Previous Studies Research Articles

The vestibular symptomatology of Machado-Joseph Disease.

Machado Joseph Disease (MJD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disease. In previous studies, we described significant bilateral horizontal Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex (VOR) deficit within this population without any reference to the presence of vestibular symptomatology. To evaluate whether, beyond cerebellar ataxia complaints, MJD patients have typical vestibular symptomatology corresponding to the accepted diagnostic criteria of Bilateral Vestibulopathy (BVP) according to the definition of the International Barany Society of Neuro-Otology. Twenty-one MJD, 12 clinically stable chronic Unilateral Vestibulopathy (UVP), 15 clinically stable chronic BVP, and 22 healthy Controls underwent the video Head Impulse Test (vHIT) evaluating VOR gain and filled out the following questionnaires related to vestibular symptomatology: The Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI), the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC), the Vertigo Visual Scale (VVS) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The MJD group demonstrated significant bilateral vestibular impairment with horizontal gain less than 0.6 in 71% of patients (0.54±0.17). Similar to UVP and BVP, MJD patients reported a significantly higher level of symptoms than Controls in the DHI, ABC, VVS, and BAI questionnaires. MJD demonstrated significant VOR impairment and clinical symptoms typical of BVP. We suggest that in a future version of the International Classification of Vestibular Disorders (ICVD), MJD should be categorized under a separate section of central vestibulopathy with the heading of bilateral vestibulopathy. The present findings are of importance regarding the clinical diagnosis process and possible treatment based on vestibular rehabilitation.

First Report of Neoscytalidium dimidiatum causing leaf zonate spot disease of Aloe vera L. in China.

In February 2022, leaf zonate spot disease afflicted Aloe vera L. in Yunnan, China, endangering the $39 billion industry with 0.33ha under cultivation (Wan 2015). The disease manifested with watery spots progressing into oval or circular necrosis lesions, characterized by a dark center surrounded by a gray-brown zone. In the late stage of the disease, lesions regress in size and several small dark picnidia dots appeared on the gray-brown zone. The disease incidence ranged from 10% to 15% in three commercial plantations. If left uncontrolled, the disease could diminish the commercial value of Aloe vera plants. Eighteen symptomatic leaf samples underwent morphological and genetic identification. The samples were carefully washed with distilled water and 1×1 cm2 sections of tissue were excised using a sterile scalpel. The sections underwent surface-disinfection with 3% NaOCl for 3 min and 75% ethanol for 30 s. After three sterile water rinses the sections were air-dried. Subsequently, they were transferred to potato dextrose agar (PDA) before being incubated at 25 ℃ in the dark. Of the 18 samples, eight produced the colonies with similar morphological characteristics, named LH7. Isolate LH7 had downy to woolly aerial mycelia, initially pinkish white on the surface, and gradually turned greenish-olivaceous from the middle, and eventually turned dark brown to black after seven days. The fungus formed arthric chains in the aerial mycelium on PDA but did not produce conidiomata. The conidia, which occurred in arthric chains were 5.50-9.9 × 4.08-7.51 μm (mean 7.09× 5.26 μm, n=50) in size, cylindrical, brown, and 0-1 septate. To ascertain LH7's pathogenicity, three healthy one-year old aloe plants were surface-sanitized with a 1% aqueous chlorine solution, rinsed with sterile water, and dried. Three leaves from each plant were punctuated and inoculated using conidial suspension (100 μl of 1x 106 conidial mL-1), while three control plants were inoculated with sterile distilled water. The pathogenicity tests were repeated twice. The inoculated plants were kept at 25 ℃ with a 12-hour light/12-hour dark cycle. After seven days, symptoms observed in the field appeared in the plants, while no disease occurred in the control plants. After 21 days, conidiomata formed on the inoculated leaves, averaging 116.92 μm (n=20) in diameter. These conidiomata were globose to subglobose, and brown to sub-brown. The fungus was successfully re-isolated from symptomatic tissue and the resulting colonies were morphologically consistent with isolate LH7. Based on the characteristics, the fungus was identified as Neoscytalidium dimidiatum (Philips et al. 2013). The specimen was deposited in China Center for Type Culture Collection ( CCTCC AF 2024001). This identification was confirmed through sequencing of ITS gene region of rDNA using ITS1/ITS4 (Imran et al. 2022). The sequence was submitted into GenBank database (ON878059). BLAST analysis of the LH7's ITS amplicon showed 100% similarity with that of JN093303.1. A phylogenetic tree constructed using the maximum likelihood method revealed that ON878059 was clustered with JN093303.1. Previous studies have documented that pathogens such as Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.), Fusarium spp. and Rhizopus oryzae can also cause diseases in A. vera in China (Zhou et al. 2008; Ding et al. 2015). Additinonally, Cladosporium sphaerospermum, Pseudopestalotiopsis theae, and Lasiodiplodia theobromae have been identified as causal agents of aloe leaf spot diseases in India, Bangladesh and Malaysia (Avasthi et al. 2016; Ahmmed et al. 2022; Khoo et al. 2022). To our knowledge, this is the first report of N. dimidiatum causing leaf necrosis of aloe in China. Vigilant surveillance and disease control measures are imperative to mitigate potential losses in this region.

Bilingual Language Control in the Brain: Evidence from Structural and Effective Functional Brain Connectivity.

Experience in bilingual language control is often accompanied by changes in the structure and function of the brain. Brain structural changes are also often closely related to changes in functions. Previous studies, however, have not directly explored the relationship between structural connectivity and effective functional connectivity of the brain during bilingual language control, and whether the two types of connectivity are associated with behavioral performance of language control. Using behavioral performance, functional, and diffusion imaging techniques, we found that: (1) during language control, the left dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), left caudate nucleus (CN), inferior parietal lobe, precuneus, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC)/pre-SMA were significantly activated. (2) In the language control model with left dlPFC, dACC/pre-SMA, and left CN as ROIs (selected based on activation results and language control models from previous studies), stimuli first enter dACC/pre-SMA and then to left CN. At the left CN, a bidirectional effective connectivity is formed with left dlPFC. (3) There is a nonlinear relationship between effective connectivity during language control and the structural connectivity of the second language learners' brains. Specifically, the fiber density between dACC/pre-SMA and left dlPFC has a positive influence on the bidirectional effective connectivity between left dlPFC and left CN. Findings of the present study contribute evidence toward functional effective connectivity during bilingual language control; toward structural connectivity in the brains of second language learners; as well as toward nonlinear relationships between functional effective connectivity, structural connectivity, and behavioral performance in relation to bilingual language control.

Procyanidin A1 and its digestive products alleviate acrylamide-induced IPEC-J2 cell damage through regulating Keap1/Nrf2 pathway

Our previous study has revealed that procyanidin A1 (A1) and its simulated digestive product (D-A1) can alleviate acrylamide (ACR)-induced intestine cell damage. However, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. In this study, we elucidated the molecular mechanism for A1 and D-A1 to alleviate ACR-stimulated IPEC-J2 cell damage. ACR slightly activated nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) signaling and its target genes, but this activation could not reduce intestine cell damage. A1 and D-A1 could alleviate ACR-induced cell damage, but the effect was abrogated in cells transiently transfected with Nrf2 small interfering RNA (siRNA). Further investigation confirmed that A1 and D-A1 interacted with Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (Keap1), which boosted the stabilization of Nrf2, subsequently promoted the translocation of Nrf2 into the nucleus, and further increased the expression of antioxidant proteins, thereby inhibiting glutathione (GSH) consumption, maintaining redox balance and eventually alleviating ACR-induced cell damage. Importantly, there was no difference between A1 and D-A1 treated groups, indicating that A1 can tolerate gastrointestinal digestion and may be a potential compound to limit the toxicity of ACR.

Robust Hybrid Visual Servoing of Omnidirectional Mobile Manipulator With Kinematic Uncertainties Using a Single Camera.

A robust hybrid visual servoing (HVS) method for a single camera-mounted omnidirectional mobile manipulator (OMM) with kinematic uncertainties caused by slipping is proposed herein. Most existing studies pertaining to the visual servoing of mobile manipulators do not consider the kinematic uncertainties and the singularity of the manipulator that can occur during actual operations; furthermore, they required external sensors other than a single camera. In this study, the kinematics of an OMM are modeled considering kinematic uncertainties. Accordingly, an integral sliding-mode observer (ISMO) is designed to estimate the kinematic uncertainties. Subsequently, an integral sliding-mode control (ISMC) law is proposed to achieve robust visual servoing using the estimates of the ISMO. Additionally, an ISMO-ISMC-based HVS method is proposed to address the singularity issue of the manipulator; this method guarantees both robustness and finite-time stability in the presence of kinematic uncertainties. Overall, the entire visual servoing task is performed using only a single camera attached to the end effector without any other external sensors, unlike in previous studies. The stability and performance of the proposed method are verified numerically and experimentally in a slippery environment that generates kinematic uncertainties.

Exploring the Relationship between Knowledge and Attitudes, Adherence and Confidence on Hand Hygiene Practices Among Thai Nursing Students

Background: Hand hygiene plays a crucial role in infection control in healthcare settings, but there is a concerning gap in compliance rates among healthcare workers globally. Nursing students, who will form a substantial part of the future healthcare workforce, are key to effective hand hygiene practices. A significant educational gap in hand hygiene exists globally, especially in Asia, including Thailand. Research on nursing students’ knowledge, attitude, adherence to, and confidence in hand hygiene is still limited, despite their frequent non-compliance with standard protocols. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the correlations and associated factors between knowledge, attitudes, adherence to, and confidence in hand hygiene practices among first-year nursing students at a Thai nursing college.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with all 116 first-year nursing students from Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Thailand. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using Pearson’s correlation and multiple logistic regression analysis.Results: The results show that only 46.6% of students demonstrated good knowledge of hand hygiene, but a higher percentage showed positive attitudes (51.7%) and adherence (55.2%). A majority (76.7%) had good confidence in their hand hygiene practices. Positive correlations were observed between knowledge and attitude, attitude and adherence, and adherence and confidence. Male students generally had better knowledge, while those with lower GPAs tended to have higher confidence in hand hygiene. The findings of this study are in line with previous studies, indicating that knowledge does not always lead to positive attitudes or adherence to hand hygiene. Also, confidence is necessary for effective hand hygiene practices.Conclusions: This study highlights the factors related to hand hygiene practices among Thai nursing students and emphasizes the need for comprehensive, culturally sensitive educational strategies. Future research should consider various contextual factors, such as gender differences and academic performance, to enhance hand hygiene practices among nursing students.

Multiple Sclerosis Risk Among Anti-tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Users: A Methodological Review of Observational Studies Based on Real-world Data.

Epidemiologic studies on the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) or demyelinating events associated with anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) use among patients with rheumatic diseases or inflammatory bowel diseases have shown conflicting results. Causal directed acyclic graphs (cDAGs) are useful tools for understanding the differing results and identifying the structure of potential contributing biases. Most of the available literature on cDAGs uses language that might be unfamiliar to clinicians. This article demonstrates how cDAGs can be used to determine whether there is a confounder, a mediator or collider-stratification bias and when to adjust for them appropriately. We also use a case study to show how to control for potential biases by drawing a cDAG depicting anti-TNFα use and its potential to contribute to MS onset. Finally, we describe potential biases that might have led to contradictory results in previous studies that examined the effect of anti-TNFα and MS, including confounding, confounding by contraindication, and bias due to measurement error. Clinicians and researchers should be cognizant of confounding, confounding by contraindication, and bias due to measurement error when reviewing future studies on the risk of MS or demyelinating events associated with anti-TNFα use. cDAGs are a useful tool for selecting variables and identifying the structure of different biases that can affect the validity of observational studies.

Zero-Valent Iron Nanoparticles: Biogenic Synthesis and their Medical Applications; Existing Challenges and Future Prospects.

In the last decade, nanobiotechnology is emerging as a keen prudence area owing to its widespread applications in the medical field. In this context, zero-valent iron nanoparticles (nZVI) have garnered tremendous attention attributed to their cheap, non-toxic, excellent paramagnetic nature, extremely reactive surface, and dual oxidation state that makes them excellent antioxidants and free-radical scavengers. Facile biogenic synthesis, in which a biological source is used as a template for the synthesis of NPs, is presumably dominant among other physical and chemical synthetic procedures. The purpose of this review is to elucidate plant-mediated synthesis of nZVI, although they have been successfully fabricated by microbes and other biological entities (such as starch, chitosan, alginate, cashew nut shell, etc.) as well. The methodology of the study involved keyword searches of electronic databases, including ScienceDirect, NCBI, and Google Scholar (2008-2023). Search terms of the review included 'biogenic synthesis of nZVI', 'plant-mediated synthesis of nZVI', 'medical applications of nZVI', and 'Recent advancements and future prospects of nZVI'. Various articles were identified and reviewed for biogenic fabrication of stable nZVI with the vast majority of studies reporting positive findings. The resultant nanomaterial found great interest for biomedical purposes such as their use as biocompatible anticancer, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and albumin binding agents that have not been adequately accessed in previous studies. This review shows that there are potential cost savings applications to be made when using biogenic nZVI for medical purposes. However, the encountering challenges concluded later, along with the prospects for sustainable future development.

Testing expectations and retrieval practice modulate repetition learning of visuospatial arrays.

One of the best-known demonstrations of long-term learning through repetition is the Hebb effect: Immediate recall of a memory list repeated amidst nonrepeated lists improves steadily with repetitions. However, previous studies often failed to observe this effect for visuospatial arrays. Souza and Oberauer (2022) showed that the strongest determinant for producing learning was the difficulty of the test: Learning was consistently observed when participants recalled all items of a visuospatial array (difficult test) but not if only one item was recalled, or recognition procedures were used (less difficult tests). This suggests that long-term learning was promoted by increased testing demands over the short term. Alternatively, it is possible that lower testing demands still lead to learning but prevented the application of what was learned. In four preregistered experiments (N = 981), we ruled out this alternative explanation: Changing the type of memory test midway through the experiment from less demanding (i.e., single item recall or recognition) to a more demanding test (i.e., full item recall) did not reveal hidden learning, and changing it from the more demanding to a less demanding test did not conceal learning. Mixing high and low demanding tests for nonrepeated arrays, however, eventually produced Hebb learning even for the less demanding testing conditions. We propose that testing affects long-term learning in two ways: Expectations of the test difficulty influence how information is encoded into memory, and retrieval consolidates this information in memory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Elaidic acid-induced intestinal barrier damage led to gut-liver axis derangement and triggered NLRP3 inflammasome in the liver of SD rats

Previous studies have shown that trans fatty acids (TFA) are associated with several chronic diseases, the gut microbiota is directly influenced by dietary components and linked to chronic diseases. Our research investigated the effects of elaidic acid (EA), a typical TFA, on the gut microbiota to understand the underlying mechanisms of TFA-related chronic diseases. 16S rDNA gene sequencing on faecal samples from Sprague-Dawley rats were performed to explore the composition change of the gut microbiota by EA gavage for 4 weeks. The results showed that the intake of EA increased the abundance of well-documented harmful bacteria, such as Proteobacteria, Anaerotruncus, Oscillibacter and Desulfovibrionaceae. Plus, EA induced translocation of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and the above pathogenic bacteria, disrupted the intestinal barrier, led to gut-liver axis derangement and TLR4 pathway activation in the liver. Overall, EA induced intestinal barrier damage and regulated TLR4-MyD88-NF-κB/MAPK pathways in the liver of SD rats, leading to the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome and inflammatory liver damage.

HFSCCD: A Hybrid Neural Network for Fetal Standard Cardiac Cycle Detection in Ultrasound Videos.

In the fetal cardiac ultrasound examination, standard cardiac cycle (SCC) recognition is the essential foundation for diagnosing congenital heart disease. Previous studies have mostly focused on the detection of adult CCs, which may not be applicable to the fetus. In clinical practice, localization of SCCs needs to recognize end-systole (ES) and end-diastole (ED) frames accurately, ensuring that every frame in the cycle is a standard view. Most existing methods are not based on the detection of key anatomical structures, which may not recognize irrelevant views and background frames, results containing non-standard frames, or even it does not work in clinical practice. We propose an end-to-end hybrid neural network based on an object detector to detect SCCs from fetal ultrasound videos efficiently, which consists of 3 modules, namely Anatomical Structure Detection (ASD), Cardiac Cycle Localization (CCL), and Standard Plane Recognition (SPR). Specifically, ASD uses an object detector to identify 9 key anatomical structures, 3 cardiac motion phases, and the corresponding confidence scores from fetal ultrasound videos. On this basis, we propose a joint probability method in the CCL to learn the cardiac motion cycle based on the 3 cardiac motion phases. In SPR, to reduce the impact of structure detection errors on the accuracy of the standard plane recognition, we use XGBoost algorithm to learn the relation knowledge of the detected anatomical structures. We evaluate our method on the test fetal ultrasound video datasets and clinical examination cases and achieve remarkable results. This study may pave the way for clinical practices.

MiR-301b-3p can be Used as a Potential Marker for the Diagnosis of Lung Adenocarcinoma.

The involvement of aberrantly expressed miR-301b-3p has been discovered in diverse human tumors. Our study was primarily centered around the role of miR-301b-3p in diagnosing lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). We used the TCGA database to download the TCGA-LUAD dataset and selected miR-301b-3p as the object of our study by differential expression analysis of miRNAs combined with previous studies. The LUAD diagnostic model was constructed utilizing machine learning based on miR-301b-3p expression. The predictive performance of the diagnostic model was found to be excellent by ROC curves combined with the clinical information of the dataset samples. GSEA, GO, and KEGG enrichment analyses demonstrated that miR-301b-3p may mediate the cell cycle by regulating the expression of hormones. Subsequently, combined with tumor immunity and mutation analysis, it was found that patients in the low-expression group had better immune infiltration, indicating that their response rate to immunotherapy may be relatively high. Finally, a mouse xenograft model was constructed to verify how miR-301b-3p affected LUAD progression in mice. The results illustrated that overexpressed miR-301b-3p could cause faster tumor growth in mice. On the contrary, the growth of LUAD could be impeded by the downregulated miR-301b-3p expression. It was suggested that miR-301b-3p had a crucial part in LUAD progression. Overall, the diagnostic performance of the LUAD diagnostic model constructed based on miR-301b-3p is great, and the model can be used as a potential diagnostic marker for LUAD to provide new ideas for clinical diagnosis.

Veratrilla baillonii Franch alleviate the symptoms of diabetes in type 2 diabetic rats induced by high-fat diet and streptozotocin

Our previous research studies have shown that Veratrilla baillonii Franch, a food supplement used by ethnic minorities in Southwest China, has multiple pharmacological activities, such as detoxification, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-insulin resistance. However, the detailed signal pathways for its salutary effect on damages in multiple organs due to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) remains unclear. The current study is to evaluate the therapeutic effects of V. baillonii on T2DM rats and to explore the underlying mechanisms. The T2DM rat model was successfully established by a high-sugar and high-fat diet (HFD) combination with intraperitoneal injection of a small dose of streptozotocin (STZ, 35 mg/kg). Biochemical analysis and histopatholgical examinations were conducted to evaluate the anti-diabetic potential of water extracts of V. baillonii (WVBF). The results showed that the WVBF treatment can improve hyperglycemia and insulin resistance, ameliorate the liver, kidney and pancreas injuries via decreasing inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 and TNF-α, and oxidative damages. Further investigation suggested that WVBF modulates the signal transductions of the IRS1/PI3K/AKT/GLUT4 and AMPK pathways. These findings demonstrate potentials of WVBF in the treatment of T2DM and possible mechanisms for its hepatoprotective activities.

Neural Correlates of Analogical Reasoning on Syntactic Patterns.

Analogical reasoning is central to thought and learning. However, previous neuroscience studies have focused mainly on neural substrates for visuospatial and semantic analogies. There has not yet been research on the neural correlates of analogical reasoning on syntactic patterns generated by the syntactic rules, a key feature of human language faculty. The present investigation took an initial step to address this paucity. Twenty-four participants, whose brain activity was monitored by fMRI, engaged in first-order and second-order relational judgments of syntactic patterns as well as simple and complex working memory tasks. After scanning, participants rated the difficulty of each step during analogical reasoning; these ratings were related to signal intensities in activated regions of interest using Spearman correlation analyses. After prior research, differences in activation levels during second-order and first-order relational judgments were taken as evidence of analogical reasoning. These analyses showed that analogical reasoning on syntactic patterns recruited brain regions consistent with those supporting visuospatial and semantic analogies, including the anterior and posterior parts of the left middle frontal gyrus, anatomically corresponding to the left rostrolateral pFC and the left dorsolateral pFC. The correlation results further revealed that the posterior middle frontal gyrus might be involved in analogical access and mapping with syntactic patterns. Our study is the first to investigate the process of analogical reasoning on syntactic patterns at the neurobiological level and provide evidence of the specific functional roles of related regions during subprocesses of analogical reasoning.

Multiplexed Levels of Cognitive Control through Delta and Theta Neural Oscillations.

Cognitive control allows behavior to be guided according to environmental contexts and internal goals. During cognitive control tasks, fMRI analyses typically reveal increased activation in frontal and parietal networks, and EEG analyses reveal increased amplitude of neural oscillations in the delta/theta band (2-3, 4-7 Hz) in frontal electrodes. Previous studies proposed that theta-band activity reflects the maintenance of rules associating stimuli to appropriate actions (i.e., the rule set), whereas delta synchrony is specifically associated with the control over the context for when to apply a set of rules (i.e., the rule abstraction). We tested these predictions using EEG and fMRI data collected during the performance of a hierarchical cognitive control task that manipulated the level of abstraction of task rules and their set-size. Our results show a clear separation of delta and theta oscillations in the control of rule abstraction and of stimulus-action associations, respectively, in distinct frontoparietal association networks. These findings support a model by which frontoparietal networks operate through dynamic, multiplexed neural processes.

Mechanical Thrombectomy in Anticoagulated Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Meta-Analysis.

According to a previous studies, mechanical thrombectomy(MT) is safe for anticoagulated patients. However, the safety and prognosis of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) and vitamin K antagonists (VKA) have not been compared with those of MT.This meta-analysis aimed at determining the efficacy of DOACs or VKA for patients after MT. We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science databases, and Cochrane from their inception to Aug 2022. Revman 5.3 served for the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis included 12 studies that covered 3571 patients, finding that after MT treatment, DOACs significantly decreased the symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage [odd ratio (OR)=0.49, 95% CI 0.30-0.80, P =0.004] and mortality (OR=0.63, 95% CI 0.48-0.83, P =0.001) compared with VKA. Meanwhile, no obvious differences were found between DOACs and VKA after MT treatment in terms of in any hemorrhagic transformation (OR=1.07, 95% CI 0.84-1.37, P =0.59), good functional outcome (OR=1.06, 95% CI 0.88-1.27, P =0.53), and successful arterial recanalization (OR=1.24, 95% CI 1.00-1.53, P =0.05). This meta-analysis demonstrates that the application of DOACs in MT treatment for anticoagulated patients with acute ischemic stroke is safer than that in the VKA group. However, further studies are necessary to confirm these results.

Evolution of coronal mass ejections with and without sheaths from the inner to the outer heliosphere: Statistical investigation for 1975 to 2022

Aims. This study covers a thorough statistical investigation of the evolution of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) with and without sheaths through a broad heliocentric distance and temporal range. The analysis treats the sheath and magnetic obstacle (MO) separately in order to gain more insight on their physical properties. In detail, we aim to unravel different characteristics of these structures occurring over the inner and outer heliosphere. Methods. The method is based on a large statistical sample of ICMEs probed over different distances in the heliosphere. For this, information about detection times for the sheath and MO from 13 individual ICME catalogs was collected and crosschecked. The time information was then combined into a main catalog that was used as the basis for the statistical investigation. The data analysis based on this catalog covers a large number of spacecraft missions, enabling in situ solar wind measurements from 1975 to 2022. This allowed us to study the differences between solar cycles. Results. All the structures under study (sheath, MO with and without sheath) show the biggest increase in size together with the largest decrease in density at a distance of ∼0.75 AU. At 1 AU, we found different sizes for MOs with and without a sheath, with the former being larger. Up to 1 AU, the upstream solar wind shows the strongest pileup close to the interface with the sheath. For larger distances, the pileup region seems to shift, and it recedes from that interface further into the upstream solar wind. This might refer to a change in the sheath formation mechanism (driven versus non-driven) with heliocentric distance, suggesting the relevance of the CME propagation and the expansion behavior in the outer heliosphere. A comparison to previous studies showed inconsistencies over the solar cycle, which makes more detailed studies necessary in order to fully understand the evolution of ICME structures.

Organic acid and aromatic compounds create distinctive flavor in the blackening process of jujube

Previous studies demonstrated jujube blackening effectively increased cyclic adenosine phosphate and triterpene acid levels, improving its nutritional value. However, compositional changes during this process require further elucidation. The objective aimed to analyze compositional transformations during this process with SEM, TPA, UPLC- MS, E-nose. Results showed decreased hardness, springiness, and chewiness coupled with increased gumminess over blackening durations. Untargeted omics analysis revealed increases of 2-aminooctadec-8-ene-1,3,4-trioland carbendazim. Targeted organic acid analysis showed initial citric acid accumulation (1481.62 to 1645.78 mg/kg) in the first 24 h, then declines to 1072.96 mg/kg. Meanwhile, oxalic and lactic acids steadily rose, peaking at 96–120 h before slightly decreasing. E-nose analysis implied alterations in organic sulfide aromatics engendered the characteristic flavors. Organic acid fluctuations likely resulted from sugar biotransformation and thermal degradation. These comprehensive analyses demonstrate jujube blackening imparts a rich and unique flavor, providing theoretical support for investigating the mechanisms and products underlying this process.

Anti-obesity effects of fucoidan from Sargassum thunbergii in adipocytes and high fat diet induced obese mice through inhibiting adipogenic specific transcription factor

The prevalence of obesity has increased and is a health concern worldwide. Due to the concerns regarding synthetic anti-obesity treatments, nowadays natural products become a trend. Previous studies proved that there is a potential to use marine algae as anti-obesity agents. Therefore, in this study, the lipid inhibitory effect of crude polysaccharide of amyloglucosidase-assisted hydrolysate from Sargassum thunbergii (STAC) and its fucoidan fractions (STAFs) on 3T3-L1 cells and high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice were investigated. According to the results, the STAF3, showed the highest xylose content and exhibited significant inhibitory effects on lipid accumulation by downregulating adipogenic and lipogenic proteins in 3T3-L1 cells. Furthermore, oral supplementation with STAC significantly declined gain in body weight and fat weight, and serum lipid contents in an HFD-induced obesity mouse model. Structural and chemical characterizations demonstrated that purified STAF3 has consistent surface morphology and small particle size, with similar structural characteristics as commercial fucoidan. Together, these results indicate that STAC and purified STAF3 from Sargassum thunbergia is a potent source to develop as ananti-obesity agents or functional food products to counter obesity.

Sulfated polysaccharide from brown algae Dictyota caribaea stimulates macrophages to an antitumoral phenotype

Fucoidans are sulfated polysaccharides capable of exerting biological activities such as antitumor and immunomodulatory effects. Previous studies demonstrated the antitumor activity of non-cytotoxic fucoidans from the seaweed Dictyota caribaea (Dc-SP) in vivo. Macrophages (Mfs) are innate immune cells capable of promoting or inhibiting tumor growth depending on the stimulus. This study aimed to evaluate the immunostimulant activity of Dc-SP on a murine Mfs cell line (RAW 264.7) in vitro. Dc-SP was assessed for its ability to modify cell viability and stimulate the production of antitumor markers on RAW 264.7 cells. Dc-SP induced an increase (p < 0.05) in the production of NO and cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-10. The exposure of RAW 264.7 to Dc-SP also increased (p < 0.05) the expression of M1 phenotype markers such as iNOS, CD86, and MHC II. Dc-SP did not exhibit direct cytotoxicity on a murine melanoma cell line (B16–F10). However, the conditioned medium (CM) obtained from RAW 264.7 previously stimulated with Dc-SP (CM-Dc-SP) showed antiproliferative activity on tumor cells. B16–F10 incubated with CM-Dc-SP showed a cytostatic profile, tumor cells did not alter membrane integrity, however, they suffered morphological changes such as cell shrinkage and high granularity. In conclusion, Dc-SP stimulated RAW 264.7 to an antitumor phenotype.