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Key message: The study established split-root system (SRS) in foxtail millet, and identified the molecular regulatory mechanisms and metabolic pathways related to systemic nitrogen signaling based on this system and transcriptome analysis. The growth of crops is primarily constrained by the availability of nitrogen (N), an essential nutrient. Foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) is a significant orphan crop known for its strong tolerance to barren conditions. Despite this, the signaling pathway of nitrogen in foxtail millet remains largely unexplored. Identifying the candidate genes responsible for nitrogen response in foxtail millet is crucial for enhancing its agricultural productivity. This study utilized the split-root system (SRS) in foxtail millet to uncover genes associated with Systemic Nitrogen Signaling (SNS). Transcriptome analysis of the SRS revealed 2158 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) implicated in SNS, including those involved in cytokinin synthesis, transcription factors, E3 ubiquitin ligase, and ROS metabolism. Silencing of SiIPT5 and SiATL31 genes through RNAi in transgenic plants resulted in reduced SNS response, indicating their role in the nitrogen signaling pathway of foxtail millet. Furthermore, the induction of ROS metabolism-related genes in response to KNO3 of the split-root System (Sp.KNO3) suggests a potential involvement of ROS signaling in the SNS of foxtail millet. Overall, this study sheds light on the molecular regulatory mechanisms and metabolic pathways of foxtail millet in relation to SNS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: The histological characteristics and natural history of precirrhotic primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) with portal hypertension (PH) are unclear. Our aim was to clarify the prevalence, risk factors, and histological characteristics of precirrhotic PBC patients with PH. Methods: This retrospective study compared the clinical features, histological characteristics, and response to ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) between the PH and non-PH groups of precirrhotic PBC patients. Results: Out of 165 precirrhotic PBC patients, 40 (24.2%) also had PH. According to histological stage 1, 2 and 3 disease, 5.3% (1/19), 17.3% (17/98), and 45.8% (22/48) of patients also had PH, respectively. Precirrhotic PBC with PH was significantly positively correlated with bile duct loss, degree of cytokeratin 7 positivity, and degree of fibrosis in the portal area, but significantly negatively correlated with lymphoid follicular aggregation. Compared to the non-PH group, patients in the PH group showed a higher prevalence of obliterative portal venopathy, incomplete septal fibrosis, portal tract abnormalities and non-zonal sinusoidal dilatation (p<0.05). In addition, patients with PH were more likely to present with symptoms of jaundice, ascites, epigastric discomfort, a poorer response to UDCA, and more decompensation events (p<0.05). High alkaline phosphatase levels, low white blood cell counts, high Mayo scores, and high FIB-4 index values were risk factors for precirrhotic PBC with PH. Conclusions: Approximately 24.2% of precirrhotic PBC patients have PH, which is histologically related to the injury of bile ducts. High alkaline phosphatase levels, low white blood cell counts, high Mayo scores, and high FIB-4 index values are associated with increased risk of precirrhotic PBC with PH [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mutations in the tumor-suppressor genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 resulting in BRCA1/2 deficiency are frequently identified in breast, ovarian, prostate, pancreatic, and other cancers. Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors (PARPis) selectively kill BRCA1/2-deficient cancer cells by inducing synthetic lethality, providing an effective biomarker-guided strategy for targeted cancer therapy. However, a substantial fraction of cancer patients carrying BRCA1/2 mutations do not respond to PARPis, and most patients develop resistance to PARPis over time, highlighting a major obstacle to PARPi therapy in the clinic. Recent studies have revealed that changes of specific functional defects of BRCA1/2-deficient cells, particularly their defects in suppressing and protecting single-stranded DNA gaps, contribute to the gain or loss of PARPi-induced synthetic lethality. These findings not only shed light on the mechanism of action of PARPis, but also lead to revised models that explain how PARPis selectively kill BRCA-deficient cancer cells. Furthermore, new mechanistic principles of PARPi sensitivity and resistance have emerged from these studies, generating potentially useful guidelines for predicting the PARPi response and design therapies for overcoming PARPi resistance. In this Review, we will discuss these recent studies and put them in context with the classic views of PARPi-induced synthetic lethality, aiming to stimulate the development of new therapeutic strategies to overcome PARPi resistance and improve PARPi therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coupling coordination between the development of the digital economy and the construction of an ecological civilization is an important topic for the high-quality coordinated development of China’s economy and society. This study is based on panel data from 31 provinces and cities in China from 2013 to 2020. It utilizes the entropy method, coupling coordination degree model, and panel Tobit model to calculate the coupling coordination degree between the development of the digital economy and the construction of an ecological civilization, and to analyze the influencing factors. The results indicate that the overall coupling coordination degree of the two systems has been increasing year by year at the national level, with the development status transitioning from a mildly imbalanced state to a state on the brink of imbalance. The eastern region of China has the highest coupling coordination degree between the two systems, while the central and western regions both lag behind the national average, demonstrating a gradient decline in coupling coordination development across the eastern, central, and western regions. Urbanization, human capital, industrial structure, technological innovation, and government management have a significant positive impact on the coupling coordination degree of the two systems at the national level, while openness to the outside world has a significant negative impact. The impact of these influencing factors on the development of coupling coordination between the two systems exhibits significant heterogeneity across the eastern, central, and western regions, and each region should promote the development of coupling coordination based on local conditions, timing, and circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index (SII), known as an easy, economical and useful marker, correlates with the balance of inflammation and immune response. However, the usefulness of SII in biliary atresia (BA) remains unclear. Therefore, we evaluated the relationship of SII level and postoperative clinical outcomes of BA. Methods: Retrospective review of 168 patients with BA was conducted with assessments of demographic information, histological findings, laboratory parameters, and clinical outcomes. The LASSO logistic regression analysis was established using the "glmnet" software package to explore the influencing factors related to native liver survival time. Numerical variables were dichotomized based on the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and Youden index yielding the best performance of prediction. R software was used for statistical analysis. Results: Overall, the 24 month native liver survival rate was 43.5% (73 cases) after Kasai portoenterostomy. LASSO logistic regression analysis show that preoperative malnutrition (OR = 0.032, 95%CI 0.001–0.424), gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT, OR = 0.994, 95%CI 0.987–0.998), lymphocyte count (LY, OR = 2.426, 95%CI 1.467–4.604), SII (OR = 0.977, 95%CI 0.960–0.989), and liver fibrosis grading (LFG, reference: Grade 1, Grade 3, OR = 0.076, 95%CI 0.007–0.614) were the independent influencing factors for 24 month native liver survival. ROC curve analysis showed that the area under the curve of SII level (0.919) was larger than that of preoperative malnutrition (0.690), LFG (0.759), GGT (0.747), and Ly (0.773). A SII < 140.09 was found to be a significant marker in the prediction of 24-month native liver survival, with 90.41% sensitivity and 93.68% specificity. Furthermore, the rates of 24-month native liver survival (33.1% vs. 72.7%), jaundice clearance (46.8% vs. 75.0%), and good liver function recovery (46.8% vs. 65.9%) were lower in the SII ≥ 140.09 group than that in the SII < 140.09 group (all P < 0.05), but there was no difference in the occurrence of cholangitis (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Preoperative malnutrition, GGT, Ly, SII, and LFG were independent influencing factors for postoperative 24-month native liver survival of BA. The SII level, as a routine haematological marker, has better universality and simplicity and is related to clinical outcomes after Kasai portoenterostomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particle breakage at coral sands–structure interface is common in marine geological environments and is critical to the stability of geotechnical structures. However, due to the knowledge gap regarding the relationship between structure roughness and coral sand particle breakage, previous studies have not provided a clear understanding of this phenomenon. To address this gap, we conducted ring shear tests to investigate the evolution of the fractal dimension of particle breakage and its dependence on structure surface roughness and vertical stress based on fractal theory. The results show that both the roughness of the steel plate simulating the structure surface in the ring shear test and the particle size of coral sand have significant impacts on the evolutions of particle breakage and morphology at the contact interface. In detail, the particle size distributions (PSDs) of coral sands after shearing have obvious self-similarity and converge to the limit distribution state, especially when the sands contain more large particles. When the steel plate is smooth, the fractal dimension of the broken coral sand is relatively low, which indicates an early stage of fractal dimension development. Moreover, the relationship between the fractal dimension and vertical stress exerted on a rough steel plate can be approximately described using a second-order polynomial function. Moreover, there exists a critical vertical stress that corresponds to the maximum fractal dimension for each kind of coral sand in our tests. The particle breakage rates of coral sand samples on smooth steel plates are substantially lower than those on rough steel plates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the reasonable width of the narrow coal pillar of a fully mechanized caving face and the safety support of roadway, taking the coal pillar in the section between 110503 and 110505 face of the Yushuling Coal mine as the research background, a model of the hard basic roof fracture structure of fully mechanized caving face is established through theoretical analysis, and the roadway with narrow coal pillar is analyzed mechanically. Combined with the geological conditions of the working face, it is concluded that the low‐stress area is less than 3.29 m. When the internal stress field of the low‐stress environment is considered in the roadway layout, the influence of mining and the essential roof hardness should be considered. The reasonable size of the narrow coal pillar is 3 ~ 6 m, thinking that the load borne by the coal pillar is less than the ultimate strength of the coal pillar. The limit equilibrium theory calculates that the reasonable width of a coal pillar is at least 4 m. The stress and displacement of coal pillars with different widths of 3, 4, 5 and 6 m are analyzed by numerical simulation, and the 4 m narrow coal pillars are simulated and verified. Field industrial tests show that coal pillar and roadway surrounding rock deformation are small under asymmetric surrounding rock control. The research results have been successfully applied to engineering practice and can provide a reference for the research method of narrow coal pillar width under a hard basic roof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exhumed (ultra)high-pressure ([U]HP) metamorphic rocks are markers of paleosubduction zones and can provide crucial implications for the geodynamic evolution of subduction-exhumation. A variety of (U)HP metamorphic rocks from many collisional orogens have commonly documented a lowpressure high-temperature overprint, which appears to indicate a pervasive geodynamic process behind (U)HP metamorphic rock exhumation. A good case study of garnet amphibolite and associated garnet-biotite gneiss with an unambiguous low-pressure high-temperature overprint in the Xixia-Xiaguan area of the North Qinling Orogen, central China, provides a significant opportunity to uncover this geodynamic process. A detailed study of petrography, mineral chemistry, and phase equilibria modeling suggests that the investigated garnet amphibolite and garnet-biotite gneiss have jointly experienced multistage exhumation processes with near-isothermal decompression from the (U)HP eclogite facies (26.8-29.0 kbar/740-775 °C) to the mediumpressure (MP) amphibolite facies (8.7-10.0 kbar/740-775 °C), subsequent remarkable near-isobaric heating to the low-pressure (LP) granulite facies (6.8-8.2 kbar/832-835 °C), followed by final decompression and cooling to the LP amphibolite facies (5.8-6.8 kbar/740-757 °C). U-Pb age dating of zircons from the garnet amphibolite and garnetbiotite gneiss yielded metamorphic ages of ca. 500 Ma, 450 Ma, and 400 Ma, which we consider to represent (U)HP eclogite-facies, LP granulite-facies, and late LP amphibolite-facies metamorphism, respectively. According to the regional geology and the metamorphic history we have determined, this multistage exhumation process of twostep exhumation stages delimited by a phase of LP near-isobaric heating was associated with slab rollback. Accordingly, we propose a tectonic model of exhumation driven by slab rollback for the geodynamic evolution of (U)HP metamorphic rock exhumation in the North Qinling Orogen. Additionally, a combination of previous studies and our new results suggests that exhumation driven by slab rollback appears to be a fundamental mechanism for the (U)HP metamorphic rock exhumation within collisional orogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The MYC-Associated Zinc Finger Protein (MAZ) plays important roles in chromatin organization and gene transcription regulation. Dysregulated expression of MAZ causes diseases, such as glioblastoma, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and liposarcoma. Previously, it has been reported that MAZ controls the proinflammatory response in colitis and colon cancer via STAT3 signaling, suggesting that MAZ is involved in regulating immunity-related pathways. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this regulation remains elusive. Here, we investigate the regulatory effect of MAZ on interferon-gamma (IFN-1)- stimulated genes via STAT1, a protein that plays an essential role in immune responses to viral, fungal, and mycobacterial pathogens. We demonstrate that about 80% of occupied STAT1-binding sites colocalize with occupied MAZ-binding sites in HAP1/K562 cells after IFN-1 stimulation. MAZ depletion significantly reduces STAT1 binding in the genome. By analyzing genome-wide gene expression profiles in the RNA-Seq data, we show that MAZ depletion significantly suppresses a subset of the immune response genes, which include the IFN-stimulated genes IRF8 and Absent in Melanoma 2. Furthermore, we find that MAZ controls expression of the immunity-related genes by changing the epigenetic landscape in chromatin. Our study reveals an important role for MAZ in regulating immune-related gene expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bulkhead additional thrust during shield tunneling, the force of friction between shield and soil, and the additional grouting pressure can cause additional stress in the surrounding soil, thereby disturbing existing buildings and structures. However, few studies focused on the disturbance situation when the shield tunneling machine approaches the receiving well. If the additional stress and deformation of the receiving well are too excessive, it could result in the collapse of the receiving well. Based on the two-stage method, this study derived the calculation formula of the additional stress and deformation of the receiving well enclosure structure caused by shield tunneling. Taking a shield machine receiving engineering as the context, this study established a numerical simulation model and compared theoretical calculation, the results of numerical simulation model and on-site monitoring data. Finally, the additional stress of the receiving well is analyzed. The research findings demonstrate that the theoretical prediction results, numerical simulation calculation results, and on-site monitoring data exhibit relatively small calculation errors, which validated the applicability of the theoretical prediction formula and numerical simulation model. As the distance between the shield machine and the receiving well decreases, the disturbance to the receiving well increases sharply. When the distance between the cutter head and the receiving well is less than three times the shield length, it is crucial to enhance the deformation monitoring of the receiving well. The primary factors affecting the additional load and deformation of the receiving well enclosure structure are the force of friction between shield and soil and the additional thrust of the cutterhead. The disturbance caused by the additional grouting pressure on the enclosure structure can be ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective • HRQoL and transitional care are crucial for HFrEF patients in improving outcomes and reducing readmissions. This study aimed to investigate whether transitional care strategies would improve the health-related health of life (HRQoL) for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Methods • Five databases including PubMed, CENTRAL, EBSCO, Web of Science, and CNKI were searched for eligible studies on Dec 15, 2022. In this study, we mostly focused on HRQoL, mean difference (MD), and standard deviation (SD) of scores from the questionnaires that were pooled. Results were shown in forest plots, and the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool (RoB2) was used to assess the bias risk. In the meta-analysis, mean differences and standard deviations were calculated to analyze the data. Heterogeneity analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.3 software (The Cochrane Collaboration, London, United Kingdom). Results • Ten randomized controlled trials were included in this study, with key inclusion criteria including specific time frames, population characteristics, and transitional care interventions considered. Three types of evaluation tools including the Short Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36), the quality of life in a questionnaire, and patients’ self-assessment were used for evaluating the HRQoL. Except for SF-36 (MD=1.05, 95% CI=-0.54 to 2.65, I² = 0%, P = .20), transitional care had a positive effect on HRQoL in the quality of life in a questionnaire (SMD=0.50, 95% CI=0.35 to 0.66, I² = 88%, P < .01), and patients’ self-assessment (SMD=0.70, 95% CI=0.70 to 0.54, I² = 96%, P < .01). Transitional care improved both physical health (SMD=0.20, 95% CI=0.06 to 0.34, I² = 85%, P = .005) and emotional health (SMD=0.13, 95% CI=0.00 to 0.26, I² = 73%, P = .05) of HFrEF patients. Conclusion • Transitional care significantly improved the HRQoL of HFrEF patients and should be widely promoted. The improvement in Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) is significant for HFrEF patients as it enhances their overall well-being and functional abilities. Implementing transitional care in healthcare settings can be practical by ensuring seamless coordination between different healthcare providers, providing patient education and self-management support, and facilitating smooth transitions between hospital and home care settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the Nambu–Jona–Lasinio (NJL) model, we develop a framework for calculating the spin alignment of vector mesons and applied it to study ϕ mesons in a magnetic field. We calculate mass spectra for ϕ mesons and observe mass splitting between the longitudinally polarized state and transversely polarized states. The ϕ meson in a thermal equilibrium system is preferred to occupy the state with spin λ = 0 than those with spin λ = ± 1 , because the former state has a smaller energy. As a consequence, we conclude that the spin alignment will be larger than 1/3 if one measures along the direction of the magnetic field, which is qualitatively consistent with the recent STAR data. Around the critical temperature T C = 150 MeV , the positive deviation from 1/3 is proportional to the square of the magnetic field strength, which agrees with the result from the non-relativistic coalescence model. Including the anomalous magnetic moments for quarks will modify the dynamical masses of quarks and thus affect the mass spectra and spin alignment of ϕ mesons. The discussion of spin alignment in the NJL model may help us better understand the formation of hadron’s spin structure during the chiral phase transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rich and diverse fungal species occur in different habitats on the earth. Many new taxa are being reported and described in increasing numbers with the advent of molecular phylogenetics. However, there are still a number of unknown fungi that have not yet been discovered and described. During a survey of fungal diversity in different habitats in China, we identified and proposed two new species, based on the morphology and multi-gene phylogenetic analyses. Herein, we report the descriptions, illustrations and molecular phylogeny of the two new species, Bisifusarium keratinophilum sp. nov. and Ovatospora sinensis sp. nov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare and highly aggressive tumor. Its clinical manifestations are diverse, and the symptoms are not specific. Some patients will develop paraneoplastic syndrome (PS) during the disease course. This study aims to analyze the risk factors of PS in patients with MPM and their impacts on prognosis. Methods: The clinical data of MPM patients who underwent cytoreductive surgery plus hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CRS + HIPEC) at our center from June 2015 to May 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. MPM patients were divided into PS group and non-PS group according to the diagnostic criteria. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to explore the risk factors of PS in MPM patients, and to analyze the impact of PS on prognosis. Results: There were 146 MPM patients in this study, including 60 patients (41.1%) with PS and 86 patients (58.9%) without PS. The highest incidence of PS was thrombocytosis (33.6%), followed by neoplastic fever (9.6%). Univariate analysis revealed 8 factors (P < 0.05) with statistically significant differences between the two groups: prior surgical scores, targeted therapy history, Karnofsky performance status score, preoperative carbohydrate antigen (CA) 125 level, vascular tumor embolus, peritoneal cancer index, completeness of cytoreduction (CC) score and intraoperative ascites. Multivariate analysis identified 3 independent factors associated with PS: preoperative CA 125 level, vascular tumor embolus, and CC score. Survival analysis demonstrated that MPM patients with PS had worse prognosis, although PS was not an independent prognostic factor. Conclusions: PS is not rare in patients with MPM, and is independently associated with preoperative CA 125 level, vascular tumor embolus and CC score. PS often indicates advanced disease and poor prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

White-light superflares from ultra-cool stars are thought to be resulted from magnetic reconnection, but the magnetic dynamics in a fully convective star is not clear yet. In this paper, we report a stellar superflare detected with the ground wide angle camera (GWAC), along with rapid follow-ups with the F60A, Xinglong 2.16-m, and LCOGT telescopes. The effective temperature of the counterpart is estimated to be 2200 ± 50 K by the BT-Settl model, corresponding to a spectral type of L0. The R -band light curve can be modelled as a sum of three exponential decay components, where the impulsive component contributes a fraction of 23 per cent of the total energy, while the gradual and the shallower decay phases emit 42 per cent and 35 per cent of the total energy, respectively. The strong and variable Balmer narrow emission lines indicate the large amplitude flare is resulted from magnetic activity. The bolometric energy released is about 6.4 × 1033 erg, equivalent to an energy release in a duration of 143.7 h at its quiescent level. The amplitude of Δ R  = −8.6 mag (or Δ V  = −11.2 mag), placing it one of the highest amplitudes of any ultra-cool star recorded with excellent temporal resolution. We argue that a stellar flare with such rapidly decaying and huge amplitude at distances greater than 1 kpc may be false positive in searching for counterparts of catastrophic events such as gravitational wave events or gamma-ray bursts, which are valuable in time-domain astronomy and should be given more attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study evaluated the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) in the ultrasound-guided microwave ablation (MWA) treatment of symptomatic focal uterine adenomyosis. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted between March 2020 and January 2023, enrolling 52 patients with symptomatic focal uterine adenomyosis who had undergone MWA. All patients were examined with CEUS before and after MWA. The non-perfused volume (NPV) was compared between CEUS and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCEMRI) following ablation. Therapeutic efficacy and safety were evaluated at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. Additionally, this study explored the correlations between pre-treatment CEUS features and a volume reduction ratio indicating sufficient ablation, defined as 50% or more at the 3-month follow-up. Results: No significant differences in NPV were noted between CEUS and DCE-MRI immediately after MWA and during follow-up (all P>0.05). At the 3-month follow-up, the median VRRs for the uterus and adenomyosis were 33.2% and 63.9%, respectively. Sufficient ablation was achieved in 69.2% (36/52) of adenomyosis cases, while partial ablation was observed in the remaining 30.8% (16/52). The identification of non-enhancing areas on pre-treatment CEUS was associated with sufficient ablation (P=0.016). At the 12-month follow-up, significant decreases were observed in both the uterine and adenomyosis volumes (all P<0.001). Dysmenorrhea and menorrhagia were significantly alleviated at 12 months, and no major complications were encountered. Conclusion: CEUS can be used to evaluate the ablation zone of focal adenomyosis that has been treated with MWA, similarly to DCE-MRI. The identification of non-enhancing areas on pretreatment CEUS indicates satisfactory treatment outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Tamoxifen showed individual differences in efficacy under different CYP2D6*10 genotypes. Our study evaluated the prognosis of tamoxifen or toremifene in hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer patients under different genotypes. Materials and Methods CYP2D6*10 genotypes of HR-positive breast cancer patients were determined by Sanger sequencing, and all the patients were divided into tamoxifen group or toremifene group. Results A total of 268 patients with HR-positive breast cancer were studied. The median follow-up time was 72.0 months (range, 5.0 to 88.0 months). Of these, 88 (32.9%), 114 (42.5%), and 66 (24.6%) patients had C/C, C/T, and T/T genotypes, respectively. Among patients who received tamoxifen (n=176), the 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate in patients with C/C and C/T genotype was better than that in patients with T/T genotype, and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001 and p=0.030, respectively). In patients receiving toremifene, CYP2D6*10 genotype was not significantly associated with DFS (p=0.325). Regardless of genotypes, the 5-year DFS rate was higher in patients treated with toremifene than in patients with tamoxifen (91.3% vs. 80.0%, p=0.011). Compared with tamoxifen, toremifene remained an independent prognostic marker of DFS in multivariate analysis (hazard ratio, 0.422; p=0.021). For all the 180 patients with CYP2D6*10 C/T and T/T genotypes, the 5-year DFS rate was significantly higher in the toremifene group than in the tamoxifen group (90.8% vs. 70.1%, p=0.003). Conclusion Toremifene may be an alternative adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients with CYP2D6*10 mutant genotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore whether the development of competitive computer gaming (eSports) industries is sustained in China. In doing so, we apply the Generalized Supremum Augmented Dickey-Fuller (GSADF) method to investigate when the bubbles originated and crashed in the Chinese eSports market from 2014 to 2021. Utilizing the data of the Chinese Electronic Sports Thematic Index (CESI), the empirical outcomes show that the Chinese eSports industry may deviate from its market value and that the industry witnesses bubble behaviors. The latent reasons might be attributed to government policies, economic growth, stock market crises, and venture capital investments. Therefore, to promote the stabilized and sustained development of the eSports industry in China, regulators and authorities should pay attention to the evolution of bubbles. Moreover, maintaining policy consistency and continuity may be beneficial in stabilizing investors' expectations and reducing speculative investment behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The goal of this study was to explore the coping strategies of depression sufferers that have worked for them based on the study of an online depression community. Methods: We conducted a thematic narrative analysis of 120 stories posted by the members in the largest online depression community in China. MaxQDA version 18 was used to code the data, and the analytic approach was consistent with the category-centred approach of grounded theory. Results: The study found that the coping strategies mainly include self-reconciliation (e.g., perceiving/accepting feelings, accepting the present self, and holding hope for the future), actions (recreational activities, physical exercise, and engaging in volunteer work), addressing the stressors and symptoms (e.g., staying away from stressors, seeing the doctor), and seeking interpersonal support (e.g., seeking support from family, friends, and peers). Conclusion: The findings revealed the coping strategies that were helpful and examined how they functioned for the affected members, which make up for the lack of attention to the individual experiences of depression sufferers in coping research. The findings also have practical implications for the related education and consultation, providing useful insights for doctors and patients. These ways of coping are based on depression sufferer' anonymous narratives, which can be convincing to clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this report is to 1) to formally describe Austral and Subtropical Gyre Radiolaria recovered from ODP Hole 123-765C), 2) to compare them with published records of Southern Hemisphere "non-Tethyan" assemblages and 3) to discuss radiolarian paleobiogeography of the Southern Hemisphere and its implications for global climate change during the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition. The Tithonian to Aptian/early Albian radiolarian record recovered from Hole 765C, Cores -62R to -36R in the Argo Abyssal Plain (AAP) is unique in its density of well-preserved samples and in its faunal contents. Radiolaria recovered from claystones yielded the low diversity, ecologically tolerant "Crypto-Archaeo" Assemblage, (chiefly cryptocephalic and cryptothoracic nassellarians and Archeodictyomitra spp.) interpreted herein as originated in the Subtropical Gyre (STG). In contrast, assemblages extracted from radiolarite layers, interpreted as pelagic turbidites derived from the deeper Australian margin, are dominated by Austral taxa. Neotethyan taxa are very rare to absent before the late Hauterivian/Barremian, when they gradually gain in diversity and abundance. Described Austral and STG taxa include 10 families, of which Fusitanellidae n. fam. and Windaliinae n. subfam. are new. Of 18 genera 7 are new (Nodosphaera, Praewindalia, Pachycingula, Archaeotanella, Morchella, Fusitanella, Argofusus) and of 55 species 30 new ones are formally described and 14 new ones are left in open nomenclature. The southern hemisphere Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous radiolarian biogeography is defined from low- to high latitude: 1. the Neotethyan (NT) and 2. the Central Panthalassan (CP) realms, 3. Eastern Boundary Current (EBC) realm, 4. the Subtropical Gyre (STG) and the Austral (A) circum south-polar realm. Radiolarian biogeography and plate tectonic models support a scenario of palaeoceanographic and global climatic change during the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition related to progressive Pangea break-up with the following consequences: 1. an increased heat transfer to the Southern hemisphere which caused cooling of Neotethyan regions during the Late Tithonian dry event. 2. Anorthward shift of the southern summer Intertropical Convenience Zone reduced the Neotethyan monsoon area and allowed the establishment of a southern Neotethyan subtropical gyre documented by the "Crypo-Archaeo" Assemblage. 3. The south-polar West Wind Drift may have forced a circum Antarctic-Australian cold current through the epicontinental rift between India and Antarctica-Australia since the Berriasian (140 my), transporting Austral Radiolaria into the AAP where they accumulated in radiolarite layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteomyelitis is an infectious disease of bone tissue caused by bacterial infection, which can infect through hematogenous, traumatic or secondary ways and then lead to acute or chronic bone injury and relative clinical symptoms, bringing physical injury and economic burden to patients. Frizzled related protein (FRZB) participates in the regulation of various diseases (osteoarthritis, cardiovascular diseases and types of cancer) by regulating cell proliferation, motility, differentiation and inflammation, while its function in osteomyelitis remains to be elucidated. The present study aimed to uncover the role and underlying mechanism of FRZB mediation in Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus)-induced osteomyelitis. Human bone marrow derived stem cells (hBMSCs) were treated with S. aureus to imitate an inflammatory osteomyelitis micro-environment in vitro, then mRNA and protein expression were severally assessed by RT-PCR and western blotting. The activity, apoptosis and differentiation of the cells were characterized via CCK-8, caspase-3 activity and Alizarin red sulfate/alkaline phosphatase staining, respectively. Expression levels of FRZB were upregulated in S. aureus-infected hBMSCs. Over-expression of FRZB significantly reduced hBMSC cell viability and differentiation while promoting cell apoptosis with or without S. aureus infection. However, FRZB knockdown reversed these effects. Once Wnt was impeded, the effect of FRZB downregulation was impeded to a great extent. Taken together, FRZB participated to regulate the osteomyelitis by activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective • In patients with postoperative circulatory instability, the exploration of invasive arterial blood pressure (IABP) monitoring is of great significance because it can provide real-time cardiovascular function information and help medical staff to better assess and manage the patient’s circulatory status. To explore the value of IABP monitoring for patients with postoperative circulatory instability in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU). Methods • From January to December 2021, 160 postoperative patients with circulatory instability were randomly divided into a control group and a study group (80 patients in each group). A random number sequence is generated through a random number table, and random numbers are distributed to different patients to achieve random grouping. SPSS was used for data processing and statistical analysis, t test was used for continuous variables, chi-square test was used for count data, and the significance level was P < .05.We compared various parameters, such as systolic blood pressure (SBP), PACU observation time, arterial partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2 ), total hospitalization time, heart rate (HR), arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2 ), re-intubation rate, mean arterial pressure (MAP), adverse events, and blood oxygen saturation (SaO2 ), between the two groups. Flow cytometry was used to analyze changes in immune lymphocyte subsets in the patient’s peripheral blood. Results • During the postoperative observation period, there were no significant differences in SBP, PaCO2, HR, SaO2, MAP, and PaO2 between the two groups (P > .05)The study group showed higher SBP, SaO2, MAP, and PaO2, and lower HR and PaCO2 compared to the control group (P < .05). The study group also had shorter PACU observation time, total hospitalization time, and a lower re-intubation rate compared to the control group (P < .05). There was no significant difference in the overall incidence of adverse events between the two groups (7.50% vs 3.75%) (P > .05). The study group showed significantly higher proportions of lymphocytes, CD3+ T cells, CD3+ CD4+ T cells, and CD3+ CD4+/CD3+ CD8+ ratio compared to the control group (P < .05). This change may reflect the patients with a positive response of the immune system, help to resist disease progress and infection. Conclusion • IABP monitoring can continuously, dynamically and accurately collect arterial blood pressure data of patients with postoperative circulatory instability, contributing to the recovery of immune competence in patients to help formulate the best clinical treatment and intervention plan. The dynamic and accurate arterial blood pressure data collection provided by IABP monitoring contributes not only to immune competence recovery but also to overall patient management and treatment planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper conducts low temperature welding tests on Q460GJC thick plate (60 mm), and based on the basic theory of phase transformation structure evolution, a three-dimensional microstructure evolution analysis method for large welded joints is established, and the analysis of the evolution process of multi-layer and multi-pass weld structure under the low temperature environment of thick plates is completed. The comparison and analysis of test and numerical simulation results are in good agreement, which proves that the welding phase transformation model realizes the digitalization of metallurgical phase transformation in steel structure welding, and optimizes welding process parameters. It is of great significance to improve the quality of welding products and lay a foundation for predicting the performance of welded joints from the micro level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteoporosis is one of the common orthopaedic diseases, characterised by increased bone fragility due to reduced bone mass and microstructural degeneration, posing a great threat to patients' quality of life and safety. In recent years, Chinese medicine (natural) has had a unique advantage in the treatment of osteoporosis and has shown good efficacy. Autophagy is an inherent cellular survival mechanism for the removal and recycling of damaged proteins and organelles and plays an important role in maintaining the stability of the intracellular environment and organ function. Therefore, this article aims to provide a comprehensive review of these Chinese medicines (natural) for the treatment of osteoporosis through autophagy. They have been intensively studied and reported to have effects such as promoting osteogenesis and anti-bone resorption. The Chinese medicines include plants such as Cistanche deserticola, Epimedium, Curculigo orchioides Gaertn, Achyranthes bidentata Blume, Leonurus japonicus Houtt, Ginseng, Chuanxiong Rhizome, Eucommia ulmoides, Morindae Officinalis Radix, Curcuma longa, Polygoni Cuspidati Rhizoma et Radix, Anemarrhena asphodeloides Bunge, Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge and Pueraria Lobata, thus providing evidence for the use of alternative herbal therapies for the effective treatment of osteoporosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The measurement and predictive functions of the model equation method in the preparation of porous copper were studied. Needlelike and spherical carbamide was used as a space holder with volume content between 10 and 80%. One step of heat treatment for green compacts was applied to fabricate porous copper. A criterion for determining the uniformity of external dimensions of porous copper was proposed. The results showed that the mass follows the law of conservation and the height of porous copper decreased as the increase of spacer content while there was no regularity for the diameter. The porosity of porous copper calculated by the model equation method was equal to those of by the mass volume method. The theoretical formula obtained to describe the relationship between porosity and spacer content of porous copper intersects with the empirical formula. The results indicated that the measurement function of the model equation method was easier to play than the prediction function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatiotemporal evolutions of a one-dimensional collisionless decaying plasma bounded by two electrodes with an externally applied electrostatic field are studied by theoretical analyses and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations with the ion extraction process in a laser-induced plasma as the major research background. Based on the theoretical analyses, the transport process of the charged particles including electrons and ions can be divided into three stages: electron oscillation and ion matrix sheath extraction stage, sheath expansion and ion rarefaction wave propagation stage and the plasma collapse stage, and the corresponding criterion for each stage is also presented. Consequently, a complete analytical model is established for describing the ion extraction flux at each stage during the decaying of the laser-induced plasmas under an electrostatic field, which is also validated by the PIC modeling results. Based on this analytical model, influences of the key physical parameters, including the initial electron temperature and number density, plasma width and the externally applied electric voltage, on the ratio of the extracted ions are predicted. The calculated results show that a higher applied electric potential, smaller initial plasma number density and plasma width lead to a higher ratio of the extracted ions during the first stage; while in this stage, the initial electron temperature shows little effect on it. Meanwhile, more ions will be extracted before the plasma collapse once a higher electric potential is applied. The theoretical model presented in this paper is helpful not only for a deep understanding to the charged particle transport mechanisms for a bounded decaying plasma under an applied electrostatic field, but also for an optimization of the ion extraction process in practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natriuretic peptides, which are produced by the heart, bind to natriuretic peptide receptor A (NPR1 encoded by natriuretic peptide receptor 1 gene) and cause vasodilation and natriuresis. Thus, they serve an important role in regulating blood pressure. In the present study, microinjection of CRISPR associated protein 9/single guide RNA into fertilized C57BL/6N mouse eggs was performed to generate filial generation zero (F0) Npr1 knockout homozygous mice (Npr1-/-). F0 mice mated with wild-type (WT) mice to obtain F1 Npr1 knockout heterozygous mice with stable heredity (Npr1+/-). F1 self-hybridization was used to expand the population of heterozygous mice (Npr1+/-). The present study performed echocardiography to investigate the impact of NPR1 gene knockdown on cardiac function. Compared with those in the WT group (C57BL/6N male mice), the left ventricular ejection fraction, myocardial contractility and renal sodium and potassium excretion and creatinine-clearance rates were decreased, indicating that Npr1 knockdown induced cardiac and renal dysfunction. In addition, expression of serum glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) increased significantly compared with that in WT mice. However, glucocorticoids (dexamethasone) upregulated NPR1 and inhibited SGK1 and alleviated cardiac and renal dysfunction caused by Npr1 gene heterozygosity. SGK1 inhibitor GSK650394 ameliorate cardiorenal syndrome by suppressing SGK1. Briefly, glucocorticoids inhibited SGK1 by upregulating NPR1, thereby ameliorating cardiorenal impairment caused by Npr1 gene heterozygosity. The present findings provided novel insight into the understanding of cardiorenal syndrome and suggested that glucocorticoids targeting the NPR1/SGK1 pathway may be a potential therapeutic target to treat cardiorenal syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flash sintering involves very rapid densification of ceramic powder compacts during a thermal runaway induced by an applied voltage and current. The mechanisms of fast densification are still not well-understood. The present study investigates the impact of high heating rates during flash sintering on densification, dislocation density and plasticity of SrTiO 3. After flash sintering, a high dislocation density of almost 1014 m−2 was observed by TEM. Uniaxial compression at 1150 °C revealed very high deformation rates. It is argued that for SrTiO 3 , dislocations are generated and migrate during flash sintering. This becomes possible by the very high heating rates, which conserve high driving forces for sintering up to high temperatures. High driving forces of several 10 MPa are preserved up to high temperatures. Thus, the sintering stress can be above the flow stress of SrTiO 3 (5 MPa), and the nucleation of dislocations occurs, paving the path for plastic flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the clinical changes of serum melatonin and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) levels in patients with basal ganglia hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage (HICH). Methods: In this retrospective observational study, patients with HICH in Suzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine from January 2020 to January 2021 were included as the observation group (n=120), and 120 healthy volunteers who underwent physical examination were included as the control group. According to the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), the observation group was divided into four subgroups: normal group (n=27), mild group (n=51), moderate group (n=24), and severe group (n=18). Differences in serum melatonin and ICAM-1 were compared between the observation group and the control group, and between the subgroups. Logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors of poor prognosis, and the ROC curve was used to analyze the influence of melatonin and ICAM-1 levels on patient prognosis. Results: Serum melatonin levels were lower in the observation group compared to the control group, while ICAM-1 levels were higher (P<0.05). With the aggravation of brain injury, serum melatonin decreased and ICAM increased (P<0.05). Decreased serum melatonin and increased ICAM-1 were independent risk factors for poor prognosis in patients with HICH. The combined AUC of serum melatonin and ICAM-1 for the detection of poor prognosis in patients with HICH was 0.860, which was higher than that of the two alone (P<0.05). Conclusions: Low serum melatonin levels and high ICAM-1 levels are associated with poor prognosis in patients with HICH and can be used as predictors of patients' prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autoimmune diseases may cause various kinds of conflicts in and outside the target organ, and some evidence brings forward the suggestion that autoimmune diseases may damage the auditory nerve and cause sensorineural hearing loss. However, this relationship is not clearly defined yet. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess sensorineural hearing loss in autoimmune diseases through systematic review and metaanalysis. The literature databases of PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of knowledge, and Cochrane library were thoroughly searched, and a meta-analysis study was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Eighteen articles were included, involving 27 859 cases affected by autoimmune diseases. The prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss in systemic lupus erythematosus cases was 21.26 [3.80, 38.71]%, which was significant, and pooled analysis of odds ratio observed in individual studies showed that the odds of sensorineural hearing loss prevalence was 12.11 [7.4, 24.12] (P < .001). The prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss in rheumatoid arthritis cases was 16.14 [-9.03, 41.31]%, which was significant, and pooled analysis of odds ratio observed in individual studies showed that the odds of sensorineural hearing loss prevalence was 2.23 [1.84, 2.32] (P < .001). In vitiligo cases, the prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss was 38.80 [22.36, 55.25]%, which was significant, and pooled analysis of odds ratio observed in individual studies showed that the odds of sensorineural hearing loss prevalence was 5.82 [3.74, 9.68] (P < .001). The present study showed that sensorineural hearing loss is significantly related to the autoimmune diseases of systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and vitiligo. Therefore, these cases need a routine evaluation of sensorineural hearing loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity is caused by imbalanced energy intake and expenditure. Excessive energy intake and storage in adipose tissues are associated with many diseases. Several studies have demonstrated that vascular growth endothelial factor B (VEGFB) deficiency induces obese phenotypes. However, the roles of VEGFB isoforms VEGFB167 and VEGFB186 in adipose tissue development and function are still not clear. In this study, genetic mouse models of adipose-specific VEGFB167 and VEGFB186 overexpression (aP2-VEGFB167 tg/+ and aP2-VEGFB186 tg/+) were generated and their biologic roles were investigated. On regular chow, adipose-specific VEGFB186 is negatively associated with white adipose tissues (WATs) and positively regulates brown adipose tissues (BATs). VEGFB186 upregulates energy metabolism and metabolism-associated genes. In contrast, VEGFB167 has a nominal role in adipose development and function. On high-fat diet, VEGFB186 expression can reverse the phenotypes of VEGFB deletion. VEGFB186 overexpression upregulates BAT-associated genes and downregulates WAT-associated genes. VEGFB186 and VEGFB167 have very distinct roles in the regulation of adipose development and energy metabolism. As a key regulator of adipose tissue development and energy metabolism, VEGFB186 may be a target for obesity prevention and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: We aimed to investigate whether there is indeed an association between circulating adropin concentrations and cognitive ability. Material and Methods: The study encompassed 400 participants. All of them underwent home interviews and gave consent for collection of their blood, which was subsequently stored at -80°C for later laboratory investigations. The aim was to identify cognitive impairment in patients with dementia and delirium, achieved through the utilization of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Furthermore, the Assessment of Neuropsychological Test (ANT) was utilized to evaluate an individual's ability to retrieve information from memory and express it verbally. Results: The average scores for MMSE and ANT showed fluctuations across male and female participants in different quintiles. In the lowest quintile, both males and females performed poorly with an average score of 1.37 ± 0.40 for MMSE and 2.87 ± 0.12 for ANT, while in higher quintiles, there was an improvement male participants showed a mean score of 2.46 ± 0.11 on MMSE with an ANT value at 3.30 ± 0.12, whereas female participants had an average MMSE score of 3.35 ± 0.12 with relatively stable ANT values at 3.32±0.18. Regarding adiponectin factors, there were three ranges present: low (3.16±0.50), mid (2.36±0.49), and high (3.27±0.49). For leptin values, the mean scores were around 15, whereas triglyceride values remained consistent at approximately in all measurements taken. Similarly, fructosamine values remained. Conclusion: Human astrocytes have notably high levels of Adropin expression, which is inversely correlated with age but positively correlated with energy metabolism and macromolecule synthesis transcriptomic signatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The known species of the genus Norellisoma from China are reviewed and two new species from Yintiaoling Nature Reserve in Chongqing City, where no other Norellisoma species are recorded, are described: Norellisoma wuxiense sp. nov., Norellisoma yintiaoense sp. nov. A key to the species of Norellisoma from China is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional connectivity (FC) network characterizes the functional interactions between brain regions and is considered to root in the underlying structural connectivity (SC) network. If this is the case, individual variations in SC should cause corresponding individual variations in FC. However, divergences exist in the correspondence between direct SC and FC and researchers still cannot capture individual differences in FC via direct SC. As brain regions may interact through multi-hop indirect SC pathways, we conceived that one can capture the individual specific SC--FC relationship via incorporating indirect SC pathways appropriately. In this study, we designed graph propagation network (GPN) that models the information propagation between brain regions based on the SC network. Effects of interactions through multi-hop SC pathways naturally emerge from the multilayer information propagation in GPN.We predicted the individual differences in FC network based on SC network via multilayer GPN and results indicate that multilayer GPN incorporating effects of multi-hop indirect SCs greatly enhances the ability to predict individual FC network. Furthermore, the SC--FC relationship evaluated via the prediction accuracy is negatively correlated with the functional gradient, suggesting that the SC--FC relationship gradually uncouples along the functional hierarchy spanning from unimodal to transmodal cortex. We also revealed important intermediate brain regions along multi-hop SC pathways involving in the individual SC--FC relationship. These results suggest that multilayer GPN can serve as a method to establish individual SC--FC relationship at the macroneuroimaging [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ship waves and related hydrodynamics over a sloping bed are investigated numerically in this paper, and we aim to clarify the characteristics of ship wave deformation and its hydrodynamic effects. Laboratory experiments are performed with a self-propelled ship model to produce various wave conditions over a sloping bed in the water flume, providing the datasets for validation works of numerical simulations. With the implementation of model sensitivity analysis, numerical calculations of ship-induced waves and flow velocities are completed using the non-hydrostatic model in XBeach and compared against experimental measurements. The results show that the model is not only able to calculate primary and secondary waves well, but also the ship-induced near-bed velocity when ship waves are prominent in the water flume. Further numerical investigations of ship wave transformation and associated hydrodynamic effects are conducted over a sloping bed under different ship speed conditions. The ship wave height and run-up variations along the cross-shore transect clearly indicate the wave energy dissipation due to breaking and bottom friction. The ship-induced flow velocities are found to be mainly contributed by the low-frequency primary waves in our numerical experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a complex supply chain, product demand is characterized by non-linearity and instability. In particular, demand trajectory with intermittent or abnormal spikes exists, which makes it difficult for suppliers to accurately estimate the time-varying demand distribution and make the accurate inventory decision. Hence, a deep autoregressive model with a time attention mechanism (Attention-DeepAR model) was proposed to overcome this practical issue. In addition, a separated estimation and optimization approach was provided to solve a newsvendor problem with shifting demand. Temporal features were extracted from historical data through the Attention-DeepAR model to identify the long-term and short-term trends of the demand. Accordingly, the time-varying demand distribution was accurately fitted, which can assist in making precise inventory decisions. In addition, the rolling window design was proposed to introduce new demand data to update the demand. Finally, the validity of the Attention-DeepAR model was verified through the Monte Carlo simulations and a real case. Results show that the Attention-DeepAR model can effectively capture the temporal correlation between the regular and promotional demand values under volatile demands, improving the fitting accuracy of the time-varying demand distribution. This model can provide precise inventory decisions and significantly decrease average total costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of the moon on mental activities remain contentious. Few studies have investigated associations between lunar phases and different types of bipolar disorder (BD) episodes. In the current study, 7,452 patients with BD from three hospitals were enrolled. Patients were divided into two groups on the basis of episode types, and the effects of lunar phase were examined for each type. The cosinor analysis revealed moon-related rhythmicity in admissions for BD in a period of 14.75 days. There were fewer admissions around the new moon and the full moon. There was no significant difference between different groups in acrophase. There was possibly a temporal lag between the onset of BD and hospitalization. Thus, it is too early to draw firm conclusions about the impact of lunar phases on BD. Sleep might be a middle way from moon effect to admissions of BD. These results have implications for future disease prevention strategies and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution and dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are prompting severe health and environmental issues. While environmental processes, e.g., biological wastewater treatment, are key barriers to prevent the spread of ARGs, they are often sources of ARGs at the same time, requiring upgraded biotechnology. Here, we present VADER, a synthetic biology system for the degradation of ARGs based on CRISPR-Cas immunity, an archaeal and bacterial immune system for eliminating invading foreign DNAs, to be implemented for wastewater treatment processes. Navigated by programmable guide RNAs, VADER targets and degrades ARGs depending on their DNA sequences, and by employing an artificial conjugation machinery, IncP, it can be delivered via conjugation. The system was evaluated by degrading plasmid-borne ARGs in Escherichia coli and further demonstrated via the elimination of ARGs on the environmentally relevant RP4 plasmid in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Next, a prototype conjugation reactor at a 10-mL scale was devised, and 100% of the target ARG was eliminated in the transconjugants receiving VADER, giving a proof of principle for the implementation of VADER in bioprocesses. By generating a nexus of synthetic biology and environmental biotechnology, we believe that our work is not only an enterprise for tackling ARG problems but also a potential solution for managing undesired genetic materials in general in the future. IMPORTANCE: Antibiotic resistance has been causing severe health problems and has led to millions of deaths in recent years. Environmental processes, especially those of the wastewater treatment sector, are an important barrier to the spread of antibiotic resistance from the pharmaceutical industry, hospitals, or civil sewage. However, they have been identified as a nonnegligible source of antibiotic resistance at the same time, as antibiotic resistance with its main cause, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), may accumulate in biological treatment units. Here, we transplanted the CRISPR-Cas system, an immune system via programmable DNA cleavage, to tackle the antibiotic resistance problem raised in wastewater treatment processes, and we propose a new sector specialized in ARG removal with a conjugation reactor to implement the CRISPR-Cas system. Our study provides a new angle for resolving public health issues via the implementation of synthetic biology in environmental contexts at the process level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An embedded microring resonator model using PtS2 as the core layer was designed and optimized for sensing. The inner layer is made of PtS2, and SiO2 and Si3N4 are used as cladding. The overall structure is Si3N4-SiO2-PtS2-SiO2-Si3N4. Field strength distribution of longitudinal section of single straight waveguide and the longitudinal section of coupling part of straight and annular waveguides are simulated according to the coupled-mode theory. The transfer matrix method is used to analyze characteristics between the length of the U-shaped feedback waveguide and the circumference of microring and the change of attenuation factor and coupling coefficient on the output spectrum. The simulation results showed that the embedded microring resonator with PtS2 as the core presents excellent optical properties. The resonance depth is more than –50 dB, and the sensitivity can reach 1806.61 dB/RIU. When the resonance wavelength is 1550.86 nm and the self -coupling coefficient is 0.9849. The corresponding detection limit is about 1.66056×10–7 dB/RIU, and the quality factor is 2.8848×10–5 under the measurement system with a signal-to-noise ratio of 30 dB. Compared with the traditional single microring structure, the proposed microring presents a higher free spectral range and more suitable for the fabrication of high-sensitivity, low-detection limit, and large-measurement range sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Autophagy is a catabolic process that recycles cytoplasmic components and ensures cellular and organismal homeostasis, and its dysfunction is implicated in various human pathologies. The target of rapamycin (TOR) signaling pathway plays a major role in regulating autophagy induction, and the incorporation of histone variants into chromatin provides an essential way to regulate gene transcription.

The regulation of cholesterol metabolism in fish is still unclear. Statins play important roles in promoting cholesterol metabolism development in mammals. However, studies on the role of statins in cholesterol metabolism in fish are currently limited. The present study evaluated the effects of statins on cholesterol metabolism in fish. Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) were fed on control diets supplemented with three atorvastatin levels (0, 12, and 24 mg/kg diet, ATV0, ATV12, and ATV24, respectively) for 4 wk. Intriguingly, the results showed that both atorvastatin treatments increased hepatic cholesterol and triglyceride contents mainly through inhibiting bile acid synthesis and efflux, and compensatorily enhancing cholesterol synthesis in fish liver (P < 0.05). Moreover, atorvastatin treatment significantly inhibited hepatic very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) assembly and thus decreased serum VLDL content (P < 0.05). However, fish treated with atorvastatin significantly reduced cholesterol and triglycerides contents in adipose tissue (P < 0.05). Further molecular analysis showed that atorvastatin treatment promoted cholesterol synthesis and lipogenesis pathways, but inhibited lipid catabolism and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) uptake in the adipose tissue of fish (P < 0.05). In general, atorvastatin induced the remodeling of lipid distribution between liver and adipose tissues through blocking VLDL efflux from the liver to adipose tissue of fish. Our results provide a novel regulatory pattern of cholesterol metabolism response caused by atorvastatin in fish, which is distinct from mammals: cholesterol inhibition by atorvastatin activates hepatic cholesterol synthesis and inhibits its efflux to maintain cholesterol homeostasis, consequently reduces cholesterol storage in fish adipose tissue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mitigation mechanism of endophytic fungus EF0801 on rice seedlings under PEG stress was examined in the present study. Rice seedlings were divided into endophyte infection (E+) group and non-infection (E-) group under 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20% PEG stress for 6 days. The results showed that plant height, aboveground dry weight, the activities of ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and glutathione reductase (GR), and the contents of ascorbic acid (ASC), total ascorbic acid (TASC), glutathione (GSH) and total glutathione (TGSH) of E-group decreased significantly, while root length and underground dry weight first increased and then decreased, but electrical conductivity (EC) and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents and superoxide anion (O2 -) contents increased with the increasing PEG concentrations. However, compared to E-group, the increases in the activities of GR, and APX, and the contents of Pro, TASC, TGSH and GSH result in the decreases in the contents of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), O2 - and MDA, and the increases in plant height and aboveground dry weight in E+ group. These results suggested that endophytic infection promoted ascorbic acid-glutathione cycle, thereby inhibiting oxidative stress to a certain extent, and subsequently improving the resistance of rice seedlings to PEG stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cardiac myxomas are commonly located in the left atrium but rarely affect the right side of the heart. We retrospectively analyzed 28 patients receiving surgical treatment for right heart myxomas at our center and aimed to summarize the clinical features and surgical outcomes of right heart myxomas. Methods: Between May 2001 and June 2022, 244 patients with sporadic cardiac myxomas underwent complete surgical resection. Twenty-eight patients (28/244, 11.48%) were right heart myxomas. Among the 28 right heart myxoma cases, 25 underwent median sternotomy and 3 underwent robotic or total thoracoscopic procedures. The clinical features, operative information, and follow-up data of right heart myxoma were comprehensively reviewed, and clinical characteristics between right heart myxoma and left heart myxoma were also compared. Results: A significant difference was noted in sex between right heart myxoma and left heart myxoma (P < .05). Right heart myxoma had a higher asymptomatic rate (17.86% vs. 3.70%, P = .007) and a lower embolization rate (3.57% vs. 30.09%, P = .003) than left heart myxoma. The most common attachment site of right heart myxoma is the atrial septum. The mean operative duration and cardiopulmonary bypass time of right heart myxoma resection were 207.71 ± 53.40 minutes and 63.86 ± 29.73 minutes, respectively, with an in-hospital mortality rate of 3.57%. During the follow-up, 2 patients died of noncardiac causes. The overall 1-, 2-, and 5-year actuarial survival rates after right heart myxoma resection were 95.8%, 90.8%, and 84.7%, respectively. Conclusions: As a rare cardiac tumor, the clinical characteristics of right heart myxoma are different from typical left heart myxoma in some aspects, such as sex, asymptomatic rate, and embolization rate. Prompt surgical resection of right heart myxoma gives excellent early and mid-term results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study semigroup C∗-algebras of semigroups associated with number fields and initial data arising naturally from class field theory. These semigroup C∗-algebras turn out to have an interesting C∗-algebraic structure, giving access to many new examples of classifiable C∗-algebras and exhibiting phenomena which have not appeared before. Moreover, using K-theoretic invariants, we investigate how much information about the initial number-theoretic data is encoded in our semigroup C∗-algebras. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the gradual improvement of the quality of people? life, the disorder of lipid metabolism caused by high-fat diet has become the main reason that affects the health of our people. Hyperlipidemia, hypertension and hyperglycemia have the effect of causing a large number of serious complications, and are also the main factors of cardiovascular disease. Lactic acid bacteria can avoid hyperlipidemia by inhibiting the excessive growth of harmful intestinal bacteria, maintaining the balance of intestinal microecology, absorbing intestinal cholesterol and regulating lipid metabolism. Therefore, this paper focused on the mutation and breeding of Lactobacillus, and analyzed its application in yoghurt, aiming to provide reference for relevant researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The procession of preadipocytes differentiation into mature adipocytes involves multiple cellular and signal transduction pathways. Recently. a seirces of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), including circular RNAs (circRNAs) were proved to play important roles in regulating differentiation of adipocytes. Result: In this study, we aimed to identificate the potential circRNAs in the early and late stages of goat intramuscular adipocytes differentiation. Using bioinformatics methods to predict their biological functions and map the circRNA-miRNA interaction network. Over 104 million clean reads in goat intramuscular preadipocytes and adipocytes were mapped, of which16 circRNAs were differentially expressed (DE-circRNAs). Furthermore, we used real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) technology to randomly detect the expression levels of 8 circRNAs among the DE-circRNAs, and our result verifies the accuracy of the RNA-seq data. From the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis of the DE-circRNAs, two circRNAs, circ_0005870 and circ_0000946, were found in Focal adhesion and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Then we draw the circRNA-miRNA interaction network and obtained the miRNAs that possibly interact with circ_0005870 and circ_0000946. Using TargetScan, miRTarBase and miR-TCDS online databases, we further obtained the mRNAs that may interact with the miRNAs, and generated the final circRNA-miRNA-mRNA interaction network. Combined with the following GO (Gene Ontology) and KEGG enrichment analysis, we obtained 5 key mRNAs related to adipocyte differentiation in our interaction network, which are FOXO3(forkhead box O3), PPP2CA (protein phosphatase 2 catalytic subunit alpha), EEIF4E (eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4), CDK6 (cyclin dependent kinase 6) and ACVR1 (activin A receptor type 1). Conclusions: By using Illumina HiSeq and online databases, we generated the final circRNA-miRNA-mRNA interaction network that have valuable functions in adipocyte differentiation. Our work serves as a valuable genomic resource for in-depth exploration of the molecular mechanism of ncRNAs interaction network regulating adipocyte differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Adipocyte differentiation is regulated by a variety of functional genes and noncoding RNAs. However, the role of miRNAs in lipid deposition of goat white adipose tissue is still unclear. Therefore, this study revealed the miRNA expression profile in goat subcutaneous adipocytes by sRNA-seq. Methods: The miRNA expressed in goat subcutaneous preadipocytes and the mature adipocytes were sequenced by sRNA-seq. The differentially expressed miRNAs (DEm) were screened and gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto encyclopedia for genes and genomes (KEGG) analyses were performed. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function combined with oil red O staining, Bodipy staining, and quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) were utilized to determine the effect of miR-133a-3p on adipocyte differentiation. Results: A total of 218 DEm were screened out. The target genes of these DEm were significantly enriched in GO items such as biological regulation and in KEGG terms such as FAK signaling pathway and MAPK signaling pathway. qPCR verified that the expression trend of miRNA was consistent with miRNA-seq. The gain-of-function or loss-of-function of miR-133a-3p showed that it promoted or inhibited the accumulation of lipid droplets, and CCAAT enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα) and C/EBPβ were extremely significantly up-regulated or down-regulated respectively (p<0.01), the loss-of-function also led to a significant down-regulation of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) (p<0.01). Conclusion: This study successfully identified miRNAs expression patterns in goat subcutaneous adipocytes, and functional identification indicates that miR-133a-3p is a positive regulator of the differentiation process of goat subcutaneous adipocytes. Our results lay the foundation for the molecular mechanism of lipid deposition in meat-source goats from the perspective of miRNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, hidden dynamical behaviors in a novel fractional-order hyperchaotic system without an equilibrium point are investigated. It is found that the chaotic system exhibits various hidden behaviors for different parameters, such as the hyperchaotic attractor, the chaotic attractor and the limit cycle. The behaviors are demonstrated via phase portraits and time evolution curves. Moreover, generalized synchronization of the systems is discussed, which can be realized by designing suitable controllers. Numerical simulations are carried out to verify the effectiveness of this synchronization scheme. By analyzing the synchronization performance, it is inferred that the lower the derivative order is, the less time is required to reach synchronization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to explore the impact of coal and gangue particle size changes on recognition accuracy and to improve the single particle size of coal and gangue identification accuracy of sorting equipment, this study established a database of different particle sizes of coal and gangue through image gray and texture feature extraction, using a relief feature selection algorithm to compare different particle size of coal and gangue optimal features of the combination, and to identify the points and particle size of coal and gangue. The results show that the optimal features and number of coal and gangue are different with different particle sizes. Based on visible-light coal and gangue separation technology, the change of coal and gangue particle size cause fluctuations in the recognition accuracy, and the fluctuation of recognition accuracy will gradually decrease with increases in the number of features. In the process of particle size classification, if the training model has a single particle size range, the recognition accuracy of each particle size range is low, with the highest recognition accuracy being 98% and the average recognition rate being only 97.2%. The method proposed in this paper can effectively improve the recognition accuracy of each particle size range. The maximum recognition accuracy is 100%, the maximum increase is 4%, and the average recognition accuracy is 99.2%. Therefore, this method has a high practical application value for the separation of coal and gangue with single particle size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]