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Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly malignant intracranial tumor with limited treatment options. Bispecific T‐cell engagers (BiTEs) are being explored for GBM treatment, but their success is hindered by inadequate T cell infiltration and activation due to the acidic and immunosuppressive microenvironment. Photothermal immunotherapy lyses tumors and activates immune responses, complementing BiTEs. This study innovatively employs a donor engineering strategy to develop hemicyanine dyes (Hcys) that emit from near‐infrared (NIR) I to NIR II. The Hcy with excellent properties is encapsulated in an amphiphilic micelle, forming a nano assembly with lactate oxidase (PLH1100). PLH1100 exhibits spectral absorption at 980 nm, a photothermal conversion efficiency of 58.7%, and capability for NIR‐II tumor imaging. Besides photothermal tumor ablation, PLH1100 regulates lactic acid metabolism and activates immunogenic cell death, improving the tumor microenvironment and promoting T cell infiltration and activation. Further studies demonstrate PLH1100 effectively kills human and murine GBM cells, inhibits orthotopic U87 tumor growth in BALB/c‐nu mice, and enhances the efficacy of Fn14‐targeted BiTE in orthotopic GL261 tumors in C57BL/6 mice, achieving a synergistic “1+1>2” therapeutic effect. Collectively, this work opens a new pathway for using Hcy‐based molecules combined with BiTE drugs for GBM therapy, with significant clinical potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In adult anti‐N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis, corticosteroids are commonly used as first‐line treatment. However, the optimal oral prednisone tapering (OPT) following intravenous methylprednisolone pulse therapy remains unclear. We aim to compare the efficacy and safety of different OPT courses in anti‐NMDAR encephalitis. Methods: The CHASE study, a multicenter prospective observational cohort study, enrolled patients with autoimmune encephalitis from October 2011 to March 2023. Patients were grouped based on oral prednisone tapering course: ≤3 months (Group ≤3 month), 3–6 months (Group 3–6 months, including 3 months), and >6 months (Group > 6 months). Kaplan–Meier plots were used to analyze time to relapse and time to total recovery within 2 years. Results: Among 666 screened patients, 171 (median [IQR] age 27 [21.0–36.5] years, 55.0% female) met selection criteria. Responders at 3 months were prevalent in Group ≤3 months (OR 7.251 [95% CI 2.252 to 23.344] and Group 3–6 months (OR, 3.857 [95% CI 1.107 to 13.440] than in Group >6 months. Clinical Assessment Scale for Autoimmune Encephalitis (CASE) scores at 12 months were higher in Group >6 months than in Group ≤3 months and Group 3–6 months (β, −2.329 [95% CI −3.784 to −.875]; β, −2.871 [95% CI −4.490, −1.253]). CASE seizures subscore was higher in Group >6 months than in Group 3–6 months (β, −.452 [95% CI −.788 to −.116]). No significant difference in seizure freedom rates among the groups. Adverse events were higher in Group 3–6 months and Group >6 months than in Group ≤3 months (OR 6.045 [95% CI 2.352 to 15.538]; OR 6.782 [95% CI 1.911 to 24.073]). Significance: Longer oral prednisone courses for adult patients with anti‐NMDAR encephalitis did not show superior effects compared to shorter courses in improving modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores and CASE scores, reducing the risk of relapse within 2 years, or achieving seizure freedom. Instead, extended prednisone courses may lead to more side effects— particularly weight gain. This outcome recommends evaluating the possibility of shortening the duration of oral prednisone after a thorough patient assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of cultural community has been firstly or more obviously embodied in the works of the minority/minoritized literature or writers from marginalized countries and approached from different perspectives, such as small and enduring spiritual bonds, aspiration and an ideal, or self-deconstruction due to heterogeneity, conflict, and difference. However, most researchers explore the cultural community in the works of merely one racial group, such as American Indian, Chinese, Korean, or African. There has been comparatively little research on the construction of a cultural community across races. Focusing on Molefi Kete Asante's Afrocentricity and Tu Wei-ming's embodied Confucianism, two cultural movements that fully embody a "new cosmopolitanism" and have the potential to dialog and complement each other, this study compares the views of transcendence of these two philosophies in terms of sense, the ultimate goal, orientation of time, vehicle for realization, and thinking pattern in the hope of the construction of a Sino-African cultural community, which reflects mutual understanding, coexistence, harmony without uniformity, and the contact, conflict, and intermingling of heterogeneous cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐damping acoustic composites with unique sound insulation feature is reported, demonstrating surprisingly stable soundproof properties over a wide bandwidth of frequency (63–6300 Hz) with good mechanical properties. The extraordinary acoustic properties are attributed to the multiscale synergy of lamellar and hollow structures by multifillers adding. The acoustic composites are designed and fabricated through a low‐temperature one‐time rubber mixing process using nitrile butadiene rubber(NBR), chloroprene rubber (CR) as matrix and mica powder (MP), hollow glass beads (HGB), and montmorillonite (MMT) as multifillers. The soundproof mechanism is discussed in detail. Results indicate that the synergism of damping and sound absorption behaviors in the composition has a considerable impact on the acoustic characteristics, which can be controlled by the blending ratio of NBR/CR matrixes and the multiscale structures of MP/HGB/MMT multifillers. The designed multifillers acoustic composites can adapt to broadband engineering noise control including walls in express train constructions, panels of vessel or aircraft cabins, and large transportation pipelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors (AT/RTs) are rare, fast-growing lesions of central nervous system and their prognosis is poor. Nowadays, multimodal managements, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are advocated; however, low survival rate and severe neurocognitive toxicity of chemotherapy as well as the irreversible long-term sequelae of irradiation in infants and young children with AT/RTs are alarming. The aim of our study is to provide valid biological information for more tailored advance therapy for these lesions. Methods: Gene expression profile of GSE94349 was downloaded from GEO database and was analyzed using limma R package. Function and enrichment analyses of DEGs were performed based on DAVID database. PPI network construction, hub gene selection and module analysis were conducted in Cytoscape software. Results: In this study, 224 up-regulated genes and 572 down-regulated genes were selected as DEGs. The up-regulated genes were mainly enriched in molecular function and cell component, which mainly included protein binding and nucleus, respectively. The down-regulated DEGs were significantly involved in cell component such as plasma membrane and integral component of membrane. Cell cycle and retrograde endocannabinoid signaling were the main KEGG pathway of up and down DEGs, respectively. CDK1, CCNA2, CDC20, TOP2A were identified as hub genes and two significant network modules were also obtained. Conclusions: Our study may help to further understand the molecular characteristics and provide more tailored targets for future treatment of AT/RTs. Hub genes CDK1, CCNA2, CDC20, TOP2A as well as cell cycle signaling pathway may be new more tailored targets for future treatment of AT/RTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A pesticide IR spectral database was established. • An IR-based pre-treatment method was proposed. • The method can eliminate the negative effect of pesticide formulation. The public concern and increasing awareness of pesticide calls for methods available to assure quality and authenticity. Spectra matching is widely used in various applications including the search for a spectrum of an unknown compound in an existing spectral database and quality control by means of comparing the spectra of products with standards. Although the infrared spectroscopy (IR) fingerprint has many applications in a lot of areas, there are several limitations in pesticide. The pesticide formulation is a significant impediment against analyzing IR fingerprint of pesticide with similarity estimation. In the present study, a novel strategy combining Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis was developed and validated to allow comprehensive analysis and rapid authentication of pesticide. A pesticide IR spectral database which included 604 pesticide standards was established. A simple, fast, and environmentally friendly IR-based pre-treatment method was proposed that can eliminate the negative effect of pesticide formulation on similarity estimation. In order to verify the effectiveness of proposed method, 30 pesticide samples were randomly collected from market, including liquid and solid, with the concentration of active components from 1% to 80%. For 30 samples, the proposed strategy resulted in a 90% accuracy rate and a 3.33% error rate based on the liquid chromatography (LC) data. It is therefore clear that IR spectral database combining with the proposed pre-treatment appear to be a promising tool for monitoring and analysis in the pesticide industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]