MicroRNA-155 Inhibition Activates Wnt/β-catenin Signaling to Restore Th17/Treg Balance and Protect against Acute Ischemic Stroke.

Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is a dangerous neurological disease associated with an imbalance in Th17/Treg cells and abnormal activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. This study aims to investigate whether inhibition of miR-155 can activate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway to improve Th17/Treg imbalance and provide neuroprotective effects against stroke. We employed a multi-level experimental design.

A language model of problem solving in humans and macaque monkeys.

Human intelligence is characterized by the remarkable ability to solve complex problems by planning a sequence of actions that takes us from an initial state to a desired goal state. Quantifying and comparing problem-solving capabilities across species and finding their evolutionary roots are critical for understanding how the brain carries out this intricate process. We introduce the Language of Problem Solving (LoPS) model as a novel quantitative framework that investigates the structure of problem-solving behavior through a language model.

Evolution of COVID-19 dynamics in Guangdong Province, China: an endemic-epidemic modeling study.

Background: From January 2020 to June 2022, strict interventions against COVID-19 were implemented in Guangdong Province, China. However, the evolution of COVID-19 dynamics remained unclear in this period.

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the evolution of within- and between-city COVID-19 dynamics in Guangdong, specifically during the implementation of rigorous prevention and control measures.

Computed Tomography-Based Intratumor Heterogeneity Predicts Response to Immunotherapy Plus Chemotherapy in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Rationale And Objectives: This study explored the intratumor heterogeneity (ITH) of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) using computed tomography (CT) and investigated the value of CT-based ITH in predicting the response to immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) plus chemotherapy in patients with ESCC.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study included 416 patients with ESCC who received ICI plus chemotherapy at two independent hospitals between January 2019 and July 2022. Multiparametric CT features were extracted from ESCC lesions and screened using hierarchical clustering and dimensionality reduction algorithms.

Gut Microbiota, Human Blood Metabolites, and Esophageal Cancer: A Mendelian Randomization Study.

Background: Unbalances in the gut microbiota have been proposed as a possible cause of esophageal cancer (ESCA), yet the exact causal relationship remains unclear.

Purpose: To investigate the potential causal relationship between the gut microbiota and ESCA with Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.

Methods: Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of 207 gut microbial taxa (5 phyla, 10 classes, 13 orders, 26 families, 48 genera, and 105 species) and 205 gut microbiota metabolic pathways conducted by the Dutch Microbiome Project (DMP) and a FinnGen cohort GWAS of esophageal cancer specified the summary statistics.

Exploring the Mediation Effect of Metabolite Levels on the Association Between Gut Microbiota and HCC: A two-step, two-sample bidirectional Mendelian Randomization.

: Although the gut microbiota is one of the risk factors for liver cancer, it remains unclear whether the level of metabolites mediates this association. : Utilizing summary data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS), we conducted a two-sample Mendelian Randomization (MR) analysis to explore the causal links between GM, metabolites, and HCC. A two-step MR analysis quantitatively assessed the effect of metabolite-mediated GM on HCC.

Design, synthesis and mechanistic studies of novel arylformylhydrazone butylphenyltin complexes as potential anticancer agents.

Many diorganotin complexes with various alkyl groups exhibit excellent in vitro anticancer activity. However, most diorganotin is the same alkyl group, and the asymmetric alkyl R group has been rarely reported. Hence, in this paper, twenty butylphenyl mixed dialkyltin arylformylhydrazone complexes have been synthesized by microwave "one-pot" reaction with arylformylhydrazine, substituted α-keto acid or its sodium salt and butylphenyltin dichloride.

An engineered Pichia pastoris platform for the biosynthesis of silk-based nanomaterials with therapeutic potential.

Silk fibroin (SF) from the cocoon of silkworm has exceptional mechanical properties and biocompatibility and is used as a biomaterial in a variety of fields. Sustainable, affordable, and scalable manufacturing of SF would enable its large-scale use. We report for the first time the high-level secretory production of recombinant SF peptides in engineered Pichia pastoris cell factories and the processing thereof to nanomaterials.

The protein methyltransferase TrSAM inhibits cellulase gene expression by interacting with the negative regulator ACE1 in Trichoderma reesei.

Protein methylation is a commonly posttranslational modification of transcriptional regulators to fine-tune protein function, however, whether this regulation strategy participates in the regulation of lignocellulase synthesis and secretion in Trichoderma reesei remains unexplored. Here, a putative protein methyltransferase (TrSAM) is screened from a T. reesei mutant with the ability to express heterologous β-glucosidase efficiently even under glucose repression.

The Impact of Australian Bushfires on Asthma Medicine Prescription Dispensing.

Background: Air pollution can cause numerous health problems and increase the need for medicines to treat and prevent asthma in affected areas. There is limited evidence about the association between airborne particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or smaller (PM) and asthma medicine usage.

Assessing the impact of COVID-19 interventions on the hand, foot and mouth disease in Guangdong Province, China: a Bayesian modeling study.

Background: The non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) against COVID-19 may have affected the transmission of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). We aimed to assess the impact of the NPIs on HFMD in the high epidemic area of HFMD, Guangdong Province.

Methods: The data of HFMD cases, etiological information, and meteorological factors in Guangdong from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2021, were collected.

The computational rules of cross-modality suppression in the visual posterior sylvian area.

The macaque visual posterior sylvian area (VPS) is an area with neurons responding selectively to heading direction in both visual and vestibular modalities, but how VPS neurons combined these two sensory signals is still unknown. In contrast to the subadditive characteristics in the medial superior temporal area (MSTd), responses in VPS were dominated by vestibular signals, with approximately a winner-take-all competition. The conditional Fisher information analysis shows that VPS neural population encodes information from distinct sensory modalities under large and small offset conditions, which differs from MSTd whose neural population contains more information about visual stimuli in both conditions.

Emamectin benzoate exposure impaired porcine oocyte maturation.

Emamectin benzoate (EB) is a widely used insecticide that can damage the central nervous and immune systems. EB exposure significantly reduced the number of eggs laid, hatching rate, and developmental rate of lower organisms such as nematodes. However, effects of EB exposure on the maturation of higher animals such as porcine oocytes remains unknown.

Inhibitory Effects of 3-Methylcholanthrene Exposure on Porcine Oocyte Maturation.

3-methylcholanthrene (3-MC) is a highly toxic environmental pollutant that impairs animal health. 3-MC exposure can cause abnormal spermatogenesis and ovarian dysfunction. However, the effects of 3-MC exposure on oocyte maturation and embryo development remain unclear.

Development and validation of a nomogram for predicting survival time and making treatment decisions for clinical stage IA NSCLC based on the SEER database.

Background: The aim of this study was to establish and validate a nomogram model for accurate prediction of patients' survival with T1aN0M0 none small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods: The patients, diagnosed with the stage IA NSCLC from 2004-2015, were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. The variables with a -value < 0.

Expression Profiling of Circular RNAs in Early Pregnant Jianghuai Buffaloes.

Circular RNA (circRNA) is expressed in cells and tissues of several species. However, the expression of circRNAs in the blood of Jianghuai buffaloes during early pregnancy has not been reported. In this study, we identified the DECs in the blood of Jianghuai buffaloes and annotated the functions of these DECs.

RankAxis: Towards a Systematic Combination of Projection and Ranking in Multi-Attribute Data Exploration.

Projection and ranking are frequently used analysis techniques in multi-attribute data exploration. Both families of techniques help analysts with tasks such as identifying similarities between observations and determining ordered subgroups, and have shown good performances in multi-attribute data exploration. However, they often exhibit problems such as distorted projection layouts, obscure semantic interpretations, and non-intuitive effects produced by selecting a subset of (weighted) attributes.

Exposure-response relationship between temperature, relative humidity, and varicella: a multicity study in South China.

Varicella is a rising public health issue. Several studies have tried to quantify the relationships between meteorological factors and varicella incidence but with inconsistent results. We aim to investigate the impact of temperature and relative humidity on varicella, and to further explore the effect modification of these relationships.

Controllable manipulation of alginate-gelatin core-shell microcarriers for HUMSCs expansion.

Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (HUMSCs) are one of the most attractive sources of stem cells, and it is meaningful to design and develop a type of microcarriers with suitable mechanical strength for HUMSCs proliferation in order to acquire enough cells for cell-based therapy. Alginate-gelatin core-shell (AG) soft microcarriers were thus fabricated via a microfluidic device with droplet shearing/gelation facilities and surface coating for in vitro expansion of HUMSCs. The attachment and proliferation of HUMSCs on AG microcarriers with different mechanical strengths modulated by gelatin coating was studied, and the harvested cells were characterized to verity their differentiation potential.

The impact of enterovirus A71 vaccination program on hand, foot, and mouth disease in Guangdong, China: A longitudinal surveillance study.

Enterovirus A71 (EV71) vaccination program was introduced in 2016 in China. Based on a longitudinal surveillance dataset from 2012 to 2019 in Guangdong, China, we estimated the impact of the EV71 vaccination program on hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) incidence, by using a counterfactual prediction made from synthetic control approach integrated with a Bayesian time-series model. We observed a relative reduction of 41.

Efficient removal of sixteen priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from textile dyeing sludge using electrochemical Fe-activated peroxymonosulfate oxidation-A green pretreatment strategy for textile dyeing sludge toxicity reduction.

It is urgent to remove polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from textile dyeing sludge (TDS) before its final deposal due to their recalcitrant nature and generation of toxic byproducts during TDS treatment. In this study, an electrochemical Fe-activated peroxymonosulfate (PMS) oxidation process for removing 16 priority PAHs from real TDS was firstly investigated. The results showed that the removal efficiency of the ∑16PAHs in TDS was positively correlated to the concentration of Fe released from sacrificial iron anode and the concentration of electroregenerated Fe in the cathode by the reduction of Fe within the applied voltage range of 3-7 V, but a higher voltage of 10 V did not lead to further improvement in ∑16PAHs removal due to the radical scavenging reaction resulted from the excessive accumulation of Fe.

The effect of polluting cooking fuels on depression among older adults in six low- and middle-income countries.

Background: Little is known about the association between polluting cooking fuel and depression among older adults living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Objective: To evaluate the association between polluting cooking fuel and depression in older population of LMICs.

Methods: We derived data from WHO Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE), which was conducted in six LMICs including China, India, Ghana, South Africa, Mexico and Russia.