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The design and synthesis of high-spin Mn(II)-based single-molecule magnets (SMMs) have not been well developed to a great extent, as compared with a large number of SMMs based on the other first row transition metal complexes. In light of our success in designing Fe(II), Co(II) and Fe(III)-based SMMs with a high coordination number of 8, it is of great interest to design Mn(II) analogues with such a strategy. In this contribution, four Mn(II) compounds, [MnII(Ln)2](ClO4)2 (1–4) were obtained from reactions of neutral tetradentate ligands, L1–L4, with hydrated MnII(ClO4)2 (L1 = 2,9-bis(carbomethoxy)-1,10-phenanthroline, L2 = 2,9-bis(carbomethoxy)-2,2′-dipyridine, L3 = N2,N9-dibutyl-1,10-phenanthroline-2,9-dicarboxamide, L4 = 6,6′-bis(2-(tert-butyl)-2H-tetrazol-5-yl)-2,2′-bipyridine). Their crystal structures have been determined by X-ray crystallography and it clearly shows that the Mn(II) centers in these compounds have an oversaturated coordination number of 8. Their magnetic properties have been investigated in detail; to our surprise, all of these Mn(II) compounds show interesting slow magnetic relaxation behaviors under an applied direct current field, although they have very small negative D values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: It has been established that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is an independent risk factor for atherosclerosis. Chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) activates sympathoadrenal system and upregulates β3 adrenergic receptor (β3 AR). However, the effect of selective β3 AR agonist mirabegron in CIH-induced atherosclerosis remains unknown. Methods: We generated a CIH-induced atherosclerosis model through exposing ApoE−/− mice to CIH (8 h per day, cyclic inspiratory oxygen fraction 5–21%, 60-s cycle) for 6 weeks after 4-week high-fat dieting and investigated the effects of mirabegron, a selective β3 AR agonist, on CIH-induced atherosclerosis. The coronary endarterectomy (CE) specimens from coronary artery disease patients with OSA and without OSA were collected. Results: The expression of β3 AR was significantly elevated in CIH-induced atherosclerosis model. Furthermore, treatment with mirabegron (10mg/kg per day by oral administration for 6 weeks) ameliorated atherosclerosis in ApoE−/− mice in CIH but not in normoxia. Mechanistically, mirabegron activated β3 AR and ameliorated intraplaque oxidative stress by suppressing p22phox expression and reactive oxygen species (ROS) level. In addition, in human CE specimens, β3 AR was also upregulated associated with increased p22phox expression and ROS level both in the lumen and in the plaque of coronary artery in OSA subjects. Conclusion: This study first demonstrated that mirabegron impeded the progression of CIH-induced atherosclerosis, at least in part, via β3 AR–mediated oxidative stress, suggesting a promising therapeutic strategy for protecting against atherosclerosis induced by CIH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese philosophy has probed into the issue of 'what people are' long ago. Theoretical premises and logic in Chinese classical thoughts are quite different from each other. However, various factions all advocate 'selflessness' to a certain extent. From 'without me', to 'no me', then to 'selflessness', digestion and denial of self has formed a common trend. The self in Chinese traditional thoughts is a kind of holistic self. Differences in self -- understanding constitute the premise of humanitarian debate in ancient and modern times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese philosophy is characteristic of immaturity of epistemology and logic. Owing to this character, the theory of knowledge becomes the issue of 20th century Chinese philosophers, and Zhang Dong - sun is one of them. On the base of western modern epistemology, he builds a system of a pluralistic epistemology, and suggests that knowledge be not a representation of reality and be determined by human situation. The conclusion is that he has explored a different approach from analytic philosophy to extend the traditional epistemology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In recent studies, accumulating evidence has revealed a strong association between the inflammatory response and the prognosis of many tumors. There is a certain correlation of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) with the prognosis in gastric cancer (GC) patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). However, the existing research results have remained controversial., Aim: To explore the relationship between NLR ratio and prognosis of GC patients receiving NAC., Methods: A thorough systematic search was performed in databases such as PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library, the search is available until February 29, 2024, and studies exploring the interaction of NLR with clinical outcomes were collected. Relevant studies meeting pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria were carefully chosen. The outcomes included progression-free survival (PFS), relapse-free survival, disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS). The hazard ratio (HR) and its corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were utilized for estimation., Results: Our analysis encompassed 852 patients and incorporated data from 12 cohort studies. The comprehensive analysis revealed a significant association of high NLR with reduced OS (HR = 1.76; 95%CI: 1.22-2.54, P = 0.003), relapse-free survival (HR = 3.73; 95%CI: 1.74-7.96, P = 0.0007), and PFS (HR = 2.32; 95%CI: 1.42-3.81, P = 0.0008) in patients. However, this correlation in disease-free survival was not significant. NLR demonstrated its crucial role in effectively predicting the OS of GC patients undergoing NAC at different detection times, ages, regions, and NLR thresholds., Conclusion: In GC patients receiving NAC, an elevated NLR is strongly associated with reduced OS and PFS. NLR has become an effective biomarker for patient prognosis evaluation, providing valuable insights for the treatment strategies of NAC in GC patients., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article., (©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Inspired by the transition-metal-oxo cubical Mn 4 CaO 5 in photosystem II, we herein report a disc-like heptanuclear mixed-valent cobalt cluster, [Co II 5 Co III 2 (mdea) 4 (N 3 ) 2 (CH 3 CN) 6 (OH) 2 (H 2 O) 2 ·4ClO 4 ] (1, H 2 mdea = N-methyldiethanolamine), for photocatalytic oxygen evolution. The topology of the Co 7 core resembles a small piece of cobaltate protected by terminal H 2 O, N 3 - , CH 3 CN, and multidentate N-methyldiethanolamine at the periphery. Under the optimal photocatalytic conditions, 1 exhibits water oxidation activity with a turnover number (TON) of 210 and a turnover frequency (TOF initial ) of 0.23 s -1 . Importantly, electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) was used to not only identify the possible main active species in the water oxidation reaction but also monitor the evolutions of oxidation states of cobalt during the photocatalytic reactions. These results shed light on the design concept of new water oxidation catalysts and mechanism-related issues such as the key active intermediate and oxidation state evolution in the oxygen evolution process. The magnetic properties of 1 were also discussed in detail.

Objective: To assess the relationship between pregnancy associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) and culprit coronary plaque morphology in patients with unstable angina (UA)., Methods: Sixty-eight UA patients undergoing diagnostic coronary angiography and intravascular ultrasound were included in this study. A sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique was used to assay the circulating PAPP-A. Plaque characteristics of culprit lesion were analyzed for UA patients with various PAPP-A levels., Results: PAPP-A level was significantly higher in high-risk UA than in non-high-risk UA [(19.9 ± 20.1) mIU/L vs. (6.9 ± 5.7) mIU/L, P = 0.002]. Optimal threshold of PAPP-A to predict high-risk UA was determined as 11.0 mIU/L with a sensitivity of 78.6% and a specificity of 77.5%. Patients with higher PAPP-A level (≥ 11.0 mIU/L) was associated with larger external elastic membrane cross-sectional area, plaque area and more plaque burden compared with patients with lower PAPP-A level (all P < 0.01). Positive remodeling, attenuated plaque and plaque rupture were significantly more often in patients with higher PAPP-A than in patients with lower PAPP-A level (all P < 0.01). PAPP-A ≥ 11.0 mIU/L (OR = 5.921, P = 0.014) and attenuated plaque (OR = 7.541, P = 0.038) were independent risk predictors for high-risk UA., Conclusions: PAPP-A was associated with instability of culprit plaque in UA patients. PAPP-A ≥ 11.0 mIU/L and attenuated plaque were independent predictors for high-risk UA.

Objective: To compare the value of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and assess the value of quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) and 64 multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) on unstable anginas (UAP) risk stratification., Method: A total of 61 UAP patients (low risk: 17, middle risk: 33 and high risk: 11) were recruited, 71 vessels were examined by MDCT, QCA and IVUS. Plaque characteristics (soft, fibrous, calcified and mixed plaques) and plaque burden at minimum area (< or = 50%, 51% - 74% and > or = 75%) were detected, calculated and analyzed. Results derived from various detection methods were compared., Results: Plaque burden detection by QCA was comparable to IVUS results for low and middle risk UAP (r = 0.768 and r = 0.721, respectively; all P < 0.01) but not for high risk UAP (67% + or - 14% vs.75% + or - 16%, P < 0.01) due to significant positive vessel remodeling (remodeling index = 1.21 + or - 0.31). The high negative predict value of MDCT for stenosed coronary vessels (87.8% - 96.3%)was valuable for exclusion of coronary heart disease but MDCT was not able to identify fibrous cap (kappa = 0.235) and lipid core (kappa = 0.245). Extent of remodeling index, external elastic membrane area, minimum lumen area, plaque burden, plaque rupture and thrombosis increased in proportion to increasing risks of UAP patients., Conclusions: QCA is a suitable tool for assessing UAP patients with low and middle vessel stenosis but underestimated the stenosis degree in UAP patients with high vessel stenosis. MDCT is valuable for exclusion vessel disease but not useful for identifying soft and fibrous plaque. Soft plaque with positive remodeling index and minimum lumen area < 4 mm(2) derived from IVUS could correctly identify UAP patients with high degree of vessel stenosis.

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) assessment on target lesion and reference vessel in patients with diabetes mellitus with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) measurements as golden standard., Methods: QCA and IVUS were performed in 52 diabetes mellitus patients [35 males, mean age (62.3 +/- 7.1) years]. Regression equation was ascertained with the IVUS derived plaque burden as dependent and QCA derived vessel stenosis as independent variable. The measurement results derived from the two modalities on proximal and distal reference vessels were compared., Result: The regression equation (constant = 0.8286, P = 0.001) of plaque burden and vessel stenosis derived from two modalities were significantly correlated (r = 0.691, P < 0.001) but QCA overestimated the stenosis severity (57.9% +/- 15.5% vs. 53.5% +/- 12.9%, P < 0.01). Target vessels negative remodeling index in these patient was 0.87 +/- 0.23. QCA significantly underestimated the proximal and distal reference segments vessel diameters [(0.81 +/- 0.24) mm, (0.64 +/- 0.17) mm, all P < 0.05] as compared to IVUS results., Conclusion: Due to the significant negative vessel remodeling, QCA overestimated the stenosis severity and underestimated the reference segments vessel diameters in patients with diabetes mellitus.

Objective: To develop a simple risk score model of in-hospital major adverse cardiac events (MACE) including all-cause mortality, new or recurrent myocardial infarction (MI), and evaluate the efficacy about revascularization on patients with different risk., Methods: The basic characteristics, diagnosis, therapy, and in-hospital outcomes of 1512 ACS patients from Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) study of China were collected to develop a risk score model by multivariable stepwise logistic regression. The goodness-of-fit test and discriminative power of the final model were assessed respectively. The best cut-off value for the risk score was used to assess the impact of revascularization for ST-elevation MI (STEMI) and non-ST elevation acute coronary artery syndrome (NSTEACS) on in-hospital outcomes., Results: (1) The following 6 independent risk factors accounted for about 92.5% of the prognostic information: age > or =80 years (4 points), SBP < or =90 mm Hg (6 points), DBP > or =90 mm Hg (2 points), Killip II (3 points), Killip III or IV (9 points), cardiac arrest during presentation (4 points), ST-segment elevation (3 points) or depression (5 points) or combination of elevation and depression (4 points) on electrocardiogram at presentation. (2) CHIEF risk model was excellent with Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test of 0.673 and c statistics of 0.776. (3)1301 ACS patients previously enrolled in GRACE study were divided into 2 groups with the best cut-off value of 5.5 points. The impact of revascularization on the in-hospital MACE of the higher risk subsets was stronger than that of the lower risk subsets both in STEMI [OR (95% CI) = 0.32 (0.11, 0.94), chi2 = 5.39, P = 0.02] and NSTEACS [OR (95% CI) = 0.32 (0.06, 0.94), chi2 =4.17, P = 0.04] population. However, both STEMI (61.7% vs. 78.3%, P = 0.000) and NSTEACS (42.0% vs 62.3%, P = 0.000) patients with the risk scores more than 5.5 points had lower revascularization rates., Conclusion: The risk score provides excellent ability to predict in-hospital death or (re) MI quantitatively and accurately. The patients undergoing revascularization with risk score greater than 5.5 have lower incidence rates of endpoint.