A multifunctional cascade enzyme system for enhanced starvation/chemodynamic combination therapy against hypoxic tumors.

Starvation therapy has shown promise as a cancer treatment, but its efficacy is often limited when used alone. In this work, a multifunctional nanoscale cascade enzyme system, named CaCO3@MnO2-NH2@GOx@PVP (CMGP), was fabricated for enhanced starvation/chemodynamic combination cancer therapy. CMGP is composed of CaCO3 nanoparticles wrapped in a MnO2 shell, with glucose oxidase (GOx) adsorbed and modified with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). MnO2 decomposes H2O2 in cancer cells into O2, which enhances the efficiency of GOx-mediated starvation therapy. CaCO3 can be decomposed in the acidic cancer cell environment, causing Ca2+ overload in cancer cells and inhibiting mitochondrial metabolism. This synergizes with GOx to achieve more efficient starvation therapy. Additionally, the H2O2 and gluconic acid produced during glucose consumption by GOx are utilized by MnO2 with catalase-like activity to enhance O2 production and Mn2+ release. This process accelerates glucose consumption, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and CaCO3 decomposition, promoting the Ca2+ release. CMGP can alleviate tumor hypoxia by cycling the enzymatic cascade reaction, which increases enzyme activity and combines with Ca2+ overload to achieve enhanced combined starvation/chemodynamic therapy. In vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate that CMGP has effective anticancer abilities and good biosafety. It represents a new strategy with great potential for combined cancer therapy.

Association between muscular tissue desaturation and acute kidney injury in older patients undergoing major abdominal surgery: a prospective cohort study.

PURPOSE: Present study was designed to investigate the association between muscular tissue desaturation and acute kidney injury (AKI) in older patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. METHOD: A total of 253 patients (≥ 65 years old) who underwent abdominal surgery with expected duration ≥ 2 h were enrolled. Muscular tissue oxygen saturation (SmtO2) was monitored at quadriceps and bilateral flanks during surgery. Muscular desaturation was defined as SmtO2 < 90% baseline lasting for > 60 s. The primary outcome was the incidence of AKI within postoperative 7 days. The association between muscular desaturation and AKI was analyzed by multivariable logistic regression model. The secondary outcomes indicated the other complications within postoperative 30 days. RESULTS: Among 236 patients, 44 (18.6%) of them developed AKI. The incidence of muscular desaturation at quadriceps was 28.8% (68/236). Patients with muscular desaturation had higher incidence of AKI than those without desaturation (27.9% [19/68], vs. 14.9% [25/168], P = 0.020). After adjustment of confounders, multivariable analysis showed that muscular desaturation at quadriceps was significantly associated with an increased risk of AKI (OR = 2.84, 95% CI 1.21-6.67, P = 0.016). Muscular desaturations at left and right flank were also associated with an increased risk of AKI (OR = 6.38, 95% CI 1.78-22.89, P = 0.004; OR = 8.90, 95% CI 1.42-45.63; P = 0.019, respectively). Furthermore, patients with muscular desaturation may have a higher risk of pulmonary complications, sepsis and stroke at 30-day follow-up. CONCLUSION: Muscular desaturation was associated with postoperative AKI in older patients undergoing major abdominal surgery which may serve as a predictor of AKI.

Association of preoperative neutrophil-lymphocyte ratios with the emergence delirium in pediatric patients after tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy: an observational prospective study.

PURPOSE: The study aimed to investigate potential risk factors for emergence delirium (ED) in pediatric patients after tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy (T&A). METHODS: This prospective, single-center observational study enrolled children aged 3-7 years who underwent T&A under general anesthesia. ED was assessed according to DSM-IV or V criteria. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to evaluate the predicative and cut-off values of risk factors, including age, preoperative anxiety level, postoperative pain and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) for ED. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate risk factors for ED. RESULTS: 94 pediatric patients who underwent T&A were enrolled and 19 developed ED (an incidence of 25.3%). Receiver operating characteristic analysis indicated that preoperative NLR was a significant predictor of ED with a cut-off value of 0.8719 and an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.671 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.546-0.796, P = 0.022). Preoperative NLR (< 0.8719) and postoperative pain were independent risk factors associated with ED (odds ratio: 0.168, 95% CI 0.033-0.858, P = 0.032; odds ratio: 7.298, 95% CI 1.563-34.083, P = 0.011) according to multivariate logistic regression analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative NLR level and postoperative pain were independent risk factors for ED in pediatric patients undergoing T&A.

Projection Stereolithography 3D-Printed Bio-Polymer with Thermal Assistance.

A stereolithography process with thermal assistance is proposed in this work to address the tradeoff between the flowability and the high concentration of solute loadings at room temperature, through which the improved performance of polymers prepared using stereolithography 3D printing can be achieved. For the experiment, polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) with a high molecular weight of 4000 is adopted to improve the mechanical properties of 2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA). For the polymer of HEMA, the highest soluble concentration of PEGDA is about 20 wt% at 25 °C (room temperature) while the concentration could be raised up to 40 wt% as the temperature increases to 60 °C. The 3D printing tests showed that the objects could be easily fabricated with the HEMA polymer loaded with 40 wt% of PEGDA through the thermally assisted projection stereolithography technology. By adding the 40 wt% of PEGDA, the Young's modulus has been enhanced by nearly 390% compared to the HEMA resin without solute, of which the Young's modulus is 63.31 ± 2.72 MPa. The results of the cell proliferation test proved that the HEMA resin loaded with PEGDA led to a better biocompatibility compared to the HEMA resin without the loading of the PEGDA solute. All of the results demonstrate that the polymer loaded with high solute is feasible to be precisely 3D-printed using the projection stereolithography process with thermal assistance, and the improved mechanical properties are beneficial for biomedical applications.

Molecular regulatory mechanisms of erythropoiesis and related diseases.

The metabolism of cells and blood circulation allow for the constant production and destruction of red blood cells. Erythrocyte formation allows red blood cells to regenerate, which is crucial for maintaining the equilibrium of the organism. Erythrocyte formation is a multi-step, intricate process with distinct structural and functional characteristics at each stage. Erythropoiesis is regulated by a number of signaling pathways; malfunctional regulatory mechanisms may result in disease and aberrant erythropoiesis. Therefore, this article focuses on a review of the erythroid formation process, related signaling pathways, and red blood cell lineage diseases.

Bidirectional wide-angle waveguide grating antennas with flat-top far-field patterns for optical phased arrays.

To build advanced all solid-state LiDAR, optical phased arrays (OPAs) with a large field of view are highly desirable. As a critical building block, a wide-angle waveguide grating antenna is proposed here. Instead of aiming at the elimination of downward radiation of waveguide grating antennas (WGAs) to improve efficiencies, we in turn utilize the downward radiation and double the range of beam steering. In addition to widened field of views, the steered beams in two directions come from a common set of power splitters, phase shifters and antennas, which greatly reduces chip complexity and power consumption, especially for large-scale OPAs. Beam interference and power fluctuation in the far field due to downward emission can be decreased by specially designed SiO2/Si3N4 antireflection coating. The WGA exhibits balanced emissions in both the upward and downward directions, in which the field of view in each direction is more than 90°. The normalized intensity remains almost the same with a small variation of 10% from -39° to 39° for the upward emission and from -42° to 42° for the downward emission. This WGA is featured by a flat-top radiation pattern in far field, high emission efficiency and good tolerance to device fabrication errors. It holds good potential to achieve wide-angle optical phased arrays.

Altering patterns of sensorimotor network in patients with different pathological diagnoses and glioma-related epilepsy under the latest glioma classification of the central nervous system.

AIMS: We aimed to clarify the relationship between alterations in functional networks and glioma-related epilepsy (GRE) in patients with different molecular diagnoses. METHODS: We enrolled 160 patients with prefrontal gliomas and different histories of GRE. The patients were grouped based on the latest pathological glioma classification and GRE history. Graph theory analysis was applied to reveal alterations in the sensorimotor networks among various subgroups. Binary logistic regression was used to identify risk factors for preoperative GRE onset. RESULTS: Decreasing shortest path length was found in patients with GRE, regardless of the chromosome 1p/19q status. Nodes located in the premotor and supplementary motor areas showed decreased nodal betweenness centrality and vulnerability in patients with GRE and chromosome 1p/19q intact. Additionally, the node on the primary motor area showed decreased nodal vulnerability but the node on the sensory-related thalamus increased in patients with GRE and chromosome 1p/19q co-deletion. Decreased shortest path length, grade 2, and decreased nodal betweenness centrality of the premotor area were risk factors for GRE. CONCLUSION: Decreased shortest path length was a characteristic alteration in GRE and prefrontal glioma. Alterations in global properties were similar, but nodal properties were different in patients with GRE and different chromosome 1p/19q statuses.

Development of an integrated predictive model for postoperative glioma-related epilepsy using gene-signature and clinical data.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to develop an integrated model for predicting the occurrence of postoperative seizures in patients with diffuse high-grade gliomas (DHGGs) using clinical and RNA-seq data. METHODS: Patients with DHGGs, who received prophylactic anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) for three months following surgery, were enrolled into the study. The patients were assigned randomly into training (n = 166) and validation (n = 42) cohorts. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified based on preoperative glioma-related epilepsy (GRE) history. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) logistic regression analysis was used to construct a predictive gene-signature for the occurrence of postoperative seizures. The final integrated prediction model was generated using the gene-signature and clinical data. Receiver operating characteristic analysis and calibration curve method were used to evaluate the accuracy of the gene-signature and prediction model using the training and validation cohorts. RESULTS: A seven-gene signature for predicting the occurrence of postoperative seizures was developed using LASSO logistic regression analysis of 623 DEGs. The gene-signature showed satisfactory predictive capacity in the training cohort [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.842] and validation cohort (AUC = 0.751). The final integrated prediction model included age, temporal lobe involvement, preoperative GRE history, and gene-signature-derived risk score. The AUCs of the integrated prediction model were 0.878 and 0.845 for the training and validation cohorts, respectively. CONCLUSION: We developed an integrated prediction model for the occurrence of postoperative seizures in patients with DHGG using clinical and RNA-Seq data. The findings of this study may contribute to the development of personalized management strategies for patients with DHGGs and improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying GRE in these patients.

Association of homotopic areas in the right hemisphere with language deficits in the short term after tumor resection.

OBJECTIVE: It is important to identify language deficit and recovery in the week following a tumor resection procedure. The homotopic Broca's area and the superior longitudinal fasciculus in the right hemisphere participate in language functional compensation. However, the nodes in these structures, as well as their contributions to language rehabilitation, remain unknown. In this study, the authors investigated the association of homotopic areas in the right hemisphere with language deficit. METHODS: The authors retrospectively reviewed the records of 50 right-handed patients with left hemispheric lower-grade glioma that had been surgically treated between June 2020 and May 2022. The patients were divided into normal and aphasia groups based on their postoperative aphasia quotient (AQ) from the Western Aphasia Battery. Preoperative (within 24 hours before surgery) and postoperative (7 days after tumor resection) diffusion tensor images were used to reveal alterations of structural networks by using graphic theory analysis. The shortest distance between the glioma and the nodes belonging to the language network (SDTN) was quantitatively assessed. Pearson's correlation and causal mediation analyses were used to identify correlations and mediator factors among SDTN, topological properties, and AQs. RESULTS: Postoperative nodal local efficiency of the node dorsal Brodmann area (BA) 44 (A44d; p = 0.0330), nodal clustering coefficient of the nodes A44d (p = 0.0402) and dorsal lateral BA6 (A6dl; p = 0.0097), and nodal degree centrality (p = 0.0058) of the node medial BA7 (A7m) were higher in the normal group than in the aphasia group. SDTN was positively correlated with postoperative AQ (r = 0.457, p = 0.0009) and ΔAQ (r = 0.588, p < 0.0001). The nodal local efficiency of node A44d and the nodal efficiency, nodal betweenness centrality, and degree centrality of node A7m were mediators of SDTN and postoperative AQs. CONCLUSIONS: The decreased ability of nodes A44d, A6dl, and A7m to convey information in the right hemisphere was associated with short-term language deficits after tumor resection. A smaller SDTN induced a worsened postoperative language deficit through a significant decrease in the ability to convey information from these three nodes.

Decreasing distance from tumor to the language network causes language deficit.

Preoperative language deficits are associated with alterations in the language networks of patients with gliomas. This study investigated how gliomas affect language performance by altering the language network. Ninety patients with lower-grade gliomas were included, and their preoperative language performance was evaluated using the Western Aphasia Battery. We also calculated the topological properties based on resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging. All patients were classified according to aphasia quotient (AQ) into the aphasia (AQ < 93.8), mild anomia (AQ > 93.8 and naming section <9.8), and normal groups (AQ > 93.8). The shortest distance from the tumor to the language network (SDTN) was evaluated to identify the effect on language performance induced by the tumor. One-way analysis of variance and post hoc analysis with Sidak correction were used to analyze the differences in topological properties among the three groups. Causal mediation analysis was used to identify indirectly affected mediators. Compared with the mild anomia group, longer shortest path length (p = .0016), lower vulnerability (p = .0331), and weaker nodal efficiencies of three nodes (right caudal Brodmann area [BA] 45, right caudal BA 22, and left BA 41/42, all p < .05) were observed in the aphasia group. The SDTN mediated nodal degree centrality and nodal vulnerability (left rostroventral BA 39), which negatively affected the AQs. Conventional language eloquent and mirrored areas participated in the language network alterations induced by gliomas. The SDTN was a mediator that affected the preoperative language status in patients with gliomas.

Overexpression of PtoMYB115 improves lignocellulose recalcitrance to enhance biomass digestibility and bioethanol yield by specifically regulating lignin biosynthesis in transgenic poplar.

BACKGROUND: Woody plants provide the most abundant biomass resource that is convertible for biofuels. Since lignin is a crucial recalcitrant factor against lignocellulose hydrolysis, genetic engineering of lignin biosynthesis is considered as a promising solution. Many MYB transcription factors have been identified to involve in the regulation of cell wall formation or phenylpropanoid pathway. In a previous study, we identified that PtoMYB115 contributes to the regulation of proanthocyanidin pathway, however, little is known about its role in lignocellulose biosynthesis and biomass saccharification in poplar. RESULTS: Here, we detected the changes of cell wall features and examined biomass enzymatic saccharification for bioethanol production under various chemical pretreatments in PtoMYB115 transgenic plants. We reported that PtoMYB115 might specifically regulate lignin biosynthesis to affect xylem development. Overexpression of PtoMYB115 altered lignin biosynthetic gene expression, resulting in reduced lignin deposition, raised S/G and beta-O-4 linkage, resulting in a significant reduction in cellulase adsorption with lignin and an increment in cellulose accessibility. These alterations consequently improved lignocellulose recalcitrance for significantly enhanced biomass saccharification and bioethanol yield in the PtoMYB115-OE transgenic lines. In contrast, the knockout of PtoMYB115 by CRISPR/Cas9 showed reduced woody utilization under various chemical pretreatments. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that PtoMYB115 plays an important role in specifically regulating lignin biosynthesis and improving lignocellulose features. The enhanced biomass saccharification and bioethanol yield in the PtoMYB115-OE lines suggests that PtoMYB115 is a candidate gene for genetic modification to facilitate the utilization of biomass.

Orthographic Pooling: Learned Maximum Intensity Projection for Vertebrae Labelling.

Maximum intensity projection (MIP) is a standard volume-rendering technique for 3D volumetric data processing. For example, given a 3D CT data, it simply projects the voxel values with its maximum intensity on a specific view to output a 2D image. Recently, MIP is further combined with Btrfly Net for vertebrae labelling task. However, this simple reformations of 3D data leads to loss of rich context information in volumetric data. In this paper, we propose a learned orthographic pooling approach instead of image processing based MIP. Typically, a simple conv-simple and bottleneck pooling modules are introduced to learn the orthographic projection of 3D data and output 2D intermediate feature maps. To this end, the learned orthographic pooling helps preserve detail information of 3D context during projection. Furthermore, an unified Btrfly Net is provided for vertebrae labelling by integrating the orthographic pooling sub-network. The novel Btrfly Net with orthographic pooling sub-network is evaluated on the 2014 MICCAI vertebra localization challenge dataset. Compared to original Butfly Net with MIP, orthographic pooling, the learned MIP largely boosts the performance of vertebrae labelling.

Expression changes in ion channel and immunity genes are associated with glioma-related epilepsy in patients with diffuse gliomas.

BACKGROUND: Glioma-related epilepsy (GRE) is a common symptom in patients with diffuse gliomas. However, the underlying mechanisms of GRE remain unclear. The current study aimed to investigate the underlying epileptogenic mechanisms of GRE through RNA sequencing analysis. METHODS: Demographic, RNA sequencing, and follow-up data of 643 patients were reviewed. Patients were divided into test and validation groups (223 and 420 patients, respectively) by different time periods for RNA sequencing. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with preoperative GRE were identified using R software. Functional enrichment analysis was subsequently performed, and tissue-infiltrating immune cells were also estimated. Weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) was conducted to further identify key modules exhibiting the highest correlation with preoperative GRE. Overlapping genes between the DEG set and key gene set identified by WGCNA were selected and verified in the validation cohort. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis was then constructed to identify hub genes for preoperative GRE. RESULTS: A total of 219 DEGs were identified, among which 112 were upregulated and 107 downregulated in patients with GRE. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that upregulated DEGs were related to ion channel activity, while downregulated genes were related to immunity. Forty-two genes were further selected from overlapping DEGs and the key gene set. Among these genes, 31 genes showed significant differences in the validation cohort. Finally, the PPI network analysis identified six genes, including SCN3B, KCNIP2, KCNJ11, VEGFA, MMP9, and ANXA2, as hub genes for GRE. CONCLUSION: The current study revealed that ion channel activity and immunity dysfunction in diffuse glioma patients contributed to the occurrence of GRE, and SCN3B might be a shared therapeutic target for both diffuse gliomas and GRE. These findings could improve the understanding of the mechanisms of GRE and promote individualized medications for glioma management.

Contralesional Sensorimotor Network Participates in Motor Functional Compensation in Glioma Patients.

Background: Some gliomas in sensorimotor areas induce motor deficits, while some do not. Cortical destruction and reorganization contribute to this phenomenon, but detailed reasons remain unclear. This study investigated the differences of the functional connectivity and topological properties in the contralesional sensorimotor network (cSMN) between patients with motor deficit and those with normal motor function. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 65 patients (32 men) between 2017 and 2020. The patients were divided into four groups based on tumor laterality and preoperative motor status (deficit or non-deficit). Thirty-three healthy controls (18 men) were enrolled after matching for sex, age, and educational status. Graph theoretical measurement was applied to reveal alterations of the topological properties of the cSMN by analyzing resting-state functional MRI. Results: The results for patients with different hemispheric gliomas were similar. The clustering coefficient, local efficiency, transitivity, and vulnerability of the cSMN significantly increased in the non-deficit group and decreased in the deficit group compared to the healthy group (p < 0.05). Moreover, the nodes of the motor-related thalamus showed a significantly increased nodal efficiency and nodal local efficiency in the non-deficit group and decreased in the deficit group compared with the healthy group (p < 0.05). Conclusions: We posited the existence of two stages of alterations of the preoperative motor status. In the compensatory stage, the cSMN sacrificed stability to acquire high efficiency and to compensate for impaired motor function. With the glioma growing and the motor function being totally damaged, the cSMN returned to a stable state and maintained healthy hemispheric motor function, but with low efficiency.

Temporal and Spatial Patterns of Sediment Microbial Communities and Driving Environment Variables in a Shallow Temperate Mountain River.

Microbial communities in sediment play an important role in the circulation of nutrients in aquatic ecosystems. In this study, the main environmental factors and sediment microbial communities were investigated bimonthly from August 2018 to June 2020 at River Taizicheng, a shallow temperate mountain river at the core area of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Microbial community structure was analyzed using 16S rRNA genes (bacteria 16S V3 + V4 and archaea 16S V4 + V5) and high-throughput sequencing technologies. Structure equation model (SEM) and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) were used to explore the driving environmental factors of the microbial community. Our results showed that the diversity indices of the microbial community were positively influenced by sediment nutrients but negatively affected by water nutrients. Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria were the most dominant phyla. The best-fitted SEM model indicated that environmental variables not only affected community abundance directly, but also indirectly through influencing their diversity. Flavobacterium, Arenimonas and Terrimonas were the dominant genera as a result of enriched nutrients. The microbial community had high spatial-temporal autocorrelation. CCA showed that DO, WT and various forms of phosphorus were the main variables affecting the temporal and spatial patterns of the microbial community in the river. The results will be helpful in understanding the driving factors of microbial communities in temperate monsoon areas.

Discriminant models for the prediction of postponed viral shedding time and disease progression in COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 infection can cause life-threatening respiratory disease. This study aimed to fully characterize the clinical features associated with postponed viral shedding time and disease progression, then develop and validate two prognostic discriminant models. METHODS: This study included 125 hospitalized patients with COVID-19, for whom 44 parameters were recorded, including age, gender, underlying comorbidities, epidemiological features, laboratory indexes, imaging characteristics and therapeutic regimen, et al. Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney test were used for feature selection. All models were developed with fourfold cross-validation, and the final performances of each model were compared by the Area Under Receiving Operating Curve (AUROC). After optimizing the parameters via L2 regularization, prognostic discriminant models were built to predict postponed viral shedding time and disease progression of COVID-19 infection. The test set was then used to detect the predictive values via assessing models' sensitivity and specificity. RESULTS: Sixty-nine patients had a postponed viral shedding time (> 14 days), and 28 of 125 patients progressed into severe cases. Six and eleven demographic, clinical features and therapeutic regimen were significantly associated with postponed viral shedding time and disease progressing, respectively (p < 0.05). The optimal discriminant models are: y1 (postponed viral shedding time) = - 0.244 + 0.2829x1 (the interval from the onset of symptoms to antiviral treatment) + 0.2306x4 (age) + 0.234x28 (Urea) - 0.2847x34 (Dual-antiviral therapy) + 0.3084x38 (Treatment with antibiotics) + 0.3025x21 (Treatment with Methylprednisolone); y2 (disease progression) = - 0.348-0.099x2 (interval from Jan 1st,2020 to individualized onset of symptoms) + 0.0945x4 (age) + 0.1176x5 (imaging characteristics) + 0.0398x8 (short-term exposure to Wuhan) - 0.1646x19 (lymphocyte counts) + 0.0914x20 (Neutrophil counts) + 0.1254x21 (Neutrphil/lymphocyte ratio) + 0.1397x22 (C-Reactive Protein) + 0.0814x23 (Procalcitonin) + 0.1294x24 (Lactic dehydrogenase) + 0.1099x29 (Creatine kinase).The output ≥ 0 predicted postponed viral shedding time or disease progressing to severe/critical state. These two models yielded the maximum AUROC and faired best in terms of prognostic performance (sensitivity of78.6%, 75%, and specificity of 66.7%, 88.9% for prediction of postponed viral shedding time and disease severity, respectively). CONCLUSION: The two discriminant models could effectively predict the postponed viral shedding time and disease severity and could be used as early-warning tools for COVID-19.

Boosting H2 Production from a BiVO4 Photoelectrochemical Biomass Fuel Cell by the Construction of a Bridge for Charge and Energy Transfer.

Utilizing a photoelectrochemical (PEC) fuel cell to replace difficult water oxidation with facile oxidation of organic wastes is regarded as an effective method to improve the H2 production efficiency. However, in most reported PEC fuel cells, their PEC activities are still low and the energy in organic fuels cannot be effectively utilized. Here, a unique BiVO4 PEC fuel cell is successfully developed by utilizing the low-cost biomass, tartaric acid, as an organic fuel. Thanks to the strong complexation between BiVO4 and tartaric acid, a bridge for the charge and energy transfer is successfully constructed, which not only improves the photoelectric conversion efficiency of BiVO4 , but also effectively converts the chemical energy of biomass into H2 . Remarkably, under AM1.5G illumination, the optimal nanoporous BiVO4 photoanode exhibits a high current density of 13.54 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) for H2 production, which is higher than that of previously reported PEC water splitting systems or PEC fuel cell systems. This work opens a new path for solving the low PEC H2 production efficiency and provides a new idea for improving the performances and energy conversion efficiency in traditional PEC fuel cells.

Decreasing Shortest Path Length of the Sensorimotor Network Induces Frontal Glioma-Related Epilepsy.

BACKGROUND: Glioma-related epilepsy (GRE) is a common symptom in patients with prefrontal glioma. Epilepsy onset is associated with functional network alterations. This study investigated alterations of functional networks in patients with prefrontal glioma and GRE. METHODS: Sixty-five patients with prefrontal lobe gliomas were retrospectively assessed and classified into GRE and non-GRE groups. Additionally, 25 healthy participants were enrolled after matching for general information. Imaging data were acquired within 72 h in pre-operation. The sensorimotor network was used to delineate alterations in functional connectivity (FC) and topological properties. One-way analysis of variance and post-hoc analysis with Bonferroni correction were used to calculate differences of FC and topological properties. RESULTS: All significant alterations were solely found in the sensorimotor network. Irrespective of gliomas located in the left or right prefrontal lobes, the edge between medial Brodmann area 6 and caudal ventrolateral Brodmann area 6 decreased FC in the GRE group compared with the non-GRE group [p < 0.0001 (left glioma), p = 0.0002 (right glioma)]. Moreover, the shortest path length decrease was found in the GRE group compared with the non-GRE group [p = 0.0292 (left glioma) and p = 0.0129 (right glioma)]. CONCLUSIONS: The reduction of FC between the medial BA 6 (supplementary motor area) and caudal ventrolateral BA 6 in the ipsilateral hemisphere and the shortening of the path length of the sensorimotor network were characteristics alterations in patients with GRE onset. These findings fill in the gap which is the relationship between GRE onset and the alterations of functional networks in patients with prefrontal glioma. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Glioma related epilepsy is the most common symptom of prefrontal glioma. It is important to identify characteristic alterations in functional networks in patients with GRE. We found that all significant alterations occurred in the sensorimotor network. Moreover, a decreased FC in the supplementary motor area and a shortening of the path's length are additional characteristics of glioma-related epilepsy. We believe that our findings indicate new directions of research that will contribute to future investigations of glioma-related epilepsy onset.

Unraveling the binding microprocess of individual Streptococcus mutans cells via sucrose-dependent adhesion based on surface plasmon resonance imaging.

The initial microprocess of a major cariogenic bacterium Streptococcus mutans forming biofilm at a single-cell level via sucrose-dependent adhesion has not been observed because the cells' high moisture content caused measurement challenges. To develop a high-sensitivity biosensor chip and a real-time, label-free method to observe bioactive molecule interactions with single cells from oral biofilms. We made the chips of immobilized bacteria by micronano-processing. A surface plasmon resonance imaging (SPRI) system was used to detect and record the association and dissociation microprocess of S. mutans with sucrose/dextran solutions of various concentrations, and the calculus model was adopted to treat the data. At the location of S. mutans, a unique 'comet-tail' SPRI signal was observed. The binding patterns of S. mutans differed between individual cells exposed to the same solution as well as between sucrose and dextran. The different cells exhibited different affinities with dissociation constants for sucrose being 5.697 × 10-3 to 3.689 M and for dextran 1.235 × 10-3 to 1.282 M, indicating cell-to-cell heterogeneity. Our SPRI detection method is effective in investigating microbial binding, initial biofilm formation, and oral microecology. It offers new possibilities for studying oral microorganism characteristics and development of oral diseases.

Isolation, Characterization and Immunomodulatory Activity Evaluation of Chrysolaminarin from the Filamentous Microalga Tribonema aequale.

The aim of this study is to investigate the differences in the accumulation capacity of chrysolaminarin among six Tribonema species and to isolate this polysaccharide for immunomodulatory activity evaluation. The results showed that T. aequale was the most productive strain with the highest content and productivity of chrysolaminarin, which were 17.20% (% of dry weight) and 50.91 mg/L/d, respectively. Chrysolaminarin was then extracted and isolated from this alga, and its monosaccharide composition was mainly composed of a glucose (61.39%), linked by ß-D-(1→3) (main chain) and ß-D-(1→6) (branch chain) glycosidic bonds, with a molecular weight of less than 6 kDa. In vitro immunomodulatory assays showed that it could activate RAW264.7 cells at a certain concentration (1000 µg/mL), as evidenced by the increased phagocytic activity and upregulated mRNA expression levels of IL-1ß, IL6, TNF-α and Nos2. Moreover, Western blot revealed that this polysaccharide stimulated the phosphorylation of p-65, p-38 and JNK in NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathways. Overall, these findings provide a reference for the further development and utilization of algae-based chrysolaminarin, while also offering an in-depth understanding of the immunoregulatory mechanism.