Complexin has a dual synaptic function as checkpoint protein in vesicle priming and as a promoter of vesicle fusion.

The presynaptic SNARE-complex regulator complexin (Cplx) enhances the fusogenicity of primed synaptic vesicles (SVs). Consequently, Cplx deletion impairs action potential-evoked transmitter release. Conversely, though, Cplx loss enhances spontaneous and delayed asynchronous release at certain synapse types. Using electrophysiology and kinetic modeling, we show that such seemingly contradictory transmitter release phenotypes seen upon Cplx deletion can be explained by an additional of Cplx in the control of SV priming, where its ablation facilitates the generation of a "faulty" SV fusion apparatus. Supporting this notion, a sequential two-step priming scheme, featuring reduced vesicle fusogenicity and increased transition rates into the faulty primed state, reproduces all aberrations of transmitter release modes and short-term synaptic plasticity seen upon Cplx loss. Accordingly, we propose a dual presynaptic function for the SNARE-complex interactor Cplx, one as a "checkpoint" protein that guarantees the proper assembly of the fusion machinery during vesicle priming, and one in boosting vesicle fusogenicity.

Intrinsic-strain-induced ferroelectric order and ultrafine nanodomains in SrTiO3.

Nano ferroelectrics holds the potential application promise in information storage, electro-mechanical transformation, and novel catalysts but encounters a huge challenge of size limitation and manufacture complexity on the creation of long-range ferroelectric ordering. Herein, as an incipient ferroelectric, nanosized SrTiO3 was indued with polarized ordering at room temperature from the nonpolar cubic structure, driven by the intrinsic three-dimensional (3D) tensile strain. The ferroelectric behavior can be confirmed by piezoelectric force microscopy and the ferroelectric TO1 soft mode was verified with the temperature stability to 500 K. Its structural origin comes from the off-center shift of Ti atom to oxygen octahedron and forms the ultrafine head-to-tail connected 90° nanodomains about 2 to 3 nm, resulting in an overall spontaneous polarization toward the short edges of nanoparticles. According to the density functional theory calculations and phase-field simulations, the 3D strain-related dipole displacement transformed from [001] to [111] and segmentation effect on the ferroelectric domain were further proved. The topological ferroelectric order induced by intrinsic 3D tensile strain shows a unique approach to get over the nanosized limitation in nanodevices and construct the strong strain-polarization coupling, paving the way for the design of high-performance and free-assembled ferroelectric devices.

Global Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori Infection and Incidence of Gastric Cancer Between 1980 and 2022.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: We aimed to assess the secular trend of the global prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) infection in adults and children/adolescents and to show its relation to that of gastric cancer incidence. METHODS: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to calculate overall prevalence, adjusted by multivariate meta-regression analysis. The incidence rates of gastric cancer were derived from the Global Burden of Disease Study and Cancer Incidence in Five Continents. RESULTS: Of the 16,976 articles screened, 1748 articles from 111 countries were eligible for analysis. The crude global prevalence of H pylori has reduced from 52.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 49.6%-55.6%) before 1990 to 43.9% (95% CI, 42.3%-45.5%) in adults during 2015 through 2022, but was as still as high as 35.1% (95% CI, 30.5%-40.1%) in children and adolescents during 2015 through 2022. Secular trend and multivariate regression analyses showed that the global prevalence of H pylori has declined by 15.9% (95% CI, -20.5% to -11.3%) over the last 3 decades in adults, but not in children and adolescents. Significant reduction of H pylori prevalence was observed in adults in the Western Pacific, Southeast Asian, and African regions. However, H pylori prevalence was not significantly reduced in children and adolescents in any World Health Organization regions. The incidence of gastric cancer has decreased globally and in various countries where the prevalence of H pylori infection has declined. CONCLUSIONS: The global prevalence of H pylori infection has declined during the last 3 decades in adults, but not in children and adolescents. The results raised the hypothesis that the public health drive to reduce the prevalence of H pylori as a strategy to reduce the incidence of gastric cancer in the population should be confirmed in large-scale clinical trials.

A sequential two-step priming scheme reproduces diversity in synaptic strength and short-term plasticity.

Glutamatergic synapses display variable strength and diverse short-term plasticity (STP), even for a given type of connection. Using nonnegative tensor factorization and conventional state modeling, we demonstrate that a kinetic scheme consisting of two sequential and reversible steps of release-machinery assembly and a final step of synaptic vesicle (SV) fusion reproduces STP and its diversity among synapses. Analyzing transmission at the calyx of Held synapses reveals that differences in synaptic strength and STP are not primarily caused by variable fusion probability (pfusion) but are determined by the fraction of docked synaptic vesicles equipped with a mature release machinery. Our simulations show that traditional quantal analysis methods do not necessarily report pfusion of SVs with a mature release machinery but reflect both pfusion and the distribution between mature and immature priming states at rest. Thus, the approach holds promise for a better mechanistic dissection of the roles of presynaptic proteins in the sequence of SV docking, two-step priming, and fusion. It suggests a mechanism for activity-induced redistribution of synaptic efficacy.

Decoding Active Sites for Highly Efficient Semihydrogenation of Acetylene in Palladium-Copper Nanoalloys.

Accurately decoding the three-dimensional atomic structure of surface active sites is essential yet challenging for a rational catalyst design. Here, we used comprehensive techniques combining the pair distribution function and reverse Monte Carlo simulation to reveal the surficial distribution of Pd active sites and adjacent coordination environment in palladium-copper nanoalloys. After the fine-tuning of the atomic arrangement, excellent catalytic performance with 98% ethylene selectivity at complete acetylene conversion was obtained in the Pd34Cu66 nanocatalysts, outperforming most of the reported advanced catalysts. The quantitative deciphering shows a large number of active sites with a Pd-Pd coordination number of 3 distributed on the surface of Pd34Cu66 nanoalloys, which play a decisive role in highly efficient semihydrogenation. This finding not only opens the way for guiding the precise design of bimetal nanocatalysts from atomic-level insight but also provides a method to resolve the spatial structure of active sites.

Elimination of charge-carrier trapping by molecular design.

A common obstacle of many organic semiconductors is that they show highly unipolar charge transport. This unipolarity is caused by trapping of either electrons or holes by extrinsic impurities, such as water or oxygen. For devices that benefit from balanced transport, such as organic light-emitting diodes, organic solar cells and organic ambipolar transistors, the energy levels of the organic semiconductors are ideally situated within an energetic window with a width of 2.5 eV where charge trapping is strongly suppressed. However, for semiconductors with a band gap larger than this window, as used in blue-emitting organic light-emitting diodes, the removal or disabling of charge traps poses a longstanding challenge. Here we demonstrate a molecular strategy where the highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital are spatially separated on different parts of the molecules. By tuning their stacking by modification of the chemical structure, the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals can be spatially protected from impurities that cause electron trapping, increasing the electron current by orders of magnitude. In this way, the trap-free window can be substantially broadened, opening a path towards large band gap organic semiconductors with balanced and trap-free transport.

Magnetic Resonance Images Implicate That Glymphatic Alterations Mediate Cognitive Dysfunction in Alzheimer Disease.

OBJECTIVE: The glymphatic system cleans amyloid and tau proteins from the brain in animal studies of Alzheimer disease (AD). However, there is no direct evidence showing this in humans. METHODS: Participants (n = 50, 62.6 ± 5.4 years old, 36 women) with AD and normal controls underwent amyloid positron emission tomography (PET), tau PET, structural T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging, and neuropsychological evaluation. Whole-brain glymphatic activity was measured by diffusion tensor image analysis along the perivascular space (DTI-ALPS). RESULTS: ALPS-indexes showed negative correlations with deposition of amyloid and tau on PET images and positive correlations with cognitive scores even after adjusting for age, sex, years of education, and APOE4 genotype covariates in multiple AD-related brain regions (all p < 0.05). Mediation analysis showed that ALPS-index acted as a significant mediator between regional standardized uptake value ratios of amyloid and tau images and cognitive dysfunction even after correcting for multiple covariates in AD-related brain regions. These regions are responsible for attention, memory, and executive function, which are vulnerable to sleep deprivation. INTERPRETATION: Glymphatic system activity may act as a significant mediator in AD-related cognitive dysfunction even after adjusting for multiple covariates and gray matter volumes. ALPS-index may provide useful disease progression or treatment biomarkers for patients with AD as an indicator of modulation of glymphatic activity. ANN NEUROL 2023;93:164-174.

Chemical Diversity for Tailoring Negative Thermal Expansion.

Negative thermal expansion (NTE), referring to the lattice contraction upon heating, has been an attractive topic of solid-state chemistry and functional materials. The response of a lattice to the temperature field is deeply rooted in its structural features and is inseparable from the physical properties. For the past 30 years, great efforts have been made to search for NTE compounds and control NTE performance. The demands of different applications give rise to the prominent development of new NTE systems covering multifarious chemical substances and many preparation routes. Even so, the intelligent design of NTE structures and efficient tailoring for lattice thermal expansion are still challenging. However, the diverse chemical routes to synthesize target compounds with featured structures provide a large number of strategies to achieve the desirable NTE behaviors with related properties. The chemical diversity is reflected in the wide regulating scale, flexible ways of introduction, and abundant structure-function insights. It inspires the rapid growth of new functional NTE compounds and understanding of the physical origins. In this review, we provide a systematic overview of the recent progress of chemical diversity in the tailoring of NTE. The efficient control of lattice and deep structural deciphering are carefully discussed. This comprehensive summary and perspective for chemical diversity are helpful to promote the creation of functional zero-thermal-expansion (ZTE) compounds and the practical utilization of NTE.

Targeted quantitative lipidomic uncovers lipid biomarkers for predicting the presence of compensated cirrhosis and discriminating decompensated cirrhosis from compensated cirrhosis.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to characterize serum lipid metabolism and identify potential biomarkers for compensated cirrhosis (CC) predicting and decompensated cirrhosis (DC) discrimination using targeted quantitative lipidomics and machine learning approaches. METHODS: Serum samples from a cohort of 120 participants was analyzed, including 90 cirrhosis patients (45 CC patients and 45 DC patients) and 30 healthy individuals. Lipid metabolic profiling was performed using targeted LC-MS/MS. Two machine learning methods, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), and random forest (RF) were applied to screen for candidate metabolite biomarkers. RESULTS: The metabolic profiling analysis showed a significant disruption in patients with CC and DC. Compared to the CC group, the DC group exhibited a significant upregulation in the abundance of glycochenodeoxycholic acid (GCDCA), glyco-ursodeoxycholic acid (GUDCA), glycocholic acid (GCA), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), N-acyl-lyso-phosphatidylethanolamine (LNAPE), and triglycerides (TG), and a significant downregulation in the abundance of ceramides (Cer) and lysophosphatidylcholines (LPC). Machine learning identified 11 lipid metabolites (abbreviated as BMP11) as potential CC biomarkers with excellent prediction performance, with an AUC of 0.944, accuracy of 94.7 %, precision of 95.6 %, and recall of 95.6 %. For DC discrimination, eight lipids (abbreviated as BMP8) were identified, demonstrating strong efficacy, with an AUC of 0.968, accuracy of 92.2 %, precision of 88.0 %, and recall of 97.8 %. CONCLUSIONS: This study unveiled distinct lipidomic profiles in CC and DC patients and established robust lipid-based models for CC predicting and DC discrimination.

Recent advances in catalyst design, performance, and challenges of metal-heteroatom-co-doped biochar as peroxymonosulfate activator for environmental remediation.

The escalation of global water pollution due to emerging pollutants has gained significant attention. To address this issue, catalytic peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation technology has emerged as a promising treatment approach for effectively decontaminating a wide range of pollutants. Recently, modified biochar has become an increasingly attractive as PMS activator. Metal-heteroatom-co-doped biochar (MH-BC) has emerged as a promising catalyst that can provide enhanced performance over heteroatom-doped and metal-doped biochar due to the synergism between metal and heteroatom in promoting PMS activation. Therefore, this review aims to discuss the fabrication pathways (i.e., internal vs external doping and pre-vs post-modification) and key parameters (i.e., source of precursors, synthesis methods, and synthesis conditions) affecting the performance of MH-BC as PMS activator. Subsequently, an overview of all the possible PMS activation pathways by MH-BC is provided. Subsequently, Also, the detection, identification, and quantification of several reactive species (such as, •OH, SO4•-, O2•-, 1O2, and high valent oxo species) generated in the catalytic PMS system by MH-BC are also evaluated. Lastly, the underlying challenges associated with poor stability, the lack of understanding regarding the interaction between metal and heteroatom during PMS activation and quantification of radicals in multi-ROS system are also deliberated.

Optimizing bone and biomass co-torrefaction parameters: High-performance arsenic removal from wastewater via co-torrefied bone char.

This study aimed to investigate bone char's physicochemical transformations through co-torrefaction and co-pyrolysis processes with biomass. Additionally, it aimed to analyze the carbon sequestration process during co-torrefaction of bone and biomass and optimize the process parameters of co-torrefaction. Finally, the study sought to evaluate the arsenic sorption capacity of both torrefied and co-torrefied bone char. Bone and biomass co-torrefaction was conducted at 175 °C-300 °C. An orthogonal array of Taguchi techniques and artificial neural networks (ANN) were employed to investigate the influence of various torrefaction parameters on carbon dioxide sequestration within torrefied bone char. A co-torrefied bone char, torrefied at a reaction temperature of 300 °C, a heating rate of 15 °C·min-1, and mixed with 5 g m of biomass (wood dust), was selected for the arsenic (III) sorption experiment due to its elevated carbonate content. The results revealed a higher carbonate fraction (21%) in co-torrefied bone char at 300 °C compared to co-pyrolyzed bone char (500-700 °C). Taguchi and artificial neural network (ANN) analyses indicated that the relative impact of process factors on carbonate substitution in bone char followed the order of co-torrefaction temperature (38.8%) > heating rate (31.06%) > addition of wood biomass (30.1%). Co-torrefied bone chars at 300 °C exhibited a sorption capacity of approximately 3 mg g-1, surpassing values observed for pyrolyzed bone chars at 900 °C in the literature. The findings suggest that co-torrefied bone char could serve effectively as a sorbent in filters for wastewater treatment and potentially fulfill roles such as a remediation agent, pH stabilizer, or valuable source of biofertilizer in agricultural applications.

Production of light olefins and monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the pyrolysis of waste plastic straws over high-silica zeolite-based catalysts.

Owing to the ever-increasing generation of plastic waste, the need to develop environmentally friendly disposal methods has increased. This study explored the potential of waste plastic straw to generate valuable light olefins and monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (MAHs) via catalytic pyrolysis using high-silica zeolite-based catalysts. HZSM-5 (SiO2/Al2O3:200) exhibited superior performance, yielding more light olefins (49.8 wt%) and a higher MAH content than Hbeta (300). This was attributed to the increased acidity and proper shape selectivity. HZSM-5 displayed better coking resistance (0.7 wt%) than Hbeta (4.4 wt%) by impeding secondary reactions, limiting coke precursor formation. The use of HZSM-5 (80) resulted in higher MAHs and lower light olefins than HZSM-5 (200) because of its higher acidity. Incorporation of Co into HZSM-5 (200) marginally lowered light olefin yield (to 44.0 wt%) while notably enhancing MAH production and boosting propene selectivity within the olefin composition. These observations are attributed to the well-balanced coexistence of Lewis and Brønsted acid sites, which stimulated the carbonium ion mechanism and induced H-transfer, cyclization, Diels-alder, and dehydrogenation reactions. The catalytic pyrolysis of plastic straw over high-silica and metal-loaded HZSM-5 catalysts has been suggested as an efficient and sustainable method for transforming plastic waste materials into valuable light olefins and MAHs.

Recent advances in liquid fuel production from plastic waste via pyrolysis: Emphasis on polyolefins and polystyrene.

The management of plastic waste (PW) has become an indispensable worldwide issue because of the enhanced accumulation and environmental impacts of these waste materials. Thermo-catalytic pyrolysis has been proposed as an emerging technology for the valorization of PW into value-added liquid fuels. This review provides a comprehensive investigation of the latest advances in thermo-catalytic pyrolysis of PW for liquid fuel generation, by emphasizing polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene. To this end, the current strategies of PW management are summarized. The various parameters affecting the thermal pyrolysis of PW (e.g., temperature, residence time, heating rate, pyrolysis medium, and plastic type) are discussed, highlighting their significant influence on feed reactivity, product yield, and carbon number distribution of the pyrolysis process. Optimizing these parameters in the pyrolysis process can ensure highly efficient energy recovery from PW. In comparison with non-catalytic PW pyrolysis, catalytic pyrolysis of PW is considered by discussing mechanisms, reaction pathways, and the performance of various catalysts. It is established that the introduction of either acid or base catalysts shifts PW pyrolysis from the conventional free radical mechanism towards the carbonium ion mechanism, altering its kinetics and pathways. This review also provides an overview of PW pyrolysis practicality for scaling up by describing techno-economic challenges and opportunities, environmental considerations, and presenting future outlooks in this field. Overall, via investigation of the recent research findings, this paper offers valuable insights into the potential of thermo-catalytic pyrolysis as an emerging strategy for PW management and the production of liquid fuels, while also highlighting avenues for further exploration and development.

Construction of oxidative phosphorylation-related prognostic risk score model in uveal melanoma.

BACKGROUND: Uveal melanoma (UVM) is a malignant intraocular tumor in adults. Targeting genes related to oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) may play a role in anti-tumor therapy. However, the clinical significance of oxidative phosphorylation in UVM is unclear. METHOD: The 134 OXPHOS-related genes were obtained from the KEGG pathway, the TCGA UVM dataset contained 80 samples, served as the training set, while GSE22138 and GSE39717 was used as the validation set. LASSO regression was carried out to identify OXPHOS-related prognostic genes. The coefficients obtained from Cox multivariate regression analysis were used to calculate a risk score, which facilitated the construction of a prognostic model. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, logrank test and ROC curve using the time "timeROC" package were conducted. The immune cell frequency in low- and high-risk group was analyzed through Cibersort tool. The specific genomic alterations were analyzed by "maftools" R package. The differential expressed genes between low- or high-risk group were analyzed and performed Gene Ontology (GO) and GSEA. Finally, we verified the function of CYC1 in UVM by gene silencing in vitro. RESULTS: A total of 9 OXPHOS-related prognostic genes were identified, including NDUFB1, NDUFB8, ATP12A, NDUFA3, CYC1, COX6B1, ATP6V1G2, ATP4B and NDUFB4. The UVM prognostic risk model was constructed based on the 9 OXPHOS-related prognostic genes. The prognosis of patients in the high-risk group was poorer than low-risk group. Besides, the ROC curve demonstrated that the area under the curve of the model for predicting the 1 to 5-year survival rate of UVM patients were all more than 0.88. External validation in GSE22138 and GSE39717 dataset revealed that these 9 genes could also be utilized to evaluate and predict the overall survival of patients with UVM. The risk score levels related to immune cell frequency and specific genomic alterations. The DEGs between the low- and high- risk group were enriched in tumor OXPHOS and immune related pathway. In vitro experiments, CYC1 silencing significantly inhibited UVM cell proliferation and invasion, induced cell apoptosis. CONCLUSION: In sum, a prognostic risk score model based on oxidative phosphorylation-related genes in UVM was developed to enhance understanding of the disease. This prognostic risk score model may help to find potential therapeutic targets for UVM patients. CYC1 acts as an oncogene role in UVM.

Can weekend catch-up sleep decrease the risk of cognitive dysfunction in older adults?

PURPOSE: This study investigated whether weekend catch-up sleep was related to a decreased risk of cognitive dysfunction in older Taiwanese adults by using self-reported diaries and objective accelerometer measurements. METHODS: This cross-sectional study enrolled participants who were aged ≥ 65 years and had the capability to walk independently from a medical center in Taipei City, Taiwan, between September 2020 and December 2022. Self-reported sleep diaries and tri-axial accelerometers were used to record and measure sleep-related data for 7 consecutive nights. Weekend catch-up sleep was defined as the mean of weekend sleep time minus the mean of weekdays sleep time. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was evaluated the risk of cognitive dysfunction. The association between weekend catch-up sleep and the MMSE score was examined using a binary logistic regression model. RESULTS: A total of 215 older adults (53.0% female; 80.5 ± 7.1 years old; 11.6% at risk of cognitive dysfunction) were included. In the adjusted model (adjusted for sex, education level, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and total accelerometer wear time), both the self-reported sleep diaries (odds ratio [OR] = 0.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.09-0.69, P = 0.007) and the accelerometer data (OR = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.10-0.70, P = 0.007) indicated that weekend catch-up sleep could decrease the risk of cognitive dysfunction by 73-74%. CONCLUSION: The study findings suggest that there is an association between weekend catch-up sleep and lower risk for cognitive decline. The causal relationship between weekend catch-up sleep and cognitive function in older adults should be further investigated in a study with longitudinal design.

Identification of factors driving the spatial distribution of molybdenum (Mo) in topsoil in the Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region of Southwestern China using the Geodetector model.

As a key component of plant nitrogen-fixing enzymes and a variety of human coenzyme factors, molybdenum (Mo) plays an essential role in supporting both plant growth and human health. Soil is a key medium for the cycling of Mo in the biosphere. However, the driving anthropogenic and natural factors governing the spatial distribution of Mo in soil and their interactions are not well understood. To determine the factors that affect the spatial patterns of Mo in topsoil, 6980 samples were collected from the Longitudinal Range-Gorge Region (Linshui County, Sichuan Province, China). In this area, tall mountains are adjacent to deep valleys. Topsoil with enriched Mo is mostly distributed in mountainous areas. The most important factors influencing Mo in topsoil are soil parent materials (q = 0.482), altitude (q = 0.256), and soil type (q = 0.259). There are synergistic effects among the various driving factors [q(X1 âˆ© X2) > Max[q(X1), q(X2)]]. The Geodetector model was used to validate the magnitude of the interaction effects. The contribution to interacting factors is nonlinearly enhanced when the contribution of a single factor was low (any two factors of aspect, road distance, land use type, and S). The contribution to interacting factors is enhanced bidirectionally when the contribution of a single factor was high (any two factors of altitude, soil type, soil parent material, OM, and TFe2O3). When the contribution of one factor is high and the other is low, the contributing to interacting factors is mostly enhanced bidirectionally and a few are nonlinearly enhanced.

Distinct biological property of tau in tau-first cognitive proteinopathy: Evidence by longitudinal clinical neuroimaging profiles and compared with late-onset Alzheimer disease.

BACKGROUND: Tau-first cognitive proteinopathy (TCP) denotes a clinical phenotype of Alzheimer disease (AD) showing Florzolotau(18F) positron emission tomography (PET) positivity but a negative amyloid status. AIM: We explored the biological property of tau using longitudinal cognitive and neuroimaging data in TCP and compared with late-onset AD (LOAD). METHOD: We enrolled 56 patients with LOAD, 34 patients with TCP, and 26 cognitive unimpaired controls. All of the participants had historical data of 2 to 4 three-dimensional T1 images and 2 to 6 annual cognitive evaluations over a follow-up period of 7 years. Tau topography was measured using Florzolotau(18F) PET. In the LOAD and TCP groups, we constructed tau or gray matter clusters covarying with the cognitive measurements. We used mediator analysis to explore the regional tau load as predictor, gray matter partitions as mediators, and significant cognitive test scores as outcomes. Longitudinal cognitive decline and cortical thickness degeneration pattern were analyzed using a linear mixed-effects model. RESULTS: The TCP group had longitudinal declines in nonexecutive domains. The deterministic factor predicting the short-term memory score in TCP was the hippocampal volume and not directly via the medial and lateral temporal tau load. These features formed the conceptual differences with LOAD. DISCUSSION: The biological properties of tau and the longitudinal cognitive-imaging trajectory support the conceptual distinction between TCP and LOAD. TCP represents one specific entity featuring salient short-term memory impairment, declines in nonexecutive domains, a slower gray matter degenerative pattern, and a restricted impact of tau.

Prehospital ultrasound scanning for abdominal free fluid detection in trauma patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Focused assessment with sonography for trauma helps detect abdominal free fluid. Prehospital ultrasound scanning is also important because the early diagnosis of hemoperitoneum may reduce the time to definitive treatment in the hospital. This study investigated whether prehospital ultrasound scanning can help detect abdominal free fluid. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this systematic review, relevant databases were searched for studies investigating prehospital ultrasound examinations for abdominal free fluid in trauma patients. The prehospital ultrasound results were compared with computed tomography, surgery, or hospital ultrasound examination data. The pooled sensitivity and specificity values were analyzed using forest plots. The overall predictive power was calculated by the summary receiver operating characteristic curve. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies tool. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) was performed to assess the certainty of evidence. RESULT: This meta-analysis comprised six studies that included 1356 patients. The pooled sensitivity and specificity values were 0.596 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.345-0.822) and 0.970 (95% CI = 0.953-0.983), respectively. The pooled area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.998. The quality assessment tool showed favorable results. In the GRADE analysis, the quality of evidence was very low for sensitivity and high for specificity when prehospital ultrasound was used for hemoperitoneum diagnosis. CONCLUSION: The specificity of abdominal free fluid detection using prehospital ultrasound examinations in trauma patients was very high.

Clinical Significance of the Plasma Biomarker Panels in Amyloid-Negative and Tau PET-Positive Amnestic Patients: Comparisons with Alzheimer's Disease and Unimpaired Cognitive Controls.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether plasma biomarkers can help to diagnose, differentiate from Alzheimer disease (AD), and stage cognitive performance in patients with positron emission tomography (PET)-confirmed primary age-related tauopathy, termed tau-first cognitive proteinopathy (TCP) in this study. In this multi-center study, we enrolled 285 subjects with young-onset AD (YOAD; n = 55), late-onset AD (LOAD; n = 96), TCP (n = 44), and cognitively unimpaired controls (CTL; n = 90) and analyzed plasma Aß42/Aß40, pTau181, neurofilament light (NFL), and total-tau using single-molecule assays. Amyloid and tau centiloids reflected pathological burden, and hippocampal volume reflected structural integrity. Receiver operating characteristic curves and areas under the curves (AUCs) were used to determine the diagnostic accuracy of plasma biomarkers compared to hippocampal volume and amyloid and tau centiloids. The Mini-Mental State Examination score (MMSE) served as the major cognitive outcome. Logistic stepwise regression was used to assess the overall diagnostic accuracy, combining fluid and structural biomarkers and a stepwise linear regression model for the significant variables for MMSE. For TCP, tau centiloid reached the highest AUC for diagnosis (0.79), while pTau181 could differentiate TCP from YOAD (accuracy 0.775) and LOAD (accuracy 0.806). NFL reflected the clinical dementia rating in TCP, while pTau181 (rho = 0.3487, p = 0.03) and Aß42/Aß40 (rho = -0.36, p = 0.02) were significantly correlated with tau centiloid. Hippocampal volume (unstandardized ß = 4.99, p = 0.01) outperformed all of the fluid biomarkers in predicting MMSE scores in the TCP group. Our results support the superiority of tau PET to diagnose TCP, pTau181 to differentiate TCP from YOAD or LOAD, and NFL for functional staging.

[Genetic analysis of a fetus with Pitt-Hopkins syndrome due to a 18q21.2q21.31 microdeletion].

OBJECTIVE: To carry out invasive prenatal diagnosis for a fetus with ultrasound-indicated agenesis of corpus callosum and explore its genetic etiology. METHODS: A pregnant woman presented at the Affiliated Hospital of Putian College on December 16, 2022 was selected as the study subject. Amniotic fluid and peripheral blood samples from the fetus and the couple were collected. Conventional G-banded chromosomal karyotyping was carried out, and whole-genome copy number variation analysis was performed using single nucleotide polymorphism microarray (SNP-array). RESULTS: The karyotypes of the fetus and the couple were normal by the G-banding analysis. SNP-array analysis of the amniotic fluid sample revealed a 4.5 Mb microdeletion in the 18q21.2q21.31 region of the fetus. SNP-array analysis of peripheral blood samples from the couple did not find any abnormality. CONCLUSION: Through G-banded chromosomal karyotyping and SNP-array analysis, a fetus with 18q21.2q21.31 microdeletion was identified, which has conformed to the diagnosis of Pitt-Hopkins syndrome. Above finding has provided a basis for genetic counseling for the couple.