Genetic association of lipid-lowering drug target genes with pancreatic cancer: a Mendelian randomization study.

Previous studies have found that dyslipidemia is a risk factor for pancreatic cancer (PC), and that lipid-lowering drugs may reduce the risk of PC. However, it is not clear whether dyslipidemia causes PC. The Mendelian randomization (MR) study aimed to investigate the causal role of lipid traits in pancreatic cancer and to assess the potential impact of lipid-lowering drug targets on pancreatic cancer.

Melatonin Enhances Maize Germination, Growth, and Salt Tolerance by Regulating Reactive Oxygen Species Accumulation and Antioxidant Systems.

Melatonin (MT) is a crucial hormone that controls and positively regulates plant growth under abiotic stress, but the biochemical and physiological processes of the combination of melatonin seed initiation and exogenous spray treatments and their effects on maize germination and seedling salt tolerance are not well understood. Consequently, in this research, we utilized the maize cultivars Zhengdan 958 (ZD958) and Demeiya 1 (DMY1), which are extensively marketed in northeastern China's high-latitude cold regions, to reveal the modulating effects of melatonin on maize salinity tolerance by determining the impacts of varying concentrations of melatonin on maize seedling growth characteristics, osmoregulation, antioxidant systems, and gene expression. The findings revealed that salt stress (100 mM NaCl) significantly inhibited maize seed germination and seedling development, which resulted in significant increases in the HO and O content and decreases in the antioxidant enzyme activity and photosynthetic pigment content in maize seedlings.

Sensor for a Solid-Liquid Tribological System.

Solid-liquid lubrication systems have been widely used to enhance tribological behaviors. Alongside offering exceptional lubrication and wear-resistance performance, the active control of the tribological behavior of lubrication systems in accordance with service conditions is equally critical. To achieve this goal, accurately monitoring the condition of the lubrication system is fundamental.

Haptic Shared Control Framework with Interaction Force Constraint Based on Control Barrier Function for Teleoperation.

Current teleoperated robotic systems for retinal surgery cannot effectively control subtle tool-to-tissue interaction forces. This limitation may lead to patient injury caused by the surgeon's mistakes. To improve the safety of retinal surgery, this paper proposes a haptic shared control framework for teleoperation based on a force-constrained supervisory controller.

Senegalin-2: A Novel Hexadecapeptide from with Antibacterial and Muscle Relaxant Activities, and Its Derivative Senegalin-2BK as a Bradykinin Antagonist.

The amphibian skin secretions are excellent sources of bioactive peptides, some of which and their derivatives exhibit multiple properties, including antibacterial and antagonism against bradykinin. A novel peptide Senegalin-2 was isolated from the skin secretions of frog. Senegalin-2 relaxed rat bladder smooth muscle (EC 17.