Dual-Step Redox Engineering of 2D CoNi-Alloy Embedded B, N-Doped Carbon Layers Toward Tunable Electromagnetic Wave Absorption and Light-Weight Infrared Stealth Heat Insulation Devices.

2D layered metallic graphite composites are promising electromagnetic wave absorption materials (EWAMs) for their combined properties of abundant interlayer free spaces, rich metallic polarized sites, and high conductivity, but the controllable synthesis remains rather challenging. Herein, a dual-step redox engineering strategy is developed by employing cobalt boron imidazolate framework (Co-BIF) to construct 2D CoNi-alloy embedded B, N-doped carbon layers (2D-CNC) as a promising EWAM. In the first step, a chemical etching oxidation process on Co-BIF is used to obtain an optimized 2D-CoNi-layered double hydroxide (2D-CoNi-LDH) intermediate and in the second, high-temperature calcination reduction is implemented to modify graphitization of the degree of the 2D-CNC. The obtained sample delivers superior reflection loss (RLmin) of -60.1 dB and wide effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 6.24 GHz. The synergy mechanisms of interfacial/dipole polarization and magnetic coupling are in-depth evidenced by the hologram and Lorentz electron microscopy, revealing its significant contribution on multireflection and impedance matching. Further theoretical evaluation by COMSOL simulation in different fields based on the dynamic loss process toward the test ring reveals the in situ EW attenuation process. This work presents a strategy to develop multifunctional light-weight infrared stealthy aerogel with superior pressure-resistant, anti-corrosion, and heat-insulating properties for future applications.

Hepatocyte-Specific Fads1 Overexpression Attenuates Western Diet-Induced Metabolic Phenotypes in a Rat Model.

Fatty acid desaturase 1 (FADS1) is a rate-limiting enzyme in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA) synthesis. Reduced activity of FADS1 was observed in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). The aim of this study was to determine whether adeno-associated virus serotype 8 (AAV8) mediated hepatocyte-specific overexpression of Fads1 (AAV8-Fads1) attenuates western diet-induced metabolic phenotypes in a rat model. Male weanling Sprague-Dawley rats were fed with a chow diet, or low-fat high-fructose (LFHFr) or high-fat high-fructose diet (HFHFr) ad libitum for 8 weeks. Metabolic phenotypes were evaluated at the endpoint. AAV8-Fads1 injection restored hepatic FADS1 protein levels in both LFHFr and HFHFr-fed rats. While AAV8-Fads1 injection led to improved glucose tolerance and insulin signaling in LFHFr-fed rats, it significantly reduced plasma triglyceride (by ~50%) and hepatic cholesterol levels (by ~25%) in HFHFr-fed rats. Hepatic lipidomics analysis showed that FADS1 activity was rescued by AAV8-FADS1 in HFHFr-fed rats, as shown by the restored arachidonic acid (AA)/dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (DGLA) ratio, and that was associated with reduced monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA). Our data suggest that the beneficial role of AAV8-Fads1 is likely mediated by the inhibition of fatty acid re-esterification. FADS1 is a promising therapeutic target for MASLD in a diet-dependent manner.

A modular platform to generate functional sympathetic neuron-innervated heart assembloids.

The technology of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-based 3D organoid/assembloid cultures has become a powerful tool for the study of human embryonic development, disease modeling and drug discovery in recent years. The autonomic sympathetic nervous system innervates and regulates almost all organs in the body, including the heart. Yet, most reported organoids to date are not innervated, thus lacking proper neural regulation, and hindering reciprocal tissue maturation. Here, we developed a simple and versatile sympathetic neuron (symN)-innervated cardiac assembloid without the need for bioengineering. Our human sympathetic cardiac assembloids (hSCAs) showed mature muscle structures, atrial to ventricular patterning, and spontaneous beating. hSCA-innervating symNs displayed neurotransmitter synthesis and functional regulation of the cardiac beating rate, which could be manipulated pharmacologically or optogenetically. We modeled symN-mediated cardiac development and myocardial infarction. This hSCAs provides a tool for future neurocardiotoxicity screening approaches and is highly versatile and modular, where the types of neuron (symN or parasympathetic or sensory neuron) and organoid (heart, lung, kidney) to be innervated may be interchanged.

Impact of Early Rehabilitation Nursing on Postoperative Cardiac Function and Quality of Life in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation.

Background: Background • Radiofrequency ablation, a widely utilized minimally invasive surgery for atrial fibrillation treatment, has certain latent risks, including a high postoperative recurrence rate and various complications. Therefore, nursing intervention plays a pivotal role in the rehabilitation process after radiofrequency ablation. Background: Objective • This study aims to investigate the impact of rehabilitation nursing on postoperative cardiac function and quality of life in patients with atrial fibrillation. Background: Methods • A total of 156 atrial fibrillation patients who underwent radiofrequency ablation and were admitted to our hospital from June 2018 to June 2023 were randomly assigned to either the control group or the research group. The control group received routine nursing, while the research group received early rehabilitation nursing in addition to routine care. A comparative analysis was conducted on cardiac function, hospital stay, incidence of complications, emotional well-being, sleep quality, overall quality of life, and nursing satisfaction between the two groups. Background: Results • In comparison to the control group, the research group exhibited an elevation in left ventricular ejection fraction, along with a reduction in left ventricular end-systolic diameter and left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (P < .05). Moreover, the research group demonstrated a shorter hospital stay and a lower incidence of complications compared to the control group (P < .05). Following nursing intervention, anxiety and depression scores, as well as sleep quality scores, were lower in the research group than in the control group (P < .05). Additionally, quality of life scores and nursing satisfaction were higher in the research group than in the control group (P < .05). Background: Conclusions • Early rehabilitation nursing emerges as a valuable intervention, expediting the recovery of postoperative cardiac function and enhancing the overall quality of life in atrial fibrillation patients. These findings emphasize its clinical significance.

Comparison of ICG-Guided Near-Infrared Fluorescence Imaging and Modified Inflation-Deflation Method in Identifying the Intersegmental Plane During Lung Segmentectomy of Infants.

BACKGROUND: The identification of the intersegmental plane (ISP) is a crucial step in segmentectomy for children with congenital pulmonary airway malformation (CPAM) due to complex anatomical variations. However, there is very limited literature available on this aspect specifically for infant. In this study, we compared the intravenous indocyanine green (ICG)-guided near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging method with the modified inflation-deflation method in terms of their perioperative characteristics and summarized our experience. METHODS: From June 2021 to November 2022, the data of 83 patients with CPAM who underwent segmentectomy by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery were retrospectively reviewed. Twenty-eight patients underwent ICG-guided NIRF method, and 56 patients underwent the modified inflation-deflation method, characteristics and clinical outcomes were compared. RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 4.99 months (4.99 ± 1.51) with a mean body weight of 7.54 kg (7.54 ± 1.99). Both methods could accurately identify the ISP. The time taken to clearly display the ISP was shorter in ICG group than in the modified inflation-deflation group (0.18 ± 0.08 vs. 6.49 ± 1.67 min; P < 0.001), and the surgical duration (61.32 ± 14.28 vs. 88.18 ± 8.03 min; P < 0.001) were significantly shorter in the ICG group too. The two groups exhibited differences in the length of chest tube drainage (1.75 ± 1.24 vs. 2.36 ± 1.54 days; P = 0.072) and the length of hospital stay (4.61 ± 1.75 vs. 5.20 ± 3.07 days; P = 0.078), however, the differences were not statistically significant. There were no significant differences between the two groups in the blood lost and postoperative complications. At a follow-up of more than 1 year after operation, all patients had recovered well without recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: According to our experience, the ICG-guided NIRF method was safe and feasible for infants during thoracoscopic segmentectomy, it can quickly display the ISP and shorten the surgical duration compared with the modified inflation-deflation method.

UV-modification of Ag nanoparticles on α-MoCx for interface polarization engineering in electromagnetic wave absorption.

The design of electromagnetic wave absorbing materials (EWAMs) has aroused great attention with the express development of electromagnetic devices, which pose a severe EM pollution risk to human health. Herein, an Ag-doped MoCx composite was designed and constructed through a UV-light-induced self-reduction process. The UV-reduction time was controlled on the α-MoC polymer for 0.5-2 hours for modifying different amounts of Ag. As a result, α-MoC@Ag-1.5 exhibited the strongest RLmin of -56.51 dB at 8.8 GHz under a thickness of 3.0 mm and the widest EAB of 4.96 GHz (12.16-17.12 GHz) covering a substantial portion of the Ku-band at a thickness of 2.0 mm due to the synergy of the conductivity loss and abundant interfacial polarization sites. Additionally, a new strategy for computer simulation technology was proposed to simulate substantial radar cross-sectional reduction values with real far-field conditions, whereby absorbing coatings with α-MoC@Ag-1.5 were proved to contribute to a remarkable radar cross-sectional reduction of 37.4 dB m2.

Morphological and molecular analyses reveal two new species of Grifola (Polyporales) from Yunnan, China.

Species of Grifola are famous edible mushrooms and are deeply loved by consumers around the world. Most species of this genus have been described and recorded in Oceania, Europe and South America, with only Grifolafrondosa being recorded in Asia. In this study, two novel species of Grifola from southwestern China (Asia) are introduced. Macro and micromorphological characters are described. Grifolaedulissp. nov. present medium-size basidiomata with gray to gray-brown lobes upper surface, mostly tibiiform or narrowly clavate, rarely narrowly lageniform or ellipsoid chlamydospores, cuticle hyphae terminal segments slightly enlarged. Grifolasinensissp. nov. has white to grayish white lobes upper surface, mostly ellipsoid, rarely narrowly utriform chlamydospores, and broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid basidiospores (4.6-7.9 × 3.0-5.9 µm). The two new species are supported by phylogenetic analyses of combined nuclear rDNA internal transcribed spacer ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rDNA (ITS) and ß-tubulin (TUBB). Moreover, the genetic distance between TUBB sequences of those specimen from GenBank was 1.76-1.9%. Thus, the conspecificity relationship of our specimens remains uncertain, and further specimens are required to conclusively confirm its identity.

[Effect of Vegetation Restoration on Soil Organic Carbon Storage in Coal Mining Areas Based on Meta-analysis].

Coal mining is the world's primary means of coping with an increasing energy demand. However, with the mining of coal, the regional ecosystem has been damaged to varying degrees, resulting in a decrease in the "carbon sink" capacity. Vegetation restoration is the basis for the restoration of degraded ecosystems and carbon sequestration functions in mining areas. However, no systematic studies have been conducted on the effects of vegetation restoration on soil organic carbon in coal mining areas on a global scale. Therefore, it is not possible to accurately predict the response of the global SOC pool to vegetation restoration. In this study, soil physicochemical properties of vegetation restoration were collected from 112 peer-reviewed articles to assess the effects of vegetation restoration type, soil depth, restoration year, mean annual temperature, annual precipitation, and elevation on soil organic carbon in coal mining areas and to identify relevant key drivers. The results showed that the damaged coal mine area could significantly improve the physicochemical properties of the soil through vegetation restoration. The restored soils had 39.02% higher SOC reserves compared to that in unrestored or naturally restored soils. When environmental factors were not considered, the vegetation restoration types that were favorable for SOC stock accumulation were cropland > woodland > grassland > shrubland. All four types of vegetation restoration significantly increased the SOC storage in the surface layer (0-20 cm). Grassland and shrubs significantly increased SOC storage at depth (>40 cm), whereas SOC storage at depth under woodland and farmland types was not significantly different from SOC storage after unrestored or natural restoration. The increasing trend of SOC storage after vegetation restoration decreased with increasing soil depth. The specific vegetation restoration strategy should select the appropriate vegetation type according to the climatic conditions. The types of vegetation restoration with higher carbon sequestration effects in damaged coal mining areas with mean annual temperature <0℃ and mean annual precipitation <500 mm were grassland or shrubland. In contrast, woodland and cropland restoration types could better increase SOC storage in environments with mean annual temperature >15℃ and annual precipitation >800 mm. TN, BD, AN, and AK were the main factors influencing the ability to affect soil carbon sequestration. This study can provide a theoretical reference for quantifying the carbon sequestration effects of different vegetation restoration measures in damaged coal mining areas and the restoration and reconstruction of degraded ecosystems.

Hetero-Interface Engineering on 9.0 wt% CoOx -Doped CeO2 Nanorods as Electromagnetic Wave Absorber and Integrated into Multifunctional Aerogel.

Ceria (CeO2 ) becomes a promising candidate as electromagnetic wave absorbing materials (EWAMs) for their abundant natural source, rich oxygen vacancy, charge conversion, and electron transfer abilities. However, it remains challenging to regulate its nanoscale and atom-scale composition to optimize the absorbing performance and develop high-performance commercial devices. Herein, a facile method to large-scale synthesis CeO2 @Co-x% (x = 5, 7, 9, 11, 13) series EWAMs with diverse amounts of decorated CoOx is presented. By modulating the ratio of doped CoOx , a rational hetero-interface is created in CeO2 @Co-9% to enhance natural and exchange resonances, improving magnetic loss capability and optimizing impedance matching. Doped CoOx promotes the charge accumulation, interfacial polarization, and multiple scattering of the CeO2 for strengthening the EW absorption and attenuation, which display superb minimum reflective loss (RLmin ) of -74.4 dB with a wide effective absorbing bandwidth (EAB) of 5.26 GHz. Furthermore, a dual crosslinking strategy is employed to fabricate CeO2 @Co-9% into an aerogel device with integrated lightweight, heat insulation, compression resistance, and fame-retardant functions. This work presents an excellent example of large-scale fast synthesis of high-performance CeO2 -based EWAMs and multiplication 3D devices.

Environmental exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances mixture and asthma in adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Previous epidemiological studies about the relationship between per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) concentrations and adolescent asthma have typically examined single PFAS, without considering the mixtures effects of PFAS. METHODS: Using data from the 2013-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 886 adolescents aged 12-19 years were included in this study. We explored the association between PFAS mixture concentrations and adolescent asthma using weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models, respectively. RESULTS: After adjusting for confounders, the results of the WQS regression and BKMR models were consistent, with mixed exposure to the five PFAS not significantly associated with asthma in all adolescents. The association remained nonsignificant in the subgroup analysis by sex. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrated no significant association between mixed exposure to PFAS and adolescent asthma, and more large cohort studies are needed to confirm this in the future.

Investigation of causal relationships between cortical structure and osteoporosis using two-sample Mendelian randomization.

The mutual interaction between bone characteristics and brain had been reported previously, yet whether the cortical structure has any relevance to osteoporosis is questionable. Therefore, we applied a two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis to investigate this relationship. We utilized the bone mineral density measurements of femoral neck (n = 32,735) and lumbar spine (n = 28,498) and data on osteoporosis (7300 cases and 358,014 controls). The global surficial area and thickness and 34 specific functional regions of 51,665 patients were screened by magnetic resonance imaging. For the primary estimate, we utilized the inverse-variance weighted method. The Mendelian randomization-Egger intercept test, MR-PRESSO, Cochran's Q test, and "leave-one-out" sensitivity analysis were conducted to assess heterogeneity and pleiotropy. We observed suggestive associations between decreased thickness in the precentral region (OR = 0.034, P = 0.003) and increased chance of having osteoporosis. The results also revealed suggestive causality of decreased bone mineral density in femoral neck to declined total cortical surface area (ß = 1400.230 mm2, P = 0.003), as well as the vulnerability to osteoporosis and reduced thickness in the Parstriangularis region (ß = -0.006 mm, P = 0.002). Our study supports that the brain and skeleton exhibit bidirectional crosstalk, indicating the presence of a mutual brain-bone interaction.

Description of Nesterenkonia aerolata sp. nov., an actinobacterium isolated from air of manufacturing shop in a pharmaceutical factory.

During our studies on the microorganism diversity from air of manufacturing shop in a pharmaceutical factory in Shandong province, China, a Gram-stain-positive, aerobic, cocci-shaped bacterium, designated LY-0111T, was isolated from a settling dish. Strain LY-0111T grew at temperature of 10-42 °C (optimum 35 °C), pH of 5.0-10.0 (optimum pH 7.0) and NaCl concentration of 1-12% (optimum 0.5-3%, w/v). Based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, the strain shared the highest sequence similarities to Nesterenkonia halophila YIM 70179T (96.2%), and was placed within the radiation of Nesterenkonia species in the phylogenetic trees. The genome of the isolate was sequenced, which comprised 2,931,270 bp with G + C content of 66.5%. A supermatrix tree based on the gene set bac120 indicated that LY-0111T was close related to Nesterenkonia xinjiangensis YIM 70097T (16S rRNA gene sequence similarity 95.3%). Chemotaxonomic analysis indicated that the main respiratory quinones were MK-7, MK-8, and MK-9, the predominant cellular fatty acids were anteiso-C15:0 and iso-C15:0, and the major polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylinositol. According to the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic features, strain LY-0111T is considered to represent a novel species, for which the name Nesterenkonia aerolata sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LY-0111T (= JCM 36375T = GDMCC 1.3945T). In addition, Nesterenkonia jeotgali was proposed as a later synonym of Nesterenkonia sandarakina, according to the ANI (96.8%) and dDDH (72.9%) analysis between them.

Highly stable and reversible Zn anodes enabled by an electrolyte additive of sucrose.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) are one of the most promising candidates for electric energy storage devices due to their merits of low cost and high safety. However, the notorious side reactions and dendrite formation on zinc anodes impede the commercialization of ZIBs. In this work, a cheap and edible electrolyte additive sucrose is applied to address the above issues. Sucrose with hydroxyl groups can react as zincophilic sites to adsorb Zn2+. As verified by Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy, the solvation structure of Zn2+ and the hydrogen bonds can be regulated by the sucrose molecule. The weakened solvated structure of Zn2+ and lowered coupling degree between Zn2+ and SO42- can inhibit the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the generation of the sulfate by-product. Furthermore, a solid electrolyte interphase (SEI)-like ion buffer layer is formed because of the preferentially adsorbed sucrose, which can increase the nucleation overpotential and equalize the ion distribution. The enriched Zn nucleation sites and inhibited 2D diffusion of Zn2+ resulting from the sucrose additive enable uniform Zn deposition. Thus, improved performances of symmetric Zn||Zn, asymmetric Zn||Cu and Zn||VO2 cells are realized. The Zn||Zn cell exhibits a highly reversible cycling performance for 1200 h and 400 h at 5 mA cm-2/1 mA h cm-2 and 10 mA cm-2/5 mA h cm-2, respectively. This work provides a readily available and edible additive to improve the performance of ZIBs.

Research Progress of Polysaccharide-Gold Nanocomplexes in Drug Delivery.

Clinical drug administration aims to deliver drugs efficiently and safely to target tissues, organs, and cells, with the objective of enabling their therapeutic effects. Currently, the main approach to enhance a drug's effectiveness is ensuring its efficient delivery to the intended site. Due to the fact that there are still various drawbacks of traditional drug delivery methods, such as high toxicity and side effects, insufficient drug specificity, poor targeting, and poor pharmacokinetic performance, nanocarriers have emerged as a promising alternative. Nanocarriers possess significant advantages in drug delivery due to their size tunability and surface modifiability. Moreover, nano-drug delivery systems have demonstrated strong potential in terms of prolonging drug circulation time, improving bioavailability, increasing drug retention at the tumor site, decreasing drug resistance, as well as reducing the undesirable side effects of anticancer drugs. Numerous studies have focused on utilizing polysaccharides as nanodelivery carriers, developing delivery systems based on polysaccharides, or exploiting polysaccharides as tumor-targeting ligands to enhance the precision of nanoparticle delivery. These types of investigations have become commonplace in the academic literature. This review aims to elucidate the preparation methods and principles of polysaccharide gold nanocarriers. It also provides an overview of the factors that affect the loading of polysaccharide gold nanocarriers with different kinds of drugs. Additionally, it outlines the strategies employed by polysaccharide gold nanocarriers to improve the delivery efficiency of various drugs. The objective is to provide a reference for further development of research on polysaccharide gold nanodelivery systems.

CCLOOW: Chinese children's lexicon of oral words.

In this article, we introduce the Chinese Children's Lexicon of Oral Words (CCLOOW), the first lexical database based on animated movies and TV series for 3-to-9-year-old Chinese children. The database computes from 2.7 million character tokens and 1.8 million word tokens. It contains 3920 unique character and 22,229 word types. CCLOOW reports frequency and contextual diversity metrics of the characters and words, as well as length and syntactic categories of the words. CCLOOW frequency and contextual diversity measures correlated well with other Chinese lexical databases, particularly well with that computed from children's books. The predictive validity of CCLOOW measures were confirmed with Grade 2 children's naming and lexical decision experiments. Further, we found that CCLOOW frequencies could explain a considerable proportion in adults' written word recognition, indicating that early language experience might have lasting impacts on the mature lexicon. CCLOOW provides validated frequency and contextual diversity estimates that complements current children's lexical database based on written language samples. It is freely accessible online at https://www.learn2read.cn/ccloow .

Near-Infrared Fluorescence Imaging with Intravenous Indocyanine Green Method in Segmentectomy for Infants with Congenital Pulmonary Airway Malformation.

BACKGROUND: Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is a commonly used procedure for treating congenital pulmonary airway malformation (CPAM) in infants, particularly when performing segmentectomy for segmental lesions. An innovative technique employing near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging with intravenous indocyanine green (ICG) has been utilized to delineate the intersegmental demarcation during surgery. However, no previous reports have investigated this method's application, specifically in infants. The primary aim of this study was to assess the safety and efficacy of the NIRF imaging with ICG approach in this context. METHODS: Between January 2021 and April 2022, a total of 19 consecutive segmentectomies were conducted using the NIRF imaging with ICG method to precisely identify the intersegmental plane. The results were concurrently compared with those obtained using the modified inflation-deflation technique. Comprehensive imaging and clinical data were gathered and analyzed to assess the safety and accuracy of the NIRF imaging with ICG approach. RESULTS: The study involved infants with a median age of 5.12 months (mean body weight of 8.08 g). All segmentectomies were performed successfully without any ICG-related complications. The mean operating time for the surgeries was 88.47 ± 7.94 minutes. Notably, no intraoperative conversions or significant complications were observed in any of the patients. The average hospital stay after surgery was 4.0 ± 0.82 days. During the follow-up period, extending beyond 1-year of postoperation, all patients exhibited excellent recovery with no cases of recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our experience, the NIRF imaging with intravenous ICG method proved to be both safe and effective when performing segmentectomy for infants with CPAM. Low doses of ICG did not hinder the accurate identification of the intersegmental plane.

Clinical manifestations and risk factors of shock in children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a novel disease associated with COVID-19. The COVID-19 epidemic peaked in May 2022 in Taiwan, and we encountered our first case of MIS-C in late May 2022. We aimed to present patients' clinical manifestations and identify risk factors for shock. METHODS: We included patients diagnosed with MIS-C at two medical centers from May 2022 to August 2022. We separated those patients into two groups according to whether they experienced shock. We collected demographic, clinical manifestation, and laboratory data of the patients and performed statistical analysis between the two groups. RESULTS: We enrolled 28 patients, including 13 (46 %) with shock and 15 (54 %) without shock. The median age was 6.4 years (IQR: 1.9-7.5). In single variable analysis, patients with shock tended to be older, had more neurological symptoms, more conjunctivitis and strawberry tongue, lower lymphocyte count, lower platelet counts, and higher C-reactive protein, higher procalcitonin, higher ferritin, and higher D-dimer levels than those without shock. The area under the ROC curve that used procalcitonin to be the risk factor of shock with MIS-C was 0.815 (95 % CI 0.644 to 0.987). The cutoff value obtained by ROC analysis of procalcitonin was 1.68 ng/mL. With this cutoff, the test characteristics of procalcitonin were as follows: sensitivity 77 %, specificity 93 %, positive predictive value 91 %, negative predictive value 82 %. Multivariable analysis revealed that procalcitonin was the only independent risk factor of shock with MIS-C on admission (OR, 26.00, 95 % CI, 1.01-668.89). CONCLUSIONS: MIS-C patients with high initial procalcitonin levels have higher risks of experiencing shock and may need ICU admission.

Neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy shows major pathological response and low recurrence in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The study aimed to investigate the efficacy and survival outcomes of neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) blockade (neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy) for patients with resectable head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted. Patients with initially diagnosed, resectable HNSCCs who received the neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy and radical surgery were included. Correlation analysis between patients' clinical characteristics and pathological responses, and survival analysis were performed. RESULTS: A total of 79 patients were included. The majority of patients (55, 69.6%) were diagnosed at locally advanced stages and most of them (58, 73.4%) had tumor located at the oral cavity. Nearly half of patients (35, 44.3%) received two cycles of neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy and the rest had three or more cycles. The R0 resection rate was 98.7%. In the pathological evaluation, 53.1% of patients reached pathological complete responses or major pathological responses. After a median follow-up of 17.0 months, the 1-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 87.2% and 97.4%, respectively. The pathological response showed a significantly positive association with survival benefits (p < 0.001). Patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal cancer had the best pathological response and survival outcomes. Besides, history of radiation at head and neck region and poor pathological response were found to be independent risk factors of DFS for patients receiving such treatments. CONCLUSION: Neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy of HNSCC showed high rate of pathological response and low recurrence rate, holding promise for becoming the new standard of care for resectable HNSCC.

Site-Specific Identification of Protein S-Acylation by IodoTMT0 Labeling and Immobilized Anti-TMT Antibody Resin Enrichment.

Protein S-acylation is a reversible post-translational modification (PTM). It is present on diverse proteins and has important roles in regulating protein function. Aminolysis with hydroxylamine is widely used in the global identification of the PTM. However, the identification is indirect. Distinct criteria have been used for identification, and the false discovery rate has not been addressed. Here, we report a site-specific method for S-acylation identification based on tagging of S-acylation sites with iodoTMT0. Efforts to improve the performance of the method and confidence of identification are discussed, highlighting the importance of reducing contaminant peptides and keeping the recovery rate consistent between aliquots with or without hydroxylamine treatment. With very stringent criteria, presumptive S-acylation sites of 269, 684, 695, and 780 were identified from HK2 cells, HK11 cells, mouse brain, and mouse liver samples, respectively. Among them, the newly identified protein S-acylation sites are equivalent to 34% of human and 24% of mouse S-acylation sites reported previously. In addition, false-positive rates for S-acylation identification and S-acylation abundances were estimated. Significant differences in S-acylation abundance were found from different samples (from 0.08% in HK2 cells to 0.76% in mouse brain), and the false-positive rates were significantly higher for samples with a low abundance of S-acylation.