In an environment that is tightly linked to humankind, how anthropogenic activity affects the quality and quantity of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in atmospheric depositions is not well understood. In this study, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), UV-vis spectra combined with molecular markers, including formic acid (FA), acetic acid (AA) and dissolved black carbon (DBC), were applied to track the temporal variation and influential factors of rainwater DOM at a coastal site. The ranges of DOC, light absorption at 254 nm (a), FA, AA and DBC were 23.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a type of malignancy characterized by high relapse and recurrence rates in the late stage despite optimal surgical intervention and postoperative chemoradiotherapy. Because the management of relapse following definitive treatment is challenging, accurate risk stratification is of clinical significance to improve treatment outcomes. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are noncoding RNAs featured with cell-type specificity and high stability, owing to their circular structure, making these molecules excellent biomarkers for a variety of diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOver the last 10 years, with the development of culture-free bacterial identification techniques, understanding of how the microbiome influences diseases has increased exponentially and has highlighted potential opportunities for its use as a diagnostic biomarker and interventional target in many diseases including malignancy. Initial research focused on the faecal microbiome since it contains the densest bacterial populations and many other mucosal sites, such as the lungs, were until recently thought to be sterile. However, in recent years, it has become clear that the lower airways are home to a dynamic bacterial population sustained by the migration and elimination of microbes from the gastrointestinal and upper airway tracts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims And Objectives: To determine whether interventions that use the Specific Thematic Nursing Care Action Modules (STNC-AM) platform improve patients' psychological health over a two-month period.
Background: Stroke survivors often are left with a disability after a stroke, which can have an impact on their physical and mental health. Therefore, it is necessary for stroke patients to have tailored programmes in the face of post-stroke mental health concerns and the need for care information.
Background: Outcomes in advanced anal squamous cell carcinoma are poor, with few treatment options and controlled clinical trials. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of pembrolizumab in patients with advanced anal squamous cell carcinoma (cohort A) from the phase 2 KEYNOTE-158 study.
Methods: Eligible patients enrolled in the ongoing non-randomised, multicohort, multicentre, phase 2 KEYNOTE-158 study, which was done across 38 centres worldwide, were aged 18 years or older; had histologically or cytologically confirmed advanced or metastatic anal squamous cell carcinoma; had previous failure of or intolerance to standard therapy or no standard therapy options; and had a PD-L1-evaluable tissue sample.
Background And Objectives: Due to difficulties in identifying sufficient-sized cohorts there remains uncertainty about prognostic and clinical differences that may be unique to asbestos-related lung cancer (ARLC). In this study, we use the Helsinki Criteria to define a group of ex-workers with lung cancer attributable to asbestos exposure and investigate differences that may exist.
Methods: A total of 529 patients seeking workers' compensation for their lung cancer were assigned to either ARLC or the non-ARLC based on parameters defined in the Helsinki Criteria.
Background: To help achieve Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) goals of reducing new HIV incidence, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use and engagement must increase despite multidimensional barriers to scale-up and limitations in funding. We investigated the cost-effectiveness of interventions spanning the PrEP continuum of care.
Setting: Men who have sex with men in Atlanta, GA, a focal jurisdiction for the EHE plan.
Extracellular vesicles (EV) are membrane-enclosed structures of varying size released from all cells and contain a variety of cargo including proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. They are postulated to play a pivotal role in cancer metastasis through delivery of oncogenic material to neighbouring and distant cells to promote development of a metastatic niche and tumour seeding. Here we reviewed protein data in relevant literature to determine whether specific proteins known to be involved in metastasis can be reliably identified in lung cancer EV, whether these proteins are important in all or specific lung cancers, and whether results from in-vitro cell studies are supported by research examining EV in human biofluids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Whether acupuncture therapy contributes to preserving residual renal function (RRF) remains largely unknown. This case series demonstrated the potential beneficial effects of acupuncture for preserving RRF in five patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing hemodialysis (HD) treatment.
Participants: HD patients received eight sessions of weekly 30 min interdialytic acupuncture (Inter-A) at ten selected acupoints, namely Yintang (GV29), Yingxiang (LI20), Shuijin (Tung's Acupuncture), Lianquan (CV23), Shangqu (KI17), Tianshu (ST25), Siman (KI14), Hegu (LI4), Zusanli (ST36) and Sanyingjao (SP6).
Objective: Acute pancreatitis can usually recover after conservative treatment. Five to 10 percent of acute pancreatitis may proceed into peripancreatic fluid collection and necrosis development, called necrotizing pancreatitis (NP), which has a high mortality rate. If it is accompanied by the occurrence of abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) and does not respond to medical therapy, surgical intervention is indicated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Virtual reality (VR)-based simulation in hospital settings facilitates the acquisition of skills without compromising patient safety. Despite regular text-based training, a baseline survey of randomly selected healthcare providers revealed deficiencies in their knowledge, confidence, comfort, and care skills regarding tracheostomy. This prospective pre-post study compared the effectiveness of regular text- and VR-based intervention modules in training healthcare providers' self-efficacy in tracheostomy care skills.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Leptomeningeal disease (LMD) in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant lung adenocarcinoma is associated with a poor prognosis and limited treatment options. Osimertinib is a potent third-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor with confirmed CNS penetration. This study reports on outcomes of patients with EGFR-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer who developed LMD and were subsequently treated with osimertinib.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEduc Psychol Meas
February 2022
The multiple response structure can underlie several different technology-enhanced item types. With the increased use of computer-based testing, multiple response items are becoming more common. This response type holds the potential for being scored polytomously for partial credit.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective/design/setting: This study aims to develop preprocedural communication-specific framework that emphasises the use of audiovisual materials and compares its acceptability by trainees with a regular module.
Trainees: Between October 2018 and July 2021, 96 medical clerks were enrolled and randomly divided into regular and intervention groups. Another 48 trainees whose did not join the framework-based training but complete self-assessments were enrolled as the control group.
Broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) represent an alternative to drug therapy for the treatment of HIV-1 infection. Immunotherapy with single bNAbs often leads to emergence of escape variants, suggesting a potential benefit of combination bNAb therapy. Here, a trispecific bNAb reduces viremia 100- to 1000-fold in viremic SHIV-infected macaques.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurodegenerative disorders that are triggered by injury typically have variable and unpredictable outcomes due to the complex and multifactorial cascade of events following the injury and during recovery. Hence, several factors beyond the initial injury likely contribute to the disease progression and pathology, and among these are genetic factors. Genetics is a recognized factor in determining the outcome of common neurodegenerative diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Hyperglycemia leads to lipid peroxidation, producing 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE) adducts which correlate with the production of amyloid-beta (Aβ), one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study is to investigate the interactions of Aβ, HNE adducts and responding autoantibodies during the pathogenesis from hyperglycemia to AD.
Methods: A total of 239 Taiwanese serum samples from a healthy control group and patients with hyperglycemia, and AD with and without hyperglycemia were analyzed.
Background: Migrants are underrepresented in population health surveys. Offering translated survey instruments has been shown to increase migrant representation. While 'team translation' represents current best practice, there are relatively few published examples describing how it has been implemented.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMalignant melanoma can arise from melanocytes in various structures of the eye, orbit, and ocular adnexa. We reviewed the clinical features and long-term results of all subjects with histologically proved melanoma originating from any of the ocular and periocular structures in a tertiary referral center. Overall, 88 patients including 47 men were recruited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The study aims to investigate long-term psychological distress and its risk factors in the burn survivors.
Design: A longitudinal study with follow-up interviews was conducted from November 2015-June 2018. A post-burn baseline interview was conducted 6 months after the event, followed by annual surveys for three years.
Corosolic acid (CA), a bioactive compound obtained from Actinidia chinensis, has potential anti-cancer activities. Glioblastoma (GBM) is a malignant brain tumor and whether CA exerts anti-cancer activity on GBM remains unclear. This study was aimed to explore the anticancer activity and its underlying mechanism of CA in GBM cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpontaneous severe acute exacerbation (SAE) is not uncommon in the natural history of chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Lamivudine (LAM) has the advantages of low price, quick onset, good efficacy, and no drug resistance within 24 weeks. This study aimed to compare the short-term efficacy of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) and LAM for 24 weeks followed by TDF in the treatment of CHB with severe acute exacerbation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInformation on the sources and transformations of particulate organic N (PN) and dissolved organic N (DON) at the coastal interface remains insufficient due to technological difficulties and complicated features of intensive physical mixing and rapid biological activities. Here, we investigated the spatial distribution of concentrations and isotopic compositions of PN and DON in the Changjiang plume during the summer flood period. In average, DON and PN accounted for 25.
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