Seeking Amyloidosis Very Early: Free light Chain Differentials and IGLV Gene Use as Screening Variables for Light-chain Amyloidosis in λ Monoclonal Gammopathies.

Background: Early diagnosis of systemic light-chain amyloidosis (AL) is needed because 25% of patients die within months of diagnosis. In patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) or smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM) of the λ isotype, we explored the use of 2 screening variables: a free light chain difference of 23mg/L between λ and k and presence of IGLV genes that occur more frequently in AL.

Methods: Patients contacted us and we sent HIPAA release and consent forms for discussion by phone.

Effects of medical training therapy on injury rehabilitation and sports-specific performance in elite rock climbers: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Medical training therapy (MTT) is an advanced, individualized rehabilitation approach that integrates multiple methods to improve physical function. It is widely applied to rehabilitate sports injuries. This randomized study evaluated MTT's effects on physical injury rehabilitation, mental function, and athletic performance in elite rock climbers.

Case Report: Avoiding misdiagnosis in amyloidosis-navigating transthyretin genopositivity and monoclonal gammopathy in a patient with advanced heart failure and spinal stenosis.

Background: A 63-year-old Black woman presented with progressive exertional dyspnea and chronic lower back pain. The course and findings in her case are instructive.

Case Report: Family history was notable for cardiac deaths.

Development of a high-voltage power supply with ultra-low ripple of beam current on electron beam gun.

Electron beam guns with grid-controlled electrodes and hot-cathodes are widely used in accelerator physics facilities, high-voltage electron beam welding machines, electron beam 3D additive manufacturing, x-ray sources, etc. The ripple of electron beam current is one of the most critical factors affecting beam quality, and the electron beam current ripple is generally more than 2% with traditional circuit topology. This paper presents the expression for beam current, high voltage, and bias voltage derived from experimental data on a certain electron beam gun.

Enhancing medical education for undergraduates: integrating virtual reality and case-based learning for shoulder joint.

Background: The integration of Virtual Reality (VR) with Case-Based Learning (CBL) has the potential to revolutionise undergraduate medical education, particularly in complex subjects such as the anatomy and rehabilitation of the shoulder joint. This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of this innovative approach in enhancing learning outcomes and knowledge retention.

Methods: This study employed a parallel-group, assessor-blinded randomised controlled trial (RCT) design.

Bifunctional In-MOFs for Selective and Sensitive Detection of Trace Nitrobenzene Compounds in Water and Possessing High Proton Conductivity.

With the escalating prevalence of terrorism and global environmental pollution, nitroaromatic compounds (NACs) have increasingly come into focus as the primary culprit. To counter these challenges, it is imperative to develop simple and efficient methods for detecting NACs. Considering the electron-deficient structure of NAC molecules, this paper constructed a novel three-dimensional In-MOF with permanent porosity using electron-rich organic molecules 4'-[1,2,2-tris(3',5'-dicarboxy[1,1'-biphenyl]-4-yl)ethenyl]-[1,1'-biphenyl]-3,5-dicarboxylic acid (HETTB) for fluorescence detection by photoinduced electron transfer.

Biofilm Formation, Motility, and Virulence of Are Reduced by Deletion of the Gene , a Novel Listerial LPXTG Surface Protein.

Listeria monocytogenes () is a foodborne pathogen that causes listeriosis in humans and other animals. Surface proteins with the LPXTG motif have important roles in the virulence of . Lmo0159 is one such protein, but little is known about its role in virulence, motility, and biofilm formation.

EⅡB Mutation Reduces the Pathogenicity of by Negatively Regulating Biofilm Formation Ability, Infective Capacity, and Virulence Gene Expression.

To explore the role of the membrane permease ⅡB (EⅡB) gene of pathogenicity island 4 (LIPI-4) in the virulence of , both an EⅡB deletion strain (∆EⅡB) and a complemented strain were constructed. In vitro experiments demonstrated that EⅡB deletion affected the biofilm formation ability of the wild-type strain (Lm928). Moreover, this deletion decreased the intracellular proliferation abilities of .

Effects of exogenous copper on microbial metabolic function and carbon use efficiency of planting soil.

Soil copper (Cu) pollution is a serious environmental risk in the planting area. However, the effect of Cu on soil microbial metabolism and nutrient cycling in this area remains unknown. Therefore, Biolog ECO-plate and enzyme stoichiometry methods were utilized in this study to investigate the impact of exogenous Cu (control: 0 mg·kg; Cu100: 100 mg·kg; Cu400: 400 mg·kg; and Cu600: 600 mg·kg) on the metabolic function of soil microbial and nutrient limitation in the soil.

β-catenin mediates endodermal commitment of human ES cells via distinct transactivation functions.

Background: β-catenin, acting as the core effector of canonical Wnt signaling pathway, plays a pivotal role in controlling lineage commitment and the formation of definitive endoderm (DE) during early embryonic development. Despite extensive studies using various animal and cell models, the β-catenin-centered regulatory mechanisms underlying DE formation remain incompletely understood, partly due to the rapid and complex cell fate transitions during early differentiation.

Results: In this study, we generated new CTNNB1-/- human ES cells (hESCs) using CRISPR-based insertional gene disruption approach and systematically rescued the DE defect in these cells by introducing various truncated or mutant forms of β-catenin.

A Highly Stable Multifunctional Bi-Based MOF for Rapid Visual Detection of S and HS Gas with High Proton Conductivity.

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) constructed with bismuth metal have not been widely reported, especially multifunctional Bi-MOFs. Therefore, developing multifunctional MOFs is of great significance due to the increasing requirements of materials. In this work, a 3D Bi-MOF (Bi-TCPE) with multifunctionality was successfully constructed, demonstrating high thermal stability, water stability, a porous structure, and strong blue fluorescence emission.

Breathing Behavior and Superprotonic Conductivity of Two-Dimensional Flexible Metal-Organic Frameworks Tuned with Alkoxy Groups.

Flexible metal-organic frameworks (FMOFs) exhibit reversible structural transitions ("breathing" behaviors), which can regulate the proton transport passageway effectively. This property offers remarkable advantages for improving the proton conductivity. Our objective of this work is to design a single-variable flexibility synergistic strategy for the fabrication of FMOFs with high conductivity.

Bidirectional and Stepwise Rotation of Cells and Particles Using Induced Charge Electroosmosis Vortexes.

The rotation of cells is of significant importance in various applications including bioimaging, biophysical analysis and microsurgery. Current methods usually require complicated fabrication processes. Herein, we proposed an induced charged electroosmosis (ICEO) based on a chip manipulation method for rotating cells.

[2 + 2] cycloaddition and its photomechanical effects on 1D coordination polymers with reversible amide bonds and coordination site regulation.

Photo-responsive materials can convert light energy into mechanical energy, with great application potential in biomedicine, flexible electronic devices, and bionic systems. We combined reversible amide bonds, coordination site regulation, and coordination polymer (CP) self-assembly to synthesize two 1D photo-responsive CPs. Obvious photomechanical behavior was observed under UV irradiation.

Bipolar Electrode-based Sheath-Less Focusing and Continuous Acoustic Sorting of Particles and Cells in an Integrated Microfluidic Device.

Sheath-less focusing and sorting of cells or particles is an important preprocessing step in a variety of biochemical applications. Most of the previous sorting methods depend on the use of sheath flows to realize efficient cell focusing. The sheath flow dilutes the sample and requires precise flow control via additional channels.

Three-dimensional rotation of deformable cells at a bipolar electrode array using a rotating electric field.

Three-dimensional rotation of cells is imperative in a variety of applications such as biology, medicine, and chemistry. We report for the first time a versatile approach for executing controllable 3D rotation of cells or particles at a bipolar electrode (BPE) array using a rotating electric field. The versatility of this method is demonstrated by 3D rotating various cells including yeast cells and K562 cells and the cells can be rotated to a desired orientation and immobilized for further operations.

An 18.3 MJ charging and discharging pulsed power supply system for the space plasma environment research facility (SPERF): the subsystem for the magnetic mirror coil.

The magnetic reconnection process relevant to that at the magnetotail is one of the research contents of the Space Plasma Environment Research Facility, which is under construction at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China. Two magnetic mirror sub-coils placed symmetrically in the vertical direction and connected in series cooperate with a dipole coil to generate a magnetic field environment similar to the Earth's magnetotail. A capacitor-based pulsed power supply (PPS) system with a modular design is developed to excite two magnetic mirror sub-coils to generate a magnetic field with a magnetic flux density of not less than 200 G at the center of the two sub-coils.

Small extracellular vesicles derived from umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells repair blood-spinal cord barrier disruption after spinal cord injury through down-regulation of Endothelin-1 in rats.

Spinal cord injury could cause irreversible neurological dysfunction by destroying the blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB) and allowing blood cells like neutrophils and macrophages to infiltrate the spinal cord. Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) found in the human umbilical cord have emerged as a potential therapeutic alternative to cell-based treatments. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism underlying the alterations in the BSCB permeability by human umbilical cord MSC-derived sEVs (hUC-MSCs-sEVs) after SCI.

Label free and high-throughput discrimination of cells at a bipolar electrode array using the AC electrodynamics.

Background: Cell characterization and manipulation play an important role in biological and medical applications. Cell viability evaluation is of significant importance for cell toxicology assay, dose test of anticancer drugs, and other biochemical stimulations. The electrical properties of cells change when cells transform from healthy to a pathological state.

Advances in Research on the Regulatory Roles of lncRNAs in Osteoarthritic Cartilage.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common degenerative bone and joint disease that can lead to disability and severely affect the quality of life of patients. However, its etiology and pathogenesis remain unclear. It is currently believed that articular cartilage lesions are an important marker of the onset and development of osteoarthritis.

Development and evaluation of nomograms for predicting osteoarthritis progression based on MRI cartilage parameters: data from the FNIH OA biomarkers Consortium.

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a leading cause of disability worldwide. However, the existing methods for evaluating OA patients do not provide enough comprehensive information to make reliable predictions of OA progression. This retrospective study aimed to develop prediction nomograms based on MRI cartilage that can predict disease progression of OA.

Ultra-high pressure balloon angioplasty for pulmonary artery stenosis in children with congenital heart defects: Short- to mid-term follow-up results from a retrospective cohort in a single tertiary center.

Objective: Balloon angioplasty (BA) has been the treatment of choice for pulmonary artery stenosis (PAS) in children. There remains, however, a significant proportion of resistant lesions. The ultra-high pressure (UHP) balloons might be effective in a subset of these lesions.