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The inflammatory microenvironment and neurotoxicity can hinder neuronal regeneration and functional recovery after spinal cord injury. Ruxolitinib, a JAK-STAT inhibitor, exhibits effectiveness in autoimmune diseases, arthritis, and managing inflammatory cytokine storms. Although studies have shown the neuroprotective potential of ruxolitinib in neurological trauma, the exact mechanism by which it enhances functional recovery after spinal cord injury, particularly its effect on astrocytes, remains unclear. To address this gap, we established a mouse model of T10 spinal cord contusion and found that ruxolitinib effectively improved hindlimb motor function and reduced the area of spinal cord injury. Transcriptome sequencing analysis showed that ruxolitinib alleviated inflammation and immune response after spinal cord injury, restored EAAT2 expression, reduced glutamate levels, and alleviated excitatory toxicity. Furthermore, ruxolitinib inhibited the phosphorylation of JAK2 and STAT3 in the injured spinal cord and decreased the phosphorylation level of nuclear factor kappa-B and the expression of inflammatory factors interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α. Additionally, in glutamate-induced excitotoxicity astrocytes, ruxolitinib restored EAAT2 expression and increased glutamate uptake by inhibiting the activation of STAT3, thereby reducing glutamate-induced neurotoxicity, calcium influx, oxidative stress, and cell apoptosis, and increasing the complexity of dendritic branching. Collectively, these results indicate that ruxolitinib restores glutamate homeostasis by rescuing the expression of EAAT2 in astrocytes, reduces neurotoxicity, and effectively alleviates inflammatory and immune responses after spinal cord injury, thereby promoting functional recovery after spinal cord injury.

Abstract Opencast coal mining has a large impact on the land surface, both at the mining pits themselves and at waste sites. After artificial management is stopped, a reclaimed opencast coal mine dump is affected by wind and water erosion from natural processes, resulting in land degradation and even safety incidents. In this paper, the soil erosion and land degradation after 5 years of such natural processes, at the Xilinhot opencast coal mine dump in Inner Mongolia, were investigated. A multi-source data acquisition method was applied: the vegetation fraction coverage (VFC) was extracted from GF-1 satellite imagery, high-precision terrain characteristics and the location and degree of soil erosion were obtained using a drone, and the physical properties of the topsoil were obtained by field sampling. On this basis, the degree and spatial distribution of erosion cracks were identified, and the causes of soil erosion and land degradation were analyzed using the geographical detector. The results show that (1) multi-source data acquisition method can provide effective basic data for the quantitative evaluation of the ecological environment at dumps, and (2) slope aspect and VFC are the main factors affecting the degree of degradation and soil erosion. Based on above analysis, several countermeasures are proposed to mitigate land degradation: (1) The windward slope be designed to imitate the natural landform. (2) Reasonable engineering measures should be applied at the slope to restrain soil erosion. (3) The Pioneer plants should be widely planted on the platform at the early stage of reclamation.

Objective: To explore the method of eliminating donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies (DSA) in haploidentical stem cell transplantation (haplo-SCT). Methods: We present a refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patient who had strongly positive DSA, but had no human leukocyte antigen–matched donor. Although CD38 expression on leukemia cells was negative, daratumumab combined with etoposide and venetoclax therapy was chosen for her. Results: She achieved a significant decrease in DSA levels and complete remission on the combination therapy with daratumumab. She then received a haplo-SCT from a daughter as a donor and had a successful engraftment of donor stem cell. In haplo-SCT, strongly positive DSA levels, directed against donor HLA antigens, could be significantly reduced by daratumumab therapy before transplantation and successfully bridge subsequent haplo-SCT. Conclusion: Although CD38 expression is negative in leukemia cells, refractory B-ALL patients may still benefit from combination therapy with daratumumab. We need further clinical observation.

The recovery of lower-urinary-tract activity is a top priority for patients with spinal-cord injury. Historically, locomotor training improved micturition function in both patients with spinal cord injury and animal models. We explore whether training augments such as the supraspinal control of the external urethral sphincter results in enhanced coordination in detrusor-sphincter activity. We implemented a clinically relevant contusive spinal-cord injury at the 12th thoracic level in rats and administered forced wheel running exercise for 11 weeks. Awake rats then underwent bladder cystometrogram and sphincter electromyography recordings to examine the micturition reflex. Subsequently, pseudorabies-virus-encoding red fluorescent protein was injected into the sphincter to trans-synaptically trace the supraspinal innervation of Onuf’s motoneurons. Training in the injury group reduced the occurrence of bladder nonvoiding contractions, decreased the voiding threshold and peak intravesical pressure, and shortened the latency of sphincter bursting during voiding, leading to enhanced voiding efficiency. Histological analysis demonstrated that the training increased the extent of spared spinal-cord tissue around the epicenter of lesions. Compared to the group of injury without exercise, training elicited denser 5-hydroxytryptamine-positive axon terminals in the vicinity of Onuf’s motoneurons in the cord; more pseudorabies virus-labeled or c-fos expressing neurons were detected in the brainstem, suggesting the enhanced supraspinal control of sphincter activity. Thus, locomotor training promotes tissue sparing and axon innervation of spinal motoneurons to improve voiding function following contusive spinal-cord injury.

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The editorial discusses recent advances in deep learning for traffic probabilistic prediction, emphasizing the importance of probabilistic models in handling uncertainties in traffic systems. Deep learning methods such as Bayesian Deep Learning, Deep Gaussian Processes, Quantile Regression, and diffusion models are explored for their effectiveness in providing a range of possible traffic states and their corresponding probabilities. The practical implications of probabilistic traffic prediction include proactive congestion control, refined passenger information systems, improved risk assessment for autonomous driving, and enhanced public transport planning. Future research directions focus on developing efficient and scalable deep Bayesian inference techniques, integrating various data sources for more precise predictions, and incorporating uncertainty estimates into decision-making frameworks for robust traffic management solutions. [Extracted from the article]

The current study aims to ascertain the anatomical feasibility of transferring the contralateral S1 ventral root (VR) to the ipsilateral L5 VR for treating unilateral spastic lower limb paralysis. Six formalin-fixed (three males and three females) cadavers were used. The VR of the contralateral S1 was transferred to the VR of the ipsilateral L5. The sural nerve was selected as a bridge between the donor and recipient nerve. The number of axons, the cross-sectional areas and the pertinent distances between the donor and recipient nerves were measured. The extradural S1 VR and L5 VR could be separated based on anatomical markers of the dorsal root ganglion. The gross distance between the S1 nerve root and L5 nerve root was 31.31 (± 3.23) mm in the six cadavers, while that on the diffusion tensor imaging was 47.51 (± 3.23) mm in 60 patients without spinal diseases, and both distances were seperately greater than that between the outlet of S1 from the spinal cord and the ganglion. The numbers of axons in the S1 VRs and L5 VRs were 13 414.20 (± 2 890.30) and 10 613.20 (± 2 135.58), respectively. The cross-sectional areas of the S1 VR and L5 VR were 1.68 (± 0.26) mm2 and 1.08 (± 0.26) mm2, respectively. In conclusion, transfer of the contralateral S1 VR to the ipsilateral L5 VR may be an anatomically feasible treatment option for unilateral spastic lower limb paralysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture (OVCF) has become a major public health issue that becomes more pressing with increasing global aging. Percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) is an effective treatment for OVCF. Robot-assisted PKP has been utilized in recent years to improve accuracy and reduce complications. However, the effectiveness of robot-assisted PKP in the treatment of multi-segmental OVCF has yet to be proved. This study was designed to compare the efficacy of robot-assisted and conventional fluoroscopy-assisted multi-segmental PKP. A total of 30 cases with multi-segmental OVCF between April 2019 and April 2021 were included in this study. Fifteen cases were assigned to the robot-assisted PKP group (robot group) and 15 cases to the conventional fluoroscopy-assisted PKP group (conventional fluoroscopy group). The number of fluoroscopic exposures, fluoroscopic dose, operation time, cement leakage rate, visual analog scale (VAS) score, vertebral kyphosis angle (VKA), and height of fractured vertebral body (HFV) were compared between the 2 groups. The number of fluoroscopic exposures, fluoroscopic doses, and cement leakage rates in the robot group were lower than in the conventional fluoroscopy group (P<0.05) while the operative time in the robot group was longer than in the conventional fluoroscopy group (P<0.05). VAS score and VKA were decreased and HFV was increased after surgery in both groups (P<0.05). Therefore, robot-assisted PKP for the treatment of multi-segmental OVCF can reduce the number of fluoroscopic exposures, fluoroscopic doses, and cement leakage compared to conventional treatment. As such, robot-assisted PKP has good application prospects and is potentially more effective in the treatment of multi-segmental OVCF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the optical properties of a charged black hole with scalar hair (CSH) within the context of four-dimensional Einstein–Maxwell–Dilaton gravity. To achieve this, we consider three distinct toy models of thin accretion disks. The presence of dilaton coupling allows us to express both the solutions of CSH and the Reissner–Nordström (RN) black hole in terms of their mass (M) and charge (Q). Our findings reveal differences in the effective potentials $$V_{eff}$$ V eff , photon sphere radii $$r_{ph}$$ r ph , and innermost stable circular orbit $$r_{isco}$$ r isco between the CSH and RN black hole cases, which become increasingly pronounced as the charge parameter Q increases. However, no noticeable distinctions are observed concerning the critical impact parameter $$b_{ph}$$ b ph . When the ratio of the photon ring band and the lensed ring band exceeds 0.1, it may suggest the presence of a charged black hole with scalar hair. Furthermore, our results underscore the significant influence of the charge parameter Q on the brightness distributions of the direct, lensed ring, and photon ring for three standard emission functions. These findings emphasize the potential for distinguishing between CSH and RN black holes through an analysis of direct intensity and peak brightness in specific accretion disk models.

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the shadows and rings of the charged Horndeski black hole illuminated by accretion flow that is both geometrically and optically thin. We consider two types of accretion models: spherical and thin-disk accretion flow. We find that in both types of models, the size of the charged Horndeski black hole shadow decreases with the increase of the charge, and it decreases more slowly for the Reissner–Nordström (RN) black hole. In the spherical accretion flow model, we find that the increase of the charge of Horndeski black hole brightens the light ring around it, and it brightens more significantly in comparison with RN black hole. Due to the Doppler effect, the charged Horndeski black holes with accretion flow of radial motion have darker shadows than those with the static accretion flow, but the size of the shadow is not affected by accretion flow motion. In the thin disk-shaped accretion flow model, we find that the brightness of the light ring around the charged Horndeski black hole is dominated by the direct emission from the accretion flow, and the contribution from lensed rings is relatively small, and that from the photon rings is negligible. We also find that the ring brightness decreases as the charge of Horndeski black hole increases, and the decrease is more significant than that in the RN black hole case. Moreover, the radiation position of the accretion flow can affect the shadow size and the ring brightness of the charged Horndeski black hole.

Abstract In extra dimensional theories, the four-dimensional field theory is reduced from a fundamental field theory in the bulk spacetime by integrating the extra dimensional part. In this paper we investigate the effective action of a self-interacting scalar field on a brane in the five-dimensional thick braneworld scenario. We consider two typical thick brane solutions and obtain the Pöschl–Teller and harmonic potentials of the Kaluza–Klein (KK) modes, respectively. The analytical mass spectra and wave functions along extra dimension of the KK modes are obtained. Further, the effective coupling constant between different KK particles, cross section, and decay rate for some processes of the KK particles are related to the fundamental coupling in five dimensions and the new physics energy scale. Some interesting properties of these interactions are found with these calculations. The KK particles with higher mode have longer lifetime, and they almost do not interact with ordinary matter on the brane if their mode numbers are large enough. Thus, these KK particles with higher modes might be a candidate of dark matter.

In this paper, we study the influence of the parameters for the accelerating Kerr-Newman black hole on the shadows and the constraints, extensively. We find that the rotating parameter a, the charge parameter e, and the inclination angle θ0 affect the shadow qualitatively similar to that of Kerr-Newman black holes. The result shows that the size of the shadow will scale down with the accelerating factor A. Besides, the factor A also can affect the best viewing angles, which make the observations maximum deviate from θ0=π2, and the degree of the deviations are less than 1%. Then, we assume the M87* as an accelerating Kerr-Newman black hole with the mass M=6.5×109M⊙ and the distance r0=16.8Mpc. Combining the EHT observations, we find that neither the observations, circularity deviation ΔC or axial ratio Dx can distinguish the accelerating black hole or not. However, the characteristic areal-radius of the shadow curve Ra can give corresponding constraints on the parameters of the accelerating Kerr-Newman black hole. The result shows that the bigger accelerating factor A is, the stronger constraints on the rotating parameter a and charged parameter e. The maximum range of the accelerating factor is Ar0≤0.558 for a accelerating Schwarzschild case with (a/M=e/M=0), and for an extremely slow accelerating case (Ar0≤0.01), the ranges of rotating parameter a and charged parameter e are a/M∈(0,1) and e/M∈(0,0.9).