Feasibility and applicability of self-sampling based online cervical cancer screening: findings from the China online cervical cancer screening trial.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the feasibility and applicability of an online cervical cancer screening program using a website as the public platform and self-collected HPV testing as the primary screening method. METHODS: A website (mcareu.com) was developed to facilitate the online cervical cancer screening program by Peking University Shenzhen Hospital (PUSH). Women in Shenzhen could register for participation on the website by providing essential demographic data. Sampling kits and specimens were delivered through regular logistics. Eligible women collected vaginal samples by themselves using the provided kits and in referring of the graphic guidance. The specimens were tested for HPV at PUSH or a reference lab, and the results were accessible on the website through participants' personal accounts. Participants who tested positive for high-risk HPV were scheduled for colposcopy and biopsies. The demographic and social background data of the eligible participants were analyzed to evaluate the feasibility and applicability of the online screening approach. RESULTS: A total of 1712 applicants registered for participation, with 99.9% (1710/1712) completing registration with full data. The analysis included 1560 applicants aged 30-59, with an average age of 41.1 (± 7.6) years. Among them, 83.3% (1299/1560) provided self-collected samples for testing. Age-group analysis revealed an overall sample provision rate (SPR) exceeded 80% in all age groups. A significant difference in SPR was observed only between the 30-34 and 45-49 age groups (p < 0.05), while no significant differences were found among other age groups. 99.7% of the samples were tested qualified, and there was no significant difference in sampling failure rate among age groups. Analysis of demographic and social elements showed no significant impact on the rates of sample provision among groups in most of the social elements but the medical insurance and the monthly family-incomes. CONCLUSION: The findings demonstrate that online cervical cancer screening is reliable for self-registration, self-sampling, and self-ordering for specimen transportation. It is suitable for women of all ages needing to be screened, irrespective of social elements, and effectively facilitates screening for women with limited access to medical resources. Therefore, online screening holds promise as an effective approach to increase screening coverage.

[Tibiotalocalcaneal arthrodesis for end-stage ankle and hindfoot arthropathy: Short- and mid-term clinical outcomes].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical data of patients with end-stage ankle and hindfoot arthropathy who underwent tibiotalocalcaneal (TTC) arthrodesis by the same surgeon, explore the short- and mid-term clinical results, complications and functional improvement, and discuss the clinical prognosis and precautions of TTC arthrodesis. METHODS: Retrospective analysis was made on the clinical data of 40 patients who underwent TTC arthrodesis by the same surgeon from March 2011 to December 2020. In this study, 23 males and 17 females were included, with an average age of (49.1±16.0) years. All the patients underwent unilateral surgery. The clinical characteristics, imaging manifestations, main diagnosis and specific surgical techniques of the patients were recorded. The clinical outcomes were evaluated by comparison of the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) ankle-hindfoot score and visual analogue scale (VAS) between pre-operation and at the last follow-up. The fusion healing time, symptom improvement (significant improvement, certain improvement, no improvement or deterioration) and postoperative complications were also recorded. RESULTS: The median follow-up time was 38.0 (26.3, 58.8) months. The preoperative VAS score was 6.0 (4.0, 7.0), and the AOFAS score was 33.0 (25.3, 47.3). At the last follow-up, the median VAS score was 0 (0, 3.0), and the AOFAS score was 80.0 (59.0, 84.0). All the significantly improved compared with their preoperative corresponding values (P < 0.05). There was no wound necrosis or infection in the patients. One patient suffered from subtalar joint nonunion, which was syphilitic Charcot arthropathy. The median bony healing time of other patients was 15.0 (12.0, 20.0) weeks. Among the included patients, there were 25 cases with significant improvement in symptom compared with that preoperative, 8 cases with certain improvement, 4 cases with no improvement, and 3 cases with worse symptoms than that before operation. CONCLUSION: TTC arthrodesis is a reliable method for the treatment of the end-stage ankle and hindfoot arthropathy. The function of most patients was improved postoperatively, with little impact on daily life. The causes of poor prognosis included toe stiffness, stress concentration in adjacent knee joints, nonunion and pain of unknown causes.

Speech-driven Personalized Gesture Synthetics: Harnessing Automatic Fuzzy Feature Inference.

Speech-driven gesture generation is an emerging field within virtual human creation. However, a significant challenge lies in accurately determining and processing the multitude of input features (such as acoustic, semantic, emotional, personality, and even subtle unknown features). Traditional approaches, reliant on various explicit feature inputs and complex multimodal processing, constrain the expressiveness of resulting gestures and limit their applicability. To address these challenges, we present Persona-Gestor, a novel end-to-end generative model designed to generate highly personalized 3D full-body gestures solely relying on raw speech audio. The model combines a fuzzy feature extractor and a non-autoregressive Adaptive Layer Normalization (AdaLN) transformer diffusion architecture (DiTs-based). The fuzzy feature extractor harnesses a fuzzy inference strategy that automatically infers implicit, continuous fuzzy features. These fuzzy features, represented as a unified latent feature, are fed into the AdaLN transformer. The AdaLN transformer introduces a conditional mechanism that applies a uniform function across all tokens, thereby effectively modeling the correlation between the fuzzy features and the gesture sequence. This module ensures a high level of gesture-speech synchronization while preserving naturalness. Finally, we employ the diffusion model to train and infer various gestures. Extensive subjective and objective evaluations on the Trinity, ZEGGS, and BEAT datasets confirm our model's superior performance to the current state-of-the-art approaches. Persona-Gestor improves the system's usability and generalization capabilities, setting a new benchmark in speech-driven gesture synthesis and broadening the horizon for virtual human technology. Supplementary videos and code can be accessed at https://zf223669.github.io/Diffmotion-v2-website/.

Overexpression of GmPAP4 Enhances Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation and Seed Yield in Soybean under Phosphorus-Deficient Condition.

Legume crops establish symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia for biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), a process that provides a prominent natural nitrogen source in agroecosystems; and efficient nodulation and nitrogen fixation processes require a large amount of phosphorus (P). Here, a role of GmPAP4, a nodule-localized purple acid phosphatase, in BNF and seed yield was functionally characterized in whole transgenic soybean (Glycine max) plants under a P-limited condition. GmPAP4 was specifically expressed in the infection zones of soybean nodules and its expression was greatly induced in low P stress. Altered expression of GmPAP4 significantly affected soybean nodulation, BNF, and yield under the P-deficient condition. Nodule number, nodule fresh weight, nodule nitrogenase, APase activities, and nodule total P content were significantly increased in GmPAP4 overexpression (OE) lines. Structural characteristics revealed by toluidine blue staining showed that overexpression of GmPAP4 resulted in a larger infection area than wild-type (WT) control. Moreover, the plant biomass and N and P content of shoot and root in GmPAP4 OE lines were also greatly improved, resulting in increased soybean yield in the P-deficient condition. Taken together, our results demonstrated that GmPAP4, a purple acid phosphatase, increased P utilization efficiency in nodules under a P-deficient condition and, subsequently, enhanced symbiotic BNF and seed yield of soybean.

Respiratory Viruses and Mycoplasma Pneumoniae Surveillance Among Hospitalized Children with Acute Respiratory Infections - Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, September-November 2023.

What is already known about this topic?: Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are a significant contributor to illness and death in children. There has been a notable rise in the occurrence of ARIs and the associated pathogens in China, which has garnered worldwide attention. What is added by this report?: This study conducted a retrospective analysis of the clinical characteristics of children with ARIs in Wuhan City from September to November 2023. The study evaluated the epidemiological patterns of common respiratory viruses and Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP), revealing a continued prevalence of MP and a growing trend of influenza. Our findings emphasize that the circulation of respiratory viruses and MP has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, underscoring the importance of enhancing surveillance for respiratory pathogens. What are the implications for public health practice?: The epidemiology of ARIs and the pathogens involved need to be emphasized. This highlights the importance of developing policies to protect children from respiratory pathogens such as MP, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus.

The protective effects of ruscogenin against lipopolysaccharide-induced myocardial injury in septic mice.

ABSTRACT: Sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction (SIMD) commonly occurs in individuals with sepsis and is a severe complication with high morbidity and mortality rates. The current study aimed to investigate the effects and potential mechanisms of the natural steroidal sapogenin ruscogenin (RUS) against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced myocardial injury in septic mice. We found that RUS effectively alleviated myocardial pathological damage, normalized cardiac function, and increased survival in septic mice. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) demonstrated that RUS administration significantly inhibited the activation of the NOD-like receptor signaling pathway in the myocardial tissues of septic mice. Subsequent experiments further confirmed that RUS suppressed myocardial inflammation and pyroptosis during sepsis. Additionally, cultured HL-1 cardiomyocytes were challenged with LPS, and we observed that RUS could protect these cells against LPS-induced cytotoxicity by suppressing inflammation and pyroptosis. Notably, both the in vivo and in vitro findings indicated that RUS inhibited NLRP3 upregulation in cardiomyocytes stimulated with LPS. As expected, knockdown of NLRP3 blocked the LPS-induced activation of inflammation and pyroptosis in HL-1 cells. Furthermore, the cardioprotective effects of RUS on HL-1 cells under LPS stimulation were abolished by the novel NLRP3 agonist BMS-986299. Taken together, our results suggest that RUS can alleviate myocardial injury during sepsis, at least in part by suppressing NLRP3-mediated inflammation and pyroptosis, highlighting the potential of this molecule as a promising candidate for SIMD therapy.

Study of Sintering Behavior of Methane Hydrate Particles on the Wall Surface.

The sintering of hydrate aggregates on the pipe wall is a major form of hydrate deposition. Understanding the sintering behavior of hydrates on the wall is crucial for promoting hydrate safety management and preventing pipeline blockage. However, limited research currently exists on this topic. In this study, the cohesive force strength of hydrate particles on the wall surface under different conditions was directly measured using a high-pressure micromechanical force device (HP-MMF). Subsequently, the effects of subcooling and glycine on the cohesive force were investigated. The results indicate that the cohesive force is influenced by different growth states during the process of free water on the wall surface gradually growing into hydrate. Three states with larger measured values during the growth process were selected for research. Observation showed that increased subcooling strengthened sintering by accelerating the growth rate of the hydrate film, resulting in a significant increase in cohesive force. The role of glycine in the methane hydrate system was then evaluated. Glycine was found to reduce the degree of sintering by reducing the growth rate of the hydrate film, thereby decreasing the cohesive force. The optimal concentration in the system was determined to be 0.25 wt %. Moreover, compared with low subcooling (1 °C), glycine had a better effect at high subcooling (5 °C). At 5 °C subcooling and the optimal concentration, the cohesive force in the wall droplet state decreases from 677.38 to 489.02 mN/m, the cohesive force at the low-saturation state decreases from 951.79 to 543.32 mN/m, and the cohesive force at the high-saturation state decreases from 1194.95 to 641.76 mN/m. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the cohesive force behavior of gas hydrate on the inner wall of the pipeline and provide basic data for reducing the risk of hydrate blockage.

Metabolic profiles outperform the microbiota in assessing the response of vaginal microenvironments to the changed state of HPV infection.

There is a deficiency in population-based studies investigating the impact of HPV infection on vaginal microenvironment, which influences the risk of persistent HPV infection. This prospective study aimed to unravel the dynamics of vaginal microbiota (VM) and vaginal metabolome in reaction to the changed state of HPV infection. Our results propose that the vaginal metabolome may be a superior indicator to VM when assessing the impact of altered HPV state on the vaginal microenvironment.

Novel anti-inflammatory diketopiperazine alkaloids from the marine-derived fungus Penicillium brasilianum.

Diketopiperazine alkaloids have proven the most abundant heterocyclic alkaloids up to now, which usually process diverse scaffolds and rich biological activities. In our search for bioactive diketopiperazine alkaloids from marine-derived fungi, two novel diketopiperazine alkaloids, penipiperazine A (1) and its biogenetically related new metabolite (2), together with a known analogue neofipiperzine C (3), were obtained from the strain Penicillium brasilianum. Their planar structures and absolute configurations were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analyses, 13C NMR calculation, Marfey's, ECD, and ORD methods. Compound 1 featured a unique 6/5/6/6/5 indole-pyrazino-pyrazino-pyrrolo system, and its plausible biogenetic pathway was also proposed. Additionally, compounds 1-3 have been tested for their inflammatory activities. 1 and 2 significantly inhibited the release of NO and the expression of related pro-inflammatory cytokines on LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells, suggesting they could be attracting candidate for further development as anti-inflammatory agent. KEY POINTS: • A novel diketopiperazine alkaloid featuring a unique 6/5/6/6/5 indole-pyrazino-pyrazino-pyrrolo system was isolated from the marine fungus Penicillium brasilianum. • The structure of 1 was elucidated by detailed analysis of 2D NMR data, 13C NMR calculation, Marfey's, ECD, and ORD methods. • Compounds 1 and 2 significantly inhibited the release of NO and the expression of related pro-inflammatory cytokines on LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells.

ROS in diabetic atria regulate SK2 degradation by Atrogin-1 through the NF-κB signaling pathway.

One of the independent risk factors for atrial fibrillation is diabetes mellitus (DM); however, the underlying mechanisms causing atrial fibrillation in DM are unknown. The underlying mechanism of Atrogin-1-mediated SK2 degradation and associated signaling pathways are unclear. The aim of this study was to elucidate the relationship among reactive oxygen species (ROS), the NF-κB signaling pathway, and Atrogin-1 protein expression in the atrial myocardia of DM mice. We found that SK2 expression was downregulated comitant with increased ROS generation and enhanced NF-κB signaling activation in the atrial cardiomyocytes of DM mice. These observations were mimicked by exogenously applicating H2O2 and by high glucose culture conditions in HL-1 cells. Inhibition of ROS production by diphenyleneiodonium chloride or silencing of NF-κB by siRNA decreased the protein expression of NF-κB and Atrogin-1 and increased that of SK2 in HL-1 cells with high glucose culture. Moreover, chromatin immunoprecipitation assay demonstrated that NF-κB/p65 directly binds to the promoter of the FBXO32 gene (encoding Atrogin-1), regulating the FBXO32 transcription. Finally, we evaluated the therapeutic effects of curcumin, known as a NF-κB inhibitor, on Atrogin-1 and SK2 expression in DM mice and confirmed that oral administration of curcumin for 4 weeks significantly suppressed Atrogin-1 expression and protected SK2 expression against hyperglycemia. In summary, the results from this study indicated that the ROS/NF-κB signaling pathway participates in Atrogin-1-mediated SK2 regulation in the atria of streptozotocin-induced DM mice.

AmpFire HPV and ScreenFire RS HPV validation trial.

OBJECTIVES: The human papillomavirus (HPV) screening assays from Atila Biosystems, including the new AmpFire (14 type) and ScreenFire RS (13 type), were subjected to a series of validation tests. METHODS: We used a set of samples from the Chinese Multi-Site Screening Trial (previously tested with cobas 4800 and the next-generation SeqHPV) to satisfy Meijer's criteria for clinical end-point validation. We selected 556 self-collected specimens composed of 273 high-risk HPV (hrHPV) positives and 283 hrHPV negatives on the cobas 4800 and SeqHPV. Of the 273 hrHPV-positive cases, 108 had a disease end point of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 (CIN2) or higher, including 47 with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 (CIN3+) or higher. We simulated the VALGENT framework for inter- and intralaboratory validation and evaluated the new 4-channel risk-stratified ScreenFire assay in a hierarchal fashion. RESULTS: Both AmpFire and ScreenFire detected 106 (98.1%) of 108 cases with CIN2 or higher, with specificities of 56.7% and 58.1%, respectively. Intralaboratory concordance for 2 runs of AmpFire and ScreenFire was 95.13% and 96.03%, respectively, for overall hrHPV types and 99.10% and 99.46%, respectively, for HPV 16. The interlaboratory concordance of AmpFire and ScreenFire was 93.68% and 94.04% for overall hrHPV and 98.92% and 99.28%, respectively, for HPV 16. Other genotype correlation percentages were similarly high, with κs ranging from 0.86 to 0.94. The ScreenFire RS assay demonstrated excellent "genotype-specific concordance" when evaluated for "clinical guidance" in a hierarchal fashion (noting only the highest risk channel) with both the cobas 4800 and SeqHPV for less than CIN2, CIN2, and CIN3 or higher. CONCLUSIONS: The excellent intra- and interlaboratory reproducibility and the established clinical performance, together with the platforms' simplicity, make these assays particularly applicable to low-resource settings.

Identification of the role of pyroptosis-related genes in chronic rhinosinusitis based on WGCNA.

Background: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a complex chronic inflammatory disease of the nose, paranasal sinus, and upper respiratory tract. Its treatment methods mainly include antibiotic treatment and surgical treatment. However, the molecular mechanism of its inflammation is still unclear. Pyroptosis is a programmed cell death. As an important natural immune response, pyroptosis plays an essential role in fighting infection. Methods: In this paper, a weighted co-expression network (WGCNA) was used to screen gene modules significantly related to CRS. Then it intersects with the genes related to scorching death (PRGs). We evaluated the immune landscape of CRS by the expression of intersecting genes. In addition, in the enrichment analysis of intersection genes and PPI network analysis, we verified the pathways closely related to CRS and hub genes. Finally, the interaction network between the hub gene, miRNA, and TF was constructed. In this paper, qRT-qPCR technology was also used to detect the hub gene related to CRS. Results: Hub genes (CASP3, IL18, NAIP, NLRC4, and TP53) found in this paper are directly or indirectly related to CRS, and these genes were proved to be of diagnostic significance to CRS by ROC curve and qRT-qPCR vertification. In the infiltration abundance of CRS and its control group, the infiltration abundance of Plasma cells, T cells follicular helper, Macrophages M2, Dendritic cells activated, and Neutrophils cells in the two groups were significantly different. We also constructed the interaction network between the hub genes and miRNAs and the interaction network between hub genes and TFs. Most of these miRNAs and TFs were also related to CRS. Conclusions: With the help of the WGCNA and PPI analysis, our results provide a better understanding of the role of biomarkers CASP3, IL18, NAIP, NLRC4, and TP53 in the development of CRS and provide a research basis for the mining of biomarkers related to the diagnosis and treatment of CRS.

In situ high-valued transformation of nonmetals in waste printed circuit boards into supercapacitor electrodes with excellent performance.

Nonmetals in waste printed circuit boards after metal separation containing brominated resin and fiberglass are considered hazardous and low-recoveryvalue e-waste. However, if these nonmetals are not treated or are improperly treated, they can cause serious environmental pollution. Therefore, there is an urgent and significant need to develop an efficient recycling process for these nonmetals. Based on the concept of high-valued recycling of waste, this study in situ utilized such nonmetals to prepare a porous supercapacitor electrode through a facile carbonization, activation, and carbon thermal reduction process. The results indicated that the activation was a key role in constructing a porous structure. The optimal parameters for activation were a temperature of 800 °C, mass ratio of KOH to pyrolytic residues of 2, and an activation time of 1 h. The electrode materials exhibited a surface area of 589 m2 g-1 and hierarchical porous structures. In addition, the supercapacitors exhibited a capacitance of 77.14 mF cm-2 (62.5 mF cm-2) at 0.5 mA cm-2 (100 mV s-1). Moreover, the supercapacitors had excellent temperature resistance and adaptability. The capacitance retention was 89.36% and 90% at -50 °C and 100 °C after 10 000 cycles, respectively. This study provides a high-valued recycling strategy to utilize the nonmetals in e-waste as energy materials.

Study on anionic-nonionic mixed surfactant for enhanced oil recovery in a hypersaline reservoir.

Hypersaline reservoirs are characterized by high salinity and high calcium and magnesium concentration. In order to enhance oil recovery of the hypersaline reservoirs, a specialized ternary mixed surfactant system composed of nonionic alkanolamide surfactants and anionic surfactant was developed in this study. Through careful analysis and optimization, lauric acid diethanolamide (LDEA), octanoic acid diethanolamide (ODEA), and sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS) were identified as promising candidates for the surfactant compounding system, and formed a ternary surfactant system composed of LDEA, ODEA, and SDS with the mass ratio of 4.64 : 0.66 : 1.00. Experimental results revealed that the interfacial tension of the system was consistently below 10-2 mN m-1 and could even reach ultra-low levels (10-3 mN m-1) under conditions of calcium and magnesium ion content of 2000 mg L-1, surfactant concentrations ranging from 0.05 to 0.3 wt%, temperature ranging from 50 to 80 °C, and salinity ranging from 20 000 to 50 000 mg L-1. Furthermore, the mixed surfactant system exhibited favorable wetting capacity and emulsifying power. The static adsorption capacities of the mixed surfactant on oil sands were less than 2 mg g-1. This study offered a novel strategy for the actual exploitation of reservoirs with high calcium-magnesium and high salinity.

Molecular epidemiology of Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia in children, Wuhan, 2020-2022.

BACKGROUND: Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) is an important pathogen of community-acquired pneumonia in children. The factors contributing to the severity of illness caused by M. pneumoniae infection are still under investigation. We aimed to evaluate the sensitivity of common M. pneumoniae detection methods, as well as to analyze the clinical manifestations, genotypes, macrolide resistance, respiratory microenvironment, and their relationship with the severity of illness in children with M. pneumoniae pneumonia in Wuhan. RESULTS: Among 1,259 clinical samples, 461 samples were positive for M. pneumoniae via quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Furthermore, we found that while serological testing is not highly sensitive in detecting M. pneumoniae infection, but it may serve as an indicator for predicting severe cases. We successfully identified the adhesin P1 (P1) genotypes of 127 samples based on metagenomic and Sanger sequencing, with P1-type 1 (113/127, 88.98%) being the dominant genotype. No significant difference in pathogenicity was observed among different genotypes. The macrolide resistance rate of M. pneumoniae isolates was 96% (48/50) and all mutations were A2063G in domain V of 23S rRNA gene. There was no significant difference between the upper respiratory microbiome of patients with mild and severe symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: During the period of this study, the main circulating M. pneumoniae was P1-type 1, with a resistance rate of 96%. Key findings include the efficacy of qPCR in detecting M. pneumoniae, the potential of IgM titers exceeding 1:160 as indicators for illness severity, and the lack of a direct correlation between disease severity and genotypic characteristics or respiratory microenvironment. This study is the first to characterize the epidemic and genomic features of M. pneumoniae in Wuhan after the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, which provides a scientific data basis for monitoring and infection prevention and control of M. pneumoniae in the post-pandemic era.

AsHSP26.2, a creeping bentgrass chloroplast small heat shock protein positively regulates plant development.

KEY MESSAGE: The creeping bentgrass small heat shock protein AsHSP26.2 positively regulates plant growth and is a novel candidate for use in crop genetic engineering for enhanced biomass production and grain yield. Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs), a family of proteins with high level of diversity, significantly influence plant stress tolerance and plant development. We have cloned a creeping bentgrass chloroplast-localized sHSP gene, AsHSP26.2 responsive to IAA, GA and 6-BA stimulation. Transgenic creeping bentgrass overexpressing AsHSP26.2 exhibited significantly enhanced plant growth with increased stolon number and length as well as enlarged leaf blade width and leaf sheath diameters, but inhibited leaf trichomes initiation and development in the abaxial epidermis. These phenotypes are completely opposite to those displayed in the transgenic plants overexpressing AsHSP26.8, another chloroplast sHSP26 isoform that contains additional seven amino acids (AEGQGDG) between the consensus regions III and IV (Sun et al., Plant Cell Environ 44:1769-1787, 2021). Furthermore, AsHSP26.2 overexpression altered phytohormone biosynthesis and signaling transduction, resulting in elevated auxin and gibberellins (GA) accumulation. The results obtained provide novel insights implicating the sHSPs in plant growth and development regulation, and strongly suggest AsHSP26.2 to be a novel candidate for use in crop genetic engineering for enhanced plant biomass production and grain yield.

Ligand-Mediated Magnetism-Conversion Nanoprobes for Activatable Ultra-High Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Ultra-high field (UHF) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has emerged as a focal point of interest in the field of cancer diagnosis. Despite the ability of current paramagnetic or superparamagnetic smart MRI contrast agents to selectively enhance tumor signals in low-field MRI, their effectiveness at UHF remains inadequate due to inherent magnetism. Here, we report a ligand-mediated magnetism-conversion nanoprobe (MCNP) composed of 3-mercaptopropionic acid ligand-coated silver-gadolinium bimetallic nanoparticles. The MCNP exhibits a pH-dependent magnetism conversion from ferromagnetism to diamagnetism, facilitating tunable nanomagnetism for pH-activatable UHF MRI. Under neutral pH, the thiolate (-S- ) ligands lead to short τ'm and increased magnetization of the MCNPs. Conversely, in the acidic tumor microenvironment, the thiolate ligands are protonated and transform into thiol (-SH) ligands, resulting in prolonged τ'm and decreased magnetization of the MCNP, thereby enhancing longitudinal relaxivity (r1) values at UHF MRI. Notably, under a 9 T MRI field, the pH-sensitive changes in Ag-S binding affinity of the MCNP lead to a remarkable (>10-fold) r1 increase in an acidic medium (pH 5.0). In vivo studies demonstrate the capability of MCNPs to amplify MRI signal of hepatic tumors, suggesting their potential as a next-generation UHF-tailored smart MRI contrast agent.

A nanocarrier immersion vaccine encoding surface immunogenic protein confers cross-immunoprotection against Streptococcus agalactiae and Streptococcus iniae infection in tilapia.

Streptococcosis is a highly contagious aquatic bacterial disease that poses a significant threat to tilapia. Vaccination is a well-known effective measure to prevent and control fish bacterial diseases. Among the various immunization methods, immersion vaccination is simple and can be widely used in aquaculture. Besides, nanocarrier delivery technology has been reported as an effective solution to improve the immune effect of immersion vaccine. In this study, the surface immunogenic protein (Sip) was proved to be conserved and potential to provide cross-immunoprotection for both Streptococcus agalactiae (S. agalactiae) and Streptococcus iniae (S. iniae) by multiple sequences alignment and Western blotting analysis. On this basis, we expressed and obtained the recombinant protein rSip and connected it with functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNT) to construct the nanocarrier vaccine system CNT-rSip. After immersion immunization, the immune effect of CNT-rSip against above two streptococcus infections was evaluated in tilapia based on some aspects including the serum specific antibody level, non-specific enzyme activities, immune-related genes expression and relative percent survival (RPS) after bacteria challenge. The results showed that compared with control group, CNT-rSip significantly (P < 0.05) increased the serum antibody levels, related enzyme activities including acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, lysozyme and total antioxidant capacity activities, as well as the expression levels of immune-related genes from 2 to 4 weeks post immunization (wpi), and all these indexes peaked at 3 wpi. Besides, the above indexes of CNT-rSip were higher than those of rSip group with different extend during the experiment. Furthermore, the challenge test indicated that CNT-rSip provided cross-immunoprotection against S. agalactiae and S. iniae infection with RPS of 75 % and 72.41 %, respectively, which were much higher than those of other groups. Our study indicated that the nanocarrier immersion vaccine CNT-rSip could significantly improve the antibody titer and confer cross-immuneprotection against S. agalactiae and S. iniae infection in tilapia.

The effect evaluation of continuous nursing intervention in patients with type 2 diabetic retinopathy.

INTRODUCTION: To evaluate the application effect of continuous nursing intervention in type 2 diabetic retinopathy (DR). METHODS: Patients with type 2 DR were selected and divided into intervention group and control group by random. The control group received routine nursing intervention, and the intervention group received continuous nursing intervention on the basis of the control group. The clinical effects of the two groups were compared. RESULTS: After 1 and 2 years of intervention, the intervention group compared to the control group. The rate of visual acuity decrease was significantly lower (p < 0.05). Fasting blood glucose, 2 h postprandial blood glucose, and glycosylated hemoglobin were significantly lower (p < 0.05). The self-management ability and satisfaction were significantly higher, and the readmission rate was significantly lower (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The continuous nursing intervention model has a good clinical effect on the visual acuity of patients with type 2 DR.