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Objective To evaluate the regional etiology, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) pattern, and risk factors in neonates with sepsis in China. Methods We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis by searching Medline, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science in December 2020. Studies of neonatal sepsis from China published between 2011 and 2020 were included. We pooled the proportion of pathogens and calculated the odds ratios of risk factors with 95% CIs using a random-effects model. Results We included 29 studies of 164,750 neonates with sepsis. The studies comprise data from 1990 to 2019. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp accounted for 33% (95% CI 24–43), 17% (13–20), and 14% (11–17), respectively. Group B streptococcus (GBS) was the predominant isolate in early-onset sepsis (EOS) (21%, 95% CI 10–31), while the proportion of CoNS was the largest in late-onset sepsis (LOS) (32%, 95% CI 22–43). Resistance of CoNS to penicillin was found in 95% (95% CI 92–98) of 511 cases and Klebsiella spp to ampicillin in 95% (95% CI 90–99) of 364 cases. Maternal underlying diseases (2.61, 95% CI 1.48–4.61), mechanical ventilation (2.41, 1.37–4.23), central venous catheter placement (2.74, 1.77–4.26), peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) placement (4.26, 2.80–6.49), multiple antibiotic uses (5.35, 1.85–15.43) and total parenteral nutrition (7.96, 2.04–31.02) were risk factors of neonatal sepsis. Conclusion CoNS, E. coli, and Klebsiella spp were the predominant pathogens in neonatal sepsis in China. AMR was still a significant issue in NICUs. Total parenteral nutrition, multiple antibiotic uses, and PICC placement were the most relevant risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liver cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors. In Asia, liver cancer often develops on a background of cirrhosis caused by chronic hepatitis. The procedure of hepatitis, cirrhotic nodules, dysplastic nodules, and then hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common liver cancer evolutionary process. Judging the stage of hepatic nodules in the evolution process and taking intervention measures are critical for reducing the incidence of liver cancer. In this paper, a more accurate support vector machine (SVM) classification algorithm, LFOA-F-SVM, was proposed for radiomics to classify hepatic nodules from 120 patients into four categories based on dynamic enhanced magnetic resonance images. The algorithm uses radius-margin-based F-SVM, and combines the fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA) of Levy flight (LF) strategy to optimize the parameters. To verify the effectiveness of the method, five UCI classification data sets (hearts, Parkinson’s disease, iris, wine and zoo) were added and compared with SVM, PSO-SVM, FOA-SVM, F-SVM. The results showed that LFOA-F-SVM has the highest classification accuracy in six data sets compared to the other methods. And in the hepatic nodules data set, the classification precision and recall are relatively high.

Objective: In this study, we compared the enhancement of blood vessels and liver parenchyma on enhanced computed tomography (CT) of the upper abdomen with two concentrations of contrast media (400 and 300 mg I/mL) based on similar iodine delivery rate (IDR) of 0.88 and 0.9 g I/s and iodine load of 450 mg I/kg.Methods: We randomly assigned 160 patients into two groups: iomeprol 400 mg I/mL (A group) and iohexol 300 mg I/mL (B group). The CT attenuation values of the main anatomical structures in the two groups with different scanning phases were measured and the image quality of the two groups was analyzed and compared. The peak pressure and local discomfort (including fever and pain) during contrast medium injection were recorded.Results: The mean attenuation value of the abdominal aorta was 313.6 ± 29.6 in the A group and 322.4 ± 30.1 in the B group during the late arterial phase (p = 0.8). Meanwhile, the mean enhancement values of the portal vein were 176.2 ± 19.3 and 165.9 ± 24.5 in the A and B groups, respectively, during the portal venous phase (p = 0.6). The mean CT values of liver parenchyma were 117.1 ± 15.3 and 108.8 ± 18.7 in the A and B groups, respectively, during the portal venous phase (p = 0.9). There was no statistical difference in image quality, peak injection pressure (psi), and local discomfort between the two groups (p > 0.05).Conclusion: When a similar IDR and the same iodine load are used, CT images with different concentrations of contrast media have the same subjective and objective quality, and can meet the diagnostic needs.

The left myocardium is the strongest cardiac muscle, representing the ability of heart to pump arterial blood throughout the body. Quantitative analysis of the contractive motion of left ventricle (LV) stands an important approach to diagnose cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction. This paper utilized a biomechanical model describing the material of left myocardium to reconstruct the displacement field of LV. The mechanical model was used as an interpolation term, which was incorporated into the Bayesian estimation framework with the displacement field observed by cardiac cine magnetic resonance (CCMR) image, and the equation of displacement field was solved by finite element method. Functional parameters of LV were compared between the weak (46 cases) and normal (55 cases) ejection fraction groups of LV in the experiment. Significant differences in radial and circumferential displacement and velocity, strain and strain rate were observed between the two groups (p < 0.001), which proved that the method could effectively distinguish whether the motion of LV is normal or not. The experimental results are also highly correlated with the functional parameters of LV measured by CVI software, indicating that the method will facilitate the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases.

Topological insulators are materials that have an insulating bulk interior while maintaining gapless boundary states against back scattering. Bi 2 Se 3 is a prototypical topological insulator with a Dirac-cone surface state around Γ. Here, we present a controlled methodology to gradually remove Se atoms from the surface Se-Bi-Se-Bi-Se quintuple layers, eventually forming bilayer-Bi on top of the quintuple bulk. Our method allows us to track the topological surface state and confirm its robustness throughout the surface modification. Importantly, we report a relocation of the topological Dirac cone in both real space and momentum space as the top surface layer transitions from quintuple Se-Bi-Se-Bi-Se to bilayer-Bi. Additionally, charge transfer among the different surface layers is identified. Our study provides a precise method to manipulate surface configurations, allowing for the fine-tuning of the topological surface states in Bi 2 Se 3 , which represents a significant advancement toward nanoengineering of topological states.