Cascading impacts of global metal mining on climate change and human health caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly disrupted global metal mining and associated supply chains. Here we analyse the cascading effects of the metal mining disruption associated with the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, climate change, and human health. We find that the pandemic reduced global metal mining by 10-20% in 2020. This reduction subsequently led to losses in global economic output of approximately 117 billion US dollars, reduced CO2 emissions by approximately 33 million tonnes (exceeding Hungary's emissions in 2015), and reduced human health damage by 78,192 disability-adjusted life years. In particular, copper and iron mining made the most significant contribution to these effects. China and rest-of-the-world America were the most affected. The cascading effects of the metal mining disruption associated with the pandemic on the economy, climate change, and human health should be simultaneously considered in designing green economic stimulus policies.

Effects of error on dose of target region and organs at risk in treating nasopharynx cancer with intensity modulated radiation therapy.

OBJECTIVE: To measure setup error of head and neck neoplasm in radiotherapy and discuss over effects of error on physical dose acting on target region and organs at risk of nasopharynx cancer (NPC) patients treated with intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). METHODS: A total of 152 patients who developed head and neck neoplasm and received IMRT were randomly selected. Through comparing digital portal image and digital reconstruction image, we measured setup error, calculated expanding margin from clinical target volume (CTV) to planning target volume (PTV) and analyzed whether there was rules between setup error and treatment time. Additionally, 20 cases of NPC were selected. Three-dimensional error was simulated in planning system. Dose distribution was recalculated and a series of dose parameters of target volume and OAR were analyzed. RESULTS: Setup error in left-right, head-feet and ventral-dorsal direction was (-0.62±1.46) mm, (-0.41±1.54) mm and (-0.31±1.67) mm respectively. Regarding limit value, the maximum and minimum value in left-right direction, head-feet direction and ventral-dorsal direction was 2.70 mm and -6.00 mm; 3.00 mm and -5.00 mm, 5.00 mm and -7.50 mm. Expanding margin from CTV to PTV was 2.26 mm, 1.88 mm and 1.97 mm in left-right direction, head-feet direction and ventral-dorsal direction. CONCLUSION: During IMRT, only when setup error is controlled below 3 mm can sharply reduce the damage caused by radiation to normal tissue; therefore, quality security and control of electronic portal imaging device need (EPID) to be improved.

Leveraging machine learning to distinguish between bacterial and viral induced pharyngitis using hematological markers: a retrospective cohort study.

Accurate differentiation between bacterial and viral-induced pharyngitis is recognized as essential for personalized treatment and judicious antibiotic use. From a cohort of 693 patients with pharyngitis, data from 197 individuals clearly diagnosed with bacterial or viral infections were meticulously analyzed in this study. By integrating detailed hematological insights with several machine learning algorithms, including Random Forest, Neural Networks, Decision Trees, Support Vector Machine, Naive Bayes, and Lasso Regression, for potential biomarkers were identified, with an emphasis being placed on the diagnostic significance of the Monocyte-to-Lymphocyte Ratio. Distinct inflammatory signatures associated with bacterial infections were spotlighted in this study. An innovation introduced in this research was the adaptation of the high-accuracy Lasso Regression model for the TI-84 calculator, with an AUC (95% CI) of 0.94 (0.925-0.955) being achieved. Using this adaptation, pivotal laboratory parameters can be input on-the-spot and infection probabilities can be computed subsequently. This methodology embodies an improvement in diagnostics, facilitating more effective distinction between bacterial and viral infections while fostering judicious antibiotic use.

[Shengjing prescription improves semen parameters of oligoasthenozoospermia patients: efficacy and mechanism].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical efficacy of Shengjing prescription for oligoasthenozoospermia and its action mechanism. METHODS: We equally assigned 120 patients with oligoasthenozoospermia to receive Shengjing prescription (treatment group) and vitamin E (control group), respectively, for 12 weeks. Before and after the treatment, were obtained sperm concentration, sperm motility, the percentage of morphologically normal sperm, the levels of serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), testosterone (T) and luteinizing hormone (LH), sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI), the percentage of hypotonic swelling sperm, and the levels of seminal plasma elastase, x-glucosidase, fructose, zinc and acrosin. RESULTS: Compared with vitamin E, Shengling prescription significantly improved sperm concentration, motility and morphology (P < 0.01), decreased the serum FSH level, elevated the serum T level (P <0. 01) , reduced DFI and seminal plasma elastase, and increased the percentage of hypotonic swelling sperm as well as the levels of seminal plasma cx-glucosidase, fructose, zinc and acrosin. CONCLUSION: Shengjing prescription improves semen parameters of patients with oligoasthenozoospermia at multiple levels and through multiple channels.

Expressions of VEGF and Ki-67 in eutopic endometrium of patients with endometriosis and effect of Quyu Jiedu Recipe on VEGF expression.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the clinical efficacy of Quyu Jiedu Recipe (, QJR) in treating endometriosis (EM), and to explore the levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and cell proliferative nucleoprotein antigen (Ki-67), their changes before and after treatment and the clinical significance in the trial. METHODS: Fifty patients of EM were randomly assigned to two groups. The 26 patients in the QJR group were treated with QJR, and the 24 patients in the gestrinone (GT) group with gestrinone. Besides, a normal control group with 20 healthy women was set up. The therapeutic effects in the two treated groups were compared. Expressions of VEGF and Ki-67 in eutopic endometrium of all subjects (with both patients and healthy women at the median secretive phase) were determined with immunohistochemical stain before treatment, and the determination in the two treated groups was repeated after 3-month treatment in the same phase. RESULTS: Before treatment, the VEGF and Ki-67 expression positive rates and their mean optic density (MOD) were higher in patients than in healthy women (P<0.05). After treatment, the positive rate and MOD of VEGF expression lowered significantly than before treatment (P<0.05), but those of Ki-67 changed insignificantly, and comparison between the two treated groups showed no significant difference (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: QJR could markedly improve the symptoms of menorrhagia and menstrual disorder, and its mechanism might be related with the lowering of eutopic endometrial VEGF expression. VEGF and Ki-67 show a high expression in eutopic endometrium of patients with EM.

Systematic module approach identifies altered genes and pathways in four types of ovarian cancer.

The present study aimed to identify altered genes and pathways associated with four histotypes of ovarian cancer, according to the systematic tracking of dysregulated modules of reweighted protein­protein interaction (PPI) networks. Firstly, the PPI network and gene expression data were initially integrated to infer and reweight normal ovarian and four types of ovarian cancer (endometrioid, serous, mucinous and clear cell carcinoma) PPI networks based on Spearman's correlation coefficient. Secondly, modules in the PPI network were mined using a clique­merging algorithm and the differential modules were identified through maximum weight bipartite matching. Finally, the gene compositions in the altered modules were analyzed, and pathway functional enrichment analyses for disrupted module genes were performed. In five conditional­specific networks, universal alterations in gene correlations were revealed, which leads to the differential correlation density among disrupted module pairs. The analyses revealed 28, 133, 139 and 33 altered modules in endometrioid, serous, mucinous and clear cell carcinoma, respectively. Gene composition analyses of the disrupted modules revealed five common genes (mitogen­activated protein kinase 1, phosphoinositide 3­kinase­encoding catalytic 110­KDα, AKT serine/threonine kinase 1, cyclin D1 and tumor protein P53) across the four subtypes of ovarian cancer. In addition, pathway enrichment analysis confirmed one common pathway (pathways in cancer), in the four histotypes. This systematic module approach successfully identified altered genes and pathways in the four types of ovarian cancer. The extensive differences of gene correlations result in dysfunctional modules, and the coordinated disruption of these modules contributes to the development and progression of ovarian cancer.

Effect of Quyu Jiedu granule on microenvironment of ova in patients with endometriosis.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of Quyu Jiedu Granules (, QJG) on the micro- microenvironment of ova in patients with endometriosis (EM). environment METHODS: Twenty EM patients who received in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) were randomized equally into a treated group and a control group. Further, 20 patients who received IVF-ET due to oviduct factors were enrolled into a non-endometriosis group. The dosage of gonadotrophic hormone used, the number of ova attained, fertilization rate and clinical pregnancy rate were all observed, and the levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-right harpoon over left harpoon) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) in follicular fluid as well as their mRNA expressions in ovarian granular cells were detected by RT-PCR on the very day of ovum attainment. RESULTS: The ova attainment (13.80+/-6.87) and fertilization rate (0.69+/-0.31) in the treated group were all higher than the corresponding values in the control group (9.80+/-5.32 and 0.47+/-0.22); the follicular fluid contents of TNF-alpha and IL-6 in the treated group were 1.38+/-0.21 ng/mL and 130.56+/-12.81 pg/mL, respectively, which were lower than those in the control group (1.98+/-0.34 ng/mL and 146.83+/-17.65 pg/mL, respectively). Further, the treated group showed much lower mRNA expressions of TNF-alpha and IL-6 in ovarian granular cells. CONCLUSIONS: The elevation of TNF-alpha and IL-6 contents in follicular fluid and their mRNA expressions in ovarian granular cells are possibly related to the low quality of ova in EM; QJG might raise the ova quality by reducing TNF-alpha and IL-6 levels to improve the living micro-environment for the ova.

[Changes of Th1, Th2 cells and correlative cytokines in allergic rhinitis].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the role of Th1, Th2 cells and correlative cytokines in the pathogenesis of allergic rhinitis. METHOD: Albumin from chicken egg white was used to induce allergic rhinitis in SD rats. Flow cytometry was used to count the Th1 and Th2 cells in peripheral blood. And the content of INF-gamma and IL-4 in blood serum or mucosa homogenate was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. RESULT: Compared with healthy controls, Th1 was slightly lower and Th2 was significantly higher in the models (P < 0.05). Th1/Th2 ratio showed a clear deviation from normal balance (P < 0.01). INF-gamma decreased (but P > 0.05) and IL-4 clearly increased (P < 0.01) in blood serum or mucosa homogenate. CONCLUSION: The changes of Th2 cells and correlative cytokines may play an important role in the pathogenesis of allergic rhinitis.