Investigation of high volume of CFBC ash on performance of basic magnesium sulfate cement.

Basic magnesium sulfate cement has the advantages of fast setting, high strength, high toughness, water resistance, corrosion resistance, etc. But the cost has become a reason for limiting its widespread application. With the widespread application of circulating fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) technology in China, the accumulation of CFBC ash is increasing. Reasonable use of CFBC ash can not only reduce cost of basic magnesium sulfate cement but also protect environment. In this paper, the effect of a high volume of CFBC ash on fluidity, flexural strength and compressive strength of basic magnesium sulfate cement is studied. Hydration products and micromorphology analyses are measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results reveal that the strength of basic magnesium sulfate cement with 20% CFBC ash is the highest, and its microstructure is the model that CFBC ash and MgO fill a three-dimensional network structure established by needle-shaped 5·1·7 phase. When the amount of CFBC ash is more than 40%, the formation of 5·1·7 phase is affected severely, which greatly reduces the strength.

Genomic Takeover by Transposable Elements in the Strawberry Poison Frog.

We sequenced the genome of the strawberry poison frog, Oophaga pumilio, at a depth of 127.5× using variable insert size libraries. The total genome size is estimated to be 6.76 Gb, of which 4.76 Gb are from high copy number repetitive elements with low differentiation across copies. These repeats encompass DNA transposons, RNA transposons, and LTR retrotransposons, including at least 0.4 and 1.0 Gb of Mariner/Tc1 and Gypsy elements, respectively. Expression data indicate high levels of gypsy and Mariner/Tc1 expression in ova of O. pumilio compared with Xenopus laevis. We further observe phylogenetic evidence for horizontal transfer (HT) of Mariner elements, possibly between fish and frogs. The elements affected by HT are present in high copy number and are highly expressed, suggesting ongoing proliferation after HT. Our results suggest that the large amphibian genome sizes, at least partially, can be explained by a process of repeated invasion of new transposable elements that are not yet suppressed in the germline. We also find changes in the spliceosome that we hypothesize are related to permissiveness of O. pumilio to increases in intron length due to transposon proliferation. Finally, we identify the complement of ion channels in the first genomic sequenced poison frog and discuss its relation to the evolution of autoresistance to toxins sequestered in the skin.

Pharmacogenomic study on anti-VEGF medicine in treatment of macular Neovascular diseases: a study protocol for a prospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: Macular neovascular diseases can cause severe vision loss. A newly approved anti-VEGF drug Conbercept has shown good efficacy and safety in rigorous random controlled trials (RCT), however, it cannot fully reflect the clinical application of Conbercept in real world clinical practice. Moreover, anti-VEGF drugs are expensive and often require multiple treatments, and some patients have poor or even no response to the drugs,this resulted enormous waste of medical resources. Therefore, how to find out those patients who have good response, and how to develop individualized therapeutic regimen in real world need to be urgently investigated in the aspect of pharmacogenomics and pharmacometabolomics. METHODS: This study is a multicenter, prospective, observational study of Conbecept treating macular neovascular diseases in China. Patients suffered from age-related macular degeneration, polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy, and pathological myopia who already planned to receive Conbercept treatment will be recruited. We aimed to enroll more than 5000 patients from 43 ophthalmic centers in China. Patients' clinical data and blood samples will be collected during the one-year follow-up period. Finally, the safety and efficacy of Conbercept, and the potential predictors of patients' response to Conbercept will be investigated by pharmacogenomics and pharmacometabolomics analysis. DISCUSSION: This study will provide important data of Conbercept in treating macular neovascular diseases in real world. Besides, finding the predictor of patients' response will help doctor make more precise individualized therapeutic regimens. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03128463 . Registered on 9 March 2017.

Synergistic improvement of humus formation in compost residue by fenton-like and effective microorganism composite agents.

Improving the humification of compost through a synergistic approach of biotic and abiotic methods is of great significance. This study employed a composite reagent, comprising Fenton-like agents and effective microorganisms (EM) to improve humification. This composite reagent increased humic-acid production by 37.44 %, reaching 39.82 g kg-1, surpassing the control group. The composite reagent synergistically promoted micromolecular fulvic acid and large humic acid production. Collaborative mechanism suggests that Fenton-like agents contributed to bulk residue decomposition and stimulated the evolution of microbial communities, whereas EMs promoted highly aromatic substance synthesis and adjusted the microbial community structure. Sequencing analysis indicates the Fenton-like agent initiated compost decomposition by Firmicutes, and EM reduced the abundance of Virgibacillus, Lentibacillus, and Alcanivorax. Applied as an organic fertilizer in Brassica chinensis L. plantations, the composite reagent considerably improved growth and photosynthetic pigment content. This composite reagent with biotic and abiotic components provides a learnable method for promoting humification.

On Representation Knowledge Distillation for Graph Neural Networks.

Knowledge distillation (KD) is a learning paradigm for boosting resource-efficient graph neural networks (GNNs) using more expressive yet cumbersome teacher models. Past work on distillation for GNNs proposed the local structure preserving (LSP) loss, which matches local structural relationships defined over edges across the student and teacher's node embeddings. This article studies whether preserving the global topology of how the teacher embeds graph data can be a more effective distillation objective for GNNs, as real-world graphs often contain latent interactions and noisy edges. We propose graph contrastive representation distillation (G-CRD), which uses contrastive learning to implicitly preserve global topology by aligning the student node embeddings to those of the teacher in a shared representation space. Additionally, we introduce an expanded set of benchmarks on large-scale real-world datasets where the performance gap between teacher and student GNNs is non-negligible. Experiments across four datasets and 14 heterogeneous GNN architectures show that G-CRD consistently boosts the performance and robustness of lightweight GNNs, outperforming LSP (and a global structure preserving (GSP) variant of LSP) as well as baselines from 2-D computer vision. An analysis of the representational similarity among teacher and student embedding spaces reveals that G-CRD balances preserving local and global relationships, while structure preserving approaches are best at preserving one or the other.

Bioinformatics analysis of potential therapeutic targets for COVID-19 infection in patients with carotid atherosclerosis.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 is a new coronavirus that constitutes a great challenge to human health. At this stage, there are still cases of COVID-19 infection in some countries and regions, in which ischemic stroke (IS) is a risk factor for new coronavirus pneumonia, and patients with COVID-19 infection have a dramatically elevated risk of stroke. At the same time, patients with long-term IS are vulnerable to COVID-19 infection and have more severe disease, and carotid atherosclerosis is an early lesion in IS. METHODS: This study used human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived monolayer brain cell dataset and human carotid atherosclerosis genome-wide dataset to analyze COVID-19 infection and carotid atherosclerosis patients to determine the synergistic effect of new coronavirus infection on carotid atherosclerosis patients, to clarify the common genes of both, and to identify common pathways and potential drugs for carotid atherosclerosis in patients with COVID-19 infection RESULTS: Using several advanced bioinformatics tools, we present the causes of COVID-19 infection leading to increased mortality in carotid atherosclerosis patients and the susceptibility of carotid atherosclerosis patients to COVID-19. Potential therapeutic agents for COVID-19 -infected patients with carotid atherosclerosis are also proposed. CONCLUSIONS: With COVID-19 being a relatively new disease, associations have been proposed for its connections with several ailments and conditions, including IS and carotid atherosclerosis. More patient-based data-sets and studies are needed to fully explore and understand the relationship.

Aquaporin 1 expression in retinal neovascularization in a mouse model of retinopathy of prematurity.

Recently, it was found that Aquaporin 1 (AQP1) is expressed strongly in proliferating microvessels, but the role of AQP1 in retinal neovascularization remains unknown. Here, we report the distribution of AQP1 expression during neovascularization of the retina in a mouse model of retinopathy of prematurity. AQP1 was expressed in all of the samples examined in P15 mouse and P17 mouse, including experimental and control groups. Immunostaining results showed that AQP1 is located in microvessel endothelia in retinas with proliferative retinopathy and prominently in the outer retina. Expression of AQP1 was significantly increased in experimental animals at P17, compared with control mice. No significant difference was seen in the levels of AQP1 on P12 or P15, compared with control mice. These results suggest that AQP1 may play an important role in retinal neovascularization.

The analysis of pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenomic impact on gefitinib efficacy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients: results from a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The current study is aimed to examine the impact of pharmacokinetics and gene polymorphisms of enzymes involving in absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) on the efficacy of gefitinib in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. METHODS: Eligible patients with indication of gefitinib treatment were prospectively enrolled in this study. Two peripheral blood samples at baseline and before cycle 2 day 1 were collected for the detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of drug ADME enzymes and trough drug concentration (Ctrough) at steady state. Thirteen SNPs were genotyped using the Sequenom Massarray system. Ctrough was determined by validated high-performance liquid chromatographic method with tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS). RESULTS: Fifty-eight NSCLC patients were enrolled in this study. The median of Ctrough was 175ng/mL (range from 47.8 to 470 ng/mL). The trough concentration was not associated with either objective response or progression free survival (PFS). Ctrough was significantly lower in CYP3A4 rs2242480 CC + CT genotype than in TT genotype (P=0.019) and in ABCG2 rs2231142 AA genotype than in AC + CC genotype (P=0.031). ABCB1 rs2032582 dominant model was significantly correlated with overall response rate (ORR) and patients with GG phenotype respond better than patients with GT + TT phenotypes (84.6% vs. 51.2%, P=0.032). ABCB1 rs10256836 recessive model was significantly correlated with PFS and patients with GG phenotype achieved longer PFS than patients with GC + CC phenotypes (17.40 vs. 10.33 months, P=0.040). CONCLUSIONS: The Ctrough of gefitinib was significantly different between CYP3A4 and ABCG2 genotypes, but not with the efficacy of gefitinib treatment. ABCB1 rs2032582 and rs10256836 polymorphisms were correlated treatment outcome. Polymorphisms analysis of ABCB1 could be a predictive biomarker for gefitinib treatment.

Expert consensus on low vision rehabilitation for patients with macular disease in China / 中华眼底病杂志

Maculopathy caused by various fundus diseases in the late stage is a common cause of low vision. Medical technology is difficult to reverse the loss of macular function currently, so interventions that help improve the visual system, utilize residual visual function, and improve quality of life deserve attention. Damage to the fovea of the macula does not mean that the entire retinal function is impaired. There may be one or more retinal regions adjacent to the fovea that can serve as a fixation center. It is possible to form stable paracentral fixation, complete functional remodeling of the visual system, and effectively utilize residual visual function by taking appropriate training on these potential paracentral fixation points for most patients. In 2021, a clinical guideline has been published for low vision rehabilitation in China. In order to strengthen the precise management of diseases and develop a standard operating procedure for visual training specifically for patients with low vision due to macular disease, the National Clinical Research Center for Eye Diseases initiated and organized relevant domestic experts, utilizing the latest research experience at home and abroad, and through repeated discussions, this consensus (International Practice Guideline Registration Number: PREPARE-2023CN199) was formed as a reference for ophthalmologists, optometrists and rehabilitation physicians in their clinical research and practice.

Pay attention to the whole process management of diabetic retinopathy / 中华眼底病杂志

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of blindness in the working-age population, and it is a key ocular fundus disease that needs to be paid attention to in the next five years according to the "14th Five-Year" Plan for Eye Health. Promoting the systematic management of DR and constructing the chronic disease management system are the key to the next step of national eye health work. It is necessary to further improve the management mode of the whole course of DR patients with chronic eye disease through the joint action of medical security system at all levels, including strengthening supporting policies of primary medical institutions, optimizing medical service mode and process, strengthening scientific education to improve patients' and doctors' disease cognition, and updating authoritative Chinese DR guidelines to standardize diagnosis and treatment. It is hoped that the low vision and blindness caused by DR in China can be greatly reduced after the implementation of the "14th Five-Year" Plan for Eye Health.

Research status and progress on the influence of high myopia on ocular structure and visual function / 中华眼底病杂志

High myopia has a high genetic tendency, it not only shows in the excessive elongation of the axial length, but also lends to the formation and progression of various eye lesions, such as peripheral retinopathy, optic disc changes, posterior staphyloma, and myopic maculopathy, due to the mechanical stretching of the axial length to the ocular structure. In addition, high myopia increases the risk of several complications, such as glaucoma, cataract, and corneal disease. All these pathological changes will affect visual function and lead to irreversible vision impairment and blindness in the future. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to screening for optic disc abnormalities and posterior staphyloma, and regular monitor the changes of fundus, intraocular pressure, and lens. At the same time, high myopia has an impact on personal life such as study, psychology, sport, and work, and can reduce the quality of life as well as increase the cost of health care. The clinic should pay more attention to high myopia, prevent and control the development of high myopia from an early stage, in order to minimize its impact on ocular structure and visual function as well as its hazard to personal life and society.

One-stop intravitreal injection model: expert consensus on establishment and management / 中华眼底病杂志

Intravitreal drug injection is a treatment for common chronic fundus diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. The "14th Five-Year" National Eye Health Plan (2021-2025) recommends focusing on fundus diseases and improve the management mode of patients with chronic eye diseases. Therefore, it is imperative to explore how to further optimize the service process of intravitreal injection under the premise of guaranteeing patients' medical safety, to promote medical service efficiency and standardized management level and improve the medical experience of patients. Based on the quality control standard of vitreous cavity injection for retinopathy in China, Chinese fundus disease and related field experts developed the present expert consensus on the establishment of a one-stop intravitreal injection model and the management of its organization after a serious, comprehensive, and complete discussion, focusing on a standardized operation process, quality control, and safety management, providing more references for establishing a suitable intravitreal injection management model for ophthalmology and promoting the development of diagnostic and treatment models for fundus disease in China.

Interpretation of the International Myopia Institute's White Papers on Myopia Prevention and Control Ⅲ / 中华实验眼科杂志

The high prevalence of myopia is a global public health concern, and the risk of associated complications is becoming increasingly apprent.The International Myopia Institute (IMI) was established in 2015 to promote scientific research and clinical practice in myopia control, and IMI published the White Paper on Myopia Prevention and Control on the diagnosis, treatment, and management of myopia.In 2023, the IMI released the series three of the White Paper on Myopia Prevention and Control, which delves deeper into key issues in myopia research and management.The white paper focuses on non-pathological changes observed in axial myopia, and the role of the choroid in eye growth and myopia management.It also reviews the evidence for myopia incidence, progression and management in atypical populations, such as infants, pre-school children, and young adults.It provides recommendations and strategies for clinical practice in myopia management and summarizes important new findings in myopia research since 2019, which are summarized into the IMI 2023 Digest.This article aims to interpret the key contents of the series three of the White Paper on Myopia Prevention and Control, to help professionals involved in myopia control to stay informed about the latest evidence from international research, to optimize strategies for preventing and treating myopia-related diseases, and ultimately to promote the development of myopia research and management in China.

Chronic disease management approaches for fundus disease to be explored and established / 中华眼底病杂志

Chronic disease is a major threat to human health. Fundus disease has become a major ophthalmic disease affecting daily life. Although great breakthroughs have been made in the treatment, compared with other chronic disease management, the management of patients with fundus disease is still in its infancy. To strengthen the management exploration of patients with fundus diseases, establish a management model of fundus diseases and strive to improve patients' awareness of fundus diseases and adherence to treatment and follow-up are the great challenges at present. All ophthalmic centers should strengthen patient education, establish a regional cooperation network, support the construction of grassroots medical capacity, cultivate talents, enhance training, promote the standardized treatment of fundus diseases, standardize fundus imaging inspection and diagnosis, and promote the homogeneous construction of diagnosis and treatment of chronic fundus diseases. We will accelerate the construction of a hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system and the ability to link consultation and referral. Through systematic management and intervention of fundus diseases, a large number of patients with fundus diseases will receive early screening, diagnosis, standardized continuous treatment and systematic management, and improve the quality of life of patients with fundus diseases.

Image-guided Strategy of Intensity-modulated Radiotherapy in Helical Tomography for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma / 中山大学学报(医学科学版)

ObjectiveThis study aimed to analyze the difference in setup error before and after correction of systematic error. To determine the most appropriate image-guided strategy during HT treatment， we use different scanning ranges and image-guidance frequencies in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma （NPC） treated with helical tomotherapy （HT）. MethodsFifteen patients with NPC who received HT treatment in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from October 2019 to February 2020 were selected. Megavoltage computed tomography （MVCT） scanning was performed before each treatment. After five times of radiotherapy， system-error correction was performed to adjust the setup center. The setup errors before and after the correction of systematic errors， as well as the setup errors of different scanning ranges and different scanning frequencies， were collected for analysis and comparison. ResultsWhen comparing the setup errors before and after the correction of systematic error， the differences in setup errors in the left–right （LR）， superior–inferior （SI）， and anterior–posterior （AP） directions were statistically significant （P<0.05）.The different scanning ranges of "nasopharynx + neck" and "nasopharynx" were compared， and a statistically significant difference was found in yaw rotational errors （P<0.05）. In the comparison of daily and weekly scan frequency after system-error correction， a significant difference was found in AP direction （P<0.05）. ConclusionDuring radiotherapy for NPC， the systematic error can be corrected according to the first five setup errors， and then small-scale scanning was selected for image-guided radiotherapy every day.

Chinese Guideline on the Management of Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy (2022) / 中国医学科学杂志(英文版)

Background In mainland China, patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) have approximately an 40% prevalence of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV). This disease leads to recurrent retinal pigment epithelium detachment (PED), extensive subretinal or vitreous hemorrhages, and severe vision loss. China has introduced various treatment modalities in the past years and gained comprehensive experience in treating PCV.Methods A total of 14 retinal specialists nationwide with expertise in PCV were empaneled to prioritize six questions and address their corresponding outcomes, regarding opinions on inactive PCV, choices of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) monotherapy, photodynamic therapy (PDT) monotherapy or combined therapy, patients with persistent subretinal fluid (SRF) or intraretinal fluid (IRF) after loading dose anti-VEGF, and patients with massive subretinal hemorrhage. An evidence synthesis team conducted systematic reviews, which informed the recommendations that address these questions. This guideline used the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation) approach to assess the certainty of evidence and grade the strengths of recommendations. Results The panel proposed the following six conditional recommendations regarding treatment choices. (1) For patients with inactive PCV, we suggest observation over treatment. (2) For treatment-na?ve PCV patients, we suggest either anti-VEGF monotherapy or combined anti-VEGF and PDT rather than PDT monotherapy. (3) For patients with PCV who plan to initiate combined anti-VEGF and PDT treatment, we suggest later/rescue PDT over initiate PDT. (4) For PCV patients who plan to initiate anti-VEGF monotherapy, we suggest the treat and extend (T&E) regimen rather than the pro re nata (PRN) regimen following three monthly loading doses. (5) For patients with persistent SRF or IRF on optical coherence tomography (OCT) after three monthly anti-VEGF treatments, we suggest proceeding with anti-VEGF treatment rather than observation. (6) For PCV patients with massive subretinal hemorrhage (equal to or more than four optic disc areas) involving the central macula, we suggest surgery (vitrectomy in combination with tissue-plasminogen activator (tPA) intraocular injection and gas tamponade) rather than anti-VEGF monotherapy. Conclusions Six evidence-based recommendations support optimal care for PCV patients' management.

Strengthening research on high myopia / 中华眼底病杂志

Myopia has become a major problem that threatens human health worldwide. Complications caused by high myopia are one of the leading causes of low vision and blindness. As a chronic disease that seriously threatens ocular health in the clinical practice and public health fields, the prevention and control of high myopia should actively promote a tertiary prevention strategy, and take advantages of the latest fundus imaging technology and big data technology, artificial intelligence to explore the evolution mechanism of "myopia→high myopia→pathological myopia" . Special efforts should be focused on the establishment of a scientific myopia prediction model, implementation of effective high myopia monitoring and management, and early detection and treatment of complications of high myopia to reduce the incidence of low vision and blindness.

The opportunities of metabolic windows for early diagnosis and precise prevention and treatment of diabetic retinopathy / 中华实验眼科杂志

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disease caused by multiple etiologies.Diabetic retinopathy (DR), as a primary ocular complication of DM, is the leading cause of blindness among working-age adults in the world.With the rapid increase of diabetes incidence worldwide, the diagnosis of DR is often delayed because few symptoms of the retinal vessel-nurse unit lesion are found in early DR.Therefore, the early diagnosis, prevention and treatment of DR are facing much more challenges.At present, the early clinical biomarkers of DR, such as glycosylated hemoglobin and blood glucose, are of great value in predicting and preventing the occurrence and development of DR, but there is still a lack of research on the pathological effect of metabolic heterogeneity and its potential induction of DR.Multi-omics methods, such as metabolomics and single-cell transcriptome, as well as deep learning techniques, are powerful tools for the study of DR pathophysiological processes, which can be used to reveal the metabolic characteristics of DR, discover early biomarkers and new metabolic pathways and identify targets for treatment.Future advances which aim to diagnose and treat DR should consider the metabolic remodeling induced by genetic background and environmental factors comprehensively, combine omics approaches and the measurement of clinical indicators of DR occurrence and development to find biomarkers of early DR and targets so as to achieve early prediction and accurate prevention of DR.

Research progress and thinking on cost accounting of medical service items based on cost equivalent method / 中华医院管理杂志

Through literature research, this paper analyzed the research progress of medical service project cost accounting based on cost equivalent method. According to the calculation mode of cost equivalent value, this method could be divided into two types, namely, equivalent coefficient method and point method. This paper classified and summarized the application status of cost equivalent method in the cost accounting of medical service projects, analyzed the advantages of cost equivalent method, such as being able to consider a variety of cost drivers, concise accounting process and strong operability, discussed the existing problems of this method, and put forward suggestions for further deepening the application of cost equivalent method and strengthening hospital cost accounting, such as strengthening the summary and case publicity of cost equivalent method, reasonably combining and applying various methods, and scientifically and reasonably developing hospital cost accounting information construction, so as to help build a scientific and accurate cost accounting system for medical service project.

Research progress on clinical classification of pathologic myopia related fundus lesions / 中华眼底病杂志

The main fundus changes of pathologic myopia (PM) are posterior staphyloma (PS) and myopic maculopathy (MM), which includes myopic atrophy maculopathy (MAM), myopic tractional maculopathy (MTM), myopic neovascular maculopathy (MNM) and so on. The clinical manifestations of PM-related fundus lesions are complex, and the classification of PM has been a research hotspot in recent years. The proposal of each classification shows an increasing understanding of PM, and each classification has its advantages but also imperfections. For MM, it is recommended to refine the MTM classification based on the ATN classification and adjust it according to the internal correlation between MAM and MNM. The rapid development of modern imaging technology will promote the continuous update of the classification, and its further improvement will also help to understand the development process of PM, which has important clinical value in preventing its occurrence and progression.