State-of-the-art blue lead-halide perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) suffer from low brightness and short lifetime, which constitutes a critical bottleneck for the development of full-color perovskite displays. A major performance bottleneck originates from the considerable hole injection barrier at the interface of hole-transporting layers (HTLs) and blue perovskite emissive layers. To address this, we propose a non-protic interfacial modification strategy, by designing and synthesizing two novel organic small molecules - 9,9-dibutyl-N2,N2,N7,N7-tetrakis(4-methoxyphenyl)-9H-fluorene-2,7-diamine (MPFO) and 9,9-bis(3-(dimethylamino)propyl)-N2,N2,N7,N7-tetrakis(4-methoxyphenyl)-9H-fluorene-2,7-diamine (MPFO-MAP)-to modify the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) HTL. MPFO-MAP, with terminal dimethylamino groups, concurrently reduces the hole-injection barrier, accelerates hole transport, thereby balancing electron and hole current, while passivates PEDOT:PSS/perovskite interfacial defects to enhance radiative recombination. The MPFO-MAP modified blue PeLED achieves a maximum luminance of 8272 cd/m2 and a champion external quantum efficiency of 12.6%, representing 2.9-fold and 3.7-fold improvements over the pristine PEDOT:PSS device, respectively. This dual-function non-protic interfacial engineering strategy provides a versatile molecular design blueprint for high-brightness blue PeLEDs and can be extended to other perovskite-based optoelectronic devices, facilitating their practical application.
Surface-layer (S-layer) proteins, forming the outermost envelope of many bacteria and archaea, exhibit extraordinary structural precision and self-assemble into two-dimensional crystalline lattices with square, hexagonal, or oblique symmetry. These monomolecular arrays, typically 5 to 25 nm in periodicity (varying by species), offer defined porosity and serve as robust biological nanoplatforms. Their innate capacity for self-assembly and molecular ordering has attracted significant attention in nanobiotechnology, vaccine development, biosensing, drug delivery, and ultrafiltration. S-layers are especially valued for their ability to mimic viral capsids, enhance antigen presentation, stabilize lipid bilayers, and provide highly organized scaffolds for enzyme immobilization and nanopatterning. Recent experimental achievements include the use of S-layer fusion proteins for mucosal vaccine delivery and the development of recombinant S-layer-based electrochemical biosensors. However, transitioning these advances to commercial-scale applications remains challenging. Limitations include the scalability of high-purity protein production, cost-effective recombinant expression, stability under harsh industrial conditions, and unresolved regulatory pathways for biologically derived nanomaterials. Additionally, synthetic alternatives present practical and economic competition. Nonetheless, interdisciplinary efforts in synthetic biology, materials science, and computational modeling are addressing these bottlenecks. Innovations such as cross-linkable domains, fusion with polymers or lipids, and predictive structure-function modeling are improving the robustness and adaptability of S-layer systems. As current research advances from theoretical potential to functional prototypes, S-layer proteins offer transformative prospects across medical, industrial, and environmental domains. This review uniquely integrates mechanistic S-layer biology with engineering-for-manufacture, protein-design workflows, and commercialization roadmaps - offering actionable protocols and benchmarks not covered in prior syntheses.
Myocardial infarction remains a global health challenge, necessitating advanced therapeutic strategies to address both acute injury and chronic ventricular remodeling. This study presents an innovative tri-layered bioartificial patch engineered to modulate degradation kinetics and drug release for prolonged cardiac regeneration. By integrating a slower-degrading polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatine-based inner layer into a microstructured polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) and gelatine architecture, we developed a system with a highly controlled biphasic degradation profile. Hydrolytic degradation tests revealed that while the external PLGA-based layers undergo bulk degradation and complete dissolution by 60 to 90 days, the internal PCL-based membrane successfully retains its structural integrity and biomimetic micropatterning for up to 90 days. This structural stability also enabled a tailored dual-release of bioactive molecules: a rapid 50-70% burst release of the cardioprotective agent adenosine within the first 5 hours to target acute reperfusion injury, paired with a restricted about 6% release of the antifibrotic drug pirfenidone over 7 days, effectively preserving it for the later stages of tissue healing. Furthermore, the incorporation of the Fmoc-FF peptide conferred a stable electrical conductivity of 4.6 µS cm-1 at 1 Hz without compromising the matrix structure. In vitro biological assessments confirmed excellent cytocompatibility across all layers, supporting an H9c2 cardiomyoblast viability of roughly 90% after 72 hours. Human iPSC-CMs cultured on the patch maintained spontaneous and synchronous beating activity. Moreover, the patch loaded with PIR exhibited significant antifibrotic activity, confirming that the released drug remained biologically active. Ultimately, this multi-layered design provides a promising and functionally active platform for counteracting pathological remodeling and restoring myocardial tissue.
Beyond pore architecture, local carbon configurations of porous carbons, particularly structural defects and curved carbon domains, play crucial roles in regulating ion adsorption and charge-transfer kinetics in high-rate supercapacitors. However, developing an effective synthetic route that simultaneously constructs hierarchical porosity and tailors defect-rich curved carbon frameworks remains challenging. Herein, agarose-derived porous carbon aerogels were fabricated via Zn-assisted carbonization and CO2 activation. Zn species helped preserve the three-dimensional network during pyrolysis, while CO2 activation simultaneously induced pore development, defect enrichment, carbon-layer curvature, and surface deoxygenation. The optimized sample exhibits a hierarchical micro/mesoporous structure, abundant defects, curved carbon layers, and relatively low oxygen content. As a result, it delivers a specific capacitance of 259 F g-1 and a high capacitance retention of 84.0% from 0.5 to 5 A g-1, together with a short relaxation time constant of 0.78 s. Kinetic analysis indicates a predominantly capacitive-controlled process, while density functional theory calculations reveal that defective curved carbon possesses the lowest adsorption energy toward K+, favoring rapid ion adsorption. The assembled symmetric device further achieves 5.6 Wh kg-1 at 2500 W kg-1 with 97.4% capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles.
Ruminant epithelia preferentially catabolize butyrate to fuel metabolism, yet the mechanism by which the rumen epithelium establishes this preference remains unclear. Here, we identify ACSF2 as a mitochondrial acyl‑CoA synthetase (ACS) that catalyzes the activation of butyrate to butyryl‑CoA, thereby enabling rumen butyrate preference. We found that ACSF2 is markedly enriched in the forestomachs across ovine organs, with expression far exceeding other ACSs in the rumen epithelium, and it is rising during postnatal establishment of fermentative function. Single‑cell transcriptomics and immunostaining localize ACSF2 to the mitochondria‑rich layers, where it is co‑expressed in mitochondria with ketogenesis genes, notably the rate‑limiting enzyme HMGCS2. Further gain‑ and loss‑of‑function experiments show that ACSF2 activates butyrate to butyryl‑CoA, enhances butyrate‑supported growth, and is required for efficient butyrate consumption, cell fitness, and ketogenesis under butyrate‑dependent conditions. These findings define ACSF2 as a key mitochondrial gatekeeper for butyrate utilization in the rumen epithelium, providing a molecular mechanism for butyrate‑biased energy metabolism during rumen maturation.
Long-read RNA sequencing technologies, including Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), enable direct characterization of full-length transcripts and transcriptome complexity. However, analysis of long-read RNA-seq data remains fragmented across multiple tools, limiting the ability to obtain a unified view of transcript structure, expression, and regulatory variation in long-read transcriptomes. We present NextLongIso, a scalable and reproducible Nextflow pipeline that enables coordinated analysis of multiple layers of transcript regulation. Rather than focusing solely on transcript reconstruction, NextLongIso integrates transcript discovery with downstream regulatory analyses to jointly characterize alternative splicing, isoform switching, transcript boundary dynamics (including alternative promoters and polyadenylation), and transposable element-associated transcription from both PacBio and ONT datasets. By eliminating complex cross-tool data harmonization, this unified framework facilitates the transition from transcript identification to functional interpretation of transcriptomic variation. NextLongIso is implemented in Nextflow and is freely available at github: https://github.com/YidanSunResearchLab/nf-LongIso.git and Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21049837. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Increasing evidence supports associations between various elasmobranch species and estuarine habitats, particularly during early life stages. However, with substantial knowledge gaps surrounding spatial habitat use and trophic ecology of estuary-associated species in Australia, we cannot reliably assess the functional importance of these areas or identify relevant drivers of resource partitioning in estuarine food webs. Here, we compared the diets and trophic niches of two sympatric dasyatid species, the Australian whipray Himantura australis and brown whipray Maculabatis toshi, in a tropical estuary in North Queensland. Stomach contents were collected from juvenile specimens in 2022-2025 using gastric lavage, muscle tissue samples were analysed for stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N) and invertebrate communities were surveyed to contextualise prey availability in the intertidal zone. Dietary composition differed significantly between species, with H. australis showing a stronger reliance on burrowing crustaceans (e.g., Callianassidae and Mictyridae), while M. toshi consumed more epibenthic crustaceans (e.g., Ogyrididae, Penaeidae, Portunidae). Himantura australis occupied a larger isotopic niche space than M. toshi, and there was no trophic overlap of larger size classes of H. australis (>50 cm disc width) with M. toshi or with smaller conspecifics (<50 cm disc width). Prey availability was spatially variable and indicated that while both species target locally abundant crustacean taxa, resources may be partitioned across different sediment layers. These findings highlight the importance of estuaries as feeding grounds for juvenile rays and suggest that morphological and behavioural adaptations may drive dietary variability between similar species.
The hippocampus participates in crucial functions such as memory consolidation, spatial processing and emotional regulation that require diverse input from multiple cortical areas that is funneled through the upper layers of the entorhinal cortex (EC), mostly from layer II to the dentate gyrus (DG). Traditional models of the hippocampal formation described 200,000 EC layer II neurons projecting to 1 million granule cells (GCs) in the rat, rendering low divergence (1:5), with each EC neuron establishing about 18,000 synapses with GCs and each GC receiving about 4000 synapses from EC neurons. In this manuscript, we update this model of connectivity incorporating new features described in the last three decades that include updated populations of EC layer II neurons obtained with design-based stereology, a revised definition of EC layer II based on molecular criteria and selecting reelin expressing neurons as the only layer II neurons projecting to the hippocampus. The updated model shows ~80,000 neurons from EC layer II projecting to the DG, ~45,000 from the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) and ~35,000 from the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) with high divergence of 1:20 and 1:30. We also show that EC layer II neurons may establish ~90,000-115,000 synapses on GCs, while GCs receive about 8000 synapses from EC layer II neurons. We estimate a ~25% redundancy in the connectivity, so each EC neuron may contact ~68,000-86,000 GCs and each GC would be contacted by ~3000 neurons from MEC and 3000 from LEC. In addition, we quantitatively assess a potential projection of mossy cells to the middle molecular layer described in mice, which could have an impact on GC inhibition. Overall, we produced a detailed, complete, and updated quantitative model of EC projections to the DG that reveals a much more divergent and richer projection than previously described, with implications for functional models (e.g., pattern separation) and more widely for building realistic hippocampal models or establishing comparisons across species.
Understanding how environmental stress alters the strength of local interactions is key to explaining diversity in current and future plant communities. Along gradients of increasing environmental stress, traditional theory posits that plants experience stronger facilitative interactions and weaker antagonistic interactions. However, it remains unclear whether this pattern extends to the relative host-specificity of plant-microbe interactions along stress gradients. Understanding these dynamics is particularly important for plant interactions with pathogenic and mycorrhizal fungi, which can drive opposing density-dependent processes that shape plant community compositions. We posit that increases in abiotic environmental stress are associated with stronger associations between plants and mutualists as plants increasingly rely on facilitative resource partnerships to cope with abiotic environmental stressors. We tested this prediction along an abiotic stress gradient in the central Cascade Range of Oregon, USA, using overlapping datasets of large high-resolution forest inventory plots, soil chemistry, and amplicon sequencing. Consistent with our predictions, in low-elevation forest stands with benign abiotic conditions and abundant nutrients, tree composition was more correlated with pathogenic fungal composition than ectomycorrhizal fungal composition. However, in forests at high elevations with limited nutrients and harsher climates, tree community composition was more correlated with ectomycorrhizal fungal composition than pathogenic fungal composition. Additionally, we find that spatial aggregation of ectomycorrhizal fungi increases as abiotic stress increases with elevation and opposing patterns of pathogen and ectomycorrhizal relative abundance in different substrate layers. Together, our findings suggest that facilitative interactions in stressful environments extend to mutualist-plant interactions and such interactions play a key role in shaping forest composition along environmental stress gradients.
Antibiotic contamination demands efficient remediation technologies. Although three-dimensional Electro-Fenton (3D-EF) systems show promise, conventional granular electrodes suffer from rapid deactivation and poor conductivity. Herein, we report a ternary Fe-Mn composite granular electrode for tetracycline (TC) degradation. The electrode integrates three synergistic functionalities: (i) iron-manganese oxides as the primary active phase, where Fe-Mn redox synergy accelerates Fe(II) regeneration; (ii) silica incorporation to fortify the oxide layer and enhance structural stability; and (iii) conductive carbon black doping to improve electrical conductivity and electron transfer. The system achieved 95% TC removal within 120 min. Characterization confirmed the structural and electrochemical advantages, while mechanistic studies identified singlet oxygen (1O₂) as the dominant reactive species. This work provides a durable, high-performance granular electrode for practical 3D-EF treatment of antibiotic pollutants.
Wearable flexible sensors for underwater communication and biomotion monitoring are gaining attention. However, developing gel-based strain sensors with high toughness, anti-swelling performance, robust underwater adhesion, and long-term stability remains challenging. Herein, we present a hydrophobic eutectogel (DPF-Zn@LNP-HEG) fabricated via the assembly of a polymerizable hydrophobic deep eutectic solvent (PHDES), 2-phenoxyethyl acrylate (PEA), and Zn2+-coordinated lignin nanoparticles (Zn@LNP). The resulting structure, composed of hydrophobic polymer networks and metal-phenolic complexes, forms hydrophobic microdomains that disrupt the hydration layer and prevent water penetration. Meanwhile, Zn@LNP serve as dynamic sacrificial cross-linkers, enhancing the material's mechanical strength, energy dissipation, and anti-swelling properties. The resulting eutectogel exhibits remarkable tensile strength (1.14 MPa), superior toughness (3.15 MJ m-3), excellent anti-swelling properties (< 1% after 30 days), and robust underwater adhesion (1.07 MPa on glass). Based on these properties, we demonstrate an underwater strain sensor with high sensitivity (gauge factor = 8.12) and long-term stability, enabling underwater Morse code transmission, biomotion monitoring, and Bluetooth-based tracking of swimming movements. This work not only provides a versatile design paradigm for multifunctional underwater sensing platforms but also advances the high-value utilization of bio-based materials in next-generation flexible electronics.
Large artery stenosis (LAS) can drive cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration even without overt infarction, yet scalable biomarkers for capturing this silent vascular brain injury are limited. We investigated whether retinal and choroidal microvascular and neurostructural measures reflect cerebral atrophy and cognitive impairment in noninfarcted LAS. In a multicenter cohort of 1239 participants (1035 patients with noninfarcted LAS and 204 community-based controls), we integrated optical coherence tomography/angiography (OCT/OCTA), brain magnetic resonance imaging volumetry, and cognitive assessments. Machine learning models were trained internally (n = 891) and externally validated (n = 348) to evaluate the predictive value of combined retinal and choroidal features for cerebral atrophy and cognitive impairment. LAS was associated with ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) thinning and profound retinal and choroidal microvascular rarefaction, which tracked closely with reduced gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volumes (all P < 0.001). These retina-brain associations were strongest in bilateral subcortical and medial temporal regions (all P < 0.05). Crucially, integrating OCT/OCTA metrics into machine learning models substantially improved prediction of cerebral atrophy and cognitive impairment beyond the enhanced clinical baseline model: random forest achieved an external test R2 of 0.456 versus 0.254 for GM volume and 0.430 versus 0.251 for WM volume, while the support vector machine achieved the best classification performance for cognitive impairment (area under the curve = 0.794 vs. 0.668). Retinal and choroidal microvascular measures are sensitive, noninvasive biomarkers of silent, vascular-driven neurodegeneration. They offer substantial incremental value for individual risk stratification in vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia.
Electric-field-based gas nanobubbles (NBs) generation provides a green, chemical-free, and energy-efficient alternative for different environmental applications such as water treatment; however, despite their unique physicochemical properties, a sustainability-oriented understanding of their stability, optimum operating conditions, and the kinetic pathways governing their interfacial evolution remain largely unresolved. This study presents a comprehensive multiscale investigation of air NBs produced under different generation duration and pH conditions, integrating long-term experimental monitoring, hydrodynamic analysis, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The results demonstrate that NB stability and population are optimized when bubbles are generated for approximately 30 min under neutral to mildly alkaline conditions, where enhanced electrostatic repulsion, reduced buoyant rise velocity, and suppressed coalescence collectively prolong NB lifetime while simultaneously minimizing energy demand. Furthermore, MD simulation provided mechanistic insights into NB evolution under different pH conditions, directly reinforcing the experimental observations. The analysis revealed that higher electric-field strength increases NB clustering population while reducing individual NB size and stability duration. Examination of interfacial properties, including surface density, charge distribution, and electrostatic potential, shows that alkaline environments promote the formation of a more ordered hydrogen-bond network driven by ion-induced electrostatic structuring. Conversely, acidic solutions exhibited chloride enrichment and stronger surface charge heterogeneity, whereas the more balanced presence of Na+ and OH- in alkaline media results in a more uniform and near-neutral interfacial environment, consistent with improved stability. This study establishes a predictive mechanistic link between interfacial ion layering and nanobubble longevity, offering valuable guidance for the energy-efficient design of NB technologies in water and environmental engineering technologies, and resource recovery.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) causes progressive muscle degeneration due to dystrophin deficiency. Dystrophin is also expressed in the brain during development and postnatally, yet a characterization of dystrophin isoform expression across brain cells and regions is lacking, limiting our understanding of the cognitive impairment affecting one-third of the patients and hampering the development of dystrophin-restoring drugs in the central nervous system (CNS). Here, we applied spatial transcriptomics to map Dmd isoforms across mouse brain regions and cell types. Mdx52 mice received exon 51-skipping therapies restoring the Dp427-sized isoform at the transcript and protein levels. We observed distinct spatial patterns: full-length isoforms localized to deeper cortical layers and CA1, while shorter isoforms were enriched in cortical layer 1 and dentate gyrus. We present evidence of isoform restoration, immune activation following treatment, and a framework to evaluate exon-skipping therapies in the CNS using spatial transcriptomics.
Fumonisin B1 (FB1), a highly toxic secondary metabolite produced by Fusarium fungi, poses a significant threat to global food safety; therefore, sensitive, selective, and reliable analytical methods are urgently needed. In this work, we report a novel molecularly imprinted electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor for the quantitative determination of FB1. A Co/Zn bimetallic metal-organic framework@polyoxometalate (Co/Zn-MOF@POMs) nanocomposite was synthesized via a one-pot strategy and used to modify a glassy carbon electrode. The incorporated polyoxometalates (POMs) markedly improved the interfacial electron-transfer kinetics of the Co/Zn-MOF scaffold, resulting in substantial amplification of the ECL signal generated by ZnAgInS quantum dots (QDs). Subsequently, a molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) layer was electropolymerized on the modified electrode using o-phenylenediamine as the functional monomer and 1,2,3-propanetricarboxylic acid as a structural dummy template designed to mimic key topological and functional features of FB1. Upon FB1 rebinding, the exposed amine groups on the captured FB1 molecules underwent a condensation reaction with carboxyl-functionalized ZnAgInS QDs, enabling site-specific immobilization of the luminophores close to the recognition cavities. Under optimized conditions, the sensor exhibited a linear ECL response to FB1 over a concentration range of 6.0 × 10-14 to 1.0 × 10-10 mol L-1 (R2 = 0.9987), with a detection limit of 3.3 × 10-15 mol L-1 (S/N = 3). This approach offers a robust and reproducible platform for trace-level FB1 monitoring in real-world food and agricultural samples.
Polarons are widespread in functional materials and are key to device performance in several technological applications. However, their effective impact on material behavior remains elusive, as condensed matter studies struggle to capture their intricate interplay with atomic defects in the crystal. In this work, we present an automated workflow for modeling polarons within density functional theory (DFT). Our approach enables a fully automatic identification of the most favorable polaronic configurations in the system. Machine learning techniques accelerate predictions, allowing for an efficient exploration of the defect-polaron configuration space. We apply this methodology to Nb-doped TiO2(110) surfaces, providing new insights into the role of defects in surface reactivity. Using CO adsorbates as a probe, we find that Nb doping has minimal impact on reactivity, whereas oxygen vacancies contribute significantly depending on their local arrangement via the stabilization of polarons on the surface atomic layer. Our package streamlines the modeling of charge trapping and polaron localization with high efficiency, enabling systematic, large-scale investigations of polaronic effects across complex material systems.
This study aimed to characterize acquired enamel pellicle (AEP) proteomic changes after exposure to citric acid (CA) and hydrochloric acid (HCl) under different pellicle formation times (3 and 120 min) in the same volunteers. Nine healthy volunteers participated in this randomized crossover in vivo study. The AEP was allowed to form for 3 or 120 min and subsequently exposed for 10 s to deionized water (control), 1% CA (pH 2.5), or 0.01 M HCl (pH 2.0). Pellicle samples were collected, followed by protein extraction, tryptic digestion, and analysis by nanoliquid chromatography (nanoLC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) with MSE (data-independent acquisition; nanoLC-MSᴱ). Label-free quantitative proteomics were performed for relative quantification using t-test (p < 0.05). At 120 min, CA exposure markedly reduced several typical AEP proteins, especially acidic proline-rich proteins (PRPs). Conversely, basic PRPs were upregulated, suggesting acid-resistance protein signature. At 3 min, basal-layer proteins (PRPs, cystatins, histatins and mucins) were more abundant. Hemoglobins increased 6-8-fold (up to 150-fold in 3 min control), suggesting association with early pellicle formation and an acid-resistant protein signature. CA exposures for 120 min also upregulated typical AEP proteins (PRPs, mucins, cystatins, immunoglobulins), while HCl exposure depleted albumins and lactotransferrin. Intrinsic and extrinsic acids induce distinct proteomic signatures in the AEP. Hemoglobin and PRPs appear consistently enriched in the early pellicle layer, reflecting an initial acid-resistant protein signature. These findings provide new insights into the molecular remodeling of the AEP following intrinsic and extrinsic acid exposure, highlighting proteins potentially involved in early-stage pellicle formation.
Chemoresistance remains a major obstacle in bladder cancer therapy, driven by the interplay among P-glycoprotein (P-gp)-mediated drug efflux, mitochondrial metabolic reprogramming, and impaired apoptotic signaling. Here, we present a TME-responsive nanoplatform (DR@MPDA@M) composed of MPDA core shielded by manganese dioxide (MnO2) shell, enabling sequential co-delivery of doxorubicin and resveratrol for chemo-/chemodynamic/photothermal therapy. The MnO2 layer selectively degrades under the acidic and glutathione-rich TME, enabling controlled drug release while simultaneously generating Mn2+ that catalyze Fenton-like reactions to produce cytotoxic hydroxyl radicals (•OH). Notably, this design strategically targets the mitochondria-P-gp axis that resveratrol potently downregulates P-gp expression to suppress drug efflux, while the Mn2+-induced oxidative stress disrupts mitochondrial function, depleting intracellular ATP and inhibiting heat shock protein 90. The resultant energy crisis synergistically impairs P-gp-mediated efflux and sensitizes cancer cells to doxorubicin-induced apoptosis. Upon 808 nm laser irradiation, the MPDA core mediates photothermal conversion, further accelerating the Fenton-like reaction and potentiating chemotherapy. Both in vitro and in vivo bladder tumor models demonstrate that DR@MPDA@M achieves favourable tumor inhibition. This work provides a mitochondria-P-gp axis-targeted strategy that integrates chemo-/chemodynamic/photothermal therapy, offering a promising paradigm for overcoming chemoresistance in bladder cancer.
To investigate the association between the change in D-dimer levels (ΔD-dimer) and the development of localized intravascular coagulation (LIC) following surgical intervention in patients with venous malformations. This retrospective cohort study enrolled 267 patients with venous malformations who underwent surgical treatment at Fujian Maternity and Child Health Hospital between June 2021 and December 2025. The primary exposure variable was the preoperative-to-postoperative ΔD-dimer. The principal outcome was postoperative LIC. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was employed to estimate the effect size, adjusted for potential confounders. The incidence of LIC was 31.1% (83/267). Each unit increase in ΔD-dimer was significantly associated with a higher risk of LIC (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 2.51; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.93-3.26; p < 0.001). This association was consistent across stratified subgroups, including sex, age, number of lesions, tissue layer involvement, lesion volume, lesion location, surgical approach, and anticoagulation status (all P for interaction > 0.05), with a borderline interaction by head/neck involvement (P for interaction = 0.054). ΔD-dimer is independently associated with postoperative LIC in patients with venous malformations, with a monotonic dose-response relationship. A threshold near 4.8 mg/L FEU is suggested by exploratory segmented analysis but requires external validation before any clinical use. ΔD-dimer is independently associated with postoperative LIC in patients with venous malformations, demonstrating a significant dose-response relationship. Collectively, these findings suggest that ΔD-dimer is independently associated with postoperative LIC and may serve as a risk marker for perioperative coagulation monitoring.
Calcium-based treatments are recognized for their effectiveness in preserving the postharvest quality of papaya; however, the mechanisms and kinetics of calcium diffusion within the fruit pulp remain insufficiently characterized. This study aimed to characterize the calcium diffusion parameters in 'Golden' papaya subjected to postharvest immersion in calcium chloride solutions. The transient diffusion model provided the best fit when the Freundlich isotherm was used to estimate the equilibrium calcium concentration at the fruit surface. The peel exhibited greater resistance to mass transfer, with a lower diffusivity (2.9 × 10-9 m2 s-1) than the outer pulp layer (2.4 × 10-7 m2 s-1), confirming its role as a diffusion barrier. Calcium treatments significantly improved pulp firmness, particularly in fruits immersed for 60 min in solutions containing at least 1% Ca2+. Additionally, immersion in 1% Ca2+ for ≥30 min slightly delayed peel color change after 12 days of storage at 23 °C and 90% relative humidity.