ObjectiveTo investigate the therapeutic effect of Astragali Radix-mediated changes in gut microbiota on treating type 2 diabetes （T2DM）. MethodsA 12-week randomized， placebo-controlled clinical trial enrolled eighty patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and poor glycemic control in the Qi deficiency type. All patients received insulin therapy. The observation group （40 cases） was administered with Astragali Radix Granules， while the control group （40 cases） received a placebo. Both treamtents were taken orally twice daily. Changes in gut microbiota were assessed by 16s rDNA sequencing. Serum glucagon-like peptide-1 （GLP-1） levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay （ELISA）. Glucose metabolism indicators including fasting blood glucose （FPG）， 2-hour postprandial blood glucose （2 h PG），glycated albumin（GA）， and glycated hemoglobin （HbA1c） were evaluated. Pancreatic function was evaluated using fasting C-peptide （FCP）， 2-hour postprandial C-peptide （2 h CP）， and C-peptide area under the curve （AUC_cp）. Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） syndrome scores， clinical efficacy， and safety indicators were also observed. ResultsIn terms of glucose metabolism indicators， compared with the baseline， both groups exhibited significantly lower FPG， 2 h PG， GA and HbA1C （P<0.01），while FCP， 2 h CP and AUC_cp were significantly higher （P<0.01）. Compared with the control group after the treatment， the observation group showed significantly lower FPG， 2 h PG， GA and HbA1C（P<0.05， P<0.01），and significantly higher FCP， 2 h CP and AUC_cp （P<0.05， P<0.01）， indicating that Astragali Radix can improve glucose metabolism. In terms of the diversity of gut microbiota， no significant differences were detected in the Chao1， Shannon and Simpson indexes of the two groups compared with their respective baselines. However， compared with the post-treatment control group， the observation group demonstrated significant increases in the Chao1， Shannon and Simpson indexes （P<0.05， P<0.01）. The β-diversity analysis showed significant separation in gut microbiota composition before and after treatment in both groups， indicating that Astragali Radix can significantly alter the structure and improve the diversity of gut microbiota. At the phylum level， compared with the baseline， both groups showed a significant increase in the relative abundance of Bacteroidota（P<0.01）. The relative abundance of the potentially harmful phylum Proteobacteria was significantly lower in the observation Group after treatment （P<0.01）. Compared with the post-treatment control group， the observation group had a significantly higher relative abundance of Bacteroidota（P<0.01）. No significant difference was found in Firmicutes/Bacteroidota （F/B） ratio between the two groups after treatment， and other phyla showed no significant differences. At the genus level， compared with the baseline， the observation group exhibited a significant increase in Bacteroides （P<0.01） and a significant decrease in Escherichia-Shigella （P<0.01）， whereas no significant difference was seen in the control group . Compared with the control group after treatment， the observation group after treatment had a significantly higher relative abundance of Bacteroides （P<0.01）. No significant differences were seen in other genera. Linear discriminant analysis （LDA） identified potential characteristics taxa： in the observation group， Bacteroidota at the phylum level and Bacteroides and Dubosiella at the genus level， in the control group， Proteobacteria at the phylum level as well as Barnesiella and Staphylococcus at the genus level. Correlation analysis based on a heatmap revealed that GLP-1 levels were positively correlated with Firmicutes， F/B ratio and Fusobacterium， and negatively correlated with Bacteroidota， Proteobacteria， Bacteroides and Escherichia-Shigella. In terms of clinical efficacy， compared with the control group， the total effective rate of the observation group was significantly higher （P<0.05）. Compared with the baseline， the scores for shortness of breath， fatigue， weakness， spontaneous sweating and reluctance to speak significantly decreased in both groups （P<0.01）. Compared with the control group after treatment， the score for weakness was significantly lower in the observation group （P<0.01），indicating that Astragali Radix could improve clinical symptoms and alleviate weakness symptoms. In terms of safety， compared with the baseline， alanine aminotransferase （ALT） levels significantly decreased in both groups （P<0.05，P<0.01），indicating that Astragali Radix did not induce any significant abnormalities in liver and kidney functions. ConclusionAstragali Radix demonstrates the potential to significantly improve the gut microbiota environment in patients of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes with Qi deficiency. The therapeutic effect may contribute to glycemic control， possibly mediated by an elevation in GLP-1 level. These findings may support its further clinical investigations and potential applications.

Nano-boron nitride (nano-BN) is a kind of nanomaterials with exceptional mechanical properties, thermal stability and electrical conductivity, and has broad application prospects in industry, energy, electronics and biomedicine. However, with the continuous expansion of its applications, the health effects and potential toxicity of nano-BN on organisms have gradually emerged, and become one of the current research hotspots of nano-BN. The toxicity studies of nano-BN will not only contribute to understanding its potential hazards but also provide crucial theoretical foundations for its safety assessment and health risk evaluation. Therefore, it is of great significance to comprehensively analyze and review the available in vivo and in vitro toxicity studies of nano-BN. This paper discussed the reported influencing factors of nano-BN toxicity, including its morphological characteristics, surface modifications, cell types, exposure dose and time, and further analyzed the oxidative stress, mitochondrial damage, DNA damage, and other related toxic mechanisms induced by nano-BN. Currently, the toxicity research of nano-BN remains limited, particularly due to insufficient human exposure data, unclear chronic toxicity in vivo, and restricted use of cell types for in vitro experiments. Future research should focus on these gaps.

Objective:To investigate the current status of clinical leadership among Interventional Operating Room nurses in Shandong Province and to analyze its influencing factors.Methods:In December 2024, 220 Interventional Operating Room nurses from 46 ClassⅢ Grade A general hospitals in Shandong Province were selected for a cross-sectional survey using convenience sampling. General Information Questionnaire, Clinical Leadership Survey, Chinese version of Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS-C) , and Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Professionals (JSE-HP) were used as survey instruments. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the factors influencing clinical leadership among Interventional Operating Room nurses. Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence, empathy, and clinical leadership.Results:A total of 220 questionnaires were distributed and 204 valid questionnaires were recovered, with a valid recovery rate of 92.73% (204/220) . The clinical leadership scores of the 204 Interventional Operating Room nurses were (66.35±8.74) , and the dimensions scored, in descending order, as encouraging the heart, enabling others to act, modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, and challenging the process. The mean scores of WLEIS-C and JSE-HP items were (5.88±0.90) and (4.61±0.63) , respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the nature of employment and whether or not they participated in leadership training were influencing factors for clinical leadership among Interventional Operating Room nurses (partial regression coefficients of -2.831 and -2.999, respectively; P<0.05) . Emotional intelligence and empathy ability among Interventional Operating Room nurses were positively correlated with clinical leadership ( P<0.05) . Conclusions:Clinical leadership of nurses in the Interventional Operating Room of ClassⅢ Grade A general hospitals in Shandong Province is at a moderate to high level. Nurses who participate in leadership training, have staffing, have greater empathy, and have higher emotional intelligence have greater clinical leadership. It is recommended that nursing administrators add leadership-related courses to the training of nurses in the Interventional Operating Room, and take steps to improve nurses' emotional intelligence and empathy ability, thereby promoting clinical leadership among Interventional Operating Room nurses.

Objective:To investigate the current status of clinical leadership among Interventional Operating Room nurses in Shandong Province and to analyze its influencing factors.Methods:In December 2024, 220 Interventional Operating Room nurses from 46 ClassⅢ Grade A general hospitals in Shandong Province were selected for a cross-sectional survey using convenience sampling. General Information Questionnaire, Clinical Leadership Survey, Chinese version of Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS-C) , and Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Professionals (JSE-HP) were used as survey instruments. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the factors influencing clinical leadership among Interventional Operating Room nurses. Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence, empathy, and clinical leadership.Results:A total of 220 questionnaires were distributed and 204 valid questionnaires were recovered, with a valid recovery rate of 92.73% (204/220) . The clinical leadership scores of the 204 Interventional Operating Room nurses were (66.35±8.74) , and the dimensions scored, in descending order, as encouraging the heart, enabling others to act, modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, and challenging the process. The mean scores of WLEIS-C and JSE-HP items were (5.88±0.90) and (4.61±0.63) , respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the nature of employment and whether or not they participated in leadership training were influencing factors for clinical leadership among Interventional Operating Room nurses (partial regression coefficients of -2.831 and -2.999, respectively; P<0.05) . Emotional intelligence and empathy ability among Interventional Operating Room nurses were positively correlated with clinical leadership ( P<0.05) . Conclusions:Clinical leadership of nurses in the Interventional Operating Room of ClassⅢ Grade A general hospitals in Shandong Province is at a moderate to high level. Nurses who participate in leadership training, have staffing, have greater empathy, and have higher emotional intelligence have greater clinical leadership. It is recommended that nursing administrators add leadership-related courses to the training of nurses in the Interventional Operating Room, and take steps to improve nurses' emotional intelligence and empathy ability, thereby promoting clinical leadership among Interventional Operating Room nurses.

Objective:To investigate the relationship between the LAMA2 gene expression and the survival time of cancer patients, tumor microenvironment, tumor immune cell infiltration, and the immunotherapy responsiveness in pan-cancer. Methods:Download the expression data matrix and the clinical data from TCGA and IMvigor210, furthermore analyze the correlation between the expression level of LAMA2 and survival time, tumor microenvironment, and immunotherapy responsiveness by R and perform the gene set enrichment analysis of LAMA2 in pan-cancer to explore the related pathways. The Wilcoxon test was used to compare the expression difference of LAMA2 between tumor tissues and normal tissues. Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis, and univariate COX regression analysis was used to evaluate the risk ratio relationship of LAMA2 in various tumors. Spearman correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between the expression level of LAMA2 and tumor microenvironment immune score, as well as immune cell infiltration. Pearson correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between the immunotherapy responsiveness and the expression level of LAMA2. Results:Compared with normal tissues, the expression level of LAMA2 was significantly decreased in most cancer types. In addition, the up-regulation or down-regulationand of LAMA2 expression may indicate the prognosis of patients. Univariate COX regression analysis showed that LAMA2 was significantly associated with prognosis in bladder cancer, renal papillary cell carcinoma, adrenocortical carcinoma, and so on. LAMA2 expression level was also significantly correlated with tumor microenvironment score, immune score and stromal score. Furthermore, the expression level of LAMA2 was correlated with the infiltration of tumor immune cells, including B cell, CD8 + T cell, regulatory T cell, mast cell, and so on. The results of gene set enrichment analysis show that the LAMA2 was mostly involved in the biological process of ion channels, gene expression, and skeletal muscle movement. LAMA2 expression was also associated with tumor mutation burden, microsatellite instability, and cell programmed death-ligand 1 immunotherapy responsiveness. Conclusions:LAMA2 has predictive value for survival and prognosis of patients in tumors, and is significantly correlated with tumor microenvironment, immune cell infiltration, tumor microenvironment, immunotherapy responsiveness, etc. As a potential tumor marker, LAMA2 provides a new direction for tumor prognosis judgment and treatment selection.

Objective To investigate the value of radiomics nomogram model based on enhanced CT for predicting postoperative pancreatic fistula(POPF)in patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy(PD).Methods The clinical and abdominal imaging data of 82 patients who underwent PD were analyzed retrospectively.They were divided into training set and validation set at a ratio of 3∶2.In the venous phase of CT,the maximum slice of the pancreatic duct was selected to delineate the region of interest(ROI),and the features were extracted and screened to construct the radiomics model.The independent risk factors associated with POPF were screened by univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses to construct the clinical model.A nomogram model was created by combining Radiomics score(Radscore)and clinical risk factors.The diagnostic performance of the model was verified by the vali-dation set.Results The nomogram model demonstrated significant predictive power,with an area under the curve(AUC)of 0.862 and 0.806 in the training set and validation set,respectively.Conclusion The nomogram model exhibits excellent predictive performance and outperforms the clinical model and radiomics model in predicting POPF,which can provide important guidance for clinical deci-sion-making.

Objective: To prospectively compare single-shot (SS) echo-planar imaging (EPI) and field-of-view optimized and constrained undistorted single-shot multiplexed sensitivity-encoding (FOCUS MUSE) for diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in evaluating thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO). Materials and Methods: SS EPI and FOCUS MUSE DWIs were obtained from 39 patients with TAO (18 male; mean ± standard deviation: 48.3 ± 13.3 years) and 26 healthy controls (9 male; mean ± standard deviation: 43.0 ± 18.5 years). Two radiologists scored the visual image quality using a 4-point Likert scale. The image quality score, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-tonoise ratio (CNR), and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of extraocular muscles (EOMs) were compared between the two DWIs. Differences in the ADC of EOMs were also evaluated. The performance of discriminating active from inactive TAO was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curves. The correlation between ADC and clinical activity score (CAS) was analyzed using Spearman correlation. Results: Compared with SS EPI DWI, FOCUS MUSE DWI demonstrated significantly higher image quality scores (P < 0.001), a higher SNR and CNR on the lateral rectus muscle (LRM) and medial rectus muscle (MRM) (P < 0.05), and a non-significant difference in the ADC of the LRM and MRM. Active TAO showed higher ADC than inactive TAO and healthy controls with both SS EPI and FOCUS MUSE DWIs (P < 0.001). Inactive TAO and healthy controls did not show a significant ADC difference with both DWIs. Compared with SS EPI DWI, FOCUS MUSE DWI demonstrated better discrimination of active from inactive TAO (AUC:0.925 vs. 0.779; P = 0.007). The ADC was significantly correlated with CAS in SS EPI DWI (r = 0.391, P < 0.001) and FOCUS MUSE DWI (r = 0.645, P < 0.001). Conclusion FOCUS MUSE DWI provides better images for evaluating EOMs and better performance in diagnosing active TAO than SS EPI DWI. The application of FOCUS MUSE will facilitate the DWI evaluation of TAO.

Animals ; SARS-CoV-2 ; Antibodies, Neutralizing ; Macaca mulatta ; COVID-19/prevention & control* ; Antibodies, Viral ; Vaccines

OBJECTIVE: To systematically investigate the changes rule of volatile oil and its main components released from moxa sticks under different headspace temperatures and combustion conditions, so as to guide the clinical rational selection of the temperature for moxa sticks. METHODS: Using the headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-GCMS) technique, the released gas from moxa sticks was collected at the headspace temperature (from room temperature [25 ℃] to 190 ℃) and during combustion. One mL of the gas was injected into 6890/5973N gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS). The release rates of volatile components of moxa sticks were calculated by total ion chromatography (TIC) and butanone internal standard method. The volatile components of moxa sticks were qualitatively analyzed by analyzing the mass spectra of each volatile component and matching the Nist 14 standard mass spectrometry library. By comparing and analyzing the peak intensity changes rule of 1,8-cineole and its main harmful components (benzene, toluene and phenol) under different headspace temperatures and combustion conditions, the optimal temperature for clinical use of moxa sticks was found. RESULTS: At room temperature and 50 ℃, the release rate of volatile components from moxa sticks was very low, and it showed a significant increase trend with the increase of temperature. When the headspace temperature was 190 ℃, the release rate of volatile components from moxa sticks reached 0.864 2%, which was 2 161 times as same as that at room temperature. After combustion, it dropped sharply to 0.027 9%, which was 96.8% lower than that at the headspace temperature of 190 ℃. When the headspace temperature was 125 ℃ and 150 ℃, the content of 1,8-cineole, a typical beneficial component in the volatile components of moxa sticks, was the highest. When the headspace temperature was higher than 150 ℃, its content showed a significant downward trend. Under combustion conditions, a large number of harmful substances, such as benzene, toluene and phenol, were detected. CONCLUSION The combustion condition is not conducive to the efficient utilization of the volatile oil of moxa sticks. Temperature of 125-150 ℃ is the best for releasing the volatile components of moxa sticks, which is not only conducive to the release of the beneficial volatile components of moxa sticks, but also can greatly inhibit the production of harmful components.
Benzene ; Eucalyptol ; Oils, Volatile ; Phenols ; Temperature ; Toluene

Objective:To explore the value of radiomics model based on intratumoral and peritumoral early dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI for identifying benign and malignant in breast imaging reporting and data system (BI-RADS) 4 tumors.Methods:A total of 191 patients diagnosed with BI-RADS 4 breast tumors by breast MRI examination with clear pathological diagnosis from January 2016 to December 2020 in the First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College were analyzed retrospectively, including 77 benign and 114 malignant cases, aged 23-68 (46±10) years. The one-slice image with the largest area of the lesion of the second stage DCE-MRI images was selected to outline the region of interest, and automatically conformal extrapolated by 5 mm to extract the intra-tumoral and peritumoral radiomics features. The included cases were randomly divided into training and testing cohorts in the ratio of 8∶2. The statistical and machine learning methods were used for feature dimensionality reduction and selection of optimal radiomics features, and logistic regression was used as the classifier to establish the intratumoral, peritumoral, and intratumoral combined with peritumoral radiomics models. The independent risk factors that could predict the benignity and malignancy of breast tumors were retained as clinical-radiological characteristics by univariate and multivariate logistic regression to establish a clinical-radiological model. Finally, the intratumoral and peritumoral radiomics features were combined with clinical-radiological features to develop a combined model of the three. The receiver operating curve was used to analyze the predictive performance of each model and calculate the area under the curve (AUC),the AUC was compared by DeLong test. The stability of the three-component combined diagnostic model was tested by 10-fold cross-validation, and the model was visualized by plotting nomogram and calibration curves.Results:In the training cohort, the AUC of the three-component combined model for identifying benign and malignant BI-RADS 4 breast tumors was significantly higher than that of the intratumoral radiomics model ( Z=3.38, P<0.001), the peritumoral radiomics model ( Z=4.01, P<0.001), the intratumoral combined with peritumoral radiomics model ( Z=3.11, P=0.002), and the clinical-radiological model ( Z=3.24, P=0.001). And the AUC, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and F1-score of the three-component combined model were 0.932, 91.2%, 86.9%, 87.0% and 0.89, respectively. In the testing cohort, the three-component combined model also had the highest AUC value (0.875), and diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and malignancy F1-score were 95.7%, 62.5%, 76.9%, and 0.89, respectively. The AUC calculated by 10-fold cross-validation was 0.90 (0.85-0.92), and the predicted curve of the three-component combined model in the calibration curve was in good agreement with the ideal curve. Conclusion:The three-component combined diagnostic model based on the intratumoral and peritumoral radiomics features and clinical-radiological features of early DCE-MRI has good performance and stability for identifying the benign and malignant in BI-RADS 4 breast tumors, and it can provide guidance for clinical decision non-invasively.