Chest CT-based analysis of radiomic and volumetric differences in epicardial adipose tissue in HFrEF patients with and without AF.

Aims: Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) has been implicated in atrial fibrillation (AF). While increased EAT volume (EATV) and EATV index (EATVI) are associated with AF, decreased values have been observed in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). However, radiomic and volumetric differences of EAT in HFrEF patients with AF (HFrEF-AF) and without AF (HFrEF) remain unexplored.

Characterization of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-14, a KPC variant conferring resistance to ceftazidime-avibactam in the extensively drug-resistant ST463 Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolate.

Objective: We studied two Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-14 variants from clinical Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates (C137 and C159) to better understand the genomic diversity, mechanisms, and genes that confer antibiotic resistance and pathogenicity.

Methods: Genomic DNA from C137/159 was subjected to Illumina and Oxford Nanopore sequencing. Horizontal transmission of the plasmid was evaluated using cloning experiments.

Neural Correlates of Social Perception Deficit in Schizophrenia: An Event-related Potential Study.

Background: Deficits in emotion recognition have been shown to be closely related to social-cognitive functioning in schizophrenic. This study aimed to investigate the event-related potential (ERP) characteristics of social perception in schizophrenia patients and to explore the neural mechanisms underlying these abnormal cognitive processes related to social perception.

Methods: Participants included 33 schizophrenia patients and 35 healthy controls (HCs).

Correlation Study Between Dietary Behaviors, Lifestyle, and Psychological Problems in Chinese Children Aged 3-7.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the psychological health status of children aged 3-7 years in Wuxi and analyze the correlation between dietary behaviors, lifestyle, and psychological problems.

Methods: Using a stratified cluster random sampling method, 3-7-year-old children from 18 kindergartens across Wuxi were selected as the survey subjects. An online survey was conducted to collect demographic information about children and their parents, dietary information, lifestyle data, and family backgrounds.

Multiphase comparative study for WHO/ISUP nuclear grading diagnostic model based on enhanced CT images of clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

To compare and analyze the diagnostic value of different enhancement stages in distinguishing low and high nuclear grade clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) based on enhanced computed tomography (CT) images by building machine learning classifiers. A total of 51 patients (Dateset1, including 41 low-grade and 10 high-grade) and 27 patients (Independent Dateset2, including 16 low-grade and 11 high-grade) with pathologically proven ccRCC were enrolled in this retrospective study. Radiomic features were extracted from the corticomedullary phase (CMP), nephrographic phase (NP), and excretory phase (EP) CT images, and selected using the recursive feature elimination cross-validation (RFECV) algorithm, the group differences were assessed using T-test and Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables.

Megalin blockade with cilastatin ameliorates multiple wasp sting-induced acute kidney injury in rats.

Cilastatin has been shown to prevent various drug-induced nephrotoxicities and confer renoprotection in a mouse model of glycerol-mediated rhabdomyolysis-induced acute kidney injury (AKI). The present study aimed to investigate whether cilastatin attenuates wasp sting-induced AKI in rats. Male Wistar rats were divided into the control, cilastatin, AKI, and AKI + cilastatin groups.

Phospholipase A inhibitor varespladib prevents wasp sting-induced nephrotoxicity in rats.

This study aimed to clarify whether varespladib, a phospholipase A (PLA) inhibitor, can be used as a therapeutic agent for wasp sting-induced acute kidney injury (AKI). Rats were divided into control, AKI, and AKI + varespladib groups. The AKI model was established by subcutaneously injecting wasp venom at five different sites in rats.

A Closed-Tube Nested Quantitative PCR Assay for Rapid Detection of Intron 22 Inversions in the Factor VIII Gene.

Background: An inversion of intron 22 in the Factor VIII gene (Inv22) is the causative mutation for 45% of severe hemophilia A cases. Available methods for molecular diagnosis of Inv22 are generally tedious and not ideal for routine clinical use.

Methods: We report here a new method using a single closed-tube nested quantitative PCR (CN-qPCR) for rapid detection of Inv22.

A Two-Step Strategy for the Rapid Enrichment of -Like Ammonia-Oxidizing Thaumarchaea.

Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) are widely distributed on the earth and play a significant role in the global nitrogen cycle. Although dozens of AOA strains were obtained in the last 13 years, it is still necessary to obtain more AOA strains for the entire exploration of their ecology, physiology, and underlying biochemistry in different environments. In this study, we designed a two-step strategy for the rapid enrichment of -like AOA from soils.

Insight into the diversity of antibiotic resistance genes in the intestinal bacteria of shrimp Penaeus vannamei by culture-dependent and independent approaches.

Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) that distributed in antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARBs) are widespread in aquaculture and have great threats to the aquatic organism as well as to human. However, our understanding about the risk of ARGs to the health of aquatic organism is still limited. In the present study, we got a deep insight into the diversity of ARGs in the intestinal bacteria of shrimp by culture-dependent and independent approaches.

Mutational and phenotypic spectrum of phenylalanine hydroxylase deficiency in Zhejiang Province, China.

Phenylalanine hydroxylase deficiency (PAHD), one of the genetic disorders resulting in hyperphenylalaninemia, has a complex phenotype with many variants and genotypes among different populations. Here, we describe the mutational and phenotypic spectrum of PAHD in a cohort of 420 patients from neonatal screening between 1999 and 2016. The observed phenotypes comprised 43.

Overexpression of human mitochondrial alanyl-tRNA synthetase suppresses biochemical defects of the mt-tRNA mutation in cybrids.

Mutations of mitochondrial transfer RNAs (mt-tRNAs) play a major role in a wide range of mitochondrial diseases because of the vital role of these molecules in mitochondrial translation. It has previously been reported that the overexpression of mitochondrial aminoacyl tRNA synthetases is effective at partially suppressing the defects resulting from mutations in their cognate mt-tRNAs in cells. Here we report a detailed analysis of the suppressive activities of mitochondrial alanyl-tRNA synthetase (AARS2) on mt-tRNA 5655 A>G mutant.

Mutation analysis of Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy using a multi-gene panel.

The present study investigates the spectrum and incidence of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations associated with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) in a Han population using a multi-gene panel with 46 LHON-associated mutations among 13 mitochondrial genes. A total of 23 mutations were observed in a cohort of 275 patients and 281 control subjects using multi-gene panel analysis. The causative mutations associated with LHON were identified to be m.