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BackgroundPrognostic nutritional index (PNI) has been identified as a reliable prognostic factor for cancer adjuvant therapy. However, its prognostic value in lung cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) remains inconclusive.MethodA systematic literature review and meta-analysis was performed based on online databases before March 1th 2023. The correlation of PNI with overall survival (OS) or progression-free survival (PFS) was determined using the hazard ratios (HRs) coupled with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Then, a retrospective cohort enrolling 123 ICI-treated lung cancer patients from two hospitals was utilized for validation and further investigation.ResultsA total of 14 studies enrolling 1,260 lung cancer patients were included in the meta-analysis. The high PNI level was significantly correlated with better OS (HR = 2.56, 95% CI = 1.86–3.54) and PFS (HR = 1.91, 95% CI = 1.53–2.40) of the lung cancer patients. The subgroup analysis confirmed the results except for the PFS in patients receiving anti-PD-1 therapy (HR = 1.51, 95% CI = 0.86–2.65). In the retrospective study, the high PNI level was identified as a favorable factor for OS and PFS not only in the whole cohort but also in the subgroups stratified by non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. The high PNI was also correlated with better anti-cancer therapy response and performed better than body mass index and serum albumin level in OS prediction. Finally, we established a novel prognostic nomogram based on PNI and other clinical parameters. The nomogram was found to perform well in predicting the 1-year OS of ICI-treated lung cancer patients.ConclusionBoth the meta-analysis and retrospective work demonstrate the PNI is a reliable prognostic factor for advanced lung cancer patients receiving ICI-based therapies. Our study further highlights the crucial role of nutrition assessment and intervention in cancer immunotherapy.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier: CRD42023424146.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major health burden, accounting for approximately 10% of all new cancer cases worldwide. Accumulating evidence suggests that the crosstalk between the host mucins and gut microbiota is associated with the occurrence and development of CRC. Mucins secreted by goblet cells not only protect the intestinal epithelium from microorganisms and invading pathogens but also provide a habitat for commensal bacteria. Conversely, gut dysbiosis results in the dysfunction of mucins, allowing other commensals and their metabolites to pass through the intestinal epithelium, potentially triggering host responses and the subsequent progression of CRC. In this review, we summarize how gut microbiota and bacterial metabolites regulate the function and expression of mucin in CRC and novel treatment strategies for CRC.

The gap fraction (GF) of vegetative canopies is an important property related to the contained bulk of reproductive elements and woody facets within the tree crown volume. This work was developed from the perspectives of porous media theory and computer graphics techniques, considering the vegetative elements in the canopy as a solid matrix and treating the gaps between them as pores to guide volume-based GFvol calculations. Woody components and individual leaves were extracted from terrestrial laser scanning data. The concept of equivalent leaf thickness describing the degrees of leaf curling and drooping was proposed to construct hexagonal prisms properly enclosing the scanned points of each leaf, and cylinder models were adopted to fit each branch segment, enabling the calculation of the equivalent leaf and branch volumes within the crown. Finally, the volume-based GFvol of the tree crown following the definition of the void fraction in porous media theory was calculated as one minus the ratio of the total plant leaf and branch volume to the canopy volume. This approach was tested on five tree species and a forest plot with variable canopy architecture, yielding an estimated maximum volume-based GFvol of 0.985 for a small crepe myrtle and a minimal volume-based GFvol of 0.953 for a sakura tree. The 3D morphology of each compositional element in the tree canopy was geometrically defined and the canopy was considered a porous structure to conduct GFvol calculations based on multidisciplinary theory.

COVID-19 prognoses suggests that a proportion of patients develop fibrosis, but there is no evidence to indicate whether patients have progression of mesenchymal transition (MT) in the lungs. The role of MT during the COVID-19 pandemic remains poorly understood. Using single-cell RNA sequencing, we profiled the transcriptomes of cells from the lungs of healthy individuals (n = 45), COVID-19 patients (n = 58), and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients (n = 64) human lungs to map the entire MT change. This analysis enabled us to map all high-resolution matrix-producing cells and identify distinct subpopulations of endothelial cells (ECs) and epithelial cells as the primary cellular sources of MT clusters during COVID-19. For the first time, we have identied early and late subgroups of endothelial mesenchymal transition (EndMT) and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) using analysis of public databases for single-cell sequencing. We assessed epithelial subgroups by age, smoking status, and gender, and the data suggest that the proportional changes in EMT in COVID-19 are statistically significant. Further enumeration of early and late EMT suggests a correlation between invasive genes and COVID-19. Finally, EndMT is upregulated in COVID-19 patients and enriched for more inflammatory cytokines. Further, by classifying EndMT as early or late stages, we found that early EndMT was positively correlated with entry factors but this was not true for late EndMT. Exploring the MT state of may help to mitigate the fibrosis impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

In recent years, governments worldwide have paid more attention to environmental issues, and green innovation is essential to balance economic growth and environmental sustainability. This article investigates the different impacts of the government’s environmental attention on green innovation of heavy-polluting and non-heavy-polluting firms using the sample of listed firms in China from 2011 to 2019. We find that the relationship between the government’s environmental attention and green innovation is consistent with the “U”-shape in heavy-polluting firms. However, the government’s environmental attention positively impacts the green innovation of non-heavy-polluting firms. In addition, Fintech mitigates the negative effects of the government’s environmental attention on green innovation in the short term while enhancing the positive effect of the government’s environmental attention on green innovation in the long term for heavy polluting firms. Our article provides evidence and implications for environmental regulation in developing countries and urban areas.

Animal-manure biochar used as a sustainable amendment to garden soil has been widely applied, and the animal-manure pyrolysis temperatures would also have a regulatory effect on soil functions because of their affections on biochar physio-chemical properties. Here we studied the effects of different dosages of swine-manure biochar on tea garden soil functions, with the swine-manure pyrolysis temperature differed at 350 and 500°C. The results showed that the improvement of soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen and enzyme activities was closely related to the addition of 0.5–2% (biochar wt/soil wt) swine-manure biochar. Under different conditions of different carbon application rates and carbon type, the addition of 2% swine-manure biochar pyrolyzed at 350°C showed the best effects on soil enzyme activities and microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen contents. Compared to the control, after the addition of 2% swine-manure biochar, sucrase, phosphatase, catalase, and urease activities increased by 63.3, 23.2, 50.3, and 27.9%, respectively. Microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen contents also increased by 36.4 and 34.3%, respectively. Our study indicated that the effectiveness of using animal-manure swine-manure biochar as a sustainable amendment to soil would provide evidence of tea garden soil improvement and the environmental response to the usage of biochars.

Omnidirectionality and simple design make VAWTs more attractive compared to HAWTs in highly turbulent and harsh operational environments including low wind speed conditions where this technology shines more. However, the performance of VAWTs is lacking compared to HAWTs due to low turbine efficiency at downstream caused by large wake vortices generated by advancing blades in the upstream position. Introducing variable design methods on VAWT provides better adaptability to the various oncoming wind conditions. This paper presents state-of-the-art variable methods for performance enhancement of VAWTs to provide better direction for the wind industry. The variable VAWT design can increase the lift and torque, especially at the downstream regions by managing the blade-to-wake interaction and blade angle of attack (AoA) well, hence contributing to the performance enhancement of VAWTs. In addition, the self-starting capabilities have also been found to improve by employing variable methods with a better angle of attack on the turbine blades. Nevertheless, the complexity of varying mechanisms and structural rigidity are the main challenges in adopting this idea. Yet, it possesses great potential to develop higher-efficiency VAWT systems that can operate in a wide range of wind speeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]