Alantolactone mitigates the elevation of blood pressure in mice induced by angiotensin II by inhibiting calcium channel activation.

Background: The dried root of Inula helenium L., known as Inulae Radix in Mongolian medicine, is a widely used heat-clearing plant drug within the Asteraceae family. Alantolactone (ATL), a compound derived from Inulae Radix, is a sesquiterpene lactone with a range of biological activities.

Discovery of natural few-layer graphene on the Moon.

Natural few-layer graphene is unambiguously identified from the Chang'e-5 lunar soil samples, which serves as a new platform for investigating extraterrestrial bodies.

Atomically Dispersed Fe and Ni Sites for Efficient and Durable Oxygen Electrocatalysis.

Developing highly efficient, cost-effective, and robust electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is paramount for the large-scale commercialization of renewable fuel cells and rechargeable metal-air batteries. Herein, a new ternary-atom catalyst that is composed of paired Fe sites and single Ni sites (as Fe-N and Ni-N) coordinated onto hollow nitrogen-doped carbon microspheres is developed. The as-synthesized catalyst exhibits remarkable activities toward both the ORR and OER in alkaline media, with superior performances to those of the control materials that contain only Fe-N or Ni-N sites.

Budding of Asymmetric Lipid Bilayers: Effects of Cholesterol, Anionic Lipid, and Electric Field.

Membrane budding is vital for various cellular processes such as synaptic activity regulation, vesicle transport and release, and endocytosis/exocytosis. Although protein-mediated membrane budding has been extensively investigated, the effects of the lipid asymmetry of the two leaflets and the asymmetrically electrical environments of the cellular membrane on membrane budding remain elusive. In this work, using coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we systematically investigate the impacts of lipid bilayer asymmetry and external electric fields mimicking the asymmetric membrane potential on the membrane budding.

Multitasking-Effect Ca Ions Triggered Symmetry-Breaking of RuO Coordination for Acidic Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

The development of highly active and stable electrocatalysts for the acid oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is both appealing and challenging. The generation of defects is an emerging strategy for improving the water oxidation efficiency. Herein, we introduced multitasking Ca ions to trigger oxygen vacancies in RuO, resulting in vacancy-rich RuO (RuO-O) nanoparticles with enhanced and sustainable OER activity.

Association of Six Complex Inflammatory Indicators with Prognosis in Patients with Intravenous Thrombolysis Stroke.

Objective: The objective of this study is to examine the correlation between neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), systemic immune inflammation index (SII), systemic inflammation response index (SIRI) and pan-immune-inflammation value (PIV) with the outcome following 3 months of thrombolysis in individuals diagnosed with acute ischemic stroke.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on a cohort of 762 patients who received intravenous thrombolysis between January 2019 and December 2022. The values of NLR, PLR, LMR, SII, SIRI and PIV were calculated based on relevant blood indices obtained upon admission.

The Study on Nondestructive Detection Methods for Internal Quality of Korla Fragrant Pears Based on Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Machine Learning.

Quality control and grading of Korla fragrant pears significantly impact their commercial value. Rapid and non-destructive detection of soluble solids content (SSC) and firmness is crucial to improving this. This study proposes a method combining near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) with machine learning for the rapid, non-destructive detection of SSC and firmness in Korla pears.

Surfactant-modified zein nanoparticles adsorbents for ultrafast and efficient removal of Cr(VI).

The adsorption and removal of heavy metal ions Cr(VI) is of great significance for human health and ecological environment. Here, an ultrafast and high efficient adsorbent for Cr(VI) was developed based on cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-modified zein nanoparticles (C-ZNPs). In comparison to pristine zein nanoparticles (ZNPs) (11.

Physical activity and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: A prospective cohort study in UK Biobank and Mendelian randomization analyses.

Introduction: The impact of physical activity on the incidence of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) remains less well studied. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and the risk of developing IPF.

Methods: We analyzed data from a prospective cohort study within the UK Biobank involving 502,476 participants.

Dielectric spectroscopy technology combined with machine learning methods for nondestructive detection of protein content in fresh milk.

To quickly achieve nondestructive detection of protein content in fresh milk, this study utilized a network analyzer and an open coaxial probe to analyze the dielectric spectra of milk samples at 100 frequency points within the 2-20 GHz range, focusing on the dielectric constant ε' and the dielectric loss factor ε''. Feature variables were extracted from the full dielectric spectra using the successive projections algorithm (SPA), uninformative variables elimination (UVE), and the combined UVE-SPA method. These variables were then used to develop partial least squares regression (PLSR), support vector machine (SVM), decision tree (DT), random forest (RF), and least squares boosting (LSBOOST) models for predicting protein content.

Ostwald-Ripening Induced Interfacial Protection Layer Boosts 1,000,000-Cycled Hydronium-Ion Battery.

Collapsing and degradation of active materials caused by the electrode/electrolyte interface instability in aqueous batteries are one of the main obstacles that mitigate the capacity. Herein by reversing the notorious side reactions include the loss and dissolution of electrode materials, as we applied Ostwald ripening (OR) in the electrochemical cycling of a copper hexacyanoferrate electrode in a hydronium-ion batteries, the dissolved Cu and Fe ions undergo a crystallization process that creates a stable interface layer of cross-linked cubes on the electrode surface. The layer exposed the low-index crystal planes (100) and (110) through OR-induced electrode particle growth, supplemented by vacancy-ordered (100) superlattices that facilitated ion migration.

Effect of Vascular Senescence on the Efficacy and Safety of Warfarin: Insights from Rat Models and a Prospective Cohort Study.

Warfarin, with its narrow therapeutic range, requires the understanding of various influencing factors for personalized medication. Vascular senescence, marked by vascular stiffening and endothelial dysfunction, has an unclear effect on the efficacy and safety of warfarin. Based on previous studies, we hypothesized that vascular senescence increases the risk of bleeding during warfarin therapy.

AAPM task group report 288: Recommendations for guiding radiotherapy event narratives.

Incident reporting and learning systems provide an opportunity to identify systemic vulnerabilities that contribute to incidents and potentially degrade quality. The narrative of an incident is intended to provide a clear, easy to understand description of an incident. Unclear, incomplete or poorly organized narratives compromise the ability to learn from them.

Construction of the fluorescence sensing platform with a bifunctional Cu@MOF nanozyme for determination of alkaline phosphatase and its inhibitor.

In this work, a novel and sensitive fluorescence sensing system for alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was constructed using a bifunctional copper metal-organic framework (Cu@MOF) nanozyme, which had excellent oxidase-mimetic activity and fluorescence properties. Owing to the presence of 2-amino-1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid (1,4-BDC-NH) ligand, Cu@MOF displays excellent fluorescence performance at 444 nm. Additionally, Cu endows the oxidase-like activity of Cu@MOF, which could trigger p-phenylenediamine (PPD) to be oxidized to a brown product (PPDox) and quench the photoluminescence of Cu@MOF through the inner filtration effect (IFE).

Effects of Natural Products through Inhibiting Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress on Attenuation of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

With ever-increasing intensive studies of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), significant progresses have been made. Endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS)/unfolded protein reaction (UPR) is associated with the development and progression of IPF, and targeting ERS/UPR may be beneficial in the treatment of IPF. Natural product is a tremendous source of new drug discovery, and accumulating studies have reported that many natural products show potential therapeutic effects for IPF via modulating one or more branches of the ERS signaling pathway.

Molecular Insights into the Effect of Cholesterol on the Binding of Bicarbonate Ions in Band 3 Protein.

Band 3, or anion exchanger 1 (AE1), is one of the indispensable transmembrane proteins involved in the effective respiratory process of the human body and is primarily responsible for the exchange of bicarbonate and chloride anions across the plasma membrane of erythrocyte. However, the molecular mechanism of ion transport of Band 3 is not completely understood, yet. In this work, we systematically investigate the key binding sites of bicarbonate ions in Band 3 and the impact of cholesterol (CHOL) in lipid bilayers on bicarbonate ion binding using all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations.

Identification of the immune repertoire of γδ T-cell receptors in psoriasis.

The γδ T cells are a subpopulation of T cells that are abundantly found in the skin and mucous membranes. Their reactivity to self-antigens and ability to secrete various cytokines make them a key component in psoriasis development. Although the correlation between the immune repertoire (IR) of γδ T-cell receptors and the occurrence and severity of psoriasis remains incompletely explored, high-throughput sequencing of γδ T cells has led to a deeper understanding of IR in psoriasis.

Unveiling Interactions of Tumor-Targeting Nanoparticles with Lipid Bilayers Using a Titratable Martini Model.

pH-responsive nanoparticles are ideal vehicles for drug delivery and are widely used in cell imaging in targeted therapy of cancer, which usually has a weakly acidic microenvironment. In this work, we constructed a titratable molecular model for nanoparticles grafted with ligands of pH-sensitive carboxylic acids and investigated the interactions between the nanoparticles and the lipid bilayer in varying pH environments. We mainly examined the effect of the grafting density of the pH-sensitive ligands of the nanoparticles on the interactions of the nanoparticles with the lipid bilayer.

Oxygen Vacancies Boosted Hydronium Intercalation: A Paradigm Shift in Aluminum-Based Batteries.

In aqueous aluminum-ion batteries (AAIBs), the insertion/extraction chemistry of Al often leads to poor kinetics, whereas the rapid diffusion kinetics of hydronium ions (HO) may offer the solution. However, the presence of considerable Al in the electrolyte hinders the insertion reaction of HO. Herein, we report how oxygen-deficient α-MoO nanosheets unlock selective HO insertion in a mild aluminum-ion electrolyte.