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OBJECTIVES: Few studies illustrate the mechanism between air temperature and blood pressure (BP) in childhood. This study aims to investigate the associations between air temperature, humidity exposure, and BP trajectories in children and adolescents, and explore the potential mediating roles of lipid profiles in these relationships. METHODS: This prospective cohort study included 5,971 children with 10,800 person-times measurements at baseline from the Chongqing Health Cohort, with evaluations conducted in 2014-2015 (baseline) and follow-ups in 2016 (urban areas) and 2019 (urban and rural areas). Multilevel mixed-effects models were used to analyse the impacts of air temperature and humidity on BP levels and the incidence of elevated BP, while accounting for potential confounders. Mediation analyses were performed to evaluate the mediating effects of lipid profiles, including low-density lipoprotein (LDL), total cholesterol (TC), and specific lipid species. RESULTS: After adjusting for covariates, higher air temperature quartiles were associated with both decreased BP levels and elevated BP risk (RR: 0.83; 95 % CIs: 0.78, 0.89; P = 0.028). Conversely, higher humidity quartiles exhibited a U-shaped relationship with BP levels. Greater variability in air temperature was linked to increase BP levels. The cumulative effects of air temperature exposure on BP were significant from pregnancy to age 10, with females exhibiting larger effects (ß:-3.291, 95 % CIs: -4.242,-2.340, P < 0.001). LDL and TC partially mediated the associations between air temperature and BP levels, particularly in males. Specific lipid species, including SM (d21:1), LPC (17:0), and PC (O-36:3), also exhibited significant mediating effects. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides novel insights into the intricate interplay between air temperature, humidity, lipid metabolism, and blood pressure regulation in children. Lower average temperatures and extreme humidity levels were associated with increased risks of elevated BP, potentially mediated by lipid profiles. Early interventions targeting air temperature exposure and lipid metabolism could mitigate hypertension risk, promoting improved cardiovascular outcomes in children.

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ABSRTACT: OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of various non-pharmacological interventions on patients with cognitive impairment by systematic search and network meta-analysis, and to rank the effects of the included non-pharmacological interventions. METHODS: The databases of PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMbase, Web of Science, CNKI, VIP, WANFANG, and SinoMed were searched by computer. All randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of non-pharmacological interventions for people with cognitive frailty were collected. The search was conducted from 2000 to February 2024. Two reviewers independently screened the studies, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of the included studies, and then used Stata15 and R4.3.1 software to conduct network meta-analysis, with physical function and cognitive function as the main outcome indicators. RESULTS: A total of 19 randomized controlled trials involving 1738 patients were included. The results of network meta-analysis showed that among the non-pharmacological interventions, nutritional support had the best effect on improving frailty scores and cognitive function scores in patients with cognitive frailty. Aerobic training combined with resistance training is best for improving grip strength. For improving the patient's motor status, cognitive training had the best effect on improving TUG test scores. High-speed resistance training is best for improving walking speed. CONCLUSION: This review analyses the current study of non-pharmacological interventions to improve physical performance in patients with cognitive frailty. Current evidence suggests that nutritional support is most effective at improving physical frailty and cognitive decline in patients with cognitive frailty, and that exercise and cognitive training interventions significantly improve grip strength and motor ability. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This meta-analysis was prospectively registered with PROSPERO (registration number: CRD42023486881).

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Injecting α-synuclein pre-formed fibrils (αSyn PFFs) into various tissues and organs involves converting monomeric αSyn into a fibrillar form, inducing extensive αSyn pathology that effectively models Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the distinct physicochemical properties of αSyn amyloid fibrils can potentially reduce their seeding activity, especially during storage. In this study, it is demonstrated that αSyn PFFs exhibit significant sensitivity to low temperatures, with notable denaturation occurring between -20 and 4 °C, and gradual disassembly persisted even under storage conditions at -80 °C. To mitigate this issue, a commonly used protein stabilizer, glycerol is introduced, which significantly reverses the cold-induced disassembly of PFFs. Remarkably, storing PFFs with 20% glycerol at -80 °C for a month preserved their morphology and seeding activity as freshly prepared PFFs. Glycerol-stabilized αSyn PFFs resulted in compromised neuronal survival, with the extent of these impairments correlating with the formation of αSyn pathology both in vivo and in vitro, indistinguishable from freshly prepared PFFs. Storing sonicated PFFs with 20% glycerol at -80 °C provides an optimal storage method, as sonication is necessary for activating their seeding potential. This approach reduces the frequency of sonication, simplifies handling, and ultimately lowers the overall workload, enhancing the practicality of using PFFs.

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Relatively few studies have longitudinally investigated how COVID-19 has disrupted the lives and health of youth beyond the first year of the pandemic. This may be because longitudinal researchers face complex challenges in figuring out how to code time, account for changes in COVID-19 spread, and model longitudinal COVID-19-related trajectories across environmental contexts. This manuscript considers each of these three methodological issues by modeling trajectories of COVID-19 disruption in 1080 youth from 12 cultural groups in nine nations between March 2020-July 2022 using multilevel modeling. Our findings suggest that for studies that attempt to examine cross-cultural longitudinal trajectories during COVID-19, starting such trajectories on March 11, 2020, measuring disruption along 6-month time intervals, capturing COVID-19 spread using death rates and the COVID-19 Health and Containment Index scores, and using modeling methods that combine etic and emic approaches are each especially useful. In offering these suggestions, we hope to start methodological dialogues among longitudinal researchers that ultimately result in the proliferation of research on the longitudinal impacts of COVID-19 that the world so badly needs.

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Extremity soft tissue sarcoma (ESTS) is a rare malignant nonepithelial disease, calling for combined modality treatments with surgery to further improve local control rates and long-term survival, especially in patients with multiple local recurrences with or without risk of amputation. In this double-arm, open-label, Phase II clinical trial, we will enroll 30 patients with pathologically confirmed ESTS without nodal involvement or distant metastases. Patients are randomly assigned to the combination treatment group or the radiation monotherapy group. Additionally, tumor and biological samples will be obtained directly before and after neoadjuvant therapy, allowing for studies of immune response and primary drug resistance mechanisms.Clinical Trial Registration: ChiCTR2200060659 (http://www.chictr.org.cn) (ClinicalTrials.gov).

[Box: see text].

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To explore the relationship between serum folic acid (FA) or Vitamin B12 (VB12) and elevated BP in children and adolescents. Both a nested case control and a cohort study were designed to explore the relationship between serum folic acid (FA) or Vitamin B12 (VB12) and elevated blood pressure (BP). All the included participants were from primary school. A total of 326 subjects (116:210) in nested case control were from an established cohort. And 270 participants without hypertension at baseline and followed in 2019 in cohort. FA and VB12 levels were lower in the elevated BP group than in the control group, and homocysteine level was higher than that in the control group. In the elevated BP group, overweight/obese children had lower FA than overweight/obese children in the normal BP group. FA was positively correlated with high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and Apo lipoprotein A (APOA), but negatively correlated with triglyceride (TG). FA was significantly correlated with elevated BP in children and adolescents (ß = -0.353, P = 0.032), after adjusting VB12, and homocysteine (HCY), and the interaction effect of FA*HCY was significant. Both systolic and diastolic BP levels were statistically lower in the FA high exposure group than in the FA low exposure group in the cohort study. This study found that FA and vitamin B12 deficiency in childhood was correlated with elevated BP levels, which may affect BP by regulating lipid levels, and confirmed the importance of maintaining high levels of FA and vitamin B12 in childhood either by diet or supplementation.

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To let water jets land at the fire, pitch angle of the fire monitor has to be adjusted manually with successive rounds, which seriously affects the efficiency of fire extinguishing. To improve the efficiency, this paper proposes a technology for water jet trajectory modeling and landing point prediction to help with extinguishing automatically. Considering fragmentation and atomization of water jets, trajectories are analyzed and the predicted trajectory is closer to the real situation. Secondly, a compensation method for the prediction is proposed to further reduce the deviation between the predicted and the actual landing point, taking into account the combined effects of high altitude, initial jet velocity, and wind. On this basis, considering the difficulty of directly solving the analytical solution to the target initial pitch angle of the jets, a searching method is also proposed, which greatly improves the solving efficiency. Finally, through practical experiments and verification, the proposed model takes an average time of 0.00292 s, which is far less compared with other methods. The prediction error is improved by at least 45.3%, and the average deviation is less than 2 m.

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To explore the relationship between meaning in life and vulnerability to crisis among undergraduate nursing students and the chain mediating effect between moral values identification and positive psychological capital (PsyCap). A total of 330 undergraduate nursing students majoring in traditional Chinese medicine in ethnic minority areas of Yunnan Province were administered the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, Moral Values Identification Identity Questionnaire, Positive PsyCap Questionnaire, and Crisis Vulnerability Scale. Meaning in life was negatively correlated with crisis vulnerability and positively correlated with moral values identification and positive PsyCap. Crisis vulnerability was negatively correlated with moral values and positive PsyCap. Moral values was positively correlated with positive PsyCap. Chain mediation effect analysis demonstrated that meaning in life cannot directly predict crisis vulnerability, but it can predict crisis vulnerability through 3 indirect paths: the mediating role of moral values identification, the mediating role of positive PsyCap, and the chain mediating role of moral values identification and positive PsyCap. Meaning in life can indirectly reduce crisis vulnerability among undergraduate nursing students by enhancing moral values identification and positive PsyCap.

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According to the diagnostic criteria for HHV-8 (human herpesvirus-8) negative/idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease (iMCD) proposed by Castleman Disease Collaborative Network (CDCN) in 2017, there is a group of HHV-8 negative multicentric Castleman disease (MCD) patients who do not have symptoms and hyperinflammatory state and do not meet the iMCD criteria. This retrospective study enrolled 114 such patients, described as asymptomatic MCD (aMCD), from 26 Chinese centers from 2000-2021. With a median follow-up time of 46.5 months (range: 4-279 months), 6 patients (5.3%) transformed to iMCD. The median time between diagnosis of aMCD and iMCD in these 6 patients was 28.5 months (range: 3-60 months). During follow-up, 7 patients died; three of them died from progression of MCD. Despite that 37.7% patients received systemic treatment targeting MCD, this strategy was neither associated with a lower probability of iMCD transformation nor a lower death rate. The 5-year estimated survival of all aMCD patients was 94.1% (95% CI 88.8-99.6%). Transformation to iMCD was an important predictor of death (log-rank p=0.01) (5-year estimated survival 83.3%). This study suggests that aMCD patients may represent a potential early stage of iMCD, who may not require immediate treatment but should be closely monitored.

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Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a genetically predisposed allergic inflammatory dermatosis with chronic, pruritic, and recurrent features. Patients with AD have dry and itchy skin, often accompanied by chronic eczematous lesions, allergic rhinitis, or asthma, which has a considerable impact on their daily lives. With advances in genome sequencing technology, it has been demonstrated that microorganisms are involved in this disease, and the microorganisms associated with AD are attracting considerable research attention. An increasing number of studies conducted in recent years have demonstrated that an imbalanced microbiome in AD patients has substantial impact on disease prognosis, and the causes are closely tied to various immune mechanisms. However, the involvement of microorganisms in the pathogenesis of AD remains poorly understood. In this paper, we review the advances in research on the immunological mechanisms of the skin microbiome, intestinal microbiome, and lung microbiome that are related to AD prognosis and immunotherapy protocols. It is hoped that this approach will lay the foundation for exploring the pathogenesis of and emerging treatments for AD.

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Spatial variability of throughfall (i.e. the non-uniform characteristics of throughfall at different canopy positions) and its temporal persistence (i.e. time stability) are related to the quantity and efficiency of soil moisture replenishment, and affect plant competition and community succession dynamics by affecting resource availability. We carried out a meta-analysis with 554 papers (from 2000 to 2022) retrieved from Web of Science and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) based on keyword search, quantified and compared the amount, spatial heterogeneity, and temporal stability characteristics of penetrating rain in different climate zones and plant functional types. Our results that throughfall proportion was lower in arid regions (72.0%±13.6%) than humid (75.1%±9.3%) and semi-humid areas (79.9%±10.4%). Cold climates had lower values (74.1%±14.6%) than temperate (74.2%±7.5%) and tropical climates (80.9%±14.6%). Shrubs (68.9%±14.9%) generally had lower throughfall proportion than trees (76.7%±9.1%). Broad-leaved trees (75.2%±11.1%) and conifers (75.1%±9.9%) showed similar throughfall proportions, as did evergreen (76.7%±10.0%) and deciduous species (74.7%±11.9%). Additionally, spatial variability (coefficient of variation) did not significantly differ across rainfall zones, temperature zones, or vegetation types. The spatial distribution of throughfall was relatively stable. Canopy structure was the dominant factor affecting temporal stability of throughfall. However, there was a lack of comparison between typical geographic units (i.e. spatial units with basically consistent geographical environmental conditions) at various temporal scales. Future research should expand upwards to the summary of global spatial scale rules and downwards to the analysis of process based temporal scale mechanisms, to depict the dynamic distribution of penetrating rain and unify observation standards to enhance comparability of different studies, in order to efficiently promote research on canopy penetrating rain and provide ecological and hydrological basis for protecting nature, managing artificial activities, and restoring degraded ecosystems.

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Soil microorganisms are key to ecological environment stability, but climate change and human activities exacerbate ecological environment changes. Therefore, assessment of ecological environment quality impacts on microbial diversity is needed. The Tarim River is the largest inland river in China and plays a crucial role in supporting regional biodiversity, maintaining ecological balance, and preventing desertification. In this study, we used the Remote Sensing-based Ecological Index (RSEI) to assess the ecological quality of habitats in the Tarim River Basin and explore the effects of habitat quality (extreme, semi-extreme, and general) on the structural diversity of microbial (bacterial and fungal) communities, biogeographic patterns, co-occurrence networks, and community assembly processes. Study results show that soil physicochemical characteristics varied significantly with habitat quality; highly resilient microorganisms are more abundant in habitats with low ecological quality. RSEI affects changes in microbial communities, and the positive correlation ratio of the network is inversely proportional to RSEI. The interspecific relationships of microbial communities in the Tarim River Basin are dominated by positive correlations, and community assembly is strongly influenced by stochastic processes. RSEI directly affects soil microbial diversity, with its contribution to both bacterial and fungal diversity being 0.27. Total nitrogen (TN) also directly affects microbial diversity, with effects of 0.11 on bacteria and 0.07 on fungi, respectively. This study provides scientific evidence and technical support for understanding microbial diversity in environments and for the development of regional sustainable development policies.

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Mucosal immunity typically involves innate and adaptive immune cells, while the cellular mechanism of teleost's intestinal immune cells that engages gut homeostasis against bacterial infection remains largely unknown. Taking advantage of the enteric fish pathogen (Edwardsiella piscicida) infection-induced intestinal inflammation in turbot (Scophthalmus maximus), we find that ß-glucan training could mitigate the bacterial infection-induced intestinal inflammation. Through single-cell transcriptome profiling and cellular function analysis, we identify that E. piscicida infection could tune down the activation of intestinal Th17 cells, while ß-glucan-training could preserve the potential to amplify and restore the function of intestinal Th17 cells. Moreover, through pharmacological inhibitor treatment, we identify that Th17 cells are essential for ameliorating bacterial infection-induced intestinal inflammation in teleost. Taken together, these results suggest a new concept of trained immunity activation to regulate the intestinal Th17 cells' function, which might contribute to better developing strategies for maintaining gut homeostasis against bacterial infection.

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AIM: Chemosensory anhedonia refers to the lack of hedonic ability to experience pleasure through the senses of smell and taste, which reduces the pleasure and comfort of food, and increases the risk of nutritional and immune deficiencies. However, there is no direct scientific evidence regarding chemosensory anhedonia in patients with late-life depression (LLD). The aim of this study was to investigate chemosensory anhedonia in patients with LLD, and its potential association with depressive symptoms and cognitive function. METHODS: A total of 114 patients with LLD and 92 normal controls were included in this study. They experienced clinical assessment, Chemosensory Pleasure Scale assessment, 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale assessment and cognitive assessments, which contain the Verbal Fluency Test. The associations between chemosensory pleasure and depressive symptoms or cognitive function in patients with LLD were explored using partial correlation analysis and mediation analysis. RESULTS: The Chemosensory Pleasure Scale scores were lower in the LLD group than in the normal control group, and were negatively correlated with the total scores and factors' scores (retardation, cognitive bias and anxiety/somatization) of the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, and positively correlated with the Verbal Fluency Test scores. The scores for the Food and Imagination dimensions of the Chemosensory Pleasure Scale showed partial mediating effects on the differences in Cognitive bias (a factor of the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale) between patients with LLD and normal controls. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with LLD showed significant chemosensory anhedonia, and both depressive symptoms and cognitive impairment were associated with the severity of chemosensory anhedonia. Enhancing chemosensory pleasure in patients with LLD could potentially ameliorate their depressive symptoms. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2024; 24: 1022-1029.

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Mutations in the pituitary-specific transcription factor Prophet of Pit-1 (PROP1) are the most common genetic etiology of combined pituitary hormone deficiency (CPHD). CPHD is associated with short stature, attributable to growth hormone deficiency and/or thyroid-stimulating hormone deficiency, as well as hypothyroidism and infertility. Pathogenic lesions impair pituitary development and differentiation of endocrine cells. We performed single-cell RNA sequencing of pituitary cells from a wild-type and a Prop1-mutant P4 female mouse to elucidate population-specific differential gene expression. We observed a Smoc2+ve population that expressed low Sox2, which trajectory analyses suggest are a transitional cell state as stem cells differentiate into endocrine cells. We also detected ectopic expression of Sox21 in these cells in the Prop1df/df mutant. Prop1-mutant mice are known to overexpress Pou3f4, which we now show to be also enriched in this Smoc2+ve population. We sought to elucidate the role of Pou3f4 during pituitary development and to determine the contributions of Pou3f4 upregulation to pituitary disease by utilizing double-mutant mice lacking both Prop1 and Pou3f4. However, our data showed that Pou3f4 is not required for normal pituitary development and function. Double mutants further demonstrated that the upregulation of Pou3f4 was not causative for the overexpression of Sox21. These data indicate loss of Pou3f4 is not a potential cause of CPHD, and further studies may investigate the functional consequence of upregulation of Pou3f4 and Sox21, if any, in the novel Smoc2+ve cell population.

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BACKGROUND: Trypanosomiasis continue to pose a global threat to human health, with human infection mainly caused by Trypanosoma brucei and Trypanosoma cruzi. METHODS: We present a 30-year-old pregnant woman with persistent high fever from Shandong Province, China. High-throughput sequencing revealed the presence of Trypanosoma dionisii in blood. We conducted an analysis of the patient's clinical, epidemiological, and virological data. RESULTS: The patients exhibited fever, shortness of breath, chest tightness, accompanied by change in liver function and inflammatory response. She made a full recovery without any long-term effects. T. dionisii was detected in blood collected 23 days after onset of illness. The 18S rRNA gene sequence showed close similarity to T. dionisii found in bats from Japan, while the gGAPDH gene was closely related to T. dionisii from bats in Mengyin County, Shandong Province. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated the current T. dionisii belongs to clade B within its species group. Positive anti-Trypanosoma IgG antibody was detected from the patient on Day 23, 66 and 122 after disease onset, as well as the cord blood and serum from the newborn. Retrospective screening of wild small mammals captured from Shandong Province revealed a prevalence rate of 0.54% (7/1304) for T. dionisii; specifically among 0.81% (5/620) of Apodemus agrarius, and 0.46% (2/438) of Mus musculus. CONCLUSIONS: The confirmation of human infection with T. dionisii underscores its potential as a zoonotic pathogen, while the widespread presence of this parasite in rodent and bat species emphasizes the emerging threat it poses to human health.

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Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinu) is a grass bast fiber crop that has the ability to tolerate and accumulate heavy metals, and it has been considered as a potential heavy metal accumulator and remediation plant. Nramp is a natural resistance-related macrophage, which plays an important role in the transport of divalent metal ions, plant growth and development, and abiotic stress. In this study, the Nramp gene family of kenaf was analyzed at the whole genome level. A total of 15 HcNramp genes were identified. They are distributed unevenly on chromosomes. Phylogenetic analysis classified 15 HcNramp proteins into 3 different subfamilies. All proteins share specific motif 4 and motif 6, and the genes belonging to the same subfamily are similar in structure and motif. The promoters are rich in hormone response, meristem expression, and environmental stress response elements. Under different treatments, the expression levels of HcNramp genes vary in different tissues, and most of them are expressed in roots first. These findings can provide a basis for understanding the potential role of the Nramp gene family in kenaf in response to cadmium (Cd) stress, and are of great significance for screening related Cd tolerance genes in kenaf.

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Immune checkpoints blockade (ICB) therapies have demonstrated remarkable clinical success in treating cancer. However, its objective response rate remains suboptimal because current therapies rely on limited immune checkpoints that failed to cover the multiple immune evasion pathways of cancer. To explore potential ICB strategies, herein, we propose a glycoimmune checkpoint elimination (glycoICE) therapy depending on targeted edition of sialoglycans on tumor cell surface using aptamer-enzyme chimera (ApEC). The ApEC is readily generated via a one-step bioorthogonal procedure, allowing for large-scale and uniform production. The ApEC is able to target and desialylate cancer cells, leading to the elimination of sialoglycan-Siglec axis, which in turn activates immune cells and enhances immunotherapy efficiency. In addition to its remarkable therapeutic efficiency, the ApEC exhibits high tumor selectivity, which helps to avoid side effects caused by indiscriminate desialylation of normal tissues. Furthermore, the ApEC has the potential to be a versatile platform for specifical editing of sialoglycans in different tumor models by adjusting the aptamer sequences targeting associated with specific protein markers. This research not only introduces a novel molecular tool for the effective editing of sialoglycans in complex environments, but also provides valuable insights for advancing DNA-based drugs towards in vivo and clinical applications.

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Accurate prediction of PM10 concentration is important for effectively managing PM10 exposure and mitigating health and economic risks posed to humans in dry bulk ports. However, accurately capturing the time-series nonlinear variation characteristics of PM10 concentration is challenging owing to the specific intensity of port operation activities and the influence of meteorological factors. To address such challenges, a novel combined deep learning model （CLAF） was proposed, merging cascaded convolutional neural networks （CNN）, long short-term memory （LSTM）, and an attention mechanism （AM）. This integrated model aimed to forecast hourly PM10 concentration in dry bulk ports. First, using the random forest characteristic importance algorithm, the distinct meteorological factors were identified among the selected five meteorological factors. These selected factors were incorporated into the prediction model along with the PM10 concentration. Subsequently, the CNN layer was employed to extract high-dimensional time-varying features from the input variables, while the LSTM layer captured sequential features and long-term dependencies. In the AM layer, different weights were assigned to the output components of the LSTM layer to amplify the effects of important information. Finally, three evaluation metrics were applied to compare the performance of the CLAF model with three basic models and three commonly used prediction models. Real-case data was collected and used in this study. Comparison results demonstrated that considering the meteorological factors could improve the prediction accuracy and fitting performance of PM10 concentration in ports. The CLAF model reduced the mean absolute error statistic by 13.92%-56.9%, decreased the mean square error statistic by 45.99%-81.02%, and improved the goodness-of-fit statistic by 3.2%-15.5%.