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Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019, countries around the world, including China, have been administering COVID-19 vaccines in response to the pandemic. Our center has observed that treating patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) has become more challenging in this context.

Fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) is recommended for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) treatment; however, use in solid organ transplantation (SOT) patients has theoretical safety concerns. This multicenter, retrospective study evaluated FMT safety, effectiveness, and risk factors for failure in SOT patients. Primary cure and overall cure were defined as resolution of diarrhea or negative C difficile stool test after a single FMT or after subsequent FMT(s) ± anti-CDI antibiotics, respectively. Ninety-four SOT patients underwent FMT, 78% for recurrent CDI and 22% for severe or fulminant CDI. FMT-related adverse events (AE) occurred in 22.3% of cases, mainly comprising self-limiting conditions including nausea, abdominal pain, and FMT-related diarrhea. Severe AEs occurred in 3.2% of cases, with no FMT-related bacteremia. After FMT, 25% of patients with underlying inflammatory bowel disease had worsening disease activity, while 14% of cytomegalovirus-seropositive patients had reactivation. At 3 months, primary cure was 58.7%, while overall cure was 91.3%. Predictors of failing a single FMT included inpatient status, severe and fulminant CDI, presence of pseudomembranous colitis, and use of non-CDI antibiotics at the time of FMT. These data suggest FMT is safe in SOT patients. However, repeated FMT(s) or additional antibiotics may be needed to optimize rates of cure with FMT.

Rationale: Observational studies report a significant protective effect of antifibrotics on mortality among patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Many of these studies, however, were subject to immortal time bias because of the mishandling of delayed antifibrotic initiation. Objectives: To evaluate the antifibrotic effect on mortality among patients with IPF using appropriate statistical methods that avoid immortal time bias. Methods: Using a large administrative database, we identified 10,289 patients with IPF, of whom 2,300 used antifibrotics. Treating delayed antifibrotic initiation as a time-dependent variable, three statistical methods were used to control baseline characteristics and avoid immortal time bias. Stratified analysis was performed for patients who initiated antifibrotics early and those who initiated treatment late. For comparison, methods that mishandle immortal time bias were performed. A simulation study was conducted to demonstrate the performance of these models in a wide range of scenarios. Results: All three statistical methods yielded nonsignificant results for the antifibrotic effect on mortality, with the stratified analysis for patients with early antifibrotic initiation suggesting evidence for reduced mortality risk (for all patients, hazard ratio, 0.89; 95% confidence interval, 0.79–1.01; P = 0.08; for patients who were 65 years or older, hazard ratio, 0.85; 95% confidence interval, 0.73–0.98; P = 0.03). Methods that mishandle immortal time bias demonstrated significantly lower mortality risk for antifibrotic users. Bias of these methods was evident in the simulation study, where appropriate methods performed well with little to no bias. Conclusions: Findings in this study did not confirm an association between antifibrotics and mortality, with a stratified analysis showing support for a potential treatment effect with early treatment initiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stereo matching technology, enabling the acquisition of three-dimensional data, holds profound implications for marine engineering. In underwater images, irregular object surfaces and the absence of texture information make it difficult for stereo matching algorithms that rely on discrete disparity values to accurately capture the 3D details of underwater targets. This paper proposes a stereo method based on an energy function of Markov random field (MRF) with 3D labels to fit the inclined plane of underwater objects. Through the integration of a cross-based patch alignment approach with two label optimization stages, the proposed method demonstrates features akin to segment-based stereo matching methods, enabling it to handle images with sparse textures effectively. Through experiments conducted on both simulated UW-Middlebury datasets and real deteriorated underwater images, our method demonstrates superiority compared to classical or state-of-the-art methods by analyzing the acquired disparity maps and observing the three-dimensional reconstruction of the underwater target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Auditory deprivation has downstream effects on the development of language and executive functioning (EF) in prelingually deaf children with cochlear implants (CIs), but little is known about the very early development of EF during preschool ages in children with CIs. This study investigated the longitudinal development of EF and spoken language skills in samples of children with normal hearing (NH; N = 40) or CIs (N = 41) during preschool ages. Method: Participants were enrolled in the study between ages 3 and 6 years and evaluated annually up to the age of 7 years. Mixed-effects models were used to evaluate and predict growth of spoken language and EF skills over time. Results: Children with CIs scored lower than NH peers on language measures but improved significantly over time. On performance-based neurocognitive measures of controlled attention, inhibition, and working memory, children with CIs scored more poorly than the sample of NH peers but comparable to norms, whereas on a parent report behavior checklist, children with CIs scored more poorly than both NH peers and norms on inhibition and working memory. Children with CIs had poorer EF than the sample of NH peers in most domains even after accounting for language effects, and language predicted only the verbal working memory domain of EF. In contrast, EF skills consistently predicted language skills at subsequent visits. Conclusions: Findings demonstrate that, despite significant improvement over time, some domains of EF (particularly parent-reported EF) and language skills in children with CIs lag behind those of children with NH during preschool ages. Language delays do not fully explain differences in EF development between children with CIs and NH peers during preschool ages, but EF skills predict subsequent language development in children with CIs.

When image feature information extraction is performed by using convolutional networks in the image semantic segmentation, the feature information between levels is not used effectively, resulting in image segmentation accuracy impaired. Therefore, an image semantic segmentation method of hierarchical feature fusion is proposed. The method uses the convolution structure to extract the low-level features at pixel level and the deep-level semantic features at image-level, the hidden features of different levels are delved step by step and the feature information hidden in the low-level features and deep-level semantic features are obtained fully. The upsampling is used to refine the low-level feature information and all the feature information is fused successively. Finally, the image semantic segmentation of hierarchical feature fusion is realized. In the aspect of experiment, through multiple decomposition experiments, the effect of this method is verified, the feature information extracted at different stages and the feature information extracted at different network depths, on the semantic segmentation results. At the same time, compared with three main methods on the image semantic segmentation PASCAL VOC 2012 dataset, the objective evaluation index and subjective effect performance results indicate that the proposed method is superior. It is verified that this method can effectively improve the accuracy of semantic segmentation.

BackgroundUnmet need for assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) disability is associated with increased risk for future hospitalization. To further explore the association between unmet ADL need and future health outcomes, we examined the association between unmet need for ADL assistance and 1-year mortality.MethodsA prospective study of 6,730 community-living Medicare recipients was conducted among respondents to the 1994, 1999, and/or 2004 National Long Term Care Survey. Only those who reported having one or more ADL disabilities were included. Time to death within 1 year after the community survey was determined from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services vital statistics records. The community interviews provided demographic, health, and ADL information.ResultsUnadjusted 1-year death rates were 8.7%, 10.6%, 11.4%, 19.2%, and 27.3%, respectively, for respondents with disabilities in 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 ADLs. Overall, 21.3% reported unmet need for assistance for one or more ADL disabilities. After controlling for demographic and health characteristics, we found a significant interaction between unmet ADL need and level of ADL disability (p = .018). Post hoc analyses revealed that unmet ADL need was associated with increased risk for mortality only for those with one (hazard ratio = 1.96; 95% CI = 1.29-2.87) or two ADL disabilities (hazard ratio = 1.37; 95% CI = 1.07-1.75), but not for those with three or more ADL disabilities.ConclusionFuture studies are needed to determine whether these findings are replicable and, if so, whether physiologic or process of care variables explain why ADL is associated with mortality only for those with mild disability.