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Abstract Background Tuina is an effective treatment for the decrease of skeletal muscle atrophy after peripheral nerve injury. However, the underlying mechanism of action remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the underlying mechanisms of tuina in rats with sciatic nerve injury (SNI). Methods We established an SNI rat model. After Tuina intervention, curative effects were evaluated by behavioral assessment, nerve function index, and muscle atrophy index (MAI). Pathological changes were observed by transmission electron microscopy and immunofluorescence. Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), forkhead box O (FoxO) and p-FoxO levels were detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Western blotting was performed to detect the expression of proteins involved in the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Result Behavioral assessment, nerve function index, and MAI revealed that the tuina had significantly improved muscle atrophy after SNI compared with the SNI model group. Transmission electron microscopy showed that tuina improved muscle ultramicrostructure. CD31 immunofluorescence revealed that tuina improved microcirculation. Furthermore, we observed that tuina differentially regulated the levels of IGF-1, FoxO and p-FoxO, and the protein expression of p-Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (p-PI3K), p-AKT, and vascular endothelial growth factor in the anterior tibial muscle and soleus muscles. Conclusion Tuina could effectively inhibit skeletal muscle atrophy via the microcirculation pathway in a rat model of SNI by regulating the expression of IGF-1 and FoxO. The underlying mechanism of action may involve the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to analyse the research hotspots and frontiers in the field of paediatric fever between 2013 and 2023.MethodsThe included articles were visually analysed using CiteSpace 6.1.R6 software.ResultsA total of 2,662 Chinese-language articles and 1,456 English-language articles were included in the study. Based on the Chinese literature, research groups were identified represented by Xinmin Li, Jinling Hong and Hongshuang Luo. Based on the English literature, research groups were formed represented by Henriette Moll, Santiago Mintegi and Elizabeth Alpern. Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine was the institution with the largest number of publications in the Chinese literature, and the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention was the institution with the largest number of publications in the English literature. The research on paediatric fever mainly focused on mechanism exploration, green treatment and clinical management.ConclusionSeveral relatively stable research groups have been formed. Future studies on the differential diagnosis, rational drug use, standardised management and clinical practice guidelines for paediatric fever are needed.

Global warming has evolved into a global environmental concern. Despite the significant impact of rivers on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, there remains a lack of wide quantification of emissions at high temporal resolution. This research investigated the characteristics of the CO2 exchange flux (FCO2) and CH4 exchange flux (FCH4) at the interface of water and gas, as well as the primary determinants that impact these fluxes, at both the seasonal and 24-h scales, in the Inner Mongolia section of the Yellow River (IMYR). FCO2 was 52.52 ± 78.26 mmol·m−2·d−1 in summer, which was higher than autumn (30.81 ± 51.24 mmol·m−2·d−1) and spring (-96.09 ± 264.31 mmol·m−2·d−1). FCH4 peaked in summer (928.45 ± 513.31 μmol·m−2·d−1) and declined in the fall (326.76 ± 576.31 μmol·m−2·d−1). The lowest FCH4 was recorded in spring (61.75 ± 190.26 μmol·m−2·d−1). Wind speed (WS) and organic carbon mineralisation were the primary determinants of FCO2 at the seasonal scale, whereas temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) were the primary determinants of FCH4. Monitoring FCO2 and FCH4 at night revealed higher average levels than during the day. FCO2 was regulated by levels of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total phosphorus (TP) levels over a 24-h period, whereas FCH4 was regulated by levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) and total nitrogen (TN). Throughout the majority of the time period, the IMYR river segment emits carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. Due to the fact that emission patterns and driving mechanisms of riverine CO2 and CH4 differ across time scales, it is necessary to conduct more precise observations with high spatial and temporal resolution in order to acquire the most reliable data and comprehend more targeted approaches to carbon emission reduction.

Teaching is a demanding profession and maintaining teacher wellbeing is significant in ensuring educational quality. However, teacher wellbeing is easily affected by educational reforms, and systematic research on this topic is still relatively rare. In China, with the enactment of the Double Reduction Policy in 2021, the job characteristics of primary and secondary school teachers have undergone various changes. Thus, the current study examined the new job characteristics that China’s Double Reduction Policy imposed on the wellbeing of school teachers and their relationships with teachers’ inner world (i.e., emotional regulation and mindset). A cross-sectional study was carried out from June to October 2022 across China, employing self-reporting questionnaires for data collection and analysis. With a random sample of 902 teachers, we investigated the associations between teacher wellbeing, job characteristics, emotional regulation strategies, and mindset. The results indicated that teachers showed a lower level of wellbeing after the educational reform. Higher job resources contributed positively to predicting teacher wellbeing, while higher job demands contributed negatively. Genuinely expressing had positive impacts on teacher wellbeing while surface acting had negative impacts and deep acting none. Mindset was found to affect emotional regulation strategies and teacher wellbeing simultaneously. These findings shed light on how teachers can appropriately regulate emotions and maintain wellbeing in the wake of educational reforms.

To better understand pre-service teachers' teaching anxiety in specific cultural contexts and promote their overall anticipatory socialisation process, this study investigated the level, dimensions and causality of Chinese pre-service teachers' teaching anxiety during student teaching. We conducted a survey of 426 Chinese pre-service teachers who were at the end of their bachelor or master programmes to become primary or secondary school teachers. The results of this study revealed that the participants experienced moderate anxiety (M = 25.51), with more concerns about their professional teaching competencies (M = 10.75) and teaching management ability (M = 7.66) than personal image, personal affairs and evaluation (M = 2.92, 2.35, 1.82). Moreover, gender, educational background, self-concept, student ability, job demands and job resources were correlated with teaching anxiety. Among these, self-concept and job demands best explained teaching anxiety with estimated regression weights of -0.541 for self-concept and 0.079 for job demands (p < 0.001). This study contributes to the literature on teaching anxiety by exploring culturally specific elements in China and offers valuable implications for interventions to reduce anxiety among pre-service teachers.

In English teaching, developing students' reading habits has been emphasized for its critical role in promoting overall core competencies. However, in practice, many teachers and parents are not informed of the effective approaches to developing good English reading habits, hindering the overall development of students' core competencies. In light of this, an empirical study was carried out to explore the developmental features of students' English reading habits and individual, family and school factors that affect its development. A questionnaire was adopted to collect quantitative data. A total of 2,130 primary and secondary school students from China participated in the study. The results indicated that their English reading habits varied with age and gender. In terms of age, secondary school students, especially middle school students, performed better than primary school students. In terms of gender, females performed better in reading frequency, reading time and ways of reading, while males had a larger reading volume. Reading habits were found to be impacted by individual, school and family factors. Among them, age had the strongest influence on the development of English reading habits. These findings shed light on effective ways to develop English reading habits, especially in foreign-language-learning contexts.

Background: Tuina is an effective treatment for the decrease of skeletal muscle atrophy after peripheral nerve injury. However, the underlying mechanism of action remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the underlying mechanisms of tuina in rats with sciatic nerve injury (SNI). Methods: We established an SNI rat model. After Tuina intervention, curative effects were evaluated by behavioral assessment, nerve function index, and muscle atrophy index (MAI). Pathological changes were observed by transmission electron microscopy and immunofluorescence. Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), forkhead box O (FoxO) and p-FoxO levels were detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Western blotting was performed to detect the expression of proteins involved in the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Result: Behavioral assessment, nerve function index, and MAI revealed that the tuina had significantly improved muscle atrophy after SNI compared with the SNI model group. Transmission electron microscopy showed that tuina improved muscle ultramicrostructure. CD31 immunofluorescence revealed that tuina improved microcirculation. Furthermore, we observed that tuina differentially regulated the levels of IGF-1, FoxO and p-FoxO, and the protein expression of p-Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (p-PI3K), p-AKT, and vascular endothelial growth factor in the anterior tibial muscle and soleus muscles. Conclusion: Tuina could effectively inhibit skeletal muscle atrophy via the microcirculation pathway in a rat model of SNI by regulating the expression of IGF-1 and FoxO. The underlying mechanism of action may involve the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better understand pre‐service teachers' teaching anxiety in specific cultural contexts and promote their overall anticipatory socialisation process, this study investigated the level, dimensions and causality of Chinese pre‐service teachers' teaching anxiety during student teaching. We conducted a survey of 426 Chinese pre‐service teachers who were at the end of their bachelor or master programmes to become primary or secondary school teachers. The results of this study revealed that the participants experienced moderate anxiety (M = 25.51), with more concerns about their professional teaching competencies (M = 10.75) and teaching management ability (M = 7.66) than personal image, personal affairs and evaluation (M = 2.92, 2.35, 1.82). Moreover, gender, educational background, self‐concept, student ability, job demands and job resources were correlated with teaching anxiety. Among these, self‐concept and job demands best explained teaching anxiety with estimated regression weights of −0.541 for self‐concept and 0.079 for job demands (p <.001). This study contributes to the literature on teaching anxiety by exploring culturally specific elements in China and offers valuable implications for interventions to reduce anxiety among pre‐service teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In English teaching, developing students' reading habits has been emphasized for its critical role in promoting overall core competencies. However, in practice, many teachers and parents are not informed of the effective approaches to developing good English reading habits, hindering the overall development of students' core competencies. In light of this, an empirical study was carried out to explore the developmental features of students' English reading habits and individual, family and school factors that affect its development. A questionnaire was adopted to collect quantitative data. A total of 2,130 primary and secondary school students from China participated in the study. The results indicated that their English reading habits varied with age and gender. In terms of age, secondary school students, especially middle school students, performed better than primary school students. In terms of gender, females performed better in reading frequency, reading time and ways of reading, while males had a larger reading volume. Reading habits were found to be impacted by individual, school and family factors. Among them, age had the strongest influence on the development of English reading habits. These findings shed light on effective ways to develop English reading habits, especially in foreign‐language‐learning contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bag-of-words (BoW) has been widely regarded as the most successful algorithms for content-based image related tasks, such as large scale image retrieval, classification, and object categorization. Large visual words acquired by BoW quantization through large vocabulary or codebooks have been receiving much attention in the past years. However, not only construction of large vocabulary but also the quantization process impose a heavy burden in terms of time and memory complexities. In order to tackle this issue, we propose an efficient hierarchical BoW (HBoW) to achieve large visual words through quantization by a compact vocabulary instead of large vocabulary. Our vocabulary is very compact since it is only composed of two small dictionaries which is learned through segmental sparse decomposition of local features. To generate the BoW with large size, we first divide the local features into two half parts, and use the two small dictionaries to compute their sparse codes. Then, we map the two indices of the maximum elements of the two sparse codes to a large set of visual words based upon the fact that data with similar properties will share the same base weighted with the largest sparse coefficient. To further make similar patches have higher probability of select the same dictionary base to get similar BoW vectors, we propose a novel collaborative dictionary learning method by imposing the similarity regularization factor together with the row sparsity regularization across data instances during group sparse coding. Additionally, based on index combination of top-2 large sparse codes of local descriptors, we propose a soft BoW assignment method so that our proposed HBoW can tolerate different word selection for similar patches. By employing the inverted file structure built through our HBoW, K-nearest neighbors (KNN) can be efficiently retrieved. After incorporation of our fast KNN search into the SVM-KNN classification method, our HBoW can be used for efficient image classification and logo recognition. Experiments on serval well-known datasets show that our approach is effective for large scale image classification and retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We previously showed that microglial keratan sulfate (KS) was induced in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. However, the functional roles of the glycan and its synthetic enzyme in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), a progressive disorder, are unclear. In our study, KS modified with sialic acids having a molecular mass of 125-220 kDa and the carbohydrate sulfotransferase GlcNAc6ST1 were up-regulated in the brains of two transgenic mouse models (J20 and Tg2576) and the brains of patients with AD. GlcNAc6ST1-deficient J20 (J20/GlcNAc6ST1-/-) mice demonstrated a complete absence of the microglial sialylated KS. J20/GlcNAc6ST1-/- primary microglia showed an increased level of amyloid-β phagocytosis and were hyperresponsive to interleukin 4, a potent antiinflammatory cytokine. Moreover, J20/GlcNAc6ST1-/- mice manifested reduced cerebral amyloid-β deposition. GlcNAc6ST1- synthesizing sialylated KS thus modulates AD pathology. Inhibition of KS synthesis by targeting GlcNAc6ST1 may therefore be beneficial for controlling AD pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Dating the desert lake sediments using 210Pbuns and 137Cs methods is challenging because of the low atmospheric fluxes and the unexpected irregular variations in the specific activity profiles. Due to the large numbers of permanent lakes in the Badain Jaran Desert, they provide abundant sites for investigating the desert 210Pbuns and 137Cs geochronology. Research was performed to determine the reliable ages using this methodology and obtain a better understanding of the principal factors that affect the dating results. The top 20–30 cm of core SH-1 from Lake Shuanghaizi and of core YD-1 from Lake Yindeertu in Badain Jaran Desert were dated. The results support multiple conclusions. (1) Both cores have low surficial 210Pbuns activities (SH-1, 24.5 Bq kg−1; YD-1, 59.7 Bq kg−1) compared with those of the cores from arid Northwest China, such as Lake Bosten (350 Bq kg−1) and Lake Wulungu (523.37 Bq kg−1) from Xinjiang. Although the 210Pb record in SH-1 has multiple irregular variations with depth, the exponential decrease in the YD-1 activity profiles appears fairly regular. (2) The 210Pbuns activities are highly correlated with the sample salt concentration (SSC). (3) Sediment dates for core SH-1 derived from the constant rate of 210Pb supply (CRS) model indicate that it spans a period of 65 years (1942 AD–2007 AD) with an average sedimentation rate of 0.21 cm a−1 (0.16 g cm−2 a−1). Sediment dates for core YD-1 derived from the corrected CRS model indicate that it spans a period of 121 years old (1889 AD–2010 AD) with an average sedimentation rate of 0.16 cm a−1 (0.12 g cm−2 a−1). In both cores, the 137Cs time markers of 1963 appeared at different depths, which may result from the differing sedimentation rates at the sites of the cores. The sedimentation rates calculated from the CRS-determined age differences between the SH-1 and YD-1 cores appear to have resulted from the topographies containing various mega-dunes and regional aeolian activity patterns. We believe that the low 210Pb flux and the unexpected fluctuations in the 210Pb profiles are the principal factors affecting our dating results. The low 210Pbuns activities were caused by infrequent rainfall and mega-dune barriers. The unexpected fluctuations in the 210Pbuns profiles resulted from the salt crystallisation that occurred via deposition or post-sedimentation. The salt crystallisation has been closely associated with abrupt regional climate changes, including rainfall, temperature and serious drought events during the 1950s–1970s. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]