Search

This study aimed to examine physical activity (PA) levels and mental health status (i.e., anxiety and depression) among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Secondary data analysis was conducted using the 2018 National Health Interview Survey. We identified 139 parents of children with ASD and 4,470 parents of children with no disability. Their PA levels, anxiety, and depression were analyzed. Compared with parents of children with no disability, parents of children with ASD were significantly less likely to meet the PA guideline for Americans and had lower odds of vigorous PA (aOR = 0.702), strengthening PA (aOR = 0.885), and light to moderate PA (aOR = 0.994). Parents of children with ASD reported significantly higher odds of anxiety (aOR = 1.559) and depression (aOR = 1.885). This study revealed lower PA levels and higher risks of anxiety and depression in parents of children with ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Gastric cancer (GC) is prevalent as one of the most common malignant tumors globally, with a particularly high incidence in China. The role of UBE2L3 in the initiation and progression of various cancers has been well documented, but its specific significance in GC is not yet fully elucidated. The objective of this study is to examine the expression and importance of UBE2L3 in human gastric cancer tissues. Methods: Immunohistochemical staining and survival analysis were conducted on 125 cases of GC. Western blot and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) were employed to assess the expression of UBE2L3 in GC cell lines. Cell lines with UBE2L3 knockdown and overexpression were cultured through lentivirus transfection and subsequently assessed using Western blot analysis. The involvement of UBE2L3 in the proliferation, invasion, and apoptosis of GC cells was confirmed through in vitro experiments, and its capacity to facilitate tumor growth was also validated in in vivo studies. Results: The up-regulation of UBE2L3 expression was observed in GC, and its high expression was found to be significantly associated with the degree of differentiation (χ2 = 6.153, P = 0.0131), TNM stage (χ2 = 6.216, P = 0.0447), and poor overall survival. In vitro, UBE2L3 has been shown to enhance functions in GC cell lines, such as promoting proliferation and invasion, and inhibiting apoptosis. In vivo experiments have validated the role of UBE2L3 in promoting tumor growth. Conclusions: The findings of our study demonstrate the significant involvement of UBE2L3 in the pathogenesis and advancement of gastric cancer, suggesting its potential as a therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was to evaluate weight status and sociodemographic disparities in physical activity (PA) intensities (i.e., vigorous PA [VPA], moderate PA [MPA], and light PA [LPA]) during different segments of the school day, including physical education (PE), recess, and lunchtime. Participants were 287 third-grade students (M age = 8.38, SD = 0.50). PA was measured using accelerometers. Children, on average, spent 88.48 minutes of MPA and 13.35 minutes of VPA. Disparities in VPA were observed in sex (higher in boys in PE and recess) and weight status (higher in the healthy-weight group in recess and lunchtime). Sex disparities in MPA were observed in recess (higher in girls) and in lunchtime (higher in boys). Hispanic girls had more LPA in PE compared with non-Hispanic girls. Disparities in PA behaviors at PE, recess, and lunchtime are evident but different regarding children's demographics. Schools may tailor PA opportunities to promote children's PA and reduce disparity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skin cancer is a common type of malignant tumor that poses a serious threat to patients' lives and health, especially melanoma. It may spread to other body parts, resulting in serious complications and death. In the medical field, accurate identification of skin lesion images is crucial for diagnosing different diseases. However, due to the similarity between different skin lesions, it brings some challenges to medical diagnosis. In this paper, a novel Ensemble Learning Model (EL‐DLOA) based on deep learning and optimization algorithms is proposed, which uses four different deep neural network architectures to generate confidence levels for classes, and optimization algorithms are used to integrate these confidence levels to make the final predictions. To ensure the model's accuracy and reliability, it is first trained using three different learning rates to find the best classification performance of the model. Then, a new search method based on the grey wolf optimization algorithm is proposed to enhance the grey wolf search efficiency. The method improves the search mechanism by changing the grey wolf's individual position through random perturbation or adaptive mutation, which solves the problem that the grey wolf algorithm is easy to fall into local optimum. Finally, four different ensemble strategies are used to reduce individual model bias in the classification process. The proposed model is trained and evaluated using the publicly available dataset HAM10000. The experimental results show that the improved grey wolf optimization algorithm effectively avoids the premature convergence problem and improves the search combination efficiency. Furthermore, in the ensemble methods, the adaptive weight average ensemble strategy effectively improves the classification performance, yielding accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 scores of 0.888, 0.837, 0.897, and 0.862, respectively. These metrics show varying degrees of improvement over the best performing single model. In general, the results indicate that the proposed method achieves high accuracy and practicality in skin lesion classification. Our model shows excellent performance in comparison with other existing models, which makes it significant for research and application in dermatology diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep generative models have advantages in modeling complex time series and are widely used in anomaly detection. Nevertheless, the existing deep generative approaches mainly concentrate on the investigation of models' reconstruction capability rather than customizing a model suitable for anomaly detection. Meanwhile, VAE-based models suffer from posterior collapse, which can lead to a series of undesirable consequences, such as high false positive rate etc. Based on these considerations, in this paper, we propose a novel self-adversarial variational auto-encoder combined with contrast learning, short for ACVAE, to address these challenges. ACVAE consist of three parts 〈 T , E , G 〉 , wherein the transformation network T is employed to generate abnormal latent representations similar to those normal latent representations encoded by the encoder E , and the decoder G is used to distinguish the two representations. In the framework of this model, the normal reconstructions are considered as positive samples and abnormal reconstructions as negative samples, and the contrast learning is executed on the part E to measure the similarities between inputs and positive samples, dissimilarities between inputs and negative samples. Thus, an improved objective function is proposed by integrating two novel regularizers, one refers to adversarial mechanism and the other involves contrast learning, in which the encoder E and decoder G hold the capability to distinguish, and decoder G is constrained to mitigate the posterior collapse. We perform several experiments on five datasets, whose results show ACVAE outperforms state-of-the-art methods. • Proposed a novel self-adversarial variational auto-encode for anomaly detection • Explored the methods of anomaly interpretation and automatic threshold selection • Generation model has higher detection accuracy and less time consumption • The adversarial mechanism and contrast learning make the model avoid the problem of posterior collapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Milky Way-type galaxies are surrounded by a warm-hot gaseous halo containing a considerable amount of baryons and metals. The kinematics and spatial distribution of highly ionized ion species such as O vi can be significantly affected by supernova (SN) explosions and early (pre-SN) stellar feedback (e.g., stellar winds, radiation pressure). Here we investigate effects of stellar feedback on O vi absorptions in Milky Way−like galaxies by analyzing the suites of high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations under the framework of SMUGGLE, a physically motivated subgrid interstellar medium and stellar feedback model for the moving-mesh code Arepo. We find that the fiducial run with the full suite of stellar feedback and moderate star formation activities can reasonably reproduce Galactic O vi absorptions observed by space telescopes such as the Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, including the scale height of low-velocity (∣ v LSR∣ < 100 km s−1) O vi, the column density–line width relation for high-velocity (100 km s−1 ≤ ∣ v LSR∣ < 400 km s−1) O vi, and the cumulative O vi column densities. In contrast, model variations with more intense star formation activities deviate from observations further. Additionally, we find that the run considering only SN feedback is in broad agreement with the observations, whereas in runs without SN feedback this agreement is absent, which indicates a dominant role of SN feedback in heating and accelerating interstellar O vi. This is consistent with the current picture that interstellar O vi is predominantly produced by collisional ionization where mechanical feedback can play a central role. In contrast, photoionization is negligible for O vi production owing to the lack of high-energy (≳114 eV) photons required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salt marshes provide valuable ecosystem services, which are influenced by their interaction with currents and waves. On the one hand, currents and waves exert hydrodynamic forces on salt marsh plants, which shapes the distribution of species within the marsh. On the other hand, the resistance produced by the plants can shape the flow structure, turbulence intensity, and wave dissipation over the canopy. Because marsh plants are flexible structures, their reconfiguration modifies the drag felt by the plants and the flow. While several previous studies have considered the flexibility of the stem, few studies have considered the leaf component, which has been shown to contribute the majority of plant resistance. This paper reports a unique dataset that includes laboratory measurements of both the force on an individual plant and the flow structure and wave energy dissipation over a meadow of plants. In the individual plant experiment, the motion of the plant and plant drag, free-surface displacement, and velocity profile were measured. The individual plant experiments considered both a live marsh plant (Spartina alterniflora) and a mimic consisting of 10 leaves attached to a central stem. For the meadow experiment, velocity profiles were measured both upstream and within the meadow, and free-surface displacement was measured along the model marsh plant meadow with high spatial and temporal resolution. These experiments used five water depths (covering both submerged and emergent conditions), three wave periods (from long wave to short waves), seven wave heights (from linear to nonlinear waves), and six current conditions (including pure current, pure wave, and combined current and wave). In summary, there are 102 individual plant tests and 58 meadow tests. The drag, free-surface displacement, and velocity are reported in the SMCW.mat and SMCW.nc files including the raw data, the phase averages, and the statistical values. A link to the plant motion videos is also provided. This dataset provides high-quality measurements that can be used to develop and validate models of plant motion, hydrodynamic drag on individual plants, vegetation-generated turbulence, the evolution of flow structure through a meadow, and the transformation and dissipation of waves over natural salt marshes. The dataset is available from Figshare with detailed instructions for reuse (10.6084/m9.figshare.24117144; Zhang and Nepf, 2023a). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The survival of species is negatively impacted by the increased frequency and intensity of high‐temperature episodes caused by increased global warming. Thermal tolerance can influence population size and the geographic distribution of species, which translates into species‐wide responses to climate and affects interactions between communities of species. The silkworm, Bombyx mori (L.) (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae), is an ectotherm and an internationally recognized model insect for studying sensitivity to the environment. In the present study, we investigated the effects of different diets on the thermal tolerance of silkworm. As such, it was identified that silkworms reared on an artificial diet in instars I–III and mulberry leaves in instar IV (referred as the AM group) exhibited faster weight gain and higher antioxidant enzyme activity at 35 °C, whereas silkworms reared only on mulberry leaves (referred as the ML group) exhibited upregulated transcript levels of key genes regulating antioxidant enzyme signaling pathways including Akt, CncC, and keap1, significantly increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, and severely impaired midgut activity at 35 °C. Thus, the AM group presented stronger thermal tolerance. These findings suggest that diet can affect the thermal tolerance of silkworm. This research improved our understanding of the molecular, biochemical, and physiological changes caused by thermal stress and laid the groundwork for future research regarding the mechanism underlying thermal tolerance. Furthermore, this study provides an important reference for the conservation of biodiversity in the context of global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To delineate the clinical topography of peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC)-related thrombosis in cancer patients. Most of the clinical features of PICC-related thrombosis are based on a single follow-up, which is insufficient to reflect the full topography of a thrombosis. This is an observational study conducted at West China Hospital, according to the STROBE guidelines. Cancer patients scheduled for PICC placement were potentially eligible; patients with contraindications to PICC placement or existing diseases affecting blood flow were excluded; and those who later withdrew or did not reply to our contact request during the follow-up period were eliminated from this study. Ultrasound was used to detect thrombosis from the insertion site, proximal insertion site, axillary vein to the subclavian vein once every two days for two weeks post insertion. The thrombosis and its involved venous segments, onset time and symptoms and signs were recorded. Among the 173 included patients, 126 (72.8 %) were identified as having thrombosis. Specifically, 113 and 126 patients were identified as having thrombosis within the first three days and the first week post insertion, respectively. In the 126 patients, thrombosis occurred at the insertion site (72.8 %) concurrently with thrombosis at the proximal insertion site (n = 120, 69.4 %), thrombosis in the axillary vein (n = 94, 54.3 %), and/or thrombosis in the subclavian vein (n = 41, 23.7 %). The log-rank test demonstrated that thrombosis in these four venous segments decreased significantly from the distal to the proximal central vein (log-rank test = 117.128, P <.001). Of 31 patients (17.9 %) who presented symptomatic thrombosis, only five patients experienced obvious swelling in the upper arm, and the other 26 patients exhibited atypical symptoms, such as soreness, tightness, numbness, tingling, or other discomforts in the palm, arm, armpit, and/or shoulder. In some thrombotic cases, ultrasonic assessment of PICC-related thrombosis did not parallel clinical symptoms and signs. PICC-related thrombosis is common and can occur very early post insertion in cancer patients, and most thromboses present atypical symptoms. More than half of the cases with thrombosis evaluated involve multiple venous segments, and the farther the venous segments are from the central vein, the higher the incidence of thrombosis tend to be and the earlier the onset time are. The results highlight the importance that medical staff pay particular attention to patients with catheters in the first week post insertion and be alert to thrombosis presenting atypical symptoms while keeping in mind that clinical symptoms and signs are not reliable for diagnosing thrombosis. Clinical Trials ChiCTR1900024890. • Sequential ultrasound scan can obtain date on PICC-related thrombosis in a dynamic pattern. • PICC-related thrombosis is very common and can occur early post-insertion. • Frequency and onset of PICC-related thrombosis are variable in different venous segments. • Clinical manifestations of PICC-related thrombosis are not parallel to ultrasonic assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastric organoids are biological models constructed in vitro using stem cell culture and 3D cell culture techniques, which are the latest research hotspots. The proliferation of stem cells in vitro is the key to gastric organoid models, making the cell subsets within the models more similar to in vivo tissues. Meanwhile, the 3D culture technology also provides a more suitable microenvironment for the cells. Therefore, the gastric organoid models can largely restore the growth condition of cells in terms of morphology and function in vivo. As the most classic organoid models, patient-derived organoids use the patient's own tissues for in vitro culture. This kind of model is responsive to the 'disease information' of a specific patient and has great effect on evaluating the strategies of individualized treatment. Herein, we review the current literature on the establishment of organoid cultures, and also explore organoid translational applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An immobilized metal affinity (IMAC) adsorbent was prepared for selective enrichment of adenine type CKs, via grafting polymer chain pendant with iminodiacetic acid (IDA) from polydopamine (PDA)/polyethyleneimine (PEI)-coated magnetic graphene oxide (magGO) via surface-initiated-atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). The prepared IMAC sorbent exhibited remarkable adsorption performances and good selectivity for adenine-type CKs and was utilized as a sorbent of magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) for effective enrichment of four adenine-type CKs in bean sprouts. Under the optimized extraction conditions, an analytical method for four adenine type CKs in bean sprouts was established by combining the MSPE combined with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). The recoveries of the analytes were between 80.4 ± 1.9% and 114.6 ± 1.5% (n = 3). The limits of detection (LODs) range from 0.63 to 2.30 pg⋅mL−1. The relative standard deviations of intra-day and inter-day were less than 12.6%. The established method was successfully applied to the selective extraction and sensitive detection of trace adenine-type CKs in plant samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to design a secondary yaw suspension that will control both low-frequency body motion and bogie hunting under different wheel–rail equivalent conicities. In order to enable the high-speed train to adaptively adjust to different wheel tread wear stages and improve the lateral dynamic performance of the vehicle in extreme wheel–rail contact states without any sensors and control systems, the eddy current damper with the parallel inerter as the yaw damper is proposed, and the in-depth research on its working mechanism is conducted. By establishing the theoretical analysis model of the lateral dynamics of high-speed train, and the multi-objective optimisation of the vehicle performances is carried out. The optimal parameters of the yaw damper under different wheel–rail contact conditions are analysed and the importance of frequency-dependent stiffness of yaw damper is obtained. Based on the characteristics of high-frequency transmissibility of inerter, the parallel inerter is applied to solve the limitation of insufficient dynamic stiffness of the traditional hydraulic yaw damper. The parameter configuration of the yaw damper with small series stiffness and large parallel inerter is proposed, and the stable operation of trains in major wheel–rail contact equivalent conicity is realised by using its frequency-dependent stiffness characteristics. In addition, the optimal energy dissipation and negative stiffness conditions of the parallel inerter yaw damper are analysed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to construct a dual-functional B. subtilis with probiotic function and L-lysine production, B. subtilis ACCC11025 was systematically modified. These results indicated that the strain with replacement of thrD,zwf and gnd from B. subtilis by lysC311,zwf234 and gnd361 from C. glutamicum (i. e., B. subtilis XH4) was beneficial to L-lysine production, and the yield of L-lysine was (20. 3 ±1.9) g/L. In addition, the strain with replacement of hom from B. subtilis by hom59 from C. glutamicum (i.e., B. subtilis XH5) produced (23. 2±1. 7) g/L of L-lysine without the decrease of cell growth. In addition, the yield of by-products in B. subtilis XH5 was significantly decreased. Moreover, the DapDH from C. glutamicum was introduced into the B. subtilis XH5 (i. e, B. subtilis XH6), resulting in the increase of L-lysine production because of the redirection of the carbon flux in DAP pathway. The resulted recombinant strain B. subtilis XH6 produced (25. 6±2. 3) g/L of L-lysine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The huge amount of plastic waste has caused a series of environmental and economic problems. Depolymerization of these wastes and their conversion into desired chemicals have been regarded as a promising route for dealing with these issues, which strongly relies on catalysis for C-C and C-O bond cleavage and selective transformation. Here, we reviewed recent developments in catalysis systems for dealing with single-use plastics, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyethylene glycol terephthalate. The recycling processes of depolymerization into original monomers and conversion into other economic-incentive chemicals were systemically discussed. Rational designs of catalysts for efficient conversion were particularly highlighted. Overall, improving the tolerance of catalysts to impurities in practical plastics, reducing the economic cost during the catalytic depolymerization process, and trying to obtain gaseous hydrogen from plastic wastes are suggested as the developing trends in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Clostridioides difficile (formerly Clostridium difficile) has been listed as an 'urgent threat' and C. difficile infection (CDI) is a significant global health problem. • Guidelines have recommended fidaxomicin and vancomycin as the first-line drugs to treat CDI, bezlotoxumab to prevent the recurrence, and faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for rescue treatment. • The newly developed drugs for anti-CDI mainly focus on therapeutic antibacterial drugs, preventive medications against recurrence, and primary prevention strategies. • Currently, clinical needs have not been fully met. Newly developed live biotherapeutic products named Rebyota and Vowst have been approved by the FDA to prevent recurrence, while therapeutic antibacterial drugs are still in progress. More medications in development are expected to be applied clinically for the treatment and prevention of CDI/rCDI in the future. Clostridioides difficile (formerly Clostridium difficile) has been regarded as an 'urgent threat' and a significant global health problem, as life-threatening diarrhoea and refractory recurrence are common in patients with C. difficile infection (CDI). Unfortunately, the available anti-CDI drugs are limited. Recent guidelines recommend fidaxomicin and vancomycin as first-line drugs to treat CDI, bezlotoxumab to prevent recurrence, and faecal microbiota transplantation for rescue treatment. Currently, researchers are investigating therapeutic antibacterial drugs (e.g. teicoplanin, ridinilazole, ibezapolstat, surotomycin, cadazolid, and LFF571), preventive medications against recurrence (e.g. Rebyota, Vowst, VP20621, VE303, RBX7455, and MET-2), primary prevention strategies (e.g. vaccine, ribaxamase, and DAV132) and other anti-CDI medications in the preclinical stage (e.g. Raja 42, Myxopyronin B, and bacteriophage). This narrative review summarises current medications, including newly marketed drugs and products in development against CDI, to help clinicians treat CDI appropriately and to call for more research on innovation. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to investigate interactions among physical fitness, sleep quality, sedentary behavior, and depression among female college freshmen. Participants: A cohort of 1,514 Chinese female college freshmen (Mage = 18.8 ±.63) were recruited from four universities. Methods: Participants completed a survey assessing depression, sleep quality (sleep duration and sleep onset latency), and sedentary behavior, and performed physical fitness measurements. Results: Physical fitness indexes were associated with sleep quality and sedentary behavior (ps <.05) but not with depression. Depression was positively associated with sedentary behavior and sleep onset latency, but negatively associated with sleep duration (ps <.01). The model tests revealed that sleep quality (β = −.57, p <.01) and sedentary behavior (β =.14, p <.01) served as mediators between physical fitness and depression, respectively. Conclusions: Increasing sleep quality and minimizing sedentary behavior may build resilience to depression among Chinese female college freshmen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a series of novel rubber seed shell-derived N-doped ultramicroporous carbons (NPCs) were prepared by one-step high-temperature activation (500–1000 °C), using melamine as the nitrogen source and KOH as the activator. The effects of the melamine dosage and the activation temperatures on the surface chemical properties (doped N contents and N species), textural properties (surface area, pore structure, and microporosity), CO2 adsorption capacities, and CO2/N2 selectivity were thoroughly investigated and characterized. These as-prepared NPCs demonstrate controllable BET surface areas (398–2163 m2/g), ultramicroporosity, and doped nitrogen contents (0.82–7.52 wt%). It was found that the ultramicroporosity and the doped nitrogens significantly affected the CO2 adsorption and the separation performance at low pressure. Among the NPCs, highly microporous NPC-600-4 demonstrates the largest CO2 adsorption capacity of 5.81 mmol/g (273 K, 1.0 bar) and 3.82 mmol/g (298 K, 1.0 bar), as well as a high CO2/N2 selectivity of 36.6, surpassing a lot of reported biomass-based porous carbons. In addition, NPC-600-4 also shows excellent thermal stability and recycle performance, indicating the competitive application potential in practical CO2 capture. This work also presents a facile one-pot synthesis method to prepare high-performance biomass-based NPCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging evidences have shown that long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) plays an important role in the immune escape of cancer cells. Our previous study has demonstrated that lncRNA MIAT is associated with the immune infiltration of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the underlying mechanism of MIAT regulating the PD‐L1‐mediated immune escape of HCC is poorly understood. Quantitative real‐time PCR (qRT‐PCR) was used to detect the expression of MIAT and PD‐L1 mRNA in HCC. The relationship between MIAT, miR‐411‐5p, STAT3 and PD‐L1 was explored by dual‐luciferase reporter assay, cytotoxicity assay, Western blot and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP). In addition, the xenograft model was established to determine the effect of MIAT on PD‐L1 expression in vivo. We found that MIAT and PD‐L1 were significantly upregulated in HCC tissues and the expression of PD‐L1 was regulated by MIAT. The knockdown of MIAT enhanced the cytotoxicity of T cells on HCC cells. MIAT negatively regulated miR‐411‐5p expression, upregulated STAT3 and ultimately increased PD‐L1 expression from the transcription level. The inhibition of miR‐411‐5p reversed STAT3 and PD‐L1 expression inhibited by MIAT knockdown in HCC cells. This study suggests a novel lncRNA‐mediated mechanism for HCC cells to evade the immune response; MIAT/miR‐411‐5p/STAT3/PD‐L1 may be a novel therapeutic target for HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcome of short- and long-course antibacterial therapy after successful percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage in patients with mild to moderate acute cholecystitis. Patients and Methods: We compared the effect of short-course antibacterial therapy retrospectively (SCT; ≤3 days) and long-course antibacterial therapy (LCT; ≥4 days) after successful drainage of acute cholecystitis. The study outcomes involved three-month recurrence and 30-day mortality rates, as well as hospital stay length. Results: We included 132 patients with acute cholecystitis who underwent successful percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage (PTGBD) and excluded 174 patients. We then grouped these patients (78 males and 54 females), according to the duration of antibacterial therapy. Short- and long-course antibacterial therapy groups comprised 54 (40.9%) and 78 (59.1%) patients, respectively. We did not observe significant differences in the three-month recurrence (p = 0.761) and 30-day mortality (p = 0.151) rates between these groups and observed only two deaths in the LCT group. The median hospital stay for the SCT group was six days (interquartile range [IQR], 5-7 days), compared with nine days (IQR, 8-10 days) for the LCT group (p < 0.001). Conclusions: A duration of three days or less of antibacterial therapy may be adequate for patients with mild to moderate acute cholecystitis after successful PTGBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3D convolution can fully utilize the spectral-spatial characteristics of hyperspectral image (HSI), and stacked blocks with deep layers are capable of extracting hidden features and utilizing discriminant information for classification. Naturally, a 3D convolutional neural network (CNN) based on stacked blocks named SB-3D-CNN is presented for HSI classification. Moreover, the proposed network introduces the attention mechanism before the fully connected layer, which can filter out interfering information effectively. Then we optimized the architecture to obtain optimal results on three commonly used datasets of Indian Pines, Salinas and Pavia University. Experimental results demonstrate that the optimized architecture achieves better classification rates than related recent works. Because the classification accuracies on the three datasets have reached saturation, we transferred the optimized architecture to a more complex dataset adopting the airborne hyperspectral data, which obtains from Guangxi province in south China. The results show that the optimized architecture achieves superior classification accuracies compared with other state-of-the-art methods. These results also demonstrate the optimized SB-3D-CNN has the advantages of validity and portability to more complex data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ECM33, a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored protein, is important for fungal development and infection through regulating fungal cell wall integrity, however, the functions of its orthologs in pathogenesis have not been characterized in Fusarium oxysporum. Here, we discovered a GPI-anchored protein, FocECM33 , which is required for vegetative growth and virulence of Fusasium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 (Foc TR4). FocECM33 was highly upregulated during the early infection process of Foc TR4 in banana roots. The targeted disruption of FocECM33 led to decreased hyphal growth, increased sensitivity to cell wall stresses and reduced virulence on banana plantlets. Furthermore, Δ FocECM33 mutant demonstrated a cell morphology defect, elevated ROS production and increased chitin content. Transcriptome analysis showed that FocECM3 3 has a significant influence on the production of various secondary metabolites and regulation of many biosynthetic processes in Foc TR4. Taken together, it seems FocECM33 contributes to the virulence of Foc TR4 through regulating the process of hyphal growth, ROS production and chitin synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Cu/ZnO/Al 2 O 3 /ZrO 2 sorbent exhibited high activity and large sulfur capacity in reactive adsorption desulfurization. • The breakthrough adsorption capacity for thiophene could reach up to 36.24 mg/g. • The large number of Lewis acid sites on the sorbent surface facilitated the adsorption of thiophene and the breaking of C-S bonds. • The introduction of zirconium significantly improved the ability of the sorbent surface to activate and dissociate H 2. • Regulating the zirconium content not only improved the dispersion of the Cu species and the interaction between Cu-Zn, but also maintained the particle size of the Cu species during the reaction. The ultra-deep removal of thiophene from coke oven gas (COG) is critical for the conversion of COG to methane. Currently, Cu/ZnO/Al 2 O 3 is considered as a promising sorbent for thiophene removal; however, its desulfurization performance is currently unable to meet the requirements for industrial applications. Here, a zirconium modification strategy is proposed to overcome this problem, allowing zirconium loaded copper-based sorbents (Cu/ZnO/Al 2 O 3 /ZrO 2) with significantly improved thiophene removal performance and high activity to be obtained. Characterization results showed that zirconium improved both the dispersion of copper and the concentration of Lewis acid sites on the sorbent surface. A ZrO 2 concentration of 2 % resulted in stronger Cu-Zn interaction, and the dispersion of Cu on the surface of the sorbent reached its maximum value (49.20 %). Additionally, the Lewis acid strength was also maximized, which greatly improved the desulfurization activity and resulted in a breakthrough adsorption capacity of thiophene (Q b-thiophene) of 36.24 mg/g, which was about 17 % higher than that of the unmodified Cu/ZnO/Al 2 O 3 sorbent. These results demonstrate that the sulfur capacity of the sorbent can be increased by increasing the number of acidic sites on its surface, paving the way for ultra-deep thiophene removal in industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient enrichment is crucial for the highly sensitive monitoring of phenylurea herbicides (PUHs) in various environmental waters. In this work, a stable core-shell spherically magnetic polyimide covalent organic framework (COF) was synthesized via a simple template-mediated precipitation polymerization method under mild conditions using tri(4-aminophenyl)amine (TAPA) and 3,3′,4,4′-biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride (BPDA) as the building units (denoted as Fe 3 O 4 @TAPA-BPDA). The Fe 3 O 4 @TAPA-BPDA exhibits remarkable adsorption performance for PUHs with an optimized adsorption time of only 10 min. The adsorption of PUHs by Fe 3 O 4 @TAPA-BPDA followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir model. Furthermore, hydrogen bonding, halogen bonding, hydrophobic interaction, electro donor-acceptor interaction and π-π interactions are identified as the dominant mechanisms contributing to excellent adsorption performance. It was demonstrated that halogen bonds play an important role in the adsorption of substances containing chlorine atoms. The Fe 3 O 4 @TAPA-BPDA is easy to operate and highly regenerable. A simple magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) method based on the Fe 3 O 4 @TAPA-BPDA was then developed for the rapid extraction of five PUHs in real samples, coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) determination. The analytical method developed has a linear range of 0.5–50 ng/mL, and the limit of detection (LOD) ranges from 0.06 to 0.10 ng/mL. The method exhibits good accuracy with recoveries ranged from 74.5 % to 111.4 %. The analytical method was successfully applied to the highly sensitive detection of PUHs in environmental water samples, which highlighting the potential application of the Fe 3 O 4 @TAPA-BPDA in the sample pretreatment. [Display omitted] • A stable core-shell spherically magnetic polyimide covalent organic framework was successful synthesized. • The adsorbent was used for efficient extraction of phenylurea herbicide (PUHs). • The adsorbent has fast kinetics to phenylurea herbicide. • The adsorbent exhibits excellent regeneration performance. • Halogen bonds play an important role in the adsorption of substances containing chlorine atoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The back-bent duct buoy (BBDB) is a floating oscillating water column wave energy converter, which has good environmental suitability, survivability, energy-harvesting capability, and smaller mooring forces. In this study, a BBDB OWC model with a generic shape was designed and tested using regular wave scenarios in a wave flume. Four combinations of the degree of freedom (DOF) were employed in the experimental tests: the zero DOF (fixed, ZDOF) mode, the two DOFs (heaving and pitching, TDOFs) mode, and the single DOF (only pitching or heaving, SDOF-P and SDOF-H) modes. The time histories of key performance parameters, kinematic responses, hydrodynamic, aerodynamic, and energy-harvesting performances were reported and analyzed. The resonance migrations of the air pressure and pneumatic power were observed for different DOF conditions. In addition, the pitching and heaving motions are found to have positive and negative effects on the energy-harvesting performance of the BBDB model. The peak values of capture width ratios for the ZDOF, SDOF-P, SDOF-H and TDOFs conditions are 0.57, 0.51, 0.10, and 0.26, while the average values are 0.19, 0.19, 0.03, and 0.11, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Heat treatment on precursor is a suitable way to regulate the Cu-Zn interaction. • Stronger Cu-Zn interaction could improve the desulfurization performance. • The breakthrough adsorption capacity for thiophene could reach up to 25.1 mg/g. The ultra-deep removal of thiophene is a necessary process for the coke oven gas (COG) to methane technology via methanation. It is usually carried out using copper-zinc (Cu-Zn) based sorbent, which was reported to has excellent desulfurization performance, however the effect of Cu-Zn interaction on the desulfurization activity of the sorbent is still need to be further understood. Here, the sorbent precursor was prepared via co-precipitation method, and it was treated at different temperatures to obtain a series of sorbents with different Cu-Zn interaction. The fixed bed reactor was used to evaluate the desulfurization performance, the XPS and H 2 -TPR was carried out to determine the Cu-Zn interaction in sorbents, and the N 2 adsorption, XRD, N 2 O adsorption, FT-IR were used to characterize the physical and chemical properties of samples. The results show that the Cu-Zn interaction could be effectively controlled by heat treatment temperature. At 300 °C, the sorbent precursor would be easily transformed into Cu-Zn solid solution, where the Cu-Zn interaction is strong, and the dispersion of Cu on the sorbent surface is maximized (16.0 %). Those greatly increase the desulfurization activity, and the breakthrough adsorption capacity for thiophene could reach up to 25.1 mg/g. At 250 °C, the temperature is not enough for the transforming of sorbent precursor into Cu-Zn solid solution, so that the breakthrough adsorption capacity for thiophene is only 12.4 mg/g. Whereas, when the temperature is higher than 350 °C, the Cu-Zn solid solution would be further transformed into CuO and ZnO, which significantly decreases the desulfurization activity. In addition, the density functional theory (DFT) calculation results provide further evidence that strong Cu-Zn interaction is beneficial to the desulfurization behavior of sorbent. This work provides both theoretical guidance for promoting the desulfurization performance of copper-based sorbents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marsh plants are typically composed of leaves attached to a central stem. Both the leaves and the stem are flexible and contribute to wave attenuation. This study developed a model to predict wave damping within a marsh based on a simple representation of the wave‐induced drag on an individual, flexible marsh plant. Specifically, the drag force on the leaves and the stem was represented separately using a scaling law developed for an isolated plant element, and a sheltering coefficient was applied to account for drag reduction on the leaves due to the interaction among the leaves and stem. The wave damping model was validated against laboratory experiments. The model was also compared to measurements of wave dissipation made in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we had two inter-related goals: (a) to examine sex and minority status differences on children's motivation for physical education (PE; i.e., their expectancy beliefs, subjective task values, and situational interest) and their psychomotor learning outcomes (i.e., motor competence, cardiorespiratory fitness, and in-class physical activity); and (b) to examine the relationships between children's motivation and their psychomotor learning outcomes while testing the moderation effects of sex and minority status. We recruited 195 fourth and fifth-grade students (101 boys; 94 girls; M age = 10.7, SD = 0.7 years) from three elementary schools in North Texas. Using multivariate analysis of variance, we identified a significant sex difference that favored boys in motivation and psychomotor learning outcomes, with no significant minority status difference in relation to these variables. Regression analysis revealed that children's expectancy beliefs were significantly associated with both motor competence (R 2 = 11%) and cardiorespiratory fitness (R 2 = 16%), while both situational interest and sex were associated with in-class physical activity (R 2 = 18%). Thus, improving children's expectancy beliefs may be a means of enhancing psychomotor learning outcomes in PE, especially for girls. Enhancing children's beliefs in their own ability and offering diversified PE content so as to generate greater interest may facilitate psychomotor learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chitosan oligosaccharide (COS), hydrolyzed and deacetylated from chitosan, has been reported to possess varieties of biological activities. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a multifactorial progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive decline and memory loss, where oxidative stress was reported to be an overwhelming cause of the occurrence of AD. We have previously reported that COS could significantly decrease cell death, ROS generation, and lipid peroxidation, though the potential mechanism was yet to be determined. This study was designed to investigate the neuroprotective effect of COS against hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced oxidative stress and apoptosis in neuronal SH-SY5Y cells. Our results indicated that COS could dose-dependently scavenge H2O2 in the cell-free systems. Accordingly, COS markedly decreased H2O2-induced cell apoptosis and intracellular ROS generation, while increased antioxidant capacity in SH-SY5Y cells. Further, COS significantly reduced the expression of Bax and upregulated Bcl-2. The mRNA and protein expression levels of nuclear Nrf2, heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1), and NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) were significantly increased upon COS treatment. Moreover, Nrf2-siRNA evidently reversed the promotive effect of COS on expression levels of HO-1 and NQO1, and ARE-driven transcriptional activity as determined by double-luciferase reporter gene assay. Besides, COS reversed H2O2-mediated increased phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK. In conclusion, our findings indicate that COS could protect SH-SY5Y cells from oxidative damage and apoptosis via regulating Nrf2/ARE signaling pathway, which may provide new applications for the prevention and treatment of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Paraspinal vein misplacement is an uncommon complication of central venous catheterization via lower extremities, most of which have been reported in case reports. Aim: To determine the clinical characteristics of paraspinal vein misplacement. Design: This was a systematic review. Methods: A systematic literature search in the PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, and Web of Science databases was performed from their inception to 18 June 2019. Case reports and small case series describing central venous catheter misplacement in the paraspinal vein were included. Data on the catheterization procedure, catheter tip position, complications, and radiographic features of misplacement were extracted. Results: Thirty studies with a total of 36 patients were included. The ascending lumbar vein accounted for the majority of misplacements (n = 30), followed by the lumbar vein (n = 4), iliolumbar vein (n = 1), and vertebral venous plexus (n = 1). Six patients had eventful catheterization procedures. Twenty‐six patients experienced misplacement‐induced complications, of whom seven died. The most common complications included cerebrospinal fluid abnormalities, neurological symptoms, and deteriorated respiration. Among the entire case cohort, the onset of complications was the primary sign that alerted medical staff to misplacement (n = 23). The typical radiographic characteristics were posterior deviation of the catheter course overlapping with the spine on lateral X‐rays and a bend, kink, or hump in the catheter course on anteroposterior X‐rays at the L4 to L5 levels. Conclusions: Nurses should be aware of this particular complication if a patient who has undergone catheterization via a lower extremity presents deterioration of neurological function and respiration. Relevance to clinical practice: Lateral X‐ray radiography is an effective method to verify misplacement and is recommended as routine practice during catheterization via lower extremities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deep removal of thiophene sulfur from coke oven gas (COG) is an important aspect for the subsequent production of COG to natural gas via methanation. In this process, copper-based sorbents exhibit excellent desulfurization activity. However, the activity of the sorbent depends largely on the interaction between Cu and Zn in the sorbent, which is often used to stabilize metal particles and regulate the activity and stability of the sorbent. Despite a large number of studies on metal-support interaction, there is still a lack of understanding of the effects of metal-support interaction of different strengths on the structure and performance of sorbents. In this work, Cu/ZnO sorbents with different strengths of metal-support interaction were successfully synthesized to elucidate the effect of the interaction between Cu and Zn on the performance of thiophene removal. The reconstruction process of the sorbent (different component ratios) changed the Cu Zn interaction. For weakly interacting sorbents, the reconstruction process enhanced the interaction between the two components, which is conducive to electron transfer and overall activity improvement. On the contrary, for sorbents with strong interaction, the reconstruction process was hindered. • Cu/ZnO is an excellent sorbent for thiophene removal from coke oven gas. • The interaction between Cu and ZnO could be cotrolled by Cu–Zn atomic ratio. • The CZ 1.00 sorbent with Cu–Zn atomic ratio of 1.00 has the best desulfurization performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The back-bent duct buoy (BBDB) can be used as a floating oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converter, showing its potential and reliability in most previous prototype sea trials. In this study, an experimental test on a generic BBDB OWC model was conducted in a wave flume using irregular wave scenarios. By using a specific mechanism, the degree-of-freedom (DOF) of the model can be preset in four modes: the ZDOF (the model is fixed with zero DOF) mode, the TDOFs mode (the model conducts the pitching and heaving motions with two DOFs), the SDOF-P mode (the model conducts the pitching motion with the single DOF), and the SDOF-H mode (the model conducts the heaving motion with the single DOF). The kinematic, hydrodynamic, and aerodynamic responses and energy-harvesting performances of the BBDB model were presented and analyzed. It was found that the pitching and heaving motions made positive and negative contributions to wave power capturing of the model, resulting in a moderate energy-harvesting performance for the TDOFs mode. Furthermore, the analysis indicated that strengthening the pitching motion and restraining the heaving motion will benefit the wave energy conversion of the BBDB device. • A generic BBDB OWC model was tested experimentally using irregular wave scenarios. • Four typical combinations of the degree of freedom were employed. • The heaving motion was found to restrain the pitching motion. • Two spectral peaks in the pitching motion result in a broader responding bandwidth. • An innovative optimization strategy was proposed for the BBDB device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ti4+-immobilized magnetic COF adsorbent were prepared with the help of alendronate sodium. • Alendronate sodium has bi-phosphate groups which can immobilize Ti4+ more efficiently. • The adsorbent shows high selectivity to nucleotides under various analogues. • The adsorbent can exclude biomacromolecules. • The adsorbent has high adsorption capacity and fast kinetics to nucleotides. In this work, a titanium (IV) immobilized covalent organic framework (COF) was developed and used as an efficient adsorbent for highly selective enrichment of nucleotides from human serum. Firstly, an amino-functionalized magnetic COF (Fe 3 O 4 @TpBD(NH 2) 2) was synthesized by the in situ growth strategy. Alendronate sodium (AS) was then modified on the surface of the Fe 3 O 4 @TpBD(NH 2) 2 via Schiff base reaction. Finally, Ti4+ was chelated to obtain immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) adsorbent (denoted as Fe 3 O 4 @COF-AS-Ti4+). Its adsorption performances toward nucleotides including adenosine triphosphate (ATP), adenosine-5′-diphosphate (ADP) and adenosine-5′-monophosphate (AMP) were investigated, their maximum adsorption capacity were 36.7, 39.0 and 49.6 μmol/g, respectively. The adsorption and desorption can be achieved very fast (in 1 min). In addition, the Fe 3 O 4 @COF-AS-Ti4+ can still selectively adsorb nucleotides in the presence of other analogues, such as nucleosides, phenols, aromatic amines and phenol amines. It can be served as a good adsorbent for selective enrichment of nucleotides and simultaneous exclusion of biomacromolecules. It has also good synthesis reproducibility and reusability. These features suggest that the Fe 3 O 4 @COF-AS-Ti4+ nanospheres are of great benefit for pretreatment prior to instrument analysis of nucleotides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solvothermal reactions of Co(OAc)2·4H2O or Ni(NO3)2·3H2O with 1,4-bis(benzimidazol-1-ylmethyl)-benzene (bmib) ligand and 1,4-terephthalic acid (H2bdc) afforded two 2-dimensional coordination polymers with the chemical formulae of [Co(bmib)(bdc)(H2O)2n (1) and [Ni(bmib)(bdc)(H2O)2n (2). Complexes 1 and 2 were characterized by elemental analysis and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Furthermore, the anticancer activity of the complexes 1 and 2 was evaluated. Firstly, the CCK-8 assay was performed and MG63 osteogenic sarcoma cell proliferation was determined after complexes 1 and 2 treatment. Next, the Hoechst staining was performed to detect the morphological changes of treated MG63 cells. Subsequently, the western blot was conducted and the apoptotic related protein levels were determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many aquatic plants are flexible and bend in response to current. This reconfiguration can reduce the drag on the plant, both by reducing the frontal area and by creating a more streamlined shape. Previous studies have considered how the buoyancy and rigidity of a plant impact the drag reduction. This study additionally considered how reconfiguration impacts the sheltering between leaves on a plant and how this, in turn, impacts the drag on the plant. The posture and drag of single‐stemmed, leaved plants were studied through a combination of laboratory experiments and theoretical modeling using both plastic Rotala bonsai and live Bacopa caroliniana. The laboratory experiments measured drag and posture on individual plants over a range of channel velocity. The theoretical model calculated plant posture and drag based on a force balance that included buoyancy, the restoring force due to stem stiffness, and leaf drag modified to account for sheltering between leaves. Leaf sheltering was characterized by a sheltering coefficient, Cs, which is a function of the plant posture, leaf angle, leaf spacing, and leaf width. Cs decreased from 1 to a minimum value, Cs0, associated with a fully deflected, horizontal stem posture. Once validated, the model was used to explore a range of leaf configurations, following examples found in real plants. The modeling and experiments revealed conditions for which drag increased with reconfiguration, and also that the drag reached a finite, limiting value for horizontal stem posture. Neither trend has been described in previous reconfiguration models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spin distribution of massive black holes (MBHs) contains rich information on their assembly history. However, only limited information can be extracted from currently available spin measurements of MBHs owing to the small sample size and large measurement uncertainties. Upcoming X-ray telescopes with improved spectral resolution and larger effective area are expected to provide new insights into the growth history of MBHs. Here we investigate, at a proof of concept level, how stringent constraints can be placed on the accretion history of MBHs by the spin measurements from future X-ray missions. We assume a toy model consisting of a two-phase accretion history composed of an initial coherent phase with a constant disk orientation, followed by a chaotic phase with random disk orientations in each accretion episode. By utilizing mock spin data generated from such models and performing Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations, we find that most accretion models of MBHs can be reconstructed provided that MBH spins are measured with an accuracy of. We also quantify the precision of the reconstructed parameters by adopting various combinations of sample sizes and spin accuracies, and find that the sample size is more crucial to model reconstruction once the spin accuracy reaches ∼0.1. To some extent, a better spin accuracy will compensate for a small sample size and vice versa. Future X-ray missions such as the Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics and the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission, may provide spin measurements of ≳100 MBHs with an uncertainty of ∼0.04–0.1 and will thus put strong constraints on the MBH growth history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Genes encoding interacting proteins tend to be co‐retained after whole‐genome duplication (WGD). The preferential retention after WGD has been explained by the gene balance hypothesis (GBH). However, small‐scale duplications could independently occur in the connected gene families. Certain evolutionary strategies might keep the dosage balanced.Here, we examined the gene duplication, interaction and expression patterns of calcineurin B‐like (CBL) and CBL‐interacting protein kinase (CIPK) gene families to understand the underlying principles.The ratio of the CBL and CIPK gene numbers evolved from 5 : 7 in Physcomitrella to 10 : 26 in Arabidopsis, and retrotransposition, tandem duplication, and WGDs contributed to the expansion. Two pairs of CBLs and six pairs of CIPKs were retained after the α WGD in Arabidopsis, in which specific interaction patterns were identified. In some cases, two retained CBLs (CIPKs) might compete to interact with a sole CIPK (CBL). Results of gene expression analyses indicated that the relatively over‐retained duplicates tend to show asymmetric expression, thus avoiding competition.In conclusion, our results suggested that the highly specific interaction, together with the differential gene expression pattern, jointly maintained the balanced dosage for the interacting CBL and CIPK proteins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imipenemase (IMP) is a metallo-β-lactamase that confers resistance to almost all β-lactams. Identification of IMP genes is essential for understanding and combatting antibiotic resistance. In this study, we report a pandrug-resistant Providencia strain from a human rectal swab. This strain carried 2 blaIMP carbapenemase genes, blaIMP-69 and blaIMP-4. IMP-69 is a novel IMP variant with an amino acid substitution at A21T compared with IMP-8. blaIMP-69 was found in a blaIMP-69-aacA4 array of an integron on a 165-kilobase (kb) IncC self-transmissible plasmid, whereas blaIMP-4 was located in a blaIMP-4-qacG-aacA4-catB3 array of an integron on a 19-kb nonself-transmissible plasmid. Such coexistence has the potential to allow the generation of new, hybrid blaIMP variants by homologous recombination. The blaIMP-69-carrying IncC plasmid belonged to the core-genome plasmid multilocus sequence typing (cgPMLST) 3.5 type. We found that cgPMLST 3.5 IncC plasmids have been circulating worldwide for decades and may represent a common vehicle mediating the spread of antimicrobial resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted pot experiments to assess the bioavailability of cadmium (Cd) in contaminated rhizosphere soil and accumulation in rice organs in response to nitrogen (N) supply ((NH4)2SO4, NH4NO3, NH4Cl). The results showed that the concentration of bioavailable Cd in rice rhizosphere soil was (NH4)2SO4 treatment > NH4Cl treatment > NH4NO3 treatment at the same level of N application and growth period; the Cd concentration in rice roots was (NH4)2SO4 treatment > NH4NO3 treatment > NH4Cl treatment; and the Cd concentration in rice straw was NH4NO3 treatment > NH4Cl. The Cd concentration in rice roots, straws, and seeds at the maturity stage was (NH4)2SO4 treatment > NH4Cl treatment. With the same N fertilizer, excessive N promoted Cd accumulation in rice at later growth stages. This suggested that sulfate (SO42−) influenced Cd concentration in rice. NH4Cl application maintained a low Cd level in different rice organs with the same N level. This confirmed that NH4Cl is a safe N source for rice planting in polymetallic sulfide mining areas. The study concludes that appropriate NH4Cl levels for Cd-contaminated paddy soil with high-S-content could obtain rice grains with Cd concentrations below the food safety standards (0.2 or 0.4 mg·kg−1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgroud and Purpose: Hypertension has been regarded as one of the most common chronic diseases reported in different studies, and handgrip strength is a good indicatorof anindividual's overall health. However, few studies have concentrated on investigating the relationship between hypertension and handgrip strength, especially for the middle-aged and elderly population in the community. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the association of handgrip strength with the risk of hypertension. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a multi-instrument questionnaire. A total of 1152 participants aged 45 and older were included in this study. Handgrip strength, social-demographiccharacteristics, behavioral lifestyle and health-related variables were collected. Binary logistic regression was employed to analyse the relationship. Results: Handgrip strength was positively related to the risk of hypertension. Binary logistic regression models revealed that the increase of handgrip strength was significantly associated with the reduction of hypertension risk in female after adjusting forsocial-demographic characteristics, behavioral lifestyle and health-related variables (OR [95%CI] =0.265 [0.089-0.787]). In addition, after stratifying by age groups, the significant association was still existing in 60-74 years and ≥75 years of female groups, respectively(OR [95%CI] =0.158 [0.032-0.779]; (OR [95%CI] =0.009 [0.000-0.409]). No significant associations were observed in male after adjusting variables. Conclusion: stronger handgrip strength was association with the lower risk ofhypertension for the elderly female population. Abbreviations: BMI: body mass index; DBP: diastolic blood pressure; HC: hip circumference; SBP, systolic blood pressure; WC: waist circumference; WHC: hip–waist relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We put forward three actuator placements of the high-speed train power bogie to improve the train hunting stability. The active control forces act on the frame, between the frame and the motor, and on the motor by the inertial or retractable actuator, respectively, based on the feedback states of vibration velocity of the front and rear end beams. The feedback gains and the motor suspension parameters in different cases are optimised with the two objectives of system stability margin and control effort. The required actuator outputs of the three cases are compared based on the theoretical analysis with a 8 DOF bogie model. The results show that the three control cases can effectively improve the hunting stability, especially at high speed. The active control of motor lateral movement is helpful to increase the dynamic vibration absorbing function of the motor flexible suspension, and the control output is obviously smaller than the other two control cases. In addition, the influence of system delay on stability was analysed and we could use or avoid the effects of delay on the stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of nanotechnology, metal sulfide nanoparticles have been widely detected in the environment including water, soils and sediments. Metal sulfides are considered as stable species in the environment, while transformation and risk of nanoparticles have attracted increasing attention due to their specific physicochemical properties compared to bulk materials. Here we review aggregation, sedimentation, chemical and biological transformations, and potential risk of silver sulfide (Ag2S), zinc sulfide (ZnS), copper sulfide (CuS), cadmium sulfide (CdS) and lead sulfide nanoparticles, and quantum dots such as ZnS and CdS. The review shows that both stability and risk of metal sulfide nanoparticles are highly dependent on environmental factors such as pH, inorganic salts and natural organic matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the factors influencing the late diastolic vortex in normal and abnormal ventricles. Methods: Color Doppler data in left ventricle (LV) were acquired from apical long‐axis view and analyzed using vector flow mapping in 57 patients with coronary artery disease, 57 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, and 53 healthy volunteers. Results: In normals, corrected area and flux of the end‐diastolic vortex were positively correlated with transmitral A velocity and heart rate. Subjects with E/A <1 had higher vortex flux than those with E/A >1. Heart rate was the only independent predictor of corrected vortex area (R2 = .170, P = .004), and transmitral A velocity and heart rate were the independent predictors of corrected vortex flux (R2 = .490, P < .001). Patients with various mitral filling patterns showed significant differences in vortex area and flux. The vortex area and flux were positively correlated with transmitral i velocity and a′. Transmitral A velocity was the only independent predictor of corrected vortex area (R2 = .180, P < .001), while transmitral A velocity, heart rate, LV end‐systolic short diameter, and end‐diastolic long diameter were the independent determinants of corrected vortex flux (R2 = .593, P < .001). Conclusions: The end‐diastolic vortex is formed and mainly affected by the late LV filling. The compensatory atrial contraction may enhance the end‐diastolic vortex that facilitates coupling between diastole and systole. LV size can influence the end‐diastolic vortex in patients with LV dysfunction and enlargement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study examined the relationships between three constructs of TPB (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control [PBC]) and physical activity intention and behavior among Chinese female college students, and evaluated whether the relationships differed between healthy and vulnerable individuals within this population. Participants included 436 female college students (301 healthy and 135 vulnerable; Mean age = 19.24 years; SD = 0.97 years) recruited from five universities in China, and the data collection was completed in Fall 2015. Path analysis supported the direct and indirect relations of TPB constructs to physical activity intention and behavior among female college students, and the path model was invariant across the two groups. The vulnerable group reported significantly lower attitude, subjective norm, intention, and physical activity behavior than the healthy group but not for PBC. These findings suggest fostering positive attitudes and intention toward physical activity are important among Chinese female college students, regardless of their health status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cu(OH) 2 nanopesticides and organic insecticides are continuously applied to soil at a temporal interval, while knowledge about the impact of Cu(OH) 2 nanopesticides on organic insecticides degradation is currently scarce, resulting in poorly comprehensive evaluation of the potential environmental risks of Cu(OH) 2 nanopesticides. Herein, a commercial Cu(OH) 2 nanopesticide formulation (NPF), the active ingredient of NPF (AI-NPF), the prepared Cu(OH) 2 nanotubes (NT) with comparable morphology and size to AI-NPF, and CuSO 4 were respectively applied to soil at normal doses (0.5, 5 and 50 mg/kg), followed by an application of neonicotinoid thiacloprid after an interval of 21 d, showing that NPF at doses of 5 and 50 mg/kg significantly (p < 0.05) mitigated thiacloprid degradation compared to control and CuSO 4. Furthermore, AI-NPF was the primary component that contributed to the mitigation effect of NPF, which was also validated by the NT. Large differences in the degradation efficiency of thiacloprid in sterilized and unsterilized soils with Cu(OH) 2 nanopesticides suggested that biodegradation was the primary process responsible for thiacloprid degradation, especially as chemical degradation was negligible. Besides a decrease of thiacloprid bioavailability due to adsorption by Cu(OH) 2 nanopesticides, we demonstrated that Cu(OH) 2 nanopesticides changed soil microbial communities, reduced nitrile hydratase activity and down-regulated thiacloprid-degradative nth gene abundance, which thus mitigated thiacloprid biodegradation. Clearly, this study shed light on the potential environmental risks of Cu(OH) 2 nanopesticide. Unlabelled Image • Cu(OH) 2 nanopesticides at normal doses mitigated degradation of thiacloprid in soil. • Compared to CuSO 4 , Cu(OH) 2 nanopesticides showed strong mitigation effects. • Bioavailability of thiacloprid decreased due to adsorption by Cu(OH) 2 nanopesticides. • Application of Cu(OH) 2 nanopesticides to soil would change microbial communities. • Cu(OH) 2 nanopesticides down-regulated thiacloprid-degradative nth gene abundance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological markers contribute to the precise intervention across the continuum of frailty severity. Few studies have explored the advantages of biological markers collected as part of primary care data among community-dwelling older adult population and controversy remains regarding the classic biological markers for frailty. We recruited a total of 8791 adults with a mean age of 71.95 years who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria in Guancheng District and Dalang Town, Dongguan, China. Frailty was assessed by a Chinese frailty evaluation scale. Frailty status was classified with 33-item modified frailty index and latent class analysis was applied to explore the latent classes (subtypes) of frailty. We measured biological markers on blood samples collected. We identify association between specific biological markers or patterns and frailty by logistic regression and association rule mining (ARM) based on the Apriori algorithm. Multivariable analysis of our data showed that an elevated white blood cell (WBC) count and high cholesterol (CHOL) level were associated with pre-frailty (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.231, 95 % confidence interval [CI] = 1.009–1.501; aOR = 0.703, 95 % CI = 0.623–0.793) and frailty (aOR = 1.500, 95 % CI = 1.130–1.993; aOR = 0.561, 95 % CI = 0.461–0.684) compared with the normal groups. Importantly, significantly high level of CHOL was associated with a lower risk of four frailty subtypes compared with relatively healthy participants with the most power of association in the multi-frail group (aOR = 0.182, 95 % CI = 0.086–0.386). Based on ARM technique to develop correlation analysis to identify important high-risk clusters among older adult transitions from non-frail to frailty, patterns for normal level of CHOL co-occurred with an elevated creatinine (CREA) level have a significant association with the risk of frailty (aOR = 7.787, 95 % CI = 1.978–30.648) after adjusting for targeted confounders. Our study highlights the correlation between classic biological markers, especially CHOL and frailty status and subtypes among community-dwelling older adult, in the primary care setting. Further large-scale prospective studies are still needed to confirm the role of classic biological markers in frailty. • High CHOL level was associated with a lower risk of pre-frail and frail status. • High level of CHOL was associated with a lower risk of four frailty subtypes. • Patterns for normal CHOL level co-occurred with high CREA level related to frailty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]