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The “revitalization” development of traditional village culture is more embodied as the revitalization of the “traditional village cultural landscape genes.” This paper combines the overall concept and development strategy for the protection and development of traditional Hakka villages in western Fujian and puts forward the path of “revitalization” development of traditional Hakka villages in western Fujian. “Revitalization” development path. Construct a cultural development prediction based on the grayscale GM (1,1) model and test its accuracy by combining it with the GDP value of eight counties in western Fujian (Longyan City). Analyze the Hakka cultural tourism resources and major source markets in western Fujian and use the grayscale GM (1,1) model to make a future development prediction for the development of the Hakka traditional village culture industry in western Fujian. The GM(1,1) model’s absolute value for both relative error and rank deviation is less than 0.1. When combined with the grayscale GM(1,1) prediction model, we expect the culture of Hakka traditional villages in western Fujian to generate approximately 59024 million yuan in cultural tourism revenue by 2027.

Objective To explore the clinical significance of monitoring neuron specific enolase (NSE), carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125), and carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199) in patients with pneumoconiosis. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted among 222 patients with pneumoconiosis admitted to this hospital from January 2018 to December 2022. The patients were divided into three groups according to the stage of pneumoconiosis (stage I, II, and III). The serum levels and abnormal rates of NSE, CA125, and CA199 among these groups were compared. Results Among the 222 patients with pneumoconiosis, 51 (22.97%) were in stage I, 52 (23.42%) were in stage II, and 119 (53.61%) were in stage III. There were statistically significant differences in serum NSE and CA125 levels among pneumoconiosis patients at different stages (P < 0.001), and serum NSE and CA125 levels in patients at stage III were higher than those in stage I and stage II (P < 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in serum CA199 level among pneumoconiosis patients at different stages (P = 0.163). The abnormal rates of serum NSE, CA125, and CA199 levels among 222 patients were 45.05%, 27.93%, and 2.70%, respectively. There were statistically significant differences in serum NSE and CA125 abnormal rates among pneumoconiosis patients at different stages (both P < 0.001), and both showed an increasing trend with the increase of stage. Conclusions Monitoring serum NSE and CA125 in patients with pneumoconiosis can indicate the progression of their condition and provide references for the treatment plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microwave ablation (MWA) is a key alternative therapy to conventional surgery for the treatment of lung cancer. In addition to eliminating local tumors, MWA may promote antitumor immunological responses, such as abscopal effects in distant lesions. However, the intensity of MWA is limited and the underlying mechanisms are not well-defined. The present study assessed the impact of MWA on immune cell subsets and cytokines in patients with lung cancer. A total of 45 patients with lung cancer who underwent percutaneous lung tumor MWA were enrolled. Peripheral blood samples were collected before and 24 h after MWA and changes in immune cell subsets [lymphocytes, CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, B cells and natural killer (NK) cells] and serum cytokine levels (IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p70, IL-17A and F, IL-22, TNF-α, TNF-β and IFN-γ) were assessed by flow cytometry and ELISA. The number of total lymphocytes, CD4+ T and NK cells in the peripheral blood significantly decreased 24 h after MWA, while number of CD8+ T cells remained stable, leading to a higher proportion of CD8+ T cells. In addition, the serum levels of IL-2, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12p70, IL-22, TNF-α and IFN-γ were significantly increased 24 h after MWA, indicating a T helper 1 type immune response. The immune response in patients with advanced stage disease was comparable with patients in the early stage group; however, the number of total lymphocytes and CD3+ T cells significantly decreased and the ratio of CD4/CD8 and IL-2 levels significantly increased. The early immune response after MWA may contribute to systemic antitumor immunity in patients with both early and advanced disease. Thus, MWA may exhibit potential as a local therapy and trigger abscopal effects in distant lesions in patients with lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless medical sensor networks (WMSNs) play an important role in collecting healthcare data of the remote patient and transmitting them to the medical professional for proper diagnosis via wireless channel. To protect the patient's healthcare data which is private-related and sensitive, some authentication schemes for healthcare systems using WMSN have been proposed to ensure the secure communication between the medical sensors and the medical professional. Since cryptanalyzing the security defects of authenticated protocols is crucial to put forward solutions and propose truly robust protocols, we scrutinize two state-of-the-art authentication protocols using WMSN for healthcare systems. Firstly, we examine Ali et al.'s enhanced three-factor based authentication protocol and show that although it provides a formal proof and a security verification, it still fails to resist offline dictionary guessing attack, desynchronization attack, and privileged insider attack and contains a serious flaw in the password change phase. Secondly, we investigate Shuai et al.'s lightweight and three-factor based authentication protocol and point out that it cannot achieve high security level as they claimed; it is actually subject to offline dictionary guessing attack and privileged insider attack, and it also has a design flaw in the password change phase. In addition, we suggest several countermeasures to thwart these security weaknesses in these two schemes for WMSN and the similar kinds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid peer-to-peer assisted cloud-based video-on-demand (VoD) systems augment cloud-based VoD systems with P2P networks to improve scalability and save bandwidth costs in the cloud. In these systems, the VoD service provider (e.g., NetFlix) relies on the cloud to deliver videos to users and pays for the cloud bandwidth consumption. The users can download videos from both the cloud and peers in the P2P network. It is important for the VoD service provider to i) minimize the cloud bandwidth consumption, and ii) guarantee users' satisfaction (i.e., quality-of-experience). Though previous adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR) methods improve video playback smoothness, they cannot achieve these two goals simultaneously. To tackle this challenge, we propose AutoTune, a game-based adaptive bitrate streaming method. In AutoTune, we formulate the bitrate adaptation problem in ABR as a noncooperative Stackelberg game, where VoD service provider and the users are players. The VoD service provider acts as a leader and it decides the VoD service price for users with the objective of minimizing cloud bandwidth consumption while ensuring users' participation. In response to the VoD service price, the users select video bitrates that lead to maximum utility (defined as a function of its satisfaction minus associated VoD service fee). Finally, the Stackelberg equilibrium is reached in which the cloud bandwidth consumption is minimized while users are satisfied with selected video bitrates. To enhance the performance of AutoTune, we further propose the reputation-based incentive scheme and the popularity-based cache management scheme. Experimental results from the PeerSim simulator and the PlanetLab real-world testbed show that compared to existing methods, AutoTune can provide high user satisfaction and save cloud bandwidth consumption. Also, the proposed enhancement schemes are effective in improving the performance of AutoTune. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In data intensive clusters, a large amount of files are stored, processed and transferred simultaneously. To increase the data availability, some file systems create and store three replicas for each file in randomly selected servers across different racks. However, they neglect the file heterogeneity and server heterogeneity, which can be leveraged to further enhance data availability and file system efficiency. As files have heterogeneous popularities, a rigid number of three replicas may not provide immediate response to an excessive number of read requests to hot files, and waste resources (including energy) for replicas of cold files that have few read requests. Also, servers are heterogeneous in network bandwidth, hardware configuration and capacity (i.e., the maximal number of service requests that can be supported simultaneously), it is crucial to select replica servers to ensure low replication delay and request response delay. In this paper, we propose an Energy-Efficient Adaptive File Replication System (EAFR), which incorporates three components. It is adaptive to time-varying file popularities to achieve a good tradeoff between data availability and efficiency. Higher popularity of a file leads to more replicas and vice versa. Also, to achieve energy efficiency, servers are classified into hot servers and cold servers with different energy consumption, and cold files are stored in cold servers. EAFR then selects a server with sufficient capacity (including network bandwidth and capacity) to hold a replica. To further improve the performance of EAFR, we propose a dynamic transmission rate adjustment strategy to prevent potential incast congestion when replicating a file to a server, a network-aware data node selection strategy to reduce file read latency, and a load-aware replica maintenance strategy to quickly create file replicas under replica node failures. Experimental results on a real-world cluster show the effectiveness of EAFR and proposed strategies in reducing file read latency, replication time, and power consumption in large clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the increasing popularity of Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) and fast growth of mobile gaming, cloud gaming exhibits great promises over the conventional MMOG gaming model as it frees players from the requirement of hardware and game installation on their local computers. However, as the graphics rendering is offloaded to the cloud, the data transmission between the end-users and the cloud significantly increases the response latency and limits the user coverage, thus preventing cloud gaming to achieve high user Quality of Service (QoS). To solve this problem, previous research suggested deploying more datacenters, but it comes at a prohibitive cost. We propose a lightweight system called CloudFog, which incorporates “fog” consisting of supernodes that are responsible for rendering game videos and streaming them to their nearby players. Fog enables the cloud to be only responsible for the intensive game state computation and sending update information to supernodes, which significantly reduce the traffic hence the latency and bandwidth consumption. To further enhance QoS, we propose the reputation based supernode selection strategy to assign each player with a suitable supernode that can provide satisfactory game video streaming service, the receiver-driven encoding rate adaptation strategy to increase the playback continuity, the social network based server assignment strategy to avoid the communication interaction between servers in a datacenter to reduce latency, and the dynamic supernode provisioning strategy to deal with user churns. Experimental results from PeerSim and PlanetLab show the effectiveness and efficiency of CloudFog and our individual strategies in increasing user coverage, reducing response latency and bandwidth consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Real-world applications, such as peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, e-commerce and social networks, usually employ reputation systems to provide guidance in selecting trustworthy node for high system reliability and security. A reputation system computes and publishes reputation score for each node based on a collection of opinions from others about the node. However, collusion behaviors impair the effectiveness of reputation systems in trustworthy node selection. Though many reputation calculation methods have been proposed to mitigate collusion's influence, little effort has been devoted to specifically tackling collusion. Based on the important collusion behavior characteristics in reputation evaluation and influence on reputation values, we propose a basic collusion detection method to specifically detect suspicious collusion behaviors in pairs. We further optimize the method by reducing the computing overhead. We also propose two pre-processing methods to firstly identify partial reputation raters of a node that are more likely to be colluders before applying the collusion detection method on them, thus reducing the collusion detection overhead. Extensive experimental results show that our proposed methods can significantly enhance the capability of existing reputation systems to detect collusion with low overhead. Also, the pre-processing methods are effective in reducing the collusion detection overhead without affecting the collusion detection accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), an environmental pollutant, is present in high concentrations in urban smog and cigarette smoke and has been reported to promote high mucin 5AC (MUC5AC) expression. Epithelium-derived inflammatory cytokines are considered an important modulator of mucus oversecretion and MUC5AC overexpression. Here, we investigated whether the effect of BaP on MUC5AC overexpression was associated with cytokine autocrine activity in vivo and in vitro. In vivo, BALB/c mice were treated with ovalbumin (OVA) in the presence or absence of BaP. Allergy-induced mucus production was assessed by Alcian Blue Periodic acid Schiff (AB-PAS) staining. The human airway epithelial cell line NCI-H292 was used in vitro. MUC5AC and transforming growth factor (TGF)-α mRNA levels were assessed with real-time quantitative PCR. The concentration of cytokines was measured by ELISA. The MUC5AC, p-ERK, ERK, p-EGFR and EGFR proteins were detected by Western blotting in cells or by immunohistochemistry in mouse lungs. Small-interfering RNAs were used for gene silencing. TGF-α was overproduced in the supernatant of NCI-H292 cells treated with BaP. Knockdown of TGF-α expression inhibited the BaP-induced increase in MUC5AC expression and subsequent activation of the EGFR-ERK signalling pathway. Knocking down aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) expression or treatment with an ROS inhibitor (N-acetyl- L -cysteine) could relieve the TGF-α secretion induced by BaP in epithelial cells. In an animal study, coexposure to BaP with OVA increased mucus production, MUC5AC expression and ROS-EGFR-ERK activation in the lung as well as TGF-α levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). Furthermore, the concentration of TGF-α in BALF was correlated with MUC5AC mRNA levels. Additionally, TGF-α expression was found to be positively correlated with MUC5AC expression in the airway epithelial cells of smokers. Compared with non-smoker asthma patients, TGF-α serum levels were also elevated in smoker asthma patients. Autocrine TGF-α was associated with BaP-induced MUC5AC expression in vitro and in vivo. BaP induced TGF-α secretion by activating AhR and producing ROS, which led to activation of the EGFR-ERK pathway • BaP exposure aggravated TGF-α and MUC5AC expression in an OVA-induced asthma model. • Autocrine TGF-α was associated with BaP-induced MUC5AC overexpression. • AhR activation and ROS production accounted for BaP induced TGF-α overexpression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In current peer-to-peer (P2P) live streaming systems, nodes in a channel form a P2P overlay for video sharing. To watch a new channel, a node depends on the centralized server to join in the overlay of the channel. In today's live streaming applications, the increase in the number of channels triggers users' desire of watching multiple channels successively or simultaneously. However, the support of such watching modes in current applications is no better than joining in different channel overlays successively or simultaneously through the centralized server, which if widely used, poses a heavy burden on the server. In order to achieve higher efficiency and scalability, we propose a Social-network-Aided efficient liVe strEaming system (SAVE). SAVE regards users' channel switching or multichannel watching as interactions between channels. By collecting the information of channel interactions, nodes' interests, and watching times, SAVE forms nodes in multiple channels with frequent interactions into an overlay, constructs bridges between overlays of channels with less frequent interactions, and enables nodes to identify friends sharing similar interests and watching times. Thus, a node can connect to a new channel while staying in its current overlay, using bridges or relying on its friends, reducing the need to contact the centralized server. We further propose the channel-closeness-based chunk-pushing strategy and capacity-based chunk provider selection strategy to enhance the system performance. Extensive experimental results from the PeerSim simulator and PlanetLab verify that SAVE outperforms other systems in system efficiency and server load reduction, as well as the effectiveness of the two proposed strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) play important roles in postnatal neovascularization. However, the interaction of these two pathways is not fully understood. The present study utilized CoCl2 treated-endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) (EPCs exposure to CoCl2 are under mimic hypoxia) to examine the expressions of HIF-1α and HGF and futher to assess whether or not the inhibitor (2-methoxyestradiol [2ME2]) of HIF-1α decrease the HGF expression. In addition, to investigate the effects of HGF on the proliferation and tube formation of EPCs under mimic hypoxia, EPCs were transfected with NK4 (HGF antagonist) plasmid and exposed to CoCl2, then the proliferation of these EPCs was assayed by MTS and the tube formation capacity of these EPCs on Matrigel was detected. The analysis indicated that CoCl2 treatment induced HIF-1α expression of EPCs, and futher promoted HGF expression. While after 2ME2 was used in CoCl2 treated-EPCs, HGF expression was markedly inhibited compared with non-pretreated EPCs with 2ME2, which also showed that HGF expression in EPCs was mediated by HIF-1α. Further, the results showed that after EPCs were transfected with NK4 in spite of being exposed to CoCl2, their proliferation activity and tube formation capacity were weakened, which in turn indicated that HGF could promote the proliferation and the tube formation of EPCs, and this process might be regulated by HIF-1α. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large-scale resource sharing system (e.g., collaborative cloud computing and grid computing) creates a virtual supercomputer by providing an infrastructure for sharing tremendous amounts of resources (e.g., computing, storage, and data) distributed over the Internet. A resource information service, which collects resource data and provides resource search functionality for locating desired resources, is a crucial component of the resource sharing system. In addition to resource discovery speed and cost (i.e., efficiency), the ability to accurately locate all satisfying resources (i.e., fidelity) is also an important metric for evaluating service quality. Previously, a number of resource information service systems have been proposed based on Distributed Hash Tables (DHTs) that offer scalable key-based lookup functions. However, these systems either achieve high fidelity at low efficiency, or high efficiency at low fidelity. Moreover, some systems have limited flexibility by only providing exact-matching services or by describing a resource using a pre-defined list of attributes. This paper presents a resource information service that offers high efficiency and fidelity without restricting resource expressiveness, while also providing a similar-matching service. Extensive simulation and PlanetLab experimental results show that the proposed service outperforms other services in terms of efficiency, fidelity, and flexibility; it dramatically reduces overhead and yields significant enhancements in efficiency and fidelity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video sharing has been an increasingly popular application in online social networks (OSNs). However, its sustainable development is severely hindered by the intrinsic limit of the client/server architecture deployed in current OSN video systems, which is not only costly in terms of server bandwidth and storage but also not scalable with the soaring amount of users and video content. The peer-assisted Video-on-Demand (VoD) technique, in which participating peers assist the server in delivering video content, has been proposed recently. Unfortunately, videos can only be disseminated through friends in OSNs. Therefore, current VoD works that explore clustering nodes with similar interests or close location for high performance are suboptimal, if not entirely inapplicable, in OSNs. Based on our long-term real-world measurement of over 1,000,000 users and 2,500 videos on Facebook, we propose SocialTube, a novel peer-assisted video sharing system that explores social relationship, interest similarity, and physical location between peers in OSNs. Specifically, SocialTube incorporates four algorithms: a social network (SN)-based P2P overlay construction algorithm, an SN-based chunk prefetching algorithm, chunk delivery, and scheduling algorithm, and a buffer management algorithm. Experimental results from a prototype on PlanetLab and an event-driven simulator show that SocialTube can improve the quality of user experience and system scalability over current P2P VoD techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Peer-to-peer networks (P2Ps) use reputation systems to provide incentives for nodes to offer high quality of service (QoS) and thwart the intentions of dishonest or selfish nodes. Existing reputation systems have two problems. First, they directly regard node reputation as trust. Rather, reputation represents the opinions formed by others about a node's QoS behavior, while trust represents a node's honesty and willingness to cooperate. In addition to trust, factors such as node capacity and lifetime also influence reputation. Due to these factors' heterogeneity and variance over time, reputation cannot directly reflect a node's trust or current QoS. Second, existing reputation systems guide a node to select the server with the highest reputation, which may not actually select the highest QoS server and would overload the highest reputed nodes. This work aims to accurately reflect node trust and provide guidance for high-QoS server selection. Through experimental study, we find that node trust, available capacity, and lifetime positively affect node reputation. Based on this observation, we first propose a manual trust model and an automatic trust model that remove the influence of additional factors on reputation to truly reflect node trust. We then propose a high-QoS server selection algorithm that separately considers node trust, current available capacity, and lifetime. Extensive simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the trust models in accurate node trust reflection compared with an existing reputation system. Moreover, the server selection algorithm dramatically increases the success rate of service requests and avoids overloading nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on eight randomly selected initial interviews with families who agreed to be visited by an observer in Taiwan, this paper illustrates the way in which repressed guilt underlies the hospitality shown by the family, and the inhibition of both the fulfillment of the baby's needs, and of the bonding between the baby and his/her parent. Using a Chinese legend, the last part of the paper illustrates how the study of infant observations in Taiwan has revealed how a kind of triangle formed in the context of the Chinese family structure may interfere with ordinary Oedipal developmental processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE To determine the site(s) of upper airway obstruction in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) and their changes during sleep with upper airway (UA) pressure measurement; and to analyze the correspondence between the UA pressure measurement and polysomnography (PSG).METHOD Thirty patients with OSAS underwent UA pressure measurement. The catheter with five solid-state ultraminiature sensors was inserted through the patients' upper airway to the esophagus. The sensors were located at the nasopharynx, oropharynx, tongue base, hypopharynx, and esophagus. The lower limit of UA obstruction was determined by relying on the observed pressure pattern.RESULT 1) During inspiration, obstruction occurred associated with an increased negative inspiratory pressure inferior to the site of obstruction and a disappeared negative inspiratory pressure above the site of obstruction; 2) three patterns of obstruction were observed; 3) the site of obstruction was located at the site of the palate; 4) velopharyngeal obstruction and tongue-pharynx obstruction were all present; 5) nasopharyngeal obstruction velopharyngeal obstruction and tongue-pharynx obstruction were all present; and 6) peak inspiratory pressure differences between the normal breath and apnea were associated with the longest apnea interval ( <.05).CONCLUSION UA pressure measurement can evaluate the site of obstruction in patients with OSAS and their changes during sleep. Peak inspiratory pressure differences between normal breath and apnea can show the severity of OSAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) is a ubiquitous air pollutants, and BaP exposure leads to a risk of respiratory diseases. The oversecretion of airway mucus and high expression of mucin 5AC (MUC5AC) are associated with common respiratory disorders caused by air pollution. We aimed to investigate the effect of BaP on MUC5AC expression, especially the mechanisms by which BaP induces MUC5AC gene expression. The human airway epithelial cell NCI-H292 was used to test the effects of BaP on the expression of MUC5AC in vitro. MUC5AC mRNA and protein expression were assessed with real-time quantitative PCR, immunochemistry, and western blotting. A luciferase assay was conducted to detect the activity of the promoter. The total cellular ROS and mitochondrial ROS were measured by corresponding probes. Small-interfering RNAs were used for gene silencing. AhR-overexpressing cell lines were constructed by transfection with AhR overexpression lentivirus. We found that BaP stimulation upregulated the MUC5AC mRNA and protein levels and activated the ERK pathway. Suppressing ERK with U0126 (an ERK inhibitor) or knocking down ERK with siRNA decreased BaP-induced MUC5AC expression. The luciferase activity transfected with the MUC5AC promoter and cAMP-response element (CRE) was increased after BaP treatment, whereas CREB siRNA suppressed the BaP-induced overexpression of MUC5AC. In addition, BaP increased mitochondrial ROS production, and Mito-TEMP, a mitochondrial ROS inhibitor, inhibited BaP-induced MUC5AC expression and ERK activation. BaP increased the mRNA levels of CYP1A1 and CYP1B1, while Alizarin, a CYP1s inhibitor, suppressed the effects of BaP, including the MUC5AC overexpression, ERK activation and mitochondrial ROS generation. BaP induced the translocation of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. SiRNA-mediated knockdown or chemical inhibition of AhR decreased the BaP-induced expression of MUC5AC, while the overexpression of AhR significantly enhanced the BaP-induced expression of MUC5AC. ITE, an endogenous AhR ligand, also upregulated the mRNA and protein expression of MUC5AC. Furthermore, resveratrol treatment inhibited the BaP-induced MUC5AC overexpression, AhR translocation, mitochondrial ROS production and ERK pathway activation. Here, we highlighted the crucial role of AhR/mitochondrial ROS/ERK pathway activation in BaP-induced MUC5AC overexpression and identified resveratrol as a promising drug to reduce BaP-induced MUC5AC overexpression. ga1 • BaP induced MUC5AC expression by ERK/RSK/CREB pathway. • Mitochondrial ROS production accounted for BaP-induced ERK activation. • Inhibition of CYP1s reduced BaP-induced MUC5AC expression and ROS production. • Resveratrol decreased mitochondrial ROS to relieve MUC5AC overexpression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pulmonary rehabilitation is a crucial part of the nonpharmacological treatment of stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but management remains problematic. WeChat could serve as a useful tool in patient management. Baduanjin is a popular exercise in China that is usually applied in pulmonary rehabilitation, which has been confirmed to be effective in improving lung function and life quality. Objective: This study aimed to explore the efficiency of WeChat in the management of Baduanjin exercise in COPD patients. Methods: A total of 200 patients from the respiratory department of Putuo Hospital participated in the Baduanjin rehabilitation project from September 2018 to October 2019, and were randomly assigned to the WeChat and control groups and followed up using the WeChat platform or telephone for 12 weeks. The frequency of Baduanjin exercise, lung function (percentage of forced expiratory volume in 1 second predicted, FEV1% predicted), and COPD assessment test (CAT) scores were collected and compared between the two groups. The number of message exchanges and a satisfaction survey on the WeChat platform were used to assess the feasibility of WeChat management outside the hospital. Results: The Baduanjin exercise frequency significantly differed between the control group and WeChat group (F =33.82, P<.001) and across various time points (F =214.87, P<.001). After the follow-up on WeChat, there were fewer patients not performing Baduanjin exercise. The FEV1% predicted value significantly differed before and after Baduanjin exercise in the control group (Z =−3.686, P <.001) and the WeChat group (Z =−6.985, P<.001). A significant difference in the FEV1% predicted value was observed after Baduanjin exercise between the two groups (Z =−3.679, P <.001). The CAT score significantly differed before and after Baduanjin exercise in the control group (Z =−4.937, P<.001) and the WeChat group (Z =−5.246, P <.001). A significant difference in the CAT score was observed after Baduanjin exercise between the two groups (Z =−5.246, P<.001). The number of completed Baduanjin exercises, lung function, and CAT scores in active patients were higher than those in nonactive patients. All satisfaction survey items were scored with more than 4 points. Among the items, the highest score (mean 4.54, SD 0.77) was for continued WeChat management, followed by the effective management of Baduanjin exercise (mean 4.46, SD 0.87). The patients in the WeChat group showed much higher enthusiasm for and compliance with Baduanjin exercise, resulting in better life quality and lung function. The patients were very satisfied with the WeChat management because of the obvious curative effect and home feeling. Conclusions: The WeChat platform provided a feasible, effective, and sustainable management plan for Baduanjin rehabilitation. Trial Registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR1900028248; http://www.chictr.org.cn/showprojen.aspx?proj=46995 JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2021;9(2):e23548 doi:10.2196/23548 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tissue regeneration and wound healing are still serious clinical complications globally and lack satisfactory cures. Inspired by the impressive regeneration ability of the post-injury earthworms and their widely accepted medicinal properties, we screened and identified a novel collagen-like peptide from the amputated earthworms using high-throughput techniques, including transcriptomics, proteomics, and mass spectrum. The identified collagen-like peptide col4a1 was cloned and expressed to comprehensively investigate the wound healing effect and underlying mechanism. It exerted significant effects on wound healing both in vitro and in vivo , including enhanced viability, proliferation, migration of fibroblasts, granulation, and collagen deposition. Moreover, the col4a1 functioned via binding with integrin α 2 β 1 and upregulating the RAS/MAPK signaling pathway. This work demonstrates that the novel collagen-like peptide col4a1 obtained from the amputated earthworms enables enhanced wound healing and provides new opportunities for wound care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A systematic and comprehensive bioinformatic analysis of Periplaneta americana defensins (PaDefensins) has been performed. • Potential antiviral peptides (PaDefensin3, 4, and 5) have been synthesized and tested for antiviral effect. • PaDefensin5 is the first Padefensin with both theoretical and experimental evidence of strong antiviral activity. Due to the lack of an adaptive immune system, insects rely on innate immune mechanisms to fight against pathogenic infections. Two major innate immune pathways, Toll and IMD, orchestrate anti-pathogen responses by regulating the expression of antimicrobial peptide (AMP) genes. Although the antifungal or antibacterial function of AMPs has been well characterized, the antiviral role of AMPs in insects remains largely unclear. Periplaneta americana (P. americana), or the American cockroach, is used in traditional Chinese medicine as an antiviral agent; however, the underlying mechanism of action of P. americana extracts is unclear. Our previous study showed that the P. americana genome encodes multiple antimicrobial peptide genes. Based on these data, we predicted five novel P. americana defensins (PaDefensins) and analyzed their primary structure, secondary structure, and physicochemical properties. The putative antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial, and anticancer activities suggested that PaDefensin5 is a desirable therapeutic candidate against viral diseases. As the first experimental evidence of the antiviral effects of insect defensins, we also showed the antiviral effect of PaDefensin5 in Drosophila Kc cells and Drosophila embryos in vivo. In conclusion, results of both in silico predictions and subsequent antiviral experiments suggested PaDefensin5 a promising antiviral drug. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Primary tracheal lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LELC) is extremely rare, with only a few cases reported so far, and few studies have focused on the radiological features. This study aimed to investigate contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) and positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) presentations of primary tracheal LELC to improve diagnosis., Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical and imaging data of 13 patients with confirmed primary tracheal LELC between December 2013 and August 2022. We analyzed the radiological profiles of lesions on the CECT and PET-CT images., Results: In 92.3% (12/13) of the cases, primary tracheal LELC lesions predominantly occurred in the thoracic segment. They manifested as singular, wide-based, eccentric, irregular nodules, or exhibited mass-like thickening of the tracheal wall with invasive growth both internally and externally along the wall. The thickest dimension of the lesion ranged from 9 to 28 mm, affecting a length of 30.8±13.5 mm. Luminal stenosis was evident in all patients, with the narrowest point reaching a stenosis rate of 85%. Lesion margins were clear in 69.2% (9/13), indistinct in 23.1% (3/13), and unclear in 7.7% (1/13) of all cases. Among the patients, 92.3% (12/13) exhibited a relatively uniform density on CT plain scans, with a CT value of 44.5±7.8 Hounsfield units (HU). Enhancement scans revealed moderate to marked enhancement in 75% (9/12) of cases. In 2 cases undergoing PET-CT examination, lesion standardized uptake values (SUVs) were 4.4 and 5.1, whereas enlarged lymph node SUVs were 7.7 and 6.3, respectively. Mediastinal lymph node enlargement was observed in 8 patients (61.5%, 8/13), with a maximum short axis of 11.1±5.5 mm. After treatment, 9 out of 12 patients (75%) showed no evidence of distant metastasis upon CT re-examination., Conclusions: Early detection of primary tracheal LELC allows for curative resection and may lead to a favorable prognosis. It presents with characteristic CT findings, and the utilization of PET-CT improves diagnosis and staging., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://tlcr.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/tlcr-24-333/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2024 Translational Lung Cancer Research. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Qi-Xian Decoction (QXD), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) formula consisting of eight herbs, has been clinically used to treat asthma. However, the underlying mechanisms have not been completely elucidated. This study aimed to combine metabolomics and network pharmacology to reveal the mechanism of action of QXD in asthma treatment. Methods: An ovalbumin (OVA)-induced asthma mouse model was constructed to evaluate the therapeutic effects of QXD. Serum metabolomics and network pharmacology were combined to study the mechanism of anti-asthma action as well as the potential target, and related biological functions were validated. Results: The QXD treatment has demonstrated significant protective effects in OVA-induced asthmatic mice, as evidenced by its ability to inhibit inflammation, IgE, mucus overproduction, and airway hyperreactivity (AHR). Metabolomic analysis has revealed a total of 140 differential metabolites associated with QXD treatment. In addition, network pharmacology has identified 126 genes that are linked to the effects of QXD, including TNF, IL-6, IL1β, STAT3, MMP9, EGFR, JUN, CCL2, TLR4, MAPK3 and MAPK8. Through comprehensive gene-metabolite interaction network analysis, seven key metabolites have been identified and associated with the potential anti-asthmatic effect of QXD, with palmitic acid (PA) being the most notable among them. In vitro validation studies have confirmed the gene-metabolite interaction involving PA, IL-6, and MAPK8. Furthermore, our research has demonstrated that QXD treatment can effectively inhibit PA-promoted IL-6 expression in MH-S cells and reduce PA concentration in OVA-induced asthmatic mice. Conclusion: The regulation of metabolic pathways by QXD was found to be associated with its anti-asthmatic action, which provides insight into the mechanism of QXD in treating asthma., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Lin, Wu, Ma, Shan, Ma, Li, Pan, Miao, Liu, Wang and Ni.)

The aim of the study was to evaluate the significance of hypomagnesemia in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and clarify its possible pathogenesis. A retrospective cohort study was conducted by reviewing 83 patients hospitalized in Guanggu district, Wuhan Third Hospital, China. Clinical histories, laboratory findings and outcome data were collected. Eighteen patients had hypomagnesemia during hospitalization. Fourteen patients were in the critical group and six died. In the critical group, serum magnesium (0.72 ± 0.15 mmol/L) was much lower than that in the moderate and severe groups. At the same time, we also found that several indicators are correlated with the level of magnesium. The level of magnesium was positively associated with the lymphocyte count (r = 0.203, P = 0.004) and platelet count (r = 0.217, P = 0.002) but negatively related to the levels of CRP (r = -0.277, P = 0.000), LDH (r = -0.185, P = 0.011) and α-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (r = -0.198, P = 0.008) in the critical group. Hypomagnesemia might increase symptoms and may be associated with mortality in COVID-19 by affecting enzyme activity and activating the inflammatory response. Thus, magnesium might play a key role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19.

Background: Pulmonary rehabilitation is a crucial part of the nonpharmacological treatment of stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but management remains problematic. WeChat could serve as a useful tool in patient management. Baduanjin is a popular exercise in China that is usually applied in pulmonary rehabilitation, which has been confirmed to be effective in improving lung function and life quality., Objective: This study aimed to explore the efficiency of WeChat in the management of Baduanjin exercise in COPD patients., Methods: A total of 200 patients from the respiratory department of Putuo Hospital participated in the Baduanjin rehabilitation project from September 2018 to October 2019, and were randomly assigned to the WeChat and control groups and followed up using the WeChat platform or telephone for 12 weeks. The frequency of Baduanjin exercise, lung function (percentage of forced expiratory volume in 1 second predicted, FEV1% predicted), and COPD assessment test (CAT) scores were collected and compared between the two groups. The number of message exchanges and a satisfaction survey on the WeChat platform were used to assess the feasibility of WeChat management outside the hospital., Results: The Baduanjin exercise frequency significantly differed between the control group and WeChat group (F=33.82, P<.001) and across various time points (F=214.87, P<.001). After the follow-up on WeChat, there were fewer patients not performing Baduanjin exercise. The FEV1% predicted value significantly differed before and after Baduanjin exercise in the control group (Z=-3.686, P<.001) and the WeChat group (Z=-6.985, P<.001). A significant difference in the FEV1% predicted value was observed after Baduanjin exercise between the two groups (Z=-3.679, P<.001). The CAT score significantly differed before and after Baduanjin exercise in the control group (Z=-4.937, P<.001) and the WeChat group (Z=-5.246, P<.001). A significant difference in the CAT score was observed after Baduanjin exercise between the two groups (Z=-5.246, P<.001). The number of completed Baduanjin exercises, lung function, and CAT scores in active patients were higher than those in nonactive patients. All satisfaction survey items were scored with more than 4 points. Among the items, the highest score (mean 4.54, SD 0.77) was for continued WeChat management, followed by the effective management of Baduanjin exercise (mean 4.46, SD 0.87). The patients in the WeChat group showed much higher enthusiasm for and compliance with Baduanjin exercise, resulting in better life quality and lung function. The patients were very satisfied with the WeChat management because of the obvious curative effect and home feeling., Conclusions: The WeChat platform provided a feasible, effective, and sustainable management plan for Baduanjin rehabilitation., Trial Registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR1900028248; http://www.chictr.org.cn/showprojen.aspx?proj=46995., (©Junjie Bi, Wei Yang, Ping Hao, Yongmei Zhao, Dan Wei, Yipeng Sun, Yuhua Lin, Meng Sun, Xuan Chen, Xuming Luo, Shanqun Li, Wei Zhang, Xiongbiao Wang. Originally published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 02.02.2021.)

Background: There are no approved medications for juvenile fibromyalgia (JFM), a disorder that is often under-diagnosed. The effects of milnacipran, a drug approved for the management of fibromyalgia (FM) in adults, was assessed in a clinical trial program for JFM., Methods: Patients, ages 13-17 years who met the Yunus and Masi criteria for JFM and/or 1990 American College of Rheumatology criteria for FM, were enrolled in a responder-enriched, randomized withdrawal trial. After receiving open-label milnacipran (8 weeks), patients with ≥50 % improvement in pain underwent double-blind randomization (1:2) to either placebo or continuing treatment with milnacipran (8 weeks). All patients, including those who did not meet the randomization criteria for double-blind withdrawal, were allowed to enter an extension study with open-label milnacipran (up to 52 weeks). The primary endpoint was loss of therapeutic response (LTR) during the double-blind period. Additional outcome measures included the Patient Global Impression of Severity (PGIS), Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL: Generic Core Scales, Multidimensional Fatigue Scale), and Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC). Safety assessments included adverse events (AEs), vital signs, electrocardiograms, and laboratory tests., Results: The milnacipran program was terminated early due to low enrollment. Because only 20 patients were randomized into the double-blind withdrawal period, statistical analyses were not conducted for the LTR endpoint. However, 116 patients entered the open-label period of the initial study and 57 participated in the open-label extension study. Their experience provides preliminary information about the use of milnacipran in JFM patients. During both open-label periods, there were mean improvements in pain severity, PGIC, PedsQL, and MASC scores. No unexpected safety issues were detected. The most commonly reported treatment-emergent AEs were nausea, headache, vomiting, and dizziness. Mean increases in heart rate and blood pressure were observed, and were consistent with the AE profile in adults with FM., Conclusions: The open-label findings provide preliminary evidence that milnacipran may improve symptoms of JFM, with a safety and tolerability profile that is consistent with the experience in adult FM patients. Future trial designs for JFM should consider the relatively low recognition of this condition compared to adult FM and the difficulties with enrollment., Trial Registration: NCT01328002 ; NCT01331109.