Search

The brain metabolic changes caused by the interruption of blood supply are the initial factors of brain injury in ischemic stroke. Electroacupuncture (EA) pretreatment has been shown to protect against ischemic stroke, but whether its neuroprotective mechanism involves metabolic regulation remains unclear. Based on our finding that EA pretreatment significantly alleviated ischemic brain injury in mice by reducing neuronal injury and death, we performed a gas chromatography-time of flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF/MS) to investigate the metabolic changes in the ischemic brain and whether EA pretreatment influenced these changes. First, we found that some glycolytic metabolites in the normal brain tissues were reduced by EA pretreatment, which may lay the foundation of neuroprotection for EA pretreatment against ischemic stroke. Then, 6[Formula: see text]h of cerebral ischemia-induced brain metabolic changes, especially the enhanced glycolysis, were partially reversed by EA pretreatment, which was manifested by the brain levels of 11 of 35 up-regulated metabolites and 18 of 27 down-regulated metabolites caused by cerebral ischemia significantly decreasing and increasing, respectively, due to EA pretreatment. A further pathway analysis showed that these 11 and 18 markedly changed metabolites were mainly involved in starch and sucrose metabolism, purine metabolism, aspartate metabolism, and the citric acid cycle. Additionally, we found that EA pretreatment raised the levels of neuroprotective metabolites in both normal and ischemic brain tissues. In conclusion, our study revealed that EA pretreatment may attenuate the ischemic brain injury by inhibiting glycolysis and increasing the levels of some neuroprotective metabolites.

The variations in soil nitrification and denitrification processes, together with the abundances of functional microbes were investigated in Cunninghamia lanceolata plantations with different stand ages of 5, 8, 21, 27, and 40 years old. The results showed that the net nitrification rate fluctuated with increasing forest ages, with that of 8-year- and 27-year-old C. lanceolata plantations being significantly lower than other stand ages. The abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) amoA in the 27-year-old plantation was significantly lower than that of the 40-year-old plantation, while there was no significant difference among the other stand ages. There was no significant difference in the abundance of AOB amoA gene, denitrifying functional genes or soil denitrification potential among different stand ages. The results of stepwise regression analysis showed that the abundance of AOA amoA gene was not significantly affected by soil physical and chemical properties. In addition, the abundance of AOB was positively associated with soil total carbon content and soil pH. The abundance of denitrifying functional genes including narG , nirK and nosZ increased with increasing soil pH. The abundance of nirK and nirS was influenced by soil total carbon. Stand age influenced soil net nitrification rate through the AOA amoA abundance. Moreover, soil denitrification potential was directly affected by stand age, or indirectly affected by stand age through soil microbial biomass carbon, soil pH and denitrifying gene abundance of narG and nirK . Compared with the denitrification process, soil nitrification and associated AOA amoA gene abundance were more sensitive to the development of C. lanceolata plantations. The rotation period sould be appropriately extended to reduce the risk of nitrogen losses resulting from soil nitrification.

Introduction: Total brachial plexus injury not only significantly affects the motor and sensory function of the affected upper limbs but also causes further physical and mental damage to patients with long-term intractable pain. Previous studies mainly focused on the surgical treatment, while only a few paid attention to the intractable neuropathic pain caused by this injury. Changes in the volume of gray matter in the brain are thought to be associated with chronic neuropathic pain., Methods: Voxel-based morphometry analysis was used to compare the difference in cerebral gray matter volume between total brachial plexus injury patients with neuropathic pain and healthy controls. Correlations between pain duration, pain severity, and GM changes were analyzed., Results: The volume of cerebral gray matter in the patient group was decreased significantly in multiple regions, including the parahippocampal gyrus, paracentric lobule, inferior frontal gyrus, auxiliary motor cortex, middle occipital gyrus, right middle temporal gyrus, while it was increased in the insular, pons, middle frontal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, bilateral thalamus, and globus pallidus. There were no significant correlations between pain duration and rGMV changes, while a positive correlation was observed between pain severity and rGMV changes in one specific region, involving the anterior cingulate cortex., Conclusion: Total brachial plexus injury patients with chronic pain have widespread regions of gray matter atrophy and hypertrophy. The only positive correlation was observed between pain severity and rGMV changes in one specific region, suggesting that nociceptive stimuli trigger a variety of nonpain-specific processes, which confirms the multidimensional nature of pain., (© 2022 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Costunolide (CTD) is a sesquiterpene lactone isolated from costus root and exhibits various biological activities including anti-inflammation. Since atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease, we herein investigated the anti-atherosclerotic effects of CTD and the underlying mechanism. Atherosclerosis was induced in ApoE -/- mice by feeding them with a high-fat diet (HFD) for 8 weeks, followed by administration of CTD (10, 20 mg ·kg -1 ·d -1 , i.g.) for 8 weeks. We showed that CTD administration dose-dependently alleviated atherosclerosis in HFD-fed ApoE -/- mice. Furthermore, we found that CTD dose-dependently reduced inflammatory responses in aortas of the mice, as CTD prevented infiltration of inflammatory cells in aortas and attenuated oxLDL uptake in macrophages, leading to reduced expression of pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic molecules in aortas. Similar results were observed in oxLDL-stimulated mouse primary peritoneal macrophages (MPMs) in vitro. We showed that pretreatment with CTD (2.5, 5. 10 μM) restrained oxLDL-induced inflammatory responses in MPMs by blocking pro-inflammatory NF-κB/p65 signaling pathway. We further demonstrated that CTD inactivated NF-κB via covalent binding to cysteine 179 on IKKβ, a canonical upstream regulator of NF-κB, reducing its phosphorylation and leading to conformational change in the active loop of IKKβ. Our results discover IKKβ as the target of CTD for its anti-inflammatory activity and elucidate a molecular mechanism underlying the anti-atherosclerosis effect of CTD. CTD is a potentially therapeutic candidate for retarding inflammatory atherosclerotic diseases., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Pharmacological Society.)

Objectives: To evaluate the effects of paroxetine hydrochloride combined with idebenone on inflammatory factors and antioxidant molecules in the treatment of depression after ischemic stroke., Methods: Randomized controlled trial was adopted on 80 patients with depression after ischemic stroke were randomly divided into two groups, with 40 patients in each group at Xingtai Sanli Health Quannan Clinic from March 17, 2019 to December 20, 2021. Both groups were given basic treatment. On this basis, the control group was treated with paroxetine hydrochloride, while the study group was treated with paroxetine hydrochloride combined with idebenone. The clinical efficacy was evaluated using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) before and after treatment. Additionally, the difference in HRSD score after treatment and the improvement in inflammatory factors and antioxidant molecules were compared and analyzed between the two groups., Results: After treatment, the HRSD score of the study group was significantly improved compared with that of the control group ( p= 0.00). The effective rate was 82.5% in the study group, which was significantly higher than 62.5% in the control group ( p= 0.04). After treatment, TNF-a, CRP and IL-6 in the study group were significantly lower than those in the control group ( p = 0.00). Serum SOD, TAC and CAT levels in the study group were significantly higher than those in the control group after treatment (SOD and TAC, p= 0.00; CAT, p= 0.01). The incidence of adverse reactions was 37.5% in the study group and 25% in the control group. Although the incidence of adverse reactions in the study group was higher than that in the control group, the difference was not statistically significant ( p= 0.23)., Conclusion: Paroxetine hydrochloride combined with idebenone in the treatment of depression after ischemic stroke can significantly improve HRSD score, enhance clinical efficacy, reduce the levels of inflammatory factors, and increase the levels of antioxidant factors, without a significant increase in adverse reactions. Therefore, it is a safe and effective treatment method., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest: None., (Copyright: © Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences.)

In this work, two novel metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) were synthesized by the reaction of azobenzene-based ligands and Zn(NO 3 ) 2 /CdCO 3 under solvothermal conditions with the formula of {[Zn 2 (abtc)(azpy)(H 2 O) 2 ]·4H 2 O} n (1) and {[Cd(abtc) 0.5 (azpy) 0.5 (H 2 O)]·3H 2 O} n (2) (H 4 abtc = 3,3',5,5'-azobenzene tetracarboxylic acid, azpy = 4,4'-azobipyridine). According to the single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD) analysis, complexes 1 and 2 possessed quite similar structures except for the coordination modes of the central metal nodes attributed to the difference between the cationic radius of Zn(ii) and Cd(ii). The Zn(ii) cations in 1 adopted a distorted seesaw coordination geometry and the coordination between Zn(ii) and organic linkers gave two-dimensional (2D) coordination networks, while the Cd(ii) cations in 2 could also bind with the carboxylate groups from neighboring coordination networks to form a three-dimensional (3D) coordination framework. Furthermore, complexes 1 and 2 showed high catalytic activity as heterogeneous Lewis-acid catalysts towards the cyanosilylation of imines with satisfactory reusability under mild conditions and the similar catalytic performance of 1 and 2 could be attributed to the similarity in their structures. A prudent mechanism has been proposed as well to elucidate the role of complexes 1 and 2 in the catalytic process., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between morning blood pressure surge (MBPS) and neutrophilgelatinase associated lipocalin (NGAL) in patients with H-type hypertension., Materials and Methods: A total of 224 patients with diagnosed H-type hypertension [homocysteine (Hcy)≧10umol/L] were selected and underwent 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). In the morning peak group (115 cases), NGAL and serum cystatin C levels, β 2 -microglobulin levels were detected in each group, and general biochemical indicators were also detected., Results: There was no significant difference in the course of hypertension, age, blood glucose, blood lipids, Hcy, BUN, Cr, and UA between the two groups ( p  > 0.05). CysC, β 2 -MG were higher than those in the nonmorning peak group, and the difference was statistically significant ( p  < 0.05).; Pearson correlation analysis showed that NGAL was moderately and highly correlated with CysC, systolic blood pressure morning peak, β 2 -MG, and high ( p  < 0.05), low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C), and Hcy were lowly correlated ( p  < 0.05).) and morning peak diastolic blood pressure ( p  > 0.05); multiple linear stepwise regression analysis indicated that morning peak systolic blood pressure, CysC, β 2 -MG, and FBG were the risk factors for NGAL., Conclusion: The morning peak of systolic blood pressure in H-type hypertension is an important factor causing kidney injury. Paying attention to the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and the control of morning peak blood pressure in patients with H-type hypertension, and early screening of NGAL has important clinical significance for the early prevention and treatment of renal injury in patients with H-type hypertension. PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARYThe morning peak of blood pressure is closely related to target organ damage.There are few studies on the relationship between morning peak phenomenon and renal damage in patients with H-type hypertension at home and abroad.We investigated the relationship between MBPS and NGAL in H-type hypertensive patients with BUN, Cr and UA in the normal range to provide a clinical basis for early renal protection in hypertensive patients.

We examined the relationship between tree functional traits and leaf nitrogen and phosphorus resorption efficiencies across 29 species in 3-year-old pure plantations in subtropical China. The results showed that the average nitrogen (NRE) and phosphorus (PRE) resorption efficiencies in 29 young plantations were 50.5% and 57.3%, respectively. The average NRE of 22 arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) tree species was 52.7%, significantly higher than that of the seven ectomycorrhizal (EM) tree species (45.1%). NRE was positively correlated with fine root tissue density across the 29 tree species. PRE was positively correlated with root diameter in the seven EM tree species. Functional traits of 22 AM tree species were not associated with NRE and PRE. Among all of the 29 tree species, mycorrhizal type, specific leaf area, fine root tissue density, leaf thickness, and the interaction effects of mycorrhizal type with leaf thickness explained 27% variation in NRE. Specific root length, fine root carbon content, fine root carbon to nitrogen ratio, mycorrhizal type, leaf carbon content, and the interaction effects of mycorrhizal type with leaf carbon content explained 35% variation in PRE. Root functional trait of subtropical species could predict nitrogen and phosphorus resorption efficiencies. The model with multiple functional traits could better reveal the relative importance of different biological factors on nutrient resorption efficiency.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have presented potential for detection of specific species and catalytic application due to their diverse framework structures and functionalities. In this work, two novel pillar-layered MOFs [Cd 6 (DPA) 2 (NTB) 4 (H 2 O) 4 ] n ·n(DPA·5DMA·H 2 O) ( 1 ) and [Cu 2 (DPA)(OBA) 2 ] n ·n(2.5DMF·H 2 O) ( 2 ) [DPA = 2,5-di(pyridin-4-yl)aniline, H 3 NTB = 4,4',4''-nitrilotribenzoic acid, H 2 OBA = 4,4'-oxydibenzoic acid, DMA = N,N-dimethylacetamide, DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide] were successfully synthesized and structurally characterized. Both 1 and 2 have three-dimensional framework structures. The fluorescent property of 1 makes it possible for sensing specific amino acid such as L-glutamic acid (Glu) and L-aspartic acid (Asp). While MOF 2 was found to be suitable for photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) in the presence of H 2 O 2 . The results imply that MOFs are versatile and metal centers are important in determining their properties.

Background: Sodium is a critically important component of bones, and hyponatremia has firmly been established as a risk factor associated with the incidence of fragility fractures. However, researches have also revealed that lower serum sodium are linked to reductions in muscle mass and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease even when these levels are within the normal range. Accordingly, this study was developed to examine the relationships between normal serum sodium concentrations and bone turnover in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D)., Methods: Patients with T2D were enrolled in the present study from January 2021 to April 2022. All patients underwent analyses of serum sodium levels, oral glucose tolerance testing (OGTT), bone turnover markers (BTMs), and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scanning. BTMs included bone formation markers osteocalcin (OC) and N-terminal propeptide of type-I procollagen (PINP), and bone resorption marker C-terminal telopeptide (CTx). Patients were stratified into three subgroups based on the tertiles of their serum sodium concentrations., Results: In total, 372 patients with T2D and sodium levels in the normal range were enrolled in this study. Serum OC and PINP levels were increased from subgroup with the low sodium tertile to that with the high sodium tertile ( p for trend < 0.05), whereas CTx level was comparable among the subgroups. A positive correlation was detected between serum sodium levels and both lnOC ( r = 0.210, p < 0.001) and lnPINP ( r = 0.196, p < 0.001), with these relationships remaining significant even following adjustment for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), and HbA1c. Only after adjusting for these four factors a positive correlation was detected between serum sodium levels and CTx levels ( r = 0.108, p < 0.05). Linear regression analyses revealed that following adjustment for potential covariates, serum sodium level was and positively significantly associated with lnOC level ( β = 0.134, t = 2.281, p < 0.05) and PINP level ( β = 0.179, t = 3.023, p < 0.01)., Conclusion: These results highlight a significant association between low-normal serum sodium levels and low bone turnover., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Huang, Huang, Hua, Liu, Xu, Ge, Lu, Su and Wang.)

Carbonyl ylides have proven to be powerful synthons for the efficient construction of various valuable O-heterocycles, and the formation of carbonyl ylides by the reaction of metal carbenes with carbonyls has attracted increasing attention over the past decades. However, a catalyst-controlled highly enantioselective reaction of carbonyl ylides from metal carbenes is extremely challenging. Herein, we report a novel copper-catalyzed asymmetric formal [2+1] and [4+1] annulations of diynes with ketones via carbonyl ylides. Importantly, this protocol not only represents the first example of successful asymmetric epoxidation via carbonyl ylides, but also constitutes the first reaction of vinyl cations with carbonyl compounds. This method leads to the divergent, practical and atom-economical synthesis of a range of chiral oxiranes and dihydrofurans in moderate to excellent yields with generally excellent enantioselectivities and diastereoselectivities via remote-stereocontrol strategy., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Introduction: Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is one of the most common complications of diabetes that strongly impact the patients' quality of life and working ability. Evidence indicated that low level light therapy (LLLT)/photobiomodulation might be effective for neuropathy. However, the effect of LLLT for DPN is not clear. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to determine the effects and safety of LLLT/photobiomodulation for DPN, in comparison with other methods such as sham light, no treatment, other active treatment and LLLT as an additional treatment compared with another treatment alone., Methods and Analysis: We will search eight databases from their inception to the date before the review submission. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) will be included. Two reviewers will independently extract data using a structured data extraction method and assess the risk of bias in the included studies. Data will be synthesised using standardised mean difference or risk ratio with 95% CIs for continuous and dichotomous data, respectively. The primary outcome will be change in pain and secondary outcomes will include global symptom improvement, functional impairment and disability, impairment of sensation, quality of life, nerve conduction, and adverse events. Sensitivity and subgroup analysis will be employed to explore the influence of possible clinical and methodological characteristics. Publication bias will be assessed using funnel plot. We will conduct meta-analysis with RevMan V.5.4 and evaluate quality of the evidence using GRADE approach., Ethics and Dissemination: This study does not require ethics approval. Our findings will be disseminated in the peer-reviewed publications., Prospero Registration Number: CRD42021276056., Competing Interests: Competing interests: XS and KC have had a patent issued for a type of laser therapy apparatus simulating the infrared radiation spectrum of traditional Chinese moxibustion (China Invention Patent ZL 200910056991.4; issued 1 December 2010)., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Phthalic acid esters (PAEs) are typical endocrine disruptors which are ubiquitous contaminants. Human exposure to PAEs is through multiple routes of which the diet is recognised as the main source of daily intake. The aim of this study was to evaluate the dietary exposure to PAEs of residents in Shenzhen (China) through a total diet study and assess the potential health risk. A total of 16 different phthalate esters in samples of 12 composite food groups were determined by GC-MS. The main dietary sources of PAE exposure among adult residents in Shenzhen were potatoes (21%), eggs (21%), meat (15%) and aquatic products (14%). The median total dietary exposure to PAEs in Shenzhen residents was 7780 ng kg -1 bw d -1 , and the hazard quotients (HQ) of dimethyl phthalate (DMP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-isobutyl phthalate (DIBP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) were 0.09, 0.06, 0.07, 0.10 and 0.03, respectively. Therefore, the risks from dietary PAE exposure were low. However, with the increasing use of PAEs and their accumulation in the environment, the probability of PAEs entering the food chain is gradually increasing and, therefore, PAEs should be strictly controlled and regularly monitored.

Microplastic (MPs) pollution is increasingly becoming a global environmental problem. MPs entering the environment are subjected to various aging processes, among which photoaging is the most important process leading to MPs oxidation. Persistent free radicals (EPFRs) are formed on the surface of MPs during photoaging, but it is not clear whether EPFRs on the surface of MPs can produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) and thus degrade organic pollutants. In this study, with polystyrene (PS) as the representative plastic and sulfamethazine (SMT) degradation as the target pollutant, the effect and mechanism of light-induced PS on SMT degradation were investigated by experiment and theoretical calculation. It was found that PS can stimulate the production of ROS under sunlight, which can significantly improve the degradation rate of SMT. Through quenching experiment and free radical trapping experiment, it was found that the mechanism of PS promoting the degradation of SMT was mainly due to the production of hydroxyl radical (·OH) in the system, and ·OH was the main ROS species affecting the oxidative degradation of SMT. The characterization results show that the high reactive oxygen generation ability of PS under solar irradiation was due to the abundant photoactive oxidation functional groups on its surface. In addition, the key reaction sites of SMT were predicted by density functional theory (DFT) calculation. The results of different calculations consistently showed that the sulfonamide group of SMT, the pyrimidine heterocycle and the amino group of aniline are the reaction sites of ·OH priority attack. The main intermediates were determined by UHPLC-HRMS/MS. Combined with theoretical calculation, it was proposed that the oxidative degradation pathway of SMT mainly includes SN bond cleavage, SMILES rearrangement and SO 2 group removal. This study clarified the effect of PS on the degradation of organic pollutants under light, and provided theoretical guidance for the degradation mechanism., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background and Purpose: Intracranial aneurysms, a rare complication of radiation therapy, have been reported mainly in case reports or case series. We performed a multicenter, retrospective cohort study to investigate the characteristics of radiation-induced intracranial aneurysms., Materials and Methods: Data on 2641 patients with intracranial aneurysms were retrospectively collected from 3 hospitals between January 2005 and June 2014. An additional 1519 patients were recruited from a single center between July 2014 and March 2020. Aneurysms in patients with a history of radiation therapy for at least 6 months were defined as radiation-related aneurysms. Patients' demographic profiles, clinical characteristics, and aneurysm parameters detected on CTA were compared between radiation-related and control groups., Results: Of the 4160 patients, the average age was 57.9 (SD, 13.5) years, 2406 (57.8%) were women, 477 (11.5%) had multiple aneurysms, 3009 (72.3%) had SAH, and 34 (0.8%) had radiation-related aneurysms. The male-to-female ratio in the radiation-related group was significantly higher than that in the control group (2.4:1 versus 0.72:1, P = .001). The mean age of the radiation-related group was significantly younger than in the control group (51.4 [SD, 15.0] years versus 58.2 [SD, 13.5] years, P = .003). More patients in the radiation-related group presented with SAH than in the control group (without age and sex matching, 88.2% versus 72.2%, P = .037; with age and sex matching, 88.2% versus 58.8%, P = .006). Of the 4813 intracranial aneurysms, only 43 (0.9%) aneurysms were categorized as in the radiation-related group, whereas 4770 (99.1%) aneurysms constituted the control group. Compared with the control group, there was a significantly higher proportion of sidewall aneurysms (46.5% versus 32.3%, P = .048) and a predilection for aneurysms involving the ICA and posterior circulation arteries (72.1% versus 52.2%, P = .046) in the radiation-related group., Conclusions: Compared with the control group, radiation-related aneurysms are more prone to occur in men and young patients, with a higher percentage of sidewall aneurysms located in the ICA and posterior circulation arteries. Furthermore, SAH is highly prevalent in patients with radiation-induced aneurysms, indicating that dedicated screening for aneurysms after radiation therapy is necessary, but further studies are needed to determine when and how to screen., (© 2022 by American Journal of Neuroradiology.)

Increasing evidence has shown that circular RNAs (circRNAs) participate in the process of cardiac remodeling. CircRNA circ&#95;0036176 originating from the back-splicing of exon 2 to exon4 of myosin IXA (Myo9a) gene was shown to be increased in the myocardium of patients with heart failure (HF) and riched in exosomes from human AC16 cardiomyocytes with overexpression of circ&#95;0036176. Proliferation activity was inhibited in mCFs subjected to exosomal circ&#95;0036176 treatment and in mCFs with overexpression of circ&#95;0036176. Interestingly, circ&#95;0036176 contains an IRES element and an ORF of 627 nt encoding a 208-amino acid protein (termed as Myo9a-208). Myo9a-208 was shown to mediate the inhibitory effect of circ&#95;0036176 on CFs proliferation, and miR-218-5p could inhibit Myo9a-208 expression by binding to circ&#95;0036176, resulting in abolishing the effect of circ&#95;0036176 on inactivating cyclin/Rb signal and suppressing CFs proliferation. Our findings suggest that circ&#95;0036176 inhibits mCFs proliferation by translating Myo9a-208 protein to suppress cyclin/Rb pathway., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The electricity production via psychrophilic microbial fuel cell (PMFC) for wastewater treatment in cold regions offers an alternative to avoid the unwanted methane dissolution of traditional anaerobic fermentation. But, it is seldom reported by mixed-culture, especially closed to 0 °C. Thus, a two-chamber mixed-culture PMFC at 4 °C was successfully operated in this study using acetate as an electron donor. The main results demonstrated a good performance of PMFC, including the maximum voltage of 513 mV at 1000 Ω, coulombic efficiency of 53%, and power density of 689 mW/m 2 . The cyclic voltammetry curves of enriched biofilm showed a direct electron transfer pathway. These good performances of mixed-culture PMFC were due to the high psychrophilic activity of enriched biofilm, including exoelectrogens genera of Geobacter (6.1%), Enterococcus (17.5%), and Clostridium&#95;sensu&#95;stricto&#95;12 (3.8%). Consequently, a mixed-culture PMFC provides a reasonable strategy to enrich exoelectrogens with high activity. For low-temperature regions, the mixed-culture PMFC involved biotechnologies shall benefit energy generation and valuable chemical production in the future. KEY POINTS: • PMFC showed a maximum voltage of around 513 mV under a resistance of 1000 Ω. • The coulombic efficiency was 53% and the max power density was 689 mW/m 2 . • Geobacter, Enterococcus, and Clostridium&#95;sensu&#95;stricto&#95;12 were key exoelectrogens., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a complex polygenic disease and is one of the most common endocrinological and reproductive disorders. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture combined with herbal medicine among infertile females with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)., Method: A total of 86 women with PCOS, experiencing infertility, were recruited and randomly assigned to receive either manual acupuncture (MA) or sham acupuncture (SA) twice per week for three menstrual cycles. Both groups received herbal medication. The evaluations were conducted after three menstrual cycles and 24 weeks' follow-up., Results: The trial was completed by 79 (91.86%) of the 86 randomly selected patients. During this study, the pregnancy rate in the MA group (46.34%) was significantly higher than the SA group (18.42%), with a P-value of 0.008. Moreover, the ovulation rate of the MA group (58.14%) was higher than that of the SA group (45.74%), with a P-value of 0.046. The improvement rate of PCOS score and testosterone level showed a statistical difference between the two groups ( P-values were <0.05). There were no other differences between the two groups. Sex hormones level, including E2, T, P, LH, and LH/FSH were significantly lower after intervention in the MA group ( P-values were <0.05) compared with baseline, while only the progesterone level was reduced in the SA group ( P-value  = 0.008)., Conclusion: Manual acupuncture combined with herbal medicine may be clinically useful for infertile women with PCOS in improving pregnancy and ovulation rate., Trial Registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry: ChiCTR1800014997., (© 2022 Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Objective: To observe the ameliorative effect of kappa opioid receptor (KOR) agonist on rats with neuropathic pain (NP) and investigate the mechanism of action of the calcium ion (Ca 2+ )/calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII)/cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CREB) pathway., Methods: A total of 40 Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups: sham-operation group (Sham group), NP model group (NP group), NP + KOR agonist U50488H group (NU group) and NP + specific CaMKII antagonist (KN93) + U50488H group (NKU group). The thermal withdrawal latency (TWL) and mechanical withdrawal threshold (MWT) of each group of rats were determined. ELISA was applied to examine the changes in inflammatory factors and oxidative stress factors, and the apoptotic rate in dorsal root ganglia was observed using TUNEL staining. Ca 2+ concentration, content of oxidative stress index ROS and the release of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) in the dorsal root ganglia were measured by the immunofluorescence assay. Finally, Western blotting was performed to detect expression changes in the Ca 2+ /CaMKII/CREB pathway., Results: The KOR agonist U50488H could improve the values of TWL and MWT of NP the rats, inhibit inflammatory responses and relieve oxidative stress injury. Its mechanisms of action were associated with U50488H repression of Ca 2+ influx, reduction of CGRP and NMDAR releases in the dorsal root ganglia and decreases in CaMKII and CREB phosphorylations in NP rats., Conclusion: The KOR agonist ameliorates NP through suppressing the activity of the Ca 2+ /CaMKII/CREB pathway., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2022 Zhang et al.)

Quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulators with large band gaps and dissipationless edge states are of both technological and scientific interest. Although numerous two-dimensional (2D) systems have been predicted to host the QSH phase, very few of them harbor large band gaps and retain their nontrivial band topology when they are deposited on substrates. Here, based on a first-principles analysis with hybrid functional calculations, we investigated the electronic and topological properties of inversion-asymmetric monolayer copper sulfide (Cu 2 S). Interestingly, we found that monolayer Cu 2 S possesses an intrinsic QSH phase, Rashba spin splitting, and a large band gap of 220 meV that is suitable for room-temperature applications. Most importantly, we constructed heterostructures of a Cu 2 S film on PtTe 2 , h-BN, and Cu(111) substrates and found that the topological properties remain preserved upon an interface with these substrates. Our findings suggest Cu 2 S as a possible platform to realize inversion-asymmetric QSH insulators with potential applications in low-dissipation electronic devices., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Objective: To observe the clinical therapeutic effect of CO 2 laser moxibustion on endometriosis related pelvic pain of cold coagulation and blood stasis., Methods: A total of 76 patients with endometriosis related pelvic pain of cold coagulation and blood stasis were randomized into a laser moxibustion group and a sham laser moxibustion group, 38 cases in each group. In the laser moxibustion group, moxibustion was applied at bilateral Zigong (EX-CA 1) using CO 2 laser moxibustion instrument. In the sham laser moxibustion group, the manipulation of moxibustion was same as the laser moxibustion group, without laser output. The treatment was given once every other day, 30 min each time, 3 times a week for 4 weeks in both groups. Before and after treatment and follow-up of 3 months after treatment, the scores of Gracely box scale (GBS) and visual analogue scale (VAS) were observed, the usage of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug for the duration of the treatment and the average days of taking drugs were recorded in both groups., Results: Compared before treatment, the GBS and VAS scores were decreased after treatment and during follow-up in the laser moxibustion group ( P <0.05), while those in the sham moxibustion group had no significant differences ( P >0.05). Compared with the sham moxibustion group, the GBS and VAS scores were decreased after treatment and during follow-up ( P <0.05), the cases and average days of taking drugs were less in the laser moxibustion group ( P <0.05)., Conclusion: CO 2 laser moxibustion can improve the pain symptom in patients with endometriosis related pelvic pain of cold coagulation and blood stasis, and reduce the use of analgesic drugs.

Topological Dirac materials are attracting a lot of attention because they offer exotic physical phenomena. An exhaustive search coupled with first-principles calculations was implemented to investigate 10 Zintl compounds with a chemical formula of CaM 2 X 2 (M = Zn or Cd, X = N, P, As, Sb, or Bi) under three crystal structures: CaAl 2 Si 2 -, ThCr 2 Si 2 -, and BaCu 2 S 2 -type crystal phases. All of the materials were found to energetically prefer the CaAl 2 Si 2 -type structure based on total ground state energy calculations. Symmetry-based indicators are used to evaluate their topological properties. Interestingly, we found that CaM 2 Bi 2 (M = Zn or Cd) are topological crystalline insulators. Further calculations under the hybrid functional approach and analysis using k · p model reveal that they exhibit topological Dirac semimetal (TDSM) states, where the four-fold degenerate Dirac points are located along the high symmetry line in-between Г to A points. These findings are verified through Green's function surface state calculations under HSE06. Finally, phonon spectra calculations revealed that CaCd 2 Bi 2 is thermodynamically stable. The Zintl phase of AM 2 X 2 compounds have not been identified in any topological material databases, thus can be a new playground in the search for new topological materials., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Three novel fluorescent Zn(II) frameworks, namely [Zn(DPA)(NDA)] 2 ·2DMF (1), [Zn 2 (DPA)(OBA) 2 ]·2DMF·4H 2 O (2) and [Zn(DPA)(HNTB)]·H 2 O (3) (DPA = 2,5-di(pyridin-4-yl)aniline, H 2 NDA = 1,4-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid, H 2 OBA = 4,4'-oxydibenzoic acid, H 3 NTB = 4,4',4''-nitrilotribenzoic acid, DMF = N , N -dimethylformamide), were successfully fabricated and structurally characterized. Due to the variety of organic linkers, 1-3 exhibit varied topologies: 1 is a 4-c three-dimensional (3D) framework with {6 5 ·8} topology, 2 is a 6-c 3D net with point symbol of {4 4 ·6 10 ·8}, and 3 is a 4-c two-dimensional network that further stacks into a 3D structure by hydrogen bonding interactions with {4 4 ·6 2 } topology. Experiments related to fluorescence show that 1-3 can be utilized to quickly identify specific anions of CrO 4 2- /Cr 2 O 7 2- , and organic molecules such as 2,4,6-trinitrophenol and benzaldehyde.

This study analyzed the effects of male age and abstinence time on semen quality and explored the best abstinence time for Chinese males among different age groups. Semen parameters, including sperm kinetics, morphology, and DNA fragmentation index (DFI), were reviewed from 2952 men. Samples were divided into six age groups (≤25 years, 26-30 years, 31-35 years, 36-40 years, 41-45 years, and >45 years) and were divided into six groups according to different abstinence time (2 days, 3 days, 4 days, 5 days, 6 days, and 7 days). The differences in semen quality between the groups were compared, and the effect of age and abstinence time on semen quality was analyzed. Significant differences were observed in semen volume, progressive motility (PR), and DFI among the age groups (all P < 0.05), and no significant differences were observed in sperm morphological parameters (all P > 0.05). There were significant differences in semen volume, PR, and DFI among different abstinence time groups (all P < 0.05) and no significant differences in sperm morphological parameters (all P > 0.05). Pearson analysis showed that male age and abstinence time were both significantly correlated with sperm kinetics and DFI (both P < 0.05), while no significant correlation was found with sperm morphological parameters (all P > 0.05). The box plots and histograms of men's age, abstinence time, and semen quality show that most semen quality parameters differ significantly between the 2 days and 7 days abstinence groups and other groups at different ages. Except for the sperm morphology parameters, sperm kinetic parameters and sperm DFI are linearly related to male age and abstinence time., Competing Interests: None

Two new lathyrane-type diterpenoids, jatropodagins A and B ( 1 and 2 ), and five known analogues ( 3 - 7 ), were isolated from the stems of Jatropha podagrica . Their structures and absolute configurations were elucidated by spectroscopic data and calculated ECD analyses. The cytotoxicities of all the lathyrane-type diterpenoids ( 1 - 7 ) were evaluated against two human osteosarcoma cell lines (Saos-2 and MG-63). Compound 1 exhibited significant cytotoxic effects against Saos-2 and MG-63 with IC 50 values of 8.08 and 14.64  μ M, respectively. The IC 50 values for the positive control 5-FU against the Saos-2 and MG-63 cell lines were 19.01 and 25.00  μ M, respectively. Morphological features of apoptosis activities were evaluated in 1 -treated Saos-2 cells and the results confirmed apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner.

Cadmium oxide (CdO)-ZnO alloys (Cd x Zn 1- x O) exhibit a transformation from the wurtzite to the rocksalt (RS) phase at a CdO composition of ∼70% with a drastic change in the band gap and electrical properties. RS-Cd x Zn 1- x O alloys ( x > 0.7) are particularly interesting for transparent conductor applications due to their wide band gap and high electron mobility. In this work, we synthesized RS-Cd x Zn 1- x O alloys doped with different concentrations of In dopants and evaluated their electrical and optical properties. Experimental results are analyzed in terms of the amphoteric native defect model and compared directly to defect formation energies obtained by hybrid density functional theory (DFT) calculations. A saturation in electron concentration of ∼7 × 10 20  cm -3 accompanied by a rapid drop in electron mobility is observed for the RS-Cd x Zn 1- x O films with 0.7 ⩽ x < 1 when the In dopant concentration [In] is larger than 3%. Hybrid DFT calculations confirm that the formation energy of metal vacancy acceptor defects is significantly lower in RS-Cd x Zn 1- x O than in CdO, and hence limits the free carrier concentration. Mobility calculations reveal that due to the strong compensation by native defects, RS-Cd x Zn 1- x O alloys exhibit a compensation ratio of >0.7 for films with x < 0.8. As a consequence of the compensation by native defects, in heavily doped RS-Cd x Zn 1- x O carrier-induced band filling effect is limited. Furthermore, the much lower mobility of the RS-Cd x Zn 1- x O alloys also results in a higher resistivity and reduced transmittance in the near infra-red region (λ > 1100 nm), making the material not suitable as transparent conductors for full spectrum photovoltaics., (© 2021 IOP Publishing Ltd.)

Objective: To develop a machine learning (ML)-based classifier for discriminating between low-grade (ISUP I-II) and high-grade (ISUP III-IV) clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCCs) using MRI textures., Materials and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated a total of 99 patients (with 61 low-grade and 38 high-grade ccRCCs), who were randomly divided into a training set ( n = 70) and a validation set ( n = 29). Regions of interest (ROIs) of all tumors were manually drawn three times by a radiologist at the maximum lesion level of the cross-sectional CMP sequence images. The quantitative texture analysis software, MaZda, was used to extract texture features, including histograms, co-occurrence matrixes, run-length matrixes, gradient models, and autoregressive models. Reproducibility of the texture features was assessed with the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). Features were chosen based on their importance coefficients in a random forest model, while the multi-layer perceptron algorithm was used to build a classifier on the training set, which was later evaluated with the validation set., Results: The ICCs of 257 texture features were equal to or higher than 0.80 (0.828-0.998. Six features, namely Kurtosis, 135dr&#95;RLNonUni, Horzl&#95;GLevNonU, 135dr&#95;GLevNonU, S(4,4)Entropy, and S(0,5)SumEntrp, were chosen to develop the multi-layer perceptron classifier. A three-layer perceptron model, which has 229 nodes in the hidden layer, was trained on the training set. The accuracy of the model was 95.7% with the training set and 86.2% with the validation set. The areas under the receiver operating curves were 0.997 and 0.758 for the training and validation sets, respectively., Conclusions: A machine learning-based grading model was developed that can aid in the clinical diagnosis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma using MRI images., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Chen, Zhang, Chen, Huang, Xia, Yan, Xu, Chen, Wang and Chen.)

Cardiac dysfunction in severe sepsis is associated with increased mortality. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying septic heart dysfunction remain unclear. Expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator 1α (Pgc-1α), concentrations of inflammatory factors, and activation of the nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) signaling pathway were examined in H9c2 cells after a 24-h lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation period using qPCR, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), and western blots (WBs), respectively. Pgc-1α was overexpressed and suppressed in cells using a lentivirus vector and siRNA, respectively. The effects of Pgc-1α dysfunction on the release of inflammatory factors and apoptosis were analyzed. Pgc-1α expression was increased after LPS induction for 0.5 h and returned to the pre-induction level at 2 h. Levels of IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α increase after LPS induction for 0.5 h and accumulated in the culture supernatants over time. The WBs revealed the highest Pgc-1α and phospho (p)-p65 protein levels after LPS induction for 0.5 h, followed by a decrease; moreover, the cleaved-caspase-3 level increased after LPS induction for 0.5 h and increased gradually thereafter. A functional analysis of Pgc-1α revealed that overexpression of this protein enhanced LPS-induced inflammatory factors and p-p65 levels and inhibited apoptosis during the early stage after LPS induction (0.5 and 4 h). In contrast, the inhibition of Pgc-1α expression inhibited the LPS expression-associated increases in inflammatory factors and p-p65 and promoted apoptosis. Pgc-1α promoted LPS-induced p65 phosphorylation and inflammatory factor release while inhibiting apoptosis., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Recent studies have demonstrated the feasibility of synthesizing two-dimensional (2D) Janus materials which possess intrinsic structural asymmetry. Hence, we performed a systematic first-principles study of 2D Janus transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayers based on PtXY (X,Y = S, Se, or Te). Our calculated formation energies show that these monolayer Janus structures retain the 1T phase. Furthermore, phonon spectral calculations confirm that these Janus TMD monolayers are thermodynamically stable. We found that PtSSe, PtSTe, and PtSeTe exhibit an insulating phase with indirect band gaps of 2.108, 1.335, and 1.221 eV, respectively, from hybrid functional calculations. Due to the breaking of centrosymmetry in the crystal structure, the spin-orbit coupling (SOC)-induced anisotropic Rashba splitting is observed around the M point. The calculated Rashba strengths from M to Γ ( α M-Γ R ) are 1.654, 1.103, and 0.435 eV Å -1 , while the calculated values from M to K ( α M-K R ) are 1.333, 1.244, and 0.746 eV Å -1 , respectively, for PtSSe, PtSTe, and PtSeTe. Interestingly, the spin textures reveal that the spin-splitting is mainly attributed to the Rashba effect. However, a Dresselhaus-like contribution also plays a secondary role. Finally, we found that the band gaps and the strength of the Rashba effect can be further tuned through biaxial strain. Our findings indeed show that Pt-based Janus TMDs demonstrate the potential for spintronics applications., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial or non-financial interests., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Objective: We aimed to construct/validate a radiomics method based on MR FS-T2WI sequence for the evaluation of kidney function in patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD)., Patients and Methods: The clinical data and MRI images of 114 patients with ADPKD were retrospectively analyzed. With a glomerular filtration rate of 60 mL/min per 1.73 m2 as the cutoff value, patients were divided into two groups, where there were 59 patients with GFR ≥60 mL/min per 1.73 m2 (including CKD1 and CKD2 phase) and 55 patients with GFR <60 mL/min per 1.73 m2 (including CKD3 phase and higher). All patients underwent the 3.0T MR scan of the kidney. Then, the kidney were delineated layer by layer based on the FS-T2WI sequence to obtain the volume of interest (VOI) for radiomics features extraction. The optimal radiomics features were selected by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO). Three kinds of data modality including the pure clinical data, the pure image data and the clinical-image fused data were utilized to establish three types of models (clinical, image and with their combination) separately by five machine learning classifiers: k-nearest-neighbors (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), logistic regression (LR), random forests (RF) and multi-layer perception (MLP). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, areas under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity and precision were employed to evaluate the model's effectiveness to diagnosis the glomerular filtration rate of patients with ADPKD based on different models. Besides, Delong test was applied to compare ROCs between models., Results: 960 radiomics features were extracted from each VOIs, and clinical information included the gender and age of each patient. After feature selection, 23 and 21 features based on pure image data and clinical-image fused data were independently used to construct models for the kidney function evaluation. The clinical-image fused model (AUC=0.89) has better performance than the pure image model (p=0.046) and pure clinical model (p<0.001). Clinical-image fused model based on LR classifier showed the best diagnostic efficiency, with AUC=0.89, sensitivity=0.8867 and specificity=0.7959., Conclusions: The MR FS-T2WI radiomics analysis based on clinical-image fused model is instrumental in evaluating and predicting the kidney function of patients with polycystic kidney disease.

Rationale & Objective: Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) is a common glomerular disease, with mesangial cell proliferation as a major feature. There is no disease-specific treatment. Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) contributes to the pathogenesis of IgAN. To better understand its pathogenic mechanisms, we assessed PDGF-mediated AXL phosphorylation in human mesangial cells and kidney tissue biopsy specimens., Study Design: Immunostaining using human kidney biopsy specimens and in vitro studies using primary human mesangial cells., Setting & Participants: Phosphorylation of AXL was assessed in cultured mesangial cells and 10 kidney-biopsy specimens from 5 patients with IgAN, 3 with minimal change disease, 1 with membranous nephropathy, and 1 with mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis (GN)., Predictor: Glomerular staining for phospho-AXL in kidney biopsy specimens of patients with mesangioproliferative diseases., Outcomes: Phosphorylated AXL detected in biopsy tissues of patients with IgAN and mesangioproliferative GN and in cultured mesangial cells stimulated with PDGF., Analytic Approach: t test, Mann-Whitney test, and analysis of variance were used to assess the significance of mesangial cell proliferative changes., Results: Immunohistochemical staining revealed enhanced phosphorylation of glomerular AXL in IgAN and mesangioproliferative GN, but not in minimal change disease and membranous nephropathy. Confocal-microscopy immunofluorescence analysis indicated that mesangial cells rather than endothelial cells or podocytes expressed phospho-AXL. Kinomic profiling of primary mesangial cells treated with PDGF revealed activation of several protein-tyrosine kinases, including AXL. Immunoprecipitation experiments indicated association of AXL and PDGF receptor proteins. An AXL-specific inhibitor (bemcentinib) partially blocked PDGF-induced cellular proliferation and reduced phosphorylation of AXL and PDGF receptor and the downstream signals (AKT1 and ERK1/2)., Limitations: Small number of kidney biopsy specimens to correlate the activation of AXL with disease severity., Conclusions: PDGF-mediated signaling in mesangial cells involves transactivation of AXL. Finding appropriate inhibitors to block PDGF-mediated transactivation of AXL may provide new therapeutic options for mesangioproliferative kidney diseases such as IgAN., (© 2020 The Authors.)

The conversion of cytidines to uridines (C-to-U) at specific sites in mitochondrial and plastid transcripts is a post-transcriptional processing event that is important to the expression of organellar genes. Pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins are involved in this process. In this study, we report the function of a previously uncharacterized PPR-DYW protein, Empty pericarp17 (EMP17), in the C-to-U editing and kernel development in maize. EMP17 is targeted to mitochondria. The loss-function of EMP17 arrests maize kernel development, abolishes the editing at ccmF C -799 and nad2 -677 sites, and reduces the editing at ccmF C -906 and -966 sites. The absence of editing causes amino acid residue changes in CcmF C -267 (Ser to Pro) and Nad2-226 (Phe to Ser), respectively. As CcmF C functions in cytochrome c (Cyt c ) maturation, the amount of Cyt c and Cyt c 1 protein is drastically reduced in emp17 , suggesting that the CcmF C -267 (Ser to Pro) change impairs the CcmF C function. As a result, the assembly of complex III is strikingly decreased in emp17 . In contrast, the assembly of complex I appears less affected, suggesting that the Nad2-226 (Phe to Ser) change may have less impact on Nad2 function. Together, these results indicate that EMP17 is required for the C-to-U editing at several sites in mitochondrial transcripts, complex III biogenesis, and seed development in maize., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Wang, Liu, Huang, Li, Yang, Sayyed, Sun, Gu, Wang and Tan.)

Background and Purpose: Intracranial arterial calcification (IAC) has been the focus of much attention by clinicians and researchers as an indicator of intracranial atherosclerosis, but correlations of IAC patterns (intimal or medial) with the presence of atherosclerotic plaques and plaque stability are still a matter of debate. Our study aimed to assess the associations of IAC patterns identified on computed tomography (CT) with the presence of plaque detected on vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging and plaque stability. Materials and Methods: Patients with stroke or transient ischemic attack and intracranial artery stenosis were recruited. IAC was detected and localized (intima or media) on non-contrast CT images. Intracranial atherosclerotic plaques were identified using vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging and matched to corresponding CT images. Associations between IAC patterns and culprit atherosclerotic plaques were assessed by using multivariate regression. Results: Seventy-five patients (mean age, 63.4 ± 11.6 years; males, 46) were included. Two hundred and twenty-one segments with IAC were identified on CT in 66 patients, including 86 (38.9%) predominantly intimal calcifications and 135 (61.1%) predominantly medial calcifications. A total of 72.0% of intimal calcifications coexisted with atherosclerotic plaques, whereas only 10.2% of medial calcifications coexisted with plaques. Intimal calcification was more commonly shown in non-culprit plaques than culprit plaques (25.9 vs. 9.4%, P = 0.008). The multivariate mixed logistic regression adjusted for the degree of stenosis showed that intimal calcification was significantly associated with non-culprit plaques (OR, 2.971; 95% CI, 1.036-8.517; P = 0.043). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that intimal calcification may indicate the existence of a stable form of atherosclerotic plaque, but plaques can exist in the absence of intimal calcification especially in the middle cerebral artery., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Yang, Wasserman, Zheng, Huang, Li, Abrigo, Wong, Ying, Chu, Wong, Leung and Chen.)

Objective: To summarize the preliminary experience in the treatment of esthesioneuroblastoma (ENB) and to explore the effect of age, chemotherapy, modified Kadish stage and pathological grade on the prognosis of ENB. Methods: The clinical data of 87 ENB patients from the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University and Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center between June 2002 and November 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. The modified Kadish stage was used to evaluate the extent of the lesions, and the Hyams grading system was used for pathological grading. The patients were followed up regularly to evaluate the recurrence and metastasis of the tumor. Cox proportional hazard model was used for univariate and multivariate analyses. Prognostic factors with P <0.05 in univariate analysis were included in multivariate analysis. After controlling the confounding factors, the model coefficients were used to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: The median follow-up time of ENB patients was 29 months, and the 5-year overall survival rate was 39.3%. In univariate analysis, age, chemotherapy, modified Kadish stage and pathology grade were independent predictors of overall survival, while gender, radiotherapy and surgery were not prognostic factors. Multivariate analysis showed that modified Kadish stage and pathology grade were independent predictors of overall survival rate after excluding confounding factors. Conclusions: Age, chemotherapy, modified Kadish stage and pathological grade are taking important role in the overall survival rate of patients with ENB. Modified Kadish stage and pathological grade are independent predictors of overall survival rate.

TDP-43 proteinopathy is a kind of neurodegenerative diseases related to the TAR DNA-binding protein of 43-kDa molecular weight (TDP-43). The typical neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and so on. As the disease process cannot be blocked or slowed down, these patients have poor quality of life and poor prognosis, and bring a huge burden to the family and society. So far, the specific pathogenesis of TDP-43 proteinopathy is not clear, and there is no effective preventive measure and treatment program for this kind of disease. TDP-43 plays an important role in triggering or promoting the occurrence and progression of TDP-43 proteinopathy. The hyperphosphorylation of TDP-43 is undoubtedly an important factor in triggering or promoting the process of TDP-43 proteinopathy. Hyperphosphorylation of TDP-43 can inhibit the degradation of TDP-43, aggravate the aggregation of TDP-43 protein, increase the wrong localization of TDP-43 in cells, and enhance the cytotoxicity of TDP-43. More and more evidences show that the hyperphosphorylation of TDP-43 plays an important role in the pathogenesis of TDP-43 proteinopathy. Inhibition of TDP-43 hyperphosphorylation may be one of the important strategies for the treatment of TDP-43 proteinopathy. Therefore, this article reviews the role of TDP-43 phosphorylation in TDP-43 proteinopathy and the related mechanisms., Competing Interests: All authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2021 The Authors. Ibrain published by Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University and Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

The purpose of this study was to assess the outcomes of patients with advanced recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma (rNPC) and radiation-induced sarcoma of the head and neck (RISHN) who underwent en bloc resection and reconstruction. Fifty-two patients with advanced rNPC (n=36) and RISHN (n=16) underwent en bloc resection and reconstruction with an extended lower vertical trapezius island myocutaneous flap (TIMF). En bloc resection of the tumour (including craniomaxillofacial resections and neck resections) and major defect restoration was successful in all patients. TIMF survival was 92.3%. Postoperative mild hemiplegia occurred in one patient with rNPC. In total, 20 patients (55.5%) in the rNPC group and seven (43.8%) in the RISHN group recovered with no signs of disease at follow-up. No statistically significant difference in recovery status was observed between the rNPC and RISHN groups. En bloc resection of the tumour, including dissection of the carotid artery, ensured microscopic clearance of the disease; this is a viable treatment option for patients with advanced rNPC or RISHN without distant metastasis. The extended vertical lower TIMF is a large, straightforward, and reliable flap for repairing the resultant major defects in the craniomaxillofacial or neck region., (Copyright © 2020 International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Growing studies have demonstrated that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) can act as crucial roles during the progression of various tumors, including colorectal carcinoma (CRC). We aimed to determine lncRNA endogenous bornavirus-like nucleoprotein (EBLN3P) expression in CRC and examine its influence on tumor behaviors of CRC cells. Materials and Methods: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the expression levels of EBLN3P and miR-323a-3p in CRC tissues and cell lines. Cell viability, migration, invasion, and apoptosis were assessed by Cell Counting Kit 8, colony formation, Transwell assay, wound healing assays, and flow cytometry. Bioinformatics and dual-luciferase assays were used to investigate the interaction between EBLN3P and miR-323a-3p, as well as between miR-323a-3p and U2AF homology motif kinase 1 (UHMK1). Western blot was applied for detecting the expressions of the related proteins. Results: EBLN3P was highly expressed in CRC, and its high expression was distinctly associated with increased tumor size, histology/differentiation and advanced TNM stage, and poor clinical outcome of CRC patients. EBLN3P silencing significantly inhibited the proliferation and metastasis and induced the apoptosis of CRC cells. Mechanistically, overexpression of EBLN3P exhibited tumorigenic effects through downregulating the inhibitory effects of miR-323a-3p on UHMK1 expression. The correlation analysis confirmed the positive or negative association among EBLN3P, miR-323a-3p, and UHMK1. Conclusion: EBLN3P promoted the development of CRC via targeting miR-323a-3p/UHMK1, which provided a new idea for treating CRC., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Xu, Song, Li, Huang, Liu, Bao and Shen.)

Objective: To investigate the clinical effect of free fibula flap transplantation in repairing the defect of mandibular osteoradionecrosis (ORN). Methods: A total of 151 mandibular ORN patients undergoing free fibular flap transplantation were selected from August 2005 to September 2020 in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University. Among them, 109 patients were males and 42 patients were females, aged (54.1±10.1) (ranged 31-85) years old. The clinical data of the patients was collected and the survival rate of the flaps and postoperative function were calculated to evaluate the surgical efficacy. The χ 2 test was used for difference analysis. Results: Among the 151 patients, mandibular ORN caused by radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma accounted for 79.5% (120/151). The average time for mandibular ORN appeared was 5(6) years after radiotherapy. Facial artery [57.2%(87/152)] and superior thyroid artery [32.9%(50/152)] were the main anastomotic arteries in the recipient area. There was no significant difference in the necrosis rates of the two flaps [10.3%(9/87) and 12.5% (5/50), respectively, P =0.949]. The main anastomotic veins in the recipient area were the external jugular vein [48.4%(135/279)] and the common facial vein [26.5%(74/279)]. Twenty-five cases (16.6%) had one vein anastomosed, and 126 cases (83.44%) had two veins anastomosed. There was no significant difference in the flap necrosis rate between the two conditions [20.0%(5/25) and 7.1%(9/126), respectively, P =0.100]. Ninety-seven cases (64.2%) used the peroneal musculocutaneous-fascia composite flap to repair the maxillofacial soft and hard tissue defects. Thirteen cases (8.6%) underwent the restorations with digital virtual surgery design, of which 5 cases were repaired with dental implants at the same time. After the operations, lower respiratory tract infection occurred in 17 patients (11.3%), and upper respiratory tract obstruction occurred in 3 cases (2.0%). The survival rate of the flap after operation was 90.7% (136/151), and 21 patients (13.9%) had flap vascular crisis. Delayed healing of maxillofacial wounds occurred in 33 cases (21.9%). After 3 to 24 months of follow-ups, 110 patients (76.9%) had no fistula inside/outside the oral cavity, 118 patients (82.5%) had an improvement in opening mouth of increasing (≥0.5 cm) after surgery, 135 patients (94.4%) had pain relief, 97 cases (67.8%) could eat normal diet, semi-liquid or soft food, and 137 cases (95.8%) were satisfied or basically satisfied with the treatment effects. Conclusions: The free fibular flap transplantation is an effective method to repair mandibular ORN defects. Preoperative vascular assessment is helpful for the selection of recipient vessels. Facial artery, superior thyroid artery, external jugular vein and common facial vein can be used as the main recipient vessels. The repair of the peroneal musculocutaneous-fascia composite flap facilitates the closure of internal and external fistulas. Digital technology can help to restore the maxillofacial shape more accurately, improve the patient's occlusal and chewing function and enhance the quality of life of mandibular ORN patients.

The development of a single-atom iron catalyst (Fe©SiO 2 ) for the direct conversion of methane to olefins, aromatics, and hydrogen is a breakthrough in the field of nonoxidative conversion of methane (NCM). However, the optimization of the catalyst remains desirable for industrial applications. Herein, 25 transition metals, including Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, and Au, are selected to replace the central Fe atom for screening out better single-atom catalysts for the NCM. Using the performance on the activation of methane, such as the adsorption energy of methane, the dissociation energy, and the barrier of methane as the screening descriptors, Mn©SiO 2 , Fe©SiO 2 , W©SiO 2 , and Re©SiO 2 are first screened out. The remarkable performance of the four catalysts on methane activation is attributed to the unique geometric structure and the d z 2 orbitals of the central metal crossing over the Fermi level, which can benefit the interaction between methane and the catalysts. By considering the catalytic performance on the whole pathway of methane to ethylene, W©SiO 2 is finally selected as the most active catalyst for the NCM, which has the lowest rate-determining barrier of 1.62 eV and the smallest free energy span (1.06 eV) of the overall catalytic cycle.

The aim of this study is to assess serum human epididymis protein 4 (HE-4) levels as a biomarker for predicting the recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after catheter ablation. This was a prospective observational study that enrolled one hundred eighty-four consecutive nonvalvular AF patients (65 persistent, 119 paroxysmal) who were eligible for their first ablation. Multiple Cox proportional hazards models and Kaplan-Meier curve analyses were used to test the association between serum HE-4 levels and AF recurrence after catheter ablation. During the 12-month follow-up, we observed that 47 patients (25.5%) experienced AF recurrence. Patients were divided into tertiles of HE-4 level (T1: < 50 pmol/L; T2: ≥ 50 pmol/L). The AF recurrence rate of higher serum HE-4 level patients was significantly increased (34.6% vs 13.8%, P < 0.001). Generalized additive models were used to visually assess functional relationships between the serum HE-4 levels and the risk of AF recurrence. When stratified with serum levels as the cut-off value, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients with serum HE-4 levels (> 50 pmol/L) had a significantly increased risk of AF recurrence. In addition, multivariate Cox proportional hazard modelling revealed that HE-4 (≥ 50 pmol/L) (HR 2.65; 95% CI 1.34, 5.27, P = 0.005) was independent predictors of AF recurrence. Serum HE-4 levels in patients with AF are associated with postoperative recurrence of AF, and high HE-4 levels are an independent predictor of AF recurrence after ablation.

The selective hydrogenation of CO 2 to value-added chemicals is attractive but still challenged by the high-performance catalyst. In this work, we report that gallium nitride (GaN) catalyzes the direct hydrogenation of CO 2 to dimethyl ether (DME) with a CO-free selectivity of about 80%. The activity of GaN for the hydrogenation of CO 2 is much higher than that for the hydrogenation of CO although the product distribution is very similar. The steady-state and transient experimental results, spectroscopic studies, and density functional theory calculations rigorously reveal that DME is produced as the primary product via the methyl and formate intermediates, which are formed over different planes of GaN with similar activation energies. This essentially differs from the traditional DME synthesis via the methanol intermediate over a hybrid catalyst. The present work offers a different catalyst capable of the direct hydrogenation of CO 2 to DME and thus enriches the chemistry for CO 2 transformations.

Background: Nasal inverted papilloma (NIP) is a common benign tumor. Yes-associated protein (YAP) is the core effector molecule of the Hippo pathway, which regulates the proliferation and differentiation of airway epithelium. While its role in proliferation may be connected to NIP formation, no definitive association has been made between them., Methods: We compared the difference of YAP expression and proliferation level between the control inferior turbinate, NP (nasal polyps), and NIP groups. In addition, we further used PCR, immunofluorescence, and immunohistochemistry to investigate YAP's role in the proliferation and differentiation of the nasal epithelium and inflammatory cell infiltration, correlating them with different grades of epithelial remodeling. We further used an IL-13 remodeling condition to investigate YAP's role in differentiation in an in vitro air-liquid interface (ALI) human nasal epithelial cell (hNECs) model. Finally, we also explored the correlation between YAP expression and clinical indicators of NIP., Results: The expression of YAP/active YAP in the NIP group was significantly higher than that in the NP group and control group. Moreover, within the NIP group, the higher grade of epithelial remodeling was associated with higher YAP induced proliferation, leading to reduced ciliated cells and goblet cells. The finding was further verified using an IL-13 remodeling condition in differentiating ALI hNECs. Furthermore, YAP expression was positively correlated with proliferation and neutrophil infiltration in NIP. YAP expression was also significantly increased in NIP patients with adverse outcomes., Conclusion: Abnormal expression of YAP/active YAP is associated with proliferation, differentiation, neutrophil infiltration, and adverse outcome in NIP and may present a novel target for diagnosis and intervention in NIP., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor declared a shared affiliation with several of the authors at the time of review., (Copyright © 2021 Yuan, Zheng, Zhou, Jin, Huang, Zi, Wu, Wang, Deng, Kong, Qiu, Zhou, Chen, Tu, Li, Liu, Tan, Ong, Shi, Chen, Huang, Yang and Wang.)

The desire for a carbon-free society and the continuously increasing demand for clean energy make it valuable to exploit green ammonia (NH 3 ) synthesis that proceeds via the electrolysis driven Haber-Bosch (eHB) process. The key for successful operation is to develop advanced catalysts that can operate under mild conditions with efficacy. The main bottleneck of NH 3 synthesis under mild conditions is the known scaling relation in which the feasibility of N 2 dissociative adsorption of a catalyst is inversely related to that of the desorption of surface N-containing intermediate species, which leads to the dilemma that NH 3 synthesis could not be catalyzed effectively under mild conditions. The present work offers a new strategy via introducing atomically dispersed Ru onto a single Co atom coordinated with pyrrolic N, which forms RuCo dual single-atom active sites. In this system the d-band centers of Ru and Co were both regulated to decouple the scaling relation. Detailed experimental and theoretical investigations demonstrate that the d-bands of Ru and Co both become narrow, and there is a significant overlapping of t 2g and e g orbitals as well as the formation of a nearly uniform Co 3d ligand field, making the electronic structure of the Co atom resemble that of a "free-atom". The "free-Co-atom" acts as a bridge to facilitate electron transfer from pyrrolic N to surface Ru single atoms, which enables the Ru atom to donate electrons to the antibonding π* orbitals of N 2 , thus resulting in promoted N 2 adsorption and activation. Meanwhile, H 2 adsorbs dissociatively on the Co center to form a hydride, which can transfer to the Ru site to cause the hydrogenation of the activated N 2 to generate N 2 H x ( x = 1-4) intermediates. The narrow d-band centers of this RuCo catalyst facilitate desorption of surface *NH 3 intermediates even at 50 °C. The cooperativity of the RuCo system decouples the sites for the activation of N 2 from those for the desorption of *NH 3 and *N 2 H x intermediates, giving rise to a favorable pathway for efficient NH 3 synthesis under mild conditions., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Myrtus communis is a traditional medicinal aromatic plant in the Mediterranean. At present, the plant has been introduced and cultivated in the southern part of China, and it is mostly used for ornamental or cosmetic purposes. Based on literature analysis and the theory of Chinese medicine, we discussed the medicinal parts and properties of M. communis in this paper to provide a theoretical basis for exploring the medicinal value of M. communis and its compatibility with traditional Chinese medicines. Literatures were searched from Web of Science(core collection), PubMed, CNKI, VIP and Wanfang by using the set conditions as key words. Then the obtained literatures were screened and classified. Finally, a total of 376 articles were included, consisting of 44 reviews, 54 germplasm resources, 78 chemical researches, 48 studies on application, extraction, or quality, 18 human trials, 132 pharmacological studies, and 2 safety studies. Based on literature analysis and theories of Chinese medicine, the leaves of M. communis were finally selected as the medicinal part of Chinese medicine, and the traditional Chinese medicine properties of M. communis leaves were deduced as pungent, bitter, and cool. The channel tropisms of M. communis leaves included lung, liver, and large intestine, with functions of detoxifying, resolving a mass, and insecticide. It was used for mouth sores, vaginal itching, hemorrhoids and warts, etc.; appropriate amount shall be applied for external use, and the decoction form shall be used for washing the affected parts; 3-12 g equivalent product shall be used in decoction, and this herb shall be put into the decoction in a later stage. The clarification of the medicinal parts of M. communis, and the determination of the Chinese medicine properties of M. communis leaves would lay a theoretical foundation for its compatibility and application with Chinese medicines, and can do more contribution to the medical and healthcare industry in our country.

Kaempferiae Parviflorae Rhizoma is the dried rhizome of Kaempferia parviflora in Zingiberaceae. It is originated and widely distributed in Thailand and other tropical and subtropical regions, where it has been used as food and medicine for thousands of years. K. parviflora is also planted in Yunnan and other places of China, but its traditional Chinese medicine properties are not clear, which greatly limits its compatibility with traditional Chinese medicines. In this article, the English and Chinese literatures of K. parviflora were searched from Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP databases for research and analysis. The medicinal properties of K. parviflora were preliminarily discussed based on the theory of traditional Chinese medicine under the guidance of clinical application and research literatures. The traditional Chinese medicine properties of K. parviflora were inferred as follows: flat, acrid, sweet. The channel tropisms of K. parviflora included kidney, spleen, stomach, and liver. The function of K. parviflora included tonifying kidney to strengthen essence, tonifying Qi and invigorating spleen, soothing liver and relieving depression. K. parviflora was clinically applied for the diseases such as syndrome of kidney essence deficiency, sex apathy, deficiency of spleen Qi, lassitude and asthenia, a weary spirit, obesity, diabetes, liver Qi stagnation, depression, and restless. The equivalent of dry power is 1.5 g·d~(-1) and the equivalent of decoction is 1.5-6 g·d~(-1). The determination of traditional Chinese medicine properties of K. parviflora has indeed laid a theoretical foundation for its application in the field of traditional Chinese medicine and enriched traditional Chinese medicine resources.

Background: Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a common condition after general anesthesia (GA). Previous studies have reported that propofol can ameliorate the occurrence of such disorder. However, its results are still inconsistent. Therefore, this systematic review will assess the efficacy and safety of propofol on POCD after GA., Methods: Literature sources will be sought from inception to the present in Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the administration of propofol on POCD after GA. All searches will be carried out without limitations to language and publication status. Outcomes comprise of cognitive impairments changes, impairments in short-term memory, concentration, language comprehension, social integration, quality of life, and adverse events. Cochrane risk of bias tool will be utilized to assess study quality. We will evaluate the quality of evidence for each outcome using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach. A narrative synthesis or a meta-analysis will be undertaken as appropriate., Discussion: This study will systematically and comprehensively search literature and integrate evidence on the efficacy and safety of propofol on POCD after GA. Our findings will be of interest to clinicians and health-related policy makers., Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO CRD42020164096.