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Although immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have produced remarkable responses in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, receivers still have a relatively low response rate. Initial response assessment by conventional imaging and evaluation criteria is often unable to identify whether patients can achieve durable clinical benefit from ICIs. Overall, there are sparse effective biomarkers identified to screen NSCLC patients responding to this therapy. A lot of studies have reported that patients with specific gene mutations may benefit from or resist to immunotherapy. However, the single gene mutation may be not effective enough to predict the benefit from immunotherapy for patients. With the advancement in sequencing technology, further studies indicate that many mutations often co-occur and suggest a drastic transformation of tumour microenvironment phenotype. Moreover, co-mutation events have been reported to synergise to activate or suppress signalling pathways of anti-tumour immune response, which also indicates a potential target for combining intervention. Thus, the different mutation profile (especially co-mutation) of patients may be an important concern for predicting or promoting the efficacy of ICIs. However, there is a lack of comprehensive knowledge of this field until now. Therefore, in this study, we reviewed and elaborated the value of cancer mutation profile in predicting the efficacy of immunotherapy and analysed the underlying mechanisms, to provide an alternative way for screening dominant groups, and thereby, optimising individualised therapy for NSCLC patients.
Prolonged parturition duration has been widely demonstrated to be a risk factor for incidence of stillbirth. This study evaluated the supply of dietary fibre on the parturition duration, gut microbiota and metabolome using sows as a model. A total of 40 Yorkshire sows were randomly given diet containing normal level of dietary fibre (NDF, 17·5 % dietary fibre) or high level of dietary fibre (HDF, 33·5 % dietary fibre). Faecal microbiota profiled with 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, SCFA and metabolome in the faeces and plasma around parturition were compared between the dietary groups. Correlation analysis was conducted to further explore the potential associations between specific bacterial taxa and metabolites. Results showed that HDF diet significantly improved the parturition process as presented by the shorter parturition duration. HDF diet increased the abundance of the phyla Bacteroidetes and Synergistetes and multiple genera. Except for butyrate, SCFA levels in the faeces and plasma of sows at parturition were elevated in HDF group. The abundances of fifteen and twelve metabolites in the faeces and plasma, respectively, markedly differ between HDF and NDF sows. These metabolites are involved in energy metabolism and bacterial metabolism. Correlation analysis also showed associations between specific bacteria taxa and metabolites. Collectively, our study indicates that the improvement of parturition duration by high fibre intake in late gestation is associated with gut microbiota, production of SCFA and other metabolites, potentially serving for energy metabolism.
Neuroimaging- and machine-learning-based brain-age prediction of schizophrenia is well established. However, the diagnostic significance and the effect of early medication on first-episode schizophrenia remains unclear.
Aims
To explore whether predicted brain age can be used as a biomarker for schizophrenia diagnosis, and the relationship between clinical characteristics and brain-predicted age difference (PAD), and the effects of early medication on predicted brain age.
Method
The predicted model was built on 523 diffusion tensor imaging magnetic resonance imaging scans from healthy controls. First, the brain-PAD of 60 patients with first-episode schizophrenia, 60 healthy controls and 21 follow-up patients from the principal data-set and 40 pairs of individuals in the replication data-set were calculated. Next, the brain-PAD between groups were compared and the correlations between brain-PAD and clinical measurements were analysed.
Results
The patients showed a significant increase in brain-PAD compared with healthy controls. After early medication, the brain-PAD of patients decreased significantly compared with baseline (P < 0.001). The fractional anisotropy value of 31/33 white matter tract features, which related to the brain-PAD scores, had significantly statistical differences before and after measurements (P < 0.05, false discovery rate corrected). Correlation analysis showed that the age gap was negatively associated with the positive score on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale in the principal data-set (r = −0.326, P = 0.014).
Conclusions
The brain age of patients with first-episode schizophrenia may be older than their chronological age. Early medication holds promise for improving the patient's brain ageing. Neuroimaging-based brain-age prediction can provide novel insights into the understanding of schizophrenia.
Primitive lamprophyres in orogenic belts can provide crucial insights into the nature of the subcontinental lithosphere and the relevant deep crust–mantle interactions. This paper reports a suite of relatively primitive lamprophyre dykes from the North Qiangtang, central Tibetan Plateau. Zircon U–Pb ages of the lamprophyre dykes range from 214 Ma to 218 Ma, with a weighted mean age of 216 ± 1 Ma. Most of the lamprophyre samples are similar in geochemical compositions to typical primitive magmas (e.g. high MgO contents, Mg no. values and Cr, with low FeOt/MgO ratios), although they might have experienced a slightly low degree of olivine crystallization, and they show arc-like trace-element patterns and enriched Sr–Nd isotopic composition ((87Sr/86Sr)i = 0.70538–0.70540, ϵNd(t) = −2.96 to −1.65). Those geochemical and isotopic variations indicate that the lamprophyre dykes originated from partial melting of a phlogopite- and spinel-bearing peridotite mantle modified by subduction-related aqueous fluids. Combining with the other regional studies, we propose that slab subduction might have occurred during Late Triassic time, and the rollback of the oceanic lithosphere induced the lamprophyre magmatism in the central Tibetan Plateau.
The article aims to estimate and forecast the transmissibility of shigellosis and explore the association of meteorological factors with shigellosis. The mathematical model named Susceptible–Exposed–Symptomatic/Asymptomatic–Recovered–Water/Food (SEIARW) was used to explore the feature of shigellosis transmission based on the data of Wuhan City, China, from 2005 to 2017. The study applied effective reproduction number (Reff) to estimate the transmissibility. Daily meteorological data from 2008 to 2017 were used to determine Spearman's correlation with reported new cases and Reff. The SEIARW model fit the data well (χ2 = 0.00046, p > 0.999). The simulation results showed that the reservoir-to-person transmission of the shigellosis route has been interrupted. The Reff would be reduced to a transmission threshold of 1.00 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82–1.19) in 2035. Reducing the infectious period to 11.25 days would also decrease the value of Reff to 0.99. There was a significant correlation between new cases of shigellosis and atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind speed and sun hours per day. The correlation coefficients, although statistically significant, were very low (<0.3). In Wuhan, China, the main transmission pattern of shigellosis is person-to-person. Meteorological factors, especially daily atmospheric pressure and temperature, may influence the epidemic of shigellosis.
As the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues around the world, understanding the transmission characteristics of COVID-19 is vital for prevention and control. We conducted the first study aiming to estimate and compare the relative risk of secondary attack rates (SARs) of COVID-19 in different contact environments. Until 26 July 2021, epidemiological studies and cluster epidemic reports of COVID-19 were retrieved from SCI, Embase, PubMed, CNKI, Wanfang and CBM in English and Chinese, respectively. Relative risks (RRs) were estimated in pairwise comparisons of SARs between different contact environments using the frequentist NMA framework, and the ranking of risks in these environments was calculated using the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA). Subgroup analysis was performed by regions. Thirty-two studies with 68 260 participants were identified. Compared with meal or gathering, transportation (RR 10.55, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.43–77.85), medical care (RR 11.68, 95% CI 1.58–86.61) and work or study places (RR 10.15, 95% CI 1.40–73.38) had lower risk ratios for SARs. Overall, the SUCRA rankings from the highest to the lowest were household (95.3%), meal or gathering (81.4%), public places (58.9%), daily conversation (50.1%), transportation (30.8%), medical care (18.2%) and work or study places (15.3%). Household SARs were significantly higher than other environments in the subgroup of mainland China and sensitive analysis without small sample studies (<100). In light of the risks, stratified personal protection and public health measures need to be in place accordingly, so as close contacts categorising and management.
The effects of early thiamine use on clinical outcomes in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) are unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between early thiamine administration and clinical outcomes in critically ill patients with AKI. The data of critically ill patients with AKI within 48 h after ICU admission were extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III (MIMIC III) database. PSM was used to match patients early receiving thiamine treatment to those not early receiving thiamine treatment. The association between early thiamine use and in-hospital mortality due to AKI was determined using a logistic regression model. A total of 15 066 AKI patients were eligible for study inclusion. After propensity score matching (PSM), 734 pairs of patients who did and did not receive thiamine treatment in the early stage were established. Early thiamine use was associated with lower in-hospital mortality (OR 0·65; 95 % CI 0·49, 0·87; P < 0·001) and 90-d mortality (OR 0·58; 95 % CI 0·45, 0·74; P < 0·001), and it was also associated with the recovery of renal function (OR 1·26; 95 % CI 1·17, 1·36; P < 0·001). In the subgroup analysis, early thiamine administration was associated with lower in-hospital mortality in patients with stages 1 to 2 AKI. Early thiamine use was associated with improved short-term survival in critically ill patients with AKI. It was possible beneficial role in patients with stages 1 to 2 AKI according to the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes criteria.
Chapters 5 and 6 focus on generation and memory in group interactions. In Chapter 5, I describe different patterns of group memory – including “socialist nostalgia,” “rightful resistance,” and “people but not the event” – which are manifested in narratives, symbols, rituals, speech norms, and other practices. I explain those patterns by examining the interaction between memory entrepreneurs’ class positions and habitus and their group processes.
Chapter 2 focuses on the autobiographical memory of the zhiqing who have lower and middle class positions today. Also, the end of the chapter presents a summary of the major arguments and some discussions of additional issues about autobiographical memory.
Chapter 4, I examine “sites of memory”: the exhibits in the 1990s and museums since the 2000s. I show that memory entrepreneurs and dynamics of cultural production fields result in a pattern of representation centered on “people but not the event.” Such a pattern, however, provokes even more public debates than expected.
In Chapters 1 and 2, I use qualitative and quantitative analyses of the life history interviews with the zhiqing to describe and explain various patterns of their autobiographical memory. Their autobiographical memory varies greatly, and the variation can be explained by “class,” including their present class positions and their chushen and habitus formed in the Mao years. Chapter 1 focuses on those zhiqing with higher class positions today.
In the conclusion, I return to where I start. I first discuss how the research presented in this book can help us understand the Chinese state’s official memory of President Xi Jinping’s zhiqing experience. Then I recapitulate the major arguments and discuss in detail the broader empirical and theoretical implications of this study. I will end the book with a discussion of the political ethics of the zhiqing generation’s memory, the normative goal of my book, to reflect on the ethical issues in similar cases of memory.
In Chapter 6, I focus on intergroup activities. As the activities are booming, conflicts and tensions also emerge along the fault lines of class and ideology, and the cultural influence of this generation outside their memory field is limited.