Machine Learning-Based Design of Superhard High-Entropy Nitride Coatings.

Limited by the inefficiency of the conventional trial-and-error method and the boundless compositional design space of high-entropy alloys (HEAs), accelerating the discovery of superior-performing high-entropy nitride (HEN) coatings remains a formidable challenge. Herein, the superhard HEN coatings were designed and prepared using the rapidly developing data-driven model machine learning (ML). A database containing hardness and different features of HEN coatings was established and categorized into four subsets covering the information on composition, composition-physical descriptors, composition-technique parameters, and composition-physical descriptors-technique parameters. Feature engineering was employed to reduce dimensionality and interpret the impact of features on the evolution of hardness. Both root mean squared error (RMSE) and decision coefficient (R2) were applied to assess the predictive accuracy of ML models with different subsets, proportions of test set, and algorithms. The model with best predicted performance was used to explore superhard HEN coatings in a predefined virtual space. Among the generated 5-/6-/7-/8-component (excluding N) systems, the coating possessing highest hardness was individually selected for further preparation. Four newly prepared coatings achieved the superhard level with an average prediction error of 7.83%. The morphology, chemical composition, structure, and hardness of the newly prepared coatings were discussed. The nanocrystal-amorphous nanocomposite structure of the novel AlCrNbSiTiN coating with the highest hardness of 45.77 GPa was revealed. The results demonstrated that ML can effectively guide the design and composition optimization of superb-performance protective HEN coatings.

Impaired arginine/ornithine metabolism drives severe HFMD by promoting cytokine storm.

Introduction: The Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD), caused by enterovirus 71 infection, is a global public health emergency. Severe HFMD poses a significant threat to the life and well-being of children. Numerous studies have indicated that the occurrence of severe HFMD is associated with cytokine storm. However, the precise molecular mechanism underlying cytokine storm development remains elusive, and there are currently no safe and effective treatments available for severe HFMD in children. Methods: In this study, we established a mouse model of severe HFMD to investigate the molecular mechanisms driving cytokine storm. We specifically analyzed metabolic disturbances, focusing on arginine/ornithine metabolism, and assessed the potential therapeutic effects of spermine, an ornithine metabolite. Results: Our results identified disturbances in arginine/ornithine metabolism as a pivotal factor driving cytokine storm onset in severe HFMD cases. Additionally, we discovered that spermine effectively mitigated the inflammatory injury phenotype observed in mice with severe HFMD. Discussion: In conclusion, our findings provide novel insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying severe HFMD from a metabolic perspective while offering a promising new strategy for its safe and effective treatment.

Effects of epidural analgesia at 1 cm cervical dilatation on multiparae: A retrospective cohort study using propensity score-matching.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of epidural analgesia (EA) administered at cervical dilatation of 1 cm on multiparae who underwent vaginal delivery. METHODS: This propensity score-matched retrospective cohort research was conducted between 2021 and 2022. All the singleton multiparae who had previous successful vaginal deliveries and epidural analgesia during this delivery were screened for eligibility. The primary outcome was the effect of EA on the duration of labor. The main secondary outcomes included the incidence of cesarean delivery and umbilical arterial pH. RESULTS: This study incorporated 686 multiparae who were divided into two cohorts: EA 1 (cervical dilatation = 1 cm, n = 166) and EA 2 (cervical dilatation >1 cm, n = 520). In the propensity score-matched cohort (including 164 women in each group), there were no statistically significant differences in the incidence of cesarean delivery (4 [2.4%] vs 4 [2.4%], P = 1.000), umbilical arterial pH (7.28 ± 0.06 vs 7.28 ± 0.07, P = 0.550) and other secondary outcomes between the two groups. Based on a comparative assessment of the women who delivered vaginally to the Kaplan-Meier curves and propensity score-matching (including 160 women in each group), there was no statistical significance in the duration of the first, second and third stages of labor (log rank P, P = 0.811; P = 0.413; P = 0.773, respectively). CONCLUSION: Initiation of epidural analgesia at cervical dilatation of 1 cm in multiparae did not cause adverse effects with regard to the duration of labor, increased cesarean deliveries, and bad neonatal outcomes.

[Reflections on the safety regulation of commercialization of synthetic biology products].

With the rapid development of synthetic biology, lots of synthetic biology technology achievements in various application fields have been commercialized, generating broad market prospects. The commercialization of products employing synthetic biology technology (hereinafter referred as synthetic biology products) has brought benefits to human beings, but it has also produced potential safety risks. At present, relevant laws and standards for regulation of biotechnology or genetically modified organisms have been adopted to regulate the safety risks of commercialization of synthetic biology products (CSBP). However, due to the complexity and uncertainty of synthetic biology, the safety risks of CSBP cannot be comprehensively regulated by these laws and standards. Therefore, it is of great significance to formulate specific supervision and management measures for regulating the safety risks of CSBP. This paper summarized the situation of CSBP in the fields of food, medical care, agriculture, environment, energy and materials, analyzed the safety risks existing in the CSBP, and sorted out current supervision situation of its safety risks in European countries, United States, as well as in China. We further proposed suggestions on the safety supervision and management measures on the safety risks of CSBP, including classified examination and approval, classified identification of products, and strict screening and approval of market entities before entering the market, and strengthening safety supervision and emergency treatment as well as accident responsibility investigation after entering the market. This whole-process safety regulation might provide support for the safety of CSBP and promote the healthy and long-term development of synthetic biology industry.

Micro-Expression Recognition Based on Nodal Efficiency in the EEG Functional Networks.

Micro-expression recognition based on ima- ges has made some progress, yet limitations persist. For instance, image-based recognition of micro-expressions is affected by factors such as ambient light, changes in head posture, and facial occlusion. The high temporal resolution of electroencephalogram (EEG) technology can record brain activity associated with micro-expressions and identify them objectively from a neurophysiological standpoint. Accordingly, this study introduces a novel method for recognizing micro-expressions using node efficiency features of brain networks derived from EEG signals. We designed a real-time Supervision and Emotional Expression Suppression (SEES) experimental paradigm to collect video and EEG data reflecting micro- and macro-expression states from 70 participants experiencing positive emotions. By constructing functional brain networks based on graph theory, we analyzed the network efficiencies at both macro- and micro-levels. The participants exhibited lower connection density, global efficiency, and nodal efficiency in the alpha, beta, and gamma networks during micro-expressions compared to macro-expressions. We then selected the optimal subset of nodal efficiency features using a random forest algorithm and applied them to various classifiers, including Support Vector Machine (SVM), Gradient-Boosted Decision Tree (GBDT), Logistic Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost). These classifiers achieved promising accuracy in micro-expression recognition, with SVM exhibiting the highest accuracy of 92.6% when 15 channels were selected. This study provides a new neuroscientific indicator for recognizing micro-expressions based on EEG signals, thereby broadening the potential applications for micro-expression recognition.

Single-Cell Analyses Reveal Necroptosis's Potential Role in Neuron Degeneration and Show Enhanced Neuron-Immune Cell Interaction in Parkinson's Disease Progression.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neuron degenerative disease among the old, characterized by uncontrollable movements and an impaired posture. Although widely investigated on its pathology and treatment, the disease remains incompletely understood. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has been applied to the area of PD, providing valuable data for related research. However, few works have taken deeper insights into the causes of neuron death and cell-cell interaction between the cell types in the brain. Our bioinformatics analyses revealed necroptosis-related genes (NRGs) enrichment in neuron degeneration and selecting the cells by NRGs levels showed two subtypes within the main degenerative cell types in the midbrain. NRG-low subtype was largely replaced by NRG-high subtype in the patients, indicating the striking change of cell state related to necroptosis in PD progression. Moreover, we carried out cell-cell interaction analyses between cell types and found that microglia (MG)'s interaction strength with glutamatergic neuron (GLU), GABAergic neuron (GABA), and dopaminergic neuron (DA) was significantly upregulated in PD. Also, MG show much stronger interaction with NRG-high subtypes and a stronger cell killing function in PD samples. Additionally, we identified CLDN11 as a novel interaction pattern specific to necroptosis neurons and MG. We also found LEF1 and TCF4 as key transcriptional regulators in neuron degeneration. These findings suggest that MG were significantly overactivated in PD patients to clear abnormal neurons, especially the NRG-high cells, explaining the neuron inflammation in PD. Our analyses provide insights into the causes of neuron death and inflammation in PD from single-cell resolution, which could be seriously considered in clinical trials.

Advanced maternal age: copy number variations and pregnancy outcomes.

Objective: Adverse pregnancy outcomes are closely related to advanced maternal age (AMA; age at pregnancy ≥35 years). Little research has been reported on aneuploid abnormalities and pathogenic copy number variations (CNVs) affecting pregnancy outcomes in women with AMA. The purpose of this study was to assess CNVs associated with AMA in prenatal diagnosis to determine the characteristics of pathogenic CNVs and assist with genetic counseling of women with AMA. Methods: Among 277 fetuses of women with AMA, 218 (78.7%) were isolated AMA fetuses and 59 (21.3%) were non-isolated AMA fetuses and showed ultrasound anomalies from January 2021 to October 2022. Isolated AMA was defined as AMA cases without sonographic abnormalities. Non-isolated AMA was defined as AMA cases with sonographic abnormalities such as sonographic soft markers, widening of the lateral ventricles, or extracardiac structural anomalies. The amniotic fluid cells underwent routine karyotyping followed by single nucleotide polymorphism array (SNP-array) analysis. Results: Of the 277 AMA cases, karyotype analysis identified 20 chromosomal abnormalities. As well as 12 cases of chromosomal abnormalities corresponded to routine karyotyping, the SNP array identified an additional 14 cases of CNVs with normal karyotyping results. There were five pathogenetic CNVs, seven variations of uncertain clinical significance (VOUS), and two benign CNVs. The detection rate of abnormal CNVs in non-isolated AMA cases was increasing (13/59; 22%) than in isolated AMA cases (13/218; 5.96%) (p < 0.001). We also determined that pathogenic CNVs affected the rate of pregnancy termination in women with AMA. Conclusion: Aneuploid abnormalities and pathogenic CNVs affect pregnancy outcomes in women with AMA. SNP array had a higher detection rate of genetic variation than did karyotyping and is an important supplement to karyotype analysis, which enables better informed clinical consultation and clinical decision-making.

Standardized nursing mode effectively controls pain caused by radiotherapy and chemotherapy in patients with advanced cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the application value of a standardized nursing model in pain management of advanced cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy. METHODS: The clinical data of 166 patients with advanced cancer who suffered pain after receiving radiotherapy and chemotherapy in the Oncology Department of Guang'an People's Hospital from June 2020 to June 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. Among them, 83 patients who received routine care were grouped as a control group, while the other 83 patients who received standardized cancer pain nursing based on routine nursing were set as the experimental group. The location, duration, and degree of pain (numeric rating scales, NRS) and quality of life (European Quality of Life Scale, QLQ-C30) of patients were evaluated. RESULTS: Before treatment and nursing intervention, there were no significant differences in the location, duration, or degree of pain as well as in patients' quality of life between the two groups (all P>0.05). During and after radiotherapy, the pain was mainly concentrated in the skin of the radiation field, and the duration of pain increased with the number of rounds of radiotherapy. After nursing, patients in the experimental group showed lower NRS scores than those in the control group (P<0.05); the scores of physical function, role function, emotional function, cognitive function, social function and general health status of the experimental group were higher than those of the control group (all P<0.05); and the scores of fatigue, nausea and vomiting, pain, insomnia, loss of appetite and constipation in the experimental group were lower than those in the control group (all P<0.05). CONCLUSION: A standardized cancer pain nursing model can effectively alleviate the radio-chemotherapy induced pain of cancer patients and effectively improve their quality of life.

Vacuum sealing drainage to treat Fournier's gangrene.

BACKGROUND: Vacuum sealing drainage (VSD) is widely applied in complex wound repair. We aimed to compare traditional debridement and drainage and VSD in treating Fournier's gangrene (FG). METHODS: Data of patients surgically treated for FG were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Of the 36 patients (men: 31, women: 5; mean age: 53.5 ± 11.3 [range: 28-74] years) included in the study, no patients died. Between-group differences regarding sex, age, BMI, time from first debridement to wound healing, number of debridements, FGSI, and shock were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). However, lesion diameter, colostomy, VAS score, dressing changes, analgesic use, length of hospital stay, and wound reconstruction method (χ2 = 5.43, P = 0.04) exhibited statistically significant differences. Tension-relieving sutures (6 vs. 21) and flap transfer (4 vs. 2) were applied in Groups I and II, respectively. CONCLUSION: VSD can reduce postoperative dressing changes and analgesic use, and shrunk the wound area, thereby reducing flap transfer in wound reconstruction.

Molecular subtyping and immune score system by a novel pyroptosis-based gene signature precisely predict immune infiltrating, survival and response to immune-checkpoint blockade in breast cancer.

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent and lethal types of cancer affecting women globally. Pyroptosis is a recently elucidated form of inflammatory cell death mediated by the gasdermin family and is considered to be associated with the tumor immune microenvironment. However, the impact of pyroptosis on breast cancer patients remains unclear. In this study, we identified 31 Pyroptosis-Related-Genes (PRGs) and investigated their association with patient survival using data from the TCGA database. We then established a gene signature comprising 6 PRGs that were significantly correlated with prognosis, and used these genes to classify breast cancer into 2 molecular subtypes. We investigated the characteristics of these two subtypes and found that our molecular subtyping accurately separated the samples into two groups with distinct immune infiltration and prognosis. Patients with higher expression of these genes had significantly greater immune infiltrating, T cell signaling, and better prognosis. Moreover, we developed an immune score system based on these 6 genes that accurately predicted the immune infiltrating of patients and their response to immune-checkpoint blockade, which was difficult to achieve with previous models. Additionally, through single-cell analyses, we found that patients with higher immune scores had stronger cytotoxic immune cells. In summary, our study identified a novel gene set and developed an immune scoring system based on this gene set that can precisely predict the immune microenvironment and responses to immunotherapy of breast cancer (BRCA) patients, which could be useful in clinical trials.

Effects of epidural analgesia at 1 cm cervical dilatation on labor interventions in full-term primigravida: A retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the effects of epidural analgesia administered as early as cervical dilatation of 1 cm on labor interventions and maternal and neonatal outcomes. METHODS: This retrospective research recruited 1007 full-term primigravidas, who were distributed to two separate cohorts for eligibility: epidural analgesia 1 (cervical dilatation = 1 cm) and epidural analgesia 2 (cervical dilatation >1 cm). Labor interventions (artificial rupture of membranes and oxytocin administration) and duration of labor were the primary outcomes. RESULTS: The effect of initiation timing of epidural analgesia on artificial membrane rupture was not statistically significant (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 0.85 [0.58-1.24], p > 0.05). Less oxytocin was used in the epidural analgesia 2 group compared with the epidural analgesia 1 group (the adjusted OR: 0.68 [0.49-0.95], p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in the median time to latent phase of labor, active phase of labor, second, and third stages of labor (p > 0.05). There were no significant differences in maternal and neonatal outcomes between the epidural analgesia 1 group and the epidural analgesia 2 group. CONCLUSION: Epidural analgesia could be administered at cervical dilatation = 1 cm.

Study on the Influence of Accelerated Aging on the Properties of an RTV Anti-Pollution Flashover Coating.

The purpose of this work is to study the accelerated aging behavior of a room-temperature vulcanized (RTV) silicone rubber anti-pollution flashover coating. Red, blue and gray RTV rubber samples were selected to prepare coatings on the surface of stainless-steel sheets. The accelerated aging test was carried out in an aging test chamber according to a four-step program cycle. After the completion of different aging tests, the color difference, glossiness, surface micromorphology, wettability, insulation performance and other parameters of the samples were measured using colorimetry, infrared spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, and a high-voltage breakdown tester. The results showed that with the increase in aging time, the color difference ∆Eab of the coatings increased. The G60 gloss value decreased gradually and tended to be saturated after 60 cycles. After the aging tests, the RTV coating surface had holes, cracks, peeling and other damage to varying degrees. The C:Si atomic ratio was less than 2, and the hydrophobicity was obviously deteriorated. After aging, the electrical strength of the three RTV coatings decreased significantly. It can be concluded that during the accelerated aging test, the RTV coating had cross-linking and oxidation reactions, and the internal deterioration and surface damage of the coating led to changes in its color, luster, morphology, insulation strength, etc.

Affection of facial artifacts caused by micro-expressions on electroencephalography signals.

Macro-expressions are widely used in emotion recognition based on electroencephalography (EEG) because of their use as an intuitive external expression. Similarly, micro-expressions, as suppressed and brief emotional expressions, can also reflect a person's genuine emotional state. Therefore, researchers have started to focus on emotion recognition studies based on micro-expressions and EEG. However, compared to the effect of artifacts generated by macro-expressions on the EEG signal, it is not clear how artifacts generated by micro-expressions affect EEG signals. In this study, we investigated the effects of facial muscle activity caused by micro-expressions in positive emotions on EEG signals. We recorded the participants' facial expression images and EEG signals while they watched positive emotion-inducing videos. We then divided the 13 facial regions and extracted the main directional mean optical flow features as facial micro-expression image features, and the power spectral densities of theta, alpha, beta, and gamma frequency bands as EEG features. Multiple linear regression and Granger causality test analyses were used to determine the extent of the effect of facial muscle activity artifacts on EEG signals. The results showed that the average percentage of EEG signals affected by muscle artifacts caused by micro-expressions was 11.5%, with the frontal and temporal regions being significantly affected. After removing the artifacts from the EEG signal, the average percentage of the affected EEG signal dropped to 3.7%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the affection of facial artifacts caused by micro-expressions on EEG signals.

Study on the Antioxidant Effect of Tanshinone IIA on Diabetic Retinopathy and Its Mechanism Based on Integrated Pharmacology.

Aim: To explore the effect of tanshinone IIA on diabetic retinopathy (DR) and its mechanism. Methods: GeneCards and OMM databases were used to mine DR-related genes. The chemical structure of tanshinone IIA was searched by PubChem, and the potential target was predicted by PharmMapper. Cystape 3.8.2 was used to visualize and analyze the tanshinone IIA-DR protein interaction network. DAVID ver 6.8 data were used to perform enrichment analysis of the tanshinone IIA-DR protein interaction network. Then animal experiments were carried out to further explore the mechanism of tanshinone IIA in the treatment of DR. Male SD rats were intraperitoneally injected with streptozotocin to establish a diabetes model and were randomly divided into a model group, a low-dose tanshinone IIA group and a high-dose group. Normal rats served as the control group. Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining was used to observe the structural changes of the retina; the SOD, GSH-Px, and MDA levels in the retina were detected by the xanthine oxidase method; the expression of VEGF, IL-1ß, IL-6, TNF-α, and caspase-3 mRNA were detected by qRT-PCR; and the Bcl-2, Bax, and VEGFA proteins were determined by the western blot. Results: A total of 213 tanshinone IIA potential targets and 223 DR-related genes were obtained. The enrichment analysis showed that tanshinone IIA may regulate hypoxia, oxidative stress, positive regulation of ERK1 and ERK2 cascade, steroid hormone-mediated signaling pathway, inflammatory response, angiogenesis, VEGF signaling pathway, apoptosis, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, and biological processes and signaling pathways. The structure of the retina in the normal control group was clear, the retina in the model group was not clear, the nerve fiber layer was edema, the retinal cell layers of the tanshinone IIA low-dose group are arranged neatly, the inner and outer nuclear layers are slightly disordered, and the tanshinone IIA low-dose group was large. The structure of the mouse retina was further improved compared with the low-dose tanshinone IIA group. Compared with the model group, the retinal tissue SOD and GSH-PX of rats in the tanshinone IIA group increased, and the MDA level decreased (P < 0.05). Compared with the model group, the expression of VEGF, IL-1ß, IL-6, TNF-α, and caspase-3 mRNA in the retina of tanshinone IIA groups was significantly reduced (P < 0.01). Compared with the model group, the Bcl-2 protein in the tanshinone IIA groups increased, while the Bax and VEGFA proteins decreased (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Tanshinone IIA may improve the morphological performance of the retina of diabetic rats and inhibit DR, the mechanism of which may be anti-inflammatory, antiangiogenesis, etc.

Responses of functional brain networks in micro-expressions: An EEG study.

Micro-expressions (MEs) can reflect an individual's subjective emotions and true mental state, and they are widely used in the fields of mental health, justice, law enforcement, intelligence, and security. However, one of the major challenges of working with MEs is that their neural mechanism is not entirely understood. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to use electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate the reorganizations of functional brain networks involved in MEs. We aimed to reveal the underlying neural mechanisms that can provide electrophysiological indicators for ME recognition. A real-time supervision and emotional expression suppression experimental paradigm was designed to collect video and EEG data of MEs and no expressions (NEs) of 70 participants expressing positive emotions. Based on the graph theory, we analyzed the efficiency of functional brain network at the scalp level on both macro and micro scales. The results revealed that in the presence of MEs compared with NEs, the participants exhibited higher global efficiency and nodal efficiency in the frontal, occipital, and temporal regions. Additionally, using the random forest algorithm to select a subset of functional connectivity features as input, the support vector machine classifier achieved a classification accuracy for MEs and NEs of 0.81, with an area under the curve of 0.85. This finding demonstrates the possibility of using EEG to recognize MEs, with a wide range of application scenarios, such as persons wearing face masks or patients with expression disorders.

Electrophysiological evidence for inhibition hypothesis of micro-expressions based on tensor component analysis and Physarum network algorithm.

The inhibition hypothesis advocated by Ekman (1985) states when an emotion is concealed or masked, the true emotion is manifested as a micro-expression (ME) which is a fleeting expression lasting for 40 to 500 ms. However, research about the inhibition hypothesis of ME from the perspective of electrophysiology is lacking. Here, we report the electrophysiological evidence obtained from an electroencephalography (EEG) data analysis method. Specifically, we designed an ME elicitation paradigm to collect data of MEs of positive emotions and EEG from 70 subjects, and proposed a method based on tensor component analysis (TCA) combined with the Physarum network (PN) algorithm to characterize the spatial, temporal, and spectral signatures of dynamic EEG data of MEs. The proposed TCA-PN methods revealed two pathways involving dorsal and ventral streams in functional brain networks of MEs, which reflected the inhibition processing and emotion arousal of MEs. The results provide evidence for the inhibition hypothesis from an electrophysiological standpoint, which allows us to better understand the neural mechanism of MEs.

Influence of Family Sports Games on the Development of Early Communication Skills in Autistic Children.

With the development of society, the number of autistic children in China is increasing, which not only makes the family's happiness very low, but also seriously affects the development of teenagers and society. Among the symptoms of autistic children, early childhood communication skills have received extensive attention. In traditional rehabilitation training, with a lack of parents' participation, most of the training cannot arouse the interest of autistic children, so the treatment effect is not obvious. Based on this, this paper proposes the application of family sports games to improve the early communication ability of autistic children. This article aims to investigate the role of family sports games in promoting the development of early communication skills in autistic children. This paper uses the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to score the comprehensive ability of family sports games. The experimental results of this paper show that before the experiment, the comprehensive scores of children's communication ability in the control group and the experimental group were 18.92 and 18, respectively, which were generally low, and there was no significant difference. This shows that the communication skills of the two groups of children before the experiment are relatively poor. After the test, the children's comprehensive score of communication ability in the experimental group increased by 35.8 points, and the difference was significant, indicating that family sports games have a great impact on the development of children's communication ability.

Norbisabolane-type sesquiterpenoid derivatives, benzofuran lignans and a phenolic glycoside from the roots of Glochidion wilsonii Hutch.

Three highly oxygenated norbisabolane sesquiterpenoid glycosides (glochiwilsonosides A-C), five benzofuran lignans (glochiwilsonises A-E) and a phenolic glycoside (glochiwilsophe-noside), together with forty-one known compounds, were isolated from the roots of Glochidion wilsonii Hutch. The chemical structures of the compounds were identified by spectroscopic methods and previous literature data. Glochiwilsonoside A displayed anti-proliferative activity on A-549 and RAW 264.7 cell lines with an IC50 value of 34.5 ± 0.9 µM and CC50 value of 16.0 ± 0.9 µM, respectively. Twenty-three known compounds were reported from the genus Glochidion for the first time, and the chemotaxonomic characteristics of the isolated compounds were also summarized. The bisabolane/norbisabolane-type sesqui-terpenoid derivatives could be used as chemotaxonomic markers for G. wilsonii.

Application of VIP Care in Patients with Advanced Tumors in the Western Region of China.

Objective: The objective of this study is to explore the application of a very important person (VIP) intervention mode in patients with advanced tumors in the western region of China. Methods: One hundred and sixty-three patients were randomly divided into a control and experimental groups. The control group received routine care, and the experimental group received VIP future care. The willingness to end-of-life treatment, decision-making certainty, and quality of life were compared between the two groups before intervention (T0), after intervention (T1), and 1 month after intervention (T2). Results: There were no significant differences in the basic data of the two groups. Unlike the control group, the experimental group preferred palliative care at the end of T1 (P < 0.05), and the acceptance rate of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and mechanical treatment decreased significantly. After the VIP intervention, the patient was transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU) (P < 0.05). After 1 month of intervention (T2), the results showed that the overall quality of life, physical discomfort, negative emotions, care and support, survival predicament, and lifetime value of the patients were significantly higher than those before the intervention (all P < 0.05). Decision certainty results showed that the differences between the T0, T1, and T2 time points and the interaction between groups and time were statistically significant, and the interaction was more significant at T2 (P < 0.05). Conclusion: VIP future care can change patients' wishes for end-of-life care, improve patients' and quality of life, and increase patient decision-making certainty.

Relationship Between Platelet Count and In-hospital Mortality in Adult Patients With COVID-19: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic. Systemic inflammation in COVID-19 patients has been associated with poor clinical outcome. This study aims to determine the relationship between platelet count and in-hospital mortality. Methods: The original data of this study were from article development and validation of a predictive model of in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients. In this secondary analysis, we adopted multi-variable logistic regression analyses and smooth curve fitting to assess the independent association between platelet count and in-hospital mortality. We further applied a two-piecewise linear regression model to examine the nonlinear association between platelet count and in-hospital mortality. Results: Of the 2006 patients, the average age of the participants was 65.9 ± 16.5 years and 42.6% were women. We observed a U-shaped relationship between platelet count and in-hospital mortality. We found two different slopes, the correlations between platelet count and in-hospital mortality of COVID-19 patients were totally different below and above the inflection point which was around 370 × 109/L. On the left side of the inflection point, the OR was 0.996 (OR: 0.996, 95%CI: 0.994-0.998, p < 0.001). On the right side of the inflection point, the OR was 1.011 (OR: 1.011, 95%CI: 1.001-1.021, p = 0.029). Conclusions: A U-shaped association between platelet count and in-hospital mortality was found in the patients with COVID-19. The optimal of platelet count associated with the lowest risk of in-hospital mortality was around 370 × 109/L.