Search Results (102)

Background: Developmental dyslexia (DD) affects reading ability and exacerbates mental health challenges among children. This study examines the relationships between reading ability, depressive symptoms, and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in Chinese school-age children, focusing on potential mediating effects. Methods: A case–control study was conducted with 44 dyslexic children and 81 controls from Shantou, China. Assessments included phonological processing tasks for reading ability, the Depression Self-Rating Scale for Children (DSRS) for depressive symptoms, and the Child Behavior Checklist/6–18 (CBCL/6–18) for behavior problems. Mediation analyses were performed using the PROCESS macro 4.1 for SPSS. Results: Dyslexic children showed significantly poorer reading ability (all phonological tasks, p < 0.001), higher prevalence of depressive symptoms (40.9% vs. 17.3%, p < 0.01), and greater behavior problems (internalizing and externalizing, both p < 0.001) compared to controls. Both depressive symptoms and behavior problems significantly mediated the effects of reading ability on each other, forming a feedback loop that further impairs reading skills. Externalizing behavior problems showed the strongest mediation effect, explaining up to 33.53% of the relationship between depressive symptoms and reading ability. Conclusions: The study reveals a complex interaction between reading ability, depressive symptoms, and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in Chinese school-age children, suggesting the need for integrated interventions targeting educational and psychological aspects. Further longitudinal research is needed to clarify causal relationships and refine intervention strategies. Full article

In recent years, China has experienced growing impacts from extreme weather events, emphasizing the importance of understanding regional atmospheric moisture dynamics, particularly Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV), to support sustainable environmental and urban planning. This study utilizes ten years (2013–2022) of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations in typical cities in eastern China and proposes a comprehensive multiscale frequency-domain analysis framework that integrates the Fourier transform, Bayesian spectral estimation, and wavelet decomposition to extract the dominant PWV periodicities. Time-series analysis reveals an overall increasing trend in PWV across most regions, with notably declining trends in Beijing, Wuhan, and southern Taiwan, primarily attributed to groundwater depletion, rapid urban expansion, and ENSO-related anomalies, respectively. Frequency-domain results indicate distinct latitudinal and coastal–inland differences in the PWV periodicities. Inland stations (Beijing, Changchun, and Wuhan) display annual signals alongside weaker semi-annual components, while coastal stations (Shanghai, Kinmen County, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) mainly exhibit annual cycles. High-latitude stations show stronger seasonal and monthly fluctuations, mid-latitude stations present moderate-scale changes, and low-latitude regions display more diverse medium- and short-term fluctuations. In the short-term frequency domain, GNSS stations in most regions demonstrate significant PWV periodic variations over 0.5 days, 1 day, or both timescales, except for Changchun, where weak diurnal patterns are attributed to local topography and reduced solar radiation. Furthermore, ERA5-derived vertical temperature profiles are incorporated to reveal the thermodynamic mechanisms driving these variations, underscoring region-specific controls on surface evaporation and atmospheric moisture capacity. These findings offer novel insights into how human-induced environmental changes modulate the behavior of atmospheric water vapor. Full article

A comprehensive bibliometric analysis of literature is imperative to elucidate current research landscapes and hotspots in the interplay between gut microbiota and hypertension, identify knowledge gaps, and establish theoretical foundations for the future. We used publications retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) and SCOPUS databases (January 2001–December 2024) to analyze the annual publication trends with GraphPad Prism 9.5.1, to evaluate co-authorship, keywords clusters, and co-citation patterns with VOSviewer 1.6.20, and conducted keyword burst detection and keyword co-occurrence utilizing CiteSpace v6.4.1. We have retrieved 2485 relevant publications published over the past 24 years. A 481-fold increase in global annual publications in this field was observed. China was identified as the most productive country, while the United States demonstrated the highest research impact. For the contributor, Yang Tao (University of Toledo, USA) and the University of Florida (USA) have emerged as the most influential contributors. Among journals, the highest number of articles was published in Nutrients (n = 135), which also achieved the highest citation count (n = 5397). The emergence of novel research hotspots was indicated by high-frequency keywords, mainly “hypertensive disorders of pregnancy”, “mendelian randomization”, “gut-heart axis”, and “hepatitis B virus”. “Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO)” and “receptor” may represent promising new research frontiers in the gut microbiota–hypertension nexus. The current research trends are shifting from exploring the factors influencing gut microbiota and hypertension to understanding the underlying mechanisms of these factors and the potential therapeutic applications of microbial modulation for hypertension management. Full article

Over the past decade, diseases associated with fowl adenoviruses (FAdVs) have exhibited a new epidemic trend worldwide. The presence of numerous FAdVs serotypes, combined with the virus’s broad host range, positions it as a significant pathogen in the poultry industry. In the current context of intensive poultry production and global trade, co-infections involving multiple FAdVs serotypes, as well as co-infections with FAdVs alongside infectious bursal disease or infectious anemia virus, may occur within the same region or even on the same farm. The frequency of these outbreaks complicates the prevention and control of FAdVs. Therefore, the development of effective, targeted vaccines is essential for providing technical support in the management of FAdVs epidemics. Ongoing vaccine research aims to improve vaccine efficacy and address the challenges posed by emerging FAdVs outbreaks. This review focuses on vaccines developed and studied worldwide for various serotypes of FAdVs in the past decade. It encompasses inactivated vaccines, live attenuated vaccines, e.g., host-adapted attenuated vaccines and gene deletion vaccines, viral vector vaccines, and subunit vaccines (including VLP proteins and chimeric proteins). The current limitations and future development directions of FAdVs vaccine development are also proposed to provide a reference for new-generation vaccines and innovative vaccination strategies against FAdVs, as well as for the rapid development of highly effective vaccines. Full article

This work investigates multi-UAV navigation tasks where multiple drones need to reach initially unassigned goals in a limited time. Reinforcement learning (RL) has recently become a popular approach for such tasks. However, RL struggles with low sample efficiency when directly exploring (nearly) optimal policies in a large exploration space, especially with an increased number of drones (e.g., 10+ drones) or in complex environments (e.g., a 3D quadrotor simulator). To address these challenges, this paper proposes Multi-UAV Scalable Graph-based Planner (MASP), a goal-conditioned hierarchical planner that reduces space complexity by decomposing the large exploration space into multiple goal-conditioned subspaces. MASP consists of a high-level policy that optimizes goal assignment and a low-level policy that promotes goal navigation. MASP uses a graph-based representation and introduces an attention-based mechanism as well as a group division mechanism to enhance cooperation between drones and adaptability to varying team sizes. The results demonstrate that MASP outperforms RL and planning-based baselines in task and execution efficiency. Compared to planning-based competitors, MASP improves task efficiency by over 27.92% in a 3D continuous quadrotor environment with 20 drones. Full article

Phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI), which catalyzes the interconversion of glucose 6-phosphate (G6P) and fructose 6-phosphate (F6P), plays a key role in regulating carbohydrate synthesis and catabolism in plant growth and development. In higher plants, two PGI isoenzymes, plastidic (PGIp) and cytosolic (PGIc), have diverged significantly in sequence, structure, activity, and functional roles, despite catalyzing the same reaction. However, whether they experience distinct selection pressures during intraspecific population differentiation remains unknown. In this study, we identified the PGIc and PGIp genes in castor beans, an important industrial and horticultural crop, and revealed their different expression patterns across tissues, particularly during seed development. Population genetic analyses (Tajima’s D, ML-HKA, and CODEML) detected strong evidence of positive selection on RcPGIc, but not RcPGIp during domestication. Four positively selected sites in RcPGIc (114T, 310T, 338A, and 613S) were inferred with posterior probabilities > 95% in BEB analysis, and two of them (114T and 613S) were found to be significantly associated with higher seed oil content, suggesting that these two sites could potentially influence oil accumulation in castor seeds. This study provides the first evidence of differential selection pressures on PGIc and PGIp during intraspecific population differentiation, offering new insights into their functional divergence. Full article

The flood–drought severity in arid regions such as Xinjiang is increasingly influenced by climate extremes. While prior studies have explored the relationship between climate extremes and flood–drought dynamics, few have analyzed these interactions at different time and spatial scales using different method combinations. This study addresses that gap by utilizing a gridded dataset (CN05.1) during 1961–2020, examining the China Z index (flood–drought index) and climate extremes. The analysis reveals significant increases in precipitation and heat extremes, while cold extremes have decreased. In addition to overall periodic changes with 2.5 and 8 years in the flood–drought severity, our results demonstrate a significant spatial shift between 1981 and 2000 and between 2001 and 2020. Previously flood-dominant regions, including portions of the Junggar Basin, Eastern Tianshan Mountains, and Tarim River Basin, transitioned to drought-dominant in 2001–2020. Conversely, drought-dominant regions became flood-dominant. Strong positive correlations (0.65–0.84) were found between the Z index and precipitation extremes, while temperature extremes showed weaker correlations. Furthermore, we applied six variable selection regression methods, with Random Forest variable selection + Random Forest regression (RF+RF) performing the best (mean R² = 0.71), highlighting their ability to manage non-linear relationships and multicollinearity between climate indices. RF+RF proved more effective at handling correlated variables, which were crucial in capturing the region’s flood–drought dynamics. The quantified spatial reversals and non-linear climate-flood/drought relationships provide actionable metrics for early warning systems, enabling targeted infrastructure upgrades and water allocation policies in arid regions. These findings establish a transferable framework linking climate extremes to hydrological risks, directly informing adaptive land management and disaster preparedness strategies for Xinjiang and analogous regions under intensifying climate variability. Full article

Agricultural science and technology policies (ASTPs) have played a pivotal role in shaping agricultural innovation, sustainability, and cleaner production practices. Understanding how ASTPs diffuse is essential for optimizing policy design and advancing the green transition in agriculture. This study aims to investigate the diffusion of ASTPs in China, using a quantitative citation-based approach. The goal is to explore diffusion patterns, topic characteristics, and historical trajectories of ASTPs, thereby providing insights into policy transmission mechanisms that can inform future policy improvements. We analyze 3207 ASTP documents, focusing on policy citation links to examine the distribution, diffusion characteristics, and dynamics of policies. The analysis includes tracking topic evolution and identifying key policies while estimating the main diffusion paths. The results show that the top-down diffusion model is the dominant pattern of policy transmission, exhibiting the highest diffusion speed and both short- and long-term impacts. ASTPs have progressively expanded toward industrialization, informatization, and green development, with increased policy transmission efficiency. The diffusion process has formed three primary pathways: (i) enhancing agricultural innovation capacity, (ii) accelerating the transformation of technological achievements, and (iii) improving the agricultural science and technology innovation system. These pathways are critical to advancing sustainable and cleaner agricultural production. This study provides valuable insights into the diffusion of ASTPs and highlights key pathways for policy optimization. The findings suggest that enhancing policy frameworks and improving policy implementation efficiency will be crucial for facilitating the transition toward sustainable, low-carbon, and environmentally friendly agricultural practices. Future research should refine data sources and incorporate semantic analysis to capture more detailed policy transmission mechanisms. Full article

Porcine infectious pleuropneumonia (PCP) caused by Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (APP) leads to severe economic losses in swine production. Commercial vaccines offer limited cross-protection for the 19 serotypes, while APP mRNA vaccines remain unexplored. This study evaluated eight candidate APP proteins (ApxI-IV, OlmA, TbpB, GalT, and GalU) using immunobioinformatics tools, and their immunogenicity and cross-protection were assessed in a mouse model. The results revealed that ApxI and ApxII excel due to their stability, strong antigenicity, non-sensitization, and high immune receptor affinity. Compared to the PBS group, both ApxI and ApxII induced higher serum IgG, IL-2, IL-4, and IFN-γ levels. Following challenge with the two most prevalent APP strains in Mainland China, APP 5b and APP 1, the survival rates for ApxI (71.4% and 62.5%) and ApxII (75% and 71.4%) were measured, with notably reduced lung lesions and neutrophil infiltration. These findings highlight ApxI and ApxII’s potential in mRNA vaccine development as a promising approach to overcome current vaccine limitations. Future research should focus on creating APP mRNA vaccines and testing their efficacy in swine. This study is the first to combine immunoinformatics with experimental validation for APP mRNA vaccine antigens, representing a novel contribution. Full article

Background: In non-metastatic deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) colorectal cancer (CRC), traditional prognostic factors, such as pN staging, often fail to distinguish patient outcomes effectively. Methods: This retrospective study included a cohort of 792 dMMR CRC patients who underwent surgical treatment without neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy or immunotherapy. Traditional prognostic factors were compared with lymph node-based models (NLN, LNR, LOODS) for their ability to predict overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Results: The study demonstrated that traditional factors, such as histologic type, differentiation, and vascular invasion, had limited predictive value in dMMR CRC. Furthermore, the pN stage failed to effectively distinguish between pN1 and pN2 for both OS (p = 0.219) and DFS (p = 0.095). Conversely, LOODS demonstrated superior performance over traditional pN staging in predicting both OS and DFS (p < 0.001). A prognostic model combining LOODS with age exhibited superior predictive performance compared with the traditional TN staging system. Conclusions: LOODS was identified as a more effective independent prognostic factor compared with traditional pN staging, enabling more precise stratification of pN+ patients in non-metastatic dMMR CRC, highlighting its potential utility in guiding postoperative treatment and optimizing therapeutic strategies. Full article

Stress may aggravate the development of inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome, in which the number of enterochromaffin (EC) cells and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) levels are abnormal, but the underlying mechanism remains largely unresolved. In this study, we discovered that restraint stress triggered the expression of Tph1, which led to 5-HT production. The 5-HT signaling then increased intestinal permeability, downregulated the expression of tight junction proteins, reduced the number of goblet cells and their ability to secrete mucin, promoted the expression of inflammatory cytokines, and ultimately damaged the intestinal mucosal barrier. Mechanistically, the 5-HT receptor HTR7 was highly expressed in the intestine. It interacted with 5-HT to initiate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, inducing an increase in intestinal EC cells and further promoting 5-HT secretion. Additionally, the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway could initiate the NF-κB signaling pathway and induce the expression of inflammatory cytokines. Blocking the 5-HT signal in mice inhibited the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signal, thereby alleviating intestinal inflammation. Our findings revealed a novel role for 5-HT in intestinal inflammatory diseases and represent a potential new therapeutic target. Full article

Porcine contagious pleuropneumonia (PCP), caused by Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (APP), is a highly contagious disease that leads to significant economic losses in the swine industry. Current vaccines are ineffective due to the presence of multiple serotypes and the absence of a predominant seasonal serotype, underscoring the need for vaccines with broad-spectrum protection. Previous studies identified galT and galU as promising antigen candidates. In this study, we expressed and characterized a soluble recombinant galT-galU protein (rgalT-galU) from the pET-28a-galT-galU plasmid. The protein, with a molecular weight of 73 kDa, exhibited pronounced immunogenicity in murine models, as indicated by a significant elevation in IgG titers determined through an indirect ELISA. This immune response was further corroborated by substantial antigen-specific splenic lymphocyte proliferation, with a stimulation index of 51.5%. Immunization also resulted in elevated serum cytokines levels of IL-4, IL-12, and IFN-γ, as detected by cytokine assays. Vaccination with rgalT-galU provided immunoprotection against three predominant APP strains (APP1, APP5b, and APP7), achieving protection rates of 71.4%, 71.4%, and 85.7%, respectively. It also effectively mitigated pulmonary lesions and neutrophil infiltration, as verified by histopathological and immunohistochemical analyses. These results indicate that rgalT-galU is a promising candidate for developing cross-protective subunit vaccines against APP infection. Full article

Background: Since the outbreak of mpox in 2022, the disease has spread rapidly worldwide and garnered significant public attention. Vaccination is regarded as an effective measure to prevent the spread of mpox. The success of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine demonstrates that mRNA-based vaccines represent a rapid and multifunctional platform with considerable potential, and are expected to be a strategy to address mpox spread. Methods: In this study, we screened an mpox multi-antigen-tandem bivalent mRNA vaccine candidate: a lipid nanoparticle-encapsulated mRNA-1017 and mRNA-1995 (mRNA-3012-LNP). We then evaluated the immunogenicity of the mpox virus (MPXV) bivalent mRNA vaccine candidate and its protective efficacy against the vaccinia virus (VACV) in a mouse model. Results: Mice vaccinated with two doses of the mRNA-3012-LNP vaccine exhibited robust binding antibody responses and MPXV-specific Th-1-biased cellular immune responses in vivo. Notably, the boosted immunized mice generated potent neutralizing antibodies against the VACV, effectively protecting them from viral challenge. Additionally, serum transfer protection experiments indicated that serum from mice inoculated with mRNA-3012-LNP was effective in protecting nude mice from VACV challenge. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the mpox bivalent mRNA candidate vaccine mRNA-3012-LNP induces strong immunogenicity and has the potential to serve as a safe and effective vaccine candidate against mpox epidemics. Full article

Equid alphaherpesvirus type 8 (EHV-8) is a contagious pathogen that causes reproductive disorders, respiratory diseases, and viral encephalitis in equids, resulting in significant economic losses for the global horse and donkey industries. Currently, there are no approved antiviral drugs or vaccines available for EHV-8 control. In this study, we investigated the antiviral efficacy of celastrol against EHV-8 both in vitro and in vivo. Our results demonstrated that celastrol significantly inhibited EHV-8 infection in Rabbit kidney (RK-13) and equine dermal cells (NBL-6) in a dose-dependent manner. Mechanistic studies revealed that celastrol interfered with viral replication at multiple stages of the infection cycle. Furthermore, we found that celastrol induced an antiviral interferon response through activation of the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway. Importantly, celastrol treatment significantly reduced EHV-8 replication and ameliorated lung pathology in a mouse model. These findings suggest that celastrol may represent a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of EHV-8 infections. Full article