Objective To study the consonant articulation performance and speech intelligibility of patients with submucous cleft palate(SMCP)and to provide a reference for clinical speech evaluation and subsequent speech rehabilitation.Methods A total of 333 preoperative SMCP patients aged 4.5 years and older participated in this study.The accuracy,type of error,and error rates were assessed across participant genders and their varying levels of velopharyngeal closure function.Results Among the 333 patients,196 had complete velopharyngeal closure,while 137 had incomplete closure.A total of 145 patients(43.54％)demonstrated normal articulation of all conso-nants,while 188 patients(56.46％)displayed various degrees of articulation disorders.Compensatory articulation behaviors were observed in 66 patients(19.82％).No significant differences in articulation errors were found be-tween male and female patients.The accuracy ranking for consonants was from high to low as follows:nasal sounds,lateral sounds,fricatives,plosives,and affricates.Substitution was the most common error type with an incidence of 35.93％,followed by omission at 34.62％and compensatory errors at 25.51％.The average accuracy rates for plosives,fricatives,affricates,lateral/nasal sounds were 73.27％,78.20％,69.29％,and 93.39％,re-spectively.Substitution was the most common error for plosives and fricatives,while omission was most frequent for affricates.Compensatory errors occurred most often with affricates,and no compensatory errors were found in nasal or lateral sounds.Conclusion Substitution,omission,and compensatory errors are the most common articula-tion errors in SMCP patients,occurring across plosives,fricatives,and affricates.The severity of articulation disor-ders is related to velopharyngeal closure function but is independent of gender.

Objective To study the consonant articulation performance and speech intelligibility of patients with submucous cleft palate(SMCP)and to provide a reference for clinical speech evaluation and subsequent speech rehabilitation.Methods A total of 333 preoperative SMCP patients aged 4.5 years and older participated in this study.The accuracy,type of error,and error rates were assessed across participant genders and their varying levels of velopharyngeal closure function.Results Among the 333 patients,196 had complete velopharyngeal closure,while 137 had incomplete closure.A total of 145 patients(43.54％)demonstrated normal articulation of all conso-nants,while 188 patients(56.46％)displayed various degrees of articulation disorders.Compensatory articulation behaviors were observed in 66 patients(19.82％).No significant differences in articulation errors were found be-tween male and female patients.The accuracy ranking for consonants was from high to low as follows:nasal sounds,lateral sounds,fricatives,plosives,and affricates.Substitution was the most common error type with an incidence of 35.93％,followed by omission at 34.62％and compensatory errors at 25.51％.The average accuracy rates for plosives,fricatives,affricates,lateral/nasal sounds were 73.27％,78.20％,69.29％,and 93.39％,re-spectively.Substitution was the most common error for plosives and fricatives,while omission was most frequent for affricates.Compensatory errors occurred most often with affricates,and no compensatory errors were found in nasal or lateral sounds.Conclusion Substitution,omission,and compensatory errors are the most common articula-tion errors in SMCP patients,occurring across plosives,fricatives,and affricates.The severity of articulation disor-ders is related to velopharyngeal closure function but is independent of gender.

Objective:To analyze clinical efficacy, failure mode and prognostic factors of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients undergoing intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).Methods:Clinical data of 951 locally advanced NPC patients who were newly-treated with IMRT in Hunan Cancer Hospital from January 2018 to January 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients' general data, overall survival (OS), local recurrence-free survival (LRFS), regional recurrence-free survival (RRFS), local recurrence-free survival (LRRFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), and progression-free survival (PFS) were analyzed. Comparison among different groups was performed by one-way ANOVA. Survival rate was calculated by Kaplan-Meier method. Survival difference was compared by log-rank test. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed by Cox regression model.Results:The median follow-up time was 62.0 months (IQR, 58.0-65.0 months). The 5-year OS, LRFS, RRFS, LRRFS, DMFS, and PFS were 85.4%, 94.0%, 97.7%, 92.6%, 85.7% and 76.9%, respectively. According to the 8th edition staging of American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC), there were 10 cases (1.1%) of stage I, 76 cases (8.0%) of stage II, 445 cases (46.8%) of stage III, and 420 cases (44.2%) of stage IVA, respectively. Among them, the OS rates of stage I, II, III and IVA patients were 100%, 97.2%, 88.8% and 79.2%, respectively ( P<0.001); LRRFS rates were 100%, 90.4%, 94.7% and 90.4%, respectively( P=0.104); DMFS rates were 90.0%, 95.9%, 88.0% and 81.1%, respectively ( P<0.001); PFS rates were 90.0%, 89.1%, 80.9% and 70.1% respectively ( P<0.001). There were 183 cases of treatment failure, including 52 cases (5.5%) of local failure, 19 cases (2.0%) of regional failure, 130 cases (13.7%) of distant metastasis, 16 cases of local combined with regional failure (1.7%), 16 cases (1.7%) of local failure combined with distant metastasis, 13 cases (1.4%) of regional failure combined with distant metastasis, and 9 cases (0.9%) of local regional failure combined with distant metastasis, respectively. Multivariate regression analysis suggested that EB virus DNA copy number before treatment, T stage and N stage were the independent prognostic factors affecting OS, DMFS and PFS. Conclusions:Compared with two-dimensional radiotherapy, IMRT has improved the overall therapeutic effect for NPC, especially the local control rate. Distant metastasis is still the main failure mode. Clinical staging, prognostic risk stratification and prognostic biomarkers can be combined to deliver stratified and precise treatment, which may further improve clinical efficacy and reduce treatment-related side effects.

The development, progression, and curative efficacy of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) are influenced by complex interactions between epithelial and immune cells. Nevertheless, the specific changes in the nature of these interactions and their underlying molecular mechanisms in HNSCC are not yet fully understood. Cuproptosis, a form of programmed cell death that is dependent on copper, has been implicated in cancer pathogenesis. However, the understanding of cuproptosis in the context of HNSCC remains limited. In this study, we have discovered that cuproptosis-related long non-coding RNAs (CRLs) known as JPX play a role in promoting the expression of the oncogene urokinase-type plasminogen activator (PLAU) by competitively binding to miR-193b-3p in HNSCC. The increased activity of the JPX/miR-193b-3p/PLAU axis in malignant epithelial cells leads to enhanced cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in HNSCC. Moreover, the overexpression of PLAU in tumor epithelial cells facilitates its interaction with the receptor PLAUR, predominantly expressed on macrophages, thereby influencing the abnormal epithelial-immune interactome in HNSCC. Notably, the JPX inhibitor Axitinib and the PLAU inhibitor Palbociclib may not only exert their effects on the JPX/miR-193b-3p/PLAU axis that impacts the malignant tumor behaviors and the epithelial-immune cell interactions but also exhibit synergistic effects in terms of suppressing tumor cell growth and arresting cell cycle by targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK4/6) for the treatment of HNSCC.
Humans ; MicroRNAs/metabolism* ; RNA, Long Noncoding/metabolism* ; Head and Neck Neoplasms/metabolism* ; Cell Proliferation ; Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck/genetics* ; Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator/genetics* ; Cell Movement ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell/genetics* ; Neoplasm Invasiveness

Objective:To understand the status quo and influencing factors of evidence-based nursing competencies among oncology nurses and provide a reference for enhancing this competency among oncology nurses.Methods:From September 2022 to January 2023, totally 300 practicing nurses from Zhejiang Cancer Hospital were selected by convenience sampling and surveyed with the Chinese version of the Evidence-Based Practice Belief-Knowledge-Practice Scale. Univariate analysis and multiple linear regression were employed to analyze factors affecting the evidence-based nursing competencies of these nurses.Results:The evidence-based nursing competency scores of the 300 oncology nurses were (44.50±10.78) . Among the three dimensions, the belief dimension had the highest average item score, while the practice dimension had the lowest. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that gender, age, evidence-based training, participation in evidence-based projects, reading professional literature, publication of papers within the last five years and medical statistical level were influencing factors of their evidence-based nursing competencies (all P<0.05) . Conclusions:The evidence-based nursing competencies of oncology nurses are at a relatively low level. Nursing managers and educators should focus on female nurses, older nurses, intensify evidence-based nursing training efforts, and thus enhance the evidence-based nursing competencies and overall research quality of the nursing team.

Mindfulness training has shown beneficial effects on cognitive functions in older adults.Howev-er,the studies on this topic have used different methods and populations,and their results were inconsistent.No sys-tematic review has synthesized and evaluated these findings.This review aims to address this gap by categorizing the studies based on the training methods and cohorts of older adults,and summarizing the effects of mindfulness training on cognitive function.The review finds that mindfulness training had different effects depending on the lev-el of cognitive decline and the training method.Both standardized and unstandardized training methods improved cognitive performance in older adults with normal or subjective cognitive decline.However,the effect of mindful-ness training diminished as cognitive decline worsened,being inconsistent in mild cognitive impairment and non-sig-nificant in dementia.The review also discusses the possible mechanisms and suggested directions for future re-search.

As an emerging drug delivery technology,microneedles can puncture the skin's stratum corneum to create micron-sized conduits,painlessly,minimally invasive,and efficiently deliver drugs into viable epidermis or dermis for local or systemic therapeutic effects.This paper reviews the current clinical trials of microneedles used in the treatment of various diseases,elaborates on the characteristics of various types of microneedles,and summarizes the latest research progress of microneedles used to treat skin tumors,including chemotherapy,photothermal and photodynamic therapy,immunotherapy,gene therapy,and combination therapy.This review provides ideas and directions for further research on microneedles in treating skin tumors.

Specific tumor-targeted gene delivery remains an unsolved therapeutic issue due to aberrant vascularization in tumor microenvironment (TME). Some bacteria exhibit spontaneous chemotaxis toward the anaerobic and immune-suppressive TME, which makes them ideal natural vehicles for cancer gene therapy. Here, we conjugated ZIF-8 metal-organic frameworks encapsulating eukaryotic murine interleukin 2 (Il2) expression plasmid onto the surface of VNP20009, an attenuated Salmonella typhimurium strain with well-documented anti-cancer activity, and constructed a TME-targeted Il2 delivery system named Il2/ZIF-8@Salmonella. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated that Il2/ZIF-8@Salmonella maintained the tumor-targeting feature of bacteria, and could be effectively phagocytosed by intratumoral macrophages, thus leading to the expression and secretion of IL2 in TME. The detailed analysis of tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) showed that one dose of combinatorial Il2/ZIF-8@Salmonella achieved synergistic actions on a potent remodeling of TIME, marked by the activation of cytotoxic T cells and M1-polarization of macrophages in TME, thus leading to significant anti-tumor effects in melanoma, orthotopic hepatocellular carcinoma, and pulmonary metastasis models. More importantly, Il2/ZIF-8@Salmonella exhibited high safety to major organs and hematopoietic systems. Taken together, we report a novel plasmid/ZIF-8@Salmonella system that simultaneously achieves effective TME-targeted delivery of therapeutic gene, as well as synergistic re-activation of TIME.

The development,progression,and curative efficacy of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma(HNSCC)are influenced by complex interactions between epithelial and immune cells.Nevertheless,the specific changes in the nature of these interactions and their underlying molecular mechanisms in HNSCC are not yet fully understood.Cuproptosis,a form of programmed cell death that is dependent on copper,has been implicated in cancer pathogenesis.However,the understanding of cuproptosis in the context of HNSCC remains limited.In this study,we have discovered that cuproptosis-related long non-coding RNAs(CRLs)known as JPX play a role in promoting the expression of the oncogene urokinase-type plasminogen activator(PLAU)by competitively binding to miR-193b-3p in HNSCC.The increased activity of the JPX/miR-193b-3p/PLAU axis in malignant epithelial cells leads to enhanced cell proliferation,migration,and invasion in HNSCC.Moreover,the overexpression of PLAU in tumor epithelial cells facilitates its interaction with the receptor PLAUR,predominantly expressed on macrophages,thereby influencing the abnormal epithelial-immune interactome in HNSCC.Notably,the JPX inhibitor Axitinib and the PLAU inhibitor Palbociclib may not only exert their effects on the JPX/miR-193b-3p/PLAU axis that impacts the malignant tumor behaviors and the epithelial-immune cell interactions but also exhibit synergistic effects in terms of suppressing tumor cell growth and arresting cell cycle by targeting epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR)and cyclin-dependent kinase(CDK4/6)for the treatment of HNSCC.

Parvalbumin interneurons belong to the major types of GABAergic interneurons. Although the distribution and pathological alterations of parvalbumin interneuron somata have been widely studied, the distribution and vulnerability of the neurites and fibers extending from parvalbumin interneurons have not been detailly interrogated. Through the Cre recombinase-reporter system, we visualized parvalbumin-positive fibers and thoroughly investigated their spatial distribution in the mouse brain. We found that parvalbumin fibers are widely distributed in the brain with specific morphological characteristics in different regions, among which the cortex and thalamus exhibited the most intense parvalbumin signals. In regions such as the striatum and optic tract, even long-range thick parvalbumin projections were detected. Furthermore, in mouse models of temporal lobe epilepsy and Parkinson's disease, parvalbumin fibers suffered both massive and subtle morphological alterations. Our study provides an overview of parvalbumin fibers in the brain and emphasizes the potential pathological implications of parvalbumin fiber alterations.
Mice ; Animals ; Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe/pathology* ; Parvalbumins/metabolism* ; Parkinson Disease/pathology* ; Neurons/metabolism* ; Interneurons/physiology* ; Disease Models, Animal ; Brain/pathology*