Explore the vast range of titles available.

Altitudinally-defined climate conditions provide specific vegetation types and soil environments that could influence soil microbial communities, which in turn may affect microbial residues. However, the knowledge is limited in terms of the degree to which microbial communities and residues present and differ along altitude. In this study, we examined the soil microbial communities and residues along the northern slope of Changbai Mountain, China using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) and amino sugar analysis, respectively. Soil samples were taken from five different vegetation belts defined by climates. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed substantial differences in soil microbial community composition among study sites, appeared to be driven primarily by soil pH and C/N ratio on the first principal component (PC1) which accounted for 50.7% of the total sample variance. The alpine tundra was separated from forest sites on the second principal component (PC2) by a signifiscantly higher amount of fungal PLFA (18:2ω6,9). Soil pH and C/N ratio were also correlated with the ratios of Gram-positive to Gram-negative bacteria (Gm(+)/Gm(-)), glucosamine to galactosamine (GluN/GalN), and glucosamine to muramic acid (GluN/MurA). Both total PLFAs and amino sugars were positively correlated with soil organic carbon, inorganic nitrogen, available phosphorus and potassium. We concluded that soil pH and C/N ratio were the most important drivers for microbial community structure and amino sugar pattern, while substrate availability was of great importance in determining the concentrations of microbial communities and residues. These findings could be used to facilitate interpretation of soil microbial community and amino sugar data derived from measurements in latitude or managed forests.

Schizophrenia is correlated with aberrant cytokine concentrations. The goal of our study was to detect the serum concentrations of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-18, and IL-6 concentrations in patients with chronic schizophrenia in the acute relapse state at admission and at discharge and to analyze the correlations between the three cytokine concentrations with psychosis symptoms. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to analyze serum concentrations of TNF-α, IL-18, and IL-6 in 68 patients with chronic schizophrenia at admission and at discharge and in 80 controls. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was used to analyze psychosis symptoms of the patients. Serum concentrations of TNF-α, IL-18, and IL-6 in patients at admission were significantly elevated compared to those in controls. After treatment, IL-6 concentrations in patients at discharge were significantly reduced compared to those in patients at admission, and IL-6 concentrations showed no significant difference between patients at discharge and controls. In contrast, TNF-α and IL-18 concentrations showed no significant difference between patients at discharge and patients at admission, and TNF-α and IL-18 concentrations in patients at discharge were still significantly elevated compared to those in controls. IL-6 concentrations in patients at admission showed a positive correlation with negative scores, and IL-6 concentrations in patients at discharge showed positive correlations with positive, negative, and total scores. Reduction in IL-6 concentrations showed positive correlations with reduction in positive, negative, and total scores in patients at discharge. Serum concentrations of TNF-α, IL-18, and IL-6 were significantly elevated in patients with chronic schizophrenia in the acute relapse state. After treatment, IL-6 concentrations in patients at discharge were significantly reduced compared to these in patients at admission. •Elevated serum IL-6 levels in patients at admission.•Decreased serum IL-6 levels in patients at discharge.•A positive correlation between decreases in IL-6 levels and in PNASS P subscore•A positive correlation between decreases in IL-6 levels and in PNASS N subscore•A positive correlation between decreases in IL-6 levels and in PNASS total score

Sleep disorders are common among older adults and have a bidirectional impact on their emotional well-being. While some studies suggest that internet use may offer mental health benefits to this population, the relationship between internet use and sleep outcomes remains underexplored. This study investigates the association between internet use (including use frequency) and sleep quality and duration in middle-aged and older Chinese adults. A longitudinal analysis was conducted using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study data from 2015 to 2018. Sleep quality was assessed using the sleep item from the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, categorized as \"good\" (<1 day; reference), \"fair\" (1-4 days), or \"poor\" (5-7 days). Sleep duration was classified as short (<6 hours), medium (6-9 hours; reference), or long (>9 hours). Adjusted multinomial logistic regressions were used to examine the associations between internet use or frequency in 2015 and sleep quality or duration in 2018, controlling for age, sex, residence, diseases, smoking, drinking, and napping time and further exploring sex and age group variations. The baseline analysis included 18,460 participants aged 45 years and older, with 1272 (6.9%) internet users, 8825 (48.1%) participants had fair or poor sleep, and 6750 (37.2%) participants had abnormal sleep duration. Internet users, particularly those who used it almost daily, were less likely to report poor sleep quality (relative risk [RR] 0.71, 95% CI 0.54-0.94) and longer sleep duration (RR 0.22, 95% CI 0.11-0.44) than nonusers. In the longitudinal analysis, baseline internet users had a significantly reduced risk of fair (RR 0.66, 95% CI 0.51-0.86) and poor sleep quality (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.44-0.81), as well as short (RR 0.73, 95% CI 0.53-1.00) and long sleep duration (RR 0.39, 95% CI 0.21-0.72) during the follow-up period than nonusers. These associations remained significant for almost daily internet use (RR 0.32, 95% CI 0.15-0.69). Subgroup analyses by sex revealed a positive relationship between internet use and sleep quality, with a stronger effect in female (poor sleep: RR 0.57, 95% CI 0.36-0.89) than male (poor sleep: RR 0.61, 95% CI 0.40-0.92) participants. The effect on sleep duration was significant only in daily male users, showing a reduced risk of long sleep duration (RR 0.30, 95% CI 0.11-0.78). In the age subgroup analysis, most internet users were in the 45- to 59-year age group, with results consistent with the overall findings. This study suggests that internet use is associated with a reduced risk of sleep problems in middle-aged and older adults. The findings indicate that moderate, regular internet engagement-such as daily use-may promote better sleep health in this population.

Glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP) contributes to the formation and maintenance of soil aggregates, it is however remains unclear whether long-term intensive manure amendments alter soil aggregates stability and whether GRSP regulates these changes. Based on a three-decade long fertilization experiment in northeast China, this study examined the impact of long-term manure input on soil organic carbon (SOC), total and easily extractable GRSP (GRSP t and GRSP e ) and their respective allocations in four soil aggregates (>2000 μm; 2000–250 μm; 250–53 μm; and <53 μm). The treatments include no fertilization (CK), low and high manure amendment (M1, M2), chemical nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers (NPK) and combined manure and chemical fertilizers (NPKM1, NPKM2). Though SOC, GRSP e and GRSP t in soil and SOC in each aggregate generally increased with increasing manure input, GRSP t and GRSP e in each aggregate showed varying changes with manure input. Both GRSP in macroaggregates (2000–250 μm) were significantly higher under low manure input, a pattern consistent with changes in soil aggregate stability. Constituting 38~49% of soil mass, macroaggregates likely contributed to the nonlinear changes of aggregate stability under manure amendments. The regulatory process of GRSP allocations in soil aggregates has important implications for manure management under intensive agriculture.

Changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stability may alter carbon release from the soil and, consequently, atmospheric CO 2 concentration. The mean annual temperature (MAT) can change the soil physico-chemical characteristics and alter the quality and quantity of litter input into the soil that regulate SOC stability. However, the relationship between climate and SOC stability remains unclear. A 500-day incubation experiment was carried out on soils from an 11 °C-gradient mountainous system on Changbai Mountain in northeast China. Soil respiration during the incubation fitted well to a three-pool (labile, intermediate and stable) SOC decomposition model. A correlation analysis revealed that the MAT only influenced the labile carbon pool size and not the SOC stability. The intermediate carbon pool contributed dominantly to cumulative carbon release. The size of the intermediate pool was strongly related to the percentage of sand particle. The decomposition rate of the intermediate pool was negatively related to soil nitrogen availability. Because both soil texture and nitrogen availability are temperature independent, the stability of SOC was not associated with the MAT, but was heavily influenced by the intrinsic processes of SOC formation and the nutrient status.

High altitude alpine grasslands in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) contain high soil organic C (SOC) stocks that are extremely vulnerable to climate warming. Microbial residues are increasingly recognized as a major source of SOC, however, how climate warming affects this component of SOC in this region remains largely unknown. In this study, we examined the response of microbial residues to a 3-year experimental warming and the degree to which they contributed to SOC storage in two Tibetan ecosystems—alpine steppe (AS) and swamp meadow (SM). The number of microbial residues was indicated by amino sugar analysis. Our results revealed that warming yielded divergent microbial residue accumulation that significantly altered their contribution to SOC storage in the two alpine grasslands. Warming increased microbial residue abundance by approximately 17.6% across 0 to 20 cm depth in SM soils, while causing a significant decline (about 6.2%) in AS soils. The higher microbial residue accumulation in SM could lessen potential positive feedbacks from climate warming, while the decrease in microbial residues in AS may indicate greater loss of microbial-derived C inputs in warmed soils. Moreover, we found that warming selectively increased fungal residues as compared with bacterial despite inconsistent responses to warming in the two grasslands. These changes were accompanied by significant shifts in fungal to bacterial residue C ratios and their contribution to SOC pool, indicating an alteration of SOC composition and stability in alpine grassland ecosystems. These findings demonstrate that a microbial-derived C feedback to climate change is ecosystem-specific that alters the direction and magnitude of the microbial community.

Caudal epidural block (CEB) provides reliable anesthesia for adults undergoing anorectal surgery. Despite the widely utilization, the minimum effective concentration for 90% patients (MEC90) of ropivacaine for CEB remains unknown. To estimate MEC of ropivacaine for CEB in anorectal surgery. A prospective dose-finding study using biased coin design up-and-down sequential method. Operating room and postoperative recovery area of Chengdu Shangjin Nanfu Hospital, from October 2019 to January 2020. 50 males and 51 females scheduled for anorectal surgery. We conducted two independent biased coin design up-and down trials by genders. The concentration of ropivacaine administered to the first patient of male and female were 0.25% with fixed volume of 14ml for male and 12ml for female patients based on our previous study. In case of failure, the concentration was increased by 0.05% in the next subject. Otherwise, the next subject was randomized to a concentration 0.05% less with a probability of 0.11, or the same concentration with a probability of 0.89. Success was defined as complete sensory blockade of perineal area 15 min after the block evidenced by the presence of a lax anal sphincter and pain-free surgery. The MEC of ropivacaine to achieve a successful CEB in 90%(MEC90) of the patients. The MEC90 of ropivacaine for CEB were estimated to be 0.35% (95% CI 0.29 to 0.4%) for male and 0.353% (95%CI 0.22 to 0.4%) for female. By extrapolation to MEC in 99% of subjects (MEC99) and pooled adjacent violators algorithm (PAVA) adjusted responses, it would be optimal to choose 0.4% ropivacaine with a volume of 14ml for male and 12ml for female. A concentration of 0.35% ropivacaine with a volume of 14ml provided a successful CEB in 90% of the male patients, while 0.353% ropivacaine with a volume of 12ml provided a successful CEB in 90% of the female patients. A concentration of 0.4% and a volume of 14ml for male and 12 ml for female would be successful in 99% of the patients. Chictr.org.cn identifier: No. ChiCTR 1900024315.

In this article, the authors focus on the effects of various metabolic traits on pelvic organ prolapse in women and their MR study provided genetic evidence for the causal role of waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI (WHRadjBMI) in the risk of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) development. For phenotypes of obesity, the authors used sex combination instruments. Since pelvic organ prolapse is a female-specific disease, in theory, the female-specific instrumental variable effects should be obtained from the GWAS of exposures to avoid the problem of sex heterogeneity as well as the incorrect causal inference results. SEE PDF] Consistent with the authors, our analysis revealed significant instrumental heterogeneity (P < 0.05). [...]we used the random-effects IVW method with MR-PRESSO to remove outliers influenced by horizontal pleiotropy.

MicroRNAs play important roles in regulating bone regeneration and remodeling. However, the pathophysiological roles of microRNAs in bone repair remain unclear. Here we identify a significant upregulation of miR-142-5p correlated with active osteoblastogenesis during the bone healing process. In vitro, miR-142-5p promoted osteoblast activity and matrix mineralization by targeting the gene encoding WW-domain-containing E3 ubiquitin protein ligase 1. We also found that the expression of miR-142-5p in the callus of aged mice was lower than that in the callus of young mice and directly correlated with the age-related delay in bone healing. Furthermore, treatment with agomir-142-5p in the fracture areas stimulated osteoblast activity which repaired the bone fractures in aged mice. Thus, our study revealed that miR-142-5p plays a crucial role in healing fractures by maintaining osteoblast activity, and provided a new molecular target therapeutic strategy for bone healing.

Background Although epidemiological studies have established a link between diabetes and frailty, the dynamic changes in frailty before and after diabetes diagnosis remained inadequately characterized. This study aimed to examine the trajectories of frailty preceding and following diabetes diagnosis in older adults and to identify potential modifiers of the association between diabetes and trajectories of frailty. Methods We included adults aged≥65 years without baseline diabetes from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (2002–2018). Incident diabetes was defined by self-reported physician diagnosis or diabetes-related hospitalization. The date of diagnosis was estimated as the midpoint between the last non-diabetic interview and the first report of diabetes. Frailty was assessed repeatedly using a 43-item frailty index (FI). Linear mixed-effects models were used to compare frailty trajectories before and after diabetes onset. Results Among 9,992 participants (mean age 82.12 years; 51.31% women), 420 developed diabetes over a median follow-up of 8.67 years. After diagnosis, the rate of change in FI increased significantly, with an annual additional increase of 0.52 (95% CI: 0.33, 0.71). The most pronounced acceleration was observed in instrumental activities of daily living (β = 0.80/year, 95% CI: 0.27, 1.32). Subgroup analyses revealed stronger associations in participants aged ≥80 years (β = 1.01/year, 95% CI: 0.42, 1.59), those who were single (β = 0.60/year, 95% CI: 0.24, 0.95), and those with BMI <22 kg/m² (β = 0.72/year, 95% CI: 0.41, 1.03). Conclusions Incident diabetes was associated with accelerated progression of frailty in older adults, particularly in the domain of instrumental activities of daily living. Regular functional assessments and targeted interventions following diabetes diagnosis was important, especially for high-risk subgroups including the oldest-old, unmarried individuals, and those with lower BMI.