Predictive value of an ultrasound-based radiomics model for central lymph node metastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Purpose: We aimed to explore the predictive value of an ultrasound-based radiomics model for the central lymph node metastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma. Methods: A total of 126 patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma treated between February 2021 and February 2023 were retrospectively enrolled and assigned into metastasis group (n=59, with cervical central lymph node metastasis) or non-metastasis group (n=67, without metastasis) based on surgical and pathological findings. Intergroup comparisons were conducted on the results of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography, preoperative conventional ultrasonography, as well as real-time shear wave elastography. Results: The maximum lesion diameter, echo, margin, capsule invasion, calcification, average elasticity modulus (Eavg), rising time (RT), and peak intensity (PI) had diagnostic value for papillary thyroid carcinoma, and their combination exhibited higher diagnostic value (area under the curve: 0.817). The logistic regression model was built, and the maximum lesion diameter, hypoechoic/extremely hypoechoic, lobulated or irregular margin (95% confidence interval: 1.451-6.755), capsule invasion, microcalcification/macrocalcification or peripheral calcification, high-level Eavg, low-level RT and high-level PI served as risk elements affecting papillary thyroid carcinoma from the aspect of central lymph node metastasis (odds ratio>1, P<0.05). According to the logistic regression model, the model was reliable and stable (area under the curve: 0.889, P<0.05). Conclusion: The established ultrasound-based radiomics model can be utilized for early identifying the central lymph node metastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the major constituents in Chinese medical preparation Lianhua-Qingwen capsule by UPLC-DAD-QTOF-MS.

Lianhua-Qingwen capsule (LQC) is a commonly used Chinese medical preparation to treat viral influenza and especially played a very important role in the fight against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003 in China. In this paper, a rapid ultraperformance liquid chromatography coupled with diode-array detector and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-DAD-QTOF-MS) method was established for qualitative and quantitative analysis of the major constituents of LQC. A total of 61 compounds including flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, anthraquinones, triterpenoids, iridoids, and other types of compounds were unambiguously or tentatively identified by comparing the retention times and accurate mass measurement with reference compounds or literature data. Among them, twelve representative compounds were further quantified as chemical markers in quantitative analysis, including salidroside, chlorogenic acid, forsythoside E, cryptochlorogenic acid, amygdalin, sweroside, hyperin, rutin, forsythoside A, phillyrin, rhein, and glycyrrhizic acid. The UPLC-DAD method was evaluated with linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), precision, stability, repeatability, and recovery tests. The results showed that the developed quantitative method was linear, sensitive, and precise for the quality control of LQC.

Preparation of magnetic sodium alginate/sodium carboxymethylcellulose interpenetrating network gel spheres and use in superefficient adsorption of direct dyes in water.

The rapid development of the printing and dyeing industry has led to the production of a large amount of high-density printing and dyeing wastewater, and technology for its effective treatment has become a focus of research. To construct a polymeric adsorbent material with abundant functional groups for the efficient adsorption of dye wastewater, a novel magnetic sodium alginate/carboxymethylcellulose interpenetrating network gel sphere (Fe3O4@SA/CMC-Fe) was prepared by co-blending sodium alginate (SA) and sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) with Fe3O4; Fe3O4@SA/CMC-Fe was characterized by SEM-EDS, XRD, TGA, FT-IR, UV-Vis, VSM, BET-BJH and XPS. Static adsorption experiments showed that the optimal rates for adsorption of DV 51 and DR 23 from solutions with neutral pH values by Fe3O4@SA/CMC-Fe were up to 96 %, the adsorption process exhibited a Langmuir adsorption isotherm, and the dynamic adsorption process was accurately described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. A thermodynamic study showed that the adsorption reactions were all spontaneous exothermic reactions with increasing entropy. The mechanism for adsorption of the dyes by Fe3O4@SA/CMC-Fe involved hydrogen bonding, complexation and electrostatic adsorption. In summary, Fe3O4@SA/CMC-Fe is a green, simple, recyclable and highly efficient magnetic adsorbent that is expected to be widely used in treating dye wastewaters over a wide pH range.

A comparative study of ultrasound-guided puncture biopsy combined with histopathology and Xpert MTB/RIF in the diagnosis of lymph node tuberculosis.

Background: Cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis (CTBL) is a disease often ignored in clinical work, and pathology and Xpert MTB/RIF (Xpert) are the commonly used methods for tuberculosis diagnosis. This study aimed to compare ultrasound-guided puncture biopsy combined with histopathology and Xpert in the diagnosis of lymph node tuberculosis. Methods: A total of 217 patients highly suspected for CTBL were retrospectively enrolled. All patients underwent ultrasound-guided puncture sampling. All samples were subjected to pathological examination and Xpert test. The sensitivity and specificity of the two methods were compared for all samples. The kappa value was calculated to assess the consistency of the pathological examination and Xpert test using comprehensive diagnosis as the gold standard. Receiver operating characteristic curves of the pathological examination, Xpert test, and their combination were generated, and the areas under the curve (AUCs) were calculated to compare the diagnostic value of the three methods. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of the pathological diagnosis of CTBL were 70.1 and 100%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of Xpert for CTBL diagnosis were 82.5 and 97.5%, respectively. The results of the pathological examination and Xpert test showed poor consistency in the diagnosis of CTBL, with a kappa value of 0.388. The AUC of the pathological diagnosis of CTBL was 0.850 (95% CI: 0.796-0.895), whereas that of Xpert was 0.900 (95% CI: 0.852-0.936), and the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.0483). The AUC of pathological examination combined with Xpert for the diagnosis of CTBL was 0.956 (95% CI: 0.920-0.979), and the difference between pathological examination combined with Xpert for the diagnosis of CTBL was statistically significant compared with pathological examination and Xpert alone, respectively (both P < 0.001). Conclusion: The diagnostic efficiency of Xpert test is higher than that of pathological examination, but its sensitivity is still not ideal for clinical diagnosis. According to this study, the consistency of Xpert test and pathological diagnosis is poor, and the combination of Xpert test and pathological diagnosis can significantly increase the diagnostic efficiency.

Perioperative Management Strategies for the COVID-19 Pandemic at a Facility in China.

The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 posed a public health crisis beginning in January 2020, affecting hospitals and health care personnel worldwide and disrupting perioperative services. Organization leaders at Xijing Hospital, Xi'an, China, developed a mitigation system for the OR that involved creating a pandemic response team to identify and implement appropriate infection control practices to prevent virus transmission. The leaders addressed managing the daily surgery schedule through patient screening and a focus on the urgency and volume of procedures. They required increased use of personal protective equipment and more stringent cleaning and disinfection protocols and ensured that the physical and mental health of staff members were monitored and prioritized. This article describes how leaders implemented these enhanced processes to protect personnel from infection as they continued to provide patient care. It also describes how high-risk procedures involving patients with confirmed or suspected infections were managed and discusses lessons learned.

A network analysis of the Chinese medicine Lianhua-Qingwen formula to identify its main effective components.

Chinese medicine is known to treat complex diseases with multiple components and multiple targets. However, the main effective components and their related key targets and functions remain to be identified. Herein, a network analysis method was developed to identify the main effective components and key targets of a Chinese medicine, Lianhua-Qingwen Formula (LQF). The LQF is commonly used for the prevention and treatment of viral influenza in China. It is composed of 11 herbs, gypsum and menthol with 61 compounds being identified in our previous work. In this paper, these 61 candidate compounds were used to find their related targets and construct the predicted-target (PT) network. An influenza-related protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed and integrated with the PT network. Then the compound-effective target (CET) network and compound-ineffective target network (CIT) were extracted, respectively. A novel approach was developed to identify effective components by comparing CET and CIT networks. As a result, 15 main effective components were identified along with 61 corresponding targets. 7 of these main effective components were further experimentally validated to have antivirus efficacy in vitro. The main effective component-target (MECT) network was further constructed with main effective components and their key targets. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis of the MECT network predicted key functions such as NO production being modulated by the LQF. Interestingly, five effective components were experimentally tested and exhibited inhibitory effects on NO production in the LPS induced RAW 264.7 cell. In summary, we have developed a novel approach to identify the main effective components in a Chinese medicine LQF and experimentally validated some of the predictions.

Towards a highly efficient simulated sunlight driven photocatalyst: a case of heterostructured ZnO/ZnS hybrid structure.

Large scale ZnO/ZnS heterostructured microflowers are fabricated through a rapid and facile strategy via microwave-assisted in situ surface sulfidation route. The as-obtained product possesses an average diameter of about 2 µm and is composed of many thin nanowires. Through a careful inspection under various growth conditions, the morphologies of the as-prepared hybrid structures could be controlled by tailoring the concentration of thioacetamide (TAA) solution during the microwave irradiation, and a possible growth mechanism was proposed. The photocatalytic experiment results for the photodegradation of eosin B under simulated sunlight irradiation revealed that the hybrid nanostructures possess significantly higher photocatalytic activity which is about triple that of the original ZnO precursors, indicating their potential applications in organically polluted water treatment. The optimal sulfidation concentration to realize the maximum photocatalytic activity in the ZnO/ZnS hybrid structures is also proposed and discussed. Meanwhile, this facile, rapid microwave-assisted strategy is scalable and can be extended to synthesize other oxide/sulfide (MOx/MSy) heterostructures.

Facile template-free synthesis and visible-light driven photocatalytic performances of dendritic CdS hierarchical structures.

In this paper, large scale hierarchical CdS dendrites are synthesized via a facile and effective hydrothermal route. The morphologies, microstructures and photocatalytic properties of the as-synthesized products are investigated in detail. Individual CdS dendrites consist of a long central trunk with secondary and tertiary sharp branches, which preferentially grow in a parallel direction with a definite angle to the trunk. A possible growth mechanism for CdS dendrites is proposed based on the experimental results and phenomena. Photocatalytic tests reveal that eosin red can be degraded nearly completely (over 95%) after visible light irradiation of 100 min. In addition, Congo red and methylene blue aqueous solution degradation experiments are also conducted under the same conditions, revealing versatile potential applications of such dendritic structures for wastewater purification.

[Mixed logit model and its application in insurance choices of the new rural cooperative medical system].

OBJECTIVE: To apply mixed logit model for analyzing the data of new rural cooperative medical with suitability and identify the factors affecting the residents choices of insurance mode. METHODS: Hypothesis test of IIA was performed using the mogtest module of Stata10.0 to test the eligibility of the condition. The mixed logit model was established to allow the parameters to vary in the population using SAS9.1 MDC module. RESULTS: The data in this study did not satisfy the IIA assumption (P<0.01), so that the multinomial logit model was not applicable. The adjusted Estrella of the mixed logit model was 0.6658. CONCLUSION: The mixed logit approach does not rely on the restrictive IIA assumption and allows for correlation patterns between choices and individual variation. This approach can help in the determination of the choices in new rural cooperative medical system.