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ObjectiveTo investigate the prevalence of dental caries among preschool children in Chongming District， Shanghai， and to analyze the related factors influencing dental caries in preschool children in Chongming District， in order to provide references and suggestions for the prevention of dental caries in preschool children in Chongming District.MethodsFrom January to April 2022， 939 preschool children from 5 kindergartens in Chongming District of Shanghai were selected as the research objects through random cluster sampling. The dental caries prevalence rate and related risk factors of dental caries in preschool children were studied through oral examinations and questionnaire surveys.ResultsThe prevalence rate of dental caries among the 939 preschool children was 45.69%. The prevalence of dental caries in preschool children was not related to gender but increased with age （P

ObjectiveTo investigate the characteristics of serum perfluoroalkyl substances （PFASs） exposure and potential influencing factors among community residents in Songjiang District， Shanghai.MethodsIn August 2021， residents who underwent routine health checkups in a community in Songjiang District， Shanghai were recruited as study subjects. The inclusion criteria were adult residents who had lived in the area for more than 3 years， had no occupational exposure history， no underlying diseases， were not pregnant， and were able to complete the questionnaire independently and sign the informed consent form. A questionnaire survey was conducted and venous blood samples were collected. The concentrations of 15 PFASs in serum were determined using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry （UPLC-MS/MS）. Ordered multi-class logistic regression， interquartile range （IQR）， and odds ratio （OR） were used to explore the influencing factors and risk magnitude of serum PFASs concentrations.ResultsOf the 15 PFASs， 14 were detected， and the detection rates of 7 PFASs were higher than 50%. The highest detected concentrations among the PFASs were PFOS （perfluorooctane sulfonate）， PFOA （perfluorooctanoic acid）， and PFHxS （perfluorohexane sulfonate）， with median concentrations of 48.61 μg∙L-1， 37.29 μg∙L-1， and 36.51 μg∙L-1， respectively. The strongest correlation was between PFDA and PFUnDA （r=0.93， P

Objective·To investigate the relationship between egocentrism and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among junior high school students, with a focus on the mediating role of depression symptoms.Methods·Data were collected from the Chengdu Positive Youth Development Cohort from June to July 2020, with a sample of 3 014 junior high school students. The Chinese Adolescent Egocentrism Scale (CAES), Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory (DSHI), and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC) were used for on-site questionnaires. The survey data were entered, organized, and analyzed by using SPSS 23.0 software. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between egocentrism and NSSI in junior middle school students, and the mediating effect of depressive symptoms was examined by deviation-corrected non-parametric percentile Bootstrap method.Results·Egocentrism was significantly positively correlated with depression symptoms and NSSI. Egocentrism was significantly positively correlated with depression symptoms (r=0.15, P=0.000), depression symptoms were significantly positively correlated with NSSI (r=0.48, P=0.000), and egocentrism was positively correlated with NSSI (r=0.14, P=0.000 ). Egocentrism significantly predicted NSSI (R2=0.06, P=0.000). Within egocentrism, self-conceitedness significantly positively predicted NSSI with a regression coefficient of R2=0.05, while disregarding others significantly negatively predicted NSSI with R2=0.01. Depression symptoms have a significant positive predictive effect on NSSI, R2＝0.25. Depression symptoms are observed to partially mediate the relationship between egocentrism and NSSI. The direct effect value of egocentrism on NSSI was 0.20 (95%CI 0.06‒0.34, P=0.000). The indirect effect value of egocentrism on NSSI via depression symptoms was 0.29 (95%CI 0.04‒0.10, P=0.000). The mediating effect of depression symptoms accounted for 59.18% of the total effect value.Conclusion·Lowering levels of self-conceitedness and increasing the tendency to disregard others within junior high school students' egocentrism will mitigate the risk of NSSI. Prevention efforts targeting NSSI among junior high school students should focus on individuals displaying depression symptoms.

Soil salinity poses a major threat to plant growth and food security. Seed germination are more sensitive to salinity stress. In this study, sorghum, wheat, tomato and peanut were used to analyze and evaluate (using the membership function method) the salt tolerance at the germination with three exogenous substances - Conyza Canadensis water extract (CCE), ascorbic acid (AsA), and gibberellin (GA3). At the germination stage, the germination rate, the germination energy and the germination vigor index are measured and the membership function values (MFVs) are calculated. After salt-tolerant analysis and evaluation, the sequence of salt tolerance is sorghum ≈ wheat > tomato > peanut. AsA and GA3 can significantly improve the salt tolerance of crops(P

Cefoperazone/sulbactam (CSL) and piperacillin/tazobactam (TZP) are commonly used in clinical practice in China because of their excellent antimicrobial activity. CSL and TZP-nonsusceptible Enterobacteriaceae are typically resistant to extended-spectrum cephalosporins such as ceftriaxone (CRO). However, 11 nonrepetitive Enterobacteriaceae strains, which were resistant to CSL and TZP yet susceptible to CRO, were collected from January to December 2020. Antibiotic susceptibility tests and whole-genome sequencing were conducted to elucidate the mechanism for this rare phenotype. Antibiotic susceptibility tests showed that all isolates were amoxicillin/clavulanic-acid resistant and sensitive to ceftazidime, cefepime, cefepime/tazobactam, cefepime/zidebactam, ceftazidime/avibactam, and ceftolozane/tazobactam. Whole-genome sequencing revealed three of seven Klebsiella pneumoniae strains harbored blaSHV-1 only, and four harbored blaSHV-1 and blaTEM-1B. Two Escherichia coli strains carried blaTEM-1B only, while two Klebsiella oxytoca isolates harbored blaOXY-1-3 and blaOXY-1-1, respectively. No mutation in the β-lactamase gene and promoter sequence was found. Outer membrane protein (Omp) gene detection revealed that numerous missense mutations of OmpK36 and OmpK37 were found in all strains of K. pneumoniae. Numerous missense mutations of OmpK36 and OmpK35 and OmpK37 deficiency were found in one K. oxytoca strain, and no OmpK gene was found in the other. No Omp mutations were found in E. coli isolates. These results indicated that narrow spectrum β-lactamases, TEM-1, SHV-1, and OXY-1, alone or in combination with Omp mutation, contributed to the resistance to CSL and TZP in CRO-susceptible Enterobacteriaceae.

Nucleotide changes in gene regulatory elements are important determinants of neuronal development and diseases. Using massively parallel reporter assays in primary human cells from mid-gestation cortex and cerebral organoids, we interrogated the cis-regulatory activity of 102,767 open chromatin regions, including thousands of sequences with cell type-specific accessibility and variants associated with brain gene regulation. In primary cells, we identified 46,802 active enhancer sequences and 164 variants that alter enhancer activity. Activity was comparable in organoids and primary cells, suggesting that organoids provide an adequate model for the developing cortex. Using deep learning we decoded the sequence basis and upstream regulators of enhancer activity. This work establishes a comprehensive catalog of functional gene regulatory elements and variants in human neuronal development.

The increasing prevalence of dementia and cognitive impairments in the aging global population poses significant challenges to healthcare and society. Detecting cognitive impairment is crucial for managing diseases like Alzheimer's, yet current research faces limitations such as reliance on cross-sectional studies and a lack of understanding of causal relationships. In response, our study introduces a dynamic causal graph-based learning approach for predicting cognitive impairment risk in middle-aged and older adults. Employing a longitudinal perspective, we uncover causal structures through causal discovery methods, offering profound insights into cognitive changes over time. Our model, utilizing dynamic input variables, outperforms traditional algorithms while enhancing interpretability. This innovative approach not only improves prediction accuracy but also contributes to a deeper comprehension of the causal mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment. The longitudinal insight offers a comprehensive understanding of evolving factors associated with cognitive changes, making our model valuable for both research and practical applications.

Eichhornia crassipes is an aquatic plant native to the Amazon River Basin. It has become a serious weed in freshwater habitats in rivers, lakes and reservoirs both in tropical and warm temperate areas worldwide. Some research has stated that it can be used for water phytoremediation, due to its strong assimilation of nitro- gen and phosphorus, and the accumulation of heavy metals, and its growth and spread may play an important role in environmental ecology. In order to explore the molecular mechanism of E. crassipes to responses to nitrogen deficiency, we constructed forward and reversed subtracted cDNA libraries for E. crassipes roots under nitrogen deficient condition using a suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) method. The forward subtraction included 2 100 clones, and the reversed included 2 650 clones. One thousand clones were randomly selected from each library for sequencing. About 737 (527 unigenes) clones from the forward library and 757 (483 unigenes) clones from the reversed library were informative. Sequence BlastX analysis showed that there were more transporters and adenosylhomocysteinase-like proteins in E. crassipes cultured in nitrogen deficient medium; while, those cultured in nitrogen replete medium had more proteins such as UBR4-like e3 ubiquitin- protein ligase and fasciclin-like arabinogalactan protein 8-like, as well as more cytoskeletal proteins, including actin and tubulin. Cluster of Orthologous Group (COG) analysis also demonstrated that in the forward library, the most ESTs were involved in coenzyme transportation and metabolism. In the reversed library, cytoskeletal ESTs were the most abundant. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis categories demonstrated that unigenes involved in binding, cellular process and electron carrier were the most differentially expressed unigenes between the forward and reversed libraries. All these results suggest that E. crassipes can respond to different nitrogen status by efficiently regulating and controlling some transporter gene expressions, certain metabolism processes, specific signal transduction pathways and cytoskeletal construction.

As our closest living relatives, non-human primates uniquely enable explorations of human health, disease, development, and evolution. Considerable effort has thus been devoted to generating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from multiple non-human primate species. Here, we establish improved culture methods for chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and pig-tailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina) iPSCs. Such iPSCs spontaneously differentiate in conventional culture conditions, but can be readily propagated by inhibiting endogenous WNT signaling. As a unique functional test of these iPSCs, we injected them into the pre-implantation embryos of another non-human species, rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Ectopic expression of gene BCL2 enhances the survival and proliferation of chimpanzee and pig-tailed macaque iPSCs within the pre-implantation embryo, although the identity and long-term contribution of the transplanted cells warrants further investigation. In summary, we disclose transcriptomic and proteomic data, cell lines, and cell culture resources that may be broadly enabling for non-human primate iPSCs research.