Tuning stability, rheology, and fire-extinguishing performance of advanced firefighting foam material by inorganic nanoparticle flame retardants.

HYPOTHESIS: Nanoparticle-stabilized foams are extremely stable, and flame retardant inorganic nanoparticles should be able to add sealing capacity of firefighting foams on flammable liquid fuels, and hence enhance fire extinguishment performance on liquid fuel fire. In practice, how do flame retardant nanoparticles resist the destructive effect of oil molecules on foam and tune foam properties? EXPERIMENTS: We have prepared a nanoparticle-enhanced foam comprising of hydrocarbon surfactant, short-chain fluorocarbon surfactant, and nanoparticles. The interactions among nanoparticles and surfactant molecules were characterized by using dynamic surface tension and conductivity. Stability, rheology, and oil resistivity on liquid fuel of the nanoparticle-enhanced foam were evaluated systematically. Fire suppression effectiveness of the foams was verified based on a standard experiment. FINDINGS: Foam stability and oil resistivity were enhanced due to self-assembled network structures formed by jammed aggregates composed by nanoparticles and surfactants in Plateau borders and bubble films, providing structural recoverability and enhanced viscoelasticity within foam. Foams containing nano-SiO2, nano-CaCO3, nano-Al(OH)3, and nano-Mg(OH)2 show difference in fire extinguishment due to different ability to enhance foam properties. Foam containing nano-Al(OH)3 shows the strongest adaptation and could shorten fire extinguishing time by 2 times and prolong burn-back time by 2.3 times compared with commercial product.

Chinese expert consensus on blood lipid management in patients with diabetes (2024 edition).

Diabetes is a significant independent risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), with dyslipidemia playing a critical role in the initiation and progression of ASCVD in diabetic patients. In China, the current prevalence of dyslipidemia in diabetes is high, but the control rate remains low. Therefore, to enhance lipid management in patients with diabetes, the Endocrinology and Metabolism Physician Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, in collaboration with the Experts' Committee of the National Society of Cardiometabolic Medicine, has convened experts to develop a consensus on the management of dyslipidemia in patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The development of this consensus is informed by existing practices in lipid management among Chinese diabetic patients, incorporating contemporary evidence-based findings and guidelines from national and international sources. The consensus encompasses lipid profile characteristics, the current epidemiological status of dyslipidemia, ASCVD risk stratification, and lipid management procedures in diabetic patients. For the first time, both low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol have been recommended as primary targets for lipid intervention in diabetic patients. The consensus also includes a summary and recommendations for lipid management strategies in special diabetic populations, including children and adolescents, individuals aged 75 years and older, patients with chronic kidney disease, metabolic-associated fatty liver disease, and those who are pregnant. This comprehensive consensus aims to improve cardiovascular outcomes in diabetic patients by contributing to the dissemination of key clinical advancements and guiding clinical practice.

Atrial tachycardia originating from a right atrial free wall diverticulum: case report.

Background: Atrial tachycardia (AT) is an arrhythmic disorder originating from the atrium, independent of the atrioventricular node, and includes various types based on different mechanisms such as abnormal automaticity, triggered activity, and re-entry. These mechanisms are often related to specific anatomical structures. Focal AT, though relatively rare, typically arises from well-known locations in the left and right atria, such as the pulmonary veins, mitral valve annulus, crista terminalis, and coronary sinus ostium. Case summary: We report a rare case of AT originating from a diverticulum in the right atrial free wall. The patient experienced recurrent AT episodes resistant to standard treatments. Detailed electrophysiological mapping identified the unusual origin of the tachycardia from a right atrial free wall diverticulum. Catheter ablation was successfully performed, leading to the resolution of the arrhythmia, with the patient remaining symptom-free during follow-up. Discussion: This case expands the understanding of AT origins, highlighting the right atrial free wall diverticulum as a potential, though rare, source of tachycardia. The case emphasizes the importance of comprehensive electrophysiological mapping, especially in atypical presentations of AT. Successful ablation in this instance underscores the potential for targeted interventions even in uncommon anatomical sites. Further studies are needed to assess the prevalence and clinical significance of AT arising from such rare locations.

Primary cilia in Parkinson's disease: summative roles in signaling pathways, genes, defective mitochondrial function, and substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons.

Primary cilia (PC) are microtubules-based, independent antennal-like sensory organelles, that are seen in most vertebrate cells of different types, including astrocytes and neurons. They send signals to cells to control many physiological and cellular processes by detecting changes in the extracellular environment. Parkinson's disease (PD), a neurodegenerative disease that progresses over time, is primarily caused by a gradual degradation of the dopaminergic pathway in the striatum nigra, which results in a large loss of neurons in the substantia nigra compact (SNpc) and a depletion of dopamine (DA). PD samples have abnormalities in the structure and function of PC. The alterations contribute to the cause, development, and recovery of PD via influencing signaling pathways (SHH, Wnt, Notch-1, α-syn, and TGFß), genes (MYH10 and LRRK2), defective mitochondrial function, and substantia nigra dopaminergic neurons. Thus, restoring the normal structure and physiological function of PC and neurons in the brain are effective treatment for PD. This review summarizes the function of PC in neurodegenerative diseases and explores the pathological mechanisms caused by PC alterations in PD, in order to provide references and ideas for future research.

Role of nanofertilization in plant nutrition under abiotic stress conditions.

Plants require nutrients for growth, which they obtain from the soil via the root system. Fertilizers offer the essential nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as critical secondary elements) required by plants. Soil productivity falls with each crop until nutrients are provided. A wide range of so-called fertilizer products, such as organic fertilizers, argon mineral fertilizers, and mineral fertilizers, can assist farmers in adjusting fertilization methods based on the environment and agricultural conditions (inhibitors, restricted materials, growth mediums, plant bio-stimulants, etc.). Agricultural land is reduced by erosion, pollution, careless irrigation, and fertilization. On the other hand, more agricultural production is needed to meet the demands of expanding industries and the nutritional needs of a growing population. Nano fertilizers have recently started to be manufactured to obtain the highest yield and its quality per unit area. Previous researchers found that nano fertilizers could improve plant nutrient uptake efficiency, lower soil toxicity, mitigate the potential negative effects of excessive chemical fertilizer use, and reduce the frequency of fertilization. To maximize crop yields and optimize nutrient use while reducing the overuse of chemical fertilizers, nano fertilizersNFs are crucial in agriculture. The key component of these fertilizers is that they contain one or more macro- and micronutrients that can be applied regularly in minute doses while not damaging the environment. However, they have a minimal effect on plant growth and agricultural yields when employed in high numbers, like synthetic fertilizers. This article explains the features, relevance and classification of nano-fertilizers, their use in plant development, their advantages and disadvantages, and the results achieved in this field.

Rational mutagenesis of an epoxide hydrolase and its structural mechanism for the enantioselectivity improvement toward chiral ortho-fluorostyrene oxide.

Chiral (S)-o-fluorostyrene oxide (oFSO) and vicinal diol (R)-o-fluorophenylethane-1,2-diol (oFPED) are important intermediates for synthesizing treatments for neuropathic diseases. This study aimed to engineer Aspergillus usamii epoxide hydrolase (AuEH2) through a rational mutagenesis strategy to customize high enantioselectivity mutant for rac-oFSO. Out of 181 single-site mutants screened, six showed elevated enantiomeric ratio (E value) ranging from 32 to 108 according to E value and activity mutability landscapes. By combinatorial mutagenesis of A250I with other five single-site mutants, we constructed five double-site mutants, with the best-performing mutant, D5 (A250I/L344V), achieving an E value of 180. This mutant enabled the efficient kinetic resolution of 400 mM rac-oFSO in pure water system using E. coli/Aueh2A250I/L344V, yielding (S)-oFSO (>99 % ees, 50 % yields) and (R)-oFPED (>99 % eep, 50 % yieldp) with space-time yields (STYs) of 331.5 and 376.1 g/L/d, respectively. Combining crystal structure resolution with theoretical computations clarified the enantioselectivity mechanism of D5, demonstrating that A250I reduced the funnel-shaped substrate binding pocket (SBP) while L344V extended its bottom, enhancing specific recognition of (R)-oFSO and inhibiting (S)-oFSO hydrolysis. These findings provide valuable insights for designing highly enantioselective enzyme mutants, advancing the field of asymmetric synthesis of chiral compounds using green biocatalytic processes.

Variational Transformer: A Framework Beyond the Tradeoff Between Accuracy and Diversity for Image Captioning.

Accuracy and diversity represent two critical quantifiable performance metrics in the generation of natural and semantically accurate captions. While efforts are made to enhance one of them, the other suffers due to the inherent conflicting and complex relationship between them. In this study, we demonstrate that the suboptimal accuracy levels derived from human annotations are unsuitable for machine-generated captions. To boost diversity while maintaining high accuracy, we propose an innovative variational transformer (VaT) framework. By integrating "invisible information prior (IIP)" and "auto-selectable Gaussian mixture model (AGMM)", we enable its encoder to learn precise linguistic information and object relationships in various scenes, thus ensuring high accuracy. By incorporating the "range-median reward (RMR)" baseline into it, we preserve a wider range of candidates with higher rewards during the reinforcement-learning-based training process, thereby guaranteeing outstanding diversity. Experimental results indicate that our method achieves simultaneous improvements in accuracy and diversity by up to 1.1% and 4.8%, respectively, over the state-of-the-art. Furthermore, our approach demonstrates its performance that is the closest to human annotations in semantic retrieval, with its score of 50.3 versus the human score of 50.6. Thus, the method can be readily put into industrial use.

Engineering an Epoxide Hydrolase for Chemoenzymatic Asymmetric Synthesis of Chiral Triazole Fungicide (S)- and (R)-Flutriafol.

Flutriafol, a globally utilized triazole fungicide in agriculture, is typically applied as a racemic mixture, but its enantiomers differ in bioactivity and environmental impact. The synthesis of flutriafol enantiomers is critically dependent on chiral precursors: 2,2-bisaryl-substituted oxirane [(2-fluorophenyl)-2-(4-fluorophenyl)oxirane, 1a] and 1,2-diol [1-(2-fluorophenyl)-1-(4-fluorophenyl)ethane-1,2-diol, 1b]. Here, we engineered a Rhodotorula paludigensis epoxide hydrolase (RpEH), obtaining mutant Escherichia coli/RpehH336W/L360F with a 6.4-fold enhanced enantiomeric ratio (E) from 5.5 to 35.4. This enabled a gram-scale resolution of rac-1a by E. coli/RpehH336W/L360F, producing (S)-1a (98.2% ees) and (R)-1b (75.0% eep) with 44.3 and 55.7% analytical yields, respectively. As follows, chiral (S)-flutriafol (98.2% ee) and (R)-flutriafol (75.0% ee) were easily synthesized by a one-step chemocatalytic process from (S)-1a and a two-step chemocatalytic process from (R)-1b, respectively. This chemoenzymatic approach offers a superior alternative for the asymmetric synthesis of flutriafol enantiomers. Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulations revealed insight into the enantioselectivity improvement of RpEH toward bulky 2,2-bisaryl-substituted oxirane 1a.

Gut microbiome influences efficacy of Endostatin combined with PD-1 blockade against colorectal cancer.

The combination of anti-angiogenic drugs and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in the treatment of tumors is emerging as a way to improve ICIs-resistant tumor therapy. In addition, gut microbes (GMs) are involved in angiogenesis in the tumor microenvironment and are also associated with the antitumor function of immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, it is unclear whether gut microbes have a role in anti-tumor function in the combination of anti-angiogenic drugs and immune checkpoint inhibitors for cancer treatment. Endostatin, an angiogenesis inhibitor, has been widely used as an antiangiogenic therapy for cancer. We showed that combined therapy with an adenovirus encoding human endostatin, named Ad-E, and PD-1 blockade dramatically abrogated MC38 tumor growth. The structure of intestinal microbes in mice was changed after combination treatment. We found that the antitumor function of combination therapy was inhibited after the elimination of intestinal microbes. In mice with depleted microbiota, oral gavage of Bacteroides fragilis salvaged the antitumor effects of combination Ad-E and αPD-1 monoclonal antibody (mAb) to a certain extent. Further, Bacteroides fragilis could improve CD3+T cells, NK cells, and IFNγ+CD8+ T cells in the tumor microenvironment to inhibit tumor growth. Besides, Bacteroides fragilis might restore antitumor function by down-regulating isobutyric acid (IBA). Our results suggested that GMs may be involved in the combination of Ad-E and αPD-1 mAb for cancer treatment, which has oncological implications for tumor growth dynamics and cancer immune surveillance.

Comparative transcriptome analysis and meta-QTLs mapping reveal the regulatory mechanism of cold tolerance in rice at the budding stage.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most extensively farmed food crops, but its development and productivity are significantly impacted by cold stress during the budding period. In this study, transcriptome sequencing was conducted on two types of rice: the cold-sensitive indica rice A117 and the substantially cold-tolerant japonica rice B106 under control and cold treatments. Differentially expressed genes between the two materials under cold conditions were analyzed using GO and KEGG enrichment analyses. The results revealed that processes such as the TCA cycle, glycolysis/glycogenesis, oxidative phosphorylation, and glutathione metabolism contribute to B106's cold tolerance. Additionally, an enrichment analysis of cold-induced genes in each material and shared genes identified significant enrichment in pathways such as glutathione metabolism, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and photosynthesis-antenna proteins. Initial cold tolerance QTLs at the rice bud stage were collected from published literature, and meta-QTL mapping identified 9 MQTLs. Gene expression profiling led to the identification of 75 potential DEGs within the 9 MQTLs region, from which four candidate genes (Os02g0194100, Os03g0802500, Os05g0129000, and Os07g0462000) were selected using qRT-PCR and gene annotation. These findings provide genetic resources for further research on the molecular mechanisms underlying rice's response to cold stress during the bud stage.

Enhancing diabetic foot ulcer healing: Impact of the regulation of the FUS and ILF2 RNA­binding proteins through negative pressure wound therapy.

Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is a destructive complication of diabetes. Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) promotes DFU wound healing through an undetermined mechanism. In the present study, RNA sequencing was performed on wound granulation tissue from 3 patients with DFU before and after 1 week of NPWT. The fused in sarcoma (FUS) and interleukin enhancer binding factor 2 (ILF2) encoding RNA­binding proteins (RBPs) were screened from the sequencing data, and wound tissue samples from 24 patients with DFU were validated and analyzed before and after receiving NPWT by reverse transcription­quantitative PCR, western blotting and immunohistochemistry. In addition, in vitro and in vivo experiments were conducted to determine the effect of the expression of FUS and ILF2 on the function of human epidermal keratinocyte cells (HaCaT cells) and the healing of diabetic skin wounds. The results indicated that NPWT induced the upregulation of 101 genes and the downregulation of 98 genes in DFU wound granulation tissue. After NPWT, the expression of FUS and ILF2 was significantly upregulated (P<0.05). Pearson's correlation coefficient showed that the changes in FUS and ILF2 before and after NPWT were negatively correlated with changes in white blood cells, the neutrophil percentage, C­reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor­α, reactive oxygen species, lipid peroxides, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 2 and MMP9 (P<0.05), but positively correlated with the anti­inflammatory factor, IL­4 (P<0.01). There was also a positive correlation (P<0.05) with the 4­week ulcer healing rate. Additionally, the knockdown of FUS and ILF2 expression inhibited the proliferation and migration of HaCaT cells, while increasing cell apoptosis. In vivo, the knockdown of FUS and ILF2 significantly reduced the rate of skin wound healing in diabetic mice. The results of the present study therefore provide new insights into the mechanism by which NPWT promotes DFU wound healing. In conclusion, the RBPs, FUS and ILF2, promoted DFU wound healing by regulating the function of keratinocytes and reducing the inflammatory response and oxidative stress.

Corneal nerve changes by anti-glaucoma medications examined by in vivo confocal microscopy.

AIM: To evaluate the effects of antiglaucoma eye drops on corneal nerves by in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM). METHODS: This study comprised 79 patients diagnosed with glaucoma and 16 healthy control individuals. Among the glaucoma patients, 54 were treated with medication, while 25 remained untreated. Central corneal images were evaluated by IVCM, and then ACCMetrics was used to calculate the following parameters: corneal nerve fiber density (CNFD), branch density (CNBD), fiber length (CNFL), total branch density (CTBD), fiber area (CNFA), fiber width (CNFW), and fractal dimension (CNFrD). The correlation between IVCM parameters and drugs was evaluated using non-parametric measurements of Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The CNFD was reduced in glaucoma groups compared to healthy subjects (P<0.01). Patients using anti-glaucoma medications exhibited poorer confocal parameters compared to untreated patients. As the number of medications and usage count increased, CNFD, CNBD, CNFL, CTBD, CNFA, and CNFrD experienced a decline, while CNFW increased (all P<0.01). For the brinzolamide-therapy group, there was a significant decrease in CNFD and CNFL compared to the other monotherapy groups (P<0.001). In the absence of medication, CNFD in males was lower than that in females (P<0.05). Among patients under medication therapy, CNFD remained consistent between males and females. CONCLUSION: Antiglaucoma eye drops affect the microstructure of corneal nerves. IVCM and ACCMetrics are useful tools that could be used to evaluate the corneal nerve changes.

Epigenetic Modifiers in Cancer Metastasis.

Metastasis is the primary cause of cancer-related death, with the dissemination and colonization of primary tumor cells at the metastatic site facilitated by various molecules and complex pathways. Understanding the biological mechanisms underlying the metastatic process is critical for the development of effective interventions. Several epigenetic modifications have been identified that play critical roles in regulating cancer metastasis. This review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of recent advances in understanding the role of epigenetic modifiers, including histone modifications, DNA methylation, non-coding RNAs, enhancer reprogramming, chromatin accessibility, and N6-methyladenosine, in metastasis-associated processes, such as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), cancer cell migration, and invasion. In particular, this review provides a detailed and in-depth description of the role of crosstalk between epigenetic regulators in tumor metastasis. Additionally, we explored the potential and limitations of epigenetics-related target molecules in the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of cancer metastasis.

FUCA1: An Underexplored p53 Target Gene Linking Glycosylation and Cancer Progression.

Cancer is a difficult-to-cure disease with high worldwide incidence and mortality, in large part due to drug resistance and disease relapse. Glycosylation, which is a common modification of cellular biomolecules, was discovered decades ago and has been of interest in cancer research due to its ability to influence cellular function and to promote carcinogenesis. A variety of glycosylation types and structures regulate the function of biomolecules and are potential targets for investigating and treating cancer. The link between glycosylation and carcinogenesis has been more recently revealed by the role of p53 in energy metabolism, including the p53 target gene alpha-L-fucosidase 1 (FUCA1), which plays an essential role in fucosylation. In this review, we summarize roles of glycan structures and glycosylation-related enzymes to cancer development. The interplay between glycosylation and tumor microenvironmental factors is also discussed, together with involvement of glycosylation in well-characterized cancer-promoting mechanisms, such as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt) and p53-mediated pathways. Glycan structures also modulate cell-matrix interactions, cell-cell adhesion as well as cell migration and settlement, dysfunction of which can contribute to cancer. Thus, further investigation of the mechanistic relationships among glycosylation, related enzymes and cancer progression may provide insights into potential novel cancer treatments.

Combined risk estimates of diabetes and coronary angiography-derived index of microcirculatory resistance in patients with non-ST elevation myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus (DM) and coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) increase the risk of adverse cardiac events in patients with non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). This study aimed to evaluate the combined risk estimates of DM and CMD, assessed by the angiography-derived index of microcirculatory resistance (angio-IMR), in patients with NSTEMI. METHODS: A total of 2212 patients with NSTEMI who underwent successful percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were retrospectively enrolled from three centers. The primary outcome was a composite of cardiac death or readmission for heart failure at a 2-year follow-up. RESULTS: Post-PCI angio-IMR did not significantly differ between the DM group and the non-DM group (20.13 [17.91-22.70] vs. 20.19 [18.14-22.77], P = 0.530). DM patients exhibited a notably higher risk of cardiac death or readmission for heart failure at 2 years compared to non-DM patients (9.5% vs. 5.4%, P < 0.001). NSTEMI patients with both DM and CMD experienced the highest cumulative incidence of cardiac death or readmission for heart failure at 2 years (24.0%, P < 0.001). The combination of DM and CMD in NSTEMI patients were identified as the most powerful independent predictor for cardiac death or readmission for heart failure at 2 years (adjusted HR: 7.894, [95% CI, 4.251-14.659], p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with NSTEMI, the combination of DM and CMD is an independent predictor of cardiac death or readmission for heart failure. Angio-IMR could be used as an additional evaluation tool for the management of NSTEMI patients with DM. TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: https://www. CLINICALTRIALS: gov ; Unique identifier: NCT05696379.

Community-engaged artificial intelligence research: A scoping review.

The degree to which artificial intelligence healthcare research is informed by data and stakeholders from community settings has not been previously described. As communities are the principal location of healthcare delivery, engaging them could represent an important opportunity to improve scientific quality. This scoping review systematically maps what is known and unknown about community-engaged artificial intelligence research and identifies opportunities to optimize the generalizability of these applications through involvement of community stakeholders and data throughout model development, validation, and implementation. Embase, PubMed, and MEDLINE databases were searched for articles describing artificial intelligence or machine learning healthcare applications with community involvement in model development, validation, or implementation. Model architecture and performance, the nature of community engagement, and barriers or facilitators to community engagement were reported according to PRISMA extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines. Of approximately 10,880 articles describing artificial intelligence healthcare applications, 21 (0.2%) described community involvement. All articles derived data from community settings, most commonly by leveraging existing datasets and sources that included community subjects, and often bolstered by internet-based data acquisition and subject recruitment. Only one article described inclusion of community stakeholders in designing an application-a natural language processing model that detected cases of likely child abuse with 90% accuracy using harmonized electronic health record notes from both hospital and community practice settings. The primary barrier to including community-derived data was small sample sizes, which may have affected 11 of the 21 studies (53%), introducing substantial risk for overfitting that threatens generalizability. Community engagement in artificial intelligence healthcare application development, validation, or implementation is rare. As healthcare delivery occurs primarily in community settings, investigators should consider engaging community stakeholders in user-centered design, usability, and clinical implementation studies to optimize generalizability.

Comparison of Infection Risks Between Various Inhaled and Intranasal Corticosteroids: A Pharmacovigilance Analysis Based on the FAERS Database.

Purpose: This study conducted a pharmacovigilance analysis based on the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database to compare the infection risk of inhaled or nasal Beclomethasone, Fluticasone, Budesonide, Ciclesonide, Mometasone, and Triamcinolone Acetonide. Methods: We used proportional imbalance analysis to evaluate the correlation between ICS /INCs and infection events. The data was extracted from the FAERS database from April 2015 to September 2023. Further analysis was conducted on the clinical characteristics, site of infection, and pathogenic bacteria of ICS and INCs infection adverse events (AEs). We used bubble charts to display their top 5 infection adverse events. Results: We analyzed 21,837 reports of infection AEs related to ICS and INCs, with an average age of 62.12 years. Among them, 61.14% of infection reports were related to females. One-third of infections reported to occur in the lower respiratory tract with Fluticasone, Budesonide, Ciclesonidec, and Mometasone; over 40% of infections reported by Triamcinolone Acetonide were eye infections; the rate of oral infections caused by Beclomethasone were 7.39%. The reported rates of fungal and viral infections caused by beclomethasone were 21.15% and 19.2%, respectively. The mycobacterial infections caused by Budesonide and Ciclesonidec account for 3.29% and 2.03%, respectively. Bubble plots showed that the ICS group had more fungal infections, oral infections, pneumonia, tracheitis, etc. The INCs group had more eye symptoms, rhinitis, sinusitis, nasopharyngitis, etc. Conclusion: Women who use ICS and INCs are more prone to infection events. Compared to Budesonide, Fluticasone seemed to have a higher risk of pneumonia and oral candidiasis. Mometasone might lead to more upper respiratory tract infections. The risk of oral infection was higher with Beclomethasone. Beclomethasone causes more fungal and viral infections, while Ciclesonide and Budesonide are more susceptible to mycobacterial infections.

Impact of airway devices and emergency airway techniques characteristics on airway adverse events in mainland China: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Novel airway devices are becoming widely available, yet it is unclear whether the techniques or preferences of airway practitioners for airway management have been impacted. Given these facts, a cross-sectional study of the current status of airway management in mainland China was conducted and compared with previous survey findings. METHODS: The national survey was conducted from November 7th to November 28th, 2022. An electronic survey was sent to the New Youth Anesthesia Forum to examine the availability of airway devices, preference for front-of-neck access (FONA) techniques, the incidence of adverse airway events, and the status of airway management training. RESULTS: Questionnaires were completed by 3783 respondents, with a response rate of 72.14%. So far, the availability of optical airway devices has improved dramatically, with the availability of videolaryngoscopes reaching 97.18%. When encountering "cannot intubate, cannot ventilate" (CICV) scenarios, the majority of respondents would prefer needle cricothyrotomy to establish FONA. However, less than a quarter of respondents had actually performed it. Moreover, the incidence of airway adverse events from 2016 to 2022 was 11.48%, of which 5.13% were brain damage or death. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the ability to perform FONA techniques (odds ratio [OR] 0.23, 95% CI: 0.16, 0.32; P<0.001) and the availability of difficult airway management carts or kits (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.41, 0.85; P=0.005) were associated with a lower incidence of airway adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Optical airway devices can overcome some of the challenges posed by difficult airways, yet the CICV scenario remains a major obstacle. The future focus of airway management should be training, particularly for complicated emergency airway techniques.

Identification of hub genes associated with diabetic cardiomyopathy using integrated bioinformatics analysis.

Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a common cardiovascular complication of diabetes, which may threaten the quality of life and shorten life expectancy in the diabetic population. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the diabetes cardiomyopathy are not fully elucidated. We analyzed two datasets from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Differentially expressed and weighted gene correlation network analysis (WGCNA) was used to screen key genes and molecules. Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis, and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis were constructed to identify hub genes. The diagnostic value of the hub gene was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC). Quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) was used to validate the hub genes. A total of 13 differentially co-expressed modules were selected by WGCNA and differential expression analysis. KEGG and GO analysis showed these DEGs were mainly enriched in lipid metabolism and myocardial hypertrophy pathway, cytomembrane, and mitochondrion. As a result, six genes were identified as hub genes. Finally, five genes (Pdk4, Lipe, Serpine1, Igf1r, and Bcl2l1) were found significantly changed in both the validation dataset and experimental mice with DCM. In conclusion, the present study identified five genes that may help provide novel targets for diagnosing and treating DCM.

National survey on the current status of airway management in China.

Apparently, understanding airway management status may help to reduce risk and improve clinical practice. Given these facts, our team conducted a second survey on the current status of airway management for mainland China following our 2016 national airway survey. The national survey was conducted from November 7 to November 28, 2022. An electronic survey was sent to the New Youth Anesthesia Forum, where Chinese anesthesiologists completed the questionnaire via WeChat. A total of 3783 respondents completed the survey, with a response rate of 72.14%. So far, in 2022, 34.84% of anesthesiologists canceled or delayed surgery at least once due to difficult airway. For the anticipated difficult airway management, 66.11% of physicians would choose awake intubation under sedation and topical anesthesia, while the percentage seeking help has decreased compared to the 2016 survey. When encountering an emergency, 74.20% of respondents prefer to use the needle cricothyrotomy, albeit less than a quarter have actually performed it. Anesthesiologists with difficult airway training experience reached 72.96%, with a significant difference in participation between participants in Tier 3 hospitals and those in other levels of hospitals (P < 0.001). The videolaryngoscope, laryngeal mask, and flexible intubation scope were equipped at 97.18%, 95.96%, and 62.89%, respectively. Additionally, the percentage of brain damage or death caused by difficult airways was significantly decreased. The study may be the best reference for understanding the current status of airway management in China, revealing the current advancements and deficiencies. The future focus of airway management remains on training and education.