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Oxygen in marine sediments regulates many key biogeochemical processes, playing a crucial role in shaping Earth's climate and benthic ecosystems. In this context, branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs), essential biomarkers in paleoenvironmental research, exhibit an as-yet-unresolved association with sediment oxygen conditions. Here, we investigated brGDGTs in sediments from three deep-sea regions (4045 to 10,100 m water depth) dominated by three respective trench systems and integrated the results with in situ oxygen microprofile data. Our results demonstrate robust correlations between diffusive oxygen uptake (DOU) obtained from microprofiles and brGDGT methylation and isomerization degrees, indicating their primary production within sediments and their strong linkage with microbial diagenetic activity. We establish a quantitative relationship between the Isomerization and Methylation index of Branched Tetraethers (IMBT) and DOU, suggesting its potential validity across deep-sea environments. Increased brGDGT methylation and isomerization likely enhance the fitness of source organisms in deep-sea habitats. Our study positions brGDGTs as a promising tool for quantifying benthic DOU in deep-sea settings, where DOU is a key metric for assessing sedimentary organic carbon degradation and microbial activity. Xiao et al. uncover a strong linkage between marine bacterial tetraether lipids and benthic oxygen uptake in deepsea trench regions, indicating their potential for assessing microbial diagenetic activity and organic carbon degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epilepsy, a prevalent neurological disorder characterized by high morbidity, frequent recurrence, and potential drug resistance, profoundly affects millions of people globally. Understanding the microscopic mechanisms underlying seizures is crucial for effective epilepsy treatment, and a thorough understanding of the intricate neural circuits underlying epilepsy is vital for the development of targeted therapies and the enhancement of clinical outcomes. This review begins with an exploration of the historical evolution of techniques used in studying neural circuits related to epilepsy. It then provides an extensive overview of diverse techniques employed in this domain, discussing their fundamental principles, strengths, limitations, as well as their application. Additionally, the synthesis of multiple techniques to unveil the complexity of neural circuits is summarized. Finally, this review also presents targeted drug therapies associated with epileptic neural circuits. By providing a critical assessment of methodologies used in the study of epileptic neural circuits, this review seeks to enhance the understanding of these techniques, stimulate innovative approaches for unraveling epilepsy's complexities, and ultimately facilitate improved treatment and clinical translation for epilepsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Snoring may cause a number of problems such as tiredness, obesity, and even severe diseases, but the correlation between snoring and insulin secretion, which has important clinical significance, has rarely been studied. The objective of this study was to evaluate the correlation between snoring frequency and insulin secretion and discuss the potential mechanisms, thereby estimating the health condition of β-cells of individuals who snore. Methods: The analyses used data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2015 to 2018. A regression analysis was performed for snoring frequency and insulin concentration, and then multiple regression analyses excluded various factors related to insulin secretion, including age, sex, race, body mass index (BMI), factors indicating patients' nutritional condition, and symptoms possibly implying obstructive sleep apnea. Subsequently, three hierarchical multiple regression analyses were carried out respectively based on sex, race, and BMI. Results: After adjusting for confounding variables, snoring frequency was correlated with insulin concentration especially when snoring was at relatively high frequencies (e.g., more than 5 nights per week) (β = 1.77, 95%CI = 0.42–3.13, P = 0.010). The stratification analyses showed that high snoring frequency increased insulin secretion among women (β = 1.83, 95%CI = 0.05–3.62, P = 0.044), Hispanics (β = 3.28, 95%CI = 0.05–6.51, P = 0.047), and participants with BMI in the range > 30 kg/m2 (β = 3.77, 95%CI = 0.52–7.03, P = 0.023). Conclusion: Our results suggest that snoring is likely to relate to an increase in insulin when severe, especially in women, Hispanics, and people with a BMI of more than 30 kg/m2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rocky desertification is an economic, social, and environmental problem, which refers to the processes and human activities that transform a karst area covered by vegetation and soil into a rocky landscape. The effects of different types of soil cover on ecohydrological processes during the revegetation of areas undergoing karst rocky desertification remain unclear. Taking different measures for different ecohydrological situations will benefit re-vegetation in karst rocky desertification areas. Methods and aims: Monthly/heavy rainfall hydrochemical data and the δ13C of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in karst water samples from January 2017 to December 2019 were obtained. This revealed the controlling mechanisms on hydrochemical processes by δ13CDIC under different soil cover conditions in the dip/anti-dip slopes of a karst trough valley in Ganxi Town, Chongqing City, southwestern China. Results: Hydrochemical variations are controlled by climate, soil, and vegetation and show clear seasonality. The δ13CDIC values (−16.88‰ to −3.49‰) in the study area were higher than the theoretical value (−14.00‰). In addition, it was observed that rain accelerated soil erosion (R2=0.7) in the karst trough valley and human activities (exogenous acid) resulted in DIC loss. The slopes, soil, and bare rock cover on the dip slope were different from that on the anti-dip slope, leading to the difference in their re-vegetation statuses. Conclusions: In this study, we found that different vegetation restoration schemes and treatment measures should be implemented between the dip and anti-dip slope. The protection of soil and water resources, especially soil, is the key to ecological restoration in rocky desertification areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most petroliferous oil producing area in Kuqa depression, Dawanqi (DWQ) oilfield is supplying with great attention. In this regard, the geochemical characteristics and oil families from DWQ field were investigated using molecular compounds analysis of GC, GC–MS techniques. The bulk geochemistry of oils from DWQ oilfield displays complicated molecular composition characteristics, including relative higher indices of Pr/Ph (1.4 ~ 4.26, with an average of 2.4), high concentration of light hydrocarbons and certain abundant pentacyclic triterpene and steranes. The C7 light hydrocarbon and isoprenoids ratios indicate the oils were derived from terrestrial and higher plant input in weak oxidizing and reducing environment. Most of the oils are among the mature oils in the study area, except a few samples that are identified as slightly biodegraded by C7 hydrocarbon. Three oil families are identified in DWQ oilfield of Kuqa depression by biomarker analysis and geochemical parameters. The family A shares the attributes with higher amount of tricyclic terpanes, such as C19- C20 tricyclic terpane, higher C24-tercyclic terpane, lower concentration of gammacerane (< 0.6) but poor diasteranes. Family C is characterized with lower content of C19-tricyclic terpane than C20 tricyclic terpane, low C24-tercyclic terpane than C23-tricycli terpane, relative high concentration of gammacerane (> 0.6) but poor diasteranes. The oils of family B are mixed from the two types, showing mixed features of family A and C. The results can shed light for the exploration of the studied area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1- O-monoalkyl glycerol ethers (MAGEs) were initially viewed as the biomarkers for sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) mediating anaerobic oxidation of methane in the marine environments. However, limited information is known about their distribution in terrestrial and other aquatic settings including soils, fresh water lakes, and cave sediments, which may obscure our understanding of their biological sources. Here we found that MAGEs were ubiquitous but differed obviously in distributional pattern among those environments. The surface soils are dominated generally by iC-MAGE, followed by nC-MAGE whereas the lake sediments show the opposite, resulting in significantly higher iC/ nC ratios in soils than in lake sediments. The cave deposits are characterized by considerably higher proportions of branched MAGEs than the former two environments. The logarithm of iC/ aC ratio shows a significant negative correlation with soil pH, likely reflecting an adaptation of microbial cell membrane to change in the ambient proton concentration. The MAGE profiles in cultured bacteria cannot fully explain the MAGE distribution in all the samples analyzed. Therefore, MAGEs in soil, lake sediments, and cave deposits likely have additional biological source(s) other than SRB and cultured MAGE-producing bacteria. The difference in MAGE pattern among environments is likely to be attributed to change in microbial communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The MBT/CBT (Methylation Index of Branched Tetraethers/Cyclisation ratio of Branched Tetraether) proxy, a terrestrial paleothermometer based on bacterial branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (bGDGTs), was employed to indicate altimetry; however, the mechanistic control on this proxy is still ambiguous. Here, we investigated the bGDGTs' distribution and associated environmental factors along an altitude transect of Mt. Shennongjia in China in order to determine the applicability of bGDGT-based proxies to altimetry reconstruction. The MBT index exhibits only a weak correlation with estimated mean annual air temperature (MATe, estimated according to the meteorological record and lapse rate) or altitude. Likewise, MBT shows weak or no relationship with temperature or altitude at four other mountains (Mts. Meghalaya, Jianfengling, Gongga, and Rungwe). It is notable that mean annual air temperature (MAT) or altitude estimated by the MBT/CBT proxy largely relies on CBT, rather than on MBT, which was generally acknowledged. The poor relationship between MBTand MATe for Mt. Shennongjia can be ascribed to the insensitive response of bGDGT-I to temperature. Our data from this mountain imply that care should be taken if the MBT/CBT proxy is employed as an indication of paleoaltimetry. We propose that the fractional abundance of bGDGTs may be a better paleoaltimeter than the MBT/CBT proxy, because specific bGDGT subsets that might show the most sensitive response to temperature can be preferentially selected using a statistical method and used to establish local calibration. This local calibration was applied to Mt. Shennongjia and apparently improves the accuracy of temperature and altimetry reconstruction. The differential response of bGDGTs to temperature among mountains suggests that local calibrations are needed to better constrain the altimetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]