Role of respiratory system microbiota in development of lung cancer and clinical application.

Microbes play a significant role in human tumor development and profoundly impact treatment efficacy, particularly in immunotherapy. The respiratory tract extensively interacts with the external environment and possesses a mucosal immune system. This prompts consideration of the relationship between respiratory microbiota and lung cancer.

Simultaneous bilateral video-assisted thoracic surgery is safe and feasible for multiple primary lung cancers.

Background: The treatment for bilateral synchronous multiple primary lung cancers (MPLC) remains challenging. Simultaneous bilateral video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) may be an optimal treatment with curative intent, but its safety and feasibility are controversial.

Methods: One hundred and fifty-eight patients who underwent simultaneous bilateral VATS (simultaneous group) and 79 who underwent two-staged bilateral VATS (two-staged group) were included in this study.

Real-world efficacy of adjuvant therapy for totally resected stage I lung adenocarcinoma patients with pathological high-risk factors: propensity score analysis.

Background: We investigated the real-world efficacy of adjuvant therapy for stage I lung adenocarcinoma patients with pathological high-risk factors.

Methods: Study participants were enrolled from November 1, 2016 and December 31, 2020. Clinical bias was balanced by propensity score matching.

Re-exploration of prognosis in type B thymomas: establishment of a predictive nomogram model.

Objective: To explore the risk factors for disease progression after initial treatment of type B thymomas using a predictive nomogram model.

Methods: A single-center retrospective study of patients with type B thymoma was performed. The Cox proportional hazard model was used for univariate and multivariate analyses.

Magnetic-activated cell sorting identifies a unique lung microbiome community.

Background: The advent of culture-independent, next-generation DNA sequencing has led to the discovery of distinct lung bacterial communities. Studies of lung microbiome taxonomy often reveal only subtle differences between health and disease, but host recognition and response may distinguish the members of similar bacterial communities in different populations. Magnetic-activated cell sorting has been applied to the gut microbiome to identify the numbers and types of bacteria eliciting a humoral response.

Real-world study of treatment and outcome of type B2 + B3 thymoma: The neglected part of thymoma.

Background: This study aimed to examine the treatment and prognosis of patients with type B2 + B3 thymoma and compare it with those patients with type B2 and B3 thymoma.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of the results of 39 patients with type B2 + B3 thymoma, 133 patients with type B2 thymoma, and 64 patients with type B3 thymoma. The Kaplan-Meier technique was used to generate survival curves.

Cyclic Dinucleotide-Based Enantioselective Fluorination in Water.

The diverse structures of DNA serve as potent chiral scaffolds for DNA-based asymmetric catalysis, yet in most cases tens to hundreds of nucleotides in DNA hybrid catalysts hinder the deep insight into their structure-activity relationship. Owing to the structural simplicity and design flexibility of nucleotides, nucleotide-based catalysts have been emerging as a promising way to obtain fine structural information and understand the catalytic mechanisms. Herein, we found that a cyclic dinucleotide of cyclic di-AMP (c-di-AMP) and 1,10-phenanthroline copper(II) nitrate (Cu(phen)(NO)) are assembled to a c-di-AMP-based catalyst (c-di-AMP/Cu(phen)(NO)), which could fast achieve enantioselective fluorination in water with 90-99% yields and up to 90% enantiomeric excess (ee).

Auditory and cross-modal attentional bias toward positive natural sounds: Behavioral and ERP evidence.

Recently, researchers have expanded the investigation into attentional biases toward positive stimuli; however, few studies have examined attentional biases toward positive auditory information. In three experiments, the present study employed an emotional spatial cueing task using emotional sounds as cues and auditory stimuli (Experiment 1) or visual stimuli (Experiment 2 and Experiment 3) as targets to explore whether auditory or visual spatial attention could be modulated by positive auditory cues. Experiment 3 also examined the temporal dynamics of cross-modal auditory bias toward positive natural sounds using event-related potentials (ERPs).

LDLR dysfunction induces LDL accumulation and promotes pulmonary fibrosis.

Treatments for pulmonary fibrosis (PF) are ineffective because its molecular pathogenesis and therapeutic targets are unclear. Here, we show that the expression of low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) was significantly decreased in alveolar type II (ATII) and fibroblast cells, whereas it was increased in endothelial cells from systemic sclerosis-related PF (SSc-PF) patients and idiopathic PF (IPF) patients compared with healthy controls. However, the plasma levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) increased in SSc-PF and IPF patients.

Association of the systemic host immune response with acute hyperglycemia in mechanically ventilated septic patients.

Hyperglycemia during sepsis is associated with increased organ dysfunction and higher mortality. The role of the host immune response in development of hyperglycemia during sepsis remains unclear. We performed a retrospective analysis of critically ill adult septic patients requiring mechanical ventilation (n = 153) to study the relationship between hyperglycemia and ten markers of the host injury and immune response measured on the first day of ICU admission (baseline).

Characteristic time in highly motivated movements of children and adults through bottlenecks.

Current codes for fire protection of buildings are mainly based on the movement of adults and neglect the movement characteristic of pre-school children. Having a profound comprehension of the difference between children and adults passing bottlenecks is of great help to improve the safety levels of preschool children. This paper presents an experimental study on the bottleneck flow of pre-school children in a room.

Immobilization persistence of Cu, Cr, Pb, Zn ions by the addition of steel slag in acidic contaminated mine soil.

Adding steel slag to the acidic contaminated mine soil can immobilize heavy metal ions, but immobilization persistence of the metal ions needs to be determined. In this study, dynamic column simulation experiments were set up to compare the immobilization persistence of Cu, Cr, Pb and Zn ions in original soil and with the addition of slag, lime or fly ash to the soil during a simulated 36-month of acid rain leaching. After adding slag and lime, the pH, organic matter content and cation exchange capacity of soil were significantly increased.

Topographic heterogeneity of lung microbiota in end-stage idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: the Microbiome in Lung Explants-2 (MiLEs-2) study.

Background: Lung microbiota profiles in patients with early idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) have been associated with disease progression; however, the topographic heterogeneity of lung microbiota and their roles in advanced IPF are unknown.

Methods: We performed a retrospective, case-control study of explanted lung tissue obtained at the time of lung transplantation or rapid autopsy from patients with IPF and other chronic lung diseases (connective tissue disease-associated interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILD), cystic fibrosis (CF), COPD and donor lungs unsuitable for transplant from Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE)). We sampled subpleural tissue and airway-based specimens (bronchial washings and airway tissue) and quantified bacterial load and profiled communities by amplification and sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene.

Respiratory Tract Dysbiosis Is Associated with Worse Outcomes in Mechanically Ventilated Patients.

Host inflammatory responses have been strongly associated with adverse outcomes in critically ill patients, but the biologic underpinnings of such heterogeneous responses have not been defined. We examined whether respiratory tract microbiome profiles are associated with host inflammation and clinical outcomes of acute respiratory failure. We collected oral swabs, endotracheal aspirates (ETAs), and plasma samples from mechanically ventilated patients.

The evolution of radiographic edema in ARDS and its association with clinical outcomes: A prospective cohort study in adult patients.

Purpose: To assess the longitudinal evolution of radiographic edema using chest X-rays (CXR) in patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and to examine its association with prognostic biomarkers, ARDS subphenotypes and outcomes.

Materials And Methods: We quantified radiographic edema on CXRs from patients with ARDS or cardiogenic pulmonary edema (controls) using the Radiographic Assessment of Lung Edema (RALE) score on day of intubation and up to 10 days after. We measured baseline plasma biomarkers and recorded clinical variables.

Metagenomic identification of severe pneumonia pathogens in mechanically-ventilated patients: a feasibility and clinical validity study.

Background: Metagenomic sequencing of respiratory microbial communities for pathogen identification in pneumonia may help overcome the limitations of culture-based methods. We examined the feasibility and clinical validity of rapid-turnaround metagenomics with Nanopore™ sequencing of clinical respiratory specimens.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study of mechanically-ventilated patients with pneumonia (nine culture-positive and five culture-negative) and without pneumonia (eight controls).

Alterations in Oral Microbiota in HIV Are Related to Decreased Pulmonary Function.

Mechanisms of HIV-associated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are poorly understood. The oral microbiome shapes the lung microbiome, and gut dysbiosis can affect lung diseases; however, relationships of the oral and gut microbiome to COPD in HIV have not been explored. To examine alterations in the oral and gut microbiome associated with pulmonary disease in persons with HIV (PWH).

Host-Response Subphenotypes Offer Prognostic Enrichment in Patients With or at Risk for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

Objectives: Classification of patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome into hyper- and hypoinflammatory subphenotypes using plasma biomarkers may facilitate more effective targeted therapy. We examined whether established subphenotypes are present not only in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome but also in patients at risk for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARFA) and then assessed the prognostic information of baseline subphenotyping on the evolution of host-response biomarkers and clinical outcomes.

Design: Prospective, observational cohort study.

Attentional disengagement from negative natural sounds for high-anxious individuals.

Background And Objectives: Previous studies have not consistently concluded whether high-anxious persons exhibit attentional bias towards negative natural auditory stimuli. The present study explores whether auditory negative stimuli could induce attentional bias to negative sounds in real life and investigates the exact nature of these biases using an emotional spatial cueing task.

Design: Experimental study with a mixed factorial design.

K-shell emission x-ray imaging of Z-pinch plasmas with a pinhole and a logarithmic spiral crystal.

An in-chamber, mini x-ray imaging instrument employs a pinhole and a logarithmic spiral crystal has been developed for obtaining K-shell line images of the imploding aluminum wire array on the "Yang" accelerator. The logarithmic spiral crystal acts as a monochromator and a non-dispersive mirror that reflects the pinhole image to a x-ray film detector with a very narrow photon energy bandwidth (<1 eV, mainly determined by the width of rocking curve of the crystal). Two imaging configurations with the use of Quartz (10 ̅10) crystal and Mica (002) crystal are designed, respectively, to image the Al Ly(α2) line (1727.

Investigation of spectra unfolded for a filtered x-ray diode array with improved smoothness.

An unfolding algorithm using parabolic B-splines to smoothly reconstruct the soft x-ray spectra from the measurements of a filtered x-ray diode array is proposed. This array has been fabricated for the study of the soft x ray emitted by Z-pinch plasma. Unfolding results show that for the simulated noise-free blackbody spectra with temperature ranging from 20 to 250 eV, both the spectra and the total power are accurately recovered.