Publications by authors named "DC Lu"

The rapid proliferation of the emerging hazardous pollutant, copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs), has raised significant ecological concerns in marine environments. The study comprehensively investigates the toxicity of CuO NPs on nine Chinese resident marine organisms across five phyla and eight families of marine organisms. Adhering to the "Technical guideline for deriving water quality criteria for marine organisms (on trial)", we employ species susceptibility distribution (SSD) and species susceptibility ranking (SSR) methods to establish specific seawater quality criteria for CuO NPs.

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  • Thyroid hormones (THs) have an unclear effect on chronic thyrotoxic myopathy (CTM), prompting a study on their sensitivity and related risks in patients with Graves' disease.
  • A total of 162 patients were divided into CTM and non-CTM groups, and various muscle strength and function tests were conducted to assess their relationship with TH sensitivity.
  • Results showed that higher sensitivity to THs (measured by TFQI) was linked to an increased risk of CTM, with specific tests like lower-limb fatigue (LLFT) and squat-up (SUT) effectively predicting CTM in male and female patients, respectively.
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Pyroptosis, a lytic and pro-inflammatory cell death, is important in various pathophysiological processes. Host- and bacteria-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs), as natural nanocarriers messengers, are versatile mediators of intercellular communication between different types of cells. Recently, emerging research has suggested that EVs exhibit multifaceted roles in disease progression by manipulating pyroptosis.

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Aim: After spinal cord injuries (SCIs), patients may develop either detrusor-sphincter dyssynergia (DSD) or urinary incontinence, depending on the level of the spinal injury. DSD and incontinence reflect the loss of coordinated neural control among the detrusor muscle, which increases bladder pressure to facilitate urination, and urethral sphincters and pelvic floor muscles, which control the bladder outlet to restrict or permit bladder emptying. Transcutaneous magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied to the spinal cord after SCI reduced DSD and incontinence.

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The escalating use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) across various sectors for their broad-spectrum antimicrobial capabilities, has raised concern over their potential ecotoxicological effects on aquatic life. This study explores the impact of AgNPs (50 μg/L) on the marine clam Ruditapes philippinarum, with a particular focus on its gills and digestive glands. We adopted an integrated approach that combined in vivo exposure, biochemical assays, and transcriptomic analysis to evaluate the toxicity of AgNPs.

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  • - Marine microalgae, or phytoplankton, are crucial in global carbon cycling as they fix nearly half of the world's carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, especially during significant blooms where their biomass is composed mainly of polysaccharides.
  • - A study analyzed polysaccharide-degrading bacteria during a phytoplankton bloom, revealing distinct groups of bacteria based on size: smaller free-living bacteria and larger particle-attached ones, with the latter showing greater diversity and adaptive changes over time.
  • - The research produced 305 species-level genomes, including 152 from particle-attached bacteria, many of which were novel to the area; these genomes indicated a greater capacity for utilizing a wider range of polysaccharides, showcasing their
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Objective: Cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) can cause significant difficulty with driving and a subsequent reduction in an individual's quality of life due to neurological deterioration. The positive impact of surgery on postoperative patient-reported driving capabilities has been seldom explored.

Methods: The CSM module of the Quality Outcomes Database was utilized.

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Study Design: Retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database.

Objective: Assess differences in preoperative status and postoperative outcomes among patients of different educational backgrounds undergoing surgical management of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM).

Summary Of Background Data: Patient education level (EL) has been suggested to correlate with health literacy, disease perception, socioeconomic status (SES), and access to health care.

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Objective: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a known risk factor for postsurgical and systemic complications after lumbar spinal surgery. Smaller studies have also demonstrated diminished improvements in patient-reported outcomes (PROs), with increased reoperation and readmission rates after lumbar surgery in patients with DM. The authors aimed to examine longer-term PROs in patients with DM undergoing lumbar decompression and/or arthrodesis for degenerative pathology.

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Minimally invasive surgical (MIS) approaches to the spine are increasingly adopted for intradural pathology. In this setting, they may especially be useful to minimize risk of CSF leakage due to the decreased disruption to paraspinal musculature and minimal dead space. Herein, the authors demonstrate their technique for the resection of an intradural thoracolumbar schwannoma in a 30-year-old woman via an MIS approach using a nonexpandable tubular retractor.

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A novel Gram-stain-negative, aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped and orange-colored bacterium, designated as strain C305, was isolated from marine sediment of the coast area of Weihai, China. Strain C305 growth occurs at 4-40 °C (optimally at 30-33 °C), pH 6.0-9.

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Water quality criteria (WQC) for zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are crucial due to their extensive industrial use and potential threats to marine organisms. This study conducted toxicity tests using marine organisms in China, revealing LC or EC values for ZnO NPs ranging from 0.36 to 95.

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Article Synopsis
  • A new bacterial strain, N1Y112, was isolated from coastal sediment in Weihai, PR China, and is characterized as a Gram-negative, motile, facultatively anaerobic rod that can oxidize thiosulphate and reduce nitrate.
  • The strain thrives best at 28°C, pH 7.5, and a salt concentration of 3.0%, and has a distinctive lipid profile and quinones.
  • Phylogenetic analysis shows that N1Y112 is closely related to JCM 30316 but has significant genomic differences, leading to its classification as a new species within its genus, designated as sp. nov. with type strain N1Y112.
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Background: Macroalgal epiphytic microbial communities constitute a rich resource for novel enzymes and compounds, but studies so far largely focused on tag-based microbial diversity analyses or limited metagenome sequencing of single macroalgal species.

Results: We sampled epiphytic bacteria from specimens of Ulva sp. (green algae), Saccharina sp.

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Study Design: Prospective randomized.

Objective: Intraoperative methylprednisolone is a common adjunct following microscopic laminectomy/microdiscectomy. The goal of epidural instillation is a rapid symptomatic reduction in irritation of neural elements.

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Study Design: Prospective observational study, level of evidence 1 for prognostic investigations.

Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of sleep impairment and predictors of improved sleep quality 24 months postoperatively in cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) using the quality outcomes database.

Summary Of Background Data: Sleep disturbances are a common yet understudied symptom in CSM.

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Two novel strains (N1Y82 and N1F302) were isolated from a marine sediment sample taken from the coastal zone of Weihai, PR China. Cells of the two strains were Gram-strain-negative, catalase-positive, oxidase-positive, non-motile and ovoid- to rod-shaped. Strain N1Y82 grew optimally at 16 °C, pH 7.

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We tested the hypothesis that dorsal cervical epidural electrical stimulation (CEES) increases respiratory activity in male and female anesthetized rats. Respiratory frequency and minute ventilation were significantly increased when CEES was applied dorsally to the C2-C6 region of the cervical spinal cord. By injecting pseudorabies virus into the diaphragm and using c-Fos activity to identify neurons activated during CEES, we found neurons in the dorsal horn of the cervical spinal cord in which c-Fos and pseudorabies were co-localized, and these neurons expressed somatostatin (SST).

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Advancing electronics to interact with tissue necessitates meeting material constraints in electrochemical, electrical, and mechanical domains simultaneously. Clinical bioelectrodes with established electrochemical functionalities are rigid and mechanically mismatched with tissue. Whereas conductive materials with tissue-like softness and stretchability are demonstrated, when applied to electrochemically probe tissue, their performance is distorted by strain and corrosion.

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The nucleic acid test is still the standard assessment for the diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by human infection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In addition to supporting the confirmation of disease cases, serological assays are used for the analysis of antibody status and epidemiological surveys. In this study, a single Western blot strip (WBS) coated with multiple Escherichia coli (E.

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Hyperthyroidism is associated with a number of heart diseases, and it may aggravate previous cardiac problems or cause new ones, such as hyperthyroid cardiopathy. Cases of hyperthyroidism presenting with coronary vasospasm are rarely reported. Herein, we present a case of a 54-year male patient with recurrent left chest pain for 2 months.

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Background/purpose Of The Study: There is a need to find a standardized and low-risk diagnostic tool that can non-invasively detect non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), which is a technique combining Raman spectroscopy (RS) with nanotechnology, has recently received considerable attention due to its potential for improving medical diagnostics. We aimed to investigate combining SERS and neural network approaches, using a liver biopsy dataset to develop and validate a new diagnostic model for non-invasively identifying NASH.

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Survivors of traumatic brain injury (TBI) have an unpredictable clinical course. This unpredictability makes clinical resource allocation for clinicians and anticipatory guidance for patients difficult. Historically, experienced clinicians and traditional statistical models have insufficiently considered all available clinical information to predict functional outcomes for a TBI patient.

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Radix Asteris (RA), also known as 'Zi Wan', is the dried root and rhizome of L. f., which has been used to treat cough and asthma in many countries such as China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

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Rodents' lifestyles vary in different environments, and to adapt to various lifestyles specific digestion strategies have been developed. Among these strategies, the morphology of the digestive tracts and the gut microbiota are considered to play the most important roles in such adaptations. However, how subterranean rodents adapt to extreme environments through regulating gut microbial diversity and morphology of the digestive tract has yet to be fully studied.

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