Epidemiology of neonatal disorders attributable to low birthweight-global burden of disease research, 1990-2021.

Background: To evaluate global, regional, and national trends in the burden of neonatal diseases attributable to LBW, as well as associated health inequalities, from 1990 to 2021.

Methods: Using data from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD2021), we analyzed deaths and DALYs due to LBW-attributable neonatal diseases. Data were stratified by gender, geographic region, epidemiological characteristics, and SDI levels.

Momordica charantia L.-derived exosome-like nanovesicles stabilize p62 expression to ameliorate doxorubicin cardiotoxicity.

Background: Doxorubicin (DOX) is a first-line chemotherapeutic drug for various malignancies that causes cardiotoxicity. Plant-derived exosome-like nanovesicles (P-ELNs) are growing as novel therapeutic agents. Here, we investigated the protective effects in DOX cardiotoxicity of ELNs from Momordica charantia L.

Chlorogenic Acid Modulates Autophagy by Inhibiting the Activity of ALKBH5 Demethylase, Thereby Ameliorating Hepatic Steatosis.

Chlorogenic acid (CGA) is a naturally occurring plant component with the purpose of alleviating hepatic lipid deposition biological activities. However, the molecular mechanism behind this ability of CGA remains unelucidated. Consequently, we investigated the effect of CGA on hepatic lipid accumulation and elucidated its underlying mechanism.

F-Florzolotau PET imaging captures the distribution patterns and regional vulnerability of tau pathology in progressive supranuclear palsy.

Purpose: Human post mortem studies have described the topographical patterns of tau pathology in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Recent advances in tau PET tracers are expected to herald the next era of PSP investigation for early detection of tau pathology in living brains. This study aimed to investigate whether F-Florzolotau PET imaging may capture the distribution patterns and regional vulnerability of tau pathology in PSP, and to devise a novel image-based staging system.

Machine learning-based dynamic prediction of lateral lymph node metastasis in patients with papillary thyroid cancer.

Objective: To develop a web-based machine learning server to predict lateral lymph node metastasis (LLNM) in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) patients.

Methods: Clinical data for PTC patients who underwent primary thyroidectomy at our hospital between January 2015 and December 2020, with pathologically confirmed presence or absence of any LLNM finding, were retrospectively reviewed. We built all models from a training set (80%) and assessed them in a test set (20%), using algorithms including decision tree, XGBoost, random forest, support vector machine, neural network, and K-nearest neighbor algorithm.

Combination of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin and matrix metalloproteinase-9 are biomarkers for the detection of colon tubular adenocarcinoma.

Background: Tubular adenocarcinoma of the colon, which originates from the epithelium of the glands, is a major health concern worldwide. However, it is difficult to detect at an early stage. The lack of biomarkers is a main barrier to the diagnosis and treatment of tubular adenocarcinoma.

Treatment of lower part of glenoid fractures through a novel axillary approach: A case report.

Background: Based on the location and size of the fracture block, open reduction and internal fixation can be employed or assisted for shoulder arthroscopy in the treatment of glenoid fractures. However, the treatment of lower part of glenoid fractures through a novel axillary approach has not been reported so far.

Case Summary: A 22-year-old right-handed man was transferred to our outpatient clinic because of right shoulder injury during a traffic accident.

Association between habenula dysfunction and motivational symptoms in unmedicated major depressive disorder.

The lateral habenula plays a central role in reward and punishment processing and has been suggested to drive the cardinal symptom of anhedonia in depression. This hypothesis is largely based on observations of habenula hypermetabolism in animal models of depression, but the activity of habenula and its relationship with clinical symptoms in patients with depression remains unclear. High-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and computational modelling were used to investigate the activity of the habenula during a probabilistic reinforcement learning task with rewarding and punishing outcomes in 21 unmedicated patients with major depression and 17 healthy participants.

Anhedonia is associated with blunted reward sensitivity in first-degree relatives of patients with major depression.

Background: Anhedonia is a cardinal feature of major depression and is hypothesized to be driven by low motivation, in particular blunted reward sensitivity. It has been suggested to be a marker that represents a genetic predisposition to this disorder. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this heightened risk in unaffected first-degree relatives of patients with major depression.

Ultra-bright near-infrared-emitting HgS/ZnS core/shell nanocrystals for in vitro and in vivo imaging.

Near-infrared (NIR)-emitting nanocrystals have enormous potential as an enabling technology for applications ranging from tunable infrared lasers to biological labels. Mercury chalcogenide NCs are one of the attractive NCs with NIR emission; however, the potential toxicity of Hg restricts their diverse applications. Herein, we synthesized low-toxic, highly luminescent and stable GSH-capped HgS/ZnS core/shell NCs by an aqueous route for the first time.

Correlation analysis of phenotype and genotype of GJB2 in patients with non-syndromic hearing loss in China.

Background: Disease-associated mutations in GJB2 gene are one of the major reasons that can cause non-syndromic sensorineural hearing loss (NSHL). GJB2 gene deafness has various clinical phenotypes. This study aims to analyze characteristics and relationships of clinical phenotypes through analyzing 1481 NSHL cases and 190 GJB2 deafness patients (with dual gene mutations).

Within-litter variation in birth weight: impact of nutritional status in the sow.

Accompanying the beneficial improvement in litter size from genetic selection for high-prolificacy sows, within-litter variation in birth weight has increased with detrimental effects on post-natal growth and survival due to an increase in the proportion of piglets with low birth-weight. Causes of within-litter variation in birth weight include breed characteristics that affect uterine space, ovulation rate, degree of maturation of oocytes, duration of time required for ovulation, interval between ovulation and fertilization, uterine capacity for implantation and placentation, size and efficiency of placental transport of nutrients, communication between conceptus/fetus and maternal systems, as well as nutritional status and environmental influences during gestation. Because these factors contribute to within-litter variation in birth weight, nutritional status of the sow to improve fetal-placental development must focus on the following three important stages in the reproductive cycle: pre-mating or weaning to estrus, early gestation and late gestation.

Highly fluorescent, near-infrared-emitting Cd²⁺-tuned HgS nanocrystals with optical applications.

Bulk HgS itself has proven to be a technologically important material; however, the poor stability and weak emission of HgS nanocrystals have greatly hindered their promising applications. Presently, a critical problem is the uncontrollable growth of HgS NCs and their intrinsic surface states which are susceptible to the local environment. Here, we address the issue by an ion-tuning approach to fabricating stable, highly fluorescent Cd:HgS/CdS NCs for the first time, which efficiently tuned the band-gap level of HgS NCs, pushing their intrinsic states far away from the surface, reducing the strong interaction of the environment with surface states and hence drastically boosting the exciton transition.

Clinical observation on hearing conditions of centenarians in northern district of China.

Conclusion: The hearing conditions of the centenarians were quite poor as regards hearing thresholds and speech detection ability.

Objective: To investigate hearing conditions of centenarians.

Methods: A total of 54 centenarians in Rizhao and Linyi Districts in Shandong Province were investigated to assess hearing conditions of centenerians comprehensively by questionnaire investigation, pure-tone audiometry, acoustic immitance, intelligence evaluation, and speech detection scores.

A novel mutation in the TECTA gene in a Chinese family with autosomal dominant nonsyndromic hearing loss.

TECTA-related deafness can be inherited as autosomal-dominant nonsyndromic deafness (designated DFNA) or as the autosomal-recessive version. The α-tectorin protein, which is encoded by the TECTA gene, is one of the major components of the tectorial membrane in the inner ear. Using targeted DNA capture and massively parallel sequencing (MPS), we screened 42 genes known to be responsible for human deafness in a Chinese family (Family 3187) in which common deafness mutations had been ruled out as the cause, and identified a novel mutation, c.

The immunosuppression mechanism of hypodermin A on complement.

Hypodermin A (HA), a serine protease secreted by first-instar larvae of Hypoderma lineatum (Diptera: Oestridae) is associated with inflammatory and the specific immune responses in cattle hosts. In the present study, the cDNA sequence of HA was synthesized, and found to have fifteen amino acids which differed from the sequence available in GenBank. We then examined the association between recombinant HA and guinea-pig complement component 3 (C3) through a co-immunoprecipitation assay.

XPG is a novel biomarker of clinical outcome in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

Objective: Polymorphisms in XPG were considered to contribute to the clinical outcome of patients receiving platinum drug chemotherapy. We investigated the impact of several potential SNPs of XPG on the efficacy of platinum-based chemotherapy in NSCLC patients.

Methods: A total of 433 patients were consecutively selected between Nov.

[Quantifiable changes in HBeAg expression predict therapeutic efficacy of peg-interferon alfa-2a in patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B].

Objective: To investigate whether quantifiable changes in serum levels of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) in response to 24 weeks of pegylated-interferon alfa-2a (Peg-IFN-a 2a) treatment are predictive of therapeutic efficacy at 48 weeks of treatment in HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and to investigate the efficacy of using an individualized antiviral treatment strategy.

Methods: Ninety-six HBeAg-positive CHB patients with detectable HBeAg at week 24 of Peg-IFN-a 2a treatment were categorized according to the quantitative change in HBeAg (vs. pre-treatment baseline): group A, HBeAg decline more than 2 log; group B, HBeAg decline between 1 - 2 log; group C, HBeAg decline less than 1 log, which was then randomly divided into two sub-groups: C1 and C2.

Clinical utility of the Snaith-Hamilton-Pleasure scale in the Chinese settings.

Background: The Snaith-Hamilton-Pleasure-Scale (SHAPS) is a self-reported scale evaluating anhedonia for neuropsychiatric disorders. It has demonstrated with impressive psychometric properties and advantages in its applicability over other similar instruments. However, very few studies have been conducted to examine the clinical utility of the SHAPS in the context of Chinese settings.

The neuroprotective effect of overexpression of calbindin-D(28k) in an animal model of Parkinson's disease.

Overexpression of calbindin-D(28k) (CaBP-28 k) induces neurite outgrowth in dopaminergic neuronal cells and could provide some protection to dopaminergic neurons against the pathological process in Parkinson's disease. Transgenic mice CaBP-28 k overexpression and the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced mouse models were generated, and the effect of midbrain dopamine neurons in ethology was also assessed. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-immunoreactive neurons were counted, and the concentration of total protein and dopamine (DA) of striatum corpora was measured in four animal models.

Lymph node uptake of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose detected with positron emission tomography/computed tomography mimicking malignant lymphoma in a patient with Kikuchi disease.

[18]F-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) is sensitive in detecting a variety of malignancies; however, the specificity is low in differential infections or inflammatory diseases from tumors. We present the case of a female with right cervical lymphadenopathy and fever for 3 weeks who underwent an 18F-FDG PET/CT scan. The imaging showed multiple lymph node enlargement and agglomeration with increased metabolic activity even with the involvement in the abdomen, giving the impression of malignant lymphoma.

Ginkgo Biloba Extract EGb 761 Alleviates Hepatic Fibrosis and Sinusoidal Microcirculation Disturbance in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B.

Background: Few clinical data are available regarding the effect of Ginkgo biloba extract (EGb 761) on liver microcirculation and fibrosis. This randomized, controlled trial is to investigate the effect of Ginko biloba extract EGb 761 on liver fibrosis and hepatic microcirculation in patients with chronic hepatitis B.

Methods: Sixty-four patients with chronic hepatitis B were randomized for intention-to-treat.

[Treatment of esophageal varicose bleeding by percutaneous transhepatic varices obliteration and partial spleen embolization].

Objective: To study the clinical efficacy of TH glue (cyanoacrylate) obliteration of esophageal varices and partial spleen embolization (PSE) in the treatment of esophageal varices bleeding.

Methods: TH glue was injected into the gastroesophageal varices and their feeder veins in 84 patients. According to the size of the varices and their blood flow, the TH glue was injected alone or after a steel coil was placed at the ostium of the feeder vein.