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Sarcopenia, characterized by the loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, is a significant complication in patients with cirrhosis. This condition not only exacerbates the overall morbidity and mortality associated with liver disease but also complicates patient management, increasing the risk of hospitalization, infections, and hepatic encephalopathy. Despite its clinical significance, sarcopenia in cirrhotic patients remains underdiagnosed and undertreated. This review aims to summarize current knowledge on the pathophysiology of sarcopenia in cirrhosis, including mechanisms such as altered metabolism, hormonal imbalances, and inflammation. Additionally, we explore diagnostic challenges and discuss emerging therapeutic strategies, including nutritional support, exercise, and pharmacological interventions. By highlighting the gaps in existing research and proposing directions for future studies, this review seeks to improve the management and outcomes of cirrhotic patients affected by sarcopenia.

Aiming at the problems of the strong randomness and fluctuation of the output power in photovoltaic power generation system, a multi-time scale control framework of hybrid energy storage system is proposed. Firstly, the complementary characteristics of charge/discharge between lithium battery and supercapacitor is analyzed. Then, The models of lithium battery energy storage unit and supercapacitor energy storage unit are established, respectively. Considering the different time scales of the output power response of lithium battery and supercapacitor, a short-time scale control framework is designed for supercapacitor energy storage unit based on the robust control, so that the bus voltage of system can be stable when the output power of photovoltaic power generation system changes or the load changes rapidly. At the same time, a long-time scale control framework is designed for lithium battery energy storage unit based on the virtual impedance, so that the voltage of the supercapacitor can be maintained within set value when the output power of the photovoltaic power generation system is stable. Therefore, the multi-time scale control framework can not only realize the large current charging/discharging for lithium battery and the power tracking at low frequency, but also realize the small current charging/discharging for supercapacitor and the power tracking at high frequency. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed framework is verified by the simulation platform of photovoltaic power generation system.

In order to efficiently and accurately evaluate the out of limit risk of photovoltaic power distribution network, the adaptive kernel density estimation (AKDE) method is introduced to fit the actual light intensity sequence, and the probability distribution model of photovoltaic power station output characteristics is established. At the same time, the Cornish–Fisher series combined with the cumulant method (CM) is used to calculate the probabilistic power flow of photovoltaic distribution network, the accuracy of probabilistic power flow calculation (PPFC) is verified by Monte Carlo Method (MCM), the system level voltage out of limit risk index (VOLRI) and branch power flow out of limit risk index (BPFOLRI) are established. Finally, MATLAB is used to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the algorithm for photovoltaic distribution network risk assessment.

In order to ensure reliability and security of power supply, the situation awareness of some elements in the distribution network is studied in this paper. Considering the influence of the interference signal, Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is introduced to reduce it. Subsequently, according to operation characteristics of the actual distribution network, several evaluation indexes are proposed to describe the operation situation of the overall distribution network and internal elements, especially evaluation of fragile nodes. Based on these indexes and characteristics of actual distribution network, the comprehensive evaluation method of fragile nodes (CEMFN) is constructed, which mainly aims at the fragile nodes in the distribution network and synthesizes the single index coefficient to realize the identification of fragile nodes. Through the simulation calculation, it can be seen that the result of CEMFN is more accurate than that of the traditional evaluation model, which provides an important theoretical support for the operation and maintenance of distribution network and reliable power supply.

In large-scale energy storage system, the large number of energy storage units leads to inconsistent of State of Charge and unbalanced sharing of output power. In order to solve this problem, a consensus control protocol design and analysis method based on specified sampled-data is proposed. The consensus of SOC and output power (normalization) of each energy storage unit in large-scale energy storage system has been achieved. Firstly, according to the definition of lithium battery SOC and discharge mechanism, a system model of large-scale energy storage system is established. Based on specified sampled-data control, consensus control protocol of multi-agent of energy storage units is designed, and system convergence analysis is carried out. Meantime, the constraints of sampling period T are derived. It is proved that local energy storage unit agent can generate local energy storage unit control signal only when it receives the state information of adjacency energy storage unit agent at a specified sampling time point. In this way, the problem of too much computation caused by the complex communication of large-scale energy storage system is solved. Considering specified sampled-data control and system requirements, the system control parameters are designed. This method is simple in control and takes up less system communication resources. Finally, the simulation results are shown that the method is effective in different application scenarios.

The development of ultra-large-scale energy storage system(ESS) is beneficial to integrate the real-time renewable energy generation with uncertainty and intermittent features and provide effective capacity support for the power grid. Since renewable energy has strongly decentralized feature, it is effective way to develop distributed dispatch strategy for storage devices to integrate them. This paper focuses on built a multi-timescale dispatch model for ESS. The goal of the proposed model is to minimize the day-aheadoperation cost with better charging/discharging operation allocation for each ESS in each dispatch interval during one day, and smooth the real-time fluctuation s of renewable energy. To address this issue, this paper presents a distributed multi-timescale and discrete-time-gradient optimization algorithm by combining consensus and optimization theories. By using this method, each ESS can response to the change of renewable generation and obtain the optimal operation by using local information share, resulting in better flexibility, robustness, scalability and privacy, etc. Thus, it is suitable for distributed model development and optimal dispatch for ultra-large-scale ESS. Finally, the paper is tested on a system with eleven ESSs and five renewable energy generations. The simulation results show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm.

Analysis focused on sub-regional differentiation of vegetation greenness and their dominant drivers are needed to properly develop targeted strategies for sustainable management. In this study, we took China as a case study area, and analyzed the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of vegetation greenness and its strength of association with both environmental (topographical factors and hydrothermal conditions) and anthropogenic factors (land use type and population density) across six eco-geographic regions during 1982–2015. The whole period was divided into two periods by the turning point of 1998, after which China has implemented numerous forest protection projects. The attribution results based on the Geodetector method show the followings: (1) In China, precipitation is the dominant factor in landscape variation of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) with a strength of association of 85%. Additionally, precipitation is also the dominant factor in arid and semi-arid regions, including Northern semiarid (NS) region, Northwestern arid (NWA) region and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) region. The dominant factors differ across diverse eco-geographic regions; for example, slope dominates in sub-tropical/tropical humid (STH) and middle temperate humid/sub-humid (MTH) regions. (2) Generally, the strength of association between vegetation and temperature decreases across China over the past 34 years, meaning that the limiting effect of temperature on the NDVI is weakened, similarly, the controlling effect of water conditions is also weakened. In contrast, the spatial association between anthropogenic factors and NDVI is enhanced. (3) The temporal dynamics of strength of association between factors and the NDVI differ in diverse periods and regions; for example, the strength of association between wind speed and NDVI decreased during 1982–1998, but increased during 1999–2015 in temperate humid/sub-humid (WTH) region; however, decreasing trends were revealed in the QTP region in both periods. Our study highlights that variation of NDVI is mainly attributed to climate change and land cover change. Generally, the limiting impact of hydrothermal conditions on NDVI weakens, and the controlling effect of human activity increases over time.

Autoimmune diseases (ADs) are a collection of immunological disorders in which the immune system responds to self-antigens by producing autoantibodies or self-sensitized cells. Current treatments are unable to cure ADs, and achieving long-term drug-free remission remains a challenging task. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) stands out from other therapies by specifically targeting ADs that target various cell subpopulations, demonstrating notable therapeutic benefits and resulting in sustained drug-free remission. Since different ADs have distinct mechanisms of action, the comprehensive understanding of how HSCT works in treating ADs is crucial. This review provides a detailed overview of the latest research and clinical applications of HSCT in treating ADs, offering new insights for clinicians aiming to optimize its use for ADs management.

Despite the economic and evolutionary significance of microsporidian species that infect aquatic hosts, little is known about how microsporidia interact with hosts. This study focused on Potaspora macrobrachium, a new microsporidium identified in the oriental river prawn, Macrobrachium nipponense. Gross pathology, histology with H.E. staining, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were performed to confirm the microsporidian infections. To learn more about the prawn anti-microsporidian response, de novo transcriptome sequencing of the hepatopancreas tissue—a significant source of innate immune molecules—was also conducted. The clean reads of the microsporidian-infected and control groups were 40.46 M and 40.83 M, respectively. 117,853 unigenes were functionally annotated using homology searches and six databases: Nr, Swiss-Prot, KEGG, eggNOG, Pfam, and G.O. 107 genes were considerably up-regulated, whereas 71 genes were down-regulated. The primary immune and metabolic signalling pathways, such as the ''MAPK signalling pathway,'' ''apoptosis,'' ''autophagy,'' ''endocytosis,'' ''lysosome,'' ''fatty acid biosynthesis,'' ''protein processing in the endoplasmic reticulum,'' ''spliceosome,'' and ''pancreatic secretion,'' were linked to the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). This implies that M. nipponense adopts various strategies to deal with microsporidian infection. To ensure the accuracy of the transcriptome data, eight DEGs were randomly chosen to participate in qRT-PCR validation. Additionally, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were detected within the gene library. These findings allow us to understand better the underlying processes governing the interactions of microsporidian parasites and the commercially important prawn, M. nipponense.

Lentiviral vectors (LVs) have been widely used as a tool for gene therapies. However, tissue-selective transduction after systemic delivery remains a challenge. Inducible degrader of low-density lipoprotein receptor is an attractive target for treating hypercholesterolemia. Here, a liver-targeted LV, CS8-LV-shIDOL, is developed by incorporating a hepatocyte-targeted peptide derived from circumsporozoite protein (CSP) into the lentivirus envelope for liver-targeted delivery of IDOL-shRNA (short hairpin RNA) to alleviate hypercholesterolemia. Tail-vein injection of CS8-LV-shIDOL results in extremely high accumulation in liver and nearly undetectable levels in other organs in mice. In addition, it shows superior therapeutic efficacy in lowering serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and reducing atherosclerotic lesions over unmodified LV-shIDOL in hyperlipidemic mice. Mechanically, the envelope-engineered CS8-LV-shIDOL can enter liver cells via low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP). Thus, this study provides a novel approach for liver-targeted delivery of IDOL-shRNA to treat hypercholesterolemia by using an envelope-engineered LV, and this delivery system has great potential for liver-targeted transgene therapy.

ABSTRACT: Objective: This study aimed to reveal the geographic accessibility of dental clinics for most municipalities in Japan in 2015 and to explore the association between dental accessibility and dental caries status in 3-year-old children. Methods: We computed the accessibility index and accessibility index rate for the population outside a 1-km radius of dental clinics using a geographic information system. We also used spatial autocorrelation analysis (Moran's I statistic) to examine the spatial clustering patterns of dental accessibility in Japanese municipalities. In addition, we adjusted the prevalence of dental caries for most municipalities using empirical Bayesian estimation. Finally, we applied multiple linear regression to scrutinise the associations between dental caries status, including the prevalence of dental caries and decayed and filled teeth (dft), and dental accessibility, with adjustments made for other sociodemographic variables. Results: The distribution of dental accessibility in Japanese municipalities is relatively unequal. Dental accessibility is decent in the 3 metropolitan areas around Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya but poor in the Tohoku and Kyushu regions. In addition, dental accessibility is significantly related to the prevalence of dental caries and dft after adjusting for other sociodemographic variables (P < .005). Conclusions: This study suggests that dental accessibility is considerably connected to the dental caries status of 3-year-old children after excluding financial burden. Preschool children in areas with poor dental accessibility are likely to have poor dental caries status. We also verified the inequality of dental accessibility amongst Japanese municipalities. For the future development of primary oral health care, more attention should be paid to people with a disadvantage in terms of dental accessibility.

Intensive human activities have caused serious damage to the natural environment and threatened ecosystem services, while the relationships between ecosystem services at different spatial scales vary to some extent. Therefore, identifying different patterns, evolutionary trends, and influencing factors of ecosystem services at different scales is more helpful in providing scientific decision-making for sustainable ecosystem management. Taking eastern China as the research area, with the help of a Gaussian mixture model, redundancy analysis and geographically weighted regression models, the spatiotemporal pattern evolution of ecosystem services from multiple scale perspectives were conducted, and the interrelationships between ecosystem services and the driving factors were explored. It expanded the knowledge of ecosystem services, the relationships between ecosystem services, and how the socio-ecological drivers of ecosystems vary at different spatial scales, and enabled more precise manipulation of socio-ecological drivers through different driving models. The average value of ecosystem services in the southern region was 0.672, which was better than that in the northern region, which was 0.353. Ecosystem services were lower in regions with a wide distribution of arable land and high population density and economic development. The relationship between ecosystem services was more manifested as synergistic relationship. As the scale expanded, the synergies and trade-offs between most ESs were also stronger and the average increase was 18.42 %. Especially, the relationships between some services developed from synergistic relationships at small scales to trade-offs at the county level. From the perspective of ecosystem service bundle, the overall ecosystem environment of the research area has been greatly improved, with enhanced supply function and weakened vulnerability. The area of ecosystem provisioning bundles increased by an average of 10.31 % as the scale increased, while the ecosystem regulation bundle decreased by 7.33 %. By comparison, the non-spatially driven model had better accuracy at the scale of 1 km2 and 100 km2, while the spatially driven model had higher accuracy at the county scale. Besides, normalized difference vegetation index occupied an absolute dominant position, and the natural elements acted more at the micro-scale, while the socio-economic elements were more influential at the macro-scale. These results provided a basis for subsequent research on multi-scale ecosystem control and ecological compensation strategies, and showed that natural and social factors were scale-dependent, that it was necessary to study ecosystem services, and emphasized the importance of developing appropriate policies at particular scales.

The repair of annulus fibrosus (AF) defect after discectomy in the intervertebral disc (IVD) has presented a challenge over the past decade. Hostile microenvironments in the IVD, including, compression and hypoxia, are critical issues that require special attention. Till date, little information is available on potential strategies to cope with the hypoxia dilemma in AF defect sites. In this study, perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA) core-shell fibers were fabricated by coaxial electrospinning to construct oxygen-releasing scaffold for promoting endogenous repair in the AF after discectomy. We demonstrated that PFTBA fibers (10% chitosan, chitosan: PCL, 1:6) could release oxygen for up to 144 ​h. The oxygen released from PFTBA fibers was found to protect annulus fibrosus stem cells (AFSCs) from hypoxia-induced apoptosis. In addition, the PFTBA fibers were able to promote proliferation, migration and extracellular matrix (ECM) production in AFSCs under hypoxia, highlighting their therapeutic potential in AF defect repair. Subsequent in vivo studies demonstrated that oxygen-supplying fibers were capable of ameliorating disc degeneration after discectomy, which was evidenced by improved disc height and morphological integrity in rats with the oxygen-releasing scaffolds. Further transcriptome analysis indicated that differential expression genes (DEGs) were enriched in “oxygen transport” and “angiogenesis”, which likely contributed to their beneficial effect on endogenous AF regeneration. In summary, the oxygen-releasing scaffold provides novel insights into the oxygen regulation by bioactive materials and raises the therapeutic possibility of oxygen supply strategies for defect repair in AF, as well as other aerobic tissues.

Objective: We aim to analyze the effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) exposure and genetic predisposition on blood lipid through a longitudinal epidemiological study. Methods: We enrolled 4,356 observations who participated at baseline (n = 2,435) and 6-year follow-up (n = 1,921) from Wuhan-Zhuhai cohort. Ten urinary PAHs metabolites and blood lipid (i.e., total cholesterol [TC], triglycerides [TG], low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C], and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-C]) were measured at both baseline and follow-up. The polygenic risk scores (PRS) of blood lipid were constructed by the corresponding genome-wide association studies. Linear mixed models were fit to identify associations between urinary PAHs metabolites, blood lipid, and lipid-PRSs in the repeated-measure analysis. Besides, longitudinal relationships of blood lipid with urinary PAHs metabolites and respective lipid-PRSs were examined by using linear regression models. Results: Compared with subjects who had persistently low urinary total hydroxyphenanthrene (ΣOHPh), those with persistently high levels had an average increase of 0.137 mmol/l for TC and 0.129 mmol/l for LDL-C over 6 years. Each 1-unit increase of TC-, TG-, LDL-C-, and HDL-C-specific PRS were associated with an average increase of 0.438 mmol/l for TC, 0.264 mmol/l for TG, 0.198 mmol/l for LDL-C, and 0.043 mmol/l for HDL-C over 6 years, respectively. Compared with subjects who had low genetic risk and persistently low ΣOHPh, subjects with high LDL-specific PRS and persistently high ΣOHPh had an average increase of 0.652 mmol/l for LDL-C. Conclusions: Our results suggest that high-level ΣOHPh exposure is associated with an average increase of LDL-C over 6 years, and those relationships can be aggravated by a higher LDL-C-genetic risk. No significant relationships were observed between other PAHs metabolites (including hydroxynaphthalene, hydroxyfluorene, and hydroxypyrene) and blood lipid changes over 6 years. Our findings emphasize the importance of preventing PAHs exposure, particularly among those with a higher genetic predisposition of hyperlipidemia.

Previous studies have demonstrated the important role of angiotension II (AngII) in promoting proliferation of myofibroblasts (myoFbs) and myocardial fibrosis. However, the underlying mechanisms and the role of oxygen free radicals in the proliferation of myofibroblasts induced by AngII are unclear. The present study was designed to shed light on this issue through exploration of AngII signaling pathways via in vitro experiments. Primary cultures of neonatal rat myoFbs were divided into five groups which were treated with AngII (10−8 to 10−6 M), AngII with the antioxidant N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), or normal culture medium. We observed the proliferation of myoFbs as induced by AngII at different concentrations with MTT. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels in myoFbs were detected by monitoring the fluorescence of 2′,7′-dichlorofluorescein. The contents and levels of oxygen free radicals (OH·) in the three groups were detected by spectrophotometer, immunocytochemical staining, and confocal fluorescence. Western blot and image analysis were used to measure membrane translocation and expression of phospho-protein kinase Cα. MyoFbs incubated with AngII (10−8 to 10−6 M) for 24 h increased their rate of proliferation, the content of OH·, and expression of ROS (P