Explore the vast range of titles available.

Dimethyl phthalate (DMP) can enter the human body and be absorbed into the bloodstream to produce monomethyl phthalate (MMP). MMP in the environment can also enter the bloodstream. However, little is known about the toxicity of the phthalate metabolite MMP in most organisms. In this study, the erythrocyte toxicity of MMP and a preventive approach were investigated using Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats as the model animal under MMP concentrations of 5–250 mg/kg (sub-chronic exposure in vivo) and 1.25–100 μg/mL (acute exposure in vitro). The experimental results indicate that the interaction of MMP with erythrocytes caused oxidative damage, which decreased the number of red blood cells and the hemoglobin content and increased the content of methemoglobin and the iron release of hemoglobin in rat blood. However, the above results were not observed when MMP directly interacted with hemoglobin. The antioxidants vitamin C and vitamin E improved the above blood indicators in rats. The results of this study provide certain theoretical guidance for the evaluation of the potential risks of phthalate metabolites.

Near-field acoustic holography (NAH) based on compressing sensing (CS) theory enables accurate reconstruction of sound fields using a limited number of sampling points. However, the successful implementation of this technique depends on two crucial factors: (1) the appropriate selection or construction of the spatial basis and (2) an effective sparse regularization process. To enhance reconstruction performance for elongated sound sources, this paper proposes a novel sound field reconstruction method that combines prolate spheroidal wave functions (PSWFs) with the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm. In this method, PSWFs serve as a sparse spatial basis for representing the radiated sound field. The sparse coefficients are determined by the OMP algorithm in a linear subspace composed of basic functions that best match the residual error. The OMP algorithm effectively identifies significant components before potentially selecting incorrect ones by setting an appropriate stopping rule. Numerical simulations are conducted using a line-array source model. The results show that the proposed method can accurately reconstruct the sound pressures of the elongated source model using a relatively small number of samplings. In addition, the proposed method exhibits robustness across a wide frequency range, diverse array configurations and various sampling numbers. The experimental results further validate the feasibility and reliability of the proposed method.

A type of rodent called a zokor causes great harm to agriculture and forestry production due to its large and sophisticated diet. As this rodent lives subterrane for most of its life, researchers know little about its dietary habits. Further understanding of its diet is important for developing green and sustainable control strategies for the zokor. Chloroplast trnL gene and internal transcription spacer 1 primers were selected for high-throughput sequencing of stomach contents of captured zokor by DNA metabarcoding. A total of 25 zokors were selected, the food list of 32 families, 80 genera, and 154 species was obtained. At the family level, it was found that zokors mainly fed on Asteraceae, Poaceae, Rosaceae, Pinaceae, Brassicaceae, and Apiaceae. At the genus level, zokors mainly fed on Echinops, Littledalea, Artemisia, Picea, Cirsium, and Elymus. The diet alpha diversity of Eospalax cansus was slightly higher than that of Eospalax cansus (P>0.05). The zokor's diet is highly phconsistent with the resources of its habitat. Most food choices tend to be the same between the two zokors. They fed primarily on Calamagrostis, Cirsium, Echinops, Medicago, Sanguisorba, and Taraxacum. Zokors mainly fed on the roots of perennial herbs, which are important source of energy. High-throughput sequencing-based DNA metabarcoding technology has effectively revealed the diet of zokors and indicated that zokors are food generalists.

Severe lupus nephritis (LN) remains difficult to manage despite standard immunosuppressive therapy. Immunoadsorption (IA) has been increasingly used as an adjunctive treatment. However, comparative evidence across different IA columns is limited. We conducted a systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials evaluating six IA columns for severe LN. PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, VIP, Wanfang, and CNKI were searched up to January 2025. Outcomes included disease activity (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index, SLEDAI), renal parameters, immunological markers, and adverse events. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool, and Bayesian network meta-analysis was performed in R (version 4.4.1). A total of 24 randomized controlled trials involving 1,442 patients were included. DNA280 plus conventional pharmacotherapy showed a favorable probability ranking for SLEDAI improvement. DNA280 plus plasma exchange (PE) plus conventional pharmacotherapy showed a statistically significant advantage conventional pharmacotherapy alone [mean difference (MD) = 1.8, 95% credible interval (95%CrI) = 0.05-3.5] for 24-h proteinuria and ranked favorably across several renal outcomes. PH-350 plus conventional pharmacotherapy showed a favorable probability ranking for serum creatinine improvement. Adverse events were reported in 17 studies; however, comparative safety analyses were not feasible due to inconsistent definitions and reporting. IA strategies-in particular DNA280-based regimens-may offer relative advantages for severe LN. However, the evidence is limited by study quality, heterogeneity, sparse comparisons for some columns, and reliance on surrogate outcomes. The findings should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating, and higher-quality comparative trials with clinically meaningful endpoints are needed. https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/, identifier CRD420251031348.

This paper studies the secure and accurate clock synchronization problem for sensor networks with time-varying delays and malicious attacks. A novel clock synchronization scheme based on the attack detection mechanism, attack compensation, and maximum consensus protocol is proposed. The proposed scheme starts with the detection of the malicious attacks and the clock data under attacks is eliminated. On the basis, software clock parameters are updated so that all the nodes in the network can have the same software skew and offset, so the clock synchronization can be achieved. Furthermore, it is theoretically proved that the proposed scheme can achieve the attack detection correctly, and further can guarantee a secure and accurate clock synchronization. In addition, extensive simulations are also conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Background The intestinal microbes in mammals play a key role in host metabolism and adaptation. As a subterranean rodent, zokor digs tunnels for foraging and mating. These digging activities of zokors increase the energy expenditure relative to their aboveground counterparts. However, relatively little is known regarding intestinal microbes of zokor and how they make full use of limited food resources underground for high energy requirements. Results Eospalax cansus and Eospalax rothschildi had distinct intestinal microbes. Although the composition of intestinal microbes is similar in two species, the proportion of bacterium are distinctly different between them. At phylum level, 11 phyla were shared between two species. Firmicutes and Bacteroidota were two dominant microbes in both of two species, while Eospalax cansus have a significantly high proportion of Firmicutes/Bacteroidota than that of Eospalax rothschildi . At genus level, norank_f_Muribaculaceae were dominant microbes in both of two zokor species. The relative abundance of 12 genera were significantly different between two species. Some bacterium including unclassified_f__Lachnospiraceae, Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, Ruminococcus and Eubacterium_siraeum_group associated with cellulose degradation were significantly enriched in Eospalax cansus . Although alpha diversity was with no significant differences between Eospalax cansus and Eospalax rothschildi , the intestinal microbes between them are significant distinct in PCoA analysis. We have found that trapping location affected the alpha diversity values, while sex and body measurements had no effect on alpha diversity values. PICRUSt metagenome predictions revealed significant enrichment of microbial genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism in Eospalax cansus rather than Eospalax rothschildi . Conclusions Our results demonstrate that Eospalax cansus harbor a stronger ability of fermentation for dietary plants than Eospalax rothschildi . The stronger ability of fermentation and degradation of cellulose of intestinal microbes of Eospalax cansus may be a long-time adaptation to limited food resources underground.

Near-field acoustic holography (NAH) is an effective tool for realizing accurate sound field reconstruction in three-dimensional space on the prerequisite that appropriate elementary wave functions are selected or constructed to match the characteristics of the sound sources. However, for elongated sources, common wave functions, i.e., plane, cylindrical, or spherical waves, sometimes do not perform well during the sound field projections. To solve this problem, statistically optimized near-field acoustical holography combined with prolate spheroidal wave functions is proposed. In the approach, the sound field is expanded by a series of prolate spheroidal wave functions, whose wavefronts can be set nearly conformal to the elongated sources. Based on these wave functions, fewer expansion terms are required to model the sound field, and the need for regularization can be reduced during the inverse solving process. Therefore, the accuracy of the reconstruction results can be further improved. Numerical simulations are conducted by two types of elongated source models, namely, spatially separated and extended. The results show that the proposed method can effectively reconstruct the sound pressures of elongated sources and perform robustly across a wide frequency range. Simultaneously, a designed experiment is carried out in an anechoic chamber, which demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed method.

Background Intestinal bacteria of mammal can be influenced by many factors, environmental bacteria is an important factor. However, there are few studies on the interactions between environmental bacteria and intestinal bacteria in wild mammals. To explore the associations between the intestinal bacteriome and the related environmental bacteriome, the intestinal bacterial communities of Eospalax cansus at three different sites and the bacterial communities of the surrounding soil (outside and inside the cave) at each site were investigated by 16S rRNA sequencing. Results The composition and structure between zokor intestinal bacteria and related soil bacteria were distinct, and the soil of zokor habitat harbored significantly higher diversity than that of zokor intestinal bacteria. We have found that host factors may be more important than environmental factors in shaping intestinal bacteriome. In addition, it was found that the relative abundances of shared OTUs between zokors and related soil were significantly negatively related. These shared OTUs were present in the soil at relatively low abundance. However, these shared OTUs between zokors and soil were affiliated with diverse bacterial taxa, and they were related to the degradation of complex carbohydrates. Conclusions These results suggested that the zokor gut may mainly select for low-abundance but diverse soil bacteria, which may be a host- specific choice for zokor to meet the needs of its phytophagous dietary.

Background Glioblastoma (GBM), as a high-grade glioma, has high invasiveness and poor clinical prognosis. Manganese is an important trace element, has been proven to be closely related to tumor treatment and tumor immunity. It is necessary to explore the correlation between manganese metabolism-related genes and GBM. Methods We downloaded RNA gene expression data and clinical data of GBM patients from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas database (CGGA) databases. Build the signature using data from TCGA-GBM and independently validate it using data from CGGA-GBM. Next, we will use a nomogram to predict the clinical prognosis of GBM patients. Finally, we analyzed the relationship between the prognostic model and immune microenvironment through CIBERSORT. Results A total of 495 manganese metabolism-related differentially expressed genes were obtained for the establishment of a subsequent signature in the TCGA-GBM cohort. The following seven genes (PLAT, TIMP1, FN1, CTSB, SCG5, GALNT6 and AMPH) were used to establish the signature and independently validated using the CGGA-GBM dataset. Research has confirmed that the predictive ability of this signature exceeds other clinical features, and the receiver operating characteristic curve has a high area under the curve. Conclusions We constructed and validated a novel gene signature related to manganese metabolism in GBM patients. This gene signature not only reliably predicts the clinical outcomes of GBM patients but also has the potential to guide the provision of new treatment options for these patients.

To compare the efficacy and safety of various pus drainage methods for lung abscess via network meta-analysis. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, VIP, Wanfang, and CNKI were searched up to April 2025. Study quality was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool (v5.4.0). Bayesian network meta-analysis was conducted using Rstudio (v4.4.1). A total of 23 RCTs (1,453 patients) evaluating four drainage techniques were included. Effective rate: CT-guided percutaneous drainage + antibiotics ranked highest (77% probability), outperforming antibiotics alone (OR = 5.4) and conventional postural drainage + antibiotics (OR = 7.4). Hospital stay: Ultrasound-guided drainage + antibiotics ranked best (89% probability), significantly reducing stay versus conventional postural drainage + antibiotics (MD = -19 days). Symptom resolution: Ultrasound-guided drainage + antibiotics ranked highest for cough (SUCRA 97%) and fever resolution (SUCRA 97%). Lesion reduction: Modified postural drainage + antibiotics ranked highest (98% probability), surpassing conventional postural drainage + antibiotics (OR = 0.48) and antibiotics alone (OR = 0.15). Comprehensive analysis indicates that ultrasound-guided percutaneous drainage combined with antibiotics demonstrates the highest probability of improvement in key outcome measures, including time to fever resolution, length of hospital stay, and time to cough resolution, potentially showcasing a comprehensive potential for clinical benefit. CT-guided percutaneous drainage combined with conventional antibiotic therapy may be the most effective in terms of the effective rate, while modified postural drainage combined with conventional antibiotic therapy may be the most prominent in increasing the number of lesion reduction. Furthermore, conventional antibiotic therapy alone was inferior to pus drainage procedures combined with conventional antibiotics across multiple outcome measures and was associated with a higher incidence of adverse reactions. However, due to the limited number of available studies, these findings can only be considered preliminary. Future validation through a substantial number of multicenter, large-sample, double-blind randomized controlled trials is warranted. https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/, identifier CRD420251127786.