Domestic water hardness, genetic risk, and distinct phenotypes of cardiovascular disease.

Aims: The study aimed to investigate the association between domestic water hardness and the incidence of AF and the interaction effects between water hardness and genetic susceptibility to incident AF risk. As a secondary objective, its associations with incident heart failure (HF), coronary heart disease (CHD), and stroke were measured.

Methods: The UK Biobank is a prospective cohort study comprising over 500,000 participants recruited in the United Kingdom between 2006 and 2010, aged 37 to 73 years.

Machine learning-driven ultrasound radiomics for assessing axillary lymph node burden in breast cancer.

Objective: This study explores the value of combining intratumoral and peritumoral radiomics features from ultrasound imaging with clinical characteristics to assess axillary lymph node burden in breast cancer patients.

Methods: A total of 131 breast cancer patients with axillary lymph node metastasis (ALNM) were enrolled between June 2019 and September 2024. Patients were divided into low (n=79) and high (n=52) axillary lymph node burden (ALNB) groups.

Updated Insights Into the Mechanism of Salt-Induced Aggregation-Based Single-Molecule Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy.

Since its discovery in 1997, the single molecule surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SM-SERS) has attracted wide interest owing to its enormous potential in many fields. However, the commercialized applications of SM-SERS are still limited by the lack of a clear understanding of the relevant mechanism in the famous SM-SERS experiments. In this study, a salt-gradient model is proposed to deeply investigate the physical nature and update insights into the morphological, structural, and component evolution processes of Ag NPs from dispersed nanostructures to aggregation states in the salt-induced aggregation SERS strategy.

New Insight into the Mechanism of Neurochemical Imbalance in Multiple Sclerosis: Abnormal Transportation of Brain Extracellular Space.

Neurochemical imbalance is a contributing factor to neurological symptoms in multiple sclerosis (MS). The matured myelin sheath is crucial for substance transportation within the extracellular space (ECS) and for maintaining local homeostasis. Therefore, we hypothesize that disturbed ECS transportation following demyelinating lesions might lead to neurochemical imbalance in MS.

Tumor microenvironment-activated and near-infrared light-driven free radicals amplifier for tetra-modal cancer imaging and synergistic treatment.

The tumor microenvironment (TME) exhibits a specific feature of hypoxia, which poses significant challenges for oxygen (O)-dependent treatments. In this study, we developed an intelligent nanoplatform (PEGylated AIPH@MSN/CDs-MnO, denoted as A@M/C-Mn) by integrating a photosensitizer of red carbon dots (CDs) with a thermolabile initiator-loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticle (AIPH@MSN, denoted as A@M), and then growing manganese dioxide nanosheets (MnO NS) in situ and PEGylating the structure to achieve TME-responsive synergistic diagnosis and phototherapy against hypoxic tumors. The outer-layer MnO NS has the capability to decompose endogenous hydrogen peroxide (HO) in the acidic TME, thereby producing O to alleviate hypoxia while releasing Mn.

Impacts of decadal increasing nitrogen deposition on North Pacific marine ecosystems.

Atmospheric nitrogen deposition is one of the key sources of marine nutrients, significantly affecting marine ecosystems. However, the ecological response of marine ecosystems to current and future changes in nitrogen deposition remains unclear. This study investigates the effects of rising nitrogen deposition during the past decades on North Pacific ecosystems by utilizing a coupled physical-biological model.

Clinical outcomes and short-term survival of neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy for resectable esophageal cancer: a multicenter retrospective cohort study.

Objective: The present retrospective cohort study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant immunochemotherapy for resectable esophageal cancer and report the preliminary short-term survival.

Methods: A multicenter, retrospective study was conducted concerning patients who received neoadjuvant PD-1 agents plus platinum-based chemotherapy between January 2019 and January 2022. The primary endpoint was the tumor pathologic complete response (pCR) rate.

DoctorPupil: A Virtual Reality System for Parkinson's Diagnosis Through Task-Evoked Pupil Response.

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is one of the most critical neurodegenerative diseases, yet there is no cure for it, and the state-of-the-art treatment is to slow its progression. Thus, the earlier a patient with PD is recognized, the better he can be treated. Our project joins the research effort that aims to support early PD diagnosis by designing a Virtual Reality (VR)-based system to monitor pupil diameter patterns as new biomarkers (e.

SAM-MedUS: a foundational model for universal ultrasound image segmentation.

Purpose: Segmentation of ultrasound images for medical diagnosis, monitoring, and research is crucial, and although existing methods perform well, they are limited by specific organs, tumors, and image devices. Applications of the Segment Anything Model (SAM), such as SAM-med2d, use a large number of medical datasets that contain only a small fraction of the ultrasound medical images.

Approach: In this work, we proposed a SAM-MedUS model for generic ultrasound image segmentation that utilizes the latest publicly available ultrasound image dataset to create a diverse dataset containing eight site categories for training and testing.

Antihypertensive drug amlodipine besylate shows potential in alleviating diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a common diabetic complication with no currently available curative treatments. Here, we demonstrated that the protein level of G-protein-coupled receptor 40 (GPR40) is significantly repressed in the sciatic nerves (SN) of DPN patients, as well as in the peripheral nerves, including dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and SN, of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 1 diabetic mice and BKS Cg-m+/+Lepr db/J (db/db) type 2 diabetic mice. We identified that amlodipine besylate (AB), a first-line clinical antihypertensive drug, as a GPR40 agonist capable of alleviating DPN-like pathologies in mice.

Aspartate Isomerization Regulates in Situ Assembly of Peptides into Supramolecular Probes for Detection of Protein Carboxyl Methyltransferase in Bladder Cancer.

Protein carboxyl methyltransferase (PCMT) restores aspartate isomers in proteins and plays a critical role in cancer prognosis. However, in vivo detection of PCMT remains challenging. Here, we report the aspartate isomerization-regulated in situ assembly of peptides into supramolecular probes within living cells for PCMT detection in bladder cancer.

Discovery of Novel Amide Derivatives Containing an Oxazole/Isoxazole Moiety as Potential SDH Inhibitors: Design, Synthesis, and Nematicidal Activity.

To develop new nematicides, amide derivatives with oxazole/isoxazole were synthesized via scaffold-hopping as succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) inhibitors. The nematicidal activities of these target compounds were tested against , , and . Some of the compounds showed excellent nematicidal activities.

CRABP2 (Cellular Retinoic Acid Binding Protein 2D): A novel biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis involved in immune infiltration of lung adenocarcinoma.

Overexpressed CRABP2 (Cellula Retinoi Aci Bindin Protei 2D) can promote progression of various tumors. However, there are few comprehensive analysis studies on CRABP2 in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Several large public databases and online analysis tools such as TCGA, GEO, GEPIA2, UALCAN, Kaplan Meier plotter, LinkedOmics, TIMER, CCLE and Metascape were used for big data mining analysis.

Integrating single-cell sequencing and machine learning to uncover the role of mitophagy in subtyping and prognosis of esophageal cancer.

Globally, esophageal cancer stands as a prominent contributor to cancer-related fatalities, distinguished by its poor prognosis. Mitophagy has a significant impact on the process of cancer progression. This study investigated the prognostic significance of mitophagy-related genes (MRGs) in esophageal carcinoma (ESCA) to elucidate molecular subtypes.

Adiponectin ameliorates traumatic brain injury-induced ferroptosis through AMPK- ACC1 signaling pathway.

Various forms of neuronal death contribute to neurological injury after traumatic brain injury (TBI), leading to irreversible neurological deficits. Among these, ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death characterized by the accumulation of iron-dependent lipid hydroperoxides and induced by the incorporation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) into cellular membranes. Adiponectin (APN), a cytokine secreted by adipocytes, have showed neuroprotective effects by binding to adiponectin receptors (AdipoRs), which are widely expressed in the central nervous system.

-Mediated RNA Activation Upregulates Expression and Inhibits High-Glucose-Induced Apoptosis of Sheep Granulosa Cells.

The glucose metabolism homeostasis in the follicular fluid microenvironment plays an important role in follicular maturation and ovulation, and excessively high or low glucose concentrations have adverse effects on the differentiation of follicular granulosa cells (GCs). However, a limited number of microRNAs (miRNA) have been reported to be involved in glucose-stimulated GCs differentiation. In this study, we characterized the miRNA expression profiles of sheep ovarian GCs cultured in high-glucose and optimal glucose concentrations and focused on a differentially expressed miRNA: , which may be involved in regulating high-glucose-induced GC apoptosis by targeting .

Heterogeneous and microporous structure evolution of heated/radiated polyacrylonitrile fibers revealed by X-ray micro-computed tomography and scattering.

Heat treatment, a critical pre-oxidation process, plays an essential role in the preparation of carbon fibers. Most defects arising from this stage are likely to be transferred to the final carbon fibers. Electron beam irradiation is an effective modification method to optimize the structure of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) pre-oxidized fibers.

The mediating role of psychological capital in health behaviors among elderly nursing home residents.

Objective: This study aims to explore the interactions between social capital, positive psychological capital, and health-promoting behaviors among elderly residents in nursing homes in the Xiangxi region of China.

Methods: A random cluster sampling method was employed to select elderly individuals from 27 nursing homes in the Xiangxi area. Data were collected using the general information questionnaire, the Social Capital Scale, the Positive Psychological Capital Scale, and the Health-Promoting Behaviors Scale.

Propensity score-matching analysis of retrograde artery first approach pancreatosplenectomy versus radical antegrade modular pancreatosplenectomy for 'shoulder' pancreatic cancers.

Background: 'Shoulder' pancreatic cancer is a challenging situation owing to its close proximity to the branches of the celiac artery and portal vein (PV). A pioneering study demonstrated the feasibility of retrograde artery first approach pancreatosplenectomy (RAFAPS) in treating 'shoulder' pancreatic cancer. However, comparative studies on this topic are lacking.

Planted Forests in China Have Higher Drought Risk Than Natural Forests.

To improve the environment and mitigate climate change, China has implemented ambitious projects for natural forest protection and expanded planted forests. However, increased climate variability has led to more frequent and severe droughts, exacerbating the decline of these forests. The drought risk of planted forests is rarely assessed by considering both resistance and resilience, and comparative analyses between natural and planted forests are lacking.

Graph model-aided optimal iterative decoding technique for LDPC in optical fiber communication.

The neural networks offer iteration capability for low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoding with superior performance at transmission. However, to cope with increasing code length and rate, the complexity of the neural network increases significantly. This is due to the large amount of feature extraction required to maintain the error correction capability.

A natural variant of COOL1 gene enhances cold tolerance for high-latitude adaptation in maize.

Low temperature severely limits the growth, yield, and geographical distribution of maize (Zea mays L.). How maize adapts to cold climates remains largely unclear.

Maize2035: A decadal vision for intelligent maize breeding.

Maize, a cornerstone of global food security, has undergone remarkable transformations through breeding, yet further increase in global maize production faces mounting challenges in a changing world. In this Perspective paper, we overview the historical successes of maize breeding that laid the foundation for present opportunities. We examine both the specific and shared breeding goals related to diverse geographies and end-use demands.

V-shaped PSF for 3D imaging over an extended depth of field in wide-field microscopy.

Single-shot 3D optical microscopy that can capture high-resolution information over a large volume has broad applications in biology. Existing 3D imaging methods using point-spread-function (PSF) engineering often have limited depth of field (DOF) or require custom and often complex design of phase masks. We propose a new, to the best of our knowledge, PSF approach that is easy to implement and offers a large DOF.

Highly proliferating cancer cells function as novel prognostic biomarkers for lung adenocarcinoma with particular usefulness for stage IA risk stratification.

Background: The refinement of risk stratification in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) plays a pivotal role in advancing precision medicine; however, the current staging classification falls short of comprehensiveness, particularly in the case of stage IA patients. We aimed to molecularly stratify LUAD patients especially for stage IA.

Methods: We analysed tumour heterogeneity and identified highly proliferating cancer cells (HPCs) in LUAD by performing single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis, immunohistochemical (IHC) staining using a tissue microarray, flow cytometry and biological experiments.