Regional estimates of nitrogen budgets for agricultural systems in the East African Community over the last five decades.

The great challenge of reducing soil nutrient depletion and assuring agricultural system productivity in low-income countries caused by limited synthetic fertilizer use necessitates local and cost-effective nutrient sources. We estimated the changes of the nitrogen budget of agricultural systems in the East African Community from 1961 to 2018 to address the challenges of insufficient nitrogen inputs and serious soil nitrogen depletion in agricultural systems of the East African Community region. Results showed that total nitrogen input increased from 12.5 kg N ha-1yr-1 in the 1960s to 21.8 kg N ha-1yr-1 in the 2000s and 27 kg N ha-1yr-1 in the 2010s. Total nitrogen crop uptake increased from 12.8 kg N ha-1yr-1 in the 1960s to 18.2 kg N ha-1yr-1 in the 2000s and 21.8 kg N ha-1yr-1 in the 2010s. Soil nitrogen stock increased from -2.0 kg N ha-1yr-1 in the 1960s to -0.5 kg N ha-1yr-1 in the 2000s and 0.3 kg N ha-1yr-1 in the 2010s. Our results allow us to substantiate for the first time that soil nitrogen depletion decreases with increasing input of nitrogen in agricultural systems of the East African Community region. This suggests that increases in nitrogen inputs through biological nitrogen fixation and animal manure are the critical nitrogen management practices to curb soil nitrogen depletion and sustain agricultural production systems in the East African Community region in order to meet food demand for a growing population. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13593-023-00881-0.

The mediating role of resilience between perceived social support and sense of security in medical staff following the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic not only posed a serious threat to public life and health but also had a serious impact on people's mental health, especially that of medical staff. Perceived social support is an important factor in one's sense of security. Objective: Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the goal is to explore the potential mediating role of resilience in the relationship between perceived social support and the sense of security of Chinese medical personnel. Methods: The multi-stage proportionally stratified convenience sampling method was adopted to select 4,076 medical professionals from 29 hospitals in Guangdong Province between September 2020 and October 2020. The Sense of Security Scale for Medical Staff, the Chinese version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Perceived Social Support Scale were employed in this study. For statistical analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), the SPSS 23.0 and Amos 24.0 software packages were used. Regression analysis was used to select the control variables to be included in the SEM. SEM analysis was conducted to verify the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between perceived social support and a sense of security. Results: Pearson's correlation analysis showed that perceived social support and resilience were positively associated with a sense of security (correlation coefficients range from 0.350 to 0.607, P < 0.01), and perceived social support (correlation coefficients range from 0.398 to 0.589, P < 0.01) was positively associated with resilience. Structural equation modeling revealed that resilience played a partial mediating role in the association between perceived social support and a sense of security (60.3% of the effect of perceived social support on security was direct, and 39.7% of the effect was mediated by resilience). Conclusions: Hospital managers should make efforts to develop resilience. Interventions based on resilience should be developed to enhance the perception of social support and strengthen one's sense of security.

Vitamin C promoted refractory organic contaminant elimination in the zero-valent iron/peracetic acid system: Efficiency, mechanism and effects of various parameters.

The conventional zero-valent iron/peracetic acid (ZVI/PAA) system is severely limited owing to the passivation of ZVI and the low recovery of Fe2+. In this study, a reducing agent, vitamin C (H2A), was used for the first time to enhance the ZVI/PAA system as a way to improve its degradation performance. Under optimal conditions, the removal efficiency of the H2A/ZVI/PAA system was 82.9%, while that of the H2A/PAA and ZVI/PAA systems were only 19.0% and 25.6%. Free radical quenching and electron paramagnetic experiments (EPR) confirmed that CH3C(O)O•, •OH and CH3C(O)OO• were the major active species for acid orange 7 (AO7) degradation with contributions of 9.7%, 75% and 14.4%, respectively. The degradation mechanism was proposed through UV-vis full-wavelength scanning and chemical oxygen demand (COD) experiments. The removal of AO7 was not affected in the presence of Cl-, SO42- and HCO3-, while inhibition occurred with humic acid. ZVI exhibited excellent catalytic properties and stability, and the removal efficiency of AO7 exceeded 70% after three cycles. Additionally, the H2A/ZVI/PAA system showed good ability to remove AO7 in well water, lake water, river water and reservoir water, and the elimination efficiency of MO, DCF and ACE also exceeded 70%. Overall, this study contributes new cognition for enhancing the ZVI/PAA system to degrade contaminants, which is expected to achieve a cleaner water environment.

Discrimination of auditory verbal hallucination in schizophrenia based on EEG brain networks.

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are a core positive symptom of schizophrenia and are regarded as a consequence of the functional breakdown in the related sensory process. Yet, the potential mechanism of AVH is still lacking. In the present study, we explored the difference between AVHs (n = 23) and non-AVHs (n = 19) in schizophrenia and healthy controls (n = 29) by using multidimensional electroencephalograms data during an auditory oddball task. Compared to healthy controls, both AVH and non-AVH groups showed reduced P300 amplitudes. Additionally, the results from brain networks analysis revealed that AVH patients showed reduced left frontal to posterior parietal/temporal connectivity compared to non-AVH patients. Moreover, using the fused network properties of both delta and theta bands as features for in-depth learning made it possible to identify the AVH from non-AVH patients at an accuracy of 80.95%. The left frontal-parietal/temporal networks seen in the auditory oddball paradigm might be underlying biomarkers of AVH in schizophrenia. This study demonstrated for the first time the functional breakdown of the auditory processing pathway in the AVH patients, leading to a better understanding of the atypical brain network of the AVH patients.

Facilitation or inhibition? Impact of CEO's financial background on industrial AI transformation of manufacturing companies.

Introduction: The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the impact of CEO's financial background on industrial AI transformation of manufacturing enterprises based on upper echelons theory and imprinting theory. Methods: The paper preliminarily takes listed manufacturing companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets that are affiliated to enterprise groups from 2014 to 2020 as samples, and manually collects and collates datas of CEO's financial background and industrial AI transformation. The research hypotheses are tested by stata 15.0 software. Results: It is found that CEO's financial background significantly inhibits the industrial AI transformation of manufacturing enterprises, and when the CEO works part-time in the parent company, it will strengthen the negative impact of CEO's financial background on industrial AI transformation. Further research shows that enterprise financialization plays a partial intermediary role between CEO's financial background and industrial AI transformation; Compared with private enterprise groups, the inhibiting effect of CEO financial background on industrial AI transformation is stronger in state-owned enterprise groups; CEOs with non-banking financial background have a stronger inhibitory effect on industrial AI transformation. Discussion: Firstly, based on the process of making business decisions, it verifies and clarifies the action mechanism of CEO's financial background on industrial AI transformation through internal driving mechanism, which expands the research horizon of industrial AI transformation, and further applies the Imprinting Theory in biology to the research of business decision-making, which forms a beneficial complement to the relevant research on economic consequences of CEO's financial background. Secondly, different from the research of single independent company, this paper focuses on the special situation of parent-subsidiary corporate governance, and explores the mechanism of action, deepening the research on the synergy of enterprise groups. Finally, this paper further explores the influence of CEO's financial background on industrial AI transformation, which is conducive to a deeper understanding of the heterogeneity of managers except manpower and capital factors in the industrial AI transformation practice of manufacturing enterprises, and provides a new idea and a more comprehensive analysis perspective for industrial AI transformation.

Clearance as an Early Indicator of Efficacy for Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies: Circumventing Dose Selection Challenges in Oncology.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The designs of first-in-human (FIH) studies in oncology (e.g., 3 + 3 dose escalation design) usually do not provide a sufficient sample size to determine the dose-response relationship for efficacy. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of using monoclonal antibody (mAb) clearance as a biomarker for efficacy to facilitate the identification of potentially efficacious doses across cancer types and drug targets. METHODS: We performed electronic searches of the Drugs@FDA website, the European Medicines Agency website, and PubMed to identify reports of FIH trials of approved mAbs in oncology. The clearance, half-life, and overall response rate (ORR) data for the mAbs at different dose levels were extracted. RESULTS: Twenty-five approved mAbs were included in this study. As expected, due to the small sample sizes in FIH studies, there was no clear dose-response for ORR. However, we found a clear negative association between mAb clearance and ORR across tumors/drug targets, and a clear negative dose-clearance relationship, with clearance decreasing and saturated at high dose levels. The approved mAb doses (1-25 mg/kg) are approximately 2-fold the saturation doses (1-10 mg/kg). The associated clearance values at the approved doses vary across different cancers and drug targets (0.17-1.56 L/day), while tend to be similar within a disease/drug target. Anti-CD20 mAbs for B-cell lymphomas show a higher clearance (~ 1 L/day) than other cancers and targets (e.g., ~ 0.3 L/day for anti-PD-1). CONCLUSIONS: Clearance of mAbs can be a tumor/drug target-agnostic biomarker for potential anti-tumor activity as clearance decreases with increasing ORR. Our findings shed important insights into target clearance values that may lead to desired efficacy for different cancers and drug targets, which can be used to guide dose selection for the future development of mAbs during FIH oncology studies.

Multiscale network analysis identifies potential receptors for SARS-CoV-2 and reveals their tissue-specific and age-dependent expression.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected tens of millions of individuals and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide. Here, we present a comprehensive, multiscale network analysis of the transcriptional response to the virus. In particular, we focused on key regulators, cell receptors, and host processes that were hijacked by the virus for its advantage. ACE2-controlled processes involved CD300e (a TYROBP receptor) as a key regulator and the activation of IL-2 pro-inflammatory cytokine signaling. We further investigated the age-dependency of such receptors in different tissues. In summary, this study provides novel insights into the gene regulatory organization during the SARS-CoV-2 infection and the tissue-specific, age-dependent expression of the cell receptors involved in COVID-19.

Information transmission velocity-based dynamic hierarchical brain networks.

The brain functions as an accurate circuit that regulates information to be sequentially propagated and processed in a hierarchical manner. However, it is still unknown how the brain is hierarchically organized and how information is dynamically propagated during high-level cognition. In this study, we developed a new scheme for quantifying the information transmission velocity (ITV) by combining electroencephalogram (EEG) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and then mapped the cortical ITV network (ITVN) to explore the information transmission mechanism of the human brain. The application in MRI-EEG data of P300 revealed bottom-up and top-down ITVN interactions subserving P300 generation, which was comprised of four hierarchical modules. Among these four modules, information exchange between visual- and attention-activated regions occurred at a high velocity, related cognitive processes could thus be efficiently accomplished due to the heavy myelination of these regions. Moreover, inter-individual variability in P300 was probed to be attributed to the difference in information transmission efficiency of the brain, which may provide new insight into the cognitive degenerations in clinical neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, from the transmission velocity perspective. Together, these findings confirm the capacity of ITV to effectively determine the efficiency of information propagation in the brain.

Activation of peroxymonosulfate with cobalt embedded in layered δ-MnO2 for degradation of dimethyl phthalate: Mechanisms, degradation pathway, and DFT calculation.

The sulfate radical-based advanced oxidation processes (SR-AOPs) offer huge potential for the removal of organic pollutants. In this study, Co(II)-intercalated δ-MnO2 (Co-δ-MnO2) catalyst was successfully prepared by a simple cation exchange reaction. The obtained Co-δ-MnO2 exhibited high catalytic performance for the removal of dimethyl phthalate (DMP) under the activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS), with the degradation efficiency reaching 100% within 6 h. Experiments and theoretical calculations revealed that interlayer Co(II) provided unique active sites in Co-δ-MnO2. In addition, radical and non-radical pathways were confirmed to play a role in Co-δ-MnO2/PMS system. •OH, SO4• ̶, and 1O2 were identified to be the dominating reactive species in Co-δ-MnO2/PMS system. This study provided new insights into the design of catalysts and laid a foundation for developing modifiable layered heterogeneous catalysts.

Ultrathin g-C3N4 composite Bi2WO6 embedded in PVDF UF membrane with enhanced permeability, anti-fouling performance and durability for efficient removal of atrazine.

A novel Bi2WO6-g-C3N4/polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composite ultrafiltration (UF) membrane (BWO-CN/PVDF) was prepared by microwave hydrothermal and immersion precipitation phase transformation method. The BWO-CN/PVDF-0.10 exhibited an outstanding photocatalytic removal rate of atrazine (ATZ) (97.65 %) under the simulated sunlight and enhanced permeate flux (1356.09 L·m-2·h-1). The multiple optical and electrochemical detection confirmed that combining ultrathin g-C3N4 and Bi2WO6 can increase carrier separation rate and prolong its lifetime. The quenching test revealed that h+ and 1O2 were the prominent reactive species. Additionally, after a 10-cycle photocatalytic process, the BWO-CN/PVDF membrane presented remarkable reusability and durability. And it showed excellent anti-fouling performance by filtering BSA, HA, SA, and Songhua River under simulated solar irradiation. The molecular dynamic (MD) simulation showed that the combination of g-C3N4 and Bi2WO6 can enhance the interaction between BWO-CN and PVDF. This work opens up a new idea for designing and constructing a highly efficient photocatalytic membrane for water treatment.

Toxic effects of maternal cadmium exposure on the metabolism and transport system of amino acids in the maternal livers.

Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is one of the most common obstetric diseases, and affects approximately 10 % of all pregnancies worldwide. Maternal cadmium (Cd) exposure is one of the factors that may increase the risk of the development of FGR. However, its underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. In this study, using Cd-treated mice as an experimental model, we analyzed the levels of some nutrients in the circulation and the fetal livers by biochemical assays; the expression patterns of several key genes involved in the nutrient uptake and transport, and the metabolic changes in the maternal livers were also examined by quantitative real-time PCR and gas chromatography-time of flight-mass spectrometry method. Our results showed that, the Cd treatment specifically reduced the levels of total amino acids in the peripheral circulation and the fetal livers. Concomitantly, Cd upregulated the expressions of three amino acid transport genes (SNAT4, SNAT7 and ASCT1) in the maternal livers. The metabolic profiling of maternal livers also revealed that, several amino acids and their derivatives were also increased in response to the Cd treatment. Further bioinformatics analysis indicated that the experimental treatment activated the metabolic pathways, including the alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism, valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis, arginine and proline metabolism. These findings suggest that maternal Cd exposure activate the amino acid metabolism and increase the amino acid uptake in the maternal liver, which reduces the supply of amino acids to the fetus via the circulation. We suspect that this underlies the Cd-evoked FGR.

A bidirectional Mendelian randomized study of classical blood lipids and venous thrombosis.

There is still some controversy about the relationship between lipids and venous thrombosis (VTE). A bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) study was conducted to clarify the causal relationship between three classical lipids (low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and triglycerides (TGs)) and venous thromboembolism (VTE) (deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE)). Three classical lipids and VTE were analysed by bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR). We used the random effect inverse variance weighted (IVW) model as the main analysis model and the weighted median method, simple mode method, weighted mode method and MR-Egger methods as supplementary methods. The leave-one-out test was used to determine the influence of outliers. The heterogeneity was calculated by using Cochran Q statistics in the MR-Egger and IVW methods. The intercept term in the MR‒Egger regression was used to indicate whether horizontal pleiotropy affected the results of the MR analysis. In addition, MR-PRESSO identified outlier single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and obtained a stable result by removing outlier SNPs and then performing MR analysis. When we used three classical lipids (LDL, HDL and TGs) as exposure variables, no causal relationship between them and VTE (DVT and PE) was found. In addition, we did not find significant causal effects of VTE on the three classical lipids in reverse MR analysis. There is no significant causal relationship between three classical lipids (LDL, HDL and TGs) and VTE (DVT and PE) from a genetic point of view.

Type 2 diabetes and glycemic traits are not causal factors of delirium: A two-sample mendelian randomization analysis.

This study aims to explore the genetic causal association between type 2 diabetes (T2D) and glycemic traits (fasting glucose [FG], fasting insulin [FI], and glycated hemoglobin [HbA1c]) on delirium using Mendelian randomization (MR). Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary data for T2D and glycemic traits were obtained from the IEU OpenGWAS database. GWAS summary data for delirium were obtained from the FinnGen Consortium. All the participants were of European ancestry. In addition, we used T2D, FG, FI, and HbA1c as exposures and delirium as outcomes. A random-effects variance-weighted model (IVW), MR Egger, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode were used to perform MR analysis. In addition, MR-IVW and MR-Egger analyses were used to detect heterogeneity in the MR results. Horizontal pleiotropy was detected using MR-Egger regression and MR pleiotropy residual sum and outliers (MR-PRESSO). MR-PRESSO was also used to assess outlier single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The "leave one out" analysis was used to investigate whether the MR analysis results were influenced by a single SNP and evaluate the robustness of the results. In this study, we conducted a two-sample MR analysis, and there was no evidence of a genetic causal association between T2D and glycemic traits (T2D, FG, FI, and HbA1c) on delirium (all p > 0.05). The MR-IVW and MR-Egger tests showed no heterogeneity in our MR results (all p values >0.05). In addition, The MR-Egger and MR-PRESSO tests showed no horizontal pleiotropy in our MR results (all p > 0.05). The MR-PRESSO results also showed that there were no outliers during the MR analysis. In addition, the "leave one out" test did not find that the SNPs included in the analysis could affect the stability of the MR results. Therefore, our study did not support the causal effects of T2D and glycemic traits (FG, FI, and HbA1c) on delirium risk.

Integrated mRNA and miRNA expression analyses for Cryptocaryon irritans resistance in large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea).

Large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea) is one of the most important mariculture fish in China. However, cryptocaryonosis caused by Cryptocryon irritans infection has brought huge economic losses and threatened the healthy and sustainable development of L. crocea industry. Recently, a new C. irritans resistance strain of L. crocea (RS) has been bred using genomic selection technology in our laboratory work. However, the molecular mechanisms for C. irritans resistance of RS have not been fully understood. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small non-coding RNAs that are post-transcriptional regulators, and they play vital roles in immune process of bony fish. Identification of anti-C.irritans relevant miRNA signatures could, therefore, be of tremendous translational value. In the present study, integrated mRNA and miRNA expression analysis was used to explore C. irritans resistance mechanisms of the L. crocea. RS as well as a control strain (CS) of L. crocea, were artificially infected with C. irritans for 100 h, and their gill was collected at 0 h (pre-infection), 24 h (initial infection), and 72 h (peak infection) time points. The total RNA from gill tissues was extracted and used for transcriptome sequencing and small RNA sequencing. After sequencing, 23,172 known mRNAs and 289 known miRNAs were identified. The differential expression was analyzed in these mRNAs and mRNAs and the interactions of miRNA-mRNA pairs were constructed. KEGG pathway enrichment analyses showed that these putative target mRNAs of differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) were enriched in different immune-related pathways after C. irritans infection in RS and CS. Among them, necroptosis was the immune-related pathway that was only significantly enriched at two infection stages of RS group (RS-24 h/RS-0h and RS-72 h/RS-0h). Further investigation indicates that necroptosis may be activated by DEMs such as miR-133a-3p, miR-142a-3p and miR-135c, this promotes inflammation responses and pathogen elimination. These DEMs were selected as miRNAs that could potentially regulate the C. irritans resistance of L. crocea. Though these inferences need to be further verified, these findings will be helpful for the research of the molecular mechanism of C. irritans resistance of L. crocea and miRNA-assisted molecular breeding of aquatic animals.

Tripterygium glycosides improve abnormal lipid deposition in nephrotic syndrome rat models.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of tripterygium glycosides (TGs) on regulating abnormal lipid deposition in nephrotic syndrome (NS) rats. METHODS: Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were injected with 6 mg/kg doxorubicin to construct nephrotic syndrome models (n = 6 per group), and then administered with TGs (10 mg/kg·d-1), prednisone (6.3 mg/kg·d-1), or pure water for 5 weeks. Biomedical indexes, such as urine protein/creatinine ratio (PCR), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine (Scr), serum albumin (SA), triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC)were investigated to evaluate the renal injury of rats. H&E staining experiment was used to assess the pathological alterations. Oil Red O staining was used to assess the level of renal lipid deposition. Malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) were measured to assess the extent of oxidative damage to the kidney. TUNEL staining was used to assess the status of apoptosis in the kidney. Western blot analysis was performed to examine the levels of relevant intracellular signaling molecules. RESULTS: After treatment with TGs, those tested biomedical indexes were significantly improved, and the extent of kidney tissue pathological changes and lipid deposition in the kidney was diminished. Treatment with TGs decreased renal oxidative damage and apoptosis. Regarding the molecular mechanism, TGs significantly increased the protein expression levels of Bcl-2 but decreased the levels of CD36, ADFP, Bax, and Cleaved caspase-3. CONCLUSION: TGs alleviates renal injury and lipid deposition induced by doxorubicin, suggesting that it may be a new strategy for reducing renal lipotoxicity in NS.

Deep-Learning-Assisted Underwater 3D Tactile Tensegrity.

The growth of underwater robotic applications in ocean exploration and research has created an urgent need for effective tactile sensing. Here, we propose an underwater 3-dimensional tactile tensegrity (U3DTT) based on soft self-powered triboelectric nanogenerators and deep-learning-assisted data analytics. This device can measure and distinguish the magnitude, location, and orientation of perturbations in real time from both flow field and interaction with obstacles and provide collision protection for underwater vehicles operation. It is enabled by the structure that mimics terrestrial animals' musculoskeletal systems composed of both stiff bones and stretchable muscles. Moreover, when successfully integrated with underwater vehicles, the U3DTT shows advantages of multiple degrees of freedom in its shape modes, an ultrahigh sensitivity, and fast response times with a low cost and conformability. The real-time 3-dimensional pose of the U3DTT has been predicted with an average root-mean-square error of 0.76 in a water pool, indicating that this developed U3DTT is a promising technology in vehicles with tactile feedback.

CuFe2O4/diatomite actuates peroxymonosulfate activation process: Mechanism for active species transformation and pesticide degradation.

Peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation is a promising technology for water purification, but the removal performance of multiple pollutant matrices and the mechanism for reactive species transformation in the heterogeneous catalytic system remain ambiguous. Herein, a novel CuFe2O4/diatomite was fabricated for PMS activation to achieve efficient removal of typical pesticides. Uniform distribution of CuFe2O4 on diatomite efficiently alleviated the agglomeration of CuFe2O4 and increased specific surface area (57.20 m2 g-1, 3.8-fold larger than CuFe2O4). CuFe2O4/5% diatomite (5-CFD)/PMS system showed nearly 100% removal efficiency for mixed pesticide solution within 10 min (0.10 g L-1 5-CFD and 0.40 g L-1 PMS) and excellent anti-interference performance towards various coexisting substances (≥90% removal efficiency). The electrochemical measurements confirmed that the lower charge transfer resistance of 5-CFD significantly enhanced the electron-transfer capacity between 5-CFD and PMS, accelerating the reactions among Fe(III)/Fe(II), Cu(II)/Cu(I), and PMS, further generating •OH (261.3 µM), 1O2 (138.8 µM), SO4•- (11.8 µM), and O2•-. The O in reactive oxygen species didn't originate from dissolved oxygen (DO) but PMS, independent of the low solubility of DO and slow diffusion rate of O2 in water. Furthermore, the production of 1O2 went through the process: PMS â†’ O2•- â†’ 1O2, and SO4•- could rapidly convert into •OH. The degradation pathways and the evolution of intermediates were proposed by HPLC-QTOF-MS/MS and DFT calculations. QSAR analysis illustrated that the toxicity became lower with the reaction process. This study provides novel insights into the mechanism for pesticide degradation and active species transformation and the anti-interference capability of systems.

Construction of an enhanced computed tomography radiomics model for non-invasively predicting granzyme A in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma by machine learning.

PURPOSE: Classical prognostic indicators of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) can no longer meet the clinical needs of precision medicine. This study aimed to establish a radiomics model to predict Granzyme A (GZMA) expression in patients with HNSCC. METHODS: We downloaded transcriptomic data of HNSCC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas for prognosis analysis and then used corresponding enhanced computed tomography (CT) images from The Cancer Imaging Archive for feature extraction and model construction. We explored the influence of differences in GZMA expression on signaling pathways and analyzed the potential molecular mechanism and its relationship with immune cell infiltration. Subsequently, non-invasive CT radiomics models were established to predict the expression of GZMA mRNA and evaluate the correlation with the radiomics-score (Rad-score), related genes, and prognosis. RESULTS: We found that GZMA was highly expressed in tumor tissues, and high GZMA expression was a protective factor for overall survival. The degree of B and T lymphocyte and natural killer cell infiltration was significantly correlated with GZMA expression. The receiver operating characteristic curve showed that the Relief GBM and RFE_GBM radiomics models had good predictive ability, and there were significant differences in the Rad-score distribution between the high- and low-GZMA-expression groups. CONCLUSIONS: GZMA expression can significantly affect the prognosis of patients with HNSCC. Enhanced CT radiomics models can effectively predict the expression of GZMA mRNA.