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Fusarium pathogens and their mycotoxins are considered as the main threats to cereal production and food safety worldwide. However, due to the constant discovery of new Fusarium species especially along with mycotoxin production profile differentiation in certain species, efforts on their species composition, geographical distribution, and chemotype proportion are urgently required. In the Fusarium goolgardi species, two distinct trichothecene (TB) genotype populations have recently been identified. Previous studies have shown that the structural variance of TBs biosynthesized by the two genotypes is attributed to the Tri1 gene. Polymorphisms of Tri1 gene from type A TB-producers were investigated in different Fusarium species in the current study. According to these DNA sequence variations identified in Tri1 gene sequences, a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) based diagnostic approach for the differentiation of T-2 and 4,15-diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS) genotypes in F. goolgardi was successfully developed. The PCR-RFLP assay will facilitate the studies on geographic distribution, frequency and other aspects of the two genotypes within F. goolgardi species.

Abstract Six Transmembrane Epithelial Antigen of Prostate 2 (STEAP2) belongs to a family of metalloreductases, which indirectly aid in uptake of iron and copper ions. Its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains to be characterized. Here, we report that STEAP2 expression was upregulated in HCC tumors compared with paired adjacent non-tumor tissues by RNA sequencing, RT-qPCR, Western blotting, and immunostaining. Public HCC datasets demonstrated upregulated STEAP2 expression in HCC and positive association with tumor grade. Transient and stable knockdown (KD) of STEAP2 in HCC cell lines abrogated their malignant phenotypes in vitro and in vivo, while STEAP2 overexpression showed opposite effects. STEAP2 KD in HCC cells led to significant alteration of genes associated with extracellular matrix organization, cell adhesion/chemotaxis, negative enrichment of an invasiveness signature gene set, and inhibition of cell migration/invasion. STEAP2 KD reduced intracellular copper levels and activation of stress-activated MAP kinases including p38 and JNK. Treatment with copper rescued the reduced HCC cell migration due to STEAP2 KD and activated p38 and JNK. Furthermore, treatment with p38 or JNK inhibitors significantly inhibited copper-mediated cell migration. Thus, STEAP2 plays a malignant-promoting role in HCC cells by driving migration/invasion via increased copper levels and MAP kinase activities. Our study uncovered a novel molecular mechanism contributing to HCC malignancy and a potential therapeutic target for HCC treatment.

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a prevalent mycotoxin present in feed ingredients. In this study, we investigated the effects of Lactobacillus salivarius (L. salivarius) on the Landes geese exposed to AFB1. The 300 one-day-old Landes geese were randomly divided into five groups: The control group received a basic diet, while the other groups were fed a basic diet supplemented with 10 μg/kg AFB1, 10 μg/kg AFB1+ 4*108 cfu/g L. salivarius, 50 μg/kg AFB1, and 50 μg/kg AFB1 + 4*108 cfu/g L. salivarius for 63 d. Results showed that high level AFB1 exposure significantly decreased final BW and ADG, increased feed/gain ratio (F/G) and liver index (P < 0.05). L. salivarius improved levels of IL-1, IL-6, and IL-12 under low level of AFB1 exposure (P < 0.05), along with similar trends observed in serum IgA, IgG, IgM, T3, T4, TNF-ɑ, and EDT (P < 0.05). AFB1 exposure reduced jejunum villus high and villus high/crypt depth ratio, and suppressed expression of ZO-1, Occludin, and Claudin-1 mRNA, and significant improved with L. salivarius supplementation under low level AFB1 exposure (P < 0.05). AFB1 significantly increased expression levels of TLR3 and NF-kB1, with supplementation of L. salivarius showing significant improvement under low AFB1 exposure (P < 0.05). Cecal microbiota sequencing revealed that under low level AFB1 exposure, supplementation with L. salivarius increased the abundance of Bacteroidetes and Lactococcus. In summary, supplementation with 4*108 cfu/g L. salivarius under 10 μg/kg AFB1 exposure improved growth performance and immune capacity, enhanced jejunum morphology, reduced liver inflammation, altered the cecal microbial structure, and positively affected the growth and development of geese.

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is commonly found in feed ingredients and foods all over the world, posing a significant threat to food safety and public health in animals and humans. Lactobacillus salivarius (L. salivarius) was recorded to improve the intestinal health and performance of chickens. However, whether L. salivarius can alleviate AFB1-induced hepatotoxicity in geese was unknown. A total of 300 Lande geese were randomly assigned to five groups: control group, AFB1 low-dose group (L), L. salivarius+AFB1 low-dose group (LL), AFB1 high dosage groups (H), L. salivarius+AFB1 high dosage groups (LH), respectively. The results showed that the concentrations of ALT, AST, and GGT significantly increased after exposure to AFB1. Similarly, severe damage of hepatic morphology was observed including the hepatic structure injury and inflammatory cell infiltration. The oxidative stress was evidenced by the elevated concentrations of MDA, and decreased activities of GSH-Px, GSH and SOD. The observation of immunofluorescence, real-time PCR, and western blotting showed that the expression of PINK1 and the value of LC3II/LC3I were increased, but that of p62 significantly decreased after AFB1 exposure. Moreover, the supplementation of L. salivarius effectively improved the geese performance, ameliorated AFB1-induced oxidative stress, inhibited mitochondrial mitophagy and enhanced the liver restoration to normal level. The present study demonstrated that L. salivarius ameliorated AFB1-induced the hepatotoxicity by decreasing the oxidative stress, and regulating the expression of PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy in the mitochondria of the geese liver. Furthermore, this investigation suggested that L. salivarius might serve as a novel and safe additive for preventing AFB1 contamination in poultry feed.

Abstract Background The accurate detection of eyelid tumors is essential for effective treatment, but it can be challenging due to small and unevenly distributed lesions surrounded by irrelevant noise. Moreover, early symptoms of eyelid tumors are atypical, and some categories of eyelid tumors exhibit similar color and texture features, making it difficult to distinguish between benign and malignant eyelid tumors, particularly for ophthalmologists with limited clinical experience. Methods We propose a hybrid model, HM_ADET, for automatic detection of eyelid tumors, including YOLOv7_CNFG to locate eyelid tumors and vision transformer (ViT) to classify benign and malignant eyelid tumors. First, the ConvNeXt module with an inverted bottleneck layer in the backbone of YOLOv7_CNFG is employed to prevent information loss of small eyelid tumors. Then, the flexible rectified linear unit (FReLU) is applied to capture multi-scale features such as texture, edge, and shape, thereby improving the localization accuracy of eyelid tumors. In addition, considering the geometric center and area difference between the predicted box (PB) and the ground truth box (GT), the GIoU_loss was utilized to handle cases of eyelid tumors with varying shapes and irregular boundaries. Finally, the multi-head attention (MHA) module is applied in ViT to extract discriminative features of eyelid tumors for benign and malignant classification. Results Experimental results demonstrate that the HM_ADET model achieves excellent performance in the detection of eyelid tumors. In specific, YOLOv7_CNFG outperforms YOLOv7, with AP increasing from 0.763 to 0.893 on the internal test set and from 0.647 to 0.765 on the external test set. ViT achieves AUCs of 0.945 (95% CI 0.894-0.981) and 0.915 (95% CI 0.860-0.955) for the classification of benign and malignant tumors on the internal and external test sets, respectively. Conclusions Our study provides a promising strategy for the automatic diagnosis of eyelid tumors, which could potentially improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.

ABSTRACT There are significant differences in the quantities of Camellia oleifera fruits growing within and outside the canopy distribution, meaning that a single mode of picking has drawbacks. To improve the harvesting efficiency for the inner and outer layers, this article proposes a synergistic mode of harvesting based on a vibration comb brush, and presents a design for a harvesting device based on this principle. The overall structure and working principle of the proposed device are explained, and the operational processes of the vibration and comb parts of the device are analyzed. ADAMS software is used to construct a rigid-flexible coupling model of the device and the fruiting branch, and simulation results are presented to show that the fruit drop and flower loss rates for Camellia oleifera are related to the vibration frequency, the amplitude, and the spacing between the teeth and comb plates. Finally, a three factor and three level field orthogonal experiment was conducted, and the results showed that under the conditions of vibration frequency 5.85Hz, amplitude 60.43mm, and comb spacing 45mm, the flower loss rate was the lowest and it had good picking performance. Under these conditions, the fruit drop rate is 87.32% and the flower loss rate is 8.06%, values that meet the requirements for mechanized picking of Camellia oleifera fruits.

A reliable and sensitive UPLC-MS/MS method coupled with HLB-SPE was developed for simultaneous determination of T-2 and its modified forms (HT-2, NEO, T-2-triol, T-2-tetraol, T-2-3G, and HT-2-3G) in cereals and cereal-based products. Acceptable linearity (R2 ≥ 0.99), limits of quantitation (0.5–10.0 μg/kg), intra-day precision (RSD

Abstract High-temperature ablation is a common failure phenomenon that limits the service life of the transmission parts on heavy-duty machines used in heavy load, high temperature, high shock conditions due to in-sufficient supply of lubricating oil and grease. Traditional self-lubricating coatings prepared by inorganic, organic or organic-inorganic hybrid methods are prone to be oxidated at high temperatures to lose their friction reducing function, so that it is difficult to meet the engineering requirements of high-temperature lubrication. We design viscoelastic polymer coatings by a high-temperature self-lubricating and wear-resistant strategy. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, T m = 329 °C) and polyphenylene sulfide (PPS, T g = 84 °C, T m = 283 °C) are used to prepare a PTFE/PPS polymer alloy coating. As the temperature increases from 25 to 300 °C, the PTFE/PPS coating softens from glass state to viscoelastic state and viscous flow state, which is owing to the thermodynamic transformation characteristic of the PPS component. Additionally the friction coefficient (µ) decreased from 0.096 to 0.042 with the increasing of temperature from 25 to 300 °C. The mechanism of mechanical deformation and surface morphology evolution for the PTFE/PPS coating under the multi-field coupling action of temperature (T), temperature-centrifugal force (T-F ω ), temperature-centrifugal force-shearing force (T-F ω -F τ ) were investigated. The physical model of “thermoviscoelasticity driven solid-liquid interface reducing friction” is proposed to clarify the self-lubricating mechanism determined by the high-temperature viscoelastic properties of polymers. The high-temperature adjusts the viscosity (η) of the coating, increases interface slipping and intensifies shear deformation (τ), reducing the friction coefficient. The result is expected to provide a new idea for designing anti-ablation coatings served in high temperature friction and wear conditions.

ABSTRACTPeople often simultaneously expose to acceptable/tolerable daily intake of food additives and pesticides in daily life. Exposure in adult rodents to acceptable/tolerable daily intake of food additives and pesticides chemical mixtures (AFACM) is reported to cause health damage. Our recently study reported that AFACM exposure of pregnant mice resulted in neuroinflammation and abnormal emotional behaviours in offspring. Here, we found that neutralising IFN-γ with neutralising antibodies completely blocked the influences induced by maternal AFACM exposure, including the increased IFN-γ level in serum, increased IFN-γ, interleukin-6 and tumour necrosis factor-α levels in prefrontal cortex(PFC) in offspring on postnatal day(PND)7, the abnormal emotional behaviours in offspring on PND56, and the decreased of ATPase phospholipid flippase 8A2(ATP8A2) in the PFC of offspring on PND7. In sum, maternal AFACM exposure induced the PFC neuroinflammation, abnormal emotional behaviours and decreased PFC ATP8A2 expression through increasing systemic IFN-γ in offspring.

Decabrominated diphenyl ether (BDE-209), a persistent organic pollutant, is linked to a great number of health problems, the most severe of which impact the liver due to its role in the elimination and degradation of exogenous harmful substances. Though the hepatotoxicity of BDE-209 has been observed, its underlying mechanism is yet unknown. The purpose of this study is to thoroughly investigate the hepatotoxicity of BDE-209 and its molecular processes in broilers by subjecting 120 male broilers to varied concentrations of BDE-209 for 42 days. We observed that the bioaccumulation of BDE-209 in the liver in a dose-dependent manner, and that BDE-209 exposure can raise the concentrations of ALT, AST, and GGT, accompanied by hepatocyte fatty degeneration and inflammatory foci. In the hepatic homogenates, oxidative stress was evidenced by elevated levels of MDA and ROS and decreased activies of SOD and CAT. Additionally, pro-inflammatory cytokines including IL-1, IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-8 levels were increased, whereas anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-4 level was declined. Furthermore, RNA sequencing revealed that genes involved in inflammation were considerably dysregulated, and real-time PCR verified the expressed alterations of numerous genes related to the MAPK and WNT signaling pathways. The protein concentrations of NF-κB, β-catenin, and WNT5A, and the phosphorylation levels of JNK and ERK were all dramatically enhanced. The current study indicates that BDE-209 exposure can cause hepatotoxicity in broilers via bioaccumulation and oxidative stress, which then activates the MAPK and WNT signaling pathways, subsequently generating inflammation and hepatic injury.

South Asian black carbon’s pairing activities (direct and indirect effects) are driving glacial mass decline of the so-called “Water Tower of Asia” with the potential to threaten future water resources for the countries that rely upon its source.

Objective Spent ginger is a byproduct of juice extraction from the rhizome of ginger (Zingiber officinale). Despite its nutritional value, it is difficult to preserve or further process and thus is often wasted. This study uses spent ginger as a substrate for fermentation and cultivates spent ginger yeast cultures (SGYCs) that are then added to the feed of laying hens. The effects of SGYCs on production performance, egg quality, serum composition, and intestinal microbiota of laying hens were investigated. Methods Eighty 60-week-old Hy-Line Brown hens were separated into 5 experimental groups with 4 replicates per group (4 hens per cage, 4 cages per replicate). The control group was fed a basal diet while experimental groups were also given SGYCs at the levels of 5, 10, 20, and 40 g/kg for 6 weeks. Results The addition of SGYCs significantly increased the laying rate and nutrient digestibility, decreased feed conversion ratio, and enhanced the color of egg yolks (p0.05), but the activities of superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and peroxidase all significantly increased, and contents of malondialdehyde were significantly reduced (p

Under natural conditions, T-2 toxin can be easily metabolized to HT-2 toxin by deacetylation, and T-2 and HT-2 are usually co-contaminated in grain and feed at a high detected rate. Our previous information indicated that T-2 toxin could injure the function of the intestinal barrier, but the combined toxicity and mechanism of T-2 and HT-2 on the intestinal cells of porcines are still unknown. Therefore, we aimed to explore T-2 and HT-2 individually and combined on cellular viability, cell membrane integrity, the expression of tight junction-related proteins, and the generation of inflammatory factors in porcine intestinal epithelial cells (IPEC-J2). The results showed that T-2 and HT-2, individually or in combination, could induce a decrease in cell viability, an increase in LDH release and IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-α generation, and a decrease in the anti-inflammatory factor IL-10. Based on the analysis of immunofluorescence staining, real-time PCR, and western blotting, the tight junction protein expressions of Claudin-1, Occludin, and ZO-1 were significantly decreased in the T-2 and HT-2 individual or combination treated groups compared with the control. Furthermore, all the parameter changes in the T-2 + HT-2 combination group were much more serious than those in the individual dose groups. These results suggest that T-2 and HT-2, individually and in combination, could induce an intestinal function injury related to an inflammatory response and damage to the intestinal barrier function in porcine intestinal epithelial cells. Additionally, T-2 and HT-2 in combination showed a synergistic toxic effect, which will provide a theoretical basis to assess the risk of T-2 + HT-2 co-contamination in porcine feed.

Mobile crowdsensing (MCS), which is a grassroots sensing paradigm that utilizes the idea of crowdsourcing, has attracted the attention of academics. More and more researchers have devoted themselves to adopting MCS in space–air–ground–sea integrated networks (SAGSINs). Given the dynamics of the environmental conditions in SAGSINs and the uncertainty of the sensing capabilities of mobile people, the quality and coverage of the sensed data change periodically. To address this issue, we propose a novel UAV-assisted cluster-based task allocation (UCTA) algorithm for MCS in SAGSINs in a two-stage process. We first introduce the edge nodes and establish a three-layer hierarchical system with UAV-assistance, called “Platform–Edge Cluster–Participants”. Moreover, an edge-aided attribute-based cluster algorithm is designed, aiming at organizing tasks into clusters, which significantly diminishes both the communication overhead and computational complexity while enhancing the efficiency of task allocation. Subsequently, a greedy selection algorithm is proposed to select the final combination that performs the sensing task in each cluster. Extensive simulations are conducted comparing the developed algorithm with the other three benchmark algorithms, and the experimental results unequivocally endorse the superiority of our proposed UCTA algorithm.

Trichothecenes are the most common Fusarium toxins detected in grains and related products. Type A trichothecenes are among the mycotoxins of greatest concern to food and feed safety due to their high toxicity. Recently, two different trichothecene genotypes within Fusarium species were reported. The available information showed that Tri1 and Tri16 genes are the key determinants of the trichothecene profiles of T-2 and DAS genotypes. In this review, polymorphisms in the Tri1 and Tri16 genes in the two genotypes were investigated. Meanwhile, the functions of genes involved in DAS and NEO biosynthesis are discussed. The possible biosynthetic pathways of DAS and NEO are proposed in this review, which will facilitate the understanding of the synthesis process of trichothecenes in Fusarium strains and may also inspire researchers to design and conduct further research. Together, the review provides insight into trichothecene profile differentiation and Tri gene evolutionary processes responsible for the structural diversification of trichothecene produced by Fusarium.

Decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209), the primary constituent of a widely used flame retardant formulation, is often present in high levels in avian derived products and could be transferred to humans through consumption. The purpose of this study was to investigate the toxicokinetics and bioaccumulation patterns of BDE-209 in different tissues of broilers, which would benefit the evaluation of chicken product safety. Male broilers received a single oral administration of BDE-209 at 25 mg/kg.BW and then BDE-209 concentrations in the plasma, liver, leg muscle, breast muscle, and other tissues were measured using gas chromatography-electron capture detection (GC-ECD). The changes of BDE-209 concentrations in the plasma were fitted to a non-compartmental model for kinetic analysis. Peak values were observed at 24 h (t1/2 =168.28 h), and trace levels remained for four weeks. Additionally, Cmax in the liver was much higher than that in leg and breast muscles, and Tmax from the liver and muscle were 12 and 24 h, respectively. Residual BDE-209 was detected in all broiler tissues after 2 weeks, and concentrations were ranked as follows: fat > liver > thymus gland > heart > testis > thigh muscle > skin > lung > kidney > breast muscles > spleen (wet weight (ww)). Our results suggested that BDE-209 was widely distributed in different tissues after intestinal absorption, and preferentially accumulated in adipose and liver tissues. Observations of bioaccumulation and slow elimination in the liver and muscles provide critical insight into the toxicity of BDE-209 and risk assessment of edible tissues from broilers.

With the powerful sensing, computing capabilities of mobile devices, large-scale users with smart devices throughout the city would be the perfect carrier for the people-centric scheme, namely, mobile crowdsensing. Mobile crowdsensing has become a versatile platform for many Internet of things applications in urban scenarios. So how to select the appropriate users to complete the tasks and ensure the quality of the tasks has been a huge challenge for mobile crowdsensing. In this article, we propose a willingness-aware user recruitment strategy based on the task attributes to solve this problem. First, we divide the whole sensing region based on task attributes by a weighted Voronoi diagram and conduct the assessment about the sub-regions according to several parameters, and then categorize sub-regions as hot regions and blank regions. Moreover, we analyze the influence of user willingness on user recruitment and the task completion rate and assess the coverage ability of the users. Finally, we use the greedy method to optimize the user recruitment for each task to select the most suitable users for the tasks. Simulation results show that the willingness-aware user recruitment approach can significantly improve the task completion rate and achieve higher task coverage quality compared with other algorithms.

Coastal estuarine wetlands are important transition zones between rivers and oceans and are extremely rich in biodiversity. In recent years in China, large-scale reclamation and development of coastal cities have imposed serious pressures on coastal ecosystems. Thus, assessing the ecological quality of estuarine wetlands is extremely important for sustainable development. Our study focuses on four typical estuarine wetlands at the mouths of the Yangtze, Yellow, Liaohe and PearRivers. Their ecological quality between 2000 and 2020 was assessed using a remote sensing ecological index (RSEI), which was derived from several remote sensing indexes processed via the online Google Earth Engine platform. From 2000 to 2020, the RSEIs of coastal wetland increased from 0.42 to 0.63 in the Liao River estuary, 0.27 to 0.45 in the Pearl River estuary and from 0.47 to 0.54 in the Yangtze River estuary, and decreased from 0.56 to 0.49 in the Yellow River estuary. The spatial distribution in ecological environmental quality was significantly clustered. High-high clusters occurred mainly in areas of lush vegetation, while low-low clusters were mostly found in built-up areas or coastal zones. Aquacultural and built-up areas had negative impacts on the ecological environment, while vegetation cover had a positive influence. The quality of the ecological environment within these wetlands has gradually improved due to the environmental management policies of national and local governments. This approach to evaluating the ecological quality of estuarine wetlands using the RSEI and Google Earth Engine provides critical information to inform sustainable development policy.

Mobile CrowdSensing (MCS) has become a convenient method for many Internet of Things (IoT) applications in urban scenarios due to the full utilization of the mobility of people and the powerful capabilities of their intelligent devices. Nowadays, edge computing has been introduced into MCS to reduce the time delays and computational complexity in cloud platforms. To improve task completion and coverage rates, how to design a reasonable user recruitment algorithm to find suitable users and take full advantage of edge nodes has raised huge challenges for Mobile CrowdSensing. In this study, we propose a Reputation-based Collaborative User Recruitment algorithm (RCUR) under a certain budget in an edge-aided Mobile CrowdSensing system. We first introduce edge computing into MCS and build an edge-aided MCS system in urban scenarios. Moreover, we analyze the influence of user reputation on user recruitment. Then we establish a user reputation module to deduce the user reputation equation by combining the user’s past reputation score with an instantaneous reputation score. Finally, we utilize the sensing ability of edge nodes and design a collaborative sensing method. We use the greedy method to help choose the appropriate users for the tasks. Simulation results compared with the other three algorithms prove that our RCUR approach can significantly achieve better performance in task completion rate and task coverage rate.

ObjectiveExisting evidence suggests that chronic inflammation promotes the progression of human intracranial aneurysm (IA) and many cytokines have been detected to participate in the process of inflammation. However, rare cytokines in plasma have been used as proxies for progression of IA. This study aimed to identify novel cytokines as biomarkers to predict the development of IA.MethodsPatients with unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) undergoing microsurgical clipping were prospectively recruited from January 2017 to June 2020 and were separated into two groups based on their ELAPSS score (low risk group < 10, intermediate-high risk group ≥ 10). Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to reduce imbalances in the baseline characteristics between groups. All blood samples were collected before surgery. A human serum 48-cytokines examination was performed to analyze the concentrations of serological cytokines. Clinical data and cytokines were compared between groups.ResultsA total of 184 patients were enrolled in this study. The low risk group contained 77 patients and 107 patients were included in the intermediate-high risk group. Finally, there were 69 patients in each group after PSM with a matching rate of 1:1. The concentrations of 3 serum cytokines were significantly increased in intermediate-high risk patients, namely, interleukin-15 (IL-15), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and tumor necrosis factor-β (TNF-β) (P < 0.05, |log2 fold change| > 2). The result of receiver operator characteristic (ROC)curve revealed that TNF-β had the highest predictive accuracy, with an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.725 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.639–0.811, P < 0.001] followed by IL-15 (AUC = 0.691, 95% CI 0.602–0.781, P < 0.001) and MCP-1 (AUC = 0.661, 95% CI 0.569–0.753, P = 0.001). Multivariate logistic analysis demonstrated high IL-15 [odds ratio (OR), 3.23; 95% CI, 1.47–7.12; P = 0.004] and high TNF-β (OR, 8.30; 95% CI, 3.25–21.25; P < 0.001) as the risk factors that correlated with intermediate-high risk of IA progression.ConclusionUIA patients with intermediate-high growth risk exhibited increased serum levels of IL-15, MCP-1, and TNF-β. Serum IL-15, and TNF-β could serve as biomarkers to predict the progression of UIAs.

Background and PurposeFor patients with severe spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage on antiplatelet therapy (patients with APT-SICH), postoperative rebleeding (PR) is an important cause of poor outcomes after surgery. As impacted by coagulation disorder caused by APT, patients with APT-SICH are likely to suffer from PR. This study aimed to assess the risk of PR in patients with APT-SICH receiving emergency surgery using a novel coagulation classification.MethodsThis prospective, multicenter cohort study consecutively selected patients with APT-SICH between September 2019 and March 2021. The preoperative coagulation factor function was recorded, and the platelet function was assessed using thrombelastography. Based on platelet and coagulation factor function, a novel four-type coagulation classification, i.e., Type I (severe coagulation disorder), Type IIa (low platelet reserve capacity), Type IIb (normal coagulation), and Type III (hypercoagulation), was presented. The primary outcome was PR, defined as the rebleeding in the operative region or new intracerebral hemorrhage correlated with the operation.ResultsOf the included 197 patients with APT-SICH, PR occurred in 40 patients (20.3%). The novel coagulation classification categorized 28, 32, 122, and 15 patients into Type I, Type IIa, Type IIb, and Type III, respectively. The Type I patients had the highest incident rate of PR (39.3 per 100 persons), followed by the Type IIa patients (31.3 per 100 persons). In the PR-related analysis, the large hematoma volume (hazard ratio (HR): 1.02; 95% CI: 1.02–1.03; p < 0.001), Type I (HR: 9.72; 95% CI: 1.19–79.67; p = 0.034), and Type IIa (HR: 8.70; 95% CI: 1.09–69.61; p = 0.041) were correlated with the highest risk of PR. The coagulation classification could discriminate the PR patients from no PR (NPR) patients (p < 0.001), and it outperformed the conventional coagulation assessment (only considering platelet count and coagulation factor function) (c-statistic, 0.72 vs. 0.55).ConclusionThe novel coagulation classification could discriminate the patients with APT-SICH with the highest risk of PR preoperatively. For the Type I and Type IIa patients, emergency surgery should be performed carefully.

Glacier mass balance change is among the best indicators of glacier response to climate change. Due to its inaccessibility and limited observation, little is known about the change to the Dongkemadi Ice Field (DIF) in the Tanggula Mountains located in the source region of the Yangtze River in central Tibetan Plateau. Here, an enhanced temperature index–based glacier model considering glacier area change was applied to study the temporal–spatial variation in mass balance on the DIF from 1989 to 2012 and to assess its response to climate change. The model was forced by reconstructed temperature and precipitation from adjacent national meteorological stations and validated by comparing with field observations from the Xiao Dongkemadi Glacier (XDG). Results show that the simulated mass balance is in good agreement with the observations (R2 = 0.75, p

Light-absorbing impurities (LAIs, e.g. black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC), mineral dust (MD)) deposited on snow cover reduce albedo and accelerate its melting. Northern Xinjiang (NX) is an arid and semi-arid inland region, where snowmelt leads to frequent floods that have been a serious threat to local ecological security. There is still a lack of quantitative assessments of the effects of LAIs on snowmelt in the region. This study investigates spatial variations of LAIs in snow and its effect on snow albedo, radiative forcing (RF) and snowmelt across NX. Results showed that concentrations of BC, OC (only water-insoluble OC), MD ranged from 32 to 8841 ng g−1, 77 to 8568 ng g−1 and 0.46 to 236 µg g−1, respectively. Weather Research and Forecasting Chemistry model suggested that residential emission was the largest source of BC. Snow, Ice, and Aerosol Radiative modelling showed that the average contribution of BC and MD to snow albedo reduction was 17 and 3%, respectively. RF caused by BC significantly exceeded RF caused by MD. In different scenarios, changes in snow cover duration (SCD) caused by BC and MD decreased by 1.36 ± 0.61 to 6.12 ± 3.38 d. Compared with MD, BC was the main dominant factor in reducing snow albedo and SCD across NX.

Air pollution is a grand challenge of our time due to its multitude of adverse impacts on environment and society, with the scale of impacts more severe in developing countries, including China. Thus, China has initiated and implemented strict air pollution control measures over last several years to reduce impacts of air pollution. Monitoring data from Jan 2015 to Dec 2019 on six criteria air pollutants (SO2, NO2, CO, O3, PM2.5, and PM10) at eight sites in southwestern China were investigated to understand the situation and analyze the impacts of transboundary air pollutants in this region. In terms of seasonal variation, the maximum concentrations of air pollutants at these sites were observed in winter or spring season depending on individual site. For diurnal variation, surface ozone peaked in the afternoon while the other pollutants had a bimodal pattern with peaks in the morning and late afternoon. There was limited transport of domestic emissions of air pollutants in China to these sites. Local emissions enhanced the concentrations of air pollutants during some pollution events. Mostly, the transboundary transport of air pollution from South Asia and Southeast Asia was associated with high concentrations of most air pollutants observed in southwestern China. Since air pollutants can be transported to southwestern China over long distances from the source regions, it is necessary to conduct more research to properly attribute and quantify transboundary transport of air pollutants, which will provide more solid scientific guidance for air pollution management in southwestern China.

2,2’,4,4’-tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47)-induced nephrotoxicity is closely associated with oxidative stresses and mitochondrial abnormalities. Mitochondrial fusion and fission dynamics are crucial for maintaining mitochondrial and cellular physiological homeostasis. However, the detailed mechanisms through which BDE-47 disrupts this dynamic and contributes to renal injuries are still not fully understood. The porcine kidney-15 (PK15) cell line, a well-defined in vitro animal renal toxicological model, was exposed to BDE-47 with concentrations of 12.5, 25, 50, and 100 μM, respectively. Cell viability, the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and the expression levels of key mitochondrial fusion and fission proteins were assessed. BDE-47 reduced cell viability and disrupted mitochondrial dynamics by inhibiting mitochondrial fusion and fission simultaneously, leading to MMP decreases, ROS overgeneration, ATP depletion, and cellular disintegration in a dose-dependent manner. Additionally, the mitochondrial division inhibitor (Mdivi-1) with the concentration of 20 μM observed to restore the downregulation of mitochondrial fusion and fission proteins, alleviate damages in mitochondrial morphology and functionality, correct ROS overproduction, and enable cell survival. The antioxidant N-acety-L-cysteine (NAC) with the concentration of 1 mM also simultaneously reversed the imbalance of mitochondrial dynamics, decreased ROS production, and restored mitochondrial morphology in PK15 cells exposed to BDE-47. Our data provide new insights indicating that BDE-47 disrupts mitochondrial fusion/fission dynamics to induce mitochondrial abnormalities, triggering oxidative stresses and thus contributing to PK15 cell dysfunction. ROS-dependent pathways in mitochondrial dynamics may provide a new avenue for developing effective strategies to protect cells against BDE-47-induced nephrotoxicity.

ObjectiveRebleeding is recognized as the main cause of mortality after intracranial aneurysm rupture. Though timely intervention can prevent poor prognosis, there is no agreement on the surgical priority and choosing medical treatment for a short period after rupture. The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factors related to the rebleeding after admission and establish predicting models for better clinical decision-making.MethodsThe patients with ruptured intracranial aneurysms (RIAs) between January 2018 and September 2020 were reviewed. All patients fell to the primary and the validation cohort by January 2020. The hemodynamic parameters were determined through the computational fluid dynamics simulation. Cox regression analysis was conducted to identify the risk factors of rebleeding. Based on the independent risk factors, nomogram models were built, and their predicting accuracy was assessed by using the area under the curves (AUCs).ResultA total of 577 patients with RIAs were enrolled in this present study, 86 patients of them were identified as undergoing rebleeding after admission. Thirteen parameters were identified as significantly different between stable and rebleeding aneurysms in the primary cohort. Cox regression analysis demonstrated that six parameters, including hypertension [hazard ratio (HR), 2.54; P = 0.044], bifurcation site (HR, 1.95; P = 0.013), irregular shape (HR, 4.22; P = 0.002), aspect ratio (HR, 12.91; P < 0.001), normalized wall shear stress average (HR, 0.16; P = 0.002), and oscillatory stress index (HR, 1.14; P < 0.001) were independent risk factors related to the rebleeding after admission. Two nomograms were established, the nomogram including clinical, morphological, and hemodynamic features (CMH nomogram) had the highest predicting accuracy (AUC, 0.92), followed by the nomogram including clinical and morphological features (CM nomogram; AUC, 0.83), ELAPSS score (AUC, 0.61), and PHASES score (AUC, 0.54). The calibration curve for the probability of rebleeding showed good agreement between prediction by nomograms and actual observation. In the validation cohort, the discrimination of the CMH nomogram was superior to the other models (AUC, 0.93 vs. 0.86, 0.71 and 0.48).ConclusionWe presented two nomogram models, named CMH nomogram and CM nomogram, which could assist in identifying the RIAs with high risk of rebleeding.

The wide usage of decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) results in its increasing occurrence in the environment and increasing attention in regard to human and animal health. BDE-209 is an endocrine disruptor for hypothyroidism, but the toxicity mechanism is unclear. Here, the histopathology and transcriptome sequencing of thyroid tissue from broiler chicks were investigated by supplemental feeding with different concentrations of BDE-209 for 42 days (0–4 g/kg in basal diet), followed by determining the levels of thyroid hormones in serum. The results showed ruptured and even hyperplastic follicular epithelial cells in the thyroid, and a total of 501 differentially expressed genes were screened out: 222 upregulated and 279 downregulated. Based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database, neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathway was significantly enriched, and α1D-adrenergic receptor, follicle-stimulating hormone receptor, thyroid stimulating hormone receptor, and somatostatin receptor type 2 were shown to be candidate biomarkers. Thyroxine was a possible biomarker due to clear reduction in serum and significant correlation with exposure concentrations. These results suggested that oral intake of BDE-209 can cause structural injuries and even hyperplasia, and affect gene transcription involved in the neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathway of thyroid, as well as thyroid hormones in serum.

Background and PurposeThe effect of antiplatelet therapy (APT) on early postoperative rehemorrhage and outcomes of patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is still unclear. This study is to evaluate the effect of preoperative APT on early postoperative rehemorrhage and outcomes in ICH patients.MethodsThis was a multicenter cohort study. ICH patients undergoing surgery were divided into APT group and no antiplatelet therapy (nAPT) group according to whether patients received APT or not. Chi-square test, t-test, and Mann–Whitney U test were used to compare the differences in variables, postoperative rehematoma, and outcomes between groups. Multivariate logistics regression analysis was used to correct for confounding variables, which were different in group comparison.ResultsOne hundred fifty ICH patients undergoing surgical treatment were consecutively included in this study. Thirty five (23.33%) people were included in the APT group, while 115 (76.67%) people were included in the nAPT group. The incidence of early postoperative rehemorrhage in the APT group was significantly higher than that in the nAPT group (25.7% VS 10.4%, p = 0.047 < 0.05). After adjustment for age, ischemic stroke history, and ventricular hematoma, preoperative APT had no significant effect on early postoperative rehemorrhage (p = 0.067). There was no statistical difference between the two groups in early poorer outcomes (p = 0.222) at 14 days after surgery. After adjustment for age, ischemic stroke history, and ventricular hematoma, preoperative APT also had no significant effect on early poorer modified Rankin Scale (mRS) (p = 0.072).ConclusionIn conclusion, preoperative APT appears to be safe and have no significant effect on early postoperative rehematoma and outcomes in ICH patients.

Objective: Recently, abundant number of studies have revealed many functions of circular RNAs in multiple diseases, however, the role of circular RNA in the rupture of human intracranial aneurysm is still unknown. This study aims to explore the potential functions of circular RNA in the rupture of human intracranial aneurysms.Methods: The differentially expressed circular RNAs between un-ruptured intracranial aneurysms (n = 5) and ruptured intracranial aneurysms (n = 5) were analyzed with the Arraystar human circRNAs microarray. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) was used to verify the results of the circRNA microarray. The role of circular RNA in intracranial aneurysm rupture was assessed in vitro. MTT assay, CCK-8 assay, Caspase3/7 assay, assay of cell apoptosis and Celigo wound healing was conducted to evaluate the relationship between circular RNA and the rupture of human intracranial aneurysms.Results: A total of 13,175 circRNA genes were detected. Among them 63 circRNAs upregulated and 54 circRNAs downregulated significantly in ruptured intracranial aneurysms compared with un-ruptured intracranial aneurysms (p < 0.05 Fold Change > 1.5). Five upregulated circRNAs were selected for further study (hsa_circ_0001947, hsa_circ_0043001, hsa_circ_0064557, hsa_circ_0058514, hsa_circ_0005505). The results of qPCR showed only hsa_circ_0005505 significantly upregulated (p < 0.05). The expression of hsa_circ_0005505 was higher in ruptured intracranial aneurysm tissues. And our in vitro data showed that hsa_circRNA_005505 promotes the proliferation, migration and suppresses the apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cell.Conclusion: This study revealed an important role of hsa_circ_0005505 in the proliferation, migration and apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cell, and indicated that hsa_circ_0005505 may associate with the pathological process of intracranial aneurysms.

Deoxynivalenol is one the of most common mycotoxins in cereals and grains and causes a serious health threat to poultry and farm animals. Our previous study found that DON decreased the production performance of laying hens. It has been reported that DON could exert significant toxic effects on the intestinal barrier and microbiota. However, whether the decline of laying performance is related to intestinal barrier damage, and the underlying mechanisms of DON induced intestine function injury remain largely unclear in laying hens. In this study, 80 Hy-line brown laying hens at 26 weeks were randomly divided into 0, 1, 5 and 10 mg/kg.bw (body weight) DON daily for 6 weeks. The morphology of the duodenum, the expression of inflammation factors and tight junction proteins, and the diversity and abundance of microbiota were analyzed in different levels of DON treated to laying hens. The results demonstrated that the mucosal detachment and reduction of the villi number were presented in different DON treated groups with a dose-effect manner. Additionally, the genes expression of pro-inflammatory factors IL-1β, IL-8, TNF-α and anti-inflammatory factors IL-10 were increased or decreased at 5 and 10 mg/kg.bw DON groups, respectively. The levels of ZO-1 and claudin-1 expression were significantly decreased in 5 and 10 mg/kg.bw DON groups. Moreover, the alpha diversity including Chao, ACE and Shannon indices were all reduced in DON treated groups. At the phylum level, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Spirochaetes were decreased and increased in 10 mg/kg.bw DON group, respectively. At the genus levels, the relative abundance of Clostridium and Lactobacillus in 5 and 10 mg/kg.bw DON groups, and Alkanindiges and Spirochaeta in the 10 mg/kg.bw DON were significantly decreased and increased, respectively. Moreover, there were significant correlation between the expression of tight junction proteins and the relative abundance of Lactobacillus and Succinispira. These results indicated that DON exposure to the laying hens can induce the inflammation and disrupt intestinal tight junctions, suggesting that DON can directly damage barrier function, which may be closely related to the dysbiosis of intestinal microbiota.

Globally, wound infection is considered to be one of the major healthcare problems, with bacterial infections being the most critical threat, leading to poor and delayed wound healing, and even death. As a superbug, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) causes a profound hazard to public health safety, prompting us to search for alternative treatment approaches. Herein, the MTT test and Hoechst/propidium iodide (PI) staining demonstrated that PD was slightly less toxic to human fibroblasts including Human keratinocytes (HaCaT) cell line than Silver sulfadiazine (SSD), and Vancomycin (Van). In the MRSA-infected wound model, PD hydrogel (1%, 2.5%) was applied with for 14 days. The wound healing of PD hydrogel groups was superior to the SSD, Van, and control groups. Remarkably, the experimental results showed that PD reduced the number of skin bacteria, reduced inflammation, and upregulated the expression of PCNA (keratinocyte proliferation marker) and CD31 (angiogenesis manufacturer) at the wound site by histology (including hematoxylin–eosin (HE) staining, Masson staining) and immunohistochemistry. Additionally, no toxicity, hemocompatibility or histopathological changes to organs were observed. Altogether, these results suggested the potential of PD hydrogel as a safe, effective, and low toxicity hydrogel for the future clinical treatment of MRSA-infected wounds.

Vegetation cover is important to the stability of regional ecosystems and is a focus of research on the relationship between natural and human environments. Although some studies have investigated the association between changes in vegetation cover and various influencing factors, these have shortcomings in quantifying direct and indirect effects. In this study, MOD13Q1 enhanced vegetation index (EVI) data for Anhui Province, China, were acquired between 2000 and 2020. The univariate linear regression, coefficient of variation and Hurst index methods were used to analyze spatial and temporal trends and fluctuations in the EVI between 2000 and 2020 and predict future trends. The impact of land-use change on EVI change was explored using 2000 and 2020 land-use data. Finally, a structural equation model (SEM) was used to quantify the effects of topography, annual average temperature, annual precipitation and human activity changes on EVI variation in Anhui Province. The results show that (1) from 2000 to 2020, the overall EVI in Anhui Province showed a fluctuating trend that increased at a rate of 0.0181·10a−1, and 67.1% of the study area showed a greening trend. The EVI was relatively stable in most regions, with regions of fluctuating EVI being mostly affected by urbanization. For a period after 2020, the overall EVI change will exhibit anti-sustainability and will likely decrease. (2) Among the regions of EVI increase, 72.2% had no change in land-use type, while 10.8% and 6.6% changed to farmland and woodland land uses, respectively. Among the regions where EVI decreased, 69.9% had no change in land-use type, while 13.7% changed from farmland to construction land. (3) Overall, human activity change was the main influence on EVI change, which was mainly reflected in the negative impacts of accelerated urbanization. Topography had direct and indirect effects on EVI variations in Central and Southern Anhui. Annual precipitation change had a stronger impact on EVI variation in Northern and Central Anhui than in Southern Anhui, while annual average temperature change had a small impact in the entire province. Compared with other study methods, SEM provides a new approach to quantifying the influences of vegetation cover dynamics. In addition, the results of this study have important implications for ecological environmental protection and sustainable development in Anhui Province.

Background: CircRNAs have been found to play a crucial role in the pathological process of various kinds of diseases. However, the role of circRNAs in the formation and rupture of intracranial aneurysm is still unknown.Methods: Differentially expressed circRNAs profiles between superficial temporal arteries (n = 5) and intracranial aneurysms (n = 5) were analyzed using the Arraystar human circRNAs microarray. Quantitative real-time PCR was utilized to validate the differential expression of circDUS2. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was meant for the location of circDUS2 in human brain vascular smooth muscle cell (HBVSMC). Structural analysis was used to speculate on the function of circDUS2.Results: Five hundred forty-three upregulated and 397 downregulated significantly in intracranial aneurysm as compared to superficial temporal arteries. Quantitative real-time PCR verified the elevated expression of the upregulated circDUS2. The FISH test revealed that circDUS2 is located in the cytoplasm of brain vascular smooth muscle cells.Conclusion: This study showed differential expression data of circRNAs between superficial temporal artery and intracranial aneurysm and revealed that circDUS2 is a potential molecular marker for intracranial aneurysm.

Faced with wave irregularity, the corrosion of the mechanical sensor in wave power generation systems, hazardous working conditions, and the inaccuracy of conventional control methods in the shifting system, a new type of irregular wave maximum wave energy capture strategy are proposed. The motivation behind the strategy is speed sensorless power optimal control of a direct drive wave power system by an extended Kalman filter (EKF) and self-tuning fuzzy proportional integral (PI) control. In our strategy, a fast Fourier transform (FFT) is utilized to analyze the spectrum of the irregular wave excitation force, and the maximum superposition control condition of the wave energy extraction is constructed by the vector superposition principle. Taking the voltage and current parameters of the generator as the input, based on two stages of prediction and update, an EKF observer system is established to estimate the speed and position of the power generation system. The fuzzy parameters are used to dynamically adjust the PI parameters so as to achieve optimal power state tracking control. The simulation results show that the FFT can meet the power optimal tracking requirements of unknown irregular waves. The proposed speed sensorless control scheme has good dynamic characteristics, small degree and position observation errors, and strong robustness, and allows the system to follow a given value.

To effectively solve the chaotic phenomenon problem in permanent magnet linear synchronous motor (PMLSM), this paper presents a novel control scheme combining radial basis function neural network (RBFNN), adaptive backstepping method, and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. By applying a feedback decoupling controller, a decoupled chaotic model of the PMLSM is constituted. In addition, in order to enhance the robustness of the system, the RBFNN is utilized to identify the uncertainties in PMLSM and the convergence of the overall closed-loop system, including unknown parameters is guaranteed based on the adaptive backstepping method. Moreover, the PSO is applied to promote the dynamic performance of the control system. The simulation results demonstrate the existence of chaotic phenomenon in the PMLSM. Besides, PSO-RBFNN controller that has strong robustness can make the motor out of chaos rapidly and smoothly, and identify the unknown parameters quickly and accurately.

Aiming at the chaos problem of permanent magnet linear synchronous motor in direct-drive wave power generation system, based on the ideal chaotic model with increased rotor edge effect, the permanent magnet linear synchronous motor system chaotic system was analyzed and a new sliding mode compound chaos control strategy was proposed. This strategy compensates for the shortcomings of the sliding mode control lag and chattering by using the complementary advantages of compound control, and can correct system parameters in real time. By using Lyapunov stability criterion, it was proved that the global convergence of the system is consistent. The simulation results show that the composite chaos control strategy can rapidly disengage the chaotic state of the motor system, suppress system chattering, weaken the control overshoot phenomenon, and has strong robustness and high control precision.

In this paper, in order to investigate the chaos control problem of direct-drive wave power conversion system, the hydrodynamic model of Archimedes wave swing and the state equation of permanent magnet linear synchronous motor are analyzed, and a decoupling mathematical model of the wave power converter is built in combination with feedback decoupling system. The maximum Lyapunov exponent spectrum is used to verify the chaotic phenomenon of the direct-drive wave power converter, and the dynamic response of the converter when entering the chaotic state is explored. A composite sliding mode chaotic controller is proposed. Based on the BP neural network, the global effect of the control parameters is fitted, and the particle swarm optimization algorithm is adopted to optimize the parameters of sliding mode control to determine the optimal control parameters. The Lyapunov criterion is used in stability analysis to prove the effectiveness of the control strategy. The simulation reveals that the sliding mode control strategy can disengage the wave power converter from the chaotic state to the stable state. With particle swarm optimization, the strategy can shorten the response time, suppress the overshoot and enhance system robustness.

The impact of average wages on electricity consumption among urban residents in China has generated many fascinating debates for scholarly research, but only a few studies have considered the spatial spillover effect of average wages on residential electricity consumption. With the use of city-level panel data from 278 Chinese cities spanning 2005 to 2016, this preliminary study explores the impacts of the average wage on residential electricity consumption. Specifically, based on the spatial Durbin model with fixed effects, three different spatial weight matrices (the economic distance, the inverse distance, and the four nearest neighbours) are utilised to check the robustness of the results under different standards. The results show that the residential electricity consumption of each city increased during the observation period, presenting obvious spatial correlations. Secondly, the average wage of residents had a positive spatial spillover effect, which promoted the residential electricity consumption of both local and surrounding cities. Thirdly, the population density, electricity intensity, educational level of urban residents, and per capita household liquefied petroleum gas consumption in urban areas are key factors influencing residential electricity consumption. Therefore, improving the educational level of urban residents and reducing the electricity intensity can help reduce electricity consumption by residents in China. This paper also presents policy recommendations.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused massive casualties, severe economic losses, and poses a threat to the world. This study's primary objective was to analyze the hospital's potential hazards of COVID-19 prevention and control. The second objective was to review the disaster plan and make recommendations to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in hospitals. Methods: An expert group for the prevention and control of COVID-19 in the First People's Hospital of Longquanyi Dis-trict, Chengdu, China was established. We adopted the hazard vulnerability analysis (HVA) to risk-stratify potential hazards and calculated relative risk values. We used the Delphi expert consultation method to propose and implement targeted improvement measures for the top five potential hazards. Then, the effects before and after the intervention were compared. Results: The top five hazards were: insufficient Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) (25.68%), inadequate diagnosis ability of clinicians (22.55%), and inadequate management strategies of patients and caregivers (22.38%), lack of professional ability of pre-checking and triage staff (16.96%), lack of knowledge of COVID-19 of medical staff (15.59%). After taking targeted improvement measures, the average score of the hospital staff's COVID-19 knowledge test increased from 73.26 points to 90.44 points, the average test score of the outsourcing company employees increased from 68.55 to 89.75 points. The differences were statistically significant (P

The flame retardant decabrominated diphenyl ether (BDE-209) is a widely used chemical in a variety of products and exists extensively in the environment. BDE-209 has been reported to induce kidney injury and dysfunction. However, the causes and mechanisms of its nephrotoxicity are still under investigation. In this study, 150 male broilers were exposed to BDE-209 concentrations of 0, 0.004, 0.04, 0.4, 4.0 g/kg for 42 days. The relative kidney weight, histopathology, markers of renal injury, oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis and the expression of MAPK signaling pathways-related proteins were assessed. The results showed that the concentrations of blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (CRE) and the neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), significantly increased after exposure to BDE-209 with the doses more than 0.04 g/kg. Similarly, severe damage of renal morphology was observed, including atrophy and necrosis of glomeruli, and swelling and granular degeneration of the renal tubular epithelium. In the renal homogenates, the oxidative stress was evidenced by the elevated concentrations of MDA and NO, and decreased levels of GSH-Px, GSH and SOD. Due to the inflammatory response, the level of NF-κB and the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-18 were remarkably upregulated, while the content of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 decreased. Additionally, the apoptotic analysis showed notable upregulations of Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, the relative expression of p-ERK1/2 and p-JNK1/2, and the expression of Bax, cytochrome c and caspase 3. The present study indicates that BDE-209 exposure can cause nephrotoxicity in broilers through oxidative stress and inflammation, which activate the phosphorylation of key proteins of the MAPK signaling pathways, and subsequently induce mitochondria-mediated kidney apoptosis.

Background and ObjectiveDiffuse brain arteriovenous malformations (BAVMs) are mixed up with normal brain parenchyma and therefore increase the difficulty of surgical resection, leading to poor surgical prognosis. Since the mechanism underlying BAVM diffuseness remains unknown, a quantitative proteomic analysis was performed to investigate the altered expression of proteins in diffuse BAVMs compared to compact ones.MethodsWe performed proteomic analysis on five diffuse BAVMs and five compact BAVMs. Bioinformatics analysis was conducted to identify potential signals related to BAVM diffuseness. Candidate proteins were then investigated in BAVM specimens using immunofluorescence and Western blot analysis. Tube formation assays were used to investigate the effects of candidate proteins on the angiogenesis of human umbilical endothelial cells (HUVECs). Finally, Masson, Sirius red staining, and immunofluorescence were used to evaluate the characteristics of extracellular matrix (ECM) in BAVM tissues.ResultsA total of 58 proteins were found to be differentially expressed between diffuse and compact BAVMs via proteomic analysis. TGF-β (transforming growth factor-beta) signaling pathway, ECM–receptor pathway, relaxin signaling pathway, and several other pathways were associated with BAVM diffuseness. The TGF-β signaling pathway is associated with angiogenesis; the role of this pathway in the formation of diffuse BAVMs was investigated, and the decorin (DCN) upregulation played an important role in this process. Immunofluorescence showed that DCN was significantly upregulated within and around the malformed vessels of diffuse BAVMs. Functional assays showed that exogenous DCN could promote the tube formation ability of HUVECs through inhibiting the TGF-β signaling pathway and overproducing ECM. Histological staining demonstrated the overproduction of ECM in diffuse BAVMs.ConclusionTGF-β signaling pathway inhibited by DCN in vascular endothelial cells is related to BAVM diffuseness. The metabolic disorder of ECM caused by DCN upregulation may significantly contribute to the formation of diffuse BAVMs.

Mycotoxins such as zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON) and T-2 toxin (T-2) are the most poisonous biological toxins in food pollution. Mycotoxin contaminations are a global health issue. The aim of the current study was to use porcine Leydig cells as a model to explore the toxic effects and underlying mechanisms of ZEN, DON and T-2. The 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of ZEN was 49.71 μM, and the IC50 values of DON and T-2 were 2.49 μM and 97.18 nM, respectively. Based on the values of IC50, ZEN, DON and T-2 exposure resulted in increased cell apoptosis, as well as disrupted mitochondria membrane potential and cell cycle distribution. The results also showed that ZEN and DON significantly reduced testosterone and progesterone secretion in Leydig cells, but T-2 only reduced testosterone secretion. Furthermore, the expression of steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein and 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3β-HSD) were significantly decreased by ZEN, DON and T-2; whereas the protein expression of cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme (CYP11A1) was only significantly decreased by ZEN. Altogether, these data suggest that the ZEN, DON and T-2 toxins resulted in reproductive toxicity involving the inhibition of steroidogenesis and cell proliferation, which contributes to the cellular apoptosis induced by mitochondrial injury in porcine Leydig cells.

T-2 toxin usually co-occurs with HT-2 toxin and neosolaniol (NEO) in the grains and feed. Our previous studies found that T-2 toxin and its metabolites’ binary or ternary combination exposure to porcine Leydig cells (LCs) displayed synergism in certain range of dosage and cannot be predicted based on individual toxicity. However, the possible mechanism of these mycotoxins’ combined exposure to cell lesions remains unknown. Based on 50% cell viability, the mechanism of apoptosis in porcine Leydig cells was investigated after exposure to T-2, HT-2, NEO individual and binary or ternary combinations. Compared with control, the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) content decreased, reactive oxygen species (ROS) level increased, and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) decreased in all treated groups. Additionally, the cell apoptosis rates were significantly increased in test groups (p < 0.05), and the B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) Associated X (Bax)/Bcl-2 ratio and the expression of caspase 3, caspase 8, cytochrome c (Cytc) in the treated group are all significantly higher than the control group. Moreover, the expression of Cytc and caspase 8 gene in NEO and T-2+NEO groups was significantly higher than that in other individual and combined groups. It can be concluded that the toxicities of T-2, HT-2, and NEO individually and in combination can induce apoptosis related to the oxidative stress and mitochondrial damage, and the synergistic effect between toxins may be greater than a single toxin effect, which is beneficial for assessing the possible risk of the co-occurrences in foodstuffs to human and animal health.

Animal models of Down syndrome (DS), trisomic for human chromosome 21 (HSA21) genes or orthologs, provide insights into better understanding and treatment options. The only existing transchromosomic (Tc) mouse DS model, Tc1, carries a HSA21 with over 50 protein coding genes (PCGs) disrupted. Tc1 is mosaic, compromising interpretation of results. Here, we “clone” the 34 MB long arm of HSA21 (HSA21q) as a mouse artificial chromosome (MAC). Through multiple steps of microcell-mediated chromosome transfer, we created a new Tc DS mouse model, Tc(HSA21q;MAC)1Yakaz (“TcMAC21”). TcMAC21 is not mosaic and contains 93% of HSA21q PCGs that are expressed and regulatable. TcMAC21 recapitulates many DS phenotypes including anomalies in heart, craniofacial skeleton and brain, molecular/cellular pathologies, and impairments in learning, memory and synaptic plasticity. TcMAC21 is the most complete genetic mouse model of DS extant and has potential for supporting a wide range of basic and preclinical research.

Abstract Background Prenatal infection is a substantial risk factor for neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism in offspring. We have previously reported that influenza vaccination (VAC) during early pregnancy contributes to neurogenesis and behavioral function in offspring. Results Here, we probe the efficacy of VAC pretreatment on autism-like behaviors in a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced maternal immune activation (MIA) mouse model. We show that VAC improves abnormal fetal brain cytoarchitecture and lamination, an effect associated with promotion of intermediate progenitor cell differentiation in MIA fetal brain. These beneficial effects are sufficient to prevent social deficits in adult MIA offspring. Furthermore, whole-genome analysis suggests a strong interaction between Ikzf1 (IKAROS family zinc-finger 1) and neuronal differentiation. Intriguingly, VAC rescues excessive microglial Ikzf1 expression and attenuates microglial inflammatory responses in the MIA fetal brain. Conclusions Our study implies that a preprocessed influenza vaccination prevents maternal bacterial infection from causing neocortical lamination impairments and autism-related behaviors in offspring.

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the major mycotoxins that contaminate cereals. In this study, we determined the DON level in wheat-based products from Chinese five main production areas collected in Shanghai and calculated the daily intake of DON for inhabitants using the point evaluation and the probabilistic evaluation based on Monte Carlo simulation. The results showed the positive rates of DON in the products were higher than 80.0%, with the concentrations ranging from 41.8 to 1110 µg/kg. The estimated mean daily intakes of DON for 7- to 10-year-old children and adults groups were below 1 µg/kg bw/day, the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake (PMTDI) set by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), suggesting no health risks for the consumers. However, the 99th percentiles of dietary DON exposures for children and adults exceeded the PMTDI, indicating adverse health effects might occur if the two groups intake highly contaminated wheat-based products. The potential health risks for the two groups exposed to DON in the wheat-based products from the Middle and Lower Yangtze Valley (MLYV) were higher than those from the other areas in China.

Fusarium blight of wheat is usually caused by Fusarium graminearum, and the pathogenic fungi will secrete effectors into the host plant tissue to affect its normal physiological process, so as to make it pathogenic. The CFEM (Common in Fungal Extracellular Membrane) protein domain is unique to fungi, but it is not found in all fungi. The CFEM protein contained in F. graminearum may be closely related to pathogenicity. In this study, 23 FgCFEM proteins were identified from the F. graminearum genome. Then, features of these proteins, such as signal peptide, subcellular localization, and transmembrane domains, etc., were analyzed and candidate effectors were screened out. Sequence alignment results revealed that each FgCFEM protein contains one CFEM domain. The amino acids of the CFEM domain are highly conserved and contain eight spaced cysteines, with the exception that FgCFEM8, 9, and 15 lack two cysteines and three cysteines were missed in FgCFEM18 and FgCFEM22. A recently identified CFEM_DR motif was detected in 11 FgCFEMs, and importantly we identified two new conserved motifs containing about 29 and 18 amino acids (CFEM_WR and CFEM_KF), respectively, in some of FgCFEM proteins. Transcriptome analysis of the genes encoding CFEM proteins indicated that all the CFEM-containing genes were expressed during wheat infection, with seven and six genes significantly up- and down-regulated, respectively, compared with in planta and in vitro. Based on the above analysis, FgCFEM11 and FgCFEM23 were predicted to be F. graminearum effectors. This study provides the basis for future functional analyses of CFEM proteins in F. graminearum.

Glaciers in High Mountain Asia (HMA) have a significant impact on human activity. Thus, a detailed and up-to-date inventory of glaciers is crucial, along with monitoring them regularly. The identification of debris-covered glaciers is a fundamental and yet challenging component of research into glacier change and water resources, but it is limited by spectral similarities with surrounding bedrock, snow-affected areas, and mountain-shadowed areas, along with issues related to manual discrimination. Therefore, to use fewer human, material, and financial resources, it is necessary to develop better methods to determine the boundaries of debris-covered glaciers. This study focused on debris-covered glacier mapping using a combination of related technologies such as random forest (RF) and convolutional neural network (CNN) models. The models were tested on Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI)/Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) data and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global Digital Elevation Model (ASTER GDEM), selecting Eastern Pamir and Nyainqentanglha as typical glacier areas on the Tibetan Plateau to construct a glacier classification system. The performances of different classifiers were compared, the different classifier construction strategies were optimized, and multiple single-classifier outputs were obtained with slight differences. Using the relationship between the surface area covered by debris and the machine learning model parameters, it was found that the debris coverage directly determined the performance of the machine learning model and mitigated the issues affecting the detection of active and inactive debris-covered glaciers. Various classification models were integrated to ascertain the best model for the classification of glaciers.

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a major mycotoxin with high toxicity that often contaminates grains, foods and feeds. The traditional approaches for DON removal are difficult to meet industry and agriculture demands due to the high stability of the DON molecule. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop green and effective strategies for DON degradation. In this study, a batch of photocatalytic nanomaterials of cerium (Ce) doped titanium dioxide (TiO2) were successfully prepared by sol-gel method. The catalysts were systematically characterized by XRD, HRTEM, FT-IR, UV-Vis and XPS. The catalyst 0.5Ce-TiO2 showed superior photocatalytic activity for DON degradation in aqueous solution under ultraviolet light irradiation, better than that of traditional photocatalyst pure TiO2, and 96% DON with initial concentration of 5.0 mg/L could be degraded in 4 h. In addition, the two possible degradation intermediate products C5H8O3 and C17H18O6 were identified, the photocatalytic degradation mechanism and degradation pathway were studied. The results indicate that Ce doped TiO2 photocatalyst can be used to reduce DON effectively.