Background: Few studies have incorporated echocardiography and laboratory data to predict clinical outcomes in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).
Objectives: This study aimed to use machine learning to find predictors of heart failure (HF) hospitalization and cardiovascular (CV) death in HFpEF.
Methods: From the Chang Gung Research Database in Taiwan, 6,092 HFpEF patients (2,898 derivation, 3,194 validation) identified between 2008 and 2017 were followed until 2019.
Background: Radiotherapy is the primary treatment modality for most head and neck cancers (HNCs). Despite the addition of chemotherapy to radiotherapy to enhance its tumoricidal effects, almost a third of HNC patients suffer from locoregional relapses. Salvage therapy options for such recurrences are limited and often suboptimal, partly owing to divergent tumor and microenvironmental factors underpinning radioresistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTissue clearing combined with high-resolution confocal imaging is a cutting-edge approach for dissecting the three-dimensional (3D) architecture of tissues and deciphering cellular spatial interactions under physiological and pathological conditions. Deciphering the spatial interaction of leptin receptor-expressing (LepR) stromal cells with other compartments in the bone marrow is crucial for a deeper understanding of the stem cell niche and the skeletal tissue. In this study, we introduce an optimized protocol for the 3D analysis of skeletal tissues, enabling the visualization of hematopoietic and stromal cells, especially LepR stromal cells, within optically cleared bone hemisections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEthnopharmacological Relevance: Kochiae Fructus, the ripe fruit of Kochia scoparia, is a traditional Chinese medicine commonly used to treat eye discomforts and vision problems. Although Kochiae Fructus is mentioned in many classical Chinese medical texts, its protective effects and the roles of its active phytochemicals in eye treatment still lack scientific exploration.
Aim Of The Study: This study aimed to clarify the protective effects and identify the active fractions and compounds of Kochiae Fructus against oxidative stress-induced retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cell death.
17α-methyltestosterone (17α-MT) is prevalent in the aqueous environment, but its toxicological profile remains incomplete. This study analyzed the effects of different 17α-MT concentrations on the growth performance, mortality, sex ratio, liver physiological metabolism, and intestinal microorganisms of Takifugu fasciatus, and on the microorganisms composition of its culture environment. Results showed that 17α-MT increased the male ratio and mortality but inhibited the growth of T.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Neutrophil activation is important in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We previously demonstrated that ribonucleoprotein (RNP) immune complexes (ICs) promoted neutrophil activation in a TLR7/8-dependent manner. However, it remains unclear if this mechanism occurs in patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFamily caregivers of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) face numerous challenges in long-term planning, which have been exacerbated amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Specific triggers raise awareness of future planning needs, but barriers like painful emotions and exhaustion often impede the process. This study aimed to explore Hong Kong (HK) caregivers' perspectives on long-term planning for family members with ID at the later period of the pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHow tropical cyclone (TC) activity varies in response to a changing climate is widely debated. The accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) is one of the indicators of TC activity and has attracted considerable attention because of its close relationship with the damages caused by TCs. Previous studies have focused on detecting long-term trends in global ACE; however, the results are inconclusive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTin-based halide perovskites represent a highly promising and eco-friendly alternative to lead-based materials with significant potential for optoelectronic applications. However, their advancement is hampered by challenges such as poor film crystallinity and unintended self-doping. Herein, this work reports the fabrication of high-quality CsSnBr perovskite films by plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (PACVD), which improves the film quality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Treatment options for patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with disease progression on/after osimertinib and platinum-based chemotherapy are limited.
Methods: CHRYSALIS-2 Cohort A evaluated amivantamab+lazertinib in patients with EGFR exon 19 deletion- or L858R-mutated NSCLC with disease progression on/after osimertinib and platinum-based chemotherapy. Primary endpoint was investigator-assessed objective response rate (ORR).
Deep learning analysis of electrocardiography (ECG) may predict cardiovascular outcomes. We present a novel multi-task deep learning model, the ECG-MACE, which predicts the one-year first-ever major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) using 2,821,889 standard 12-lead ECGs, including training (n = 984,895), validation (n = 422,061), and test (n = 1,414,933) sets, from Chang Gung Memorial Hospital database in Taiwan. Data from another independent medical center (n = 113,224) was retrieved for external validation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHormographiella aspergillata is a rare hyaline mold causing invasive fungal infection in humans, until the frequent use of antifungal prophylaxis in immunocompromised hosts. Due to the high mortality of H. aspergillata infection, early recognition and treatment are crucial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadiotherapy is an integral modality in treating human cancers, but radioresistance remains a clinical challenge due to the involvement of multiple intrinsic cellular and extrinsic tumour microenvironment factors that govern radiosensitivity. To study the intrinsic factors that are associated with cancer radioresistance, we established 4 radioresistant prostate (22Rv1 and DU145) and head and neck cancer (FaDu and HK1) models by irradiating their wild-type parentals to 90 Gy, mimicking the fractionated radiotherapy schema that is often using in the clinic, and performed whole exome and transcriptome sequencing of the radioresistant and wild-type models. Comparative genomic analyses detected the enrichment of mismatch repair mutational signatures (SBS6, 14, 15, 20) across all the cell lines and several non-synonymous single nucleotide variants involved in pro-survival pathways.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEstimation of absorbed organ doses used in computed tomography (CT) using time-intensive Monte Carlo simulations with virtual patient anatomic models is not widely reported in the literature. Using the library of computational phantoms developed by the University of Florida and the National Cancer Institute, we performed Monte Carlo simulations to calculate organ dose values for 9 CT categories representing the most common body regions and indications for imaging (reflecting low, routine, and high radiation dose examinations), stratified by patient age (in children) and effective diameter (in adults, using "diameter" as a measure of patient size). Our sample of 559,202 adult and 103,423 pediatric CT examinations was prospectively assembled between 2015-2020 from 156 imaging facilities from 27 healthcare organizations in 20 U.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInsulin secretagogues and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) are commonly co-prescribed for patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Case reports suggesting that co-administration of insulin secretagogues with ACEIs is associated with an increased risk of serious hypoglycemia have led to warnings regarding a drug-drug interaction in widely used drug compendia. However, subsequent studies have had inconsistent results.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhotovoltaic panels are the core components of photovoltaic power generation systems, and their quality directly affects power generation efficiency and circuit safety. To address the shortcomings of existing photovoltaic defect detection technologies, such as high labor costs, large workloads, high sensor failure rates, low reliability, high false alarm rates, high network demands, and slow detection speeds of traditional algorithms, we propose an algorithm named ST-YOLO specifically for photovoltaic module defect detection. This algorithm is based on YOLOv8s.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRechargeable aqueous alkaline Zn-Ni batteries (AZNBs) are considered a potential contender for energy storage fields and portable devices due to their inherent safety, high output voltage, high theoretical capacity and environmental friendliness. Despite the facilitated development of AZNBs by many investigations, its practical application is still restricted by inadequate energy density, sluggish kinetics, and poor stability. Therefore, Ni-based cathodes with boosted redox chemistry and enhanced structural integrity is essential for the high-performance AZNBs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProbiotics are increasingly considered as an alternative to antibiotics in developing environmentally sustainable aquaculture practices. Hybrid sturgeon (Acipenser baerii ♀ × Acipenser schrenckii ♂), a globally popular species valued for its nutritional content and caviar, has limited research on host-associated probiotics. In this study, we isolated and identified Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens from healthy hybrid sturgeon and assessed their impact on growth, immunity, gut microbiota, and transcriptome following an 8-week feeding trial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) plays a pivotal role in protein denaturation, tissue extraction, and protein mass-based electrophoretic separations. However, even modest concentrations of SDS can cause column overpressure, retention time shifts, and ionization signal suppression during liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analyses. Thus, SDS removal is a critical step for LC-MS/MS analysis of protein digests containing SDS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA multilayer core-shell heterostructure with CoNi-LDH as the core and NiS nanosheets as the shell is deposited on MXene-coated carbon nanofibers by electrospinning and electrochemical deposition. This unique structure not only combines highly conductive and hydrophilic one-dimensional carbon nanofibers but also exposes abundant two-dimensional reactive sites and multiple ion diffusion channels to maximize material utilization, enhance electron transfer kinetics, accelerate Faraday reaction, high capacitance and strong stability. The CNNS@MXCF electrode exhibits outstanding electrochemical characteristics, including a capacity of 1441.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMotile organisms can expand into new territories and increase their fitness, while nonmotile viruses usually depend on host migration to spread across long distances. In general, faster host motility facilitates virus transmission. However, recent ecological studies have also shown that animal host migration can reduce viral prevalence by removing infected individuals from the migratory group.
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