Lymphocyte counts predict optimal timing of chemotherapy reinitiation after antivirus treatment for herpes zoster in children with leukemia.

Herpes zoster (HZ) is rare in healthy children, but more prevalent in those with leukemia. Optimal timing of chemotherapy reinitiation after HZ treatment is challenging because chemotherapy suppresses immunity and increases risk of HZ relapse. We aimed to optimize the timing of chemotherapy reinitiation after HZ therapy in children with leukemia. The study included 31 children with acute leukemia and HZ infection. General information, clinical symptoms, laboratory test results, duration of HZ treatment, and prognosis were compared with those of children with leukemia alone. Correlation analysis was performed for 20 children who restarted chemotherapy after HZ treatment. Of 31 children with leukemia and HZ, 67.74% had lesions at multiple sites. The median time from chemotherapy initiation to HZ onset was 14.1 (1.5-29.5) months. Among 27 children included in the follow-up, there was one case of HZ relapse. After excluding children who did not continue chemotherapy after HZ treatment, the median interval between completion of HZ therapy and chemotherapy reinitiation in the remaining 20 children was 8.00 (- 3 to 27) days. Lymphocyte counts (LY#) on restarting chemotherapy correlated inversely with HZ lesion healing time (p < 0.05). LY# at the time of HZ onset were lower than those pre- and post-onset, and lower than those in the control group (p < 0.05). In conclusion, children with leukemia have a good HZ prognosis, but an increased risk of HZ recurrence. LY# at the time of chemotherapy reinitiation may be a useful indicator for selecting the optimal interval between antiviral therapy completion and chemotherapy reinitiation.

Image Intrinsic-Based Unsupervised Monocular Depth Estimation in Endoscopy.

Unsupervised monocular depth estimation plays a vital role for endoscopy-based minimally invasive surgery (MIS). However, it remains challenging due to the distinctive imaging characteristics of endoscopy which disrupt the assumption of photometric consistency, a foundation relied upon by conventional methods. Distinct from recent approaches taking image pre-processing strategy, this paper introduces a pioneering solution through intrinsic image decomposition (IID) theory. Specifically, we propose a novel end-to-end intrinsic-based unsupervised monocular depth learning framework that is comprised of an image intrinsic decomposition module and a synthesis reconstruction module. This framework seamlessly integrates IID with unsupervised monocular depth estimation, and dedicated losses are meticulously designed to offer robust supervision for network training based on this novel integration. Noteworthy, we rely on the favorable property of the resulting albedo map of IID to circumvent the challenging images characteristics instead of pre-processing the input frames. The proposed method is extensively validated on SCARED and Hamlyn datasets, and better results are obtained than state-of-the-art techniques. Beside, its generalization ability and the effectiveness of the proposed components are also validated. This innovative method has the potential to elevate the quality of 3D reconstruction in monocular endoscopy, thereby enhancing the accuracy and robustness of augmented reality navigation technology in MIS. Our code will be available at: https://github.com/bobo909/IID-SfmLearner.

Brønsted acid catalyzed [4 + 2] cycloaddition for the synthesis of bisbenzannulated spiroketals with antifungal activities.

The intermolecular [4 + 2] cycloaddition of o-hydroxy benzyl alcohols with isochroman ketals was realized by CF3CO2H catalysis. A broad range of bisbenzannulated [6,6]-spiroketals were formed under the metal-free mild conditions in moderate to excellent yields (45-98%) with mostly excellent diastereoselectivities (up to >20 : 1 dr). Furthermore, the enantioselective version was also preliminarily investigated and the bisbenzannulated [6,6]-spiroketal was obtained with 61% ee in the presence of Sc(OTf)3/Feng's chiral N,N'-dioxide ligand. Some of the bisbenzannulated [6,6]-spiroketal products showed good in vitro antifungal activities against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Rhizoctonia solani.

The causal relationship between vitiligo and autoimmune thyroid diseases: A bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis.

BACKGROUND: Vitiligo is an acquired autoimmune depigmented disorder characterized by the presence of white and well-defined patches on the skin, mucous membrane, or both. It is associated with a significant disease burden and has a profoundly impacts patients' quality of life. Autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs) result from an autoimmune system dysregulation, leading to an erroneous immune attack on the thyroid gland. Previous observational and epidemiological studies have suggested the association between vitiligo and AITDs. However, the bidirectional cause-effect relationship between vitiligo and AITDs has not been formally assessed. METHOD: Two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was conducted to explore potential causal relationships between genetically increased risk of vitiligo and AITDs, using summary statistics from genome-wide association studies in European populations. Causal effects were primarily estimated using the inverse variance weighted method, and additional quality control was performed using the MR-Egger, weighted median, simple mode, and weight mode methods. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the robustness of the results. RESULTS: The forward MR analysis showed a positive causal relationship between vitiligo and autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT), autoimmune hyperthyroidism (AIH), and Graves' disease (GD). The odds ratio (OR) were 1.17 (95% CI, 1.01-1.35; p = 0.04), 1.12 (95% CI, 1.03-1.22; p = 0.01), and 1.13 (95% CI, 1.06-1.20; p < 0.01), respectively. In the reverse MR analysis, a positive causal relationship was found between AIT and vitiligo, with an OR of 1.10 (95% CI, 1.01-1.35; p = 0.04). However, no causal relationship was observed between AIH (p = 0.10) or GD (p = 0.61) and vitiligo. Sensitivity analysis revealed no evidence of horizontal pleiotropy or heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS: The genetic-level investigation provides evidence of a genetic causal association between susceptibility to vitiligo and an increased risk of AITDs. Additionally, the results demonstrate a genetic causal association between susceptibility to AIT and an increased risk of vitiligo, while not indicating a similar association with susceptibility to AIH or GD.

Melatonin Attenuates Imiquimod-Induced Psoriasis-Like Inflammation and Restores the Th17/Treg Immune Balance.

Psoriasis is a common immune-mediated skin disease characterized by abnormally reactive inflammation and epidermal hyperplasia. Previous studies have shown melatonin (MLT) has powerful anti-inflammatory effects. The mechanisms that MLT regulates psoriasis-associated skin inflammation remain unclear. Here, in imiquimod-induced psoriasis-like mice, MLT supplementation reduced skin inflammation and corrected the Th17/Treg cell imbalance. Network pharmacology and proteome sequencing analyses revealed that MLT attenuates the inflammatory response in the skin of psoriatic mice by inhibiting the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. Overall, the data suggest that MLT has a protective effect against psoriasis-like inflammation.

RT-SRTS: Angle-agnostic real-time simultaneous 3D reconstruction and tumor segmentation from single X-ray projection.

Radiotherapy is one of the primary treatment methods for tumors, but the organ movement caused by respiration limits its accuracy. Recently, 3D imaging from a single X-ray projection has received extensive attention as a promising approach to address this issue. However, current methods can only reconstruct 3D images without directly locating the tumor and are only validated for fixed-angle imaging, which fails to fully meet the requirements of motion control in radiotherapy. In this study, a novel imaging method RT-SRTS is proposed which integrates 3D imaging and tumor segmentation into one network based on multi-task learning (MTL) and achieves real-time simultaneous 3D reconstruction and tumor segmentation from a single X-ray projection at any angle. Furthermore, the attention enhanced calibrator (AEC) and uncertain-region elaboration (URE) modules have been proposed to aid feature extraction and improve segmentation accuracy. The proposed method was evaluated on fifteen patient cases and compared with three state-of-the-art methods. It not only delivers superior 3D reconstruction but also demonstrates commendable tumor segmentation results. Simultaneous reconstruction and segmentation can be completed in approximately 70 ms, significantly faster than the required time threshold for real-time tumor tracking. The efficacies of both AEC and URE have also been validated in ablation studies. The code of work is available at https://github.com/ZywooSimple/RT-SRTS.

Exploring the complex dynamics of BMI, age, and physiological indicators in early adolescents.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and blood biochemical indicators in early adolescence, and to provide ideas for early prevention of diseases and explore possible disease-related predictors. METHODS: 3125 participants aged 10 ∼ 14 years were selected from China from the survey of "China Nutrition and Health Surveillance ( 2016 ∼ 2017 ) ". Employing advanced statistical methods, including generalized linear models, heatmaps, hierarchical clustering, and generalized additive models, the study delved into the associations between BMI and various biochemical indicators. RESULTS: In early adolescence, indicators including systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, weight, height, BMI, hemoglobin, blood uric acid, serum creatinine, albumin, vitamin A presented increasing trends with the increase of age ( P < 0.05 ), whereas LDL-C, vitamin D, and ferritin showed decreasing trends with the increase of age ( P < 0.05 ). The increase in hemoglobin and blood uric acid levels with age was more pronounced in males compared to females ( P < 0.05 ). BMI was positively correlated with blood glucose, hemoglobin, triglyceride, LDL-C, blood uric acid, serum creatinine, ferritin, transferrin receptor, hs-CRP, total protein, vitamin A ( P < 0.05 ). There was a significant BMI × age interaction in the correlation analysis with LDL-C, transferrin receptor, serum creatinine, and hs-CRP ( P < 0.05 ). BMI was a risk factor for hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, low high density lipoprotein cholesterolemia, and metabolic syndrome in all age groups ( OR > 1, P < 0.05 ). CONCLUSIONS: High BMI was a risk factor for hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, low high density lipoprotein cholesterolemia, and MetS in early adolescents. With the focus on energy intake beginning in early adolescence, the maintenance of a healthy weight warrants greater attention.

Serum apelin as a potential biomarker for infantile hemangiomas.

BACKGROUND: Infantile hemangiomas (IHs) are common benign vascular tumors in infants. Apelin, an endogenous cytokine, is implicated in the angiogenesis of neoplastic diseases. We aimed to explore the association between apelin and IHs, providing a foundation for clinical applications. METHODS: We identified differential expression of apelin in proliferative IHs compared to healthy controls (HCs) through bioinformatics analysis of publicly available databases and verified by Immunofluorescence. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to quantify the serum levels of apelin and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in a cohort of 116 cases of proliferative IHs, 65 cases of capillary malformations (CMs), and 70 HCs. RESULTS: Apelin and APJ (APLNR, apelin receptor) were identified as the significantly upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in proliferative IHs. Immunofluorescence staining indicated high expression of apelin in proliferative IHs, while minimal expression in non-IH lesions. Apelin in IHs was reduced following 6 months of propranolol treatment. Serum apelin levels were significantly higher in the IH group compared to both the CM and HC groups. Moreover, apelin exhibited excellent discriminatory ability in distinguishing IHs from HCs, with an area under the curve (AUC) exceeding 0.90. A positive correlation was observed between the levels of apelin and the size of superficial IHs. The expression profiles of VEGF and apelin in IHs were found to be consistent. CONCLUSIONS: Apelin shows promise as a potential biomarker for IHs. The association between apelin and IH size, as well as its responsiveness to propranolol treatment, indicates its possible utility as a valuable indicator for the therapeutic evaluation of IHs.

Orthogonal Subspace Representation for Generative Adversarial Networks.

Disentanglement learning aims to separate explanatory factors of variation so that different attributes of the data can be well characterized and isolated, which promotes efficient inference for downstream tasks. Mainstream disentanglement approaches based on generative adversarial networks (GANs) learn interpretable data representation. However, most typical GAN-based works lack the discussion of the latent subspace, causing insufficient consideration of the variation of independent factors. Although some recent research analyzes the latent space on pretrained GANs for image editing, they do not emphasize learning representation directly from the subspace perspective. Appropriate subspace properties could facilitate corresponding feature representation learning to satisfy the independent variation requirements of the obtained explanatory factors, which is crucial for better disentanglement. In this work, we propose a unified framework for ensuring disentanglement, which fully investigates latent subspace learning (SL) in GAN. The novel GAN-based architecture explores orthogonal subspace representation (OSR) on vanilla GAN, named OSRGAN. To guide a subspace with strong correlation, less redundancy, and robust distinguishability, our OSR includes three stages, self-latent-aware, orthogonal subspace-aware, and structure representation-aware, respectively. First, the self-latent-aware stage promotes the latent subspace strongly correlated with the data space to discover interpretable factors, but with poor independence of variation. Second, the following orthogonal subspace-aware stage adaptively learns some 1-D linear subspace spanned by a set of orthogonal bases in the latent space. There is less redundancy between them, expressing the corresponding independence. Third, the structure representation-aware stage aligns the projection on the orthogonal subspace and the latent variables. Accordingly, feature representation in each linear subspace can be distinguishable, enhancing the independent expression of interpretable factors. In addition, we design an alternating optimization step, achieving a tradeoff training of OSRGAN on different properties. Despite it strictly constrains orthogonality, the loss weight coefficient of distinguishability induced by orthogonality could be adjusted and balanced with correlation constraint. To elucidate, this tradeoff training prevents our OSRGAN from overemphasizing any property and damaging the expressiveness of the feature representation. It takes into account both interpretable factors and their independent variation characteristics. Meanwhile, alternating optimization could keep the cost and efficiency of forward inference unchanged and will not burden the computational complexity. In theory, we clarify the significance of OSR, which brings better independence of factors, along with interpretability as correlation could converge to a high range faster. Moreover, through the convergence behavior analysis, including the objective functions under different constraints and the evaluation curve with iterations, our model demonstrates enhanced stability and definitely converges toward a higher peak for disentanglement. To depict the performance in downstream tasks, we compared the state-of-the-art GAN-based and even VAE-based approaches on different datasets. Our OSRGAN achieves higher disentanglement scores on FactorVAE, SAP, MIG, and VP metrics. All the experimental results illustrate that our novel GAN-based framework has considerable advantages on disentanglement.

Intravenous administration of IL-12 encoding self-replicating RNA-lipid nanoparticle complex leads to safe and effective antitumor responses.

Interleukin 12 (IL-12) is a potent immunostimulatory cytokine mainly produced by antigen-presenting cells (e.g., dendritic cells, macrophages) and plays an important role in innate and adaptive immunity against cancers. Therapies that can synergistically modulate innate immunity and stimulate adaptive anti-tumor responses are of great interest for cancer immunotherapy. Here we investigated the lipid nanoparticle-encapsulated self-replicating RNA (srRNA) encoding IL-12 (referred to as JCXH-211) for the treatment of cancers. Both local (intratumoral) and systemic (intravenous) administration of JCXH-211 in tumor-bearing mice induced a high-level expression of IL-12 in tumor tissues, leading to modulation of tumor microenvironment and systemic activation of antitumor immunity. Particularly, JCXH-211 can inhibit the tumor-infiltration of polymorphonuclear myeloid-derived suppressor cells (PMN-MDSCs). When combined with anti-PD1 antibody, it was able to enhance the recruitment of T cells and NK cells into tumors. In multiple mouse solid tumor models, intravenous injection of JCXH-211 not only eradicated large preestablished tumors, but also induced protective immune memory that prevented the growth of rechallenged tumors. Finally, intravenous injection of JCXH-211 did not cause noticeable systemic toxicity in tumor-bearing mice and non-human primates. Thus, our study demonstrated the feasibility of intravenous administration of JCXH-211 for the treatment of advanced cancers.

18F-FDG PET/CT imaging in pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma.

Background: Pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma (PSC) is a rare highly aggressive and poorly differentiated non-small cell carcinoma, and little is known about the information on the usefulness of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). We investigated the clinical and 18F-FDG PET/CT features of PSC. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 25 consecutive PSC patients who had undergone 18F-FDG PET/CT. Demographic data, PET/CT findings before treatment, pathological features, and prognosis in these patients were investigated to define correlates between maximal standard uptake value (SUVmax) and clinicopathological parameters. Results: From March 2017 to January 2023, twenty-five eligible patients with PSC were identified. There were 23 (92%) men, aged 68.5 ± 8.5 (range 56-90) years. Eighteen (72%) patients had a frequent smoking history. The mean size of PSCs was 59.3 ± 18.6 (range 29-97) mm, and 23 (92%) PSCs were Stage IV tumors. 20 (80%) lesions were located in the upper lung and 19 (76%) cases belonged to the peripheral type. Necrotic foci appeared in 21(84%) tumors. 11 (44%) PSCs invaded the pleura. All PSCs were FDG avid, and the mean of SUVmax was 11.8 ± 5.3 (range 4.8-25.5). Metastases were found on PET/CT in 24(96%) patients. The SUVmax of the lesions ≥ 5cm was higher than that of the lesions < 5cm (p=0.004), and the SUVmax of lesions with TTF-1 expression was higher than those of lesions without TTF-1 expression (p=0.009). All of the 25 primary lesions were considered malignant and confirmative, probable, and possible diagnosis of PSC was made in 2 (8%), 4 (16%), and 5(20%) patients, respectively on PET/CT. PSC was not considered in 14 (56%) patients, in PET/CT. The survival of patients with surgery didn't demonstrate a significantly good prognosis as compared with those without surgery (p=0.675). Conclusion: All PSCs had obvious FDG avidity. Although imaging diagnosis is still difficult, combined clinical and imaging features more than 40% of primary lesions were considered for the possibility of PSC in our group. Early histopathological diagnosis is necessary to help develop a reasonable regimen.

Comprehensive needs, social support, and disease perception in lung cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: a cross-sectional study.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the comprehensive needs of lung cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors and to explore the relationships between comprehensive needs and social support and disease perception, moreover, to analyse associated factors of comprehensive needs. METHODS: The study was conducted in a teaching hospital in Jiaxing Province, China. A total of 141 patients with lung cancer completed a battery of self-report questionnaires, including the Comprehensive Needs Assessment Tool in Cancer for Patients (CNAT), Social Supportive Rating Scale (SSRS), Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ), and demographic and clinical characteristics questionnaire. RESULTS: The level of comprehensive needs was highest in the domain "medical demand" (42.17 ± 26.57), and the item with the highest level of comprehensive needs was "I need information about the financial support for my medical expenses" (2.00 ± 1.07). Statistically significant correlations were identified between the comprehensive needs score, social support, and disease perception. The multiple regression analysis showed that immunotherapy course, whether irAEs occur, social support, and disease perception were factors influencing patients' comprehensive needs. CONCLUSIONS: The most prevalent needs in lung cancer patients were found in the "medical needs" domain. Additionally, immunotherapy course, whether irAEs occur, disease perception, and social support were associated with comprehensive needs among lung cancer patients. It is essential to combine the associated factors to accurately evaluate patient needs. We should pay more attention to proposing the comprehensive measures for these patients and providing more individualized supportive care during the lengthy treatment period.

Improved NH3 Uptake of a Macromolecule-Metal Complex Constructed with Dual Polymeric Ligands and M(II).

MOFs are considered as efficient NH3 adsorbents for their high capacity but are accompanied by the collapse of MOFs. In this work, macromolecule-metal complexes (MMCs), which could provide metal sites like MOFs, were developed for reversible NH3 uptake with high capacity with the assistance of the polymeric ligands. Based on the tunable structure of MMCs, the role of the polymeric ligands and metallic center was investigated. Thereinto, MMCs-3 with dual polymeric ligands presented higher NH3 adsorption capacity and reversibility of adsorbents compared with MMCs containing a single polymeric ligand (MMCs-1 and MMCs-2). Combined with the NH3 adsorption test, characterization of FT-IR, UV-vis, EPR spectroscopy, NH3-TPD measurement, and the DFT calculations, it was found that the neutral polymeric ligands PVIm contributed to improve the stability of MMCs-3 under a NH3 atmosphere for the tough networks of PVIm-M(II), while the polymeric ligands with a carboxylate anion together with M(II) enhanced the NH3 capacity for the feasible coordination of a carboxylate anion with M(II). The mechanism of NH3 uptake by PVIm-Co-PVBA was proposed that the NH3 was fixed through the coordination with Co(II) along with the departure of PVBA and the following hydrogen bonding interaction with PVBA, while the coordination between PVIm and Co(II) was not destroyed. Thus, MMCs-3 with dual polymeric ligands presented a higher NH3 uptake capacity and stability. Optimally, PVIm-M-PVBA with the metal center of Co(II), Cu(II), and Ni(II) were obtained with a high capacity of 20.8-23.7 NH3 mmol/g at 25 °C and 1 bar and a high selectivity of NH3 over CO2 (54.9-99.9) and N2 (73.0-187.6) through the breakthrough measurement with a gas mixture of 0.2% NH3, 2% CO2, and 99.6% N2 at 25 °C.

Effectiveness of continuity of care after robot-assisted laparoscopic adrenalectomy under ambulatory mode: a single-center intervention study.

To investigate the effectiveness of continuity of care after robot-assisted adrenal tumor resection under ambulatory mode. Patients who underwent robot-assisted laparoscopic adrenalectomy (RALA) in the ambulatory surgery department and urology department of our hospital from January 2022 to January 2023 were selected as study subjects. Among them, 50 patients in the Department of Urology as the control group were given routine care. The 50 patients in the ambulatory surgery department as the observation group were given continuity of care on the basis of routine care. Observation indexes include: wound healing, blood pressure, blood potassium, renal function impairment, self-care ability in daily life, medication compliance, follow-up rate, and patient satisfaction. There were no remarkable discrepancies between the two groups in terms of demographic data and basic preoperative conditions of the patients. Compared with the control group, the observation group significantly improved the patients' wound healing, postoperative blood pressure and blood potassium and kidney function (P value all < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the observation group significantly improved postoperative patients' ADL scores, follow-up rates within three months after surgery, and patient satisfaction scores (P value all < 0.05). For patients receiving ambulatory mode robot-assisted laparoscopic adrenalectomy, continuity of care can effectively reduce postoperative complications, improve patients' postoperative self-care ability in daily life, medication compliance and follow-up rate, and improve patient satisfaction, which is worthy of promotion and application by nursing workers.

Food-Borne Poisoning Accident from Amanitin Toxin in Wild Mushrooms - Xingtai City, Hebei Province, China, 2023.

What is already known about this topic?: Fatal poisonings caused by wild mushrooms containing amanita toxins pose a significant threat in the southern regions of China. These toxins primarily induce gastrointestinal symptoms initially, which are then followed by potentially life-threatening acute liver damage. What is added by this report?: This report contributes to the existing knowledge on these cases of poisoning by documenting the second occurrences in Hebei Province and the first occurrences in Xingtai City. Five individuals reported consuming wild mushrooms from the same origin, and laboratory tests confirmed the presence of α-amanitin in their blood samples. What are the implications for public health practice?: This underscores the risk associated with the collection and consumption of amanita toxin-containing mushrooms in Hebei. It is important to note that the identification of toxic and non-toxic mushrooms should not solely rely on personal experience or appearance.

Association between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure and liver function: The mediating roles of inflammation and oxidative stress.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) exposure has been associated with adverse health effects, and accumulating evidence suggests that PAH exposure may impair liver function. However, the underlying mechanisms linking PAH exposure and liver function impairment remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the association between PAH exposure and liver function biomarkers, and the mediating effects of inflammation and oxidative stress. The cross-sectional study included 155 adults and their urinary PAH metabolites (OH-PAHs) were determined, and eight liver function biomarkers were measured in paired serum samples. A comprehensive statistical analysis investigated the linear, non-linear, individual, and joint effects of the association between urinary OH-PAHs and liver function biomarkers. The results indicated significant positive associations between urinary OH-PAH concentrations and liver function biomarker levels, suggesting that PAH exposure may adversely affect liver function. 2-hydroxyfluorene was identified as the individual metabolite contributing significantly to elevated gamma-glutamyl transferase levels. Further stratification by gender revealed that this association is more pronounced in males. Moreover, we observed significant mediation effects of the oxidative stress biomarker 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine and the inflammatory biomarkers C-reactive protein and white blood cell count on this association. The physiological responses triggered by PAH exposure are mediated by inflammation, which serves as a link between oxidative stress, cellular injury, and elevated liver enzyme levels. The results demonstrated that increased inflammation and oxidative stress mediated the association between increased urinary OH-PAHs and elevated liver function biomarkers. The results contribute to a better understanding of the potential mechanisms underlying PAH exposure's hepatotoxic effects.

NADase CD38 is a key determinant of ovarian aging.

The ovary ages earlier than most other tissues, yet the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Here a comprehensive analysis of transcriptomic landscapes in different organs in young and middle-aged mice revealed that the ovaries showed earlier expression of age-associated genes, identifying increased NADase CD38 expression and decreased NAD+ levels in the ovary of middle-aged mice. Bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing revealed that CD38 deletion mitigated ovarian aging, preserving fertility and follicle reserve in aged mice by countering age-related gene expression changes and intercellular communication alterations. Mechanistically, the earlier onset of inflammation induced higher expression levels of CD38 and decreased NAD+ levels in the ovary, thereby accelerating ovarian aging. Consistently, pharmacological inhibition of CD38 enhanced fertility in middle-aged mice. Our findings revealed the mechanisms underlying the earlier aging of the ovary relative to other organs, providing a potential therapeutic target for ameliorating age-related female infertility.

Association of co-exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and phthalates with oxidative stress and inflammation.

Exposure to multiple environmental pollutants is ubiquitous and inevitable, but studies investigating their exposure effects on oxidative stress or inflammation have mainly been restricted to single-pollutant models. This study investigated the association of co-exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and phthalates with oxidative stress and inflammation. Using a cross-sectional study in adults, we measured urinary concentrations of metabolites of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (OH-PAHs) and phthalates (mPAEs), urinary oxidative stress biomarker 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine, and 9 inflammatory biomarkers in paired blood samples. The associations of urinary OH-PAHs and mPAEs with oxidative stress and inflammation biomarkers were evaluated by different statistical models. The Bayesian kernel machine regression and quantile g-computation was used to examine the joint effects, and increased levels of urinary concentrations of OH-PAHs and mPAEs were associated with elevated 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine level and white blood cell counts. Exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons contributed more significantly to inflammation, while exposure to phthalates contributed more to oxidative stress. Monoisobutyl phthalate was identified as the most significant metabolite contributing to elevated oxidative stress levels. 1-Hydroxypyrene was negatively associated with platelet, and monomethyl phthalate was significantly positively associated with interleukin 6 in multivariate linear regression. The restricted cubic spline analysis revealed non-linear patterns of 3-hydroxyfluorene with white blood cell, lymphocyte, neutrophil, and C-reactive protein. The results indicated significant associations between increased co-exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and phthalates with elevated oxidative stress and inflammation. Further investigation is needed to elucidate the underlying biological mechanisms and to determine the potential public health implications.

Porous acid-base hybrid polymers for enhanced NH3 uptake with assistance from cooperative hydrogen bonds.

Carboxylic acid-modified materials are a common means of achieving efficient NH3 adsorption. In this study, we report that improved NH3 adsorption capacity and easier desorption can be achieved through the introduction of substances containing Lewis basic groups into carboxylic acid-modified materials. Easily synthesized mesoporous acid-base hybrid polymers were constructed with polymers rich in carboxylic acid and Lewis base moieties through cooperative hydrogen bonding interactions (CHBs). The hybrid polymer PAA-P4VP presented higher NH3 capacity (18.2 mmol g-1 at 298 K and 1 bar NH3 pressure) than PAA (6.0 mmol g-1) through the acid-base reaction and the assistance from CHBs with NH3, while the NH3 desorption from PAA-P4VP was easier for the reformation of CHBs. Based on the introduction of CHBs, a series of mesoporous acid-base hybrid polymers was synthesized with NH3 adsorption capacity of 15.8-19.3 mmol g-1 and high selectivity of NH3 over CO2 (SNH3/CO2 = 25.4-56.3) and N2 (SNH3/N2 = 254-1068), and the possible co-existing gases, such as SO2, had a lower effect on NH3 uptake by hybrid polymers. Overall, the hybrid polymers present efficient NH3 adsorption owing to the abundant acidic moieties and CHBs, while the concomitant Lewis bases promote NH3 desorption.

Deep nonlocal low-rank regularization for complex-domain pixel super-resolution.

Pixel super-resolution (PSR) has emerged as a promising technique to break the sampling limit for phase imaging systems. However, due to the inherent nonconvexity of phase retrieval problem and super-resolution process, PSR algorithms are sensitive to noise, leading to reconstruction quality inevitably deteriorating. Following the plug-and-play framework, we introduce the nonlocal low-rank (NLR) regularization for accurate and robust PSR, achieving a state-of-the-art performance. Inspired by the NLR prior, we further develop the complex-domain nonlocal low-rank network (CNLNet) regularization to perform nonlocal similarity matching and low-rank approximation in the deep feature domain rather than the spatial domain of conventional NLR. Through visual and quantitative comparisons, CNLNet-based reconstruction shows an average 1.4 dB PSNR improvement over conventional NLR, outperforming existing algorithms under various scenarios.