Intraspecific Variations in Ecomorphological Functional Traits of Montane Stream-Dwelling Frogs Were Driven by Their Microhabitat Conditions.

Understanding how habitat conditions drive morphological adaptations in animals is critical in ecology, yet amphibian studies remain limited. This study investigated intraspecific variation in ecomorphological traits of three montane stream-dwelling frogs (, , and ) across elevation gradients in Tianping Mountain, China. Using morphological measurements and environmental variables collected from ten transects, we analyzed functional traits related to feeding and locomotion and assessed their associations with microhabitat variables.

EgG1Y162 protein from Echinococcus granulosus modulates the immune functions of mouse splenic lymphocytes and regulates Th9 cells.

Echinococcus granulosus (E. granulosus) infection can induce mechanical compression and a resultant inflammatory reaction within the liver tissue. EgG1Y162 shows promise as an E.

Novel alkali-resistant nitrogen and phosphorus removal strain I4: Performance evaluation and molecular mechanism.

The highly alkali-tolerant strain Pseudomonas sediminis I4, isolated from a brackish-water pond, demonstrates both nitrification-aerobic denitrification and aerobic phosphorus removal capabilities. The optimal conditions for nitrogen and phosphorus removal were determined to include a carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of 10, a phosphorus-to-nitrogen ratio of 0.2, a temperature of 30°C, and sodium citrate as the carbon source.

Integrating climate change and fine-scale habitat suitability to assess amphibian range shift in Mount Emei, China.

Background: Habitat range shifts driven by climate change threaten global biodiversity, with impacts likely to be most pronounced at mountainous regions. As key consumers, amphibians play critical roles in mountainous ecosystems by contributing to nutrient cycling, soil aeration through burrowing activities, and aquatic bioturbation. However, they are particularly vulnerable to climate change due to limited mobility and strong dependence on ambient temperature.

Evaluation of the Clinical Outcomes Associated With the Use of Fatty Acids and Vitamin D in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Non-pharmacological therapies such as dietary interventions, fatty acids and vitamin supplementation, and physical changes are emerging as complementary treatments in the management of rheumatoid arthritis. Fatty acids (omega-3 fatty acids) and vitamin D modulate inflammatory pathways and decrease the production of inflammatory mediators having a beneficial effect on RA symptoms. The meta-analysis synthesized data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and investigated the effects of fatty acids and vitamin D supplementation in RA patients using clinical outcomes.

Relationship of the oxidative balance score with the risk of frailty and mortality in patients with asthma: a mediation analysis of NHANES.

Background: The high risk of frailty in patients with asthma is of increasing concern. Oxidative stress is an important mechanism in the pathogenesis of asthma, and the oxidative balance score (OBS) is a new index reflecting the state of oxidative homeostasis in the body that integrates dietary and physical activity factors. However, the relationship between the OBS and risk of frailty in patients with asthma remains unclear.

GHSR gene knockout alleviates the liver pathological response in Echinococcus granulosus infection by reducing parasite survival.

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a parasitic disease caused by the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus, and the immunosuppressive microenvironment exacerbates disease progression. Ghrelin, a peptide hormone, plays a role in modulating immune inflammation and may influence the progression of E. granulosus infection through its receptor, GHSR (growth hormone secretagogue receptor).

Intelligent Hierarchical Targeting Near-Infrared Persistent Luminescence Nanosystem for Improved Nuclear Delivery and Simultaneous Visualization/Therapy of EBV-Associated Cancer.

Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1), a sequence-specific DNA binding protein of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), is essential for viral genome replication and maintenance and is therefore an attractive target for the therapeutic intervention of EBV-associated cancers. Several EBNA1-specific inhibitors have demonstrated the ability to block EBNA1 function in vitro, but practical delivery strategies for these inhibitors in vivo are still lacking. Here, we report an intelligent hierarchical targeting theranostic nanosystem (denoted as mZGOCS@MnO-P5) that integrates an azide (N3) terminal dual-targeting peptide (N3-P5), a tumor microenvironment-responsive degradable MnO nanosheet, and a mesoporous ZnGaO:Cr, Sn near-infrared persistent luminescence (NIR-PL) nanosphere (mZGOCS).

Inhibition of the MyD88 signaling pathway could upregulates Ghrelin expression to synergistically regulate hepatic -infected progression.

Introduction: AE and whether the inhibition of the MyD88 inflammatory pathway can enhance Ghrelin expression to collaboratively modulate AE progression remains unclear.

Methods: In this study, we evaluated Ghrelin serum levels and changes in TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB pathway proteins and inflammatory factors in AE patients and mouse models at different stages of infection (-4, -8, and -12 weeks). Additionally, we administered the MyD88 inhibitor TJ-M2010-5 intraperitoneally to infected mice to evaluate alterations in inflammation and Ghrelin levels, as well as disease progression.

Genome-wide analysis of abnormal splicing regulators and alternative splicing involved in immune regulation in systemic lupus erythematosus.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with complex clinical manifestations and no current cure. Alternative splicing (AS) plays a key role in SLE by regulating immune-related genes, but its genome-wide regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. To investigate the involvement of abnormal splicing regulators and AS events in the immune regulation of SLE.

Promoting sustainable smallholder farming via multistakeholder collaboration.

Transforming smallholder farms is critical to global food security and environmental sustainability. The science and technology backyard (STB) platform has proved to be a viable approach in China. However, STB has traditionally focused on empowering smallholder farmers by transferring knowledge, and wide-scale adoption of more sustainable practices and technologies remains a challenge.

Resveratrol prevents age-related heart impairment through inhibiting the Notch/NF-κB pathway.

Resveratrol (RSV) is a natural polyphenol compound found in various plants that has been shown to have potential benefits for preventing aging and supporting cardiovascular health. However, the specific signal pathway by which RSV protects the aging heart is not yet well understood. This study aimed to explore the protective effects of RSV against age-related heart injury and investigate the underlying mechanisms using a D-galactose-induced aging model.

White hyacinth bean polysaccharide ameliorates diabetes via microbiota-gut-brain axis in type 2 diabetes mellitus rats.

Gut played a potent role in onset and progression of metabolic disorders, presenting an exciting direction for diabetes prevention. Here, the anti-diabetic effects of White hyacinth bean polysaccharides (WHBP) were observed, including the reduction of blood glucose levels and improvement of intestinal impairment in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) rats. Further data concerning intestinal protection suggested that WHBP restored intestinal barrier, as evidenced by inhibition of intestinal pathological damage, up-regulation of Zonula occluden-1 expression and manipulation of the redox system in T2DM rats.

Salvianolic Acid B: A Review of Pharmacological Effects, Safety, Combination Therapy, New Dosage Forms, and Novel Drug Delivery Routes.

Salvianolic acid B is extracted from the roots and rhizomes of Danshen ( Bge., family Labiatae). It is a water-soluble, weakly acidic drug that has demonstrated antitumor and anti-inflammatory effects on various organs and tissues such as the lung, heart, kidney, intestine, bone, liver, and skin and protective effects in diseases such as depression and spinal cord injury.

Identification of novel genomic regions associated with nine mineral elements in Chinese winter wheat grain.

Background: Mineral elements are important for maintaining good human health besides heavy metals. Mining genes that control mineral elements are paramount for improving their accumulation in the wheat grain. Although previous studies have reported some loci for beneficial trace elements, they have mainly focused on Zn and Fe content.

A novel deep learning-based quantification of serial chest computed tomography in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

This study aims to explore and compare a novel deep learning-based quantification with the conventional semi-quantitative computed tomography (CT) scoring for the serial chest CT scans of COVID-19. 95 patients with confirmed COVID-19 and a total of 465 serial chest CT scans were involved, including 61 moderate patients (moderate group, 319 chest CT scans) and 34 severe patients (severe group, 146 chest CT scans). Conventional CT scoring and deep learning-based quantification were performed for all chest CT scans for two study goals: (1) Correlation between these two estimations; (2) Exploring the dynamic patterns using these two estimations between moderate and severe groups.

Early stage Acute B lymphocytic leukemia presenting with symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis (AS): A case report.

Rationale: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has acute and severe onset characterized by fever, moderate to severe anemia, bone and joint pain, and sternal tenderness. It is easy to be misdiagnosed as rheumatic disease when joint pain is the first symptom.

Patient Concerns: A male Han, 18 years of age was admitted on July 15th, 2016 for multi-joint swelling and pain with intermittent fever for half a year which had aggravated in the last 10 days.

Adaptively Dense Feature Pyramid Network for Object Detection.

We propose a novel one-stage object detection network, called adaptively dense feature pyramid network (ADFPNet), to detect objects cross various scales. The proposed network is developed on single shot multibox detector (SSD) framework with a new proposed ADFP module, which is consisted of two components: a dense multi scales and receptive fields block (DMSRB) and an adaptively feature calibration block (AFCB). Specifically, DMSRB block extracts rich semantic information in a dense way through atrous convolutions with different atrous rates to extract dense features in multi scales and receptive fields; the AFCB block calibrate the dense features to retain features contributing more and depress features contributing less.

TGF-beta/TGF-beta RII/CLC-3 axis promotes cognitive disorders in diabetes.

Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) and Chloride channel-3 (CLC-3) are critical for inflammatory response, cellular proliferation and apoptosis in hippocampus neurons. However, the relationship between CLC-3 and TGF-beta/TGF-beta Receptor II (RII) pathway in diabetic encephalopathy (DE) is unknown. In this study, both diabetes rat model and diabetes cell model were employed to elucidate the mechanisms involved.

Adipose-derived stem cell-based treatment for acute liver failure.

Introduction: Acute liver failure (ALF) is a highly lethal disease, for which effective therapeutic methods are limited. Although allogeneic liver transplantation is a viable treatment method for ALF, there is a serious shortage of liver donors. Recent studies suggest that stem cell transplantation is a more promising alternative.

Scutellarein inhibits cancer cell metastasis in vitro and attenuates the development of fibrosarcoma in vivo.

Fibrosarcoma is an aggressive and highly metastatic cancer of the connective tissue, for which effective therapeutic methods are limited. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in small molecular compounds from natural products in the treatment of cancer. In the present study, we investigated the compound, scutellarein, extracted from the perennial herb Scutellaria lateriflora, and it was found to possess anticancer potential.

Drug-inducible synergistic gene silencing with multiple small hairpin RNA molecules for gene function study in animal model.

Gene targeting is a critical tool for construction of disease models. However, the application of traditional homologous recombination-mediated gene knockout technology is limited by the absence of rapid frequency-guaranteed targeting methods. Although conventional small hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated gene silencing offers an alternative for gene targeting, its application is frequently compromised by lower expression efficiency via RNA interference compared to gene knockout.

Emodin-mediated cross-linking enhancement for extracellular matrix homeostasis.

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is an essential element of mammalian organisms, and its cross-linking formation plays a vital role in ECM development and postnatal homeostasis. Defects in cross-link formation caused by aging, genetic, or environmental factors are known to cause numerous diseases in mammals. To augment the cross-linking formation of ECM, the present study established a ZsGreen reporter system controlled by the promoter of lysyl oxidase-like 1 gene (LOXL1), which serves as both a scaffold element and a cross-linking enzyme in the ECM.