Objective:To evaluate the effect of hyperthermia on radiation pneumonitis (RP) in elderly patients with esophageal cancer undergoing intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).Methods:Clinical data of 177 elderly esophageal cancer patients (aged ≥60 years) receiving IMRT in the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University and Yixing Cancer Hospital from August 1, 2017 to February 6, 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into the hyperthermia and non-hyperthermia groups based on whether they received hyperthermia treatment. Patients in two groups received IMRT with 6 MV X-rays. Patients in the hyperthermia group underwent high-frequency hyperthermia within 1 h before radiation using the external thermotherapy device HG-2000Ⅲ (heating temperature: 41-43 ℃ for 40 min, twice a week). After adjusting for confounding factors between two groups using propensity score matching (PSM), the short-term effective rates between two groups were compared using Chi-square test. Univariate analysis and logistic multivariate analysis were employed to compare the incidence of RP between two groups. Results:After applying PSM, 42 pairs were successfully matched, and the baseline data and radiotherapy parameters showed no statistically significant differences between two groups (all P>0.05). The objective response rate (ORR) in the hyperthermia group was significantly higher than that in the non-hyperthermia group (83.3% vs. 64.3%, P=0.047). Univariate analysis revealed that the incidence of RP and symptomatic RP (≥ grade 2) in the hyperthermia group was significantly lower than that in the non-hyperthermia group (61.9% vs. 85.7%, P=0.013; 21.4% vs. 47.6%, P=0.012). Logistic multivariate analysis indicated that hyperthermia was an independent protective factor for symptomatic RP ( P=0.011). Conclusions:The incidence and severity of RP in elderly esophageal cancer patients receiving IMRT can be reduced by hyperthermia. Hyperthermia, as a clinically beneficial green treatment, improves efficacy and reduces toxicity for patients with esophageal cancer.

Objective:To explore the role of arginine metabolism in the inflammatory response to influenza A virus (FluA) infection.Methods:Eighteen-month-old mice were infected with FluA via nasal drip, with samples collected on the 6th day post-infection. The concentration of cytokines was determined by the Luminex multifactor assay, while the metabolites in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were analyzed using targeted metabolomic method. Correlation analysis was employed to examine the correlation between cytokines and metabolites. Macrophages were infected with FluA at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 1 and cultured with different concentrations of arginine for 24 h. The mRNA and protein expression levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and IL-10 were detected by real time fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) and Cytometric Bead Array (CBA).Results:In comparison to the control group, the levels of surfactant protein D (SP-D), TNF-α, monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), IL-1α, IL-6, IL-10, recombinant S100 calcium binding protein (S100) A9, interferon inducible protein 10 (IP-10), macrophage inflammatory protein-1α (MIP-1α), matrix metalloprotein-9 (MMP-9), and Complement Factor D in BALF of FluA infection exhibited a significant elevation. The concentrations of arginine, aspartate, citrulline, glutamic acid, ornithine, proline, creatine, and sarcosine in arginine metabolism were up-regulated, which was correlated with most of elevated cytokine levels. The supplementation of arginine after FluA infection significantly decreased the levels of IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α, but increased the level of IL-10 in macrophages.Conclusions:Arginine reduces the inflammatory response induced by FluA infection in macrophages, suggesting that it may be a potential intervention target for severe pulmonary inflammation following FluA infection.

Rectal cancer is one of the most common gastrointestinal malignancies in China. Accurate and reasonable assessment of the preoperative staging of rectal cancer can significantly enhance treatment outcomes and improve patient prognosis. Magnetic resonance imaging is the technique of choice for local staging of rectal cancer and has significant advantages in the diagnosis of rectal primary tumors (T) and peri-intestinal lymph nodes (N). In this review paper, the research ideas and progress of traditional radiomics and deep learning methods for preoperative TN staging prediction of rectal cancer were reviewed around multimodal magnetic resonance images, with the aim of providing new ideas for realizing fully automated TN staging algorithms for rectal cancer.

Objective:To investigate the correlation between the prognosis of late-onset depression(LOD)in the elderly and lncRNA expression levels and coping styles.Methods:Differential expression of lncRNAs in peripheral blood of LOD 92 patients was detected by a real-time quantitative PCR(qPCR)detection system, and the Hamilton Depression Scale(HAMD)and the Trait Coping Style Questionnaire(TCSQ)were used for psychological assessment.Results:Compared with the control group, the expression levels of TCONS_00019174(7.55 vs.4.36), ENST00000566208(6.48 vs.3.26), ENST00000517573(8.33 vs.5.32)and NONHSAT142707(6.78 vs.3.26)in elderly patients of the LOD group were significantly down-regulated( Z=5.09, 5.87, 4.35, 6.44, P<0.05); Compared with the low-expression subgroup, scores of anxiety/somatization[(3.83±1.40) vs.(6.39±2.35)], diurnal variation[(0.22±0.42) vs.(0.83±0.94)], retardation[(5.74±0.96) vs.(6.48±1.28)], hopelessness[(2.78±0.67) vs.(4.52±1.56)]and HAMD[(20.39±1.75) vs.(26.83±4.88)]in the high-expression subgroup were significantly lower( t=-4.50, -2.84, -2.22, -4.90, -5.96, P<0.05). The ΔCT value of TCONS_00019174 was negatively correlated with the reduction rates of anxiety/somatization, diurnal variation, retardation, sleep disturbance, hopelessness and HAMD( r=-0.40-0.66, P<0.05). The ΔCT value of ENST00000566208 was negatively correlated with the reduction rates of anxiety/somatization, sleep disturbance, hopelessness and HAMD( r=-0.47-0.62, P<0.01). The ΔCT values of ENST00000517573, NONHSAT034045 and NONHSAT142707 were negatively correlated with the reduction rates of retardation, sleep disturbance, hopelessness and HAMD( r=-0.39-0.76, P<0.05). The positive coping style was positively correlated with the reduction rates of HAMD, anxiety/somatization, retardation, sleep disturbance and hopelessness( r=0.38-0.55), while the negative coping style was negatively correlated with the reduction rates of HAMD, anxiety/somatization, sleep disturbance and hopelessness( r=-0.39-0.67, P<0.05). When TCONS_00019174, ENST00000566208, NONHSAT034045, NONHSAT142707, positive coping and negative coping were taken into the regression equation as variables for HAMD reduction, it was found that they were able to explain 32.4% of the variance for the reduction rate of the total HAMD score( t=-8.713, -3.584, -3.864, -2.257, 5.675, -2.357, P<0.05). Conclusions:TCONS_00019174, ENST00000566208, NONHSAT034045, NONHSAT142707, positive coping style and negative coping style are predictors of the prognosis of LOD in the elderly.

Lung cancer is one of the most serious malignant tumors threatening human health. Early detection and accurate risk assessment are crucial for improving the survival rate and prognosis of lung cancer patients. In this review paper, the research progress in early-stage lung cancer risk assessment methods based on predictive factors and medical imaging was summarized. The results indicated that by utilizing more diverse machine learning algorithms and larger-scale datasets, independent risk prediction factors can be further mined to achieve an accurate assessment of individual lung cancer risk.

Radiomics is a non-invasive method to extract valuable features from computed tomography(CT)images to characterize the correlation between tumor phenotype and clinical treatment outcomes,which is of great significance in the evaluation of the efficacy of non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC).This paper reviews the research methods of CT Radiomics in the evaluation of curative effect of NSCLC.Firstly,the research content of CT radiomics in NSCLC is summarized.Then,from the perspective of different treatment methods,such as namely radiotherapy and chemotherapy,targeted therapy and immunotherapy,the research methods of CT radiomics in the evaluation of NSCLC efficacy were summarized,and the CT radiomics was compared with other commonly used efficacy evaluation systems.Finally,the development trend and improvement of the application of CT radiomics in the evaluation of NSCLC curative effect were summarized and prospected.

Background: Domestic yaks are the most important livestock species on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Adult female yaks normally breed in the warm season (July to September) and enter anestrous in the cold season (November to April). Nevertheless, it is unclear how ovarian activity is regulated at the molecular level. Objectives: The peculiarities of yak reproduction were assessed to explore the molecular mechanism of postpartum anestrus ovaries in yaks after pregnancy and parturition. Methods: Sixty female yaks with calves were observed under natural grazing in Haiyan County, Qinghai Province. Three yak ovaries in pregnancy and postpartum anestrus were collected. RNA sequencing and quantitative proteomics were employed to analyze the pregnancy and postpartum ovaries after hypothermia to identify the genes and proteins related to the postpartum ovarian cycle. Results: The results revealed 841 differentially expressed genes during the postpartum hypoestrus cycle; 347 were up-regulated and 494 genes were down-regulated. Fifty-seven differential proteins were screened: 38 were up-regulated and 19 were down-regulated. The differential genes and proteins were related to the yak reproduction process, rhythm process, progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation, PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, and MAPK signaling pathway categories. Conclusions Transcriptome and proteomic sequencing approaches were used to investigate postpartum anestrus and pregnancy ovaries in yaks. The results confirmed that BHLHE40, SF1IX1, FBPX1, HSPCA, LHCGR, BMP15, and ET-1R could affect postpartum hypoestrus and control the state of estrus.

In the USA, there were about 1 ‍806 ‍590 new cancer cases in 2020, and 606 520 cancer deaths are expected to have occurred in 2021. Lung cancer has become the leading cause of death from cancer in both men and women (Siegel et al., 2020). Clinical studies show that the five-year survival rate of lung cancer patients after early diagnosis and treatment intervention can reach 80%, compared with that of patients having advanced lung cancer. Thus, the early diagnosis of lung cancer is a key factor to reduce mortality.
Male ; Humans ; Female ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods* ; Algorithms ; Lung Neoplasms/pathology* ; Cluster Analysis

Accurate segmentation of ground glass nodule (GGN) is important in clinical. But it is a tough work to segment the GGN, as the GGN in the computed tomography images show blur boundary, irregular shape, and uneven intensity. This paper aims to segment GGN by proposing a fully convolutional residual network, i.e., residual network based on atrous spatial pyramid pooling structure and attention mechanism (ResAANet). The network uses atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) structure to expand the feature map receptive field and extract more sufficient features, and utilizes attention mechanism, residual connection, long skip connection to fully retain sensitive features, which is extracted by the convolutional layer. First, we employ 565 GGN provided by Shanghai Chest Hospital to train and validate ResAANet, so as to obtain a stable model. Then, two groups of data selected from clinical examinations (84 GGN) and lung image database consortium (LIDC) dataset (145 GGN) were employed to validate and evaluate the performance of the proposed method. Finally, we apply the best threshold method to remove false positive regions and obtain optimized results. The average dice similarity coefficient (DSC) of the proposed algorithm on the clinical dataset and LIDC dataset reached 83.46%, 83.26% respectively, the average Jaccard index (IoU) reached 72.39%, 71.56% respectively, and the speed of segmentation reached 0.1 seconds per image. Comparing with other reported methods, our new method could segment GGN accurately, quickly and robustly. It could provide doctors with important information such as nodule size or density, which assist doctors in subsequent diagnosis and treatment.
Algorithms ; China ; Disease Progression ; Humans ; Multiple Pulmonary Nodules ; Neural Networks, Computer ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods*

Objective:To establish neurodevelopmental mice model of schizophrenia(SZ) with prepulse inhibition(PPI) deficits and investigate the effectiveness of olanzapine on PPI disruption.Methods:On the 9th day of pregnancy of SPF grade C57BL/6 mice, female mice were injected with polyinosinic acid poly (I∶C) (6 mg/kg) through tail vein for immune stimulation. The stress model was constructed by chronic unpredictable mild stress 30-40 d after birth (PND30-40). The offspring mice were divided into pregnancy immune stimulation + adolescent stress group (P + S + group), pregnancy immune stimulation group (P + S- group), adolescent stress group (P-S+ group) and non stimulation group (P-S-group), with 18 mice in each group. The mice in P+ S+ group were divided into OLZ intervention group (OLZ group) and non-OLZ intervention group (non-OLZ group), with 9 mice in each group. The PPI function of mice was detected by acoustic startle reflex test after modeling and OLZ intervention. Adopt StatView Version 5.0 software for data analysis, and multi factors analysis of variance was used to test the main effect, interactive effect and simple effect of each factor.Results:The main effects of maternal Poly(I: C) immune activation and pubertal chronic unpredictable stress were significant( F(1, 330)=47.72, P<0.01), and there was a significant interaction between the two factors( F(1, 330)=14.80, P<0.01), simple effect analysis showed that average percent prepulse inhibition (PPI%) in P+ S+ group((15.42±6.13)%) was significantly decreased compared with groups of P+ S-((27.33±4.58)%), P-S+ ((31.17±3.97)%) and P-S-((47.14±12.28)%)(all P<0.01). There was significant gender difference in Prepulse inhibition(PPI)score( F(1, 396)=61.94, P<0.01), in male and female mice, average startle reactivity of Pulse under Prepulse+ Pulse influence of distinct intensities was significantly different( F(1, 198)=18.68, 18.44, P<0.01), and the maternal Poly(I∶C) immune activation had a significant main effect( F(1, 198)=32.18, 12.58, P<0.01) and interaction with pubertal chronic unpredictable stress( F(1, 198)=34.54, 11.39, P<0.01), simple effect analysis suggested that the average startle reactivity of Prepulse+ Pulse in P+ S+ group(0.47±0.12) was significantly higher than other three groups(P+ S-: 0.36±0.11, P-S+ : (0.25±0.22), P-S-: (0.31±0.19)) in male mice( P<0.01) and in P-S+ group was significantly higher than the other three groups in female mice ( P<0.01). OLZ treatment could efficiently reverse the deficits on PPI by increasing PPI%( F(1, 165)=18.24, P<0.01), OLZ could reduce PPI score in male "dual-hit" model mice( F(1, 102)=21.81, P<0.01)and raise it in female( F(1, 102)=4.88, P<0.05). Conclusion:OLZ can reverse PPI deficits in schizophrenic neurodevelopmental model mice, and in the evaluation of PPI function in the model mice through PPI of acoustic startle reflex, PPI% has better stability and reactivity to OLZ intervention.