Search

IntroductionBroca’s aphasia is a crushing syndrome after stroke. Although there are multiple therapies, the recovery of a considerable number of patients is still not ideal. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) combined with speech and language therapy has been a promising combination regimen in recent years. However, the efficacy and persistent effects thereof remain unclear. We aimed to determine the immediate and long-term effects of rTMS combined with speech and language therapy on subacute stroke patients with Broca’s aphasia and explore relevant mechanisms in the picture-naming task via functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).Materials and methodsThis was a prospective clinical study. In accordance with the inclusion criteria, 18 patients with post-stroke were recruited and randomly divided into either the rTMS group or the sham-rTMS group. Patients in both groups received low-frequency rTMS therapy for 20 min a day and then speech and language therapy for 30 min a day, 5 days a week, for a total of 4 weeks. Two groups of patients underwent the Western Aphasia Battery Revised (WAB-R), the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39 (SAQOL-39), and non-language-based cognitive assessment (NLCA) before treatment and at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 3 months after treatment. Meanwhile, we collected fNIRS task state data while naming images before and after 4 weeks of treatment. The primary outcome was WAB-R changes. The secondary outcomes include the SAQOL-39, NLCA, as well as the difference in activation status of brain regions in the cortical language function network.ResultsFor the index scores of the two groups, the results of repeated-measures ANOVA indicated an increasing trend at three time points, i.e., after 2 weeks of treatment, 4 weeks after treatment, and 3 months after the end of treatment (p

IntroductionPre-HSCT disease control, suboptimal long-term prognosis, and a high recurrence incidence (RI) continue to pose significant challenges for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) patients.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study assessed the effectiveness of a decitabine (DAC)-based protocol in JMML patients undergoing HSCT. The pre-HSCT treatment includes initial and bridging treatment. The efficacy of DAC monotherapy versus DAC combined with cytotoxic chemotherapy(C-DAC) as initial treatment was compared, followed by DAC plus FLAG (fludarabine, cytarabine, and GCSF) as bridging treatment. The HSCT regimens were based on DAC, fludarabine, and busulfan. Post-HSCT, low-dose DAC was used as maintenance therapy. The study endpoints focused on pretransplantation simplified clinical response and post-HSCT survival.ResultsThere were 109 patients, including 45 receiving DAC monotherapy and 64 undergoing C-DAC treatment. 106 patients completed bridging treatment. All patients were administered planned HSCT regimens and post-HSCT treatment. The initial treatment resulted in 88.1% of patients achieving clinical remission without a significant difference between the DAC and C-DAC groups (p=0.769). Clinical remission rates significantly improved following bridging treatment (p=0.019). The 5-year overall survival, leukemia-free survival, and RI were 92.2%, 88.4%, and 8.0%, respectively. A poor clinical response to pre-HSCT treatment emerged as a risk factor for OS (hazard ratio: 9.8, 95% CI: 2.3-41.1, p=0.002).ConclusionImplementing a DAC-based administration strategy throughout the pre-HSCT period, during HSCT regimens, and in post-HSCT maintenance significantly reduced relapse and improved survival in JMML patients. Both DAC monotherapy and the DAC plus FLAG protocol proved effective as pre-HSCT treatments.

ABSTRACT Semen is one of the common body fluids in sexual crime cases. The current methods of semen identification have certain limitations, so it is necessary to search for other methods. In addition, there are few reports of microbiome changes in body fluids under simulated crime scenes. It is essential to further reveal the changes in semen microbiomes after exposure to various simulated crime scenes. Semen samples from eight volunteers were exposed in closed plastic bags, soil, indoor, cotton, polyester, and wool fabrics. A total of 68 samples (before and after exposure) were collected, detected by 16S rDNA sequencing, and analyzed for the microbiome signature. Finally, a random forest model was constructed for body fluid identification. After exposure, the relative abundance of Pseudomonas and Rhodococcus changed dramatically in almost all groups. In addition, the treatment with the closed plastic bags or soil groups had a greater impact on the semen microbiome. According to the Shannon indices, the alpha diversity of the closed plastic bags and soil groups was much lower than that of the other groups. Attention should be given to the above two scenes in practical work of forensic medicine. In this study, the accuracy of semen recognition was 100%. The exposed semen can still be correctly identified as semen based on its microbiota characteristics. In summary, semen microbiomes exposed to simulated crime scenes still have good application potential for body fluid identification.IMPORTANCEIn this study, the microbiome changes of semen exposed to different environments were observed, and the exposed semen microbiome still has a good application potential in body fluid identification.

IntroductionRevealing individual characteristics is supportive for identifying individuals in forensic crime. As saliva is one of the most common biological samples used in crime scenes, it is important to make full use of the rich individual information contained in saliva. The aim of this study was to explore the application of the microbiome in forensic science by analysing differences in the salivary microbiome and metabolome of healthy individuals with different dietary habits.MethodsWe performed 16S rDNA sequencing analysis based on oral saliva samples collected from 12 vegetarians, 12 seafood omnivores and 12 beef and lamb omnivores. Non-targeted metabolomics analyses were also performed based on saliva samples from healthy individuals.ResultsThe results showed that the dominant flora of vegetarians was dominated by Neisseria (belonging to the phylum Proteobacteria), while seafood omnivores and beef and lamb omnivores were dominated by Streptococcus (belonging to the phylum Firmicutes). NDMS-based and cluster analyses showed that vegetarian dieters were significantly differentiated from meat dieters (seafood omnivores and beef and lamb omnivores), which may be related to the fact that high-fiber diets can create a different salivary flora structure. Variants were also detected in salivary metabolic pathways, including positive correlations with Lipid metabolism, Amino acid metabolism, Carbohydrate metabolism, and Nucleotide metabolism in vegetarians, and correlations in seafood omnivores. In order to select salivary microorganisms and metabolic markers that can distinguish different dietary profiles, a random forest classifier model was constructed in this study, and the results showed that individuals with different dietary profiles could be successfully distinguished based on the core genera and metabolites such as Streptococcus, Histidinyl-Valine.ConclusionOur study provides a supportive basis for the application of salivary polyomics in order to reveal the dietary characteristics of individuals for forensic investigation and crime solving.

Abstract This study aimed to assess the therapeutic effect of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC) and investigate the correlation between surrogate endpoints and overall survival (OS). A systematic literature search included phase I, II, and III clinical trials comparing ICIs to placebo or other therapies for uHCC treatment. Correlations between OS and surrogate endpoints were evaluated using meta-regression analyses and calculating the surrogate threshold effect (STE). The correlation analysis showed a weak association between OS and progression-free survival (PFS), with an R2 value of 0.352 (95% CI: 0.000–0.967). However, complete response (CR) exhibited a strong correlation with OS (R2 = 0.905, 95% CI: 0.728–1.000). Subgroup analyses revealed high correlations between OS and PFS, CR, stable disease (SD), and DC in phase III trials (R2: 0.827–0.922). For the ICI + IA group, significant correlations were observed between OS and SD, progressive disease (PD), and grade 3–5 immune-related adverse events (irAEs) (R2: 0.713–0.969). Analyses of the correlation between survival benefit and risk of mortality across various time points showed a strong association within the first year (R2: 0.724–0.868) but a weak association beyond one year (R2: 0.406–0.499). In ICI trials for uHCC, PFS has limited utility as a surrogate endpoint for OS, while CR exhibits a strong correlation with OS. Subgroup analyses highlight high correlations between OS and PFS, SD, and DC in phase III trials. Notably, the ICI + IA group shows significant associations between OS and SD, PD, and grade 3–5 irAEs. These findings offer valuable insights for interpreting trial outcomes and selecting appropriate endpoints in future clinical studies involving ICIs for uHCC patients.

UAVs are often limited by limited resources when performing flight tasks, especially the contradiction between storage resources and computing resources when the huge YOLOv3 model is deployed on the edge UAVs. In this paper, we tend to compress YOLOv3 model in different aspects to achieve load availability at the edge. In this paper, deep separable convolution is introduced to reduce the computation of the model. Then, PR regularization term is used as the regularization term of sparse training to better distinguish scaling factors, and then the hybrid pruning combining channel pruning and layer pruning is carried out on the model according to scaling factors, in order to reduce the number of model parameters and the amount of calculation. Finally, since the training data is a 32-bit floating point number, DoReFa-Net quantization method is used to quantify the model, so as to compress the storage capacity of the model. The experimental results show that the compression scheme proposed in this paper can effectively reduce the number of parameters by 97.5 % and the calculation amount by 82.3 %, and can maintain the original detection efficiency of UAVs.

AbstractCanine individual identification and parentage testing are essential in various fields, including forensics and breeding programs. This study aimed to develop and validate the Canine 25 A kit, a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system designed to address these critical requirements. This novel system enables the simultaneous amplification of 24 canine autosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci and one sex-determining marker. Validation of the Canine 25 A kit was conducted following the Scientific Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM) guidelines, demonstrating significant sensitivity, high inhibitor tolerance, canine specificity within a mixture, species specificity, and precision in genotype determination. The Canine 25 A kit was crucial in resolving several forensic cases, such as casework samples from a dog attack incident and parentage determination. Its effectiveness in genotyping these samples highlights its significance in forensic applications. Population genetic parameter analysis revealed a high discriminatory power, as indicated by the calculated combined discrimination power (CDP) values for each breed exceeding 0.999 999 999 999, while the combined power of exclusion (CPE) surpassed 0.9999. Overall, the Canine 25 A kit offers a precise and dependable tool for canine individual identification and parentage determination.

Patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a common congenital cardiac abnormality when the opening of the interatrial septum is not closed in adulthood. This abnormality affects 25% of the general population. With the development of precision medicine, an increasing number of clinical studies have reported that PFO is closely related to various neurological diseases such as stroke, migraine, obstructive sleep apnea, and decompression syndrome. It has also been suggested that PFO closure could be effective for preventing and treating these neurological diseases. Therefore, increasing attention has been given to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of PFO-related neurological diseases. By reviewing existing literature, this article focuses on the pathogenesis, epidemiology, and clinical characteristics of PFO-related neurological diseases, as well as the prevention and treatment of different neurological diseases to discuss, and aims to provide current progress for this field and decision-making evidence for clinical practice.

Aiming at the problem of coexistence of communication and radar at the same frequency， a block diagonalization design scheme was proposed.Firstly， an optimization problem was established to maximum the communication system’s sum rate subject to no interference at the radar side and the power budget.To solve this problem， the constraint that the interference between communication users is zero was introduced， so that the non-convex original problem could have a closed-form solution.Then， based on the restriction on the number of base station’s transmit antennas caused by introducing the constraint， two other algorithms were proposed to further consider the block diagonalization design when the constraint was not met.The simulation results show that the proposed algorithms can introduce the constraint to solve the original problem in various scenarios with relative-low computation complexity， which can be implemented in practice.

Important forensic evidence traced from crime scenes, such as fecal materials, can help in the forensic investigation of criminal cases. Intestines are the largest microbial pool in the human body whose microbial community is considered to be the human “second fingerprint”. The present study explored the potential for community characteristics of gut microbes in forensic medicine. Fecal microbiota profiles of healthy individuals from three representative Han populations (Guangzhou, Shantou and Meizhou) in Guangdong Province, China were evaluated using High-throughput sequencing of V3-V4 hypervariable regions of the 16SrRNA gene. Results of the present study showed that at the genus level, Shantou, Guangzhou, and Meizhou behaved as Enterotype1, Enterotype2, and Enterotype3, which were mainly composed of Bacteroides, Prevotella, and Blautia, respectively. Based on OTU abundance at the genus level, using the random forest prediction model, it was found that there might be potential for distinguishing individuals of Guangzhou, Meizhou, and Shantou according to their fecal microbial community. Moreover, the findings of the microbial community of fecal samples in the present study were significantly different from that of saliva samples reported in our previous study, and thus it is evident that the saliva and feces can be distinguished. In conclusion, this study reported the fecal microbial signature of three Han populations, which may provide basic data for the potential application in forensic practice, containing body fluid identification, and geographical inference.

Abstract Background Absolute monocyte count (AMC) is often used to be assessed in cancer follow‐up, which has regained interest as a potential prognostic indicator in many solid tumors, though not consistently or comprehensively. In the present study, we set out to perform a comprehensive meta‐analysis of all available data regarding the prognostic significance of AMC in solid tumors. We also evaluated the association between AMC and clinical features in solid tumors. Methods A hazard ratio (HR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) or a p value (p) from eligible studies were extracted and subsequently pooled analyzed. Subgroup analyses and meta‐regression analyses were conducted according to the confounders of included studies. In addition, the relationships between AMC and clinical characteristics were also explored in the meta‐analysis. Results Overall, ninety‐three articles comprising 104 studies with 32229 patients were finally included. The results showed that elevated AMC was associated with worse overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.615; 95% CI: 1.475‐1.768; p

Background: Signet ring cell carcinoma (SC) accounts for 1% of total colorectal cancer (CRC) cases and is associated with aggressive behaviors, such as lymphatic invasion and distant metastases, resulting in poor prognosis. To date, there is still a lack of consensus on the genetic etiology underpinning this cancer subtype. This study aimed to clarify the molecular associations of SC by using meta-analysis and a systematic review. Methods: PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library were searched for studies evaluating the KRAS, BRAF, P53 statuses, and microsatellite instability (MSI) in CRC patients with different histological subtypes, including SC. The diagnosis of SC is defined as the signet ring cells comprising ≥50 percent of the tumor mass. By dividing the studies into subgroups based on the composition of control groups, such as classic adenocarcinoma (AC; no SC components) and non-SC (including those with SC components < 50%), the relative risk (RR) of molecular alterations for SC in each study were pooled using a random-effects model. Two reviewers identified trials for inclusion, assessed quality, and extracted data independently. Results: Data from 29 studies consisting of 9366 patients were included in this analysis. SC was associated positively with MSI (RR 1.78, 95% CI 1.34 to 2.37; 95% CI 0.77 to 4.15; p = 0.0005), BRAF mutation (RR 1.99, 95% CI 1.21 to 3.26; 95%CI 0.68 to 5.82; p = 0.0146), and negatively with KRAS mutation (RR 0.48, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.78; 95% CI 0.09 to 2.49; p = 0.0062). No association was found between SC and P53 expression (RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.76 to 1.13; 95%CI 0.61 to 1.39; p = 0.3790). Moreover, it was associated negatively with P53 gene mutations (RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.77 to 1.09; 95% CI 0.46 to 1.82; p = 0.1568), and P53 protein (RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.58 to 1.49; 95% CI 0.40 to 2.17; p = 0.6885). Conclusions: The molecular etiology of SC may be associated with the BRAF and MSI pathways. Its features, such as the high frequency of BRAF mutation, could partly explain its less favorable outcomes and limited effects of traditional chemotherapy.

Abstract Objective: Results from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and real-world study (RWS) appear to be discordant. We aimed to investigate whether data derived from RCTs and RWS evaluating long-term all-cause mortality of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) versus surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) were in agreement. Methods: RCTs or RWS comparing TAVI and SAVR, reporting longterm (≥2-year follow-up) all-cause mortality, were identified. We also carried out subgroup analyses to access the effect in different subgroups. A pre-designated data extraction form including 5 domains and 26 items was used to explore the relationship between RCTs and RWS. Mortality and effect in different subgroups were evaluated using random-effects meta-analyses. Results: Five RCTs (5421 participants, TAVI: 2759, SAVR: 2662) and 33 RWS (20839 participants; TAVI: 6585, SAVR: 14254) were identified. Pooled RCT analysis showed no difference in all-cause mortality between TAVI and SAVR (HR=0.97, 95% CI: 0.88-1.07; P=0.55). In RWS, TAVI was associated with an increased risk of allcause mortality (HR=1.46, 95% CI: 1.26-1.69; P

Objective: To study the value of high-quality care on the outcome of infiltration and extravasation of peripheral intravenous infusions in children., Methods: The retrospective cohort study was conducted at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Guizhou, China, and comprised secondary-data analysis on children aged <3 years hospitalized between January 2013 and September 2019. The sample was divided into control group A and high-quality care group B. Outcomes noted were severity of infiltration and extravasation of intravenous infusions graded using the Infusion Nurses Society score. Data was analysed using SAS software version 9.4., Results: Of the 16,268 subjects, 2147(13%) were in control group A and 14,121(87%)were in the high-quality care group B. Group B had lower severity of infiltration and extravasation compared to group A (odds ratio: 0.75; 95% confidence interval: 0.63-0.90). The causes of infiltration and extravasation included agents with high osmolarity, poor condition of veins, guardianship negligence and allergies to dressing materials (p<0.05)., Conclusions: High-quality care was more effective than routine care in reducing the incidence and degree of infiltration and extravasation of peripheral intravenous infusions.