Introduction. Previous studies identified genetic links between the TCF7L2 C/T variant rs7903146, type 2 diabetes (T2D), and obesity. We wished to deepen our understanding of how specific diets interact with this variant to affect blood metabolites, an aspect not previously investigated. Hence, we conducted a controlled study where individuals with different genotypes followed a Mediterranean (Med) or low-fat (LF) diet for one week. Methods. Participants were recruited from the Boston, MA (USA) area. Anthropometric and clinical measures were taken. Genotypes at rs7903146 were ascertained, with homozygous carriers of the more common and protective CC or risk TT genotype invited to participate. Participants followed both diets (LF or Med) for one week with ~10 days’ washout between diets. Blood samples taken at the beginning and end of each diet period underwent metabolomics analysis using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We evaluated how the diet affected different metabolites based on genetic profile. Results. The cohort of 35 persons was 43% female, aged 18 to 70 y, with BMI between 26.4 to 33.9 kg/m2. Focusing on fatty acids (FAs) and other lipid metabolic factors (n = 23), we observed a greater number and stronger correlations among these factors in the CC genotype-Med diet group than the other three genotype-diet combinations. An aggregate of 11 factors, each negatively correlating with delta saturated fatty acids (SFA), showed a significant genotype-Med diet interaction on delta-SFA in CC individuals on the Med diet (p = 0.0046). A similar genotype-Med diet interaction was observed for delta-monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) (p = 0.0078). These interactions were not statistically significant at the end of the LF intervention. Conclusion. Our findings suggest that the Mediterranean diet has stronger influence on regulating lipid factors in individuals with the CC genotype at TCF7L2 variant rs7903146. This diet-genotype interaction may have significant implications for understanding the inter-individual variation of metabolic response on specific dietary regimens.

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• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.1-24
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Hysteretic nonlinear elasticity is often observed in consolidated granular media, including concrete, mortar, sandstones, or rocks. Nonlinearity is frequently quantified using Nonlinear Resonant Ultrasonic Spectroscopy (NRUS), which provides tools to define nonlinear parameters for both fast and slow dynamic effects, often observed when analyzing the propagation velocity dependence on strain in such materials. The dependence of these parameters on temperature was studied with the aim of using NRUS to quantify the induced thermal damage; thus, experiments were performed spanning a wide temperature range. However, since most of these materials are used in construction (concrete and sandstone, mostly), it is of interest to understand how sensitive the measured nonlinear parameters are to small environmental temperature fluctuations. In this paper, the dependence on temperature of elastic parameters is investigated, both linear (wave velocity and damping) and nonlinear (the slope and hysteresis of the curves describing the strain dependence of wave velocity and residual conditioning effect on wave velocity), separating the slow from the fast dynamic properties of nonlinearity. The observations reported here denote a different behavior for concrete and Berea sandstone.

• Book : 15(3)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.1230-1230
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Abstract Objective Chemotherapy plays an important role in the treatment of optic pathway hypothalamic gliomas (OPHGs). Commonly used regimens include carboplatin and vincristine and monotherapy with vinblastine weekly. In this retrospective study, we used a monthly regimen of carboplatin and vinblastine to treat progressive/recurrent OPHGs and evaluated its effectiveness, visual preservation, and toxicity. Methods The study involved patients with OPGH who were treated with carboplatin and vinblastine once per month. The response, disease progression, overall survival, vision changes, and toxicity were recorded according to their medical charts at our institute, and survival was analyzed. Results A total of 25 patients were included, including 15 males (60%) and 10 females (40%). The response rate was 11/25 (44%), and the stabilization rate (complete response rate + partial response rate + minor response rate + and stable disease rate) was 21/25 (84%). The 3-year progression-free survival rate was 54.6%, and the 5-year progression-free survival rate was 46.8%. The 5-year overall survival rate was 100%. There were 6 patients who showed improved visual acuity (28.6%). Stable vision was found in 52.4% of patients. Only 2 patients experienced severe allergic reactions to carboplatin. Conclusions The results showed that extending the dosing interval of carboplatin and vinblastine to every month can be seen as a similar response compared with previous regimens. The toxicity of this regimen is milder, and patients benefit from a lower frequency of hospital visits. The regimen can be considered as a choice of the first line of chemotherapy for OPHG patients.

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• Pub. Date : 2025
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• Book : ()
• Pub. Date : 2025
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• Book : 42()
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.101880-101880
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The yield of photovoltaic hydrogen production systems is influenced by a number of factors, including weather conditions, the cleanliness of photovoltaic modules, and operational efficiency. Temporal variations in weather conditions have been shown to significantly impact the output of photovoltaic systems, thereby influencing hydrogen production. To address the inaccuracies in hydrogen production capacity predictions due to weather-related temporal variations in different regions, this study develops a method for predicting photovoltaic hydrogen production capacity using the long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network model. The proposed method integrates meteorological parameters, including temperature, wind speed, precipitation, and humidity into a neural network model to estimate the daily solar radiation intensity. This approach is then integrated with a photovoltaic hydrogen production prediction model to estimate the region’s hydrogen production capacity. To validate the accuracy and feasibility of this method, meteorological data from Lanzhou, China, from 2013 to 2022 were used to train the model and test its performance. The results show that the predicted hydrogen production agrees well with the actual values, with a low mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and a high coefficient of determination (R2). The predicted hydrogen production in winter has a MAPE of 0.55% and an R2 of 0.985, while the predicted hydrogen production in summer has a slightly higher MAPE of 0.61% and a lower R2 of 0.968, due to higher irradiance levels and weather fluctuations. The present model captures long-term dependencies in the time series data, significantly improving prediction accuracy compared to conventional methods. This approach offers a cost-effective and practical solution for predicting photovoltaic hydrogen production, demonstrating significant potential for the optimization of the operation of photovoltaic hydrogen production systems in diverse environments.

• Book : 18(3)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.543-543
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• Pub. Date : 2025
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Plasmopara viticola causes grape downy mildew, one of the most notorious diseases of cultivated grapes that damage vineyards worldwide. The pathogen secretes various effector molecules to infect and modulate the host biological processes. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the roles of KPvRxLR27, an arginine–any amino acid–leucine–arginine (RxLR) effector isolated from P. viticola JN-9 from Jeonju (South Korea) with respect to the reported Bcl-2-associated X and inverted formin1in inducing cell death in non-host Nicotiana benthamiana and resistant grape host cultivars via Agrobacterium-mediated transient transformation. We found that, KPvRxLR27 induced programmed cell death in N. benthamiana and rapid hypersensitive response in resistant grape cultivars. Agroinfiltration assay revealed that putative N-glycosylation at the N¹⁸⁶ amino acid sequence and nuclear localization signal motifs at the C-terminus were critical for the effector’s cell death-inducing activity of KPvRxLR27. Overexpression assay revealed that KPvRxLR27 was abundantly expressed in the plasma membrane and nuclear regions and activated the accumulation of reactive oxygen species in N. benthamiana. Moreover, KPvRxLR27 expression was significantly delayed in the resistant cultivar than in the susceptible cultivar. Our results suggest KPvRxLR27 as a potential avirulence gene recognized by the host receptors to activate the host immune response-associated genes, providing valuable insights to enhance the pathogen resistance of commercial cultivars.

• Book : 41(1)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.28-37
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The cement-based materials widely used in infrastructure construction, such as bridges and ports, are subjected to seawater erosion and medium erosion during their service life, and their durability has always been a concern. The diffusion coefficient of chloride ions is an important indicator in the research of cement-based materials’ durability, and the pore structure is one of the most fundamental reasons affecting the diffusion behavior of chloride ions. In this paper, Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and Nitrogen adsorption method (NAD) were used to analyze the pore structures of mortars with different volume fractions of sands. The relationship between mortar pore structure and chloride ion diffusion coefficient was established to predict its chloride ion diffusion coefficient. It may provide a new idea for studying the durability of cement-based materials. Results indicated that similar to cement paste, the pore structure of mortar satisfied the fractal characteristics of solid phase within a certain range of pores. The most probable gel pore diameter of mortars with different sand volume fractions was about 4 nm, while the most probable capillary pore diameter was approximately 46 nm, and the critical pore diameter was ranging from 50 to 60 nm. MIP results indicated that with the increase in sand volume fraction (ϕagg), the total porosity (fmip) of the mortar decreased, satisfying the relationship of fmip = 0.1859 − 0.0789ϕagg. However, the porosity of the matrix (fbase) increased with the increase in sand volume fraction, which was due to the introduction of more interfaces by the addition of aggregates. The effective chloride ion diffusion coefficient (Dcp,base) of the matrix can be obtained by fitting. Based on this, the interface transition zone (ITZ) and the cement matrix were comprehensively considered as a whole fractal phase. The predicted value of the chloride ion diffusion coefficient obtained by the Mori–Tanaka homogenization method was in good agreement with the results obtained from rapid chloride migration (RCM) experiments, and the maximum error between the simulated and experimental values did not exceed 11%. This finding can provide new ideas for accurately predicting the chloride ion diffusion coefficient of mortar and even concrete.

• Book : 15(3)
• Pub. Date : 2025
• Page : pp.383-383
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AbstractMandibles represent a key evolutionary innovation that enabled jawed vertebrates to adapt and diversify in response to a range of food sources. Using a phylogenetic comparative approach, we explore the phenotypic disparity and mechanical properties of the lower jaw in Pelagiaria, a morphologically diverse but relatively small clade of open-ocean fishes which are hypothesized to have radiated near the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) mass extinction event. We found that body elongation and diet are not significantly correlated with jaw shape, but that habitat depth and tooth type are. Mechanical advantage (MA) is significantly correlated with mandible shape, with jaw-closing MA being most strongly correlated. Pelagiarian jaw shapes fall broadly into six morphotypes, of which two show significantly higher closing MA than other groups, despite differing substantially in shape. The high morphological disparity of pelagiarian mandible shape was established very early in their evolutionary history, and high levels of disparity have been maintained over tens of millions of years; this is consistent with the hypothesis that Pelagiaria represents an ancient adaptive radiation. Our results demonstrate both the mechanical and morphological diversity of the pelagiarian mandible and highlight the crucial role that morphological diversification has played in the trophic radiation of this clade.

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• Pub. Date : 2025
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