dl-Serine Covalently Ornamented and Ln3+-Incorporated Arsenotungstates with Fast-Responsive Photochromic and Photoinduced Luminescent Switchable Behaviors.

Three isostructural dl-serine covalently functionalized and multinuclear lanthanide (Ln3+)-embedded arsenotungstates, K2[{As4W44O137(OH)18(H2O)2(dl-Ser)2}{Ln2(H2O)4(dl-Ser)}2{Ln(H2O)7}2]·70H2O (Ln = Sm (1), Eu (2), and Gd (3); dl-Ser = C3H7NO3), were prepared, where the centrosymmetric [{As4W44O137(OH)18(H2O)2(dl-Ser)2}{Ln2(H2O)4(dl-Ser)}2]8- polyanion consists of two {As2W19O59(OH)8(H2O)}6- fragments, integrated with a two-dl-serine-ornamented [W6O23(OH)2(dl-Ser)2{Ln2(H2O)4}2]8- segment. In addition, the photochromic transformation of solid-state compounds 1-3 was observed from colorless to blue after a UV illumination of 4 min, and the decay process lasted as long as ∼20 h in the dark. The coloration kinetic half-life (t1/2) values of compounds 1, 2, and 3 were calculated to be 0.597, 0.920, and 0.723 min, respectively. Furthermore, the luminescent properties and energy migration from arsenotungstates and organic chromophores to Sm3+ and Eu3+ ions in 1 and 2 have been intensively investigated. Further analysis manifests that 1 possesses an effective luminescent switchable behavior, triggered by its fast-responsive photochromism effect.

Preferences for Physical Examination Service in Community Health Service Center in China: A Discrete Choice Experiment.

Objective: Physical examination services play a crucial role in the early detection of diseases, improving the effectiveness of treatment. However, the current physical examination services provided by community health service centers are limited. The objective of this study was to investigate the aspects of physical examination services that are most valued by residents. Methods: Identify and develop attributes and levels through literature research and expert group interviews. A discrete choice experiment was designed. The main effects design gives rise to 16 choice sets. The 16 choice sets were grouped into 2 blocks, and respondents were randomly assigned to one of the blocks. In each choice set, respondents were asked to choose from two alternatives with an opt-out option. In 2023, the discrete choice experiment was administered in several community health service centers within a China population sample. A mixed logit and a latent class analysis were conducted. Results: Participants (n = 399) preferred to receive health advice service. The services provided by the basic team with clinical experts are preferred over those provided solely by the basic team. The results indicated a preference for a participant to be serviced by face-to-face or telephone compared with WeChat. Low cost is also preferred. As participants grow older, their preference for face-to-face or telephone-based services increased. As participants' service demand increase, participants more preferred to receive interpretation of physical examination report and follow-up of important abnormal results, participants more preferred to be serviced by basic team with clinical experts or basic team with health manager etc. Conclusion: We should improve the construction of the service team, optimize the service mode, expand the scope of examination services, reduce the cost of examination services, and meet the needs of residents for physical examination services. More attention should be paid to the needs of elderly and rural residents.

Clonorchis sinensis infection in a non­endemic area: A case report.

Non-endemic Clonorchis sinensis infection is challenging to diagnose. The present study reports the case of a 40-year-old female patient with severe epigastric pain, initially suspected to be a liver lesion, who was admitted to The Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University (Zunyi, China). A combination of diagnostic procedures, including computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, revealed an abnormality in the left hepatic lobe. Postoperative evaluation and the epidemiologic history of the patient (consumption of raw fish slices) revealed characteristics of Clonorchis sinensis infection, including chronic bile duct inflammation and eosinophilic liver infiltration. The present case highlights the unexpected emergence of this disease outside of recognized endemic areas and advocates clinical vigilance. Even in non-endemic areas, individuals should be reminded not to eat raw fish and shrimp.

Status and predictors of readiness for hospital discharge in women with caesarean section: A latent profile analysis.

BACKGROUND: Women undergoing caesarean section (CS) experience difficulties when preparing for discharge, and readiness for hospital discharge (RHD) may depend on individual characteristics. OBJECTIVE: To explore the status of RHD in women with CS, identify the latent classes of RHD, and analyse predictors from a bio-psycho-social perspective. METHODS: A sample of 410 women with CS completed the following questionnaires on demographic and obstetric characteristics: Readiness for Hospital Discharge Study-New Mother Form (RHDS-NMF), Parents' Postnatal Sense of Security (PPSS), Quality of Discharge Teaching Scale (OB-QDTS), and Postpartum Support Questionnaire (PSQ). Latent profile analysis was used to identify the latent classes of RHD. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to analyse the predictors. RESULTS: In total, 96.6 % of women with CS reported discharge ready, and the score of RHDS-NMF was 136.09 ± 25.59. Three latent classes were identified as Low RHD (16.1 %), Moderate RHD (41.7 %), and High RHD (42.2 %). Primiparas (OR = 2.867 / 1.773; P = 0.012 / 0.033), emergency CS (OR = 3.134 / 2.470; P = 0.006 / 0.002), lower levels of PPSS (OR = 0.909 / 0.942; P = 0.009 / 0.013) and OB-ODTS (OR = 0.948 / 0.975; P < 0.001) were associated with Moderate and Low RHD. Lower PSQ predicted a higher probability of Low RHD (OR = 0.955; P = 0.038). CONCLUSIONS: The perception of RHD by women in the study was inaccurate, with more than half not being classified as High RHD. Healthcare professionals can anticipate interventions for maternal well-being based on the characteristics of the different RHD classes.

Inverse association between type 2 diabetes and hepatocellular carcinoma in East Asian populations.

Aims: To investigate the potential association between type 2 diabetes (T2D) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in East Asian populations using Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses. Methods: Bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) studies were conducted using summary statistics from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) related to T2D and HCC. The potential effects of confounders such as chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C, body mass index, and alcohol intake frequency were corrected using a multivariate MR study. Various MR methods, including the inverse variance weighted (IVW) approach, were used to estimate the associations between T2D and HCC. Sensitivity analysis and assessment of heterogeneity were performed to ensure the robustness of the results. Results: In the forward MR study, the IVW approach of MR analysis suggested an inverse association between T2D and HCC, with a risk odds ratio of 0.8628 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.7888-0.9438). Furthermore, even after adjusting for BMI, chronic hepatitis B, and alcohol intake frequency, this study still supports the inverse association between T2D and HCC. Additional MR methods provided further support for this relationship. Sensitivity analysis and assessment of heterogeneity confirmed the robustness of the results. The reverse MR analysis did not show a clear impact of genetic liability to HCC on reduced risk of T2D(OR=0.9788; 95% CI, 0.9061-1.0574). Conclusion: This study provides evidence of an inverse association between T2D and HCC in East Asian populations using MR analysis. Further studies are warranted to validate these findings.

Endoscopic thyroidectomy via areola approach for stage T1 papillary thyroid carcinoma: feasibility, safety, and oncologic outcomes.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility, safety, and oncologic outcomes associated with endoscopic thyroidectomy via the areolar approach (ETAA), compared with conventional open thyroidectomy (COT) for the treatment of stage T1 papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Methods: Between January 2021 and June 2022, a total of 1204 patients diagnosed with PTC underwent screening, out of which 138 patients were selected for inclusion in the study population after propensity score matching (92 patients in the ETAA group and 46 patients in the COT group). The study included the collection and analysis of clinicopathologic characteristics, intraoperative outcomes, postoperative outcomes, complications, and follow-up data using R software. Results: The operative time for the ETAA group was longer than that for the COT group (160.42 ± 32.21 min vs. 121.93 ± 29.78 min, p < 0.0001). However, there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of intraoperative blood loss, the extent of surgical resection, the number of dissected lymph nodes, the number of metastatic lymph nodes, and the rate of parathyroid autotransplantation. Postoperative drainage and C-reactive protein levels were higher in the ETAA group than in the COT group, but there were no significant differences in 24-hour visual analogue scale scores, white blood cell counts, drainage duration, or postoperative hospital stay. Complication rates were similar between the two groups, and no permanent recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy or hypoparathyroidism was observed. Patients who underwent ETAA reported greater cosmetic satisfaction and quality of life than those who underwent COT. During the follow-up phase, only one patient in the COT group developed lateral cervical lymph node involvement requiring reoperation. Conclusion: ETAA is a safe and feasible surgical method for patients with stage T1 PTC, providing results similar to COT in terms of oncologic completeness, while avoiding neck scars, with excellent cosmetic effects. Clinical trial registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry center, identifier ChiCTR2300077109.

Causal association between body mass index and autoimmune thyroiditis: evidence from Mendelian randomization.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have reported associations between body mass index (BMI) and various autoimmune disorders. However, it is still uncertain whether there exists a direct cause-and-effect relationship between BMI and autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT). The aim of our study is to investigate the causal association between BMI and AIT. METHODS: We conducted a two-sample summary data Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis using genome-wide association studies (GWAS) summary statistics data related to BMI as exposure, and GWAS summary statistic data sets for AIT as the outcome. Robustly associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for BMI were selected as instrumental variables (IVs). We used the inverse variance weighted (IVW) method as the primary method and performed other MR methods such as MR-Egger regression, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode analyses for further validation. The slope of MR-Egger regression was used to correct for pleiotropy and provide estimates of causality. The p-value for the intercept in MR-Egger was utilized to detect any directional pleiotropic effects. Heterogeneity and sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the robustness of our findings. RESULTS: Seventy-eight SNPs were selected from GWAS on BMI as the IVs. Our MR analysis using the IVW method showed a potential causal association between BMI and AIT (OR = 3.071, 95% CI 1.324-7.118). Findings from other MR methods are non-significant, although the direction of effect is consistent. There was no evidence that the result was affected by genetic pleiotropy (MR-Egger regression intercept = 0.01, SE = 0.00025, p = 0.719). Heterogeneity and sensitivity analyses revealed no significant heterogeneity among SNPs, and no single SNP drove the observed associations. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest a potential causal association between BMI and AIT, which may provide a basis for further investigation into the relationship between BMI and AIT. Further studies are required as only the IVW method shows significant results, and the case sample size is small.

SO2 emission cap planning for Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone.

The SO2 emission sources of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone were divided into 556 emissions units according to four different categories, which are city, industry, point sources, and area sources. The CALPUFF model was used to calculate the contribution of each unit, and consequently obtain an influence-transferring matrix. To ensure that the SO2 concentrations of 46 cities and counties in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone meet air quality standards, an emission optimization model was developed to calculate optimal emissions of each emission unit under different development scenarios. The result showed the optimal emissions of SO2 by different provinces and industries. To achieve the target of restricting and optimizing development, corresponding planning programs were developed for every district.

Detection and counting of pigment glands in cotton leaves using improved U-Net.

Gossypol, as an important oil and raw material for feed, is mainly produced by cotton pigment gland, and has a wide range of applications in the fields of pharmaceutics, agriculture and industry. Accurate knowledge of the distribution of pigment gland in cotton leaves is important for estimating gossypol content. However, pigment glands are extremely small and densely distributed, manual counting is laborious and time-consuming, and difficult to count quickly and accurately. It is thus necessary to design a fast and accurate gland counting method. In this paper, the machine vision imaging technology is used to establish an image acquisition platform to obtain cotton leaf images, and a network structure is proposed based on deep learning, named as Interpolation-pooling net, to segment the pigment glands in the cotton leaf images. The network adopts the structure of first interpolation and then pooling, which is more conducive to the extraction of pigment gland features. The accuracy of segmentation of the model in cotton leaf image set is 96.7%, and the mIoU (Mean Intersection over Union), Recall, Precision and F1-score is 0.8181, 0.8004, 0.8004 and 0.8004 respectively. In addition, the number of pigment glands in cotton leaves of three different densities was measured. Compared with manual measurements, the square of the correlation coefficient (R 2) of the three density pigment glands reached 0.966, 0.942 and 0.91, respectively. The results show that the proposed semantic segmentation network based on deep learning has good performance in the detection and counting of cotton pigment glands, and has important value for evaluating the gossypol content of different cotton varieties. Compared with the traditional chemical reagent determination method, this method is safer and more economical.

Fabrication of Chitosan/Polypyrrole-coated poly(L-lactic acid)/Polycaprolactone aligned fibre films for enhancement of neural cell compatibility and neurite growth.

OBJECTIVE: Chitosan (CS) and polycaprolactone (PCL) were added into a nerve scaffold of poly(L-lactide acid) (PLLA)/polypyrrole (PPy)-based fibre films to solve the unmatch with the nerve strength and the aseptic inflammation from PLLA. METHODS: Poly (L-lactide acid)-polycaprolactone (PLLA/PCL) fibre films coated with chitosan (CS) and polypyrrole (PPy) were prepared by electrospinning of aligned PLLA/PCL fibres, electrochemical deposition of PPy nanoparticles and in situ doping of CS in PPy. PC12 cells were electrically stimulated with 100 mV for 2 hours every day via CS/PPy-PLLA/PCL fibre film to promote the neurite growth. RESULTS: The surface conductivity and tensile strength of CS/PPy-PLLA/PCL fibre films were 1.03 s/m and 13 MPa, respectively. CS content in fibre films was about 7.5 mg/cm2 , improving the pH value (reached to 5.1) of immersion solution of the fibre film at 16 days. Compared with PPy-PLLA/PCL fibre film, more and longer axons were grown out from PC12 cells cultured on CS/PPy-PLLA/PCL fibre film, indicating the positive effect of CS in fibre film on axon growth. The cell differentiation rate and neurite length on CS/PPy-PLLA/PCL fibre film reached to 38% and 75 µm, respectively. These results suggest the promotion of electrical stimulation on neurite growth and alignment. CONCLUSIONS: A synergistic mechanism about the promotion of CS, electrical stimulation and aligned fibres on PC12 cells differentiation, axon outgrowth was proposed. These results indicated the potential application of CS/PPy-PLLA/PCL fibre film in the field of the nerve repair and regeneration.

[Pollution Characteristics and Health Risk Assessment of Hazardous Air Pollutants in the Surroundings of Three Petrochemical Industries in Northwest China].

The samples in the surroundings of three representative petrochemical industries in Northwest China were collected by summa canister/adsorption using activated carbon/glass fiber filter, and then they were analyzed for 13 hazardous air pollutants by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry/gas chromatograph/high performance liquid chromatography. The pollution characteristics and human health risk of hazardous air pollutants were discussed. The results showed that 8 hazardous air pollutants existed in the surroundings of all petrochemical industries. The detection frequency for 8 hazardous air pollutants exceeded 80%. The ranges of the average concentrations of benzene series(BTEX), 1,3-butadiene, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, benzo[a]pyrene were 48.01-182.75 µg·m-3, 6.28-7.95 µg·m-3, 5.53-12.62 µg·m-3 and 7.03-36.08 ng·m-3. Daily average concentration of benzo[a]pyrene was 1.8-13.4 times higher than the limit of national standard level-Ⅱ, and those of benzene, toluene and xylene were also over their limits of standard to different degrees. The non-carcinogenic risks of benzo[a]pyrene and 1,3-butadiene were beyond acceptable levels around the three petrochemical industries in Northwest China. Meanwhile, the non-carcinogenic health impact of benzene was appreciable on the exposed population of Lanzhou petrochemical industrial area. The carcinogenic risks of benzene, ethylbenzene, styrene, 1,3-butadiene, 1,4-dichlorobenzene and benzo[a]pyrene were beyond acceptable levels. At the same time, the carcinogenic risks of benzene, 1,3-butadiene and 1,4-dichlorobenzene were significantly higher than their acceptable ranges recommended by US EPA.