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Acinetobacter baumannii complex (ABC) is a group of increasingly prevalent opportunistic pathogens that cause a variety of life-threatening nosocomial infections, especially in the intensive care unit (ICU). This study assessed the differences between pneumonia- and non-pneumonia-related ABC bacteremia and possible independent risk factors for 30-day mortality.The clinical data of ICU patients diagnosed with ABC bacteremia at a tertiary care hospital from January 2009 to December 2020 were collected, and sorted into groups of ABC bacteremia with and without pneumonia.Significant changes in the incidence of ABC bacteremia and antibiotic resistance were observed over the 12-year study. Compared with nonpneumonia-related ABC bacteremia, pneumonia-related ABC bacteremia was associated with a higher rate of hypertension, less prior tigecycline use, more carbapenem-resistant (CR) strains, and a higher 30-day mortality rate. In multivariate analysis, immunosuppression, higher APACHE II score, and SOFA score were independent risk factors for 30-day mortality. Moreover, the risk of death was 1.919 times higher in the pneumonia-related group.Although pneumonia-related ABC bacteremia had worse outcomes, it was not an independent risk factor for death statistically. Immunosuppression and disease severity levels increased the risks of death in ICU patients with ABC bacteremia.

Objective: To assess the clinical effect of Shenghua Zhuyu ointment, which was applied onto the Zhongji, Qihai, and Guanyuan acupoints, on postpartum lochia. Methods: We randomly divided 166 patients who were admitted in 2018–2021 into an observation group and a control group. The control group was treated with conventional clinical methods, whereas the observation group was treated by applying Shenghua Zhuyu ointment on the Zhongji, Qihai, and Guanyuan acupoints. The amount and duration of lochia, abdominal pain, hospitalization time were observed; B-scan ultrasonography was performed to check whether the placenta was discharged. Results: The treatment received by the observation group of patients was shown to be more effective than that of the control group. Besides, the experimental group had less lochia than that of the control group. The observation group also had shorter duration of lochia and hospital stay than those of the control group (P < 0.05). The placenta excretion was better, and the degree of abdominal pain was lower in the observation group than those of the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The acupoint application of Shenghua Zhuyu herbal acupoint plaster has a significant impact on retained placenta, in which it can aid the discharge of residual placenta and improve the patients’ physical functions and symptoms.

Multi-area visitor counting plays a critical role in museum management, which can help administrative staff better study visitor flows and hotspots, so that they can ensure the quality and safety of visits. Internet of Things (IoT) techniques facilitate efficient recording and understanding of visitors’ spatial and temporal distribution in museums, and traditional visitor tracking applications use surveillance cameras or wireless connections with portable smart devices. However, these methods either involve privacy concerns or face the obstacle of getting natural behavioral data of all visitors. This article explores an IoT monitoring methodology in the field of museum studies, proposing a commodity WiFi-based head-counting framework that does not need the visitor to connect with any device. Our system analyzes the Channel State Information amplitude fluctuations at the fixed receiver caused when visitors cross the line-of-sight link. It enables multi-area visitor counting by achieving In-and-Out traffic detection at different sites with a convolutional neural network algorithm. The method also allows for a rough classification of visitor types based on body size, and an extra transfer module is presented to reduce training time for increasing sensing scenarios. Over 2,300 samples at five different sites were collected to test the usability. Experiment 1 implemented in three environments/deployments demonstrated that the proposed approach can be potentially implemented in variable sites of museums. It achieved high up to 95% and 99% accuracies for identifying the number and direction of people crossing, respectively. Experiment 2 sampled adults, children, and adult-child groups at a science museum and achieved approximately 89% classification accuracy of visitor types. Experiment 3 collected data for all cases in which up to three targets entered and exited simultaneously, and reached a recognition accuracy of around 88% for nine different cases. The potential and limitations for the practical application of wireless contactless sensing to cultural spaces are discussed.

Bacterial infection and poor osseointegration are two critical issues that need to be solved for long-term use of titanium implants.

The study explores the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) at the governing vessel (GV) on proteomic changes in the hippocampus of rats with cognitive impairment.Healthy male rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: sham, model and EA. Cognitive impairment was induced by left middle cerebral artery occlusion in the model and EA groups. Rats in the EA group were treated with EA at Shenting (GV24) and Baihui (GV20) for 7 d. Neurological deficit was scored using the Longa scale, the learning and memory ability was detected using the Morris water maze (MWM) test, and the proteomic profiling in the hippocampus was analyzed using protein-labeling technology based on the isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ). The Western blot (WB) analysis was used to detect the proteins and validate the results of iTRAQ.Compared with the model group, the neurological deficit score was significantly reduced, and the escape latency in the MWM test was significantly shortened, while the number of platform crossings increased in the EA group. A total of 2872 proteins were identified by iTRAQ. Differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified between different groups: 92 proteins were upregulated and 103 were downregulated in the model group compared with the sham group, while 142 proteins were upregulated and 126 were downregulated in the EA group compared with the model group. Most of the DEPs were involved in oxidative phosphorylation, glycolipid metabolism and synaptic transmission. Furthermore, we also verified 4 DEPs using WB technology. Although the WB results were not exactly the same as the iTRAQ results, the expression trends of the DEPs were consistent. The upregulation of heat-shock protein β1 (Hspb1) was the highest in the EA group compared to the model group.EA can effect proteomic changes in the hippocampus of rats with cognitive impairment. Hspb1 may be involved in the molecular mechanism by which acupuncture improves cognitive impairment. Please cite this article as: Sa ZY, Xu JS, Pan XH, Zheng SX, Huang QR, Wan L, Zhu XX, Lan CL, Ye XR. Effects of electroacupuncture on rats with cognitive impairment: an iTRAQ-based proteomics analysis. J Integr Med. 2022; Epub ahead of print.

Contactless RF-based sensing techniques are emerging as a viable means for building gesture recognition systems. While promising, existing RF-based gesture solutions have poor generalization ability when targeting new users, environments or device deployment. They also often require multiple pairs of transceivers and a large number of training samples for each target domain. These limitations either lead to poor cross-domain performance or incur a huge labor cost, hindering their practical adoption. This paper introduces Wi-Learner, a novel RF-based sensing solution that relies on just one pair of transceivers but can deliver accurate cross-domain gesture recognition using just one data sample per gesture for a target user, environment or device setup. Wi-Learner achieves this by first capturing the gesture-induced Doppler frequency shift (DFS) from noisy measurements using carefully designed signal processing schemes. It then employs a convolution neural network-based autoencoder to extract the low-dimensional features to be fed into a downstream model for gesture recognition. Wi-Learner introduces a novel meta-learner to "teach" the neural network to learn effectively from a small set of data points, allowing the base model to quickly adapt to a new domain using just one training sample. By so doing, we reduce the overhead of training data collection and allow a sensing system to adapt to the change of the deployed environment. We evaluate Wi-Learner by applying it to gesture recognition using the Widar 3.0 dataset. Extensive experiments demonstrate Wi-Learner is highly efficient and has a good generalization ability, by delivering an accuracy of 93.2% and 74.2% - 94.9% for in-domain and cross-domain using just one sample per gesture, respectively.

It is unknown whether the sex difference whereby female transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) candidates had a lower risk profile, a higher incidence of in-hospital complications, but more favorable short- and long-term survival observed in tricuspid cohorts undergoing TAVR would persist in patients with bicuspid aortic valves (BAVs).The aim of this study was to reexamine the impact of sex on outcomes following TAVR in patients with BAVs.In this single-center study, patients with BAVs undergoing TAVR for severe aortic stenosis from 2012 to 2021 were retrospectively included. Baseline characteristics, aortic root anatomy, and in-hospital and 1-year valve hemodynamic status and survival were compared between sexes.A total of 510 patients with BAVs were included. At baseline, women presented with fewer comorbidities. Men had a greater proportion of Sievers type 1 BAV, higher calcium volumes (549.2 ± 408.4 mmIn patients with BAVs undergoing TAVR, women presented with fewer comorbidities, while men had a greater proportion of type 1 BAV, more calcification, and larger aortic roots. In-hospital outcomes favored men, with fewer complications except for the need for second valve implantation, but 1-year survival was comparable between sexes.

Intracavitary electrocardiography (IC-ECG) has been extensively used for locating the catheter tip of the central venous access devices (CVADs) with favorable safety and accuracy. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of IC-ECG-guided catheter tip placement for totally implantable venous access port (TIVAP) by comparing with the standard fluoroscopy method.A total of 231 patients who underwent TIVAP implantation from September 2019 to April 2021 were enrolled in the retrospective study. Fluoroscopy and IC-ECG were conducted intraoperatively to confirm the position of catheter tips. Demographic characteristics, surgical data, the catheter tip position, complication rate, and incidence, cost of procedures, and indwelling time were compared between the two groups. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify the risk factors of TIVAP-related complications.There was no significance between the fluoroscopy group and the IC-ECG group in terms of the rate of ideal position (P = 0.733). Nine patients (3.9%) developed TIVAP-related complications. Complication rates and incidence were similar in the fluoroscopy group and the IC-ECG group (3.1% and 0.114/1000 catheter days vs. 4.4% and 0.105/1000 catheter days). The Kaplan-Meier curve showed that there was no significant difference in indwelling time between the 2 groups (Log Rank P = 0.634). Binary logistic regression analysis showed that body mass index (BMI) was an independent risk factor for TIVAP-related complications (OR = 1.334, 95%CI: 1.139 - 1.563, P0.001). The IC-ECG group was less costly than the fluoroscopy group (¥9928 ± 362 vs. ¥11762 ± 431, P0.001).IC-ECG-guided catheter tip placement for TIVAP is feasible, safe, and cost-effective, with high accuracy, low risk of complications, and lower cost. It may be considered as an alternative to the standard fluoroscopy method for catheter tip placement of TIVAP.

Background vasopressin is commonly used as a second-line vasopressor for patients with septic shock, but the optimal timing of initiation is uncertain. This study was designed to investigate when vasopressin initiation may be beneficial for 28-day mortality in septic shock patients. Methods This was a retrospective observational cohort study from the MIMIC-III v1.4 and MIMIC-IV v2.0 databases. All adults diagnosed with septic shock according to Sepsis-3 criteria were included. Patients were stratified into two groups based on norepinephrine (NE) dose at the time of vasopressin initiation, defined as the low doses of NE group (NE Results A total of 1817 eligible patients were included in our original cohort (613 in the low doses of NE group and 1204 in the high doses of NE group). After 1:1 PSM, 535 patients from each group with no difference in disease severity were included in the analysis. The results showed that vasopressin initiation at low doses of NE was associated with reduced 28-day mortality (odds ratio [OR] 0.660, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.518–0.840, p Conclusions Among adults with septic shock, vasopressin initiation when low-dose NE was used was associated with an improvement in 28-day mortality.

We represented herein a two-step synthesis of 1-methyl-6H-indol-6-one which is an N-containing 6/5 fused bicyclic building blocks in Amaryllidaceae alkaloids. The key step featured is a ‘one-pot’ ozonolysis/reductive amination/cyclization of allylated cyclohexa-1,3-dione to give bicyclic compounds. Moreover, the formal total synthesis of natural product γ-lycorane could be achieved through a photo-promoted cyclization/oxidation cascade reaction from the resulting bicyclic intermediate.

Objective. To investigate the correlation of serum interleukin-17 (IL-17), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels with the prognosis of gastric cancer patients. Methods. From December 2018 to December 2020, 45 patients with gastric cancer treated in our hospital and 50 healthy individuals were assessed for eligibility and recruited. The eligible patients were assigned to an observation group, and the healthy subjects were assigned to a control group. Serum IL-17, LDH, and VEGF levels of the eligible participants were determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and biochemical testing. The association of serum IL-7, LDH, and VEGF levels with their pathological characteristics was examined in the observation group. The correlation between serum IL-17 and VEGF was analyzed using the Pearson method, and regression models were established using COX proportional risk to explore the independent risk factors for gastric cancer. Results. Gastric cancer was associated with higher levels of IL-17, LDH, and VEGF versus a healthy status ( P < 0.05 ). There was no significant difference in serum IL-17, LDH, and VEGF levels between the two groups of patients with different clinical characteristics ( P > 0.05 ). Higher tumor TNM stages resulted in significantly higher levels of IL-17, LDH, and VEGF ( P < 0.05 ). Serum IL-17 level was positively correlated with VEGF level ( P < 0.05 ). Cox regression multifactorial analysis showed that serum IL-17, LDH, VEGF, and tumor TNM stages could be independent high-risk influencing factors for gastric cancer ( P < 0.05 ). Serum IL-17 was positively correlated with VEGF levels in patients with gastric cancer. Conclusion. Serum IL-17, LDH, and VEGF levels in gastric cancer patients are closely correlated with the TNM stage and patients’ prognosis, both of which show great potential as effective indicators for evaluating the prognosis of gastric cancer.

Cryopreservation of tissues and organs can bring transformative changes to medicine and medical science. In the past decades, limited progress has been achieved, although cryopreservation of tissues and organs has long been intensively pursued. One key reason is that the cryoprotective agents (CPAs) currently used for cell cryopreservation cannot effectively preserve tissues and organs because of their cytotoxicity and tissue destructive effect as well as the low efficiency in controlling ice formation. In stark contrast, nature has its unique ways of controlling ice formation, and many living organisms can effectively prevent freezing damage. Ice-binding proteins (IBPs) are regarded as the essential materials identified in these living organisms for regulating ice nucleation and growth. Note that controversial results have been reported on the utilization of IBPs and their mimics for the cryopreservation of tissues and organs, that is, some groups revealed that IBPs and mimics exhibited unique superiorities in tissues cryopreservation, while other groups showed detrimental effects. In this perspective, we analyze possible reasons for the controversy and predict future research directions in the design and construction of IBP inspired ice-binding materials to be used as new CPAs for tissue cryopreservation after briefly introducing the cryo-injuries and the challenges of conventional CPAs in the cryopreservation of tissues and organs.

Introduction: Interstitial nephritis related to novel oral anticoagulants was only reported in sporadic case reports and none was accompanied by anticoagulants related nephropathy (ARN). Case Report: We presented here a case of biopsy-proven subacute interstitial nephritis (SubAIN) accompanied by ARN after oral dabigatran to alarm clinicians. This case manifested with gross hematuria, acute kidney injury, slightly prolonged thrombin time, moderate anemia, moderate proteinuria, a large quantity of intratubular hemoglobin casts confirmed by hemoglobin antibody immunohistochemical staining which presumed to occur around 1 week after dabigatran and subacute interstitial nephritis accompanied by focal proliferative glomerulonephritis. Serum creatinine level did not continue to elevate after discontinuation of the oral anticoagulant. With the subsequent supportive therapy, it decreased to some extent then reduced to normal with the help of prednisone (half of the full dose). Conclusions: When we came across a patient who manifested as hematuria or acute kidney injury with a history of anticoagulants usage, we should think of ARN and pay more attention on history collection. Secondly, subacute interstitial nephritis may coexist with ARN. Thirdly, hemoglobin immunohistochemical staining may be helpful to make it clear whether the intra-tubular protein casts came from red blood cells. In addition, for those patients who may have decreased kidney function, anticoagulants dose should be reduced to prevent the occurrence of ARN.

This study tests two sets of competing hypotheses about the relationship between trait reactivity to positive and negative stimuli (i.e., motivational reactivity), moral stances on social principles (i.e., social morality), and political ideology. The classic view contends that a specific political ideology or social morality results from a specific motivational reactivity pattern, whereas the dynamic coordination account suggests that trait motivational reactivity modulates an individual’s political ideology and social morality as a result of the majority political beliefs in their immediate social context. A survey using subjects recruited from a liberal-leaning social context was conducted to test these hypotheses. Results support the dynamic coordination account. Reactivity to negativity (indexed by defensive system activation scores) is associated with the adoption of the dominant social morality and political ideology. Reactivity to positivity (indexed by appetitive system activation scores) is associated with the adoption of nondominant social moral and political stances.

Bilaterally symmetrical objects represent a large and important proportion of archaeological artifacts and biological objects. The identification of the plane of symmetry plays a vital role in quantifying surface asymmetry and producing profile drawings in archaeology and anthropology. The correct recognition of symmetry provides evidence to allow experts to restore damaged artifacts, assess consistency in artifact manufacture, and examine morphological variability in human development. With the increasing availability of archaeological and anthropological 3D meshes, landmark-based and landmark-free morphometric methods for detecting planes of symmetry have both been proposed. However, the landmark-based approach requires manual identification of landmark locations, hence time consuming and prone to error. Additionally, the landmark independent morphometric method is influenced by missing data. This study presents an effective landmark-free approach to approximate the best-fitted plane of symmetry from nearly bilaterally symmetrical objects by means of finding the plane with the minimum geometric differences between the original and mirrored meshes. Subsequently, a global and regional method is carried out to quantify surface asymmetry, reducing the effect of the size and orientation of 3D meshes on gross asymmetry detection. Finally, profile drawings are produced by computing the intersections of the plane of symmetry and 3D meshes. Both synthetic and real objects are used to evaluate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method. Our results show the approximated plane of symmetry generated by the proposed method is consistent with that determined by anatomical landmarks, and no significant differences in asymmetry ratio (AR) representing the degree of gross asymmetry are found between the landmark-based and proposed methods. These results demonstrate that the proposed method provides a suitable plane of symmetry from a bilaterally symmetrical object with small geometric distortion or simple missing geometry, thereby speeding up asymmetry detection and profile drawings.

Strategies to generate high-valence metal species capable of oxidizing water often employ composition and coordination tuning of oxide-based catalysts, where strong covalent interactions with metal sites are crucial. However, it remains unexplored whether a relatively weak “non-bonding” interaction between ligands and oxides can mediate the electronic states of metal sites in oxides. Here we present an unusual non-covalent phenanthroline-CoO2 interaction that substantially elevates the population of Co4+ sites for improved water oxidation. We find that phenanthroline only coordinates with Co2+ forming soluble Co(phenanthroline)2(OH)2 complex in alkaline electrolytes, which can be deposited as amorphous CoOxHy film containing non-bonding phenanthroline upon oxidation of Co2+ to Co3+/4+. This in situ deposited catalyst demonstrates a low overpotential of 216 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and sustainable activity over 1600 h with Faradaic efficiency above 97%. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the presence of phenanthroline can stabilize CoO2 through the non-covalent interaction and generate polaron-like electronic states at the Co-Co center.

The rapid evolution of antibiotic resistance and the complicated bacterial infection microenvironments are serious obstacles to traditional antibiotic therapy. Developing novel antibacterial agents or strategy to prevent the occurrence of antibiotic resistance and enhance antibacterial efficiency is of the utmost importance. Cell membrane-coated nanoparticles (CM-NPs) combine the characteristics of the naturally occurring membranes with those of the synthetic core materials. CM-NPs have shown considerable promise in neutralizing toxins, evading clearance by the immune system, targeting specific bacteria, delivering antibiotics, achieving responsive antibiotic released to the microenvironments, and eradicating biofilms. Additionally, CM-NPs can be utilized in conjunction with photodynamic, sonodynamic, and photothermal therapies. In this review, the process for preparing CM-NPs is briefly described. We focus on the functions and the recent advances in applications of several types of CM-NPs in bacterial infection, including CM-NPs derived from red blood cells, white blood cells, platelet, bacteria. CM-NPs derived from other cells, such as dendritic cells, genetically engineered cells, gastric epithelial cells and plant-derived extracellular vesicles are introduced as well. Finally, we place a novel perspective on CM-NPs’ applications in bacterial infection, and list the challenges encountered in this field from the preparation and application standpoint. We believe that advances in this technology will reduce threats posed by bacteria resistance and save lives from infectious diseases in the future.

Background Infection following lung transplantation has been the focus of clinical concerns. The colonization rate of commensal bacteria of the urogenital tract, including Mycoplasma hominis, Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU), and herpes simplex virus type-2 (HSV-2), is high, which may cause secondary infection after transplantation. Case presentation Twenty-three-year-old and 67-year-old women underwent lung transplantation for different causes. Shortly after the operation, they developed perineal skin ulcers, hypoxia, and intractable epilepsy. Subsequent computed tomography (CT) of the chest showed lung consolidation, and cranial CT showed shallowing sulci and gyri. UU and HSV-2 were detected in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid by next-generation sequencing, and HSV-2 was shown in the cerebrospinal fluid of both patients. Despite active treatment, both suffered irreversible brain function damage within 72 h of the seizure. Conclusions Clinicians should know that commensal bacteria of urogenital tract infections can lead to fatal multiple organ dysfunction after lung transplantation.

BackgroundMost previous studies on acupuncture in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) have focused on improving functional efficacy and safety, while related mechanisms have not been systematically reviewed. Acupuncture modulates cytokines to attenuate cartilage extracellular matrix degradation and apoptosis, key to the pathogenesis of KOA, but the mechanisms are complex.ObjectivesThe purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy of acupuncture quantitatively and summarily in animal studies of KOA.MethodsNine databases including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science (including Medline), Cochrane library, Scopus, CNKI, Wan Fang, and VIP were searched to retrieve animal studies on acupuncture interventions in KOA published since the inception of the journal. Relevant literature was screened, and information extracted. Meta-analysis was performed using Revman 5.4 and Stata 17.0 software.ResultsThe 35 included studies involved 247 animals, half of which were in acupuncture groups and half in model groups. The mean quality level was 6.7, indicating moderate quality. Meta-analysis showed that acupuncture had the following significant effects on cytokine levels in p38MAPK and mitochondrial pathways: (1) p38MAPK pathway: It significantly inhibits p38MAPK, interleukin-1beta (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), phosphorylated (p)-p38MAPK, matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13), MMP-1, a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs-5 (ADAMST-5) expression, and significantly increased the expression of collagen II and aggrecan. (2) mitochondrial pathway: It significantly inhibited the expression of Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax), cysteine protease-3 (caspase-3), caspase-9, and Cytochrome-c (Cyt-c). And significantly increased the expression of B cell lymphocytoma-2 (Bcl-2). In addition, acupuncture significantly reduced chondrocyte apoptosis, Mankin’s score (a measure of cartilage damage), and improved cartilage morphometric characteristics.ConclusionAcupuncture may inhibit cytokine expression in the p38MAPK pathway to attenuate cartilage extracellular matrix degradation, regulate cytokines in the mitochondrial pathway to inhibit chondrocyte apoptosis, and improve cartilage tissue-related phenotypes to delay cartilage degeneration. These findings provide possible explanations for the therapeutic mechanisms and clinical benefits of acupuncture for KOA.Systematic review registrationhttps://inplasy.com, identifier INPLASY20 2290125.

BackgroundPancreatic cancer (PC) is a highly malignant tumor of the digestive system. As clinical trials involving PC are increasingly being conducted, the transparency of the generated data has become an important issue of concern. In other areas of medicine, clinical trial transparency presents a worrying state of affairs. However, at present, there has been no study examining the transparency of data derived from PC clinical trials.MethodsA comprehensive search was conducted in the ClinicalTrial.gov database for clinical trials investigating pancreatic cancer as of June 2022. We examined the availability of clinical trial results and recorded the characteristics of the trials.ResultsA total of 856 trials were included in this study, of which 668 were completed and 188 were terminated or suspended. The results of 626 trials (73.13%) were available, of these 230 trials (26.87%) did not disclose any information on the trial data in any form. The publication rate for trials with available results was 86.10%, but the report rate on ClinicalTrial.gov was only 39.78%.ConclusionAlthough approximately 90% of clinical trial investigating interventions on patients with PC have published study results, 30% of trials did not report any findings, and the disclosure of trial results from ClinicalTrial.gov was unsatisfactory. In general, there is still room for improvement in the transparency of PC clinical trials.

Data-dependent acquisition (DDA) mode in ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS) can provide massive amounts of MS

Additional file 1: Supplemental Figure 1. Anti-lymphoma activity of standard chemotherapy drug. Supplemental Figure 2. Proteomic analysis of AZD4573-treated cell lines. Supplemental Figure 3. BAX knockout desensitizes DLBCL cells to AZD4573. Supplemental Figure 4. Oncogene recovery in cells treated with AZ5576. Supplemental Figure 5. CDK9i modulates the epigenetic landscape. Supplemental Figure 6. BRD4 increases following CDK9i. Supplemental Figure 7. The role of the Mediator complex in CDK9i. Supplemental Figure 8. In vivo combination of CDK9i/PIMi.

The adoption of the internet, social media, and e-cigarettes are on the rise among U.S. youth. Uses of social media and online platforms increase the probability for youth to encounter e-cigarette advertisements. Departing from this line of reasoning, we examine the underlying mechanisms of how online e-cigarettes exposure promotes youth's e-cigarette use. Drawing on insights from the social construction of risk model, this study looks at how perceived social norms and risk perception mediate the link between online e-cigarette advertisement exposure and e-cigarette use. Youth aged 12-17 from the Public Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study Waves 2-4 (2014-2018) were included (N = 6,067). Controlling for demographic and other known risk factors for e-cigarette use, respondents who had been exposed to online e-cigarette ads at Wave 2 perceived higher levels of positive social norms of e-cigarette use at Wave 3 (

While research on stratified news media consumption has been devoted to age, gender, and education, the life transitions in terms of people’s marital, parental, and occupational status have receive...

A rhodium(III)-catalyzed oxidative C-H activation/annulation of salicylaldehydes with propargylic acetates has been developed for the regioselective synthesis of 3-vinyl chromones in good yields with broad functional group tolerance. 3-Vinyl chromones were converted into biologically active benzo[

Lung transplantation is the preferred treatment method for patients with end-stage pulmonary disease. However, several factors hinder the progress of lung transplantation, including donor shortages, candidate selection, and various postoperative complications. Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a functional imaging tool that can be used to evaluate pulmonary ventilation and perfusion at the bedside. Among patients after lung transplantation, monitoring the graft’s pulmonary function is one of the most concerning issues. The feasible application of EIT in lung transplantation has been reported over the past few years, and this technique has gained increasing interest from multidisciplinary researchers. Nevertheless, physicians still lack knowledge concerning the potential applications of EIT in lung transplantation. We present an updated review of EIT in lung transplantation donors and recipients over the past few years, and discuss the potential use of ventilation- and perfusion-monitoring-based EIT in lung transplantation.

BackgroundAcinetobacter baumannii complex-caused bloodstream infection (ABCBSI) is a potentially fatal infection in intensive care units (ICUs). This study proposed an interpretable machine learning (ML) model to predict ABCBSI fulminant fatality.MethodsA retrospective study of ICU patients with ABCBSI was performed in China from 2009 to 2020. Patients were stratified into two groups: those that suffered from fulminant sepsis and died within 48 h, and those that survived for more than 48 h. The clinical score systems and ML models with Shapley additive explanation (SHAP) were used to develop the prediction models. The ML model was internally validated with five-fold cross-validation, and its performance was assessed using seven typical evaluation indices. The top 20 features ranked by the SHAP scores were also calculated.ResultsAmong 188 ICU patients with ABCBSI, 53 were assigned to the non-survival group and 135 to the survival group. The XGBoost model exhibited the greatest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), which outperformed other models (logistic regression, AUC = 0.914; support vector machine, AUC = 0.895; random forest, AUC = 0.972; and naive Bayesian, AUC = 0.908) and clinical scores (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II), AUC = 0.855; Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA), AUC = 0.837). It also had a sensitivity of 0.868, a specificity of 0.970, an accuracy of 0.941, a positive predictive value of 0.920, a negative predictive value of 0.949, and an F1 score of 0.893. As well as identifying the top 12 different important predictors that contribute to early mortality, it also assessed their quantitative contribution and noteworthy thresholds.ConclusionBased on the XGBoost model, early mortality in ABCBSI is estimated to be more reliable than other models and clinical scores. The 12 most important features with corresponding thresholds were identified and more importantly, the SHAP method can be used to interpret this predictive model and support individual patient treatment strategies.

Strontium (Sr) is the most common element introduced into TiO

Background. Since 2020 COVID-19 pandemic became an emergent public sanitary incident. The epidemiology data and the impact on prognosis of secondary infection in severe and critical COVID-19 patients in China remained largely unclear.Methods. We retrospectively reviewed medical records of all adult patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 who were admitted to ICUs from January 18th 2020 to April 26th 2020 at two hospitals in Wuhan, China and one hospital in Guangzhou, China. We measured the frequency of bacteria and fungi cultured from respiratory tract, blood and other body fluid specimens. The risk factors for and impact of secondary infection on clinical outcomes were also assessed. Results. Secondary infections were very common (86.6%) when patients were admitted to ICU for >72 hours. The majority of infections were respiratory, with the most common organisms being Klebsiella pneumoniae (24.5%), Acinetobacter baumannii (21.8%), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (9.9%), Candida albicans (6.8%), and Pseudomonas spp. (4.8%). Furthermore, the proportions of multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria and carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) were high. We also found that age ≥60 years and mechanical ventilation ≥13days independently increased the likelihood of secondary infection. Finally, patients with positive cultures had reduced ventilator free days in 28 days and patients with CRE and/or MDR bacteria positivity showed lower 28 day survival rate.Conclusions. In a retrospective cohort of severe and critical COVID-19 patients admitted to ICUs in China, the prevalence of secondary infection was high, especially with CRE and MDR bacteria, resulting in poor clinical outcomes.

Itch is a cutaneous sensation that is critical in driving scratching behavior. The long-standing question of whether there are specific neurons for itch modulation inside the brain remains unanswered. Here, we report a subpopulation of itch-specific neurons in the ventrolateral orbital cortex (VLO) that is distinct from the pain-related neurons. Using a Tet-Off cellular labeling system, we showed that local inhibition or activation of these itch-specific neurons in the VLO significantly suppressed or enhanced itch-induced scratching, respectively, whereas the intervention did not significantly affect pain. Conversely, suppression or activation of pain-specific neurons in the VLO significantly affected pain but not itch. Moreover, fiber photometry and immunofluorescence verified that these itch- and pain-specific neurons are distinct in their functional activity and histological location. In addition, the downstream targets of itch- and pain-specific neurons were different. Together, the present study uncovers an important subpopulation of neurons in the VLO that specifically modulates itch processing.

PurposePrevious research has found that women with second pregnancy may have an increased risk of cognitive dysfunction. This study aims to investigate the intrinsic functional connectivity (FC) pattern of the DMN anchored on posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in postpartum women, especially the parous women using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI).MethodsTwenty parous women, 26 primiparous women, and 30 nulliparous women were included for rs-fMRI scan. They were age and education well matched. A seed based FC method was conducted to reveal FC patterns with other brain regions using a region of interest in the PCC. The relationships between FC patterns and cognitive performance were further detected.ResultsRelative to primiparous women, parous women had significantly decreased FC primarily between the PCC and the right middle frontal gyrus and right parahippocampal gyrus. The decreased FC to the right parahippocampal gyrus in parous women was positively associated with the reduced DST scores (rho = 0.524, p = 0.031). Moreover, parous women compared with nulliparous women showed significantly decreased FC between the PCC and the left superior frontal gyrus and left middle frontal gyrus. The reduced FC to the left superior frontal gyrus in parous women was also positively associated with the lower DST scores (rho = 0.550, p = 0.022).ConclusionOur result highlights that women with second pregnancy revealed decreased FC between the DMN regions with the parahippocampal gyrus and prefrontal cortex, which was correlated with specific impaired cognitive function. This study may provide new insights into the neuropathological mechanisms of postpartum cognitive impairment and enhance our understanding of the neurobiological aspects during postpartum period.

This study examines the mediating roles of like-minded discussion and the perceived hostility gap of partisan news in the relationship between news consumption and affective polarization. Consisten...

Delivering corrective messages is a viable way to combat online health misinformation. However, the effectiveness of corrective messages online relies heavily on their scope of diffusion. Evidence ...

Antifreeze (glyco)proteins (AF(G)Ps) are naturally evolved ice inhibitors incomparable to any man-made materials, thus, they are gaining intensive interest for cryopreservation and beyond. AF(G)Ps depress the freezing temperature (Tf) noncolligatively below the melting temperature (Tm), generating a thermal hysteresis (TH) gap, within which the ice growth is arrested. However, the ice crystals have been reported to undergo a retaliatory and explosive growth beyond the TH gap, which is lethal to living organisms. Although intensive research has been carried to inhibit such an explosive ice growth, no satisfactory strategy has been discovered until now. Here, we report that crowded solutions mimicking an extracellular matrix (ECM), in which AF(G)Ps are located, can completely inhibit the explosive ice growth. The crowded solutions are the condensates of liquid-liquid phase separation consisting of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and sodium citrate (SC), which possess a nanoscale network and strong hydrogen bond (HB) forming ability, completely different to crowded solutions made of single components, that is, PEG or SC. Due to these unique features, the dynamics of the water is significantly slowed down, and the energy needed for breaking the HB between water molecules is distinctly increased; consequently, ice growth is inhibited as the rate of water molecules joining the ice is substantially reduced. The present work not only opens a new avenue for cryopreservation, but also suggests that the ECM of cold-hardy organisms, which also exhibit great water confining properties, may have a positive effect in protecting the living organisms from freezing damage.