Static-Dynamic coordinated Transformer for Tumor Longitudinal Growth Prediction.

Accurate prediction of the tumor's future imaging features can provide its complete growth evolution and more detailed clinical parameters. The existing longitudinal models tend to lose detailed growth information and make it difficult to model the complete tumor development process. In this paper, we propose the Static-Dynamic coordinated Transformer for Tumor Longitudinal Growth Prediction (SDC-Transformer). To extract the static high-level features of tumors in each period, and to further explore the dynamic growth associations and expansion trend of tumors between different periods. Aiming at the insensitivity to local pixel information of the Transformer, we propose the Local Adaptive Transformer Module to facilitate a strongly coupled status of feature images, which ensures the characterization of tumor complex growth trends. Faced with the dynamic changes brought about by tumor growth, we introduce the Dynamic Growth Estimation Module to predict the future growth trend of the tumor. As a core part of SDC-Transformer, we design the Enhanced Deformable Convolution to enrich the sampling space of tumor growth pixels. And a novel Cascade Self-Attention is performed under multi-growth imaging to obtain dynamic growth relationships between periods and use dual cascade operations to predict the tumor's future expansion trajectories and growth contours. Our SDC-Transformer is rigorously trained and tested on longitudinal tumor data composed of the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) and collaborative Shanxi Provincial People's Hospital. The RMSE, Dice, Recall, and Specificity of the longitudinal prediction results reach 11.32, 89.31%, 90.57%, and 89.64%, respectively. This result shows that our proposed SDC-Transformer model can achieve accurate longitudinal prediction of tumors, which will help physicians to establish specific treatment plans and accurately diagnose lung cancer. The code will be released soon.

Selenium modulated gut flora and promoted decomposition of methylmercury in methylmercury-poisoned rats.

INTRODUCTION: Selenium plays important roles in antagonizing the toxicity of methylmercury. The underlying mechanism for the antagonism between Se and MeHg is still not fully understood. OBJECTIVE: The role of gut flora against the toxicity of environmental contaminants is receiving more and more attention. The objective of this study was to investigate the role of Se against MeHg-poisoning in the modulation of gut flora and the decomposition of MeHg. METHODS: MeHg-poisoned rats were treated with sodium selenite every other day for 90 days. Fecal samples were collected on Day 8, 30, 60 and 90. Gut flora in feces was determined using 16S rRNA gene profiling, and the concentrations of Se and total mercury (THg) were measured by ICP-MS, and the concentration of MeHg was measured by CVAFS. RESULTS: Gut flora at both the ranks of phylum and genus in the MeHg-poisoned rats after Se treatment was modulated towards that in the control group, suggesting the restoration of the profile of gut flora. Increased THg was found in fecal samples after Se treatment on day 30. The percentage of MeHg (of total mercury) in the MeHg-poisoned group was in the range of 81-105% while it was 65-84% in the Se treatment group on different days, suggesting the increased decomposition of MeHg in MeHg-poisoned rats after Se treatment. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that MeHg poisoning damaged the abundance of gut flora and decreased their capacity for the decomposition of MeHg. After Se treatment, the abundance of gut flora was partially restored and the decomposition and excretion of MeHg was enhanced. These findings suggest that the modulation of gut flora may be one way to promote the health status in MeHg-poisoned rats and possibly in human beings.

Lycopene supplementation attenuates western diet-induced body weight gain through increasing the expressions of thermogenic/mitochondrial functional genes and improving insulin resistance in the adipose tissue of obese mice.

This passive overconsumption of western diet has precipitated a steep rise in obesity and its comorbidities, and obesity has become one of the main threats to health worldwide. Thus, deciphering the molecular mechanisms leading to obesity is therefore of utmost importance to guide the search for novel therapeutic and preventive strategies. Lycopene (LYC), a major carotenoid present in tomato, has been regarded as a nutraceutical that has powerful anti-oxidant and anti-obesity bioactivities. Even though substantial progress has been made in deciphering the mechanism of how LYC affects obesity in recent years, whether thermogenic genes, mitochondrial function and insulin resistance are involved in the anti-obesity effect of LYC is yet to be elucidated. In the current study, we demonstrated that LYC remarkably suppressed HFFD-elevated mice body weight gain. LYC blocked lipid accumulation in adipose tissue by decreasing the expressions of lipogenesis genes and increasing the expressions of lipidolysis related genes, including thermogenic and mitochondrial functional genes. Moreover, LYC improved HFFD-induced insulin resistance in WATs via inhibiting the inflammation responses in WATs, decreasing circulating proinflammatory cytokines, suppressing gut leak and intestinal inflammation. Our study indicating that the supplementation of LYC might be a nutritional preventive strategy to combat obesity.

Lycopene ameliorates systemic inflammation-induced synaptic dysfunction via improving insulin resistance and mitochondrial dysfunction in the liver-brain axis.

Systemic inflammation is an important determinant of synaptic dysfunction, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Lycopene (LYC), a major carotenoid present in tomato, is regarded as a nutraceutical that has significant antioxidant and anti-obesity bioactivities. In the current study, we randomly divided 3-month-old C57BL/6J mice into 3 groups: the control, LPS and LPS + LYC groups (LYC, 0.03% w/w, mixed with normal chow) for 5 weeks, and then mice were intraperitoneally injected with LPS (0.25 mg kg-1) for 9 days. Our results demonstrated that LYC supplementation effectively attenuated LPS-elicited neuronal damage and synaptic dysfunction through increasing the expressions of neurotrophic factors and the synaptic proteins SNAP-25 and PSD-95. LYC ameliorated LPS-induced insulin resistance and mitochondrial dysfunction in the mouse brain and liver. LYC alleviated the neuroinflammation and hepatic inflammation. Furthermore, LYC decreased the circulating levels of insulin and proinflammatory mediators LPS, TNF-α, IL-1ß and IL-6. In conclusion, these results indicated that the supplementation of LYC might be a nutritional preventive strategy in systemic inflammation-induced synaptic dysfunction.

Sharp instrument injuries among hospital healthcare workers in mainland China: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of sharp instrument injuries in hospital-based healthcare workers (HCWs) in mainland China and the contributing factors. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: The data were derived from public hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 360 hospitals were recruited in the study, including 289 general hospitals and 71 specialised hospitals. Among them, 194 are tertiary-level hospitals and 166 are secondary level. The study population finally consisted of 223 149 hospital HCWs. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: A questionnaire was designed based on the aim of the study. Profession of HCWs, workplace, circumstance and medical apparatus and instrument were covered in the survey. HCWs completed a self-administered questionnaire regarding details of sharp instrument injuries within the previous month. Prevalence estimates for the injuries were calculated for the overall HCWs and for subgroups according to profession, workplace, circumstance or instrument. RESULTS: Within the included HCWs, the prevalence of sharp instrument injuries was 0.08 per person-month. Only 4.6% of the HCWs reported to their hospitals after injury. The highest number of injuries occurred in nursing staff (10.3%). Injuries took place most frequently on general wards (44.5%). The circumstances that involved most frequent injuries include surgical needle insertion, removing an arteriovenous needle from a patient and recapping the needle. Single-use syringe caused more injuries incidents than other instruments. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that sharp instrument injuries have become a major occupational problem of HCWs in mainland China. Attentions need to be paid to the issue and strategies for preventing such injuries are needed.

A large-scale survey on sharp injuries among hospital-based healthcare workers in China.

A multi-center survey on sharp injuries (SIs) among hospital-based healthcare workers (HCWs) in seven provinces of China between August and December 2011 was performed. In each province, HCWs from at least 30 hospitals were surveyed by completing a SI report form adapted from the EPINet. The HCWs who declared SIs during the period were interviewed by local infection control practitioners. The survey included 361 hospitals and 206,711 HCWs, most of whom were nurses (47.5%) or doctors (28.4%). In the previous month, 17,506 SI incidents were declared by 13,110 (6.3%) HCWs, corresponding to 1,032 incidents per 1,000 HCWs per year and 121.3 per 100 occupied beds per year. The majority of the SIs was caused by a hollow-bore needle (63.0%). The source patient was identified in 73.4% of all SIs but only 4.4% of all exposures involved a source patient who tested positive for HBV (3.3%), HCV (0.4%) or HIV (0.1%). Only 4.6% of SIs were reported to the infection control team in the hospitals. In conclusion, the rate of SI among HCWs is high in China and SI represents a severe but largely neglected problem. Awareness and safety climate should be promoted to protect the safety of HCWs in China.

Device-associated infection rates, device use, length of stay, and mortality in intensive care units of 4 Chinese hospitals: International Nosocomial Control Consortium findings.

BACKGROUND: Little data exist on the burden of device-associated health care-associated infection (DA-HAI) in China. This study examined the DA-HAI rate and evaluated its association with device use (DU), length of stay (LOS), and mortality in intensive care units (ICUs) in 4 Chinese hospitals. METHODS: This was a prospective cohort surveillance study conducted in 7 ICUs in 4 hospitals. We applied International Nosocomial Control Consortium methods and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/National Health and Safety Network (NHSN) definitions to determine rates of central line-associated blood stream infection (CLABSI), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), DU, crude extra length of hospital stay (LOS), and mortality. RESULTS: Between August 2008 and July 2010, there were a total of 2,631 admissions to the 7 ICUs in the study hospitals. The rate of VAP was 10.46/1,000 mechanical ventilator (MV)-days, the CLABSI rate was 7.66/1,000 central line (CL)-days, and the CAUTI rate was 1.29/1,000 urinary catheter (UC)-days. Pooled DU ratios were 0.43 for MV, 0.71 for CL, and 0.76 for UC. Crude extra LOS was 15 days for patients with CLABSI, 20.5 days for patients with VAP, and 27 days for patients with CAUTI. Crude extra mortality was 14% for patients with CLABSI, 22% for patients with VAP, and 43% for patients with CAUTI. CONCLUSIONS: In the study ICUs, VAP and CLABSI rates were higher than CDC/NHSN's reported data, and LOS and mortality were increased. Compared with the CDC/NHSN and INICC data, the pooled DU ratio for MV was similar, and DU ratios for CL and UC use ratios were slightly higher.