The influence of genetic predisposition to oxidative stress on painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy: A mendelian randomization study.

Genetic predisposition to oxidative stress (OS) may influence the risk of Painful Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy (PDPN). This study employed a Mendelian Randomization (MR) approach to investigate the causal relationship between genetic predisposition to OS and PDPN. Genetic instruments associated with OS biomarkers were selected as exposures.

Spectral CT assists differentiation of osteoblastic bone metastasis from bone island in newly diagnosed cancer patients.

Objectives: To investigate measurements derived from plain and enhanced spectral CT in differentiating osteoblastic bone metastasis (OBM) from bone island (BI).

Materials And Methods: From January to November 2020, 73 newly diagnosed cancer patients with 201 bone lesions (OBM = 92, BI = 109) having received spectral CT were retrospectively enrolled. Measurements including CT values of 40-140 keV, slope of the spectral curve, effective atomic number (Z), water (calcium) density, calcium (water) density, and Iodine (calcium) density were derived from manually segmented lesions on plain and enhanced spectral CT, and then analyzed using Student t-test and Pearson's correlation.

Separation of Bioproducts through the Integration of Cyanobacterial Metabolism and Membrane Filtration: Facilitating Cyanobacteria's Industrial Application.

In this work, we propose the development of an efficient, economical, automated, and sustainable method for separating bioproducts from culture medium via the integration of a sucrose-secreting cyanobacteria production process and pressure-driven membrane filtration technology. Firstly, we constructed sucrose-secreting cyanobacteria with a sucrose yield of 600-700 mg/L sucrose after 7 days of salt stress, and the produced sucrose could be fully separated from the cyanobacteria cultures through an efficient and automated membrane filtration process. To determine whether this new method is also economical and sustainable, the relationship between membrane species, operating pressure, and the growth status of four cyanobacterial species was systematically investigated.

Mechanical properties and marginal fit of prefabricated versus customized dental implant abutments: A comparative study.

Introduction: Dental implant abutments play an important role in the health and aesthetics of soft and hard tissues around implants.

Purpose: To compare mechanical properties and marginal fit of prefabricated and customized dental implant abutments and provide references to evaluate the relationship between abutment choice and clinical indications.

Methods: Titanium abutments were randomly divided into prefabricated and customized abutments.

Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the spiritual health scale.

Background: In recent years, spiritual health became a focus of interest and nurses' spiritual health is crucial to the quality of their own lives and patients' health care. In China, high workloads, tense nurse-patient relationships, and low social status have been found to have negative impacts on the work attitude and nursing quality and spiritual health offers direction for solving this problem. This study assessed the spiritual health levels of nurses on the Chinese mainland using a revised Chinese version of the spiritual health scale (SHS-C).

Baseline Amide Proton Transfer Imaging at 3T Fails to Predict Early Response to Induction Chemotherapy in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

Background: Early identification of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients with high risk of failure to induction chemotherapy (IC) would facilitate prompt individualized treatment decisions and thus reduce toxicity and improve overall survival rate. This study aims to investigate the value of amide proton transfer (APT) imaging in predicting short-term response of NPC to IC and its potential correlation with well-established prognosis-related clinical characteristics.

Methods And Materials: A total of 80 pathologically confirmed NPC patients receiving pre-treatment APT imaging at 3T were retrospectively enrolled.

Fast and equilibrium CEST imaging of brain tumor patients at 3T.

Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) MRI, versatile for detecting endogenous mobile proteins and tissue pH, has proved valuable in tumor imaging. However, CEST MRI scans are often performed under non-equilibrium conditions, which confound tissue characterization. This study proposed a quasi-steady-state (QUASS) CEST MRI algorithm to standardize fast and accurate tumor imaging at 3 T.