I Single-Atom Doped P-Rich CoPn Nanocluster@CoP with Enhanced HER.

Constructing I single-atom (ISA) doped CoP electrocatalyst for HER is extremely challenging and has not been reported to date. Herein, an ISA doping-phosphatization strategy is proposed to prepare a novel I single-atom doped P-rich CoPn nanocluster@CoP electrocatalyst (ISA-CoPn/CoP) with enhanced HER performance first. ISA-CoPn/CoP shows a low overpotential of only 44 and 81 mV in 0.5 m H2SO4 solution, to drive a current density of 10 and 100 mA cm-2. ISA and P-rich CoPn nanocluster show unique synergies, which can optimize the H adsorption energy and accelerate the kinetics of HER in the CoP system. The intermediate I─H bond vibration peak is directly observed through in situ Raman testing, demonstrating that ISA doping helps accelerate the HER process. Additionally, the ΔGH of ISA-CoPn/CoP is only 0.05 eV by density functional theory (DFT) calculation, which is conducive to H2 evolution.

DGW1, encoding an hnRNP-like RNA binding protein, positively regulates grain size and weight by interacting with GW6 mRNA.

Grain size and weight determine rice yield. Although numerous genes and pathways involved in regulating grain size have been identified, our knowledge of post-transcriptional control of grain size remains elusive. In this study, we characterize a rice mutant, decreased grain width and weight 1 (dgw1), which produces small grains. We show that DGW1 encodes a member of the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) family protein and preferentially expresses in developing panicles, positively regulating grain size by promoting cell expansion in spikelet hulls. Overexpression of DGW1 increases grain weight and grain numbers, leading to a significant rise in rice grain yield. We further demonstrate that DGW1 functions in grain size regulation by directly binding to the mRNA of Grain Width 6 (GW6), a critical grain size regulator in rice. Overexpression of GW6 restored the grain size phenotype of DGW1-knockout plants. DGW1 interacts with two oligouridylate binding proteins (OsUBP1a and OsUBP1b), which also bind the GW6 mRNA. In addition, the second RRM domain of DGW1 is indispensable for its mediated protein-RNA and protein-protein interactions. In summary, our findings identify a new regulatory module of DGW1-GW6 that regulates rice grain size and weight, providing important insights into the function of hnRNP-like proteins in the regulation of grain size.

Analysis of Fever Following Bronchoscopy and Endobronchial Ultrasound-Guided Transbronchial Needle Aspiration.

Objective: Bronchoscopy and endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) are two essential methods for obtaining the pathological diagnosis of central lung masses or hilar and mediastinal lymphadenopathy. We can observe that many patients have a fever after examinations, but the pathogenesis is not yet fully clear. We tried to comprehensively assess the occurrence of postoperative fever and bacterial infections in patients undergoing bronchoscopy and endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) procedures. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 512 patients undergoing bronchoscopy or EBUS-TBNA examination. According to examination methods, all patients were classified into three groups: Only perform bronchoscopy examination (BO) group (122 cases)，both perform bronchoscopy and biopsy (BB) group (262 cases), and EBUS-TBNA after bronchoscopy (EBUS) group (128 cases). Peripheral blood leucocyte, neutrophil count, and serum IL-6 test results were obtained before and after the examination. A blood culture was performed when the body temperature was higher than 38.5°C. Results: Among the three groups, the onset time (5.5h), average duration (6h), and peak temperature (37.7°C) of fever in the BO group were lower than those in the BB and EBUS groups. Still, there was no significant difference in onset time (11.66h, 11.83h), average duration (12.86h, 13.56h), and peak temperature (39.1°C, 39.1°C) between the BB group and EBUS group. There was no significant difference in the peripheral blood leukocyte count, neutrophil count or IL-6 level before the operation (P > .05). Compared with the preoperative, the leukocyte count, neutrophil count and IL-6 level in the three groups were increased after the operation (P < .05). Positive blood cultures were diagnosed as normal oropharyngeal flora. Conclusions: Postoperative fever after bronchoscopy is a relatively common complication, most of which do not require special treatment. Individuals with concomitant diseases such as diabetes may have postoperative infections after EBUS-TBNA, and they should be emphatically observed. The findings could potentially extend to similar diagnostic procedures or situations in pulmonary medicine. Understanding the risk factors associated with postoperative fever can help healthcare providers manage patient expectations and monitor certain groups more closely.

Light and Displacement Compensation-Based iPPG for Heart-Rate Measurement in Complex Detection Conditions.

A light and displacement-compensation-based iPPG algorithm is proposed in this paper for heart-rate measurement in complex detection conditions. Two compensation sub-algorithms, including light compensation and displacement compensation, are designed and integrated into the iPPG algorithm for more accurate heart-rate measurement. In the light-compensation sub-algorithm, the measurement deviation caused by the ambient light change is compensated by the mean filter-based light adjustment strategy. In the displacement-compensation sub-algorithm, the measurement deviation caused by the subject motion is compensated by the optical flow-based displacement calculation strategy. A series of heart-rate measurement experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Compared with conventional iPPG, the average measurement accuracy increases by 3.8% under different detection distances and 5.0% under different light intensities.

Fast Reaction Kinetics and Commendable Low-Temperature Adaptability of Zinc Batteries Enabled by Aprotic Water-Acetamide Symbiotic Solvation Sheath.

Although rechargeable aqueous zinc batteries are cost effectiveness, intrinsicly safe, and high activity, they are also known for bringing rampant hydrogen evolution reaction and corrosion. While eutectic electrolytes can effectively eliminate these issues, its high viscosity severely reduces the mobility of Zn2+ ions and exhibits poor temperature adaptability. Here, we infuse acetamide molecules with Lewis base and hydrogen bond donors into a solvated shell of Zn[(H2 O)6 ]2+ to create Zn(H2 O)3 (ace)(BF4 )2 . The viscosity of 1ace-1H2 O is 0.032 Pa s, significantly lower than that of 1ace-0H2 O (995.6 Pa s), which improves ionic conductivity (9.56 mS cm-1 ) and shows lower freezing point of -45 °C, as opposed to 1ace-0H2 O of 4.04 mS cm-1 and 12 °C, respectively. The acidity of 1ace-1H2 O is ≈2.8, higher than 0ace-1H2 O at ≈0.76, making side reactions less likely. Furthermore, benefiting from the ZnCO3 /ZnF2 -rich organic/inorganic solid electrolyte interface, the Zn || Zn cells cycle more than 1300 hours at 1 mA cm-2 , and the Zn || Cu operated over 1800 cycles with an average Coulomb efficiency of ≈99.8 %. The Zn || PANI cell cycled over 8500 cycles, with a specific capacity of 99.8 mAh g-1 at 5 A g-1 at room temperature, and operated at -40 °C with a capacity of 66.8 mAh g-1 .

Metastable Liquid Properties and Surface Flow Patterns of Ultrahigh Temperature Alloys Explored in Outer Space.

The metastable liquid properties and chemical bonds beyond 2000 K remain a huge challenge for ground-based research on liquid materials chemistry. We show the strong undercooling capability, metastable liquid properties and surface wave patterns of refractory Nb-Si and Zr-V binary alloys explored in space environment. The floating droplet of Nb82.7Si17.3 eutectic alloy superheated up to 2338 K exhibited an extreme undercooling of 437 K, approaching the 0.2TE threshold for homogeneous nucleation of liquid-solid reaction. The microgravity state endowed alloy droplets with nearly perfect sphericity and thus ensured the high accuracy to determine metastable undercooled liquid properties. A special kind of swirling flow was induced for liquid alloy owing to Marangoni convection, which resulted in the spiral microstructures on Zr64V36 alloy surface during liquid-solid phase transition. The coupled impacts of surface nucleation and surface flow brought in a novel olivary shape for these binary alloys. Furthermore, the chemical bonds and atomic structures of high temperature liquids were revealed to understand the liquid properties in outer space circumstances.

Lipoprotein(a), family history of cardiovascular disease, and incidence of heart failure.

Lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) is a largely genetically determined biomarker for cardiovascular disease (CVD), while its potential interplay with family history (FHx) of CVD, a measure of both genetic and environmental exposures, remains unclear. We examined the associations of Lp(a) in terms of circulating concentration or polygenetic risk score (PRS), and FHx of CVD with risk of incident heart failure (HF). Included were 299,158 adults from the UK Biobank without known HF and CVD at baseline. Hazards ratios (HRs) and 95% Cls were estimated by Cox regression models adjusted for traditional risk factors defined by the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study HF risk score. During the 11.8-year follow-up, 5,502 incidents of HF occurred. Higher levels of circulating Lp(a), Lp(a) PRS, and positive FHx of CVD were associated with higher risks of HF. Compared with individuals who had lower circulating Lp(a) and no FHx, HRs (95% CIs) of HF were 1.36 (1.25, 1.49), 1.31 (1.19, 1.43), and 1.42 (1.22, 1.67) for those with higher Lp(a) and a positive history of CVD for all family members, parents, and siblings, respectively; similar results were observed by using Lp(a) PRS. The risk estimates for HF associated with elevated Lp(a) and positive FHx were attenuated after excluding those with incident myocardial infarction (MI) during follow-up. Lp(a) and FHx of CVD were independent risk factors for incident HF, and the highest risk of HF was observed among individuals with both risk factors. The association may be partly mediated by myocardial infarction.

CircAGO2 promotes colorectal cancer progression by inhibiting heat shock protein family B (small) member 8 via miR-1-3p/retinoblastoma binding protein 4 axis.

This paper was to uncover the mechanism of circular RNA Argonaute 2 (circAGO2) in colorectal cancer (CRC) progression. The expression of circAGO2 was detected in CRC cells and tissues, and the relationship between clinicopathological features of CRC and circAGO2 level was evaluated. The growth and invasion of CRC cells and subcutaneous xenograft of nude mice were measured to evaluate the effect of circAGO2 on CRC development. Bioinformatics databases were applied to analyze levels of retinoblastoma binding protein 4 (RBBP4) and heat shock protein family B 8 (HSPB8) in cancer tissues. The relevance of circAGO2 and RBBP4 expression and the relationship between RBBP4 and HSPB8 during histone acetylation were assessed. The targeting relationship between miR-1-3p and circAGO2 or RBBP4 was predicted and confirmed. The effects of miR-1-3p and RBBP4 on biological functions of CRC cells were also verified. CircAGO2 was upregulated in CRC. CircAGO2 promoted the growth and invasion of CRC cells. CircAGO2 competitively bound to miR-1-3p and regulated RBBP4 expression, thus inhibiting HSPB8 transcription by promoting histone deacetylation. Silencing circAGO2 enhanced miR-1-3p expression and reduced RBBP4 expression, while suppression of miR-1-3p downgraded levels of miR-1-3p, up-regulated RBBP4, and facilitated cell proliferation and invasion in the presence of silencing circAGO2. RBBP4 silencing decreased RBBP4 expression and reduced proliferation and invasion of cells where circAGO2 and miR-1-3p were silenced. CircAGO2 overexpression decoyed miR-1-3p to increase RBBP4 expression, which inhibited HSPB8 transcription via histone deacetylation in HSPB8 promoter region, promoting proliferation and invasion of CRC cells.

Engineering Low-Cost Organic Cathode for Aqueous Rechargeable Battery and Demonstrating the Proton Intercalation Mechanism for Pyrazine Energy Storage Unit.

Seeking organic cathode materials with low cost and long cycle life that can be employed for large-scale energy storage remains a significant challenge. This work has synthesized an organic compound, triphenazino[2,3-b](1,4,5,8,9,12-hexaazatriphenylene) (TPHATP), with as high as 87.16% yield. This compound has a highly π-conjugated and rigid molecular structure, which is synthesized by capping hexaketocyclohexane with three molecules of 2,3-diaminophenazine derived from low-cost o-phenylenediamine, and is used as a cathode material for assembling aqueous rechargeable zinc ion batteries. Both experiments and DFT calculations demonstrate that the redox mechanism of TPHATP is predominantly governed by H+ storage. The Zn-intercalation product of nitride-type compound, is too unstable to form in water. Moreover, the TPHATP cathode exhibits a capacity of as high as 318.3 mAh g-1 at 0.1 A g-1 , and maintained a stable capacity of 111.9 mAh g-1 at a large current density of 10 A g-1 for 5000 cycles with only a decay of 0.000512% per cycle. This study provides new insights into understanding pyrazine as an active redox group and offers a potential affordable aqueous battery system for grid-scale energy storage.

90-m/560-Mbps underwater wireless optical communication utilizing subband multiple-mode full permutation CAP combined with an SNR-weighted detector and multi-channel DFE.

In this paper, a joint signal processing scheme including a subband multiple-mode full permutation carrierless amplitude phase modulation (SMMP-CAP), signal-to-noise ratio weighted detector (SNR-WD), and multi-channel decision feedback equalizer (MC-DFE) is proposed to mitigate the bandwidth limitation of a high-speed long-reach underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) system. Referring to the trellis coded modulation (TCM) subset division strategy, 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) mapping set is divided into four 4-QAM mapping subsets by SMMP-CAP scheme. An SNR-WD and an MC-DFE are employed to enhance the demodulation effect of this system in a fading channel. In a laboratory experiment, the minimal required received optical powers (ROPs) for data rates of 480 Mbps, 600 Mbps, and 720 Mbps, at hard-decision forward error correction (HD-FEC) threshold of 3.80 × 10-3, are -32.7 dBm, -31.3 dBm, and -25.5 dBm, respectively. Moreover, the proposed system successfully achieves a data rate of 560 Mbps in a swimming pool with a transmission distance up to 90 m and a total attenuation measured to be 54.64 dB. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to demonstrate a high-speed, long-distance UWOC system by employing an SMMP-CAP scheme.

Bridging optical fiber communication and underwater wireless optical communication via third harmonic generation.

In this paper, we propose an optical module, consisting of an Erbium/Ytterbium co-doped fiber amplifier (EYDFA) and a cascaded periodically poled lithium niobate (cascaded-PPLN), to bridge the conventional telecommunication and the emerging underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC). Compared with using two discrete crystals to achieve the third harmonic generation (THG), using a cascaded crystal simplifies the optical system. Under a fundamental power of 5 W at 1550 nm, we have generated an optical power of 6.54 mW at 516 nm, corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 0.1308%. Furthermore, we added a 5-km single-mode fiber (SMF) before the EYDFA, and by adjusting the seed laser power, we successfully maintained the efficiency of the THG process and the output power of the green light. Afterwards, the nonlinearity of the THG process is analyzed, and a simplified nonlinear pre-compensation method has been proposed to tailor the 4-pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) signals. In such case, the bit error rate (BER) of the modified PAM4 (m-PAM4) can reduce by 69.3% at a data rate of 12 Gbps. Finally, we demonstrate the practicality of our proposed system by achieving a 7-m UWOC transmission in a water tank at a data rate of 13.46 Gbps in an optical dark room. This result demonstrates the feasibility of the hybrid fiber/UWOC system, highlighting its potential for practical implementation.

Early detection of myocardial fibrosis in cardiomyopathy in the absence of late enhancement: role of T1 mapping and extracellular volume analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To analyze myocardial fibrosis in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) patients with no late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) using T1 mapping and extracellular volume (ECV) and investigate the potential correlation with left ventricular (LV) dilation and dysfunction. METHODS: The study included 41 DCM patients without LGE and 79 healthy controls. T1 and ECV were compared between the two groups using multivariable logistic regression analysis. The correlations between histological and functional parameters were evaluated using Pearson's correlation. RESULTS: Mean native myocardial T1 and ECV were significantly higher in the DCM group compared to controls (p ≤ 0.001, respectively). Multivariable logistic regression revealed that ECV (mean, minimum), LV ejection fraction (LVEF), and LV end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD) were independent discriminators for LGE-negative DCM; the area under the curve (AUC) of LVEF, LVEDD, ECV mean, and ECV minimum were 0.97, 0.96, 0.88, and 0.68, respectively. In the DCM group, LVEDD and LVEF were positively and negatively correlated with ECV, respectively. LVEDV index and LV end-systolic volume (LVESV) index were positively correlated with native-T1 and ECV, and the absolute value of LV global strain had a negative correlation with ECV. CONCLUSIONS: Early myocardial fibrosis in DCM could be detected by prolonged native T1 and elevated ECV despite the absence of LGE on CMR. Moreover, the change of histological characteristics of myocardium in DCM was correlated with LV dilation and dysfunction. KEY POINTS: • At an early stage, patients with DCM may have myocardial fibrosis despite the absence of LGE. • T1 mapping and ECV are efficient methods for early detection of potential myocardial fibrosis. • Increased native T1 and ECV are correlated with left ventricular dilation and dysfunction in LGE-negative DCM patients.

The urban-rural disparities and factors associated with the utilization of public health services among diabetes patients in China.

BACKGROUND: Basic public health services for diabetes play an essential role in controlling glycemia in patients with diabetes. This study was conducted to understand the urban-rural disparities in the utilization of basic public health services for people with diabetes and the factors influencing them. METHODS: The data were obtained from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) with 2976 diabetes patients. Chi-square tests were used to examine the disparities in the utilization of diabetes physical examination and health education between urban and rural areas. Logistic regression was performed to explore the factors associated with the utilization of diabetes public health services. RESULTS: Among all participants, 8.4% used diabetes physical examination in the past year, and 28.4% used diabetes health education services. A significant association with age (OR = 0.64, 95% CI:0.49-0.85; P < 0.05) was found between patients' use of health education services. Compared with diabetes patients living in an urban area, diabetes patients living in a rural area used less diabetes health education. (χ2= 92.39, P < 0.05). Patients' self-reported health status (OR = 2.04, CI:1.24-3.35; P < 0.05) and the use of glucose control (OR = 9.33, CI:6.61-13.16; P < 0.05) were significantly positively associated with the utilization of diabetes physical examination. Patients with higher education levels were more likely to use various kinds of health education services than their peers with lower education levels (OR = 1.64, CI:1.21-2.22; P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Overall, urban-rural disparities in the utilization of public health services existed. Vulnerable with diabetes, such as those in rural areas, are less available to use diabetes public health services. Providing convenient health service infrastructure facilitates the utilization of basic public health services for diabetes in older patients with diabetes, especially in rural areas.

Coordinated analysis of county geological environment carrying capacity and sustainable development under remote sensing interpretation combined with integrated model.

Geological environment carrying capacity (GECC) is the key to regional sustainable development (RSD). The study has become an international heat due to frequent global geological disasters, which have resulted in socio-economic losses, weakened GECC. Therefore, this study combined with quantity of information (QI), random forest (RF) and XGBoost (XGB) algorithms, constructed a GECC assessment model in Xiuyan, China based on remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) techniques. The validity of the model was verified by disaster information in two period. The results reveal that the indicator system of RS image can reflect the geological factors' influence on GECC more truthfully, and avoided duplication of indicators. The correlation coefficients of the indicators were all less than 0.9, which showed the validity of the indicator system. The QI_RF model performed best with high accuracy (0.96). The mean absolute error (MAE) is 0.098. The disaster management cost (DMC), elevation and rainfall were the main indicators with weights over 0.1. The GECC in study area is mainly balanced. Although the overloaded area was smallest, it was the key area to limit the RSD, which had been improved by adjusting the land or human activities planning. Compared with the results of geological disasters in two period, the disasters in overloaded area were reduced by 58%, which showed that the improvement measures under this model were effective. The method of GECC assessment based on RS and integrated model proposed in this study takes into account the common indicators that affect the development of geological disasters. It can provide reference for RSD under the influence of geological disasters and has universal applicability.

Improved 3D Pavement Texture Reconstruction Method Based on Interference Fringe via Optimizing the Post-Processing Method.

The surface quality of pavement has a significant influence on the driving comfort and the skid resistance performance of roads. The 3D pavement texture measurement provides the basis for engineers to calculate the pavement performance index, such as the international roughness index (IRI), the texture depth (TD), and the rutting depth index (RDI), of different types of pavements. The interference-fringe-based texture measurement is widely used because of its high accuracy and high resolution, by which the 3D texture measurement has excellent accuracy in measuring the texture of workpieces with a diameter of <30 mm. When measuring the engineering products with a larger area (or larger areas), such as pavement surfaces, however, the accuracy is deficient because unequal incident angles due to the beam-divergence angle of the laser beam are ignored during the postprocessing of the measured data. This study aims to improve the accuracy of 3D pavement texture reconstruction based on the interference fringe (3D-PTRIF) by considering the influence of the unequal incident angles during postprocessing. It is found that the improved 3D-PTRIF has better accuracy than the traditional 3D-PTRIF, reducing the reconstruction errors between the measured value and the standard value by 74.51%. In addition, it solves the problem of a reconstructed slant surface, which deviates from the horizontal plane of the original surface. Compared to the traditional post-processing method, for the case of smooth surface, the slope can be decreased by 69.00%; for the case of coarse surface, the slope can be decreased by 15.29%. The results of this study will facilitate accurate quantifying of the pavement performance index by using the interference fringe technique, such as IRI, TD, and RDI.

Demonstration of photonics-based flexible integration of sensing and communication with adaptive waveforms for a W-band fiber-wireless integrated network.

The integration of sensing and communication (ISAC) in millimeter-waves (MMW) will play an important role in future 6G applications. Photonics-based radar sensing and communication systems have the advantages of high bandwidth in terms of high-resolution sensing and high-speed data transmission and can be inherently integrated with fiber-optic networks. To support flexible application scenarios, in this paper, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated an MMW photonics-based flexible ISAC system with adaptive signal waveforms for a W-band fiber-wireless integrated network. Photonics-based W-band ISAC signals are generated by heterodyning two free-running external cavity lasers. Microwave photonics-based radar signal processing supports centralized and seamless fiber-wireless communication and sensing networks. In our proposed system, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and linear frequency modulation (LFM) signals were combined by frequency-division multiplexing to share this bandwidth. Therefore, we can adaptively allocate bandwidths to OFDM and LFM signals according to the application requirements and realize a flexible ISAC system with high-speed communication and high-resolution radar sensing. As a proof-of-concept, a flexible W-band fiber-wireless ISAC system at 96.5 GHz over 10-km fiber transmission was demonstrated, achieving adaptive access rates from 5.98 to 41.48 Gbit/s after transmission over 1-m free space, and adaptive sensing resolutions from 1.53 to 6.94 cm with the distance error after calibration less than 4 cm. The performance of both communication and sensing under different bandwidth ratios was also studied.

Large-area SnTe nanofilm: preparation and its broadband photodetector with ultra-low dark current.

Photodetectors are receiving increasing attention because of their widely important applications. Therefore, developing broadband high-performance photodetectors using new materials that can function at room temperature has become increasingly important. As a functional material, tin telluride (SnTe), has been widely studied as a thermoelectric material. Furthermore, because of its narrow bandgap, it can be used as a novel infrared photodetector material. In this study, a large-area SnTe nanofilm with controllable thickness was deposited onto a quartz substrate using magnetron sputtering and was used to fabricate a photodetector. The device exhibited a photoelectric response over a broad spectral range of 400-1050 nm. In the near-infrared band of 940 nm, the detectivity (D*) and responsivity (R) of the photodetector were 3.46×1011 cmHz1/2w-1 and 1.71 A/W, respectively, at an optical power density of 0.2 mWcm-2. As the thickness of the SnTe nanofilm increased, a transition from semiconducting to metallic properties was experimentally observed for the first time. The large-area (2.5cm × 2.5cm) high-performance nanofilms show important potential for application in infrared focal plane array (FPA) detectors.

Analysis of spleen of mice (Mus musculus) infected with Aspergillus nidulans identifies immune-related genes.

Aspergillus nidulans (A. nidulans) is an ascomycetous fungus that can cause disseminated infection in humans or animals. The present study aimed to explore the pathogenesis and host spleen immune response after infection with A. nidulans. Thirty KM mice were divided into control group (C) and treated group (T). Serum was collected for the detection of inflammatory markers. Spleens were collected for histopathological examination, fungal culture and transcriptomic analysis. Compared with the control group, the concentrations of serum total protein (TP), globulin (GLO) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were significantly increased (P < 0.01), but the concentration of albumin (ALB) and the ratio of albumin/globulin (A/G) were significantly decreased in the treated group (P < 0.01). In addition, the splenic red pulp was hyperemic, and the white pulp was infiltrated by inflammatory cells in treated group. The chromatin was aggregated, and the mitochondria were swollen in the spleen lymphocytes of treated group. Transcriptome sequencing results showed that 47.2 million and 44.9 million clean reads were obtained in the control group and treated group, respectively. 946 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were obtained, including 372 up-regulated genes and 574 down-regulated genes. GO analysis showed that these DEGs were mainly involved in the immune responses, antigen binding, immunoglobulin receptor binding, bacterial defence responses, endopeptidase activity and so on. Moreover, KEGG analysis showed that these DEGs were mainly enriched in the following pathways: complement and coagulation cascades, retinol metabolism, cytochrome p450, IL-17 signalling pathway and so on. Additionally, 9 DEGs was validated by qRT-PCR approach. In summary, this study revealed the immune response mechanism of spleen in A. nidulan-infected mice. It will benefit for a better understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of A. nidulans.

The association between meat consumption and the metabolic syndrome: a cross-sectional study and meta-analysis.

The findings regarding the associations between red meat, fish and poultry consumption, and the metabolic syndrome (Mets) have been inconclusive, and evidence from Chinese populations is scarce. A cross-sectional study was performed to investigate the associations between red meat, fish and poultry consumption, and the prevalence of the Mets and its components among the residents of Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou, China. A total of 4424 participants were eligible for the analysis. A logistic regression model was used to estimate the OR and 95 % CI for the prevalence of the Mets and its components according to red meat, fish and poultry consumption. In addition, the data of our cross-sectional study were meta-analysed under a random effects model along with those of published observational studies to generate the summary relative risks (RR) of the associations between the highest v. lowest categories of red meat, fish and poultry consumption and the Mets and its components. In the cross-sectional study, the multivariable-adjusted OR for the highest v. lowest quartiles of consumption was 1·23 (95 % CI 1·02, 1·48) for red meat, 0·83 (95 % CI 0·72, 0·97) for fish and 0·93 (95 % CI 0·74, 1·18) for poultry. In the meta-analysis, the pooled RR for the highest v. lowest categories of consumption was 1·20 (95 % CI 1·06, 1·35) for red meat, 0·88 (95 % CI 0·81, 0·96) for fish and 0·97 (95 % CI 0·85, 1·10) for poultry. The findings of both cross-sectional studies and meta-analyses indicated that the association between fish consumption and the Mets may be partly driven by the inverse association of fish consumption with elevated TAG and reduced HDL-cholesterol and, to a lesser extent, fasting plasma glucose. No clear pattern of associations was observed between red meat or poultry consumption and the components of the Mets. The current findings add weight to the evidence that the Mets may be positively associated with red meat consumption, inversely associated with fish consumption and neutrally associated with poultry consumption.

Fe, Ni-modified ZIF-8 as a tensive precursor to derive N-doped carbon as Na and Li-ion batteries anodes.

Carbon materials derived from metal-organic frameworks have attracted increasing attention as anodes for energy storage. In this study, Fe, Ni-doped ZIF-8 is carbonized at high temperature to obtain bimetallic Fe and Ni modified tension -relaxed carbon (FeNi@trC). Fe and Ni have opposite structural modification effects when the metal ions are doped into the ZIF-8 dodecahedron. The obtained carbon material maintains the regular dodecahedron morphology, which means the relaxation of tension and strong thermal stability during annealing. Moreover, the presence of nickel enhances the carbonization degree and electrochemical stability of FeNi@trC, while the calcination of the tensive ZIF-8 precursor offers more defect sites. The discharge capacities of FeNi@trC materials are stable at 182.9 mAh·g-1and 567.9 mAh·g-1for sodium-ion batterie (SIB) and lithium-ion batterie (LIB) at 0.05 A·g-1. Compared with the current density of 0.05 A·g-1, the discharge capacity of SIB and LIB attenuates by 29.4% and 55.9% at 1 A·g-1, respectively, and the FeNi@trC shows good performance stability in the following cycles.