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Objectives The present study investigated immune disorders and CCR7 expression in primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) patients and analyzed their changes and clinical significance before and after treatments. Methods Flow cytometry was used to detect the proportion of different immune cell subsets in the peripheral blood of 42 patients with ITP and 20 normal controls at different time points. Treatments included first-line drugs, such as glucocorticoids and intravenous immunoglobulin, and second-line therapy, such as interleukin-11 and Thrombopoietin receptor agonists (TPO-RA). Results An elevated CD4/CD8 ratio and a decreased NK cells and CD4+CD25+CD127 low regulatory T cells (Tregs) were found in pretreatment ITP patients compared to healthy controls. The newly diagnosed group had a higher CD4/CD8 ratio and more NK cells than in the relapsed group. Tregs of the remission group were higher than those of the recurrence group. The CD4+CCR7+, CD8+CCR7+, CCR7+ subset of B cells and NK cells showed higher increases in the newly diagnosed and the relapsed group compared to controls and remission group.CD4+CCR7+ and CD8+CCR7+ subset in the relapsed group were slightly higher than the newly diagnosed. The CCR7+ subsets of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, NK cells and B cells were lower in the remission group compared to the relapsed group. Higher level of the CD8+CCR7+ subset and lower NK cells were found in the remission group compared to the controls. The ratio between the CD4+CCR7+ subset and CD8+CCR7+ subset was lower in the ITP patients than in normal controls. There was a negative correlation between the CD8+CCR7+ subset and platelet count in the ITP patients. Conclusion ITP patients with CCR7 had immune disorders and high heterogeneity, and CCR7 was found to be involved in the pathogenesis of ITP. Further studies are needed to investigate the effective treatment for ITP by targeted regulation of CCR7.

Background Telemedicine helps to provide the safe management of stroke patients in the emergency department (ED) and has been used worldwide. However, we had limited experience of telestroke in Taiwan. We aimed to identify the quality of telestroke and compare it with the original face-to-face consultation model. Methods Among 178 consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients treated with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (IVtPA) from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2019, we compared two different consultation methods: face-to-face consultation and telestroke consultation. We collected data on demographics, the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores, Modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores, time measurements (onset-to-arrival time, onset-to-telestroke activation time, and time of IVtPA administration (Door-to-Needle; DTN)). Results The mean age to receive a telestroke consultation was 66.6 years, 36% were female, and the median NIHSS score was 9. The median time from patient arrival to telestroke consult activation was 40 min, and the median DTN time was 11 min longer than for face-to-face consults (62 min versus 51 min, p = .01). Telestroke consultation, similar to a face-to-face consultation, resulted in safe IVtPA eligibility assessments and administration with post-thrombolysis ICH in 4% overall (4% telestroke, 3% face-to-face consultation; p = .851). The 90-day outcomes were not different for mRS score, dichotomized 0–2 (60% telestroke 59% face-to-face consultation; p = .961), or for mortality (16% telestroke, 9% face-to-face consultation; p = .292). Conclusion In the ED, consultation via the telestroke program provides equal quality to the original face-to-face consultation model to manage ischemic stroke.

Background Fecal immunochemical test (FIT) is worldwide strategy for colorectal cancer screening. The subjects with negative FIT still have the risk of an advanced colorectal neoplasia (AN), including adenoma with villous histology, high grade dysplasia or larger than 1 cm in size, or adenocarcinoma. The study determined the risk factors associated with AN in FIT-negative subjects. Methods The study included asymptomatic subjects who received health checkup colonoscopy and have provided FIT study within 6 months prior to colonoscopy. The risk factors to have AN in cases with negative FIT were analyzed. The numbers of colonoscopies needed to detect one AN were calculated for the subjects with different risk factors. Results There were 1411 cases, 85 with positive FIT and 1326 with negative FIT within 6 months before colonoscopy. In FIT positive and FIT negative cases, 45.9% and 34.6% were found to have colorectal adenoma, while 20.2% and 4.6% had AN, respectively. The univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that age more than 50 years old, male sex, smoking history and metabolic syndrome were the significant risk factors to have AN in the FIT negative cases. For cases with negative FIT to have these risk factors, the number of colonoscopies needed to detect one AN was 3.7, lower than 4.5 of the cases with positive FIT. Conclusion For the cases with negative FIT, colonoscopy screening should be considered for those male patients over 50 years old, with a history of smoking and metabolic syndrome to detect AN.

Wei-Ying Diao,1,&ast; Cheng-Long Ding,1,&ast; Bo-Yang Yuan,2 Zan Li,3 Na Sun,4 Jia-Bin Huang5 1Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jiamusi University, Jimusi City, Heilongjiang Province, 154002, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jiamusi University, Jimusi City, Heilongjiang Province, 154002, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Analytical Chemistry Teaching and Research, Jiamusi University, Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, 154002, People’s Republic of China; 4Graduate Department, Jiamusi University, Jiamusi, Heilongjiang Province, 154002, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Geratology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jiamusi University, Jiamusi, Heilongjiang Province, 154002, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jia-Bin Huang Email jiadupinglu54972@163.comIntroduction: We aim to investigate the relationship between HER2 gene phenotype and clinical characteristics, distribution and prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.Methods: A total of 249 NSCLC patients admitted to the oncology department of our hospital from January 2015 to January 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The clinicopathological information, CT signs, clinical efficacy and long-term prognosis were collected and compared.Results: A total of 249 NSCLC patients underwent HER2 gene testing, 21 of them (8.43%) complied with HER2 alterations [HER2 (+)], and there were significant differences in tumor stages among patients with different HER2 phenotypes (P< 0.05). Among 21 NSCLC patients with HER2 (+), HER2 gene mutation was found in 17 patients (81%), and HER2 gene amplification in 4 patients (19%). Among the HER2 mutations, 12 cases (57%) were 20 exon mutations, and 5 cases (19%) were other mutations. Analysis of CT signs showed that border lobulation/burr, necrosis sign and pleural depression were correlated with HER2 gene mutation (P< 0.05). The incidence of EGRF mutation in HER (+) patients was significantly lower than that in HER (-) patients (P< 0.05), but there was no significant difference in the incidence of ALK gene mutation among different HER phenotypes (P> 0.05). The disease control rate of HER2 (+) patients was significantly lower than that of HER2 (-) patients, and the 12-month progression-free survival rate and survival rate of HER2 (+) patients were significantly higher than those of HER2 (-) patients (P< 0.05). There was no significant difference in the incidence of ADR among HER2 patients with different phenotypes, but the incidence of ADR (adverse drug reaction) in HER2 (+) patients with Grade 3 or 4 was significantly higher than that in the control group (P< 0.05).Discussion: The incidence of HER2 gene mutations in NSCLC patients is relatively low, but it is far commoner in patients with stage IIIB∼IV, among which exon 20 mutations are the most prevalent. In CT signs, the lesion lobulated sign/spiculated sign, necrosis signs, and pleural depression signs are related to HER2 gene mutations. In addition, HER2 gene mutations play a crucial role in the clinical prognosis and treatment safety of patients.Keywords: non-small cell lung cancer, HER2 genotype, CT signs, afatinib

In chronic obesity, hepatocytes become insulin resistant and exert important effects on systemic metabolism. Here we show that in early onset obesity (4 weeks high-fat diet), hepatocytes secrete exosomes that enhance insulin sensitivity both in vitro and in vivo. These beneficial effects were due to exosomal microRNA miR-3075, which is enriched in these hepatocyte exosomes. FA2H is a direct target of miR-3075 and small interfering RNA depletion of FA2H in adipocytes, myocytes and primary hepatocytes leads to increased insulin sensitivity. In chronic obesity (16–18 weeks of a high-fat diet), hepatocyte exosomes promote a state of insulin resistance. These chronic obese hepatocyte exosomes do not directly cause impaired insulin signalling in vitro but do promote proinflammatory activation of macrophages. Taken together, these studies show that in early onset obesity, hepatocytes produce exosomes that express high levels of the insulin-sensitizing miR-3075. In chronic obesity, this compensatory effect is lost and hepatocyte-derived exosomes from chronic obese mice promote insulin resistance. Ji and Luo et al. show that miR-3075 in hepatocyte-derived exosomes from mice at early stages of obesity improves insulin sensitivity in chronically obese mice, while hepatocyte exosomes from chronically obese mice induce insulin resistance.

BackgroundEsophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most common cancers in the world, the detection and prognosis of which are still unsatisfactory. Thus, it is essential to explore the factors that may identify ESCC and evaluate the prognosis of ESCC patients. ResultsBoth protein and mRNA expression levels of BIRC5 are upregulated in ESCC group rather than non-ESCC group (standardized mean difference > 0). BIRC5 mRNA expression is related to the age, tumor location, lymph node stage and clinical stage of ESCC patients (p < 0.05). BIRC5 expression makes it feasible to distinguish ESCC from non-ESCC (area under the curve > 0.9), and its high expression is related to poor prognosis of ESCC patients (restrictive survival time difference = -0.036, p < 0.05). BIRC5 may play an important role in ESCC by influencing the cell cycle pathway, and CDK1, MAD2L and CDC20 may be the hub genes of this pathway. The transcription factors-MAZ and TFPD1 -are likely to regulate the transcription of BIRC5, which may be one of the factors for the high expression of BIRC5 in ESCC. ConclusionsThe current study shows that upregulation of BIRC5 may have essential clinical value in ESCC, and contributes to the understanding of the pathogenesis of ESCC.

Objectives To evaluate the utility of the splenial angle (SA), an axial angular index of lateral ventriculomegaly measured on diffusion tensor MRI color fractional anisotropy maps, in differentiating NPH from Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and healthy controls (HC), and post-shunt changes in NPH, compared to Evans’ index and callosal angle. Methods Evans’ index, callosal angle, and SA were measured on brain MRI of 76 subjects comprising equal numbers of age- and sex-matched subjects from each cohort of NPH, AD, PD, and HC by two raters. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) and multivariable analysis were used to assess the screening performance of each measure in differentiating and predicting NPH from non-NPH groups respectively. Temporal changes in the measures on 1-year follow-up MRI in 11 NPH patients (with or without ventriculoperitoneal shunting) were also assessed. Results Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability were excellent for all measurements (intraclass correlation coefficients > 0.9). Pairwise comparison showed that SA was statistically different between NPH and AD/PD/HC subjects (p < 0.0001). SA performed the best in predicting NPH, with an area under the ROC curve of > 0.98, and was the only measure left in the final model of the multivariable analysis. Significant (p < 0.01) change in SA was seen at follow-up MRI of NPH patients who were shunted compared to those who were not. Conclusions The SA is readily measured on axial DTI color FA maps compared to the callosal angle and shows superior performance differentiating NPH from neurodegenerative disorders and sensitivity to ventricular changes in NPH after surgical intervention. Key Points • The splenial angle is a novel simple angular radiological index proposed for idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus, measured in the ubiquitous axial plane on DTI color fractional anisotropy maps. • The splenial angle quantitates the compression and stretching of the posterior callosal commissural fibers alongside the distended lateral ventricles in idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) using tools readily accessible in clinical practice and shows excellent test-retest reliability. • Splenial angle outperforms Evans’ index and callosal angle in predicting NPH from healthy, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease subjects on ROC analysis with an area under the curve of > 0.98 and is sensitive to morphological ventricular changes in NPH patients after ventricular shunting.

During the pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019, there exist quite a few studies on angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and SARS-CoV-2 infection, while little is known about ACE2 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The detailed mechanism among ACE2 and HCC still remains unclear, which needs to be further investigated. In the current study with a total of 6,926 samples, ACE2 expression was downregulated in HCC compared with non-HCC samples (standardized mean difference = −0.41). With the area under the curve of summary receiver operating characteristic = 0.82, ACE2 expression showed a better ability to differentiate HCC from non-HCC. The mRNA expression of ACE2 was related to the age, alpha-fetoprotein levels and cirrhosis of HCC patients, and it was identified as a protected factor for HCC patients via Kaplan–Meier survival, Cox regression analyses. The potential molecular mechanism of ACE2 may be relevant to catabolic and cell division. In all, decreasing ACE2 expression can be seen in HCC, and its protective role for HCC patients and underlying mechanisms were explored in the study., Graphical Abtstract

The screening and treatment of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) still perplexes clinicians, making it necessary to explore new markers. To this end, this research examined the underlying molecular mechanism of LSCC based on high-throughput datasets (n = 249) from multiple databases. It also identified transcription factors (TFs) independently associated with LSCC prognosis. Through Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses, differential expression genes of LSCC were deemed relevant to the extracellular matrix and its related structures or pathways, suggesting that the extracellular matrix plays an important role in LSCC. At the same time, several hub genes that may also have important roles in LSCC were identified via protein–protein interaction analysis, including CDC45, TPX2, AURKA, KIF2C, NUF, MUC1, MUC7, MUC4, MUC15, and MUC21. Eight unreported LSCC prognostic TFs – BCAT1, CHD4, FOXA2, GATA6, HNF1A, HOXB13, MAFF, and TCF4 – were screened via Kaplan–Meier curves. Cox analysis determined for the first time that HOXB13 expression and gender were independently associated with LSCC prognosis. Compared to control tissues, elevated expression of HOXB13 was found in LSCC tissues (standardized mean difference = 0.44, 95% confidence interval [0.13–0.76]). HOXB13 expression also makes it feasible to screen LSCC from non-LSCC (area under the curve = 0.77), and HOXB13 may play an essential role in LSCC by regulating HOXB7. In conclusion, HOXB13 may be a novel marker for LSCC clinical screening and treatment.

The COVID-19 outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization on January 30, 2020. Since then, the virus has spread to affect more countries worldwide. During this period, our nuclear medicine department at Singapore General Hospital segregated our staff and patients by time, by space, or both, to minimize contact and prevent spread of the virus. Necessary changes to our clinical practices and stricter infection control measures were also enforced. We share our personal experience in managing a nuclear medicine department during this epidemic.

Pulmonary embolism (PE) care has traditionally been fragmented. The newly introduced Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT) model provides streamlined care based on expedient, multi-disciplinary decision-making. This study aimed to quantify the impact of PERT, as part of a hospital-wide PE treatment protocol, on clinical outcomes.Consecutive adult patients with acute PE diagnosed via computed tomography pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) were included. The PERT and treatment protocol were introduced in January 2015. Patient characteristics, therapies, quality measures of CTPA reporting, and clinical outcomes of PE patients treated for 2 years before and after implementation of these changes were evaluated. Primary endpoints were median length of stay in intensive care (ICU) and survival to discharge.A total of 321 consecutive PE patients were enrolled, of which 154 (treated in 2013-2014) and 167 (2015-2016) patients formed the historical control and study groups, respectively. Implementation of the algorithm was associated with less variance in anticoagulation and improved reporting of right heart strain parameters on CTPA. The ICU stay was reduced from a median of 5 to 2 days (p 0.01). Eligible massive PE patients receiving reperfusion increased from 30% to 92% (p = 0.01), with mean delay from diagnosis to reperfusion decreasing from 763 to 181 minutes (p 0.01). Bleeding complications were not increased, but overall survival to discharge remained unchanged.Introducing a PERT and treatment protocol reduced ICU stay, enhanced quality measures, and improved access of massive PE patients to reperfusion therapies, without increasing bleeding complications or health care costs.

Introduction The number of treatment options for myeloma and indolent lymphoma are expanding at an exponential rate, with few direct head-to-head comparisons on which to base efficacy measures. We sought to understand how patients, their caregivers and physicians weigh treatment characteristics in order to come to a decision on which treatment option to pursue. Methods Patients, their caregivers and physicians were recruited and interviewed until data saturation was reached. A qualitative, thematic analysis was done to identify themes important to each stakeholder. Results We found that, while all three groups valued efficacy the most, the consideration of other secondary characteristics of the treatment, such as cost, toxicity and logistical issues all differed subtly between the different groups. Patients valued minimising cost and toxicity, even at small trade-offs in efficacy. Caregivers and physicians valued efficacy foremost. Conclusion Acknowledging and managing these differences is paramount because they influence shared decision-making and may affect patient outcomes in the short term, as well as their more general well-being in the long term.

For leather surface defects with the machine vision on-line detection, the image quality of some leather surface defects presented aeolotropism to the lighting direction, and the defects even failed to be shown, therefore the non-detection zone was formed. Considering this problem, an on-line detecting system which could eliminate the non-detection zone was designed. Based on the scattering and the information acquisition mechanism of the defect, the change law of the defect feature light intensity with the lighting direction was obtained. An experimental study on the defects of imprinting and ink was carried out to show that these two types of defect feature light intensity distributions were related to the lighting direction, and the non-detection zone as well as the effective zone of defects presented a orthogonal state. According to this, a self-designed off-axis plane light source with side-entering uniform irradiation was adapted to design the on-line detecting system for the orthogonal composition with linear array and planar array. The vertical target plane was used to collect the information and the dark field orthogonal lighting was carried out at 45°. The main detecting system was composed of the linear-array camera and the linear light source, while the auxiliary detecting system was composed of the planar camera and the off-axis plane light source to detect hundreds of samples of random anisotropic defects. The experimental results show that the defects non-detection zone is effectively eliminated, the defects recognition rate is increased by 22%, and the detection effciency is also greatly improved.

Objective: In this study, we investigated the changes in peripheral blood inflammatory factors and intestinal flora in acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive individuals (AIDS/HIV patients), and explored the relationships among intestinal flora, peripheral blood inflammatory factors, and CD4(+) T lymphocytes. Methods: Thirty blood and stool samples from an AIDS group and a control group were collected. The levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the number of CD4(+) T lymphocytes by a FACSCount automated instrument. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to determine the messenger RNA (mRNA) levels of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, and Enterococcus faecium. Correlations among intestinal flora, inflammatory factor levels, and CD4(+) T lymphocyte values were evaluated using the Spearman correlation coefficient. Results: The levels of TNF-α and IL-6 in the AIDS group were higher than those in the control group, while the number of CD4(+) T lymphocytes was lower. The amounts of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus in the AIDS group were significantly lower than those in control group, while the amounts of E. coli, E. faecalis, and E. faecium were much higher. The amounts of Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus were negatively correlated with the content of TNF-α and IL-6 and the CD4(+) T lymphocyte count, while those correlations were reversed for E. coli, E. faecalis, and E. faecium. Conclusions: The intestinal microbiota of AIDS/HIV patients were disordered, and there was a correlation between the amount of intestinal flora and the number of CD4(+) T lymphocytes and the levels of TNF-α and IL-6.

Most randomized trials for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) have investigated highly selected patients under idealized conditions, and the findings need to be validated in the real world. We conducted a population-based study of all APL patients in Zhejiang Province, China, with a total population of 82 million people, to assess the generalization of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and arsenic as front-line treatment. The outcomes of APL patients were also analyzed. Between January 2015 and December 2019, 1,233 eligible patients were included in the final analysis. The rate of ATRA and arsenic as front-line treatment increased steadily from 66.2% in 2015 to 83.3% in 2019, with no difference among the size of the center (≥5 or p = 0.12) or age (≥60 or p = 0.35). The early death (ED) rate, defined as death within 30 days after diagnosis, was 8.2%, and the 3-year overall survival (OS) was 87.9% in the whole patient population. Age (≥60 years) and white blood cell count (>10 × 109/L) were independent risk factors for ED and OS in the multivariate analysis. This population-based study showed that ATRA and arsenic as front-line treatment are widely used under real-world conditions and yield a low ED rate and a high survival rate, which mimic the results from clinical trials, thereby supporting the wider application of APL guidelines in the future.

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease emerged as the top cause of deaths and disability in Singapore in 2018, contributing extensively to the local healthcare burden. Primary prevention identifies at-risk individuals for the swift implementation of prevention or corrective measures. This has been traditionally done using the Singapore-adapted Framingham Risk Score (SG FRS). However, its most recent recalibration was done more than a decade ago. Recent changes in patient demographics and risk factors have undermined the accuracy of SG FRS, and the rising popularity of wearable health metrics have given rise to new data types with the potential to improve risk prediction. Methods: In healthy Singaporeans enrolled in the SingHEART study (in the absence of any clinical outcomes), we investigated potential improvements in the SG FRS to predict myocardial infarction risk based on high/low classifications of the Agatston score (surrogate outcome). Logistic regression, receiver operating characteristic and net reclassification index (NRI) analyses were conducted. Results: We demonstrated a significant improvement in the area under curve (AUC) of the SG FRS (AUC=0.641) after recalibration and incorporation of additional variables (fasting glucose and wearable-derived activity levels) (AUC=0.774) (p

Objective: We investigated whether there were sex differences in adverse reactions to an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine among medical staff in China.Methods: From 24 February to 7 March 2021 an online cross-sectional survey was conducted with a self-administered COVID-19 vaccine questionnaire among medical staff in Taizhou, China. In total, 1397 interviewees (1,107 women and 290 men) participated in the survey.Results: In our study, 178 (16.1%) women and 23 (7.9%) men reported adverse reactions following their first vaccination, and 169 (15.3%) women and 35 (12.1%) men reported adverse reactions following their second vaccination. After adjusting for confounding factors, adverse reactions to other vaccines, worry about adverse reactions, knowledge of the inactivated vaccine being used in the hospital, taking the vaccine for one's family proactively and receiving an influenza vaccination were significantly related to adverse reactions to both injections in women. In contrast, in men, concerns about adverse reactions independently increased the risk of adverse reactions following either vaccination, and a history of adverse reactions to other vaccines also increased the risk of adverse reactions to both injections.Conclusions: Sex differences in the frequency of reported adverse reactions to an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and potential factors were demonstrated in a sample of medical staff.

Patient similarity analytics has emerged as an essential tool to identify cohorts of patients who have similar clinical characteristics to some specific patient of interest. In this study, we propose a patient similarity measure called D3K that incorporates domain knowledge and data-driven insights. Using the electronic health records (EHRs) of 169,434 patients with either diabetes, hypertension or dyslipidaemia (DHL), we construct patient feature vectors containing demographics, vital signs, laboratory test results, and prescribed medications. We discretize the variables of interest into various bins based on domain knowledge and make the patient similarity computation to be aligned with clinical guidelines. Key findings from this study are: (1) D3K outperforms baseline approaches in all seven sub-cohorts, (2) our domain knowledge-based binning strategy outperformed the traditional percentile-based binning in all seven sub-cohorts, (3) there is substantial agreement between D3K and physicians (κ = 0.746), indicating that D3K can be applied to facilitate shared decision making. This is the first study to use patient similarity analytics on a cardiometabolic syndrome-related dataset sourced from medical institutions in Singapore. We consider patient similarity among patient cohorts with the same medical conditions to develop localized models for personalized decision support to improve the outcomes of a target patient.

Introduction Chemotherapy is a dynamic, complex process involving cross-functional healthcare teams and comprises dosing, scheduling, safety checks, compounding and administration. Coupled with team silos, legacy systems, escalating workload and cost, efficient chemotherapy delivery is increasingly challenging, resulting in negative staff and patient experience. A design thinking methodology focused on end-users is ideal for addressing complex problems with no clear best practices. Aim We hypothesized that a multidisciplinary team using a data-driven, design thinking approach to redesign chemotherapy workflows can reduce time to treatment, improve operational efficiency and staff and patient experience. Methods A process mapping exercise was undertaken to understand the chemotherapy process. Patients and staff from different job groups were shadowed. The problem statement was "60% of patients are waiting more than an hour from their appointment time to start treatment". The following examples of "how might we" questions were used for the ideation phase: 1. How might we increase advanced chemotherapy preparations (premakes) for patients? 2. How might we ensure only premakes are listed in the mornings? Separately, we also designed an anonymized database to track chemotherapy delivery and care provision outcomes by writing an algorithm to link data extracted from appointment, queue management and chemotherapy systems. New workflows were drafted, iterated, and implemented from 1 May 2020 with the following major changes: 1. No same day blood tests and chemotherapy, with physicians reminded to complete chemotherapy orders by 3pm the day before to allow advance compounding. 2. All chemotherapy regimens were consolidated into a directory containing properties like infusion duration, premake eligibility (based on drug stability and cost) and other scheduling characteristics. This was made searchable via an Excel (Microsoft, USA) algorithm, which also recommended ideal booking slots for the scheduling team. Premakes were prioritized for morning (0830 - 1030) slots. 3. Outcome targets were agreed on and tracked daily. These were made accessible to all staff via a dashboard. The workgroup met weekly to discuss targets, barriers and iterate workflows. Daily, intra-group communication was facilitated by TigerConnect (TigerConnect, USA). We included consecutive outpatients treated at our institution from 1 Jan - 27 Jul 2020. Patients were split into two groups: a historical control group (1 Jan - 30 Apr) and a post-intervention study group (1 May - 27 Jul). The primary outcome measure was the difference between appointment time and time treatment started. Secondary outcome measures included (a) proportion of premade chemotherapy; (b) number of patients starting treatment within an hour of appointment time; and (c) number of patients finishing treatment after 6pm. Continuous data are reported as median (25th-75th centile) and analysed with the Mann-Whitney U test, while categorical data were assessed with the chi-square test. Analysis was done with SPSS v22 (IBM, USA). Results Results are summarized in Table 1. From 1 Jan - 27 July 2020, 14314 treatments were completed. Of these, 5946 (41.5%) were in the 0830 - 1030 slots prioritized for premade chemotherapy. 18.8% of patients arrived after their appointment time. The proportion of premade chemotherapy increased to 70.8% from 30.6% (p The median time to start treatment decreased from 83 (51-128) minutes in the control to 49 (27-87) minutes in the study group (p The proportion of patients with morning appointments starting treatment within 1 hour of their appointment time increased to 58.4% from 31.7% (p Conclusion We have shown that a multidisciplinary group using a data-driven, design thinking approach to address team silos, reorganize and track work processes can improve the time taken to start treatment. Changes were made at no added cost to the healthcare system and using accessible software. Potential cost savings in terms of less overtime claims for staff have yet to be factored in. Addressing patient punctuality and registration and triage processes will help further decrease time to treatment. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Sarcopenia, with risk factors such as poor nutrition and physical inactivity, is becoming prevalent among the older population. The aims of this study were (i) to systematically review the existing data on sarcopenia prevalence in the older Chinese population, (ii) to generate pooled estimates of the sex-specific prevalence among different populations, and (iii) to identify the factors associated with the heterogeneity in the estimates across studies. A search was conducted in seven databases for studies that reported the prevalence of sarcopenia in Chinese older adults, aged 60 years and over, published through April 2020. We then performed a meta-analysis to estimate the pooled prevalence, and investigated the factors associated with the variation in the prevalence across the studies using meta-regression. A total of 58 studies were included in this review. Compared with community-dwelling Chinese older adults (men: 12.9%, 95% CI: 10.7–15.1%; women: 11.2%, 95% CI: 8.9–13.4%), the pooled prevalence of sarcopenia in older adults from hospitals (men: 29.7%, 95% CI:18.4–41.1%; women: 23.0%, 95% CI:17.1–28.8%) and nursing homes (men: 26.3%, 95% CI: 19.1 to 33.4%; women: 33.7%, 95% CI: 27.2 to 40.1%) was higher. The multivariable meta-regression quantified the difference of the prevalence estimates in different populations, muscle mass assessments, and areas. This study yielded pooled estimates of sarcopenia prevalence in Chinese older adults not only from communities, but also from clinical settings and nursing homes. This study added knowledge to the current epidemiology literature about sarcopenia in older Chinese populations, and could provide background information for future preventive strategies, such as nutrition and physical activity interventions, tailored to the growing older population.

Primary congenital hypothyroidism is a disease associated with low serum thyroxine and elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels. The processes of screening and treating congenital hypothyroidism, in order to prevent neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI) in newborns, have been well investigated. Unlike term infants, very preterm infants (VPIs) may experience low thyroxine with normal TSH levels (&lt, 10.0 μIU/mL) during long-stay hospitalization. In the current literature, thyroxine treatment has been evaluated only for TSH-elevated VPIs. However, the long-term impact of low thyroxine levels in certain VPIs with normal TSH levels deserves more research. Since July 2007, VPIs of this study unit received screenings at 1 month postnatal age (PNA) for serum TSH levels and total thyroxine (TT4), in addition to two national TSH screenings scheduled at 3–5 days PNA and at term equivalent age. This study aimed to establish the correlation between postnatal 1-month-old TT4 concentration and long-term NDI at 24 months corrected age among VPIs with serial normal TSH levels. VPIs born in August 2007–July 2016 were enrolled. Perinatal demography, hospitalization morbidities, and thyroid function profiles were analyzed, and we excluded those with congenital anomalies, brain injuries, elevated TSH levels, or a history of thyroxine treatments. In total, 334 VPIs were analyzed and 302 (90.4%) VPIs were followed-up. The postnatal TT4 concentration was not associated with NDI after multivariate adjustment (odd ratios 1.131, 95% confidence interval 0.969–1.32). To attribute the NDI of TSH-normal VPIs to a single postnatal TT4 concentration measurement may require more research.

Background The Forrest classification is widely applied to guide endoscopic hemostasis for peptic ulcer bleeding. Accordingly, practice guidelines suggest medical treatment only for ulcer with a Forrest IIc lesion because it has low rebleeding risk even without endoscopic therapy, ranging from 0 to 13%. However, the risk ranges widely and it is unclear who is at risk of rebleeding with such a lesion. This study assessed whether the Rockall score, which evaluates patients holistically, could indicate the risk of recurrent bleeding among patients with a Forrest IIc lesion at the second-look endoscopy. Methods Patients who had peptic ulcer bleeding with Ia-IIb lesions received endoscopic hemostasis at the primary endoscopy, and they were enrolled if their Ia-IIb lesions had been fading to IIc at the second-look endoscopy after 48- to 72-h intravenous proton pump inhibitor (PPI) infusion. Primary outcomes were rebleeding during the 4th–14th day and 4th–28th day after the first bleeding episode. Results The prospective cohort study enrolled 140 patients, who were divided into a Rockall scores ≥ 6 group or a Rockall scores

The concept of theranostics, where individual patient-level biological information is used to choose the optimal therapy for that individual, has become more popular in the modern era of 'personalised' medicine. With the growth of theranostics, nuclear medicine as a specialty is uniquely poised to grow along with the ever-increasing number of concepts combining imaging and therapy. This special report summarises the status and growth of Theranostic Nuclear Medicine in Singapore. We will cover our experience with the use of radioiodine, radioiodinated metaiodobenzylguanidine, peptide receptor radionuclide therapy, prostate specific membrane antigen radioligand therapy, radium-223 and yttrium-90 selective internal radiation therapy. We also include a section on our radiopharmacy laboratory, crucial to our implementation of theranostic principles. Radionuclide theranostics has seen tremendous growth and we hope to be able to grow alongside to continue to serve the patients in Singapore and in the region.

Objective: To analyze the frequency and spectrum of thalassemia mutations in amniotic fluid samples collected from Han and Li people in Hainan province of China. Methods: We carried out a retrospective analysis on prenatal diagnosis of amniotic fluid samples collected from pregnant women who may have next generation with high risks of medium or severe thalassemia between 2005 and 2016. Diverse fetal thalassemia genotypes and mutated alleles in Han and Li people were analyzed and cmpared. Results: We examined 536 amniotic fluid samples from Han people and 588 from Li people, among which 406 Han and 500 Li samples were found to carry at least one thalassemia gene mutation, with a detection rate of 75.75% and 85.03%, respectively. Among all α- and β-thalassemia mutant alleles detected, the most frequently found mutations in Han and Li samples were SEA-type of α-thalassemia and 41/42 (–CTTT) of β-thalassemia, respectively. A total of 75 severe thalassemia cases were identified in Han samples and 53 in Li samples. In most of these severe cases, parents chose to terminate pregnancy after being informed of thalassemia-related risks. Conclusions: The thalassemia mutations shows ethnic and area specificity, and that prenatal diagnosis for high-risk thalassemia carrier pregnant women is an efficient approach to prevent and control the occurrence of severe thalassemia in the high-prevalence areas.

Shi-yin Xiao,1 Ji Zhang,2,* Zheng-quan Zhu,3,* You-ping Li,4,* Wei-ying Zhong,5 Jian-bin Chen,6 Zhen-yu Pan,7 Hai-chen Xia3 1Department of Neurosurgery, Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510260, China; 2Department of Neurosurgery, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou 510060, China; 3Department of Neurosurgery, Tumor Hospital Affiliated of Xinjiang Medical University, Xinshi District, Urumqi, Xinjiang 830011, China; 4Department of Neurosurgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330046, China; 5Department of Neurosurgery, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China; 6Department of Neurosurgery, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China; 7Department of Radiation-Oncology, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Objective: Surgical resection serves an important role in the multidisciplinary treatment of cerebral metastases (CMs). Conventional white-light, microsurgical, and circumferential stripping of CMs is standard neurosurgical procedure, but is associated with a high recurrence rate. Based on this outcome, there is an urgent need for a new surgical strategy, such as fluorescence-guided resection, for CMs, in order to achieve total removal. Methods: A retrospective study was carried out in 38 patients clinically and pathologically diagnosed with breast cancer brain metastasis at three medical centers from May 2012 to June 2016. The study comprised group 1 (fluorescein-guided surgery) and group 2 (standard microsurgery). In group 1, 5 mg/kg of fluorescein sodium was injected intravenously after an allergy test and before general anesthesia for 17 patients. A yellow 560 filter was employed for microsurgical tumor resection. Group 2 consisted of 21 patients for whom fluorescein was not administered. Results: Surgical outcomes were assessed concerning the extent of resection and Karnofsky performance status. Gross total resection was achieved in these patients, with high fluorescence markedly enhancing tumor visibility. The extent of resection had a powerful influence on performance status. Overall survival after CM was 24.1 months in patients given fluorescein and was 22.8 months in the nonfluorescein group. Conclusion: Fluorescein-guided surgery is a simple, safe, and practical method to resect breast cancer brain metastasis, and leads to a higher proportion of resection compared to common microsurgery. This offers a tremendous advantage when navigating a tiny tumor, and improves the quality of life of patients with CM. Keywords: fluorescein sodium, breast cancer brain metastasis, fluorescence-guided surgery, extent of resection, KPS

Hypertension is associated with inflammation and excessive production of catecholamines. Hypertensive patients have reduced plasma levels of CST (catestatin)—a bioactive cleavage product of the prohormone CgA (chromogranin A). In mouse models, hypertension symptoms can be reduced by administration of CST, but the role of CST in the regulation of cardiovascular function is unknown. In this study, we generated mice with KO (knockout) of the region of the CgA gene coding for CST (CST-KO) and found that CST-KO mice are not only hypertensive as predicted but also display left ventricular hypertrophy, have marked macrophage infiltration of the heart and adrenal gland, and have elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines and catecholamines. Intraperitoneal injection with CST reversed these phenotypes, and ischemic preconditioning-induced cardioprotection was also abolished in CST-KO mice. Experiments with chlodronate depletion of macrophages and bone marrow transfer showed that macrophages produce CST and that the antihypertensive effects of CST are mediated, in part, via CST’s immunosuppression of macrophages as a form of feedback inhibition. The data thus implicate CST as a key autocrine attenuator of the cardiac inflammation in hypertension by reducing macrophage inflammation.

X-ray testing is one of the main methods of industrial non-destructive testing, and its testing results have been used as an important basis for defect analysis and quality evaluation. Manual recognition of defects is the traditional method of X-ray testing in the industry. Observers need to keep an eye on the monitor and artificially screen for defects based on experience and industry standards. In the case of working for a long time, the observer’s efficiency will be reduced, and there will be misjudgment or omission, so that the components that do not meet the quality grade will enter the market, resulting in unpredictable losses. Because different observers have different judgments on the test results, the evaluation results are difficult to be unified, which is disadvantageous to the defect detection and identification work. In order to reduce manual intervention flaw detection, this work uses the method based on computer deep learning to intelligently detect flaws in X-ray images. The X-ray data set comes from the American Society for Testing Material (ASTM) standard radiogram, Panyu Chu Kong Steel Pipe (Zhuhai) Co., Ltd. and Gree Electric Appliances, Inc. of Zhuhai, which are divided into the training set and verification set according to the proportion of 70% and 30%. In this work, the models such as FCN, YOLO and Mask R-CNN are used to detect inclusions or bubbles in X-ray images, and it is found that Mask R-CNN model has the highest detection precision and recognition rate, and this model has certain generalization ability.

A rapid increase of nosocomial vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) from 23.3% in 2009 to 44.5% in 2018 among all the medical centers in Taiwan was found. The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between antimicrobial usage and prevalence of VRE. We conducted the study between January 2010 and December 2019 in a tertiary teaching hospital in Taiwan. Antibiotic consumption was expressed as defined daily doses (DDDs) per 1,000 patient-days (PDs). The trend in antibiotic consumption and VRE prevalence were analyzed by regression analysis with yearly data. Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between antibiotic consumption and the prevalence of VRE. The total consumption of antibiotics increased significantly from 450.6 DDDs/1,000 PDs in 2010 to 520.1 DDDs/1,000 PDs in 2019 (P = 0.013). Positive correlations were found between the prevalence of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium and the consumption of amoxicillin/clavulanate, vancomycin, and carbapenems, which included meropenem (P < 0.05). The increase in total VRE prevalence was significantly correlated with increased consumption of vancomycin and carbapenems, which included meropenem (P < 0.05). This 10-year study in a hospital demonstrated changes in antimicrobial use, which may have affected VRE prevalence in the hospital. We found a rise in nosocomial VRE prevalence was associated with the use of specific antimicrobial agents.

ObjectivesThe COVID-19 outbreak in Singapore has largely centred around migrant worker dormitories, comprising over 90% of all cases in the country. Dormitories are home to a culturally and linguistically distinct, low-income population, without on-site healthcare after-hours. The primary objective of this study was to assess the engagement and utilisation of a simple, low-cost, accessible, mobile health solution for remote self-reporting of vital parameters in dormitory residents with COVID-19.DesignRetrospective review of medical care.SettingTwo large migrant worker dormitories with a combined population of 31 546.ParticipantsAll COVID-19-affected residents housed in dormitories during the study period.InterventionAll residents were taught to use a chat assistant to self-report their temperature, heart rate and oxygen saturations. Results flowed into a dashboard, which alerted clinicians of abnormal results.OutcomesThe primary outcome measure was engagement rate. This was derived from the total number of residents who registered on the platform over the total number of COVID-19-affected residents in the dormitories during the study period. Secondary outcome measures included outcomes of the alerts and subsequent escalations of care.Results800 of the 931 COVID-19-affected residents (85.9%) engaged with the platform to log a total of 12 511 discrete episodes of vital signs. Among 372 abnormal readings, 96 teleconsultations were initiated, of which 7 (1.8%) were escalated to emergency services and 18 (4.9%) were triaged to earlier physical medical review on-site.ConclusionsA chat-assistant-based self-reporting platform is an effective and safe community-based intervention to monitor marginalised populations with distinct cultural and linguistic backgrounds, living communally and affected by COVID-19. Lessons learnt from this approach may be applied to develop safe and cost-effective telemedicine solutions across similar settings.

Background Since December 2019, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has affected over 50 000 people in Wuhan, China. However, the number of daily infection cases, hospitalization rate, lag time from onset to diagnosis date and their associations with measures introduced to slow down the spread of COVID-19 have not been fully explored. Methods This study recruited 6872 COVID-19 patients in the Wuchang district, Wuhan. All of the patients had an onset date from 21 December 2019 to 23 February 2020. The overall and weekly hospitalization rate and lag time from onset to diagnosis date were calculated. The number of daily infections was estimated by the back-projection method based on the number of daily onset cases. Their association with major government reactions and measures was analyzed narratively. Results The overall hospitalization rate was 45.9% (95% CI 44.7 to 47.1%) and the mean lag time from onset to diagnosis was 11.1±7.4 d. The estimated infection curve was constructed for the period from 14 December 2019 to 23 February 2020. Raising public awareness regarding self-protecting and social distancing, as well as the provision of timely testing and inpatient services, were coincident with the decline in the daily number of infections. Conclusion Early public awareness, early identification and early quarantine, supported by appropriate infrastructure, are important elements for containing the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

Options for anemic lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) without del(5q) after failure of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) are very limited. The effectiveness of second-line treatments is uncertain. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical effectiveness and overall survival (OS) of lower-risk MDS without del(5q) patients exclusively treated with stanozolol (STZ) after failure of epoetin alfa. The response was defined according to the 2006 International Working Group (IWG) criteria. Fifty-six patients were included. The median follow-up time was 55 months (range: 5-156 months). Twenty-seven patients (48.2%) achieved hematologic improvement-erythroid response (HI-E). Higher response rates were observed in patients with lower IPSS-R scores (≤3.5, P = 0.008) and hypocellular bone marrow (P = 0.002). In univariate Cox analysis, HI-E was the strongest factor associated with better OS (P = 0.0003). In multivariate Cox, HI-E, age ≤ 50, and transfusion independence (TI) at the onset of STZ were factors associated with better OS. The estimated 5-year OS was 88.6% (68.7-96.2%) and 33.8% (14.9-54.0%) in responders and non-responders (P < 0.01), respectively. The most common side effects included masculinization and liver damage, but they were manageable with supportive measures and dose adjustments. STZ may be considered an alternative treatment in lower-risk MDS after failure of epoetin alfa.

Objective To summarize the occurrence of operative failures after microwave ablation (MWA) in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT), analyze the possible reasons, and explore strategies for preventing and managing these situations. Methods This retrospective study reviewed 91 pHPT patients who underwent MWA from April 2015 to November 2019. A cure was defined as the reestablishment of normal calcium homeostasis lasting a minimum of 6 months. An operative failure was defined as a failure to normalize serum intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) and/or calcium levels at 6 months or longer. Patients who encountered operative failures were compared with patients who were successfully cured. Results Eighty-eight pHPT patients, consisting of 29 men and 59 women, were finally enrolled. The median follow-up duration was 15.9 months (IQR, 6.1–31.5 months). Seventy-eight patients (78/88, 88.6%) were cured. Ten (10/88, 11.4%) patients experienced operative failure, including 9 persistent pHPT (10.2%) and 1 (1.1%) recurrent pHPT. Small parathyroid nodules (maximum diameter < 0.6 cm) and incomplete ablation were the two key factors leading to operative failure. Of the 9 patients with a maximum nodule diameter less than 0.6 cm, 77.8% (7/9) of them encountered operative failure. Conclusion Operative failure occurred in 11.4% of the pHPT patients who underwent MWA. The possibility of operative failure was increased when the maximum diameter of parathyroid nodule was less than 0.6 cm. Complete ablation could help avoid operative failure. Key Points • Failed to ablate the target lesion and incomplete ablation were the key factors attributed to operative failures. • When the maximum diameter of the parathyroid nodules is less than 0.6 cm, the possibility of operative failure was higher.

Background: Right ventricular (RV) failure induced by sustained pressure overload is a major contributor to morbidity and mortality in several cardiopulmonary disorders. Reliable and reproducible animal models of RV failure are important in order to investigate disease mechanisms and effects of potential therapeutic strategies. To establish a rat model of RV failure perfectly, we observed the right ventricle and carotid artery hemodynamics characteristics in different degrees of pulmonary artery banding of rats of different body weights. Methods: Rats were subjected to 6 groups：control(0%, n=5)(pulmonary arterial banding 0%), PAB(1-30%, n=4)(pulmonary arterial banding1-30%), PAB(31-60%, n=6)(pulmonary arterial banding31-60%),PAB(61-70%, n=5)(pulmonary arterial bandin61-70%), PAB(71-80%,n=4)(pulmonary arterial banding71-80%), PAB(100%, n=3)(pulmonary arterial banding 100%). We measured the right ventricular pressure(RVP) by right heart catheterization when the pulmonary arterial was ligated. Results: The RVP gradually increased with increasing degree of banding, but when occlusion level exceeding 70%, high pressure state can be only maintained for a few minutes or seconds, and then the RVP drops rapidly until it falls below the normal pressure, which in Group F particularly evident.Conclusions: RVP have different reactions when the occlusion level is not the same, and the extent of more than 70% ligation is a successful model of acute right heart failure. These results may have important consequences for therapeutic strategies to prevent acute right heart failure.

Hypertension (HTN) is a pandemic associated with inflammation and excessive production of catecholamines. Previous work has shown that hypertensive patients have reduced plasma levels of Catestatin (CST), a bioactive cleavage product of the prohormone Chromogranin A (CgA). Similarly, in mouse models, HTN symptoms can be reduced by administration of CST, but the role of CST in the regulation of cardiovascular function is unknown. In the present study, we generated mice with knockout (KO) of the region of the CgA gene coding for CST (CST-KO) and found that CST-KO mice are not only hypertensive as predicted, but also display left ventricular hypertrophy, have marked macrophage infiltration of the heart and adrenal gland, and have elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and catecholamines. Additionally, intraperitoneal injection with CST reverses these phenotypes, and ischemic pre-conditioning-induced cardioprotection was also abolished in CST-KO mice. To further explore the relationship between HTN, CST, and macrophages, experiments with chlodronate depletion of macrophages and bone-marrow transfer showed that macrophages produce CST and that the anti-hypertensive effects of CST are mediated in part via immunosuppression of macrophages by CST as a form of feedback inhibition. The data thus implicate CST as a key autocrine attenuator of the cardiac inflammation in HTN by reducing macrophage inflammation.

An intelligent power automatic switching device (ATS) is designed for communication vehicle, which can automatically detect the quality of the power supply, automatically switch the power supply according to the priority set by the system, automatically start and stop the diesel generators installed on the communication vehicle, and communicate with the PC of the communication vehicle. The device includes the corresponding power circuit, interface circuit, communication circuit, based on s7-1200 controller, and it finally realizes the system functions.

We assessed the quality of life (QoL) and pregnancy outcomes of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment among infertile women with endometriosis, as compared to infertile women without endometriosis. Eighty-one (81) endometriosis women (with 142 embryo transfer [ET] cycles) and 605 non-endometriosis women (with 1063 ET cycles) were included. QoL was measured by FertiQoL at the date before ET. Pregnancy outcomes included biochemical pregnancy, ongoing pregnancy and live birth. Generalized estimating equation analyses were performed to assess the association between QoL and IVF pregnancy. Endometriosis-affected women had significantly lower QoL, as indicated by mind/body, treatment environment and total treatment scores, and total scores of FertiQoL (p p Lower QoL among women with endometriosis versus non-endometriosis during IVF treatment highlights the importance of developing strategies to improve their QoL, which may enhance following pregnancy rates in this population.

This paper introduces the Attribute-Decomposed GAN, a novel generative model for controllable person image synthesis, which can produce realistic person images with desired human attributes (e.g., pose, head, upper clothes and pants) provided in various source inputs. The core idea of the proposed model is to embed human attributes into the latent space as independent codes and thus achieve flexible and continuous control of attributes via mixing and interpolation operations in explicit style representations. Specifically, a new architecture consisting of two encoding pathways with style block connections is proposed to decompose the original hard mapping into multiple more accessible subtasks. In source pathway, we further extract component layouts with an off-the-shelf human parser and feed them into a shared global texture encoder for decomposed latent codes. This strategy allows for the synthesis of more realistic output images and automatic separation of un-annotated attributes. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed method's superiority over the state of the art in pose transfer and its effectiveness in the brand-new task of component attribute transfer., Accepted by CVPR 2020 (Oral). Project Page: https://menyifang.github.io/projects/ADGAN/ADGAN.html

Objectives Host immune responses are indispensable to combat the disease. We report the dynamics of peripheral immune cells, cytokines, and human leucocyte antigen‐G (HLA‐G) and its receptor expressions in a patient suffering from critical COVID‐19 pneumonia to convalescence. Methods Clinical data of the patient were collected from medical records. The expressions of HLA‐G and receptors ILT2, ILT4 and KIR2DL4 in peripheral immune cells were measured with flow cytometry. Results From critical COVID‐19 to the convalescent stage, early lymphopenia was improved (median: 0.6 × 109 L−1 vs. 0.9 × 109 L−1, P = 0.009), and an obvious fluctuation in WBC and neutrophil counts was observed. Initially, low levels of CD4+ T cells (from 120 to 528 μL−1) and CD8+ T cells (from 68 to 362 μL−1) gradually increased to normal levels. Meanwhile, high IL‐6 (from 251.8 to 6.32 pg mL−1), IL‐10 (from 39.53 to 5.21 pg mL−1) and IFN‐γ (from 13.55 to 3.16 pg mL−1) levels decreased, and IL‐4 (from 2.36 to 3.19 pg mL−1) and TNF‐α (from 2.27 to 20.2 pg mL−1) levels increased quickly when the viral RNA returned negative. Moreover, the percentage of HLA‐G+ T cells, B cells and monocytes follows high–low–high pattern, while the percentage of receptors ILT2‐, ILT4‐ and KIR2DL4‐expressing cells remained relatively stable. Conclusion Our findings provide valuable information on the dynamics of early peripheral immunological responses in SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, cytokines and HLA‐G+ immune cells are associated with the natural history of the critical COVID‐19 patient; however, future studies are necessary., Pneumonia COVID‐19 is threatening public health. Host immune responses are indispensable to combat the disease. In this paper, we report on the dynamics of early CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, cytokines and HLA‐G+ immune cells that are associated with the natural history of a critical COVID‐19 patient.

We screened 662 subjects comprising 462 essential tremor (ET) subjects (285 sporadic, 125 with family history, and 52 probands from well-characterized ET pedigrees) and 200 controls and identified pathogenic NOTCH2NLC GGC repeat expansions in 4 sporadic ET patients. Two patients were followed up for >1 decade; one with 90 repeats remained an ET phenotype that did not evolve after 40 years, whereas another patient with 107 repeats developed motor symptoms and cognitive impairment after 8 to 10 years. Neuroimaging in this patient revealed severe leukoencephalopathy; diffusion-weighted imaging hyperintensity in the corticomedullary junction and skin biopsy revealed intranuclear inclusions suggestive of intranuclear inclusion body disease (NIID). No GGC repeats of >60 units were detected in familial ET cases and controls, although 4 ET patients carried 47 to 53 "intermediate" repeats. NOTCH2NLC GGC repeat expansions can be associated with sporadic ET. Carriers presenting with a pure ET phenotype may or may not convert to NIID up to 4 decades after initial tremor onset. ANN NEUROL 2020;88:614-618.

Chronic, unresolved tissue inflammation is a well described feature of obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and other insulin resistant states and adipose tissue and liver inflammation have been particularly well studied. However, this proinflammatory state is not restricted to liver and adipose tissue, and abundant evidence demonstrates that inflammatory processes are also activated in islets from obese animals, humans, and subjects with T2DM. The nature of the inflammatory response in each of these tissues is quite different, and in this review we focus on the characteristics of immune cell-mediated inflammation in islets and the consequences of this with respect to beta cell function. In contrast to type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), the dominant immune cell type causing inflammation in obese and T2DM islets is the macrophage. This emphasizes the importance of the innate immune system, as opposed to adaptive immunity, in this pathophysiologic process. The increased macrophage accumulation in these islets primarily arises through local proliferation of resident macrophages. These macrophages then provide signals, such as PDGF, which drive beta cell hyperplasia which is a classic feature of obesity. In addition, through a number of mechanisms, islet macrophages also impair beta cell insulin secretory capacity. Through these mechanisms, resident islet macrophages underly the inflammatory response in obesity and mechanistically participate in the beta-cell hyperplasia and dysfunction which characterizes this insulin resistant state. These findings point to the possibility that methods to interrupt islet inflammation could have beneficial effects on beta cell function and glycemia.

BACKGROUND: Associations between polymorphisms in interleukin-10 (IL-10) and hematological oncology were already explored by many genetic association studies, with controversial findings. The aim of this meta-analysis was to more comprehensively analyze associations between polymorphisms in IL-10 and hematological oncology by combing the results of all relevant studies. METHODS: Eligible articles were searched from Pubmed, Embase, WOS and CNKI. The latest literature searching update was performed on 8 October 2019. We used Review Manager to combine the results of eligible studies. RESULTS: Forty-one articles were included in this meta-analysis. IL-10 rs1800890 polymorphism was found to be significantly associated with hematological oncology under AA vs. TT+TA (recessive comparison, OR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.02–1.24), and rs1800896 polymorphism was also found to be significantly associated with hematological oncology under AA vs. AG+GG (dominant comparison, OR = 0.89, 95% CI 0.83–0.95) in overall combined analyses. In subgroup analyses, we observed positive results for rs1800871 (recessive comparison), rs1800872 (dominant, recessive and allele comparisons), and rs1800896 (dominant and allele comparisons) polymorphisms in the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) subgroup. Besides, we also detected positive associations between rs1800872 polymorphism and acute leukemia (AL) (dominant and recessive comparisons) and found significant associations between rs1800896 polymorphism and chronic leukemia (CL) (recessive comparison). CONCLUSION: In summary, this meta-analysis demonstrated that IL-10 rs1800890, rs1800896, rs1800871 and rs1800872 polymorphisms may confer susceptibility to hematology oncology, especially for NHL.

This paper investigates the foot types and structural features of Chinese four-syllable abbreviations. Results show that: first, whether for the need of complexity and richness of ideogram or for avoiding ambiguity, these abbreviated forms are an essential and meaningful part of modern Chinese abbreviations; second, most of the existing forms tend to present 2 + 2 balanced prosodic structure, nominal attribute in part of speech. In addition, there also exists the possibility of abbreviation further to less than four syllables under some specific conditions.