Precise control of microtubule disassembly in living cells.

Microtubules tightly regulate various cellular activities. Our understanding of microtubules is largely based on experiments using microtubule-targeting agents, which, however, are insufficient to dissect the dynamic mechanisms of specific microtubule populations, due to their slow effects on the entire pool of microtubules. To overcome this technological limitation, we have used chemo and optogenetics to disassemble specific microtubule subtypes, including tyrosinated microtubules, primary cilia, mitotic spindles, and intercellular bridges, by rapidly recruiting engineered microtubule-cleaving enzymes onto target microtubules in a reversible manner. Using this approach, we show that acute microtubule disassembly swiftly halts vesicular trafficking and lysosomal dynamics. It also immediately triggers Golgi and ER reorganization and slows the fusion/fission of mitochondria without affecting mitochondrial membrane potential. In addition, cell rigidity is increased after microtubule disruption owing to increased contractile stress fibers. Microtubule disruption furthermore prevents cell division, but does not cause cell death during interphase. Overall, the reported tools facilitate detailed analysis of how microtubules precisely regulate cellular architecture and functions.

Fermentation Practices Select for Thermostable Endolysins in Phages.

Endolysins are produced by (bacterio)phages and play a crucial role in degrading the bacterial cell wall and the subsequent release of new phage progeny. These lytic enzymes exhibit a remarkable diversity, often occurring in a multimodular form that combines different catalytic and cell wall-binding domains, even in phages infecting the same species. Yet, our current understanding lacks insight into how environmental factors and ecological niches may have influenced the evolution of these enzymes. In this study, we focused on phages infecting Streptococcus thermophilus, as this bacterial species has a well-defined and narrow ecological niche, namely, dairy fermentation. Among the endolysins found in phages targeting this species, we observed limited diversity, with a singular structural type dominating in most of identified S. thermophilus phages. Within this prevailing endolysin type, we discovered a novel and highly conserved calcium-binding motif. This motif proved to be crucial for the stability and activity of the enzyme at elevated temperatures. Ultimately, we demonstrated its positive selection within the host's environmental conditions, particularly under the temperature profiles encountered in the production of yogurt, mozzarella, and hard cheeses that rely on S. thermophilus.

Phage endolysins are adapted to specific hosts and are evolutionarily dynamic.

Endolysins are produced by (bacterio)phages to rapidly degrade the bacterial cell wall and release new viral particles. Despite sharing a common function, endolysins present in phages that infect a specific bacterial species can be highly diverse and vary in types, number, and organization of their catalytic and cell wall binding domains. While much is now known about the biochemistry of phage endolysins, far less is known about the implication of their diversity on phage-host adaptation and evolution. Using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, we could genetically exchange a subset of different endolysin genes into distinct lactococcal phage genomes. Regardless of the type and biochemical properties of these endolysins, fitness costs associated to their genetic exchange were marginal if both recipient and donor phages were infecting the same bacterial strain, but gradually increased when taking place between phage that infect different strains or bacterial species. From an evolutionary perspective, we observed that endolysins could be naturally exchanged by homologous recombination between phages coinfecting a same bacterial strain. Furthermore, phage endolysins could adapt to their new phage/host environment by acquiring adaptative mutations. These observations highlight the remarkable ability of phage lytic systems to recombine and adapt and, therefore, explain their large diversity and mosaicism. It also indicates that evolution should be considered to act on functional modules rather than on bacteriophages themselves. Furthermore, the extensive degree of evolvability observed for phage endolysins offers new perspectives for their engineering as antimicrobial agents.

Detection of individual brain tau deposition in Alzheimer's disease based on latent feature-enhanced generative adversarial network.

OBJECTIVE: The conventional methods for interpreting tau PET imaging in Alzheimer's disease (AD), including visual assessment and semi-quantitative analysis of fixed hallmark regions, are insensitive to detect individual small lesions because of the spatiotemporal neuropathology's heterogeneity. In this study, we proposed a latent feature-enhanced generative adversarial network model for the automatic extraction of individual brain tau deposition regions. METHODS: The latent feature-enhanced generative adversarial network we propose can learn the distribution characteristics of tau PET images of cognitively normal individuals and output the abnormal distribution regions of patients. This model was trained and validated using 1131 tau PET images from multiple centres (with distinct races, i.e., Caucasian and Mongoloid) with different tau PET ligands. The overall quality of synthetic imaging was evaluated using structural similarity (SSIM), peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), and mean square error (MSE). The model was compared to the fixed templates method for diagnosing and predicting AD. RESULTS: The reconstructed images archived good quality, with SSIM = 0.967 ± 0.008, PSNR = 31.377 ± 3.633, and MSE = 0.0011 ± 0.0007 in the independent test set. The model showed higher classification accuracy (AUC = 0.843, 95 % CI = 0.796-0.890) and stronger correlation with clinical scales (r = 0.508, P < 0.0001). The model also achieved superior predictive performance in the survival analysis of cognitive decline, with a higher hazard ratio: 3.662, P < 0.001. INTERPRETATION: The LFGAN4Tau model presents a promising new approach for more accurate detection of individualized tau deposition. Its robustness across tracers and races makes it a potentially reliable diagnostic tool for AD in practice.

A Highly Sensitive and Selective Fluorescent Sensor for Folic Acid Detection Based on D-penicillamine Stabilized Ag/Cu Alloy Nanoclusters.

In this work, a highly sensitive and selective method for detecting folic acid (FA) was developed using D-penicillamine (DPA) stabilized Ag/Cu alloy nanoclusters (DPA@Ag/Cu NCs). The yellow emission of DPA@Ag/Cu NCs was found to be quenched upon the addition of FA to the system. The fluorescence intensity quenching value demonstrated a linear relationship with FA concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 1200 µM, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 5.3 nM. Furthermore, the detection mechanism was investigated through various characterization analyses, including high resolution transmission electron microscopy, fluorescence spectra, ultraviolet-visible absorption spectra, and fluorescence lifetime. The results indicated that the fluorescence quenching induced by FA was a result of electron transfer from FA to the ligands of DPA@Ag/Cu NCs. The selectivity of the FA sensor was also evaluated, showing that common amino acids and inorganic ions had minimal impact on the detection of FA. Moreover, the standard addition method was successfully applied to detect FA in human serum, chewable tablets and FA tablets with promising results. The use of DPA@Ag/Cu NCs demonstrates significant potential for detecting FA in complex biological samples.

Metabolomic profiling of ocular tissues in rabbit myopia: Uncovering differential metabolites and pathways.

To investigate the metabolic difference among tissue layers of the rabbits' eye during the development of myopia using metabolomic techniques and explore any metabolic links or cascades within the ocular wall. Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-MS) was utilized for untargeted metabolite screening (UMS) to identify the significant differential metabolites produced between myopia (MY) and control (CT) (horizontal). Subsequently, we compared those key metabolites among tissues (Sclera, Choroid, Retina) of MY for distribution and variation (longitudinal). A total of 6285 metabolites were detected in the three tissues. The differential metabolites were screened and the metabolic pathways of these metabolites in each myopic tissue were labeled, including tryptophan and its metabolites, pyruvate, taurine, caffeine metabolites, as well as neurotransmitters like glutamate and dopamine. Our study suggests that multiple metabolic pathways or different metabolites under the same pathway, might act on different parts of the eyeball and contribute to the occurrence and development of myopia by affecting the energy supply to the ocular tissues, preventing antioxidant stress, affecting scleral collagen synthesis, and regulating various neurotransmitters mutually.

Identification novel mutations and phenotypic spectrum expanding in PATL2 in infertile women with IVF/ICSI failure.

AIM: Abnormalities in oocyte maturation, fertilization, and early embryonic development are major causes of primary infertility in women who are undergoing IVF/ICSI attempts. Although many genetic factors responsible for these abnormal phenotypes have been identified, there are more additional pathogenic genes and variants yet to be discovered. Previous studies confirmed that bi-allelic PATL2 deficiency is an important factor for female infertility. In this study, 935 infertile patients with IVF/ICSI failure were selected for whole-exome sequencing, and 18 probands carrying PATL2 variants with a recessive inheritance pattern were identified. METHODS: We estimated that the prevalence contributed by PATL2 was 1.93% (18/935) in our study cohort. RESULTS: 15 novel variants were found in those families, including c.1093C > T, c.1609dupA, c.1204C > T, c.643dupG, c.877-2A > G, c.1228C > G, c.925G > A, c.958G > A, c.4A > G, c.1258T > C, c.1337G > A, c.1264dupA, c.88G > T, c.1065-2A > G, and c.1271T > C. The amino acids altered by the corresponding variants were highly conserved in mammals, and in silico analysis and 3D molecular modeling suggested that the PATL2 mutants impaired the physiologic function of the resulting proteins. Diverse clinical phenotypes, including oocyte maturation defect, fertilization failure, and early embryonic arrest might result from different variants of PATL2. CONCLUSIONS: These results expand the spectrum of PATL2 variants and provide an important reference for genetic counseling for female infertility, and they increase our understanding of the mechanisms of oocyte maturation arrest caused by PATL2 deficiency.

The relationship between social support and professional identity of health professional students from a two-way social support theory perspective: chain mediating effects of achievement motivation and meaning in life.

BACKGROUND: Studies has suggested that receiving social support improves the professional identity of health professional students. According to the two-way social support theory, social support includes receiving social support and giving social support. However, the effect of the two-way social support on health professional students' professional identity has not been clarified yet. METHODS: To explore the mechanism of how two-way social support affects health professional students' professional identity, an observational, cross-sectional study was conducted among a convenience and cluster sample of 1449 health professional students from two medical schools in western China. Measures included a short version of the two-way social support scale, a health professional students' professional identity questionnaire, an achievement motivation scale, and a meaning in life scale. Data were analyzed by use of SPSS26.0 software and PROCESSv4.0 plug-in. RESULTS: Receiving social support, giving social support, achievement motivation, meaning in life, and professional identity were positively correlated with each other. Receiving and giving social support not only directly predicted health professional students' professional identity, but also indirectly predicted health professional students' professional identity through the mediating roles of achievement motivation and meaning in life, and the chain mediating roles of achievement motivation and meaning in life, respectively. The effectiveness of predicting health professional students' professional identity varied among different types of two-way social support, which could be depicted as two-way social support > mainly giving social support > mainly receiving social support > low two-way social support. CONCLUSION: In the medical education, the awareness and ability of health professional students to receive and give social support should be strengthened. More attention should be drawn on the chain mediating effect of achievement motivation and meaning in life between two-way social support and professional identity. The current results shed new light on exploring effective ways of improving health professional students' professional identity, which suggested that more attention should be paid to the positive effects of mainly giving social support and two-way social support rather than only on the effects of receiving social support.

Study on Design, Synthesis and Herbicidal Activity of Novel 6-Indazolyl-2-picolinic Acids.

Thirty-eight new 4-amino-3,5-dicholo-6-(1H-indazolyl)-2-picolinic acids and 4-amino-3,5-dicholo-6-(2H-indazolyl)-2-picolinic acids were designed by scaffold hopping and synthesized to discover potential herbicidal molecules. All the new compounds were tested to determine their inhibitory activities against Arabidopsis thaliana and the root growth of five weeds. In general, the synthesized compounds exhibited excellent inhibition properties and showed good inhibitory effects on weed root growth. In particular, compound 5a showed significantly greater root inhibitory activity than picloram in Brassica napus and Abutilon theophrasti Medicus at the concentration of 10 µM. The majority of compounds exhibited a 100% post-emergence herbicidal effect at 250 g/ha against Amaranthus retroflexus and Chenopodium album. We also found that 6-indazolyl-2-picolinic acids could induce the up-regulation of auxin genes ACS7 and NCED3, while auxin influx, efflux and auxin response factor were down-regulated, indicating that 6-indazolyl-2-picolinic acids promoted ethylene release and ABA production to cause plant death in a short period, which is different in mode from other picolinic acids.

Obacunone, a Promising Phytochemical Triterpenoid: Research Progress on Its Pharmacological Activity and Mechanism.

Obacunone, a natural triterpenoid, is an active component of the herbs Dictamnus dasycarpus Turcz. and Phellodendron amurense Rupr, and an indicator of the herbs' quality. Owing to its multiple health benefits, several studies have investigated the multi-targeting potential action mechanisms of obacunone. To summarize recent developments on the pharmacological actions of obacunone and focus on the underlying molecular mechanisms and signaling networks, we searched PubMed, Europe PMC, Wiley Online Library, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Wanfang Medical Network, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure for articles published prior to March 2024. Existing research indicates obacunone has great potential to become a promising therapeutic option against tumors, fibrotic diseases, bone and cholesterol metabolism diseases, and infections of pathogenic microorganisms, among others. The paper contributes to providing up-to-date references for further research and clinical applications of obacunone.

Homozygous Mutations in BTG4 Cause Zygotic Cleavage Failure and Female Infertility.

Zygotic cleavage failure (ZCF) is a unique early embryonic phenotype resulting in female infertility and recurrent failure of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and/or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). With this phenotype, morphologically normal oocytes can be retrieved and successfully fertilized, but they fail to undergo cleavage. Until now, whether this phenotype has a Mendelian inheritance pattern and which underlying genetic factors play a role in its development remained to be elucidated. B cell translocation gene 4 (BTG4) is a key adaptor of the CCR4-NOT deadenylase complex, which is involved in maternal mRNA decay in mice, but no human diseases caused by mutations in BTG4 have previously been reported. Here, we identified four homozygous mutations in BTG4 (GenBank: NM_017589.4) that are responsible for the phenotype of ZCF, and we found they followed a recessive inheritance pattern. Three of them-c.73C>T (p.Gln25Ter), c.1A>G (p.?), and c.475_478del (p.Ile159LeufsTer15)-resulted in complete loss of full-length BTG4 protein. For c.166G>A (p.Ala56Thr), although the protein level and distribution of mutant BTG4 was not altered in zygotes from affected individuals or in HeLa cells, the interaction between BTG4 and CNOT7 was abolished. In vivo studies further demonstrated that the process of maternal mRNA decay was disrupted in the zygotes of the affected individuals, which provides a mechanistic explanation for the phenotype of ZCF. Thus, we provide evidence that ZCF is a Mendelian phenotype resulting from mutations in BTG4. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of BTG4 in human early embryonic development and provide a genetic marker for female infertility.

Generative adversarial network constrained multiple loss autoencoder: A deep learning-based individual atrophy detection for Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment.

Exploring individual brain atrophy patterns is of great value in precision medicine for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, the current individual brain atrophy detection models are deficient. Here, we proposed a framework called generative adversarial network constrained multiple loss autoencoder (GANCMLAE) for precisely depicting individual atrophy patterns. The GANCMLAE model was trained using normal controls (NCs) from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative cohort, and the Xuanwu cohort was employed to validate the robustness of the model. The potential of the model for identifying different atrophy patterns of MCI subtypes was also assessed. Furthermore, the clinical application potential of the GANCMLAE model was investigated. The results showed that the model can achieve good image reconstruction performance on the structural similarity index measure (0.929 ± 0.003), peak signal-to-noise ratio (31.04 ± 0.09), and mean squared error (0.0014 ± 0.0001) with less latent loss in the Xuanwu cohort. The individual atrophy patterns extracted from this model are more precise in reflecting the clinical symptoms of MCI subtypes. The individual atrophy patterns exhibit a better discriminative power in identifying patients with AD and MCI from NCs than those of the t-test model, with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.867 (95%: 0.837-0.897) and 0.752 (95%: 0.71-0.790), respectively. Similar findings are also reported in the AD and MCI subgroups. In conclusion, the GANCMLAE model can serve as an effective tool for individualised atrophy detection.

A novel homozygous variant in ZFP36L2 cause female infertility due to oocyte maturation defect.

Normal oocyte maturation is an important requirement for the success of human reproduction, and defects in this process will lead to female infertility and repeated IVF/ICSI failures. In order to identify genetic factors that are responsible for oocyte maturation defect, we used whole exome sequencing in the affected individual with oocyte maturation defect from a consanguineous family and identified a homozygous variant c.853_861del (p.285_287del) in ZFP36L2. ZFP36L2 is a RNA-binding protein, which regulates maternal mRNA decay and oocyte maturation. In vitro studies showed that the variant caused decreased protein levels of ZFP36L2 in oocytes due to mRNA instability and might lead to the loss of its function to degrade maternal mRNAs. Previous study showed that the pathogenic variants in ZFP36L2 were associated with early embryonic arrest. In contrast, we identified a novel ZFP36L2 variant in the affected individual with oocyte maturation defect, which further broadened the mutational and phenotypic spectrum of ZFP36L2, suggesting that ZFP36L2 might be a genetic diagnostic marker for the affected individuals with oocyte maturation defect.

Solvent Effects on the 1 H-NMR Chemical Shifts of Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids.

The 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (1 H-NMR) spectrum is a useful tool for characterizing the hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) interactions in ionic liquids (ILs). As the main hydrogen bond (H-bond) donor of imidazolium-based ILs, the chemical shift (δH2 ) of the proton in the 2-position of the imidazolium ring (H2) exhibits significant and complex solvents, concentrations and anions dependence. In the present work, based on the dielectric constants (ϵ) and Kamlet-Taft (KT) parameters of solvents, we identified that the δH2 are dominated by the solvents polarity and the competitive H-bonding interactions between cations and anions or solvents. Besides, the solvents effects on δH2 are understood by the structure of ILs in solvents: 1) In diluted solutions of inoizable solvents, ILs exist as free ions and the cations will form H-bond with solvents, resulting in δH2 being independent with anions but positively correlated with ßS . 2) In diluted solutions of non-ionzable solvents, ILs exist as contact ion-pairs (CIPs) and H2 will form H-bond with anions. Since non-ionizable solvents hardly influence the H-bonding interactions between H2 and anions, the δH2 are not related to ßS but positively correlated with ßIL .

Pembrolizumab or pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy versus standard of care chemotherapy in patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma: Asian subgroup analysis of KEYNOTE-062.

OBJECTIVE: First-line pembrolizumab with/without chemotherapy versus chemotherapy was evaluated in programmed death ligand 1 combined positive score ≥1, locally advanced/unresectable or metastatic gastric cancer/gastrooesophageal junction cancer in the KEYNOTE-062 study. We present results for patients enrolled in Asia. METHODS: Eligible patients were randomly assigned 1:1:1 to pembrolizumab 200 mg, pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy (cisplatin + 5-fluorouracil or capecitabine) or placebo plus chemotherapy Q3W. End points included overall survival (primary) in combined positive score ≥1 and combined positive score ≥10 populations and safety and tolerability (secondary). RESULTS: A total of 187 patients were enrolled in Asia (pembrolizumab, n = 62; pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy, n = 64; chemotherapy, n = 61). Compared with the global population, higher proportions of patients had Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 0 and a diagnosis of stomach cancer. In the programmed death ligand 1 combined positive score ≥1 population, median overall survival was numerically longer with pembrolizumab versus chemotherapy (22.7 vs 13.8 months; hazard ratio, 0.54; 95% confidence interval, 0.35-0.82) and pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy (16.5 vs 13.8 months; hazard ratio, 0.78; 95% confidence interval, 0.53-1.16). In the programmed death ligand 1 combined positive score ≥10 population, median overall survival was also numerically longer with pembrolizumab versus chemotherapy (28.5 vs 14.8 months; hazard ratio, 0.43; 95% confidence interval, 0.21-0.89) and pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy (17.5 vs 14.8 months; hazard ratio, 0.86; 95% confidence interval, 0.45-1.64). The grade 3-5 treatment-related adverse event rate was 19.4%, 75.8% and 64.9% for patients receiving pembrolizumab, pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy and chemotherapy, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This post hoc analysis showed pembrolizumab monotherapy was associated with numerically improved overall survival and a favourable tolerability profile versus chemotherapy in Asians with programmed death ligand 1-positive advanced gastric cancer/gastrooesophageal junction cancer.This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02494583.

Role of genetics in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a large cohort study in Chinese mainland population.

BACKGROUND: A large number of new causative and risk genes for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) have been identified mostly in patients of European ancestry. In contrast, we know relatively little regarding the genetics of ALS in other ethnic populations. This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the genetics of ALS in an unprecedented large cohort of Chinese mainland population and correlate with the clinical features of rare variants carriers. METHODS: A total of 1587 patients, including 64 familial ALS (FALS) and 1523 sporadic ALS (SALS), and 1866 in-house controls were analysed by whole-exome sequencing and/or testing for G4C2 repeats in C9orf72. Forty-one ALS-associated genes were analysed. FINDINGS: 155 patients, including 26 (40.6%) FALS and 129 (8.5%) SALS, carrying rare pathogenic/likely pathogenic (P/LP) variants of ALS causative genes were identified. SOD1 was the most common mutated gene, followed by C9orf72, FUS, NEK1, TARDBP and TBK1. By burden analysis, rare variants in SOD1, FUS and TARDBP contributed to the collective risk for ALS (p<2.5e-6) at the gene level, but at the allelic level TARDBP p.Gly294Val and FUS p.Arg521Cys and p.Arg521His were the most important single variants causing ALS. Clinically, P/LP variants in TARDBP and C9orf72 were associated with poor prognosis, in FUS linked with younger age of onset, and C9orf72 repeats tended to affect cognition. CONCLUSIONS: Our data provide essential information for understanding the genetic and clinical features of ALS in China and for optimal design of genetic testing and evaluation of disease prognosis.

Sarcopenia is associated with non-motor symptoms in Han Chinese patients with Parkinson's Disease: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Sarcopenia is commonly seen in the older adults and increases in incidence with age, also in Parkinson's disease (PD). Although research has indicated that the development of sarcopenia in patients with PD may be related to both motor symptoms and non-motor symptoms (NMS), the precise relationship between the two conditions remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the incidence of sarcopenia in patients with PD and its association with NMS. METHODS: The study included 123 patients with PD and 38 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC). All participants were evaluated for sarcopenia using the 2019 Asian Sarcopenia Diagnostic Criteria, and patients with PD underwent standard assessments of motor symptoms and NMS. Multiple logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were used to examine the association between sarcopenia and NMS in patients with PD. RESULTS: The incidence of sarcopenia was significantly higher in patients with PD than in HC (26.8% vs. 10.4%, p = 0.046). Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that poorer sleep quality (odds ratio [OR]: 1.245; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.011-1.533; p = 0.040) and fatigue (OR: 1.085, 95% CI: 1.006-1.170, p = 0.034) were independently associated with sarcopenia. ROC analysis indicated that the optimal cut-off value for Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores was 10, with 72.7% sensitivity and 74.4% specificity (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.776, 95% CI: 0.683-0.868, p < 0.001). The optimal cut-off value for Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) scores was 39, with 87% sensitivity and 50% specificity (AUC = 0.725, 95% CI: 0.629 -0.820, p < 0.001). Joint use of FSS and PSQI scores increased the predictive value for sarcopenia(AUC = 0.804, 95% CI: 0.724-0.885, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Patients with PD are more susceptible to sarcopenia than healthy older adults, and fatigue and poorer sleep are positively associated with sarcopenia. Further longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the causal relationships.

Analysis of risk factors for parenteral nutrition-associated cholestasis in preterm infants: a multicenter observational study.

BACKGROUND: It is proposed that the development of parenteral nutrition-associated cholestasis (PNAC) was significantly associated with preterm birth, low birth weight, infection, etc.; however, the etiology and pathogenesis of PNAC are not fully understood. Most of the studies examining PNAC-associated risk factors were single-center studies with relatively small sample sizes. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the risk factors associated with PNAC in preterm infants in China. METHODS: This is a retrospective multicenter observational study. Clinical data on the effect of multiple oil-fat emulsions (soybean oil-medium chain triglycerides-olive oil-fish oil, SMOF) in preterm infants were collected from a prospective multicenter randomized controlled study. A secondary analysis was performed in which preterm infants were divided into the PNAC group and the non-PNAC group based on the PNAC status. RESULTS: A total of 465 cases very preterm infants or very low birth weight infants were included in the study in which 81 cases were assigned to the PNAC group and 384 cases were assigned to the non-PNAC group. The PNAC group had a lower mean gestational age, lower mean birth weight, longer duration of invasive and non-invasive mechanical ventilation, a longer duration oxygen support, and longer hospital stay (P < 0.001 for all). The PNAC group had higher respiratory distress syndrome, hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus, necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) with stage II or higher, surgically treated NEC, late-onset sepsis, metabolic bone disease, and extrauterine growth retardation (EUGR) compared to the non-PNAC group (P < 0.05 for all). In contrast with the non-PNAC group, the PNAC group received a higher maximum dose of amino acids and fat emulsion, more medium/long-chain fatty emulsion, less SMOF, had a longer duration of parenteral nutrition, lower rates of breastfeeding, higher incidence of feeding intolerance (FI), more accumulated days to achieve total enteral nutrition, less accumulated days of total calories up to standard 110 kcal/kg/day and slower velocity of weight growth (P < 0.05 for all). Logistic regression analysis indicated that the maximum dose of amino acids (OR, 5.352; 95% CI, 2.355 to 12.161), EUGR (OR, 2.396; 95% CI, 1.255 to 4.572), FI (OR, 2.581; 95% CI, 1.395 to 4.775), surgically treated NEC (OR, 11.300; 95% CI, 2.127 ~ 60.035), and longer total hospital stay (OR, 1.030; 95% CI, 1.014 to 1.046) were independent risk factors for the development of PNAC. SMOF (OR, 0.358; 95% CI, 0.193 to 0.663) and breastfeeding (OR, 0.297; 95% CI, 0.157 to 0.559) were protective factors for PNAC. CONCLUSIONS: PNAC can be reduced by optimizing the management of enteral and parenteral nutrition and reducing gastrointestinal comorbidities in preterm infants.

Insulator Abnormal Condition Detection from Small Data Samples.

Insulators are an important part of transmission lines in active distribution networks, and their performance has an impact on the power system's normal operation, security, and dependability. Traditional insulator detection methods, on the other hand, necessitate a significant amount of labor and material resources, necessitating the development of a new detection method to substitute manpower. This paper investigates the abnormal condition detection of insulators based on UAV vision sensors using artificial intelligence algorithms from small samples. Firstly, artificial intelligence for the image data volume requirements was large, i.e., the insulator image samples taken by the UAV vision sensor inspection were not enough, or there was a missing image problem, so the data enhancement method was used to expand the small sample data. Then, the YOLOV5 algorithm was used to compare detection results before and after the extended dataset's optimization to demonstrate the expanded dataset's dependability and universality, and the results revealed that the expanded dataset improved detection accuracy and precision. The insulator abnormal condition detection method based on small sample image data acquired by the visual sensors studied in this paper has certain theoretical guiding significance and engineering application prospects for the safe operation of active distribution networks.

The Correlation of Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, and Hippocampal Perfusion in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is closely related to abnormal cerebral blood flow. Inflammation and oxidative stress have always been important factors in the pathophysiology of AF. It remains unknown whether inflammation and oxidative stress are correlated to hippocampal perfusion in patients with AF.Sixty-three patients with AF with normal hippocampal blood perfusion (NHBP) were compared to 71 patients with AF with abnormal hippocampal blood perfusion (AHBP) using a case-control study design. The serum levels of inflammation and oxidative stress were measured. The hippocampal perfusion was detected. (1) The serum levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) were statistically higher in the AHBP group than in the NHBP group. In the AHBP subgroup analysis, the serum levels of hs-CRP and IL-6 were statistically higher in patients with persistent AF than those with paroxysmal AF. (2) The relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV), mean transit time (MTT), and the time-to-peak (TTP) were statistically higher in the AHBP group than in the NHBP group. Moreover, cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was statistically lower in the AHBP group than in the NHBP group. (3) relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV), rCBF, MTT, and TTP were passively associated with serum hs-CRP and IL-6; rCBV, rCBF, and MTT were positively associated with ox-LDL. The serum levels of hs-CRP, IL-6, and ox-LDL were associated with AHBP in patients with AF after multivariate logistic regression analysis.Oxidative stress and inflammatory biomarkers were increased in patients with AF with AHBP, in which the serum levels of hs-CRP and IL-6 in the persistent AF group were statistically higher than those in the paroxysmal AF group. The serum levels of hs-CRP, IL-6, and ox-LDL were associated with AHBP in patients with AF.