Hydroxysafflor yellow A ameliorates depression-like behavior in Parkinson's disease mice.

Depression is a common non-motor symptom of Parkinson's disease. Previous studies demonstrated that hydroxysafflor yellow A had properties of improving motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The effect of hydroxysafflor yellow A on depression in Parkinson's disease mice is investigated in this study. To induce Parkinson's disease model, male Swiss mice were exposed to rotenone (30 mg/kg) for 6 weeks. The chronic unpredictable mild stress was employed to induce depression from week 3 to week 6. Sucrose preference, tail suspension, and forced swimming tests were conducted. Golgi and Nissl staining of hippocampus were carried out. The levels of dopamine, 5-hydroxytryptamine and the expression of postsynaptic density protein 95, brain-derived neurotrophic factor in hippocampus were assayed. It showed that HSYA improved the depression-like behaviors of Parkinson's disease mice. Hydroxysafflor yellow A attenuated the injury of nerve and elevated contents of dopamine, 5-hydroxytryptamine in hippocampus. Treatment with hydroxysafflor yellow A also augmented the expression of postsynaptic density protein 95 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor. These findings suggest that hydroxysafflor yellow A ameliorates depression-like behavior in Parkinson's disease mice through regulating the contents of postsynaptic density protein 95 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor, therefore protecting neurons and neuronal dendrites of the hippocampus.

Identification of novel compound heterozygous ZFP36L2 variants implicated in oocyte maturation defects and female infertility.

PURPOSE: To explore the pathogenesis of oocyte maturation defects. METHODS: Whole exome sequencing was conducted to identify potential variants, which were then confirmed within the pedigree through Sanger sequencing. The functional characterization of the identified variants responsible for the disease, including their subcellular localization, protein levels, and interactions with other proteins, was verified through transient transfection in HeLa cells in vitro. Additionally, we employed real-time RT-PCR and single-cell RNA sequencing to examine the impact of ZFP36L2 pathogenic variants on mRNA metabolism in both HeLa cells and mouse or human oocytes. RESULTS: A novel compound heterozygous variant in ZFP36L2 (c.186T > G, p.His62Gln and c.869 C > T, p.Pro290Leu) was discovered in a patient with oocyte maturation defects. Our findings indicate that these variants lead to compromised binding capacity of the ZFP36L2-CONT6L complex and impaired mRNA degradation in HeLa cells and mouse oocytes. Furthermore, we characterized the changes in the human oocyte transcriptome associated with ZFP36L2 variants, with a particular emphasis on cell division, mitochondrial function, and ribosome metabolism. CONCLUSIONS: This study broadens the mutation spectrum of ZFP36L2 and constitutes the first report of human oocyte transcriptome alterations linked to ZFP36L2 variants. In conjunction with existing knowledge of ZFP36L2, our research lays the groundwork for genetic counseling aimed at addressing female infertility.

Case-Case Genome-Wide Analyses Identify Subtype-Informative Variants that Confer Risk for Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer includes several subtypes with distinct characteristic biological, pathological, and clinical features. Elucidating subtype-specific genetic etiology could provide insights into the heterogeneity of breast cancer to facilitate development of improved prevention and treatment approaches. Here, we conducted pairwise case-case comparisons among five breast cancer subtypes by applying a case-case GWAS (CC-GWAS) approach to summary statistics data of the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. The approach identified 13 statistically significant loci and eight suggestive loci, the majority of which were identified from comparisons between triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and luminal A breast cancer. Associations of lead variants in 12 loci remained statistically significant after accounting for previously reported breast cancer susceptibility variants, among which two were genome-wide significant. Fine mapping implicated putative functional/causal variants and risk genes at several loci, e.g., 3q26.31/TNFSF10, 8q22.3/NACAP1/GRHL2, and 8q23.3/LINC00536/TRPS1, for TNBC as compared to luminal cancer. Functional investigation further identified rs16867605 at 8q22.3 as a SNP that modulates enhancer activity of GRHL2. Subtype-informative polygenic risk scores (PRS) were derived, and patients with a high subtype-informative PRS had an up to 2-fold increased risk of being diagnosed with TNBC instead of luminal cancers. The CC-GWAS PRS remained statistically significant after adjusting for TNBC PRS derived from traditional case-control GWAS in The Cancer Genome Atlas and the African Ancestry Breast Cancer Genetic Consortium. The CC-GWAS PRS was also associated with overall survival and disease-specific survival among breast cancer patients. Overall, these findings have advanced our understanding of the genetic etiology of breast cancer subtypes, particularly for TNBC.

Association of ESR1 germline variants with TP53 somatic variants in breast tumors in a genome-wide study.

In breast tumors, somatic mutation frequencies in TP53 and PIK3CA vary by tumor subtype and ancestry. Emerging data suggest tumor mutation status is associated with germline variants and genetic ancestry. We aimed to identify germline variants that are associated with somatic TP53 or PIK3CA mutation status in breast tumors. A genome-wide association study was conducted in 2850 women of European ancestry with breast cancer using TP53 and PIK3CA mutation status (positive or negative) as well as specific functional categories [e.g. TP53 gain-of-function (GOF) and loss-of function, PIK3CA activating] as phenotypes. Germline variants showing evidence of association were selected for validation analyses and tested in multiple independent datasets. Discovery association analyses found five variants associated with TP53 mutation status with P values <1x10-6 and 33 variants with P values <1x10-5. Forty-four variants were associated with PIK3CA mutation status with P values <1x10-5. In validation analyses, only variants at the ESR1 locus were associated with TP53 mutation status after multiple comparisons corrections. Combined analyses in European and Malaysian populations found ESR1 locus variants rs9383938 and rs9479090 associated with the presence of TP53 mutations overall (P values 2x10-11 and 4.6X10-10 respectively). Rs9383938 also showed association with TP53 GOF mutations (P value 6.1x10-7). Rs9479090 showed suggestive evidence (P value 0.02) for association with TP53 mutation status in African ancestry populations. No other variants were significantly associated with TP53 or PIK3CA mutation status. Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings and determine if additional variants contribute to ancestry-specific differences in mutation frequency.

Dynamic impact of delivery modes on gut microbiota in preterm infants hospitalized during the initial 4 weeks of life.

Preterm infants face a high risk of various complications, and their gut microbiota plays a pivotal role in health. Delivery modes have been reported to affect the development of gut microbiota in term infants, but its impact on preterm infants remains unclear. Here, we collected fecal samples from 30 preterm infants at five-time points within the first four weeks of life. Employing 16 S rRNA sequencing, principal coordinates analysis, the analysis of similarities, and the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, we examined the top dominant phyla and genera, the temporal changes in specific taxa abundance, and their relationship with delivery modes, such as Escherichia-Shigella and Enterococcus based on vaginal delivery and Pluralibacter related to cesarean section. Moreover, we identified particular bacteria, such as Taonella, Patulibacter, and others, whose proportions fluctuated among preterm infants born via different delivery modes at varying time points, as well as the microbiota types and functions. These results indicated the influence of delivery mode on the composition and function of the preterm infant gut microbiota. Importantly, these effects are time-dependent during the early stages of life. These insights shed light on the pivotal role of delivery mode in shaping the gut microbiota of preterm infants and have significant clinical implications for their care and management.

Niche convergence and biogeographic history shape elevational tree community assembly in a subtropical mountain forest.

Niche convergence or conservatism have been proposed as essential mechanisms underlying elevational plant community assembly in tropical mountain ecosystems. Subtropical mountains, compared to tropical mountains, are likely to be shaped by a mixing of different geographic affinities of species and remain somehow unclear. Here, we used 31 0.1-ha permanent plots distributed in subtropical forests on the eastern and western aspects of the Gaoligong Mountains, southwest China between 1498 m and 3204 m a.sl. to evaluate how niche-based and biogeographic processes shape tree community assembly along elevational gradients. We analyzed the elevational patterns of taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity, as well as of individual traits, and assessed the relative importance of environmental effects on these diversity measures. We then classified tree species as being either tropical affiliated or temperate affiliated and estimated their contribution to the composition of biogeographic affinities. Species richness decreased with elevation, and species composition showed apparent turnover across the aspects and elevations. Most traits exhibited convergent patterns across the entire elevational gradient. Phylogenetic and functional diversity showed opposing patterns, with phylogenetic diversity increasing and functional diversity decreasing with elevation. Soil nutrients, especially phosphorus and nitrogen, appeared to be the main abiotic variables driving the elevational diversity patterns. Communities at lower elevations were occupied by tropical genera, while highlands contained species of tropical and temperate biogeographic affinities. Moreover, the high phylogenetic diversity at high elevations were likely due to differences in evolutionary history between temperate and tropical species. Our results highlight the importance of niche convergence of tropical species and the legacy of biogeographic history on the composition and structure of subtropical mountain forests. Furthermore, limited soil phosphorus caused traits divergence and the partitioning for different forms of phosphorus may explain the high biodiversity found in phosphorus-limited subtropical forests.

Nanomaterials-incorporated polymeric microneedles for wound healing applications.

There is a growing and urgent need for developing novel biomaterials and therapeutic approaches for efficient wound healing. Microneedles (MNs), which can penetrate necrotic tissues and biofilm barriers at the wound and deliver active ingredients to the deeper layers in a minimally invasive and painless manner, have stimulated the interests of many researchers in the wound-healing filed. Among various materials, polymeric MNs have received widespread attention due to their abundant material sources, simple and inexpensive manufacturing methods, excellent biocompatibility and adjustable mechanical strength. Meanwhile, due to the unique properties of nanomaterials, the incorporation of nanomaterials can further extend the application range of polymeric MNs to facilitate on-demand drug release and activate specific therapeutic effects in combination with other therapies. In this review, we firstly introduce the current status and challenges of wound healing, and then outline the advantages and classification of MNs. Next, we focus on the manufacturing methods of polymeric MNs and the different raw materials used for their production. Furthermore, we give a summary of polymeric MNs incorporated with several common nanomaterials for chronic wounds healing. Finally, we discuss the several challenges and future prospects of transdermal drug delivery systems using nanomaterials-based polymeric MNs in wound treatment application.

Fast, Accurate, and Versatile Data Analysis Platform for the Quantification of Molecular Spatiotemporal Signals.

Optical recording of intricate molecular dynamics is becoming an indispensable technique for biological studies, accelerated by the development of new or improved biosensors and microscopy technology. This creates major computational challenges to extract and quantify biologically meaningful spatiotemporal patterns embedded within complex and rich data sources, many of which cannot be captured with existing methods. Here, we introduce Activity Quantification and Analysis (AQuA2), a fast, accurate, and versatile data analysis platform built upon advanced machine learning techniques. It decomposes complex live imaging-based datasets into elementary signaling events, allowing accurate and unbiased quantification of molecular activities and identification of consensus functional units. We demonstrate applications across a wide range of biosensors, cell types, organs, animal models, and imaging modalities. As exemplar findings, we show how AQuA2 identified drug-dependent interactions between neurons and astroglia, and distinct sensorimotor signal propagation patterns in the mouse spinal cord.

Epigenome-wide association study of lung cancer among never smokers in two prospective cohorts in Shanghai, China.

BACKGROUND: The aetiology of lung cancer among individuals who never smoked remains elusive, despite 15% of lung cancer cases in men and 53% in women worldwide being unrelated to smoking. Epigenetic alterations, particularly DNA methylation (DNAm) changes, have emerged as potential drivers. Yet, few prospective epigenome-wide association studies (EWAS), primarily focusing on peripheral blood DNAm with limited representation of never smokers, have been conducted. METHODS: We conducted a nested case-control study of 80 never-smoking incident lung cancer cases and 83 never-smoking controls within the Shanghai Women's Health Study and Shanghai Men's Health Study. DNAm was measured in prediagnostic oral rinse samples using Illumina MethylationEPIC array. Initially, we conducted an EWAS to identify differentially methylated positions (DMPs) associated with lung cancer in the discovery sample of 101 subjects. The top 50 DMPs were further evaluated in a replication sample of 62 subjects, and results were pooled using fixed-effect meta-analysis. RESULTS: Our study identified three DMPs significantly associated with lung cancer at the epigenome-wide significance level of p<8.22×10-8. These DMPs were identified as cg09198866 (MYH9; TXN2), cg01411366 (SLC9A10) and cg12787323. Furthermore, examination of the top 1000 DMPs indicated significant enrichment in epithelial regulatory regions and their involvement in small GTPase-mediated signal transduction pathways. Additionally, GrimAge acceleration was identified as a risk factor for lung cancer (OR=1.19 per year; 95% CI 1.06 to 1.34). CONCLUSIONS: While replication in a larger sample size is necessary, our findings suggest that DNAm patterns in prediagnostic oral rinse samples could provide novel insights into the underlying mechanisms of lung cancer in never smokers.

A Segmented Iterative Learning Scheme-Based Distributed Fault Estimation for Switched Interconnected Nonlinear Systems.

In this article, a distributed fault estimation (DFE) approach for switched interconnected nonlinear systems (SINSs) with time delays and external disturbances is proposed using a novel segmented iterative learning scheme (SILS). First, through the utilization of interrelated information among subsystems, a distributed iterative learning observer is developed to enhance the accuracy of fault estimation results, which can realize the fault estimation of all subsystems under time delays and external disturbances. Simultaneously, to facilitate rapid fault information tracking and significantly reduce sensitivity to interference, a new SILS-based fault estimation law is constructed by combining the idea of segmented design with the method of variable gain. Then, an assessment of the convergence of the established fault estimation methodology is conducted, and the configurations of observer gain matrices and iterative learning gain matrices are duly accomplished. Finally, simulation results are showcased to demonstrate the superiority and feasibility of the developed fault estimation approach.

A Patient of Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis in Hepatitis C Cirrhosis Caused by Gordonia terrae: A Case Report.

Background: Gordonia terrae is an opportunistic pathogen that rarely causes clinical infections. Here, we first report a case of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in patients with hepatitis C cirrhosis caused by Gordonia terrea. Case Presentation: A 71-year-old male patient was diagnosed with spontaneous bacteria peritonitis secondary to hepatitis C cirrhosis. The result of bacterial culture in ascites was positive, and the pathogenic bacteria was preliminarily identified as the Gordonia genus by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry. After 16S rRNA sequencing analysis, it was determined to be the Gordonia terrea. Symptoms relieved after treatment with ceftazidime. Conclusion: This case indicates that the clinical infections caused by Gordonia terrea should be brought to the forefront. Accurate and rapid bacterial identification results are highly beneficial to the diagnosis and therapeutic regime.

Predictive value of bone turnover markers and thyroid indicators for bone metabolism in GD patients after treatment.

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between bone turnover markers (BTMs) and thyroid indicators in Graves' disease (GD) and to further assess predictive value of changes in early stage retrospectively. Methods: We studied 435 patients with GD and 113 healthy physical examiners retrospectively and followed up these two groups of patients after 6 months. We investigated the correlations between BTMs and other 15 observed factors, and analyzed the predictive value of FT3 and FT4 before and after treatment (FT3-P/FT3-A, FT4-P/FT4-A) on whether BTMs recovered. Results: The levels of thyroid hormones and BTMs in GD group were significantly higher than those in control group (P < 0.05) and decreased after 6 months of treatment. FT3, W, Ca and ALP were independent factors in predicting the elevation of OST. Duration of disease, FT3, TSH and ALP were independent factors in predicting the elevation of P1NP. Age, duration of disease, TRAb and ALP were independent factors in predicting the elevation of CTX-1. The AUC of FT3-P/FT3-A and FT4-P/FT4-A for predicting OST recovery were 0.748 and 0.705 (P < 0.05), respectively, and the cut-off values were 0.51 and 0.595. There was no predictive value for P1NP and CTX-1 recovery (P > 0.05). Conclusion: BTMs were abnormally elevated in GD and were significantly correlated with serum levels of FT3, FT4, TRAb, Ca, and ALP. FT3 decreased more than 51% and FT4 dropped more than 59.5% after 6 months of treatment were independent predictors for the recovery of BTMs in GD.

The clinical significance of PD-1 expression in patients with bladder cancer without lymph node metastasis: a comparative study with drained lymph nodes and tumor tissues.

OBJECTIVE: In light of the increasing importance of immunotherapy in bladder cancer treatment, this study is aim to investigate the expression and clinical significance of programmed cell surface death-1 (PD-1) in bladder cancer patients without lymph node metastasis, and to compare and analyze the difference of PD-1 in draining lymph nodes and tumor tissues. METHODS: The expression of PD-1 on T cells and the proportion of positive PD-1 + T cells of IFN-γ and CD105a were detected by flow cytometry, and the correlation between PD-1 expression and clinical parameters was analyzed. RESULTS: The percentage of PD-1 positive cells in drainage lymph nodes was higher than that in tumor tissues (P < 0.001). PD-1 positive cells accounted for the highest proportion in CD3 + T cells. The proportion of IFN-γ-positive PD-1 + T cells in draining lymph nodes was significantly higher than that in tumor tissues (P < 0.001), while there was no significant difference in CD105a positive PD-1 + T cells between tumor tissues and draining lymph nodes. Pathological grade, tumor size and stage were positively correlated with PD-1 expression level in the lymph nodes. CONCLUSION: The high expression of PD-1 in patients with bladder cancer without lymph node metastasis, especially in draining lymph nodes, suggests that PD-1 may play a key role in the regulation of tumor immune microenvironment. The correlation between PD-1 and clinical parameters indicates its potential prognostic value. These findings provide important clinical implications for PD-1 targeted therapy, but further prospective studies are needed to determine the application value of PD-1 in therapeutic strategies.

A Multi-Level Relation-Aware Transformer model for occluded person re-identification.

Occluded person re-identification (Re-ID) is a challenging task, as pedestrians are often obstructed by various occlusions, such as non-pedestrian objects or non-target pedestrians. Previous methods have heavily relied on auxiliary models to obtain information in unoccluded regions, such as human pose estimation. However, these auxiliary models fall short in accounting for pedestrian occlusions, thereby leading to potential misrepresentations. In addition, some previous works learned feature representations from single images, ignoring the potential relations among samples. To address these issues, this paper introduces a Multi-Level Relation-Aware Transformer (MLRAT) model for occluded person Re-ID. This model mainly encompasses two novel modules: Patch-Level Relation-Aware (PLRA) and Sample-Level Relation-Aware (SLRA). PLRA learns fine-grained local features by modeling the structural relations between key patches, bypassing the dependency on auxiliary models. It adopts a model-free method to select key patches that have high semantic correlation with the final pedestrian representation. In particular, to alleviate the interference of occlusion, PLRA captures the structural relations among key patches via a two-layer Graph Convolution Network (GCN), effectively guiding the local feature fusion and learning. SLRA is designed to facilitate the model to learn discriminative features by modeling the relations among samples. Specifically, to mitigate noisy relations of irrelevant samples, we present a Relation-Aware Transformer (RAT) block to capture the relations among neighbors. Furthermore, to bridge the gap between training and testing phases, a self-distillation method is employed to transfer the sample-level relations captured by SLRA to the backbone. Extensive experiments are conducted on four occluded datasets, two partial datasets and two holistic datasets. The results show that the proposed MLRAT model significantly outperforms existing baselines on four occluded datasets, while maintains top performance on two partial datasets and two holistic datasets.

Diabetes and gastric cancer incidence and mortality in the Asia Cohort Consortium: A pooled analysis of more than a half million participants.

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests a possible link between diabetes and gastric cancer risk, but the findings remain inconclusive, with limited studies in the Asian population. We aimed to assess the impact of diabetes and diabetes duration on the development of gastric cancer overall, by anatomical and histological subtypes. METHODS: A pooled analysis was conducted using 12 prospective studies included in the Asia Cohort Consortium. Among 558 981 participants (median age 52), after a median follow-up of 14.9 years and 10.5 years, 8556 incident primary gastric cancers and 8058 gastric cancer deaths occurred, respectively. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to estimate study-specific hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and pooled using random-effects meta-analyses. RESULTS: Diabetes was associated with an increased incidence of overall gastric cancer (HR 1.15, 95% CI 1.06-1.25). The risk association did not differ significantly by sex (women vs men: HR 1.31, 95% CI 1.07-1.60 vs 1.12, 1.01-1.23), anatomical subsites (noncardia vs cardia: 1.14, 1.02-1.28 vs 1.17, 0.77-1.78) and histological subtypes (intestinal vs diffuse: 1.22, 1.02-1.46 vs 1.00, 0.62-1.61). Gastric cancer risk increased significantly during the first decade following diabetes diagnosis (HR 4.70, 95% CI 3.77-5.86), and decreased with time (nonlinear p < .01). Positive associations between diabetes and gastric cancer mortality were observed (HR 1.15, 95% CI 1.03-1.28) but attenuated after a 2-year time lag. CONCLUSION: Diabetes was associated with an increased gastric cancer incidence regardless of sex, anatomical subsite, or subtypes of gastric cancer. The risk of gastric cancer was particularly high during the first decade following diabetes diagnosis.

Cold Air Plasma Inhibiting Tumor-Like Biological Behavior of Rheumatoid Arthritis Fibroblast-Like Synovial Cells via G2/M Cell Cycle Arrest.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synovial cells (RA-FLS) have become the core effector cells for the progression of rheumatoid arthritis due to their "tumor-like cell" characteristics, such as being able to break free from growth restrictions caused by contact inhibition, promoting angiogenesis, invading surrounding tissues, and leading to uncontrolled synovial growth. In recent years, cold air plasma (CAP) has been widely recognized for its clear anticancer effect. Inspired by this, this study investigated the inhibitory effect of CAP on the tumor-like biological behavior of RA-FLS through in vitro experiments. Methods: Treatment of RA-FLS with CAP at different time doses (0s, 30s, 60s, 120s). 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) proliferation assay was used to determine the cell viability. Analysis of cell migration and invasion was performed by wound-healing assay, transwell assay and immunofluorescent staining for f-actin, respectively. Flow cytometry technique was used for analysis of cell cycle and determination of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Hoechst staining was used for analysis of cell apoptosis. Protein expression was analyzed by Western blot analysis. Results: Molecular and cellular level mechanisms have revealed that CAP blocks RA-FLS in the G2/M phase by increasing intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to increased apoptosis and significantly reduced migration and invasion ability of RA-FLS. Conclusion: Overall, CAP has significant anti proliferative, migratory, and invasive effects on RA-FLS. This study reveals a new targeted treatment strategy for RA.

Tracing the contribution and fate of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer in young apple orchard agrosystems.

Excessive synthetic nitrogen (N) inputs in intensive orchard agrosystems of developing countries are a growing concern regarding their adverse impacts on fruit production and the environment. Quantifying the distribution and contribution of fertilizer N is essential for increasing N use efficiency and minimizing N loss in orchards. A 15N tracer experiment was performed in a young dwarf apple orchard over two growing seasons to determine the fertilizer N transformation and fate. Fertilizer N primarily contributed to 25 % to 75 % of soil nitrate in the top 60 cm, but the contribution to soil microbial biomass N and fixed ammonium was <8 %, with the contribution to plant N ranging from 9 % to 19 %. In most growth periods, soil nitrate and fixed ammonium contents derived from native soil with N fertilization were higher than those not receiving N fertilizer. The N use efficiency of plants was only 2.6 % and 4.9 % in the first and second seasons, respectively, in contrast to 56.6 % and 54.0 % of N recovered in soil. Meanwhile, N assimilated into microbial biomass accounted for 0.8 %, and the proportion fixed by clay minerals was 3.5 %-5.2 %. One season after N fertilization, the nitrate below the 1 m soil layers accounted for 4.6 % of the applied N fertilizer, and the proportion increased to 22.5 % after two seasons. The N loss rate via N2O emission was 0.4 % over two years. The application of N fertilizer facilitated indigenous soil N mineralization, and abiotic ammonium fixation more efficiently retained synthetic N than microbial immobilization. These findings provide new insight into orchard N cycling, and attention should be given to the improvement of soil N retention and turnover capacity regulated by soil microbial and abiotic processes, as well as the potential environmental impacts of additional soil N mineralization resulting from prolonged chemical N fertilization.

Scientometric Research and Critical Analysis of Gait and Balance in Older Adults.

Gait and balance have emerged as a critical area of research in health technology. Gait and balance studies have been affected by the researchers' slow follow-up of research advances due to the absence of visual inspection of the study literature across decades. This study uses advanced search methods to analyse the literature on gait and balance in older adults from 1993 to 2022 in the Web of Science (WoS) database to gain a better understanding of the current status and trends in the field for the first time. The study analysed 4484 academic publications including journal articles and conference proceedings on gait and balance in older adults. Bibliometric analysis methods were applied to examine the publication year, number of publications, discipline distribution, journal distribution, research institutions, application fields, test methods, analysis theories, and influencing factors in the field of gait and balance. The results indicate that the publication of relevant research documents has been steadily increasing from 1993 to 2022. The United States (US) exhibits the highest number of publications with 1742 articles. The keyword "elderly person" exhibits a strong citation burst strength of 18.04, indicating a significant focus on research related to the health of older adults. With a burst factor of 20.46, Harvard University has made impressive strides in the subject. The University of Pittsburgh displayed high research skills in the area of gait and balance with a burst factor of 7.7 and a publication count of 103. The research on gait and balance mainly focuses on physical performance evaluation approaches, and the primary study methods include experimental investigations, computational modelling, and observational studies. The field of gait and balance research is increasingly intertwined with computer science and artificial intelligence (AI), paving the way for intelligent monitoring of gait and balance in the elderly. Moving forward, the future of gait and balance research is anticipated to highlight the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration, intelligence-driven approaches, and advanced visualization techniques.

Narrative Review and Consensus Recommendations for the Use of Transnasal Humidified Rapid-Insufflation Ventilatory Exchange in Modified Electroconvulsive Therapy.

Transnasal humidified rapid-insufflation ventilatory exchange (THRIVE) is a safe, effective, and novel technique that is currently being used in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). This study aimed to summarize the clinical practices of THRIVE use in ECT to aid physicians and institutions in implementing the best practice guidelines for ECT. Thus, we reviewed the current literature and presented our consensus on the application of THRIVE in ECT in daily clinical practice. This consensus provides information regarding THRIVE use in ECT, including its safety, effectiveness, procedures, precautions, special case management, and application in special populations. Moreover, it guides the standardized use of THRIVE in ECT.

Sex Differences in the Antidepressant and Neurocognitive Effects of Nonconvulsive Electrotherapy in Patients with Treatment-Refractory Depression.

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine sex differences in the antidepressant and neurocognitive effects of adjunctive nonconvulsive electrotherapy (NET) in patients with treatment-refractory depression (TRD), which has not yet been thoroughly investigated. Methods: The study enrolled 20 patients with TRD, comprising 11 males and 9 females, who underwent a series of 6 NET sessions. The 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) was used to assess depressive symptoms, response, and remission at baseline and after the first, third, and sixth NET sessions. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was used to assess neurocognitive function at baseline and after the sixth NET session. Results: After completing 6 NET sessions, female patients experiencing TRD exhibited a higher inclination toward achieving an antidepressant response (77.8% vs. 45.5%, P = .197) and antidepressant remission (22.2% vs. 0%, P = .189) when compared to their male counterparts. No significant differences were observed in changes in the HAMD-17 and WCST subscale scores (all P > .05), including completing classification number, total error number, persistent error number, and random error number between males and females. Additionally, no significant correlations were observed between baseline WCST subscale scores and changes in HAMD-17 scores or endpoint scores, irrespective of sex (all P > .05). Conclusion: These pilot findings suggest that female patients with TRD exhibited increased rates of achieving antidepressant response and remission after undergoing NET. However, further studies should be conducted to confirm these findings.