Risk Factors, Clinical Characteristics, and Antibiotic Susceptibility Patterns of Keratitis: An 18-Year Retrospective Study from a Tertiary Hospital in China.

Our aim was to investigate risk factors, clinical characteristics, and antibiotic susceptibility patterns of cornea-isolated species collected at a tertiary hospital in China over 18 years. This retrospective study reviewed data from 350 patients diagnosed with keratitis at Beijing Tongren Hospital between January 2006 and December 2023, including demographics, risk factors, clinical signs, in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) imaging, and antibiotic susceptibility testing. The predominant type was (n = 108, 29.

Analysis of the predictive value of the prostate-specific antigen-to-neutrophil ratio for the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Background: Currently, serum PSA is the most commonly used screening tool in clinical practice. However, PSA levels in the range of 4-10 ng/ml are considered the 'grey zone' of prostate cancer screening. Patients within this range need to be further evaluated using additional parameters such as PSA ratio, PSA density, and other indices to determine the necessity of prostate biopsy (PBx).

From pixels to patients: the evolution and future of deep learning in cancer diagnostics.

Deep learning has revolutionized cancer diagnostics, shifting from pixel-based image analysis to more comprehensive, patient-centric care. This opinion article explores recent advancements in neural network architectures, highlighting their evolution in biomedical research and their impact on medical imaging interpretation and multimodal data integration. We emphasize the need for domain-specific artificial intelligence (AI) systems capable of handling complex clinical tasks, advocating for the development of multimodal large language models that can integrate diverse data sources.

New insights into FGF21 alleviates diabetic cardiomyopathy by suppressing ferroptosis: a commentary.

Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a severe cardiovascular complication of diabetes characterized by myocardial hypertrophy, fibrosis, and impaired cardiac function. Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) has emerged as a promising therapeutic target due to its antifibrotic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. Our commentary summarizes and affirms the recent study by Wang et al.

Quantifying the environmental fate and source of nitrate contamination using dual-isotope tracing coupled with nitrogen cascade model on the basin scale.

Nitrate (NO) contamination in riverine networks has threatened the environment and human health. Clarifying the NO source and environmental fate within the basin under different underlying surfaces is essential for water body protection, especially China's two mother rivers. A series of combination methods were established i.

Association of plasma homocysteine with cardiometabolic multimorbidity: a cross-sectional study in northwest China.

Background: Elevated homocysteine (Hcy) levels have been linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD), but their association with cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CMM) remains uncertain.

Methods: Data from the baseline survey of the China Northwest Cohort-Ningxia Project (CNC-NX) were used to recruit 22,566 participants. Demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, and laboratory exam results were collected.

PD-1/PD-L1 and coronary heart disease: a mendelian randomization study.

Introduction: It has been found that programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) or its ligand PD-L1 may play an important role in the onset and progression of coronary heart disease (CHD). Thus, we conducted this mendelian randomization analysis (MR) to estimate the causal relationship between PD-1/PD-L1 and 5 specific CHDs (chronic ischemic heart disease, acute myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, coronary atherosclerosis, and unstable angina pectoris), complemented by gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) for further validation.

Methods: Publicly available summary-level data were attained from the UK Biobank with genetic instruments obtained from the largest available, nonoverlapping genome-wide association studies (GWAS).

CXC chemokine receptor 4 - mediated immune modulation and tumor microenvironment heterogeneity in gastric cancer: Utilizing multi-omics approaches to identify potential therapeutic targets.

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPRs) are critical regulators of various biological behaviors, and their role in gastric cancer (GC) progression is gaining increasing attention. Among them, the immune regulatory mechanisms mediated by chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) remain insufficiently understood. This study aims to explore the immune regulatory functions of CXCR4 and the heterogeneity of the tumor microenvironment (TME) by examining GPR-related gene expression in GC.

N-coordinated iron sites dispersed in porous carbon frameworks to activate peroxymonosulfate for efficient sulfisoxazole degradation and real hospital wastewater decontamination.

Herein, an N-coordinated Fe site dispersed in porous carbon frameworks (Fe-NC) fabricated from zeolitic imidazolate frameworks encapsulated with iron acetylacetonate (Fe(acac) @ZIFs) was employed to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for the attenuation of sulfisoxazole (SIZ) and treating real hospital wastewater. The constructed Fe-NC/PMS system exhibited good catalytic stability for SIZ degradation, maintaining excellent degradation performance over multiple cycles with virtually no leaching. The quenching experiments, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) capture analyses, and semi-quantitative measurements showed that singlet oxygen (O) and high-valent metal-oxo species were mainly responsible for SIZ degradation by Fe-NC/PMS.

Transformer-based representation learning and multiple-instance learning for cancer diagnosis exclusively from raw sequencing fragments of bisulfite-treated plasma cell-free DNA.

Early cancer diagnosis from bisulfite-treated cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragments requires tedious data analytical procedures. Here, we present a deep-learning-based approach for early cancer interception and diagnosis (DECIDIA) that can achieve accurate cancer diagnosis exclusively from bisulfite-treated cfDNA sequencing fragments. DECIDIA relies on transformer-based representation learning of DNA fragments and weakly supervised multiple-instance learning for classification.

Examining multidimensional health poverty and determining factors among rural women of childbearing age in ningxia, china.

Background: The multidimensional health poverty afflicting rural women of reproductive age bears profound implications for the sustainable development of families, societies, and healthy villages. Elucidating vulnerable groups at risk of multidimensional health poverty and delineating its determinants can inform refinements and implementation of health-poverty alleviation policies.

Methods: Based on the 2022 "Health Status and Health Service Utilization" survey data in rural Ningxia, China, this study analyzes the dimension of health status, capacity for health service utilization, health expenditure and security using the A-F dual-threshold method, logit model, and probit model.

Dual Metallosalen-Based Covalent Organic Frameworks for Artificial Photosynthetic Diluted CO Reduction.

Directly converting CO in flue gas using artificial photosynthetic technology represents a promising green approach for CO resource utilization. However, it remains a great challenge to achieve efficient reduction of CO from flue gas due to the decreased activity of photocatalysts in diluted CO atmosphere. Herein, we designed and synthesized a series of dual metallosalen-based covalent organic frameworks (MM-Salen-COFs, M: Zn, Ni, Cu) for artificial photosynthetic diluted CO reduction and confirmed their advantage in comparison to that of single metal M-Salen-COFs.

Development and validation of a droplet digital PCR assay for Nipah virus quantitation.

Background: Nipah virus (NiV) is a zoonotic pathogen that poses a significant threat because of its wide host range, multiple transmission modes, high transmissibility, and high mortality rates, affecting both human health and animal husbandry. In this study, we developed a one-step reverse transcription droplet digital PCR (RT-ddPCR) assay that targets the N gene of NiV.

Results: Our RT-ddPCR assay exhibited remarkable sensitivity, with a lower limit of detection of 6.

Association between sanitary toilets and health poverty vulnerability among rural western Chinese adults aged 45 years and older: A cross-sectional study.

This study aimed to investigate the association between sanitary toilets and health poverty vulnerability among rural western Chinese adults aged 45 years and older. Using data from the 'Rural Household Health Inquiry Survey' conducted in 2022, a three-stage feasible generalized least squares method was employed to calculate health poverty vulnerability. Propensity score matching (PSM) and mediation effect analysis were used to assess the association between sanitary toilets and health poverty vulnerability among rural western Chinese adults aged 45 years and older and the mechanisms underlying this impact.

Global burden of thyroid cancer in 2022: Incidence and mortality estimates from GLOBOCAN.

Background: Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common malignancy of the endocrine system. This study aimed to assess the global distribution of TC incidence and mortality in 2022, as well as to predict the burden for the year 2050.

Methods: Data from the GLOBOCAN 2022 database were used to analyze the age-standardized incidence and mortality rates of TC by sex, age group (<55 years and ≥55 years), country, world region, and level of Human Development Index (HDI) for 185 countries.

Deciphering the impact of aggregated autophagy-related genes TUBA1B and HSP90AA1 on colorectal cancer evolution: a single-cell sequencing study of the tumor microenvironment.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most prevalent cancer worldwide, with the tumor microenvironment (TME) playing a crucial role in its progression. Aggregated autophagy (AA) has been recognized as a factor that exacerbates CRC progression. This study aims to study the relationship between aggregated autophagy and CRC using single-cell sequencing techniques.

Tetraspanins in digestive‑system cancers: Expression, function and therapeutic potential (Review).

The tetraspanin family of membrane proteins is essential for controlling different biological processes such as cell migration, penetration, adhesion, growth, apoptosis, angiogenesis and metastasis. The present review summarized the current knowledge regarding the expression and roles of tetraspanins in different types of cancer of the digestive system, including gastric, liver, colorectal, pancreatic, esophageal and oral cancer. Depending on the type and context of cancer, tetraspanins can act as either tumor promoters or suppressors.

Large language model produces high accurate diagnosis of cancer from end-motif profiles of cell-free DNA.

Instruction-tuned large language models (LLMs) demonstrate exceptional ability to align with human intentions. We present an LLM-based model-instruction-tuned LLM for assessment of cancer (iLLMAC)-that can detect cancer using cell-free deoxyribonucleic acid (cfDNA) end-motif profiles. Developed on plasma cfDNA sequencing data from 1135 cancer patients and 1106 controls across three datasets, iLLMAC achieved area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC) of 0.