Joint associations of long-term exposure to fine particulate constituents and muscle strength with cardiovascular diseases: a nationwide cohort study in China.

Research has indicated that PM exposure and low muscle strength may increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). However, inconsistent findings existed on PM constituents and CVDs, and little is known about the interplay between PM constituents and muscle strength. This study aimed to examine the associations of PM and its components with the incidence of CVDs and to further investigate the joint effects of pollutants and muscle strength on CVDs in a nationwide cohort from 2011-2018.

Phytotherapy for Obesity Management: The Role of Gut Microbiota in Reshaping Adipose Tissue.

People with obesity exhibit abnormal fat accumulation, systemic chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, hepatic steatosis, and dysregulation of glucolipid metabolism. However, interventions aimed at lifestyle modification and energy intake reduction have shown limited effectiveness. Adipose tissue is widely distributed throughout the body and has high plasticity.

Engineering Atomic-Step Architectures in 2D WSe through Kinetic Modulation for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution in PEM Electrolyzers.

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers currently depends predominantly on platinum-based catalysts, whose high cost and limited natural abundance drive the urgent need for developing efficient non-precious alternatives. Among various candidates, tungsten-based transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs, where X = S, Se, Te) have shown particular promise as cost-effective catalysts, yet their performance still falls short of practical requirements. Recognizing that the edge sites of TMDs serve as the primary active centers for HER, a strategy is developed to dramatically enhance WSe's catalytic efficiency by creating abundant atomic steps through a precisely controlled kinetically-driven selenization process.

Optimized wavelength selection for eggplant seed vitality classification using information acquisition techniques.

Eggplant seed vigor is a crucial indicator of its germination rate and seedling growth quality. In response to the need for efficient and nondestructive assessment methods, this study explores the use of hyperspectral imaging combined with advanced feature selection and classification algorithms to evaluate eggplant seed viability. Hyperspectral imaging was employed to collect spectral data from eggplant seeds, covering 360 bands within a wavelength range of 395.

CMedRAGBot: A Chinese Medical Chatbot Based on Graph RAG and Large Language Models.

In the domain of Chinese clinical medical question-answering (QA), traditional Large Language Models (LLMs) encounter challenges such as hallucinations and difficulties in updating knowledge for knowledge-intensive tasks. To address these issues, this research presents a Chinese clinical medical QA model that integrates Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and a medical knowledge graph, named CMedRAGBot. First, a Chinese medical knowledge graph encompassing multiple entity types-including diseases, medications, and symptoms-is constructed.

Effects of PM constituents on gestational diabetes mellitus in Chinese pregnant women: The potential modifying role of vitamin B.

Associations of PM and its constituents with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are still unclear, and little is known about the impact of vitamin B. The Gene-Environment-Nutrient-Epigenetics interaction on Maternal and Children health study (GENEMaC) cohort was conducted during 2017-2018 in Tianjin, China, and 1396 eligible women were included in the final analysis. Spatiotemporal models were used to estimate PM exposure levels and its constituents, including sulfate (SO), ammonium (NH), nitrate (NO), organic matter (OM), black carbon (BC).

Correction: Stem cell factor restrains endoplasmic reticulum stress-associated apoptosis through c-Kit receptor activation of JAK2/STAT3 axis in hippocampal neuronal cells.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Optimal amount of vigorous-intensity physical activity for lowering incidence of microvascular diseases: A prospective cohort study from the UK Biobank.

Aims: To explore the amount-response associations between the duration of physical activity (PA) at different intensities and the risks of microvascular diseases (MVDs), with a particular focus on identifying the optimal amount of vigorous-intensity PA (VPA).

Methods: In this prospective cohort study, PA of different intensities were measured using wrist-worn accelerometers. MVDs, including nephropathy, neuropathy, and retinopathy, were identified from hospital inpatient records.

Identification of the Valine-Glutamine gene family in Chenopodium quinoa Willd and analysis of its expression pattern and subcellular localization under drought stress.

Background: Chenopodium quinoa Willd (Quinoa) is highly tolerant to drought, cold, and salt stress. Gene editing technology development, and research on quinoa's drought resistance have attracted much attention. The transcriptional cofactor VQ plays an important role in the drought response in plants, but its role in quinoa has not been reported.

THz-driven electron manipulation via non-velocity-matched interaction in dielectric-loaded waveguides.

Multi-cycle THz-driven electron compression and focusing in dielectric-loaded waveguides (DLWs) offer a compact solution for precise ultrafast electron beam control. However, practical implementation often suffers from dephasing effects due to fabrication tolerances. Here, we investigate the dynamics of electron beam control in the non-velocity-matched interactions between electron beams and THz waves within the DLWs, revealing the relationship between velocity mismatch and the THz energy required for effective electron manipulation.

Research on the quantification and automatic classification method of Chinese cabbage plant type based on point cloud data and PointNet+.

The accurate quantification of plant types can provide a scientific basis for crop variety improvement, whereas efficient automatic classification methods greatly enhance crop management and breeding efficiency. For leafy crops such as Chinese cabbage, differences in the plant type directly affect their growth and yield. However, in current agricultural production, the classification of Chinese cabbage plant types largely depends on manual observation and lacks scientific and unified standards.

BaGaSe-based 7-15 µm tunable broadband optical parametric amplifier pumped around 2 µm.

The non-oxide BaGaSe (BGSe) crystal with broad transparency range, large nonlinearity, and high damage threshold has been widely utilized to build optical parametric oscillators/amplifiers that convert the well-developed near-infrared pump laser around 1 µm into the developing mid-infrared radiation. However, the inherent narrow phase-matching bandwidth of BGSe with a pump around 1 µm hampers the generation of ultrashort mid-infrared pulses. Here, we demonstrate that by pumping the BGSe crystal around 2 µm, it is possible to achieve a sufficient phase-matching bandwidth to support ultrashort pulses across a broad mid-infrared spectral range.

CRISPR-Cas9 Cytidine-Base-Editor Mediated Continuous Evolution in .

Filamentous fungi are important cell factories for producing chemicals, organic acids, and enzymes. Although several genome editing tools are available for filamentous fungi, few effectively enable continuous evolution for rational engineering of complex phenotype. Here, we present CRISPR-Cas9 cytidine-base-editor (CBE) assisted evolution by continuously delivering a combinatorial sgRNA library to filamentous fungi.

Comparative study of arthroscopic autologous cancellous bone grafting and medial malleolar osteotomy combined with autologous periosteal iliac bone grafting for the treatment of osteochondral lesions of the talus.

Background: Surgical management methods for Hepple IV-V osteochondral lesions of the talus (OLT) are diverse. This study aimed to compare the clinical efficacy of arthroscopic autologous cancellous bone grafting and medial malleolar osteotomy combined with autologous periosteal iliac bone grafting in the treatment of medial Hepple IV-V OLT.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of clinical data from patients who underwent surgical treatment for Hepple IV-V OLT (2020-2023) was conducted.

An Outbreak of Foodborne Botulism Caused by BoNT/A3 in Pickled Eggs - Weihai City, Shandong Province, China, July 2024.

What Is Already Known About This Topic?: Foodborne botulism is caused by botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT). () is a strictly anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium, which is a key pathogen capable of producing BoNT. BoNTs can be classified into seven serotypes (A to G) based on their antigenic properties.

DSCONV-GAN: a UAV-BASED model for Verticillium Wilt disease detection in Chinese cabbage in complex growing environments.

Verticillium wilt greatly hampers Chinese cabbage growth, causing significant yield limitations. Rapid and accurate detection of Verticillium wilt in the Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. ssp.

Stem cell factor restrains endoplasmic reticulum stress-associated apoptosis through c-Kit receptor activation of JAK2/STAT3 axis in hippocampal neuronal cells.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common elderly disorder characterized by cognitive decline. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has been implicated in various neurodegenerative diseases, including AD. Stem cell factor (SCF) performs its biological functions by binding to and activating receptor tyrosine kinase c-Kit.

Early detection of verticillium wilt in eggplant leaves by fusing five image channels: a deep learning approach.

Background: As one of the world's most important vegetable crops, eggplant production is often severely affected by verticillium wilt, leading to significant declines in yield and quality. Traditional multispectral disease-imaging equipment is expensive and complicated to operate. Low-cost multispectral devices cannot capture images and cover less information.

Multi-cycle terahertz generation in lithium niobate wafer stacks via mid-infrared pumping.

Near-infrared laser-pumped optical rectification (OR) using quasi-phase matching (QPM) in lithium niobate (LN) is widely employed to generate multi-cycle terahertz (THz) pulses, which, however, suffer from low efficiency. Here, we demonstrate that mid-infrared pumping is an effective approach to increase the efficiency of multi-cycle THz generation. By using a 2.

A Strongly Coupled 1T'-ReSe@2H-MoSe van der Waals Heterostructure for Efficient Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution at High Current Densities.

Developing efficient and durable non-noble metal electrocatalysts for high current-density hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) is a pressing requirement for commercial industrial electrolyzers. In this study, a vertical 1T'-ReSe@2H-MoSe van der Waals heterostructure was developed through interface engineering to enhance the advantages of each component and expose numerous active sites. Experimental investigations and density functional theory calculations demonstrate significant electronic coupling at the interface between 1T'-ReSe and 2H-MoSe, with suitable Gibbs free energy for hydrogen adsorption.

Meta-analysis of SnRK2 gene overexpression in response to drought and salt stress.

SNF1-RELATED KINASE 2 (SnRK2) plays a crucial role in plants' stress response. Although studies have reported that the overexpression of several SnRK2 family members in different plants leads to improved stress tolerance, it is difficult to elucidate the mechanisms by which SnRK2s regulate stress tolerance due to the variability of experimental variables in these studies. Therefore, we used meta-analysis to comprehensively analyze 22 parameters that can reflect drought tolerance and salinity tolerance in SnRK2s-transformed plants and to explore the effects that different experimental variables between studies have on the relevant plant parameters.

TRPV1: A novel target for the therapy of diabetes and diabetic complications.

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disease characterized by abnormally elevated blood glucose levels. Type II diabetes accounts for approximately 90% of all cases. Several drugs are available for hyperglycemia treatment.