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Background: Allergen testing has emerged as a pivotal component in prevention and treatment strategies for allergic diseases among children and the utilization of specific IgE (sIgE) through a fully automated chemiluminescent microarray immunoassay (CLMIA) has emerged as a promising trend in the simultaneous detection of multiple allergenic components of children., Methods: The accuracy and reliability of CLMIA were verified using children's serum samples that concentrated on allergens. the allergens. The clinical diagnostic practicability of CLMIA was assessed through comprehensive evaluations including measurements of the limit of detection (LOD), intra-batch, and inter-batch precision, linearity analysis, the cross-contamination rate, and the concordance rate with the Phadia system., Results: After the optimization process of CLMIA, the LODs for allergens were calculated to be below 0.01 kU/L, demonstrating the high sensitivity of CLMIA. All components exhibited good linearity within the range of 0.1-100.0 kU/L and the coefficient of determinations (R 2  > 0.99). The data of intra-batch precision (<10 %) and inter-batch data (<15 %) illustrated the high reproducibility of CLMIA. The cross-contamination rates for allergens (<0.5 %) showed the high accuracy of CLMIA without interfering. The positive concordance rate between CLMIA and the Phadia system exceeds 90 % with a good negative concordance rate (>85 %) and the Kappa coefficients (>0.8), suggesting the close alignment of CLMIA and the Phadia system and showing the satisfactory clinical potential of CLMIA in children's allergy disease., Conclusions: The application of CLMIA has been promising in allergen testing, especially for detecting multiple allergenic components in children., 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 B.V. All rights reserved.)

Functional redundancy is considered a pivotal mechanism for maintaining the adaptability of species by preventing the loss of key functions in response to dehydration. However, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the redundancy of leaf hydraulic systems along aridity gradients. Here, photosynthesis (A n ), stomatal conductance (g s ) and leaf hydraulic conductance (K leaf ) during dehydration were measured in 20 woody species from a range of aridity index (AI) conditions and growing in a common garden to quantify stomatal redundancy (SR), the extent of stomatal opening beyond the optimum required for maximum photosynthesis (A max ), leaf hydraulic redundancy (HR), and the extent of leaf hydraulic conductance (K leaf ) beyond the optimum required for maximum g s (g s-max ). The findings revealed that species from arid habitats tended to have higher SRs but lower HRs than did species from humid habitats. The relatively high SR in arid species arose from relatively high g s-max values. The relatively low HR arose from the relatively high K leaf value at a 5% reduction in g s-max (K leaf-gs ). Our results suggest that greater stomatal redundancy and lower hydraulic redundancy prevent the loss of photosynthesis and water transportation, respectively, and thus might be the key adaptive mechanisms for plants to adapt to drought conditions., (© 2025 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Abstract: According to the World Health Organization (WHO) manual, sperm concentration should be measured using an improved Neubauer hemocytometer, while sperm motility should be measured by manual assessment. However, in China, thousands of laboratories do not use the improved Neubauer hemocytometer or method; instead, the Makler counting chamber is one of the most widely used chambers. To study sources of error that could impact the measurement of the apparent concentration and motility of sperm using the Makler counting chamber and to verify its accuracy for clinical application, 67 semen samples from patients attending the Department of Andrology, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University (Chengdu, China) between 13 September 2023 and 27 September 2023, were included. Compared with applying the cover glass immediately, delaying the application of the cover glass for 5 s, 10 s, and 30 s resulted in average increases in the sperm concentration of 30.3%, 74.1%, and 107.5%, respectively (all P < 0.0001) and in the progressive motility (PR) of 17.7%, 30.8%, and 39.6%, respectively (all P < 0.0001). However, when the semen specimens were fixed with formaldehyde, a delay in the application of the cover glass for 5 s, 10 s, and 30 s resulted in an average increase in the sperm concentration of 6.7%, 10.8%, and 14.6%, respectively, compared with immediate application of the cover glass. The accumulation of motile sperm due to delays in the application of the cover glass is a significant source of error with the Makler counting chamber and should be avoided., (Copyright ©The Author(s)(2024).)