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Hypertension is a major risk factor for aortic aneurysm (AA), but the global, regional, and national patterns of its related disease burden are not well studied. This study uses 2021 GBD data to examine trends in hypertension-related AA from 1990 to 2021, project future trends, and provide evidence for targeted prevention strategies. This study extracted data on mortality, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR), and age-standardized DALY rate (ASDR) associated with AA attributable to hypertension from the 2021 GBD study. The estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) was employed to assess burden trends from 1990 to 2021.The study utilized the Bayesian Age-Period-Cohort (BAPC) model to project disease trends from 2022 to 2050. Additionally, decomposition analysis and frontier analysis were employed to conduct a more comprehensive examination of the data. In 2021, 26,782 deaths and 529,977 DALYs were caused by hypertension-related AA globally, reflecting increases of about 49% and 47% since 1990. However, both ASMR and ASDR declined worldwide. From 1990 to 2021, the ASDR for hypertension-related AA decreased by 54.08% and 15.56% in high-SDI and upper-middle-SDI regions, respectively, while it increased by 25.23%, 62.02%, and 17.99% in middle-SDI, lower-middle-SDI, and low-SDI regions. The disease burden is significantly higher in males than in females and increases with age.The findings from the decomposition analysis reveal that population growth and the aging process are the primary contributors to the escalating burden, with varying impacts across different regions. The frontier analysis identified 15 countries with the greatest potential for improvement. According to the BAPC model, the ASDR for females is projected to rise across the 20-80 age group, while for males, the increase is particularly pronounced in the 55-75 age group. Globally, the ASDR is expected to initially decline before gradually rising, reaching 12.07 per 100,000 by 2050, a 5% increase compared to 2021. While the global number of deaths and DALYs attributable to hypertension-related AA continues to rise, the ASMR and ASDR are showing a declining trend. However, in middle, lower-middle, and low SDI regions, ASMR and ASDR remain on an upward trajectory. Projections indicate that the global ASDR will initially decline before gradually increasing, with an expected rise by 2050.

Objectives To describe the prevalence and incidence of osteoarthritis as well as years lived with disability (YLDs) due to osteoarthritis in 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2021 by age, sex and socio-demographic index (SDI, a composite of socio-demographic factors). Methods Data were acquired from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2021 (GBD 2021). The burden of osteoarthritis was estimated for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2021by incidence, prevalence and YLDs. All estimates are presented as numbers and age-standardised rates per 100 000 population, with uncertainty intervals (UIs). All the data were analyzed by age–sex–SDI–year groups. Results In 2021, globally, the age-standardised prevalence rate of osteoarthritis increased from 6393.1(95% UI 5683.2 to 7059.5) in 1990 to 6967.3(95% UI 6180.7 to 7686.1) in 2021.Addtionally, the age-standardised incidence rate increased from 489.8(95% UI 541.5 to 433.1) in 1990 to 535.0(95% UI 472.4 to 592.0) in 2021. In addition, the age-standardised YLD rate of osteoarthritis increased from 222.8(95% UI 106.7 to 450.3) in 1990 to 244.5(95% UI 117.1 to 493.1). The global prevalence and YLDs were higher in females than in males and increased with age, peaking at the > 95 years age group. Simultaneously, a positive association was found between the age-standardised YLD rate and the SDI at the regional and national levels. Conclusions Osteoarthritis is a major public health challenge that can cause significant problems for individuals and society. The burden osteoarthritis increased in most countries between 1990 and 2021. This trend is expected to continue as life expectancy increases and the global population ages. Increasing public awareness of the risk factors and the importance of osteoarthritis management, along with providing healthcare services to the growing number of people with osteoarthritis, are recommended to manage the future burden of this disease.

Background:Ursolic acid (UA) is a triterpenoid compound with multiple biological functions. This compound has recently been reported to possess an anti-obesity effect; however, the mechanisms are less understood.Objective:As adipogenesis plays a critical role in obesity, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of UA on adipogenesis and mechanisms of action in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes.Methods and Results:The 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were induced to differentiate in the presence or absence of UA for 6 days. The cells were determined for proliferation, differentiation, fat accumulation as well as the protein expressions of molecular targets that regulate or are involved in fatty acid synthesis and oxidation. The results demonstrated that ursolic acid at concentrations ranging from 2.5 μM to 10 μM dose-dependently attenuated adipogenesis, accompanied by reduced protein expression of CCAAT element binding protein β (C/EBPβ), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ), CCAAT element binding protein α (C/EBPα) and sterol regulatory element binding protein 1c (SREBP-1c), respectively. Ursolic acid increased the phosphorylation of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) and protein expression of carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT1), but decreased protein expression of fatty acid synthase (FAS) and fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP4). Ursolic acid increased the phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and protein expression of (silent mating type information regulation 2, homolog) 1 (Sirt1). Further studies demonstrated that the anti-adipogenic effect of UA was reversed by the AMPK siRNA, but not by the Sirt1 inhibitor nicotinamide. Liver kinase B1 (LKB1), the upstream kinase of AMPK, was upregulated by UA. When LKB1 was silenced with siRNA or the inhibitor radicicol, the effect of UA on AMPK activation was diminished.Conclusions:Ursolic acid inhibited 3T3-L1 preadipocyte differentiation and adipogenesis through the LKB1/AMPK pathway. There is potential to develop UA into a therapeutic agent for the prevention or treatment of obesity.

The isothiocyanate (ITC) sulforaphane (SFN) was shown at low levels (1-5 µM) to promote cell proliferation to 120-143% of the controls in a number of human cell lines, whilst at high levels (10-40 µM) it inhibited such cell proliferation. Similar dose responses were observed for cell migration, i.e. SFN at 2.5 µM increased cell migration in bladder cancer T24 cells to 128% whilst high levels inhibited cell migration. This hormetic action was also found in an angiogenesis assay where SFN at 2.5 µM promoted endothelial tube formation (118% of the control), whereas at 10-20 µM it caused significant inhibition. The precise mechanism by which SFN influences promotion of cell growth and migration is not known, but probably involves activation of autophagy since an autophagy inhibitor, 3-methyladenine, abolished the effect of SFN on cell migration. Moreover, low doses of SFN offered a protective effect against free-radical mediated cell death, an effect that was enhanced by co-treatment with selenium. These results suggest that SFN may either prevent or promote tumour cell growth depending on the dose and the nature of the target cells. In normal cells, the promotion of cell growth may be of benefit, but in transformed or cancer cells it may be an undesirable risk factor. In summary, ITCs have a biphasic effect on cell growth and migration. The benefits and risks of ITCs are not only determined by the doses, but are affected by interactions with Se and the measured endpoint.

Although the formation control of multi-agent systems has been widely investigated from various aspects, the problem is still not well resolved, especially for the case of distributed output-feedback formation controller design without input information exchange among neighboring agents. Using relative output information, this paper presents a novel distributed reduced-order estimation of the formation error at a predefined time. Based on the proposed distributed observer, a neural-network-based formation controller is then designed for multi-agent systems with connected graphs. The results are verified by both theoretical demonstration and simulation example.

Recently, some studies have focused on the relationship between dietary protein intake and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but the conclusions have been inconsistent. Therefore, in this paper, a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies regarding protein consumption and T2DM risk are conducted in order to present the association between them. We searched the PubMed and Embase databases for cohort studies on dietary protein, high-protein food consumption and risk of T2DM, up to July 2017. A summary of relative risks was compiled by the fixed-effect model or random-effect model. Eleven cohort studies regarded protein intake and T2DM (52,637 cases among 483,174 participants). The summary RR and 95% CI (Confidence Interval) of T2DM was 1.12 (1.08–1.17) in all subjects, 1.13 (1.04–1.24) in men, and 1.09 (1.04–1.15) in women for total protein;1.14 (1.09–1.19) in all subjects, 1.23 (1.09–1.38) in men, and 1.11 (1.03–1.19) in women for animal protein; 0.96 (0.88–1.06) in all subjects, 0.98 (0.72–1.34) in men, and 0.92 (0.86–0.98) in women for plant protein. We also compared the association between different food sources of protein and the risk of T2DM. The summary RR (Relative Risk) and 95% CI of T2DM was 1.22 (1.09–1.36) for red meat, 1.39 (1.29–1.49) for processed meat, 1.03 (0.89–1.17) for fish, 1.03 (0.64–1.67) for egg, 0.89 (0.84–0.94) for total dairy products, 0.87 (0.78–0.96) for whole milk, 0.83 (0.70–0.98) for yogurt, 0.74 (0.59–0.93) in women for soy. This meta-analysis shows that total protein and animal protein could increase the risk of T2DM in both males and females, and plant protein decreases the risk of T2DM in females. The association between high-protein food types and T2DM are also different. Red meat and processed meat are risk factors of T2DM, and soy, dairy and dairy products are the protective factors of T2DM. Egg and fish intake are not associated with a decreased risk of T2DM. This research indicates the type of dietary protein and food sources of protein that should be considered for the prevention of diabetes.

This paper primarily studies the path planning problem for UAV formations guided by semantic map information. Our aim is to integrate prior information from semantic maps to provide initial information on task points for UAV formations, thereby planning formation paths that meet practical requirements. Firstly, a semantic segmentation network model based on multi-scale feature extraction and fusion is employed to obtain UAV aerial semantic maps containing environmental information. Secondly, based on the semantic maps, a three-point optimization model for the optimal UAV trajectory is established, and a general formula for calculating the heading angle is proposed to approximately decouple the triangular equation of the optimal trajectory. For large-scale formations and task points, an improved fuzzy clustering algorithm is proposed to classify task points that meet distance constraints by clusters, thereby reducing the computational scale of single samples without changing the sample size and improving the allocation efficiency of the UAV formation path planning model. Experimental data show that the UAV cluster path planning method using angle-optimized fuzzy clustering achieves an 8.6% improvement in total flight range compared to other algorithms and a 17.4% reduction in the number of large-angle turns.

Single-stage object detection networks are widely applied in various scenarios due to their high precision and speed. These networks typically consist of three parts structurally: backbone, neck, and head. Among these, multi-scale feature fusion in the neck is a crucial step to enhance detection effectiveness in object detection. Multi-scale feature fusion typically involves combining features from different layers through addition or concatenation. However, such methods often focus solely on the shared functionality of neighboring scale features, neglecting detailed information from higher-level features, leading to significant information loss. To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel network called GMDNet, comprising two key modules: a Global Information Sharing Module (GISM) and a Detailed Information Extraction Module (DIEM). GISM addresses different scale features with high and low-level branches, aligning and merging information across layers using structural reparameterization and Transformer techniques to enhance global information flow among different hierarchical features. DIEM extracts detailed information using three-feature fusion mapping and further integrates multi-scale information with detailed features using channel and positional attention mechanisms, effectively reintegrating previously overlooked details. Experiments conducted on multiple public datasets demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art methods and achieves an ideal balance between speed and accuracy across all model scales.

Background This study aimed to investigate the associations between evening eating and quality of energy and macronutrients and obesity among U.S. adults. Subjects/methods This study adopted the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2003–2016), which involved a total of 27,911 participants. The differences in the ratios of energy and macronutrients with it is subgroups at dinner versus breakfast (ΔRatio) were categorized into quartiles. The differences in the consumption of 17 types of food at dinner versus breakfast (ΔFoods) were considered as continuous variables. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) were used to define general obesity (30.0 ≤ BMI < 40.0), morbid obesity (BMI ≥ 40.0), and abdominal obesity (WC > 102 cm for men or WC > 88 cm for women). Multiple logistic and linear regression models were developed. Results After a variety of covariates were adjusted, participants in the highest quartile (higher energy/macronutrient intake at dinner than breakfast) of the ΔRatio in terms of energy were positively associated with morbid obesity compared with those in the lowest quartile (OR ΔRatio of energy 1.27; 95% CI 1.01;1.61) from fat (OR ΔRatio of fat 1.27, 95% CI 1.01;1.60); saturated fatty acids(OR ΔRatio of SFA 1.27, 95% CI 1.01;1.59) and unsaturated fatty acids (OR ΔRatio of USFA 1.28, 95% CI 1.02;1.5). The highest quartile of the ΔRatio of low-quality carbohydrates was associated with increased odds of abdominal obesity (OR ΔRatio of low-quality carbohydrates 1.16; 95%CI 1.03–1.31). Moreover, the ΔRatio of low-quality carbohydrates was significantly positively associated with BMI (coefficient: 0.562, 95% CI: 0.217–0.907). ΔFoods, including whole fruits, other starchy vegetables, added sugars, poultry, dairy, and nuts, were positively associated with obesity. Conclusions In conclusion, with this nationally representative sample of U.S adults, this study demonstrated that excessive intake of energy at dinner than breakfast during a day was associated with a greater risk of obesity, mainly from low-quality carbohydrates, fat, SFAs, and USFA. This study emphasized the importance of diet quality and evening eating in the prevention of obesity.