The economic burden of bronchiectasis - known and unknown: a systematic review.

Background: The increasing prevalence and recognition of bronchiectasis in clinical practice necessitates a better understanding of the economic disease burden to improve the management and achieve better clinical and economic outcomes. This study aimed to assess the economic burden of bronchiectasis based on a review of published literature.

Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted using MEDLINE, Embase, EconLit and Cochrane databases to identify publications (1 January 2001 to 31 December 2016) on the economic burden of bronchiectasis in adults.

Development of an Initial Conceptual Model of Multiple Myeloma to Support Clinical and Health Economics Decision Making.

We aimed to develop and validate a conceptual model of multiple myeloma (MM) that characterizes the attributes affecting disease progression and patient outcomes, and the relationships between them. Systematic and targeted literature reviews identified disease- and patient-specific attributes of MM that affect disease progression and outcomes. These attributes were validated by a Delphi panel of four international MM experts, and a physician-validated model was constructed.

Steering Coacervation by a Pair of Broad-Spectrum Regulators.

Coacervation is liquid-liquid phase separation ubiquitous in industrial applications and cellular biology. Inspired by cellular manipulation of coacervate droplets such as P granules, we report here a regulatory strategy to manipulate synthetic coacervation in a spatiotemporally controllable manner. Two oppositely charged small molecules are shown to phase separate into coacervate droplets in water as a result of electrostatic attraction, hydrophobic effect, and entropy.

Emerging role of testosterone in pancreatic β-cell function and insulin secretion.

One of the most sexually dimorphic aspects of metabolic regulation is the bidirectional modulation of glucose homeostasis by testosterone in male and females. Severe testosterone deficiency predisposes men to type 2 diabetes (T2D), while in contrast, androgen excess predisposes women to hyperglycemia. The role of androgen deficiency and excess in promoting visceral obesity and insulin resistance in men and women respectively is well established.

Diabetes risk assessment with imaging: a radiomics study of abdominal CT.

Objectives: To identify CT markers for screening of early type 2 diabetes and assessment of the risk of incident diabetes using a radiomics method.

Methods: The medical records of 26,947 inpatients were reviewed. A total of 690 patients were selected and allocated to a primary cohort, a validation cohort, and a prediction cohort and used to build prediction models for diabetes.

Diagnostic performance of two-dimensional shear wave elastography for evaluating tibial nerve stiffness in patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Objectives: To evaluate the stiffness of the tibial nerve with two-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) and to determine whether 2D-SWE can be used to diagnose diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN).

Methods: The study included 70 consecutive diabetic patients with DPN or without DPN and 20 healthy volunteers. The tibial nerve stiffness measured with 2D-SWE was studied.

Puerarin promotes DUSP1 expression by regulating miR‑133a‑3p in breast cancer.

Previous studies demonstrated that puerarin represents a potential therapeutic drug for breast cancer treatment, due to its ability to inhibit the migration of MCF‑7 and MDA‑MB‑231 cell lines. In order to investigate the mechanism of puerarin in breast cancer cells, the aim of the present study was to examine whether puerarin regulated the dual specificity phosphatase 1 (DUSP1) expression level by promoting the microRNA‑133a‑3p (miR‑133a‑3p) expression level in breast cancer. Cell viability and apoptosis were assessed in HCC38 cells by Cell Counting Kit‑8 assays and a flow cytometry assay, respectively.

The effects of tonsillectomy by low-temperature plasma on the growth development and psychological behavior in children with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome.

We investigated the effects of tonsillectomy by low-temperature plasma on the growth development and psychological behavior in children with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS).This study included 72 moderate and severe OSAHS children with tonsils or adenoids hypertrophy, which were randomly assigned into either the study group (n = 36) or the control group (n = 36). Patients in study group underwent tonsillectomy by low-temperature plasma, while in the control group underwent tonsil-pecking, then the efficacy were compared.

NNWarp: Neural Network-Based Nonlinear Deformation.

NNWarp is a highly re-usable and efficient neural network (NN) based nonlinear deformable simulation framework. Unlike other machine learning applications such as image recognition, where different inputs have a uniform and consistent format (e.g.

GLP-1 Receptor in Pancreatic α-Cells Regulates Glucagon Secretion in a Glucose-Dependent Bidirectional Manner.

Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) is known to suppress glucagon secretion, but the mechanism by which GLP-1 exerts this effect is unclear. In this study, we demonstrated GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) expression in α-cells using both antibody-dependent and antibody-independent strategies. A novel α-cell-specific GLP-1R knockout (αGLP-1R) mouse model was created and used to investigate its effects on glucagon secretion and glucose metabolism.

Loss of Nuclear and Membrane Estrogen Receptor-α Differentially Impairs Insulin Secretion and Action in Male and Female Mice.

Estrogens favor glucose homeostasis primarily through the estrogen receptor-α (ERα), but the respective importance of nuclear ERα (NOER) and membrane ERα (MOER) pools to glucose homeostasis are unknown. We studied glucose homeostasis, insulin secretion, and insulin sensitivity in male and female mice expressing either the NOER or the MOER. Male and female MOER mice exhibited fasting and fed hyperglycemia and glucose intolerance.

Green Light-Emitting Devices Based on Perovskite CsPbBr Quantum Dots.

In this paper, high quality green-emitting CsPbBr quantum dots (QDs) are successfully synthesized by hot-injection method. Different injection temperatures are tested to optimize the synthesis conditions. High brightness with the photoluminescence (PL) quantum yields (QYs) up to 90% and narrow size-distribution with the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 18.

Helicobacter pylori infection is not related to increased carotid intima-media thickness in general population.

The aim is to determine whether there is an independent association between Hp infection and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) in a cross-section observational study. Among of 14588 routine health check-up participants, 13770 subjects underwent the C-urea breath test (C-UBT) and ultrasound measurement of CIMT. Traditional atherosclerotic risk factors were also recorded.

BLACAT1 predicts poor prognosis and serves as oncogenic lncRNA in small-cell lung cancer.

Bladder cancer-associated transcript 1 (BLACAT1) is a novel identified long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) in bladder cancer, and has been suggested to function as an oncogenic lncRNA in several types of human cancer. However, its involvement in the progression of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) remained unknown. The aim of our study was to investigate the clinical value and biological function in SCLC.

Role of blood urea nitrogen in predicting the post-discharge prognosis in elderly patients with acute decompensated heart failure.

Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) is a surrogate marker for neurohormonal activation, but the association between BUN and the post-discharge prognosis in elderly patients with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) is not well defined. We explored the association between BUN and post-discharge all-cause mortality in 652 elderly patients (73.9 ± 7.

Acacetin regulated the reciprocal differentiation of Th17 cells and Treg cells and mitigated the symptoms of collagen-induced arthritis in mice.

Background And Aim: The immune-regulative effect of acacetin on the development of autoimmune arthritis remains unexplored. This study aims to investigate the potential effect of acacetin on the treatment of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in mice and clarify its underlying mechanism.

Methods And Results: In a type II collagen (CII)-induced autoimmune arthritis model, acacetin significantly repressed the incidence of CIA, prevented the pathological alteration, and reduced CII-specific IgG and IgG1 levels.

Impaired renal function and abnormal level of ferritin are independent risk factors of left ventricular aneurysm after acute myocardial infarction: A hospital-based case-control study.

This study was performed to determine the prognostic value of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and ferritin compromised in left ventricular aneurysm (LVA) patients who suffered acute myocardial infarction (AMI) beforehand.A hospital-based case-control study was conducted in the Department of Cardiology, First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University in 2013 and 2014. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to kidney function and ferritin level.

Essential role of ultraviolet radiation in the decrease of corneal endothelial cell density caused by pterygium.

Purpose: To investigate the essential role of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the decrease of corneal endothelial cell density (ECD) caused by pterygium.

Methods: In this retrospective controlled study, 76 consecutive patients with unilateral primary pterygium were enrolled from January 2016 to August 2016. The Central corneal ECD was measured in both eyes.

Health State Utilities for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia: A Time Trade-off Study.

Objectives: Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is an aggressive haematological cancer associated with significant humanistic impact. The current study assessed how the general public in the United Kingdom (UK) values AML health states.

Methods: The composite time trade-off (cTTO) methodology was employed to elicit health state utilities in AML.

Plasma miR-17, miR-20a, miR-20b and miR-122 as potential biomarkers for diagnosis of NAFLD in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.

Aims: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) complication, may aggravate the disturbance of metabolism, increase the risk of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, and promote the progress of liver fibrosis. Therefore, early detection of NAFLD in T2DM patients is critical in avoiding the adverse effects of the complication. This study aimed to identify circulating miRNAs for early diagnosis of the complication.

Physics-Based Quadratic Deformation Using Elastic Weighting.

This paper presents a spatial reduction framework for simulating nonlinear deformable objects interactively. This reduced model is built using a small number of overlapping quadratic domains as we notice that incorporating high-order degrees of freedom (DOFs) is important for the simulation quality. Departing from existing multi-domain methods in graphics, our method interprets deformed shapes as blended quadratic transformations from nearby domains.

Androgen excess in pancreatic β cells and neurons predisposes female mice to type 2 diabetes.

Androgen excess predisposes women to type 2 diabetes (T2D), but the mechanism of this is poorly understood. We report that female mice fed a Western diet and exposed to chronic androgen excess using dihydrotestosterone (DHT) exhibit hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance associated with secondary pancreatic β cell failure, leading to hyperglycemia. These abnormalities are not observed in mice lacking the androgen receptor (AR) in β cells and partially in neurons of the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH) as well as in mice lacking AR selectively in neurons.

Effects of Increased Frequency, High Dose, and Pulsatile Oxytocin Regimens on Abnormal Labor Delivery.

BACKGROUND The current guideline for oxytocin regimens in the abnormal labor of delivery is continuous infusion. The objective of the present study was to compare effects and safety measures of various available regimens of oxytocin in abnormal labor delivery. MATERIAL AND METHODS In this clinical experimental study, a total of 900 pregnant women admitted for delivery were randomized into 5 group with 162 each.

Design of Boron Doped CN-CN Coplanar Conjugated Heterostructure for Efficient HER Electrocatalysis.

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) via the electrocatalytic reduction of water on metal-free catalysts may become a promising method for a sustainable energy supply in the future. However, compared with noble metals or transition metals, the carbon-based metal-free electrocatalysts show poor activity. Here, a novel coplanar metal-free catalyst (CN-CN) was designed for the first time to achieve better efficiency for electron transfer and water reduction.

Design of iron atom modified thiophene-linked metalloporphyrin 2D conjugated microporous polymer as CO reduction photocatalyst.

Herein, by means of density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we designed a new type of thiophene-linked porphyrin unit and incorporated it into an extended 2D conjugated microporous polymer (CMP) to serve as a CO2 reduction catalyst. This newly designed catalyst combines the advantages of molecular catalysis, heterogeneous catalysis, high structural stability and tunable electronic properties. A series of metal atoms (Fe, Mg, Mn, and Cu) were introduced into the center of the porphyrin ring to modify its capacity for reducing CO2.