Systematic studies on the kinetic process of 20(S)-protopanaxadiol in rats and dogs: absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion.

Background and Objective: Ginseng has been regarded as a precious medicinal herb with miraculous effects in Eastern culture. The primary chemical constituents of ginseng are saponins, and the physiological activities of ginsenosides determine their edible and medicinal value. The aim of this study is to comprehensively and systematically investigate the kinetic processes of 20(S)-protopanaxadiol (PPD) in rats and dogs, in order to promote the rational combination of ginseng as a drug and dietary ingredient. Methods: PPD was administered, and drug concentration in different biological samples were detected by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) and radioactive tracer methods. Pharmacokinetic parameters such as absorption, bioavailability, tissue distribution, plasma protein binding rate, excretion rate, and cumulative excretion were calculated, along with inference of major metabolites. Results: This study systematically investigated the absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion (ADME) of PPD in rats and dogs for the first time. The bioavailabilities of PPD were relatively low, with oral absorption nearly complete, and the majority underwent first-pass metabolism. PPD had a high plasma protein binding rate and was relatively evenly distributed in the body. Following oral administration, PPD underwent extensive metabolism, potentially involving one structural transformation and three hydroxylation reactions. The metabolites were primarily excreted through feces and urine, indicating the presence of enterohepatic circulation. The pharmacokinetic processes of PPD following intravenous administration aligned well with a three-compartment model. In contrast, after gastric administration, it fitted better with a two-compartment model, conforming to linear pharmacokinetics and proportional elimination. There were evident interspecies differences between rats and dogs regarding PPD, but individual variations of this drug were minimal within the same species. Conclusion: This study systematically studied the kinetic process of PPD in rats and also investigated the kinetic characteristics of PPD in dogs for the first time. These findings lay the foundation for further research on the dietary nutrition and pharmacological effects of PPD.

Synergistic barium titanate/MXene composite as a high-performance piezo-photocatalyst for efficient dye degradation.

Piezo-photocatalysis combines photocatalysis and piezoelectric effects to enhance catalytic efficiency by creating an internal electric field in the photocatalyst, improving carrier separation and overall performance. This study presents a high-performance piezo-photocatalyst for efficient dye degradation using a synergistic barium titanate (BTO)-MXene composite. The composite was synthesized via a facile method, combining the unique properties of BTO nanoparticles with the high conductivity of MXene. The structural and morphological analysis confirmed the successful formation of the composite, with well-dispersed BTO nanoparticles on the MXene surface. The piezo-photocatalytic activity of the composite was evaluated using a typical dye solution (Rhodamine B: RhB) under ultraviolet irradiation and mechanical agitation. The results revealed a remarkable enhancement in dye degradation (90 % in 15 min for piezo-photocatalysis) compared to individual stimuli (58.2 % for photocatalysis and 95.8 % in 90 min for piezocatalysis), highlighting the synergistic effects between BTO and MXene. The enhanced catalytic performance was attributed to the efficient charge separation and transfer facilitated by the composite's structure, leading to increased reactive species generation and dye molecule degradation. Furthermore, the composite exhibited excellent stability and reusability, showcasing its potential for practical applications in wastewater treatment. Overall, this work represents a promising strategy for designing high-performance synergistic catalysts, addressing the pressing need for sustainable solutions in environmental remediation.

Cordycepin Modulates Microglial M2 Polarization Coupled with Mitochondrial Metabolic Reprogramming by Targeting HKII and PDK2.

The microenvironment mediated by the microglia (MG) M1/M2 phenotypic switch plays a decisive role in the neuronal fate and cognitive function of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the impact of metabolic reprogramming on microglial polarization and its underlying mechanism remains elusive. This study reveals that cordycepin improved cognitive function and memory in APP/PS1 mice, as well as attenuated neuronal damage by triggering MG-M2 polarization and metabolic reprogramming characterized by increased OXPHOS and glycolysis, rather than directly protecting neurons. Simultaneously, cordycepin partially alleviates mitochondrial damage in microglia induced by inhibitors of OXPHOS and glycolysis, further promoting MG-M2 transformation and increasing neuronal survival. Through confirmation of cordycepin distribution in the microglial mitochondria via mitochondrial isolation followed by HPLC-MS/MS techniques, HKII and PDK2 are further identified as potential targets of cordycepin. By investigating the effects of HKII and PDK2 inhibitors, the mechanism through which cordycepin targeted HKII to elevate ECAR levels in the glycolysis pathway while targeting PDK2 to enhance OCR levels in PDH-mediated OXPHOS pathway, thereby inducing MG-M2 polarization, promoting neuronal survival and exerting an anti-AD role is elucidated.

Stabilizing High-Voltage Performance of Nickel-Rich Cathodes via Facile Solvothermally Synthesized Niobium-Doped Strontium Titanate.

Ni-rich layered ternary cathodes are promising candidates thanks to their low toxic Co-content and high energy density (∼800 Wh/kg). However, a critical challenge in developing Ni-rich cathodes is to improve cyclic stability, especially under high voltage (>4.3 V), which directly affects the performance and lifespan of the battery. In this study, niobium-doped strontium titanate (Nb-STO) is successfully synthesized via a facile solvothermal method and used as a surface modification layer onto the LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM811) cathode. The results exhibited that the Nb-STO modification significantly improved the cycling stability of the cathode material even under high-voltage (4.5 V) operational conditions. In particular, the best sample in our work could provide a high discharge capacity of ∼190 mAh/g after 100 cycles under 1 C with capacity retention over 84% in the voltage range of 3.0-4.5 V, superior to the pristine NCM811 (∼61%) and pure STO modified STO-811-600 (∼76%) samples under the same conditions. The improved electrochemical performance and stability of NCM811 under high voltage should be attributed to not only preventing the dissolution of the transition metals, further reducing the electrolyte's degradation by the end of charge, but also alleviating the internal resistance growth from uncontrollable cathode-electrolyte interface (CEI) evolution. These findings suggest that the as-synthesized STO with an optimized Nb-doping ratio could be a promising candidate for stabilizing Ni-rich cathode materials to facilitate the widespread commercialization of Ni-rich cathodes in modern LIBs.

Enhanced Piezocatalytic Performance of Li-doped BaTiO3 Through a Facile Sonication-Assisted Precipitation Approach.

Piezocatalysis-induced dye degradation has garnered significant attention as an effective method for addressing wastewater treatment challenges. In our study, we employed a room-temperature sonochemical method to synthesize piezoelectric barium titanate nanoparticles (BaTiO3: BTO) with varying levels of Li doping. This approach not only streamlined the sample preparation process but also significantly reduced the overall time required for synthesis, making it a highly efficient and practical method. One of the key findings was the exceptional performance of the Li-doped BTO nanoparticles. With 20 mg of Li additive, we achieved 90 % removal of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye within a relatively short timeframe of 150 minutes, all while subjecting the sample to ultrasonic vibration. This rapid and efficient dye degradation was further evidenced by the calculated kinetic rate constant, which indicated seven times faster degradation rate compared to pure BTO. The enhanced piezoelectric performance observed in the Li-doped BTO nanoparticles can be attributed to the strategic substitution of Li atoms, which facilitated a more efficient transfer of charge charges at the interface. Overall, our study underscores the potential of piezocatalysis coupled with advanced materials like Li-doped BTO nanoparticles as a viable and promising solution for wastewater treatment, offering both efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Research progress of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of allergic rhinitis.

Allergic rhinitis, one of the common diseases in otolaryngology, has shown an increasing incidence under the influence of various geographical, cultural and economic factors, making it a common and serious global public health problem. Modern medicine uses medication as the primary therapy for allergic rhinitis, but poor symptom control and easy relapse are the disadvantages of this treatment. However, Traditional Chinese medicine, with its long history, has treated allergic rhinitis by symptomatic treatment according to pattern differentiation with its unique insights and methods, which are effective and safe in numerous clinical studies. Therefore, this paper describes TCM decoction, acupuncture, moxibustion, acupoint application, catgut-embedding therapy and ear acupuncture in the treatment of AR. This study aims to provide more personalized and precise treatment for allergic rhinitis patients by investigating the mechanism of action, clinical research and development of traditional Chinese medicine treatments.

The multifaceted mechanisms of Dihydrotanshinone I in the treatment of tumors.

The morbidity and mortality of malignant tumors are progressively rising on an annual basis. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) holds promise as a possible therapeutic agent for the avoidance or therapy of malignant tumors. Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (Danshen), a traditional Asian functional food, has therapeutic characteristics in application for the treatment of malignant tumors. Dihydrotanshinone I (DHTS) is the principal lipophilic phenanthraquinone compound found in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, whose anti-tumor effect has attracted widespread attention. The anti-tumor effects include inhibiting cancer cell proliferation, triggering apoptosis of tumor cells, inducing ferroptosis in tumor cells, inhibiting tumor cell invasion and metastasis, and improving drug resistance of tumor cells. In this paper, we summarized and analyzed the mechanisms and targets of anti-tumor effect of DHTS, providing new ideas and establishing a solid theoretical basis for the future advancement and clinical treatment of DHTS.

Establishment of self-reported hearing cut-off value on the Chinese version of short form of speech, spatial and qualities of hearing scale (SSQ12).

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the Chinese version of Speech, Spatial and Qualities of Hearing Scale (C-SSQ12) in the Chinese Mandarin-speaking population and to determine its screening cut-off value by comparing measured pure-tone average (PTA), the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly-Screening Version (HHIE-S) scores and C-SSQ12 scores. DESIGN: All participants completed the C-SSQ12 questionnaire and underwent the pure-tone audiometry. Older subjects aged ≧ 60 years completed the HHIE-S questionnaire. The optimal cut-off value for the C-SSQ12 as a hearing screening tool was calculated by comparing different cut-offs and hearing thresholds. STUDY SAMPLE: A total of 300 subjects were recruited. RESULTS: There was a negative correlation between C-SSQ12 scores and HHIE-S scores (r = -0.749). C-SSQ12 scores were negatively correlated with PTA (r = -0.507; r = -0.542). The best cut-off value for the C-SSQ12 was 6.0, with a sensitivity of 78.2%, specificity of 80.3%, positive predictive value of 63.7% and negative predictive value of 97.0% (PTA > 40dBHL for bilateral ears). CONCLUSIONS: Compared to mild hearing loss, the C-SSQ12 is a reliable and validated hearing screening tool with increased sensitivity for detecting moderate-to-severe hearing loss.

Impact response of lightweight steel foam concrete composite slabs: Experimental, numerical and analytical studies.

This paper presents a study on the low-velocity impact response of lightweight steel foam concrete (LSFC) composite slabs. The LSFC composite slab consisted of a W-shaped steel plate, foam concrete and oriented strand board (OSB). Low-velocity impact tests on the LSFC composite slabs were conducted by employing an ultra-high heavy-duty drop hammer testing machine. The tests revealed the failure mode, impact force and displacement response of LSFC composite slabs. The effects of density and thickness of foam concrete and drop height on the peak impact force and energy absorption ratio were investigated. A finite element (FE) model was set up to predict the impact resistance of the LSFC composite slabs, and a good agreement between simulation and test results was achieved. In addition, an equivalent-single-degree-of-freedom (ESDOF) model was set up to predict the displacement response of the LSFC composite slabs under impact loading.

Research progress of metal-organic framework-based material activation of persulfate to degrade organic pollutants in water.

The rapid development of industry in recent years has led to the introduction of serious pollutants into water bodies, and there is an urgent need for efficient organic degradation technologies. At present, selective peroxynitrite (PS) oxidation (SR-AOPs) is an effective way to treat pollutants in water bodies, and it is necessary to select a suitable material for the activation of peroxynitrite. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), with their tunable structure, large specific surface area, and tunable ligand molecules exhibit excellent reactivity and catalytic performance in the activation of persulfate. With MOF-based materials for PS activation as a novel advanced oxidation technology, this study reviews MOFs and their composites and derived materials. The current research status of activated persulfate for the treatment of organic pollutants in water, the influence of different systems on the degradation performance are discussed, and the activation and degradation mechanisms are discussed; the problems of the above materials in the degradation of organic pollutants are summarized, and research directions based on the coupled activated persulfate system of MOF materials are proposed.

Mixture of personality improved spiking actor network for efficient multi-agent cooperation.

Adaptive multi-agent cooperation with especially unseen partners is becoming more challenging in multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) research, whereby conventional deep-learning-based algorithms suffer from the poor new-player-generalization problem, possibly caused by not considering theory-of-mind theory (ToM). Inspired by the ToM personality in cognitive psychology, where a human can easily resolve this problem by predicting others' intuitive personality first before complex actions, we propose a biologically-plausible algorithm named the mixture of personality (MoP) improved spiking actor network (SAN). The MoP module contains a determinantal point process to simulate the formation and integration of different personality types, and the SAN module contains spiking neurons for efficient reinforcement learning. The experimental results on the benchmark cooperative overcooked task showed that the proposed MoP-SAN algorithm could achieve higher performance for the paradigms with (learning) and without (generalization) unseen partners. Furthermore, ablation experiments highlighted the contribution of MoP in SAN learning, and some visualization analysis explained why the proposed algorithm is superior to some counterpart deep actor networks.

New Technology for the Synthesis of Glycerol Monooleate.

Herein, a new approach for glycerol monooleate (GMO) was developed. GMO was synthesized via the esterification method using self-made sodium oleate and 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol as reactants, tetrabutylammonium bromide as the catalyst, and toluene as the solvent. The effects of the reaction molar ratio, type and amount of catalyst, and reaction temperature and time on the yield were investigated. Results showed that the optimal process conditions for synthesizing GMO were as follows. The molar ratio of sodium oleate to 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol was 1:2, the reaction temperature was 115°C, the reaction time was 6 h, weight of toluene was 25 g, and the catalyst dosage was 3.5%. Under these conditions, high-purity GMO was synthesized with a yield of 89.02%.

Accuracy and capability of tri-ponderal mass index in assessing cardio-metabolic risk factors in Chinese children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 years, compared with body mass index.

BACKGROUND: Tri-ponderal mass index (TMI) has been reported to be a more accurate estimate of body fat than body mass index (BMI). This study aims to compare the effectiveness of TMI and BMI in identifying hypertension, dyslipidemia, impaired fasting glucose (IFG), abdominal obesity, and clustered cardio-metabolic risk factors (CMRFs) in 3- to 17-year-old children. METHODS: A total of 1587 children aged 3 to 17 years were included. Logistic regression was used to evaluate correlations between BMI and TMI. Area under the curves (AUCs) were used to compare discriminative capability among indicators. BMI was converted to BMI- z scores, and accuracy was compared by false-positive rate, false-negative rate, and total misclassification rate. RESULTS: Among children aged 3 to 17 years, the mean TMI was 13.57 ±â€Š2.50 kg/m 3 for boys and 13.3 ±â€Š2.33 kg/m 3 for girls. Odds ratios (ORs) of TMI for hypertension, dyslipidemia, abdominal obesity, and clustered CMRFs ranged from 1.13 to 3.15, higher than BMI, whose ORs ranged from 1.08 to 2.98. AUCs showed similar ability of TMI (AUC: 0.83) and BMI (AUC: 0.85) in identifying clustered CMRFs. For abdominal obesity and hypertension, the AUC of TMI was 0.92 and 0.64, respectively, which was significantly better than that of BMI, 0.85 and 0.61. AUCs of TMI for dyslipidemia and IFG were 0.58 and 0.49. When 85th and 95th of TMI were set as thresholds, total misclassification rates of TMI for clustered CMRFs ranged from 6.5% to 16.4%, which was not significantly different from that of BMI- z scores standardized according to World Health Organization criteria. CONCLUSIONS: TMI was found to have equal or even better effectiveness in comparison with BMI in identifying hypertension, abdominal obesity, and clustered CMRFs TMI was more stable than BMI in 3- to 17-year-old children, while it failed to identify dyslipidemia and IFG. It is worth considering the use of TMI for screening CMRFs in children and adolescents.

Risk factors for recurrent respiratory tract infections and acute respiratory failure in children with spinal muscular atrophy.

INTRODUCTION: Assessment of and intervention for sleep-disordered breathing and malnutrition are related to the prevention of recurrent respiratory tract infections (RRTIs) and acute respiratory failure (ARF) in children with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). However, specific standards for sleep-disordered breathing and malnutrition in the prevention of RRTIs and ARF have not been clarified. PURPOSE: The study aimed to identify the risk factors and predictive indices for RRTIs and/or ARF in children with SMA. METHODS: In this retrospective study, the differences in clinical characteristics between patients with and without RRTIs and ARF were compared, and binary logistic regression analysis was carried out. The optimal cutoff points for positive predictors were obtained. RESULTS: SMA type 1 (odds ratio (OR) = 5.21, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.50-18.17, p = 0.010) and the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) (OR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.01-1.24, p = 0.026) were risk factors, while the body mass index z score (BMIz) (OR = 0.65, 95% CI 0.46-0.91, p = 0.013) and mean pulse oxygen saturation (MSpO2 ) (OR = 0.72, 95% CI 0.52-1.00, p = 0.049) were protective factors. A standard consisting of (i) MSpO2 < 96% and (ii) AHI > 10 events/h and/or BMIz < -1 predicted the occurrence of RRTIs and/or ARF in the next year with a sensitivity of 0.513 and a specificity of 0.957. CONCLUSION: SMA type 1, BMIz, AHI and MSpO2 should be used to estimate the risk of RRTI and/or ARF in children with SMA. MSpO2 < 96% combined with AHI > 10 events/h or BMIz < -1 should be used as the intervention standard.

[Serum free fatty acid level in children with primary hypertension]. / å„¿ç«¥åŽŸå‘æ€§é«˜è¡€åŽ‹è¡€æ¸ æ¸¸ç¦»è„‚è‚ªé ¸çš„æ°´å¹³åŠæ„ä¹‰.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the serum level of free fatty acid (FFA) in children with primary hypertension and its value in the pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment of primary hypertension in children. METHODS: In this retrospective study, 34 children with primary hypertension who were treated for the first time in Children's Hospital Affiliated to Capital Institute of Pediatrics from January to June, 2021, were enrolled as the hypertension group, and 32 children with normal blood pressure who underwent physical examination during the same period were enrolled as the control group. The two groups were compared in terms of the levels of fasting serum FFA, fasting serum triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C). The multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze the influence of FFA on the development of primary hypertension. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the hypertension group had significantly higher body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure (P<0.05), as well as significantly higher serum levels of FFA, TG, LDL-C, and non-HDL-C and a significantly lower serum level of HDL-C (P<0.05). Compared with the control group, the hypertension group had significantly higher rates of elevated serum FFA (>0.45 mmol/L for girls and >0.60 mmol/L for boys) (P<0.05) and abnormal blood lipid levels (abnormality in at least one index among serum TG, TC, LDL-C, HDL-C, and non-HDL-C) (P<0.05). A multivariate logistic regression equation was established based on age, sex, BMI, elevated serum FFA, and abnormal blood lipid levels, and the results showed that elevated serum FFA was an independent risk factor for primary hypertension in children (OR=17.560, 95%CI: 1.964-157.003, P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: There is a significant increase in serum FFA level in children with primary hypertension, and the increase in serum FFA can increase the risk of primary hypertension in children.

Pathogenic changes of community-acquired pneumonia in a children's hospital in Beijing, China before and after COVID-19 onset: a retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to analyze the pathogenic characteristics of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in a children's hospital before and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to provide testimony for preventing CAP in the future. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed. The information was collected from the electronic medical record system of the hospital. A total of 2739 children were included from February 1, 2019, to January 31, 2021. RESULTS: Among these 2739 patients were 1507 (55.02%) males and 1232 (44.98%) females; the median age was 3.84 years. There were 2364 cases during the pre-COVID-19 period and 375 cases during the post-COVID-19 period. The number of hospitalized children after the pandemic was 84.14% lower. The median age after the onset was 1.5 years younger than that before the onset (4.08 years old) (Z = - 7.885, P < 0.001). After the pandemic, the proportion of CAP in school-age children and Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) and influenza virus pneumonia (IVP) decreased significantly. During the pre-COVID-19 period, the proportions of detected pathogens were as follows: MP (59.56%) > bacteria (50.42%) > viruses (29.57%) > fungi (3.43%). During the post-COVID-19 period, the pathogen proportions were bacteria (56.53%) > viruses (53.60%) > MP (23.47%) > fungi (3.73%). CONCLUSIONS: There was a significant decrease in the number of children with CAP hospitalized after the pandemic, especially among school-age children, and the pathogen proportions of CAP with MP and IV were significantly decreased. We inferred that CAP was effectively prevented in school-age children because of the strong mitigation measures.

Biomechanics of regenerated esophageal tissue following the implantation of a tissue engineered CellspanTM Esophageal Implant.

The esophagus is a tubular organ with a multi-laminated tissue structure that functions to transport nutrition from the oral cavity to the stomach. Several diseases of the esophagus including congenital disorders require complete surgical esophagectomy. Ideally, segmental removal of the diseased/damaged tissue would spare the unaffected tissue and preserve organ function. To this end, a novel tissue engineered implant, the CellspanTM Esophageal Implant (CEI) was used to repair the esophagus following segmental resection of the thoracic esophagus in a porcine model. The current study investigated the mechanical strength and the associated tissue architecture of the CEI-stimulated tissue. The CEI bridged the proximal and distal native esophageal ends to restore the conduit by stimulating a regeneration process that progressed from a fibrovascular scar at 30-days to a fully epithelialized lumen at 90-days, followed by submucosal regeneration and regeneration of a 'laminated' adventitia with smooth muscle development in the 365-day cohort. The mechanical strength of the newly developed tissue as well as the flanking native tissue were assessed using a probe-burst pressure test (ASTM D6797-15). The burst pressures at all three time points were comparable to the native tissue flanking the implant. In addition, the overall pressure required to burst through both the native and regenerated tissues increased with increasing time post-implantation.

Weight-to-height ratio and body roundness index are superior indicators to assess cardio-metabolic risks in Chinese children and adolescents: compared with body mass index and a body shape index.

Objective: To assess the relationship between five anthropometric indicators, which includes body mass index (BMI), weight-to-height ratio (WHtR), a body shape index (ABSI), ABSI-adolescents, and body roundness index (BRI) in Chinese children and adolescents, and select which could better predict cardio-metabolic risk factors (CMRFs). Methods: Cross-sectional study with 1,587 participants aged 3 to 17 years. Five anthropometric indicators were calculated according to weight, height and waist circumference (WC). Anthropometric measurements and laboratory indicators were used to diagnose CMRFs, which included hypertension, dyslipidemia, impaired fasting glucose and abdominal obesity. Partial correlation analysis was used to evaluate the relationship among anthropometric indicators, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUCs) were used to compare the predict ability of each anthropometric indicators, the cut-off value, sensitivity, specificity and Youden Index of each indicator were calculated. Results: In 3-6 years old children, ABSI-adolescent positively correlated with WC (r=0.727, P<0.001), BMI (r=0.218, P<0.001) and WHtR (r=0.752, P<0.001), and in 7-17 years old participants, the correlation coefficients increased to 0.842, 0.563 and 0.850 (P<0.001), respectively. BRI were strong correlated with BMI, WHtR and ABSI-adolescents in both age group (P<0.001). In 3-6 years group, the ROC analysis showed that BMI and ABSI were significantly better in identifying hypertension in both genders, WHtR and BRI were significantly better in identifying abdominal obesity in girls, but all of them were failed in identifying dyslipidemia and hyperglycemia. In 7-17 years group, WHtR and BRI were significantly better in identifying hypertension, dyslipidemia, abdominal obesity in both genders, BMI and ABSI performed better in identifying hyperglycemia in girls. Conclusions: In Chinese children aged 3-6 years, there is no indicator performed best in all the CMRFs, in 7-17 years old teenagers, WHtR and BRI can be recommended to identify hypertension, dyslipidemia, abdominal obesity and clustered CMRFs in both genders. However, ABSI showed weak discriminative power.

Dynamic health index extraction for incipient bearing degradation detection.

Performance degradation is a natural phenomenon for mechanical roller element bearings (REBs) during their long-term service time. It is essential to extract an effective dynamic health index, that can describe and quantify the dynamic characteristics of REBs health status, for automated detection of REB degradation at an early stage. This study presents a new numerical computation method to achieve this end, which can consider and utilize useful information from different individual indices. First, graph-based modeling integrated with dynamic analysis is performed on each channel of individual indices to solve the non-stationary and noise problems. The adaptive inputs weighting (AIW) fusion technique is adopted to assign adaptive weights to each graph-enhanced channel for the purpose of multi-channel graph information fusion. The resulting comprehensive index is finally fed to a commonly-used hypothesis test for decision making. Comprehensive evaluations conducted on simulation and real scenarios demonstrated the significant improvements of the proposed method and its great potential in practical applications.

Correlations between preoperative diffusion tensor imaging and surgical outcome in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the correlations between preoperative diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-based technique and surgical outcome in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). METHODS: A retrospective study of 95 patients with CSM who received diagnosis and surgical treatment in our hospital was carried out. According to the recovery rate of the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scale at the 1-year postoperative follow-up, the patients were divided into a good recovery group (JOA recovery rate ≥60%, n = 47) and a poor recovery group (JOA recovery rate <60%, n = 48). Patients in both groups underwent diffusion tensor imaging examination before surgery. The preoperative fractional anisotropy (FA) value, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value, longitudinal dispersion (AD) rate, and lateral dispersion (VD) rate were compared between the two groups. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to analyze the correlation between the preoperative DTI quantization parameters (FA, ADC, AD, VD) and the postoperative JOA recovery rate. In addition, we compared the preoperative spinal cord compression ratio (CR), spinal cord cross-sectional area (TA), maximum spinal cord compression (MSCC), and maximum canal compromise (MCC) between the above two groups. The correlations between the four measurements and the postoperative JOA recovery rate were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The preoperative FA value in the good recovery group was significantly higher than that in the poor recovery group, while the ADC value was significantly lower (both P<0.001). The good recovery group had lower preoperative AD and VD, but there was no statistical significance (both P>0.05). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the preoperative FA value was positively correlated with the JOA recovery rate (P<0.05), while the VD value had significantly negative correlation with the JOA recovery rate (P<0.05). The preoperative ADC and AD values were negatively correlated with JOA recovery rate, whereas there was no statistical significance (both P>0.05). The CR, TA, MSCC and MCC values measured before surgery in the good recovery group were significantly lower than those in the poor recovery group (all P<0.001); were negatively correlated with the JOA recovery rate (all P<0.05), while the correlation with TA was not statistically significant (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: DTI can evaluate the severity of the patient's condition before surgery by analyzing the subtle structural changes in patients with CSM. At the same time, the preoperative FA, VD, CR, MSCC, and MCC values are all associated with the surgery efficacy, which paves the way for the next step of clinical treatment.