Co-circulation of Hantavirus, Pathogenic Leptospira spp., and Bartonella spp. in Rodents in the Wanzhou Section of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region, 2021-2023.

Background: Rodent is a reservoir of various zoonotic pathogens. Wanzhou section of the Three Gorges reservoir region (TGRR) is a superior habitat for rodents, and the situation of rodent-borne zoonotic pathogens in this region has not been surveyed in recent years. Materials and Methods: Rodents were night trapped with mousecage or mousetrap in urban and surrounding towns' indoor or outdoor areas of the Wanzhou section of the TGRR, and nucleic acid was extracted from their lung or a mixture of liver, spleen, and kidney. Commercialized qPCR kits for pathogenic Leptospira spp., Rickettsia typhi, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Bartonella spp., Orientia tsutsugamushi, and Francisella tularensis and qRT-PCR kits for hantavirus (HV), and severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) were used for the detection of associated pathogens in collected rodents. Results: From 2021 to 2023, 604 rodents belonging to 10 species were collected. HV and pathogenic L. spp. were detected positive, with infection rates of 0.66% (4/604) and 1.32% (8/604), respectively. B. spp. were detected positive with an infection rate of 4.73% (19/402) in the rodents trapped in 2022 and 2023. Other five pathogens were all detected negative. Conclusion: This study showed that the Wanzhou section of the TGRR had HV, pathogenic L. spp., and B. spp. co-circulation in rodents. Hence, more attention should be paid to the prevention and control of associated rodent-borne diseases.

P300 reduces TUBB4B expression to facilitate the biological process of migration and invasion of non-small cell lung cancer cells.

This article explored the mechanism of E1A binding protein p300 (P300) and beta-tubulin 4B isotype-encoding gene (TUBB4B) in regulating the migration and invasion of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. TUBB4B and P300 expression in NSCLC tissues and cells was monitored by real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blot. TUBB4B function on NSCLC cell migration, invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) was monitored by wound healing assay, Transwell experiment and Western blot. The regulation of P300 on TUBB4B was monitored by qRT-PCR and Western blot. Mechanism of P300 and TUBB4B in regulating NSCLC cell migration and invasion was explored by rescue experiment. A xenograft tumor model was established by using nude mouse. As a result, low TUBB4B expression and high P300 expression was discovered in NSCLC tissues and cells. TUBB4B and P300 expression showed a negative correlation in NSCLC tissues. Lower TUBB4B but higher P300 was observed in tumor tissues of NSCLC patients with metastasis. TUBB4B overexpression suppressed NSCLC cell migration, invasion and EMT. TUBB4B silencing had opposite results. P300 overexpression inhibited TUBB4B expression, and P300 silencing facilitated TUBB4B overexpression in NSCLC cells. TUBB4B overexpression counteracted the promotion of P300 overexpression on NSCLC cell invasion and migration. TUBB4B silencing abrogated the inhibition of P300 knockdown on NSCLC cell invasion and migration. TUBB4B overexpression suppressed NSCLC cell in vivo growth. Thus, TUBB4B could be reduced by P300 in NSCLC. It exerted suppression role on NSCLC cell migration, invasion and EMT. TUBB4B may be a novel target for NSCLC treatment.

The objectively measured walking speed and risk of hypertension in Chinese older adults: a prospective cohort study.

This study aims to investigate the longitudinal association between objectively measured walking speed and hypertension and to explore the potential effect modification of obesity on this association in Chinese older adults. The data from the Chinese Health and Retirement Prospective Cohort Study (CHARLS) during 2011-2015 was used. Walking speed was assessed by measuring the participants' usual gait in a 2.5 m course, and it was divided into four groups according to the quartiles (Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4). A total of 2733 participants ≥60 years old were eligible for the analyses. After a follow-up of 4 years, 26.9% occurred hypertension. An inverse association was observed between walking speed and the risk of hypertension. There was an interaction between body mass index (BMI) and walking speed for the hypertension risk (P = 0.010). the association of walking speed with hypertension was stronger in overweight and obese participants (Q2, OR: 0.54, 95%CI = 0.34-0.85, P = 0.009; Q3, OR: 0.69, 95%CI = 0.44-1.08, P = 0.106; Q4, OR: 0.62, 95%CI = 0.39-0.98, P = 0.039). However, this association was not significant among lean ones. A similar trend was observed for systolic and diastolic blood pressure. In conclusion, higher walking speed was longitudinally associated with a lower risk of hypertension in Chinese older adults, especially among overweight and obese participants.

Impaired Kidney Function Portended a Bleak Prognosis for Surgically Treated Hypertensive Intracerebral Hemorrhage Patients.

Purpose: Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) cases caused by hypertension often have poor prognoses. The use of dehydrant agents, such as mannitol, is common to reduce intracranial pressure and alleviate cerebral edema, but they may also pose a risk of worsening kidney function. This study aimed to investigate the impact of impaired kidney function on the outcomes of surgically treated hypertensive ICH patients. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of a consecutive cohort of patients who underwent surgical intervention due to hypertension-related ICH at our institute between December 1, 2017, and January 31, 2022. Demographic, clinical, radiological, and prognostic data were collected. Patients were categorized into two groups based on 90-day mortality: group A [overall survival (OS) ≤3 months] and group B (OS >3 months). Survival analysis was performed to identify factors associated with poor outcomes. Results: Among the 232 eligible patients, group A exhibited significantly impaired kidney function, as indicated by mean estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) at admission, postoperative, 3-day postoperative, and 7-day postoperative time points (91.9, 82.5, 73.5, 75.2 ml/min/1.73 m²). In contrast, group B did not show significant changes in kidney function (mean eGFR for the corresponding time points: 108.1, 106.5, 111.5, 109.6 ml/min/1.73 m²). The 3-day postoperative eGFR showed the strongest predictive ability for assessing prognosis [areas under the curve (AUC): 0.617, 0.675, 0.737, 0.730]. Univariate and multivariate analyses identified low Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score (3-8), ventricle intrusion of hematomas, cardiac failure, larger hematoma volume, infection, and lower 3-day postoperative eGFR as adverse factors for survival. Conclusions: Preserving kidney function is crucial for achieving favorable outcomes in hypertensive ICH cases. Impaired 3-day postoperative eGFR emerged as an independent risk factor for overall survival. Patients with cardiac failure, infection, and larger hematoma volume should receive careful management to improve outcomes.

Living alone and the risk of depressive symptoms: a cross-sectional and cohort analysis based on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study.

BACKGROUND: There were a few studies that examined the longitudinal association between living alone and depressive symptoms, and the vast majority of them were conducted in patients with certain diseases, such as heart failure, cancer, and glaucoma. This study aimed to examine the association between living alone and depressive symptoms in a large representative older Chinese population. METHODS: The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) data from 2015 to 2018 were used. Living alone was defined as participants who did not live with others ever or more than 11 months in the past year at baseline. Depressive symptoms were measured using the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D10). The multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the relationship between living alone and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: There were 5,311 and 2,696 participants ≥ 60 years old included in the cross-sectional and cohort analysis, respectively. The risk of depressive symptoms in participants who lived alone was significantly higher than those who lived with others in both cross-sectional (OR:1.33; 95%CI:1.14,1.54) and cohort analysis (OR:1.23; 95%CI:0.97,1.55). There was a significant interaction between financial support and living alone (Pinteraction = 0.008) on the risk of depressive symptoms. Stratified analyses showed that, compared to those who lived with others, the risk of depressive symptoms in participants who lived alone increased by 83% (OR:1.83; 95%CI:1.26,2.65) in participants receiving lower financial support. However, we did not find statistically significant associations in participants with medium (OR:1.10; 95%CI: 0.74,1.63) and higher financial support (OR: 0.87; 95%CI: 0.53,1.41). CONCLUSION: Living alone was associated with a higher risk of depressive symptoms in the Chinese older population, and this association was moderated by the receipt of financial support. Living alone may be an effective and easy predictor for early identification of high-risk populations of depression in the older population.

The potential DNA methylation markers of cardiovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation is associated with cardiovascular (CV) disease. However, in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients, the role of gene methylation in the development of CV disease is under-studied. We aimed to identify the CV disease-related DNA methylation loci in patients with T2D and to explore the potential pathways underlying the development of CV disease using a two-stage design. METHODS: The participants were from the Jinan Diabetes Cohort Study (JNDCS), an ongoing longitudinal study designed to evaluate the development of CV risk in patients with T2D. In the discovery cohort, 10 diabetic patients with CV events at baseline were randomly selected as the case group, and another 10 diabetic patients without CV events were matched for sex, age, smoking status, and body mass index as the control group. In 1438 T2D patients without CV disease at baseline, 210 patients with CV events were identified after a mean 6.5-year follow-up. Of whom, 100 patients who experienced CV events during the follow-up were randomly selected as cases, and 100 patients who did not have CV events were randomly selected as the control group in the validation cohort. Reduced representation bisulfite sequencing and Targeted Bisulfite Sequencing were used to measure the methylation profiles in the discovery and validation cohort, respectively. RESULTS: In the discover cohort, 127 DMRs related to CV disease were identified in T2D patients. Further, we validated 23 DMRs mapped to 25 genes, of them, 4 genes (ARSG, PNPLA6, NEFL, and CRYGEP) for the first time were reported. There was evidence that the addition of DNA methylation data improved the prediction performance of CV disease in T2D patients. Pathway analysis identified some significant signaling pathways involved in CV comorbidities, T2D, and inflammation. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we identified 23 DMRs mapped to 25 genes associated with CV disease in T2D patients, of them, 4 DMRs for the first time were reported. DNA methylation testing may help identify a high CV-risk population in T2D patients.

ProS-GNN: Predicting effects of mutations on protein stability using graph neural networks.

Predicting protein stability change upon variation through a computational approach is a valuable tool to unveil the mechanisms of mutation-induced drug failure and develop immunotherapy strategies. Some previous machine learning-based techniques exhibit anti-symmetric bias toward destabilizing situations, whereas others struggle with generalization to unseen examples. To address these issues, we propose a gated graph neural network-based approach to predict changes in protein stability upon mutation. The model uses message passing to encode the links between the molecular structure and property after eliminating the non-mutant structure and creating input feature vectors. While doing so, it also incorporates the coordinates of the raw atoms to provide spatial insights into the chemical systems. We test the model on the Ssym, Myoglobin, Broom, and p53 datasets to demonstrate the generalization performance. Compared to existing approaches, our proposed method achieves improved linearity with symmetry in less time. The code for this study is available at: https://github.com/HongzhouTang/Pros-GNN.

General cross-modality registration framework for visible and infrared UAV target image registration.

In all-day-all-weather tasks, well-aligned multi-modality images pairs can provide extensive complementary information for image-guided UAV target detection. However, multi-modality images in real scenarios are often misaligned, and images registration is extremely difficult due to spatial deformation and the difficulty narrowing cross-modality discrepancy. To better overcome the obstacle, in this paper, we construct a General Cross-Modality Registration (GCMR) Framework, which explores generation registration pattern to simplify the cross-modality image registration into a easier mono-modality image registration with an Image Cross-Modality Translation Network (ICMTN) module and a Multi-level Residual Dense Registration Network (MRDRN). Specifically, ICMTN module is used to generate a pseudo infrared image taking a visible image as input and correct the distortion of structural information during the translation of image modalities. Benefiting from the favorable geometry correct ability of the ICMTN, we further employs MRDRN module which can fully extract and exploit the mutual information of misaligned images to better registered Visible and Infrared image in a mono-modality setting. We evaluate five variants of our approach on the public Anti-UAV datasets. The extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed architecture achieves state-of-the-art performance.

A Review of Piezoelectric Footwear Energy Harvesters: Principles, Methods, and Applications.

Over the last couple of decades, numerous piezoelectric footwear energy harvesters (PFEHs) have been reported in the literature. This paper reviews the principles, methods, and applications of PFEH technologies. First, the popular piezoelectric materials used and their properties for PEEHs are summarized. Then, the force interaction with the ground and dynamic energy distribution on the footprint as well as accelerations are analyzed and summarized to provide the baseline, constraints, potential, and limitations for PFEH design. Furthermore, the energy flow from human walking to the usable energy by the PFEHs and the methods to improve the energy conversion efficiency are presented. The energy flow is divided into four processing steps: (i) how to capture mechanical energy into a deformed footwear, (ii) how to transfer the elastic energy from a deformed shoes into piezoelectric material, (iii) how to convert elastic deformation energy of piezoelectric materials to electrical energy in the piezoelectric structure, and (iv) how to deliver the generated electric energy in piezoelectric structure to external resistive loads or electrical circuits. Moreover, the major PFEH structures and working mechanisms on how the PFEHs capture mechanical energy and convert to electrical energy from human walking are summarized. Those piezoelectric structures for capturing mechanical energy from human walking are also reviewed and classified into four categories: flat plate, curved, cantilever, and flextensional structures. The fundamentals of piezoelectric energy harvesters, the configurations and mechanisms of the PFEHs, as well as the generated power, etc., are discussed and compared. The advantages and disadvantages of typical PFEHs are addressed. The power outputs of PFEHs vary in ranging from nanowatts to tens of milliwatts. Finally, applications and future perspectives are summarized and discussed.

Associations of pyrethroid exposure with skeletal muscle strength and mass.

This study aimed to examine the associations of pyrethroid exposure with handgrip strength and skeletal muscle mass and potential modification effects in US adults. The data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was used. Handgrip strength was determined with a handgrip dynamometer, and we quantified muscle mass by using the appendicular skeletal muscle index (ASMI). Urinary 3-Phenoxybenzoic Acid (3-PBA), a validated biomarker for pyrethroid exposure, was used in the primary analysis. After adjusting for other covariates, participants exposed to the highest tertile of 3-PBA exposure had significantly lower handgrip strength (ß = -1.88, 95% CI: -3.29, -0.23, P = 0.026) than those exposed to the lowest tertile of 3-PBA. Similarly, the 3-PBA exposure was marginally significantly associated with ASMI (Tertile 3 vs. Tertile 1: ß = -0.07, 95% CI: -0.14, -0.01, P = 0.056). Significant interactions were found between 3-PBA and body mass index (BMI) on handgrip strength and ASMI (P interaction < 0.05), which indicated a potential moderation effect of BMI on the associations. In conclusion, pyrethroid exposure was adversely associated with handgrip strength and skeletal muscle mass, especially in overweight and obese populations. Further studies are warranted to confirm our results and to explore the potential mechanisms.

Case report: Spinal cord stimulation in the treatment of pediatric erythromelalgia.

Introduction: In children, erythromelalgia is a rare chronic pain syndrome characterized by erythema, severe burning pain, and itching of affected feet. Unfortunately, there is no definitive therapy available currently. Case report: Here, we report a case of primary erythromelalgia and the treatment response in a 10-year-old boy, whose genetic findings for mutations in the SCN9A gene were positive and skin biopsy results were diagnosed as small fiber neuropathy, while he has suffered from excruciating burning pain, itching, erythema, and recurrent infections over the past 3 years. He did not respond well to conventional treatment, and the only way to receive minimal relief was to immerse his feet in ice water. After a successful trial of spinal cord stimulation (SCS), the implantable pulse generator (IPG) was successfully implanted without complications, and it proved partial response to therapy. Conclusion: There is no specific, efficient treatment for pediatric erythromelalgia currently, but this case demonstrates neuromodulation serves as part of the multimodal regimen to treat pediatric erythromelalgia.

Environmental noise exposure and health outcomes: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Environmental noise is becoming increasingly recognized as an urgent public health problem, but the quality of current studies needs to be assessed. To evaluate the significance, validity and potential biases of the associations between environmental noise exposure and health outcomes. METHODS: We conducted an umbrella review of the evidence across meta-analyses of environmental noise exposure and any health outcomes. A systematic search was done until November 2021. PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase and references of eligible studies were searched. Quality was assessed by AMSTAR and Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). RESULTS: Of the 31 unique health outcomes identified in 23 systematic reviews and meta-analyses, environmental noise exposure was more likely to result in a series of adverse outcomes. Five percent were moderate in methodology quality, the rest were low to very low and the majority of GRADE evidence was graded as low or even lower. The group with occupational noise exposure had the largest risk increment of speech frequency [relative risk (RR): 6.68; 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.41-13.07] and high-frequency (RR: 4.46; 95% CI: 2.80-7.11) noise-induced hearing loss. High noise exposure from different sources was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (34%) and its mortality (12%), elevated blood pressure (58-72%), diabetes (23%) and adverse reproductive outcomes (22-43%). In addition, the dose-response relationship revealed that the risk of diabetes, ischemic heart disease (IHD), cardiovascular (CV) mortality, stroke, anxiety and depression increases with increasing noise exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Adverse associations were found for CV disease and mortality, diabetes, hearing impairment, neurological disorders and adverse reproductive outcomes with environmental noise exposure in humans, especially occupational noise. The studies mostly showed low quality and more high-quality longitudinal study designs are needed for further validation in the future.

Anti-scarring effects of conbercept on human Tenon's fibroblasts: comparisons with bevacizumab.

BACKGROUND: Safely inhibiting the formation of scar in the glaucoma filtration surgery (GFS) has always been an issue for clinical glaucoma doctors. Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) agents can reduce angiogenesis, and anti-placental growth factor (PIGF) agents can affect reactive gliosis. However, the effect of conbercept, which can bind to both VEGF and PIGF, on human Tenon's fibroblasts (HTFs) is unknown. METHODS: HTFs were cultured in vitro and treated with conbercept or bevacizumab (BVZ). No drug was added to the control group. The effects of drugs on cell proliferation were assessed using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, and the collagen type I alpha1(Col1A1) mRNA expression level was measured using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). HTF cell migration after drug interventions was evaluated using the scratch wound assay along with the measurement of the expression levels of VEGF and PIGF in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, as well as the detection of the VEGF(R) mRNA expression level in HTFs using qPCR. RESULTS: After the addition of conbercept (0.01, 0.1, and 1 mg/mL) to the cultured HTFs or HUVECs, no significant cytotoxicity was observed compared with the control group, while the cytotoxicity of 2.5 mg/mL BVZ on HTFs was obvious. Conbercept significantly inhibited HTF cell migration and Col1A1 mRNA expression level in HTFs. It was superior to BVZ in inhibiting HTF migration. After the intervention with conbercept, the expression level of PIGF and VEGF in HUVECs significantly decreased; and the inhibitory effect of conbercept on the expression level of VEGF in HUVECs was weaker than that of BVZ. Conbercept was more advantageous than BVZ in inhibiting the expression level of VEGFR-1 mRNA in HTFs. However, its effect in terms of inhibiting the expression level of VEGFR-2 mRNA in HTFs was weaker than that of BVZ. CONCLUSION: The results suggested the low cytotoxicity and significant anti-scarring effect of conbercept in HTF with significant anti-PIGF and inferior anti-VEGF effects compared with BVZ, thus providing a better understanding of the role of conbercept in the GFS wound healing process.

Association between serum calcium level and type 2 diabetes: An NHANES analysis and Mendelian randomization study.

AIMS: This study investigated the association between serum calcium levels and the prevalence of T2D using a cross-sectional study and Mendelian randomization analysis. METHODS: Cross-sectional data were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2018. Serum calcium levels were divided into three groups (low, medium and high groups) according to the tertiles. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between serum calcium levels and T2D prevalence. Instrumental variables for serum calcium levels were obtained from the UK Biobank and a two-sample MR analysis was performed to examine the causal relationship between genetically predicted serum calcium levels and the risk of T2D. RESULTS: A total of 39,645 participants were available for cross-sectional analysis. After adjusting for covariates, participants in the high serum calcium group had significantly higher odds of T2D (OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.07, 1.30, p = 0.001) than those in the moderate group. Restricted cubic spline plots showed a J-shaped curve relationship between serum calcium level and prevalence of T2D. Consistently, Mendelian randomization analysis showed that higher genetically predicted serum calcium levels were causally associated with a higher risk of T2D (OR = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.33, p = 0.031). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that higher serum calcium levels are causally associated with a higher risk of T2D. Further studies are needed to clarify whether intervening in high serum calcium could reduce the risk of T2D.

Association of platelet-to-neutrophil ratios with 1-year outcome and mortality in patients with acute ischemic stroke.

BACKGROUND: Platelet-neutrophil crosstalk is being increasingly recognized as a driver of inflammation and thrombosis in patients with ischemic stroke. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of PNR value in predicting the long-term prognosis and evaluate whether or not an available and routine blood cell biomarker could help predict the long-term neurological function and mortality in AIS patients. METHODS: A total of 718 patients with suspected acute ischemic stroke were involved and followed up for 1 year by standard telephone interview or reexamination. Kaplan-Meier curve, Univariate and Multivariate Cox Regression were analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences. RESULTS: ROC curve for PNR to evaluate 1-year outcomes was analyzed and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.659 (P < 0.001). The cutoff point was observed at 38.30, with a sensitivity of 53.09 % and a specificity of 71.25 %. Moreover, patients in PNR ≤ 38.30 were more likely to have more serious NIHSS on admission, 1-year mRS and higher 1-year mortality (P < 0.001, respectively). The 1-year mortality in the low PNR group was significantly higher than that of the high PNR group (log-rank tests: P < 0.0001). Age, NIHSS, RBC and PNR were combined into model B which significantly increased the AUC value from 0.736 to 0.888 compared to model A (including Age, NIHSS and RBC). CONCLUSION: PNR may serve as a readily assessable biomarker for early predicting neurological deterioration and the long-term prognosis of AIS. The nomogram that included age, NIHSS, PNR and RBC may be a useful predictive tool for 1-year mortality.

Behaviour of polymer-coated composite nanoparticles at bubble-stabilizing interfaces during bubble coarsening and accelerated coalescence: A Cryo-SEM study.

HYPOTHESIS: Dynamics of polymer-coated silica composite nanoparticles (CPs) during bubble coarsening is highly dominated by the behaviour of the polymer layer, while in-situ particle aggregation would lead to accelerated bubble coalescence. EXPERIMENTS: CPs-stabilized foams were prepared in 0.1 M and 0.55 M Na2SO4 solution, referring to the 0.1 M and 0.55 M foam/bubble respectively. The 0.1 M to 0.55 M transition foam was also prepared. High resolution Cryo-SEM was originally used to investigate the CPs behaviour at the bubble-stabilizing interface during bubble coarsening and accelerated coalescence. FINDINGS: The 0.1 M bubble-stabilizing interface buckles in uniaxial compression due to coarsening, with the CPs being observed to desorb from the interface. While the CPs were visualized to rearrange into crumpled particle multi-layers surrounding the shrinking 0.55 M bubbles, due to the adhesion between interpenetrating polymer chains and the unique lubrication effect of the PVP layers. The 0.1 M to 0.55 M transition foaming behaviour was also studied. Cracks and voids were observed at interfaces surrounding the transition bubbles driven by in-situ particle aggregation, resulting in accelerated bubble coalescence during the transition process.

Bioinspired Self-Growing Hydrogels by Harnessing Interfacial Polymerization.

The production of natural materials is achieved through a bottom-up approach, in which materials spontaneously grow and adapt to the external environment. Synthetic materials are specifically designed and fabricated as engineered materials; however, they are far away from these natural self-growing attributes. Thus, design and fabrication of synthetic material systems to replicate the self-growing characteristics of those natural prototypes (i.e., hairs and nails) remains challenging. Inspired by the self-growing behaviors of keratin proteins, here the fabrication of synthetic hydrogels (i.e., polyacrylamide (PAAm)) from the free radical polymerization at the interface between AAm precursor solution and liquid metals (i.e., eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn)) is reported. The newly formed hydrogel materials at the EGaIn/AAm precursor interface gradually push the whole hydrogel upward, enabling the self-growing of these synthetic hydrogel materials. This work not only endows the fabrication of synthetic materials with unprecedented self-growing characters, but also broadens the potential applications of self-growing materials in actuation and soft robotics.

Dose-response association between transportation noise exposure and type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.

AIMS: To examine the longitudinal association between transportation noise exposure (road traffic, aircraft, and railway noise) and T2D in a meta-analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane, and Web of Science published up to February 2022. The GRADE approach was used to evaluate the study quality, and the pooled effect estimate was calculated by the fixed-effects model or the random-effects model. RESULTS: We included 10 prospective studies with a total of 4,994,171 participants and 417,332 T2D cases in the meta-analysis. According to the Navigation guide, 8 studies out of 10 were rated as having a probably high or high risk of bias. For road noise, the pooled relative risk (RR) per 10 dB higher Lden for developing T2D was 1.06 (95% CI:1.03, 1.09) with high heterogeneity (I2  = 90.1%, p < 0.001). Similar associations were also observed in aircraft and railway noise: the pooled RR were separately were: 1.01 (1.00, 1.01) and 1.02 (1.01, 1.03) separately. A 'dose-response' analysis found a similar linear association between road noise exposure and the risk of T2D. CONCLUSIONS: An overall 6% increase in the risk of T2D per 10 dB increase in road exposure was observed. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings, especially for aircraft and railway noise, and to identify the mechanisms involved.

BayeStab: Predicting effects of mutations on protein stability with uncertainty quantification.

Predicting protein thermostability change upon mutation is crucial for understanding diseases and designing therapeutics. However, accurately estimating Gibbs free energy change of the protein remained a challenge. Some methods struggle to generalize on examples with no homology and produce uncalibrated predictions. Here we leverage advances in graph neural networks for protein feature extraction to tackle this structure-property prediction task. Our method, BayeStab, is then tested on four test datasets, including S669, S611, S350, and Myoglobin, showing high generalization and symmetry performance. Meanwhile, we apply concrete dropout enabled Bayesian neural networks to infer plausible models and estimate uncertainty. By decomposing the uncertainty into parts induced by data noise and model, we demonstrate that the probabilistic method allows insights into the inherent noise of the training datasets, which is closely relevant to the upper bound of the task. Finally, the BayeStab web server is created and can be found at: http://www.bayestab.com. The code for this work is available at: https://github.com/HongzhouTang/BayeStab.

Road Traffic Noise, Obesity, and the Risk of Incident Type 2 Diabetes: A Cohort Study in UK Biobank.

Objectives: To assess the association of road traffic noise exposure with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) risk, and to explore the potential moderation effect of obesity. Methods: A total of 305,969 participants from the UK Biobank Cohort - an open access cohort of 500,000 participants recruited in the United Kingdom (UK) between 2006 and 2010 - were included in the study. A Cox proportional hazard model was fitted to assess the association between road traffic noise exposure and T2D. Results: A total of 19,303 participants were diagnosed with T2D during the 11.9-year median follow-up period. For every 10 dB increase in road traffic noise, there was a 4% increase in T2D risk (HR = 1.04, 95%CI: 1.01, 1.07). Besides, a significant positive interaction was observed between obesity and road traffic noise (P interaction <0.001) for the risk of T2D. The association of road traffic noise with T2D was stronger in overweight and obese participants (HR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.01-1.08), but not significant among lean ones (HR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.86-1.07). Conclusion: Our study observed a longitudinal association of road traffic noise exposure with T2D risk, which was stronger among overweight and obese individuals than the lean ones.