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The clinical treatment of bone defects includes allogeneic bone transplantation and autologous bone transplantation. However, they all have their own limitations, and the scope of application is limited. In recent years, bone tissue engineering scaffolds based on a variety of materials have been well developed and achieved good bone regeneration ability. However, most scaffold materials always face problems such as high biotoxicity, leading to inflammation and poor bioactivity, which limits the bone regeneration effect and prolongs the bone regeneration time. In our work, we prepared hydroxyapatite, erythropoietin (EPO), and osteogenic growth peptide (OGP) codoped type-I collagen (Col I) polypeptide nanofiber membranes (NFMs) by electrostatic spinning. In cell experiments, the composite NFMs had low cytotoxicity and promoted osteogenic differentiation of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and alkaline phosphatase staining confirmed the high expression of osteogenic genes, and alizarin red S staining directly confirmed the appearance of calcium nodules. In animal experiments, the loaded hydroxyapatite formed multiple independent mineralization centers in the defect center. Under the promotion of Col I, EPO, and OGP, the bone continued to grow along the mineralization centers as well as inward the defect edge, and the bone defect completely regenerated in about two months. The hematological and histological analyses proved the safety of the experiments. This kind of design to promote bone regeneration by simulating bone composition, introducing mineralization center and signal molecules, can shorten repair time, improve repair effect, and has good practical prospects in the future.

Deep sowing is a traditional method for drought resistance in maize production, and mesocotyl elongation is strongly associated with the ability of maize to germinate from deep soil. However, little is known about the functional genes and mechanisms regulating maize mesocotyl elongation. In the present study, we identified a plant-specific SIMILAR TO RCD-ONE (SRO) protein family member, ZmSRO1e, involved in maize mesocotyl elongation. The expression of ZmSRO1e is strongly inhibited upon transfer from dark to white light. The loss-of-function zmsro1e mutant exhibited a dramatically shorter mesocotyl than the wild-type in both constant light and darkness, while overexpression of ZmSRO1e significantly promoted mesocotyl elongation, indicating that ZmSRO1e positively regulates mesocotyl elongation. We showed that ZmSRO1e physically interacted with ZmbZIP61, an ortholog of Arabidopsis ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 (HY5) and showed a function similar to that of HY5 in regulating photomorphogenesis. We found that ZmSRO1e repressed the transcriptional activity of ZmbZIP61 toward target genes involved in the regulation of cell expansion, such as ZmEXPB4 and ZmEXPB6, by interfering with the binding of ZmbZIP61 to the promoters of target genes. Our results provide a new understanding of the mechanism by which SRO regulates photomorphogenesis and highlight its potential application in deep sowing-resistant breeding., (© 2024 Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.)

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), remains one of the top three causes of death. Currently, the only licensed vaccine against TB is the bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), which lacks efficacy in preventing and controlling pulmonary TB in adults. We aimed to evaluate a nasal TB vaccine formulation composed of the Mtb-specific vaccine antigen ESAT-6, an Mtb-associated protein that can trigger protective immune responses, and S100A4, a recently characterized novel mucosal adjuvant. Mice were intranasally given recombinant ESAT-6 in the presence or absence of S100A4 as an adjuvant. We have provided experimental evidence demonstrating that S100A4 admixed to ESAT-6 could induce Mtb-specific adaptive immune responses after intranasal immunization. S100A4 remarkably augmented the levels of anti-ESAT-6 IgG in serum and IgA in mucosal sites, including lung exudates, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and nasal lavage. Furthermore, in both lung and spleen tissues, S100A4 strongly promoted ESAT-6-specific expansion of CD4 T cells. Both CD4 and CD8 T cells from these tissues expressed increased levels of IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-17, cytokines critical for antimicrobial activity. Antigen-reencounter-induced T cell proliferative responses, a key vaccine performance indicator, were augmented in the spleen of S100A4-adjuvanted mice. Furthermore, CD8 T cells from the spleen and lung tissues of these mice expressed higher levels of granzyme B upon antigen re-stimulation. S100A4-adjuvanted immunization may predict good mucosal protection against TB., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent mental illness globally, yet its etiology remains largely elusive. Recent interest in the scientific community has focused on the correlation between the disruption of iron homeostasis and MDD. Prior studies have revealed anomalous levels of iron in both peripheral blood and the brain of MDD patients; however, these findings are not consistent. This study involved 95 MDD patients aged 18-35 and 66 sex- and age-matched healthy controls (HCs) who underwent 3D-T1 and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) sequence scans to assess grey matter volume (GMV) and brain iron concentration, respectively. Plasma ferritin (pF) levels were measured in a subset of 49 MDD individuals and 41 HCs using the Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), whose blood data were simultaneously collected. We hypothesize that morphological brain changes in MDD patients are related to abnormal regulation of iron levels in the brain and periphery. Multimodal canonical correlation analysis plus joint independent component analysis (MCCA+jICA) algorithm was mainly used to investigate the covariation patterns between the brain iron concentration and GMV. The results of "MCCA+jICA" showed that the QSM values in bilateral globus pallidus and caudate nucleus of MDD patients were lower than HCs. While in the bilateral thalamus and putamen, the QSM values in MDD patients were higher than in HCs. The GMV values of these brain regions showed a significant positive correlation with QSM. The GMV values of bilateral putamen were found to be increased in MDD patients compared with HCs. A small portion of the thalamus showed reduced GMV values in MDD patients compared to HCs. Furthermore, the region of interest (ROI)-based comparison results in the basal ganglia structures align with the outcomes obtained from the "MCCA+jICA" analysis. The ELISA results indicated that the levels of pF in MDD patients were higher than those in HCs. Correlation analysis revealed that the increase in pF was positively correlated with the iron content in the left thalamus. Finally, the covariation patterns obtained from "MCCA+jICA" analysis as classification features effectively differentiated MDD patients from HCs in the support vector machine (SVM) model. Our findings indicate that elevated peripheral ferritin in MDD patients may disrupt the normal metabolism of iron in the brain, leading to abnormal changes in brain iron levels and GMV.

Titanate photocatalysts with suitable cocatalysts are promising candidates for photocatalytic CO 2 reduction, with the use of water as an electron donor. Here, several barium titanates with various compositions were examined, and BaTi 4 O 9 (BT4) was found to be the best photocatalyst with the assistance of an Ag cocatalyst for photocatalytic CO 2 reduction to form CO. The photocatalytic activity was further enhanced by the use of MnO x as an additional cocatalyst to construct an Ag-MnO x /BT4 photocatalyst, where Ag and MnO x were selectively deposited at different facets on BT4 crystal and functioned as active sites for CO 2 reduction and water oxidation, respectively. As for the oxidative products from water, molecular oxygen (O 2 ) and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) were obtained.

Material reinforcement commonly exists in a contradiction between strength and toughness enhancement. Herein, a reinforced strategy through self-assembly is proposed for alginate fibers. Sodium alginate (SA) microstructures with regulated secondary structures are assembled in acidic and ethanol as reinforcing units for alginate fibers. Acidity increases the flexibility of the helix and contributes to enhanced extendibility. Ethanol is responsible for formation of a stiff β-sheet, which enhances the modulus and strength. The structurally engineered SA assembly exhibits robust mechanical compatibility, and thus reinforced alginate fibers possess an improved tensile strength of 2.1 times, a prolonged elongation of 1.5 times, and an enhanced toughness of 3.0 times compared with SA fibers without reinforcement. The reinforcement through self-assembly provides an understanding of strengthening and toughening mechanism based on secondary structures. Due to a similar modulus with bones, reinforced alginate fibers exhibit good efficacy in accelerating bone regeneration in vivo.

Background: In neuroscience, accurately quantifying individual brain regions in large cohorts is a challenge. Differences in intracranial structures can suggest functional differences, but they also reflect the effects of other factors. However, there is currently no standardized method for the correction of intracranial structure measurements., Purpose: To identify the optimal method to counteract the influence of total intracranial volume (TIV) and gender on the measurement of intracranial structures., Study Type: Prospective., Population/subjects: One hundred forty-one healthy adult volunteers (70 male, mean age 21.8 ± 1.7 years)., Field Strength/sequence: T1-weighted 3D gradient-echo sequence at 3.0 T., Assessment: A radiologist with 5 years of work experience screened the raw images to exclude poor-quality images. Freesurfer then performed automated segmentation to obtain measurements of intracranial structures. Male-only, female-only, and TIV-matched sub-samples were created separately. Comparisons between the original data and these sub-samples were used to assess the effects of gender and TIV. Comparison the consistency between TIV-matched sample and corrected data that corrected by four methods: Proportion method, power-corrected proportion method, covariate regression method, and residual method., Statistical Tests: Cohen's d for examining group distribution disparities, t-tests for probing mean differences, correlation coefficients to assess the relationships between intracranial substructure measurements and TIV. Multiple comparison corrections were applied to the results., Results: The correlation coefficients between TIV and the volumes of intracranial structures ranged from 0.033 to 0.883, with an average of 0.467. Thirty significant volume differences were found among 36 structures in the original sample, while no differences were observed in the TIV-matched sample. Among the four correction methods, the residual method had highest consistency (similarity 94.4%) with the TIV-matched group., Data Conclusion: The variation in intracranial structure sizes between genders was largely attributable to TIV. The residual method offers a more accurate and effective approach for correcting the effects of TIV on intracranial structures., Evidence Level: 2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 1., (© 2023 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.)

Human infancy is marked by fastest postnatal brain structural changes. It also coincides with the onset of many neurodevelopmental disorders. Atlas-based automated structure labeling has been widely used for analyzing various neuroimaging data. However, the relatively large and nonlinear neuroanatomical differences between infant and adult brains can lead to significant offsets of the labeled structures in infant brains when adult brain atlas is used. Age-specific 1- and 2-year-old brain atlases covering all major gray and white matter (GM and WM) structures with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and structural MRI are critical for precision medicine for infant population yet have not been established. In this study, high-quality DTI and structural MRI data were obtained from 50 healthy children to build up three-dimensional age-specific 1- and 2-year-old brain templates and atlases. Age-specific templates include a single-subject template as well as two population-averaged templates from linear and nonlinear transformation, respectively. Each age-specific atlas consists of 124 comprehensively labeled major GM and WM structures, including 52 cerebral cortical, 10 deep GM, 40 WM, and 22 brainstem and cerebellar structures. When combined with appropriate registration methods, the established atlases can be used for highly accurate automatic labeling of any given infant brain MRI. We demonstrated that one can automatically and effectively delineate deep WM microstructural development from 3 to 38 months by using these age-specific atlases. These established 1- and 2-year-old infant brain DTI atlases can advance our understanding of typical brain development and serve as clinical anatomical references for brain disorders during infancy., (© 2024 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

The morphology and function of the cerebellum are associated with various developmental disorders and healthy aging. Changes in cerebellar morphology during the aging process have been extensively investigated, with most studies focusing on changes in cerebellar regional volume. The volumetric method has been used to quantitatively demonstrate the decrease in the cerebellar volume with age, but it has certain limitations in visually presenting the morphological changes of cerebellar atrophy from a three-dimensional perspective. Thus, we comprehensively described cerebellar morphological changes during aging through volume measurements of subregions and shape analysis. This study included 553 healthy participants aged 20-80 years. A novel cerebellar localized segmentation algorithm based on convolutional neural networks was utilized to analyze the volume of subregions, followed by shape analysis for localized atrophy assessment based on the cerebellar thickness. The results indicated that out of the 28 subregions in the absolute volume of the cerebellum, 15 exhibited significant aging trends, and 16 exhibited significant sex differences. Regarding the analysis of relative volume, only 11 out of the 28 subregions of the cerebellum exhibited significant aging trends, and 4 exhibited significant sex differences. The results of the shape analysis revealed region-specific atrophy of the cerebellum with increasing age. Regions displaying more significant atrophy were predominantly located in the vermis, the lateral portions of bilateral cerebellar hemispheres, lobules I-III, and the medial portions of the posterior lobe. This atrophy differed between sexes. Men exhibited slightly more severe atrophy than women in most of the cerebellar regions. Our study provides a comprehensive perspective for observing cerebellar atrophy during the aging process., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Wang, Teng, Liu, Tang, Liang, Wang, Li, Xia, Xu and Liu.)

Preterm birth is associated with increased risk for a spectrum of neurodevelopmental disabilities. The cerebellum is implicated in a wide range of cognitive functions extending beyond sensorimotor control and plays an increasingly recognized role in brain development. Morphometric studies based on volume analyses have revealed impaired cerebellar development in preterm infants. However, the structural covariance between the cerebellum and cerebral cortex has not been studied during the neonatal period, and the extent to which structural covariance is affected by preterm birth remains unknown. In this study, using the structural MR images of 52 preterm infants scanned at term-equivalent age and 312 full-term controls from the Developing Human Connectome Project, we compared volumetric growth, local cerebellum shape development and cerebello-cerebral structural covariance between the two groups. We found that although there was no significant difference in the overall volume measurements between preterm and full-term infants, the shape measurements were different. Compared with the control infants, preterm infants had significantly larger thickness in the vermis and lower thickness in the lateral portions of the bilateral cerebral hemispheres. The structural covariance between the cerebellum and frontal and parietal lobes was significantly greater in preterm infants than in full-term controls. The findings in this study suggested that cerebellar development and cerebello-cerebral structural covariance may be affected by premature birth., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

The brainstem, a small and crucial structure, is connected to the cerebrum, spinal cord, and cerebellum, playing a vital role in regulating autonomic functions, transmitting motor and sensory information, and modulating cognitive processes, emotions, and consciousness. While previous research has indicated that changes in brainstem anatomy can serve as a biomarker for aging and neurodegenerative diseases, the structural changes that occur in the brainstem during normal aging remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the age- and sex-related differences in the global and local structural measures of the brainstem in 187 healthy adults (ranging in age from 18 to 70 years) using structural magnetic resonance imaging. The findings showed a significant negative age effect on the volume of the two major components of the brainstem: the medulla oblongata and midbrain. The shape analysis revealed that atrophy primarily occurs in specific structures, such as the pyramid, cerebral peduncle, superior and inferior colliculi. Surface area and shape analysis showed a trend of flattening in the aging brainstem. There were no significant differences between the sexes or sex-by-age interactions in brainstem structural measures. These findings provide a systematic description of age associations with brainstem structures in healthy adults and may provide a reference for future research on brain aging and neurodegenerative diseases., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) constitutes a debilitating complication associated with diabetes. Although, the past decade has seen rapid developments in understanding the complex etiology of DPN, there are no approved therapies that can halt the development of DPN, or target the damaged nerve. Therefore, clarifying the pathogenesis of DPN and finding effective treatment are the crucial issues for the clinical management of DPN., Aims: This review is aiming to summary the current knowledge on the pathogenesis of DPN, especially the mechanism and application of inflammatory response., Methods: We systematically summarized the latest studies on the pathogenesis and therapeutic strategies of diabetic neuropathy in PubMed., Results: In this seminal review, the underappreciated role of immune activation in the progression of DPN is scrutinized. Novel insights into the inflammatory regulatory mechanisms of DPN have been unearthed, illuminating potential therapeutic strategies of notable clinical significance. Additionally, a nuanced examination of DPN's complex etiology, including aberrations in glycemic control and insulin signaling pathways, is presented. Crucially, an emphasis has been placed on translating these novel understandings into tangible clinical interventions to ameliorate patient outcomes., Conclusions: This review is distinguished by synthesizing cutting-edge mechanisms linking inflammation to DPN and identifying innovative, inflammation-targeted therapeutic approaches., (© 2023 The Authors. CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Numerous studies utilizing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have observed sex and interhemispheric disparities in sulcal morphology, which could potentially underpin certain functional disparities in the human brain. Most of the existing research examines the precentral sulcus comprehensively, with a rare focus on its subsections. To explore the morphology, asymmetry, and sex disparities within the inferior precentral sulcus (IPCS), we acquired 3.0T magnetic resonance images from 92 right-handed Chinese adolescents. Brainvisa was used to reconstruct the IPCS structure and calculate its mean depth (MD). Based on the morphological patterns of IPCS, it was categorized into five distinct types. Additionally, we analyzed four different types of spatial relationships between IPCS and inferior frontal sulcus (IFS). There was a statistically significant sex disparity in the MD of IPCS, primarily observed in the right hemisphere. Females exhibited significantly greater asymmetry in the MD of IPCS compared to males. No statistically significant sex or hemispheric variations were identified in sulcal patterns. Our findings expand the comprehension of inconsistencies in sulcal structure, while also delivering an anatomical foundation for the study of related regions' function., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Rationale: Sarcomatoid hepatocellular carcinoma (SHC) is an uncommon variant of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), characterized by HCC features combined with sarcomatoid histology and manifestations. The simultaneous occurrence of HCC and hepatosarcomatoid carcinoma is infrequent. This report presents a distinctive instance of HCC coexisting with hepatic sarcomatoid carcinoma in a 56-year-old male. The case exhibits an unusual clinical presentation, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. Through the presentation of this case, we aspire to contribute novel concepts to shape forthcoming strategies encompassing SHC diagnosis and treatment., Patient Concerns: The 56-year-old male patient was admitted to the hospital, due to discovering a hepatic mass lasting for over 2 months., Diagnoses: Ultimately, combined hepatocellular and SHC diagnosis was conclusively confirmed through histopathological and imaging examinations., Intervention: In this case, our approach encompassed hepatectomy coupled with ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation for HCC. Intraoperative ultrasound localization was employed for accurate tumor identification, followed by postoperative hepatic artery embolization to facilitate meticulous tumor resection., Outcomes: He underwent hepatic arteriography chemoembolization treatment and is currently stable, experiencing regular chemotherapy follow-up visits., Lessons: The presence of distinct tumor types concurrently can influence treatment choices and prognosis. Given the intricate nature of this condition, crafting an optimal treatment strategy necessitates the incorporation of variables such as the patient age, tumor characteristics, liver function, and other pertinent factors., Competing Interests: The authors have no funding and conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

To gain insight into the microbial mechanisms associated with the replacement of chemical fertilizers with organic or bio-organic fertilizers to mitigate soil nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions, we measured N 2 O emissions from greenhouse vegetable soils through field observations and pot experiments. Results showed that organic substitution suppressed N 2 O emissions by reducing soil mineral N content and stimulating the abundance of the nosZII gene. The trade-off effect of bio-organic substitution on N 2 O emissions may be due to the stimulated activity of the AOA-amoA gene, resulting in unfavorable conditions for N 2 O production and thus reduced N 2 O loss. We also linked the inhibitory effect of organic and bio-organic substitution on N 2 O emissions to the increased abundance of key species in bacterial co-occurrence networks represented by Patescibacteria as they were significantly and negatively correlated with N 2 O emissions. However, the mitigation effect of bio-organic substitution on N 2 O emissions was conteracted by an increase in Bacillus abundance due to the direct negative effect of Bacillus on the nosZII gene abundance. These findings suggest that conventional or bio-organic substitution is a promising strategy for alleviating the environmental costs of crop production., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Dormancy is an adaptive trait which prevents seeds from germinating under unfavorable environmental conditions. Seeds with weak dormancy undergo pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) which decreases grain yield and quality. Understanding the genetic mechanisms that regulate seed dormancy and resistance to PHS is crucial for ensuring global food security. In this study, we illustrated the function and molecular mechanism of TaSRO1 in the regulation of seed dormancy and PHS resistance by suppressing TaVP1. The tasro1 mutants exhibited strong seed dormancy and enhanced resistance to PHS, whereas the mutants of tavp1 displayed weak dormancy. Genetic evidence has shown that TaVP1 is epistatic to TaSRO1. Biochemical evidence has shown that TaSRO1 interacts with TaVP1 and represses the transcriptional activation of the PHS resistance genes TaPHS1 and TaSdr. Furthermore, TaSRO1 undermines the synergistic activation of TaVP1 and TaABI5 in PHS resistance genes. Finally, we highlight the great potential of tasro1 alleles for breeding elite wheat cultivars that are resistant to PHS., (© 2023 Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.)

Background: The progress of interventional respiratory medicine necessitates a comprehensive knowledge of the segmental bronchi because of their complexity in branching patterns. Therefore, based on extensive research data, we aimed to examine the anatomical diversity and sex-related variations of the segmental bronchial branching patterns in the bilateral inferior lobes., Methods: Following the exclusion and inclusion criteria, a total of 10,000 participants who underwent multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) scans from September 2019 to December 2021 at Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University were enrolled in this retrospective study. The computed tomography (CT) data were utilized to generate three-dimensional (3D) and virtual bronchoscopy (VB) simulations of a bronchial tree using the syngo.via post-processing workstation. The distinct bronchial patterns in the bilateral inferior lobes were then found and categorized using the reconstructed images. The proportions of different types of bronchial branches and their sex-related correlations were analyzed by cross-tabulation and chi-square analysis., Results: Our findings primarily identified four types of bronchial branching patterns in the right inferior lobe (RIL), i.e., (B6, B7, B8, B9+10), 71.44%; (B6, B7, B8+9, B10), 16.06%; (B6, B7+8, B9+10), 7.40%; (B6, B7, B8+9+10), 5.10%; and four types in the left inferior lobe (LIL), i.e., (B6, B7+8, B9+10), 82.89%; (B6, B7+8, B9, B10), 13.53%; (B6, B7, B8+9, B10), 2.88%; (B6, B7, B8+9+10), 0.70%. Besides various research methods and outcomes, this study has revealed the types of bronchial branches that were not seen in previous studies. In addition, the proportion of bronchial branches in the LIL did not differ significantly between males and females (P>0.05). However, there was a significant difference in the proportion of bronchial branches in the RIL between sexes (P<0.05)., Conclusions: The current study has validated the segmental bronchial variations in the bilateral inferior lobes. The diagnosis of symptomatic patients as well as the performance of interventions like bronchoscopies, endotracheal intubation, and lung resections may be significantly influenced by our findings in the clinical setting., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://qims.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/qims-23-213/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2023 Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery. All rights reserved.)

Diabetes-related chronic wounds characterized by hyperglycemia and weak alkaline milieu provide numerous advantages for bacteria growth and biofilm formation, setting a myriad of stumbling blocks for wound healing. Therefore, reshaping the spatially and temporally pathological wound microenvironment against bacterial infection is critical to rescue stalled healing progress in diabetes-related chronic wounds. Herein, we demonstrate on the room-temperature construction of a glucose oxidase (GOx)-mimicking and peroxidase (POD)-mimicking dual-nanozymes catalytic cascade system upon the partial reduction of Fe 3+ to Fe 2+ and the deposition of Au nanoparticles, simultaneously. The as-prepared dual-nanozymes catalytic cascade system possesses the capabilities of reshaping the pathological microenvironments of diabetic wound via glucose consumption and acidification, leading to amplified catalytic cascade activities for sterilization. On the one hand, the GOx-mimicking enzymatic activity of the catalytic cascade system can not only deplete glucose and acidize wound milieu to inhibit bacteria growth, but also utilize the weak alkaline milieu of diabetic wound to provide sufficient H 2 O 2 and a favorable pH for subsequent OH generation. On the other hand, the POD-mimicking enzymatic activity of the catalytic cascade system can continuously produce OH for sterilization under the weak acidic milieu in the presence of abundant H 2 O 2 . Benefiting from the simply and mild preparation process and the excellent dual-nanozymes catalytic cascade activities under the deliberate evolved milieus of diabetes-related chronic wounds, our catalytic cascade system exhibits the promising healing effect and clinical translation potential against diabetic wound infection., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Heat treatments after cold rolling for TiNiFe shape-memory alloys have been compared. After EBSD analysis and as calculated by the Avrami model and Arrhenius equation, the relationship between the heat-treatment temperature and manufacturing time of TiNiFe alloys is established. Through calculation, it can be found that TiNiFe alloys can obtain similar microstructures under the annealing processes of 823 K for 776 min, 827 K for 37 min, and 923 K for 12.5 min. And the recrystallization fractions are all around 50%. Nevertheless, the tensile properties and recovery stress of the alloys show almost similar values. And based on the feasibility of the annealing process, it is believed that annealing at 873 K for 37 min is the optimal choice to obtain a recrystallization fraction φ R = 50%.

Employees' feedback-seeking behavior is an important way to develop and maintain self-awareness and interpersonal acuity, reduce uncertainty, boost creativity and improve innovative behavior and performance. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has become the new normal, supervisor feedback and employees feedback-seeking has an increasingly important impact on team creativity and team innovation performance.In the practice of organizational management, there is frequently a "feedback vacuum" between managers and employees. There is increasing research on feedback-seeking behavior in the field of OBHRM. This paper is the first to evaluate the impact of work meaning and positive attributions on workers' feedback-seeking behavior, and the cross-level effects of supervisor development feedback including variable valence. The paper analyzes supervisor-employee paired data from 158 supervisors and 659 employees using multi-source, multi-temporal data to draw the following conclusions: (1) Positive supervisor development feedback has a significant cross-level positive effect on employee feedback-seeking behavior, whereas negative supervisor development feedback does not affect employee feedback-seeking behavior; (2) Work meaningfulness mediates the cross-level relationship between positive supervisor development feedback and employees' feedback-seeking behaviors, whereas negative supervisor development feedback and employees' feedback-seeking behaviors do not; (3) Positive attributions positively moderate the relationship between positive supervisor development feedback and work meaningfulness; while positively moderating the relationship between negative supervisor development feedback and work meaningfulness; (4) Positive attributions have a moderating effect on supervisor development feedback that influences the indirect relationship to feedback-seeking behavior by work meaningfulness., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to evaluate various branching patterns of segmental bronchi in the left superior and lingular lobes and to survey the anatomical diversity and sex-related differences of these branches in a large sample of the study population., Materials and Methods: Overall, 10,000 participants (5428 males, and 4572 females, mean age 50 ± 13.5 years [SD] years; age range: 3-91 years) who underwent multi-slice CT (MSCT) scans between September 2019 and December 2021 were retrospectively included. Using the syngo.via post-processing workstation, the data were applied to generate three-dimensional (3D) and virtual bronchoscopy (VB) simulations of a bronchial tree. The reconstructed images were then interpreted to identify and categorize distinct bronchial patterns in the left superior and lingular lobes. Cross-tabulation analysis and the Pearson Chi-square (χ 2 ) test were used to calculate the constituent ratios of bronchial branch types and determine their significance between male and female groups., Results: Our results revealed mainly four distinct types for the left superior lobe (LSL) bronchial tree, i.e., (B1 + 2, B3, 76.13%); (B1 + 2 + 3, 17.32%); (B1 + 3, B2, 5.74%); (B1a + B3, B1b + B2, 0.81%) and two types for the left lingular lobe (LLL) bronchial tree, i.e., (B4, B5, 91.05%); (B4, B5, B*, 8.95%). There were no significant sex-related differences in the proportion of bronchial branches in LLL (P > 0.05). However, sex-related differences were significant in the proportion of bronchial branches in LSL (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: The current study has validated the presence of segmental bronchial variations in the left superior and lingular lobes. These findings may have a crucial effect on the diagnosis of symptomatic patients, as well as in carrying out procedures such as lung resections, endotracheal intubation, and bronchoscopies., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature.)

In order to balance the contradiction between mesopore introduction and loss of microporosity, a surface modification strategy is proposed by selectively adsorbing organic alkaline molecules on Beta molecular sieves before NaOH etching. Organic alkaline molecules adsorb on framework aluminum sites and the protective function of organic bases is affected by the adsorption configuration and physical barrier effect of organic bases. Organic alkaline molecules serve as a protective agent to increase the bond length of Al-O bonds. Therefore, the as-synthesized hierarchical Beta molecular sieves have more acid sites due to the preservation of aluminum atoms. When employed as catalysts in the dehydration reaction of glucose, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) is obtained under the synergistic effect of Brønsted and Lewis acid sites. The unique contribution is to realize the porosity regulation and alleviate the acidity loss of Beta molecular sieves. These results are important to broaden the application fields of aluminum-silicon molecular sieves especially for large molecule-engaged acid catalyzed reactions.

NO gas therapy is a supplementary approach for tumor treatment due to the advantages of minimal invasion, little drug resistance, low side effect and amplified efficacy. l-Arginine (L-Arg), a natural NO source with good biocompatibility, can release NO under the stimulation of H 2 O 2 in tumor microenvironment. However, the conventional l-Arg delivery systems via noncovalent loading usually lead to inevitable premature leakage of nano-cargos during blood circulation. In this work, an efficient l-Arg self-delivery supramolecular nanodrug (SDSND) for tumor treatment is demonstrated by combining Mannich reaction and π-π stacking. l-Arg links to (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) with the assistance of formaldehyde through Mannich reaction, and then assembles into nanometer-sized particles via π-π stacking. The guanidine group of l-Arg and the phenolic hydroxyl groups of EGCG are preserved in the SDSNDs, which allows for accomplishing gas therapy by provoking tumor cell apoptosis and combining with EGCG to amplify apoptosis, respectively. In addition, the SDSNDs exhibit high biocompatibility and avoid the premature leakage of l-Arg in blood circulation, providing an alternative l-Arg delivery system for NO gas therapy. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: NO gas therapy has attracted emerging interest in tumor treatment. However, the controlled NO release and the avoidance of premature leakage of NO donors remain challenging. In this work, L-Arginine (L-Arg) self-delivery supramolecular nanodrug for efficient tumor therapy is demonstrated through the Mannich reaction of L-Arg, (-)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and formaldehyde. Stimulated by tumor microenvironment, the guanidine groups of L-Arg allow for accomplishing NO release and thus provoking tumor cell apoptosis. The nanodrug also avoids the premature leakage of L-Arg in blood circulation. Moreover, the preserved phenolic hydroxyl groups of EGCG combine with L-Arg to amplify apoptosis. The nanodrug exhibits high biocompatibility and good therapeutic effect, providing an alternative L-Arg delivery system for NO gas therapy., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Despite the increasing impact of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition on terrestrial greenhouse gas (GHG) budget, through driving both the net atmospheric CO 2 exchange and the emission or uptake of non-CO 2 GHGs (CH 4 and N 2 O), few studies have assessed the climatic impact of forests and grasslands under N deposition globally based on different bottom-up approaches. Here, we quantify the effects of N deposition on biomass C increment, soil organic C (SOC), CH 4 and N 2 O fluxes and, ultimately, the net ecosystem GHG balance of forests and grasslands using a global comprehensive dataset. We showed that N addition significantly increased plant C uptake (net primary production) in forests and grasslands, to a larger extent for the aboveground C (aboveground net primary production), whereas it only caused a small or insignificant enhancement of SOC pool in both upland systems. Nitrogen addition had no significant effect on soil heterotrophic respiration (R H ) in both forests and grasslands, while a significant N-induced increase in soil CO 2 fluxes (R S , soil respiration) was observed in grasslands. Nitrogen addition significantly stimulated soil N 2 O fluxes in forests (76%), to a larger extent in grasslands (87%), but showed a consistent trend to decrease soil uptake of CH 4 , suggesting a declined sink capacity of forests and grasslands for atmospheric CH 4 under N enrichment. Overall, the net GHG balance estimated by the net ecosystem production-based method (forest, 1.28 Pg CO 2 -eq year -1 vs. grassland, 0.58 Pg CO 2 -eq year -1 ) was greater than those estimated using the SOC-based method (forest, 0.32 Pg CO 2 -eq year -1 vs. grassland, 0.18 Pg CO 2 -eq year -1 ) caused by N addition. Our findings revealed that the enhanced soil C sequestration by N addition in global forests and grasslands could be only marginally offset (1.5%-4.8%) by the combined effects of its stimulation of N 2 O emissions together with the reduced soil uptake of CH 4 ., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Immunoadjuvants, as an indispensable component of tumor vaccines, can observably enhance the magnitude, breadth, and durability of antitumor immunity. However, current immunoadjuvants suffer from different issues such as weak immunogenicity, inadequate cellular internalization, poor circulation time, and mono-functional bioactivity. Methods: Herein, we construct Fe 3+ -Shikonin metal-phenolic networks (FeShik) nanomedicines as immunogenic cell death (ICD) stimulants and multifunctional immunoadjuvants for tumor vaccination. The multifunctionality of FeShik nanomedicines is investigated by loading ovalbumin (OVA) as the model antigen to construct OVA@FeShik nanovaccines or 4T1 tumor cell fragment (TF) as homologous antigen to construct TF@FeShik nanovaccines. In vitro examinations including GSH responsive, •OH generation, colloid stability, cellular uptake, cytotoxicity mechanism of ferroptosis and necroptosis, ICD effect, the promotion of DC maturation and antigen cross-presentation were studied. In vivo observations including pharmacokinetics and biodistribution, antitumor effect, abscopal effect, immune memory effect, and biosafety were performed. Results: The presence of FeShik nanomedicines can significantly prolong the blood circulation time of antigens, increasing the bioavailability of antigens. Upon phagocytosis by tumor cells, FeShik nanomedicines can disassemble into Fe 2+ and Shikonin in response to tumor microenvironments, leading to ICD of tumor cells via ferroptosis and necroptosis. Consequently, ICD-released autologous tumor cell lysates and pro-inflammatory cytokines not only stimulate DC maturation and antigen cross-presentation, but also promote macrophage repolarization and cytotoxic T lymphocyte infiltration, resulting in the activation of adaptive immune responses toward solid tumors. Conclusion: In a word, our FeShik supramolecular nanomedicines integrate bioactivities of ICD stimulants and immunoadjuvants, such as eradicating tumor cells, activating antitumor immune responses, modulating immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments, and biodegradation after immunotherapy. Encouraged by the diversity of polyphenols and metal ions, our research may provide a valuable paradigm to establish a large library for tumor vaccination., Competing Interests: Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists., (© The author(s).)

Introduction: Dental caries is one of the most common and costly biofilm-dependent oral diseases in the world. Streptococcus mutans is the major cariogenic pathogen of dental caries. S. mutans synthesizes extracellular polysaccharides by autologous glucosyltransferases, which then promotes bacterial adhesion and cariogenic biofilm formation. The S. mutans biofilm is the principal target for caries treatment. This study was designed to explore the antibacterial activity and mechanisms of areca nut essential oil (ANEO) against S. mutans ., Methods: The ANEOs were separated by negative pressure hydro-distillation. The Kirby-Bauer method and broth microdilution method were carried out to evaluate the antibacterial activity of different ANEOs. The antibacterial mechanism was revealed by crystal violet staining, XTT reduction, microbial adhesion to hydrocarbon test, extracellular polysaccharide production assay, glucosyltransferase activity assay, lactate dehydrogenase leaking, propidium iodide staining and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The cytotoxicity of ANEOs was determine by MTT assay., Results: The ANEOs separated at different temperatures exhibited different levels of antibacterial activity against S. mutans , and the ANEO separated at 70°C showed the most prominent bacteriostatic activity. Anti-biofilm experiments showed that the ANEOs attenuated the adhesion ability of S. mutans by decreasing the surface hydrophobicity of the bacteria, prevented S. mutans biofilm formation by inhibiting glucosyltransferase activity, reducing extracellular polysaccharide synthesis, and reducing the total biofilm biomass and activity. SEM further demonstrated the destructive effects of the ANEOs on the S. mutans biofilm. Cell membrane-related experiments indicated that the ANEOs destroyed the integrity of the cell membrane, resulting in the leakage of lactic dehydrogenase and nucleic acids. SEM imaging of S. mutans cell showed the disruption of the cellular morphology by the ANEOs. The cytotoxicity assay suggested that ANEO was non-toxic towards normal oral epithelial cells., Discussion: This study displayed that ANEOs exerted antibacterial activity against S. mutans primarily by affecting the biofilm and disrupting the integrity of the cell membrane. ANEOs has the potential to be developed as an antibacterial agent for preventing dental caries. Additionally, a new method for the separation of essential oil components is presented., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Liu, Zhang, Li, Wang, Liu and Song.)

Nanovaccine-based immunotherapy has been considered as a major pillar to stimulate the host immune system to recognize and eradicate tumor cells as well as establish a long-term immune memory to prevent tumor relapse and metastasis. However, the weak specificity and low cross-presentation of antigens, as well as the immunosuppressive microenvironments of tumor tissues, are still the major obstacles on exerting the therapeutic performance of tumor nanovaccines sufficiently. Herein, we design and construct cytosine guanine dinucleotide (CpG) oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN)-loaded aluminum hydroxyphosphate nanoparticles covered by Fe-Shikonin metal-phenolic networks (MPNs) (Alum-CpG@Fe-Shikonin NPs) as personalized in situ nanovaccines for antitumor immunity. Upon internalization by tumor cells, the shell of Fe-Shikonin MPNs will disassemble into Fe 2+ and Shikonin to elicit the immunogenic cell death of tumor cells through ferroptosis and necroptosis. Then, dying tumor cell-released autologous tumor cell lysates will be absorbed by Alum NPs and codelivered with CpG ODN to professional antigen-presenting cells temporally and spatially to activate multistep cascade antitumor immune responses, including dendritic cell maturation, antigen cross-presentation, natural killer cell and cytotoxic T lymphocyte infiltrations, and tumor-associated macrophage repolarization. Benefiting from the synergistic effects of Alum NPs, CpG ODN, and Fe-Shikonin MPNs, our Alum-CpG@Fe-Shikonin NPs exhibit drastic cytotoxicity and accurate selectivity on eradicating primary tumor, strong abscopal effect on inhibiting distant tumor, and a long-term immune memory effect on preventing tumor metastasis and recurrence. Because our report provides a feasible strategy to in situ make full use of autologous tumor cell lysates, which present an entire spectrum of the patient's personal epitopes without complicated ex vivo processes, such as extraction, purification, and sequencing, it may promote the development of personalized nanovaccines for antitumor immunity.

Purpose: The objective of this research was to analyze and correlate the length of the left main coronary artery (LMCA) with significant clinical parameters using multi-slice CT (MSCT)., Materials and Methods: 1500 patients (851 males and 649 females; mean age 57.38 ± 11.03 [SD]; age range: 5-85 years) who underwent MSCT scans from September 2020 to March 2022 were retrospectively included. The data were applied to generate three-dimensional (3D) simulations of a coronary tree using the syngo.via post-processing workstation. The reconstructed images were then interpreted, and the collected data were subjected to statistical analysis., Results: The results showed 1206 (80.4%) cases with medium LMCA, 133 (8.9%) with long LMCA, and 161 (10.7%) with short LMCA. The average diameter of LMCA at its midpoint was 4.69 ± 0.74 mm. The most frequent type of division of LMCA was bifurcation in 1076 (71.7%) cases; in 424 (28.3%) cases, the LMCA was divided into three or more branches. The dominance was right in 1339 (89.3%), left in 78 (5.2%), and co-dominant in 83 (5.5%) cases. There was a positive correlation between the length and branching patterns of LMCA, χ2 = 113.993, P = 0.000 (< 0.05). Other variables like age, sex, diameter of LMCA, and coronary dominance did not show any significant correlation., Conclusion: This study has demonstrated a significant association between the length and the branching pattern of LMCA, which may be essential in diagnosing and treating coronary artery patients., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature.)

Purpose: The aims were to assess different branching patterns of segmental bronchi in the right superior lobe (RSL), as well as to investigate the anatomical diversity and sex-related variations of these branches in a large sample of the research population., Methods: 10,000 participants (5428 males, and 4,572 females, mean age 50+/-13.5 years [SD] years; age range: 3-91 years) who underwent multi-slice CT (MSCT) scans from September 2019 to December 2021 were retrospectively included. The data were applied to generate three-dimensional (3D) and virtual bronchoscopy (VB) simulations of a bronchial tree using the syngo.via post-processing workstation. Following that, the reconstructed images were interpreted to identify and categorize various bronchial patterns in the RSL. Cross-tabulation analysis and the Pearson chi-square test (χ2) were used to calculate the component ratios of bronchial branch types and determine their relevance between male and female groups., Results: Our results revealed mainly six types for the RSL bronchial tree, i.e., (B1, B2, B3, 60.70%); (B1+2, B3, 18.72%); (B2+3, B1, 6.68%); (B1+3, B2, 7.57%); (B1, B2, B3, B*, 3.19%); (B1a+B3, B1b+B2, 3.14%). There were significant sex-related differences in the proportion of bronchial branches in the RSL (P< 0.05)., Conclusion: The current study has validated the presence of segmental bronchial variations in the RSL. These findings may have significant implications for diagnosing symptomatic patients and performing particular procedures, including bronchoscopy, endotracheal intubation, and lung resection., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to evaluate the various branching patterns of segmental bronchi in the right middle lobe (RML) and to survey the anatomical diversity and sex-related differences of these branches in a large sample of the study population., Materials and Methods: In this retrospective board-approved study with informed consent, 10,000 participants (5428 males and 4,572 females, mean age 50 ± 13.5 years [SD]; age range: 3-91 years) who underwent multi-slice CT (MSCT) scans from September 2019 to December 2021 were retrospectively included. The data were applied to generate three-dimensional (3D) and virtual bronchoscopy (VB) simulations of a bronchial tree using the syngo.via post-processing workstation. The reconstructed images were then interpreted to locate and classify distinct bronchial patterns in the RML. Cross-tabulation analysis and the Pearson chi-square test were used to calculate the constituent ratios of bronchial branch types and determine their significance between male and female groups., Results: Our results revealed that the segmental bronchial ramifications of the RML were classified into two types mainly, i.e., bifurcation (B4, B5, 91.42%) and trifurcation (B4, B5, B*, 8.58%). There were no significant sex-related differences in the proportion of bronchial branches in the RML (P > 0.05)., Conclusion: The current study has confirmed the presence of segmental bronchial variations in the RML lobe using 3D reconstruction and virtual bronchoscopy. These findings may have significant implications for the diagnosis of symptomatic patients and for carrying out specific procedures like bronchoscopy, endotracheal intubation, and lung resection., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature.)

The fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) locus consistently associates with higher body mass index (BMI) across diverse ancestral groups. However, previous small studies of people of Polynesian ancestries have failed to replicate the association. In this study, we used Bayesian meta-analysis to test rs9939609, the most replicated FTO variant, for association with BMI with a large sample (n = 6095) of Aotearoa New Zealanders of Polynesian (Māori and Pacific) ancestry and of Samoan people living in the Independent State of Samoa and in American Samoa. We did not observe statistically significant association within each separate Polynesian subgroup. Bayesian meta-analysis of the Aotearoa New Zealand Polynesian and Samoan samples resulted in a posterior mean effect size estimate of +0.21 kg/m 2 , with a 95% credible interval [+0.03 kg/m 2 , +0.39 kg/m 2 ]. While the Bayes Factor (BF) of 0.77 weakly favors the null, the BF = 1.4 Bayesian support interval is [+0.04, +0.20]. These results suggest that rs9939609 in FTO may have a similar effect on mean BMI in people of Polynesian ancestries as previously observed in other ancestral groups., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Japan Society of Human Genetics.)

Metal-phenolic networks (MPNs) have been conventionally formed by the coordination of metal ions and polyphenols, which can responsively release metal ions and polyphenols under the trigger of tumor microenvironment (TME), showing high potential in the field of antitumor. However, MPNs are mainly limited to multi-valency polyphenols, and the unavailability of single valency polyphenols greatly hinders their applications even though they have excellent antitumor activity. Herein, we demonstrate a FeOOH assisted preparation method for MPNs antitumor reagent by introducing the complexes of Fe 3+ , H 2 O and polyphenol (Fe(H 2 O) x -polyphenol y ) in the preparation process, which overcomes the shortage of single valency polyphenols. Taking apigenin (Ap) as an example, Fe(H 2 O) x -Ap y complexes are foremost formed, in which the Fe(H 2 O) x is capable of hydrolyzing to generate FeOOH, thus producing Fe 3+ -Ap networks-coated FeOOH nanoparticles (FeOOH@Fe-Ap NPs). Under the stimulation of the TME, FeOOH@Fe-Ap NPs could release Fe 2+ and Ap, realizing ferroptosis and apoptosis for tumor combination therapy. In addition, FeOOH can shorten transverse relaxation time, acting as a T 2 -weighted magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent. The current efforts provide an alternative strategy for constructing MPNs by exploiting single valency polyphenols, which strengthens the potential of MPNs in antitumor applications., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Resumption of the increase in atmospheric methane (CH 4 ) concentrations since 2007 is of global concern and may partly have resulted from emissions from rice cultivation. Estimates of CH 4 emissions from rice fields and abatement potential are essential to assess the contribution of improved rice management in achieving the targets of the Global Methane Pledge agreed upon by over 100 countries at COP26. However, the contribution of CH 4 emissions from rice fields to the resumed CH 4 growth and the global abatement potential remains unclear. In this study, we estimated the global CH 4 emissions from rice fields to be 27 ± 6 Tg CH 4 year -1 in the recent decade (2008-2017) based on the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. The trend of CH 4 emissions from rice cultivation showed an increase followed by no significant change and then, a stabilization over 1990-2020. Consequently, the contribution of CH 4 emissions from rice fields to the renewed increase in atmospheric CH 4 concentrations since 2007 was minor. We summarized the existing low-cost measures and showed that improved water and straw management could reduce one-third of global CH 4 emissions from rice fields. Straw returned as biochar could reduce CH 4 emissions by 12 Tg CH 4 year -1 , equivalent to 10% of the total reduction of all anthropogenic emissions. We conclude that other sectors than rice cultivation must have contributed to the renewed increase in atmospheric CH 4 concentrations, and that optimizing multiple mitigation measures in rice fields could contribute significantly to the abatement goal outlined in the Global Methane Pledge., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Gastrointestinal (GI) tract, which possesses the largest surface area of mucosa in the body, is easily suffered from inflammatory damages under the exposure of external stimulations. Excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and continuous oxidative stress in intestines can elicit local mucosal injury, accelerate mucosal ulceration, and amplify the inflammatory response. Thereby, antioxidant therapy is a potential strategy against intestinal inflammatory diseases. Herein, we demonstrate the gram-scale preparation of quercetin supramolecular nanoribbons (SNRs) by using free quercetin molecules as the sole building block for preventing and treating intestinal inflammatory diseases. Unlike current clinical medicines, which mainly confront with poor response and severe adverse effects via bloodstream delivery, our quercetin SNRs possess an excellent antioxidant activity in the harsh environments of GI tract, a relative long retention time in GI tract, an admirable metabolism in GI tract without burdening other organs, and a specific adhesion to the inflamed intestinal epithelium via electrostatic interactions. These advantages strongly guarantee the applications of quercetin SNRs as oral medicines for intestinal inflammatory diseases. After establishing the models of intestinal inflammatory diseases caused by irradiation and drug stimulations, our quercetin SNRs exhibit the promising protective and therapeutic effects for radiation-induced acute enteritis and dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced acute colitis. Because the super easy and fast preparation procedure and the nearly 100% loading capacity of quercetin SNRs, the current work provides a supramolecular nanomedicine with great clinical translation potential against intestinal inflammatory diseases., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Neuropsychiatric diseases are related to early life stress (ELS), patients often have abnormal learning, memory and emotion. But the regulatory mechanism is unclear. Hippocampal synaptic plasticity (HSP) changes are important mechanism. RhoA pathway is known to regulate HSP by modulating of dendritic spines (DS), whether it's involved in HSP changes in ELS hasn't been reported. So we investigated whether and how RhoA participates in HSP regulation in ELS. The ELS model was established by separation-rearing in juvenile. Results of IntelliCage detection etc. showed simple learning and memory wasn't affected, but spatial, punitive learning and memories reduced, the desire to explore novel things reduced, the anxiety-like emotion increased. We further found hippocampus was activated, the hippocampal neurons dendritic complexities reduced, the proportion of mature DS decreased. The full-length transcriptome sequencing techniques was used to screen for differentially expressed genes involved in regulating HSP changes, we found RhoA gene was up-regulated. We detected RhoA protein, RhoA phosphorylation and downstream molecules expression changes, results shown RhoA and p-RhoA, p-ROCK2 expression increased, p-LIMK, p-cofilin expression and F-actin/G-actin ratio decreased. Our study revealed HSP changes in ELS maybe regulate by activation RhoA through ROCK2/LIMK/cofilin pathway regulated F-actin/G-actin balance and DS plasticity, affecting emotion and cognition., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Alkali stress is a major constraint for crop production in many regions of saline-alkali land. However, little is known about the mechanisms through which wheat responds to alkali stress. In this study, we identified a calcium ion-binding protein from wheat, TaCCD1, which is critical for regulating the plasma membrane (PM) H + -ATPase-mediated alkali stress response. PM H + -ATPase activity is closely related to alkali tolerance in the wheat variety Shanrong 4 (SR4). We found that two D-clade type 2C protein phosphatases, TaPP2C.D1 and TaPP2C.D8 (TaPP2C.D1/8), negatively modulate alkali stress tolerance by dephosphorylating the penultimate threonine residue (Thr926) of TaHA2 and thereby inhibiting PM H + -ATPase activity. Alkali stress induces the expression of TaCCD1 in SR4, and TaCCD1 interacts with TaSAUR215, an early auxin-responsive protein. These responses are both dependent on calcium signaling triggered by alkali stress. TaCCD1 enhances the inhibitory effect of TaSAUR215 on TaPP2C.D1/8 activity, thereby promoting the activity of the PM H + -ATPase TaHA2 and alkali stress tolerance in wheat. Functional and genetic analyses verified the effects of these genes in response to alkali stress, indicating that TaPP2C.D1/8 function downstream of TaSAUR215 and TaCCD1. Collectively, this study uncovers a new signaling pathway that regulates wheat responses to alkali stress, in which Ca 2+ -dependent TaCCD1 cooperates with TaSAUR215 to enhance PM H + -ATPase activity and alkali stress tolerance by inhibiting TaPP2C.D1/8-mediated dephosphorylation of PM H + -ATPase TaHA2 in wheat., (Copyright © 2023 The Author. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Drought drastically restricts wheat production, so to dissect allelic variations of drought tolerant genes without imposing trade-offs between tolerance and yield is essential to cope with the circumstance. Here, we identify a drought tolerant WD40 protein encoding gene TaWD40-4B.1 of wheat via the genome-wide association study. The full-length allele TaWD40-4B.1 C but not the truncated allele TaWD40-4B.1 T possessing a nonsense nucleotide variation enhances drought tolerance and grain yield of wheat under drought. TaWD40-4B.1 C interacts with canonical catalases, promotes their oligomerization and activities, and reduces H 2 O 2 levels under drought. The knock-down of catalase genes erases the role of TaWD40-4B.1 C in drought tolerance. TaWD40-4B.1 C proportion in wheat accessions is negatively correlative with the annual rainfall, suggesting this allele may be selected during wheat breeding. The introgression of TaWD40-4B.1 C enhances drought tolerance of the cultivar harboring TaWD40-4B.1 T . Therefore, TaWD40-4B.1 C could be useful for molecular breeding of drought tolerant wheat., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Introduction: Major depressive disorder is a mental disease with complex pathogenesis and treatment mechanisms involving changes in both the gut microbiota and neuroinflammation. Cuscutae Semen (CS), also known as Chinese Dodder seed, is a medicinal herb that exerts several pharmacological effects. These include neuroprotection, anti-neuroinflammation, the repair of synaptic damage, and the alleviation of oxidative stress. However, whether CuscutaeSemen exerts an antidepressant effect remains unknown. Methods: In this study, we evaluated the effect of CS on chronic unpredictable stress (CUS)-induced depression-like behaviors in mice by observing changes in several inflammatory markers, including proinflammatory cytokines, inflammatory proteins, and gliocyte activation. Meanwhile, changes in the gut microbiota were analyzed based on 16 S rRNA sequencing results. Moreover, the effect of CS on the synaptic ultrastructure was detected by transmission electron microscopy. Results: We found that the CS extract was rich in chlorogenic acid and hypericin. And CS relieved depression-like behaviors in mice exposed to CUS. Increased levels of cytokines (IL-1β and TNF-α) and inflammatory proteins (NLRP3, NF-κB, and COX-2) induced by CUS were reversed after CS administration. The number of astrocytes and microglia increased after CUS exposure, whereas they decreased after CS treatment. Meanwhile, CS could change the structure of the gut microbiota and increase the relative abundance of Lactobacillus. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between several Lactobacilli and indicators of depression-like behaviors and inflammation. There was a decrease in postsynaptic density after exposure to CUS, and this change was alleviated after CS treatme. Conclusion: This study found that CS treatment ameliorated CUS-induced depression-like behaviors and synaptic structural defects in mice via the gut microbiota-neuroinflammation axis. And chlorogenic acid and hypericin may be the main active substances for CS to exert antidepressant effects., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Hou, Yang, Zhu, Miao, Zhou, Tang, Meng and Liu.)

In clinical practice, the incidence and mortality of non-small cell lung cancer are increasing year by year, which is a serious threat to the health of patients. Once the optimal surgical window is missed, the toxic side effects of chemotherapy have to be confronted. With the rapid development of nanotechnology in recent years, medical science and health have been greatly impacted. Therefore, in this manuscript, we design and prepare chemotherapeutic drug vinorelbine (VRL)-loaded polydopamine (PDA) shell-coated Fe 3 O 4 superparticles, and further graft the targeted ligand RGD onto their surface. Because of the introduction of the PDA shell, the toxicity of the prepared Fe 3 O 4 @PDA/VRL-RGD SPs is greatly reduced. At the same time, due to the existence of Fe 3 O 4 , the Fe 3 O 4 @PDA/VRL-RGD SPs also have MRI contrast capability. Under the dual-targeting effect of RGD peptide and external magnetic field, Fe 3 O 4 @PDA/VRL-RGD SPs can accumulate into tumors effectively. The accumulated superparticles in the tumor sites can not only effectively identify and mark the location and boundary of the tumor under MRI, guideing the application of near-infrared laser, but also release the loaded VRL under the stimulation of the acidic microenvironment of the tumor to play the role of chemotherapy. On further combination with photothermal therapy under laser irradiation, A549 tumors are completely eliminated without recurrence. Our proposed RGD/magnetic field dual-targeting strategy can effectively improve the bioavailability of nanomaterials and contribute to better imaging and therapeutic effects, which has a promising application prospect in the future., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

Biochar applied to the soil can contribute to the sustainability of agriculture by promoting ecosystem services. Tea production contributes to addressing hunger and poverty in developing countries. However, little is known about the impact of biochar amendment on ecosystem services in tea plantations. We evaluated ecosystem services from an economic assessment perspective to better understand the effects of biochar on ecosystem services and dis-services. We conducted field experiments in two subtropical tea plantations with three treatments: no fertilizer and compound fertilizers applied without and with biochar. Results showed that biochar increased the net ecosystem carbon budget by 17-fold through direct carbon addition, thus increasing regulating services. Compared to compound fertilizer alone, biochar application reduced total reactive nitrogen loss by an average of 1.8 % due to an average reduction of 16.2 % and 21.5 % in nitrous oxide and nitric oxide emissions, respectively. However, the high cost of biochar, the low environmental benefits due to the low carbon price, and the fact that biochar did not provide additional economic profit made the net ecosystem economic benefits unsatisfactory. For comparison, we set up an optimistic scenario based on the increased carbon price ($160/ton CO 2 -equivalent) and the documented effects of biochar on yield (+9.6 %), nitrogen leaching/runoff (-24 %), and ammonia volatilization (+14 %). The scenario analysis showed that increased yields and higher carbon prices could contribute to the increase in net ecosystem economic benefits. Taken together, our findings suggest that the impact of biochar on yield benefits is the key to biochar application and that a market-regulated carbon price accompanied by appropriate ecological compensation is necessary to effectively promote biochar application by farmers., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Ferroptosis provides an innovative theoretical basis and method for tumor therapy but is limited by the low efficiency of conventional iron delivery systems. Herein, an efficient supramolecular iron delivery system (SIDS) is demonstrated upon the hydrolysis of FeCl 3 , condensation of amino acids, and self-assembly of iron-containing components. The as-assembled SIDS possesses a shuttle-like core/shell structure with β-FeOOH as the core and Fe 3+ /polyamino acid coordinated networks as shells. The iron content of SIDS is up to 42 wt %, which is greatly higher than that of ferritin. The iron-containing protein-mimic structure and shuttle-like morphology of SIDS facilitate tumor accumulation and cell internalization. Once exposed to the tumor microenvironment with overexpressed glutathione (GSH), the SIDS will disassemble, accompanied by the depletion of GSH and the release of Fe 2+ , leading to dual amplified ferroptosis. Primary studies indicate that SIDS exhibits outstanding antitumor efficacy on bladder cancer.

Preterm (PT) birth is a potential factor for abnormal brain development. Although various alterations of cortical structure and functional connectivity in preterm infants have been reported, the underlying microstructural foundation is still undetected thoroughly in PT infants relative to full-term (FT) neonates. To detect the very early cortical microstructural alteration noninvasively with advanced neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) on a whole-brain basis, we used multi-shell diffusion MRI of healthy newborns selected from the Developing Human Connectome Project. 73 PT infants and 69 FT neonates scanned at term-equivalent age were included in this study. By extracting the core voxels of gray matter (GM) using GM-based spatial statistics (GBSS), we found that comparing to FT neonates, infants born preterm showed extensive lower neurite density in both primary and higher-order association cortices (FWE corrected, P < 0.025). Higher orientation dispersion was only found in very preterm subgroup in the orbitofrontal cortex, fronto-insular cortex, entorhinal cortex, a portion of posterior cingular gyrus, and medial parieto-occipital cortex. This study provided new insights into exploring structural MR for functional and behavioral variations in preterm population, and these findings may have marked clinical importance, particularly in the guidance of ameliorating the development of premature brain., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permission@oup.com.)

Background: While preeclampsia (PE) is a leading cause of pregnancy-related morbidity/mortality, its underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. DNA methylation (DNAm) is a dynamic regulator of gene expression that may offer insight into PE pathophysiology and/or serve as a biomarker (e.g., risk, subtype, a therapeutic response). This study's purpose was to evaluate for differences in blood-based DNAm across all trimesters between individuals eventually diagnosed with PE (cases) and individuals who remained normotensive throughout pregnancy, did not develop proteinuria, and birthed a normally grown infant (controls)., Results: In the discovery phase, longitudinal, genome-wide DNAm data were generated across three trimesters of pregnancy in 56 participants ( n =28 cases, n =28 controls) individually matched on self-identified race, pre-pregnancy body mass index, smoking, and gestational age at sample collection. An epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) was conducted, using surrogate variable analysis to account for unwanted sources of variation. No CpGs met the genome-wide significance p value threshold of 9×10 -8 , but 16 CpGs (trimester 1: 5; trimester 2: 1; trimester 3: 10) met the suggestive significance threshold of 1×10 -5 . DNAm data were also evaluated for differentially methylated regions (DMRs) by PE status. Three DMRs in each trimester were significant after Bonferonni-adjustment. Since only third-trimester samples were available from an independent replication sample ( n =64 cases, n =50 controls), the top suggestive hits from trimester 3 (cg16155413 and cg21882990 associated with TRAF3IP2-AS1/TRAF3IP2 genes, which also made up the top DMR) were carried forward for replication. During replication, DNAm data were also generated for validation purposes from discovery phase third trimester samples. While significant associations between DNAm and PE status were observed at both sites in the validation sample, no associations between DNAm and PE status were observed in the independent replication sample., Conclusions: The discovery phase findings for cg16155413/cg21882990 ( TRAF3IP2-AS1/TRAF3IP2 ) were validated with a new platform but were not replicated in an independent sample. Given the differences in participant characteristics between the discovery and replication samples, we cannot rule out important signals for these CpGs. Additional research is warranted for cg16155413/cg21882990, as well as top hits in trimesters 1-2 and significant DMRs that were not examined in the replication phase., Competing Interests: Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Inland freshwater ecosystems are of increasing concerns in global methane (CH 4 ) budget in the atmosphere. Agricultural irrigation watersheds are a potential CH 4 emission hotspot owing to the anthropogenic carbon and nutrients loading. However, large-scale spatial variations of CH 4 concentrations and fluxes in agricultural catchments remain poorly understood, constraining an accurate regional estimate of CH 4 budgets. Here, we examined the spatiotemporal variations of dissolved CH 4 concentrations and fluxes from typical freshwater types (ditch, reservoir and river) within an agricultural irrigation watershed from Hongze catchment, which is subjected to intensive agricultural and rural activities in Eastern China. The dissolved CH 4 concentrations and fluxes showed similar temporal variations among the three freshwater types, with the highest rates in summer and the lowest rates in winter. The total CH 4 emission from this agricultural irrigation watershed was estimated to be 0.002 Gg CH 4 yr -1 , with annual mean CH 4 concentration and flux of 0.12 μmol L -1 and 0.58 mg m -2 d -1 , respectively. Diffusive CH 4 fluxes varied in samples taken from different freshwater types, the annual mean CH 4 fluxes for ditch, reservoir and river were 0.31 ± 0.06, 0.71 ± 0.13 and 0.72 ± 0.25 mg m -2 d -1 , respectively. Among three freshwater types, the CH 4 fluxes were the lowest in ditch, which was associated with the lowest responses of CH 4 fluxes to water dissolved oxygen (DO), nitrate nitrogen (NO 3 - -N) and sediment dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in ditch. In addition, water velocity and wind speed were significantly lower in ditch than in reservoir and river, suggesting that they also played important roles in explaining the spatial variability of dissolved CH 4 concentrations and fluxes. These results highlighted a need for more field measurements with wider spatial coverage and finer frequency, which would further improve the reliability of flux estimates for assessing the contribution of agricultural watersheds to the regional and global CH 4 budgets., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The morphological development of the fetal striatum during the second trimester has remained poorly described. We manually segmented the striatum using 7.0-T MR images of the fetal specimens ranging from 14 to 22 gestational weeks. The global development of the striatum was evaluated by volume measurement. The absolute volume (Vabs) of the caudate nucleus (CN) increased linearly with gestational age, while the relative volume (Vrel) showed a quadratic growth. Both Vabs and Vrel of putamen increased linearly. Through shape analysis, the changes of local structure in developing striatum were specifically demonstrated. Except for the CN tail, the lateral and medial parts of the CN grew faster than the middle regions, with a clear rostral-caudal growth gradient as well as a distinct "outside-in" growth gradient. For putamen, the dorsal and ventral regions grew obviously faster than the other regions, with a dorsal-ventral bidirectional developmental pattern. The right CN was larger than the left, whereas there was no significant hemispheric asymmetry in the putamen. By establishing the developmental trajectories, spatial heterochrony, and hemispheric dimorphism of human fetal striatum, these data bring new insight into the fetal striatum development and provide detailed anatomical references for future striatal studies., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) is a complex associative tract comprising three distinct subdivisions in the frontoparietal cortex, each of which has its own anatomical connectivity and functional roles. However, many studies on white matter development, hampered by limitations of data quality and tractography methods, treated the SLF as a single entity. The exact anatomical trajectory and developmental status of each sub-bundle of the human SLF in neonates remain poorly understood. Here, we compared the morphological and microstructural characteristics of each branch of the SLF at two ages using diffusion MRI data from 40 healthy neonates and 40 adults. A multi-shell multi-tissue constrained spherical deconvolution (MSMT-CSD) algorithm was used to ensure the successful separation of the three SLF branches (SLF I, SLF II and SLF III). Then, between-group differences in the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) metrics were investigated in all the SLF branches. Meanwhile, Mahalanobis distances based on all the diffusion metrics were computed to quantify the maturation of neonatal SLF branches, considering the adult brain as the reference. The SLF branches, excluding SLF II, had similar fibre morphology and connectivity between the neonatal and adult groups. The Mahalanobis distance values further supported the notion of heterogeneous maturation among SLF branches. The greatest Mahalanobis distance was observed in SLF II, possibly indicating that it was the least mature. Our findings provide a new anatomical basis for the early diagnosis and treatment of diseases caused by abnormal neonatal SLF development., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The survival and success of organizations increasingly depend on creativity. A Supervisor Creative Feedback Environment is of special value in enhancing team creativity, but few studies have explored the relationship between the supervisor creative feedback environment and creativity and how it affects creativity. Based on feedback intervention theory and triadic reciprocal determinism, this paper explores the process mechanism and boundary conditions of the supervisor creative feedback environment affecting team creativity from the perspectives of ambidextrous learning and team creative cognitive style. With 506 team members from 115 work teams in domestic enterprises as research samples, regression analysis was used to test the theoretical hypotheses. Feedback intervention, according to the feedback intervention theory, is a complicated process. There are various influencing factors, such as the feedback provider, means of feedback intervention, the content of the feedback information, situational factors, and the feedback recipients (Junwei, 2003). The leading creative feedback loop includes important feedback receiver's factors which are not mentioned above. Triadic reciprocal determinism holds that individual behavior is formed by the interaction and interconnection of individual, environment, and behavior. The two above-mentioned theories can explain why the leadership creative feedback environment can affect team creativity by influencing ambidextrous learning. The results also show that the feedback environment of supervisor creativity has positive effects on team creativity. Ambidextrous learning mediates the relation between supervisor creative feedback environments and team creativity. Team creative cognitive style has a positive moderating effect on the indirect relationship between a supervisor creative feedback environment and team creativity through ambidextrous learning. This study validates feedback intervention theory and triadic reciprocal determinism, expands the application of feedback environment factors in the research field of team creativity, provides a theoretical framework for the influence of the creative feedback environment on team creativity, and also provides theoretical support for managers to apply the management tool of a supervisor creative feedback environment to organizational context to improve team creativity. Based on the research results, this paper puts forward corresponding management suggestions from the aspect of creating a supervisor creative feedback environment, attaching importance to team ambidextrous learning, and making good use of creative cognitive style., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Liu, Zhang, Liu, He and Xiao.)

Initially discovered in yeast, mitochondrial retrograde signalling has long been recognised as an essential in the perception of stress by eukaryotes. However, how to maintain the optimal amplitude and duration of its activation under natural stress conditions remains elusive in plants. Here, we show that TaSRO1, a major contributor to the agronomic performance of bread wheat plants exposed to salinity stress, interacted with a transmembrane domain-containing NAC transcription factor TaSIP1, which could translocate from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) into the nucleus and activate some mitochondrial dysfunction stimulon (MDS) genes. Overexpression of TaSIP1 and TaSIP1-∆C (a form lacking the transmembrane domain) in wheat both compromised the plants' tolerance of salinity stress, highlighting the importance of precise regulation of this signal cascade during salinity stress. The interaction of TaSRO1/TaSIP1, in the cytoplasm, arrested more TaSIP1 on the membrane of ER, and in the nucleus, attenuated the trans-activation activity of TaSIP1, therefore reducing the TaSIP1-mediated activation of MDS genes. Moreover, the overexpression of TaSRO1 rescued the inferior phenotype induced by TaSIP1 overexpression. Our study provides an orchestrating mechanism executed by the TaSRO1-TaSIP1 module that balances the growth and stress response via fine tuning the level of mitochondria retrograde signalling., (© 2022 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2022 New Phytologist Foundation.)

Inherent hemispheric asymmetry is important for cognition, language and other functions. Describing normal brain and asymmetry development during early development will improve our understanding of how different hemispheres prioritize specific functions, which is currently unknown. Here, we analysed developmental changes in and asymmetry of the proteome in the bilateral frontal lobes of three foetal specimens in the late first trimester of pregnancy. We found that during this period, the difference in expression between gestational weeks (GWs) increased, and the difference in asymmetric expression decreased. Changes in the patterns of protein expression differed in the bilateral frontal lobes. Our results show that brain asymmetry can be observed in early development. These findings can guide researchers in further investigations of the mechanisms of brain asymmetry. We propose that both sides of the brain should be analysed separately in future multiomics and human brain mapping studies., (© 2022. The Author(s).)