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Background and purpose: Considering the reliance of serum uric acid (SUA) levels on renal clearance function, its role in stroke outcomes remains controversial. This study investigated the association of renal function–normalized SUA (SUA to serum creatinine ratio, SUA/SCr), a novel renal function index, with the 1‐year outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). Methods: This is a prospective, multicenter observational study. Renal function–normalized SUA levels were determined by calculating the ratio of SUA to SCr. One‐year outcomes included stroke recurrence, all‐cause mortality, and poor prognosis. Multivariable Cox regression analyses and restriction cubic splines for curve fitting were used to evaluate SUA/SCr's association with 1‐year stroke outcomes. Results: Among 2294 enrolled patients, after adjustment for potential confounders, multivariable Cox regression analyses showed that each one‐unit increase in SUA/SCr corresponded to a 19% decrease in 1‐year stroke recurrence in patients with AIS. SUA/SCr was analyzed as a continuous variable and categorized into quartiles (Q1–Q4). Compared with the Q1 reference group, Q2, Q3, and Q4 showed significantly lower 1‐year stroke recurrence risks. The trend test indicated significant differences in the 1‐year stroke recurrence trend from Q1 to Q4. In these patients, SUA/SCr did not show a significant association with poor prognosis or all‐cause mortality. Curve fitting revealed SUA/SCr had a negative but nonlinear association with 1‐year stroke recurrence. Conclusions: In patients with AIS, low SUA/SCr may be an independent risk factor for 1‐year stroke recurrence. Changes in SUA/SCr had no significant impact on 1‐year poor prognosis and all‐cause mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The herbal Poria cocos -Liquorice drug pair (PLDP) possesses the ability to be a diuretic, stimulating the spleen and benefiting the kidney, which plays an important role in the treatment of Henoch–Schönlein purpura nephritis (HSPN). However, the mechanism of action is unknown. Objectives: Through the method of network pharmacology, this research sought to determine the mechanism of PLDP against HSPN. Materials and Methods: The screening of active ingredients in PLDP was conducted by Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology (TCMSP) databases, while their targets were obtained from the TCMSP and Swiss Target Prediction (STP) databases. The genes of HSPN were searched by OMIM, DisGeNET, and GeneCards databases. Then, the common targets of active ingredients in PLDP and HSPN were mapped by Venn analysis. To get the main targets, the researchers utilized the STRING database to construct the protein–protein interaction (PPI) network of the common targets. Then, the function of gene ontology (GO) and the enrichment of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway of the main targets were examined on the Metascape database to identify the molecular mechanism of PLDP against HSPN. The most relevant signaling pathways with HSPN screened from the top 20 pathways were defined as the key pathways. Finally, the "active ingredient-main target-key pathway" network was built in order to identify the core targets and key active ingredients of PLDP against HSPN. Results: There were 101 active ingredients and 360 targets for PLDP. One hundred and fifty-seven genes for HSPN and 35 common targets between PLDP and HSPN were identified. Through the "active ingredient-main target-key pathway" network, quercetin, kaempferol, polyporenic acid C, dehydrotumulosic acid, poricoic acid A, and naringenin were identified as key active ingredients; TNF, NOS3, RELA, AKT1, ICAM1, and IFNG were identified as core targets; and the key pathways include TNF signaling pathways, HIF-1 signaling pathways, and IL-17 signaling pathways. Conclusion: The research initially investigated the pathways, active ingredients, and targets involved in PLDP against HSPN. The mechanism appears to be linked to its immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties, thus establishing a scientific foundation for further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index is reported to be related to poor functional outcomes and all-cause mortality post-stroke. However, the association between TyG index and recurrent stroke after acute ischemic stroke (AIS) has not been well described. We aimed to identify whether the TyG index was associated with 1-year recurrent stroke after AIS. Methods: Baseline patient information was collected at admission, and the TyG index was calculated. Recurrent stroke events were followed up at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after diagnosis. We then examined the association between the TyG index and risk of 1-year recurrent stroke using multivariable Cox regression models and restricted cubic spline analyses. Results: Among 2,288 participants, the mean TyG index was 8.8 ± 0.7. Those in the fourth quartile (Q4) demonstrated higher recurrent stroke risk than those in Q1 (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.63; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.98–2.72; p = 0.059). Subgroup analysis revealed a sex-specific association between TyG index and recurrent stroke (p for interaction = 0.022). Additionally, restricted cubic splines analyses showed a nonlinear association between the TyG index and 1-year recurrent stroke. In females, patients in the Q4 had a 2.95-fold increased recurrent stroke risk than did patients in the Q1 (adjusted HR = 2.95; 95% CI: 1.09–7.94; p = 0.032); the risk increased when the TyG index was >8.73. However, no significant correlation was observed in males. Conclusion: A nonlinear association was found between the TyG index and 1-year recurrent stroke risk. Subsequently, a high TyG index could predict an increased 1-year recurrent stroke risk in female AIS patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Picking out the impurities" is a typical scenario in production line which is both time consuming and laborious. In this article, we propose a target-oriented robotic push-grasping system which is able to actively discover and pick the impurities in dense environments with the synergies between pushing and grasping actions. First, we propose an attention module, which includes target saliency detection and density-based occluded-region inference. Without the necessity of expensive labeling of semantic segmentation, our attention module can quickly locate the targets in the view or predict the candidate regions where the targets are most likely to be occluded. Second, we propose a push–grasp synergy framework to sequentially select proper actions in different situations until all targets are picked out. Moreover, we introduce an active pushing mechanism based on a novel metric, namely Target-Centric Dispersion Degree (TCDD) for better grasping. TCDD describes whether the targets are isolated from the surrounding objects. With this metric, the robot becomes more focused on the actions around the targets and push irrelevant objects away. Experimental results on both simulated environment and real-world environment show that our proposed system outperforms several baseline approaches,which also has the capability to be generalized to new scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic study using density functional theory has been performed for β-Ga2O3 doped with non-metal elements X (X = C, N, F, Si, P, S, Cl, Se, Br, and I) to evaluate the effect of doping on the band edges and photocatalytic activity of β-Ga2O3. The utilization of a more reliable hybrid density functional, as prescribed by Heyd, Scuseria and Ernzerhof, is found to be effective in predicting the band gap of β-Ga2O3 (4.5 eV), in agreement with the experimental result (4.59 eV). Based on the relaxed structures of X-doped systems, the defect formation energies and the plots of density of states have been calculated to analyze the band edges, the band gap states and the preferred doping sites. Our results show that the doping is energetically favored under Ga-rich growth conditions with respect to O-rich growth conditions. It is easier to replace the threefold coordinated O atom with non-metal elements compared to the fourfold coordinated O atom. X-doped systems (X = C, Si, P) show no change in the band gap, with the presence of discrete midgap states, which have adverse effect on the photocatalytic properties. The photocatalytic redox ability can be improved to a certain extent by doping with N, S, Cl, Se, Br, and I. The band alignments for Se-doped and I-doped β-Ga2O3 are well positioned for the feasibility of both photo-oxidation and photo-reduction of water, which are promising photocatalysts for water splitting in the visible region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) is a medical condition characterized by sudden blockage of the central retinal artery, which leads to a significant and often irreversible loss of vision. Observational studies have indicated that diabetes mellitus is a risk factor for CRAO; however, there is no research on the causal relationship between diabetes mellitus, particularly type 2 diabetes, and CRAO. This study aimed to perform Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to clarify the causal relationship between type 2 diabetes and CRAO., Methods: Genetic variants associated with type 2 diabetes were selected from two different datasets. A recent genome-wide association study of CRAO conducted using the FinnGen database was used as the outcome data. A two-sample MR was performed to evaluate the causal relationship between type 2 diabetes and CRAO. Inverse variance weighting was the primary method, and MR-Egger, maximum likelihood, and median weighting were used as complementary methods. A multivariate MR (MVMR) analysis was performed to further evaluate the robustness of the results. Cochran's Q test, MR-Egger intercept test, and MR-PRESSO global test were used for the sensitivity analyses., Results: Genetically predicted type 2 diabetes was causally associated with CRAO(odds ratio [OR] =2.108, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.221-3.638, P=7.423×10 -3 ), which was consistent with the results from the validation dataset (OR=1.398, 95%CI: 1.015-1.925, P=0.040). The MVMR analysis suggested that type 2 diabetes may be an independent risk factor for CRAO (adjusted OR=1.696; 95%CI=1.150-2.500; P=7.655×10 -3 ), which was assumed by the validation dataset (adjusted OR=1.356; 95%CI=1.015-1.812; P=0.039)., Conclusion: Our results show that genetically predicted type 2 diabetes may be causally associated with CRAO in European populations. This suggests that preventing and controlling type 2 diabetes may reduce the risk of CRAO., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Liu, Lu, Liu, Lin, Peng, Lu, Guo, Liu, Zhang and Wu.)

Methionine (MET) dependence is the elevated requirement of cancer cells for MET. Cancer cells are arrested when MET is restricted in late S/G 2 phase of the cell cycle. MET dependence may be the only known general metabolic defect in cancer. This chapter reviews the in vivo efficacy of dietary MET restriction (MR) to arrest human-cancer cell-line tumors and mouse tumors in nude mice. Human cancer xenografts in nude mice, when fed a MET-free diet, had greatly inhibited tumor growth. The body weight of mice on the MET-free diet was found to be maintainable by once-per-week administration of MET. These results suggested that MET dependence can be an important target for human cancer treatment. Yoshida sarcoma in nude mice on a MET-depleted diet regressed. MET depletion resulted in the extended survival of the tumor-bearing mice. These experiments are a prelude to further clinical studies of the efficacy of MR diets on cancer patients.