Early admission is better-the time to admission (TTA) is associated with one-year mortality in hip fracture.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the probable association between time to admission (TTA) and one-year mortality in geriatric hip fractures. METHODS: Older adult patients with hip fractures were screened between January 2015 and September 2019. The demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients were collected at the largest trauma center in northwest China. TTA can be obtained from the medical record system and converted into a categorical variable. Multivariate binary logistic regression and generalized additive model were used to identify the linear and nonlinear association between TTA and one-year mortality. Analyses were performed using EmpowerStats and the R software. RESULTS: Two thousand three hundred and sixty-one patients who met the criteria were finally included. There were 1618 (68.53%) female and 743 (31.47%) male patients. All patients were divided into three groups according to their TTA. The proportions of patients with low (<=6 h), middle (>6, <=24 h), and high (>24 h) waiting times were 995, 654, and 712, respectively, and the corresponding one-year mortality rates were 62 (6.23%), 72 (11.01%), and 82 (11.52%). We found a curve relationship between TTA and one-year mortality by two-piecewise linear regression, and 9 hours was an inflection point. When TTA was less than 9 hours, the one-year mortality of patients increased by 9% for every 1-hour increase in TTA (OR=1.09, 95%CI: 1.03-1.16; P<0.01). When TTA was greater than 9 hours, the mortality of patients no longer increased with the rise of TTA (OR=1.00, 95%CI:1.00-1.00; P=0.26). CONCLUSION: TTA is a probable predictor of one-year mortality. We found that 9 hours is an inflection point. If TTA is less than 9 hours, the mortality rate of patients will be lower. If it takes more than 9 hours, the mortality will be higher. Therefore, the elderly who are found to have possible hip fractures should be admitted to the hospital as soon as possible.

Methyl jasmonate treatment alleviates chilling injury and improves antioxidant system of okra pod during cold storage.

Okra pod is sensitive to low temperature, which results in chilling injury under improper low-temperature storage. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatment on okra pod stored at 4 ± 1°C for 12 days and illuminate the mechanism of MeJA alleviating chilling injury. Compared to the control, MeJA treatments maintained lower relative electric conductivity (REC), chilling injury (CI) degree, and lignin content, as well as higher total soluble solids, total soluble sugar, pectin content, and chlorophyll content. The factor analysis was applied to comprehensively evaluate the effects of MeJA so that 1 µmol/L MeJA was screened as the optimum concentration to maintain the okra quality throughout the storage time. In contrast with control, MeJA not only accelerated the generation of antioxidant substances (phenolics and flavonoids) but also increased the superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and peroxidase (POD) activity, inhibited malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content accumulation, and the polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity. This work confirmed that MeJA could effectively alleviate chilling injury and maintain the quality during cold-stored by regulating reactive oxygen species (ROS) metabolism. These results provide theoretical guidance for the application of MeJA in okra storage and preservation.

A comparison of different surgical approaches to hemiarthroplasty for the femoral neck fractures: A meta-analysis.

There are three traditional surgical approaches to hemiarthroplasty (HA) for femoral neck fractures, respectively, the anterior approach (AA), the lateral approach (LA) and the posterior approach (PA). However, the optimum approach is still controversial, the purpose of this meta-analysis is to identify the merits and demerits of all three approaches. All clinical published studies in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library from January 2000 to April 2022 were searched which compared different surgical approaches and covered surgery-related outcomes and frequent complications. Five randomized controlled trials and 26 cohort studies for a total of 31 clinical trials were included in the meta-analysis. The dislocation of PA was significantly higher than LA (OR: 3.00 95% CI: 2.25-4.01 I 2 = 27% P < 0.00001) and AA (OR: 6.61 95% CI: 2.28-19.13 I 2 = 0% P = 0.0005); PA was substantially more than LA in terms of risk of postoperative reoperation (P < 0.05); meanwhile, AA has markedly shorter hospital length of stays than LA. The remaining items showed no significant differences in the results.The results of this meta-analysis demonstrated that the risk of PA dislocation and reoperation is higher with hemiarthroplasty, and AA has markedly shorter hospital length of stays than LA.

Postharvest melatonin treatment inhibited longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) pericarp browning by increasing ROS scavenging ability and protecting cytomembrane integrity.

Postharvest melatonin treatments have been reported to improve the quality and storability, especially to inhibit browning in many fruits, but the effect had not been systematically investigated on longan fruit. In this study, the effect of 0.4 mM melatonin (MLT) dipping on the quality and pericarp browning of longan fruits stored at low temperature was investigated. The MLT treatment did not influence the TSS content of longan fruits but lead to increased lightness and h° value while decreased a* value of pericarp. More importantly, the treatment significantly delayed the increase in electrolyte leakage and malonaldehyde accumulation, inhibited the activities of polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase, and thus retarded pericarp browning. In addition, the treatment significantly inhibited the production of O2 •- and H2O2 while promoted the accumulation of glutathione, flavonoids, and phenolics at earlier storage stages in longan pericarp. Interestingly, the activities of ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were significantly upregulated but activities of catalase were downregulated in the MLT-treated longan pericarp. MLT treatment effectively enhanced APX and SOD activities, increased flavonoid, phenolics, and glutathione content, protected cytomembrane integrity, inhibited the production of O2 •- and H2O2 and browning-related enzymes, and thus delayed the longan pericarp browning.

Widely targeted metabolic analysis revealed the changed pigmentation and bioactive compounds in the ripening Berchemia floribunda (Wall.) Brongn. fruit.

Berchemia plants were important materials for Chinese traditional medicines due to their special secondary metabolites. Unlike the root, stem and leaf tissues, Berchemia floribunda (Wall.) Brongn. fruit was lacked of systematic metabolic investigation. Biochemical analysis found that the total flavonoid and total phenolic content of Berchemia fruit pulp showed a peak value at red ripe stage, and then decreased, but the total anthocyanin content sharply increased along with the coloration. By widely targeted metabolomic analysis, 644 metabolites were identified and categorized into 23 groups mainly including flavonoid, organic acids, amino acids, lipids, phenylpropanoid, nucleotides, alkaloids, carbohydrates, alcohols, anthocyanins & proanthocyanidins, vitamins, terpenes, polyphenols, phenolamides, quinones, indole derivatives, and sterides. Among them, 111 metabolites and 123 metabolites respectively showed up- and down-regulation from break stage to full mature. KEGG enrichment analysis indicated that active secondary metabolism such as biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids, flavonoid, and alkaloids happened during Berchemia fruit ripening. More importantly, Cyanidin-3-O-galactoside and other 3 cyanidins were found to be the predominant pigments in mature Berchemia fruit and increased cyanidins and pelargonidins but decreased anthocyanins might be contributed to the purple pigmentation of Berchemia fruit. Interestingly, 29 pharmaceutical compounds previously reported in other Berchemia tissues were also detected in ripening Berchemia fruit pulp: 8 flavonoid, 2 quinones & sucrose showed up-regulated accumulation while 6 polyphenols, 5 flavonoid, 3 phenylpropanoid, 2 organic acids, 1 quinones and ß-sitosterol showed down-regulated accumulation In conclusion, our first comprehensive metabolic fingerprint will promote the further study of B. floribunda fruit and its medical and food application.

Metabolic and proteomic analysis of nitrogen metabolism mechanisms involved in the sugarcane - Fusarium verticillioides interaction.

Pokkah boeng disease (PBD) is a foliar disease causing severe losses in sugarcane crop production. Research into resistance mechanisms against the causal agent, Fusarium verticillioides, is particularly important for farmers and researchers. This work based on the comprehensive analysis of metabolic, proteomic, and bioinformatics data on nitrogen (N) metabolism, which revealed that this biosynthetic reactions was closely related to resistance mechanisms in the sugarcane- F. verticillioides interaction. Our results suggested that pathogen infection reduced the suppression of nitrate reductase (NR) activity, reducing ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3--N) assimilation, which reduces glutamine synthetase (GS), glutamate synthetase (GOGAT) activity and polynucleotide synthesis and promotes RNA degradation, resulting in a decrease in ribosome levels and protein synthesis. Cysteine was found to be associated with the symptoms of PBD, while alanine, lysine, proline, and glutamic acid were found to be involved in protective and regulatory mechanisms as well. Additionally, glutamate played an important role in sugarcane defense against pathogens through the biosynthesis of proline and polyamines. Cyanamide, glutamate, proline, tyrosine, and arachidonic acid metabolism actively participate in resistance and response to stress. C5XPZ6 and C5XCA6 were considered to be critical proteins and key effectors according to this study. In conclusion, we have identified potential proteins and pathways involved in sugarcane resistance to F. verticillioides, revealing new findings that may be useful in the design of future diagnostics or sugarcane protection strategies and providing new insights into the molecular mechanisms of sugarcane-pathogen interactions.

The Role of 1-Methylcyclopropene in the regulation of ethylene biosynthesis and ethylene receptor gene expression in Mangifera indica L. (Mango Fruit).

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is respiratory climacteric fruit that ripens and decomposes quickly following their harvest. 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) is known to affect the ripening of fruit, delaying the decay of mango stored under ambient conditions. The objective of this study was to clarify the role of 1-MCP in the regulation of ethylene biosynthesis and ethylene receptor gene expression in mango. 1-MCP significantly inhibited the 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) content. The activity of ACC oxidase (ACO) increased on days 6, 8, and 10 of storage, whereas delayed ACC synthase (ACS) activity increased after day 4. The two homologous ethylene receptor genes, ETR1 and ERS1 (i.e., MiETR1 and MiERS1), were obtained and deposited in GenBank® (National Center for Biotechnology Information-National Institutes of Health [NCBI-NIH]) (KY002681 and KY002682). The MiETR1 coding sequence was 2,220 bp and encoded 739 amino acids (aa). The MiERS1 coding sequence was 1,890 bp and encoded 629 aa, similar to ERS1 in other fruit. The tertiary structures of MiETR1 and MiERS1 were also predicted. MiERS1 lacks a receiver domain and shares a low homology with MiETR1 (44%). The expression of MiETR1 and MiERS1 mRNA was upregulated as the storage duration extended and reached the peak expression on day 6. Treatment with 1-MCP significantly reduced the expression of MiETR1 on days 4, 6, and 10 and inhibited the expression of MiETR1 on days 2, 4, 6, and 10. These results indicated that MiETR1 and MiERS1 had important functions in ethylene signal transduction. Treatment with 1-MCP might effectively prevent the biosynthesis of ethylene, as well as ethylene-induced ripening and senescence. This study presents an innovative method for prolonging the storage life of mango after their harvest through the regulation of MiETR1 and MiERS1 expression.

High proton conductivity in a nickel(ii) complex and its hybrid membrane.

A novel nickel(ii) complex, [Ni(2,2'-bpy)3](H2SBTC)(H2O)5 (1) (2,2'-bpy = 2,2'-bipyridyl), was synthesized based on [Ni(2,2'-bpy)3]2+ discrete units and a partially deprotonated sulfonate-carboxylate ligand of H4SBTC (5-sulfonyl-1,2,4-benzentricarboxylic acid). The adjacent [Ni(2,2'-bpy)3]2+ cationic units were connected to H2SBTC2- anions by hydrogen bonds to form a one-dimensional (1-D) chain. The 1-D chains were further linked using hydrogen bonds from free water molecules and H2SBTC2- anions to generate a two-dimensional (2-D) plane structure. The proton conductivity of 1 reaches 1.3 × 10-4 S cm-1 at 318 K, 98% RH. Furthermore, hybrid membranes composed of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and 1 as fillers were prepared with different mass percentages. The proton conductivity of 1@PVA-5 was found to be 1.6 × 10-3 S cm-1 at 313 K and 98% RH. The large number of alcoholic hydroxyl groups in PVA promote the resulting conductivity.

Preharvest zinc sulfate spray improves the storability of longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) fruits by protecting the cell wall components and antioxidants of pericarp.

BACKGROUND: Zinc (Zn) fertilization has been reported to improve the quality and storability of many fruits, but the mechanism had not been systematically studied. In this study, the effect of preharvest 0.2% zinc sulfate (ZnSO4 ) spray on the storability of longan fruits was investigated. RESULTS: The preharvest ZnSO4 spray did not significantly influence the quality but increased the Zn content in longan pericarp by 12.5-fold. More importantly, the treatment significantly reduced the rotting rate, pericarp browning, and aril breakdown of longan fruits stored at room temperature and low temperature. Physiological and biochemical results indicated that the treatment resulted in higher water retention capacity and inhibited the degradation of cellulose, pectin, flavonoid, and phenolics of longan pericarp at the late stages of storage. Consistent with these results, the activity of cellulase, polygalacturonase, polyphenol oxidase, and lipoxygenase was significantly inhibited in the ZnSO4 -treated longan pericarp at the late stages of storage. CONCLUSION: Higher Zn content in the ZnSO4 -treated longan pericarp might help to enhance the resistance against microbial infection, inhibit the hydrolysis of cell wall components, and thus effectively protected the cell wall components, maintained the cellular compartmentation, and prevented the phenolics and flavonoid from degradation by browning-related enzymes. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Determination and pharmacokinetic study of the novel anti-tumor candidate drug DG-7 in rat plasma by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

DG-7 (11,14-dihydroxy-7,20-epoxy-20-O-derivative of ent-kaurene diterpenoid) is a novel anti-tumor candidate drug. A sensitive and specific liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the quantification of DG-7 in rat plasma. An aliquot of 50 µL plasma sample was prepared by liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate. Chromatographic separation was accomplished on a Waters XTerra C18 column (2.1 mm × 150 mm, 5 µm) with an isocratic elution system consisting of methanol and water. Detection was performed by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode using electrospray ionization in the positive ion mode. The optimized fragmentation transitions for MRM were m/z 590.1→m/z 260.0 for DG-7 and m/z 180.3→m/z 110.1 for phenacetin (internal standard). The method was linear over the concentration range of 5-2,500 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precisions were less than 7.9% and the accuracy was within ± 9.0%. The mean recovery of DG-7 ranged from 76.8% to 79.2%. The validated method has been successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study in rats after intravenous administration of DG-7.

Visual observation of G-quadruplex DNA with the label-free fluorescent probe silole with aggregation-induced emission.

AIE molecule silole 1 could be used to detect G-quadruplex formation using an exonuclease I hydrolysis assay. This visual observation of G-quadruplexes has been successfully used in investigating multiple G-quadruplexes, including the one-stranded telomeric, c-myc, c-kit, VEGF G-quadruplexes, and a d(G(4)T(4)G(4)) inter-molecular G-quadruplex. The detection of G-quadruplex can be also applied to G-quadruplex isomers induced by small molecules.