Determining kidney function-specific thresholds for N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide in heart failure risk prediction among patients with chronic kidney disease: a multicentre, observational, cohort study.

Background: Elevated N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels are common in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), but uniform thresholds derived from the general population may not accurately predict heart failure (HF) risk across stages of kidney function. This study aimed to determine whether thresholds specific to kidney function categories improve HF risk prediction in CKD.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study used data from the China Renal Data System, including 18 261 patients with CKD without prior HF.

Greater neural delay discounting on reward evaluation in anhedonia.

Background/objective: Recent years have witnessed a surge of interest in dissecting the anticipatory and the consummatory aspects of anhedonia in terms of temporal dynamics. However, few research has directly examined reward valuation as a function of time in anhedonia.

Method: Using a delay discounting task, this event-related potential study examined the neural representation of rewards available immediately or in six months in a high-anhedonia group ( = 40) and a low-anhedonia group ( = 40) recruited from a nonclinical sample.

Characteristics of patients with undiagnosed stage 3 chronic kidney disease: results from an observational study (REVEAL-CKD) in China.

Background: Early diagnosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is crucial for timely intervention to delay disease progression and improve patient outcomes. However, data for clinical characteristics of Chinese patients with undiagnosed, early-stage CKD are lacking.

Methods: REVEAL-CKD is a multinational, observational study using real-world data in selected countries to describe factors associated with undiagnosed stage 3 CKD, time to diagnosis, and CKD management post diagnosis.

Association of iron deficiency with kidney outcome and all-cause mortality in chronic kidney disease patients without anemia.

Background: Iron deficiency is prevalent in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), even in those without anemia. However, the effects of iron deficiency on CKD progression and all-cause mortality in non-dialysis-dependent CKD (NDD-CKD) patients without anemia remain incompletely understood.

Methods: This multicenter retrospective nationwide cohort study included adult patients with non-anemia NDD-CKD from 24 hospitals across China.

Acute kidney injury is associated with liver-related outcomes in patients with hepatitis B virus infection: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: The effects of acute kidney injury (AKI) on liver-related outcomes in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remain unclear. The study aimed to evaluate the association between AKI with liver-related mortality and complications in patients with HBV infection.

Methods: The multicenter, retrospective cohort study included Chinese adults with HBV infection from 24 regional central hospitals between January 2000 and December 2022.

Integrative study of lung cancer adeno-to-squamous transition in EGFR TKI resistance identifies RAPGEF3 as a therapeutic target.

Although adeno-to-squamous transition (AST) has been observed in association with resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) in clinic, its causality, molecular mechanism and overcoming strategies remain largely unclear. We here demonstrate that squamous transition occurs concomitantly with TKI resistance in PC9-derived xenograft tumors. Perturbation of squamous transition via DNp63 overexpression or knockdown leads to significant changes in TKI responses, indicative of a direct causal link between squamous transition and TKI resistance.

Neutrophil/Lymphocyte Ratio and All-Cause Mortality in Diabetic Kidney Disease: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a significant contributor to the development of end-stage renal disease and cardiovascular disease (CVD), with inflammation being a critical factor in its pathogenesis. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), a new inflammatory marker, and mortality from all causes and CVD in patients with DKD.

Methods: This multicenter, retrospective cohort study utilized data from the China Renal Data System (CRDS) on patients with DKD hospitalized between January 1, 2000, and February 28, 2023.

Smooth and safe stop: Fixed-time fault tolerant control for heavy legged robot with active identification on tolerance capability.

Heavy-legged robots (HLRs), integral to optimizing efficiency in manufacturing and transportation, rely on advanced active servo fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant control (FTC) mechanisms. This study presents an FTC framework with active fault status identification, fault tolerance capability assessment, and model uncertainty handling. A key contribution is the introduction of an active servo fault state estimator (ASFSE), which enables real-time monitoring of servo status by comparing residual differences between servo and controller outputs.

Chronic kidney disease and thyroid hormones.

Introduction: Thyroid dysfunction is prevalent in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients and significantly impacts renal outcomes and mortality. This study investigated the associations between thyroid function and clinical outcomes, and also the therapeutic effects of thyroid hormone replacement therapy (THRT) in CKD patients.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from the China Renal Data System.

Spectrum of DNA variants for patients with hearing loss in 4 language families of 15 ethnicities from Southwestern China.

Hearing loss is a common disease. More than 100 genes have been reported to be associated with hereditary hearing loss. However, the distribution of these genes and their variants across diverse populations remains unclear.

N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, eGFR, and progression of kidney disease in chronic kidney disease patients without heart failure.

Background: Cardiorenal syndrome highlights the bidirectional relationship between kidney and heart dysfunction. N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), which is the gold standard biomarker in heart failure (HF), may be an important biomarker for chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression. However, NT-proBNP is negatively related with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).

The Impact of Online Pandemic-Related Information on Prosocial Behavior among Healthcare Students: The Role of Emotional Contagion and Epistemic Motivation.

Prosocial behavior is fundamental for healthcare students, shaped by their traits and the external environment. Online information seeking is the most commonly used way for healthcare students to access pandemics; however, it is unclear whether the willingness of healthcare students to help others will be affected by pandemic information via the Internet environment. The current study takes the COVID-19 pandemic as an example, investigating how 81 healthcare students with varying prosocial tendencies behaved helpfully after being exposed to pandemic-related pictures online.

Paclitaxel prodrug nanoparticles boost antitumor efficacy via hitchhiking of human serum albumin.

Improving drug delivery efficacy is the key point for enhancing the therapeutic index of medicines. Herein, we report fatty chain conjugated paclitaxel (PTX) prodrugs with a disulfide bond as linker. The formed prodrugs can self-assemble into stable nanoparticles in aqueous solutions, and rapidly transform into long-circulating nanocomplexes via the non-covalent binding to serum albumin in blood, enabling efficient drug delivery and robust antitumor effect.

Self-Nanoemulsifying Drug Delivery System of Morin: A New Approach for Combating Acute Alcohol Intoxication.

Purpose: Acute alcohol intoxication (AAI) is a life-threatening medical condition resulting from excessive alcohol consumption. Our research revealed the potential of morin (MOR) in treating AAI. However, MOR's effectiveness against AAI was hindered by its poor solubility in water and low bioavailability.

A multi-class fundus disease classification system based on an adaptive scale discriminator and hybrid loss.

Fundus images are crucial in the observation and detection of ophthalmic diseases. However, detecting multiple ophthalmic diseases from fundus images using deep learning techniques is a complex and challenging task One challenge is the complexity of fundus disease structures, which leads to low detection accuracy. Another challenge is the class imbalance problem common in multi-label image classification, which increases the difficulty of algorithm training and evaluation.

A dual program for CRP-mediated regulation in bacterial alarmone (p)ppGpp.

Gene expression and proper downstream cellular functions upon facing environmental shifts depend on the combined and cooperative regulation of genetic networks. Here, we identified cAMP receptor protein (CRP) as a master regulator of (p)ppGpp (guanosine tetra- and penta-phosphate) homeostasis. Via CRP-mediated direct transcriptional regulation of the (p)ppGpp synthetase/hydrolase RelA and SpoT, cAMP-CRP stimulates pervasive accumulation of (p)ppGpp under glucose-limiting conditions.

Paclitaxel Prodrug Enables Glutathione Depletion to Boost Cancer Treatment.

Herein, we constructed a paclitaxel (PTX) prodrug (PA) by conjugating PTX with acrylic acid as a cysteine-depleting agent. The as-synthesized PA can assemble with diacylphosphatidylethanolamine-PEG to form stable nanoparticles (PA NPs). After endocytosis into cells, PA NPs can specifically react with cysteine and trigger release of PTX for chemotherapy.

Survey of Microstructures and Dimensional Accuracy of Various Microlattice Designs Using Additively Manufactured 718 Superalloy.

Microlattices hold significant potential for developing lightweight structures for the aeronautics and astronautics industries. Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) is an attractive method for producing these structures due to its capacity for achieving high-resolution, intricately designed architectures. However, defects, such as cracks, in the as-printed alloys degrade mechanical properties, particularly tensile strength, and thereby limit their applications.

Kidney function-specific cut-off values of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction.

Background: The diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) using high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) remains challenging in patients with kidney dysfunction.

Methods: In this large, multicenter cohort study, a total of 20 912 adults who underwent coronary angiography were included. Kidney function-specific cut-off values of hs-cTnT were determined to improve the specificity without sacrificing sensitivity, as compared with that using traditional cut-off value (14 ng/L) in the normal kidney function group.

Renin-angiotensin system inhibitors and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma among patients with hepatitis B virus infection.

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a common cause of liver-related morbidity and mortality. Evidence suggests that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) decrease liver fibrosis, an intermediate step between liver injury and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our aim was to investigate the association between the use of ACEIs and ARBs on incident HCC and liver-related mortality among patients with HBV infection.

A Scalable, High-Efficiency, Low-Energy-Spread Laser Wakefield Accelerator Using a Tri-Plateau Plasma Channel.

The emergence of multi-petawatt laser facilities is expected to push forward the maximum energy gain that can be achieved in a single stage of a laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) to tens of giga-electron volts, which begs the question-is it likely to impact particle physics by providing a truly compact particle collider? Colliders have very stringent requirements on beam energy, acceleration efficiency, and beam quality. In this article, we propose an LWFA scheme that can for the first time simultaneously achieve hitherto unrealized acceleration efficiency from the laser to the electron beam of >20% and a sub-1% energy spread using a stepwise plasma structure and a nonlinearly chirped laser pulse. Three-dimensional high-fidelity simulations show that the nonlinear chirp can effectively mitigate the laser waveform distortion and lengthen the acceleration distance.