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1. Muchuan black-bone chicken is well known in China for its meat quality and medicinal properties; however, its egg-laying performance is not ideal. To better understand the molecular mechanisms of black-boned chicken egg-laying, high-throughput RNA sequencing was performed to compare differences in the pituitary transcriptome between three high-rate (group H) and three low-rate (group L) egg production chickens. 2. In total, 171 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between the two groups, of which 113 were upregulated and 58 were downregulated in group L. Some of these genes are known to be related to hormone secretion or the regulation of reproductive processes; these include prolactin-releasing hormone (PRLH), distal-less homeobox 6 (DLX6), interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4), and cilia and flagella associated protein 69 (CFAP69). Notably, expression pattern analysis indicated that both PRLH and DLX6 may influence egg-laying performance. 3. The dataset provided a foundation for discovering important genes and pathways involved in the chicken egg-laying process, and may help to improve understanding of the molecular mechanisms of chicken reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Question: Can pronuclear transfer (PNT) or maternal spindle transfer (ST) be applied to overcome poor embryo development associated with advanced maternal age or early embryo arrest in a mouse model?Summary Answer: Both PNT and ST may have the potential to restore embryonic developmental potential in a mouse model of reproductive ageing and embryonic developmental arrest.What Is Known Already: Germline nuclear transfer (NT) techniques, such as PNT and ST, are currently being applied in humans to prevent the transmission of mitochondrial diseases. Yet, there is also growing interest in the translational use of NT for treating infertility and improving IVF outcomes. Nevertheless, direct scientific evidence to support such applications is currently lacking. Moreover, it remains unclear which infertility indications may benefit from these novel assisted reproductive technologies.Study Design, Size, Duration: We applied two mouse models to investigate the potential of germline NT for overcoming infertility. Firstly, we used a model of female reproductive ageing (B6D2F1 mice, n = 155), with ages ranging from 6 to 8 weeks (young), 56 (aged) to 70 weeks (very-aged), corresponding to a maternal age of <30, ∼36 and ∼45 years in humans, respectively. Secondly, we used NZB/OlaHsd female mice (7-14 weeks, n = 107), as a model of early embryo arrest. This mouse strain exhibits a high degree of two-cell block. Metaphase II (MII) oocytes and zygotes were retrieved following superovulation.Participants/materials, Setting, Methods: Ovarian reserve was assessed by histological analysis in the reproductive-aged mice. Mitochondrial membrane potential (△Ψm) was measured by JC-1 staining in MII oocytes, while spindle-chromosomal morphology was examined by confocal microscopy. Reciprocal ST and PNT were performed by transferring the meiotic spindle or pronuclei (PN) from unfertilised or fertilised oocytes (after ICSI) to enucleated oocytes or zygotes between aged or very-aged and young mice. Similarly, NT was also conducted between NZB/OlaHsd (embryo arrest) and B6D2F1 (non-arrest control) mice. Finally, the effect of cytoplasmic transfer (CT) was examined by injecting a small volume (∼5%) of cytoplasm from the oocytes/zygotes of young (B6D2F1) mice to the oocytes/zygotes of aged or very-aged mice or embryo-arrest mice. Overall, embryonic developmental rates of the reconstituted PNT (n = 572), ST (n = 633) and CT (n = 336) embryos were assessed to evaluate the efficiency of these techniques. Finally, chromosomal profiles of individual NT-generated blastocysts were evaluated using next generation sequencing.Main Results and the Role Of Chance: Compared to young mice, the ovarian reserve in aged and very-aged mice was severely diminished, reflected by a lower number of ovarian follicles and a reduced number of ovulated oocytes (P < 0.001). Furthermore, we reveal that the average △Ψm in both aged and very-aged mouse oocytes was significantly reduced compared to young mouse oocytes (P < 0.001). In contrast, the average △Ψm in ST-reconstructed oocytes (very-aged spindle and young cytoplast) was improved in comparison to very-aged mouse oocytes (P < 0.001). In addition, MII oocytes from aged and very-aged mice exhibited a higher rate of abnormalities in spindle assembly (P < 0.05), and significantly lower fertilisation (60.7% and 45.3%) and blastocyst formation rates (51.4% and 38.5%) following ICSI compared to young mouse oocytes (89.7% and 87.3%) (P < 0.001). Remarkably, PNT from zygotes obtained from aged or very-aged mice to young counterparts significantly improved blastocyst formation rates (74.6% and 69.2%, respectively) (P < 0.05). Similarly, both fertilisation and blastocyst rates were significantly increased after ST between aged and young mice followed by ICSI (P < 0.05). However, we observed no improvement in embryo development rates when performing ST from very-aged to young mouse oocytes following ICSI (P > 0.05). In the second series of experiments, we primarily confirmed that the majority (61.8%) of in vivo zygotes obtained from NZB/OlaHsd mice displayed two-cell block during in vitro culture, coinciding with a significantly reduced blastocyst formation rate compared to the B6D2F1 mice (13.5% vs. 90.7%; P < 0.001). Notably, following the transfer of PN from the embryo-arrest (NZB/OlaHsd) zygotes to enucleated non-arrest (B6D2F1) counterparts, most reconstructed zygotes developed beyond the two-cell stage, leading to a significantly increased blastocyst formation rate (89.7%) (P < 0.001). Similar findings were obtained after implementing ST between NZB/OlaHsd and B6D2F1 mice, followed by ICSI. Conversely, the use of CT did not improve embryo development in reproductive-age mice nor in the embryo-arrest mouse model (P > 0.05). Surprisingly, chromosomal analysis revealed that euploidy rates in PNT and ST blastocysts generated following the transfer of very-aged PN to young cytoplasts and very-aged spindles to young cytoplasts were comparable to ICSI controls (with young mouse oocytes). A high euploidy rate was also observed in the blastocysts obtained from either PNT or ST between young mice. Conversely, the transfer of young PN and young spindles into very-aged cytoplasts led to a higher rate of chromosomal abnormalities in both PNT and ST blastocysts.Large Scale Data: N/A.Limitations, Reasons For Caution: The limited number of blastocysts analysed warrants careful interpretation. Furthermore, our observations should be cautiously extrapolated to humans given the inherent differences between mice and women in regards to various biological processes, including centrosome inheritance. The findings suggest that ST or PNT procedures may be able to avoid aneuploidies generated during embryo development, but they are not likely to correct aneuploidies already present in some aged MII oocytes.Wider Implications Of the Findings: To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the potential of PNT and ST in the context of advanced maternal age and embryonic developmental arrest in a mouse model. Our data suggest that PNT, and to a lesser extent ST, may represent a novel reproductive strategy to restore embryo development for these indications.Study Funding/competing Interest(s): M.T. is supported by grants from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) (Grant no. 201506160059) and the Special Research Fund from Ghent University (Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds, BOF) (Grant no. 01SC2916 and no. 01SC9518). This research is also supported by the FWO-Vlaanderen (Flemish fund for scientific research, Grant no. G051017N, G051516N and G1507816N). The authors declare no competing interests.Trial Registration Number: N/A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Swallowing disorder is a health burden for the elderly in China. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of dysphagia and to test the association between skeletal muscle strength and swallowing problems among community-dwelling older adults. Design: A cross-sectional study. Setting: Community-dwelling Chinese elderly in China. Participants: 3361 adults aged 65 years or above were involved, among which 1740 (51.8%) were female, with average age of 72.64 (Standard deviation, SD=6.10) years old. Measurements: Handgrip strength (HGS) was used to evaluate skeletal muscle strength. Dysphagia assessment was performed using the Eating Assessment Tool-10 (EAT-10) and the 30mL water swallow test (WST). Binary logistic regression was used to evaluate the relationship between skeletal muscle strength and dysphagia, and covariates as age, gender, material status, etc. were adjusted. Results: The prevalence of dysphagia were 5.5% and 12.9%, screened by EAT-10 and 30mL WST respectively. Participants with dysphagia showed lower HGS (21.73 ± 9.20 vs. 25.66 ± 11.32, p<0.001, by EAT-10; 20.26 ± 9.88 vs. 26.22 ± 11.28, p<0.001, by WST). The adjusted model suggested that muscle strength is a protective factor for swallowing disorders (adjusted OR=0.974, 95%CI: 0.950–0.999, by EAT-10; adjusted OR=0.952, 95%CI: 0.933–0.972, by WST). Subgroup analyses of WST found the effects were significant among participants aged in 70–74 years group and ≥75 years group, rather than those aged under 70. Conclusion: Dysphagia was significantly associated with skeletal muscle strength among the community-dwelling elderly population. Effective interventions should be taken to manage the decline of muscle strength for the older adults, especially early prevention before 70 years old. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explored the effect of consumer perceived service quality on consumer satisfaction and word of mouth communication in Macao's telecommunications industry. The sample of the study consisted of 272 consumers. The results of exploratory factor analysis showed that consumer perceived service quality consisted of four dimensions: in-store interactions, after-sales services and convenience, tangibles of store, and network quality. A path analysis showed that consumer perceived service quality was positively related to consumer satisfaction while consumer satisfaction was positively related to word of mouth communication. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of consumer perceptions in Macao's telecommunications industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives To develop and validate new birth-weight prediction models in Chinese pregnant women using fractional thigh volume. Methods Healthy late third-trimester fetuses within 5 days of delivery were prospectively examined using two- (2D) and three- (3D) dimensional ultrasonography. Measurements were performed using 2D ultrasound for standard fetal biometry and 3D ultrasound for fractional thigh volume (TVol) and middle thigh circumference. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to analyze the inter- and intraobserver reliability of the 3D ultrasound measurements of 40 fetuses. Five birth-weight prediction models were developed using linear regression analysis, and these were compared with previously published models in a validation group. Results Of the 290 fetuses studied, 100 were used in the development of prediction models and 190 in the validation of prediction models. The inter- and intraobserver variability for TVol and middle thigh circumference measurements was small (all ICCs ≥ 0.95). The prediction model using TVol, femur length (FL), abdominal circumference (AC) and biparietal diameter (BPD) provided the most precise birth-weight estimation, with a random error of 4.68% and R2 of 0.825. It correctly predicted 69.5 and 95.3% of birth weights to within 5 and 10% of actual birth weight. By comparison, the Hadlock model with standard fetal biometry (BPD, head circumference, AC and FL) gave a random error of 6.41%. The percentage of birth-weight prediction within 5 and 10% of actual birth weight was 46.3 and 82.6%, respectively. Conclusion Consistent with studies on Caucasian populations, a new birth-weight prediction model based on fractional thigh volume, BPD, AC and FL, is reliable during the late third trimester in a Chinese population, and allows better prediction than does the Hadlock model. Copyright © 2011 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have conducted a comprehensive case–control study of a nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) population cohort from Guangxi Province of Southern China, a region with one of the highest NPC incidences on record. A total of 1407 individuals including NPC patients, healthy controls, and their adult children were examined for the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) association, which is so far the largest NPC cohort reported for such studies. Stratified analysis performed in this study clearly demonstrated that while NPC protection is associated with independent HLA alleles, most NPC susceptibility is strictly associated with HLA haplotypes. Our study also detected for the first time that A*0206, a unique A2 subtype to South and Southeast Asia is also associated with a high risk for NPC. HLA-A*0206, HLA-B*3802 alleles plus the A*0207–B*4601 and A*3303–B*5801 haplotypes conferred high risk for NPC showing a combined odds ratio (OR) of 2.6 (P<0.0001). HLA alleles that associate with low risk for NPC include HLA-A*1101, B*27, and B*55 with a combined OR of 0.42 (P<0.0001). The overall high frequency of NPC-susceptible HLA factors in the Guangxi population is likely to have contributed to the high-NPC incidence in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. Guidelines for the prevention and management of red cell alloantibodies during pregnancy, related to anti-D in particular, are well established in Caucasian populations. However, because of the racial difference of the blood group distribution, applicability to Chinese is unknown as a result of insufficient data on the prevalence and their outcome. In a retrospective review of 28 303 (21 327 Chinese) antenatal attendances from 1997 to 2001, 213 (0·79%) women were found to have a total of 230 irregular antibodies. About 137 (0·64%) were ethnic Chinese, and a total of 160 irregular antibodies were identified in their blood samples. About 58 of these Chinese women (0·27%) were found to have 66 clinically significant antibodies. There was only one case of anti-D detected in an Rh(D)-negative subject. Our study shows the overall prevalence of clinically significant antibodies in Chinese women, which was not different from that of the Western population. However, the specificities of the antibodies differ with the commonest antibodies encountered; these being anti-Mi (57·6%), anti-E (19·7%), anti-S (10·6%) and anti-c (7·6%). Neonatal jaundice was observed in 37 babies and 10 of them required phototherapy. The findings support the previous recommendation that routine antenatal antibody screening for Chinese women may not be worthwhile except in Rh(D)-negative subjects or those with an antecedent history of haemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN). The relative high incidence of anti-Mi in the present study and the local population, in general, may warrant a large-scale prospective study of pregnancy outcome in these subjects, especially in the light of the previous case reports of HDN because of anti-Mi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese studies indicate that the growth of rural infants and children lags behind that of their urban counterparts after 4 mo of age and that the gap is widening. However, the rural areas are home to >85% of China's 300 million children. Clearly, culturally appropriate rural complementary feeding interventions are needed to close the growth and health gaps. After a 1990 survey of infants in rural Sichuan confirmed that poor infant feeding practices rather than inadequate household food resources were responsible for the growth faltering, a year-long community-based pilot nutrition education intervention (n congruent with 250 infants each in Education and Control groups) was undertaken in four townships. The goal was to improve infant growth by improving infant feeding practices. Features of the intervention included the training and mobilizing of village nutrition educators who made monthly growth monitoring and complementary feeding counseling visits to all pregnant women and families with infants born during the intervention in the study villages. After 1 y, the Education group mothers showed significantly higher nutrition knowledge and better reported infant feeding practices than their Control group counterparts. Also, the Education group infants were significantly heavier and longer, but only at 12 mo (weight-for-age -1.17 vs. -1.93; P = 0.004; height-for-age -1.32 vs. -1.96; P = 0.022), had higher breast-feeding rates overall (83% vs. 75%; P = 0.034) and lower anemia rates (22% vs. 32%; P = 0.008) than the Control group infants. We conclude that these methods have potential for adaptation and development to other rural areas in the county, province and nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous reports on the prevalence and features of depression among adolescents have been inconsistent. The purpose of the current study was to estimate the prevalence of depression among Chinese adolescents with a standardized instrument. A total of 2462 students, aged 13-22, were sampled from the Shandong province of China. The Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) was administered to the subjects in their classrooms. It was shown that the mean SDS score was 44.8 (SD 9.9) and it decreased significantly from the age of 18 upward (F = 31.73, df = 9, P < 0.01). No significant difference was found between males and females (t = 0.70, P > 0.05). Taking 55 as a cut-off score, the prevalence rate of depression was 16.9% (95% CI = 15.4-18.4%). Logistic regression showed that increasing age appeared to decrease the risk for depression. Most of the individual items differed between ages, except for weight loss and constipation. Principal components factor analysis revealed that the characteristics of adolescent depression were depressive/anxious mood, psychomotor retardation, loss of self-esteem, somatic symptoms and decreased appetite and libido. Although the study was based on a large sample using an established instrument, the sample was not from a general adolescent population and case ascertainment was not by clinical diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, based on the criteria of "inclusiveness," "sustainability," and "internal-external structural coordination," establishes an evaluative framework for appraising the high-quality development of the insurance sector. It systematically gauges the overarching high-quality developmental status of China's insurance industry across regions. Employing non-parametric kernel density estimation, the Standard Deviation Ellipse, and spatial Markov chain, the investigation dynamically scrutinizes the national landscape of high-quality evolution within the insurance sector over the temporal spectrum. Furthermore, Moran's index and Dagum's Gini coefficient are harnessed to disentangle the spatial interdependence and heterogeneity characterizing the high-quality progression of the insurance industry among provinces. The findings disclose a pronounced regional development gap throughout China, surpassing intra-regional disparities and underscoring a notable concern of imbalance in regional insurance industry development. Despite the elevated development stature of the eastern region, substantial interprovincial differentials persist, exposing internal "inequities" within this region. In the central and western domains, although internal divergences in insurance industry development are gradually diminishing, the overall developmental benchmarks remain comparatively subdued., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Zhu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Exposure to residential greenness has been linked with improved sleep duration; however, longitudinal evidence is limited, and the potential mediating effect of ambient fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) has yet to be assessed., Methods: We obtained data for 19,567 participants across seven counties in a prospective cohort in Ningbo, China. Greenness was estimated using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) within 250-m, 500-m and 1000-m buffer zones, while yearly average PM 2.5 concentrations were measured using validated land-use regression models, both based on individual residential addresses. Sleep duration was assessed using structured questionnaires at baseline and during follow-up. The longitudinal associations between residential greenness and sleep duration were evaluated using linear mixed-effect models. Adjustments for PM 2.5 and county were implemented. To identify the effect of greenness exposure on age-related declines in sleep duration, we included an interaction term between NDVI and visit (baseline and follow-up). Additionally, half-longitudinal mediation analyses were conducted to evaluate the potential mediating role of PM 2.5 in this relationship., Results: Each interquartile range (IQR) increase in NDVI within 250 m, 500 m and 1000 m was associated with increases in sleep duration of 0.044 h (95% CI: 0.028,0.061), 0.045 h (95% CI: 0.028,0.062), and 0.031 h (95% CI: 0.013,0.049), respectively. Associations were attenuated after adjusting for PM 2.5 . Farmers, homemakers, and short-nap individuals benefited the most from greenness exposure. Higher greenness exposure significantly lowered PM 2.5 levels, which was associated with a slower decline in sleep duration over the follow-up period., Conclusion: Exposure to higher levels of residential greenness was associated with increased sleep duration and a slower decline in sleep over time. County-level heterogeneity in the effects of residential greenness on sleep duration was observed. PM 2.5 partially mediating this relationship., 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 © 2025. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: Hip fractures have become a significant health concern, particularly among super-aged patients, who were at a high risk of postoperative pneumonia due to their frailty and the presence of multiple comorbidities. This study aims to establish and validate a model to predict postoperative pneumonia among super-aged patients with hip fracture., Methods: Data were derived from the Chinese PLA General Hospital (PLAGH) Hip Fracture Cohort Study, and we included 555 super-aged patients (≧80 years old) with hip fracture treated with surgery. Patient's demographics, comorbidities, laboratory tests, and surgery types were collected for analysis. All patients were randomly splitting into a training group and a validation group according to the ratio of 7:3. The majority of patients were used to train models, which was tuned using a series of algorithms, including decision tree (DT), random forest (RF), extreme gradient boosting machine (eXGBM), support vector machine (SVM), neural network (NN), and logistic regression (LR)., Results: The incidence of postoperative pneumonia was 7.2% (40/555). Among the six developed models, the eXGBM model demonstrated the optimal model, with the area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.929 (95% CI: 0.900-0.959), followed by the RF model (AUC: 0.916, 95% CI: 0.885-0.948). The LR model had an AUC value of 0.720 (95% CI: 0.662-0.778). In addition, the eXGBM model demonstrated the optimal prediction performance in terms of accuracy (0.858), precision (0.870), F1 score (0.855), Brier score (0.104), and log loss (0.349). It also showed favorable calibration ability and favorable clinical net benefits across various threshold risk., Conclusion: This study develops and validates a reliable machine learning-based model to predict pneumonia specifically among super-aged patients with hip fracture following surgery. This model can serve as a useful tool to identify postoperative pneumonia and guide clinical strategies for super-aged patients with hip fracture., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2025 Tang et al.)

Methane microseepage from oil and gas fields significantly contributes to atmospheric methane level, making it a critical factor in global climate change. Therefore, accurate monitoring of surface flux and investigating migration mechanism are pivotal to evaluating and mitigating the impact of methane microseepage. In this study, methane microseepage from natural gas reservoirs in a mild climate was investigated, using Xinchang gas field as a case study. Soil samples were collected to analyze geochemical anomalies of acid-hydrolyzed hydrocarbons (AHH) and altered carbonates (AC). Surface methane flux from natural gas reservoirs were monitored, using a greenhouse gas analyzer and static gas collection chambers. Methane release patterns and migration mechanism were then discussed. Headspace and soil gas samples were collected to determine the hydrocarbon composition and carbon isotope profile. The results indicate that surface methane flux in Xinchang gas field is weak, exhibiting three release patterns: continuous, episodic, and flat. Spiked anomalies of AHH and AC co-exist in the test area, suggesting methane migration from reservoirs to surface. Hydrocarbon composition and carbon isotope profile in headspace and soil gas samples confirm thermogenic origin of methane. These findings offer new insights into the behavior of methane microseepage from natural gas reservoirs in mild climate. It is also suggested that close monitoring and stringent regulation of methane microseepage, as well as continuous investigation on factors affecting this phenomenon, are essential to the management of geological methane emissions. The conclusions of this work align with previous studies and are applicable to managing methane microseepage from oil and gas reservoirs in a wider scope., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Although smoking is considered the primary cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), there is a growing realization that there may be important secondary risk factors. Tuberculosis may lead to lung impairment; however, whether residual lung damage results in clinically significant, long-term outcomes, independent of smoking, has not been well studied. We aimed to investigate the association between tuberculosis and the subsequent development of COPD using a large, population-based cohort study., Methods: We conducted a longitudinal cohort study within the Chinese Electronic Health Records Research in Yinzhou study between 2009 and 2021. We followed participants free of COPD at the beginning of the study, and investigated whether previous or current tuberculosis was an important risk factor. Tuberculosis was recorded based on the Chinese National Disease Reporting system which includes all diagnosed cases at the city, provincial and national levels. We assessed the relationship between tuberculosis and COPD using multivariable survival models, adjusting for demographic and lifestyle characteristics, education level, comorbidities and use of medications., Results: Among 477 046 participants, 198 882 were eligible for inclusion in our analysis. In a multivariable model, pulmonary tuberculosis and all tuberculosis were associated with a 2.57-fold [95% confidence interval (CI), 2.31-2.87)] and 1.67-fold (95% CI, 1.48-1.90) increased COPD risk, respectively. Stronger associations of pulmonary tuberculosis and all tuberculosis with COPD were seen in participants who were elderly, or with lower body mass index or education level (Pinteraction<0.001). People with tuberculosis were at an increased risk of COPD if they were current smokers [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR), 1.40; 95% CI, 1.02-1.93] or non-smokers (aHR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.50-1.98)., Conclusions: Persons who developed tuberculosis were at much greater risk of developing COPD, even accounting for smoking and other potential confounders., (© The Author(s) 2025; all rights reserved. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Climate risk has become a hot topic of global concern. This paper aims to explore the impact of investor climate sentiment (ICS) on China' s crude oil futures market, covering the period from March 27, 2018, to December 30, 2022. Firstly, this paper employs the Thermal Optimal Path (TOP) method and discovers that the guiding effect of ICS on the volatility of crude oil futures (RVoil) intensifies over time, progressively becoming a pivotal factor in determining volatility. Secondly, based on the lead-lag relationship between ICS and RVoil, this study divides the sample period into five stages and confirms through the HAR model that ICS has a significant inhibitory effect on crude oil volatility during the guiding phase. In addition, incorporating ICS into the HAR model not only improves the model' s goodness of fit but also significantly reduces the prediction error in out-of-sample forecasts. Finally, by comparing with the full-sample analysis, the volatility prediction results of the segmented samples show that during the guiding phase, the predictive power of ICS for crude oil market volatility is significantly improved. Even in the non-guiding phase, ICS can reduce the prediction error to a certain extent. This result further highlights the advantages of the TOP method in revealing the impact of ICS on the prediction of crude oil volatility., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Large-scale water diversion projects are essential for meeting the needs of water-stressed regions, necessitating an evaluation of their impact on water quality and aquatic ecosystems. This study provides the first snapshots of organic micropollutants (OMPs) along the 1466 km Eastern Route of China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project. Using nontarget analysis with ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry, we identified and quantified 357 OMPs from water samples collected during the water diversion period (WDP) and the nonwater diversion period (NWDP). The OMPs included 136 household compounds, 112 agricultural compounds, 102 industrial compounds, and 7 traffic markers. Significant regional variations in OMP concentrations and compositions were observed during the NWDP due to diverse local pollution sources along the route. However, such differences were reduced during the WDP, likely due to water transfer. OMP diversity varied substantially during the NWDP but was more stable with less distance decay during the WDP. Network analysis indicated closer relationships between the OMPs during the WDP, suggesting a more consistent spatial distribution. The source water overwhelmingly influenced the water quality along the diversion route. These findings underscore the need for ongoing assessments of the impact of water diversion on regional water quality and ecosystems.

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is an important mosquito borne infectious disease which is mainly transmitted by Culex tritaeniorhynchus Giles (1901) in China. At present, vector control remains an important means to prevent and control vector-borne diseases including JE. The development of insecticide resistance has seriously threatened the effectiveness of insecticide-based vector control programmes. Therefore, understanding insecticide resistance in the target pest is essential to inform evidence-based vector control. In Mianyang City of Sichuan Province of China, Cx. tritaeniorhynchus is the dominant mosquito species, and JE has been documented in this city. Unfortunately, there is little information on the status and underlying mechanisms of insecticide resistance in field populations of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus , the main JE vector in this region. In the study, a total of 314 adults of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus , collected from 6 sites across Mianyang City, were inspected for resistance-conferring mutations in three genes encoding voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC), Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor Rdl subunit (Rdl), and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) by DNA Sanger sequencing. The results showed that the classical L1014F mutation in VGSC was distributed in all the 6 populations at varying frequencies from 16.98% to 27.78%, and the frequency of F455W mutation in AChE was extremely high (97.06%-100%). Notably, the conserved mutations A296S and V327I previously reported in the Rdl of some other species of mosquitoes were discovered in Cx. tritaeniorhynchus for the first time. The frequency of the resistant Rdl 296S allele was 62.04% to 94.00%, while the V327I mutation was present at a much lower frequency ranging from 0.93% to 1.8%. Overall, the prevalent co-existence of resistance-conferring mutations in multiple insecticide target proteins in Cx. tritaeniorhynchus populations in Mianyang City indicates a worrying status of insecticide resistance, and suggests that it is highly required to monitor the phenotypic resistance of Cx. tritaeniorhynchus on a regular basis., 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 © 2025 Xie, Tang, Sun, Huang, Dong and Wen.)

Thermodynamic modeling is still the most widely used method to characterize aerosol acidity, a critical physicochemical property of atmospheric aerosols. However, it remains unclear whether gas-aerosol partitioning should be incorporated when thermodynamic models are employed to estimate the acidity of coarse particles. In this work, field measurements were conducted at a coastal city in northern China across three seasons, and covered wide ranges of temperature, relative humidity and NH 3 concentrations. We examined the performance of different modes of ISORROPIA-II (a widely used aerosol thermodynamic model) in estimating aerosol acidity of coarse and fine particles. The M0 mode, which incorporates gas-phase data and runs the model in the forward mode, provided reasonable estimation of aerosol acidity for coarse and fine particles. Compared to M0, the M1 mode, which runs the model in the forward mode but does not include gas-phase data, may capture the general trend of aerosol acidity but underestimates pH for both coarse and fine particles; M2, which runs the model in the reverse mode, results in large errors in estimated aerosol pH for both coarse and fine particles and should not be used for aerosol acidity calculations. However, M1 significantly underestimates liquid water contents for both fine and coarse particles, while M2 provides reliable estimation of liquid water contents. In summary, our work highlights the importance of incorporating gas-aerosol partitioning when estimating coarse particle acidity, and thus may help improve our understanding of acidity of coarse particles., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Previous studies on temperature and infectious diseases primarily focused on individual disease types, yielding inconsistent conclusions. This study collected monthly data on notifiable infectious disease cases and meteorological variables across 7 provinces in China from 2011 to 2019. A distributed lag nonlinear model was used to evaluate the association between ambient temperature and infectious diseases within each province, and random meta-analysis was applied to evaluate the pooled effect. Extreme hot temperature (the 97.5th percentile) was positively associated with the risk of respiratory infectious diseases with the relative risk (RR) of 1.45 (95%CI: 1.01-2.08). Conversely, extreme cold temperature (the 2.5th percentile) was negatively associated with intestinal infectious diseases and zoonotic diseases and vector-borne diseases, reporting RRs of 0.43 (95%CI: 0.30-0.60) and 0.46 (95%CI: 0.38-0.57), respectively. This study described the nonlinear association between ambient temperature and infectious diseases with different transmission routes, informing comprehensive prevention and control strategies for temperature-related infectious diseases.

Boundary-spanning behavior, which involves building relationships with external entities to achieve organizational goals, has been highlighted as a key mechanism for enhancing the inflow of external knowledge. While boundary-spanning can fuel creativity by providing employees with new resources, ideas, and inspiration, it also poses challenges, potentially depleting resources and inducing stress that hinders creativity. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory, this paper explores the dual impact of boundary-spanning on employee creativity-serving both as a facilitator and inhibitor. Through an experimental study (n = 299) and a field study (n = 331 employees, 49 supervisors), we examine how external engagement fosters or hampers creative thinking, focusing on the mechanisms of resource gain and resource drain. Our findings contribute to the understanding of how organizations can balance the demands of boundary-spanning to harness its creative potential while mitigating its negative consequences. This research provides actionable insights for businesses seeking to thrive in competitive, innovation-driven environments., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this manuscript. All research was conducted in an unbiased manner, and there are no financial or personal relationships with other individuals or organizations that could inappropriately influence the work or its interpretation., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Jinmudan (JMD) is a high-aroma variety widely cultivated in China. The current study primarily focuses on the key volatile metabolites in JMD black and oolong teas, and investigates the impact of processing technologies on the aroma quality of JMD tea. However, few studies have explored the suitability of JMD for producing a certain type of tea or the characteristic quality differences among various JMD teas using multivariate statistical analysis methods., Results: The principal volatile metabolites contributing to the floral quality of JMD tea are linalool, geraniol, indole and phenethyl alcohol. In JMD black tea (BT), the key volatile metabolites include methyl salicylate, geraniol, (E)-β-ocimene and phenethyl alcohol. In JMD oolong tea (OT), the key volatile metabolites include indole, linalyl valerate and phenethyl alcohol. In JMD yellow tea (YT), the key volatile metabolites include methyl salicylate, geraniol and terpinolene. In JMD white tea (WT), the key volatile metabolites include methyl salicylate, geraniol and terpinolene. In JMD green tea (GT), the key volatile metabolites include (E)-β-ocimene, indole and geraniol. Comparative analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed that flavonoid biosynthesis is the primary metabolic pathway responsible for the taste differences among various tea types. GT exhibited higher levels of phloretin, dihydromyricetin and galangin. The contents of vitexin, tricetin in YT were relatively higher. The contents of aromadendrin and naringenin in BT were higher, while OT contained higher levels of kaempferol. Additionally, WT showed higher contents of 3-O-acetylpinobanksin and 3,5,7-pinobanksin., Conclusion: This study explained the reasons for the quality differences of different JMD tea and provided a reliable theoretical basis for the adaptability of JMD tea. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.)

Objective: To construct a recurrence prediction model for Elderly Schizophrenia Patients (ESCZP) and validate the model's spatial external applicability., Methods: The modeling cohort consisted of 365 ESCZP cases from the Seventh People's Hospital of Dalian, admitted between May 2022 and April 2024. Variables were selected using Lasso-Logistic regression to construct the recurrence prediction model, with a nomogram plotted using the "RMS" package in R 4.3.3 software. Model validation was performed using 1,000 bootstrap resamples. Spatial external validation was conducted using 172 cases ESCZP from the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Qiqihar Medical College during the same period. The model's discrimination, accuracy, and clinical utility were assessed using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves, Area Under the Curve (AUC), calibration curves, and Decision Curve Analysis (DCA). The Hosmer-Lemeshow test was used to evaluate model fit., Results: A total of 537 cases ESCZP were included based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, with 150 recurrences within two years and 387 non-recurrences. Lasso-Logistic regression analysis identified Medication status, Premorbid personality, Exercise frequency, Drug adverse reactions, Family care, Social support, and Life events as predictors of ESCZP recurrence. The AUC for the modeling cohort was 0.877 (95% CI: 0.837-0.917). For the external validation cohort, the AUC was 0.838 (95% CI: 0.776-0.899). Calibration curves indicated that the fit was close to the reference line, demonstrating high model stability. DCA results showed good net benefit at a threshold probability of 80%., Conclusion: The nomogram prediction model developed based on Lasso-Logistic regression shows potential in identifying the risk of recurrence in ESCZP. However, further validation and refinement are needed before it can be applied in routine clinical practice., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Dalian Seventh People’s Hospital (approval number: 2023-27, approval date: 10-24-2023). All participants provided written informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study, in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Data were sourced from hospital records or telephone follow-up surveys, ensuring participant consent. Consent for publication: Consent for publication was obtained from all participants included in the study. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Background: Previous studies have suggested that neighborhoods characterized by higher walkability are related to a reduced risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD), whereas exposure to PM 2.5 is positively associated with risk of IHD. Nevertheless, their joint impact on IHD warrants further investigation., Methods: This prospective cohort study was performed in Yinzhou, Ningbo, China, comprising 47,516 participants. Individual-level walkability and PM 2.5 were evaluated using a commercial walkability database and a land use regression (LUR) model, respectively. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CIs) were calculated using two Cox proportional hazards models: one based on two-year average PM 2.5 levels prior to baseline, and the other incorporating time-varying PM 2.5 assessed on a monthly scale. Dose-response relationships were explored using restricted cubic spline (RCS) functions. Interactions on both additive and multiplicative scales were assessed via relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI) and likelihood-ratio tests. Joint effects were explored and visualized using a 3D wireframe plot., Results: Over a median follow-up of 5.14 years, 1735 incident cases of IHD were identified. Adjusted HRs (95 % CIs) were 1.56 (1.34-1.81) per 10 μg/m 3 increase in PM 2.5 and 0.96 (0.94-0.98) per 10-unit increase in walkability, with both exposures exhibiting non-linear dose-response relationships. Walkability and PM 2.5 were positively correlated (r s = 0.12, P < 0.001), and a multiplicative interaction was detected (P interaction = 0.019)., Conclusion: Walkability was inversely associated with risk of IHD, whereas exposure to PM 2.5 was positively associated with IHD. Notably, the pernicious effects of PM 2.5 could be attenuated in areas with higher levels of walkability. Our findings underscore the significance of walkable urban design, air quality improvement, as preventive strategies for IHD., 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 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Although physical activity (PA) has been linked to cognitive health, the nuanced relationships between different dimensions of PA and cognitive impairment remain inconclusive. This study investigated associations between late-life PA levels, midlife-to-late-life activity patterns, and cognitive impairment in Chinese older adults, considering potential moderation by apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 genotype., Methods: We analyzed baseline data from 6,899 participants (median age 68 years, 55.78% female) in the West China Health and Aging Cohort study, with 6,575 participants having APOE genotyping data. Late-life PA and midlife-to-late-life activity patterns were assessed using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire and a standardized question, respectively. Cognitive function was evaluated using the Chinese version of Mini-Mental State Examination. Logistic regression models were used to examine associations., Results: Compared to low PA level, moderate (odds ratio [OR] = 0.74, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.55 ~ 0.99) and high PA levels (OR = 0.60, 95%CI = 0.48 ~ 0.75) were associated with lower risk of cognitive impairment. Engaging in work-, transport-, recreation-related, and moderate-intensity PA were each significantly associated with lower cognitive impairment risk. Maintaining activity levels from midlife to late life was associated with lower cognitive impairment risk compared to decreasing levels (OR = 0.75, 95%CI = 0.60 ~ 0.94). These associations were more pronounced in APOE ε4 non-carriers, with an interaction observed between APOE ε4 genotype and recreation-related PA (P-value = 0.04)., Conclusions: Our findings underscore the multifaceted benefits of PA in mitigating cognitive impairment risk among older Chinese adults. Public health strategies should focus on promoting overall late-life PA levels, especially moderate-intensity PA, and maintaining activity levels comparable to midlife, with potential for personalized interventions based on genetic risk profiles., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The research protocol was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of West China Fourth Hospital of Sichuan University (HXSY-EC-2022034). All participants provided written informed consent. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Growing evidences showed that heavy metals exposure may be associated with metabolic diseases. Nevertheless, the mechanism underlying arsenic (As) exposure and metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk has not been fully elucidated. So we aimed to prospectively investigate the role of serum uric acid (SUA) on the association between blood As exposure and incident MetS. A sample of 1045 older participants in a community in China was analyzed. We determined As at baseline and SUA concentration at follow-up in the Yiwu Elderly Cohort. MetS events were defined according to the criteria of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). Generalized linear model with log-binominal regression model was applied to estimate the association of As with incident MetS. To investigate the role of SUA in the association between As and MetS, a mediation analysis was conducted. In the fully adjusted log-binominal model, per interquartile range increment of As, the risk of MetS increased 1.25-fold. Compared with the lowest quartile of As, the adjusted relative risk (RR) of MetS in the highest quartile was 1.42 (95% confidence interval, CI: 1.03, 2.00). Additionally, blood As was positively associated with SUA, while SUA had significant association with MetS risk. Further mediation analysis demonstrated that the association of As and MetS risk was mediated by SUA, with the proportion of 15.7%. Our study found higher As was remarkably associated with the elevated risk of MetS in the Chinese older adults population. Mediation analysis indicated that SUA might be a mediator in the association between As exposure and MetS., 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. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Objective: This study aimed to leverage real-world electronic medical record data to develop interpretable machine learning models for diagnosis of Kawasaki disease while also exploring and prioritizing the significant risk factors., Methods: A comprehensive study was conducted on 4087 pediatric patients at the Children's Hospital of Chongqing, China. The study collected demographic data, physical examination results, and laboratory findings. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics, Version 26.0. The optimal feature subset was used to develop intelligent diagnostic prediction models based on the Light Gradient Boosting Machine, Explainable Boosting Machine (EBM), Gradient Boosting Classifier (GBC), Fast Interpretable Greedy-Tree Sums, Decision Tree, AdaBoost Classifier, and Logistic Regression. Model performance was evaluated in three dimensions: discriminative ability via receiver operating characteristic curves, calibration accuracy using calibration curves, and interpretability through SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) and LIME (Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations)., Results: In this study, Kawasaki disease was diagnosed in 2971 participants. Analysis was conducted on 31 indicators, including red blood cell distribution width and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. The EBM model demonstrated superior performance relative to other models, with an area under the curve of 0.97, second only to the GBC model. Furthermore, the EBM model exhibited the highest calibration accuracy and maintained its interpretability without relying on external analytical tools such as SHAP and LIME, thus reducing interpretation biases. Platelet distribution width, total protein, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were identified by the model as significant predictors for the diagnosis of Kawasaki disease., Conclusion: This study used diverse machine learning models for early diagnosis of Kawasaki disease. The findings demonstrated that interpretable models such as EBM outperformed traditional machine learning models in terms of both interpretability and performance. Ensuring consistency between predictive models and clinical evidence is crucial for the successful integration of artificial intelligence into real-world clinical practice., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (Copyright © 2024 Hellenic Society of Cardiology. Publishing services by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To investigate the frailty status of inpatients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and analyse its influencing factors, so as to provide evidence for the early identification of high-risk groups and frailty management., Background: Early identification of frailty can guide the development and implementation of holistic and individualized treatment plans. However, at present, the frailty of patients with CHF has not attracted enough attention., Design: A cross-sectional study., Methods: From June 2022 to June 2023, a convenience sample of 256 participants were recruited at a hospital in China. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to explore the influencing factors of frailty in patients with CHF, and an ROC curve was drawn to determine the cut-off values for each influencing factor. STROBE checklist guides the reporting of the manuscript., Results: A total of 270 questionnaires were sent out during the survey, and 256 valid questionnaires were ultimately recovered, resulting in an effective recovery rate of 94.8%. The incidence of frailty in hospitalized patients with CHF was 68.75%. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that age, self-care ability, nutritional risk, Kinesiophobia and NT-proBNP were risk factors for frailty, while albumin and LVEF were protective factors., Conclusion: Multidimensional frailty was prevalent in hospitalized patients with CHF. Medical staff should take measures as early as possible from the aspects of exercise, nutrition, psychology and disease to delay the occurrence and development of frailty and reduce the occurrence of clinical adverse events caused by frailty., Relevance to Clinical Practice: This study emphasizes the importance of the early identification of multidimensional frailty and measures can be taken to delay the occurrence and development of frailty through exercise, nutrition, psychology and disease treatment., Patient or Public Contribution: Patients contributed through sharing their information required for the case report form and filling out questionnaires., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: The role of biological aging in the relationship between household air pollution (HAP) from polluting cooking fuels and neuropsychiatric diseases remains unclear., Methods: This nationwide cohort study enrolled 8550 participants aged 45-80 from 2011 to 2020. Biological age based on Klemera-Doubal method (KDM-BA) was derived from 11 clinical biomarkers. The associations of switching cooking fuels with KDM-BA acceleration (KDM-BAA) and neuropsychiatric diseases were elucidated by generalized linear models and Cox proportional hazard models, respectively. The mediating effects of KDM-BAA on associations between polluting cooking fuel and neuropsychiatric diseases were further examined. We also evaluated the potential of leisure engagement in attenuating KDM-BAA associated with polluting cooking fuels., Results: Compared to consistent use of cleaner fuels, consistent solid fuel use was associated with a 0.12 (95 % CI: 0.05, 0.18) year increase in KDM-BAA, a 25 % higher risk of neurological disease (HR = 1.25, 95 % CI: 1.03, 1.54), and a 34 % increased risk of psychiatric disorders (HR = 1.34, 95 % CI: 1.02, 1.78). Mediation analysis revealed that KDM-BAA significantly mediated the association between solid cooking fuel and neuropsychiatric diseases, with mediated proportions of 5.96 % (P = 0.006) for neurological disease and 5.71 % (P = 0.024) for psychiatric disease. Leisure engagement demonstrated stable benefits in attenuating KDM-BAA independently of cooking fuel use., Conclusion: Our findings illuminate the pathways connecting HAP from solid fuel consumption with biological aging and neuropsychiatric disorders, and highlight the role of leisure engagement and expanding access to cleaner fuels in mitigating these adverse effects., 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 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives. Dysphagia is a geriatric syndrome, which may lead to complications such as dehydration, malnutrition, aspiration, pneumonia, and a significant reduction in quality of life. The purpose of this study was to construct and validate a prediction model for dysphagia in community-dwelling older adults and provide an assessment tool for the prevention and control of dysphagia. Design. Cross-sectional study. Setting. The community-dwelling Chinese older adults. Participants. 3655 participants aged 65 years and older were involved, who were randomly divided into the training set and the validation set. Methods. Data were collected and analyzed from June 2022 to September 2022. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to identify independent risk factors for dysphagia. We applied R software to develop a nomogram model to predict dysphagia in community-dwelling older adults. The predictive value of the model was assessed by the area under the ROC curve (AUC), the calibration curve was used to evaluate the reliability of the nomogram model for predicting dysphagia in community-dwelling older adults. The model's clinical utility was further evaluated using a Decision Curve Analysis (DCA). Results. The incidence of dysphagia was 11.8% (320/3655). Maximum tongue pressure, number of molars, pneumonia, ADL, sarcopenia, age, neurological diseases, and rheumatic immune diseases were selected as risk predictors for dysphagia. The prediction model demonstrated fair discriminative ability with the AUC was 0.709 (95%CI: 0.679-0.739) in the training set and 0.693 (95%Cl: 0.640-0.747) in the validation set, the calibration is adequate, and the Hosmer and Lemeshow test showed p values of 0.163 and 0.415, respectively. The DCA curve of our model shows a positive clinical net benefit. Conclusions. The prediction model established in this study was of a certain predictive value for the risk of dysphagia in community-dwelling older adults. By estimating the likelihood of future outcomes or the onset of certain diseases, it can assist medical personnel in formulating preventive strategies, lessening the workload of nurses, and also diminishing the financial burden on patients, thereby enhancing their overall quality of life., 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.

Background: Available evidence falls short in assessing the risk of long-term outcomes among individuals with hypertension residing at various altitudes. We aimed to investigate the association between residential altitude and the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality among hypertensive patients., Methods: This cohort study encompassed 67,275 hypertensive patients aged ≥35 years who participated in China's Basic Public Health Service Program in 2018. Participants were categorized into four groups based on their residence altitude: <500 m, 500-1,499 m, 1,500-2,500 m, and > 2,500 m. The associations between residential altitude and the risks of all-cause and CVD mortality were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards regression models. The dose-response relationship was performed by the restricted cubic spline with multivariable adjusted models., Results: Among the 67,275 hypertensive patients included in the study (mean age of 63.9 years, with 45.3% male), 8,768 deaths were recorded, of which 5,666 were attributed to CVD. Following multivariate adjustment, when compared to the group residing at altitudes < 500 m, the groups living at altitudes of 500-1,499 m, 1500-2,500 m, and > 2,500 m exhibited significantly risks of all-cause mortality [HR = 1.45 (95% CI: 1.36-1.54), 1.35 (95% CI: 1.28-1.43), and 1.41 (95% CI: 1.28-1.54), respectively] and CVD mortality [HR = 1.47 (95% CI: 1.35-1.58), 1.42 (95% CI: 1.33-1.52), and 1.46 (95% CI: 1.31-1.62), respectively]. The restricted cubic spline curves revealed a nonlinear relationship between residential altitude and all-cause and CVD mortality. The risk of mortality was higher among participants with poorly controlled blood pressure, aged 65 years and above, and living in rural areas., Conclusions: This study demonstrated a significant association between long-term residential high-altitude exposure and increased risks of all-cause and CVD mortality among hypertension patients. The implications of the findings call for a prioritization of public health resource allocation and early intervention efforts, especially for those living at high altitudes and in low-income areas where hypertension is prevalent., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Fuwai Yunnan Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and all respondents gave written informed consent according to BPHS requirements. Consent for publication: All authors approve the publication of the final manuscript. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Aminoglycosides (AGs) and beta-lactams are the most commonly used antimicrobials in animal settings, particularly on dairy farms. Dairy farm waste is an important reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and virulence genes (VGs) in environmental Escherichia coli, which is an important indicator of environmental contamination and foodborne pathogen that potentially threaten human and animal health. In the present study, we aimed to characterize the ARGs and VGs in AG- and beta-lactam-resistant E. coli from dairy farm waste in Gansu Province, China. The dairy farm waste consisted of fecal (n = 265) and sewage (n = 54) samples processed using standard microbiological techniques and the Clinical & Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. The total DNA of AG- and beta-lactam-resistant E. coli was extracted, and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was performed using the Illumina NovaSeq platform and analyzed using various bioinformatics tools. In this study, among 84.3% (269/319) of the E. coli strains, 23.8% (64/269) were identified as AG- and beta-lactam-resistant E. coli. WGS analysis revealed a large pool of ARGs belonging to multiple classes such as AGs, beta-lactams, aminocoumarins, fluoroquinolones, macrolides, phenicol, tetracyclines, phosphonic acid, disinfecting and antiseptic agents, elfamycin, rifamycin, and multidrug resistance genes. Furthermore, virulome analysis of 64 E. coli strains revealed clinically important virulence factors associated with adherence, biofilm, invasion, auto-transportation, siderophores, secretion systems, toxins, anti-phagocytosis, quorum sensing, regulation, metabolism, and motility. We identified dairy farm feces and sewage waste as important reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance and virulence determinants in E. coli in Gansu, China, which can threaten human and animal health through ecological exposure and contamination of food and water. We recommend continuous large-scale surveillance in dairy farm settings to formulate protective guidelines for public health safety., 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 Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Air pollution and outdoor light at night (LAN) have been reported to be related to type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, their interaction with risk of T2D remains uncertain. Therefore, our study aimed to explore the relationship between outdoor LAN, air pollution and incident T2D., Methods: Our study included a cohort of 24,147 subjects recruited from 2015 to 2018 in Ningbo, China. Land use regression models were used to evaluate particulate matter with a diameter ≤2.5 μm (PM 2.5 ), ≤10 μm (PM 10 ) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ). Satellite images data with a spatial resolution of 500m was used to estimate outdoor LAN levels. T2D new cases were identified by medical records based on health information system. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Moreover, we investigated the multiplicative and additive interactions between air pollution and outdoor LAN., Results: During 108,908 person-years of follow-up period, 1016 T2D incident cases were identified. The HRs (95% CIs) were 1.22 (1.15, 1.30) for outdoor LAN, 1.20 (1.00, 1.45) for PM 2.5 , 1.23 (1.11, 1.35) for PM 10 and 1.19 (1.04, 1.37) for NO 2 in every interquartile range increase, respectively. Furthermore, significant interactions were observed between outdoor LAN and NO 2 ., Conclusions: Our findings indicated that air pollution and outdoor LAN were positively associated with T2D. Moreover, we observed an interaction between outdoor LAN and NO 2 suggesting that stronger associations for outdoor LAN and T2D in areas with higher levels of NO 2 , and for NO 2 and T2D in areas with higher levels of outdoor LAN., 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 Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Early antimicrobial therapy is crucial regarding the prognosis of vertebral osteomyelitis, but early pathogen diagnosis remains challenging., Objective: In this study, we aimed to differentiate the types of pathogens in iatrogenic vertebral osteomyelitis (IVO) and native vertebral osteomyelitis (NVO) to guide early antibiotic treatment., Methods: A total of 145 patients, who had confirmed spinal infection and underwent metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) testing, were included, with 114 in the NVO group and 31 in the IVO group. Using mNGS, we detected and classified 53 pathogens in the 31 patients in the IVO group and 169 pathogens in the 114 patients in the NVO group. To further distinguish IVO from NVO, we employed machine learning algorithms to select serum biomarkers and developed a nomogram model., Results: The results revealed that the proportion of the Actinobacteria phylum in the NVO group was approximately 28.40%, which was significantly higher than the 15.09% in the IVO group. Conversely, the proportion of the Firmicutes phylum (39.62%) in the IVO group was markedly increased compared to the 21.30% in the NVO group. Further genus-level classification demonstrated that Staphylococcus was the most common pathogen in the IVO group, whereas Mycobacterium was predominant in the NVO group. Through LASSO regression and random forest algorithms, we identified 5 serum biomarkers including percentage of basophils (BASO%), percentage of monocytes (Mono%), platelet volume (PCT), globulin (G), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) for distinguishing IVO from NVO. Based on these biomarkers, we established a nomogram model capable of accurately discriminating between the two conditions., Conclusion: The results of this study hold promise in providing valuable guidance to clinical practitioners for the differential diagnosis and early antimicrobial treatment of vertebral osteomyelitis.

Background: A commercial three-dimensional optical (3DO) scanning system was reported to be used in body composition assessment. However, the applicability in Chinese adults has yet to be well-studied., Methods: This secondary analysis was based on a 16-week weight-loss clinical trial with an optional extension to 24 weeks. Waist and hip circumference and body composition were measured by 3DO scanning at each follow-up visit during the study. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) was also performed to confirm the reliability of 3DO scanning at each visit. We used Lin's concordance correlation coefficients (CCC) to evaluate the correlation between the two methods above-mentioned. Bland-Altman analysis was also performed to evaluate the agreement and potential bias between different methods., Results: A total number of 70 Chinese adults overweight and obese (23 men and 47 women, aged 31.8 ± 5.8 years) were included in the analysis, which resulted in 350 3DO scans and corresponding 350 BIA measurements. The percent body fat, fat mass, and fat-free mass were 33.9 ± 5.4%, 26.7 ± 4.6 kg, and 50.3 ± 8.7 kg before the trial by 3DO scanning. And they were 30.5 ± 5.8%, 22.5 ± 4.7 kg, and 49.4 ± 8.3 kg after 16 weeks of the trial. Compared with BIA, 3DO scanning performed best in the assessment of fat-free mass (CCC = 0.89, 95%CI: 0.86, 0.90), then followed by fat mass (CCC = 0.76, 95%CI: 0.71, 0.80) and percent body fat (CCC = 0.70, 95%CI: 0.64, 0.75). Subgroup analysis showed that 3DO scanning and BIA correlated better in women than that in men, and correlated better in measuring fat-free mass in participants with larger body weight (BMI ≥28.0 kg/m 2 ) than those with smaller body weight (<28.0 kg/m 2 )., Conclusions: 3DO scanning is an effective technology to monitor changes in body composition in Chinese adults overweight and obese. However its accuracy and reliability in different ethnicities needs further exploration.

Background: Clinical named entity recognition (CNER) is a fundamental task in natural language processing used to extract named entities from electronic medical record texts. In recent years, with the continuous development of machine learning, deep learning models have replaced traditional machine learning and template-based methods, becoming widely applied in the CNER field. However, due to the complexity of clinical texts, the diversity and large quantity of named entity types, and the unclear boundaries between different entities, existing advanced methods rely to some extent on annotated databases and the scale of embedded dictionaries., Objective: This study aims to address the issues of data scarcity and labeling difficulties in CNER tasks by proposing a dataset augmentation algorithm based on proximity word calculation., Methods: We propose a Segmentation Synonym Sentence Synthesis (SSSS) algorithm based on neighboring vocabulary, which leverages existing public knowledge without the need for manual expansion of specialized domain dictionaries. Through lexical segmentation, the algorithm replaces new synonymous vocabulary by recombining from vast natural language data, achieving nearby expansion expressions of the dataset. We applied the SSSS algorithm to the Robustly Optimized Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers Pretraining Approach (RoBERTa) + conditional random field (CRF) and RoBERTa + Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) + CRF models and evaluated our models (SSSS + RoBERTa + CRF; SSSS + RoBERTa + BiLSTM + CRF) on the China Conference on Knowledge Graph and Semantic Computing (CCKS) 2017 and 2019 datasets., Results: Our experiments demonstrated that the models SSSS + RoBERTa + CRF and SSSS + RoBERTa + BiLSTM + CRF achieved F1-scores of 91.30% and 91.35% on the CCKS-2017 dataset, respectively. They also achieved F1-scores of 83.21% and 83.01% on the CCKS-2019 dataset, respectively., Conclusions: The experimental results indicated that our proposed method successfully expanded the dataset and remarkably improved the performance of the model, effectively addressing the challenges of data acquisition, annotation difficulties, and insufficient model generalization performance., (© Jian Tang, Zikun Huang, Hongzhen Xu, Hao Zhang, Hailing Huang, Minqiong Tang, Pengsheng Luo, Dong Qin. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (https://medinform.jmir.org).)

Following improved accessibility to medical services, the phenomenon of polypharmacy in elderly patients with comorbidity has been increasing globally. Polypharmacy patients are prone to drug interactions, adverse drug reactions, and even the risk of death etc. Therefore, there is an urgent need to fully understand the current status and characteristics of drug use in elderly patients with chronic diseases, focusing on polypharmacy factors to ensure that medications for elderly patients are effective and safe. To collect and analyze the characteristics of the current drug use situation in elderly patients with chronic diseases in Chongqing and further explore the influencing factors for polypharmacy, providing references for formulating more effective and safe medication regimens for elderly patients. Most elderly patients affected with chronic diseases in Chongqing were willing to go to hospitals or pharmacies to buy medicines. However, they were not familiar with their disease conditions and drug-related adverse reactions and could not be regularly followed up or monitored. The number of diseases, medications, and adverse drug reactions increased with the increasing age of elderly patients. The problem of irrational use of drugs in elderly patients with chronic diseases was relatively prominent, especially the use of traditional Chinese medicines. The medication situation in elderly patients with chronic diseases was not optimistic, and the problem of polypharmacy was relatively prominent. Further large-scale studies are needed to provide a certain reference for improving the current status of drug use in elderly patients., (Copyright © 2024 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Background: The relationship between rare variants in Ring finger protein 213 (RNF213) and intracranial atherosclerosis (ICAS) remained unelucidated. Using whole-exome sequencing (WES) and high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR-MRI), this study aimed at investigating the association between rare RNF213 variants and ICAS within a Chinese community-dwelling population., Methods: The present study included 821 participants from Shunyi cohort. Genetic data of rare RNF213 variants were acquired by WES and were categorized by functional domains. Intracranial and extracranial atherosclerosis were assessed by brain HR-MRI and carotid ultrasound, respectively. Logistic regression and generalized linear regression were applied to evaluate the effects of rare RNF213 variants on atherosclerosis. Stratification by age were conducted with 50 years old set as the cutoff value., Results: Ninety-five participants were identified as carriers of rare RNF213 variants. Carotid plaques were observed in 367 (44.7 %) participants, while ICAS was identified in 306 (37.3 %). Rare variants of RNF213 was not associated with ECAS. Employing HR-MRI, both the presence of rare variants (β = 0.150, P = 0.025) and numerical count of variants (β = 0.182, P = 0.003) were significantly correlated with ICAS within the group of age ≤50 years. Both variant existence (β = 0.154, P = 0.014) and variant count (β = 0.188, P = 0.003) were significantly associated with plaques in middle cerebral arteries within younger subgroup, rather than basilar arteries. Furthermore, a significant association was observed between variants that located outside the N-arm domain and ICAS in the younger subgroup (OR = 2.522, P = 0.030). Statistical results remained robust after adjusted for age, gender, and cardiovascular risk factors., Conclusions: Rare variants of RNF213 is associated with age-related ICAS in general Chinese population, highlighting the potential role of RNF213 as a genetic contributor to early-onset ICAS., 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 Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The sect. Chrysantha Chang of plants with yellow flowers of Camellia species as the "Queen of the Tea Family", most of these species are narrowly distributed endemics of China and are currently listed Grde-II in National Key Protected Wild Plant of China. They are commercially important plants with horticultural medicinal and scientific research value. However, the study of the sect. Chrysantha species genetics are still in its infancy, to date, the mitochondrial genome in sect. Chrysantha has been still unexplored., Results: In this study, we provide a comprehensive assembly and annotation of the mitochondrial genomes for four species within the sect. Chrysantha. The results showed that the mitochondrial genomes were composed of closed-loop DNA molecules with sizes ranging from 850,836 bp (C. nitidissima) to 1,098,121 bp (C. tianeensis) with GC content of 45.71-45.78% and contained 48-58 genes, including 28-37 protein-coding genes, 17-20 tRNA genes and 2 rRNA genes. We also examined codon usage, sequence repeats, RNA editing and selective pressure in the four species. Then, we performed a comprehensive comparison of their basic structures, GC contents, codon preferences, repetitive sequences, RNA editing sites, Ka/Ks ratios, haplotypes, and RNA editing sites. The results showed that these plants differ little in gene type and number. C. nitidissima has the greatest variety of genes, while C. tianeensis has the greatest loss of genes. The Ka/Ks values of the atp6 gene in all four plants were greater than 1, indicating positive selection. And the codons ending in A and T were highly used. In addition, the RNA editing sites differed greatly in number, type, location, and efficiency. Twelve, six, five, and twelve horizontal gene transfer (HGT) fragments were found in C. tianeensis, Camellia huana, Camellia liberofilamenta, and C. nitidissima, respectively. The phylogenetic tree clusters the four species of sect. Chrysantha plants into one group, and C. huana and C. liberofilamenta have closer affinities., Conclusions: In this study, the mitochondrial genomes of four sect. Chrysantha plants were assembled and annotated, and these results contribute to the development of new genetic markers, DNA barcode databases, genetic improvement and breeding, and provide important references for scientific research, population genetics, and kinship identification of sect. Chrysantha plants., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Pediatric patients are vulnerable to the threat of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) due to their limited immunity and few available antibiotics. Especially when these pathogens exhibit hypervirulent phenotypes, they are often associated with poor clinical outcomes., Methods: In this study, we investigated a CRKP outbreak in pediatric patients from 2019 to 2021 in a teaching hospital in China based on whole genome sequencing. We sequenced twenty-nine CRKP isolates isolated from unduplicated pediatric patients to understand their genetic relationships, virulence factors, resistance mechanisms, and transmission trajectories. Conjugation experiments were performed to evaluate the horizontal transfer ability of carbapenem resistance determinants in twenty-nine CRKP isolates. We then characterized these isolates for biofilm formation ability and serum resistance. Genetic relatedness, comparison of plasmids, and chromosomal locus variation of CRKP isolates were analyzed by bioinformatics., Results: All the isolates were carbapenemase-producers harbouring bla NDM-5 . Among them, twenty-eight isolates belonged to the ST2407 group, with the consistent capsular serotype K25. The virulence-related factors: ureA, fim, ybtA, irp1/irp2, and mrkA were prevalent in these isolates. Additionally, most CRKP isolates showed moderately adherent biofilm formation. Although the ST2407 clonal group did not exhibit serum resistance, the heterogeneous level of serum resistance was related to the disruption of oqxR. Conjugation and WGS revealed that the bla NDM-5 carried by the twenty-eight CRKP ST2407 isolates was located on nonconjugative IncX3 plasmids associated with deleting the T4SS-encoding genes. Clonal transmission of CRKP ST2407 in pediatric patients was suggested by the phylogenetic tree., Conclusions: Our study provides evidence of the clonal spread of bla NDM-5 -producing K. pneumoniae in pediatric patients and the necessity for the T4SS system for horizontal transfer of the IncX3 plasmid carrying bla NDM-5 . Additionally, the disruption of oqxR may have affected the serum resistance of CRKP. The results of this study emphasize the importance of continuously monitoring for CRKP infection in pediatric patients to prevent recurrent infections., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Klebsiella quasipneumoniae is a potential pathogen that has not been studied comprehensively. The emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) K. quasipneumoniae , specifically strains resistant to tigecycline and carbapenem, presents a significant challenge to clinical treatment. This investigation aimed to characterize MDR K. quasipneumoniae strain FK8966, co-carrying tmexCD2-toprJ2 , bla IMP-4 , and bla NDM-1 by plasmids. It was observed that FK8966's MDR was primarily because of the IncHI1B-like plasmid co-carrying tmexCD2-toprJ2 and bla were disseminated among different bacteria, specifically in China. Additionally, according to the comparative genomic analysis, the MDR regions indicated that the IMP-4 , and an IncFIB(K)/IncFII(K) plasmid harboring bla NDM-1 . Furthermore, the phylogenetic analysis revealed that IncHI1B-like plasmids carrying tmexCD2-toprJ2 were disseminated among different bacteria, specifically in China. Additionally, according to the comparative genomic analysis, the MDR regions indicated that the tmexCD2-toprJ2 gene cluster was inserted into the umuC gene, while bla IMP-4 was present in transposon Tn As3 linked to the class 1 integron ( IntI1 ). It was also observed that an ΔTn 3000 insertion with bla NDM-1 made a novel bla NDM-1 harboring IncFIB(K)/IncFII(K) plasmid. The antimicrobial resistance prevalence and phylogenetic analyses of K. quasipneumoniae strains indicated that FK8966 is a distinct MDR branch of K. quasipneumoniae . Furthermore, CRISPR-Cas system analysis showed that many K. quasipneumoniae CRISPR-Cas systems lacked spacers matching the two aforementioned novel resistance plasmids, suggesting that these resistance plasmids have the potential to disseminate within K. quasipneumoniae . Therefore, the spread of MDR K. quasipneumoniae and plasmids warrants further attention.IMPORTANCEThe emergence of multidrug-resistant K. quasipneumoniae poses a great threat to clinical care, and the situation is exacerbated by the dissemination of tigecycline- and carbapenem-resistant genes. Therefore, monitoring these pathogens and their resistance plasmids is urgent and crucial. This study identified tigecycline- and carbapenem-resistant K. quasipneumoniae strain, FK8966. Furthermore, it is the first study to report the coexistence of tmexCD2-toprJ2 , bla IMP-4 , and bla NDM-1 in K. quasipneumoniae . Moreover, the CRISPR-Cas system of many K. quasipneumoniae lacks spacers that match the plasmids carried by FK8966, which are crucial for mediating resistance against tigecycline and carbapenems, indicating their potential to disseminate within K. quasipneumoniae ., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Vegetation degradation in arid and semi-arid regions reduces plant C inputs to the soil, which can impede soil nutrient cycling because of the limited C source for microbial metabolism. However, whether vegetation degradation aggravates microbial nutrient limitation in degraded ecosystems in arid and semi-arid regions is not fully understood. Here, we investigated changes in soil enzyme activity and microbial nutrient limitation along a well-documented gradient of degraded seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) (slightly degraded, canopy dieback <25 %, moderately degraded, canopy dieback 25 %-75 %, and severely degraded, canopy dieback >75 %) in Liang (long ridge) and gully channel locations in the Pisha Sandstone region of the Loess Plateau, China. We found that as the magnitude of seabuckthorn degradation increased, activities of C-acquiring enzymes and ratios of C:N and C:P enzymes (0.54-0.80 and 0.52-0.77, respectively) increased whereas the N:P enzyme ratio (0.93-0.99) decreased. Stoichiometric modelling further indicated that microorganisms were limited by soil C and P (vector angle >45°) in the seabuckthorn plantation region, and the degradation of seabuckthorn plantation aggravated microbial C and P limitations. Partial least squares path modelling revealed that seabuckthorn degradation (canopy dieback) was the main factor explaining microbial C limitation variations, while soil physicochemical properties (pH and soil moisture content) and understory plant parameters (litter biomass) were the major factors underlying microbial P limitation of long ridge and gully channel formations, respectively. Our findings highlight synergistic changes between aboveground and belowground processes, suggesting an unexpected negative effect of vegetation degradation on soil microbial community and nutrient cycling. These insights offer a direction for the development of plantation nutrients management strategies in semi-arid and arid areas., 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.)

The consensus guidelines of the Geriatric Society of Chinese Medical Association on the management of atrial fibrillation (AF) in the elderly was first published in 2011 and updated in 2016, with endorsement by Chinese Society of Geriatric Health Medicine. Since then, many important studies regarding the screening and treatment in the elderly population have been reported, necessitating this updated expert consensus guideline. The writing committee members comprehensively reviewed updated evidence pertaining to elderly patients with AF, and formulated this 2024 update. The highlighted issues focused on the following: screening for AF, geriatric comprehensive assessment, use of the Atrial fibrillation Better Care (ABC) pathway for the elderly patients, and special clinical settings related to elderly patients with AF. New recommendations addressing smart technology facilitated AF screening, ABC pathway based management, and optimal anticoagulation were developed, with a focus on the elderly., Competing Interests: G.Y.H.L. is a consultant and speaker for BMS/Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Daiichi-Sankyo, Anthos. No fees are received personally. He is a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator and co-PI of the AFFIRMO project on multimorbidity in AF (grant agreement No 899871), TARGET project on digital twins for personalised management of atrial fibrillation and stroke (grant agreement No 101136244) and ARISTOTELES project on artificial intelligence for management of chronic long term conditions (grant agreement No 101080189), which are all funded by the EU's Horizon Europe Research & Innovation programme. There is no competing interest from any other author., (The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).)

Background: Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is one of the most common insidious blinding eye diseases. Understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of it is extremely important. It is accepted that POAG attacks specific ocular tissue, such as trabecular meshwork and optic nerve damage, which causes elevated intraocular pressure and optic nerve damage. This study aimed to develop a preliminary prediction model for this disease by establishing the patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)-derived trabecular meshwork cells (TMCs) (p-iPSCs-TMCs) in the largest POAG family named "GZ.1" in China and preliminarily analyze the pathogenic mechanisms., Methods: Peripheral blood of patients in GZ.1 and healthy individuals not belonging to the family were collected and reprogrammed into iPSCs. Then, the iPSCs were differentiated into iPSCs-TMCs. Next, their morphology and function were compared. Finally, their pathogenic mechanisms were analyzed., Results: The patient-specific iPSCs (p-iPSCs) and healthy individual-specific iPSCs (n-iPSCs) were all successfully generated. Their morphology was quite similar to each other. However, p-iPSCs-TMCs exhibited compromised morphology and function. p-iPSCs-TMCs displayed the morphology of heterogeneous distribution and accumulation in clusters, while n-iPSCs-derived TMCs (n-iPSCs-TMCs) showed a uniformly distributed and homogenous appearance. Moreover, p-iPSCs-TMCs showed greater cell apoptosis ( p < 0.01), impaired proliferating ability (24-h and 48-h time points: p < 0.05, 72-h and 96-h time points: p < 0.001), production of reactive oxygen species ( p < 0.05), and impaired phagocytosis ability than n-iPSCs-TMCs (24-h, 48-h, and 72-h time points: p < 0.0001, 96-h time point: p < 0.001)., Conclusion: The p-iPSCs-TMCs can be successfully differentiated from peripheral blood, while the cells show impaired morphology and function compared with n-iPSCs-TMCs. Given this, p-iPSCs-TMCs can serve as an ideal disease model for POAG in GZ.1. Our study on the morphology and function of iPSCs-TMCs in GZ.1 may provide a valuable tool for elucidating the pathogenesis of POAG.

A Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, moderate halophilic actinobacterium, designated strain YIM 96095 T , was isolated from a saline soil sample collected from Aiding Lake, Xinjiang, North-western China. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that the isolate belonged to the family Nocardiopsidaceae , formed a distinct subclade, and was most closely related to Lipingzhangella halophila DSM 102030 T and Allosalinactinospora lopnorensis DSM 45697 T with sequence identity values of 95.8 and 95.1%, respectively. Optimal growth occurred at 37 °C, pH 7.0-8.0 and with 5-16% (w/v) NaCl, with well-developed, non-fragmented substrate mycelia and single-, double-, or triple-wrinkled spore(s) on the mature aerial hyphae. The chemical analysis presented meso -diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid of the cell-wall peptidoglycan, and glucose, galactose and rhamnose as the major whole-cell sugars, and iso-C 15 : 0 and anteiso-C 15 : 0 as the major fatty acids. The phospholipids were diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, unidentified phospholipids and unidentified glycolipid. The menaquinones were MK-10(H 8 ), MK-10(H 6 ) and MK-9(H 10 ). Its G+C content was 69.7 mol% in the determined genome sequence. Based on phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic characteristics, a novel genus and species named Halostreptopolyspora alba gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed for isolate YIM 96095 T (=KCTC 49266 T =CGMCC 4.7636 T ).

Background: Stress urinary incontinence (SUI), the prevalent form of urinary incontinence, significantly impairs women's quality of life. This study aims to create a visual nomogram to estimate the risk of SUI within one year postpartum for early intervention in high-risk Chinese women., Methods: We recruited 1,531 postpartum women who gave birth at two hospitals in Kunshan City from 2021 to 2022. Delivery details were meticulously extracted from the hospitals' medical records system, while one-year postpartum follow-ups were conducted via phone surveys specifically designed to ascertain SUI status. Utilizing data from one hospital as the training set, logistic regression analysis was performed to pinpoint significant factors and subsequently construct the nomogram. To ensure robustness, an independent dataset sourced from the second hospital served as the external validation cohort. The model's performance was rigorously evaluated using calibration plots, ROC curves, AUC values, and DCA curves., Results: The study population was 1,125 women. The SUI incidence within one year postpartum was 26% (293/1125). According to the regression analysis, height, pre-pregnancy BMI, method of induction, mode of delivery, perineal condition, neonatal weight, SUI during pregnancy, and SUI during the first pregnancy were incorporated into the nomogram. The AUC of the nomogram was 0.829 (95% CI 0.790-0.867), and the external validation set was 0.746 (95% CI 0.689-0.804). Subgroup analysis based on parity showed good discrimination. The calibration curve indicated concordance. The DCA curve showed a significant net benefit., Conclusion: Drawing from real-world data, we have successfully developed an SUI predictive model tailored for postpartum Chinese women. Upon successful external validation, this model holds immense potential as an effective screening tool for SUI, enabling timely interventions and ultimately may improve women's quality of life., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background and Objectives: Both hypoalbuminemia and inflammation were common in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), however, the combination of the two parameters on hospital duration re-mained unknown., Methods and Study Design: This is a retrospective two-centre study performed in two tertiary hospitals in Shanghai, China. Serum levels of C-Reactive Protein (CRP) and albumin (ALB) were measured within 2 days of admission. Glasgow prognostic score (GPS), based on CRP and ALB, was calculated as follows: point "0" as CRP <10 mg/L and ALB ≥35 g/L; point "1" as either CRP ≥10 mg/L or ALB <35 g/L; point "2" as CRP ≥10 mg/L and ALB <35 g/L. Patients with point "0" were classified as low-risk while point "2" as high-risk. Length of hospital stay (LOS) was defined as the interval between admission and discharge., Results: The proportion of low-risk and high-risk was 69.3% and 10.5% respectively among 3,009 patients (65% men). GPS was associated with LOS [β=6.2 d; 95% CI (confidence interval): 4.0 d, 8.4 d] after adjustment of potential co-variates. Each point of GPS was associated with 2.9 days (95% CI: 1.9 d, 3.9 d; ptrend<0.001) longer in fully adjusted model. The association was stronger in patients with low prealbumin levels, hypocalcaemia, and hypokalaemia relative to their counterparts., Conclusions: GPS was associated with LOS in IBD patients. Our results highlighted that GPS could serve as a convenient prognostic tool associated with nutritional status and clinical outcome., Competing Interests: All authors declared to have no conflict of interests in this manuscript