Are couple-based psychological interventions beneficial for the mental health of prostate cancer patients and their spouses? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

As the survival rates for prostate cancer (PCa) have improved, there has been an increasing focus on the mental health of couples affected by this condition. There have been several couple-based psychological interventions, and yet the impact of this treatment modality on the mental health of PCa patients and their spouses is unclear. Consequently, a systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, LILACS, and Web of Science up to March 2023 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) addressing the impacts of couple-based psychological interventions on both PCa patients and their spouses. Besides, the Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment Tool was employed to evaluate the methodological quality and potential bias of the included studies. Moreover, statistical analysis and meta-analysis were performed utilizing Revman 5.4, and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) was employed to assess the certainty of evidence. A total of nine RCTs were included, utilizing anxiety, depression, distress, communication, and self-efficacy as outcome indicators to assess mental health. Results demonstrated that couple-based psychological interventions increased spouses' self-efficacy (WMD, 0.21; 95% CI: -0.00 ~ 0.42; P = 0.05) and communication (SMD, 0.34; 95% CI: 0.09 ~ 0.59; P = 0.009), while reducing their distress (SMD, -0.21; 95% CI: -0.40 ~ -0.02; P = 0.03). Nonetheless, there is a need for additional research on the effect of couple-based psychological interventions on the mental health of PCa-affected couples given the limited evidence supporting this conclusion.

Risk factors for systemic inflammatory response syndrome after endoscopic lithotripsy for upper urinary calculi.

BACKGROUND: To explore the risk factors for systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) after endoscopic lithotripsy for upper urinary calculi. METHODS: This retrospective study included patients with upper urinary calculi who underwent endoscopic lithotripsy in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University between June 2018 and May 2020. RESULTS: A total of 724 patients with upper urinary calculi were included. One hundred and fifty-three patients developed SIRS after the operation. The occurrence of SIRS was higher after percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) compared with ureteroscopy (URS) (24.6% vs. 8.6%, P < 0.001) and after flexible ureteroscopy compared with ureteroscopy (fURS) (17.9% vs. 8.6%, P = 0.042). In the univariable analyses, preoperative infection history (P < 0.001), positive preoperative urine culture (P < 0.001), history of kidney operation on the affected side (P = 0.049), staghorn calculi (P < 0.001), stone long diameter (P = 0.015), stone limited to the kidney (P = 0.006), PCNL (P = 0.001), operative time (P = 0.020), and percutaneous nephroscope channel (P = 0.015) were associated with SIRS. The multivariable analysis showed that positive preoperative urine culture [odds ratio (OR) = 2.23, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.18-4.24, P = 0.014] and operative methods (PCNL vs. URS, OR = 2.59, 95% CI: 1.15-5.82, P = 0.012) were independently associated with SIRS. CONCLUSION: Positive preoperative urine culture and PCNL are independent risk factors for SIRS after endoscopic lithotripsy for upper urinary calculi.

Questionnaire development on measuring parents' anxiety about their children's education: Empirical evidence of parental perceived anxiety data for primary and secondary school students in China.

Background: With the implementation of the "double reduction" policy in China, parents of primary and secondary school students are experiencing a growing trend of educational anxiety that needs to be alleviated. Objective: To manage the education anxiety risk of parents of primary and secondary school students, a measurement questionnaire of parents' anxiety about their children's education (MQPAE) was developed and its reliability and validity were evaluated. Methods: A self-administered MQPAE was developed. An online crowdsourcing questionnaire platform was used to collect data on parents' anxiety about their children's education (PAE), and parents of primary and secondary school students in Hefei, China, were selected as the study population. The randomly extracted 5,747 questionnaires were gradually screened by discrete trend method, t-test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient method for the initial screening of PAE items, based on which exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted for the final screening of questionnaire items and the reliability of the questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by internal consistency and Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted using 639 pre-selected data to investigate the validity of the questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the structural validity of the questionnaire, and average variance extracted (AVE), combined reliability (CR), and maximum of shared squared variance (MSV) were used to test for convergent and discriminant validity. Results: Exploratory factor analysis extracted five factors with a cumulative variance contribution of 65.66%. The CFA showed that χ2/df = 4.306, CFI = 0.920, NFI = 0.898, RMSEA = 0.072<0.08, AGFI = 0.839>0.80, PNFI = 0.793 and PGFI = 0.708. The overall Cronbach's α coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.956, and the factors' Cronbach's α coefficients were 0.926, 0.857, 0.913, 0.901, and 0.768, respectively. Repeated measurements of Pearson's correlation coefficients were 0.908, 0.911, 0.873, 0.891, 0.907 and 0.885 (all p < 0.001). The AVE was greater than 0.5 and the CR was greater than 0.7, and the value of the MSV was less than the corresponding AVE. Conclusion: The MQPAE has good reliability and validity and can be used in studies related to PAE of primary and secondary school students.

Comprehensive analysis of tumour mutational burden and its clinical significance in prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: The tumorigenesis of prostate cancer involves genetic mutations. Tumour mutational burden (TMB) is an emerging biomarker for predicting the efficacy of immunotherapy. RESULTS: Single-nucleotide polymorphisms were the most common variant type, and C>T transversion was the most commonly presented type of single-nucleotide variant. The high-TMB group had lower overall survival (OS) than the low-TMB group. TMB was associated with age, T stage and N stage. Functional enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) showed that they are involved in pathways related to the terms spindle, chromosomal region, nuclear division, chromosome segregation, cell cycle, oocyte meiosis and other terms associated with DNA mutation and cell proliferation. Six hub genes, PLK1, KIF2C, MELK, EXO1, CEP55 and CDK1, were identified. All the genes were associated with disease-free survival, and CEP55 and CDK1 were associated with OS. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides a comprehensive analysis of the significance of TMB and DEGs and infiltrating immune cells related to TMB, which provides helpful information for exploring the significance of TMB in prostate cancer.

Transcriptome analysis of salt stress responsiveness in the seedlings of wild and cultivated Ricinus communis L.

Soil salinity is one of the major environmental factors, influencing agricultural productivity of crops. As a non-edible and ideal oilseed crop, castor (Ricinus communis L.) has great industrial value in biofuel, but molecular mechanisms of salt stress regulation are still unknown. In this study, the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) for differential salt tolerance in two castor cultivar (wild castor : Y, cultivated castor 'Tongbi 5': Z) were identified. 12 libraries were sampled for Illumina high-throughput sequencing to consider 132,426 nonredundant unigenes and 31,221 gene loci. Multiple phytohormones and transcription factors (TFs) were correlated with salt-tolerance and differently enriched in these two genotypes. The type 2C protein phosphatases (PP2C) homologs were all upregulated under salt stress. Importantly, IAA (1), DELLA (1) and Jasmonate zim domain (JAZ) (1) were also identified and found to be differentially expressed. Based on the co-expressed module by regulatory networks and heatmap analysis, ERF/AP2, WRKY and bHLH families were prominently participate in high salt stress response of wild and cultivated castor. Finally, these results highlight that the hub DEGs and families were more accumulated in cultivated castor than those in wild castor, providing novel insights into the salinity adaptive mechanisms and genetic improvement in castor.

[Ecosystem productivity process model for landscape based on remote sensing and surface data].

In this paper, the a ecosystem productivity process model for landscape (EPPML) reflecting carbon and water cycles of system was described and discussed. In EPPML, leaf area index (LAI) that greatly influenced vegetation productivity was received from remote sensing images, the spatial distribution and temporal dynamics of net primary productivity (NPP) and evapotranspiration were simulated. Geographical information system (GIS) was used to process, analyze, and display spatial data. Thus, the studies on physiological ecology could be extended, and converted from small scale to larger scale. Using EPPML, the vegetation productivity in Changbai Mountain Natural Reserve in 1995 was simulated. EPPML could well and truly simulate the NPP of main vegetations in the natural reserve. NPP was estimated to be 0.680 kg Cm.-2.yr.-1, mostly ranging from 0.105 to 1.241 kg C.m-2.yr.-1, accounting for 82.1%. The highest NPP (1.084 kg C.m-2.yr-1) appeared in mixed broad-leaved and Korean pine forests. The total NPP was estimated to be 1.332 x 10(6) t C.yr-1. The highest total NPP appeared in mixed broad-leaved and Korean pine forests and spruce-fir forest, which were 0.540 x 10(6) t C.yr.-1 and 0.428 x 10(6) t C.yr.-1, respectively. The seasonal variation of NPP appeared obvious single peak with peak value in July (6.13 g C.m-2.d-1). The most NPP accumulated in the summer, which was 0.465 kg C.m-2, secondly in the spring, and least in the winter.

[Simulation of temporal-spatial variation characteristics of surface runoff in Changbai Mountain based on process model for landscape scale].

The seasonal dynamics and spatial distribution characteristics of surface runoff in Changbai Mountain simulated by the process model (EPPML), and the relationships between surface runoff and environmental conditions were analyzed. The results showed that the seasonal variation of surface runoff in Changbai Mountain presented obvious three-peak pattern, i.e., the lowest values in June and September, peak values in August (2.58 mm.d-1), similar to that of soil water content. Total trend of surface runoff for different vegetations in the growing season was in order of grass and shrub > coniferous forest > broad-leaved forest > mixed broad-leaved and Korean pine forest, highly correlated to LAI. Annual surface runoff in 1995 was estimated to be 0.203 m.yr.-1, mostly ranging from 0.0 to 0.246.m.yr.-1, accounting for 69.3%. The trend of spatially increasing annual surface runoff along with increasing altitude was obvious. The maximum annual surface runoff appeared in alpine grass (0.619 m.yr.-1), minimum in mixed broad-leaved and Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) forest (0.081 m.yr.-1), others being alpine tundra, Betula ermanii forest, meadow, shrub, mixed spruce (Picea asperata) and fir (Abies nephrolepis) forest, Changbai larch (Larix olgensis) forest and broad-leaved forest. Vegetation and environmental conditions controlled the main trend of the spatial distribution of annual surface runoff in Changbai Mountain. There was very strong negative exponential correlativity between annual surface runoff and LAI (R2 = 0.857). The more LAI, the more literfall, the more precipitation intercepted by litter, thus, the less surface runoff. Annual surface runoff was highly negatively correlated with air temperature and total solar radiation (R2 being 0.965 and 0.836 respectively), however, it was highly positively correlated with precipitation, relative humidity and wind speed (R2 being more than 0.950). And annual surface runoff was also strongly correlated to soil characteristics.

[Analysis on factors affecting net primary productivity distribution in Changbai Mountain based on process model for landscape scale].

Based on the data received from remote sensing images, the spatial distribution of annual net primary productivity (NPP) was simulated by the process model (EPPML), and the relationships between annual NPP and environmental conditions were analyzed. The results showed that NPP in 1995 was 0.680 kg C.m-2.yr.-1, mostly ranging from 0.105 to 1.241 kg C.m-2.yr.-1, accounting for 82.1%. The highest NPP (1.084 kg C.m-2.yr.-1) appears in mixed broad-leaved and Korean pine forest. Environmental conditions decide the main trend of the spatial distribution of annual NPP (Carbon) in Changbai Mountain. Soil water content had a negative correlativity with NPP, and the correlation coefficient (R) was -0.65. Therefore, water was sufficient for the growth of plants in Changbai Mountain. NPP was highly correlated with LAI (R = 0.81). When LAI was greater than 4-5 m2.m-2, NPP became saturated. NPP was also highly correlated with canopy transpiration (R = 0.77). The response of NPP on environmental conditions, LAI and canopy transpiration in Betula ermanii and broad-leaved forests were different from those in other vegetation.

[Carbon budget of ecosystem in Changbai Mountain Natural Reserve].

The study used EPPML, a biological geochemistry cycle model that was built, to simulate the carbon budget for ecosystems in Changbai Mountain Natural Reserve. The results indicated that the annual net primary productivity [NPP (carbon)] of the natural reserve was 1.332 x 10(6) t.a-1. The annual NPP of mixed broad-leaved and Korean pine forest and spruce-fir forest were maximal, 0.540 x 10(6) t.a-1 and 0.428 x 10(6) t.a-1 respectively. The area and productivity of the two stands were maximal in Changbai Mountain, therefore, the simulating productivity of the two stands most greatly affect carbon cycle and carbon budget of the natural reserve, and the veracity of the former decides the security of the latter. To sum up, not only did the simulations accord with routines in the relative comparisons between different vegetation belts and climate belts in the whole natural reserve, but also was exact in the absolute comparisons with very disperse data from field survey. Vegetations in the natural reserve had evident carbon sink functions, mainly exhibiting in the increasing of carbon, about 1.058 x 10(6) t.a-1. The annual carbon of mixed broad-leaved and Korean pine forest increased greatest (0.452 x 10(6) t.a-1), secondly spruce-fir forest (0.339 x 10(6) t.a-1). The two stands played crucial roles in the carbon sink for Changbai Mountain, others being Changbai larch forest, broad-leaved forest, meadow, shrub, alpine tundra, subalpine Betula ermanii forest and alpine grass. In 1995, the decomposing carbon of soil organic matter was 0.169 x 10(6) t.a-1 higher than the littering carbon in the natural reserve. There was accumulation of organic matter in the meadow soil and shrub soil. The decomposition and accumulation of soil organic matter was in the nearly balancing condition in the alpine tundra soil and alpine grass soil. The decomposition of organic matter was as one and a half time or double as litterfall in the arbor forest soil.

[Important ecological topics on regional scale ecosystem management in China].

Ecosystem management is a synthetic applied ecology concerning ecosystem management theories, practical technologies, relevant policies and management strategies. It is not only an urgent need for the sustainable development of human society, but also an important tendency and scientific task of ecosystem management to develop integrated studies on models of global or regional scale ecosystem management and the relevant scientific problems. For this reason, we systematically expounded a series of important ecological topics, such as the synthetic evaluation and ecological mechanism of the services, sustainability, complexity, and indeterminacy of ecosystem, the ecological basis of natural resources conservation, ecosystem health, and the rehabilitation of degraded ecosystem, basic ecological processes for ecosystem management, theories and practice on adaptive management of ecosystem, ecosystem network study, monitor, and achievement integration, as well as synthetic special topic studies on regional scale ecosystem management etc. Research advances and tendencies of these topics at home and abroad were also reviewed.