Evaluation of the Soda Tax on Obesity and Diabetes in California: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.

Unlabelled: Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) contributes to weight gain, obesity, and diabetes. Soda tax has been proposed to reduce consumption of SSBs. What remains unclear is whether the soda tax has an effect on health and health care costs.

Tissue-Engineered Therapeutics for Lymphatic Regeneration: Solutions for Myocardial Infarction and Secondary Lymphedema.

The lymphatic system, which regulates inflammation and fluid homeostasis, is damaged in various diseases including myocardial infarction (MI) and breast-cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL). Mounting evidence suggests that restoring tissue fluid drainage and clearing excess immune cells by regenerating damaged lymphatic vessels can aid in cardiac repair and lymphedema amelioration. Current treatments primarily address symptoms rather than underlying causes due to a lack of regenerative therapies, highlighting the importance of the lymphatic system as a promising novel therapeutic target.

Identification of QTL-by-environment interaction by controlling polygenic background effect.

The QTL by environment interaction (Q×E) effect is hard to detect because there are no effective ways to control the genomic background. In this study, we propose a novel linear mixed model that simultaneously analyzes data from multiple environments to detect Q×E interactions. This model incorporates two different kinship matrices derived from the genome-wide markers to control both main and interaction polygenic background effects.

MAZ-mediated tumor progression and immune evasion in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer: Targeting tumor microenvironment and PCLAF+ subtype-specific therapy.

Background: Breast cancer had been the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women, making up nearly one-third of all female cancers. Hormone receptor-positive breast cancer (HR+BC) was the most prevalent subtype of breast cancer and exhibited significant heterogeneity. Despite advancements in endocrine therapies, patients with advanced HR+BC often faced poor outcomes due to the development of resistance to treatment.

Exploring the link between exposure to volatile organic chemicals and incidence of infertility:A cross-sectional study.

Background: Growing evidence suggests that environmental pollutants exert a detrimental impact on female fertility. Among these pollutants, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), easily encountered in the environment, have garnered significant attention as prevalent airborne contaminants. Nevertheless, a definitive consensus regarding the association between VOCs and the incidence of infertility remains elusive.

Prob-sparse self-attention extraction of time-aligned dynamic functional connectivity for ASD diagnosis.

Dynamic functional connectivity (DFC) has shown promise in the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). However, extracting highly discriminative information from the complex DFC matrix remains a challenging task. In this paper, we propose an ASD classification framework PSA-FCN which is based on time-aligned DFC and Prob-Sparse Self-Attention to address this problem.

Construction and evaluation of the prediction model for advanced disease in well-differentiated colorectal neuroendocrine neoplasms less than 2 cm in diameter.

Objective: Advanced lesions are often ignored in well-differentiated colorectal neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) smaller than 2 cm, and we aimed to develop an effective nomogram for these lesions.

Methods: We extracted data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database and used a logistic regression model to identify independent risk factors for advanced disease. All these identified factors were included to construct the prediction model, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, calibration plot and DCA curve were utilized to assess the predictive value.

LncRNA432-miR-21-y-DAPK2 ceRNA crosstalk regulates antibacterial response in hypoxia stress through mediating mitochondrial apoptosis in teleost fish.

As cold-blooded vertebrates, fish are sensitive to environmental changes. The outcome of pathogen infections in fish therefore is highly shaped by hypoxia. The epigenetic regulation of competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) bridging non-coding RNAs and mRNAs represents a promising mechanism modulating antibacterial response plus environmental stress.

Influence of Heat- and Cold-Stressed Raw Milk on the Stability of UHT Milk.

This study investigated the variations and alterations in the concentrations of plasmin system components in raw and UHT (ultra-high-temperature) milk under cold stress (WCT ≤ -25 °C), heat stress (THI ≥ 80), and normal (THI < 70 and WCT ≥ -10 °C) circumstances. The findings indicated elevated amounts of plasmin system components in cold-stressed raw milk. While storing UHT milk at 25 °C, the concentrations and activity of plasmin in the milk exhibited an initial increase followed by a decrease, peaking around the 30th day.

Time-Course Transcriptomics Analysis Reveals Molecular Mechanisms of Salt-Tolerant and Salt-Sensitive Cotton Cultivars in Response to Salt Stress.

Salt stress is an environmental factor that limits plant seed germination, growth, and survival. We performed a comparative RNA sequencing transcriptome analysis during germination of the seeds from two cultivars with contrasting salt tolerance responses. A transcriptomic comparison between salt-tolerant cotton cv Jin-mian 25 and salt-sensitive cotton cv Su-mian 3 revealed both similar and differential expression patterns between the two genotypes during salt stress.

Prognostic role of the pathological status following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and surgery in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: In this study, we retrospectively examined the prognostic significance of the pathological status of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) and surgery.

Methods: Data of patients with cT2-4aN0-3 stage ESCC who underwent NCRT and esophagectomy during 2014-2022 were reviewed retrospectively. Survival differences were compared according to revised TN (rTN) stage (ypT0N0, ypT + N0, ypT0N+, and ypT + N+) using univariate and Cox regression analyses.

Abdominal pain as a novel manifestation in children with PCDH19-related epilepsy: A case report.

Rationale: PCDH19-related epilepsy manifested various clinical features, including febrile epilepsy, with or without intellectual disability, and psych-behavioral disorders. However, there are few studies demonstrating abdominal pain as the first symptom.

Patient Concerns: A 3-year-old Chinese girl presented with clustered seizures of fever sensitivity accompanied by abdominal pain.

Novel biallelic MCMDC2 variants were associated with meiotic arrest and nonobstructive azoospermia.

Nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA), one of the most severe types of male infertility, etiology often remains unclear in most cases. Therefore, this study aimed to detect four biallelic detrimental variants (0.5%) in the minichromosome maintenance domain containing 2 (MCMDC2) genes in 768 NOA patients by whole-exome sequencing (WES).

Interplay of swine acute diarrhoea syndrome coronavirus and the host intrinsic and innate immunity.

Swine acute diarrhoea syndrome coronavirus (SADS-CoV), a novel HKU2-related coronavirus of bat origin, is a newly emerged swine enteropathogenic coronavirus that causes severe diarrhoea in piglets. SADS-CoV has a broad cell tropism with the capability to infect a wide variety of cells from human and diverse animals, which implicates its ability to hold high risks of cross-species transmission. The intracellular antiviral immunity, comprised of the intrinsic and innate immunity, represents the first line of host defence against viral infection prior to the onset of adaptive immunity.

Comparing acute versus AIDS ART initiation on HIV-1 integration sites and clonal expansion.

Early antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation is known to limit the establishment of the HIV reservoir, with studies suggesting benefits such as a reduced number of infected cells and a smaller latent reservoir. However, the long-term impact of early ART initiation on the dynamics of the infected cell pool remains unclear, and clinical evidence directly comparing proviral integration site counts between early and late ART initiation is limited. In this study, we used Linear Target Amplification-PCR (LTA-PCR) and Next Generation Sequencing to compare unique integration site (UIS) clonal counts between individuals who initiated ART during acute HIV infection stage (Acute-ART group) and those in the AIDS stage (AIDS-ART group).

Comparative study of management strategies for immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced inflammatory arthritis: rheumatologists versus oncologists.

Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have significantly improved cancer treatment outcomes but are associated with immune-related adverse events (irAEs), such as inflammatory arthritis (ir-IA). Management of ir-IA is evolving, with corticosteroids as the primary treatment, though some cases require steroid-sparing agents.

Aims: This study aimed to compare initial mean prednisolone doses and disease persistence over 12 months in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-like ir-IA managed by rheumatologists or oncologists.

Dynamic biomechanical effects of medial meniscus tears on the knee joint: a finite element analysis.

Background: Meniscus tears can change the biomechanical environment of the knee joint and might accelerate the development of osteoarthritis. The aim of this study was to investigate the dynamic biomechanical effects of different medial meniscus tear positions and tear gaps on the knee during walking.

Methods: Seven finite element models of the knee joint were constructed, including the intact medial meniscus (IMM), radial stable tears in the anterior, middle, and posterior one-third regions of the medial meniscus (RSTA, RSTM, RSTP), and the corresponding unstable tears (RUTA, RUTM, RUTP).

Chemerin-9 is neuroprotective in APP/PS1 transgenic mice by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome and promoting microglial clearance of Aβ.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a prevalent neurodegenerative disorder worldwide, and microglia are thought to play a central role in neuroinflammatory events occurring in AD. Chemerin, an adipokine, has been implicated in inflammatory diseases and central nervous system disorders, yet its precise function on microglial response in AD remains unknown.

Methods: The APP/PS1 mice were treated with different dosages of chemerin-9 (30 and 60 µg/kg), a bioactive nonapeptide derived from chemerin, every other day for 8 weeks consecutively.

Blood metal levels predict digestive tract cancer risk using machine learning in a U.S. cohort.

Background: Environmental metal exposure has been implicated in the development of digestive tract cancers, although the specific associations remain poorly defined. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between blood metal levels and the risk of digestive tract cancers among U.S.

Signature of pre-pregnancy microbiome in infertile women undergoing frozen embryo transfer with gestational diabetes mellitus.

This study aims to evaluate differences in gut microbiota structures between infertile women undergoing frozen embryo transfer (FET) with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and healthy controls (HCs), and to identify potential markers. We comprehensively enrolled 193 infertile women undergoing FET (discovery cohort: 38 HCs and 31 GDM; validation cohort: 85 HCs and 39 GDM). Gut microbial profiles of the discovery cohort were investigated during the pre-pregnancy (Pre), first trimester (T1), and second trimester (T2).

Excited-State and Steric Hindrances Engineering Enable Fast Spin-Flip Narrowband Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Emitters with Enhanced Quenching Resistance.

Multi-resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) materials have great potential for applications in ultrahigh-definition (UHD) organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, that benefit from their narrowband emission characteristic. However, key challenges such as aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect and slow triplet-to-singlet spin-flip process, especially for blue MR-TADF materials, continue to impede their development due to planar skeletons and relatively large ΔESTs. Here, an effective strategy that incorporates multiple carbazole donors into the parent MR moieties is proposed, synergistically engineering their excited states and steric hindrances to enhance both the spin-flip process and quenching resistance.

Peptide-Scaffolded Detergents for Membrane Protein Studies.

Detergents are essential for preserving the structural integrity and functionality of membrane proteins (MPs) outside the biological membrane or in aqueous solution, and thus ensuring accurate biochemical and structural analyses. Here, we introduce peptide-scaffolded detergents, a novel class of hybrid molecules formed by preassembling detergent monomers with peptides of varying lengths, mediated via Click chemistry. These detergents are characterized by scalable, straightforward synthesis and enhanced solubility.

Untangling the Role of Capping Agents in Manipulating Electrochemical Behaviors Toward Practical Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries.

Long-standing challenges including notorious side reactions at the Zn anode, low Zn anode utilization, and rapid cathode degradation at low current densities hinder the advancement of aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs). Inspired by the critical role of capping agents in nanomaterials synthesis and bulk crystal growth, a series of capping agents are employed to demonstrate their applicability in AZIBs. Here, it is shown that the preferential adsorption of capping agents on different Zn crystal planes, coordination between capping agents and Zn ions, and interactions with metal oxide cathodes enable preferred Zn (002) deposition, water-deficient Zn ion solvation structure, and a dynamic cathode-electrolyte interface.

Transition state theoretical modelling of molecular diffusion within the narrow pores of brewsterite zeolite.

Context: Based on the transition state theory, a molecular diffusion model in the narrow channels of Brewsterite zeolite was established. In this model, the molecular interaction at the potential barrier was simplified to only consider the repulsive potential, so that the analytical relationship between the diffusion coefficient and the temperature and the Lennard-Jones interaction parameter was derived. We used the molecular dynamics method to simulate the diffusion of four molecules, CF, CH, Ar, and Ne, in Brewsterite zeolite and evaluated the rationality of the model.

Association of the geriatric nutritional risk index with poor outcomes in patients with coronary revascularization: a cohort study.

Background: Poor nutritional status may affect outcomes after coronary revascularization, but the association between nutritional status and outcomes in patients undergoing coronary revascularization has not been fully evaluated. This study was based on the MIMIC-IV database to analyze the impact of baseline nutritional status on poor outcomes in patients with coronary revascularization.

Methods: Patients with coronary revascularization were screened from the MIMIC-IV database.