In the context of population ageing, the age-friendliness of neighborhood built environment (NBE) is increasingly recognized as essential for enabling ageing in place. However, while much research has focused on the impact of NBE on the physical health of older adults, its relationship with mental health (MH) remains underexplored, especially the pathways through which NBE indicators influence MH. This study measured NBE using ten indicators across three categories: daily travel (including barrier-free travel, elevator, rest seat, diversion of pedestrian and vehicle, road surface and public toilet), healthcare services (including public canteen and elderly care), and social participation (including outdoor fitness space and indoor activity space).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Platelet adhesion to collagen, a critical initial step in thrombus formation, remains an underexplored therapeutic target in thrombosis. Current disease treatment strategies primarily focus on platelet activation and aggregation, often overlooking the crucial initial adhesion phase. Reynoutria japonica (Huzhang, HZ), utilized in traditional Chinese medicine to enhance blood circulation and resolve blood stasis, lacks comprehensive insights into its active components and their anti-thrombotic mechanisms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Assessment and counseling are recommended for individuals with prenatal cannabis use. We examined characteristics that predict prenatal substance use assessment and counseling among individuals who screened positive for prenatal cannabis use in prenatal settings.
Methods: Electronic health record data from Kaiser Permanente Northern California's Early Start perinatal substance use screening, assessment, and counseling program was used to identify individuals with ≥1 pregnancies positive for prenatal cannabis use.
Insect Biochem Mol Biol
December 2024
Insect parasitoids have evolved sophisticated strategies to evade or modulate host immunity for parasitic infections. The precise mechanisms by which parasitoids counteract host anti-parasitic responses are poorly defined. Here we report a novel immune evasion strategy employed by the parasitoid Exorista sorbillans (Diptera: Tachinidae) to establish infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAccurate and rapid taxonomic classifications are essential for systematically exploring organisms and metabolites in diverse environments. Many tools have been developed for biological taxonomic trees, but limitations apply, and a streamlined method for constructing chemical taxonomic trees is notably absent. We present the iPhylo suite (https://www.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicroplastics (MPs) are pervasive environmental contaminants, resulting in unavoidable human exposure. This study identified MPs in follicular fluid and investigated the specific MPs and mechanisms that adversely affect oocytes. MPs in the follicular fluid of 44 infertile women undergoing assisted reproductive technology were measured using Raman microspectroscopy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMacrophages are key players in maintaining the balance of tissues and dealing with inflammation, carrying out vital functions specific to different tissues while safeguarding the body against infections. The intricate interplay between oxidative stress and macrophage polarization and how this contributes to pneumonia is not fully understood. Herein, a predominant accumulation of baicalein in lung macrophages of pathogen-infected mice was observed by an alkynyl-modified probe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPediatric middle ear cholesteatoma is an aggressive keratotic lesion caused by abnormal proliferation of keratinised squamous epithelium in the temporal bone, with the characteristics of high postoperative recurrence rate, poor hearing effect and poor quality of life. Endoscopic surgery is able to deal with the majority of pediatric middle ear cholesteatoma cases with the features of minimal trauma and wide surgical field. However, endoscopic surgical treatment still has problems in standardization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndoscopic ear surgery is currently widely applied in middle ear and lateral skull base procedures, driving the development of ear surgery towards minimally invasive approaches and function preservation. Endoscopic techniques offer many advantages. However, the learning curve is relatively steep, requiring surgeons to overcome challenges such as single-handed operation and a lack of spatial awareness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStraw return improves soil carbon pool and dissolved organic matter (DOM) characteristics in black soil. Optimal straw return rate is the key to promoting straw return practices in farmland in Northeast China. The experiment was conducted at the Science and Technology Park of China Grain Storage and Northern Corporation in NenJiang, Heilongjiang Province, straw return at 0 kg hm, 3000 kg hm, 4500 kg hm, and 9000 kg hm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPharmacol Res
December 2024
The utilization of ground-breaking large language models (LLMs) accompanied with dialogue system has been progressively prevalent in the medical domain. Nevertheless, the expertise of LLMs in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) remains restricted despite several TCM LLMs proposed recently. Herein, we introduced TCMChat (https://xomics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of different belly board and daily changes in patient's body-mass factor (BMF) on setup displacement in radiotherapy for rectal cancer.
Methods: Twenty-five patients were immobilized using the thermoplastic mask with belly board (TM-BB), and 30 used the vacuum bag cushion with belly board (VBC-BB), performing daily cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans 625 times and 750 times, respectively. Daily pretreatment CBCT scans were registered to the planned CT images for BMF change determination and setup displacement measurement.
Intense noise poses a threat to spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) in the inner ear, often resulting in limited axonal regeneration during noise injury and leading to noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Here, we propose an ultrasound-triggered nitric oxide (NO) release to enhance the sprouting and regeneration of injured axons in SGNs. We developed hollow silicon nanoparticles to load nitrosylated N-acetylcysteine, producing HMSN-SNO, which effectively protects NO from external interferences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeven new alkaloids [, (±)-, (±)-, , and ] and one new natural product (), along with eight known analogues, were isolated from the tubers of Schott. Their structures were determined by a comprehensive analysis of spectroscopic data, including HRESIMS, and electronic circular dichroism (ECD). In addition, the results of the bioactivity evaluation showed that compounds (±)-, , and exhibited significantly protective effects against A-induced PC-12 cell injury and ameliorated cell viabilities by decreasing the levels of the reactive oxidative species (ROS) and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInternal disease in asphalt pavement is a crucial indicator of pavement health and serves as a vital basis for maintenance and rehabilitation decisions. It is closely related to the optimization and allocation of funds by highway maintenance management departments. Accurate and rapid identification of internal pavement diseases is essential for improving overall pavement quality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThree-color electrophoretic display (EPD) is emerging as a display technology due to its extremely low energy consumption and excellent reflective properties. However, in the process of black and white color image transition, due to the different driving characteristics of red particles, the particles within the three-color EPD cannot be ideally driven to the target position, resulting in the appearance of a red ghost image. For this reason, this study utilized the COMSOL 5.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe study theoretically the Josephson current through a junction composed of quadruple quantum dots (QDs), of which only one is coupled directly to the left and right superconductor leads (denoted by QD1). The other three QDs are side-coupled to QD1 and free from coupling to the leads. It is found that when the energy levels of all the four QDs are identical, the Josephson current varying with energy level of QD1 develops three peaks with two narrow and one wide, showing the typical Dicke lineshape.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Hazardous drinking is a public health problem affecting approximately 20 % of the U.S. primary care population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This study investigated the factors influencing treatment continuity and bone marrow suppression in whole-brain and whole-spinal cord radiotherapy for medulloblastoma, providing a clinical reference for mitigating the impact of hematological suppression on radiotherapy continuity.
Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on patients with medulloblastoma who underwent craniospinal irradiation (CSI) radiotherapy at our hospital between August 2019 and December 2023. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 87 patients were enrolled.
Aims: This study examined differential changes in alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic among adults with unhealthy alcohol use.
Methods: Among 62 924 adults identified with unhealthy alcohol use in primary care prepandemic (1 January 2019 to 29 February 2020), changes in alcohol use during the pandemic (1 March 2020 to 30 June 2022) were examined using electronic health record data from Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Outcomes were changes in heavy drinking days in the past three months (HDDs) and overall consumption (drinks/week), including continuous and categorical measures.
We study theoretically the supercurrent and the superconducting diode effect (SDE) in a structure comprising parallel-coupled double quantum dots (DQDs) sandwiched between two superconductor leads in the presence of a magnetic flux. The influence of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction (RSOI), which induces a spin-dependent phase factor in the dot-superconductor coupling strength, is taken into account by adopting the nonequilibrium Green's function technique. This RSOI-induced phase factor serves as a driving force for the supercurrent in addition to the usual superconducting phase difference, and it leads to the system's left/right asymmetry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChin Med J (Engl)
September 2024
Definitive treatment of lung cancer with radiotherapy is challenging, as respiratory motion and anatomical changes can increase the risk of severe off-target effects during radiotherapy. Online adaptive radiotherapy (ART) is an evolving approach that enables timely modification of a treatment plan during the interfraction of radiotherapy, in response to physiologic or anatomic variations, aiming to improve the dose distribution for precise targeting and delivery in lung cancer patients. The effectiveness of online ART depends on the seamless integration of multiple components: sufficient quality of linear accelerator-integrated imaging guidance, deformable image registration, automatic recontouring, and efficient quality assurance and workflow.
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