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In order to elucidate the possibility of the formation and enzymatic dissociation of worm-like micelles (WLMs) from long-chain alkanoylcholines (LCACs), strategies of fabrication and butyrylcholine esterase (BChE)-catalyzed dissociation of LCAC-based WLMs have been developed. Three LCACs with different hydrophobic tail lengths, namely dodecanoylcholine bromide (DCB), myristoylcholine bromide (MCB), and palmitoylcholine bromide (PCB), have been used as model cationic surfactants. It was demonstrated that the hydrophobic tail length of an LCAC played an important role in the formation of WLMs. With the assistance of sodium salicylate (NaSal), DCB proved to be incapable of efficiently forming WLMs, whereas MCB and PCB performed well. PCB-based WLMs have also been fabricated with the aid of NaNO 3. To fabricate WLMs at a surfactant concentration of 0.1 mol L−1, the optimal molar ratio of the additive (NaSal and NaNO 3) to the surfactant (MCB and PCB) was around 0.83 (NaSal/MCB), 0.63 (NaSal/PCB) and 20 (NaNO 3 /PCB), respectively. The respective average diameters of the WLMs were about 4.11 nm (MCB-NaSal), 4.82 nm (PCB-NaSal), and 4.51 nm (PCB-NaNO 3). Meanwhile, the respective zero-shear viscosities of the WLMs were about 5.38 × 102 mPa s (MCB-NaSal), 1.81 × 105 mPa s (PCB-NaSal), and 7.35 × 104 mPa s (PCB-NaNO 3). Jelly-like PCB-NaSal and PCB-NaNO 3 WLMs underwent efficient dissociation through a BChE-catalyzing strategy under mild conditions of pH 7.4 and 37 °C. Its chemical principle was a hydrolysis reaction of PCB catalyzed by BChE. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Migratory species' resilience to landscape changes depends on spatial patterns of habitat degradation in relation to their migratory movements, such as the distance between breeding and non-breeding areas, and the location and width of migration corridors.Objectives: We investigated to what extent the impact of habitat degradation depended on the seasonal distributions of migratory waterfowl.Methods: Using logistic regression, we selected wetland sites for eight waterfowl species in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF) by calculating the probabilities of species occurrence per wetland site in relation to environmental factors. We quantified landscape metrics related to habitat degradation within these wetland sites. We used general linear models to test for differences in the effects of habitat degradation on waterfowl species with different migration extents and at different latitudes.Results: The patterns of habitat degradation differed spatially across the EAAF and affected species to a different degree. Species with shorter and broader migration corridors (Anser cygnoid and A. anser) could benefit from improved habitat conditions in the west of the EAAF. Species with longer and narrower migration corridors (Cygnus columbianus, A. fabalis, A. albifrons, A. erythropus, Anas crecca, and Anas acuta) were under higher risk of habitat degradation in the coastal regions of China and Japan.Conclusions: Migratory species with longer and narrower migration corridors are more affected by habitat degradation, because they might have fewer alternative stopover sites at similar latitude. Our findings improve the understanding of species-specific effects of environmental changes on migratory species, and defines critical and endangered wetland sites, and vulnerable species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most common symptom of bladder cancer (BC) is hematuria. However, not all patients with hematuria are diagnosed with BC. Here, we explored a novel method to discriminate BC from hematuria under nonmalignant conditions by measuring differences in urinary cell‐free microRNA (miRNA) expression between patients with BC and those with hematuria. A multicenter study was performed using 543 urine samples obtained from the National Biobank of Korea, including 326 BC, 174 hematuria and 43 pyuria without cancer. The urinary miR‐6124 to miR‐4511 ratio was considerably higher in BC than in hematuria or pyuria, and enabled the discrimination of BC from patients with hematuria at a sensitivity of >90% (p < 0.001). Conclusively, the proposed noninvasive diagnostic tool based on the expression ratio of urinary cell‐free miR‐6124 to miR‐4511 can reduce unnecessary cystoscopies in patients with hematuria undergoing evaluation for BC, with a minimal loss in sensitivity for detecting cancer. What's new? Noninvasive urinary biomarkers are promising tools for distinguishing nonmalignant hematuria from hematuria associated with bladder cancer during primary patient evaluation. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which function as oncogenes or tumor suppressors in cancer and are highly stable in body fluids, are emerging markers for this purpose. In the present study, the expression ratio between two urinary cell‐free miRNAs, miR‐6124 and miR‐4511, was found to be significantly higher in patients with bladder cancer than in those with hematuria or pyuria. The findings suggest that noninvasive assessment of miR‐6124/miR‐4511 expression ratio could help prevent unnecessary cystoscopy procedures when discriminating benign from malignant hematuria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Low bone mineral density is the major prognostic factor for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Accumulating evidence suggests that gut microbiota (GM) have the potential to affect bone development, and the GM signatures are altered in AIS patients. However, the effect of GM alterations on aberrant bone homeostasis in AIS remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the GM profile in AIS patients with different bone mineral density (BMD) and explore the association between GM, osteopenia, and aberrant bone turnover. Methods: A total of 126 patients with AIS who received surgical treatment were retrospectively included in this study. We analyzed the composition of the GM by 16S rRNA sequencing and BMD by dual X‐ray absorptiometry. Based on the BMD of the femur neck, the patients were divided into the osteopenia group (OPN) if the Z score < −1, and the normal (NOR) group if the Z score ≥ −1 SD compared to the healthy control. For the 16S rRNA sequencing, the raw reads were filtered to remove low‐quality reads, and operational taxonomic units were identified with the Uparse program. Weighted UniFrac distance matrix for the beta‐diversity metrics and principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) was performed, and the statistical comparisons were made with permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) and analysis of similarity (ANONISM). Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) was used to identify the enriched species in two groups. The "Random forest" was applied to determine the optimal biomarker for OPN according to the mean decrease in Gini value. The metabolic function was predicted by the Tax4Fun analysis. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the associations between GM species, bone turnover markers, and BMD. Results: The serum β‐CTX was increased in the OPN group (n = 67) compared to the NOR group (n = 59). Patients in OPN groups showed significantly decreased α diversity indicated by the Shannon index. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) analysis showed significant clustering of GM between OPN and NOR groups. At genus level, the Escherichia‐Shigella and Faecalibacterium were significantly enriched in the OPN group compared to that in the NOR group (p < 0.05), whereas the abundance of Prevotella was significantly decreased (p = 0.0012). The relative abundance of Megamonas and Prevotella was positively correlated with the femur BMD. The abundance of Escherichia‐Shigella was negatively correlated with femur BMD and positively correlated with serum β‐CTX levels. Functional analysis revealed significant differences in starch and sucrose metabolism, pyruvate and cysteine, and methionine metabolism between NOR and OPN groups. Conclusion: The alterations of GM in AIS patients are correlated with osteopenia. The association between enriched species, BMD, and bone turnover markers provides novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets for the clinical management of AIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying influential nodes has drawn great attention in recent years. In this paper, a novel method for identifying influential spreaders based on potential edge weights (WDK for simplicity) for both undirected and unweighted networks is proposed. Degree and k -shell of a node and its neighbors are considered simultaneously, which are regarded as the weight of the edge directly connected to the node. The algorithm considers not only the local information of nodes but also their location information. The proposed method not only improves the accuracy of node mining but also has approximately linear time complexity, which indicates that the proposed method is suitable for large-scale networks. In order to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, different evaluation indexes are introduced in nine real networks. Compared with five classical key nodes identification methods, the experimental results show that the proposed method performs optimally in all networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]