Epidemiological profile and determinants of whole blood heavy metal levels in occupationally exposed populations: a cross-sectional study in Hunan Province, China.

Objective: This study aims to characterize current whole blood levels of heavy metals including lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), and arsenic (As) among occupational populations in Hunan Province, China, and identify exposure determinants to inform health management strategies.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 2,991 occupational workers. Demographic data, occupational exposure history, and lifestyle habits were collected.

Coral reef-inspired hierarchical channel electrolyte: LATP framework-ZrO₂ triggering activation of amorphous fast-ion channels in PVDF-HFP.

To cope with the demand for high-safe lithium-ion batteries, this study developed a new PVDF-HFP/LiTFSI/LATP/ZrO₂ (PHLZ) composite solid electrolyte with coral reef-type hierarchical channel structure. This electrolyte integrates the advantages of the NASICON fast ion conductor Li₁.₃Al₀.

Short-term exposure to PM constituents and mortality risks for diabetes subtypes and related complications in eastern China.

Background: Although fine particulate matter (PM) pollution is widely linked with diabetes-related morbidity and mortality, research on the short-term effects of its components across diabetes subtypes and complications is limited.

Methods: We conducted an individual-level time-stratified case-crossover study by investigating over 55 thousand diabetes-related deaths in Jiangsu province of eastern China, between 2016 and 2019. Daily concentrations of total PM and its five primary components, including black carbon (BC), organic matter (OM), nitrate (NO), sulfate (SO), and ammonium (NH) were assigned to each death on case and control days at the residential address.

NMDA receptors in neurodegenerative diseases: mechanisms and emerging therapeutic strategies.

NMDA receptors (NMDARs) are widely distributed throughout the central nervous system (CNS) and play pivotal roles in normal physiological processes such as synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory. Substantial evidence indicates that NMDAR dysfunction, particularly excessive calcium influx, critically contributes to the pathogenesis of major neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Dysregulated glutamatergic signaling synergizes with pathological protein aggregation (e.

Two genes control sperm formation and male fertility in mice.

Sperm-associated antigen 6 (SPAG6) is the mammalian orthologue of PF16, a central axonemal protein essential for flagellar motility. In mice, two homologous genes have been identified: the ancestral on chromosome 2 and the evolutionary derived on chromosome 16. Although knockout mice ( ) are phenotypically normal, the surviving males are infertile.

Association Between Digital Isolation and Sleep Disorders in Older Adults: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Study Using National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) Data.

Background: As digital technology becomes increasingly embedded in daily life, digital isolation among older adults has become more pronounced. This isolation may restrict access to health information and social support, potentially leading to poorer sleep quality. However, most existing studies on digital isolation and sleep disorders were cross-sectional, lacking longitudinal evidence to establish causality.

Case Report: Low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation improves social interaction and stereotyped behavior in a boy with autism spectrum disorder.

Objectives: Presently, no biomedical therapies are available that specifically address the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorders. Given the evidence of cortical malfunction in ASD, low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation has been discussed as a prospective therapeutic technique.

Methods: We describe the application of transcranial focused ultrasound to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in a boy with ASD, which was applied for 30 minutes each consecutive weekday for four weeks (20 sessions in total).

Mechanistic Insight into Serine Flux Regulation through Nanoscale Organization of Glucose and Serine Transporters by Substrate Probe-Based Direct Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy Imaging.

Serine serves as a metabolic nexus in tumors, coordinating one-carbon metabolism, nucleotide synthesis, and redox regulation. While serine transporters (SerTs) are known to be dysregulated in cancer, their functional nanoscale organization remains unresolved due to the limitation of resolution imaging and available probes. Here, we developed a substrate-based fluorescent probe (Ser-probe) enabling direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy of SerTs, revealing malignancy-associated clustering assembly of SerTs that correlates with transport capacity.

Exploring the Multifactorial Regulation of PIEZO1 in Chondrocytes: Mechanisms and Implications.

The mechanosensitive PIEZO1 ion channel plays a pivotal role in the regulation of chondrocyte function and is involved in various physiological and pathological processes, including cartilage degradation and osteoarthritis (OA). This review explores the regulatory mechanisms governing PIEZO1 activation and its interactions with mechanical stress, extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness, inflammatory factors, and other ion channels. We discuss the role of PIEZO1 in calcium signaling, its modulation by ECM stiffness, and the implications for cartilage health, particularly under high mechanical load or inflammatory conditions.

Episode-specific cortical functional connectome reorganization and neurobiological correlates in bipolar disorder: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a heterogeneous psychiatric condition characterized by distinct episodes: manic (BipM), depressive (BipD), mixed (mBD), and remission (rBD). Current evidence indicates alterations in brain functional connectivity in BD, yet a comprehensive understanding across all episodes remains incomplete.

Methods: Here, to investigate how different BD episodes alter brain functional organization, we calculated the sensory-association axis using diffusion map embedding on the functional connectome matrix and compared this axis between the four BD groups and neurotypical controls.

CognitMoE: A cognition-aware collaborative multi-expert network for bipolar disorder diagnosis.

Early diagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD) is challenging due to unclear pathological features. Structural MRI (sMRI) is crucial for BD diagnosis due to its high spatial resolution and stable image quality. However, current sMRI-based methods often fail to capture specific brain region pathology effectively.

Research on construction workers' job well-being and unsafe state: From the perspective of Maslow hierarchy of needs.

To enhance construction workers' job well-being and reduce unsafe behaviors, this paper introduces Maslow hierarchy of needs theory. It deeply analyzes the intrinsic relationship between construction workers' job well-being and their unsafe conditions (both psychological and physiological states) and establishes a framework for understanding how job well-being impacts unsafe conditions. An indicator system for factors affecting construction workers' job well-being is constructed based on 5 dimensions: living conditions, working conditions, rights protection, safety development (stress), and career advancement.

Machine Learning and Interpretability Study for Predicting 30-Day Unplanned Readmission Risk of Schizophrenia: A Retrospective Study.

Purpose: To build a 30-day unplanned readmission (UPR) risk prediction model based on machine learning (ML) and SHapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) with data obtained from the electronic medical records (EMRs) of patients with schizophrenia, so as to provide support for early intervention in clinical treatment.

Patients And Methods: This retrospective study selected 1,123 patients with schizophrenia who were hospitalized at least once from January 1, 2021 to June 30, 2024 according to their EMRs. Models were constructed after screening variables using the multiple linear regression and feature importance methods.

Impaired physical function in relation to later-life exposure to ambient fine particulate matter and ozone among Chinese middle-aged and older adults.

While ambient fine particulate matter (PM) and ozone (O) are extensively associated with population health, no studies have yet assessed the potential association between concurrent exposure to these two pollutants and physical function (PF) in middle-aged and elderly individuals. By collecting data from three phases of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), we included 8834 follow-up observations from 4110 participants aged 45 years and older who had undergone at least two physical examinations between 2011 and 2015. PF scores of enrolled participants were assessed through four objective tests including grip strength, balance, walking speed, and repeated chair stands.

Trends and comparisons of diabetes burden in China and the world from 1990 to 2021,with forecasts to 2050:a systematic analysis of the global burden of disease study 2021.

Background: Diabetes is a major global public health issue. This study investigated the trends in the age-and gender-specific burden of diabetes in China and worldwide from 1990 to 2021, and predicted the prevalence of diabetes in 2050.

Methods: Using publicly available data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database from 1990 to 2021, we comprehensively applied Joinpoint regression and age-period-cohort (APC) analysis to reveal the epidemiological characteristics, conducted decomposition analysis to identify the driving factors of burden changes, and used the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model to project the disease burden of diabetes from 2022 to 2050.

Glycosaminoglycan sugar side chains on perineuronal nets in the fastigial nucleus regulate motor skills.

Perineuronal nets (PNNs), composed primarily of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans with core proteins and glycosaminoglycan (GAG) side chains, are specialized extracellular matrices that modulate synaptic transmission. However, the specific function of PNNs in the cerebellum, particularly in the fastigial nucleus (FN), and their influence on motor skill regulation remains unclear. Here, we initially performed chemogenetic inactivation of the FN and confirmed that the activity of glutamatergic neurons in the FN is required for both gross and fine motor skills.

FLA-UNet: feature-location attention U-Net for foveal avascular zone segmentation in OCTA images.

Introduction: Since optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is non-invasive and non-contact, it is widely used in the study of retinal disease detection. As a key indicator for retinal disease detection, accurate segmentation of foveal avascular zone (FAZ) has an important impact on clinical application. Although the U-Net and its existing improvement methods have achieved good performance on FAZ segmentation, their generalization ability and segmentation accuracy can be further improved by exploring more effective improvement strategies.

Daytime, nighttime, and day-night compound heatwaves and the risk of depression: A Chinese nationwide cohort.

Despite growing population and animal evidence linking mental health to environmental stressors, the potentially differential relationships of daytime and nighttime heat exposure with depression have been underexplored in both developed and undeveloped settings. This study aimed to investigate the long-term associations of daytime, nighttime, and day-night compound heatwaves with depressive symptoms in a Chinese nationwide cohort of middle-aged and older population. We analyzed 35211 repeated-measurement observations from 12403 participants (≥45 years) across 125 cities using four waves (2011-2018) of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study data.

Targeting probiotic modulation of gut microbiota for postoperative depression management in patients undergoing gastric cancer surgery.

Postoperative depression is a prevalent yet often overlooked complication following radical surgery for gastric cancer that significantly affects patient recovery and quality of life. Emerging evidence suggests that the gut microbiota has a crucial role in the gut-brain axis, influencing mood regulation and psychological resilience. In the study by Lu , triple viable bacteria combined with mirtazapine demonstrated marked efficacy: The observation group showed a 32% reduction in Self-Rating Depression Scale depression scores, significantly outperforming the control group.