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Yu-Chuan Chuang,1 Kuan-Pei Lin,1 Li-An Wang,1 Ting-Kuang Yeh,2,3 Po-Yu Liu2– 6 1Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 2Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 3Genomic Center for Infectious Diseases, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 4Ph.D. in Translational Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan; 5Rong Hsing Research Center for Translational Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan; 6Department of Post-Baccalaureate Medicine, College of Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, TaiwanCorrespondence: Po-Yu Liu, Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, No. 1650, Sec. 4, Taiwan Blvd., Xitun Dist, Taichung City, 407219, Taiwan, Tel +886 4 2359 2525, Email liupoyu@gmail.comAbstract: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the most common respiratory viruses. It not only affects young children but also the elderly and immunocompromised patients. After the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era, a dramatic reduction in RSV activity was found, which coincided with the implementation of public health and social measures (PHSMs). However, the correlation is more complicated than we initially thought. After PHSMs were gradually lifted, a seasonality shift and a delayed RSV outbreak with greater number of infected patients were found in numerous countries, such as Israel, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, France, United States, and Japan. Several hypotheses and possible reasons explaining the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and RSV were mentioned. Since RSV vaccinations are still under investigation, administration of palivizumab should be considered in high-risk patients. In the post-COVID-19 era, greater attention should be paid to a further resurgence of RSV. In this narrative review, we conducted a thorough review of the current knowledge on the epidemiology of RSV during the COVID-19 era, the out-of-season outbreak of RSV, and the data on co-infection with RSV and SARS-CoV-2.Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, respiratory syncytial virus, influenza virus, respiratory tract infection

Kuan-Pei Lin,1 Ting-Kuang Yeh,1,2 Yu-Chuan Chuang,1 Li-An Wang,1 Yun-Ching Fu,3,4,* Po-Yu Liu1,4– 6,* 1Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 2Genomic Center for Infectious Diseases, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 3Children’s Medical Center, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; 4Department of Post-Baccalaureate Medicine, College of Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan; 5Ph.D. Program in Translational Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan; 6Rong Hsing Research Center for Translational Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yun-Ching Fu; Po-Yu Liu, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, No. 1650, Section 4, Taiwan Blvd, Xitun District, Taichung City, 40705, Taiwan, Tel +886-4-2359-2525 ext.3110, Fax +886-4-2359-5046, Email yunchingfu@gmail.com; pyliu@tcvgh.gov.twAbstract: Infective endocarditis is a potentially fatal condition, and identifying the pathogen is crucial to optimizing antibiotic treatment. While a blood culture takes time and may yield negative results, it remains the gold standard for diagnosis, blood culture-negative endocarditis, which accounts for up to 20% of infective endocarditis cases, poses a clinical challenge with increasing mortality. To better understand the etiology of blood culture-negative infective endocarditis, we reviewed non-culture-based strategies and compared the results. Serology tests work best in limited pathogens, such as Coxiella burnetii and Bartonella infections. Most of the pathogens identified by broad-range PCR tests are Streptococcus spp, Staphylococcus spp and Propionibacterium spp. adding specific real-time PCR assays to the systematic PCR testing of patients with blood culture-negative endocarditis will increase the efficiency of diagnosis. Recently, metagenomic next-generation sequencing has also shown promising results.Keywords: endocarditis, diagnosis, serology, PCR, metagenomic sequencing, Streptococcus

Background: Sepsis is defined as a life‐threatening disease. Autophagy and the microbiome are increasingly connected with sepsis. The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect of autophagy and the possible mechanisms. Methods: The septic rat model was established by cecal ligation perforation (CLP). Rapamycin (Rap), 3‐methyladenine (3‐MA), and chloroquine (CQ) were administered to interfere autophagy. Western blot (WB) was used to detect the expression of key proteins in autophagy. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were used to identify the effect of autophagy on various organs. 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing was used to analyze the changes of the gut microbiota. Results: Rap significantly upregulated the expression of key autophagy proteins, and 3‐MA reduced the relative expression compared to the CLP group. The autophagic flux showed a corresponding trend. Interestingly, the autophagy inducer significantly decreased the mortality and the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) level in serum compared with the CLP group. Autophagy activation significantly improves the inflammatory response in sepsis. Histopathological sections showed that CLP destroyed the tight junctions between ileal epithelial cells, while autophagy induction reversed the damage. The sequencing results showed that autophagy activation increased the alpha diversity and alterted the composition and structure of gut microbiota. The abundance of Proteobacteria was markedly decreased in the Rap group, whereas Bacteroidetes was notably increased compared with the CLP group. Additionally, the protective effect of autophagy further changed the biomarkers in the microbial community. The top 35 functions in each sample were analyzed to obtain 18 genes including RNA synthesis, ATP binding and transport, chromosome assignment, osmotic polysaccharide transport, transcytosis, and methylation. Conclusion: Autophagy is able to improve inflammation and may directly or indirectly regulate the microbiota of septic rats. Autophagy may be an important target for future clinical interventions in the treatment of sepsis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary catalyst for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is widely recognized as the induction of lipotoxicity in hepatocytes by an excess of fatty acids. In China, Penthorum chinense Pursh (PcP) is commonly employed as a functional food due to its known hepatoprotective properties. The present study aimed to investigate the influence of PcP extract on in vivo and in vitro models of NAFLD. We found that PcP extract can attenuate palmitic acid (PA)‐induced lipotoxicity in HepG2 cells. PA was observed to trigger pyroptosis, as indicated by the increased expression of NLRP3 and GSDMD/N, activation of Caspase‐1, and subsequent release of IL‐1β and IL‐18. However, these changes were reversed after PcP was administered. Furthermore, the application of an NLRP3 agonist inhibited the protective effects of PcP on lipotoxicity, indicating that PcP decreased lipotoxicity by inhibiting the NLRP3/Caspase‐1/GSDMD pathway. Ultimately, we established a rat model of NAFLD through the administration of a high‐fat diet (HFD), followed by the oral delivery of PcP extracts. The results demonstrated that the administration of PcP extract effectively decreased dyslipidemia and hepatic steatosis, which coincided with a decrease in hepatic pyroptosis through modulation of the NLRP3/Caspase‐1/GSDMD pathway in liver tissues. Overall, our findings provide insight into the mechanism by which PcP extracts alleviate hepatic steatosis, highlighting the potential significance of modulating the NLRP3/Caspase‐1/GSDMD pathway in the context of pyroptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common idiopathic interstitial lung disease, and it carries a poor prognosis due to a lack of efficient diagnosis methods and treatments. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a key role in IPF pathogenesis. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress contributes to fibrosis via EMT-mediated pathways. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation is a promising treatment strategy for pulmonary fibrosis and ameliorates lung fibrosis in animal models via paracrine effects. However, the specific mechanisms underlying the effect of transplanted MSCs are not known. We previously reported that MSCs attenuate endothelial injury by modulating ER stress and endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition. The present study investigated whether modulation of ER stress- and EMT-related pathways plays essential roles in MSC-mediated alleviation of IPF. Methods and Results. We constructed a A549 cell model of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1)-induced fibrosis. TGF-β1 was used to induce EMT in A549 cells, and MSC coculture decreased EMT, as indicated by increased E-cadherin levels and decreased vimentin levels. ER stress participated in TGF-β1-induced EMT in A549 cells, and MSCs inhibited the expression of XBP-1s, XBP-1u, and BiP, which was upregulated by TGF-β1. Inhibition of ER stress contributed to MSC-mediated amelioration of EMT in A549 cells, and modulation of the IRE1α-XBP1 branch of the ER stress pathway may have played an important role in this effect. MSC transplantation alleviated bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice. MSC treatment decreased the expression of ER stress- and EMT-related genes and proteins, and the most obvious effect of MSC treatment was inhibition of the IRE1α/XBP1 pathway. Conclusions. The present study demonstrated that MSCs decrease EMT by modulating ER stress and that blockade of the IRE1α-XBP1 pathway may play a critical role in this effect. The current study provides novel insight for the application of MSCs for IPF treatment and elucidates the mechanism underlying the preventive effects of MSCs against pulmonary fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To provide a scoping review of studies on factors affecting smoking cessation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), so as to provide a basis for healthcare professionals to intervene early in the process of cessation of smoking in patients with COPD, and to formulate personalized interventions for smoking cessation. Arksey and O’Malley’s scoping review methodology as a framework, searched databases including CNKI, Wanfang Data, VIP, China Biomedical Database, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, ProQuest, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library to collect literature on factors influencing smoking cessation among COPD patients. The literature was screened, data extracted, and summarized accordingly. A total of 28 papers were included. The socio-demographic related factors affecting smoking cessation in patients with COPD were age, educational level, residence, marital status, occupational status, economic status, race, and sex; tobacco related factors included smoking index, smoking duration (years), cumulative smoking (packs/year), smoking intensity (packs/day), and tobacco addiction; disease related factors included mMRC score, GOLD level, severity of airflow restrictions, symptom, activity limitation due to lung problems, history of deterioration in outpatient care, receipt of COPD medication, receipt of lung CT, receipt of pulmonary function tests, receipt of surgery, and comorbid comorbidities; psychologically related factors included mental health status, quit smoking health beliefs, smoking cessation self-efficacy, motivation to quit smoking, stress, and adverse emotions; environmental/Interpersonal network related factors-included environmental impacts, social support, family support, tobacco control policies, and satisfaction with cessation care; and behavior related factors included alcohol consumption, coffee consumption, eating, physical activity, and have a hobby. Healthcare professionals should avoid critical education of COPD patients in the process of smoking cessation management, pay attention to the adverse effects of medication side effects on patients, emphasize the improvement of patients’ health beliefs and self-efficacy in smoking cessation, and help patients to establish a correct cognition of smoking cessation.

ObjectiveOvarian cancer, a leading cause of death among gynecological malignancies, often eludes early detection, leading to diagnoses at advanced stages. The objective of this bibliometric analysis is to map the landscape of ovarian cancer radiomics research from 2010 to 2024, emphasizing its growth, global contributions, and the impact of emerging technologies on early diagnosis and treatment strategies.MethodsA comprehensive search was conducted using the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), focusing on publications related to radiomics and ovarian cancer within the specified period. Analytical tools such as VOSviewer and CiteSpace were employed to visualize trends, collaborations, and key contributions, while the R programming environment offered further statistical insights.ResultsFrom the initial dataset, 149 articles were selected, showing a significant increase in research output, especially in the years 2021-2023. The analysis revealed a dominant contribution from China, with significant inputs from England. Major institutional contributors included the University of Cambridge and GE Healthcare. ‘Frontiers in Oncology’ emerged as a crucial journal in the field, according to Bradford’s Law. Keyword analysis highlighted the focus on advanced imaging techniques and machine learning.ConclusionsThe steady growth in ovarian cancer radiomics research reflects its critical role in advancing diagnostic and prognostic methodologies, underscoring the potential of radiomics in the shift towards personalized medicine. Despite some methodological challenges, the field’s dynamic evolution suggests a promising future for radiomics in enhancing the accuracy of ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment, contributing to improved patient care and outcomes.

Nobiletin (NOB) is a naturally occurring compound, commonly found in citrus peel, that shows hepatoprotective and lipid-reducing effects. However, the lipid biomarkers and the potential improvement mechanisms have not been adequately explored. Therefore, we investigated the ameliorative effect and the molecular mechanism of NOB on NAFLD induced by a high-fat diet in mice. The results showed that supplementation with NOB over 12 weeks markedly improved glucose tolerance, serum lipid profiles, inflammatory factors, hepatic steatosis, and oxidative stress. These beneficial effects were mainly related to reduced levels of potential lipid biomarkers including free fatty acids, diacylglycerols, triacylglycerols, and cholesteryl esters according to hepatic lipidomic analysis. Twenty lipids, including DGs and phosphatidylcholines, were identified as potential lipid biomarkers. Furthermore, RT-qPCR and Western blot analysis indicated that NOB inhibited the expression of lipogenesis-related factors such as SREBP-1c, SCD-1, and FAS, and upregulated the expression of lipid oxidation (PPARα) and cholesterol conversion (LXRα, CYP7A1, and CYP27A1) genes as well as antioxidation-related factors (Nucl-Nrf2, NQO1, HO-1, and GCLC), indicating that NOB intake may reduce lipid biosynthesis and increase lipid consumption to improve hepatic steatosis and oxidative stress. This study is beneficial for understanding the ameliorative effects of NOB on NAFLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the implementation of the Ansoff Matrix, a well-established framework for strategic planning, in the management of dental businesses. It explores how the four growth strategies delineated by the matrix—market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification—can be effectively utilized by dental practices to expand and thrive within the evolving healthcare landscape.

In the evolving healthcare sector, dental practices face the imperative to adopt robust marketing strategies that attract and retain patients and optimize service delivery and operational efficiency. The 7 Ps of marketing—Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical evidence—constitute a comprehensive framework designed to address these multifaceted challenges. This framework not only aims to meet but exceed patient expectations, fostering practice growth and enhancing operational excellence. Each element of the 7 Ps plays a pivotal role in crafting a marketing strategy that is aligned with the core objectives of healthcare marketing and patient care standards. This commentary will analyse the application and the optimisation of the 7Ps framework in dental marketing and operational management.

C21H19BrN2O3, orthorhombic, Pna21 (no. 33) a = 25.412(3) Å, b = 21.329(2) Å, c = 7.0020(8) Å, V = 3795.2(7) Å3, Z = 8, Rgt(F) = 0.0390, wRref(F2) = 0.1009, T = 100(2) K.

The application of new media technology accelerates the informatization and modernization of party building work. For the construction of party members’ interactive mechanism, the study builds a smart party building cloud platform, which covers five modules: party members’ management, organizational structure management, information exchange and interaction, learning and training support, and data analysis and decision support. In order to investigate the effect of the intelligent party building cloud platform on the construction of party members’ interactive mechanism, an evaluation model of the construction effect of party members’ interactive mechanism is established by using the combination of the three-scaled AHP method and fuzzy theory. The intelligent party building cloud platform has a comprehensive evaluation value of 0.569 for the construction effect of party members’ interaction mechanism, which is considered to be of better construction effectiveness according to the model. Combined with the results of the study, specific countermeasures for the long-term implementation of party members’ interactive mechanism are proposed from the three aspects of organization, system, and funding.

Currently, college students are facing severe employment challenges. To address this, this study uses mental health education assessment data to explore how to optimize the employment guidance and management of college students in order to enhance their employability and psychological adaptability. Decision tree algorithm and improved K-means clustering algorithm are used to analyze the mental health assessment data in depth. Data mining techniques were used to identify students’ employment tendencies and psychological characteristics so as to develop personalized employment guidance strategies. It was found that the accuracy and effectiveness of career guidance can be effectively enhanced through a data-driven approach. Specifically, the accuracy of predicting employment tendency using the decision tree model reaches 85%, while the application of the improved K-means algorithm for clustering analysis of students’ psychological characteristics enables more precise customization of employment guidance strategies. Comprehensive data analysis and psychological assessment can significantly improve the quality of employment guidance for college students. Colleges and universities should pay attention to the use of mental health assessment data, combined with data mining technology, to optimize career guidance and management, in order to help students better adapt to the workplace and enhance their employment competitiveness.

Reading is an essential part of English learning and one of the basic elements of language proficiency. This paper proposes a joint analysis model based on multilayer perceptron, which uses an LSTM network model suitable for text processing. Using the BiLSTM network can obtain all the contexts before and after the current word and avoid the problems of gradient disappearance and gradient explosion that exist in ordinary recurrent neural networks. Two multilayer perceptrons are used, one for predicting lexical annotations and the other for predicting the relationship types of dependency arcs, and the model accuracy is further improved by continuously optimizing the parameters in the model. The English corpus is divided into a training set and a test set, and the prediction rate of the model in this paper reaches 96.02% in the English corpus. To test the effectiveness of this method for college English reading instruction, this model was implemented in the experimental class, while the traditional PWP teaching model was still used in the control class. The mean reading post-test score of the experimental class was 31.54, and the mean post-test score of the control class was 26.35. The mean reading post-test score of the experimental class was 7.7 points higher than the mean score of the pre-test. Therefore, the method in this paper is effective in teaching English reading and can improve college students’ reading performance.

Excessive free fatty acid- (FFA-) induced endothelial lipotoxicity is involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is mechanistically related to endothelial lipotoxicity. Lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor-1 (LOX-1) is the major oxidatively modified low-density lipoprotein (OxLDL) receptor in endothelial cells and is highly abundant in atherosclerotic lesions. Curcumin reduces the LOX-1 expression; however, the mechanism underlying this effect remains unknown. In the current study, we explored whether curcumin ameliorates palmitic acid- (PA-) induced endothelial lipotoxicity and LOX-1 upregulation by reducing ER stress in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). We built endothelial lipotoxicity in vitro and found that LOX-1 was upregulated after PA stimulation, during which ER stress played an important role. Next, we observed that curcumin substantially alleviated PA-induced lipotoxicity by restoring cell viability, increasing angiogenesis, and decreasing lipid deposition. Furthermore, LOX-1 upregulation in HUVECs was blocked by curcumin, possibly via ER stress suppression. Overall, our findings demonstrated that curcumin alleviates endothelial lipotoxicity and LOX-1 upregulation, and ER stress inhibition may play a critical role in this effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effect of slaughtering methods on the muscle quality of eels. Methods: Two slaughtering methods （including mechanical slaughter and manual slaughter） were used to analyze the energy metabolism and physicochemical properties of eel meat slices during storage. Results: Duringstorage at 4 ℃ for 48 h, the glycogent and lactic acid content of eelfillets subjected to mechanical slaughter were lower than those of manual slaughtered samples generally. During 7 d-storage, the sensory deterioration of eel meat samples was retarded by mechanical slaughter, and the TVB-N and TBARS content were lower than those of manual slaughtered samples, while the water holding capacity was higher than that of manual slaughtered samples. Conclusion: Mechanical slaughter is beneficial to maintaining the muscle quality of eels compared to manual slaughter.

The current situation of the development of freshwater fish pretreatment processing industry and development level of freshwater fish pretreatment equipment were briefly described in this manuscript. The development history of mechanical for freshwater fish pretreatment was reviewed. Based on the processing technology of freshwater fish, combining the processing needs of different freshwater fish and freshwater fish products, the main structure composition form and operation mode of existing freshwater fish pretreatment was summarized. The current cutting-edge technology of existing visual recognition and automatic monitoring practical applications in domestic and foreign were included. The research direction combined with China's national conditions of freshwater fish pretreatment equipment was proposed in two aspects, which were automation and intelligence.

Metritis is a common postpartum disease in dairy cows. As a mast cell (MC) mediator, leukotriene B4 (LTB4) is the strongest phagocyte chemokine. It is important in inflammation for the recruitment of immune cells to resist infection. This study investigated the effect of LTB4 in metritis.

In recent studies, the tolerable safety profile and positive bone marrow (BM) response suggest a beneficial use of anti-PD-1 agents in the treatment of Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS), but the underlying mechanism is still unknown. MDS is mainly characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis, which may contribute to inflammatory signaling or immune dysfunction. Our previous studies focused on inflammatory signaling, and the results showed that S100a9 expression was higher in low-risk MDS and lower in high-risk MDS. In this study, we combine the inflammatory signaling and immune dysfunction. SKM-1 cells and K562 cells co-cultured with S100a9 acquire apoptotic features. Moreover, we confirm the inhibitory effect of S100a9 on PD-1/PD-L1. Importantly, PD-1/PD-L1 blockade and S100a9 can both activate the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. The cytotoxicity is higher in lower-risk MDS-lymphocytes than in high-risk MDS-lymphocytes, and S100a9 partially rescues the exhausted cytotoxicity in lymphocytes. Our study demonstrates that S100a9 may inhibit MDS-associated tumor escape via PD-1/PD-L1 blockade through PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway activation. Our findings indicate the possible mechanisms by which anti-PD-1 agents may contribute to the treatment of MDS. These insights may provide mutation-specific treatment as a supplementary therapy for MDS patients with high-risk mutations, such as TP53, N-RAS or other complex mutations.

The complexity of the tumor microenvironment (TME) severely hinders the therapeutic effects of various cancer treatment modalities. The TME differs from normal tissues owing to the presence of hypoxia, low pH, and immune-suppressive characteristics. Modulation of the TME to reverse tumor growth equilibrium is considered an effective way to treat tumors. Recently, polymeric nanomedicines have been widely used in cancer therapy, because their synthesis can be controlled and they are highly modifiable, and have demonstrated great potential to remodel the TME. In this review, we outline the application of various stimuli responsive polymeric nanomedicines to modulate the TME, aiming to provide insights for the design of the next generation of polymeric nanomedicines and promote the development of polymeric nanomedicines for cancer therapy.

Thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) is a well-established instrumental technique for accurately analyzing isotopes of elements with low first ionization potential. However, the measurement accuracy is affected due to the existence of the mass fractionation effect. Generally, applying the external standard method or total evaporation method is the most common way to correct the mass fractionation effect. Total evaporation (TE） technology is the most conventional method for uranium major isotope ratio measurement (235U/238U) using TIMS. However, due to the strong peak tailing of the major isotopes and other factors, the measurement precision and accuracy of minor isotope ratios (234U/238U and 236U/238U) are relatively low. In this study, the modified total evaporation (MTE) method for highly precise measurement of uranium isotopes ratios by TIMS was developed based on the research of dynamic heating procedures, dynamic and static receiving procedures, peak tailing correction, efficiency calibration of collectors and mass discrimination calibration. The accuracy and reliability of the MTE method were verified with different reference materials. The experiment results showed that the yield of uranium oxide should be monitored and the related parameters should be precisely controlled to reduce the yield of uranium oxidation during measurement. This action could guarantee the effectiveness of the MTE measurement and improve the uranium samples utilization. The initial strength of 187Re+ played an important role in the ionization efficiency of uranium and the yield of uranium oxide. The optimal signal of 187Re+ should be set in the range of 0.17-0.22 V. When uranium samples with 2% 235U isotopic abundance were measured by the MTE method using TIMS, the measurement precisions of 235U/238U, 234U/238U and 236U/238U were 0.024%, 0.06%, and 0.19%, and the bias between the measured value and reference value were 0.025%, 0.19%, and 0.38%, respectively. Compared to the TE method, the MTE method showed the same precision for the 235U/238U ratio measurement. As for the MTE measurement of 234U/238U and 236U/238U ratios, the major uranium isotopes (235U and 238U) were used as an internal standard to overcome the mass fractionation effect. When the tailing effects were eliminated, the measurement precisions of 234U/238U and 236U/238U ratios were improved by 5 to 10 times. As for sample amount, the TE method generally requires the uranium amount of less than 1 μg, while 5 μg is required for the MTE method.

Abstract Pregnant women infected with HCV should be given attention due to their special physiological stage and the effect on offspring health. To examine the prevalence of HCV infection among pregnant women in part of China and explore relevant factors during pregnancy, a cross-sectional study was conducted in four maternal and children health care institutions (MCHC) in Guangdong, Hunan and Chongqing. Pregnant women who were delivered, induced or spontaneous abortion were included and relevant information was collected through the Hospital Information System. Results showed that the prevalence of HCV among pregnant women in four MCHCs was 0.11% (95% CI 0.09–0.13%). Age, occupations, regions, syphilis-infection, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), and placenta previa were significant factors (all P