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Negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health have been widely reported. Chinese populations, especially those living overseas, are highly vulnerable to mental health problems considering the unique challenges they faced during the pandemic. Even though the pandemic lasted for three years, little is known about the mental health condition of this special population over this time course. The current study aimed to assess peritraumatic distress among Chinese migrants in Canada and identify its consistent risk predictors across the three years of the pandemic (2020, 2021, 2022). Three groups of Chinese adult migrants (i.e., aged 18 or above) living in Canada were randomly recruited through social media and the internet to complete an online survey in 2020, 2021, and 2022 respectively. Peritraumatic distress was assessed with the COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI). Univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) models and a subsequent hierarchical multiple regression model were conducted to track peritraumatic distress differences across the three years and identify potential risk factors. The results showed that the CPDI score increased from 2020 to 2022 and peaked in 2021. Age, birthplace, health status, perceived discrimination, self-contraction and family contraction worry were identified as significant sociodemographic and COVID-19-related predictors for peritraumatic distress (absolute βs = 2.16–9.00; ps < 0.05). The results provide insight into the mental health condition of overseas Chinese migrants across the three years of the pandemic.

Abstract The prediction of stock market fluctuations is crucial for decision-making in various financial fields. Deep learning algorithms have demonstrated outstanding performance in stock market index prediction. Recent research has also highlighted the potential of the Transformer model in enhancing prediction accuracy. However, the Transformer faces challenges in multi-step stock market forecasting, including limitations in inference speed for long sequence prediction and the inadequacy of traditional loss functions to capture the characteristics of noisy, nonlinear stock history data. To address these issues, we introduce an innovative transformer-based model with generative decoding and a hybrid loss function, named “Galformer,” tailored for the multi-step prediction of stock market indices. Galformer possesses two distinctive characteristics: (1) a novel generative style decoder that predicts long time-series sequences in a single forward operation, significantly boosting the speed of predicting long sequences; (2) a novel loss function that combines quantitative error and trend accuracy of the predicted results, providing feedback and optimizing the transformer-based model. Experimental results on four typical stock market indices, namely the CSI 300 Index, S&P 500 Index, Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (DJI), and Nasdaq Composite Index (IXIC), affirm that Galformer outperforms other classical methods, effectively optimizing the Transformer model for stock market prediction.

Achieving robust joint utilization of multidomain characteristics and deep-network features while maintaining a high jamming-recognition accuracy with limited samples is challenging. To address this issue, this paper proposes a multidomain characteristic-guided multimodal contrastive recognition method for active radar jamming. This method involves first thoroughly extracting the multidomain characteristics of active jamming and then designing an optimization unit to automatically select effective characteristics and generate a text modality imbued with implicit expert knowledge. The text modality and involved time-frequency transformation image are separately fed into text and image encoders to construct multimodal-feature pairs and map them to a high-dimensional space for modal alignment. The text features are used as anchors and a guide to time-frequency image features for aggregation around the anchors through contrastive learning, optimizing the image encoder’s representation capability, achieving tight intraclass and separated interclass distributions of active jamming. Experiments show that compared to existing methods, which involve directly combining multidomain characteristics and deep-network features, the proposed guided-joint method can achieve differential feature processing, thereby enhancing the discriminative and generalization capabilities of recognition features. Moreover, under extremely small-sample conditions (2～3 training samples for each type of jamming), the accuracy of our method is 9.84% higher than those of comparative methods, proving the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.

Abstract Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a wide-spread gastrointestinal cancer that is associated with augmented morbidity and mortality, and we do not yet have a deep understanding of its epidemiology and carcinogenicity. The transcriptome can reveal the complexity and heterogeneity of tumors and uncover new biomarkers or treatment options. In this study, we identified messenger RNAs (mRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), round RNAs (circRNAs), and microRNAs (miRNAs) using whole-transcriptome sequencing and generated competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) modulatory axes. We conducted whole transcriptome sequencing on 10 CRC and para-cancer (CRCP) samples and discovered 2465 differentially expressed (DE) mRNAs (DEmRNAs), 77 DE miRNAs (DEmiRNAs). 2852 DE lncRNAs (DElncRNAs) and 1477 DE circRNAs (DEcircRNAs). In addition, utilizing co-DE analysis, we generated the ceRNA axis. Subsequently, we employed the ceRNA axis to identify essential genes and corresponding associations with lncRNAs, circRNAs, and miRNAs in CRC. ceRNA regulatory network including mRNA-miRNA-lncRNA and mRNA-miRNA-circRNA. These modulatory axes potentially modulate the positive regulation of smooth muscle contraction, melanosome, plasma membrane, integral plasma membrane component and so on. Finally, the results of RNA sequencing (RNA-SEQ) were combined with the TCGA and GEO databases, and the DEGs strongly correlated with the TCGA-COAD overall survival (OS) as estimated by univariate cox and logarithmic rank analyses were cross-analyzed, and the co-upregulated DEGs were screened. Among the many DEs, KPNA2 was chosen for additional analysis. Using invitro experimentations, western blot, CCK8, EdU and other experiments were performed to verify the results. We found siRNA-based KPNA2 depletion reduces bladder cancer cells’ viability, migratory, and proliferative activities, which showed that the DEmRNA profiles were comparable to the sequencing information, confirming that the sequencing data were very reliable. These evidences highlight the ceRNA regulatory mechanisms in CRC and will aid future research into the molecular mechanisms behind colorectal cancer prevention and treatment.

To investigate the interfacial reaction of metal powder after absorbing microwave radiation, pure metal powder composed of five elements, Fe, Co, Ni, Cr, and Mn, was microwave heated at four temperature gradients of 500, 800, 1000, and 1200 °C. At 1200 °C, the powder particles diffused to form an alloy. Mechanical alloying of the mixed metal powder was performed for 5, 10, 24, and 48 h to observe the changes of the powder. The size of the alloy particles first increased, then decreased, and then increased again. The powder mechanically alloyed for 48 h was microwave heated at 700, 800, 900, 1000, and 1200 °C. The alloy only formed at 1200 °C.

Abstract It is still a challenge to construct single‐atom level reduction and oxidation sites in single‐component photocatalyst by manipulating coordination configuration for photocatalytic water splitting. Herein, the atomically dispersed asymmetric configuration of six‐coordinated Co‐S2O4 (two exposed S atoms, two OH groups, and two Co─O─Zn bonds) suspending on ZnIn2S4 nanosheets verified by combining experimental analysis with theoretical calculation, is applied into photocatalytic water splitting. The Co‐S2O4 site immobilized by Vs acts as oxidation sites to guide electrons transferring to neighboring independent S atom, achieving efficient separation of reduction and oxidation sites. It is worth mentioning that stabilized Co‐S2O4 configuration show dynamic structure evolution to highly active Co‐S1O4 configuration (one exposed S atom, one OH group, and three Co─O─Zn bonds) in reaction, which lowers energy barrier of transition state for H2O activization. Ultimately, the optimized photocatalyst exhibits excellent photocatalytic activity for water splitting (H2: 80.13 µmol g−1 h−1, O2: 37.81 µmol g−1 h−1) and outstanding stability than that of multicomponent photocatalysts due to dynamic and reversible evolution between stable Co‐S2O4 configuration and active Co‐S1O4 configuration. This work demonstrates new cognitions on immobilized strategy through vacancy inducing, manipulating coordination configuration, and dynamic evolution mechanism of single‐atom level catalytic site in photocatalytic water splitting.

The current study investigates the peritraumatic distress of Chinese residents living in Canada and identifies the associated sociodemographic and pandemic-related predictors during the initial phases of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic lockdown (i.e., from April 2020 to June 2020). A final sample of 457 valid participants aged 18 or older completed an online survey in which peritraumatic distress was assessed with the COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI). The results showed 32.76% of the sample was in the mild to moderate range (i.e., 28–51) and 5.03% in the severe range (i.e., 52 to higher) for peritraumatic distress. The hierarchical regression models on the continuous CPDI score identified life satisfaction as a consistent protector for the CPDI (absolute values of βs = −1.21 to −0.49, ps < 0.001). After controlling for life satisfaction, the following sociodemographic risk factors were identified: being middle-aged, being employed (relative to retired people/students), living in Ontario (rather than elsewhere), and a poor health status. Furthermore, the following pandemic-related risk factors were identified: a higher self-contraction worry, more of a COVID-19 information authenticity concern, a higher future infection rate prediction, and a higher personal health hygiene appraisal. The results of our study shed light on cognitive, experiential, behavioural, and sociodemographic factors associated with peritraumatic distress for Chinese residents living in Canada during the early outbreak stage of the pandemic.

PurposeThe study aimed to investigate the correlation between the change of sex hormone levels and ocular surface parameters in girls with idiopathic central precocious puberty(ICPP).MethodsEighteen girls with ICPP and 18 age-matched normal girls participated in this study, all of the participants had undergone physical measurements, laboratory tests, imaging examination and ocular surface assessments.ResultsThe Objective Scatter Index (OSI) in the ICPP group was significantly higher than in the control group (P = 0.031), girls with ICPP showed slightly lower MNITBUT compared to the normal control group, although this difference was not statistically significant. Bivariate analysis revealed a positive association between estradiol and OSI (r=0.383, P=0.021), Additionally, in the study population, both Luteinizing hormone (LH) and Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) were negatively correlated with Mean noninvasive tear breakup time (MNITBUT) (r=-0.359, P=0.031)(r=-0.357, P=0.032).ConclusionIn comparison with the normal control group, alterations in the OSI were observed in girls with ICPP. This alteration may be associated with an elevation in estrogen levels. Although there was a slight non-significant decrease in NITBUT in ICPP girls, the negative correlation between LH and FSH with MNITBUT suggests new perspective for further investigation.

BackgroundSevere tricuspid regurgitation (TR) causing cyanosis with patent foramen ovale (PFO) and right-to-left atrial shunting requires a precise diagnosis for optimal therapy. Tricuspid valve prolapse (TVP) can lead to TR and is sometimes overlooked, especially in complex cases with factors like pulmonary hypertension (PH). We present an infant with cyanosis and profound TR after high-altitude exposure, initially misattributed to PH but found to be primarily due to spontaneous chordae tendineae rupture and TVP. This case underscores the challenges in diagnosing TR-induced cyanosis.Case presentationThe 3-month-old infant rapidly developed cyanosis, hypoxemia, right atrial enlargement, severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR), and patent foramen ovale (PFO) shunting after high-altitude exposure. Although echocardiography revealed tricuspid valve prolapse (TVP), initial consideration linked TR and right-to-left shunting to pulmonary hypertension (PH) due to the temporal correlation with rapid altitude exposure. Despite hemodynamic stability and the absence of respiratory distress after respiratory support and combined PH medication therapy, the persistent hypoxemia did not reverse as expected. This treatment outcome and repeated echocardiograms reminded us that TR was primarily caused by TVP rather than PH alone. Intraoperative exploration confirmed that TVP was caused by a rupture of TV chordae tendineae and anterior papillary muscle head, and the chordae tendineae/papillary muscle connection was reconstructed. After surgery, this patient was noncyanotic with an excellent long-term prognosis, a trivial TR with normal TV function being observed echocardiographically.ConclusionsTR-induced cyanosis can be not only a consequence of PH and right-sided heart dilation but also a primary condition. Repetitive reassessment should be undertaken with caution, particularly when patients are not improving on therapy in the setting of conditions known to predisposition to secondary TR. Since TVP caused by rupture of the chordae or papillary muscles is rare but fatal in children, early diagnosis is clinically substantial to proper management and satisfactory long-term outcomes.

Flash sintering (FS) is a novel technique for rapidly densifying silicon carbide (SiC) ceramics. This work achieved a rapid sintering of SiC ceramics by the utilization of ultra-high temperature flash sintering within 60 s. Pyrolysis carbon (PyC) “bridges” were constructed between SiC particles through the carbonisation of phenolic resin, providing a large number of current channels. The incubation time of the flash sintering process was significantly reduced, and the sintering difference between the centre and the edge regions of the ceramics was minimized, with an average particle size of the centre region and edge region being 12.31 and 9.02 μm, respectively. The results showed that the porosity of the SiC ceramics after the flash sintering was reduced to 14.79% with PyC “bridges” introduced, and the Vickers hardness reached 19.62 GPa. PyC “bridges” gradually evolved from amorphous eddy current carbon to oriented graphite carbon, indicating that the ultra-high temperature environment in which the sample was located during the flash sintering was successfully constructed. Ultra-high temperature flash sintering of SiC is expected to be applied to the local repair of matrix damage in SiC ceramic matrix composites.

Objective: A biological system's internal morphological structure or function can be changed as a result of the mechanical effect of focused ultrasound. Pulsed low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) has mechanical effects that might induce follicle development with less damage to ovarian tissue. The potential development of LIFU as a non-invasive method for the treatment of female infertility is being considered, and this study sought to explore and confirm that LIFU can activate ovarian follicles. Results: We found a 50% increase in ovarian weight and in the number of mature follicles on the ultrasound-stimulated side with pulsed LIFU and intraperitoneal injection of 10 IU PMSG in 10-day-old rats. After ultrasound stimulation, the PCOS-like rats had a decrease in androgen levels, restoration of regular estrous cycle and increase in the number of mature follicles and corpora lutea, and the ratio of M1 and M2 type macrophages was altered in antral follicles of PCOS-like rats, consequently promoting further development and maturation of antral follicles. Conclusion: LIFU treatment could trigger actin changes in ovarian cells, which might disrupt the Hippo signal pathway to promote follicle formation, and the mechanical impact on the ovaries of PCOS-like rats improved antral follicle development.

Sparse-viewcomputed tomography (CT) imaging is a promising technique for reducing radiation dose and accelerating data acquisition in medical imaging. However, the challenges of handling a reduced number of projection views persist for both iterative estimation and deep neural reconstruction methods. In this paper, to address these challenges, we present a singular value decomposition-based adaptive sampling approximate message passing network (ASAMP-Net) sparse-view CT imaging method. To achieve multiple sparse views projection within a single scene imaging and alleviate the computational burden, our proposed ASAMP-Net method incorporates an adaptive sampling module into the AMP deep unrolling network. This module dynamically adjusts the data samples used during the learning process, making our method highly adaptable to various projection matrices. Moreover, by decomposing the projection matrix into its principal components, our approach identifies the respective contributions of independent structures. We then select the most significant principal components to construct a projection matrix model with increased orthogonality, thereby enhancing reconstruction performance. Extensive experiments on public datasets demonstrate the superiority of our method. Notably, ASAMP-Net handles various sparse projection views with just a single training process, achieving prominent imaging results compared to other methods in the literature.

Abstract Active deception jamming recognition has gained significant attention as a crucial aspect of modern electronic warfare, and a large quantity of jamming recognition methods based on either artificial or deep learning methods have been proposed to date. In actual complex battlefields, the abundant deceptive jamming signals are extremely difficult to obtain and the deceptive jamming signals leveraged by the adversarial jammers are often significantly influenced by noise. To address these challenges a Siamese squeeze wavelet attention network (SSWAN) for radar active deception jamming recognition method is proposed. By constructing a wavelet attention module (WAM), the fine‐grained time‐frequency texture features of echo and jamming signals are preferably extracted even under prohibitively strong noise scenarios. Specifically, the Siamese structure is employed as the main backbone network to measure the similarity between jamming signals and make full use of the training samples; besides, the squeeze learning module is embedded to maintain lightweight and prevent overfitting. Experimental results demonstrate that at a jamming‐to‐noise ratio (JNR) of −8 dB, the proposed method achieves recognition accuracies above 96.3% for 6‐class and multi‐class combinational active deceptive jamming types. Overall, compared to mainstream deep networks, the proposed method exhibits superior advantages in lower JNR ratio and small samples of actual battlefield scenarios.

Objectives: This study compared the psychological wellbeing, life satisfaction, and perceived social support in Chinese older immigrants living in Canada between the early (i.e., Wave 1: September–November 2020) and late (i.e., Wave 2: January–February 2023) stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, it assessed perceived social support from family, friends, or others as predictors for psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction in this population. Methods: These questions were addressed with a cross-sectional survey design with two independent samples at Wave 1 (n = 171) and Wave 2 (n = 191), respectively. Results: The results revealed lower levels of psychological wellbeing, life satisfaction, and perceived social support in Wave 2 compared to Wave 1. The hierarchical regression models identified social support from friends (but not from family or others) as a significant predictor for psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction. Additionally, a higher level of income and being a male predicted better psychological wellbeing. A higher level of income and a lower level of education predicted greater life satisfaction. Conclusions: The findings suggest a deterioration in psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction from the early to late stages of the pandemic and highlight the protective effect of social support from friends among Chinese older immigrants.

Abstract Background The purpose of this study was to describe the knowledge, protective behaviours, and psychological impact of COVID-19 on Chinese residents in Canada, as the emotional and behavioural impacts of the pandemic have not been intensively studied amongst these populations. It was important to determine whether having dependent school-age children (DSAC) aged 16 or under was associated with adverse psychological impacts amongst the Chinese residents living in the country. Methods In April 2020, 757 eligible participants were recruited through a snowball sampling to complete an online survey related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological, behavioural, and sociodemographic variables were collected and first analyzed using descriptive and univariate statistics. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to further confirm the observed significant associations in bivariate analyses for selected psychological outcome variables. Results Seven hundred forty-two participants who responded to the “dependent school-age children” question were included in the analysis. Most of them identified as females (65.8%) and 77.2% included receiving a university degree or higher. There were no significant differences in COVID-19 knowledge between those living with or without DSAC. However, participants with DSAC were more likely to perceive themselves as being at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 (p = .023); therefore, having a higher chance of adopting protective behaviours (e.g., hand washing, sanitizing frequently or disinfecting work and living spaces (p

Abstract Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIPs) are highly efficient thermal insulation materials with extremely low thermal conductivity based on the vacuum principle. With the sealing properties of the gas barrier envelopes, a long service life of the VIP is obtained. The mechanism and influence factors of gas and water vapor permeability were mathematically analyzed to explore the influence of gas barrier envelopes on the thermal performance of VIPs. Three typical gas barriers were studied, and the selection of the gas barrier and other aspects of optimization were involved. The relationships among temperature, humidity, solubility coefficient, diffusion coefficient, and permeability were concluded, which shows that temperature has a much greater effect on the permeability of the gas barrier relative to humidity. The numerical analysis and influencing factors of VIPs’ service life were also exemplified with three different types of gas barrier envelopes. The experimental results show that depending on the environment, the temperature has a major impact on the effective thermal conductivity and service life of VIP. The research was significant in the selection of gas barriers, the optimization of the performance, and the development of vacuum insulation material.

The ability to adaptively cope with the challenges of stressful events such as the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial for healthy aging. One effective coping strategy is social coping in which social networks are tapped for support. However, our review of the current literature on older adults’ coping abilities reveals two shortcomings: (1) a lack of consideration of a specific context and (2) an inadequate amount of attention paid to the different types of social networks in the cognitive appraisal process. As coping is a process in which older adults undergo the cognitive appraisal process to identify appropriate coping strategies, the shortcomings result in an incomplete understanding of older adults’ coping efforts and impair the development of effective community and intervention programs to improve older adults’ well-being. To fill this gap, drawing on the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping and the Social Capital Theory, we conducted 22 interviews with older adults who experienced lockdown measures during COVID-19. Our in-depth qualitative analysis shows the different roles played by bonding and bridging social capital in the cognitive appraisal process and illustrates the influence of a specific context on cognitive appraisals and subsequent coping efforts. Our findings provide significant contributions to theories regarding coping and social capital, as well as practices and policies for improving the well-being of older adults.

Abstract Background Angelica polysaccharides (AP) have numerous benefits in relieving type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, the underlying mechanisms have yet to be fully understood. Recent many reports have suggested that altering gut microbiota can have adverse effects on the host metabolism and contribute to the development of T2D. Here, we successfully established the T2D model using the male KKAy mice with high-fat and high-sugar feed. Meanwhile, the male C57BL/6 mice were fed with a normal feed. T2D KKAy mice were fed either with or without AP supplementation. In each group, we measured the mice's fasting blood glucose, weight, and fasting serum insulin levels. We collected the cecum content of mice, the gut microbiota was analyzed by targeted full-length 16S rRNA metagenomic sequencing and metabolites were analyzed by untargeted-metabolomics. Results We found AP effectively alleviated glycemic disorders of T2D KKAy mice, with the changes in gut microbiota composition and function. Many bacteria species and metabolites were markedly changed in T2D KKAy mice and reversed by AP. Additionally, 16 altered metabolic pathways affected by AP were figured out by combining metagenomic pathway enrichment analysis and metabolic pathway enrichment analysis. The key metabolites in 16 metabolic pathways were significantly associated with the gut microbial alteration. Together, our findings showed that AP supplementation could attenuate the diabetic phenotype. Significant gut microbiota and gut metabolite changes were observed in the T2D KKAy mice and AP intervention. Conclusions Administration of AP has been shown to improve the composition of intestinal microbiota in T2D KKAy mice, thus providing further evidence for the potential therapeutic application of AP in the treatment of T2D.

Abstract A low sidelobe 77 GHz centre‐fed microstrip patch array antenna is proposed for automotive radar application. The proposed antenna comprises eight linear antenna arrays, each of which is centre‐fed by a coplanar waveguide with ground transmission line at the back of the microstrip patches. Each linear antenna array contains 10 patch antenna units, which are connected through a T‐type power divider network to achieve a −30 dB Taylor weighted distribution. The simulation results show that the designed phased array antenna has a good one‐dimensional phased scanning ability of ±45° with active voltage standing wave ratio less than 2 at 75–79 GHz, along with −20 dB low sidelobe symmetrical radiation patterns in the H plane. An antenna sample fed by a WR12 waveguide is fabricated and measured to verify its performance. The measured VSWR is less than 2 at 73.6–85 GHz. This design provides a new idea for millimetre wave automotive radar antenna design.

The psychological impact of medical care accessibility during the pandemic has been widely studied, but little attention has been given to Asian immigrants in Canada. This study aimed to fill this literature gap by using a cross-sectional survey, which aimed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Chinese immigrants in North America during the second wave of the pandemic. The study focused on Chinese immigrants aged 16 or older in Canada. Covariates included sociodemographic variables, delayed access to medical care (i.e., treatment or health assessment), and other COVID-19 related variables. We used logistic LASSO regression for model selection and multivariate logistic regression models to evaluate the association between delayed access to treatment/health assessment and psychological distress outcome, as measured by the COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI). Missing data were handled using multiple imputation. Our study included 746 respondents, with 47.18% in the normal CPDI group and 36.82% in the mild-to-severe CPDI group. Most respondents were originally from Mainland China and residing in Ontario. Over half have stayed in Canada for at least 15 years. The multivariate logistic regression models identified significant risk predictors of psychological distress status: delayed access to medical care (OR = 1.362, 95% CI: 1.078–1.720, p = 0.0095), fear of COVID-19 (OR = 1.604, 95% CI: 1.293–1.989, p < 0.0001), and social loneliness (OR = 1.408, 95%CI: 1.314–1.508, p < 0.0001). Sociodemographic variables and other COVID-19-related variates did not significantly impact the study’s outcome. Our findings shed light on the importance of timely medical care access to psychological well-being among Chinese Canadians. Reliable health information, mental health support, and virtual care tailored to immigrants should be considered to mitigate this impact and promote their overall health and well-being.

Abstract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a worldwide health problem. Mounting evidence indicates that exhausted T cells play a critical role in the progress and treatment of HCC. Therefore, a detailed characterisation of exhausted T cells and their clinical significance warrants further investigation in HCC. Based on the GSE146115, we presented a comprehensive single‐cell Atlas in HCC. Pseudo‐time analysis revealed that tumour heterogeneity progressively increased, and the exhausted T cells gradually appeared during tumour progression. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that the evolutionary process of exhausted T cells mainly contained the pathway of cadherin binding, proteasome, cell cycle, and T cell receptor regulation of apoptosis. In the International Cancer Genome Consortium database, we divided patients into three clusters with the T cell evolution‐associated genes. We found that the exhausted T cells are significantly related to poor outcomes through immunity and survival analysis. In The Cancer Genome Atlas database, the authors enrolled weighted gene co‐expression network analysis, univariate Cox analysis, and Lasso Cox analysis, then screened the 19 core genes in T cells evolution and built a robust prognostic model. This study offers a fresh view on evaluating the patients' outcomes from an exhausted T cells perspective and might help clinicians develop therapeutic systems.

In this work, the SiC ceramics were fabricated by stereolithography (SLA) combined with reactive melt infiltration (RMI), and the microstructure and mechanical properties of SiC ceramics were optimized by adjusting the solid content and impregnating phenolic resin. The bulk density and bending strength of SiC ceramics were positively correlated with the proportion of SiC content. The SiC phase content was increased from 48.10% to 61.42% with the solid content increased from 30 vol% to 45 vol%. When the solid content was 40 vol%, the bulk density and bending strength of SiC ceramics attained the highest value of 2.85 g/cm3 and 234.8 MPa. Meanwhile, the pyrolysis shrinkage of SiC ceramics along the non-additive direction and the additive direction was 4.83% and 1.21%, respectively. This research has successfully demonstrated the direct correlation of microstructure and content of SiC with the performance parameters of SiC ceramics fabricated by SLA.

Abstract A modular multilevel converter‐based high voltage direct current (MMC‐HVDC) system involves a large number of cascading submodules (SMs). The failure of SMs may critically degrade the system performance. Therefore, several redundant SMs can be incorporated and reasonably controlled to ensure the system reliable and continuous operation even if certain SMs fail. This paper proposes a semi‐hot redundant method for MMC‐HVDC systems. In the proposed strategy, when the system operates normally, the redundant SMs are controlled in a lower voltage range. These SMs do not require frequent charging and discharging, which decreases the switching loss. When ordinary SMs fail, the faulty SMs are bypassed and the corresponding number of redundant SMs can be promptly recharged to the rated voltage to replace the faulty SMs. The semi‐hot reserved SMs can shorten the transient process of faulty SMs replacement, and in this process, the absence of faulty SMs does not considerably influence the system. Thus, the original control and modulation strategies of the system do not need to be modified when several SMs fail. The performance of the proposed method is compared with those of the existing methods, and its validity is demonstrated through a small‐scale experimental prototype.

The negative impacts of urbanization-triggered land use changes on ecosystem services have attracted worldwide attention. However, the interactive relationships between land use structure and ecosystem services remain unclear, which is not conducive to sustainable regional ecological management. This study employed the information entropy and ecosystem services value assessment method to measure the land use structure and ecosystem services at the county level in China between 2000 and 2020, respectively. Then the spatial correlation analysis and decoupling model were used to explore the spatial and temporal interactive relationships between them, respectively. The results indicated that the average information entropy of land use structure (IELUS) and total ecosystem services value (ESV) in China both showed a continuous growth trend during the study period. ESV and IELUS were found to have a significant positive spatial correlation and were dominated by low-value agglomeration. The dominant types of the interactive relationship between IELUS and ESV were strong decoupling and expansion negative decoupling, and the number of counties with expansion negative decoupling decreased rapidly during the study period. These results suggest that differentiated land-use structure management policies ought to be adopted to protect regional ecosystem services.

Aerogels have an impressive thermal insulation performance at room temperature. However, with high infrared transmittance, pure aerogels have no advantages in thermal insulation at high temperature. Opacifiers can reduce infrared transmittance to make a low thermal conductivity with sacrifice of that at room temperature. Herein, VO2 powders undergoing reversible insulator to metal transition at 67.8 °C as opacifier with temperature-switch were introduced into silica aerogel composites to prepare aerogel reinforced by VO2@SiO2 fibers paper (AVSP). At 25 °C, insulator VO2 made little contribution to thermal conductivity (0.025 W/(m·K)) so that it was close to aerogel reinforced by pure SiO2 fibers papers without opacifier (0.023 W/(m·K)). When temperature rose to 500 °C, metal VO2 made thermal conductivity of AVSP (0.051 W/(m·K)) much lower than that of aerogel reinforced by pure SiO2 fibers papers without opacifier (0.076 W/(m·K)). Meanwhile, SiO2 fibers papers with three-dimensional network structure improved flexibility of aerogel. The tensile strength of AVSP was 2.1 MPa with density of 0.186 g/cm3. With 152° contact angle and flame resistance, AVSP showed a great potential in high temperature thermal insulation in a nonplanar condition. Thereby, this work provides a novel strategy to improve thermal insulation property at high temperature with little contribution to that at room temperature.

Background: Coronary artery dilation (CAD) had rarely been described as a cardiac complication of febrile disease other than Kawasaki disease (KD). There are rare cases complicated by CAD reported in patients with Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) infection. Case presentation: A 6-year-old boy with severe Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) was transferred to our hospital due to significant respiratory distress on the 11th day from disease onset. Nadroparin, levofloxacin, and methylprednisolone followed by oral prednisone were aggressively prescribed. His clinical condition gradually achieved remission, and the drugs were withdrawn on the 27th day. Regrettably, the recurrent fever attacked him again in the absence of infection-toxic manifestations. Necrotizing pneumonia (NP) was found on chest CT. And echocardiography revealed right CAD (diameter, 3.40mm; z-score, 3.8), however, his clinical and laboratory findings did not meet the diagnostic criteria of KD. CAD was proposed to result from MP infection, and aspirin was prescribed. Encouragingly, the CAD regressed one week later (diameter, 2.50mm; z-score, 1.4). Additionally, the child defervesced seven days after the initiation of prednisone and Nadroparin treatment. The patient was ultimately discharged home on the 50th day. During follow-up, the child was uneventful with normal echocardiography and fully resolved chest CT lung lesions. Conclusions: CAD can develop in patients with severe MP infection. Pediatricians should be alert to the possibility of CAD in patients with severe MP infection and recognize that CAD might also develop in febrile disease rather than KD.

PurposeThis study aimed to evaluate changes in ocular surface parameters among obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) patients.Methods44 healthy volunteers (88 eyes) and 27 OSAS patients (54 eyes) were recruited in our cross-sectional study. 14 patients were classified as mild&moderate OSAS, and 13 patients were classified as severe OSAS. For evaluating the ocular surface, the following tests were conducted: the height of tear meniscus (TMH), first non-invasive tear break-up time (FNITBUT), mean non-invasive tear break-up time (MNITBUT), the score of Meibomian gland dropout area (Meiboscore), the tear test of anesthesia-free Schirmer I (SIT), corneal fluorescein staining (CFS), partial blinks rate (PBR), the lipid layer thickness (LLT), ocular surface disease index (OSDI). The results obtained from the study were analyzed and compared among the groups.ResultsFNITBUT, MNITBUT, and TMH were lower. OSDI, CFS, Meiboscore and PBR were higher in the OSAS group than those in the control group. The mild&moderate as well as the severe OSAS subgroups had statistically significantly lower TMH, and higher OSDI and PBR than the control group. Meanwhile, we found there were no significant differences between two OSAS subgroups. CFS was higher in the severe OSAS group than the mild&moderate OSAS group. Significantly lower FNITBUT, MNITBUT and higher Meiboscore were observed in the severe OSAS subgroup than in the control group, and MNITBUT was higher in severe OSAS objects than in the mild&moderate OSAS objects. LLT and SIT did not exhibit significant differences among control and OSAS subgroups. FNITBUT and MNITBUT showed significantly negative correlations with BMI, while Meiboscore showed a significant positive correlation with AHI.ConclusionPatients with OSAS have a tendence of dry eyes, whereas control subjects do not. This indicates us that the OSAS patients should pay more attention to ocular surface care.

Summary: Intermolecular interactions, including hydrogen bonds, dominate the pairing and unpairing of nucleic acid chains in the transfer process of genetic information. The energy of THz waves just matches with the weak interactions, so THz waves may interact with biomolecules. Here, the dynamic effects of THz electromagnetic (EM) waves on the mechanical unfolding process of RNA hairpins (WT-30nt and its mutants, rHP, SARS-CoV-2, and SRV-1 SF206) are investigated using steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations. The results show that THz waves can either promote the unfolding of the double helix of the RNA hairpin during the initial unfolding phase (4–21.8 THz) or significantly enhance (23.8 and 25.5 THz) or weaken (37.4 and 41.2 THz) its structural stability during unfolding. Our findings have important implications for applying THz waves to regulate dynamic deconvolution processes, such as gene replication, transcription, and translation.

Compression of left main coronary artery is a severe complication in PAH and the treatment strategy is tricky and should be individualized. We presented a patient with large atrial septal defect (ASD) and non-Eisenmenger pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Right heart catheterization (RHC) showed the defect was non-correctable due to a pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) of 9.49 Wood Units. EKG suggested myocardial ischemia and coronary angiography and coronary CTA confirmed proximal left main coronary artery was compressed by extremely dilated pulmonary arterial trunk, which is named left main coronary compression syndrome (LMCS). Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using drug-eluting stent was performed and combined PAH-specific medications was prescribed simultaneously. At 6-month following the PCI procedure, PVR had decreased to 3.43 Wood Units, and percutaneous ASD closure procedure was performed. A 6-month follow-up the patient was asymptomatic and had significantly improved pulmonary hemodynamics. LMCS is rare among patients with ASD-PAH. PCI combined with PAH-specific medications allowed the closure of ASD, resulting in clinical improvement.

ABSTRACTInfrared temperature measurement is widely used in the MOCVD process, and improving the surface infrared emissivity of the graphite base is beneficial to improve the temperature measurement accuracy. In this study, SiC coatings were prepared by CVD on graphite substrate using different process parameters including CVD temperature, total pressure, H2/MTS ratio. The infrared emissivity of SiC coatings with different microstructures was investigated. All SiC coatings obtained were β-SiC. The infrared emissivities of the three samples with different surface morphologies are 0.93, 0.95 and 0.97, respectively. As the surface roughness increases, the reflection and scattering of thermally radiated electromagnetic waves increases, resulting in higher infrared emissivity. The loose structure of the grain surface makes the surface electromagnetic wave and light wave resonant coupling, thus increasing the infrared emissivity.

Abstract Purpose To investigate the effects of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) and transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) pretreatment on pregnancy in patients with poor ovarian response (POR). Methods A total of 330 POR patients who were pretreated with CoQ10 or CoQ10 combined with TEAS before their in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection and embryo transfer (IVF/ICSI-ET) cycles and who were not pretreated were selected and divided into CoQ10 group (group A, n = 110), CoQ10 + TEAS group (group B, n = 110) and control group (group C, n = 110). For patients with 2 or more transfer cycles, only the information of the first cycle was included. Ovarian function, response to gonadotropin (Gn) stimulation, and pregnancy outcomes of the three groups were compared in the IVF/ICSI-ET cycles. Results After pretreatment, basal FSH, total Gn dosage and duration were comparable among the three groups (all p-value > 0.05), basal E2 in group B decreased significantly compared with the control group (p = 0.022). Endometrial thickness on the human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) day, antral follicle counts (AFC), the numbers of oocytes, metaphase II (MII) eggs and excellent embryos in the two pretreatment groups were significantly increased compared with group C (all p-value

Objective To investigate the effectiveness and safety of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation for patients with colorectal liver metastases (CRLMs) who were unsuitable for hepatectomy.Methods This is a multicenter retrospective study. 238 CRLM patients underwent ultrasound-guided HIFU (USgHIFU) ablation in three medical centers from October 2014 to December 2020. Patients who had complete colorectal cancer resection, but exhibited extra-hepatic metastasis were excluded from this study. HIFU ablation procedure was performed, and contrast-enhanced MR imaging and/or contrast-enhanced CT examinations were conducted and mRECIST was used for the assessment of tumor ablation effectiveness before and after treatment, and every 3 months thereafter. Adverse events and complications were recorded.Results 43 CRML patients (27 male, 16 female, aged 29–82 years) were enrolled and underwent a USgHIFU ablation procedure. CR (complete response) was achieved in 21 patients, while PR (partial response) was observed in 21 patients and SD (stable disease) was achieved in one patient, respectively. The objective response rate was 97.7%. Median OS (overall survival) was estimated to be 31 months, and1-year and 18-month overall survival was 90.7% (39/43) and 72.1% (31/43), respectively. For CR and PR patients, the median OS was 35 months and 23 months, respectively (p = 0.00). The majority of adverse events were pain in 22 cases (51.2%) and local skin edema in 33 cases (76.7%). No severe adverse events or complications were reported and recorded.Conclusions USgHIFU ablation is a safe and effective treatment option for CRLM patients, especially for patients who are unsuitable for hepatectomy.

Background The systemic inflammatory response index (SIRI) is a novel inflammatory biomarker in many diseases.Objectives The aim of this study was to examine the association between SIRI and adverse events in patients with the acute coronary syndrome (ACS) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.Methods A total of 1724 patients with ACS enrolled from June 2016 to November 2017 at a single centre were included in this study, and SIRI was calculated for each patient. The primary endpoint was the composite of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), including overall death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke, and unplanned repeat revascularization.Results During a median follow-up of 927 days, 355 patients had MACE. Multivariate Cox analysis showed that SIRI was significantly associated with MACE (hazard ratio: 1.127, 95% confidence interval: 1.034–1.229 p = .007). The results were consistent in multiple sensitivity analyses. The addition of SIRI had an incremental effect on the predictive ability of the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events risk score for MACE (integrated discrimination improvement: 0.007, p = .040; net reclassification improvement: 0.175, p = .020; likelihood ratio test: p

Abstract Prohibitins (PHBs) are a class of highly evolutionarily conserved proteins that widely distribute in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. PHBs function in cell growth and proliferation or differentiation, regulating metabolism and signaling pathways. PHBs have different subcellular localization in eukaryotes, but they are mainly located in mitochondria. In the mitochondria, PHBs stabilize the structure of the mitochondrial membrane and regulate mitochondrial autophagy, mitochondrial dynamics, mitochondrial biogenesis and quality control, and mitochondrial unfolded protein response. PHBs has shown to be associated with many diseases, such as mitochondria diseases, cancers, infectious diseases, and so on. Some molecule targets of PHBs can interfere with the occurrence and development of diseases. Therefore, this review clarifies the functions of PHBs in mitochondria, and provides a summary of the potential values in clinics.

Abstract Background To compare the surgical effects of coronary intervention through the transradial intervention (TRI) versus distal transradial intervention (dTRI) approach. Methods From September 2020 to April 2021, 302 patients undergoing coronary artery angiography (CAG) or percutaneous coronary intervention in our hospital were retrospectively included. Patients were divided into the TRI group and dTRI group with 151 cases in each group. The technique features, lesion features, and cannulation process were compared between the two groups. Results The number of patients who underwent CAG in the dTRI group (35.1%) was significantly greater compared with the TRI group (12.6%) (P 0.05). RAD at the puncture site was a predictor of the overall cannulation success rate with an AUC of 0.747 (95% CI 0.663–0.860; P

As an essential nutrient, copper’s redox properties are both beneficial and toxic to cells. Therefore, leveraging the characteristics of copper-dependent diseases or using copper toxicity to treat copper-sensitive diseases may offer new strategies for specific disease treatments. In particular, copper concentration is typically higher in cancer cells, making copper a critical limiting nutrient for cancer cell growth and proliferation. Hence, intervening in copper metabolism specific to cancer cells may become a potential tumor treatment strategy, directly impacting tumor growth and metastasis. In this review, we discuss the metabolism of copper in the body and summarize research progress on the role of copper in promoting tumor cell growth or inducing programmed cell death in tumor cells. Additionally, we elucidate the role of copper-related drugs in cancer treatment, intending to provide new perspectives for cancer treatment.

Abstract In this paper, a novel deep learning (DL) approach is developed to solve the electromagnetic inverse scattering (EMIS) problems. Many challenges, such as ill‐posedness, high computational cost, and strong non‐linearity, are encountered when solving the EMIS problems. To surmount these difficulties, a multi‐model fusion convolutional neural network architecture is proposed, termed here as Amplitude‐Phase scheme. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that the multi‐model fusion DL approach is employed to solve the EMIS problems. Amplitude data and phase data of the measured scattering data are applied to train the proposed scheme. Furthermore, we compare APs with three different training schemes, including Amplitude‐Only scheme, and Phase‐Only scheme, and Complex‐Value scheme. The performance of the proposed DL schemes has been validated by numerical simulations. The results demonstrate that the proposed multi‐model fusion approach outperforms other DL schemes in terms of accuracy and is able to achieve a better performance in reconstructing homogeneous and heterogeneous scatterers.

Objectives: This study examines the impact of older adults’ online social networks on their COVID-19 anxiety, directly or indirectly through social transmission of negative information about COVID-19. Social networks were indexed by both bonding capital (i.e., social relationships formed with family and friends) and bridging capital (i.e., social relationships formed through casual social networks). Methods: An on-line survey was conducted with 190 older adults who were in self-isolation in Ontario in the early waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Results: Bonding and bridging capital showed different impacts on older adults’ informational behavior and COVID-19 anxiety. While bonding capital deterred older adults from transmitting negative COVID-19 information and thus reduced COVID-19 anxiety, bridging capital contributed to increased dissemination of negative information and thus heightened older adults’ anxiety. Discussion: Our findings shed light on the detrimental behavioral and psychological impact of casual online social networks on older adults amidst a public health crisis.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether and how exosomal miR-205-5p regulated angiogenesis and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) metastasis. We found that up-regulated serum exosomal miR-205-5p levels were associated with NPC progression and worse overall survival of NPC patients. miR-205-5p over-expression significantly increased tube formation, wound healing, migration and invasion of NPC cells, and lung metastasis of NPC tumors, whereas miR-205-5p inhibition had opposite effects. Exosomal miR-205-5p from NPC cells promoted the migration, tube formation, and microvessel density (MVD) of HUVECs in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, bioinformatics-, luciferase reporter-, and biotinylated miR-205-5p-based pull-down assays indicated that miR-205-5p directly bound to the 3′ UTR of desmocollin-2 (DSC2). Exosomal miR-205-5p targeted DSC2 to enhance the EGFR/ERK signaling and MMP2/MMP9 expression, promoting angiogenesis and NPC metastasis, which was abrogated by DSC2 over-expression. Finally, the levels of miR-205-5p transcripts were positively correlated with MVD but negatively with DSC2 expression in NPC tissues, and patients with miR-205high/DSC2low NPC had worse overall survival. In conclusion, exosomal miR-205-5p promotes angiogenesis and NPC metastasis by targeting DSC2 to enhance EGFR/ERK signaling and MMP expression. This exosomal/miR-205-5p/EGFR/ERK axis may be a new therapeutic target for intervention of NPC metastasis.

Existing researches that apply blockchain into computation offloading do not consider the enthusiasm of terminals to participate in computation offloading, the fairness of terminals to obtain bookkeeping right and the consensus mechanism that applicable to computation offloading between terminals. So, in this paper, a computation offloading method based on reputation value incentive is proposed, and the detailed workflow of this method is designed. In the workflow, a computation resource allocation method based on dynamic adjustment auction, a mining difficulty setting method based on intelligent terminal devices (ITDs) clustering and an improved POW consensus mechanism based on reputation value (RVPOW) are proposed to ensure the fairness of ITDs to obtain bookkeeping right and improve the enthusiasm of ITDs to participate in computation offloading and blockchain consensus. Simulation results show that the proposed computation offloading method can encourage ITDs to participate in computation offloading, and the RVPOW consensus mechanism can achieve fast consensus.

Random phase screen method was used to simulate the light intensity and phase distribution of the synthesized double vortex beams transmitted in atmospheric turbulence given the light intensity characteristics and phase characteristics of double Laguerre–Gaussian beams (DLGB) generated by coaxial superposition. Results show that the scintillation coefficient decreases initially, and then increases with the topological charge difference of the double vortex beam, and the topological charge difference is related to the number of split spots. When the number of split spots is small, the intensity distribution is concentrated, exhibiting a good penetrating effect on atmospheric turbulence.

Background. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a challenging medical problem. Cuproptosis is a novel form of cell death that plays a crucial role in tumorigenesis, angiogenesis, and metastasis. However, it remains unclear whether cuproptosis-related genes (CRGs) influence the outcomes and immune microenvironment of HCC patients. Method. From The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) databases, we obtained the mRNA expression file and related clinical information of HCC patients. We selected 19 CRGs as candidate genes for this study according to previous literature. We performed a differential expression analysis of the 19 CRGs between malignant and precancerous tissue. Based on the 19 CRGs, we enrolled cluster analysis to identify cuproptosis-related subtypes of HCC patients. A prognostic risk signature was created utilizing univariate Cox regression and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analyses. We employed independent and stratification survival analyses to investigate the predictive value of this model. The functional enrichment features, mutation signatures, immune profile, and response to immunotherapy of HCC patients were also investigated according to the two molecular subtypes and the prognostic signature. Results. We found that 17 CRGs significantly differed in HCC versus normal samples. Cluster analysis showed two distinct molecular subtypes of cuproptosis. Cluster 1 is preferentially related to poor prognosis, high activity of immune response signaling, high mutant frequency of TP53, and distinct immune cell infiltration versus cluster 2. Through univariate and LASSO Cox regression analyses, we created a cuproptosis-related prognostic risk signature containing LIPT1, DLAT, MTF1, GLS, and CDKN2A. High-risk HCC patients were shown to have a worse prognosis. The risk signature was proved to be an independent predictor of prognosis in both the TCGA and ICGC datasets, according to multivariate analysis. The signature also performed well in different stratification of clinical features. The immune cells, which included regulatory T cells (Treg), B cells, macrophages, mast cells, NK cells, and aDCs, as well as immune functions containing cytolytic activity, MHC class I, and type II IFN response, were remarkably distinct between the high-risk and low-risk groups. The tumor immune dysfunction and exclusion (TIDE) score suggested that high-risk patients had a higher response rate to immune checkpoint inhibitors than low-risk patients. Conclusion. This research discovered the potential prognostic and immunological significance of cuproptosis in HCC, improved the understanding of cuproptosis, and may deliver new directions for developing more efficacious therapeutic techniques for HCC patients.

The current study aims to examine the mental health conditions and the associated predictors among Chinese international students. A sample of 256 Chinese international students aged 16 or above living primarily in Canada were asked to complete an online survey. Mental health conditions were assessed with the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 and the Physical and Mental Health Summary Scales. 15.3%, 20.4%, and 10.5% of respondents reported severe to extremely severe depression, anxiety, and stress levels, respectively. Univariate analysis of variance models and multiple linear regression models identified education and financial status as significant sociodemographic predictors while controlling for the effect of physical health status. Higher financial status and lower level of education were associated with better mental health conditions. These findings shed light on our understanding of mental health conditions and the risk factors among Chinese international students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a typical voltage source converter topology, Modular multilevel converter (MMC) widespread used in high voltage direct current (MMC-HVDC) power systems due to its modularization, low harmonic, easy expansion, and high efficiency. The failure of SMs will cause inhibit circulating current growth and unbalanced system voltage. Therefore, the handling of faulty SM has an utmost significance for MMC-HVDC. This paper proposes a hybrid control method of redundant SMs with semi-hot and cold standby redundant SM control methods. In normal operation, some redundant SMs are pre-charged to become semi-hot standby SMs. When the SM fails, one semi-hot standby SM is charged to become a working SM, and one cold standby SM is charged to become a semi-hot standby SM. In this paper, the proposed method is verified by simulation. The simulation shows two working states of MMC-HVDC, one is the voltage balance control of semi-hot standby SM in the normal working condition, another is the SM failure and redundant SM insertion control. Compared to using only one SM strategy, the implementation of the hybrid redundant strategy is easier and the loss is also lower.

Objective To investigate the feasibility, efficacy and safety of ultrasound-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation for treating the broad ligament uterine fibroid (BLUF). Methods A total of 236 patients with symptomatic uterine fibroids were enrolled and treated with JC-200 extracorporeal ultrasound-guided HIFU under conscious sedation between January 2017 and December 2018. Of them, data of 12 patients with 13 broad ligament fibroids were retrospectively analyzed. The patients’ mean age was 38.6 ± 6.3 years. The focused ultrasound target was deployed and moved from the deeper layer to the superficial layer of BLUFs. All patients underwent contrast-enhanced MRI (CE-MRI) before, immediate post-operation, and six months after the HIFU ablation procedure. The fibroid size, non-perfusion volume (NPV) ratio, the reduction of fibroid volumes, adverse events, symptom changes, and abnormal MRI findings associated with the HIFU treatment were analyzed. Results Ultrasound-guided HIFU ablation in the twelve patients was technically successful with one session treatment. The mean longest diameter of BLUFs was 6.2 ± 2.3 cm. The mean NPV ratio of fibroids was 84.08%± 9.4%. After HIFU ablation, lower abdominal pain occurred in 7 cases, sacrococcygeal pain in 3 cases, and mild skin pain in 6 cases. There were no severe adverse events and complications associated with the treatment. At 6 months post-treatment follow-up, the mean fibroid volume decreased by 56.2%± 9.0% (p

BackgroundPatients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) with diabetes mellitus (DM) had higher mortality and poorer prognosis than those without DM. Previous studies had demonstrated the effectiveness of regional network systems (RNS) for reperfusion therapy in patients with STEMI. However, the differences in nursing care with RNS in subgroups of patients with DM with STEMI were unclear. Our study aimed to evaluate the validity of RNS in reperfusion therapy in patients with STEMI with or without DM.MethodsWe retrospectively enrolled patients with STEMI who received reperfusion therapy at the chest pain center of the 920th Hospital in Kunming City, Yunnan Province from 2019 to 2021. Personal information and hospitalization information for patients with STEMI were collected through the chest pain center registration system. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to analyze factors associated with outcomes in patients with STEMI who received RNS. Wilcoxon rank-sum test and chi-squared test were used to analyze the differences in reperfusion therapy times and clinical outcomes between RNS and non-RNS in patients with STEMI with or without DM.ResultsThis study enrolled 1,054 patients with STEMI, including 148 patients with DM and 906 patients without DM. Logistic regression analysis indicated that DM was associated with patients with STEMI who received RNS [OR 1.590 95% CI (1.034–2.446), P = 0.035]. RNS may decrease the reperfusion therapy time in patients with STEMI and patients without DM with STEMI, including the first medical contact (FMC) to door, FMC to wire and FMC to catheterization laboratory activity (all P < 0.05). However, we found no significant difference in reperfusion therapy times with and without RNS in patients with DM (all P > 0.05).ConclusionRegional network systems may decrease the reperfusion therapy time in patients without DM with STEMI, but no decrease was found in patients with DM with STEMI.

Grisel's syndrome (GS) is defined as atlantoaxial rotatory subluxation/fixation not associated with trauma or bone disease, usually following head and neck infection/inflammation or ear, nose, and throat (ENT) surgery. Many conditions could lead to Grisel's syndrome, of which mumps is rarely to be seen. This report discusses a case of GS in children with Type I atlantoaxial joint subluxation and previously diagnosed mumps. A 6-year-old boy who had cervical pain and torticollis for 2 weeks was admitted to our hospital. There was no trauma and he had not had ENT surgery but was diagnosed with mumps 2 weeks previously due to swelling of the left cheek and cervical lymph node. Physical examination and computed tomography confirmed a diagnosis of Grisel's syndrome with an ADI (atlanto-dens interval) of 1.6 mm. The patient then received occipito-mandibular traction for 6 days and recovered. No recurrence was observed at 1 year follow-up. Physicians should raise awareness of this rare complication of mumps to avoid life-threatening neurological impairments owing to Grisel's syndrome.