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Abstract [Objective] The heat tolerance of Camellia attracts more attention due to its rich flower types and colors and long flowering period. Suitable evaluation methods and indexes can provide bases for the heat-tolerance identification, the discovery of heat-tolerance germplasm, and the breeding of new cultivars of Camellia. [Methods] C. uraku and ‘Wirlinga Cascade’ were used as reference materials, and 7 new cultivars of cluster-flowering camellia were selected as test materials. They were cut in vase. After shortterm (5 h) or long-term (7 d) high-temperature (42 ℃/35 ℃) treatment, changes of morphological and photosynthetic indexes were investigated and heat tolerance was evaluated comprehensively. [Results] (1) The contents of chlorophyll, carotenoid, and chlorophyll a/b, net photosynthetic rate (Pn), and stomatal conductance (Gs) of ‘Chuizhi Fenyu’ and ‘Wirlinga Cascade’ were increased. Their maximum photochemical efficiency of PSⅡ (Fv/Fm ), potential activity of PSⅡ (Fv/Fo), and electron transport rate (ETR) were remained at a high level. Additionally, they did not show signs of heat damage after 7 days of high temperatures. Pn and Gs of ‘Jinye Fenyu’, ‘Shangzhi Huazhang’, and ‘Meigui Chun’ were decreased significantly under high temperature stress, while intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) was increased. Among them, the Fv/Fm, Fv/Fo, and ETR of ‘Jinye Fenyu’ and ‘Shangzhi Huazhang’ were significantly reduced. After 7 days of long-term high temperature stress, these 3 cultivars showed severe heat damage or became dead. (2) 15 individual indicators were converted into 4 independent comprehensive indicators with cumulative contribution rate of 90% through principal component analysis. The comprehensive weight values of chlorophyll content, carotenoid content, and xanthophyll content were higher at 5 h under high temperature stress, and the comprehensive weight values of chlorophyll a/b, Fv/Fm, photochemical quenching coefficient (qP), and non-photochemical quenching coefficient (qN) were higher at 7 d under high temperature stress. [Conclusion] According to the comprehensive evaluation value D , ‘Chuizhi Fenyu’ is a heat-tolerance cultivar, ‘Shangzhi Yueguangqu’, ‘Shangzhi Huanlesong’, and ‘Sweet Gem’ are moderate tolerance, and ‘Meigui Chun’, ‘Shangzhi Huazhang’, and ‘Jinye Fenyu’ are the weakest among the new cultivars of cluster-flowering camellia. Chlorophyll, carotenoid, and xanthophyll contents can be used as the key indicators to analyze the short-term high temperature stress, while chlorophyll a/b, Fv/Fm, qP, and qN can be used as the key indicators to analyze the long-term high temperature stress of Camellia.

Background Dyslipidemia is closely related to the occurrence of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and affects the prognosis of patients. Understanding blood lipid changes in patients with AMI is of great significance for improving lipid-lowering treatments for these patients. Objective To explore the evolution of blood lipid levels in patients with AMI during hospitalization and post-discharge follow-up. Methods This study consecutively selected 457 cases of AMI who were hospitalized in Department of Cardiology, Peking University People's Hospital from January 1, 2015 to February 28, 2018. They were monitored for blood lipid levels during hospitalization and the first post-discharge follow-up. The patient's medication status was recorded. Results The low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) level in AMI patients varied statistically significantly by the measurement time point (P

This study investigates the protective effects of magnesium sulfate on dopamine neurons in the retinas of rats with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced Parkinson's disease (PD). Rapidly progressing cognitive decline often precedes or coincides with the motor symptoms associated with PD. PD patients also frequently exhibit visual function abnormalities. However, the specific mechanisms underlying visual dysfunction in PD patients are not yet fully understood. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether magnesium homeostasis affects dopaminergic neurons in the retina of PD rats. Thirty-six rats were divided into four groups: (1) control, (2) control with magnesium sulfate (control/MgSO4), (3) Parkinson's disease (PD), and (4) Parkinson's disease with magnesium sulfate (PD/MgSO4). The apomorphine-induced (APO) rotation test assessed the success of the PD models. The open-field experiment measured the rats' anxiety levels. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and glutamate levels, indicators of dopamine neuron survival, were detected using immunofluorescence staining. Protein levels of solute carrier family 41 A1 (SCL41A1), magnesium transporter 1 (MagT1), and cyclin M2 (CNNM2) in the retina were analyzed using Western blot. Results showed that, compared to the PD group, rats in the PD/MgSO4 group had improved psychological states and motor performance at two and four weeks post-surgery. The PD/MgSO4 group also exhibited significantly higher TH fluorescence intensity in the left retinas and lower glutamate fluorescence intensity than the PD group. Additional experiments indicated that the protein levels of SLC41A1, MagT1, and CNNM2 were generally higher in the retinas of the PD/MgSO4 group, along with an increase in retinal magnesium ion content. This suggests that magnesium sulfate may reduce glutamate levels and protect dopamine neurons in the retina. Thus, magnesium sulfate might have therapeutic potential for visual functional impairments in PD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic infections by pathogenic microorganisms play a significant role in cancer development, disrupting the body's immune system and microenvironment. This interference impairs the body's ability to eliminate these microorganisms promptly, allowing them to persist by evading immune defenses. Aims: This study aimed to explore how chronic pathogenic infections influence the immune microenvironment, impacting tumorigenesis, cancer progression, and treatment strategies. Additionally, it seeks to investigate the effects of these infections on specific immune checkpoints and identify potential targets for immunotherapy. Methods: We conducted searches, readings, and detailed analyses of key terms in databases like PubMed and Web of Science to evaluate the impact of chronic infections by pathogenic microorganisms on the immune microenvironment. Results: Our analysis demonstrates a significant association between persistent chronic infections by pathogenic microorganisms and tumorigenesis. Notable impacts on the immune microenvironment include changes in immune cell function and the regulation of immune checkpoints, offering insights into potential targets for cancer immunotherapy. Discussion: This study highlights the complex relationship between chronic infections and cancer development, presenting new opportunities for cancer immunotherapy by understanding their effects on the immune microenvironment. The influence of these infections on immune checkpoints emphasizes the crucial role of the immune system in cancer treatment. Conclusion: Chronic infections by pathogenic microorganisms greatly affect the immune microenvironment, tumorigenesis, and cancer treatment. Unraveling the underlying mechanisms can unveil potential targets for immunotherapy, improving our comprehension of the immune response to cancer and potentially leading to more effective cancer treatments in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presented a nanoparticle-enhanced aptamer-recognizing homogeneous detection system combined with a portable instrument (NASPI) to quantify lipoarabinomannan (LAM). This system leveraged the high binding affinity of aptamers, the high sensitivity of nanoparticle cascade amplification, and the stabilization effect of dual stabilizers (fructose and histone), and used probe-Cu2+ to achieve LAM detection at concentrations ranging from 10 ag mL−1 to 100 fg mL−1, with a limit of detection of 3 ag mL−1 using a fluorometer. It can also be detected using an independently developed handheld fluorometer or the red–green–blue (RGB) camera of a smartphone, with a minimum detection concentration of 10 ag mL−1. We validated the clinical utility of the biosensor by testing the LAM in the urine of patients. Forty urine samples were tested, with positive LAM results in the urine of 18/20 tuberculosis (TB) cases and negative results in the urine of 6/10 latent tuberculosis infection cases and 10/10 non-TB cases. The assay results revealed a 100% specificity and a 90% sensitivity, with an area under the curve of 0.9. We believe that the NASPI biosensor can be a promising clinical tool with great potential to convert LAM into clinical indicators for TB patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Credit risk assessment is an important process in bank financial risk management. Traditional machine-learning methods cannot solve the problem of data islands and the high error rate of two-way decisions, which is not conducive to banks' accurate credit risk assessment of users. To this end, this paper establishes a federated three-way decision incremental naive Bayes bank user credit risk assessment model (FTwNB) that supports asymmetric encryption, uses federated learning to break down data barriers between banks, and uses asymmetric encryption to protect data security for federated processes. At the same time, the model combines the three-way decision methods to realize the three-way classification of user credit (good, bad and delayed judgment), so as to avoid the loss of bank interests caused by the forced division of uncertain users. In addition, the model also incorporates incremental learning steps to eliminate training samples with poor data quality to further improve the model performance. This paper takes German Credit data and Default of Credit Card Clients data as examples to conduct simulation experiments. The result shows that the performance of the FTwNB model has been greatly improved, which verifies that it has good credit risk assessment capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) are regarded as a promising hydrogen storage and transportation technology. However, problems of incomplete dehydrogenation and the high dehydrogenation catalyst costs have hindered the development and application of this technology. Therefore, the research and development of a dehydrogenation catalyst with low cost and high reactivity have become the focus of current research in this field. In this paper, we report on a dehydrogenation catalyst with low noble metal loading prepared using amino silane coupling agent. The catalyst showed excellent catalytic performance on dodecahydro-N-ethylcarbazole (12H-NECZ). At 473 K, the hydrogen release of 0.3% Pd–NH2(1) catalyst prepared by the amino modification method is 4.44 wt%, which is 2.1 times that of Pd catalyst prepared using the traditional impregnation method. The amino-modified catalysts with increasing Pd loading of 0.5, 0.8, and 1.0 wt% displayed hydrogen release of 4.96, 5.14 and 5.21 wt%, respectively. The characterization of amnio-modified Pd catalysts showed that Pd was uniformly distributed on the SiO2 support, and the Pd particle size of the 0.3% Pd–NH2(1) catalyst was only 1.6 nm. The reaction kinetic parameters of two catalysts in the 12H-NECZ dehydrogenation were calculated, and the results indicated that the activation energy of the rate-limiting step (4H-NECZ to NECZ) in dehydrogenation was reduced with amnio-modified catalysts compared to impregnated catalysts. By analyzing the relationship between the Pd particle size and turnover frequency (TOF), the optimal Pd particle size in the overall dehydrogenation reaction and each step of the 12H-NECZ dehydrogenation was obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is dysregulated in various cancers, including colorectal cancer (CRC). Herein, we assess the diagnostic potential of peripheral blood (PB) m6A levels in CRC. Methods: We collected PB from healthy controls (HCs) and patients with CRC, analyzed PB RNA m6A levels and the expression of m6A-related demethylase genes FTO and ALKBH5, cocultured CRC cells with PB mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and constructed an MC38 cancer model. Results: PB RNA m6A levels were higher in the CRC than that in HCs. The area under the curve (AUC) of m6A levels (0.886) in the CRC was significantly larger compared with carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199; 0.666) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA; 0.834). The combination of CEA and CA199 with PB RNA m6A led to an increase in the AUC (0.935). Compared with HCs, the expression of FTO and ALKBH5 was decreased in the CRC. After coculturing with CRC cells, the PBMCs RNA m6A were significantly increased, whereas the expression of FTO and ALKBH5 decreased. Furthermore, m6A RNA levels in the PB of MC38 cancer models were upregulated, whereas the expression of FTO and ALKBH5 decreased. Conclusions: PB RNA m6A levels are a potential diagnostic biomarker for patients with CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yellow thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) are indispensable for lighting, navigation, caution, and so on; however, their development is far behind those of three‐elementary‐color and white analogs, partially because of the lack of host specificity. In this contribution, spiro[bithoxanthene] (ST) and spiro[thioxanthene‐xanthene] (STX) are used as spiro skeletons to form asymmetric ternary structures through introducing two electron‐donating tert‐butyl carbazole (tBCz) and one electron‐withdrawing diphenyl phosphine oxide (DPPO) groups on different rings. The resulting hosts named STSPOtBCz2 and STXSPOtBCz2 not only inherit the steric hindrance of their spiro skeletons, but also achieve the ambipolar characteristics. Their suitable triplet energy levels (T1) of ≈2.5 eV support efficient energy transfer to a conventional yellow TADF emitter 4CzTPNBu with the T1 of ≈2.2 eV. It is shown that compared to STSPOtBCz2 with a symmetric core, the accumulated asymmetry of the spiro skeleton and the kind, number, and position of substitution groups in STXSPOtBCz2 further suppresses the emission quenching, resulting in the state‐of‐the‐art photoluminescent and electroluminescent quantum efficiencies of 93% and 30.6%, respectively. The maximum power efficiency beyond 90 lm W−1 further demonstrates the great potential of multi‐asymmetric host systems for energy‐saving practical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]