Purpose: As a globally popular physical activity, swimming also presents challenges due to its inherent aquatic risks. Therefore, the cultivation of swimming competence emerges as a crucial strategy in preventing drowning incidents. This study aimed to develop and validate the Swimming Competence Assessment Scale in College Students (SCAS) to address the gap in structured swimming proficiency evaluation, essential for drowning prevention and water safety education.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMechanical computing promises to integrate semiconductor-based digital logic in several applications, but it needs straightforward programmable devices for changing computing rules in situ. A methodology based on strain-governed, bistable soft shells that process digital information by interchanging their internal/external surfaces is proposed. This bistable behavior, explained via model-based design, safeguards robustness by working only once for each input pulse.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOverexpression of the eukaryotic initiation factor 4E () gene has been associated with excessive stereotypic behaviors and reduced sociability, which manifest as autism-like social cognitive deficits. However, the precise mechanisms by which overexpression insufficiently induces these autism-like behaviors and the specific brain regions implicated remain insufficiently understood. Oxytocin (OXT), a neurotransmitter known for its role in social behavior, has been proposed to modulate certain autism-related symptoms by influencing microglial function and attenuating neuroinflammation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInnovation (Camb)
November 2024
CPT Pharmacometrics Syst Pharmacol
December 2024
The number of quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) submissions to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has continued to increase over the past decade.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo elucidate the variation patterns in the hydrochemical characteristics of karst groundwater in the Baiquan Spring area of Xingtai over the past 30 years, an integrated approach utilizing mathematical statistics, Piper trilinear diagrams, Gibbs diagrams, and ion ratio analyses was employed. Comparative analysis was conducted on 62 sets of karst water samples collected during the dry seasons of 1991 and 2020. The findings indicated that the groundwater in the spring area was generally weakly alkaline with a low salinization degree, predominantly characterized by Ca and HCO as the dominant ions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnhancing white adipose tissue (WAT) browning combats obesity. The RIIβ subunit of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) is primarily expressed in the brain and adipose tissue. Deletion of the hypothalamic RIIβ gene centrally induces WAT browning, yet the peripheral mechanisms mediating this process remain unexplored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The connection between aging and cancer is complex. Previous research has highlighted the association between the aging process of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) cells and the immune response, yet there remains a gap in confirming this through single-cell data validation. Here, we aim to develop a novel aging-related prognostic model for LUAD, and verify the alterations in the genome and immune microenvironment linked to cellular senescence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Primary familial brain calcification (PFBC) is a monogenic disorder characterized by bilateral calcifications in the brain. The genetic basis remains unknown in over half of the PFBC patients, indicating the existence of additional novel causative genes. NAA60 was a recently reported novel causative gene for PFBC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOrganic carbon mineralization is the main driving force of metal migration and transformation in sediments, greatly influencing the distribution, pollution degree, and toxicity of toxic metals. However, relevant research on this subject is still limited. In this study, the concentration of toxic metals (Cr, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, Co, Fe, Mn, Ni, As) in the solid and liquid phase (porewater) of sediments were measured, toxic metal pollution degree and toxicity of the Yellow Sea (YS) and the East China Sea (ECS) were assessed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs a significant trade item on the ancient Silk Road, the evolution of mug shapes represents a confluence of Eastern and Western economic history and cultural-artistic exchanges, also reflecting the flourishing export culture of Guangzhou. This paper analyzes the functional and social factors influencing the morphological changes of Lingnan mugs from 1616 to 1949 from the perspective of quantitative typological analysis. The overall design trend of these mugs transitioned from complex to simple, enhancing user comfort, while variations in mug scale reflect the diversity of consumer classes and regional drinking cultures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Ventricular septal defect (VSD) is the most common congenital heart disease. Although a small number of genes associated with VSD have been found, the genetic factors of VSD remain unclear. In this study, we evaluated the association of 10 candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with isolated VSD in a population from Southwest China.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The cause of food allergy (FA) is still a mystery. Telomerases are involved in the regulation of immune responses. This study aims to gain an understanding of the contribution of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) to the pathogenesis of FA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFN-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-bound -quinodimethane, served as a nucleophile, has occupied an important position for constructing various all-carbon or heterocyclic compounds and attracted increasing attention for the functionalization of benzylic carbon of aromatic aldehydes, whereas the mechanistic studies on the generation and transformations of dienolate intermediate are rare. In the present study, the mechanism of activation/transformation of aldehyde catalyzed by NHC was theoretically studied using the density functional theory (DFT) method. Based on the calculations, the nucleophilic addition process is the stereoselectivity-determining step with -configured product being generated preferentially.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Purpose: Sodium channel blockers (SCBs) have traditionally been utilized as anti-seizure medications by primarily targeting the inactivation process. In a drug discovery project aiming at finding potential anticonvulsants, we have identified arbidol, originally an antiviral drug, as a potent SCB. In order to evaluate its anticonvulsant potential, we have thoroughly examined its biophysical properties as well as its effects on animal seizure models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: Gout is a nutrition-related, highly prevalent inflammatory arthritis with undesirable effects on the quality of life. The relationships between circulating fatty acids (FAs) and gout remain poorly understood. : We included 268 174 participants with plasma FAs measured using nuclear magnetic resonance at the baseline (2006-2010) from the UK Biobank, of which 15 194 participants had repeated measures of FAs between 2012 and 2013.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAppl Biochem Biotechnol
November 2024
Chitin is the most productive nitrogen-containing polysaccharide in nature with immense potential for transforming into a range of chemicals. However, its dense crystal structure poses a challenge for depolymerization, limiting its applications. To overcome these challenges, a novel series of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) based on benzyltrimethylammonium chloride (TMBAC) as the hydrogen bond acceptor was developed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn spite of recent advances in the field of undernutrition, current dietary therapy relying on the supply of high protein high calorie formulas is still plagued with transient recovery of impaired organs resulting in significant relapse of cases. This is partly attributed to the inadequacy of current research models in recapitulating clinical undernutrition for mechanistic exploration. Using 1636 Macaca fascicularis monkeys, a human-relevant criterion for determining undernutrition weight-for-age z-score (WAZ), with a cutoff point of ≤ -1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedulloblastomas comprise a molecularly diverse set of malignant pediatric brain tumors in which patients are stratified according to different prognostic risk groups that span from very good to very poor. Metastasis at diagnosis is most often a marker of poor prognosis and the relapse incidence is higher in these children. Medulloblastoma relapse is almost always fatal and recurring cells have, apart from resistance to standard of care, acquired genetic and epigenetic changes that correlate with an increased dormancy state, cell state reprogramming and immune escape.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany solid crystals exhibit a structural phase transition where a subset of its ions or entire molecules become orientationally ordered. As to why such ordering occurs remains mostly unresolved. We consider the extremely weak magnetic elements arising from the reorientations of the molecules experiencing mutual resonance to play the chief role.
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