A phase II study of ramucirumab and somatostatin analog therapy in patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors.

Objectives: Well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors (NET) are highly vascular tumors characterized by their expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). This trial investigated the activity of ramucirumab, a monoclonal antibody that targets VEGF receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) and inhibits activity of VEGF, in combination with somatostatin analog therapy in patients (pts) with advanced extra-pancreatic NET.

Methods: We conducted a single-arm phase II trial enrolling pts with advanced, progressive extra-pancreatic NET.

Multi-cohort analysis identifying core ocular surface microbiome and bacterial alterations in eye diseases.

Purpose: Inconsistency exists among reported studies on the composition of human ocular surface microbiome (OSM). The roles of OSM in ocular diseases remain uncertain. In this study, we aimed to determine the composition of OSM and to evaluate its potential roles and functions from multiple cohorts.

Long-term safety of lentiviral or gammaretroviral gene-modified T cell therapies.

Long-term risks of gene therapy are not fully understood. In this study, we evaluated safety outcomes in 783 patients over more than 2,200 total patient-years of observation from 38 T cell therapy trials. The trials employed integrating gammaretroviral or lentiviral vectors to deliver engineered receptors to target HIV-1 infection or cancer.

A dendritic hexamer acceptor enables 19.4% efficiency with exceptional stability in organic solar cells.

To achieve the commercialization of organic solar cells (OSCs), it is crucial not only to enhance power conversion efficiency (PCE) but also to improve device stability through rational molecular design. Recently emerging giant molecular acceptor (GMA) materials offer various advantages, such as precise chemical structure, high molecular weight (beneficial to film stability under several external stress), and impressive device efficiency, making them a promising candidate. Here, we report a dendritic hexamer acceptor developed through a branch-connecting strategy, which overcomes the molecular weight bottleneck of GMAs and achieves a high production yield over 58%.

The feasibility and effectiveness of telecare consultations in a nurse-led post-acute stroke clinic.

Background: Telecare may provide an alternative to maintaining post-acute stroke care services in making benefit to both the providers and the stroke survivors, although study is needed to investigate its feasibility and effectiveness in integrating this innovative delivery mode into a routine.

Objectives: The objectives of this study are to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of telecare consultations in a nurse-led post-acute stroke clinic.

Methods: A pre- and post-test one group quasi-experimental design was adopted.

Methane oxidation to ethanol by a molecular junction photocatalyst.

Methane, the major component of natural and shale gas, is a significant carbon source for chemical synthesis. The direct partial oxidation of methane to liquid oxygenates under mild conditions is an attractive pathway, but the molecule's inertness makes it challenging to achieve simultaneously high conversion and high selectivity towards a single target product. This difficulty is amplified when aiming for more valuable products that require C-C coupling.

Association Between Type 2 Diabetes Onset Age and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality: Two Cohort Studies from United Kingdom and Hong Kong.

Objective: This study evaluated the association between age of onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality.

Method: Two retrospective cohort studies were conducted using the electronic health record from United Kingdom (UK) and Hong Kong (HK) (2008-2013) on adults without CVD. 128,918 and 185,646 patients with newly diagnosed T2DM were assigned to the T2DM group, and control group included 5,052,770 and 3,159,396 patients without T2DM in UK and HK cohort, respectively.

Visible light-driven triazine-based S-scheme COF-TpTt@BiOBr heterojunction with oxygen vacancy for enhanced photocatalytic pollutants removal and hydrogen production.

S-scheme heterojunction is an effective tactic to improve photocatalytic property. But few studies on constructing heterojunction with BiOBr and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are available. Herein, a novel series of COF-TpTt@BiOBr S-scheme heterojunctions with oxygen vacancies (OVs) were constructed via solvothermal method.

Synchronicity Between the Rates of Reaeration and Pollutants Degradation During Self-Purification in a Large River.

The pollutants after were discharged into the water can gradually degrade through the self-purification. The oxygen consumption and pollutant degradation rates characterize the self-purification of small and medium-sized streams, while the dynamics of the two characteristics for large rivers has not been reported yet. The in-situ investigation for 297 sites in the 1700 km stream of the Yangtze River was conducted.

Effect of β-catenin on hypoxia induced epithelial mesenchymal transition in HK-2 cells by regulating Brachyury.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become a worldwide health problem and the incidence rate and mortality of CKD have been rising. Renal fibrosis (RF) is the final common pathological feature of almost all kinds of CKD and Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is the predominant stage of RF. β-catenin is a key component of the Wnt signaling pathway, which has been fully proven to promote EMT.

Purple corn extract improves benign prostatic hyperplasia by inhibiting 5 alpha-reductase type 2 and inflammation in testosterone propionate-induced rats.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a health issue caused by an enlarged prostate in older men. Its prevalence increases with age, and it results in urination-related problems. This works studied the effect of purple corn extract (PCE) on improving BPH symptoms using a testosterone propionate (TP)-induced rat model.

Computational frameworks transform antagonism to synergy in optimizing combination therapies.

While drug combinations are increasingly important in disease treatment, predicting their therapeutic interactions remains challenging. This review systematically analyzes computational methods for predicting drug combination effects through multi-omics data integration. We comprehensively assess key algorithms including DrugComboRanker and AuDNNsynergy, and evaluate integration approaches encompassing kernel regression and graph networks.

Fibrocyte enrichment and myofibroblastic adaptation causes nucleus pulposus fibrosis and associates with disc degeneration severity.

Fibrotic remodeling of nucleus pulposus (NP) leads to structural and mechanical anomalies of intervertebral discs that prone to degeneration, leading to low back pain incidence and disability. Emergence of fibroblastic cells in disc degeneration has been reported, yet their nature and origin remain elusive. In this study, we performed an integrative analysis of multiple single-cell RNA sequencing datasets to interrogate the cellular heterogeneity and fibroblast-like entities in degenerative human NP specimens.

Regulating Water Molecules via Bioinspired Covalent Organic Framework Membranes for Zn Metal Anodes.

The Zn metal anode in aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) faces daunting challenges including undesired water-induced parasitic reactions and sluggish ion migration kinetics. Herein, we develop three-dimensional covalent organic framework (COF) membranes with bioinspired ion channels toward stabilized Zn anodes. These COFs, featured by zincophilic pyridine-N sites, enable effective regulation of water molecules at the anode-electrolyte interphase.

Systematic review on supplementation, fortification, and food-based interventions for preventing iron deficiency anemia in low- and middle-income countries.

Background And Objectives: Prioritizing key preventive and therapeutic interventions is one of the actions to accelerate the reduction of anemia. This study aimed to examine interventions designed to prevent anemia.

Methods And Study Design: A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cochrane Library.

Acceptability of Self-administered Acupressure for Knee Osteoarthritis in Middle-aged and Older Adults: A Mixed-method Secondary Analysis.

Objectives: To evaluate the acceptability of self-administered acupressure for Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) among middle-aged and older adults.

Methods: This is a mixed-method acceptability evaluation was embedded in a randomized controlled trial on self-administered acupressure for KOA. Participants received two 2-hour training sessions on self-administered acupressure and were instructed to practice twice daily for 12 weeks.

Thematic analysis of perceptions from both patients and dental students on a digital clinical decision aid in prosthodontics: A qualitative study.

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the impact of utilizing an innovative and comprehensive patient-centered digital clinical decision aid designed to facilitate shared decision-making in missing tooth replacement between dental students and their patients.

Methods: A qualitative study using interview approach was conducted in Hong Kong SAR and Malaysia. Thirty dental undergraduate students, each with one patient from the Faculty of Dentistry at The University of Hong Kong (n = 15) and Universiti Teknologi MARA (n = 15), were introduced to a digitally designed decision aid in missing tooth replacement prior to their treatment appointments.

Exercised gut microbiota improves vascular and metabolic abnormalities in sedentary diabetic mice through gut‒vascular connection.

Background: Exercise elicits cardiometabolic benefits, reducing the risks of cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. This study aimed to investigate the vascular and metabolic effects of gut microbiota from exercise-trained donors on sedentary mice with type 2 diabetes and the potential mechanism.

Methods: Leptin receptor-deficient diabetic (db/db) and nondiabetic (db/m) mice underwent running treadmill exercise for 8 weeks, during which fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) was parallelly performed from exercise-trained to sedentary diabetic (db/db) mice.

Towards parameter-free attentional spiking neural networks.

Brain-inspired spiking neural networks (SNNs) are increasingly explored for their potential in spatiotemporal information modeling and energy efficiency on emerging neuromorphic hardware. Recent works incorporate attentional modules into SNNs, greatly enhancing their capabilities in handling sequential data. However, these parameterized attentional modules have placed a huge burden on memory consumption, a factor that is constrained on neuromorphic chips.

Red blood cell pyruvate kinase properties in Townes and Berkeley sickle cell disease mouse models - Of mice and men.

Pyruvate kinase (PK), a key ATP-generating enzyme in glycolysis, is a target for novel sickle cell disease (SCD) therapies. Enhancing PK activity lowers 2,3-diphosphyglycerate (2,3-DPG), increases adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and may prevent red blood cell (RBC) sickling. Townes and Berkeley SCD mouse models are commonly used for the development of novel drugs for SCD, but differ from humans in 2,3-DPG and ATP levels, which could be related to underlying differences in PK properties.

Metabarcoding reveals high species diversity of Chaetoceros, Pseudo-nitzschia, and Thalassiosira in Hong Kong coastal waters, a typical subtropical region.

Chaetoceros, Pseudo-nitzschia, and Thalassiosira are ecologically important genera which formed blooms frequently in Hong Kong coastal waters in past decades. However, species identification based on microscopic observation for diatoms in these genera is difficult. In this study, we investigated species diversity of Chaetoceros, Pseudo-nitzschia, and Thalassiosira in Hong Kong coastal waters using metabarcoding approach.

Comparative risks and clinical outcomes of midazolam versus other intravenous sedatives in critically ill mechanically ventilated patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials.

Objectives: This systematic review synthesized literature evidence and compared midazolam's risks and clinical outcomes with other sedatives in critically ill mechanically ventilated patients.

Methods: We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from databases of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and CINAHL without language restrictions. We used relative risk (RR) for binary outcomes and standardized mean difference (SMD) for continuous outcomes, with corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI).

Antibiotic resistance genes in anaerobic digestion: Unresolved challenges and potential solutions.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens public health, necessitating urgent efforts to mitigate the global impact of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Anaerobic digestion (AD), known for volatile solid reduction and energy generation, also presents a feasible approach for the removal of ARGs. This review encapsulates the existing understanding of ARGs and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) during the AD process, highlighting unresolved challenges pertaining to their detection and quantification.