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In this case-control study, the main risk factors for atrophic gastritis (AG) were comprehensively analyzed in a real-world environment to identify potential risk factors associated with garlic intake and its effects on AG. Design Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and pathological examination were performed as part of a gastric cancer screening and health check-up program. The detailed characteristics of both the case group and healthy control group were recorded and analyzed. All participants were fasted for at least 4 h and a urea breath test13C-UBT) was performed in all participants at rest. Both univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed and presented as the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidential interval (CI), with additional subgroup analysis stratified by infectious state based on the presence, eradication or absence of H. pylori. Setting Gansu Province in China. Participants 10,035 people from Gansu Province in China were included. Among 7,058 participants, 4,712 (66.8%) had AG. Garlic intake was a significant risk factor for AG in participants currently (infected state) or previously (eradicated state) infected with H. pylori (OR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.06–1.83; OR = 1.16, 95% CI = 1.01–1.32). Garlic intake was not significantly associated with AG in participants without H. pylori’ s infection (OR = 1.14, 95% CI: 0.88–1.46). The association between garlic intake and AG differed by H. pylori infectious state. People in the infected or eradicated states are at a higher risk for AG associated with garlic intake. Diet may regulate the pathogenic role of H. pylori and intestinal flora.

Soluble programmed cell death receptor-1 (sPD-1) blocks the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway, reverses tumor immune suppression, and inhibits tumor growth. However, clinical applications are limited by its poor tissue distribution and rapid dispersion. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) are favorable carriers for tumor immunotherapy due to their capacity for external gene introduction and targeted tumor homing. However, they may inadvertently promote tumor growth. Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) inhibits BMSC-mediated tumor growth and stimulates antigen-presenting cells to activate T lymphocytes. This study utilizes BMSCs transfected with IFN-γ as carriers for sPD-1, enabling the targeted homing of sPD-1 to tumor tissues, thereby enhancing the efficacy and sustained stability of immunotherapy. stable IFN-γ- and sPD-1-overexpressing BMSCs were successfully constructed by lentiviral transfection. A non-contact co-culture system was established with Lewis and A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells to observe changes in the lung cancer cells after co-culture, using assays including cell migration and invasion experiments, as well as cellular senescence detection. Additionally, a subcutaneous lung adenocarcinoma model was established in C57BL/6J mice for intervention studies. Tumor volume, cellular apoptosis in tumor tissue (assessed by TUNEL assay), peripheral Treg cells (analyzed by flow cytometry), and histopathological markers (evaluated by HE staining and immunohistochemistry) were analyzed. The expression levels of BAX, BCL-2, AKT, PI3K, and PD-L1 were assessed by quantitative PCR and Western Blot. IFN-γ- and sPD-1-overexpressing BMSCs exhibited high bioactivity and genetic stability, inhibiting lung adenocarcinoma cell proliferation, accelerating cellular senescence, and reducing migration and invasion. Furthermore, they upregulate Bax expression, downregulate Bcl-2, and promote apoptosis. Additionally, these cells alleviate inflammatory damage in lung tissue of tumor-bearing mice, lower Treg cell levels to inhibit tumor immune evasion, and reduce the expression of PI3K/AKT and PD-L1. IFN-γ- and sPD-1-overexpressing BMSCs effectively inhibit lung adenocarcinoma cell growth and tumor progression. The primary mechanisms include suppression of cancer cell growth, migration, and invasion; promotion of apoptosis and senescence in cancer cells; modulation of Treg cells; and inhibition of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and PD-1/PD-L1 pathways.

Background With global warming, most studies have focused on the health impacts of heat waves, while the health effects of cold spells, especially in developing countries, still need to be explored. Additionally, existing research on temperature extremes and asthma primarily targets severe asthma cases requiring hospitalization or emergency care, neglecting outpatients with mild symptoms. This study aimed to identify the optimal definition of cold spells in Lanzhou, China, and examine their association with outpatient asthma visits, identifying potentially vulnerable populations. Methods This study collected daily asthma outpatient records, along with meteorological and air pollutant data, from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2020, in Lanzhou, Gansu Province. Twenty-four cold spell definitions were developed using four temperature indices (daily mean, daily minimum, daily mean apparent, and daily minimum apparent temperatures), two thresholds ( P 10 and P 5 ), and three durations (2, 3, and 4 days). A time-series fitted poisson generalized linear model (PGLM) and distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) were applied to estimate the short-term effects of cold seasons (November to March) on outpatient asthma visits, controlling for confounding factors such as humidity, air pollutants, time trends, holidays, and weekdays. Stratified analyses by sex and age were conducted to identify vulnerable populations and examine the influence of cold spell duration on asthma clinic visits. Results Various definitions of cold spells influenced asthma outpatient visits, with similar trends observed. The model fit was best when the daily minimum apparent temperature was below the 10th percentile, and the duration was more significant than or equal to 4 days. Based on this optimal definition, for the total population, the main effect of the cold spell on asthma occurred at Lag0, Lag1, Lag6, and Lag7, with Lag7 producing the most significant effect ( RR  = 1.208, 95% CI : 1.052 ± 1.388). In the subgroup analyses, the cumulative effect of lag 0–7 days (Lag0-7) was higher for females and those in the 0–18 age group than for males and other age groups, respectively. In addition, the longer the duration of the cold spell from lag 3 days (Lag3) onwards, the greater its effect. Conclusion Cold spells in Lanzhou City can notably increase asthma outpatient visits, with females and individuals aged 0–18 particularly affected. Moreover, the longer a cold spell persists, the greater its impact, especially in the latter days of the event. Graphical Abstract

Finite-time generalized synchronization and parameter identification of chaotic systems with different dimensions are studied in this paper. Based on finite-time stability theory, adaptive controllers and parameter identification rules are proposed to realize generalized synchronization of chaotic systems and identify accurately all their unknown parameters in finite time. At the same time, the obtained synchronization time formula can estimate the required longest time for realizing the generalized synchronization of chaotic systems, which solely depends on the initial values of chaotic systems and is easily calculated in numerical simulation. At the last, some numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and correctness of the obtained conclusions.

In this paper, two kinds of chaotic systems are controlled respectively with and without time-delay to eliminate their chaotic behaviors. First of all, according to the first-order approximation method and the stabilization condition of the linear system, one linear feedback controller is structured to control the chaotic system without time-delay, its chaotic behavior is eliminated and stabilized to its equilibrium. After that, based on the first-order approximation method, the Lyapunov stability theorem, and the matrix inequality theory, the other linear feedback controller is structured to control the chaotic system with time-delay and make it stabilized at its equilibrium. Finally, two numerical examples are given to illustrate the correctness and effectiveness of the two linear feedback controllers.

Two-dimensional (2D) metal–organic frameworks have exhibited a range of fascinating attributes, of interest to numerous fields. Here, a calcium-based metal-organic framework with a 2D layered structure has been designed. Dual emissions relating to intralayer excimers and interlayer trapped excitons are produced, showing excitation-dependent shifting tendency, characteristic of a low dimensional semiconductor nature. Furthermore, the layer stacking by weak van der Waals forces among dynamically coordinated DMF molecules enables exfoliation and morphology transformation, which can be achieved by ultrasound in different ratios of DMF/H 2 O solvents, or grinding under appropriate humidity conditions, leading to nano samples including ultrathin nanosheets with single or few coordination layers. The cutting down of layer numbers engenders suppression of interlayer exciton-related emission, resulting in modulation of the overall emitting color and optical memory states. This provides a rare prototypical model with switchable dual-channel emissions based on 2D-MOFs, in which the interlayer excitation channel can be reversibly tuned on/off by top-down exfoliation and morphology transformation. Two dimensional (2D) metal-organic frameworks have demonstrated unique photophysical properties compared to their bulk analogs. Here, the authors demonstrate that exfoliation of 2D MOFs can suppress interlayer exciton-related emission, allowing for modulation of the overall emission color and switching of optical memory states.

Amorphous materials inherit short- and medium-range order from the corresponding crystal and thus preserve some of its properties while still exhibiting novel properties 1 , 2 . Due to its important applications in technology, amorphous carbon with sp 2 or mixed sp 2 – sp 3 hybridization has been explored and prepared 3 , 4 , but synthesis of bulk amorphous carbon with sp 3 concentration close to 100% remains a challenge. Such materials inherit the short-/medium-range order of diamond and should also inherit its superior properties 5 . Here, we successfully synthesized millimetre-sized samples—with volumes 10 3 –10 4 times as large as produced in earlier studies—of transparent, nearly pure sp 3 amorphous carbon by heating fullerenes at pressures close to the cage collapse boundary. The material synthesized consists of many randomly oriented clusters with diamond-like short-/medium-range order and possesses the highest hardness (101.9 ± 2.3 GPa), elastic modulus (1,182 ± 40 GPa) and thermal conductivity (26.0 ± 1.3 W m −1  K −1 ) observed in any known amorphous material. It also exhibits optical bandgaps tunable from 1.85 eV to 2.79 eV. These discoveries contribute to our knowledge about advanced amorphous materials and the synthesis of bulk amorphous materials by high-pressure and high-temperature techniques and may enable new applications for amorphous solids. Preparing amorphous phases of carbon with mostly sp 3 bonding in bulk is challenging, but macroscopic samples that are nearly pure sp 3 are synthesized here by heating fullerenes at high pressure.

The widespread use of data makes privacy protection an urgent problem that must be addressed. Anonymity is a traditional technique that is used to protect private information. In multi-source data scenarios, if attackers have background knowledge of the data from one source, they may obtain accurate quasi-identifier (QI) values for other data sources. By analyzing the aggregated dataset, k-anonymity generalizes all or part of the QI values. Hence, some values remain unchanged. This creates new privacy disclosures for inferring other information about an individual. However, current techniques cannot address this problem. This study explores the additional privacy disclosures of aggregated datasets. We propose a new attack called a multi-source linkability attack. Subsequently, we design multi-source (k,d)-anonymity and multi-source (k,l,d)-diversity models and algorithms to protect the quasi-identifiers and sensitive attributes, respectively. We experimentally evaluate our algorithms on real datasets: that is, the Adult and Census datasets. Our work can better prevent privacy disclosures in multi-source scenarios compared to existing Incognito, Flash, Top-down, and Mondrian algorithms. The experimental results also demonstrate that our algorithms perform well regarding information loss and efficiency.

We propose stage-structured single-species population models with psychological effects and partial tolerance in polluted environments in this paper. First, the conditions of extinction and the time for extinction are investigated respectively. Especially, the time for extinction takes longer as the value of the psychological effects increases. Then the weak persistence in the mean around the pollution-free equilibrium and the stochastic permanence have been derived under some moderate conditions. Further, the existence of a periodic solution for the periodic single-species population has been determined. The corresponding numerical simulations verify the efficiency of the main theoretical results.

Chronic glomerulonephritis (CGN) refers to the inflammation of glomeruli in the kidneys. Glomerular mesangial cells (GMCs) play a pivotal role in the development of CGN. In the present study, we investigated the impact of ALKBH5, a m6A demethylase, on inflammation and hyperproliferation in mouse glomerular mesangial cells (MMCs) and elucidated the molecular mechanisms contributing to CGN. Western blotting and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) were employed to evaluate the expression of ALKBH5 and TRIM13. In addition, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to measure the levels of inflammatory factors (IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-10) in the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced MMCs supernatant. Methylated RNA immunoprecipitation (MeRIP) was performed to investigate the effect of ALKBH5 on the levels of TRIM13-m6A mRNA. The stability of TRIM13 mRNA was evaluated using an actinomycin D assay. Significantly elevated expression of ALKBH5 was found in LPS-induced MMCs. Interference with ALKBH5 expression inhibited inflammation and excessive proliferation in LPS-induced MMCs. Moreover, interfering with ALKBH5 expression significantly reduced the levels of TRIM13-m6A modification. The overexpression of TRIM13 in MMCs reversed the inflammation and proliferation induced by ALKBH5 interference. In addition, interference with TRIM13 expression inhibited the activation of the NF-κB pathway and suppressed inflammation and proliferation in MMCs. Inhibiting ALKBH5 hinders inflammation and hyperproliferation by improving TRIM13-m6A modification in glomerular MCs. We believe these findings will further provide insights into the molecular mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets for CGN.