bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Identification of the shared gene signatures between pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension using bioinformatics analysis
Authors: Zhao Hui , Wang Lan , Yan Yi , Zhao Qin-Hua , He Jing , Jiang Rong , Luo Ci-Jun , Qiu Hong-Ling , Miao Yu-Qing , Gong Su-Gang , Yuan Ping , Wu Wen-Hui
Published: September 2023

Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) and pulmonary hypertension (PH) have common pathophysiological features, such as the significant remodeling of pulmonary parenchyma and vascular wall. There is no effective specific drug in clinical treatment for these two diseases, resulting in a worse prognosis and higher mortality. This study aimed to screen the common key genes and immune characteristics of PF and PH by means of bioinformatics to find new common therapeutic targets. Expression profiles are downloaded from the Gene Expression Database. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis is used to identify the co-expression modules related to PF and PH. We used the ClueGO software to enrich and analyze the common genes in PF and PH and obtained the protein–protein interaction (PPI) network. Then, the differential genes were screened out in another cohort of PF and PH, and the shared genes were crossed. Finally, RT-PCR verification and immune infiltration analysis were performed on the intersection genes. In the result, the positive correlation module with the highest correlation between PF and PH was determined, and it was found that lymphocyte activation is a common feature of the pathophysiology of PF and PH. Eight common characteristic genes (ACTR2, COL5A2, COL6A3, CYSLTR1, IGF1, RSPO3, SCARNA17 and SEL1L) were gained. Immune infiltration showed that compared with the control group, resting CD4 memory T cells were upregulated in PF and PH. Combining the results of crossing characteristic genes in ImmPort database and RT-PCR, the important gene IGF1 was obtained. Knocking down IGF1 could significantly reduce the proliferation and apoptosis resistance in pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells, pulmonary smooth muscle cells, and fibroblasts induced by hypoxia, platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB), and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), respectively. Our work identified the common biomarkers of PF and PH and provided a new candidate gene for the potential therapeutic targets of PF and PH in the future.
Single-cell RNA sequencing shows the immune cell landscape in the kidneys of patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy
Authors: Shi Manman , Wang Yuxin , Zhang Huan , Ling Zicheng , Chen Xue , Wang Chaojun , Liu Jian , Ma Yuhua
Published: September 2023

Idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) is a leading pathological type of the adult primary nephrotic syndrome. Some patients develop end-stage renal disease due to poor response to treatment with steroid and immunosuppressive agents. In order to explore the molecular mechanism of IMN, we collected renal tissue samples from IMN patients and healthy controls and performed analysis by single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). A total of 11 kidney cell clusters were identified, including multiple myeloid cell clusters, NK/T cell clusters, and B cell clusters. Most kidney parenchymal and immune cells were enriched in the regulation of immune response, inflammation, fibrosis and endoplasmic reticulum stress. The macrophage population in the IMN group showed a highly activated profile with up-regulated genes related to chemotaxis, inflammation, phagocytosis and fibrosis. CD8+ T cells continued to be cytotoxic in IMN; however, a transition to “inflammageing” GZMK+ CD8+ T cells was observed. The proportion of activated B cells in renal tissues of IMN patients was much higher than that of normal controls, indicating that B cells in IMN might be activated by constant antigenic stimulation. Moreover, the cell-cell interaction analysis revealed the potential communication between renal glomerular cells and immune cells in IMN. Overall, scRNA-seq was applied to IMN to unravel the characteristics of immune cells and elucidate possible underlying mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of IMN.
Toxin exposure and HLA alleles determine serum antibody binding to toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1) of Staphylococcus aureus
Authors: Weiss Stefan , Holtfreter Silva , Meyer Tanja C. , Schmiedeke Frieder , Cammann Clemens , Dörr Marcus , Felix Stephan B. , Grabe Hans J. , Homuth Georg , Kohler Christian , Mahncke Cedric , Michalik Stephan , Nauck Matthias , Friedrich Nele , Samietz Stefanie , Völzke Henry , Völker Uwe , Bröker Barbara M.
Published: September 2023

Life-threatening toxic shock syndrome is often caused by the superantigen toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1) produced by Staphylococcus aureus. A well-known risk factor is the lack of neutralizing antibodies. To identify determinants of the anti-TSST-1 antibody response, we examined 976 participants of the German population-based epidemiological Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP-TREND-0). We measured anti-TSST-1 antibody levels, analyzed the colonization with TSST-1-encoding S. aureus strains, and performed a genome-wide association analysis of genetic risk factors. TSST-1-specific serum IgG levels varied over a range of 4.2 logs and were elevated by a factor of 12.3 upon nasal colonization with TSST-1-encoding S. aureus. Moreover, the anti-TSST-1 antibody levels were strongly associated with HLA class II gene loci. HLA-DRB1*03:01 and HLA-DQB1*02:01 were positively, and HLA-DRB1*01:01 as well as HLA-DQB1*05:01 negatively associated with the anti-TSST-1 antibody levels. Thus, both toxin exposure and HLA alleles affect the human antibody response to TSST-1.
The diversity and dynamics of tumor-associated macrophages in recurrent glioblastoma
Authors: Zhang Lingyun , Jiang Yu , Zhang Gao , Wei Shiyou
Published: September 2023

Despite tremendous efforts to exploit effective therapeutic strategies, most glioblastoma (GBM) inevitably relapse and become resistant to therapies, including radiotherapy and immunotherapy. The tumor microenvironment (TME) of recurrent GBM (rGBM) is highly immunosuppressive, dominated by tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). TAMs consist of tissue-resident microglia and monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs), which are essential for favoring tumor growth, invasion, angiogenesis, immune suppression, and therapeutic resistance; however, restricted by the absence of potent methods, the heterogeneity and plasticity of TAMs in rGBM remain incompletely investigated. Recent application of single-cell technologies, such as single-cell RNA-sequencing has enabled us to decipher the unforeseen diversity and dynamics of TAMs and to identify new subsets of TAMs which regulate anti-tumor immunity. Here, we first review hallmarks of the TME, progress and challenges of immunotherapy, and the biology of TAMs in the context of rGBM, including their origins, categories, and functions. Next, from a single-cell perspective, we highlight recent findings regarding the distinctions between tissue-resident microglia and MDMs, the identification and characterization of specific TAM subsets, and the dynamic alterations of TAMs during tumor progression and treatment. Last, we briefly discuss the potential of TAM-targeted strategies for combination immunotherapy in rGBM. We anticipate the comprehensive understanding of the diversity and dynamics of TAMs in rGBM will shed light on further improvement of immunotherapeutic efficacy in rGBM.
Phenotypic and genomic analyses of bacteriocin-producing probiotic Enterococcus faecium EFEL8600 isolated from Korean soy-meju
Authors: Kim Da Hye , Kim Seul-Ah , Jo Na Gyeong , Bae Jae-Han , Nguyen Minh Tri , Jo Yu Mi , Han Nam Soo
Published: September 2023

Enterococcus faecium is a prevalent species found in fermented soybean products, known for its contributions to flavor development and inhibition of pathogenic microorganisms during fermentation. This study aims to provide comprehensive phenotypic and genomic evidence supporting the probiotic characteristics of E. faecium EFEL8600, a bacteriocin-producing strain isolated from Korean soy-meju. Phenotypic analysis revealed that EFEL8600 produced a peptide with inhibitory activity against Listeria monocytogenes, estimated to be 4.6 kDa, corresponding to the size of enterocins P or Q. Furthermore, EFEL8600 exhibited probiotic traits, such as resilience in gastrointestinal conditions, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, and protection of the intestinal barrier. Safety assessments demonstrated no hemolytic and bile salt deconjugation activities. Genomic analysis revealed the presence of several genes associated with probiotic characteristics and bacteriocin production, while few deleterious genes with a low likelihood of expression or transferring were detected. Overall, this study highlights E. faecium EFEL8600 as a potent anti-listeria probiotic strain suitable for use as a starter culture in soymilk fermentation, providing potential health benefits to consumers.
Obesity reduces hippocampal structure and function in older African Americans with the APOE-ε4 Alzheimer’s disease risk allele
Authors: Osiecka Zuzanna , Fausto Bernadette A. , Gills Joshua L. , Sinha Neha , Malin Steven K. , Gluck Mark A.
Published: September 2023

Introduction

Excess body weight and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) disproportionately affect older African Americans. While mid-life obesity increases risk for AD, few data exist on the relationship between late-life obesity and AD, or how obesity-based and genetic risk for AD interact. Although the APOE-ε4 allele confers a strong genetic risk for AD, it is unclear if late-life obesity poses a greater risk for APOE-ε4 carriers compared to non-carriers. Here we assessed: (1) the influence of body mass index (BMI) (normal; overweight; class 1 obese; ≥ class 2 obese) on cognitive and structural MRI measures of AD risk; and (2) the interaction between BMI and APOE-ε4 in older African Americans.

Methods

Seventy cognitively normal older African American participants (Mage = 69.50 years; MBMI = 31.01 kg/m2; 39% APOE-ε4 allele carriers; 86% female) completed anthropometric measurements, physical assessments, saliva collection for APOE-ε4 genotyping, cognitive testing, health and lifestyle questionnaires, and structural neuroimaging [volume/surface area (SA) for medial temporal lobe subregions and hippocampal subfields]. Covariates included age, sex, education, literacy, depressive symptomology, and estimated aerobic fitness.

Results

Using ANCOVAs, we observed that individuals who were overweight demonstrated better hippocampal cognitive function (generalization of learning: a sensitive marker of preclinical AD) than individuals with normal BMI, p = 0.016, ηp2 = 0.18. However, individuals in the obese categories who were APOE-ε4 non-carriers had larger hippocampal subfield cornu Ammonis region 1 (CA1) volumes, while those who were APOE-ε4 carriers had smaller CA1 volumes, p = 0.003, ηp2 = 0.23.

Discussion

Thus, being overweight by BMI standards may preserve hippocampal function, but obesity reduces hippocampal structure and function in older African Americans with the APOE-ε4 Alzheimer’s disease risk allele.
A mild stressor induces short-term anxiety and long-term phenotypic changes in trauma-related behavior in female rats
Authors: Shanazz Khadijah , Nalloor Rebecca , Vazdarjanova Almira
Published: September 2023

Introduction

Anxiety and anxiety-influenced disorders are sexually dimorphic with women being disproportionately affected compared to men. Given the increased prevalence in women and the documented differences in anxiety and trauma behavior between male and female rats this paper sought to examine the link between stress, anxiety, and fear learning and extinction in female rats. We tested the hypothesis that a mild stressor will induce short-and long-term increases in anxiety and produce long term effects on subsequent fear learning and extinction behavior.

Methods

We induced anxiety in female Sprague– Dawley rats with a short (3 min) exposure to a ball of cat hair infused with 150 μl of cat urine (mild stressor) that elicits innate fear but does not cause fear conditioning. The control group was exposed to fake cat hair. Anxiety was assessed in the Light-Dark Open Field (LDOF) or Elevated Plus Maze (EPM) before, immediately after and 4 days after stimulus exposure. Two weeks later, all animals were subject to Contextual Fear Conditioning (CFC) in the Shock Arm of a Y-maze, blocked off from the rest of the maze. Memory and fear extinction (learning of safety) was assessed in the following four days by placing each rat in one of the Safe Arms and measuring avoidance extinction (time spent and number of entries in the Shock Arm).

Results

Cat hair exposure induced changes in anxiety-like behavior in the short-term that appeared resolved 4 days later. However, the cat-hair exposed rats had long-term (2 weeks) phenotypic changes expressed as altered exploratory behavior in an emotionally neutral novel place. Fear learning and extinction were not impaired. Yet, using avoidance extinction, we demonstrated that the phenotypic difference induced by the mild stressor could be documented and dissociated from learning and memory.

Discussion

These findings demonstrate that the history of stress, even mild stress, has subtle long-term effects on behavior even when short-term anxiety appears resolved.
Fallopian canal arachnoid cyst with acute facial nerve paralysis in children: a report of two cases and literature review
Authors: Sun Jianbin , Han Weiju
Published: September 2023

Introduction

Symptoms induced by arachnoid cysts in the fallopian canal are uncommon, and facial nerve paralysis without cerebrospinal fluid otorrhea is comparatively rarer.

Methods

Herein, we present two cases of arachnoid cysts in the fallopian canal with acute severe facial nerve paralysis and review the relevant literature.

Results

The symptoms and imaging findings of these two cases resembled those of facial nerve schwannomas. Cerebrospinal fluid otorrhea occurred upon removal of the arachnoid cyst, and the facial nerve was observed to be separated into multiple filaments or compressed and atrophied. Facial-hypoglossal nerve anastomosis and decompression were conducted after packing the dehiscence of cerebrospinal fluid otorrhea for the two cases.

Conclusion

Arachnoid cysts of the fallopian canal rarely cause facial nerve paralysis. Enhanced magnetic resonance imaging is vital for differentiating schwannomas. Different treatment strategies should be adopted for patients with different degrees of facial nerve paralysis; however, concurrent repair of cerebrospinal fluid otorrhea and facial nerves during surgery can occasionally be challenging.
The role of microRNAs in neurobiology and pathophysiology of the hippocampus
Authors: Rashidi Seyed Khalil , Kalirad Ata , Rafie Shahram , Behzad Ebrahim , Dezfouli Mitra Ansari
Published: September 2023

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding and well-conserved RNAs that are linked to many aspects of development and disorders. MicroRNAs control the expression of genes related to different biological processes and play a prominent role in the harmonious expression of many genes. During neural development of the central nervous system, miRNAs are regulated in time and space. In the mature brain, the dynamic expression of miRNAs continues, highlighting their functional importance in neurons. The hippocampus, as one of the crucial brain structures, is a key component of major functional connections in brain. Gene expression abnormalities in the hippocampus lead to disturbance in neurogenesis, neural maturation and synaptic formation. These disturbances are at the root of several neurological disorders and behavioral deficits, including Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy and schizophrenia. There is strong evidence that abnormalities in miRNAs are contributed in neurodegenerative mechanisms in the hippocampus through imbalanced activity of ion channels, neuronal excitability, synaptic plasticity and neuronal apoptosis. Some miRNAs affect oxidative stress, inflammation, neural differentiation, migration and neurogenesis in the hippocampus. Furthermore, major signaling cascades in neurodegeneration, such as NF-Kβ signaling, PI3/Akt signaling and Notch pathway, are closely modulated by miRNAs. These observations, suggest that microRNAs are significant regulators in the complicated network of gene regulation in the hippocampus. In the current review, we focus on the miRNA functional role in the progression of normal development and neurogenesis of the hippocampus. We also consider how miRNAs in the hippocampus are crucial for gene expression mechanisms in pathophysiological pathways.
The impact of anchor characteristics on consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for food—an empirical study
Authors: Maojie Zhou
Published: September 2023

In the food industry space, Netflix foods have exploded onto the Internet on the back of social media and many consumers are paying a premium for them. So what are the motives that may inspire consumers’ willingness to pay premium? In this paper, from the perspective of anchor, an external cue, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 275 respondents and analyzed using SPSS software. The results show that anchor characteristics (interactivity, professionalism and popularity) can influence consumers’ perceived value and increase their premium purchase intention. Perceived value mediates the relationship between anchor characteristics and willingness to pay a premium. Limited-time limited-quantity positively moderated the relationship between perceived value and premium purchase intention. The results reveal the key role of anchors in consumers’ decision-making process of buying Netflix food at a premium, and provide a theoretical basis for enterprises to select and cultivate anchors for product promotion.
A lightweight network based on dual-stream feature fusion and dual-domain attention for white blood cells segmentation
Authors: Luo Yang , Wang Yingwei , Zhao Yongda , Guan Wei , Shi Hanfeng , Fu Chong , Jiang Hongyang
Published: September 2023

Introduction

Accurate white blood cells segmentation from cytopathological images is crucial for evaluating leukemia. However, segmentation is difficult in clinical practice. Given the very large numbers of cytopathological images to be processed, diagnosis becomes cumbersome and time consuming, and diagnostic accuracy is also closely related to experts' experience, fatigue and mood and so on. Besides, fully automatic white blood cells segmentation is challenging for several reasons. There exists cell deformation, blurred cell boundaries, and cell color differences, cells overlapping or adhesion.

Methods

The proposed method improves the feature representation capability of the network while reducing parameters and computational redundancy by utilizing the feature reuse of Ghost module to reconstruct a lightweight backbone network. Additionally, a dual-stream feature fusion network (DFFN) based on the feature pyramid network is designed to enhance detailed information acquisition. Furthermore, a dual-domain attention module (DDAM) is developed to extract global features from both frequency and spatial domains simultaneously, resulting in better cell segmentation performance.

Results

Experimental results on ALL-IDB and BCCD datasets demonstrate that our method outperforms existing instance segmentation networks such as Mask R-CNN, PointRend, MS R-CNN, SOLOv2, and YOLACT with an average precision (AP) of 87.41%, while significantly reducing parameters and computational cost.

Discussion

Our method is significantly better than the current state-of-the-art single-stage methods in terms of both the number of parameters and FLOPs, and our method has the best performance among all compared methods. However, the performance of our method is still lower than the two-stage instance segmentation algorithms. in future work, how to design a more lightweight network model while ensuring a good accuracy will become an important problem.
Lifestyle habits and gastric cancer in an East Asian population: a Mendelian randomization study
Authors: Tan Yuegui , Wei Zhao , Liu Kun , Qin Yuzhen , Hui Wenqi
Published: September 2023

Background

Epidemiological evidence suggests an association between lifestyle habits (smoking, alcohol consumption, tea, coffee intake, etc.) and gastric cancer (GC). However, the causal relationship remains uncertain. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to ascertain whether there is a causal connection between them.

Methods

Two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed using the publicly available Genome Wide Association Study summary datasets using six methods: inverse variance weighting (IVW), weighted median, MR using a Robust Adjusted Profile Score (MR.Raps), MR using a Robust Adjusted Profile Score (MR-PRESSO), Radial regression of MR, and Causal Analysis Using Summary Effect Estimates (CAUSE). A sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the robustness of the results.

Results

In an East Asian population, we found that increased tea intake reduced the risk of GC [odds ratio (OR)= 0.90, 95% confidence interval (CI)= 0.82-0.99, P = 0.037] while there was a positive association between smoking and GC (OR = 1.58, 95% CI = 1.04-2.39, P = 0.032). No causal relationship between alcohol and coffee intake and GC. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated the robustness of these causal associations.

Conclusions

Our study suggests that tea intake may reduce the risk of GC, for which smoking is a potential risk factor. Nevertheless, a larger and more diverse sample size is needed for further validation.
Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumour with CDK6 amplification in a child: a case report and literature review
Authors: Li Zhibin , Wang Yubo , Liu Yuanhao , Jiang Yining , Han Xuefei , Zhao Liyan , Li Yunqian
Published: September 2023

Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumours (AT/RTs) are rare central nervous system neoplasms that frequently occur in infants and children and have a very poor prognosis. In recent years, molecular analysis of AT/RTs has shown that biallelic inactivation of SMARCB1 (INI1, SNF5, BAF47) or SMARCA4 (BRG1) frequently occurs. Here, we present a case of basal ganglia AT/RT with SMARCB1 gene deficiency and CDK6 gene amplification in a 5-year-old child. A 5-year-old boy was hospitalized due to a 1-week history of frontal and parietal headache. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated a 3 cm × 2 cm × 1.5 cm heterogeneous enhanced mass located at the right basal ganglia that partially protruded into the right lateral ventricle. The lesion was successfully resected under electrophysiological monitoring and neuronavigation. The postoperative pathological examination implied an AT/RT diagnosis, with loss of SMARCB1 protein, SMARCB1 gene deficiency and CDK6 gene amplification. Unfortunately, the patient died due to respiratory and circulatory failure at 5 weeks after the operation. To date, standard regimens have not yet been established due to the lack of large-scale prospective studies for AT/RT. The p16-RB signalling pathway should be considered as a potential target for AT/RT treatment modalities. Apart from traditional regimens, targeted therapies, especially CDK4/6 inhibitors, are likely a promising therapeutic option for AT/RT treatment.
DilatedFormer: dilated granularity transformer network for placental maturity grading in ultrasound
Authors: Wu Yunzhu , Yang Yijun , Zhu Lei , Han Zhenyan , Luo Hong , Xue Xue , Wang Weiming
Published: September 2023

Placental maturity grading (PMG) is often utilized for evaluating fetal growth and maternal health. Currently, PMG often relied on the subjective judgment of the clinician, which is time-consuming and tends to incur a wrong estimation due to redundancy and repeatability of the process. The existing methods often focus on designing diverse hand-crafted features or combining deep features and hand-crafted features to learn a hybrid feature with an SVM for grading the placental maturity of ultrasound images. Motivated by the dominated performance of end-to-end convolutional neural networks (CNNs) at diverse medical imaging tasks, we devise a dilated granularity transformer network for learning multi-scale global transformer features for boosting PMG. Our network first devises dilated transformer blocks to learn multi-scale transformer features at each convolutional layer and then integrates these obtained multi-scale transformer features for predicting the final result of PMG. We collect 500 ultrasound images to verify our network, and experimental results show that our network clearly outperforms state-of-the-art methods on PMG. In the future, we will strive to improve the computational complexity and generalization ability of deep neural networks for PMG.
Soluble guanylate cyclase mediates the relaxation of healthy and inflamed bladder smooth muscle by aqueous nitric oxide
Authors: Aronsson Patrik , Stenqvist Johanna , Ferizovic Ena , Danielsson Emelie , Jensen Anna , Simonsen Ulf , Winder Michael
Published: September 2023

Introduction: Due to its chemical properties, functional responses to nitric oxide (NO) are often difficult to examine. In the present study, we established a method to produce NO in an aqueous solution and validated its capacity to evoke functional responses in isolated rat bladders. Furthermore, we compared the NO responses to the commonly used NO donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP). We also investigated the impact of ongoing inflammation on the involvement of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) dependent signaling in NO relaxation.

Methods: A setup to produce an aqueous NO solution was established, allowing the production of an aqueous solution containing a calculated NO concentration of 2 mM. Sixty male Sprague-Dawley rats received either no treatment (controls) or cyclophosphamide (CYP; 100 mg*kg−1 i.p., 60 h prior to the experiment) to induce experimental cystitis. Bladder strip preparations were mounted in organ baths and studied at basal tension or pre-contracted with methacholine (3 μM). Aqueous NO solution (40–400 μL; 2 mM corresponding to 4–40 μM) or SNP (1–1,000 μM) was added cumulatively in increasing concentrations. Relaxation to aqueous NO was also studied in the presence of the sGC inhibitor ODQ (0.25–25 μM). The expression of sGC was investigated by immunohistochemical analysis.

Results: The NO solution caused functional relaxations in both controls and inflamed bladder preparations. NO-induced relaxations were significantly greater in inflamed bladder strips at basal tension, whereas no differences were seen in methacholine pre-contracted strips. In the presence of the sGC inhibitor ODQ in a high concentration, the NO-evoked relaxations were abolished in both control and inflamed preparations. At a lower concentration of ODQ, only NO relaxations in inflamed preparations were attenuated. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that sGC was expressed in the detrusor and mucosa, with a significantly lower expression in the inflamed detrusor.

Conclusion: In the present study, we found that aqueous NO solution induces relaxation of the rat detrusor by activating soluble guanylate cyclase in both control and inflamed bladder strips. Induction of inflammation conceivably leads to decreased sGC expression in the detrusor, which may explain the different susceptibility towards inhibition of sGC in inflamed versus control tissue. The use of an aqueous NO solution should be further considered as a valuable complement to the pharmacological tools currently used.
Current status of post-traumatic stress disorder among emergency nurses and the influencing factors
Authors: Qian Yu-Fei , Liu Ying , Wang Li , Li Qing , Sun Rong-Qian
Published: September 2023

Objective

To gain a better understanding of the current state of traumatic stress experienced by emergency nurses of Grade III Level A hospitals in Jiangsu Province, as well as their coping styles after experiencing such traumatic events. Additionally, this study aims to identify the primary factors that influence the responses of these nurses to traumatic events.

Methods

Using a cluster random sampling method, we enrolled 265 nurses working in the emergency departments of five Grade III Level A hospitals in Jiangsu Province. These nurses participated in a questionnaire survey that included inquiries regarding general information, previous traumatic experiences, and a post-traumatic stress disorder self-assessment scale (PCL-C) for emergency department nurses.

Results

A total of 290 questionnaires were distributed, resulting in 265 valid questionnaires and an effective rate of 91.38%. These findings indicated that emergency nurses who participated in public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic (45.66%) and sudden health deterioration and death of patients (43.77%) encountered the most traumatic events. The top two traumatic events that had a moderate or greater impact on emergency nurses were verbal abuse from patients or their family members (39.24%) and verbal or physical threats by patients or their family members (35.09%). The mean PCL-C score of nurses who experienced traumatic events was 33.62 ± 11.37, with a positive rate of 26.04%. Results from the one-way analysis of variance and multiple linear regression analysis demonstrated that the working years, monthly income, and personal health status of emergency nurses were the main factors contributing to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Conclusion

Emergency nurses are susceptible to severe traumatic stress following traumatic events, and effective interventions are necessary to address the diverse factors that contribute to their psychological well-being.
The future starts in the past: embedding learning for sustainability through culture and community in Scotland
Authors: White Rehema M. , Kockel Ullrich , King Betsy , Leask Kirsten , Higgins Peter , Samuel Andrew
Published: September 2023

Introduction

If sustainability is about imagining and pursuing desired futures, our past history, heritage, and culture will influence the kind of futures we seek and our chosen routes towards them. In Scotland, there is a strong connection between culture, land, and identity; a sense of community; and a perception of work ethic that derive from our biogeography and socio-political journey. Concepts and practises of education have been influenced by the ideas of key thinkers such as the Scot Sir Patrick Geddes, who introduced approaches to education and community through concepts such as “heart, hand, and head”, “think global, act local,” and “place, work, and folk”. This background influenced us in establishing Scotland's United Nations University-recognised Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), known locally as “Learning for Sustainability Scotland”. Its initial development ten years ago and subsequent evolution have been built on engaging collaboratively across Scotland and linking formal, non-formal, and informal modes of learning for sustainability. In this paper, we explore how culture and context have influenced the emergence, governance, and activities of RCE Scotland over the past decade.

Methods

We developed an analytical framework of possible cultural and contextual influences on Scottish education. We used a Delphi approach to develop a novel and locally relevant definition of ESD when the RCE was established.

Results

Analysis of purposively selected RCE Scotland activities against our cultural framework illustrated how they had been influenced by culture or context. We propose that democratic intellect, local and global, and nature-culture connections have informed our initiative.

Discussion

We conclude that connection to people, place, and nature influences engagement and action on sustainability, and we suggest that additional sustainability competencies should include physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of nature connection.
Ultrasound assessment of gastric content in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy after preoperative oral carbohydrates: a prospective, randomized controlled, double-blind study
Authors: Ge Yali , Shen Dejuan , Ding Yinyin , Wu Keting , Zhang Yang
Published: September 2023

Background

To evaluate the gastric volume and nature after drinking preoperative oral carbohydrates in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy via ultrasonography.

Methods

One hundred patients who had been scheduled for elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy were enrolled and randomized into the traditional fasting group (Control group, n = 50) and the carbohydrate group (CHO group, n = 50). Patients in the Control group fasted solids and drink from midnight, the day before surgery. Patients in the CHO group drank 800 ml and 400 ml of oral carbohydrates 11 and 3 h before surgery, respectively. At 2 h after oral carbohydrates (T1), all patients underwent an ultrasound examination of residual gastric contents; if the patients had a full stomach, the assessment was performed again 1 h later (T2). A stomach containing solid contents or >1.5 ml/kg of liquid was considered “full”. The primary outcome was full stomach incidences at the above time points. The secondary outcomes included gastric antral CSA in the right lateral decubitus (RLD) and semi-sitting positions, as well as gastric volume (GV), GV per weight (GV/kg), and Perla's grade at T1.

Results

Compared with the Control group, the incidence of entire stomach was significantly high in the CHO group 2 h after oral carbohydrates. At the T1 time point, 6 patients (13.3%) in the Control group and 14 patients (30.4%) in the CHO group presented with a full stomach [95% confidence interval (CI), (0.96–5.41), P = 0.049]. At T2, 3 patients (6.7%) in the Control group and 4 patients (8.7%) in the CHO group had a full stomach, with no marked differences between the two groups [95% CI, (0.31–5.50), P = 0.716]. Compared with the Control group, CSA in the semi-sitting and RLD positions, GV and GV/W were significantly high in the CHO group at T1 (P < 0.05). The median (interquartile range) of the Perlas grade was 1 (0–1) in the Control group and 1(1–1.25) in the CHO group (P = 0.004).

Conclusion

Cholecystectomy patients experience a 2 h delay in gastric emptying after receiving preoperative carbohydrates. In LC patients, the fasting window for oral carbohydrates before surgery should be adequately prolonged.

Clinical Trail registration

Chinese Clinical Trail Registry, No: ChiCTR2200055245.
Quantification of domestic cat hepadnavirus DNA in various body fluid specimens of cats: the potential viral shedding routes
Authors: Wardhani Sabrina Wahyu , Tummaruk Padet , Piewbang Chutchai , Techangamsuwan Somporn
Published: September 2023

Domestic cat hepadnavirus (DCH) belongs to the Hepadnaviridae family together with human hepatitis B virus (HBV) that remains to be a major health problem worldwide. The transmission of HBV infectious virion has been one of the essential factors that contribute to high number of HBV infection in humans. It has been long known that various body fluid specimens of human with chronic HBV infection contain HBV DNA and demonstrated to be infectious. In contrast to this knowledge, the detection of DCH in various body fluid specimens of cats, has not been reported. This study explored the detection of DCH DNA in various body fluid specimens of cats by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and investigated whether the detection of DCH DNA from broader routes was correlated with any genomic diversity by phylogenetic analysis. A total of 1,209 body fluid specimens were included, and DCH DNA was detected not only in 4.70% (25/532) of blood samples; but also in 12.5% (1/8), 1.14% (1/88), 2.54% (10/394), and 1.65% (3/182) of auricular swab (AS), nasal swab (NS), oral swab (OS), and rectal swab (RS) specimens, respectively. Furthermore, the level of DCH DNA detected in the blood was significantly correlated with DCH DNA detection in OS (P = 0.02) and RS (P = 0.04) specimens. Genomic analysis revealed that there was no notable genomic diversity within the complete genome sequences obtained in this study. In conclusion, this study highlighted the presence of DCH DNA in various body fluid specimens of cats, and the potential role of these specimens in DCH horizontal transmission within the cat population warrants further studies.
All Expanded Criteria Donor Kidneys are Equal But are Some More Equal Than Others? A Population-Cohort Analysis of UK Transplant Registry Data
Authors: Patel Kamlesh , Brotherton Anna , Chaudhry Daoud , Evison Felicity , Nieto Thomas , Dabare Dilan , Sharif Adnan
Published: September 2023

Survival outcomes for kidney transplant candidates based on expanded criteria donor (ECD) kidney type is unknown. A retrospective cohort study was undertaken of prospectively collected registry data of all waitlisted kidney failure patients receiving dialysis in the United Kingdom. All patients listed for their first kidney-alone transplant between 2000–2019 were included. Treatment types included; living donor; standard criteria donor (SCD); ECD60 (deceased donor aged ≥60 years); ECD50–59 (deceased donor aged 50–59 years with two from the following three; hypertension; raised creatinine and/or death from stroke) or remains on dialysis. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality, with time-to-death from listing analyzed using time-dependent non-proportional Cox regression models. The study cohort comprised 47,917 waitlisted kidney failure patients, of whom 34,558 (72.1%) received kidney transplantation. ECD kidneys (n = 7,356) were stratified as ECD60 (n = 7,009) or ECD50–59 (n = 347). Compared to SCD, both ECD60 (Hazard Ratio 1.126, 95% CI 1.093–1.161) and ECD50–59 (Hazard Ratio 1.228, 95% CI 1.113–1.356) kidney recipients have higher all-cause mortality. However, compared to dialysis, both ECD60 (Hazard Ratio 0.194, 95% CI 0.187–0.201) and ECD50–59 (Hazard Ratio 0.218, 95% CI 0.197–0.241) kidney recipients have lower all-cause mortality. ECD kidneys, regardless of definition, provide equivalent and superior survival benefits in comparison to remaining waitlisted.
Pragmatyczne uwarunkowania zmian w komunikacji reklamowej
na podstawie wybranych przykładów
Authors: Ryłko-Kurpiewska Anna
Published: September 2023

This article presents an array of changes undergone by advertising communication over years under the influence of the knowledge of the structure of persuasive messages, attentional mechanisms, and learning theory. What turned out to be characteristic was that the devices applied in messages point to the constituƟ on of a certain grammar of persuasion subordinated to impression-based rules of reception, which is related to the use of signs that are perceptible for the recipient and oriented towards the intended reconstruction of a message. The conclusions presented in the text arise from the comparative analysis of 278 TV commercials broadcast in Public Television in 2007 and 2022. The collected material is presented against analyses of selected press advertisements of the 1930s. The sampling was purposeful and resulted from
an attempt to analyse the phenomenon and its specific nature. The research method was an analysis of the persuasive potential of a message for the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of its impact on the recipient. The research tools employed were open networking systems and IT tools enabling textual data analysis.
Keywords: advertising – communication – persuasive potential – recipient engagement
– advertising memory
Zmiany w polskim modelu grzeczności na przykładzie językowych
sposobów zwracania się firm do klientów w mediach społecznościowych
Authors: Dąbkowska Anna
Published: September 2023

This article discusses the changes occurring in the traditional model of Polish politeness. The changes were discussed based on three issues concerned with linguistic politeness of enterprises having their business profiles in social media: politeness relationships with their customers, spelling of forms of address, their formal language forms. The descriptive approach was applied to that end. It boils down to indicating changes in linguistic politeness behaviours observed in the analysed media compared to traditional patterns. The material basis comprises 1,290 posts published in the period 2014–2022 on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The reasonability of such research is attested to by the noticeably growing impact exerted by social media on Polish language users, which will result in a transformation of the Polish politeness model.
Keywords: Polish politeness model – linguistic politeness – language in social media – forms of address.
Auto-biographies of Ukrainian war refugees. From forced migration to anchoring
Authors: Isański Jakub , Nowak Marek
Published: September 2023

This article aims to present the Ukrainian war refugees’ experience. Twenty-one interviews focused on autobiographical memoirs of Ukrainian war refugees were collected during the field research project in Poland and Germany in the summer and autumn of 2022. The text aimed to point out the peculiarities of Ukrainian refugeeism in the context of its specificity related to the evolution of the phenomenon of migration and forced migration over recent years in Central Europe. The content was analyzed for the fleeing and adaptive context of personal experience. It considers social ties, including family ties, which appeared in the interviewees’ statements. The studied material insights into the course of the war in Ukraine in 2022 from the perspective of civilians. It shows numerous and diverse examples of survival and adaptation activities under armed attacks, during the evacuation, border crossing, and anchoring in the places of their new residence. Due to the dominance of women in the sample, these examples can contribute to the analysis of the specificity of female migration, which differs from the previous profiles of economic migration in the region.
Uwarunkowania polityki migracyjnej państwa polskiego po 1989 roku w ujęciu badawczym
Authors: Browarek Tomasz
Published: September 2023

The aim of this paper is to indicate the most important factors and circumstances (conditions) influencing the shape of the Polish state migration policy in the analyzed period, as well as to show their interdependence, evolution and the gradation of their impacts on this policy. The main thesis of the work is the statement that the migration situation of Poland, especially recently, is characterized by the high variability, and thus the importance of these conditions has been changing, and they have interacted with each other and evolved.
Społeczna percepcja migrantów z „Białorusi” z perspektywy wójtów i sołtysów z obszaru pasa przygranicznego objętego stanem wyjątkowym (studium przypadku)
Authors: Godlewski Tomasz
Published: September 2023

The crisis on the border between Belarus and three EU countries, i.e. Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, which has been ongoing since the spring of 2021, was an unprecedented attempt in Europe to destabilize the situation inside the Community. Poland faced a challenge it had not faced before. The challenge was faced not only by state authorities and services dedicated to the protection of the Union’s external border, but above all by the residents of the border areas. The influx of illegal migrants inspired by the Belarusian authorities and, as a result, the introduction of the state of emergency affected their lives to the greatest extent, disrupting its rhythm, while the migrants appearing in the farms introduced a hitherto unknown fear of strangers. In this context, the issue of perception and evaluation of the migration crisis and the actions taken by the government from the point of view of local authorities: mayors and village heads of border areas bordering Belarus seems to be extremely interesting cognitively. An empirical survey carried out on a purposive, exhaustive sample of village heads and mayors of municipalities in the border area was devoted to this problem. It should be noted here that the project had the character of a case study. It was diagnostic (exploratory) in nature at this stage and needs to be deepened in the course of further research. The results obtained allow to positively confirm the formulated research hypotheses. The problem of illegal migrants was perceived by the respondents as an issue requiring decisive and immediate action by state institutions. Cooperation with Mateusz Morawiecki’s government and its field bodies was positively assessed. The mayors mostly approved of the emergency measures treating them as necessary to resolve the crisis.
Sytuacja prawna na granicy polsko-białoruskiej po wybuchu wojny rosyjsko-ukraińskiej – wyzwanie dla procedur udzielania ochrony międzynarodowej
Authors: Sadowski Piotr
Published: September 2023

The article examines if Poland can, in accordance with international law, effectively combat pressure on the border with a country de facto supporting an aggressor. Analysis of, among others, the Geneva Refugee Convention, EU law, the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and jurisprudence validate previous findings that right to life and prohibition of torture are non-derogable, permitting to protect borders and fight with terrorism. National procedures are challenged by a need to individualize decisions refusing entry and denying protection. Still, this does not justify violating human rights.
Instytucjonalny i społeczny wymiar działania centralnych punktów recepcyjnych na granicy polsko-ukraińskiej
Authors: Rakusa-Suszczewski Mikołaj
Published: September 2023

The military operations conducted by Russia since February 2022 are deepening the material and humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine every day. As a result, they also caused a wave of refugees to neighboring countries, including Poland. Most of the refugees, right after crossing the border, ended up in the so-called central reception points. Their organization and operation were unprecedented. From both an administrative and social point of view, we are dealing with a completely new phenomenon. Reception points are hybrid institutions created as a result of administrative decisions, but their functioning in Poland would be difficult to imagine without the social involvement of citizens, i.e. without countless support initiatives that created a powerful social movement. The article presented here is a summary of a field study conducted in April 2022. Its subject was the functioning of reception points in their institutional and civic dimension; their specific and nodal nature, which attracted the social movement to help refugees; the dynamics of attitudes and motivations of the parties involved in their functioning, as well as the cooperation of various social actors in this area.
Heterogeneous Ensemble for Medical Data Classification
Authors: Nanni Loris , Brahnam Sheryl , Loreggia Andrea , Barcellona Leonardo
Published: September 2023

For robust classification, selecting a proper classifier is of primary importance. However, selecting the best classifiers depends on the problem, as some classifiers work better at some tasks than on others. Despite the many results collected in the literature, the support vector machine (SVM) remains the leading adopted solution in many domains, thanks to its ease of use. In this paper, we propose a new method based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) as an alternative to SVM. CNNs are specialized in processing data in a grid-like topology that usually represents images. To enable CNNs to work on different data types, we investigate reshaping one-dimensional vector representations into two-dimensional matrices and compared different approaches for feeding standard CNNs using two-dimensional feature vector representations. We evaluate the different techniques proposing a heterogeneous ensemble based on three classifiers: an SVM, a model based on random subspace of rotation boosting (RB), and a CNN. The robustness of our approach is tested across a set of benchmark datasets that represent a wide range of medical classification tasks. The proposed ensembles provide promising performance on all datasets.