Treatment techniques and resource recovery of source-separated urine: a bibliometric analysis and literature review.

Human urine, which is high in nutrients, acts as a resource as well as a contaminant. Indiscriminate urine discharge causes environmental pollution and wastes resources. To elucidate the research status and developmental trajectory of source-separated urine (SSU) treatment and recovery, this study was based on the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) database and used the bibliometric software VOSviewer and CiteSpace to conduct a comprehensive and in-depth bibliometric analysis of the related literature in this field. The findings revealed a general upward trend in SSU treatment and recovery from 2000 to 2023. The compendium of 894 scholarly articles predominantly focused on the disciplines of Environmental Sciences, Environmental Engineering, and Water Resources. China and the USA emerged as the foremost contributors. Keyword co-occurrence mapping, clustering, and burst analysis have shown that the recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus from urine is currently the main focus, with future prospects leaning toward the retrieval of biochemicals and chemical energy. This study systematically categorizes and compares the developmental status, current advancements, and research progress in this field. The findings of this study provide a valuable reference for understanding developmental pathways in this field of research.

Association between Lifestyle Modification and All-Cause, Cardiovascular, and Premature Mortality in Individuals with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

BACKGROUND: This study is designed to explore the correlation between multiple healthy lifestyles within the framework of "lifestyle medicine", and the mortality risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). METHODS: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database was employed. The analysis consisted of 5542 participants with baseline NAFLD and 5542 matched non-NAFLD participants from the database. Lifestyle information, including five low risk factors advocated by lifestyle medicine (healthy diet, vigorous physical activity, healthy sleep duration, avoiding smoking, and maintaining a non-depressed psychological status), was collected through a baseline questionnaire. Cox proportional hazards regression models and Kaplan-Meier survival curve were used to evaluate risk of mortality. In addition, subgroups were analyzed according to gender, age, body mass index and waist circumference. RESULTS: In total, 502 deaths (n = 181 deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD)) were recorded among NAFLD participants after the median follow up duration of 6.5 years. In the multivariate-adjusted model, compared to participants with an unfavorable lifestyle (scoring 0-1), NAFLD participants with a favorable lifestyle (scoring 4-5) experienced a 56% reduction in all-cause mortality and a 66% reduction in CVD mortality. Maintaining an undepressed psychological state and adhering to vigorous exercise significantly reduced CVD mortality risk in NAFLD participants (HR, 0.64 [95% CI, 0.43-0.95]; HR, 0.54 [95% CI, 0.33-0.88]) while maintaining healthy sleep reduced premature mortality due to CVD by 31%. CONCLUSIONS: Healthy lifestyle, characterized by maintaining an undepressed mental state and healthy sleep, significantly mitigates the risk of all-cause, CVD, and premature mortality risk among NAFLD patients, with a particularly pronounced effect observed in female and obese subpopulations.

Clinical and molecular significance of homologous recombination deficiency positive non-small cell lung cancer in Chinese population: An integrated genomic and transcriptional analysis.

Objective: The clinical significance of homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) in breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer has been established, but the value of HRD in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not been fully investigated. This study aimed to systematically analyze the HRD status of untreated NSCLC and its relationship with patient prognosis to further guide clinical care. Methods: A total of 355 treatment-naïve NSCLC patients were retrospectively enrolled. HRD status was assessed using the AmoyDx Genomic Scar Score (GSS), with a score of ≥50 considered HRD-positive. Genomic, transcriptomic, tumor microenvironmental characteristics and prognosis between HRD-positive and HRD-negative patients were analyzed. Results: Of the patients, 25.1% (89/355) were HRD-positive. Compared to HRD-negative patients, HRD-positive patients had more somatic pathogenic homologous recombination repair (HRR) mutations, higher tumor mutation burden (TMB) (P<0.001), and fewer driver gene mutations (P<0.001). Furthermore, HRD-positive NSCLC had more amplifications in PI3K pathway and cell cycle genes, MET and MYC in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)/anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) mutant NSCLC, and more PIK3CA and AURKA in EGFR/ALK wild-type NSCLC. HRD-positive NSCLC displayed higher tumor proliferation and immunosuppression activity. HRD-negative NSCLC showed activated signatures of major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-II, interferon (IFN)-γ and effector memory CD8+ T cells. HRD-positive patients had a worse prognosis and shorter progression-free survival (PFS) to targeted therapy (first- and third-generation EGFR-TKIs) (P=0.042). Additionally, HRD-positive, EGFR/ALK wild-type patients showed a numerically lower response to platinum-free immunotherapy regimens. Conclusions: Unique genomic and transcriptional characteristics were found in HRD-positive NSCLC. Poor prognosis and poor response to EGFR-TKIs and immunotherapy were observed in HRD-positive NSCLC. This study highlights potential actionable alterations in HRD-positive NSCLC, suggesting possible combinational therapeutic strategies for these patients.

Glutamine metabolic competition drives immunosuppressive reprogramming of intratumour GPR109A+ myeloid cells to promote liver cancer progression.

OBJECTIVE: The metabolic characteristics of liver cancer drive considerable hurdles to immune cells function and cancer immunotherapy. However, how metabolic reprograming in the tumour microenvironment impairs the antitumour immune response remains unclear. DESIGN: Human samples and multiple murine models were employed to evaluate the correlation between GPR109A and liver cancer progression. GPR109A knockout mice, immune cells depletion and primary cell coculture models were used to determine the regulation of GPR109A on tumour microenvironment and identify the underlying mechanism responsible for the formation of intratumour GPR109A+myeloid cells. RESULTS: We demonstrate that glutamine shortage in liver cancer tumour microenvironment drives an immunosuppressive GPR109A+myeloid cells infiltration, leading to the evasion of immune surveillance. Blockade of GPR109A decreases G-MDSCs and M2-like TAMs abundance to trigger the antitumour responses of CD8+ T cells and further improves the immunotherapy efficacy against liver cancer. Mechanistically, tumour cells and tumour-infiltrated myeloid cells compete for glutamine uptake via the transporter SLC1A5 to control antitumour immunity, which disrupts the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) homoeostasis and induces unfolded protein response of myeloid cells to promote GPR109A expression through IRE1α/XBP1 pathway. The restriction of glutamine uptake in liver cancer cells, as well as the blockade of IRE1α/XBP1 signalling or glutamine supplementation, can eliminate the immunosuppressive effects of GPR109A+ myeloid cells and slow down tumour progression. CONCLUSION: Our findings identify the immunometabolic crosstalk between liver cancer cells and myeloid cells facilitates tumour progression via a glutamine metabolism/ER stress/GPR109A axis, suggesting that GPR109A can be exploited as an immunometabolic checkpoint and putative target for cancer treatment.

Voltage-Driven Fluorine Motion for Novel Organic Spintronic Memristor.

Integrating tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) effect in memristors is a long-term aspiration because it allows to realize multifunctional devices, such as multi-state memory and tunable plasticity for synaptic function. However, the reported TMR in different multiferroic tunnel junctions is limited to 100%. This work demonstrates a giant TMR of -266% in La0.6Sr0.4MnO3(LSMO)/poly(vinylidene fluoride)(PVDF)/Co memristor with thin organic barrier. Different from the ferroelectricity-based memristors, this work discovers that the voltage-driven florine (F) motion in the junction generates a huge reversible resistivity change up to 106% with nanosecond (ns) timescale. Removing F from PVDF layer suppresses the dipole field in the tunneling barrier, thereby significantly enhances the TMR. Furthermore, the TMR can be tuned by different polarizing voltage due to the strong modification of spin-polarization at the LSMO/PVDF interface upon F doping. Combining of high TMR in the organic memristor paves the way to develop high-performance multifunctional devices for storage and neuromorphic applications.

Sleep Pattern, Genetic Susceptibility, and Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm in UK Biobank Participants: Large-Scale Cohort Study.

Background: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is an important cause of cardiovascular mortality. Objectives: The authors aimed to explore the associations between sleep patterns and genetic susceptibility to AAA. Methods: We included 344,855 UK Biobank study participants free of AAA at baseline. A sleep pattern was defined by chronotype, sleep duration, insomnia, snoring, and daytime sleepiness, and an overall sleep score was constructed with a range from 0 to 5, where a high score denotes a healthy sleep pattern. Polygenic risk score based on 22 single nucleotide polymorphisms was categorized into tertiles and used to evaluate the genetic risk for AAA. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to assess the association between sleep, genetic factors, and the incidence of AAA. Results: During a median of 12.59 years of follow-up, 1,622 incident AAA cases were identified. The HR per 1-point increase in the sleep score was 0.91 (95% CI: 0.86-0.96) for AAA. Unhealthy sleep patterns, defined as a sleep score ranging from 0 to 3, were found to be associated with a higher risk of AAA for the intermediate (HR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.06-1.31) and poor sleep patterns (HR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.13-1.73), respectively, compared to the healthy pattern. Participants with poor sleep patterns and high genetic risks had a 2.5-fold higher risk of AAA than those with healthy sleep patterns and low genetic risk. Conclusions: In this large prospective study, healthy sleep patterns were associated with a lower risk of AAA among participants with low, intermediate, or high genetic risk.

Reconfigurable spintronic logic gate utilizing precessional magnetization switching.

In traditional von Neumann computing architecture, the efficiency of the system is often hindered by the data transmission bottleneck between the processor and memory. A prevalent approach to mitigate this limitation is the use of non-volatile memory for in-memory computing, with spin-orbit torque (SOT) magnetic random-access memory (MRAM) being a leading area of research. In this study, we numerically demonstrate that a precise combination of damping-like and field-like spin-orbit torques can facilitate precessional magnetization switching. This mechanism enables the binary memristivity of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) through the modulation of the amplitude and width of input current pulses. Building on this foundation, we have developed a scheme for a reconfigurable spintronic logic gate capable of directly implementing Boolean functions such as AND, OR, and XOR. This work is anticipated to leverage the sub-nanosecond dynamics of SOT-MRAM cells, potentially catalyzing further experimental developments in spintronic devices for in-memory computing.

Accurate Early Detection and EGFR Mutation Status Prediction of Lung Cancer Using Plasma cfDNA Coverage Patterns: A Proof-of-Concept Study.

Lung cancer is a major global health concern with a low survival rate, often due to late-stage diagnosis. Liquid biopsy offers a non-invasive approach to cancer detection and monitoring, utilizing various features of circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA). In this study, we established two models based on cfDNA coverage patterns at the transcription start sites (TSSs) from 6X whole-genome sequencing: an Early Cancer Screening Model and an EGFR mutation status prediction model. The Early Cancer Screening Model showed encouraging prediction ability, especially for early-stage lung cancer. The EGFR mutation status prediction model exhibited high accuracy in distinguishing between EGFR-positive and wild-type cases. Additionally, cfDNA coverage patterns at TSSs also reflect gene expression patterns at the pathway level in lung cancer patients. These findings demonstrate the potential applications of cfDNA coverage patterns at TSSs in early cancer screening and in cancer subtyping.

In Vitro and In Vivo Analyses Reveal Tumor-Derived Exosome miR-558 Promotes Angiogenesis in Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Targeting Heparinase.

This study aimed to investigate the role of miR-558 in tumor angiogenesis by targeting heparinase (HPSE) in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC)-derived exosomes. In the present study, the role of exosome miR-558 in angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo was investigated by cell proliferation, migration, tube formation, subcutaneous tumor formation in mice, and in vivo Matrigel plug assay. The target genes of miR-558 were detected by means of dual luciferase assay. It was found that TSCC cells secrete miR-558 into the extracellular environment, with exosome as the carrier. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) ingested exosomes, which not only increased the expression level of miR-558, but also enhanced their proliferation, migration, and tube formation functions. In vivo Matrigel plug assay demonstrated that TSCC cell-derived exosome miR-558 promoted neovascularization in vivo. Compared with negative control cells, TSCC cells overexpressing miR-558 formed subcutaneous tumors in nude mice, with larger volume, heavier mass, and more vascularization. Dual luciferase assay confirmed that HPSE was the direct target gene regulated by miR-558. HPSE promoted the proliferation, migration, and tube formation of HUVECs, and the knockout of HPSE could downregulate the pro-angiogenic effect of miR-558. In summary, miR-558 in TSCC exosomes promotes the proliferation, migration, and tube formation of HUVECs by targeting HPSE, and enhancing tumor angiogenesis.

VascuConNet: an enhanced connectivity network for vascular segmentation.

Medical image segmentation commonly involves diverse tissue types and structures, including tasks such as blood vessel segmentation and nerve fiber bundle segmentation. Enhancing the continuity of segmentation outcomes represents a pivotal challenge in medical image segmentation, driven by the demands of clinical applications, focusing on disease localization and quantification. In this study, a novel segmentation model is specifically designed for retinal vessel segmentation, leveraging vessel orientation information, boundary constraints, and continuity constraints to improve segmentation accuracy. To achieve this, we cascade U-Net with a long-short-term memory network (LSTM). U-Net is characterized by a small number of parameters and high segmentation efficiency, while LSTM offers a parameter-sharing capability. Additionally, we introduce an orientation information enhancement module inserted into the model's bottom layer to obtain feature maps containing orientation information through an orientation convolution operator. Furthermore, we design a new hybrid loss function that consists of connectivity loss, boundary loss, and cross-entropy loss. Experimental results demonstrate that the model achieves excellent segmentation outcomes across three widely recognized retinal vessel segmentation datasets, CHASE_DB1, DRIVE, and ARIA.

ß-Lapachone promotes the recruitment and polarization of tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) toward an antitumor (N1) phenotype in NQO1-positive cancers.

NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) is overexpressed in most solid cancers, emerging as a promising target for tumor-selective killing. ß-Lapachone (ß-Lap), an NQO1 bioactivatable drug, exhibits significant antitumor effects on NQO1-positive cancer cells by inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD) and enhancing tumor immunogenicity. However, the interaction between ß-Lap-mediated antitumor immune responses and neutrophils, novel antigen-presenting cells (APCs), remains unknown. This study demonstrates that ß-Lap selectively kills NQO1-positive murine tumor cells by significantly increasing intracellular ROS formation and inducing DNA double strand breaks (DSBs), resulting in DNA damage. Treatment with ß-Lap efficiently eradicates immunocompetent murine tumors and significantly increases the infiltration of tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) into the tumor microenvironment (TME), which plays a crucial role in the drug's therapeutic efficacy. Further, the presence of ß-Lap-induced antigen medium leads bone marrow-derived neutrophils (BMNs) to directly kill murine tumor cells, aiding in dendritic cells (DCs) recruitment and significantly enhancing CD8+ T cell proliferation. ß-Lap treatment also drives the polarization of TANs toward an antitumor N1 phenotype, characterized by elevated IFN-ß expression and reduced TGF-ß cytokine expression, along with increased CD95 and CD54 surface markers. ß-Lap treatment also induces N1 TAN-mediated T cell cross-priming. The HMGB1/TLR4/MyD88 signaling cascade influences neutrophil infiltration into ß-Lap-treated tumors. Blocking this cascade or depleting neutrophil infiltration abolishes the antigen-specific T cell response induced by ß-Lap treatment. Overall, this study provides comprehensive insights into the role of tumor-infiltrating neutrophils in the ß-Lap-induced antitumor activity against NQO1-positive murine tumors.

Role of clinical and multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) features in the prediction of patients with intestinal lipoma developing intussusception.

Background: Intestinal lipoma is considered the most common benign tumor that causes intussusception. This retrospective case-control study aimed to present the clinical and multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) features between intestinal lipomas with and without intussusception and examine risk factors that predict intussusception caused by intestinal lipomas. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 281 adult patients diagnosed with intestinal lipoma by radiologists using whole-abdominal MDCT between January 2015 and August 2022. Patients were divided into adult intussusception (AI) and non-AI groups based on MDCT images. Univariate logistic regression was performed to identify risk factors for intestinal lipoma-induced intussusception. Results: A total of 281 patients with intestinal lipomas were included in the study, with an average age of 68.0±11.3 years, and the male to female ratio was about 1:1.4. Among them, 24 patients developed lipoma-induced intussusception. Patients in the AI group presented with more abdominal pain (70.8% vs. 47.1%, P=0.03), nausea/vomiting (37.5% vs. 14.8%, P=0.009), hematochezia/melena (29.2% vs. 11.3%, P=0.02), and abdominal tenderness (66.7% vs. 24.9%, P<0.001). Lipomas were more common in the small bowel (224/281, 79.7%) than the large bowel (57/281, 20.3%). Lipomas in the AI group showed more heterogeneous hypodensity (41.7% vs. 15.6%, P=0.004), longer length (median, 2.2 vs. 1.2 cm, P<0.001), and larger volume (median, 4.1 vs. 0.6 cm3, P<0.001). In the univariate logistic regression, lipoma density [odds ratio (OR) =3.875, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.609-9.331, P=0.003] and lipoma length (OR =3.216, 95% CI: 1.977-5.231, P<0.001) were risk factors for intestinal lipoma-induced intussusception. Conclusions: More patients in the AI group have digestive tract symptoms than those in the non-AI group. Lipoma density and length are risk factors for intussusception in patients with intestinal lipoma. In addition, the common site of intestinal lipoma may have changed from the colon to the small intestine.

Maintenance treatment of immunotherapy after microwave ablation plus drug-eluting bead bronchial arterial chemoembolization for advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a retrospective single-center cohort study.

Background: The combination therapy of immunotherapy and drug-eluting bead bronchial artery chemoembolization (DEB-BACE) or microwave ablation (MWA) has been attempted as an effective and safe approach for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the outcomes of immunotherapy plus multiple interventional techniques for advanced NSCLC remain unclear. This retrospective study thus aimed to investigate the effectiveness and safety of the maintenance treatment of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) blockade after MWA plus DEB-BACE for advanced NSCLC. Methods: This retrospective cohort study consists of 95 patients with advanced NSCLC who were treated with DEB-BACE between April 2017 and October 2022 and who were allocated to three groups: group A (MWA + DEB-BACE + PD-1 blockade; n=15), group B (MWA + DEB-BACE; n=25), and group C (DEB-BACE alone; n=55). The adverse events (AEs) were compared between the three groups. The outcomes were compared via Kaplan-Meier methods, including median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Survival analyses were performed via the univariate and multivariate analyses to investigate the prognostic predictors. Results: The overall incidence of AEs in the groups A-C was 53.3% (8/15), 36.0% (9/25), and 32.7% (18/55), respectively, which did not represent a significant difference (P=0.42). No severe AEs (SAEs) occurred. Group A, compared with group B and group C, had a significantly longer estimated median PFS (33.0 vs. 7.0 vs. 3.0 months; P<0.001) and OS (33.0 vs. 13.0 vs. 6.0 months; P=0.002). PD-1 blockade (P=0.006), tumor number (P=0.01), and DEB-BACE/bronchial artery infusion (BAI) chemotherapy cycles (P=0.04) were identified as the predictors of PFS, while the predictors of OS were PD-1 blockade (P<0.001), number of metastases (P<0.001), tumor diameter (P<0.001), and DEB-BACE/BAI cycles (P=0.02). Conclusions: Compared with that of advanced NSCLC treated with MWA plus DEB-BACE or DEB-BACE alone, the maintenance treatment of immunotherapy after MWA plus DEB-BACE might provide a superior prognosis without increasing the risk of AEs.

Automated segmentation of liver and hepatic vessels on portal venous phase computed tomography images using a deep learning algorithm.

BACKGROUND: CT-image segmentation for liver and hepatic vessels can facilitate liver surgical planning. However, time-consuming process and inter-observer variations of manual segmentation have limited wider application in clinical practice. PURPOSE: Our study aimed to propose an automated deep learning (DL) segmentation algorithm for liver and hepatic vessels on portal venous phase CT images. METHODS: This retrospective study was performed to develop a coarse-to-fine DL-based algorithm that was trained, validated, and tested using private 413, 52, and 50 portal venous phase CT images, respectively. Additionally, the performance of the DL algorithm was extensively evaluated and compared with manual segmentation using an independent clinical dataset of preoperative contrast-enhanced CT images from 44 patients with hepatic focal lesions. The accuracy of DL-based segmentation was quantitatively evaluated using the Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) and complementary metrics [Normalized Surface Dice (NSD) and Hausdorff distance_95 (HD95) for liver segmentation, Recall and Precision for hepatic vessel segmentation]. The processing time for DL and manual segmentation was also compared. RESULTS: Our DL algorithm achieved accurate liver segmentation with DSC of 0.98, NSD of 0.92, and HD95 of 1.52 mm. DL-segmentation of hepatic veins, portal veins, and inferior vena cava attained DSC of 0.86, 0.89, and 0.94, respectively. Compared with the manual approach, the DL algorithm significantly outperformed with better segmentation results for both liver and hepatic vessels, with higher accuracy of liver and hepatic vessel segmentation (all p < 0.001) in independent 44 clinical data. In addition, the DL method significantly reduced the manual processing time of clinical postprocessing (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The proposed DL algorithm potentially enabled accurate and rapid segmentation for liver and hepatic vessels using portal venous phase contrast CT images.

TRIM33 plays a critical role in regulating dendritic cell differentiation and homeostasis by modulating Irf8 and Bcl2l11 transcription.

The development of distinct dendritic cell (DC) subsets, namely, plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) and conventional DC subsets (cDC1s and cDC2s), is controlled by specific transcription factors. IRF8 is essential for the fate specification of cDC1s. However, how the expression of Irf8 is regulated is not fully understood. In this study, we identified TRIM33 as a critical regulator of DC differentiation and maintenance. TRIM33 deletion in Trim33fl/fl Cre-ERT2 mice significantly impaired DC differentiation from hematopoietic progenitors at different developmental stages. TRIM33 deficiency downregulated the expression of multiple genes associated with DC differentiation in these progenitors. TRIM33 promoted the transcription of Irf8 to facilitate the differentiation of cDC1s by maintaining adequate CDK9 and Ser2 phosphorylated RNA polymerase II (S2 Pol II) levels at Irf8 gene sites. Moreover, TRIM33 prevented the apoptosis of DCs and progenitors by directly suppressing the PU.1-mediated transcription of Bcl2l11, thereby maintaining DC homeostasis. Taken together, our findings identified TRIM33 as a novel and crucial regulator of DC differentiation and maintenance through the modulation of Irf8 and Bcl2l11 expression. The finding that TRIM33 functions as a critical regulator of both DC differentiation and survival provides potential benefits for devising DC-based immune interventions and therapies.

An open auscultation dataset for machine learning-based respiratory diagnosis studies.

Machine learning enabled auscultating diagnosis can provide promising solutions especially for prescreening purposes. The bottleneck for its potential success is that high-quality datasets for training are still scarce. An open auscultation dataset that consists of samples and annotations from patients and healthy individuals is established in this work for the respiratory diagnosis studies with machine learning, which is of both scientific importance and practical potential. A machine learning approach is examined to showcase the use of this new dataset for lung sound classifications with different diseases. The open dataset is available to the public online.

ICT diffusion and financial development: Comparing high, middle, and low-income countries.

Given the importance of ICT diffusion in the development of the financial sector, this analysis is an effort to analyze the transmission channels between the two in high-income and middle and low-income economies over 2001-2019. We have used three variables, including the ICT index, individuals using the internet, and mobile subscribers, to represent ICT and three indices, including the financial development index, financial institution index, and financial market index, to make our results reliable and robust. We utilized a GMM method for conducting the empirical analysis. Generally, our results imply that ICT diffusion positively impacts financial development in high-income economies and negatively impacts middle and low-income economies. Our findings suggest that middle- and low-income-economy policymakers should follow the footprint of the high-income economies and increase the role of ICT in the financial sector for its development.

The bidirectional relationship between activities of daily living and frailty during short-and long-term follow-up period among the middle-aged and older population: findings from the Chinese nationwide cohort study.

Objective: Frailty and activities of daily living (ADL) disability are common conditions among older population. Studies on the bidirectional relationship between frailty and ADL are limited. The current study examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between frailty and ADL in middle-aged and older Chinese individuals. Methods: The data was collected through the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), conducted in 2011, 2013, and 2015, encompassing 17,284 individuals aged ≥45 years. We excluded individuals without follow-up data. 2,631 participants finished the baseline survey. The definition of ADL disability encompasses difficulty in engaging in either basic activities of daily living (BADL) or instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Frailty was assessed according to the Fried criteria. Logistic regression was utilized to examine odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for assessing the cross-sectional relationships between ADL with frailty at baseline. The prediction effects were explored using Cox proportional hazards analysis, testing hazard ratios (HRs) and 95%CIs. Results: In cross-sectional analysis, BADL [OR = 6.660 (4.519-9.815)], IADL [OR = 5.950 (4.490-7.866)], and ADL [OR = 5.658 (4.278-7.483)] exhibited significant associations with frailty; frailty demonstrated significant associations with BADL [OR = 6.741 (4.574-9.933)], IADL [OR = 6.042 (4.555-8.016)] and ADL [OR = 5.735 (4.333-7.591)]. In longitudinal analysis, IADL and ADL were significantly associated with frailty in participants without baseline frailty in the short-term period [IADL: HR = 1.971 (1.150-3.379), ADL: HR = 1.920 (1.146-3.215)], IADL exhibited a significant association with frailty in the long-term period [HR = 2.056 (1.085-3.895)]. There was no significant link observed between frailty and an elevated risk of disability onset in BADL, IADL and ADL during the short-term period. When considering the long-term perspective, frailty exhibited a significant association with an elevated risk of disability onset in BADL [HR= 1.820 (1.126-2.939)] and IADL [HR = 1.724 (1.103-2.694)]. Conclusion: In middle-aged and older adults, ADL and IADL disability predicted frailty after 2-year follow-up, IADL disability predicted frailty after 4-year follow-up. Moreover, frailty did not predict BADL, IADL and ADL disability after 2-year follow-up. However, frailty predicted BADL and IADL disability after 4-year follow-up.

Radiological Features for Predicting the Status of CD8-Positive Lymphocytes in HER2 Positive Breast Cancer.

Background: The level of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer (BC) is positively correlated with pathological complete response. Aims: To investigate the relationship between ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features and the level of CD8-positive TILs (CD8+-TILs) in patients with HER2-positive BC. Study Design: Retrospective cohort study. Methods: This retrospective study included 155 consecutive women with HER2-positive BC. Patients were divided into two groups: CD8+-TILlow (< 35%) and CD8+-TILhigh (≥ 35%) groups. US and MRI features were evaluated using the BI-RADS lexicon, and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value was calculated using RadiAnt software. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed the optimal US and MRI features for predicting CD8+-TIL levels. Receiver operating characteristic analysis and the Delong test were used to compare the diagnostic performance of US and MRI features. Furthermore, implementing a nomogram will increase clinical utility. Results: Univariate analysis of US features showed significant differences in shape, orientation, and posterior echo between the two groups; however, there were no significant differences in margins, internal echo, and microcalcification. Multifactorial analysis revealed that shape, orientation, and posterior echo were independent risk factors, with odds ratios of 11.62, 2.70, and 0.16, respectively. In terms of MRI features, ADC was an independent predictor of CD8+-TIL levels. These three US features and the ADC performed well, with area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.802 and 0.705, respectively. The combination of US and ADC values had higher predictive efficacy (AUC = 0.888) than either US or ADC alone (p = 0.009, US_ADC vs. US; p < 0.001, US_ADC vs. ADC). Conclusion: US features (shape, orientation, and posterior echo) and ADC value may be a valuable tool for estimating CD8+-TIL levels in HER2-positive BC. The nomogram may help clinicians in making decisions.

A core scientific problem in the treatment of central nervous system diseases: newborn neurons.

It has long been asserted that failure to recover from central nervous system diseases is due to the system's intricate structure and the regenerative incapacity of adult neurons. Yet over recent decades, numerous studies have established that endogenous neurogenesis occurs in the adult central nervous system, including humans'. This has challenged the long-held scientific consensus that the number of adult neurons remains constant, and that new central nervous system neurons cannot be created or renewed. Herein, we present a comprehensive overview of the alterations and regulatory mechanisms of endogenous neurogenesis following central nervous system injury, and describe novel treatment strategies that target endogenous neurogenesis and newborn neurons in the treatment of central nervous system injury. Central nervous system injury frequently results in alterations of endogenous neurogenesis, encompassing the activation, proliferation, ectopic migration, differentiation, and functional integration of endogenous neural stem cells. Because of the unfavorable local microenvironment, most activated neural stem cells differentiate into glial cells rather than neurons. Consequently, the injury-induced endogenous neurogenesis response is inadequate for repairing impaired neural function. Scientists have attempted to enhance endogenous neurogenesis using various strategies, including using neurotrophic factors, bioactive materials, and cell reprogramming techniques. Used alone or in combination, these therapeutic strategies can promote targeted migration of neural stem cells to an injured area, ensure their survival and differentiation into mature functional neurons, and facilitate their integration into the neural circuit. Thus can integration replenish lost neurons after central nervous system injury, by improving the local microenvironment. By regulating each phase of endogenous neurogenesis, endogenous neural stem cells can be harnessed to promote effective regeneration of newborn neurons. This offers a novel approach for treating central nervous system injury.