Association of early life co-exposure to ambient PM and O with the offspring's growth within two years of age: A birth cohort study.

Background: Previous studies indicated that early life exposure to particulate matter of 2.5 μm or less (PM) could impair children's growth. However, the adverse effects of maternal ozone (O) and its interplay with PM on offspring's growth are unclear.

Bronchial balloon dilatation combined with cryotherapy for tuberculous cicatricial central airway stenosis, with Adobe Photoshop for the degree measurement: A multicenter, retrospective study.

Objective: To explore bronchial balloon dilation (BD) combined with cryotherapy and Photoshop (PS)-base image processing technology in the interventional treatment of tuberculous cicatricial central airway stenosis (CCAS).

Methods: This multicenter, retrospective study analyzed the clinical data of patients with CCAS from six hospitals in Henan, China between June 2019 and October 2022.

Results: A total of 307 patients were included, including 152 (62 males) treated with BD alone and 155 (54 males) treated with BD combined with cryotherapy.

Comprehensive use of a high-frequency electric knife, balloon dilatation, and cryotherapy for tuberculous central tracheobronchial cicatricial constriction.

Background: To examine the benefits of interventional therapy for cicatricial constriction using a high-frequency electric knife, saccular dilatation, and cryotherapy.

Methods: This case series included patients with central tracheobronchial cicatricial constriction admitted to the Department of Tuberculosis of Henan Provincial Chest Hospital from July 2018 to March 2021 and treated with bronchoscopic interventional therapies based on systemic anti-tuberculosis treatment.

Results: 96 patients were included, in whom 443 interventional therapies were performed.

Deep learning for non-parameterized MEMS structural design.

The geometric designs of MEMS devices can profoundly impact their physical properties and eventual performances. However, it is challenging for researchers to rationally consider a large number of possible designs, as it would be very time- and resource-consuming to study all these cases using numerical simulation. In this paper, we report the use of deep learning techniques to accelerate the MEMS design cycle by quickly and accurately predicting the physical properties of numerous design candidates with vastly different geometric features.

Parallel optical random bit generator.

We present an optical approach for high-speed parallel random bit generation based on stochastic pulse-to-pulse fluctuation in the supercontinuum (SC). Through spectrally demultiplexing the SC pulse sequence into different wavelength channels, we simultaneously extract multiple independent fast random bit streams from each SC pulse subsequence via associated comparators in parallel. Proof-of-concept experiments demonstrate that using our method, four 10 Gb/s random bit streams are obtained from a SC pulse source with verified randomness.

Decreased Serum C3 Levels in Immunoglobulin A (IgA) Nephropathy with Chronic Kidney Disease: A Propensity Score Matching Study.

BACKGROUND The effects of low serum C3 levels and the activation of the complement system on the development and the prognosis of IgAN are unclear. The present study aimed to determine whether decreased levels of complement C3 influence the prognosis of IgAN patients with chronic kidney disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS We enrolled a total of 1564 patients with primary IgAN diagnosed by renal biopsy at the Chinese PLA General Hospital from January 2011 to March 2015.