Optimizing predictions: improved performance of preoperative gadobenate-enhanced MRI hepatobiliary phase features in predicting vessels encapsulating tumor clusters in hepatocellular carcinoma-a multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: Vessels Encapsulating Tumor Clusters (VETC) are now recognized as independent indicators of recurrence and overall survival in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. However, there has been limited investigation into predicting the VETC pattern using hepatobiliary phase (HBP) features from preoperative gadobenate-enhanced MRI. METHODS: This study involved 252 HCC patients with confirmed VETC status from three different hospitals (Hospital 1: training set with 142 patients; Hospital 2: test set with 64 patients; Hospital 3: validation set with 46 patients). Independent predictive factors for VETC status were determined through univariate and multivariate logistic analyses. Subsequently, these factors were used to construct two distinct VETC prediction models. Model 1 included all independent predictive factors, while Model 2 excluded HBP features. The performance of both models was assessed using the Area Under the Curve (AUC), Decision Curve Analysis, and Calibration Curve. Prediction accuracy between the two models was compared using Net Reclassification Improvement (NRI) and Integrated Discriminant Improvement (IDI). RESULTS: CA199, IBIL, shape, peritumoral hyperintensity on HBP, and arterial peritumoral enhancement were independent predictors of VETC. Model 1 showed robust predictive performance, with AUCs of 0.836 (training), 0.811 (test), and 0.802 (validation). Model 2 exhibited moderate performance, with AUCs of 0.813, 0.773, and 0.783 in the respective sets. Calibration and decision curves for both models indicated consistent predictions between predicted and actual VETC, benefiting HCC patients. NRI showed Model 1 increased by 0.326, 0.389, and 0.478 in the training, test, and validation sets compared to Model 2. IDI indicated Model 1 increased by 0.036, 0.028, and 0.025 in the training, test, and validation sets compared to Model 2. CONCLUSION: HBP features from preoperative gadobenate-enhanced MRI can enhance the predictive performance of VETC in HCC.

[Analysis of three Chinese pedigrees affected with Hereditary factor â ¦ deficiency due to compound heterozygous variants of F7 gene].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the types of genetic variants and clinical characteristics of three Chinese pedigrees affected with Hereditary coagulation factor Ⅶ (FⅦ) deficiency. METHODS: Three pedigrees who had visited the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University between December 2021 and October 2022 were selected as the study subjects. Prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and FⅦ activity (FⅦ:C) were measured in the three probands and their pedigree members. All exons and their flanking sequences were analyzed by direct sequencing, and candidate variants were verified by reverse sequencing. The corresponding variant loci in the family members were also analyzed. ClustalX-2.1-win was used to analyze the conservation of the variant loci. Varcards and Spcards online software was used to predict the pathogenicity of the variants. Pymol software was used to analyze the changes in protein structure and molecular forces. RESULTS: Three cases of hereditary FⅦ deficiency were found to have decreased FⅦ:C, prolonged PT and normal APTT. Genetic analysis identified a total of four genetic variants, and all three probands had harbored compound heterozygous variants of the F7 gene, including p.Cys389Gly and p.His408Gln in proband 1, p.Cys389Gly and IVS6+1G>T in proband 2, and IVS6+1G>T and IVS1a+5G>A in proband 3. Conservation analysis showed that both the p.Cys389 and p.His408 loci are highly conserved among orthologous species. Analysis with Varcards and Spcards software showed that these variants were pathogenic. Protein modeling analysis showed that the p.Cys389Gly and p.His408Gln variants may result in altered protein structures and changes in hydrogen bonds. CONCLUSION: The clinical manifestations of the three FⅦ-deficient probands may be attributed to the compound heterozygous variants of p.Cys389Gly/p.His408Gln, p.Cys389Gly/IVS6+1G>T and IVS6+1G>T/IVS1a+5G>A of the F7 gene. The combination of the three compound heterozygous variants was unreported previously.

Body mass index influences age-related cataracts: an updated meta-analysis and systemic review.

PURPOSE: Visual impairment and blindness caused by cataracts are major public health problems. Several factors are associated with an increased risk of age-related cataracts, such as age, smoking, alcohol consumption, and ultraviolet radiation. This meta-analysis aimed to assess the association between body mass index and age-related cataracts. METHODS: Studies on weight and age-related cataracts published from January 2011 to July 2020 were reviewed by searching PubMed, Medline, and Web of Science databases. The random-effects and fixed-effects models were used for the meta-analysis, and the results were reported as odd ratios. RESULTS: A total of nine studies were included in the meta-analysis. No correlation was found between underweight and nuclear cataracts (OR=1.31, 95% CI [-0.50 to 3.12], p=0.156). The results of the random-effects model showed that overweight was significantly associated with age-related cataracts and reduced the risk of age-related cataracts (OR=0.91, 95% CI [0.80-1.02], p<0.0001; I2=62.3%, p<0.0001). Significant correlations were found between overweight and cortical, nuclear, and posterior subcapsular cataracts (OR=0.95, 95% CI [0.66-1.24], p<0.0001; OR=0.92, 95% CI (0.76-1.08), p<0.0001; OR=0.87, 95% CI [0.38-1.02], p<0.0001). Significant correlations were found between obesity and cortical, nuclear, and posterior subcapsular cataracts (OR=1.00, 95% CI [0.82-1.17], p<0.0001; OR=1.07, 95% CI [0.92-1.22], p<0.0001; OR=1.14, 95% CI [0.91-1.37], p<0.0001). CONCLUSION: This finding suggested a significant correlation between body mass index and age-related cataracts, with overweight and obesity reducing or increasing the risk of age-related cataracts, respectively.

Exploring the combined cooling effect of street canyon geometry and the surrounding built environment.

Exploring the impact of complex urban morphology on the urban heat island (UHI) effect is essential for sustainable environmental management and enhancing human well-being. This study explored the combined cooling effect of street canyon geometry and the surrounding built environment using a CatBoost model and the Shapley method. The findings indicated that in streets with low building height and density, a high proportion of sky and vegetation and a flatter skyline are conductive to mitigate UHI effect. In streets with high building height and density, a lower proportion of sky and vegetation, and a well-proportioned skyline, can effectively mitigate UHI effect. Regardless of the building density and height around the street, street trees are the optimal choice for greening construction and improvement of large and medium-sized cities in China, given their high controllability and the current urban stock background. Therefore, reasonable control and allocation of street trees can effectively adjust the street canyon geometry, providing suitable cooling strategies for streets with different surrounding built environments. This study proposed a method to mitigate the UHI effect through street canyon geometry, which can be extended to other high-density urban thermal environment studies and guide policymakers on street construction and urban design.

Total iridoid glycoside extract of Lamiophlomis rotata (Benth) Kudo accelerates diabetic wound healing by the NRF2/COX2 axis.

BACKGROUND: Lamiophlomis rotata (Benth.) Kudo (L. rotata), the oral Traditional Tibetan herbal medicine, is adopted for treating knife and gun wounds for a long time. As previously demonstrated, total iridoid glycoside extract of L. rotata (IGLR) induced polarization of M2 macrophage to speed up wound healing. In diabetic wounds, high levels inflammatory and chemotactic factors are usually related to high reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. As a ROS target gene, nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2), influences the differentiation of monocytes to M1/M2 macrophages. Fortunately, iridoid glycosides are naturally occurring active compounds that can be used as the oxygen radical scavenger. Nevertheless, the influence of IGLR in diabetic wound healing and its associated mechanism is largely unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: With macrophages and dermal fibroblasts in vitro, as well as a thickness excision model of db/db mouse in vivo, the role of IGLR in diabetic wound healing and the probable mechanism of the action were investigated. RESULTS: Our results showed that IGLR suppressed oxidative distress and inflammation partly through the NRF2/cyclooxygenase2 (COX2) signaling pathway in vitro. The intercellular communication between macrophages and dermal fibroblasts was investigated by the conditioned medium (CM) of IGLR treatment cells. The CM increased the transcription and translation of collagen I (COL1A1) and alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) within fibroblasts. With diabetic wound mice, the data demonstrated IGLR activated the NRF2/KEAP1 signaling and the downstream targets of the pathway, inhibited COX2/PEG2 signaling and decreased the interaction inflammatory targets of the axis, like interleukin-1beta (IL-1ß), interleukin 6 (IL-6), apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC), cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase1 (caspase1) and NOD-like receptor-containing protein 3 (NLRP3).In addition, the deposition of COL1A1, and the level of α-SMA, and Transforming growth factor-ß1 (TGF-ß1) obviously elevated, whereas that of pro-inflammatory factors reduced in the diabetic wound tissue with IGLR treatment. CONCLUSION: IGLR suppressed oxidative distress and inflammation mainly through NRF2/COX2 axis, thus promoting paracrine and accelerating wound healing in diabetes mice.

Discovery of Novel Potential Insecticide-Resistance Mutations in Spodoptera frugiperda.

The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, is a worldwide agricultural pest that invaded China in 2018, and has developed resistance to multiple insecticides. The evolution of insecticide resistance is facilitated by mutations of target genes responsible for conferring resistance. In this study, amplicon sequencing analyzed 21 sites in six resistance genes. In addition to known mutations, unknown variants were also found, including novel variants: F290C (ace-1 gene, 0.1% frequency), I1040T/V (CHSA gene, 0.1% frequency), A309T (GluCl gene, 0.1% frequency), and I4790T/V (RyR gene, 0.1% frequency). Additionally, molecular docking was employed to investigate the impact of the aforementioned new mutations on insecticide binding to proteins. The analyses indicated that the binding abilities were reduced, similar to the resistance mutations that were reported, implying these novel mutations may confer transitional resistance. This study may provide a foundation for understanding the functions of these novel mutations in the evolutionary processes that drive the emergence of insecticide resistance in this invasive species.

Book Review Computational Aspects of Psychometric Methods by Martinková & Hladká.

As reported by Martinková, P., & Hladká, A. (Computational Aspects of Psychometric Methods: With R. Boca Raton, CRC Press, FL, 2023) Computational Aspects of Psychometric Methods: With R. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Assessing lexical ambiguity of simplified Chinese characters: Plurality and relatedness of character meanings.

Lexical ambiguity is pervasive among Chinese characters as many of them are polysemantic, with one orthographic form carrying unrelated meanings, related meanings, or sometimes both unrelated and related meanings. A large-scale database with ambiguity measures for simplified Chinese characters has yet to be developed, which could greatly benefit psycholinguistic research on the Chinese language or cross-language comparisons. This article reports two sets of ratings by native speakers, the perceived number of meanings (pNoM) for 4,363 characters and the perceived relatedness of meanings (pRoM) for a subset of 1,053 characters. These rating-based ambiguity measures capture the representational nuance about a character's meanings stored in average native speakers' mental lexicon, which tends to be obscured by dictionary- and corpus-based ambiguity measures. Consequently, they each account for a reliable portion of variance in the efficiency of character processing, above and beyond the effects of character frequency, age of acquisition, and other types of ambiguity measures. Theoretical and empirical implications with regard to the plurality and the relatedness of character meanings, the two focal aspects of debate on lexical ambiguity, are discussed.

Tobacco smoking, second-hand smoking exposure in relation to psychotic-like experiences in adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Previous literature supports that tobacco smoking and second-hand smoking (SHS) exposure were strongly associated with poor mental health in the general population. However, there is a lack of empirical data on the relationship between tobacco smoking, SHS exposure and psychotic-like experiences (PLEs). This study conducted a cross-sectional survey to explore PLEs and the associations of PLEs with tobacco smoking and SHS exposure among adolescents in China. METHODS: A total sample of 67 182 Chinese adolescents were recruited from Guangdong province in China (53.7% boys, mean age = 12.79 years) from December 17 to 26, 2021. All adolescents have completed self-reported questionnaires on demographic characteristics, smoking status, SHS exposure and PLEs. RESULTS: Within the sample, only 1.2% of participants had an experience of tobacco smoking while approximately three-fifths reported being exposed to SHS. 10.7% of adolescents reported frequent PLEs over the past month. Adolescents who smoked showed a higher prevalence of PLEs than in non-smoking samples. After controlling for confounders, SHS exposure was a robust risk factor for PLEs with or without the effect of tobacco smoking. DISCUSSION: These findings support the importance of smoke-free legislation, and anti-smoking measures in educational settings directed at both adolescents and their caregiver, which may decrease occurring rates of PLEs among adolescents.

Garlic consumption and colorectal cancer risk in US adults: a large prospective cohort study.

Objective: To clarify the inconsistent findings of epidemiological studies on the association between dietary garlic consumption and colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence, by prospectively assessing the association in a large US population. Methods: Data of 58,508 participants (aged 55-74) from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial were analyzed. Dietary data were collected using a validated questionnaire. Multivariable Cox regression analysis determined hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Restricted cubic spline regression was used to investigate the non-linear relationship, and subgroup analysis was conducted to examine potential effect modifiers. Results: During a median follow-up of 12.05 years, 782 CRC cases were documented, including 456 proximal colon cancer cases, 322 distal CRC cases, and 4 CRC cases with an unknown site. Moderate dietary garlic consumption was significantly associated with a reduced risk of overall CRC (HRquintile 3vs. 1: 0.70, 95% CI: 0.54 to 0.91, p = 0.007, P for trend: 0.434), exhibiting a U-shaped dose-response pattern, and also with overall CRC in males in the stratified Cox regression model (Model 2: HRquintile 3vs. 1: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.40 to 0.81, p = 0.002), but not in females. The protective association was more pronounced in men, Caucasian, and those with lower alcohol consumption. Notably, these protective effects were observed for overall distal CRC (HRquintile 3vs. 1: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.42 to 0.93, p = 0.021; and HRquintile 4vs. 1: 0.63, 95% CI: 0.43 to 0.92, p = 0.018, P for trend: 0.208); and for distal CRC in males (HRquintile 3vs. 1: 0.40, 95% CI: 0.22 to 0.71, p = 0.002, P for trend: 0.696), but not for proximal CRC. Conclusion: Moderate consumption of dietary garlic is associated with a decreased CRC risk in the US population, with variations based on CRC anatomic subsites. Further in-depth prospective studies are needed to validate these findings in different populations and to explore subsites-specific associations.

Aircraft-Based AirCore Sampling for Estimates of N2O and CH4 Emissions.

Airborne measurements offer an effective way to quantify urban emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). However, it may be challenging due to the requirement of high measurement precision and sufficiently enhanced signals. We developed a new active AirCore system based on the previous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) version, which is capable of sampling atmospheric air for several hours aboard a lightweight aircraft for postflight simultaneous and continuous measurements of N2O, CH4, CO2, and CO. We performed 13 flights over the urban areas of Groningen, Utrecht, and Rotterdam and evaluated the aircraft-based AirCore measurements against in situ continuous CH4 measurements. One flight was selected for each of the three urban areas to quantify the emissions of N2O and CH4. Compared to the Dutch inventory, the estimated N2O emissions (364 ± 143 kg h-1) from the Rotterdam area are ∼3 times larger, whereas those for Groningen (95 ± 90 kg h-1) and Utrecht (32 ± 16 kg h-1) are not significantly different. The estimated CH4 emissions for all three urban areas (Groningen: 2534 ± 1774 kg CH4 hr-1, Utrecht: 1440 ± 628 kg CH4 hr-1, and Rotterdam: 2419 ± 922 kg CH4 hr-1) are not significantly different from the Dutch inventory. The innovative aircraft-based active AirCore sampling system provides a robust means of high-precision and continuous measurements of multiple gas species, which is useful for quantifying GHG emissions from urban areas.

Effects of ICT agglomeration on carbon emission reduction: New evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

It is unidentified whether information communication technology (ICT) agglomeration can contribute to carbon reduction and to what extent it plays a role in energy conservation and emission reduction, and further exploration is urgently needed. Based on the panel data of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2008 to 2019, the spatial panel Durbin model and intermediary effect model are employed to explore the effect of ICT agglomeration on carbon emissions and its pathways. It can be indicated from the results as below. (1) The local ICT agglomeration can reduce carbon emissions, but an increase in the level of ICT agglomeration in surrounding cities will increase local carbon emissions. (2) ICT agglomeration can reduce carbon emissions through reducing energy intensity and capital mismatch. (3) The effect of ICT agglomeration on carbon emissions is heterogeneous. ICT agglomeration can suppress carbon emissions in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, while it will increase carbon emissions in the upper reaches. ICT agglomeration increases carbon emissions in old industrial cities, reduces carbon emissions in non-old industrial cities, and has a more significant emission reduction effect in non-resource-based cities. We suggest promoting the formation of a coordinated linkage mechanism for ICT industry development and carbon emission reduction policies among regions, and implement differentiated ICT development strategies according to different industrial structure types.

Associations between colorectal cancer risk and dietary intake of tomato, tomato products, and lycopene: evidence from a prospective study of 101,680 US adults.

Background: Previous epidemiological studies have yielded inconsistent results regarding the effects of dietary tomato, tomato products, and lycopene on the incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC), possibly due to variations in sample sizes and study designs. Methods: The current study used multivariable Cox regression, subgroup analyses, and restricted cubic spline functions to investigate correlations between CRC incidence and mortality and raw tomato, tomato salsa, tomato juice, tomato catsup, and lycopene intake, as well as effect modifiers and nonlinear dose-response relationships in 101,680 US adults from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. Results: During follow-up 1100 CRC cases and 443 CRC-specific deaths occurred. After adjustment for confounding variables, high consumption of tomato salsa was significantly associated with a reduced risk of CRC incidence (hazard ratio comparing the highest category with the lowest category 0.8, 95% confidence interval 0.65-0.99, p for trend = 0.039), but not with a reduced risk of CRC mortality. Raw tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato catsup, and lycopene consumption were not significantly associated with CRC incidence or CRC mortality. No potential effect modifiers or nonlinear associations were detected, indicating the robustness of the results. Conclusion: In the general US population a higher intake of tomato salsa is associated with a lower CRC incidence, suggesting that tomato salsa consumption has beneficial effects in terms of cancer prevention, but caution is warranted when interpreting these findings. Further prospective studies are needed to evaluate its potential effects in other populations.

Pseudomonas forestsoilum sp. nov. and P. tohonis biocontrol bacterial wilt by quenching 3-hydroxypalmitic acid methyl ester.

Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum ranks the second top important bacterial plant disease worldwide. It is also the most important bacterial disease threatening the healthy development of Casuarina equisetifolia protection forest. 3-hydroxypalmitic acid methyl ester (3-OH PAME) functions as an important quorum sensing (QS) signal regulating the expression of virulence genes in R. solanacearum, and has been regarded as an ideal target for disease prevention and control. To screen native microorganisms capable of degrading 3-OH PAME, samples of C. equisetifolia branches and forest soil were collected and cultured in the medium containing 3-OH PAME as the sole carbon source. Bacteria with over 85% degradation rates of 3-OH PAME after 7-day incubation were further separated and purified. As a result, strain Q1-7 isolated from forest soil and strain Q4-3 isolated from C. equisetifolia branches were obtained and identified as Pseudomonas novel species Pseudomonas forestsoilum sp. nov. and P. tohonis, respectively, according to whole genome sequencing results. The degradation efficiencies of 3-OH PAME of strains Q1-7 and Q4-3 were 95.80% and 100.00% at 48 h, respectively. Both strains showed high esterase activities and inhibited R. solanacearum exopolysaccharide (EPS) and cellulase production. Application of strains Q1-7 and Q4-3 effectively protects C. equisetifolia, peanut and tomato plants from infection by R. solanacearum. Findings in this study provide potential resources for the prevention and control of bacterial wilt caused by R. solanacearum, as well as valuable materials for the identification of downstream quenching genes and the research and development of quenching enzymes for disease control.

High-Salt Diet Aggravates Endothelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition in Glomerular Fibrosis in Dahl Salt-Sensitive Rats.

BACKGROUND: Both diabetic and hypertensive nephropathy eventually progress to glomerulosclerosis. Previous studies revealed a potential role of endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) in the pathophysiology of glomerulosclerosis in diabetic rats. Therefore, we hypothesized that EndMT was also involved in the development of glomerulosclerosis in salt-sensitive hypertension. We aimed to explore the effects of high-salt diet on endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) in glomerulosclerosis in Dahl salt-sensitive (Dahl-SS) rats. METHODS: Eight-week-old male rats were fed high-salt (8%NaCl; DSH group) or normal salt (0.3%NaCl; DSN group) for eight weeks, with systolic blood pressure (SBP), serum creatinine, urea, 24-hour urinary protein/sodium, renal interlobar artery blood flow, and pathological examination measured. We also examined endothelial-(CD31) and fibrosis-related protein(α-SMA) expressions in glomeruli. RESULTS: High-salt diet increased SBP (DSH vs. DSN, 205.2 ±â€…8.9 vs. 135.4 ±â€…7.9 mm Hg, P < 0.01), 24-hour urinary protein (132.55 ±â€…11.75 vs. 23.52 ±â€…5.94 mg/day, P < 0.05), urine sodium excretions (14.09 ±â€…1.49 vs. 0.47 ±â€…0.06 mmol/day, P < 0.05), and renal interlobar artery resistance. Glomerulosclerosis increased (26.1 ±â€…4.6 vs. 7.3 ±â€…1.6%, P < 0.05), glomerular CD31 expressions decreased while α-SMA expression increased in DSH group. Immunofluorescence staining showed that CD31 and α-SMA co-expressed in glomeruli of the DSH group. The degree of glomerulosclerosis negatively correlated with CD31 expressions (r = -0.823, P < 0.01) but positively correlated with α-SMA expressions (r = 0.936, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that a high-salt diet led to glomerulosclerosis involving the EndMT process, which played an essential role in glomerulosclerosis in hypertensive Dahl-SS rats.

Resistance monitoring and mechanism in the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) for chlorantraniliprole from Sichuan Province, China.

The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (Noctuidae: Lepidoptera), is a wide-reaching notorious insect pest of important cereal crops, which has developed resistance to multiple classes of insecticides. It invaded the Sichuan Province of China in 2019. In this study, we performed resistance monitoring of insecticides for 11 field-collected populations from Sichuan, and all the populations were susceptible to emamectin benzoate and chlorpyrifos. The variations in resistance level to indoxacarb (resistance ratio (RR), 9.23-45.53-fold), spinetoram (RR, 4.32-18.05-fold), and chlorantraniliprole (RR, 2.02-10.39-fold) were observed among these populations. To investigate the resistance mechanism of chlorantraniliprole, synergism tests were performed and showed that piperonyl butoxide had a slight synergistic effect on chlorantraniliprole for the QJ-20 population (1.43-fold) in moderate resistance (RR, 10.39-fold) compared with the treatment group without synergist. Furthermore, the expression scanning for resistance-related genes showed that five P450 genes (CYP6AE43, CYP321A8, CYP305A1, CYP49A1, and CYP306A1) and the ryanodine receptor gene (Ryr, chlorantraniliprole target) were overexpressed in the QJ-20 population. These results indicated that the fall armyworm in Sichuan has exhibited diverse susceptibilities to several classes of insecticides, and the overexpression of Ryr and several P450 genes may contribute to the development of resistance in S. frugiperda to chlorantraniliprole.

Differences in Gut Microbiota between Healthy Individuals and Patients with Perianal Abscess before and after Surgery.

Surgery is the most important treatment for perianal abscesses. However, the gut microbiota of patients with perianal abscess and the effects of perianal abscess on the gut microbiota after surgery are unknown. In this study, significant changes in interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor-α in the blood of healthy subjects, patients with perianal abscesses, and patients after perianal abscess surgery were identified. 16S rRNA gene sequencing technology was used to detect the changes in the gut microbiota among 30 healthy individuals and 30 patients with perianal abscess before and after surgery. Venn diagrams and alpha diversity analyses indicated differences in the abundance and uniformity of gut microbiota between the healthy individuals and patients with perianal abscesses before and after surgery. Beta diversity analysis indicated that the grouping effects among the control, abscess, and surgery groups were good. The classification and compositional analysis showed significant differences in the gut microbiota between healthy individuals and patients with perianal abscesses before and after surgery. LEfSe analysis, random forest analysis, and ROC curve analysis showed that Klebsiella (AUC = 0.7467) and Bilophila (AUC = 0.72) could be potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of perianal abscess. The functional prediction results showed that the differential microbiota is significantly enriched in the pathways related to nutrition and drug metabolism. This study may have important implications for the clinical management and prognostic assessment of patients with perianal abscesses.

Using Chicken Embryos to Identify the Key Determinants of Nanoparticles for the Crossing of Air-Blood Barriers.

Fine particulates (FPs) are a major class of airborne pollutants. In mammals, FPs may reach the alveoli through the respiratory system, cross the air-blood barrier, spread into other organs, and induce hazardous effects. Although birds have much higher respiratory risks to FPs than mammals, the biological fate of inhaled FPs in birds has rarely been explored. Herein, we attempted to disclose the key properties that dictate the lung penetration of nanoparticles (NPs) by visualizing a library of 27 fluorescent nanoparticles (FNPs) in chicken embryos. The FNP library was prepared by combinational chemistry to tune their compositions, morphologies, sizes, and surface charges. These NPs were injected into the lungs of chicken embryos for dynamic imaging of their distributions by IVIS Spectrum. FNPs with diameters <16 nm could cross the air-blood barrier in 20 min, spread into the blood, and accumulate in the yolk sac. In contrast, large FNPs (>30 nm) were mainly retained in the lungs and rarely detected in other tissues/organs. In addition to size, surface charge was the secondary determinant for NPs to cross the air-blood barrier. Compared to cationic and anionic particles, neutrally charged FNPs showed the fastest lung penetration. A predictive model was therefore developed to rank the lung penetration capability of FNPs by in silico analysis. The in silico predictions could be well validated in chicks by oropharyngeal exposure to six FNPs. Overall, our study discovered the key properties of NPs that are responsible for their lung penetration and established a predictive model that will greatly facilitate respiratory risk assessments of nanoproducts.

Associations Between Family Function and Non-suicidal Self-injury Among Chinese Urban Adolescents with and Without Parental Migration.

The study aims to explore the effect of family function on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among Chinese urban adolescents with and without parental migration. Between April 21st to May 12th, 2021, adolescents were recruited from Shenzhen city of Guangdong province, China (n = 124,357). Of all the participants, 22,855 (18.4%) were left-behind children (LBC). Family function, NSSI, depression, and socio-demographic characteristics were assessed using a series of self-reported questionnaires. Urban LBC had a higher NSSI frequency, while a lower level of family function than non-LBC. After controlling for confounders, parental migration was significantly associated with NSSI, and family dysfunction was a robust risk factor for NSSI as well. The protective effect of family function on NSSI of LBC was stronger than non-LBC. This implies that children with higher levels of family function tend to exhibit a lower frequency of NSSI, especially in those with parental migration. In practice, adolescents' NSSI prevention and intervention strategies should focus on improving family function.