The role of body mass index on the association between the energy-adjusted dietary inflammatory index and hyperuricemia: a mediation analysis based on NHANES (2007-2016).

BACKGROUND: The Energy-Adjusted Dietary Inflammatory Index (E-DII) is related to both body mass index (BMI) and hyperuricemia. However, the association among BMI, hyperuricemia and DII is yet to be fully elucidated. The purpose of this study is to explore the role of BMI in the relationship between E-DII and hyperuricemia in the American population. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) spanning from 2007 to 2016, with a sample size of 10,571 participants. The study used a weighted logistic regression model and a generalized additive model (GAM) to explore the associations among BMI, hyperuricemia and E-DII. Furthermore, mediation analysis was utilized to illustrate the mediating relationships among these variables. RESULTS: The results of the study indicated that a higher E-DII was related to an increased risk of hyperuricemia. The association between E-DII and hyperuricemia was partially mediated by BMI. CONCLUSIONS: E-DII is associated with hyperuricemia. BMI mediates the relationship between E-DII and hyperuricemia among Americans, which provides crucial information for the prevention of hyperuricemia.

Norbornene Copolymerization with Polar Monomers Catalyzed by Palladium Catalysts Containing Imidazolidin-2-imine/Guanidine Ligands.

The development of a palladium catalyst that has enhanced catalytic performance, such as low aluminum cocatalyst loading, good copolymerization ability, high molecular weight, and excellent solubility of the (co)polymers, is still a challenge in norbornene copolymerizations. Here, a series of PdCl2 and PdMeCl complexes containing differently substituted anilines and imidazolidin-2-imine/guanidine ligands was successfully synthesized and characterized. X-ray diffraction analysis results revealed that these Pd complexes adopted an almost square-planar geometry, and the six-membered chelate ring showed structural distinctions as compared to traditional N^N-based α-diimine and ß-diimine Pd complexes. These Pd complexes were activated by EtAlCl2 and then exhibited moderate activity (104-105 g mol-1 h-1) and good thermal stability (up to 90 °C) for norbornene polymerization to produce high-molecular-weight PNBs (Mn up to 96.4 kg mol-1) with narrow polydispersities (PDI as low as 1.39). These Pd complexes also exhibited good polar group tolerance in the copolymerization of norbornene with methyl 5-norbornene-2-carboxylate and methyl 10-undecenoate, in which the activity was achieved up to 7.04 × 104 g mol-1 h-1. It furnished polar functionalized norbornene-based copolymers with high molecular weight (Mn up to 63.1 kg mol-1), narrow PDI, reasonable polar monomer incorporation, and good solubility. These Pd catalysts exhibited an enhanced copolymerization ability to produce PNB or NB-based copolymers, representing significant progress in this field.

Bladder duplication in the male cat: the first case report in China.

BACKGROUND: Bladder duplication is a rare congenital lower urinary tract anomaly disease characterized by the presence of two bladders, possibly with duplication of the urethra. This disease is rarely reported in cats. The clinical symptoms are commonly occult, with increased difficulty in making a definitive diagnosis, especially if there is no obvious urethral duplication. The diagnosis is typically based on radiographs and ultrasound, with computer tomography serving as a more advanced imaging diagnostic modality. Cases of duplicated bladders with accessory tubular tissues are even scarcer in both human and veterinary medicine. CASE PRESENTATION: A 6-year-old male neutered cat was brought to the hospital because of vomiting and constipation. Cystography revealed increased soft tissue density of a fusiform structure in the lower middle abdomen. The purulent-filled cavitary structure and the accessory tubular structure were removed via surgery, and histopathological examination confirmed a double bladder with attached accessory tubular tissue. After antibiotic treatment, the cat recovered uneventfully. CONCLUSION: This is the first case of bladder duplication in China and the first case of feline bladder duplication with tubular structure attachment in the world. This information will provide a reference for the diagnosis and treatment of similar cases in the future.

Magnetothermal-activated gene editing strategy for enhanced tumor cell apoptosis.

Precise and effective initiation of the apoptotic mechanism in tumor cells is one of the most promising approaches for the treatment of solid tumors. However, current techniques such as high-temperature ablation or gene editing suffer from the risk of damage to adjacent normal tissues. This study proposes a magnetothermal-induced CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system for the targeted knockout of HSP70 and BCL2 genes, thereby enhancing tumor cell apoptosis. The magnetothermal nanoparticulate platform is composed of superparamagnetic ZnCoFe2O4@ZnMnFe2O4 nanoparticles and the modified polyethyleneimine (PEI) and hyaluronic acid (HA) on the surface, on which plasmid DNA can be effectively loaded. Under the induction of a controllable alternating magnetic field, the mild magnetothermal effect (42℃) not only triggers dual-genome editing to disrupt the apoptosis resistance mechanism of tumor cells but also sensitizes tumor cells to apoptosis through the heat effect itself, achieving a synergistic therapeutic effect. This strategy can precisely regulate the activation of the CRISPR-Cas9 system for tumor cell apoptosis without inducing significant damage to healthy tissues, thus providing a new avenue for cancer treatment.

Nanocatalytic Anti-Tumor Immune Regulation.

Immunotherapy has brought a new dawn for human being to defeat cancer. Although existing immunotherapy regimens (CAR-T, etc.) have made breakthroughs in the treatments of hematological cancer and few solid tumors such as melanoma, the therapeutic efficacy on most solid tumors is still far from being satisfactory. In recent years, the researches on tumor immunotherapy based on nanocatalytic materials are under rapid development, and significant progresses have been made. Nanocatalytic medicine has been demonstrated to be capable of overcoming the limitations of current clinicnal treatments by using toxic chemodrugs, and exhibits highly attractive advantages over traditional therapies, such as the enhanced and sustained therapeutic efficacy based on the durable catalytic activity, remarkably reduced harmful side-effects without using traditional toxic chemodrugs, and so on. Most recently, nanocatalytic medicine has been introduced in the immune-regulation for disease treatments, especially, in the immunoactivation for tumor therapies. This article presents the most recent progresses in immune-response activations by nanocatalytic medicine-initiated chemical reactions for tumor immunotherapy, and elucidates the mechanism of nanocatalytic medicines in regulating anti-tumor immunity. By reviewing the current research progress in the emerging field, this review will further highlight the great potential and broad prospects of nanocatalysis-based anti-tumor immune-therapeutics.

LncRNA DDX11-AS1 Promotes Chemoresistance through LIN28A-Mediated ATG12 mRNA Stabilization in Breast Cancer.

INTRODUCTION: During breast cancer chemotherapy, the chemoresistance that frequently accompanies the treatment has become a big challenge. Long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs) have been related to the development of chemoresistance in multiple cancer types. LncRNA DDX11-AS1 has shown a carcinogenic role in lung and colorectal cancer and was reported to enhance oxaliplatin resistance in gastric cancer and Taxol insensitivity in esophageal cancer. But its role in breast cancer chemotherapy drug resistance remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the function and mechanism of lncRNA DDX11-AS1 in breast cancer chemoresistance. METHODS: The relationship between DDX11-AS1 and adriamycin (ADR) resistance was confirmed by qPCR, cell viability tests, and survival analysis. Then, RNA immunoprecipitation was conducted to evaluate the interaction between DDX11-AS1 and RNA-binding protein LIN28A. The regulation effect of LIN28A on autophagy-related genes ATG7 or ATG12 was detected by RNA stability assay and Western blot. Their correlation analysis was evaluated in GEO datasets and further validated by immunohistochemical results. The clinical significance of DDX11-AS1, ATG7, or ATG12 was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier Plotter analysis. RESULTS: Here, we reported DDX11-AS1 was significantly upregulated in chemoresistant breast cancer cells and overexpression of DDX11-AS1 promoted ADR resistance in breast cancer. LIN28A could interact with DDX11-AS1 and was involved in DDX11-AS1-mediated ADR resistance. Interfering with LIN28A reversed DDX11-AS1-induced ADR resistance. LIN28A could increase the protein level of ATG7 and ATG12 by increasing their mRNA stability. Survival analysis showed that ATG12 expression level was negatively correlated with the prognosis of breast cancer patients. CONCLUSION: This study clarifies the role of DDX11-AS1 in breast cancer chemoresistance and revealed a new mechanism, that is, interacting with LIN28A to stabilize ATG7 and ATG12 and jointly promote chemorefractory. These findings warrant further in vivo investigations to study DDX11-AS1 as a potential target to overcome chemoresistance.

Effects of Temperature, Metal Ions and Biosurfactants on Interaction Mechanism between Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester and Hemoglobin.

Caffeic acid phenylethyl ester (CAPE) is a natural polyphenol extracted from propolis, which is reported to have several pharmacological effects such as antibacterial, antitumor, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Hemoglobin (Hb) is closely related to the transport of drugs, and some drugs, including CAPE, can lead to a change in Hb concentration. Herein, the effects of temperature, metal ions and biosurfactants on the interaction between CAPE and Hb were studied using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), fluorescence spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and molecular docking analysis. The results showed that the addition of CAPE led to changes in the microenvironment of Hb amino acid residues as well as the secondary structure of Hb. Hydrogen bonding and van der Waals force were found to be the main driving forces for the interaction between CAPE and Hb through fluorescence spectroscopy and thermodynamic parameter data. The results of fluorescence spectroscopy also showed that lowering the temperature, adding biosurfactants (sodium cholate (NaC) and sodium deoxycholate (NaDC)) and the presence of Cu2+ increased the binding force between CAPE and Hb. These results provide useful data for the targeted delivery and absorption of CAPE and other drugs.

Construction of predictive ceRNA network and identification of the patterns of immune cells infiltrated in Graves' ophthalmopathy. / Gravesçœ¼ç— ä¸­é¢„æµ‹æ€§ceRNAç½‘ç»œçš„æž„å»ºåŠå ç–«ç»†èƒžæµ¸æ¶¦æ¨¡å¼çš„é‰´å®š.

OBJECTIVES: Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) is a multifactorial disease, and the mechanism of non coding RNA interactions and inflammatory cell infiltration patterns are not fully understood. This study aims to construct a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network for this disease and clarify the infiltration patterns of inflammatory cells in orbital tissue to further explore the pathogenesis of GO. METHODS: The differentially expressed genes were identified using the GEO2R analysis tool. The Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) and gene ontology analysis were used to analyze differential genes. RNA interaction relationships were extracted from the RNA interactome database. Protein-protein interactions were identified using the STRING database and were visualized using Cytoscape. StarBase, miRcode, and DIANA-LncBase Experimental v.2 were used to construct ceRNA networks together with their interacted non-coding RNA. The CIBERSORT algorithm was used to detect the patterns of infiltrating immune cells in GO using R software. RESULTS: A total of 114 differentially expressed genes for GO and 121 pathways were detected using both the KEGG and gene ontology enrichment analysis. Four hub genes (SRSF6, DDX5, HNRNPC,and HNRNPM) were extracted from protein-protein interaction using cytoHubba in Cytoscape, 104 nodes and 142 edges were extracted, and a ceRNA network was identified (MALAT1-MIR21-DDX5). The results of immune cell analysis showed that in GO, the proportions of CD8+ T cells and CD4+ memory resting T cells were upregulated and downregulated, respectively. The proportion of CD4 memory resting T cells was positively correlated with the expression of MALAT1, MIR21, and DDX5. CONCLUSIONS: This study has constructed a ceRNA regulatory network (MALAT1-MIR21-DDX5) in GO orbital tissue, clarifying the downregulation of the proportion of CD4+ stationary memory T cells and their positive regulatory relationship with ceRNA components, further revealing the pathogenesis of GO.

Interactional, functional, and biological properties of lactone sophorolipid (LSL) and collagen oligopeptides (COP) in aqueous solution.

For the mixed aqueous solution of LSL and COP, the interaction mode and mechanism have been comprehensively studied using multispectral methods including fluorescence spectrum, ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis )adsorption spectra, and circular dichroism (CD) spectra. The surface activity, particle size, foaming, emulsifying, viscosity, and antibacterial properties were evaluated in detail using a surface tension measurement (ST), dynamic light scattering (DLS), oscillometric method, spectrophotometer, Ubbelohde viscometer, and zone of inhibition separately. Compared with the single LSL or COP aqueous solution, the mixed system shows different performance optimizations in different aspects. The surface activity and foaming properties are mainly attributed to LSL, and the viscosity is attributed to COP. Fluorescence spectroscopy results show using LSL addition that the fluorescence distribution of COP has significant changes and a static quenching mechanism was proved. The results of UV-vis and CD spectra also show the changing conformation of COP using LSL addition. Data on thermodynamic parameters demonstrated that the combination of LSL and COP gives a spontaneous exothermic process and is an enthalpy-driven process. The interaction mechanism between LSL and COP is very helpful for the application and development of the mixed mild biosurfactant-protein system used in the cosmetic and food industries.

Co-delivery of F7 and crizotinib by thermosensitive liposome for breast cancer treatment.

In order to enhance the targeting efficiency and reduce the side effects and drug resistance, crizotinib (Cri) and F7 were co-loaded in a thermosensitive liposome (TSL) (F7-Cri-TSL), which showed enhanced permeability and retention in breast cancer model, as well as local controlled release by external hyperthermia. Cri is an inhibitor for cell proliferation and a promoter of apoptosis, by inhibiting the phosphorylation of intracellular ALK and c-Met, but its drug resistance limits its application. F7 is a novel drug candidate with significant resistance to cyclin-dependent kinase, but its use was restricted by its high toxicity. The F7-Cri-TSL was found with excellent particle size (about 108 nm), high entrapment efficiency (>95%), significant thermosensitive property, and good stability. Furthermore, F7-Cri-TSL/H had strongest cell lethality compared with other formulations. On the MCF-7 xenograft mice model, the F7-Cri-TSL also exhibited therapeutic synergism of Cri, F7 and hyperthermia. Meanwhile, it was shown that the TSL reduced the systemic toxicity of the chemotherapy drug. Therefore, the F7-Cri-TSL may serve as a promising system for temperature triggered breast cancer treatment.

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in fecal samples with different pretreatment methods and PCR kits.

BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal symptoms are common in COVID-19 patients and SARS-CoV-2 RNA has been detected in the patients' feces, which could lead to fecal-oral transmission. Therefore, fecal sample testing with real-time RT-PCR is highly recommended as a routine test for SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, varying rates of detection in fecal sample have been reported. The aim of this study was to provide insights into the detection rates of SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 patients' fecal sample by using four real-time RT-PCR kits and two pretreatment methods (inactive and non-inactive). RESULTS: The detection rate of Trizol pretreatment group was slightly higher than that of Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS) groups, showing that pretreatment and inactivation by Trizol had no influence to SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid test (NAT) results. 39.29% detection rate in fecal sample by DAAN was obtained, while Bio-germ was 40.48%, Sansure 34.52%, and GeneoDx 33.33%. The former three kits had no significant difference. The DAAN kit detection rates of ORF1ab and N gene were nearly equal and Ct value distribution was more scattered, while the Bio-germ kit distribution was more clustered. The positive rate of SARS-COV-2 in fecal samples correlated with the severity of the disease, specifically, severe cases were less likely to be identified than asymptomatic infection in the DAAN group (adjusted OR 0.05, 95%CI = 0.00 ~ 0.91). CONCLUSIONS: Trizol should be of choice as a valid and safe method for pretreatment of fecal samples of SARS-CoV-2. All real-time RT-PCR kits assessed in this study can be used for routine detection of SARS-CoV-2 in fecal samples. While DAAN, with high NAT positive rate, could be the best out of the 4 kits used in this study. SARS-CoV-2 positive rate in fecal sample was related to the severity of illness.

High-throughput hardware deployment of pruned neural network based nonlinear equalization for 100-Gbps short-reach optical interconnect.

Hardware implementation of neural network based nonlinear equalizers will encounter tremendous challenges due to a high-throughput data stream and high computational complexity for 100-Gbps short-reach optical interconnects. In this Letter, we propose a parallel pruned neural network equalizer for high-throughput signal processing and minimized hardware resources. The structure of a time-interleaved neural network equalizer with a delay module is deployed in a field programmable gate array with advanced pruned algorithms, demonstrating significant bit error rate reduction for 100-Gbps real-time throughput with 200 parallel channels. Moreover, the dependence of processing throughput, hardware resources, and equalization performance is investigated, showing that over 50% resource reduction without performance degradation can be achieved with the pruning strategy.

Spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of COVID-19 in China: a city-level modeling study.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic. Few studies have been conducted to investigate the spatio-temporal distribution of COVID-19 on nationwide city-level in China. OBJECTIVE: To analyze and visualize the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics and clustering pattern of COVID-19 cases from 362 cities of 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in mainland China. METHODS: A spatiotemporal statistical analysis of COVID-19 cases was carried out by collecting the confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China from January 10, 2020 to October 5, 2020. Methods including statistical charts, hotspot analysis, spatial autocorrelation, and Poisson space-time scan statistic were conducted. RESULTS: The high incidence stage of China's COVID-19 epidemic was from January 17 to February 9, 2020 with daily increase rate greater than 7.5%. The hot spot analysis suggested that the cities including Wuhan, Huangshi, Ezhou, Xiaogan, Jingzhou, Huanggang, Xianning, and Xiantao, were the hot spots with statistical significance. Spatial autocorrelation analysis indicated a moderately correlated pattern of spatial clustering of COVID-19 cases across China in the early phase, with Moran's I statistic reaching maximum value on January 31, at 0.235 (Z = 12.344, P = 0.001), but the spatial correlation gradually decreased later and showed a discrete trend to a random distribution. Considering both space and time, 19 statistically significant clusters were identified. 63.16% of the clusters occurred from January to February. Larger clusters were located in central and southern China. The most likely cluster (RR = 845.01, P < 0.01) included 6 cities in Hubei province with Wuhan as the centre. Overall, the clusters with larger coverage were in the early stage of the epidemic, while it changed to only gather in a specific city in the later period. The pattern and scope of clusters changed and reduced over time in China. CONCLUSIONS: Spatio-temporal cluster detection plays a vital role in the exploration of epidemic evolution and early warning of disease outbreaks and recurrences. This study can provide scientific reference for the allocation of medical resources and monitoring potential rebound of the COVID-19 epidemic in China.

Bacterial Diversity and Community Structure in the Rhizosphere of Four Halophytes.

The study of the rhizosphere microbial community in salinized soils aids in the elucidation of new and important microbial functional groups, which is of great importance in vegetation restoration and ecological reconstruction of salinized soil. The rhizosphere soil bacterial diversity and community structures of four halophytes, including Kalidium foliatum, Lycium ruthenicum, Karelinia caspia and Phragmites australis, typically distributed in the saline-alkaline land of Southern Xinjiang, China, were studied using an Illumina paired-end sequence platform. The study aims to reveal the alpha diversity, species composition, abundance and the differences of rhizosphere bacteria among the four halophytes, explore their correlation with environmental factors. The results showed that the highest bacterial species diversity was associated with P. communis, followed by K. foliatum, K. caspia, and L. ruthenicum. The species richness was the lowest for L. ruthenicum, while the others showed no significant difference. Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the most dominant phyla. And Bacillus and Halomonas were the most common dominant genera. The bacterial communities associated with K. foliatum and K. caspia were similar, while that of L. ruthenicum was significantly different from other halophytes. Soil total nitrogen and total phosphorus, soil organic matter, soil water content, electronic conductivity and pH were identified as the key factors affecting bacterial abundance associated with the assayed halophytes. These results indicate that the four halophytes evaluated in the present study have a similar rhizosphere bacterial community structure due to their being in the same region. However, the bacterial abundance is different among the plant species, and soil properties are the important factors driving the structures of bacterial communities.

ACEP: improving antimicrobial peptides recognition through automatic feature fusion and amino acid embedding.

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance is one of our most serious health threats. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), effecter molecules of innate immune system, can defend host organisms against microbes and most have shown a lowered likelihood for bacteria to form resistance compared to many conventional drugs. Thus, AMPs are gaining popularity as better substitute to antibiotics. To aid researchers in novel AMPs discovery, we design computational approaches to screen promising candidates. RESULTS: In this work, we design a deep learning model that can learn amino acid embedding patterns, automatically extract sequence features, and fuse heterogeneous information. Results show that the proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art methods on recognition of AMPs. By visualizing data in some layers of the model, we overcome the black-box nature of deep learning, explain the working mechanism of the model, and find some import motifs in sequences. CONCLUSIONS: ACEP model can capture similarity between amino acids, calculate attention scores for different parts of a peptide sequence in order to spot important parts that significantly contribute to final predictions, and automatically fuse a variety of heterogeneous information or features. For high-throughput AMPs recognition, open source software and datasets are made freely available at https://github.com/Fuhaoyi/ACEP .

The Antiresection Activity of the X Protein Encoded by Hepatitis Virus B.

Chronic infection of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is associated with an increased incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HBV encodes an oncoprotein, hepatitis B x protein (HBx), that is crucial for viral replication and interferes with multiple cellular activities including gene expression, histone modifications, and genomic stability. To date, it remains unclear how disruption of these activities contributes to hepatocarcinogenesis. Here, we report that HBV exhibits antiresection activity by disrupting DNA end resection, thus impairing the initial steps of homologous recombination (HR). This antiresection activity occurs in primary human hepatocytes undergoing a natural viral infection-replication cycle as well as in cells with integrated HBV genomes. Among the seven HBV-encoded proteins, we identified HBx as the sole viral factor that inhibits resection. By disrupting an evolutionarily conserved Cullin4A-damage-specific DNA binding protein 1-RING type of E3 ligase, CRL4WDR70 , through its H-box, we show that HBx inhibits H2B monoubiquitylation at lysine 120 at double-strand breaks, thus reducing the efficiency of long-range resection. We further show that directly impairing H2B monoubiquitylation elicited tumorigenesis upon engraftment of deficient cells in athymic mice, confirming that the impairment of CRL4WDR70 function by HBx is sufficient to promote carcinogenesis. Finally, we demonstrate that lack of H2B monoubiquitylation is manifest in human HBV-associated HCC when compared with HBV-free HCC, implying corresponding defects of epigenetic regulation and end resection. Conclusion: The antiresection activity of HBx induces an HR defect and genomic instability and contributes to tumorigenesis of host hepatocytes.

Immunodepression induced by influenza A virus (H1N1) in lymphoid organs functions as a pathogenic mechanism.

In recent years, the frequency of influenza epidemics around the world has posed a great threat to the lives of people, especially those in developing countries. However, it is unclear which organs are the targets of influenza A viruses (IAVs) and what histopathology is caused by IAVs. In this study, BALB/c female mice were infected with H1N1 by nasal inoculation for 5 days. After euthanasia, the brain, heart, lungs, thymus, liver, spleen, hilar lymph nodes, pancreas, kidneys, and adrenal glands were collected. Among these organs, only the lungs, thymus, spleen, and hilar lymph nodes showed lesions. Lung histopathology was characterized by widening of the septum, lymphocyte infiltration, alveolar effusion, and alveolar hyaline membrane formation. The thymus and spleen exhibited atrophy due to the apoptosis of numerous lymphocytes. Although the hilar lymph nodes were enlarged, lymphocyte apoptosis still occurred. The nucleocapsid protein (NP) of IAVs was present not only in the lungs but also in the thymus, spleen, and hilar lymph nodes. In peripheral blood, CD19+ B lymphocyte levels clearly decreased whileCD3+ CD8+ T and CD3+ CD4+ T lymphocyte levels temporarily decreased but subsequently increased. These results demonstrate that H1N1 in the lungs could reach lymphoid organs, induce the depletion of B and T lymphocytes in peripheral blood and lymphoid organs, and suppress adaptive immunity.

Impact of the Internet on Medical Decisions of Chinese Adults: Longitudinal Data Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The internet has caused the explosive growth of medical information and has greatly improved the availability of medical knowledge. This makes the internet one of the main ways for residents to obtain medical information and knowledge before seeking medical treatment. However, little has been researched on how the internet affects medical decisions. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to explore the associations between internet behaviors and medical decisions among Chinese adults aged 18 or over, including whether to go to the hospital and which level of medical institution to choose. METHODS: With the adult residents (≥18 years old) in 12 regions including urban and rural areas taken as the research objects, the differences in medical choices of adults with various characteristics were analyzed, and generalized linear mixed models were adopted to analyze the longitudinal data of the China Health Nutrition Survey from 2006 to 2015. RESULTS: Adult groups with different ages, genders, education levels, regions, places of residence, severities of illness and injury, years of suffering from hypertension, and history of chronic diseases showed diverse medical decisions, and the differences were statistically significant (P<.05). After controlling for these potential confounding factors and taking self-care as the reference, the probability of Chinese adults who participated in online browsing activities selecting hospital care was 0.82 (95% CI 0.69-0.98; P=.03) times that of residents who did not participate in online browsing activities. In terms of medical institution choices, adults who participated in online browsing activities were 1.86 (95% CI 1.35-2.58; P<.001) times more likely to opt for municipal medical treatment than primary care. However, the effect of online browsing on the selection probability of county-level hospitals was not significant compared with primary hospitals (P=.59). Robust analysis verified that accessing the internet had a similar effect on Chinese adults' medical decisions. CONCLUSIONS: Chinese adults who use the internet are a little less likely to go to the hospital than self-care. The internet has broken down the barriers to obtain knowledge of common diseases and thus has a slight substitution effect of self-care on hospital care. Internet use may increase the probability of adults going to municipal hospitals. The rising tendency of visiting high-level medical institutions may be consequently exacerbated due to knowledge monopoly of severe and complicated diseases that is difficult to eliminate, and the increase in inconsistent and incomplete medical information online will blur the residents' cognitive boundary of common diseases and severe diseases. Exploring the substantive impact of the internet on medical decision making is of great significance for further rational planning and utilization of the internet, in order to guide patients to appropriate medical institution.

[Biological Product Development Strategies for Prevention and Treatment of Coronavirus Disease 2019].

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the novel coronavirus, also known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2), has become a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Due to the large infection population, broad transmissibility and high mortality, it is urgent to find out the efficient and specific methods to prevent and treat COVID-19. As biological products have broadly applied in the prevention and treatment of severe epidemic diseases, they are promising in blocking novel coronavirus infection. According to the research advances of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), we reviewed the potential application of biological products such as interferon, convalescent plasma, intestinal micro-ecological regulators, vaccines and therapeutic antibodies, etc. , on prevention and treatment of COVID-19. May this review be helpful for conquering COVID-19 in the near future.

Accurate classification of membrane protein types based on sequence and evolutionary information using deep learning.

BACKGROUND: Membrane proteins play an important role in the life activities of organisms. Knowing membrane protein types provides clues for understanding the structure and function of proteins. Though various computational methods for predicting membrane protein types have been developed, the results still do not meet the expectations of researchers. RESULTS: We propose two deep learning models to process sequence information and evolutionary information, respectively. Both models obtained better results than traditional machine learning models. Furthermore, to improve the performance of the sequence information model, we also provide a new vector representation method to replace the one-hot encoding, whose overall success rate improved by 3.81% and 6.55% on two datasets. Finally, a more effective model is obtained by fusing the above two models, whose overall success rate reached 95.68% and 92.98% on two datasets. CONCLUSION: The final experimental results show that our method is more effective than existing methods for predicting membrane protein types, which can help laboratory researchers to identify the type of novel membrane proteins.