[Gene-lifestyle interaction on coronary heart disease in adult twins of China]

Objective: To explore the gene-lifestyle interaction on coronary heart disease (CHD) in adult twins of China. Methods: Participants were selected from twin pairs registered in the Chinese National Twin Registry (CNTR). Univariate interaction model was used to estimate the interaction, via exploring the moderation effect of lifestyle on the genetic variance of CHD. Results: A total of 20 477 same-sex twin pairs aged ≥25 years were recruited, including 395 CHD cases, and 66 twin pairs both had CHD. After adjustment for age and sex, no moderation effects of lifestyles, including current smoking, current drinking, physical activity, intake of vegetable and fruit, on the genetic variance of CHD were found (P>0.05), suggesting no significant interactions. Conclusion: There was no evidence suggesting statistically significant gene-lifestyle interaction on CHD in adult twins of China.

[Methodology progress and challenges on assessing the appropriateness of real-world data]

From the perspective of data users, ensuring the relevance and reliability of big data in healthcare and medicine via assessments on data appropriateness is a prerequisite for generating high-quality real-world evidence, which could guarantee good representativeness and generalizability of real-world studies. This review summarized the quality dimensions, definitions, evaluation indexes and calculating methods of assessment on the appropriateness of real-world data (RWD) according to guidance from different countries and international organizations, as well as exploring the opportunities and challenges for better assessing RWD appropriateness.

Surfactant-Assisted Synthesis of Praseodymium Orthovanadate Nanofiber-Supported NiFe-Layered Double Hydroxide Bifunctional Catalyst: The Electrochemical Detection and Degradation of Diphenylamine

Physiological storage disorders are caused by ineffective post-harvest handling of horticultural crops, particularly fruits. To address these post-harvest concerns, diphenylamine (DPAH^•+) is widely used as a preservative to prevent fruit degradation and surface scald during storage around the world. Humans are negatively affected by the use of high concentrations of DPAH^•+ because of the various health complications related to its exposure. As a result, accurate detection and quantification of DPAH^•+ residues in treated fruits are critical. Rare earth metal orthovanadates, which have excellent physical and chemical properties, are potential materials for electrochemical sensors in this area. Herein, we present a simple and direct ultrasonication technique for the surfactant-assisted synthesis of praseodymium orthovanadate (PrVO₄ or PrV) loaded on nickel iron layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) synthesized with deep eutectic solvent assistance, as well as its application as an effective catalyst in the detection and degradation of DPAH^•+ in fruits and water samples. The current work presents supreme electrochemical features of a PrV@NiFe-LDH-modified screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) where cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) surfactant-driven fabrication of PrV directs the formation of highly qualified engineered structures and the deep eutectic solvent based green synthesis of NiFe-LDH creates hierarchical lamellar structures following the principles of green chemistry. PrV and NiFe-LDH combine to produce a synergistic effect that improves the number of active sites, charge transfer kinetics, and electronic conductivity. Differential pulse voltammetry analysis of PrV@NiFe-LDH/SPCE reveals a dynamic working range (0.005-226.26 μM), increased sensitivity (133.13 μA μM^-1 cm^-2), enhanced photocatalytic activity, and low detection limit (0.001 μM), which are considered significant when compared with the former reported electrodes in the literature for the determination of DPAḢ⁺ for its real-time applications.

[How to report adaptive design randomized trials-A interpretation of international reporting guideline ACE]

Concerns has been raised in improving the quality of adaptive design randomized trials reports. Based on the CONSORT 2010 (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials), The Adaptive designs CONSORT Extension (ACE) has developed items and reporting specifications for adaptive design trials. This paper presents a brief explanation of the extension and new items of ACE and introduces the applications of ACE checklist with examples.

[Clinicopathological and therapeutic analysis of Castleman's disease in children]

Objective: To investigate the clinical features, pathological phenotype, treatment and prognosis of Castleman's disease in children. Methods: Clinical data of 15 children diagnosed with Castleman's disease in Henan Provincial People's Hospital and the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from May 2010 to October 2019 were analyzed retrospectively. The clinical characteristics, laboratory examination and histopathological data were analyzed. Results: Among the 15 Castleman's disease patients, 12 were males and 3 females. The age of first visit was 12 (10, 15) years. The time from mass discovery to pathologic diagnosis was 9.0 (2.0, 13.0) months. The majority of patients were unicentric (13 cases), and the histopathological type was hyaline vascular (11 cases). Unicentric lesions were most common in the neck (11 cases), all 13 patients received complete surgical resection of the lesions, the follow-up time was 20.0 (13.5, 50.5) months, and the prognosis was good. Two cases were multicentric type, the pathological types were mixed variant, meeting the criteria of idiopathic Castleman's disease, the two children underwent partial surgical resection, one was treated with rituximab and prednisone and the other was treated with thalidomide and prednisone. The follow-up time was 32 months and 10 month, both of them had good prognosis. Conclusions: Most cases of Castleman's disease in children are diagnosed late, and the unicentric type is dominant. The most common pathological type is hyaline vascular, which is characterized by painless lymphadenopathy, while multicentric type has systemic symptoms and both of them have a good overall prognosis.

[Research advances on the promotive healing effect of hydrogel dressing for diabetic foot wound]

In recent years, the number of diabetic patients has gradually increased, and the number of patients with diabetic foot has also increased. Diabetic foot has a high rate of disability and death, seriously affects the patients' quality of life, shortens life expectancy, and brings heavy social burden. The current treatment methods for diabetic foot are insufficient. The concepts and methods of tissue engineering provide new thoughts and means for the treatment of diabetic foot. This article introduces the pathogenesis of diabetic foot wounds, the factors leading to non-healing of diabetic foot, the applications of functional hydrogel dressings in the treatment of diabetic foot and their technical methods of functional hydrogel dressings for treating skin wounds in diabetic animals, and the future development direction of functional hydrogel dressing for treating diabetic foot wounds is prospected.

[Introduction of landmarking approach and its application in dynamic prediction]

Conventional prediction model, as a static prediction model, can be only used to predict the probability of the occurrence of an event during the observation period using the information available at baseline survey. However, based on current clinical demands, dynamic prediction, which obtains prediction probabilities for both baseline survey and later time points given the history of the events and covariates up to that time, is gaining a growing attention. As a dynamic prediction model, the landmarking approach is simple, easy to use, computationally efficient and has a comparable performance of joint modeling, which makes it to be widely used in recent researches. Because of its limited application in China, this paper makes a brief introduction of its ideas and basic application to further promote its applications in clinical dynamic prediction.

Effect of a Rubidium Chloride Carrier Confinement Layer on the Characteristics of CsPbBr3 Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes

This work describes the effect of a rubidium chloride (RbCl) interlayer in CsPbBr3 perovskite light-emitting diode (LED) structures. RbCl crystallites exhibited polyhedral structures and lattice parameters similar to those of CsPbBr3 perovskite crystallites. The lattice mismatch between the RbCl interlayer and CsPbBr3 active layer was only approximately 2%. The devices exhibited the best quality and performance when RbCl was used as the nucleation and carrier confinement layer. The crystallite sizes of CsPbBr3 with 0.2-, 0.5-, and 1-nm-thick RbCl bottom layers were 55.1, 65.4, and 55.1 nm, respectively. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the photoluminescence (PL) emission peak for CsPbBr3 with the RbCl bottom layer was 0.096 eV.

Biomass-derived porous activated carbon from anacardium occidentale shell as electrode material for supercapacitors

Anacardium occidentale shell (AOS) biowaste was chemically activated using KOH at various temperatures to produce AC. Interestingly, this study also presents a novel strategy for achieving value-added usage of cashewnut shell in the energy storage field.

[Application of multi-stage competing risk model to survival data]

The traditional proportional hazard model is commonly used to investigate the association between main outcome and predictor variables. However, the endpoints in medical studies are often not unique. The analyses of labeling other competing outcomes other than the main outcome as censored data will theoretically lead to a biased estimate of the risk of main outcome. Although the traditional competitive risk model can adjust the influence of other outcomes on the risk of the main outcome, it can not directly compare the differences on the risks of different outcomes. The multi-state competing risk model provides a relatively suitable solution for this problem. In this study, based on a previously published follow-up data set for prostate cancer patients, we developed traditional proportional hazard model, traditional competitive risk model, and multi-state competing risk model, respectively. By comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the three models with the same survival data, we clarified the clinical application value of the multi-state competitive risk model in survival data with multiple outcomes.

Methyl Orange Adsorption onto Magnetic Fe₃O₄/Carbon (AC, GO, PGO) Nanocomposites

In this study, carbonaceous nanomaterials (Activated Carbon (AC), Graphene Oxide (GO) and Porous Graphene Oxide (PGO)) were synthesized and attached to Fe₃O₄ magnetic powder for the effective removal of synthetic Methyl Orange (MO). AC and GO were successfully conjugated with Fe₃O₄ whilst PGO was not due to its surface functional groups. The morphology and chemical structure of the Fe₃O₄/Carbon nanocomposites were characterized by the N₂ adsorption, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Batch adsorption experiments were performed and showed significant removal efficiency of 90% at the first ten minutes for Fe₃O₄/AC nanocomposite. Analysis of adsorption equilibrium revealed that AC/Fe₃O₄ is well fitted with Langmuir model, a homogeneous adsorption having an adsorption capacity of 270 mg/g. The GO/Fe₃O₄ can fit with both Langmuir and Freundlich models indicating multilayer adsorption on the surface of the adsorbent with an adsorption capacity of 81.9 mg/g. In the case of adsorption kinetics, both adsorbents follow the pseudo second order kinetics model showing high F?² values. Both adsorbents demonstrated advantageous superparamagnetic properties for their easy recovery from aqueous solutions and prospective applications to toxic removal in water and wastewater.

Selective Electrochemical Sensing Platform Based on the Synergy between Carbon Black and Single-Crystalline Bismuth Sulfide for Rapid Analysis of Antipyretic Drugs

Nanomaterials are of significant interest in acetaminophen (APAP) detection in pharmaceutical samples. Herein, a carbon black/single-crystalline rodlike bismuth sulfide (CB/Bi₂S₃) composite prepared by an ultrasonic method is reported and utilized for the rapid analysis of APAP. The highly oriented edge reactive sites of the CB/Bi₂S₃ composite promoted synergy and good electrochemical sensing performance with a fast electron transfer rate and low overpotential (0.35 V). Therefore, a CB/Bi₂S₃ composite-modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was applied to the selective determination of APAP by the voltammetric technique. The CB/Bi₂S₃ composite-modified electrode showed the lowest limit of detection of APAP (1.9 nM) with excellent sensitivity. The proposed CB/Bi₂S₃/GCE platform exhibited high selectivity, excellent stability (87.15%), and reproducibility. Also, the CB/Bi₂S₃/GCE sensor was then successfully used to analyze an APAP pharmaceutical sample and exhibited satisfactory outcomes. Therefore, the CB/Bi₂S₃-modified GCE sensor platform would be a low-cost and robust GCE electrode material for APAP detection.

[The risk prediction models for occurrence of cervical cancer: a systematic review]

Objective: To systematically summarize and assess risk prediction models for occurrence of cervical cancer and to provide evidence for selecting the most reliable model for practice, and guide cervical cancer screening. Methods: Two groups of keywords related to cervical cancer and risk prediction model were searched on Chinese databases (CNKI, and Wanfang) and English databases (PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library). Original articles that developed or validated risk prediction models and published before November 21, 2019, were selected. Information form was created based on the CHARMS checklist. The PROBAST was used to assess the risk of bias. Results: 12 eligible articles were identified, describing 15 prediction models, of which five were established in China. The predicted outcomes included multiple stages from cervical precancerous lesions to cancer occurrence, i.e., abnormal Pap smear (1), occurrence or recurrence of CIN (9), and occurrence of cervical cancer (5), etc. The most frequently used predictors were HPV infection (12), age (7), smoking (5), and education (5). There were two models using machine learning to develop models. In terms of model performance, the discrimination ranged from 0.53 to 0.87, while only two models assessed the calibration correctly. Only two models were externally validated in Taiwan of China, using people in different periods. All of the models were at high risk of bias, especially in the analysis domain. The problems were concentrated in the improper handling of missing data (13), preliminary evaluation of model performance (13), improper use of internal validation (12), and insufficient sample size (11). In addition, the problems of inconsistency measurements of predictors and outcomes (8) and the flawed report of the use of blindness for outcome measures (8) were also severe. Compared with the other models, the Rothberg (2018) model had relatively high quality. Conclusions: There are a certain number of cervical cancer risk prediction models, but the quality is poor. It is urgent to improve the measurement of predictors and outcomes, the statistical analysis details such as handling missing data and evaluation of model performance and externally validate existing models to better guide screening.

[Potential pleiotropism of cancer-related single nucleotide polymorphisms among Chinese population]

Objective: To investigate the potential pleiotropism of cancer-related single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) among Chinese population. Methods: Based on the catalogue of GWAS jointly constructed by the National Human Genome Research Institute and the European Institute of Bioinformatics, according to population origin (Chinese population and non-Chinese population) and disease traits (cancer and non-cancer traits). All SNPs found by GWAS before August 2020 were divided into four categories: cancer in Chinese population, non-cancer in Chinese population, cancer in non-Chinese population and non-cancer in non-Chinese population. The number, correlation and linkage of the four categories of SNPs were described. Results: By August 2020, a total of 196 813 SNPs from 4 096 GWAS were included in the GWAS directory. The information that SNPs refer to unknown or were not related to the disease was excluded, and 117 441 independent SNPs were finally included. There were 619 SNPs related to cancer and 9 569 SNPs related to non-cancer disease in Chinese population, respectively. There were 4 624 SNPs related to cancer and 106 448 SNPs related to non-cancer disease (trait) in non-Chinese population, respectively. Three SNPs, rs2736100, rs6983267 and rs401681, were associated with two or more types of cancer in both Chinese and non-Chinese populations. Seven SNPs, rs7705526, rs2736100, rs10993994, rs2735839, rs4430796, rs174537 and rs9271588, were associated with cancer and non-cancer diseases in both Chinese and non-Chinese populations, respectively. Conclusion: There is a potential pleiotropism of cancer-related SNPs in Chinese population.

[Gene-body mass index interaction on coronary heart disease in Chinese adult twins]

Objective: To explore the gene-body mass index (BMI) interaction on coronary heart disease (CHD) in the Chinese adult twins. Methods: A total of 20 340 same-sex twin pairs registered in the Chinese National Twin Registry (CNTR) were enrolled in this study. Classical twin structure equation model was used to estimate the gene-BMI interaction on CHD. Results: After adjusting for age, we found that genetic variance of CHD differed as the function of BMI in male twins, which indicated the presence of a gene-BMI interaction on CHD (P=0.008).The genetic moderating effect (β_a) was -0.14 (95%CI: -0.22--0.04), indicating that for each logarithmic transformation value of BMI increase, genetic path parameters would decrease by 0.14, which would result in the decrease of genetic variance of CHD. And the heritability of CHD was 0.77 (95%CI: 0.65-0.86) among the male twins with lower BMI (<24.0 kg/m²), but 0.56 (95%CI: 0.33-0.74) among the male twins with high BMI (≥24.0 kg/m²). However, there was no evidence suggesting that BMI could moderate genetic variants of CHD in female. Conclusion: We found a significant gene-BMI interaction on CHD in the Chinese male adult twins in China, and the heritability of CHD was higher among the twins whose BMI was <24.0 kg/m².

Well-Designed Construction of Yttrium Orthovanadate Confined on Graphitic Carbon Nitride Sheets: Electrochemical Investigation of Dimetridazole

Antibiotics are the most important drugs for people and animals to fight bacterial illnesses. Overuse of antibiotics has had unintended consequences, such as antibiotic resistance and ecosystem eradication owing to toxic chemical discharge, which have a negative influence on the biome. Herein, we report the synthesis of a hollow ellipsoid-shaped yttrium vanadate/graphitic carbon nitride (YVO₄@CN) nanocomposite by a hydrothermal approach followed by a sonochemical method for the effective detection of dimetridazole (DMZ). The synergic and coupling effect between both the phases offer non-linear cumulative ramifications which can positively enhance the individual properties of the materials under consideration. This positive hybrid effect increases the conductivity, shortens the ion-diffusion pathway, enhances the electron/ion transportation, and provides more active sites and electron-conducting channels. The accurate optimization of the experimental conditions proposes good electrocatalytic activity for the YVO₄@CN catalyst, exhibiting a good response toward DMZ detection. It reveals an extensive linear concentration range (0.001-153.3 and 176.64-351.6 μM), a low detection limit (0.8 nM), higher sensitivity (4.98 μA μM^-1 cm^-2), appreciable selectivity, increased operational stability (2200 s), and good cycle stability (60 cycles). The electrochemical performance of YVO₄@CN indicates its practical application in real-time sample analysis of several families of nitroimidazole drugs.

[Clinical application of enlarging greater ischiatic notch by ilium osteotomy to expose the sacral plexus via the gluteal approach]

Objectives: To observe the possibility of enlarging the greater sciatic notch by illium osteotomy through the posterior gluteal approach for reaching the intrapelvic upper sacral plexus as well as the covergence level of sacral plexus,and performing the nerve graft for surgical repairing the sacral plexus ruptured injuries or sacral plexus nerve tumor resection. Methods: The clinical data of 10 patients with sacral plexus injury or sacral plexus nerve tumor underwent the surgical operation via the expanded greater sciatic notch at Department of Hand Surgery,Beijing Jishuitan Hospital from July 2016 to November 2020 were retrospectively analyzed.There were 4 male and 6 female patients,with an age of (38.0±9.3)years (range:26 to 56 years).There were 8 cases with sacral plexus injury at the intrapelvic or covergence level (deep to the piriformis). Out of this 8 cases,4 cases with intrapelvic pan-sacral plexus injury,1 case with upper sacral plexus injury and 3 cases with convergence level pan sacral plexus injury.Another 2 cases were sacral plexus neoplasm.The average time from injury or onset to operation was 10.4 months (range:1.5 to 60.0 months). All cases were performed surgery for reaching the intrapelvic upper sacral plexus as well as the covergence level of sacral plexus with enlarging the greater sciatic notch by illium osteotomy through the posterior gluteal approach.Intraoperation the sacral plexus ruptured injurie was repaired and the sacral plexus nerve tumor was resected.Intraoperative findings,postoperative complications and healing of patients were recorded. Results: All the 10 patients underwent the sacral plexus surgical exploration and cutaneous nerve graft for sacral plexus nerve repairing or neurolysis or neoplasm resection through the posterior gluteal approach successfully.The length and width of illium osteotomy mass were (2.9±0.4)cm (range:2.5 to 3.8 cm) and (2.5±0.5)cm (range:1.5 to 3.4 cm) respectively.The median intraoperative bleeding volume was (M(QR))800(800)ml (range:400 to 2 000 ml).There were no complication with major vascular injury and hematoma formation,and all incisions healed.The postoperative follow-up was 29.8 months (range:1.5 to 54.0 months).Nine cases of iliac osteotomy were healed,and 1 case was not healed because the follow-up was only 1.5 months. Conclusions: The intrapelvic upper sacral plexus and the convergence level of sacral plexus deep to the piriformis can be exposed clearly through this posterior gluteal approach via illium osteotomy for enlarging the greater sciatic notch,and there was enough operative space that surgical exploration and nerve graft or nerve transfer or neoplasm resection can be performed.

Lanthanide type of cerium sulfide embedded carbon nitride composite modified electrode for potential electrochemical detection of sulfaguanidine

Environmental sustainability is threatened by the widespread exploitation and unfettered release of chemical pollutants that require immediate detection and eradication. An instantaneous quantification technique is essential to understand the physiological roles of the antibacterial drug sulfaguanidine (SGN) in biological systems. The present work features the green and environmentally benign synthesis of rare earth metal sulfide nanorods incorporated carbon nitrides sheets (Ce₂S₃@CNS) by deep eutectic solvent-based fabrication with remarkable electrochemical properties. The morphological and structural analyses of the prepared electrocatalyst were characterized using various techniques including SEM, XRD, XPS, and EIS. The heterojunction of regimented structures bids synergistic quantum confinement effects and refines charge carriers endorsing enormous active sites. Furthermore, the obtained Ce₂S₃@CNS/GCE possess an exceedingly lower limit of detection (0.0053 μM) and high sensitivity of 8.685 μA·μM^-1·cm^-2 with superior electrocatalytic action and virtuous stability for the detection of SGN. This modified electrode could afford linearity in the range 0.01-1131.5 μM measured at 0.95 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) correlated to the concentration of SGN. Examining the real samples with this advanced electrocatalyst would support its hands-on applications in everyday life. Development of such innovative architectures with fewer energy necessities and nominal by-products scripts the superiority in characteristic synthetic methodology following the guidelines of green chemistry.

[The enlightenment of foreign MD-MPH double degree program to the cultivation of high-level applied public health talents in China]

Objective: To understand the current status of foreign dual-degree programs of Medical Doctor (MD) and Master of Public Health (MPH) and provide evidence-based decision-making reference for promoting the education of high-level applied public health talents in China. Methods: The list of involved institutions and information of foreign MD-MPH dual-degree programs was collected through literature retrieval, online information searching, and additional survey of key figures. We extracted the details of each project regarding professional fields, core competence, length of schooling, teaching and learning arrangement, internship eligibility, and graduation assessment. Python 3.8.0 was used for data cleaning, and the occurrence frequency of related items in each dimension was calculated. Results: A total of 99 MD-MPH programs from 104 foreign institutions were included, among which 97.1% of them were implemented in universities from the United States. The School of Public Health provided 42.4% (42/99) of the programs. Epidemiology was the major discipline set up among most programs, accounting for 12.0% (29/241) of all the specialties involved. Epidemiological research methods, health policy management and practice, and public health practice were the top 3 core competencies to be mastered. Of the 99 programs, 87 gave information on the length of the program, of which 74.7% (65/87) were five years, 6.9% (6/87) were four years, and 18.4% (16/87) included both 4-year and 5-year programs. Conclusions: The international MD-MPH programs were sophisticated and mainly organized by the School of Public Health alone or in conjunction with the School of Medicine. Epidemiology is the core course and competence objective, with a length of 4-5 years. Through learning experience from international MD-MPH programs and the Chinese unique medical development background, China should optimize its medical education system to develop a suitable talent training strategy for MD-MPH dual-degree programs in the new era.