Search

Abstract Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of different non-pharmacological interventions for pain management in preterm infants and provide high-quality clinical evidence. Methods Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of various non-pharmacological interventions for pain management in preterm infants were searched from PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library from 2000 to the present (updated March 2023). The primary outcome was pain score reported as standardized mean difference (SMD). The secondary outcomes were oxygen saturation and heart rate reported as the same form. Results Thirty five RCTs of 2134 preterm infants were included in the meta-analysis, involving 6 interventions: olfactory stimulation, combined oral sucrose and non-nutritive sucking (OS + NNS), facilitated tucking, auditory intervention, tactile relief, and mixed intervention. Based on moderate-quality evidence, OS + NNS (OR: 3.92, 95% CI: 1.72, 6.15, SUCRA score: 0.73), facilitated tucking (OR: 2.51, 95% CI: 1.15, 3.90, SUCRA score: 0.29), auditory intervention (OR: 2.48, 95% CI: 0.91, 4.10, SUCRA score: 0.27), olfactory stimulation (OR: 1.80, 95% CI: 0.51, 3.14, SUCRA score: 0.25), and mixed intervention (OR: 2.26, 95% CI: 0.10, 4.38, SUCRA score: 0.14) were all superior to the control group for pain relief. For oxygen saturation, facilitated tucking (OR: 1.94, 95% CI: 0.66, 3.35, SUCRA score: 0.64) and auditory intervention (OR: 1.04, 95% CI: 0.22, 2.04, SUCRA score: 0.36) were superior to the control. For heart rate, none of the comparisons between the various interventions were statistically significant. Conclusion This study showed that there are notable variations in the effectiveness of different non-pharmacological interventions in terms of pain scores and oxygen saturation. However, there was no evidence of any improvement in heart rate.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations of physical activity trajectories with maternal fatigue. Pregnant women provided objectively assessed physical activity data by Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire four times. Fatigue scale-14 was used to assess fatigue during pregnancy. Growth mixture modelling characterized physical activity trajectories across pregnancy. The generalized estimating equations was used to analyze the relationship between different physical activity profiles and fatigue in pregnant women. A total of 626 pregnant women were included in analysis in a teaching hospital in Nantong city. Fatigue (total, mental and physical) was not different between two groups based on total energy expenditure of PA (constantly high vs. constantly low). The pregnant women in “constantly high household PA” group had the higher fatigue compared to “constantly low household PA” (P

Abstract Background To explore the value of umbilical artery cord blood glucose (UACBG) in predicting hypoglycemia in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and other at-risk newborns, and to provide a cut-off UACBG value for predicting hypoglycemia occurrence. Methods In this prospective study, we enrolled at-risk infants delivered vaginally, including neonates born to mothers with GDM, premature, macrosomic, and low birth weight. We separated the infants into GDM group and other at-risk group. All subjects underwent UACBG measurement during delivery. Neonatal peripheral blood glucose measurement was performed at 0.5 and 2 h after birth. The predictive performance of UACBG for neonatal hypoglycemia was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), area under curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV) and positive predictive value (PPV). Results 916 newborns were included, with 538 in GDM group and 378 in other at-risk group. 85 neonates were diagnosed hypoglycemia within 2 h after birth, including 36 belonging to GDM group and 49 to other at-risk group. For hypoglycemia prediction within 2 h, the best cut-off of UACBG was 4.150 mmol/L, yielding an AUC of 0.688 (95% CI 0.625–0.751) and a NPV of 0.933. In detail, the AUC was 0.680 in GDM group (95% CI 0.589–0.771), with the optimal cut-off of 4.150 mmol/L and a NPV of 0.950. In other at-risk group, the AUC was 0.678(95% CI 0.586–0.771), the best threshold was 3.950 mmol/L and the NPV was 0.908. No significant differences were observed between GDM group and other at-risk group in AUC at 0.5 h, 2 h and within 2 h. Conclusions UACBG has a high NPV for predicting neonatal hypoglycemia within 2 h after birth. It was implied that individuals with cord blood glucose levels above the threshold were at lower risk for hypoglycemia. UACBG monitoring provides evidence for subsequent classified management of hypoglycemia.

Rett syndrome is a progressive neurodevelopmental disorder that lacks effective treatments. Although deep-brain stimulation can alleviate some symptoms in Rett model mice, this interventional manipulation requires deliberate surgical operations. Here, we report that electro-acupuncture stimulation (EAS) can ameliorate symptoms of an Mecp2-knockout rat model of Rett syndrome from the remote acupoints Baihui (GV 20), Yongquan (KI 1), and Shenmen (HT 7). We find that EAS not only prolongs the survival time of Rett rats, but also improves their behavior ability, including locomotion, motor coordination, and social interaction. Neural activation was observed in the substantia nigra of the midbrain, corpus striatum, and cerebral cortex of wild-type and Rett model rats, as reflected by the increased expression of the c-Fos protein. Hence, EAS provides a potential promising therapeutic tool for treating neurodevelopmental diseases.

Reasonable evaluation of evapotranspiration (ET) is crucial for optimizing agricultural water resource management. In the study, we utilized the Data Mining Sharpener (DMS) model; the Landsat thermal infrared images were sharpened from a spatial resolution of 100 m to 30 m. We then used the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) to estimate daily ET during the winter wheat growing season in the People’s Victory Irrigation District in Henan, China. It was concluded that the spatiotemporal patterns of land surface temperature and daily evapotranspiration remained consistent before and after sharpening. Results showed that the R2 value between the ET of 30 m spatial resolution and the value by eddy covariance method reached 0.814, with an RMSE of 0.516 mm and an MAE of 0.245 mm. All of these were higher than those of 100 m spatial resolution (R2 was 0.802, the RMSE was 0.534 mm, and the MAE was 0.253 mm). Furthermore, the daily ET image with a 30 m spatial resolution exhibited clear texture and distinct boundaries, without any noticeable mosaic effects. The changes in surface temperature and ET were more consistent in complex subsurface environments. The daily evapotranspiration of winter wheat was significantly higher in areas with intricate drainage systems compared to other regions. During the early growth stage, daily evapotranspiration decreased steadily until the overwintering stage. After the greening and jointing stages, it began to increase and peaked during the sizing period. The correlation between net solar radiation and temperature with ET was significant, while relative humidity and soil moisture were negatively correlated with ET. Throughout the growth period, net solar radiation had the greatest effect on ET.

BackgroundStudies investigating the relationship between gestational dyslipidemia and small for gestational age (SGA) have reported differing results. This review was performed to determine whether maternal lipid levels during pregnancy were associated with SGA.MethodsLiterature searches for relevant studies were conducted systematically from establishment until February 2022 with PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science. Risk of bias was assessed with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and 11-item checklist. According to the classification of GHD parameters, meta-analyses reporting cases regarding total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) were performed respectively. If I2 ≥ 50%, considered to demonstrate substantial heterogeneity, the random effect model was employed. Otherwise, a fixed effect model was employed.ResultsEight studies (14,213 pregnancies) were included. Decreased levels of TC (MD −0.13; 95% CI −0.24 to −0.02), TG (MD −0.09; 95% CI −0.14 to −0.03) and LDL-C (MD −0.12; 95% CI −0.23 to −0.00) were risk factors for SGA infant birth. No evident association was observed between HDL-C and delivery of SGA (MD −0.08; 95% CI −0.19 to 0.02).ConclusionGestations complicated with dyslipidemia, especially lower concentrations of TC, TG and LDL-C, were at significantly higher risk of delivery of SGA.Systematic review registration[www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero], identifier [CRD42022304648].

Wellbores drilled in igneous formation with weak interlayers face significant risk of instabilities. This study aims to investigate the underlying mechanisms of these instabilities by employing a combination of rock mechanics tests and numerical simulation techniques. The mechanical properties of igneous rocks are evaluated to determine core strength parameters and analyze the impact of drilling fluid immersion on core strength. The two-dimensional model of the igneous formation is refined, and theoretical derivations are made, including the linear elasticity principal equation and the extent of the plastic zone within the wellbore. A numerical simulation model is developed using ABAQUS to analyze the wellbore stability of the weak interlayer igneous formation, accounting for drilling fluid immersion and weak interlayer conditions. The numerical simulations focus on four key aspects of the weak interlayer formation: strength, permeability, horizontal in-situ stress anisotropy, and abnormal pore pressure. The study findings indicate that strengthening the weak interlayer effectively mitigates the risk of wellbore instability. Moreover, the permeability of the weak interlayer exhibits minimal impact on wellbore stability within the formation. However, an increase in horizontal in-situ stress anisotropy and the abnormal pore pressure both decrease wellbore stability along the direction of the maximum in-situ stress.

Composite structures have drawn growing attention for their outstanding characteristics benefiting from the combination of multi materials. This paper aims to investigate the crushing performance of a hybrid system involving an outer thin-walled tube made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP), a medial polyurethane (PU) foam and an inner thin-walled tube made of aluminium alloy (Al). The elastoplastic model of Al, the continuous damage model of CFRP and the compressible foam model of PU were established with assistance of universal material tests. The finite element model of the composite structure, namely CFRP-PU-Al, was validated by the experimental study. Based upon the reliable numerical modelling, the parametric study was carried out for exploring the effects of the wall thickness, diameter and ply orientation of the outer CFRP tube, namely CFRP-O, on the crushing behaviours of the composite structure. It was found that increasing the diameter or wall thickness of CFRP-O was helpful to increase the mean crushing force and energy absorption of CFRP-PU-Al, however, the overall specific energy absorption of the composite sandwich structure was limited by the characteristics of constitutive materials. Compared with the diameter, the wall thickness had a higher impact on the energy absorption characteristics, and increasing the diameter may decrease the specific energy absorption due to the increase of the overall structural mass. In terms of the ply orientation, the composite structure with stacking sequence of [0°/45°]3 possessed higher mean crushing force and energy absorption than the structure with stacking sequence of [0°/90°]3 under axial compression in this study.

Cluster of differentiation 38 (CD38) is a cell surface glycoprotein and multifunctional extracellular enzyme. As a NADase, CD38 produces adenosine through the adenosine energy pathway to cause immunosuppression. As a cell surface receptor, CD38 is necessary for immune cell activation and proliferation. The aggregation and polarization of macrophages are affected by the knockout of CD38. Intracellular NAD+ levels are reduced by nuclear receptor liver X receptor-alpha (LXR) agonists in a CD38-dependent manner, thereby reducing the infection of macrophages. Previous studies suggested that CD38 plays an important role in the regulation of macrophage function. Therefore, as a new marker of macrophages, the effect of CD38 on macrophage proliferation, polarization and function; its possible mechanism; the relationship between the expression level of CD38 on macrophage surfaces and disease diagnosis, treatment, etc; and the role of targeting CD38 in macrophage-related diseases are reviewed in this paper to provide a theoretical basis for a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between CD38 and macrophages.

This paper aims to study the measurement accuracy of Rayleigh scattering lidar (light detection and ranging) based on a ship platform and analyze the influence of the laser beam uncertainty on the temperature inversion results. Taking the ship platform roll data as a reference, the Rayleigh scattering lidar oscillating model is simplified to a sine function, and the inversion accuracy of atmospheric temperature is analyzed under different settled observation angles and different roll angles. When the settled observation angle is 0° and the roll angle amplitudes are 10°, 20°, and 30°, the maximum deviations of the temperature within the height range of 30–80 km are 3.47 K, 13.73 K, and 22.78 K, respectively, and the average deviations are 2.35 K, 9.09 K, and 12.95 K, respectively. When the observation angle is set to 30° and the roll angle amplitudes are 10°, 20°, and 30°, the maximum deviations of the temperature within the height range of 30–80 km are 11.75 K, 27.49 K, and 53.50 K, respectively, and the average deviations are 11.05 K, 13.88 K, and 16.12 K, respectively. The results of this paper show that ship platform rolling greatly influences the measurement of atmospheric temperature, which provides a certain data reference for the construction and use of Rayleigh scattering lidar in the ship platform.

Abstract Objective: To evaluate Coagulation and fibrinolytic parameters after total joint arthroplasty (TJA) and provide evidence for optimization of timing of perioperative anticoagulation medicine. Methods: The prospective study was conducted at the Jishuitan Hospital of Peking University from January to April in 2016, and comprised patients who were scheduled consecutively to undergo primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) or total hip arthroplasty (THA). Blood samples were obtained at day 1 preoperatively and day1, day 3 postoperatively. Antigenic levels of protein C (PC), endothelial protein C receptor (EPCR), tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI), antithrombin III (AT-III), plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1) and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) were measured with commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. Results: Postoperative levels of coagulation parameters TFPI and AT-III were increased compared to preoperative values (118.7±34.6 vs 70.0±20.5 ?g/ml for AT-III, and 26.37±7.91vs 16.68±8.92 ?g/l for TFPI), while postoperative levels of coagulation parameters PC and EPCR were decreased (0.88±0.30 vs 2.03±0.66 ?g/ml for PC, and 100.8±31.0 vs 199.4±57.4 ?g/ml for EPCR). Postoperative levels of fibrinolytic parameter tPA was increased compared to preoperative values (2.87±0.83 vs 2.03±1.03 ?g/l), while its specific inhibitor PAI-1 was decreased (0.88±0.30 vs 2.03±0.66 ?g/l). Conclusion: These results demonstrated the perturbation of the coagulation and fibrinolytic system of patients undergoing TJA. Hypercoagulation and hyperfibrinolysis were observed in postoperative patients, which suggested anticoagulant therapy is effective and necessary. Keywords?Total joint arthroplasty, anticoagulation, fibrinolysis

Abstract The DSSAT model, integrated the calibrated Hargreaves ET model and dynamic crop coefficient, was run with the generated weather data by SDSM4.2 and CanESM2 to predict the potential yield and crop water requirement (ETC) of winter wheat in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain in China under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. The results showed that the spatial distribution of potential yield in the future under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 were similar, characterized by an increasing trend from the northwest inland to the southeast coast. The spatial distribution of ETC decreased gradually from the Shandong Peninsula to the surrounding area, and the minimum ETC was observed in the southern part of Huang-Huai-Hai Plain. The potential yield, ETC, and effective precipitation during winter wheat growing seasons might increase in the future under RCP4.5, while irrigation water requirements (IWR) would decrease. Under RCP8.5, the effective precipitation during the wheat growing seasons decreased first and then increased. However, the potential yield, ETC, and IWR of winter wheat increased first and then decreased. This study can provide some scientific evidence to mitigate the negative effects of climate change on agricultural production and water use in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain.

This study is to investigate the role of regulatory B (Breg) cells in cervical cancer. In total, 70 cases of cervical cancer, 52 cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), and 40 normal controls were enrolled. The percentage of Breg cells was detected by flow cytometry. Serum levels of IL-10 were measured by ELISA. The correlation between Breg cells and the clinical characterizations of cervical cancer was analyzed. The inhibition effect of Breg cells on CD8+ T cells was tested by blocking IL-10 in vitro. The percentage of CD19+CD5+CD1d+ Breg cells and the level of IL-10 of patients with cervical cancer or CIN were significantly higher than those in the control group (P

Hybrid structures have the advantage of combining different types of materials at the same time. The trend of lightweight design in the transportation industry has promoted the development and application of composite materials with good crashworthiness performance. Low-density crushable foam-filled metal-composite hybrid structures have potential advantages as energy-absorbing components. This study investigated the mechanical characteristics of four different polyurethane foam-filled hybrid structures and their individual components under quasi-static axial compression. The experimental results showed foam-filled hybrid structures could change the deformation mode and improve stability during the compression process. Meanwhile, these hybrid structures could also improve energy absorption compared with their individual components. Among the different configurations, specimen C-PU-C (i.e., polyurethane foam filler between an outer CFRP tube and an inner CFRP tube) had the highest energy absorption capacity, at 5.4 kJ, and specific energy absorption, at 37.3 kJ/kg. Finally, a finite element (FE) model was established to analyze the mechanical characteristics of the hybrid structures by validating the simulation results against the experimental results.

The present study is to measure the expression of programmed death-1 (PD-1) and programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1), as well as its clinical significance in cervical cancer patients. Our results showed that different T cell subsets in patients with cervical cancer had high expression of PD-1, and DCs had high expression of PD-L1. High expression of PD-1 on Treg cells in cervical cancer patients facilitated the production of TGF-β and IL-10 but inhibited the production of IFN-γ. Cervical cancer elevated the expression of PD-1 and PD-L1 in mRNA level. PD-1 expression in peripheral blood of cervical cancer patients was related with tumor differentiation, lymph node metastasis, and invasiveness. PD-1/PD-L1 pathway inhibited lymphocyte proliferation but enhanced the secretion of IL-10 and TGF-β in vitro. In summary, our findings demonstrate that elevated levels of PD-1/PD-L1, TGF-β, and IL-10 in peripheral blood of cervical cancer patients may negatively regulate immune response against cervical cancer cells and contribute to the progression of cervical cancer. Therefore, PD-1/PD-L1 pathway may become an immunotherapy target in the future.

Benzbromarone (BNR) is prescribed for the management of hyperuricemia, whereas glimepiride (GLM) for the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Both drugs are certified to be mainly metabolized via cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2C9 in vivo and may have the potential drug-drug interactions. This study aims to investigate the possible influence of orally administered low- and high-dose glimepiride (GLM) on pharmacokinetic characteristics (PK) of benzbromarone (BNR) in rats. Fifteen rats were randomly assigned to group A, B and C (n=5) and administered 0.5% sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), 0.5mg/kg GLM (low-dose) and 1.0 mg/kg GLM (high-dose) once daily for 8 days, respectively, which were all followed with a single oral dose of BNR (9.0 mg/kg) on the day 8th. Blood samples were obtained from retroorbital plexus at the time points of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 24h and BNR in plasma was quantitated by HPLC-MS/MS assay. Resultantly a slight influence of GLM on PK of BNR could be found in rats. When compared with Group A, the half-life time (t1/2z) of BNR in Group B and C significantly decreased 52.39% and 73.49%, respectively, although other major PK parameters were negligibly changed by co-administration of GLM. On the whole, the combinational therapy of GLM at low or high dose would notably alter the elimination of BNR and the effect was dose-dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we derived regional soil moisture (SM) using the latest Landsat 8 image and in situ soil moisture observations at the People's Victory Irrigation District, China. Landsat 8 image was used to construct the temperature-vegetation-dryness-index (TVDI), which integrates the vegetation index (VI) and land surface temperature (LST) to reflect the regional soil moisture conditions. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), enhanced vegetation index (EVI), and modified soil adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI) were used in this study to construct the LST-VI feature space. The correlations between the in situ soil moisture observations and the three TVDIs calculated via the LST-NDVI, LSTEVI, and LST-MSAVI were analyzed. The results indicated that the three TVDIs had a negative correlation with the soil moisture. Then the effective depth of the surface soil moisture was analyzed and found that the soil moisture at a depth of 0-200 mm had a stronger correlation with the TVDIs than the other depths. Finally, the retrieval models were verified by using the remote sensing and in situ soil moisture data on another day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we derived regional soil moisture (SM) using the latest Landsat 8 image and in situ soil moisture observations at the People's Victory Irrigation District, China. Landsat 8 image was used to construct the temperature-vegetation-dryness-index (TVDI), which integrates the vegetation index (VI) and land surface temperature (LST) to reflect the regional soil moisture conditions. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), enhanced vegetation index (EVI), and modified soil adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI) were used in this study to construct the LST-VI feature space. The correlations between the in situ soil moisture observations and the three TVDIs calculated via the LST-NDVI, LSTEVI, and LST-MSAVI were analyzed. The results indicated that the three TVDIs had a negative correlation with the soil moisture. Then the effective depth of the surface soil moisture was analyzed and found that the soil moisture at a depth of 0-200 mm had a stronger correlation with the TVDIs than the other depths. Finally, the retrieval models were verified by using the remote sensing and in situ soil moisture data on another day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to explore the association between pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) and insulin resistance (IR). A total of 50 cases of PIH and 50 healthy pregnant women with a similar gestational age were enrolled. The hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp technique was used to evaluate the degree of IR and all 100 subjects were divided into an IR and a non-IR group accordingly. Subsequently, the correlation between the systolic or diastolic blood pressure was assessed; furthermore, a homeostasis model assessment of IR (HOMA-IR), a HOMA of the insulin sensitivity index (HOMA-ISI) and a HOMA of ß cell function (HOMA-ß%) were performed. Moreover, the effect of IR on PIH was assessed and the protein expression of insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1, phosphorylated (p)-IRS-1, AKT and p-AKT were detected in the placental plasma by western blot analysis. The results showed that in the PIH group, the p-IRS-1/IRS-1 and p-AKT/AKT ratios were decreased compared with those in the control group. Blood flow parameters, including perfusion index, retinal resistive index and systolic maximum velocity/end-diastolic velocity ratio in the IR group were higher, while time averaged velocity was lower compared with that in the non-IR group. Furthermore, the HOMA-ISI and HOMA-ß% were decreased, while the HOMA-IR was increased in the PIH group compared to that in the control group; alongside the blockage of the insulin signaling pathway, these factors may therefore cause PIH. The present study may provide novel therapeutic approaches for PIH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The tumor suppressor gene Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is highly expressed in neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and plays an important role in development of the central nervous system. As a dual-specificity phosphatase, the loss of PTEN phosphatase activity has been linked to various diseases. Results: Here we report that the protein phosphatase activity of Pten is critical for regulating differentiation of neural progenitor cells. First we found that deletion of Pten promotes neuronal differentiation. To determine whether the protein or lipid phosphatase activity is required for regulating neuronal differentiation, we generated phosphatase domain-specific Pten mutations. Interestingly, only expression of protein phosphatase-deficient mutant Y138L could mimic the effect of knocking down Pten, suggesting the protein phosphatase of Pten is critical for regulating NPC differentiation. Importantly, we showed that the wild-type and lipid phosphatase mutant (G129E) forms of Pten are able to rescue neuronal differentiation in Pten knockout NPCs, but mutants containing protein phosphatase mutant cannot. We further found that Pten-dependent dephosphorylation of CREB is critical for neuronal differentiation. Conclusion: Our data indicate that the protein phosphatase activity of PTEN is critical for regulating differentiation of NSCs during cortical development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This study is to investigate the role of miR-143 expression in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Methods The expression level of miR-143 was examined by quantitative real-time PCR. Human papillomavirus (HPV) genotype was detected by HPV genotype detection kit. The expression level of bcl-2 was detected by immunohistochemistry. Results The positive rate of HPV was 78% in the patients of cervical SCC. The most prevalent genotype was HPV16, with a positive rate of 42%. The expression level of miR-143 was significantly lower in the cervical SCC tissues than that in the normal cervical tissues (Z = -2.180, P = 0.029). Down-regulated miR-143 expression was associated with tumor size, lymph node metastasis and HPV16 infection in cervical cancer patients. No significant associations were found between the expression levels of miR-143 and age, clinical stage, differentiation or lymph vascular space invasion. And, in cervical SCC patients after treatment with Taxol chemotherapy, the expression level of miR-143 was higher and the positive expression of bcl-2 protein was lower. However, the differences in expression changes of miR-143 and bcl-2 were not statistically significant (miR-143, Z = −0.763, P = 0.446; bcl-2 protein, χ2 = 2.277, P = 0.131). Conclusion Down-regulated miR-143 is related with tumor size, lymph node metastasis and HPV16 infection in cervical SCC, but miR-143 does not participate in the Taxol sensitivity response. Virtual slides The virtual slides for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/1401279451112150. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The fine balance of Th17/Treg is crucial for maintenance of immune homeostasis. The objective of this study was to investigate the balance of Th17/Treg and the expression of related cytokines in Uighur cervical cancer patients. Methods: Peripheral blood was collected from 65 cases of cervical cancer patients, 42 cases of cervical CIN patients and 40 healthy people. Flow cytometry was used to detect the percentages of T cell subsets, including CD3+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, Treg cells and Th17 cells. ELISA assay was conducted to detect expression levels of TGF-β, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17, IL-23 and IFN-γ. Results: There were no significant difference in the levels of CD3+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ among the cervical cancer group, the CIN group and the healthy control group. However, compared with the healthy control group, the percentages of CD4+ CD25+ Treg, CD4+CD25+CD127- Treg, CD4+IL17+ Th17, CD4+CD25+Foxp3+, CD4+CD25- Foxp3+, CD8+CD25+CD127-Treg and CD8+CD25+Foxp3 were significantly higher in the cervical cancer group and the CIN group. Similar results were also found in the Th17/Treg ratio and the related cytokines. There was no significant difference between the cervical cancer group and the CIN group. Additionally, Th17 cell levels were positively correlated with IL-6, IL-23 and IL-17. Also, Treg cell levels were positively correlated with TGF-β, IL-10 and IL-6. Contrarily, Treg cell levels and IFN-γ were negatively correlated. Conclusions: Our data indicated that the Th17/Treg balance was broken in peripheral blood of cervical cancer patients. Analysis of Th17/Treg balance may have a significant implication in diagnosing cervical cancer. Virtual slides: The virtual slide for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/ 1813823795931511. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between Tim-3 on T cell and its ligand, Galectin-9, negatively regulates cellular immune responses. However, the role of Tim-3/Galectin-9 pathway in the immune evasion of cervical cancer remains unknown. This study is to investigate the expression, function, and regulation of Tim-3/Galectin-9 signaling pathway in human papilloma virus (HPV) positive cervical cancer. Flow cytometry showed that Tim-3 expression on T cell and Galectin-9 expression on monocytes in HPV positive cervical cancer patients were significantly higher compared to cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and benign uterine fibroids Tim-3 + CD4+ Th1 cells and Tim-3 + CD8+ T cells in HPV positive cervical cancer patients were significantly reduced after surgery. Serum TGF-ß and IL-10 levels were positively correlated with Tim-3 + Treg cells, while IFN-γ and IL-2 were negatively correlated with Tim-3 + Th1 cells. Additionally, Tim-3 + CD4+ T cells were positively correlated with Galectin-9 + monocytes. Survival curve analysis showed that Tim-3 + CD4+ T cells were negatively correlated with patient survival, and closely related to FIGO stage, degree of differentiation, and lymph node metastasis of HPV positive cervical cancer. In vitro experiments showed that by blocking the Tim-3/Galectin-9 pathway, the proliferation of T cells and their ability to express IFN-γ, IL-2, perforin, and granzyme B was significantly restored. In conclusion, high levels of Tim-3 and Galectin-9 in HPV positive cervical cancer patients play roles in the progression of disease by promoting Treg cells to inhibit the cytotoxic function of Th1 and CD8+ T cells. Tim-3/Galectin-9 may serve as a new immunotherapy target for patients with HPV positive cervical cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiac magnetic resonance image (MRI) segmentation has the features such as there is a lot of noise, the target areas are indistinguishable from the background, and the shape of the right ventricle is irregular. Although convolution operations are good at extracting local features, the U-shaped convolutional neural networks (CNN) structure hardly models long-distance dependency between pixels and can not achieve ideal segmentation results on cardiac MRI. To solve these problems, UConvTrans is proposed with a dual-flow U-shaped network by global and local information integration. First, the network applies the CNN branch to extract local features and capture global representations by Transformer branch, which retains local detailed features and suppresses the interference of noise and background features in cardiac MRI. Next, the bidirectional fusion module is proposed to fuse the features extracted by CNN and the Transformer with each other, enhancing the feature expression capability and improving the segmentation accuracy of the right ventricle. Besides, the parameters of network can be set flexibly because the transformer structure in the proposed method does not require pre-trained weights. The proposed method also strikes a better balance between precision and efficiency, which is evaluated on the MICCAI 2017 ACDC dataset. The results show that the network outperforms U-Net by 1.13% average dice coefficient while the parameter amount and the floating point operations are only 10% and 8% of the U-Net. Finally, the proposed method achieves a dice coefficient of 92.42% for the right ventricle, 91.64% for the myocardium, and 95.06% for the left ventricle respectively and wins the first place in the myocardium and left ventricle on test set.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of tooth-alveolar bone grafts in repairing dentition defects., Methods: Forty-five patients with dentition defect were divided into two groups according to different operation methods. In group A (n=24), the tooth-alveolar bone grafts of the transplanted tooth and its surrounding alveolar bone were cut using modified surgical orthodontics and then embedded into the designated planting hole. In group B (n=21), the teeth were extracted through conventional tooth transplantation and then embedded into the prepared planting holes. The transplanted teeth were fixed for about 4-6 weeks using the orthodontic method. During the postoperation, which lasted for 2-12 weeks, root canal treatments were administered selectively. The medical effect was regularly followed up and evaluated., Results: No significant difference was found in the change of color and the periodontal ligament image between the two groups (P>0.05) whereas significant differences were observed in the degree of tooth mobility, the absorption of root and alveolar bone, and the rate of root canal treatment (P<0.05). The curative effect in group A was superior to group B., Conclusions: Tooth-alveolar bone graft transplantation has overcome some of the limitations of traditional tooth transplantation. Therefore, it is an effective means of repairing dentition defect.