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Objective: The central nervous system (CNS) is a frequent site of relapse in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This study aims to investigate the utility of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow cytometry in detecting CNS infiltration and relapse. Methods: Flow cytometry was used to detect CSF leukemia cells, and patients were categorized into the CSF Flow+ and CSF Flow− groups. The primary outcome was the cumulative incidence of relapse (CIR) in the CSF Flow+ and CSF Flow− groups. Results: A total of 1301 patients were enrolled, 159 patients (12.2%) showed positive CSF flow cytometry results. The CNS Flow+ patients exhibited significantly higher rates of any CNS relapse (22.5% vs. 0.2%, p < 0.01) and isolated CNS relapse (10.7% vs. 0%, p < 0.01) compared to CNS Flow− patients. Cox regression analysis revealed that risk factors for isolated CNS relapse included a positive result of D46 minimal residual disease (MRD) and CSF Flow+ at a non‐initial diagnosis. For any CNS relapse, the significant risk factors were CSF Flow+ at the initial diagnosis and CSF Flow+ at a non‐initial diagnosis. Conclusions: CSF flow cytometry may have clinical utility in detecting CNS infiltration among pediatric ALL patients. It could contribute to more effective risk stratification and treatment adjustments and potentially reduce the risk of CNS relapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: PDGFRB fusions in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is rare. The authors identified 28 pediatric PDGFRB‐positive ALL. They analyzed the features, outcomes, and prognostic factors of this disease. Methods: This multicenter, retrospective study included 6457 pediatric patients with newly diagnosed PDGFRB fusion ALL according to the CCCG‐ALL‐2015 and CCCG‐ALL‐2020 protocols from April 2015 to April 2022 in 20 hospitals in China. Of these patients, 3451 were screened for PDGFRB fusions. Results: Pediatric PDGFRB‐positive ALL accounted for only 0.8% of the 3451 cases tested for PDGFRB. These patients included 21 males and seven females and 24 B‐ALL and 4 T‐ALL; the median age was 10 years; and the median leukocyte count was 29.8 × 109/L at baseline. Only one patient had eosinophilia. Three patients had an IKZF1 deletion, three had chromosome 5q31‐33 abnormalities, and one suffered from a complex karyotype. The 3‐year event‐free survival (EFS), overall survival (OS), and cumulative incidence of relapse (CIR) were 33.1%, 65.5%, and 32.1%, respectively, with a median follow‐up of 25.5 months. Twenty patients were treated with chemotherapy plus tyrosine‐kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and eight were treated without TKI. Complete remission (CR) rates of them were 90.0% and 63.6%, respectively, but no differences in EFS, OS, or CIR. Univariate analyses showed patients with IKZF1 deletion or measurable residual disease (MRD) ≥0.01% after induction had inferior outcomes (p <.05). Conclusions: Pediatric PDGFRB‐positive ALL has a poor outcome associated with high‐risk features. Chemotherapy plus TKIs can improve the CR rate, providing an opportunity for lower MRD levels and transplantation. MRD ≥0.01% was a powerful adverse prognostic factor, and stratified treatment based on MRD may improve survival for these patients. Plain Language Summary: Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients with PDGFRB fusions are associated with high‐risk clinical features such as older age, high white blood cell count at diagnosis, high measurable residual disease after induction therapy, and increased risk of leukemia relapse.Chemotherapy plus tyrosine‐kinase inhibitors can improve the complete remission rate and provide an opportunity for lower measurable residual disease (MRD) levels and transplantation for pediatric PDGFRB‐positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients.The MRD level was also a powerful prognostic factor for pediatric PDGFRB‐positive ALL patients. Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients with PDGFRB fusions are associated with high‐risk clinical features. Chemotherapy plus tyrosine‐kinase inhibitors can improve the complete remission rate and provide an opportunity for lower measurable residual disease (MRD) levels and transplantation for pediatric PDGFRB‐positive ALL patients. The MRD level was also a powerful prognostic factor for pediatric PDGFRB‐positive ALL patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics of PM10 and its chemical composition from December 2015 to December 2017 are studied at three regional atmospheric background stations (Longfengshan, Lin'an, and Jinsha) in central and eastern China. The water-soluble ions (F-, Cl-, NO3-, SO42-, PO43-, Na+, K+, NH4+, Ca2+, Mg2+), carbon-containing compounds (OC, EC) and main elements in PM10 samples are analyzed. The average PM10 concentration at Lin'an (62.2±36.6 μg·m-3) during the whole period is the highest, followed by Jinsha (57.6±31.8 μg·m-3), and that at Longfengshan (57.5±55.3 μg·m-3) is the lowest. At those stations, the annual PM10 mass concentrations are lower than the national second-level air quality standard. The concentrations of PM10 in 2016-2017 show a downward trend, with the reductions of concentrations about 29.3% at Lin'an and 26.2% at Jinsha compared with the results during the year of 2013.The concentrations of SO42-, NO3-, and NH4+ during the whole period are 9.9, 8.2 μg·m-3 and 3.7 μg·m-3 at Lin'an, and 10.2, 6.7 μg·m-3 and 2.6 μg·m-3 at Jinsha, respectively, which are all higher than those at Longfengshan, with the average concentrations of 5.9 μg·m-3 for SO42-, 4.9 μg·m-3 for NO3-, and 2.1 μg·m-3 for NH4+. However, the ratio of NO3-/SO42- at Longfengshan and Lin'an are relatively higher. The concentrations of OC and EC during the whole period are 10.1 μg·m-3 and 2.7 μg·m-3 at Longfengshan, 6.1 μg·m-3 and 3.1 μg·m-3 at Lin'an, and 4.7 μg·m-3 and 2.3 μg·m-3 at Jinsha. Compared to the year of 2013, the concentrations of SO42-, NH4+ and OC during the whole period decrease by 38.1%, 26.0%, and 55.6% at Lin'an, respectively, and decrease by 46.3%, 51.9%, and 44.7% at Jinsha, while the concentrations of NO3- increase by 12.3% and 15.5% at Lin'an and Jinsha, respectively. The concentrations of EC decreases by 27.9% at Lin'an, but increases by 4.5% at Jinsha. The ratio of NO3-/SO42- increase obviously at all the stations, which indicates the increases of nitrate aerosols, due to the continuously control of coal combustion emissions and increase of car ownership.The seasonal concentrations of PM10, NO3-, EC and the ratio of NO3-/SO42- are lowest in summer at three stations. Meanwhile, the mass concentrations of SO42-, NO3- and NH4+ are basically higher in winter than in other seasons.

A smart city is regarded as a new form of urban development proposed by humans to cope with urban problems. Smart cities are of great interest to theoretical circles and are favored by city governments. However, in China, research on common problems and solution strategies in the process of smart city construction is still insufficient. To address this insufficiency, we utilized Python language and the Selenium library to realize a web crawler and construct a smart city corpus background library. Then, the word2vec model was used for word vectorization to divide policy texts into phrases, and 132 policies from 85 cities above the prefecture level in China were analyzed using the Gaussian mixture model (GMM). The results showed many problems in the smart city construction process in China, including the homogenization of content, the wide topic coverage, the influence of higher-level governments, the mismatch with the local situation, and the neglect of relationship governance. Moreover, an efficiency-governance model was designed, and it held certain theoretical and practical guiding significance for further promoting the healthy and sustainable development of smart city construction in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Toxicity due to overexposure to manganese (Mn) is becoming increasingly prevalent. Mn-induced neurodegenerative toxicity has been demonstrated, but little is known concerning the adverse effects of the element on the liver. Under physiological conditions, manganese primarily exists as divalent manganese (Mn2+) and trivalent manganese (Mn3+). The present study was designed to evaluate and compare the effects of Mn2+ and Mn3+ on oxidative hepatic damage, membrane fluidity and histopathological changes in rats. Rats exposed to Mn2+ or Mn3+ (2.0mg Mn/kg body weight) showed significant inhibition of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity, as well as decreased levels of glutathione (GSH) and increased levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) in liver tissues. We also showed a significant inhibition of SOD activity and increased MDA levels in hepatocyte nuclei. We also observed reduced Na+,K+-ATPase activity, increased MDA levels and decreased plasma membrane fluidity, which was accompanied by an increase of fluorescence anisotropy (r) values, in hepatic plasma membranes. In addition, Mn2+ and Mn3+ both caused histopathological changes, such as mononuclear cell infiltration, congestion, enlargement of the veins and sinusoids, hepatocellular damage, necrotic changes, mitochondrial hyperplasia, swelling and vacuolization, as determined by light and electron microscopy. Taken together, these data suggest that both Mn2+ and Mn3+ inhibit the normal physiological functioning of the liver. Under the experimental conditions used, the adverse effects of Mn2+ were more severe than those of Mn3+. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: To study the role of Th17/Treg imbalance in the immune pathogenesis and therapeutic significance in childhood aplastic anemia (AA)., Method: We analyzed data from 43 children (male: female = 14: 29) with AA, all the cases were at the age of 2 to 14 years at diagnosis, and were hospitalized at our department of pediatrics between January 2012 and October 2013 in the Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University. All these patients were divided into 2 groups, severe AA (SAA) group (n = 25, male: female = 8: 17, 2-14 years old) and non-severe AA (NSAA) group (n = 18, male: female = 6: 12, 2-14 years old), depending on the severity at first diagnosis. As to the treatment, we analyzed data at 3 phases of treatment, diagnosis (n = 43, male: female = 14: 29, 2-14 years old), transfusion-indenpendence (n = 8, male: female = 5: 3, 2-11 years old), complete response (n = 6, male: female = 3: 3, 2-11 years old); at the same time, AA children who did not respond to the treatments were considered as failed treatment control (transfusion-indenpendence with failed treatment group, n = 5, male: female = 1: 4, 3-8 years old; complete response failed treatment group, n = 4, male: female = 2: 2, 4-11 years old). The ratio of Treg and Th17 cells in CD4(+) T cells were tested by flow cytometry. The levels of IL-6 and IL-17 in plasma were determined by ELISA. During the same period, 25 age-matched healthy children (male: female = 12: 13, 3-14 years old) were recruited as normal control, 9 cases (male: female = 5: 3, 2-11 years old) of AA children induced by chemotherapy as diagnosis control group. Differences in variables were analyzed using ANOVA and t-tests or the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U-tests, as appropriate. Correlation analysis was evaluated by the Spearman rank correlation test., Result: (1) The ratio of Th17 cells in newly diagnosed AA patients were higher than that of normal group or diagnosis control group [1.63% (1.27%, 2.48%) vs. 0.4% (0.35%, 0.51%) or 0.50% (0.45%, 0.75%), both P < 0.01] while the ratio of Treg cells was lower [4.24% (3.10%, 5.29%) vs. 7.03% (6.56%, 7.48%) or 7.50% (6.60%, 8.30%), both P < 0.01] and the proportion of Th17/Treg were significantly higher [0.53(0.34, 0.69) vs. 0.06 (0.05, 0.07) or 0.09 (0.08,0.11), both P < 0.01]. (2) The levels of IL-6 and IL-17 in newly diagnosed AA patients were higher than in normal group [ (223 ± 92) vs. (116 ± 18) ng/L, (26.2 ± 12.0) ng/L vs. (10.6 ± 2.1) ng/L, P both < 0.01]. There was a positive correlation between Th17 cells and some Th17 cells related cytokines such as IL-17 and IL-6 (r = 0.62, 0.64, P both < 0.01). (3) The ratio of Th17, Th17/Treg, and the levels of IL-6 and IL-17 in children with SAA were also higher than in normal group [1.80% (1.25%, 2.61%) vs. 0.40% (0.35%, 0.51%), 0.57% (5.10%,0.82%) vs. 0.06% (0.05%, 0.07%), (225 ± 108) vs. (116 ± 18) ng/L, (25.9 ± 12.6) vs. (10.6 ± 2.1)ng/L, all P < 0.01]. NSAA also higher than normal group. The ratio of Treg in children with SAA and NSAA was less than that in normal group (P all < 0.01). However, the ratio of Th17, Treg, Th17/Treg, and the levels of IL-6 and IL-17 had no significant difference between SAA and NSAA (all P > 0.05). (4) In different stages of treatment, such as diagnosis, transfusion-indenpendence, complete response, there were significant differences in the ratio of Th17 and Th17/Treg (both P < 0.05) but not in Treg (P > 0.05)., Conclusion: The imbalance of Th17/Treg cells and abnormally increased cytokines related to Th17 cells exist in peripheral blood of AA children, but did not significantly affect the severity of AA in preliminary diagnosis. After treatment with immunosuppression, AA was gradually relieved as the imbalance of Th17/Treg was corrected.