Diaqua­(2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline-κ2 N,N′)(4-hydroxy­benzoato-κ2 O,O′)cobalt(II) nitrate dihydrate

In the title compound, [Co(C7H5O3)(C14H12N2)(H2O)2]NO3·2H2O, the CoII ion is six-coordinated by two N atoms of a 2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline (dmphen) ligand, two carboxyl­ate O atoms of one 4-hydroxy­benzoate anion and two O atoms of two water mol­ecules, in a distorted octa­hedral environment; the two water mol­ecules occupy the apical positions. In the crystal structure, the ionic units and water mol­ecules are linked through O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, leading to the formation of a three-dimensional network. In addition, π–π inter­actions between a pyridine ring of the dmphen ligand and the benzene ring of the hydroxy­benzoate anion [centroid–centroid separation = 3.6861 (3) Å] are observed

Światowa produktywność badań w dziedzinie endokrynologii i metabolizmu — analiza bibliometryczna

  Introduction: Recently, significant contributions to the study of endocrinology and metabolism have been made. The national contribution, however, has not been reported. The aim of this study was to assess national efforts in the field of endocrinology and metabolism. Material and methods: A Web of Science search was performed using subject categories “endocrinology & metabolism” to identify articles published from 2010 to 2014. The total and per capita numbers of articles and citations were analysed for different countries. Results: A total of 79,394 articles were published on endocrinology and metabolism from 2010 to 2014. Most were published in North America, East Asia, and Europe. The majority (82.28%) were reported by authors in high-income countries, 17.64% were published in middle-income countries, and only 0.08% were published in low-income countries. Authors in the United States published the most articles (27.38%), followed by China (7.22%), Italy (5.70%), the United Kingdom (5.6%), and Japan (5.54%). Articles published by authors in the United States had the most citations (260,934). A positive correlation was found between the number of publications and population/gross domestic product (GDP; p < 0.01). When normalised to population size, the ranking for the most publications was Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands; when normalised to GDP, the ranking was Denmark, Greece, and the Netherlands. Conclusions: The majority of endocrinology and metabolism articles were published by authors from high-income countries with few from low-income countries. The United States was the most productive country. However, when population size and GDP were considered, some European countries were ranked higher. (Endokrynol Pol 2015; 66 (5): 434–442)    Wstęp: Ostatnio pojawiło się wiele znaczących publikacji na temat badań z dziedziny endokrynologii i metabolizmu. Narodowy wkład na tym polu został jednak pominięty. Celem niniejszego badania była ocena krajowych badań w dziedzinie endokrynologii i metabolizmu. Materiał i metody: Wyszukiwanie za pomocą Web of Science przeprowadzono z wykorzystaniem kategorii podmiotowych „endokrynologia i metabolizm”, aby zidentyfikować artykuły opublikowane w latach 2010–2014. Analizie poddano łączną liczbę artykułów i cytowań, a także ich liczbę przypadającą na osobę w odniesieniu do różnych krajów. Wyniki: W latach 2010–2014 opublikowano łącznie 79 394 artykułów na temat endokrynologii i metabolizmu. Większość artykułów pochodziła z Ameryki Północnej, Azji Wschodniej i Europy. Większość artykułów (82,28%) napisali autorzy z krajów o wysokich dochodach, 17,64% opublikowano w krajach średnio zamożnych, a jedynie 0,08% artykułów opublikowano w krajach o niskich dochodach. Najwięcej artykułów publikowali autorzy ze Stanów Zjednoczonych (27,38%), następnie z Chin (7,22%), Włoch (5,70%), Wielkiej Brytanii (5,6%) i Japonii (5,54%). Prace publikowane przez amerykańskich autorów zawierały największą liczbę cytowań (260 934). Stwierdzono pozytywny związek między liczbą publikacji i populacją/produktem krajowym brutto (PKB; p < 0,01). Po unormalizowaniu do liczebności populacji, w rankingu krajów o najwyższej liczbie publikacji znalazły się Dania, Szwecja oraz Holandia. Gdy znormalizowano wyniki pod względem PKB, w rankingu znalazły się Dania, Grecja oraz Holandia. Wnioski: Większość artykułów z dziedziny endokrynologii i metabolizmu została opublikowana przez autorów z krajów o wysokich dochodach; w krajach o niskich dochodach ukazało się niewiele artykułów. Stany Zjednoczone wykazały największą produktywność, jednak kiedy brano pod uwagę liczebność populacji i PKB, niektóre kraje europejskie zajmowały wyższą pozycję. (Endokrynol Pol 2015; 66 (5): 434–442)

Clinicopathological Characteristics and Outcomes of Chinese Patients with Scanty Immune Deposits Lupus Nephritis: A Large Cohort Study from a Single Center

Objective. To assess clinicopathological characteristics of lupus nephritis patients with scanty immune deposits. Methods. The data of patients with scanty immune deposits lupus nephritis were retrospectively analyzed. Plasma ANCA and complement components were detected. Results. Among 316 cases with renal biopsy-proven lupus nephritis, 40 cases were diagnosed as scanty immune deposits. There were significantly higher value of serum creatinine (P = 0.002) and lower hemoglobin level (P = 0.009) and higher score of cellular crescents (P = 0.015) in scanty immune deposits group compared with immune complex deposits group. The frequency of positive plasma ANCA was significantly higher in scanty immune deposits group than that in immune complex deposits group (52.5% versus 10.1%, P < 0.001). As for comparisons of plasma complement components, there were significantly higher levels of C1q (P = 0.005) and Bb (P = 0.02) and lower level of factor H (P = 0.003) in scanty immune deposits group. The ratio of treatment failure was significantly higher in scanty immune deposits group than that in immune deposits group (42.5% versus 19.20%, P = 0.001). The renal outcomes were similar between the two groups. Conclusions. Patients with scanty immune deposits lupus nephritis had more severe kidney damage. ANCA and activation of complement alternative pathway might be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease.Multidisciplinary SciencesSCI(E)[email protected]

Molecular Epidemiology and Risk Factors of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Infection Caused by Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) infection caused by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) is becoming more prevalent, thus seriously affecting patient outcomes. In this paper, we studied the drug resistance mechanism and epidemiological characteristics of CRE, and analyzed the infection and prognosis factors of VAP caused by CRE, to provide evidence for effective control of nosocomial infection in patients with VAP. A total of 58 non-repetitive CRE strains of VAP were collected from January 2016 to June 2018. To explore the risk factors of CRE infection, 1:2 group case control method was used to select non CRE infection patients at the same period as the control group. Among the 58 CRE strains, the most common isolates included Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli. All strains were sensitive to polymyxin B, which features better sensitivity to other antibiotics such as minocycline, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, and amikacin. Multiple drug resistance genes were detected at the same time in most strains. KPC-2 was the most common carbapenemase-resistant gene in Klebsiella pneumoniae, whereas NDM-1 was more common in Escherichia coli. The risk factors correlated with CRE infection included intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy time >7 days (OR = 2.793; 95% CI 1.439~5.421), antibiotic exposure during hospital stay including those to enzyme inhibitors (OR = 1.977; 95% CI 1.025~3.812), carbapenems (OR = 3.268; 95% CI 1.671~6.392), antibiotic combination therapy(OR = 1.951; 95% CI 1.020~3.732), and nerve damage (OR = 3.013; 95% CI 1.278~7.101). Multivariable analysis showed that ICU stay >7 days (OR = 1.867; 95% CI 1.609~20.026), beta-lactamase inhibitor antibiotics (OR = 7.750; 95% CI 2.219~27.071), and carbapenem (OR = 9.143; 95% CI 2.259~37.01) are independent risk factors for VAP carbapenem caused by Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae. A high resistance rate of CRE isolated from VAP indicated that the infected patients featured higher mortality and longer hospital stay time than the control group. Multiple risk factors for CRE infection and their control can effectively prevent the spread of VAP

The Efficacy and Safety of Chinese Herbal Decoction in Type 2 Diabetes: A 5-Year Retrospective Study

Background. The study was designed to assess the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal decoction in treating outpatients with T2DM. Methods. All patients enrolled received decoction for at least 6 months. The primary outcome was the control rate of HbA1c and the change in HbA1c. FPG, 2hPG, HOMA-IR, and HOMA-β were also collected and evaluated. Results. The control rates after treatment at months 6, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, and 60 were 45.07%, 52.78%, 47.22%, 45.83%, 50.00%, 57.14%, and 40.00%. Multiple linear regression showed the change of HbA1c has a significant relationship with the baseline HbA1c and duration of DM and BMI (p<0.05). Both FPG and 2hPG levels significantly decreased compared to the baseline (p<0.05). Chinese herbal decoction also improved islet cell function with decreased HOMA-IR and increased HOMA-β (p<0.05). 19 and 4 subjects deactivated the antidiabetes drugs or insulin, respectively, after taking decoction. One subject developed DKD and one developed DPN, and another subject showed abnormal liver function which was irrelevant to decoction treatment. Conclusions. Chinese herbal decoction significantly enhanced the hypoglycemic action and had certain effect on protecting islet cell function. As a candidate diabetes therapy, it may reduce the use of antidiabetes drugs and slow the progression to diabetes complications

The improved stratified transformer for organ segmentation of Arabidopsis

Segmenting plant organs is a crucial step in extracting plant phenotypes. Despite the advancements in point-based neural networks, the field of plant point cloud segmentation suffers from a lack of adequate datasets. In this study, we addressed this issue by generating Arabidopsis models using L-system and proposing the surface-weighted sampling method. This approach enables automated point sampling and annotation, resulting in fully annotated point clouds. To create the Arabidopsis dataset, we employed Voxel Centroid Sampling and Random Sampling as point cloud downsampling methods, effectively reducing the number of points. To enhance the efficiency of semantic segmentation in plant point clouds, we introduced the Plant Stratified Transformer. This network is an improved version of the Stratified Transformer, incorporating the Fast Downsample Layer. Our improved network underwent training and testing on our dataset, and we compared its performance with PointNet++, PAConv, and the original Stratified Transformer network. For semantic segmentation, our improved network achieved mean Precision, Recall, F1-score and IoU of 84.20, 83.03, 83.61 and 73.11%, respectively. It outperformed PointNet++ and PAConv and performed similarly to the original network. Regarding efficiency, the training time and inference time were 714.3 and 597.9 ms, respectively, which were reduced by 320.9 and 271.8 ms, respectively, compared to the original network. The improved network significantly accelerated the speed of feeding point clouds into the network while maintaining segmentation performance. We demonstrated the potential of virtual plants and deep learning methods in rapidly extracting plant phenotypes, contributing to the advancement of plant phenotype research

Homocysteine levels in first-episode patients with psychiatric disorders

A high homocysteine (Hcy) level is a risk factor for schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder. However, the role of hyperhomocysteinemia as either an independent factor or an auxiliary contributor to specific psychiatric symptoms or disorders remains unclear. This study aimed to examine Hcy levels in first-episode inpatients with psychotic symptoms and various psychiatric diseases to elucidate the association between Hcy levels and psychiatric disorders. This study enrolled 191 patients (aged 18–40 years) with psychiatric disorders. Seventy-five patients were diagnosed with schizophrenia, 48 with acute and transient psychotic disorders, 36 with manic episodes with psychosis, 32 with major depressive episodes with psychosis, and 56 healthy controls. Serum Hcy levels were measured using the enzyme cycle method. A Hcy concentration level of &gt; 15 μmol/L was defined as hyperhomocysteinemia. Hcy levels were significantly higher in first-episode patients with psychiatric disorders compared to healthy controls (5.99 ± 3.60 vs. 19.78 ± 16.61 vs. 15.50 ± 9.08 vs. 20.00 ± 11.33 vs. 16.22 ± 12.06, F = 12.778, P &lt; 0.001). Hcy levels were significantly higher in males with schizophrenia, acute and transient psychotic disorder, and major depressive disorder but not in mania [schizophrenia, (t = -4.727, P &lt; 0.001); acute and transient psychotic disorders, (t = -3.389, P = 0.001); major depressive episode with psychosis, (t = -3.796, P &lt; 0.001); manic episodes with psychosis, (t = -1.684, P = 0.101)]. However, serum Hcy levels were not significantly different among the psychiatric disorder groups (F = 0.139, P = 0.968). Multivariate linear regression showed that males had an increased risk for homocysteinemia. (95% CI = 8.192–15.370, P &lt; 0.001). These results suggest that first-episode patients with psychiatric disorders have higher Hcy levels than in the general population, and men are at greater risk for psychiatric disorders. In conclusion, elevated Hcy levels may contribute to the pathogenesis of first-episode patients with psychotic symptoms

Parallelism and non-parallelism in diabetic nephropathy and diabetic retinopathy

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) and diabetic retinopathy (DR), as microvascular complications of diabetes mellitus, are currently the leading causes of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and blindness, respectively, in the adult working population, and they are major public health problems with social and economic burdens. The parallelism between the two in the process of occurrence and development manifests in the high overlap of disease-causing risk factors and pathogenesis, high rates of comorbidity, mutually predictive effects, and partial concordance in the clinical use of medications. However, since the two organs, the eye and the kidney, have their unique internal environment and physiological processes, each with specific influencing molecules, and the target organs have non-parallelism due to different pathological changes and responses to various influencing factors, this article provides an overview of the parallelism and non-parallelism between DN and DR to further recognize the commonalities and differences between the two diseases and provide references for early diagnosis, clinical guidance on the use of medication, and the development of new drugs