Enhancement of motor functional recovery in thoracic spinal cord injury: voluntary wheel running versus forced treadmill exercise.

JOURNAL/nrgr/04.03/01300535-202503000-00028/figure1/v/2024-06-17T092413Z/r/image-tiff Spinal cord injury necessitates effective rehabilitation strategies, with exercise therapies showing promise in promoting recovery. This study investigated the impact of rehabilitation exercise on functional recovery and morphological changes following thoracic contusive spinal cord injury. After a 7-day recovery period after spinal cord injury, mice were assigned to either a trained group (10 weeks of voluntary running wheel or forced treadmill exercise) or an untrained group. Bi-weekly assessments revealed that the exercise-trained group, particularly the voluntary wheel exercise subgroup, displayed significantly improved locomotor recovery, more plasticity of dopaminergic and serotonin modulation compared with the untrained group. Additionally, exercise interventions led to gait pattern restoration and enhanced transcranial magnetic motor-evoked potentials. Despite consistent injury areas across groups, exercise training promoted terminal innervation of descending axons. In summary, voluntary wheel exercise shows promise for enhancing outcomes after thoracic contusive spinal cord injury, emphasizing the role of exercise modality in promoting recovery and morphological changes in spinal cord injuries. Our findings will influence future strategies for rehabilitation exercises, restoring functional movement after spinal cord injury.

Carbon emissions in China's steel industry from a life cycle perspective: Carbon footprint insights.

China is the most important steel producer in the world, and its steel industry is one of the most carbon-intensive industries in China. Consequently, research on carbon emissions from the steel industry is crucial for China to achieve carbon neutrality and meet its sustainable global development goals. We constructed a carbon dioxide (CO2) emission model for China's iron and steel industry from a life cycle perspective, conducted an empirical analysis based on data from 2019, and calculated the CO2 emissions of the industry throughout its life cycle. Key emission reduction factors were identified using sensitivity analysis. The results demonstrated that the CO2 emission intensity of the steel industry was 2.33 ton CO2/ton, and the production and manufacturing stages were the main sources of CO2 emissions, accounting for 89.84% of the total steel life-cycle emissions. Notably, fossil fuel combustion had the highest sensitivity to steel CO2 emissions, with a sensitivity coefficient of 0.68, reducing the amount of fossil fuel combustion by 20% and carbon emissions by 13.60%. The sensitivities of power structure optimization and scrap consumption were similar, while that of the transportation structure adjustment was the lowest, with a sensitivity coefficient of less than 0.1. Given the current strategic goals of peak carbon and carbon neutrality, it is in the best interest of the Chinese government to actively promote energy-saving and low-carbon technologies, increase the ratio of scrap steel to steelmaking, and build a new power system.

Chondroitinase ABC combined with Schwann cell transplantation enhances restoration of neural connection and functional recovery following acute and chronic spinal cord injury.

JOURNAL/nrgr/04.03/01300535-202505000-00029/figure1/v/2024-07-28T173839Z/r/image-tiff Schwann cell transplantation is considered one of the most promising cell-based therapy to repair injured spinal cord due to its unique growth-promoting and myelin-forming properties. A the Food and Drug Administration-approved Phase I clinical trial has been conducted to evaluate the safety of transplanted human autologous Schwann cells to treat patients with spinal cord injury. A major challenge for Schwann cell transplantation is that grafted Schwann cells are confined within the lesion cavity, and they do not migrate into the host environment due to the inhibitory barrier formed by injury-induced glial scar, thus limiting axonal reentry into the host spinal cord. Here we introduce a combinatorial strategy by suppressing the inhibitory extracellular environment with injection of lentivirus-mediated transfection of chondroitinase ABC gene at the rostral and caudal borders of the lesion site and simultaneously leveraging the repair capacity of transplanted Schwann cells in adult rats following a mid-thoracic contusive spinal cord injury. We report that when the glial scar was degraded by chondroitinase ABC at the rostral and caudal lesion borders, Schwann cells migrated for considerable distances in both rostral and caudal directions. Such Schwann cell migration led to enhanced axonal regrowth, including the serotonergic and dopaminergic axons originating from supraspinal regions, and promoted recovery of locomotor and urinary bladder functions. Importantly, the Schwann cell survival and axonal regrowth persisted up to 6 months after the injury, even when treatment was delayed for 3 months to mimic chronic spinal cord injury. These findings collectively show promising evidence for a combinatorial strategy with chondroitinase ABC and Schwann cells in promoting remodeling and recovery of function following spinal cord injury.

GLT-1 downregulation in hippocampal astrocytes induced by type 2 diabetes contributes to postoperative cognitive dysfunction in adult mice.

AIMS: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is related to an increased risk of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD), which may be caused by neuronal hyperexcitability. Astrocyte glutamate transporter 1 (GLT-1) plays a crucial role in regulating neuron excitability. We investigated if T2DM would magnify the increased neuronal excitability induced by anesthesia/surgery (A/S) and lead to POCD in young adult mice, and if so, determined whether these effects were associated with GLT-1 expression. METHODS: T2DM model was induced by high fat diet (HFD) and injecting STZ. Then, we evaluated the spatial learning and memory of T2DM mice after A/S with the novel object recognition test (NORT) and object location test (OLT). Western blotting and immunofluorescence were used to analyze the expression levels of GLT-1 and neuronal excitability. Oxidative stress reaction and neuronal apoptosis were detected with SOD2 expression, MMP level, and Tunel staining. Hippocampal functional synaptic plasticity was assessed with long-term potentiation (LTP). In the intervention study, we overexpressed hippocampal astrocyte GLT-1 in GFAP-Cre mice. Besides, AAV-Camkllα-hM4Di-mCherry was injected to inhibit neuronal hyperexcitability in CA1 region. RESULTS: Our study found T2DM but not A/S reduced GLT-1 expression in hippocampal astrocytes. Interestingly, GLT-1 deficiency alone couldn't lead to cognitive decline, but the downregulation of GLT-1 in T2DM mice obviously enhanced increased hippocampal glutamatergic neuron excitability induced by A/S. The hyperexcitability caused neuronal apoptosis and cognitive impairment. Overexpression of GLT-1 rescued postoperative cognitive dysfunction, glutamatergic neuron hyperexcitability, oxidative stress reaction, and apoptosis in hippocampus. Moreover, chemogenetic inhibition of hippocampal glutamatergic neurons reduced oxidative stress and apoptosis and alleviated postoperative cognitive dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the adult mice with type 2 diabetes are at an increased risk of developing POCD, perhaps due to the downregulation of GLT-1 in hippocampal astrocytes, which enhances increased glutamatergic neuron excitability induced by A/S and leads to oxidative stress reaction, and neuronal apoptosis.

Pichia pastoris composition expressed aerolysin mutant of Aeromonas veronii as an oral vaccine evaluated in zebrafish (Danio rerio).

Vaccines are one of the most practical means to stop the spreading of Aeromonas veronii in aquaculture. In this study, virulence factor aerolysin mutant NTaer which has lost its hemolytic activity was used as a target antigen. Pichia pastoris constitutive secretory expression NTaer (GS115-NTaer) was used as a potential safe oral vaccine to evaluate its effectiveness on zebrafish immunity. The result shows that vaccination of GS115- NTaer for four weeks did not affect the growth performance of the host, while eliciting an effective immune protective response. Compared with the control group, the GS115-NTaer could significantly up-regulate the relative expression level of the intestinal tight junction protein 1α (TJP1α) gene, and significantly increased the contents of lysozyme (LYZ), complement C3 and C4 in the gut, indicating that the innate immune response of the fish was activated. The relative gene expression levels of macrophage-expressed gene 1 (MPEG1) and T cell receptor (TCR-α) in the gut, and MPEG1, CD4, CD8, TCR-α, GATA3, and T-bet in the spleen were all increased significantly, indicating that the cellular immune response of the fish was activated. Furthermore, the contents of serum IgM and intestinal mucosa IgZ antibodies were significantly increased, which showed that humoral immunity was also activated. Moreover, inoculation with GS115-NTaer significantly changed the structure of gut microbiota. In particular, the relative ratio of (Firmicutes + Fusobacteriota + Bacteroidota)/Proteobacteria was significantly higher than that of the control and GS115 groups. Lastly, the vaccinated fish were challenged with A. veronii, and the relative percent survival of GS115 and the GS115-NTear groups was 14.28% and 33.43%. This improvement of immunity was not only due to the specific immune response but also attributed to the improvement of innate immunity and the gut microbiota which was demonstrated by the germ-free zebrafish model. Collectively, this study provides information on the effectiveness of GS115-NTear as an oral vaccine for the green prevention and control of A. veronii infection in fish aquaculture.

Calcium signaling in oocyte quality and functionality and its application.

Calcium (Ca2+) is a second messenger for many signal pathways, and changes in intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) are an important signaling mechanism in the oocyte maturation, activation, fertilization, function regulation of granulosa and cumulus cells and offspring development. Ca2+ oscillations occur during oocyte maturation and fertilization, which are maintained by Ca2+ stores and extracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]e). Abnormalities in Ca2+ signaling can affect the release of the first polar body, the first meiotic division, and chromosome and spindle morphology. Well-studied aspects of Ca2+ signaling in the oocyte are oocyte activation and fertilization. Oocyte activation, driven by sperm-specific phospholipase PLCζ, is initiated by concerted intracellular patterns of Ca2+ release, termed Ca2+ oscillations. Ca2+ oscillations persist for a long time during fertilization and are coordinately engaged by a variety of Ca2+ channels, pumps, regulatory proteins and their partners. Calcium signaling also regulates granulosa and cumulus cells' function, which further affects oocyte maturation and fertilization outcome. Clinically, there are several physical and chemical options for treating fertilization failure through oocyte activation. Additionally, various exogenous compounds or drugs can cause ovarian dysfunction and female infertility by inducing abnormal Ca2+ signaling or Ca2+ dyshomeostasis in oocytes and granulosa cells. Therefore, the reproductive health risks caused by adverse stresses should arouse our attention. This review will systematically summarize the latest research progress on the aforementioned aspects and propose further research directions on calcium signaling in female reproduction.

miR-30d Attenuates Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension via Targeting MTDH and PDE5A and Modulates the Beneficial Effect of Sildenafil.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is associated with aberrant pulmonary vascular smooth muscle cell (PASMC) function and vascular remodeling. MiR-30d plays an important role in the pathogenesis of several cardiovascular disorders. However, the function of miR-30d in PAH progression remained unknown. Our study shows that circulating miR-30d level is significantly reduced in the plasma from PAH patients. In miR-30d transgenic (TG) rats, overexpressing miR-30d attenuates monocrotaline (MCT)-induced pulmonary hypertension (PH) and pulmonary vascular remodeling. Increasing miR-30d also inhibits platelet-derived growth factor-bb (PDGF-bb)-induced proliferation and migration of human PASMC. Metadherin (MTDH) and phosphodiesterase 5A (PDE5A) are identified as direct target genes of miR-30d. Meanwhile, nuclear respiratory factor 1 (NRF1) acts as a positive upstream regulator of miR-30d. Using miR-30d knockout (KO) rats treated with sildenafil, a PDE5A inhibitor that is used in clinical PAH therapies, it is further found that suppressing miR-30d partially attenuates the beneficial effect of sildenafil against MCT-induced PH and vascular remodeling. The present study shows a protective effect of miR-30d against PAH and pulmonary vascular remodeling through targeting MTDH and PDE5A and reveals that miR-30d modulates the beneficial effect of sildenafil in treating PAH. MiR-30d should be a prospective target to treat PAH and pulmonary vascular remodeling.

Reference values for reticulocyte haemoglobin equivalent in healthy Chinese children under 5 years and its associations with various blood parameters.

BACKGROUND: Reticulocyte haemoglobin equivalent (RET-He) is a useful tool for evaluating recent iron usage irrespective of inflammatory status. This study aims to establish a reference for RET-He among Hong Kong healthy children under the age of 5 years and to investigate the association between RET-He and various blood parameters. METHODS: A total of 946 children aged 2-48 months from July 2019 to December 2022 were recruited in this cross-sectional study. The RET-He and other haematological parameters were measured by the haematology analyser from Sysmex XN-9100/XN-1500. The ferritin test was performed with the electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Interval 2.5th percentile to 97.5th percentile represented the normal RET-He ranges. Linear multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the relation between RET-He and various blood parameters. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis revealed the sensitivity and specificity of RET-He in identifying iron deficiency. RESULTS: The RET-He in the study population was approximately normally distributed. The age-specific lower limit of RET-He ranges from 25.81 pg (25-36 months) to 27.15 pg (13-24 months). RET-He was found to be lower in the age group 2-6 months (mean=29.47 pg) and 7-12 months (mean=29.41 pg). Changes in RET-He and haemoglobin in relation to age were observed in both sexes (both p<0.001). RET-He was influenced by age, some red blood cell parameters and reticulocyte concentrations (all p<0.05). A cut-off value of RET-He ≤27.8 pg was determined for identifying iron deficiency. CONCLUSIONS: RET-He levels varied with age, with a relatively lower level in infants than in other age groups. The value below the age-specific lower limit of the reference range of RET-He can be used as a limit for preliminary iron-deficiency screening.

Lightweight Neural Network for Sleep Posture Classification Using Pressure Sensing Mat at Various Sensor Densities.

Recently, pressure-sensing mats have been widely used to capture static and dynamic pressure over sleep for posture recognition. Both a full-size mat with a low-density sensing array for figuring out the structure of the whole body and a miniature scale mat with a high-density sensing array for identifying the local characteristics around the chest have been investigated. However, both of the mat systems may face the challenge in the trade-off between the computational complexity (involving the size, density, etc. of the mat) and the performance of sleep posture recognition, where high performance may requires overcomplex computation and result in time latency in real-time sleep posture monitoring. In this paper, a lightweight neural network named ConcatNet, is proposed to realize sleep postures (supine, left, right, and prone) recognition in real time while maintaining a favorable performance. In ConcatNet, the inception module is proposed to extract the image features under multiple receptive fields, while the multi-layer feature fusion module is utilized to fuse deep and shallow features to enhance the model performance. To further improve the efficiency of the model, the depthwise convolution is adopoted. ConcatNet models in 3 different scales (ConcatNet-S, ConcatNet-M, and ConcatNet-L) are built to explore the impact of the sensor density on sleep posture recognition performance. Experimental results exhibit that ConcatNet-M corresponding to medium sensor density (16×16) achieved the best comprehensive performance, with short-term data cross-validation accuracy at 95.56% and overnight data testing accuracy at 94.68%. The model size is 7.91KB, FLOPs is 56.47K, and the inference time is only 0.38ms, which shows an outstanding performance of real-time sleep posture recognition with minimum consumption, indicating the potential to be deployed in mobile devices.

Advances in oligosaccharides and polysaccharides with different structures as wall materials for probiotics delivery: A review.

Probiotics are active microorganisms that are beneficial to the health of the host. However, probiotics are highly sensitive to the external environment, and are susceptible to a variety of factors that reduce their activity during production, storage, and use. Microencapsulation is an effective method that enhances probiotic activity. Macromolecules like polysaccharides, who classified as biologically active prebiotics, have attracted significant attention for their utility in probiotic microencapsulation. This article summarized the types of commonly used microencapsulation materials and their structural characteristics from the perspective of polysaccharides prebiotics. It also discussed recent advancements, probiotic-prebiotic microcapsule-based modulation of the immune system, as well as the associated limitations. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages of eight prebiotics as microencapsulation wall materials. The honeycomb structure of ß-glucan enhances the bioavailability of probiotics, while, fructooligosaccharide and galactooligosaccharides improve microbead structure to tightly encapsulate probiotics. The terminal reducing groups of isomaltooligosaccharides and the free hydroxyl groups in xylooligosaccharides also positively affect the structure of microcapsules. Prebiotics not only enhance the survival rate and biological activity of probiotics as embedding materials during storage, but also exert their own probiotic effects. Collectively, prebiotics holds great promise as microencapsulation materials for probiotics delivery.

CCL2/CCR2 Expression in Locally Advanced Prostate Cancer and Patient Long-Term Outcome: 10-Year Results from the TROG 03.04 RADAR Trial.

This study investigated the prognostic value of the chemokine C-C motif ligand 2 (CCL2) and its receptor C-C motif chemokine receptor 2 (CCR2) expression in locally advanced prostate cancer treated with radiotherapy and androgen deprivation using the 10-year outcome data from the TROG 03.04 RADAR clinical trial. CCL2 and CCR2 protein expression in prostate cancer biopsies at the time of diagnosis were quantified by immunohistochemistry and digital quantification. CCR2 protein expression was detected in prostate cancer cells and was associated with prostate-specific antigen serum concentration (p = 0.045). However, neither CCL2 nor CCR2 tissue expression could predict prostate cancer progression, or other clinicopathological parameters including perineural invasion and patient outcome. In serum samples, CCL2 concentration at the time of diagnosis, as assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, was significantly higher in patients with prostate cancer compared with benign prostatic hyperplasia (median difference 0.22 ng/mL, 95% CI, 0.17-0.30) (p < 0.0001) and normal controls (median difference 0.13 ng/mL, 95% CI, 0.13-0.17) (p < 0.0001). However, circulating CCL2 was not statistically significant as a predictor of disease progression and patient outcome. In conclusion, this study shows that although CCL2 and CCR2 are expressed in prostate cancer, with an increased level of CCL2 in the serum, neither CCL2 nor CCR2 expression has a clinical prognostic value in locally advanced prostate cancer.

PD-L1 expression and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes: Correlations and prognostic values in Chinese triple-negative breast cancer patients with different molecular subtyping.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the correlation between programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and evaluate the prognostic value of PD-L1 and TILs in Chinese triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients with different molecular subtype METHODS: This retrospective study was conducted at 2020. Specifically, the pre-chemotherapy clinical data and non-stained tissue blocks of 465 TNBC patients visited the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center (FUSCC) between 2008 and 2014 were collected, with their blocks sliced and stained using PD-L1(SP142), and the outcome of subsequent chemotherapy obtained in 2020. The relapse-free survival (RFS) of the study population was calculated. The baseline PD-L1 expression status correlations with TILs and molecular subtypes were assessed using Spearman's rank correlation analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis test. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were undertaken to evaluate the prognosis value of TILs and PD-L1 expression. RESULTS: PD-L1 expression status on IC was moderately and positively correlated with stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) (rs = 0.502, P <0.001) and iTILs (rs = 0.410, P < 0.001), respectively. PD-L1 expression status and TILs showed significant differences among molecular subtypes (P < 0.001), with the highest proportion of PD-L1+ and high TILs patients observed in the immunomodulatory (IM) subtype. TILs were significantly associated with RFS. Moreover, sTILs could act as an independent predictor of RFS (RR 0.953, 95 % CI 0.920 ∼ 0.987, P = 0.007), while PD-L1 expression status did not show the same prognostic significance. CONCLUSIONS: The incorporation of pre-treatment TILs and PD-L1 expression status as valuable tools for optimizing patient selection for immunotherapy and managing the risks associated with chemotherapy in Chinese TNBC patients. DATA AVAILABILITY: The data sets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author.

Evaluation of glucose-lowering medications in older people: a comprehensive systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is increasingly being diagnosed in older adults. Our objective is to assess the advantages and potential drawbacks of different glucose-lowering medications in this specific population. METHODS: A network meta-analysis was conducted to identify randomized controlled trials that examined patient-centered outcomes in adults aged ≥65 years with T2DM. We searched PubMed, Cochrane CENTRAL, and Embase up to September 23, 2023. Quality of eligible studies were assessed using the Cochrane RoB 2.0 tool. RESULTS: A total of 22 trials that involved 41 654 participants were included, incorporating sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs), dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, metformin, sulfonylureas (SU) and acarbose. Our findings reveal that GLP-1RAs reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (risk ratio [RR], 0.83; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.71 to 0.97) and body weight (mean difference [MD], -3.87 kg; 95% CI, -5.54 to -2.21). SGLT2 inhibitors prevent hospitalization for heart failure (RR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.57 to 0.77), renal composite outcome (RR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.89), and reduce body weights (MD, -1.85 kg; 95% CI, -2.42 to -1.27). SU treatment increases the risk of any hypoglycaemia (RR, 4.19; 95% CI, 3.52 to 4.99) and severe hypoglycaemia (RR, 7.06; 95% CI, 3.03 to 16.43). GLP-1RAs, SGLT2 inhibitors, metformin, SU and DPP-4 inhibitors are effective in reducing glycaemic parameters. Notably, the number of treatments needed decreases in most cases as age increases. CONCLUSIONS: Novel glucose-lowering medications with benefits that outweigh risks should be prioritized for older patients with diabetes.

Prediction of 28-day all-cause mortality in heart failure patients with Clostridioides difficile infection using machine learning models: evidence from the MIMIC-IV database.

Introduction Heart Failure (HF) may induce bowel hypoperfusion, leading to hypoxia of the villa of the bowel wall and the occurrence of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). However, the risk factors for the development of CDI in HF patients have yet to be fully illustrated, especially because of a lack of evidence from real-world data. METHODS: Clinical data and survival situations of HF patients with CDI admitted to ICU were extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC)-IV database. For developing a model that can predict 28-day all-cause mortality in HF patients with CDI, the Recursive Feature Elimination with Cross-Validation (RFE-CV) method was used for feature selection. And nine machine learning (ML) algorithms, including logistic regression (LR), decision tree (DT), bayesian, adaptive boosting (AdaBoost), random forest (RF), gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT), XGBoost, light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM), and categorical boosting (CatBoost) were applied for model construction. After training and hyperparameter optimization of the models through grid search 5-fold cross-validation, the performance of models was evaluated by the area under curve (AUC), accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision, negative predictive value, and F1 score. Furthermore, the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) method was used to interpret the optimal model. RESULTS: A total of 526 HF patients with CDI were included in the study, of whom 99 cases (18.8%) experienced death within 28 days. 18 of the 57 variables were selected for the model construction algorithm for model construction. Among the ML models considered, the RF model emerged as the optimal model achieving the accuracy, F1-score, and AUC values of 0.821, 0.596, and 0.864 respectively. The net benefit of the model surpassed other models at 16%~22% threshold probabilities based on decision curve analysis. According to the importance of features in the RF model, red blood cell distribution width, blood urea nitrogen, Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment, and white blood cell count were highlighted as the five most influential variables. CONCLUSIONS: We developed ML models to predict 28-day all-cause mortality in HF patients associated with CDI in the ICU, which are more effective than the conventional logistic regression model. The RF model has the best performance among all the ML models employed. It may be useful to help clinicians identify high-risk HF patients with CDI.

Bio-inspired Mechanically Responsive Smart Windows for Visible and Near-Infrared Multiwavelength Spectral Modulation.

Mechanochromic light control technology that can dynamically regulate solar irradiation is recognized as one of the leading candidates for energy-saving windows. However, the lack of spectrally selective modulation ability still hinders its application for different scenarios or individual needs. Here, inspired by the generation of structure color and color change of living organisms, a simple layer-by-layer assembly approach toward large-area fabricating mechanically responsive film for visible and near-infrared multiwavelength spectral modulation smart windows is reported here. The assembled SiO2 nanoparticles and W18O49 nanowires enable the film with an optical modulation rate of up to 42.4% at the wavelength of 550 nm and 18.4% for the near-infrared region, separately, and the typical composite film under 50% stretching shows ≈41.6% modulation rate at the wavelength of 550 nm with NIR modulation rate less than 2.7%. More importantly, the introduction of the multilayer assembly structure not only optimizes the film's optical modulation but also enables the film with high stability during 100 000 stretching cycles. A cooling effect of 21.3 and 6.9 °C for the blackbody and air inside a model house in the real environmental application is achieved. This approach provides theoretical and technical support for the new mechanochromic energy-saving windows.

Chromosome-specific painting reveals the Y genome origin and chromosome rearrangements of the St genome in Triticeae.

Karyotypes provide key cytogenetic information on phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary origins in related plant species. The St genome of Pseudoroegneria contributes to eight alloploid genera, representing over half of the species that are highly valuable for wheat (Triticum aestivum) breeding and for understanding Triticeae species evolution. However, St chromosome characterization is challenging due to limited cytogenetic markers and DNA information. We developed a complete set of St genome-specific chromosome painting probes for identification of the individual chromosomes 1St to 7St based on the genome sequences of Pse. libanotica and wheat. We revealed the conservation of St chromosomes in St-containing species by chromosome painting, including Pseudoroegneria, Roegneria, Elymus, and Campeiostachys. Notably, the Y genome showed hybridization signals, albeit weaker than those of the St genome. The awnless species harboring the Y genome exhibited more intense hybridization signals compare to the awned species in Roegneria and Campeiostachys, yet weaker than the hybridization signals of the St genome in autotetraploid Pse. strigosa. Although awnless species were morphologically more similar to each other, phenotypic divergence progressively increased from awnless to awned species. Our results indicate that the Y genome originated from the St genome and shed light on the possible origin of the Roegneria and Campeiostachys species, enhancing our understanding of St-genome-containing species evolution.

Association Between Remnant Cholesterol and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Systemic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Lipid disorders are related to the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Remnant cholesterol (RC), a nonclassical and once-neglected risk factor for NAFLD, has recently received new attention. In this study, we assessed the relationship between the RC levels and NAFLD risk. We searched across PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure, with no restrictions on publication languages. Retrospective cohort studies and cross-sectional studies were enrolled from the inception of the databases until August 6, 2023. A random-effect model was applied to construct the mean difference, and a 95% confidence interval was applied to assess the relationship between the RC levels and NAFLD risk. We used two methods to estimate RC levels: Calculated-1 subtracts low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol from total cholesterol; Calculated-2 uses the Friedewald formula for LDL-C when triglycerides are <4.0 mmol/L, otherwise directly measured. A total of 265 published studies were selected through preliminary retrieval. Of these, six studies met the inclusion requirements and were enrolled in the meta-analysis. The RC level in the NAFLD group was significantly higher than that in the non-NAFLD group (mean difference: 0.18, 95% confidence interval: 0.10-0.26, P < 0.00001). We conducted subgroup analyses of computational methods and geographic regions. Notably, in the subgroup analysis of Calculation Method 2, the NAFLD group had significantly higher RC levels than the non-NAFLD group. On the other hand, in Calculation Method 1, the difference between the two groups was insignificant. In both the Asian and non-Asian populations, the RC levels were significantly higher in the NAFLD group than in the non-NAFLD group. The association of RC with an increased NAFLD risk was not dependent on the triglyceride. This meta-analysis suggests that elevated RC levels are associated with an increased risk of NAFLD. In addition to the conventional risk factors for fatty liver, clinicians should be concerned about the RC levels in the clinic.

LncRNA KCNQ1OT1 promotes NLRP3 inflammasome activation in Parkinson's disease by regulating pri-miR-186/mature miR-186/NLRP3 axis.

Increasing evidence indicated that neuroinflammation was involved in progression of Parkinson's disease (PD). Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) played important roles in regulating inflammatory processes in multiple kinds of human diseases such as cancer diabetes, cardiomyopathy, and neurodegenerative disorders. The mechanisms by which lncRNAs regulated PD related inflammation and dopaminergic neuronal loss have not yet been fully elucidated. In current study, we intended to explore the function and potential mechanism of lncRNA KCNQ1 opposite strand/antisense transcript 1 (KCNQ1OT1) in regulating inflammasome activation in PD. Functional assays confirmed that knockdown of KCNQ1OT1 suppress microglial NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation and attenuated dopaminergic neuronal loss in PD model mice. As KCNQ1OT1 located in both cytoplasm and nucleus of microglia, we demonstrated that KCNQ1OT1 promoted microglial NLRP3 inflammasome activation by competitive binding with miR-186 in cytoplasm and inhibited pri-miR-186 mediated NLRP3 silencing through recruitment of DiGeorge syndrome critical region gene 8 (DGCR8) in nucleus, respectively. Our study found a novel lncRNA-pri-miRNA/mature miRNA-mRNA regulatory network in microglia mediated NLRP3 inflammasome activation and dopaminergic neuronal loss, provided further insights for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.