Association between reproductive factors and breast cancer subtypes: A meta-analysis

Introduction: Hormone-related reproductive factors have been reported to be associated with breast cancer subtypes. However, the direction and magnitude of these associations were inconsistent. Additionally, for breast cancer defined by estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR): ER+PR+, ER+PR-, ER-PR+, and ER-PR- subtypes, no meta-analysis was available for ER+PR-and ER-PR+ subtypes. For ER+PR+ and ER-PR- subtypes, only a few reproductive risk factors have been examined in meta-analyses. Methods: Primary studies published from 2011 to 2017 were retrieved from PubMed, Embase, and Scopus. Following PRISMA guidelines, a total of 98 eligible studies investigated the association between reproductive factors and breast cancer subtypes. Among these 98 studies, 27 were included in the meta-analysis regarding the association between reproductive factors and ERPR subtypes. Odds ratios (OR), relative risks (RR), and hazard ratios (HR) were extracted for reproductive factors, including age at menarche, age at menopause, menopausal status, pregnancy, age at first birth, parity, breastfeeding, years since last birth, OC use, and HRT. OR and HR were converted to RR to ensure consistency. A meta-analysis with a random effect model was separately conducted for each combination of a reproductive factor and a BC subtype defined by ERPR status. Heterogeneity across studies was examined by I2-statistic, publication bias was examined utilizing Egger and Begg’s test. Results: This meta-analysis observed that late age at menarche was associated with a reduced risk for ER+PR+ (RR:0.79, 95% CI: 0.72, 0.85), ER+PR- (RR:0.75, 95% CI:0.58, 0.92), ER-PR+ (RR: 0.79, 95% CI:0.63, 0.95), and ER-PR- subtypes (RR:0.85, 95% CI: 0.79, 0.91). Ever versus never pregnancy was associated with a statistically significant reduced risk of ER+PR+ (RR: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.47, 0.78), ER+PR- (RR: 0.70, 95% CI: 0.57, 0.83), and ER-PR+ subtypes (RR: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.49, 0.87). Ever versus never breastfeeding was associated with a statistically significant reduced risk of ER+PR+ (RR: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.79, 0.96), ER+PR- (RR: 0.67, 95% CI: 0.52, 0.83), and ER-PR- subtypes (RR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.69, 0.93). No significant results were observed for years since last birth and oral contraceptive use. Additionally, results were relatively less consistent for age at menopause, menopausal status, age at first birth, parity, and hormone replacement therapy. There was no evidence of publication bias for pregnancy and parity. For the rest reproductive factors, there is some evidence of publication bias. Conclusion: The patterns of reproductive factors differ by ERPR status. Most significant associations were observed for ER+PR+ and ER+PR- subtypes. Moreover, strongest associations were mostly observed in ER+PR- subtype. Thus, breast cancer preventive guideline regarding reproductive factors probably should be revised by subtypes. Moreover, ever breastfeeding and pregnancy could probably be added to breast cancer risk calculation model, although more prospective studies with a large sample size are needed to confirm the findings

Blood Eosinophils and Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis of Real-World Data in China

Background and Objective: Elevated eosinophils in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are recognized as a biomarker to guide inhaled corticosteroids use, but the value of blood eosinophils in hospitalized exacerbations of COPD remains controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of eosinophils in predicting clinical outcomes in acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD).Methods: We analyzed data from the acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease inpatient registry (ACURE) study, which is an ongoing nationwide multicenter, observational real-world study in patients admitted for AECOPD. Data collected between January 2018 and December 2019 in 163 centers were first reviewed. The eligible patients were divided into eosinophilic and non-eosinophilic groups, according to blood eosinophil with 2% of the total leukocyte count as the threshold. Propensity score (PS) matching was performed to adjust for confounders.Results: A total of 1,566 patients (median age: 69 years; 80.3% male) were included and 42.7% had an eosinophilic AECOPD. Eosinophil count <2% was associated with the development of respiratory failure and pneumonia. After PS matching, 650 pairs in overall patients, 468 pairs in patients with smoking history and 177 pairs in patients without smoking were selected, respectively. Only in patients with smoking history, the non-eosinophilic AECOPD was associated with longer median hospital stays (9 vs. 8 days, P = 0.034), higher dosage of corticosteroid use, higher economic burden of hospitalization, and poorer response to corticosteroid therapy compared to the eosinophilic AECOPD. No significant difference was found in patients without smoking. Eosinophil levels had no relationship with the change of COPD Assessment Test scores and readmissions or death after 30 days.Conclusion: Elevated eosinophils were associated with better short-term outcomes only in patients with a smoking history. Eosinophil levels cannot be confidently used as a predictor alone for estimating prognosis

Multi-methods to investigate the baseflow: Insight from watershed scale spatiotemporal variety perspective

Baseflow is the stable part of streamflow meeting the ecological water requirement of the watershed in dry season. Baseflow separation plays a vital role in maintaining the biodiversity of watershed ecosystem. However, research systematically on spatiotemporal variety in watershed scale in baseflow separation is not well documented. In this study, we chose six hydrometric stations in the Yiluo River watershed and carried ten methods (in the group of HYSEP, UKIH and digital filter methods) to isolate the daily runoff data from 2002 to 2021. Two evaluation indicators (Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient and relative error) were applied to measure the accuracy of those methods. The results showed that the Yiluo River had the average annual baseflow of 10.73 × 108 m3 and average baseflow index (BFI) of 0.42. The UKIH and Eckhardt filtering method methods were fit for the Yiluo River watershed. Temporally, BFI in the wet season (average of 0.35) was smaller than the dry season (average of 0.49). As to the interannual scale, the baseflow in the wet year accounted for nearly a half (49 %) of whole twenty years. Spatially, the BFI of lower reaches (0.35 in Heishiguan) was higher than upper reaches (0.30 in Dongwan and 0.24 in Lushi) on the same river. Nearly half river runoff was from the groundwater recharge and suggests that the Yiluo River is a heavily “Groundwater-dependent River”. Those results of this study can enhance the understanding of spatiotemporal changes of baseflow separations in watershed scale and provide the important references to the international readers

Watershed-Scale Shallow Groundwater Anthropogenic Nitrate Source, Loading, and Contamination Assessment in a Typical Wheat Production Region: Case Study in Yiluo River Watershed, Middle of China

Nitrate pollution in groundwater has become a global concern for agriculture and regional ecology. However, tracing the spatiotemporal groundwater nitrate pollution sources, calculating the total nitrogen loading, and assessing contamination at the watershed scale have not been well documented. In this study, 20 groundwater samplings from 2020 to 2021 (in dry and wet seasons) on the Yiluo River watershed in middle China were collected. Tracing groundwater nitrate pollution sources, calculating total nitrogen loading, and assessing contamination using dual isotopes (18ONO3 and 15NNO3), conservation of mass, and the nitrate pollution index (NPI), respectively. The results indicated that there were three nitrate sources in groundwater: (1) manure and sewage waste input (MSWI), (2) sediment nitrogen input (SNI), and (3) agriculture chemical fertilizer input (ACFI) in the Yiluo River watershed. ACFI and SNI were the main groundwater nitrogen pollution sources. The average nitrogen loading percentages of ACFI, SNI, and MSWI in the whole watershed were 94.7%, 4.34%, and 0.96%, respectively. The total nitrogen loading in the Yiluo River watershed was 7,256,835.99 kg/year, 4,084,870.09 kg/year in downstream areas, 2,121,938.93 kg/year in midstream areas, and 1,050,026.95 kg/year in upstream areas. Sixty percent of groundwater in the Yiluo River watershed has been polluted by nitrate. Nitrate pollution in midstream areas is more severe. Nitrite pollution was more serious in the wet season than in the dry season. The results of this study can provide useful information for watershed-scale groundwater nitrogen pollution control and treatment

Quantifying Contributions of Factors and Their Interactions to Aerosol Acidity with a Multiple-Linear-Regression-Based Framework: A Case Study in the Pearl River Delta, China

This study presents an approach using multiple linear regression to quantify the impact of meteorological parameters and chemical species on aerosol pH variance in an urban setting in the Pearl River Delta, China. Additionally, it assesses the contributions of interactions among these factors to the variance in pH. The analysis successfully explains over 96% of the pH variance, attributing 85.8% to the original variables and 6.7% to bivariate interactions, with further contributions of 2.3% and 1.0% from trivariate and quadrivariate interactions, respectively. Our results highlight that meteorological factors, particularly temperature and humidity, are more influential than chemical components in affecting aerosol pH variance. Temperature alone accounts for 37.3% of the variance, while humidity contributes approximately 20%. On the chemical front, sulfate and ammonium are the most significant contributors, adding 14.3% and 9.1% to the pH variance, respectively. In the realm of bivariate interactions, the interplay between meteorological parameters and chemical components, especially the TNO3–RH pair, is exceptionally impactful, constituting 58.1% of the total contribution from interactions. In summary, this study illuminates the factors affecting aerosol pH variance and their interplay, suggesting the integration of statistical methods with thermodynamic models for enhanced understanding of aerosol acidity dynamics in the future

Dataset for: Acyl-CoA Binding Domain-Containing Protein 3 Functions as a Scaffold to Organize the Golgi Stacking Proteins and a Rab33b-GAP

Golgin45 plays important roles in Golgi stack assembly and is known to bind both the Golgi stacking protein GRASP55 and Rab2 in the medial-Golgi cisternae. In this study, we sought to further characterize the cisternal adhesion complex using a proteomics approach. We report here that Acyl-CoA Binding Domain Containing 3 (ACBD3) is likely to be a novel binding partner of Golgin45. ACBD3 interacts with Golgin45 via its GOLD domain, and its co-expression significantly increases Golgin45 targeting to the Golgi. Further, ACBD3 recruits TBC1D22, a Rab33b GTPase Activating Protein (GAP), to a large multi-protein complex, containing Golgin45 and GRASP55. These results suggest that ACBD3 may provide a scaffolding to organize the Golgi stacking proteins and a Rab33b-GAP at the medial-Golgi