Semen Cuscutae flavonoids activated the cAMP-PKA-CREB-BDNF pathway and exerted an antidepressant effect in mice.

Background: Semen Cuscutae flavonoids (SCFs) constitute a class of metabolites of Semen Cuscutae, a botanical drug that was recently found to have an anti-depression effect. This study aimed to evaluate the anti-depression effects of SCFs in chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS)-induced mice and to interrogate the underlying mechanisms.

Materials And Methods: The CUMS mice were used for assessing the effects of SCFs treatments on depression.

The effects of aerobic exercise for depression: An umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Objective: This review aims to determine whether aerobic exercise is beneficial in treating depression in adults in general.

Methods: Review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses related to RCTs. PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase, and Cochrane databases of systematic reviews were searched extensively between September 2009 and September 2023.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is linked to an amended anti-tumorigenic microenvironment in gastric cancer.

Background: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is a frequently intervention for patients with locally advanced gastric cancer (GC). Nevertheless, its impact on the tumor immune microenvironment remains unclear.

Methods: We used immunohistochemistry to identify T-cell subpopulations, tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs), and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in the GC microenvironment (GCME) among paired samples (pre-chemotherapy and post-chemotherapy) from 48 NAC-treated patients.

The Pro-Tumor Biological Function of IL-36α Plays an Important Role in the Tumor Microenvironment of HCC.

Purpose: To investigate the role of IL-36 in the tumorigenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). IL-36 composed of a natural antagonist (IL-36Ra) and three agonists (IL-36α, -β, -γ) that stimulate inflammation by binding to a common receptor consisting of IL-36R and IL-1RAcP. HCC is a common malignancy associated with high morbidity and mortality, often diagnosed at later stages.

Deep Reinforcement Learning for Joint Trajectory Planning, Transmission Scheduling, and Access Control in UAV-Assisted Wireless Sensor Networks.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be used to relay sensing information and computational workloads from ground users (GUs) to a remote base station (RBS) for further processing. In this paper, we employ multiple UAVs to assist with the collection of sensing information in a terrestrial wireless sensor network. All of the information collected by the UAVs can be forwarded to the RBS.

Restaurant customers' food leftover reduction intention derived from nature connection and biospheric values: A comparison between men and women.

As the COVID-19 pandemic extends over a long period of time, the World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that food insecurity would take place in the near future. Previous studies focused on various kinds of interventions for food waste prevention. Surprisingly, however, research tackling consumer attitudes and behaviors as a way to reduce food waste is still rare.

Screening of potential biomarkers in peripheral blood of patients with depression based on weighted gene co-expression network analysis and machine learning algorithms.

Background: The prevalence of depression has been increasing worldwide in recent years, posing a heavy burden on patients and society. However, the diagnostic and therapeutic tools available for this disease are inadequate. Therefore, this research focused on the identification of potential biomarkers in the peripheral blood of patients with depression.

Differential cardiac geometry during pregnancy in lean versus obese mice.

Background: Pregnancy is a sensitive window where factors adversely affecting maternal cardiac health may leave women vulnerable to cardiovascular disease (CVD) later in life. However, it is not clear how cardiac changes during pregnancy influence long-term cardiovascular health. Obesity, an independent risk factor for CVD, promotes adverse cardiac remodeling.

Hotel Guests' Psychological Distance of Climate Change and Environment-Friendly Behavior Intention.

Climate change is certainly a global problem that negatively affects all nations, and thus all humans, on the globe. Nevertheless, little is known about people's perceptions of climate change and its effects on people's attitudinal and behavioral responses to climate change. The present study successfully addressed how hotel guests' environment-friendly behavior intention is formed through their self-perception as a member of the global community and their psychological distance of climate change.

Facilitators and Reducers of Korean Travelers' Avoidance/Hesitation Behaviors toward China in the Case of COVID-19.

Given that little is known about overseas travelers' responses and behaviors toward China after the outbreak of COVID-19, this study aimed to uncover risk perception factors and investigate its role in Korean travelers' avoidance/hesitation behaviors toward China as an international tourism destination in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic. To explore the relationship with risk perception, anticipated emotion and avoidance/hesitation behavior, a quantitative method along with an online survey was employed. This focus was on Korean tourists who had traveled to China at least once.

Promotes HCC Migration/Invasion via Increasing Aerobic Glycolysis.

Background: The mortality and morbidity of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are still unacceptably high, despite decades of extensive studies. Aerobic glycolysis is a hallmark of cancer metabolism, closely relating to invasion and metastasis of HCC. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in the regulation of aerobic glycolysis.

Promoting Rural Tourism in Inner Mongolia: Attributes, Satisfaction, and Behaviors among Sustainable Tourists.

With the growth of rural tourism in China, this study aims to determine the destination attributes, tourism satisfaction, and intention of revisiting Inner Mongolia. This study also investigated the mean comparison of tourist satisfaction and revisit intention across domestic tourists' demographic characteristics. Structural analysis revealed that destination attributes have a positive influence on satisfaction and revisit intention.

Helicobacter pylori infection is associated with the co-occurrence of bacteria in the oral cavity and the gastric mucosa.

Background: Pathogens capable of impacting gastrointestinal tract tumor development are located in the oral cavity, but whether these oral bacteria are able to colonize the gastric mucosa in gastric cancer (GC) patients and whether Helicobacter pylori infection can influence this process remains to be established.

Methods: Microbial 16S rDNA deep sequencing was conducted to characterize bacteria present in paired gastric mucosa and tongue coating samples in 27 patients with superficial gastritis (SG) and 11 GC patients.

Results: While the overall composition of the gastric mucosa and tongue coating microbiomes differed substantially, certain bacteria were present in both of these communities.

Bibliometric Analysis on COVID-19: A Comparison of Research Between English and Chinese Studies.

As an emerging infectious disease, COVID-19 has garnered great research interest. We aimed to explore the differences between English language and Chinese language Medical/Scientific journals publications, particularly aiming to explore the efficacy/contents of the literature published in English and Chinese in relation to the outcomes of management and characterization of COVID-19 during the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic. Publications on COVID-19 research were retrieved from both English and Chinese databases.

A Comparison of Tumor-Associated and Non-Tumor-Associated Gastric Microbiota in Gastric Cancer Patients.

Background: How gastric cancer (GC) incidence is associated with changes in the gastric microbiome has not been firmly established. The present study therefore aims to investigate the microbial communities present within the gastric mucosa of patients with superficial gastritis (SG) or GC.

Methods: Paired tumor and paracancerous samples of the gastric mucosa were collected from 18 patients being surgically treated for GC and from 32 patients with SG being treated via gastroscopy.

Coupled-mode theory for plasmonic resonators integrated with silicon waveguides towards mid-infrared spectroscopic sensing.

Advances in mid-IR lasers, detectors, and nanofabrication technology have enabled new device architectures to implement on-chip sensing applications. In particular, direct integration of plasmonic resonators with a dielectric waveguide can generate an ultra-compact device architecture for biochemical sensing via surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA) spectroscopy. A theoretical investigation of such a hybrid architecture is imperative for its optimization.

Cardiac hypertrophy with obesity is augmented after pregnancy in C57BL/6 mice.

Background: Over a third of reproductive-age women in the USA are obese, and the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is rising in premenopausal women. Cardiac hypertrophy is an independent predictor of CVD. In contrast to pregnancy, where transiently increased left ventricular (LV) mass is not associated with cardiac damage, obesity-mediated cardiac hypertrophy is pathological.

Emodin and AZT synergistically inhibit the proliferation and induce the apoptosis of leukemia K562 cells through the EGR1 and the Wnt/β‑catenin pathway.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the synergistic antitumor effects of emodin and 3'‑azido‑3'‑deoxythymidine (AZT) on human chronic myeloid leukemia cells and to explore the possible underlying mechanisms. The K562 cells were treated with emodin and AZT, and the rates of cell inhibition and apoptosis were determined by MTT assay and flow cytometry, respectively. The mRNA expression of EGR1 was detected by reverse transcription‑polymerase chain reaction (RT‑PCR) analysis.

Effects of preconditioning hamstring resistance exercises on repeated sprinting-induced muscle damage in female soccer players.

To examine whether adding preconditioning hamstring resistance exercises to a regular warm-up prior to a repeated sprinting exercise provides protection against the sprinting-induced muscle damage. Ten female soccer players (mean ± SD age: 21.3 ± 4.

[Effects of Tcd A on Rho GTPases and the Cytoskeleton of Leukemia Cell Line K562].

Objective: To investigate the effect of clostridium difficile toxin A(TcdA) on the Rho GTPases and the cytoskeleton in K562 cells.

Methods: K562 cells were cultured in vitro with different concentration of TcdA.The effect of TcdA proliferation of cells was detected by MTT method after the K562 cells were stimulated with TcdA for 24,48 and 72h; the expression of cdc42, RhoA, Rac1 mRNA was assessed by RT-PCR; the changes of the microtubule, the microfilament were observed by confocal laser scanning microscopy.

Waveguide-Integrated Compact Plasmonic Resonators for On-Chip Mid-Infrared Laser Spectroscopy.

The integration of nanoplasmonic devices with a silicon photonic platform affords a new approach for efficient light delivery by combining the high field enhancement of plasmonics and the ultralow propagation loss of dielectric waveguides. Such a hybrid integration obviates the need for a bulky free-space optics setup and can lead to fully integrated, on-chip optical sensing systems. Here, we demonstrate ultracompact plasmonic resonators directly patterned atop a silicon waveguide for mid-infrared spectroscopic chemical sensing.

Waveguide-integrated mid-infrared plasmonics with high-efficiency coupling for ultracompact surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy.

Waveguide-integrated plasmonics is a growing field with many innovative concepts and demonstrated devices in the visible and near-infrared. Here, we extend this body of work to the mid-infrared for the application of surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA), a spectroscopic method to probe molecular vibrations in small volumes and thin films. Built atop a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide platform, two key plasmonic structures useful for SEIRA are examined using computational modeling: gold nanorods and coaxial nanoapertures.

Effects of the combination of AsO and AZT on proliferation inhibition and apoptosis induction of hepatoma HepG2 cells following silencing of Egr-1.

Context: Previous studies have demonstrated that 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (AZT) and arsenic trioxide (AsO), traditional chemotherapy agents, can synergically inhibit the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying AsO and AZT anti-hepatoma activity are unknown.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the role of early growth response protein 1 (Egr-1) in the process of AsO combined with AZT inhibiting proliferation and inducing apoptosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells, and explore the possible mechanism.

Acute effects of different dynamic exercises on hamstring strain risk factors.

The purpose of the study was to examine the acute effects of different dynamic exercise interventions on hamstring muscle performance. Thirty-six young men with poor hamstring flexibility were randomly assigned to three intervention groups: jogging combined with dynamic open kinetic chain stretching (DS), jogging combined with dynamic closed kinetic chain stretching (lunge with eccentric hamstring windmills, LEC), and jogging only (CON) groups. Hamstring flexibility, muscle stiffness (area under the curve, AUC), joint position sense (JPS), maximal eccentric strength (ECC), and angle of peak torque (APT) were recorded before and immediately after the exercise interventions.

Identification of RING-box 2 as a potential target for combating colorectal cancer growth and metastasis.

Development of cancer metastasis is a key contributor to mortality in patients with colorectal cancer. High expression of RING-box 2 (RBX2) in cancer cells is known to play a key role in tumor progression. However, the role of RBX2 in colorectal cancer progression is not well elucidated.