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This study provides evidence connecting two aspects of visual-orthographic skills (orthographic awareness and delayed copying) to the common variance shared by Chinese word reading and arithmetic calculation, as well as in identifying positional knowledge of numbers as a potential mediator of these connections in Chinese primary school students (N = 155, 81 boys). Nonverbal Intelligent Quotient (IQ), socioeconomic status (SES), working memory, and attentional control were included as covariates. Path analyses demonstrated that both orthographic awareness and delayed copying significantly explained the covariance of word reading and arithmetic calculation. Furthermore, there is an indirect effect via positional knowledge of numbers as indicated by number line estimation and strategic counting on the relations between orthographic awareness and the common variance shared by word reading and arithmetic calculation. In contrast, delayed copying had a direct effect on the common variance. Results suggest that early visual-orthographic skills may be helpful in the development of both word reading and arithmetic ability among Chinese students.

Abstract Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) threatens millions of people worldwide with its irreversible progression. Although the underlying pathogenesis of PF is not fully understood, there is evidence to suggest that the disease can be blocked at various stages. Inhalation therapy has been applied for lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and its application for treating PF is currently under consideration. New techniques in inhalation therapy, such as the application of microparticles and nanoparticles, traditional Chinese medicine monomers, gene therapy, inhibitors, or agonists of signaling pathways, extracellular vesicle interventions, and other specific drugs, are effective in treating PF. However, the safety and effectiveness of these therapeutic techniques are influenced by the properties of inhaled particles, biological and pathological barriers, and the type of inhalation device used. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the pharmacological, pharmaceutical, technical, preclinical, and clinical experimental aspects of novel inhalation therapy for treating PF and focus on therapeutic methods that significantly improve existing technologies or expand the range of drugs that can be administered via inhalation. Although inhalation therapy for PF has some limitations, the advantages are significant, and further research and innovation about new inhalation techniques and drugs are encouraged. Graphical Abstract

In this paper, we focus on the dynamic volatility behavior of the daily Swedish Real Estate Sector Index and analyze the existence and degree of a long-range dependence or asymmetric news effect since 2003. More specifically, we give extra attention to the 2007–2008 financial crisis, the 2009–2012 European debt crisis, and the first two years of the global COVID-19 pandemic era (2020–2021). We examine changes in volatility during these extreme events. We apply standard GARCH models, asymmetric GARCH models, and long-memory GARCH models with various error distributions to identify the most accurate volatility models of the daily returns of the Swedish Real Estate Sector Index for the full sample period, January 2003 to June 2021. Our results show that the volatility of the Swedish Real Estate Sector Index is time-varying and highly volatile. The impacts of the global financial crisis, European debt crisis, and COVID-19 pandemic are noticeable. Moreover, the volatility pattern during COVID-19 displays significant time-varying long-range dependence and an asymmetrical news impact, which lead to market inefficiency. Finally, the volatility pattern shows a tendency towards increasing leverage effects and less persistent behavior, indicating that the market stakeholders are highly sensitive to negative returns and becoming quicker to respond to market changes.

Abstract Handedness is the most commonly investigated lateralised phenotype and is usually measured as a binary left/right category. Its links with psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders prompted studies aimed at understanding the underlying genetics, while other measures and side preferences have been less studied. We investigated the heritability of hand, as well as foot, and eye preference by assessing parental effects (n ≤ 5028 family trios) and SNP-based heritability (SNP-h2, n ≤ 5931 children) in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). An independent twin cohort from Hong Kong (n = 358) was used to replicate results from structural equation modelling (SEM). Parental left-side preference increased the chance of an individual to be left-sided for the same trait, with stronger maternal than paternal effects for footedness. By regressing out the effects of sex, age, and ancestry, we transformed laterality categories into quantitative measures. The SNP-h2 for quantitative handedness and footedness was 0.21 and 0.23, respectively, which is higher than the SNP-h2 reported in larger genetic studies using binary handedness measures. The heritability of the quantitative measure of handedness increased (0.45) compared to a binary measure for writing hand (0.27) in the Hong Kong twins. Genomic and behavioural SEM identified a shared genetic factor contributing to handedness, footedness, and eyedness, but no independent effects on individual phenotypes. Our analysis demonstrates how quantitative multidimensional laterality phenotypes are better suited to capture the underlying genetics than binary traits.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor impairments and non-motor symptoms, significantly impacting patients' quality of life. Currently, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is the primary biofluid used for PD biomarker studies, notably a-synuclein, despite the invasive nature of lumbar puncture procedures. Recent work has shown that some of these PD biomarkers have been measured in saliva. As an alternative to CSF, saliva can be non-invasively self-collected by patients repeatedly over time to monitor biomarker levels. However, the stability of these biomarkers in saliva needs to be evaluated before saliva can be considered for patient self-collection studies. Therefore, the goal of this study was to determine if a-syn and cortisol levels were stable in saliva using different common sample storage conditions. Salivary samples were analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits to measure a-synuclein and cortisol levels under various storage conditions, simulating real-world scenarios of home collection and transport. Our findings indicate that both biomarkers are quantifiable in saliva with high reliability and stability. The results showed that cortisol and a-synuclein concentrations were well-maintained at -20°C and -80°C storage conditions, with minimal degradation observed under room temperature overnight storage. Moreover, freeze-thaw cycles did not significantly affect the biomarker stability. These findings support the potential of saliva as a feasible and non-invasive biofluid for PD biomarker analysis, facilitating easier and more frequent monitoring of disease progression. Further studies are warranted to validate these preliminary findings and to establish standardized protocols for saliva collection and storage in clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Left-handedness prevalence has been consistently reported at around 10% with heritability estimates at around 25%. Higher left-handedness prevalence has been reported in males and in twins. Lower prevalence has been reported in Asia, but it remains unclear whether this is due to biological or cultural factors. Most studies are based on samples with European ethnicities and using the preferred hand for writing as key assessment. Here, we investigated handedness in a sample of Chinese school children in Hong Kong, including 426 singletons and 205 pairs of twins, using both the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory and Pegboard Task. Results Based on a binary definition of writing hand, we found a higher prevalence of left-handedness (8%) than what was previously reported in Asian datasets. We found no evidence of increased left-handedness in twins, but our results were in line with previous findings showing that males have a higher tendency to be left-handed than females. Heritability was similar for both hand preference (21%) and laterality indexes (22%). However, these two handedness measures present only a moderate correlation (.42) and appear to be underpinned by different genetic factors. Conclusion In summary, we report new reference data for an ethnic group usually underrepresented in the literature. Our heritability analysis supports the idea that different measures will capture different components of handedness and, as a consequence, datasets assessed with heterogeneous criteria are not easily combined or compared.

This empirical study innovatively investigates how the choice of a pass-through business entity and corresponding regulatory regime influence firms’ earnings management (EM) behaviors by testing on the UK Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) conversion. A substantial proportion of UK non-REIT publicly traded property companies (LPCs) have chosen to become REITs since the UK REITs were launched in 2007. We conduct a series of tests on a database containing UK LPCs and REITs from 2000 to 2019 and find that conversion into pass-through business entity regimes like REITs that enjoy more favorable tax treatment but face more restrictions leads to more accrual earnings management (AEM) activity, but less real earnings management (REM) activity.

ObjectivesTranscutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has been reported to be effective for chronic insomnia (CI). However, the appropriate population for taVNS to treat insomnia is unclear.MethodsTotal twenty-four patients with CI and eighteen health controls (HC) were recruited. Rest-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (Rs-fMRI) was performed before and after 30 min' taVNS at baseline. The activated and deactivated brain regions were revealed by different voxel-based analyses, then the seed-voxel functional connectivity analysis was calculated. In the CI group, 30 min of taVNS were applied twice daily for 4 weeks. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Flinders Fatigue Scale (FFS) were also assessed before and after 4 weeks of treatment in the CI group. The HC group did not receive any treatment. The correlations were estimated between the clinical scales' score and the brain changes.ResultsThe scores of PSQI (p < 0.01) and FFS (p < 0.05) decreased after 4 weeks in the CI group. Compared to the HC group, the first taVNS session up-regulated left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and decreased the functional connectivity (FCs) between dlPFC and bilateral medial prefrontal cortex in the CI group. The CI groups' baseline voxel wised fMRI value in the dlPFC were negatively correlated to the PSQI and the FFS score after 4 weeks treatment.ConclusionsIt manifests that taVNS has a modulatory effect on the prefrontal cortex in patients with CI. The initial state of dlPFC may predict the efficacy for taVNS on CI.

This article aims to explain the use of a variety of noninvasive of minimally invasive examinations to obtain reliable diagnostic clues. The choice of treatment methods and repair techniques for wound defects are also critical in terms of the prognosis. Here, we describe the case of a 53-year-old male patient who visited our dermatology clinic due to a red plaque on the inner side of his left nipple without any symptoms for more than 30 years. He was given dermoscopy, high-frequency ultrasound (HFUS), Color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI), and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) examinations. Currently, there are no literatures on these auxiliary examinations for this disease. Dermoscopy revealed that there were abundant blood vessels on the periphery of the skin lesion with obvious dilation. HFUS revealed an inhomegeneous hypoechoic solid mass in the dermis with clear borders and irregular shape. CDFI indicated that there are abundant blood flow signals in the periphery and central of the tumor. CEUS showed a mixed inhomogeneous, grid-like high-enhancement pattern. Based on the above auxiliary findings, the possibility of malignant lesion was suspected. Therefore, the patient was given a pathological examination, which showed that many luminal structures of the dermis layer were embedded in the hyperplastic fibrous tissue. The atypical cells were not obvious but showed an infiltrating growth pattern. Immunohistochemistry showed positive reaction for cytokeratin 7 (CK7), epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and a weak positive results was obtained for S-100. There was also a negative result for CK20, gross cystic disease fluid protein 15 (GCDFP-15), and P63. As a result, the patient was diagnosed with “syringoid eccrine carcinoma.” The treatment was surgical excision. Mohs microsurgery was combined with the looped, broad, and deep-buried suturing technique (LBD tension-reduced suturing technique). This technique directly sutures the wound instead of carrying out traditional skin grafting or flap transfer. The postoperative follow-up results were satisfactory as no obvious keloid formed on the wound during the follow-ups. In conclusion, ultrasound is greatly advantageous in tumor morphology and hemodynamics. It orients the therapeutic management and assesses the therapeutic efficacy and the tumoral prognosis. In surgical treatments, a less-traumatic operation should be selected to reduce the patient’s pain.

Objective: To analyze the correlation between serum uric acid, prealbumin levels, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and the severity of COVID-19.Methods: The data from 135 patients with COVID-19 was collected, and the patients were divided into a non-severe group (110 cases) and a severe group (25 cases), according to the severity of illness. Sixty cases with normal physical examinations over the same period and 17 cases diagnosed with other viral pneumonia in the past five years were selected as the control group to analyze the correlation between the detection index and the severity of COVID-19.Results: Serum albumin and prealbumin in the severe group were significantly lower than those in the non-severe group (p < 0.01); serum uric acid in the severe group was lower than that in the non-severe group (p < 0.05). LDH and C-reaction protein (CRP) in the severe group were higher than those in non-severe group (p < 0.01); the levels of albumin, prealbumin, serum uric acid, and LDH in the severe group were significantly different from those in healthy control group (p < 0.01) and the levels of prealbumin, serum uric acid, LDH, and CRP in the severe group were significantly different from those in the other viral pneumonia group (p < 0.01). Serum albumin and prealbumin were positively correlated with the oxygenation index (p < 0.001), while LDH was negatively correlated with oxygenation index (p < 0.001).Conclusion: Serum albumin, prealbumin, the oxygenation index, and LDH are risk factors of COVID-19.

von Hippel‐Lindau (VHL) disease is a rare autosomal dominant multiorgan disease characterized by several benign and malignant tumors rich in vascular, as well as cysts in other organs. A great clinical treatment strategy is significantly warranted for good prognosis of patients with VHL disease. Herein, we reported a case of a 45‐year‐old woman diagnosed with VHL disease with spinal hemangioblastoma (HB) and clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Four years after the resection of the right kidney, a recurrent RCC in the right kidney and a malignant lesion in the left kidney were observed. This patient was started on sorafenib (800 mg, daily) and tislelizumab (200 mg per 3 weeks). After 6 months of treatment, the size of renal cell carcinoma was dramatically reduced and renal function improved. More importantly, she achieved partial response during the whole treatment. Microscopically, intramedullary masses resection was done and the HB in T4‐5 thoracic spinal was removed. Neurologic symptoms such as numbness and pain were remarkably alleviated. Additionally, tislelizumab‐induced elevation in liver transaminase levels and hypothyroidism were revered by hepatoprotector and levothyroxine, respectively. In short, comprehensive treatment strategies may benefit patients with VHL disease, especially with HB and ccRCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A group of new iridium(III) complexes were rationally designed and synthesized with 2‐phenylbenzo[d]oxazole (bo), 2‐phenylbenzo[d]thiazole (bt), 2‐(thiophen‐2‐yl)benzo[d]thiazole (thbt), and 2‐(selenophen‐2‐yl)benzo[d]thiazole (sebt) as C^N ligands and bis(diphenylthiophosphoryl)amide (S‐tpip) as ancillary ligand. They are phosphorescent in a wide region of green to red with short lifetimes around 0.31–0.98 μs and quantum yields up to 64.7%. The detailed photophysical properties were investigated by experiment and further supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculation. These research results show that the spectroscopic properties are tuned by the replacement between oxygen, sulfur, and selenium or the change in aromatic ring. It has been demonstrated that the lowest energy‐level absorption and emission are dominated apparently by C^N ligands, and are ascribed to metal‐to‐ligand charge transfer (MLCT) and intra‐ligand charge transfer (ILCT) characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies spatial hedonic econometric models to estimate the willingness of buyers to pay for dwellings with different orientations based on a data set comprising 63 306 transactions of secondhand apartment sales in 10 districts in Beijing from October 2011 to September 2014. Our results indicate that apartments with South orientation are sold at a 7.8% premium compared with those with West orientation, and that apartments in ancient city areas are more sensitive to orientation. The obtained results can help architects and developers to maximize the value of development projects by optimizing the layout of apartment units on each floor.

There are cities or regions with legal red-light districts in both developed and developing countries, but there are also regions or countries with no clear rules regarding prostitution. Financing issues in red-light districts represent another aspect rarely examined in the academic world. Most research studies about redlining are focused on racial or poverty levels, but this paper investigates it in relation to moral issues concerning vice activities. The objectives of this paper are to firstly analyse the red-light phenomenon in relation to sales prices and rent prices, secondly to test the redlining effect on property markets. This paper contributes to the current academic literature. The research setting of this paper is Geylang, Singapore, a place known for its centralized location, 24/7 stores, historic locales and prostitution-related business. The results indicate that the existence of Singapore’s red-light district has a negative effect on both residential purchase prices and rent levels. The results also indicate that there exists a redlining effect since the home prices have a much higher dis-count than rents.