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Acquired brain injury (ABI) is an injury that affects the brain structure and function. Traditional ABI treatment strategies, including medications and rehabilitation therapy, exhibit their ability to improve its impairments in cognition, emotion, and physical activity. Recently, near-infrared (NIR) photobiomodulation (PBM) has emerged as a promising physical intervention method for ABI, demonstrating that low-level light therapy can modulate cellular metabolic processes, reduce the inflammation and reactive oxygen species of ABI microenvironments, and promote neural repair and regeneration. Preclinical studies using ABI models have been carried out, revealing the potential of PBM in promoting brain injury recovery although its clinical application is still in its early stages. In this review, we first inspected the possible physical and biological mechanisms of NIR-PBM, and then reported the pathophysiology and physiology of ABI underlying NIR-PBM intervention. Therefore, the potential of NIR-PBM as a therapeutic intervention in ABI was demonstrated and it is also expected that further work can facilitate its clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congenital human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is a major cause of abnormalities and disorders in the central nervous system (CNS) and/or the peripheral nervous system (PNS). However, the complete pathogenesis of neural differentiation disorders caused by HCMV infection remains to be fully elucidated. Stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHEDs) are mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with a high proliferation and neurogenic differentiation capacity. Since SHEDs originate from the neural crest of the early embryonic ectoderm, SHEDs were hypothesized to serve as a promising cell line for investigating the pathogenesis of neural differentiation disorders in the PNS caused by congenital HCMV infection. In this work, SHEDs were demonstrated to be fully permissive to HCMV infection and the virus was able to complete its life cycle in SHEDs. Under neurogenic inductive conditions, HCMV infection of SHEDs caused an abnormal neural morphology. The expression of stem/neural cell markers was also disturbed by HCMV infection. The impairment of neural differentiation was mainly due to a reduction of intracellular cholesterol levels caused by HCMV infection. Sterol regulatory element binding protein-2 (SREBP2) is a critical transcription regulator that guides cholesterol synthesis. HCMV infection was shown to hinder the migration of SREBP2 into nucleus and resulted in perinuclear aggregations of SREBP2 during neural differentiation. Our findings provide new insights into the prevention and treatment of nervous system diseases caused by congenital HCMV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The skin and mucous membrane of cancer patients can be directly or indirectly impaired during the treatment of cancers, bringing about not physical but also psychological damages to cancer patients. A practical guideline is of great significance to improve the quality of life for patients suffered from cutaneous adverse events. Methods: This guideline was generated based on up-to-date evidence and the consensus of experts specialized in dermatology. Results: The current guideline include the baseline screening of skin and mucosal membranes, the manifestations of injuries on skin, mucosa and appendages, along with the treatment of them. The causal anti-tumor management include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immune therapy and surgery. Conclusion: This guideline can be helpful to reduce the risk of cutaneous adverse events during anti-cancer treatment and improve the quality of life of patients suffered from these adverse events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consumption of low-mineral water has been increasing worldwide. Drinking low-mineral water is associated with cardiovascular disease, osteopenia, and certain neurodegenerative diseases. However, the specific mechanism remains unclear. The liver metabolic alterations in rats induced by drinking purified water for 3 months were investigated with a metabolomics-based strategy. Compared with the tap water group, 74 metabolites were significantly changed in the purified water group (6 increased and 68 decreased), including 29 amino acids, 11 carbohydrates, 10 fatty acids, 7 short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), and 17 other biomolecules. Eight metabolic pathways were significantly changed, namely aminoacyl–tRNA biosynthesis; nitrogen metabolism; alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism; arginine and proline metabolism; histidine metabolism; biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids; butanoate metabolism; and glycine, serine and threonine metabolism. These changes suggested that consumption of purified water induced negative nitrogen balance, reduced expression of some polyunsaturated fatty acids and SCFAs, and disturbed energy metabolism in rats. These metabolic disturbances may contribute to low-mineral-water-associated health risks. The health risk of consuming low-mineral water requires attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interdependence of various energy forms and flexible cooperative operation between different units in an integrated energy system (IES) are essential for carbon emission reduction. To address the planning problem of an electric–thermal integrated energy system under low-carbon conditions and to fully consider the low carbon and construction sequence of the integrated energy system, a low-carbon-oriented capacity optimization method for the electric–thermal integrated energy system that considers construction time sequence (CTS) and uncertainty is proposed. A calculation model for the carbon transaction cost under the ladder carbon trading mechanism was constructed, and a multi-stage planning model of the integrated energy system was established with the minimum life cycle cost, considering carbon transaction cost as the objective function, to make the optimal decision on equipment configuration in each planning stage. Finally, a case study was considered to verify the advantages of the proposed capacity optimization method in terms of economy and environmental friendliness through a comparative analysis of different planning cases. Simulation results show that, compared with the scenario of completing planning at the beginning of the life cycle at one time, the proposed low-carbon-oriented capacity optimization method that considers construction time sequence and uncertainty can not only reduce the cost of the integrated energy system, but also help to enhance renewable energy utilization and reduce the system's carbon emissions; the total cost of phased planning is reduced by 11.91% compared to the total cost of one-time planning at the beginning of the year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores whether the assessment of local government officials affects firm participation in targeted poverty alleviation. Using a sample of Chinese A‐share listed companies in the Midwest from 2016 to 2019, the results show that the greater the importance of officials' poverty alleviation assessment, the higher the participation of firms in precise poverty alleviation. State‐owned enterprises (SOEs) contribute more to the reduction of destitution than private enterprises. We further find that local SOEs' participation in precision poverty alleviation enhances the likelihood of executive promotion, while private enterprises' participation in precision poverty alleviation increases government subsidies and reduces the cost of debt financing. These findings imply that the evaluation mechanisms of Chinese officials can effectively promote enterprises fulfilling social responsibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrophysiological recordings of neurons in deep brain regions using optogenetic stimulation are essential to understanding and regulating the role of complex neural activity in biological behavior and cognitive function. Optogenetic techniques have significantly advanced neuroscience research by enabling the optical manipulation of neural activities. Because of the significance of the technique, constant advancements in implantable optrodes that integrate optical stimulation with low-noise, large-scale electrophysiological recording are in demand to improve the spatiotemporal resolution for various experimental designs and future clinical applications. However, robust and easy-to-use neural optrodes that integrate neural recording arrays with high-intensity light emitting diodes (LEDs) are still lacking. Here, we propose a neural optrode based on Gallium Nitride (GaN) on sapphire technology, which integrates a high-intensity blue LED with a 5x2 recording array monolithically for simultaneous neural recording and optogenetic manipulation. To reduce the noise interference between the recording electrodes and the LED, which is in close physical proximity, three metal grounding interlayers were incorporated within the optrode, and their ability to reduce LED-induced artifacts during neural recording was confirmed through both electromagnetic simulations and experimental demonstrations. The capability of the sapphire optrode to record action potentials has been demonstrated by recording the firing of mitral/tuft cells in the olfactory bulbs of mice in vivo. Additionally, the elevation of action potential firing due to optogenetic stimulation observed using the sapphire probe in medial superior olive (MSO) neurons of the gerbil auditory brainstem confirms the capability of this sapphire optrode to precisely access neural activities in deep brain regions under complex experimental designs.

Six new phenylpropanoid glycosides ( 1 - 6 ), two new phenylethanol glycosides ( 7 and 8 ), one new phenylmethanol glycoside ( 9 ), three new phenylpropanoid dimers ( 10 - 12 ), two new phenylpropanoid-flavan-3-ol heterodimers ( 13 and 14 ), and six known relevant compounds ( 15 - 20 ) were isolated and identified from the well-liked edible and medicinal substance (the bark of Cinnamomum cassia (L.) J.Presl). The structures of these isolates were determined by using spectroscopic analyses, chemical methods, and quantum chemical calculations. Notably, compounds 4 - 9 were rare apiuronyl-containing glycosides, and compounds 13 and 14 were heterodimers of phenylpropanoids and flavan-3-ols linked through C-9″-C-8 bonds. The antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibitory activities of all isolates were evaluated. Compounds 10 and 12 exhibited DPPH radical scavenging capacities with IC 50 values of 20.1 and 13.0 μM, respectively (vitamin C IC 50 value of 14.3 μM). In the ORAC experiment, all these compounds exhibited different levels of capacity for scavenging free radicals, and compound 10 displayed extraordinary free radical scavenging capacity with the ORAC value of 6.42 ± 0.01 μM TE/μM (EGCG ORAC value of 1.54 ± 0.02 μM TE/μM). Compound 12 also showed significant α-glucosidase inhibitory activity with an IC 50 of 56.3 μM (acarbose IC 50 of 519.4 μM).

To eliminate multidrug-resistant bacteria of Acinetobacter baumannii , we screened 1100 Food and Drug Administration-approved small molecule drugs and accessed the broxyquinoline (Bq) efficacy in combination with various metal ions. Antibacterial tests demonstrated that the prepared Zn(Bq) 2 complex showed ultralow minimum inhibitory concentration of ~0.21 micrograms per milliliter with no resistance after 30 passages. We then constructed the nano zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) as a drug carrier of Zn(Bq) 2 and also incorporated the photosensitizer chlorin e6 (Ce6) to trace and boost the antibacterial effect. To further ensure the stable and targeted delivery, we genetically engineered outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) with the ability to selectively target A. baumannii . By coating the ZnBq/Ce6@ZIF-8 core with these OMV, the resulted drug (ZnBq/Ce6@ZIF-8@OMV) exhibited exceptional killing efficacy (>99.9999999%) of A. baumannii . In addition, in vitro and in vivo tests were also respectively carried out to inspect the remarkable efficacy of this previously unknown nanodrug in eradicating A. baumannii infections, including biofilms and meningitis.