Retrospective study of patellar fractures and damage of accessory soft tissue based on MRI.

Background: To better understand the pathophysiological mechanisms of patellar fractures, MRI was utilized to identify the imaging signs of various types of patellar fractures.

Methods: A retrospective study was performed using MRI images of 52 patients with patellar fractures. Observing the development of patellar and femoral morphology and the imaging manifestations of different fracture types, such as fracture displacement, and damage to accessory ligaments, tendons, and meniscus, type of joint cavity effusion, and damage to surrounding accessory bones were identified.

Phosphorus Intake and Potential Dietary Influences Examined via 24-Hour Urinary Biomarker Measurements in German Children and Adolescents Over 3 Decades.

Background: Increases in phosphorus intake have been observed over the past years in adult populations. However, biomarker-based data are lacking on whether or not phosphorus intake also increased in children.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine 24-hour urinary phosphate excretion (PO4-Ex) and diet-related biomarkers potentially influencing phosphorus status in German children and adolescents from 1985 to 2015.

Higher Renal Net Acid Excretion, but Not Higher Phosphate Excretion, during Childhood and Adolescence Associates with the Circulating Renal Tubular Injury Marker Interleukin-18 in Adulthood.

High dietary phosphorus intake (P-In) and high acid loads may adversely affect kidney function. In animal models, excessive phosphorus intake causes renal injury, which, in humans, is also inducible by chronic metabolic acidosis. We thus examined whether habitually high P-In and endogenous acid production during childhood and adolescence may be early indicators of incipient renal inflammatory processes later in adulthood.

Hypereosinophilic syndrome with massive liver infarction: A case report.

Rationale: Liver infarction caused only by hepatic artery occlusion is rare. Elevated levels of eosinophils in the blood and tissue can have devastating consequences.

Patient Concerns: Male, 21 years old, presented with persistent abdominal distension and discomfort for more than ten days without an apparent cause.

Optimizing sowing patterns in winter wheat can reduce NO emissions and improve grain yield and NUE by enhancing N uptake.

Increasing nitrogen (N) input is essential to satisfy the rising global wheat demand, but this increases nitrous oxide (NO) emissions, thereby exacerbating global climate change. Higher yields accompanied by reduced NO emissions are essential to synergistically reduce greenhouse warming and ensure global food security. In this study, we conducted a trial using two sowing patterns (conventional drilling sowing [CD] and wide belt sowing [WB], with seedling belt widths of 2-3 and 8-10 cm, respectively) with four N rates (0, 168, 240, and 312 kg ha, hereafter N0, N168, N240, and N312, respectively) during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 growing seasons.

Effects of the timing of epibrassinolide spraying on yield and nitrogen use efficiency of wide-belt sowing wheat.

In this study, we investigated the effects of epibrassinolide spraying at different growth stages on grain yield and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and uptake efficiency (UPE) of wide-belt sowing wheat. The results showed that epibrassinolide spraying enhanced wheat grain yield by increasing the number of kernels per spike and (or) 1000-kernel weight, and improved NUE by promoting aboveground nitrogen accumulation and improving UPE. However, the magnitudes of such enhancements in yield and NUE differed among spraying times.

Wide belt sowing improves the grain yield of bread wheat by maintaining grain weight at the backdrop of increases in spike number.

Increasing the seeding belt width from 2 to 3 cm (conventional drilling sowing, CD) to 8-10 cm (wide belt sowing, WB) can markedly improve the grain yield of bread wheat. However, there are insufficient data to explain how WB affects dry matter (DM) remobilization, pre- and post-anthesis production, and ultimately grain weight and grain yield. In the present study, four bread wheat cultivars (Jimai44, Taishan27, Gaoyou5766, and Zhouyuan9369) with similar phenology characteristic were selected as experimental materials and two sowing patterns (CD and WB) were applied during the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 growing seasons, to investigate the effects of sowing pattern on grain yield and its components of bread wheat.

Excretion of oxidated cortisol metabolites is markedly lower than previously assumed: An analysis of urinary cortoic acids in healthy children by GC-MS.

Discovered about 50 years ago, the four C steroidal acids (α-)cortolic acid, β-cortolic acid, (α‑)cortolonic acid and β-cortolonic acid present the oxidative end products of cortisol metabolism. Undergoing renal elimination, these cortoic acids have been assumed to constitute up to 25 % of total urinary cortisol metabolites. However, their analysis has been difficult, only few data has been published in adults, and this class of steroids has become practically forgotten.

Bio-Inspired Autonomous Learning Algorithm With Application to Mobile Robot Obstacle Avoidance.

Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) are often considered the third generation of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), owing to their high information processing capability and the accurate simulation of biological neural network behaviors. Though the research for SNNs has been quite active in recent years, there are still some challenges to applying SNNs to various potential applications, especially for robot control. In this study, a biologically inspired autonomous learning algorithm based on reward modulated spike-timing-dependent plasticity is proposed, where a novel rewarding generation mechanism is used to generate the reward signals for both learning and decision-making processes.

Adult Stature and Protein Intake During Childhood and Adolescence From 3 Years Onward.

Context: Varying protein intake is known to influence human height growth. However, whether a habitually higher protein intake consistently above dietary recommendations during childhood and adolescence affects adult stature is not known.

Objective: To examine whether protein intake in excess of recommendations from childhood onward may exert an anabolic effect on adult stature.

Early life factors and their relevance for markers of cardiometabolic risk in early adulthood.

Background And Aims: Early life exposures could be pertinent risk factors of cardiometabolic diseases in adulthood. We assessed the prospective associations of early life factors with markers of cardiometabolic risk among healthy German adults.

Methods And Results: We examined 348 term-born DONALD Study participants with measurement of fasting blood at the age of 18-24 years to assess metabolic indices: fatty liver index (FLI), hepatic steatosis index (HSI), pro-inflammatory score and insulin sensitivity (HOMA2-%S).

Accumulation, distribution and removal of triazine pesticides by Eichhornia crassipes in water-sediment microcosm.

After application, pesticides remained in the field may contaminate water resources through surface runoff and leaching, posing a threat to aquatic ecosystem. In the current study, the accumulation, translocation, distribution and removal of four triazine pesticides (simazine, atrazine, terbuthylazine and metribuzin) by free floating aquatic plant Eichhornia crassipes (E. crassipes) in water-sediment microcosm were investigated and the removal mechanisms were explored.

Renal biomarkers of acid excretion capacity: relationships with body fatness and blood pressure.

Background: Overweight and higher BMI are known to be related to increased blood pressure (BP) and additionally associate with lowered urine pH values even at comparable total daily acid loading. Since a reduced urine pH level at a given total acid load indicates an impaired renal net acid excretion capacity (NAEC) and renal function also relates to BP, we hypothesized that NAEC may be one mediator of the body fat-BP association.

Methods: Ammonium, titratable acid, pH, creatinine, and urea were measured in 24-h urine samples among 9-15-year-old adolescents of the DONALD Study.

Inflammatory mediators in the adipo-renal axis: leptin, adiponectin, and soluble ICAM-1.

A lower 24-h urine pH (24h-pH), i.e., a higher renal excretion of free protons, at a given acid load to the body, denotes a reduction in the kidney's capacity for net acid excretion (NAE).

Enantiomeric separation of malathion and malaoxon and the chiral residue analysis in food and environmental matrix.

Malathion is a widely used chiral phosphorus insecticide, which has a more toxic chiral metabolite malaoxon. In this work, the enantiomers of malathion and malaoxon were separated by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass/mass (HPLC-MS/MS) with chiral columns using acetonitrile/water or methanol/water as mobile phase, and the chromatographic conditions were optimized. Based on the chiral separation, the chiral residue analysis methods for the enantiomers in soil, fruit, and vegetables were set up.

Cortisol and 11 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 as potential determinants of renal citrate excretion in healthy children.

Background: In patients with Cushing disease, renal citrate excretion is reduced. A low urinary citrate concentration is a risk factor for nephrolithiasis. Since higher acid loading is one major determinant of reduced citrate excretion, we aimed to examine whether glucocorticoids still within the physiological range may already impact on urinary citrate excretion independently of acid-base status.

Increased body fatness adversely relates to 24-hour urine pH during childhood and adolescence: evidence of an adipo-renal axis.

Background: Reduced net acid excretion (NAE) capacity indicates a decrease in renal function. This reduction manifests as a disproportionally low 24-h urine pH in relation to the sum of actually excreted ammonium and titratable acidity by the kidney.

Objective: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that higher body fatness is one determinant of kidney function impairment with a lowered urine pH even at a young age.

Synthesis of novel β-cyclodextrin functionalized S, N codoped carbon dots for selective detection of testosterone.

A novel functionalized carbon dot has been synthesized by covalently linking β-cyclodextrin to the surface of N, S codoped carbon dots (β-CD-CDs). The characterization was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, infrared spectra, ultraviolet-visible, and fluorescence emission spectra. On the basis of this carbon dot and (ferrocenylmethyl) trimethylammonium iodide (Fc), a photo-induced electron transfer (PET) fluorescent probe system was developed to determine the concentration of testosterone in water and identify testosterone in cell by fluorescence imaging as a visible biomarker.