A novel trauma induced urethral stricture in rat model.

Urethral stricture (US) is a longstanding disease, while there has not existed a suitable animal model to mimic the condition. We aimed to establish a trauma-induced US animal model to simulate this clinical scenario. A total of 30 rats were equally distributed into two groups, sham and US group. All rats were anesthetized with isoflurane and undergone cystostomy. In the US group, a 2 mm incision was made in the urethra and sutured to induce US. The sham group only make a skin incision on the ventral side of the anterior urethra. 4 weeks later, ultrasound and cystourethrography were performed to evaluate the degree of urethral stricture, pathological examinations were carried out to evaluate the degree of fibrosis. Urodynamic evaluation and mechanical tissue testing were performed to evaluate the bladder function and urethral tissue stiffness. The results showed that the urethral mucosa was disrupted and urethral lumen was stenosed in the US group. Additionally, the US group showed elevated bladder pressure, prolonged micturition intervals and increased tissue stiffness. In conclusion, the rat urethral stricture model induced by trauma provides a closer representation of the real clinical scenario. This model will significantly contribute to advancing research on the mechanisms underlying traumatic urethral stricture.

Association of TRMT2B gene variants with juvenile amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive degeneration of motor neurons, and it demonstrates high clinical heterogeneity and complex genetic architecture. A variation within TRMT2B (c.1356G>T; p.K452N) was identified to be associated with ALS in a family comprising two patients with juvenile ALS (JALS). Two missense variations and one splicing variation were identified in 10 patients with ALS in a cohort with 910 patients with ALS, and three more variants were identified in a public ALS database including 3317 patients with ALS. A decreased number of mitochondria, swollen mitochondria, lower expression of ND1, decreased mitochondrial complex I activities, lower mitochondrial aerobic respiration, and a high level of ROS were observed functionally in patient-originated lymphoblastoid cell lines and TRMT2B interfering HEK293 cells. Further, TRMT2B variations overexpression cells also displayed decreased ND1. In conclusion, a novel JALS-associated gene called TRMT2B was identified, thus broadening the clinical and genetic spectrum of ALS.

Phase Engineering of W-Doped MoS2 by Magneto-Hydrothermal Synthesis for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2 ) has been proved as an excellent potential hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalyst. Compared with thermodynamically stable 2H-MoS2 , 1T-MoS2 exhibits higher conductivity and catalytic activity, whereas it is usually difficult to prepare since of thermodynamically metastable. Herein, a feasible method is reported to fabricate ambient-stable MoS2 with high concentration 1T phase through magnetic free energy synergistic microstrain induced by W doping under low magnetic field. The 1T phase proportion in MoS2 can be as high as 80% and is ambient-stable for more than one year. The catalyst prepared under a magnetic field of 3 T delivers an overpotential of 195 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm-2 and has a long-term stability over 50 h. This work provides a novel strategy for preparation of MoS2 with high 1T concentration and high stability.

Extracellular matrix stiffness aggravates urethral stricture through Igfbp3/Smad pathway.

Urethral stricture refers to the narrowing of the urethral lumen. While previous studies have hinted at inflammation as the initial driver of this condition, the reasons and mechanisms behind its progression remain largely unknown. By Atomic force microscope (AFM), researchers measured the matrix stiffness of urethra to be 5.23 ± 0.37 kPa for normal tissue and 41.59 ± 2.48 kPa for stricture urethral scar. Similar results were observed in rat urethral stricture models, where the matrix stiffness of normal urethra was 4.29 ± 0.82 kPa, while 32.94 ± 7.12 kPa for urethral stricture scar. Notably, the matrix stiffness increased in rat models over time. To further investigate, polyacrylamide hydrogels were employed to mimic different levels of stiffness for normal and stricture condition. Interestingly, higher matrix stiffness led to an increased fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transition (FMT) in rat urethral fibroblasts, indicated by enhanced expression of α-SMA and Collagen I, as well as changing in the morphology of fibroblast. RNA-seq analysis suggested that Igfbp3/Smads might regulate the progressive FMT in urethral stricture. In the experiment where the expression of Igfbp3 was inhibited, increasing matrix stiffness lose the potential to stimulate FMT progression and the expression of p-Smad2/3 decreased. On the contrary, overexpression of Igfbp3 promoted the process of FMT in urethral fibroblasts. In conclusion, Igfbp3/Smad pathway appeared to be involved in the progression of urethral fibrosis. This finding suggested that Igfbp3/Smad might be an promising target for future research and treatment in this filed.

First report of 'Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris' associated with witches'-broom and plexus bud disease of Cerasus serrula in China.

Cherry blossoms (Cerasus serrula) are native to the temperate zone around the Himalayas in the northern hemisphere, mainly distributed in the west and southwest of China, including Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet. Cherry has high ornamental, edible and medicinal value. In August 2022, we observed that Cherry trees exhibited witches' broom and plexus bud in Kunming City, Yunan Province, China. The symptoms consisted of many small branches with little leaves at the top of branches, stipule lobation, and clustered adventitious buds that are tumor-like on the branches that usually cannot sprout normally. As disease intensity increased, the branches dried up from the top to the bottom till the death of the whole plant. We named this disease C. serrula witches' broom disease (CsWB). We found CsWB in the areas of Panlong, Guandu, Xishan Districts in Kunming, where more than 17% of the plants we surveyed were infected. We collected 60 samples from across the three districts. These included 15 symptomatic and 5 asymptomatic plants per district. The lateral stem tissues were observed under a scanning electron microscope (Hitachi S-3000N). The nearly spherical bodies were found in the phloem cells of symptomatic plants. Total DNA extraction was conducted from 0.1 g tissue using the CTAB method (Porebski et al. 1997), ddH2O was used as the negative control, and Dodonaea viscose plants with witches' broom symptoms were used as the positive control. The nested PCR was used to amplify the 16S rRNA gene (Lee et al. 1993; Schneider et al. 1993) and PCR amplicon of 1.2 kb were amplified (GenBank accessions: OQ408098; OQ408099; OQ408100). The direct PCR specific to the ribosomal protein (rp) gene yielded amplicons of approximately 1.2 kb with primer pair rp(I)F1A and rp(I)R1A (Lee et a. 2003) (GenBank accessions: OQ410969; OQ410970; OQ410971). The fragment from 33 symptomatic samples was consistent with the positive control, and absent for asymptomatic samples, suggesting an association of phytoplasma with the disease. A BLAST analysis of the 16S rRNA sequences of CsWB phytoplasma showed that it has a 99.76% similarity with Trema laevigata witches' broom phytoplasma (GenBank accession MG755412). The rp sequence shared 99.75% identity with Cinnamomum camphora witches' broom phytoplasma (GenBank accession OP649594). An analysis with iPhyClassifier showed that the virtual RFLP pattern derived from the 16S rDNA sequence shares 99.3% similarity with that of the 'Ca. Phytoplasma asteris' reference strain (GenBank accession: M30790), and the virtual RFLP pattern derived from the fragment is identical (similarity coefficient 1.00) to the reference pattern of 16Sr group I, subgroup B (GenBank accession: AP006628). Thus, CsWB phytoplasma is identified as 'Ca. Phytoplasma asteris'-related strain belonging to sub-group 16SrI-B. The phylogenetic tree was constructed based on 16S rRNA gene and rp gene sequences by using MEGA version 6.0 (Tamura et al. 2013) with neighbor-joining (NJ) method and bootstrap support was estimated with 1000 replicates. The result indicated that the CsWB phytoplasma formed a subclade in 16SrI-B and rpI-B respectively. In addition, the clean 1-year-old C. serrula were tested positive for the phytoplasma using the nested PCR 30 days after being grafted with naturally infected twigs with CsWB symptoms. To the best of our knowledge, Cherry blossoms is a new host of 'Ca. Phytoplasma asteris'-related strains in China. The newly emerged disease is a threat to the ornamental value of cherry blossoms and the production of wood quality.

First report of 'Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris' associated with witches'-broom disease of Pinus yunnanensis in China.

Pinus yunnanensis is an evergreen tree belonging to Pinaceae. The species is distributed in the east of Tibet, southwest of Sichuan, southwest of Yunnan, southwest of Guizhou and northwest of Guangxi. It is an indigenous and pioneer tree species for barren mountain afforestation in southwest China. P. yunnanensis has important value to both the building and medicine industries (Liu et al. 2022). In May 2022, P. yunnanensis showing witches'-broom symptom were found in Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province, China. The symptomatic plants had yellow or red needle, and exhibited plexus bud and needle wither. The lateral buds of infected pines developed into twigs. Some lateral buds grew in clusters and a few sprouted needles (Fig.1). The disease was named the P. yunnanensis witches'-broom disease (PYWB) and was found in some areas of Miyi, Renhe, and Dongqu. More than 9% of the pines showed these symptoms in the three areas surveyed, and the disease was spreading. A total of 39 samples were collected from three areas, including 25 symptomatic plants and 14 asymptomatic plants, respectively. The lateral stem tissues of 18 samples were observed under a scanning electron microscope (Hitachi S-3000N). Spherical bodies were found in the phloem sieve cells of symptomatic pines (Fig.1). Total DNA was extracted from 18 plant samples using the CTAB method (Porebski et al. 1997) and subjected to nested-PCR testing. Double-distilled water and DNA extracted from asymptomatic plants were used as negative controls, and DNA extracted from Dodonaea viscosa affected by the D. viscosa witches'-broom disease was used as positive control. Nested PCR was employed to amplify the pathogen's 16S rRNA gene (Lee et al. 1993; Schneider et al. 1993) and 1.2 kb segment were produced (GenBank accessions OP646619; OP646620; OP646621). PCR specific to the ribosomal protein (rp) gene yielded segment of approximately 1.2 kb (Lee et al. 2003)(GenBank accessions OP649589; OP649590; OP649591). The fragment size from 15 samples was consistent with the positive control, confirming the association of phytoplasma with the disease. A BLAST analysis of the 16S rRNA sequences of P. yunnanensis witches'-broom phytoplasma showed that it shared 99.12% ~99.76% identity with that of Trema laevigata witches'-broom phytoplasma (GenBank accession MG755412). The rp sequence shared 99.84%~99.92% identity with that of Cinnamomum camphora witches'-broom phytoplasma (GenBank accession OP649594). An analysis with iPhyClassifier (Zhao et. 2013) showed that the virtual RFLP pattern derived from OP646621 16S rDNA fragment of PYWB phytoplasma is identical (similarity coefficient 1.00) to the reference pattern of 16Sr group I, subgroup B (OY-M, GenBank accession AP006628). The phytoplasma is identified as a 'Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris'-related strain belonging to sub-group 16SrI-B. Interestingly, compared to AP006628, the virtual RFLP pattern derived from OP646619 and OP646620 fragments exhibit differences in three and one cleavage site, with a similarity coefficient of 0.92 and 0.97, respectively (Fig.2). These strains may represent a new subgroup within the 16Sr group I. The phylogenetic tree was reconstructed based on 16S rRNA and rp gene sequences using MEGA versio6.0 (Tamura et al. 2013). The analysis was conducted using the neighbor-joining (NJ) method with 1,000 replicates of bootstrap analysis. The results indicated that the PYWB phytoplasmas grouped into clades including phytoplasmas belonging to 16SrI-B and rpI-B, respectively (Fig.3). In addition, 2-year-old P. yunnanensis were used for grafting assays in nursery, and the twigs from infected pine under natural conditions were used as a scion, and the phytoplasma were detected using nested PCR after grafting for 40 d (Fig.4). In 2008-2014, P. sylvestris and P. mugo in Lituania had excessive branching symptoms that were attributed to 'Ca. Phtyoplasma Pini' (16SrXXI-A) or asteris' (16SrI-A) strains (Valiunas et al. 2015). In 2015, P. pungens with abnormal shoot branching in Maryland were found to be infected by 'Ca. Phytoplasma pini' strain (16SrXXI-B) (Costanzo et al. 2016). To the best of our knowledge, P. yunnanensis is a new host of 'Ca. Phytoplasma asteris'-related strain (16SrI-B) in China. The newly emerged disease is a threat to pines.

Anesthesia Analysis of Compound Lidocaine Cream Alone in Adult Male Device-Assisted Circumcision.

OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the anesthetic effect among adult male patients with the single use of compound lidocaine cream in device-assisted circumcision, hoping to provide an anesthetic method for the simplification of the surgical process. METHODS: Male adult patients undergoing device-assisted circumcision through prepuce local anesthesia using lidocaine cream in Xiangya Hospital of Central South University from December 2020 to August 2021 were selected. According to different age groups and different surgical procedures, the anesthetic effect of compound lidocaine cream was analyzed considering the aspects of anesthetic cost, anesthetic time, anesthetic duration, anesthetic effect, anesthetic side effects and anesthetic satisfaction. RESULTS: In the study, 99.1% of 649 patients needed only 1 application of compound lidocaine cream to complete the operation. The time taken for anesthesia was short; the whole anesthesia process only required approximately 2-5 min. However, for patients with severe phimosis, the time to complete the anesthesia procedure was correspondingly longer. The pain degree caused by anesthesia was low, and the patients with a pain score of ≤3 points accounted for 96.7%. The anesthetic effect lasted for a sufficiently long period, and the time of algesia recovery from local anesthesia was almost 1 h after surgery. The anesthesia effect was sufficient, and patients with an intraoperative pain score of ≤3 accounted for 98.7%, which could meet the surgical requirements. There were few side effects of the anesthesia. The overwhelming majority of patients were pleased with the anesthesia, and 98.9% of patients had an anesthesia satisfaction score of ≥7. CONCLUSION: The compound lidocaine cream, as a local anesthetic, is safe and effective for most adult male device-assisted circumcisions. More useful information needs to be corroborated by more advanced evidence, especially for severe phimosis.

Vasectomy reversal in China during the recent decade: insights from a multicenter retrospective investigation.

To date, there is little information about the demography of vasectomy reversal (VR) patients or the factors currently influencing VR effectiveness in China, especially after the universal two-child policy was released in 2015. In this research, demographic data and perioperative medical records of VR patients were extracted from seven major hospitals in different provinces or municipalities of China. Meanwhile, a telephone survey of the patients was conducted to collect follow-up information. Eventually, 448 VR cases from the past 13 years were included. The results were analyzed by stratified comparison to investigate factors that can influence postoperative vas deferens patency and pregnancy rate. Appropriately statistical methods were used, and all of the protocols were approved by the Ethics Committees of the institutes in this research. The results showed that the annual operation volume of VR quadrupled after the two-child policy was implemented. Nonmicrosurgery and a long duration of vasectomy were significantly associated with a lower patency rate. A follow-up survey showed that the general postoperative pregnancy rate was 27.2%. For female partners over the age of 35 years, the postoperative pregnancy rate showed a more severe decline, but only 35.5% of them had been given a fertility examination before their husbands' VR surgery. Our work revealed that more patients in China have been demanding VR in recent years. High-quality microsurgery and a short duration of vasectomy are crucial for restoring patency by VR. Clinical andrologists should perform a preoperative fertility evaluation of the patients' female partners.

First report of 'Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris' associated with witches'-broom disease of Cinnamomum camphora in China.

Camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora) has a wide distribution in the world and is mainly distributed in the South and southwest in China. It can be used as both a wood and a medicine, with high value in industry, medicine, and ecology. In May 2022, it was observed that the approximately ten to fifteen years old Camphor trees were exhibiting witches'-broom, small leaf morphology and chlorosis, and leaf drop in Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province, China. The witches'-broom symptoms consisted of many small branches with little leaves at the top of branches. It was named C. camphora witches'-broom disease (CCWB) and was found in some areas of Miyi, Yanbian, Renhe Xiqu and Dongqu counties. More than 28% of the plants were infected on the five areas surveyed. Total 100 samples were collected from five areas, with 15 symptomatic plants and 5 asymptomatic plants each area. The lateral stem tissues were observed under a scanning electron microscope (Hitachi S-3000N). The nearly spherical bodies were found in the phloem sieve cells of symptomatic plants. Total DNA extraction was conducted from 0.1 g tissue using the CTAB method (Porebski et al. 1997), ddH2O was used as the negative control, and Dodonaea viscose witches'-broom disease plants were used as the positive control. The nested PCR was employed to amplify the 16S rRNA gene (Lee et al. 1993; Schneider et al. 1993) and PCR amplicon of 1.2 kb were amplified (GenBank accessions OP662614; OP662615; OP662616). The direct PCR specific to the ribosomal protein (rp) gene yielded amplicons of approximately 1.2 kb with primer pair rp(I)F1A and rp(I)R1A (Lee et al. 2003) (GenBank accessions OP649592; OP649593; OP649594). The fragment from 25 symptomatic samples was consistent with the positive control, and asymptomatic plants were negative, confirming an association of a phytoplasma with the disease. A BLAST analysis of the 16S rRNA sequences of CCWB phytoplasma showed that it has a 99.44% similarity with Trema laevigata witches'-broom phytoplasma (GenBank accession MG755412). The rp sequence shared 99.59% identity with rapeseed phyllody phytoplasma (GenBank accession CP055264). An analysis with iPhyClassifier showed that the virtual RFLP pattern derived from the query 16S rDNA fragment of CCWB phytoplasma is most similar to the reference pattern of the 16Sr group I, subgroup B (OY-M, GenBank accession AP006628). The phytoplasma is identified as 'Ca. Phytoplasma asteris'-related strain belonging to sub-group 16SrI-B. The phylogenetic tree was constructed based on 16S rRNA gene and rp gene sequences by using MEGA version 6.0 (Tamura et al. 2013) with neighbor-joining (NJ) method and bootstrap support was estimated with 1000 replicates. The result indicated that the CCWB phytoplasma formed a subclade in 16SrI-B and rpI-B respectively. In addition, the plants were positive for the phytoplasma using nested PCR after grafting for 30 d in nursery conditions. It is noteworthy that the plants were seriously damaged by aphid, Psyllidae and Ceroplastes. It is speculated that the insects of Homoptera typically transmit phytoplasmas by feeding on plant sap, thus it is necessary to control aphids in order to control the C. camphora witches'-broom disease. To the best of our knowledge, Camphor tree is a new host plant of 'Ca. Phytoplasma asteris' in China. The newly emerged disease is a threat to Camphor tree production.

Decreased pancreatic leakage rate in the application of a measurable variable-diameter pancreatic duct catheter in laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Background: Pancreatic leakage remains one of the most serious complications after laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy (LPD). At present, most medical centers use local materials for the common pancreatic duct catheters required for pancreaticoenterostomy. However, there is a lack of a measurable and variable-diameter pancreatic duct catheter. Recently, a measurable variable-diameter pancreatic duct catheter was developed to remedy the limitation of the common pancreatic duct catheters. This study sought to evaluate its preventive effect on pancreatic leakage in LPD. Methods: A total of 202 patients who underwent LPD using the Hong's single-stitch method from January 2021 to April 2022 were included in the study. Patients were divided into the 2 groups: the variable-diameter group (n=111) and the normal group (n=91) according to the application of different pancreatic duct catheters. Patient characteristics and perioperative data, including operation time, pancreatic fistula rate, postoperative bleeding rate and postoperative length of stay in the two groups were collected and analyzed. The Chi-square test was used to compare the differences between the groups in relation to the categorical variables. Results: Among the 202 patients, there were 123 males and 79 females, with an average age of 58.79±7.89 years (range, 15-79 years), and an average body mass index (BMI) of 23.55±4.25 kg/m2. There were no statistically significant differences between the variable-diameter group and the normal group in terms of age, sex, BMI, operation time, intraoperative blood loss, preoperative bilirubin, and pancreatic texture (P>0.05). The pancreatic fistula rate (2.70% vs. 9.89%) and postoperative median length of stay (15 vs. 16 days) of the variable-diameter group was significantly lower than that of the normal group. Conclusions: The measurable variable-diameter pancreatic duct catheter could decrease the pancreatic fistula rate and postoperative median length of stay in the application of laparoscopic duodenectomy.

Pulmonary embolism following urological non-oncological surgery: The clinical features, management, and long-term follow-up outcome from a tertiary hospital of China.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical features, treatment, and outcomes of pulmonary embolism (PE) after urological non-oncological surgery in a tertiary hospital of China. Methods: A total of eight patients who suffered from PE after urological non-oncological surgery from 2016 to 2019 were recruited to the study. Clinical data such as symptoms, vital signs, electrocardiogram, echocardiography, and computed tomographic pulmonary arteriography (CTPA) were reviewed. In addition, the management and long-term follow-up outcome of PE were reported. Pulmonary Embolism Quality of Life (PEmb-QoL) questionnaire was applied for five patients to evaluate health-related quality of life after PE. Results: All patients survived during their hospitalization, and five patients were contacted during follow-up. Five of the eight patients were anticoagulated regularly until the re-examination results of CTPA and lower extremities ultrasound were normal. The period of anticoagulant sustained at least one month for each patient. The long-term follow-up outcomes showed that PE had little impact on the patients' quality of life. Conclusions: The study demonstrated that the prognosis of PE patients was not as terrible as feared when treated immediately in the ward. Early diagnosis and treatment of PE is vital for prognosis. However, further verifications based on the results of large studies are still needed.

Effect of High-Intensity Interval Training Combined with Fasting in the Treatment of Overweight and Obese Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVES: A systematic review and meta-analysis is conducted to compare the effects of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) combined with fasting (HIIT + fasting) and other interventions (HIIT alone, fasting alone, or normal intervention) in adults with overweight and obesity on body composition (body mass, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), percent fat mass (PFM), fat mass (FM), fat-free mass (FFM)), maximal oxygen uptake (VO2peak), and glucose metabolism (fasting plasma glucose (FPG)), fasting plasma insulin (FPI)). METHODS: The databases of PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embace, Web of Science, CNKI, Wangfang Data, and CBM were searched from their inception to February 2022. Randomized controlled trials comparing the effects of HIIT + fasting and other interventions on adults with overweight and obesity were included in this meta-analysis. The risk of bias was assessed by the Cochrane risk of bias tool. The effect size was completed by using mean difference (MD) and standard deviation. If there were varying units or large differences among the included studies, the standardized mean difference (SMD) would be used. The certainty of evidence was evaluated using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE). RESULTS: Nine randomized controlled trials with 230 overweight and obese adults were conducted in accordance with our inclusion criteria. The results of the meta-analysis revealed that compared to the control group HIIT + fasting had better effects on the body mass, WC, FM, and VO2peak, while there were no significant differences in PFM, FFM, FPG, and FPI. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the number of included trials being small and the GRADE of all outcomes being very low, HIIT + fasting has a positive effect on the body composition of overweight and obese adults, and significantly improves VO2peak. For adults with overweight and obesity who have long-term comorbidity, HIIT + fasting was a better way to improve FPG than HIIT alone or fasting alone. More studies are required to investigate different combinations of HIIT + fasting; and the safety of HIIT + fasting intervention on overweight and obese adults.

Establishment of Prediction Models for Venous Thromboembolism in Non-Oncological Urological Inpatients - A Single-Center Experience.

Purpose: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) comprises deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), which can lead to death. VTE is an insidious disease with no specific symptoms and overlooked readily. We aimed to establish prediction models for VTE in non-oncological urological inpatients to aid urologists to better identify VTE patients. Patients and Methods: A retrospective analysis of 1453 inpatients was carried out. The risk factors for VTE had been clarified in our previous study. A stepwise regression method was used to screen the relevant influencing factors for VTE and construct a logistic regression prediction model to predict VTE. To validate the accuracy of the model, data from 291 patients from another cohort were used for external validation. Results: A total of 1453 inpatients were enrolled. Five potential risk factors (previous VTE; treatment with anticoagulants or anti-platelet agents before hospital admission; D-dimer ≥0.89 µg/mL; lower-extremity swelling; chest symptoms) were selected by multivariable analysis with p < 0.05. These five risk factors were used to build a logistic regression prediction model. When p < 0.1 in the multivariable logistic regression model, two additional risk factors were added: Caprini score ≥5 and complications, and all seven risk factors were used to build another prediction model. Internal verification showed the cutoff values, sensitivity, and specificity of the two models to be 0.02474, 0.941, 0.816 (model 1) and 0.03824, 0.941, and 0.820 (model 2), respectively. Both models had good predictive ability, but prediction accuracy was 43.0% for both when using the data of the additional 291 inpatients in the two models. Conclusion: Two novel prediction models were built to predict VTE in non-oncological urological inpatients. This is a new method for VTE screening, and internal validation showed a good performance. External validation results were suboptimal but may provide clues for subsequent VTE screening.

Magneto-Electrodeposition of 3D Cross-Linked NiCo-LDH for Flexible High-Performance Supercapacitors.

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) with outstanding redox activity on flexible current collectors can serve as ideal cathode materials for flexible hybrid supercapacitors in wearable energy storage devices. Electrodeposition is a facile, time-saving, and economical technique to fabricate LDHs. The limited loading mass induced by insufficient mass transport and finite exposure of active sites, however, greatly hinders the improvement of areal capacity. Herein, magneto-electrodeposition (MED) under high magnetic fields up to 9 T is developed to fabricate NiCo-LDH on flexible carbon cloth (CC) as well as Ti3 C2 Tx functionalized CC. Owing to the magneto-hydrodynamic effect induced by magnetic-electric field coupling, the loading mass and exposure of active sites are significantly increased. Moreover, a 3D cross-linked nest-like microstructure is constructed. The MED-derived NiCo-LDH delivers an ultrahigh areal capacity of 3.12 C cm-2 at 1 mA cm-2 and as-fabricated flexible hybrid supercapacitors show an excellent energy density with an outstanding cycling stability. This work provides a novel route to improve electrochemical performances of layered materials through MED technique.

First report of Chaetomium pseudocochliodes causing flower rot disease of Camellia reticulata in Yunnan, China.

Camellia reticulata is the world-famous ornamental flower (Wang et al. 2021). In February 2021, the infected flowers of C. reticulata 'Shizitou' were collected in Zixi Mountain, Chuxiong city, Yunnan province, China (24°9'95″ N, 101°42'53″ E). Flower rot disease incidence ranged from 40% to 75% in the garden. The infected flowers showed symptoms of varying degrees of yellow-browning, dry or wet rot to the whole flower wilted and even dropped (Figure 1A, B, C). Three symptomatic flowers were randomly collected in the garden. Tissues from the infected flowers (cut to 5×5 mm size) were surface-disinfected by 75% ethyl alcohol for 30s, rinsed in sterile water for 3 times to air dry, and cultured in Potato Dextrose Agar medium (PDA) at 25℃±2 in the normal light for 5-7 days (Fang, 1998). Similar fungal colonies were isolated from 50%-75% of the infected flowers. Three isolates from different flowers showed similar colony morphology. After sub-culturing of hyphal tips on PDA for 5-7 days, the initially yellow colored colonies showed abundant white aerial mycelium, with sporulation (Figure 1E, F). The asci (Figure 1G) sporulation site is 24(-37) ×7(-14) µm, and the stalk length is 17-42 µm, with 8 biseriate acuminate ascospores. The mature ascospores (Figure 1H) are olive-brown or brown, lemon-like, double-pointed, with slightly umbilical protrusions at both ends, flat on both sides, 9(-11.5) × 7(-9) × 5.5(-7) µm in size, with germ holes on the top (Wang et al. 2016). These morphological features are consistent with Chaetomium pseudocochliodes. The genomic DNA was extracted from the isolated strains. To identified this fungal pathogen genetically, sequence analyses were conducted using the ITS1/ITS4 (Henson et al. 1993), NL1/NL4 (Liu et al. 2011), EF1-938F /EF1-2218R (Tan et al. 2016) primers for the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), large ribosomal subunit (LSU), and elongation factor 1-α (EF1-α) genes. The obtained sequences were deposited in GenBank with accession numbers MZ817067 (ITS), MZ817072 (LSU), MZ820167 (EF1-α). The phylogenetic trees (Figure 2) were constructed to determine the phylogenetic relationships based on MEGA 6.0 maximum likelihood method. In order to confirm the pathogenicity, the tests were conducted with fungus plug (5 mm) from a 7-day-old colony placed onto the surface of healthy petals. The sterile water-absorbent cottons place onto healthy petal surface near fungus plug and plastic wraps cover in petri dish were used for moisturizing. A total of 3 replicates in each of 3 groups were included (3 healthy petals for a group, 1 for wounded inoculation, 1 for unwounded inoculation, and 1 for sterile PDA plug). A sterile PDA plug was placed onto the surface of healthy petals as a control. After incubation at room temperature for 5 days (Ren. 2019), 3 replicates in each of 2 groups of treated healthy petals for wounded inoculation showed obvious symptoms (Figure 1D), and no symptoms appeared in the control, and healthy petals unwounded showed symptoms for 7-10 days. The fungus was re-isolated from the lesions of inoculated tissues. The re-isolated fungal colonies showed identical morphology and high sequence similarity with ITS, LSU and EF-1α of the initial isolate. No fungus was isolated from the controls. The first extraction of C. pseudocochliodes was also obtained from the roots of the Panax notoginseng in Wenshan, Yunnan (Wang et al. 2016). To our knowledge, this is the first report of flower rot caused by C. pseudocochliodes on C. reticulata in China.

Paeonol Suppresses Vasculogenesis Through Regulating Vascular Smooth Muscle Phenotypic Switching.

OBJECTIVE: Smooth muscle cell (SMC) phenotypic switching is associated with development of a variety of occlusive vascular diseases. Paeonol has been reported to be involved in suppressing SMC proliferation. However, it is still unknown whether paeonol can regulate SMC phenotypic switching, and which eventually result in suppressing vasculogenesis. METHODS: Murine left common carotid artery was injured by completely ligation, and paeonol was administrated by intraperitoneal injection. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining was performed to visualize vascular neointima formation. Rat aortic SMCs were used to determine whether paeonol suppresses cell proliferation and migration. And murine hind limb ischemia model was performed to confirm the function role of paeonol in suppressing vasculogenesis. RESULTS: Complete ligation of murine common carotid artery successfully induced neointima formation. Paeonol treatment dramatically reduced the size of injury-induced neointima. Using rat aortic primary SMC, we identified that paeonol strongly suppressed cell proliferation, migration, and decreased extracellular matrix deposition. And paeonol treatment dramatically suppressed vasculogenesis after hind limb ischemia injury. CONCLUSION: Paeonol could regulate SMC phenotypic switching through inhibiting proliferation and migration of SMC, which results in inhibiting ischemia-induced vasculogenesis.

Incidence, Risk Factors, Risk Assessment Model and Compliance of Patients on Anticoagulants for Asymptomatic Venous Thromboembolism in Nononcological Urological Inpatients.

PURPOSE: To study the incidence, risk factors for developing asymptomatic venous thromboembolism and the compliance of patients on anticoagulants for asymptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE) in nononcological urological medium-high risk inpatients, and build a risk assessment model (RAM) for early screening for asymptomatic VTE. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 573 inpatients admitted to a nononcological urological ward of a tertiary hospital in China from January 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019. Data were collected using the electronic medical record system, and patients underwent a follow-up by phone 6 months after discharge. RESULTS: Among the 573 medium-high risk inpatients, 73 (15.4%) were diagnosed with VTE, including 20 (4.2%) symptomatic and 53 (11.2%) asymptomatic. Prior history of VTE, a history of anticoagulants or antiplatelet agents before admission, and D-dimer ≥ 1 were the potential risk factors identified for asymptomatic VTE. Patients with poor awareness of VTE and its dangers, and patients who lived more than 1 hour away from the hospital had a high probability of poor compliance with anticoagulation therapy after discharge. Using D-dimer (1.785 µg/ml), we built a RAM for the early diagnosis of asymptomatic VTE. CONCLUSION: We found that patients with urinary nontumor VTE had low compliance with anticoagulation therapy after discharge. The key factors for determining asymptomatic VTE in nononcological urological inpatients included prior history of VTE, a history of taking anticoagulants or anti-platelet agents before admission, and D-dimer ≥ 1. Furthermore, we found that the threshold of D-dimer should be elevated to 1.785 µg/ml to predict asymptomatic VTE.

Advance in research of treatment and prognosis of iatrogenic rectourethral fistula. / åŒ»æºæ€§å°¿é“ç›´è‚ ç˜˜æ²»ç–—å’Œé¢„åŽçš„ç ”ç©¶è¿›å±•.

Recturethral fistula (RUF) is a kind of serious complication that mainly happened during the treatment of prostate cancer. It has become one of the most difficult diseases to treat in urology because of its special anatomical location, complicated condition, and the varied prognosis. At present, the main treatment methods for RUF are conservative treatment such as application of antibiotics and indwelling catheters, etc. and surgical treatment such as transperineal approach, transsphincter approach, transanal approach, transabdominal approach, etc. However, there is no explicit treatment protocol for RUF. What's more, the etiology of RUF has changed greatly in recent years. Summarizing the advantages and disadvantages of different RUF's treatment methods and their prognosis will be helpful for the decision of clinical treatment.

First report of 'Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris' associated with witches'-broom disease of Macadamia ternifolia in China.

Macadamia nut (Macadamia ternifolia) was first introduced into China from Australia in 1910, and the main cultivation areas were Yunnan and Guangxi. It can be used as both a fruit and a therapeutic drug, with high economic value. In March 2021, it was observed that the M. ternifolia was showing witches'-broom, leaf yellowing and plexus bud in Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. The terminal buds of infected plants were inhibited and the lateral buds are stimulated to germinate into twigs in advance. It was named the M. ternifolia witches'-broom disease, and was found in urban and rural areas of Mangshi, Lianghe, Yingjiang, Mangdong, Longchuan and Longling cities and counties. More than 40% of the plants were infected on the seven areas surveyed. The lateral stems from symptomatic and asymptomatic plants were cut to small pieces. The tissues were treated by fixation, dehydration and spraying-gold. And the tissues were observed under a scanning electron microscope (Hitachi S-3000N) (Pathan et al. 2010). The nearly spherical bodies were found in the phloem sieve cells of symptomatic plants. Symptomatic and asymptomatic plants were collected from seven areas, ddH2O was used as the negative control, and Dodonaea viscose witches'-broom disease plants were used as the positive control. The total plants' DNA extraction was conducted from 0.1 g tissue using the CTAB method (Porebski et al. 1997), and were stored at -20 °C in a refrigerator in the Key Laboratory of Forest Disaster Warning and Control at the Southwest Forestry University. The nested PCR was employed to amplify the 16S rRNA gene with the primers P1/P7 and R16F2/R16R2 (Lee et al. 1993; Schneider et al. 1993). PCR amplicon of 1.8 kb and 1.2 kb were amplified (GenBank accessions MW892818, MW892819, MW892820, MW892821). The direct PCR with primer pairs rp(I)F/ rp(I)R (Lee et al. 2003) specific to the ribosomal protein (rp) gene yielded amplicons of approximately 1.2 kb (GenBank accessions MZ442600, MZ442601, MZ442602, MZ442603). The fragment from 21 samples was consistent with the positive control, confirming the association of phytoplasma with the disease. Interestingly, the phytoplasma/span>16S rRNA gene and rp gene was also amplified from the 4 samples of asymptomatic plant, we speculated that the latent infection and hidden symptoms existed in Macadamia nut (Moslemkhani and Sadeghi 2011). A BLAST analysis of the 16S rRNA sequences of MTWB phytoplasma showed that it has a 99% similarity with Trema laevigata witches'-broom phytoplasma (GenBank accession MG755412). The rp sequence shared 99% identity with 'Salix tetradenia' witches'-broom phytoplasma (GenBank accession KC117314). An analysis with iPhyClassifier showed that the virtual RFLP pattern derived from the query 16S rDNA fragment of MTWB phytoplasma is most similar to the reference pattern of the 16Sr group I, subgroup B (OY-M, GenBank accession AP006628), with a pattern similarity coefficient of 0.99. The phytoplasma is identified as 'Ca. Phytoplasma asteris'-related strain belonging to sub-group 16SrI-B. The phylogenetic tree was constructed based on 16S rRNA gene and rp gene sequences by using MEGA version 6.0 (Tamura et al. 2013) with neighbor-joining (NJ) method and bootstrap support was estimated with 1000 replicates. The result indicated that the MTWB phytoplasma formed a subclade in 16SrI-B and rpI-B respectively. In 2013, Macadamia nut showed leaf hardness phyllody and shoot proliferation caused by 'Ca. Phytoplasma asteris' in Artemisa, Cuba. The concern is that, the macadamia phytoplasma is closely related to the subgroup 16SrI-F, and it is significantly different from the Chinese strains (Pérez-López et al. 2013). In addition, the MTWB phytoplasma was graft-transmitted from infected to healthy plants in nursery conditions (Akhtar et al. 2009; Ikten et al. 2014). And the grafted plants were positive for the phytoplasma in the nested PCR assays. It is noteworthy that the plants were seriously damaged by aphid and it was speculated that the insects of Homoptera caused the spread of the disease by sucking plant sap, thus the aphids that transmits MTWB in China must be determined to control the M. ternifolia witches'-broom disease. To the best of our knowledge, Macadamia nut is a new host plant of 'Ca. Phytoplasma asteris' in China. The newly emerged disease is a threat to Macadamia nut.

Investigation of urinary components in rat model of ketamine-induced bladder fibrosis based on metabolomics.

BACKGROUND: Ketamine abuse has been linked to the system's damage, presenting with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). While the pathogenesis of ketamine-induced urinary damage is not fully understood, fibrosis is believed to be a potential mechanism. A metabolomic investigation of the urinary metabolites in ketamine abuse was conducted to gain insights into its pathogenesis. METHODS: A rat model of ketamine induced bladder fibrosis was established through tail vein injection of ketamine hydrochloride and control group was established through tail vein injection of the equivalent normal saline. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and Masson trichrome staining were performed to evaluated bladder pathology. Urinary components were detected based on a metabolomic approach using ultra-high performance liquid tandem chromatography quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOFMS platform). Orthogonal projections analyzed the data to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and bioinformatics analysis. RESULTS: The rat model of ketamine induced bladder fibrosis was confirmed through H&E and Masson trichrome staining. There were marked differences in the urinary metabolites between the experimental group and the control group. Compared to the control group, 16 kinds of differential metabolites were up-regulated and 102 differential metabolites were down-regulated in the urine samples of the ketamine group. Bioinformatics analysis revealed the related metabolic pathways. CONCLUSIONS: Using a ketamine-induced bladder fibrosis rat model, this study identified the differential urinary metabolites expressed following ketamine treatment. These results provide vital clues for exploring the pathogenesis of ketamine-induced LUTS and may further contribute to the disease's diagnosis and treatment.