MRI in the differential diagnosis of primary architectural distortion detected by mammography

PURPOSEWe aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a combination of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values in lesions that manifest with architectural distortion (AD) on mammography.METHODSAll full-field digital mammography (FFDM) images obtained between August 2010 and January 2013 were reviewed retrospectively, and 57 lesions showing AD were included in the study. Two independent radiologists reviewed all mammograms and MRI data and recorded lesion characteristics according to the BI-RADS lexicon. The gold standard was histopathologic results from biopsies or surgical excisions and results of the two-year follow-up. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was carried out to define the most effective threshold ADC value to differentiate malignant from benign breast lesions. We investigated the sensitivity and specificity of FFDM, DCE-MRI, FFDM+DCE-MRI, and DCE-MRI+ADC.RESULTSOf the 57 lesions analyzed, 28 were malignant and 29 were benign. The most effective threshold for the normalized ADC (nADC) was 0.61 with 93.1% sensitivity and 75.0% specificity. The sensitivity and specificity of DCE-MRI combined with nADC was 92.9% and 79.3%, respectively. DCE-MRI combined with nADC showed the highest specificity and equal sensitivity compared with other modalities, independent of the presentation of calcification.CONCLUSIONDCE-MRI combined with nADC values was more reliable than mammography in differentiating the nature of disease manifesting as primary AD on mammography

Regenerated woody plants influence soil microbial communities in a subtropical forest

10 páginas.- 4 figuras.- 3 tablas.- referencias.- upplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi. org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2023.104890Forests are critical for supporting multiple ecosystem services such as climate change mitigation. Microbial diversity in soil provides important functions to maintain and regenerate forest ecosystems, and yet a critical knowledge gap remains in identifying the linkage between attributes of regenerated woody plant (RWP) communities and the diversity patterns of soil microbial communities in subtropical plantations. Here, we investigated the changes in soil microbial communities and plant traits in a nine hectare Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata; CF) plantation to assess how non-planted RWP communities regulate soil bacterial and fungal diversity, and further explore the potential mechanisms that structure their interaction. Our study revealed that soil bacterial richness was positively associated with RWP richness, whereas soil fungal richness was negatively associated with RWP basal area. Meanwhile, RWP richness was positively correlated with ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal richness but negatively correlated with the richness of both pathogenic and saprotrophic fungi, suggesting that the RWP-fungal richness relationship was trophic guild-specific. Soil microbial community beta diversity (i.e., dissimilarity in community composition) was strongly coupled with both RWP beta diversity and the heterogeneity of RWP basal area. Our study highlights the importance of community-level RWP plant attributes for the regulation of microbial biodiversity in plantation systems, which should be considered in forest management programs in the future.This work was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFD2201301 and 2022YFF1303003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U22A20612), and the Key Project of Jiangxi Province Natural Science Foundation of China (20224ACB205003).Peer reviewe

Associations between the COVID-19 pandemic and women’s fertility intentions: a multi-country, cross-sectional (I-SHARE) study

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic, together with the subsequent social distancing measures, could lead to shifts in family and fertility planning. This study aimed to explore the associations between the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in fertility intentions among an international sample of reproductive-aged women. Methods A multi-country, cross-sectional study based on data from 10 672 women aged 18–49 years who participated in the International Sexual Health And REproductive Health (I-SHARE) study, which organised an international online survey between July 2020 and February 2021. Factors associated with changes in fertility intentions were explored using multinomial probit regression models. Cluster-robust standard errors were used to calculate model parameters. Results Of 10 672 included reproductive-aged women, 14.4% reported changing their fertility intentions due to the pandemic, with 10.2% postponement and 4.2% acceleration. Women who had ever been isolated/quarantined were more likely to postpone their fertility intentions (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=1.41; 95% CI 1.18 to 1.69) compared with those who had not; women who lived with a steady partner were more likely to want children sooner (AOR=1.57; 95% CI 1.10 to 2.23) compared with those who did not; and those who reported a higher frequency of getting angry, feeling frustrated, or worrying about their finances were more likely to postpone their fertility intentions. The main findings were robust in the sensitivity analyses. Conclusions Most women who changed fertility intentions because of the pandemic have postponed intentions to expand their families. The pandemic-induced exposures were associated with these postponements

Association between H-RAS T81C genetic polymorphism and gastrointestinal cancer risk: A population based case-control study in China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gastrointestinal cancer, such as gastric, colon and rectal cancer, is a major medical and economic burden worldwide. However, the exact mechanism of gastrointestinal cancer development still remains unclear. <it>RAS </it>genes have been elucidated as major participants in the development and progression of a series of human tumours and the single nucleotide polymorphism at <it>H-RAS </it>cDNA position 81 was demonstrated to contribute to the risks of bladder, oral and thyroid carcinoma. Therefore, we hypothesized that this polymorphisms in <it>H-RAS </it>could influence susceptibility to gastrointestinal cancer as well, and we conducted this study to test the hypothesis in Chinese population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A population based case-control study, including 296 cases with gastrointestinal cancer and 448 healthy controls selected from a Chinese population was conducted. <it>H-RAS </it>T81C polymorphism was genotyped by Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assay.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the healthy controls, the TT, TC and CC genotypes frequencies of <it>H-RAS </it>T81C polymorphism, were 79.24%, 19.87% and 0.89%, respectively, and the C allele frequency was 10.83%. Compared with TT genotype, the TC genotype was significantly associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer (adjusted OR = 3.67, 95%CI = 2.21–6.08), while the CC genotype showed an increased risk as well (adjusted OR = 3.29, 95%CI = 0.54–19.86), but it was not statistically significant. In contrast, the frequency of TC genotype was not significantly increased in colon cancer and rectal cancer patients. Further analysis was performed by combining TC and CC genotypes compared against TT genotype. As a result, a statistically significant risk with adjusted OR of 3.65 (95%CI, 2.22–6.00) was found in gastric cancer, while no significant association of <it>H-RAS </it>T81C polymorphism with colon cancer and rectal cancer was observed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings indicate, for the first time, that there is an <it>H-RAS </it>T81C polymorphism existing in Chinese population, and this SNP might be a low penetrance gene predisposition factor for gastric cancer.</p

Prediction of Protein Modification Sites of Pyrrolidone Carboxylic Acid Using mRMR Feature Selection and Analysis

Pyrrolidone carboxylic acid (PCA) is formed during a common post-translational modification (PTM) of extracellular and multi-pass membrane proteins. In this study, we developed a new predictor to predict the modification sites of PCA based on maximum relevance minimum redundancy (mRMR) and incremental feature selection (IFS). We incorporated 727 features that belonged to 7 kinds of protein properties to predict the modification sites, including sequence conservation, residual disorder, amino acid factor, secondary structure and solvent accessibility, gain/loss of amino acid during evolution, propensity of amino acid to be conserved at protein-protein interface and protein surface, and deviation of side chain carbon atom number. Among these 727 features, 244 features were selected by mRMR and IFS as the optimized features for the prediction, with which the prediction model achieved a maximum of MCC of 0.7812. Feature analysis showed that all feature types contributed to the modification process. Further site-specific feature analysis showed that the features derived from PCA's surrounding sites contributed more to the determination of PCA sites than other sites. The detailed feature analysis in this paper might provide important clues for understanding the mechanism of the PCA formation and guide relevant experimental validations

Expert Consensus on Microtransplant for Acute Myeloid Leukemia in Elderly Patients -Report From the International Microtransplant Interest Group

Recent studies have shown that microtransplant (MST) could improve outcome of patients with elderly acute myeloid leukemia (EAML). To further standardize the MST therapy and improve outcomes in EAML patients, based on analysis of the literature on MST, especially MST with EAML from January 1st, 2011 to November 30th, 2022, the International Microtransplant Interest Group provides recommendations and considerations for MST in the treatment of EAML. Four major issues related to MST for treating EAML were addressed: therapeutic principle of MST (1), candidates for MST (2), induction chemotherapy regimens (3), and post-remission therapy based on MST (4). Others included donor screening, infusion of donor cells, laboratory examinations, and complications of treatment