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Background Childhood obesity is a serious public health concern . School-based interventions hold great promise to combat the rising trend of childhood obesity. This systematic review aimed to assess the overall effects of school-based obesity prevention interventions, and to investigate characteristics of intervention components that are potentially effective for preventing childhood obesity. Methods We systematically searched MEDLINE, CENTRAL and Embase databases to identify randomized- or cluster randomized- controlled trials of school-based obesity interventions published between 1990 and 2019. We conducted meta-analyses and subgroup analyses to determine the overall effects of obesity prevention programs and effect differences by various characteristics of intervention components on body mass index (BMI) or BMI Z-score of children. Results This systematic review included a total of 50 trials (reported by 56 publications). Significant differences were found between groups on BMI (− 0.14 kg/m 2 (95% confidence interval: − 0.21, − 0.06)) and BMI Z-score (− 0.05 (− 0.10, − 0.01)) for single-component interventions; significant differences were also found between groups on BMI (− 0.32 (− 0.54, − 0.09) kg/m 2 ) and BMI Z-score (− 0.07 (− 0.14, − 0.001)) for multi-component interventions. Subgroup analyses consistently demonstrated that effects of single-component (physical activity) interventions including curricular sessions (− 0.30 (− 0.51, − 0.10) kg/m 2 in BMI) were stronger than those without curricular sessions (− 0.04 (− 0.17, 0.09) kg/m 2 in BMI); effects of single-component (physical activity) interventions were also strengthened if physical activity sessions emphasized participants’ enjoyment (− 0.19 (− 0.33, − 0.05) kg/m 2 in BMI for those emphasizing participants’ enjoyment; − 0.004 (− 0.10, 0.09) kg/m 2 in BMI for those not emphasizing participants’ enjoyment). The current body of evidence did not find specific characteristics of intervention components that were consistently associated with improved efficacy for multi-component interventions ( P  > 0.05). Conclusions School-based interventions are generally effective in reducing excessive weight gain of children. Our findings contribute to increased understandings of potentially effective intervention characteristics for single-component (physical activity) interventions. The impact of combined components on effectiveness of multi-component interventions should be the topic of further research. More high-quality studies are also needed to confirm findings of this review.

Flexible power sources featuring high-performance, prominent flexibility and raised safety have received mounting attention in the area of wearable electronic devices. However, many great challenges remain to be overcome, notably the design and fabrication of flexible electrodes with excellent electrochemical performance and matching them with safe and reliable electrolytes. Herein, a facile approach for preparing flexible electrodes, which employs carbon cloth derived from commercial cotton cloth as the substrate of cathode and a flexible anode, is proposed and investigated. The promising cathode (NVPOF@FCC) with high conductivity and outstanding flexibility is prepared by efficiently coating Na 3 V 2 (PO 4 ) 2 O 2 F (NVPOF) on flexible carbon cloth (FCC), which exhibits remarkable electrochemical performance and the significantly improved reaction kinetics. More importantly, a novel flexible quasi-solid-state sodium-ion full battery (QSFB) is feasibly assembled by sandwiching a P(VDF-HFP)-NaClO 4 gel-polymer electrolyte film between the advanced NVPOF@FCC cathode and FCC anode. And the QSFBs are further evaluated in flexible pouch cells, which not only demonstrates excellent energy-storage performance in aspect of great cycling stability and high-rate capability, but also impressive flexibility and safety. This work offers a feasible and effective strategy for the design of flexible electrodes, paving the way for the progression of practical and sustainable flexible batteries.

Trehalose plays an important role in metabolic regulation and abiotic stress tolerance in a variety of organisms. In plants, its biosynthesis is catalyzed by two key enzymes: trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) and trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase (TPP). The genome of rice (Oryza sativa) contains 11 OsTPS genes, and only OsTPS1 shows TPS activity. To demonstrate the physiological function of OsTPS1, we introduced it into rice and found that OsTPS1 overexpression improved the tolerance of rice seedling to cold, high salinity and drought treatments without other significant phenotypic changes. In transgenic lines overexpressing OsTPS1, trehalose and proline concentrations were higher than in the wild type and some stress-related genes were up-regulated, including WSI18, RAB16C, HSP70, and ELIP. These results demonstrate that OsTPS1 may enhance the abiotic stress tolerance of plants by increasing the amount of trehalose and proline, and regulating the expression of stress-related genes. Furthermore, we found that overexpression of some Class II TPSs also enhanced plant tolerance of abiotic stress. This work will help to clarify the role of trehalose metabolism in abiotic stress response in higher plants.

Background: Since its discovery, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP-1) has been extensively studied due to its regulatory role in numerous biologically crucial pathways. PARP inhibitors have opened new therapeutic avenues for cancer patients and have gained approval as standalone treatments for certain types of cancer. With continued advancements in the research of PARP inhibitors, we can fully realize their potential as therapeutic targets for various diseases. Purpose: To assess the current understanding of PARP-1 mechanisms in radioprotection and radiotherapy based on the literature. Methods: We searched the PubMed database and summarized information on PARP inhibitors, the interaction of PARP-1 with DNA, and the relationships between PARP-1 and p53/ROS, NF-κB/DNA-PK, and caspase3/AIF, respectively. Results: The enzyme PARP-1 plays a crucial role in repairing DNA damage and modifying proteins. Cells exposed to radiation can experience DNA damage, such as single-, intra-, or inter-strand damage. This damage, associated with replication fork stagnation, triggers DNA repair mechanisms, including those involving PARP-1. The activity of PARP-1 increases 500-fold on DNA binding. Studies on PARP-1-knockdown mice have shown that the protein regulates the response to radiation. A lack of PARP-1 also increases the organism’s sensitivity to radiation injury. PARP-1 has been found positively or negatively regulate the expression of specific genes through its modulation of key transcription factors and other molecules, including NF-κB, p53, Caspase 3, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF). Conclusion: This review provides a comprehensive analysis of the physiological and pathological roles of PARP-1 and examines the impact of PARP-1 inhibitors under conditions of ionizing radiation exposure. The review also emphasizes the challenges and opportunities for developing PARP-1 inhibitors to improve the clinical outcomes of ionizing radiation damage.

•There was a three-fold increase from the previous decade in published studies evaluating Tai Chi on various health outcomes.•Most studies were conducted in China, followed by the United States and South Korea.•Study participants were mostly adults and older adults, who were healthy or had one or more chronic diseases.•The majority of studies reported at least one outcome in favour of Tai Chi.•Adverse events were reported in only 7 % of studies. The objective of this bibliometric review was to identify the volume, breadth, and characteristics of clinical studies evaluating Tai Chi published between January 2010 and January 2020. Five English and four Chinese language databases were searched. Following independent screening, 1018 eligible publications representing 987 studies were identified, which was a three-fold increase from the previous decade. Most common were randomized controlled trials (548/987, 55.5 %), followed by systematic reviews (157/987, 15.9 %), non-randomized controlled clinical studies (152/987, 15.4 %), case series (127/987, 12.9 %) and case reports (3/987, 0.3 %) that were conducted in China (730/987, 74.0 %), followed by the United States of America (123/987, 12.5 %) and South Korea (20/987, 2.0 %). Study participants were mostly in the adult (55.2 %) and/or older adult (72.0 %) age groups. The top ten diseases/conditions were hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, knee osteoarthritis, heart failure, depression, osteoporosis/osteopenia, breast cancer, coronary heart disease and insomnia. A quarter of the studies enrolled healthy participants to evaluate the effects of Tai Chi on health promotion/preservation, balance/falls, and physiological/biomechanical outcomes. Yang style Tai Chi was the most popular, followed by Chen and Sun style. Tai Chi was mostly commonly delivered face-to-face by a Tai Chi instructor in group settings for 60 min, three times a week, for 12 weeks. Most studies (93.8 %) reported at least one outcome in favor of Tai Chi. Adverse events were underreported (7.2 %). Over half fell short of expected intervention reporting standards, signalling the need for Tai Chi extensions to existing guidelines.

Background This overview summarizes the best available systematic review (SR) evidence on the health effects of Tai Chi. Methods Nine databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Medline, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP), Sino-Med, and Wanfang Database) were searched for SRs of controlled clinical trials of Tai Chi interventions published between Jan 2010 and Dec 2020 in any language. Effect estimates were extracted from the most recent, comprehensive, highest-quality SR for each population, condition, and outcome. SR quality was appraised with AMSTAR 2 and overall certainty of effect estimates with the GRADE method. Results Of the 210 included SRs, 193 only included randomized controlled trials, one only included non-randomized studies of interventions, and 16 included both. Common conditions were neurological (18.6%), falls/balance (14.7%), cardiovascular (14.7%), musculoskeletal (11.0%), cancer (7.1%), and diabetes mellitus (6.7%). Except for stroke, no evidence for disease prevention was found; however, multiple proxy-outcomes/risks factors were evaluated. One hundred and fourteen effect estimates were extracted from 37 SRs (2 high, 6 moderate, 18 low, and 11 critically low quality), representing 59,306 adults. Compared to active and/or inactive controls, 66 of the 114 effect estimates reported clinically important benefits from Tai Chi, 53 reported an equivalent or marginal benefit, and 6 an equivalent risk of adverse events. Eight of the 114 effect estimates (7.0%) were rated as high, 43 (37.7%) moderate, 36 (31.6%) low, and 27 (23.7%) very low certainty evidence due to concerns with risk of bias (92/114, 80.7%), imprecision (43/114, 37.7%), inconsistency (37/114, 32.5%), and publication bias (3/114, 2.6%). SR quality was often limited by the search strategies, language bias, inadequate consideration of clinical, methodological, and statistical heterogeneity, poor reporting standards, and/or no registered SR protocol. Conclusions The findings suggest Tai Chi has multidimensional effects, including physical, psychological and quality of life benefits for a wide range of conditions, as well as multimorbidity. Clinically important benefits were most consistently reported for Parkinson’s disease, falls risk, knee osteoarthritis, low back pain, cerebrovascular, and cardiovascular diseases including hypertension. For most conditions, higher-quality SRs with rigorous primary studies are required. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42021225708.

A bstract The Jarzynski identity can describe small-scale nonequilibrium systems through stochastic thermodynamics. The identity considers fluctuating trajectories in a phase space. The complexity geometry frames the discussions on quantum computational complexity using the method of Riemannian geometry, which builds a bridge between optimal quantum circuits and classical geodesics in the space of unitary operators. Complexity geometry enables the application of the methods of classical physics to deal with pure quantum problems. By combining the two frameworks, i.e., the Jarzynski identity and complexity geometry, we derived a complexity analog of the Jarzynski identity using the complexity geometry. We considered a set of geodesics in the space of unitary operators instead of the trajectories in a phase space. The obtained complexity version of the Jarzynski identity strengthened the evidence for the existence of a well-defined resource theory of uncomplexity and presented an extensive discussion on the second law of complexity. Furthermore, analogous to the thermodynamic fluctuation-dissipation theorem, we proposed a version of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem for the complexity. Although this study does not focus on holographic fluctuations, we found that the results are surprisingly suitable for capturing their information. The results obtained using nonequilibrium methods may contribute to understand the nature of the complexity and study the features of the holographic fluctuations.

Measurements of a single entity underpin knowledge of the heterogeneity and stochastics in the behavior of molecules, nanoparticles, and cells. Electrochemistry provides a direct and fast method to analyze single entities as it probes electron/charge-transfer processes. However, a highly reproducible electrochemical-sensing nanointerface is often hard to fabricate because of a lack of control of the fabrication processes at the nanoscale. In comparison with conventional micro/nanoelectrodes with a metal wire inside, we present a general and easily implemented protocol that describes how to fabricate and use a wireless nanopore electrode (WNE). Nanoscale metal deposition occurs at the tip of the nanopipette, providing an electroactive sensing interface. The WNEs utilize a dynamic ionic flow instead of a metal wire to sense the interfacial redox process. WNEs provide a highly controllable interface with a 30- to 200-nm diameter. This protocol presents the construction and characterization of two types of WNEs—the open-type WNE and closed-type WNE—which can be used to achieve reproducible electrochemical measurements of single entities. Combined with the related signal amplification mechanisms, we also describe how WNEs can be used to detect single redox molecules/ions, analyze the metabolism of single cells, and discriminate single nanoparticles in a mixture. This protocol is broadly applicable to studies of living cells, nanomaterials, and sensors at the single-entity level. The total time required to complete the protocol is ~10–18 h. Each WNE costs ~$1–$3. This protocol describes how to fabricate and use a wireless nanopore electrode (WNE). The WNE has metal at the tip of a nanopipette, which acts as an electroactive sensing interface, providing electrochemical measurements of single entities.

Organic crystal-based micro/nanostructures with morphology-driven photons/electrons transport characteristics demonstrate exceptional potential for the development of optoelectronic functional materials. However, the construction of continuities and lossless interfaces within multicomponent structures remains a significant challenge, primarily due to inherent material differences and current technology limits. Herein, organic parallel grouping crystals (OPGCs), which devoid of grain boundaries between crystals via a solution viscosity-induced binuclear co-growth strategy, are designed to enhance photon transmission efficiency. Notably, the symbiotic phenomenon among components within OPGCs is precisely regulated by manipulating the solvent viscosity to exceed 0.5 mPa·s through adjustments in factors such as the cooling rate, solvent type, concentration. Compared with the low photon transmission efficiency (2.1%) caused by the discontinuous splicing interface, the elimination of grain boundaries significantly enhances the interlayer photon transmission efficiency of OPGCs, resulting in an overlap degree-dependent adjustable transmission efficiency ranging from 21.3% to 54.9%. This symbiotic strategy demonstrates universality to small molecules, coordination compounds, and cocrystals, enabling the construction of parallel grouping structures comprising single- or multi-component crystals. Organic crystal-based materials have potential in optoelectronic materials, but construction of lossless interfaces is challenging. Here, the authors report the growth of organic parallel grouping crystals without grain boundaries, by a solution viscosity-induced binuclear co-growth strategy.

Imaging advantages have raised intracranial aneurysm (IA) detection rates but have also increased radiologists' workloads. Coupled with visual fatigue, this heavier burden heightens the risk of missed or erroneous diagnoses. Concurrently, artificial intelligence (AI) has shown great promise for analyzing medical images. This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic performance of AI software for IAs and to provide an initial, single-centre validation of its potential as a supportive tool in future deployment. Between January 2019 and September 2023, 452 patients with 544 IAs diagnosed by head and neck computed tomography angiography (CTA) who also underwent digital subtraction angiography (DSA) were included. The AI's ability to detect the presence, location, and size of IAs was recorded. Its results were compared with DSA, and the agreement between AI and radiologists in measuring IA size was evaluated. The AI software demonstrated a sensitivity of 88.97% (95% CI [0.861-0.963]) and an accuracy of 75.04% (95% CI [0.715-0.783]) for detecting IAs. Specifically, the accuracy and sensitivity of AI in detecting IAs that are smaller than three mm, between 3-5 mm, and larger than five mm are 58.46% (95% CI [0.462-0.698]) and 66.67% (95% CI [0.537-0.775]), 76.68% (95% CI [0.714-0.813]) and 88.93% (95% CI [0.843-0.924]), 77.10% (95% CI [0.720-0.816]) and 94.24% (95% CI [0.906-0.966]), respectively. There was good agreement between radiologists and DSA, between AI and DSA, and between radiologists and AI for identifying the location of IAs, with kappa values all greater than 0.75. The radiologists and AI also showed good consistency in measuring depth, width, height, and maximum diameter, with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) all greater than 0.75, except for the neck width, which had an ICC of 0.492. The AI software performs well in terms of detecting IAs that are larger than three mm and shows good agreement with radiologists in localizing positions and extracting their morphometric parameters (except for neck width measurements). The AI software has proved to be a reliable adjunct for IA detection and measurement tasks.