The Debate Around Patents and Access to Environmentally Sound Technologies: A New Opportunity to Break Impasse and Isolation in Climate Mitigation and Adaption

Challenges to the patent role in access to environmentally sound technologies (hereinafter referred as ESTs) are highlighted in the context of climate change. The international efforts on the diffusion of ESTs are intensified through two possible pathways, one of which lays a legal ground for the necessity and urgency of access to ESTs and the other guarantees the innovation and dissemination of ESTs. However, the potential conflicts between the two pathways jeopardize the existing progresses made in climate mitigation and adaptation. Through comparative analysis of the strategies relatively taken by developed and developing countries, it is found in this article that the international patent system exerts actual influence over the potential access to ESTs. The distinct segmentation and isolation of positions of divergent stakeholders lead to constant controversy with no satisfactory result in climate negotiations. Finally a new proposal is put forward so as to break the deadlock

Post-marketing safety surveillance of sacituzumab govitecan: an observational, pharmacovigilance study leveraging FAERS database

Background and objective: Sacituzumab govitecan (SG), the first antibody-drug conjugate targeting human trophoblast cell-surface antigen 2 (Trop-2), has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of advanced or metastatic breast cancer and urothelial cancer. However, there is currently a dearth of information regarding the safety profiles of SG in a large sample cohort. The objective of the present study is to investigate SG-related adverse events (AEs) in real-world settings leveraging the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database to guide the safety management of clinical medication.Methods: The FAERS database was retrospectively queried to extract reports associated with SG from April 2020 to March 2023. To identify and evaluate potential AEs in patients receiving SG, various disproportionality analyses such as reporting odds ratio (ROR), the proportional reporting ratio (PRR), the Bayesian confidence propagation neural network (BCPNN), and the multi-item gamma Poisson shrinker (MGPS) were employed.Results: Overall, 2069 reports of SG as the “primary suspect” were identified. Noteworthy, SG was significantly associated with an increased risk of blood lymphatic system disorders (ROR, 7.18; 95% CI, 6.58–7.84) and hepatobiliary disorders (ROR, 2.68; 95% CI, 2.17–3.30) at the System Organ Class (SOC) level. Meanwhile, 61 significant disproportionality preferred terms (PTs) simultaneously complied with all four algorithms were adopted. Therein, anemia, thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, leukopenia, diarrhea, asthenia, alopecia, and electrolyte imbalance were consistent with the common AEs described in the clinical trials and specification of SG. Furthermore, unexpected significant AEs include colitis (ROR, 12.09; 95% CI, 9.1–16.08), heart rate increased (ROR, 5.11; 95% CI, 3.84–6.79), sepsis (ROR, 4.77; 95% CI, 3.59–6.34), cholestasis (ROR, 6.28; 95% CI, 3.48–11.36), blood bilirubin increased (ROR, 4.65; 95% CI, 2.42–8.94) and meningitis (ROR, 7.23; 95% CI, 2.71–19.29) were also be detected. The median time to onset of SG-related AEs was 14 [interquartile range (IQR), 7–52] days, with the majority occurring within the initial month of SG treatment.Conclusion: Our study validates the commonly known AEs and also found some potentially emerging safety issues related to SG in real-world clinical practice, which could provide valuable vigilance evidence for clinicians and pharmacists to manage the safety issues of SG

Relationship between four tumor-associated bio-markers and prognosis of gastric cancer

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between prognosis of gastric cancer (GC) and the expression of P53, Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), Human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2), and Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).Methods: One hundred and forty-seven patients admitted to People's Liberation Army General Hospital (Beijing, China) with diagnosis of locally advanced GC were enrolled in the study. Follow-up data were obtained by outpatient review or telephone follow-up. Expressions of P53, EGFR, HER-2 and VEGF were determined by immunohistochemical staining. The relationship between protein expression, clinico-pathological factors, disease-free survival time (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were analyzed.Results: The expressions of EGER, HER-2, P53 and VEGF in GC were 17.7, 17.0, 41.0 and 55.9%, respectively. The expressions of EGFR and P53 were positively correlated (r = 0.306, p < 0.05), while the expressions of VEGF and HER-2 were negatively correlated (r = -0.2, p < 0.05). The expressions of EGFR, HER-2 and VEGF were not related to the clinico-pathological factors (p > 0.05) while expression of P53 was related only to histological grade (p < 0.05). Univariate analysis showed that OS and DFS were longer (p < 0.05) when P53 was lowly expressed. Multiple-factor analysis revealed that histological grade, infiltration depth and P53 expression were independent factors that influenced DFS.Conclusion: These results indicate that the expression of P53, EGFR, HER2 and VEGF can be used to predict prognosis of GC and screening of patients’ benefits from adjuvant chemotherapy.Keywords: Gastric cancer, Prognosis, Biomarkers, Adjuvant chemotherap

Evaluation of adverse events of CDK4/6 inhibitors: a real-world study based on the FAERS database

Background and purpose: The development and approval of inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) is an essential milestone in treating hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer. The efficacy of these drugs is similar, but the adverse events (AE) are different, directly affecting the physician's choice of drug. There is no systematic study on the safety of CDK4/6 inhibitors in the real world. In this study, we compared the differences in AE of CDK4/6 inhibitors through signal mining in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and identified unknown AE signals to provide a reference for the clinical choice of treatment and monitoring AE. Methods: All data in the FAERS database were extracted from the first quarter of 2004 to the first quarter of 2023. After removing duplicates, data were analyzed by the disproportionality method for reports ranking palbociclib, abemaciclib, or ribociclib as the primary suspect. Signals were identified using the reporting odds ratio (ROR) and MHRA methods. Positive signals were required to meet the following criteria: the number of reports ≥3, the lower limit of the 95% confidence interval of the ROR >1, proportional reporting ratios (PRR) >2, and the χ2 >4. Results: A total of 85 562 reports of AE associated with CDK4/6 inhibitors were identified. The highest signal intensity of palbociclib was observed in hematologic and lymphatic AE (leukopenia ROR = 20.01). Palbociclib had lower AE signals in the gastrointestinal, hepatic, and renal systems than the other drugs (diarrhea ROR = 1.95, gamma-glutamyltransferase increased ROR = 0.36, blood creatinine increased ROR = 1.01). Abemaciclib had the strongest signal in the gastrointestinal system (diarrhea ROR = 13.54); it also showed a strong AE signal in the hepatic and renal systems (gamma-glutamyltransferase increased ROR = 2.58, blood creatinine increased ROR = 7.74) and a lower AE signal than the other drugs in the blood and lymphatic systems (leukopenia ROR = 5.34). Ribociclib had a lower AE signal intensity in the blood and lymphatic system than palbociclib (leukopenia ROR = 7.55); however, among hepatic AE, ribociclib had the highest signal intensity of increased gamma-glutamyltransferase (ROR = 4.05). In rare severe hepatic systemic AE, abemaciclib had the strongest signal in hepatic failure (ROR = 3.50) and drug-induced liver injury (ROR = 4.68). Erythema multiforme was a newly identified signal in the abemaciclib reports (ROR = 3.06). Conclusion: The safety profile of CDK4/6 inhibitors varies. Analysis of the FAERS database revealed hematologic and lymphatic system toxicities for palbociclib and ribociclib and gastrointestinal and hepatorenal toxicities for abemaciclib. Erythema multiforme was found as a novel severe AE for abemaciclib. Individualized drug selection and monitoring of AE based on the patient’s physiological status and AE are needed during treatment

First Efficacy Results of Capecitabine with Anthracycline- and Taxane-Based Adjuvant Therapy in High-Risk Early Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

Background: Capecitabine is effective and indicated for the salvage treatment of metastatic breast cancer. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the efficacy of capecitabine in the adjuvant setting. There have been two large randomized studies to determine whether patients with high-risk early breast cancer benefit from the addition of capecitabine to standard chemotherapy, but they have yielded inconsistent results. We first undertook a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of the addition of capecitabine over standard treatment

Evaluation of β2-microglobulin in the condition and prognosis of psoriasis patients.

BACKGROUND Numerous studies have linked the inflammatory pathway in psoriasis and metabolic disease, while no specific marker defined it. It is worth exploring the association of β2-microglobulin (β2M) in psoriasis severity and comorbidities. OBJECTIVES To investigate the correlation between blood β2M level and psoriasis severity, to explore the inflammatory factors influencing the occurrence of psoriasis comorbidities such as arthritis, diabetes, and hypertension. METHODS Ninety-seven psoriasis patients were analyzed in the cohort retrospective study during 12 weeks. RESULTS Significantly higher levels of blood β2M and ESR were observed in the group that patients' PASI ≥10 than in the group that PASI <10. Blood β2M level had strong significantly positive correlations with the PASI in Pearson's correlation analysis. In the model that systemic inflammatory factors to find psoriasis comorbidity risk factors, logistic regression analysis showed that blood β2M level was the significant risk factor associated with diabetes and hypertension. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) was the significant risk factor associated with arthritis. CONCLUSIONS Patients with a severer psoriasis tended to have higher blood β2M levels and severer inflammatory state. In the systemic inflammation indexes, the level of blood β2M affected the risk of hypertension and diabetes, and hsCRP affected the risk of arthritis in patients with psoriasis

mHealth Series: Text messaging data collection of infant and young child feeding practice in rural China – a feasibility study

Face–to–face interviews by trained field workers are commonly used in household surveys. However, this data collection method is labor–intensive, time–consuming, expensive, prone to interviewer and recall bias and not easily scalable to increase sample representativeness. The study explored the feasibility of using text messaging to collect information on infant and young child feeding practice in rural China

Antioxidant Activity of Euphorbia helioscopia Ethanol Extract and Its Effect on Oleic Acid Induced Fat Accumulation in HepG2 Cells

In order to investigate the antioxidant effect of the extract of Euphorbia helioscopia in vitro and its effect on lipid accumulation in HepG2 cells induced by oleic acid. In this study, 25%, 50%, 75% methanol and ethanol were used to extract the powder by immersion method. The antioxidant activities of the different extracts were assessed, and the levels of total phenols and total flavonoids were measured. To establish a model of lipid accumulation in HepG2 cells, the cells were treated with 50% ethanol extract (at concentrations of 20, 40, and 60 µg/mL) for 24 h to observe the formation of lipid droplets. The triglyceride (TG) content, total glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) in the cells were determined. The findings demonstrated that all extracts exhibited concentration-dependent antioxidant activity. Among them, the 50% ethanol extract exhibited the most potent antioxidant effect in a certain concentration range (P<0.05), with higher levels of total phenols (8.813%±1.344%) and total flavonoids (17.938%±0.819%) . Compared with the model group, the 50% ethanol extract displayed a concentration-dependent ability to decrease lipid droplets and TG values in HepG2 cells, while increasing the levels of GSH, T-AOC, and SOD activity. Therefore, the 50% ethanol extract showed potential in inhibiting oleic acid-induced fat accumulation in HepG2 cells and enhancing the endogenous antioxidant capacity of the cells

Deep learning in clinical natural language processing: a methodical review.

OBJECTIVE: This article methodically reviews the literature on deep learning (DL) for natural language processing (NLP) in the clinical domain, providing quantitative analysis to answer 3 research questions concerning methods, scope, and context of current research. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, the Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library, and the Association for Computational Linguistics Anthology for articles using DL-based approaches to NLP problems in electronic health records. After screening 1,737 articles, we collected data on 25 variables across 212 papers. RESULTS: DL in clinical NLP publications more than doubled each year, through 2018. Recurrent neural networks (60.8%) and word2vec embeddings (74.1%) were the most popular methods; the information extraction tasks of text classification, named entity recognition, and relation extraction were dominant (89.2%). However, there was a long tail of other methods and specific tasks. Most contributions were methodological variants or applications, but 20.8% were new methods of some kind. The earliest adopters were in the NLP community, but the medical informatics community was the most prolific. DISCUSSION: Our analysis shows growing acceptance of deep learning as a baseline for NLP research, and of DL-based NLP in the medical community. A number of common associations were substantiated (eg, the preference of recurrent neural networks for sequence-labeling named entity recognition), while others were surprisingly nuanced (eg, the scarcity of French language clinical NLP with deep learning). CONCLUSION: Deep learning has not yet fully penetrated clinical NLP and is growing rapidly. This review highlighted both the popular and unique trends in this active field

Multi-Party Quantum Summation Based on Quantum Teleportation

We present a secure multi-party quantum summation protocol based on quantum teleportation, in which a malicious, but non-collusive, third party (TP) helps compute the summation. In our protocol, TP is in charge of entanglement distribution and Bell states are shared between participants. Users encode the qubits in their hand according to their private bits and perform Bell-state measurements. After obtaining participants’ measurement results, TP can figure out the summation. The participants do not need to send their encoded states to others, and the protocol is therefore congenitally free from Trojan horse attacks. In addition, our protocol can be made secure against loss errors, because the entanglement distribution occurs only once at the beginning of our protocol. We show that our protocol is secure against attacks by the participants as well as the outsiders