Cigarette Smoking in Men and Women and Electronic Cigarette Smoking in Men are Associated with Higher Risk of Elevated Cadmium Level in the Blood.

BACKGROUND: We investigated the association between blood concentration of cadmium and smoking status including use of electronic cigarettes (E-cigars). METHODS: We used data from the Korea National Health and Nutritional Survey 2013 and 2016. A total of 4,744 participants (2,162 men and 2,582 women) were included and were categorized into five groups (Non-smokers, E-cigar non-users in past-smokers, E-cigar users in past-smokers, E-cigar non-users in cigarette-smokers and E-cigar users in cigarette-smokers). Cadmium blood concentration was categorized into tertiles. All sampling and weight variables were stratified, and analysis to account for the complex sampling design was conducted. RESULTS: In both genders, the geometric cadmium concentration was significantly different according to smoking status (both genders, analysis of variance P value < 0.001). In men, E-cigar users were significantly higher than the non-smokers (P value = past-smokers, 0.017; cigarette-smokers, < 0.001) when fully adjusted. Compared with non-smokers, fully-adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) for the highest cadmium tertiles of E-cigar non-users in cigarette-smokers and E-cigar users in cigarette-smokers were 6.56 (3.55-12.11) and 5.68 (1.96-16.50) in men and 2.74 (1.42-5.29) and 1.29 (0.10-17.44) in women. CONCLUSION: Conventional cigarette smoking in men and women and E-cigar use in men are associated with higher risk of elevated blood cadmium level. Preventive management of cadmium exposure monitoring in conventional cigarette-smokers and E-cigar users may be needed.

Development of AI-generated medical responses using the ChatGPT for cancer patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To develop a healthcare chatbot service (AI-guided bot) that conducts real-time conversations using large language models to provide accurate health information to patients. METHODS: To provide accurate and specialized medical responses, we integrated several cancer practice guidelines. The size of the integrated meta-dataset was 1.17 million tokens. The integrated and classified metadata were extracted, transformed into text, segmented to specific character lengths, and vectorized using the embedding model. The AI-guide bot was implemented using Python 3.9. To enhance the scalability and incorporate the integrated dataset, we combined the AI-guide bot with OpenAI and the LangChain framework. To generate user-friendly conversations, a language model was developed based on Chat-Generative Pretrained Transformer (ChatGPT), an interactive conversational chatbot powered by GPT-3.5. The AI-guide bot was implemented using ChatGPT3.5 from Sep. 2023 to Jan. 2024. RESULTS: The AI-guide bot allowed users to select their desired cancer type and language for conversational interactions. The AI-guided bot was designed to expand its capabilities to encompass multiple major cancer types. The performance of the AI-guide bot responses was 90.98 ± 4.02 (obtained by summing up the Likert scores). CONCLUSIONS: The AI-guide bot can provide medical information quickly and accurately to patients with cancer who are concerned about their health.

Exposure to Secondhand Smoke and a Tobacco-Specific Carcinogen in Non-Smokers.

BACKGROUND: The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL) as a known carcinogen. This study aimed to investigate the association between exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) and NNAL concentrations in non-smokers. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study based on data from the 2016 to 2018 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Urine NNAL concentrations were categorized into tertiles of 3,615 study participants who were non-smokers. All sampling and weight variables were stratified, and analyses to account for the complex sampling design were conducted. RESULTS: The overall, male, and female percentages of SHS exposure among non-smokers were 22.4%, 29.2%, and 20.4%, respectively. The geometric means of urine NNAL concentrations were 1.896±0.098 pg/mL and 1.094±0.028 pg/mL in the SHS exposure and non-exposure groups, respectively. After adjusting for confounding variables, in the total group, the geometric mean of urine NNAL concentrations was significantly higher in the SHS exposure group than in the SHS non-exposure group (adjusted P-value <0.001). Compared with the non-exposure group, the adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) for the highest NNAL tertile group of overall SHS exposure in the total, men, and women groups were 2.44 (1.95-3.05), 1.65 (1.08-2.53), and 2.73 (2.11-3.52), respectively, after full adjustment. CONCLUSION: The urine NNAL concentration in the SHS exposure group was significantly higher than that in the non-exposure group. Exposure to SHS was associated with a higher risk of elevated urine NNAL concentrations in non-smokers.

The control of neural cell-to-cell interactions through non-contact electrical field stimulation using graphene electrodes.

Electric field stimulation has become one of the most promising therapies for a variety of neurological diseases. However, the safety and effectiveness of the stimulator are critical in determining the outcome. Because there are few safe and effective in vivo and/or in vitro stimulator devices, we demonstrate a method that allows for non-contact electric field stimulation with a specific strength that is able to control cell-to-cell interaction in vitro. Graphene, a form of graphite, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was used to create a non-cytotoxic in vitro graphene/PET film stimulator. A transient non-contact electric field was produced by charge-balanced biphasic stimuli through the graphene/PET film electrodes and applied to cultured neural cells. We found that weak electric field stimulation (pulse duration of 10 s) as low as 4.5 mV/mm for 32 min was particularly effective in shaping cell-to-cell interaction. Under weak electric field stimulation, we observed a significant increase in the number of cells forming new cell-to-cell couplings and in the number of cells strengthening existing cell-to-cell couplings. The underlying mechanism of the altered cellular interactions may be related to an altered regulation of the endogenous cytoskeletal proteins fibronectin, actin, and vinculin. In conclusion, this technique may open a new therapeutic approach for augmenting cell-to-cell coupling in cell transplantation therapy in the central nervous system.