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This study aims to assess how the construction patterns within residential communities influence the adolescent myopia using general survey. In a private high school from a megacity in mid-west China, a questionnaire gathered data on the 10th-grade students' level of myopia, home address, and some potential confounding factors. Additionally, satellite digital images were utilized to calculate the proportion of shadow area (PSA) and the proportion of greenness area (PGA) within a 500 m×500 m area centered on each student's home address. Correlations between myopia levels and PSA, along with other variables, were analyzed. The prevalence of mild, moderate, and high myopia were 39.2%, 32.5%, and 8.3%, respectively. A negative correlation was observed between myopia levels and PSA, albeit marginally significant (r=-0.189*, P = 0.05). Upon dividing the sample into higher and lower PSA groups using a cut-off point of 20%, a significant difference in myopia levels was evident (χ2 = 8.361, P = 0.038), while other confounding factors remained comparable. In conclusion, high-rise apartment constructions, which often cast more shadows on digital satellite maps, may not exacerbate myopia progression. Instead, they could potentially serve as a protective factor against adolescent myopia in densely populated megacities, as they allow for more ground space allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study aimed to explore ocular manifestations in ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), focusing on granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) and to examine the associations with laboratory parameters and other systemic manifestations. Methods: This retrospective study reviewed data from 533 AAV patients across two major Chinese medical centers from January 2016 to November 2023. Data including diagnosis, cranial manifestations of disease, ocular complications, and laboratory parameters were analyzed. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses assessed associations across disease manifestations. Machine learning models were also utilized to predict the risk of retinal/eye involvement in AAV patients. Results: Among 533 patients (210 GPA, 217 MPA, 99 EGPA, and 7 unclassified AAV), ocular complications were observed in 20.64% of them, with a distribution of 36.67% in GPA, 7.37% in MPA, and 18.18% in EGPA. The most common ocular manifestations included scleritis and retro-orbital mass/dacryocystitis, which were notably prevalent in GPA patients. Retinal involvement was observed in 9.09% of EGPA cases. The machine learning models yielded that eosinophil percentage (EOS%), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), and CD4 + T cell/CD8 + T cell ratio (T4/T8) can predict retinal involvement. Furthermore, the white blood cell, EOS%, APTT, IgA, hsCRP, PR3-ANCA, and T4/T8 can predict eye involvement. Conclusion: Ocular manifestations are a prevalent complication across all forms of AAV. Predictive models developed through machine learning offer promising tools for early intervention and tailored patient care. This necessitates a multidisciplinary approach, integrating rheumatology and ophthalmology expertise for optimal patient outcomes. Key Points • This study provides new insights into the ocular manifestations of ANCA-associated vasculitis across different subtypes, revealing a notable prevalence of ocular complications. • A machine learning model is built to predict eye/retinal involvement, enhancing early diagnostic capabilities. • The findings could guide more systematic ocular screenings in ANCA-associated vasculitis patients and influence treatment protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces CLIP-Flow, a novel network for generating images from a given image or text. To effectively utilize the rich semantics contained in both modalities, we designed a semantics-guided methodology for image- and text-to-image synthesis. In particular, we adopted Contrastive Language-Image Pretraining (CLIP) as an encoder to extract semantics and StyleGAN as a decoder to generate images from such information. Moreover, to bridge the embedding space of CLIP and latent space of StyleGAN, real NVP is employed and modified with activation normalization and invertible convolution. As the images and text in CLIP share the same representation space, text prompts can be fed directly into CLIP-Flow to achieve text-to-image synthesis. We conducted extensive experiments on several datasets to validate the effectiveness of the proposed image-to-image synthesis method. In addition, we tested on the public dataset Multi-Modal CelebA-HQ, for text-to-image synthesis. Experiments validated that our approach can generate high-quality text-matching images, and is comparable with state-of-the-art methods, both qualitatively and quantitatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exemplar-based image translation involves converting semantic masks into photorealistic images that adopt the style of a given exemplar. However, most existing GAN-based translation methods fail to produce photorealistic results. In this study, we propose a new diffusion model-based approach for generating high-quality images that are semantically aligned with the input mask and resemble an exemplar in style. The proposed method trains a conditional denoising diffusion probabilistic model (DDPM) with a SPADE module to integrate the semantic map. We then used a novel contextual loss and auxiliary color loss to guide the optimization process, resulting in images that were visually pleasing and semantically accurate. Experiments demonstrate that our method outperforms state-of-the-art approaches in terms of both visual quality and quantitative metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the distinct characteristics between young and elderly polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) patients based on the pachy- or non-pachychoroid phenotypes. Methods: PCV patients treated with intravitreal injections of Conbercept based on the 3 + PRN regimen from 27 centers of China PCV Research Alliance were included. Patients were categorized into the young and the elderly aged group based on the cut-off point determined using the Youden method according to the pachychoroid phenotypes. The characteristics of past medical history, lifestyle factors, fundus manifestations, and treatment response between the subgroups were analyzed. Results: Three hundred eight eligible patients were included. Multivariate logistic regression showed a significant association between age and PCV subtype classification (OR = 0.921, P = 0.002). A cutoff age of 64.5 effectively distinguished between pachychoroid PCV and non-pachychoroid PCV (P < 0.001). Elderly PCV patients had a higher incidence of hypertension history (P = 0.044) but a lower incidence of diabetes history (P = 0.027). In terms of lifestyle, smoking history (P = 0.015) and staying up late (P = 0.004) were more significant in the young group of PCV patients. For clinical characteristics, the proportion of hemorrhagic PCV in the young group was significantly higher (P = 0.038), with a higher proportion of sharp-peaked PED (P = 0.049), thicker choroid (P < 0.001) but a lower portion of double-layer sign (P = 0.023) in OCT. Both groups showed significant anatomical changes compared to baseline in each follow-up period (P < 0.05), with the young group having a higher proportion of good anatomical response after the first injection (P = 0.009). Conclusion: PCV patients stratified by subtype exhibit distinct characteristics between the young and elderly groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulated evidence showed that thyroid diseases induced cognitive decline. However, the relationship between thyroid hormones (THs) and cognition in older euthyroid people is still unclear. Our study aimed to estimate the association between THs within the euthyroid range and cognition in community-dwelling older adults in China. Data were extracted from a cohort study on the health status of rural older adults from the Guizhou province in China (HSRO). Serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4), and free triiodothyronine (FT3) were measured using the electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Cognitive function was evaluated by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Linear regression and a binary logistic regression model were used to explore the relationship between THs and cognition in euthyroidism (TSH level of 0.27 ~ 4.20mIU/L). A total of 957 euthyroidism individuals were included in this study, with a mean (SD) age of 71.34 (6.35) years. In individuals with euthyroidism, serum TSH and FT3 levels were positively associated with cognition (TSH:β = 0.06, 95% CI 0.01 ~ 0.11, P = 0.03; FT3:β = 0.07, 95% CI 0.01 ~ 0.12, P = 0.01); and serum FT3 and TSH levels were significantly associated with cognitive domains (P < 0.05). Further, euthyroid individuals in the lowest serum FT3(OR = 1.96; 95% CI 1.27 ~ 3.03) quartile had a twofold increased risk of cognitive impairment compared to those in the highest quartile after adjusting for potential confounding factors. These findings suggested that low levels of FT3 could be an independent risk factor for cognitive impairment in older euthyroid adults. Additionally, a positive linear association exists between serum FT3 levels and cognitive domains (such as immediate memory, language, and attention). Further studies are needed to determine the underlying mechanisms and the community significance of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was to investigate how phonological processing and visual-spatial abilities contributed differently to arithmetic operations including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Eighty-eight Chinese fifth graders completed a rapid digit naming task, a character rhyming task, a figure matching task, a 3D mental rotation task, and arithmetic calculation tasks. Results showed that when controlling for age, visual acuity, and nonverbal intelligence, phonological processing accounted for unique variance in both addition and multiplication, whereas visual-spatial processing explained unique variance in subtraction and division. In particular, rapid automatized naming (hereafter, RAN) explained more of the variance in addition than mental rotation did, although both were significantly associated with addition. Mental rotation explained more of the variance in subtraction than phonological awareness and RAN did, although the three skills were all related to subtraction. Importantly, RAN was a unique correlate of multiplication, while mental rotation was a unique correlate of division. These findings highlight different contribution of the phonological processing and visual-spatial skills underlying four arithmetic operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research of boxing has been paid more and more attention in today's sports field. And the research and development of relevant monitoring equipment is very important, especially wearable sports monitoring equipment. In this work, we proposed a novel hydrogel triboelectric nanogenerator (H-TENG) with self-healing function to obtain bio-mechanical energy and boxing training monitoring. The H-TENG follows the single-electrode working mode. In detail, the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) serve as the triboelectric layer and the ionic hydrogel play the role of conductive electrode. According to the experimental results, the Voc and Isc of the H-TENGs are 90 V, 0.72 μA, respectively. The H-TENG can be installed on the boxing glove to monitor boxing motion information to achieve the self-powered sports sensor. Our research will promote the development of self-powered sports sensor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Melatonin is an endogenous hormone which modulates sleep-wake cycles. Previous studies have found a close correlation between melatonin and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a trauma- and stress-related psychiatric disorder with symptoms of sleep disturbance. However, it is still unclear if melatonin can have a therapeutic effect on PTSD. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effects of melatonin on foot shocks induced PTSD-like behaviors and abnormal neuroendocrine levels in mice. Results: As compared to no-shock controls, PTSD-like mice spent significantly more time freezing and displayed less rearing in a contextual fear test, spent significantly less time in and had fewer entries into open arms in an elevated maze test, and spent significantly less time in and had fewer entries into a light box in a light-dark transition task. In addition, serum GABA and cortisol levels were both found to be significantly decreased, whereas epinephrine levels were significantly increased in the PTSD-like mice. Our results showed that intraperitoneal injections of melatonin (2 mM, but not 0.2 nor 20 mM, 0.1 ml/day for two consecutive weeks) alleviated PTSD-like behaviors and restored serum GABA and cortisol levels. Further, it was found that melatonin receptor 1/2 antagonist luzindole significantly blocked the beneficial effects of melatonin for PTSD-like behaviors and serum GABA and cortisol levels, whereas melatonin receptor 2 antagonist 4-P-PDOT slightly blocked these effects. Conclusions: These results indicate that melatonin has a potential therapeutic effect on PTSD-like symptoms in mice, and melatonin receptor 1 mediated the effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecological transformation of the mineral resource-based cities (MRBCs) is the key to promoting the construction of ecological civilization and realizing the sustainable development of the social economy and society in China. Existing research ignores the influence of public participation on other subjects in the process of transformation, which is essential to solve the dilemma faced by the ecological transformation of MRBCs. In view of this, from the perspective of stakeholders, this study constructs a new evolutionary game model, which is jointly participated in by the government, enterprises, and social factors (SF) (including public, self-media, and non-governmental organizations). This paper discusses the interests of the main parties and their inter-relationships and reveals the causal mechanism and influencing factors of the dilemma of the ecological transformation of the MRBCs. Our results demonstrate that the evolution and convergence of strategies among the tripartite game agents exhibit strong interaction. First, the single industrial structure, low regulatory efficiency, and weak ecological awareness substantially increase the cost of transformation, thus exacerbating the dilemma of MRBC transformation. Second, the transformation intensity and comprehensive income are important factors affecting the transformation, and the effect intensity of influencing factors in different transition stages is different, which implies that the focus of policies in different stages is different. Third, in the process of promoting enterprise ecological transformation, government supervision and SF supervision have significant complementary effects. However, high-intensity supervision has a significant crowding-out effect on the willingness of SF to participate. Therefore, the government needs to balance the intensity of supervision and willingness of SF to participate. Compared with the existing research, this study comprehensively reflects the complex dynamic game process of the ecological transformation of MRBCs in China and can provide a reference for the policy of promoting the ecological transformation of MRBCs in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim to classify typical hot springs in Guizhou, China and their relevance to health. Assessing geochemical characters of typical hot springs of Guizhou and classifying through hierarchical cluster analysis, an epidemiologic study was conducted to analyze the correlation between hot spring types and health, which showed typical hot springs in Guizhou can be divided into two types, A and B. Type A is rich in fluorine, metasilicic acid, radon components and a large number of essential elements, such as Na, that the human body needs, with trace elements, such as Cr and V, that are essential or possibly essential. Type B is rich in fluorine, metasilicate, strontium components and a large number of essential elements, Ca, Mg, and S, with trace elements, Cu, Mn, Mo, Co, and Ni, that are essential or possibly essential. These hot springs' effects on the health of those bathing in them showed both types were associated with bone and joint diseases. Having bathed in hot springs during the past year was associated with skin symptoms and bone and joint symptoms, and having bathed within the past two weeks was linked to sleep quality and levels of appetite and energy. However, differences do exist between the correlation between the two types and some chronic diseases, with Type A hot springs significantly related to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and diabetes and Type B to hypertension. This classification of Guizhou's hot springs can guide the future development and use of hot spring physiotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA) for patients with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR). Methods: The Pubmed, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were comprehensively searched up to February 2020, to identify the studies comparing the efficacy of MRA with placebo/observation or photodynamic therapy (PDT) for CSCR. The primary outcomes were maximal subretinal fluid height and central macular thickness (CMT). The secondary outcomes included subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA). Data of interest were extracted and analyzed by R version 3.6.0. The weighted mean difference and their 95% confidence intervals were used to assess the strength of the association. Results: Ten studies including 284 affected eyes were involved, with 168 undergoing MRA treatment, 60 taking placebo/observation, and 56 receiving PDT. The pooling results showed that MRA was significantly more effective in resolving maximal subretinal fluid height (P < 0.01) and diminishing CMT (P < 0.01) than placebo/observation, while PDT could achieve significantly better CMT reduction than MRA (P = 0.03). For BCVA improvement and SFCT reduction, no statistical difference was detected among the groups of MRA, observation, placebo, or PDT (P > 0.05). Conclusion: MRA is an effective therapy for the management of CSCR, which is only slightly inferior to PDT in terms of CMT reduction. For patients who could not afford PDT, MRA could function as an alternative treatment with acceptable efficacy and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Aim) For detecting the hearing loss (HL) more accurately and efficiently, the new computer-aid diagnosis (CAD) based on a nature-inspired algorithm (NIAs) is proposed in this study. (Method) First, the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is used for extracting texture features from the brain images, and then the principle component analysis (PCA) is employed to decrease the dimension of features. Second, the Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) is used as a classifier. Traditional gradient-based descent algorithms are vulnerable to get struck at local minima; thus, the NIAs are introduced. The differential evolution algorithm (DE), particle swarm optimization (PSO), artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC), and improved ABC (IABC) are employed to train MLP. Because the ordinary ABC is good at exploration but gives a poor performance at exploitation, therefore a new model of ABC, called IABC is proposed. The K-fold validation method is utilized to measure the performance of the CAD. (Result) To verify the performance of our method, The CAD based on IABC is compared with state-of-the-art-approaches. (Conclusion) The experiment results show that the overall accuracy of our method has the highest overall accuracy among five approaches. Therefore, the proposed CAD is effective method for detecting hearing loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Genetic studies have identified the association of some single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV), but little is known about whether these SNPs are related to PCV clinical features as well. We performed this study to examine the association of 12 SNPs with PCV clinical phenotypes. Methods: Sixty-nine PCV eyes of 69 patients were included. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood. Agilent SureSelect Human ALL Exon V6 was used to sequence the 12 SNPs previously reported to associate with PCV. Baseline best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), sub-foveal choroidal thickness (SFCT), choroid maximum vascular diameter (MVD), choroidal vascular hyperpermeability (CVH), and greatest linear dimension (GLD) of entire lesion were measured and compared between patients of different genotypes. Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney U test were mainly used to compare categorical variables and continuous variables respectively. Results: HTRA1 rs2293870 was a protective factor of PCV or AMD in the fellow eye (P = 0.040) and was related with greater SFCT in PCV eye after multiple linear regression (P = 0.043). C3 rs17030 was associated with smaller GLD (P = 0.033). CFH rs2274700 was related to lower MVD (P = 0.043) and was a protective factor for CVH (P = 0.034). Conclusion: Multiple PCV-associated SNPs are associated with PCV clinical phenotypes. The involvement of several synonymous SNPs calls for further research on the role of transcriptional alterations and trans-regulation of distant signaling pathways in PCV pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the three-dimensional choroidal vascularity index (CVI) in the eyes with treatment-naïve acute central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) using swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS OCT). Methods: In this prospective cross-sectional study, OCT and OCT angiography covered an area of 12 × 12 mm centered on the fovea. Three-dimensional CVI was defined as the ratio of the choroidal vascular luminal volume to the total choroidal volume. The location of pigment epithelial detachment (PED) and the area with abnormal perfusion at choriocapillary layer were compared with the distribution of the three-dimensional CVI. Results: Thirty-two eyes with treatment-naïve acute CSC, 18 fellow eyes, and 48 control eyes were enrolled. Three-dimensional CVI had good repeatability on control eyes, with a coefficient of variation of 0.166. The mean CVI in the scan area was 0.35 in the eyes with CSC, 0.34 in the fellow eyes of CSC, and 0.30 in the control eyes. The overall CVI in the control eyes was significantly lower than that in the eyes with CSC and that in fellow eyes (P < 0.001 and P = 0.006, respectively). The eyes with CSC and the fellow eyes had significantly higher CVI values at the posterior pole and the drainage routes of choroidal veins. In the eyes with CSC, PEDs and choriocapillary with abnormal perfusion colocalized with the dilated choroidal vessels, which had high three-dimensional CVI values. Conclusion: Increased three-dimensional CVI suggested an increased vascular component in the eyes with CSC and in fellow eyes. The three-dimensional CVI is a useful imaging marker of choroidal diseases that volumetrically assesses the choroidal vasculature and might advance our understanding of CSC pathophysiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of training an artificial intelligence (AI) on a public-available AI platform to diagnose polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) using indocyanine green angiography (ICGA). Methods: Two methods using AI models were trained by a data set including 430 ICGA images of normal, neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD), and PCV eyes on a public-available AI platform. The one-step method distinguished normal, nvAMD, and PCV images simultaneously. The two-step method identifies normal and abnormal ICGA images at the first step and diagnoses PCV from the abnormal ICGA images at the second step. The method with higher performance was used to compare with retinal specialists and ophthalmologic residents on the performance of diagnosing PCV. Results: The two-step method had better performance, in which the precision was 0.911 and the recall was 0.911 at the first step, and the precision was 0.783, and the recall was 0.783 at the second step. For the test data set, the two-step method distinguished normal and abnormal images with an accuracy of 1 and diagnosed PCV with an accuracy of 0.83, which was comparable to retinal specialists and superior to ophthalmologic residents. Conclusion: In this evaluation of ICGA images from normal, nvAMD, and PCV eyes, the models trained on a public-available AI platform had comparable performance to retinal specialists for diagnosing PCV. The utility of public-available AI platform might help everyone including ophthalmologists who had no AI-related resources, especially those in less developed areas, for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the capillary flow density (CFD) of choriocapillary (CC) microvasculature using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) in diabetic eyes and the association of CFD and systemic and metabolic factors. Methods: Cross-sectional study. This study enrolled 282 eyes of 146 subjects, including 43 healthy control eyes, 56 diabetic eyes without diabetic retinopathy (DR), 43 eyes with mild nonproliferative DR (NPDR), 54 eyes with moderate NPDR, 38 eyes with severe NPDR, and 48 eyes with proliferative DR (PDR). CFD was measured in the CC layer. Clinical data were collected. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to identify associated clinical variables. Results: CFD in the CC layer presented a downward trend with DR progression. Comparisons of CFD in the CC layer between adjacent stages of DR revealed significant differences between severe NPDR and PDR using both 3-mm and 6-mm scan patterns (P = 0.003, P = 0.001). CFD in the CC layer in DR with diabetic macular edema (DME) was less than that in DR without DME using both 3-mm and 6-mm scan patterns (P < 0.001, P < 0.001). Coronary artery disease and atherosclerosis in other locations, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and increased HbA1c were associated with CFD in the CC layer using both 3-mm and 6-mm scan patterns (all P values < 0.05). Conclusions: OCT-A revealed decreased CFD in the CC layer in the PDR stage and the presence of DME. Diabetic patients with apparently decreased CFD should be assessed carefully under general conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's energy consumption and environmental problems are becoming increasingly urgent issues as the nation's economy continues its rapid development. A further investigation of ecological efficiency would assist the healthy development of China's "coal cities." In this study, the stochastic frontier analysis based on the assumptions of the trans-log production function is employed to assess the ecological efficiency and potential promotion of 28 typical coal cities in China. The Tobit method is used to analyze the influence factors in ecological efficiency. The results show that the ecological efficiency of coal cities is not high but increased overall from 2007 to 2014. In regional terms, coal cities in the east have the highest ecological efficiency while coal cities in the west have the highest potential promotion; coal cities in the northeast have the lowest ecological efficiency and potential promotion. Moreover, ownership structure and environmental regulations have significant inhibitory effects on the improvement in ecological efficiency, while marketization level and technological innovation have significantly positive impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid endothelialization of tissue-engineered blood vessels (TEBVs) can effectively prevent thrombosis and inhibit intimal hyperplasia. The traditional Chinese medicine ingredient icariin is highly promising for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. β-cyclodextrin sulfate is a type of hollow molecule that has good biocompatibility and anticoagulation properties and exhibits a sustained release of icariin. We studied whether icariin-loaded β-cyclodextrin sulfate can promote the endothelialization of TEBVs. The experimental results showed that icariin could significantly promote the proliferation and migration of endothelial progenitor cells; at the same time, icariin could promote the migration of rat vascular endothelial cells (RAVECs). Subsequently, we used an electrostatic force to modify the surface of the TEBVs with icariin-loaded β-cyclodextrin sulfate, and these vessels were implanted into the rat common carotid artery. After 3 months, micro-CT results showed that the TEBVs modified using icariin-loaded β-cyclodextrin sulfate had a greater patency rate. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and CD31 immunofluorescence results showed a better degree of endothelialization. Taken together, icariin-loaded β-cyclodextrin sulfate can achieve anticoagulation and rapid endothelialization of TEBVs to ensure their long-term patency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The dual functional Al-doped ZnO (AZO) particles with photocatalysis and heat shielding capability were prepared by citric acid inducing sol-hydrothermal method. The effects of citric acid concentration on the microstructure, photocatalysis, and heat shielding property of AZO were investigated. The UV-Vis absorption spectra showed that the optical band gap energy of AZO were in the range of 2.93-2.79 eV and decreased with the increase of citric acid concentration in the precursor soliquid. The photocatalytic activity experiment results indicated that the as-prepared AZO products all exhibited higher photocatalytic efficiency than the pure TiO2-P25, and the photocatalytic efficiency increased with the increase of citric acid concentration. Particularly, the AZO sample synthesized with citric acid concentration 1.0 M exhibited the highest photocatalytic degradation rate for Rhodamine B under irradiation of ultraviolet light. Furthermore, the as-prepared AZO/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) resin composite coatings on glass substrate exhibited better heat shielding property. The dual functional AZO particles with excellent photocatalytic activity and heat shielding property will have broad applications in the field of energy-saving and environmental purification.The dual functional Al-doped ZnO (AZO) particles with photocatalysis and heat shielding property were prepared by citric acid inducing sol-hydrothermal method. The effects of citric acid concentration on the microstructure, photocatalysis and heat shielding property of AZO were investigated. The dual functional AZO particles with excellent photocatalytic activity and heat shielding property will have broad applications in the field of energy-saving and environmental purification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To develop vincristine (VCR) and doxorubicin (DOX) co-encapsulated thermo-sensitive liposomes (VD-TSL) against drug resistance, with increased tumor inhibition rate and decreased system toxicity, improving drug targeting efficiency upon mild hyperthermia (HT) in solid tumor. Methods: Based on similar physicochemical properties, VCR and DOX were co-loaded in TSL with pH gradient active loading method and characterized. The time-dependent drug release profiles at 37 and 42°C were assessed by HPLC. Then we analysed the phospholipids in filtrate after ultrafiltration and studied VD-TSL stability in mimic in vivo conditions and long-time storage conditions (4°C and −20°C). Cytotoxic effect was studied on PANC and sw-620 using MTT. Intracellular drug delivery was studied by confocal microscopy on HT-1080. In vivo imaging of TSL pharmacokinetic and biodistribution was performed on MCF-7 tumor-bearing nude mice. And therapeutic efficacy on these xenograft models were followed under HT. Results: VD-TSL had excellent particle distribution (about 90 nm), high entrapment efficiency (>95%), obvious thermo-sensitive property, and good stability. MTT proved VD-TSL had strongest cell lethality compared with other formulations. Confocal microscopy demonstrated specific accumulation of drugs in tumor cells. In vivo imaging proved the targeting efficiency of TSL under hyperthermia. Then therapeutic efficacy revealed synergism of VCR and DOX co-loaded in TSL, together with HT. Conclusion: VD-TSL could increase drug efficacy and decrease system toxicity, by making good use of synergism of VCR and DOX, as well as high targeting efficiency of TSL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding habitat quality and landscape connectivity and exploring corridors connecting habitat patches are crucial for conservation, particularly for species distributed among isolated populations. The Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey, Rhinopithecus roxellana, is an Endangered primate species endemic to mountainous forests in China. Its easternmost distribution lies in the Shennongjia area, which harbors an isolated subspecies, R. roxellana hubeiensis. Unfortunately, it has experienced significant habitat loss, fragmentation, and dramatic population decline in recent decades, primarily due to increased human disturbance. To quantify habitat quality, identify suitable habitat patches, and detect possible linkages among these patches for R. roxellana hubeiensis, we conducted habitat suitability assessments and landscape connectivity analyses in the Shennongjia area based on a set of environmental factors. We created a habitat quality model and a movement cost surface for the Shennongjia area based on a habitat suitability index, graph theory, expert knowledge, field experience, and information from the literature. Our results show that suitable habitat for R. roxellana hubeiensis in Shennongjia is fragmented and limited, and that this is particularly true for highly suitable habitats. We detected six core habitat patches and six least-cost paths and corridors. Our study does not provide accurate distributions of the monkeys and their habitat use. However, it identifies the most feasible and traversable habitats and corridors, which should be conservation priorities for this subspecies, and provides valuable guidance for reevaluating habitat conservation plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective population management relies on assessments of population size and sex ratio. However, these estimates are difficult to obtain for elusive and rare species. Recently, noninvasive genetic census methods have been developed as an alternative to traditional capture-mark-recapture methods. In this study, we estimated the size of the Sichuan snub-nosed monkey ( Rhinopithecus roxellana) population in the Shennongjia Nature Reserve (SNR) using a noninvasive sampling method based on 16 microsatellite loci. We also used a PCR-based genetic method to sex the sampled individuals and infer the population sex ratio. The population size of R. roxellana in the SNR was estimated to be 1044 individuals (95% CI: 613-1409). The estimated population sex ratio is more female-biased than expected, which we attribute to the sampling biased towards one male units and limited sampling of bachelor male units. Moreover, there is no suggestion that the heavy traffic road through the reserve might block movement of monkeys. The results of this study indicate genetic assessments based on a noninvasive sampling method can provide useful information regarding populations of elusive primates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selenium deficiency is widely accepted as a fundamental cause of Keshan disease (KD). In the present study, the selenium levels of hair and food samples of KD in some endemic areas were measured; the prevalence and incidence of KD for the year 2007 in these areas were surveyed. The results for KD surveillance from 2003 to 2007 were analyzed. The selenium level was measured fluorometrically. In 2007, a total of 19,280 residents were surveyed in 15 provinces. The prevalence and incidence of KD were 3.0% and 4.9‰, respectively. In KD and control subjects, the mean levels of hair selenium were respectively 0.3223 mg/kg and 0.4466 mg/kg. The mean level of staple food selenium was 0.0227 ± 0.0144 mg/kg. During the 5 years, the selenium content in hair was always kept at a normal level within inhabitants of KD-endemic areas, but that in staple food was always kept at a lower level. These results indicate that the pathogenic factor has not been drastically eliminated even with the increasing selenium level of internal environment and is still continually damaging public health of KD in endemic areas. Since KD is still a serious threat to public health in its endemic areas, it is of great importance to pay attention to the prevention and control of this disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulating evidence has pointed out that the gut-brain axis plays important roles in the etiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Gut dysbiosis was reported in both ASD human patients and animal models. Dip2a was identified as a human ASD candidate gene. Deletion of Dip2a led to dendritic spine dysfunction and autistic-like behaviors in mice. To further investigate if Dip2a deletion leads to gut dysbiosis, we used 16S rDNA sequencing to study the gut microbiota in Dip2a KO mice. In both co-housed and separated breeding conditions, deletion of Dip2a could affect the gut microbiome composition. The probiotic bacteria, Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, became less abundant, while some potentially harmful bacteria, Alistipes, Lachnospiraceae&#95;NK4A136&#95;group, Clostridium, Desulfovibrio, and Enterorhabdus, became more abundant. We further found that probiotic treatment could help to reconstitute the gut microbiome composition in Dip2a KO mice. Altogether, these data showed DIP2A is required for the proper composition of gut microbiota, and the probiotics have potential roles in rectifying the gut microbiota in Dip2a KO mice., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)