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BarH-like homeobox 2 (BARX2) has been identified to play a key role in the development of multiple cancers. Meanwhile, BARX2 may be an independent prognostic biomarker for patients suffering from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Nevertheless, the regulatory role of BARX2 in HCC is still unclear and needs to be unveiled. In this study, the expressions of BARX2 and N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase 4 (GALNT4) were evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) as well as western blot. Besides, the abilities of cells to proliferate, migrate, invade, and angiogenesis were assessed with CCK-8, colony formation, wound-healing, Transwell, and tube formation assays, separately. Cell apoptosis was determined by flow cytometry analysis. The binding relationship between BARX2 and GALNT4 was predicted by JASPAR website and verified using Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and luciferase report assay. It was discovered that BARX2 was reduced in HCC cell lines, while its overexpression greatly repressed cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and angiogenesis and promoted cell apoptosis in HuH7 and MHCC97-H cells. BARX2 could bind to GALNT4 promoter and positively regulate GALNT4 expression. In addition, GALNT4 deficiency partly abolished the inhibitory effects of BARX2 on the progression of HCC. In summary, this study highlights that BARX2 may hold promise for serving as a potential therapeutic target, facilitating the development of a novel therapeutic strategy against HCC., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Purpose: People living with HIV (PWH) experience a disproportionate burden of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), leading to more severe health outcomes and increasing the risk of HIV transmission. The presence of untreated STIs can accelerate HIV disease progression, while HIV infection can complicate STI diagnosis and treatment. Despite this interconnectedness, comprehensive data on the global prevalence of specific STIs among PWH remain limited. This systematic review aims to synthesize existing data to provide a more accurate picture of the prevalence of co-infection with Treponema pallidum, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis or Trichomonas vaginalis in PWH, while also identifying critical knowledge gaps and informing future research priorities., Methods: We searched databases for eligible studies reporting the prevalence of Treponema pallidum, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, or Trichomonas vaginalis among PWH, published from January 1, 2000, to February 1, 2023. From 22,290 identified articles, 127 independent studies meeting the inclusion criteria were included in this meta-analysis., Results: The overall global co-infection prevalence of Treponema pallidum, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, and Trichomonas vaginalis in PWH, was 4.8% (95%CI: 4.7-5.0%), 0.8% (95%CI: 0.6-0.9%), 2.5% (95%CI: 2.2-2.7%), and 3.0% (95%CI: 2.7-3.3%), respectively. The global prevalence of these four STIs in PWH is high, especially in Africa and Southeast Asia and in MSM and TGW populations. Based on the subgroup analyses, we further found that there was a high prevalence of Treponema pallidum and Chlamydia trachomatis in Southeast Asia and a high infection of Trichomonas vaginalis in the whole of Africa. Treponema pallidum infection was more common in males than females, and Chlamydia trachomatis and Trichomonas vaginalis infections were more common in females than males. Besides, high infection rates of Treponema pallidum, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Chlamydia trachomatis were detected in men who have sex with men (MSM) + transgender women (TGW), while high infection rates of Trichomonas vaginalis were found in sex workers and pregnant women., Conclusion: The study confirmed high prevalence of four sexually transmitted pathogens in PWH, noting regional, gender, and subpopulation-specific differences. It offered insights for targeted interventions and healthcare strategies. The research underscored the necessity for enhanced data collection and expanded screening/treatment for vulnerable populations and regions., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In this study, we investigated the potential therapeutic mechanism of ginsenoside Rg1 (GRg1) in chronic heart failure (CHF), focusing on its regulation of ERK1/2 protein phosphorylation. H9c2 cardiomyocytes and SD rats were divided into the control group, CHF (ADR) group, and CHF+ginsenoside Rg1 group using an isolated cardiomyocyte model and an in vivo CHF rat model induced by adriamycin (ADR). Cell viability, proliferation, apoptosis, and the expression of relevant proteins were measured to assess the effects of GRg1. The results showed that treatment with GRg1 increased cell activity and proliferation, while significantly reducing levels of inflammatory and apoptotic factors compared to the CHF (ADR) group. Moreover, the CHF+ginsenoside Rg1 group exhibited higher levels of Bcl-2 mRNA and protein expression, as well as lower levels of Caspase3 and Bax mRNA and protein expression, compared to the CHF (ADR) group. Notably, the CHF+ginsenoside Rg1 group displayed decreased serum NT-proBNP levels and heart weight/body weight (HW/BW) index. Furthermore, the electrocardiogram of rats in the CHF+ginsenoside Rg1 group resembled that of rats in the control group. Overall, our findings suggested that GRg1 alleviated CHF by inhibiting ERK1/2 protein phosphorylation, thereby inhibiting apoptosis, enhancing cell activity and proliferation, and reducing cardiac inflammatory responses., (© 2024. The Society for In Vitro Biology.)

Survival of olfactory mucosal mesenchymal stem cells (OM-MSCs) remains the low level in the cerebral microenvironment during intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). This article aims to reveal the differential expression profile of ICH-stimulated OM-MSCs based on whole transcriptome sequence analysis. OM-MSCs were isolated from 6-week C57BL/6 mice. Morphology and surface markers of OM-MSCs were investigated by light microscope and flow cytometry, respectively. OM-MSCs were incubated with 20 U/mL thrombin for 24 h to mimic ICH-induced injury in vitro. Total RNA was extracted for whole transcriptome sequencing and qPCR. OM-MSCs were characterized by negative for CD45 and CD34, and positive for CD44, CD90 and CD29. Thrombin led to decrease in cell viability and increase in senescence and apoptosis in OM-MSCs. In total, 736 lncRNAs (upregulated: 393; downregulated: 343), 21 miRNAs (upregulated: 7; downregulated: 14) and 807 mRNAs (upregulated: 422; downregulated: 385) were identified. GO and KEGG pathways were enriched in protein heterodimerization activity, trans-synaptic signaling, membrane pathway, alcohol metabolic process, organic hydroxy compound biosynthesis process, secondary alcohol metabolic process, alcoholism, neutrophil extracellular trap formation, systemic lupus erythematosus, metabolic process, steroid biosynthesis and drug metabolism-cytochrome P450. 200 lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA were predicted in thrombin-induced OM-MSCs. Based on qPCR, we validated COMMD1B, MOAP1, lncRNA CAPN15, lncRNA ALDH1L2, miR-3473b and miR-1964-3p were upregulated in thrombin-stimulated OM-MSCs, and GM20431, lncRNA GAPDH and miR-122b-3p were downregulated. Our findings provide novel understanding for thrombin-induced injury in OM-MSCs. Differently-expressed RNAs can be the targets of improving therapeutic application of OM-MSCs., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

In this study, we conducted a bibliometric and altmetric analysis of the top 100 most-cited articles on religion from 2010 to 2023. The data were sourced from the Web of Science Core Collection database. VOSviewer was utilized to create visualization knowledge maps such as co-authorship, co-citation, and keywords co-occurrence analysis, and the Spearman correlation analysis was performed to determine the relationships between the variables. The results indicate that these articles were published in 22 journals by 231 authors in 158 institutions across 24 countries. Most of the articles were published from the USA. Kenneth I. Pargament and Harold G. Koenig were identified as two of the most prominent scholars, while the Journal of Religion and Health and the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality emerged as the most productive and influential journals. The citations for these articles span a range of 45 to 828, whereas the altmetric attention scores (AAS) vary from 1 to 797. The Spearman correlation analysis revealed that the AAS is weakly positively correlated with the article influence score (AIS) ( r = 0.285 ) and weakly negatively correlated with the number of years since publication (NYsP) ( r = - 0.233 ), but is not significantly correlated with other bibliometric indicators; however, it is posited that the importance of the AAS may increase over time as the influence of social media continues to expand., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Glioblastoma (GBM), a primary brain tumor, exhibits remarkable invasiveness and is characterized by its intricate location, infiltrative behavior, the presence of both the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and the blood-brain tumor barrier (BBTB), phenotypic diversity, an immunosuppressive microenvironment with limited development yet rich vascularity, as well as the resistant nature of glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) towards traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy. These formidable factors present substantial obstacles in the quest for effective GBM treatments. Following extensive research spanning three decades, the hepatocellular receptor A2 (EphA2) receptor tyrosine kinase has emerged as a promising molecular target with translational potential in the realm of cancer therapy. Numerous compounds aimed at targeting EphA2 have undergone rigorous evaluation and clinical investigation. This article provides a comprehensive account of the distinctive roles played by canonical and non-canonical EphA2 signaling in various contexts, while also exploring the involvement of the EphA2-ephrin A1 signaling axis in GBM pathogenesis. Additionally, the review offers an overview of completed clinical trials targeting EphA2 for GBM treatment, shedding light on both the prospects and challenges associated with EphA2-directed interventions in the domain of cancer therapeutics., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) represents an uncommon hematological side effect associated with nivolumab, and its distinct clinical attributes remain poorly defined. This research aimed to explore the clinical manifestations and outcomes of ITP induced by nivolumab. Reports on nivolumab induced ITP up to April 30, 2024, were collected for retrospective analysis. The study involved 34 patients with a median age of 67 years (range 32, 82). The onset of ITP varied from 10 to 100 days post initial dosage, with a median onset at 70 days. The majority of patients exhibited no symptoms, with only 23.5% experiencing clinically significant bleeding and 11.8% facing non-clinically significant bleeding. The median platelet count was 12 × 10 9 /L (range 0, 115), with 67.6% of patients having platelet levels below 25 × 10 9 /L. Bone marrow biopsy revealed mainly elevated megakaryocytes. Platelet-associated IgG levels were elevated with a median of 210 ng/10 7 cells (range 73, 1130). Subsequent interventions, which included cessation of nivolumab, administration of systemic corticosteroids, intravenous immunoglobulin therapy, a thrombopoietin receptor agonist, platelet transfusion, and rituximab treatment, resulted in 82.4% of subjects achieving normalized platelet counts, whereas 5.9% passed away due to ITP. ITP is a rare life-threatening immune-related adverse event and necessitates close monitoring. Systemic steroids are the primary treatment for ITP, while intravenous immunoglobulin, thrombopoietin receptor agonist and rituximab are other options., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Objective: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) represents the primary cause of mortality in patients afflicted with end-stage renal disease and undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD) treatment. Galectin-3 (Gal-3), a molecule known to exhibit a correlation with CVD mortality garners considerable interest. The objective of this study was to explore the potential association between serum Gal-3 levels and other CVD risk factors among PD patients., Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 114 PD patients with a minimum of 3 months of PD treatment were enrolled. Serum Gal-3 levels were quantified using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The data of patients with Gal-3 levels higher and lower than 26.744 pg/ml were compared using Mann-Whitney U tests or t tests. Pearson's correlation or Spearman's correlation analysis and multivariate regression were used to assess the associations between the known risk factors for CVD and Gal-3., Results: In comparison to the inter-group baseline data, the low Gal-3 group exhibited a higher glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Gal-3 levels correlate positively with PD duration, B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15), interventricular septal thickness in diastolic (IVST), and left ventricular mass index (LVMI). Conversely, Gal-3 exhibited a negative correlation with albumin levels. Multivariate linear regression analysis demonstrated a positive correlation between Gal-3 levels and BNP, GDF-15, PD duration, IVST and LVMI. Gal-3 levels were negatively correlated with albumin levels., Conclusions: Gal-3 was strongly associated with BNP, GDF-15, IVST and LVMI in patients undergoing PD treatment. Prospective studies should be carried out to determine whether Gal-3 can be a promising biomarker in predicting increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events in PD patients., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Purpose: The relationship between vitamin intake and cancer risk in the chronic kidney disease (CKD) population is unknown. For this reason, we investigated the relationship between dietary vitamin intake and cancer risk in CKD patients and looked for effective vitamin dietary patterns., Methods: This study included 3518 CKD patients from 2007 to 2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey database. All participants were categorized into four groups based on vitamin intake by K-mean clustering. The data were collected and analyzed from June 2023 to December 2023., Results: A total of 3518 CKD patients with a mean age of (61.8 ± 16.3) years were included in the study. During a median follow-up of 7.3 years, 137 participants died of cancer. In the multivariate adjusted cox proportional hazards model for single vitamin intake, vitamin E Q4 intake (reference Q1) reduced cancer mortality (HR (95% CI) = 0.45 (0.24-0.87), P = 0.018). Further plotting of the restricted cubic spline curve revealed a linearly decreasing relationship between vitamin E intake and cancer mortality (Poverall = 0.010 Pnon-linear = 0.163). In the multivariate adjusted cox proportional hazards model for multivitamin co-intake, the vitamin C/K intake group reduced cancer mortality compared to the low vitamin intake group (HR (95% CI) = 0.42 (0.20-0.88), P = 0.022)., Conclusion: Increased vitamin C intake was independently associated with reduced cancer risk in CKD patients, and a vitamin dietary pattern with high vitamin C/K intake was also effective in reducing cancer risk., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

Objectives: To investigate predictors of hypogammaglobulinemia (HGG) and severe infection event (SIE) in patients with autoimmune disease (AID) receiving rituximab (RTX) therapy., Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted in a tertiary medical center in China. Predictors of HGG or SIE were assessed using Cox analysis. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) analysis was applied to examine the correlation between glucocorticoid (GC) maintenance dose and SIE., Results: A total of 219 patients were included in this study, with a cumulative follow-up time of 698.28 person-years. Within the study population, 117 patients were diagnosed with connective tissue disease, 75 patients presented with ANCA-associated vasculitis, and 27 patients exhibited IgG4-related disease. HGG was reported in 63.3% of the patients, where an obvious decline in IgG and IgM was shown three months after RTX initiation. The rate of SIE was 7.2 per 100 person-years. An increase in the GC maintenance dose was an independent risk factor for both hypo-IgG (HR 1.07, 95% CI 1.02-1.12, p = 0.003) and SIE (HR 1.06, 95% CI 1.02-1.1, p = 0.004). Further RCS analysis identified 7.48 mg/d prednisone as a safe threshold dose for patients who underwent RTX treatment to avoid a significantly increased risk for SIE., Conclusion: HGG was relatively common in RTX-treated AID patients. Patients with chronic lung disease or who were taking ≥ 7.5 mg/d prednisone during RTX treatment were at increased risk for SIE and warrant attention from physicians., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Objectives: The relationship between hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and gynecologic cancers is controversial. We aimed to evaluate the risk of gynecologic cancers associated with HBV infection using a meta-analysis., Methods: Two independent reviewers identified publications in the PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library databases that reported an association between HBV and the risk of gynecologic malignancy from inception to December 31, 2022. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to evaluate the quality of the included articles. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% corresponding confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a fixed effects model or random effects model., Results: We collected data from 7 studies that met the inclusion criteria, including 2 cohort studies and 5 case-control studies. HBV was significantly associated with the risk of cervical cancer in the general population (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.09-1.38, P = 0.001), although the same trend was not found in endometrial cancer (OR 1.30, 95% CI 0.95-1.77, P = 0.105) and ovarian cancer (OR 1.03, 95% CI 0.79-1.35, P = 0.813). Subgroup analysis showed that HBV infection was positively associated with the risk of cervical cancer (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.13-1.44, P = 0.000) in case-control studies. Asian women infected with HBV have a significantly increased risk of cervical cancer (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.10-1.40, P = 0.001) and endometrial cancer (OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.07-1.99, P = 0.018). Hospital-based studies were found to be associated with an increased risk of cervical cancer (OR 1.30, 95% CI 1.14-1.47, P = 0.000) and endometrial cancer (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.04-2.49, P = 0.032). The results of Begg's and Egger's tests showed no publication bias., Conclusions: This meta-analysis shows a positive association between HBV infection and cervical cancer. HBV is positively correlated with the risk of cervical cancer and endometrial cancer in Asian women and hospital-based populations. More multicenter prospective studies are required to confirm the findings., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In this study, we used 16S high-throughput sequencing to investigate the effects of uranium mining on the rhizospheric bacterial communities and functions of three local plant species, namely, Artemisia frigida, Acorus tatarionwii Schott., and Salix oritrepha Schneid. The results showed that uranium mining significantly reduced the diversity of rhizospheric bacteria in the three local plant species, including the Shannon index and Simpson index (P < 0.05). Interestingly, we found that Sphingomonas and Pseudotrichobacter were enriched in the rhizosphere soil of the three local plants from uranium mining areas, indicating their important ecological role. The three plants were enriched in various dominant rhizospheric bacterial populations in the uranium mining area, including Vicinamidobacteriaceae, Nocardioides, and Gaiella, which may be related to the unique microecological environment of the plant rhizosphere. The rhizospheric bacterial community of A. tatarionwii plants from tailings and open-pit mines also showed a certain degree of differentiation, indicating that uranium mining is the main factor driving the differentiation of plant rhizosphere soil communities on the plateau. Functional prediction revealed that rhizospheric bacteria from different plants have developed different functions to cope with stress caused by uranium mining activities, including enhancing the translational antagonist Rof, the translation initiation factor 2B subunit, etc. This study explores for the first time the impact of plateau uranium mining activities on the rhizosphere microecology of local plants, promoting the establishment of effective soil microecological health monitoring indicators, and providing a reference for further soil pollution remediation in plateau uranium mining areas., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Coal mining in regions characterized by high groundwater table markedly predisposes to surface subsidence and water accumulation, thereby engendering substantial harm to surface vegetation, soil, and hydrological resources. Developing effective methods to extract surface disturbance information aids in quantitatively assessing the comprehensive impacts of coal mining on land, ecology, and society. Due to the shortcomings of traditional indicators in reflecting mining disturbance, vegetation aboveground biomass (AGB) is introduced as the primary indicator for extracting the mining disturbance range. Taking the Huaibei Coal Base as an example, Sentinel-2 MSI imagery is firstly used to calculate spectral factors and vegetation indices. Multiple machine learning algorithms are coupled to perform remote sensing estimation and spatial inversion of vegetation AGB based on measured samples of vegetation AGB. Secondly, an Orientation Distance-AGB (OD-AGB) curve is constructed outward from the center of subsidence water areas (SWA), with the Boltzmann function used for curve fitting. According to the location of the inflection point of the curve, the boundary points of vegetation disturbance are identified, and then the disturbance range is divided. The results show that (1) the TV-SVM model, utilizing total variables and support vector machine, achieves the highest estimation accuracy, with σ MAE and σ RMSE values of 208.47 g/m 2 and 290.19 g/m 2 , respectively, for the validation set. (2) Thirty-six effective disturbance areas, totaling 29.89 km 2 , are identified; the Boltzmann function provides a good fit for the OD-AGB curve, with an R 2 exceeding 0.8 for typical disturbance areas. (3) Analysis of general statistical laws indicates that disturbance distance conforms to the general characteristics of normal distribution, exhibiting boundedness and directional heterogeneity. The research is expected to provide scientific guidance for hierarchical zoning management, land reclamation, and ecological restoration in coal mining areas with high groundwater table., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Primary mucinous ovarian carcinoma (PMOC) is a rare tumor, accounting for approximately 3% of all epithelial ovarian cancers (EOCs), with clinical risk factors and biologic features distinct from that of EOC. The prognosis for women with recurrent and high-grade PMOC remains poor, likely related to a poor response to conventional chemotherapy for EOC. A 27-year-old Chinese woman sought medical attention in January 2021 for abdominal distention from a large pelvic mass. After extensive investigations and workup, she was diagnosed with PMOC of the right ovary. Following multidisciplinary team (MDT) discussions, the patient underwent fertility-sparing surgery (FSS) (abdominal left adnexectomy, right partial oophorectomy, pelvic lymph node dissection, para-aortic lymph node dissection, omentectomy) as she yearned to preserve her fertility and the contralateral ovary appeared normal. Deep genetic analyses revealed ERBB2 co-amplification with CDK12 and chromosome 11q13.3 amplicon. Treatment with fertility-sparing surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy with trastuzumab results in complete remission. This novel strategy utilizing precise diagnostics and characterization of the histo-type of rare tumors allowed personalized targeting with optimum drug response for women who yearn fertility preservation and remission from the disease, especially when there is very limited clinical experience on management of such rare ovarian tumors., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Society for Reproductive Investigation.)

Background: The morbidity and mortality rates of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) are high in China. The overall survival (OS) of patients with ESCC is related to lymph node (LN) metastasis (LNM). This study aimed to discuss the impact of metastasis in LN stations on the OS of patients with pathologic N1 (pN1) ESCC., Methods: Data were obtained from the Esophageal Cancer Case Management database of Sichuan Cancer Hospital and Institute (SCCH-ECCM). Additionally, data of patients with pN1-category ESCC collected between January 2010 and December 2017 were retrospectively analyzed., Results: Data from 807 patients were analyzed. The median OS of the patients with one metastatic LN (group 1) was 49.8 months (95 % confidence interval [CI], 30.8-68.9 months), whereas the OS of those with two metastatic LNs (group 2) was only 33.3 months (P = 0.0001). Moreover, group 1 did not show a significantly longer OS than group 2.1 (patients with 2 metastatic LNs in 1 LNM station; P = 0.5736), but did show a significantly longer OS than group 2.2 (patients with 2 metastatic LNs in 2 LNM stations; P < 0.0001). After propensity score-matching, the 5-year survival rate for group 1 was 28 %, whereas that for group 2 was 14 % (P = 0.0027)., Conclusions: The OS for the patients with one metastatic LN in one LNM was not significantly longer than for the patients with two metastatic LNs in one LNM station. Patients with one LNM station had a significantly longer OS than those with two LNM stations. Thus, the number of LNM stations is a significant determinant of OS in pN1 ESCC., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) has shown promise in improving the prognosis of individuals with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (LA-ESCC). However, the factors influencing tumor response and long-term survival in these patients remain unknown. The optimal timing for surgery after the completion of radiotherapy in LA-ESCC remains controversial. Therefore, this study was designed to identify biomarkers and to determine the optimal post-NCRT time-to-surgery (TTS) for patients with LA-ESCC., Methods: This retrospective study included patients with resectable LA-ESCC who underwent NCRT between May 2017 and June 2021. The tumor shrinkage rate was calculated as the difference between the pre- and post-primary gross tumor volume (GTVp) divided by the pre-GTVp. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to calculate overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS)., Results: We collected data from 248 patients with resectable LA-ESCC who underwent computed tomography (CT) scans before the initiation of treatment. The median follow-up time was 37.7 months. The optimal cutoff of tumor shrinkage was 45%. In the univariate and multivariate analyses, we found a significant association between the tumor shrinkage rate and PFS (p = 0.001). Among the subgroup of patients who responded to treatment, extending the TTS was associated with improved OS (p = 0.037) and PFS (p = 0.028)., Conclusions: For patients with resectable LA-ESCC, the tumor shrinkage rate is an independent prognostic factor for PFS. Thus, for responders, prolonging TTS is recommended to obtain a better OS., (© 2024. Society of Surgical Oncology.)

Background: The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine has revealed the potential of ChatGPT as a pivotal tool in medical diagnosis and treatment. This study assesses the efficacy of ChatGPT versions 3.5 and 4.0 in addressing renal cell carcinoma (RCC) clinical inquiries. Notably, fine-tuning and iterative optimization of the model corrected ChatGPT's limitations in this area., Methods: In our study, 80 RCC-related clinical questions from urology experts were posed three times to both ChatGPT 3.5 and ChatGPT 4.0, seeking binary (yes/no) responses. We then statistically analyzed the answers. Finally, we fine-tuned the GPT-3.5 Turbo model using these questions, and assessed its training outcomes., Results: We found that the average accuracy rates of answers provided by ChatGPT versions 3.5 and 4.0 were 67.08% and 77.50%, respectively. ChatGPT 4.0 outperformed ChatGPT 3.5, with a higher accuracy rate in responses (p < 0.05). By counting the number of correct responses to the 80 questions, we then found that although ChatGPT 4.0 performed better (p < 0.05), both versions were subject to instability in answering. Finally, by fine-tuning the GPT-3.5 Turbo model, we found that the correct rate of responses to these questions could be stabilized at 93.75%. Iterative optimization of the model can result in 100% response accuracy., Conclusion: We compared ChatGPT versions 3.5 and 4.0 in addressing clinical RCC questions, identifying their limitations. By applying the GPT-3.5 Turbo fine-tuned model iterative training method, we enhanced AI strategies in renal oncology. This approach is set to enhance ChatGPT's database and clinical guidance capabilities, optimizing AI in this field., (© 2024. Society of Surgical Oncology.)

Objective: To investigate multiphase computed tomography (CT) radiomics-based combined with clinical factors to predict overall survival (OS) in patients with bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA) who underwent transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT)., Methods: Data were retrospectively collected from 114 patients with primary BLCA from February 2016 to February 2018. The regions of interest (ROIs) of the plain, arterial, and venous phase images were manually segmented. The Cox regression algorithm was used to establish 3 basic models for the plain phase (PP), arterial phase (AP), and venous phase (VP) and 2 combination models (AP + VP and PP + AP + VP). The highest-performing radiomics model was selected to calculate the radiomics score (Rad-score), and independent risk factors affecting patients' OS were analyzed using Cox regression. The Rad-score and clinical risk factors were combined to construct a joint model and draw a visualized nomogram., Results: The combined model of PP + AP + VP showed the best performance with the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and Consistency Index (C-index) in the test group of 130.48 and 0.779, respectively. A combined model constructed with two independent risk factors (age and Ki-67 expression status) in combination with the Rad-score outperformed the radiomics model alone; AIC and C-index in the test group were 115.74 and 0.840, respectively. The calibration curves showed good agreement between the predicted probabilities of the joint model and the actual (p < 0.05). The decision curve showed that the joint model had good clinical application value within a large range of threshold probabilities., Conclusion: This new model can be used to predict the OS of patients with BLCA who underwent TURBT., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Dysregulated ubiquitination modification occupies a pivotal role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumorigenesis and progression. The ubiquitin aldehyde binding 1 (OTUB1) was aberrantly upregulated and exhibited the pro-tumorigenic function in HCC. However, the underlying mechanisms and responsible targets of OTUB1 remain unclear., Methods: First, bioinformatics analysis, western blot and immunohistochemistry staining were applied to analyze OTUB1 expression in HCC specimens. Then, immunoprecipitation assay-tandem mass spectrometry (MS) combined with the gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to explore the downstream target of OTUB1. Co-immunoprecipitation and ubiquitination assays were used to identify the mechanisms involved. Finally, we explored the regulatory effect of MAZ on OTUB1 through ChIP-qPCR and dual-luciferase reporter assay., Results: OTUB1 was broadly elevated in HCC tissues and promoted the proliferation and metastasis of HCC in vitro and in vivo. The receptor for activated C kinase 1 (RACK1) performed as a functional partner of OTUB1 and its hyperactivation was associated with aggressive development and other malignant features in HCC by activating oncogenes transcription. Mechanistically, OTUB1 directly bound to RACK1 at its C-terminal domain and decreased the K48-linked ubiquitination of RACK1 through its non-canonical suppression of ubiquitination activity, which stabilized RACK1 protein levels in HCC cells. Therefore, OTUB1 significantly increased multiple oncogenes expression and activated PI3K/AKT and FAK/ERK signaling in a RACK1-dependent manner in HCC. Moreover, the transcription factor MAZ upregulated OTUB1 expression through identifying a putative response element of OTUB1 promoter area., Conclusions: Our findings might provide a new therapeutic strategy for HCC by modifying the MAZ-OTUB1-RACK1 axis., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Vertically oriented carbon structures constructed from low-dimensional carbon materials are ideal frameworks for high-performance thermal interface materials (TIMs). However, improving the interfacial heat-transfer efficiency of vertically oriented carbon structures is a challenging task. Herein, an orthotropic three-dimensional (3D) hybrid carbon network (VSCG) is fabricated by depositing vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) on the surface of a horizontally oriented graphene film (HOGF). The interfacial interaction between the VACNTs and HOGF is then optimized through an annealing strategy. After regulating the orientation structure of the VACNTs and filling the VSCG with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), VSCG/PDMS composites with excellent 3D thermal conductive properties are obtained. The highest in-plane and through-plane thermal conductivities of the composites are 113.61 and 24.37 W m -1  K -1 , respectively. The high contact area of HOGF and good compressibility of VACNTs imbue the VSCG/PDMS composite with low thermal resistance. In addition, the interfacial heat-transfer efficiency of VSCG/PDMS composite in the TIM performance was improved by 71.3% compared to that of a state-of-the-art thermal pad. This new structural design can potentially realize high-performance TIMs that meet the need for high thermal conductivity and low contact thermal resistance in interfacial heat-transfer processes., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Trophoblast stem cells (TSCs) can be chemically converted from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in vitro. Although several transcription factors (TFs) have been recognized as essential for TSC formation, it remains unclear how differentiation cues link elimination of stemness with the establishment of TSC identity. Here, we show that PRDM14, a critical pluripotent circuitry component, is reduced during the formation of TSCs. The reduction is further shown to be due to the activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling. The extinction of PRDM14 results in the erasure of H3K27me3 marks and chromatin opening in the gene loci of TSC TFs, including GATA3 and TFAP2C, which enables their expression and thus the initiation of the TSC formation process. Accordingly, PRDM14 reduction is proposed here as a critical event that couples elimination of stemness with the initiation of TSC formation. The present study provides novel insights into how induction signals initiate TSC formation., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Purpose: With the rising life expectancy and an aging population, it has become increasingly important to investigate treatments suitable for older adult patients with esophageal cancer. This study investigated whether older adult patients who underwent esophagectomy had better clinical outcomes than those who were nonsurgically treated., Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) who were 70 years or older and underwent esophagectomy, radiotherapy (RT), and/or chemoradiotherapy (CRT) between January 2018 and December 2019. Patients were divided into 2 groups: the surgery group (S group) and the nonsurgery group (NS group). We then compared the clinical outcomes of the 2 groups., Results: After a median follow-up duration of 36.6 months, the S group showed better overall survival (OS). The 3-year OS was 59% in the S group and 27% in the NS group (hazard ratio [HR], 0.397; 95% CI, 0.278-0.549; P < .0001). In the S group, the median progression-free survival was 38.3 months (95% CI, 30.6-46.1) compared with 12.3 months in the NS group (HR, 0.511; 95% CI, 0.376-0.695; P < .0001). In addition, the number of adverse events in the NS group was higher than that in the S group (P < .001)., Conclusion: Overall, patients with ESCC at the age of ≥70 years who underwent esophagectomy had significantly better clinical outcomes than those who underwent nonsurgical treatment with RT and/or CRT., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Recurrent laryngeal nerve injury (RLNI) leading to vocal cord paralysis (VCP) is a significant complication following minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) with upper mediastinal lymphadenectomy. Transcutaneous laryngeal ultrasonography (TLUSG) has emerged as a non-invasive alternative to endoscopic examination for evaluating vocal cord function. Our study aimed to assess the diagnostic value of TLUSG in detecting RLNI by evaluating vocal cord movement after MIE., Methods: This retrospective study examined 96 patients with esophageal cancer who underwent MIE between January 2021 and December 2022, using both TLUSG and endoscopy., Results: VCP was observed in 36 out of 96 patients (37.5%). The incidence of RLNI was significantly higher on the left side than the right (29.2% vs. 5.2%, P < 0.001). Postoperative TLUSG showed a sensitivity and specificity of 88.5% (31/35) and 86.5% (45/52), respectively, with an AUC of 0.869 (P < 0.001, 95% CI 0.787-0.952). The percentage agreement between TLUSG and endoscopy in assessing VCP was 87.4% (κ = 0.743)., Conclusions: TLUSG is a highly effective screening tool for VCP, given its high sensitivity and specificity. This can potentially eliminate the need for unnecessary endoscopies in about 80% of patients who have undergone MIE., (© 2023. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to The Japan Esophageal Society.)

Herein, we explore the holistic integration of magnetite-based photocatalysts and techno-economic analysis (TEA) as a sustainable approach in wastewater treatment aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While considerable attention has been devoted to photocatalytic dye degradation, the nexus between these processes and techno-economic considerations remains relatively unexplored. The review comprehensively examines the fundamental characteristics of magnetite-based photocatalysts, encompassing synthesis methods, composition, and unique properties. It investigates their efficacy in photocatalytic degradation, addressing homogeneous and heterogeneous aspects while discussing strategies to optimize photodegradation efficiency, including curbing electron-hole recombination and mitigating scavenging effects and interference by ions and humic acid. Moreover, the management aspects of magnetite-based photocatalysts are examined, focusing on their reusability and regeneration post-dye removal, along with the potential for reusing treated wastewater in relevant industrial applications. From a techno-economic perspective, the study evaluates the financial feasibility of deploying magnetite-based photocatalysts in wastewater treatment, correlating reduced pollution and the marketing of treated water with social, economic, and environmental objectives. By advocating the integration of magnetite-based photocatalysts and TEA, this paper contributes insights into scalable and profitable sustainable wastewater treatment practices. It underscores the alignment of these practices with SDGs, emphasizing a comprehensive and holistic approach to managing wastewater in ways that meet environmental, economic, and societal objectives., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5), as a cytoplasmic sensor for viral double-stranded RNAs, has received increasing attention in recent years. Although considerable headway has been made on the functional role of MDA5 in antiviral immunity and autoimmune disease, the available literature is insufficient to assess the vast field., Methods: This study performed a bibliometric analysis to investigate current hotspots in the global scientific output of MDA5 over the past two decades. Related publications and recorded information from 2002 to 2022 in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database were retrieved. VOSviewer and CiteSpace were used for quantitative evaluation and visualization., Results: A total of 2267 original articles and reviews were obtained, and the annual number of publications related to MDA5 was increasing rapidly. China has published the most papers, while the USA was the most influential country with the most citations and the highest H-index. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and the Journal of Virology were the most prolific research affiliation, funding source, and journal, respectively. Fujita T (Kyoto University) was the most productive author with the highest H-index and had close cooperation with Kato H and Yoneyama M. The keywords "RIG-I," "MDA5," "innate immunity," "double-stranded-RNA," and "recognition" had the highest frequency, while "dermatomyositis" as well as "autoantibody" seemed to be the emerging hotspots., Conclusion: This study comprehensively demonstrated the research frontiers of MDA5 and will provide a useful resource for scholars to conduct future decisions., Key Points: We conducted the first in-depth survey of the research frontiers on melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5) over the past two decades via bibliometric analysis. We found that many early breakthroughs have been made in the mechanism of MDA5-mediated antiviral immune responses, and the role of MDA5 in autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases has raised the recent concern. We identified that the virus infection-associated pathogenesis and effective therapeutic strategy of anti-MDA5 antibody-positive dermatomyositis will remain the hotspots in the future., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR).)

Myosin heavy chain gene 7 (MYH7), a sarcomeric gene encoding the myosin heavy chain (myosin-7), has attracted considerable interest as a result of its fundamental functions in cardiac and skeletal muscle contraction and numerous nucleotide variations of MYH7 are closely related to cardiomyopathy and skeletal muscle myopathy. These disorders display significantly inter- and intra-familial variability, sometimes developing complex phenotypes, including both cardiomyopathy and skeletal myopathy. Here, we review the current understanding on MYH7 with the aim to better clarify how mutations in MYH7 affect the structure and physiologic function of sarcomere, thus resulting in cardiomyopathy and skeletal muscle myopathy. Importantly, the latest advances on diagnosis, research models in vivo and in vitro and therapy for precise clinical application have made great progress and have epoch-making significance. All the great advance is discussed here., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Correctly identifying and handling the relationship between land use carbon emission efficiency (LUCEE) and land ecological security (LES) are important to promote carbon neutrality in the overall layout of ecological civilization construction. This study takes 30 provinces in China as the research unit and measures the level of LUCEE and LES in each province in the period from 2011 to 2020 via a super-efficient slack-based measure model considering undesirable output. The coupling coordination degree (CCD) of LUCEE and LES is calculated, and its spatiotemporal evolution pattern is explored by kernel density estimation and standard deviational ellipse (SDE). The Dagum Gini coefficient is used to study spatial regional differences and the sources of differences. Results show that (1) China's LUCEE exhibited a downward and then an upward trend, as well as a spatial pattern of "high in the west and low in the east" with obvious regional differences. The LES experienced a positive transformation of "less secure → basically secure → more secure" nationwide, with no apparent regional differences. (2) The kernel density curves showed a continuous increase in CCD in general, while interprovincial differences increased, then decreased, and shifted from multipolar to bipolar differentiation. (3) The migration of SDE centers in CCD demonstrated a path of "southeast → southwest → northeast," and the ellipticity increased from 0.167 to 0.173, showing a trend of concentrated distribution. (4) The overall Gini coefficient of the national CCD indicated a decreasing trend, but imbalances remained, with the largest annual average value in the western region (0.120) and the smallest in the northeast (0.044). The main source of regional disparity was the intensity of transvariation. Accordingly, this study proposes targeted regional development strategies to promote low-carbon sustainable land use and improve the ability of land ecosystems to prevent security risks., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Objective: To better understand how to clear cell renal cell cancer (ccRCC) is affected by the regulator of G protein signaling-1 (RGS1), its effect on immune infiltration, macrophage polarization, tumor proliferation migration, and to explore whether RGS1 may serve as a marker and therapeutic target for ccRCC., Patients and Methods: In this study, a total of 20 surgical specimens of patients with pathological diagnosis of ccRCC admitted to the Department of Urology of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from November 2021 to June 2022 were selected for pathological and protein testing, while the expression of RGS1 in tumors, immune infiltration, and macrophage polarization, particularly M2 macrophage linked to the development of tumor microenvironment (TME), were combined with TGCA database and GO analysis. We also further explored and studied the expression and function of RGS1 in TME, investigated how RGS1 affected tumor growth, migration, apoptosis, and other traits, and initially explored the signaling pathways and mechanisms that RGS1 may affect., Results: RGS1 was found to be expressed at higher quantities in ccRCC than in normal cells or tissues, according to bioinformatics analysis and preliminary experimental data from this work. Using the TCGA database and GO analysis to describe the expression of RGS1 in a range of tumors, it was found that ccRCC had a much higher level of RGS1 expression than other tumor types. The results of gene enrichment analysis indicated that overexpression of RGS1 may be associated with immune infiltration. The outcomes of in vitro tests revealed that RGS1 overexpression in ccRCC did not significantly alter the proliferation and migration ability of ccRCC, but RGS1 overexpression promoted apoptosis in ccRCC. By in vitro co-culture experiments, RGS1 overexpression inhibited M2 macrophage polarization and also suppressed the Jagged-1/Notch signaling pathway., Conclusions: RGS1 is highly expressed in ccRCC, while overexpression of RGS1 may increase immune infiltration in the TME and reduce the polarization of M2 macrophages while promoting apoptosis in ccRCC., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Pyroptosis is a novel type of cell death observed in various diseases. Our study aimed to investigate the relationship between pyroptosis-associated-long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), immune infiltration, and expression of immune checkpoints in the setting of lung adenocarcinoma and the prognostic value of pyroptosis-related lncRNAs. RNA-seq transcriptome data and clinical information from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were downloaded, and consensus clustering analysis was used to separate the samples into two groups. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) analyses were conducted to construct a risk signature. The association between pyroptosis-associated lncRNAs, immune infiltration, and expression of immune checkpoints were analysed. The cBioPortal tool was used to discover genomic alterations. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was utilized to investigate downstream pathways of the two clusters. Drug sensitivity was also examined. A total of 43 DEGs and 3643 differentially expressed lncRNAs were identified between 497 lung adenocarcinoma tissues and 54 normal samples. A signature consisting of 11 pyroptosis-related lncRNAs was established as prognostic for overall survival. Patients in the low-risk group have a significant overall survival advantage over those in the high-risk group in the training group. Immune checkpoints were expressed differently between the two risk groups. Risk scores were validated to develop an independent prognostic model based on multivariate Cox regression analysis. The area under time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC of the ROC) at 1-, 3-, and 5-years measured0.778, 0.757, and 0.735, respectively. The high-risk group was more sensitive to chemotherapeutic drugs than the low-risk group. This study demonstrates the association between pyroptosis-associated lncRNAs and prognosis in lung adenocarcinoma and enables a robust predictive signature of 11 lncRNAs to inform overall survival., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Purpose: MicroRNA-146b (miR-146b) alleviates experimental colitis in mice by mediating macrophage polarization and the release of inflammatory factors. Our goals were to evaluate the antitumor efficacy of miR-146b in colorectal cancer (CRC) and to investigate the underlying mechanisms., Methods: We used murine models of CRC to evaluate whether miR-146b influenced the progression of tumors independent of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). RNA immunoprecipitation, N6-methyladenosine (m 6 A) RNA immunoprecipitation and in vitro pri-miRNA processing assays were conducted to examine whether m 6 A mediates the maturation of pri-miR-146b/miR-146b. In a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments, we further defined the molecular mechanisms of methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3)/miR-146b-mediated antitumor immunity and its efficacy in combination with anti-PD-1 immunotherapy., Results: We found that miR-146b deletion supported tumor progression by increasing the number of alternatively activated (M2) TAMs. Mechanistically, the m 6 A-related "writer" protein METTL3 and "reader" protein HNRNPA2B1 controlled miR-146b maturation by regulating the m 6 A modification region of pri-miR-146b. Furthermore, miR-146b deletion promoted the polarization of M2-TAMs by enhancing phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT signaling, and this effect was mediated by the class IA PI3K catalytic subunit p110β, which reduced T cell infiltration, aggravated immunosuppression and ultimately promoted tumor progression. METTL3 knockdown or miR-146b deletion induced programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) production via the p110β/PI3K/AKT pathway in TAMs and consequently augmented the antitumor activity of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy., Conclusions: The maturation of pri-miR-146b is m 6 A-dependent, and miR-146b deletion-mediated TAM differentiation promotes the development of CRC by activating the PI3K/AKT pathway, which induces upregulation of PD-L1 expression, inhibits T cell infiltration into the TME and enhances the antitumor activity of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy. The findings reveal that targeting miR-146b can serve as an adjuvant to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Recycling of gold promotes solving the problems of resource waste and environmental pollution. In this work, pentaethylenehexamine (PEHA)-modified chloromethylated polystyrene beads (PEHA-CMPS) was synthesized for the recovery of Au(III) from actual printed circuits boards (PCBs) leaching solution. PEHA-CMPS exhibited excellent adsorption efficiency at a wide pH range. It was discovered that the pseudo-second-order and Langmuir model provided a superior match for the Au(III) adsorption process. The maximum adsorption capacity for Au(III) was 1186 mg/g. Furthermore, PEHA-CMPS was able to selectively capture trace Au(III) with recovery efficiencies of above 80% from the actual PCBs leaching solution. In addition, the column separation approach was utilized to better assess the practical applications for PEHA-CMPS, proving that the prepared adsorbent exhibited great prospects in industrial applications. The adsorption efficiency still maintained 95% after five adsorption-desorption cycles. The FTIR, XRD, and XPS analyses demonstrated that Au(III) uptake on PEHA-CMPS was a collaborative process involving electrostatic interaction, chelation, and oxidation-reduction. The PEHA-CMPS provided a promising strategy in Au(III) recovery and environmental remediation., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, as a representative amyloid inhibitors, has shown a promising ability against A[Formula: see text] fibrillation by directly degradating the mature fibrils. Most previous studies have been focusing on its functional mechanisms, meanwhile its optimal dosage has been seldom considered. To solve this critical issue, we refer to the generalized Logistic model for amyloid fibrillation and inhibition and adopt the optimal control theory to balance the effectiveness and cost (or toxicity) of inhibitors. The optimal control trajectory of inhibitors is analytically solved, based on which the influence of model parameters, the difference between the optimal control strategy and several other traditional drug dosing strategies are systematically compared and validated through experiments. It is found that the strategy of multiple-times adding is more suitable for a long-term disease treatment, while single high-dose therapy is preferred for a short-term treatment. We hope our findings can shed light on the rational usage of amyloid inhibitors in clinic., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Society for Mathematical Biology.)

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have attracted worldwide attention due to their high stability, refractory degradation, and bioaccumulation. The Dongjiang River is one of the most important water sources in the Pearl River Delta region. It flows from Jiangxi Province to Guangdong Province and finally into the Pearl River, providing domestic water for cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. In this study, 17 PFASs in water, sediment, and fish in the Dongjiang River Basin in southern China were investigated using high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Total PFAS concentrations ranged from 20.83 to 372.8 ng/L in water, from 1.050 to 3.050 ng/g in sediments, and from 12.28 to 117.4 ng/g in fish. Among six species of fish, Oreochromis mossambicus (mean: 68.55 ng/g) had the highest concentration of PFASs, while Tilapia zillii (36.90 ng/g) had the lowest concentration. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) predominates in water and sediments, while perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) predominates in fish. Long-chain perfluorocarboxylates (PFCAs) and perfluorosulfonates (PFSAs) showed higher bioaccumulation, and the field-sourced sediment-water partition coefficients (K d ) and bioaccumulation factors (BAFs) of PFASs increased with the length of perfluorocarbon chains. PFAS concentration in the lower reaches (urban area) of the Dongjiang River is higher than that in the upper and middle reaches (rural area). The calculated hazard ratio (HR) of PFOS and PFOA levels in fish in the Dongjiang River Basin was far less than 1; hence, the potential risk to human health was limited., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma has a high mortality rate in China. The metastatic pattern in the lymph nodes and the value of their dissection on the overall survival of these patients remain controversial. The primary aim of this study was to provide a basis for accurate staging of esophageal cancer and to identify the relationship between esophageal cancer surgery, lymph node dissection, and overall survival rates., Methods: We utilized our hospital database to retrospectively review the data of 1727 patients with esophageal cancer who underwent R0 esophagectomy from January 2010 to December 2017. The lymph nodes were defined according to Japanese Classification of Esophageal Cancer, 11th Edition. The Efficacy Index (EI) was calculated by multiplying the frequency (%) of metastases to a zone and the 5-year survival rate (%) of patients with metastases to that zone, and then dividing by 100., Results: The EI was high in the supraclavicular and mediastinal zones in patients with upper esophageal tumors, and the EI of 101R was 17.39, which was the highest among the lymph node stations. In patients with middle esophageal tumors, the EI was highest in the mediastinal zone, followed by the celiac and supraclavicular zones. Furthermore, the EI was highest in the celiac zone, followed by the mediastinal zones in patients with lower esophageal tumors., Conclusions: The EI of resected lymph nodes was found to vary between stations and was related to the primary location of the tumor., (© 2023. Society of Surgical Oncology.)

Development of nitrogen-rich energetic materials has gained much attention because of their remarkable properties including large nitrogen content and energy density, good thermal stability, low sensitivity, good energetic performance, environmental friendliness and so on. Tetrazole has the highest nitrogen and highest energy contents among the stable azoles. The incorporation of diverse explosophoric groups or substituents into the tetrazole skeleton is beneficial to obtain high-nitrogen energetic materials having excellent energetic performance and suitable sensitivity. In this review, the development of high-nitrogen energetic materials based on tetrazole skeleton is highlighted. Initially, the property and utilization of nitrogen-rich energetic materials are presented. After showing the advantage of the tetrazole skeleton, the high-nitrogen energetic materials based on tetrazole are classified and introduced in detail. Based on different types of energetic materials (EMs), the synthesis and properties of nitrogen-rich energetic materials based on mono-, di-, tri- and tetra-tetrazole are summarized in detail., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

Landslides are a common natural disaster, having severe socio-economic effects and posing immense threat to safety, such as loss of life at a global scale. Modeling and predicting the possibility of landslides are important in order to monitor and prevent their negative consequences. In this study, landslides are the primary research object. Further, the frequency ratio (FR) method was applied to the random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and decision tree (DT) regression algorithms for landslide sensitivity assessment. It was also applied to landslide risk assessment mapping in the Longmen Mountain area. Therefore, taking into account the positive and negative sample balance, 7774 historical landslide points and 7774 non-landslide points were selected and divided them into training sets and test sets. The influence factors were selected and analyzed through multicollinearity analysis and the FR method. To improve the performance of the model and the accuracy of the findings, the individual environmental factors are normalized. Subsequently, the LSI (landslide susceptibility index), was obtained by calculating the frequency ratio. Following this, the RF, SVM, and DT were used to construct the model. The trained model calculates the landslide probability of each cell in the study area and generates the resultant susceptibility map. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and R 2 of this region were calculated to evaluate the model's performance. The results indicate that RF obtained the highest predictive performance (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.82) in landslide risk prediction, followed by SVM (AUC = 0.8) and DT (AUC = 0.69). The results of this study serve as a predictive map for landslide susceptibility areas and provide critical support for the security of lives and property for the human and socio-economic development in the Longmen Mountain region. In addition, the experiment results reveal that the machine learning model based on the FR method can improve the accuracy and performance of methods in studies related to landslide susceptibility. The method is equally applicable to research in other fields., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The herbicide atrazine (ATZ) has a detrimental effect on the health of aquatic ecosystems and has become a global concern in recent years. But the understanding of its persistence and potential toxicity under combined pollution, especially in the coexistence of other emerging pollutants, remains limited. In this work, the dissipation and transformation of ATZ in combination with graphene oxide (GO) in water were investigated. Results showed that dissipation rates of ATZ dramatically increased by 15-95% with half-lives shortened by 15-40% depending on initial concentrations of ATZ, and the products were mainly toxic chloro-dealkylated intermediates (deethylatrazine (DEA) and deisopropylatrazine (DIA)), but their contents were significantly lower under the coexistence of GO compared to ATZ alone. In the presence of GO, the nontoxic dechlorinated metabolite hydroxyatrazine (HYA) was detected earlier than 2-9 days, and ATZ transformation into HYA was increased by 6-18% during 21-day incubation periods. This study indicated that the coexistence of GO enhanced the dissipation and detoxification of ATZ. From a remediation standpoint, GO-induced hydrolytic dechlorination of ATZ can reduce its ecological toxicity. But the environmental risks of ATZ for aquatic ecosystem under the coexistence of GO should still be given the necessary prominence due to the potential hazard of ATZ adsorbed on GO and the predominant degradation products (DEA and DIA)., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Objective: Combination therapy of glucocorticoids (GCs) plus leflunomide (LEF) and GCs plus mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) was reported to have good efficacy and safety in the management of IgG4-RD. However, studies comparing the efficacy and safety of these two combination therapies were unavailable. Herein, this study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of GCs plus LEF and GCs plus MMF in treating IgG4-RD., Methods: This study included 130 newly diagnosed IgG4-RD patients who received the therapy of GCs plus LEF (group I) and GCs plus MMF (group II). Clinical data at baseline and after treatment, treatment response, relapse rate, and adverse effects were recorded and analyzed., Results: Patients in both groups responded well to the treatment in the 1st-month follow-up, and 100% of patients achieved treatment response. However, at the 6th and 12th-month follow-up, the total response rate of group II was higher than that in group I (75.6 vs. 53.7%, p = 0.038 and 85.4% vs. 61.0%, p = 0.013, respectively). In addition, the duration of disease remission in group II was longer than that in group I (9 (6-9) vs. 6 (6-6) months, p = 0.014). Moreover, more patients in group I had adverse effects compared with group II (36.6 vs. 7.3%, p < 0.01); and the most common adverse events of LEF were rash (12.2%) and elevation of liver enzymes (9.8%)., Conclusion: The combination therapy of GCs plus low-dose MMF had better efficacy and safety in the management of IgG4-RD compared with the therapy of GCs plus LEF., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR).)

TNF receptor-associated factors (TRAFs) are signaling adaptor proteins that play a crucial role in regulating cellular receptors' signaling transduction to downstream pathways and exert multifaceted roles in regulating signaling pathways, cell survival, and carcinogenesis. The 13-cis-retinoic acid (RA), an active metabolite of vitamin A, exhibits anti-cancer properties, but the development of retinoic acid resistance poses a challenge in clinical application. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between TRAFs and retinoic acid sensitivity in various cancers. Here, we revealed that TRAFs' expression varied significantly across The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cancer cohorts and human cancer cell lines. Additionally, inhibiting TRAF4, TRAF5, or TRAF6 improved retinoic acid sensitivity and reduced colony formation in ovarian cancer and melanoma cells. Mechanistically, knocking down TRAF4, TRAF5, or TRAF6 in retinoic acid-treated cancer cell lines increased the levels of procaspase 9 and induced cell apoptosis. Further in vivo studies using the SK-OV-3 and MeWo xenograft models confirmed the anti-tumor effects of TRAF knockdown combined with retinoic acid treatment. These findings support that combination therapy with retinoic acid and TRAF silencing may offer significant therapeutic advantages in treating melanoma and ovarian cancers., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Dysregulation of autophagy in cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) has been demonstrated to play a role in malignant phenotypes of human tumors. We intended to investigate the function of CAFs autophagy in prostate cancer (PCa). Firstly, CAFs and normal fibroblasts (NFs) were isolated from cancerous and adjacent normal tissues of PCa patients, for the following experimental preparation. In comparison with NFs, CAFs expressed higher levels of the myofibroblast marker ?-smooth muscle actin (?-SMA) and the mesenchymal marker Vimentin. Besides, CAFs possessed a higher autophagic level than NFs. As for malignant phenotypes, PCa cells co-cultured with CAFs-CM showed greater proliferation, migration and invasion capabilities, while these outcomes were obviously abolished by autophagy inhibition with 3-Methyladenine (3-MA). Moreover, silencing of ATG5 in CAFs inhibited fibroblasts autophagic level and suppressed malignant phenotypes of PCa cells, while ATG5 overexpression in NFs exerted opposite effects. Depletion of ATG5 in CAFs inhibited the xenograft tumor growth and lung metastasis of PCa cells. Taken together, our data demonstrated the promotive effect of CAFs on PCa malignant phenotypes through ATG5-dependent autophagy, suggesting a novel mechanism for PCa progression., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Green finance has become an important reform force to promote the sustainable development of China's economy. Therefore, it has a great significance for in-depth analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of regional green finance development, to further promote it by clarifying and predicting the regional differences and dynamic evolution trends. Based on this, this paper will select the relevant index from 2001 to 2020 to construct China Green Finance Core Network (CGFCN) in different years by using Space-L method at the first, then analyze its network characteristics and spatial evolution pattern in depth, and finally predict the future development trend of CGFCN by link prediction. The research results show that: firstly, the evolution of CGFCN is mainly divided into three stages: rapid development, stable development and optimal development, and the closeness of CGFCN is constantly improving. Besides, two strong relationship networks are gradually forming, that is Beijing-Tianjin region and the Yangtze River Detla region. Secondly, with the development of green finance, the community division has changed. It is mainly divided into four communities, named the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei leading community, the eastern provincial community, the Yangtze River Delta community and the central and southern joint community. Different communities will have different integration in different periods. Thirdly, the future development direction of green finance network is mainly Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Yangtze River Delta regions, and their outward radiation are mainly shown in the eastern coastal and central regions, which also have strong development potential. In this regard, it is proposed to coordinate development across provinces to speed up the "urban integration" of green finance services; Establish an efficient community development mechanism and promote the interconnection of green finance markets and infrastructure between different regions; Strengthen the resource flow among regions and coordinate the resource competition of green finance., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Ferroptosis, a form of cell death caused by iron-dependent peroxidation of lipids, plays an important role in cancer. Recent studies have shown that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the regulation of ferroptosis in tumor cells and are also closely related to tumor immunity. Immune cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment affects the prognosis and clinical outcome of immunotherapy in melanoma patients, and immune cell classification may be able to accurately predict the prognosis of melanoma patients. However, the prognostic value of ferroptosis-related lncRNAs (FRLs) in melanoma has not been thoroughly explored, and it is difficult to define the immune characteristics of melanoma. We used The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) database, and the FerrDb database to identify FRLs. FRLs with prognostic value were evaluated in an experimental cohort utilizing univariate, LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) and multivariate Cox regression, followed by in vitro assays evaluating the expression levels and the biological functions of three candidate FRLs. Kaplan-Meier (K-M) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were used to assess the validity of the risk model, and the drug sensitivity of FRLs was examined by drug sensitivity analysis. The differentially expressed genes between the high- and low-risk groups in the risk model were enriched in the immune pathway, and we further found immune gene signatures (IRGs) that could predict the prognosis of melanoma patients through a series of methods including single-sample Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (ssGSEA). Finally, two GEO cohorts were used to validate the predictive accuracy and reliability of these two signature models. Our findings suggest that FRLs and IRGs have the potential to predict the prognosis of patients with cutaneous melanoma., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)