Publications by authors named "BaoLi Zhu"

Forensic diagnosis of sudden cardiac death (SCD) is an extremely important part of routine forensic practice. The present study aimed to develop and validate nomograms for predicting the probability of SCD with special regards to ischemic heart disease-induced SCD (IHD-induced SCD) based on multiple autopsy variables. A total of 3322 cases, were enrolled and randomly assigned into a training cohort (n = 2325) and a validation cohort (n = 997), respectively.

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The risk evaluation of occupational exposure to xylene was conducted to provide a basis for the formulation of policies on the prevention and control of occupational hazards of xylene and to fill the gap in this field. In this study, a number of xylene-related companies in seven industries from 2020 to 2023 were collected as research subjects, and the health risks caused by xylene exposure were evaluated using the EPA model designated by the U.S.

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Paratyphoid B fever (PTB) is caused by an invasive lineage (phylogroup 1, PG1) of Salmonella enterica serotype Paratyphi B (SPB). However, little was known about the global population structure, geographic distribution, and evolution of this pathogen. Here, we report a whole-genome analysis of 568 historical and contemporary SPB PG1 isolates, obtained globally, between 1898 and 2021.

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Article Synopsis
  • Influenza and COVID-19 are two major respiratory diseases that have led to significant health challenges worldwide, prompting the need for an effective combined vaccine to avoid multiple doses.
  • Researchers created a chimeric protein subunit vaccine combining parts of the influenza virus and the SARS-CoV-2 virus, demonstrating effectiveness in mouse models against various strains.
  • An mRNA vaccine candidate was developed from this chimeric antigen, showing strong immune responses and complete protection in mice against both influenza and different strains of SARS-CoV-2, with the potential for easy adaptation to new variants.
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  • Virulence factor genes (VFGs) are important for bacterial infections and are present in the human gut microbiota, but their role in chronic diseases is not well understood.* -
  • The study created an expanded database (VFDB 2.0) with over 62,000 VFG variants and introduced the MetaVF toolkit for identifying VFGs in specific bacterial species.* -
  • Analysis of VFGs in gut microbiomes of patients with chronic diseases show both shared and unique features, particularly noting that certain E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae strains in type 2 diabetes carry specific VFG features.*
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  • Natural revegetation (VR) shows a greater increase in soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation compared to cropping over 24 years, primarily due to a higher contribution of plant-derived carbon.
  • The study reveals that recalcitrant organic carbon plays a larger role in SOC variation than easily oxidizable carbon, while microbial necromass percentages are similar between the two land use types.
  • Key factors influencing SOC formation include microbial and plant-derived sources, with soil nitrogen being significant in both VR and cropland; however, phosphorus content is crucial in cropland, whereas climatic factors are more important in VR.
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Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. As liver cancer often presents no noticeable symptoms in its early stages, most patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, complicating treatment. Therefore, the identification of new biomarkers is crucial for the early detection and treatment of HCC.

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Benzene is a common environmental pollutant and significant health hazard. Low-dose benzene exposure is common in most industrial settings, and some workers exhibit hematotoxicity characterized by impaired hematopoietic function. Consequently, understanding the early hematopoietic damage and biomarkers associated with low-dose benzene exposure is of critical importance for health risk assessment.

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Benzene, a common industrial solvent, poses significant health risks including poisoning and hematopoietic diseases. However, its precise toxicity mechanisms remain unclear. To assess the health impact of prolonged benzene exposure through metabolomic analyses of exposed workers and benzene-poisoned mice, aiming to identify biomarkers and minimize occupational hazards.

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Background: Healthcare settings may amplify transmission of respiratory pathogens, however empirical evidence is lacking. We aimed to describe the spectrum and distribution of respiratory pathogens among healthcare workers in eastern China.

Methods: Healthcare workers were recruited from October 2020 to November 2021 in Jiangsu province.

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Current influenza vaccines need to be updated annually owing to constant antigenic drift in the globular head of the viral surface hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein. The immunogenic subdominant stem domain of HA is highly conserved and can be recognized by antibodies capable of binding multiple HA subtypes. Therefore, the HA stem antigen is a promising target for the design of universal influenza vaccines.

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  • Mammalian endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are ancient retroviruses integrated into mammalian genomes, and their activity was previously underestimated until recent findings in mice highlighted their transcription.
  • This study focused on the American mink genome, identifying over 365,000 NeoERV loci, of which 44% were actively transcribed across different tissue types (amygdala, trachea, and lung).
  • Notably, many active NeoERV loci were specific to certain tissues and showed a positive correlation with host gene transcription, suggesting that some ERVs might play a role in host gene regulation and potentially immune responses.
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Phage therapy has shown great promise in the treatment of bacterial infections. However, the effectiveness of phage therapy is compromised by the inevitable emergence of phage-resistant strains. In this study, a phage-resistant carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strain SWKP1711R, derived from parental carbapenem-resistant K.

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  • The vaginal microbiota comprises five main community state types (CSTs), with CST I linked to healthy conditions and CST III and IV associated with infections and dysbiosis.
  • Analysis of 2017 vaginal samples showed that specific CST subtypes, particularly CST III-B and IV types, were prevalent in women suffering from bacterial vaginosis (BV).
  • A random forest classifier accurately predicted vaginal infections with an area under the curve of 0.83, unveiling significant bacterial signatures that can enhance clinical diagnosis and health status assessment in reproductive-age women.
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Background: The influence of the microbiota on hypoglycemic agents is becoming more apparent. The effects of metformin, a primary anti-diabetes drug, on gut microbiota are still not fully understood.

Research Design And Methods: This prospective cohort study aims to investigate the longitudinal effects of metformin on the gut microbiota of 25 treatment-naïve diabetes patients, each receiving a daily dose of 1500 mg.

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Intricate microbial associations contribute greatly to the multiple functions (multifunctionality) of natural ecosystems. However, the relationship between microbial associations and soil multifunctionality (SMF) in artificial ecosystems, particularly in agricultural ecosystem with frequent fertilization, remains unclear. In this study, based on a 28-year paddy field experiment, high-throughput sequencing and networks analysis was performed to investigate changes in soil microbial (archaea, bacteria, fungi, and protists) associations and how these changes correlate with SMF under long-term fertilization.

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The chemical transformations of methane (CH) and carbon dioxide (CO) greenhouse gases typically have high energy barriers. Here we present an approach of strategic coupling of CH oxidation and CO reduction in a switched microbial process governed by redox cycling of iron minerals under temperate conditions. The presence of iron minerals leads to an obvious enhancement of carbon fixation, with the minerals acting as the electron acceptor for CH oxidation and the electron donor for CO reduction, facilitated by changes in the mineral structure.

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The combined application of chemical and organic fertilizers has been recognized to enhance soil fertility and foster the soil microbial ecosystem. However, the optimal ratio of chemical and organic fertilizers in oilseed rape cultivation is still uncertain, and the role of rhizosphere effect is still unclear. Thus, this study aimed to elucidate the impacts of varying ratios of chemical and organic fertilizers on the structure and potential functionalities of rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil microbial communities.

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  • - Protocells likely existed before prokaryotes on early Earth and lacked internal mechanisms for regulating reproduction, relying instead on environmental factors.
  • - Researchers transformed a Gram-positive bacterium into a simple lipid-vesicle-like state to mimic protocells, allowing them to study reproduction under early Earth conditions.
  • - The study found that these modified cells reproduced in an organized manner, suggesting that primitive protocells may have used similar methods, despite lower efficiency compared to typical cells with cell walls.
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In the majority of occupational settings within China, the concentrations of benzene are observed to fall markedly below the demarcated detection thresholds. Employing traditional risk assessment models, the presence of exceptionally low airborne benzene exposure concentrations may infuse heightened degrees of uncertainty. Consequently, the necessity arises to investigate risk assessment methodologies more apt for the prevalent exposure environment among employees.

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Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the spatiotemporal distribution of patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and the factors influencing this distribution in Jiangsu Province, China, from 2011 to 2020.

Methods: The incidence of reported HCV in Jiangsu Province from 2011 to 2020 was obtained from the Chinese Information System for Disease Control and Prevention (CISDCP). R and GeoDa software were used to visualize the spatiotemporal distribution and the spatial autocorrelation of HCV.

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Article Synopsis
  • Coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP)
  • is a serious occupational disease primarily caused by exposure to respirable mine dust, affecting coal miners worldwide.
  • A study
  • involving nearly 9,000 coal workers from 1963 to 2014 found that while dust levels have decreased over time, the incidence of CWP among certain worker groups is still high.
  • Prediction models
  • were used to analyze CWP trends, with the Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity model outperforming the Auto Regression Integrate Moving Average model for predicting future incidence rates.
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Background: Liver Hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) exhibits a high incidence of liver cancer with escalating mortality rates over time. Despite this, the underlying pathogenic mechanism of LIHC remains poorly understood.

Materials & Methods: To address this gap, we conducted a comprehensive investigation into the role of G6PD in LIHC using a combination of bioinformatics analysis with database data and rigorous cell experiments.

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What Is Already Known On This Topic?: The global efforts to address the hepatitis C virus (HCV) are progressing, but there are still significant gaps in the diagnosis and treatment of HCV, leading to an increasing number of deaths related to HCV.

What Is Added By This Report?: An extensive investigation was conducted to assess HCV RNA diagnosis, treatment uptake, and associated factors among individuals infected with HCV within Jiangsu Province. The study encompassed a large geographical area and utilized a substantial sample size.

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