Bi-parental graph strategy to represent and analyze hybrid plant genomes.

Hybrid plants are found extensively in the wild, and they often demonstrate superior performance of complex traits over their parents and other selfing plants. This phenomenon, known as heterosis, has been extensively applied in plant breeding for decades. However, the process of decoding hybrid plant genomes has seriously lagged due to the challenges associated with genome assembly and the lack of appropriate methodologies for their subsequent representation and analysis. Here, we present the assembly and analysis of two hybrids, an intraspecific hybrid between two maize (Zea may ssp. mays) inbred lines and an interspecific hybrid between maize and its wild relative teosinte (Zea may ssp. parviglumis), utilizing a combination of PacBio High Fidelity (HiFi) sequencing and chromatin conformation capture sequencing data. The haplotypic assemblies are well-phased at chromosomal scale, successfully resolving the complex loci with extensive parental structural variations (SVs). By integrating into a bi-parental genome graph, the haplotypic assemblies can facilitate downstream short-reads-based SV calling and allele-specific gene expression analysis, demonstrating outstanding advantages over a single linear genome. Our work offers a comprehensive workflow that aims to facilitate the decoding of numerous hybrid plant genomes, particularly those with unknown or inaccessible parentage, thereby enhancing our understanding of genome evolution and heterosis.

Lever-enabled milli-Newton mechanical force detection via a microbottle resonator.

We demonstrate a milli-Newton mechanical force sensor based on a whispering gallery mode microbottle resonator (MBR). A lever model is established by coupling the MBR with a tapered fiber, whose ratio of load arm to effort arm (RLE) is flexibly adjusted to enlarge the detection range. The mechanical force is induced by attaching a capillary on the MBR stem and applying the downward displacement, which deforms the MBR's radius and thus shifts the resonance wavelength. The dependence of the capillary displacement on the mechanical force is theoretically deduced and verified. Experimentally, the sensors with different RLEs are built, and the maximum sensitivity of -10.48 pm/mN with a resolution of 40 µN is obtained. The achieved detection range is 0-4 mN, which depends on the capillary displacement and RLE of the lever. With the merits of easy fabrication and flexible structure, the proposed sensor shows great potential in biomedical and structural health monitoring.

Advancements in Scaling Up Perovskite Solar Cells: From Small-Area Devices to Large-Scale Modules.

The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has exceeded those of conventional thin-film solar cell technologies, and the speed at which this increase has been achieved is unprecedented in the history of photovoltaics. Despite the significant progress achieved by PSCs at the laboratory level, their commercial prospects still face two significant challenges: scaling up in size and ensuring long-term stability. Small-area devices (~1 cm2) are typically fabricated using spin-coating. However, this approach may not be suitable for preparing the large-area (>100 cm2) substrates required for commercialization. Thus, new materials and methods must be developed to facilitate the coating of large-area PSCs. This review will discuss the development of scaling up organic-inorganic hybrid PSCs and the challenges of increasing the device area. Furthermore, it will provide an overview of the methodologies for achieving high-efficiency perovskite solar modules.

Coalescence-Induced Jumping of Nanodroplets in a Perpendicular Electric Field: A Molecular Dynamics Study.

Coalescence-induced jumping has promised a substantial reduction in the droplet detachment size and consequently shows great potential for heat-transfer enhancement in dropwise condensation. In this work, using molecular dynamics simulations, the evolution dynamics of the liquid bridge and the jumping velocity during coalescence-induced nanodroplet jumping under a perpendicular electric field are studied for the first time to further promote jumping. It is found that using a constant electric field, the jumping performance at the small intensity is weakened owing to the continuously decreased interfacial tension. There is a critical intensity above which the electric field can considerably enhance the stretching effect with a stronger liquid-bridge impact and, hence, improve the jumping performance. For canceling the inhibition effect of the interfacial tension under the condition of the weak electric field, a square-pulsed electric field with a paused electrical effect at the expansion stage of the liquid bridge is proposed and presents an efficient nanodroplet jumping even using the weak electric field.

A retrospective study of mineral and bone disorder in kidney transplant recipients: Single-center experience.

BACKGROUND: The status of mineral and bone disorder (MBD) after kidney transplantation is not fully understood, and the assessment of abnormal mineral and bone metabolism in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) has not been standardized. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of 292 KTRs in our center. The levels of biochemical markers of bone metabolism and bone mineral density (BMD) were assessed. We evaluated the influencing factors of BMD using linear regression analysis. And correlation test was used for the correlation analysis between bone metabolism indicators and other indicators. RESULTS: Postoperative MBD mainly manifested as hypercalcemia (8.9%), hypophosphatemia (27.1%), low levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D(25(OH)vitD) (67.0%), hyperparathyroidism (50.6%), and high levels of bone turnover markers (BTMs). The prevalence of osteopenia/osteoporosis in the femoral neck (FN) and lumbar spine (LS) was 20.1%/2.8% and 26.1%/3.6%, respectively. Multivariate analysis indicated that FN BMD was positively associated with body mass index (BMI) and negatively associated with acute rejection history (p < 0.05); while LS BMD was positively associated with BMI, and negatively associated with intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) (p < 0.05). Biochemical markers of bone metabolism were affected by age, sex, preoperative dialysis mode and time, postoperative time, transplanted kidney function, and iPTH levels. LS BMD was negatively correlated with iPTH and BTMs (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: MBD persisted after kidney transplantation. Decreased bone mass was associated with persistent hyperparathyroidism, acute rejection history, low BMI, advanced age, and menopause. Dynamic monitoring of bone metabolism index and BMD helps to assess MBD after kidney transplantation.

Machine learning models to predict systemic inflammatory response syndrome after percutaneous nephrolithotomy.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate the performance of machine learning models for predicting the possibility of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) following percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical data of 337 patients who received PCNL between May 2020 and June 2022. In our study, 80% of the data were used as the training set, and the remaining data were used as the testing set. Separate prediction models based on the six machine learning algorithms were created using the training set. The predictive performance of each machine learning model was determined by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), accuracy, sensitivity and specificity using the testing set. We used coefficients to interpret the contribution of each variable to the predictive performance. RESULTS: Among the six machine learning algorithms, the support vector machine (SVM) delivered the best performance with accuracy of 0.868, AUC of 0.942 (95% CI 0.890-0.994) in the testing set. Further analysis using the SVM model showed that prealbumin contributed the most to the prediction of the outcome, followed by preoperative urine culture, systemic immune-inflammation (SII), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), staghorn stones, fibrinogen, operation time, preoperative urine white blood cell (WBC), preoperative urea nitrogen, hydronephrosis, stone burden, sex and preoperative lymphocyte count. CONCLUSION: Machine learning-based prediction models can accurately predict the possibility of SIRS after PCNL in advance by learning patient clinical data, and should be used to guide surgeons in clinical decision-making.

Clinical, Imaging Characteristics and Outcome of Intracerebral Hemorrhage Caused by Structural Vascular Lesions.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical, imaging, and outcome characteristics of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) caused by structural vascular lesions. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed data from a prospective observational cohort study of patients with spontaneous ICH admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University between May 2016 and April 2021. Good outcome was defined as modified Rankin Scale score of 0-3 at 3 months. The clinical and imaging characteristics were compared between primary ICH and ICH caused by structural vascular lesions. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to test the associations of etiology with clinical outcome. RESULTS: All patients enrolled in this study were Asian. Compared with patients with primary ICH, those with structural vascular lesions were younger (48 vs. 62 years, P < 0.001), had a lower incidence of hypertension (26.4% vs. 81.7%, P < 0.001) and diabetes (7.4% vs. 16.2%, P = 0.003), and had mostly lobar hemorrhages (49.1% vs. 22.8%). ICH from structural vascular lesions had smaller baseline hematoma volume (8.4 ml vs. 13.8 ml, P = 0.010), had lower mortality rate at 30 days and 3 months (5.8% vs. 12.0%, P = 0.020; 6.7% vs. 14.8%, P = 0.007), and are associated with better functional outcome at 3 months (88% vs.70.3%, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with primary ICH, ICH due to vascular lesions has smaller hematoma volume and less severe neurological deficit at presentation and better functional outcomes.

Left ventricular remodeling and its association with mineral and bone disorder in kidney transplant recipients.

BACKGROUND: The assessment of left ventricular (LV) remodeling and its association with mineral and bone disorder (MBD) in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) have not been systematically studied. We aimed to evaluate LV remodeling changes one year after kidney transplantation (KT) and identify their influencing factors. METHODS: Ninety-five KTRs (68 males; ages 40.2 ± 10.8 years) were followed before and one year after KT. Traditional risk factors and bone metabolism indicators were assessed. Left ventricular mass index (LVMI), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) were measured using two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography. The relationship between MBD and LV remodeling and the factors influencing LV remodeling were analyzed. RESULTS: One year after KT, MBD was partially improved, mainly characterized by hypercalcemia, hypophosphatemia, hyperparathyroidism, 25-(OH) vitamin D deficiency, elevated bone turnover markers, and bone loss. LVMI, the prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), and the prevalence of LVDD decreased, while LVEF increased. LVH was positively associated with postoperative intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) and iPTH nonnormalization. △LVMI was positively associated with preoperative type-I collagen N-terminal peptide and postoperative iPTH. LVEF was negatively associated with postoperative phosphorous. △LVEF was negatively associated with postoperative iPTH. LVDD was positively associated with postoperative lumbar spine osteoporosis. Preoperative LVMI was negatively associated with △LVMI and positively associated with △LVEF. Advanced age, increased BMI, diabetes, longer dialysis time, lower albumin level, and higher total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein levels were associated with LV remodeling. CONCLUSIONS: LV remodeling partially improved after KT, showing a close relationship with MBD.

Association between non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (NHHR) and the risk of post-stroke depression: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Limited observational research has explored the relationship between the non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio (NHHR) and the risk of post-stroke depression (PSD). This study aims to investigate the potential associations between NHHR and PSD. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from stroke participants aged 20 and older, sourced from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) spanning 2005 to 2018. Depression was assessed using the PHQ-9 questionnaire. The association between NHHR and PSD risk was evaluated through weighted multivariate logistic regression and restricted cubic spline (RCS) models. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed to validate the findings. RESULTS: In the continuous model, the NHHR value for the PSD group (3.23±1.84) was significantly higher than that of the non-PSD group (2.79±1.40, p=0.015). Logistic regression analysis in the fully adjusted model revealed a positive association between NHHR and PSD (OR 1.16, 95 % CI 1.03-1.30, p=0.016). Interaction tests showed no significant differences across strata (p > 0.05 for interaction). Restricted cubic spline results indicated a linear dose-response relationship between NHHR and PSD risk (P for non-linearity = 0.6). This association persisted in various subgroup analyses. CONCLUSION: NHHR was significantly correlated with an increased risk of PSD among U.S. adults. Further re-search on NHHR could contribute to the prevention and treatment of PSD.

Genetically proxied appendicular lean mass and stroke risk: A two-step mendelian randomization study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Prior observational studies have suggested a strong correlation between sarcopenia and stroke, but the causal link between them remains uncertain. This study aims to investigate the associations between genetically predicted sarcopenia-related traits and stroke using a two-step Mendelian randomization (MR) approach. METHODS: Genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary data for sarcopenia-related traits were acquired from the UK Biobank. Genetic associations for ischemic stroke (IS) and its subtypes were selected from the MEGASTROKE consortium comprising European ancestry participants. GWAS summary data for cerebral hemorrhage were obtained from the FinnGen consortium, including intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). MR estimates were calculated using the inverse-variance weighted (IVW) method. The robustness of results was assessed for heterogeneity and pleiotropy of individual single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). RESULTS: Higher appendicular lean mass (ALM) exhibited a potential causal association with a reduced incidence of large artery atherosclerosis (LAA) (odds ratio [OR] = 0.81, 95% confidence interval [CI]:0.71-0.93; P = 0.003) and small vessel disease (SVD) (OR = 0.83, 95% CI:0.74-0.94; P = 0.002). The associations of ALM with IS and ICH were compromised after adjusting for body fat and physical activity with multivariable MR. Two-step MR mediation analysis explored 33 candidate mediators, among which hypertension and SBP accounted for more than 10% of the mediation proportion in the relationship between ALM and stroke and its subtypes. CONCLUSION: Our research findings indicate that lower ALM is associated with a increased risk of stroke . It is necessary to explore the specific protective mechanisms of higher ALM for preventing stroke occurrence.

Determination and prediction of the net energy content of wheat bran for pregnant sow.

Two experiments were conducted to determine net energy (NE) values of wheat bran ingredients and develop a prediction equation for NE of wheat bran. In each experiment, 12 multiparous pregnant sows were allocated to two 3 × 6 Youden squares with three consecutive periods and six diets in each square. The study consisted of six diets, including a corn-soybean meal basal diet and five diets formulated with 29.2% wheat bran. Each period lasted for 10 d, with 5 d allocated for adaptation and followed by 5 d for heat production measurement. Sows were provided feed at 604 kJ/kg BW0.75·d-1. On day 10, sows underwent fasting to measure fasting heat production. Results indicated that the inclusion of wheat bran in the diets significantly reduced digestibility of energy and nutrients in (p < 0.05). The average net energy (NE) content of wheat bran was determined to be 8.8 MJ/kg DM. A regress equation NE = 7.968 + 0.28 × CP + 0.607 × EE - 0.782 × ash - 0.05 × hemicellulose (R2 = 0.98, p < 0.01) was found to accurately predit the NE value when feeding pregnant sows with wheat bran-based diets. In conclusion, the net energy content of wheat bran fed to pregnant sows ranged from 7.24 to 10.67 MJ/kg DM and can be effectively estimated using proximate analysis methods.

A CNN-SVR model for NO2 profile prediction based on MAX-DOAS observations: The influence of Chinese New Year overlapping the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown on vertical distributions of tropospheric NO2 in Nanjing, China.

In this study, a hybrid model, the convolutional neural network-support vector regression model, was adopted to achieve prediction of the NO2 profile in Nanjing from January 2019 to March 2021. Given the sudden decline in NO2 in February 2020, the contribution of the Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) lockdown, Chinese New Year (CNY), and meteorological conditions to the reduction of NO2 was evaluated. NO2 vertical column densities (VCDs) from January to March 2020 decreased by 59.05% and 32.81%, relative to the same period in 2019 and 2021, respectively. During the period of 2020 COVID-19, the average NO2 VCDs were 50.50% and 29.96% lower than those during the pre-lockdown and post-lockdown periods, respectively. The NO2 volume mixing ratios (VMRs) during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown significantly decreased below 400 m. The NO2 VMRs under the different wind fields were significantly lower during the lockdown period than during the pre-lockdown period. This phenomenon could be attributed to the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. The NO2 VMRs before and after the CNY were significantly lower in 2020 than in 2019 and 2021 in the same period, which further proves that the decrease in NO2 in February 2020 was attributed to the COVID-19 lockdown. Pollution source analysis of an NO2 pollution episode during the lockdown period showed that the polluted air mass in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei was transported southwards under the action of the north wind, and the subsequent unfavorable meteorological conditions (local wind speed of < 2.0 m/sec) resulted in the accumulation of pollutants.

Microglial Tmem59 Deficiency Impairs Phagocytosis of Synapse and Leads to Autism-Like Behaviors in Mice.

Synaptic abnormality is an important pathologic feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and responsible for various behavioral defects in these neurodevelopmental disorders. Microglia are the major immune cells in the brain and also play an important role in synapse refinement. Although dysregulated synaptic pruning by microglia during the brain development has been associated with ASDs, the underlying mechanism has yet to be fully elucidated. Herein, we observed that expression of Transmembrane protein 59 (TMEM59), a protein recently shown to regulate microglial function, was decreased in autistic patients. Furthermore, we found that both male and female mice with either complete or microglia-specific loss of Tmem59 developed ASD-like behaviors. Microglial TMEM59-deficient mice also exhibited enhanced excitatory synaptic transmission, increased dendritic spine density, and elevated levels of excitatory synaptic proteins in synaptosomes. TMEM59-deficient microglia had impaired capacity for synapse engulfment both in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, we demonstrated that TMEM59 interacted with the C1q receptor CD93 and TMEM59 deficiency promoted CD93 protein degradation in microglia. Downregulation of CD93 in microglia also impaired synapse engulfment. These findings identify a crucial role of TMEM59 in modulating microglial function on synapse refinement during brain development and suggest that TMEM59 deficiency may contribute to ASDs through disrupting phagocytosis of excitatory synapse and thus distorting the excitatory-inhibitory (E/I) neuronal activity balance.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Microglia play an important role in synapse refinement. Dysregulated synaptic pruning by microglia during brain development has been associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). However, the underlying mechanism has yet to be fully elucidated. Herein, we observe that the expression of Transmembrane protein 59 (TMEM59), an autophagy-related protein, is decreased in autistic patients. Moreover, we find ASD-like behaviors in mice with complete loss and with microglia-specific loss of Tmem59 Mechanistic studies reveal that TMEM59 deficiency in microglia impairs their synapse engulfment ability likely through destabilizing the C1q receptor CD93, thereby leading to enhanced excitatory neurotransmission and increased dendritic spine density. Our findings demonstrate a crucial role of microglial TMEM59 in early neuronal development and provide new insight into the etiology of ASDs.

Increased level of RAB39B leads to neuronal dysfunction and behavioural changes in mice.

Duplications of the Xq28 region are a common cause of X-linked intellectual disability (XLID). The RAB39B gene locates in Xq28 and has been implicated in disease pathogenesis. However, whether increased dosage of RAB39B leads to cognitive impairment and synaptic dysfunction remains elusive. Herein, we overexpressed RAB39B in mouse brain by injecting AAVs into bilateral ventricles of neonatal animals. We found that at 2 months of age, neuronal overexpression of RAB39B impaired the recognition memory and the short-term working memory in mice and resulted in certain autism-like behaviours, including social novelty defect and repetitive grooming behaviour in female mice. Moreover, overexpression of RAB39B decreased dendritic arborization of primary neurons in vitro and reduced synaptic transmission in female mice. Neuronal overexpression of RAB39B also altered autophagy without affecting levels and PSD distribution of synaptic proteins. Our results demonstrate that overexpression of RAB39B compromises normal neuronal development, thereby resulting in dysfunctional synaptic transmission and certain intellectual disability and behavioural abnormalities in mice. These findings identify a molecular mechanism underlying XLID with increased copy numbers of Xq28 and provide potential strategies for disease intervention.

Pushing photon-pair generation rate in microresonators by Q factor manipulation.

Photon pairs generated by employing spontaneous nonlinear effects in microresonators are critically essential for integrated optical quantum information technologies, such as quantum computation and quantum cryptography. Microresonators featuring high-quality (Q) factors can offer simple yet power-efficient means to generate photon pairs, thanks to the intracavity field enhancement. In microresonators, it is known that the photon-pair generation rate (PGR) is roughly proportional to the cubic power of the Q factor. However, the upper limit on PGR is also set by the Q factor: a higher Q factor brings a longer photon lifetime, which in turn leads to a lower repetition rate allowing for photon flow emitted from the microresonator, constrained by the Fourier-transform limit. Exceeding this limit will result in the overlap of photon wave packets in the time domain, thus degrading the quantum character of single-photon light beams. To push the limit of PGR in a single resonator, we propose a method by harnessing the resonance linewidth-manipulated microresonators to improve the maximum achievable photon repetition rate while keeping the power efficiency. The maximum achievable PGR and power efficiency are thus balanced by leveraging the combination of low and high-Q resonances.

In situ H2 O2 Generation and Corresponding Pollutant Removal Applications: A Review.

Catalytic hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) generation from oxygen and water enables a sustainable environment to operate in an effective and green energy-to-chemical conversion way, which has attracted increasing interest in the fields of energy production and environment treatment. In light of this, tremendous progresses and developments have been made during the past decades in catalytic H2 O2 production for pollutant removal from three perspectives including photocatalysis, electrocatalysis or chemical activation. Herein, we critically review the state-of-the-art developments over various procedures of H2 O2 generation and its further application, with the existence of photocatalysts, electrocatalysts, and catalysts, respectively. Benefiting from extensively experimental and theoretical investigations, the performance and stability of H2 O2 generation and its utilization can be maneuvered by devising catalytic platform based on numerous catalysts with predominant electronic, chemical and physical properties, which endow the catalysts with efficient electrons transportation, abundant active sites, and sufficient oxygen adsorption for H2 O2 generation. Furthermore, this review also discusses the formation mechanism of H2 O2 by 2e-ORR and 2e-WOR, as well as its functional process of activating and removing pollutants, and summarizes the design principles of various catalysts by focusing on the formation of H2 O2 . We finally highlight the specific challenges and prospects related to the utilization of catalysts and envision the possible future development trends in the fields of pollutant removal.

Electrically Manipulated Vapor Condensation on the Dimpled Surface: Insights from Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Random vapor nucleation leads to flooding condensation with degraded heat-transfer efficiency. Since an external electric field has a significant effect on manipulating droplets' motion, it is possible to be one of the effective methods to hinder flooding phenomena and improve the heat-transfer rate by applying the external electric field during condensation. However, the motion of nanodroplets is more sensitive to the electric field owing to the scale effect on the nanoscale. The effect of the electric field on growth has not explicitly been comprehended. This work studied the condensation processes on a nanodimpled surface under an electric field with various strengths and directions. The results showed that condensed droplets' growth under the electric field depends on the competition between the electric field force and solid-liquid interactions. Increased vertical electric field strength, the higher torsion by the electric field hindered the motion of vapor, decreased the collision frequency for water molecules with the cooled surface, and elongated the cluster when the electric field force dominates, thus deteriorating the condensation performance. While applying the horizontal electric field, the greater electric field strength leads to better condensation performance by the larger contacting area for heat exchange. A wetting transition induced by the electric field was observed when the electric field strength increased to a certain extent (E > 5.2 × 108 V/m in this study). When the V-shaped surface replaced the dimpled surface as the condensed substrate, the same wetting transition phenomena occurred under a more significant horizontal electric field strength, showing that this method is universal. Besides, different electric field frequencies influenced both the growth and the nucleation, thus exhibiting various condensation performances.

Prehospital Ultra-Early Neurological Deterioration in Intracerebral Hemorrhage: Definition, Prevalence, and Association with Outcomes.

INTRODUCTION: The objective of this study was to define prehospital ultra-early neurological deterioration (UND) and to investigate the association with functional outcomes in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study of consecutive acute ICH patients. The stroke severity at onset and hospital admission was assessed using the Chongqing Stroke Scale (CQSS), and prehospital UND was defined as a CQSS increase of ≥2 points between symptoms onset and admission. Early neurological deterioration (END) was defined as the increase of ≥4 points in NIHSS score within the first 24 h after admission. Poor outcome was defined as a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) of 4-6 at 3 months. RESULTS: Prehospital UND occurred in 29 of 169 patients (17.2%). Patients with prehospital UND had a median admission NIHSS score of 17.0 as opposed to those without prehospital UND with a median NIHSS score of 8.5. There were three patterns of neurological deterioration: prehospital UND only in 21 of 169 patients (12.4%), END but without prehospital UND in 20 of 169 patients (11.8%), and continuous neurological deterioration in both phases in 8 patients (4.7%). Prehospital UND was associated with worse 3-month outcomes (median mRS score, 4.0 vs. 2.0, p = 0.002). After adjusting for age, time from onset to admission, END, and systolic blood pressure, prehospital UND was an independent predictor of poor outcome (odds ratio [OR] 3.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.26-8.48, p = 0.015). CONCLUSION: Prehospital UND occurs in approximately 1 in 7 patients between symptom onset and admission and is associated with poor functional outcome in patients with ICH. Further research is needed to investigate the prehospital UND in the prehospital phase in the triage of patients with ICH.

Netrin-1 and RGMa: Novel Regulators of Atherosclerosis-Related Diseases.

BACKGROUNDS: Neuronal guidance proteins (NGPs) have been demonstrated to guide the elongation of neuronal axonal growth cones in the developing central nervous system. Non-neuronal functions of NGPs have also been described, especially in relation to atherosclerosis. FINDINGS: Netrin-1 and repulsive guidance molecule a (RGMa) are NGPs that have been shown to regulate endothelial cell adhesion and angiogenesis, macrophage migration and apoptosis, smooth muscle cells (SMCs) phenotypic dedifferentiation and mobility, chemokine activities, and inflammatory responses during atherosclerosis initiation and progression. PURPOSES: However, mechanistic studies have generated controversy about the specific role of Netrin-1 in atherosclerosis due to the diversity of its structure, receptors and cell sources, and the actions of RGMa in atherosclerosis have not been reported in previous reviews. Therefore, the current work reviews the evidence for roles of Netrin-1 and RGMa in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis and discusses potential therapeutic targets in the future.

Contributions of ARID5B, IKZF1, PIP4K2A, and GATA3 Gene Polymorphisms to Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in a Chinese Population.

Various studies have shown that single nucleotide polymorphisms in the AT-rich interaction domain 5B (ARID5B), IKAROS family zinc finger 1 (IKZF1), phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate 4-kinase type 2 alpha (PIP4K2A), and GATA binding protein 3 (GATA3) genes may be associated with the susceptibility and prognosis of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The present study aimed to investigate the association of ARID5B rs10821936, IKZF1 rs4132601, PIP4K2A rs7088318, and GATA3 rs3824662 gene polymorphisms with the susceptibility and prognosis of childhood ALL in China. We found that the C allele of rs10821936 (ARID5B) and the A allele of rs3824662 (GATA3) were associated with an increased risk of childhood ALL in the Chinese population. There was no significant difference in frequencies of rs4132601 (IKZF1) and rs7088318 (PIP4K2A) genotypes and alleles between the childhood ALL and control groups. We observed that CC genotype of rs10821936 (ARID5B) was associated with increased rates of high-risk and moderate-risk childhood ALL. The rs10821936 (ARID5B) could serve as a potential biomarker for assessing the risk of childhood ALL in Chinese children.