Probing Long-Term Impacts: Low-Dose Polystyrene Nanoplastics Exacerbate Mitochondrial Health and Evoke Secondary Glycolysis via Repeated and Single Dosing.

Nanoplastics (NPs) are omnipresent in the environment and contribute to human exposure. However, little is known regarding the long-term effects of NPs on human health. In this study, human intestinal Caco-2 cells were exposed to polystyrene nanoplastics (nanoPS) in an environmentally relevant concentration range (102-109 particles/mL) under two realistic exposure scenarios. In the first scenario, cells were repeatedly exposed to nanoPS every 2 days for 12 days to study the long-term effects. In the second scenario, only nanoPS was added once and Caco-2 cells were cultured for 12 days to study the duration of the initial effects of NPs. Under repeated dosing, initial subtle effects on mitochondria induced by low concentrations would accrue over consistent exposure to nanoPS and finally lead to significant impairment of mitochondrial respiration, mitochondrial mass, and cell differentiation process at the end of prolonged exposure, accompanied by significantly increased glycolysis over the whole exposure period. Single dosing of nanoPS elicited transient effects on mitochondrial and glycolytic functions, as well as increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in the early phase of exposure, but the self-recovery capacity of cells mitigated these effects at intermediate culture times. Notably, secondary effects on glycolysis and ROS production were observed during the late culture period, while the cell differentiation process and mitochondrial mass were not affected at the end. These long-term effects are of crucial importance for comprehensively evaluating the health hazards arising from lifetime exposure to NPs, complementing the extensively observed acute effects associated with prevalent short-term exposure to high concentrations. Our study underlines the need to study the toxicity of NPs in realistic long-term exposure scenarios such as repeated dosing.

Elucidating the Role of circTIAM1 in Guangling Large-Tailed Sheep Adipocyte Proliferation and Differentiation via the miR-485-3p/PLCB1 Pathway.

Fat tissue-a vital energy storage organ-is intricately regulated by various factors, including circular RNA, which plays a significant role in modulating fat development and lipid metabolism. Therefore, this study aims to clarify the regulatory mechanism of sheep adipocyte proliferation and differentiation by investigating the involvement of circTIAM1, miR-485-3p, and its target gene PLCB1. Through previous sequencing data, circTIAM1 was identified in sheep adipocytes, with its circularization mechanism elucidated, confirming its cytoplasmic localization. Experimental evidence from RNase R treatment and transcription inhibitors highlighted that circTIAM1 is more stable than linear RNA. Additionally, circTIAM1 promoted sheep adipocyte proliferation and differentiation. Furthermore, bioinformatic analysis demonstrated a robust interaction between miR-485-3p and circTIAM1. Further experiments revealed that miR-485-3p inhibits fat cell proliferation and differentiation by inhibiting PLCB1, with circTIAM1 alleviating the inhibitory effect via competitive binding. In summary, our findings elucidate the mechanism through which circTIAM1 regulates Guangling Large-Tailed sheep adipocyte proliferation and differentiation via the miR-485-3p-PLCB1 pathway, offering a novel perspective for further exploring fat metabolism regulation.

Vitamin E: An assistant for black soldier fly to reduce cadmium accumulation and toxicity.

Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic heavy metal associated with osteoporosis, liver, and kidney disease. The black soldier fly (BSF) Hermetia illucens may be exposed to Cd during the transformation of livestock manure. The BSF has a high tolerance to Cd. In the previous work of the laboratory, we found that vitamin E (VE) may play a role in the tolerance of BSF to Cd exposure. The main findings are as follows: The BSF larvae pretreated with exogenous VE had heavier body weight, lower content and toxicity of Cd under similar Cd exposure. Even in high Cd exposure at the concentrations of 300 and 700 mg/kg, the BSF larvae pretreated with exogenous VE at a concentration of 100 mg/kg still reduced the Cd toxicity to 85.33 % and 84.43 %, respectively. The best-fitting models showed that metallothionein (MT) content, oxidative damage (8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine content, malondialdehyde content), antioxidant power (total antioxidant power, peroxidase activity) had a great influence on content and toxicity of Cd bioaccumulated in the larvae. The degree of oxidative damage was reduced in the larvae with exogenous VE pretreatments. This variation can be explained by their changed MT content and increased antioxidant power because of exogenous VE. These results reveal the roles of VE in insects defense against Cd exposure and provide a new option for the prevention and therapy of damage caused by Cd exposure.

A Temperature Compensation Approach for Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems Accelerometer Based on Gated Recurrent Unit-Attention and Robust Local Mean Decomposition-Sample Entropy-Time-Frequency Peak Filtering.

MEMS accelerometers are significantly impacted by temperature and noise, leading to a considerable compromise in their accuracy. In response to this challenge, we propose a parallel denoising and temperature compensation fusion algorithm for MEMS accelerometers based on RLMD-SE-TFPF and GRU-attention. Firstly, we utilize robust local mean decomposition (RLMD) to decompose the output signal of the accelerometer into a series of product function (PF) signals and a residual signal. Secondly, we employ sample entropy (SE) to classify the decomposed signals, categorizing them into noise segments, mixed segments, and temperature drift segments. Next, we utilize the time-frequency peak filtering (TFPF) algorithm with varying window lengths to separately denoise the noise and mixed signal segments, enabling subsequent signal reconstruction and training. Considering the strong inertia of the temperature signal, we innovatively introduce the accelerometer's output time series as the model input when training the temperature compensation model. We incorporate gated recurrent unit (GRU) and attention modules, proposing a novel GRU-MLP-attention model (GMAN) architecture. Simulation experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed fusion algorithm. After processing the accelerometer output signal through the RLMD-SE-TFPF denoising algorithm and the GMAN temperature drift compensation model, the acceleration random walk is reduced by 96.11%, with values of 0.23032 g/h/Hz for the original accelerometer output signal and 0.00895695 g/h/Hz for the processed signal.

NK cells as powerful therapeutic tool in cancer immunotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Natural killer (NK) cells have gained considerable attention and hold great potential for their application in tumor immunotherapy. This is mainly due to their MHC-unrestricted and pan-specific recognition capabilities, as well as their ability to rapidly respond to and eliminate target cells. To artificially generate therapeutic NK cells, various materials can be utilized, such as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), umbilical cord blood (UCB), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and NK cell lines. Exploiting the therapeutic potential of NK cells to treat tumors through in vivo and in vitro therapeutic modalities has yielded positive therapeutic results. CONCLUSION: This review provides a comprehensive description of NK cell therapeutic approaches for tumors and discusses the current problems associated with these therapeutic approaches and the prospects of NK cell therapy for tumors.

Study on hormone induction of the male parent and embryonic development, gonad differentiation, and growth of "All-female No.1" Culter alburnus.

Female Culter alburnus was faster in growth rate than males. In this study, the gynogenetic G2 and the pseudo-male G2' were used as the female and male parents, respectively, to breed a new national variety "All-female No.1" C. alburnus (AFC). Hormone induction, embryonic development, gonadal differentiation, and growth of AFC were studied. The results showed induction with low concentrations of 17α-methyltestosterone in a indoor-net cage culture was not effective. Under the stimulation of 17α-methyltestosterone, some gonads had a tendency to transform into testis, but not completely. There were three types of gonads in 5-month-old and four types of gonads in 12-month-old fishes, however, they all differentiated into ovaries in 15-month-old fishes. Testosterone propionate and high concentrations of 17α-methyltestosterone in pond culture induction had a good effect resulting in ①a functional pseudo-male with normal testis development that could successfully extrude semen during the breeding period, ②a pseudo-male with normal testis development, but could not extrude semen, and ③the appearance of intersexual glands. The second experiment revealed that with common fish, all-female fish embryo had normal embryonic development. The development time and morphological characteristics of each stage were similar, but the development of the all-female embryo was slightly slower than the common embryos. The gonad differentiation of the all-female embryo were normal and none differentiated into testis, which indicated that all-female could ensure the female sex without affecting the normal gonad differentiation. The correlation between body weight, length, and month-age of all-female and common fish was strong. The all-female had faster growth rate and more uniform growth specification than the common fish. Therefore, the use of testosterone propionate and high concentrations of 17α-methyltestosterone in pond culture induction could avoid complete degeneration of gonads into ovaries. The all-female embryo had the advantages of normal embryonic development and gonadal differentiation, faster growth, and uniform growth specification.

Virtual reality of acupuncture manipulation in digital virtual human / 中国组织工程研究

BACKGROUND:The three-dimensional structure of acupoint anatomy was integrated into the teaching of acupuncture manipulation. Combined with the implementation and application of the acupuncture and moxibustion in digital virtual human, it can greatly improve the teaching effect and learning interest. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the acupuncture virtual human with integration of virtual reality force feedback technology and tissue deformation. METHODS:Using virtual reality technology, with computer as the core, we generated a specific range of virtual environment with realistic visual, auditory and tactile integration, col ected clinical expert acupuncture technique, matched the sensing equipment that can reflect the intensity, displacement and speed sensing of acupuncture. Based on image segmentation of virtual human, we constructed human tissue mechanics model, built virtual acupuncture-force-feedback system, and faithful y transmitted to the operator by a force feedback device. On one hand, based on VOXEL-MAN virtual human development platform, we finished the three-dimensional browser redevelopment of the science of acupuncture and moxibustion of Shu acupoint, which provided visual perception for people. On the other hand, based on modern biomechanics theory, we established models by graphics and image processing technology and force feedback technology. The stress process of the structure of each layer in the acupuncture point area was given to people in a sense of touch by the manner of virtual reality and force feedback. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:With the man-machine interactive operation platform of virtual acupuncture force feedback system, operator could see the dynamic process of acupuncture needle into human body, and could feel the real counterforce in the control terminal of force feedback instrument. By operating acupuncture needle in virtual environment of force feedback instrument, acupuncture was performed in virtual human. The system meets the two requirements:the feedback changes produced by tissue interaction were similar to real acupuncture feedback force data measured by instrument. The acupuncture needle entered into different tissues, a sense of power changed significantly;there was progressive feeling with different layers, reaching a realistic experience. During the whole training, the image was smooth;virtual needle was responsive, which better meets the requirements of virtual reality.

Aspirin Improves Survival of Colorectal Cancer Patients:A Meta-analysis and Systematic Evaluation / 中国医科大学学报

Objective To systematically assess the relationship between oral administration of aspirin and survival benefit for patients with colorec?tal cancer(CRC)by meta?analysis. Methods Relevant studies were identified through searching PubMed and EMBASE. Random?effects model was derived to composite the pooled hazard ratio for overall mortality and CRC?specific mortality. The subgroup analysis was conducted for included data,and the bias analysis was reported. Results Thirteen studies on aspirin therapy were finally included in this meta?analysis. The overall surviv?al benefit associated with oral administration of aspirin represented an HR of 0.83(95%CI:0.71?0.96). Oral administration of aspirin was also asso?ciated with CRC?specific survival(HR=0.77,95%CI:0.64?0.93). No evidence was observed of an association between prediagnostic aspirin use and CRC overall survival(HR=1.00,95%CI:0.85?1.18)or CRC?specific survival(HR=0.97,95%CI:0.83?1.13). Conclusion These findings provide further indication that post?diagnostic aspirin therapy can improve CRC prognosis.

Shenshu acupuncture’s force feedback / 中国组织工程研究

BACKGROUND:The correct and effective acupuncture manipulation of famous doctors are used to generate the realistic visual, auditory and tactile integrated computer virtual environments for acupuncture simulation based on the various techniques with the core of computer, which can greatly enhance the realism of the operator, and reduce the clinical acupuncture accidents. OBJECTIVE:To establish the virtual Shenshu acupuncture force feedback simulation system. METHODS:Based on the force feedback device, the Shenyu manipulations from the famous acupuncturists were col ected and integrated into the digital virtual body. On the three-dimensional digital human body integrated with information of Shenshu, the interaction force of needle body and tissues during the acupuncture process was analyzed with the virtual reality technology according to physical characteristics of the tissues within Shenshu, in order to establish the mechanical model to simulate needle body force, and to transmit truly to the operator by the force feedback device. RESUTLS AND CONCLUSION:Shenshu virtual acupuncture force feedback simulation was preliminary established, and the sense of touch could be reproduced lively during mimic the acupuncture of Shenshu on the visualized virtual acupuncture human. Shenyu acupuncture force feedback researches have provided a preliminary exploration for virtual acupuncture that integrated with the information of visual, tactile and force feedback, and also provided a dynamic one-on-one simulation means for acupuncture teaching.

Study on force feedback of acupuncture at Fengchi (GB 20) / 中国针灸

Acupuncture manipulations on Fengchi (GB 20) of famous doctors were taken through force feedback device, then the data was input into a digitized virtual human. Virtual Fengchi (GB 20) acupuncture force feedback simulation system was built through the virtual reality technology to achieve one-to-one high simulative manipulation effect for acupuncture students. The interaction force of the needle body and human tissues was analyzed during the acupuncture process on the 3D digital human integrated with information of Fengchi (GB 20) according to the physical characteristics of the tissues under this point. The mechanical model which is used to imitate the stress received by the body of the needle was established, and transmitted truly to the operator by the force feedback device. Thus, Fengchi (GB 20) virtual acupuncture force feedback simulation was preliminary established, and the sense of touch could be reproduced lively on the visualized virtual acupuncture human. It is held that Fengchi (GB 20) acupuncture force feedback research is a preliminary exploration for virtual acupuncture that integrated with the information of visual, tactile and force feedback. And it also provided a dynamic one-to-one simulation approach for acupuncture teaching.