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Objective To explore the relationships among various influencing factors of cognitive function in elderly patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain of the elderly (CMPE) based on structural equation modeling. Methods From November 2023 to June 2024, a convenience sampling method was used to select 510 hospitalized CMPE patients at the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University for a questionnaire survey. Multiple linear stepwise regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) were employed to analyze the influencing factors of cognitive function in CMPE patients. Results The average cognitive function score of the 510 CMPE patients was (24.84 ±3.792). The SEM analysis revealed that chronic disease status, age, depression, and pain scores had negative direct effects on cognitive function, with effect values of -0.422 (95%C7: -0.668 to -0.268), -0.357 (95%C7: -0.449 to -0.226), -0.146 (95%C7: -0.226 to -0.066), and -0.141 (95%C7: -0.239 to -0.084), respectively. Educational level and social support had positive direct effects on cognitive function, with effect values of 0.201 (95%C7: 0.179 to 0.313) and 0.148 (95%C7: 0.096 to 0.260). Among these, educational level, social support, and pain scores exhibited both direct and indirect effects on cognitive function, with total effect values of 0.243 (95%C7: 0.179 to 0.313), 0.175 (95%C7: 0.096 to 0.260), and -0.160 (95%C7: -0.239 to -0.084), respectively. Conclusion Cognitive function in CMPE patients requires improvement. Medical institutions should conduct cognitive screenings and interventions early to reduce the risk of cognitive impairment and delay the onset of dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) is important for multiple cognitive functions. We sort to establish a minimal or non-invasive radiation approach to ablate AHN using guinea pigs as an animal model. 125I seeds with different radiation dosages (1.0, 0.8, 0.6, 0.3 mCi) were implanted unilaterally between the scalp and skull above the temporal lobe for 30 and 60 days, with the radiation effect on proliferating cells, immature neurons, and mature neurons in the hippocampal formation determined by assessment of immunolabeled (+) cells for Ki67, doublecortin (DCX), and neuron-specific nuclear antigen (NeuN), as well as Nissl stain cells. Spatially, the ablation effect of radiation occurred across the entire rostrocaudal and largely the dorsoventral dimensions of the hippocampus, evidenced by a loss of DCX+ cells in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of dentate gyrus (DG) in the ipsilateral relative to contralateral hemispheres in reference to the 125I seed implant. Quantitatively, Ki67+ and DCX+ cells at the SGZ in the dorsal hippocampus were reduced in all dosage groups at the two surviving time points, more significant in the ipsilateral than contralateral sides, relative to sham controls. NeuN+ neurons and Nissl-stained cells were reduced in the granule cell layer of DG and the stratum pyramidale of CA1 in the groups with 0.6-mCi radiation for 60 days and 1.0 mCi for 30 and 60 days. Minimal cranial trauma was observed in the groups with 0.3– 1.0-mCi radiation at 60 days. These results suggest that extracranial radiation with 125I seed implantation can be used to deplete HAN in a radioactivity-, duration-, and space-controllable manner, with a "non-invasive" stereotactic ablation achievable by using 125I seeds with relatively low radioactivity dosages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) is important for multiple cognitive functions. We sort to establish a minimal or non-invasive radiation approach to ablate AHN using guinea pigs as an animal model. 125 I seeds with different radiation dosages (1.0, 0.8, 0.6, 0.3 mCi) were implanted unilaterally between the scalp and skull above the temporal lobe for 30 and 60 days, with the radiation effect on proliferating cells, immature neurons, and mature neurons in the hippocampal formation determined by assessment of immunolabeled (+) cells for Ki67, doublecortin (DCX), and neuron-specific nuclear antigen (NeuN), as well as Nissl stain cells. Spatially, the ablation effect of radiation occurred across the entire rostrocaudal and largely the dorsoventral dimensions of the hippocampus, evidenced by a loss of DCX + cells in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of dentate gyrus (DG) in the ipsilateral relative to contralateral hemispheres in reference to the 125 I seed implant. Quantitatively, Ki67 + and DCX + cells at the SGZ in the dorsal hippocampus were reduced in all dosage groups at the two surviving time points, more significant in the ipsilateral than contralateral sides, relative to sham controls. NeuN + neurons and Nissl-stained cells were reduced in the granule cell layer of DG and the stratum pyramidale of CA1 in the groups with 0.6-mCi radiation for 60 days and 1.0 mCi for 30 and 60 days. Minimal cranial trauma was observed in the groups with 0.3- 1.0-mCi radiation at 60 days. These results suggest that extracranial radiation with 125 I seed implantation can be used to deplete HAN in a radioactivity-, duration-, and space-controllable manner, with a "non-invasive" stereotactic ablation achievable by using 125 I seeds with relatively low radioactivity dosages., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Wan, Huang, Yang, Ai, Zhou, Gong, Li, Zhang, Luo, Tu, Pan, Xiao and Yan.)

Genetics is one of the core courses for undergraduates majoring in related disciplines. Most universities use general genetics textbooks in teaching, which will lead to different teaching qualities for students in different majors, especially in sericulture, apiculture, plant protection, and animal science. This is especially true for students majoring in insects. Although there are some entomology cases in general textbooks, they have not been updated with developments in entomology and cannot meet the needs of comprehensive quality training. Therefore, we review entomology cases that can be used in genetics courses, introduce genetics teaching points, offers replacements for some non-classical cases in general genetics textbooks, and supplement several cases of insect developmental genetics, extranuclear genetics, and evolutionary genetics, which are seldom described in general genetics textbooks. We also establish a genetics theoretical system and experimental teaching design for entomology-related majors to highlight the characteristics of entomology- related majors in genetics teaching, aiming to help students and teachers in related majors.

Evapotranspiration is one of the most important hydrological variables in the context of water resources management. An attempt was made to understand and predict the dynamics of reference evapotranspiration from a nonlinear dynamical perspective in this study. The reference evapotranspiration data was calculated using the FAO Penman-Monteith equation with the observed daily meteorological data for the period 1966-2005 at four meteorological stations (i.e., Baotou, Zhangbei, Kaifeng, and Shaoguan) representing a wide range of climatic conditions of China. The correlation dimension method was employed to investigate the chaotic behavior of the reference evapotranspiration series. The existence of chaos in the reference evapotranspiration series at the four different locations was proved by the finite and low correlation dimension. A local approximation approach was employed to forecast the daily reference evapotranspiration series. Low root mean square error (RSME) and mean absolute error (MAE) (for all locations lower than 0.31 and 0.24, resp.), high correlation coefficient (CC), and modified coefficient of efficiency (for all locations larger than 0.97 and 0.8, resp.) indicate that the predicted reference evapotranspiration agrees well with the observed one. The encouraging results indicate the suitableness of chaotic approach for understanding and predicting the dynamics of the reference evapotranspiration.

Sustainability evaluation of the process of water abstraction, distribution, and use for irrigation can contribute to the policy of decision making in irrigation development. Emergy theory and method are used to evaluate a pumping irrigation district in China. A corresponding framework for its emergy evaluation is proposed. Its emergy evaluation shows that water is the major component of inputs into the irrigation water production and utilization systems (24.7% and 47.9% of the total inputs, resp.) and that the transformities of irrigation water and rice as the systems' products (1.72E + 05 sej/J and 1.42E + 05 sej/J, resp.; sej/J = solar emjoules per joule) represent their different emergy efficiencies. The irrigated agriculture production subsystem has a higher sustainability than the irrigation water production subsystem and the integrated production system, according to several emergy indices: renewability ratio (%R), emergy yield ratio (EYR), emergy investment ratio (EIR), environmental load ratio (ELR), and environmental sustainability index (ESI). The results show that the performance of this irrigation district could be further improved by increasing the utilization efficiencies of the main inputs in both the production and utilization process of irrigation water.

A new fusion gene cry1Ac-tchiB was constructed to enhance the toxicity of crystal proteins, the cry1Ac gene of Bacillus thuringiensis strain 4.0718 was combined with a tchiB (deleted signal peptide and Enterokinase site sequence). In this process, the Enterokinase site sequence was inserted into the midst of these two genes. Then the combined fragment carrying the upstream promoter region and the downstream terminator region of cry1Ac gene were cloned into the shuttle vector pHT315. And after a series of enzyme digestions and subclonings two new expression vector pHUAccB6 and pHUAccB7 were obtained. The two vectors were transformed into B. thuringiensis acrystalliferous strain XBU001 with electroporation to obtain the recombinant strain HAccB6 and HAccB7. The fusion gene was expressed and the expression product was detected by SDS-PAGE. The result indicated that the recombinant Cry1Ac-tchiB protein accumulated to the level of 61.38% of total bacterial proteins. Cry1Ac protein accumulated to the level of 42% of total bacterial proteins. Chitinase activities is 5.2 time more than that of the control strain. Under Atomic Force Microscopy and SEM of crystals protein, there were some bipy ramidal crystals with a size of 1.5 x 3.0 microm. Bioassay showed that the fusion crystals from recombinant strain HAccB6 and HAccB7 were high toxic against third-instar larvae of Helicourpa armigora with the LC50 (after 72h) value of 9.10 micro/mL and 11.34 micro/mL.The constructed fusion proteins had more toxicity than Cry1Ac crystal proteins. The study will enhances the toxicity of B. thuringiensis Cry toxins protein and makes a ground for constructing the fusion genes of B. thuringiensis cry gene and other foreign toxin genes and the recombinant strain with high toxicity.