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Background and Aims: Bile acids, the key products for elimination of cholesterol, play an important role in coronary artery disease (CAD). However, few studies focused on the roles of more accessible serum total bile acids (TBA) in the prediction of adverse cardiovascular events for coronary chronic artery occlusion (CTO). The aim of this study was to explore the potential relationship between serum TBA and long-term prognosis in patients with CTO undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)., Methods: Baseline TBA was determined in 613 patients with CTO after PCI in the present study. All patients were divided into 3 groups according to the median (3.5  μ mol/l) and the normal upper limit of the TBA (10  μ mol/l). The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality, and the secondary endpoint was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE)., Results: Average age in this study was 65.44 ± 9.94 years old. The median of TBA was 3.5 (2.1-6.1)  μ mol/l. Over a median follow-up of 33.5 months, compared to those with below 3.5  μ mol/l TBA, 3.5 ~ 10  μ mol/l TBA was associated with significantly reduced risk for the MACE (hazard ratio (HR): 0.59, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.40 to 0.88; p = 0.009) even after adjustment for baseline variables. However, TBA did not predict all-cause mortality and cardiovascular death. Spline analyses showed an L-shaped relationship of the serum TBA with the incidence of MACE., Conclusions: Moderate fasting serum TBA level has a predictive value for MACE even after adjusting for lifestyle and clinical risk factors in CTO patients undergoing PCI., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to report., (Copyright © 2022 Xinchun Zeng et al.)

Agricultural fields are severely contaminated with polyethylene mulching film (PMF) and this plastic in the natural environment can be colonized by biofilm-forming microorganisms that differ from those in the surrounding environment. In this study, we investigated the succession of the soil microbial communities in the PMF plastisphere using an artificial micro-ecosystem as well as exploring the degradation of PMF by plastisphere communities. The results indicated a significant and gradual decrease in the alpha diversity of the bacterial communities in the plastisphere and surrounding liquid. The community compositions in the plastisphere and surrounding liquid differed significantly from that in agricultural soil. Phyla and genera with the capacity to degrade polyethylene and hydrocarbon were enriched in the plastisphere, and some of these microorganisms were core members of the plastisphere community. Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) analysis detected increases in metabolism pathways for PMF plastisphere Xenobiotics Biodegradation and Metabolism, thereby suggesting the possibility of polyethylene degradation in the plastisphere. Observations by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy demonstrated the formation of biofilms on the incubated PMF. SEM, atomic force microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and water contact angle detected significant changes in the surface microstructure, chemical composition and hydrophobicity change of the films, thereby suggesting that the plastisphere community degraded PMF during incubation. In conclusion, this study provides insights into the changes in agricultural soil microorganisms in the PMF plastisphere and the degradation of PMF., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aims: This study is to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of a "double-layer" mode of super pulse fractional CO 2 laser and a combined treatment of pinprick therapy with fractional CO 2 laser for the treatment of atrophic acne scars., Methods: A split-face and self-contrast method was applied. A total of 20 patients with atrophic acne scars randomly received the above mentioned therapy on the left or right side of the cheek for 3 times with an interval of 3 months. ECCA scores, IVA scores, patients' satisfaction, VAS scores, and adverse reactions were evaluated., Results: Atrophic acne scars on both sides of the cheek were improved obviously. The ECCA scores showed a significant decrease, while IVA scores significantly increased. Compared with the super pulse fractional CO 2 laser group, the decrease of ECCA scores, the increase of IVA scores, and the patients' satisfaction were significantly higher and improvement on V-shaped and U-shaped acne scars was significantly better in the combined treatment group. No patients had severe adverse reactions such as blister, infection, or hypertrophic scars., Conclusions: Super pulse fractional CO 2 laser and pinprick treatment combined with fractional CO 2 laser are both safe and effective therapy for the treatment of atrophic acne scars., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, LLC.)

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) with two-dimensional lamellar structures show excellent electrocatalytic properties. However, the catalytic activity of LDHs needs to be further improved as the large lateral size and thickness of the bulk material limit the number of exposed active sites. However, the development of efficient strategies to exfoliate bulk LDHs into stable monolayer LDH nanosheets with more exposed active sites is very challenging. On the other hand, the intrinsic activity of monolayer LDH nanosheets can be tuned by surface engineering. Herein, we have exfoliated bulk CoFe LDHs into ultrathin LDH nanosheets through Ar plasma etching, which also resulted in the formation of multiple vacancies (including O, Co, and Fe vacancies) in the ultrathin 2D nanosheets. Owing to their ultrathin 2D structure, the LDH nanosheets expose a greater number of active sites, and the multiple vacancies significantly improve the intrinsic activity in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER)., (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)