Integrated pretreatment diffusion kurtosis imaging and serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen levels: a biomarker strategy for early assessment of radiotherapy outcomes in cervical cancer.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to explore the utility of pretreatment DKI parameters and serum SCC-Ag in evaluating the early therapeutic response of cervical cancer to radiotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 33 patients diagnosed with cervical cancer, including 31 cases of cervical squamous cell carcinoma and two cases of adenosquamous carcinoma, participated in the study. All patients underwent conventional MRI and DKI scans on a 3T magnetic resonance scanner before radiotherapy and after ten sessions of radiotherapy. The therapeutic response was evaluated based on the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.1. Patients were categorized into a response group (RG), comprising Complete Remission (CR) and Partial Remission (PR), and a non-response group (NRG), comprising Stable Disease (SD) and Progressive Disease (PD). LASSO was employed to select pretreatment DKI parameters, and ROC curves were generated for the selected parameters and serum SCC-Ag. RESULTS: Significant differences were observed in pretreatment MD, Da, Dr, MK, Ka, Kr, and SCC-Ag between the RG and NRG groups (P < 0.01). However, no significant differences were noted for FA and FAK (P = 0.441&0.928). The two selected parameters (MD and MK) demonstrated area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity of 0.810, 0.769, 0.850 and 0.827, 0.846, 0.750, respectively. The combination of MD and MK exhibited an improved AUC of 0.901, sensitivity of 0.692, and specificity of 1.000, with a higher Youden index compared to the individual parameters. Conversely, the AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of the combination of MD, MK, and SCC-Ag were 0.852, 0.615, and 1.000, with a Youden index of 0.615. CONCLUSION: Pretreatment MD, MK, and SCC-Ag demonstrate potential clinical utility, with the combined application of MD and MK showing enhanced efficacy in assessing the early therapeutic response of cervical cancer to radiotherapy. The addition of SCC-Ag did not contribute further to the assessment efficacy.

Contextualizing gender disparities in online teaching evaluations for professors.

Student evaluation of teaching (SET) is widely used to assess teaching effectiveness in higher education and can significantly influence professors' career outcomes. Although earlier evidence suggests SET may suffer from biases due to the gender of professors, there is a lack of large-scale examination to understand how and why gender disparities occur in SET. This study aims to address this gap in SET by analyzing approximately 9 million SET reviews from RateMyProfessors.com under the theoretical frameworks of role congruity theory and shifting standards theory. Our multiple linear regression analysis of the SET numerical ratings confirms that women professors are generally rated lower than men in many fields. Using the Dunning log-likelihood test, we show that words used in student comments vary by the gender of professors. We then use BERTopic to extract the most frequent topics from one- and five-star reviews. Our regression analysis based on the topics reveals that the probabilities of specific topics appearing in SET comments are significantly associated with professors' genders, which aligns with gender role expectations. Furtherly, sentiment analysis indicates that women professors' comments are more positively or negatively polarized than men's across most extracted topics, suggesting students' evaluative standards are subject to professors' gender. These findings contextualize the gender gap in SET ratings and caution the usage of SET in related decision-making to avoid potential systematic biases towards women professors.

How parenthood contributes to gender gaps in academia.

Being a parent has long been associated with gender disparities in academia. However, details of the mechanisms by which parenthood and gender influence academic career achievement and progression are not fully understood. Here, using data from a survey of 7,764 academics in North America and publication data from the Web of Science, we analyze gender differences in parenthood and academic achievements and explore the influence of work-family conflict and partner support on these gender gaps. Our results suggest that gender gaps in academic achievement are, in fact, "parenthood gender gaps." Specifically, we found significant gender gaps in most of the measures of academic achievement (both objective and subjective) in the parent group but not in the non-parent group. Mothers are more likely than fathers to experience higher levels of work-family conflict and to receive lower levels of partner support, contributing significantly to the gender gaps in academic achievement for the parent group. We also discuss possible interventions and actions for reducing gender gaps in academia.

A ten-year assessment of the epidemiological features and fatal risk factors of hospitalised severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome in Eastern China.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) virus has caused a large number of human infections since discovered in 2009. This study elucidated epidemiological features and fatal risk factors of SFTS cases accumulated up to ten years in Taizhou, a coastal prefecture of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. A total of 188 hospitalised SFTS cases (including 40 deaths) reported to Taizhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during 2011-2020 were enrolled in the study. In the past decade, the annual incidence of SFTS increased over the years (P < 0.001) along with an expanding epidemic area, and the case fatality of hospitalised cases has remained high (21.3%). Although most cases occurred in hilly areas, a coastal island had the highest incidence and case fatality. The majority of cases were over the age of 60 years (72.3%), and both incidence and case fatality of SFTS increased with age. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age (OR 7.47, 95% CI 1.32-42.33; P = 0.023), and haemorrhagic manifestations including petechiae (OR 7.76, 95% CI 1.17-51.50; P = 0.034), gingival haemorrhage (OR 5.38, 95% CI 1.25-23.15; P = 0.024) and melena (OR 5.75, 95% CI 1.18-28.07; P = 0.031) were significantly associated with the death of SFTS cases. Five family clusters identified were farmers, among four of which the index patients were female with a history of hypertension. Based on the study, age is a critical risk factor for incidence and case fatality of SFTS. With an increased annual incidence over the last ten years, SFTS remains a public health threat that should not be ignored. Further study is needed to look at the natural foci in the coastal islands.

Environmental impact comparison of wheat straw fast pyrolysis systems with different hydrogen production processes based on life cycle assessment.

This study aimed to evaluate the environmental impact of 1000 kg h-1 wheat straw to produce biofuel via fast pyrolysis with three different hydrogen production processes by the life cycle assessment (LCA) based on Chinese Life Cycle Database (CLCD). The primary energy depletion (PED), global warming potential (GWP), abiotic depletion potential (ADP) and respiratory inorganics (RI) impact categories of 1 MJ biofuel produced were employed for comparison. In case 1, the hydrogen was derived from natural gas steam reforming, and all the bio-oil was hydrotreated to produce the biofuel. In case 2, a part of the aqueous phase was reformed to produce hydrogen, whereas the remaining bio-oil was hydrotreated to produce biofuel. In case 3, all the aqueous phase of bio-oil was reformed to produce hydrogen, a part of hydrogen generated by reforming was used to oil phase hydrotreated and the excess hydrogen was considered as a co-product. Our results show that the PED, GWP, ADP and RI of case 3 are 0.1355 MJ, -17.96 g CO2eq., 0.0338 g antimonyeq and 0.0461 g PM2.5eq.. Compared with conventional diesel, the PED, GWP, ADP and RI of case 3 were reduced by 89.81, 117.44, 1.74 and 85.03%, respectively. The results of sub-process contribution analysis and sensitivity analysis suggested that the electricity consumption for the bio-oil production has the maximal effect on the total PED, GWP and RI of case 3, whereas the amount of fertilizers in the biomass production sub-process has the maximal effect on the total ADP.

The clinical value of prenatal assessment of cervical length and placental thickness in pregnant women with placenta previa.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate the clinical value of prenatal assessment of cervical length (CL) and placental thickness (PT) in pregnancy outcome and prognosis of pregnant women with placenta previa. METHODS: Eighty pregnant women with placenta previa treated in our hospital were enrolled for prenatal assessment of CL and PT, and were grouped as CL ≤ 30 mm (n=32) and CL > 30 mm (n=48) groups and PT ≥ 10 mm (n=34) and PT < 10 mm (n=46) groups, respectively. The pregnancy and perinatal outcomes were compared in different groups. ROC curve of CL and PT on preterm delivery was drawn, and the diagnostic value of CL and PT in diagnosing preterm delivery was calculated. RESULTS: The pregnancy and perinatal outcomes of CL ≤ 30 mm group were significantly inferior to those of CL > 30 mm group (P < 0.05). The pregnancy and perinatal outcomes of PT ≥ 10 mm group were also significantly inferior to those of PT < 10 mm group (P < 0.05). PT and CL had good predictive values for preterm delivery (P < 0.05), with high diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. CONCLUSION: Prenatal assessment of CL and PT has practical clinical significance for pregnant women with placenta previa, which helps in assessing pregnancy and perinatal outcomes and is worthy of clinical application.

Pretreatment MR-based radiomics nomogram as potential imaging biomarker for individualized assessment of perineural invasion status in rectal cancer.

PURPOSE: To investigate whether pretreatment magnetic resonance (MR)-based radiomics nomogram can individualize prediction of perineural invasion (PNI) status in rectal cancer (RC). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 122 RC patients with pathologically confirmed were classified as training cohort (n = 87) and test cohort (n = 35). 180 radiomics features were extracted from all lesions based on oblique axial T2WI TSE images. The dimensionality reduction and feature selection in training cohort were realized by the maximum relevance minimum redundancy (mRMR) algorithm and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression model. A predictive model combining radiomics features and clinical risk factors (pathological N stage, pathological LVI status) was established by multivariate logistic regression analysis. The performance of the model was assessed based on its receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, nomogram, and calibration. RESULTS: The developed radiomics nomogram that integrated the radiomics signature and clinical risk factors could provide discrimination in the training and test cohorts. The accuracy and the area under the curve (AUC) for assessing PNI status were 0.82, 0.86, respectively, in the training cohort, while they were 0.71 and 0.85 in the test cohort. The goodness-of-fit of the nomogram was evaluated using the Hosmer-Lemeshow test (p = 0.52 in training cohort and p = 0.24 in test cohort). Decision curve analysis (DCA) showed that the radiomics nomogram was clinically useful. CONCLUSION: The developed radiomics nomogram might be helpful in the individualized assessment PNI status in patients with RC. This stratification of RC patients according to their PNI status may provide the basis for individualized adjuvant therapy, especially for stage II patients.

Ambient and personnel occupational dose assessment in a Hospital's PET/CT center.

This study used thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) to measure cumulative radiation doses in a PET/CT center. It covered 18 areas and four personnel groups. Because the isolated lead shielding separated the patients from the nurses, wearing protective clothing when injecting radiopharmaceuticals was unnecessary. Fingertip doses of the dispensing and nurse groups were below the occupational limit. Current radiopharmaceutical transportation and injection operations in this PET/CT center provide considerable radiation protection to medical personnel.

Label-free and enzyme-free one-step rapid colorimetric detection of DNA methylation based on unmodified gold nanoparticles.

DNA methylation has been identified as one of the important causes of tumorigenesis, so it is important to develop some advanced methods for detecting and quantifying DNA methylation. In this study, a label-free and enzyme-free one-step rapid colorimetric detection of DNA methylation based on unmodified Au nanoparticles(Au NPs)has been proposed. This method can quickly, efficiently, economically and easily colorimetric detect methylated DNA only by the color change of unmodified Au NPs solution without the covalent modification of Au NPs in advance or complicated instruments for implementation with practical limitations or expensive biological enzymes or traditional organic dyes during the reaction. The strategy employed the difference in electrostatic attraction of single-stranded DNA and double-stranded DNA against salt-induced aggregation of Au NPs. The method has a DNA methylated detection limit of 8.47 nM and it is distinctly visible to detect methylated DNA with the naked eye as low as 20 nM. Furthermore, the strategy has an ability to detect methylated DNA in the presence of abundant unmethylated DNA with the detection limit of 0.13% and as low as 1% methylated DNA can be distinguished in heterogeneous samples with the naked eye. Also, the stratagem provides a convenient and rapid platform for methylated DNA detection of human serum samples in one step, which displays a huge potential for clinical diagnosis and treatment of oncological diseases.

Correction to: Boundary layer perspective assessment of air pollution status in Wuhan city from 2013 to 2017.

The original version of this article unfortunately contained an error in the Figure 2 caption.

Boundary layer perspective assessment of air pollution status in Wuhan city from 2013 to 2017.

This study used daily air pollution data (PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO, and O3) from nine monitoring stations in Wuhan city to calculate the air quality index (AQI) from 2013 to 2017. Together with this data, L-band sounding data, ground meteorological data, and air mass back trajectories were also used to describe the dynamics of atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) during pollution process. Analysis of the results shows that, even though the city is still polluted, the number of polluted days was decreasing. Ranking the years in terms of pollution status shows that the year 2013 was the most polluted year while the year 2017 was the cleanest year. Average annual limit of PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 during these 5 years were 1.3~1.8, 1.5~2.7, and 1.2~1.5 times higher than the annual average acceptable limit, respectively. The average ratio of PM2.5/PM10 for 5 years was 0.67 which signifies that a significant portion of PM2.5 accounted for the total mass of PM10. Moreover, the condition of ABL during the pollution process shows the dominance of strong ground inversion and weak to calm winds. These conditions are not favorable for horizontal and vertical mixing of air pollutants and prevent dilution of pollutants with clean air. Mean cluster analysis of air mass back trajectory shows that pollutants of local origin were more important than the trans-boundary movement of air pollutants. This indicates that the observed pollution in Wuhan was more of local origin.

Functional assessment of CYP3A4 allelic variants on lidocaine metabolism in vitro.

AIM: Human cytochrome P450 3A4 is the most abundant isoform of P450 enzyme in the liver. It plays an important role in the metabolism of wide variety of xenobiotic and endogenous substrates. So far, there are few reports about the functional characterization of CYP3A4 variants in terms of specific substrates. The aim of this study was to systematically investigate the genetic polymorphisms of 23 CYP3A4 alleles and evaluate their catalytic activities on the metabolism of lidocaine in vitro. METHODS AND RESULTS: The wild-type and 22 CYP3A4 variants were expressed in Spodoptera frugiperda 21 insect cells. Then the insect microsomes were incubated with the CYP3A4-specific substrate lidocaine. Reactions were performed with 50-3,000 µM for 60 min at 37°C. Lidocaine and its metabolite monoethylglycinexylidide were analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry system. Of the 23 CYP3A4 allelic variants tested, 2 variants (CYP3A4*17 and CYP3A4*30) had no detectable enzyme activity; and 5 variants (CYP3A4*2, CYP3A4*5, CYP3A4*9, CYP3A4*16 and CYP3A4*24) showed significantly decreased intrinsic clearance values compared with wild-type CYP3A4*1. CONCLUSION: As the first study of all these CYP3A4 alleles for lidocaine metabolism, our results in vitro assessment may provide novel insights into the allele-specific and substrate-specific activity of CYP3A4 and may also offer a reference to the personalized treatment of lidocaine in a clinical setting.

Spatio-temporal distribution of fecal indicators in three rivers of the Haihe River Basin, China.

Because of their significant impact on public health, waterborne pathogens, especially bacteria and viruses, are frequently monitored in surface water to assess microbial quality of water bodies. However, more than one billion people worldwide currently lack access to safe drinking water, and a diversity of waterborne outbreaks caused by pathogens is reported in nations at all levels of economic development. Spatio-temporal distribution of conventional pollutants and five pathogenic microorganisms were discussed for the Haihe River Basin. Land use and socio-economic assessments were coupled with comprehensive water quality monitoring. Physical, chemical, and biological parameters were measured at 20 different sites in the watershed for 1 year, including pH, temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, chemical oxygen demand, ammonia-N, total and fecal coliforms, E. coli, and Enterococcus. The results highlighted the high spatio-temporal variability in pathogen distribution at watershed scale: high concentration of somatic coliphages and fecal indicator bacteria in March and December and their very low concentration in June and September. All pathogens were positively correlated to urban/rural residential/industrial land and negatively correlated to other four land use types. Microbial pollution was greatly correlated with population density, urbanization rate, and percentage of the tertiary industry in the gross domestic product. In the future, river microbial risk control strategy should focus more on the effective management of secondary effluent of wastewater treatment plant and land around rivers.

[Analysis report of the national technique competition for diagnosis of parasitic diseases in 2012: I. Capability analysis of Plasmodium detection].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the result of the national technique competition for diagnosis of parasitic diseases in 2012, so as to understand the capability of detection on Plasmodium parasites among professionals from institutes for disease control and prevention at different levels. METHODS: Four professionals from institution were selected as contestants (age < or = 45 and at least two contestants from county-level institution). The content of the competition included making thick and thin blood slides of Plasmodium (3 slides in 30 min, 10 scores as full marks and 6 as passing score) and identification of species and number with microscopy (5 slides, 8 min per slide, 30 scores as full marks and 18 as passing score). All contestants were grouped by gender, age, professional title, level of institution, classification according to malaria endemicity, geographical location and economic development of the province. Their scores were statistically analyzed by SPSS 16.0 software. RESULTS: The average score of blood smear making test in 120 contestants from 30 provinces was 8.7, the highest was 10 and the lowest was 5.8, 118 (98.3%) contestants passed the test. The average score of blood smear reading was 16.0, the highest was 29 and the lowest was 0, 52 (43.3%) contestants passed the test. There were no significant differences for the scores among genders, ages (< or = 30, 31-40, > 40), professional titles (junior, intermediate and senior), institution levels (provincial, municipal or county level) (P > 0.05). However, there was a significant difference among provinces with different malaria endemicity, geographical location and development status (P < 0.05). For the blood slide-making and film-reading, scores of contestants from malaria endemic provinces including Class I (9.29 +/- 0.41, 18.17 +/- 6.42), Class II (8.92 +/- 0.79, 18.31 +/- 6.94) and Class III (8.61 +/- 0.89, 15.63 +/- 7.52) were higher than those from non-endemic provinces (7.95 +/- 1.00, 10.19 +/- 7.01) (P < 0.01). Scores of contestants from southern provinces (9.16 +/- 0.61, 18.82 +/- 6.78) were significantly higher than that from northern ones (8.30 +/- 0.99, 13.23 +/- 7.45) (P < 0.01). The film-reading scores were significantly higher in those from eastern provinces (18.20 +/- 6.88) than those from western (13.39 +/- 7.60) (P < 0.05), while no significant difference was found in blood slide-making (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The capability of malaria parasite detection is imbalanced.

Prevalence, risk factors, and management of seroma formation after breast approach endoscopic thyroidectomy.

BACKGROUND: Breast approach endoscopic thyroidectomy (BAET) allows surgeons to remove a thyroid tumor from a remote site while providing a scarless cosmetic appearance in the neck. However, seroma formation after subcutaneous dissection could lead to flap detachment, incision dehiscence, and wound infection. Chronic formation of seromas could substantially compromise the esthetic outcome of BAET. We evaluated the prevalence, risk factors, and treatments of seroma after BAET. METHODS: A total of 344 patients who underwent BAET between 2001 and 2008 at our institution were recruited; data were collected prospectively. The characteristics and outcomes of patients who developed seromas were compared with those of patients who did not. Regression analysis was used to identify the independent risk factors for seroma formation. The frequency and volume of aspirations were noted until the seroma went into remission. RESULTS: The overall postoperative prevalence of seroma formation was 2.9%. There was a significant difference in seroma formation based on age, hypertension, body mass index (BMI), and area of subcutaneous dissection space (ASDS). Percutaneous aspiration alone or combined with external compression was extremely effective. The frequency and total volume of aspirations were 1-7 and 6-120 ml, respectively. As a result of prolonged seroma formation, one patient developed an expanding pseudo-bursa that created a tumor-like effect in the anterior chest wall. CONCLUSIONS: Seroma formation was an uncommon minor complication after BAET. Four independent etiologic factors could predispose patients to postoperative seroma formation. Percutaneous aspiration appeared to be very effective. Prolonged seroma formation followed by development of a pseudo-bursa could be very problematic and could substantially impair the esthetic effect of BAET.

Assessment of myocardial blood perfusion improved by CD151 in a pig myocardial infarction model.

AIM: To appraise the efficacy of CD151-induced myocardial therapeutic angiogenesis in a pig myocardial infarction model. METHODS: CD151 and anti-CD151 were constructed into the recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vector. All 26 pigs were subjected to coronary artery ligation or no surgery. Eight weeks after coronary artery ligation, the expression of CD151 was measured by Western blot and immunostaining. Capillary density was evaluated using immunostaining for von Willebrand factor (vWF). 13N-labeled NH3 positron emission computed tomography ([13N]NH3PET) was measured to assess regional myocardial perfusion and the defect area. RESULTS: CD151 gene delivery could increase the expression of CD151 at protein level. Over-expression of CD151 increased the density of total capillaries in the ischemic myocardium, significantly improved the blood perfusion and reduced the defect area percentage. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that the rAAV-mediated CD151 gene delivery promoted efficient neovascularization and increased the blood perfusion after myocardial infarction in pigs.