chai reports financial support was provided by Stomatological Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. Zhaowu Chai reports a relationship with Stomatological Hospital of Chongqing Medical University that includes: employment. Zhaowu Chai has patent pending to Zhaowu Chai. If there are other authors, they 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 © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a newly emerging infectious disease caused by a novel bunyavirus in which host immune system suppression is thought to be crucial in disease development. Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) critical for initiation and orchestration of the immune response. And it have been suggested that functionally impaired DCs may mediate the suppression of host-specific T-cell immune responses and thus facilitate viral persistence and disease progression.This study was designed to improve the in vitro culture method for DCs and investigate the different immunologic functions of DCs between SFTS patients and healthy people., Methods: All confirmed SFTS patients (N = 10) were recruited from the Jinan Infectious Diseases Hospital in 2019; routine laboratory parameters were collected. The frequencies, phenotypes were analyzed by flow cytometry. And the levels of 8 cytokines in the cell culture supernatant were detected by flow cytometry., Results: On day 8 of the incubation period, cells were harvested and analyzed by flow cytometry. There were significant differences in the rates of CD1a-, CD83-positive cells between SFTS patients and healthy people (all P < 0.05). The detection of 8 cytokines in the culture supernatant showed that the expressions of IFN-α and IFN-γ in the culture supernatant of DC cells in SFTS patients were lower than those in normal people (P < 0.05, P < 0.01)., Conclusions: The present results indicate that DCs may be functionally impaired in SFTS. A decreased level of circulating mDCs was closely correlated with SFTS progression., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2024 Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases, and Japanese Society for Infection Prevention and Control. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Protein arginine deiminase 3 (PADI3) is involved in various biological processes of human disease. PADI3 has recently received increasing attention due to its role in tumorigenesis. In a previous study, we found that PADI3 plays a tumor suppressor role in colon cancer by inducing cell cycle arrest, but its critical role and mechanism in cancer metastasis remain obscure. In this study, we fully studied the role of PADI3 in colon cancer cell metastasis., Methods: The expression levels of related proteins were detected by Western blotting, and Transwell and wound healing assays were used to examine the cell migration ability. Flow cytometry was used to measure and exclude cell apoptosis-affected cell migration. Both overexpression and rescue experiments were employed to elucidate the molecular mechanism of CKS1 in colon cancer cells., Results: The expression levels of PADI3 and CKS1 are negatively related, and PADI3 can promote CKS1 degradation in a ubiquitin-dependent manner. PADI3 can suppress colon cancer cell migration and reduce the wound healing speed by inhibiting CKS1 expression. The molecular mechanism showed that CKS1 can promote EMT by increasing Snail and N-cadherin expression and suppressing E-cadherin expression. PADI3, as a suppressor of CKS1, can block the process of EMT by impairing CKS1-induced Snail upregulation and E-cadherin downregulation; however, the expression of N-cadherin cannot be rescued., Conclusions: CKS1 promotes EMT in colon cancer by regulating Snail/E-cadherin expression, and this effect can be reversed by PADI3 via the promotion of CKS1 degradation in a ubiquitylation-dependent manner., (Copyright © 2024 Copyright: © 2024 Journal of Cancer Research and Therapeutics.)

By incorporating soft materials into the architecture, flexible mechanical metamaterials enable promising applications, e.g., energy modulation, and shape morphing, with a well-controllable mechanical response, but suffer from spatial and temporal programmability towards higher-level mechanical intelligence. One feasible solution is to introduce snapping structures and then tune their responses by accurately tailoring the stress-strain curves. However, owing to the strongly coupled nonlinearity of structural deformation and material constitutive model, it is difficult to deduce their stress-strain curves using conventional ways. Here, a machine learning pipeline is trained with the finite element analysis data that considers those strongly coupled nonlinearities to accurately tailor the stress-strain curves of snapping metamaterialfor on-demand mechanical response with an accuracy of 97.41%, conforming well to experiment. Utilizing the established approach, the energy absorption efficiency of the snapping-metamaterial-based device can be tuned within the accessible range to realize different rebound heights of a falling ball, and soft actuators can be spatially and temporally programmed to achieve synchronous and sequential actuation with a single energy input. Purely relying on structure designs, the accurately tailored metamaterials increase the devices' tunability/programmability. Such an approach can potentially extend to similar nonlinear scenarios towards predictable or intelligent mechanical responses., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Coral reef ecosystems are the most productive and biodiverse marine ecosystems, with their productivity levels highly dependent on the symbiotic dinoflagellates belonging to the family Symbiodiniaceae. As a unique life history strategy, resting cyst production is of great significance in the ecology of many dinoflagellate species, those HABs-causing species in particular, however, there has been no confirmative evidence for the resting cyst production in any species of the family Symbiodiniaceae. Based on morphological and life history observations of cultures in the laboratory and morpho-molecular detections of cysts from the marine sediments via fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), cyst photography, and subsequent singe-cyst PCR sequencing, here we provide evidences for the asexual production of resting cysts by Effrenium voratum, the free-living, red tide-forming, and the type species of the genus Effrenium in Symbiodiniaceae. The evidences from the marine sediments were obtained through a sequential detections: Firstly, E. voratum amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were detected in the cyst assemblages that were concentrated with the sodium polytungstate (SPT) method from the sediments collected from different regions of China Seas by high-throughput next generation sequencing (NGS); Secondly, the presence of E. voratum in the sediments was detected by PCR using the species-specific primers for the DNA directly extracted from sediment; Thirdly, E. voratum cysts were confirmed by a combined approach of FISH using the species-specific probes, light microscopic (LM) photography of the FISH-positive cysts, and a subsequent single-cyst PCR sequencing for the FISH-positive and photographed cysts. The evidences from the laboratory-reared clonal cultures of E. voratum include that: 1) numerous cysts formed in the two clonal cultures and exhibited a spherical shape, a smooth surface, absence of ornaments, and a large red accumulation body; 2) cysts could maintain morphologically intact for a storage of two weeks to six months at 4 °C in darkness and of which 76-92 % successfully germinated through an internal development processes within a time period of 3-21 days after being transferred back to the normal culturing conditions; 3) two or four germlings were released from each cyst through the cryptopylic archeopyle in all cysts with continuous observations of germination processes; and 4) while neither sexual mating of gametes nor planozygote (cells with two longitudinal flagella) were observed, the haploidy of cysts was proven with flow cytometric measurements and direct LM measurements of fluorescence from cells stained with either propidium iodide (PI) or DAPI, which together suggest that the cysts were formed asexually. All evidences led to a conclusion that E. voratum is capable of producing asexual resting cysts, although its sexuality cannot be completely excluded, which guarantees a more intensive investigation. This work fills a gap in the knowledge about the life cycle, particularly the potential of resting cyst formation, of the species in Symbiodiniaceae, a group of dinoflagellates having unique life forms and vital significance in the ecology of coral reefs, and may provide novel insights into understanding the recovery mechanisms of coral reefs destructed by the global climate change and suggest various forms of resting cysts in the cyst assemblages of dinoflagellates observed in the field sediments, including HABs-causing species., 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.)

Noncoding RNA (NcRNA)-protein interactions (NPIs) play fundamentally important roles in carrying out cellular activities. Although various predictors based on molecular features and graphs have been published to boost the identification of NPIs, most of them often ignore the information between known NPIs or exhibit insufficient learning ability from graphs, posing a significant challenge in effectively identifying NPIs. To develop a more reliable and accurate predictor for NPIs, in this article, we propose NPI-DCGNN, an end-to-end NPI predictor based on a dual-channel graph neural network (DCGNN). NPI-DCGNN initially treats the known NPIs as an ncRNA-protein bipartite graph. Subsequently, for each ncRNA-protein pair, NPI-DCGNN extracts two local subgraphs centered around the ncRNA and protein, respectively, from the bipartite graph. After that, it utilizes a dual-channel graph representation learning layer based on GNN to generate high-level feature representations for the ncRNA-protein pair. Finally, it employs a fully connected network and output layer to predict whether an interaction exists between the pair of ncRNA and protein. Experimental results on four experimentally validated datasets demonstrate that NPI-DCGNN outperforms several state-of-the-art NPI predictors. Our case studies on the NPInter database further demonstrate the prediction power of NPI-DCGNN in predicting NPIs. With the availability of the source codes (https://github.com/zhangxin11111/NPI-DCGNN), we anticipate that NPI-DCGNN could facilitate the studies of ncRNA interactome by providing highly reliable NPI candidates for further experimental validation.

Oligomerization is an important feature of proteins, which gives a defined quaternary structure to complete the biological functions. Although frequently observed in membrane proteins, characterizing the oligomerization state remains complicated and time-consuming. In this study, 0.05% (w/v) sarkosyl-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (05SAR-PAGE) was used to identify the oligomer states of the membrane proteins CpxA, EnvZ, and Ma-Mscl with high sensitivity. Furthermore, two-dimensional electrophoresis (05SAR/sodium dodecyl sulfate-PAGE) combined with western blotting and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was successfully applied to study the complex of CpxA/OmpA in cell lysate. The results indicated that 05SAR-PAGE is an efficient, economical, and practical gel method that can be widely used for the identification of membrane protein oligomerization and the analysis of weak protein interactions., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Purpose of Review: While primary prevention strategies target individuals who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease, there is rising interest towards primordial prevention that focuses on preventing the development of risk factors upstream of disease detection. Therefore, we review the advantages of primordial prevention interventions on minimizing future cardiovascular events., Recent Findings: Primordial prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease involves behavioral, genetic, and environmental strategies, starting from fetal/infant health and continuing throughout childhood and young adulthood. Early interventions focusing on modifiable risk factors such as physical inactivity, non-ideal body weight, smoking, and environmental pollutants are important towards preventing the initial occurrence of risk factors such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes to ultimately reduce cardiovascular disease. Implementing primordial prevention strategies early on in life can minimize cardiovascular events and lead to healthy aging in the population. Future studies can further evaluate the effectiveness of various primordial prevention strategies., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Developing carbon-supported Pt-based electrocatalysts with high activity and long-durability for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is an enormous challenge for their commercial applications due to the corrosion of carbon supports in acid/alkaline solution at high potential. In this work, a Janus structural TaON/graphene-like carbon (GLC) was synthesized via an in-situ molecular selfassembly strategy, which was used as a dual-carrier for platinum (Pt). The as-obtained Pt/TaON/GLC presents high half-wave potential (0.94 V vs. RHE), excellent mass (1.48 A mg Pt -1 ) and specific (1.75 mA cm Pt -2 ) activities at 0.9 V, and superior long-term durability with a minimal loss (8.0 %) of mass activity after 10,000 cycles in alkaline solution, outperforming those of Pt/C and other catalysts. The structural characterizations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that the Pt/TaON/GLC catalyst exhibits the maximum synergies, including enhanced interfacial electron density, improved charge transfer, enhanced O 2 adsorption, andsuperimposed OO cleavage. This work shows a potential strategy for preparing the high-active and long-durable Pt-based electrocatalyst by synergism-promoted interface engineering., 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 Inc. All rights reserved.)

To improve the overall sensory evaluation of regular coffee, a mixture of β-CD/flavour CD powder was prepared by a freeze-drying method. Cyclodextrin inclusion complexes consist of eight compounds that are naturally present in coffee, specifically: 2,5-dimethylpyrazine, benzaldehyde, citral, linalool, limonene, phenethyl acetate, furfural, and ethyl acetate. These eight compounds naturally occur in coffee, making them safer than using other compounds. Moreover, these eight compounds are the primary active ingredients in coffee, significantly influencing its flavour profile. Therefore, choosing to complex these eight compounds with cyclodextrins can effectively enhance the taste of the coffee. XRD, FT-IR, and SDE-GC-FID were presented to study the formation of inclusion CD powder, the storage stability, chemical composition changes, and safety. Results show that by the cyclodextrin method of freeze-drying, the CD powder showed a stable encapsulated structure and increased stability of flavour compounds. Based on the coffee aroma analysis results, prepared CD powder can enhance the coffee's aroma score by 3.0-4.0 points and increase the flavour score by 2.1-3.5 points, and it can achieve preservation for a minimum of 181 days at 25 °C. Furthermore, under the requirements of the China national standard for additives, the mixture of β-CD/flavour CD powder was used for the cup testing with four regular coffees to obtain improved coffees. With the full score is 10, improved coffees could score extra 3.0-4.0 points on aroma and 2.1-3.5 on flavour compared to regular coffee. In addition, the CD powder also improves the quality of the coffee in terms of aftertaste, body, and sweetness. Overall, β-CD/flavour CD powders provide several advantages over the currently popular coffee bean processing methods, including improved reproducibility, enhanced controllability, and increased flexibility, while prioritizing safety. And it should be explored further with appropriate compounds given its potential for coffee aroma modulation.

Light-driven carboxylation offers a promising approach for synthesizing valuable fine chemicals under mild conditions. Here we disclose a heterogeneous photocatalytic strategy of C(sp 2 )-H activation of formate for hydrocarboxylation of alkenes over zinc indium sulfide (ZnIn 2 S 4 ) under visible light. This protocol functions well with a variety of substituted styrenes with good to excellent yields; it also works for unactivated alkenes albeit with lower yields. Mechanistic studies confirm the existence of CO 2 ⋅ - as a key intermediate. It was found that C(sp 2 )-H activation of formate is induced by S⋅ species on the surface of ZnIn 2 S 4 via hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) instead of a photogenerated hole oxidation mechanism. Moreover, both cleavage of the C(sp 2 )-H of HCOO - and formation of a benzylic anion were found to be involved in the rate-determining step for the hydrocarboxylation of styrene., (© 2024 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Recently, the accuracy of image-text matching has been greatly improved by multimodal pretrained models, all of which use millions or billions of paired images and texts for supervised model learning. Different from them, human brains can well match images with texts using their stored multimodal knowledge. Inspired by that, this paper studies a new scenario as unpaired image-text matching, in which paired images and texts are assumed to be unavailable during model learning. To deal with it, we accordingly propose a simple yet effective method namely Multimodal Aligned Conceptual Knowledge (MACK). First, we collect a set of words and their related image regions from publicly available datasets, and compute prototypical region representations to obtain pretrained general knowledge. To make the obtained knowledge better suit for certain datasets, we refine it using unpaired images and texts in a self-supervised learning manner to obtain fine-tuned domain knowledge. Then, to match given images with texts based on the knowledge, we represent parsed words in the texts by prototypical region representations, and compute region-word similarity scores. At last, the scores are aggregated based on bidirectional similarity pooling into an image-text similarity score, which can be directly used for unpaired image-text matching. The proposed MACK is complementary with existing models, which can be easily extended as a re-ranking method to substantially improve their performance of zero-shot and cross-dataset image-text matching.

Carriers have been extensively employed to enhance nitrification performance during low-strength wastewater treatment by retaining slow-growing ammonia oxidizing microorganisms (AOMs). Still, there is a dearth of systematic understanding of biofilm properties and microbial community structure formed on different carriers. In this study, hydrophilic polyurethane foam (PUF) carriers were prepared and compared with five widely used commercial carriers, namely Kaldness 3, Biochip, activated carbon, volcanic rock, and zeolite. The results indicated that the biofilms formed on carriers enhanced microbial ammonia oxidation activity. Additionally, the biofilm developed on the PUF demonstrated the most superior performance among all selected carriers, not only exhibiting the highest abundant and the most active AOMs, with amoA gene abundance of 1.41 × 10 13 copies/m 3 and specific ammonia oxidation rate of 9.84 g NH 4 + -N/(m 3  × h), but also possessing a compact structure, with 3.41 kg VSS/m 3 and 46.83 mg extracellular polymeric substances/g VSS. The high-throughput sequencing analysis revealed that the comammox (CMX) Nitrospira dominated on biofilm due to the intrinsically low apparent half-saturation constant for substrate. A unique ecological community structure was established on PUF, characterized by low species diversity and high homogeneity in alignment with community characteristics of CMX. The biofilms on PUF contributed to the proliferation of CMX Nitrospira dominated by Nitrospira nitrosa, achieving the highest proportion among colonial three AOMs at 86.58 %. The appropriate average pore size, superior hydrophilicity, and large specific surface area of PUF carriers provided a robust foundation for the exceptional ammonia oxidation performance of the formed biofilms., 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. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Azametallacyclopentadienes are an important class of metallacycles as the key intermediates in metal-promoted or catalyzed carbon-carbon coupling reaction of nitriles and alkynes. Rare-earth azametallacyclopentadienes have shown unique reactivity toward benzonitriles. The reaction chemistry of azalutetacyclopentadienes toward 2-methylbenzonitriles has been investigated in this work, showing different reactivity. Experimental and computational studies reveal that the reaction selectively initiates with the remote activation of the benzylic C-H bond by the Lu-N bond, followed by the intramolecular nucleophilic attack from the deprotonated benzylic carbon to form a C-C bond. Subsequently, the high ring strain promoted the generation of the uncoordinated carbanion dissociated from the lutetium center, which then undergoes intramolecular nucleophilic attack toward C≡N triple bond to give the final product containing fused 7-5-6-membered azalutetacycle. This work not only achieves highly selective three-step cascade transformation to form a unique class of rare-earth metallacycle, but also reveals a novel reaction pattern of unsaturated substrates with C-H bonds that can be activated., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Solution-based processes have received considerable attention in the fabrication of electronics and sensors owing to their merits of being low-cost, vacuum-free, and simple in equipment. However, the current solution-based processes either lack patterning capability or have low resolution (tens of micrometers) and low pattern fidelity in terms of line edge roughness (LER, several micrometers). Here, we present a surface energy-directed assembly (SEDA) process to fabricate metal oxide patterns with up to 2 orders of magnitude improvement in resolution (800 nm) and LER (16 nm). Experiment results show that high pattern fidelity can be achieved only at low relative humidities of below 30%. The reason for this phenomenon lies in negligible water condensation on the solution droplet. Employing the SEDA process, all-solution-processed metal oxide thin film transistors (TFTs) are fabricated by using indium oxide as channel layers, indium tin oxide as source/drain electrodes and gate electrodes, and aluminum oxide as gate dielectrics. TFT-based logic gate circuits, including NOT, NOR, NAND, and AND are fabricated as well, demonstrating the applicability of the SEDA process in fabricating large area functional electronics.

Background: The study evaluated the performance of the Mindray N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in a healthy population in China, focusing on creating a reference range for future clinical applications adjusted according to different demographics., Methods: The study measured NT-proBNP in 2277 healthy individuals. We analyzed age and sex-stratified data, performed precision, accuracy, linearitcvy, and detection limit studies, and evaluated method comparison and consistency between Roche and Mindray assays on 724 serum samples. We used Excel 2010, Medcalc, and GraphPad Prism 9., Results: In males, the 97.5th centile NT-proBNP concentration at age < 45, 45 to 54, 55 to 64, 65 to 74 and ≧ 75 were 89.4 ng/L, 126 ng/L, 206 ng/L, 386 ng/L and 522 ng/L, respectively. In females, the concentration of NT-proBNP at the same age was 132 ng/L, 229 ng/L, 262 ng/L, 297 ng/L and 807 ng/L, respectively. The repeatability precision coefficient of variation (CV%) for NT-proBNP was between 0.86 and 1.65 in analytical performance. In contrast, the reproducibility precision (CV%) for NT-proBNP was between 1.52 and 3.22, respectively. The study found a bias of accuracy of 3.73% in low-value samples (concentration: 148.69) and 7.31% in high-value samples (concentration: 1939.08). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of 125 ng/L were 96.6%, 92.3%, 84.2%, and 98.5%, respectively. In contrast, those of 300 ng/L were 94.0%, 98.2%, 95.7% and 97.5%, respectively., Conclusions: The Mindray NT-proBNP assay showed increased levels in both males and females with age, with higher levels in women. It performs well and aligns with manufacturer specifications. We recommend adjusting cutoff values based on demographic factors., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Poor neurological recovery in patients after anterior cervical discectomy and fusion has been frequently reported; however, no study has analyzed the preoperative imaging characteristics of patients to investigate the factors affecting surgical prognosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that affect the preoperative imaging characteristics of patients and their influence on poor neurologic recovery after anterior cervical discectomy and fusion., Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 89 patients who met the criteria for anterior cervical discectomy and fusion for the treatment of single-level cervical spondylotic myelopathy and evaluated the patients' neurological recovery based on the recovery rate of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scores at the time of the final follow-up visit. Patients were categorized into the "good" and "poor" groups based on the JOA recovery rates of ≥ 50% and < 50%, respectively. Clinical information (age, gender, body mass index, duration of symptoms, preoperative JOA score, and JOA score at the final follow-up) and imaging characteristics (cervical kyphosis, cervical instability, ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL), calcification of herniated intervertebral discs, increased signal intensity (ISI) of the spinal cord on T2-weighted imaging (T2WI), and degree of degeneration of the discs adjacent to the fused levels (cranial and caudal) were collected from the patients. Univariate and binary logistic regression analyses were performed to identify risk factors for poor neurologic recovery., Results: The mean age of the patients was 52.56 ± 11.18 years, and the mean follow-up was 26.89 ± 11.14 months. Twenty patients (22.5%) had poor neurological recovery. Univariate analysis showed that significant predictors of poor neurological recovery were age (p = 0.019), concomitant OPLL (p = 0.019), concomitant calcification of herniated intervertebral discs (p = 0.019), ISI of the spinal cord on T2WI (p <0.05), a high grade of degeneration of the discs of the cranial neighboring levels (p <0.05), and a high grade of discs of the caudal neighboring levels (p <0.05). Binary logistic regression analysis showed that ISI of the spinal cord on T2WI (p = 0.001 OR = 24.947) and high degree of degeneration of adjacent discs on the cranial side (p = 0.040 OR = 6.260) were independent risk factors for poor neurological prognosis., Conclusion: ISI of the spinal cord on T2WI and high degree of cranial adjacent disc degeneration are independent risk factors for poor neurological recovery after anterior cervical discectomy and fusion. A comprehensive analysis of the patients' preoperative imaging characteristics can help in the development of surgical protocols and the management of patients' surgical expectations., (© 2024. The Author(s).)