Postoperative Radiotherapy and N2 Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Prognosis: A Retrospective Study Based on Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Database

The purpose of this study is to clarify the significance of postoperative radiotherapy for N2 lung cancer. This study aimed to investigate the effect of postoperative radiotherapy on the survival and prognosis of patients with N2 lung cancer. Data from 12,000 patients with N2 lung cancer were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (2004-2012). Age at disease onset and 5-year survival rates were calculated. Survival curves were plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method. The univariate log-rank test was performed. Multivariate Cox regression were used to examine factors affecting survival. Patients’ median age was 67 years (mean 66.46 ± 10.03). The 5-year survival rate was 12.55%. Univariate analysis revealed age, sex, pathology, and treatment regimen as factors affecting prognosis. In multivariate analysis, when compared to postoperative chemotherapy, postoperative chemoradiotherapy was better associated with survival benefits (hazard ratio [HR]= 0.85, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.813-0.898, P <0.001). Propensity score matching revealed that patients who had received postoperative chemoradiotherapy had a better prognosis than did patients who had received postoperative chemotherapy (HR=0.869, 95% CI: 0.817-0.925, P <0.001). Female patients and patients aged <65 years had a better prognosis than did their counterparts. Patients with adenocarcinoma had a better prognosis than did patients with squamous cell carcinoma. Moreover, prognosis worsened with increasing disease T stage. Patients who had received postoperative chemoradiotherapy had a better prognosis than did patients who had received postoperative chemotherapy. Postoperative radiotherapy was an independent prognostic factor in this patient group

PND-Net: Physics based Non-local Dual-domain Network for Metal Artifact Reduction

Metal artifacts caused by the presence of metallic implants tremendously degrade the reconstructed computed tomography (CT) image quality, affecting clinical diagnosis or reducing the accuracy of organ delineation and dose calculation in radiotherapy. Recently, deep learning methods in sinogram and image domains have been rapidly applied on metal artifact reduction (MAR) task. The supervised dual-domain methods perform well on synthesized data, while unsupervised methods with unpaired data are more generalized on clinical data. However, most existing methods intend to restore the corrupted sinogram within metal trace, which essentially remove beam hardening artifacts but ignore other components of metal artifacts, such as scatter, non-linear partial volume effect and noise. In this paper, we mathematically derive a physical property of metal artifacts which is verified via Monte Carlo (MC) simulation and propose a novel physics based non-local dual-domain network (PND-Net) for MAR in CT imaging. Specifically, we design a novel non-local sinogram decomposition network (NSD-Net) to acquire the weighted artifact component, and an image restoration network (IR-Net) is proposed to reduce the residual and secondary artifacts in the image domain. To facilitate the generalization and robustness of our method on clinical CT images, we employ a trainable fusion network (F-Net) in the artifact synthesis path to achieve unpaired learning. Furthermore, we design an internal consistency loss to ensure the integrity of anatomical structures in the image domain, and introduce the linear interpolation sinogram as prior knowledge to guide sinogram decomposition. Extensive experiments on simulation and clinical data demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art MAR methods.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure

Expanded huntingtin CAG repeats disrupt the balance between neural progenitor expansion and differentiation in human cerebral organoids

Huntington disease (HD) manifests in both adult and juvenile forms. Mutant HTT gene carriers are thought to undergo normal brain development followed by a degenerative phase, resulting in progressive clinical manifestations. However, recent studies in children and prodromal individuals at risk for HD have raised the possibility of abnormal neurodevelopment. Although key findings in rodent models support this notion, direct evidence in the context of human physiology remains lacking. Using a panel of isogenic HD human embryonic pluripotent stem cells and cerebral organoids, we investigated the impact of mutant HTT on early neurodevelopment. We find that ventricular zone-like neuroepithelial progenitor layer expansion is blunted in an HTT CAG repeat length-dependent manner due to premature neurogenesis in HD cerebral organoids, driven by cell intrinsic processes. Transcriptional profiling and imaging analysis revealed impaired cell cycle regulatory processes, increased G1 length, and increased asymmetric division of apical progenitors, collectively contributing to premature neuronal differentiation. We demonstrate increased activity of the ATM-p53 pathway, an up-stream regulator of cell cycle processes, and show that treatment with ATM antagonists partially rescues the blunted neuroepithelial progenitor expansion in HD organoids. Our findings suggest that CAG repeat length regulates the balance between neural progenitor expansion and differentiation during early neurodevelopment. Our results further support the view that HD, at least in its early-onset forms, may not be a purely neurodegenerative disorder, and that abnormal neurodevelopment may be a component of HD pathophysiology

Proton pump inhibitors may enhance the risk of digestive diseases by regulating intestinal microbiota

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are the most used acid-inhibitory drugs, with a wide range of applications in the treatment of various digestive diseases. However, recently, there has been a growing number of digestive complications linked to PPIs, and several studies have indicated that the intestinal flora play an important role in these complications. Therefore, developing a greater understanding of the role of the gut microbiota in PPI-related digestive diseases is essential. Here, we summarize the current research on the correlation between PPI-related digestive disorders and intestinal flora and establish the altered strains and possible pathogenic mechanisms of the different diseases. We aimed to provide a theoretical basis and reference for the future treatment and prevention of PPI-related digestive complications based on the regulation of the intestinal microbiota

Erbium-doped glass nanoparticle embedded polymer thin films using femtosecond pulsed laser deposition

Polymer materials doped with rare-earth ions are promising candidates for the formation of low-cost integrated optical amplifiers. However, there are significant technical challenges associated with the integration of these dissimilar materials and the formation of high-quality Er-doped polymer films. In this paper, therefore, we present for the first time the fabrication of polymer thin layers modified with erbium-doped sodium zinc tellurite (Er- TZN) glass nanoparticles (NPs) using femtosecond (fs) pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and the characterisation of their basic properties. The surface morphology and the compositional and structural characteristics of the samples produced with this method are evaluated using scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), while photoluminescence (PL) measurements are carried out at room temperature under a 980 nm laser diode excitation. The studies indicate that the Er-doped TZN NPs are successfully integrated in the polymer layers. The obtained average NP size is measured to be in the range of 12 to 21 nm depending on the fabrication parameters, while broad PL emission at 1534 nm that corresponds to the to the 4I13/2 →4I15/2 transition of Er3+ is observed from the samples. The full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the PL spectra is found to be ~39 nm while the fluorescence lifetime is measured to be in the range of 3.52 to 4.18 ms. The obtained results clearly demonstrate the potential to efficiently dope polymer layers with glass NPs using fs-PLD and is a first step towards the successful formation of hybrid polymer-glass waveguide amplifiers

The gut microbiome dysbiosis and regulation by fecal microbiota transplantation: umbrella review

BackgroundGut microbiome dysbiosis has been implicated in various gastrointestinal and extra-gastrointestinal diseases, but evidence on the efficacy and safety of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for therapeutic indications remains unclear.MethodsThe gutMDisorder database was used to summarize the associations between gut microbiome dysbiosis and diseases. We performed an umbrella review of published meta-analyses to determine the evidence synthesis on the efficacy and safety of FMT in treating various diseases. Our study was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42022301226).ResultsGut microbiome dysbiosis was associated with 117 gastrointestinal and extra-gastrointestinal. Colorectal cancer was associated with 92 dysbiosis. Dysbiosis involving Firmicutes (phylum) was associated with 34 diseases. We identified 62 published meta-analyses of FMT. FMT was found to be effective for 13 diseases, with a 95.56% cure rate (95% CI: 93.88–97.05%) for recurrent Chloridoids difficile infection (rCDI). Evidence was high quality for rCDI and moderate to high quality for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease but low to very low quality for other diseases.ConclusionGut microbiome dysbiosis may be implicated in numerous diseases. Substantial evidence suggests FMT improves clinical outcomes for certain indications, but evidence quality varies greatly depending on the specific indication, route of administration, frequency of instillation, fecal preparation, and donor type. This variability should inform clinical, policy, and implementation decisions regarding FMT

Industrial Policy and Innovation Capability of Strategic Emerging Industries: Empirical Evidence from Chinese New Energy Vehicle Industry

Industrial policy is an important tool for developing countries to protect their own industries and improve innovation capabilities. This paper takes China&rsquo;s new energy vehicle industry as an example, and uses the number of invention patents as a measure of independent innovation capability in order to analyze the impact mechanism of industrial policy on innovation. The estimation results of difference-in-differences and propensity score matching estimations show that the &ldquo;Ten Cities Thousand Vehicles Project&rdquo; for promoting the new energy vehicle industry has indeed increased the number of invention patents filed in new energy automobile manufacturers, as compared with traditional automakers. This paper also provides empirical evidence and statistical support for the implementation of industrial policies