Neuromuscular impairments of cerebral palsy: contributions to gait abnormalities and implications for treatment.

Identification of neuromuscular impairments in cerebral palsy (CP) is essential to providing effective treatment. However, clinical recognition of neuromuscular impairments in CP and their contribution to gait abnormalities is limited, resulting in suboptimal treatment outcomes. While CP is the most common childhood movement disorder, clinical evaluations often do not accurately identify and delineate the primary neuromuscular and secondary musculoskeletal impairments or their specific impact on mobility. Here we discuss the primary neuromuscular impairments of CP that arise from early brain injury and the progressive secondary musculoskeletal impairments, with a focus on spastic CP, the most common form of CP. Spastic CP is characterized by four primary interrelated neuromuscular impairments: 1. muscle weakness, 2. short muscle-tendon units due to slow muscle growth relative to skeletal growth, 3. muscle spasticity characterized by increased sensitivity to stretch, and 4. impaired selective motor control including flexor and extensor muscle synergies. Specific gait events are affected by the four primary neuromuscular impairments of spastic CP and their delineation can improve evaluation to guide targeted treatment, prevent deformities and improve mobility. Emerging information on neural correlates of neuromuscular impairments in CP provides the clinician with a more complete context with which to evaluate and develop effective treatment plans. Specifically, addressing the primary neuromuscular impairments and reducing secondary musculoskeletal impairments are important treatment goals. This perspective on neuromuscular mechanisms underlying gait abnormalities in spastic CP aims to inform clinical evaluation of CP, focus treatment more strategically, and guide research priorities to provide targeted treatments for CP.

Occupational Exposure to Silica Dust and Silicosis Risk in Chinese Noncoal Mines: Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Assessment.

BACKGROUND: Despite increasing awareness, silica dust-induced silicosis still contributes to the huge disease burden in China. Worryingly, recent silica dust exposure levels and silicosis risk in Chinese noncoal mines remain unclear. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine recent silica dust exposure levels and assess the risk of silicosis in Chinese noncoal mines. METHODS: Between May and December 2020, we conducted a retrospective cohort study on 3 noncoal mines and 1 public hospital to establish, using multivariable Cox regression analyses, prediction formulas of the silicosis cumulative hazard ratio (H) and incidence (I) and a cross-sectional study on 155 noncoal mines in 10 Chinese provinces to determine the prevalence of silica dust exposure (PDE), free silica content, and total dust and respirable dust concentrations. The qualitative risk of silicosis was assessed using the International Mining and Metals Commission's risk-rating table and the occupational hazard risk index; the quantitative risk was assessed using prediction formulas. RESULTS: Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed significant differences in the silicosis probability between silica dust-exposed male and female miners (log-rank test χ21=7.52, P=.01). A total of 126 noncoal mines, with 29,835 miners and 4623 dust samples, were included; 13,037 (43.7%) miners were exposed to silica dust, of which 12,952 (99.3%) were male. The median PDE, free silica content, total dust concentration, and respirable dust concentration were 61.6%, 27.6%, 1.30 mg/m3, and 0.58 mg/m3, respectively, indicating that miners in nonmetal, nonferrous metal, small, and open-pit mines suffer high-level exposure to silica dust. Comprehensive qualitative risk assessment showed noncoal miners had a medium risk of silicosis, and the risks caused by total silica dust and respirable silica dust exposure were high and medium, respectively. When predicting H and I over the next 10, 20, and 30 years, we assumed that the miner gender was male. Under exposure to current total silica dust concentrations, median I10, I20, and I30 would be 6.8%, 25.1%, and 49.9%, respectively. Under exposure to current respirable silica dust concentrations, median I10, I20, and I30 would be 6.8%, 27.7%, and 57.4%, respectively. These findings showed that miners in nonmetal, nonferrous metal, small, and open-pit mines have a higher I and higher qualitative silicosis risk. CONCLUSIONS: Chinese noncoal miners, especially those in nonmetal, nonferrous metal, small, and open-pit mines, still suffer high-level exposure to silica dust and a medium-level risk of silicosis. Data of both total silica dust and respirable silica dust are vital for occupational health risk assessment in order to devise effective control measures to reduce noncoal mine silica dust levels, improve miners' working environment, and reduce the risk of silicosis.

Association of IL-8 and CXCR2 with AST/ALT Ratio in Liver Abnormalities Screening during Oxidative Stress Injury Caused by VCM.

Liver impairment caused by VCM has been linked to irreversible damage such as fibrosis, necrosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and liver angiosarcoma. However, the ability to detect abnormalities during initial phase have not been achieved so far. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the effect of interleukin 8 (IL-8) and C-X-C chemokines 2 (CXCR2) on screening for a VCM-exposed group (n = 227) from a PVC manufacturing factory compared to a control group (n = 110) in Tianjin City in 2020 with influence factors evaluation. Ambient concentrations of VCM and health archives from 2012 to 2018 were collected for establishing the dose-effect trend. A cross-sectional survey in 2020 was performed to measure TDGA, IL-8, CXCR2, 8-OHdG, SOD, GPX, CAT, MDA, and ROS levels. Results indicated a continuous increased incidence on liver abnormalities despite a fluctuated downward trend in cumulative time-weighted average (CTWA) VCM concentrations over the years. ALT, AST, and AST/ALT ratio all contributed to liver abnormalities that contained fatty liver, liver calcification, and liver cysts, IL-8 and CXCR2 correlated with each other strongly and showed significant associations with oxidative stress markers, even AST/ALT ratio. IL-8 (>1547 µg/m3) or CXCR2 (<139 µg/m3) influenced the AST/ALT ratio through reciprocal interactions under oxidative stress injury, CXCR2 (>222 µg/m3), working years of 21 to 30 (a) and 11 to 20 (a), TDGA (>1.52 mg/L), alcohol consumption, smoking habit, and a less sleeping duration of <4 h per day would also be potential factors affecting the AST/ALT ratio. In conclusion (1) even with decreased VCM concentrations in PVC manufacturing factories liver abnormalities that contained fatty liver, liver calcification, and liver cysts could still occur due to oxidative stress injury with involvement of IL-8 and CXCR2. The status of protective measure and appropriate mask types also play a role; (2) the AST/ALT ratio could be a specific indicator for detecting abnormalities when combined with liver B ultrasonography results before impairment altered from bad to worse; and (3) factors such as definite medication history, fully broken protective facilities, alcohol consumption, less sleeping duration, inappropriate mask types, and longer working years could also influence AST/ALT ratio alterations through complex interactions.

Autonomous artificial intelligence for diabetic eye disease increases access and health equity in underserved populations.

Diabetic eye disease (DED) is a leading cause of blindness in the world. Annual DED testing is recommended for adults with diabetes, but adherence to this guideline has historically been low. In 2020, Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) began deploying autonomous AI for DED testing. In this study, we aimed to determine whether autonomous AI implementation was associated with increased adherence to annual DED testing, and how this differed across patient populations. JHM primary care sites were categorized as "non-AI" (no autonomous AI deployment) or "AI-switched" (autonomous AI deployment by 2021). We conducted a propensity score weighting analysis to compare change in adherence rates from 2019 to 2021 between non-AI and AI-switched sites. Our study included all adult patients with diabetes (>17,000) managed within JHM and has three major findings. First, AI-switched sites experienced a 7.6 percentage point greater increase in DED testing than non-AI sites from 2019 to 2021 (p < 0.001). Second, the adherence rate for Black/African Americans increased by 12.2 percentage points within AI-switched sites but decreased by 0.6% points within non-AI sites (p < 0.001), suggesting that autonomous AI deployment improved access to retinal evaluation for historically disadvantaged populations. Third, autonomous AI is associated with improved health equity, e.g. the adherence rate gap between Asian Americans and Black/African Americans shrank from 15.6% in 2019 to 3.5% in 2021. In summary, our results from real-world deployment in a large integrated healthcare system suggest that autonomous AI is associated with improvement in overall DED testing adherence, patient access, and health equity.

In-home Gait Abnormality Detection through Footstep-Induced Floor Vibration Sensing and Person-Invariant Contrastive Learning.

Detecting gait abnormalities is crucial for assessing fall risks and early identification of neuromusculoskeletal disorders such as Parkinson's and stroke. Traditional assessments in gait clinics are infrequent and pose barriers, particularly for disadvantaged populations. Previous efforts have explored sensor-based approaches for in-home gait assessments, yet they face limitations such as visual obstructions (cameras), limited coverage (pressure mats), and the need for device carrying (wearables and insoles). To overcome these limitations, we introduce an in-home gait abnormality detection system using footstep-induced floor vibrations, enabling low-cost, non-intrusive, device-free gait health monitoring. The main research challenge is the high uncertainty in floor vibrations due to gait variations among people, making it challenging to develop a generalizable model for new patients. To address this, we analyze time-frequency-domain features of floor vibration data during specific gait phases and develop a feature transformation method through contrastive learning to address the between-people gait variation challenge. Our method transforms the features from vibrations to an embedding space where samples from different people stay close to each other (robust to people variation) while normal and abnormal gait samples are far apart (sensitive to gait abnormality). After that, gait abnormalities are detected by a downstream classifier after feature transformation. We evaluated our approach through a real-world walking experiment with 21 participants and achieved an 85% to 95% mean accuracy in detecting various gait abnormalities. This novel method overcomes prior limitations in in-home gait assessments, offering accessible gait abnormality detection without the need for intrusive devices or labels for new patients.

Ambient floor vibration sensing advances the accessibility of functional gait assessments for children with muscular dystrophies.

Muscular dystrophies (MD) are a group of genetic neuromuscular disorders that cause progressive weakness and loss of muscles over time, influencing 1 in 3500-5000 children worldwide. New and exciting treatment options have led to a critical need for a clinical post-marketing surveillance tool to confirm the efficacy and safety of these treatments after individuals receive them in a commercial setting. For MDs, functional gait assessment is a common approach to evaluate the efficacy of the treatments because muscle weakness is reflected in individuals' walking patterns. However, there is little incentive for the family to continue to travel for such assessments due to the lack of access to specialty centers. While various existing sensing devices, such as cameras, force plates, and wearables can assess gait at home, they are limited by privacy concerns, area of coverage, and discomfort in carrying devices, which is not practical for long-term, continuous monitoring in daily settings. In this study, we introduce a novel functional gait assessment system using ambient floor vibrations, which is non-invasive and scalable, requiring only low-cost and sparsely deployed geophone sensors attached to the floor surface, suitable for in-home usage. Our system captures floor vibrations generated by footsteps from patients while they walk around and analyzes such vibrations to extract essential gait health information. To enhance interpretability and reliability under various sensing scenarios, we translate the signal patterns of floor vibration to pathological gait patterns related to MD, and develop a hierarchical learning algorithm that aggregates insights from individual footsteps to estimate a person's overall gait performance. When evaluated through real-world experiments with 36 subjects (including 15 patients with MD), our floor vibration sensing system achieves a 94.8% accuracy in predicting functional gait stages for patients with MD. Our approach enables accurate, accessible, and scalable functional gait assessment, bringing MD progressive tracking into real life.

Autonomous Artificial Intelligence Increases Access and Health Equity in Underserved Populations with Diabetes.

Diabetic eye disease (DED) is a leading cause of blindness in the world. Early detection and treatment of DED have been shown to be both sight-saving and cost-effective. As such, annual testing for DED is recommended for adults with diabetes and is a Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) measure. However, adherence to this guideline has historically been low, and access to this sight-saving intervention has particularly been limited for specific populations, such as Black or African American patients. In 2018, the US Food and Drug Agency (FDA) De Novo cleared autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) for diagnosing DED in a primary care setting. In 2020, Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM), an integrated healthcare system with over 30 primary care sites, began deploying autonomous AI for DED testing in some of its primary care clinics. In this retrospective study, we aimed to determine whether autonomous AI implementation was associated with increased adherence to annual DED testing, and whether this was different for specific populations. JHM primary care sites were categorized as "non-AI" sites (sites with no autonomous AI deployment over the study period and where patients are referred to eyecare for DED testing) or "AI-switched" sites (sites that did not have autonomous AI testing in 2019 but did by 2021). We conducted a difference-in-difference analysis using a logistic regression model to compare change in adherence rates from 2019 to 2021 between non-AI and AI-switched sites. Our study included all adult patients with diabetes managed within our health system (17,674 patients for the 2019 cohort and 17,590 patients for the 2021 cohort) and has three major findings. First, after controlling for a wide range of potential confounders, our regression analysis demonstrated that the odds ratio of adherence at AI-switched sites was 36% higher than that of non-AI sites, suggesting that there was a higher increase in DED testing between 2019 and 2021 at AI-switched sites than at non-AI sites. Second, our data suggested autonomous AI improved access for historically disadvantaged populations. The adherence rate for Black/African Americans increased by 11.9% within AI-switched sites whereas it decreased by 1.2% within non-AI sites over the same time frame. Third, the data suggest that autonomous AI improved health equity by closing care gaps. For example, in 2019, a large adherence rate gap existed between Asian Americans and Black/African Americans (61.1% vs. 45.5%). This 15.6% gap shrank to 3.5% by 2021. In summary, our real-world deployment results in a large integrated healthcare system suggest that autonomous AI improves adherence to a HEDIS measure, patient access, and health equity for patients with diabetes - particularly in historically disadvantaged patient groups. While our findings are encouraging, they will need to be replicated and validated in a prospective manner across more diverse settings.

In Situ Electrochemical Rapid Induction of Highly Active γ-NiOOH Species for Industrial Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzer.

Limited by the strong oxidation environment and sluggish reconstruction process in oxygen evolution reaction (OER), designing rapid self-reconstruction with high activity and stability electrocatalysts is crucial to promoting anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolyzer. Herein, trace Fe/S-modified Ni oxyhydroxide (Fe/S-NiOOH/NF) nanowires are constructed via a simple in situ electrochemical oxidation strategy based on precipitation-dissolution equilibrium. In situ characterization techniques reveal that the successful introduction of Fe and S leads to lattice disorder and boosts favorable hydroxyl capture, accelerating the formation of highly active γ-NiOOH. The Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations have also verified that the incorporation of Fe and S optimizes the electrons redistribution and the d-band center, decreasing the energy barrier of the rate-determining step (*O→*OOH). Benefited from the unique electronic structure and intermediate adsorption, the Fe/S-NiOOH/NF catalyst only requires the overpotential of 345 mV to reach the industrial current density of 1000 mA cm-2 for 120 h. Meanwhile, assembled AEM water electrolyzer (Fe/S-NiOOH//Pt/C-60 °C) can deliver 1000 mA cm-2 at a cell voltage of 2.24 V, operating at the average energy efficiency of 71% for 100 h. In summary, this work presents a rapid self-reconstruction strategy for high-performance AEM electrocatalysts for future hydrogen economy.

Ubiquitous Gait Analysis through Footstep-Induced Floor Vibrations.

Quantitative analysis of human gait is critical for the early discovery, progressive tracking, and rehabilitation of neurological and musculoskeletal disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, stroke, and cerebral palsy. Gait analysis typically involves estimating gait characteristics, such as spatiotemporal gait parameters and gait health indicators (e.g., step time, length, symmetry, and balance). Traditional methods of gait analysis involve the use of cameras, wearables, and force plates but are limited in operational requirements when applied in daily life, such as direct line-of-sight, carrying devices, and dense deployment. This paper introduces a novel approach for gait analysis by passively sensing floor vibrations generated by human footsteps using vibration sensors mounted on the floor surface. Our approach is low-cost, non-intrusive, and perceived as privacy-friendly, making it suitable for continuous gait health monitoring in daily life. Our algorithm estimates various gait parameters that are used as standard metrics in medical practices, including temporal parameters (step time, stride time, stance time, swing time, double-support time, and single-support time), spatial parameters (step length, width, angle, and stride length), and extracts gait health indicators (cadence/walking speed, left-right symmetry, gait balance, and initial contact types). The main challenge we addressed in this paper is the effect of different floor types on the resultant vibrations. We develop floor-adaptive algorithms to extract features that are generalizable to various practical settings, including homes, hospitals, and eldercare facilities. We evaluate our approach through real-world walking experiments with 20 adults with 12,231 labeled gait cycles across concrete and wooden floors. Our results show 90.5% (RMSE 0.08s), 71.3% (RMSE 0.38m), and 92.3% (RMSPE 7.7%) accuracy in estimating temporal, spatial parameters, and gait health indicators, respectively.

[Liver impairment status toward workers exposed to vinyl chloride under different techniques].

OBJECTIVE: To analyse potential differences towards liver impairment status on vinyl chloride monomer(VCM) exposed population from technique under acetylene hydrochlorination to the one of ethylene oxychlorination respectively and to explore the possible reasons, which will pave the way for occupational health promotion in terms of hazard reduction. METHODS: a cross-sectional study was initiated between June and September in 2022 towards 2 groups of VCM exposed population from the facility of acetylene hydrochlorination(n=78) and the one of ethylene oxychlorination(n=69) in a PVC petrochemical complex enterprise(abbreviation of H) in Tianjin City. The demographic information concerning age, gender, messages on occupational history, field investigation were inquired through questionnaire interview. Then, venous blood(4 mL/person) and urine(10-50 mL/person) were collected during the physical exam phase and indices of 8-hydroxy-2 deoxyguanosine(8-OHdG) in blood and thiodiglycolic acid(TDGA) in urine were detected through ELISA and solid phase extraction-ion chromatography respectively. RESULTS: The 2 groups of population were matched well in terms of average age distribution and gender composition ratio, with significant differences on population composition ratio were found on variables of working years, alcohol consumption and daily sleeping duration(P<0.01 or P<0.05). It was found that the average content of TDGA in acetylene hydrochlorination group was(0.81±0.05)mg/L while the content in ethylene oxychlorination group reached to(0.83±0.06)mg/L, noteworthy differences were only found among 6 posts in the acetylene hydrochlorination group and 5 others in the ethylene oxychlorination group after classification for specific posts, however, the average concentration of 8-OHdG in acetylene hydrochlorination group(122(78.3, 168.8) µg/m~3) was different from the one in ethylene oxychlorination group(101.7(79.6, 149.7) µg/m~3)(Z=6.82, P<0.05). Moreover, a series of positive correlations in moderate intensity between 8-OHdG concentration and TDGA content were observed among posts of polymerization cleaners(r=0.53), aggregation operators(r=0.47), maintenance repairers(r=0.45), sampling operators(r=0.41) in acetylene hydrochlorination group(P<0.05) and posts of cracking reactants(r=0.64), DCS operators(r=0.51), oxychlorination operators(r=0.50) and chemical loaders(r=0.44) in ethylene oxychlorination group(P<0.05). Liver function indices such as content on ALT(χ~2=15.41, P<0.01), AST(χ~2=9.95, P<0.01) and ALP(χ~2=3.79, P<0.01) were different in the 2 groups population with statistical significance, then proportions on population composition ratio that exceeded normal ranges of indices on ALT, AST, AST/ALT ratio, ALP and Alb/Glb ratio were higher in acetylene hydrochlorination group than ones in ethylene oxychlorination group with great significance(P<0.05), so as to the abnormalities in liver B altrosonography test between groups(χ~2=17.33, P<0.01). Binary logistic regression model indicated that 8-OHdG concentration in blood that exceed 90 µg/m~3, TDGA content in urine that exceed 0.60 mg/L, working years that were over 10a, alcohol consumption, sleeping duration less than 6 h per day and male workers were potential risky factors for liver impairment(P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The degree on liver impairment status was higher in acetylene hydrochlorination group than ones in in ethylene oxychlorination group under the same PVC factory, which might be associated with the oxidative stress injury induced from the combination of higher VCM concentration at workplaces, longer cumulative exposure time, longer working years, alcohol consumption habits and sleep shortage caused by shift work patterns.

Effects of CYP3A4*22 and POR*28 variations on the pharmacokinetics of tacrolimus in renal transplant recipients: a meta-analysis of 18 observational studies.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the association between cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4*22 and cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (POR)*28 variations and the pharmacokinetics of tacrolimus. METHODS: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Science (SCI), MEDLINE, and Embase were systematically searched from inception to August 2022. The outcomes were weight-adjusted daily dose and dose-adjusted trough concentration (C0/Dose). RESULTS: The study included 2931 renal transplant recipients from 18 publications. Weight-adjusted daily dose of CYP3A4*1/*1 carriers was 0.04 (WMD = 0.04, 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.06), 0.03 (WMD = 0.03, 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.05), 0.02 (WMD = 0.02, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.03), or 0.02 mg/kg/day (WMD = 0.02, 95% CI: 0.00 to 0.04) higher than CYP3A4*22 carriers in Caucasians at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, or 12 months post-transplantation. Conversely, C0/Dose was lower for CYP3A4*1/*1 carriers at 3 days (SMD = -0.35, 95% CI: -0.65 to -0.06), 1 month (SMD = -0.67, 95% CI: -1.16 to -0.18), 3 months (SMD = -0.60, 95% CI: -0.89 to -0.31), 6 months (SMD = -0.76, 95% CI: -1.49 to -0.04), or 12 months post-transplantation (SMD = -0.69, 95% CI: -1.37 to 0.00). Furthermore, C0/Dose of POR*1/*1 carriers was 22.64 (WMD = 22.64, 95% CI: 2.54 to 42.74) or 19.41 (ng/ml)/(mg/kg/day) (WMD = 19.41, 95% CI: 9.58 to 29.24) higher than POR*28 carriers in CYP3A5 expressers at 3 days or 7 days post-transplantation, and higher in Asians at 6 months post-transplantation (SMD = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.50 to 1.43). CONCLUSIONS: CYP3A4*22 variant in Caucasians restrains the metabolism of tacrolimus, while POR*28 variant in CYP3A5 expressers enhances the metabolism of tacrolimus for renal transplant recipients. However, further well-designed prospective studies are necessary to substantiate these conclusions given some limitations.

LncRNA CA12-AS1 targets miR-133a to promote LPS-induced inflammatory response in bovine mammary epithelial cells.

Bovine mastitis seriously affects milk production and quality and causes huge economic losses in the dairy industry. Recent studies have shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) may regulate bovine mastitis. In this study, the expression of lncRNA CA12-AS1 was significantly upregulated in LPS-induced bovine mammary epithelial cells (bMECs) but negatively correlated with the expression of miR-133a, suggesting that it may be related to the inflammatory response in bMECs. Dual luciferase reporter gene assay revealed that miR-133a is a downstream target gene of lncRNA CA12-AS1. Furthermore, lncRNA CA12-AS1 silencing negatively regulated the expression of miR-133a inhibited the secretion of inflammatory factors (IL-6, IL-8 and IL-1ß) and decreased the mRNA expression levels of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) (p65/p50) and apoptosis-related genes (BAX, caspase3 and caspase9). LncRNA CA12-AS1 silencing also promoted the mRNA expression levels of the Tight junction (TJ) signaling pathway-related genes (Claudin-1, Occludin and ZO-1), apoptotic gene BCL2, proliferation-related genes (CDK2, CDK4 and PCNA) and the viability of bMECs. However, overexpression of lncRNA CA12-AS1 reversed the above effects. These results revealed that lncRNA CA12-AS1 is a pro-inflammatory regulator, and its silencing can alleviate bovine mastitis by targeting miR-133a, providing a novel strategy for molecular therapy of cow mastitis.

Construction of n-type homogeneous to improve interfacial carrier transfer for enhanced photoelectrocatalytic hydrolysis.

Photoelectrocatalyzed hydrogen production plays an important role in the path to carbon neutrality. The construction of heterojunctions provides an ideal example of an oxygen precipitation reaction. In this work, the performance of the n-n type heterojunction CeBTC@FeBTC/NIF in the photoelectronically coupled catalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) reaction is presented. The efficient transfer of carriers between components enhances the catalytic activity. Besides, the construction of heterojunctions optimizes the energy level structure and increases the absorption of light, and the microstructure forms holes with a blackbody effect that also enhances light absorption. Consequently, CeBTC@FeBTC/NIF has excellent photoelectric coupling catalytic properties and requires an overpotential of only 300 mV to drive a current density of 100 mA cm-2 under illumination. More importantly, the n-n heterojunction was found to be effective in enhancing charge and photogenerated electron migration by examining the carrier density of each component and carrier diffusion at the interface.

Internal Polarization Field Induced Hydroxyl Spillover Effect for Industrial Water Splitting Electrolyzers.

The formation of multiple oxygen intermediates supporting efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are affinitive with hydroxyl adsorption. However, ability of the catalyst to capture hydroxyl and maintain the continuous supply at active sits remains a tremendous challenge. Herein, an affordable Ni2P/FeP2 heterostructure is presented to form the internal polarization field (IPF), arising hydroxyl spillover (HOSo) during OER. Facilitated by IPF, the oriented HOSo from FeP2 to Ni2P can activate the Ni site with a new hydroxyl transmission channel and build the optimized reaction path of oxygen intermediates for lower adsorption energy, boosting the OER activity (242 mV vs. RHE at 100 mA cm-2) for least 100 h. More interestingly, for the anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEMWE) with low concentration electrolyte, the advantage of HOSo effect is significantly amplified, delivering 1 A cm-2 at a low cell voltage of 1.88 V with excellent stability for over 50 h.

The Impact of ABCB1 SNPs on Tacrolimus Pharmacokinetics in Liver or Kidney Transplant Recipients: A Meta-analysis.

PURPOSE: We aimed to investigate the association between ATP Binding Cassette Subfamily B Member 1 (ABCB1) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the pharmacokinetics of tacrolimus. METHODS: A search was conducted in Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Science (SCI), MEDLINE, and Embase from inception to November 2022. Outcomes included weightadjusted daily dose (DD) and dose-adjusted trough concentration (C0/Dose). RESULTS: A total of 1059 liver or kidney transplant recipients from 14 publications were included. For adult liver transplantation recipients, DD of ABCB1 3435C>T CC carriers was 0.03 mg/kg/day (WMD = 0.03, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.05, I2 = 0%) higher than ABCB1 3435C>T T carriers at post-transplantation ≤ 7 days; C0/dose of ABCB1 3435C>T CC carriers were 31.88 (WMD = -31.88, 95% CI: -62.32 to -1.45, I2 = 83.5%) or 34.61 (ng/ml)/(mg/kg/day) (WMD = -34.61, 95% CI: -65.26 to -3.97, I2 = 55.3%) lower than ABCB1 3435C>T T carriers at post-transplantation ≤ 7 or 14 days, respectively. No difference in C0/dose was observed for ABCB1 2677G>T/A or ABCB1 1236C>T SNPs in both liver and kidney transplant recipients. CONCLUSION: ABCB1 3435C>T SNP might have a potential impact on tacrolimus pharmacokinetics in the early stage after liver transplantation, indicating the probability of individualized immunosuppressive therapy based on genetic polymorphism. Given some limitations, further well-designed prospective studies are warranted to validate these conclusions.

Biological carbon promotes the recovery of anammox granular sludge after starvation.

This article adopts the strategy of adding biochar and increasing HRT to accelerate the performance and particle morphology recovery of anaerobic ammonia oxidation granular sludge stored at room temperature for 68 days. The results showed that biochar accelerated the death of heterotrophic bacteria, shortened the cell lysis and lag period of the recovery process by 4 days, and it only took 28 days for the nitrogen removal performance of the reactor to recover to the original level, and 56 days for re-granulation. Biochar promoted the secretion of EPS (56.96 mg gVSS-1), and the sludge volume and nitrogen removal performance of the bioreactor remain stable. Biochar also accelerated the growth of Anammox bacteria. The abundance of Anammox bacteria in the biochar reactor reached 38.76% on the 28th day. The high abundance of functional bacteria and the optimized community structure of biochar made system (Candidatus_Kuenenia: 38.30%) more risk-resistant than control reactor.

RNA-seq reveals the role of miR-223 in alleviating inflammation of bovine mammary epithelial cells.

Bovine mammary epithelial cells (bMECs) are involved in the early defense against the invasion of intramammary pathogens and are essential for the health of bovine mammary gland. MicroRNA (MiRNA) is a key factor that regulates cell state and physiological function. In the present study, the transcriptome profiles of miR-223 inhibitor transfection group (miR-223_Inhibitor) and negative control inhibitor transfection group (NC_Inhibitor) within bMECs were detected via the RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) platform. Based on these experiments, the differentially expressed mRNAs (DE-mRNAs) of the miR-223_Inhibitor transfection group were screened, and the Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes functional analyses of DE-mRNAs were performed. The results revealed that compared with the NC_Inhibitor, 224 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in the miR-223_Inhibitor, including 184 upregulated and 40 downregulated genes. The functional annotation of the above DEGs indicated that some of these genes are involved in the immune response generated by extracellular substance stimulation, regulation of the activity of cytokines and chemokines, and the immune signaling pathways of NF-κB and TNF. Meanwhile, miR-223_inhibitor upregulated the immune key genes IRF1 and NFκBIA, cytokines IL-6 and IL-24, as well as chemokines CXCL3, CXCL5, and CCR6, triggering a signaling cascade response that exacerbated inflammation in bMECs. These results suggested that miR-223 plays an important role in inhibiting the inflammatory response and maintaining the stability of bMECs, and is a potential target for treating mastitis in dairy cows.

Directed electron regulation promoted sandwich-like CoO@FeBTC/NF with p-n heterojunctions by gel electrodeposition for oxygen evolution reaction.

Metal organic framework (MOF) is currently-one of the key catalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), but its catalytic performance is severely limited by electronic configuration. In this study, cobalt oxide (CoO) on nickel foam (NF) was first prepared, which then wrapped it with FeBTC synthesized by ligating isophthalic acid (BTC) with iron ions by electrodeposition to obtain CoO@FeBTC/NF p-n heterojunction structure. The catalyst requires only 255 mV overpotential to reach a current density of 100 mA cm-2, and can maintain 100 h long time stability at 500 mA cm-2 high current density. The catalytic properties are mainly related to the strong induced modulation of electrons in FeBTC by holes in the p-type CoO, which results in stronger bonding and faster electron transfer between FeBTC and hydroxide. At the same time, the uncoordinated BTC at the solid-liquid interface ionizes acidic radicals which form hydrogen bonds with the hydroxyl radicals in solution, capturing them onto the catalyst surface for the catalytic reaction. In addition, CoO@FeBTC/NF also has strong application prospects in alkaline electrolyzers, which only needs 1.78 V to reach a current density of 1 A cm-2, and it can maintain long-term stability for 12 h at this current. This study provides a new convenient and efficient approach for the control design of the electronic structure of MOF, leading to a more efficient electrocatalytic process.

[Improvement of protective facilities in vinyl chloride units on liver injury status of occupational exposed group].

OBJECTIVE: To comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of improvement of protective facilities in a vinyl chloride monomer(VCM) on promotion toward health status of occupational exposed group and safety production at poly-vinyl chloride(PVC) by comparing the liver function indicators and inspection result before and after the improvement, and to analyze the possible influential factors. METHODS: The information collection concerning facilities improvement in 2013 and 2016, identification toward critical controlling points, data or detection result from occupational on-site survey and physical examination were originated in July 2020, and 227 VCM exposed workers and 179 others without chemical reagents exposure history from production factory with calcium carbide process in Tianjin City were selected as objects. The effectiveness toward improvement of protective facilities in critical controlling points that occupational exposed workers usually involve in were evaluated through comparison toward VCM concentration result, thiodiglycolic acid(TDGA) content in urine, indicators on liver function and biochemistry and liver ultrasound. At the mean time, both binary Logistic regression analysis was used to screen the possible factors that contributed to abnormal symptoms and single dependent variable general linear regression model was used to find out the mutual interaction among influential factors. RESULTS: Prior to improvement on protective facilities, the C_(TWA)of VCM exposed by all 8 positions in G had exceeded 1 to 2 folds of occupational exposure limit(OEL=10 mg/m~3) and the position of synthetic operator and field sampling man were ones exposed to 1, 2-DCE with the range from 50% to 1 OEL, others hazard factors were found to meet relative OELs. Next, the content of TDGA in urine of exposed group was found to correlate strongly to the average concentration of VCM(r=0.79, P<0.05), and result of TDGA content, alanine aminotransferase(ALT), γ-glutamyl transpeptidase(GGT) and abnormal rate toward liver ultrasound test in exposed group were much higher than ones in control group with significant differences(P<0.05 or P<0.001). By contrast, after the improvement, the exposure level toward all identified hazard factors were declined to meet OEL levels with significant differences in TDGA content, and result of ALT, GGT and abnormal rates toward symptoms in liver ultrasound test such as liver calcification with thickened liver echo, peripheral fibrosis of the liver, multiple hepatic cysts were markedly lower than ones before improvement and still were higher than ones in control group(P<0.05 or P<0.001). Further, parameters of gender, length of employment, weekly contact time, VCM exposed level, TDGA content were all important contributing factors to abnormal symptoms in liver ultrasound test before and after improvement on protective facilities(P<0.05 or P<0.001), in which a significant interaction effect between gender and length of employment(F=4.028, P=0.044), weekly contact time and TDGA content(F=2.183, P=0.046) in urine were found in contribution analysis to abnormal symptoms in liver ultrasound test(P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The improvement measure carried out in VCM facilities by this PVC production factories with calcium carbide process effectively reduced the ambient concentration of hazard factors mainly led by VCM, but workers might still be at risk of liver injury even under VCM exposure at relative lower level, which may referred to factors of long weekly contact time, long length of employment and high fat diet.