Search

Purpose: Breast cancer is fatal if it is not diagnosed and treated promptly; consequently, early and precise diagnosis is essential. In comparison to mammography and sonography, the sensitivity of MRI to cellular changes and its ability to differentiate benign from malignant tumors make it the preferred imaging technique. Consequently, the present meta-analysis assessed the effectiveness of different imaging modalities for breast cancer detection and evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of MRI. Methods: Pertinent articles were searched in PubMed, MEDLINE, and Central databases using the appropriate keywords as per the PRISMA guidelines. Retrospective and prospective studies were included according to the predefined PICOS criteria. A meta-analysis was performed using RevMan and MedCalc software, and statistical parameters, such as odds ratio, sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, and accuracy, were calculated. Publication bias was evaluated using Egger’s and Begg’s tests, and diagnostic performance was assessed using Youden’s and Bland-Altman's plots. Results: Fourteen clinical trials with 4666 breast cancer patients with perineural spread were included. The included studies used MRI for the detection of breast cancer lesions according to the BI-RADS® (Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System) guidelines and stated that it has high sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy. Similarly, the present meta-analysis found a high sensitivity of 86.12 % and a high diagnostic accuracy of 91.2%. Other than this, we obtained a specificity of 65%, a positive likelihood ratio of 2.7, and a negative likelihood ratio of 0.22. The pooled odds ratio (OR) was reported to be 1.87 (95% CI 1.42-2.46), and the pooled risk ratio value was 1.19 (95% CI 1.11-1.28). Conclusion: Present meta-analysis strongly recommends MRI as an effective imaging method for the detection of breast cancer.

Targeted gene therapy has shown durable efficacy in non-neoplastic and neoplastic patients. Therefore, finding a suitable target has become a key area of research. Mesenchyme homeobox 1 (MEOX1) is a transcriptional factor that plays a significant role in regulation of somite development. Evidence indicates that abnormalities in MEOX1 expression and function are associated with a variety of pathologies, including non-neoplastic and neoplastic diseases. MEOX1 expression is upregulated during progression of most diseases and plays a critical role in maintenance of the cellular phenotypes such as cell differentiation, cell cycle arrest and senescence, migration, and proliferation. Therefore, MEOX1 may become an important molecular target and therapeutic target. This review will discuss the current state of knowledge on the role of MEOX1 in different diseases.

Background: Spondyloarthritis (SpA) is a group of multifactorial bone diseases influenced by genetic factors, the environment and lifestyle. However, current studies have found a limited number of SpA-related genes, and the genetic and pathogenic mechanism of SpA is still unclear. Methods: A tissue-specific transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) of SpA was performed by using genome-wide association study (GWAS, including 3966 SpA patients and 452264 controls) summary data and gene expression weights of whole blood and skeletal muscle. The SpA-associated genes identified by TWAS were further compared with the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) identified in the SpA gene expression profile acquired from the Gene Expression Omnibus database (GEO, GSE58667). Finally, FUMA and Metascape were used to perform functional enrichment and annotation analysis.Results: The TWAS detected 28 significant genes associated with SpA in whole blood and skeletal muscle, such as CTNNAL1 (PSM=0.0304, PWB=0.0096). The gene expression profile of SpA identified 20 candidate genes that overlapped in the TWAS data, such as MCM4 (PTWAS=0.0132, PDEG=0.0275) and KIAA1109 (PTWAS=0.0371, PDEG =0.0467). Enrichment analysis of the genes identified by TWAS identified 93 significant GO terms 33 and KEGG pathways, such as mitochondrion organization (GO:0007005) and axon guidance (hsa04360).Conclusion: We identified multiple candidate genes that were genetically related to SpA. Our study may provide novel clues of the genetic mechanism, diagnosis, and treatment of SpA.

Renal transplantation is currently the best treatment option for patients with end-stage kidney disease. Ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI), which is an inevitable event during renal transplantation, has a profound impact on the function of transplanted kidneys. It has been well demonstrated that innate immune system plays an important role in the process of renal IRI. As a critical component of innate immune system, Nod-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome has received great attention from scientific community over the past decade. The main function of NLRP3 inflammasome is mediating activation of caspase-1 and maturation of interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18. In this review, we summarize the associated molecular signaling events about NLRP3 inflammasome in renal IRI, and highlight the possibility of targeting NLRP3 inflammasome to minimize renal IRI during transplantation.

Background Open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) is the preferred choice for treating clavicle fractures. The brachial plexus injury caused by ORIF of a clavicle fracture is very rare. If it is not treated in time, the function of the brachial plexus will be challenging to recover, which will eventually lead to upper limb dysfunction and seriously affect the patient’s quality of life. Our team recently used ORIF to treat a patient with a clavicle fracture, who developed brachial plexus injury symptoms after surgery. Case presentation A 34-year-old female patient was admitted to the hospital for 13 h due to the right shoulder movement restriction after a fall. Due to the significant displacement of the fracture, we used ORIF to treat the fracture. The surgery went well. When the anaesthesia effect subsided 12 h after the operation, the patient developed right brachial plexus injury symptoms, decreased right upper limb muscle strength, dysfunction, and hypoesthesia. Symptomatic treatments, such as nourishing nerve and electrical stimulation, were given immediately. Sixty days after the operation, the patient’s brachial plexus injury symptoms disappeared, and the function of the right upper limb returned to the preoperative state. Conclusions Patients with clavicle fractures usually need to undergo a careful physical examination before surgery to determine whether symptoms of brachial plexus injury have occurred. Anaesthesia puncture requires ultrasound guidance to avoid direct damage to the brachial plexus. When the fracture end is sharp, reset should be careful to prevent nerve stump stabbed. When using an electric drill to drill holes, a depth limiter should be installed in advance to prevent the drill from damaging the subclavian nerve and blood vessels. When measuring the screw depth, the measuring instrument should be close to the bone surface and sink slowly to avoid intense hooks and damage to the brachial plexus. Try to avoid unipolar electrosurgical units to prevent heat conduction from damaging nerves, and bipolar electrocoagulation should be used instead. If symptoms of brachial plexus injury occur after surgery, initial symptomatic treatment is drugs and functional exercise, and if necessary, perform surgical exploration.

This study examines the two contending theories of racial issues or ethnic politics, namely, the “contact” and “group threat” theories, in an attempt to learn how increased exposure to and contact with China affect Taiwanese people’s perceptions of China. More explicitly, faced with China’s rising power and changes in cross-Strait relations, the attitudes and sentiments of the general public in Taiwan could either become friendlier or more hostile to China. This study employs a randomized telephone survey, and statistical analysis of the data has allowed us to identify a clear trend of increased exposure leading to more positive opinions of China, confirming the contact theory. Furthermore, these positive impressions have encouraged the very same people to display a willingness to continue interactions with China. This phenomenon understates the unchanging reality that close economic ties between the two sides have overcome, at least to some degree, the sense of hostility across the Taiwan Strait.

Global Climate and Environmental Change is an international hot field. To enhance native awareness on climate change is one mission of "State Policy and Action on Climate Change 2009 in China". As an implement, a course on Global Climate and Environmental Change has been opened in Shanghai Normal University since 2005. The course includes three fields. In the first field, it is introduced on which problems and harms have been caused from Global Climate and Environmental Changes according to UNEP Year Books 2003~2013. In the second field, to introduce the Earth System and Climate-Environment Change. In the third part, the hot climate-environmental issues are analyzed and discussed. By joining this course, the students have understanding earth system science and global change. It helped students to set up the view of ecological civilization of the harmonious development between human and nature, inspire students responsibility to protect the earth. During past 8 year, there were 4 to 5 classes opening for different levels in Shanghai Normal University for each year, more than 1000 students joined the study in the course.

The misreporting of voter turnout, prevalent in survey data across the world, has received comparatively little attention anywhere apart from in some western countries. This study evaluates the use of questions specifically designed to mitigate the level of vote overreporting for the 2012 national elections in Taiwan. After a theoretical examination of social desirability and memory failure, the two primary causes of misreporting, we present the results of a split-question experiment featuring two questions designed to mitigate overreporting. While the findings reveal that the experiment with changes to the questionnaire context was far from successful because of a low reported turnout for the control question, it is the case that, as hypothesized, reported voter turnout differs vastly among the different questions, with the question mitigating for social desirability resulting in higher figures than that for memory failure.