Search

This study aimed to analyze the incidence, clinical characteristics, and risk factors of moxifloxacin‐related arrhythmias and electrocardiographic alterations in hospitalized patients using real‐world data. Concurrently, a nomogram was established and validated to provide a practical tool for prediction. Retrospective automatic monitoring of inpatients using moxifloxacin was performed in a Chinese hospital from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2021, to obtain the incidence of drug‐induced arrhythmias and electrocardiographic alterations. Propensity score matching was conducted to balance confounders and analyze clinical characteristics. Based on the risk and protective factors identified through logistic regression analysis, a prediction nomogram was developed and internally validated using the Bootstrap method. Arrhythmias and electrocardiographic alterations occurred in 265 of 21,711 cases taking moxifloxacin, with an incidence of 1.2%. Independent risk factors included medication duration (odds ratio [OR] 1.211, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.156‐1.270), concomitant use of meropenem (OR 4.977, 95% CI 2.568‐9.644), aspartate aminotransferase >40 U/L (OR 3.728, 95% CI 1.800‐7.721), glucose >6.1 mmol/L (OR 2.377, 95% CI 1.531‐3.690), and abnormally elevated level of amino‐terminal brain natriuretic peptide precursor (OR 2.908, 95% CI 1.640‐5.156). Concomitant use of cardioprotective drugs (OR 0.430, 95% CI 0.220‐0.841) was a protective factor. The nomogram showed good differentiation and calibration, with enhanced clinical benefit. The incidence of moxifloxacin‐related arrhythmias and electrocardiographic alterations is in the range of common. The nomogram proves valuable in predicting the risk in the moxifloxacin‐administered population, offering significant clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The physiological mechanisms of drought-stress response in Quercus acutissima were explored with the aim to develop potentially valuable drought-resistant species that are adapted to arid regions and barren mountains. Potting experiments of Q. acutissima that simulated drought-stress conditions, and morphological, physiological, photosynthetic, and ultrastructural changes were investigated at different stages of drought stress, including after rehydration and recovery. During drought stress and rewatering, the leaves exhibited yellowing and abscission, followed by the sprouting of new leaf buds. The relative water content (RWC) changed under the drought-rewatering treatment, with a decreasing and then increasing trend, while the relative electrical conductivity (REC) had a more gradual increasing and then decreasing trend. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT), and the proline (Pro) and soluble sugar (SS) contents increased and then decreased. The change in soluble protein (SP) content showed an N-shaped trend of increasing, decreasing, and then increasing again. The malondialdehyde (MDA) content decreased and then slowly increased. From the drought to recovery phase of the experiment, the net photosynthesis (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), and transpiration rate (Tr) decreased gradually at first, and then the Pn increased significantly, while the Gs and Tr increased slowly. During this period, the internal CO2 concentration (Ci) did not decrease significantly until the last stage of the drought treatment, and then it increased slowly thereafter. The open stomata count in the Q. acutissima leaves was reduced significantly as drought stress increased, but after rewatering, the stomata recovered rapidly, with their opening size increasing. The number of leaf epidermal trichomes gradually declined to a low count in response to drought stress, but it rapidly recovered and increased within a short period of time after rehydration. Q. acutissima was found to have a strong drought tolerance and recovery ability after exposure to drought stress, and it may be an effective pioneer species for reforestation in barren lands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biprism-based monocular stereovision systems can acquire different views of the same object at a single shot, which have several advantages over conventional two-camera systems. To measure the position or recover the shape of the object, effective image pairs have to be captured first, which depends on the field of view of the system. In this paper, we propose a common method for establishing a practical biprism-based monocular stereovision system. The relationship between system parameters and object distance has been analyzed in details. The criterion for parameter optimization and procedure for system setup have been introduced. Experimental results show that our method can effectively calculate different conditions under different parameters and optimize the parameter configurations for the particular system. © 2018 SPE and S&T [DOI: 10.1117/ 1.JEI.27.3.033020] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundThe internet allows patients to easily look for health information. However, how Chinese patients with breast cancer use the internet has rarely been investigated, and there is a scarcity of information about the influence of internet use on survival. ObjectiveThis observational study aimed to investigate the details of online medical information searching by Chinese patients with breast cancer and to determine whether internet use has any survival benefits. MethodsPatients who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer at Peking Union Medical College Hospital between January 2014 and December 2015 were enrolled. We obtained information on their internet-searching behavior and gathered data from the patients’ medical and follow-up records. The associations between internet use and other clinic-pathological factors were analyzed. A Cox proportional-hazards model and the Kaplan-Meier method were used for disease-free survival (DFS) analyses. ResultsA total of 973 patients with invasive breast cancer who underwent definitive surgery took part in the study. Among them, 477 cases (49.0%) performed web-based breast cancer information searching before the initial treatment. A multivariate logistic regression analysis suggested that web-based breast cancer information searching was significantly associated with younger age (odds ratio [OR] 0.95, 95% CI 0.94-0.97, P