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As research evidence for the facilitative effects of reading strategies on reading comprehension has been accumulating, research and pedagogical interests in prereading strategies such as prediction and schema[superscript activation] are increasing. Yet, little research evidence of how actual performance on such tasks may be related to reading comprehension is sparse. This study explores whether prediction abilities and content schema are related to Korean middle school EFL learners' reading comprehension abilities in English, and whether such potential relations may differ for factual and inferential comprehension. The study participants were one hundred thirty-seven Korean seventh grade students, and their performance on schema activation, prediction, and reading comprehension abilities was investigated, while controlling for their overall language proficiency and literacy skills. The findings indicated that although both prediction abilities and content schema facilitated reading comprehension, prediction abilities were a relatively stronger predictor of both factual and inferential comprehension. The results further suggest the need to provide effective trainings on pre-reading strategies.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is closely associated with type 2 diabetes and a developing several cancers including esophageal cancer (EC). However, the association between MASLD and EC in diabetic patients has not been investigated. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the relation between MASLD and developing EC in diabetic patients. This was a population-based retrospective cohort study of data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS). A total of 1,904,468 subjects diagnosed with diabetes who underwent NHIS-provided health checkups from 2009 to 2012 were included. We constructed a Cox proportional hazard model for the association of fatty liver index (FLI) and the risk of EC stratified by potential confounders. Over a mean follow-up duration of 6.9 years, the incidence of EC was higher in the high (≥60) FLI group compared to the low (<30) FLI group (14.4 vs. 13.7 event per 100,000 person-years). The risk of EC correlated with the degree of FLI, particularly in older (P =  0.002), female (P =  0.033), non-smoking (P =  0.002), and non-drinking patients (P =  0.025). Among obese patients, the risk of EC was not associated with FLI; however, the risk of EC was higher in the high FLI group in non-obese patients. Lean MASLD patients had the highest risk of EC (adjusted hazard ratio 1.78; 95% confidence interval, 1.5–2.13). MASLD was associated with an increased risk of EC in diabetic patients, and lean MASLD has the highest risk. Further studies are required to determine the causal relationship between MASLD and EC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The physiological changes and alterations in gait following amputation may increase the risk of fractures. However, there is insufficient research on fracture risk in amputees. Therefore, this study intended to analyze whether the risk of new fractures increases after traumatic amputations. This population-based, retrospective cohort study used data from the Korean National Health Insurance System database. The study included 19,586 participants who had undergone an amputation and 76,645 matched controls. The incidence of any fracture and site-specific fractures (vertebral, hip, and others) according to amputation site(s) and severity of disability due to amputation were evaluated using Cox proportional hazard regression analysis. During the mean follow-up of 4.2 years, amputees had a higher incidence rate (IR) of any fracture (adjusted HR [aHR] 1.47, 95% CI 1.36–1.60), vertebral fracture (aHR 1.63, 95% CI 1.44–1.85), hip fracture (aHR 1.85, 95% CI 1.39–2.46), and other fracture (aHR 1.34, 95% CI 1.20–1.49) compared to that of controls. In the presence of disability, the risks were further increased and were highest among amputees with severe disabilities. All fracture risks were higher in amputees than they were in controls, regardless of lower limb or upper limb amputation. This cohort study demonstrated that traumatic amputees experienced higher incidence of all fractures than did individuals without amputations, and this risk increases with severity of disability. This finding underscores the importance of early screening and lifestyle interventions to address fracture risk in traumatic amputees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the key challenges in biology is to understand how individual cells process information and respond to perturbations. However, most of the existing single-cell analysis methods can only provide a glimpse of cell properties at specific time points and are unable to provide cell secretion and protein analysis at single-cell resolution. To address the limits of existing methods and to accelerate discoveries from single-cell studies, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a new sensor based on bound states in the continuum to quantify exosome secretion from a single cell. Our optical sensors demonstrate high-sensitivity refractive index detection. Because of the strong overlap between the medium supporting the mode and the analytes, such an optical cavity has a figure of merit of 677 and sensitivity of 440 nm/RIU. Such results facilitate technological progress for highly conducive optical sensors for different biomedical applications.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) frequently invades the maxillary or mandibular bone, and this bone invasion is closely associated with poor prognosis and survival. Here, we show that CCL28 functions as a negative regulator of OSCC bone invasion. CCL28 inhibited invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and its inhibition of EMT was characterized by induced E-cadherin expression and reduced nuclear localization of [beta]-catenin in OSCC cells with detectable RUNX3 expression levels. CCL28 signaling via CCR10 increased retinoic acid receptor-[beta] (RAR[beta]) expression by reducing the interaction between RAR[alpha] and HDAC1. In addition, CCL28 reduced RANKL production in OSCC and osteoblastic cells and blocked RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis in osteoclast precursors. Intraperitoneally administered CCL28 inhibited tumor growth and osteolysis in mouse calvaria and tibia inoculated with OSCC cells. RAR[beta] expression was also increased in tumor tissues. In patients with OSCC, low CCL28, CCR10, and RAR[beta] expression levels were highly correlated with bone invasion. Patients with OSCC who had higher expression of CCL28, CCR10, or RAR[beta] had significantly better overall survival. These findings suggest that CCL28, CCR10, and RAR[beta] are useful markers for the prediction and treatment of OSCC bone invasion. Furthermore, CCL28 upregulation in OSCC cells or CCL28 treatment can be a therapeutic strategy for OSCC bone invasion., Introduction Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), which accounts for 40% of all head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cases, not only frequently metastasizes to distant sites but also invades [...]