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A morphological investigation of populations of Navicula occulta Krasske from Great Xing'an Mountains (northeastern China) was undertaken. Light and scanning electron microscopic observations clearly showed that although it shared some features with Fallacia Stickle & Mann, it differed from both typical Navicula Bory and Fallacia species by several features. There were two longitudinal depressions along the narrow sternum that were covered externally by a perforated conopeum along the raphe, and there were two pores at each terminal area. Furthermore, the striae were very distinctive; they were interrupted by the conopeum at the axial area, and they had one large areola per stria, which was closed on the valve exterior. These characters differentiated this taxon from all currently described diatom genera, and a new genus, Pseudofallacia, was proposed. Based on similarities with Pseudofallacia occulsa, we transferred Pseudofallacia tenera, Pseudofallacia arenaria, Pseudofallacia lose rae and Pseudofallacia monoculata to the new genus. Comparisons between the new genus and other similar naviculoid genera were presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the investigation of the freshwater diatoms from Tibet, a monoraphid species was observed from a hot spring near Anduo County, located on a plateau in the central portion of Tibet. This species shares the diagnostic features of Crenotia , such as the valve bent along the transapical axis, striae uniseriate to biseriate from centre to the apices and areolae with special structures located at the end of each stria. We compared the morphological characters of this new species with the others in this genus and show it to be new; it is named Crenotiatibetia sp. nov. This species has small valves with slightly protracted ends with nearly capitate apices, lanceolate axial area, central area unilaterally expanded to the margin, striae uniseriate to biseriate, but, in some valves, the striae are only uniseriate. Areolae are round small to irregular in shape and, at the end of each stria, there is a horseshoe-shaped areola present. Observations of developing valves show all the striae begin biseriate, then they become covered by silica to form uniseriate striae. Comparisons are made amongst the species in this genus and with genera assigned to the Achnanthidiaceae., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Xinyuan Na, Jiaming Liu, Ying Zhang, John Patrick Kociolek, Maxim Kulikovskiy, Xinxin Lu, Fengyang Sui, Huan Zhu, Guoxiang Liu, Yawen Fan, Yan Liu.)

Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is the most prevalent form of progressive hair loss disorder in both men and women, significantly impacting their appearance and overall quality of life. Overactivation of the AR signaling pathway in dermal papilla cells (DPCs) plays a crucial role in the development and progression of AGA. Considering the severe systemic side effects associated with oral AR antagonists, the idea of developing of topical AR antagonists with rapid metabolic deactivation properties emerged as a promising approach. Herein, through systematic structural optimization, we successfully identified compound 30a as a potent and selective AR antagonist with favorable pharmacokinetic properties, resulting in high skin exposure and low plasma exposure following topical administration. Importantly, in both hair-growth and AGA mouse models, compound 30a showed potent hair-growth-promoting effects without any noticeable toxicity. These findings suggest that compound 30a holds significant potential as a topical AR antagonist for treating AGA patients.

Objectives: The rat model of heart failure (HF) induced by doxorubicin (DOX), a broad spectrum and highly effective chemotherapeutic anthracycline with high-affinity to myocardial tissue that causes severe dose-dependent irreversible cardiotoxicity has been widely recognized and applied in HF pathogenesis and drug therapy studies. The gut microbiota (GM) has attracted significant attention due to its potential role in HF, and research in this area may provide beneficial therapeutic strategies for HF. Considering the differences in the route, mode, and total cumulative dose of DOX administration used to establish HF models, the optimal scheme for studying the correlation between GM and HF pathogenesis remains to be determined. Therefore, focusing on establishing the optimal scheme, we evaluated the correlation between GM composition/function and DOX-induced cardiotoxicity (DIC)., Methods: Three schemes were investigated: DOX (at total cumulative doses of 12, 15 or 18 mg/kg using a fixed or alternating dose via a tail vein or intraperitoneal injection) was administered to Sprague Dawley (SD) for six consecutive weeks. The M-mode echocardiograms performed cardiac function evaluation. Pathological changes in the intestine were observed by H&E staining and in the heart by Masson staining. The serum levels of N-terminal pre-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) were measured by ELISA. The GM was analysed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing., Key Findings: Strikingly, based on the severity of cardiac dysfunction, there were marked differences in the abundance and grouping of GM under different schemes. The HF model established by tail vein injection of DOX (18 mg/kg, alternating doses) was more stable; moreover, the degree of myocardial injury and microbial composition were more consistent with the clinical manifestations of HF., Conclusions: The model of HF established by tail vein injection of doxorubicin, administered at 4mg/kg body weight (2mL/kg) at weeks 1, 3 and 5, and at 2mg/kg body weight (1mL/kg) at weeks 2, 4 and 6, with a cumulative total dose of 18mg/kg, is a better protocol to study the correlation between HF and GM., 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. The reviewer JL declared a shared affiliation with the authors TZ, YF, XT, JZ, MW, SG to the handling editor at the time of review., (Copyright © 2023 Fan, Liang, Tang, Zhu, Mu, Wang, Huang, Gong, Xu, Liu and Zhang.)

Medical equipment is important means and powerful tool in using for disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and rehabilitation. It is widely used in clinical medicine and daily life. But, the relevant laws and regulations and technical capacity is lagging behind, resulted in their use of the process may cause harm to patients. In this paper, Guangdong Medical Devices Quality Surveillance and Test Institute found the the problems in testing of medical devices in use in guangzhou city and in other areas of guangdong province four years and summarizes, provide advice how to strengthen and improve in the regulation of medical devices in the future.