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There is a paucity of data describing the safety and efficacy of acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD) repair surgeries in dialysis patients. Our study aimed to investigated the influence of dialysis on early and late outcomes in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients who received repair surgery for ATAAD. A total of 882 ATAAD patients who received emergency aortic dissection repair at our center from January 2015 to December 2019 were retrospectively screened in this study and divided into the dialysis group (n = 16) and the non-dialysis group (n = 866), depending on whether they required dialysis for preoperative ESRD. No significant difference of age, preoperative hemodynamics, organ ischemia conditions, operative variables as well as the 30-Day mortality and in-hospital complications was discovered between two groups. However, the survival rates and the proportion of late aortic event (sudden death and reoperation) free population at 1 and 3 years after surgery were significantly decreased in dialysis patients compared to non-dialysis patients. Our study indicated that the short-term surgical outcomes of ATAAD in dialysis patients were comparable to non-dialysis patient. However, the dialysis patients were associated with a worse long-term prognosis.

Wideband Absorbance Immittance (WAI) has been available for more than a decade, however its clinical use still faces the challenges of limited understanding and poor interpretation of WAI results. This study aimed to develop Machine Learning (ML) tools to identify the WAI absorbance characteristics across different frequency-pressure regions in the normal middle ear and ears with otitis media with effusion (OME) to enable diagnosis of middle ear conditions automatically. Data analysis included pre-processing of the WAI data, statistical analysis and classification model development, and key regions extraction from the 2D frequency-pressure WAI images. The experimental results show that ML tools appear to hold great potential for the automated diagnosis of middle ear diseases from WAI data. The identified key regions in the WAI provide guidance to practitioners to better understand and interpret WAI data and offer the prospect of quick and accurate diagnostic decisions.

Over the past 30 years, human disturbance and habitat fragmentation have severely endangered the survival of common wild rice (Oryza rufipogon Griff.) in China. A better understanding of the genetic structure of O. rufipogon populations will therefore be useful for the development of conservation strategies. We examined the diversity and genetic structure of natural O. rufipogon populations at the national, provincial, and local levels using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Twenty representative populations from sites across China showed high levels of genetic variability, and approximately 44% of the total genetic variation was among populations. At the local level, we studied fourteen populations in Guangxi Province and four populations in Jiangxi Province. Populations from similar ecosystems showed less genetic differentiation, and local environmental conditions rather than geographic distance appeared to have influenced gene flow during population genetic evolution. We identified a triangular area, including northern Hainan, southern Guangdong, and southwestern Guangxi, as the genetic diversity center of O. rufipogon in China, and we proposed that this area should be given priority during the development of ex situ and in situ conservation strategies. Populations from less common ecosystem types should also be given priority for in situ conservation.

Bringing oxygen atoms from infinite, passing equilibrium until short enough distances, we aim to reveal the 4f5d electron bonding property and its relevance to the peculiar physical properties within PrO2 based on both accounting for electron Coulomb repulsion and spin-orbit coupling effects in combination with Wannier function methods. The microscopic mechanism of static Janh-Teller distortions and the physical insight into the dynamic Jahn-Teller effects are clarified. Peculiarly, the magnetic coupling is suggested to be via 4f-5d-O2p-5d-4f pathway in PrO2, and the coupling between spin and orbital ordering of 4f electrons is for the first time disclosed. The 5d orbitals, hybridized with 4f electrons, are found to play important roles in these processes.

Present study was designed to compared the total flavonoids and polyphenols contents and antibacterial activity of hawthorn extracts with different polarities as well as the underlying antibacterial mechanisms. The results showed that among all hawthorn extracts, methanol and ethanol extracts (ME and EE) exhibited high levels of total flavonoids and polyphenols contents, followed by acetone, ethyl acetate, trichloromethane and petroleum ether extracts. ME exhibited the strongest antibacterial activity against tested bacteria, especially Staphylococcus aureus with a 1.25 μg/mL of the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericide concentration (MBC). Further analysis revealed that the main phenolic compounds from ME were epicatechin (281.6 mg/100 g DW), procyanidin B2 (243.5 mg/100 g DW), chlorogenic acid (84.2 mg/100 g DW) and quercetin (78.4 mg/100 g DW). The action mechanism of ME against S. aureus could be ascribed to ME damaging cell wall and cell membrane integrity, inhibiting intracellular enzyme activity, increasing reactive oxygen species (ROS), also changing expression of associated genes and then inducing apoptosis of S. aureus. In addition, the antimicrobial activity of ME against S. aureus has also been demonstrated to be efficient in the food matrix (whole milk).

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. The presence of α-synuclein (α-Syn)-positive intracytoplasmic inclusions, known as Lewy bodies, is the cytopathological hallmark of PD. Increasing bodies of evidence suggest that cell-to-cell transmission of α-Syn plays a role in the progression of PD. Although extracellular α-Syn is known to cause abnormal cell motility, the precise mechanism remains elusive. Here we show that impairment of platelet-derived growth factor-induced cell motility caused by extracellular α-Syn is mainly attributed to selective inhibition of sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) signalling. Treatment of human neuroblastoma cells with recombinant α-Syn caused S1P type 1 (S1P1) receptor-selective uncoupling from inhibitory G-protein (Gi) as determined by both functional and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based structural analyses. By contrast, α-Syn caused little or no effect on S1P2 receptor-mediated signalling. Both wild-type and α-Syn(A53T), a mutant found in familiar PD, caused uncoupling of S1P1 receptor, although α-Syn(A53T) showed stronger potency in uncoupling. Moreover, S1P1 receptor-mediated β-arrestin signal was unaltered by α-Syn(A53T). These results suggest that exogenous α-Syn modulates S1P1 receptor-mediated signalling from both Gi and β-arrestin signals into β-arrestin-biased signal. These findings uncovered a novel function of exogenous α-Syn in the cells.

Estimates of trends in birth weight may be useful in evaluating population health. We aimed to determine whether temporal changes in birth weight have occurred amongst 2.3 million neonates born in Guangzhou, China, during 2001–2015 and investigate the socioeconomic determinants of any changes. Trends in mean birth weight and annualized changes with the associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in the incidence of small for gestational age (SGA) and large for gestational age (LGA), defined as birth weight th or >90th centile respectively for gestational age and sex, were examined using linear and Poisson regression models. We found that mean birth weight declined by 1.07 grams/year from 2001 to 2015. After adjustment for gestational length, the decline in birth weight was attenuated (0.37 grams/year). The incidence of both SGA and LGA significantly decreased during the study period (annual decrease of 1.6% [95% CI, 1.5% to 1.7%] for SGA, 1.6% [95% CI, 1.5% to 1.8%] for LGA). We found a narrowing of disparities in SGA and LGA incidence across different maternal educational levels and residence location. Our results demonstrate that there has been an increase in the proportion of neonates born in the healthy birth weight range in Guangzhou.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. The presence of alpha-synuclein (alpha-Syn)-positive intracytoplasmic inclusions, known as Lewy bodies, is the cytopathological hallmark of PD. Increasing bodies of evidence suggest that cell-to-cell transmission of alpha-Syn plays a role in the progression of PD. Although extracellular alpha-Syn is known to cause abnormal cell motility, the precise mechanism remains elusive. Here we show that impairment of plateletderived growth factor-induced cell motility caused by extracellular alpha-Syn is mainly attributed to selective inhibition of sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) signalling. Treatment of human neuroblastoma cells with recombinant alpha-Syn caused S1P type 1 (S1P(1)) receptor-selective uncoupling from inhibitory G-protein (Gi) as determined by both functional and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)based structural analyses. By contrast, alpha-Syn caused little or no effect on S1P(2) receptor-mediated signalling. Both wild-type and alpha-Syn(A53T), a mutant found in familiar PD, caused uncoupling of S1P(1) receptor, although alpha-Syn(A53T) showed stronger potency in uncoupling. Moreover, S1P(1) receptormediated beta-arrestin signal was unaltered by alpha-Syn(A53T). These results suggest that exogenous alpha-Syn modulates S1P(1) receptor-mediated signalling from both Gi and beta-arrestin signals into beta-arrestin-biased signal. Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. The presence of α-synuclein (α-Syn)-positive intracytoplasmic inclusions, known as Lewy bodies, is the cytopathological hallmark of PD. Increasing bodies of evidence suggest that cell-to-cell transmission of α-Syn plays a role in the progression of PD. Although extracellular α-Syn is known to cause abnormal cell motility, the precise mechanism remains elusive. Here we show that impairment of plateletderived growth factor-induced cell motility caused by extracellular α-Syn is mainly attributed to selective inhibition of sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) signalling. Treatment of human neuroblastoma cells with recombinant α-Syn caused S1P type 1 (S1P(1)) receptor-selective uncoupling from inhibitory G-protein (Gi) as determined by both functional and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)based structural analyses. By contrast, α-Syn caused little or no effect on S1P(2) receptor-mediated signalling. Both wild-type and α-Syn(A53T), a mutant found in familiar PD, caused uncoupling of S1P(1) receptor, although α-Syn(A53T) showed stronger potency in uncoupling. Moreover, S1P(1) receptormediated β-arrestin signal was unaltered by α-Syn(A53T). These results suggest that exogenous α-Syn modulates S1P(1) receptor-mediated signalling from both Gi and β-arrestin signals into β-arrestin-biased signal. These findings uncovered a novel function of exogenous α-Syn in the cells.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by α-synuclein (α-Syn)-positive intracytoplasmic inclusions, known as Lewy bodies. Although it is known that extracellular α-Syn is detected in the plasma and cerebrospinal fluid, its physiological significance remains unclear. Here, we show that extracellular α-Syn suppresses platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-induced chemotaxis in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. The inhibitory effect was stronger in the mutant α-Syn(A53T), found in hereditary PD, and the degree of inhibition was time-dependent, presumably because of the oligomerization of α-Syn. PDGF-induced activation of Akt or Erk was not influenced by α-Syn(A53T). Further studies revealed that α-Syn(A53T) inhibited PDGF-induced Rac1 activation, whereas Cdc42 activation remained unaffected, resulting in unbalanced actin filament remodeling. These results shed light on the understanding of pathological as well as physiological functions of extracellular α-Syn in neuronal cells.