A Study on the Correlation Between Sleep Quality and Accidental Injuries Among University Students in Hainan

Objective: To analyze the correlation between sleep quality and accidental injuries among university students in Hainan, and to provide reference for improving injury prevention among university students. Methods: A total of 1100 college students from freshman to Senior Students in three universities in Hainan were selected by multilevel random sampling method, and investigated by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and injury questionnaire. Results: The average PSQI score of Hainan university students was 7.645. In the five dimensions of sleep latency, sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, sleep medication, and daytime dysfunction, as well as the PSQI total score, the differences between the accidental injury group and the non-accidental injury group were statistically significant (P＜0.01), except for sleep quality and sleep time, all other dimensions and PSIQ total score were higher in the accidental injury group than in the non-accidental injury group. Conclusion: The problem of poor sleep quality among university students in Hainan were widespread, and the occurrence of accidental injuries among university students were related to the sleep quality

Impact of DNA damage repair alterations on prostate cancer progression and metastasis

Prostate cancer is among the most common diseases worldwide. Despite recent progress with treatments, patients with advanced prostate cancer have poor outcomes and there is a high unmet need in this population. Understanding molecular determinants underlying prostate cancer and the aggressive phenotype of disease can help with design of better clinical trials and improve treatments for these patients. One of the pathways often altered in advanced prostate cancer is DNA damage response (DDR), including alterations in BRCA1/2 and other homologous recombination repair (HRR) genes. Alterations in the DDR pathway are particularly prevalent in metastatic prostate cancer. In this review, we summarise the prevalence of DDR alterations in primary and advanced prostate cancer and discuss the impact of alterations in the DDR pathway on aggressive disease phenotype, prognosis and the association of germline pathogenic1 alterations in DDR genes with risk of developing prostate cancer

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Assessment method of depressive disorder level based on graph attention network

This paper presents an approach to predict the depression self-rating scale of Patient Health Questions-9 (PHQ-9) values from pupil-diameter data based on the graph attention network (GAT). The pupil diameter signal was derived from the eye information collected synchronously while the subjects were viewing the virtual reality emotional scene, and then the scores of PHQ-9 depression self-rating scale were collected for depression level. The chebyshev distance based GAT (Chebyshev-GAT) was constructed by extracting pupil-diameter change rate, emotional bandwidth, information entropy and energy, and their statistical distribution. The results show that, the error (MAE and SMRE)of the prediction results using Chebyshev-GAT is smaller then the traditional regression prediction model

Groundwater vulnerability assessment based on modified DRASTIC model: a case study in Changli County, China

Groundwater vulnerability assessment has been regarded as the initial step to understand and evaluate the susceptibility of the subsurface to contamination. As one of the most widely used models, the DRASTIC has been applied worldwide. However, problems associated with the model, such as the subjectivity in rating and weighting schemes, have led to modified versions of this model for better representing the vulnerability of the aquifer. In this study, a modified DRASTIC model was formulated by adjusting the rating and weighting scores based on Wilcoxon rank-sum test and Analytic Hierarchy Process. The modified model was then applied to the evaluation of groundwater vulnerability in Changli County, China in a GIS environment. The validity of the model was verified by analysing the correlation coefficient between the vulnerability index and the nitrate concentration. The results revealed that the modified DRASTIC model presents stronger correlation with the nitrate contamination than the traditional DRASTIC model

In-situ formed thermosensitive hydrogel amplifies statin-mediated immune checkpoint blockade for coordinated tumor chemo-immunotherapy

Small molecule drugs are the next-generation of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), but their in vivo therapeutic outcomes remain unsatisfactory for a long time. Herein, we proposed a combinatory regimen that delivered a small molecule ICI and an immunogenic cell death inducer in an in-situ formed hydrogel scaffold based on thermosensitive materials (Pluronic F127). This platform increased the tumor retention of administrated small molecules, creating more opportunities for the interaction between drugs and tumor cells. We found that atorvastatin (ATO) effectively downregulated the expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and reversed compensative PD-L1 upregulation after cyclophosphamide (CTX) chemotherapy on CT26 colon tumors. CTX not only killed tumor cells to reduce the tumor burden, but also release damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) to stimulate T cell immunity, therefore amplifying statin-mediated immunotherapy. The platform reported in this study might be promising to overcome the limitation of small molecule ICIs with short retention time and potentiate tumor chemo-immunotherapy

Chitin Oligosaccharide (COS) Reduces Antibiotics Dose and Prevents Antibiotics-Caused Side Effects in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) Patients with Spinal Fusion Surgery

Antibiotics are always considered for surgical site infection (SSI) in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) surgery. However, the use of antibiotics often causes the antibiotic resistance of pathogens and side effects. Thus, it is necessary to explore natural products as drug candidates. Chitin Oligosaccharide (COS) has anti-inflammation and anti-bacteria functions. The effects of COS on surgical infection in AIS surgery were investigated. A total of 312 AIS patients were evenly and randomly assigned into control group (CG, each patient took one-gram alternative Azithromycin/Erythromycin/Cloxacillin/Aztreonam/Ceftazidime or combined daily), experiment group (EG, each patient took 20 mg COS and half-dose antibiotics daily), and placebo group (PG, each patient took 20 mg placebo and half-dose antibiotics daily). The average follow-up was one month, and infection severity and side effects were analyzed. The effects of COS on isolated pathogens were analyzed. SSI rates were 2%, 3% and 8% for spine wounds and 1%, 2% and 7% for iliac wound in CG, EG and PG (p < 0.05), respectively. COS reduces the side effects caused by antibiotics (p < 0.05). COS improved biochemical indexes and reduced the levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha. COS reduced the antibiotics dose and antibiotics-caused side effects in AIS patients with spinal fusion surgery by improving antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. COS should be developed as potential adjuvant for antibiotics therapies