Association between the variability of non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in patients with coronary heart disease

BackgroundLowering lipid variability may be a potential strategy for improving the inflammatory state in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). This study investigated the association between the variability of non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR).MethodsThis study enrolled 2,711 CHD patients subjected to percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). During the 1-year follow-up period after PCI, the variability of non-HDL-C was assessed using standard deviation (SD), coefficient of variation (CV), and variability independent of mean (VIM). NLR was calculated as the ratio of absolute neutrophil count to absolute lymphocyte count. The relationship between the non-HDL-C variability and the average NLR level during follow-ups was examined using a linear regression analysis.ResultsThe mean age of the patients was 64.4 ± 10.8 years, with 72.4% being male. The average NLR level was 2.98 (2.26–4.14) during the follow-up (1 year after PCI). The variability of non-HDL-C was 0.42 (0.26–0.67) for SD, 0.17 (0.11–0.25) for CV, and 0.02 (0.01–0.03) for VIM. A locally weighted scatterplot smoothing curve indicates that the average levels of NLR increased with increasing variability of non-HDL-C. Regardless of the variability assessment method used, non-HDL-C variability was significantly positively associated with the average NLR level during follow-ups: SD [β (95% CI) = 0.681 (0.366–0.996)], CV [β (95% CI) = 2.328 (1.458–3.197)], and VIM [β (95% CI) = 17.124 (10.532–23.715)]. This association remained consistent across subgroups stratified by age, gender, diabetes, and hypertension.ConclusionThe variability of non-HDL-C was positively associated with NLR in patients with CHD, suggesting that reducing non-HDL-C variability may improve the low-grade inflammatory state in CHD patients

Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals the transcriptomic characteristics of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in hepatitis B vaccine non-responders

The emergence of a vaccine against hepatitis B has proven to be an important milestone in the prevention of this disease; however, 5%–10% of vaccinated individuals do not generate an immune response to the vaccine, and its molecular mechanism has not been clarified. In this study, single-cell RNA sequencing was performed on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from three volunteers with a high immune response (HR) and three with no immune response (NR) to the hepatitis B vaccine. We found that the antigen-presenting activity scores of various antigen-presenting cells, the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway activity scores of naive B cells, and the cell activity scores of three types of effector T cells were significantly decreased, whereas the cytotoxicity scores of CD3highCD16lowKLRG1high natural killer T (NKT) cells were significantly increased in the NR group compared with those in the HR group. Additionally, the expression levels of some classical molecules associated with distinct signaling pathways—including HLA-B, HLA-DRB5, BLNK, BLK, IL4R, SCIMP, JUN, CEBPB, NDFIP1, and TXNIP—were significantly reduced in corresponding subsets of PBMCs from the NR group relative to those of the HR group. Furthermore, the expression of several cytotoxicity-related effector molecules, such as GNLY, NKG7, GZMB, GZMM, KLRC1, KLRD1, PRF1, CST7, and CTSW, was significantly higher in CD3highCD16lowKLRG1high NKT cells derived from non-responders. Our study provides a molecular basis for the lack of response to the hepatitis B vaccine, including defective antigen presentation, decreased T cell activity, and reduced IL-4 secretion, as well as novel insight into the role of NKT cells in the immune response to the hepatitis B vaccine

SPA-UNet: A liver tumor segmentation network based on fused multi-scale features

Liver tumor segmentation is a critical part in the diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer. While U-shaped convolutional neural networks (UNets) have made significant strides in medical image segmentation, challenges remain in accurately segmenting tumor boundaries and detecting small tumors, resulting in low segmentation accuracy. To improve the segmentation accuracy of liver tumors, this work proposes space pyramid attention (SPA)-UNet, a novel image segmentation network with an encoder-decoder architecture. SPA-UNet consists of four modules: (1) Spatial pyramid convolution block (SPCB), extracting multi-scale features by fusing three sets of dilated convolutions with different rates. (2) Spatial pyramid pooling block (SPPB), performing downsampling to reduce image size. (3) Upsample module, integrating dense positional and semantic information. (4) Residual attention block (RA-Block), enabling precise tumor localization. The encoder incorporates 5 SPCBs and 4 SPPBs to capture contextual information. The decoder consists of the Upsample module and RA-Block, and finally a segmentation head outputs segmented images of liver and liver tumor. Experiments using the liver tumor segmentation dataset demonstrate that SPA-UNet surpasses the traditional UNet model, achieving a 1.0 and 2.0% improvement in intersection over union indicators for liver and tumors, respectively, along with increased recall rates by 1.2 and 1.8%. These advancements provide a dependable foundation for liver cancer diagnosis and treatment

Relation between neuroticism and tendency of mobile phone addiction among nursing undergraduates： the mediating role of perceived stress and self-control

BackgroundNegative effects of mobile phone addiction on undergraduate students have led to several health problems including depression， anxiety， attention deficit disorder， cognitive impairment and sleep disturbance. The undergraduate nursing students serve as an important reserve force of the clinical nursing work， and their poor psychological health would have a non-ignorable impact on the quality of the nursing work and the nurse-patient relationship in the future.ObjectiveTo investigate the relation between neuroticism and tendency of mobile phone addiction among undergraduate nursing students， and to examine the pathways through which perceived stress and self-control play a role in the relation by constructing a chain-mediated model.MethodsFrom February to March 2023， a total of 900 undergraduate nursing students across 10 universities in Xi'an， Shaanxi Province were selected through convenient sampling method. Several scales were adopted to assess undergraduate nursing students respectively， including the neuroticism subscale of Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Scale for Chines （EPQ-RSC）， Perceived Stress Scale （PSS）， Self-Control Scale （SCS） and Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale （MPATS）. The assessment were conducted on multiple aspects of these students including neurotic personality， subjective stress， self-control and mobile phone addiction tendency. Model 6 in the SPSS Macro Process 4.1 was used to examine the mediating effect of perceived stress and self-control between neuroticism and mobile phone addiction tendency among undergraduate nursing students.Results① Among the 900 students， 314 cases （34.89%） were found to be addicted to mobile phones. ② The score of neuroticism subscale in EPQ-RSC of nursing undergraduates was positively correlated with the total scores of PSS and MPATS （r=0.400， 0.287， P<0.01）， and negatively correlated with score of SCS （r=-0.364， P<0.01）. The total score of MPATS was positively correlated with the total score of PSS （r=0.362， P<0.01）， and negatively correlated with the total score of SCS （r=-0.468， P<0.01）. The total score of SCS was negatively correlated with the total score of PSS （r=-0.515， P<0.01）. ③ Perceived stress and self-control performed partial mediation between neuroticism personality and mobile phone addiction tendency （with indirect effect values of 0.056 and 0.065， respectively， accounting for 19.72% and 22.89% of the total effect）. Perceived stress and self-control played a chain mediating role between neuroticism personality and mobile phone addiction tendency （with an indirect effect value of 0.064， accounting for 22.54% of the total effect）.ConclusionNeuroticism personality， perceived stress and self-control are confirmed to play important roles in mobile phone addiction tendency among undergraduate nursing students. Neuroticism personality not only directly affects the tendency of mobile phone addiction， but also affects their mobile phone addiction tendency through the chain mediating effect of perceived stress and self-control.［Funded by The 2020 Annual Project of the 13th Five-Year Plan of Education Science in Shaanxi Province （number， SGH20Y1386）

Several Issues of Legislation on Uninhabited Islands

徐祥民，中国海洋大学法学院院长，历史学博士、法学博士、教授、博士生导师。 周晨，中国海洋大学环境资源法学研究方向博士研究生。 李懋林，中国海洋大学法学院国际法学硕士研究生。【中文摘要】本文以保护生态环境资源为视角，结合现有的法律法规，对无居 民海岛的法律定位与特征、立法的基本原则以及若干重要问题进行了学理上的探 讨，并对无居民海岛立法提出了一些思路和具体主张。 【Abstract】This article provides an academic and legal understanding of uninhabited islands. It examines basic principles for legislation regarding the protection of the ecology, environment, and resources of uninhabited islands, and it offers suggestions for and thoughts on developing future legislation concerning uninhabited islands

Effects of coronary artery disease in patients with permanent left bundle branch area pacing: A retrospective study

Aims: Myocardial ischemia can affect traditional right ventricular (RV) pacing parameters, but it is unclear whether coronary artery disease (CAD) impact the pacing parameters and electrophysiological characteristics of left bundle branch area pacing (LBBaP) as a physiological pacing representative. Methods: Patients who underwent coronary angiography (CAG) after/before the LBBaP procedure and underwent percutaneous coronary intervention after LBBaP procedure were divided into CAD group and Non-CAD group according to visual CAG. Pacing parameters and electrophysiological characteristics were recorded at LBBaP implantation. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was implemented to evaluate the association between CAD and higher capture threshold. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to verify result stability. Results: A total of 176 patients met inclusion criteria (115 Non-CAD patients and 61 CAD patients) with a mean age of 71.1 ± 9.0 years. Compared with the Non-CAD patients, CAD patients had the higher capture threshold (0.67 ± 0.22 V vs. 0.82 ± 0.28 V, P < 0.001) and lower R-wave amplitude (12.5 ± 4.8 mV vs. 10.1 ± 2.7 mV, P = 0.001). Moreover, CAD was independently associated with higher capture threshold (adjusted Odds ratio (OR) 3.418, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.621–7.206, P = 0.001), which was further validated through sensitivity analyses. Conclusion: Patients without CAD might have safer pacing parameters in the LBBaP procedure. Besides, CAD might be the risk factor of capture threshold increase during permanent LBBaP implantation

Transcriptome analysis of pod mutant reveals plant hormones are important regulators in controlling pod size in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

Pod size is an important yield-influencing trait in peanuts. It is affected by plant hormones and identifying the genes related to these hormones may contribute to pod-related trait improvements in peanut breeding programs. However, there is limited information on the molecular mechanisms of plant hormones that regulate pod size in peanuts. We identified a mutant with an extremely small pod (spm) from Yuanza 9102 (WT) by 60Co γ-radiation mutagenesis. The length and width of the natural mature pod in spm were only 71.34% and 73.36% of those in WT, respectively. We performed comparative analyses for morphological characteristics, anatomy, physiology, and global transcriptome between spm and WT pods. Samples were collected at 10, 20, and 30 days after peg elongation into the soil, representing stages S1, S2, and S3, respectively. The differences in pod size between WT and spm were seen at stage S1 and became even more striking at stages S2 and S3. The cell sizes of the pods were significantly smaller in spm than in WT at stages S1, S2, and S3. These results suggested that reduced cell size may be one of the important contributors for the small pod in spm. The contents of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), gibberellin (GA), and brassinosteroid (BR) were also significantly lower in spm pods than those in WT pods at all three stages. RNA-Seq analyses showed that 1,373, 8,053, and 3,358 differently expressed genes (DEGs) were identified at stages S1, S2, and S3, respectively. Functional analyses revealed that a set of DEGs was related to plant hormone biosynthesis, plant hormone signal transduction pathway, and cell wall biosynthesis and metabolism. Furthermore, several hub genes associated with plant hormone biosynthesis and signal transduction pathways were identified through weighted gene co-expression network analysis. Our results revealed that IAA, GA, and BR may be important regulators in controlling pod size by regulating cell size in peanuts. This study provides helpful information for the understanding of the complex mechanisms of plant hormones in controlling pod size by regulating the cell size in peanuts and will facilitate the improvement of peanut breeding

Shaping the Atomic-Scale Geometries of Electrodes to Control Optical and Electrical Performance of Molecular Devices

A straightforward method to generate both atomic‐scale sharp and atomic‐scale planar electrodes is reported. The atomic‐scale sharp electrodes are generated by precisely stretching a suspended nanowire, while the atomic‐scale planar electrodes are obtained via mechanically controllable interelectrodes compression followed by a thermal‐driven atom migration process. Notably, the gap size between the electrodes can be precisely controlled at subangstrom accuracy with this method. These two types of electrodes are subsequently employed to investigate the properties of single molecular junctions. It is found, for the first time, that the conductance of the amine‐linked molecular junctions can be enhanced ≈50% as the atomic‐scale sharp electrodes are used. However, the atomic‐scale planar electrodes show great advantages to enhance the sensitivity of Raman scattering upon the variation of nanogap size. The underlying mechanisms for these two interesting observations are clarified with the help of density functional theory calculation and finite‐element method simulation. These findings not only provide a strategy to control the electron transport through the molecule junction, but also pave a way to modulate the optical response as well as to improve the stability of single molecular devices via the rational design of electrodes geometries

Atomic switches of metallic point contacts by plasmonic heating

Plasmonics: Tripping the light fantastic switch Scientists have shown how light can be used to control a nano-switch, laying the groundwork for atomic-sized devices for use in a range of nanotechnologies. The fabrication of switches with nanoscale dimensions is a fundamental step forward in the further miniaturization of electronic devices, and the realization of fully-integrated nanotechnologies. Now, Dong Xiang and colleagues from Nankai University in China, working with fellow Chinese and international researchers, has developed a method that uses light to control the electrical conductance of the junction between gold nano-electrodes. By heating electrons at the surface of the electrodes with light, a technique known as plasmonic heating, the team was able to expand the electrodes and close the gap between them, turning the switch on. The work could pave the way for new nanotechnologies, including single-molecule transistors and nanopore-based biosensors

Table1_Mapping of a QTL associated with sucrose content in peanut kernels using BSA-seq.xlsx

As an important factor affecting the edible quality of peanut kernels, sucrose content is a complex quantitative trait regulated by multiple factors. In this study, an F2 segregating population and a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population, derived from a cross between the high sucrose content variety Jihuatian 1 and the low sucrose content line PI478819, were used as materials to map a quantitative trait locus (QTL) associated with sucrose content in peanut kernels. Four QTLs were initially located on chromosomes A03 and A06 based on BSA-seq technology, and multiple kompetitive allele-specific PCR markers were developed based on single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the intervals. The markers were genotyped in the RIL population and finely mapped to a stable QTL, qSUCA06, located on chromosome A06 within a 0.29-Mb physical genomic interval (112367085–112662675 bp), which accounted for 31.95%–41.05% of the phenotypic variance explained. SNP and insertion/deletion annotations were performed on genes in the candidate interval, and having screened out those genes with mutations in exons, candidate genes were verified by qRT-PCR. The results revealed that Arahy.Y2LWD9 may be the main gene regulating sucrose content. The QTL identified in this study will not only contribute to marker-assisted breeding for improvement of peanut sucrose content but also paves the way for identifying gene function.</p