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Xiaoou Li,1 Wei Gao,2 Zhonglan Jia,3 Kaihu Yao,2 Jinyan Yang,1 Jingjing Tong,4 Yajuan Wang5 1Department of Neonatology, Haidian District Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Beijing, 100080, People’s Republic of China; 2Key Laboratory of Major Diseases in Children, Ministry of Education, National Key Discipline of Pediatrics (Capital Medical University), Laboratory of Dermatology, Beijing Pediatric Research Institute, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children’s Health, Beijing, 100045, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Clinical Laboratory, Haidian District Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Beijing, 100080, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Neonatology, Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100026, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Neonatology, Children’s Hospital, Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, 100020, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Yajuan Wang, Department of Neonatology, Children’s Hospital, Capital Institute of Pediatrics, No. 2 Yabao Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100020, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-10-85695631, Email cxswyj@vip.sina.comPurpose: We investigate the drug resistance, serotype and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of Group B streptococcus (GBS) strains obtained from pregnant women and neonates in a hospital in Beijing.Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1470 eligible pregnant women at a gestational age of 35– 37 weeks presented to our department between May 2015 and May 2016 were included. Vaginal and rectal samples from pregnant women together with sampling from neonatal samples were collected to screen GBS. GBS strains were subject to drug resistance and serotype analysis and MLST.Results: GBS strains were isolated from 111 pregnant women (7.6%) and 6 neonates (0.99%) from 606 matched neonates. 102 strains from pregnant women and 3 strains from neonates were included in the drug sensitivity test, serotyping and MLST typing. All these strains were susceptible to ampicillin, penicillin, ceftriaxone, vancomycin, linezolid, and meropenem. Sixty strains (58.8%) showed multi-drug resistance. Serious cross-resistance was seen between erythromycin and clindamycin. There were eight serotypes, and 37 strains (36.3%) showed a serotype of type III serving as the major type. All 102 GBS strains isolated from pregnant samples could be divided into 18 STs types. They belonged to five clonal complexes and five single clones, with the predominant type of ST19/III, ST10/Ib, and ST23/Ia, with CC19 as the most common type. Three GBS strains isolated from neonates covered two serotypes (ie type III and Ia) that were consistent with those of the mothers.Conclusion: Serotype III was the predominant serotype of GBS in this study. The predominant MLST type was ST19, ST10, and ST23, with ST19/III, ST10/Ib, and ST23/Ia serving as the most prevalent and CC19 as the most common clonal complex. GBS strains from neonates were consistent in the clonal complex, serotype, and MLST with these isolated from the mothers.Keywords: Group B streptococcus, multilocus sequence typing, drug resistance, molecular epidemiology

BackgroundIn advanced disease, breathlessness becomes severe, increasing health services use. Breathlessness triggered services demonstrate effectiveness in trials and meta-analyses but lack health economic assessment.MethodsOur economic study included a discrete choice experiment (DCE), followed by a cost-effectiveness analysis modelling. The DCE comprised face-to-face interviews with older patients with chronic breathlessness and their carers across nine UK centres. Conditional logistic regression analysis of DCE data determined the preferences (or not, indicated by negative β coefficients) for service attributes. Economic modelling estimated the costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) over 5 years.FindingsThe DCE recruited 190 patients and 68 carers. Offering breathlessness services in person from general practitioner (GP) surgeries was not preferred (β=−0.30, 95% CI −0.40 to −0.21); hospital outpatient clinics (0.16, 0.06 to 0.25) or via home visits (0.15, 0.06 to 0.24) were preferred. Inperson services with comprehensive treatment review (0.15, 0.07 to 0.21) and holistic support (0.19, 0.07 to 0.31) were preferred to those without. Cost-effectiveness analysis found the most and the least preferred models of breathlessness services were cost-effective compared with usual care. The most preferred service had £5719 lower costs (95% CI −6043 to 5395), with 0.004 (95% CI −0.003 to 0.011) QALY benefits per patient. Uptake was higher when attributes were tailored to individual preferences (86% vs 40%).ConclusionBreathlessness services are cost-effective compared with usual care for health and social care, giving cost savings and better quality of life. Uptake of breathlessness services is higher when service attributes are individually tailored.

Limited treatments are available for alleviating heart remodeling in postmenopausal hypertension. The cardioprotective effect of naoxintong (NXT) has been widely accepted. This study aimed to explore the effects of NXT on pathological heart remodeling in a postmenopausal hypertension mouse model in vivo and H9c2 cardiomyocytes in vitro. In vivo, ovariectomy combined with chronic angiotensin II infusion was used to establish the postmenopausal hypertension animal model. NXT significantly ameliorated cardiac remodeling as indicated by a reduced ratio of heart weight/body weight and left ventricle weight/body weight, left ventricular wall thickness, diameter of cardiomyocytes, and collagen deposition in the heart. NXT also significantly increased the expression of estrogen receptors (ERs) and downregulated the expression of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase 2 (Nox2). In vitro, NXT treatment greatly suppressed angiotensin II-induced cardiac hypertrophy, cardiac fibrosis, and excessive oxidative stress as proven by reducing the diameter of H9c2 cardiomyocytes, expression of hypertrophy and fibrosis markers, intracellular reactive oxygen species, and oxidative enzymes. Mechanistically, NXT significantly upregulated the expression of ERs, which activated the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway and inhibited the phosphorylation of the p38α pathway. Collectively, the results indicated that NXT administration might attenuate cardiac remodeling through upregulating the expression of ERs, which activated the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway, inhibited the phosphorylation of the p38α signaling pathway, and reduced oxidative stress.

When the polarization-maintaining fiber (PMF) delay coil of a fiber optic current transformer (FOCT) is impacted, external forces on the optical fibers and change of their birefringence may lead to extra phase errors during the propagation of optical signals in the fibers. These errors increase the error in current measurement. In the paper, the environmental impact mechanisms influencing the PMF delay coil of FOCT were investigated with a mathematical error model. The method of replacing PMF with a polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber (PCF) as the delay coil was proposed. Also, the relationship between structural parameters of air holes and linear birefringence of the polarization maintaining PCF subjected to stress was investigated. The structural parameters of optical fibers were also optimized subsequently. Simulated impact experiments of FOCT with polarization-maintaining PCF and PMF as the delay coil, respectively, demonstrated the effective impact resistance of FOCT with polarization-maintaining PCF delay coil after the optimization of its structural parameters. The current measurement errors of the FOCTs with polarization maintaining PCF delay coil reduced by approximately 35% with respect to the FOCT with PMF delay coil.

Controlled synthesis of new P3HT-b-poly(phenylisocyanide) copolymer was developed under nickel-catalyzed coordination polymerizations, and their solution self-assembly behaviors were revealed.

In this letter, a design of multibeam antenna (MBA) with 2-D beam steerable capability is proposed. The proposed MBA is composed of a circular 44 butler matrix (BM) and a 24 patch antenna array. And the 24 patch antenna array consists of four 2-element subarrays uniformly arranged along E-plane. By introducing the switching diodes in the subarray and controlling the switching diodes on and off, elements of the subarray are excited through the paths with different lengths, and the beam of the subarray is steered subsequently in H-plane. The circular 44 BM is designed as the beamforming network to excite the four subarrays uniformly arranged along E-plane and steer the beam in E-plane. The proposed MBA can generate 12 beams by selecting the excitation port and controlling the on-off state of the switching diodes. To validate the performance of the proposed MBA, a prototype is fabricated and measured. By the design, the dimension of the designed MBA has reduced to 2.9 01.3 0. The designed MBA operates at 5.7 GHz, and the results show that beams of the MBA can cover the range of 36 in E-plane and 22 in H-plane, respectively.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the effect of an exercise intervention on improving and alleviating anxiety symptoms in college students with a meta-analytical approach.MethodsSeveral databases (e.g., PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library) were used to search for randomized controlled trials (in short, RCTs) on interventions for physical exercise or aerobic exercise in college students with anxiety symptoms. Stata software, version 16.0, was applied sequentially for traditional meta-analysis, subgroup analysis, and publication bias analysis.ResultsA total of nine papers were included. The total literature effect [SMD = −0.55, 95% CI = −0.76 to −0.35, Z = 5.38 (P < 0.001)] indicated that physical activity had a significant effect on alleviating anxiety. Subgroup analysis also showed that exercise interventions using aerobic exercise or yoga were effective in relieving anxiety (SMD = −0.39, 95% CI = −0.74 to −0.04; SMD = −0.76, 95% CI = −1.14 to −0.39).ConclusionPhysical activity interventions were shown to have a positive effect on alleviating anxiety in college students. Aerobic exercise was found to be the optimal mode.

Tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids (THIQAs) are ubiquitous compounds with important pharmaceutical and biological activity. Their key N-heterocyclic structural motifs are synthesised via Pictet–Spengler (P–S) reaction by norcoclaurine synthases (NCS) in plants. The synthesis of 1-aryl-tetrahydroisoquinoline alkaloids has attracted increasing attention due to their antitumor and antivirus activities. Herein, the L68T/M97V mutant of NCS from Thalictrum flavum with improved activity was developed by semi-rational design. This mutant not only showed higher catalytic performance (> 96% conversion) toward benzaldehyde and dopamine over the wild-type enzyme, but also catalysed the P–S reaction of the bulky substrate 4-biphenylaldehyde and dopamine with high conversion (> 99%) for the effective synthesis of 1-aryl-THIQA. In terms of stereoselectivity, all products synthesised by the L68T/M97V mutant showed high optical purity (92–99% enantiomeric excess). Graphical Abstract

BackgroundSeveral studies have shown that colorectal adenomas are the most important precancerous lesions. The colonoscopic identification of groups with the high risk of malignant colorectal adenomas remains a controversial issue for clinicians.AimsTo evaluate the basic characteristics of colorectal adenomas with malignancy risk using high-grade dysplasia (HGD) as an alternative marker for malignant transformation.MethodsData from Shanghai General Hospital between January 2017 and December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. The primary outcome was the incidence of HGD in adenomas, which was used as a surrogate marker for the risk of malignancy. Odds ratios (ORs) for the HGD rate in adenomas were analyzed in relation to adenoma-related factors.ResultsA total of 9,646 patients identified with polyps during 57,445 screening colonoscopies were included in the study. Patients with flat polyps, sessile polyps, and pedunculated polyps represented 27.3% (N = 2,638), 42.7% (N = 4,114), and 30.0% (N = 2,894) of the total number, respectively. HGD was found in 2.41% (N = 97), 0.92% (N = 24), and 3.51% (N = 98) of sessile adenomas, flat adenomas, and pedunculated adenomas, respectively (P < 0.001). Multivariable logistic regression showed that polyp size (P < 0.001) but not shape (P > 0.8), was an independent predictor of HGD. Contrast to the diameter ≤1 cm, the OR value for diameters 1–2, 2–3, and >3 cm was 13.9, 49.3, and 161.6, respectively. The HGD incidence also increased in multiple adenomas (>3 vs. >1, ORs 1.582) and distal adenomas (distal vs. proximal adenomas, OR 2.252). Adenoma morphology (pedunculated vs. flat) was statistically significant in univariate analysis but not when size was included in the multivariate analysis. Besides, the incidence of HGD was also significantly higher in older patients (>64 vs. P = 0.681) was not statistically significant. All these associations were statistically significant (P < 0.05).ConclusionThe malignant potential of polyps is mostly affected by their size but not by their shape. In addition, distal location, multiple adenomas, and advanced age were also correlated with malignant transformation.

Approximately 280 million people in the world (Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2021) and 8.3% of the German population have a depression (Heidemann et al., 2021). A phenomenon with similar symptoms is the burnout syndrome. It is mainly described as an emotional exhaustion as a response to chronic (job-related) stress (Maslach et al., 2001). As there are no standardised clinical criteria yet, it is difficult to state the prevalence of burnout at this point. However, work stress is a very widespread phenomenon and the most experienced kind of stress in Germans in 2016 (Techniker Krankenkasse, 2016). Another potential risk factor for both depression and burnout are stressful life events (SLE; Plieger et al., 2015). There is ongoing research into how these psychological stressors can exert a long-lasting influence. A major role in this process may be played by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (Heim et al., 2008), that is in particular responsible for stress regulation processes and emits glucocorticoids (Kirschbaum, 2008). When a person is exposed to very severe or chronic stress, cortisol in large quantities is released into the bloodstream. In the long term, this can damage tissue and upset the complicated balance of the HPA axis, which in turn can lead to a dysregulation of the biological system and promote the development of mental illnesses (Miller et al., 2007). There are several theories regarding the longitudinal influence of SLE on the HPA-axis (e.g., Young et al., 2019). The “stress sensitization model” (SSM), a specific variant of the diathesis-stress model (Wade et al., 2019), assumes that stressful life events in childhood (“adverse childhood experiences”; ACE) lead to a disbalance of the HPA axis and that affected people therefore have difficulties later in life when they are confronted with stressful events again. It is thus suggested that ACE weaken individuals ability to handle with stress and make them more susceptible to mental disorders (McLaughlin et al., 2010). Another theory postulates possible “positive” aspects of ACE. The “match/mismatch hypothesis” (MMH; Schmidt, 2011) assumes, that early life challenges can bring about changes that prepare individuals for life in a more hostile environment and can therefore be beneficial, when they are in challenging situations in later life (“match”). On the other hand, a “mismatch” between early and later environment, e.g. stressful events in childhood but not in adulthood or vice versa, is critical for developing a mental disease (Kuhn et al., 2016). So, there are different theories about the interaction between ACE and stress later in life. The present study will now investigate whether, analogous to the MMH, a mismatch between early and late life experiences leads to higher symptoms of depression and burnout compared to people with matching experiences, or whether, analogous to the SSM, people with both adverse childhood experiences and greater current work-related stress show higher depression and burnout scores (compared to people without any experiences or with a mismatch). In addition to these questions, it will also be investigated how the stress-relevant biomarkers cortisol, cortisone and the inflammation marker high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) are related to the respective constructs. There are links between SLE and cortisol (Steudte et al., 2013) and inflammation (Baumeister et al., 2016) and also between chronic stress and hair cortisol (Heim et al., 2000; Penz et al., 2019; Stalder et al., 2017), hair cortisone (Penz, Stalder et al., 2018) and inflammation (Iob et al., 2020). The exact changes on a biological level will therefore be examined alongside the symptom changes. The study will include participants from the Epigenetics Study of the Dresden Burnout Study (Penz, Wekenborg et al., 2018). The Epigenetics Study was a two-measurement point study in autumn 2020 and 2021. It was conducted to add the assessment of epigenetic markers to further investigate the longitudinal influence of work-related stress on the development and course of mental illnesses. The participants attended online assessments with a series of questionnaires and laboratory visits with biomarker collection respectively. We use data from N = 152 participants who attended both measurement times and completed the online questionnaires.

This study aims to examine the stability of endocannabinoids (AEA, 1AG/2AG) and endocannabinoid-related compounds (SEA, PEA, OEA) measured in hair across the perinatal period in mothers, fathers, and their children using data from the large prospective cohort study DREAM and its endocrine sub-study DREAMhair. Furthermore, this study examines inter-family relations between hair endocannabinoids and endocannabinoid-related compounds.

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Additional file 3: Table S3. Summary of the antibodies used for Western Blot.

Semiparametric models are useful in econometrics, social sciences and medicine application. In this paper, a new estimator based on least square methods is proposed to estimate the direction of unknown parameters in semi-parametric models. The proposed estimator is consistent and has asymptotic distribution under mild conditions without the knowledge of the form of link function. Simulations show that the proposed estimator is significantly superior to maximum score estimator given by Manski (1975) for binary response variables. When the error term is long-tailed distributions or distribution with infinity moments, the proposed estimator perform well. Its application is illustrated with data of exporting participation of manufactures in Guangdong., Comment: 19 pages

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Penetration depth (PD) is essential for robotics due to its extensive applications in dynamic simulation, motion planning, haptic rendering, etc. The Expanding Polytope Algorithm (EPA) is the de facto standard for this problem, which estimates PD by expanding an inner polyhedral approximation of an implicit set. In this paper, we propose a novel optimization-based algorithm that incrementally estimates minimum penetration depth and its direction. One major advantage of our method is that it can be warm-started by exploiting the spatial and temporal coherence, which emerges naturally in many robotic applications (e.g., the temporal coherence between adjacent simulation time knots). As a result, our algorithm achieves substantial speedup -- we demonstrate it is 5-30x faster than EPA on several benchmarks. Moreover, our approach is built upon the same implicit geometry representation as EPA, which enables easy integration and deployment into existing software stacks. We also provide an open-source implementation for further evaluations and experiments.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-imr-10.1177_03000605231153587 for Inhibition of DNA methylation attenuates lung ischemia–reperfusion injury after lung transplantation by Ming-yuan Liu, Ying-nan Ju, Bao-wei Jia, Xi-kun Sun, Lin Qiu, Heng-yu Liu, Guang-xiao Xu, Qi-hang Tai, Jing Tan and Wei Gao in Journal of International Medical Research

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Detailed description of the simulation, more examples of higer order VVBs, and the influence of phase perturbation amplitude

Additional file 2: Table S2. Nucleotide sequences of specific primers.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Composition and nutrient levels of the semi-purified basal diet for laying broiler breeders during the Zn depletion period and experimental period (as-fed basis).

Additional file 2. Original data of western blotting.

Additional file 4: Table S4. Effect of dietary Zn level on laying performance of broiler breeders.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-opp-10.1177_10781552231171607 for Immunosuppressant adherence in adult outpatient hematopoietic cell transplant recipients by Jeannine S McCune, Saro H Armenian, Ryotaro Nakamura, Haoyue Shan, Christopher G Kanakry, Marco Mielcarek, Wei Gao and Donald E Mager in Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice