[Analysis of regularity of acupoint selection and compatibility of acupuncture in the treatment of postpartum depression]

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the regularity of acupoint selection, and compatibility of acupuncture in the treatment of postpartum depression.

METHODS

Articles both in English and Chinese published in databases of CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, Chinese biomedical literature database (SinoMed), PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library from the inception to February of 2021 were retrieved by using key words "acupuncture" or "moxibustion" or "electroacupuncture" or "acupoint application" or " acupoint burying" or "acupoint injection" or "fire needling" and "postpartum depression" or "puerperal depression". The frequencies of selected acupoints and meridians were counted by using data mining technology, and the points with high frequency were analyzed by cluster analysis.

RESULTS

A total of 42 articles were included, containing 65 prescriptions and 80 points. The highest frequency of acupoints were Baihui (GV20), Sanyinjiao (SP6), Taichong (LR3), Neiguan (PC6), Zusanli (ST36) and Shenmen (HT7). The most frequently selected channels were Bladder Meridian, Governor Meridian and Liver Meridian. Among the specific points, intersection points, five-shu points, yuan-source points and back-shu points were widely used. Through cluster analysis, four effective cluster groups ［GV20-SP6, LR3-PC6, Xinshu (BL15)-Ganshu (BL18)-Pishu (BL20)-Guanyuan (CV4), Hegu (LI4)-Qihai(CV6)-Qimen (LR14)］ were obtained, as well as a group of main points (GV20-SP6-LR3-PC6-ST36-HT7) and two groups of matching points ［LI4-CV6-LR14 and BL15-BL18-BL20-CV4-Sishencong (EX-HN1)］.

CONCLUSION

Through data mining technology, this paper summarized the acupoint selection and compatibility law of acupuncture in the treatment of postpartum depression, focusing on regulating Qi, blood and spirit, so as to provide reference for guiding the clinical acupuncture treatment and scientific research of postpartum depression.

Drought stress identification of tomato plant using multi-features of hyperspectral imaging and subsample fusion

Drought stress (DS) is one of the most frequently occurring stresses in tomato plants. Detecting tomato plant DS is vital for optimizing irrigation and improving fruit quality. In this study, a DS identification method using the multi-features of hyperspectral imaging (HSI) and subsample fusion was proposed. First, the HSI images were measured under imaging condition with supplemental blue lights, and the reflectance spectra were extracted from the HSI images of young and mature leaves at different DS levels (well-watered, reduced-watered, and deficient-watered treatment). The effective wavelengths (EWs) were screened by the genetic algorithm. Second, the reference image was determined by ReliefF, and the first four reflectance images of EWs that are weakly correlated with the reference image and mutually irrelevant were obtained using Pearson's correlation analysis. The reflectance image set (RIS) was determined by evaluating the superposition effect of reflectance images on identification. The spectra of EWs and the image features extracted from the RIS by LeNet-5 were adopted to construct DS identification models based on support vector machine (SVM), random forest, and dense convolutional network. Third, the subsample fusion integrating the spectra and image features of young and mature leaves was used to improve the identification further. The results showed that supplemental blue lights can effectively remove the high-frequency noise and obtain high-quality HSI images. The positive effect of the combination of spectra of EWs and image features for DS identification proved that RIS contains feature information pointing to DS. Global optimal classification performance was achieved by SVM and subsample fusion, with a classification accuracy of 95.90% and 95.78% for calibration and prediction sets, respectively. Overall, the proposed method can provide an accurate and reliable analysis for tomato plant DS and is hoped to be applied to other crop stresses.

Mining of EHR for interface terminology concepts for annotating EHRs of COVID patients

BACKGROUND

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic and with more than five million deaths worldwide, the healthcare establishment continues to struggle with every new wave of the pandemic resulting from a new coronavirus variant. Research has demonstrated that there are variations in the symptoms, and even in the order of symptom presentations, in COVID-19 patients infected by different SARS-CoV-2 variants (e.g., Alpha and Omicron). Textual data in the form of admission notes and physician notes in the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is rich in information regarding the symptoms and their orders of presentation. Unstructured EHR data is often underutilized in research due to the lack of annotations that enable automatic extraction of useful information from the available extensive volumes of textual data.

METHODS

We present the design of a COVID Interface Terminology (CIT), not just a generic COVID-19 terminology, but one serving a specific purpose of enabling automatic annotation of EHRs of COVID-19 patients. CIT was constructed by integrating existing COVID-related ontologies and mining additional fine granularity concepts from clinical notes. The iterative mining approach utilized the techniques of 'anchoring' and 'concatenation' to identify potential fine granularity concepts to be added to the CIT. We also tested the generalizability of our approach on a hold-out dataset and compared the annotation coverage to the coverage obtained for the dataset used to build the CIT.

RESULTS

Our experiments demonstrate that this approach results in higher annotation coverage compared to existing ontologies such as SNOMED CT and Coronavirus Infectious Disease Ontology (CIDO). The final version of CIT achieved about 20% more coverage than SNOMED CT and 50% more coverage than CIDO. In the future, the concepts mined and added into CIT could be used as training data for machine learning models for mining even more concepts into CIT and further increasing the annotation coverage.

CONCLUSION

In this paper, we demonstrated the construction of a COVID interface terminology that can be utilized for automatically annotating EHRs of COVID-19 patients. The techniques presented can identify frequently documented fine granularity concepts that are missing in other ontologies thereby increasing the annotation coverage.

[Whole view of the immune microenvironment of biliary tract cancer]

Biliary tract cancer is a group of malignancies which originate from biliary epithelium, and adenocarcinoma is the main pathological type. Although surgical resection is the only radical treatment strategy, most biliary tract cancer patients are diagnosed at locally advanced stage or with distant metastasis. Biliary tract cancer is highly resistant to the conventional chemoradiotherapy and the emerging immunotherapy including immune checkpoint inhibitors, owing to the suppressive immune microenvironment. In a whole view, this paper discussed the anti-tumor and tumor-promoting immune responses of the various immune cells and stromal cells in the immune microenvironment of biliary tract cancer, as well as their correlation with prognosis. The understanding of the whole view of immune microenvironment in biliary tract cancer patients could further inform the design of clinical trials of immunotherapy or combination therapy.

Should ocular Demodex be checked and treated in refractory keratitis patients without blepharitis?

AIM

To evaluate the correlation between Demodex infestation and keratitis, and to assess demodicosis using a simple approach.

METHODS

A modified slit lamp illumination (at 40× magnification) was used to observe Demodex tails in 40 patients with refractory keratitis and 80 healthy controls. Bacterial smear and culture of the conjunctival sac and corneal lesion were performed to identify the pathogen. Tea tree oil ointment (TTOO) was added as a Demodex killing agent for lid scrubs to the treatment when Demodex infestation was confirmed.

RESULTS

Demodex tails were found in all patients compared to 42/80 of the controls (P<0.01). Seventeen patients presented blepharitis, while 23 were free of scales and inflammation at the lid margin. The demodicosis was mild, moderate, and severe in 8, 19, and 13 patients, respectively, compared to mild in 42 controls (P<0.01). The keratitis was mild, moderate, and severe in 13, 19, and 8 patients, respectively. The severity of Demodex infestation was not correlated to the severity of keratitis (P=0.126). The growth of Staphylococcus was revealed in nine patients who did not react to antibiotic eye drops prior to the TTOO treatment. Patients' signs and symptoms got resolved after the lid scrub with TTOO.

CONCLUSION

Ocular Demodex needs to be checked and treated in refractory keratitis patients with or without blepharitis. A slit-lamp illumination under high magnification favors the judgment of the severity of Demodex infestation.

Dual-functional lignin-based hydrogels for sustained release of agrochemicals and heavy metal ion complexation

An effective way of improving the efficiency of agrochemicals and improving crop yield and quality is by slow or sustained release, which is conducive to environmental protection. Meanwhile, the excessive amount of heavy metal ions in soil can create toxicity in plants. Here, we prepared lignin-based dual-functional hydrogels containing conjugated agrochemical and heavy metal ligands through free-radical copolymerization. The content of the agrochemicals (including plant growth regulator 3-indoleacetic acid (IAC) and herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (DCP)) in the hydrogels were tuned by changing the hydrogel composition. The conjugated agrochemicals could slowly release through the gradual cleavage of the ester bond. As a result of the release of the DCP herbicide, the growth of lettuce was effectively regulated, thus confirming the feasibility and effectiveness of this system in application. At the same time, due to the presence of metal chelating groups (such as COOH, phenolic OH, and tertiary amine) the hydrogels could act as adsorbents or stabilizers towards heavy metal ions for improving the soil remediation and preventing the adsorption of these toxic metals by plant roots. Specifically, Cu(II) and Pb(II) could be adsorbed >380 and 60 mg/g, respectively.

Identification of novel characteristic biomarkers and immune infiltration profile for the anaplastic thyroid cancer via machine learning algorithms

PURPOSE

Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is a rare and lethal malignant cancer. In recent years, the application of molecular-driven targeted therapy and immunotherapy has markedly improved the prognosis of ATC. This study aimed to identify characteristic genes for ATC diagnosis and revealed the role of ATC characteristic genes in drug sensitivity and immune cell infiltration.

METHODS

We downloaded ATC RNA-sequencing data from the GEO database. Following the combination and normalization of the dataset, we first divided the combined datasets into the training cohort and the validation cohort. We identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in ATC by differential expression analysis in the training cohort. We used two machine learning algorithms, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and support vector machine-recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE) to identify ATC characteristic genes. The CIBERSORT algorithm was performed to calculate the abundance of various immune cells in ATC. Finally, we validated the expression of ATC characteristic genes by quantitative RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) in ATC cell lines and immunohistochemistry (IHC).

RESULTS

A total of 425 DEGs were identified in the training cohort, including 240 upregulated genes and 185 downregulated genes. Four ATC characteristic genes (ADM, PXDN, MMP1, and TFF3) were identified, and their diagnostic value was validated in the validation cohort (AUC in ROC analysis > 0.75). We established a practical gene expression-based nomogram to accurately predict the probability of ATC. We also found that ATC characteristic biomarkers are associated with the tumor immune microenvironment and drug sensitivity.

CONCLUSION

ADM, PXDN, MMP1, and TFF3 might serve as potential ATC diagnostic biomarkers and may be helpful for ATC molecular targeted therapy and immunotherapy.

Association between cadmium exposure and pulmonary function reduction: Potential mediating role of telomere attrition in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients

BACKGROUND

Environmental cadmium (Cd) exposure is linked to pulmonary function injury in the general population. But, the association between blood Cd concentration and pulmonary function has not been investigated thoroughly in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients, and the potential mechanisms are unclear.

METHODS

All eligible 789 COPD patients were enrolled from Anhui COPD cohort. Blood specimens and clinical information were collected. Pulmonary function test was conducted. The subunit of telomerase, telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), was determined through enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Blood Cd was measured via inductively coupled-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS).

RESULTS

Blood Cd was negatively and dose-dependently associated with pulmonary function. Each 1-unit increase of blood Cd was associated with 0.861 L decline in FVC, 0.648 L decline in FEV1, 5.938 % decline in FEV1/FVC %, and 22.098 % decline in FEV1 % among COPD patients, respectively. Age, current-smoking, self-cooking and higher smoking amount aggravated Cd-evoked pulmonary function decrease. Additionally, there was an inversely dose-response association between Cd concentration and TERT in COPD patients. Elevated TERT obviously mediated 29.53 %, 37.50 % and 19.48 % of Cd-evoked FVC, FEV1, and FEV1 % declines in COPD patients, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Blood Cd concentration is strongly associated with the decline of pulmonary function and telomerase activity among COPD patients. Telomere attrition partially mediates Cd-induced pulmonary function decline, suggesting an underlying mechanistic role of telomere attrition in pulmonary function decline from Cd exposure in COPD patients.

The association between serum complement C3a and severity in patients with community-acquired pneumonia

Background

A few studies found that the complement system may be involved in the onset and progression of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, the role of the complement system in CAP was obscure. The goal of this study was to analyze the association of serum complement C3a with CAP severity scores based on a cross-sectional study.

Methods

All 190 CAP patients and 95 control subjects were enrolled. Demographic information and clinical data were extracted. Peripheral blood samples were collected on admission.

Results

Serum complement C3a on admission was elevated in CAP patients compared with healthy subjects. The level of complement C3a was gradually elevated in parallel with CAP severity scores (CURB-65, CRB-65, PSI, SMART-COP, and CURXO). Complement C3a was positively correlated with blood routine parameters, renal function markers, and inflammatory cytokines in CAP patients. Furthermore, multivariate linear and logistic regression models found that serum complement C3a on admission was positively associated with CAP severity scores. Mechanistic research suggested that complement system inhibition alleviated Streptococcus pneumoniae-induced upregulation of IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6, and CRP in MLE-12 cells.

Conclusions

Serum complement C3a on admission is positively associated with the severity of CAP patients. Inhibiting complement system attenuates S. pneumoniae-elevated secretion of inflammatory cytokines in pulmonary epithelial cells, indicating that complement C3a is involved in the pathophysiology of CAP. Serum complement C3a may serve as an earlier diagnostic biomarker for CAP.

Recent Advances in the Ecology of Bloom-Forming Raphidiopsis (Cylindrospermopsis) raciborskii: Expansion in China, Intraspecific Heterogeneity and Critical Factors for Invasion

Water blooms caused by the invasive cyanobacterium Raphidiopsis raciborskii occur in many reservoirs in the tropical and subtropical regions of China. In recent decades, this species has spread rapidly to temperate regions. Phenotypic plasticity and climate warming are thought to promote the worldwide dispersion of R. raciborskii. However, investigations into the genetic and phenotypic diversities of this species have revealed significant intraspecific heterogeneity. In particular, competition between R. raciborskii and Microcystis aeruginosa was highly strain dependent. Although the concept of an ecotype was proposed to explain the heterogeneity of R. raciborskii strains with different geographic origins, microevolution is more reasonable for understanding the coexistence of different phenotypes and genotypes in the same environment. It has been suggested that intraspecific heterogeneity derived from microevolution is a strong driving force for the expansion of R. raciborskii. Additionally, temperature, nutrient fluctuations, and grazer disturbance are critical environmental factors that affect the population establishment of R. raciborskii in new environments. The present review provides new insights into the ecological mechanisms underlying the invasion of R. raciborskii in Chinese freshwater ecosystems.

Impact of high temperature on road injury mortality in a changing climate, 1990-2019: A global analysis

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have shown that extreme heat likely increases the risk of road injuries. However, the global burden of road injuries due to high temperature and contributing factors remain unclear. This study aims to characterize the global, regional and national burden of road injuries due to high temperature from 1990 to 2019.

METHODS

Based on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study 2019, we obtained the numbers and age-standardized mortality rates (ASMR) and age-standardized disability-adjusted life years (DALY) rates (ASDR) of the road injury due to high temperature at global, regional, and national levels from 1990 to 2019. The world is divided into five climate zones according to the average annual temperature of each country: tropical, subtropical, warm temperate, cold temperate, and boreal. We used the generalized additive models (GAM) to model the trends of road injuries globally and by region.

RESULTS

Globally, between 1990 and 2019, the deaths of road injury attributable to high temperature increased significantly from 20,270 (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 7836 to 42,716) to 28,396 (95% UI, 13,311 to 51,178), and the DALYs increased from 1,169,309 (95% UI, 450,834 to 2,491,075) to 1,414,527 (95% UI, 658,347 to 2,543,613). But the ASMR and the ASDR slightly decreased by 8.49% and 13.16%, respectively. The burden of road injury death attributable to high temperature remained high in low SDI and tropical regions. In addition, road transport infrastructure investment per inhabitant is associated with the burden of road injuries attributable to high temperature.

CONCLUSIONS

Globally, the ASMR and ASDR for road injuries attributable to high temperature decreased from 1990 to 2019, but the absolute death and DALYs continued to increase. Thus, concerning global warming, implementation of prevention and interventions to reduce road injuries from heat exposure should be stressed globally.

Fusion of hyperspectral imaging (HSI) and RGB for identification of soybean kernel damages using ShuffleNet with convolutional optimization and cross stage partial architecture

Identification of soybean kernel damages is significant to prevent further disoperation. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) has shown great potential in cereal kernel identification, but its low spatial resolution leads to external feature infidelity and limits the analysis accuracy. In this study, the fusion of HSI and RGB images and improved ShuffleNet were combined to develop an identification method for soybean kernel damages. First, the HSI-RGB fusion network (HRFN) was designed based on super-resolution and spectral modification modules to process the registered HSI and RGB image pairs and generate super-resolution HSI (SR-HSI) images. ShuffleNet improved with convolution optimization and cross-stage partial architecture (ShuffleNet_COCSP) was used to build classification models with the optimal image set of effective wavelengths (OISEW) of SR-HSI images obtained by support vector machine and ShuffleNet. High-quality fusion of HSI and RGB with the obvious spatial promotion and satisfactory spectral conservation was gained by HRFN. ShuffleNet_COCSP and OISEW obtained the optimal recognition performance of ACC_p=98.36%, Params=0.805 M, and FLOPs=0.097 G, outperforming other classification methods and other types of images. Overall, the proposed method provides an accurate and reliable identification of soybean kernel damages and would be extended to analysis of other quality indicators of various crop kernels.

Newly identified essential amino acids affecting peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) DGAT2 enzyme activity

Triacylglycerols is the major storage lipid in most crop seeds. As the key enzyme catalyzing the final step of triacylglycerols biosynthesis, the activity of diacylglycerol acyltransferases directly related to oil content. It has been shown that certain amino acids are very important for enzyme activity, one amino acid variation will greatly change the enzyme activity. In this study, we identified three amino acid point mutations that affect the Arachis hypogaea diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 enzyme activity, T107M, K251R and L316P. According to the three amino acid variations, three single-nucleotide-mutant sequences of Arachis hypogaea diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2a were constructed and transformed into yeast strain H1246 for function verification. Results showed that T107M and K251R could change the fatty acid content and composition of the transformed yeast strains, whereas L316P led to the loss of enzyme activity. By analyzing the 2D and 3D structures of the three variants, we found that the changes of spatial structure of T107M, K251R and L316P caused the changes of the enzyme activity. Our study could provide a theoretical basis for changing the enzyme activity of DGAT by genetic engineering, and provide a new idea for increasing the oil content of the crops.

Comparison of revascularization with conservative medical treatment in maintenance dialysis patient with coronary artery disease: a systemic review and meta-analysis

Background

The primary cause of death among maintenance dialysis patients is coronary artery disease (CAD). However, the best treatment plan has not yet been identified.

Methods

The relevant articles were retrieved from various online databases and references from their inception to October 12, 2022. The studies that compared revascularization [percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)] with medical treatment (MT) among maintenance dialysis patients with CAD were selected. The outcomes evaluated were long-term (with a follow-up of at least 1 year) all-cause mortality, long-term cardiac mortality, and the incidence rate of bleeding events. Bleeding events are defined according to TIMI hemorrhage criteria: (1) major hemorrhage, intracranial hemorrhage or clinically visible hemorrhage (including imaging diagnosis) with decrease of hemoglobin concentration ≥5 g/dl; (2) minor hemorrhage, clinically visible bleeding (including imaging diagnosis) with a drop in hemoglobin of 3-5 g/dl; (3) minimal hemorrhage, clinically visible bleeding with hemoglobin drop <3 g/dl. In addition, revascularization strategy, CAD type, and the number of diseased vessels were considered in subgroup analyses.

Results

A total of eight studies with 1,685 patients were selected for this meta-analysis. The current findings suggested that revascularization was associated with low long-term all-cause mortality and long-term cardiac mortality but a similar incidence rate of bleeding events compared to MT. However, subgroup analyses indicated that PCI is linked to decreased long-term all-cause mortality compared to MT but CABG did not significantly differ from MT in terms of long-term all-cause mortality. Revascularization also showed lower long-term all-cause mortality compared to MT among patients with stable CAD, single-vessel disease, and multivessel disease but did not reduce long-term all-cause mortality among patients with ACS.

Conclusion

Long-term all-cause mortality and long-term cardiac mortality were reduced by revascularization in comparison to MT alone in patients undergoing dialysis. Larger randomized studies are needed to confirm the conclusion of this meta-analysis.

Disparities in the Outcomes of Acute Pulmonary Embolism in Hospitalized Patients with Hematologic Malignancy and Solid Tumor

This study aimed to compare the clinical burden and healthcare utilization outcomes of hematologic versus solid malignancies in patients hospitalized with acute pulmonary embolism (PE). This population-based, retrospective study extracted and analyzed the discharge data from the 2016-2018 US National Inpatient Sample (NIS) of hospitalized patients with a primary diagnosis of acute PE and a subsequent diagnosis of hematologic malignancies or solid tumors. Prolonged length-of-stay (LOS) was defined as ≥75th percentile LOS of the study cohort. Unfavorable discharge was defined as discharged to nursing home or long-term facility. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were conducted to determine associations between cancer type, presence of unstable PE, and in-hospital outcomes in acute PE patients. Patients with acute PE with solid tumors had higher rates of in-hospital deaths and unfavorable discharge than those with hematologic malignancies (6.4% versus 3.2%, P < 0.001; 14.0% versus 11.2%, P = 0.01, respectively). Acute PE patients with hematologic malignancies had a lower risk of in-hospital death (aOR: 0.43, 95% CI: 0.31-0.60), unfavorable discharge (aOR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.63-0.92), and prolonged LOS (aOR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.71-0.98) than those with solid tumors. Stratified analysis showed that male patients aged <60 years with hematologic malignancies had a lower risk of prolonged LOS (aOR: 0.70, 95% CI: 0.52-0.94; aOR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.68-1.05) and unfavorable discharge (aOR: 0.40, 95% CI: 0.22-0.71; aOR: 0.65, 95% CI: 0.50-0.85) than those with solid tumors. In the comparison of the outcomes of acute PE with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, patients with hematologic malignancy had a lower risk of in-hospital deaths, prolonged LOS, and unfavorable discharge than those with solid tumors.

Short- and long-term outcomes of laparoscopic versus open pelvic exenteration for locally advanced rectal cancer: a single-center propensity score matching analysis

BACKGROUND

Research on short-term outcomes and long-term oncological results of laparoscopic pelvic exenteration (LPE) for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) is still limited. The purpose of this study was to compare the outcomes of LPE and open pelvic exenteration (OPE).

METHODS

Between January 2010 and December 2019, consecutive LARC patients who underwent radical pelvic exenteration at Peking University First Hospital were enrolled. Groups were matched at a 1:1 ratio using propensity score matching. The primary endpoints were 3 year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). The secondary endpoints were postoperative short-term outcomes.

RESULTS

There were 144 patients (68 males and 76 females, median age 58.5 [range 27.0-86.0] years). After matching, patients were stratified into LPE (n = 48) and OPE (n = 48) groups (LPE: 24 males and 24 females, median age 57.0 [range 27.0-81.0] years; OPE: 26 males and 22 females, median age 58.0[range 36.0-80.0] years). There were no significant differences on baseline data between the two groups. Compared with the OPE group, the LPE group had a significantly lower estimated blood loss (200 vs 500 ml, p = 0.003), less overall postoperative complications (12/48 vs 25/48, p = 0.006), less surgical site infection (8/48 vs 20/48, p = 0.007), shorter length of stay (12 vs. 15 days, p = 0.005), but similar operative time (344 vs. 360 min, p = 0.493). The pathological R0 resection rate (98.0% vs. 93.7%, p = 0.610), 3 year local recurrence (18.4% vs. 23.5, p = 0.140), 3 year OS (74.6% vs. 65.5%, p = 0.290) and 3-year DFS (60.0% vs. 50.3%, p = 0.208) were similar between the two groups. Shorter distance from anal verge (HR = 0.92, p = 0.042), (y) pT4b (HR = 2.45, p = 0.023), (y)pN1-2 (HR = 2.42, p = 0.004) and positive CRM (HR = 6.23, p = 0.004) were independent prognostic risks for 3 year DFS.

CONCLUSIONS

LPE can be performed safely and has certain short-term advantages over OPE, most notably less blood loss and surgical site infection. However, LPE does not improve long-term oncological outcomes.

Recent RhIG Administration Does Not Interfere with the Rosette Test

Introduction/Objective

Administration of Rh immune globulin (RhIG) is indicated mid-gestation (28 weeks) and after delivery to prevent Rh D sensitization in Rh D negative women. Women with sporadic prenatal care may not receive the first dose at 28 weeks, and may end up receiving their first dose closer to delivery. The rosette test (RT) is a rapid screen for fetomaternal hemorrhage (FMH) that uses an IgM anti-D antibody to detect fetal Rh D positive red blood cells (RBC) in maternal circulation. It is not currently known if or how recent administration of RhIG prior to performance of a RT may interfere with RBC agglutination and test results.

Methods/Case Report

To approximate mixing of fetal Rh D positive RBC with maternal Rh D negative RBC during FMH, 2% volume of Rh D positive RBC from fetal cord and adult donor samples were spiked into Rh D negative RBC. These mixtures were then incubated with a physiologic concentration of RhIG to occupy all Rh D antigen sites on the Rh D positive cells prior to performing the RT.

Results (if a Case Study enter NA)

Addition of Rh D positive RBC and RhIG to Rh D negative RBC did not affect rosette formation. Rh D negative cells had 0 rosettes/LPF. Rh D negative cells spiked with 2% Rh D positive adult donor and fetal cord RBC by volume produced an average of 9.8 rosettes/LPF (SD: 2.8) and 11.2 (SD: 3.3), respectively. Addition of a physiologic concentration of RhIG to the spiked Rh D positive adult donor and fetal cord RBC produced an average of 13.0 rosettes/LPF (SD: 2.5) and 11.2 rosettes/LPF (SD: 2.6), respectively.

Conclusion

Incubation of Rh D positive RBCs with physiologic concentration of RhIG does not affect the rosette test. Clinicians and laboratorians should be reassured that the rosette test continues to be an accurate way to quantitate FMH after recent RhIG administration.

Multi-scale convolution neural network with residual modules for determination of drugs in human hair using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy with a gold nanorod film self-assembled by inverted evaporation

Detection of illegal drug users is crucial in controlling drug-related crimes, reducing drug prevalence, and protecting human lives to ensure social stability. In this study, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and deep learning networks were employed to determine methamphetamine, ketamine, and morphine in human hair. Drugs were obtained from hair through alkaline hydrolysis and liquid-liquid extraction, and gold nanorods were employed to prepare the self-assembled film as the SERS substrate by inverted evaporation. The film showed good uniformity and excellent sensitivity, with a relative standard deviation of 15.6% and a detection limit of at least 10^-10 M in the SERS detection of crystal violet. The spectra of methamphetamine, ketamine, and morphine at 0.05-1.0, 0.1-2.0, and 0.1-2.0 ng/mg were obtained, and the three drugs could be detected. Inception, a multi-scale feature extraction network, was combined with residual modules (Inception-ResNet) to develop the identification models of drugs, and the effect of spectral input form as a vector or matrix was explored. Inception-ResNet with input form of matrix outweighed other methods with 100.00%, 100.00%, and 99.23% accuracies in the training, validation, and prediction sets, respectively. In brief, SERS and Inception-ResNet with the spectra in matrix form provide an efficient and accurate determination of drugs in human hair, enabling the retrospective evaluation of drug use, and the method will be anticipated to detect excitant, poison, and toxic chemicals in human hair.

A comprehensive update on CIDO: the community-based coronavirus infectious disease ontology

Background

The current COVID-19 pandemic and the previous SARS/MERS outbreaks of 2003 and 2012 have resulted in a series of major global public health crises. We argue that in the interest of developing effective and safe vaccines and drugs and to better understand coronaviruses and associated disease mechenisms it is necessary to integrate the large and exponentially growing body of heterogeneous coronavirus data. Ontologies play an important role in standard-based knowledge and data representation, integration, sharing, and analysis. Accordingly, we initiated the development of the community-based Coronavirus Infectious Disease Ontology (CIDO) in early 2020.

Results

As an Open Biomedical Ontology (OBO) library ontology, CIDO is open source and interoperable with other existing OBO ontologies. CIDO is aligned with the Basic Formal Ontology and Viral Infectious Disease Ontology. CIDO has imported terms from over 30 OBO ontologies. For example, CIDO imports all SARS-CoV-2 protein terms from the Protein Ontology, COVID-19-related phenotype terms from the Human Phenotype Ontology, and over 100 COVID-19 terms for vaccines (both authorized and in clinical trial) from the Vaccine Ontology. CIDO systematically represents variants of SARS-CoV-2 viruses and over 300 amino acid substitutions therein, along with over 300 diagnostic kits and methods. CIDO also describes hundreds of host-coronavirus protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and the drugs that target proteins in these PPIs. CIDO has been used to model COVID-19 related phenomena in areas such as epidemiology. The scope of CIDO was evaluated by visual analysis supported by a summarization network method. CIDO has been used in various applications such as term standardization, inference, natural language processing (NLP) and clinical data integration. We have applied the amino acid variant knowledge present in CIDO to analyze differences between SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron variants. CIDO's integrative host-coronavirus PPIs and drug-target knowledge has also been used to support drug repurposing for COVID-19 treatment.

Conclusion

CIDO represents entities and relations in the domain of coronavirus diseases with a special focus on COVID-19. It supports shared knowledge representation, data and metadata standardization and integration, and has been used in a range of applications.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13326-022-00279-z.

An inducible gene from glycoside hydrolase one family of Plutella xylostella decreases larval survival when feeding on host plant

Glycoside hydrolase family 1 (GH1) members exhibit a broad substrate spectrum and play important roles in insect-plant interactions, such as the defensive β-glucosidase and β-thioglucosidase (so-called myrosinase). However, knowledge about the expression profiling and function of glycoside hydrolase family 1 members in a specialist pest of crucifers Plutella xylostella is still limited. In this study, 13 putative glycoside hydrolase family 1 members of P. xylostella were identified based on the sequence characteristics, while no myrosinase activity was detectable in P. xylostella using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Expression profiling of these glycoside hydrolase family 1 members identified the midgut-specific gene Px008848 that is induced by host plant. Further experiments revealed that the in vitro expressed Px008848 protein had β-glucosidase activity and the survival rate of the larvae feeding on wounded Arabidopsis thaliana leaves declined when leaves were treated with purified Px008848 protein. When CRISPR/Cas9-based homozygous mutant larvae of Px008848 and wild-type larvae were respectively transferred onto the A. thaliana, the larval survival rate of the mutant larvae was significantly higher than that of the wild-type individuals. Our work showed that certain insect glycoside hydrolase family 1 gene may have negative effect on the development of larvae feeding on the host plant, which broadened our understandings on the evolutionary function of this gene family in the insect-plant interaction.

Blood pressure and clinical outcomes in patients with diabetes and stable coronary artery disease in THEMIS

Background

Various BP characteristics, e.g., systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and pulse pressure (PP), as well as heart rate (HR) may affect the risk of both cardiovascular events and bleeding events. However, the exact way in which these characteristics and outcomes are associated among patients with diabetes and stable coronary artery disease (CAD) remains debated. Moreover, it is unknown whether the risks and benefits of intensified antiplatelet therapy in this patient population are affected by their baseline BP and HR.

Purpose

To assess the relationship between BP components (including HR) and cardiovascular and bleeding events, and to determine if the effects of ticagrelor vs. placebo varied across the BP and HR spectrum, in patients with diabetes and stable CAD.

Methods

THEMIS was a randomized, controlled trial in which 19,220 individuals ≥50 years of age with stable CAD and type 2 diabetes were randomized to receive either ticagrelor plus aspirin or placebo plus aspirin. Patients with a prior myocardial infarction or stroke, or already on dual antiplatelet therapy, were excluded. The primary efficacy outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. The primary safety outcome was TIMI major bleeding. We examined prognostic implications of BP components using 1) restricted cubic splines for the overall trends with outcomes; 2) Cox proportional-hazards regression models with predefined BP component intervals adjusted for demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables; and 3) Cox regression models for the effects of ticagrelor vs. placebo on outcomes across the spectrum of BP component values (test for interaction). THEMIS is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01991795).

Results

Mean values of baseline BP components were similar between the two study groups. Median follow-up duration was 39.9 months (range 0–57), with 1554 primary efficacy events and 306 primary safety events occurring over the course of the study. All BP components (including HR) displayed various, independent relationships with the tested outcomes. For example, in adjusted spline models, SBP displayed non-linear relationships with the primary outcome, all-cause death, any bleeding, serious adverse events, and intracranial bleeding, and linear relationships with the remaining outcomes. Figure 1 shows the associations of each BP component with the primary efficacy outcome. BP components did not substantially modify the risks and benefits of ticagrelor vs. placebo for the tested outcomes.

Conclusions

BP components were independently associated with efficacy and safety outcomes in patients with stable CAD and type 2 diabetes. However, no important modification of BP components on the effect of ticagrelor vs. placebo was detected.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding sources: Private company. Main funding source(s): AstraZeneca

A global burden assessment of lung cancer attributed to residential radon exposure during 1990-2019

This study aimed to explore the spatial and temporal trends of lung cancer burden attributable to residential radon exposure at the global, regional, and national levels. Based on the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2019, we collected the age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) and age-standardized disability-adjusted life rate (ASDR) of lung cancer attributable to residential radon exposure from 1990 to 2019. The Joinpoint model was used to calculate the annual average percentage change (AAPC) to evaluate the trend of ASMR and ASDR from 1990 to 2019. The locally weighted regression (LOESS) was used to estimate the relationship of the socio-demographic index (SDI) with ASMR and ASDR. In 2019, the global ASMR and ASDR for lung cancer attributable to residential radon exposure were 1.03 (95% CI: 0.20, 2.00) and 22.66 (95% CI: 4.49, 43.94) per 100 000 population, which were 15.6% and 23.0% lower than in 1990, respectively. According to the estimation, we found the lung cancer burden attributable to residential radon exposure declined significantly in high and high-middle SDI regions, but substantially increased in middle and low-middle SDI regions from 1990 to 2019. Across age and sex, the highest burden of lung cancer attributable to residential radon exposure was found in males and elderly groups. In conclusion, the global burden of lung cancer attributable to residential radon exposure showed a declining trend from 1990 to 2019, but a relatively large increase was found in the middle SDI regions. In 2019, the burden of lung cancer attributable to residential radon exposure remained high, particularly in males, the elderly, and high-middle SDI regions compared with other groups.

Genotyping of Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia duodenalis and Enterocytozoon bieneusi from sheep and goats in China

Background

Few studies have molecularly characterized the potential zoonotic protozoa, Cryptosporidium spp., Giardia duodenalis and Enterocytozoon bieneusi in sheep and goats in China, therefore total 472 fecal samples were collected from eight provinces and infection rates of three protozoa were determined by PCR analysis of corresponding loci. All PCR positive samples were sequenced to identify the genotype.

Results

The overall infection rates for Cryptosporidium, G. duodenalis, and E. bieneusi were 1.9% (9/472), 20.6% (97/472), and 44.5% (210/472), respectively. C. xiaoi (n = 5), C. ubiquitum (n = 3), and C. anderson (n = 1) were identified in goats. 97 G. duodenalis strains were successfully detected, and assembly E (n = 96) and assembly A (n = 1) were identified. Two novel G. duodenalis multilocus genotype (MLGs) were identified, with one belonging to subgroup AI and the other to subgroup E5. Nine known genotype (BEB6, CD6, CHC8, CHG3, CHG5, Peru6, CHG1, CHG2, and COS-I) and four new genotype (CHG26, CHG27, CHG28, and CHS18) were identified in E. bieneusi, with CHG3 dominant in this group.

Conclusions

The present results highlight the role of sheep and goats as reservoir hosts for this three gastrointestinal pathogens. In summary, we provided a platform for more detailed research on genotyping or subtyping intestinal pathogens to better understand their risks and modes of transmission.

Glucosinolate Sulfatases-Sulfatase-Modifying Factors System Enables a Crucifer-Specialized Moth To Pre-detoxify Defensive Glucosinolate of the Host Plant

Numerous herbivores orally secrete defense compounds to detoxify plant toxins. However, little is known about the role of orally secreted enzymes by a specialized pest, Plutella xylostella, in the detoxification of plant defense compounds. Three glucosinolate sulfatases (GSSs) or two sulfatase-modifying factors (SUMF1s) mutant strains were established on the basis of CRISPR/Cas9 technology to validate the existence of a species-specific GSSs-SUMF1s system. In comparison to the bioassay data from mutant strains of GSS1/GSS2 or SUMF1a/SUMF1b, GSS3 had a minimal role because no significant change was found in GSS3^-/- under different feeding contexts. Antibody-based technologies were used to examine GSSs-related deficient strains, and the results showed that the GSS1 protein was primarily released through larval oral secretion. On the basis of high-performance liquid chromatography, we found that GSS1 was secreted to pre-desulfate the typical plant defensive glucosinolates known as 4-(methylsulfinyl)butyl glucosinolate (4MSOB-GL) to suppress the production of the toxic substance, which is referred to as pre-detoxification strategy. These findings highlighted that the GSSs-SUMF1s system is the key factor for counteradaptation of P. xylostella to cruciferous plants, which strengthens the concept that herbivores deploy pre-detoxification strategies to disrupt the plant chemical defenses to facilitate the colonization process.

Adipocyte IRE1α promotes PGC1α mRNA decay and restrains adaptive thermogenesis

Adipose tissue undergoes thermogenic remodeling in response to thermal stress and metabolic cues, playing a crucial role in regulating energy expenditure and metabolic homeostasis. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is associated with adipose dysfunction in obesity and metabolic disease. It remains unclear, however, if ER stress-signaling in adipocytes mechanistically mediates dysregulation of thermogenic fat. Here we show that inositol-requiring enzyme 1α (IRE1α), a key ER stress sensor and signal transducer, acts in both white and beige adipocytes to impede beige fat activation. Ablation of adipocyte IRE1α promotes browning/beiging of subcutaneous white adipose tissue following cold exposure or β3-adrenergic stimulation. Loss of IRE1α alleviates diet-induced obesity and augments the anti-obesity effect of pharmacologic β3-adrenergic stimulation. Notably, IRE1α suppresses stimulated lipolysis and degrades Ppargc1a messenger RNA through its RNase activity to downregulate the thermogenic gene program. Hence, blocking IRE1α bears therapeutic potential in unlocking adipocytes' thermogenic capacity to combat obesity and metabolic disorders.

Safety and tolerance assessment of milk fat globule membrane-enriched infant formulas in healthy term Chinese infants: a randomised multicenter controlled trial

Background

Milk fat globule membrane (MFGM), natural to breast milk, is essential for neonatal development, but lacking from standard infant formulas.

Objectives

To evaluate the safety and tolerability of MFGM supplementation in formula for infants 0 to 12 months.

Methods

In a prospective, multicentre, double-blind, randomized trial, healthy term infants were randomized to a standard formula (SF, n = 104) or an MFGM-enriched formula (MF, n = 108) for 6 months and a corresponding follow-on formula until 12 months. Exclusively breast-fed infants (n = 206) were recruited as the reference group (BFR). Tolerance and safety events were recorded continuously. Anthropometric measurements were assessed at enrolment, 42 days and 4, 6, 8 and 12 months.

Results

Infants (n = 375) completed the study with average dropout of < 20%. Stool frequency, color, and consistency between SF and MF were not significantly different throughout, except the incidence of loose stools in MF at 6 months being lower than for SF (odds ratio 0.216, P < 0.05) and the frequency of green-colored stools at 12 months being higher in MF (CI 95%, odds ratio 8.92, P < 0.05). The BFR had a higher frequency of golden stools and lower rate of green stools (4–6 months) than the two formula-fed groups (P < 0.05). SF displayed more diarrhoea (4.8%) than MF (1%) and BFR (1%) at the 8-month visit (P < 0.05). BFR (0–1%) had significantly less (P < 0.05) lower respiratory infections than MF (4.6–6.5%) and SF (2.9–5.8%) at 6- and 8-months, respectively. Formula intake, frequency of spit-up/vomiting or poor sleep were similar between SF and MF. Growth rate (g/day) was similar at 4, 6, 8 and 12 months between the 3 groups, but growth rate for BFR was significantly higher than for SF and MF at 42 days (95% CI, P = 0.001).

Conclusions

MFGM-enriched formula was safe and well-tolerated in healthy term infants between 0 and 12 months, and total incidences of adverse events were similar to that for the SF group. A few differences in formula tolerance were observed, however these differences were not in any way related to poor growth.

Effect of folic acid supplementation on diminished ovarian reserve: study protocol of a single-centre, open-label, randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trial

INTRODUCTION

The prevalence of diminished ovarian reserve (DOR), a common gynaecological disorder, is approximately 10% across the world. Failure in early diagnosis and treatment may result in continuous decreases in ovarian function and the resultant loss in an opportunity of pregnancy, which greatly affects the happiness of the women's family and women's physical and mental health. Nevertheless, there has been no effective treatment for such a disorder until now. Folic acid, a member of the vitamin B family, is involved in one-carbon cycle and methylation regulation. It has been found that folic acid affects the whole period of pregnancy, and folic acid supplementation has shown effective to remarkably reduce the incidence of fetal neural tube defects and decrease plasma homocysteic acid levels, thereby resulting in a decline in the incidence of abortion. In addition, folic acid is reported to mediate ovarian functions. It is therefore hypothesised that folic acid may improve DOR.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

A single-centre, open-label, randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trial is designed. We plan to recruit 140 women with DOR at ages of 30-35 years. All participants will be randomised into the folic acid group and placebo group, and each subject will be given a tablet with the same appearance daily for 6 months. The primary outcome is antral follicle count, and the secondary outcomes are ovarian reserve markers, ovarian low-dose stimulation responses and safety.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

This study was approved by the Ethics Review Committee of Nanping First Hospital Affiliated to Fujian Medical University on 10 February 2021 (approval number: NPSY202002042). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to randomisation, following a detailed description of the purpose of the study. The results of this clinical trial will be presented at scientific conferences and submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR2100047410.

Exploring structural relations among computer self-efficacy, perceived immersion, and intention to use virtual reality training systems

The use of virtual reality (VR) training systems for education has grown in popularity in recent years. Scholars have reported that self-efficacy and interactivity are important predictors of learning outcomes in virtual learning environments, but little empirical research has been conducted to explain how computer self-efficacy (as a subcategory of self-efficacy) and perceived immersion (as a correlate of interactivity) are connected to the intention to use VR training systems. The present study aims to determine which factors significantly influence behavioral intention when students are exposed to VR training systems via an updated technology acceptance frame by incorporating the constructs of computer self-efficacy and perceived immersion simultaneously. We developed a VR training system regarding circuit connection and a reliable and validated instrument including 9 subscales. The sample data were collected from 124 junior middle school students and 210 senior high school students in two schools located in western China. The samples were further processed into a structural equation model with path analysis and cohort analysis. The results showed that the intention to use VR training systems was indirectly influenced by computer self-efficacy but directly influenced by perceived immersion (β = 0.451). However, perceived immersion seemed to be influenced mostly by learner interaction (β = 0.332). Among external variables, learner interaction (β = 0.149) had the largest total effect on use intention, followed by facilitating conditions (β = 0.138), computer self-efficacy (β = 0.104), experimental fidelity (β = 0.083), and subjective norms (β = 0.077). The moderating roles of gender differences, grade level, and previous experience in structural relations were also identified. The findings of the present study highlight the ways in which factors and associations are considered in the practical development of VR training systems.

Efficacy and Safety of Reirradiation with Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Locally Recurrent Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

AIMS

The purpose of this study was to report on outcomes of a cohort of patients who were treated with reirradiation with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for locally recurrent pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Patients treated with SBRT reirradiation for locally recurrent pancreatic adenocarcinoma from December 2009 to April 2020 were included in the study. Descriptive statistics were used to record patient demographics, tumour and treatment characteristics. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to evaluate overall survival, local progression-free survival (LPFS), distant metastasis-free survival and progression-free survival (PFS).

RESULTS

In total, 27 patients were included in the study. The median follow-up time from local recurrence was 19.7 months (range 4.2-43.1 months). Most patients received five-fraction SBRT (26/27, 96%). The median overall survival after local recurrence treatment was 18.3 months (range 3.0-42.6 months), with 6-month, 1-year and 2-year overall survival rates of 88.5%, 73.1% and 33.6%. The median LPFS after local recurrence treatment was 16.2 months (range 2.3-33.6 months), with 6-month, 1-year and 2-year LPFS rates of 95.8%, 62.9% and 27.2%. Peri-SBRT chemotherapy improved LPFS (median 17.5 versus 8.5 months; P = 0.010) and overall survival (median 19.3 versus 5.5 months; P = 0.049). Tumours ≤ 3 cm in the greatest dimension showed better local control (median LPFS 19.2 versus 10.2 months; P = 0.130). There was one case (4%) of acute grade 3 pain and one case (4%) of late grade 3 gastrointestinal toxicity.

CONCLUSIONS

Reirradiation with five-fraction SBRT is safe, but local control remains suboptimal. Patients with smaller tumours experienced improved outcomes, as did patients whose treatment plan included the administration of peri-SBRT chemotherapy.

[Efficacy and prognostic analysis of 125I brathytherapy combined with chemotherapy for pediatric parameningeal rhabdomyosarcoma]

Objective: To analyze the efficacy and prognostic factors in children with parameningeal rhabdomyosarcoma (PMRMS) treated by ¹²⁵I brachytherapy combined with chemotherapy. Methods: A retrospective analysis of the clinical data of 33 pediatric patients treated with ¹²⁵I brachytherapy combined with chemotherapy in Peking University Stomatological Hospital from July 2013 to October 2018 was carried out to analyze the efficacy and prognostic factors. Results: Among the 33 patients, 19 were males and 14 were females; the median age was 4 years old (1-12 years old). There were 17 cases with embryonic type, 9 cases with alveolar type, and 7 with undifferentiated type; 26 cases with original PMRMS, and 7 cases with recurrent PMRMS. The tumors occurred in subtemporal-mastoid area in 15 patients, while nasopalatine-paranasal area in 6 cases, and parapharyngeal-submandibular area in 12 cases. There were 28 patients in IRS Ⅲ, and 5 patients in IRS Ⅳ. As for the risk level, 28 cases were in the middle-risk group and 5 cases in the high-risk group. The median follow-up time was 52 months. The 1, 3, and 5-year local control rates were 87.9%, 58.6%, and 49.9%, and the 1, 3, and 5-year survival rates were 93.8%, 60.5%, and 47.5%, respectively. The 5-year local control rate and 5-year survival rate of 12 patients with the tumor in the parapharyngeal-submandibular area were 91.7% and 100%, respectively. The 5-year local control rate and 5-year survival rate of the 6 patients with tumor in the nasopalatine-paranasal area were both 83.3%. The 3-year local control rate and 3-year survival rate of the 15 patients with tumor in the subtemporal-mastoid area were 17.5% and 21.4%. The multivariate survival analysis using Cox proportional risk regression model showed that the tumor located in the subtemporal-mastoid area was an independent risk factor affecting the 5-year overall survival rate (HR=38.40, 95%CI: 4.87-302.52, P=0.001). Within 3 months after ¹²⁵I seed implantation, the incidence of acute radiotherapy adverse reactions in all patients was 84.8% (28/33). Twenty-one patients (63.6%) had a grade 1 acute radiotherapy reaction, and 7 cases (21.2%) had a grade 2 acute radiotherapy reaction. No acute radiotherapy adverse reactions of grade 3 or 4 occurred. Three months after ¹²⁵I seed implantation, the adverse reactions were significantly alleviated, and no adverse reactions of grade 3 or above such as skin ulcer or salivary gland fibrosis occurred, and no serious cranio-maxillofacial deformities occurred. Conclusions: ¹²⁵I seed brachytherapy combined with chemotherapy has a definite clinical effect in the treatment of children with parameningeal rhabdomyosarcoma. The prognosis of rhabdomyosarcoma in the parapharyngeal-submandibular area and nasopalatine-paranasal area is better than that in the subtemporal-mastoid area.

Factors associated with the mental health of back-to-Wuhan university students based on quantile regression model during the COVID-19 period

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic had brought the increased levels of depression and anxiety on people. Our study investigated the levels of mental health and influencing factors among back-to-Wuhan university students.

METHODS

A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted from 31 August 2020, to 14 September 2020 by convenience sampling on the back-to-Wuhan university students, which included the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the Insomnia Severity Index-7 (ISI-7), the revised Impact of Event Scale (IES-R) scales, and the basic demographic characteristics. Moreover, quantile regression analysis was used to identify the key factors related to the mental health variables of the back-to-Wuhan university students during the COVID-19 period.

RESULTS

The results from 1017 participants suggested that the prevalence rates of the anxiety, depression, insomnia, and distress were 44%, 47.5%, 37.7%, 57.7%, respectively. Quantile regression showed that mental health scores were negatively associated to age, years from graduation, being discriminated against owing to the experience in Wuhan, and the attitude on the future of COVID-19, while was positively related to the education level (P < 0.05). Especially, the education level was highly related with anxiety (25th = 1.64, 50th = 2.54).

CONCLUSION

The finding showed that the respondents who were near graduation, discriminated owing to the experience in Wuhan, and worried about the future trend of COVID-19 had a higher risk of negative psychologic status, especially in the bottom and median quantile, and might require more psycho-social interventions or support.

Determination of adulteration in wheat flour using multi-grained cascade forest-related models coupled with the fusion information of hyperspectral imaging

Wheat flour (WF) is a common ingredient in staple foods. However, the presence of intentional or unintentional adulterants makes it difficult to guarantee WF quality. Multi-grained cascade forest (gcForest) model, a non-neural network deep learning structure, fused with image-spectra features from hyperspectral imaging (HSI) was employed for detecting adulterant type (peanut, walnut, or benzoyl peroxide) and the corresponding concentration (0.03%, 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.5%, 1%, and 2%). Based on the spectra of full wavelength and effective wavelength (EW) from hyperspectral images of WF samples, the gcForest-related models exhibited high performance (lowest ACC_P = 92.45%) and stability (lowest area under the curve = 0.9986). Furthermore, the fusion of the EW and the image features extracted by the symmetric all convolutional neural network (SACNN) was used to establish the gcForest-related models. The maximum accuracy improvement of the fusion feature model relative to the single spectral model and the image model was 2.45% and 44.37%, respectively. The results indicate that the gcForest-related model, combined with the image-spectra fusion feature of HSI, provides an effective tool for detection in food and agriculture.

Glycoprotein NMB promotes tumor formation and malignant progression of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), although one of the most common head and neck cancers, has a static or slightly decreased survival rate because of difficulties in early diagnosis, lack of effective molecular targeting therapy, and severe dysfunction after radical surgical treatments. Therefore, a novel therapeutic target is crucial to increase treatment efficacy and survival rates in these patients. Glycoprotein NMB (GPNMB), whose role in LSCC remains elusive, is a type 1 transmembrane protein involved in malignant progression of various cancers, and its high expression is thought to be a poor prognostic factor. In this study, we showed that GPNMB expression levels in LSCC samples are significantly higher than those in normal tissues, and GPNMB expression is observed mostly in growth‐arrested cancer cells. Furthermore, knockdown of GPNMB reduces monolayer cellular proliferation, cellular migration, and tumorigenic growth, while GPNMB protein displays an inverse relationship with Ki‐67 levels. Therefore, we conclude that GPNMB may be an attractive target for future LSCC therapy.

Finger touching combined X-ray-guided percutaneous nephrolithotomy in 640 cases: an 8-years' experience

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of finger touching combined X-ray-guided percutaneous nephrolithotomy, and the feasibility of avoiding damage in medical staff caused by X-ray.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

From January 2013 to December 2020, 640 cases of percutaneous nephrolithotomy were performed through the 18-24-F channel. Among those cases, 22 (3.4%) cases were double-sided kidney stones surgeries, 294 (45.8%) cases were on the right side and 324 (50.5%) cases were on the left side. The targeted renal calyceal puncture was carried out under the combined guidance of the doctor's finger and X-ray. We assessed the X-ray exposure time of patients and doctors, average number of punctures, postoperative hospitalization, calculus removal rates, and complications.

RESULTS

The average number of punctures was 2.8 ± 1.4. Average X-ray exposure time during procedure: 2.8 s (range: 2-8 s). Average surgical time: 106.5 ± 49.4 min. Postoperative hospitalization: 6.8 ± 4.2 d. Average reduced hemoglobin level: 5.9 g/day. Stone-free rate 4 weeks after surgeries: 95.6%. Patients with upper ureteral calculi: 395 cases (61.72%). The calculus residual rate of patients with staghorn renal calculi or multiple renal calculi complementary treatments was 82.9%, including 0 patients who received shock wave lithotripsy, 2 cases of repeated percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), and 18 cases of ureteroscopy. Postoperative placement of renal drainage tube occurred in 52 cases. As for complications, no perirenal infection occurred, two severe bleeding complication cases occurred, and one case of colon perforation occurred.

CONCLUSIONS

Finger touching combined X-ray-guided percutaneous nephrolithotomy in patients with renal calculus is safe and can accurately guide the puncture without radiation hazards. The placement of a renal drainage tube was beneficial to reduce renal effusion, hematocele, and infections.

Histone H1.2 promotes hepatocarcinogenesis by regulating STAT3 signaling

Linker histone H1.2 (H1.2), encoded by HIST1H1C (H1C), is a major H1 variant in somatic cells. Among five histone H1 somatic variants, upregulated H1.2 was found in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) samples and in a diethylnitrosamine (DEN)‐induced HCC mouse model. In vitro, H1.2 overexpression accelerated proliferation of HCC cell lines, whereas H1.2 knockdown (KD) had the opposite effect. In vivo, H1.2 insufficiency or deficiency (H1c KD or H1c KO) alleviated inflammatory response and HCC development in DEN‐treated mice. Mechanistically, H1.2 regulated the activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), which in turn positively regulated H1.2 expression by binding to its promoter. Moreover, upregulation of the H1.2/STAT3 axis was observed in human HCC samples, and was confirmed in mouse models of methionine‐choline‐deficient diet induced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis or lipopolysaccharide induced acute inflammatory liver injury. Disrupting this feed‐forward loop by KD of STAT3 or treatment with STAT3 inhibitors rescued H1.2 overexpression‐induced proliferation. Moreover, STAT3 inhibitor treatment‐ameliorated H1.2 overexpression promoted xenograft tumor growth. Therefore, H1.2 plays a novel role in inflammatory response by regulating STAT3 activation in HCC, thus, blockade of the H1.2/STAT3 loop is a potential strategy against HCC.

Paramylon from Euglena gracilis Prevents Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Liver Injury

Acute liver injury (ALI) is a life-threatening syndrome with high mortality and lacks effective therapies. Rodents under LPS (lipopolysaccharide)/D-Gal (D-galactosamine) stress mimic ALI by presenting dramatically increased inflammation and cell death in the liver. Euglena gracilis, functioning like dietary fiber, is commonly used as a paramylon (Pa)-rich nutritional supplement that has various biological effects such as regulating immune system, anti-obesity, and anti-tumor. Here, we found that Pa or sonicated and alkalized paramylon (SA-Pa) alleviated the LPS/D-Gal-induced hepatic histopathological abnormalities in mice. Compared with Pa, SA-Pa had lower molecular weights/sizes and showed better efficacy in alleviating injury-induced hepatic functions, as well as the transcriptional levels of inflammatory cytokines. Moreover, SA-Pa treatment promoted M2 macrophage activation that enhanced the anti-inflammatory function in the liver, and downregulated STAT3 target genes, such as Fos, Jun, and Socs3 upon the injury. Meanwhile, SA-Pa treatment also alleviated apoptosis and necroptosis caused by the injury. Our results demonstrated that SA-Pa efficiently protected the liver from LPS/D-Gal-induced ALI by alleviating inflammation and cell death.

A turn-on NIR fluorescence sensor for gossypol based on Yb-based metal-organic framework

The development of analytical method for selective and sensitive detection of gossypol (Gsp), an extraction from the cotton plants, is important but still challenging in food safety and medical field. Herein, we reported a turn-on near infrared (NIR) fluorescence detection strategy for Gsp based on a metal-organic framework (MOF), QBA-Yb, which was prepared from 4,4'-(quinolone-5, 8-diyl) benzoate with Yb(NO₃)₃·5H₂O by solvothermal synthesis. The Gsp acted as another "antenna" to sensitize the luminescence of Yb³⁺, leading to the turn-on NIR emission upon 467 nm excitation. As Gsp concentration increased, the NIR emission at 973 nm enhanced gradually, thus enabling highly sensitive Gsp detection in a turn-on way. The experiment and theoretical calculation results revealed the presence of strong hydrogen bonds between Gsp molecules and the MOF skeleton. The developed QBA-Yb probe showed excellent characteristics for detection of Gsp molecules, accompanied by wide linear range (5-160 μg/mL), low detection limit (0.65 μg/mL) and short response time (within 10 min). We have further demonstrated that the QBA-Yb probe was successfully applied for the determination of Gsp in real samples of cottonseeds.