Increased regional body fat is associated with depressive symptoms: a cross-sectional analysis of NHANES data obtained during 2011-2018.

AIMS: The findings from previous epidemiological studies of the association between regional body fat and depressive symptoms have been unclear. We aimed to determine the association between the body fat in different regions and depressive symptoms based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). METHODS: This study included 3393 participants aged ≥ 20 years from the NHANES performed during 2011-2018. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. The fat mass (FM) was measured in different regions using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry to determine the total FM, trunk FM, arm FM, and leg FM. The FM index (FMI) was obtained by dividing the FM in kilograms by the square of the body height in meters. Weighted data were calculated in accordance with analytical guidelines. Linear logistic regression models were used to quantify the association between regional FMI and depressive symptoms. Univariate and stratified analyses were also performed. RESULTS: The participants in this study comprised 2066 males and 1327 females. There were 404 (11.91%) participants with depressive symptoms, who were aged 40.89 ± 11.74 years and had a body mass index of 30.07 ± 7.82 kg/m². A significant association was found between total FMI and depressive symptoms. In the fully adjusted multivariate regression model, a higher total FMI (odds ratio = 2.18, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.08-4.39) was related to a higher risk of depressive symptoms, while increased total FMI (ß = 1.55, 95% CI = 0.65-2.44, p = 0.001), trunk FMI (ß = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.04-1.10, p = 0.036), and arm FMI (ß = 0.96, 95% CI = 0.33-1.59, p = 0.004) were significantly associated with PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) scores, whereas the leg FMI was not (p = 0.102). The weighted association between total FMI and depressive symptoms did not differ significantly between most of the subpopulations (all p values for interaction > 0.05). The risk of having depression was higher in individuals who were non-Hispanic Whites, smokers, drinkers, obese, and had diabetes and thyroid problems (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the population with a higher regional FMI is more likely to have depressive symptoms, especially in those who also have an increased total FMI. The association is more pronounced in individuals who are smokers, drinkers, obese, and have diabetes and thyroid problems.

Effect of Stress Relief on Coal Seam Gas Migration: Experiment and Application Discussion.

Stress relief-induced enhanced permeability is one of the crucial measures for promoting gas desorption flow and strengthening gas extraction. In order to examine the impact of stress relief and its magnitude on gas migration, this article explores the gas desorption flow during the stress relief process and elucidates the influence of stress relief degree on gas extraction. The results indicate that considering the analysis of the pore structure effect on gas seepage, the four coal samples' permeability is ranked as PDS > CSL > JZS > GHS. Throughout the stress relief process, the gas desorption rates of different coal samples under various stress paths exhibit varying degrees of increase. As an illustration, following 3600 s of stress alterations, the gas desorption rate of CSL1# experiences a notable increase, surging by 2.57 times; PDS2# shows 55.93 times increase after 4200 s, and JZS3# exhibits 3.13 times increase after 5400 s. A stress relief degree model is established to investigate the variation of horizontal stress and stress relief degrees under different borehole spacings, vertical stresses, cohesion, and internal friction angles for various borehole diameters (coal output). Optimal stress relief is achieved with a borehole diameter greater than 1.52 m with a borehole spacing set at 4 m. When the stress relief degree exceeds 30%, the corresponding borehole diameter ranges for different vertical stresses are 1.49-1.6 m. Similarly, for cohesion, the ranges are 1.25-1.68 m, and for internal friction angles, the ranges are 1.39-1.53 m. The research results can provide valuable insights for determining parameters in the on-site construction of stress relief boreholes.

Artificial intelligence to automate assessment of ocular and periocular measurements.

PURPOSE: To develop and validate a deep learning facial landmark detection network to automate the assessment of periocular anthropometric measurements. METHODS: Patients presenting to the ophthalmology clinic were prospectively enrolled and had their images taken using a standardised protocol. Facial landmarks were segmented on the images to enable calculation of marginal reflex distance (MRD) 1 and 2, palpebral fissure height (PFH), inner intercanthal distance (IICD), outer intercanthal distance (OICD), interpupillary distance (IPD) and horizontal palpebral aperture (HPA). These manual segmentations were used to train a machine learning algorithm to automatically detect facial landmarks and calculate these measurements. The main outcomes were the mean absolute error and intraclass correlation coefficient. RESULTS: A total of 958 eyes from 479 participants were included. The testing set consisted of 290 eyes from 145 patients. The AI algorithm demonstrated close agreement with human measurements, with mean absolute errors ranging from 0.22 mm for IPD to 0.88 mm for IICD. The intraclass correlation coefficients indicated excellent reliability (ICC > 0.90) for MRD1, MRD2, PFH, OICD, IICD, and IPD, while HPA showed good reliability (ICC 0.84). The landmark detection model was highly accurate and achieved a mean error rate of 0.51% and failure rate at 0.1 of 0%. CONCLUSION: The automated facial landmark detection network provided accurate and reliable periocular measurements. This may help increase the objectivity of periocular measurements in the clinic and may facilitate remote assessment of patients with tele-health.

Solar Azo-Switches for Effective E→Z Photoisomerization by Sunlight.

Natural photoactive systems have evolved to harness broad-spectrum light from solar radiation for critical functions such as light perception and photosynthetic energy conversion. Molecular photoswitches, which undergo structural changes upon light absorption, are artificial photoactive tools widely used for developing photoresponsive systems and converting light energy. However, photoswitches generally need to be activated by light of specific narrow wavelength ranges for effective photoconversion, which limits their ability to directly work under sunlight and to efficiently harvest solar energy. Here, focusing on azo-switches-the most extensively studied photoswitches, we demonstrate effective solar E→Zphotoisomerization with photoconversions exceeding 80% under unfiltered sunlight. These sunlight-driven azo-switches are developed by rendering the absorption of E isomers overwhelmingly stronger than that of Z isomers across a broad ultraviolet to visible spectrum. This unusual type of spectral profile is realized by a simple yet highly adjustable molecular design strategy, enabling the fine-tuning of spectral window that extends light absorption beyond 600 nm. Notably, back-photoconversion can be achieved without impairing the forward solar isomerization, resulting in unique light-reversible solar switches. Such exceptional solar chemistry of photoswitches provides unprecedented opportunities for developing sustainable light-driven systems and efficient solar energy technologies.

Analysis of Factors Associated with Anterior Location of Marx's Line.

PURPOSE: The study aimed to investigate the factors associated with anterior location of Marx's line in ocular surface and living habits, especially in tear film. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study enlisted 483 participants with meibomian gland dysfunction, who were divided into two groups: 160 participants with mild anterior location of Marx's line and 323 participants with moderate-to-severe anterior location. Participants completed a survey of demographic characteristics (sex, age, length of visual terminal use, sleep duration, skin property), and the Ocular Surface Disease Index and Standard Patient Evaluation of Eye Dryness questionnaires. They also underwent slit-lamp examinations of the lids, and measurements of non-invasive tear break up time, tear meniscus height, fluorescein tear break up time, lipid layer thickness, partial blink rate, lid wiper epitheliopathy, and meibomian gland dropout. RESULTS: The tear meniscus height (mild:0.21(0.18-0.25), moderate-to-severe:0.19(0.16-0.23), p = 0.004), fluorescein tear break up time(mild:3(2-4),moderate to severe:2(1-3), p = 0.000), max LLT(mild:87(62-100), moderate-to-severe:99(69-100), p = 0.04), average LLT(mild:64.5(47.5-96.75), moderate-to-severe:74(53-100), p = 0.012), min LLT(mild:52(38-75), moderate-to-severe:59(41-85), p = 0.029) differed significantly between mild and moderate-to-severe anterior location of Marx's line, and associated to the anterior location of Marx's line(r=-0.134, p = 0.03; r=-0.194, p = 0.000; r = 0.093, p = 0.041; r = 0.119, p = 0.009; r = 0.105, p = 0.022) However, no statistical significance was observed in the OSDI, SPEED, partial blink rate, non-invasive tear breakup time, lipid layer thickness, meibomian gland dropout and lid wiper epitheliopathy(p > 0.05). Meanwhile, in the demographic characteristics, statistically significant correlations were associated with skin property(r = 0.154, p = 0.001) and sleep duration(r=-0.124, p = 0.006), but not with age, sex, and the length of visual terminal use (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Lower TMH and shorter TBUT positively correlated with anterior location of the Marx's line, and were risk factors. Meanwhile, participants with oily skin and shorter sleep duration were more likely to exhibit anterior location of Marx's line.

Metabolomic analysis of rumen-protected branched-chain amino acids in primiparous dairy cows.

Introduction: Peripartal cows are susceptible to a negative energy balance due to inadequate nutrient intake and high energy requirements for lactation. Improving the energy metabolism of perinatal dairy cows is crucial in increasing production in dairy cows. Methods: In this study, we investigated the impact of rumen-protected branched-chain amino acid (RPBCAA) on the production performance, energy and lipid metabolism, oxidative stress, and immune function of primiparous dairy cows using metabolomics through a single-factor experiment. Twenty healthy primiparous Holstein cows were selected based on body condition scores and expected calving date, and were randomly divided into RPBCAA (n = 10) and control (n = 10) groups. The control group received a basal diet from calving until 21 d in milk, and the RPBCAA group received the basal diet and 44.6 g/d RPLeu, 25.14 g/d RPIle, and 25.43 g/d RPVal. Results: In comparison to the control group, the supplementation of RPBCAA had no significant effect on milk yield and milk composition of the dairy cows. Supplementation with RPBCAA significantly increased the concentrations of insulin, insulin growth factor 1, glucagon, and growth hormones, which are indicators of energy metabolism in postpartum cows. The very low density lipoprotein, fatty acid synthase, acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase, and hormone-sensitive lipase contents of the RPBCAA group were significantly greater than that of the control group; these metrics are related to lipid metabolism. In addition, RPBCAA supplementation significantly increased serum glutathione peroxidase and immunoglobulin G concentrations and decreased malondialdehyde concentrations. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis revealed 414 serum and 430 milk metabolic features. Supplementation with RPBCAA primarily increased concentrations of amino acid and lipid metabolism pathways and upregulated the abundance of serotonin, glutamine, and phosphatidylcholines. Discussion: In summary, adding RPBCAA to the daily ration can influence endocrine function and improve energy metabolism, regulate amino acid and lipid metabolism, mitigate oxidative stress and maintain immune function on primiparous cows in early lactation.

Initiating PeriCBD to probe perinatal influences on neurodevelopment during 3-10 years in China.

Adverse perinatal factors can interfere with the normal development of the brain, potentially resulting in long-term effects on the comprehensive development of children. Presently, the understanding of cognitive and neurodevelopmental processes under conditions of adverse perinatal factors is substantially limited. There is a critical need for an open resource that integrates various perinatal factors with the development of the brain and mental health to facilitate a deeper understanding of these developmental trajectories. In this Data Descriptor, we introduce a multicenter database containing information on perinatal factors that can potentially influence children's brain-mind development, namely, periCBD, that combines neuroimaging and behavioural phenotypes with perinatal factors at county/region/central district hospitals. PeriCBD was designed to establish a platform for the investigation of individual differences in brain-mind development associated with perinatal factors among children aged 3-10 years. Ultimately, our goal is to help understand how different adverse perinatal factors specifically impact cognitive development and neurodevelopment. Herein, we provide a systematic overview of the data acquisition/cleaning/quality control/sharing, processes of periCBD.

The mean Hounsfield unit range acquired from different slices produces superior predictive accuracy for pyonephrosis in obstructive uropathy.

PURPOSE: To determine the non-contrast computer tomography imaging features of pyonephrosis and evaluate the predictive value of Hounsfield units (HUs) in different hydronephrotic region slices. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed data from patients with hydronephrosis who had renal-ureteral calculi. All patients were categorized into pyonephrosis and simple hydronephrosis groups. Baseline characteristics, the mean HU values in the maximal hydronephrotic region (uHU) slice, and the range of uHU in different slices (ΔuHU) were compared between the two groups. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify risk factors for pyonephrosis. RESULTS: Among the 181 patients enrolled in the current study, 71 patients (39.2%) were diagnosed with pyonephrosis. The mean dilated pelvis surface areas were comparable between patients with pyonephrosis and simple hydronephrosis (822.61 mm² vs. 877.23 mm², p=0.722). Collecting system debris (p=0.022), a higher uHU (p=0.038), and a higher ΔuHU (p<0.001) were identified as independent risk factors for pyonephrosis based on multivariate analysis. The ΔuHU sensitivity and specificity were 88.7% and 86.4%, respectively, at a cutoff value of 6.56 (p<0.001), whereas the sensitivity and specificity for detecting pyonephrosis at a uHU cutoff value of 7.96 was 50.7% and 70.9%, respectively (p=0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Non-contrast computer tomography was shown to accurately distinguish simple hydronephrosis from pyonephrosis in patients with obstructive uropathy. Evaluation of the ΔuHU in different slices may be more reliable than the uHU acquired from a single slice in predicting pyonephrosis.

The predictive value of PFKFB3 in bladder cancer prognosis.

6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-biphosphatase-3 (PFKFB3) influences cancer progression via participating in tumor aerobic glycolysis. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of PFKFB3 in bladder cancer (BLCA) patients by analyzing a combination of publicly available databases, clinical patient data, and bladder tumor samples from our hospital. Single-cell and bulk RNA-seq data of bladder cancer, obtained from ENA, GEO, and TCGA databases, were utilized for our analysis. The results indicated that PFKFB3 mRNA expression was markedly elevated in bladder cancer compared to paired normal tissue. Furthermore, BLCA patients with high PFKFB3 expression exhibited a significantly worse prognosis (P < 0.05). To validate these findings, clinical data and immunohistochemistry staining were performed on specimens obtained from 89 BLCA patients who underwent radical cystectomy at either Qingdao University Affiliated Hospital or Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The findings from this verification process confirmed that high expression of PFKFB3 serves as a biomarker for predicting worse prognosis in BLCA patients (OR: 2.462, 95 % CI: 1.202-5.042, P = 0.012). To facilitate clinical application, we developed a nomogram based on four variables, including PFKFB3 expression, to predict the survival of BLCA patients. Importantly, this nomogram demonstrated a low mean prediction error of 0.03. Taken together, our findings suggest that PFKFB3 has the potential to serve as both a prognostic biomarker and a therapeutic target for BLCA patients.

Paradoxical Embolism in Juveniles and Young Adults With Severe-to-Profound Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss.

Objective: Paradoxical embolism from right-to-left shunting is a common cause of cryptogenic stroke in the young. Circulatory ischemia of the cochlea is closely connected with severe-to-profound sudden sensorineural hearing loss. This study aimed to explore the role of paradoxical embolism in severe-to-profound sudden sensorineural hearing loss in juveniles and young adults. Methods: From August 2021 to September 2022, consecutive outpatients under 35 years of age with severe-to-profound sudden hearing loss were included in the study. Routine auditory electrophysiological testing and contrast transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (c-TCD) were conducted, and the results were retrospectively analyzed. Results: Seven patients (age: 19.4 ± 6.5 years) were enrolled, including 5 juveniles and 2 young adults. Three patients had severe deafness, and 4 patients had profound deafness. Right-to-left shunting was detected in all patients through c-TCD. Patent foramen ovale was found in 2 patients while pulmonary arteriovenous fistula was found in 1 patient through contrast transthoracic echocardiography or cardiac catheterization. No patients had precipitating factors for sudden sensorineural hearing loss, and none had abnormalities on head magnetic resonance imaging. Six patients underwent whole-exome sequencing, and no known deafness gene variant was detected. After standard treatment for 1 month, 2, 3, and 2 patients had complete, slight, and no hearing recovery, respectively. Conclusions: Paradoxical embolism is a possible cause of severe-to-profound sudden sensorineural hearing loss in juveniles and young adults. In young patients, c-TCD is an effective screening tool to detect right-to-left shunting, while contrast transthoracic echocardiography is a complementary examination to c-TCD.

Effectiveness of sensor-based interventions in improving gait and balance performance in older adults: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: Sensor-based interventions (SI) have been suggested as an alternative rehabilitation treatment to improve older adults' functional performance. However, the effectiveness of different sensor technologies in improving gait and balance remains unclear and requires further investigation. METHODS: Ten databases (Academic Search Premier; Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Complete; Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials; MEDLINE; PubMed; Web of Science; OpenDissertations; Open grey; ProQuest; and Grey literature report) were searched for relevant articles published up to December 20, 2022. Conventional functional assessments, including the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test, normal gait speed, Berg Balance Scale (BBS), 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), and Falling Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I), were used as the evaluation outcomes reflecting gait and balance performance. We first meta-analyzed the effectiveness of SI, which included optical sensors (OPTS), perception sensors (PCPS), and wearable sensors (WS), compared with control groups, which included non-treatment intervention (NTI) and traditional physical exercise intervention (TPEI). We further conducted sub-group analysis to compare the effectiveness of SI (OPTS, PCPS, and WS) with TPEI groups and compared each SI subtype with control (NTI and TPEI) and TPEI groups. RESULTS: We scanned 6255 articles and performed meta-analyses of 58 selected trials (sample size = 2713). The results showed that SI groups were significantly more effective than control or TPEI groups (p < 0.000) in improving gait and balance performance. The subgroup meta-analyses between OPTS groups and TPEI groups revealed clear statistically significant differences in effectiveness for TUG test (mean difference (MD) = - 0.681 s; p < 0.000), normal gait speed (MD = 4.244 cm/s; p < 0.000), BBS (MD = 2.325; p = 0.001), 6MWT (MD = 25.166 m; p < 0.000), and FES-I scores (MD = - 2.036; p = 0.036). PCPS groups also presented statistically significant differences with TPEI groups in gait and balance assessments for normal gait speed (MD = 4.382 cm/s; p = 0.034), BBS (MD = 1.874; p < 0.000), 6MWT (MD = 21.904 m; p < 0.000), and FES-I scores (MD = - 1.161; p < 0.000), except for the TUG test (MD = - 0.226 s; p = 0.106). There were no statistically significant differences in TUG test (MD = - 1.255 s; p = 0.101) or normal gait speed (MD = 6.682 cm/s; p = 0.109) between WS groups and control groups. CONCLUSIONS: SI with biofeedback has a positive effect on gait and balance improvement among a mixed population of older adults. Specifically, OPTS and PCPS groups were statistically better than TPEI groups at improving gait and balance performance, whereas only the group comparison in BBS and 6MWT can reach the minimal clinically important difference. Moreover, WS groups showed no statistically or clinically significant positive effect on gait and balance improvement compared with control groups. More studies are recommended to verify the effectiveness of specific SI. Research registration PROSPERO platform: CRD42022362817. Registered on 7/10/2022.

Discovery of novel coumarin-based KRAS-G12C inhibitors from virtual screening and Rational structural optimization.

KRAS-G12C inhibitors has been made significant progress in the treatment of KRAS-G12C mutant cancers, but their clinical application is limited due to the adaptive resistance, motivating development of novel structural inhibitors. Herein, series of coumarin derivatives as KRAS-G12C inhibitors were found through virtual screening and rational structural optimization. Especially, K45 exhibited strong antiproliferative potency on NCI-H23 and NCI-H358 cancer cells harboring KRAS-G12C with the IC50 values of 0.77 µM and 1.50 µM, which was 15 and 11 times as potent as positive drug ARS1620, respectively. Furthermore, K45 reduced the phosphorylation of KRAS downstream effectors ERK and AKT by reducing the active form of KRAS (KRAS GTP) in NCI-H23 cells. In addition, K45 induced cell apoptosis by increasing the expression of anti-apoptotic protein BAD and BAX in NCI-H23 cells. Docking studies displayed that the 3-naphthylmethoxy moiety of K45 extended into the cryptic pocket formed by the residues Gln99 and Val9, which enhanced the interaction with the KRAS-G12C protein. These results indicated that K45 was a potent KRAS-G12C inhibitor worthy of further study.

Association of sleep traits with benign prostatic hyperplasia in middle-aged and elderly men: A prospective analysis in UK Biobank.

AIMS: The association of sleep traits (insomnia, sleep duration, chronotype, daytime sleepiness, and snoring) with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is unclear. This research aimed to examine the effects of sleep traits on BPH risk. METHODS: A total of 170 241 men aged 38 to 73 years from UK Biobank were included. An overall healthy sleep score was created based on five sleep traits. A Cox regression model was utilized to compute adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and population attributable fractions (PAFs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for BPH risk in relation to sleep traits. RESULTS: During a median of 12.0 years follow-up, 13 026 incident BPH cases occurred. We observed that sleep duration (7-8 h/d; HR 0.95; 95% CI 0.92-0.99), no frequent insomnia (HR 0.71; 95% CI 0.69-0.74), and no frequent daytime sleepiness (HR 0.86; 95% CI 0.79-0.93) were significantly related to reduced BPH risk. Each one-point increment of the healthy sleep score was related to a decreased BPH risk, with an adjusted HR of 0.90 (95% CI 0.89-0.92). The multivariable-adjusted HR in men adopting five versus zero to one low-risk sleep traits was 0.68 (95% CI 0.61-0.75) for BPH risk. Estimates of the PAF indicated that 9.1% (95% CI 5.8-12.5%) of BPH cases would be prevented if all individuals had adopted all five low-risk sleep traits, assuming causality. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicates an association between a healthy sleep pattern and a lower risk of BPH, emphasizing the importance of adhering to such patterns for potentially reducing BPH risk. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2024; ••: ••-••.

Transfer learning for anatomical structure segmentation in otorhinolaryngology microsurgery.

BACKGROUND: Reducing the annotation burden is an active and meaningful area of artificial intelligence (AI) research. METHODS: Multiple datasets for the segmentation of two landmarks were constructed based on 41 257 labelled images and 6 different microsurgical scenarios. These datasets were trained using the multi-stage transfer learning (TL) methodology. RESULTS: The multi-stage TL enhanced segmentation performance over baseline (mIOU 0.6892 vs. 0.8869). Besides, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) achieved a robust performance (mIOU 0.8917 vs. 0.8603) even when the training dataset size was reduced from 90% (30 078 images) to 10% (3342 images). When directly applying the weight from one certain surgical scenario to recognise the same target in images of other scenarios without training, CNNs still obtained an optimal mIOU of 0.6190 ± 0.0789. CONCLUSIONS: Model performance can be improved with TL in datasets with reduced size and increased complexity. It is feasible for data-based domain adaptation among different microsurgical fields.

CoRTEx: contrastive learning for representing terms via explanations with applications on constructing biomedical knowledge graphs.

OBJECTIVES: Biomedical Knowledge Graphs play a pivotal role in various biomedical research domains. Concurrently, term clustering emerges as a crucial step in constructing these knowledge graphs, aiming to identify synonymous terms. Due to a lack of knowledge, previous contrastive learning models trained with Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) synonyms struggle at clustering difficult terms and do not generalize well beyond UMLS terms. In this work, we leverage the world knowledge from large language models (LLMs) and propose Contrastive Learning for Representing Terms via Explanations (CoRTEx) to enhance term representation and significantly improves term clustering. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The model training involves generating explanations for a cleaned subset of UMLS terms using ChatGPT. We employ contrastive learning, considering term and explanation embeddings simultaneously, and progressively introduce hard negative samples. Additionally, a ChatGPT-assisted BIRCH algorithm is designed for efficient clustering of a new ontology. RESULTS: We established a clustering test set and a hard negative test set, where our model consistently achieves the highest F1 score. With CoRTEx embeddings and the modified BIRCH algorithm, we grouped 35 580 932 terms from the Biomedical Informatics Ontology System (BIOS) into 22 104 559 clusters with O(N) queries to ChatGPT. Case studies highlight the model's efficacy in handling challenging samples, aided by information from explanations. CONCLUSION: By aligning terms to their explanations, CoRTEx demonstrates superior accuracy over benchmark models and robustness beyond its training set, and it is suitable for clustering terms for large-scale biomedical ontologies.

Oroxylin A inhibits inflammatory cytokines in periodontitis via HO­1.

Periodontal disease is a common infectious disease that can lead to the loss of teeth. Hower how to effectively suppress the inflammation with medication is unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the anti­inflammatory effect of Oroxylin A in periodontitis and its potential role through heme oxygenase­1 (HO­1). Primary rat gingival fibroblasts (RGFs) were cultured using the tissue block method and identified by immunofluorescence. Following lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation of RGFs, Oroxylin A was administered at 50, 100, 200 or 400 µg/ml. Reverse transcription­quantitative PCR was used to assess mRNA expression of cyclooxygenase (COX)­2, TNF­α, RANKL and osteoprotegerin (OPG). Western blotting was used to detect protein expression levels of COX ­2, TNF­α, RANKL and OPG. Following HO­1 knockdown, the same treatment was performed. The expression of COX­2 in rat gingival tissue was observed by immunohistochemistry. One­way analysis of variance and Student's t test were used for statistical analysis. Oroxylin A downregulated mRNA expression of COX­2, TNF­α, RANKL and OPG in LPS­induced RGFs. With increase of Oroxylin A dose, the expression of HO­1 was gradually upregulated. When HO­1 was knocked down, Oroxylin A did not downregulate the expression of COX­2, TNF­α, RANKL and OPG in LPS­induced RGFs. Immunohistochemical results showed that expression of COX­2 was downregulated by Oroxylin A, and the expression of TNF­α, RANKL and OPG were also downregulated. Oroxylin A decreased expression of inflammatory cytokines in LPS­induced RGFs and had a good inhibitory effect on periodontitis in rats.

Stepwise structural evolution toward robust carboranealkynyl-protected copper nanocluster catalysts for nitrate electroreduction.

Atomically precise metal nanoclusters (NCs) are emerging as idealized model catalysts for imprecise metal nanoparticles to unveil their structure-activity relationship. However, the directional synthesis of robust metal NCs with accessible catalytic active sites remains a great challenge. In this work, we achieved bulky carboranealkynyl-protected copper NCs, the monomer Cu13·3PF6 and nido-carboranealkynyl bridged dimer Cu26·4PF6, with fair stability as well as accessible open metal sites step by step through external ligand shell modification and metal-core evolution. Both Cu13·3PF6 and Cu26·4PF6 demonstrate remarkable catalytic activity and selectivity in electrocatalytic nitrate (NO3-) reduction to NH3 reaction, with the dimer Cu26·4PF6 displaying superior performance. The mechanism of this catalytic reaction was elucidated through theoretical computations in conjunction with in situ FTIR spectra. This study not only provides strategies for accessing desired copper NC catalysts but also establishes a platform to uncover the structure-activity relationship of copper NCs.