OBJECTIVETo compare CO2 laser resection and laryngeal microsurgery for vocal cord polyps and provide evidence for the optimal surgical method.METHODSThis was a retrospective cohort study that ...included 74 patients with vocal cord polyps who underwent either CO2 laser resection or laryngeal microsurgery in our hospital from August 2018 to December 2021. According to their preference, 77 patients were divided into two groups: a CO2 laser resection group (n = 35) and a laryngeal microsurgery group (n = 39). Patients were evaluated two days before surgery, and follow-ups were conducted one, two and four weeks after surgery. The voice handicap index (VHI-10) score, voice acoustic analysis results and electronic laryngoscopy results were collected for each patient, and the differences between the two groups were evaluated.RESULTSThe basic demographic characteristics of the 74 patients were comparable, and all patients completed postoperative follow-up observations. A total of 30 (85.71%) patients in the CO2 laser resection group and 22 (56.41%) patients in the laryngeal microsurgery group were healed. The total effectiveness rate of the CO2 laser resection group (94.29%) was significantly higher than that of the laryngeal microsurgery group (82.05%), and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (p = .037). Both surgical methods had a positive effect on reducing VHI-10 scores with the effect of CO2 laser resection being more obvious. The difference between the two groups in this regard was statistically significant (p < .001). The effects of each surgical method on the average fundamental frequency perturbation (jitter), amplitude perturbation (shimmer), maximum phonation time and dysphonia severity index were not statistically significant (p > .05).CONCLUSIONCO2 laser resection and laryngeal microsurgery have similar effects on voice quality, but CO2 laser resection has higher clinical efficacy.
By introducing some concepts such as multiple integral inner product (MIIP) and multiple integral inner product space (MIIPS), new series of single/multiple integral inequalities are developed in a ...systematic way, which produce more accurate bounds on the cross terms from the direct Lyapunov method than those in the literature. Some previous integral inequalities including both single and multiple integral inequalities can be regarded as special cases of the proposed inequalities. Accordingly, such integral inequalities are less conservative in comparison with the existing integral inequalities.
Chronic inflammation plays a central role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the contribution of hepatocytes to tumor-associated inflammation is not clear. Here, we report that the zinc finger ...transcription factor Miz1 restricted hepatocyte-driven inflammation to suppress HCC, independently of its transcriptional activity. Miz1 was downregulated in HCC mouse models and a substantial fraction of HCC patients. Hepatocyte-specific Miz1 deletion in mice generated a distinct sub-group of hepatocytes that produced pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, which skewed the polarization of the tumor-infiltrating macrophages toward pro-inflammatory phenotypes to promote HCC. Mechanistically, Miz1 sequestrated the oncoprotein metadherin (MTDH), preventing MTDH from promoting transcription factor nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) activation. A distinct sub-group of pro-inflammatory cytokine-producing hepatocytes was also seen in a subset of HCC patients. In addition, Miz1 expression inversely correated with disease recurrence and poor prognosis in HCC patients. Our findings identify Miz1 as a tumor suppressor that prevents hepatocytes from driving inflammation in HCC.
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•Miz1 suppresses liver cancer independently of its transcriptional activity•Miz1 restricts the ability of hepatocytes to drive macrophage-dependent inflammation•Miz1 prevents oncoprotein MTDH from promoting hepatocyte NF-κB activity•Miz1 expression inversely correlates with recurrence and poor prognosis in HCC patients
Chronic inflammation plays a crucial role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the contribution of tumor hepatocytes to tumor-associated inflammation remains unclear. Zhang et al. find that loss of the transcription factor Miz1 in hepatocytes promotes NF-κB activation, producing a distinct sub-cluster of tumor hepatocytes that skew tumor-infiltrating macrophages toward a pro-inflammatory phenotype and drive inflammation in HCC.
In the pathogenesis of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), inflammation plays an important role. However, it is unclear whether there is a causal link between inflammation and MPNs. We used a ...bidirectional, two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to investigate the causal relationship between systemic inflammatory cytokines and myeloproliferative neoplasms.
A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 8293 European participants identified genetic instrumental variables for circulating cytokines and growth factors. Summary statistics of MPN were obtained from a GWAS including 1086 cases and 407,155 controls of European ancestry. The inverse-variance-weighted method was mainly used to compute odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (Cl).
Our results showed that higher Interleukin-2 receptor, alpha subunit (IL-2rα) levels, and higher Interferon gamma-induced protein 10 (IP-10) levels were associated with an increased risk of MPN (OR = 1.36,95%CI = 1.03-1.81, P = 0.032; OR = 1.55,95%CI = 1.09-2.22, P = 0.015; respectively).In addition, Genetically predicted MPN promotes expression of the inflammatory cytokines interleukin-10 (IL-10) (BETA = 0.033, 95% CI = 0.003 ~ 0.064, P = 0.032) and monokine induced by interferon-gamma (MIG) (BETA = 0.052, 95% CI = 0.002-0.102, P = 0.043) and, on activation, normal T cells express and secrete RANTES (BETA = 0.055, 95% CI = 0.0090.1, P = 0.018).
Our findings suggest that cytokines are essential to the pathophysiology of MPN. More research is required if these biomarkers can be used to prevent and treat MPN.
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Emerging evidence suggests that early-life (in-utero and first-year since birth) exposure to ambient PM2.5 is a risk factor for asthma onset and exacerbation among children, while the ...hazards caused by PM2.5 compositions remain largely unknown.
To examine potential associations of early-life exposures to PM2.5 mass and its major chemical constituents with childhood asthma and wheezing.
By conducting the Phase II of the China, Children, Homes, Health study, we investigated 30,325 preschool children aged 3–6 years during 2019–2020 in mainland China. Early-life exposure to PM2.5 mass and its constituents (i.e., black carbon BC, organic matter OM, nitrate, ammonium, sulfate) were calculated based on monthly estimates at a 1 km × 1 km resolution from satellite-based models. We adopted a novel quantile-based g-computation approach to assess the effect of a mixture of PM2.5 constituents on childhood asthma/wheezing.
The average PM2.5 concentrations during in-utero and the first year since birth were 64.7 ± 10.6 and 61.8 ± 10.5 µg/m3, respectively. Early-life exposures to a mixture of major PM2.5 constituents were significantly associated with increased risks of asthma and wheezing, while no evident compositions-wheezing associations were found in the first year. Each quintile increases in all five PM2.5 components exposures in utero was accordingly associated with an odds ratio of 1.18 95% confidence interval: 1.07–1.29 for asthma and 1.08 1.01–1.16 for wheezing. BC, OM and SO42− contributed more to risks of asthma and wheezing than the other PM2.5 constituents during early life, wherein the effects of BC were only observed during pregnancy. Sex subgroup analyses suggested stronger associations among girls of first-year exposures to PM2.5 components with childhood asthma.
Early-life exposures to ambient PM2.5, particularly compositions of BC, OM and SO42−, are associated with an increased risk of childhood asthma.
Background and Objectives: As breast milk is considered nature's best food for infant growth and development, understanding its nutritional composition is crucial for optimising the components of ...infant formula milk. In this study, we aimed to summarise the available evidence on the nutritional composition of breast milk from Chinese women, in particular, the macronutrients, fatty acids and minerals.
Methods and Study Design: We searched PubMed, Embase, and Chinese databases for articles about human breast milk from Chinese women published in English or Chinese between 1999 and 2015. We classified the data in 35 articles from the literature search into three lactation stages: colostral, transitional and mature milk.
Results: The content of each component varied greatly during the three lactation stages. Protein content decreased from colostral milk to mature milk (mean+-SD, 1.64+-0.32 g/dL vs 1.22+-0.12 g/dL). In contrast, lipid content increased from colostral milk (2.36+-1.17 g/dL) to mature milk (3.39+-1.24 g/dL). Colostrum contained more linoleic acid (LA) than transitional and mature milk, while colostrum contained less α-linolenic acid (ALA) than transitional and mature milk. As lactation progressed, the ratios of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA) to total fatty acids decreased while the potassium (K), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu) concentrations decreased significantly, but their standard deviations were large. Magnesium (Mg) and manganese (Mn) concentrations showed significant differences across the three lactation stages.
Conclusions: The stage of lactation was an important factor affecting the nutritional composition of breast milk from Chinese women.
BACKGROUNDTibetans have lived at very high altitudes for thousands of years, and have a distinctive suite of physiological traits that enable them to tolerate environmental hypoxia. Expanding ...awareness and knowledge of the differences in hematology, hypoxia-associated genes, immune system of people living at different altitudes and from different ethnic groups may provide evidence for the prevention of mountain sickness. METHODNinety-five Han people at mid-altitude, ninety-five Tibetan people at high-altitude and ninety-eight Han people at high-altitude were recruited. Red blood cell parameters, immune cells, the contents of cytokines, hypoxia-associated gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were measured. RESULTSThe values of Hematocrit (HCT), Mean cell volume (MCV) and Mean cell hemoglobin (MCH) in red blood cell, immune cell CD19+ B cell number, the levels of cytokines Erb-B2 receptor tyrosine kinase 3 (ErbB3) and Tumor necrosis factor receptor II (TNF-RII) and the levels of hypoxia-associated factors Hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), Hypoxia inducible factor-2α (HIF-2α) and HIF prolyl 4-hydroxylase 2 (PHD2) were decreased, while the frequencies of SNPs in twenty-six Endothelial PAS domain protein 1 (EPAS1) and Egl-9 family hypoxia inducible factor 1 (EGLN1) were increased in Tibetan people at high-altitude compared with that of Han peoples at high-altitude. Furthermore, compared with mid-altitude individuals, high-altitude individuals showed lower blood cell parameters including Hemoglobin concentration (HGB), HCT, MCV and MCH, higher Mean cell hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), lower immune cells including CD19+ B cells, CD4+ T cells and CD4/CD8 ratio, higher immune cells containing CD8+ T cells and CD16/56NK cells, decreased Growth regulated oncogene alpha (GROa), Macrophage inflammatory protein 1 beta (MIP-1b), Interleukin-8 (IL-8), and increased Thrombomodulin, downregulated hypoxia-associated factors including HIF1α, HIF2α and PHD2, and higher frequency of EGLN1 rs2275279. CONCLUSIONSThese results indicated that biological adaption to hypoxia at high altitude might have been mediated by changes in immune cells, cytokines, and hypoxia-associated genes during the evolutionary history of Tibetan populations. Furthermore, different responses to high altitude were observed in different ethnic groups, which may provide a useful knowledge to improve the protection of high-altitude populations from mountain sickness.
Piezoelectric actuators have been widely applied to precision positioning platforms. However, the positioning accuracy of piezoelectric ceramic has been significantly affected by its characteristics ...of hysteresis. Owing to the voltage-keeping feature of capacitive load for piezoelectric ceramic, this paper has proposed a switch-based driving in sequence method, which alternately drives each layer of PZT by using switches. Based on the driving in sequence method, the proposed method is capable of reducing the hysteresis to 1/N of the hysteresis under traditional voltage driving method, while significantly lowering the scale and cost of hardware, compared with the previous driving in sequence method. Thus, it allows for application to hundreds of layers of piezoelectric ceramic. According to experiment results, the hysteresis under different frequencies from 0.1 to 500 Hz for homemade seven-layer piezoelectric ceramic can be reduced from 12.5 to 2.1%. Furtherly, the residual hysteresis can be corrected by applying a simple quadratic-polynomial feedforward control, and the hysteresis is constrained within 0.8%, even with feedforward parameters that are not strictly calibrated. The dual-amplifier driving in sequence method proposed in this paper can significantly reduce the hysteresis in open-loop control of piezoelectric stack actuators, effectively improving the positioning and driving performance and saving cost.
To compare CO
laser resection and laryngeal microsurgery for vocal cord polyps and provide evidence for the optimal surgical method.
This was a retrospective cohort study that included 74 patients ...with vocal cord polyps who underwent either CO
laser resection or laryngeal microsurgery in our hospital from August 2018 to December 2021. According to their preference, 77 patients were divided into two groups: a CO
laser resection group (
= 35) and a laryngeal microsurgery group (
= 39). Patients were evaluated two days before surgery, and follow-ups were conducted one, two and four weeks after surgery. The voice handicap index (VHI-10) score, voice acoustic analysis results and electronic laryngoscopy results were collected for each patient, and the differences between the two groups were evaluated.
The basic demographic characteristics of the 74 patients were comparable, and all patients completed postoperative follow-up observations. A total of 30 (85.71%) patients in the CO
laser resection group and 22 (56.41%) patients in the laryngeal microsurgery group were healed. The total effectiveness rate of the CO
laser resection group (94.29%) was significantly higher than that of the laryngeal microsurgery group (82.05%), and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (
= .037). Both surgical methods had a positive effect on reducing VHI-10 scores with the effect of CO
laser resection being more obvious. The difference between the two groups in this regard was statistically significant (
< .001). The effects of each surgical method on the average fundamental frequency perturbation (jitter), amplitude perturbation (shimmer), maximum phonation time and dysphonia severity index were not statistically significant (
> .05).
CO
laser resection and laryngeal microsurgery have similar effects on voice quality, but CO
laser resection has higher clinical efficacy.
To realize the high-precision three-dimensional (3D) measurement of micro-precision devices, a 3D resonant trigger probe based on quartz tuning fork for micro/nano coordinate measuring machine (CMM) ...is proposed. The probe is composed of a quartz tuning fork, a tapered optical fiber stylus and a microsphere. It vibrates in resonance state and makes contact with the measured surface in the Z direction in tapping mode, while in the X and Y directions, it operates in friction mode. The 3D nano-positioning of the probe is achieved by the changes in resonance parameter caused by the interatomic force between the microsphere and the surface of the measured sample. In this study, the diameter of the probe microsphere can be as low as 80 μm, and the length of the probe stylus is approximately 5 mm. The trigger resolution of the probe in the X, Y and Z directions are 0.44, 0.41 and 0.34 nm, respectively. The probing forces in the X, Y and Z directions are 2.25, 1.81 and 4.24 μN, respectively. Experimental results verify that the proposed probe has the advantages of small size, sub-nano resolution and very low probing force. This probe can be used as the trigger probe of micro/nano CMM, which can be triggered by interatomic force.
