Improved Binaural Hearing Effects and Sound Source Localization in Listeners with Simulated Unilateral Conductive Hearing Loss: Effect of a Bone Conduction Device.

Objectives: It has been proven that patients with unilateral conductive hearing loss (UCHL) may encounter typical problems associated with asymmetric hearing, especially in challenging listening environments. In this study, we aimed to determine how UCHL affects speech recognition under multisource competing environments and the ability of sound source localization, as well as whether assistance with a bone conduction device (BCD) can confer hearing benefits in such listening tasks. Design: Acquired UCHL was simulated using an earplug combined with an earmuff in 10 listeners (mean age: 29.9 ± 4.77 years) with bilateral normal hearing (NH), and a within-subject repeated-measures design was used to compare hearing results among three listening conditions: NH (both ears open, C1), unilateral plug (UP) (simulated UCHL, C2), and UP + BCD (simulated UCHL aided with a BCD, C3). The speech reception threshold (SRT) of summation, squelch, and head shadow (HS) effects and the mean absolute error of sound source localization were used as markers for binaural hearing abilities. Results: BCD assistance (C3) improved the summation and HS effects in all listeners with simulated UCHL, resulting in a lower (i.e., better) SRT than that observed in C2; however, no significant differences in squelch effects were observed between C2 and C3. Notably, most listeners exhibited more accurate sound source localization in C3 than in C2. Further, BCD assistance mainly improved localization accuracy when the noise stimuli were presented at low intensities and on the hearing-impaired (plugged) side, suggesting that the benefits of BCD for sound localization are not based on the reacquisition of binaural processing. Conclusions: The current results have clinical implications for the promotion of BCDs in patients with UCHL, especially those with acquired UCHL who are unable to undergo surgery.

Borderline Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip With Osseous Impingement as Distinct From Femoroacetabular Impingement and Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip.

Background: Borderline developmental dysplasia of the hip (BDDH) accompanied by cam deformity and subspinous impingement has been found to benefit from arthroscopic surgery. However, the research comparing BDDH combined with osseous impingement to femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) without borderline dysplasia remains limited. Purpose/Hypothesis: To compare the clinical symptoms, intraoperative findings, and outcomes of hip arthroscopy in patients with BDDH and osseous impingement versus cam-type FAI. It was hypothesized that BDDH with osseous impingement could be classified as a distinct entity between FAI and developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: Data were collected from patients 18 to 50 years old who underwent primary hip arthroscopy between September 2016 and October 2020. Patients were divided based on preoperative lateral center-edge angle (LCEA) into 2 groups: (1) BDDH group (LCEA 18°-25°; n = 67); and (2) cam-type FAI group without BDDH (FAI group; LCEA 25°-40° and alpha angle >55°; n = 145). Disparities in symptoms, preoperative examination, intraoperative findings and procedures, and patient-reported outcome (PRO) scores were compared. Results: Follow-up was available for 61 (91.0%) patients in the BDDH group and 125 (86.2%) patients in the FAI group. The incidence of cam deformity in BDDH patients was 91.8%. The preoperative characteristics and intraoperative findings were similar between the groups; however, preoperative internal and external hip rotation, Tönnis angle, femoroepiphyseal acetabular roof index, labral size, capsule thickness, and percentage of ligamentum teres tear were significantly higher in the BDDH group than the FAI group, and the percentage of pain aggravating factor, cam deformity, and anterior inferior iliac spine types 2 and 3 were also significantly different between groups (P < .05 for all). The percentage of intraoperative minimal acetabuloplasty, subspinous decompression, labral repair, ligamentum teres debridement, and capsular closure was significantly higher in the BDDH group than the FAI group, while the percentage of femoroplasty was higher in the FAI group (P < .05). Pre- to postoperative improvement on PRO scores was seen in both groups. Conclusion: Given the differences in etiology and surgical procedures between the 2 conditions, it is suggested that BDDH with osseous impingement be classified as an entity distinct from FAI and DDH (and separate from BDDH without impingement) while excluding joint instability.

Phenotypic variation in hypocotyl elongation among elite sand rice (Agriophyllum squarrosum) lines.

Sand rice (Agriophyllum squarrosum), widely distributed in Central Arid Asia and prevalent in the sand dunes of northern China, presents a promising potential as a climate-resilient crop. The plasticity of hypocotyl growth is the key trait for sand rice to cope with wind erosion and sand burial, ensure seedling emergence, and determine plant architecture. In this study, we assessed the overall hypocotyl phenotype of six sand rice elite lines, which were collected from different regions of northern China, and selected by our group over past decade through common garden trials. Significant phenotypic variations were observed in thousand-seed weight (TSW), seedling emergence percentage, hypocotyl length and diameter, and seedling fresh weight among the lines. The elite line Aerxiang (AEX) exhibited excellent agronomic performance with superior and synchronous emergence, and high survival percentage, distinguishing itself as a prime candidate for further large-scale cultivation. Contrastingly, the lines from the arid regions showed markedly lower performance. Partial Least Squares Path Modeling (PLSPM) was used to assess the impact of seed provenance climate factors, including annual mean temperature (AMT) and annual mean precipitation (AMP), on trait variability among lines. The findings indicate a significant correlation between climate factors and hypocotyl length, highlighting the intricate adaptation of sand rice to local climate. The comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms behind phenotypic variations offers valuable insights for sand rice de novo domestication and innovative germplasm resources, and lays the foundation for ecological restoration in sandy areas.

Trends in HIV Prevalence, Sexual Behavior, and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Willingness Among Transgender Women: An Analysis of Three Cross-Sectional Studies Conducted Mainly in Shenyang, China, 2014-2019.

Purpose: Although transgender women (TGW) bear the highest HIV burden worldwide, routine surveillance of this group is rare. We aimed to evaluate the trends in health characteristics of Chinese TGW. Methods: Three cross-sectional studies using snowball sampling were conducted in 2014, 2017, and 2019, primarily in Shenyang, China. A questionnaire and voluntary HIV testing were used to obtain information on background characteristics, sexual behaviors, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) willingness, and HIV status. Results: There were 220 respondents in 2014, 198 in 2017, and 247 in 2019 (average age 31.1±7.6 to 33.5±9.6 years). HIV prevalence significantly decreased from 29.5% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 25.3-38.4%) in 2014 to 19.4% (95% CI: 14.7-24.9%) in 2019 (p<0.05). The proportion of participants reporting condomless anal intercourse (CAI) with any partner fluctuated from 30.8% (95% CI: 25.1-36.1%) to 53.0% (95% CI: 45.8-60.1%). The proportion of participants willing to use PrEP decreased from 86.4% (95% CI: 81.1-90.6%) in 2014 to 62.8% (95% CI: 56.4-68.8%) in 2019. Factors significantly associated with HIV infection were CAI with any partner (multivariate odds ratio [ORm]: 3.58, 95% CI: 1.55-8.29 in 2017; ORm: 3.18, 95% CI: 1.56-6.46 in 2019) and PrEP willingness (ORm: 0.26, 95% CI: 0.12-0.58 in 2017). Conclusion: HIV prevalence and associated risk factors remain substantial among Chinese TGW. There is an urgent need to strengthen HIV surveillance in this population, and develop trans-friendly and effective interventions to minimize HIV prevalence and transmission.

Washed Microbiota Transplantation Improves the Sleep Quality in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Purpose: There is scarce evidence to support the effectiveness of faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) in improving sleep among individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Our study aimed to evaluate the effect of washed microbiota transplantation (WMT) (the new method of FMT) on the sleep of patients with IBD in short term. Patients and Methods: This prospective study was conducted as part of two interventional clinical trials (starting on February 2013 and expected to end on December 2025) and placed significant emphasis on evaluating sleep quality in patients with IBD. To measure subjective sleep, we used the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI). The primary endpoint was the PSQI score one month after WMT. Results: This stage study included 52 eligible patients evaluated by PSQI questionnaire who underwent WMT from January 2020 to March 2021 and 47 patients were enrolled for analysis. The age of the patients ranged from 13 to 60 years, with a mean of 33.4 years, and 57.4% (25/47) of the patients were male. The PSQI scores for all 47 patients one month after undergoing WMT were significantly lower (Cohen d = 0.59, p < 0.001) compared to the baseline. Moreover, baseline PSQI score was correlated with the difference value of the PSQI score before and after WMT (post-PSQI minus pre-PSQI) (r = 0.61, p < 0.05). Conclusion: The study suggests that WMT might be a helpful intervention for improving the sleep quality of patients with IBD, encouraging clinicians to consider its use in clinical practice for addressing poor sleep in IBD patients. Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov; ID: NCT01793831, NCT01790061.

A sensitive tobramycin electrochemical aptasensor based on multiple signal amplification cascades.

The residue of tobramycin, a broad spectrum antibiotic commonly used in animal husbandry, has evitable impact on human health, which may cause kidney damage, respiratory paralysis, neuromuscular blockade and cross-allergy in humans. Sensitive monitoring of tobramycin in animal-derived food products is therefore of great importance. Herein, a new aptamer electrochemical biosensor for sensing tobramycin with high sensitivity is demonstrated via exonuclease III (Exo III) and metal ion-dependent DNAzyme recycling and hybridization chain reaction (HCR) signal amplification cascades. Tobramycin analyte binds aptamer-containing hairpin probe to switch its conformation to expose the toehold sequence, which triggers Exo III-based catalytic digestion of the secondary hairpin to release many DNAzyme strands. The substrate hairpins immobilized on the Au electrode (AuE) are then cyclically cleaved by the DNAzymes to form ssDNAs, which further initiate HCR formation of lots of long methylene blue (MB)-tagged dsDNA polymers on the AuE. Subsequently electro-oxidation of these MB labels thus exhibit highly enhanced currents for sensing tobramycin within the 5-1000 nM concentration range with an impressive detection limit of 3.51 nM. Furthermore, this strategy has high selectivity for detecting tobramycin in milk and shows promising potential for detect other antibiotics for food safety monitoring.

Candidate for a Passively Protected Quantum Memory in Two Dimensions.

An interesting problem in the field of quantum error correction involves finding a physical system that hosts a "passively protected quantum memory," defined as an encoded qubit coupled to an environment that naturally wants to correct errors. To date, a quantum memory stable against finite-temperature effects is known only in four spatial dimensions or higher. Here, we take a different approach to realize a stable quantum memory by relying on a driven-dissipative environment. We propose a new model, the photonic-Ising model, which appears to passively correct against both bit-flip and phase-flip errors in two dimensions: a square lattice composed of photonic "cat qubits" coupled via dissipative terms which tend to fix errors locally. Inspired by the presence of two distinct Z_{2}-symmetry-broken phases, our scheme relies on Ising-like dissipators to protect against bit flips and on a driven-dissipative photonic environment to protect against phase flips. We also discuss possible ways to realize the photonic-Ising model.

Mesenchymal stem cells-derived exosomes alleviate liver fibrosis by targeting Hedgehog/SMO signaling.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Despite increasing knowledge regarding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of liver fibrogenesis, there is currently no approved drug for the treatment of liver fibrosis. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent progenitor cells representing an attractive therapeutic tool for tissue damage and inflammation. This study was designed to determine the protective effect and underlying mechanism of human umbilical cord-derived MSCs (UC-MSCs) on thioacetamide-induced liver fibrosis. METHODS: Liver fibrosis was induced in mice by intraperitoneal injection of thioacetamide (TAA). Some mice were then given injection of UC-MSCs or UC-MSCs-derived exosomes (UC-MSCs-Exo) via the tail vein. Liver tissues were collected for histologic analysis. RESULTS: We found that administration of UC-MSCs significantly reduced serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase levels, and attenuated hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. Moreover, the therapeutic effect of UC-MSCs-derived exosomes was similar to that of UC-MSCs. Intriguingly, UC-MSCs-Exo treatment downregulated the expression of smoothened (SMO), a fundamental component of Hedgehog signaling which plays a critical role in fibrogenesis, and subsequently inhibited the activation of hepatic stellate cells, a central driver of fibrosis in experimental and human liver injury. Furthermore, the anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects of UCMSCs- Exo was reversed by the SMO agonist SAG treatment in mice. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that UC-MSCs-Exo exert therapeutic effects on liver fibrosis, at least in part, through inhibiting the Hedgehog/SMO signaling pathway.

Public Attitudes towards and Management Strategies for Community Cats in Urban China.

Managing community cats in urban China is a contentious and emerging issue, with debates centering on the most effective and humane approaches. This study aimed to investigate public attitudes towards community cats and various management strategies. A survey was conducted involving 5382 urban residents in China. Their attitudes towards the positive and negative roles of community cats in urban areas and their support for different management methods were examined, including trap-and-kill, taking no action, centralized management, and trap-neuter-return (TNR) and its variations. Results indicated that 63% of participants were willing to coexist with community cats, 71% opposed trap-and-kill, and 61% agreed or strongly agreed with the TNR method and its variations. Older residents or those with higher incomes were more likely to support coexistence with community cats. In contrast, younger or lower-income residents were more likely to support non-coexistence. Residents in first- or second-tier cities (e.g., Beijing, Hangzhou, and Jinan Cities in China) were more inclined to support trap-and-kill and less likely to support coexistence than their counterparts in fourth-tier cities (e.g., county-level cities in China). Moreover, those with lower education or incomes were more supportive of trap-and-kill and taking no action as the methods to manage community cats than those with relatively higher education or incomes. Those with higher incomes held more positive attitudes towards community cats and were more supportive of TNR and its variations than their counterparts with lower incomes. Males were more inclined to support trap-and-kill and taking no action and less inclined to support centralized management and TNR than females. The implications of the findings on TNR with adoption programs in urban China are discussed. These novel findings underscore the need for targeted educational campaigns to promote humane and effective management strategies, addressing public concerns and community cats' welfare. The study's insights are critical for informing policy and improving community cat management in urban China.

Micro/Nanoplastic Exposure on Placental Health and Adverse Pregnancy Risks: Novel Assessment System Based upon Targeted Risk Assessment Environmental Chemicals Strategy.

Micro/nanoplastics (MNPs), as emerging pollutants, have been detected in both the maternal and fetal sides of the placenta in pregnant women, and their reproductive toxicity has been demonstrated in in vivo and in vitro experimental models. The Targeted Risk Assessment of Environmental Chemicals (TRAEC) strategy has been innovatively devised to facilitate valid risk assessment, encompassing a comprehensive evaluation of reliability, correlation, outcome fitness, and integrity across four dimensions based on the included published evidence and our own findings. This study serves as an application case of TRAEC, with 40 items of research evidence on the toxicity of MNPs to the placenta, which were rigorously screened and incorporated into the final scoring system. The final score for this TRAEC case study is 5.63, suggesting a moderate-to-low risk of reproductive toxicity associated with MNPs in the placenta, which may potentially increase with decreasing particle size. It is essential to emphasize that the findings also report original data from assays indicating that exposure to high-dose groups (100 µg/mL, 200 µg/mL) of 50 nm and 200 nm polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NPs) induces HTR8/SVneo cell cycle arrest and cell apoptosis, which lead to reproductive toxicity in the placenta by disrupting mitochondrial function. Overall, this study employed the TRAEC strategy to provide comprehensive insight into the potential reproductive health effects of ubiquitous MNPs.

Defect detection of printed circuit board assembly based on YOLOv5.

Detection of printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) defects is crucial for improving the efficiency of PCBA manufacturing. This paper proposes PCBA-YOLO, a YOLOv5-based method that can effectively increase the accuracy of PCBA defect detection. First, the spatial pyramid pooling module with cross-stage partial structure is replaced in the neck network of YOLOv5 to capture the resolution features at multiple scales. Second, large kernel convolution is introduced in the backbone network to obtain larger effective receptive fields while reducing computational overhead. Finally, an SIoU loss function that considers the angular cost is utilized to enhance the convergence speed of the model. In addition, an assembled PCBA defect detection dataset named PCBA-DET is created in this paper, containing the corresponding defect categories and annotations of defect locations. The experimental results on the PCB defect dataset demonstrate that the improved method has lower loss values and higher accuracy. Evaluated on the PCBA-DET dataset, the mean average precision reaches 97.3 % , achieving a real-time detection performance of 322.6 frames per second, which considers both the detection accuracy and the model size compared to the YOLO series of detection networks. The source code and PCBA-DET dataset can be accessed at https://github.com/ismh16/PCBA-Dataset .

Association of ultraprocessed food consumption with risk of rheumatoid arthritis: a retrospective cohort study in the UK Biobank.

BACKGROUND: Limited studies explored the association between consumption of ultraprocessed food (UPF) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the association between UPF consumption and RA risk and explore the potential mediating effects of RA-related biomarkers. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included 207,012 participants without RA at recruitment and completed 24-h dietary recalls. UPF was defined based on the NOVA food classification system. Incident RA was ascertained using the International Classification of Diseases version 10. Cox regression models were used to examine the association between UPF consumption and the incidence of RA. Additionally, mediation analyses were conducted to evaluate the contribution of biomarkers related to the lipid profile, systemic inflammatory factors, serum liver enzymes, and glucose metabolism to the observed associations. RESULTS: The participants' mean (standard deviation [SD]) age at recruitment was 56.08 (7.95) y. During a median follow-up of 12.24 (interquartile range: 11.66-13.03) y, 1869 RA events were recorded. Compared with the lowest quintile of UPF consumption (weight percentage of the UPF), the adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of RA in the highest quintile was 1.17 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01, 1.36). There was a 6% elevated risk of RA incidence per SD increase in UPF intake (HR: 1.06; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.11). In the mediation analyses, the biomarkers explained 3.07%-14.80% of the association between UPF intake and RA. CONCLUSIONS: Higher UPF consumption was associated with an increased risk of RA, which may be mediated by inflammation, lipids, and liver enzymes. Lower UPF consumption is recommended to reduce RA incidence.

Bonebridge implants versus atresiaplasty in children with unilateral congenital aural atresia: A comparison study of audiological outcomes.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate and compare audiological outcomes of atresiaplasty and Bonebridge (BB) implantation in patients with unilateral congenital aural atresia (UCAA), to guide clinical decision-making. METHODS: Twenty-seven subjects diagnosed with UCAA were included in the study. Thirteen were implanted with the BB, while 14 undergone atresiaplasty. All patients underwent pre-and post-surgery examinations, including pure-tone audiometry, sound field threshold (SFT), speech reception threshold (SRT), word recognition score (WRS), and horizontal sound source localization tests. RESULTS: (1) Postoperatively, the average SFT decreased by 11.79 ± 5.93 dB HL in the atresiaplasty group and by 24.46 ± 9.36 dB HL in the BB group, with a significantly greater decrease in the BB group compared to the atresiaplasty group (P < 0.05). (2) Both groups demonstrated a significant improvement in average disyllabic WRS postoperatively under normal ear-masking conditions, with the BB group showing a significantly higher improvement than the atresiaplasty group. (3) When the speech signal was presented from the CAA side with noise from the normal hearing side, both surgical groups exhibited a significant decrease in postoperative signal-to-noise ratio compared to preoperative levels, with improvements of 2.14 ± 2.95 dB SNR in the atresiaplasty group and 4.92 ± 5.83 dB SNR in the BB group (P < 0.05). (4) The average minimum audible angle preoperative in the atresiaplasty group was 29.71 ± 18.42°, which decreased to 18.1 ± 10.07° at 6 months postoperatively, showing a statistically significant improvement (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: We concluded that both atresiaplasty and Bonebridge implantation can significantly improve speech perception under both quiet and noisy conditions in children with UCAA. BoneBridge implantation appears to provide better audiological outcomes than atresiaplasty. Atresiaplasty can significantly improve the accuracy of sound localization. No significant improvement in sound localization accuracy was observed in the short period after Bonebridge implantation. Further research should be conducted with a larger sample size and longer follow-up time.

The role of gastrodin in the management of CNS-related diseases: Underlying mechanisms to therapeutic perspectives.

Central nervous system (CNS)-related diseases have a high mortality rate, are a serious threat to physical and mental health, and have always been an important area of research. Gastrodin, the main active metabolite of Gastrodia elata Blume, used in Chinese medicine and food, has a wide range of pharmacological effects, mostly related to CNS disorders. This review aims to systematically summarize and discuss the effects and underlying mechanisms of gastrodin in the treatment of CNS diseases, and to assess its potential for further development as a lead drug in both biomedicine and traditional Chinese medicine. Studies on the pharmacological effects of gastrodin on the CNS indicate that it may exert anti-neurodegenerative, cerebrovascular protective, and ameliorative effects on diabetic encephalopathy, perioperative neurocognitive dysfunction, epilepsy, Tourette's syndrome, depression and anxiety, and sleep disorders through various mechanisms. To date, 110 gastrodin products have been approved for clinical use, but further multicenter clinical case-control studies are relatively scarce. Preclinical studies have confirmed that gastrodin can be used to treat CNS-related disorders. However, important concerns need to be addressed in the context of likely non-specific, assay interfering effects when gastrodin is studied using in vitro and in silico approaches, calling for a systematic assessment of the evidence to date. High-quality clinical trials should have priority to evaluate the therapeutic safety and clinical efficacy of gastrodin. Further experimental research using appropriate in vivo models is also needed, focusing on neurodegenerative diseases, cerebral ischemic and hypoxic diseases, brain damage caused by methamphetamine or heavy metals, and epilepsy.

Elucidating the salt-tolerant mechanism of Halomonas cupida J9 and unsterile ectoine production from lignocellulosic biomass.

BACKGROUND: Ectoine as an amino acid derivative is widely applied in many fields, such as the food industry, cosmetic manufacturing, biologics, and therapeutic agent. Large-scale production of ectoine is mainly restricted by the cost of fermentation substrates (e.g., carbon sources) and sterilization. RESULTS: In this study, Halomonas cupida J9 was shown to be capable of synthesizing ectoine using xylose as the sole carbon source. A pathway was proposed in H. cupida J9 that synergistically utilizes both WBG xylose metabolism and EMP glucose metabolism for the synthesis of ectoine. Transcriptome analysis indicated that expression of ectoine biosynthesis module was enhanced under salt stress. Ectoine production by H. cupida J9 was enhanced by improving the expression of ectoine biosynthesis module, increasing the intracellular supply of the precursor oxaloacetate, and utilizing urea as the nitrogen source. The constructed J9U-P8EC achieved a record ectoine production of 4.12 g/L after 60 h of xylose fermentation. Finally, unsterile production of ectoine by J9U-P8EC from either a glucose-xylose mixture or corn straw hydrolysate was demonstrated, with an output of 8.55 g/L and 1.30 g/L of ectoine, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study created a promising H. cupida J9-based cell factory for low-cost production of ectoine. Our results highlight the potential of J9U-P8EC to utilize lignocellulose-rich agriculture waste for open production of ectoine.

Effects of compound probiotics on pharmacokinetics of CYP450s probe drugs in rats.

Compound probiotics have been widely used and commonly co-administered with other drugs for treating various chronic illnesses, yet their effects on drug pharmacokinetics remain underexplored. This study elucidated the impact of VSL#3 on the metabolism of probe drugs for cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYP450s), specifically omeprazole, tolbutamide, midazolam, metoprolol, phenacetin and chlorzoxazone. Male Wistar rats were administered with drinking water containing VSL#3 or not for 14 days and then intragastrically administered a CYP450s probe cocktail; This was done to investigate the host CYP450s metabolic phenotype. Stool, liver/jejunum and serum samples were collected for 16S rRNA sequencing, RNA sequencing, and bile acid profiling. The results indicated significant differences in both alpha and beta diversity of intestinal microbial composition between the probiotic and vehicle groups in rats. In the probiotic group, the bioavailability of omeprazole increased by 269.9%, whereas those of tolbutamide and chlorpropamide decreased by 28.1% and 27.4%, respectively. The liver and jejunum exhibited 1,417 and 4,004 differentially expressed genes, respectively, between the two groups. In the probiotic group, most of CYP450s genes were upregulated in the liver but downregulated in the jejunum. The expression of genes encoding metabolic enzymes and drug transporters also changed. The serum conjugated bile acids in the probiotic group were significantly reduced. Shorter duodenal villi and longer ileal villi were found in the probiotic group. In summary, VSL#3 administration altered the gut microbiota, host drug-processing gene expression, and the intestinal structure in rats, which could be reasons for pharmacokinetic changes. Significance Statement This study focused on the effects of the probiotic VSL#3 on the pharmacokinetic profile of CYP450s probe drugs and the expression of host drug metabolism genes. Compared with previous studies, the current study provides a comprehensive explanation for the host drug metabolism profile modified by probiotics, here combined with the bile acid profile and histopathological analysis.

Prediction of Two-Dimensional Janus Transition-Metal Chalcogenides: Robust Ferromagnetic Semiconductor with High Curie Temperature.

Two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic semiconductors (FM SCs) provide an ideal platform for the development of quantum information technology in nanoscale devices. However, many developed 2D FM materials present a very low Curie temperature (TC), greatly limiting their application in spintronic devices. In this work, we predict two stable 2D transition metal chalcogenides, V3Se3X2 (X = S, Te) monolayers, by using first-principles calculations. Our results show that the V3Se3Te2 monolayer is a robust bipolar magnetic SC with a moderate bandgap of 0.53 eV, while V3Se3S2 is a direct band-gap FM SC with a bandgap of 0.59 eV. Interestingly, the ferromagnetisms of both monolayers are robust due to the V-S/Se/Te-V superexchange interaction, and TCs are about 406 K and 301 K, respectively. Applying biaxial strains, the FM SC to antiferromagnetic (AFM) SC transition is revealed at 5% and 3% of biaxial tensile strain. In addition, their high mechanical, dynamical, and thermal stabilities are further verified by phonon dispersion calculations and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) calculations. Their outstanding attributes render the V3Se3Y2 (Y = S, Te) monolayers promising candidates as 2D FM SCs for a wide range of applications.

An RdDM-independent function of Pol V transcripts in gene regulation and plant defence.

RNA polymerase V (Pol V) and Pol IV are known to be specialized for RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM). Here we report that Pol V, but not Pol IV, regulates hundreds of genes including jasmonic acid-responsive genes and confers plant defence to Botrytis cinerea and Spodoptera exigua. About half of the Pol V-regulated genes are associated with Pol V transcripts (PVTs). We thus hypothesized that some PVTs could regulate gene expression in an RdDM-independent manner. To test this hypothesis, we studied three PVTs, PVT-ERF5a/b and PVT-ERF6, as models. PVT-ERF5a/b and PVT-ERF6 are transcribed from the upstream regions of ERF5 and ERF6 and positively regulate their transcription, thereby regulating plant defence. Such regulation involves PVT-dependent H3K4me3 deposition and requires the DRD1-DMS3-RDM1 complex that mediates Pol V recruitment to the target loci. These findings highlight an unprecedented role for PVTs in regulating gene transcription, apart from serving as scaffold RNAs to direct DNA methylation.

Assessing vaginal microbiome through Vaginal Microecology Evaluation System as a predictor for in vitro fertilization outcomes: a retrospective study.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Vaginal Microecology Evaluation System (VMES) in assessing the dynamics of the vaginal microbiome (VM) throughout the process of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET). Furthermore, it seeks to explore the potential correlation between distinct types of VM ecology and the success rate of IVF-ET. Methods: This study employed VMES to ascertain the composition of the VM. Data were collected from infertile women who underwent their initial IVF-ET treatment for tubal factor between January 2018 and December 2021. A retrospective analysis of pregnancy outcomes resulting from their fresh embryo transfer was conducted to determine the predictive significance of the vaginal microenvironment. Results: We demonstrate that VMES is able to predict IVF-ET outcomes in patients diagnosed with Bacterial Vaginosis (BV). Notably, a discernible shift in the VM was observed in a decent subset of patients following Controlled Ovarian Stimulation (COS), though this phenomenon was not universal across all participants. Specifically, there was a noteworthy increase in the proportion of patients exhibiting BV and uncharacterized dysbiosis subsequent to COS. Furthermore, our investigation revealed a significant correlation between VM and both the live birth rate and early miscarriage rate. Employing a multivariable logistic regression model, we identified that VM status pre-COS, VM status post-COS, patient age, and the number of embryos transferred emerged as independent predictors of the live birth rate. Conclusion: Our study suggests that, during IVF-ET treatment, the VMES can effectively detect changes in the VM, which are strongly correlated with the pregnancy outcome of IVF-ET procedures.