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Abstract During neuronal pruning, phagocytes engulf shed cellular debris to avoid inflammation and maintain tissue homeostasis. How phagocytic receptors recognize degenerating neurites had been unclear. Here, we identify two glucosyltransferases Alg8 and Alg10 of the N-glycosylation pathway required for dendrite fragmentation and clearance through genetic screen. The scavenger receptor Draper (Drpr) is N-glycosylated with complex- or hybrid-type N-glycans that interact specifically with galectins. We also identify the galectins Crouching tiger (Ctg) and Hidden dragon (Hdg) that interact with N-glycosylated Drpr and function in dendrite pruning via the Drpr pathway. Ctg and Hdg are required in hemocytes for expression and function, and are induced during dendrite injury to localize to injured dendrites through specific interaction with exposed phosphatidylserine (PS) on the surface membrane of injured dendrites. Thus, the galectins Ctg and Hdg bridge the interaction between PS and N-glycosylated Drpr, leading to the activation of phagocytosis.

Silicone rubber is widely used in industry, dairy products, medical, defense support, and other fields due to its excellent comprehensive properties, which have become one of the most important research objects of high-performance elastomer. Cationic-[pi] dynamic noncovalent bond has attracted more and more attention from material researchers due to its dynamic reversibility and design flexibility and has been applied to different material systems, giving new characteristics to traditional materials. Cationic-[pi]/covalently crosslinked silicone rubber was prepared by one-step method with glycidol propyl terminated polydimethylsiloxane (DMS-E21) as basic polymer, epoxy indole monomer (IN) as crosslinking structure modifier, Europium ion ([Eu.sup.3+]) as cation donor and triethylenetetramine (TETA) as a crosslinking agent. The influence of the reversibility of [Eu.sup.3+]-[pi] interaction on the static and dynamic mechanical behaviors of silicone rubber was studied. The results show that the elongation at break of cationic-[pi]/covalent hybrid crosslinked silicone rubber increases by more than 60% compared with pure covalent crosslinked silicone rubber when the breaking energy reaches the maximum, while the tensile strength increases by more than 100% and the introduction of [Eu.sup.3+]-[pi] dynamic bond can weaken the Mullins effect and the Payne effect on the high temperature of silicone rubber with obvious creep resistance. It shows an excellent mechanical strengthening effect with the characteristic of strengthening and toughening simultaneously and attractive nonlinear mechanical behavior on elastomers. KEYWORDS cation-[pi], mechanical properties, Mullins effect, non-covalent bond, silicone rubber, 1 | INTRODUCTION Silicone rubber is considered an important strategic material because of its superior high and low-temperature adaptability, aging resistance, radiation resistance, and other properties, and occupies an irreplaceable [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has emerged as a major global public health concern. In November 2022, Guangzhou experienced a significant outbreak of Omicron. This study presents detailed epidemiological and laboratory data on Omicron infection in a general hospital in Guangzhou between December 1, 2022, and January 31, 2023. Out of the 55,296 individuals tested, 12,346 were found to be positive for Omicron. The highest prevalence of positive cases was observed in the 20 to 39 age group (24.6%), while the lowest was in children aged 0 to 9 years (1.42%). Females had a higher incidence of infection than males, accounting for 56.6% of cases. The peak time of Omicron infection varied across different populations. The viral load was higher in older adults and children infected with Omicron, indicating age-related differences. Spearman’s rank correlation analysis revealed positive correlations between Ct values and laboratory parameters in hospitalized patients with Omicron infection. These parameters included CRP (rs = 0.059, p = 0.009), PT (rs = 0.057, p = 0.009), INR (rs = 0.055, p = 0.013), AST (rs = 0.067, p = 0.002), LDH (rs = 0.078, p = 0.001), and BNP (rs = 0.063, p = 0.014). However, EO (Eosinophil, rs = −0.118, p

Introduction: Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) has emerged as a powerful tool for rapid pathogen identification in clinical practice. However, the parameters used to interpret mNGS data, such as read count, genus rank, and coverage, lack explicit performance evaluation. In this study, the developed indicators as well as novel parameters were assessed for their performance in bacterium detection.Methods: We developed several relevant parameters, including 10M normalized reads, double-discard reads, Genus Rank Ratio, King Genus Rank Ratio, Genus Rank Ratio*Genus Rank, and King Genus Rank Ratio*Genus Rank. These parameters, together with frequently used read indicators including raw reads, reads per million mapped reads (RPM), transcript per kilobase per million mapped reads (TPM), Genus Rank, and coverage were analyzed for their diagnostic efficiency in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), a common source for detecting eight bacterium pathogens: Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Hemophilus influenzae, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Aspergillus fumigatus.Results: The results demonstrated that these indicators exhibited good diagnostic efficacy for the eight pathogens. The AUC values of all indicators were almost greater than 0.9, and the corresponding sensitivity and specificity values were almost greater than 0.8, excepted coverage. The negative predictive value of all indicators was greater than 0.9. The results showed that the use of double-discarded reads, Genus Rank Ratio*Genus Rank, and King Genus Rank Ratio*Genus Rank exhibited better diagnostic efficiency than that of raw reads, RPM, TPM, and in Genus Rank. These parameters can serve as a reference for interpreting mNGS data of BALF. Moreover, precision filters integrating our novel parameters were built to detect the eight bacterium pathogens in BALF samples through machine learning.Summary: In this study, we developed a set of novel parameters for pathogen identification in clinical mNGS based on reads and ranking. These parameters were found to be more effective in diagnosing pathogens than traditional approaches. The findings provide valuable insights for improving the interpretation of mNGS reports in clinical settings, specifically in BALF analysis.

Objective To explore the prevalence of osteoporosis in adult women in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and to analyze the influencing factors. Methods Totally 1 333 adult women from 4 regions of Inner Mongolia were selected by stratified cluster random sampling method from July 2014 to December 2015. Questionnaire survey, physical examination and laboratory testing were conducted. Calcaneal bone mineral density was measured by dry ultrasound bone mineral density analyzer. Univariate and multivariate Logistic regression were used to analyze the influencing factors of osteoporosis in adult women. Results The prevalence of osteoporosis in adult women in Inner Mongolia was 7.88% (standardized rate 8.56%). Logistic regression analysis showed that the protective factors of osteoporosis prevalence included young age, high intensity of physical exercise and high height (P＜0.05), while menopause was an independent risk factor for osteoporosis (P＜0.05). Conclusions The osteoporosis of adult women in Inner Mongolia is closely related to age, physical exercise, menopause and body height.

Objective: This study aimed to improve the tenderness and flavor content of Yanbian cattle beef. Methods: Rump beef of Yanbian cattle were dry-aged by using three different methods, i.e., Method A: RH（65±5）% aging for 10 days, RH（75±5）% aging for 10 days, and then RH （85±5）% aging for 20 days; Method B: RH（75±5）% aging for 20 days and then RH（85±5）% aging for 20 days; Method C: RH（85±5）% aging for 40 days. The quality changes caused by the different aging processes were then analyzed and compared. Results: The cooking loss of the beef processed by all the three methods increased significantly with the extension of aging time, but the beef loss (39.14%) in Group A was the highest. The TBARS and TVB-N values of group C were 1.387 and 14.833, respectively, significantly higher than those of the other two groups. The fat and protein contents of each group showed an increasing trend, while the shear force value decreased by 50%. No significant difference in the changes of cooking loss rate, color and pH value were found among the groups. The results showed that with dry-aging, the richness of taste attributes was elevated with higher freshness and aftertaste. The bitterness in group B was lower, and the relative content of aldehydes and ketones among volatile flavor compounds was higher. Conclusion: Method B was the best dry-aging process for Yanbian cattle rump beef.

Objective The clinical characteristics and imaging information of insular glioma patients were collected to predict mutation status of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1). Methods A total of 596 patients with gliomas confirmed by postoperative pathology in The First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University from January 2011 to June 2021 were enrolled, including 72 insular gliomas, 213 frontal gliomas, 165 temporal gliomas, 76 parietal gliomas, 28 and 29 midline gliomas. All patients were examined by MRI, fifteen glioma⁃related features were selected from the visually accessible rembrandt images (VASARI), including enhancement quality, enhancement proportion, non⁃enhancement proportion, necrosis proportion, edema proportion, cyst, thickness of enhanced margin, definition of the enhanced margin, hemorrhage, diffusion, deep white matter involvement, deep ventricle involvement, midline cross, T2⁃FLAIR mismatch, maximum diameter of tumor. Univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analysis were used to screen the predictive factors related to IDH1⁃mutant in insular glioma. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted and area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity and specificity were calculated to evaluate the predictive power of MRI features for IDH1⁃mutant glioma. Results IDH1 mutation rate was higher in insular and frontal gliomas (P＜0.01, for all). WHO grade Ⅱ had the highest IDH1 mutation rate (P=0.008, 0.000), and grade Ⅳ had the lowest mutation rate (P=0.000). The IDH1 mutation rate in low⁃expression Ki⁃67 gliomas was higher than that in high⁃expression gliomas (P=0.000). Logistic regression analysis showed that weak enhancement (OR=35.671, 95%CI: 2.805-453.600; P=0.006), non⁃enhancement (OR=75.453, 95%CI: 2.881-1872.759; P=0.009), unlimited diffusion (OR=10.573, 95%CI: 1.043-107.175; P=0.046), no deep ventricle involvement (OR=187.601, 95%CI: 2.269-15507.607; P=0.020), T2⁃FLAIR mismatch (OR=47.536, 95%CI: 2.838-796.097; P=0.007) were independent predictive factors for IDH1 mutation in insular glioma. The AUC of enhancement degree, diffusion, deep ventricle involvement and T2⁃FLAIR mismatch for the diagnosis of IDH1⁃mutant glioma were 0.846 (95%CI: 0.748-0.944, P=0.000), 0.730 (95%CI: 0.609-0.850, P=0.001), 0.708 (95%CI: 0.584-0.833, P=0.003) and 0.745 (95%CI: 0.627-0.864, P=0.000). The combination of the 4 groups had the highest diagnostic efficacy, and the AUC was 0.961 (95%CI: 0.923-0.999, P=0.000). Conclusions Low grade insular glioma has a high IDH1 mutation rate. MRI features of weak enhancement and non⁃enhancement, unlimited diffusion, non deep ventricle involvement and T2⁃FLAIR mismatch contribute to noninvasive prediction of IDH1⁃mutant insular glioma.

Although there have been many theoretical studies on the enhancement effect of nanofiller networks and their interaction with elastomer molecular chains on the mechanical properties of elastomers, its mechanism description is still not completely clear. One of the main obstacles is the lack of quantitative characterization techniques and corresponding theoretical models for the three-dimensional morphology of complex nanofiller networks. In this paper, the precipitated silica-filled silicone rubber was studied by fluorescence labeling combined with laser scanning confocal microscopy, and the real three-dimensional images of dispersion and aggregation structure of filled rubber systems were obtained. The microstructure evolution of nano-particle aggregates caused by the increase in the filler volume fraction was quantitatively described, and the reinforcement mechanism of elastomers with a distribution of aggregates and filler networks composed of nanoparticles was studied. Furthermore, a nano-composite reinforcement model based on volume fraction, particle shape, interaction, and filler dispersion has been proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MOF-based luminescent sensors have garnered considerable attention due to their potential in recognition and discrimination with high sensitivity, selectivity, and fast response in the last decades. Herein, this work describes the bulk preparation of a novel luminescent homochiral MOF, namely, [Cd(s-L)](NO3)2 (MOF-1), from an enantiopure pyridyl-functionalized ligand with rigid binaphthol skeleton under mild synthetic condition. Except for the features of porosity and crystallinity, the MOF-1 has also been characterized with water-stability, luminescence, and homochirality. Most important, the MOF-1 exhibits highly sensitive molecular recognition toward the4-nitrobenzoic acid (NBC) and moderate enantioselective detection of proline, arginine, and 1-phenylethanol.

Abstract Background Pneumocystis jirovecii and Aspergillus fumigatus, are opportunistic pathogenic fungus that has a major impact on mortality in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. With the potential to invade multiple organs, early and accurate diagnosis is essential to the survival of SLE patients, establishing an early diagnosis of the infection, especially coinfection by Pneumocystis jirovecii and Aspergillus fumigatus, still remains a great challenge. Case presentation In this case, we reported that the application of next -generation sequencing in diagnosing Pneumocystis jirovecii and Aspergillus fumigatus coinfection in a Chinese girl with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Voriconazole was used to treat pulmonary aspergillosis, besides sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim (SMZ-TMP), and caspofungin acetate to treat Pneumocystis jirovecii infection for 6 days. On Day 10 of admission, her chest radiograph displayed obvious absorption of bilateral lung inflammation though the circumstance of repeated fever had not improved. Unfortunately, the patient discharged from the hospital since the financial burden, and during the follow-up, it was documented the patient died within one week after discharge. Conclusions This successful application of the next generation sequencing assisting the rapid diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii and Aspergillus fumigatus coinfection provides a new perspective in the clinical approach against the systematic fungi infections and highlights the potential of this technique in rapid etiological diagnosis.