ObjectiveThe present study aimed to investigate alterations in white matter microstructure and spontaneous neural activity in male college smokers, and to further explore their associations with nicotine dependence. Given that adolescence and early adulthood represent critical periods for brain maturation, particularly for white matter development, understanding the neural correlates of smoking behavior during this stage is of substantial importance for both neuroscience and public health. MethodsA total of 115 male undergraduate students were initially recruited for this study. After quality control and exclusion procedures, 52 male college smokers and 42 demographically matched healthy non-smokers were included in the final analysis. All participants underwent multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI). White matter fiber tracts were reconstructed using the automated fiber quantification (AFQ) method, which enables precise identification and quantification of major fiber bundles. Eighteen major white matter tracts were segmented for each participant. Along the core trajectory of each tract, 100 equidistant nodes were sampled. Fractional anisotropy (FA) was calculated at each node to assess white matter microstructural integrity, while amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) was computed to evaluate spontaneous neural activity within white matter tracts. Between-group differences in FA and ALFF were assessed using two-sample t-tests, with appropriate corrections applied for multiple comparisons. Furthermore, Pearson correlation analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between imaging-derived metrics (FA and ALFF values in regions showing significant group differences) and nicotine dependence severity, as measured by the Fagerström test for nicotine dependence (FTND). ResultsCompared with healthy non-smokers, male college smokers exhibited significantly increased FA values in several white matter tracts, including the left thalamic radiation, right corticospinal tract, forceps major of the corpus callosum, left uncinate fasciculus, and right arcuate fasciculus. These findings suggest altered microstructural organization or increased directional coherence within these pathways. In addition, smokers demonstrated significantly elevated ALFF values in the forceps major, right uncinate fasciculus, and left arcuate fasciculus, indicating enhanced spontaneous neural activity in these white matter regions. Correlation analyses revealed that FA values in the left thalamic radiation and right corticospinal tract were negatively correlated with FTND scores, suggesting that higher levels of nicotine dependence were associated with reduced microstructural integrity or altered fiber organization in these regions. In contrast, ALFF values in the forceps major and right uncinate fasciculus were positively correlated with FTND scores, indicating that greater nicotine dependence was associated with increased spontaneous neural activity in specific white matter pathways. ConclusionThe present study provides evidence that male college smokers exhibit distinct alterations in both white matter microstructure and functional activity. These abnormalities are not uniformly distributed but rather localized to specific fiber tracts implicated in sensorimotor processing, interhemispheric communication, and higher-order cognitive and emotional regulation. Importantly, the observed associations between imaging metrics and nicotine dependence severity suggest that these structural and functional alterations may reflect neurobiological mechanisms underlying addiction. The combination of AFQ-based tract profiling and multimodal MRI offers a sensitive approach for detecting subtle changes along white matter pathways, highlighting its potential utility in identifying neuroimaging biomarkers of nicotine dependence. Overall, these findings indicate that smoking during early adulthood may disrupt ongoing white matter maturation, potentially leading to long-term consequences for brain function. This study provides novel insights into the neural basis of nicotine dependence and underscores the importance of early intervention and prevention strategies targeting young smokers.

Objective This study reports on the obligatory parasitism of water mites Arrenurus sp. on Anopheles messeae at the Manzhouli Port, Inner Mongolia, China. Methods Duing July 2024, a survey on the mosquito diversity was conducted at the Manzhouli Port. Captured mosquitoes and their ectoparasites were identified to species level. Results A total of 1840 adult mosquitoes were collected, representing species from three genera: Culex(Cx. modestus, Cx. pipiens pallens), Aedes(Ae. dorsalis, Ae. flavidorsalis, Ae. flavescens), and Anopheles (An. messeae). Among all the mosqutioes specimens,3 out of 150 captured An. messeae were found to carry ectoparasitic mites, with number of 2,4,27 mites separately. Morphological and molecular identification reached the same result as water mites(Hydrachnidiae, Hydracrina). COI gene sequence showed 94% similarity with the closest species Arrenurus truncatellus. Conlusions Literature review suggests water mites are host-specific parasitism of mosquito species and herein with the first record of Arrenurus sp. parasiting on An. Messeae in the most high-latitude region globally.

Background: Patients with coarctation of the aorta (CoA) and an interrupted aortic arch (IAA) may present with small mitral valves (MVs) and a reduced left ventricular (LV) volume. Biventricular repair (BVR) in these patients is dependent on adequate size of the left cardiac structures.Purpose: This study evaluated the impact of the hemodynamic characteristics of atrial septal defects (ASDs) on MV growth following surgical repair. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the data of patients diagnosed with CoA or IAA between 2007 and 2024. The z score for MV size measured 6 months postoperatively (Z2) was compared with the preoperative MV size (Z1). The factors associated with MV growth were also studied. Results: A total of 161 patients with CoA or IAA were included. Transthoracic echocardiography was used to assess the MV and LV dimensions preoperatively and 6 months postoperatively. Of the cohort, 155 (96.3%) underwent initial BVR and 6 underwent single-ventricle palliation. MV z scores significantly increased following BVR (mean change: +0.45±1.35; P<0.001) but decreased after single-ventricle repair (-0.56±0.49, P=0.04). Multivariate analysis identified the initial MV z score and ASD pressure gradient as independent predictors of MV growth (R2=0.39). Conclusion Annular growth of the MV was not observed in patients who underwent single-ventricle palliation. In contrast, among patients who achieved BVR, those with a small preoperative MV annulus and low ASD pressure gradient demonstrated subsequent catch-up MV growth, suggesting that adequate left-sided preload is essential for MV development.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the management status of small pressure steam sterilizers in dental institu-tions across seven major regions of China and provide references for establishing standardized monitoring and eval-uation protocols for sterilization efficacy.METHODS From Aug.to Nov.2023,a convenience sampling method was employed to select 885 dental institutions of various levels from seven geographical regions.An online survey using a self-designed questionnaire was conducted to assess the management status of small pressure steam steri-lizers in dental institutions.RESULTS A total of 885 questionnaires were distributed,with 770 valid responses col-lected,covering 770 dental institutions at all levels.The survey involved 2 056 small pressure steam sterilizers,of which 43.14％were pre-vacuum type and 89.40％were benchtop models.Tertiary dental institutions had the high-est proportion of imported small pressure steam sterilizers(60.15％),with most devices in use for 5-10 years(36.88％).Secondary and low er-level institutions predominantly used domestically produced small pressure steam sterilizers(74.60％),which used for 3-5 years accounting for the highest proportion(34.29％).While 85.58％of dental institutions employed dedicated sterilization personnel,only 45.84％performed proper maintenance for small pressure steam sterilizers.Training rates were 80.00％for department of stomatology in ungraded general hospitals and primary medical institutions,76.19％in prejob and 71.43％during the work for department of sto-matology in primary clinics,respectively.CONCLUSIONS Although most dental institutions demonstrate sound policy formulation,challenges persist in equipment maintenance,policy implementation and grassroots training.Future efforts should be made on strengthening maintenance and inspection of equipment,enhancing sys-tem supervisory mechanisms,and optimizing training systems to ensure dental treatment safety.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the frailty status of elderly patients with acquired immune deficiency syn-drome(AIDS)and opportunistic infection,and to analyze the associated risk factors.METHODS A convenience sampling method was used to survey 210 elderly patients with AIDS and opportunistic infection in Guangzhou from May 2024 to Apr.2025.General information questionnaires,FRAIL scale,Nutritional Risk Screening 2002,Athens Insomnia Scale and objective biological indicators were utilized to investigate the incidence of frailty.Logis-tic regression analysis was employed to identify the risk factors for frailty in elderly patients with AIDS and oppor-tunistic infection.RESULTS Among the 210 elderly patients with AIDS and opportunistic infection,40(19.05％)were frail,including 20(15.62％)patients aged＜60 years and 20(24.39％)≥60 years.Advanced age(OR=1.111,95％CI:1.033-1.194,P=0.004),body mass index(BMI)≥ 24.0 kg/m2(OR=4.329,95％CI:1.008-18.1585,P=0.049),hemoglobin level(OR=1.037,95％CI:1.009-1.065,P=0.009)and CD4+T lymphocyte count＜200(OR=10.792,95％CI:1.358-85.765,P=0.024)were identified as risk factors for frailty.Regular exercise(OR=0.108,95％CI:0.032-0.362,P＜0.001)was found to be a protective factor.CONCLUSIONS Elderly patients with AIDS and opportunistic infection experience early onset and high inci-dence of frailty,influenced by multiple factors.Early intervention,enhanced nutrition and engaging in regular ex-ercise can reduce the occurrence of frailty.

Objective:To explore the relationship between childhood abuse, pleasure experience, sleep quality and self-injury behavior in adolescents with depressive disorder.Methods:One hundred and twenty adolescent patients with depressive disorder hospitalized in the Fourth People's Hospital of Hefei City from January 2021 to February 2024 were selected as the study group, as well as 120 healthy controls matched with the patients' age, gender and education level were selected as the control group.The adolescent non-suicidal self-injury assessment questionnaire, Pittsburgh sleep quality index, temporal experience of pleasure scale, and childhood trauma questionnaire were used for assessment. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 26.0 software. Independent sample t-test was used for comparison between the two groups. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze correlations between scale scores. Chain mediating modeling was used with the PROCESS macro program. Results:The differences of the study group and the control group in childhood abuse ((53.33±15.21), (39.07±11.81), t=8.081, P<0.001), pleasure experience ((85.60±15.77), (67.44±19.46), t=7.941, P<0.001), self-injury behavior ((29.01±9.89), (3.76±0.49), t=8.811, P<0.001), sleep quality ((12.24±4.15), (6.56±4.05), t=10.711, P<0.001), and depression ((30.62±7.97), (5.88±3.28), t=31.451, P<0.001) were all statistically significant. The self-injury behavior of the study group was positively correlated with the sleep quality ( r=0.487, P<0.001) and childhood abuse ( r=0.553, P<0.001), and negatively correlated with the pleasure experience ( r=-0.483, P<0.001). Childhood abuse had a negative predictive effect on pleasure experience ( β=-0.491, P<0.001), there was a positive predictive effect of childhood abuse on sleep quality ( β=0.363, P<0.001), there was a negative predictive effect of pleasure experience on sleep quality ( β=-0.321, P<0.001), there was a simultaneous predictive effect of childhood abuse, pleasure experience and sleep quality on self-injury behaviors predictive effect ( β=0.343, P<0.001, β=-0.211, P<0.001, β=0.208, P<0.001).The total effect of childhood abuse on self-injury behavior mediated by pleasure experience and sleep quality was 0.555(95% CI=0.448-0.663), and the direct effect was 0.343(95% CI=0.219-0.468).The mediating effect of pleasure experience between childhood abuse and self-injury behavior was 0.104(95% CI=0.007-0.196), accounting for 18.74% of the total effect, the mediating effect of sleep quality between childhood abuse and self-injury behavior was 0.075(95% CI=0.028-0.133), accounting for 13.51% of the total effect, and the chain mediating effect of pleasure experience and sleep quality between childhood abuse and self-injury behavior was 0.033(95% CI=0.011-0.060), accounting for 5.95% of the total effect. Conclusion:Sleep quality and pleasure experience exert the chain mediating effect between the childhood abuse and self-injury behavior in adolescents with depressive disorders.

P53 is a key tumor suppressor gene,which is regulated in many ways.Zinc finger 148(ZNF148)and SP5,as zinc finger transcription factors(TFs),play important roles in tumor suppression and carcinogenesis.The regulatory relationship between these two TFs and p53 has not been reported.In this paper,Ishikawa and A549 cell lines with different p53 expression levels were used as research mod-els to explore the transcriptional regulation of the P53 gene by ZNF148 and SP5.The data showed that there were differences in the expression of ZNF148 and SP5 in the two cell lines.The mRNA expression of ZNF148 in Ishikawa was 1.9 times higher than that of A549,and the mRNA expression of SP5 in A549 was 802.4 times that of ZNF148.Data showed that in Ishikawa cells,the expression of P53 de-creased(81.8％)after ZNF148 knockdown,and increased(2.6 times)after SP5 overexpression.Transfection of si-SP5 and ZNF148 expression plasmids into A549 cells increased the mRNA expression of P53 by 6.6 times and 14.6 times,respectively.These results indicate that ZNF148 could activate,whereas SP5 could inhibit,P53 expression.The conserved cis-element of ZNF148 and SP5 TFs was found in the region of the P53 promoter by bioinformatics methods.The data from dual luciferase reporter gene assay showed that the luciferase activity of ZNF148 in Ishikawa and A549 cells was increased by 2.1-fold and 4.2-fold compared with the control group(P＜0.05).Compared with the control group,the normalized relative luciferase activity of transfected SP5 decreased by 77.1％and 35.7％(P＜0.05).However,when the cis-element of ZNF148 and SP5 was mutated,the effect disappeared.Further trans-fection of ZNF148 and SP5 with different ratios revealed that SP5 could reverse the transcriptional activa-tion of P53 by ZNF148.Studies have shown that ZNF148 shares a common site with SP5,and the ratio of the two TFs may influence the transcriptional activity of P53.The expression of the Wnt pathway and the cell proliferation rate after knockdown of ZNF148 and SP5 were further studied to explore the role of the two TFs.Our data show that ZNF148 and SP5 could regulate the transcriptional activity of P53,and their expression levels and interaction may be the key factors regulating P53 expression.

Objective:To establish a stable rat model of sequelae of pelvic inflammatory disease(SPID)with clinical characteristics,and to provide a reliable experimental model for the study of the pharmcological effect and mechanism of SPID.Methods:Twenty-four 7-week-old SD rats were divided into sham operation group,model-A(108 cfu/mL mixed bacterial solution,0.2 mL),model-B(109 cfu/mL mixed bacterial solution 0.2 mL),and model-C(108 cfu/mL E.coli 0.2 mL).The weight of the rat's uterine was weighed and the uterine index was calculated.The automatic hematology analyzer was used to detect the blood routine;hematoxylin-eosin staining(HE)and masson staining were used to detect uterine pathlogical changes in rats.Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)was used to detect interleukin-1β(IL-1β),interleukin-6(IL-6)and tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α)in rat uterine tissue homogenates.Western blot was used to detect the expression of proteins related to NF-κB signaling pathway.Results:Compared with the sham operation group,the uterine index of model-A,model-B,and model-C were significantly increased(P＜0.05,P＜0.01).The levels of WBC and NE in the model-A increased significantly(P＜0.01).The level of LY in model-B decreased significantly(P＜0.01).The levels of IL-1β,TNF-α in model-A,model-B,and model-C were significantly increased(P＜0.01).The levels of IL-6 in model-A and model-B were significantly increased(P＜0.05,P＜0.01).The collagen volume fraction of model-A and model-B were significantly increased(P＜0.01).Mechanism study indicates that the expression levels of p-IKKβ/IKKβ,p-IκBα/IκBα and p-p65/p65 in model-A were significantly increased(P＜0.01),and the expression levels of IκBα/β-actin were significantly decreased(P＜0.01).The expression level of p-IKKβ/IKKβ in model-B was significantly increased(P＜0.01).Conclusions:A stable rat model of SPID that conforms to clinical characteristics can be successfully constructed by combining 0.2 mL of mixed bacterial solution with a concentration of 108 cfu/mL and mechanical injury.This modeling method intervened in the expression of the NF-κB inflammatory signaling pathway.

Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction disease caused by a dysregulated host response to infection.It has com-plex pathophysiological changes,and in severe cases,it can rap-idly develop into septic shock and multiple organ dysfunction or multiple organ failure.At present,the pathological mechanism of sepsis and its induced organ dysfunction is complex and the in-fluencing factors are numerous.So far,there is still a lack of specific and effective treatment strategies.RNA modify-N6-methyladenosine(m6 A)is one of the most common post-tran-scriptional modifications on eukaryotic RNAs.It is involved in the regulation of the occurrence and development of a variety of inflammatory diseases,including sepsis,and even multiple organ dysfunction induced by sepsis by affecting the metabolism of RNAs.It includes cardiac dysfunction,acute lung injury(ALI)and acute kidney injury(AKI).Therefore,this article will dis-cuss the effect of m6A modification on the function of immune cells,and its important role in sepsis and its induced multiple or-gan dysfunction diseases by regulating inflammatory signals,py-roptosis,mitochondrial damage and ferroptosis.This will provide new therapeutic targets and strategies for the clinical prevention and treatment of sepsis and its induced multiple organ dysfunc-tion diseases.

Objective To investigate the benefits and challenges of the reform in evidence-based obstetric nursing practice in clinical nursing,therefore to provide a reference for initiating and keeping the reform in evidence-based nursing practices.Methods A method of descriptive phenomenological research was conducted between January and February 2024 in our hospital on 10 selected clinical nurses by purposive sampling.An outline for interviews was developed based on literature review and expert interviews,followed by semi-structured interviews with the nurses.Core themes were extracted with Colaizzi's seven-step analysis.Results Three themes and 12 sub-themes were summarised in this study.The 3 core themes that were identified among the nurses included:acceptance of evidence-based nursing practice reform(with 3 domains regarding knowledge,decision-making and action),perception of the benefits of the reform in evidence-based nursing practice(with 5 domains regarding the professionalism and scientific nature of clinical nursing,improvement of patient experience and nursing outcomes,enhancement of nursing quality and safety,promotion of innovation in on-the-job training and education,and facilitation of collaboration within the nursing team),and perception in the challenges of reform in evidence-based nursing practice(with 4 domains regarding the stress and challenges,doubts and resistance,poor cooperation between doctors and nurses,and risks in clinical decision-making).Conclusion The acceptance regarding reform in evidence-based nursing practice varies among the nurses.It is necessary to promote the acceptance,provide the targeted guidance and intervene in the factors of benefits and challenges among the nurses,hence to facilitate a smooth implementation of the reform in evidence-based nursing practice.