Effect of radical radiotherapy dose on the prognosis of limited-stage thoracic small cell carcinoma of the esophagus: A multicenter retrospective trial from China (CHiSCEC).

Background: The optimal radiation dose for the treatment of small cell carcinoma of the esophagus (SCEC) has not been established. This study aimed to investigate the treatment outcomes and toxicities in patients with limited-stage SCEC (LS-SCEC) treated by radiotherapy.

Methods: Patients with LS-SCEC from 14 institutions were retrospectively identified between December 2000 and October 2021.

Ultrasound-Mediated Non-Specific Splenic Immunopotentiation to Elicit Broad-Spectrum Anti-Neoplastic Effects.

Background: Splenic immunomodulation triggered by ultrasound shows a significant anti-inflammatory effect against various inflammatory diseases, whose mechanism is mainly attributable to the activation of cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (CAP). However, the potential role and underlying mechanism of splenic ultrasound stimulation in cancer management have been rarely reported and superficially defined.

Methods: Following optimization of ultrasonic parameters, this study evaluated the anti-tumor efficacy of splenic sonication across multiple tumor models (eg, orthotopic H22 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), orthotopic Hepa1-6 HCC, and subcutaneous 4T1 breast cancer), and applied flow cytometry to quantify dynamic alterations in immune cell populations.

and Analysis of Cathepsin D in Bone Homeostasis and Osteoporosis.

Objectives: To explore the role of cathepsin D (CTSD), a lysosomal aspartyl protease, as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target in the context of osteoporosis.

Methods: Utilizing single-cell sequencing data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, we identified differential expression patterns of CTSD in human femoral head tissues between osteoporotic and non-osteoporotic states. Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were treated with recombinant human CTSD and/or osteogenic induction medium and the role of CTSD on osteoblast differentiation were investigated by RT-qPCR, western blot, immunofluorescence staining and alizarin red staining.

Determination of the Mechanisms of Terbium(III) Biosorption by Strains with Adsorption Selectivity for Heavy Rare Earth Elements.

species have shown the potential to recover rare earth elements (REEs), but strains with adsorption selectivity for terbium(III) remain understudied. In this study, six strains with the capability for efficient adsorption of Tb(III) were screened from an ionic rare earth mine and were identified based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Adsorption experiments showed that sp.

Characteristics of the Insulin-like Peptide Genes and Their Roles in the Ovarian Development of (Coquillett).

The melon fly (Coquillett) is a globally invasive pest responsible for substantial economic losses in the fruit and vegetable industries. Insulin-like peptides (ILPs) are evolutionarily conserved neuropeptides that play a crucial role in insect reproduction. In this study, six from the melon fly, designated as -, were cloned.

Association Analysis Between Ischemic Stroke Risk Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms and Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and ischemic stroke (IS) are prevalent neurological disorders that frequently co-occur in the same individuals. Recent studies have demonstrated that AD and IS share several common risk factors and pathogenic elements, including an overlapping genomic architecture. However, the relationship between IS risk gene polymorphisms and AD has been less extensively studied.

Revisiting the role of local treatments in the era of targeted therapy and immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma.

The advent of targeted therapy and immunotherapy has revolutionised the management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with all stages, dramatically improving their survival outcomes. Currently, radical resection is still the preferred first-line treatment for early-stage HCC, nevertheless, the surgical outcomes remain unsatisfactory due to high recurrence rate of 70% within 5 years after surgery. Moreover, up to two thirds of diagnosed HCC patients are in the advanced stages of the disease, exhibiting intrahepatic or extrahepatic metastases and vascular invasion.

A regulator of amino acid sensing links lipid peroxidation and lipid droplet-dependent antioxidant response.

Recent studies highlight the antioxidant role of lipid droplets (LDs) in shielding unsaturated lipids from peroxidation. While LDs accumulate during oxidative stress, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Our previous research revealed that intracellular amino acids directly bind to and activate the E3 ubiquitin ligase Ubr1 to degrade Plin2, an LD protein inhibiting lipolysis.

Federated modality-specific encoders and partially personalized fusion decoder for multimodal brain tumor segmentation.

Most existing federated learning (FL) methods for medical image analysis only considered intramodal heterogeneity, limiting their applicability to multimodal imaging applications. In practice, some FL participants may possess only a subset of the complete imaging modalities, posing intermodal heterogeneity as a challenge to effectively training a global model on all participants' data. Meanwhile, each participant expects a personalized model tailored to its local data characteristics in FL.

Part-Wise Graph Fourier Learning for Skeleton-Based Continuous Sign Language Recognition.

Sign language is a visual language articulated through body movements. Existing approaches predominantly leverage RGB inputs, incurring substantial computational overhead and remaining susceptible to interference from foreground and background noise. A second fundamental challenge lies in accurately modeling the nonlinear temporal dynamics and inherent asynchrony across body parts that characterize sign language sequences.

Application and research progress of tranexamic acid in the perioperative period of posterior lumbar interbody fusion.

Posterior lumbar interbody fusion requires stripping the multifidus muscle, destroying a large amount of cancellous bone and damaging the posterior spinal venous plexus. Typically, surgical trauma is extensive, the surgical duration is long, and the degree of bleeding is substantial. Excessive blood loss can compromise a patient's hemodynamic stability, elevate surgical risks, and cause damage to vital organs, potentially becoming life-threatening in severe cases.

Iron dysregulation and ferroptosis are associated with pulmonary fibrosis: Insight from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, systemic sclerosis, and COVID-19 patients.

Background: Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is the leading cause of death in many lung diseases due to inflammation, tissue damage, infection, or other contributing factors. Iron metabolism and ferroptosis have been reported to participate in some PF diseases, but the universality remains elusive.

Methods: Herein, comparative studies were conducted among idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), immune-associated systemic sclerosis (SSc), and infectious COVID-19.

Gα13 Overexpression in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Disrupts Social Behavior Through the Adcyap1/cAMP/PKA/NMDAR Pathway.

Background: Social withdrawal is a core symptom of schizophrenia (SCZ), yet its underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. Gα13 (GNA13), a G protein alpha subunit, has been implicated in SCZ susceptibility. This study investigated the role of Gα13 in social behavior by overexpressing it in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) pyramidal neurons of mice.

Serine Glycine Restriction Aggravates Hepatic Ischemia-reperfusion Injury.

Background: Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury (HIRI) significantly affects liver function in liver transplantation, primarily through dysregulated metabolism and inflammation. Although serine and glycine (SG) have been identified as potential therapeutic targets in various diseases, the mechanisms by which SG influences HIRI remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of SG deficient (-SG) dietary intervention on HIRI.

Public Attention to Mpox in China During the Pandemic: Qualitative Analysis of TikTok Data Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation Topic Modeling.

Background: Mpox has reemerged as a global public health concern. With the growing reliance on social media for health information dissemination, understanding public perception through these platforms is essential for designing effective health promotion strategies.

Objective: This study analyzes TikTok data related to mpox using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling.

METTL3 and METTL14 drive pancreatic adenocarcinoma progression via m6A-dependent alternative splicing in PANC-1 cells.

Unlabelled: METTL3 and METTL14, key components of the m6A methyltransferase complex, have been extensively studied in the context of various cancers. However, their roles in regulating alternative splicing in pancreatic cancer remain largely unexplored. In this study, we analyzed high-throughput RNA-seq data (GSE146806), alongside CLIP-seq datasets (GSE132306 and SRP163326), to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying METTL3_14-mediated regulation.

Current trends and perspectives on the roles of multi-analytical methodologies in spirit authentication: Perspectives, challenges, and opportunities.

The persistent occurrence of economically motivated food frauds and adulterations, causing substantial economic losses to enterprises and endangering consumers interests, critically impedes the sustainable development of the food industry. Spirits, characterized by high brand premiums and distinct geographical attributes emerge as primary fraud vectors. This review highlights the two predominant research directions in spirit authentication through bibliometric analysis, including the authenticity of geographic origin and the "illegal addition" adulteration.

Association of gestational weight gain with pregnancy complications and delivery outcomes in twins: a study in Northern China.

Background: This study aimed to develop a gestational age-specific gestational weight gain (GWG) reference for twins in northern China and analyze its impact on pregnancy complications and delivery outcomes considering GWG during different trimesters of pregnancy.

Methods: This study analyzed 9375 twin pregnant women in Tianjin (2010-2018) after outlier and missing data exclusion. Using the lambda - mu - sigma - tau (LMS) method with GAMLSS package in R, BMI- and trimester-specific GWG percentiles were established.

A functionally tunable magnetic nanochains platform for N-glycoproteomic analysis of extracellular vesicles from ultratrace biofluids.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) carry complex glycoproteins critical mediators of disease progression and hold great potential for liquid biopsy applications. However, their low abundance presents significant analytical challenges. This study develop a versatile platform for EV N-glycoproteomic analysis (EVGpro), which enables tandem EV capture, EV protein digestion, and enrichment of N-glycopeptides.

Activated Protein C Suppresses Cardiomyocyte Senescence in Diabetic Cardiomyopathy via PAR1/PAR3-P85-CaMKIIδ Axis.

Diabetes exacerbates cardiomyocyte senescence, leading to an accelerated decline in cardiac function. The systemic levels of activated protein C (aPC) were reduced, which correlated with deterioration of cardiac diastolic function in diabetic cardiomyopathy (DbCM), while the underlying mechanisms remained unclear. We aim to identify the role of aPC in ameliorating cardiomyocyte senescence in DbCM.

Effects of cerebellar intermittent theta-burst stimulation on patients with Alzheimer's disease: A randomized controlled trial.

BackgroundThe cerebellum plays a crucial role in cognitive processing, making it a potential target for therapeutic intervention in Alzheimer's disease (AD).ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the effect of cerebellar intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) in patients with AD.MethodsWe conducted a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled clinical trial in which patients were randomly allocated to receive either active-iTBS or sham-iTBS.

Exploring lithium-ion diffusion and electronic properties in defective graphite via molecular dynamics and density functional theory.

The thermodynamic, kinetic, and mechanical properties of graphite anodes significantly influence the performance of lithium-ion batteries. Molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory calculations were employed to examine the effects of defects in graphite on these properties. In particular, the influence of three types of defects-Stone-Wales (SW), single vacancy (SV), and double vacancy (DV)-at defect densities below 0.

Identification of immune escape-related prognostic genes and immune infiltration analysis in hepatocellular carcinoma based on bioinformatics.

Background: Immune escape is a critical barrier to effective cancer immunotherapy for cancers such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of this study was to identify prognostic genes associated with immune escape and to analyse immune infiltration in HCC.

Methods: The TCGA-LIHC cohort gene expression matrix and TCGA cohort were downloaded from the UCSC Xena and TCGA databases, respectively, for differential expression analysis, as well as for clinical data and survival information.

GM-ABS: Promptable Generalist Model Drives Active Barely Supervised Training in Specialist Model for 3D Medical Image Segmentation.

Semi-supervised learning (SSL) has greatly advanced 3D medical image segmentation by alleviating the need for intensive labeling by radiologists. While previous efforts focused on model-centric advancements, the emergence of foundational generalist models like the Segment Anything Model (SAM) is expected to reshape the SSL landscape. Although these generalists usually show performance gaps relative to previous specialists in medical imaging, they possess impressive zero-shot segmentation abilities with manual prompts.

Judicious Use of Chalcogens in Multiresonant Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescent Emitters Leads to OLEDs with Efficiencies Exceeding 36% and Showing Mild Efficiency Roll-Off.

Strategies that produce OLEDs that simultaneously achieve outstanding electroluminescence efficiency, small efficiency roll-off, good stability, and high color purity remain in strong demand. Herein, we report how judicious decoration of a benzochalcogenophene onto the BCzBN core leads to an acceleration of reverse intersystem crossing (k) without sacrificing either color fidelity and photoluminescence quantum yield (Φ). Compared with BCzBN, the k of BN-S and BN-Se are accelerated to 2.