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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the quality and quantity of people's food consumption., Objective: This study aimed to explore the dietary shifts among different racial groups resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on changes in consumption across various food categories., Methods: This cross-sectional study included a sample of 10,050 urban residents aged 40-100 years across the United States. Dietary patterns among African American, Asian, Hispanic, and White populations were assessed before and since the pandemic (retrospective condition) using the Dietary Screening Tool (DST). The DST investigates consumption trends in food groups aligned with the MyPlate guidelines, plus fat, sugar, and sweet (FSS) intake and processed meats., Results: This study found significant shifts in food consumption patterns among racial groups since COVID-19. The data indicate that African American individuals largely reduced their consumption of several food groups compared to White individuals, with a 43% decrease in processed meats, 42% in dairy, 36% in lean protein, 21% in fruit, 17% in grains, and 15% in FSS, although their vegetable consumption did not significantly decrease. African American individuals also consumed 66% less processed meat, 57% less dairy, and 30% less lean protein in comparison to Asian individuals. Hispanic individuals also showed a tendency to reduce their consumption more than White individuals, with a 34% decrease in dairy, 28% in vegetables, and 24% in fruit. In contrast, Asian individuals consumed 37% less FSS and 34% less grains than White individuals. Additionally, when compared to Asian individuals, Hispanic individuals consumed 49% less dairy and 47% less processed meat. The findings also revealed that African American individuals were the most nutritionally vulnerable group since the pandemic. Specifically, they were 38% and 35% more likely to be considered at nutritional risk than Asians and White participants, respectively., Conclusions: These findings illuminate the considerable dietary shifts induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasize the critical need to address the racial disparities in nutritional vulnerability and public health policy.

Evidence-informed data may help students matching into competitive residency programs guide curricular activities, extracurricular activities, and residency career choices. We aimed to examine the characteristics of students applying to competitive surgical residencies and identify predictors of matching success. We identified the five lowest match rates for the surgical subspecialities listed in the 2020 National Resident Matching Program report to define a surgical residency as competitive. We analyzed a database from 115 United States medical schools regarding application data from 2017 to 2020. Multilevel logistic regression was used to determine predictors of matching. Statistical significance was set at p  < 0.05.A total of 1,448 medical students submitted 25,549 applications. The five most competitive specialties included were plastic surgery ( N  = 172), otolaryngology ( N  = 342), neurological surgery ( N  = 163), vascular surgery ( N  = 52), orthopedic surgery ( N  = 679), and thoracic surgery ( N  = 40). We found that medical students with a geographical connection (adjusted OR, 1.65 [95% CI, 1.41 to 1.93]), and students who did an away rotation at the applied program (adjusted OR, 3.22 [95% CI, 2.75 to 3.78]) had statistically significantly increased odds of matching into a competitive surgical specialty. Furthermore, we found that students with a United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 score below 230 and Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) score below 240 had increased odds of matching if they completed an away rotation at the applied program. Completing an away rotation and geographical connection to the institution may contribute more than academic criteria for selection into a competitive surgical residency after an interview. This finding may be due to less variation in academic criteria among this pool of high-performing medical students. Students with limited resources who apply to a competitive surgical specialty may be at a disadvantage given the financial burden of an away rotation.

Three nitrophenols are among the 126 priority toxic pollutants identified by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Catalyzing hydrogenation is a simple way to convert these toxic nitrophenols into harmless aminophenols. Commercial PdC has excellent catalytic hydrogenation activity but has weaknesses such as high price and low reusability. Here, we fabricated a series of nano-Pd 2D Co-MOF heterostructures and filtered for optimal Co-MOF@Pd 0.0012 , which contain ultra-low Pd content (0.08 wt%) and recorded high catalytic efficiency for 4-nitrophenol among the reported non-single atom catalyst due to edge and size effects. The TOF value of Co-MOF@Pd 0.0012 is 9800 h -1 , ∼206 times higher than that of PdC (Pd content, 10 wt%). Furthermore, Co-MOF@Pd 0.0012 has been widely applied to catalyze the reduction of various nitrophenol substrates with higher than 99% conversion efficiency and selectivity., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The quality and quantity of food consumption have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we examined how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the consumption of different food groups in order to close the research gap by providing current evidence that reflects a later stage of the pandemic compared to other circulating research conducted at earlier stages. Data collection for this cross-sectional study was performed via an online Qualtrics survey from 10,050 adults aged 40-100 years. Nutritional status was measured using the 24-item short-form Dietary Screening Tool (DST) twice: before and since the COVID-19 pandemic. The DST questions were categorized based on MyPlate items, along with fat, sugar, and sweet items, as well as nutritional supplement intake. In addition, the total DST score was calculated for each participant, which categorized them into one of three groups: "at risk", "possible risk", and "not at risk". The results revealed that the consumption of grains, fruit, lean protein, and dairy decreased significantly, while the consumption of fat, sugar, and sweet items increased significantly due to COVID-19. The biggest decreases in consumption of food subcategories were related to whole grain bread and cereal, followed by fruit as a snack, in comparison with other types of grain and fruit. No changes in the consumption of vegetables, processed meat, or supplement intake were seen. The total DST score showed that, before and since COVID-19, the overall nutrition status of adult Americans has been at risk. In addition, of those participants who were not at risk before COVID-19, 28.5% were either at risk or at possible risk since COVID-19; moreover, of those participants who were at possible risk before COVID-19, 21% were at risk since COVID-19. As a good nutritional status can reduce the risk of severe illness or even mortality rate in times of crisis, the findings of this study can help policymakers and health educators to develop heath-protecting behavior sessions against future pandemics to manage crises.

Background: State-level racial/ethnic and age differences and the temporal trend of thyroid cancer (TC) incidence in the USA remain unknown. Our research purposes include: Characterizing state-level temporal variation in TC incidence; examining the disparities of TC incidence by state-level race/ethnicity and age; performing an ecological correlation between TC incidence and obesity/physical activity., Methods: TC incidence data during 2000-2017 were extracted from the United States cancer statistics. Using joinpoint regression to evaluate TC incidence trends. Annual percent change (APC), average APC (AAPC) and incidence rates were calculated. The obesity prevalence and physical activity level at the state-level were extracted from Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and the association between state-level AAPC of TC and obesity/physical activity was tested by Pearson correlation coefficient., Results: We found that the TC incidence had shown an overall downward trend in recent years, but 10 states continued increasing. There were significant differences in state-level race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic Whites as a reference) and age group (45-59 age group as a reference) incidence: Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR) was 0.4-1.2 for non-Hispanic Blacks, 0.7-1.6 for non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islanders, 0.4-1.2 for non-Hispanic American Indians/Alaskan Natives, and 0.5-1.3 for Hispanics. High IRR in young people were distributed in northern USA, while in older people were distributed in south. The state-level obesity/physical activity level and AAPC had a weak correlation (r = 0.34, P = 0.016) and inverse weak correlation (r = -0.29, P = 0.037), respectively. The AAPC of states with a consistent increasing trend had an extremely strong correlation with obesity prevalence (r = 0.80, p = 0.006), and an inverse strong correlation with physical activity level (r = -0.65, P = 0.04)., Conclusions: Thyroid cancer incidence in 10 states continued increasing. State-level variation in race/ethnicity and age group incidence were found. Lifestyle and environmental factors may interfere with the incidence trend of TC in the USA., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

There is an urgent need to create novel models using human disease-relevant cells to study severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) biology and to facilitate drug screening. Here, as SARS-CoV-2 primarily infects the respiratory tract, we developed a lung organoid model using human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC-LOs). The hPSC-LOs (particularly alveolar type-II-like cells) are permissive to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and showed robust induction of chemokines following SARS-CoV-2 infection, similar to what is seen in patients with COVID-19. Nearly 25% of these patients also have gastrointestinal manifestations, which are associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes 1 . We therefore also generated complementary hPSC-derived colonic organoids (hPSC-COs) to explore the response of colonic cells to SARS-CoV-2 infection. We found that multiple colonic cell types, especially enterocytes, express ACE2 and are permissive to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Using hPSC-LOs, we performed a high-throughput screen of drugs approved by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) and identified entry inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2, including imatinib, mycophenolic acid and quinacrine dihydrochloride. Treatment at physiologically relevant levels of these drugs significantly inhibited SARS-CoV-2 infection of both hPSC-LOs and hPSC-COs. Together, these data demonstrate that hPSC-LOs and hPSC-COs infected by SARS-CoV-2 can serve as disease models to study SARS-CoV-2 infection and provide a valuable resource for drug screening to identify candidate COVID-19 therapeutics.

Purpose: To characterize the accuracy and consistency of fluoroscope dose index reporting and report rates of occupational radiation safety hardware availability and use, trainee participation in procedures, and optional hardware availability at pilot sites for the American College of Radiology (ACR) Fluoroscopy Dose Index Registry (DIR)., Materials and Methods: Nine institutions participated in the registry pilot, providing fluoroscopic technical and clinical practice data from 38 angiographic C-arm-type fluoroscopes. These data included measurements of the procedure table and mattress transmission factors and accuracy measurements of the reference-point air kerma (K a,r ) and air kerma-area product (P KA ). The accuracy of the radiation dose indices were analyzed for variation over time by 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Sites also self-reported information on availability and use of radiation safety hardware, hardware configuration of fluoroscopes, and trainee participation in procedures., Results: All K a,r and P KA measurements were within the ±35% regulatory limit on accuracy. The mean absolute difference between correction factors for a given system in fluoroscopic and acquisition mode was 0.03 (95% confidence interval, 0.03-0.03). For the 28 fluoroscopic imaging planes that provided data for 3 time points, ANOVA yielded an F value of 0.134 with an F-critical value of 3.109 (P = .875)., Conclusions: This publication provides the technical and clinical framework pertaining to the ACR Fluoroscopy DIR pilot and offers necessary context for future analysis of the clinical procedure radiation-dose data collected., (Copyright © 2020 SIR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The 16.9 million cancer survivors in the United States are at increased risk for comorbidities and recurrence. However, this risk may be attenuated by a healthy lifestyle. This study describes health behaviors by cancer history to inform behavior change priorities., Methods: We analyzed 2013-2017 data from the National Health Interview Survey. There were 164,692 adults, of whom 12,648 reported a cancer history. We calculated prevalence of smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption, body mass index (BMI), and sleep duration by cancer history, age, and cancer site. We conducted logistic regression to determine odds of meeting lifestyle recommendations by cancer history., Results: Overall, those with a cancer history were less likely to report current smoking (14.1% vs. 16.8%) and moderate/heavy drinking (18.8% vs. 21.9%) than those without a cancer history. However, a lower percentage of cancer survivors met physical activity guidelines (14.2% vs. 21.1%) or reported a healthy BMI (31.6% vs. 34.7%) compared with those without a cancer history. Cancer survivors were more likely to report excessive sleep (6.8% vs. 3.6%). In adjusted logistic regression, survivors were more likely to meet recommendations on smoking, physical activity, and BMI but were less likely to meet alcohol recommendations; meeting sleep recommendations did not differ by cancer history., Conclusions: While cancer survivors had lower prevalence of smoking and moderate/heavy drinking, they also had lower prevalence of physical activity and healthy BMI, and reported longer sleep duration. Regression analyses suggested survivors only showed poorer behaviors for alcohol., Impact: Targeted health promotion interventions among cancer survivors are needed., (©2020 American Association for Cancer Research.)

The reuse of high-cost single-use medical devices (SUD) is permitted in many countries, such as the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, but strict regulatory requirements must be met. In addition to regulatory policies and regulations, such as market access mode and special requirements on Good Manufacture Practice (GMP), there are strict technical requirements on the potential risk control and quality assurance system. Therefore, effective risk assessment and risk control technology are the keys to ensure effective quality control and safe use of SUDs. In this article, based on analyzing the technological requirements of the national regulatory on SUDs in the United States, Germany and Britain, and combined with the review from latest relevant literature, to discuss the strategies of how to carry out scientific risk assessment. Some risk control technologies on the reuse of SUDs are introduced, which will provide support for the further study on risk control strategies and regulatory decisions for the reuse of SUDs in China.

Despite the current acceleration and increasing leadership of Chinese genetics research, genetics and its clinical application have largely been imported to China from the Occident. Neither genetics nor the scientific reductionism underpinning its clinical application is integral to the traditional Chinese worldview. Given that disease concepts and their incumbent diagnoses are historically derived and culturally meaningful, we hypothesize that the cultural expectations of genetic diagnoses and medical genetics practice differ between the Occident and China. Specifically, we suggest that an undiagnosed diseases program in China will differ from the recently established Undiagnosed Diseases Program at the United States National Institutes of Health; a culturally sensitive concept will integrate traditional Chinese understanding of disease with the scientific reductionism of Occidental medicine.