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Constipation symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) seriously reduce the quality of life of patients and aggravate the development of the disease, but current treatment options still cannot alleviate the progress of constipation. Electroacupuncture (EA) is a new method for the treatment of constipation, which can effectively treat the symptoms of constipation in PD patients. However, the specific regulatory mechanisms of EA in the treatment of constipation symptoms in PD remain unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the therapeutic effect of EA on PD constipation rats and its regulatory mechanism. A rotenone (ROT)-induced gastrointestinal motility disorder model was used to simulate the pathological process of constipation in PD. The results showed that EA could effectively promote gastrointestinal peristalsis, reduce α-synuclein accumulation in substantia nigra and colon and colonic injury in rats after ROT administration. Mechanistically, EA activation of the central-cholinergic pathway increases acetylcholine release in the colon. At the same time, EA up-regulated the co-expression of enteric glial cells (EGCs) and α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR). EA increased the expression of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the colon of PD rats. Further mechanistic studies showed that EA increased the expression of glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), GFRa1 and p-AKT in colon tissues. The present study confirmed that EA upregulates α7nAChR through a central-cholinergic mechanism to promote GDNF release from EGCs, thereby protecting intestinal neurons and thereby improving gastrointestinal motility.

Neoehrlichia mikurensis (N. mikurensis) is an emerging tick-borne pathogen that can cause neoehrlichiosis. Rodents are considered the major host for N. mikurensis. Currently, N. mikurensis has been detected in rodents in several studies from China and other countries. However, no research on N. mikurensis infection in rodents has been reported in the Liupan mountain region. The region of Liupan Mountain, located in northwestern China, is the center of the triangle formed by the cities of Xi’an, Yinchuan, and Lanzhou, with multiple tourist sites in the region. To survey whether there is N. mikurensis in hosts, rodents were captured in this region in September 2020. A nested polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the DNA of N. mikurensis, followed by nucleotide sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. In the region, among 88 rodents, 3 rodents were detected positive for N. mikurensis, a detection rate of 3.4%. Based on phylogenetic analysis of the partial groEL gene sequences, N. mikurensis from rodents in Liupan Mountain clustered in the same evolutionary branch with those found in rodents from Japan, Russia, and northeastern China, and also in ticks and clinical cases from Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China.

Synthesis of multi-satellite altimetry facilitates the acquisition of long-term changes in lake level but may induce biases due to inconsistent data sources, and thus remains largely unexplored. This study investigates the integrated application of Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), ICESat-2, and CryoSat-2 missions to provide consecutive lake level series in 2003–2020. The sample comprises 48 lakes in the world with gauge-based or Hydroweb water level data. The CryoSat-2 data are first adjusted to the ICESat-2 height reference based on the mean values of their monthly water level difference during their overlapping period (2018–2020). Then, the corrected CryoSat-2 data are used to link the ICESat and ICESat-2 data. Results show that in the sample lakes, the deviations between CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 data vary and range from −0.78 m to 0.13 m. The data quality of the synthesized time series is evaluated by comparing against the validation data, with an average R2 of 0.84. This study shows that CryoSat-2 has the potential of filling the gap between ICESat and ICESat-2. The three altimeters can be expected to integrate effectively for monitoring lake water level changes in the past two decades.

Resumo Fundamento A fibrilação atrial (FA) e a insuficiência cardíaca (IC) coexistem frequentemente, resultando em desfechos adversos. No entanto, permanecem controvérsias quanto à eficácia da ablação por cateter (AC) em pacientes com FA com disfunção ventricular esquerda grave. Objetivos O objetivo deste estudo foi realizar uma metanálise de ensaios prospectivos randomizados e controlados para avaliar a eficácia da AC versus terapia médica (TM) em pacientes com FA com fração de ejeção do ventrículo esquerdo (FEVE) ≤45%. Métodos Procuramos na literatura estudos que comparassem AC com TM em pacientes com FA com FEVE ≤45%. Foi realizada uma metanálise de 7 ensaios clínicos, incluindo 1.163 pacientes com FA e IC. A análise de subgrupo foi realizada com base na FEVE basal. Todos os testes foram bilaterais; apenas o valor p

Study region: Southwest China (97.4ºE∼112.1ºE, 21.1ºN∼34.3ºN), including Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Chongqing, and Guangxi provinces. Study focus: Meteorological droughts were likely to become much more frequent and intensified, posing a huge threat to food security, drinking water supply, ecological environment security, and sustainable development of economy and society. However, the spatial and temporal variations of seasonal droughts and its possible driving forces are still not fully understood. In this work, we deeply explored the spatial and temporal variations of spring drought in Southwest China and its possible teleconnection mechanisms during 1961–2020. New hydrological insights for the region: The rising temperature and reduced precipitation led to a significant worsen trend of spring drought in the eastern parts of Southwest China (ESWC) during 1961–2020. Significant abrupt changes of spring drought occurred in 2003, and spring drought became much more frequent and intensified especially after 2003 in ESWC. Spring drought evolutions were dominated by NAO, and were also affected by the coupling of TNA and AO in ESWC during 1961–2020. However, the significant worsen trend of spring drought during 2003–2020 in ESWC could be largely explained by the coupling influences of NAO, TNA, and PDO. These results can provide valuable information for agricultural production, water resource management, and especially the early warning and prediction of spring drought in Southwest China.

Abstract Background Despite current best practices, pressure injuries (PI) remain a devastating and prevalent hospital-acquired complication for patients with acute traumatic spinal cord injuries (SCIs). This study examined associations between risk factors for PI development in patients with complete SCI, such as norepinephrine dose and duration, and other demographic factors or lesion characteristics. Methods This case–control study included adults with acute complete SCIs ASIA-A, who were admitted to a level-one trauma center between 2014–18. A retrospective review was implement using data on patient and injury characteristics, including age, gender, level of SCI (cervical vs. thoracic), Injury Severity Score (ISS), length of stay (LOS) and mortality; presence/absence of PI during their acute hospital stay; and treatment factors such as spinal surgery, mean arterial pressure (MAP) targets, and vasopressor treatment. Multivariable logistic regression evaluated associations with PI. Results Eighty-two out of 103 eligible patients had complete data, and 30 (37%) developed PIs. Patient and injury characteristics, including age (Mean: 50.6; SD:21.3), location of SCI (48 cervical, 59%) and ISS (Mean 33.1; SD:11.8), did not differ between PI and non-PI groups. Logistic regression analysis revealed that male gender (OR:34.1; CI95:2.3–506.5, p = 0.010) and increased LOS (log-transformed; OR:20.5, CI95:2.8–149.9, p = 0.003) were associated with increased risk of PI. Having an order for a MAP > 80mmg (OR:0.05; CI95:0.01–0.30, p = 0.001) was associated with a reduced risk of PI. There were no significant associations between PI and duration of norepinephrine treatment. Conclusions Norepinephrine treatment parameters were not associated with development of PI, suggesting that MAP targets should be a focus for future investigations for SCI management. Increasing LOS should highlight the need for high-risk PI prevention and vigilance.

Abstract Rivers are among the most diverse, dynamic, and productive ecosystems on Earth. River flow regimes are constantly changing, but characterizing and understanding such changes have been challenging from a long-term and global perspective. By analyzing water extent variations observed from four-decade Landsat imagery, we here provide a global attribution of the recent changes in river regime to morphological dynamics (e.g., channel shifting and anabranching), expansion induced by new dams, and hydrological signals of widening and narrowing. Morphological dynamics prevailed in ~20% of the global river area. Booming reservoir constructions, mostly skewed in Asia and South America, contributed to ~32% of the river widening. The remaining hydrological signals were characterized by contrasting hotspots, including prominent river widening in alpine and pan-Arctic regions and narrowing in the arid/semi-arid continental interiors, driven by varying trends in climate forcing, cryospheric response to warming, and human water management. Our findings suggest that the recent river extent dynamics diverge based on hydroclimate and socio-economic conditions, and besides reflecting ongoing morphodynamical processes, river extent changes show close connections with external forcings, including climate change and anthropogenic interference.