Articulated Motion-Aware NeRF for 3D Dynamic Appearance and Geometry Reconstruction by Implicit Motion States.

We propose a self-supervised approach for 3D dynamic reconstruction of articulated motions based on Generative Adversarial Networks and Neural Radiance Fields. Our method reconstructs articulated objects and recover their continuous motions and attributes from an unordered, discontinuous image set. Notably, we treat motion states as time-independent, recognizing that articulated objects can exhibit identical motions at different times. The key insight of our approach utilizes generative adversarial networks to create a continuous implicit motion state space. Initially, we employ a motion network extracts discrete motion states from images as anchors. These anchors are then expanded across the latent space using generative adversarial networks. Subsequently, motion state latent codes are input into motion-aware neural radiance fields for dynamic appearance and geometry reconstruction. To deduce motion attributes from the continuously generated motions, we adopt a cluster-based strategy. We thoroughly evaluate and validate our method on both synthesized and real data, demonstrating superior fidelity in appearances, geometries, and motion attributes of articulated objects compared to state-of-the-art methods.

A Metabolomic Signature of Obesity and Risk of Colorectal Cancer: Two Nested Case-Control Studies.

Obesity is a leading contributor to colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, but the metabolic mechanisms linking obesity to CRC are not fully understood. We leveraged untargeted metabolomics data from two 1:1 matched, nested case-control studies for CRC, including 223 pairs from the US Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial and 190 pairs from a prospective Chinese cohort. We explored serum metabolites related to body mass index (BMI), constructed a metabolomic signature of obesity, and examined the association between the signature and CRC risk. In total, 72 of 278 named metabolites were correlated with BMI after multiple testing corrections (p FDR < 0.05). The metabolomic signature was calculated by including 39 metabolites that were independently associated with BMI. There was a linear positive association between the signature and CRC risk in both cohorts (p for linear < 0.05). Per 1-SD increment of the signature was associated with 38% (95% CI: 9-75%) and 28% (95% CI: 2-62%) higher risks of CRC in the US and Chinese cohorts, respectively. In conclusion, we identified a metabolomic signature for obesity and demonstrated the association between the signature and CRC risk. The findings offer new insights into the underlying mechanisms of CRC, which is critical for improved CRC prevention.

Serum Calcium Concentrations and Risk of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality: Results From 2 Prospective Cohorts.

CONTEXT: Calcium plays a critical role in various physiological activities. However, the association between circulating calcium concentrations and mortality in a general healthy population remains undetermined. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of serum calcium concentrations with all-cause and cause-specific mortality. METHODS: Leveraging data from the UK Biobank (n = 361 662) and the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, n = 36 985), we prospectively examined the association of serum calcium concentrations with all-cause and cause-specific mortality using Cox proportional hazard and restricted cubic spline models. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 12.0 years, UK Biobank documented 18 327 deaths, including 3119 (17.0%) from cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 9599 (52.4%) from cancer. We found a U-shaped relationship of albumin-adjusted calcium concentrations with all-cause and CVD mortality. Compared with participants with moderate calcium levels (the third quintile, Q3), those with low and high levels had an increased risk of all-cause (hazard ratio [HR] 1.02 for Q1 vs Q3; 1.10 for Q5 vs Q3) and CVD mortality (HR 1.11 for Q1 vs Q3; 1.25 for Q5 vs Q3). In contrast, there was a linear positive relationship with cancer mortality (HR 1.09 for Q5 vs Q1). Similar results for all-cause, CVD, and cancer mortality were observed in US NHANES. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide novel insights into the association between serum calcium concentrations and mortality in the general healthy population.

Risk Assessment for Longitudinal Trajectories of Modifiable Lifestyle Factors on Chronic Kidney Disease Burden in China: A Population-based Study.

BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important contributor to morbidity and mortality from noncommunicable diseases. We aimed to examine the longitudinal trajectories in risk factors, estimate their impact on CKD burden in China from 1991 to 2011, and project trends in the next 20 years. METHODS: We used data from a cohort of the China Health and Nutrition Survey and applied the comparative risk assessment method to estimate the number of CKD events attributable to all non-optimal levels of each risk factors. RESULTS: In 2011, current smoking was the leading individual attributable factor for CKD burden in China responsible for 7.9 (95% confidence interval [CI], 7.5-8.3) million CKD cases with a population-attributable fraction of 8.7% (95% CI, 6.0-11.6), while the rates of smoking have reduced and may have mitigated the increase in CKD. High triglyceride (TG) and high systolic blood pressure (SBP) were the leading metabolic risk factors responsible for 6.8 (95% CI, 6.4-7.1) million and 5.8 (95% CI, 5.5-6.1) million CKD-attributable cases, respectively. Additionally, the number of CKD cases associated with high body mass index (BMI), high diastolic blood pressure (DBP), high plasma glucose, and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was 5.4 (95% CI, 5.1-5.6), 3.9 (95% CI, 3.7-4.1), 3.0 (95% CI, 2.8-3.1) and 2.6 (95% CI, 2.5-2.8) million, respectively. CONCLUSION: Current smoking, high TG, and high SBP were the top three risk factors that contributed to CKD burden in China. Increased BMI, DBP, plasma glucose, and decreased HDL-C were also associated with the increase in CKD burden.

Sex-specific associations of circulating testosterone levels with all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

OBJECTIVE: Testosterone is a critical determinant of health in both genders. However, the relationship between circulating levels of testosterone and mortality remains undetermined. METHODS: We examined the associations of serum total testosterone (TT) and free testosterone (FT) with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in 154 965 men and 93 314 postmenopausal women from UK Biobank. Cox regression models were used to calculate the hazard ratios (HR) and 95% CIs. Given multiple testing, P < 0.005 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Over a median follow-up of 8.9 (inter-quartile range: 8.3-9.5) years, we documented 5754 deaths in men, including 1243 (21.6%) from CVD and 2987 (51.9%) from cancer. In postmenopausal women, 2435 deaths occurred, including 346 (14.2%) from CVD and 1583 (65.0%) from cancer. TT and FT concentrations were inversely associated with all-cause mortality in men, with the multivariable HR of 0.82 (95% CI: 0.75-0.91) and 0.80 (95% CI: 0.73-0.87) for the highest (Q5) vs the lowest quintile (Q1), respectively. In postmenopausal women, TT concentrations showed a positive association with all-cause mortality (HR for Q5 vs Q1 = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.06-1.37). Furthermore, higher TT and FT concentrations were associated with a lower risk of cancer mortality in men (both P for trend = 0.001), whereas TT concentrations were suggestively associated with a higher risk of cancer mortality in postmenopausal women (P for trend = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that high levels of circulating testosterone may be beneficial for all-cause and cancer mortality in men but detrimental in postmenopausal women.

Pre-diagnostic circulating concentrations of insulin-like growth factor-1 and risk of COVID-19 mortality: results from UK Biobank.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) deteriorates suddenly primarily due to excessive inflammatory injury, and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is implicated in endocrine control of the immune system. However, the effect of IGF-1 levels on COVID-19 prognosis remains unknown. Using UK Biobank resource, we investigated the association between circulating IGF-1 concentrations and mortality risk (available death data updated on 07 Sep 2020) among COVID-19 patients who had pre-diagnostic serum IGF-1 measurements at baseline (2006-2010). Unconditional logistic regression was performed to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of mortality. Among 1670 COVID-19 patients, 415 deaths occurred due to COVID-19. Compared to the lowest quartile of IGF-1 concentrations, the highest quartile was associated with a 41% lower risk of mortality (OR = 0.59, 95% CI 0.41-0.86, P-trend = 0.01). In the continuous model, per 1-standard deviation increment in log-transformed IGF-1 was associated with a 15% reduction in the risk (intraclass correlation coefficients corrected OR = 0.85, 95% CI 0.73-0.99). The association was largely consistent in the various stratified and sensitivity analyses. In conclusion, our data suggest that higher IGF-1 concentrations are associated with a lower risk of COVID-19 mortality. Further studies are required to determine whether and how targeting IGF-1 pathway might improve COVID-19 prognosis.

LncRNA CCAL Promotes Angiogenesis Through Regulating the MiR-29b/ANGPTL4 Axis in Osteosarcoma.

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to detect the expression of the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) colorectal cancer-associated lncRNA (CCAL) in osteosarcoma tissues and to investigate its role in angiogenesis and the potential molecular mechanisms associated with this effect in osteosarcoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: CCAL expression in 40 osteosarcoma tissues and 40 noncancerous tissues was measured by qRT-PCR (quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction). Tube formation assays were performed to explore the role of CCAL in angiogenesis in osteosarcoma. In addition, the regulatory interaction between CCAL, miR-29b, and ANGPTL4 was investigated via luciferase reporter assay and bioinformatics predictive analysis. RESULTS: Compared with noncancerous tissues, the expression of CCAL was markedly upregulated in osteosarcoma tissues. Higher CCAL expression levels were closely related to shorter overall survival in patients with osteosarcoma. Additionally, functional analysis indicated that CCAL could facilitate tumour angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo in osteosarcoma. Mechanistically, CCAL upregulated ANGPTL4 expression in osteosarcoma cells, and ANGPTL4 mediated angiogenic induction by CCAL in osteosarcoma. Moreover, CCAL directly targeted miR-29b in osteosarcoma. More importantly, we demonstrated that CCAL upregulated the expression of ANGPTL4 by sponging miR-29b, which promoted angiogenesis in osteosarcoma. CONCLUSION: Our results show that CCAL promotes angiogenesis by regulating the miR-29b/ANGPTL4 axis in osteosarcoma.

Kininogen-1 as a protein biomarker for schizophrenia through mass spectrometry and genetic association analyses.

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a complex and severe mental illness. There is a lack of effective biomarkers for SCZ diagnosis. The aim of this study was to explore the possibility of using serum peptides for the diagnosis of SCZ as well as analyze the association of variants in genes coding for these peptides and SCZ. METHODS: After bead-based fractionation, the matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization/time-of-flight mass spectrometry technique was used to identify peptides that showed different expressions between 166 SCZ patients and 201 healthy controls. Differentially expressed peptides were verified in a second set of samples (81 SCZ patients and 103 healthy controls). The association of SCZ and three tagSNPs selected in genes coding for differentially expressed peptides was performed in 1,126 SCZ patients and 1,168 controls. RESULTS: The expression level of peptides with m/z 1,945.07 was significant lower in SCZ patients than in healthy controls (P < 0.000001). The peptide with m/z 1,945.07 was confirmed to be a fragment of Kininogen-1. In the verification tests, Kininogen-1 had a sensitivity of 95.1% and a specificity of 97.1% in SCZ prediction. Among the three tagSNPs (rs13037490, rs2983639, rs2983640) selected in the Cystatin 9 gene (CST9) which encodes peptides including Kininogen-1, tagSNP rs2983640 had its genotype distributions significantly different between SCZ patients and controls under different genetic models (P < 0.05). Haplotypes CG (rs2983639-rs2983640) and TCG (rs13037490-rs2983639-rs2983640) were significantly associated with SCZ (CG: OR = 1.21, 95% CI [1.02-1.44], P = 0.032; TCG: OR = 24.85, 95% CI [5.98-103.17], P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrated that SCZ patients had decreased expression of Kininogen-1 and genetic variants in Kininogen-1 coding gene CST9 were significantly associated with SCZ. The findings from both protein and genetic association studies suggest that Kininogen-1 could be a biomarker of SCZ.

The Relationship between Gene Polymorphism of miRNAs Regulating FGA and Schizophrenia.

AIM: To investigate the relationship between the polymorphism of related gene loci of miRNAs regulated fibrinopeptide A and schizophrenia. Lay the foundation for the aetiology of schizophrenia. METHODS: Adapt to the phase match of sex and age case-control study, a total of 513 Chinese Han patients with schizophrenia were selected as the case group, 513 normal healthy persons as a control group. Obtaining SNPs information of the FGA gene by querying the dbSNP database, and reference HapMap database included SNPs site frequency information for screening. The frequency distributions of SNPs were genotyped by iMLDR® SNP detection technology. Two SNPs (pre-hsa-miR-605rs2043556 T>C, pre-hsa-miR-499a/pre-hsa-miR-499brs4909237 T < C) were analyzed to demonstrate their association with susceptibility to schizophrenia. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between patients and controls in genotype and allele distribution of SNPs rs2043556 and rs4909237 in the precursor region of hsa-miR-605 and pre-hsa-miR-499a/pre-hsa-miR-499b. Their gene-gene interaction, which suggests that the polymorphisms of miRNA genes might not contribute to schizophrenia susceptibility in the Han Chinese population. CONCLUSION: No significant difference existed between schizophrenic patients and controls in SNP (rs2043556 and rs4909237) in the precursor region of hsa-miR-605 and pre-hsa-miR-499a/pre-hsa-miR-499b. There may not regulate FGA gene expression. Thus, hsa-miR-605 and pre-hsa-miR-499a/pre-hsa-miR-499b may not influence the risks of schizophrenia.

CACNA1C Polymorphism (rs2283291) Is Associated with Schizophrenia in Chinese Males: A Case-Control Study.

Recent research has shown that prenatal famine exposure may be one of the risk factors for schizophrenia and that people born in famine years may be at an increased risk of schizophrenia due to alteration of the DNA methylation of genes. In this study, the association of rs2283291/rs4648635 and the incidence of schizophrenia and prenatal famine exposure at the genetic level were investigated to provide clues to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. A total of 960 participants were recruited, comprising 473 prenatal famine-exposed individuals (225 patients and 248 controls) and 487 prenatal non-famine-exposed individuals (220 patients and 267 controls). The association of prenatal famine, schizophrenia, and their interaction with DNA methylation levels was analyzed using SPSS and GMDR software. Gender stratification analysis revealed a significant association between the rs2283291 genotype and schizophrenia in male patients (P = 0.017), and difference still existed after correction by the Bonferroni method. It was also found that an increasing risk of schizophrenia was associated with rs2283291 in males (OR: 1.62, 95% CI: 1.13-2.33, P = 0.0086, AIC = 669.7) in an overdominant model. The results of gene-environment interaction and gene-gene interaction revealed no association with the risk of schizophrenia. This study reported for the first time that rs2283291 was associated with schizophrenia in Chinese males.

Psychological distress in cancer patients in a large Chinese cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Although psychological distress is common among patients with chronic diseases, the degree of risk for developing psychological distress is not well-established. Our aim with this study is to determine the odds ratio for psychological distress in patients with cancer as compared to either 1) patients with chronic disease patients without cancer, or 2) healthy controls in a large representative sample of Chinese population. METHODS: Using a multistage, stratified cluster sampling method, 21,101 subjects 18-79 years old were interviewed face-to-face in Jilin province, China. Their psychological status was assessed with the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). A total score of ≥4 was used as the threshold for determining psychological distress. RESULTS: The prevalence of psychological distress was 14.08% across the entire sample: 10.63% in healthy controls; 14.81% in patients with chronic diseases; and 20% in patients with cancer. Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that, as compared to the health controls, both cancer (OR = 1.609, 95%CI = 1.245-2.081) and chronic disease patients (OR = 1.330, 95%CI = 1.189-1.478) were more likely to suffer from psychological distress. Moreover, cancer patients had a higher risk of psychological distress than patients with chronic diseases (OR = 1.295, 95%CI = 1.049-1.600; p = 0.016). In addition, the cancer group (2.68 ±â€¯0.114) demonstrated a higher GHQ score than the patients with chronic diseases (2.30 ±â€¯0.017) and healthy controls (1.98 ±â€¯0.029) (both p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our results showed both a higher rate and greater degree of psychological distress in patients with cancer. This suggests a need for better psychological management in cancer patients to help alleviate their distress.

Association Between Polymorphisms of the Complement 3 Gene and Schizophrenia in a Han Chinese Population.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder, and complement 3 (C3) is closely related to schizophrenia. We investigated the association between C3 polymorphisms and schizophrenia in a Northeast Han Chinese population. METHODS: A total of 2240 Chinese people, consisting of 1086 patients with schizophrenia and 1154 healthy controls, were recruited for this study. Ten single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; rs11569562, rs344555, rs2241393, rs2241392, rs11569514, rs445750, rs451760, rs11672613, rs2230205, and rs2250656) in C3 were selected and genotyped. RESULTS: Genotype distribution analysis indicated that rs11569514 was significantly associated with schizophrenia. In the dominant model (AA vs. GG+GA genotypes), we found a significant protective effect for rs344555 against schizophrenia (odds ratio [OR]: 0.72, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.53-0.99, P = 0.04). In the codominant model (TT vs. AA), we found a significant risk effect for rs11569514 on schizophrenia (OR: 4.39, 95% CI: 2.06-9.37, P < 0.001). Haplotypes, including TG (rs11569562 and rs344555), TGG (rs11569562-rs344555-rs2241393), AG (rs344555-rs2241393), CGGGT (rs11569562-rs344555-rs2241393-rs2241392-rs11569514), and ACGTG (rs11569514-rs445750-rs451760-rs11672613-rs2230205), showed either a risk or protective role for schizophrenia. CONCLUSIONS: SNP rs11569514 in C3 and haplotypes of C3 variants were associated with schizophrenia in a Han Chinese population.

[The Influence of Runoff Pollution to DOM Features in an Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant].

Combined with wastewater treatment process, the sewage in sunny and rainy day was collected from a wastewater treatment plant in Chongqing. Three-dimensional fluorescence spectra was used to investigate the characteristic fluorescence of dissolved organic matter (DOM). DOM dissolved organic carbon (DOC), chemical oxygen demand (COD), fluorescence index (ƒ450/500) and fluorescence intensity ratio γ (A, C) of fulvic acid in ultraviolet and visible region were used to analyze the impact of rain runoff pollution on sewage DOM. According to the experimental data, the DOM fluorescence fingerprints of this wastewater treatment plant were quite different from typical municipal sewage, and the main component was tryptophan with low excitation wavelength (Peak S), then the tryptophan with long wavelength excitation (Peak T) followed. A2/O process had an approximative degradation of the protein-like both in sunny day and rainy day, but had a better degradation of fulvic-like, DOC and COD in rainy day than that in sunny day. Morever, the fluorescence peaks got red-shifted after the biological treatment. The differences of DOM fluorescence fingerprint between sunny and rainy day were significant, the fluorescence center of UV fulvic (Peak A) in rainy day getting blue-shifted obviously, shifting from 240 - 248/390 - 440 to 240 - 250/370 - 400 nm. Although the DOM types in sunny and rainy day were the same, the source of fulvic got more complex by runoff and the component ratio of DOM also changed. Compared with the sunny day, the proportion of Peak S in DOM dereased by 10%, and the proportion of Peak A increased by 7% in rainy day.

Bioconversion of ethyl (R)-4-cyano-3-hydroxybutyate into (R)-ethyl-3-hydroxyglutarate via an indirect pathway by Rhodococcus boritolerans.

(R)-Ethyl-3-hydroxyglutarate, (R)-3, is an intermediate in the synthesis of the statin side chain. Here, a new two-step, indirect biotransformation pathway involving the formation of ethyl (R)-4-carbamoyl-3-hydroxybutanoate, (R)-2, as an intermediate for (R)-3 production was developed using Rhodococcus boritolerans with ethyl (R)-4-cyano-3-hydroxybutyate, (R)-1, as substrate. Maximum conversion was with 10 g (R)-1/l, 7 g cells/l (dry wt), pH 7.5 and 25°C. A yield of 98 ± 0.5% (w/w) was attained within 8 h.