A sustained decrease in the systolic/diastolic ratio may be a sign of severe adverse events in the umbilical cord: a report of eight cases.

A high systolic/diastolic (S/D) ratio of umbilical cord blood is a manifestation of intrauterine hypoxia. However, the clinical significance of a persistently decreased S/D ratio of umbilical cord blood has not been reported. We report eight cases of a persistently decreased S/D ratio of umbilical cord blood, with two cases of umbilical thrombus, five cases of excessive torsion, and one case of a true cord knot. Fetuses with a persistently decreased S/D ratio of umbilical cord blood may be at risk, and it may be an important indication of umbilical cord lesions.

Prognostic nutritional index predicts the prognosis of patients with advanced esophageal cancer treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) play an important role in the treatment of esophageal cancer (EC). However, their efficacy is variable, and there are still no effective and convenient biomarkers to identify and assess their efficacy. In recent years, programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, tumor mutation burden (TMB) and other commonly used biomarkers still cannot meet clinical needs. PNI is easy to obtain and its predictive value for the prognosis of immunotherapy has been confirmed in many cancer species, but the relationship between PNI and the efficacy of immunotherapy for esophageal cancer is still unclear. Therefore, this study aims to explore the predictive value of PNI in advanced esophageal cancer treated with ICIs. Methods: The clinicopathological features of 78 patients with advanced EC who received immunotherapy in the 900th Hospital of the Joint Logistics Team from September 2018 to May 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. The laboratory test results within 10 days prior to the start of ICI treatment were recorded, including absolute lymphocyte count and albumin (ALB) level. Meanwhile, the effects of pre-treatment prognostic nutritional index (PNI) and body mass index (BMI) on the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with advanced EC were analyzed. Results: The median age of the enrolled patients was 58 years, and 38 patients (48.7%) received second-or-later-line therapy. The median progression-free survival (mPFS) and median overall survival (mOS) were 7.4 months and 13 months, respectively. The mPFS and mOS were 8.8 months and 15 months, respectively, in the high baseline PNI subgroup, which were significantly higher than those in the low baseline PNI subgroup (4.7 and 8.2 months, respectively; both P<0.05). Multivariate regression analysis showed that low baseline PNI was an independent predictor of poor PFS [hazard studio (HR) =0.35, 95% CI: 0.14-0.85, P=0.020) and poor OS (HR =0.41, 95% CI: 0.17-0.99, P=0.047) and treatment line was an independent predictor of PFS. Baseline BMI was not significantly associated with prognosis. Conclusions: PNI is a simple and effective biomarker for predicting the prognosis of immunotherapy in patients with advanced EC, although further prospective studies are warranted.

Cationic polyacrylamide alleviated the inhibitory impact of ZnO nanoparticles on anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge through reducing reactive oxygen species induced.

The enrichment of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) in waste activated sludge (WAS) has raised concerns about their potential impact on anaerobic digestion of WAS. To date, there is no information regarding how to attenuate the negative effects of ZnO NPs on WAS anaerobic digestion. In this study, it was found that the appropriate amount of cationic polyacrylamide (cPAM) could mitigate the toxicity of ZnO NPs. During short-term exposure, the supplement of 4.0 mg cPAM/g TSS significantly restored biochemical methane potential from 28.6% inhibition to 9.3% inhibition compared with the control digester (P < 0.01). The spiked cPAM promoted the solubilization and acidification stages by weakening the contact between ZnO NPs and anaerobes in anaerobic digestion process, thus providing abundant substance for sequent bio-utilization. In the long-term semi-continues operated reactor, the continuous replacement of cPAM (at 4.0 mg/g TSS) significantly strengthened the recovery of VS destruction rate (20.3% to 26.4%, P < 0.01) and the daily yield of methane (93.5 mL/d to 124.2 mL/d, P < 0.01). Consistent with the restored performance, the application of cPAM increased the total microbial communities and the relative abundances of dominant acidogens and methanogens. Further explorations showed decreased toxicity of ZnO NPs primarily attributed to the decline of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by ZnO NPs.

The arsenic chemical species proportion and viral arsenic biotransformation genes composition affects lysogenic phage treatment under arsenic stress.

When temperate phages and their hosts have a consistent interest, they are considered reciprocal. Based on the bacterium-phage collaboration, lysogenic phage treatment is a promising method to resist pollution through lysogenic phage reshaping indigenous microbial communities to maintain their ecological function under environmental stress. However, the potential factors affecting the establishment of bacterium-phage collaboration are still poorly understood. Here, lysogenic phages carrying arsenic biotransformation genes (ABGs) were induced from the enriched arsenic-resistant microorganisms (from arsenic-contaminated sites). The diversity analysis of viral arsC and arsM demonstrated that arsM tended to proliferate rapidly under high arsenic levels, and the transduction of arsM might be the key to lysogenic phages to help the hosts relieve the stress of high arsenic. Microcosm experiments confirmed that with the increase of the As(III) content (0% to 50%, of 200 mg/kg total arsenic) in the soil, inoculation of lysogenic phages with both arsC and arsM resulted in more transduction of arsM (0.06 ± 0.007 to 0.23 ± 0.024 per 16S rRNA) among soil microorganisms. In contrast, inoculation of lysogenic phages carrying the only arsC transduces more arsC (0.12 ± 0.037 to 0.315 ± 0.051 per 16S rRNA) compare with the control. This article confirmed that different arsenic species proportions and different viral gene compositions could change the abundance of ABGs in the soil microbe, which might provide basic knowledge for further understanding of arsenic pollution control mediated by lysogenic phage.

Nimble Cloning: A Simple, Versatile, and Efficient System for Standardized Molecular Cloning.

Molecular cloning is one of the most fundamental technologies in molecular biology, and has been critical for driving biotechnological advances. In this study, we have developed a novel method for standardized molecular cloning. The cloning technique known as "Nimble Cloning" uses the restriction enzyme, SfiI, in combination with the T5 exonuclease, to linearize the vector and generate 3'-overhangs simultaneously. Both PCR products and plasmids can be used for the cloning reaction in the Nimble Cloning system. The cloning system is highly efficient, suitable for gene expression in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems, and enables the reuse of DNA fragments or plasmid entry clones. Nimble Cloning is applicable for the cloning of single or multiple fragments, as well as multi-site cloning. Due also to its simplicity and versatility, the cloning method has great potential for the modular assembly of DNA constructs.