Objective:To analyze the methylation characteristics of the lymphocyte-specific protein-tyrosine kinase (LCK) promoter region in the peripheral blood circulation of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and its correlation with clinical indicators.Methods:Targeted methylation sequencing was used to compare the methylation levels of 7 CpG sites in the LCK promoter region in the peripheral blood of RA patients with healthy controls (HC) and osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Correlation analysis and ROC curve construction were performed with clinical information.Results:Non-parametric tests revealed that compared with HC [0.53(0.50, 0.57)] and OA patients [0.59(0.54, 0.62), H=47.17, P<0.001], RA patients [0.63(0.59, 0.68)] exhibited an overall increase in methylation levels. Simultaneously, when compared with the HC group [0.38(0.35, 0.41), 0.59(0.55, 0.63), 0.60(0.55, 0.64), 0.59(0.55, 0.63), 0.58(0.53, 0.62), 0.45(0.43, 0.49), 0.57(0.54, 0.61)], the RA group [0.46(0.42, 0.49), 0.70(0.65, 0.75), 0.70(0.66, 0.76), 0.70(0.65, 0.75), 0.69(0.64, 0.74), 0.55(0.51, 0.59), 0.68(0.63, 0.73)] showed a significant elevation in methylation levels at CpG sites cg05350315_60, cg05350315_80, cg05350315_95, cg05350315_101, cg05350315_104, cg05350315_128, and cg05350315_142, with statistically significant differences ( Z=-5.63, -5.89, -5.91, -5.89, -5.98, -5.95, -5.95, all P<0.001). Compared with the OA group [0.65(0.59, 0.69), 0.65(0.60, 0.69), 0.64(0.58, 0.68), 0.50(0.45, 0.54), 0.63(0.58, 0.67)], the RA group [0.70(0.66, 0.76), 0.70(0.65, 0.75), 0.69(0.64, 0.74), 0.55(0.51, 0.59), 0.68(0.63, 0.73)] exhibited a significant increase in methylation levels at CpG sites cg05350315_95, cg05350315_101, cg05350315_104, cg05350315_128, and cg05350315_142, with statistically significant differences ( Z=-3.56, -3.52, -3.60, -3.67, -3.62; P=0.036, 0.042, 0.031, 0.030, 0.030). Furthermore, Pearson correlation coefficient analysis revealed a positive correlation between the overall methylation level in this region and C-reactive protein (CRP) ( r=0.19, P=0.004) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate ( r=0.14, P=0.035). The overall methylation level of the LCK promoter region in the CRP (low) group [0.63 (0.58, 0.68)] was higher than that in the CRP (high) group [0.65(0.61, 0.70)], with statistically significant differences ( Z=2.60, P=0.009). Finally, by constru-cting a ROC curve, the discriminatory efficacy of peripheral blood LCK promoter region methylation levels for identifying RA patients, especially seronegative RA patients, from HC and OA groups was validated, with an AUC value of 0.78 (95% CI: 0.63, 0.93). Conclusion:This study provides insights into the methylation status and methylation haplotype patterns of the LCK promoter region in the peripheral blood of RA patients. The overall methylation level in this region is positively correlated with the level of inflammation and can be used to differentiate seronegative RA patients from the HC and OA patients.

Objective:To evaluate postoperative biochemical and clinical remission rates in patients with unilateral primary aldosteronism and analyze related influencing factors.Methods:A total of 406 patients of primary aldosteronism with confirmed subtyping, who underwent adrenalectomy and completed follow-up in the Department of Endocrinology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from November 2013 to March 2022 were retrospectively enrolled. Clinical and biochemical data were recorded. Postoperative clinical and biochemical outcomes were assessed according to Primary Aldosteronism Surgery Outcome(PASO) consensus.Results:Complete biochemical success was achieved in 391(96.31%) of 406 primary aldosteronism patients, while partial and absent biochemical success in only 4(0.99%) and 11(2.71%) primary aldosteronism patients; Complete clinical success was seen in 217(53.45%) patients, and partial clinical success in 189(46.55%) patients. Compared to the partial clinical success group, the complete clinical success group was younger, had a greater proportion of women, a smaller body mass index, a shorter duration of hypertension, a smaller daily defined dose value for antihypertensive medication, a higher estimated glomerular filtration rate(eGFR), and a lower proportion of family history of hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Multifactorial logistic regression analysis further showed that gender( OR=2.49, 95% CI 1.42-4.35, P=0.001), body mass index( OR=1.16, 95% CI 1.05-1.28, P=0.003), antihypertensive drug daily defined dose( OR=1.83, 95% CI 1.37-2.44, P<0.001), family history of hypertension( OR=2.16, 95% CI 1.22-3.83, P=0.008), history of diabetes( OR=2.47, 95% CI 1.15-5.29, P=0.021), and eGFR( OR=0.98, 95% CI 0.97-0.99, P=0.001) were independent factors influencing clinical prognosis of primary aldosteronism. Conclusion:The postoperative complete biochemical success is higher in patients with unilateral primary aldosteronism, but only about half of all patients achieve complete clinical success.

Based on the sampling survey data of 11 164 medical researchers in China, this paper analyzed the understanding, attitude and compliance of medical researchers on scientific research ethics in China. The survey found that although most medical researchers claim to have more understanding of scientific research ethics, the level of understanding of scientific research ethics is not optimistic; the channels to scientific research ethics knowledge are diversified, but the standardized training channels are insufficient; most researchers held the positive attitude toward following the ethical norms, but those male, youth under 35, with senior professional titles, or from northeast China held negative attitude relatively; more than half of the researchers claimed that the supervision of research ethics in China was basically in place, but some people said that the violation of scientific research ethics was common, and some researchers reported that there was a phenomenon of "direct seal consent and reply" in ethical review. Compared with medical institutions, enterprises and universities are the weak links of scientific research ethics training, education and review. Based on the above actuality, it puts forward policy suggestions to strengthen the scientific research ethics training and ethics review requirements.

Objective:To investigate the status of evidence-based nursing competence among clinical nurses in tertiary grade A hospitals of Anhui province, and analyze the influencing factors based on random forest model, so as to provide reference for improving the evidence-based nursing ability of clinical nurses and formulating intervention strategies.Methods:The convenience sampling method was used to select 543 clinical nurses from 4 tertiary grade A hospitals in Anhui Province from October to December 2022. The general data questionnaire, Evidence-based Nursing Competence Scale, Information Literacy Scale, and Nurse Innovation Ability Scale were used to investigate. The random forest model was used to evaluate the importance of the influencing factors. The Lasso regression analysis was used to complete the screening of the influencing factors. The influencing factors of the evidence-based nursing competence among clinical nurses were explored by multiple linear regression analysis.Results:A total of 543 valid questionnaires were retrieved. Among 543 clinical nurses, 55 males and 388 females, aged (32.34 ± 6.93) years old. Evidence-based nursing competence scored (45.49 ± 21.18) points, information literacy scored (73.50 ± 10.47) points, innovation ability scored (126.78 ± 21.99) points. The random forest model and Lasso regression analysis showed that the model achieved the best fit with 8 variables. In order of importance, the top 8 variables were information literacy (25.78%), innovation ability (22.37%), night shift per month (9.91%), educational background (9.19%), English proficiency (8.44%), professional title (6.71%), scientific research and innovation experience (5.17%), and professional attitude (4.50%). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that information literacy, innovation ability, and English proficiency were the influencing factors of evidence-based nursing competence among clinical nurses ( t=9.17, 7.31, 2.52, all P<0.05). Conclusions:The level of evidence-based nursing ability among clinical nurses in tertiary grade A hospitals of Anhui province needs to be improved. From the perspective of improving the information literacy among clinical nurses, nursing managers can increase the training of information retrieval ability and English ability, enhance their English literature reading skills, pay attention to the cultivation of nurses' innovation ability, stimulate the innovative consciousness and thinking among clinical nurses, formulate and implement targeted interventions, so as to gradually improve the level of evidence-based nursing ability among clinical nurses.

The biological clock(also known as the circadian rhythm)is the fundamental reliance for all organisms on Earth to adapt and survive in the Earth's rotation environment.Circadian rhythm is the most basic regulatory mechanism of life activities,and plays a key role in maintaining normal physiological and biochemical homeostasis,disease occurrence and treatment.Recent studies have shown that the biologi-cal clock plays an important role in the development of oral tissues and in the occurrence and treatment of oral diseases.Since there is cur-rently no guiding literature on the research methods of biological clock in stomatology,researchers mainly conduct research based on pub-lished references,which has led to controversy about the research methods of biological clock in stomatology,and there are many confusions about how to rationally apply the research methods of circadia rhythms.In view of this,this expert consensus summarizes the characteristics of the biological clock and analyzes the shortcomings of the current biological clock research in stomatology,and organizes relevant experts to summarize and recommend 10 principles as a reference for the rational implementation of the biological clock in stomatology research.

Objective:To investigate the possible pathogenesis and possible risk factors of tinnitus related to female menopause.Methods:From April 2016 to October 2016, 59 female patients with menopausal syndrome were diagnosed in the menopause comprehensive management clinic. Tinnitus and menopause questionnaires were conducted, based on whether having tinnitus, those patients were divided into two groups: tinnitus group and no tinnitus group. Age, body mass index (BMI), Kupperman menopausal index (KMI) score, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) level of patients in the two groups were analyzed. Menopausal symptoms, related medical history and possible related factors of tinnitus were statistically analyzed.Results:A total of 59 cases were collected, 22 of which were accompanied by tinnitus. The incidence of idiopathic tinnitus was 35.1% (20/57) because 2 cases of thyroid related tinnitus with clear etiology were removed. Complete data were obtained from 17 of 20 patients with idiopathic tinnitus and 26 of 37 patients without tinnitus. Age, BMI, menopause KMI score, hormone level, menopause symptoms and possible factors related to tinnitus were statistically analyzed between the two groups, and the incidence of headache was statistically different between the two groups ( χ2=9.098, P=0.003), but no other factors were statistically significant( P>0.05). The severity of insomnia and tinnitus were further analyzed ( χ2=2.841, P=0.417), and there was no significant difference between the two groups. Conclusion:Headache history may be one of the high risk factors for the occurrence of menopausal tinnitus.

The development and potential application of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is closely related to the human brain, so that the ethical regulation of BCI has become an important issue attracting the consideration of society. Existing literatures have discussed the ethical norms of BCI technology from the perspectives of non-BCI developers and scientific ethics, while few discussions have been launched from the perspective of BCI developers. Therefore, there is a great need to study and discuss the ethical norms of BCI technology from the perspective of BCI developers. In this paper, we present the user-centered and non-harmful BCI technology ethics, and then discuss and look forward on them. This paper argues that human beings can cope with the ethical issues arising from BCI technology, and as BCI technology develops, its ethical norms will be improved continuously. It is expected that this paper can provide thoughts and references for the formulation of ethical norms related to BCI technology.
Humans ; Brain-Computer Interfaces ; Technology ; Brain ; User-Computer Interface ; Electroencephalography

Objective:To construct a novel cuproptosis-related gene signature (CRGS) for prediction of prognosis, immunotherapy response and drug sensitivity in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods:Data materials for this study were obtained from the international cancer genome consortium (ICGC), the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) database and Migort210 database, and protein expression profiles were obtained from the human protein atlas image classification database. Based on the TCGA cohort, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator algorithm was applied to construct the CRGS and calculate the risk score for each HCC patient. HCC patients were grouped according to the median risk score: HCC patients in the TCGA cohort were divided into a high-risk group TCGA and a low-risk group TCGA with 184 cases in each group; HCC patients in the ICGC cohort were divided into a high-risk group ICGC and a low-risk group ICGC with 116 cases in each group. Patients in the Migort210 cohort were divided into a responder group ( n=68) and a non-responder group ( n=230) based on their response to immunotherapy. We assessed the value of CRGS in predicting the prognosis of HCC patients in the TCGA cohort and validated whether CRGS could be used to predict the prognosis of HCC patients in the ICGC dataset. To explore the role of CRGS in predicting immunotherapy response and drug sensitivity in HCC patients based on data from the TCGA cohort, and to apply the Migort210 immunotherapy cohort to validate the clinical value of CRGS in predicting immunotherapy in malignant tumors. Results:CRGS consists of four copper death-related genes: GLS, CDKN2A, LIPT1, and DLAT. Patients in the high-risk group TCGA had lower overall survival (OS), disease-specifical survival, and progression-free interval than those in the low-risk group TCGA (all P<0.01). OS of patients in the high-risk group ICGC was lower than that in the low-risk group ICGC ( P=0.022). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that CRGS was an independent risk factor for poor prognosis in HCC patients (TCGA: HR=2.991, 95% CI: 1.781-5.049, P<0.001; ICGC: HR=4.621, 95% CI: 1.685-12.674, P=0.033). Risk scores were positively correlated with the expression levels of CTLA4, PDCD1, CD80 and HLLA2 (all P<0.001). Patients in the high-risk group TCGA had lower tumor immune dysfunction and rejection scores than those in the low-risk group TCGA [-0.04(-0.07, -0.02) vs. -0.02(-0.04, 0) points], and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.001). Patients in the responder group had a higher risk score than the non-responder group [1.70 (1.56, 1.90) vs. 1.63 (1.52, 1.80)], with a statistically significant difference ( P<0.05). The half-inhibitory concentrations (IC 50) for sunitinib, rapamycin and etanercept were higher in the high-risk group TCGA than that in the low-risk group TCGA, while the IC 50 for erlotinib was lower than that in the low-risk group TCGA, and the differences were all statistically significant (all P<0.001). Conclusion:The CRGS might be served as a potential biomarker to predict the prognoses, immunotherapy response, and drug sensitivity of patients with HCC.

Objective:To explore the medication law and core TCM prescriptions of Jia Yuejin in the treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD) complicated with depressive disorder (DD) by analyzing target-based network and mining clinical data.Methods:The targets of CHD complicated with DD were obtained by GeneCards, OMIM, TTD and other databases, and then the protein-protein interaction network of the two disease targets was constructed and then screened out the core targets. The Metascape platform was used to perform GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis on the intersection targets respectively to analyze the mechanism of action of CHD complicated with DD. Then TCMSP was used to query the active components acting on the targets and the Chinese materia medica containing these active components, and the data were imported into Cytoscape 3.9.0 to construct the core target-active component-Chinese materia medica network for network topology analysis. The outpatient clinical data of Jia Yuejin from January 1, 2015 to January 1, 2021 were collected, and data mining was conducted by using the Ancient and Modern Medical Case Cloud Platform (V2.3.5) to obtain his commonly used prescriptions. The results were fitted with the core TCM prescriptions obtained by target network analysis, and the drugs in the core prescriptions were analyzed.Results:Totally 1 501 intersection targets were obtained by protein interaction network analysis of CHD complicated with DD, which could be divided into 4 core target clusters, including inflammation cause, subclass tumor cause, subclass lipid metabolism factor, and fibrosis factor; a total of 480 active components were obtained by TCMSP, which belonged to 181 types of Chinese materia medica, including 8 core components: quercetin, kaempferol, luteolin, carotene, beta-carotene, acacetin, formononetin and ellagic acid. GO enrichment analysis yielded 61 results, mainly including positive regulation of protein phosphorylation, signal receptor agonist activity, side of membrane , etc.; KEGG pathway enrichment analysis yielded a total of 20 results, mainly including cancer pathways, lipid and atherosclerosis, JAK-STAT signaling pathway, etc. Clinical data mining included 120 cases and 148 prescriptions, including 135 types of Chinese materia medica; the properties were mainly mild, warm, slightly cold and cold; the tastes were mainly sweet, bitter and light, and the medicine mainly belongs to the lung, spleen, liver, heart, stomach, kidney and other meridians; drug association analysis, cluster analysis and complex network analysis were used to synthesize common prescriptions. The core TCM prescriptions obtained from common prescription and target network analysis were fitted: Pinelliae Rhizoma, Glycyrrhizae Radixet Rhizoma, Bupleuri Radix, Cyperi Rhizoma, Salviea Miltiorrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, Corydalis Rhizoma, Codonopsis Radix, Astragali Radix, Acori Tatarinowii Rhizoma. Conclusion:The medication law of Jia Yuejin in the treatment of CHD complicated with DD is in accordance with core TCM prescriptions. This study can provide guidance for clinical treatment and further research of CHD complicated with DD.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has its own unique features in the treatment of post-stroke depression (PSD). The kidney is the congenital foundation and is closely related to the brain. Kidney deficiency runs through the entire course of stroke. Liver regulates the normal operation of qi in the human body, which is closely related to depression syndrome. Kidney deficiency and liver depression affect each other. The treatment of PSD with the Bushen Shugan (tonifying the kidney and soothing the liver) method has achieved good efficacy in clinic. The method of tonifying kidney and soothing liver can not only reflect the holistic view of TCM and the association of viscera, but also coordinate the relationship between body and spirit. In the future, the development direction of PSD in TCM research should be to further strengthen the concept of co-regulation of body and spirit and integration of brain and viscera.