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This study aimed to isolate and select potential probiotic strains from the feces of healthy forest musk deer and to evaluate their in vitro probiotic characteristics. Twelve isolates were obtained and identified by cell morphology and bacterial 16S rDNA sequencing. Their survival under low pH and bile salt conditions, antagonistic activities against five pathogens (Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1, Salmonella enteritidis ATCC 13076 and Arcanobacterium pyogenes LSN3), auto-aggregation characteristics, hydrophobicity, antibiotic susceptibility and antibiotic resistance genotypes, and growth curves were evaluated. The results showed that five Lactiplantibacillus plantarum isolates and one Pediococcus acidilactici isolate survived at pH 4, or in 0.5% bile salt with survival rates of more than 88.5% and 87%, respectively. All of them inhibited the five pathogens with diameters of inhibition zones of 17.20-20.19 mm for E. coli ATCC 25922, S. aureus ATCC 25923, P. aeruginosa PAO1 and S. enteritidis ATCC 13076 and of 14.23-15.53 mm for A. pyogenes LSN3. They had similar auto-aggregation capacity (53.1%–56.2%) and surface hydrophobicity (52.9%–56.0%) to L. paracasei L22. They were resistant to streptomycin, ciprofloxacin and vancomycin, carried the vanX gene and rapidly grew; the optical density at 600 nm (OD600) reached 9.0 and 7.1 for L. plantarum and P. acidilactici from the gut of forest musk deer after 24 h incubation, respectively. Our findings demonstrated that these six isolates can be used as sources for the development of probiotic preparations intended for forest musk deer.

Objective: This study aims to assess the clinical effectiveness of combining mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) with exercise intervention in improving anxiety, depression, sleep quality and mood regulation in patients with non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: A total of 60 patients with NSCLC who had not received surgical treatment were selected using convenience sampling and divided into an intervention group and control group, with 30 patients in each group. The control group received conventional psychological nursing care, whereas the intervention group received a combination of MBwSR and exercise therapy. Before the intervention, a questionnaire was completed to collect the basic data of the two groups. Further questionnaires were administered at 6 and 8 weeks after treatment to assess anxiety, depression, sleep quality and other items included in the five‐item Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS‐5). Results: No significant differences between the intervention and control groups were identified in terms of personal and clinical characteristics (p > 0.05). No significant differences were determined in the BSRS‐5, Self‐Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self‐Rating Depression Scale (SDS) or Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores between the intervention and control groups before the intervention. However, 6 and 8 weeks after the intervention, scores were significantly lower in both groups (p < 0.001). Significant differences in the BSRS‐5, SAS, SDS and PSQI scores were identified between the two groups at different time points (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The combination of MBSR and exercise intervention demonstrated improvements in anxiety, depression, sleep quality and BSRS‐5 scores in patients with NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hypercoagulability emerges as a central pathological feature and clinical complication in nephrotic syndrome. Increased platelet activation and aggregability are closely related to hypercoagulability in nephrotic syndrome. Monocyte-platelet aggregates (MPAs) have been proposed to represent a robust biomarker of platelet activation. The aim of this study was to investigate levels of the circulating MPAs and MPAs with the different monocyte subsets to evaluate the association of MPAs with hypercoagulability in nephrotic syndrome. Methods: Thirty-two patients with nephrotic syndrome were enrolled. In addition, thirty-two healthy age and sex matched adult volunteers served as healthy controls. MPAs were identified by CD14 monocytes positive for CD41a platelets. The classical (CD14 + + CD16-, CM), the intermediate (CD14 + + CD16+, IM) and the non-classical (CD14 + CD16++, NCM) monocytes, as well as subset specific MPAs, were measured by flow cytometry. Results: Patients with nephrotic syndrome showed a higher percentage of circulating MPAs as compared with healthy controls (p < 0.001). The percentages of MPAs with CM, IM, and NCM were higher than those of healthy controls (p = 0.012, p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). Circulating MPAs showed correlations with hypoalbuminemia (r=-0.85; p < 0.001), hypercholesterolemia (r = 0.54; p < 0.001), fibrinogen (r = 0.70; p < 0.001) and D-dimer (r = 0.37; p = 0.003), but not with hypertriglyceridemia in nephrotic syndrome. The AUC for the prediction of hypercoagulability in nephrotic syndrome using MPAs was 0.79 (95% CI 0.68–0.90, p < 0.001). The sensitivity of MPAs in predicting hypercoagulability was 0.71, and the specificity was 0.78. Conclusion: Increased MPAs were correlated with hypercoagulability in nephrotic syndrome. MPAs may serve as a potential biomarker for thrombophilic or hypercoagulable state and provide novel insight into the mechanisms of anticoagulation in nephrotic syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early‐stage rape seedling density is closely related to yield estimation, growth diagnosis, cultivated area statistics, and field management. Currently, manual sampling and counting, which are inefficient and inaccurate, are heavily relied upon to estimate rape seedling density. Computer vision techniques have emerged as a promising solution to the automation of this task, as digital images have become more commonplace. Farmland field environments, however, face many challenges, including scale variation, denseness, and background occlusion. An improved multi‐column convolutional neural network, called seedling rape density prediction network (SRDPNet), has been proposed in this study to resolve the issues related to accurate density estimation and counting of rape seedlings in complex farmland scenarios. Based on the multi‐column convolutional attention encoder, filters of different sizes are used to capture the basic feature of rape seedlings at various scales. The channel attention and position attention modules are introduced into branches to alleviate the impact of low counting accuracy caused by background error and growth state differences. The SRDPNet was validated using the seedling rapeseed plant counting (SRPC) dataset created in this study. The experimental results showed that the SRDPNet demonstrated high accurate counting performance for the SRPC dataset with a high coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.97396) and mean absolute error (MAE = 3.26, mean square error = 4.56), which are superior to that of the comparison method. SRDPNet can effectively solve the visual challenges of rape seedlings in complex farmland scenes and improve the robustness for complex visual variations. Core Ideas: Multicolumn CNN with attention module can effectively solve the problems of the rape seedling images.Position attention module can significantly improve the counting accuracy for the rape seedling with scale changes.Channel attention module can significantly improve the counting accuracy of rape seedling with complex backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of deuterated compounds is increasingly expanding across various fields, making the development of novel deuterium labeling techniques for obtaining deuterated compounds a burgeoning research focus. Carboxylic acids and their derivatives are widely utilized as cost‐effective and readily available materials for obtaining deuterated compounds due to their stable properties. This article presents a comprehensive and concise summary of the research progress in decarboxylative deuteration reactions over the past 20 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge is a Traditional Chinese Medicine used for the treatment of diseases related to the heart and liver. Owing to the abundance of salvianolic acids and tanshinones, S. miltiorrhiza exhibits various pharmacological activities, such as stimulating blood circulation, eliminating blood stasis, relieving menorrhea and pain, and improving polydipsia. Neocryptotanshinone (NCTS) is one of the tanshinones isolated from S. miltiorrhiza and exhibits anti‐inflammatory, hypoglycemic, and preventive effects against cardiovascular diseases; however, its pharmacokinetic properties have not been reported to date. Therefore, a simple and reliable LC–MS/MS method was developed to determine absorption, distribution, and excretion of NCTS in rat physiological samples. We demonstrated that NCTS had high oral absolute bioavailability of 85.96% ± 25.32%, and it was rapidly distributed in both the heart and brain, and the fecal excretion of NCTS was the highest. This study provides a theoretical basis for further development of NCTS as a potential clinical candidate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]