Kashin-Beck Disease: A Risk Factor for Sarcopenia and Its Interaction with Selenium.

Objectives: We aimed to explore the possible effects of Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) on the risk of sarcopenia and its possible interaction in the association between the risk of sarcopenia and element concentration.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among individuals 18-75 years old in Qamdo, a KBD-endemic area. All individuals received physical and radiological examinations before recruitment.

Surgical Trauma Comparison of Inframammary Fold versus Endoscopic Transaxillary Approaches in Breast Augmentation: A 7-Year Cohort Study.

Background: This retrospective cohort study aimed to assess differences in surgical trauma between the inframammary fold approach and endoscopic transaxillary approach in breast augmentation surgery.

Methods: One hundred and ninety-four patients who underwent breast augmentation using either an inframammary fold or endoscopic transaxillary approach were enrolled. All procedures were primary and bilateral cases.

Impact of infection on semen parameters and fertilization outcomes in infertile men.

Introduction: (UU) is a common pathogen associated with genital tract infections in infertile males. However, its impact on semen quality, embryo development, and fertilization (IVF) outcomes remains underexplored. This study aims to evaluate the effect of male UU infection on semen parameters, embryo development, pregnancy outcomes, and neonatal health in infertile couples.

From Hypoxia to Oxidative Stress: Antioxidants' Role to Reduce Male Reproductive Damage.

Hypoxia is one of the main reasons causing male reproductive damage for people living in high altitude. Pathological evidences have been presented both in humans and animal models. Spermatogenesis disruption, worse sperm parameters, hormone disorder and erectile dysfunction are emblematic of male reproductive impairments brought by hypoxia.

Engineering Lattice Oxygen Regeneration of NiFe Layered Double Hydroxide Enhances Oxygen Evolution Catalysis Durability.

The lattice oxygen mechanism (LOM) endows NiFe layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) with superior oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity, yet the frequent evolution and sluggish regeneration of lattice oxygen intensify the dissolution of active species. Herein, we overcome this challenge by constructing the NiFe hydroxide/NiMo alloy (NiFe-LDH/NiMo) heterojunction electrocatalyst, featuring the NiMo alloy as the oxygen pump to provide oxygenous intermediates and electrons for NiFe-LDH. The released lattice oxygen can be timely offset by the oxygenous species during the LOM process, balancing the regeneration of lattice oxygen and assuring the enhancement of the durability.

Oxymatrine alleviates NSAID-associated small bowel mucosal injury by regulating MIP-1/CCR1 signalling and gut microbiota.

Oxymatrine (OMT) as a quinazine alkaloid extracted from matrine has been shown to exhibit anti-inflammatory and anti-tumour effects. However, the protective mechanism of OMT on NSAID-associated small bowel mucosal injury remains unreported. We found that OMT could improve the clinical symptoms and pathological inflammation scoring, reduce the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α and cell apoptosis, promote cell proliferation and protect intestinal mucosal barrier as compared with the Diclofenac Sodium (DS) group.

Controlling lamination and directional growth of β-sheets via hydrophobic interactions: The strategies and insights.

The self-assembling morphologies of proteins, nucleic acids, and peptides are well correlated with their functioning in biological systems. In spite of extensive studies for the morphologies regulating, the directional control of the assembly morphology structure for the peptides still remains challenging. Here, the directional structure control of a bola-like peptide Ac-KIIF-CONH (KIIF) was realized by introducing different amount of acetonitrile to the system.

Facile preparation of HfN thin films directly used as electrodes for lithium-ion storage.

Transition-metal nitride thin-film electrodes are potential electrode materials for all-solid-state thin-film lithium-ion batteries. In this study, orthorhombic HfN thin-film electrodes applied in lithium-ion batteries were fabricated by the magnetron sputtering deposition of Hf followed by N plasma immersion and post-annealing for the first time. This electrode material without additives such as binders and conductive agents exhibited a high specific capacity, high cycling stability, and excellent rate performance.

Utilizing a synergistic strategy that combines electromagnetic and chemical enhancement to analyze the SERS effect of the FeO@GO@Ag on PAHs detection.

A comprehensive understanding of the enhancement mechanism of the substrate material is crucial to ensure the repeatability and functionality of SERS detection technology. Therefore, this study introduces a theoretical analysis method that integrates electromagnetic and chemical enhancement to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the SERS effect on the magnetic composite substrate. The visual model is employed in this study to comprehensively analyze and illustrate the electric field enhancement and optical effects of composite substrate materials.

Towards Context-Aware Emotion Recognition Debiasing From a Causal Demystification Perspective via De-Confounded Training.

Understanding emotions from diverse contexts has received widespread attention in computer vision communities. The core philosophy of Context-Aware Emotion Recognition (CAER) is to provide valuable semantic cues for recognizing the emotions of target persons by leveraging rich contextual information. Current approaches invariably focus on designing sophisticated structures to extract perceptually critical representations from contexts.

Effect of Exercise Rehabilitation Combined with Alfacalcidol Administration on Patellofemoral Traumatic Dysfunction.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy and clinical value of alfacalcidol combined with exercise rehabilitation in therapy of the postoperative dysfunction of patients with patella fractures.

Methods: In this study, 100 patients who underwent patella fracture surgery at Peking University People's Hospital between April 2018 and December 2019 were randomly selected and divided into a control group (n=50) and an experimental group (n=50) by lottery. The control group received exercise therapy, while the experimental group received alfacalcidol based on exercise rehabilitation.

Relationship Between Serum MMP-2, Siglec-1, Th1/Th2 Cell Ratio, and Disease Activity in Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Objective: To investigate the association of serum MMP-2, Siglec-1, and Th1/Th2 cell ratio with disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Between August and November 2020, Peking University People's Hospital recruited 40 patients with RA and 40 healthy individuals. Various methods such as ELISA, flow cytometry, and RT-PCR were used to assess the levels of sCR1, MMP-2, MMP-9, and Siglec-1 in the participants.

A BSL-2 compliant mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection for efficient and convenient antiviral evaluation.

Animal models of authentic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection require operation in biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) containment. In the present study, we established a mouse model employing a single-cycle infectious virus replicon particle (VRP) system of SARS-CoV-2 that can be safely handled in BSL-2 laboratories. The VRP [ΔS-VRP(G)-Luc] contains a SARS-CoV-2 genome in which the spike gene was replaced by a firefly luciferase (Fluc) reporter gene (Rep-Luci), and incorporates the vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein on the surface.

Helicobacter Pylori-Enhanced hnRNPA2B1 Coordinates with PABPC1 to Promote Non-mA Translation and Gastric Cancer Progression.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is the primary risk factor for the pathogenesis of gastric cancer (GC). N6-methyladenosine (mA) plays pivotal roles in mRNA metabolism and hnRNPA2B1 as an mA reader is shown to exert mA-dependent mRNA stabilization in cancer.

CircUGGT2 downregulation by METTL14-dependent mA modification suppresses gastric cancer progression and cisplatin resistance through interaction with miR-186-3p/MAP3K9 axis.

Chemoresistance is a major therapeutic challenge in advanced gastric cancer (GC). N-methyladenosine (mA) RNA modification has been shown to play fundamental roles in cancer progression. However, the underlying mechanisms by which mA modification of circRNAs contributes to GC and chemoresistance remain unknown.

Detachable string magnetically controlled capsule endoscopy for the noninvasive diagnosis of esophageal diseases: A prospective, blind clinical study.

Background: Traditional esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), an invasive examination method, can cause discomfort and pain in patients. In contrast, magnetically controlled capsule endoscopy (MCE), a noninvasive method, is being applied for the detection of stomach and small intestinal diseases, but its application in treating esophageal diseases is not widespread.

Aim: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of detachable string MCE (ds-MCE) for the diagnosis of esophageal diseases.

Influence of inner ear impedance on middle ear sound transfer functions.

Introduction: For experimental studies on sound transfer in the middle ear, it may be advantageous to perform the measurements without the inner ear. In this case, it is important to know the influence of inner ear impedance on the middle ear transfer function (METF). Previous studies provide contradictory results in this regard.

Intracavity frequency doubling acousto-optic Q-switched high repetition rate high-energy Nd:YLF laser.

The ongoing advancement of Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser technology has drawn increasing attention to high repetition rate, high-energy green lasers as ideal pump sources for Ti:sapphire regenerative amplifiers. This study employed a neodymium-doped yttrium lithium fluoride (Nd:YLF) as the gain medium, supplemented with side-pumped laser diodes, acousto-optic -switching, and intracavity frequency doubling technologies. The results demonstrated a repetition rate ranging from 1-10 kHz, a pulse width of less than 100 ns, and a single pulse energy exceeding 50 mJ at 527 nm green light output.

Sinularin stabilizes FOXO3 protein to trigger prostate cancer cell intrinsic apoptosis.

Sinularin, a natural product that purified from soft coral, exhibits anti-tumor effects against various human cancers. However, the mechanisms are not well understood. In this study, we demonstrated that Sinularin inhibited the viability of human prostate cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner and displayed significant cytotoxicity only at high concentration against normal prostate epithelial cell RWPE-1.

Interaction of Phytohormones and External Environmental Factors in the Regulation of the Bud Dormancy in Woody Plants.

Bud dormancy and release are essential phenomena that greatly assist in adapting to adverse growing conditions and promoting the holistic growth and development of perennial plants. The dormancy and release process of buds in temperate perennial trees involves complex interactions between physiological and biochemical processes influenced by various environmental factors, representing a meticulously orchestrated life cycle. In this review, we summarize the role of phytohormones and their crosstalk in the establishment and release of bud dormancy.

[Analysis of diet structure of Kashin-beck disease area in Chamdo-Lhorong of Tibet in 2021].

Objective: To investigate and compare the dietary structure between healthy people and patients in KBD area of Chamdo-Lhorong of Tibet.

Methods: A case-control study design was used, retrospectively select patients who had completed screening and registered in the national Kashin-Beck Disease surveillance system in 2021 in Luolong County, Qamdo, Tibet as the source population of the case group, and randomly selected people who had not been screened for Kashin-Beck disease in the same county as the control group. The self-made diet questionnaire was used to record the types of food consumption, frequency of food intake, basic information of the respondents, family size and other basic information in the past year by one-on-one interview.

Activation extending based on long-range dependencies for weakly supervised semantic segmentation.

Weakly supervised semantic segmentation (WSSS) principally obtains pseudo-labels based on the class activation maps (CAM) to handle expensive annotation resources. However, CAM easily involves false and local activation due to the the lack of annotation information. This paper suggests weakly supervised learning as semantic information mining to extend object mask.

FECFusion: Infrared and visible image fusion network based on fast edge convolution.

The purpose of infrared and visible image fusion is to integrate the complementary information from heterogeneous images in order to enhance their detailed scene information. However, existing deep learning fusion methods suffer from an imbalance between fusion performance and computational resource consumption. Additionally, fusion layers or fusion rules fail to effectively combine heteromodal feature information.

Subnanocyclic Molecule of 15-Crown-5 Inhibiting Interfacial Water Decomposition and Stabilizing Zinc Anodes via Regulation of Zn Solvation Shell.

Aqueous zinc ion batteries exhibit a promising application prospect for next-generation energy storage devices. However, the decomposition of active HO molecules on the Zn anode induces drastic dendrite formation, thereby impairing the performance for entire devices. To solve this challenge, we introduce subnanocyclic molecules of 15-Crown-5 as an additive into ZnSO electrolyte to stabilize the Zn anode.