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Background: The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants necessitates ongoing evaluation of vaccine performance. This study evaluates and compares the safety and immunogenicity of the Comirnaty and Spikevax monovalent XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccines in an elderly population., Methods: Altogether, 129 elderly individuals were recruited between 2 January and 3 February 2024, and received a booster dose of either Comirnaty (n=59) or Spikevax (n=70) monovalent XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine. Blood samples were collected at before and one month after vaccination. Immunogenicity was assessed by measuring the percentage of IFNγ + CD4 + and IFNγ + CD8 + T cells, and neutralizing antibody titers (NT50) using a surrogate virus neutralization test (sVNT). Adverse reactions were recorded and analyzed., Findings: Both vaccines significantly increased the percentage of IFNγ + CD8 + T cells against XBB.1.5 and wild-type (WT) SARS-CoV-2 at one-month post-vaccination. Spikevax induced a significantly higher percentages of IFNγ + CD8 + and CD4 + T cells against XBB.1.5 than Comirnaty (p<0.001). The proportion of participants showing a positive T cell response to XBB1.5 after vaccination was higher in the Spikevax group (64.3% CD8, 71.4% CD4) than in the Comirnaty group (42.4% CD8, 57.6% CD4). Spikevax also elicited higher NT50 levels against XBB1.5, JN.1 and the latest variant KP.2 than Comirnaty (XBB1.5: p<0.01; KP.2: p<0.05). Fever was more common in the Spikevax group (fever: p=0.006). However, all side effects were short-term and resolved on their own., Interpretation: Both vaccines induce neutralizing antibody to XBB1.5, JN.1 and KP.2. Specifically, Spikevax induces higher cellular and humoral immune responses than Comirnaty in the elderly, but it is also associated with a higher incidence of fever. These findings can guide public health strategies for vaccinating the elderly population., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Laparoscopic distal gastrectomy is now widely used in East Asia and worldwide with different preferences and outcomes. This study aimed to compare the short- and long-term outcomes and preferences between two high-volume gastric cancer centers in Korea and China., Methods: Patients who underwent laparoscopic-assisted distal gastrectomy (LADG) and totally laparoscopic distal gastrectomy (TLDG) for gastric cancer from Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) and the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University (NMUH) from 2017 to 2020 were enrolled in this study., Results: A total of 1166 SNUH cases and 847 NMUH cases enrolled in this study. The overall complication rate of SNUH (14.49%) did not differ from that of NMUH after LADG or TLDG (12.28%). The anastomosis-related complications rate (2.74%) did not show a significant difference with that of NMUH (2.01%) either. The median postoperative hospital stay for SNUH (7,(7,10)) was shorter than that for NMUH (8,(7,9)). The 5-year overall survival (OS) rate of SNUH was not significantly different from that of NMUH., Conclusion: There was no significant difference in the overall complication rate, anastomosis-related complication rate, resected lymph nodes, and 5- year overall survival rate between SNUH and NMUH except for the postoperative stay. Both the LADG and TLDG achieved satisfactory short- and long-term outcomes when performed by surgeons with adequate experience., Competing Interests: Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Ethical approval: The study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the ethics committees of Seoul National University Hospital and the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. Consent to participate: The patients were informed about sample collection and signed informed consent forms. All human samples used in this study were unidentified. Consent for publication: All authors of this article have directly participated in the planning and drafting, and all listed authors have read and approved the final version, including details and images., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Motivated by theories of music-to-language transfer, we investigated whether and how musicianship benefits phonological and lexical prosodic awareness in first language (L1) Cantonese and second language (L2) English. We assessed 86 Cantonese-English bilingual children on rhythmic sensitivity, pitch sensitivity, nonverbal intelligence, inhibitory control, working memory, Cantonese phonological awareness, Cantonese tone awareness, English phonological awareness, and English stress awareness. Based on their prior music learning experience, we classified the children as musicians and non-musicians. The musicians performed better than the non-musicians on Cantonese phonological awareness, Cantonese tone awareness, and English phonological awareness. In addition, the musicians had superior pitch sensitivity, nonverbal intelligence, inhibitory control, and working memory than the non-musicians. For Cantonese and English phonological awareness, neither cognitive abilities nor pitch and rhythmic sensitivities turned out to be a unique predictor. However, working memory uniquely predicted Cantonese tone awareness, with age, rhythmic sensitivity, and pitch sensitivity controlled. From a theoretical perspective, our findings on Cantonese tone awareness favors the cognitive perspective of music-to-language transfer, in which working memory enhancement could explain the musicians' superior performance in Cantonese tone awareness. However, our findings on phonological awareness do not favor the cognitive perspective, nor do they favor the perceptual perspective, in which enhanced rhythmic and pitch sensitivities could explain musicians' advantage., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)