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Low energy/frequency radiofrequency (LRF) combined with the transdermal delivery of liposome (L) encapsulated antiaging peptides technology is a remarkable, newly developed physical noninvasive transdermal penetration technique; it is considered a highly efficient, comprehensive and safe technology. In this study, our objective was to evaluate the physical and chemical mechanisms underlying the efficacy of this innovative technique involving a combination of LRF and L, termed LLRF, that exerts a synergistic anti-aging effect on human skin, via an animal experiment. Physical and chemical analyses indicated that a relatively stable liposome with a uniform nano-size, which was formed, possessed good transdermal permeability that was 2.74 folds higher than that of the free peptide (F). LLRF exhibited a higher transdermal permeation performance that was of 3.65 folds higher than that of the free one, which was substantiated via confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy. The mouse UVB photoaging model trial confirmed that the LLRF technology exerted a significant synergistic effect compared to liposome technology, or free peptide, by downregulating inflammatory factors (IL-6, TNF-α), inhibiting the mRNA and protein expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP1, MMP3), promoting the mRNA and protein expression of related collagens (Procollagen, Col1α1 and Col3α1), and repairing the stratum corneum barrier function, as evidenced by trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL), skin cuticle hydration (SCH), and decreased expression of β-gal, an aging marker. These findings indicated that photoaging skin can be effectively and comprehensively rejuvenated, and that even photodamage can be reversed, thereby restoring the original physiological characteristics of healthy skin. Clinical tests have confirmed that although liposome technology is an effective antiaging method which helps exert tightening and anti-wrinkle effects on human skin, LLRF is an even more effective anti-aging technique. This study reveals a highly effective technique involving a combination physical and chemical therapy that may be utilized for antiaging purposes as well as repairing lightly damaged skin, and can be made readily available in the future.

The water footprint (WF) is an essential indicator for assessing the pressure of human activities on freshwater resource utilization. The traditional WF model assumes that human water resource occupation comprises a green, blue, and grey WF, which can be linearly summed to the total WF. However, since there are two kinds of human demand for water resources, consumptive occupation and functional occupation, the relationship between them is not exclusive and does not have simple linear addition characteristics. The overlapping relationship between blue and grey WF has long been overlooked in the traditional WF calculation, resulting in a duplicate calculation of water requirement and exaggerating actual water resource demand. This study introduced a new index of blue-grey WF that deducted the overlapping portions of blue and grey WF, thereby calculating a region’s actual freshwater resource utilization. Northern Anhui, an arid region short of water resources with water pollution, was selected as a case study. The traditional WF calculation showed that the multi-year average WF of Northern Anhui was 3.44 × 1010 m3 from 2011 to 2020, with the grey, green, and blue WF accounting for 52.59 %, 27.63 %, and 19.78 %, respectively. The blue and grey WF overlapped each other and the blue WF can be fully covered by grey WF, resulting in a total blue-grey WF of 1.81 × 1010 m3, much lower than the sum of blue and grey WF. Based on the revised WF calculation model, the multi-year average WF of Northern Anhui was 2.76 × 1010 m3, decreased by 19.78 %, indicating a severe issue of duplicate calculation of blue and grey WF. The revised WF model could avoid the repeated calculation issues of water resources used by different functions. It provides a more reliable and accurate research method for regional water resources accounting and management decision-making.

To study the seasonal change rules of water quality indicators and water chemical control mechanisms in the nearby city river Xinbian River, in Suzhou City, Anhui Province, China, nine points were selected and periodically sampled for 12 months. Totally 108 water samples were collected, and basic physical–chemical indicators and routine ions (e.g., Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, SO42−, Cl−, F−, NO3−, CO32−, and HCO3−) were measured. Piper diagram, Gibbs diagram, and ion ratio method were used. The result shows that the seasonal and upstream-to-downstream variations in pH were less varied, whereas the fluctuation in dissolved oxygen was large. Four ions, namely, SO42-, F−, Cl−, and Na+ generally first decreased overall and then changed from spring to winter. The maximum contents of SO42- (406.03 mg/L), Cl− (250.22 mg/L), and Na+ (269.99 mg/L) in single water samples appeared at the S9 sampling point (Suzhou control gate) in March 2020. The dominant hydrochemical types in summer were Na–Ca–HCO3 and Na–Mg–SO4, while Na–Mg–SO4 and Na–Mg–HCO3 were the main hydrochemical types in the other seasons. The control factors of water chemical composition vary according to the season. However, rock weathering (e.g., silicate dissolution) is the dominant control factor of water chemistry in the studied river section. HIGHLIGHTS The annual water quality indicators of a proposed surface water source in a severely water-deficient city were tested.; The seasonal change characteristics of water quality indicators and their control mechanisms were revealed.; Both natural and human factors that affect water quality have been comprehensively analyzed.;

Abstract Background This study was performed to analyze the clinical effect of different concentrations of ropivacaine in the labor analgesia of the dural puncture epidural (DPE) technique for obese puerperae. Methods One hundred and fifty first-term obese women who received vaginal delivery and required labor analgesia in our hospital were selected prospectively for this study, and divided into groups A, B, and C. The three groups of puerpera were given epidurals with different concentrations of ropivacaine (0.075%, 0.10%, and 0.125%) with sufentanil (0.5 μg/ml) for the labor analgesia regimen. The visual analog scale (VAS), Ramsay scale, and Bromage scale of puerperae before analgesia and at different time points after anesthesia, and analgesic onset time, analgesia time, first PCEA time, PCEA pressing time, ropivacaine consumption, labor time, maternal blood pressure and heart rate, maternal adverse reactions, blood gas analysis in the neonatal umbilical artery, and Apgar score were observed. Results The analgesia onset time, PCEA pressing time, and ropivacaine consumption in group C were lower and the analgesia time and the first PCEA time were longer than those in groups A and B. At T1-T3 and T5, VAS scores of group A were higher than those in groups B and C, Ramsay score of group A was lower than that of groups B and C at T2–T3, and Bromage score of group C at any time point was higher than other two groups. The time of the second stage of labor in groups B and C was longer than that in group A, which in group C was longer than that in group B. Compared with groups A and C, the blood pressure and heart rate of puerperae in group B were closer to normal values. Three different concentrations of ropivacaine had no significant effect on the umbilical artery blood gas analysis indices and Apgar scores at 1st minute and 5th minute in neonates. The incidence of maternal adverse reactions in group C was lower than those in groups A and B. Conclusion 0.1% ropivacaine combined with 0.5 μg/ml sufentanil through DPE technique has good analgesic efficacy and few adverse effects in obese puerperae.

In China, Camellia plants are widely used to reduce atopic dermatitis and inflammation-related diseases, but their protective mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigated the anti-allergic dermatitis, anti-oxidation and anti-inflammation effect and underlying mechanism of five Camellia species, including Camellia ptilophylla Chang, Camellia assamica Chang var. Kucha Chang, Camellia parvisepala Chang, Camellia arborescens Chang, and C. assamica M. Chang. A total of about 110 chemical compositions were detected from five Camellia teas extracts. The level of mast cell infiltration in the model mice skin was determined by HE (Hematoxylin and eosin) staining and toluidine blue staining, and the level of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and nerve growth factor was detected by immunohistochemistry. The five Camellia tea leaf extracts have histamine-induced allergic dermatitis. Lipopolysaccharide (Lipopolysaccharide)-induced murine macrophage RAW264.7 inflammation model was found to secrete NF-κB factor, as shown by immunofluorescence, and reactive oxygen species secretion and related cytokine levels were detected. The results suggested that Camellia’s five tea extracts had the ability to resist cellular oxidative stress. In addition, the results of cell inflammatory cytokines including fibronectin (FN) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) suggested that the five tea extracts of Camellia had anti-inflammatory effects. Therefore, it is suggested that five Camellia teas may possess inhibitory properties against allergic reactions, oxidative stress, and inflammation, and may prove beneficial in the treatment of allergies.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a persistent and recurrent inflammatory skin condition with a genetic basis. However, the fundamental reasons and mechanisms behind this phenomenon remain incompletely understood. While tea extracts are known to reduce histamine-induced skin allergies and inflammation, the specific mechanisms by which various types of Chinese tea provide their protective effects are still not fully elucidated. In this study, a model of skin itching induced by histamine is used to explore the functions and mechanisms of three types of tea extract (Keemun black tea (HC), Hangzhou green tea (LC), and Fujian white tea (BC)) in alleviating histamine-induced dermatitis. The components of three tea extracts are identified by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS, and we found that their main components are alkaloids, fatty acyls, flavonoids, organic acids, and phenols. The inhibitory effects of three types of tea extract on Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) in skin injury are investigated by MIC and flow cytometry. The three types of tea extract have an inhibitory effect on the growth of bacterial flora, with HC showing the best inhibitory activity. The effect of the three types of tea extract on histamine-induced dermatitis is also evaluated. Furthermore, itchy skin experiments, HE staining, toluidine blue staining, and immunohistochemical staining of mouse skin tissues were performed to determine the variations of scratching, epidermal thickness, mast cell number, IL-1β, and NGF content after the administration of the tea extracts. The three types of tea extracts all alleviate and inhibit skin itching, epidermal hyperplasia, and allergic dermatitis. BC effectively alleviates epidermal hyperplasia caused by skin allergies, and LC significantly downregulates NGF. HC reduces histamine-induced mast cell infiltration and downregulates IL-1β to alleviate skin itching. Consequently, tea emerges a potent natural product that can inhibit the growth of skin wound bacterial flora and exhibit skin repair effects on histamine-induced allergic dermatitis.

Abstract The precision of the weak equivalence principle (WEP) test using atom interferometers (AIs) is expected to be extremely high in microgravity environment. The microgravity scientific laboratory cabinet (MSLC) in the China Space Station (CSS) can provide a higher-level microgravity than the CSS itself, which provides a good experimental environment for scientific experiments that require high microgravity. We designed and realized a payload of a dual-species cold rubidium atom interferometer. The payload is highly integrated and has a size of $$460\,{\rm{mm}}\times 330\,{\rm{mm}}\times 260\,{\rm{mm}}$$ 460 mm × 330 mm × 260 mm . It will be installed in the MSLC to carry out high-precision WEP test experiment. In this article, we introduce the constraints and guidelines of the payload design, the compositions and functions of the scientific payload, the expected test precision in space, and some results of the ground test experiments.

Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory disease, but most of its current treatments come with a high risk of side effects. As one of the world’s top three beverages, tea has a traditional history of being used as a treatment for skin conditions due to its high safety profile, anti-inflammatory and other properties. In this study, we investigated the anti-psoriasis effects of ethanol extracts of black tea, green tea and white tea from southeastern China. The compositions of the tea extracts (TEs) were first determined by UPLC-Q-Exactive-Orbitrap MS and then genetic analysis, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and immunocompetence assays were performed. Imiquimod was used to establish a mouse model of psoriasis-like dermatitis and treating with the extracts to examine their efficacy. A total of 88 chemical components, mainly phenols and organic acids, were identified from the TEs. These TEs ameliorated skin damage and they all reduced the expression of cytokines IL-17 and TNF-α. By analyzing the genes, TEs may affect the inflammatory signaling pathway by regulating the metabolic changes. In addition, TEs can significantly scavenge ROS, NO, and inhibit cellular inflammation. In conclusion, this study examined the inhibitory effects of three TEs on psoriasis and their potential as nutritional supplements for the treatment of skin inflammation.

Abstract Spurred by causal structure learning (CSL) ability to reveal the cause–effect connection, significant research efforts have been made to enhance the scalability of CSL algorithms in various artificial intelligence applications. However, less effort has been made regarding the stability and the interpretability of CSL algorithms. Thus, this work proposes a self-correction mechanism that embeds domain knowledge for CSL, improving the stability and accuracy even in low-dimensional but high-noise environments by guaranteeing a meaningful output. The suggested algorithm is challenged against multiple classic and influential CSL algorithms in synthesized and field datasets. Our algorithm achieves a superior accuracy on the synthesized dataset, while on the field dataset, our method interprets the learned causal structure as a human preference for investment, coinciding with domain expert analysis.

Soil is the foundation of agricultural green development and human survival; the study of local environmental geochemical baselines can guide soil management and ensure the safe use of soil. In this study, a total of 100 shallow farmland soil samples were collected in each township of Yongqiao District, Suzhou City, Anhui Province, China. Herein, the contents of 10 heavy metal elements including As, Hg, Cd, Pb, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Zn and Fe were determined. In addition, the geochemical baseline of heavy metals was calculated based on the relative cumulative frequency curve method, and the soil pollution status was evaluated. The results show that the average contents of As, Hg, Cd, Cu, Mn and Zn exceeded the soil background values of Anhui Province by 3.82%–64.74% (1.04–1.65 times), meanwhile, the average contents of Pb and Cr were lower than the soil background values of Anhui Province. The average contents of Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn and Ni exceeded the Chinese soil background values by 1.61%–64.74% (0.98–1.65 times). The geochemical baseline values of As, Hg, Cd, Pb, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Zn and Fe were 9.585 mg/kg, 0.028 mg/kg, 0.112 mg/kg, 21.59 mg/kg, 53.66 mg/kg, 19.31 mg/kg, 543.8 mg/kg, 24.93 mg/kg, 50.57 mg/kg and 2.654%, respectively. The pollution assessment results also showed that most of the farmland soil samples in the study area were non-polluting or slightly polluted based on geochemical baselines. Hg and Cu in a few samples were moderately polluted, and Cd in only one sample was moderately intensely polluted. Combined with the distribution of pollution and field investigation, it is considered that Hg comes from atmospheric deposition and agricultural non-point source pollution of industrial pollution. Cu comes from animal husbandry and agricultural pollution. Meanwhile, Cd is related to natural sources, wood processing and agricultural fertiliser application. The study demonstrated that the calculation of soil geochemical background value should take full account of the differences between the various regions, combined with the current state, particularly the pre-consideration of the distribution of elements or pollutants. Then, reasonably select the evaluation standard value so that the evaluation results can truly reflect the state of soil pollution.

Abstract Background In biomedical research, chemical and disease relation extraction from unstructured biomedical literature is an essential task. Effective context understanding and knowledge integration are two main research problems in this task. Most work of relation extraction focuses on classification for entity mention pairs. Inspired by the effectiveness of machine reading comprehension (RC) in the respect of context understanding, solving biomedical relation extraction with the RC framework at both intra-sentential and inter-sentential levels is a new topic worthy to be explored. Except for the unstructured biomedical text, many structured knowledge bases (KBs) provide valuable guidance for biomedical relation extraction. Utilizing knowledge in the RC framework is also worthy to be investigated. We propose a knowledge-enhanced reading comprehension (KRC) framework to leverage reading comprehension and prior knowledge for biomedical relation extraction. First, we generate questions for each relation, which reformulates the relation extraction task to a question answering task. Second, based on the RC framework, we integrate knowledge representation through an efficient knowledge-enhanced attention interaction mechanism to guide the biomedical relation extraction. Results The proposed model was evaluated on the BioCreative V CDR dataset and CHR dataset. Experiments show that our model achieved a competitive document-level F1 of 71.18% and 93.3%, respectively, compared with other methods. Conclusion Result analysis reveals that open-domain reading comprehension data and knowledge representation can help improve biomedical relation extraction in our proposed KRC framework. Our work can encourage more research on bridging reading comprehension and biomedical relation extraction and promote the biomedical relation extraction.

Abstract Background Drug repurposing is to find new indications of approved drugs, which is essential for investigating new uses for approved or investigational drug efficiency. The active gene annotation corpus (named AGAC) is annotated by human experts, which was developed to support knowledge discovery for drug repurposing. The AGAC track of the BioNLP Open Shared Tasks using this corpus is organized by EMNLP-BioNLP 2019, where the “Selective annotation” attribution makes AGAC track more challenging than other traditional sequence labeling tasks. In this work, we show our methods for trigger word detection (Task 1) and its thematic role identification (Task 2) in the AGAC track. As a step forward to drug repurposing research, our work can also be applied to large-scale automatic extraction of medical text knowledge. Methods To meet the challenges of the two tasks, we consider Task 1 as the medical name entity recognition (NER), which cultivates molecular phenomena related to gene mutation. And we regard Task 2 as a relation extraction task, which captures the thematic roles between entities. In this work, we exploit pre-trained biomedical language representation models (e.g., BioBERT) in the information extraction pipeline for mutation-disease knowledge collection from PubMed. Moreover, we design the fine-tuning framework by using a multi-task learning technique and extra features. We further investigate different approaches to consolidate and transfer the knowledge from varying sources and illustrate the performance of our model on the AGAC corpus. Our approach is based on fine-tuned BERT, BioBERT, NCBI BERT, and ClinicalBERT using multi-task learning. Further experiments show the effectiveness of knowledge transformation and the ensemble integration of models of two tasks. We conduct a performance comparison of various algorithms. We also do an ablation study on the development set of Task 1 to examine the effectiveness of each component of our method. Results Compared with competitor methods, our model obtained the highest Precision (0.63), Recall (0.56), and F-score value (0.60) in Task 1, which ranks first place. It outperformed the baseline method provided by the organizers by 0.10 in F-score. The model shared the same encoding layers for the named entity recognition and relation extraction parts. And we obtained a second high F-score (0.25) in Task 2 with a simple but effective framework. Conclusions Experimental results on the benchmark annotation of genes with active mutation-centric function changes corpus show that integrating pre-trained biomedical language representation models (i.e., BERT, NCBI BERT, ClinicalBERT, BioBERT) into a pipe of information extraction methods with multi-task learning can improve the ability to collect mutation-disease knowledge from PubMed.

Network platform employment management concerns the sustainable development effect of high-quality employment. However, new forms of employment in recent years have revealed many new employment problems, such as ineffective supervision of the laborer, the difficulty of defining the employment relationship between platform enterprises and laborers, and the chaotic evaluation and statistical standards of network platform employment. To achieve high-quality employment goals, an evolutionary game model between platform organization and platform enterprises, in which laborer supervision was considered, was theoretically constructed in this study. The evolutionary stability of each participant’s strategy choice was analyzed, the influence of each factor on their strategy choice was explored, and the stability of the balancing point in the game system was further analyzed. The results of this study are as follows. (i) The laborer supervision has a significant impact on the “Compliance” behavior of platform enterprises and the “Strict-control” strategies of the platform organization. (ii) It is more conducive to strengthen laborer supervision and improve the platform enterprises’ conduct code. (iii) The platform organization should give full play to the laborers’ supervision utility in the design of the employment recommendation system. (iv) In order to achieve high-quality employment, mutual trust and a harmonious relationship between the platform organization and platform enterprises should be constructed. This study not only proposes an evolutionary game model of network platform employment governance but also advances policy and practical guidance for platform organizations and platform enterprises to accelerate the sustainable development of high-quality employment.

Introduction: Semiconductors have similar crystal structures and matched energy levels could form a coupled heterojunction at an interface between them which may allow response to visible light, achieving efficient decomposition of organic compounds.Methods: The Bi2O2CO3/BiOI (BOC/BOI) with 2D/2D p-n heterojunction was prepared by one-pot room-temperature strategy. The prepared materials were tested by various technologies, and the three-dimensional structure, light absorption properties, electrochemical properties and other information were obtained. Photocatalytic tests have also been carried out.Results and discussion: BOC/BOI heterojunction with oxygen vacancies showed much higher photocatalytic activity than pure BOC and BOI. For example, the preferred BOC/BOI-0.5 heterojunction of the degradation rate for Rhodamine B (RhB) is 97.6 % within 2 h, which is 15.8 and 2.2 times faster than that of BiOI and BOC. In addition, the removal rates of tetracycline, ciprofloxacin and bisphenol A by BOC/ BOI-0.5 were 92.4, 80.3 and 68.6%, respectively. The 2D/2D structures of BOC/BOI-0.5 with rich in oxygen vacancies combined p-n junction can effectively inhibit the photoinduced electron-hole pair recombination and increase the production of active free radicals. The O2- and h+ are the main reactants, giving the composite catalyst potential for degrading a variety of pollutants.

The urban alternate water source (AWS) is of great significance to the sustainable development of the city, the pollution degree, and source of heavy metals (HMs) in AWS, and whether it will adversely affect human health has received widespread attention. In this study, the urban AWS of Xinbian River in Suzhou City, Huaibei Plain, China, was used as the research object to study the seasonal changes of HMs (As, Cr, Cu, Cd, Pb, and Zn), quantitative identification of pollution sources, and human health risks (HHR). Research results show that the contents of those HMs, except As, are less than the drinking standards limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO), and the contents of As, Cr, and Zn are the largest in summer. The multivariate statistical analysis combined with positive matrix factorization (PMF) model analysis revealed that industrial sources accounted for 44.83%, and agricultural sources accounted for 55.17%. HHR assessment based on Monte Carlo simulation shows that the noncarcinogenic risks of adults and children are in the acceptable range (hazardous ingestion (HI)

Getting information on evaporation is important for water resource protection and managing regional enclosed waterbodies. Some lake water samples were collected in May and June from a representative enclosed waterbody – the Pearl Lake, Suzhou, China – and the hydrogen and oxygen isotopes determined. Most samples taken in June have higher δ18O and δD values than those in May, indicating that there are differences between the intensity of evaporation of May and June. This was further confirmed by the water samples’ d-excess values, which were below the meteoric line. However, the variations of d-excess value have been shown to be influenced by source moistures or evaporation processes, which were controlled by the local environment, e.g., whether the water was shaded or not. The residual water quantities calculated were 53 to 63% and 49 to 56% for May and June, respectively, relative to the initial water, indicating that about 5% of the water evaporated between 5 May and 5 June.

Background: The aim of study was to summarize the clinical characteristics and experience of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in pregnant and postpartum patients.Methods and Results: We retrospectively reviewed 131 consecutive ECMO patients at our center from May 2015 to May 2021. A total of 10 Chinese patients were pregnant or postpartum at the time of ECMO initiation. Patients ranged in age from 25 to 36 years (median age 30.5 years). The ECMO duration ranged from 3 to 31 days (median duration 8 days). There was a stabilizing trend of acid-base balance and decreasing lactic acid over the 3 days following ECMO initiation. Seven (70%) patients survived at least 48 h after weaning from ECMO. Four (40%) patients survived until discharge, and four (40%) fetuses survived until discharge.Conclusion: ECMO provides a suitable temporary cardiopulmonary support for pregnant and postpartum patients. ECMO shows a favorable effect on short-term stability in critical obstetric patients.

BackgroundGut–microbiota–brain axis links the relationship between intestinal microbiota and sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE). However, the key mediators between them remain unclear.MethodsMemory test was determined by Water maze. Intestinal flora was measured by 16S RNA sequencing. Neurotransmitter was detected by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Histopathology was determined by H&E, immunofluorescence (IF), and terminal-deoxynucleoitidyl transferase mediated nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining. Flow cytometry was employed to determine the proportion of macrophages.ResultsFecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) relieved hippocampus impairment of SAE rats by inhibiting inflammation cytokine secretion, the expression of IBA-1 and neurotransmitter disturbance, and cell apoptosis and autophagy, accompanied by the reduced M1 polarization and M1 pro-inflammation factors produced by macrophages in mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs). Actually, M1 polarization in SAE rats depended on intestinal epithelial cell (IEC)-derived exosome. GW4869-initiated inhibition of exosome secretion notably abolished M1 polarization and the secretion of IL-1β. However, GW4869-mediated improvement of hippocampus impairment was counteracted by the delivery of recombinant interleukin (IL)-1β to hippocampus. Mechanistically, IEC-derived exosome induced the excessive circulating IL-1β produced by CP-R048 macrophages, which subsequently induced damage and apoptosis of hippocampal neurons H19-7 in an autophagy-dependent manner. And reactivation of autophagy facilitates intestinal IL-1β-mediated hippocampal neuron injury.ConclusionCollectively, intestinal flora disturbance induced the exosome release of IECs, which subsequently caused M1 polarization in MLNs and the accumulation of circulating IL-1β. Circulating IL-1β promoted the damage and apoptosis of neurons in an autophagy-dependent manner. Possibly, targeting intestinal flora or IEC-derived exosome contributes to the treatment of SAE.

Background: To explore the epidemiology, clinical features, risk indicators, and long-term outcomes of neurological complications caused by veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (V-A ECMO).Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 60 adult patients who underwent V-A ECMO support in our unit from February 2012 to August 2020. These patients were separated into the neurological complications group (NC group) and the non-neurological complications group (nNC group). The differences in basic data and ECMO data between the two groups were compared. The data of long-term neurological prognosis were collected by telephone follow-up.Results: Thirty-nine patients (65.0%) had neurological complications. There were significant differences between the two groups in terms of median age, hypertension, median blood urea nitrogen, median troponin I (TNI), median lactic acid, pre-ECMO percutaneous coronary intervention, continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), median Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score, median Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score, median peak inspiratory pressure, median positive end expiratory pressure, and median fresh frozen plasma (P < 0.05). The median Intensive Care Unit length of stay (ICU LOS), 28-day mortality, median post-ECMO vasoactive inotropic score, non-pulsate perfusion (NP), and median ECMO duration of the NC group were significantly higher than those of the nNC group (P < 0.05). Furthermore, multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that TNI (P = 0.043), CRRT (P = 0.047), and continuous NP > 12 h (P = 0.043) were independent risk indicators for neurological complications in patients undergoing ECMO. Forty-four patients (73.3%) survived after discharge, and 38 patients (63.3%) had Cerebral Performance Category score of 1–2. And there were significant differences between the two groups in long-term neurological outcomes after discharge for 6 months (P < 0.05).Conclusion: The incidence of neurological complications was higher in patients undergoing V-A ECMO and was closely related to adverse outcomes (including ICU LOS and 28-day mortality). TNI, CRRT, and continuous NP > 12 h were independent risk indicators for predicting neurological complications in ECMO supporting patients. And the neurological complications of patients during ECMO support had significant adverse effect on long-term surviving and neurological outcomes of patients after discharge for 6 months.

Abstract Background Genetic variants in TMPRSS3 have been causally linked to autosomal recessive nonsyndromic hearing loss (HL) at the DFNB8 and DFNB10 loci. These variants include both single nucleotide and copy number variations (CNVs). In this study, we aim to identify the genetic cause in three Chinese subjects with prelingual profound sensorineural HL. Methods We applied targeted genomic enrichment and massively parallel sequencing to screen 110 genes associated with nonsyndromic HL in the three affected subjects. CNVplex® analysis and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were performed for CNV detection. Results We identified biallelic variations in TMPRSS3 including a novel complex genomic rearrangement and a novel missense mutation, c.551T>C. We have mapped the breakpoints of the genomic rearrangement and showed that it consisted of two deletions and an inversion encompassing exon 3 to exon 9 of TMPRSS3. Conclusion Our study expanded the mutational spectrum of TMPRSS3 to include complex genomic rearrangements. It showcased the importance of an integrative approach to investigate CNVs and their contribution to HL.

Postinfectious acute glomerulonephritis (PIGN) may occur after various bacterial and viral infections. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a cause of chronic glomerulonephritis. We report here 10 cases (ages 7-20 years-old) of chronic HBV carriers with acute glomerulonephritis, with positive glomerular staining of hepatitis B surface antigen, and detectable presence of HBV DNA in the glomeruli. This form of PIGN, HBV-PIGN, has not been previously identified. To further characterize clinical and pathological features of HBV- PIGN, we selected 10 cases of age-matched non-HBV PIGN for comparison. While both HBV associated PIGN and non-HBV PIGN similarly presented as proteinuria, hematuria, and hypertension, there was a trend of higher acute kidney injury and worsened prognosis in HBV-PIGN. 6 months after the onset, 4 patients with HBV associated PIGN did not show improvement from the disease, whereas all patients with non-HBV PIGN had complete or partial recovery. Pathologically, both HBV associated PIGN and non-HBV PIGN showed typical diffuse glomerular endocapillary proliferation, but HBV associated PIGN differed from classical PIGN with much fewer sub-epithelial glomerular "hump-shape" immune complex depositions. In conclusion, we have identified a novel association of HBV infection with acute glomerulonephritis.

To investigate the health risks of typical soil heavy metals to surrounding residents of industrial land in the urban-rural area of Liuquan Town, Xigu District, Lanzhou City, China. The contents of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn were analyzed using an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. Non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks of the heavy metals to children and adults were evaluated. Results showed higher soil Hg, Pb, and Zn contents in the study area than the corresponding background values of Gansu Province. The Hg pollution was the most serious, showing higher contents than the background water at 56.41% of the soil sampling sites. As, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Pb showed normal distributions, while Cd, Hg, and Zn exhibited skewed distributions. Hg and Cd showed the highest coefficients of variation of 0.966 and 0.548, respectively. Health risk evaluation results showed higher total non-carcinogenic risk (HI) and total carcinogenic risk (TCR) for children than those for adults by 5.411 and 2.156, respectively, indicating children are more susceptible to non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks. In addition, As, Cr, and Pb were the main contributors to the non-carcinogenic risk, while As and Cr were the main contributors to the carcinogenic risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taiyuan Formation limestone groundwater is the main aquifer threatening the safety of exploration under deep mining in the Huaibei coalfield. Therefore, acknowledging the hydrochemical characteristics and constructing reverse hydrogeochemical modeling are crucial for predicting and preventing mine water hazards. In this study, the mathematical statistical analysis, Piper threeline diagram, Gibbs diagram, ion proportional relationship, Chlorine-Alkali index, and the reverse hydrogeochemical modeling were employed for determining the hydrochemical characteristics and the formation mechanism. The results revealed that the hydrochemical types of groundwater samples were SO4.Cl-Ca.Mg and HCO3.Cl-Na, respectively. The water-rock interactions were primarily influenced by the leaching and the cation exchange, with these processes being more intense in the eastern region. Through reverse hydrogeochemical modeling, the water-rock interactions in the process of groundwater runoff were quantitatively verified, viz. the calcite and the dolomite were saturated and precipitating, while the gypsum and the halite were unsaturated and still dissolving. Furthermore, the simulations of mass transfer in groundwater runoff indicated that the dissolution and the leaching of gypsum, dolomite and halite, positive ion exchange, the precipitation of calcite, and the dissolution of CO2 gas predominantly occurred along four simulated flow paths. These results offered a scientific foundation for the prevention and controlling of mine water hazards in deep mining contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]