Bidirectional association of daily steps with sarcopenia: a longitudinal study.

Background: Step count is a well-established measure of physical activity, and step-based recommendations offering practical public guidance. However, the bidirectional associations between step count and sarcopenia remain unclear, limiting the application of step-based interventions for sarcopenia prevention. This study examined the directional association between daily steps and sarcopenia.

Association of a Healthy Lifestyle With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality Among Individuals With Probable Sarcopenia: Population-Based Cohort Study.

Background: Individuals with probable sarcopenia have shown excess mortality, yet no specific treatment regimen has been established. While lifestyle factors improve health and longevity in general populations, their role in probable patients with sarcopenia remains unclear due to differing lifestyle patterns. Clarifying this could inform strategies to address this unmet need.

Aging induces sarcopenia by disrupting the crosstalk between the skeletal muscle microenvironment and myofibers.

Background: Sarcopenia is a degenerative muscular disease associated with aging, characterized by a reduction in muscle mass and strength. This disease poses a significant global health challenge, owing to its high prevalence and association with adverse outcomes such as increased frailty, impaired physical function, and elevated mortality risk. A deeper understanding of its underlying mechanisms is urgently warranted for the development of effective therapeutic interventions.

Sarcopenia and Risk of Cognitive Impairment: Cohort Study and Mendelian Randomization Analysis.

Background: Over half the people over 60 years of age experience cognitive impairment, with limited treatment options, making it crucial to identify risk factors. Studies have examined the association between sarcopenia and cognitive impairment; however, the evidence is inconclusive and cannot be used to make causal inferences.

Objective: This study aims to appraise the causal association of sarcopenia with cognitive impairment by triangulating the data from a cohort study and Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.

Degradation modeling and remaining useful life prediction for electronic device under multiple stress influences.

Power driver devices have functions such as current amplification and power conversion, making them key components of electronic systems. Their degradation is affected by multiple types of stress, making it difficult to establish an accurate degradation model. To monitor the degradation state of electronic devices and predict their remaining useful life at different moments, this paper obtains the degradation data of the samples by carrying out accelerated degradation experiments of power driver devices under the influence of multiple stresses, and proposes a new multi-stress-coupled accelerated degradation model based on the Wiener process.

Transport mechanism of microplastics from a still water system to a dynamic estuarine system: A case study in Macao SAR.

Significant amount of microplastics (< 5 mm) were transported into the South China Sea via Pearl River Estuary. However, comprehensive studies on the occurrence and retention of microplastics in this estuarine system were still limited. To fill this gap, we investigated the distribution of microplastics in still-water ecosystems and running water ecosystems in the west bank of the Pearl River Estuary.

Ice-Confined Cryo-Polymerization of Sponge-Like Hydrogels with Self-Adapting Channel for Solar Water Purification.

Polymer hydrogels are widely used in solar-driven water evaporation due to their controllable vaporization enthalpy, but the low water transport rates restrict their application. Here, a sponge-like polyacrylamide/carbon nanotube hydrogel is prepared by ice-confined cryo-polymerization, which possesses micro-size and non-swelling skeleton, and exhibits both hydrogel and sponge behaviors such as excellent squeezability and superior water transport capabilities about three orders of magnitude higher than that of conventional hydrogels. Moreover, the hydrogels can spontaneously regulate the size of internal channels to adjust the capillary force and thus they can support a water evaporation rate as high as 36.

Gut Microbiota Modulates Obesity-Associated Skeletal Deterioration Through Macrophage Aging and Grancalcin Secretion.

Obesity is associated with skeletal deterioration and increased fracture risk, but the underlying mechanism is unclear. Herein, it is shown that obese gut microbiota promotes skeletal deterioration by inducing bone marrow macrophages (BMMs) senescence and grancalcin (GCA) secretion. Obese mice and those receiving obese fecal microbiota transplants exhibit increased senescent macrophages and elevated GCA expression in the bone marrow.

Global, regional and national epidemiology of myocarditis: health inequalities, risk factors and forecasted burden based on the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.

Background: Myocarditis is a global epidemic that causes various medical conditions associated with an increased incidence and death numbers. This study aimed to investigate the trends in myocarditis-associated incidence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) with health inequalities, risk factors, and predict the disease burden, thereby mitigating the health hazards of myocarditis.

Methods: This was a modelling study that used data from the Global Burden of Diseases 2021, from which myocarditis was included in the analysis.

Smoking, alcohol and risk of sarcopenia: a Mendelian randomisation study.

Objective: Observational studies have found that cigarette smoking increased the prevalence and incidence of sarcopenia, whereas alcohol consumption appeared to decrease the risk. These findings, however, may be susceptible to either confounding bias or reverse causation. We conducted a Mendelian randomisation (MR) study to appraise the causal relation of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption to the risk of sarcopenia.

Osteoarthritis treatment via the GLP-1-mediated gut-joint axis targets intestinal FXR signaling.

Whether a gut-joint axis exists to regulate osteoarthritis is unknown. In two independent cohorts, we identified altered microbial bile acid metabolism with reduced glycoursodeoxycholic acid (GUDCA) in osteoarthritis. Suppressing farnesoid X receptor (FXR)-the receptor of GUDCA-alleviated osteoarthritis through intestine-secreted glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) in mice.

The International Skin Spectra Archive (ISSA): a multicultural human skin phenotype and colour spectra collection.

This paper presents the International Skin Spectra Archive (ISSA), a multicultural human skin phenotype dataset, containing 15,256 records of both spectral and colorimetric data derived from 2,113 subjects. These measurements, collected between 2012 and 2024, come from eleven different datasets gathered by international laboratories across eight countries, all adhering to a uniform measurement protocol to ensure data consistency. The ISSA dataset addresses the inherent challenges in measuring human skin colour due to its complex structure and covers a wide variability in skin characteristics such as geography, ethnicity, age, gender, and body location.

From confrontation to co-production: How China's ENGOs facilitate residents' waste management systems.

Waste management has emerged as a critical challenge in multiple countries, where governance structures frequently exhibit insufficient robustness. Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), as pivotal stakeholders in this domain, must assume a more substantial role. However, their contributions have historically been perceived as limited.

Preparation of Calcium Alginate-Based Hydrogels with Precisely Designed Centrosymmetric Geometries for Efficient Water Evaporation in Response to Different Solar Incidence Angles.

Hydrogels are popular materials for desalination and can significantly reduce the vaporization enthalpy of water; however, there are few reports on hydrogels with a controllable multilevel structural design for water evaporation. Herein, a calcium alginate and traditional Chinese ink-based evaporator (CIE) are proposed and fabricated using directed freezing technology to construct radial channels, followed by freeze-drying and physical cross-linking. Because of the squeezing of ice crystals and the shaping effect of the PDMS template, the prepared evaporator exhibits a sea-urchin-shaped highly geometrical centrosymmetric structure with numerous multilevel pore channels, which promotes the rapid transport of water under different solar incidence angles as the sun rotates as well as overcomes the structural shrinkage of the hydrogel caused by insufficient water supply.

X-ray triggered bimetallic nanoassemblies as radiosensitizers and STING agonists for a CDT/radio-immunotherapy strategy.

Radiotherapy (RT) is a cornerstone of cancer therapy, but its effectiveness is constrained by dose-limiting toxicity and inadequate systemic immune activation. To overcome these limitations, we have engineered an X-ray-responsive nanoassembly (sMnAu NAs) by cross-linking monodisperse MnAu nanoparticles (NPs) with radiation-responsive diselenide-containing linkers. MnAu alloy NPs not only provide Au NPs for radiosensitization, but also control Mn (0) release, which stimulates Fenton-like reaction for chemodynamic therapy and is transferred into Mn to activate the STING pathway for immunotherapy.

Robust and Antifouling Composite Hydrogels Enhanced by Directional Freeze-Casting and Salting-Out for Highly Efficient Solar Evaporation.

Hydrogels have been identified as a promising material platform for solar-driven interfacial evaporation. However, designing durable hydrogel solar evaporators that can combine effective photothermal conversion, superior water transport, salt resistance, and robust mechanical properties to ensure stable and efficient evaporation remains a significant challenge. Herein, a robust and antifouling hydrogel-based solar evaporator composed of poly(vinyl alcohol), sodium alginate, and MXene is successfully constructed through directional freeze-casting and salting-out processes.

Distinct impacts of microplastics on the carbon sequestration capacity of coastal blue carbon ecosystems: A case of seagrass beds.

Seagrass beds, as an important coastal blue carbon ecosystem, are excellent at storing organic carbon and mitigating the impacts of global climate change. However, seagrass beds are under threat due to increased human activities and ubiquitous presence of microplastics (MPs) in marine environments. Bibliometric analysis shows that the distribution and accumulation of microplastics in seagrass beds has been widely documented worldwide, but their impacts on seagrass beds, particularly on carbon sequestration capacity, have not been given sufficient attention.

Aged bone marrow macrophages drive systemic aging and age-related dysfunction via extracellular vesicle-mediated induction of paracrine senescence.

The accumulation and systemic propagation of senescent cells contributes to physiological aging and age-related pathology. However, which cell types are most susceptible to the aged milieu and could be responsible for the propagation of senescence has remained unclear. Here we found that physiologically aged bone marrow monocytes/macrophages (BMMs) propagate senescence to multiple tissues, through extracellular vesicles (EVs), and drive age-associated dysfunction in mice.

Vertical distribution of microplastics in the Western Pacific Warm Pool: In situ results comparison of different sampling method.

Marine microplastics (MPs) are recognized as a growing severe environmental concern. The vertical distribution pattern of MPs in the ocean is still elusive. Meanwhile, different sampling methods have been deployed in previous studies, resulting in difficulties in compiling data.

Numerical simulation of sulfur particle agglomeration at bends of high sulfur natural gas gathering pipelines based on Euler-PBM coupling.

Sulfur deposition can result in an increase in the wall thickness of high-sulfur natural gas gathering pipelines, leading to issues like unstable pipeline flow. It is crucial to reveal the aggregation of sulfur particles at key locations of high-sulfur natural gas gathering pipelines to predict the location and amount of sulfur deposition in the pipelines. In this paper, the Euler-PBM (Population balance model) coupling is used to establish a numerical simulation model of gas-solid two-phase pipe flow accompanied by sulfur particle agglomeration in the pipe bends, focusing on the influence of sulfur particle volume fraction, pipe inclination angle and inlet flow velocity on sulfur particles agglomeration behavior.