Causal relationship between immune cells, inflammatory cytokines, metabolites, and erectile dysfunction: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study.

Background: Previous studies have investigated the association between immune inflammation, metabolism and erectile dysfunction (ED). However, these studies are limited by biases, confounding factors, and reverse causality, failing to establish causality. We conducted a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study to elucidate the causal relationships between immune cells, inflammatory cytokines, plasma metabolites, and the risk of ED.

The effect of pituitrin on postoperative outcomes in patients with pulmonary hypertension undergoing cardiac surgery: a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: The vasoplegic syndrome is one of the major consequences of cardiac surgery. If pulmonary hypertension is additionally involved with vasoplegic syndrome, circulation management becomes much more complicated. According to previous studies, pituitrin (a substitute for vasopressin, which contains vasopressin and oxytocin) not only constricts systemic circulation vessels and increases systemic circulation pressure but also likely decreases pulmonary artery pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance.

Fluorinated Carbon Nanohorns as Cathode Materials for Ultra-High Power Li/CFx Batteries.

Fluorinated carbon (CFx) has ultrahigh theoretical energy density among cathode materials for lithium primary batteries. CFx, as an active material in the cathode, plays a decisive role in performance. However, the performance of commercialized fluorinated graphite (FG) does not meet this continuously increasing performance demand.

Predicting estimated glomerular filtration rate after partial and radical nephrectomy based on split renal function measured by radionuclide: a large-scale retrospective study.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop predictive models for postoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) based on the split glomerular filtration rate measured by radionuclide (rGFR), as choosing radical nephrectomy (RN) or partial nephrectomy (PN) for complex renal masses requires accurate prediction of postoperative eGFR.

Methods: Patients who underwent RN or PN for a single renal mass at Xijing Hospital between 2008 and 2022 were retrospectively included. Preoperative split rGFR was evaluated using technetium-99 m-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (Tc-99 m DTPA) renal dynamic imaging, and the postoperative short-term (< 7 days) and long-term (3 months to 5 years) eGFRs were assessed.

Capacitive deionization system with ultra-high salt adsorption performance: from lab design to agricultural applications.

Capacitive deionization is an emerging water desalination technology for industrial applications. Recent advancements in electrode design and system development have led to the reporting of ultra-high salt adsorption performance, benefiting its potential application in agricultural water treatment at a potentially low cost. In this study, we provide a comprehensive summary of the porous electrode design strategy to achieve ultra-high ion adsorption performance, considering factors such as experimental parameters, chemically tuned material properties, redox chemistry and smart nanoarchitecture for future electrode design.

Fe-Fe Double-Atom Catalysts for Murine Coronavirus Disinfection: Nonradical Activation of Peroxides and Mechanisms of Virus Inactivation.

Peroxides find broad applications for disinfecting environmental pathogens particularly in the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the extensive use of chemical disinfectants can threaten human health and ecosystems. To achieve robust and sustainable disinfection with minimal adverse impacts, we developed Fe single-atom and Fe-Fe double-atom catalysts for activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS). The Fe-Fe double-atom catalyst supported on sulfur-doped graphitic carbon nitride outperformed other catalysts for oxidation, and it activated PMS likely through a nonradical route of catalyst-mediated electron transfer.

Ultra-broadband and completely modulated absorption enhancement of monolayer graphene in a near-infrared region.

Achieving ultra-broadband and completely modulated absorption enhancement of monolayer graphene in near-infrared region is practically important to design graphene-based optoelectronic devices, however, which remains a challenge. In this work, by spectrally designing multiple magnetic plasmon resonance modes in metamaterials to be adjacent to each other, near-infrared light absorption in monolayer graphene is greatly improved to have an averaged absorption efficiency exceeding 50% in a very broad absorption bandwidth of about 800 nm. Moreover, by exerting an external bias voltage on graphene to change Fermi energy of graphene, the ultra-broadband absorption enhancement of monolayer graphene exhibits an excellent tunability, which has a nearly 100% modulation depth and an electrical switching property.

Infectious Bronchitis Virus Infection Increases Pathogenicity of H9N2 Avian Influenza Virus by Inducing Severe Inflammatory Response.

Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) and H9N2 avian influenza virus (AIV) are frequently identified in chickens with respiratory disease. However, the role and mechanism of IBV and H9N2 AIV co-infection remain largely unknown. Specific-pathogen-free (SPF) chickens were inoculated with IBV 2 days before H9N2 virus inoculation (IBV/H9N2); with IBV and H9N2 virus simultaneously (IBV+H9N2); with H9N2 virus 2 days before IBV inoculation (H9N2/IBV); or with either IBV or H9N2 virus alone.

l-Norm Quantile Regression Screening Rule via the Dual Circumscribed Sphere.

l-norm quantile regression is a common choice if there exists outlier or heavy-tailed error in high-dimensional data sets. However, it is computationally expensive to solve this problem when the feature size of data is ultra high. As far as we know, existing screening rules can not speed up the computation of the l-norm quantile regression, which dues to the non-differentiability of the quantile function/pinball loss.

How Does Metro Maintenance Staff's Risk Perception Influence Safety Citizenship Behavior-The Mediating Role of Safety Attitude.

The accident rate is high in subway maintenance work, and most of the accidents are caused by human factors, especially the lack of sensitivity to risk perception, the lack of rigorous attitude towards safety and the lack of safe citizenship behavior (SCB). Therefore, it is very important to study the risk perception (RP), safety attitude (SA) and SCB of metro maintenance staff in order to reduce the accident rate. In order to reduce human errors and accidents, this study analyzed the influence of metro maintenance staff's RP on their SCB and the mediating role of SA.

miR-331 inhibits CLDN2 expression and may alleviate the vascular endothelial injury induced by sepsis.

The present study aimed to determine the expression level of claudin-2 (CLDN2) in the peripheral blood of patients with sepsis, and to investigate its potential function and mechanism of action in vascular endothelial injury. A total of 25 patients with sepsis were included in the present study. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR was used to determine CLDN2 levels in peripheral blood.

Effects of team sports on anxiety, depression, perceived stress, and sleep quality in college students.

This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of team sports on alleviating depression, anxiety, perceived stress, and poor sleep quality in college students. Undergraduates (n = 291) from a major public university in China. A 12-week quasi-experimental study was conducted.

Molecular mechanism whereby paraoxonase-2 regulates coagulation activation through endothelial tissue factor in rat haemorrhagic shock model.

We investigated the molecular mechanism of paraoxonase-2 (PON-2) in regulating blood coagulation activation in rats with haemorrhagic shock through endothelial tissue factor (TF). Thirty adult Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: healthy control group (group A), the haemorrhagic shock PON-2 treatment group (group B), and the haemorrhagic shock group (group C). After the model was established, blood was withdrawn from the inferior vena cava of all rats.

Spectroscopy and mode-locking laser operation of Tm:LuYO mixed sesquioxide ceramic.

Tm:LuYO mixed ceramic was successfully fabricated by the solid-state reactive sintering method. The absorption cross section and emission cross section were studied at room temperature. The fluorescence lifetime of F energy level was fitted to be 2.

MicroRNA-494-3p protects rat cardiomyocytes against septic shock via PTEN.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of microRNA (miR)-494-3p in myocardial injury in patients with septic shock and the underlying mechanism. A total of 22 patients with sepsis and 17 patients with septic shock were included in the present study. In addition, 20 healthy subjects were recruited as the control group.

[Effect of lateral position ventilation combined with vibration sputum drainage on patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome: a prospective randomized controlled trial].

Objective: To investigate the curative effect of lateral position ventilation combined with vibration sputum drainage on the patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Methods: A prospective randomized controlled trial was conducted. The patients with ARDS undergoing mechanical ventilation (MV) admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) of Linyi Central Hospital from January 2013 to June 2017 were enrolled, and they were divided into simple ventilation group and combined treatment group according to random number table.

Spectroscopic characteristics, continuous-wave and mode-locking laser performances of Tm,Y:CaF disordered crystal.

The spectroscopic characteristics, continuous-wave (CW) and mode-locking laser performances of Tm,Y:CaF disordered crystal were studied. A maximum CW output power of 586 mW was obtained with a slope efficiency of 26%. The Tm,Y:CaF mode-locked laser could operate in two states: single-wavelength mode locking or dual-wavelength synchronous mode locking.

Ultraclean femtosecond vortices from a tunable high-order transverse-mode femtosecond laser.

Femtosecond optical vortices open a variety of fascinating applications, ranging from femtosecond micro-nano manipulation to vortex strong-field physics. A basic requirement for these applications is that the femtosecond vortex has a clean intensity node for capturing or trapping particles. Thus far, the generation of clean femtosecond vortices remains a challenge.

Squamous cell carcinoma of lung associated with osteoclast-like giant cells: report of a case.

Resently, we treated a 69-year-old patient with squamous cell carcinoma of lung with osteoclast-like giant cells which were similar with the giant cell tumor of bone. The clinical and pathological characteristics of this case were presented, and the literatures were reviewed. The tumor differed histologically from the pleomorphic carcinoma, which occurs most commonly in the lung and showed diverse pleomorphic manifestation with benign looking osteoclast-like multinucleated cells and bizarre giant cells.

Rank-One and Transformed Sparse Decomposition for Dynamic Cardiac MRI.

It is challenging and inspiring for us to achieve high spatiotemporal resolutions in dynamic cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this paper, we introduce two novel models and algorithms to reconstruct dynamic cardiac MRI data from under-sampled k - t space data. In contrast to classical low-rank and sparse model, we use rank-one and transformed sparse model to exploit the correlations in the dataset.

Linear program relaxation of sparse nonnegative recovery in compressive sensing microarrays.

Compressive sensing microarrays (CSM) are DNA-based sensors that operate using group testing and compressive sensing principles. Mathematically, one can cast the CSM as sparse nonnegative recovery (SNR) which is to find the sparsest solutions subjected to an underdetermined system of linear equations and nonnegative restriction. In this paper, we discuss the l₁ relaxation of the SNR.

[Construction of an infectious cDNA clone derived from foot-and-mouth disease virus O/QYYS/s/06].

After sequencing, we amplified and cloned foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) O/QYYS/s/06 whole genome by three fragments. These three fragments were cloned into vector P43 one by one to construct recombinant plasmid P43C, which carried the full-length cDNA of FMDV O/QYYS/s/06. Then, plasmid P43C and plasmid T7 expressing T7 RNA polymerase were co-transfected into BHK-21 cells.