This study aimed to analyse the association of sex hormone levels with liver enzyme levels and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in a nationally representative sample of men. A total of 919 men from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES) III were included in this cross-sectional analysis of data from 1988 to 1991. We used existing data on serum total and free testosterone, total and free estradiol, androstanediol glucuronide (AAG) and sex steroid-binding globulin (SHBG), and estimated their associations with aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and NAFLD, as determined using ultrasound, after adjusting for possible confounders including age, race, smoking, alcohol, physical activity, waist circumference and steroid hormones. Lower total testosterone (TT) and higher free estradiol were associated with higher odds of NAFLD after adjusting for confounders including the other sex hormones. Lower TT was associated with higher odds of elevated AST, but not ALT. Free testosterone, total estradiol, SHBG and AAG were not associated with NAFLD or liver enzymes. This study supports an inverse association between TT concentration and NAFLD in men independent of other sex hormones (SHBG, AAG and estradiol) and known risk factors, such as obesity, age and lifestyle. Exploration of whether TT might be a non-invasive marker for NAFLD diagnosis is warranted.This study supports an inverse association between TT concentration and NAFLD in men independent of other sex hormones (SHBG, AAG and estradiol) and known risk factors, such as obesity, age and lifestyle. Exploration of whether TT might be a non-invasive marker for NAFLD diagnosis is warranted.Patients with idiopathic rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep behaviour disorder (iRBD) have a high risk of converting into manifest α-synucleinopathies. Eye movements (EMs) are controlled by neurons in the lower brainstem, midbrain and frontal areas, and may be affected by the early neurodegenerative process seen in iRBD. Studies have reported impairment of the oculomotor function in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) during wakefulness, but no studies have investigated EMs during sleep. We aimed to evaluate nocturnal EMs in iRBD and PD, hypothesizing that these patients present abnormal EM distribution during sleep. Twenty-eight patients with periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), 24 iRBD, 23 PD without RBD (PDwoRBD), 29 PD and RBD (PDwRBD) and 24 controls were included. A validated EM detector automatically identified EM periods between lights off and on. The EM coverage was computed as the percentage of time containing EMs during stable wake after lights off, N1, N2, N3 and REM sleep. Between-group comparisons revealed that PDwRBD had significantly less EM coverage during wake and significantly higher EM coverage during N2 compared to controls and PLMD patients. PDwoRBD showed significantly less EM coverage during wake compared to controls and higher EM coverage during N2 compared to controls and PLMD. Finally, iRBD showed less coverage of EM during wake compared to controls. The same trend was observed between iRBD and controls in N2 but was not significant. The different profiles of EM coverage in iRBD and PD with/without RBD may mirror different stages of central nervous system involvement across neurodegenerative disease progression.Suppressor of Ty 16 (Spt16) is a component of the facilitates chromatin transcription (FACT) complex, which is a histone chaperone and involved in gene transcription, DNA replication, and DNA repair. Previous studies showed that FACT is highly expressed in cancer, and cancer cells are more reliant on FACT than normal cells. However, the relationship between Spt16 and lung cancer remains unclear. In this study, we explored the functions of Spt16 in lung cancer cells. Phenformin AMPK activator The effects of Spt16 on lung cancer cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, apoptosis, migration, and invasion were examined. We found that knockdown of Spt16 led to obvious decreases of both Rb and MCM7, and further activated the DNA damage response (DDR) pathway. In addition, a novel micro-RNA, miR-1227-5p, directly targeted the 3'-UTR of Spt16 and regulated the mRNA levels of Spt16. Furthermore, we found that CBL0137, the functional inhibitor of FACT, showed similar effects as loss of Spt16. Together, our data indicated that Spt16 is likely to be an essential regulator for lung cancer malignancy and is negatively regulated by miR-1227-5p.Many deceased-donor and living-donor kidney transplants (KTs) rely on commercial airlines for transport. However, the coronavirus-19 pandemic has drastically impacted the commercial airline industry. To understand potential pandemic-related disruptions in the transportation network of kidneys across the United States, we used national flight data to compare scheduled flights during the pandemic vs 1-year earlier, focusing on Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) pairs between which kidneys historically most likely traveled by direct flight (High Volume by direct Air transport OPO Pairs, HVA-OPs). Across the United States, there were 39% fewer flights in April 2020 vs April 2019. Specific to the kidney transportation network, there were 65.1% fewer flights between HVA-OPs, with considerable OPO-level variation (interquartile range [IQR] 54.7%-75.3%; range 0%-100%). This translated to a drop in median number of flights between HVA-OPs from 112 flights/wk in April 2019 to 34 in April 2020 (P less then .001), and a rise in wait time between scheduled flights from 1.5 hours in April 2019 (IQR 0.76-3.3) to 4.9 hours in April 2020 (IQR 2.6-11.2; P less then .001). Fewer flights and longer wait times can impact logistics as well as cold ischemia time; our findings motivate an exploration of creative approaches to KT transport as the impact of this pandemic on the airline industry evolves.Laboratory experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that increase in physical heterogeneity by deflectors would improve the water quality of urban regulated (straight and prismatic) waterways. Deflectors changed the near-uniform flow to a rapidly varied flow, as such the depth, velocity, and Froude number (Fr) variations were four, 10, and 14 times more than the without deflector scenario, respectively. Removal of hydrogen sulfide (H2 S), the main focus of the study, was significantly high when deflectors were placed in the laboratory urban waterway. Introduction of a sediment bed further improved H2 S removal; however, in this case turbidity and color were significantly high too. These observations endorse the fact that attenuation induced by deflectors and assimilation promoted by the sediment bed aids the H2 S removal. These facts were further strengthened by the significant strong negative correlations H2 S made with DO and pH for all experiments. Further studies are recommended for different deflector orientations and modified sediment beds (e.