Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is an increasingly widespread sleep-breathing disordered disease, and is an independent risk factor for many high-risk chronic diseases such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, arrhythmias and diabetes, which is potentially fatal. The key to the prevention and treatment of OSA is early diagnosis and treatment, so the assessment and diagnostic technologies of OSA have become a research hotspot. This paper reviews the research progresses of severity assessment parameters and diagnostic technologies of OSA, and discusses their future development trends. In terms of severity assessment parameters of OSA, apnea hypopnea index (AHI), as the gold standard, together with the percentage of duration of apnea hypopnea (AH%), lowest oxygen saturation (LSpO₂), heart rate variability (HRV), oxygen desaturation index (ODI) and the emerging biomarkers, constitute a multi-dimensional evaluation system. Specifically, the AHI, which measures the frequency of sleep respiratory events per hour, does not fully reflect the patients’ overall sleep quality or the extent of their daytime functional impairments. To address this limitation, the AH%, which measures the proportion of the entire sleep cycle affected by apneas and hypopneas, deepens our understanding of the impact on sleep quality. The LSpO₂ plays a critical role in highlighting the potential severe hypoxic episodes during sleep, while the HRV offers a different perspective by analyzing the fluctuations in heart rate thereby revealing the activity of the autonomic nervous system. The ODI provides a direct and objective measure of patients’ nocturnal oxygenation stability by calculating the number of desaturation events per hour, and the biomarkers offers novel insights into the diagnosis and management of OSA, and fosters the development of more precise and tailored OSA therapeutic strategies. In terms of diagnostic techniques of OSA, the standardized questionnaire and Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) is a simple and effective method for preliminary screening of OSA, and the polysomnography (PSG) which is based on recording multiple physiological signals stands for gold standard, but it has limitations of complex operations, high costs and inconvenience. As a convenient alternative, the home sleep apnea testing (HSAT) allows patients to monitor their sleep with simplified equipment in the comfort of their own homes, and the cardiopulmonary coupling (CPC) offers a minimal version that simply analyzes the electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. As an emerging diagnostic technology of OSA, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) adeptly pinpoint respiratory incidents and expose delicate physiological changes, thus casting new light on the diagnostic approach to OSA. In addition, imaging examination utilizes detailed visual representations of the airway’s structure and assists in recognizing structural abnormalities that may result in obstructed airways, while sound monitoring technology records and analyzes snoring and breathing sounds to detect the condition subtly, and thus further expands our medical diagnostic toolkit. As for the future development directions, it can be predicted that interdisciplinary integrated researches, the construction of personalized diagnosis and treatment models, and the popularization of high-tech in clinical applications will become the development trends in the field of OSA evaluation and diagnosis.

Objective To investigate the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) in passenger drivers and its influencing factors. Methods A total of 951 passenger drivers in Guangdong Province were selected as the research subjects using the judgmental sampling method. A Musculoskeletal Injury Questionnaire was employed to assess the prevalence of WMSDs in the past year. Results The prevalence of WMSDs in passenger drivers was 41.11%. The result of multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that married drivers had a higher risk of WMSDs than single drivers (P<0.05). The lower the frequency of physical exercise, the longer the driving time per week, the longer the continuous driving time, the more restricted the driving working space, the poorer the foot comfort during driving, and the more affected the normal meal, the higher the risk of WMSDs (all P<0.05). The risk of WMSDs in drivers with sleep time ≤ 8.0 h/d was higher than that in drivers with sleep time > 8.0 h/d (P<0.01), and the risk of WMSDs in drivers with the same posture for a long time on the shoulder was higher than that in drivers without this poor working posture (P<0.01). Conclusion WMSDs were prevalent among passenger drivers, which was associated with demographic and adverse ergonomic factors. Intervention on lifestyle and adverse ergonomic factors could further reduce the risk of WMSDs of passenger drivers.

This study constructed a LHCGR-CRE-luc-HEK293 transgenic cell line according to the activation of the cAMP signaling pathway after recombinant human chorionic gonadotropin binding to the receptor. The biological activity of recombinant human chorionic gonadotropin was assayed using a luciferase assay system. The relative potency of the samples was calculated using four-parameter model. And the method conditions were optimized to validate the specificity, relative accuracy, precision and linearity of the method. The results showed that there was a quantitative potency relationship of human chorinonic gonadotropin (hCG) in the method and it was in accordance with the four-parameter curve. After optimization, the conditions were determined as hCG dilution concentration of 2.5 μg·mL^-1, dilution ratio of 1∶4, cell number of 10 000-15 000 cells/well, and induction time of 6 h. The method had good specificity, relative accuracy with relative bias ranging from -8.9% to 3.4%, linear regression equation correlation coefficient of 0.996, intermediate precision geometric coefficient of variation ranging from 3.3% to 15.0%, and linearity range of 50% to 200%. This study successfully established and validated a reporter gene method to detect hCG biological activity, which can be used for hCG biological activity assay and quality control.

Objective To study the effects of the intelligent hearing-assistive system incorporated in Nuro-tron cochlear implants(CI),including the autonomic acoustic scene recognition(ASR),intelligent strategy config-uration as well as the objective and subjective hearing improvements on recipients.Methods ① To evaluate the per-formance of the ASR matule,in a sound-proof room,the preset five kinds of test audios,including speech,noise,speech in noise,pure music(without human voice)and non-pure Music(with human voice)were played.Each type of scenes included 6 to 9 5 min test files.The prediction accuracy and scene switching times were calculated.② In order to evaluate the noise-reduction performance of the ABeam technology in the speech enhancement module,13 Nurotron? CI recipients were recruited and their speech recognition rate when ABeam was"ON"and"OFF"with noise coming from 90°,180°or 270°were tested,individually.Also,their subjective hearing feedback was evaluated through visual analogue scale(VAS)evaluation.Results The ASR module achieved high prediction performance,with prediction accuracy 99％±4％,96％±9％,94％±12％,94％±15％,92％±13％for speech,noise,noisy speech,pure music and non-pure music,respectively.The scene transation times for each individual scene were 1.1 ±0.3,1.4±0.7,1.3±0.5,1.4±0.8 and 1.3±0.5,indicating that the prediction was also stable.When noise came from the sides and behind of recipients and speech signal from the front,the adaptive dual microphone noise re-duction algorithm ABeam significantly increased the speech recognition score(SRS)in 5 dB signal-to-noise(SNR)environment(P＜0.001),with an average increase of 15.92％.Especially when the noise came from 180 degree backward,the SRS increased 28.68％when ABeam was"0N",which was significantly higher than when ABeam was"OFF"(P＜0.01).Conclusion The intelligent hearing-assistive system can help CI recipients automatically configure appropriate SPSs under different environments,improving the speech intelligibility and hearing comfort.

Objective The purpose of this study is to explore the clinical efficacy of laparoscopic transabdominal anterior peritoneal hernia repair(TAPP)in the treatment of inguinal hernia in elderly male patients,and to analyze the factors influencing postoperative recurrence.Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 93 elderly male patients admitted to our hospital for TAPP from January 2020 to June 2023.They were divided into a recurrence group and a non-recurrence group based on postoperative recurrence.Risk factors for postoperative recurrence of TAPP were analyzed through univariate analysis and logistic regression analysis.Results The proportion of hernia sac diameter≥3 cm,lower abdominal surgery history,severe hernia ring adhesion and surgery time ≥60 min in the recurrent group were significantly higher than those in the non-recurrence group(P＜0.05).Multivariate logistic analysis showed that hernia sac diameter≥3 cm,history of lower abdominal surgery,and severe hernia ring adhesion were independent risk factors for postoperative recurrence of TAPP(P＜0.05).Conclusion TAPP is a safe and reliable treatment for inguinal hernia in elderly male patients.The diameter of the hernia sac≥3 cm,a history of lower abdominal surgery,and severe hernia ring adhesion may increase the risk of postoperative recurrence in elderly male patients with TAPP.

Objective To explore the effect of G-protein pathway suppressor 2(GPS2)on the proliferation and migration of HepG2 cells and the underlying mechanism.Methods GPS2 expression was analyzed via The Cancer Genome Atlas(TCGA)and Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium(CPTAC)online database.HepG2 cells with stable knockdown or overexpression of GPS2 were established with lentivirus.The protein and mRNA expression levels of GPS2 were detected by Western blotting and real-time quantitative PCR(qPCR)while cell proliferation was verified by cell proliferation assay.Cell migration was tested by Transwell and scratch assay.Epithelial-mesenchymal transition(EMT)biomarkers and the expression of matrix metalloproteinase(MMP)were detected by qPCR.Finally,the expressions of phosphorylation of protein kinase B(AKT)(p-AKT)and phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase(ERK)(p-ERK)were detected by Western blotting.Results Based on the analysis of TCGA and CPTAC online database,GPS2 was highly expressed in human liver cancer tissues.Knockdown of GPS2 inhibited the proliferation and migration of HepG2 cells,while overexpression of GPS2 promoted the proliferation and migration of HepG2 cells.Silence of GPS2 up-regulated the mRNA level of E-cadherin(E-CAD),down-regulated the mRNA levels of N-cadherin(N-CAD),Vimentin(VIM),MMP2 and MMP9,and reduced the p-AKT and p-ERK.In contrast,overexpression of GPS2 decreased the mRNA level of E-CAD,increased the mRNA levels of N-CAD,VIM,MMP2 and MMP9,and elevated the protein levels of p-AKT and p-ERK.Conclusion GPS2 can promote the proliferation and migration of HepG2 cells,which might be attributed to increased activation of MAPK/ERK and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways and the EMT process.

Objective:To investigate the incidence of comorbid ED with lower urinary tract symptoms(LUTS)and its risk fac-tors in BPH patients.Methods:Based on inclusion and exclusion criteria,we selected BPH patients visiting the outpatient depart-ment of the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University from January 2020 to January 2023.We collected the general and clin-ical data from the patients,including age,height,body weight,abdominal circumference,hip circumference,blood pressure,blood routine,liver function,kidney function,blood lipids and fasting blood glucose,obtained their IPSS,quality of life(QOL)scores,andⅡEF-5 scores by questionnaire investigation,and performed data processing and analysis with the SPSS 22.0 software.Results:The incidence rate of comorbid ED with LUTS in the BPH patients rose with the increase of age,36.46％in the 45-49-year group,43.72％in the 50-54-year group,53.66％in the 55-59-year group,69.23％in the 60-64-year group,and 78.74％in the 65-70-year group.The lipid accumulation product(LAP),visceral adiposity index(VAI),triglycerides and glucose(TyG),hepatic steatosis index(HSI),body mass index(BMI),waist-to-hip ratio(WHR),waist-to-height ratio(WHtR),triglycerides(TG)and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C)were correlated positively with IPSS scores and negatively with ⅡEF-5 scores,while LDL-C and total cholesterol(TC)negatively with IPSS scores and positively with ⅡEF-5 scores.Conclusion:The incidence of comorbid ED with LUTS in BPH patients increases with age.The risk factors for this comorbidity include hypertension,dyslipidemia,diabetes,BMI,and lifestyle,and the risk of the condition can be effectively assessed by LAP,VAI,TYG,HSI,BMI,WHtR,WHR,TG and HDL-C.

Objective:To analyze the current status of salary system reform in public hospitals in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, and provide reference for the deepening of salary system reform in public hospitals.Methods:From April to May 2023, a self-designed survey questionnaire was used to conduct a survey of medical staff in five municipal tertiary public hospitals through the Wenjuanxing platform. The survey questionnaire mainly included the basic information of the survey subjects, the implementation status of the salary system, and employee satisfaction with salary. In May 2023, semi-structured interviews were conducted with relevant personnel from government departments and public hospitals involved in the reform. The interview content included the reform measures taken and their impact, changes in medical staff salaries after the reform, and the current difficulties faced by the reform. Descriptive analysis was conducted on the data, and Chi-square test was used to compare the count data. Kendall′s tau-b test was used to analyze the correlation between salary level and basic information of the survey subjects.Results:In the reform of the salary system in public hospitals in Mianyang City, measures such as system construction, total salary quota determination and dynamic control, and salary management for non-establishment employees have been mainly adopted. 826 valid questionnaires were collected, with an effective response rate of 94.5%. The annual income level was positively correlated with age, education level, years of work experience, and professional title level ( r=0.420, P<0.001; r=0.245, P<0.001; r=0.364, P<0.001; r=0.504, P<0.001). Compared with the personnel in the same positions at the same level of hospitals in other cities and states in Sichuan Province, 274 people (33.2%) were quite satisfied or very satisfied with the current salary level; 350 people (42.3%) were quite satisfied or very satisfied with the salary distribution mechanism, and 441 people (53.4%) were quite satisfied or very satisfied with non-economic salaries. The proportion of survey respondents who believe that the existing salary structure and performance evaluation methods could reflect their actual work value was 464 people (56.2%) and 423 people (51.2%), respectively. A total of 10 people were interviewed, with 4 individuals believing that the salary level has increased after the reform, but the change was not significant compared to before the reform; 8 individuals believed that the current reform does not involve the reform of the salary structure; 6 individuals believed that the internal performance based salary distribution mechanism in hospitals was not sound; 3 individuals believed that there was insufficient attention to the reform of non-economic compensation; 7 individuals believe that the difficulties in the salary system reform were mainly concentrated on the unified understanding of policies, how to determine the increase in the total salary quota, and how to reasonably distribute it internally. Conclusions:Mianyang City has scientifically determined the total salary and implemented dynamic control, enhancing the public welfare nature of public hospitals, while also taking into account the salary management of employees both inside and outside the establishment, promoting equal pay for equal work. However, there were also issues such as disagreements on the dynamic adjustment of the total salary, an imperfect internal distribution mechanism within hospitals, and an incomplete salary system reform. It is necessary to further strengthen top-level design, reasonably increase salary levels, improve the internal distribution mechanism, and optimize the salary structure to continue deepening the reform of the salary system in public hospital.

To investigate tick species and prevalence of Anaplasmataceae and spotted fever group Rickettsia(SFGR)in ticks collected from sheep and goats in Leibo county,Sichuan Province.Ticks were preliminary identified by morphological characters and the genomic DNAs of ticks were ex-tracted.Molecular detection was performed by PCR targeting gene fragment of tick ITS-2,gltA and ompA genes of Rickettsia spp.,16S rRNA and rpoB genes of Anaplasma spp.and Ehrlichia spp.Positive PCR products were sequenced and phylogenetic trees were built based on these genes.The results showed that a total of 353 adult ticks collected from sheep and goats were identified as H.longicornis.The total prevalence of SFGR in H.longicornis was 22.66％(80/353)with only R.raoultii detected,which was closely related to R.raoultii(JQ792163)isolated from Dermacentor niveus in Tibet.The total prevalence of Anaplasmataceae was 87.82％(310/353)with six Ana-plasma species(A.bovis,A.capra,A.marginale,Anaplasma cf.marginale,Anaplasma sp.,Can-didatus A.mediterraneum)and two Ehrlichia species(E.chaffeensis and Ehrlichia sp.)detec-ted.Go-infection was found in some H.longicornis as high as 7.37％(26/353).The results indica-ted that H.longicornis may be the dominant tick species in Leibo county with high infections rates of Anaplasmataceae and SFGR.The close monitoring of the tick-borne pathogens should be strengthened in the future research work.

Aim To explore the improvement effect of Bazi Bushen capsule on thymic degeneration in SAMP6 mice and the possible mechanism.Methods Twenty 12 week old male SAMP6 mice were randomly divided into the model group(SAMP6)and the Bazi Busheng capsule treatment group(SAMP6+BZBS).Ten SAMR1 mice were assigned to a homologous control group(SAMR1).The SAMP6+BZBS group was oral-ly administered Bazi Bushen capsule suspension(2.8 g·kg-1)daily,while the other two groups were orally administered an equal amount of distilled water.After nine weeks of administration,the morphology of the thymus in each group was observed and the thymus in-dex was calculated;HE staining was used to observe the structural changes of thymus tissue;SA-β-gal stai-ning was used to detect thymic aging;flow cytometry was used to detect the proportion of thymic CD3+T cells in each group;Western blot was used to detect the levels of p16,Bax,Bcl-2,and cleaved caspase-3 proteins in thymus;immunofluorescence was applied to detect the proportion of cortical thymic epithelial cells in each group;ELISA was employed to detect IL-7 lev-els in thymus.Results Compared with the SAMP6 group,the thymic index of the SAMP6+BZBS group significantly increased(P＜0.05);the disordered thy-mic structure was significantly improved;the positive proportion of SA-β-gal staining significantly decreased(P＜0.01);the proportion of CD3+T cells apparently increased(P＜0.05);the level of p16 protein signifi-cantly decreased(P＜0.05);the level of Bcl-2 pro-tein significantly increased(P＜0.05),while the lev-el of cleaved caspase-3 protein markedly decreased(P＜0.05);the proportion of cortical thymic epithelial cells evidently increased;the level of IL-7 significantly increased(P＜0.01).Conclusions Bazi Bushen capsule can delay thymic degeneration,inhibit cell ap-optosis in thymus and promote thymic cell development in SAMP6 mice,which may be related to increasing the proportion of cortical thymic epithelial cells and promoting IL-7 secretion.