Purpose: The caregiver burden of individuals with dysphagia is a major concern. Currently, assessment tools specifically designed for this population are lacking. The present study aimed to translate the Caregiver Analysis of Reported Experiences with Swallowing Disorders (CARES) Questionnaire into Mandarin Chinese and evaluate its psychometric properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEthnopharmacological Relevance: Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is a relatively common fungal infectious disease in the female reproductive tract. The pathogenesis of VVC not only involves Candida albicans (C. albicans) infection, but also the improper immune response of the vaginal mucosal immune system to the fungus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Maize is a major feed and industrial crop and pivotal for ensuring global food security. In light of global warming and climate change, improving maize tolerance to water deficit is crucial. Identification and functional analysis of drought tolerance genes have potential practical importance in understanding the molecular mechanisms of drought stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe leaf economic spectrum (LES) captures key leaf functional trait relationships, defining a conservative-acquisitive axis of plant resource utilization strategies. Examining the leaf trait network (LTN) is useful for understanding resource utilization strategies but also more broadly, the ecological strategies of plants. However, the relationship between the LES conservation-acquisition axis and LTN correlations across environmental gradients is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne challenge remaining in the development of Ir-based electrocatalyst is the activity-stability paradox during acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), especially for the surface reconstructed IrO catalyst with high efficiency. To address this, a phase selective Ir-based electrocatalyst is constructed by forming bridged W-O moiety in NiIrO electrocatalyst. Through an electrochemical dealloying process, an nano-porous structure with surface-hydroxylated rutile NiWIrO electrocatalyst is engineered via Ni as a sacrificial element.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: To investigate and identify different profiles of occupational burnout among Chinese nurses and explore how these burnout profiles moderate the relationship between the nursing work environment and perceived care quality. : Cross-sectional data retrieved from the Chinese Nursing Work Environment Survey (C-NWES) were used for analysis. Variables of interest included occupational burnout, the nursing work environment, nurses' perceived care quality, and demographic characteristics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe increasing integration of renewable energy sources in the UK electricity sector has posed challenges to the stability of the system, leading to a sharp rise in the costs of balancing services. This study analyses half-hourly data from January 2017 to December 2023 to examine the factors determining the imbalance price in the UK's balancing mechanism, with particular focus on the sharp price increases in 2021-2022. Employing a Generalised Additive Model (GAM) to account for non-linear relationships, the analysis finds that the imbalance price is positively affected by the net imbalance volume (demand-side factor) and negatively impacted by the de-rated margin (supply-side factor).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFungal infection caused by Candida albicans is a serious health problem, and as drug resistance worsens, new sources for therapeutic compounds are needed. Traditional Chinese medicine represents a wealth of such sources, and can be designed as suppositories for the treatment of recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC). This study aimed to develop a Pulsatilla suppository containing the n-butanol extract of Pulsatilla decoction (BEPD) to treat RVVC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiabetic kidney disease (DKD) is one of the common microvascular complications of diabetes, and there are still lack of effective treatments. Huaiqihuang (HQH) is a kind of traditional Chinese medicine mixed preparation, which is mainly made of Trametes robiniophila Murr, Fructus Lycii, and Polygonatum sibiricumhas. It has been shown to be effective in the treatment of DKD, but the specific mechanism has not been fully elucidated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInhaled dose is crucial for accurately assessing exposure to air pollution, determined by pollutant concentration and minute ventilation (VE). However, the VE predictive models and its application to assess the health effects of air pollution are still lacking. In this study, we developed VE predictive models using machine learning techniques, utilizing data obtained from eighty participants who underwent a laboratory cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly fatal, aggressive cancer due to limited response chemotherapy. The tumor microenvironment (TME) has emerged as a key player in the development of chemoresistance and in malignant progression. In this study, we hypothesized that chemotherapy response is predictable by chemotherapy-related cell types and their differentially expressed genes (DEGs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSodium houttuyfonate (SH), derived from the widely utilized natural herb Houttuynia cordata, exhibits an effective therapeutic effect on various diseases, including bacterial and fungal infections, especially the respiratory tract infection. Therefore, the anti-microbial mechanisms of SH may be different from the single-target action mechanism of conventional antibiotics, and further research is needed to clarify this. Firstly, we discovered that SH can effectively intervene in mouse lung infections by reducing bacterial load and acute inflammation response related to pneumonia caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPharmaceuticals (Basel)
August 2024
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory disease, the incidence of which is increasing worldwide. However, the etiology and pathogenesis of UC remains unclear. The n-butanol extract of Pulsatilla decoction (BEPD), a traditional Chinese medicine, has been shown to be effective in treating UC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmotional stress is a significant environmental risk factor for various mental health disabilities, such as anxiety. Electroacupuncture (EA) has been demonstrated to have pronounced anxiolytic effects. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these effects and their contribution to behavioral deficits remain poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe casein kinase II (CK2) complex consists of catalytic (α) and regulatory (β) subunits and is highly conserved throughout eukaryotes. Plant CK2 plays critical roles in multiple physiological processes; however, its function in plant immunity remains obscure. In this study, we demonstrated that the unique chloroplast-localized CK2 α subunit (CPCK2) is a negative regulator of Arabidopsis thaliana innate immunity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeciphering the fine structure has always been a crucial approach to unlocking the distinct advantages of high activity, selectivity, and stability in single-atom catalysts (SACs). However, the complex system and unclear catalytic mechanism have obscured the significance of exploring the fine structure. Therefore, we endeavored to develop a three-component strategy to enhance oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), delving deep into the profound implications of the fine structure, focusing on central atoms, coordinating atoms, and environmental atoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFActas Esp Psiquiatr
August 2024
Objective: This study first analyzes the incidence and influencing factors of sleep disorders in Cyber Knife patients during treatment, in order to provide more accurate strategies for clinical prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment.
Methods: A total of 101 patients who underwent Cyber Knife treatment at Tumor Diagnosis and Treatment Center, Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University from April 2022 to April 2023 were selected as the research objects. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used for evaluation.
Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) are two subtypes of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with rapidly increased incidence worldwide. Although multiple factors contribute to the occurrence and progression of IBD, the role of intestinal fungal species (gut mycobiota) in regulating the severity of these conditions has been increasingly recognized. C-type lectin receptors (CLRs) on hematopoietic cells, including Dectin-1, Dectin-2, Dectin-3, Mincle and DC-SIGN, are a group of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that primarily recognize fungi and mediate defense responses, such as oxidative stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents a common neoplasm that presents a substantial worldwide health challenge. Nevertheless, the involvement of HPN-AS1 in HCC remains unknown. The quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assay was utilized to measure HPN-AS1 expression in HCC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCandida spp. are commonly a group of opportunistic dimorphic fungi, frequently causing diverse fungal infections in immunocompromised or immunosuppressant patients from mucosal disturbs (oropharyngeal candidiasis and vulvovaginal candidiasis) to disseminated infections (systemic candidiasis) with high morbidity and mortality. Importantly, several Candida species can be isolated from diseased individuals with digestive, neuropathic, respiratory, metabolic and autoimmune diseases.
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