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Objective: To explore the clinical epidemiological characteristics of oral lichen planus (OLP) and risk factors for erosive/ulcerative OLP. Materials and Methods: Patients diagnosed with OLP from 11 different hospitals were included in the study. Descriptive statistical methods were used to explore the clinical epidemiological characteristics and logistic regression, sensitivity analysis, and subgroup analysis were utilized to explore the risk factors for erosive/ulcerative OLP. Results: The average age of patients was 49.2 ± 13.3 years, and 61.4% of the patients were women. The ratios of patients with reticular, hyperemic/erythematous, and erosive/ulcerative lesions were 47.9%, 27.8%, and 24.2%, respectively. Analysis of risk factors for erosive/ulcerative OLP identified the following variables: age, course of disease of 12 months or more, II°–III° dental calculus, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease, as well as regions of habitation. Subgroup analysis showed significant differences in risk factors for erosive/ulcerative OLP in patients with and without risk behaviors. Conclusion: The clinical epidemiological characteristics of patients with OLP in the Chinese population in this study are basically consistent with existing reports in developed countries. And we identified clinical characteristics associated with erosive/ulcerative OLP through clinical epidemiological analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professionals and entrepreneurs returning to developing countries from developed countries play key roles in the technological 'catch-up' of their home countries, but they are rarely well-conceptualized by the theories of globalization. This is especially the case in Asia. The American-trained Chinese engineers who returned to Taiwan were instrumental in creating Taiwan's excellent semiconductor industry during the 1980s and 1990s. In a similar vein, since the late 1990s, Chinese professionals returning to the mainland have also emerged as the most innovative industrial and capital agents in the technological industry. In this article we compare the roles and business strategies of transnational entrepreneurs on the two sides of Taiwan Strait in the information communication industry (ICT). While these Chinese returnees share striking similarities in their educational and personal trajectories, we identify major structural differences underlying their particular resources and commercial strategies. These empirical findings move beyond the assumptions of common behaviour by overseas Chinese, for they highlight the different political economic dynamics between mainland China, Taiwan and the United States in shaping the divergent engagements of these entrepreneurs in the emerging global technology industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite ominous signs of housing market stress in the US, the homeownership rate reached an all-time high in 2006. The conventional definition of homeownership, which is based on the share of households and ignores the effects of variable household formation, confounds the measurement of ‘success’ in achieving homeownership. It is found that, from 1990 to 2006, declining household formation led to an elevated homeownership rate in the US and that this effect varies substantially between racial/ethnic groups. Asians, who achieve high homeownership rates, have the lowest propensity to form independent households, in sharp contrast to African Americans. Asians do not have better access per capita to owner-occupied housing than do Blacks. The conventional measure of homeownership is an incomplete measure of homeownership opportunity because it fails to account for variable household formation. The changing population mix in the US includes groups with different propensities for household formation, thus confusing future assessments of homeownership and the housing market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Immigration is no longer a phenomenon that is simply affecting gateway metropolitan areas in the United States. This analysis demonstrates that large numbers of immigrants are moving to other metropolitan areas and analyses the housing outcomes of households who currently live in the 14 largest emerging gateways. The findings suggest that those households that move from most gateway metropolitan areas have lower homeownership rates than do households that move from within the metropolitan area. Meanwhile, there is little evidence that immigrants do worse than native-born households that migrate within the US. The study also demonstrates that immigrants living in crowded conditions or having multiple workers in the household have higher homeownership rates than similar native-born households, and that younger immigrants are relatively more successful in attaining homeownership than are similar native-born residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. Recently, research has begun to investigate the reasons for differences in homeownership rates between Asians and Whites. This paper extends this research by examining the heterogeneity that exists across Asian groups in the US. We find that there are important differences across geographical area, across time and across groups in the importance of various factors that influence the likelihood of owning a home. After controlling for household mobility and other socioeconomic characteristics, we find that most Asian groups have home-ownership rates similar to those of Whites, but that Chinese households have home-ownership rates 20 percentage points higher than their household characteristics would predict. In part, this may be due to differences in support unmeasured in the data, but future research is needed to fully understand the source of this differential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the connection between American college students' increased career orientation and the growth of geographic information systems (GIS) and experiential education in the curricula of US geography programmes. In essence, students have been attracted to GIS and experiential education because they believe that those skills and experiences will enhance their marketability. While greater employment opportunities for geography graduates is laudable, the discipline must be careful not to become too narrowly focused on career linkages and neglect the general intellectual development of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Brexanolone (Zulresso®) that was approved for the USA in March 2019 is indicated for the treatment of postpartum depression (PPD), but information on adverse drug reactions (ADRs) associated with its use is limited. The main aim of this study was to explore the postmarketing safety profile of brexanolone., Methods: In our case/non-case pharmacovigilance study based on the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), the reporting odds ratio and information component with 95% confidence intervals were estimated as measures of disproportionate reporting. Primary disproportionality analyses were performed by comparing brexanolone with all other drugs or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Sensitivity analyses were performed on a subset of perinatal depression., Results: We identified 267 cases using brexanolone. Brexanolone was reported as a primary or secondary suspect drug in most cases (n = 260, 97.38%). Of the total brexanolone cases, positive dechallenge and discontinuation accounted for 12.36% (n = 33) and 26.22% (n = 70), respectively. Serious outcomes were reported in 11.61% (n = 31) patients. Compared to all the other drugs or SSRIs within the same time window, the reporting risks of brexanolone were mainly from psychiatric and nervous systems. Sensitivity analyses indicated that these significant disproportionalities were mostly retained., Conclusion: Our pharmacovigilance analysis showed a high reporting frequency of psychiatric and nervous system ADRs associated with the use of brexanolone. In additional prospective research, these signals urgently need to be clarified., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: The authors performed a bibliometric and visualized analysis of the top 100 highly cited articles in rhinoplasty published between 2001 and 2020, to provide researchers with the present research status and the potential directions., Methods: The authors obtained data from the Web of Science Core Collection on April 7, 2021. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed using the Web of Science. Collaboration and keyword analyses were performed using VOSviewer software., Results: The top 100 highly cited articles included 86 original research articles and 14 reviews. The average total citations was 77 (range, 50 to 202). The article with 202 citations was published by Toriumi in 2006 and was the most influential reference. The most common level of evidence was level IV ( n = 24). Only five articles had a level of evidence of I. The top 100 articles were published in 24 journals. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery published 49 articles with 4013 citations. The United States published the most highly cited articles. The University of Texas System published 16 articles with 1166 citations. R. J. Rohrich published 14 articles with 1025 total citations. "Cleft lip and palate," "FACE-Q," "Functional Rhinoplasty Outcome Inventory 17," "NOSE scale" (Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation scale), "quality-of-life," "questionnaire," and "RHINO scale" (Rhinoplasty Health Inventory and Nasal Outcomes scale) were important keywords., Conclusions: Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery was the most influential journal, most research was reported from the United States, and the University of Texas System published the most highly cited article. R. J. Rohrich, R. K. Daniel, and B. Guyuron were the most prolific and influential authors. Global cooperation in rhinoplasty requires further strengthening., (Copyright © 2022 by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.)

50 New drugs including 36 chemical entities and 14 biologics were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration during 2021. Among the marketed drugs, 31 new small molecule agents (29 small molecule drugs and 2 diagnostic agents) with privileged structures and novel clinical applications represent as promising leads for the development of new drugs with the similar indications and improved therapeutic efficacy. This review is mainly focused on the clinical applications and synthetic methods of 29 small molecule drugs newly approved by the FDA in 2021. We believed that insight into the synthetic approaches of drug molecules would provide creative and practical inspirations for the development of more efficient and practical synthetic technologies to meet with new drug discovery., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Background and Objective: Hypoglycemia induced by direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a rare but potentially life-threatening adverse reaction, which led to warnings by competent authorities. We therefore aimed to examine the hypoglycemic safety signal for DAAs., Methods: Reports to the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) from 1 October 2012 to 31 March 2020 were analyzed. The Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities was used to identify hypoglycemia cases. A case by non-case disproportionality approach was used whereby reporting odds ratio (ROR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated., Results: In HCV infection with diabetes patients, the cumulative frequency of hypoglycemic ADRs was 21.85/1000 for reports involving DAAs versus 13.50/1000 for reports involving other medications; For DAAs as a class drug, a nearly double increased reporting odds for hypoglycemia was observed (ROR: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.11-2.41). However, in DAAs subgroup analysis, only telaprevir (ROR: 1.66, 95% CI: 1.01-2.74) and elbasvir/grazoprevir (ROR: 2.25, 95% CI: 1.05-4.83) were associated with increased reporting risk of hypoglycemia during corresponding marketing period; when combined with insulins and sulfonylureas, DAAs were associated with increased reporting risk for hypoglycemia (ROR: 1.98, 95% CI: 1.36-2.88; ROR: 1.62, 95% CI: 1.06-2.48), but concomitant biguanides, dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-4) inhibitors or glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) were not significant., Conclusions: This study supports the current recommendation for cautious about hypoglycemic risk relating to the use of DAAs. Treatment with DAAs and antidabetic agents (especially insulins and sulfonylureas) will increase hypoglycemia reporting risk. Physicians and pharmacists should be aware of this risk when prescribing DAAs for patients suffering from diabetes, advanced age or liver decompensation., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) can be used as prognostic biomarkers in many types of cancer., Objective: We sought to establish an lncRNA signature to improve postoperative risk stratification for patients with localized clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC)., Design, Setting, and Participants: Based on the RNA-seq data of 444 stage I-III ccRCC tumours from The Cancer Genome Atlas project, we built a four-lncRNA-based classifier using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operation (LASSO) Cox regression model in 222 randomly selected samples (training set) and validated the classifier in the remaining 222 samples (internal validation set). We confirmed this classifier in an external validation set of 88 patients with stage I-III ccRCC from a Japan cohort and using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in another three independent sets that included 1869 patients from China with stage I-III ccRCC., Outcome Measurements and Statistical Analysis: Univariable and multivariable Cox regression, Harrell's concordance index (c-index), and time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves were used to evaluate the association of the classifier with overall survival, disease-specific survival, and disease-free survival., Results and Limitations: Using the LASSO Cox regression model, we built a classifier named RCClnc4 based on four lncRNAs: ENSG00000255774, ENSG00000248323, ENSG00000260911, and ENSG00000231666. In the RNA-seq and RT-PCR data sets, the RCClnc4 signature significantly stratified patients into high-risk versus low-risk groups in terms of clinical outcome across and within subpopulations and remained as an independent prognostic factor in multivariate analyses (hazard ratio range, 1.34 [95% confidence interval {CI}: 1.03-1.75; p=0.028] to 1.89 [95% CI, 1.55-2.31; p<0.001]) after adjusting for clinical and pathologic factors. The RCClnc4 signature achieved a higher accuracy (mean c-index, 0.72) than clinical staging systems such as TNM (mean c-index, 0.62) and the stage, size, grade, and necrosis (SSIGN) score (mean c-index, 0.64), currently reported prognostic signatures and biomarkers for the estimation of survival. When integrated with clinical characteristics, the composite clinical and lncRNA signature showed improved prognostic accuracy in all data sets (TNM + RCClnc4 mean c-index, 0.75; SSIGN + RCClnc4 score mean c-index, 0.75). The RCClnc4 classifier was able to identify a clinically significant number of both high-risk stage I and low-risk stage II-III patients., Conclusions: The RCClnc4 classifier is a promising and potential prognostic tool in predicting the survival of patients with stage I-III ccRCC. Combining the lncRNA classifier with clinical and pathological parameters allows for accurate risk assessment in guiding clinical management., Patient Summary: The RCClnc4 classifier could facilitate patient management and treatment decisions., (Copyright © 2018 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Certain botanical dietary supplements have been associated with idiosyncratic organ-specific toxicity. Similar toxicological events, caused by drug-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, have forced the withdrawal or U.S. FDA "black box" warnings of major pharmaceuticals. To assess the potential mitochondrial liability of botanical dietary supplements, extracts from 352 authenticated plant samples used in traditional Chinese, Ayurvedic, and Western herbal medicine were evaluated for the ability to disrupt cellular respiration. Blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) methanol extract exhibited mitochondriotoxic activity. Used by some U.S. midwives to help induce labor, blue cohosh has been associated with perinatal stroke, acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, multiple organ injury, and neonatal shock. The potential link between mitochondrial disruption and idiosyncratic herbal intoxication prompted further examination. The C. thalictroides methanol extract and three saponins, cauloside A (1), saponin PE (2), and cauloside C (3), exhibited concentration- and time-dependent mitochondriotoxic activities. Upon treatment, cell respiration rate rapidly increased and then dramatically decreased within minutes. Mechanistic studies revealed that C. thalictroides constituents impair mitochondrial function by disrupting membrane integrity. These studies provide a potential etiological link between this mitochondria-sensitive form of cytotoxicity and idiosyncratic organ damage.

C-arm fluoroscopy is modelled as a perspective projection, the parameters of which are estimated through a calibration procedure. It has been universally accepted that precise intra-procedural calibration is a prerequisite for accurate quantitative C-arm fluoroscopy guidance. Calibration, however, significantly adds to system complexity, which is a major impediment to clinical practice. We challenge the status quo by questioning the assumption that precise intra-procedural calibration is really necessary. We derived theoretical bounds for the sensitivity of 3D measurements to mis-calibration. Experimental results corroborated the theory in that mis-calibration in the focal spot by as much as 50 mm still allows for tracking with an accuracy of 0.5 mm in translation and 0.65 degrees in rotation, and such mis-calibration does not impose any additional error on the reconstruction of small objects.