Background Per- and polyfuoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are categorized as persistent organic pollutants and commonly detected in humans, and their toxicity has attracted widespread attention. However, few studies have reported comparison of PFAS levels and potential factors between women pregnant using assisted reproduction technology (ART) and women pregnant naturally. Objective To analyze and compare serum concentrations and sociodemographic determinants of PFAS in pregnant women conceiving through ART and conceiving naturally from Shanghai. Methods Based on the China National Birth Cohort (CNBC) in Shanghai from 2017 to 2019, 333 pregnant women conceiving through ART and 689 pregnant women conceiving naturally were recruited during the same period as study subjects. The concentrations of 32 PFAS were measured in early-pregnancy serum of all pregnant women, and four PFAS with the highest co-exposure levels in both groups were included in the subsequent analysis. Multiple linear regression models were performed to evaluate the associations of sociodemographic factors with serum PFAS concentrations in the two groups respectively. Beta coefficients and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were exponentiated to calculate the ratio of the geometric mean (GM) of PFAS concentrations after each unit change in the independent variable. Results Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), 6∶2 chlorinated polyfluoroethersulfonic acid (6∶2 Cl-PFESA), and perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS) were four major PFAS in serum of pregnant women conceiving through ART and conceiving naturally, and the concentrations of PFOA, PFOS, and 6∶2 Cl-PFESA were higher in pregnant women conceiving through ART than in pregnant women conceiving naturally (P <0.05). The results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that age at pregnancy and household income were associated with serum PFAS levels in both groups. The serum concentrations of PFOS were higher in pregnant women aged ≥35 years old who conceiving through ART (GM ratio=1.26, 95%CI: 1.04, 1.54) and conceiving naturally (GM ratio=1.24, 95%CI: 1.08, 1.42) than pregnant women aged <30 years old respectively. Pregnant women conceiving through ART and conceiving naturally whose household annual income >300000 CNY had lower serum concentrations of PFOA [GM ratio (95%CI): 0.82 (0.72, 0.95) and 0.89 (0.81, 0.97), respectively] and PFHxS [GM ratio (95%CI): 0.66 (0.51, 0.86) and 0.77 (0.66, 0.90), respectively] than those women whose household annual income <200000 CNY. Additionally, pregnant women conceiving naturally with a graduate education or above had lower serum 6∶2 Cl-PFESA concentrations than women with an education below college (GM ratio: 0.81), and multiparous pregnant women conceiving naturally had higher serum concentrations of PFOS, 6∶2 Cl-PFESA, and PFHxS than primiparous pregnant women (GM ratio: 1.14, 1.25, and 1.27 respectively). Conclusion Although differences in serum PFAS levels are found between pregnant women conceiving through ART and women conceiving naturally in this study, maternal age and household income are common determinants of PFAS exposure levels in both populations. We find no special sociodemographic factors to affect PFAS concentrations of pregnant women conceiving through ART compared to pregnant women conceiving naturally. Further research is required to explore other potential factors.

Background/Aims: Metabolic syndrome is common in patients with acute pancreatitis and its components have been reported to be associated with infectious complications. In this post hoc analysis, we aimed to evaluate whether metabolic abnormalities impact the effect of immuneenhancing thymosin alpha-1 (Tα1) therapy in acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP) patients. Methods: All data were obtained from the database for a multicenter randomized clinical trial that evaluated the efficacy of Tα1 in ANP patients. Patients who discontinued the Tα1 treatment prematurely were excluded. The primary outcome was 90-day infected pancreatic necrosis (IPN) after randomization. Three post hoc subgroups were defined based on the presence of hyperglycemia, hypertriglyceridemia, or both at the time of randomization. In each subgroup, the correlation between Tα1 and 90-day IPN was assessed using the Cox proportional-hazards regression model. Multivariable propensity-score methods were used to control potential bias. Results: Overall, 502 participants were included in this post hoc analysis (248 received Tα1 treatment and 254 received matching placebo treatment). Among them, 271 (54.0%) had hyperglycemia, 371 (73.9%) had hypertriglyceridemia and 229 (45.6%) had both. Tα1 therapy was associated with reduced incidence of IPN among patients with hyperglycemia (18.8% vs 29.7%: hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.37 to 0.97; p=0.03), but not in the other subgroups. Additional multivariate regression models using three propensity-score methods yielded similar results. Conclusions Among ANP patients with hyperglycemia, immune-enhancing Tα1 treatment was associated with a reduced risk of IPN (ClinicalTrials.gov, Registry number: NCT02473406).

Background The contradiction between science and operability has always existed in the model of classified occupational health supervision and management. Comprehensive risk assessment method for occupational disease hazards of employers provides risk grading and classification for occupational health management, and it's a new attempt to explore classification supervision and law enforcement. Objective To apply a comprehensive risk assessment method for occupational disease hazards of employers to estimate health risk level of wood furniture enterprises, discuss its advantages and disadvantages, and provide a basis for improving the classified management of occupational health. Methods Seven typical factories were selected in counties with highly concentrated wooden furniture manufacturing. Occupational health field investigation and testing were carried out to estimate occupational disease hazard risk level (Ⅰ, Ⅱ, and Ⅲ). A self-rated checklist was applied to score occupational health management status by interviewing employers, one by one, and to determine occupational health management status grade (A, B, and C) by the score. Thus, a comprehensive risk level (Class A, Class B, and Class C) of a specific factory was obtained from a matrix of occupational disease hazard risk level and management status grade. Risk verification was carried out based on any abnormality reported by regular occupational physical examination in past 3 years. Results Defects in occupational health management were identified in all 7 factories, among which 6 were grade C with key nonconformities (poor), and 1 was grade B (medium). Disqualified occupational disease hazards were found in 6 of 7 factories, and the workstation-specific disqualified rates were 26.09% (12/46) for noise, 14.71% (5/34) for wood dust (hard), and 12.50% (1/8) for xylene. Level Ⅱ (medium) of occupational disease hazard risk was estimated in 5 of 7 factories, while level Ⅲ (high) in 2 factories. All 7 factories were class C (high risk) accessed by the comprehensive risk assessment method for occupational disease hazards. The occupational health surveillance documents showed 636 batches of regular occupational physical examination were ordered by the 7 employers, and a total of 37 workers from 5 factories reported abnormalities in physical examination, among which 3 workers reported dust exposure and 34 workers reported noise exposure. Conclusion The comprehensive risk assessment method for occupational disease hazards of employers is not able to perform with satisfaction in occupational health classification of wooden furniture manufacturing factories yet. It is necessary to expand the pilot to improve this assessment method and develop an efficient supervision mechanism to ensure the authenticity of the data before it is popularized and applied in classified occupational health management.

Objective:To evaluate the performance of an artificial intelligent (AI)-based automated digital cell morphology analyzer (hereinafter referred as AI morphology analyzer) in detecting peripheral white blood cells (WBCs).Methods:A multi-center study. 1. A total of 3010 venous blood samples were collected from 11 tertiary hospitals nationwide, and 14 types of WBCs were analyzed with the AI morphology analyzers. The pre-classification results were compared with the post-classification results reviewed by senior morphological experts in evaluate the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and agreement of the AI morphology analyzers on the WBC pre-classification. 2. 400 blood samples (no less than 50% of the samples with abnormal WBCs after pre-classification and manual review) were selected from 3 010 samples, and the morphologists conducted manual microscopic examinations to differentiate different types of WBCs. The correlation between the post-classification and the manual microscopic examination results was analyzed. 3. Blood samples of patients diagnosed with lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, or myeloproliferative neoplasms were selected from the 3 010 blood samples. The performance of the AI morphology analyzers in these five hematological malignancies was evaluated by comparing the pre-classification and post-classification results. Cohen′s kappa test was used to analyze the consistency of WBC pre-classification and expert audit results, and Passing-Bablock regression analysis was used for comparison test, and accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and agreement were calculated according to the formula.Results:1. AI morphology analyzers can pre-classify 14 types of WBCs and nucleated red blood cells. Compared with the post-classification results reviewed by senior morphological experts, the pre-classification accuracy of total WBCs reached 97.97%, of which the pre-classification accuracies of normal WBCs and abnormal WBCs were more than 96% and 87%, respectively. 2. The post-classification results reviewed by senior morphological experts correlated well with the manual differential results for all types of WBCs and nucleated red blood cells (neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, basophils, immature granulocytes, blast cells, nucleated erythrocytes and malignant cells r>0.90 respectively, reactive lymphocytes r=0.85). With reference, the positive smear of abnormal cell types defined by The International Consensus Group for Hematology, the AI morphology analyzer has the similar screening ability for abnormal WBC samples as the manual microscopic examination. 3. For the blood samples with malignant hematologic diseases, the AI morphology analyzers showed accuracies higher than 84% on blast cells pre-classification, and the sensitivities were higher than 94%. In acute myeloid leukemia, the sensitivity of abnormal promyelocytes pre-classification exceeded 95%. Conclusion:The AI morphology analyzer showed high pre-classification accuracies and sensitivities on all types of leukocytes in peripheral blood when comparing with the post-classification results reviewed by experts. The post-classification results also showed a good correlation with the manual differential results. The AI morphology analyzer provides an efficient adjunctive white blood cell detection method for screening malignant hematological diseases.

Infantile spasms(IS)is an age-dependent severe epilepsy syndrome, mainly treated with hormones and anti-seizure medications.However, due to poor efficacy and even serious side effects among some pediatric patients, searching for better alternative treatment options has become a research hotspot.In recent years, as a special diet treatment, ketogenic diet(KD)has been widely studied and gradually applied to the clinical treatment of IS, which has achieved satisfactory results.This article briefly reviews the KD regimen and mechanism of action, and focuses on the research progress in efficacy, safety and short-term prognosis of KD in the treatment of IS, whose purpose is to provide effective reference for clinical application.

Febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome is a rare and one of the most serious epileptic encepha-lopathy.It commonly affects school-aged children who are healthy previously and have a normal developmental history.The patients suffer from a progressively worse seizure after several days of a nonspecific prior febrile and abruptly develop status epilepticus.It remains unclear about its etiology and pathogenesis.Although there is a lack of specific biological markers, poor treatment outcomes would usually be achieved, early identification and reasonable treatment may improve the prognosis.

To report a case of generalized lichen amyloidosis successfully treated with dupilumab in China. A 70-year-old male patient presented with extensive itchy papules on the trunk and extremities for 23 years. Skin examination revealed diffuse millet-to mung bean-sized hemispherical brown plaques on the trunk, right anterior shank, and extensor aspect of both upper arms, with a hard texture on palpation. No abnormalities were observed in the blood eosinophil count or serum IgE level. Histopathological examination of the skin lesion on the lower limb showed epidermal hyperkeratosis and homogeneous red-stained lumpy materials in the papillary dermis. Immunohistochemical study showed positive staining with Congo red. The pruritus numerical rating scale score was 10 points. The diagnosis of generalized lichen amyloidosis was confirmed. The patient received subcutaneous injection of dupilumab at an initial dose of 600 mg, followed by an every-2-week regimen at a dose of 300 mg. At week 2 after the start of treatment, pruritus was markedly relieved; at week 14, the skin lesions began to subside markedly; at week 18, the skin lesions on the chest and abdomen nearly completely subsided, and lesions on the lower back and limbs markedly regressed. No obvious adverse reactions were observed.

Objective:To statistically analyze SCI paper output and research hotspots of Chinese stomatology research institutes from 2011 to 2020.Methods:The papers of Chinese stomatology research institutions in the Web of Science database were searched and analyzed by bibliometric methods in various dimensions including publication time, institutional and journal distribution, international (regional) cooperation, and research hotspots.Results:The number and quality of publications in Chinese dental research institutions have increased significantly in the past decade, and the top four institutions in terms of publication number were Sichuan University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Air Force Military Medical University. The distribution of the journals to which the articles belong was relatively scattered, and the research hotspots mainly focused on squamous cell carcinoma, periodontitis, bone regeneration, and materials science.Conclusions:The output of SCI papers and the number of high-quality papers in Chinese stomatology research institutions increased year by year during 2011-2020, and the scientific research strength continued to increase.

Purpose: This study explored the effect of a nursing comprehensive skill training course (NCST-C) on the metacognitive awareness of nursing students to provide a scientific foundation for improving metacognitive awareness. Methods: This study used a quasi-experimental two-group matched pretest, post-test, and follow-up test. Ninety-six junior nursing students were recruited using convenience sampling and assigned to two groups by drawing lots with odd and even numbers in a nursing school at Huzhou University. The control group received a traditional skill-training course. The intervention group received NCST-C.Nursing students' metacognitive awareness inventory (MAI) was evaluated at the baseline, 16-week, and 20-week follow-up points. A repeated-measures analysis of variance and a simple effect test was used to compare each outcome measure of the two groups three times. Results: The NCST-C resulted in greater benefits for nursing students' metacognitive awareness as well as various dimensions (knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition) in the intervention group.Combined with a simple effects test, the MAI and dimension scores of those in the intervention group significantly improved at 16 weeks after the baseline (F ¼ 9.78e44.03; all ps < .01). The sustainable effect of NCST-C lasted 1 month after the intervention (F ¼ 14.24e62.36; ps < .01), reaching statistical significance (p < .05). Conclusions The NCST-C effectively developed metacognitive awareness among nursing students. Its design provides a new type of experimental course for improving metacognitive awareness.Trial registration: chictr.org.cn: ChiCTR2200057910. First registration date: 1/11/2020.

Postnatal heart maturation is the basis of normal cardiac function and provides critical insights into heart repair and regenerative medicine. While static snapshots of the maturing heart have provided much insight into its molecular signatures, few key events during postnatal cardiomyocyte maturation have been uncovered. Here, we report that cardiomyocytes (CMs) experience epigenetic and transcriptional decline of cardiac gene expression immediately after birth, leading to a transition state of CMs at postnatal day 7 (P7) that was essential for CM subtype specification during heart maturation. Large-scale single-cell analysis and genetic lineage tracing confirm the presence of transition state CMs at P7 bridging immature state and mature states. Silencing of key transcription factor JUN in P1-hearts significantly repressed CM transition, resulting in perturbed CM subtype proportions and reduced cardiac function in mature hearts. In addition, transplantation of P7-CMs into infarcted hearts exhibited cardiac repair potential superior to P1-CMs. Collectively, our data uncover CM state transition as a key event in postnatal heart maturation, which not only provides insights into molecular foundations of heart maturation, but also opens an avenue for manipulation of cardiomyocyte fate in disease and regenerative medicine.
Gene Expression Regulation ; Heart ; Myocytes, Cardiac/metabolism* ; Single-Cell Analysis ; Transcription Factors/metabolism*