Enriched oxygen improves age-related cognitive impairment through enhancing autophagy

Age-related cognitive impairment represents a significant health concern, with the understanding of its underlying mechanisms and potential interventions being of paramount importance. This study aimed to investigate the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) on cognitive function and neuronal integrity in aged (22-month-old) C57BL/6 mice. Male mice were exposed to HBOT for 2 weeks, and spatial learning and memory abilities were assessed using the Morris water maze. We employed transcriptome sequencing and Gene Ontology (GO) term enrichment analysis to examine the effects of HBOT on gene expression profiles, with particular attention given to synapse-related genes. Our data indicated a significant upregulation of postsynapse organization, synapse organization, and axonogenesis GO terms, likely contributing to improved cognitive performance. Moreover, the hyperphosphorylation of tau, a hallmark of many neurodegenerative diseases, was significantly reduced in the HBO-treated group, both in vivo and in vitro. Transmission electron microscopy revealed significant ultrastructural alterations in the hippocampus of the HBOT group, including an increase in the number of synapses and the size of the active zone, a reduction in demyelinated lesions, and a decreased number of “PANTHOS.” Furthermore, Western blot analyses confirmed the upregulation of PSD95, BDNF, and Syn proteins, suggesting enhanced synaptic plasticity and neurotrophic support. Moreover, HBOT increased autophagy, as evidenced by the elevated levels of Beclin-1 and LC3 proteins and the reduced level of p62 protein. Finally, we demonstrated that HBOT activated the AMPK-mTOR signaling pathway, a critical regulator of autophagy. Notably, our findings provide novel insights into the mechanisms by which HBOT ameliorates age-related cognitive impairment, suggesting the potential therapeutic value of this approach

H5N1 avian influenza re-emergence of Lake Qinghai: phylogenetic and antigenic analyses of the newly isolated viruses and roles of migratory birds in virus circulation

Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus has swept west across the globe and caused serious debates on the roles of migratory birds in virus circulation since the first large-scale outbreak in migratory birds of Lake Qinghai, 2005. In May 2006, another outbreak struck Lake Qinghai and six novel strains were isolated. To elucidate these QH06 viruses, the six isolates were subjected to whole-genome sequencing. Phylogenetic analyses show that QH06 viruses are derived from the lineages of Lake Qinghai, 2005. Five of the six novel isolates are adjacent to the strain A/Cygnus olor/Croatia/1/05, and the last one is related to the strain A/duck/Novosibirsk/02/05, an isolate of the flyway. Antigenic analyses suggest that QH06 and QH05 viruses are similar to each other. These findings implicate that QH06 viruses of Lake Qinghai may travel back via migratory birds, though not ruling out the possibility of local circulation of viruses of Lake Qinghai

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

An Analysis of Food Accessibility of Mountain Cities in China: A Case Study of Chongqing

Mountain cities are characterized by undulating terrain, complex road networks, and diverse road facilities, which makes accessing food more difficult than in cities with a flat terrain. This study proposes an enhanced two-step method based on the Baidu map service for the construction of supermarket–market–retail food sales architecture and for calculating food accessibility. The accessibility indices of seven major food categories (grains and oils, fruits, vegetables, seafood, meat, milk, and eggs) were calculated considering the principle of the fairest walking routes in Chongqing. The correlations between food accessibility and house price and house age in Chongqing were explored through local Moran’s analysis and geographically weighted regression. The correlations illustrated the fairness of the distribution of food accessibility in Chongqing among the poor and rich. The experiments showed generally well-developed food accessibility in the main urban areas of Chongqing. However, accessibility to fresh fruits and vegetables lagged in newly built urban areas

A Hybrid Cryptography Scheme for NILM Data Security

Using fine-grained data analysis, non-invasive load monitoring (NILM) can reveal the detail of electricity customers’ habits, which is helpful in the improvement of refined management and better user experience. However, the possibility of electricity customers’ privacy leak is also gradually increasing, and the security of NILM data has become a priority problem to be solved. To protect the privacy disclosure of NILM data, this paper analyzes the NILM privacy leak problems and ways in which information leak occurs faced by NILM data. On the basis of the comprehensive survey of cryptographic algorithms to choose the most appropriate data security method for NILM, a hybrid cryptography scheme was proposed to protect the data security. In the scheme, symmetric algorithm AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) was used to encrypt data for high efficiency, and asymmetric algorithm RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) was used to encrypt AES key for identity authentication. The classical algorithm HMAC-SHA1 (Hash Message Authentication Codes-Secure Hash Algorithm 1) was further developed to guarantee the integrity of data. By transplanting the algorithm into STM32 MCU (STMicroelectronics 32 bit Micro Controller Unit) for performance test and using Visual studio 2017 + QT tools to develop the test interface, one optimal operation mode was selected for the scheme. At the same time, the effectiveness of the scheme was verified, and the scheme computing cost depended on the efficiency of encryption and decryption, or signature and verification of the RSA algorithm

Leaching Behavior and Potential Environmental Effects of Trace Elements in Coal Gangue of an Open-Cast Coal Mine Area, Inner Mongolia, China

In order to better understand the role of coal gangue in potential environmental and ecological risks, the leaching behavior of trace elements from coal gangue has been investigated in an open-cast coal mine, Inner Mongolia, China. Four comparative column leaching experiments were conducted to investigate the impacts of leaching time, pH values and sample amount on the leaching behavior of trace elements. Enrichment factors (EF), maximum leached amount (Lam), maximum leachability (Lrm), effects range low (ERL) and effects range median (ERM) were employed to evaluate potential environmental and ecological hazards resulting from the leaching behavior of environment-sensitive trace elements from coal gangue. Leaching time and sample amount display important effects on trace element concentrations, leached amounts and leachability. The pH values exhibit a weak influence on the leaching behavior of the selected trace elements (e.g., As, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Se, Cd, Sn, Pb and Hg). The coal gangue are enriched in As, Co, Se and Pb and, in particular, show higher environmental pollution levels of As and Se (EF > 2). Lam values suggest that all of the elements investigated do not show potential risk to soils and vegetation, but have a high hazard risk for ground water. Elements including Ni, As, Cr and Zn are inclined to show high or moderate biological toxicity

A Reverse Transcription Recombinase-Aided Amplification Method for Rapid and Point-of-Care Detection of SARS-CoV-2, including Variants

The worldwide pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its emergence of variants needs rapid and point-of-care testing methods for a broad diagnosis. The regular RT-qPCR is time-consuming and limited in central laboratories, so a broad and large-scale screening requirement calls for rapid and in situ methods. In this regard, a reverse transcription recombinase-aided amplification (RT-RAA) is proposed here for the rapid and point-of-care detection of SARS-CoV-2. A set of highly conserved primers and probes targeting more than 98% of SARS-CoV-2 strains, including currently circulating variants (four variants of concerns (VOCs) and three variants of interest (VOIs)), was used in this study. With the preferred primers, the RT-RAA assay showed a 100% specificity to SARS-CoV-2 from eight other respiratory RNA viruses. Moreover, the assay here is of a high sensitivity and 0.48 copies/μL can be detected within 25 min at a constant temperature (42 °C), which can be realized on portable equipment. Furthermore, the RT-RAA assay demonstrated its high agreement for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in clinical specimens compared with RT-qPCR. The rapid, simple and point-of-care RT-RAA method is expected to be an appealing detection tool to detect SARS-CoV-2, including variants, in clinical diagnostic applications

An exploratory study on the association of multiple metals in serum with preeclampsia

BackgroundIndividual metal levels are potential risk factors for the development of preeclampsia (PE). However, understanding of relationship between multiple metals and PE remains elusive.PurposeThe purpose of this study was to explore whether eight metals [zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg)] in serum had a certain relationship with PE.MethodsA study was conducted in Dongguan, China. The concentrations of metals in maternal serum were assessed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Data on various factors were collected through a face-to-face interview and hospital electronic medical records. The unconditional logistic regression model, principal component analysis (PCA) and Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR) were applied in our study.ResultsThe logistic regression model revealed that the elevated levels of Cu, Pb, and Hg were associated with an increased risk of PE. According to PCA, principal component 1 (PC1) was predominated by Hg, Pb, Mn, Ni, Cu, and As, and PC1 was associated with an increased risk of PE, while PC2 was predominated by Cd and Zn. The results of BKMR indicated a significant positive cumulative effect of serum metals on PE risk, with Ni and Cu exhibiting a significant positive effect. Moreover, BKMR results also revealed the nonlinear effects of Ni and Cd.ConclusionThe investigation suggests a potential positive cumulative impact of serum metals on the occurrence of PE, with a particular emphasis on Cu as a potential risk factor for the onset and exacerbation of PE. These findings offer valuable insights for guiding future studies on this concern

Derivation and Validation of a Prognostic Model for Mortality in Chinese Patients with Acute Pulmonary Embolism

Introduction We aim to explore the risk factors for in-hospital mortality and to derive a prognostic model for patients with APE in China. Materials and methods Inpatients with APE were enrolled from West China Hospital between January 2016 and December 2019. Logistic regression analyses were used to explore risk factors for in-hospital mortality and develop a prognostic model. Results A total of 813 subjects with APE were included in this study, of whom 542 were in the training set and 271 were in the test set. Multivariable regression analyses indicated that age, male, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, elevated NT-proBNP or troponin T, malignancy, chronic renal insufficiency, and respiratory failure were independent risk factors for in-hospital mortality. For the training set, the area under the curve (AUC) of the ROC curve was 0.899, with a sensitivity and specificity of 89.7% and 77.7%, respectively. The model had higher prediction accuracy than the PESI and sPESI. Conclusions The prediction model has proven excellent discrimination and calibration, which may be a useful tool to help physicians make decisions regarding the best treatment strategy