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In this study, we isolated human periodontal ligament cells (hPDLCs) to find the optimal time of LIPUS stimulation and to explore how LIPUS affects inflammatory and osteogenic responses in hPDLCs in an inflammatory environment. The target molecules of LIPUS were identified by high‐throughput sequencing. RT–qPCR and WB were used to detect how LIPUS affected the expression of related genes in TNFα‐induced inflammation. The expression of ROS and inflammatory factors was detected by flow cytometry. Immunohistochemistry was used to further verify gene expression in rats. hPDLCs were isolated successfully. The optimal LIPUS stimulation condition was 45 mW/cm2 for 30 min and continued for 3 days, and this intensity significantly promoted the osteogenesis and mineralization of hPDLCs. LIPUS significantly inhibited the upregulation of IL‐6 and ROS, increased the percentage of cells in the G2 phase, inhibited cell apoptosis, and inhibited the upregulation of TLR5 expression in an inflammatory environment. LIPUS can effectively restrain the inflammation and oxidative stress response of hPDLCs and promote osteogenesis in an inflammatory environment. LIPUS inhibited the periodontal inflammatory response through TLR5 in hPDLCs and dental pulp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Numerous previous research have established the need for spiritual care among patients with cancer globally. Nevertheless, there was limited research, primarily qualitative, on the spiritual care needs of Chinese inpatients with advanced breast cancer. Furthermore, the need for spiritual care was rarely explored using the Kano model. To better understand the spiritual care needs and attributes characteristics of inpatients with advanced breast cancer, this study examined the Kano model. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design study was conducted in the oncology departments of three tertiary grade-A hospitals in China from October 2022 to May 2023. To guarantee high-quality reporting of the study, the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology Checklist was used. Data on the demographic characteristics questionnaire, the Nurse Spiritual Therapeutics Scale (NSTS), and the Kano model-based Nurse Spiritual Therapeutics Attributes Scale (K-NSTAs) were collected through convenience sampling. The Kano model, descriptive statistics, two independent samples t-tests, and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. Results: The overall score for spiritual care needs was 31.16 ± 7.85. The two dimensions with the highest average scores, "create a good atmosphere" (3.16 ± 0.95), and the lowest average scores, "help religious practice" (1.72 ± 0.73). The 12 items were distributed as follows: three attractive attributes were located in Reserving Area IV; five one-dimensional attributes were distributed as follows: three one-dimensional attributes were located in Predominance Area I, and two were found in Improving Area II; two must-be attributes were located in Improving Area II; and two indifference attributes were located in Secondary Improving Area III. Conclusion: The Chinese inpatients with advanced breast cancer had a middle level of spiritual care needs, which need to be further improved. Spiritual care needs attributes were defined, sorted, categorized, and optimized accurately and perfectly by the Kano model. And "create a good atmosphere" and "share self-perception" were primarily one-dimensional and must-be attributes. In contrast, the items in the dimensions of "share self-perception" and "help thinking" were principally attractive attributes. Nursing administrators are advised to optimize attractive attributes and transform indifference attributes by consolidating must-be and one-dimensional attributes, which will enable them to take targeted spiritual care measures based on each patient's characteristics and unique personality traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is a common spinal surgical disease. Low back and leg pain caused by LDH is the main factor leading to functional disability, which has caused a serious burden to patients and society. Osteoking can delay the progression of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, and even has a significant effect on the prevention of deep vein thrombosis after fracture surgery. In recent years, it has been gradually used in the treatment of LDH and has received significant results. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. The aim of this study was to predict the mechanism of Osteoking in the treatment of LDH through network pharmacology and verify it by molecular docking method. Methods: The TCMSP database was used to collect the relevant active components and targets of Osteoking, while the GeneCards, OMIM and DisGeNET databases were utilized to collect the relevant disease targets of LDH. The Venny 2.1.0 software was employed to obtain the intersecting gene targets of Osteoking and LDH. PPI network construction and core target selection were performed using Cytoscape 3.9.0 software. The Metascape database was used for GO and KEGG enrichment analysis of the relevant targets. Finally, molecular docking was conducted using AutoDock software. Results: The study identified 116 potential targets and 26 core targets for the treatment of LDH with Osteoking. Pathways in cancer, Alzheimer's disease, microRNAs in cancer and the IL-17 signalling pathway were among the main involved signalling pathways. Molecular docking results demonstrated that the key targets AKT1, IL-6, ALB, TNF and IL-1β exhibited relatively stable binding activities with the main active components of Osteoking. Conclusions: Osteoking can alleviate the symptoms of lumbar disc herniation through the modulation of multiple targets and signalling pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subcortical brain regions play essential roles in the pathology of social anxiety disorder (SAD). While adolescence is the peak period of SAD, the relationships between altered development of the subcortical regions during this period and SAD are still unclear. This study investigated the age-dependent alterations in structural co-variance among subcortical regions and between subcortical and cortical regions, aiming to reflect aberrant coordination during development in the adolescent with SAD. High-resolution T1-weighted images were obtained from 76 adolescents with SAD and 67 healthy controls (HC), ranging from 11 to 17.9 years. Symptom severity was evaluated with the Social Anxiety Scale for Children (SASC) and the Depression Self Rating Scale for Children (DSRS-C). Structural co-variance and sliding age-window analyses were used to detect age-dependent group differences in inter-regional coordination patterns among subcortical regions and between subcortical and cortical regions. The volume of the striatum significantly correlated with SAD symptom severity. The SAD group exhibited significantly enhanced structural co-variance among key regions of the striatum (putamen and caudate). While the co-variance decreased with age in healthy adolescents, the co-variance in SAD adolescents stayed high, leading to more apparent group differences in middle adolescence. Moreover, the striatum's mean structural co-variance with cortical regions decreased with age in HC but increased with age in SAD. Adolescents with SAD suffer aberrant developmental coordination among the key regions of the striatum and between the striatum and cortical regions. The degree of incoordination is age-dependent, which may represent a neurodevelopmental trait of SAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Orthognathic surgery has been performed with increasing frequency for the treatment of severe malocclusion, yet the postsurgical neuromuscular recovery of patients has been inadequately studied. Objective: To investigate the effect of short‐term and simple jaw motor training on accuracy and precision of jaw motor control in patients following orthodontic treatment and orthognathic surgery. Methods: Twenty patients who had completed preoperative orthodontics, 20 patients who had undergone bimaxillary orthognathic surgery and 20 age‐and‐gender‐matched healthy controls participated in the study. Participants were asked to perform 10 continuous jaw opening and finger lifting movements before and after a 30‐min motor training session. The variability in the amplitude of these simple movements was expressed as percentage in relation to the target position (accuracy – Daccu) and as coefficient of variation (precision – CVprec) to describe the motor performance. Furthermore, the changes in amplitude before and after training were measured in percentage. Results: Daccu and CVprec of simple jaw and finger movements significantly decreased after motor training (p ≤.018) in all groups. The relative changes in finger movements were higher than jaw movements (p <.001) but with no differences among the groups (p ≥.247). Conclusion: Both accuracy and precision of simple jaw and finger movements improved after short‐term motor training in all three groups, demonstrating the inherent potential for optimization of novel motor tasks. Finger movements improved more than jaw movements but with no differences between groups, suggesting that changes in occlusion and craniofacial morphology are not associated with impaired neuroplasticity or physiological adaptability of jaw motor function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) combined with a guide sheath (GS) as an instrument for confirming the proximity of the bronchoscope and its relationship to the lesion can increase the diagnostic yield when conducting transbronchial lung biopsy of peripheral pulmonary nodules (PPNs). A novel electromagnetic navigational bronchoscopy (ENB) system comprising a thinner locatable sensor probe as a guidance instrument was developed to be suitable for a thin bronchoscope with a working channel 2 mm in diameter. The diagnostic efficacy of EBUS-GS with or without this ENB system has not been confirmed. Objectives: To compare the diagnostic value and safety of EBUS-GS with or without the ENB system for diagnosing PPNs. Methods: A prospective, multicenter, randomized controlled clinical trial was designed and conducted at three centers. Patients with PPNs suspected to be malignant were enrolled and randomly assigned to the ENB-EBUS-GS group or the EBUS-GS group. The primary endpoint was the diagnostic yield in each group. The secondary endpoint was the procedural time and other factors affecting diagnostic yield. The safety endpoint was procedural complications. Results: Four hundred participants were enrolled from July 2018 to October 2019, and 385 patients were analyzed, 193 in the ENB-EBUS-GS group and 192 in the EBUS-GS group. The mean nodule size was 21.7 ± 5.3 mm. The diagnostic yields were 82.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 77.6-88.2%) in the ENB-EBUS-GS group and 73.4% (95% CI, 67.2-79.7%) in the EBUS-GS group. The difference between the two groups was 9.5% (95% CI, 2.6-16.3%), with an adjusted difference of 9.0% (95% CI, 2.3-15.8%) after adjusting for the stratification factors and center. The time to find lesions in the ENB-EBUS-GS group was shorter than in the EBUS-GS group (213.2 ± 145.6 vs. 264.8 ± 189.5 s; P = 0.003). Intraoperative hemorrhage occurred 3.6% of subjects in the ENB-EBUS-GS group and 3.1% in the EBUS-GS group, without significant differences between the two groups. Conclusions: The novel ENB system combined with EBUS-GS demonstrated improved ability to locate PPNs, achieving a high diagnostic yield for PPNs compared with EBUS-GS alone in a safe and efficient procedure. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03569306). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study examined the three-dimensional (3D) morphological changes of the urination and urinary continence anatomical structures in overactive bladder (OAB) patients, to offer a morphological data for OAB diagnosis and treatment.Methods: Eleven OAB patients, 9 healthy females and 22 pelvic organ prolapse (POP) patients were enrolled and underwent MRI scans. The anatomical components of urination (bladder detrusor) and the urinary continence (main part of the urethral sphincter, compressor urethrae, and levator ani muscle (LAM) were 3D reconstructed and measured with Amira software. We also analyze the relativity between pelvic floor muscle's morphological parameters among the volunteers, OAB and POP group.Results: Through 3D reconstruction, increased thickness and volume of the bladder detrusor were found in the OAB patients compared with volunteers (3.1 ± 0.7 mm vs. 1.9 ± 0.3 mm; P = 0.000 and 50,632.0 ± 19,724.7 mm3 vs. 23,386.6 ± 7826.3 mm3; P = 0.001). The volume of LAM showed no significant difference between the OAB patients and volunteers (27,089.4 ± 5015.0 mm3 vs. 27,294.4 ± 4461.4 mm3; P = 0.924); whereas, LAM's volume of the POP patients was significantly larger than that of the volunteers (34,130.6 ± 7968.3 mm3 vs. 27,294.4 ± 4461.4 mm3; P = 0.023). The thickness and volume of the main part of urethral sphincter were significantly lower in the OAB patients compared with volunteers (2.2 ± 0.5 mm vs. 2.7 ± 0.3 mm; P = 0.018 and 2558.6 ± 703.2 mm3 vs. 23,267.3 ± 681.9 mm3; P = 0.035). The volume of the compressor urethrae was significantly lower in the OAB patients than that in the volunteers (630.3 ± 301.2 mm3 vs. 866.1 ± 514.2 mm3; P = 0.247).Conclusions: In OAB patients, the bladder detrusor has long-term tension and contraction, which thickened muscle and increased volume, and aggravate urination. The compressor urethral and main part of urethral sphincter are weaker and the anterior part of LAM hiatus is relaxed, easily resulting in leakage of urine and ultimately incontinence. The MRI 3D reconstruction and measurement can help to evaluate pelvic floor urination and continence function, and accurately diagnose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stroke has become a major cause of death and disability worldwide. The cellular recycling pathway autophagy has been implicated in ischemia-induced neuronal changes, but whether autophagy plays a beneficial or detrimental role is controversial. Hydroxysafflor Yellow A (HSYA), a popular herbal medicine, is an extract of Carthamus tinctorius and is used to treat ischemic stroke (IS) in China. HSYA has been shown to prevent cardiovascular and cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in animal models. However, the specific active ingredients and molecular mechanisms of HSYA in IS remain unclear. Here, we investigated the effect of HSYA treatment on autophagy in a rat model of IS. IS was induced in rats by middle cerebral artery occlusion. Rats were treated once daily for 3 days with saline, HYSA, or the neuroprotective agent Edaravone. Neurobehavioral testing was performed on days 1, 2, and 3 post-surgery. Brains were removed on day 3 post-surgery for histological evaluation of infarct area, morphology, and for qRT-PCR and western blot analysis of the expression of the autophagy factor LC3 and the signaling molecules HIF-1 α , BNIP3, and Notch1. Molecular docking studies were performed in silico to predict potential interactions between HSYA and LC3, HIF-1 α , BNIP3, and Notch1 proteins. The result showed that HSYA treatment markedly alleviated IS-induced neurobehavioral deficits and reduced brain infarct area and tissue damage. HSYA also significantly reduced hippocampal expression levels of LC3, HIF-1 α , BNIP3, and Notch1. The beneficial effect of HSYA was generally superior to that of Edaravone. Molecular modeling suggested that HSYA may bind strongly to HIF-1 α , BNIP3, and Notch1 but weakly to LC3. In conclusion, HSYA inhibits post-IS autophagy induction in the brain, possibly by suppressing HIF-1 α , BNIP3 and Notch1. HSYA may have utility as a post-IS neuroprotective agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite significant progress in treatments for smoking cessation, smoking continues to be a significant public health concern, especially in young adulthood. Thus, developing a predictive model that can classify and characterize the brain-based biomarkers predicting smoking status would be imperative to improving treatment development. In this study, we applied a support vector machine-based classification method to discriminate 70 young male smokers and 70 matched nonsmokers using their diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data. The classification procedure achieved an average accuracy of 88.6% and an average area under the curve of 0.95. The most discriminative features that contributed to the classification were primarily located in the sagittal stratum (SS), external capsule (EC), superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), anterior corona radiata (ACR) and inferior front-occipital fasciculus (IFOF). The following regression analysis showed a significant negatively correlation between the average RD values of the left ACR (r = -0.247, p = 0.039) and FTND. The average MD values in the right EC (r = -0.254, p = 0.034) and RD values in the right IFOF (r = -0.240, p = 0.046) were inversely associated with pack-years. Our findings indicate that the discriminative white matter (WM) features as brain biomarkers provide great predictive power for smoking status and suggest that machine learning techniques can reveal underlying smoking-related neurobiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a frequently seen scenario that when people are not familiar with their search topics, they use a simple keyword search, which leads to a large amount of search results in multiple pages. This makes it difficult for users to pick relevant documents, especially given that they are not knowledgeable of the topics. To explore how systems can better help users find relevant documents from search results, the current research analyzed document selection behaviors of users with different levels of domain knowledge (DK). Data were collected in a laboratory study with 35 participants each searching on four tasks in the genomics domain. The results show that users with high and low DK levels selected different sets of documents to view; those high in DK read more documents and gave higher relevance ratings for the viewed documents than those low in DK did. Users with low DK tended to select documents ranking toward the top of the search result lists, and those with high in DK tended to also select documents ranking down the search result lists. The findings help design search systems that can personalize search results to users with different levels of DK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute liver injury is a common consequence of taking overdose of acetaminophen (APAP). The aim of this study was to evaluate the antioxidant activity and hepatoprotective effect of a mangrove plant Sonneratia apetala fruit extract (SAFE) on APAP-induced liver injury in mice. Mice were orally pretreated with SAFE (100, 200, and 400 mg/kg) daily for one week. The control and APAP groups were intragastrically administered with distilled water, and NAC group was treated with N-Acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) before APAP exposure. The results manifested that SAFE significantly improved survival rates, attenuated hepatic histological damage, and decreased the alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels in serum in APAP-exposed mice. SAFE treatment also increased glutathione (GSH) level and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity, enhanced catalase (CAT), and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC), as well as reducing malondialdehyde (MDA) level in liver. In addition, the formation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and elevation of myeloperoxidase (MPO) in APAP-exposed mice were inhibited after SAFE treatment. And SAFE also displayed high DPPH radical scavenging activity and reducing power in vitro. The main bioactive components of SAFE such as total phenol, flavonoid, condensed tannin, and carbohydrate were determined. The current study proved that SAFE exerted potential protective effect against APAP-induced acute liver injury, which might be associated with the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of SAFE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conclusion:Intra-tympanic dexamethasone injection (ITD) could serve as a first-line intra-tympanic (IT) treatment for Meniere’s disease (MD), regardless of hearing level. Even if the response to initial ITD course was unsatisfactory, a repeated course may be beneficial with some patients. Objectives:This study examined the effect of repeated courses of ITD administered on demand and investigated the possibility of ITD as an initial IT treatment for medically intractable MD patients. Method:Fifty-one patients who had been diagnosed with definite MD and given course(s) of ITD treatment were included. Vertigo control, pure tone average and functional disability scores were evaluated against the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery guidelines for MD. Results:Vertigo disappeared or was substantially controlled in 58.8% and 23.5% of the patients, respectively, after the first ITD course. A repeated course further raised the complete vertigo control rate by 15.7% and intra-tympanic gentamycin injection could be postponed or avoided in 78.6% of the patients who required repeated IT treatment. Hearing was unchanged after the first course of ITD (p > .05). No significant differences were detected in the clinical profiles or laboratory findings between patients receiving single course of ITD and those on multiple courses (p > .05). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study was conducted to understand patients' experiences of nursing support, to identify gaps between patients' expected needs and the nursing support they received, and to explore reasons for such disparity. A qualitative study with a phenomenological approach was used. A purposive sample of 22 patients with different types of cancer was recruited and interviewed using semistructured guidelines. The data were analyzed using phenomenological analytic methods. Several needs regarding nursing support were expressed, including informational, psychological, clinical, care coordination and communication needs, and there were some unmet or partially-met needs. Reasons for the disparities covered both patient- and nurse-related factors, including patients' lack of awareness regarding how to acquire professional assistance and reluctance to express their needs, and nurses' lack of active communication with patients, inability to provide specific support, and limited resources for coordination. The expectations of nursing support did not always correspond with the actual delivery of nursing care. A tailored intervention is warranted to meet patients' expectations, which might contribute to quality-of-care improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a significant contextual factor in information search, topic knowledge has been gaining increased research attention. We report on a study of the relationship between information searchers' topic knowledge and their search behaviors, and on an attempt to predict searchers' topic knowledge from their behaviors during the search. Data were collected in a controlled laboratory experiment with 32 undergraduate journalism student participants, each searching on 4 tasks of different types. In general, behavioral variables were not found to have significant differences between users with high and low levels of topic knowledge, except the mean first dwell time on search result pages. Several models were built to predict topic knowledge using behavioral variables calculated at 3 different stages of search episodes: the first-query-round, the middle point of the search, and the end point. It was found that a model using some search behaviors observed in the first query round led to satisfactory prediction results. The results suggest that early-session search behaviors can be used to predict users' topic knowledge levels, allowing personalization of search for users with different levels of topic knowledge, especially in order to assist users with low topic knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conclusions: The present study showed that intratympanic dexamethasone injection (ITD) is a promising approach for the treatment of contralateral and ipsilateral delayed endolymphatic hydrops (DEH). Moreover, intratympanic gentamicin injection (ITG), as a chemical labyrinthectomy, is a simple alternative for controlling vertigo in patients with ipsilateral DEH. Objective: This study examined the effect of ITD or ITG on DEH. Methods: Fourteen patients with DEH completed the clinical and audio-vestibular evaluation. Among them, 10 cases (ipsilateral type: nine cases, contralateral type: one case) were treated with intratympanic injection. Four patients with ipsilateral DEH underwent ITG, five patients with ipsilateral type and one patient with contralateral type received ITD. All 10 cases were followed up for 8–48 months. Results: Complete and substantial vertigo control was achieved in four of nine ipsilateral DEH patients treated with ITG. In the other five ipsilateral cases who received ITD, two accomplished complete vertigo control and two had substantial control. In one case, the vertigo was not effectively controlled. One case of contralateral DEH underwent ITD and this case had complete vertigo control. The vertigo intensity, vertigo frequency, vertigo duration and the functional level scale after intratympanic injection was decreased significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The huge amount of gene expression data generated by microarray and next-generation sequencing technologies present challenges to exploit their biological meanings. When searching for the coexpression genes, the data mining process is largely affected by selection of algorithms. Thus, it is highly desirable to provide multiple options of algorithms in the user-friendly analytical toolkit to explore the gene expression signatures. For this purpose, we developed GESearch, an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) toolkit, which is written in MATLAB and supports a variety of gene expression data files. This analytical toolkit provides four models, including the mean, the regression, the delegate, and the ensemble models, to identify the coexpression genes, and enables the users to filter data and to select gene expression patterns by browsing the display window or by importing knowledge-based genes. Subsequently, the utility of this analytical toolkit is demonstrated by analyzing two sets of real-life microarray datasets from cell-cycle experiments. Overall, we have developed an interactive GUI toolkit that allows for choosing multiple algorithms for analyzing the gene expression signatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]