“Bio-narrative integration” refers to the process in which a life subject with narrative consciousness actively reviews and reintegrates their life stories， or a subject lacking life and health narrative awareness， with the intervention of healthcare professionals， tells their own life stories and integrates them into a coherent and constantly evolving life narrative process. Starting from the keyword of bio-narrative integration， this paper proposed a classification model of narrative integration. From the perspective of life stages， it was divided into “phasic narrative integration” and “holistic narrative integration.” In terms of integrated narrative style， it was categorized as “positive narrative integration style” and “negative narrative integration style.” Regarding subjective initiative， it was classified as “active narrative integration regulation” and “passive narrative integration regulation.” Then it elaborated the significant value of narrative integration for every life subject， especially in pain relief， the improvement of life resilience， the healthy aging of the elderly， and the ultimate peace of the dying. It was advocated that healthcare practitioners should enhance their professional narrative competence， effectively guide patients to engage in bio-narrative integration regulation， and help them overcome narrative closure， thereby improving the quality of medical care.

Objective To explore whether there is a causal relationship between intestinal flora and esophageal cancer. Methods Summary statistics of intestinal flora and esophageal cancer were obtained from the Genome-wide Association Studies (GWAS) database. Five methods, including inverse variance weighted (IVW), weighted median estimation, Mendelian randomization (MR)-Egger regression, single mode, and weighted mode, were used for analysis, with IVW as the main analysis method. Sensitivity analysis was used to evaluate the reliability of MR results. Results In the IVW method, Oxalobacteraceae [OR=1.001, 95%CI (1.000, 1.002), P=0.023], Faecalibacterium [OR=1.001, 95%CI (1.000, 1.002), P=0.028], Senegalimassilia [OR=1.002, 95%CI (1.000, 1.003), P=0.006] and Veillonella [OR=1.001, 95%CI (1.000, 1.002), P=0.018] were positively correlated with esophageal cancer, while Burkholderiales [OR=0.999, 95%CI (0.998, 1.000), P=0.002], Eubacterium oxidoreducens [OR=0.998, 95%CI (0.997, 0.999), P=0.038], Romboutsia [OR=0.999, 95%CI (0.998, 1.000), P=0.048] and Turicibacter [OR=0.998, 95%CI (0.997, 0.999), P=0.013] were negatively correlated with esophageal cancer. Sensitivity analysis showed no evidence of heterogeneity, horizontal pleiotropy and reverse causality. Conclusion Oxalobacteraceae, Faecalibacterium, Senegalimassilia and Veillonella increase the risk of esophageal cancer, while Burkholderiales, Eubacterium oxidoreducens, Romboutsia and Turicibacter decrease the risk of esophageal cancer. Further studies are needed to explore how these bacteria affect the progression of esophageal cancer.

ObjectiveTo investigate the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index and the level of serum homocysteine (Hcy) in association with the incidence of stroke in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. MethodsBased on the chronic disease risk factor surveillance cohort in Pudong New Area, Shanghai, excluding those with stroke in baseline survey, T2DM patients who joined the cohort from January 2016 to October 2020 were selected as the research subjects. During the follow-up period, a total of 318 new-onset ischemic stroke patients were selected as the case group, and a total of 318 individuals matched by gender without stroke were selected as the control group. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to adjust for confounding factors and explore the serum TyG index and the Hcy biochemical indicator in association with the risk of stroke. ResultsThe Cox proportional hazards regression results showed that after adjusting for confounding factors, the risk of stroke in T2DM patients with 10 μmol·L⁻¹-¹ and Hcy>15 μmol·L⁻¹ was 1.532 times (95%CI: 1.017‒2.309 times, P=0.041) and 1.738 times (95%CI: 1.119‒2.699 times, P=0.014) higher respectively, compared to T2DM patients with Hcy≤10 μmol·L⁻¹. T2DM patients with TyG>9.074 had 1.396 times higher risk of stroke (95%CI: 1.091‒1.787, P=0.008) compared to those with TyG≤9.074. The study found that urea and α1-antitrypsin (α1-AT) were independent risk factors for the incidence of stroke in T2DM patients. For every unit increase in urea andα1-AT, the risk of stroke in T2DM patients increased by 233.6% (HR=3.336, 95%CI: 1.588‒7.009, P=0.001) and 11.3% (HR=1.113, 95%CI: 1.028‒1.205, P=0.008), respectively. Cumulative risk curves showed that Hcy>10 μmol·L⁻¹ and TyG>9.074 accelerated the time to stroke occurrence in T2DM patients. ConclusionElevated levels of Hcy>10 μmol·L⁻¹ and a higher TyG index are risk factors for stroke in T2DM patients. Effective interventions for Hcy and TyG should be conducted for diabetic patients to reduce the incidence of stroke.

Human taste is an important function of chemical perception. In recent years, brain taste evoked potentials have received more and more attention as a feasible tool for objective assessment of taste dysfunction. This paper reviews the main characteristics of gustatory evoked potential signals, the most widely used recording and processing techniques, and the scientific advances and relevance of gustatory evoked potentials in many important applications. In particular, taste evoked potentials are used to study the central effects of food intake and taste disorders, which may affect cognition and personality, or may be potential indicators of the onset or progression of neurological disorders. For these reasons, this paper presents and analyzes the latest scientific results and future challenges of using gustatory evoked potentials as an attractive solution to objective monitoring techniques for taste disorders. Human taste is an important function of chemical perception. In recent years, brain gustatory evoked potentials have received more and more attention as a feasible tool for objective assessment of taste dysfunction. This paper reviews the main characteristics of gustatory evoked potential signals, the most widely used recording and processing techniques, and the scientific advances and relevance of gustatory evoked potentials in many important applications. In particular, gustatory evoked potentials are used to study the central effects of food intake and taste disorders, which may affect cognition and personality, or may be potential indicators of the onset or progression of neurological disorders. For these reasons, this paper presents and analyzes the latest scientific results and future challenges of using gustatory evoked potentials as an attractive solution to objective monitoring techniques for taste disorders.
Humans ; Evoked Potentials ; Taste/physiology* ; Taste Perception/physiology*

Mitochondrial dysfunction in chondrocytes is a key pathogenic factor in osteoarthritis (OA), but directly modulating mitochondria in vivo remains a significant challenge. This study is the first to verify a correlation between mitochondrial dysfunction and the downregulation of the FOXO3 gene in the cartilage of OA patients, highlighting the potential for regulating mitophagy via FOXO3 gene modulation to alleviate OA. Consequently, we developed a chondrocyte-targeting CRISPR/Cas9-based FOXO3 gene-editing tool (FoxO3) and integrated it within a nanoengineered 'truck' (NETT, FoxO3-NETT). This was further encapsulated in injectable hydrogel microspheres (FoxO3-NETT@SMs) to harness the antioxidant properties of sodium alginate and the enhanced lubrication of hybrid exosomes. Collectively, these FoxO3-NETT@SMs successfully activate mitophagy and rebalance mitochondrial function in OA chondrocytes through the Foxo3 gene-modulated PINK1/Parkin pathway. As a result, FoxO3-NETT@SMs stimulate chondrocytes proliferation, migration, and ECM production in vitro, and effectively alleviate OA progression in vivo, demonstrating significant potential for clinical applications.

Skull segmentation in magnetic resonance image(MRI)provides realistic skull models for MEG and EEG positive problems.An MRI skull segmentation method based on bi-stream pyramid decoder and deep supervision(BiNETR)is proposed to solve the problem of difficult segmentation due to the blurred and complex structure of MRI skull imaging.The method uses a bi-stream pyramid decoder as the main decoder in the network structure of encoding-decoding,including serial dual decoders for edge information oriented and precise feature merging.Specifically,edge information oriented pyramid decoder effectively enhances the edge information based on feature sharpening to improve the edge segmentation accuracy,and the precise feature merging pyramid decoder further refines and reuses the edge-enhanced features to promote the fusion of deep and shallow features.In addition,deep supervised computation of intermediate feature loss is introduced to implant the gradient into the deep network for enhancing network training.The segmentation algorithm is validated on the skull dataset,achieving a Dice similarity coefficient of 0.880±0.039 and an average symmetric surface distance of(0.931±0.286)mm,outperforming other state-of-the-art methods.The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed algorithm in MRI skull segmentation.

Objective To explore the correlation between visceral fat area(VFA)and triglyceride-glucose(TyG)index in people with normal body mass index(BMI)based on quantitative CT(QCT).Methods Totally 1 358 healthy adults with normal BMI who underwent QCT body composition measurement were retrospectively enrolled and divided into normal visceral fat group(normal group,VFA＜100 cm2,n=509),mild visceral fat accumulation group(mild group,100 cmn2≤VFA＜150 cm2,n=431)and severe visceral fat accumulation group(severe group,VFA≥150 cm2,n=418)according to VFA measured with QCT.Pearson and Spearman correlation analysis were performed to observe correlations of TyG index with general data and body composition in 20-40,41-60,61-90 years old men and women with normal BMI,respectively.Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to screen the independent impact factors of TyG index in normal BMI people.Results Low density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C),total cholesterol(TC),glutamic-pyruvic transaminase(GPT),VFA and subcutaneous fat area(SFA)of men with normal BMI at different age stages were weakly-lowly positively correlated with TyG index(r=0.143-0.459,all P＜0.05),while high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C)were weakly-lowly negatively correlated with TyG index(r=-0.410--0.222,all P＜0.05).LDL-C,VFA and SFA of women with normal BMI at different age stages were weakly-lowly positively correlated with TyG index(r=0.206-0.495,all P＜0.05).GPT,TC,VFA and liver fat content(LFC)were all independent risk factors,while HDL-C was independent protective factor for TyG index in people with normal BMI(all P＜0.05).Conclusion VFA was positively correlated with TyG index in people with normal BMI.Measurement of abdominal body composition based on QCT combined with lipid indexes had certain potential for predicting insulin resistance and relative metabolic diseases in abdominal obese people.

Objective:To explore the effect of preoperative gamma-glutamyl transferase to albumin ratio (GAR) on prognosis of patients with Barcelona clinic liver cancer (BCLC)stage 0-A hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after microwave ablation (MWA).Methods:The clinical data of 201 patients with BCLC stage 0 to A who underwent MWA at two centers of Jiaxing Second Hospital and Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University from January 2011 to December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed, including 152 males and 49 females, aged (57.5±9.6) years. X-tile software was used to divide patients into a low GAR group ( n=84, GAR<0.9) and a high GAR group ( n=117, GAR≥0.9). Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis, and log-rank test was used for survival comparison. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between GAR and prognosis. Results:The cumulative survival rates at 1, 3 and 5 years postoperatively were 98.7%, 93.8%, 78.5% for the low GAR group, which were superior to that 97.2%, 87.1%, 70.2% for the high GAR group, and the difference was statistically significant ( χ2=11.89, P=0.001). The recurrence-free survival rates at 1, 3 and 5 years after surgery between the two groups was no significant difference ( χ2=1.70, P=0.192). Multivariate analysis revealed that high GAR ( HR=2.723, 95% CI: 1.508-4.914, P=0.001) was independent risk factors for overall survival after MWA in patients with BCLC stages 0 to A HCC. Male gender ( HR=1.959, 95% CI: 1.127-3.305, P=0.017) and tumor diameter ≥2 cm ( HR=1.547, 95% CI: 1.008-2.373, P=0.046) were independent risk factors for recurrence after MWA in patients with BCLC stages 0 to A HCC. Univariate analysis, GAR≥0.9 was not associated with postoperative recurrence ( HR=1.315, 95% CI: 0.869-1.989, P=0.195). Conclusion:Preoperative GAR (≥0.9) is an independent risk factor affecting overall survival in patients with BCLC stages 0 to A HCC after MWA.

Objective:To explore the association between uric acid and new-onset chronic kidney disease (CKD) in middle-aged and elderly hypertensive patients.Methods:This was a retrospective cohort study. Middle-aged and elderly hypertensive patients who had attended at least two annual health examinations at Yongshun Community Health Service Center in Tongzhou District, Beijing, from June 2016 to December 2020 were enrolled. The time interval between the two physical examinations was three years. The first physical examination time served as the baseline, and the second as the end of follow-up. Based on the uric acid level at baseline, the participants were divided into the normal uric acid group and the hyperuricemia group. The relevant clinical data of the participants were collected. The endpoint of the study was new-onset CKD. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze the association between uric acid and new-onset CKD in hypertensive patients.Results:A total of 2 472 middle-aged and elderly hypertensive patients with an average age of (62.43±7.02) years were included. Of these, 733(29.7%) were male. There were 710 patients with hyperuricemia (hyperuricemia group) and 1 762 patients with normal uric acid levels (normal uric acid group).After adjusting for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and uric acid-lowering treatment, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that combined with hyperuricemia was an independent risk factor for new-onset CKD in middle-aged and elderly hypertensive patients ( OR=3.00, 95% CI: 1.87-4.80, P<0.001). The results of multivariate logistic analysis showed that elevated uric acid level was an independent risk factor for new-onset CKD in both male and female middle-aged and elderly hypertensive patients (both P<0.05), and there was no sex interaction ( P for interactio n>0.05). The results of multivariate logistic analysis showed that the combination of asymptomatic hyperuricemia was an independent risk factor for new-onset CKD in middle-aged and elderly hypertensive patients ( OR=3.00, 95% CI: 1.87-4.80, P<0.001), and there was no gender interaction ( P for interactio n>0.05). Conclusions:Hyperuricemia is an independent risk factor for new-onset CKD in middle-aged and elderly hypertensive patients, and elevated uric acid levels increase the risk of new-onset CKD in both male and female patients. Moreover, asymptomatic hyperuricemia may increase the risk of new-onset CKD.

Objective To analyze the relationship between neuroticism and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) using the Mendelian randomization (MR) method. Methods Exposure and outcome data were downloaded from the Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) database in August 2023, including summary statistics from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for neuroticism (n=374 323) and GERD (n=602 604). MR was conducted using the weighted median method, MR-Egger method, inverse variance weighted method, weighted mode method, and simple mode method. The causal relationship between the two was assessed using odds ratio (OR), and sensitivity analyses were performed to ensure the accuracy of the results. Results Neuroticism was associated with an increased risk of GERD [OR=1.229, 95%CI (1.186, 1.274), P<0.001]. Similarly, GERD was associated with an increased risk of neuroticism [OR=1.786, 95%CI (1.623, 1.965), P<0.001]. Conclusion There is a bidirectional causal relationship between neuroticism and gastroesophageal reflux disease.