RESUMEN

To explore air contamination resulting from special biomass combustion and suspended dust in Lhasa, the present study focused on the size distribution and chemical characteristics of particulate matter (PM) emission resulting from 7 types of non-fossil pollution sources. We investigated the concentration and size distribution of trace elements from 7 pollution sources collected in Lhasa. Combining Lhasa's atmospheric particulate matter data, enrichment factors (EFs) have been calculated to examine the potential impact of those pollution sources on the atmosphere quality of Lhasa. The highest mass concentration of total elements of biomass combustion appeared at PM0.4, and the second highest concentration existed in the size fraction 0.4-1 µm; the higher proportion (12 %) of toxic metals was produced by biomass combustion. The elemental composition of suspended dust and atmospheric particulate matter was close (except for As and Cd); the highest concentration of elements was all noted in PM2.5-10 (PM3-10). Potassium was found to be one of the main biomass markers. The proportion of Cu in suspended dust is significantly lower than that of atmospheric particulate matter (0.53 % and 3.75 %), which indicates that there are other anthropogenic sources. The EFs analysis showed that the Cr, Cu, Zn, and Pb produced by biomass combustion were highly enriched (EFs > 100) in all particle sizes. The EFs of most trace elements increased with decreasing particle size, indicating the greater influence of humanfactors on smaller particles.

Asunto(s)

Aerosoles , Contaminantes Atmosféricos , Polvo , Monitoreo del Ambiente , Tamaño de la Partícula , Material Particulado , Contaminantes Atmosféricos/análisis , Aerosoles/análisis , Material Particulado/análisis , Polvo/análisis , Oligoelementos/análisis , Contaminación del Aire/estadística & datos numéricos , Contaminación del Aire/análisis , China , Atmósfera/química

RESUMEN

The ten-eleven translocation (TET) family of dioxygenases maintain stable local DNA demethylation during cell division and lineage specification. As the major catalytic product of TET enzymes, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine is selectively enriched at specific genomic regions, such as enhancers, in a tissue-dependent manner. However, the mechanisms underlying this selectivity remain unresolved. Here we unveil a low-complexity insert domain within TET2 that facilitates its biomolecular condensation with epigenetic modulators, such as UTX and MLL4. This co-condensation fosters a permissive chromatin environment for precise DNA demethylation. Disrupting low-complexity insert-mediated condensation alters the genomic binding of TET2 to cause promiscuous DNA demethylation and genome reorganization. These changes influence the expression of key genes implicated in leukaemogenesis to curtail leukaemia cell proliferation. Collectively, this study establishes the pivotal role of TET2 condensation in orchestrating precise DNA demethylation and gene transcription to support tumour cell growth.

RESUMEN

OBJECTIVE: Sarcopenia and cognitive impairment often coexist in the elderly. In this study, we investigated the causal relationship between sarcopenia-related muscle characteristics and cognitive performance. METHODS: We used linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC) and Mendelian Randomization (MR) analyses to estimate genetic correlations and causal relationships between genetically predicted sarcopenia-related muscle traits and cognitive function, as well as cognitive function-based discovery samples and replicated samples. Estimated effect sizes were derived from a fixed-effects meta-analysis. RESULTS: Our univariate genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis indicated a causal relationship between appendicular lean mass (ALM) (ß = 0.049; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.032-0.066, P < 0.001) and walking pace (ß = 0.349; 95% CI: 0.210-0.487, P < 0.001) with cognitive function, where a causal relationship existed between ALM in both male and female (ßALM-Male(M) = 0.060; 95% CI: 0.031-0.089, PALM-M < 0.001; ßALM-Female(F) = 0.045; 95% CI: 0.020-0.069, PALM-F < 0.001) with cognitive function. Low grip strength was not causally associated with cognitive function (ß = -0.045; 95% CI: -0.092 - -0.002, P = 0.062). A reverse causality GWAS meta-analysis showed a causal relationship between cognitive function and ALM (ß = 0.033; 95% CI: 0.018-0.048, P < 0.001) and walking pace (ß = 0.039; 95% CI: 0.033-0.051, P < 0.001), where ALM in both male and female showed a causality (ßALM-M = 0.041; 95% CI: 0.019-0.063, PALM-M < 0.001; ßALM-F = 0.034; 95% CI: 0.010-0.058, PALM-F = 0.005). Cognitive function was not causally related to low grip strength (ß = -0.024; 95% CI: -0.073-0.025, P = 0.344). Multivariable MR1 (MVMR1) analyses showed a significant causal relationship for ALM (ß = 0.077; 95% CI: 0.044-0.109, P = 0.000) and walking pace (ß = 0.579; 95% CI: 0.383-0.775, P = 0.000) and cognitive function. Multivariable MR2 (MVMR2) multivariate analysis showed that ALM causality remained (ß = 0.069; 95% CI: 0.033-0.106, P = 0.000), and walking pace (ß = 0.589; 95% CI: 0.372-0.806, P = 0.000). CONCLUSIONS: Bidirectional two-sample MR demonstrated that sarcopenia-related muscle characteristics and cognitive performance were positive causal genetic risk factors for each other, while a multivariable MR study demonstrated that low ALM and a slow walking pace were causally involved in reduced cognitive performance. This study suggests a causal relationship between sarcopenia and cognitive impairment in older adults and provide new ideas for prevention and treatment.

Asunto(s)

Disfunción Cognitiva , Estudio de Asociación del Genoma Completo , Análisis de la Aleatorización Mendeliana , Sarcopenia , Humanos , Sarcopenia/genética , Masculino , Femenino , Disfunción Cognitiva/genética , Anciano , Polimorfismo de Nucleótido Simple , Desequilibrio de Ligamiento

RESUMEN

Phenomena of free-electron X-ray radiation are treated almost exclusively with classical electrodynamics, despite the intrinsic interaction being that of quantum electrodynamics. The lack of quantumness arises from the vast disparity between the electron energy and the much smaller photon energy, resulting in a small cross-section that makes quantum effects negligible. Here we identify a fundamentally distinct phenomenon of electron radiation that bypasses this energy disparity, and thus displays extremely strong quantum features. This phenomenon arises when free-electron transverse scattering occurs during the radiation process, creating entanglement between each transversely recoiled electron and the photons it emitted. This phenomenon profoundly modifies the characteristics of free-electron radiation mediated by crystals, compared to conventional classical analysis and even previous quantum analysis. We also analyze conditions to detect this phenomenon using low-emittance electron beams and high-resolution X-ray spectrometers. These quantum radiation features could guide the development of compact coherent X-ray sources facilitated by nanophotonics and quantum optics.

RESUMEN

Purpose: To explore the combined effects of sleep disorders and depression on chronic low back pain (CLBP) in American adults. Material and methods: In this cross-sectional study, the data of all participants were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NAHNES) between 2009 and 2010. CLBP was defined as persistent LBP for a consecutive three-month period. Sleep disorders were self-reported and were diagnosed by a doctor before. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was used to assess depressive symptoms by trained personnel. Potential covariates were selected using weighted univariate logistic regression models. Weighted univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to evaluate the separate and combined effects of sleep disorders and depression on CLBP, respectively. Results were presented as odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Associations were further explored in the subgroups of age, chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes, and having pain outside the low back. Results: A total of 5275 participants were included. Among them, 542 (10.28%) had CLBP. The mean age of all participants was 47.19 (0.53), and 50.65% (n=2668) were female. Sleep disorder (OR=1.52, 95% CI: 1.17-1.98) or depressive symptoms (OR=3.06, 95% CI: 2.41-3.88) were associated with higher odds of CLBP. Compared to participants without sleep disorders and depression symptoms, participants in both conditions had an increased risk of CLBP (OR=3.95, 95% CI: 2.58-6.05, P for trend <0.001). The combined effects of sleep disorders and depressive symptoms were also found in the population aged <45 years, ≥45 years, with and without CKD, with and without diabetes, and no pain outside the low back. Conclusion: Sleep disorders and depressive symptoms may increase the odds of reporting CLBP. Further research is necessary to explore the effectiveness of multidisciplinary interventions targeting sleep disorders, depressive symptoms, and CLBP.

RESUMEN

AIM: We aimed to explore whether the combination of CLP290 and bumetanide maximally improves neuropathic pain following spinal cord injury (SCI) and its possible molecular mechanism. METHODS: Rats were randomly divided into five groups: Sham, SCI + vehicle, SCI + CLP290, SCI + bumetanide, and SCI + combination (CLP290 + bumetanide). Drug administration commenced on the 7th day post-injury (7 dpi) and continued for 14 days. All rats underwent behavioral assessments for 56 days to comprehensively evaluate the effects of interventions on mechanical pain, thermal pain, cold pain, motor function, and other relevant parameters. Electrophysiological assessments, immunoblotting, and immunofluorescence detection were performed at different timepoints post-injury, with a specific focus on the expression and changes of KCC2 and NKCC1 proteins in the lumbar enlargement of the spinal cord. RESULTS: CLP290 and bumetanide alleviated SCI-associated hypersensitivity and locomotor function, with the combination providing enhanced recovery. The combined treatment group exhibited the most significant improvement in restoring Rate-Dependent Depression (RDD) levels. In the combined treatment group and the two individual drug administration groups, the upregulation of potassium chloride cotransporter 2 (K+-Cl-cotransporter 2, KCC2) expression and downregulation of sodium potassium chloride cotransporter 1 (Na+-K+-Cl-cotransporter 1, NKCC1) expression in the lumbar enlargement area resulted in a significant increase in the KCC2/NKCC1 ratio compared to the SCI + vehicle group, with the most pronounced improvement seen in the combined treatment group. Compared to the SCI + vehicle group, the SCI + bumetanide group showed no significant paw withdrawal thermal latency (PWTL) improvement at 21 and 35 dpi, but a notable enhancement at 56 dpi. In contrast, the SCI + CLP290 group significantly improved PWTL at 21 days, with non-significant changes at 35 and 56 days. At 21 dpi, KCC2 expression was marginally higher in monotherapy groups versus SCI + vehicle, but not significantly. At 56 dpi, only the SCI + bumetanide group showed a significant difference in KCC2 expression compared to the control group. CONCLUSION: Combined application of CLP290 and bumetanide effectively increases the ratio of KCC2/NKCC1, restores RDD levels, enhances GABAA receptor-mediated inhibitory function in the spinal cord, and relieves neuropathic pain in SCI; Bumetanide significantly improves neuropathic pain in the long term, whereas CLP290 demonstrates a notable short-term effect.

Asunto(s)

Bumetanida , Cotransportadores de K Cl , Neuralgia , Ratas Sprague-Dawley , Miembro 2 de la Familia de Transportadores de Soluto 12 , Traumatismos de la Médula Espinal , Simportadores , Animales , Bumetanida/farmacología , Bumetanida/uso terapéutico , Traumatismos de la Médula Espinal/complicaciones , Traumatismos de la Médula Espinal/tratamiento farmacológico , Traumatismos de la Médula Espinal/metabolismo , Neuralgia/tratamiento farmacológico , Neuralgia/etiología , Neuralgia/metabolismo , Ratas , Masculino , Simportadores/metabolismo , Miembro 2 de la Familia de Transportadores de Soluto 12/metabolismo , Inhibidores del Simportador de Cloruro Sódico y Cloruro Potásico/farmacología , Inhibidores del Simportador de Cloruro Sódico y Cloruro Potásico/uso terapéutico , Quimioterapia Combinada , Médula Espinal/efectos de los fármacos , Médula Espinal/metabolismo , Hiperalgesia/tratamiento farmacológico , Hiperalgesia/etiología , Acetatos , Indenos

RESUMEN

CT and MR tools are commonly used to diagnose lumbar fractures (LF). However, numerous limitations have been found in practice. The aims of this study were to innovate and develop a spinal disease-specific neural network and to evaluate whether synthetic MRI of the LF affected clinical diagnosis and treatment strategies. A total of 675 LF patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. For each participant, two mid-sagittal CT and T2-weighted MR images were selected; 1350 pairs of LF images were also included. A new Self-pix based on Pix2pix and Self-Attention was constructed. A total of 1350 pairs of CT and MR images, which were randomly divided into a training group (1147 pairs) and a test group (203 pairs), were fed into Pix2pix and Self-pix. The quantitative evaluation included PSNR and SSIM (PSNR1 and SSIM1: real MR images and Pix2pix-generated MR images; PSNR2 and SSIM2: real MR images and Self-pix-generated MR images). The qualitative evaluation, including accurate diagnosis of acute fractures and accurate selection of treatment strategies based on Self-pix-generated MRI, was performed by three spine surgeons. In the LF group, PSNR1 and PSNR2 were 10.884 and 11.021 (p < 0.001), and SSIM1 and SSIM2 were 0.766 and 0.771 (p < 0.001), respectively. In the ROI group, PSNR1 and PSNR2 were 12.350 and 12.670 (p = 0.004), and SSIM1 and SSIM2 were 0.816 and 0.832 (p = 0.005), respectively. According to the qualitative evaluation, Self-pix-generated MRI showed no significant difference from real MRI in identifying acute fractures (p = 0.689), with a good sensitivity of 84.36% and specificity of 96.65%. No difference in treatment strategy was found between the Self-pix-generated MRI group and the real MRI group (p = 0.135). In this study, a disease-specific GAN named Self-pix was developed, which demonstrated better image generation performance compared to traditional GAN. The spine surgeon could accurately diagnose LF and select treatment strategies based on Self-pix-generated T2 MR images.

Asunto(s)

Vértebras Lumbares , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética , Fracturas de la Columna Vertebral , Humanos , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética/métodos , Femenino , Vértebras Lumbares/diagnóstico por imagen , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Fracturas de la Columna Vertebral/diagnóstico por imagen , Fracturas de la Columna Vertebral/terapia , Adulto , Anciano , Tomografía Computarizada por Rayos X/métodos , Redes Neurales de la Computación

RESUMEN

Homogeneous metal salt catalysts play a pivotal role in industrial production of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). Herein, we first proposed the anion effect on steerable production of HMF using metal salts with different anions as catalyst in a biphasic system of tetrahydrofuran (THF)/NaCl aqueous solution (NaCl aq). Notably, the anions affected the catalytic activity of the metal salts, leading to an order of magnitude difference in the HMF yields, i.e., AlBr3（74.0 mol%）> AlCl3 (60.8 mol%) > Al2(SO4)3 (35.2 mol%) > Al(NO3)3 (14.9 mol%). The anion effect on steerable production of HMF could be attributed to the proximity effect and electron tension. Anions form close-range interactions with glucose molecules by proximity effect to promote electron transfer, facilitating the isomerization of glucose to fructose. Besides, anions induce a reduction of the electron cloud density of glucose carbon atoms, generating electron tension that rapidly transforms glucose from the ground state to the transition state, thereby increasing the HMF yield. Based on the revelation of anions effect and evaluation of techno-economic process, we expect to provides theoretical guidance for high-throughput screening of metal salt catalysts in industrial biorefinery.

RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: The coexistence of cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease, termed chronic cardiovascular-kidney disorder (CCV-KD), is increasingly prevalent. However, limited studies have assessed the association between cardiovascular health (CVH), assessed by the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 (LE8), and CCV-KD. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study using data from UK Biobank. Participants without cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease at baseline and having complete data on metrics of LE8 were included (N = 125,986). LE8 included eight metrics, and the aggregate score was categorized as low (< 50 points), intermediate (50 to < 80 points), and high (≥ 80 points), with a higher score indicating better CVH health. Adjusted Cox proportional hazard models were conducted to explore the association of CVH with the risk of CCV-KD. The adjusted proportion of population attributable risk (PAR%) was used to calculate the population-level risk caused by low or intermediate CVH. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 12.5 years, 1,054 participants (0.8%) had incident CCV-KD. Participants with intermediate and high CVH had 54% (HR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.40-0.54, P < 0.001) and 75% (HR = 0.25, 95% CI: 0.18-0.34, P < 0.001) lower risks of incident CCV-KD compared with those in low CVH group. There was an approximately dose-response linear relationship between the overall LE8 score and incident CCV-KD. The risk of incident CCV-KD decreased by 30% (HR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.67-0.74, P < 0.001) for a 10-point increment of LE8 score. The adjusted PAR% of lower overall CVH was 47.4% (95% CI: 31.6%-59.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Better CVH, assessed by using LE8 score, was strongly associated with decreased risk of incident CCV-KD. These findings imply optimizing CVH may be a preventive strategy to reduce the burden of CCV-KD.

Asunto(s)

Enfermedades Cardiovasculares , Insuficiencia Renal Crónica , Humanos , Estudios Prospectivos , Masculino , Femenino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Enfermedades Cardiovasculares/epidemiología , Insuficiencia Renal Crónica/epidemiología , Reino Unido/epidemiología , Anciano , Adulto , Factores de Riesgo , Modelos de Riesgos Proporcionales

RESUMEN

Excessive fibrotic scar formation during skin defect repair poses a formidable challenge, impeding the simultaneous acceleration of wound healing and prevention of scar formation and hindering the restoration of skin integrity and functionality. Drawing inspiration from the structural, compositional, and biological attributes of skin, we developed a hydrogel containing modified recombinant human collagen type III and thiolated hyaluronic acid to address the challenges of regenerating skin appendages and improving the recovery of skin functions after injury by reducing fibrotic scarring. The hydrogel displayed favorable biocompatibility, antioxidant properties, angiogenic potential, and fibroblast migration stimulation in vitro. In a rat full-layer defect model, it reduced inflammation, promoted microvascular formation, and significantly enhanced the wound healing speed and effectiveness. Additionally, by upregulating fibrosis-associated genes, such as TGFB1, it facilitated collagen accumulation and a beneficial balance between type I and type III collagen, potentially expediting skin regeneration and functional recovery. In conclusion, the utilization of rhCol III-HS demonstrated considerable potential as a wound dressing, offering a highly effective strategy for the restoration and rejuvenation of complete skin defects.

RESUMEN

Deep learning-based image compression has made great progresses recently. However, some leading schemes use serial context-adaptive entropy model to improve the rate-distortion (R-D) performance, which is very slow. In addition, the complexities of the encoding and decoding networks are quite high and not suitable for many practical applications. In this paper, we propose four techniques to balance the trade-off between the complexity and performance. We first introduce the deformable residual module to remove more redundancies in the input image, thereby enhancing compression performance. Second, we design an improved checkerboard context model with two separate distribution parameter estimation networks and different probability models, which enables parallel decoding without sacrificing the performance compared to the sequential context-adaptive model. Third, we develop a three-pass knowledge distillation scheme to retrain the decoder and entropy coding, and reduce the complexity of the core decoder network, which transfers both the final and intermediate results of the teacher network to the student network to improve its performance. Fourth, we introduce L1 regularization to make the numerical values of the latent representation more sparse, and we only encode non-zero channels in the encoding and decoding process to reduce the bit rate. This also reduces the encoding and decoding time. Experiments show that compared to the state-of-the-art learned image coding scheme, our method can be about 20 times faster in encoding and 70-90 times faster in decoding, and our R-D performance is also 2.3% higher. Our method achieves better rate-distortion performance than classical image codecs including H.266/VVC-intra (4:4:4) and some recent learned methods, as measured by both PSNR and MS-SSIM metrics on the Kodak and Tecnick-40 datasets.

RESUMEN

Electrocatalytic H2 production from seawater, recognized as a promising technology utilizing offshore renewables, faces challenges from chloride-induced reactions and corrosion. Here, We introduce a catalytic surface where OH- dominates over Cl- in adsorption and activation, which is crucial for O2 production. Our NiFe-based anode, enhanced by nearby Cr sites, achieves low overpotentials and selective alkaline seawater oxidation. It outperforms the RuO2 counterpart in terms of lifespan in scaled-up stacks, maintaining stability for over 2500 h in three-electrode tests. Ex situ/in situ analyses reveal that Cr(III) sites enrich OH-, while Cl- is repelled by Cr(VI) sites, both of which are well-dispersed and close to NiFe, enhancing charge transfer and overall electrode performance. Such multiple effects fundamentally boost the activity, selectively, and chemical stability of the NiFe-based electrode. This development marks a significant advance in creating durable, noble-metal-free electrodes for alkaline seawater electrolysis, highlighting the importance of well-distributed catalytic sites.

RESUMEN

We aimed to uncover the pathological mechanism of ischemic stroke (IS) using a combined analysis of untargeted metabolomics and proteomics. The serum samples from a discovery set of 44 IS patients and 44 matched controls were analyzed using a specific detection method. The same method was then used to validate metabolites and proteins in the two validation sets: one with 30 IS patients and 30 matched controls, and the other with 50 IS patients and 50 matched controls. A total of 105 and 221 differentially expressed metabolites or proteins were identified, and the association between the two omics was determined in the discovery set. Enrichment analysis of the top 25 metabolites and 25 proteins in the two-way orthogonal partial least-squares with discriminant analysis, which was employed to identify highly correlated biomarkers, highlighted 15 pathways relevant to the pathological process. One metabolite and seven proteins exhibited differences between groups in the validation set. The binary logistic regression model, which included metabolite 2-hydroxyhippuric acid and proteins APOM_O95445, MASP2_O00187, and PRTN3_D6CHE9, achieved an area under the curve of 0.985 (95% CI: 0.966-1) in the discovery set. This study elucidated alterations and potential coregulatory influences of metabolites and proteins in the blood of IS patients.

Asunto(s)

Biomarcadores , Accidente Cerebrovascular Isquémico , Metabolómica , Proteómica , Humanos , Biomarcadores/sangre , Metabolómica/métodos , Proteómica/métodos , Accidente Cerebrovascular Isquémico/sangre , Masculino , Femenino , Anciano , Persona de Mediana Edad , Estudios de Casos y Controles

RESUMEN

Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs; also called giant viruses), constituting the phylum Nucleocytoviricota, can infect a wide range of eukaryotes and exchange genetic material with not only their hosts but also prokaryotes and phages. A few NCLDVs were reported to encode genes conferring resistance to beta­lactam, trimethoprim, or pyrimethamine, suggesting that they are potential vehicles for the transmission of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the biome. However, the incidence of ARGs across the phylum Nucleocytoviricota, their evolutionary characteristics, their dissemination potential, and their association with virulence factors remain unexplored. Here, we systematically investigated ARGs of 1416 NCLDV genomes including those of almost all currently available cultured isolates and high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes from diverse habitats across the globe. We reveal that 39.5% of them carry ARGs, which is approximately 37 times higher than that for phage genomes. A total of 12 ARG types are encoded by NCLDVs. Phylogenies of the three most abundant NCLDV-encoded ARGs hint that NCLDVs acquire ARGs from not only eukaryotes but also prokaryotes and phages. Two NCLDV-encoded trimethoprim resistance genes are demonstrated to confer trimethoprim resistance in Escherichia coli. The presence of ARGs in NCLDV genomes is significantly correlated with mobile genetic elements and virulence factors.

Asunto(s)

Genoma Viral , Virus Gigantes , Filogenia , Virus Gigantes/genética , Genoma Viral/genética , Farmacorresistencia Microbiana/genética , Bacteriófagos/genética , Bacteriófagos/aislamiento & purificación , Antibacterianos/farmacología , Metagenoma/genética , Transferencia de Gen Horizontal , Trimetoprim/farmacología , Farmacorresistencia Bacteriana/genética

RESUMEN

AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential protective effect of Qiju Granule in a rat model of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and investigate the underlying mechanisms involved. METHODS: Rats were injected intravenously with 40 mg/kg of sodium iodate (SI) to induce a dry AMD model. The rats in the treatment group received three different doses of Qiju Granule once a day via gavage, while the rats in the control group were given an equal volume of physiological saline. On day 14 and day 28 following the intervention, various methods were employed to evaluate retinal function and structure, including electroretinography (ERG), optical coherence tomography (OCT), and histological examination. The expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) was assessed via immunofluorescence. Beyond immunofluorescence, the mRNA levels of bFGF, BDNF, and CNTF were quantitatively determined using real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). RESULTS: Rats treated with Qiju Granule exhibited significant improvements in both retinal function and structure compared to the model group. The most noteworthy effects were observed at a high dose of Qiju Granule. Furthermore, the expression levels of bFGF, BDNF, and CNTF were significantly unregulated in the treated groups compared to the model group. CONCLUSIONS: Qiju Granule demonstrated a protective effect on the retina in the SI-induced rat model of AMD. The protective mechanism may be attributed to the upregulation of retinal neurotrophic factors expression.

RESUMEN

Ecosystem multifunctionality reflects the capacity of ecosystems to simultaneously maintain multiple functions which are essential bases for human sustainable development. Whereas viruses are a major component of the soil microbiome that drive ecosystem functions across biomes, the relationships between soil viral diversity and ecosystem multifunctionality remain under-studied. To address this critical knowledge gap, we employed a combination of amplicon and metagenomic sequencing to assess prokaryotic, fungal and viral diversity, and to link viruses to putative hosts. We described the features of viruses and their potential hosts in 154 soil samples from 29 farmlands and 25 forests distributed across China. Although 4,460 and 5,207 viral populations (vOTUs) were found in the farmlands and forests respectively, the diversity of specific vOTUs rather than overall soil viral diversity was positively correlated with ecosystem multifunctionality in both ecosystem types. Furthermore, the diversity of these keystone vOTUs, despite being 10-100 times lower than prokaryotic or fungal diversity, was a better predictor of ecosystem multifunctionality and more strongly associated with the relative abundances of prokaryotic genes related to soil nutrient cycling. Gemmatimonadota and Actinobacteria dominated the host community of soil keystone viruses in the farmlands and forests respectively, but were either absent or showed a significantly lower relative abundance in that of soil non-keystone viruses. These findings provide novel insights into the regulators of ecosystem multifunctionality and have important implications for the management of ecosystem functioning.

RESUMEN

Background: The associations of age at diagnosis of breast cancer with incident myocardial infarction (MI) and heart failure (HF) remain unexamined. Addressing this problem could promote understanding of the cardiovascular impact of breast cancer. Methods: Data were obtained from the UK Biobank. Information on the diagnosis of breast cancer, MI, and HF was collected at baseline and follow-ups (median = 12.8 years). The propensity score matching method and Cox proportional hazards models were employed. Results: A total of 251,277 female participants (mean age: 56.8 ± 8.0 years), of whom 16,241 had breast cancer, were included. Among breast cancer participants, younger age at diagnosis (per 10-year decrease) was significantly associated with elevated risks of MI (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.36, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.19-1.56, p<0.001) and HF (HR = 1.31, 95% CI 1.18-1.46, p<0.001). After propensity score matching, breast cancer patients with younger diagnosis age had significantly higher risks of MI and HF than controls without breast cancer. Conclusions: Younger age at diagnosis of breast cancer was associated with higher risks of incident MI and HF, underscoring the necessity to pay additional attention to the cardiovascular health of breast cancer patients diagnosed at younger age to conduct timely interventions to attenuate the subsequent risks of incident cardiovascular diseases. Funding: This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82373665 and 81974490), the Nonprofit Central Research Institute Fund of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (2021-RC330-001), and the 2022 China Medical Board-open competition research grant (22-466).

Asunto(s)

Neoplasias de la Mama , Insuficiencia Cardíaca , Infarto del Miocardio , Humanos , Femenino , Neoplasias de la Mama/epidemiología , Neoplasias de la Mama/diagnóstico , Persona de Mediana Edad , Insuficiencia Cardíaca/epidemiología , Infarto del Miocardio/epidemiología , Infarto del Miocardio/diagnóstico , Estudios Prospectivos , Anciano , Reino Unido/epidemiología , Adulto , Factores de Edad , Incidencia , Factores de Riesgo , Modelos de Riesgos Proporcionales , Puntaje de Propensión

RESUMEN

High perceptual quality and low distortion degree are two important goals in image restoration tasks such as super-resolution (SR). Most of the existing SR methods aim to achieve these goals by minimizing the corresponding yet conflicting losses, such as the l1 loss and the adversarial loss. Unfortunately, the commonly used gradient-based optimizers, such as Adam, are hard to balance these objectives due to the opposite gradient decent directions of the contradictory losses. In this paper, we formulate the perception-distortion trade-off in SR as a multi-objective optimization problem and develop a new optimizer by integrating the gradient-free evolutionary algorithm (EA) with gradient-based Adam, where EA and Adam focus on the divergence and convergence of the optimization directions respectively. As a result, a population of optimal models with different perception-distortion preferences is obtained. We then design a fusion network to merge these models into a single stronger one for an effective perception-distortion trade-off. Experiments demonstrate that with the same backbone network, the perception-distortion balanced SR model trained by our method can achieve better perceptual quality than its competitors while attaining better reconstruction fidelity. Codes and models can be found at https://github.com/csslc/EA-Adam.

RESUMEN

The influence of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) on the physicochemical-rheological properties of silver carp surimi gel was investigated. The gel strength, texture, water-holding capacity (WHC), dynamic distribution of water, and rheological properties of surimi gels added with different levels (0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, and 0.1%) of EGCG were measured. The results showed that with the increase of EGCG content, the gel strength, hardness, WHC, and immobilized water contents of surimi gels showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing, and EGCG 0.02% and EGCG 0.04% showed better gel performance as compared with the control. EGCG 0.02% had the highest gel strength (406.62 g·cm), hardness (356.67 g), WHC (64.37%), and immobilized water contents (98.958%). The gel performance decreased significantly when the amounts of EGCG were higher than 0.06%. The viscosity, G', and G″ of the rheological properties also showed the same trends. The chemical interaction of surimi gels, secondary structure of myofibrillar protein (MP), and molecular docking results of EGCG and silver carp myosin showed that EGCG mainly affected the structure and aggregation behavior of silver carp myosin through non-covalent interactions such as those of hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic interactions, and electrostatic interactions. The microstructures of EGCG 0.02% and EGCG 0.04% were compact and homogeneous, and had better gel formation ability. The lower concentrations of EGCG formed a large number of chemical interactions such as those of disulfide bonds and hydrophobic interactions inside the surimi gels by proper cross-linking with MP, and also increased the ordered ß-sheet structure of MP, which facilitated the formation of the compact three-dimensional network gel.

RESUMEN

Regulating macrophage phenotypes to reconcile the conflict between bacterial suppression and tissue regeneration is ideal for treating infectious skin wounds. Here, an injectable immunoregulatory hydrogel (SrmE20) that sequentially drives macrophage phenotypic polarization (M0 to M1, then to M2) was constructed by integrating anti-inflammatory components and proinflammatory solvents. In vitro experiments demonstrated that the proinflammatory solvent ethanol stabilized the hydrogel structure, maintained the phenolic hydroxyl group activity, and achieved macrophages' proinflammatory transition (M0 to M1) to enhance antibacterial effects. With ethanol depletion, the hydrogel's cations and phenolic hydroxyl groups synergistically regulated macrophages' anti-inflammatory transition (M1 to M2) to initiate regeneration. In the anti-contraction full-thickness wound model with infection, this hydrogel effectively eliminated bacteria and even achieved anti-inflammatory M2 macrophage accumulation at three days post-surgery, accelerated angiogenesis and collagen deposition. By sequentially driving macrophage phenotypic polarization, this injectable immunoregulatory hydrogel will bring new guidance for the care and treatment of infected wounds.