Ambient polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure and breast cancer risk in a population-based Canadian case-control study.

PURPOSE: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) represent a class of ubiquitous pollutants recognized as established human carcinogens and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. PAHs have seldom been modeled at the population-level in epidemiological studies. Fluoranthene is a prevalent PAH in urban settings and correlates with the occurrence of other PAHs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate associations between long-term residential exposure to ambient PAHs and breast cancer risk, both pre- and post-menopausal, in Canada. METHODS: Using the National Enhanced Cancer Surveillance System (NECSS), a national-scale Canadian population-based case-control study, annual fluoranthene exposures were estimated using the GEM-MACH-PAH chemical transport model on the basis of geocoded residential histories throughout a 20-year exposure window. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) controlling for potential confounders were estimated using logistic regression. Separate analyses were conducted for Ontario and national samples given a finer-resolution exposure surface and additional risk factor information available for Ontario. RESULTS: Positive associations were observed between fluoranthene exposure and premenopausal breast cancer, with inconsistent findings for postmenopausal breast cancer. For premenopausal breast cancer, adjusted ORs of 2.48 (95% CI: 1.29, 4.77) and 1.59 (95% CI: 1.11, 2.29) were observed when comparing the second highest category of exposure to the lowest, among the Ontario and national samples, respectively. For postmenopausal breast cancer, adjusted ORs were 1.10 (95% CI: 0.67, 1.80) and 1.33 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.73). Associations for the highest level of exposure, across both samples and menopausal strata, were non-significant. CONCLUSION: This study provides support for the hypothesis that ambient PAH exposures increase the risk of premenopausal breast cancer.

[Element relationship and extension path of clinical evidence knowledge map with Chinese patent medicine].

This study aims to construct the element relationship and extension path of clinical evidence knowledge map with Chinese patent medicine, providing basic technical support for the formation and transformation of the evidence chain of Chinese patent medicine and providing collection, induction, and summary schemes for massive and disorganized clinical data. Based on the elements of evidence-based PICOS, the conventional construction methods of knowledge graph were collected and summarized. Firstly, the data entities related to Chinese patent medicine were classified, and entity linking was performed(disambiguation). Secondly, the study associated and classified the attribute information of the data entity. Finally, the logical relationship between entities was constructed, and then the element relationship and extension path of the knowledge map conforming to the characteristics of clinical evidence of Chinese patent medicine were summarized. The construction of the clinical evidence knowledge map of Chinese patent medicine was mainly based on process design and logical structure, and the element relationship of the knowledge map was expressed according to the PICOS principle and evidence level. The extension path crossed three levels(model layer, data layer application, and new evidence application), and the study gradually explored the path from disease, core evaluation indicators, Chinese patent medicine, core prescriptions, syndrome and treatment rules, and medical case comparison(evolution law) to new drug research and development. In this study, the top-level design of the construction of the clinical evidence knowledge map of Chinese patent medicine has been clarified, but it still needs the joint efforts of interdisciplinary disciplines. With the continuous improvement of the map construction technology in line with the characteristics of TCM, the study can provide necessary basic technical support and reference for the development of the TCM discipline.

[Guidelines for post-marketing research on clinical effectiveness of Chinese patent medicines].

Due to the lack of specialized guidance, the post-marketing research on clinical effectiveness of Chinese patent medicines demonstrates varied quality and lacks high-quality evidence, failing to meet the demands of policy-making, clinical decision-making, and industrial decision-making. To address this issue, this project gathered experts in clinical medicine, clinical pharmacy, evidence-based medicine, drug epidemiology, medical ethics, and policy and regulation in China. They referred to the model of international post-marketing research on medicines and developed Guidelines for post-marketing research on clinical effectiveness of Chinese patent medicines under the framework of relevant laws and regulations and technical guidance documents in China. The guidelines were developed with consideration to the characteristics of Chinese patent medicines, China's national conditions, and all the stakeholders including marketing authorization holders, clinical researchers, drug administration, and users. The development of the guidelines followed the requirements for developing group standards set by the China Association of Chinese Medicine. The guidelines fully implement the concept of full life-cycle research, emphasizing the combination of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) theory, human use experience, and clinical trials and pay attention to the compliance, scientificity, and ethics of research. The guidelines clarify the topic selection and decision-making path of the post-marketing research on effectiveness of Chinese patent medicines through six steps: determining research purpose, analyzing drug characteristics, evaluating research basis, proposing clinical orientation, clarifying research purpose, and implementing classified research. The general principles of research design and implementation were clarified from eight aspects: research type, research objects, sample size, efficacy indicators, bias, missing data, evidence level, and practicality. It focuses on the research on the TCM syndrome-based efficacy evaluation, clinical value-oriented mechanism of action, and the effectiveness of Chinese patent medicines with different routes of administration. The guidelines provide a universal methodological basis for the post-marketing research on clinical effectiveness of Chinese patent medicines.

Resveratrol ameliorates ulcerative colitis by upregulating Nrf2/HO­1 pathway activity: Integrating animal experiments and network pharmacology.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic idiopathic inflammatory condition affecting the rectum and colon. Inflammation and compromisation of the intestinal mucosal barrier are key in UC pathogenesis. Resveratrol (Res) is a naturally occurring polyphenol that exhibits anti­inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Nuclear factor erythroid­2­related factor 2/heme oxygenase 1 (Nrf2/HO­1) pathway regulates occurrence and development of numerous types of diseases through anti­inflammatory and antioxidant activity. However, it is not clear whether Nrf2/HO­1 pathway is involved in the treatment of Res in UC. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate whether Res modulates the Nrf2/HO­1 signaling pathway to attenuate UC in mice. Dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) was used to induce experimental UC in male C57BL/6J mice. Disease activity index (DAI) and hematoxylin eosin (H&E) staning was used to assessed the magnitude of colonic lesions in UC mice. ELISA) was utilized to quantify inflammatory cytokines (IL­6, IL­1ß, TNF­α and IL­10) in serum and colon tissues. Immunohistochemistry and Western blot were used to evaluate the expression levels of tight junction (TJ) proteins [zonula occludens (ZO)­1 and Occludin] in colon tissues. Pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters of Res were derived from TCMSP database. Networkpharmacology was employed to identify the biological function and pharmacological mechanism of Res in the process of relieving UC, and the key target was screened. The binding ability of Res and key target was verified by molecular docking. Finally, the effectiveness of key target was substantiated by Western blot. Res decreased DAI, ameliorated histopathological changes such as crypt loss, disappeatance of the mucosal epithelium, and inflammatory infiltration in mice. Additionally, Res decreased expression of pro­inflammatory cytokines IL­6, IL­1ß and TNF­α and increased anti­inflammatory factor IL­10 expression. Res also restored the decreased protein expression of ZO­1 and occludin after DSS treatment, increasing the integrity of the intestinal mucosal barrier. The PK properties of Res suggested that Res possesses the therapeutic potential for oral administration. Network pharmacology revealed that Res alleviated UC through anti­inflammatory and antioxidant pathways, and confirmed that Nrf2 has a high binding affinity with Res and is a key target of Res against UC. Western blotting demonstrated that Res treatment increased the protein levels of Nrf2 and HO­1. In conclusion, Res treatment activated the Nrf2/HO­1 pathway to decrease clinical symptoms, inflammatory responses, and intestinal mucosal barrier damage in experimental UC mice.

Comparison of 5-ALA-PDT and LEEP of cervical squamous intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2) with high-risk human papillomavirus infection in childbearing age women: A non-randomized controlled polit study.

BACKGROUND: 5-Aminolevulinic acid-mediated photodynamic therapy (5-ALA-PDT) is a possible minimally-invasive treatment for high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (HSIL). The present study was carried out to assess the effect of 5-ALA-PDT and loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP) in cervical squamous intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2) combined with high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection. METHODS: In this study, 190 patients with CIN2 and HR-HPV infection were finally included. They were divided into the LEEP Group (n = 116) and PDT Group (n = 74) according to gynecologist's recommendation and patient's willingness. All patients were followed up at 4-6 months and 12 months after treatment, including HPV testing, cytology, and colposcopy examination. RESULTS: (1) 4-6 months after treatment, the pathological regression rate was 97.30 % (72/74) in the PDT group and 98.28 % (114/116) in the LEEP group (P = 0.952). The HPV clearance rate was 81.08 % (60/74) in the PDT group and 80.17 % (93/116)in the LEEP group (P = 0.877). (2) 12 months after treatment, the pathological regression rate was 93.24 % (69/74) in the PDT group and 96.55 % (112/116) in the LEEP group (P = 0.486). The recurrence rate of CIN2 was 4.05 % (3/74) in the PDT group and 1.72 % (2/116) in the LEEP group (P = 0.608). The HPV clearance rate was 90.54 % (67/74) in the PDT group and 89.66 % (104/116)in the LEEP group (P = 0.843). The reinfection rate of HR-HPV was 5.41 % (4/74) in the PDT group and 1.72 % (2/116) in the LEEP group (P = 0.322). (3) The adverse reactions in the PDT Group were slightly lower than that in the LEEP Group (P = 0.4956), but the incidence of vaginal bleeding in the PDT group was lower than that in the LEEP group during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The effectiveness of 5-ALA-PDT is similar to LEEP for CIN2 with less side effects. Therefore, 5-ALA-PDT, a non-invasive treatment, may be an effective method for CIN2 patients of childbearing age.

TMED2 promotes glioma tumorigenesis by being involved in EGFR recycling transport.

Aberrant epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling is the core signaling commonly activated in glioma. The transmembrane emp24 protein transport domain protein 2 (TMED2) interacts with cargo proteins involved in protein sorting and transport between endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and Golgi apparatus. In this study, we found the correlation between TMED2 with glioma progression and EGFR signaling through database analysis. Moreover, we demonstrated that TMED2 is essential for glioma cell proliferation, migration, and invasion at the cellular levels, as well as tumor formation in mouse models, underscoring its significance in the pathobiology of gliomas. Mechanistically, TMED2 was found to enhance EGFR-AKT signaling by facilitating EGFR recycling, thereby providing the initial evidence of TMED2's involvement in the membrane protein recycling process. In summary, our findings shed light on the roles and underlying mechanisms of TMED2 in the regulation of glioma tumorigenesis and EGFR signaling, suggesting that targeting TMED2 could emerge as a promising therapeutic strategy for gliomas and other tumors associated with aberrant EGFR signaling.

Three-dimensional spine reconstruction from biplane radiographs using convolutional neural networks.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a deep learning network for three-dimensional reconstruction of the spine from biplanar radiographs. METHODS: The proposed approach focused on extracting similar features and multiscale features of bone tissue in biplanar radiographs. Bone tissue features were reconstructed for feature representation across dimensions to generate three-dimensional volumes. The number of feature mappings was gradually reduced in the reconstruction to transform the high-dimensional features into the three-dimensional image domain. We produced and made eight public datasets to train and test the proposed network. Two evaluation metrics were proposed and combined with four classical evaluation metrics to measure the performance of the method. RESULTS: In comparative experiments, the reconstruction results of this method achieved a Hausdorff distance of 1.85 mm, a surface overlap of 0.2 mm, a volume overlap of 0.9664, and an offset distance of only 0.21 mm from the vertebral body centroid. The results of this study indicate that the proposed method is reliable.

Cumulative incidence and risk factors of brain metastases in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer without baseline brain metastasis: Pooled analysis of individualized patient data from IMpower130, IMpower131, and IMpower150.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to explore the abilities of atezolizumab plus chemotherapy in preventing brain metastases (BMs) among metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without initial BMs, as well as the risk factors of BMs. METHODS: Individual patient data from three trials involving first-line atezolizumab for metastatic NSCLC (IMpower130, IMpower131, and IMpower150) were pooled. Among patients without baseline BMs and without epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and/or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) mutations, those receiving atezolizumab + chemotherapy ± bevacizumab were classified as the atezolizumab plus chemotherapy group and those receiving placebo + chemotherapy ± bevacizumab were classified as the chemotherapy group. The cumulative incidences of BM (CI-BMs) between the two groups were compared. Other factors associated with the CI-BM were analyzed by Cox regression analyses. RESULTS: With a median follow-up of 17.6 months (range, 0.03-33.64 months), 74 (3.1%) of the 2380 enrolled patients developed BMs, including 50 (3.1%) and 24 (3.0%) in the atezolizumab plus chemotherapy group (n = 1589) and the chemotherapy group (n = 791), respectively. The CI-BMs at 6, 12, and 24 months were 1.7%, 2.8%, and 3.3%, respectively. After taking competing risk events into account, there was no significant difference in the CI-BMs between the two groups (p = .888). Nevertheless, the use of bevacizumab and the histology of nonsquamous NSCLC were found to be independently associated with the risk of BMs. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with metastatic EGFR/ALK wild-type NSCLC without baseline BMs, adding atezolizumab in the first-line treatment might not reduce the CI-BM. However, the administration of bevacizumab may reduce the risk of BMs.

Resveratrol attenuates intestinal epithelial barrier dysfunction via Nrf2/HO-1 pathway in dextran sulfate sodium-induced Caco-2 cells.

INTRODUCTION: The intestinal tract serves as an innate barrier, safeguarding the internal milieu from microorganisms and toxins. Various intestinal inflammatory diseases have a strong association with intestinal barrier dysfunction. The primary functional cells within the intestinal tract, intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) and their tight junctions (TJs), are crucial in preserving the integrity of this mechanical barrier. Resveratrol (Res), a plant-derived phenolic compound, exhibits a range of health-promoting benefits attributed to its anti-inflammatory properties. This study aims to examine Res's efficacy in bolstering IECs barrier function. METHODS: Dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) was employed to induce barrier dysfunction in IECs. Inflammatory cytokines in supernatants (interleukin [IL]-6, IL-1ß, tumor necrotic factor [TNF]-α, and IL-10) were quantified via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Then we assessed monolayer integrity using transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER). TJ protein expression (zonula occludens [ZO]-1 and Occludin) in IECs was evaluated through immunofluorescence and Western blot analysis. Network pharmacology helped identify the biological processes, signaling pathways, and key targets involved in Res's mitigation of DSS-induced IECs barrier dysfunction. The efficacy of the primary target was further corroborated using Western blot. RESULTS: Res was shown to increase cell viability and IL-10 expression while reducing TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1ß levels, thus mitigating the inflammatory response. It enhanced TEER values and upregulated TJ protein expression (ZO-1 and Occludin). Network pharmacology revealed that Res potentially targets the NFE2L2 (nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2, Nrf2), a vital antioxidant factor. Significantly, Res augmented Nrf2 and heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) protein levels, counteracting oxidative stress in the IECs barrier dysfunction model. CONCLUSION: Overall, our findings suggested that Res ameliorated DSS-induced IECs barrier dysfunction by activating Nrf2/HO-1 pathway, showcasing significant therapeutic potential in the early stages of colitis.

3D-Printed Liquid Metal-in-Hydrogel Solar Evaporator: Merging Spectrum-Manipulated Micro-Nano Architecture and Surface Engineering for Solar Desalination.

Solar desalination driven by interfacial heating is considered a promising technique to alleviate the freshwater shortage crisis. However, its further extension and application are confined by factors such as highlighted salt accumulation, inferior energy efficiency, and poor durability. Herein, a microsized eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn) core-shell nanodroplet (denoted as LMTE) with photo-cross-linking and photothermal traits, stabilized by allyl glycidyl ether (AGE)-grafting tannic acid (TA), is explored as the solar absorber for broadband light absorbing and localized micro-nano heat channeling. The LMTE nanodroplets are formulated directly with highly hydrated polymers and photosensitive species to successfully develop a water-based photothermal ink suitable for digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing. As a demonstration, the LMTE composite hydrogel-forged milli-conical needle arrays with metal-phenolic network (MPN)-engineered wettability and photothermal enhancement can be printed by the digital light processing (DLP) technique and designed rationally via a bottom-up strategy. The 3D-printing hydrogel evaporator is composed of spectrum-tailored EGaIn nanodroplets for efficient photon harvesting and MPN-coated milli-cone arrays for water supplying with micro-nano channeling, which function cooperatively to bestow the 3D solar evaporator with superior solar-powered water evaporation (2.96 kg m-2 h-1, 96.93% energy efficiency) and excellent solar desalination (salt cycle and site-specific salt crystallization). Furthermore, a robust steam generating/collecting system of the 3D solar evaporator is demonstrated, providing valuable guidance for building a water-energy-agriculture nexus.

Traditional Chinese medicine diagnostic prediction model for holistic syndrome differentiation based on deep learning.

Background: With the development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome knowledge accumulation and artificial intelligence (AI), this study proposes a holistic TCM syndrome differentiation model for the classification prediction of multiple TCM syndromes based on deep learning and accelerates the construction of modern foundational TCM equipment. Methods: We searched publicly available TCM guidelines and textbooks for expert knowledge and validated these sources using ten-fold cross-validation. Based on the BERT and CNN models, with the classification constraints from TCM holistic syndrome differentiation, the TCM-BERT-CNN model was constructed, which completes the end-to-end TCM holistic syndrome text classification task through symptom input and syndrome output. We assessed the performance of the model using precision, recall, and F1 scores as evaluation metrics. Results: The TCM-BERT-CNN model had a higher precision (0.926), recall (0.9238), and F1 score (0.9247) than the BERT, TextCNN, LSTM RNN, and LSTM ATTENTION models and achieved superior results in model performance and predictive classification of most TCM syndromes. Symptom feature visualization demonstrated that the TCM-BERT-CNN model can effectively identify the correlation and characteristics of symptoms in different syndromes with a strong correlation, which conforms to the diagnostic characteristics of TCM syndromes. Conclusions: The TCM-BERT-CNN model proposed in this study is in accordance with the TCM diagnostic characteristics of holistic syndrome differentiation and can effectively complete diagnostic prediction tasks for various TCM syndromes. The results of this study provide new insights into the development of deep learning models for holistic syndrome differentiation in TCM.

Novel approach for corn straw biorefineries: Production of xylooligosaccharides, lignin and ethanol by nicotinic acid hydrolysis and pentanol pretreatment.

The productive separation and conversion of corn straw offers significant prospects for the economic viability of biorefineries centered on straw resources. In this work, a graded utilization method was proposed to produce xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS), ethanol and lignin from corn straw by nicotinic acid (NA) hydrolysis and water/pentanol pretreatment. A XOS yield of 52.6 % was achieved under optimized conditions of 100 mM NA, 170 °C and 30 min. The solid residue was directly treated with water/pentanol, achieving a lignin removal rate of 79.7 %, and the total XOS yield was improved to 62.6 %. The lignin recovered from pentanol had a high purity of 97.6 %, with high phenolic OH content. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of final residue resulted in an ethanol yield of 92.0 %, which yielded 55.3 g/L ethanol. Thus, NA hydrolysis and water/pentanol pretreatment provided an efficient, environmentally friendly approach to fractionate corn straw for the co-production of XOS, ethanol, and lignin.

Total organic carbon measurements reveal major gaps in petrochemical emissions reporting.

Anthropogenic organic carbon emissions reporting has been largely limited to subsets of chemically speciated volatile organic compounds. However, new aircraft-based measurements revealed total gas-phase organic carbon emissions that exceed oil sands industry-reported values by 1900% to over 6300%, the bulk of which was due to unaccounted-for intermediate-volatility and semivolatile organic compounds. Measured facility-wide emissions represented approximately 1% of extracted petroleum, resulting in total organic carbon emissions equivalent to that from all other sources across Canada combined. These real-world observations demonstrate total organic carbon measurements as a means of detecting unknown or underreported carbon emissions regardless of chemical features. Because reporting gaps may include hazardous, reactive, or secondary air pollutants, fully constraining the impact of anthropogenic emissions necessitates routine, comprehensive total organic carbon monitoring as an inherent check on mass closure.

Circ_UBAP2 exacerbates proliferation and metastasis of OS via targeting miR-665/miR-370-3p/HMGA1 axis.

Circ_UBAP2 is extensively engaged in regulating the development of various malignancies, containing osteosarcoma (OS). However, its biological significance and function are not fully understood. In this study, we found that circ_UBAP2 and HMGA1 levels were up-regulated, and miR-370-3p and miR-665 expressions were decreased in osteosarcoma tissues. Inhibition of circ_UBAP2 or HMGA1 expression in OS cells, cell viability, invasion and migration abilitities were notably hindered, and cell apoptosis abilities were increased. Bioinformatics analysis predicted that miR-665 and miR-370-3p were the downstream targets of circ_UBAP2, and the dual luciferase experiment demonstrated the correlation between them. In addition, inhibition of miR-665 and miR-370-3p expression could significantly reverse the impact of knocking down circ_UBAP2 on OS cells. HMGA1 was discovered to become the downstream target of both miR-665 and miR-370-3p. It was shown that over-expression of miR-665 or miR-370-3p notably stimulated the cell growth, invasion, and migration of osteosarcoma cells, while hindered cell apoptosis. Nevertheless, this effect could be reversed by concurrent over-expression of HMGA1. Our data strongly prove that circ_UBAP2 makes a vital impact on promoting the proliferation, invasion as well as migration of osteosarcoma cells via down-regulating the level of miR-665 and miR-370-3p, and later up-regulating the level of HMGA1. In conclusion, circ_UBAP2 is upregulated in osteosarcoma, and it competitively adsorbs miR-370-3p and miR-665, resulting in up-regulation of HMGA1, thus promoting OS development.

Behavioral impulse and time pressure jointly influence intentional inhibition: evidence from the Free Two-Choice Oddball task.

Intentional inhibition is a crucial component of self-regulation, yet it is under-researched, because it is difficult to study without external stimuli or overt behaviors. Although Free-Choice tasks have been developed, it remains unclear how two key design features (i.e., behavioral impulse and time pressure) affect their sensitivity to intentional inhibition. To investigate this, the present study developed a Free Two-Choice Oddball task, which generated both an inhibition rate index and a response time (RT) index. Two experiments were conducted to systematically manipulate the ratio of the reactive standard to oddball trials and reaction time limit, inducing diverse behavioral impulses and different time pressures. The following findings were obtained from the critical Free-Choice trials. In the equal ratio condition, participants demonstrated comparable RTs for both the standard and oddball responses. In the moderate-ratio condition, participants exhibited longer RTs for the oddball than standard responses under low- but not high-time pressure. In the high-ratio condition, while RTs for the oddball responses were longer than those for the standard responses under both the high- and low-time pressures, participants displayed a decreased inhibition rate under the high-time pressure compared to the low-time pressure. Finally, participants exhibited a reduced inhibition rate in the high-ratio condition compared to the moderate-ratio condition. Together, these findings suggest that Free-Choice tasks can reflect intentional inhibition under specific conditions, and intentional inhibition is susceptible to both behavioral impulse and time pressure, while also establishing the theoretical and methodological foundations for subsequent research.

Ultrasound image segmentation based on Transformer and U-Net with joint loss.

Background: Ultrasound image segmentation is challenging due to the low signal-to-noise ratio and poor quality of ultrasound images. With deep learning advancements, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been widely used for ultrasound image segmentation. However, due to the intrinsic locality of convolutional operations and the varying shapes of segmentation objects, segmentation methods based on CNNs still face challenges with accuracy and generalization. In addition, Transformer is a network architecture with self-attention mechanisms that performs well in the field of computer vision. Based on the characteristics of Transformer and CNNs, we propose a hybrid architecture based on Transformer and U-Net with joint loss for ultrasound image segmentation, referred to as TU-Net. Methods: TU-Net is based on the encoder-decoder architecture and includes encoder, parallel attention mechanism and decoder modules. The encoder module is responsible for reducing dimensions and capturing different levels of feature information from ultrasound images; the parallel attention mechanism is responsible for capturing global and multiscale local feature information; and the decoder module is responsible for gradually recovering dimensions and delineating the boundaries of the segmentation target. Additionally, we adopt joint loss to optimize learning and improve segmentation accuracy. We use experiments on datasets of two types of ultrasound images to verify the proposed architecture. We use the Dice scores, precision, recall, Hausdorff distance (HD) and average symmetric surface distance (ASD) as evaluation metrics for segmentation performance. Results: For the brachia plexus and fetal head ultrasound image datasets, TU-Net achieves mean Dice scores of 79.59% and 97.94%; precisions of 81.25% and 98.18%; recalls of 80.19% and 97.72%; HDs (mm) of 12.44 and 6.93; and ASDs (mm) of 4.29 and 2.97, respectively. Compared with those of the other six segmentation algorithms, the mean values of TU-Net increased by approximately 3.41%, 2.62%, 3.74%, 36.40% and 31.96% for the Dice score, precision, recall, HD and ASD, respectively.

Prognostic value of proliferation markers Ki-67 and PCNA in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Ki-67 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) are markers of proliferation used to assess the growth fraction of the cell population. The present study aimed to explore the prognostic value of these proliferative markers in patients with resected esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC) in a large cohort. METHODS: A total of 807 patients with ESCC who underwent radical resection were retrospectively reviewed. Ki-67 and PCNA index were examined as the percentage of positively nuclear-stained cells among total number of cancer cells in three high-power fields by a pathologist who was blinded to the patients' history and outcome. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were estimated. The Cox regression model was used to evaluate the independent factor. RESULTS: The cut-off value as 60 and 80% for Ki-67 and PCNA were verified, respectively. Higher Ki-67 expression was associated with low differentiation and more lymph node metastasis. Higher PCNA expression was associated with elevated T stage. However, either expression of Ki-67 or PCNA was not correlated with OS and DFS. While in combination of Ki-67 and PCNA analysis, higher expression of these two proliferative markers predicted worse prognosis (median OS, 47 months versus 54 months, P = 0.04). Whatever the combined proliferative marker, differentiation, lymph node metastasis stage and vascular invasion act as factors in univariate survival analysis, but combined Ki-67 and PCNA is not an independent prognostic variable in multivariate analysis (P = 0.10). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that proliferative markers of Ki-67 and PCNA may correlate with tumor stage but cannot act as independent predictor of prognosis in ESCC patients.

Estimation of soil water and organic matter content in medium and low yield fields of Ningxia Yellow River Irrigation area based on hyperspectral information.

Accurately obtaining soil water and organic matter content is of great significance for improving soil qua-lity in croplands with medium to low yield. We explored the estimation effect of fractional order differentiation (FOD) combined with different spectral indices on soil water and organic matter content in medium and low yield croplands of Ningxia Yellow River Irrigation Area. After root mean square transformation of field measured hyperspectral reflectance, we used 0-2 FOD (with a step length of 0.25) to construct difference index (DI), ratio index (RI), product index (PI), sum index (SI), generalized difference index (GDI), and nitrogen planar domain index (NPDI) and to select the optimal spectral index based on the correlation coefficients between six spectral indices with soil water and organic matter contents. We constructed a model for estimating soil water and organic matter content based on partial least squares regression (PLSR) and support vector machine (SVM). The results showed that the correlation between soil water and organic matter content and spectral information was effectively improved after FOD transformation compared with the original spectrum, with maximum increases of 0.1785 and 0.1713, respectively. The soil water content sensitive bands were mainly in the range of 400-630 and 1350-1940 nm, while the sensitive bands of organic matter content were mainly at 460-850, 1530-1910, and 2060-2310 nm. The accuracy of SVM model was significantly higher than that of PLSR, and the soil water content estimation model based on 1.75-order NPDI-SVM reached the highest precision, with a validation determination coefficient (Rp2) of 0.970, root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.615, and relative percent deviation (RPD) of 4.211. The organic matter content estimation model based on 0.5 order DI-SVM had the best performance, with Rp2, RMSE and RPD of 0.983, 0.701 and 5.307, respectively. Our results could provide data and technological support for soil water and nutrient monitoring, quality improvement, and graphics creating in similar area with medium to low yield fields.

Inversion of soil water and salt information based on UAV hyperspectral remote sensing and machine lear-ning.

Accurate diagnosis of water and salt information in saline agricultural lands is crucial for long-term soil quality improvement and arable land conservation. In this study, we extracted field-scale vegetation canopy spectral information by UAV hyperspectral information, transforming the reflectance (R) to standard normal variate transformation (SNV), multiplicative scatter correction (MSC), first derivative of reflectance (FDR) and second derivative of reflectance (SDR). We determined the optimal spectral transformation forms of soil water content (SWC), soil pH, and soil salt content (SSC) by the maximum absolute correlation coefficient (MACC), and extracted the feature bands by competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS). We constructed an inversion model of soil water and salt information by partial least squares regression (PLSR), random forest (RF), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost). The results showed that R, FDR and MSC were the best spectral transformation types for soil water content, soil pH, and soil salt content, and the corresponding MACC were 0.730, 0.472 and 0.654, respectively. The CARS algorithm effectively eliminated the irrelevant variables, optimally selecting 16-17 feature bands from 150 spectral bands. Both soil water content and soil pH performed best with XGBoost model, achieving determination coefficient of validation (Rp2) 0.927 and 0.743, and the relative percentage difference (RPD) amounted to 3.93 and 2.45. For soil salt content, the RF model emerged as the best inversion method with Rp2 and RPD of 0.427 and 1.64, respectively. The study could provide a reference solution for the integrated remote sensing monitoring of soil water and salt information in space and sky, serving as a scientific guide for the amelioration and sustainable management of saline lands.

Diagnosis and Prognosis Evaluation of Severe Pneumonia by Lung Ultrasound Score Combined with Serum Inflammatory Markers.

Introduction: To analyze the significance of lung ultrasound score (LUS) combined with serum inflammatory indexes in different severities of severe pneumonia and its clinical value on prognosis. Methods: 100 patients with severe pneumonia treated in the Gansu Provincial Hospital from June 2017 to June 2021 were selected as the research objects. According to the acute physiology and chronic health (APACHE II) score, they were divided into a low-risk group (28 cases), a medium-risk group (39 cases) and a high-risk group (33 cases). The general clinical data of the patients (age, gender, smoking history, and underlying diseases) were collected, the lung ultrasound score (LUS) of the patients was measured, and the serum inflammatory indicators (IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, CRP and NLR) levels; Pearson correlation analysis to evaluate the correlation between LUS score, serum inflammatory index levels and disease severity; receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to evaluate the prognostic value of the combined diagnosis of LUS score and serum inflammatory index for the severity of severe pneumonia. Results: With the increase in the severity of severe pneumonia, the LUS score and the level of inflammation in the body continued to increase, and LUS combined with serum inflammatory indexes could distinguish the severity of low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk severe pneumonia and had high diagnostic value. In addition, the combined diagnosis of LUS and serum inflammatory markers is also closely related to the prognosis of patients with severe pneumonia, which can distinguish the prognosis. Conclusion: LUS combined with serum inflammatory indicators (IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, CRP and NLR) can differentiate the severity and prognosis of severe pneumonia, which may be a new direction for diagnosing severe pneumonia and guide early clinical intervention.