ObjectiveDonkey hide is the sole legally designated raw material for the preparation of the traditional Chinese medicine Ejiao. The quality stability of donkey hide during preservation directly determines the efficacy and safety of Ejiao. This study focuses on the dynamic succession of microbial communities during the preservation of donkey hides from different origins, aiming to clarify the correlation between microbial biodiversity difference and the degradation profiles of hide collagen and critical biochemical components, thereby providing a theoretical foundation for developing targeted preservation strategies based on microbial regulation. MethodsDonkey hides originating from four different regions were subjected to an accelerated microbial aging assay to simulate the spoilage process. The microbial community succession was analyzed using high-throughput sequencing. Microstructure changes and pore structure characteristics were assessed by scanning electron microscopy and mercury intrusion porosimetry, respectively. Additionally, the content of major components, including lipids, proteins, and sugars were determined by biochemical methods. ResultsAfter 96 h of aging, the collagen fiber structure in Africa donkey hides (ADH) exhibited significant degradation and collapse, followed by Xinjiang donkey hides (XDH). Instead, the microstructure of Dong’e black donkey hides (DDH) and Peru donkey hides (PDH) remained relatively intact. The porosities of DDH, XDH, PDH, and ADH increased from 27.9%, 15.7%, 30.3%, and 46.2% to 36.5%, 52.6%, 42.8%, and 57.7%, respectively, during the aging process, which suggested that the originally compact fiber structure was disrupted by microbial aging. Fourier transform infrared spectrometer analysis revealed the amide bands in XDH exhibited relatively weak intensity, and no collagen amide I band was observed in ADH. Meanwhile, the lipid and protein contents decreased in all four types of donkey hides, indicating that these components served as the primary nutrient sources for the growth of microorganism. Notably, the most severe collagen degradation was observed in XDH and ADH. A substantial increase was detected in the total soluble sugar in PDH aging solution and hydroxyproline in the ADH aging solution, respectively. These results indicated that donkey hides exhibit distinct patterns of structural degradation and nutrient utilization. Furthermore, the viable cells number of donkey hides increased sharply after 48 h of aging. Metagenomic analysis revealed that the relative abundance of Euryarchaeota in ADH, PDH and XDH declining from initial 93.19%, 97.73% and 30.08% to 0.79%, 1.43% and 0.02% after 96 h, respectively. Conversely, a significantly increase was observed in the abundance of Bacillota, with a marked increase in ADH, peaking at 92.75%. Additionally, the abundance of Pseudomonadota in PDH increased from 0.10% to 87.84%, suggesting that Bacillota and Pseudomonadota may be key factors exacerbating donkey hide spoilage. Unlike the other three types of donkey hides, the dominant bacterial phylum in DDH shifted from Pseudomonadota to Bacteroidota, characterized by a substantial abundance increase of Bacteroidota from 0.13% to 44.22%. ConclusionRegional variation in origin significantly influence the microbial aging of donkey hides, leading to distinct patterns of structural deterioration and differential nutrient utilization. Therefore, implementing origin-specific preservation strategies, through the precisely controlling environmental factors to suppress harmful phyla such as Bacillota and Pseudomonadota, is crucial for enhancing the storage quality of donkey hides.

Objective To investigate the prevalence of soil-transmitted nematode human infections in Hubei Province from 2016 to 2023, so as to provide insights into formulation of soil-transmitted nematodiasis control strategies and evaluation of soil-transmitted nematodiasis control effectiveness. Methods There were 10 surveillance points established in Hubei Province for soil-transmitted nematodiasis each year from 2016 to 2023. The surveillance points were divided into eastern, western, southern, northern and central regions according to geographical locations, and one administrative village was sampled from a township in each region as a surveillance point. Then, at least 200 permanent residents at ages of over 3 years were randomly sampled at each point, with at least 1 000 individuals sampled. Soil-transmitted nematode infection was detected using a modified Kato-Katz thick smear method (two slides for one stool sample), and Enterobius vermicularis infection was additionally detected with a cellophane tape test among children at ages of 3 to 9 years. The prevalence of soil-transmitted nematode human infections was descriptively analyzed. Results A total of 80 547 individuals underwent surveillance for soil-transmitted nematodiasis in Hubei Province from 2016 to 2023, and a total of 262 individuals were detected with soil-transmitted nematode infections, including two cases with mixed infections, yielding an overall prevalence rate of 0.33% (262/80 547). The prevalence rates of hookworm, Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and E. vermicularis infections were 0.02% (20/80 547), 0.07% (55/80 547), 0.02% (15/80 547) and 0.22% (174/80 547), respectively, appearing a parasite species-specific prevalence rate (χ² = 250.235, P < 0.05), and the prevalence rates of soil-transmitted nematode infections were 0.50%(51/10271),0.37%(34/9120),0.39%(39/10099),0.40%(41/10168), 0.36% (37/10 234), 0.45% (46/10 211), 0.03% (3/10 238) and 0.11% (11/10 206) in Hubei Province from 2016 to 2023, respectively, showing a year-specific prevalence rate (χ² = 60.589, P < 0.05). Soil-transmitted nematode infections were detected across 36 surveillance points, and there was a significant difference in the prevalence of soil-transmitted nematode infections among surveillance points (0.02% to 3.30%, P < 0.001). In addition, the differences in prevalence rates of human soil-transmitted nematode infection among different age groups (χ² = 531.091, P < 0.05), occupations (P < 0.001), and education levels (P < 0.001) were all statistically significant. Among these, the children at ages of 3 to 9 years old (1.40%, 174/12 461), nursery-school children (1.69%, 90/5 312) and preschool-aged children (1.56%, 93/5 969) were relatively high. Conclusions The overall prevalence of soil-transmitted nematodiasis was low in Hubei Province from 2016 to 2023; however, the prevalence varied across regions and among populations, with E. vermicularis as the predominant species of soil-transmitted nematode. Soil-transmitted nematodiasis control should be given a high priority in key areas in Hubei Province, and preschool children, primary school students, and individuals with a low educational level are recommended as key target populations for health education and interventions.

ObjectiveTo address the key challenges in breast electrical impedance tomography (EIT) reconstruction including the severe ill‑posedness of the inverse problem, limited measurement information from the electrodes, low contrast of small lesions, as well as the common drawbacks of traditional reconstruction methods such as boundary blurring, low spatial resolution, and weak small-target detection capability, and to overcome the limitations of existing deep learning approaches namely low training efficiency, insufficient physical consistency, and substantial information loss during the low‑to‑high dimensional mapping process, this study proposes a multi‑scale attention and dynamic sparse mask fusion network (MADS‑Net). The proposed method aims to enhance high‑resolution reconstruction accuracy, small-lesion detectability, noise robustness, and computational efficiency in breast‑screening-oriented EIT, thereby providing a feasible solution for the application of EIT in breast functional imaging. MethodsThe proposed network adopts a strategy of “locate first, reconstruct later”. It realizes adaptive allocation of computational resources through a dynamic mask module, alleviates information loss in the low-to-high dimensional mapping process via a multi-scale attention mechanism, and embeds physical constraints to improve the physical rationality of reconstruction results. The performance of the proposed method was validated through systematic numerical simulations, agar phantom experiments, and porcine tissue experiments. Comparisons were made with mainstream methods including the Gauss-Newton algorithm, convolutional neural networks, U-Net, and Deep D-Bar. The image correlation coefficient (ICC), root mean square error (RMSE), and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) were adopted as quantitative evaluation metrics. Furthermore, lesion‑level evaluation metrics were introduced to assess the capability of different methods in reconstructing abnormal target boundaries and small‑sized target regions. ResultsExperimental results demonstrate that MADS-Net outperforms all comparison methods across all test scenarios. In numerical simulations, it achieves higher accuracy in target morphology and spatial location recovery as well as better background suppression. In agar phantom experiments, its detection and imaging reliability for small targets is significantly superior to the comparison methods. In porcine tissue experiments, the model maintains good generalization performance and can adapt to complex biological tissue imaging scenarios. Quantitative results show that MADS-Net achieves an average ICC of 0.917 6±0.048 8, an RMSE as low as0.060 6±0.031 6, and a PSNR of (23.893 9±2.685 3) dB. It successfully detects tiny targets as small as 5 mm within a 100 mm diameter sensing field, reduces the total training duration by 23.5% compared with the baseline method, and maintains stable reconstruction performance even under strong noise interference. ConclusionThe results demonstrate that MADS-Net achieves favorable EIT reconstruction performance in numerical simulations, agar phantom experiments, and porcine tissue experiments, even under common practical imaging challenges including low signal-to-noise ratio and blurred tissue boundaries. This study provides a methodological reference for further research on EIT in breast-screening-related scenarios and other medical functional imaging tasks, and also offers a low-cost, radiation-free alternative for breast lesion screening that aligns with the clinical demand for non-invasive diagnostic tools. It should be noted that real clinical breast data have not yet been used for validation in this study, and the clinical applicability of the proposed method requires further investigation. Future work will prioritize collecting multi-center real clinical breast datasets, and further optimize the model’s generalization ability to adapt to individual differences in breast tissue composition to promote its clinical application.

Objective:To summarize the clinical characteristics of elderly patients with stage Ⅰ diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and analyze the factors associated with prognosis.Methods:A case series study was conducted by retrospectively collecting clinical data from patients aged over 60 years with newly diagnosed stage Ⅰ DLBCL across 20 medical centers in Jiangsu Province, China, between June 2010 and April 2023. The involved site, classification and treatment plan were summarized. The primary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Statistical analyses were performed using the Kaplan-Meier method, and Cox regression model.Results:The study included 255 patients with a median age of 69 years, of whom 130 (51.0%) were male, 66 (25.9%) were aged ≥75 years and 26 (10.1%) had a high Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score of ≥2. Extranodal involvement was observed in 163 (63.9%) patients, with the stomach (37.4%, 61/163), intestine (19.0%, 31/163), testes (11.0%, 18/163), and breast (7.4%, 12/163) being the most frequently affected sites. The non-germinal center B-cell (non-GCB) subtype was prevalent in 63.7% of patients (142/223), with no significant difference between the nodal and extranodal groups ( P=0.681). Furthermore, 73.9% (184/249) and 11.7% (29/249) of patients received the R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone) and R-miniCHOP regimen, respectively. The overall 3-year PFS rate was 81.5%, and the 3-year OS rate was 85.6%. Patients aged ≥75 years ( HR=2.910, 95% CI 1.565-5.408, P=0.001) and/or with a CCI score ≥2 ( HR=2.324, 95% CI 1.141-4.732, P=0.020) had a significantly poorer PFS. Incorporating age ≥75 years and CCI score ≥2 into the stage-modified international prognostic index (sm-IPI) can better stratify the prognosis of elderly patients with stage Ⅰ DLBCL. The 3-year PFS rate was 48.7% in the high-risk group versus 85.7% in the low-risk group ( P<0.001). Conclusions:Our findings show that the elderly patients with stage Ⅰ DLBCL were predominantly characterized by extranodal involvement (particularly in the stomach and intestinal tract) and non-GCB subtype. Age ≥75 years and CCI ≥2 were identified as independent prognostic factors. The newly established sm-IPI-75-CCI incorporating these factors demonstrated superior prognostic discrimination compared to conventional risk assessment systems.

Liquiritigenin(LG)is a flavone of pharmacological importance,however,its application potential is severely limited due to its poor water solubility.LG could be disassociated slightly in water to form phenolate anion,therefore,better solubilization effect is expected by inclusion with cationic cyclodextrins(CCDs).In this work,four kinds of CCDs modified with amino groups at the primary face were synthesized,and their solid inclusion complexes with LG were successfully prepared by preparing their saturated solutions.The formation of the solid inclusion complexes was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy(SEM)and powder X-ray diffraction(PXRD),and their supramolecular binding behavior in solution was studied using multiple techniques.A 1∶1 inclusion stoichiometry of inclusion complexation was defined using Job plot by ultraviolet-visible(UV-vis)spectroscopy,and their binding stability constants(Ks)were determined as 2862.77,3494.70,6521.85 and 9599.48 L/mol using UV-vis spectroscopic titration,far more superior to that of nativeβ-CD(Ks=236.79 L/mol).This indicated that the amino side chains on CCDs could actively participate in the inclusion complexation through anion-cation interactions,significantly strengthening the host-guest binding between CCDs and LG.The inclusion modes were further elucidated based on proton and two-dimensional rotating-frame overhauser enhancement spectroscopy(2D-ROESY)nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)experiments and molecular docking.Water solubility of LG was dramatically promoted up to 4.9 mg/mL,which was 70-fold higher than that of native LG.This study could draw inspiration for the binding and solubilization of phenols such as flavones by design of cationic macrocyclic molecules.

Objective To construct an aptamer-functionalized carboxylated graphene oxide(CGO)fluo-rescent sensor to achieve highly sensitive and specific detection of ketamine(KET)and its metabolite norketamine(NK)using an aptamer capable of simultaneously recognizing KET and NK.Methods A specific aptamer for simultaneous recognition of KET and NK was screened using graphene oxide-sys-tematic evolution of ligand by exponential enrichment(GO-SELEX)and molecular docking tech-niques.The aptamer,labeled with Cy5 fluorescence,was chemically conjugated to CGO to construct an aptamer-functionalized CGO fluorescent sensor.By optimizing detection conditions,including the mass concentration of CGO,aptamer concentration,reaction temperature,and incubation time,quantita-tive analysis of the target analytes was achieved using the ratio of fluorescence intensity changes be-fore and after target addition.The stability of the sensor in biological matrices was evaluated by moni-toring fluorescence intensity changes over incubation time in blank blood and urine,in comparison with the traditional physical adsorption-based CGO fluorescent sensor.Spiked recovery experiments in blank blood and urine were conducted to compare performance with that of HPLC-MS/MS.Results A specific aptamer A5 was selected and chemically conjugated with CGO to construct the aptamer-functionalized CGO fluorescent sensor.Under optimized conditions,the proposed fluorescent sensor ex-hibited a linear detection range of 1.0-5.0 ng/mL for KET,with a limit of detection(LOD)of 0.86 ng/mL;while for NK,the linear detection range was 1.0-5.0 ng/mL,with an LOD of 0.70 ng/mL.Com-pared with the CGO fluorescent sensor constructed via physical adsorption,this sensor demonstrated greater stability in blood and urine.The spiked recovery rates of KET and NK in blank blood and urine ranged from 81.50%to 110.03%,exhibiting detection performance comparable to that of HPLC-MS/MS.Conclusion The aptamer screening method offers a novel approach for selecting aptamers tar-geting drugs and their metabolites.The constructed aptamer-functionalized CGO fluorescent sensor pro-vides an efficient and reliable strategy for the high-performance detection of KET and NK.

Decreased endometrial receptivity is a critical factor contributing to the decline in fertility among women of advanced age. With the increase of age, the endometrium exhibits diminished hormonal responsiveness, a phenomenon known as inflammaging, and an imbalance in immune cell populations. These changes impede the processes of endometrial epithelial-mesenchymal transition and decidualization, thereby negatively impacting embryo implantation and reducing overall fertility potential. Furthermore, adverse lifestyle choices, exposure to environmental factors, inflammatory conditions, and repeated interventions within the uterine cavity can result in pathological aging of the endometrium that does not align with its chronological age. This misalignment may be associated with the emergence of various reproductive disorders, even in younger women. This paper seeks to investigate the relationship between pathological aging of the endometrium and reproductive disorders, particularly in the context of embryo implantation, with the aim of providing new insights into the pathogenesis, clinical diagnosis, and treatment of reproductive disorders.

Objective:To explore the effects of Ziyu Ointment on granulation tissue,TGF-β and downstream Smad protein in the process of wound healing in rats by constructing a rat model of back trauma.Methods:A rat model of back trauma was constructed,and 100 SD male rats were separated into healthy group,back trauma group,Ziyu Ointment treatment group,petrolatum treatment group,Ziyu Ointment+TGF-β1 activation group,with 20 per group.Wound formation surgery was performed,and wound healing of rats in each group was recorded at 5th,10th,and 15th day after operation;the levels of IL-6,IL-1β and TNF-α in the serum of rats in each group were detected;the granulation tissue formed by wound healing at 15th day was selected for HE and Masson staining,the proportion of blood vessel area and collagen area of granulation tissue of rats in each group were analyzed and calculated;the mRNA expression levels of TGF-β1 and Smad3 in granulation tissues of rats in each group were detected by fluorescence quantitative PCR;the expression levels of TGF-β1,Smad3 and p-Smad3 in granulation tissues of rats in each group were detected by Western blot.Results:The healthy group rats had complete epidermal tissue;the levels of serum IL-6,IL-1β,TNF-α,the expression of TGF-β1 mRNA and protein in the wound granulation tissue,and the phosphorylation of Smad3 in the back trauma group were obviously higher than the healthy group(P<0.05);compared with back trauma group,the wound healing rate,proportion of collagen area,and propor-tion of blood vessel area in Ziyu Ointment treatment group and petrolatum treatment group were obviously increased,the serum IL-6,IL-1β,TNF-α contents,TGF-β1 mRNA and protein expression,and Smad3 phosphorylation were obviously decreased(P<0.05);compared with Ziyu Ointment treatment group,the petrolatum treatment group,Ziyu Ointment+TGF-β1 activation group had obviously lower wound healing rate,collagen area percentage,and blood vessel area percentage,and obviously lower serum IL-6,IL-1β,TNF-α contents,TGF-β1 mRNA and protein expression and Smad3 phosphorylation(P<0.05).Conclusion:Ziyu Ointment can inhibit the expression of related genes and proteins by regulating the TGF-β/Smad signal pathway,thereby alleviating inflammation and promoting wound healing.

Objective:To explore the association between macrosomia delivery history and adverse pregnancy outcomes in subsequent pregnancies under different stratification of gestational weight gain(GWG).Methods:A retrospective study was conducted on 500 multiparous women with a history of macrosomia delivery who gave birth at The Second Hospital of Jilin University from January 2020 to November 2023.Meanwhile,1500 multiparous women without a history of delivering macrosomic infants were selected as the control group through 1∶3 matc-hing based on age(±1 year).The differences in general characteristics,GWG,and pregnancy outcomes be-tween the two groups were compared.According to the appropriate GWG values recommended by Chinese health industry standards,pregnant women in both groups were classified into insufficient GWG,appropriate GWG,and excessive GWG.Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to compare the relationship be-tween a history of macrosomia delivery and adverse pregnancy outcomes under different GWG stratifications.Re-sults:The History of macrosomia group had significantly higher rates of excessive GWG(50.60%vs.48.13%),incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus(GDM)(23.40%vs.17.07%),rate of cesarean section(60.20%vs.45.33%),and rate of macrosomia(26.60%vs.7.87%)compared to the control group(P<0.05).Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that a history of macrosomia delivery was an independent risk factor for GDM,cesarean section,and macrosomia in subsequent pregnancies(aOR>1,P<0.05).Stratified analysis based on GWG revealed that,compared with the control group,regardless of the GWG status,the risk of cesare-an section and macrosomia was higher in women with a history of macrosomia delivery(aOR>1,P<0.05).Mo-reover,for those with a history of macrosomia delivery and excessive weight gain during pregnancy,the risk of preeclampsia(aOR 3.167,P<0.05)and GDM(aOR 1.661,P<0.05)was significantly increased.When the GWG was appropriate for pregnant women with a history of macrosomia delivery,there was no significant correla-tion between a history of macrosomia delivery and preeclampsia or GDM(P>0.05).Conclusions:A history of macrosomia delivery increased the risk of multiple adverse pregnancy outcomes,such as GDM,cesarean section,and macrosomia.For multiparous women at different GWG levels,the risk of cesarean section and macrosomia was significantly increased in those with a history of macrosomia delivery.When GWG was appropriate,a history of macrosomia delivery was not found to be an independent risk factor for preeclampsia and GDM.

Objective:To explore the relationship between international collaboration papers and academic impact in global health,using the member universities of the Chinese Consortium of Universities for Global Health(CCUGH)as a case study.Methods:The study focuses on journal articles in global health field published by 31 CCUGH member universities between 2014 and 2024.Descriptive statistical analysis of international and non-international collaboration publication volumes was conducted using Excel.Regression analysis and chi-square tests were performed using R to examine the relationship between international collaboration papers and academic impact,and the correlation between the breadth of collaboration and the academic impact of the papers.Results:From 2014 to 2023,the total number of publications,the number of non-international collaborationpublications,and the number of internationally collaborated publications all showed a consistent annual increase,with average annual growth rates of 56.7%,68.3%,and 41.4%,respectively.By the first half of 2024,the total number of publications had increased to 1.5 times that of the corresponding period in 2023.International collaboration positively influenced academic impact,with broader collaborative networks correlating with higher academic influence.Conclusion:The global health publication output of CCUGH member universities has steadily increased,but the volume of international collaboration papers and their proportion remain relatively low.Therefore,it is necessary for CCUGH member universities to strengthen international collaboration papers in global health.