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Winter cover crops can provide multiple ecosystem services but can reduce succeeding maize (Zea mays L.) yield and water-use efficiency (WUE) by depleting soil water compared with no cover crop in arid and semi-arid regions. We examined the impacts of winter cover crops (lentil [Lens culinaris L.], oat [Avena sativa L.], lentil/oat mixture, and no cover crop) and nitrogen fertilization rates (0, 165, and 220 kg N ha1) to succeeding maize on soil water storage at planting (SWP) and harvest (SWH) at the 0–2 m depth, evapotranspiration (ET), maize yield, and water use efficiency (WUE) from 2017 to 2022 in the Loess Plateau of China. We measured cover crop biomass and maize yield at harvest, SWP and SWH using a soil probe, and ET and WUE based on growing season precipitation and water use. Cover crop biomass yield was 59–134 % greater for oat with 220 kg N ha−1 than lentil with other N fertilization rates. The SWP was 5–22 % greater for no cover crop with 0 kg N ha−1 than other cover crops with N fertilization rates. The SWH and ET varied with cover crops, N fertilization rates, and years. Maize yield and WUE were 12–42 % greater for lentil with 220 kg N ha−1 than oat and no cover crop with other N fertilization rates. Although cover crops depleted soil water at maize planting, lentil cover crop with 220 kg N ha−1 can enhance maize yield and WUE compared with other cover crops and N fertilization rates in the Loess Plateau of China.

Certain litchi varieties, such as “Nuomici”, are highly susceptible to preharvest fruit drop, which leads to significant losses in fruit yield and economic value. However, the precise molecular mechanisms underlying this issue are not yet fully understood. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the signaling pathways that facilitate preharvest fruit drop in litchi, using “Nuomici” and “Huaizhi” cultivars as examples, which demonstrate high and low preharvest fruit drop rates, respectively. Our findings revealed that “Nuomici” experienced a substantial preharvest fruit drop, with a cumulative rate of 41.68%, significantly higher than the 1.44% observed in “Huaizhi”. Cellulase activity assays showed a significant increase in cellulase activity in the abscission zone of “Nuomici”, which coincided with the occurrence of preharvest fruit drop, in contrast to the relatively low levels in “Huaizhi”. Phytohormone assays indicated lower indole-3-acetic acid content in the pericarp, aril, and seeds of “Nuomici” during the preharvest stage compared to “Huaizhi”, coupled with higher abscisic acid levels in the seeds of “Nuomici”. Furthermore, transcriptomic analysis identified 180, 282, 655, and 241 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the pericarp, aril, seed, and abscission zone, respectively, between the two cultivars during preharvest fruit drop. These DEGs are intricately involved in the generation and transmission of abscission signals from fruit tissues, encompassing PIN, PIN-LIKES, LAX, and SAUR genes related to polar auxin transport, ethylene diffusion, as well as perceiving these signals and activating the abscission process within the abscission zone. This includes ACO and ILR genes involved in hormone biosynthesis and signal transduction, regulation by WRKY, NAC, and bHLH transcription factors, AAO genes involved in response to reactive oxygen species, and EXP, EG, and PG genes involved in cell wall degradation in the abscission zone. Based on these comprehensive findings, we propose a model for preharvest fruit drop triggered by a series of molecular events in litchi, providing valuable insights into the complex mechanisms governing this phenomenon.

ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate the psychological distress and its influencing factors in patients with biliary tract malignant tumors, alongside the development of a predictive model.MethodsA total of 219 patients diagnosed with biliary tract malignant tumors who were admitted to the Department of Liver Surgery at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center from July 2021 to May 2023, were selected using a convenience sampling method. Research tools involve psychological distress management screening tools, a demographic questionnaire, self-rating anxiety and depression scales, and the Chinese version of the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale. Bootstrap method was utilized for repeated sampling to identify relevant factors influencing psychological distress in biliary tract cancer patients. The R software was employed to create a nomogram model, and the model’s accuracy and predictive performance were assessed using the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) and the Hosmer-Lemeshow test.ResultsThe average score of psychological distress among the 219 patients was (3.91 ± 2.44), with a psychological distress detection rate of 54.8%. Regression model results indicated that factors such as the presence of distant metastasis, comorbidity with other major diseases, poor sleep quality, anxiety, and severity of anxiety and depression were the primary influencers of psychological distress.ConclusionThe detection rate of psychological distress in patients with biliary tract malignant tumors is notably high. The predictive model constructed in this study exhibits good predictive efficacy and clinical value, providing valuable reference for healthcare professionals in developing targeted intervention strategies.

Background Limited data from the literature are available to assess the efficacy of coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Therefore, our objective was to use machine learning techniques integrating clinical features, biomarker data, and echocardiography data to enhance comprehension and risk stratification in patients diagnosed with ischemic cardiomyopathy and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction who have undergone coronary artery bypass grafting surgery. Methods and Results For this study, 294 patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting surgery were assigned to the development cohort (n=176) and the independent validation cohort (n=118). A total of 52 clinical variables were extracted for each patient. The principal clinical end point was the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events, encompassing cardiac mortality, acute myocardial infarction, acute heart failure, and graft failure. From least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression, 4 predictors were selected for the final prediction nomogram: diabetes, hypertension, the systemic immune‐inflammation index, and NT‐proBNP (N‐terminal pro‐B‐type natriuretic peptide). The prediction nomogram achieved satisfactory prediction performance in both the development cohort (C index, 0.768 [95% CI, 0.701–0.835]) and independent validation cohort (C index, 0.633 [95% CI, 0.521–0.745]). Adequate calibration was noted for the likelihood of major adverse cardiovascular events in both the development and independent validation cohorts. Decision curve analysis confirmed the clinical usefulness of the established prediction nomogram. Conclusions A clinically feasible prognostic model, based on preoperative multimodal data, was developed for risk stratification of patients with ischemic heart and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction who receive coronary artery bypass grafting surgery. Registration https://www.chictr.org.cn; Unique identifier: ChiCTR2300074439.

IntroductionThe demand for gluconic acid (GA) has risen recently, driven by its extensive applications in the food, healthcare, and construction industries. The biocatalysis of gluconic acid, facilitated by glucose oxidase and catalase, hinges on enzyme stability, significantly influencing catalytic efficiency. Nonetheless, catalase requires enhancements in thermal stability and activity to meet the requirements of practical applications.MethodsWe evaluated ten catalases expressed in Aspergillus niger, ultimately selecting the catalase from the thermophilic fungus Thermoascus aurantiacus, labeled as TaCat, for its superior thermal stability and operational performance. We further characterized the enzymatic properties of the recombinant catalase, focusing on its thermostability. Simultaneously, we used AlphaFold2 for structural predictions and conducted in-depth analyses via accelerated molecular dynamics simulations.Results and discussionWe successfully obtained a strain with the highest catalase activity by optimizing signal peptides and overexpressing the crucial heme synthesis enzyme. Enzyme production reached an impressive 321,779.5 U/mL in a 50-L fermenter. Our application studies confirmed the considerable advantages of TaCat in terms of GA production. In conclusion, TaCat, distinguished by its remarkable thermal stability and high activity, holds substantial potential for GA production.

The cortisol in human body is a crucial biomarker in terms of wellness management, mental state monitoring and stress-related disorder diagnosis. Therefore, the rapid, reliable and facile measurement of cortisol concentration has attracted extensive research interest. However, traditional cortisol detection such as immunosensing requires demanding laboratory layout, lengthy procedures and high costs, which means, consequently, it is incompatible with the current goal of cortisol sensing. Given the contradiction, an electrochemical sensor based on molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) for simple, efficient, non-invasive cortisol detection was proposed. The two-step approach employed is simple enough and allows for the mass production of devices. And the embedding of Prussian Blue (PB) within the MIP layer eliminates the need for complex external probes, thereby making the resultant sensors more suitable for integration into wearable devices. We firstly demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed strategy and characterized the successful formation of cavities specific to cortisol molecules. Thereafter, we measured the dependence of the current response on cortisol concentration in Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS) buffer, which revealed a near-linear relationship between the logarithm of the cortisol concentration and the redox current from 10−9 mol/L to 10−5 mol/L, covering the optimal range of cortisol concentration in sweat. Subsequently, sensors with the same specifications were prepared and tested in PBS buffer, exhibiting good consistency. In artificial sweat, we further demonstrated that they have benign selectivity, interference immunity and great potential in practical applications.

Geographically separated populations of Culter alburnus in China exhibit marked physiological and behavioral characteristics, particularly between populations inhabiting the northern and southern part of Huai River (HR), indicating their adaptation to local environments. In this study, the morphological characteristics of C. alburnus were measured, and restriction site associated DNA (RAD) sequencing was used for C. alburnus to investigate the genomic features of the Xingkai Lake (XKL) population from the northern part and HR, Yangtze River (YR), and Dianshan Lake (DSL) populations from the southern part of China. Analyses results revealed significant morphological differences and population genetic structure among these populations, with pronounced genetic differentiation between the northern and the southern part. Notably, the northern (XKL) population exhibited significantly lower genetic diversity than the other three southern populations. Furthermore, genes involved in synaptic vesicle transmission regulation, androgen receptor signaling, and behavior regulation pathways, including oligophrenin 1, ch25h13, androgen receptor, and Rho kinase genes, showed selection signals with high genetic differentiation indices (Fst), significant nucleotide diversity (Pi) differences, and significantly differential expression values in the northern (XKL) population compared with southern populations. These findings indicate that these genes may influence the different adaptive reflex behavioral responses of northern and southern C. alburnus populations. This study highlights the genetic structure and adaptations of C. alburnus, providing important resources for its management and aquaculture.

Although IL-22 has been extensively studied, a comprehensive and systematic bibliometric analysis has not yet been conducted on it. This article reviews the research progress of IL-22 using bibliometric methods. On May 20, 2024, publications related to IL-22 were identified and selected from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database. CiteSpace and VOSviewer are beneficial for IL-22 bibliometric and knowledge graph analysis. From January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2023, 25134 authors from 4206 institutions in 106 countries published 3943 articles on IL-22 research in 940 academic journals. During this period, the number of articles steadily increased. The United States and China are the main contributors to this research field, with the most active institutions being the Medical Research Institute (INSERM) led by De la Sante et al. and the University of California system. The most prolific journal is Frontiers of Immunology, and it is also the journal with the most citations. Guttman Yassky, E. has published the most articles, and Guttman Yassky, E. is also the most frequently cited. The main areas of these publications are immunology and cell biology. After analysis, the high-frequency keywords of IL-22 research involve molecular biology (IL-17) and immune response (T cells) Th17 cells and diseases (autoimmune diseases, cancer). Among them, the involvement of interleukin-22 in microbial populations and cancer cell spread has strong research potential and is currently a hot research topic. Since 2014, IL-22 has received significant attention in scientific research as a key immune regulatory factor. China is at the forefront of research in this field, followed closely by the United States. At present, breakthrough progress is being made in the research of immunotherapy, and in-depth study of IL-22 and its signal transduction mechanisms is crucial for understanding its biological functions. Meanwhile, exploring new possibilities for IL-22 as a therapeutic target will help develop more effective treatment strategies. This study can provide scholars with research directions related to IL-22.

Galaxea is a genus of colonial stony corals that are widely distributed in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. According to the differences of microbasic p-mastigophore (MpM) nematocysts and mitochondrial haplotype, four types (type S, type H, type M and type S+) were identified in this genus. There is significant genetic differentiation among those types and they belong to distinct branches in the Maximum likelihood tree, therefore they conform to the primary species hypotheses (PSHs) and the whole Galaxea might be a species complex. Here we present the assembly and annotation of eleven mitogenomes of the four types and used the dataset to explore their phylogeny. The eleven Galaxea mitogenomes all contained the same 13 PCGs (protein-coding genes) and two rRNA genes as the published mitogenome of G. fascicularis (GenBank No NC_029696). However, the length of mitogenomes of distinct types varies because there are two characteristic indels in the mitogenomes, one is located at the intergenic region (IGR) of CYTB-ND2 and the other is located at the IGR of COX1-trnM. The phylogenetic analysis based on 13 PCGs showed that type S/M, type H and type S+ clustered into three separate clades. These mitogenomes will be valuable for better understanding the phylogeny, speciation, and differentiation of the Galaxea species complex.

In areas with shallow saline groundwater, soil salts inevitably accumulate in the root zone during the growth period due to irrigation and upward movement of salts from the groundwater. In Northern China, autumn irrigation (AIR) with large amounts of water is commonly employed post-harvest to mitigate soil salt stress on crop growth in the subsequent year. Optimizing the total irrigation depth during both crop-growth and non-growth periods is challenging because of the movement of soil salts, which is influenced by their two-dimensional distribution around drippers and the impact of the winter freeze-thaw cycles, significantly affecting water flow and solute transport during winter. In this study, the HYDRUS-1D and HYDRUS-2D models were integrated and calibrated using experimental data collected from 2021 to 2023 in China's Ordos south bank irrigation area. This model integration was conducted to assess soil water and salt dynamics during the non-growth and corn-growth periods under different irrigation strategies: a) AIR with high (AH) and low (AL) irrigation depths, and b) drip irrigation (DIR) with high (DH), medium (DM), and low (DL) irrigation depths. The results indicated that HYDRUS effectively modeled the electrical conductivity of the saturation paste extract (ECe) across different irrigation strategies, yielding an average coefficient of determination (R2) and the root mean square errors (RMSE) of 0.87 and 0.53 dS m−1, respectively. Generally, ECe increased during the growth period with DIR and decreased during the non-growth period with AIR. For the 0–40 cm soil layer, ECe decreased by 5.7 % and 12 % for every 100 mm increase in the AIR and DIR depths, respectively. Compared with the AHDM and AHDL treatments, reducing an AIR depth and increasing a DIR depth resulted in lower ECe in the 0–40 cm layer during the growth period and higher crop yield (CY) and irrigation water productivity (WPI). Specifically, the average ECe in the 0–40 cm layer decreased by 4.8 % during the growth period in the ALDH treatment compared to the AHDM treatment, and CY and WPI increased by 7.2 % and 10.3 %, respectively. Additionally, the irrigation strategy was the most effective in reducing ECe when AIR accounted for 35 % of the total irrigation. This study suggested that combining low AIR and high DIR could enhance water and field productivity.

Subsurface drip irrigation in arid areas has the potential to replace traditional mulched drip irrigation to achieve green and sustainable cotton production. However, the suitable irrigation amount and frequency are still unclear, which seriously limits the ability of this model to improve water productivity and water-saving potential. Therefore, a field experiment was carried out from 2021 to 2023; a split plot experimental design was adopted with two irrigation amounts (W1, 3177 m3 ha−1; W2, 3840 m3 ha−1) and three irrigation frequencies (F1, 9; F2, 8; F3, 7). The effects of different irrigation strategies on the soil microenvironment, moisture content, biomass, and water use efficiency (WUE) of cotton organs were evaluated. The W2 treatment improved the soil moisture content, increased the soil temperature gradient, and reduced the soil conductivity, thereby increasing the moisture content and biomass of various organs. Moreover, compared with the F1 treatment, the F2 and F3 treatments were more likely to increase the soil moisture content, soil temperature gradient, WUEStem, WUELeaf and WUEBoll. In addition, the water consumption of the F2 and F3 treatments decreased by 3.9 % and 0.9 %, respectively, compared with that of the F1 treatment. These findings indicate that W2F2 can reduce water consumption while increasing boll biomass and WUEBoll. Further analysis revealed that under W2F2, WUEBoll was positively correlated with soil temperature gradient and soil conductivity and negatively correlated with leaf moisture content (LMC) and water consumption. In summary, with an irrigation amount of 3840 m3 ha−1, delaying the initial irrigation event and increasing the irrigation quota (8 irrigation events) improve the water environment in cotton fields, reducing soil temperature fluctuations and surface salt accumulation and synergistically increasing the boll biomass of cotton organs and WUEBoll. This irrigation strategy represents an effective cotton cultivation method to maximize cotton yield and improve resource utilization efficiency.

Studies on structural health monitoring of timber bridges are limited. The unique characteristics of timber, such as anisotropy, hygroscopicity, and high variability under climate changes, necessitate the customization of a structural health monitoring system for each specific configuration. This paper provides a thorough examination of the existing methodologies for structural health monitoring of timber bridges, including the timber bridge deterioration mechanism, the practical non-destructive testing techniques, potential future advancements such as artificial intelligence, digital twin, and sensor/data fusion and Internet of Things in the application of structural health monitoring to timber bridges. Structural health monitoring of timber bridges has received less attention than monitoring of bridges manufactured from other materials such as steel or concrete. More specifically, most studies have been conducted on monitoring moisture, temperature, structural performance, and vibration behavior under the loads in timber bridges. However, these studies have not investigated the correlation between the factors that affected the structural performance of timber bridges. Also, studies related to data-driven and artificial intelligence methods applied to timber bridges are limited. Therefore, the current study is about structural health monitoring of timber bridges by focusing on deterioration mechanisms of timber, non-destructive tools for damage detection, and discussion about emerging approaches, including artificial intelligence tools, sensor/data fusion and Internet of Things, and digital twin.

Background The burgeoning recognition of the nexus between renal functionality and the prevalence of dementia has precipitated a surge in research endeavors. This study aims to substantiate the causal relationship between kidney functionality and dementia.Methods We utilized clinical renal function metrics from the Chronic Kidney Disease Genetics (CKDGen) Consortium and diverse dementia types (Alzheimer’s disease [AD] and vascular dementia) from the FinnGen Biobank by using Mendelian randomization analysis. At the stratum of genetic susceptibility, we tested the causal relationship between variations index in renal function and the occurrence of dementia. Inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method was the main analysis, and several supplementary analyses and sensitivity analyses were performed to test the causal estimates.Results The findings indicate a significant correlation between each unit increase in cystatin C-based estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR-cys) levels was significantly associated with a reduction in the incidence of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) (IVW: OR = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.13–0.91, p = 0.031). After adjusting for creatinine-based eGFR (eGFR-cre) and urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR), a causal relationship was still identified between elevated levels of eGFR-cys and decreased risk of LOAD (IVW: OR: 0.08; 95% CI: 0.01–0.97, p = 0.047). Sensitivity tests demonstrated the reliability of causal estimates.Conclusions The association between renal function based on cystatin C and the augmented risk of developing AD lends support to the perspective that regular monitoring of cystatin C may be a valuable investigative biomarker.

This study investigates the effects of heat and ultrasonic treatments on the physicochemical parameters and rennet-induced coagulation properties of milk from a variety of species, including cow, goat, buffalo, and donkey. Milk samples were subjected to heat treatments at different temperatures (65 °C, 80 °C, 90 °C, 100 °C) and ultrasonic treatment at varying power levels (200 W, 400 W, 600 W, 800 W, 1000 W). The results revealed that changes in turbidity, particle size, zeta potential, secondary structure, and surface hydrophobicity were altered by both ultrasonic and heat treatments, as well as the kind of milk. Ultrasonic treatment of cow milk decreased α-helix content while increasing β-turn content. Under similar ultrasonic treatment, goat milk showed a considerable increase in β-sheet content, whereas β-turn and random coil contents decreased compared to control samples. Notably, the water-holding capacity of gels formed from all four types of milk increased significantly with the intensity of ultrasonic and heat treatments. The hardness of buffalo milk gels increased significantly after ultrasonic and thermal treatments, ranging from 63 °C for 30 min to 90 °C for 15 min, but the hardness of cow and goat milk gels increased in varying degrees compared to their control samples. Furthermore, gels from cow and goat milk had higher storage modulus (G’) and loss modulus (G’’) than those from buffalo and donkey milk, and changes in G’ and G’’ from the examined milk were altered by ultrasonic and heat treatments. These findings offer important insights into refining milk processing procedures to improve dairy product quality and usefulness.

Engagement in healthy lifestyles is pivotal for early adolescents’ growth and healthy development. Despite burgeoning research on the determinants of healthy lifestyles among adolescents, there is a dearth of research investigating the role of adolescents’ health mindsets. This study examined whether and how implicit theories of health and future self-continuity affect adolescents’ (N = 440; 49.5% girls; Mage = 10.8, SD = 0.6) engagement in healthy lifestyles. The results indicated that implicit theories of health and future self-continuity accounted for 2.5–5.8% of the variances in behaviour indicators (i.e. (un)healthy eating, physical activity, and sleep quality) and more than 20.3% of the variances in mental well-being indicators (i.e. flourishing and emotional balance) of healthy lifestyles among adolescents. Future self-continuity explained the positive effects of implicit theories of health on adolescents’ engagement in healthy lifestyles. The results have implications for tailoring effective interventions to promote healthy living among adolescents.

Background Little is known about the underlying factors contributing to unfavourable clinical outcomes in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) complicated by new-onset acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of DM on the pathophysiologic features and prognosis of patients with new-onset AMI following successful revascularization by utilizing cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR).Methods Consecutive patients diagnosed with new-onset AMI between June 2022 and January 2024 were included. All patients underwent culprit vessel revascularization upon admission and CMR imaging 3-7 days later. The primary clinical endpoint of this study was the occurrence of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCEs), for which the average follow-up was 10 months.Results A total of 72 patients were divided into a DM group (n = 23) and a non-DM group (n = 49). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that DM was an independent risk factor for the occurrence of microvascular obstruction. Multivariate linear regression analysis found that DM was the influencing factor of global radial strain (B = −4.107, t = −2.328, p = 0.023), while fasting blood glucose influenced infarct segment myocardial radial strain (B = −0.622, t = −2.032, p = 0.046). DM independently contributed to the risk of MACCEs following successful revascularization in patients with AMI (p

Background Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) is a rare form of autoimmune vasculitis. The involvement of IgG4 and HBsAg in EGPA is less common but can occur and may present unique challenges in management.Case presentation: We present a case study of a 70-year-old female diagnosed with EGPA confirmed via renal biopsy. She initially presented with recurrent purpura, diarrhea and progressive numbness in the hands and feet, accompanied by general weakness. Complete remission was achieved with a one-year course of prednisone acetate and cyclophosphamide treatment. However, upon discontinuation of self-medication, the disease relapsed, manifesting as a generalized rash and weakness in the extremities.Skin biopsy revealed eosinophil infiltration, with inflammatory cells predominantly surrounding blood vessels. Notably, during treatment, the patient’s hepatitis B markers transitioned from negative to positive for HBsAg. Subsequent administration of entecavir, along with monitoring for a decrease in HBV DNA levels, preceded the initiation of steroids and rituximab to attain remission once more. Among the remaining 15 patients analyzed, all exhibited elevated serum IgG4 levels, with none testing positive for hepatitis B. Notably, only one patient was diagnosed with immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD), suggesting that elevated IgG4 levels alone may not necessarily indicate IgG4-RD.Conclusions Our case report highlights the first instance of recurrent EGPA accompanied by elevated IgG4 and positivity for hepatitis B, which was successfully treated with rituximab. In cases of concurrent hepatitis B, rituximab treatment may be considered once viral replication is under control. However, emphasis on maintenance therapy is crucial following the induction of disease remission.

Metabolic abnormalities are an important feature of tumours. The glutamine-arginine-proline axis is an important node of cancer metabolism and plays a major role in amino acid metabolism. This axis also acts as a scaffold for the synthesis of other nonessential amino acids and essential metabolites. In this paper, we briefly review (1) the glutamine addiction exhibited by tumour cells with accelerated glutamine transport and metabolism; (2) the methods regulating extracellular glutamine entry, intracellular glutamine synthesis and the fate of intracellular glutamine; (3) the glutamine, proline and arginine metabolic pathways and their interaction; and (4) the research progress in tumour therapy targeting the glutamine-arginine-proline metabolic system, with a focus on summarising the therapeutic research progress of strategies targeting of one of the key enzymes of this metabolic system, P5CS (ALDH18A1). This review provides a new basis for treatments targeting the metabolic characteristics of tumours.

Research and practice in patient safety education have garnered widespread attention; however, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis is lacking. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the research focus and research trends in the globalization of the field of patient safety education and to describe the general characteristics of publications. Data on articles and reviews about student safety education were extracted from Web of Science. Microsoft Excel 2019, CiteSpace 6.1.R3, VOSviewer 1.6.18, SATI 3.2, Scimago Graphica, and Pajek were used for quantitative analysis. Collaboration networks of countries, institutions, journals, authors, and keywords were visualized based on publications from January 2000 to September 2022. A total of 573 papers were published between 2000 to 2022, showing an overall increasing trend. The USA, England, and Australia are the top three most prolific countries; Johns Hopkins University, the University of Technology Sydney, and the University of Toronto are the top three most productive institutions; Nurse Education Today, Journal of Nursing Education, and BMC Medical Education are the most productive journals; Based on content analysis five research hotspots focused on: (1) Quality Improvement of Patient safety Teaching and Learning; (2) Patient safety Teaching Content; (3)Specialized Teaching in Patient Safety; (4) Integrating Patient Safety and Clinical Teaching; (5)Patient Safety Teaching Assessment Content. Through keyword clustering analysis, five research hotspots and relevant contents were identified. According to this study, simulation, communication, collaboration, and medication may attract more attention from researchers and educators, and could be the major trend for future study.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a leading cause of mortality among individuals coinfected with HIV, characterized by progressive pulmonary inflammation. Despite TB’s hallmark being focal granulomatous lung lesions, our understanding of the histopathological features and regulation of inflammation in HIV & TB coinfection remains incomplete. In this study, we aimed to elucidate these histopathological features through an immunohistochemistry analysis of HIV & TB co-infected and TB patients, revealing marked differences. Notably, HIV & TB granulomas exhibited aggregation of CD68 + macrophage (Mφ), while TB lesions predominantly featured aggregation of CD20+ B cells, highlighting distinct immune responses in coinfection. Spatial transcriptome profiling further elucidated CD68+ Mφ aggregation in HIV & TB, accompanied by activation of IL6 pathway, potentially exacerbating inflammation. Through multiplex immunostaining, we validated two granuloma types in HIV & TB versus three in TB, distinguished by cell architecture. Remarkably, in the two types of HIV & TB granulomas, CD68 + Mφ highly co-expressed IL6R/pSTAT3, contrasting TB granulomas’ high IFNGRA/SOCS3 expression, indicating different signaling pathways at play. Thus, activation of IL6 pathway may intensify inflammation in HIV & TB-lungs, while SOCS3-enriched immune microenvironment suppresses IL6-induced over-inflammation in TB. These findings provide crucial insights into HIV & TB granuloma formation, shedding light on potential therapeutic targets, particularly for granulomatous pulmonary under HIV & TB co-infection. Our study emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive understanding of the immunopathogenesis of HIV & TB coinfection and suggests potential avenues for targeting IL6 signaling with SOCS3 activators or anti-IL6R agents to mitigate lung inflammation in HIV & TB coinfected individuals.

AbstractBackground: Clinical studies have shown that the onset and exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are related to obesity and dietary behaviours, but the genetic relationship between them is not clear.Aims: To investigate the relationship between the genetic determinants of obesity, dietary habits (alcohol consumption, intake of sweets, salt intake) and COPD.Methods: Exposure and outcome datasets were obtained from the IEU Open GWAS project. The exposure dataset includes dietary habits (Salt added to food, Sweets intake, Alcohol consumption), obesity level (represented by body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage (BFP) data sets.). The outcome dataset includes COPD and acute COPD admissions. The collected data were imported into the RStudio software and conducted Mendelian randomisation analysis. Additionally, heterogeneity and horizontal pleiotropy tests were conducted on the data to ensure the veracity of the results.Results: The results showed that BMI was positively correlated with the risk of acute COPD admission (OR = 1.74, 95% CI 1.39–2.18) and COPD (OR = 1.81, 95%CI 1.41–2.33). In addition, BFP was also a risk factor for COPD (OR = 1.98, 95% CI 1.42–2.77) and acute exacerbation of COPD admission (OR = 1.99, 95%CI 1.43–2.77). The increase of salt, sugar and alcohol consumption will not increase the risk of COPD and the risk of hospitalisation due to COPD.Conclusion: Therefore, we should strengthen the guidance of diet and living habits of obese patients. For patients with heavier weight and higher body fat rate, they should be instructed to lose weight and fat to prevent the occurrence of COPD. For obese patients with COPD, more attention should be paid to prevent the occurrence of acute exacerbation of COPD in advance.

ABSTRACTBovine viral diarrhoea-mucosal disease caused by bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is a major infectious disease that affects the cattle industry. The nonstructural protein Npro of BVDV antagonizes the type I interferon (IFN-I) pathway, thereby escaping the host immune response. The exact mechanism by which Npro uses host proteins to inhibit IFN-I production is unclear. The host protein CALCOCO2 was identified as a binding partner of Npro using a yeast two-hybrid screen. The interaction between Npro and CALCOCO2 was confirmed by yeast co-transformation, co-immunoprecipitation assays, and GST pull-down assays. The stable overexpression of CALCOCO2 markedly promoted BVDV propagation, while the knockdown of CALCOCO2 significantly inhibited BVDV replication in MDBK cells. Interestingly, CALCOCO2 inhibited IFN-I and IFN-stimulated gene production in BVDV-infected cells. Ectopic expression of CALCOCO2 effectively reduced IRF3 protein levels via the proteasome pathway. CALCOCO2 was found to promote Npro-mediated ubiquitination degradation of IRF3 by interacting with IRF3. Our results demonstrate the molecular mechanism by which Npro recruits the CALCOCO2 protein to regulate IRF3 degradation to inhibit IFN-I production.

Tunnel seismic advanced prediction method enables the detection of anomalous bodies in front of the tunnel face and the reduction of tunnel construction risk. The active source and the passive source detection methods are two commonly used for imaging advanced prediction of tunnel boring machine (TBM). Although both methods achieve good results, each method still has room for improvement. The active detection method is not conducive to long-distance detection because the sources are generally far away from the anomalous bodies and the received signals are weak. The passive detection method usually produces results of low resolution and with limited forecast precision. Since the active and passive source methods are applied separately, the geophone utilization rate is low and the cost is high. Moreover, both methods have low signal-to-noise ratio and low imaging resolution for single detection data. To overcome the above drawbacks, this article proposes a joint TBM tunnel seismic detection method and an imaging advanced prediction method to detect anomalous bodies in medium and long distances. The advanced prediction employs multiple stacking schemes to enhance the reflection wave energy of the anomalous bodies and suppress the interference wave. The proposed method integrates the active source data into the passive source method to extract the P- and S-waves. The joint active and passive source method further incorporates multiple stack schemes to achieve much higher resolution imaging and provides more accurate detection results. Moreover, the proposed joint method allows multiple utilization of the geophone and reduces the cost. Simulation results are presented for performance verification.

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to develop a population pharmacokinetic model for ceftazidime in critically ill children in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and optimize an appropriate dosing regimen for this population.MethodsWe performed a prospective pharmacokinetic study on critically ill children aged 0.03–15 years. A population pharmacokinetic model was developed using the NLME program. Statistical and graphical methods were used to assess the stability and predictive performance of the model. Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to determine the optimal ceftazidime dosing regimen to achieve 70% fT > minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC).ResultsThis study included 88 critically ill children and 100 ceftazidime serum concentrations. The pharmacokinetic characteristics of ceftazidime were best described by a one-compartment linear elimination model. The weight and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were determinant covariates for the clearance (CL) of ceftazidime. The recommended ceftazidime dosage regimens achieved a probability of target attainment (PTA) >90% for critically ill children at MIC values of 2, 4, and 8 mg/L. For bacterial infection at an MIC of 16 mg/L, it is difficult to achieve effective pharmacodynamic (PD) targets in vivo with the commonly used dose of ceftazidime.ConclusionThe population pharmacokinetic model of ceftazidime was established in critically ill children. Based on this model, we recommend evidence-based, individualized dosing regimens for subgroups with different weights and renal functions. The current daily dosage for children adequately meets the treatment requirements for MICs of 2, 4, and 8 mg/L, while for bacterial infection at an MIC of 16 mg/L, an elevated dosage regimen may be required.Clinical Trial Registrationhttps://www.medicalresearch.org.cn/login, Identifier MR-42-22-000220.

BackgroundTo identify risk factors for progression, acute exacerbation (AE), and the development of rapidly progressive interstitial lung disease (RP-ILD) in Systemic autoimmune rheumatic disease-associated interstitial lung disease (SARD-ILD).MethodsWe systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases to identify eligible cohort studies up until January 01, 2024. Two reviewers independently screened the literature and extracted data. We employed the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) to assess study quality and performed meta-analyses using STATA software.ResultsThis review included 50 studies. For progression, 28 studies were included, four significant risk factors were identified: male (OR = 1.97, 95% CI 1.26–3.08, p

PurposeThis study aims to optimize neoadjuvant radiotherapy target area for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) patients undergoing total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT) by examining local recurrence patterns.Methods and materialsWe retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of rectal cancer patients who undergone local recurrence after surgery. Recurrence sites were categorized and compared with initial diagnosis imaging, focusing on visible and suspicious lesions.ResultsOf the 126 patients who met our criteria, 186 lesions were analyzed. Within these, 75.40% of cases (95/126) and 83.33% of lesions (155/186) were located within the pelvic cavity. Conversely, 3.97% of cases (5/126) and 3.33% of lesions (6/186) occurred outside the pelvic cavity. Additionally, 20.63% of cases (26/126) and 13.44% of lesions (25/186) were found in both regions. Recurrences were predominantly observed in mesenteric regions (MR) (40.86%, 76/186) and presacral regions (PR) (32.26%, 60/186). In addition, 86.51% of patients (109/126) had recurrent lesions in HRA and the suspected lesions areas. Further analysis showed that initial CEA levels and adjuvant therapy types were identified as independent predictors for recurrence in MR/PR and initially suspected lesions. 86.51% of patients had recurrent lesions in HRA and the suspected lesions areasConclusionThe MR, PR, and areas of initial suspicious lesions are high-risk zones for post-surgical recurrence of LARC. Exploratory study of involved-field irradiation (IFI) can be carried out in the context of TNT in LARC.

ABSTRACT Background Lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) is a type of lung cancer that develops in the squamous cells. It is known to be promoted by the activation of various signaling pathways and the dysregulation of key regulatory molecules. One such molecule, 5′‐nucleotidase domain containing 2 (NT5DC2), has been identified as a critical regulator in various cancers including lung cancer. However, there are no data regarding its role in LUSC. Methods The mRNA expression of insulin‐like growth factor 2 mRNA–binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3), CCCTC‐binding factor (CTCF), and NT5DC2 was analyzed using quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR), whereas their protein expression was assessed using a western blotting assay. Cell proliferation was determined using a cell counting kit‐8 (CCK‐8) assay. Cell apoptosis, CD11b expression, and CD206 expression were analyzed using flow cytometry. Tube formation was assessed through a tube formation assay. Glucose consumption, lactate production, and ATP levels were measured using colorimetric methods. The effect of NT5DC2 on the malignant progression of LUSC cells was analyzed using a xenograft mouse model assay. The levels of transforming growth factor‐beta 1 (TGF‐β1) and interleukin‐10 (IL‐10) were detected using enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays. The associations among IGF2BP3, CTCF and NT5DC2 were identified using dual‐luciferase reporter assay, RNA immunoprecipitation assay and m6A RNA immunoprecipitation assay. Results The expression of NT5DC2 was found to be upregulated in LUSC tissues and cells when compared with normal lung tissues and normal human bronchial epithelial cells. Silencing of NT5DC2 inhibited LUSC cell proliferation, tube formation, glycolysis, M2 macrophage polarization, and tumor formation while inducing cell apoptosis. In addition, CTCF was found to transcriptionally activate NT5DC2 in LUSC cells. IGF2BP3 stabilized the mRNA expression of CTCF through m6A methylation. Further, overexpression of CTCF or NT5DC2 attenuated the effects of IGF2BP3 silencing in both NCI‐520 and SK‐MES‐1 cells. Conclusion The IGF2BP3/CTCF axis–dependent NT5DC2 promotes M2 macrophage polarization, thereby enhancing the malignant progression of LUSC. This study was the first to reveal the role of NT5DC2 in LUSC and the underlying mechanism. The result suggests that targeting the IGF2BP3/CTCF/NT5DC2 axis may have clinical significance in the treatment of LUSC.

Clinical symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) are classified into motor and non-motor symptoms. Mental disorders, especially depression, are one of the major non-motor manifestations of PD. However, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. In the present study, 21 neurotransmitters associated with mental disorders were measured in serum samples from patients and controls using the ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) assay. Additionally, five clinical scales—the MDS Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS), the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), and the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD)—were used to evaluate the severity of both motor and non-motor symptoms in PD patients. Analysis of neurotransmitter metabolism revealed significant changes in the tryptophan (Trp) metabolic pathway in PD patients. Specifically, levels of Trp, kynurenine (KYN), kynurenic acid (KA), nicotinamide (NAM), and 5-methoxyltryptamine (MeOTA) were substantially decreased. Additionally, three other excitation/inhibiting amino acids—glutamic acid (Glu), 4-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and aspartic acid (Asp)—also declined. Moreover, neurotransmitter conversion ratios, such as KA/KYN, nicotinamide/niacin (NAM/NA), 5-hydroxytryptophan/tryptophan (5-HTP/Trp), and quinolinic acid/kynurenic acid (QA/KA), provided more dynamic insights into disrupted neurotransmitter metabolism. Correlation analyses between scale scores and neurotransmitter levels showed that concentrations of xanthurenic acid (XA) and the turnover rate of 3-hydroxykynurenine (3-HK) were negatively correlated with UPDRS scores, while 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and GABA levels were negatively correlated with non-motor symptoms in PD patients. In summary, this study elucidates, for the first time, the potential association and dynamics between altered neurotransmitter metabolism and the etiology of PD in terms of motor and non-motor functions. These findings offer novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for the treatment of PD.

Background: Chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is the main treatment for elderly patients with non-metastatic rectal cancer who are ineligible for or decline surgery, but the optimal modality remains unclear. Objectives: This study was to validate the safety and efficacy of comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) guided radiotherapy in older patients. Design: An exploratory analysis of a single-arm, multicenter, Phase II trial. Methods: Patients aged over 70 and diagnosed with rectal cancer were enrolled and evaluated by CGA. CGA-guided radiotherapy was individually conducted in a multidisciplinary setting. Patients in fit, intermediate, and frail groups were scheduled to receive CRT, long-course radiotherapy, and short-course radiotherapy (SCRT) alone respectively. Patients who were unfit for or refused surgery were analyzed for acute toxicities and survival outcomes. Results: In a total of 109 enrolled patients, 47 individuals who did not undergo surgery were included, with 26, 9, and 12 categorized into fit, intermediate, and frail groups. Only 11 (23.4%) grade 3 or above toxicities were observed overall. Within a median follow-up of 69.0 months, the 3-year overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates were 44.3% (95% CI: 32.1%–61.2%), 25.5% (95% CI: 15.7%–41.6%) and 61.0% (95% CI: 47.8%–77.6%) in total. The 5-year OS, PFS, and CSS reached 15.0% (95% CI: 7.4%–30.3%), 14.6% (95% CI: 7.3%–29.4%), and 36.2% (95% CI: 22.0%–59.4%), with no significant difference among the three subgroups. SCRT ( p

Microglia-mediated neuroinflammation and synaptic damage contribute to the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder. Coeloglossum viride var. bracteatum extract (CE) has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects. Therefore, we hypothesized that CE could inhibit the pathogenesis of depression. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated the antidepressant effects of CE in a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced mouse model. We showed that CE ameliorated LPS-induced depressive-like phenotypes such as increased preference for sucrose, decreased immobility, and improved willingness to move in mice. Consistently, CE reduced the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 in the brain. Mechanistically, CE transformed the phenotypic polarization of microglia by inhibiting the enhancement of aerobic glycolysis and improving oxidative phosphorylation, mediated by the HIF-1α/PKM2 signaling axis. CE reversed the reduction in synaptic proteins, dendritic spines, and neuronal loss. Thus, CE may alleviate LPS-induced depression through anti-inflammation, alteration of microglial energy metabolism and protection of synaptic plasticity, thus highlighting its potential as antidepressant.

Chronic colonic inflammation might result in increased cell proliferation that poses risk of colitis-associated cancer(CAC), an aggressive subtype of colorectal cancer. This study aimed to investigate dietary intervention effect and mechanism of chitooligosaccharide(COS) on azoxymethane(AOM)/dextran sulfate sodium(DSS)-induced CAC development in mice. COS at dose of 500 mg/kg markedly suppressed colonic levels of tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-α, interleukin(IL)-1β, and IL-6 in CAC mice. Compared to CAC model controls, the number of colonic epithelial cells expressing Ki-67 and the colonic expression levels of cyclin D1 were decreased in COS-treated CAC mice. COS administration significantly down-regulated expression of micro(mi)RNA-155, toll-like receptor(TLR)4, nuclear factor-kappaB(NF-κB), phosphorylated signal transducer and activator of transcription protein 3(pSTAT3), and regenerating islet derived 3 gamma(Reg3g), whereas up-regulated the suppressors of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS1) expression in CAC colons. Overall, COS exerted protective activity against AOM/DSS-induced colitis-associated carcinogenesis, mechanism of which was associated with its anti-proliferation effect possible via regulating miRNA-155/TLR4/Reg3g pathway.

BackgroundCOVID-19 is a respiratory disease, and its symptoms may be affected by the upper airways of adolescents.ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of parameters of adolescents’ upper airways on COVID-19 symptom severity.MethodsThis retrospective study was performed from January to March 2022 at the Hospital of Stomatology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China. The inclusion criteria were patients who started orthodontic treatment for the first time, who experienced initial onset of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, and who received two intramuscular doses of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Participants’ COVID-19 symptom severity was recorded by a questionnaire including seven different dimensions. The three-dimensional parameters of the upper airway were obtained by cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and measured by Dolphin Imaging software by blinded orthodontic investigators. The correlation between COVID-19 symptom severity and three-dimensional upper airway parameters was analyzed.Results64 males (46.4%) and 74 females (53.6%) were included in the study, with the median age of 9.5 years. The severity score of dimension 3 (headache, muscle pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, diarrhea and smell affects) showed a linear relationship with age. Spearman's rank correlation showed that the severity score of dimension 1 (nasal symptoms) was negatively correlated with nasal volume (r = −0.325). The severity score of dimension 6 was negatively correlated with the height of the nasopharynx (r = −0.325) and positively correlated with the horizontal-to-vertical ratio of the oropharynx (r = 0.385).Conclusions and relevanceThe COVID-19 symptom severity was aggravated with the increase of age. Nasal and throat pain and dry mouth was negatively correlated with nasal volume and nasopharyngeal height. The COVID-19 symptom severity among individuals is relavant to age and upper airway.

Abstract Optical metasurfaces with pronounced spectral characteristics are promising for sensor applications. Currently, deep learning (DL) offers a rapid manner to design various metasurfaces. However, conventional DL models are usually assumed as black boxes, which is difficult to explain how a DL model learns physical features, and they usually predict optical responses of metasurfaces in a fuzzy way. This makes them incapable of capturing critical spectral features precisely, such as high quality (Q) resonances, and hinders their use in designing metasurface sensors. Here, a transformer‐based explainable DL model named Metaformer for the high‐intelligence design, which adopts a spectrum‐splitting scheme to elevate 99% prediction accuracy through reducing 99% training parameters, is established. Based on the Metaformer, all‐dielectric metasurfaces based on quasi‐bound states in the continuum (Q‐BIC) for high‐performance metasensing are designed, and fabrication experiments are guided potently. The explainable learning relies on spectral position encoding and multi‐head attention of meta‐optics features, which overwhelms traditional black‐box models dramatically. The meta‐attention mechanism provides deep physics insights on metasurface sensors, and will inspire more powerful DL design applications on other optical devices.

ObjectivesTo evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the quantitative flow ratio (QFR) for hemodynamic exploration of intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis, using the invasive cerebrovascular pressure ratio (CVPR) and resting full-cycle ratio (RFR) as reference standards.Materials and methodsPatients with symptomatic unifocal intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis were included. The CVPR was defined as the ratio of the proximal and distal pressures. All patients underwent angioplasty under general anesthesia. The QFR was calculated based on digital subtraction angiography. Using the CVPR as a reference, we compared its correlation with the QFR across different degrees and locations of stenosis.ResultsThe CVPR and QFR were measured in 34 vessels of 32 patients. The QFR demonstrated a high correlation and excellent agreement(r = 0.8227, p 80%, the QFR showed a high correlation (r = 0.8812, p

Halobenzoquinones (HBQs) are emerging disinfection byproducts (DBPs) of high toxicity and also are shared active toxic intermediates of multiple halogenated organic pollutants. Due to the strong oxidizing property and electrophilicity, HBQs exhibit extremely diverse metabolism pathways in organisms. The identification of toxic-decisive metabolites is pivotal, albeit challenging, for understanding the toxicity mechanisms of HBQs. We employed dibromo-benzoquinone (DBBQ) as a representative HBQ, and established a systematic analytical strategy using high-resolution mass spectrometry, which collectively coupled suspect screening (SS), mass defect filtering (MDF), product ion filtering (PIF), isotopic signature filtering (ISF), and molecular networking (MN). As a result, 20 biotransformation products of DBBQ were identified in vivo and in vitro, involving metabolism reactions such as hydroxylation, methylation, methoxylation, acetylation, sulfonation, glucuronidation, glutathionylation, dimerization, and conjugation with amino acids or fatty acids. Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis and cytotoxicity experiments consistently demonstrated the significantly high toxicity of the fatty acid conjugate compared to the parent compound DBBQ and other metabolites, pinpointing the important role of the fatty acid conjugation in determining the metabolism and toxicity of HBQs. The research conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the metabolism of a typical HBQ with the combination of multiple analytical and toxicity characterization methods, therefore screen out the most important metabolism pathway of HBQs.

Background: In clinical practice, digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is widely used to diagnose cerebrovascular disease based on detailed information about blood vessel structure. Challenges remain on accurately find blood vessel abnormalities in a time-limited manner. In this perspective, computer-aided analysis of DSA can assist clinicians in interpreting the images. Purpose: Provide a method for extracting cerebral blood vessels from DSA images. Materials and methods: In this work, we presented a new method for segmenting digital subtraction angiography (DSA) by incorporating both global and local information about an image to adaptively classify each pixel to the foreground and background. The method utilizes the global mean and standard deviation of an angiography and local mean and standard deviation within a sliding window to build two criteria. The two criteria contains both global and local characteristics about an image and individual pixels. The two criteria work together to reduce noise in segmentation and preserve valid details about the foreground. We tested the method on angiography and compared it with several widely used algorithms. Results: In total, there were 72 DSA images in our dataset. Compared to Otsu, Niblack, iNiblack, Sauvola, Wolf, and CNW, our method achieved the best overall performance. The accuracy, Dice coefficient (Dice), and intersection over union (IoU) are 0.9777, 0.8500, and 0.7440, respectively. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that our method can obtain good outcomes, especially in achieving a balance between extracting the correct foreground and reducing incorrect classifications, and had the best performance among the methods being compared with.

PurposeTo evaluate the effects of clear corneal incision (CCI) location and morphology on corneal surgically induced astigmatism (SIA) and higher-order aberrations (HOAs) in patients receiving implantable collamer lens (ICL V4c) implantation.MethodsThis retrospective study classified right eyes that underwent ICL implantation into two groups based on temporal or superior CCI. The Pentacam HR analyzer was used to measure the corneal astigmatism and HOAs. Analysis of the clear corneal incision (CCI) morphology, including incision width (Angle-W), incision length (IL), incision angles (Angle-En/Ex), and distance from the incision to corneal apex (Dis-En/Ex), was conducted using anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT).ResultsThere were 75 eyes in the temporal CCI group and 47 eyes in the superior CCI group. Both groups showed satisfactory safety and efficacy postoperatively. In the temporal CCI group, Dis-En and Dis-Ex were considerably longer, whereas the superior CCI group displayed a significantly wider Angle-W. The anterior and posterior corneal SIA were comparable in both groups. Anterior corneal SIA was significantly correlated to Dis-En and Dis-Ex in the superior CCI group. Superior CCI caused a notable rise in corneal Z (3, 3), while temporal CCI led to increased Z (3, 1). CCI morphology was correlated to corneal Z (4, −4) and Z (4, 4) in the superior CCI group.ConclusionCCI locations caused slight variations in postoperative corneal SIA and HOAs following ICL implantation. Optimal postoperative visual outcomes may be better achieved with a CCI design featuring an increased distance from the corneal centroid and a decreased Angle-W.

BackgroundProgress in developing artificial intelligence (AI) products represented by large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT has sparked enthusiasm for their potential use in mental health practice. However, the perspectives on the integration of LLMs within mental health practice remain an underreported topic. Therefore, this study aimed to explore how mental health and AI experts conceptualize LLMs and perceive the use of integrating LLMs into mental health practice.MethodIn February–April 2024, online semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 experts (12 psychiatrists, 7 mental health nurses, 2 researchers in medical artificial intelligence) from four provinces in China, using snowballing and purposive selection sampling. Respondents’ discussions about their perspectives and expectations of integrating LLMs in mental health were analyzed with conventional content analysis.ResultsFour themes and eleven sub-themes emerged from this study. Firstly, participants discussed the (1) practice and application reform brought by LLMs into mental health (fair access to mental health services, enhancement of patient participation, improvement in work efficiency and quality), and then analyzed the (2) technological-mental health gap (misleading information, lack of professional nuance and depth, user risk). Based on these points, they provided a range of (3) prerequisites for the integration of LLMs in mental health (training and competence, guidelines for use and management, patient engagement and transparency) and expressed their (4) expectations for future developments (reasonable allocation of workload, upgrades and revamps of LLMs).ConclusionThese findings provide valuable insights into integrating LLMs within mental health practice, offering critical guidance for institutions to effectively implement, manage, and optimize these tools, thereby enhancing the quality and accessibility of mental health services.

Micro/nanoplastics (MNPs) and heavy metals (HMs) coexist worldwide. Existing studies have reported different or even contradictory toxic effects of co-exposure to MNPs and HMs on plants, which may be related to various influencing factors. In this study, existing publications were searched and analyzed using CiteSpace, meta-analysis, and machine learning. CiteSpace analysis showed that this research field was still in the nascent stage, and hotspots in this field included accumulation, cadmium (Cd), growth, and combined toxicity. Meta-analysis revealed the differential association of seven influencing factors (MNP size, pollutant treatment duration, cultivation media, plant species, MNP type, HM concentration, and MNP concentration) and 8 physiological parameters receiving the most attention. Co-exposure of the two contaminants had stronger toxic effects than HM treatment alone, and phytotoxicity was generally enhanced with increasing concentrations and longer exposure durations, especially when using nanoparticles, hydroponic medium, dicotyledons producing stronger toxic effects than microplastics, soil-based medium, and monocotyledons. Dry and fresh weight analysis showed that co-exposure to MNPs and Cd resulted in significant phytotoxicity in all classifications. Concerning the MNP types, polyolefins partially attenuated plant toxicity, but both modified polystyrene (PS) and biodegradable polymers exacerbated joint phytotoxicity. Finally, machine learning was used to fit and predict plant HM concentrations, showing five classifications with an accuracy over 80 %, implying that the polynomial regression model could be used to predict HM content in plants under complex pollution conditions. Overall, this study identifies current knowledge gaps and provides guidance for future research.

The vestibular system is essential for balance and spatial orientation, and its dysfunction can lead to cognitive deficits. This study investigates the effects of unilateral vestibular dysfunction (UVL) on cognitive function and the underlying neurobiological changes in mice. We established a unilateral labyrinthectomy (UL) model in mice and assessed cognitive function at 28 days post-surgery using a comprehensive battery of behavioral tests. We found significant impairments in spatial reference memory, working memory, and synaptic plasticity in UL mice, which persisted despite compensation for vestibular and postural motor deficits. Immunofluorescence staining revealed enhanced activation of c-Fos in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) at various time points post-UL, suggesting a role of the hippocampus in cognitive deficits following UVL. RNA sequencing of the DG identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and altered pathways related to cognitive function, synaptic plasticity, and neuronal activation. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) validated the expression changes of selected genes. Our findings indicate that UVL leads to persistent cognitive impairments in mice, associated with altered neuronal activation and gene expression in the hippocampus. This study offers valuable insights into the neurobiological mechanisms underlying cognitive deficits associated with UVL. Moreover, it underscores the importance of early cognitive screening in patients with vestibular diseases, as this approach is instrumental in comprehensive condition assessment, precise diagnosis, targeted treatment, and effective rehabilitation.

The rapid growth of renewable energy is integrated into the distribution system. The creation of both new market mechanisms and investment models has critical effects on the economics and security of the distribution market. Mobile energy storage has been used to increase the resilience of distribution grids due to their advantages in mobility and flexibility, which offer electricity arbitrage options for merchant investments. This paper presents a bi-level optimization framework based on location marginal pricing settlement of mobile energy storage financial rights revenue in active distribution systems. In the developed framework, the upper-level problem determines the optimal capacity, routing, and dispatching of mobile energy storage to maximize revenue in the liberalized electricity market. The lower-level problem performs the joint optimization of energy and reserve market clearing as well as renewable energy capacity optimization based on the alternating current optimal power flow model. The non-convexity of the line flow and location marginal pricing is linearized via second-order cone relaxation and Karush-Kuhn-Tucker. The bi-level programming is reformatted as mathematical programming with equilibrium constraints. Further, the revenue risk due to renewable energy uncertainty is measured via conditional value-at-risk. Finally, the effectiveness of the optimization framework and solution method is verified using the modified IEEE-33 test system. The results show that mobile energy storage promotes renewable energy and reduces distribution network costs by 2.3%.

Metasurfaces with customizable multi-spectrum compatibility have attracted a great deal of attention due to the increasing applications of stealth and camouflage. Compared with single-spectrum and fixed-scene camouflage metasurfaces, a camouflage metasurface with the designability and spectral-independence can adapt to more complex environments. However, this drastically increases the design complexity and time cost of metasurfaces. Here, we propose a method to design multispectral compatible function layer of camouflage which can achieve customizable wideband microwave absorption, visible transparency and selective infrared emission, simultaneously. The design of the camouflage layer is optimized and accelerated by Bayesian-neural network, which can be implemented based on a very limited amount of prior data and can greatly reduce the design complexity and time. To verify our method, an optical-transparent metasurface with digital infrared camouflage and low backward scattering was designed and fabricated. The simulation and experimental results well demonstrate the performance of multispectral compatible camouflage of the metasurface. We further explore the angular stability of the camouflage layer to the incident angle varying from 0 to 60° at microwaves. Our proposed design scheme provides a novel method to design spectrum-individual and devisable metasurfaces, which can be applied to camouflage in complex spectrum background.

Gross primary productivity (GPP) is a key parameter in research on the global carbon cycle and changes. Understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics and influencing factors of GPP on the Loess Plateau (LP) helps identify the health status of ecosystems, thereby enabling the implementation of effective conservation and restoration measures. In this study, we used a modified vegetation photosynthesis model (VPM) to simulate a long-term series of GPP in the LP from 2001 to 2022, and the impacts of different land-use patterns and meteorological factors on GPP were investigated using a transition matrix, linear regression, and partial correlation analyses. The findings suggested that the modified simulation yielded a more reliable performance (coefficient of determination (R2) = 0.89, root mean square error (RMSE) = 143.47 gC·m−2·yr−1) and was suitable for further research endeavors. (1) The GPP on the LP significantly increased by 232.65 TgC from 2001 to 2022. The southeastern region contributed more than the northwestern region, and the GPP exhibited higher multi-year averages and growth rates below 1000 m elevation. (2) Forests in the southeastern region of the LP, characterized by a heightened growth rate, will influence future spatial variations in GPP increases across the LP. Despite the decline in grassland and cultivated land areas, substantial land coverage has significantly contributed to the overall GPP growth. Urbanization encroaching on cultivated land has emerged as a key contributor to the decline in GPP in low-altitude regions. (3) Air temperature was the main physical driving force for GPP change in the LP. Additionally, the GPP in forested regions exhibited a negative correlation with rainfall, whereas the GPP in areas undergoing the return of cropland to forest–grassland and cropland reclamation correlated negatively with solar radiation. (4) The attribution analysis indicated that the surge in vegetation GPP on the LP was collectively driven by human activities and meteorological changes, with human activities dominating these changes by 61.41 %. This study deepens the understanding of terrestrial ecology in semi-humid regions and provides scientific insights for implementing ecological governance strategies in the LP.

Background: Aberrant functional connectivity is a hallmark of schizophrenia. The precise nature and mechanism of dysconnectivity in schizophrenia remains unclear, but evidence suggests that dysconnectivity is different in wake versus sleep. Microstate analysis uses electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate large-scale patterns of coordinated brain activity by clustering EEG data into a small set of recurring spatial patterns, or microstates. We hypothesized that this technique would allow us to probe connectivity between brain networks at a fine temporal resolution and uncover previously unknown sleep-specific dysconnectivity. Methods: We studied microstates during sleep in patients with schizophrenia by analyzing high-density EEG sleep data from 114 patients with schizophrenia and 79 control participants. We used a polarity-insensitive k-means analysis to extract a set of 6 microstate topographies. Results: These 6 states included 4 widely reported canonical microstates. In patients and control participants, falling asleep was characterized by a shift from microstates A, B, and C to microstates D, E, and F. Microstate F was decreased in patients during wake, and microstate E was decreased in patients during sleep. The complexity of microstate transitions was greater in patients than control participants during wake, but this reversed during sleep. Conclusions: Our findings reveal behavioral state–dependent patterns of cortical dysconnectivity in schizophrenia. Furthermore, these findings are largely unrelated to previous sleep-related EEG markers of schizophrenia such as decreased sleep spindles. Therefore, these findings are driven by previously undescribed sleep-related pathology in schizophrenia.

The instantaneous detonation model (IDM) is widely used in simulating underwater explosions due to its efficiency and ability to ignore the detonation reaction process. In this study, we propose a new IDM to predict the fluid structure in the detonation zone of an RS211 explosive charge. This model is based on high-order solutions provided by the detonation shock dynamics model, where the spatial term is discretized using fifth-order WENO reconstruction in characteristic space and Lax–Friedrichs’s splitting and the temporal terms are discretized using a third-order TVD Runge–Kutta scheme. The interface motion is captured using the level-set method combined with MGFM, and a programmed burn model is provided to describe the generation and propagation of the detonation wave. The self-similarity of detonation wave propagation is validated, and the quantitative calculation formula of the instantaneous detonation model is obtained by averaging or curve fitting the dimensionless results. Consequently, the IDM of the RS211 charge is established using high-order polynomial approximations of the Taylor rarefaction zone and a constant static zone for 1D planar, cylindrical, and spherical RS211 charges. The application of the IDM involves direct mapping from the radial direction to the spatial structured grid for 1D planar, 2D cylindrical, and 3D spherical charges. Numerical results demonstrate that the IDM proposed in this paper shows good accuracy and high computational efficiency.

PurposeTo investigate the application value of the neutrophil to lymphocyte count ratio (NLR) in the prognostic analysis of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) after radical resection, and to offer guidance for the individualized perioperative diagnosis and treatment of ICC.MethodsThe clinical data of 360 patients diagnosed with ICC following radical surgery were retrospectively analyzed. The cut-off value of NLR was calculated using the minimum p-value method, and then divided into High-NLR (H-NLR) group and Low-NLR (L-NLR) group according to the NLR cut-off value. The prognostic value of NLR in ICC was analyzed. Subsequently, the patients were divided into the hepatolithiasis-related intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (HICC) group and the non-hepatolithiasis-related intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (NHICC) group based on whether they combined with hepatolithiasis. Multiple regression models were constructed based on NLR and clinicopathological indicators to verify the application value of prognostic models in the survival and recurrence of ICC patients after radical surgery.ResultsThe cut-off value of NLR was 2.36, and the survival analysis disclosed that overall ICC patients with NLR ≥ 2.36 manifested a poor 5-year survival rate and a higher tumor recurrence rate (p

Abstract Many chemical transport models treat mineral dust as spherical. Solar backscatter retrievals of trace gases (e.g., OMI and TROPOMI) implicitly treat mineral dust as spherical. The impact of the morphology of mineral dust particles is studied to assess its implications for global chemical transport model (GEOS‐Chem) simulations and solar backscatter trace gas retrievals at ultraviolet and visible (UV‐Vis) wavelengths. We investigate how the morphology of mineral dust particles affects the simulated dust aerosol optical depth; surface area, reaction, and diffusion parameters for heterogeneous chemistry; phase function, and scattering weights for air mass factor (AMF) calculations used in solar backscatter retrievals. We use a mixture of various aspect ratios of spheroids to model the dust optical properties and a combination of shape and porosity to model the surface area, reaction, and diffusion parameters. We find that assuming spherical particles can introduce size‐dependent and wavelength‐dependent errors of up to 14% in simulated dust extinction efficiency with corresponding error in simulated dust optical depth typically within 5%. We find that use of spheroids rather than spheres increases forward scattered radiance and decreases backward scattering that in turn decrease the sensitivity of solar backscatter retrievals of NO2 to aerosols by factors of 2.0–2.5. We develop and apply a theoretical framework based on porosity and surface fractal dimension with corresponding increase in the reactive uptake coefficient driven by increased surface area and species reactivity. Differences are large enough to warrant consideration of dust non‐sphericity for chemical transport models and UV‐Vis trace gas retrievals.

BackgroundInterstitial Lung Disease (ILD) represents the most common extra-articular manifestation of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and is a major cause of mortality. This study aims to identify and evaluate biomarkers associated with Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease (RA-ILD).MethodsWe searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases for studies related to biomarkers of RA-ILD up until October 7, 2023. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) and standards recommended by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) were used for quality assessment, and meta-analysis was conducted using Stata18.0 software.ResultsA total of 98 articles were assessed for quality, 48 of which were included in the meta-analysis. 83 studies were of high quality, and 15 were of moderate quality. The meta-analysis showed significant differences in biomarkers such as C-Reactive Protein (CRP), Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR), Anti-Cyclic Citrullinated Peptide (anti-CCP) antibody, Rheumatoid Factor (RF), Krebs von den Lungen-6 (KL-6), Surfactant Protein D (SP-D), Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA), Carbohydrate Antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), Matrix Metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7), C-X-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 10 (CXCL-10), and Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) between RA-ILD patients and RA patients. However, Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio [Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (PLR)], Cancer Antigen 125 [Cancer Antigen 125 (CA-125)], and Cancer Antigen 153 [Cancer Antigen 153 (CA-153)] did not show significant differences between the two groups. KL-6, MMP-7, and Human Epididymis Protein 4 (HE4) are negatively correlated with lung function, and KL-6 is associated with the prognosis of RA-ILD.ConclusionsBiomarkers hold promising clinical value for prediction, diagnosis, severity assessment, and prognosis evaluation in RA-ILD. However, these findings need to be validated through multicenter, large-sample, prospective cohort studies.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD42023448372.

ObjectiveCerebrospinal fluid biomarkers are challenging to use for diagnosing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in large populations, and there is an urgent need for new blood biomarkers. The aim of this study is to investigate whether astrocyte activation is correlated with hippocampal atrophy, and to assess the potential of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) as a biomarker for diagnosing MCI among community-dwelling older individuals.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included 107 older adults. The levels of GFAP in serum were measured, and the volumetric assessment of gray matter within hippocampal subregions was conducted using Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM). The relationship between hippocampal subregion volume and blood biomarkers were analyzed using partial correlation. The effectiveness of blood biomarkers in differentiating MCI was assessed using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.ResultsWe found that serum GFAP levels were significantly elevated in the MCI group compared to the cognitively normal (CN) group. Additionally, individuals with MCI exhibited a reduction gray matter volume in specific hippocampal subregions. Notably, the right dentate gyrus (DG) and right cornu ammonis (CA) subregions were found to be effective for distinguishing MCI patients from CN individuals. Serum levels of GFAP demonstrate a sensitivity of 65.9% and a specificity of 75.6% in differentiating patients with MCI from CN individuals.ConclusionSpecific atrophy within hippocampal subregions has been observed in the brains of community-dwelling elderly individuals. Elevated levels of circulating GFAP may serve as a sensitive peripheral biomarker indicative of hippocampal-specific cognitive alterations in patients with MCI.