Higher serum chromium level may be associated with the presentation of depression in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease: evidence from NHANES survey.

Background: Depressive symptoms are frequently observed in patients with Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Fatty Liver Disease (MAFLD), a prevalent metabolic disorder that affects many individuals. It is not yet clear whether there is an association between serum chromium levels and depression. Objective: The purpose of this research was to explore the association between serum chromium level and the manifestation of depression among patients with MAFLD. Methods: The selection of 1837 patients diagnosed with MAFLD was based on data obtained from the 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database in this research. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was employed to evaluate the severity of depression. The researchers utilized logistic regression models that were weighted for multiple variables to investigate the association between depression and serum chromium levels. Results: In our study, we found that 8.98% of US adults with MAFLD were suffering from depression at the time of evaluation. In the logistic regression model, serum chromium levels showed an inverse association with depression (OR=0.82, 95%CI: 0.69-0.96; p=0.016), this relationship remained after adjusting for fully confounding factors (OR=0.83, 95%CI: 0.71-0.97; p=0.021), subgroup analyses showed that the association between serum chromium levels and depression existed in relatively high-prevalence of depression groups. Conclusion: Patients diagnosed with MAFLD have a greater likelihood of experiencing depression, whereas individuals with higher levels of serum chromium are less likely to suffer from depression, and this association persists even after adjusting for other factors. These findings indicate supplementing chromium may be a viable treatment for their depressive symptoms.

A division-of-labor mode contributes to the cardioprotective potential of mesenchymal stem/stromal cells in heart failure post myocardial infarction.

Background: Treatment of heart failure post myocardial infarction (post-MI HF) with mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) holds great promise. Nevertheless, 2-dimensional (2D) GMP-grade MSCs from different labs and donor sources have different therapeutic efficacy and still in a low yield. Therefore, it is crucial to increase the production and find novel ways to assess the therapeutic efficacy of MSCs. Materials and methods: hUC-MSCs were cultured in 3-dimensional (3D) expansion system for obtaining enough cells for clinical use, named as 3D MSCs. A post-MI HF mouse model was employed to conduct in vivo and in vitro experiments. Single-cell and bulk RNA-seq analyses were performed on 3D MSCs. A total of 125 combination algorithms were leveraged to screen for core ligand genes. Shinyapp and shinycell workflows were used for deploying web-server. Result: 3D GMP-grade MSCs can significantly and stably reduce the extent of post-MI HF. To understand the stable potential cardioprotective mechanism, scRNA-seq revealed the heterogeneity and division-of-labor mode of 3D MSCs at the cellular level. Specifically, scissor phenotypic analysis identified a reported wound-healing CD142+ MSCs subpopulation that is also associated with cardiac protection ability and CD142- MSCs that is in proliferative state, contributing to the cardioprotective function and self-renewal, respectively. Differential expression analysis was conducted on CD142+ MSCs and CD142- MSCs and the differentially expressed ligand-related model was achieved by employing 125 combination algorithms. The present study developed a machine learning predictive model based on 13 ligands. Further analysis using CellChat demonstrated that CD142+ MSCs have a stronger secretion capacity compared to CD142- MSCs and Flow cytometry sorting of the CD142+ MSCs and qRT-PCR validation confirmed the significant upregulation of these 13 ligand factors in CD142+ MSCs. Conclusion: Clinical GMP-grade 3D MSCs could serve as a stable cardioprotective cell product. Using scissor analysis on scRNA-seq data, we have clarified the potential functional and proliferative subpopulation, which cooperatively contributed to self-renewal and functional maintenance for 3D MSCs, named as "division of labor" mode of MSCs. Moreover, a ligand model was robustly developed for predicting the secretory efficacy of MSCs. A user-friendly web-server and a predictive model were constructed and available (https://wangxc.shinyapps.io/3D_MSCs/).

A p21-ATD mouse model for monitoring and eliminating senescent cells and its application in liver regeneration post injury.

Cellular senescence associates with pathological aging and tissue dysfunctions. Studies utilizing mouse models for cell lineage tracings have emphasized the importance of senescence heterogeneity in different organs and cell types. Here, we constructed a p21- (Akaluc - tdTomato - Diphtheria Toxin Receptor [DTR]) (ATD) mouse model to specifically study the undefined mechanism for p21-expressing senescent cells in the aged and liver injury animals. The successful expressions of these genes enabled in vitro flow cytometric sorting, in vivo tracing, and elimination of p21-expressing senescent cells. During the natural aging process, p21-expressing cells were found in various tissues of p21-ATD mice. Eliminating p21-expressing cells in the aged p21-ATD mice recovered their multiple biological functions. p21-ATD/Fah-/- mice, bred from p21-ATD mice and fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase (Fah)-/- mice of liver injury, showed that the majority of their senescent hepatocytes were the phenotype of p21+ rather than p16+. Furthermore, eliminating the p21-expressing hepatocytes significantly promoted the engraftment of grafted hepatocytes and facilitated liver repopulation, resulting in significant recovery from liver injury. Our p21-ATD mouse model serves as an optimal model for studying the pattern and function of p21-expressing senescent cells under the physical and pathological conditions during aging.

Application of Biomass Smoldering for Rural Building Heating in China: Strengths and Challenges.

Biomass smoldering for rural building heating could be a potential choice for bioenergy utilization in China to reduce the pollution caused by agroresidues open burning and to satisfy the increased demand of rural building heating. Its strengths include low pretreatment, transportation, and storage fees of fuel; ease of operation; good fertilizer characteristics of ash; use of latent heat of water vapor; pollution reduction; reduction of pests, weeds, and plant diseases on the farm; etc. However, controls of the burn rate and the gas emission are two challenges of the application, and related solutions of these challenges are discussed.

Association Between Timing of Percutaneous Dilatational Tracheotomyand Clinical Outcomes of Critically-ill Elderly Patients.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of timing of tracheotomy on the outcome of critically-ill elderly patients. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive study. Place and Duration of the Study: Intensive Care Unit, Jingxian Hospital, Anhui, China, from January 2017 to December 2021. METHODOLOGY: Two hundred and thirty-five critically-ill elderly patients who had undergone percutaneous dilatational tracheotomy (PDT) were enrolled. The PDT-related complications and clinical outcomes were analysed. RESULTS: Overall, the PDT-related complications, including the amount of bleeding (6.1 ± 1.0 vs. 5.8 ± 0.9 vs. 5.8 ± 0.9, p<0.46) and wound infection [8(5.0%) vs. 2 (4.9%) vs. 3 (9.1%), p=0.62], showed no significant difference among the three groups. The length of ICU stay (13.3 ± 8.4 vs. 18.4 ± 17.8 vs. 24.1 ± 16.1 days, p<0.0001) in the very early PDT group was significantly shorter than that in the early and late PDT groups. The lowest hospital mortality rate [(59 (36.6%) vs. 28 (68.3%) vs. 15 (45.5%), p=0.0012)] was noted in the very early PDT group among the three groups, and a longer postoperative survival was recorded. CONCLUSION: A shortened length of ICU stay and a decreased hospital mortality were found in the very early PDT group, while a better postoperative survival rate was achieved. KEY WORDS: Percutaneous dilatational tracheotomy, Mortality, Outcome, Timing, Intensive care unit.

The value of circadian heart rate variability for the estimation of obstructive sleep apnea severity in adult males.

OBJECTIVES: Heart rate variability (HRV) is becoming more prevalent as a measurable parameter in wearable sleep-monitoring devices, which are simple and effective instruments for illness evaluation. Currently, most studies on investigating OSA severity and HRV have measured heart rates during wakefulness or sleep. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the circadian rhythm of HRV in male patients with OSA and its value for the estimation of OSA severity using group-based trajectory modeling. METHODS: Patients with complaints of snoring were enrolled from the Sleep Center of Shandong Qianfoshan Hospital. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to apnea hypopnea index (AHI in events/h), as follows: (<15, 15≤AHI<30, and ≥30). HRV parameters were calculated using 24 h Holter monitoring, which included time-domain and frequency-domain indices. Circadian differences in the standard deviation of normal to normal (SDNN) were evaluated for OSA severity using analysis of variance, trajectory analysis, and multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: A total of 228 patients were enrolled, 47 with mild OSA, 48 moderate, and 133 severe. Patients with severe OSA exhibited reduced triangular index and higher very low frequency than those in the other groups. Circadian HRV showed that nocturnal SDNN was considerably higher than daytime SDNN in patients with severe OSA. The difference among the OSA groups was significant at 23, 24, 2, and 3 o'clock sharp between the severe and moderate OSA groups (all P<0.05). The heterogeneity of circadian HRV trajectories in OSA was strongly associated with OSA severity, including sleep structure and hypoxia-related parameters. Among the low-to-low, low-to-high, high-to-low, and high-to-high groups, OSA severity in the low-to-high group was the most severe, especially compared with the low-to-low and high-to-low SDNN groups, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Circadian HRV in patients with OSA emerged as low daytime and high nocturnal in SDNN, particularly in men with severe OSA. The heterogeneity of circadian HRV revealed that trajectories with low daytime and significantly high nighttime were more strongly associated with severe OSA. Thus, circadian HRV trajectories may be useful to identify the severity of OSA.

Low-Temperature-Solid Combustion Technology of Biomass for Pollution Reduction: Potentials and Necessary Fundamentals.

The high temperature of solid combustion in modern combustors leads to serious pollution in the combustion of biomass and solid wastes. The broad demands of relatively small-scale combustion of solid fuels and the imposition of increasingly strict emission limits require more economical methods for pollution reduction. Based on literature and our own work, low-temperature-solid combustion technology, which applies low temperature for solids but normal temperature for gas during combustion, was introduced in this paper. The potential of this technology in pollution reduction was analyzed, and necessary fundamentals for equipment design/operation were discussed. It showed that, for straws, more than 60% of deposit and particle emission can be reduced and 100% of ash can be recycled when the solid temperature is <600 °C. Fundamentals on rates of inorganic release, char oxidation, phase transformation in the condensed phase, and NOx/SOx release are necessary for better application of the technology.

A situational analysis of human resource and non-communicable diseases management for community health workers in Chengdu, China: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) pose a major challenge to health economic cost and residents' health status. Community health workers (CHWs) are the gatekeeper of primary health care. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to conduct a situational analysis of current human resource and requirements of NCDs-related training among CHWs in Chengdu with regard to address to understand the suggestions for improvement of challenges and barriers. METHODS: A descriptive online cross-sectional survey was conducted among CHWs (doctors and nurses) from 23 districts and counties in Chengdu. Sociodemographic and NCDs-related variables were collected. Univariate analysis and multiple response analysis were used to describe the characteristics of these variables. RESULTS: 711 doctors and 637 nurses completely responded. There were significant differences among gender, age, educational levels, professional title, working year, type of institution, urban circle and registration in general practice between doctors and nurses (P < 0.001). 60.6% of doctors were female, compared to 98.0% for nurses. 58.2% of doctors held a bachelor's degree compared with 45.4% of nurses, while 48.3% of nurses held a junior college degree compared with 25.7% of doctors. Higher levels of professional title and registration in general practice were found in doctors compared with nurses. The proportions of NCDs' category, NCDs-related roles and tasks, NCDs-related training contents and forms that CHWs have attend and hoped to gain more were significantly different between doctors and nurses (P < 0.001). In general, the proportions in nurses were much lower than those of doctors (P < 0.05). The top five diseases managed by CHWs were hypertension, diabetes, cerebrovascular disease, chronic respiratory diseases and mental diseases. The five most reported roles performed among doctors included the distribution of health education (91.4%), following up (85.9%), establishing archives (71.3%), medicine adjustment (64.7%) and treatment implementation (52.0%). The top three diseases managed by nurses were same with doctors. The top four and five tasks were contact with patients or health services (39.6%) and referral (16.6%) in nurses. Most CHWs had received primary and common diseases-related trainings, but they had few opportunities to study in a tertiary hospital (40.4% in doctors and 20.9% in nurses, respectively), attend domestic academic conferences (26.9% in doctors vs. 9.7% in nurses), and take part in training courses (44.9% in nurses). CHWs hoped that the above-discussed training contents and forms could be provided more in the future. Besides basic skills related trainings, some specific skills related trainings should be strengthened. CONCLUSION: The qualifications in doctors were much better than those of nurses. The roles performed by CHWs in NCDs management are varied form common and frequent disease management to subsequent follow up and supervision. CHWs hope to receive more desired and oriented trainings. There is a need for building capacity of CHWs, optimizing and defining CHWs' role, facilitating postgraduate medical education support and strengthening multidisciplinary collaboration would be effective in NCDs management.

Anesthesia and surgery induce changes in endogenous brain protective protein (RNF146) and delirium-like behavior in aged rats.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative delirium (POD) is a common complication after anesthesia and surgery, especially in the elderly. RNF146 has neuroprotective effects in cerebral ischemia, hypoxia, and chronic neurological diseases. However, whether RNF146 expression is related to the occurrence and development of POD remains unclear. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to determine whether RNF146 is involved in the occurrence of POD. METHODS: (Sprague-Dawley) male rats (18 months old) were splenectomized under sevoflurane anesthesia. The cognitive function of rats at 1, 3, and 7 d after anesthesia and surgery was evaluated. Changes in the expression of neuroinflammatory cytokines, IL-6 and IL-10, and RNF146 were measured in the hippocampus in both control group (con) and anesthesia (AS) group. We examined cognitive outcomes and expression of inflammatory factors and RNF146 in con and AS mice using cluster analysis. RESULTS: The cognitive ability and mobility of rats after anesthesia and surgery at day 1, 3, and 7 decreased, especially at day 3. Similarly, the expression of neuroinflammatory factors and RNF146 increased after anesthesia and surgery at day 1, 3, and 7, and the increase was highest at day 3. The clustering and correlation analysis of RNF146 expression in the hippocampi of elderly rats revealed a correlation between POD and neuroinflammation resulting from anesthesia and surgery. CONCLUSION: Anesthesia and surgery can lead to POD and neuroinflammation. The expression of RNF146 correlates with delirium and neuroinflammation caused by anesthesia and surgery.

Fast Recognition and Counting Method of Dragon Fruit Flowers and Fruits Based on Video Stream.

Dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) is a tropical and subtropical fruit that undergoes multiple ripening cycles throughout the year. Accurate monitoring of the flower and fruit quantities at various stages is crucial for growers to estimate yields, plan orders, and implement effective management strategies. However, traditional manual counting methods are labor-intensive and inefficient. Deep learning techniques have proven effective for object recognition tasks but limited research has been conducted on dragon fruit due to its unique stem morphology and the coexistence of flowers and fruits. Additionally, the challenge lies in developing a lightweight recognition and tracking model that can be seamlessly integrated into mobile platforms, enabling on-site quantity counting. In this study, a video stream inspection method was proposed to classify and count dragon fruit flowers, immature fruits (green fruits), and mature fruits (red fruits) in a dragon fruit plantation. The approach involves three key steps: (1) utilizing the YOLOv5 network for the identification of different dragon fruit categories, (2) employing the improved ByteTrack object tracking algorithm to assign unique IDs to each target and track their movement, and (3) defining a region of interest area for precise classification and counting of dragon fruit across categories. Experimental results demonstrate recognition accuracies of 94.1%, 94.8%, and 96.1% for dragon fruit flowers, green fruits, and red fruits, respectively, with an overall average recognition accuracy of 95.0%. Furthermore, the counting accuracy for each category is measured at 97.68%, 93.97%, and 91.89%, respectively. The proposed method achieves a counting speed of 56 frames per second on a 1080ti GPU. The findings establish the efficacy and practicality of this method for accurate counting of dragon fruit or other fruit varieties.

Coarse-to-Fine Localization for Detecting Misalignment State of Angle Cocks.

The state of angle cocks determines the air connectivity of freight trains, and detecting their state is helpful to improve the safety of the running trains. Although the current research for fault detection of angle cocks has achieved high accuracy, it only focuses on the detection of the closed state and non-closed state and treats them as normal and abnormal states, respectively. Since the non-closed state includes the fully open state and the misalignment state, while the latter may lead to brake abnormally, it is very necessary to further detect the misalignment state from the non-closed state. In this paper, we propose a coarse-to-fine localization method to achieve this goal. Firstly, the localization result of an angle cock is obtained by using the YOLOv4 model. Following that, the SVM model combined with the HOG feature of the localization result of an angle cock is used to further obtain its handle localization result. After that, the HOG feature of the sub-image only containing the handle localization result continues to be used in the SVM model to detect whether the angle cock is in the non-closed state or not. When the angle cock is in the non-closed state, its handle curve is fitted by binarization and window search, and the tilt angle of the handle is calculated by the minimum bounding rectangle. Finally, the misalignment state is detected when the tilt angle of the handle is less than the threshold. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method are verified by extensive experiments, and the accuracy of misalignment state detection for angle cocks reaches 96.49%.

PD-L1 expression and prognosis in definitive radiotherapy patients with neuroendocrine cervical carcinoma.

Background: Neuroendocrine carcinoma of the cervix (NECC) is more prone to lymphatic infiltration, lymph node involvement, local recurrence, and distant metastasis. Using concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) with or without adjuvant chemotherapy as the standard treatment for locally advanced NECCs and CCRT for patients with early lesions confined to the cervix. However, the prognosis of NECC patients treated with definitive radiotherapy (RT) is unknown. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a promising therapeutic strategy for locally advanced cervical cancer. Some reports suggest that the expression of PD-L1 in solid tumors correlates with prognosis. Aim: This study investigates prognostic factors for survival in patients with neuroendocrine cervical carcinoma (NECC) treated with definitive RT and the relationship between PD-L1 expression and prognosis in these patients. Methods: This retrospective study included 66 patients with histologically confirmed NECC who received RT with or without chemotherapy. From January 2015 to December 2020, patients received routine extended-field irradiation (EFI), and PD-L1 expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry. The most commonly used chemotherapy agents were etoposide-platinum and paclitaxel-platinum. Results: PD-L1 expression was positive in 17 of 45 (37.8%) patients. There were 52 cases of pure NECC and 14 cases of mixed carcinoma. Sixty stage IB-III patients received definitive RT. The 3- and 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) was 39.8% and 34.1%, and 3- and 5-year overall survival (OS) was 48.0% and 40.2%, respectively. There was no significant difference in 3 and 5-year PFS and 3 and 5-year OS between patients with pure and mixed carcinoma. Positive PD-L1 expression was associated with higher 3-year PFS in patients with mixed histology. Univariate analysis showed that lymph node metastasis (LNM) and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stages predicted 3- and 5-year PFS in patients who received definitive RT. The median OS in patients receiving less than four cycles and at least four cycles of chemotherapy (CT) was 26.0 and 44.0 months, respectively (P = 0.038); moreover, 3- and 5-year PFS was 34.1% and 25.7% in the former and 46.4% and 40.4% in the latter. There were no significant differences in OS and PFS between pelvic irradiation and prophylactic EFI in patients treated with definitive RT. There were no significant differences in para-aortic failure rate after concurrent chemoradiotherapy between patients who underwent pelvic irradiation or prophylactic EFI (P = 0.147). Conclusion: In patients with mixed NECC, positive PD-L1 expression is correlated with higher 3-year PFS. Chemoradiotherapy was effective for NECCs. The LNM and stage predicted PFS. Four or more cycles of chemotherapy improve prognosis. Prophylactic EFI did not significantly improve PFS and OS. Relevance for Patients: This study is relevant to patients as it confirms that chemoradiotherapy is effective for both early and locally advanced NECC and that four or more cycles of chemotherapy improved prognosis. The regimen should be carefully evaluated to ensure that patients receive the most effective radiation therapy for the prophylactic of para-aortic LNM. Potential risk factors for the recurrence of radical radiotherapy should be fully understood to minimize these risks. This study observed that PD-L1 expression positive in patients with mixed NECC types is correlated with higher 3-year PFS.

WeedNet-R: a sugar beet field weed detection algorithm based on enhanced RetinaNet and context semantic fusion.

Accurate and dependable weed detection technology is a prerequisite for weed control robots to do autonomous weeding. Due to the complexity of the farmland environment and the resemblance between crops and weeds, detecting weeds in the field under natural settings is a difficult task. Existing deep learning-based weed detection approaches often suffer from issues such as monotonous detection scene, lack of picture samples and location information for detected items, low detection accuracy, etc. as compared to conventional weed detection methods. To address these issues, WeedNet-R, a vision-based network for weed identification and localization in sugar beet fields, is proposed. WeedNet-R adds numerous context modules to RetinaNet's neck in order to combine context information from many feature maps and so expand the effective receptive fields of the entire network. During model training, meantime, a learning rate adjustment method combining an untuned exponential warmup schedule and cosine annealing technique is implemented. As a result, the suggested method for weed detection is more accurate without requiring a considerable increase in model parameters. The WeedNet-R was trained and assessed using the OD-SugarBeets dataset, which is enhanced by manually adding the bounding box labels based on the publicly available agricultural dataset, i.e. SugarBeet2016. Compared to the original RetinaNet, the mAP of the proposed WeedNet-R increased in the weed detection job in sugar beet fields by 4.65% to 92.30%. WeedNet-R's average precision for weed and sugar beet is 85.70% and 98.89%, respectively. WeedNet-R outperforms other sophisticated object detection algorithms in terms of detection accuracy while matching other single-stage detectors in terms of detection speed.

Toxicity of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances to Nematodes.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a class of compounds that persist in the environment globally. Besides being transported to the soil and sediments, which act as their sinks, PFASs can be transferred to several species of higher organisms directly or via bacteria, eliciting a wide range of adverse effects. Caenorhabditis elegans has been widely used in toxicological studies and life science research owing to its numerous advantages over traditional vertebrate models; notably, C. elegans has 65% conserved human-disease-associated genes and does not require ethical approvals for experimental use. This review covers a range of topics, from reported accumulation characteristics and lethal concentrations of PFAS in C. elegans to the mechanisms underlying the toxicity of PFAS at different levels, including reproductive, developmental, cellular, neurologic, oxidative, metabolic, immune, and endocrine toxicities. Additionally, the toxicity levels of some PFAS substitutes are summarized. Lastly, we discuss the toxicological mechanisms of these PFAS substitutes and the importance and promising potential of nematodes as in vivo models for life science research, epidemiological studies (obesity, aging, and Alzheimer's disease research), and toxicological investigations of PFASs and other emerging pollutants compared with other soil animals or model organisms.

New approach for sugarcane disease recognition through visible and near-infrared spectroscopy and a modified wavelength selection method using machine learning models.

The proliferation of pathogenic fungi in sugarcane crops poses a significant threat to agricultural productivity and economic sustainability. Early identification and management of sugarcane diseases are therefore crucial to mitigate the adverse impacts of these pathogens. In this study, visible and near-infrared spectroscopy (380-1400 nm) combined with a novel wavelength selection method, referred to as modified flower pollination algorithm (MFPA), was utilized for sugarcane disease recognition. The selected wavelengths were incorporated into machine learning models, including Naïve Bayes, random forest, and support vector machine (SVM). The developed simplified SVM model, which utilized the MFPA wavelength selection method yielded the best performances, achieving a precision value of 0.9753, a sensitivity value of 0.9259, a specificity value of 0.9524, and an accuracy of 0.9487. These results outperformed those obtained by other wavelength selection approaches, including the selectivity ratio, variable importance in projection, and the baseline method of the flower pollination algorithm.

First Report of Fusarium denticulatum Causing Chlorotic Leaf Distortion of Sweetpotato in China.

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) is one of the most important crops in China. To gain a clearer picture of the occurrence of diseases on sweetpotato, 50 fields (100 plants/field) were randomly surveyed in prominent sweetpotato growing areas of Lulong county, Hebei Province in the years 2021-2022. Plants showing chlorotic leaf distortion with mildly twisted young leaves and stunted vines were observed frequently. It was similar to the symptoms of chlorotic leaf distortion of sweetpotato (Clark et al. 2013). The incidence of disease with patch pattern ranged from 15% to 30%. Ten symptomatic leaves were excised, surface disinfested with 2% sodium hypochlorite for 1 min, rinsed three times in sterilized ddH2O, and cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 25°C. Nine fungal isolates were obtained. A pure culture of representative isolate FD10 obtained after serial hyphal tip transfer was examined for morphological and genetic characters. Colonies of isolate FD10 on PDA at 25°C were slow growing (4±0.1mm/day) with aerial, white-to-pink mycelium. Lobed colonies had greyish-orange pigmentation in reverse and conidia aggegated in false heads. Conidiophores were prostrate and short. Phialides were mostly monophialidic but occasionally polyphialidic. Polyphialidic openings often denticulate in a rectangular arrangement. Microconidia were abundant, long, oval to allantoid, mostly none or one septate, and 4.79 to 9.53 × 2.08 to 3.22 µm (n = 20). Macroconidia were fusiform to falcate with a beaked apical cell and a footlike basal cell, 3 to 5 septate, and 25.03 to 52.92 × 2.56 to 4.49 µm. Chlamydospores were absent. All in agreement with the morphology of Fusarium denticulatum (Nirenberg and O'Donnell 1998). Genomic DNA of isolate FD10 was extracted. The EF-1α and ß-tubulin genes were amplified and sequenced (O'Donnell and Cigelnik 1997; O'Donnell et al. 1998). The obtained sequences were deposited in GenBank (accession nos. OQ555191 and OQ555192). BLASTn revealed that those sequences showed 99.86% (EF-1α) and 99.93% (ß-tubulin) homology with the relative sequences of F. denticulatum type strain CBS407.97 (accession nos. MT011002.1 and MT011060.1), respectively. Furthermore, a neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree based on the EF-1α and ß-tubulin sequences revealed that the isolate FD10 clustered with F. denticulatum. Based on morphological characteristics and sequence analysis, the isolate FD10 associated with chlorotic leaf distortion of sweetpotato was identified as F. denticulatum. Pathogenicity tests were performed by immersing ten 25-cm-long vine-tip cuttings of cultivar Jifen 1 origin from tissue culture in a conidial suspension (1 × 106 conidia per ml) of isolate FD10. Vines immersed in sterile distilled water used as a control. All inoculated plants in 25-cm plastic pots were incubated in a climate chamber at 28℃ and 80% RH for two and half months and the control were incubated in a separate climate chamber. Nine inoculated plants developed chlorotic terminals, moderate interveinal chlorosis and slight leaf distortion. No symptoms were observed on the control plants. The pathogen was reisolated from inoculated leaves and matched the morphological and molecular characteristics of the original isolates, thus fulfilling Koch's postulates. To our knowledge, this is the first report of F. denticulatum causing chlorotic leaf distortion of sweetpotato in China. Its identification will promote the management of this disease in China.

Nursing care of a child with severe interstitial pneumonia complicated by acute rejection after lung transplantation: a case report.

Background: Acute rejection after transplantation occurs as a result of complex immune responses following the detection of the major histocompatibility complex of the donors in recipients. As one of the risk factors of chronic rejection, acute rejection can directly lead to death. Therefore, early prevention and monitoring of transplant patients is critical. Pediatric acute rejection after lung transplantation is relatively rare compared to adults, and it remains a considerable challenge since information on rare primary disease complicated by acute rejection after lung transplantation in children is extremely limited, with only a single case series reported in the literature. Case Description: Here, we present a case of a 10-year-old female diagnosed with severe interstitial pneumonia, pulmonary heart disease and severe malnutrition. The patient underwent double-lung transplantation under general anesthesia. Through monitoring and management of immunosuppressants, prevention and control of infection, dynamic body fluid management, personalized nutritional support, psychological care and rehabilitation exercises, the patient achieved recovery and was safely discharged after 21 days. Conclusions: Characteristics of acute rejection after lung transplantation in children include rapid onset and progression of respiratory distress, significant difficulty in nursing and frustration in communication. Anti-infection, anti-rejection, and symptomatic measures in the acute phase are critical in controlling disease progression and improving prognosis.

Enhanced meat chicken productivity in response to the probiotic Bacillus amyloliquefaciens H57 is associated with the enrichment of microbial amino acid and vitamin biosynthesis pathways.

AIMS: Sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics as a growth promoter in animal diets has either been banned or voluntarily withdrawn from use in many countries to help curb the emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Probiotics may be an alternative to antibiotics as a growth promoter. We investigated the effects of a novel probiotic strain, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens H57 (H57) on the performance and microbiome-associated metabolic potential. METHODS AND RESULTS: Broiler chickens were fed either sorghum- or wheat-based diets supplemented with the probiotic H57. The growth rate, feed intake, and feed conversion in supplemented birds were compared with those in non-supplemented control. Caecal microbial metabolic functions were studied with shotgun metagenomic sequencing. H57 supplementation significantly increased the growth rate and daily feed intake of meat chickens relative to the non-supplemented controls without any effect on feed conversion ratio. In addition, relative to the non-supplemented controls, gene-centric metagenomics revealed that H57 significantly altered the functional capacity of the caecal microbiome, with amino acid and vitamin synthesis pathways being positively associated with H57 supplementation. CONCLUSIONS: Bacillus amyloliquefaciens H57 improves the performance of meat chickens or broilers and significantly modifies the functional potential of their caecal microbiomes, with enhanced potential capacity for amino acid and vitamin biosynthesis.

Maresin1 ameliorates postoperative cognitive dysfunction in aged rats by potentially regulating the NF-κB pathway to inhibit astrocyte activation.

Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is one of the most serious postoperative complications in the elderly population. Perioperative central neuroinflammation is considered to be an important pathological mechanism of POCD, with the activation of astrocytes playing a key role in central neuroinflammation. Maresin1 (MaR1) is a specific pro-resolving mediator synthesized by macrophages in the resolution stage of inflammation, and provides unique anti-inflammatory and pro-resolution effects by limiting excessive neuroinflammation and promoting postoperative recovery. However, the question remains whether MaR1 can have a positive effect on POCD. The objective of this study was to investigate the protective effect of MaR1 on POCD cognitive function in aged rats after splenectomy. Morris water maze test and IntelliCage test showed that splenectomy could cause transient cognitive dysfunction in aged rats; however, the cognitive impairment of rats was significantly mitigated when MaR1 pretreatment was administered. MaR1 significantly alleviated the fluorescence intensity and protein expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein and central nervous system specific protein in the cornu ammonis 1 region of the hippocampus. Simultaneously, the morphology of astrocytes was also severely altered. Further experiments showed that MaR1 inhibited the mRNA and protein expression of several key proinflammatory cytokines-interleukin-1ß, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α in the hippocampus of aged rats following splenectomy. The molecular mechanism underlying this process was explored by evaluating expression of components of the nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) signaling pathway. MaR1 substantially inhibited the mRNA and protein expression of NF-κB p65 and κB inhibitor kinase ß. Collectively, these results suggest that MaR1 ameliorated splenectomy-induced transient cognitive impairment in elderly rats, and this neuroprotective mechanism may occur through regulating the NF-κB pathway to inhibit astrocyte activation.