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Coronary heart disease (CHD) is tightly associated with gut microbiota, but microbiota heterogeneity limits the application of microbial biomarkers and personalized interventions demand regional-specific features. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively characterize the regional pattern of gut microbiota in rural residents with CHD and assess the predictive value and clinical correlations of local microbial signatures. We profiled the gut microbiota by shotgun metagenomic sequencing from 19 CHD and 19 healthy residents in rural Xinxiang, China, and tested the physiological parameters. The results indicated that microbial diversity, as well as KEGG orthology (KO) and carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) functions, deserved no significant disparities between CHD and healthy residents. The relative abundance of Bacteroidetes phylum was significantly lower and unclassified Lachnospiraceae genus, and Eubacterium rectale species were markedly higher in CHD residents compared with the healthy control. Co-occurrence network revealed a more diverse and scattered ecology in CHD residents. LEfSe identified 39 potential biomarkers and butanoate metabolism and glycosyltransferases families were the enhanced KO and CAZymes in CHD residents, respectively. Twenty key signatures were determined by the random forest algorithm and most of them belonged to the Clostridium cluster. These key signatures harbored a superior accuracy of 83.9% to distinguish CHD and healthy residents and, fasting serum insulin, diastolic blood pressure, and body mass index were the top three clinical parameters influencing the gut bacterial community. Furthermore, we also found that low-density lipoprotein and waist circumference had significantly positive correlations with the members of the Clostridium cluster. These findings expand our knowledge in the regional-specific pattern of gut microbiota for rural CHD residents and highlight the non-invasive diagnostic value and clinical correlations of microbial signatures.

The developmental trajectory of speechreading skills is poorly understood, and existing research has revealed rather inconsistent results. In this study, 209 Chinese students with hearing impairment between 7 and 20 years old were asked to complete the Chinese Speechreading Test targeting three linguistics levels (i.e., words, phrases, and sentences). Both response time and accuracy data were collected and analyzed. Results revealed (i) no developmental change in speechreading accuracy between ages 7 and 14 after which the accuracy rate either stagnates or drops; (ii) no significant developmental pattern in speed of speechreading across all ages. Results also showed that across all age groups, speechreading accuracy was higher for phrases than words and sentences, and overall levels of speechreading speed fell for phrases, words, and sentences. These findings suggest that the development of speechreading in Chinese is not a continuous, linear process.

Objective Fatigue is a common problem among nurses, and patient/visitor incivility is thought to lead to nurses’ fatigue. However, the mechanism by which patient/visitor incivility leads to nurses’ fatigue has not been well studied. The aim of this study is to examine whether the association between patient/visitor incivility and fatigue among Chinese nurses is mediated by emotional labour strategy.Design A cross-sectional study.Methods In November 2019, a stratified cluster sample of 1207 nurses from two hospitals in China was used to collect data on fatigue, patient/visitor incivility and emotional labour strategy through online questionnaires. Emotional labour strategy has three dimensions: surface acting (SA), deep acting and natural acting. Complete responses were provided by 1036 (85.8%) participants. Student’s t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analysis and the PROCESS procedure (A modeling macro installed in SPSS to analyse mediation.) were adopted to analyse the data.Results Patient/visitor incivility and SA were positively related to fatigue (p

Summary: Multiple types of regulated cell death (RCD) have been demonstrated to cause gut barrier dysfunction in necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC); however, whether and how ferroptosis is involved in NEC remains unknown. Here, ferroptosis was identified to play a role in NEC using bioinformatics analyses and wet experiments. Inhibition of ferroptosis significantly alleviated NEC in newborn mice. ACSL4 expression levels were augmented and positively correlated with ferroptosis in NEC. Surprisingly, ACSL4 was critically correlated with multiple types of RCD, including autophagy, apoptosis and pyroptosis, as well as hypoxia and inflammation. Besides, ACSL4 was positively correlated with the abundance of multiple types of immune cells, including macrophage, activated dendritic cell, neutrophil and regulatory T cell. Conclusively, we first identified the involvement and role of ferroptosis in NEC and revealed the potential effects of ACSL4 on immune disorders, which could provide a rationale for future research on ferroptosis in NEC.

The rapid urbanization and industrialization have caused excessive utilization of natural resources, which seriously threatened food security and ecological security in the world. Improving agricultural eco-efficiency (AEE) to obtain greater agricultural output at a lower environmental consume, is an significant part of agricultural sustainable development. However, the existing studies ignore agricultural carbon absorption when measuring the AEE, which leads to evaluating results distortive to some extent. Additionally, few research focuses on this topic within the rapid urbanized areas where the population, land and agricultural industry have undergone great changes. Thus, this study attempts to take the Urban Agglomeration in the Middle Reaches of Yangtze River (UAMRYR) in China as a case study and customize a new measurement system of AEE. The super slack-based measure (Super-SBM) model and Tobit model were applied to evaluate AEE and analyze the attribution of its spatiotemporal changes at the county level during 2000–2018. The results show that the average AEE value of the UAMRYR decreased from 0.534 in 2000 to 0.490 in 2005, and then showed an increasing trend to 0.677 in 2018. The spatiotemporal pattern revealed that the number of counties with high and medium–high AEE was increasing, while the number of counties with medium–low and low AEE continued to decrease from 2000 to 2018. Furthermore, there was a positive spatial correlation of AEE during the study period. The magnitude and direction of attribution in changes of AEE indicates that socioeconomic development, undesirable inputs reducing, the tolerance of crops to harsh environment improving, and investment in agricultural science and technology increasing could effectively improve the AEE. These findings have important implications for promoting agriculture highly-efficient utilization and sustainable development in China as well as other regions or countries with rapid urbanization in the world.

Base on daily observational precipitation at 18 stations in Hainan province and the daily weather system in Hainan province during 1966—2018, the characteristics of different types of summer precipitation and its influence on summer drought and flood are analyzed. The result shows: (1) Tropical cyclone precipitation (TCR) is the most important precipitation type in summer over Hainan Island, accounting for 35.6% of summer precipitation (SUMR), followed by tropical convergence zone precipitation (ITCZR) accounting for 29.4%, and southwest monsoon trough precipitation (SWTR) and subtropical high edge precipitation (STHR) account for 15.3% and 14.7%, respectively. (2) The spatial distribution of different types of SUMR and their contribution rate to SUMR have different characteristics. (3) In summer, the frequency of TCR is the smallest, but its intensity is the largest over Hainan Island. The frequency of ITCZR is the largest, but its intensity is the second largest. Heavy rain and above are mainly caused by TCR and ITCZR. (4) In recent 53 years, SUMR in Hainan Island showed a weak increasing trend, which was mainly due to the significant increase of ITCZR. Conversely, SWTR and STHR contributed negatively to its increasing trend. The frequency of SUMR has a weak increasing trend, in which the frequency of ITCZR is significantly increased, the frequency of SWTR and STHR is significantly reduced, and the frequency of TCR is slightly reduced. The frequency of torrential rain and above has a weak increasing trend, the corresponding frequency of ITCZR has a significant increasing trend, and the corresponding frequency of the other three types have weak decreasing trends. (5) TCR and ITCZR have an important influence on the summer drought and flood over Hainan Island. Summer drought often occurs in the years with less TCR and ITCZR, but their influence on the summer flood has inter-decadal change, which results in the occurrence of summer flooding. It also leads to more precipitation in summer flooding years in this period.

Abstract To improve the antioxidant efficiency of mulberry leaf protein (MLP), alcalase, protamex, papain, flavourzyme, neutrase, and trypsin were used to hydrolyze MLP. The yield of soluble peptides, secondary structures, molecular weight distributions, and antioxidant activities of MLP hydrolysates (MLPHs) were investigated. Results showed that the native MLP was rich in the fraction above 6.5 kDa and was mainly composed of β‐sheets, while MLPHs were abundant in the fractions of 0.3–0.6 kDa and 0.6–6.5 kDa and were mainly composed of disordered coils and β‐folds. Limited hydrolysis of MLP could lead to better antioxidant activity than extensive hydrolysis. After enzymatic hydrolysis, the content of total sugar and total phenol in MLP increased significantly. MLP hydrolysates prepared with neutrase, alcalase, and protamex were preferable to other enzymes. Meanwhile, an enzyme to substrate level of 1% and a hydrolysis time of 2 hr were the optimum conditions to obtain higher antioxidant hydrolysates using neutrase.

Abstract Due to the increasing environmental pollution of un-degradable plastics and the consumption of non-renewable resources, more attention has been attracted by new bio-degradable/based polymers produced from renewable resources. Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the most representative bio-based materials, with obvious advantages and disadvantages, and has a wide range of applications in industry, medicine, and research. By copolymerizing to make up for its deficiencies, the obtained copolymers have more excellent properties. The development of a one-step microbial metabolism production process of the lactate (LA)-based copolymers overcomes the inherent shortcomings in the traditional chemical synthesis process. The most common lactate-based copolymer is poly(lactate-co-3-hydroxybutyrate) [P(LA-co-3HB)], within which the difference of LA monomer fraction will cause the change in the material properties. It is necessary to regulate LA monomer fraction by appropriate methods. Based on synthetic biology and systems metabolic engineering, this review mainly focus on how did the different production strategies (such as enzyme engineering, fermentation engineering, etc.) of P(LA-co-3HB) optimize the chassis cells to efficiently produce it. In addition, the metabolic engineering strategies of some other lactate-based copolymers are also introduced in this article. These studies would facilitate to expand the application fields of the corresponding materials.

Syngas, which contains large amount of CO2 as well as H2 and CO, can be convert to acetic acid chemically or biologically. Nowadays, acetic acid become a cost-effective nonfood-based carbon source for value-added biochemical production. In this study, acetic acid and CO2 were used as substrates for the biosynthesis of 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) in metabolically engineered Escherichia coli carrying heterogeneous acetyl-CoA carboxylase (Acc) from Corynebacterium glutamicum and codon-optimized malonyl-CoA reductase (MCR) from Chloroflexus aurantiacus. Strategies of metabolic engineering included promoting glyoxylate shunt pathway, inhibiting fatty acid synthesis, dynamic regulating of TCA cycle, and enhancing the assimilation of acetic acid. The engineered strain LNY07(M*DA) accumulated 15.8 g/L of 3-HP with the yield of 0.71 g/g in 48 h by whole-cell biocatalysis. Then, syngas-derived acetic acid was used as substrate instead of pure acetic acid. The concentration of 3-HP reached 11.2 g/L with the yield of 0.55 g/g in LNY07(M*DA). The results could potentially contribute to the future development of an industrial bioprocess of 3-HP production from syngas-derived acetic acid.

Abstract Glucosyltransferases (Gtfs) play critical roles in the etiology and pathogenesis of Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans)- mediated dental caries including early childhood caries. Gtfs enhance the biofilm formation and promotes colonization of cariogenic bacteria by generating biofilm extracellular polysaccharides (EPSs), the key virulence property in the cariogenic process. Therefore, Gtfs have become an appealing target for effective therapeutic interventions that inhibit cariogenic biofilms. Importantly, targeting Gtfs selectively impairs the S. mutans virulence without affecting S. mutans existence or the existence of other species in the oral cavity. Over the past decade, numerous Gtfs inhibitory molecules have been identified, mainly including natural and synthetic compounds and their derivatives, antibodies, and metal ions. These therapeutic agents exert their inhibitory role in inhibiting the expression gtf genes and the activities and secretion of Gtfs enzymes with a wide range of sensitivity and effectiveness. Understanding molecular mechanisms of inhibiting Gtfs will contribute to instructing drug combination strategies, which is more effective for inhibiting Gtfs than one drug or class of drugs. This review highlights our current understanding of Gtfs activities and their potential utility, and discusses challenges and opportunities for future exploration of Gtfs as a therapeutic target.

Abstract Background Antipsychotic drugs and especially the newer compounds are known to cause metabolic side effects. However, a comprehensive comparison of the different substances regarding their propensity to cause metabolic side effects in medium- to long-term treatment of schizophrenia is lacking. Methods We will conduct a systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA). We will include randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in which participants received either placebo or an antipsychotic (i.e. placebo-controlled trials and head-to-head comparisons of drugs). We will include studies in individuals with schizophrenia or related disorders (such as schizophreniform or schizoaffective disorders) at any stage of the disease (acute episode; maintenance phase). We will include studies with a duration of more than 3 months (medium- to long-term treatment). The primary outcome will be the change in body weight. Secondary outcomes will be the further metabolic parameters: fastening glucose, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and triglycerides. We will search for eligible studies (independent of the publication status) in Cochrane Schizophrenia Group’s Study-Based Register of Trials, which is compiled by regular searches in trial registries and multiple electronic databases from their inception onwards including MEDLINE, EMBASE and PsycINFO. Additionally, we will search previously published systematic reviews and websites of pharmaceutical companies for eligible studies. At least two reviewers will independently conduct the process of study selection and data extraction. We will use the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool to evaluate the risk of bias in studies. We will conduct random-effects NMA within a Bayesian framework to synthesize all evidence for each outcome. We will conduct sensitivity and subgroup analyses to assess the robustness of the findings and to explore heterogeneity. The confidence in the results will be evaluated using the Confidence in Network Meta-Analysis (CINeMA) framework. Discussion This systematic review and network meta-analysis will provide a synthesis of the existing evidence from RCTs how antipsychotic drugs differ in terms of metabolic side effects during medium- to long-term treatment. The findings have the potential to influence the choice of antipsychotic medication made by individuals with schizophrenia and their physicians. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42020175414

Abstract Background While the epidemiologic association between hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is established, little is known about the pathological characteristics and outcome of DLBCL arising in patients with HBV infection. Methods We retrospectively studied a cohort of 420 patients with DLBCL for the incidence of HBV infection, and the clinicopathologic features and prognostic factors in HBsAg-positive DLBCL patients in China, a hepatitis B endemic area. Results In our study, 127 (30.2%) patients were HBsAg-positive. HBsAg-positive DLBCL displayed a younger median onset age (50 vs. 54 years, P = 0.002), more frequent involvement of the spleen (19.7% vs. 6.1%, P

Abstract Bronchopulmonary dysplasia is a chronic pulmonary disease with a high incidence in premature infants, and there is still no effective treatment. The purpose of our study was to analyze the association between the use of probiotics and BPD in premature infants. We retrospectively collected clinical data of infants with gestational age

Background: With the development of fiberoptic bronchoscopy in the diagnosis and treatment of various pulmonary diseases, the anesthesia/sedation requirements are becoming more demanding, posing great challenges for patient safety while ensuring a smooth examination/surgery process. Remimazolam, a brand-new ultra-short-acting anesthetic, may compensate for the shortcomings of current anesthetic/sedation strategies in bronchoscopy.Methods: This study was a prospective, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, parallel positive controlled phase 3 clinical trial. Subjects were randomized to receive 0.2 mg/kg remimazolam besylate or 2 mg/kg propofol during bronchoscopy to evaluate the efficacy and safety of remimazolam.Results: A total of 154 subjects were successfully sedated in both the remimazolam group and the propofol group, with a success rate of 99.4% (95%CI of the adjusted difference −6.7 × 10%–6% to −5.1 × 10%–6%). The sedative effect of remimazolam was noninferior to that of propofol based on the prespecified noninferiority margin of −5%. Compared with the propofol group, the time of loss of consciousness in the remimazolam group (median 61 vs. 48s, p < 0.001), the time from the end of study drug administration to complete awakening (median 17.60 vs. 12.80 min, p < 0.001), the time from the end of bronchoscopy to complete awakening (median 11.00 vs. 7.00 min, p < 0.001), the time from the end of study drug administration to removal of monitoring (median 19.50 vs. 14.50 min, p < 0.001), and the time from the end of bronchoscopy to removal of monitoring (median 12.70 vs. 8.60 min, p < 0.001) were slightly longer. The incidence of Adverse Events in the remimazolam group and the propofol group (74.8% vs. 77.4%, p = 0.59) was not statistically significant, and none of them had Serious Adverse Events. The incidence of hypotension (13.5% vs. 29.7%, p < 0.001), hypotension requiring treatment (1.9% vs. 7.7%, p = 0.017), and injection pain (0.6% vs. 16.8%, p < 0.001) were significantly lower in the remimazolam group than in the propofol group.Conclusion: Moderate sedation with 0.2 mg/kg remimazolam besylate is effective and safe during bronchoscopy. The incidence of hypotension and injection pain was less than with propofol, but the time to loss of consciousness and recovery were slightly longer.Clinical Trial Registration:clinicaltrials.gov, ChiCTR2000039753

With the rise of new technologies such as the Internet of Vehicles and the Internet of Things, research on the intelligent connected vehicle has become a hot topic in contemporary times. The modeling and simulation of traffic flow are mainly used to analyze the characteristics of traffic flow and study the formation and dissipation mechanism of traffic congestion to better guide the real traffic. Cellular automata are suitable for the simulation of complex giant systems. Because of the randomness and discreteness of vehicle driving, cellular automata are often used to model and analyze traffic flow. This article mainly studies the traffic flow formed by intelligent connected vehicles. Based on the traditional NaSch model, the producer-consumer algorithm is introduced to form a multi-buffer vehicle information access mode, and an improved cellular automata model with random updates is constructed. The simulation results show that the improved cellular automata model improves the traffic congestion significantly compared with the original NaSch model in the intelligent network environment, which is consistent with the actual traffic situation. Therefore, the algorithm proposed in this article can effectively simulate the traffic flow characteristics of intelligent connected vehicles, and provide a theoretical basis for solving traffic problems.

At the present time, brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) are attracting considerable attention due to their application potential in many fields. In this Perspective, we provide a brief review of flexible electrode technologies for non-invasive BCIs, mainly including two types of the most representative flexible electrodes: dry electrodes and semi-dry electrodes. We also summarize the challenges encountered by the different kinds of electrodes by comparing their strengths and weaknesses in terms of manufacturing scalability, applicability, comfort, contact impedance, long-term stability, and biocompatibility. In addition, we describe some advanced configurations and suggest potential applications for non-invasive BCIs based on flexible electrodes and consider future development prospects.

IntroductionThe Shenqisuxin granule (SQSX), a novel Chinese herbal formula, has the effect of preventing in-stent restenosis and improving angiogenesis. We intend to evaluate the efficacy and safety of SQSX to provide a possible therapeutic strategy for complex coronary artery disease (CCAD) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).Methods/designThe study is a multi-center, randomized, double-blinded, parallel, placebo-controlled trial. A total of 120 participants will be randomized 1:1 into the intervention group and the control group. Based on standardized treatment, the intervention group and control group will receive SQSX and placebo for 2 months, respectively. The primary outcomes, metabolic equivalents (METS) and peak oxygen uptake (Peak VO2), and the secondary outcomes, including other indicators of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), the European Quality of Life Questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L), the Seattle Angina Scale (SAQ), etc., will be assessed at baseline and 2 months ± 3 days. In addition, the survey scales will also be tested at 1 month ± 3 days. Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and gut microbiota features will be assessed at baseline and 2 months ± 3 days to probe possible mechanism. The major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) and bleeding events will be monitored until the 12-month follow-up.DiscussionThis study is launched to assess the efficacy and safety of SQSX in CCAD after PCI and probe the possible mechanism.Clinical trial registrationChina Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR2200060979, Registered on June 14, 2022.

IntroductionAcute epidural abscess after percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy is a rare but grievous complication. When faced with a long-segment epidural abscess, open surgery has traditionally been performed which can lead to huge surgical trauma and unpredictable complications. For this reason, surgeons around the world are constantly looking for more minimally invasive and effective surgical methods.Patient ConcernsOur patient was a 32-year-old woman who had been receiving percutaneous endoscopic interlaminar discectomy for L5/S1 lumbar disc herniation one week ago. She returned to our institution with a fever and lower back pain.DiagnosesMagnetic resonance imaging revealed a long segment epidural abscess accompanied by a paravertebral abscess, and staphylococcus aureus was detected in a bacterial culture of pyogenic fluids extracted from the paravertebral abscess.TreatmentsWe performed percutaneous endoscopic drainage (PED) for the epidural abscess. Long-term sensitive antibiotic treatment after surgery.OutcomesImmediate pain relief was achieved and the inflammatory reaction subsided after 4 weeks of antibiotic therapy. Re-examination of the lumbar spine MRI after 1 month showed that the epidural abscess disappeared completely.ConclusionPercutaneous endoscopy allowed us to approach the epidural abscess directly, enabling the immediate drainage of the abscess with minimal trauma to the patient. The good results obtained show that percutaneous endoscopic drainage is a reliable way to treat a long-segment epidural abscess.

AimThe study (PROSPERO: CRD42021240905) aims to reveal the relationships among red meat, serum lipids and inflammatory biomarkers.Methods and resultsPubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane databases were explored through December 2021 to identify 574 studies about red meat and serum lipids markers including total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), C-reactive protein (CRP) or hypersensitive-CRP (hs-CRP). Finally, 20 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 1001 people were included, red meat and serum lipid markers and their relevant information was extracted. The pooled standard mean difference (SMD) was obtained by applying a random-effects model, and subgroup analyses and meta-regression were employed to explain the heterogeneity. Compared with white meat or grain diets, the gross results showed that the consumption of red meat increased serum lipid concentrations like TG (0.29 mmol/L, 95% CI 0.14, 0.44,P

ObjectiveTo investigate the incidence and related factors of extrauterine growth retardation (EUGR) and “true EUGR” in very preterm infants (VPI) from different regions of China.Materials and methodsClinical data of VPI were prospectively collected from 28 hospitals in seven different regions of China from September 2019 to December 2020. The infants were divided into a small for gestational age (SGA) group or non-SGA group at birth, with non-SGA infants at 36 weeks of gestation or at discharge being further divided into a EUGR group or a non-EUGR group. Infants in the EUGR and non-SGA group were defined as “true EUGR.” The general information of VPI, such as maternal complications during pregnancy, use of enteral nutrition and parenteral nutrition, and complications during hospitalization were compared between the groups.ResultsAmong the 2,514 VPI included in this study, 47.3, 41.5, and 33.3% of VPI were below the 10th percentile, and 22.6, 22.4, and 16.0% of VPI were below the 3rd percentile for weight, height, and head circumference at 36 weeks of gestation or at discharge, respectively, by the percentile on the 2013 Fenton curve. The incidences of EUGR and “true EUGR” evaluated by weight were 47.3 and 44.5%, respectively. Univariate analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences in the aspects of perinatal and nutritional characteristics, treatment, and complications between the groups. Multivariate analysis showed that in non-SGA infants, the cumulative caloric intake during the first week was a protective factor for “true EUGR,” while days to reach total enteral nutrition, late initiation of human milk fortifier, and moderate to severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia were independent risk factors for “true EUGR.”ConclusionMore attention should be paid to the nutritional management of VPI to prevent “true EUGR.” Cumulative caloric intake should be ensured and increased during the first week, total enteral nutrition should be achieved as early as possible, human milk fortifier should be added early, and moderate to severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia should be prevented. These strategies are very important for reducing the incidence of “true EUGR” in VPI.

Summary: Foraging on nocturnally migrating birds is one of the most challenging foraging tasks in the animal kingdom. Only three bat species (e.g., Ia io) known to date can prey on migratory birds. However, how these bats have exploited this challenging dietary niche remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that I. io hunts at the altitude of migrating birds during the bird migration season. The foraging I. io exhibited high flight altitudes (up to 4945 m above sea level) and high flight speeds (up to 143.7 km h−1). I. io in flight can actively prey on birds in the night sky via echolocation cues. Genes associated with DNA damage repair, hypoxia adaptation, biting and mastication, and digestion and metabolism have evolved to adapt to this species’ avivorous habits. Our results suggest that the evolution of behavioral innovation and genomic novelty are associated with the exploitation of challenging dietary opportunities.

Noise exposure can lead to various kinds of disorders. Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is one of the leading disorders confusing the noise-exposed workers. It is essential to identify NIHL markers for its early diagnosis and new therapeutic targets for its treatment. In this study, a total of 90 plasma samples from 60 noise-exposed steel factory male workers (the noise group) with (NIHL group, n = 30) and without NIHL (non-NIHL group, n = 30) and 30 male controls without noise exposure (control group) were collected. Untargeted human plasma metabolomic profiles were determined with HPLC-MS/MS. The levels of the metabolites in the samples were normalized to total peak intensity, and the processed data were subjected to multivariate data analysis. The Wilcoxon test and orthogonal partial least square-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were performed. With the threshold of p < 0.05 and the variable importance of projection (VIP) value >1, 469 differential plasma metabolites associated with noise exposure (DMs-NE) were identified, and their associated 58 KEGG pathways were indicated. In total, 33 differential metabolites associated with NIHL (DMs-NIHL) and their associated 12 KEGG pathways were identified. There were six common pathways associated with both noise exposure and NIHL. Through multiple comparisons, seven metabolites were shown to be dysregulated in the NIHL group compared with the other two groups. Through LASSO regression analysis, two risk models were constructed for NIHL status predication which could discriminate NIHL from non-NIHL workers with the area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.840 and 0.872, respectively, indicating their efficiency in NIHL diagnosis. To validate the results of the metabolomics, cochlear gene expression comparisons between susceptible and resistant mice in the GSE8342 dataset from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were performed. The immune response and cell death-related processes were highlighted for their close relations with noise exposure, indicating their critical roles in noise-induced disorders. We concluded that there was a significant difference between the metabolite’s profiles between NIHL cases and non-NIHL individuals. Noise exposure could lead to dysregulations of a variety of biological pathways, especially immune response and cell death-related processes. Our results might provide new clues for noise exposure studies and NIHL diagnosis.

ObjectiveTo assess the predictive value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radiomics for progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with prostate cancer (PCa).Methods191 patients with prostate cancer confirmed by puncture biopsy or surgical pathology were included in this retrospective study, including 133 in the training group and 58 in the validation group. All patients underwent T2WI and DWI serial scans. Three radiomics models were constructed using univariate logistic regression and Gradient Boosting Decision Tree(GBDT) for feature screening, followed by Cox risk regression to construct a mixed model combining radiomics features and clinicopathological risk factors and to draw a nomogram. The performance of the models was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), calibration curve and decision curve analysis. The Kaplan-Meier method was applied for survival analysis.ResultsCompared with the radiomics model, the hybrid model consisting of a combination of radiomics features and clinical data performed the best in predicting PFS in PCa patients, with AUCs of 0.926 and 0.917 in the training and validation groups, respectively. Decision curve analysis showed that the radiomics nomogram had good clinical application and the calibration curve proved to have good stability. Survival curves showed that PFS was shorter in the high-risk group than in the low-risk group.ConclusionThe hybrid model constructed from radiomics and clinical data showed excellent performance in predicting PFS in prostate cancer patients. The nomogram provides a non-invasive diagnostic tool for risk stratification of clinical patients.

Individual tree detection for urban forests in subtropical environments remains a great challenge due to the various types of forest structures, high canopy closures, and the mixture of evergreen and deciduous broadleaved trees. Existing treetop detection methods based on the canopy-height model (CHM) from UAV images cannot resolve commission errors in heterogeneous urban forests with multiple trunks or strong lateral branches. In this study, we improved the traditional local-maximum (LM) algorithm using a dual Gaussian filter, variable window size, and local normalized correlation coefficient (NCC). Specifically, we adapted a crown model of maximum/minimum tree-crown radii and an angle strategy to detect treetops. We then removed and merged the pending tree vertices. Our results showed that our improved LM algorithm had an average user accuracy (UA) of 87.3% (SD± 4.6), an average producer accuracy (PA) of 82.8% (SD± 4.1), and an overall accuracy of 93.3% (SD± 3.9) for sample plots with canopy closures less than 0.5. As for the sample plots with canopy closures from 0.5 to 1, the accuracies were 78.6% (SD± 31.5), 73.8% (SD± 10.3), and 68.1% (SD± 12.7), respectively. The tree-height estimation accuracy reached more than 0.96, with an average RMSE of 0.61 m. Our results show that the UAV-image-derived CHM can be used to accurately detect individual trees in mixed forests in subtropical cities like Shanghai, China, to provide vital tree-structure parameters for precise and sustainable forest management.

Background: Phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE-5) inhibitors have been found to play an important cardio-protective role. This study aimed to clarify the inhibitory effects of PDE-5-silenced bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on high glucose-induced myocardial fibrosis and cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Methods: Cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts of neonatal rats were treated with high glucose (HG), and co-cultured with PDE-5-overexpressed or -knocked down BMSCs. The viability and apoptosis as well as the levels of cytokines, Cardiac troponin I and Vimentin of cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts were studied. The expressions of PDE-5, cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) and protein kinase G (PKG), in both cells were evaluated. Results: BMSCs that silenced PDE-5 facilitated the viability of cardiomyocytes, decreased the viability of fibroblasts, and inhibited the apoptosis of cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts. The contents of collagen-I, collagen-III, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 and Dermin in fibroblasts were decreased by the PDE-5 inhibitor, but the levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 in fibroblasts and troponin-I in cardiomyocytes were increased by the PDE-5 inhibitor. PDE-5 inhibitor also suppressed the expression of PDE-5 but up-regulated cGMP and PKG expression in cardiomyocytes and fibroblasts. Conclusions: PDE-5-inhibited BMSCs can decrease HG-induced myocardial fibrosis and cardiomyocyte apoptosis by activating the cGMP/PKG pathway, and may play a role in the prevention and treatment of diabetic cardiomyopathy.

This study explored the molecular mechanism of the plasma activation medium (PAM) inhibiting the migration ability of NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer) cells. The effect of PAM incubation on the cell viability of NSCLC was detected through a cell viability experiment. Transwell cells and microfluidic chips were used to investigate the effects of PAM on the migration capacity of NSCLC cells, and the latter was used for the first time to observe the changes in the migration capacity of cancer cells treated with PAM. Moreover, the molecular mechanisms of PAM affecting the migration ability of NSCLC cells were investigated through intracellular and extracellular ROS detection, mitochondrial membrane potential, and Western blot experiments. The results showed that after long-term treatment with PAM, the high level of ROS produced by PAM reduced the level of the mitochondrial membrane potential of cells and blocked the cell division cycle in the G2/M phase. At the same time, the EMT process was reversed by inhibiting the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. These results suggested that the high ROS levels generated by the PAM treatment reversed the EMT process by inhibiting the WNT/β-catenin pathway in NSCLC cells and thus inhibited the migration of NSCLC cells. Therefore, these results provide good theoretical support for the clinical treatment of NSCLC with PAM.

In recent years, medium manganese steels (MMSs) have garnered increased attention and interest due to their relatively low cost and superior combination properties compared to other steels. In particular, MMSs have been recognised as ideal wear-resistant materials employed in the mining industry. However, the studies on their wear performance have a lack of systematic documentation. This review provides an extensive overview of recent advances in the wear performance of MMSs, starting from discussions on applicable wear testing methods and typical wear testing results, followed by a further discussion on the wear mechanisms of MMSs based on five wear characteristics, including abrasive wear, adhesive wear, corrosive wear, fatigue wear and impact wear. The effects of hardness and hardened layers on the wear mechanisms are also discussed. Finally, the influence of phase constitution and microstructure on the wear performance of MMSs are comprehensively elaborated in terms of transformation induced plasticity (TRIP), twinning induced plasticity (TWIP), alloy elements and heat treatment. The key factors that affect the wear performance of MMSs include the elemental composition in MMSs and the phase transformation occurred during TRIP and TWIP as well as various heat treatment processes. The current review of key factors affecting the wear performance of MMSs sheds some light on new strategies to enhance the service performance and longevity of wear resistant steels in various engineering applications.

Baloxavir marboxil is a creative antiviral drug for influenza A and B viruses with a novel mechanism of action. In this study, three series comprising a total of 21 previously unreported target compounds were designed and synthesized. The drug-likeness of these compounds was evaluated by molecular docking, PAINS-Remover and SwissADME. The inhibitory effect and affinity of the compounds on the cap-dependent endonuclease activity of the influenza virus were evaluated. Compounds I-4, II-1~II-9 and compound III-8 showed similar inhibitory activity to baloxavir (7.45 μM) on the cap-dependent endonuclease. In particular, compounds I-4 (3.29 μM) and II-2 (1.46 μM) showed strong cap-dependent endonuclease inhibitory activity. The structure–activity relationship studies showed that the inhibitive effect of the compounds on endonuclease was enhanced when the dibenzothiepin rings were substituted by diphenylmethyl containing chiral-center electron-withdrawing groups, dibenzocycloheptane, dihydrodibenzo[b,e]oxepin, and five-member heterocycles containing aryl substitution.

In this research, the effect of selenium (Se) enrichment on dough fermentation characteristics of yeast and the possible mechanisms was investigated. Then, the Se-enriched yeast was used as starter to make Se-enriched bread, and the difference between Se-enriched bread and common bread was investigated. It was found Se enrichment increased CO2 production and sugar consumption rate of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae) in dough fermentation, and had positive impacts on final volume and rheological index of dough. The mechanism is possibly related to higher activity and protein expression of hexokinase (HK), phosphofructokinase (PFK), pyruvate kinase (PK), citrate synthase (CS), isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICD), and α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase (α-KGDHC) in Se-enriched yeast. Moreover, Se-enriched bread (Se content: 11.29 μg/g) prepared by using Se-enriched yeast as starter exhibited higher overall acceptability on sensory, cell density in stomatal morphology, and better elasticity and cohesiveness on texture properties than common bread, which may be due to effect of higher CO2 production on dough quality. These results indicate Se-enriched yeast could be used as both Se-supplements and starter in baked-foods making.

Microencapsulated phase change materials (MCPCM) as a green energy storage material not only prevent leakage of phase change materials but also increase the heat transfer area of phase change materials. Extensive previous work has shown that the performance of MCPCM depends on the shell material and MCPCM with polymers, as the shell material suffers from low mechanical strength and low thermal conductivity. In this study, a novel MCPCM with hybrid shells of melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) and sulfonated graphene (SG) was prepared by in situ polymerization using SG-stabilized Pickering emulsion as a template. The effects of SG content and core/shell ratio on the morphology, thermal properties, leak-proof properties, and mechanical strength of the MCPCM were investigated. The results showed that the incorporation of SG into the shell of MUF effectively improved the contact angles, leak-proof performance, and mechanical strength of the MCPCM. Specifically, the contact angles of MCPCM-3SG were reduced by 26°, the leakage rate was reduced by 80.7%, and the breakage rate after high-speed centrifugation was reduced by 63.6% compared to MCPCM without SG. These findings suggest that the MCPCM with MUF/SG hybrid shells prepared in this study has great potential for application in thermal energy storage and management systems.

An urban agglomeration is the engine of regional and national economic growth, but also causes many ecological and environmental issues that emerge from massive land changes. In this study, the spatiotemporal evolution of an urban agglomeration was quantified and its impacts on the urban and regional landscape patterns were evaluated. It showed that the urbanized land area of the Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration (PRDUA) in China nearly quadrupled, having linearly increased from 1819.8 km2 to 7092.2 km2 between 1985 and 2015. The average annual growth rate presented a bimodal wave-like pattern through time, indicating that the PRDUA has witnessed two rounds of the urbanization process. The growth modes (e.g., leapfrog, edge-expansion, infilling) were detected and they exhibited co-existing but alternating dominating patterns during urbanization, demonstrating that the spatiotemporal evolution of the urban development of the PRDUA follows the “spiral diffusion-coalescence” hypothesis. The morphology of the PRDUA presented an alternating dispersal-compact pattern over time. The city-level and regional-level landscape patterns changed synchronously with the spatiotemporal evolution of the PRDUA over time. The urbanization of the PRDUA increased both the complexity and aggregation of the landscape, but also resulted in an increasing fragmentation and decreasing connectivity of the natural landscape in the Pearl River Delta region. These findings are helpful for better understanding how urban agglomerations evolve and in providing insights for regional urban planning and sustainable land management.

At present, Al matrix composites (AMCs) have drawn much attention owing to their light weight, high specific strength, high thermal conductivity, and superior excellent wear resistance, which endows them with great potential in the aerospace, automobile and military industries. In this study, AMCs with different Ti contents (0, 5 and 10 vol.%) were prepared by powder metallurgy. During the sintering, Al3Ti particles were in situ formed in the Al matrix. It was found that the Ti completely reacted with the Al matrix and formed fine in situ Al3Ti particles in Al-10Ti, while some large Ti-Al3Ti core-shell formed in Al-5Ti due to the incomplete reaction between the Ti and the Al matrix. Furthermore, the hardness of the composites was significantly improved by the in situ formed Al3Ti particles, reaching 143.3 HV in Al-5Ti and the highest value at 331.2 HV in Al-10Ti, respectively. The wear resistance of the composites is remarkably enhanced by Al3Ti particles compared to the unreinforced Al. Al-5Ti has the highest wear resistance among the samples. The wear resistance of the Al-10Ti composite becomes slightly deteriorated compared to Al-5Ti due to the brittle nature of Al3Ti, which leads to a three-body abrasive wear.

Abstract Background Women with breast cancer are prone to have mental stress and be stimulated by the fear of progression (FOP), then giving rise to a lower quality of life (QOL). The study aimed to examine the relationships between FOP, social support and QOL, and further explore whether social support mediates the association between FOP and QOL among Chinese patients with breast cancer. Methods The cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2019 to May 2020 at Anshan Cancer Hospital in Liaoning, China. 244 female breast cancer patients completed questionnaires including the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy for Breast (FACT-B), Multi-Dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), and Fear of Progression (FOP). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to assess the associations between FOP, social support and QOL. Asymptotic and resampling strategies were used to explore the mediating role of social support. Results The mean QOL score was 90.6 ± 17.0 among the patients with breast cancer. FOP was negatively correlated with QOL, while social support was positively related to QOL. Social support partly mediated the association between FOP and QOL, and the proportion of the mediating effect accounted for by social support was 25%. Conclusions Chinese breast cancer patients expressed low QOL. Social support could mediate the association between FOP and QOL. Medical staffs and cancer caregivers should alleviate patients’ FOP to improve their QOL by facilitating social support.

Abstract The mysterious predator–prey interaction between bats and nocturnally migrating birds is a very rare and incredible process in natural ecosystems. So far only three avivorous bat species, including two noctule bats (Nyctalus lasiopterus and Nyctalus aviator) and the great evening bat (Ia io), are known to regularly prey on songbirds during nocturnal avian migration. The information related to the diversity and the characteristics of the birds as prey and the hunting strategy in both species of noctule bats are already clear. However, the diversity of bird prey in the diet of I. io as confirmed by molecular identification remains unknown. Moreover, like hunting insects, it remains unclear whether the avivorous bats opportunistically prey on birds. Here, we used DNA metabarcoding to investigate the bird prey composition, diversity, and choice in diets of I. io. We found I. io consumed 22 species of seven families from Passeriformes with a body mass of 6–19 g, and preferentially selected small‐sized passerine birds for optimizing the benefit/risk trade‐off. Moreover, most of the species preyed upon were migratory birds, while four species were local resident birds, indicating that I. io may adopt both aerial‐hawking and gleaning strategies on songbirds as do the other two noctules. Further, I. io body mass did not influence in prey choice and predation richness on birds, suggesting I. io is an opportunistic avivorous predator. This study provides novel insights into the avian dietary ecology of I. io and completes the analysis of predator/prey interaction between three avivorous bats and nocturnally migrating birds. Our results also indicate bat predation on birds which occurs as an act of ecological opportunity may subject bats to intense natural selection pressure, causing them access to the new diet‐defined adaptive zones.

Objective: This study aimed to identify the predictors and threshold of failure in neonatal acute respiratory distress syndrome. Methods: Newborns with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome aged 0–28 days and gestational age ≥36 weeks were included in the study if their cases were managed with non-extra corporal membrane oxygenation treatments. Patients were divided into two groups according to whether they died before discharge. Predictors of non-extra corporal membrane oxygenation treatment failure were sought, and the threshold of predictors was calculated. Results: A total of 103 patients were included in the study. A total of 77 (74.8%) survived hospitalization and were discharged, whereas 26 (25.2%) died. Receiver operating characteristic analysis of oxygen index, pH, base excess, and combinations of these indicators demonstrated the advantage of the combination of oxygen index and base excess over the others variables regarding their predictive ability. The area under the curve for the combination of oxygen index and base excess was 0.865. When the cut-off values of oxygen index and base excess were 30.0 and −7.4, respectively, the sensitivity and specificity for predicting death were 77.0% and 84.0%, respectively. The model with base excess added a net reclassification improvement of 0.090 to the model without base excess. Conclusion: The combination of oxygen index and base excess can be used as a predictor of outcomes in neonates receiving non-extra corporal membrane oxygenation treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome. In neonates with acute respiratory distress syndrome, if oxygen index >30 and base excess

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) X-inactive specific transcript (Xist) is involved in apoptosis and inflammatory injury. This study aimed to assess the role of lncRNA Xist in sevoflurane-induced social and emotional impairment and neuronal apoptosis in neonatal mice and hippocampal neuronal cells. The performance in social and emotional tests and the expression levels of lncRNA Xist and microRNA (miR)-98-5p after sevoflurane exposure were measured. Moreover, the effects of suppression of lncRNA Xist on neuronal apoptosis and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress were determined. Subsequently, the association among lncRNA Xist, miR-98-5p, and ER degradation-enhancing α-mannosidase-like 1 protein (EDEM1) was explored. Our results showed that lncRNA Xist increased, miR-98-5p decreased, and social and emotional impairment appeared after sevoflurane exposure. Furthermore, suppression of lncRNA Xist improved sevoflurane-induced social and emotional impairment and reduced sevoflurane-induced neuronal apoptosis and ER stress in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, lncRNA Xist negatively regulated miR-98-5p expression, and it contributed to sevoflurane-induced neuronal apoptosis and ER stress by sponging miR-98-5p. Additionally, EDEM1 was identified as a target of miR-98-5p. Our findings revealed that the knockdown of lncRNA Xist ameliorates sevoflurane-induced social and emotional impairment through inhibiting neuronal apoptosis and ER stress by targeting the miR-98-5p/EDEM1 axis.

Abstract Congenital hypothyroidism (CH), a common neonatal endocrine disorder, can result in cognitive deficits if delay in diagnose and treatment. Dentate gyrus (DG) is the severely affected subregion of the hippocampus by the CH, where the dentate granule cells (DGCs) reside in. However, how CH impairs the cognitive function via affecting DGCs and the underlying mechanisms are not fully elucidated. In the present study, the CH model of rat pups was successfully established, and the aberrant dendrite growth of the DGCs and the impaired cognitive behaviors were observed in the offspring. Transcriptome analysis of hippocampal tissues following rat CH successfully identified that calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IV (CaMKIV) was the prominent regulator involved in mediating deficient growth of DGC dendrites. CaMKIV was shown to be dynamically regulated in the DG subregion of the rats following drug-induced CH. Interference of CaMKIV expression in the primary DGCs significantly reduced the spine density of dendrites, while addition of T3 to the primary DGCs isolated from CH pups could facilitate the spine growth of dendrites. Insights into relevant mechanisms revealed that CH-mediated CaMKIV deficiency resulted in the significant decrease of phosphorylated CREB in DGCs, in association with the abnormality of dendrites. Our results have provided a distinct cell type in hippocampus that is affected by CH, which would be beneficial for the treatment of CH-induced cognitive deficiency.

BackgroundAsthma is a common chronic disease among children, especially preschoolers. Some evidence suggests that diet may play a role in asthma, but the current findings are contradictory. The objective of our study was to determine the association between dietary intake and asthma in preschool children aged 2–5 years.MethodsWe selected preschool children aged 2–5 years with complete data on asthma diagnosis, diet, and body mass index (BMI) from the national health and nutrition examination survey (NHANES) database. In a selected population, children with self-reported asthma were included in the final sample. In children without self-reported asthma, we further used propensity score matching (PSM) to match age and sex for sampling, maintaining a ratio of 1:4 for cases. Lasso regression was used to identify dietary factors affecting asthma in preschoolers.ResultsA total of 269 children with self-reported asthma and 1,076 children without self-reported asthma were included in our study. Univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences in ethnicity and dietary zinc intake between asthmatic children and children without asthma. After adjusting for all dietary and demographic variables, the results of logistic Lasso regression analysis showed that non-Hispanic black (β = 0.65), vitamin B12 (β = 0.14), and sodium (β = 0.05) were positively associated with childhood asthma, while Vitamin K (β = −0.04) was negatively associated with childhood asthma.ConclusionIn conclusion, our study confirms that non-Hispanic black and dietary sodium intake are associated with a higher risk of asthma in preschoolers. In addition, our study found that dietary vitamin B12 was positively associated with childhood asthma, while vitamin K was negatively associated with childhood asthma.

ObjectivesThis study aims to investigate the relationship between preoperative sleep disturbance and postoperative pain in patients with a rotator cuff tear, and to provide a theoretical basis for taking corresponding interventions to alleviate postoperative pain in patients with rotator cuff tear.MethodsA total of 87 patients, who had undergone shoulder arthroscopy due to rotator cuff injury in Hunan Provincial People‘s Hospital from January to October 2021, were selected as the research subjects. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to evaluate the sleep quality of patients with rotator cuff tears. All patients were divided into the low sleep quality group (PSQI score >7 points, n = 61) and the high sleep quality group (PSQI score ≤7 points, n = 26). Postoperative pain was assessed by using the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS). General clinical data of the patients were collected 1 day, 2 days, and 1 month after surgery. Univariate and multivariate analyses of influencing factors were performed in patients with moderate or above pain at 1 month after surgery.ResultsThe score of postoperative pain of patients in the high sleep quality group was significantly lower than that of patients in the low sleep quality group (P < 0.05). A total of 35 patients (40.2%) had moderate or above pain 1 month after surgery, including 5 patients (19.2%) in the high sleep quality group and 30 patients (49.2%) in the low sleep quality group. The incidence rate of the low sleep quality group was significantly higher than that of the high sleep quality group (P = 0.009). After controlling confounding factors, preoperative sleep disturbance of patients was still independently associated with the occurrence of moderate or above pain 1 month after surgery (OR = 3.794, 95% CI: 1.261–11.409, P = 0.018).ConclusionPreoperative sleep disturbance can increase the risk of postoperatively moderate or above pain threshold in patients with rotator cuff tear. Paying more attention to and actively improving preoperative sleep disturbance can effectively promote postoperative pain management in patients with rotator cuff tears.

Small yellow croaker (Larimichthys polyactis), a benthic fish species widely distributed in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, plays an important role in the fishery catch of coastal countries. A large amount of dead small yellow croaker floated on the sea surface near 30.2°N, 125.3°E in the East China Sea on 19 February 2017, and more than 9,000 kilograms were caught by fishermen, which had never been recorded before. This study aims to investigate the dynamic causes of this sudden death event based on available in-situ, satellite and modelling data. The event occurred near the overwintering ground of small yellow croaker, where a majority of these fish assembled in winter. There were persistent ocean fronts at target site with average intensity of 0.05°C/km at sea surface and bottom in February 2017, which was the strongest in the past 5 years from 2015 to 2019. The fronts provided nutrients and food to fish, and the intense gradients prevented fish from crossing, thus forming “water barriers” to restrict the horizontal movement of fish. Due to enhanced convection, the water was well-mixed, enabling the demersal croaker to float to sea surface. The sea temperature was particularly warm in winter 2017, but then experienced a significant drop by more than 4.5°C in 40 days according to satellite and modelling datasets due to the northerly wind and the southeastward movement of cold eddy. The drop of temperature led to ‘cold shock’ of fish, affecting their physiological regulation and survival. Under the combined influence of these factors, a large number of small yellow croaker died and aggregated near the target site. This paper has a great reference value for further study on the living habits of small yellow croaker and their responses to marine dynamic changes.

With the increasing penetration of wind power into power systems and the random fluctuation of the wind farm (WF) output, system flexibility must be considered in the optimal generation dispatch. Based on the extreme scenarios of the WF output, we proposed a flexibility risk index to evaluate the system flexibility of each time interval. We established a five-objective security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) model of a power system with WFs, thermal generation plants, battery energy storage stations, and pumped storage hydro stations. The objectives were to minimize the system flexibility risk, total network loss, operation cost, power purchase cost, and pollutant gas emissions. To obtain the Pareto optimal solutions of the model, based on the objective selection and ε-constraint methods, we proposed two methods to reduce the dimension of objectives and transformed the five-objective optimization model into a series of three-objective optimization models. Then, we used the normalized normal constraint method to solve the Pareto frontier surface of each three-objective optimization model. We used a color column to represent the value change of the two upper layer objectives and visualized the Pareto frontier of the five-objective SCUC model in the three-dimensional ordinate space. Case studies on the modified IEEE-9 bus system and an actual power grid demonstrated the effectiveness and high computational efficiency of the proposed method.

The increasing human impact on the global environment has led to biodiversity decline and species extinction. The establishment of nature reserves is recognized as the most effective way to minimize human disruption and curb continuing threats to the Earth’s life support system. Many areas in the world are currently witnessing depopulation trends. How does anthropogenic pressure change within nature reserves in these areas? How will this change affect the quality of their habitats? As a typical depopulating area and a main distribution area of China’s nature reserves, Northeast China is an ideal region for exploring these scientific issues. In this research, we mapped anthropogenic pressure and habitat quality within 93 nature reserves in Northeast China from 2000 to 2018 and explored their correlation. We found that in Northeast China—a typical depopulating area—the anthropogenic pressure within nature reserves has been greatly eased and the habitat quality has improved. Along with depopulation, the anthropogenic pressure in more than half of the protected area in Northeast China declined between 2000 and 2018. Net primary production increased in almost all nature reserves, and fractional vegetation cover improved in three quarters of nature reserves. However, the vegetation aggregation index showed a downward trend. The overall performance of the national nature reserves surpasses that of the local nature reserves. Pearson’s correlation coefficient showed a statistically significant negative correlation between habitat quality indices and anthropogenic pressure categories. The highest negative correlation was observed between the vegetation aggregation index and land use intensity. Based on the propensity score matching approach, we classified nature reserves in Northeast China according to their conservation effectiveness relative to matched unprotected control sites. Finally, recommendations such as transferring governmental protection investment, broadening funding sources, and joining in international evaluation networks are proposed.

Abstract The 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) has become an unprecedented public crisis. We retrospectively investigated the clinical data of 197 COVID-19 patients and identified 88 patients as disease aggravation cases. Compared with patients without disease aggravation, the aggravation cases had more comorbidities, including hypertension (25.9%) and diabetes (20.8%), and presented with dyspnoea (23.4%), neutrophilia (31.5%), and lymphocytopenia (46.7%). These patients were more prone to develop organ damage in liver, kidney, and heart (P

Background: Short Tandem repeats (STRs) existed as popular elements in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes. Results: In this study, we analyzed the characteristics, distributions, and motif features of STRs within whole-genomes of 140 plant species. The results showed that STR density was negatively correlated with the genome size. Hexanucleotide repeat was the most abundant type of STRs. The distribution of algae shows a preference different from that of other plants. By analyzing GC contents of STRs and genome, it was concluded that STR motif was influenced by GC contents. Analysis of the long STRs in genome (length ≥ 1000 bp) found that dicots have the more long STRs. For STR types, di- and tri-nucleotide accounted for the highest proportion. Analyzing and designing long STRs in CDS (length ≥ 500 bp) was to verify the role of long STRs in Gossypium hirsutum TM-1 and Solanum tuberosum. By comparing the long STRs found in Fragaria x ananassa with other species, some evolutionary characteristics of the long STRs were obtained. Conclusions: We got the characteristics, distribution, and motif features of STRs in the whole genome of 140 plants and obtained some evolutionary characteristics of long STRs. The study provides useful insights into STR preference, characteristics, and distribution in plants.How to cite: Zhu L, Wu H, Li H, et al., Short Tandem Repeats in plants: genomic distribution and function prediction. Electron J Biotechnol 2021;50.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejbt.2020.12.003

Abstract Although persistent efforts have identified and characterized a few candidate genes and related biological processes with potential functions in the adaptation of many species to extreme environments, few works have been conducted to determine the genomic basis of adaptation in endangered livestock breeds that have been living in extreme conditions for more than thousands of years. To fill this gap, we sequenced the whole genomes of nine individuals from three Chinese native endangered cattle breeds that are living in high‐altitude or arid environments. Phylogenetic and evolutionary history analyses of these three and other six breeds showed that the genetic structure of the cattle populations is primarily related to geographic location. Interestingly, we identified pervasive introgression from the yak to Zhangmu cattle (ZMC) that cover several genes (e.g., NOS2, EGLN1 and EPAS1) involved in the hypoxia response and previously identified as positive selection genes in other species, which suggested that the adaptive introgression from yak may have contributed to the adaptation of ZMC to high‐altitude environments. In addition, by contrasting the breeds in opposite living conditions, we revealed a set of candidate genes with various functions from hypoxia response, water metabolism, immune response and body shape change to embryo development and skeletal system development, etc., that may be related to high‐altitude or arid adaptation. Our research provides new insights into the recovery and adaptation of endangered native cattle and other species in extreme environments and valuable resources for future research on animal husbandry to cope with climate change.

Abstract Background The bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSCs)-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) open up a new avenue for ulcerative colitis (UC) treatment recently, but they are not selectively enriched in targeted tissues. EphB2, a cell-to-cell signaling receptor, is identified as a regulator for inflammatory response, immune homeostasis and cell migration. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic potential and underlying mechanism for EphB2 over-expressing BMSCs derived EVs (EphB2-EVs) in the treatment of UC. Methods BMSCs and EVs were obtained and characterized by a series of experiments. Lentivirus vector encoding EphB2 was transfected into BMSCs and verified by qRT-PCR. We analyzed the EphB2-EVs ability of colonic targeting in a DSS-induced colitis model by using confocal microscope and WB. The protective effect of EphB2-EVs in vivo was systematically evaluated by using a series of function experiments. Results We successfully constructed EphB2-overexpressing BMSCs derived EVs (EphB2-EVs). Overexpression of EphB2 significantly enhanced the homing of EVs to the damaged colon. In addition, EphB2-EVs were effective to attenuate inflammation in intestinal mucosa and restore the damaged colon tissue by inhibiting the release of proinflammatory cytokines and upregulating the anti-inflammatory mediators. EphB2-EVs effectively reduced the oxidative stress and repaired the intestinal mucosal barrier in the UC rats. Moreover, EphB2-EVs demonstrated a robust immunomodulatory effect to restore immune homeostasis via modulating Th17/Treg balance and restraining STAT3 activation. Conclusions Our results suggest that EphB2-EVs have high colonic targeting ability and could mitigate DSS-induced colitis via maintaining colonic immune homeostasis. These findings provide an effective therapeutic strategy for UC treatment in clinic.

Abstract The aims were to identify the possible influencing factors of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and its domain-specific scores in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). A total of 1247 patients with CHD from the Henan Rural Cohort Study (n = 39,259) were included in this study. The Chinese version of the European Quality of Life Five Dimension Five level scale (EQ-5D-5L) and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) were used to evaluate HRQoL in patients with CHD. Tobit regression, generalized linear models and binary logistic regression were applied to determine the potential factors influencing the EQ-5D utility, as well as each domain, and the VAS. CHD patients had lower per capita monthly actual income, and higher rates of diabetes mellitus, stroke, anxiety and poor sleep quality, which significantly decreased EQ-5D index and VAS scores. In addition, sex, older age, education, not having a spouse, ever drinking alcohol, a high-fat diet, physical activity, hypertension and depression affected the various domain-specific EQ-5D scores in CHD patients. CHD patients in rural areas have a lower HRQoL. Factors associated with the EQ-5D index, including each domain, and the VAS need attention. CHD patients in rural areas need to be managed systematically.

Objectives: To summarize and differentiate abdominal ultrasound findings of necrotizing enterocolitis and food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome. Methods: From January 2017 to December 2018, the abdominal ultrasound results of 304 cases diagnosed necrotizing enterocolitis or food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome were retrospectively analyzed. The presence of pneumatosis intestinalis, portal venous gas, bowel wall thickening, intestinal motility, focal fluid collections and hypoechoic change of gallbladder wall were calculated, and the results were compared and analyzed. Results: Pneumatosis intestinalis, portal venous gas, bowel wall thickening, intestinal motility weakened/absent, focal fluid collections and hypoechoic change of gallbladder wall can be found in both necrotizing enterocolitis and food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome infants. However, in infants with necrotizing enterocolitis, intestinal motility was weakened/absent in whole abdomen, and in food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome, it only involved isolated segment of bowel. The positive rates of above signs in necrotizing enterocolitis infants were significantly higher than those in food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome (p

Soil extracellular enzyme activity (EA) and its eco-enzyme stoichiometric ratio (ES) are extremely sensitive to environmental change. This study aimed to clarify the change law of EA and ES in soil with different nitrogen addition levels under plastic film mulching, and to optimize the application amount of nitrogen fertilizer that was used. Based on the location experiment of plastic film mulching fertilization that has been ongoing since 2015, soil samples were collected from different depths (0–10 cm, 10–20 cm and 20–30 cm) during the harvest period of spring maize in October 2021. Four soil extracellular enzyme activities (β-1,4 glucosidase (βG), β-1, 4-N-acetylglucosidase (NAG), leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) and alkaline phosphatase (AP)) involved in soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling at different nitrogen application levels (0, 90, 150, 225 and 300 kg·hm−2) were studied under two planting patterns of no plastic film mulching (LD) and plastic film mulching (PM). The latest discovery of this study is that the activities of soil EA involved in the cycling of soil carbon C, N and P are similar in different soil depths (0–10 cm, 10–20 cm and 20–30 cm). Both EC:P and EC:P in the soil in this area are less than 1:1, indicating that the soil is limited by N and P. Comprehensive analysis showed that a nitrogen application level of 225 kg·hm−2 was beneficial to the balance of soil nutrients and the improvement of soil EA at harvest. At the same time, PM can effectively improve the soil EA and is more conducive to the balance of soil nutrients. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that EA and ES were strongly correlated with pH, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP). Most importantly, this study revealed that the activity of extracellular enzymes in arid and semi-arid areas was constantly self-regulated with the addition of nitrogen, which provided theoretical and technical support for the efficient use of nitrogen under the condition of plastic film mulching.