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Recycling of wasted phosphate slag (PS) into useful mineral additives shows great significance not only in carbon reduction but also contributes to the availability of green additives to cement-based materials. This work aims to explore a feasible way of disclose the mechanism of PS added cement-based materials. It was found that compressive strengths of pastes were all declined with increasing addition of PS both at early age of 2 d and long age of 28 d, increased the curing temperatures from 20 °C to 40 °C helped to improve the above situation. A remarkable increase of compressive strength in 10SF+20PS sample with the value of 55.48 MPa was obtained at 28 d. The enhanced mechanical property was related with the generation of large amount of hydration products such as C–S–H, Ca(OH)2 and AFt.

The challenge of high geo-temperature often occurred during the construction of deep buried tunnels, and to uncover the effect of varied curing temperature on hydration and microstructure evolution of cement-based composites with extremely low w/b ratio, samples were prepared with a w/b ratio of 0.18 and mixed with different fibers, silica fume and fly ash. Hydration kinetics, main hydration product phases and the evolution of C–S–H inside the samples were analyzed. It was found that the time for maximum heat release peak under 40 °C and 60 °C was earlier than that under 20 °C. The hydration heat of steel fiber composites was lower than that of PP fiber composites. 40 °C curing temperature can motivated the chemical activity of samples and promoted the hydration process, multi-stage peaks appeared at 60 °C curing condition. Q0-Q4 of C–S–H were observed in samples, and the mean silicate chain length (MCL) of C–S–H from 29Si NMR analysis was increased mostly by 15.6% with the elevated curing temperature. This study will provide much support to the safe construction of deep buried tunnels.

Summary: Estrogen drives breast cancer (BCa) progression by directly activating estrogen receptor α (ERα). However, because of the stochastic nature of gene transcription, it is important to study the estrogen signaling pathway at the single-cell level to fully understand how ERα regulates transcription. Here, we performed single-cell transcriptome analysis on ERα-positive BCa cells following 17β-estradiol stimulation and reconstructed the dynamic estrogen-responsive transcriptional network from discrete time points into a pseudotemporal continuum. Notably, differentially expressed genes show an estrogen-stimulated metabolic switch that favors biosynthesis but reduces estrogen degradation. Moreover, folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism is reprogrammed through the mitochondrial folate pathway and polyamine and purine synthesis are upregulated coordinately. Finally, we show AZIN1 and PPAT are direct ERα targets that are essential for BCa cell survival and growth. In summary, our study highlights the dynamic transcriptional heterogeneity in ERα-positive BCa cells upon estrogen stimulation and uncovers a mechanism of estrogen-mediated metabolic switch. : Zhu et al. perform single-cell RNA-seq to reveal a dynamic transcriptional network in ERα+ breast cancer cells following estrogen stimulation and show that estrogen signaling promotes breast cancer cell survival and growth by mediating a metabolic switch in which folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism is reprogrammed via the mitochondrial folate pathway. Keywords: breast cancer, single-cell RNA sequencing, estrogen receptor α, metabolic switch

Background: Previous studies linked neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) with short-term mortality after acute ischemic stroke (AIS), but its relationship with long-term mortality remains unclear. This study investigates the association between NLR and five-year mortality in AIS patients. Method: We analyzed 416 AIS patients from April 2012 to January 2016 at Zhangjiagang TCM Hospital. Admission NLR was divided into quartiles: Q1 (

Metal pollution can cause a decline in female fertility, however, previous studies have focused more on the effect of a single metal on fertility. In this study, we evaluated the effect of metal mixtures on female fertility based on nested case-control samples. The plasma levels of 22 metal elements from 180 women were determined by an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). Minimum absolute contraction and selection operator (LASSO) penalty regression selected metals with the greatest influence on clinical outcome. Logistic regression was used to analyze the correlation between single metals and fertility while a Bayesian kernel function regression (BKMR) model was used to analyze the effect of mixed metals. Eight metals (Calcium (Ca), Chromium (Cr), Cobalt (Co), Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn), Rubidium (Rb), Strontium (Sr) and Zirconium (Zr)) were selected by LASSO regression for subsequent analysis. After adjusting for covariates, the logistic model showed that Cu (Odds Ratio(OR):0.33, 95% CI: 0.13 − 0.84) and Co (OR:0.38, 95% CI: 0.15 −0.94) caused a significant reduction in fertility, and identified the protective effect of Zn (OR: 2.96, 95% CI:1.21 −7.50) on fertility. Trend tests showed that increased Cr, Cu, and Rb levels were associated with reduced fertility. The BKMR model showed that Cr, Co, Cu, and Rb had a nonlinear relationship with fertility decline when controlling for the concentrations of other metals and suggested that Cu and Cr might exert an influence on fertility. Analysis showed a negative correlation between Cu, Cr, Co, Rb, and fertility, and a positive correlation between Zn and fertility. Furthermore, we found evidence for the interaction between Cu and Cr. Our findings require further validation and may identify new mechanisms in the future.

An improved understanding of the factors associated with suicidal attempts in youth suffering from depression is crucial for the identification and prevention of future suicide risk. However, there is limited understanding of how neural activity is modified during the process of decision-making. Our study aimed to investigate the neural responses in suicide attempters with major depressive disorder (MDD) during decision-making. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded from 79 individuals aged 16–25 with MDD, including 39 with past suicide attempts (SA group) and 40 without (NSA group), as well as from 40 age- and sex- matched healthy controls (HCs) during the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). All participants completed diagnostic interviews, self-report questionnaires. Our study examined feedback processing by measuring the feedback-related negativity (FRN), ΔFN (FRN-loss minus FRN-gain), and the P300 as electrophysiological indicators of feedback evaluation. The SA group showed poorest IGT performance. SA group and NSA group, compared with HC group, exhibited specific deficits in decision-making (i.e., exhibited smaller (i.e., blunted) ΔFN). Post hoc analysis found that the SA group was the least sensitive to gains and the most sensitive to losses. In addition, we also found that the larger the value of ΔFN, the better the decision-making ability and the lower the impulsivity. Our study highlights the link between suicide attempts and impaired decision-making in individuals with major depressive disorder. These findings constitute an important step in gaining a better understanding of the specific reward-related abnormalities that could contribute to the young MDD patients with suicide attempts.

Objective: To identify the spatial–temporal pattern variation of whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) during reward processing in melancholic major depressive disorder (MDD) patients, and to determine the clinical correlates of connectomic differences. Methods: 61 MDD patients and 32 healthy controls were enrolled into the study. During magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanning, all participants completed the facial emotion recognition task. The MDD patients were further divided into two groups: melancholic (n = 31) and non-melancholic (n = 30), based on the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) assessment. Melancholic symptoms were examined by using the 6-item melancholia subscale from the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D6). The whole-brain orthogonalized power envelope connections in the high-beta band (20–35 Hz) were constructed in each period after the happy emotional stimuli (0–200 ms, 100–300 ms, 200–400 ms, 300–500 ms, and 400–600 ms). Then, the network-based statistic (NBS) was used to determine the specific abnormal connection patterns in melancholic MDD patients. Results: The NBS identified a sub-network difference at the mid-late period (300–500 ms) in response to happy faces among the three groups (corrected P = 0.035). Then, the post hoc and correlation analyses found five FCs were decreased in melancholic MDD patients and were related to HAM-D6 score, including FCs of left fusiform gyrus-right orbital inferior frontal gyrus (r = −0.52, P

Purpose: To describe a case of unilateral Acanthamoeba-associated retinitis in the absence of concomitant corneal infection in an immunocompetent host without risk factors. Observations: A 37-year-old woman presented with unilateral multifocal retinitis with minimal vitritis. Anterior segment was normal. Conventional diagnostics of bacterial, fungal, viral, Toxoplasma and Toxocara etiologies all returned negative. Empiric treatments were unsuccessful, including oral valacyclovir, oral fluconazole, as well as intravitreal injection of vancomycin and ceftazidime. Metagenomic deep sequencing (MDS) identified Acanthamoeba genomic fragments in the vitreous sample. Multiple intravitreal voriconazole injections were performed and achieved partial suppression of lesion growth. Subsequent dual therapy of oral voriconazole and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole led to resolution of the lesions and vision improvement without further injections. Conclusions and importance: This is an unusual case of unilateral Acanthamoeba-associated retinitis without concomitant corneal infection, diagnosed via unbiased DNA and RNA deep sequencing, with other etiologies ruled out by conventional approaches. Treatment with systemic and intravitreal therapy led to a successful resolution of retinitis and vision improvement. Our case demonstrates the potential of MDS as an unbiased diagnostic tool for rare ocular pathogens and the therapeutic effect of oral voriconazole with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole for Acanthamoeba intraocular infection.

Objective: To develop automated algorithms for the detection of posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) using OCT imaging. Design: Evaluation of a diagnostic test or technology. Subjects: Overall, 42 385 consecutive OCT images (865 volumetric OCT scans) obtained with Heidelberg Spectralis from 865 eyes from 464 patients at an academic retina clinic between October 2020 and December 2021 were retrospectively reviewed. Methods: We developed a customized computer vision algorithm based on image filtering and edge detection to detect the posterior vitreous cortex for the determination of PVD status. A second deep learning (DL) image classification model based on convolutional neural networks and ResNet-50 architecture was also trained to identify PVD status from OCT images. The training dataset consisted of 674 OCT volume scans (33 026 OCT images), while the validation testing set consisted of 73 OCT volume scans (3577 OCT images). Overall, 118 OCT volume scans (5782 OCT images) were used as a separate external testing dataset. Main Outcome Measures: Accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, F1-scores, and area under the receiver operator characteristic curves (AUROCs) were measured to assess the performance of the automated algorithms. Results: Both the customized computer vision algorithm and DL model results were largely in agreement with the PVD status labeled by trained graders. The DL approach achieved an accuracy of 90.7% and an F1-score of 0.932 with a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 74.5% for PVD detection from an OCT volume scan. The AUROC was 89% at the image level and 96% at the volume level for the DL model. The customized computer vision algorithm attained an accuracy of 89.5% and an F1-score of 0.912 with a sensitivity of 91.9% and a specificity of 86.1% on the same task. Conclusions: Both the computer vision algorithm and the DL model applied on OCT imaging enabled reliable detection of PVD status, demonstrating the potential for OCT-based automated PVD status classification to assist with vitreoretinal surgical planning. Financial Disclosure(s): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found after the references.

Background: Several epidemiological studies and psychological models have suggested that major depressive disorder (MDD) with anhedonia is associated with suicidal ideation (SI). However, little is known about whether the functional network pattern and intrinsic topologically disrupted in patients with anhedonia are related to SI. Methods: The resting-fMRI by applying network-based statistic (NBS) and graph-theory analyses was estimated in 273 patients with MDD (144 high anhedonia [HA], 129 low anhedonia [LA]) and 150 healthy controls. In addition, we quantified the SI scores of each patient. Finally, the mediation analysis assessed whether anhedonia symptoms could mediate the relationship between anhedonia-related network metrics and SI. Result: The NBS analysis demonstrated that individuals with HA have a single abnormally increased functional connectivity component in a frontal-limbic circuit (termed the “anhedonia-related network”, including the frontal cortex, striatum, anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala). The graph-theory analysis demonstrated that the anhedonia-related network showed a significantly disrupted topological organization (lower gamma and lambda), which the small-world property trend randomized. Furthermore, the anhedonia symptoms could mediate the relationship between the anhedonia-related network metrics (the mean functional connectivity values, the area under the curves values of gamma and nodal local efficiency in nucleus accumbens) and SI. Conclusions: We found that disruption of the reward-related network in MDD leads to SI through anhedonia symptoms. These findings show the abnormal topological construction of functional brain network organization in anhedonia, shedding light on the neurological processes underlying SI in MDD patients with anhedonia symptoms.

Introduction: The psychomotor disturbance is a common symptom in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). The neurological mechanisms of psychomotor disturbance are intricate, involving alterations in the structure and function of motor-related regions. However, the relationship among changes in the spontaneous activity, motor-related activity, local cortical thickness, and psychomotor function remains unclear. Method: A total of 140 patients with MDD and 68 healthy controls performed a simple right-hand visuomotor task during magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanning. All patients were divided into two groups according to the presence of psychomotor slowing. Spontaneous beta power, movement-related beta desynchronization (MRBD), absolute beta power during movement and cortical characteristics in the bilateral primary motor cortex were compared using general linear models with the group as a fixed effect and age as a covariate. Finally, the moderated mediation model was tested to examine the relationship between brain metrics with group differences and psychomotor performance. Results: The patients with psychomotor slowing showed higher spontaneous beta power, movement-related beta desynchronization and absolute beta power during movement than patients without psychomotor slowing. Compared with the other two groups, significant decreases were found in cortical thickness of the left primary motor cortex in patients with psychomotor slowing. Our moderated mediation model showed that the increased spontaneous beta power indirectly affected impaired psychomotor performance by abnormal MRBD, and the indirect effects were moderated by cortical thickness. Conclusion: These results suggest that patients with MDD have aberrant cortical beta activity at rest and during movement, combined with abnormal cortical thickness, contributing to the psychomotor disturbance observed in this patient population.

This study investigated the effects of replacing fish meal (FM) with fermented soybean meal (FSM) on the growth performance, serum biochemical indices, intestinal health, microbial community and disease resistance of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). The basal diet was designed to contain 350 g/kg FM (control, FSM-0), and then, FM was decreased to 300 g/kg, 250 g/kg, 200 g/kg, 150 g/kg by the FSM inclusion of 75 g/kg (FSM-7.5), 150 g/kg (FSM-15.0), 225 g/kg (FSM-22.5) and 300 g/kg (FSM-30), respectively. The five diets were fed to largemouth bass with initial body weight of 21.2 ± 0.1 g for 8 weeks. The results showed that FSM-30 group presented lower weight gain, and FSM-22.5 and FSM-30 groups displayed higher feed conversion ratio than those of the control group (P 0.05). Compared with the control, the protein retention in FSM-30 group, the lipid retention in FSM-15, FSM-22.5 and FSM-30 groups, and serum superoxide dismutase activity and total antioxidant capacity in FSM-22.5 and FSM-30 groups were decreased (P

Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, which is estimated to affect approximately 112 million people by 2040. Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is the most important risk factor for glaucoma, as well as the primary target for the treatment. Current therapies aim at IOP reduction to prevent the disease progression. The accurate and real-time measurement of IOP is therefore critical to evaluate treatment response and guide medical decisions. However, IOP fluctuates throughout the 24-hour cycle with different patterns from day to day in the same individual and also different patterns among individuals. The current clinical practice typically captures a single IOP measurement during “in-office hours”, and this is insufficient for disease monitoring. With the development of wearable electronic devices, a variety of IOP monitoring devices provide a unique potential for continuous IOP monitoring. In addition to IOP monitoring for glaucoma management, this mini-review also summarizes novel drug delivery devices for treating glaucoma. Because certain types of glaucoma do not show elevated IOP, we also discuss the potential to incorporate biomarker detection with IOP measurement for more accurate and reliable glaucoma diagnostics and therapies.

Although aberrant metabolism in tumors has been well described, the identification of cancer subsets with particular metabolic vulnerabilities has remained challenging. Here, we conducted an siRNA screen focusing on enzymes involved in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and uncovered a striking range of cancer cell dependencies on OGDH, the E1 subunit of the alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex. Using an integrative metabolomics approach, we identified differential aspartate utilization, via the malate-aspartate shuttle, as a predictor of whether OGDH is required for proliferation in 3D culture assays and for the growth of xenograft tumors. These findings highlight an anaplerotic role of aspartate and, more broadly, suggest that differential nutrient utilization patterns can identify subsets of cancers with distinct metabolic dependencies for potential pharmacological intervention.

Objective: To summarize our experiences in the treatment of labor induction in placenta previa using uterine artery embolization. Case report: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of seven patients with placenta previa who underwent antepartum uterine artery embolization before vaginal delivery. After antepartum embolization, five patients with placenta previa had successful vaginal deliveries and two cases of placenta previa with accreta underwent emergency hysterectomy. Some complications were reported in this experience. The follow-up study showed that most patients resumed their normal menstruation and some of them were able to conceive. Conclusion: For the management of placenta previa, uterine artery embolization is a minimally invasive technique that helps to avoid cesarean section. The impact on menstruation and fertility is yet to be seen.