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Background: Propofol and sevoflurane are commonly used anesthetic agents for maintenance anesthesia during radical resection of gastric cancer. However, there is a debate concerning their differential effects on cognitive function, anxiety, and depression in patients undergoing this procedure., Aim: To compare the effects of propofol and sevoflurane anesthesia on postoperative cognitive function, anxiety, depression, and organ function in patients undergoing radical resection of gastric cancer., Methods: A total of 80 patients were involved in this research. The subjects were divided into two groups: Propofol group and sevoflurane group. The evaluation scale for cognitive function was the Loewenstein occupational therapy cognitive assessment (LOTCA), and anxiety and depression were assessed with the aid of the self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and self-rating depression scale (SDS). Hemodynamic indicators, oxidative stress levels, and pulmonary function were also measured., Results: The LOTCA score at 1 d after surgery was significantly lower in the propofol group than in the sevoflurane group. Additionally, the SAS and SDS scores of the sevoflurane group were significantly lower than those of the propofol group. The sevoflurane group showed greater stability in heart rate as well as the mean arterial pressure compared to the propofol group. Moreover, the sevoflurane group displayed better pulmonary function and less lung injury than the propofol group., Conclusion: Both propofol and sevoflurane could be utilized as maintenance anesthesia during radical resection of gastric cancer. Propofol anesthesia has a minimal effect on patients' pulmonary function, consequently enhancing their postoperative recovery. Sevoflurane anesthesia causes less impairment on patients' cognitive function and mitigates negative emotions, leading to an improved postoperative mental state. Therefore, the selection of anesthetic agents should be based on the individual patient's specific circumstances., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no financial relationships to disclose., (©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

The efficiency of the enzyme-free toehold-mediated strand displacement (TMSD) technique is often insufficient to detect single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that possesses only single base pair mismatch discrimination. Here, we report a novel dual base pair mismatch strategy enabling TMSD biosensing for SNP detection under enzyme-free conditions when coupled with catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). The strategy is based on a competitive strand displacement reaction mechanism, affected by the thermodynamic stability originating from rationally designed dual base pair mismatch, for the specific recognition of mutant-type DNA. In particular, enzyme-free nucleic acid circuits, such as CHA, emerge as a powerful method for signal amplification. Eventually, the signal transduction of this proposed biosensor was determined by FRET between streptavidin-coated 605 nm emission quantum dots (605QDs, donor) and Cy5/biotin hybridization (acceptor, from CHA) when incubated with each other. The proposed biosensor displayed high sensitivity to the mutant target (MT) with a detection concentration down to 4.3 fM and led to high discrimination factors for all types of mismatches in multiple sequence contexts. As such, the application of this proposed biosensor to investigate mechanisms of the competitive strand displacement reaction further illustrates the versatility of our dual base pair mismatch strategy, which can be utilized for the creation of a new class of biosensors.

Rice chalkiness is a key limiting factor of high-quality rice. The breeding of low chalkiness varieties has always been a challenging task due to the complexity of chalkiness and its susceptibility to environmental factors. In previous studies, we identified six QTLs for the percentage of grain chalkiness (PGC), named qPGC5, qPGC6, qPGC8.1, qPGC8.2, qPGC9 and qPGC11, using single-segment substitution lines (SSSLs) with genetic background of Huajingxian 74 (HJX74). In this study, we utilized the six low chalkiness QTLs to develop 17 pyramiding lines with 2-4 QTLs. The results showed that the PGC decreased with the increase of QTLs in the pyramiding lines. The pyramiding lines with 4 QTLs significantly reduced the chalkiness of rice and reached the best quality level. Among the six QTLs, qPGC5 and qPGC6 showed greater additive effects and were classified as Group A, while the other four QTLs showed smaller additive effects and were classified as Group B. In pyramiding lines, although the presence of epistasis, additivity remained the main component of QTL effects. qPGC5 and qPGC6 showed stronger ability to reduce rice chalkiness, particularly in the environment of high temperature (HT) in the first cropping season (FCS). Our research demonstrates that by pyramiding low chalkiness QTLs, it is feasible to develop the high-quality rice varieties with low chalkiness at the best quality level even in the HT environment of FCS., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Metabolic syndrome (MetS), with its high prevalence and significant impact on cardiovascular disease, poses a substantial threat to human health. The early identification of pathological abnormalities related to MetS and prevention of the risk of associated diseases is of paramount importance. Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) channels, a type of nonselective cation channel, are expressed in a variety of tissues and have been implicated in the onset and progression of numerous metabolism-related diseases. This study aims to review and discuss the expression and function of TRP channels in metabolism-related tissues and blood vessels, and to elucidate the interactions and mechanisms between TRP channels and metabolism-related diseases. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using keywords such as TRP channels, metabolic syndrome, pancreas, liver, oxidative stress, diabetes, hypertension, and atherosclerosis across various academic databases including PubMed, Google Scholar, Elsevier, Web of Science, and CNKI. Our review of the current research suggests that TRP channels may be involved in the development of metabolism-related diseases by regulating insulin secretion and release, lipid metabolism, vascular functional activity, oxidative stress, and inflammatory response. TRP channels, as nonselective cation channels, play pivotal roles in sensing various intra- and extracellular stimuli and regulating ion homeostasis by osmosis. They present potential new targets for the diagnosis or treatment of metabolism-related diseases.

If there was no gene interaction, the gene aggregation effect would increase infinitely with the increase of gene number. Epistasis avoids the endless accumulation of gene effects, playing a role of homeostasis. To confirm the role, QTL epistases were analyzed by four single-segment substitution lines with heading date QTLs in this paper. We found that QTLs of three positive effects and one negative effect generated 62.5% negative dual QTL epistatic effects and 57.7% positive triple QTL epistatic effects, forming the relationship "positive QTLs-negative one order interactions-positive two order interactions". In this way, the aggregation effect of QTLs was partially neutralized by the opposite epistatic effect sum. There also were two exceptions, QTL OsMADS50 and gene Hd3a-2 were always with consistent effect directions with their epistases, implying they could be employed in pyramiding breeding with different objectives. This study elucidated the mechanism of epistatic interactions among four QTLs and provided valuable genetic resources for improving heading date in rice., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Early detection of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients at high risk for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can help with timely intervention. White matter structural connectivity is considered an early and sensitive indicator of neurodegenerative disease., Objectives: To investigate whether baseline white matter structural connectivity features from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of de novo PD patients can help predict PD-MCI conversion at an individual level using machine learning methods., Methods: We included 90 de novo PD patients who underwent DTI and 3D T1-weighted imaging. Elastic net-based feature consensus ranking (ENFCR) was used with 1000 random training sets to select clinical and structural connectivity features. Linear discrimination analysis (LDA), support vector machine (SVM), K-nearest neighbor (KNN) and naïve Bayes (NB) classifiers were trained based on features selected more than 500 times. The area under the ROC curve (AUC), accuracy (ACC), sensitivity (SEN) and specificity (SPE) were used to evaluate model performance., Results: A total of 57 PD patients were classified as PD-MCI nonconverters, and 33 PD patients were classified as PD-MCI converters. The models trained with clinical data showed moderate performance (AUC range: 0.62-0.68; ACC range: 0.63-0.77; SEN range: 0.45-0.66; SPE range: 0.64-0.84). Models trained with structural connectivity (AUC range, 0.81-0.84; ACC range, 0.75-0.86; SEN range, 0.77-0.91; SPE range, 0.71-0.88) performed similar to models that were trained with both clinical and structural connectivity data (AUC range, 0.81-0.85; ACC range, 0.74-0.85; SEN range, 0.79-0.91; SPE range, 0.70-0.89)., Conclusions: Baseline white matter structural connectivity from DTI is helpful in predicting future MCI conversion in de novo PD patients., 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 © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) is a intricate autoimmune disease mainly characterized of immune-mediated destruction of exocrine tissues, such as salivary and lacrimal glands, occurring dry mouth and eyes. Although some breakthroughs in understanding pSS have been uncovered, many questions remain about its pathogenesis, especially the internal relations between exocrine glands and secretions., Method: Transcriptomic and proteomic analyses were conducted on salivary tissues and saliva in experimental Sjögren syndrome (ESS). The ESS model was established by immunization with salivary gland protein. The expression of mRNAs and proteins in salivary tissues and saliva were determined by high-throughput sequencing transcriptomic analysis and LC-MS/MS-based proteome, respectively. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were used to recognize dysregulated genes and proteins. The association between RNA and protein abundance was investigated to provides a comprehensive understanding of RNA-protein correlations in the pathogenesis of pSS., Results: As a result, we successfully established the ESS model. We recognized 3221 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 253 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs). The sample analysis showed that 61 proteins overlapped through the integrative analysis of transcriptomics and proteomics data. The enrichment pathway analysis of DEGs and DEPs in samples showed alterations in renin-angiotensin-system (RAS), lysosome, and apoptosis. Notably, we found that some genes, such as AGT, FN1, Klk1b26, Klk1, Klk1b5, Klk1b3 had a consistent trend in the regulation at the RNA and protein levels and might be potential diagnostic biomarkers of pSS., Conclusion: Herein, we found critical processes and potential biomakers that may contribute to pSS pathogenesis by analyzing dysregulated genes and pathways. Additionally, the integrative multi-omics datasets provided additional insight into understanding complicated disease mechanisms., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare there are no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Sepsis-associated coagulopathy specifically refers to widespread systemic coagulation activation accompanied by a high risk of hemorrhage and organ damage, which in severe cases manifests as disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), or even develops into multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). The complement system and the coagulation system as the main columns of innate immunity and hemostasis, respectively, undergo substantial activation after sepsis., Summary: Dysfunction of the complement, coagulation/fibrinolytic cascades caused by sepsis leads to "thromboinflammation," which ultimately amplifies the systemic inflammatory response and accelerates the development of MODS. Recent studies have revealed that massive activation of the complement system exacerbates sepsis-induced coagulation and even results in DIC, which suggests that inhibition of complement activation may have therapeutic potential in the treatment of septic coagulopathy., Key Messages: Sepsis-associated thrombosis involves the upregulation or activation of procoagulant factors, down-regulation or inactivation of anticoagulant factors, and impairment of the fibrinolytic mechanism. This review aims to summarize the latest literature and analyze the underlying molecular mechanisms of the activation of the complement system on the abnormal coagulation cascades in sepsis., (© 2024 The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Purpose: To compare the performance of Barrett toric calculator incorporated with measured posterior corneal astigmatism (PCA) derived from IOL Master 700 and Pentacam HR versus predicted PCA., Methods: The predicted residual astigmatism using Barrett toric IOL calculator with predicted PCA, measured PCA from IOL Master 700 and measured PCA from Pentacam were calculated with the preoperative keratometry and intended IOL axis with modification. The vector analysis was performed to calculate the mean absolute prediction error (MAE), the centroid of the prediction error and the percentage of eyes with a prediction error within ±0.50 D, ±0.75 D, and ±1.00 D., Results: In 57 eyes of 57 patients with mean age of 70.42 ± 10.75 years, the MAE among the three calculation methods were 0.59 ± 0.38 D (Predicted PCA), 0.60 ± 0.38 D (Measured PCA from IOL Master 700) and 0.60 ± 0.36 D (Measured PCA from Pentacam) with no significant difference, either in the whole sample, the WTR eyes and the ATR eyes (F = 0.078, 0.306 and 0.083, p = 0.925, 0.739 and 0.920, respectively). Measured PCA obtained from IOL Master 700 resulted in one level reduction (from Tn to Tn-1) in 49.12% eyes in cylindrical model selection, while measured PCA obtained from Pentacam resulted in one level reduction of toric model selection in 18.18% eyes., Conclusion: The present study suggested that the incorporation of measured PCA values derived from IOL Master 700 and Pentacam produce comparable clinical outcome with the predicted PCA mode in Barrett toric calculator., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Royal College of Ophthalmologists.)

Lung cancer, one of the most deadly and dangerous types of cancer in the world, kills many men and women every year. Activation of fibroblast growth factor signals plays a role in the pathogenesis of several cancers, including lung cancer. Also, this factor may indicate prognosis and is related to the survival rate in patients with NSCLC. Therefore, this research investigated the level of fibroblast growth factor gene expression in the serum of people with lung cancer. In this research, 60 serum samples of healthy people and 60 serum samples of people with NSCLC were prepared, and personal and clinicopathological information of the studied people were collected by questionnaires. Then, plasma isolation, RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, primers design, implementation, and changes in fibroblast growth factor gene expression in the serum of healthy and lung cancer patients were evaluated by the Real-time PCR method. REST software was used to analyze the results. The findings showed no significant difference in the expression of the fibroblast growth factor gene in the serum of people with the first to third stages of metastasis. However, in the serum of patients with the fourth stage of metastasis, the expression level of this gene was significantly decreased by 3.92 times compared to normal samples (P<0.05). According to the results of this study, it is possible to use the expression level of the fibroblast growth factor gene in people's serum to predict the metastasis stage of lung cancer.

Introduction: Constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C) is a functional bowel disease that affects 10-20% of the population worldwide. Curcumin (CUR) is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat IBS, but its mechanism of action needs further investigation., Methods: In this study, we used mosapride (MOS) as a positive control to evaluate the changes in gut microbiota in IBS-C rat models after treatment with CUR or MOS by analyzing 16S rDNA variation. In addition, we used enzyme immunoassay kits and immunohistochemical analysis to investigate whether CUR or MOS influenced serotonin (5-HT), substance P (SP), and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) levels in the serum and colon of IBS-C rats., Results: The study showed that rats supplemented with CUR showed significantly increased fecal weight, fecal water content, small intestine transit rate and significantly decreased serum levels of 5-HT, VIP and SP compared to the IBS group ( p < 0.05). In addition, treatment with CUR changed the relative abundance of Blautia , Sutterella , Acetanaerobacterium and Ruminococcus 2 in the gut microbiota., Discussion: This study showed that the efficacy of CUR on IBS-C was possibly by modulating the microbiota and lowering the serum levels of HT, SP, and VIP., Competing Interests: HR was employed by Shanghai Mobio Biomedical Technology Co. Ltd. The remaining 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 © 2023 Tu, Ren and Bu.)

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the potential of radiomics with multiple parameters from conventional T1 weighted imaging (T1WI) and susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) in distinguishing between idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA)., Methods: A total of 201 participants, including 57 patients with PD, 74 with MSA, and 70 healthy control (HCs) individuals, underwent T1WI and SWI scans. From the 12 subcortical nuclei (e.g. red nucleus, substantia nigra, subthalamic nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus, and caudate nucleus), 2640 radiomic features were extracted from both T1WI and SWI scans. Three classification models - logistic regression (LR), support vector machine (SVM), and light gradient boosting machine (LGBM) - were used to distinguish between MSA and PD, as well as among MSA, PD, and HC. These classifications were based on features extracted from T1WI, SWI, and a combination of T1WI and SWI. Five-fold cross-validation was used to evaluate the performance of the models with metrics such as sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and area under the receiver operating curve (AUC). During each fold, the ANOVA and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) methods were used to identify the most relevant subset of features for the model training process., Results: The LGBM model trained by the features combination of T1WI and SWI exhibited the most outstanding differential performance in both the three-class classification task of MSA vs. PD vs. HC and the binary classification task of MSA vs. PD, with an accuracy of 0.814 and 0.854, and an AUC of 0.904 and 0.881, respectively. The texture-based differences (GLCM) of the SN and the shape-based differences of the GP were highly effective in discriminating between the three classes and two classes, respectively., Conclusions: Radiomic features combining T1WI and SWI can achieve a satisfactory differential diagnosis for PD, MSA, and HC groups, as well as for PD and MSA groups, thus providing a useful tool for clinical decision-making based on routine MRI sequences., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Purpose: To evaluate and compare the accuracy of iTrace and CASIA2 in measuring the postoperative orientation of toric intraocular lens (IOL) without mydriasis., Setting: Tianjin Medical University Eye Hospital, Tianjin, China., Design: Prospective cohort study., Methods: Patients with SN6AT toric IOLs implanted after cataract surgery were enrolled. 1 month after surgery, the toric IOL orientation were measured by iTrace and CASIA2 in non-mydriatic, semi-dark conditions. Then, the toric axis was directly reviewed using the slit-lamp under full mydriasis. Axis measurement differences between each of the 2 devices and the slit-lamp, described as their relative differences (RDs), were calculated and compared. The percentage of RDs within 5 degrees, within 10 degrees and greater than 30 degrees were analyzed., Results: 77 eyes of 70 patients were included. Generally, the mean toric axis measurement RDs of CASIA2 and iTrace were 9.24 ± 10.53 degrees and 13.89 ± 15.47 degrees respectively ( P = .04). For CASIA2 (72 eyes), 54.17% (39), 72.22% (52), and 4.17% (3) of eyes had RDs within 5 degrees, within 10 degrees and greater than 30 degrees, compared with 40.00% (28), 61.43% (43) and 12.86% (9) for iTrace (70 eyes). The 95% limits of agreements of CASIA2 with slit-lamp was narrower than that of iTrace with slit-lamp. The median RD of CASIA2 was significantly smaller in eyes with pupil ≥4 mm under dark condition compared with eyes with pupil <4 mm ( P = .03)., Conclusions: CASIA2 demonstrates greater precision in measuring toric IOL orientation under non-mydriatic conditions compared with iTrace. Moreover, the accuracy of CASIA2 is enhanced in cases of pupil >4 mm., (Copyright © 2023 Published by Wolters Kluwer on behalf of ASCRS and ESCRS.)

Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies are widely used in anti-cancer therapy. While they have improved cancer prognoses, immune-related adverse events, which can cause acute kidney injury (AKI), cannot be ignored. The purpose of this retrospective cohort study was to assess the incidence, risk factors, and prognosis of AKI associated with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies. Patients who received anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibody treatment at our hospital between January 2018 and December 2022 were enrolled. Clinical information, combined medications, concomitant diseases, tumor types, and laboratory indicators were collected from patient records, and the incidence of AKI was determined. The risk factors for AKI were assessed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Overall, 1418 patients were enrolled. The median follow-up time was 112 days and 92 (6.5%) developed AKI. The median time from the initial anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibody treatment to AKI was 99.85 days. Head and neck cancer and combined use of diuretics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), lower hemoglobin level, and other types of chemotherapeutic drugs were independent risk factors for AKI. The complete recovery, partial recovery, non-recovery, and unknown AKI rates were 7.6%, 28.3%, 52.2%, and 11.9%, respectively. Kidney biopsies were performed on two patients with AKI and pathology confirmed diagnosis of acute tubulointerstitial nephritis. In this cohort, AKI was not uncommon in patients treated with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies; therefore, it is necessary to monitor renal function and identify AKI early, especially in patients with head and neck tumors. Improving anemia and minimizing the use of diuretics, NSAIDs, and chemotherapeutics may reduce AKI.

Purpose: To assess the quantitative differences in vessel density and retinal thickness of X-linked retinoschisis (XLRS) patients and RS1 mutation carriers, and the correlation with best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) with swept source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA)., Methods: We analyzed the correlation between the BCVA of XLRS patients and the SS-OCT and OCTA findings including the detailed structural characteristics of XLRS patients., Results: Besides the schitic changes in various retinal layers, the structural disturbance of outer retina was universally found. In 29 eyes included in the quantitative analysis, XLRS patients showed lower vessel density of the superficial capillary plexus, deep capillary plexus and lower thickness of the outer nuclear layer. BCVA was correlated with the thickness of the outer plexiform layer and outer nuclear layer and the thickness from the outer limiting membrane to the retinal pigment epithelium. Carriers showed higher thickness of outer plexiform layer and smaller foveal avascular zone area., Conclusions: SS-OCT and OCTA could identify the pathological alterations of the individual retinal layers and capillaries, which could pinpoint the exact location of the damages related to visual impairment. In the carriers, the subtle alterations that can be detected with SS-OCT, despite their normal visual acuity, may be caused by the lyonization., Translational Relevance: Swept source optical coherence tomography can be used as an efficient technique to expose the retinal damage related to visual impairment for prognosis and follow-up.

Chloroplast clustering around the nucleus is a well-known mechanism that occurs in response to various biotic and abiotic stresses and is believed to be a mechanism of defence against pathogens in plants. This phenomenon is accompanied by increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can help to destroy invading pathogens. However, the function of chloroplast clustering during viroid infection is unclear. Here, we report that, although the infection by potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) failed to induce chloroplast clustering, chloroplast clustering caused by the overexpression of the Nicotiana benthamiana chloroplast outer membrane protein 24 (NbOMP24) promoted the infection by PSTVd, a viroid pathogen, in N. benthamiana. Interestingly, H 2 O 2 treatment, which caused increased ROS accumulation, showed no significant effects on PSTVd infection. Moreover, NbOMP24 protein showed no direct interaction with PSTVd. We propose that perinuclear chloroplast clustering induced by NbOMP24 provides a favourable environment for PSTVd infection. These findings highlight the complexity of chloroplast clustering-mediated plant-pathogen interactions and the need for further research to fully understand these mechanisms., (© 2023 The Authors. Molecular Plant Pathology published by British Society for Plant Pathology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Introduction: The primary objective of this study is to assess whether the combination of intense pulsed light (IPL) with 3% diquafosol (DQS) ophthalmic solution is more effective than intense pulsed light in alleviating signs and symptoms of dry eye disease (DED)., Methods: This randomized study included 66 participants with evaporative dry eye (EDE) who received IPL + DQS therapy (n = 44 eyes), IPL therapy (n = 44 eyes), or sham therapy (n = 44 eyes). All participants were examined at baseline (D0), day 14 (D14), and day 28 (D28) for non-invasive break-up time (NITBUT), tear-film lipid layer (TFLL), corneal conjunctival staining (CS), meibomian gland quality (MGQ), meibomian gland expression (MGEx), and ocular surface disease index (OSDI)., Results: At day 28, comparison among the IPL + DQS therapy, IPL therapy, and sham therapy found significant differences in the mean NITBUT (12.03 ± 1.27 versus 10.47 ± 3.48 versus 4.57 ± 0.46; p < 0.001), TFLL (2.09 ± 0.29 versus 2.27 ± 0.45 versus 2.89 ± 0.65; p < 0.001), CS (1.43 ± 0.82 versus 1.93 ± 1.32 versus 3.52 ± 1.00; p < 0.001), MGQ (1.55 ± 0.66 versus 1.91 ± 0.77 versus 2.66 ± 0.53; p < 0.001), MGEx (1.27 ± 0.45 versus 1.75 ± 0.44 versus 2.41 ± 0.50; p < 0.001), and OSDI score (19.36 ± 7.01 versus 24.77 ± 4.68 versus 42.61 ± 7.49; p < 0.001); significant improvements in NITBUT, TFLL, CS, MGQ, MGEx, and OSDI were found in the IPL + DQS therapy and IPL therapy, while the sham therapy had no significant improvements., Conclusion: Combining 3% diquafosol ophthalmic solution with intense pulsed light was superior to IPL therapy alone in relieving the signs and symptoms of patients with severe evaporative DED., Trial Registration: Clinical Trials Identifier: NCT05694026., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Amputation of a limb is equivalent to loss of a person's life. Psychological aspects are essential factors in dealing with the disability and functional outcome is a significant concern. Longitudinal studies have not examined the experience and determinants of common mental health problems and functional outcome in lower limb amputees., Materials and Methodology: A total of 103 lower limb amputees were recruited and followed up for 6  months. Patients were assessed on Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Social Functioning (SF-36) Quality of life, semi-structured clinical interview for psychiatric disorders and phantom limb at baseline (in hospital), at 2 weeks, 3 months and 6 months, respectively after discharge. Holistic care was provided through psychological counselling, supportive sessions, medications if required, rehabilitation counselling, prosthesis implantation, and treatment as usual., Results: Holistic care resulted in a statistically significant reduction in anxiety, depression and overall psychiatric morbidity as measured on HADS ( p < 0.001). There was a significant improvement in all the domains of SF-36 ( p -< 0.001) except the role of limitation due to physical activity. The intervention also resulted in a statistically significant reduction in the presence of phantom limbs., Conclusion: Amputees should be provided holistic care under one roof, which was found to be very useful in treating psychiatric morbidity, social functioning and quality of life., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestNone., (© Indian Orthopaedics Association 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

With the rapid increase of sludge production from sewage treatment plants, the treatment of sludge drying condensate rich in a large amount of pollutants urgently needs to be addressed. Due to the unique characteristics of sludge drying condensate (high ammonia nitrogen and COD concentration), there are almost no reports on biological treatment methods specifically targeting sludge drying condensate. In this study, A/O-MBR process was proposed for sludge drying condensate treatment and the effects of ammonia nitrogen loads, alkalinity and aeration intensity were explored. Experimental results show that under the ammonia nitrogen load of 0.35 kg NH 4 + -N/(m 3 ·d) and the aeration intensity of 0.5 m 3 /(m 2 ·min), the removal rate of COD and NH 4 + -N could reach 94% and 99.86% with the addition of alkalinity (m(NaHCO 3 ): m(NH 4 + -N) = 7:1), respectively. The distribution of living and dead microbial cells in the activated sludge of three reactors also proved that the supplement of alkalinity in the influent can ensure the feasible living conditions for microorganisms. In addition to traditional nitrifying bacteria, through the supplementation of alkalinity and the reduction of aeration intensity, the system had also domesticated high abundance heterogeneous nitrification aerobic denitrification (HN-AD) and aerobic denitrification bacteria (both more than 10% of the total bacterial count). The denitrification process of sludge drying condensate was simplified and the denitrification efficiency was greatly improved. The findings of this study could provide important theoretical guidance for the biological treatment process of sludge drying condensate., 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 © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Magneto-Acousto-Electrical Tomography (MAET) is a multi-physics coupling imaging modality that integrates the high resolution of ultrasound imaging with the high contrast of electrical impedance imaging. However, the quality of images obtained through this imaging technique can be easily compromised by environmental or experimental noise, thereby affecting the overall quality of the imaging results. Existing methods for magneto-acousto-electrical image denoising lack the capability to model local and global features of magneto-acousto-electrical images and are unable to extract the most relevant multi-scale contextual information to model the joint distribution of clean images and noise images. To address this issue, we propose a Dual Generative Adversarial Network based on Attention Residual U-Net (ARU-DGAN) for magneto-acousto-electrical image denoising. Specifically, our model approximates the joint distribution of magneto-acousto-electrical clean and noisy images from two perspectives: noise removal and noise generation. First, it transforms noisy images into clean ones through a denoiser; second, it converts clean images into noisy ones via a generator. Simultaneously, we design an Attention Residual U-Net (ARU) to serve as the backbone of the denoiser and generator in the Dual Generative Adversarial Network (DGAN). The ARU network adopts a residual mechanism and introduces a linear Self-Attention based on Cross-Normalization (CNorm-SA), which is proposed in this paper. This design allows the model to effectively extract the most relevant multi-scale contextual information while maintaining high resolution, thereby better modeling the local and global features of magneto-acousto-electrical images. Finally, extensive experiments on a real-world magneto-acousto-electrical image dataset constructed in this paper demonstrate significant improvements in preserving image details achieved by ARU-DGAN. Furthermore, compared to the state-of-the-art competitive methods, it exhibits a 0.3 dB increase in PSNR and an improvement of 0.47% in SSIM.

Key Message: A novel QTL qGLF5 from Oryza rufipogon Griff. improves yield per plant and plant architecture in rice. Kernel size and plant architecture are critical agronomic traits that are key targets for improving crop yield. From the single-segment substitution lines of Oryza rufipogon Griff. in the indica cultivar Huajingxian74 (HJX74) background, we identified a novel quantitative trait locus (QTL), named qGLF5, which improves kernel shape, plant architecture, and yield per plant in rice. Compared with the control HJX74, the plant height, panicles per plant, panicle length, primary branches per panicle, secondary branches per panicle, and kernels per plant of the near-isogenic line-qGLF5 (NIL-qGLF5) are significantly increased. NIL-qGLF5 has long and narrow kernels by regulating cell number, cell length and width in the spikelet hulls. Yield per plant of NIL-qGLF5 is increased by 35.02% compared with that of HJX74. In addition, qGLF5 significantly improves yield per plant and plant architecture of NIL-gw5 and NIL-GW7. These results indicate that qGLF5 might be beneficial for improving plant architecture and kernel yield in rice breeding by molecular design., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

For energetic compounds, their structure determines their performance, and even minor variations in their structure can have a significant impact on their performance. The application scenarios for energetic materials are diverse, and their performance requirements vary as well. To investigate the influence of different substituent positions on the performance of primary explosives, we prepared two Ag(I)-based complexes, [Ag(2-IZCA)ClO 4 ] n (ECPs-1) and [Ag(4-IZCA)ClO 4 ] n (ECPs-2), using structurally isomeric ligands, 1 H -imidazole-2-carbohydrazide (2-IZCA) and 1 H -imidazole-4-carbohydrazide (4-IZCA). The structures were confirmed using infrared, elemental analysis, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Experimental results demonstrate that both ECPs exhibit good thermal stability. However, compared to ECPs-1, ECPs-2 exhibits a lower thermal initial decomposition temperature ( T d = 210 °C), lower mechanical sensitivity (IS = 27 J, FS = 84 N), and more concentrated energy output. Although theoretical predictions suggest similar detonation velocities and pressures for both compounds, actual detonation performance tests indicate that ECPs-2 has stronger explosive power and initiating capability, with potential for use as a laser initiator ( E = 126 mJ). The simple preparation method and inexpensive starting materials enrich the research on primary explosives.

COVID-19 has a high rate of infection in dialysis patients and poses a serious risk to human health. Currently, there are no dialysis centers in China that have analyzed the prevalence of COVID-19 infection in dialysis patients and the mortality rate. Although machine learning-based disease prediction methods have proven to be effective, redundant attributes in the data and the interpretability of the predictive models are still worth investigating. Therefore, this paper proposed a wrapper feature selection classification model to achieve the prediction of the risk of COVID-19 infection in dialysis patients. The method was used to optimize the feature set of the sample through an enhanced JAYA optimization algorithm based on the dispersed foraging strategy and the greedy levy mutation strategy. Then, the proposed method combines fuzzy K-nearest neighbor for classification prediction. IEEE CEC2014 benchmark function experiments as well as prediction experiments on the uremia dataset are used to validate the proposed model. The experimental results showed that the proposed method has a high prediction accuracy of 95.61% for the prevalence risk of COVID-19 infection in dialysis patients. Furthermore, it was shown that proalbumin, CRP, direct bilirubin, hemoglobin, albumin, and phosphorus are of great value for clinical diagnosis. Therefore, the proposed method can be considered as a promising method., 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 © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Shengmai injection is a common treatment for coronary heart disease. The accurate dose regimen is important to maximize effectiveness and minimize adverse reactions. We aim to explore the effect of Shengmai injection in patients with coronary heart disease based on real-world data and establish a personalized medicine model using machine learning and deep learning techniques. Methods: 211 patients were enrolled. The length of hospital stay was used to explore the effect of Shengmai injection in a case-control study. We applied propensity score matching to reduce bias and Wilcoxon rank sum test to compare results between the experimental group and the control group. Important variables influencing the dose regimen of Shengmai injection were screened by XGBoost. A personalized medicine model of Shengmai injection was established by XGBoost selected from nine algorithm models. SHapley Additive exPlanations and confusion matrix were used to interpret the results clinically. Results: Patients using Shengmai injection had shorter length of hospital stay than those not using Shengmai injection (median 10.00 days vs. 11.00 days, p = 0.006). The personalized medicine model established via XGBoost shows accuracy = 0.81 and AUC = 0.87 in test cohort and accuracy = 0.84 and AUC = 0.84 in external verification. The important variables influencing the dose regimen of Shengmai injection include lipid-lowering drugs, platelet-lowering drugs, levels of GGT, hemoglobin, prealbumin, and cholesterol at admission. Finally, the personalized model shows precision = 75%, recall rate = 83% and F1-score = 79% for predicting 40 mg of Shengmai injection; and precision = 86%, recall rate = 79% and F1-score = 83% for predicting 60 mg of Shengmai injection. Conclusion: This study provides evidence supporting the clinical effectiveness of Shengmai injection, and established its personalized medicine model, which may help clinicians make better decisions., Competing Interests: Authors XH and SW were employed by Dalian Medicinovo Technology Co., Ltd. and Authors JYZ and FG were employed by Beijing Medicinovo Technology Co., Ltd. The remaining 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 © 2023 Ma, Yu, Chen, Li, Liu, Chen, Lyu, Hao, Zhang, Wang, Gao, Zhang and Bu.)

End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) is known to be associated with a range of brain injuries, including cognitive decline. The purpose of this study is to investigate the functional connectivity (FC) of the resting-state networks (RSNs) through resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in order to gain insight into the neuropathological mechanism of ESRD. A total of 48 ESRD patients and 49 healthy controls underwent resting-state functional MRI and neuropsychological tests, for which Independent Components Analysis and graph-theory (GT) analysis were utilized. With the machine learning results, we examined the connections between RSNs abnormalities and neuropsychological test scores. Combining intra/inter network FC differences and GT results, ESRD was optimally distinguished in the testing dataset, with a balanced accuracy of 0.917 and area under curve (AUC) of 0.942. Shapley additive explanations results revealed that the increased functional network connectivity between DMN and left frontoparietal network (LFPN) was the most critical predictor for ESRD associated mild cognitive impairment diagnosis. Moreover, hypoSN (salience network) was positively correlated with Attention scores, while hyperLFPN was negatively correlated with Execution scores, indicating correlations between functional disruption and cognitive impairment measurements in ESRD patients. This study demonstrated that both the loss of FC within the SN and compensatory FC within the lateral frontoparietal network coexist in ESRD. This provides a network basis for understanding the individual brain circuits and offers additional noninvasive evidence to comprehend the brain networks in ESRD., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly prevalent malignant tumor that is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality rates. Despite the progress made in diagnostic technology, the survival rate of HCC patients remains unsatisfactory due to the complex nature and extensive metastasis of the disease. Consequently, the discovery of new molecular targets is of great practical significance for the diagnosis and treatment of HCC. Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) play a crucial role in cell signal transduction by catalyzing the dephosphorylation of tyrosine residues in proteins. The present study has revealed that the upregulation of protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 1 (PTPN1) is a characteristic feature of HCC and is associated with a poor prognosis. Additionally, our investigation into the functional roles of PTPN1-regulated genes in HCC has demonstrated that alterations in PTPN1 expression disrupt normal cell cycle progression metabolism. Additionally, the capacity for proliferation and migration of HCC cells was notably diminished subsequent to PTPN1 silencing, resulting in the prevention of cell entry into the S phase from the G1 phase. Our investigation indicates that PTPN1 may facilitate the onset and progression of HCC by disrupting the cell cycle, thereby presenting a promising molecular target for the diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer., Competing Interests: 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., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Introducing nonmetal and oxophilic metal into palladium (Pd)-based catalysts is beneficial for boosting electrocatalysis, especially regarding the improvement of mass activity (MA) and CO tolerance. Herein, the stable bismuth-doped palladium hydride (Bi/PdH) networks have been successfully fabricated through a simple one-step method. The intercalation of interstitial H atoms expands the lattice of Pd, and the doping of oxophilic metal Bi restrains the adsorption of poisonous intermediates on the surface of Pd, thereby improving the activity and durability of the as-prepared catalysts in the ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR). The obtained Bi/PdH networks manifest a remarkable MA of 8.51 A·mg Pd -1 , which is 11.18 times higher than that of commercial Pd/C (0.76 A·mg Pd -1 ). The CO-stripping analysis results indicate that Bi doping can significantly prohibit CO adsorption on the surface of the Bi/PdH networks. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations also reveal that Bi doping enhances the OH* adsorption on the catalyst surface and mitigates the interaction between Pd and CO* intermediates, providing deeper insights into the origin of the enhanced EOR activity and CO tolerance. This work describes an impactful path for producing high-performance and durable PdH-based nanocatalysts.

Bilobalide exhibits numerous beneficial bioactivities, including neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activity. Our previous study demonstrated that bilobalide inhibits adipogenesis and promotes lipolysis. The dose-dependent cytotoxicity was found to be specific to the mature adipocytes only, indicating the potential for regulating apoptosis in them. Herein, we aimed to investigate the apoptotic effects of bilobalide on 3T3-L1 mature adipocytes and elucidate the underlying mechanisms thereof. Flow cytometry analysis (FACS) revealed the pro-apoptotic effects of bilobalide on these cells. Bilobalide induced early apoptosis by reducing the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). DNA fragmentation was confirmed using TUNEL staining. Additionally, bilobalide increased the intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and activities of Caspases 3/9. Pre-treatment with NAC (an ROS scavenger) confirmed the role of ROS in inducing apoptosis. Moreover, bilobalide up- and down-regulated the expression of Bax and Bcl-2, respectively, at the mRNA and protein expression levels; upregulated the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio; triggered the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria; and increased the protein expression of cleaved Caspase 3, cleaved Caspase 9, and PARP cleavage. These results support the conclusion that bilobalide induces apoptosis in mature 3T3-L1 adipocytes through the ROS-mediated mitochondrial pathway, and offers potential novel treatment for obesity.

Objectives: To describe the pharmacokinetics of vancomycin in a large Chinese paediatric cohort with varying degrees of renal function and ages and to develop practical dosing guidelines., Patients and Methods: We conducted a retrospective population pharmacokinetic study using data from paediatric patients who received vancomycin between June 2013 and June 2022. A non-linear mixed-effect modelling approach with a one-compartment model structure was applied. Monte Carlo simulations were used to stimulate an optimal dosage regimen to achieve the target of AUC24/MIC between 400 and 650., Results: We analysed a total of 673 paediatric patients and 1547 vancomycin serum concentrations. Covariate analysis revealed that physiological maturation, renal function, albumin and cardiothoracic surgery (CTS) significantly affected vancomycin pharmacokinetics. The typical clearance and volume of distribution, standardized to 70 kg, were 7.75 L/h (2.3% relative standard error, RSE) and 36.2 L (1.7% RSE), respectively. Based on the model, we proposed an optimal dosing regimen that considers the patient's age and estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) to achieve a target AUC24/MIC for CTS and non-CTS patients. We also found that a loading dose of 20 mg/kg can help patients with an eGFR of <60 mL/min/1.73 m2 achieve the target AUC on the first day of treatment., Conclusions: We established vancomycin pharmacokinetic parameters in Chinese paediatric patients and proposed a dosing guideline integrating eGFR, age and CTS status, potentially improving clinical outcomes and reducing nephrotoxicity risk., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.)

We determined the associations between physical activity and allostatic load, and whether it is a modifiable factor related to allostatic load. We obtained data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database collected between 2017 and March 2020. The relationship between physical activity and allostatic load was examined using a logistic regression model. In the unadjusted model, physical activity level was associated with allostatic load index (odds ratio [OR] = 0.664, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.550, 0.802, P＜0.001), with this relationship being retained in the adjusted model (OR = 0.739, 95%CI: 0.603, 0.907; P = 0.004). Sedentary behaviour was also related to allostatic load index (OR = 1.236, 95%CI: 1.005, 1.520; P = 0.044). Our findings indicated that sufficient physical activity is associated with a lower allostatic load index, and sedentary behaviour is associated with a higher allostatic load index. Physical activity is a modifiable factor related to allostatic load., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest There are no conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Main Conclusion: A novel QTL GS6.1 increases yield per plant by controlling kernel size, plant architecture, and kernel filling in rice. Kernel size and plant architecture are critical agronomic traits that greatly influence kernel yield in rice. Using the single-segment substitution lines (SSSLs) with an indica cultivar Huajingxian74 as a recipient parent and American Jasmine as a donor parent, we identified a novel quantitative trait locus (QTL), named GS6.1. Near isogenic line-GS6.1 (NIL-GS6.1) produces long and narrow kernels by regulating cell length and width in the spikelet hulls, thus increasing the 1000-kernel weight. Compared with the control, the plant height, panicles per plant, panicle length, kernels per plant, secondary branches per panicle, and yield per plant of NIL-GS6.1 are increased. In addition, GS6.1 regulates the kernel filling rate. GS6.1 controls kernel size by modulating the transcription levels of part of EXPANSINs, kernel filling-related genes, and kernel size-related genes. These results indicate that GS6.1 might be beneficial for improving kernel yield and plant architecture in rice breeding by molecular design., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Recently, scalable production of large-area graphene films on metal foils with promising qualities is successfully achieved by eliminating grain boundaries, wrinkles, and adlayers. The transfer of graphene from growth metal substrates onto functional substrates remains one inescapable obstacle on the road to the real commercial applications of chemical vaport deposition (CVD) graphene films. Current transfer methods still require time-consuming chemical reactions, which hinders its mass production, and produces cracks and contamination that strongly impede performance reproducibility. Therefore, graphene transfer techniques with fine intactness and cleanness of transferred graphene, and improved production efficiency would be ideal for the mass production of graphene films on destination substrates. Herein, through the engineering of interfacial forces enabled by sophisticated design of transfer medium, the crack-free and clean transfer of 4-inch-sized graphene wafers onto silicon wafers within only 15 min is realized. The reported transfer method is an important leap over the long-lasting obstacle of the batch-scale graphene transfer without degrading the quality of graphene, bringing the graphene products close to the real applications., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

To explore and analyze the effect of ropivacaine plus sufentanil for epidural anesthesia during abdominal surgery, a total of 120 patients who underwent abdominal surgery at our institution between May 2019 and November 2020 were recruited and randomly assigned at a 1:1 ratio to receive either ropivacaine alone for epidural anesthesia (control group) or ropivacaine plus sufentanil (observation group). The total anesthesia effect in the observation group was significantly higher than that in the control group (96.66% vs 78.33%) (P<0.05). The combined anesthesia resulted in significantly lower visual analogue scale (VAS) scores (1.51±0.84, 1.63±0.56, 1.69±0.63, 1.54±0.42) in patients at 4h, 8h, 16h and 24h postoperatively versus ropivacaine alone (2.35±0.88, 2.49±0. 69, 2.47±0.78, 2.39±0.58) (P<0.05). The Ramsay sedation score (RSS) scores (1.98±0.81, 2.44±0.62, 2.18±0.62, 2.51±0.37) of the observation group at 4h, 8h, 16h and 24h after operation were significantly lower than those of the control group (1.42±0.52, 1.73±0.71, 1.47±0.66, 1.68±0.62) (P<0.05). Patients receiving ropivacaine plus sufentanil were associated with a lower incidence of adverse reactions than those given ropivacaine only (5.00% vs 30.00%) (P<0.05). In abdominal surgery, ropivacaine plus sufentanil epidural anesthesia resulted in reduced postoperative pain, enhanced sedative effects and a lower risk of adverse reactions versus ropivacaine alone.

An isolate of chilli veinal mottle virus (ChiVMV; genus Potyvirus ) of Solanum nigrum L. from southwest China (ChiVMV-YunN/Yuxi) was identified and sequenced (GenBank: OP404087). Comparison with other ChiVMV isolates and recombination analyses suggested a recombinant origin. The most significant recombination event among all 21 complete ChiVMV isolates was an ending breakpoint at 1408-1488 for ChiVMV-YunN/Yuxi with ChiVMV-TaiW and ChiVMV-YunN/Ca operating as the respective major and minor parents. Interestingly, the 5' UTR of ChiVMV-YunN/Yuxi is 15 nucleotides ('AAAAATAAAACAACC') longer than other reported isolates. A full-length clone of ChiVMV-YunN/Yuxi was constructed and was shown to be infectious in Nicotiana benthamiana . The additional 15 nt of 5' UTR in ChiVMV-YunN/Yuxi was stable when transmitted through three generations. Experiments with modified clones showed that the additional 15 nt are essential for infection by this isolate.

After the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, a novel mRNA vaccine (BNT162b2) was developed at an unprecedented speed. Although most countries have achieved widespread immunity from vaccines and infections, yet people, even who have recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection, are recommended to receive vaccination due to their effectiveness in lowering the risk of recurrent infection. However, the BNT162b2 vaccine has been reported to increase the risk of myocarditis. To our knowledge, for the first time in this study, we tracked changes in the chromatin dynamics of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in the patient who underwent myocarditis after BNT162b2 vaccination. A longitudinal study of chromatin accessibility using concurrent analysis of single-cell assays for transposase-accessible chromatin with sequencing and single-cell RNA sequencing showed downregulation of interferon signaling and upregulated RUNX2/3 activity in PBMCs. Considering BNT162b2 vaccination increases the level of interferon-α/γ in serum, our data highlight the immune responses different from the conventional responses to the vaccination, which is possibly the key to understanding the side effects of BNT162b2 vaccination., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Gut damage allows translocation of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and fungal β-D-glucan (BDG) into the blood. This microbial translocation contributes to systemic inflammation and risk of non-AIDS comorbidities in people living with HIV, including those receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). We assessed whether markers of gut damage and microbial translocation were associated with cognition in ART-treated PLWH., Methods: Eighty ART-treated men living with HIV from the Positive Brain Health Now Canadian cohort were included. Brief cognitive ability measure (B-CAM) and 20-item patient deficit questionnaire (PDQ) were administered to all participants. Three groups were selected based on their B-CAM levels. We excluded participants who received proton pump inhibitors or antiacids in the past 3 months. Cannabis users were also excluded. Plasma levels of intestinal fatty acid binding protein (I-FABP), regenerating islet-derived protein 3 α (REG3α), and lipopolysaccharides (LPS = were quantified by ELISA, while 1-3-β-D-glucan BDG) levels were assessed using the Fungitell assay. Univariable, multivariable, and splines analyses were performed., Results: Plasma levels of I-FABP, REG3α, LPS and BDG were not different between groups of low, intermediate and high B-CAM levels. However, LPS and REG3α levels were higher in participants with PDQ higher than the median. Multivariable analyses showed that LPS association with PDQ, but not B-CAM, was independent of age and level of education. I-FABP, REG3α, and BDG levels were not associated with B-CAM nor PDQ levels in multivariable analyses., Conclusion: In this well characterized cohort of ART-treated men living with HIV, bacterial but not fungal translocation was associated with presence of cognitive difficulties. These results need replication in larger samples., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Introduction: Lung cancer is one of the most common cancer malignancies and the principal cause of cancer-associated deaths worldwide. Non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) account for more than 80% of all lung cancer cases. Recent studies showed that the genes of the integrin alpha (α) (ITGA) subfamily play a fundamental role in various cancers. However, little is known about the expression and roles of distinct ITGA proteins in NSCLCs., Methods: Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis and UALCAN (University of ALabama at Birmingham CANcer) web resources and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), ONCOMINE, cBioPortal, GeneMANIA, and Tumor Immune Estimation Resource databases were used to evaluate differential expression, correlations between the expression levels of individual genes, the prognostic value of overall survival (OS) and stage, genetic alterations, protein-protein interactions, and the immune cell infiltration of ITGAs in NSCLCs. We used R (v. 4.0.3) software to conduct gene correlation, gene enrichment, and clinical correlation of RNA sequencing data of 1016 NSCLCs from TCGA. To evaluate the expression of ITGA5/8/9/L at the expression and protein levels, qRT-PCR, immunohistochemistry (IHC), and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) were performed, respectively., Results: Upregulated levels of ITGA11 messenger RNA and downregulated levels of ITGA1/3/5/7/8/9/L/M/X were observed in the NSCLC tissues. Lower expression of ITGA5/6/8/9/10/D/L was discovered to be expressively associated with advanced tumor stage or poor patient prognosis in patients with NSCLC. A high mutation rate (44%) of the ITGA family was observed in the NSCLCs. Gene Ontology functional enrichment analyses results revealed that the differentially expressed ITGAs could be involved in roles related to extracellular matrix (ECM) organization, collagen-containing ECM cellular components, and ECM structural constituent molecular functions. The results of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis revealed that ITGAs may be involved in focal adhesion, ECM-receptor interaction, and amoebiasis; the expression of ITGAs was significantly correlated with the infiltration of diverse immune cells in NSCLCs. ITGA5/8/9/L was also highly correlated with PD-L1 expression. The validation results for marker gene expression in NSCLC tissues by qRT-PCR, IHC, and H&E staining indicated that the expression of ITGA5/8/9/L decreased compared with that in normal tissues., Conclusion: As potential prognostic biomarkers in NSCLCs, ITGA5/8/9/L may fulfill important roles in regulating tumor progression and immune cell infiltration., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Healthcare Ltd., part of Springer Nature.)

The specificity and sensitivity of microRNA (miRNA) detection play a vital role in the early diagnosis of cancer and the treatment of various diseases. Here, we constructed a fluorescent biosensor based on click chemistry-terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (ccTdT) combined with the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas)12a cascade amplification system to achieve ultrasensitive miRNA-21 detection. Target miRNA-21 was employed as a template for click chemistry ligation of two nucleic acid probes, the product of which can be combined with magnetic microbeads (MBs). Then the 3'-end of the ligated nucleic acid and complementary strand miRNA-21 was extended by TdT. The extended poly-T tails activated the trans-cleavage ability of CRISPR/Cas12a, cleaving the reporter gene to generate the fluorescent signal. The proposed biosensor has a wide linear detection range, from 1 pM to 10 5 pM, with detection limits as low as 88 fM under optimal experimental conditions. Hence, this fluorescent biosensor enables simple, sensitive detection of miRNAs and offers a promising analytical platform for clinical diagnostics and biomedical research., 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. and Société Française de Biochimie et Biologie Moléculaire (SFBBM). All rights reserved.)

Baicalein-7-O-glucoside and baicalein-7-O-rhamnoside have been proven to possess many pharmacological activities and are potential candidate drug leads and herb supplements. However, their further development is largely limited due to low content in host plants. Few studies reported that both bioactive plant components are prepared through the bioconversion of baicalein that is considered as the common biosynthetic precursor of both compounds. Herein, we constructed a series of the engineered whole-cell bioconversion systems in which the deletion of competitive genes and the introduction of exogenous UDP-glucose supply pathway, glucosyltransferase, rhamnosyltransferase, and the UDP-rhamnose synthesis pathway are made. Using these engineered strains, the precursor baicalein is able to be transformed into baicalein-7-O-glucoside and baicalein-7-O-rhamnoside, with high-titer production, respectively. The further optimization of fermentation conditions led to the final production of 568.8 mg/L and 877.0 mg/L for baicalein-7-O-glucoside and baicalein-7-O-rhamnoside, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, it is the highest production in preparation of baicalein-7-O-glucoside from baicalein so far, while the preparation of baicalein-7-O-rhamnoside is the first reported via bioconversion approach. Our study provides a reference for the industrial production of high-value products baicalein-7-O-glucoside and baicalein-7-O-rhamnoside using engineered E. coli. KEY POINTS: • Integrated design for improving the intracellular UDP-glucose pool • High production of rare baicalein glycosides in the engineered E. coli • Baicalein-7-O-glucoside and baicalein-7-O-rhamnoside., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Pyroptosis is widely involved in many diseases, including periodontitis. Nonetheless, the functions of pyroptosis-related genes (PRGs) in periodontitis are still not fully elucidated. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the role of PRGs in periodontitis. Three datasets (GSE10334, GSE16134, and GSE173078) from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) were selected to analyze the differences in expression values of the PRGs between nonperiodontitis and periodontitis tissue samples using difference analysis. Following this, five hub PRGs (charged multivesicular body protein 2B, granzyme B, Z-DNA-binding protein 1, interleukin-1 β , and interferon regulatory factor 1) predicting periodontitis susceptibility were screened by establishing a random forest model, and a predictive nomogram model was constructed on the basis of these genes. Decision curve analysis suggested that the PRG-based predictive nomogram model could provide clinical benefits to patients. Three distinct PRG patterns (cluster A, cluster B, and cluster C) in the periodontitis samples were revealed according to the 48 significant PRGs, and the difference in the immune cell infiltration among the three patterns was explored. We observed that all infiltrating immune cells, except type 2 T helper cells, differ significantly among the three patterns. To quantify the PRG patterns, the PRG score was calculated by principal component analysis. According to the results, cluster B had the highest PRG score, followed by cluster A and cluster C. In conclusion, PRGs significantly contribute to the development of periodontitis. Our study of PRG patterns might open up a new avenue to guide individualized treatment plans for patients with periodontitis., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Xiaofan Cheng et al.)

The effects of cooling rate, Ti content, and casting temperature on titanium compounds for high titanium steel were investigated. In-situ observation of high titanium steel during remelting and solidification was carried out by using a High Temperature Confocal Scanning Laser Microscope (HTCSLM), and the observed results were in good agreement with the thermodynamic and kinetic calculations. The observation and calculation results both show that the inclusions in high titanium steel first precipitate in the form of TiN, followed by TiC precipitates as temperature decreases, eventually forming TiCxN1-x type inclusions at room temperature. The initial precipitation temperature of the inclusions increases with the increase of Ti content in molten steel, whereas casting temperature has little effect on the initial precipitation temperature of inclusions. In addition, the size of TiN inclusions increases with the increase of Ti content in steel but decreases with the increase in cooling rate., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Zhu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Purpose: We sought to evaluate the efficacy and safety of plasmin injection in the capsular bag during the cataract operation for the prevention of posterior capsule opacification., Methods: Thirty-seven anterior capsular flaps taken from phacoemulsification surgery were immersed in either 1 µg/mL plasmin (plasmin group, n = 27) or phosphate-buffered saline (control group, n = 10) for 2 minutes and photographed after fixation and nuclear staining to compare the numbers of residual lens epithelial cells. In the animal experiments, the plasmin solution was injected into the capsular bag and remained for 5 minutes during hydrodissection or after lens extraction. The degree of posterior capsular opacity of the rabbits at 2 months were photographed by slit lamp biomicroscopy. In HLE-B3 cell culture, the cell detachment rate, proliferation, and apoptosis after the plasmin digestion were analyzed., Results: The residual lens epithelial cell numbers on the capsule after plasmin treatment were 168 ± 190.7/mm2 in the 1 µg/mL plasmin group, which was significantly lower than that of the control (1012 ± 798.8/mm2; P < 0.0001). In a rabbit model, the treatment of plasmin resulted in a significantly clearer posterior capsule compared with that of the control group at 2 months postoperatively., Conclusions: This study suggested that plasmin injection can induce effective lens epithelial cell detachment, which could be a promising adjunctive treatment to further improve the success rate in posterior capsule opacification prevention., Translational Relevance: Plasmin injection for lens epithelial cell detachment could significantly decrease the number of residual lens epithelial cells. This approach could be a promising treatment incorporating the current treatment approach to further improve the success rate in posterior capsule opacification prevention.

Aqueous zinc metal batteries are appealing candidates for grid energy storage. However, the inadequate electrochemical reversibility of the zinc metal negative electrode inhibits the battery performance at the large-scale cell level. Here, we develop practical ampere-hour-scale aqueous Zn metal battery pouch cells by engineering the electrolyte solution. After identifying the proton reduction as the primary source of H 2 evolution during Zn metal electrodeposition, we design an electrolyte solution containing reverse micelle structures where sulfolane molecules constrain water in nanodomains to hinder proton reduction. Furthermore, we develop and validate an electrochemical testing protocol to comprehensively evaluate the cell's coulombic efficiency and zinc metal electrode cycle life. Finally, using the reverse micelle electrolyte, we assemble and test a practical ampere-hour Zn||Zn 0.25 V 2 O 5 •nH 2 O multi-layer pouch cell capable of delivering an initial energy density of 70 Wh L -1 (based on the volume of the cell components), capacity retention of about 80% after 390 cycles at 56 mA g -1 cathode and ~25 °C and prolonged cycling for 5 months at 56 mA g -1 cathode and ~25 °C., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Purpose: Retinal microvasculature plays an important role in children's fundus lesions and even in their later life. However, little was known on the features of normal retina in early life. The purpose of this study was to explore the normal retinal features in the first 6 years of life and provide information for future research., Methods: Children, aged from birth to 6 years old and diagnosed with various unilateral ocular diseases were included. Venous phase fundus fluorescein angiography images with the optic disc at the center were collected. Based on the ResUNet convolutional neural network, optic disc and retinal vascular features in the posterior retina were computed automatically., Results: A total of 146 normal eyes of 146 children were included. Among different age groups, no changes were shown in the optic disc diameter (y = -0.00002x + 1.362, R 2  = 0.025, p  = 0.058). Retinal vessel density and fractal dimension are linearly and strongly correlated ( r  = 0.979, p  < 0.001). Older children had smaller value of fractal dimension (y = -0.000026x + 1.549, R 2  = 0.075, p  = 0.001) and narrower vascular caliber if they were less than 3 years old (y = -0.008x + 84.861, R 2  = 0.205, p  < 0.001). No differences were in the density (y = -0.000007x + 0.134, R 2  = 0.023, p  = 0.067) and the curvature of retinal vessels (lnC = -0.00001x - 4.657, R 2  = 0.001, p  = 0.667)., Conclusions: Age and gender did not impact the optic disc diameter, vessel density, and vessel curvature significantly in this group of children. Trends of decreased vessel caliber in the first 3 years of life and decreased vessel complexity with age were observed. The structural characteristics provide information for future research to better understand the developmental origin of the healthy and diseased retina., Competing Interests: SL and XW were employed by company EVision Technology (Beijing) Co. LTD. The remaining 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., (© 2023 Liu, Jiang, Cao, Ling, Wang, Bu and Lu.)

Non-thermal plasma (NTP) degradation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into CO 2 and H 2 O is a promising strategy for addressing ever-growing environment pollution. However, its practical implementation is hindered by low conversion efficiency and emissions of noxious by-products. Herein, an advanced low-oxygen-pressure calcination process is developed to fine-tune the oxygen vacancy concentration of MOF-derived TiO 2 nanocrystals. Vo-poor and Vo-rich TiO 2 catalysts were placed in the back of an NTP reactor to convert harmful ozone molecules into ROS that decompose VOCs via heterogeneous catalytic ozonation processes. The results indicate that Vo-TiO 2 -5/NTP with the highest Vo concentration exhibited superior catalytic activity in the degradation of toluene compared to NTP-only and TiO 2 /NTP, achieving a maximum 96% elimination efficiency and 76% CO x selectivity at an SIE of 540 J L -1 . Mechanistic analysis reveals that the 1 O 2 , ˙O 2 - and ˙OH species derived from the activation of O 3 molecules on Vo sites contribute to the decomposition of toluene over the Vo-rich TiO 2 surface. With the aid of advanced characterization and density functional theory calculations, the roles of oxygen vacancies in manipulating the synergistic capability of post-NTP systems were explored, and were attributed to increased O 3 adsorption ability and enhanced charge transfer dynamics. This work presents novel insights into the design of high-efficiency NTP catalysts structured with active Vo sites.

Aims: The heart undergoes pathological remodelling, featured by the hypertrophic growth of cardiomyocytes and increased cardiac fibrosis, under biomechanical stress such as haemodynamic overload. Ring Finger Protein 207 (RNF207) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that is predominantly expressed in the heart, but its function remains elusive. In this study, we aimed to explore the role of RNF207 in the development of pathological cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction., Methods and Results: Transverse aortic constriction (TAC) surgery was performed on mice to induce cardiac hypertrophy. Cardiac function and remodelling were evaluated by echocardiography, histological assessment, and molecular analyses. Our data indicated that RNF207 overexpression (OE) exacerbated cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis, and systolic dysfunction. In contrast, TAC-induced cardiac remodelling was profoundly blunted in RNF207 knockdown (KD) hearts. In line with the in vivo findings, RNF207 OE augmented, whereas RNF207 KD alleviated, phenylephrine-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in vitro. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that RNF207 elicited detrimental effects by promoting K63-linked ubiquitination of TAK1-binding protein 1 (TAB1), which triggered the autophosphorylation of transforming growth factor-β activated kinase 1 (TAK1) and the activation of downstream p38 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)1/2 signalling pathways. In the TAB1-KD cardiomyocytes, RNF207-OE-induced cell hypertrophy was significantly attenuated, indicating that RNF207-induced hypertrophy is, at least in part, TAB1-dependent., Conclusions: This study demonstrates that RNF207 exacerbates pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction via post-translational modification of TAB1., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest : none declared., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Objectives: Bmi1 deficiency has been proved to be able to cause mandibular osteoporosis through suppressing oxidative stress. However, the role of DNA damage response pathway in this pathogenesis had not been well understood. In this study, we investigate whether mandibular osteoporosis induced by Bmi1 deficiency could be rescued by blocked DNA damage response pathway., Methods: The protein expression levels of antioxidant enzymes and DNA damage and damage response pathway molecules in mandibular tissue were examined using Western blots. Double knockout mice that lacked both Bmi1 and Chk2 were generated and their mandibular phenotypes were compared at 6 weeks old to wild-type, Chk2 -/- , and Bmi1 -/- mice using radiograph, micro-CT, histopathology, cellular and molecular techniques., Results: Bmi1 deficiency induces oxidative stress and DNA damage and activates DNA damage response pathways in mouse mandibles. Chk2 deletion rescued mandibular osteoporosis through promoting formation of osteoblastic bone as well as decreasing osteoclastic bone resorption. Mechanistically, Chk2 deletion suppressed oxidative stress, DNA damage, as well as cell senescence. In addition, it boosted proliferation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) that derived from mandible through blocking the DNA damage response pathway., Conclusion: Abolish the expression of Chk2 could rescue Bmi1 deficiency-related mandibular osteoporosis through promoting BM-MSC proliferation and osteoblastic bone formation, reducing osteoclastic bone resorption, decreasing oxidative stress, inhibiting damage of DNA and associated response pathways, suppressing cell senescence as well as senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). These findings offer a theoretical basis for using Chk2 or p53 inhibitors to prevent and treat age-related mandibular osteoporosis., Competing Interests: None., (AJTR Copyright © 2023.)

As an important part of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), hole transporting layer (HTL) has a critical impact on the performance and stability of the devices. In an attempt to alleviate the moisture and thermal stability issues from the commonly used HTL Spiro-OMeTAD with dopant, it is urgent to develop novel HTLs with high stability. In this study, a new class of polymers D18 and D18-Cl are applied as undoped HTL for CsPbI 2 Br-based PSCs. In addition to the excellent hole transporting properties, we unveil that D18 and D18-Cl with larger thermal expansion coefficient than that of CsPbI 2 Br could impose a compressive stress onto the CsPbI 2 Br film upon thermal treatment, which could release the residual tensile stress in the film. As a result, the efficiency of CsPbI 2 Br-based PSCs with D18-Cl as HTL reaches 16.73%, and the fill factor (FF) exceeds 85%, which is one of the highest FF records for the conventional-structured device to date. The devices also show impressive thermal stability with over 80% of the initial PCE retained after 85 °C heating for 1500 h.

Circulating fatty acid-binding protein 3 (FABP3) is an effective biomarker of myocardial injury and peripheral artery disease (PAD). The endothelium, which forms the inner most layer of every blood vessel, is exposed to higher levels of FABP3 in PAD or following myocardial injury, but the pathophysiological role of endothelial FABP3, the effect of FABP3 exposure on endothelial cells, and related mechanisms are unknown. Here, we aimed to evaluate the pathophysiological role of endothelial FABP3 and related mechanisms in vitro. Our molecular and functional in vitro analyses show that (1) FABP3 is basally expressed in endothelial cells; (2) inflammatory stress in the form of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) upregulated endothelial FABP3 expression; (3) loss of endogenous FABP3 protected endothelial cells against LPS-induced endothelial dysfunction; however, exogenous FABP3 exposure exacerbated LPS-induced inflammation; (4) loss of endogenous FABP3 protected against LPS-induced endothelial dysfunction by promoting cell survival and anti-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic signaling pathways. Together, these findings suggest that gain-of endothelial FABP3 exacerbates, whereas loss-of endothelial FABP3 inhibits LPS-induced endothelial dysfunction by promoting cell survival and anti-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic signaling. We propose that an increased circulating FABP3 in myocardial injury or PAD patients may be detrimental to endothelial function, and therefore, therapies aimed at inhibiting FABP3 may improve endothelial function in diseased states., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest The authors declare no conflict of interest with the contents of this article., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)