Objective To investigate the suitable habitats of Phlebotomus chinensis in Gansu Province, so as provide insights into effective management of mountain-type zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (MT-ZVL). Methods The geographical coordinates of locations where MT-ZVL cases were reported were retrieved in Gansu Province from 2015 to 2023, and data pertaining to 26 environmental variables were captured, including 19 climatic variables (annual mean temperature, mean diurnal range, isothermality, temperature seasonality, maximum temperature of the warmest month, minimum temperature of the coldest month, temperature annual range, mean temperature of the wettest quarter, mean temperature of the driest quarter, mean temperature of the warmest quarter, mean temperature of the coldest quarter, annual precipitation, precipitation of the wettest month, precipitation of the driest month, precipitation seasonality, precipitation of the wettest quarter, precipitation of the driest quarter, precipitation of the warmest quarter, and precipitation of the coldest quarter), five geographical variables (elevation, annual normalized difference vegetation index, vegetation type, landform type and land use type), and two population and economic variables (population distribution and gross domestic product). Twelve species distribution models were built using the biomod2 package in R project, including surface range envelope (SRE) model, generalized linear model (GLM), generalized additive model (GAM), multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) model, generalized boosted model (GBM), classification tree analysis (CTA) model, flexible discriminant analysis (FDA) model, maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model, optimized maximum entropy (MAXNET) model, artificial neural network (ANN) model, random forest (RF) model, and extreme gradient boosting (XGBOOST) model. The performance of 12 models was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), true skill statistics (TSS), and Kappa coefficient, and single models with high performance was selected to build the optimal ensemble models. Factors affecting the survival of Ph. chinensis were identified based on climatic, geographical, population and economic variables. In addition, the suitable distribution areas of Ph. chinensis were predicted in Gansu Province under shared socioeconomic pathway 126 (SSP126), SSP370 and SSP585 scenarios based on climatic data during the period from 1991 to 2020, from 2041 to 2060 (2050s), and from 2081 to 2100 (2090s) . Results A total of 11 species distribution models were successfully built for prediction of potential distribution areas of Ph. chinensis in Gansu Province, and the RF model had the highest predictive accuracy (AUC = 0.998). The ensemble model built based on the RF model, XGBOOST model, GLM, and MARS model had an increased predictive accuracy (AUC = 0.999) relative to single models. Among the 26 environmental factors, precipitation of the wettest quarter (12.00%), maximum temperature of the warmest month (11.58%), and annual normalized difference vegetation index (11.29%) had the greatest contributions to suitable habitats distribution of Ph. sinensis. Under the climatic conditions from 1991 to 2020, the potential suitable habitat area for Ph. chinensis in Gansu Province was approximately 5.80 × 10⁴ km², of which the highly suitable area was 1.42 × 10⁴ km², and primarily concentrated in the southernmost region of Gansu Province. By the 2050s, the unsuitable and lowly suitable areas for Ph. chinensis in Gansu Province had decreased by varying degrees compared to that of 1991 to 2020 period, while the moderately and highly suitable areas exhibited expansion and migration. By the 2090s, under the SSP126 scenario, the suitable habitat area for Ph. chinensis increased significantly, and under the SSP585 scenario, the highly suitable areas transformed into extremely suitable areas, also showing substantial growth. Future global warming is conducive to the survival and reproduction of Ph. chinensis. From the 2050s to the 2090s, the highly suitable areas for Ph. chinensis in Gansu Province will be projected to expand northward. Under the SSP126 scenario, the suitable habitat area for Ph. chinensis in Gansu Province is expected to increase by 194.75% and 204.79% in the 2050s and 2090s, respectively, compared to that of the 1991 to 2020 period. Under the SSP370 scenario, the moderately and highly suitable areas will be projected to increase by 164.40% and 209.03% in the 2050s and 2090s, respectively, while under the SSP585 scenario, they are expected to increase by 195.98% and 211.66%, respectively. Conclusions The distribution of potential suitable habitats of Ph. sinensis gradually shifts with climatic changes. Intensified surveillance and management of Ph. sinensis is recommended in central and eastern parts of Gansu Province to support early warning of MT-ZVL.

kV X-ray radiotherapy was the primary mode of radiotherapy widely used to treat many types of cancer, including deep tumors, before the invention of the Co-60 therapy machine and the electron linear accelerator, which gradually replaced kV X-ray radiotherapy. kV X-ray radiotherapy equipment requires less space and shielding, and still has application value in the treatment of skin lesions and superficial tumors. Especially in recent years, kV X-ray has been used in the treatment of keloid, and electronic brachytherapy equipment has been used in intracavitary, intraoperative, and superficial radiotherapy. Therefore, kV X-ray radiotherapy has seen renewed application. The quality control of kV X-ray radiotherapy equipment is the key to ensure the treatment effect and safety of patients. This paper reviews the current status of quality control of kV X-ray radiotherapy equipment and provides a reference for the formulation of quality control assessment standards for kV X-ray radiotherapy equipment.

Rheumatoid arthritis （RA） is a refractory autoimmune disease that can cause symmetrical polyarticular disease. The key mechanism of its occurrence and development is the dysequilibrium of helper T cell 17 （Th17）/regulatory T cell （Treg） balance. Therefore， reconstructing Th17/Treg balance may be a new strategy for the treatment of RA. Traditional Chinese medicine has significant advantages in the treatment of RA such as integrity， multi-target， multi-link and multi-path. This paper summarizes the basic and clinical studies on the regulation of Th17/Treg balance in the treatment of RA by traditional Chinese medicine in the past five years， and finds that the active components/sites of traditional Chinese medicine such as flavonoids， alkaloids and terpenes have unique advantages in the regulation of Th17/Treg balance. The traditional Chinese medicine compound formula interferes with Th17/Treg balance by exerting the effects of dispelling wind， dehumidifying， removing blood stasis， unblocking collaterals， relieving pain， dispersing cold and strengthening health. The effect of external treatment of traditional Chinese medicine is obvious and can be used as a clinical adjuvant therapy for RA； related mechanisms of action include regulating the production of inflammatory factors， regulating the expression of transcription factors and interfering with the activation of signaling pathways. However， the existing research has the shortcomings of insufficient mechanism research， few clinical research， limited external treatment research of traditional Chinese medicine， and lack of combination therapy research， which need to be improved by follow- up research.

【Objective】 To compare the clinical safety and effectiveness of super-mini-percutaneous nephroscope (SMP) combined with flexible ureteroscopic lithotripsy (FURL) in oblique supine lithotomy position and FURL alone in the treatment of 2.0-3.0 cm renal calculi. 【Methods】 Clinical data of 55 patients treated during Jan.2018 and May 2021 were retrospectively analyzed, including 47 cases complicated renal calculi, and 14 cases of lower calyceal calculi with infundibulopelvic angle ≤30°. SMP combined with FURL was performed in 23 cases (combined group), and FURL alone was performed in 32 cases (FURL group). The operation time, hemoglobin reduction, postoperative hospital stay, hospitalization expenses, stone-clearance rate and complications were compared. 【Results】 All operations were successful. Compared with the FRUL group, the combined group had significantly more hemoglobin reduction [(16.30±10.17) g/L vs. (6.94±6.61) g/L], longer postoperative hospital stay [(5.35±1.61) d vs. (3.19±1.26) d], and higher hospitalization expenses [(22 481±2 234) yuan vs. (18 209±2 584) yuan] (P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in operation time [(79.57±8.52) min vs. (79.22±3.83 min),P>0.05]. One month after surgery, CT results showed that the combined group had higher stone-clearance rate (91.30% vs. 65.63%, P=0.027). There was no difference in the complication rate (21.74% vs. 21.88%, P>0.05). One case (4.35%) in the combined group and 5 cases (15.63%) in the FURL group received retreatment (P>0.05). 【Conclusion】 SMP combined with FURL in oblique supine lithotomy position is safe and effective in the treatment of 2.0-3.0 cm renal calculi, with high stone-clearance rate and low complication rate.

Objective　 : To evaluate the implementation, application, and problems and suggestions of the Radiation Shield- ing Requirements in Room of Radiotherapy Installations—Part 1: General Principle (GBZ/T 201.1—2007) through a survey of relevant personnel in radiation health technical service institutions, and to provide a scientific basis for further revision and implementation of this standard. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted among randomly selected per- sonnel in radiation health technical services across China, which mainly investigated the awareness, training, application, and revision suggestions related to the GBZ/T 201.1—2007. The results were aggregated and analyzed. Results: A total of 184 evaluation questionnaires on the GBZ/T 201.1—2007 were collected from technical service staff in 25 provinces. Among the responders, 64.1% thought that the standard had been widely applied; 91.8% thought that the standard could meet work needs; only 54.3% ever received relevant training on the standard; 68.5% used the standard once or more per year; 33.7% thought that the standard needed to be revised. Conclusion The personnel in radiation health technical services have a high awareness rate of the GBZ/T 201.1—2007 and its contents, but their familiarity with and application of the standard need to be improved. Relevant departments should strengthen the training and promotion of the standard, and part of the standard should be revised.

Objective To investigate the awareness of the Radiation Shielding Requirements for Radiotherapy Room–Part 2: Radiotherapy Room of Electron Linear Accelerators (GBZ/T 201.2—2011) among relevant practitioners in medical institutions as well as its implementation and application situation and collect relevant problems and suggestions for an evaluation of the scientificalness, standardization, and timeliness of the standard, and to provide a scientific basis for the further revision and implementation of the standard. Methods An online questionnaire survey was conducted among relevant employees in medical institutions providing medical linear accelerator radiotherapy across 22 provinces of China, which investigated the awareness, training, application, and revision suggestions related to GBZ/T 201.2—2011. The questionnaires were collected and analyzed. Results A total of 340 relevant practitioners filled out the questionnaire. Of the participants, 66.80% were physicists; 79.11% had an awareness of the standard; 56.18% ever participated in the standard-related training; but the survey results showed that the practitioners did not have a good knowledge of the standard’s content, and the training and promotion were not enough; 83.24% thought that the standard had been widely used; 17.60% thought that the standard needed to be revised; 76.76% thought that there was a need to add calculation examples; 88.82% thought that neutron shielding needed to be considered for the 10 MV X-ray accelerator room. Conclusion The standard has been widely known in the field of radiotherapy protection. With the development of radiotherapy technology, the standard should be revised to add calculation examples and consider neutron shielding in the 10 MV X-ray accelerator room. The standard is highly technical and difficult to grasp, so the promotion and implementation goals should be appropriate for different personnel groups, the training for employees at key posts should be strengthened, and the methods recommended in the standard should be uniformly used throughout the country.

Objective To investigate the awareness, implementation, and application of the Radiation Shielding Specification for Radiotherapy Room, Part 3: Radiotherapy Room of γ-Ray Sources (GBZ/T201.3—2014) by medical institution personnel, to collect problems and recommendations, and to provide a scientific basis for further amendments and implementation of the standard. Methods A questionnaire survey about the awareness, training and application situation and the modification advices of the standard was conducted among practitioners engaged in the production, use, and machine room design related to γ-ray source radiotherapy equipment (collectively referred to as medical institution personnel) in 12 provinces and direct-administered municipalities in China. The questionnaires were collected and a special Excel database was set up for statistical analysis using SPSS 22.0. Results A total of 126 practitioners responded and completed the questionnaire. Approximately 75.4% of respondents indicated that they either “understood” or “understood well” the standard; 42.86% received relevant training; 45.24% and 54.76% indicated that the standard “met” or “basically met” the requirements of detection of γ-ray radiotherapy equipment shielding or design of shielding room. The standard was highly evaluated for suitability. However, the awareness of the standard was inadequate, the rate of training participation was low, and its practical application was limited. Conclusion The standard generally aligns with the requirements for shielding room design in γ-ray radiotherapy. Some revisions should be done according to the current situation of γ-ray radiotherapy.

Objective:To investigate the application value of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) imaging in preoperative evaluating perineural invasion (PNI) of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).Methods:The prospective study was conducted. The clinicopathological data of 63 ESCC patients who underwent IVIM imaging before surgery in the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University & Henan Cancer Hospital from January 2016 to April 2019 were selected. Patients underwent routine magnetic resonance imaging scan and IVIM sequence examination. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), true diffusion coefficient (D), pseudodiffusion coefficient (D*) and pseudodiffusion fraction (f) values were measured. Observation indicators: (1) situations of enrolled patients; (2) IVIM examination of PNI of ESCC and its diagnostic efficiency. Measurement data with normal distribution were represented as Mean± SD, and comparison between groups was analyzed using the independent sample t test. Measurement data with skewed distribution were represented as M( Q1, Q3) or M(range), and comparison between groups was analyzed using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. Count data were described as absolute numbers, and comparison between groups was analyzed using the chi-square test. The interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to evaluate cosistency of results. The receiver operating characrteristic curve was used to evaluate diagnostic efficiency. Results:(1) Situations of enrolled patients. A total of 63 patients were selected for eligibility. There were 41 males and 22 females, aged 60(range, 43?74)years. Of the 63 ESCC patients, 17 cases had PNI and 46 cases had no PNI. Cases with well differentiated tumor, moderate differentiated tumor or low differentiated tumor, cases in stage T1, T2, T3, T4 of infiltra-tion depth, cases with or without lymph node metastasis were 0, 6, 11, 0, 3, 13, 1, 15, 2 in patients with PNI, versus 6, 24, 16, 1, 22, 23, 0, 12, 34 in patients without PNI, showing significant differences between them ( Z=?2.32, ?2.49, χ2=19.58, P<0.05). (2) IVIM examination of PNI of ESCC and its diagnostic efficiency. The ADC, D, D*, f values were (2.21±0.33)×10 ?3 mm 2/s, (1.46±0.31)×10 ?3 mm 2/s, 32.50 (15.55,46.75)×10 ?3 mm 2/s, (0.34±0.09)×10 ?3 mm 2/s in patients with PNI, versus (2.45±0.45)×10 ?3 mm 2/s, (1.72±0.38)×10 ?3 mm 2/s, 34.85(23.43,51.20)×10 ?3 mm 2/s, (0.42±0.13)×10 ?3 mm 2/s in patients without PNI, showing significant differences in the ADC, D and f values between them ( t=?2.03, ?2.52, ?2.34, P<0.05) and no significant difference in the D* value between them ( Z=?0.84, P>0.05). The cosistency of ADC, D, D* and f values in the 63 ESCC patients measured by 2 radiologists was good, with the ICC as 0.96, 0.92, 0.89 and 0.95. The receiver operating characrteristic curve demons-trated the best cut-off value of ADC, D and f values were 2.50×10 ?3 mm 2/s, 1.68×10 ?3 mm 2/s and 0.41, with the areas under the curve as 0.67 (95% confidence interval as 0.54?0.79), 0.70 (95% confidence interval as 0.58?0.81) and 0.69 (95% confidence interval as 0.57?0.80), respectively. The combina-tion of D and f value for diagnosing PNI of ESCC had the area under the curve as 0.74 (95% confidence interval as 0.62?0.84), with the cut-off value as 0.20, sensitivity and specificity as 94.1% and 56.5%. Conclusions:IVIM parameters D and f values can evaluate and predict the PNI of ESCC preopera-tively. The combination of D and f values can further improve the diagnostic efficiency.

Objective:To explore the value of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) DWI in preoperative prediction of angiolymphatic invasion in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).Methods:From April 2016 to April 2019, 63 ESCC patients who planned to undergo resection of esophageal cancer were prospectively collected at Henan Cancer Hospital.According to the postoperative pathological results, 63 patients were divided into angiolymphatic invasion group (30 cases) and no angiolymphatic invasion group (33 cases). All patients underwent IVIM sequence and routine MRI examination before operation. The ADC, true diffusion coefficient (D), pseudodiffusion coefficient (D *) and pseudodiffusion fraction (f) were measured. The differences of parameter values between ESCC with and without angiolymphatic invasion were analyzed using Student′s t test or Wilcoxon rank sum test.The logistic regression was used to analyze the significance of various parameters. For the parameters with statistical significance, the ROC curves were performed to evaluatethe diagnostic performance of parameters for identifying angiolymphatic invasion.The Z test was used to compare the area under the ROC curves(AUC) of parameters. Results:The difference of ADC, D and f values between angiolymphatic invasion group and no angiolymphatic invasion group were statistically signi?cant ( t=4.476, 5.033 and 5.712 respectively, all P<0.001). The D * values showed no statistically signi?cant di?erence ( Z=0.184, P=0.854). The logistic regression analysis showed that D (OR=9.042) and f (OR=26.221) were in correlation with angiolymphatic invasion. The ROC analyses demonstrated that the AUCs of ADC, D and f values in predicting angiolymphatic invasion of ESCC were 0.787, 0.822 and 0.853, respectively. D combined with f had highest AUC (0.917) in predicting the angiolymphatic invasion of ESCC, sensitivity and specificity were 93.3% and 75.8%. D combined with f showed better diagnostic performance than the D and the f value, and the difference were statistically significant ( Z=2.403, 2.289, P=0.016, 0.022). Conclusions:IVIM can be used as an effective functional imaging modality for preoperative evaluation and prediction of the angiolymphatic invasion of ESCC. D value combined with f value can further improve prediction performance of angiolymphatic invasion.

Objective To establish the best wine steaming process for morinda officinalis with monotropein as indicator. Methods Response surface methodology was used to optimize the wine steaming process for morinda officinalis with the amount of rice wine, stewing time, moistening time and the monotropein content as evaluation indexes. Results The best condition was identified with rice wine (rice wine/herbs, g/g) 10%, moistening time 1.0 h, fully steamed and dried. Conclusion The Star dot design-response surface method can be used to optimize the wine steaming process for morinda officinalis.