The Impact of Blood Lead and Its Interaction with Occupational Factors and Air Pollution on Hypertension Prevalence.

Large-scale epidemiological studies on the association of blood lead levels with blood pressure and hypertension prevalence are still limited, particularly among lead-exposed workers. The evidence is even more scarce on the interaction of blood lead levels with occupational variables and ambient air pollution levels. We developed mixed-effect models based on a large group of lead-exposed workers (N = 22,002).

Association of Metabolic Diseases and Moderate Fat Intake with Myocardial Infarction Risk.

Background: Myocardial infarction (MI) can range from mild to severe cardiovascular events and typically develops through complex interactions between genetic and lifestyle factors.

Objectives: We aimed to understand the genetic predisposition associated with MI through genetic correlation, colocalization analysis, and cells' gene expression values to develop more effective prevention and treatment strategies to reduce its burden.

Methods: A polygenic risk score (PRS) was employed to estimate the genetic risk for MI and to analyze the dietary interactions with PRS that affect MI risk in adults over 45 years ( = 58,701).

Limited Microbial Contribution in Salt Lake Sediment and Water to Each Other's Microbial Communities.

Climate change and human activities have led to frequent exchanges of sedimentary and aquatic microorganisms in lakes. However, the ability of these microorganisms to survive in their respective habitats between saline lake sediment and water remains unclear. In this study, we investigated microbial sources and community composition and metabolic functions in sediments and water in Yuncheng Salt Lake using a combination of source tracking and Illumina MiSeq sequencing.

Individual and Combined Effects of Nanoplastics and Cadmium on the Rhizosphere Bacterial Community of Hance.

Nanoplastics (NPs) and cadmium (Cd) coexist in soil, but the combined effects of NPs and Cd on the rhizosphere bacterial community remain unknown. In this study, high-throughput sequencing and PICRUSt2 functional analysis were employed to explore the individual and combined effects of polystyrene (PS) NPs (low concentration [N1, 100 mg·kg] and high concentration [N2, 1000 mg·kg]) and Cd (low concentration [C1, 0.6 mg·kg] and high concentration [C2, 4 mg·kg]) on the diversity, structural composition, and function of the rhizosphere bacterial community associated with Hance.

Biotic Interaction Underpins the Assembly Processes of the Bacterial Community Across the Sediment-Water Interface in a Subalpine Lake.

The sediment-water interface is the most active region for biogeochemical processes and biological communities in aquatic ecosystems. As the main drivers of biogeochemical cycles, the assembly mechanisms and the distribution characteristics of microbial communities at this boundary remain unclear. This study investigated the microbial communities across the sediment-water interface in a natural subalpine lake in China.

Study on the Abrasive Blasting Mechanism of Solder Welded 304V Wire in Vascular Intervention.

The solder burrs on the 304V wire surface can easily scratch the vascular tissue during interventional treatment, resulting in complications such as medial tears, bleeding, dissection, and rupture. Abrasive blasting is often used to remove solder burr and obtain a smooth surface for the interventional device. This study conducted an abrasive blasting experiment to explore the effects of process parameters (air pressure, lift-off height, abrasive volume, and abrasive type) on processing time, surface roughness, and mechanical properties to reveal the material removal mechanism.

Chemical Bonding and Dynamic Structural Fluxionality of a Boron-Based BAl Cluster.

We studied the boron-based composite cluster BAl doped with Al atoms. The global minimum structure of the BAl cluster is a three-layer structure, consisting of three parts: an Al unit, a B ring and an isolated Al atom. Charge calculations analysis shows that the cluster can be expressed as [Al][B][Al], has 6π/6σ double aromaticity and follows the (4+2) Hückel rule.

Emulsive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction for the Determination of Phthalic Acid Esters in Environmental Water Samples.

A convenient, rapid, and environmentally friendly method, emulsive liquid-liquid microextraction combined with high-performance liquid chromatography, was established to determine phthalic acid esters in tap, river, lake, and sea water. After the method's optimization, we obtained the appropriate volume of the extractant and pure water, the number of strokes, the separation methods, the mass volume fraction of the demulsifier, the demulsifier volume, the sample volume, the salt amount, and the pH conditions. This method requires only 200 μL of heptanoic acid (fatty acid) as the extractant and 75 mg of sodium acetate as demulsifiers for fast microextraction and separation, respectively, avoiding the use of further equipment.

Engineered Strategies for Lipid Droplets-Targeted AIEgens Based on Tetraphenylethene.

Lipid droplets (LDs), once regarded as inert fat particles, have been ignored by scientific researchers for a long time. Now, studies have shown that LDs are dynamic organelles used to store neutral lipids in cells and maintain cell stability. The abnormality of intracellular LDs usually causes metabolic disorders in the body, such as obesity, atherosclerosis, diabetes, and cancer, so the LDs have attracted wide attention.

Investigation on the Coordination Bonding Nature of Actinide-Doped Endohedral Borospherenes An@B (An = U, Np, Pu, Am, Cm).

Endohedral metallo-borospherenes M@B have received considerable attention since the discovery of B in 2014. However, the coordination bonding nature of most of actinide-doped endohedral An@B still remains in dispute or unexplored. Extensive and systematic first-principles theory calculations performed herein unveil the ground states of triplet U@B (, , A), quartet U@B (, , B), quintet Np@B (, , A), sextet Np@B (, , A), septet Pu@B (, , A), octet Am@B (, , A), and octet Cm@B (, , A) at the coupled-cluster with triple excitations CCSD(T) level.

Effect of Heat Treatment on the Microstructure and Property of Metastable β Titanium Alloy.

TB18 is a newly developed high-strength metastable β-titanium alloy, commonly used in aerospace structural materials, which demands high mechanical performance. By altering the alloy's microstructure, heat treatment can affect its mechanical characteristics. The alloy was solution treated for one to four hours at 870 °C in order to examine the impact of solution treatment duration.

Deformation Behavior and Microstructural Evolution Coordinated Regulation by Compression Deformation for Metastable Ti Alloy.

In this paper, in order to investigate the harmonious relationship between the compression deformation behavior of metastable β titanium alloy and the microstructure evolution, the β solution-treated Ti-10V-2Fe-3Al (Ti-1023) alloy was compressed at room temperature and its deformation behavior was analyzed. Optical microscopy (OM) and field emission electron microscopy (FESEM) were used to study the microstructure evolution of alloys at different strain rates. The results show that the stress-induced martensite transformation (SIMT) is more easily activated by low strain rate compression deformation, which is conducive to improving its comprehensive mechanical properties.

Multiscale Concurrent Topology Optimization and Mechanical Property Analysis of Sandwich Structures.

Based on the basic theoretical framework of the Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimization method (BESO) and the Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization method (SIMP), this paper presents a multiscale topology optimization method for concurrently optimizing the sandwich structure at the macro level and the core layer at the micro level. The types of optimizations are divided into macro and micro concurrent topology optimization (MM), macro and micro gradient concurrent topology optimization (MMG), and macro and micro layered gradient concurrent topology optimization (MMLG). In order to compare the multiscale optimization method with the traditional macroscopic optimization method, the sandwich simply supported beam is illustrated as a numerical example to demonstrate the functionalities and superiorities of the proposed method.

Exploring Drought Resistance Genes from the Roots of the Wheat Cultivar Yunhan1818.

The root is an important organ by which plants directly sense variation in soil moisture. The discovery of drought stress-responsive genes in roots is very important for the improvement of drought tolerance in wheat varieties via molecular approaches. In this study, transcriptome sequencing was conducted on the roots of drought-tolerant wheat cultivar YH1818 seedlings at 0, 2, and 7 days after treatment (DAT).

A Dual-Branch Residual Network with Attention Mechanisms for Enhanced Classification of Vaginal Lesions in Colposcopic Images.

Vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (VAIN), linked to HPV infection, is a condition that is often overlooked during colposcopy, especially in the vaginal vault area, as clinicians tend to focus more on cervical lesions. This oversight can lead to missed or delayed diagnosis and treatment for patients with VAIN. Timely and accurate classification of VAIN plays a crucial role in the evaluation of vaginal lesions and the formulation of effective diagnostic approaches.

Recent Progress of Molecularly Imprinted Technique for the Detection of Mycotoxins in Food.

Mycotoxins are a group of toxic metabolites produced by fungi that infect agricultural products. Consuming mycotoxin-contaminated foods and feeds can cause various adverse health effects in humans and animals. Therefore, developing rapid and sensitive analytical methods for detecting mycotoxins is an urgent task.

Research on Pork Cut and Freshness Determination Method Based on Computer Vision.

With the increasing importance of meat quality inspection, traditional manual evaluation methods face challenges in terms of efficiency and accuracy. To improve the precision and efficiency of pork quality assessment, an automated detection method based on computer vision technology is proposed for evaluating different parts and freshness of pork. First, high-resolution cameras were used to capture image data of Jinfen white pigs, covering three pork cuts-hind leg, loin, and belly-across three different collection times.

Forensic STR Loci and Schizophrenia: An Exploration of Implications for Forensic Applications and Genetic Privacy.

Background/objectives: Short tandem repeat (STR) loci are widely used in forensic genetics for identification and kinship analysis. Traditionally, these loci were selected to avoid medical associations, but recent studies suggest that loci such as TH01 and D16S539 may be linked to psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia. This study explores these potential associations and considers the privacy implications related to disease susceptibility.

Emotion Recognition Based on a EEG-fNIRS Hybrid Brain Network in the Source Space.

: Studies have shown that emotion recognition based on electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) multimodal physiological signals exhibits superior performance compared to that of unimodal approaches. Nonetheless, there remains a paucity of in-depth investigations analyzing the inherent relationship between EEG and fNIRS and constructing brain networks to improve the performance of emotion recognition. : In this study, we introduce an innovative method to construct hybrid brain networks in the source space based on simultaneous EEG-fNIRS signals for emotion recognition.

Effects of Substitution of Wheat Straw by Giant Reed on Growth Performance, Serum Biochemical Parameters, Nutrient Digestibility, and Antioxidant Properties of Sheep.

The development and utilization of unconventional forage resources is crucial to alleviating the current situation of shortage of forage resources. Giant reed () is a promising forage resource from the Poaceae family, one of the largest herbaceous plants globally, with fast growth, high biomass yield, and strong ecological adaptability. However, there are still very few reports on the use of giant reed in livestock and poultry production.

Structure-based discovery of dual-target inhibitors of the helicase from bagaza virus.

Bagaza virus (BAGV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus and has caused significant avian death in many regions, and also garnered recognition as a significant human pathogen causing diseases like encephalitis. The genome of BAGV encodes ten proteins including three structural proteins and seven nonstructural proteins. The C-terminus of the BAGV NS3 helicase serves as a helicase during BAGV replication, aiding in ATP hydrolysis and unwinding of double-stranded RNA.

Gentiopicroside ameliorates synovial inflammation and fibrosis in KOA rats by modulating the HMGB1-mediated PI3K/AKT signaling axis.

Background: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a degenerative joint disease characterized by synovial inflammation and fibrosis. Gentiopicroside (GPS), one of the main active ingredients of Gentiana macrophylla, is widely used in anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic therapies. However, the exact mechanism by which GPS treats synovial inflammation and fibrosis in KOA remains unclear.

Clozapine boosting N/Cl co-doped carbon skeleton synergistically optimizing NaV(PO) with superior performance and excellent thermal stability.

Nowadays, the limited electronic conductivity and structural deterioration during battery cycling have hindered the widespread application of NaV(PO) (NVP). In response to these challenges, we advocate for a technique involving the application of carbon modifications to NVP to enhance its suitability as cathode material. This work involves the synthesis of N/Cl co-modified in situ carbon coatings derived from clozapine (CZP) through a facile hydrothermal route.