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This study aimed to isolate and select potential probiotic strains from the feces of healthy forest musk deer and to evaluate their in vitro probiotic characteristics. Twelve isolates were obtained and identified by cell morphology and bacterial 16S rDNA sequencing. Their survival under low pH and bile salt conditions, antagonistic activities against five pathogens (Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1, Salmonella enteritidis ATCC 13076 and Arcanobacterium pyogenes LSN3), auto-aggregation characteristics, hydrophobicity, antibiotic susceptibility and antibiotic resistance genotypes, and growth curves were evaluated. The results showed that five Lactiplantibacillus plantarum isolates and one Pediococcus acidilactici isolate survived at pH 4, or in 0.5% bile salt with survival rates of more than 88.5% and 87%, respectively. All of them inhibited the five pathogens with diameters of inhibition zones of 17.20-20.19 mm for E. coli ATCC 25922, S. aureus ATCC 25923, P. aeruginosa PAO1 and S. enteritidis ATCC 13076 and of 14.23-15.53 mm for A. pyogenes LSN3. They had similar auto-aggregation capacity (53.1%–56.2%) and surface hydrophobicity (52.9%–56.0%) to L. paracasei L22. They were resistant to streptomycin, ciprofloxacin and vancomycin, carried the vanX gene and rapidly grew; the optical density at 600 nm (OD600) reached 9.0 and 7.1 for L. plantarum and P. acidilactici from the gut of forest musk deer after 24 h incubation, respectively. Our findings demonstrated that these six isolates can be used as sources for the development of probiotic preparations intended for forest musk deer.

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes are closely related to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Arterial spin labeling (ASL) uses water proton in blood as an endogenous contrast agent to obtain CBF, which has attracted must attention in AD studies due to its advantages of non⁃invasiveness and safety. However, there is still a lack of uniformity in the implementation of ASL in clinical settings, and limited by sample size and different population cohorts, research results may be different or lack of universality, which lead to the fact that this technology has not yet been widely applied in AD. This article reviews the new research progress on the correlation between CBF measured by ASL and AD disease process, pathologic biomarkers, vascular pathological burden, apolipoprotein E ε4 (ApoEε4) gene, and cognitive impairment development, in order to provide guidance for the clinical application of ASL in AD.

ABSTRACT Amino acids play a crucial role in the growth and development of insects. Aphids cannot ingest enough amino acids in plant phloem to meet their requirements, and therefore, they are mainly dependent on the obligate symbiont Buchnera aphidicola to synthesize essential amino acids. Besides Buchnera, aphids may harbor another facultative symbiont, Arsenophonus, which alters the requirement of the cotton-melon aphid Aphis gossypii for amino acid. However, it is unclear how Arsenophonus regulates the requirement. Here, we found that Arsenophonus ameliorated growth performance of A. gossypii on an amino acid-deficient diet. A deficiency in lysine (Lys) or methionine (Met) led to changes in the abundance of Arsenophonus. Arsenophonus suppressed the abundance of Buchnera when aphids were fed a normal amino acid diet, but this suppression was eliminated or reversed when aphids were on a Lys- or Met-deficient diet. The relative abundance of Arsenophonus was positively correlated with that of Buchnera, but neither of them was correlated with the body weight of aphids. The relative expression levels of Lys and Met synthase genes of Buchnera were affected by the interaction between Arsenophonus infections and Buchnera abundance, especially in aphids reared on a Lys- or Met-deficient diet. Arsenophonus coexisted with Buchnera in bacteriocytes, which strengthens the interaction. IMPORTANCE The obligate symbiont Buchnera can synthesize amino acids for aphids. In this study, we found that a facultative symbiont, Arsenophonus, can help improve aphids’ growth performance under amino acid deficiency stress by changing the relative abundance of Buchnera and the expression levels of amino acid synthase genes. This study highlights the interaction between Arsenophonus and Buchnera to ameliorate aphid growth under amino acid stress.

Objective: This study aims to assess the clinical effectiveness of combining mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) with exercise intervention in improving anxiety, depression, sleep quality and mood regulation in patients with non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: A total of 60 patients with NSCLC who had not received surgical treatment were selected using convenience sampling and divided into an intervention group and control group, with 30 patients in each group. The control group received conventional psychological nursing care, whereas the intervention group received a combination of MBwSR and exercise therapy. Before the intervention, a questionnaire was completed to collect the basic data of the two groups. Further questionnaires were administered at 6 and 8 weeks after treatment to assess anxiety, depression, sleep quality and other items included in the five‐item Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS‐5). Results: No significant differences between the intervention and control groups were identified in terms of personal and clinical characteristics (p > 0.05). No significant differences were determined in the BSRS‐5, Self‐Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self‐Rating Depression Scale (SDS) or Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores between the intervention and control groups before the intervention. However, 6 and 8 weeks after the intervention, scores were significantly lower in both groups (p < 0.001). Significant differences in the BSRS‐5, SAS, SDS and PSQI scores were identified between the two groups at different time points (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The combination of MBSR and exercise intervention demonstrated improvements in anxiety, depression, sleep quality and BSRS‐5 scores in patients with NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To report 2 pedigrees of early⁃onset familial Alzheimer's disease (EOFAD) caused by PSEN1 gene mutation, review previous studies and summarize the PSEN1 gene mutation sites, clinical presentation and genotype characteristics of EOFAD in China. Methods and Results The clinical data of 2 pedigrees with EOFAD from Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University were collected. Genomic DNA from peripheral venous blood of the proband was screened. Search the reported Chinese cases of EOFAD caused by PSEN1 gene mutation. In the Case 1 family, there were 3 members with memory loss, including the proband, onset at the age of 45. His head MRI showed mild atrophy of the cerebral cortex and bilateral hippocampus. A c.488A＞G (p.His163Arg) pathogenic mutation in the exon 6 of PSEN1 gene was found, proving the diagnosis. In the Case 2 family, there were 6 members with memory and working competence loss, including the proband, onset at the age of 42. Head MRI showed whole cerebral cortical atrophy and bilateral hippocampal atrophy, obviously on the left side. A c.344A＞G (p.Tyr115Cys) pathogenic mutation in the exon 5 of PSEN1 gene was found, proving the diagnosis. A total of 40 cases (including this 2 cases) of EOFAD patients caused by PSEN1 gene mutation in China were enrolled. Thirty⁃eight pathogenic mutation sites were reported. The age of onset ranged from 21 to 62 years old, and the course of disease ranged from 4 to 10 years. About 87.50% (35/40) of the patients' onset manifestation was progressive memory loss and then rapidly with multiple cognitive domains involved. Some patients manifested with extrapyramidal symptoms, epilepsy or ear symptoms. Conclusions c.488A＞G and c.344A＞G mutations in the PSEN1 gene were identified to cause EOFAD, and c.344A＞G mutation is the first report in China. EOFAD occurs early and progresses rapidly, and sometimes the initial symptoms may be atypical. Therefore, gene detection plays an important role in the diagnosis of the disease.

Advances in diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in cancer have significantly increased the survival of cancer patients, which causes cancer itself and its treatment related sequelae and side effects appearing in their later life. Patients with cancer before, during and even many years after completion of therapies can exhibit cognitive impairment, negatively affecting cancer survivors' quality of life and functional independence. Internationally, patients with cancer complaining cognitive symptoms due to the disease itself and/or its therapy are called cancer⁃related cognitive impairment (CRCI). However, many aspects of the association between cancer and cognitive impairment remain uncertain. The definitive connection between systemic cancer and central nervous system is yet to be established. Therefore, this review summarizes the current evidence on potential pathophysiology in these patients with CRCI, emphasizing knowledge gaps and the potential strategies to address them.

Early‐stage rape seedling density is closely related to yield estimation, growth diagnosis, cultivated area statistics, and field management. Currently, manual sampling and counting, which are inefficient and inaccurate, are heavily relied upon to estimate rape seedling density. Computer vision techniques have emerged as a promising solution to the automation of this task, as digital images have become more commonplace. Farmland field environments, however, face many challenges, including scale variation, denseness, and background occlusion. An improved multi‐column convolutional neural network, called seedling rape density prediction network (SRDPNet), has been proposed in this study to resolve the issues related to accurate density estimation and counting of rape seedlings in complex farmland scenarios. Based on the multi‐column convolutional attention encoder, filters of different sizes are used to capture the basic feature of rape seedlings at various scales. The channel attention and position attention modules are introduced into branches to alleviate the impact of low counting accuracy caused by background error and growth state differences. The SRDPNet was validated using the seedling rapeseed plant counting (SRPC) dataset created in this study. The experimental results showed that the SRDPNet demonstrated high accurate counting performance for the SRPC dataset with a high coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.97396) and mean absolute error (MAE = 3.26, mean square error = 4.56), which are superior to that of the comparison method. SRDPNet can effectively solve the visual challenges of rape seedlings in complex farmland scenes and improve the robustness for complex visual variations. Core Ideas: Multicolumn CNN with attention module can effectively solve the problems of the rape seedling images.Position attention module can significantly improve the counting accuracy for the rape seedling with scale changes.Channel attention module can significantly improve the counting accuracy of rape seedling with complex backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of deuterated compounds is increasingly expanding across various fields, making the development of novel deuterium labeling techniques for obtaining deuterated compounds a burgeoning research focus. Carboxylic acids and their derivatives are widely utilized as cost‐effective and readily available materials for obtaining deuterated compounds due to their stable properties. This article presents a comprehensive and concise summary of the research progress in decarboxylative deuteration reactions over the past 20 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge is a Traditional Chinese Medicine used for the treatment of diseases related to the heart and liver. Owing to the abundance of salvianolic acids and tanshinones, S. miltiorrhiza exhibits various pharmacological activities, such as stimulating blood circulation, eliminating blood stasis, relieving menorrhea and pain, and improving polydipsia. Neocryptotanshinone (NCTS) is one of the tanshinones isolated from S. miltiorrhiza and exhibits anti‐inflammatory, hypoglycemic, and preventive effects against cardiovascular diseases; however, its pharmacokinetic properties have not been reported to date. Therefore, a simple and reliable LC–MS/MS method was developed to determine absorption, distribution, and excretion of NCTS in rat physiological samples. We demonstrated that NCTS had high oral absolute bioavailability of 85.96% ± 25.32%, and it was rapidly distributed in both the heart and brain, and the fecal excretion of NCTS was the highest. This study provides a theoretical basis for further development of NCTS as a potential clinical candidate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]