Elderly hospitalization and the New-type Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) in China: multi-stage cross-sectional surveys of Jiangxi province

Studies assessing the impacts of China's New-type Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS) reform of 2003 among rural elderly have been limited. Method: Multistage stratified cluster sampling household surveys of 1838, 1924, 1879, 1888, 1890 and 1896 households from 27 villages in Jiangxi province were conducted in 2003/2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. Data from older adults age 65 and above were analyzed. Weighted logistic regression was applied to find factors of elderly hospitalization services. Results: Since 2003, hospitalization rates for elderly increased, while rates of patients leaving against medical advice and patients avoiding the hospital decreased (P < 0.05). Factors associated with a higher likelihood of reporting hospitalization in the past year for elderly were the per-capita financial level V in 2012 for NCMS (Adjusted Odds Ratios [aOR]: 2.295), the level VI in 2014 (aOR: 3.045) versus the level I in 2003 and chronic disease (aOR: 2.089) versus not having a chronic disease. Lower rate of elderly left against medical advice was associated with the financial level V in 2012 (aOR: 0.099) versus the level I. The higher rate of hospital avoidance was associated with chronic disease status (aOR: 5.759) versus not having a chronic disease, while the lower rate was associated with the financial level VI in 2014 (aOR: 0.143) versus the level I. Among reporting reasons for elderly hospital avoidance, the cost-related reasons just dropped slightly over the years. Conclusions: NCMS improved access to health services for older adults. The utilization of hospitalization services for rural elderly increased gradually, but cost-related barriers remained the primary reporting barrier to accessing hospitalization services

Superhydrophobic Light Alloy Materials with Corrosion-Resistant Surfaces

Metals and their alloys are irreplaceable engineered materials showing great importance in our society. Light alloy materials (i.e., Mg, Al, Ti, and their alloys) have tremendous application potential in the aerospace, automotive industries, and biomedical fields for they are lighter and have excellent mechanical properties. The corrosion of light alloys is ubiquitous and greatly restricts their utilization. Inspired by the natural anti-water systems, many new designs and conceptions have recently emerged to create artificial superhydrophobic surfaces with great potential for corrosion resistant of light alloy. This review firstly introduces the concept of superhydrophobicity and strategies of producing superhydrophobic surfaces to inhibit the corrosion of light alloys. In addition, we elaborate the durability of superhydrophobic light alloy materials for commercial and industrial applications, and present their anticorrosion mechanism in the corrosive media

Stress reduction through cortical bone thickening improves bone mechanical behavior in adult female Beclin-1+/− mice

Fragility fractures, which are more prevalent in women, may be significantly influenced by autophagy due to altered bone turnover. As an essential mediator of autophagy, Beclin-1 modulates bone homeostasis by regulating osteoclast and chondrocyte differentiation, however, the alteration in the local bone mechanical environment in female Beclin-1+/− mice remains unclear. In this study, our aim is to investigate the biomechanical behavior of femurs from seven-month-old female wild-type (WT) and Beclin-1+/− mice under peak physiological load, using finite element analysis on micro-CT images. Micro-CT imaging analyses revealed femoral cortical thickening in Beclin-1+/− female mice compared to WT. Three-point bending test demonstrated a 63.94% increase in whole-bone strength and a 61.18% increase in stiffness for female Beclin-1+/− murine femurs, indicating improved biomechanical integrity. After conducting finite element analysis, Beclin-1+/− mice exhibited a 26.99% reduction in von Mises stress and a 31.62% reduction in maximum principal strain in the femoral midshaft, as well as a 36.64% decrease of von Mises stress in the distal femurs, compared to WT mice. Subsequently, the strength-safety factor was determined using an empirical formula, revealing that Beclin-1+/− mice exhibited significantly higher minimum safety factors in both the midshaft and distal regions compared to WT mice. In summary, considering the increased response of bone adaptation to mechanical loading in female Beclin-1+/− mice, our findings indicate that increasing cortical bone thickness significantly improves bone biomechanical behavior by effectively reducing stress and strain within the femoral shaft

Whole Brain Mapping of Long-Range Direct Input to Glutamatergic and GABAergic Neurons in Motor Cortex

Long-range neuronal circuits play an important role in motor and sensory information processing. Determining direct synaptic inputs of excited and inhibited neurons is important for understanding the circuit mechanisms involved in regulating movement. Here, we used the monosynaptic rabies tracing technique, combined with fluorescent micro-optical sectional tomography, to characterize the brain-wide input to the motor cortex (MC). The whole brain dataset showed that the main excited and inhibited neurons in the MC received inputs from similar brain regions with a quantitative difference. With 3D reconstruction we found that the distribution of input neurons, that target the primary and secondary MC, had different patterns. In the cortex, the neurons projecting to the primary MC mainly distributed in the lateral and anterior portion, while those to the secondary MC distributed in the medial and posterior portion. The input neurons in the subcortical areas also showed the topographic shift model, as in the thalamus, the neurons distributed as outer and inner shells while the neurons in the claustrum and amygdala were in the ventral and dorsal part, respectively. These results lay the anatomical foundation to understanding the organized pattern of motor circuits and the functional differences between the primary and secondary MC

GSKJ4 Protects Mice Against Early Sepsis via Reducing Proinflammatory Factors and Up-Regulating MiR-146a

Sepsis, defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction, is one of the most common causes of mortality in intensive care units with limited therapeutic options. However, the mechanism underlying the regulation of epigenetics on sepsis remains largely undefined. Here we showed that JMJD3, the histone lysine demethylase, played a critical role in the epigenetic regulation of innate immunity during early sepsis. Pharmacological inhibition of JMJD3 by GSKJ4 protected mice against early septic death and reduced pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β (IL-1β) production as well as IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) expression. Interestingly, GSKJ4 up-regulated the transcription of anti-inflammatory microRNA-146a (miR-146a) in peritoneal macrophages from septic mice. Mechanistically, JMJD3 negatively regulated the transcription of miR-146a via its demethylation of H3K27me3 on the promoter of miR-146a. Moreover, the transcription of miR-146a was positively regulated by nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) p65. Inhibition of NF-κB p65 promoted JMJD3 binding to miR-146a promoter and decreased the tri-methylation level of H3K27, while the inhibition of JMJD3 did not affect the recruitment of NF-κB p65 to miR-146a promoter. These results highlight an epigenetic mechanism by which JMJD3 was inhibited by NF-κB p65 from binding to miR-146a promoter to promote the anti-inflammatory response. Taken together, our findings uncover a key role for JMJD3 in modulating the miR-146a transcription and shed light on the JMJD3 inhibitors could be potential therapeutic agents for early sepsis therapy

Removal of Foodborne Pathogen Biofilms by Acidic Electrolyzed Water

Biofilms, which are complex microbial communities embedded in the protective extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), are difficult to remove in food production facilities. In this study, the use of acidic electrolyzed water (AEW) to remove foodborne pathogen biofilms was evaluated. We used a green fluorescent protein-tagged Escherichia coli for monitoring the efficiency of AEW for removing biofilms, where under the optimal treatment conditions, the fluorescent signal of cells in the biofilm disappeared rapidly and the population of biofilm cells was reduced by more than 67%. Additionally, AEW triggered EPS disruption, as indicated by the deformation of the carbohydrate C-O-C bond and deformation of the aromatic rings in the amino acids tyrosine and phenylalanine. These deformations were identified by EPS chemical analysis and Raman spectroscopic analysis. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images confirmed that the breakup and detachment of biofilm were enhanced after AEW treatment. Further, AEW also eradicated biofilms formed by both Gram-negative bacteria (Vibrio parahaemolyticus) and Gram-positive bacteria (Listeria monocytogenes) and was observed to inactivate the detached cells which are a potential source of secondary pollution. This study demonstrates that AEW could be a reliable foodborne pathogen biofilm disrupter and an eco-friendly alternative to sanitizers traditionally used in the food industry

Refining models of archaic admixture in Eurasia with ArchaicSeeker 2.0

We developed a method, ArchaicSeeker 2.0, to identify introgressed hominin sequences and model multiple-wave admixture. The new method enabled us to discern two waves of introgression from both Denisovan-like and Neanderthal-like hominins in present-day Eurasian populations and an ancient Siberian individual. We estimated that an early Denisovan-like introgression occurred in Eurasia around 118.8–94.0 thousand years ago (kya). In contrast, we detected only one single episode of Denisovan-like admixture in indigenous peoples eastern to the Wallace-Line. Modeling ancient admixtures suggested an early dispersal of modern humans throughout Asia before the Toba volcanic super-eruption 74 kya, predating the initial peopling of Asia as proposed by the traditional Out-of-Africa model. Survived archaic sequences are involved in various phenotypes including immune and body mass (e.g., ZNF169), cardiovascular and lung function (e.g., HHAT), UV response and carbohydrate metabolism (e.g., HYAL1/HYAL2/HYAL3), while “archaic deserts” are enriched with genes associated with skin development and keratinization

Uniaxial Compressive Test of High Ductile Fiber-Reinforced Concrete and Damage Constitutive Model

It has been widely recognized that the constitutive model plays an essential role in engineering application of high ductile fiber-reinforced concrete (HDC). In this research, uniaxial compressive tests were conducted on nine groups of HDC specimens with different mixture ratios and one group of mortar matrix specimens as comparison, discussing the effect of fiber content, water-cement ratio, fly ash content, and sand-binder ratio. According to the characteristics of stress-strain curve of HDC under uniaxial compression, a damage constitutive model was proposed by introducing two damage threshold parameters and then was compared with other existing models. Results indicated that the damage model curves suggested in this paper were best consistent with experimental curves and substantially demonstrate the damage evolution process as well as the cracking resistance effect of fiber bridging stress