Thermal comfort study for pregnant women in waiting areas of cold region hospitals

Indoor and Built Environment · 2026-05-04

Pregnant women exhibit unique physiological and psychological characteristics, as well as distinct patterns in waiting frequency and duration. Therefore, investigating the specific thermal needs of women at different stages of pregnancy to create a comfortable waiting environment holds significant importance. Utilizing subjective questionnaires alongside objective environmental measurements, this research investigated the thermal comfort of pregnant women and their family members within hospital waiting areas across three cold-region facilities. This study established mean thermal sensation vote models for diverse population groups ( P < 0.05) and assessed the accuracy of the predicted mean vote (PMV) model and the predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD). The findings indicated that neither the PMV nor the PPD was capable of precisely predicting thermal comfort amongst pregnant women at various gestational stages. The thermal neutral temperatures for accompanying family members, early pregnancy, mid-pregnancy and late pregnancy groups were 25.38, 24.99, 24.10 and 22.84 °C, respectively. Amongst the four population groups, the highest acceptable upper temperature limit was observed in family members, at 28.64 °C; the lowest was in the late pregnancy group, at 26.78 °C. These findings provide reference for setting hospital building environmental parameters and contribute to creating healthy and comfortable waiting environments.

Anticancer Potential of Atractylenolides I–III: Efficacy, Mechanisms, Pharmacokinetics, and Safety

Molecules · 2026-01-11

, have demonstrated significant antitumorigenic effects against various cancer cells in both in vitro and in vivo studies. This review aims to systematically review the antitumorigenic effects, mechanisms, pharmacokinetics, and safety profile of ATs, aiming to contribute to clinical research and applications. To achieve this, a systematic literature search was conducted across multiple databases, and findings were synthesized narratively to provide a comprehensive overview of the current evidence. This review comprehensively discusses the antitumorigenic effects and mechanisms of ATs, including arresting tumor cell cycle progression, inducing programmed cell death (apoptosis, autophagy, and ferroptosis), inhibiting tumor angiogenesis, suppressing tumor migration and invasion, modulating the tumor immune microenvironment, and enhancing the efficacy of combination therapies. Additionally, their pharmacokinetic properties and safety profile are summarized, with a focus on their research and application prospects. ATs appear to be safe and reliable candidate anticancer agents in preclinical models, exhibiting potent antitumor efficacy both as monotherapy and in combination regimens. Preliminary clinical data from a small pilot study also indicated no signs of toxicity, but more extensive trials are needed to confirm their safety profile in humans. Further studies on their mechanisms are warranted to facilitate their development into clinically effective antitumor agents.

Right-to-work laws, union decline, and the opioid crisis

Journal of Population Economics · 2026-04-22

Abstract A large literature links de-unionization to determinants of health, but direct evidence on objective health outcomes remains scarce. Exploiting the staggered implementation of right-to-work (RTW) laws across four US states, we quantify the role of union presence in opioid misuse. We combine the synthetic control method with staggered differences-in-differences to estimate time-varying effects. RTW adoption is followed by a persistent decline in unionization within 4 to 6 years, and this decline is associated with sizable increases in both nonfatal and fatal opioid overdoses, with no comparable changes for non-opioid drugs. Effects are concentrated among working-age men and align with channels tied to workplace conditions, including higher occupational risk, lower wages, longer hours, and elevated work stress. Taken together, the evidence indicates that the decline in unionization meaningfully contributes to the opioid crisis in affected states.

Relationship of Oedaleus decorus asiaticus Densities with Soil Moisture and Land Surface Temperature in Inner Mongolia, China

Agronomy · 2025-04-21 · 1 citations

Oedaleus decorus asiaticus (O. decorus) is a significant pest in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, posing considerable challenges to the development of animal husbandry. To understand the key factors influencing the population distribution of O. decorus, field surveys were conducted from 2018 to 2020, during which the population count, growth stage, and location information of O. decorus were recorded. Daily soil moisture (SM) data and daily land surface temperature (LST) data were obtained from the National Tibetan Plateau Data Center, and a Generalized Additive Model (GAM) was constructed. Our findings indicate that the SM (S8) in August of the previous year is the most critical factor, with an F-value of 27.422, followed by the LST (L10) in October of the previous year, the LST (L6) in June of the survey year, the SM (S9) in September of the previous year, the LST (L3) in March of the survey year, and the LST (L5) in May of the survey year, with F-values of 7.848, 7.223, 5.823, 4.919, and 3.547, respectively. S8 and S9 can be regarded as vital indicators for predicting and monitoring the occurrence of O. decorus. However, the contributions of S8 and S9 to O. decorus density differ considerably. S8 is negatively correlated with O. decorus density, while S9 values below 0.29 m3/m3 can promote the growth of O. decorus. A higher LST during early overwintering correlates with increased O. decorus density. During the survey year, LST emerged as the primary factor affecting grasshopper density. Additionally, it plays a more complex role during incubation periods. This study clearly identifies SM and LST as the major factors influencing the occurrence of O. decorus, which will aid in predicting and monitoring its density.

Assessment of Habitat Suitability for Oedaleus decorus asiaticus Using MaxEnt and Frequency Ratio Model in Xilingol League, China

Remote Sensing · 2025-02-27 · 5 citations

Grasshoppers can significantly disrupt agricultural and livestock management because they reproduce and develop quickly in friendly environments. Xilingol League is the region most severely affected by grasshopper infestations. The region’s extensive grasslands are considered valuable, a critical component of the local ecosystem, a vital resource for the region’s key economic activity of livestock farming, and crucial for supporting diverse flora and fauna, carbon sequestration, and climate regulation. Oedaleus decorus asiaticus (O. d. asiaticus) is highly harmful in Xilingol League in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. Therefore, early warning is crucial for projecting O. d. asiaticus’s regional spread and detecting the impacts of critical environmental elements. We systematically identified 26 major contributing elements by examining four categories of environmental factors—meteorology, vegetation, soil, and topography—encompassing the three growth phases of grasshoppers. Furthermore, the MaxEnt and frequency ratio (FR) approaches, coupled with multisource remote sensing data, were used to predict a potentially appropriate distribution (habitat suitability) of O. d. asiaticus in Xilingol League. The research found nine key habitat factors influencing O. d. asiaticus distribution: the mean specific humidity during the adult stage (ASH), vegetation type (VT), above-ground biomass during the nymph stage (NAB), soil sand content (SSAND), mean precipitation during the egg stage (EP), mean precipitation during the nymph stage (NP), soil bulk density (SBD), elevation, and soil type (ST). Additionally, our analysis revealed that the most suitable and moderately suitable habitats for O. d. asiaticus are predominantly located in the southern and eastern parts of Xilingol League, with significant concentrations in West Ujumqin, East Ujumqin, Xilinhot, Zhenglan, Zheng Xiangbai, Duolun, and Taipusi. Based on the suitable habitat results, policymakers may make judgments about future management actions to preserve the ecological security of grasslands and their sustainable growth. This study indicates that the Maxent approach exhibited superior accuracy (receiver operating characteristic) compared to the FR approach for assessing the habitat suitability for O. d. asiaticus in Xilingol League.

Monitoring of rubber tree powdery mildew by combining spatial-spectral features and plant traits quantified from UAV hyperspectral imagery

Computers and Electronics in Agriculture · 2025-12-09 · 1 citations

The Cryoprotectant Effects of Safflower Polysaccharides on the Quality of Frozen–Thawed Boar Sperm

Animals · 2025-03-15 · 4 citations

The low resistance of boar sperm to cryopreservation dictates that adding antioxidants and energetic substances to the diluent to improve sperm quality is necessary. This study is designed to assess the impact of various concentrations of safflower polysaccharides (SPSs; 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 g/L) on the quality of boar sperm following freezing and thawing. The results of the study showed that the supplementation of 1.5 g/L SPS significantly enhanced the motility, average path velocity, straight-line velocity, curvilinear velocity, beat cross frequency, acrosome integrity, plasma membrane integrity, mitochondrial activity, and DNA integrity compared with the control group (p < 0.05). In addition, the supplementation of 1.5 g/L SPS significantly enhanced the total antioxidant capacity, superoxide dismutase activity, glutathione peroxidase activity, and catalase activity while significantly decreasing malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide content (p < 0.05). Therefore, the supplement SPS has potentially positive implications for improving the quality of cryopreserved boar sperm, and the recommended concentration is 1.5 g/L SPS.

Cognitive impairment in bipolar disorder associated with abnormal serum short-chain fatty acids and cytokines

BMC Psychiatry · 2025-11-22

We investigated changes in serum short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) levels in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and explored the relationship between these levels and peripheral cytokines and their impact on cognitive function. This study enrolled 64 patients with BD and 54 healthy controls (HCs) in a case-control design. Levels of 16 SCFAs and 9 cytokines in serum were measured via targeted metabolomics and Luminex multiplex assay, respectively. A subgroup (33 BD and 38 HCs) completed the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) for neurocognitive assessment. Multiple linear regression and mediation analysis were used to examine the cross-sectional relationships among SCFAs (independent variable), cytokines (mediator), and cognitive function (dependent variable). Serum propionic acid (PA) and butyric acid (BA) were elevated, whereas isovaleric acid (IVA), caproic acid (CA), and octanoic acid (OA) were reduced in patients with BD compared to HCs. Multiple linear regression models indicated that CA, IVA, Interleukin (IL)-6, and IL-8 collectively explained 16.6%–41.4% of the variance in Trail Making Test (TMT), Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) and Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) cognitive tests. Mediation analysis revealed that CA and IVA contributed to impairments in working memory and reasoning (as measured by WMS and NAB) by partially mediating the upregulation of IL-6 and IL-8, with the proportion mediated ranging from 5.1% to 21.2%. A random forest model based on distinct SCFAs and cytokines accurately distinguished BD patients from HCs (AUC = 0.98). By integrating multi-omics with mediation analysis, our study is the first to delineate a novel gut-brain pathway in BD, wherein maladjusted SCFAs appear to drive cognitive deficits via pro-inflammation. This mechanistic insight suggests that augmenting beneficial SCFA-producing bacteria or targeting IL-6/IL-8 could be potential strategies worthy of future validation for alleviating cognitive impairment in BD.

Utilizing interpretable machine learning algorithms and multiple features from multi-temporal Sentinel-2 imagery for predicting wheat fusarium head blight

Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture · 2025-10-28 · 1 citations

Wheat Fusarium head blight (FHB) severely affects wheat yields, and predicting its occurrence and spatial distribution is essential for safeguarding crop production. This study presents an interpretable machine learning method designed to predict FHB by leveraging multi-temporal and multi-feature information obtained from Sentinel-2 imagery. During the regreening and grain-filling stages, we extracted vegetation indices (VIs), texture features (TFs), and color indices (CIs). Single-temporal features were derived from the grain-filling stage, while multi-temporal features combined data from grain-filling and regreening stages. The synthetic minority over-sampling technique (SMOTE) was employed to adjust the class imbalance, while the most significant characteristics were found using the sequential forward selection (SFS) approach. The extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model, optimized using simulated annealing (SA) algorithm and explained via SHapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) method, integrated VIs, TFs, and CIs as input features. The presented model demonstrated exceptional results, achieving a prediction accuracy of 89.9 % across multi-temporal and a Kappa coefficient of 0.797. It outperformed random forests (RF), backpropagation neural networks (BPNN), and support vector machines (SVM) model. This study indicates that an interpretable machine learning approach, which utilizes both multi-temporal and multi-feature data, is effective in forecasting FHB, thereby providing a valuable tool for agricultural management and disease prevention strategies. • Multi-temporal and multi-feature data are to develop an FHB prediction model. • SMOTE is applied to stabilize the unequal learning data. • Simulated annealing algorithm is to optimize the XGBoost hyperparameters. • SHAP is used to enhance the model's interpretability.

Ketogenic diet disrupts BDH1-mediated ketone metabolism and causes myocardial dysfunction in mice

Food Science and Human Wellness · 2025-12-01

Ketogenic diet (KD), recognized for its multiple metabolic benefits, such as enhanced glycemic homeostasis and weight loss, also imposes intricate influences on cardiac substrate utilization. While KD is effective in reducing blood glucose levels and improving insulin sensitivity, its long-term effects on myocardial ketone body (KB) metabolism remain insufficiently investigated, particularly in relation to cardiac remodeling. In the present study, we found that the KD-based nutritional intervention caused considerable cardiac hypertrophy, altered FAs and KBs metabolic pathways and impaired cardiac function, potentially through the repression of BDH1 protein, which is crucial for the utilization of β-hydroxybutyrate (β-OHB). Additionally, mice with cardiac muscle-specific <em>Bdh1</em> manipulation exhibited cardiac dysfunction after fasting, possibly due to histone methylation modifications. We established several diabetic models using streptozotocin (STZ), <em>db/db </em>transgenic mice, and a combination of STZ and a high-fat diet (HFD). We confirmed that these diabetic models exhibited significant alterations in cardiac ketone body metabolism and BDH1 expression. In summary, our study highlights that the downregulation of BDH1 induced by the ketogenic diet is associated with disrupted myocardial ketone utilization and may lead to myocardial structure and function impairment. Furthermore, the loss of BDH1 can also aggravate cardiac dysfunction during fasting by histone modifications.