Initiating PeriCBD to probe perinatal influences on neurodevelopment during 3-10 years in China.

Adverse perinatal factors can interfere with the normal development of the brain, potentially resulting in long-term effects on the comprehensive development of children. Presently, the understanding of cognitive and neurodevelopmental processes under conditions of adverse perinatal factors is substantially limited. There is a critical need for an open resource that integrates various perinatal factors with the development of the brain and mental health to facilitate a deeper understanding of these developmental trajectories. In this Data Descriptor, we introduce a multicenter database containing information on perinatal factors that can potentially influence children's brain-mind development, namely, periCBD, that combines neuroimaging and behavioural phenotypes with perinatal factors at county/region/central district hospitals. PeriCBD was designed to establish a platform for the investigation of individual differences in brain-mind development associated with perinatal factors among children aged 3-10 years. Ultimately, our goal is to help understand how different adverse perinatal factors specifically impact cognitive development and neurodevelopment. Herein, we provide a systematic overview of the data acquisition/cleaning/quality control/sharing, processes of periCBD.

Neoadjuvant targeted immunotherapy followed by surgical resection versus upfront surgery for hepatocellular carcinoma with macrovascular invasion: A multicenter study.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of preoperative targeted immunotherapy followed by surgical resection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with macrovascular invasion. Method: Clinical information of HCC patients with macrovascular invasion was collected from four medical centers. These patients were divided into two cohorts: the upfront surgery group (n=40) and the neoadjuvant group (n=22). Comparisons between the two groups were made with appropriate statistical methods. Results: HCC Patients with macrovascular invasion in the neoadjuvant group were associated with increased incidence of postoperative ascites (72.73% vs. 37.5%, P=0.008), but shorter postoperative hospital stay (10 days vs. 14 days, P=0.032). Furthermore, targeted immunotherapy followed by surgical resection significantly reduced the postoperative recurrence rate at both 3 months and 1 year (9% versus 28.9%, 32.1% versus 67.9%, respectively; P=0.018), but increased the postoperative nononcologic mortality rate within 1 year (20.1% vs. 2.8%; P= 0.036). Conclusion: For HCC patients with macrovascular invasion, preoperative targeted immunotherapy significantly decreased the postoperative tumor recurrence rate while maintaining relative safety, but such a treatment may also result in chronic liver damage and increased risk of nononcologic mortality.

Destabilization of Oxidized Lattice Oxygen in Layered Oxide Cathode.

Integrating anion-redox capacity with orthodox cation-redox capacity is deemed as a promising solution for high-energy-density battery cathodes surmounting the present technical bottlenecks. However, the evolution of oxidized oxygen species during the electrochemical or chemical process easily jeopardizes the reversibility of oxygen redox and remains poorly understood. Herein, we showcase the gradual conversion of the π-interacting oxygen (localized hole states on O) to the σ-interacting oxygen upon resting at a high voltage for P3-type Na0.6Li0.2Mn0.8O2 with nominally stable ribbon-like superstructure, accompanied by the O-O dimerization and the local structural reorganization. We further pinpoint an abnormal Li+ migration process from the alkali-metal layer to the transition-metal layer for desodiated P3-Na0.6Li0.2Mn0.8O2, thereby leading to a partial reconstruction of the ribbon superstructure. The high-voltage plateau of oxygen-redox cathodes is concluded to be exclusively controlled by the oxygen stabilization mechanism rather than the superstructure ordering. In addition, there exists a kinetic competition between π and σ interaction during the uninterrupted electrochemical process.

Transcription of NOD1 and NOD2 and their interaction with CARD9 and RIPK2 in IFN signaling in a perciform fish, the Chinese perch, Siniperca chuatsi.

NOD1 and NOD2 as two representative members of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor (NLR) family play important roles in antimicrobial immunity. However, transcription mechanism of nod1 and nod2 and their signal circle are less understood in teleost fish. In this study, with the cloning of card9 and ripk2 in Chinese perch, the interaction between NOD1, NOD2, and CARD9 and RIPK2 were revealed through coimmunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence assays. The overexpression of NOD1, NOD2, RIPK2 and CARD9 induced significantly the promoter activity of NF-κB, IFNh and IFNc. Furthermore, it was found that nod1 and nod2 were induced by poly(I:C), type I IFNs, RLR and even NOD1/NOD2 themselves through the ISRE site of their proximal promoters. It is thus indicated that nod1 and nod2 can be classified also as ISGs due to the presence of ISRE in their proximal promoter, and their expression can be mechanistically controlled through PRR pathway as well as through IFN signaling in antiviral immune response.

Intervention of exogenous VEGF protect brain microvascular endothelial cells from hypoxia-induced injury by regulating PLCγ/RAS/ERK and PI3K/AKT pathways.

Ischemic stroke rapidly increases the expression level of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which promotes neovascularization during hypoxia. However, the effect and mechanism of VEGF intervention on cerebrovascular formation remain unclear. Therefore, our research discussed the protective effect of exogenous VEGF on cells in hypoxia environment in cerebral microvascular endothelial cells, simulating ischemic stroke in hypoxic environment. Firstly, we detected the proliferation and apoptosis of cerebral microvascular endothelial cells under hypoxia environment, as well the expression levels of VEGF-E, vascular endothelial growth factor re-ceptor-2 (VEGFR-2), BCL2, PRKCE and PINK1. Moreover, immunofluorescence and western blotting were used to verify the regulation of exogenous VEGF-E on VEGFR-2 expression in hypoxic or normal oxygen environment. Lastly, we manipulated the concentration of VEGF-E in the culture medium to investigate its impact on phospholipase Cγ1 (PLCγ1)/extracellular signaling regulatory protein kinase (ERK) -1/2 and protein kinase B (AKT) pathways. Additionally, we employed a PLCγ1 inhibitor (U73122) to investigate its impact on proliferation and PLCγ1/ERK pathways. The results show that hypoxia inhibited the proliferation of cerebral microvascular endothelial cells, promoted cell apoptosis, significantly up-regulated the expression of VEGF-E, VEGFR-2, PRKCE and PINK1, but down-regulated the expression of BCL2. Interference from exogenous VEGF-E activated PLCγ1/ERK-1/2 and AKT pathways, promoting cell proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis of hypoxic brain microvascular endothelial cells. In summary, exogenous VEGF-E prevents hypoxia-induced damage to cerebral microvascular endothelial cells by activating the PLCγ1/ERK and AKT pathways. This action inhibits the apoptosis pathway in hypoxic cerebral microvascular endothelial cells, thereby safeguarding the blood-brain barrier and the nervous system.

Understanding Social Media Information Sharing in Individuals with Depression: Insights from the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Schema Activation Theory.

Purpose: How individuals engage with social media can significantly impact their psychological well-being. This study examines the impact of social media interactions on mental health, grounded in the frameworks of the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Schema Activation Theory. It aims to uncover behavioral differences in information sharing between the general population and individuals with depression, while also elucidating the psychological mechanisms underlying these disparities. Methods: A pre-experiment (N=30) and three experiments (Experiment 1a N=200, Experiment 1b N=180, Experiment 2 N=128) were executed online. These experiments investigated the joint effects of information quality, content valence, self-referential processing, and depression level on the intention to share information. The research design incorporated within-subject and between-subject methods, utilizing SPSS and SPSS Process to conduct independent sample t-tests, two-factor ANOVA analyses, mediation analyses, and moderated mediation analyses to test our hypotheses. Results: Information quality and content valence significantly influence sharing intention. In scenarios involving low-quality information, individuals with depression are more inclined to share negative emotional content compared to the general population, and this tendency intensifies with the severity of depression. Moreover, self-referential processing acts as a mediator between emotional content and intention to share, yet this mediation effect weakens as the severity of depression rises. Conclusion: Our study highlights the importance of promoting viewpoint diversity and breaking the echo chamber effect in social media to improve the mental health of individuals with depression. To achieve this goal, tailoring emotional content on social media could be a practical starting point for practice.

Unconventional Activation of IRE1 Enhances TH17 Responses and Promotes Airway Neutrophilia.

Heightened unfolded protein responses (UPRs) are associated with the risk for asthma, including severe asthma. Treatment-refractory severe asthma manifests a neutrophilic phenotype with TH17 responses. However, how UPRs participate in the deregulation of TH17 cells leading to neutrophilic asthma remains elusive. This study found that the UPR sensor IRE1 is induced in the murine lung with fungal asthma and is highly expressed in TH17 cells relative to naïve CD4+ T cells. Cytokine (e.g. IL-23) signals induce the IRE1-XBP1s axis in a JAK2-dependent manner. This noncanonical activation of the IRE1-XBP1s pathway promotes UPRs and cytokine secretion by both human and mouse TH17 cells. Ern1 (encoding IRE1)-deficiency decreases the expression of ER stress factors and impairs the differentiation and cytokine secretion of TH17 cells. Genetic ablation of Ern1 leads to alleviated TH17 responses and airway neutrophilia in a fungal airway inflammation model. Consistently, IL-23 activates the JAK2-IRE1-XBP1s pathway in vivo and enhances TH17 responses and neutrophilic infiltration into the airway. Taken together, our data indicate that IRE1, noncanonically activated by cytokine signals, promotes neutrophilic airway inflammation through the UPR-mediated secretory function of TH17 cells. The findings provide a novel insight into the fundamental understanding of IRE1 in TH17-biased TH2-low asthma.

Pan-Cancer Analysis Identifies BCLAF1 as a Potential Biomarker for Renal Cell Carcinoma.

B-cell lymphoma-2-associated transcription factor 1 (BCLAF1) is a versatile protein involved in the regulation of gene transcription and post-transcriptional processing. Although BCLAF1 exerts a broad tumor suppressor effect or tumor promoter effect in many cancer types, the specific roles concerning its expression levels, and its impact on tumorigenesis in Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remain unclear. Here, we utilized the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Genotype Tissue Expression (GTEx) datasets alongside R software and online tools to unravel the specific roles of BCLAF1 in 33 cancer types, including its expression levels, tumor immune and molecular subtypes, and its correlation with prognosis, diagnosis, DNA methylation, and immune microenvironment. Additionally, we carried out cell biology experiments to independently investigate the expression of BCLAF1 in RCC and its effects on tumor progression. BCLAF1 was differentially expressed in tumor tissues compared to normal tissues across various cancer types and was also differentially expressed in different immune and molecular subtypes. In RCC, patients with high BCLAF1 expression had a better prognosis and BCLAF1 was tightly correlated with the stage, gender, and histological grade of patients. Furthermore, BCLAF1 had higher DNA methylation levels and higher immune infiltration levels in tumor tissues. Additionally, cell functional experiments confirmed the low expression of BCLAF1 in RCC and that BCLAF1 significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion, while inducing apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in RCC cells in vitro. Our study under-scored the potential of BCLAF1 as an important actor in tumorigenesis, especially concerning RCC where it may serve as an effective prognostic marker.

Systematic review of predictive maintenance and digital twin technologies challenges, opportunities, and best practices.

Background: Maintaining machines effectively continues to be a challenge for industrial organisations, which frequently employ reactive or premeditated methods. Recent research has begun to shift its attention towards the application of Predictive Maintenance (PdM) and Digital Twins (DT) principles in order to improve maintenance processes. PdM technologies have the capacity to significantly improve profitability, safety, and sustainability in various industries. Significantly, precise equipment estimation, enabled by robust supervised learning techniques, is critical to the efficacy of PdM in conjunction with DT development. This study underscores the application of PdM and DT, exploring its transformative potential across domains demanding real-time monitoring. Specifically, it delves into emerging fields in healthcare, utilities (smart water management), and agriculture (smart farm), aligning with the latest research frontiers in these areas. Methodology: Employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) criteria, this study highlights diverse modeling techniques shaping asset lifetime evaluation within the PdM context from 34 scholarly articles. Results: The study revealed four important findings: various PdM and DT modelling techniques, their diverse approaches, predictive outcomes, and implementation of maintenance management. These findings align with the ongoing exploration of emerging applications in healthcare, utilities (smart water management), and agriculture (smart farm). In addition, it sheds light on the critical functions of PdM and DT, emphasising their extraordinary ability to drive revolutionary change in dynamic industrial challenges. The results highlight these methodologies' flexibility and application across many industries, providing vital insights into their potential to revolutionise asset management and maintenance practice for real-time monitoring. Conclusions: Therefore, this systematic review provides a current and essential resource for academics, practitioners, and policymakers to refine PdM strategies and expand the applicability of DT in diverse industrial sectors.

Engineering Large-Scale Self-Mineralizing Bone Organoids with Bone Matrix-Inspired Hydroxyapatite Hybrid Bioinks.

Addressing large bone defects remains a significant challenge owing to the inherent limitations in self-healing capabilities, resulting in prolonged recovery and suboptimal regeneration. Although current clinical solutions are available, they have notable shortcomings, necessitating more efficacious approaches to bone regeneration. Organoids derived from stem cells show great potential in this field; however, the development of bone organoids has been hindered by specific demands, including the need for robust mechanical support provided by scaffolds and hybrid extracellular matrices (ECM). In this context, bioprinting technologies have emerged as powerful means of replicating the complex architecture of bone tissue. The research focused on the fabrication of a highly intricate bone ECM analog using a novel bioink composed of gelatin methacrylate/alginate methacrylate/hydroxyapatite (GelMA/AlgMA/HAP). Bioprinted scaffolds facilitate the long-term cultivation and progressive maturation of extensive bioprinted bone organoids, foster multicellular differentiation, and offer valuable insights into the initial stages of bone formation. The intrinsic self-mineralizing quality of the bioink closely emulates the properties of natural bone, empowering organoids with enhanced bone repair for both in vitro and in vivo applications. This trailblazing investigation propels the field of bone tissue engineering and holds significant promise for its translation into practical applications.

An all-optical multidirectional mechano-sensor inspired by biologically mechano-sensitive hair sensilla.

Mechano-sensitive hair-like sensilla (MSHS) have an ingenious and compact three-dimensional structure and have evolved widely in living organisms to perceive multidirectional mechanical signals. Nearly all MSHS are iontronic or electronic, including their biomimetic counterparts. Here, an all-optical mechano-sensor mimicking MSHS is prototyped and integrated based on a thin-walled glass microbubble as a flexible whispering-gallery-mode resonator. The minimalist integrated device has a good directionality of 32.31 dB in the radial plane of the micro-hair and can detect multidirectional displacements and forces as small as 70 nm and 0.9 µN, respectively. The device can also detect displacements and forces in the axial direction of the micro-hair as small as 2.29 nm and 3.65 µN, respectively, and perceive different vibrations. This mechano-sensor works well as a real-time, directional mechano-sensory whisker in a quadruped cat-type robot, showing its potential for innovative mechano-transduction, artificial perception, and robotics applications.

Sustaining attention in visuomotor timing is associated with location-based binding.

Maintaining focus of attention over prolonged periods can be challenging, especially when the target stimulus is absent from the temporal sequence. Prior research has shown that a temporal attentional cue filling in the temporal blank can improve sustained attention: in a sustained visual attention task requiring synchronizing finger tapping with a temporally regular sequence composed of brief flash disks interleaved with blank periods, task performance was improved when a continuous fixation point that served as a temporal attentional cue was presented superimposed on the disk stimulus. To test the hypothesis that binding the temporal attentional cue with the target temporal sequence by spatial overlapping is crucial for enhancing sustained attention, the present study conducted a series of three experiments that deconstructed the bound connection between the cue and the sequence stimulus. In Experiment 1, the cue was placed above or below a flash disk. In Experiment 2, the cue was between two vertically arranged flash disks. In Experiment 3, the cue was in a flash ring. No significant effect of sustained attention improvement was found in any of the three experiments. Experiment 4 further replicated these null results and the previously observed effect of sustained attention improvement when the temporal cue was superimposed on the sequence stimulus. Our finding demonstrates that binding by spatial overlapping during the temporal blank when the sequence stimulus is absent is critical for enhancing sustained attention, which should be beneficial for improving performance across a broader range of tasks that require prolonged maintenance of attention.

Growth differentiation factor-15 as a negative predictor for microvascular obstruction in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction after primary percutaneous coronary intervention.

Growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) is an anti-inflammatory cytokine with cardioprotective effects, but circulating GDF-15 concentration predicts adverse cardiovascular outcomes in clinical settings. Microvascular obstruction (MVO) formation contributed to poor prognosis in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) after primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI). We aimed to investigate GDF-15 concentration in relation to cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR)-derived MVO in STEMI patients after pPCI, which might help better understand the role of GDF-15 in STEMI. GDF-15 levels at 6 h after pPCI and MVO extent at day 5 ± 2 after pPCI were measured in 74 STEMI patients (mean age 60.3 ± 12.8 years, 86.5% men). The adjusted association of GDF-15 with MVO was analyzed with MVO treated as a categorized variable (extensive MVO, defined as MVO extent ≥ 2.6% of left ventricular (LV)) and a continuous variable (MVO mass, % of LV), respectively, in multivariate logistic and linear regression models. 41.9% of the patients developed extensive MVO after pPCI. In multivariate analysis, the odds ratio (95% confidential interval (CI)) of each standard deviation (SD) increase in GDF-15 for developing extensive MVO was 0.46 (0.21, 0.82), p = 0.02). Consistently, when MVO was used a continuous variable, each SD increase in GDF-15 was associated with a substantially lower MVO mass (ß - 0.42, standard error 0.19, p = 0.03). GDF-15 was a negative predictor for MVO in STEMI patients after pPCI. The observation was consistent with results from experiment studies, suggesting a potential protective effect of GDF-15 against cardiac injury.

Hypoxia-Challenged Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Cell-Derived Exosomal circR3HCC1L Drives Tumor Growth Via Upregulating PKM2 Through Sequestering miR-873-5p.

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) is a fatal disease with poor survival. Increasing evidence show that hypoxia-induced exosomes are associated with cancer progression. Here, we aimed to investigate the function of hsa_circ_0007678 (circR3HCC1L) and hypoxic PAAD cell-derived exosomal circR3HCC1L in PAAD progression. Through the exoRBase 2.0 database, we screened for a circular RNA circR3HCC1L related to PAAD. Changes of circR3HCC1L in PAAD samples and cells were analyzed with real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Cell proliferation, migration, invasion were analyzed by colony formation, cell counting, and transwell assays. Measurements of glucose uptake and lactate production were done using corresponding kits. Several protein levels were detected by western blotting. The regulation mechanism of circR3HCC1L was verified by dual-luciferase reporter, RNA immunoprecipitation, and RNA pull-down assays. Exosomes were separated by differential ultracentrifugation. Animal experiments were used to verify the function of hypoxia-derived exosomal circR3HCC1L. CircR3HCC1L was upregulated in PAAD samples and hypoxic PAAD cells. Knockdown of circR3HCC1L decreased hypoxia-driven PAAD cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and glycolysis. Hypoxic PAAD cell-derived exosomes had higher levels of circR3HCC1L, hypoxic PAAD cell-derived exosomal circR3HCC1L promoted normoxic cancer cell malignant transformation and glycolysis in vitro and xenograft tumor growth in mouse models in vivo. Mechanistically, circR3HCC1L regulated pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) expression via sponging miR-873-5p. Also, PKM2 overexpression or miR-873-5p silencing offset circR3HCC1L knockdown-mediated effects on hypoxia-challenged PAAD cell malignant transformation and glycolysis. Hypoxic PAAD cell-derived exosomal circR3HCC1L facilitated PAAD progression through the miR-873-5p/PKM2 axis, highlighting the contribution of hypoxic PAAD cell-derived exosomal circR3HCC1L in PAAD.

The activation of RARα prevents surgery-induced cognitive impairments via the inhibition of neuroinflammation and the restoration of synaptic proteins in elderly mice.

Post-operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a multi-etiological symptom mainly occurred in elderly people after surgery. The activation of retinoic acid receptor α (RARα), a transcriptional factor, was previously predicated to be negatively associated with the occurrence of POCD. However, the mechanisms underlying anti-POCD effects of RARα were still unclear. In this study, AM580, a selective agonist of RARα, and all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA), a pan agonist of RAR, significantly alleviated cognitive dysfunction and increased the expression of RARα in elderly mice after surgery, which was decreased by RO41-5253, an antagonist of RARα. A bioinformatic study further predicted that the activation of RARα might produce anti-POCD effects via the restoration of synaptic proteins. Both agonists inhibited the expression of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), myeloid differentiation factor 88 (Myd88) and the phosphorylation of nuclear factorkappa-B (NF-κB), leading to the prevention of microglial over-activation and pro-inflammatory cytokines secretion in the hippocampal regions of elderly mice after surgery. Moreover, AM580 and ATRA increased the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD95), and the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and cAMP-response element binding protein (CREB). All these results suggested that the activation of RARα prevented surgery-induced cognitive impairments via the inhibition of neuroinflammation by the reduction of the TLR4/Myd88/NF-κB pathway and the restoration of synaptic proteins by the activation of the BDNF/ERK/CREB pathway, providing a further support that RARα could be developed as a therapeutic target for POCD.

Rapid discrimination and ratio quantification of mixed antibiotics in aqueous solution through integrative analysis of SERS spectra via CNN combined with NN-EN model.

INTRODUCTION: Abusing antibiotic residues in the natural environment has become a severe public health and ecological environmental problem. The side effects of its biochemical and physiological consequences are severe. To avoid antibiotic contamination in water, implementing universal and rapid antibiotic residue detection technology is critical to maintaining antibiotic safety in aquatic environments. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) provides a powerful tool for identifying small molecular components with high sensitivity and selectivity. However, it remains a challenge to identify pure antibiotics from SERS spectra due to coexisting components in the mixture. OBJECTIVES: In this study, an intelligent analysis model for the SERS spectrum based on a deep learning algorithm was proposed for rapid identification of the antibiotic components in the mixture and quantitative determination of the ratios of these components. METHODS: We established a water environment system containing three antibiotic residues of ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, and levofloxacin. To facilitate qualitative and quantitative analysis of the SERS spectra antibiotic mixture datasets, we developed a computational framework integrating a convolutional neural network (CNN) and a non-negative elastic network (NN-EN) method. RESULTS: The experimental results demonstrate that the CNN model has a recognition accuracy of 98.68%, and the interpretation analysis of Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) shows that our model can specifically focus on the characteristic peak distribution. In contrast, the NN-EN model can accurately quantify each component's ratio in the mixture. CONCLUSION: Integrating the SERS technique assisted by the CNN combined with the NN-EN model exhibits great potential for rapid identification and high-precision quantification of antibiotic residues in aquatic environments.

Binary probiotic fermentation promotes signal (cyclic AMP) exchange to increases the number of viable probiotics, anthocyanins and polyphenol content, and the odor scores of wolfberry fermented beverages.

The effects and underlying molecular mechanisms of binary probiotics (Lactiplantibacillus plantarum subsp. plantarum CGMCC 1.5953 and Lacticaseibacillus casei CGMCC 1.5956) on the quality of wolfberry fermented beverages (WFB) were investigated. The results indicated that binary probiotics increased the number of probiotics, anthocyanin (89.92 ± 1.64 mg/L), polyphenol content (283.04 ± 3.81 µg/mL), and odor score (24.19) in WFB. Metabolomics found that they could enhance signal exchange (cyclic AMP) between binary probiotics and improve the utilization of citrulline, d-proline, d-glucose, and d-galactose through galactose metabolism and amino acid biosynthesis pathway to promote probiotics growth. Furthermore, HS-SPME-GC-MS and GS-IMS revealed that the improvement in flavor was mainly due to an increase in the content of the aromatic flavor substances 3-heptanol, glutaraldehyde, and 2-heptanone, and a decrease in the content of the off-flavor substances methyl isobutyl ketone-D and 2-undecanone. This is strategically important for the development of WFB with high probiotic content and unique flavor.

Integrated neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and handgrip strength better predict survival in patients with cancer cachexia.

OBJECTIVES: Systemic inflammation and skeletal muscle strength play crucial roles in the development and progression of cancer cachexia. In this study we aimed to evaluate the combined prognostic value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and handgrip strength (HGS) for survival in patients with cancer cachexia. METHODS: This multicenter cohort study involved 1826 patients with cancer cachexia. The NLR-HGS (NH) index was defined as the ratio of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio to handgrip strength. Harrell's C index and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were used to assess the prognosis of NH. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression models were used to evaluate the association of NH with all-cause mortality. RESULTS: Based on the optimal stratification, 380 women (NH > 0.14) and 249 men (NH > 0.19) were classified as having high NH. NH has shown greater predictive value compared to other indicators in predicting the survival of patients with cancer cachexia according to the 1-, 3-, and 5-y ROC analysis and Harrell's C index calculation. Multivariate survival analysis showed that higher NH was independently associated with an increased risk of death (hazard ratio = 1.654, 95% confidence interval = 1.389-1.969). CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that the NH index, in combination with NLR and HGS, is an effective predictor of the prognosis of patients with cancer cachexia. It can offer effective prognosis stratification and guidance for their treatment.

Forensic autosomal and gonosomal short tandem repeat marker reference database for populations in Burkina Faso.

Tandem repeat genetic profiles used in forensic applications varies between populations. Despite the diversity and security issues in the Sahel that require the identification of victims (soldiers and civilians), Burkina Faso (BF) remains understudied. To fill this information gap, 396 unrelated individuals from BF were genotyped using a MICROREADER 21 ID System kit. All 20 short tandem repeat (STR) loci tested passed the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) test. The combined powers of exclusion for duos (CPE duos) and trios (CPE trios) for the 20 tested loci were 0.9999998 and 0.9999307, respectively. The probability that two individuals would share the same DNA profiles among the BF population was 9.80898 × 10-26. For the X-chromosome STR analysis, 292 individuals were included in this study using a MICROREADER 19X Direct ID System kit. Among the 19 loci, no significant deviations from HWE test were observed in female samples after Bonferroni correction (p < 0.05/19 = 0.0026), except for loci GATA165B12 and DXS7423. The results showed that the combined power of exclusion (CPE) and the combined power of discrimination in females (CPDF) and males (CPDM) were 0.999999760893, 0.999999999992, and 1, respectively. Comparison with other African sub-populations showed that geographical proximity is a reliable indicator of genetic relatedness.

Regulating the catalytic behaviour of iron oxyhydroxide by introducing Ni sites for facilitating polysulfide anchoring and conversion.

The sluggish conversion kinetics and notorious shuttle effect of polysulfides are critical hindrances to practical implementation of lithium-sulfur batteries. Herein, bimetallic oxyhydroxide (FeNiOOH) as a functional sulfur host is proposed to overcome these obstacles. The introduction of Ni sites can modulate the electronic structure of the active sites to implement strong soluble polysulfide species immobilization and accelerate the conversion reaction kinetics of polysulfides, resulting in improved sulfur utilization and reduced polarization during the electrochemical reaction process. Benefiting from these advantages, FeNiOOH enables the sulfur cathode to deliver superior rate capability and cycling stability.