Nanosheet-shaped WS/ICG nanocomposite for photodynamic/photothermal synergistic bacterial clearance and cutaneous regeneration on infectious wounds.

Bacterial infections present a significant threat to human health, a challenge that is intensified by the slow pace of novel antibiotic development and the swift emergence of bacterial resistance. The development of novel antibacterial agents is crucial. Indocyanine green (ICG), a widely used imaging dye, efficiently generates reactive oxygen species (ROS) and heat for treating bacterial infections but suffers from aggregation and instability, limiting its efficacy.

Pulchinenoside B4 alleviates DSS-induced colitis by inhibiting CD1d-dependent NLRP3 inflammasome activation in macrophages.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) represents a significant challenge to global health, underscoring the importance of developing novel alternative anti-colitis agents. Inhibition of the NLRP3 inflammasome in macrophages has emerged as a potential therapeutic strategy for UC. Pulchinenoside B4 (PB4) is a major component of traditional medicinal plants that demonstrated to possess promising anti-inflammatory properties.

Examining maternal social perceptions and stress responses during pregnancy.

Pregnant women are sensitive to the emotions and cues present in social interactions. They may exhibit heightened stress responses when support is lacking in a harmonious environment. The objective of this study was to examine the interaction of family harmony and social support and its association with stress responses among pregnant women.

Effects of ketogenic and low-carbohydrate diets on the body composition of adults with overweight or obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

Background And Aims: More than one-third of individuals are overweight and obese in the world. Their risks of chronic health conditions are increased, which places additional burden on their family, caregivers, and healthcare system. Dietary modification is widely used for overweight and obese individuals.

Needs Assessment to Guide the Development of a Pediatric Survivorship Program to Promote the Physical and Psychological Well-being of Children After Cancer Treatment.

Background: Studies have provided insights into the major challenges and needs of young children who survive cancer. Many such challenges are related to a lack of support during the patient's transition back to normal life. Survivorship programs are designed to help survivors cope with potential late effects of treatment and to provide psychosocial support.

Peaceful dying among Canada's elderly: An analysis of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

Introduction: Death is universal, yet relatively little is known about how Canadians experience their death. Using novel decedent interview data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging we describe the prevalence and characteristics of peace with dying among older Canadians.

Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of decedent interview data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

Unraveling Mechanisms of Genetic Risks in Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Diseases: A Pathway to Precision Medicine.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a growing global health problem, affecting ∼1 billion people. This condition is well established to have a heritable component with strong familial clustering. With the extraordinary breakthroughs in genetic research techniques coupled with their application to large-scale biobanks, the field of genetics in MASLD has expanded rapidly.

Long COVID and gut microbiome: insights into pathogenesis and therapeutics.

Post-acute coronavirus disease 2019 syndrome (PACS), following severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection or coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is typically characterized by long-term debilitating symptoms affecting multiple organs and systems. Unfortunately, there is currently a lack of effective treatment strategies. Altered gut microbiome has been proposed as one of the plausible mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of PACS; extensive studies have emerged to bridge the gap between the persistent symptoms and the dysbiosis of gut microbiome.

Integrative Transcriptome-Wide Association Study With Expression Quantitative Trait Loci Colocalization Identifies a Causal VAMP8 Variant for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Susceptibility.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an Asia-prevalent malignancy, yet its genetic underpinnings remain incompletely understood. Here, a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) is conducted on NPC, leveraging gene expression prediction models based on epithelial tissues and genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics from 1577 NPC cases and 6359 controls of southern Chinese descent. The TWAS identifies VAMP8 on chromosome 2p11.

mHealth-Based Diabetes Prevention Program for Chinese Mothers With Abdominal Obesity: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Among people with abdominal obesity, women are more likely to develop diabetes than men. Mobile health (mHealth)-based technologies provide the flexibility and resource-saving opportunities to improve lifestyles in an individualized way. However, mHealth-based diabetes prevention programs tailored for busy mothers with abdominal obesity have not been reported yet.

Development and validation of a short form for the Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices using a machine learning approach.

Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM) is a widely used assessment tool for measuring general cognitive ability in developmental and educational research, particularly in studies involving young children. However, administering the full set of the 36-item CPM can be burdensome for young participants, hindering its practicality in large-scale studies and reducing research efficiency. In the current study, a short form of the CPM was developed based on a sample of preschoolers (n = 336, mean age = 5.

Systematic Study of the Synthesis of Monodisperse CsPbI Perovskite Nanoplatelets for Efficient Color-Pure Light Emitting Diodes.

Metal halide perovskite nanoplatelets (NPls) possess ultra-narrow photoluminescence (PL) bands tunable over the entire visible spectral range, which makes them promising for utilization in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with spectrally pure emission colors. This calls for development of synthetic methods toward perovskite NPls with a high degree of control over both their thickness and lateral dimensions. A general strategy is developed to obtain such monodisperse CsPbI NPls through the control over the halide-to-lead ratio during heating-up reaction.

Ryegrass root-soil composites mechanical properties and its slope stability: Experimental study and numerical analysis.

Urbanization and infrastructure projects generate huge amount of construction and demolition waste (CDW), posing significant challenges for the environment and human health. In order to reduce the environment and safety risks caused by the CDW landfills, this study was amid to utilize plant roots to develop a root-CDW-soil system for strengthening the CDW and enhancing the slope stability of CDW landfills. A series of experimental analyses were conducted, focusing on shear tests of root-soil composites under various moisture conditions and root content ratios.

Evaluating Forelimb and Hindlimb Joint Conformation of Morna Racehorses ().

Measuring limb joint angles is crucial for understanding horse conformation, performance, injury diagnosis, and prevention. While Thoroughbred horses have been extensively studied, local Pakistani breeds (e.g.

Study on Crack Resistance Mechanism of Helical Carbon Nanotubes in Nanocomposites.

Helical carbon nanotubes (HCNTs) with different geometrical properties were constructed and incorporated into nanocomposites for the investigation of the anti-crack mechanism. The interfacial mechanical properties of the nanocomposites reinforced with straight carbon nanotubes and various types of HCNTs were investigated through the pullout of HCNTs in the crack propagation using molecular dynamics (MD). The results show that the pullout force of HCNTs is much higher than that of CNTs because the physical interlock between HCNTs and matrices is much stronger than the van der Waals (vdW) interactions between CNTs and matrices.

Optimization of CuO/GaO Heterojunction Diodes for High-Voltage Power Electronics.

This study optimizes the CuO/GaO heterojunction diodes (HJDs) by tailoring the structural parameters of CuO layers. The hole concentration in the sputtered CuO was precisely controlled by adjusting the Ar/O gas ratio. Experimental investigations and TCAD simulations were employed to systematically evaluate the impact of the CuO layer dimension and hole concentration on the electrical performance of HJDs.

Teachers' Growth Mindset, Perceived School Climate, and Perceived Parental Autonomy Support Moderate the Relationship Between Students' Growth Mindset and Academic Achievement.

This study investigates the moderating effects of several contextual factors (i.e., teachers' growth mindset, perceived school climate, and perceived parental autonomy support) on the relationship between students' growth mindset and academic achievement.

Gender Disparities in Pandemic-Related Strains, Digital Coping Strategies, and Protective Mechanisms Among Rural-to-Urban Migrant Working Adolescents in China.

The COVID-19 pandemic placed significant strains on daily life, particularly affecting vulnerable groups such as rural-to-urban young migrant workers. Based on General Strain Theory (GST), these pandemic-related strains lead to delinquent copings, including excessive Internet use. However, the association between pandemic-related challenges faced by migrant youth and their digital copings has yet to be investigated.

A Resource-Efficient Multi-Entropy Fusion Method and Its Application for EEG-Based Emotion Recognition.

Emotion recognition is an advanced technology for understanding human behavior and psychological states, with extensive applications for mental health monitoring, human-computer interaction, and affective computing. Based on electroencephalography (EEG), the biomedical signals naturally generated by the brain, this work proposes a resource-efficient multi-entropy fusion method for classifying emotional states. First, Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) is applied to extract five brain rhythms, i.

Reconstruction of Multiple Strings of Constant Weight from Prefix-Suffix Compositions.

Motivated by studies of data retrieval in polymer-based storage systems, we consider the problem of reconstructing a multiset of binary strings that have the same length and the same weight from the compositions of their prefixes and suffixes of every possible length. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for which unique reconstruction up to the reversal of the strings is possible. Additionally, we present two algorithms for reconstructing strings from the compositions of prefixes and suffixes of constant-length constant-weight strings.

Updates on Information Theory and Network Coding.

Around the year 2000, network coding introduced the concept that coding can replace the basic packet forwarding operation used in traditional network communication systems [...

Advanced Lasers and Their Applications in Dentistry.

The development of laser technology has revolutionized dentistry, offering complementary and alternative approaches to traditional techniques. Lasers have been successfully integrated into various dental procedures, enhancing treatment outcomes and patient care. Several types of lasers can increase the acid resistance of enamel, thus preventing caries.

An Overview of Dentist-Patient Communication in Quality Dental Care.

Dentist-patient communication is at the core of providing quality dental care. This study aims to review the importance, challenges, strategies, and training of dentist-patient communication. The World Dental Federation (FDI) emphasizes the importance of effective communication between oral healthcare providers and patients as a critical component of high-quality care.

The pattern of cytokine profile in children received extracorporeal blood purification.

We reported the cytokine profile in children <18 years old who received extracorporeal blood purification (EBP) for sepsis, rhabdomyolysis, hyperbilirubinaemia, acute respiratory distress syndrome or cytokine storm, and determined the factors affecting the cytokine removal kinetics. Plasma levels of 38 types of cytokine/chemokine were measured at pre-EBP, 12 and 24 h after initiating EBP. Altogether there were 11 eligible episodes admitted between April 2021 and December 2023.

Synergistic Enhancement of Ferroptosis via Mitochondrial Accumulation and Photodynamic-Controlled Release of an Organogold(I) Cluster Prodrug.

Effective delivery and controlled release of metallo-prodrugs with sustained activation and rapid response feed the needs of precise medicine in metal chemotherapeutics. However, gold-based anticancer drugs often suffer from detoxification binding and extracellular transfer by sulfur-containing peptides. To address this challenge, we integrate a thiol-activated prodrug strategy of newly prepared hypercoordinated carbon-centered gold(I) clusters (HCGCs) with their photosensitization character to augment the mitochondrial release of Au(I) in tumors.