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Background: Breast cancer is more likely to metastasize to the bone. Previous researches have revealed that the vitamin D receptor (VDR) contributes to breast cancer progression and bone metastasis in mouse and human breast cells, and hairless (Hr) protein interacts with VDR in the mammalian hair cycle. This study aimed to explore the expression of VDR/Hr in breast cancer, and the correlation between VDR/Hr and prognosis, bone metastasis, and metastasis-related prognosis. Methods: The expression of VDR and Hr was analyzed on 119 breast cancer tissues and corresponding normal breast tissue from each of the breast cancer samples by immunohistochemistry staining, and the databases were supplemented as well. Results: The expression of the VDR protein was significantly decreased in breast cancer patients (p < 0.05), inversely, the UALCAN (p = 0.000) and GEPIA (p > 0.05) databases showed that the VDR mRNA expression tended to be higher in tumor tissues. The Hr protein was expressed at a low level within breast cancer specimens (p < 0.05), which was in agreement with the level of Hr mRNA in UALCAN (p = 0.005) and GEPIA (p > 0.05). The protein levels of VDR and Hr were positively correlated (p > 0.05), while the mRNA levels suggested a close relationship with GEPIA (p < 0.05). Low expression of Hr protein displayed a tendency for longer overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS), and its mRNA data also revealed the same trend in the Kaplan-Meier dataset (both p > 0.05). However, VDR protein and mRNA with low expression had markedly shorter OS and RFS (both p < 0.05). The downregulation of VDR protein was significantly associated with an advanced stage (p < 0.05). Low VDR protein was an independent risk factor for poor prognosis (p < 0.05) and was negatively correlated with bone metastasis (p < 0.05). VDR protein and mRNA levels were both downregulated in breast cancer with bone metastasis (both p < 0.05). The area under ROC curve (AUC) for VDR protein expression to identify patients with bone metastasis was 0.661 (p < 0.05) and the AUC for VDR level to predict 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year OS was 0.621, 0.664, and 0.805 in patients with bone metastasis, respectively (p < 0.05). VDR with low expression accelerated bone metastasis and metastasis-related poor survival (both p < 0.05). Conclusion: VDR expression is a notable prognostic factor in primary breast cancer patients for predicting bone metastases and unfavorable clinical outcome.

Research has explored age-related and cultural differences in moral evaluations of dishonesty; however, this has not yet been examined in an aging context. The present study provided a novel account of how younger and older adults (in Canada, Singapore, and China;The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03785-6.

Ming Hu,1,&ast; Pan Ding,1,&ast; Jinfang Ma,2 Nan Yang,1 Jinping Zheng,2 Naitong Zhou1 1West China School of Pharmacy Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; 2State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Naitong Zhou, West China School of Pharmacy Sichuan University, No. 17, 3rd Section, Renmin South Road, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-13881962880, Fax +86-28-85501387, Email zhou-2316@163.com Jinping Zheng, State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, 151 Yanjiang Road, Guangzhou, 510120, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 20 8306 2869, Fax +86 20 8306 2729, Email jpzhenggy@163.comIntroduction: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is becoming increasingly important as it provides further options for treating many diseases worldwide. The TCM “Yupingfeng” has been used in China for over 800 years, and its clinical efficacy and safety for COPD treatment have been proven in previous studies. The objective of this study was to compare the long-term cost-effectiveness of Yupingfeng granules and the current conventional treatment for COPD patients in China.Methods: A Markov model was constructed from the perspective of the Chinese healthcare system using TreeAge Pro 2011. The model cycle length was 12 months, and the cycle time was set to 10 years. Data from a randomized controlled trial were used to generate the number of acute exacerbations, COPD assessment test (CAT) score and actual medication used. The state transition probabilities, costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) were derived from available sources. A threshold of 72,447 yuan per QALY gained was used as a cost-effectiveness criterion. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted to verify the model. In addition, the cost-effectiveness of a 35-year cycle was evaluated as a scenario analysis.Results: In the basic-case analysis, the ICER of adding Yupingfeng granules to the current conventional treatment drugs was ¥ 2123.04 per QALY, which was less than the threshold (one-time per capita GDP).Sensitivity analyses showed the results to be robust. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis showed that the probability of the ICER being less than the one-time per capita GDP threshold was 100%. In the scenario analysis, the incremental cost-effectiveness was ¥ 12,051.27 per QALY which was also under the one-time per capita GDP.Conclusion: By reducing the number of acute exacerbations of COPD, thereby correspondingly reducing the follow-up treatment cost, Yupingfeng granules combined with conventional treatment were found to provide a cost-effective therapeutic strategy for COPD.Keywords: Yupingfeng granule, traditional Chinese medicine, COPD, Markov model, cost-effectiveness analysis

Lying is a prevalent and normative behavior in young children. Conceptually, it is strongly linked with children’s theory-of-mind development. However, empirical studies show that the link between children’s lying and theory-of-mind is heterogeneous. This study examined whether parental control and parental warmth moderate the link between children’s lying and theory-of-mind understanding. Three- to six-year-old Singaporean children ( N = 116, Mage = 59 months, 59 male, 81.0% Chinese) participated in the temptation resistance paradigm, in which they were asked to guess the identity of a toy but instructed not to peek at it when left alone. Parental control and parental warmth were assessed via a parent–child interactive game. Results showed that the relation between children’s maintenance of their initial lie and general theory-of-mind understanding was moderated by parental warmth. Specifically, there was a negative relation between children’s lying and theory-of-mind for dyads with high parental warmth, but a positive relation between children’s lying and theory-of-mind for dyads with low parental warmth. Overall, the findings suggest that children’s lying behavior is the outcome of a complex interaction between cognitive and social factors.

More and more attention has been paid to numerical methods for problems on unbounded domains. In this paper, a spectral method using generalized Laguerre functions is proposed for high dimensional ...

Early childhood is a crucial period for human development that has long-term implications for one’s life trajectories. During the years before formal schooling, brain size and structures, as well as cognitive abilities, undergo rapid development. Children’s cognitive abilities develop by leaps and bounds and show great malleability. Cognitive development during early childhood exerts a long-lasting influence on children’s life chances in adulthood. In China, however, there is no established reliable early childhood achievement test that can be used in a study. This study validates an achievement test for Chinese preschoolers. We analyze data from a nationally representative sample of children aged three to six who participated in the Zhang-Yeung Test of Achievement for Chinese Children (ZY-TACC) in 2012. The instrument consists of a 28-item verbal test and a 24-item numeracy test. Our evaluations indicate a satisfactory level of difficulty, as well as high internal consistency and reliability. This instrument exhibits ample ability to distinguish among children of different ages and varying family backgrounds in ways consistent with previous literature. Children’s test scores are also found to correlate in the expected direction with their behavioral indicators. We demonstrate that the ZY-TACC is a psychometrically robust, culturally and contextually appropriate instrument for assessing Chinese preschool children’s achievement. The instrument can make a significant contribution to research on early childhood development in China.

Due to the inherent flexibility of the material, the flexible manipulator is highly adaptable to the environment. Compared with rigid robots, it is characterized by better adaptability, better flexibility, and better human–computer interaction performance. Therefore, it has gradually become a field popularly studied in the world. In this paper, a multi-cavity flexible actuator is fabricated, which consists of two parts, a main chamber and a base. The main body chamber is made of super-elastic material, and the base is mainly made of super-elastic material. There is a strain-limiting layer in the middle of the base, and the differential effect between these two parts is used to realize the bending action of the actuator. The pneumatic driving method is adopted, and the grasping action of the flexible gripper is realized by changing the air pressure inside the chamber. The mathematical model of flexible actuator was established and simulated by Abaqus finite element software to explore the effect of the length, the width and the height of the single chamber of the actuator on its bending performance. The experimental results show that: when the air pressure is constant, (1) the height and the width of the single chamber have a great influence on the bending performance, and all show a positive correlation; (2) compared with the height and the width, the length of the single chamber has a relatively smaller effect on the bending performance, and there is a negative correlation.