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Zi-Jie Tang,1,2 Jing-Run Yang,3 Chong-Li Yu,2 Mei-Han Dong,1,2 Rui Wang,2 Cheng-Xin Li1,2 1Graduate School, Medical School of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Beijing, 100853, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Dermatology, The First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of General Surgery, The First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Cheng-Xin Li; Rui Wang, Department of Dermatology, the First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, No. 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100853, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-18501969456, Email chengxinlidr@yeah.net; wr0699@163.comBackground: Psoriasis is a frequent form of chronic inflammation in dermatology that is unmistakably linked to the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its elements. This study was to explore the current status and new developments in the global research, and the holistic landscape of this field more intuitively through bibliometric analysis of scientific output and activity.Methods: Publications regarding psoriasis and MetS were searched and chosen from the database of the Web of Science Core Collection. Excel 2019, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace software were utilized to conduct bibliometric analysis.Results: There were 1096 publications included. The scientific outputs in this field had increased from 2004 to 2022, and the expansion could continue in the following years. The United States contributed the most publications (241, 21.99%) and had the most citation frequency (13,489 times). The University of California System was the most productive affiliation. Girolomoni G., Armstrong A.W., Gisondi P. and Gelfand J.M. were key and influential researchers. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology published the greatest number of articles (65 articles). By analyzing keyword frequency and clustering, we have identifi

Rong-Yin Li,1 Dong-Mei Yang,2 Nan Ding,1 Qi-Yan Bao1 1Department of Stomatology, Beijing Luhe Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 101149, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Capital Medical University School of Stomatology, Beijing, 100050, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Dong-Mei Yang, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Capital Medical University School of Stomatology, No. 4 Tiantan Xili, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100050, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 10 57099201, Email yangdm1004@126.comObjective: To identify the main factors associated with early childhood caries by analyzing the risk factors of early childhood caries, thus providing a reference for developing prevention programs to reduce the risk of early childhood caries.Methods: We selected a total of 221 children aged 3– 4 years from two kindergartens in Tongzhou District, Beijing for this study. We conducted oral examination and the caries activity test (Cariostat) on children and their parents / primary caregivers, and the parents / primary caregivers additionally answered a questionnaire survey. Based on the results, we comprehensively evaluated the caries status of children and statistically analyzed the caries-related factors to identify the relevant risk factors.Results: The mean age of children in the study children was 40.08 ± 2.65 months, with a caries prevalence rate of 54.97% and a mean caries value of 4.61. Early childhood caries was correlated with the intake frequency of sugary foods, intake of sugary foods before bedtime, frequency of tooth brushing, oral health knowledge of parents, caries susceptibility, and age of starting to brush teeth. Logistic regression analysis results showed that the intake frequency of sugary foods, oral health knowledge of parents, and caries susceptibility were the factors influencing early childhood caries, especially the intake frequency of sugary foods.Conclusion: The intake frequency of sugary

Cong-Cong He, Dong-Mei Lin, Hui-Zhen Liu, Fei-Fei Wang, Xiu-Fang Guo, Xiao-Bo Zhang, Yi-Qin Ai, Li-Min Meng School of Nursing, Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Li-Min Meng, School of Nursing, Gannan Medical University, No. 1 Medical Road, Ganzhou, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 15970987999, Email 278646437@qq.comBackground: The pain-fatigue-sleep disturbance symptom cluster is commonly experienced by breast cancer patients, and a variety of nonpharmacological interventions are used to treat this symptom cluster.Objective: To compare the efficacy of nonpharmacological interventions in improving the symptoms of the pain-fatigue-sleep disturbance symptom cluster in breast cancer patients.Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted in the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, CNKI, and Wanfang databases to identify randomized controlled studies from database inception to May 2022. Two reviewers independently performed data retrieval and risk of bias assessments. The consistency model was used to conduct network meta-analyses (NMA) based on the frequentist framework to assess the interventions, which were ranked by the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA). Finally, the CINeMA application was used to evaluate the results of the NMA and the evidence of quality. The results Twenty-three eligible studies assessing 14 interventions were included. According to SUCRA values, among the management effects of the three symptoms, the effect of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) ranked first, followed by mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). The overall evidence quality of our study ranges from very low to moderate.Conclusion: PMR and MBSR were effective interventions for the pain-fatigue-sleep disturbance symptom cluster in breast cancer patients. Clinical recommendations prioritize PMR for symptom management, followed by MBSR. However, this should be interpreted cautio

Nan Tang,1,* Qing-An Huang,2,* Lan-Hua Cai,1 Dong-Mei Deng,3 Mu Niu4 1Departments of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou Red Cross Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of General Ward, The Fifth People’s Hospital of Hainan Province, Haikou, Hainan, People’s Republic of China; 3Health Management Center, The Fifth People’s Hospital of Hainan Province, Haikou, Hainan, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Cosmetic Dermatology, The Fifth People’s Hospital of Hainan Province, Haikou, Hainan, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Mu Niu, Department of Cosmetic Dermatology, The Fifth People’s Hospital of Hainan Province, Haikou, People’s Republic of China, Email 382219948@qq.com Dong-Mei Deng, Health Management Center, The Fifth People’s Hospital of Hainan Province, Haikou, People’s Republic of China, Email m15289975100@163.comAbstract: We describe a 39-year-old woman with a 1-month-old linear erythema diagnosed with cutaneous larva migrans by reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM). This case reveals that the great significance of diagnosing and treating cutaneous larva migrans (CLM) by RCM and dermoscopy, which might provide novel insights into dermatological clinical practice.Keywords: reflectance confocal microscopy, cutaneous larva migrans, linear erythema

Qian Huang,1,&ast; Xing Chen,1,2,&ast; Hui Yan Shen,1 Jia Mou Zhou,1 He Qiao Zhang,1 Li Wang,1 Ren Chen,1 Jing Cheng,1 Yan Zhang,1 Dong Mei Zhang,1 Gui Mei Chen1 1School of Health Service Management, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui Province, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Gui Mei Chen; Dong Mei Zhang, Email chengm@ahmu.edu.cn; zdmd@sina.comPurpose: We aimed to analyze the relationship between handgrip strength/relative handgrip strength among older Han adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) by gender to determine the optimal cut-off value of grip strength for older adults.Methods: A multi-stage sampling method was used to conduct a questionnaire survey and physical examination of 6128 older adults in Anhui Province. Chi-squares tests, t-tests, analysis of variance, and logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the association between handgrip strength/relative handgrip strength and T2DM between the sexes. The decision tree model (CRT) was used to explore the predictive value of handgrip strength /relative handgrip strength on T2DM.Results: There was an association between handgrip strength and T2DM (P = 0.006, OR = 0.985, 95% CI = 0.975, 0.996), which was found in females (P = 0.013, OR = 0.978, 95% CI = 0.961, 0.995) but not in males (P = 0.125, OR = 0.989, 95% CI = 0.976, 1.003). Relative handgrip strength was also correlated with T2DM (P = 0.014, OR = 0.730, 95% CI = 0.568, 0.939), which was found in females (P = 0.003, OR = 0.534, 95% CI = 0.352, 0.809) but not in males (P = 0.432, OR = 0.879, 95% CI = 0.638, 1.212). The incidence of T2DM in elderly females with hypertension who were uneducated and with a handgrip strength of < 17.350 kg was 24.3% (115 cases), whereas that in elderly females with hypertension and a relative handgrip strength of < 0.240 was 29.0% (127 cases).Concl

In this paper, the adaptive robust H∞ fault-tolerant control problem for a class of switched nonlinear systems with parameter uncertainty, disturbances and actuator failures is concerned based on event-triggered control strategy. The adaptive laws based on state-dependent switched strategy are designed to eliminate the effects of actuator faults and parameter uncertainties by using the estimations of the unknown upper bounds of uncertain parameters. Then, the robust H∞ fault-tolerant technique and multiple Lyapunov functions method are used, the designed controller can guarantee that all signals of the switched closed-loop systems are uniformly bounded. Meanwhile, the desired H∞ performance of the systems is promised. Finally, the simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design method.

Background: The role of pulse pressure (PP) 'widening' at older and younger age as a cardiovascular risk factor is still controversial. Mean PP, as determined from repeated blood pressure (BP) readings, can be expressed as a sum of two components: 'elastic PP' (elPP) and 'stiffening PP' (stPP) associated, respectively, with stiffness at the diastole and its relative change during the systole. We investigated the association of 24-h ambulatory PP, elPP, and stPP ('PP variables') with mortality and composite cardiovascular events in different age classes. Method: Longitudinal population-based cohort study of adults with baseline observations that included 24-h ambulatory BP. Age classes were age 40 or less, 40-50, 50-60, 60-70, and over 70 years. Co-primary endpoints were total mortality and composite cardiovascular events. The relative risk expressed by hazard ratio per 1SD increase for each of the PP variables was calculated from multivariable-adjusted Cox regression models. Results: The 11 848 participants from 13 cohorts (age 53 +/- 16 years, 50% men) were followed for up for 13.7 +/- 6.7 years. A total of 2946 participants died (18.1 per 1000 person-years) and 2093 experienced a fatal or nonfatal cardiovascular event (12.9 per 1000 person-years). Mean PP, elPP, and stPP were, respectively, 49.7, 43.5, and 6.2 mmHg, and elPP and stPP were uncorrelated (r = -0.07). At age 50-60 years, all PP variables displayed association with risk for almost all outcomes. From age over 60 years to age over 70 years, hazard ratios of of PP and elPP were similar and decreased gradually but differently for pulse rate lower than or higher than 70 bpm, whereas stPP lacked predictive power in most cases. For age 40 years or less, elPP showed protective power for coronary events, whereas stPP and PP predicted stroke events. Adjusted and unadjusted hazard ratio variations were similar over the entire age range. Conclusion: This study provides a new basis for associating PP components wit

BackgroundSomatic EGFR mutations define a subset of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) that have clinical impact on NSCLC risk and outcome. However, EGFR-mutation-status is often missing in epidemiologic datasets. We developed and tested pragmatic approaches to account for EGFR-mutation-status based on variables commonly included in epidemiologic datasets and evaluated the clinical utility of these approaches.MethodsThrough analysis of the International Lung Cancer Consortium (ILCCO) epidemiologic datasets, we developed a regression model for EGFR-status; we then applied a clinical-restriction approach using the optimal cut-point, and a second epidemiologic, multiple imputation approach to ILCCO survival analyses that did and did not account for EGFR-status.ResultsOf 35,356 ILCCO patients with NSCLC, EGFR-mutation-status was available in 4,231 patients. A model regressing known EGFR-mutation-status on clinical and demographic variables achieved a concordance index of 0.75 (95% CI, 0.74-0.77) in the training and 0.77 (95% CI, 0.74-0.79) in the testing dataset. At an optimal cut-point of probability-score = 0.335, sensitivity = 69% and specificity = 72.5% for determining EGFR-wildtype status. In both restriction-based and imputation-based regression analyses of the individual roles of BMI on overall survival of patients with NSCLC, similar results were observed between overall and EGFR-mutation-negative cohort analyses of patients of all ancestries. However, our approach identified some differences: EGFR-mutated Asian patients did not incur a survival benefit from being obese, as observed in EGFR-wildtype Asian patients.ConclusionsWe introduce a pragmatic method to evaluate the potential impact of EGFR-status on epidemiological analyses of NSCLC.ImpactThe proposed method is generalizable in the common occurrence in which EGFR-status data are missing.

Background: Whether preterm birth is associated with cardiac conduction or repolarization abnormalities in later life is still poorly explored, with conflicting data on QTc prolongation in former extreme low birth weight (ELBW, <1000 g) infants. Methods: Twelve lead electrocardiograms (ECG) at rest, collected in the PREMATurity as predictor of children’s Cardiovascular-renal Health (PREMATCH) study in former ELBW cases and term controls during pre-adolescence (8–14 years) were analyzed on corrected QT time (QTc, Bazett) and QT dispersion (QTd). ECG findings were compared between groups (Mann−Whitney), and associations with clinical and biochemical findings were explored (Spearman). In ELBW cases, associations between QTc and perinatal characteristics (at birth, neonatal stay) were explored (Mann−Whitney, Spearman). Results: QTc and QTd were similar between 93 ELBW cases and 87 controls [409 (range 360–465) versus 409 (337–460); 40 (0–100) versus 39 (0–110)] ms. Age, height, weight, or body mass index were not associated with the QTc interval, while female sex (median difference 11.4 ms) and lower potassium (r = −0.26) were associated with longer QTc interval. We could not observe any significant association between QTc interval and perinatal characteristics. Conclusions: There were no differences in QTc or QTd between ELBW and term controls in ECGs at rest in pre-adolescents. Impact: This study aimed to assess the differences in QTc and QTd intervals between extreme low birth weight infants (ELBW) and term controls in electrocardiographic measurements at rest during pre-adolescence.This analysis confirmed the absence of significant differences in QTc or QTd findings between ELBW cases and term controls, while female sex and lower potassium were associated with a prolonged QTc interval.These data suggest that QTc screening strategies—including for pharmacovigilance—should not differentiate between former ELBW cases and term controls. Clinical trial registration

Dong-mei Zhou,1,2,&ast; Jing Wei,2,&ast; Ting-ting Zhang,2 Feng-jie Shen,2 Jin-Kui Yang1 1Department of Endocrinology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100730, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Endocrinology, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou, 221000, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jin-Kui Yang, Department of Endocrinology, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100730, People’s Republic of China, Email jkyang@ccmu.edu.cnPurpose: To establish and validate the nomogram model for predicting diabetic nephropathy (DN) in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with proteinuria.Methods: A total of 102 patients with T2DM and proteinuria who underwent renal biopsy were included in this study. According to pathological classification of the kidney, the patients were divided into two groups, namely, a DN group (52 cases) and a non-diabetic renal disease (NDRD) group (50 cases). The clinical data were collected, and the factors associated with diabetic nephropathy (DN) were analyzed with multivariate logistic regression. A nomogram model for predicting DN risk was constructed by using R4.1 software. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves were generated, and the K-fold cross-validation method was used for validation. A consistency test was performed by generating the correction curve.Results: Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diabetic retinopathy (DR), hemoglobin (Hb), fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and triglyceride/cystatin C (TG/Cys-C) ratio were independent factors for DN in T2DM patients with proteinuria (P< 0.05). The nomogram model had good prediction efficiency. If the total score of the nomogram exceeds 200, the probability of DN is as high as 95%. The area under the ROC curve was 0.9412 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.8981– 0.9842). The 10-fold cross-validation showed that the prediction ac

Zhuang-E Shi,1 Meng-Yu Zhang,1 Jian-Yu Liu,1 Wen-Di Zhang,1 Dong-Mei Hu,1 Qing-Xiang Wang,1 Xiu-Li Ji,2 Yuan-Yuan Jiang,3 Yi-Qing Qu3 1Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Qilu Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Shandong Key Laboratory of Infectious Respiratory Diseases, Jinan, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pulmonary Disease, Jinan Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Jinan, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Shandong Key Laboratory of Infectious Respiratory Diseases, Jinan, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Yi-Qing Qu, Department of pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Shandong Key Laboratory of Infectious Respiratory Diseases, Jinan, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 531 8216 9335, Fax +86 531 8296 7544, Email quyiqing@sdu.edu.cnPurpose: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a predominant cause of mortality worldwide. Autophagy, which depends on a lysosomal degradation pathway, plays an essential role in the occurrence of COPD. The aim of our study was to identify the potential function of autophagy and construct a BCL2-related competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network that induces autophagy in COPD.Methods: Blood sample data from GSE31568, GSE24709, and GSE61741 were collected from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Differentially expressed miRNAs in COPD and controls were identified via GEO2R. Transcription factors were obtained from FunRich. DIANA, miRDB, miRTarBase, and TargetScan were used to predict target genes of miRNAs. Autophagy genes were collected from the Human Autophagy Database (HADb). The GSE151052 dataset was used to identify autophagy-related differentially expressed genes in tissues. Functional enrichment and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network analyses were conducted via Metascape and the STRING network. Spearman correlation a

Jian Li,1,&ast; Hui Luo,1,&ast; Ying-Ying Liu,1 Li-Xin Chen,1 Mei-Qin Zhu,2 Quan-Tong Deng,2 Dong-Mei Zhu,1,3 Zi-Mo Wang,1 Jin-Feng Xu1 1Department of Ultrasound, Shenzhen People’s Hospital (The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University; The First Affiliated Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology), Shenzhen, 518020, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Medical Oncology, Shenzhen People’s Hospital (The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University, The First Affiliated Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology), Shenzhen, 518020, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Ultrasound, The Affiliated Nanchong Central Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jian Li; Jin-Feng Xu, Department of Ultrasound, Shenzhen People’s Hospital (The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University, The First Affiliated Hospital, Southern University of Science and Technology), No. 1077 of Dongmenbei Road, Luohu District, Shenzhen, 518020, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 755 25533018, Fax +86 755 22945252, Email lijiandh@126.com; xujinfengsb4ke@126.comObjective: To explore the value of uridine diphosphate-glucuronosyltransferase 2B7 (UGT2B7)-161 single nucleotide polymorphism in predicting the occurrence of cardiotoxicity in Chinese human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER-2) positive breast cancer patients who underwent pertuzumab combined with trastuzumab Therapy.Methods: Fifty patients with HER-2 positive breast cancer who planned to receive trastuzumab and pertuzumab therapy for more than four cycles were enrolled in this study, and blood samples were collected. Thirty healthy volunteers of matching ages were selected as the control group. Myocardial parameters such as global work index, global effective work, and global wasted work were measured before treatment (M0) and at the en

BACKGROUND Pulse pressure (PP) reflects the age-related stiffening of the central arteries, but no study addressed the management of the PP-related risk over the human lifespan. METHODS In 4,663 young (18-49 years) and 7,185 older adults (>= 50 years), brachial PP was recorded over 24 hours. Total mortality and all major cardiovascular events (MACEs) combined were coprimary endpoints. Cardiovascular death, coronary events, and stroke were secondary endpoints. RESULTS In young adults (median follow-up, 14.1 years; mean PP, 45.1 mm Hg), greater PP was not associated with absolute risk; the endpoint rates were <= 2.01 per 1,000 person-years. The adjusted hazard ratios expressed per 10-mm Hg PP increments were less than unity (P <= 0.027) for MACE (0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.47-0.96) and cardiovascular death (0.33; 95% CI, 0.11-0.75). In older adults (median follow-up, 13.1 years; mean PP, 52.7 mm Hg), the endpoint rates, expressing absolute risk, ranged from 22.5 to 45.4 per 1,000 person-years and the adjusted hazard ratios, reflecting relative risk, from 1.09 to 1.54 (P < 0.0001). The PP-related relative risks of death, MACE, and stroke decreased >3-fold from age 55 to 75 years, whereas absolute risk rose by a factor 3. CONCLUSIONS From 50 years onwards, the PP-related relative risk decreases, whereas absolute risk increases. From a lifecourse perspective, young adulthood provides a window of opportunity to manage risk factors and prevent target organ damage as forerunner of premature death and MACE. In older adults, treatment should address absolute risk, thereby extending life in years and quality.

The inhibitory effect of three degraded sesquiterpene lactones, iso-seco-tanapartholide, arteludooicinolide A and millifolide A isolated from Achillea millefolium L., on anti-human lung cancer cells was examined using MTT and reporter gene assays. Millifolide A has significant inhibitory effects on the proliferation of human lung cancer cells probably through inducing cell apoptosis.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a central nervous system disease with a high disability rate. Modern molecular biology techniques have identified a number of key genes and diagnostic markers to MS, but the etiology and pathogenesis of MS remain unknown. Results: In this study, the integration of three peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) microarray datasets and one peripheral blood T cells microarray dataset allowed comprehensive network and pathway analyses of the biological functions of MS-related genes. Differential expression analysis identified 78 significantly aberrantly expressed genes in MS, and further functional enrichment analysis showed that these genes were associated with innate immune response-activating signal transduction (p = 0.0017), neutrophil mediated immunity (p = 0.002), positive regulation of innate immune response (p = 0.004), IL-17 signaling pathway (p < 0.035) and other immune-related signaling pathways. In addition, a network of MS-specific protein–protein interactions (PPI) was constructed based on differential genes. Subsequent analysis of network topology properties identified the up-regulated CXCR4, ITGAM, ACTB, RHOA, RPS27A, UBA52, and RPL8 genes as the hub genes of the network, and they were also potential biomarkers of MS through Rap1 signaling pathway or leukocyte transendothelial migration. RT-qPCR results demonstrated that CXCR4 was obviously up-regulated, while ACTB, RHOA, and ITGAM were down-regulated in MS patient PBMC in comparison with normal samples. Finally, support vector machine was employed to establish a diagnostic model of MS with a high prediction performance in internal and external datasets (mean AUC = 0.97) and in different chip platform datasets (AUC = (0.93). Conclusion: This study provides new understanding for the etiology/pathogenesis of MS, facilitating an early identification and prediction of MS.

Jun-Hua Gao,1 Wu-Rong Li,1 Dong-Mei Xu,1 Bo-Wen Zheng,1 Yu-Ming Huang,1 Wen-Qing Wu,1 Wei Zhang2 1Department of Neurology, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Center for Cognitive Neurology, Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Wei ZhangCenter for Cognitive Neurology, Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 10070, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail ttyyzw@163.comPurpose: We aim to study the clinical manifestations, fluid changes and neuroimaging alterations in patients with general paresis of the insane (GPI).Methods: A total of 119 patients suffering from GPI recruited in Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University from 2010 to 2020 were retrospectively analyzed.Results: In 119 GPI patients, 103 cases (86.6%) were male. Misdiagnosed rate was up to 83.2%, schizophrenia and mood disorders were the most common misdiagnosed diseases. Duration from symptom onset to the final confirmed diagnosis was 10.4± 12.9 months. The main clinical manifestations included cognitive impairment (114 cases, 95.8%) and neuropsychiatric symptoms (107 cases, 90.0%). The cognitive domains including the delayed recall, visuospatial/executive function and language ability indicated by MoCA score were damaged severely. Rapid plasma regain (RPR) of all GPI patients was 100% positive in serum and 89.9% positive in cerebral spinal fluid (CSF). The white blood cell (WBC) number in CSF was between 6 and 50/μL in 73 GPI patients (61.3%). The protein level was between 45.1 and 70mg/dL in 47 cases (39.5%). In the 110 cases, 96 cases (87.3%) were abnormal indicated by cerebral atrophy mostly located in the anterior brain and abnormal signals distributed in various regions of the brain mostly in the frontal lobe and temporal lobe.Conclusion: The symptoms of GPI

Wang W, Lin M, Li H, et al. Risk Manag Healthc Policy.  2020;13:303– 311 On page 309, Sensitivity and Specificity of LAMP Assays in Clinical Assay heading, last sentence “These results showed that the sensitivity and specificity were  99.2% (252/254) and 29.5% (43/146), respectively” should be “These results showed that the sensitivity and specificity were 99.2% (252/254) and 70.5% (103/146), respectively”. The authors apologize for this error and advise it does not affect the conclusions of the paper.  Read the original article

As an attractive candidate for dark matter, the primordial black holes (PBHs) in the mass range ($10^{15} \sim 10^{16}$)$\mathrm{g}$ could be detected via their Hawking radiation, including neutrinos and antineutrinos of three flavors. In this paper, we investigate the possibility to constrain the PBH as dark matter by measuring (anti)neutrino signals at the large liquid-scintillator detector of Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO). Among six available detection channels, the inverse beta decay $\overline{\nu}^{}_e + p \to e^+ + n$ is shown to be most sensitive to the fraction $f^{}_{\rm PBH}$ of PBHs contributing to the dark matter abundance. Given the PBH mass $M^{}_{\rm PBH} = 10^{15}~{\rm g}$, we find that JUNO will be able to place an upper bound $f^{}_{\rm PBH} \lesssim 3\times 10^{-5}$, which is 20 times better than the current best limit $f^{}_{\rm PBH} \lesssim 6\times 10^{-4}$ from Super-Kamiokande. For heavier PBHs with a lower Hawking temperature, the (anti)neutrinos become less energetic, leading to a relatively weaker bound., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures

Publisher's another name: JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) Central Bank Communication Design

Jian-Mei Gong,1 Jian-Shi Du1,2 ,* Dong-Mei Han2, * 1Nursing School of Jilin University, Changchun City, Jilin Province, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of the Lymphatic and Vascular Surgery, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Key Laboratory of Lymphatic Surgery Jilin Province, Changchun City, Jilin Province, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jian-Shi Du No. 965 Xinjiang Street, Changchun City, Jilin Province 130021, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-13314301430 Email dujs@jlu.edu.cnBackground/Objective: The recommendation of bed rest for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) patients has changed during the last 20 years, and it has become a concern for researchers. The existing researches on potentially harmful treatment of bed rest for DVT patients focus only on physiological outcomes. This qualitative study explored the implications of bed rest from the perspective of patients with acute DVT. Understanding these implications will provide more evidence on whether bed rest should be used as a medical treatment of acute DVT.Patients and Methods: For data collection, a descriptive qualitative design utilizing semi-structured, in-depth, face-to-face interviews with nine patients with acute DVT was conducted. In order to find the themes and subthemes emerging from the interviews for data analysis, the Colaizzi method, which was suggested by phenomenological methodology, was used.Results: The four major themes found were physical effects, psychological effects, social effects, and post-trauma growth. These themes illustrated the bed rest experiences of patients and it has a negative impact on the quality of life (QOL) amidst acute DVT.Conclusion: Bed rest for patients with acute DVT is a physically, emotionally, and socially distressing phenomenon that simultaneously affects QOL and induces post-traumatic growth. We believe that bed rest is not beneficial to the physical and me

Peng Zou,1,* Han-Lin Gong,2,* Jian-Min Wei,3,* Dong-Mei Wei,4 Li-Xiong Qian,1 Peng Liu,1 Ding-Jun Hao,1 Jun-Song Yang,1 Yuan-Ting Zhao1 1Department of Spine Surgery, Honghui Hospital, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province 610041, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Spine Surgery, Baoji City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yuan-Ting Zhao Tel +86 15229376812Email zytqy@163.comJun-Song Yang Tel +86 18792883498Email yangjunsong1988@126.comObjective: To present the case of a patient on long-term anticoagulants who developed acute spinal epidural hematoma (SEH) after percutaneous kyphoplasty (PKP) without signs of major cement extravasation to the spinal canal.Methods: A 64-year-old woman with long-term oral antiplatelet drugs underwent the L1 PKP. Immediately after the operation, the back pain improved significantly without neurological deficit. However, 12 hours later, she developed progressive weakness of the bilateral lower limbs. No intraspinal cement leakage was obvious on the postoperative lumbar radiograph and computed tomography.Results: An emergency MRI examination revealed a high signal aggregation in front of the spinal cord from T12 to L1, indicating spinal cord compression. The SEH was verified and removed during the laminectomy from T12–L1. Following the decompression surgery, the neurological deficit of the lower limbs improved. On follow-up after 6 months, the muscle strength of the bilateral lower limbs had returned to normal.Conclusion: For the patient with long-te

Yuanyuan Wang,1 Jingjing Chen,1 Wei Chen,2 Ling Liu,2 Mei Dong,2 Juan Ji,2 Die Hu,3 Nianzhi Zhang2 1Graduate School, Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Anhui, Hefei 230012, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Anhui, Hefei, 230031, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Scientific Research, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Anhui, Hefei 230031, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Nianzhi Zhang Tel +86 551-62850057Email dczhangnz@126.comBackground: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third cause of disease-related death and brings a heavy burden to human health. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) was revealed to participate in COPD pathogenesis. This study aims to establish the effects and regulatory mechanism of lncRNA long intergenic non-coding 00987 (LINC00987) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced apoptosis, oxidative stress, inflammation and autophagy in BEAS-2B cells.Methods: The expression levels of LINC00987 and let-7b-5p were detected by real-time quantitativepolymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). The expression of apoptosis-associated proteins, oxidative stress (ROS)-related proteins, autophagy-related proteins and sirtuin1 (SIRT1) protein was determined by Western blot. Cell viability was illustrated by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay. Cell apoptosis was investigated by caspase3 activity and apoptosis analysis assays. ROS, inflammation and autophagy were demonstrated by detecting reactive ROS level and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Western blot analysis, respectively. The binding sites between let-7b-5p and LINC00987 or SIRT1 were predicted by lncBase or miRWalk online database, and identified by dual-luciferase reporter assay.Results: LINC00987 expression was strikingly downregulated and let-7b-5p expression was obvious

Wei-hua Wang, 1,* Min Lin, 2,* Hai-liang Li, 3 Jun-yun Huang, 1 Jiang-tao Chen, 4, 5 Xian-song Fang, 6 Dong-mei Huang, 1 Xu-xiang Xi, 1 Qing-fei Zhao, 1 Fang-li Song, 7 Shao Huang, 7 Tian-yu Zhong 1 1Department of Laboratory Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Food Engineering and Biotechnology, Hanshan Normal University, Chaozhou, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Hematology, First Affiliated Hospital of Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, People’s Republic of China; 4The Chinese Medical Aid Team to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Medical Laboratory, Huizhou Central Hospital, Huizhou, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Blood Transfusion, First Affiliated Hospital of Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, People’s Republic of China; 7Jiangxi Shiningmed Medical Technology Ltd, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Shao HuangJiangxi Shiningmed Medical Technology Ltd, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-18602004914Email huangshao@shiningmed.comTian-yu ZhongDepartment of Laboratory Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Gannan Medical University, Ganzhou 341000, Jiangxi, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-797-8680632Email zhongtianyu@126.comPurpose: Currently, thalassemia is commonly detected using gap-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) reverse dot blot, which have high requirements of space, instruments, and personnel. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new method for thalassemia detection with high sensitivity, low cost, and simple and fast operation. In this study, we aimed to design and

Global warming has obtained increasing attentions due to its multiple impacts on agro-ecosystem. However, limited efforts had been devoted to reveal the temporal variability of metal speciation and phytotoxicity of heavy metal-polluted soils affected by elevated temperature under the global warming scenario. In this study, effects of elevated temperature (15 degrees C, 25 degrees C, and 35 degrees C) on the physicochemical properties, microbial metabolic activities, and phytotoxicity of three Cu-polluted soils were investigated by a laboratory incubation study. Soil physicochemical properties were observed to be significantly altered by elevated temperature with the degree of temperature effect varying in soil types and incubation time. The Biolog and enzymatic tests demonstrated that soil microbial activities were mainly controlled and decreased with increasing incubation temperature. Moreover, plant assays confirmed that the phytotoxicity and Cu uptake by wheat roots were highly dependent on soil types but less affected by incubation temperature. Overall, the findings in this study have highlighted the importance of soil types to better understand the temperature-dependent alternation of soil properties, Cu speciation and bioavailability, as well as phytotoxicity of Cu-polluted soils under global warming scenario. The present study also suggests the necessary of investigating effects of soil types on the transport and accumulation of toxic elements in soil-crop systems under global warming scenario. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In recent years, the phenomenon of international co-authorships from emerging economies, especially Chinese scholars' academic collaborations, has become the focus of academic attention. Based on resource-based theory, taking the native scholars from mainland China with international co-authorships in 39 leading management journals as the sample, the article investigates the influence of individual scholars’ reputation and academic experience on their international collaboration returns. The empirical results show that, (1) Chinese native scholars could receive positive collaboration returns from international co-authorships; (2)the impact of academic experience of native scholars on collaboration returns depends on the measurement of “experience”. Early publishing experience in international journals positively influence collaboration returns, while the number of articles published in international journal does not have significant impact on collaboration returns. Keywords: Chinese native scholars, Collaboration returns from international co-authorships, Resources-based theory, Reputation, Academic experience

Taking the Chinese inland scholars’ co-authorships in the 10 leading international academic journals in the field of technological innovation management from 1990 to 2016 as the sample, the article empirically investigates factors which influence Chinese inland scholars’ propensity towards international collaboration with Logistic regression model. The empirical results show that Chinese inland scholars who have overseas education background show higher propensity towards international collaboration. However, both the overseas academic exchange experience and academic experience have no significant impacts on the propensity towards international collaboration. Keywords: Propensity towards international collaboration; Academic experience; Overseas experience

Tumor metastasis, the leading cause of death among cancer patients, is a complex multi-step process during which tumor cells disseminate from their primary site to distant organs. The transcription factor Twist1 is overexpressed in many aggressive human cancers and is a potent inducer of tumor metastasis. Mechanistically, Twist1 activates a developmental program known as the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT), during which carcinoma cells lose cell- cell junctions and become more migratory and invasive. Twist1 can also induce the formation of invadopodia, actin -rich membrane protrusions that recruit various proteases to degrade the extracellular matrix (ECM). Various studies show that invadopodia are crucial for tumor invasion during metastasis. We have identified the membrane- associated serine protease Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP) to be a critical gene induced upon Twist1 activation to promote invadopodia function. However, the precise role of FAP at invadopodia and its function in tumor metastasis is not well understood. This study presents data demonstrating that FAP is essential for invadopodia- mediated ECM degradation and breast tumor metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, I found that FAP is required for the proper localization of matrix metalloproteinase MT1- MMP to invadopodia in order to generate mature and functional invadopodia for EMT degradation. Together, these results indicate that FAP is a critical regulator of invadopodia function and tumor metastasis. Given the unique expression of FAP in human cancers, FAP could be a promising target for anti-metastasis therapeutics

Thirteen new cantharidin derivatives including six cantharimide-amino acid adducts (1-6), five cantharimide dimers (7-11) and two cantharimide-aromatic compound hybrids (12-13) were isolated from Mylabris phalerata Pallas. Compounds 1-5 represent the first natural products combined through cantharimide and neutral amino acids. Compounds 7-11 are the first cantharimide dimers consisting of two different cantharimide cores. Their structures with absolute configurations were elucidated by means of NMR spectroscopy, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and semi-synthesis. Compound 6 showed weak cytotoxicity against HepG2, A549 and MDA-MB-231 cells with IC50 values of 15.70 +/- 3.06, 20.67 +/- 4.05 and 23.79 +/- 4.54 mu M, respectively. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The electron screening strong effect on the electron energy and threshold energy of the beta decay reaction. in this paper, we study the $\beta^-$ decay rates of some iron isotopes. The electron screening beta decay rates increase by about two orders of magnitude. The strong screening beta decay rates due to Q-value correction are by more than one order of magnitude higher than those of without Q-value correction., Comment: 10 pages, 45 figures, accepted for publication in Resarch in Astronomy and Astrophysics

We investigate the constraints on the sum of neutrino masses ($\Sigma m_\nu$) using the most recent cosmological data, which combines the distance measurement from baryonic acoustic oscillation in the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample with the power spectra of temperature and polarization anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background from the Planck 2015 data release. We also use other low-redshift observations including the baryonic acoustic oscillation at relatively low redshifts, the supernovae of type Ia and the local measurement of Hubble constant. In the standard cosmological constant $\Lambda$ cold dark matter plus massive neutrino model, we obtain the $95\%$ \acl{CL} upper limit to be $\Sigma m_\nu<0.129~\mathrm{eV}$ for the degenerate mass hierarchy, $\Sigma m_{\nu}<0.159~\mathrm{eV}$ for the normal mass hierarchy, and $\Sigma m_{\nu}<0.189~\mathrm{eV}$ for the inverted mass hierarchy. Based on Bayesian evidence, we find that the degenerate hierarchy is positively supported, and the current data combination can not distinguish normal and inverted hierarchies. Assuming the degenerate mass hierarchy, we extend our study to non-standard cosmological models including the generic dark energy, the spatial curvature, and the extra relativistic degrees of freedom, respectively, but find these models not favored by the data., Comment: Accepted version: seven pages, two columns, two figures, two tables

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has an extremely poor prognosis which is caused mainly by high frequency of metastatic recurrence. We previously reported that high interleukin (IL)-2 levels in peritumoral tissue were closely associated with a decreased incidence of intrahepatic tumor recurrence in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated HCC, and the immune staining of IL-2 primarily was found in tumor-surrounding hepatocytes. However, whether hepatocytes can express IL-2 in vitro and underlying mechanism remain to be investigated. Here, we compared IL-2 expression levels in peritumoral tissue from HCC patients between HBV-positive group and HBV-negative group. We then overexpressed HBV x protein (HBx) in immortalized human liver cell line THLE-2, and mimic microenvironmental oxidative stress with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) treatment in vitro. We demonstrated that hepatocytes can express IL-2 in vitro through MAP3K7/NF-kappa B pathway in the presence of both HBx stimulation and mild oxidative stress. Targeting microenvironmental oxidative stress offers a promise for prevention and therapy of HBV-associated HCC metastatic recurrence.

The aerodynamic noise of high-speed trains not only causes interior noise pollution and reduces the comfort of passengers, but also seriously affects the normal life of residents. With the increase of running speed of trains, aerodynamic noises will be more than wheel-rail noises and become the main noise source of high-speed trains. This paper established a computational model for the aerodynamic noise of a CRH2 high-speed train with 3-train formation including 3 train bodies and 6 bogies, adopted the detached eddy simulation (DES) to conduct numerical simulation for the flow field around the high-speed train, applied Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings acoustic model to conduct unsteady computation for the aerodynamic noise of high-speed trains, and analyzed the far-field aerodynamic noise characteristics of high-speed trains. Studied results showed: The main energy of the complete train was mainly within the range of 613 Hz-2500 Hz when the high-speed train ran at the speed of 350 km/h. In the whole frequency domain, it was a broadband noise. Regarding the longitudinal observation point which was 25 m away from the center line of track and 6m away from the nose tip of head train, the sound pressure level of total noises reached the maximum value 88.9 dBA. The maximum sound pressure level of the noise observation point which was 7.5 m away from the center line of track was around the first bogie of head train. Various components made different contributions to the aerodynamic noise of the complete train, and the order was head train, mid train, bogie system (6 bogies) and tail train. The first bogie of head train made the greatest contribution to bogie system and was the main aerodynamic noise source of the complete train.

Yi-Xuan Zhao, Shuang Liu, Yan-Bing Hu, Yan-Yan Ge, Dong-Mei Lv Department of Ultrasound, Second Hospital, Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China Abstract: This study aimed to explore the diagnostic and prognostic values of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in breast cancer. Between September 2009 and October 2011, a total of 143 breast cancer patients and 161 healthy people were selected as case group and control group, respectively. After the identification of lesions by conventional ultrasound, all patients underwent CEUS. The CEUS images were analyzed, and time–intensity curves (TICs) were obtained. Hematoxylin–eosin and immunohistochemistry staining was performed on tissue specimens, according to which the expressions of estrogen receptor (ER), c-erb-B2, p53, and Ki-67 were measured. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to compare CEUS and TIC parameters between the two groups. Compared with the control group, cancer patients showed high enhancement, heterogeneous enhancement or defects in the central region, expansion of lesion diameter after enhancement and crab-like blur lesion edges. The peak intensity (PI), relative start time of enhancement, relative PI, and relative area under the curve in the case group were significantly higher than those in the control group. Logistic analysis showed that the uniformity of enhancement, expansion of lesion diameter, and relative PI were significant diagnostic parameters of breast cancer, with area under the curve being 0.798, 0.776, and 0.919, respectively. There were strong associations between CEUS characteristics and expressions of prognostic factors in breast cancer: the heterogeneous enhancement was common in c-erb-B2-positive tumors; the centripetal enhancement occurred more in ER-negative tumors; perforator vessels were often seen in tumors at high histological grade; perfusion defects were common in ER-negative, c-erb-B2-positive, and Ki-67

The local measurement of $H_0$ is in tension with the prediction of $\Lambda$CDM model based on the Planck data. This tension may imply that dark energy is strengthened in the late-time Universe. We employ the latest cosmological observations on CMB, BAO, LSS, SNe, $H(z)$ and $H_0$ to constrain several interacting dark energy models. Our results show no significant indications for the interaction between dark energy and dark matter. The $H_0$ tension can be moderately alleviated, but not totally released., Comment: 6 pages, 4 tables, 2 figures. Version to appear at MNRAS

A fully automatic washing machine with vertical pulsator and 10 kg load capacity has most violent shake and or vibration, and worst dynamic stability, which result in maximum noise in dehydration. The mechanisms of noise generation and motions at stage of dehydration are analyzed. Dynamic impacting excitation is firstly clarified as the most important dominant factor in understanding acoustic behavior of the washing machine at the stage. A new damper is developed and designed on the basis of improving the degree of harmonics (DOH) of dynamic impacting force, which is employed as the critical criterion for damper design. Applying the damper developed reduces the washing machine noise 2.2 dB(A) and 4.7 dB(A) under conditions of normal and worst unbalance respectively.

Technological convergence promotes the formation and development of emerging industries associated with new opportunities and growth. It will be helpful for firms to understand the emerging trends of technology convergence and establish competitive strategy by identifying competitors. While previous studies mainly measure technological convergence with co-occurrence method on the technology level, relatively few studies investigate the measurement of technological convergence with firm-level data. In addition, how to identify competitors by firms in the background of technological convergence has been neglected by the extant studies. This paper takes the granted patent data of global top 10 semiconductor companies from 1994 to 2013 as the object and measures the degree and trend of technological convergence based on technology similarity. Furthermore the Multidimensional Scaling analysis with inter-firm technological similarity matrix is adopted to identify the competitors in the semiconductor industry. The main contribution of this research is that it proposes a novel method to measure technology convergence. The method is different from pervious literature in that it measures technology convergence and knowledge relatedness from a micro-level using patent data in semiconductor industry. In addition, the patent similarity matrix can be used as an input for competitor identification with Multidimensional Scaling analysis. Keywords: Technological convergence; Competitor Identification; Multidimensional Scaling analysis; Semiconductor industry

Taking into account the mass splittings between three active neutrinos, we investigate impacts of dark energy on constraining the total neutrino mass $\sum m_{\nu}$ by using recent cosmological observations. We consider two typical dark energy models, namely, the $w$CDM model and the holographic dark energy (HDE) model, which both have an additional free parameter compared with the $\Lambda$CDM model. We employ the Planck 2015 data of CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies, combined with low-redshift measurements on BAO distance scales, type Ia supernovae, Hubble constant, and Planck lensing. Compared to the $\Lambda$CDM model, our study shows that the upper limit on $\sum m_{\nu}$ becomes much looser in the $w$CDM model while much tighter in the HDE model. In the HDE model, we obtain the $95\%$ CL upper limit $\sum m_{\nu}<0.105~\textrm{eV}$ for three degenerate neutrinos. This might be the most stringent constraint on $\sum m_{\nu}$ by far and is almost on the verge of diagnosing the neutrino mass hierachies in the HDE model. However, the difference of $\chi^2$ is still not significant enough to distinguish the neutrino mass hierarchies, even though the minimal $\chi^2$ of the normal hierarchy is slightly smaller than that of the inverted hierarchy., Comment: 7 pages, two columns, 3 figures, 3 tables. Accepted to publish at Phys. Rev. D (2016)

Detection of circulating tumor cells remains a significant challenge due to their vast physical and biological heterogeneity. We developed a cell-surface-marker-independent technology based on telomerase-specific, replication-selective oncolytic herpes-simplex-virus-1 that targets telomerase-reverse-transcriptase-positive cancer cells and expresses green-fluorescent-protein that identifies viable CTCs from a broad spectrum of malignancies. Our method recovered 75.5-87.2% of tumor cells spiked into healthy donor blood, as validated by different methods, including single cell sequencing. CTCs were detected in 59-100% of 326 blood samples from patients with 6 different solid organ carcinomas and lymphomas. Significantly, CTC-positive rates increased remarkably with tumor progression from N0M0, N+M0 to M1 in each of 5 tested cancers (lung, colon, liver, gastric and pancreatic cancer, and glioma). Among 21 non-small cell lung cancer cases in which CTC values were consecutively monitored, 81% showed treatment-related decreases, which was also found after treatments in the other solid tumors. Moreover, monitoring CTC values provided an efficient treatment response indicator in hematological malignancies. Compared to CellSearch, our method detected significantly higher positive rates in 40 NSCLC in all stages, including N0M0, N+M0 and M1, and was less affected by chemotherapy. This simple, robust and clinically-applicable technology detects viable CTCs from solid and hematopoietic malignancies in early to late stages, and significantly improves clinical detection and treatment prognostication.

Although recent studies have shed insights on some of the potential causes of male infertility, new underlining molecular mechanisms still remain to be elucidated. Makorin-2 (Mkrn2) is an evolutionarily conserved gene whose biological functions are not fully known. We developed an Mrkn2 knockout mouse model to study the role of this gene, and found that deletion of Mkrn2 in mice led to male infertility. Mkrn2 knockout mice produced abnormal sperms characterized by low number, poor motility, and aberrant morphology. Disruption of Mkrn2 also caused failure of sperm release (spermiation failure) and misarrangement of ectoplasmic specialization (ES) in testes, thus impairing spermiogenesis and spermiation. To understand the molecular mechanism, we found that expression of Odf2, a vital protein in spermatogenesis, was significantly decreased. In addition, we found that expression levels of Odf2 were decreased in Mkrn2 knockout mice. We also found that MKRN2 was prominently expressed in the sperm of normal men, but was significantly reduced in infertile men. This result indicates that our finding is clinically relevant. The results of our study provided insights into a new mechanism of male infertility caused by the MKRN2 downregulation.

Effects of neodymium (Nd) on the microstructures, mechanical properties, in vitro corrosion behavior, and cytotoxicity of as-cast Mg- 1Mn-2Zn-xNd alloys (x = 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, mass%) have been investigated to assess whether Nd is an effective element to increase the strength and corrosion resistance of Mg alloys, and to evaluate whether those alloys are suitable for biomedical applications. The microstructures were examined by X-ray diffraction analysis and optical microscopy. The mechanical properties were determined from uniaxial tensile and compressive tests. The corrosion behavior was studied using electrochemical measurement and cytotoxicity was evaluated using osteoblast-like SaOS2 cell. The results indicate that all the cast Mg-1Mn-2Zn-xNd alloys are composed of both alpha phase of magnesium (Mg) and a compound of Mg7Zn3, and their grain sizes decrease with Nd content. Nd is not an effective element to improve the strength and corrosion resistance of cast Mg-Mn-Zn alloys. Increase of Nd content from 0.5 to 1.5 does not significantly change biocompatibility of alloys. The cast alloys exhibit much better corrosion resistance than pure Mg and good biocompatibility.

Twelve new bufadienolides (1-12), along with fourteen known analogues (13-26) were isolated from the skins of Bufo bufo gargarizans Cantor. Their chemical structures were elucidated on the basis of NMR, HRESIMS and X-ray diffraction analysis. Compound 1 was an unusual bufadienolide with 3,19-epoxy moiety and A/B trans ring junction. Compounds 2-4 were rare bufadienolides possessing 10-H or 10-carboxyl units. All the isolated compounds were tested for their cytotoxic effects on HepG2, A549 and HeLa cells. Six new compounds (2, 3, 5, 6, 10 and 12) displayed significant anti-proliferative activities with IC50 values ranging from 0.049 to 1.856 mu M. Arenobufagin (24) exhibited the most potent cytotoxic activity with IC50 value 0.011 mu M. In addition, the present data provided more insight into the structure-activity relationships of bufadienolides. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A novel sesquiterpene-based Psidium meroterpenoid, possessing an unusual coupling pattern, and two new monoterpene-based meroterpenoids with unprecedented skeletons were isolated from the leaves of Psidium guajava. Their structures and absolute configurations were elucidated by spectroscopic, X-ray diffraction, and computational methods. The plausible biosynthetic pathway of these meroterpenoids as well as their cytotoxicities toward HepG2 and HepG2/ADM cells were also discussed.