Association between Neonatal Outcomes and Admission Hypothermia among Very Preterm Infants in Chinese Neonatal Intensive Care Units: A Multicenter Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate the relationship between admission hypothermia and outcomes among very preterm infants (VPIs) in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in China. We also investigated the frequency of hypothermia in VPIs in China and the variation in hypothermia across Chinese Neonatal Network (CHNN) sites. STUDY DESIGN: This retrospective cohort study enrolled infants with 240/7 to 316/7 weeks of gestation with an admission body temperature ≤37.5 °C who were admitted to CHNN-participating NICUs between January 1 and December 31, 2019. RESULTS: A total of 5,913 VPIs were included in this study, of which 4,075 (68.9%) had hypothermia (<36.5 °C) at admission. The incidence of admission hypothermia varied widely across CHNN sites (9-100%). Lower gestational age (GA), lower birth weight, antenatal steroid administration, multiple births, small for GA, Apgar scores <7 at the 5th minute, and intensive resuscitation were significantly associated with admission hypothermia. Compared with infants with normothermia (36.5-37.5 °C), the adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for composite outcome among infants with admission hypothermia <35.5 °C increased to 1.47 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15-1.88). The adjusted ORs for mortality among infants with admission hypothermia (36.0-36.4 and <35.5 °C) increased to 1.41 (95% CI, 1.09-1.83) and 1.93 (95% CI, 1.31-2.85), respectively. Admission hypothermia was associated with a higher likelihood of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, but was not associated with necrotizing enterocolitis ≥stage II, severe intraventricular hemorrhage, cystic periventricular leukomalacia, severe retinopathy of prematurity, or sepsis. CONCLUSION: Admission hypothermia remains a common problem for VPIs in a large cohort in China and is associated with adverse outcomes. Continuous quality improvement of admission hypothermia in the future may result in a substantial improvement in the outcomes of VPIs in China. KEY POINTS: · Admission hypothermia is common in VPIs.. · The incidence of admission hypothermia in VPIs remains high in China.. · Admission hypothermia is associated with adverse outcomes in VPIs..

Dendrimer-Encapsulated Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals for Self-Powered White Light-Emitting Glass.

Perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) have attracted substantial attention due to their inspiring intrinsic merits such as low cost, high performance, and solution processability, but when it comes to the usage of blends of different colored PNCs with the purpose of covering the broadband spectrum field, the high degree of instability remains a major bottleneck. Herein, we report a family of dendritic ammonium ligands that act as stiff shell-encapsulating PNCs for improving their stability and suppressing ion permeability in mixed colloidal PNC solutions. The as-synthesized ligand-encapsulated PNCs notably achieve near-unity photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) and strongly resist the unwanted ion exchange reaction under aggressive anion source attack. To fabricate self-powered white-emitting glass, the stabilized mixed colored PNCs were embedded into the laminated glass, which simultaneously acted as absorbers-emitters for luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) and emitters for white light-emitting glass.

Perinatal characteristics and neonatal outcomes of singletons and twins in Chinese very preterm infants: a cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of preterm birth has been rising, and there is a paucity of nationwide data on the perinatal characteristics and neonatal outcomes of twin deliveries of very preterm infants (VPIs) in China. This study compared the perinatal characteristics and outcomes of singletons and twins admitted to neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in China. METHODS: The study population comprised all infants born before 32 weeks in the Chinese Neonatal Network (CHNN) between January 2019 and December 2019. Three-level and population-average generalized estimating equation (GEE)/alternating logistic regression (ALR) models were used to determine the association of twins with neonatal morbidities and the use of NICU resources. RESULTS: During the study period, there were 6634 (71.2%) singletons and 2680 (28.8%) twins, with mean birth weights of 1333.70 g and 1294.63 g, respectively. Twins were significantly more likely to be delivered by caesarean section (p < 0.01), have antenatal steroid usage (p = 0.048), have been conceived by assisted reproductive technology (ART) (p < 0.01), have a higher prevalence of maternal diabetes (p < 0.01) and be inborn (p < 0.01) than singletons. In addition, twins had a lower prevalence of small for gestational age, maternal hypertension, and primigravida mothers than singletons (all p < 0.01). After adjusting for potential confounders, twins had higher mortality rates (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.28, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.10-1.49), higher incidences of short-term composite outcomes (AOR 1.28, 95% CI 1.09-1.50), respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) (AOR 1.30, 95% CI 1.12-1.50), and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) (AOR 1.10, 95% CI 1.01-1.21), more surfactant usage (AOR 1.22, 95% CI 1.05-1.41) and prolonged hospital stays (adjusted mean ratio 1.03, 95% CI 1.00-1.06), compared to singletons. CONCLUSION: Our work suggests that twins have a greater risk of mortality, a higher incidence of RDS and BPD, more surfactant usage, and longer NICU stays than singletons among VPIs in China.

Development and Assessment of a Social Media-Based Construct of Firearm Ownership: Computational Derivation and Benchmark Comparison.

BACKGROUND: Gun violence research is characterized by a dearth of data available for measuring key constructs. Social media data may offer a potential opportunity to significantly reduce that gap, but developing methods for deriving firearms-related constructs from social media data and understanding the measurement properties of such constructs are critical precursors to their broader use. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to develop a machine learning model of individual-level firearm ownership from social media data and assess the criterion validity of a state-level construct of ownership. METHODS: We used survey responses to questions on firearm ownership linked with Twitter data to construct different machine learning models of firearm ownership. We externally validated these models using a set of firearm-related tweets hand-curated from the Twitter Streaming application programming interface and created state-level ownership estimates using a sample of users collected from the Twitter Decahose application programming interface. We assessed the criterion validity of state-level estimates by comparing their geographic variance to benchmark measures from the RAND State-Level Firearm Ownership Database. RESULTS: We found that the logistic regression classifier for gun ownership performs the best with an accuracy of 0.7 and an F1-score of 0.69. We also found a strong positive correlation between Twitter-based estimates of gun ownership and benchmark ownership estimates. For states meeting a threshold requirement of a minimum of 100 labeled Twitter users, the Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients are 0.63 (P<.001) and 0.64 (P<.001), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our success in developing a machine learning model of firearm ownership at the individual level with limited training data as well as a state-level construct that achieves a high level of criterion validity underscores the potential of social media data for advancing gun violence research. The ownership construct is an important precursor for understanding the representativeness of and variability in outcomes that have been the focus of social media analyses in gun violence research to date, such as attitudes, opinions, policy stances, sentiments, and perspectives on gun violence and gun policy. The high criterion validity we achieved for state-level gun ownership suggests that social media data may be a useful complement to traditional sources of information on gun ownership such as survey and administrative data, especially for identifying early signals of changes in geographic patterns of gun ownership, given the immediacy of the availability of social media data, their continuous generation, and their responsiveness. These results also lend support to the possibility that other computationally derived, social media-based constructs may be derivable, which could lend additional insight into firearm behaviors that are currently not well understood. More work is needed to develop other firearms-related constructs and to assess their measurement properties.

Assessing Social Media Data as a Resource for Firearm Research: Analysis of Tweets Pertaining to Firearm Deaths.

BACKGROUND: Historic constraints on research dollars and reliable information have limited firearm research. At the same time, interest in the power and potential of social media analytics, particularly in health contexts, has surged. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to contribute toward the goal of establishing a foundation for how social media data may best be used, alone or in conjunction with other data resources, to improve the information base for firearm research. METHODS: We examined the value of social media data for estimating a firearm outcome for which robust benchmark data exist-specifically, firearm mortality, which is captured in the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS). We hand curated tweet data from the Twitter application programming interface spanning January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2018. We developed machine learning classifiers to identify tweets that pertain to firearm deaths and develop estimates of the volume of Twitter firearm discussion by month. We compared within-state variation over time in the volume of tweets pertaining to firearm deaths with within-state trends in NVSS-based estimates of firearm fatalities using Pearson linear correlations. RESULTS: The correlation between the monthly number of firearm fatalities measured by the NVSS and the monthly volume of tweets pertaining to firearm deaths was weak (median 0.081) and highly dispersed across states (range -0.31 to 0.535). The median correlation between month-to-month changes in firearm fatalities in the NVSS and firearm deaths discussed in tweets was moderate (median 0.30) and exhibited less dispersion among states (range -0.06 to 0.69). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that Twitter data may hold value for tracking dynamics in firearm-related outcomes, particularly for relatively populous cities that are identifiable through location mentions in tweet content. The data are likely to be particularly valuable for understanding firearm outcomes not currently measured, not measured well, or not measurable through other available means. This research provides an important building block for future work that continues to develop the usefulness of social media data for firearm research.

Family Integrated Care for Preterm Infants in China: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE: To explore whether family integrated care (FICare) is feasible and improves the outcomes of preterm infants in China. STUDY DESIGN: This was a multicenter prospective cluster-randomized controlled trial comparing FICare and standard care. The primary outcome was length of stay (LOS). Secondary outcomes were nosocomial infections, duration of supplemental oxygen, breastfeeding, and weight gain. Outcomes were compared using univariate and multivariable analyses adjusted for potential confounders and clustering. RESULTS: We enrolled 601 preterm infants from 11 neonatal intensive care units (FICare, n = 298; control, n = 303). The unadjusted LOS was 30.81 vs 30.26 days (mean ratio, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.85-1.22; P = .85). After adjustment, outcomes in the FICare group were improved compared with the control group, including LOS (28.26 vs 35.04 days; mean ratio, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.72-0.91), total medical expenditures (mean ratio, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.53-0.90), weight gain velocity (15.73 vs 10.30 g/day; mean difference, 5.43; 95% CI, 3.65-7.21), duration of supplemental oxygen (13.11 vs 21.42 days; mean difference, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.50-1.00), nosocomial infection rates (4.13 vs 5.84/1000 hospital days; mean ratio, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.47-0.96), antibiotic exposure (38.63 vs 57.32/100 hospital days; mean ratio, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.47-0.96), breastfeeding rates (87.25% vs 55.78%; OR, 5.42; 95% CI, 3.25-9.05), and rehospitalization rates (3.65% vs 7.48%; OR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.28-0.77). At follow-up to 18 months, breastfeeding rates and weight were significantly (P < .05) higher over time in the FICare group. CONCLUSIONS: FICare was feasible in Chinese neonatal intensive care units and was associated with reduced hospital LOS, medical expenditures, and rates of adverse outcomes.

Study on the degradation conditions of corn stalks by Asian corn borer digestive enzymes combined with white-rot fungus.

Since the environmentally friendly reuse of corn stalks attracts more and more attention, it is an efficient and feasible way to reuse corn stalks as forage. However, whether the cellulose, lignin, and hemicellulose within corn stalks can be effectively decomposed becomes a key to reusing corn stalks as forage. Orthogonal test was designed by five different degradation temperatures (22°C, 24°C, 26°C, 28°C, 30°C), five different pH values (4, 5, 6, 8, 10), and five different degradation time durations (5, 15, 25, 30, and 35 days) to examine 25 kinds of different degradation conditions. It was found that the decomposition effect of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin, of group 25 (26°C, pH = 5, 25 days) was stronger compared with other groups, with the contents calculated as 8.22%, 31.55%, and 22.55% individually (p < 0.01, p < 0.05). Group 19 (22°C, pH = 4, 5 days) revealed the worst degradation effect of cellulose, lignin, and hemicellulose compared to other groups, with contents calculated as 15.48%, 38.85%, and 29.57%, individually (p < 0.01, p < 0.05). The research data deliver a basis for ideal degradation conditions for corn stalks degradation in combination with the digestive enzymes of P. chrysosporium and O. furnacalis larva. Aiming to explore a highly efficient and environmentally friendly corn stalk degradation method.

Pregnant patient with Xp11.2/transcription factor E3 translocation renal cell carcinoma: a case report and literature review.

MiT family translocation renal cell carcinomas (tRCCs) primarily include Xp11.2/transcription factor E3 (TFE3) gene fusion-associated renal cell carcinoma (Xp11.2 tRCC) and t(6;11)/TFEB gene fusion-associated RCC. Clinical cases of these carcinomas are rare. Fluorescence in situ hybridization can be used to identify the type, but there are no standard diagnostic and treatment methods available, and the prognosis remains controversial. Herein, we present a case of a patient with Xp11.2 tRCC at 29 weeks of gestation. The baby was successfully delivered, and radical surgery was performed for renal cancer at the same time. This is a unique and extremely rare case. We have described the case and performed a literature review to report the progress of current research on the treatment and prognosis of pregnant patients with Xp11.2/TFE3 translocation renal cell carcinoma. This study aims to contribute to improving the diagnosis and treatment of Xp11.2 tRCC in pregnant patients.

Vision-based estimation of fatigue and engagement in cognitive training sessions.

Computerized cognitive training (CCT) is a scalable, well-tolerated intervention that has promise for slowing cognitive decline. The effectiveness of CCT is often affected by a lack of effective engagement. Mental fatigue is a the primary factor for compromising effective engagement in CCT, particularly in older adults at risk for dementia. There is a need for scalable, automated measures that can constantly monitor and reliably detect mental fatigue during CCT. Here, we develop and validate a novel Recurrent Video Transformer (RVT) method for monitoring real-time mental fatigue in older adults with mild cognitive impairment using their video-recorded facial gestures during CCT. The RVT model achieved the highest balanced accuracy (79.58%) and precision (0.82) compared to the prior models for binary and multi-class classification of mental fatigue. We also validated our model by significantly relating to reaction time across CCT tasks (Waldχ2=5.16,p=0.023). By leveraging dynamic temporal information, the RVT model demonstrates the potential to accurately measure real-time mental fatigue, laying the foundation for future CCT research aiming to enhance effective engagement by timely prevention of mental fatigue.

Understanding the rationales and information environments for early, late, and nonadopters of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Anti-vaccine sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic grew at an alarming rate, leaving much to understand about the relationship between people's vaccination status and the information they were exposed to. This study investigated the relationship between vaccine behavior, decision rationales, and information exposure on social media over time. Using a cohort study that consisted of a nationally representative survey of American adults, three subpopulations (early adopters, late adopters, and nonadopters) were analyzed through a combination of statistical analysis, network analysis, and semi-supervised topic modeling. The main reasons Americans reported choosing to get vaccinated were safety and health. However, work requirements and travel were more important for late adopters than early adopters (95% CI on OR of [0.121, 0.453]). While late adopters' and nonadopters' primary reason for not getting vaccinated was it being too early, late adopters also mentioned safety issues more often and nonadopters mentioned government distrust (95% CI on OR of [0.125, 0.763]). Among those who shared Twitter/X accounts, early adopters and nonadopters followed a larger fraction of highly partisan political accounts compared to late adopters, and late adopters were exposed to more neutral and pro-vaccine messaging than nonadopters. Together, these findings suggest that the decision-making process and the information environments of these subpopulations have notable differences, and any online vaccination campaigns need to consider these differences when attempting to provide accurate vaccine information to all three subpopulations.

[Research Progress of Functional Materials for Conversion of Agricultural Biomass Wastes].

Excess agricultural biomass waste is increasing rapidly, leading to many environmental and governance issues. Therefore, increased attention has been paid to the recycling and value-added application of agricultural biomass waste. In recent years, the research of agricultural biomass waste utilization and derived functional materials has mainly included the following two aspects： ① the extraction of natural polymers and value-added applications and ② the direct preparation of new carbon-based materials, including adsorption, catalysis, energy storage electrode, and composite functional materials. The conversion of agricultural biomass waste into functional materials has been gradually realized and widely used. To enable industrial-scale production and the quality and safety of agricultural biomass waste derivatives and to develop highly feasible and cost-effective biomass waste conversion methods should be the focus of future studies.

Towards a "universal translator" for neural dynamics at single-cell, single-spike resolution.

Neuroscience research has made immense progress over the last decade, but our understanding of the brain remains fragmented and piecemeal: the dream of probing an arbitrary brain region and automatically reading out the information encoded in its neural activity remains out of reach. In this work, we build towards a first foundation model for neural spiking data that can solve a diverse set of tasks across multiple brain areas. We introduce a novel self-supervised modeling approach for population activity in which the model alternates between masking out and reconstructing neural activity across different time steps, neurons, and brain regions. To evaluate our approach, we design unsupervised and supervised prediction tasks using the International Brain Laboratory repeated site dataset, which is comprised of Neuropixels recordings targeting the same brain locations across 48 animals and experimental sessions. The prediction tasks include single-neuron and region-level activity prediction, forward prediction, and behavior decoding. We demonstrate that our multi-task-masking (MtM) approach significantly improves the performance of current state-of-the-art population models and enables multi-task learning. We also show that by training on multiple animals, we can improve the generalization ability of the model to unseen animals, paving the way for a foundation model of the brain at single-cell, single-spike resolution. Project page and code: https://ibl-mtm.github.io/.

Association of Antenatal Corticosteroids with Neonatal Outcomes among Very Preterm Infants Born to Mothers with Clinical Chorioamnionitis: A Multicenter Cohort Study.

The objective of this study was to assess the relationship of ACS with neonatal outcomes among very preterm infants born to mothers with clinical chorioamnionitis in China. This was a multicenter retrospective cohort study. Study participants included infants born at <32 weeks' gestation with clinical chorioamnionitis and registered in the Chinese Neonatal Network from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020. Infants were divided into two groups: any amount of ACS or no administration of ACS. Multivariable generalized linear models using generalized estimating equations were used to assess the association between ACS and neonatal outcomes among the study population. We identified 2193 infants eligible for this study; 1966 (89.6%) infants had received ACS therapy, and 227 (10.4%) had not received any ACS therapy. Among very preterm infants born to mothers with clinical chorioamnionitis, any ACS usage was significantly associated with decreased risks of early death (aRR 0.56, 95% CI 0.32, 0.99) and severe ROP (aRR 0.51, 95% CI 0.28, 0.93) after adjustment for maternal hypertension, gestational age at birth, Caesarean section, being inborn, and administration of systemic antibiotics to the mother within 24 h before birth. In addition, out of the 2193 infants, the placentas of 1931 infants underwent pathological examination with recorded results. Subsequently, 1490 of these cases (77.2%) were diagnosed with histological chorioamnionitis. In 1490 cases of histologic chorioamnionitis, any ACS usage was significantly related to decreased risks of overall mortality (aRR 0.52, 95% CI 0.31, 0.87), severe ROP (aRR 0.47, 95% CI 0.25, 0.97), and respiratory distress syndrome (aRR 0.52, 95% CI 0.31, 0.87). We concluded that any ACS was associated with reduced risks for neonatal early death and severe ROP among very preterm infants born to mothers with clinical chorioamnionitis.

Effect of non-covalent binding of tannins to sodium caseinate on the stability of high-internal-phase fish oil emulsions.

In this study, we designed the noncovalent binding of sodium caseinate (SC) to tannic acid (TA) to stabilize high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) used as fish oil delivery systems. Hydrogen bonding was the dominant binding force, followed by weak hydrophobic interaction and weak van der Waals forces, as demonstrated by FTIR, fluorescence spectroscopy, and molecular docking experiments, with a binding constant of 3.25 × 106, a binding site of 1.2, and a static quenching of the binding. Increasing SC:TA from SC to 2:1 decreased the particle size from 107.37 ± 10.66 to 76.07 ± 2.77 nm and the zeta potential from -6.99 ± 2.71 to -22 ± 2.42 mV. TA increased the interfacial tension of SC, decreased the surface hydrophobicity from 1.3 × 104 to 1.6 × 103 and improved the oxidation resistance of SC. The particle size of high internal phase emulsions stabilized by complexes with different mass ratios (SC:TA from 1:0 to 2:1) increased from 4.9 ± 0.02 to 12.9 µm, the potential increased from -32.37 ± 2.7 to -35.07 ± 2.58 mV, and the instability index decreased from 0.75 to 0.02. Thicker interfacial layers could be observed by laser confocal microscopy, and an increase in the storage modulus indicated a formation of a stronger gel network. SC:TA of 1:0 showed emulsion breakage after 14 d of storage at room temperature. SC:TA of 2:1 showed the lowest degree of oil-water separation after freeze-thaw treatment. Especially, the most stable high endo-phase emulsion (at SC:TA of 2:1) prepared at each mass ratio was selected for further stability exploration. The emulsion particle size increased only from 15.63 ± 0.06 to 22.27 ± 0.35 µm at salt ion concentrations of 50-200 mM and to 249.33 ± 31.79 µm at 300 mM. The instability index and storage modulus of the high endo-phase emulsions increased gradually with increasing salt ion concentrations. At different heating temperatures (55-85 °C), the instability index of the high internal phase emulsion gradually decreased and the storage modulus gradually increased. Meanwhile, at 50 °C for 15 d of accelerated oxidation, the content of hydroperoxide decreased from 53.32 ± 0.18 to 37.48 ± 0.77 nmol/g, about 29.7 %, and the thiobarbituric acid value decreased from 1.06 × 103 to 0.8 × 103, about 24.5 %, in the high endo-phase emulsions prepared by 2:1 SC:TA compared to the fish oils, and the SC-stabilized high endo-phase only emulsion broke at the sixth day of oxidation. From the above findings, it was concluded that the high internal phase emulsion prepared with SC:TA of 2:1 can be used as a good delivery system for fish oil.

Spontaneous intestinal perforation among very preterm infants in China: a multicenter cohort study.

Background: Spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP) is one of the most serious surgical bowel conditions affecting preterm infants. There are limited data on the mortality and morbidities of very preterm infants [VPIs, <32 weeks' gestational age (GA)] with SIP in China. The study aimed to describe the prevalence, treatment, and outcomes of SIP among VPIs in China. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included all infants born at 24+0-31+6 weeks GA from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2020, and admitted within seven days after birth to the neonatal intensive care units in the Chinese Neonatal Network. The primary outcome was survival without major morbidities. The association between SIP and neonatal outcomes was evaluated using multivariate logistic regression controlling for possible confounders. Results: Out of the 15,814 enrolled infants, 150 (1.0%) developed SIP with a median onset age of four (IQR 2-6) days. Infants with GA 24+0-25+6 weeks had the highest incidence of SIP (13/532, 2.4%), followed by those with GA 26+0-27+6 weeks (22/2,005, 1.1%), 28+0-29+6 weeks (44/5,269, 0.8%) and 30+0-31+6 weeks (71/8,008, 0.9%). Ten SIP cases were lost to follow-up with unknown survival status and 41 (29.3%) of the remaining 140 infants with SIP died during hospitalization. Only 29.3% of infants with SIP survived without major morbidities, significantly lower than those without SIP (59.2%; P<0.01). Multivariate analysis revealed SIP was associated with a higher risk of overall death (adjusted OR 3.36; 95% CI: 1.85 to 6.08), late-onset sepsis (adjusted OR 2.10; 95% CI: 1.02 to 4.31), and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (adjusted OR 2.49; 95% CI: 1.44 to 4.30). Among all infants with SIP, 28 (18.7%) did not receive any surgical intervention. Laparotomy was provided to 113 (92.6%) of the remaining 122 infants, solely (84/122, 68.9%) or following peritoneal drainage (29/122, 23.8%), while nine (7.4%) infants underwent peritoneal drainage only. Conclusions: Around 1% of VPIs in China developed SIP, associated with increased risk of mortality and morbidities. Over 90% of VPIs with SIP underwent laparotomy as initial or subsequent surgical treatment. Effective and evidence-based strategies are needed for the prevention and management of SIP.

Studies on the degradation effect of corn straw by Asian corn borer larva (Ostrinia furnacalis) digestive enzymes combined with white rot fungus (Phanerochaetc chrysosporium).

The lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose contained in corn straw need to be degraded before reuse. Therefore, it is urgent to explore a new strategy that can enhance the degradation effect of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose. Ostrinia furnacalis is one of the corn pests feeding on corn straw, which can degrade and consume corn straw by digestive enzyme secreted in the midgut. Herein, the degradation efficiency of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose was tested by a stain of white rot fungus combined with digestive enzyme of O. furnacalis extracted from its midgut. It was proved that the selected strain of white rot fungus could degrade lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose effectively. The contents of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose decreased with the extension of degradation time, with the lowest level reached at 35 d with 9 ml digestive enzyme solution of O. furnacalis added. Compared with the control group, digestive enzyme of O. furnacalis could improve the degradation effect of the selected white rot fungi on lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose. The effect of degradation was enhanced with the extension of degradation time and the increase in the amount of digestive enzyme added. The results provide a new strategy and a basis for strengthening the degradation effect of white rot fungi on corn straw.

High titer (>200 g/L) lactic acid production from undetoxified pretreated corn stover.

Lignocellulosic biomass is a reliable feedstock for lactic acid fermentation, low product titers hamper the scale production of cellulosic lactic acid. In this study, a Densifying Lignocellulosic biomass with Chemicals (sulfuric acid) pretreatment based cellulosic lactic acid biorefinery system was developed and demonstrated from multi-dimensions of producing bacteria, fermentation modes, corn stover solid loadings, fermentation vessels, and product purification. Results suggested that several lactic acid bacteria exhibited high fermentation activity in high solid loading corn stover hydrolysates. Remarkably, simultaneous saccharification co-fermentation performed in 100-mL flasks enabled 210.1 g/L lactic acid from 40% solid loading corn stover hydrolysate. When simultaneous saccharification co-fermentation was performed in 3-L bioreactors, 157.4 g/L lactic acid was obtained from 35% solid loading corn stover hydrolysate. These obtained lactic acid titers are the highest reports until now when lignocellulosic biomasses are used as substrates, making it efficient for scale production of cellulosic lactic acid.

The proportions of term or late preterm births after exposure to early antenatal corticosteroids, and outcomes: systematic review and meta-analysis of 1.6 million infants.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the proportions of infants with early exposure to antenatal corticosteroids but born at term or late preterm, and short term and long term outcomes. DESIGN: Systematic review and meta-analyses. DATA SOURCES: Eight databases searched from 1 January 2000 to 1 February 2023, reflecting recent perinatal care, and references of screened articles. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: Randomised controlled trials and population based cohort studies with data on infants with early exposure to antenatal corticosteroids (<34 weeks) but born at term (≥37 weeks), late preterm (34-36 weeks), or term/late preterm combined. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Two reviewers independently screened titles, abstracts, and full text articles and assessed risk of bias (Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomised controlled trials and Newcastle-Ottawa scale for population based studies). Reviewers extracted data on populations, exposure to antenatal corticosteroids, and outcomes. The authors analysed randomised and cohort data separately, using random effects meta-analyses. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was the proportion of infants with early exposure to antenatal corticosteroids but born at term. Secondary outcomes included the proportions of infants born late preterm or term/late preterm combined after early exposure to antenatal corticosteroids and short term and long term outcomes versus non-exposure for the three gestational time points (term, late preterm, term/late preterm combined). RESULTS: Of 14 799 records, the reviewers screened 8815 non-duplicate titles and abstracts and assessed 713 full text articles. Seven randomised controlled trials and 10 population based cohort studies (1.6 million infants total) were included. In randomised controlled trials and population based data, ∼40% of infants with early exposure to antenatal corticosteroids were born at term (low or very low certainty). Among children born at term, early exposure to antenatal corticosteroids versus no exposure was associated with increased risks of admission to neonatal intensive care (adjusted odds ratio 1.49, 95% confidence interval 1.19 to 1.86, one study, 5330 infants, very low certainty; unadjusted relative risk 1.69, 95% confidence interval 1.51 to 1.89, three studies, 1 176 022 infants, I2=58%, τ2=0.01, low certainty), intubation (unadjusted relative risk 2.59, 1.39 to 4.81, absolute effect 7 more per 1000, 95% confidence interval from 2 more to 16 more, one study, 8076 infants, very low certainty, one study, 8076 infants, very low certainty), reduced head circumference (adjusted mean difference -0.21, 95% confidence interval -0.29 to -0.13, one study, 183 325 infants, low certainty), and any long term neurodevelopmental or behavioural disorder in population based studies (eg, any neurodevelopmental or behavioural disorder in children born at term, adjusted hazard ratio 1.47, 95% confidence interval 1.36 to 1.60, one study, 641 487 children, low certainty). CONCLUSIONS: About 40% of infants exposed to early antenatal corticosteroids were born at term, with associated adverse short term and long term outcomes (low or very low certainty), highlighting the need for caution when considering antenatal corticosteroids. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42022360079.

USP39 promotes hepatocellular carcinogenesis through regulating alternative splicing in cooperation with SRSF6/HNRNPC.

Abnormal alternative splicing (AS) caused by alterations in spliceosomal factors is implicated in cancers. Standard models posit that splice site selection is mainly determined by early spliceosomal U1 and U2 snRNPs. Whether and how other mid/late-acting spliceosome components such as USP39 modulate tumorigenic splice site choice remains largely elusive. We observed that hepatocyte-specific overexpression of USP39 promoted hepatocarcinogenesis and potently regulated splice site selection in transgenic mice. In human liver cancer cells, USP39 promoted tumor proliferation in a spliceosome-dependent manner. USP39 depletion deregulated hundreds of AS events, including the oncogenic splice-switching of KANK2. Mechanistically, we developed a novel RBP-motif enrichment analysis and found that USP39 modulated exon inclusion/exclusion by interacting with SRSF6/HNRNPC in both humans and mice. Our data represented a paradigm for the control of splice site selection by mid/late-acting spliceosome proteins and their interacting RBPs. USP39 and possibly other mid/late-acting spliceosome proteins may represent potential prognostic biomarkers and targets for cancer therapy.

Use of antenatal corticosteroids among infants with gestational age at 24 to 31 weeks in 57 neonatal intensive care units of China: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) can significantly improve the outcomes of preterm infants. This study aimed to describe the ACS use rates among preterm infants admitted to Chinese neonatal intensive care units (NICU) and to explore perinatal factors associated with ACS use, using the largest contemporary cohort of very preterm infants in China. METHODS: This cross-sectional study enrolled all infants born at 24 +0 to 31 +6 weeks and admitted to 57 NICUs of the Chinese Neonatal Network from January 1st, 2019 to December 30th, 2019. The ACS administration was defined as at least one dose of dexamethasone and betamethasone given before delivery. Multiple logistic regressions were applied to determine the association between perinatal factors and ACS usage. RESULTS: A total of 7828 infants were enrolled, among which 6103 (78.0%) infants received ACS. ACS use rates increased with increasing gestational age (GA), from 177/259 (68.3%) at 24 to 25 weeks' gestation to 3120/3960 (78.8%) at 30 to 31 weeks' gestation. Among infants exposed to ACS, 2999 of 6103 (49.1%) infants received a single complete course, and 33.4% (2039/6103) infants received a partial course. ACS use rates varied from 30.2% to 100% among different hospitals. Multivariate regression showed that increasing GA, born in hospital (inborn), increasing maternal age, maternal hypertension and premature rupture of membranes were associated with higher likelihood to receive ACS. CONCLUSIONS: The use rate of ACS remained low for infants at 24 to 31 weeks' gestation admitted to Chinese NICUs, with fewer infants receiving a complete course. The use rates varied significantly among different hospitals. Efforts are urgently needed to propose improvement measures and thus improve the usage of ACS.