Lived experiences of UAAP Season 84 and NCAA Season 97 student-athletes in their bubble set-up training during the COVID-19 pandemic: A research protocol

Background@#The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected the sports industry, postponing events worldwide. To adapt to the situation, athletes have been forced to train at home. Bubble training was introduced to provide a safe and conducive training environment while adhering to government health protocols. However, concerns have emerged regarding the set-up’s implementation.@*Objective@#The study aims to explore the lived experiences of UAAP Season 84 and NCAA Season 97 student-athletes who underwent bubble training.@*Methods@#The study will employ a qualitative phenomenological approach based on Seligman's Well-Being Theory. A purposive sampling technique will be used to recruit at least seven eligible student-athletes. Data will be collected through on-site or online interviews using a semi-structured interview guide to reveal a narrative of the student-athletes' bubble training experiences, common themes, and patterns. Deductive thematic analysis approach will be used with the help of the NVivo software program.@*Expected Results@#This study is expected to develop themes from the daily bubble training routines, habits, coping strategies, and perceived thoughts and feelings of Filipino collegiate student-athletes, regarding their emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement in bubble training. This may provide insights to the government, educational institutions, and athletic associations on possible comprehensive guidelines if they plan to implement bubble training when the need arises.

Anthropometry of deep-set eyes with respect to difficulty in docking during femtosecond laser procedures

Purpose: To identify the facial anthropometric parameters that predict the difficulty during femtosecond (FS) laser. Methods: This was a single?center observational study was conducted on participants between the ages 18 and 30 years who were planned for FS?LASIK (femtosecond laser?assisted laser in situ keratomileusis) or SMILE (small incision lenticule extraction) at Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, AIIMS, New Delhi, India. The front and side?facing images of the participants were analyzed using Image J software to measure different anthropometric parameters. The nasal bridge index, facial convexity, and other parameters were measured. The difficulty faced by the surgeon during docking was recorded for each subject. The data were analyzed on Stata 14. Results: A total of 97 subjects were included. The mean age was 24 (±7) years. Twenty?three (23.71%) subjects were females while the rest were males. Difficulty in docking was seen in 1 (4.34%) female and 14 (19%) males. The mean nasal bridge index was 92.58 (±4.01) in subjects with deep?set eyes and 89.72 (±4.30) in normal subjects. The mean total facial convexity was 129.28 (±4.24) in deep?set eyes, and 140.23 (±4.74) in normal subjects. Conclusion: Total facial convexity appeared as the most important feature, with the value being less than 133° in most subjects with unfavorable facial anthropometry

Expression and prognostic significance of cell division cycle associated protein 5 in pancreatic cancer tissues / 肿瘤研究与临床

Objective:To analyze the expression of cell division cycle associated protein 5 (CDCA5) in pancreatic cancer tissues and its correlation with prognosis based on the bioinformatics.Methods:The RNA sequencing data (HTSeq-FPKM) and corresponding clinical information of 168 pancreatic cancer samples from January to December 2021 were downloaded from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, and the data of 179 pancreatic patients from January to December 2021 were downloaded from the GEPIA2 database, and 171 normal pancreatic tissues from TCGA and GTEx databases were simultaneously integrated. The relative expression level of CDCA5 mRNA in pancreatic cancer patients in GEPIA2 database and its relationship with overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were explored. Combined with the clinical data of the patients, univariate and multivariate Cox regression model analysis was used to analyze the factors influencing the OS of pancreatic cancer patients. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed to investigate the possibly involved signal pathways of CDCA5 in pancreatic cancer.Results:In the GEPIA2 database, the relative expression level of CDCA5 mRNA in pancreatic cancer tissues was higher than that in normal pancreatic tissues, and the difference was statistically significant ( P < 0.05). The pancreatic cancer patients were divided into the high CDCA5 mRNA expression group (89 cases) and the low CDCA5 mRNA expression group (89 cases) according to the median of relative expression level of CDCA5 mRNA (the case equal to the median value was not subgrouped). Survival analysis showed that patients with high CDCA5 mRNA expression had shorter OS ( P = 0.024) and DFS ( P = 0.025) compared with those with low CDCA5 mRNA expression. Multivariate Cox analysis showed that in TCGA database, N staging ( HR = 2.15, 95% CI 1.24-3.72, P = 0.006) and CDCA5 expression ( HR = 1.71, 95% CI 1.23-2.38, P = 0.001) were independent influencing factors of OS for pancreatic cancer patients. The results of GSEA enrichment analysis indicated that high CDCA5 mRNA expression was enriched in 13 biological pathways [all P < 0.05, false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.005] including cell cycle, DNA replication, homologous recombination, pyrimidine metabolism, mismatch repair, pentose phosphate pathway, glycolysis gluconeogenesis and p53. The expression of CDCA5 mRNA was positively correlated with the expressions of HK2, PKM, PGK1, ALDOA, EN01 and LDHA (all P < 0.05). Conclusions:CDCA5 is highly expressed in pancreatic cancer tissues and is associated with poor prognosis of patients, and it can be used as a prognostic marker for pancreatic cancer.

The reliability and validity of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health′s Rehabilitation Set for multidisciplinary inpatients / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

Objective:To explore the reliability and validity of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health′s 17-item Rehabilitation Set (ICF-RS-17) when used to evaluate multidisciplinary inpatients.Methods:A total of 359 inpatients in the departments of rehabilitation, orthopedics, neurology, and neurosurgery of three hospitals in Jiangsu province were assessed with the ICF-RS-17 at admission and at discharge, and the internal consistency of the tool was calculated. Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability were quantified using interclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Structural validity was analyzed using factor analysis.Results:The tool′s Cronbach′s α was 0.945. The overall inter-rater ICC was 0.946 with the ICCs of all of the items except b280 sensation of pain within the range from 0.630 to 0.948. The overall intra-rater ICCs ranged from 0.471 to 0.947. The factor analysis found three factors with eigenvalues greater than 1, accounting for 74% of the variation, without double-loaded items. The three influential factors were exercise ability, sleep perception communication ability and self-care ability.Conclusion:The ICF-RS-17 has good internal consistency, inter-rater and intra-rater reliability and structural validity in the evaluation of multidisciplinary inpatients.

Expression of histone methyltransferase SETD1A and SETD5 in breast cancer and its correlation with clinicopathological characteristics of patients / 中华内分泌外科杂志

Objective:To analyze the expression of histone methyltransferase SETD1A and SETD5 in breast cancer and its correlation with the clinicopathological characteristics of patients.Methods:A total of 80 breast cancer patients were included in the study. GSCA website screened SET domain family members, predicted their expression in breast cancer tissues, and verified them with immunohistochemical SP method. Chi-square test and Logistic regression model were used to analyze the correlation between SETD1A, SETD5 and clinicopathological characteristics of patients.Results:The GSCA website showed that the expressions of SETD1A and SETD5 of the SET domain family were up-regulated in breast cancer tissues compared with normal tissues (all P<0.05). Immunohistochemical SP method showed that the positive expression rates of SETD1A and SETD5 in breast cancer tissues were 73.8% and 68.8% respectively, which were significantly higher than the positive expression rates of SETD1A and SETD5 in paracancerous tissues 38.8% ( χ2=19.91, P<0.001) and 32.5% ( χ2=21.03, P<0.001). Chi-square test results showed that the expression of SETD1A was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis and vascular invasion, and the expression of SETD5 was significantly correlated with nerve invasion (all P<0.05). Logistic regression model showed that SETD1A expression was correlated with lymph node metastasis ( OR=0.07, 95% CI: 0.01-0.25, P<0.001) and molecular type ( OR=0.04, 95% CI: 0.00-0.48, P=0.022), SETD5 expression was correlated with neural invasion ( OR=6.41, 95% CI: 1.45-46.65, P=0.029) . Conclusion:The expressions of histone methyltransferases SETD1A and SETD5 are up-regulated in breast cancer tissues, and they are correlated with pathological features such as lymph node metastasis, vascular invasion, and neural invasion.

Comparison of Functional Status Between Diabetic Patients With and Without Nephropathy Based on the International Classification of Functioning,Disability and Health Rehabilitation Set / 中国医学科学院学报

Objective To compare the functional status of diabetic patients with and without nephropathy and identify the items that diabetic patients with nephropathy are more likely to develop dysfunction than diabetic patients without nephropathy based on the international classification of functioning,disability and health rehabilitation set(ICF-RS).Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted.A total of 320 diabetic patients hospitalized in Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine from August 2021 to February 2022 were selected and assigned into a group with nephropathy and a group without nephropathy.The general characteristics,clinical examination,and laboratory findings were compared by the t test,rank sum test,and Chi-squared test.The functional status of the patients was compared between the two groups by the t test based on the ICF-RS.Logistic regression was employed to control interferential factors between the two groups and identify the association between nephropathy and ICF-RS problematic items among diabetic patients.Results The diabetic patients with nephropathy had more problematic items in ICF-RS(P<0.001),the body function dimension(P=0.003),the activity dimension(P<0.001),and the participation dimension(P<0.001)than those without nephropathy.Moreover,the diabetic patients with nephropathy experienced severer problems in 5 body function items(energy and drive functions,sleep functions,sexual functions,exercise tolerance functions,and muscle power functions),10 activity items(transferring oneself,walking,moving around using equipment,moving around,washing oneself,caring for body parts,toileting,dressing,doing housework,and looking after one's health),and 4 participation items(using transportation,assisting others,basic interpersonal interactions,and recreation and leisure)(all P<0.05).The Logistic regression results showed that compared with the diabetic patients without nephropathy,the diabetic patients with nephropathy were more likely to develop problems in energy and drive functions(aOR=4.35,95%CI=1.28-14.79,P=0.019),emotional functions(aOR=1.88,95%CI=1.06-3.34,P=0.031),sexual functions(aOR=3.39,95%CI=1.82-6.34,P<0.001),moving around(aOR=3.11,95%CI=1.76-5.52,P<0.001),doing housework(aOR=17.48,95%CI=3.57-85.60,P<0.001),looking after one's health(aOR=1.97,95%CI=1.13-3.43,P=0.017),using transportation(aOR=2.59,95%CI=1.38-4.88,P=0.003),and recreation and leisure(aOR=2.52,95%CI=1.46-4.35,P<0.001).Conclusion Compared with the diabetic patients without nephropathy,the patients with nephropathy suffer more ICF-RS problematic items and are more likely to develop dysfunction in certain items in all the three dimensions.

Analysis on status quo of outcomes and measurement instruments of randomized controlled trials of acupuncture for post-stroke dysphagia / 中国针灸

OBJECTIVE@#To analyze the report status of outcomes and measurement instruments of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture for post-stroke dysphagia, so as to provide a basis for designing clinical trials and developing the core outcome set in acupuncture for post-stroke dysphagia.@*METHODS@#RCTs of acupuncture for post-stroke dysphagia were searched in databases i.e. CNKI, SinoMed, Wanfang, PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science and clinical trial registries i.e. ClinicalTrials.gov and Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR), from January 1st, 2012 to October 30th, 2021. By literature screening and data extraction, outcomes and measurement instruments were summarized and analyzed.@*RESULTS@#A total of 172 trials (including 165 RCTs and 7 ongoing trials registrations) were included, involving 91 outcomes. The outcomes could be classified into 7 domains according to functional attributes, namely clinical manifestation, physical and chemical examination, quality of life, TCM symptoms/syndromes, long-term prognosis, safety assessment and economic evaluation. It was found that there were various measurements instruments with large differences, inconsistent measurement time point and without discriminatively reporting primary or secondary outcomes.@*CONCLUSION@#The status quo of outcomes and measurement instruments of RCTs of acupuncture for post-stroke dysphagia is not conducive to the summary and comparison of each trial's results. Thus, it is suggested to develop a core outcome set for acupuncture for post-stroke dysphagia to improve the normative and research quality of their clinical trial design.

Research Ideas and Methods for Standardization of Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome Differentiation / 中医杂志

Syndrome differentiation and treatment is a unique mode of diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine （TCM）. The establishment of scientific and standardized syndrome diagnosis standards is an important link to evaluate the clinical efficacy of TCM objectively and systematically， and also a prerequisite for the promotion and development of TCM to obtain international recognition. This article reviewed the basic modes and existed problems of the current syndrome diagnosis criteria， and proposed to construct a multidimensional core information set integrating the minimized core symptoms， the artificial intelligence signs， the multi-modal laboratory indicators， and multi-omics specific markers， so as to present syndrome characteristics from multiple perspectives systematically. This paper also described the basic mode， constructure， as well as the process and methodology to be adopted in the establishment of the standardized diagnostic research method. The core information set of diagnostic symptoms not only took into account the specificity of the disease， but also improved the inconsistency due to the complexity and subjectivity of the syndrome differentiation， thereby providing a methodological basis for the standardization of TCM syndrome differentiation in clinical research.

Construction of a core outcome set in clinical research of acupuncture and moxibustion for treatment of adhesive capsulitis / 中国针灸

This study aims to construct the core outcome set for the clinical trials of adhesive capsulitis treated with acupuncture and moxibustion. Using systematic review, semi-structured interview, Delphi questionnaire survey, analytic hierarchy process and expert consensus meeting, the primary outcomes are obtained, i.e. local tenderness, pain degree during movement, range of motion, changes in range of motion, function score, and score of local symptoms of shoulder joint. The secondary outcomes are myofascial thickness, thickness of the inferior wall of the joint capsule, health status, activity of daily living, incidence of adverse events, laboratory indexes, vital signs, cost-effectiveness, total effective rate, and patient satisfaction. It is expected to provide a reference for the outcome selection in clinical trials and the generation of medical evidences in the treatment of adhesive capsulitis with acupuncture and moxibustion.

Occupational stress, anxiety, and depression among grassroots disease control and prevention staff in Hebei Province: A qualitative comparative analysis based on fuzzy sets / 环境与职业医学

Background Grassroots center for disease control and prevention (CDC) staff undertake intensive work of disease prevention and control, and may be susceptible to occupational stress, anxiety, depression, and other health problems. Objective To understand the current situation of occupational stress, anxiety, and depression among grassroots CDC staff, and to identify potential risk factor configurations for occupational stress, anxiety, and depression using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), so as to provide a basis for effective intervention. Methods The staff working in county/district-level CDCs in Hebei Province were the target population of the current study. Stratified random cluster sampling method was used to select 1860 staff members of the target population. A questionnaire of general situation, Job Content Scale, 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were used. Risk factor configurations associated with health outcomes of interest were identified by fsQCA3.0 software. Results The positive rates of occupational stress, anxiety, and depression were 42.69%, 44.25%, and 47.96%, respectively. Marital status was a necessary condition for occupational stress, anxiety, and depression in the grassroots CDC staff (the necessity values were 0.911, 0.939, and 0.933, respectively). There were two types of risk factor configurations for occupational stress: "self-improvement" and "disease burden"; the risk factor configurations for anxiety were "disease burden" and "economic-disease burden"; while the risk factor configurations for depression were "disease burden", "economic-disease burden", and "self-improvement". The overall consistency scores of occupational stress, anxiety, and depression were 0.941, 0.820, and 0.774, respectively. Regarding outstanding components, "self-improvement" included pressure of job requirements and promotion, "disease burden" included impact of chronic illness on psychological state, and "economic-disease burden" included not only impact of chronic illness but also financial support for CDC staff. Conclusion All positive rates of occupational stress, anxiety, and depression are high among grassroots CDC staff in Hebei Province. Occupational stress, anxiety, and depression of grassroots CDC staff are the results of multiple influencing factors, so targeted intervention measures should be formulated.

Construction of a Prognostic Model of Multiple Myeloma Based on Metabolism-Related Genes / 中国实验血液学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To screen the prognostic biomarkers of metabolic genes in patients with multiple myeloma (MM), and construct a prognostic model of metabolic genes.@*METHODS@#The histological database related to MM patients was searched. Data from MM patients and healthy controls with complete clinical information were selected for analysis.The second generation sequencing data and clinical information of bone marrow tissue of MM patients and healthy controls were collected from human protein atlas (HPA) and multiple myeloma research foundation (MMRF) databases. The gene set of metabolism-related pathways was extracted from Molecular Signatures Database (MSigDB) by Perl language. The biomarkers related to MM metabolism were screened by difference analysis, univariate Cox risk regression analysis and LASSO regression analysis, and the risk prognostic model and Nomogram were constructed. Risk curve and survival curve were used to verify the grouping effect of the model. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to study the difference of biological pathway enrichment between high risk group and low risk group. Multivariate Cox risk regression analysis was used to verify the independent prognostic ability of risk score.@*RESULTS@#A total of 8 mRNAs which were significantly related to the survival and prognosis of MM patients were obtained (P<0.01). As molecular markers, MM patients could be divided into high-risk group and low-risk group. Survival curve and risk curve showed that the overall survival time of patients in the low-risk group was significantly better than that in the high risk group (P<0.001). GSEA results showed that signal pathways related to basic metabolism, cell differentiation and cell cycle were significantly enriched in the high-risk group, while ribosome and N polysaccharide biosynthesis signaling pathway were more enriched in the low-risk group. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the risk score composed of the eight metabolism-related genes could be used as an independent risk factor for the prognosis of MM patients, and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) showed that the molecular signatures of metabolism-related genes had the best predictive effect.@*CONCLUSION@#Metabolism-related pathways play an important role in the pathogenesis and prognosis of patients with MM. The clinical significance of the risk assessment model for patients with MM constructed based on eight metabolism-related core genes needs to be confirmed by further clinical studies.

Clinical Analysis of SET-NUP214 Fusion Gene Positive Patients with Acute Leukemia / 中国实验血液学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To analyze the characteristics and prognosis of acute leukemia(AL) with SET-NUP214 fusion gene.@*METHODS@#The clinical data of 17 patients over 14 years old newly diagnosed with SET-NUP214 positive AL admitted in Institute of Hematology and Blood Diseases Hospital from August 2017 to May 2021 were analyzed retrospectively.@*RESULTS@#Among the 17 SET-NUP214 positive patients, 13 cases were diagnosed as T-ALL (ETP 3 cases, Pro-T-ALL 6 cases, Pre-T-ALL 3 cases, Medullary-T-ALL 1 case), AML 3 cases (2 cases M5, 1 case M0) and ALAL 1 case. Thirteen patients presented extramedullary infiltration at initial diagnosis. All 17 patients received treatment, and a total of 16 cases achieved complete remission (CR), including 12 cases in patients with T-ALL. The total median OS and RFS time were 23 (3-50) months and 21 (0-48) months, respectively. Eleven patients received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation(allo-HSCT), with median OS time of 37.5 (5-50) months and median RFS time of 29.5 (5-48) months. The median OS time of 6 patients in chemotherapy-only group was 10.5 (3-41) months, and median RFS time of 6.5 (3-39) months. The OS and RFS of patients with transplantation group were better than those of chemotherapy-only group (P=0.038). Among the 4 patients who relapsed or refractory after allo-HSCT, the SET-NUP214 fusion gene did not turn negative before transplantation. While, in the group of 7 patients who have not relapsed after allo-HSCT till now, the SET-NUP214 fusion gene expression of 5 patients turned negative before transplantation and other 2 of them were still positive.@*CONCLUSION@#The fusion site of SET-NUP214 fusion gene is relatively fixed in AL patients, often accompanied by extramedullary infiltration. The chemotherapy effect of this disease is poor, and allo-HSCT may improve its prognosis.

Artificial pollination and use of growth regulators in atemoya 'Gefner' fruits

The objective was to study the effectiveness of the growth regulator (ANA + GA3) associated or not to the application of adjuvant and artificial pollination in 'Gefner' atemoya. The experiment was conducted in the experimental orchard at Florida's Tropical Research and Education Center. The experimental design was in a randomized block, with 14 treatments, 10 repetitions and 3 flowers per plot. The highest percentages of fixed fruits were obtained with hand pollination ­ HP and 450 NAA + 1250 GA3 mg L-1 + adjuvant and HP. The use of hand pollination for 'Gefner' atemoya tree proved to be the most efficient method so far. Applying growth regulator without artificial pollination produces parthenocarpic fruits, however with high rate of abortions, and small fruits. Growth regulators together with hand pollination produces small and uneven fruits, and cause reduction in the fruits' titratable acidity. The use of adjuvant caused low fixation and toxicity to fruits, and its use is not recommended.

Analysis of the Development Trend in Forensic Odontology Based on CiteSpace / 法医学杂志

OBJECTIVES@#To realize the dynamic visualization of forensic odontology based on the bibliometrics methods, and capture the research hotspots and identify the future development trend.@*METHODS@#Literature articles published from January 1995 to December 2020 were searched according to specific subject words in the core data set of Web of Science. The visualization analysis of publishing country, institution, discipline, author, co-cited journal and keywords was performed by CiteSpace 5.7.R5W software.@*RESULTS@#The annual analysis of publications showed an upward trend of forensic odontology research literature year by year, with the number of annual publications more than 110 in the last five years. Developed countries were the main source of contributions and the average centrality was greater than 0.2. The research of forensic odontology involved multiple disciplines, including stomatology, biology, computer science and medical imaging, with a distinct interdisciplinary feature. A total of 115 nodes were obtained by keyword cluster analysis. The principal line of forensic odontology mainly included individual identification and age estimation and the emergence of hotspots was closely related to new technologies. Population-based odontology investigation, improvement of traditional dental age estimation method and dental age estimation based on new technology were popular research in forensic odontology.@*CONCLUSIONS@#Developing countries urgently need to increase the focus on related research. It may be an important direction for the development of forensic odontology to establish and enrich the regional dental database, develop new odontology identification technology combined with frontier and high-end technology, and develop the identification program based on advanced information technology.

Screening of Genes Co-Associated with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Infectious Sudden Death in Infancy and Bioinformatics Analysis of Their Regulatory Networks / 法医学杂志

OBJECTIVES@#The common differentially expressed mRNAs in brain, heart and liver tissues of deceased sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and infectious sudden death in infancy (ISDI) confirmed by autopsy was screened by bioinformatics to explore the common molecular markers and pathogenesis of SIDS and ISDI.@*METHODS@#The datasets of GSE70422 and GSE136992 were downloaded, the limma of R software was used to screen differentially expressed mRNA in different tissue samples of SIDS and ISDI decedents for overlapping analysis. The clusterProfiler of R software was used to conduct gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed by STRING database, while the hub gene was screened by cytoHubba plug-in.@*RESULTS@#Compared with the control group, there were 19 significant differentially expressed genes in the tissue samples of SIDS and ISDI decedents, among which 16 in the heart tissue and 3 in the liver tissue, and the astrotactin 1 (ASTN1) gene expression difference in the heart tissue was most significant. The PPI network identified Ras homolog family member A (RHOA), integrin subunit alpha 1 (ITGA1), and H2B clustered histone 5 (H2BC5) were hub genes. The analysis of GO and KEGG showed that differentially expressed genes were enriched in the molecular pathways of actin cytoskeleton regulation, focal adhesion and response to mycophenolic acid.@*CONCLUSIONS@#ASTN1, RHOA and ITGA1 may participate in the development of SIDS and ISDI. The enrichment of differentially expressed genes in immune and inflammatory pathways suggests a common molecular regulatory mechanism between SIDS and ISDI. These findings are expected to provide new biomarkers for molecular anatomy and forensic identification of SIDS and ISDI.

Corona virus disease 2019 lesion segmentation network based on an adaptive joint loss function / 生物医学工程学杂志

Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute respiratory infectious disease with strong contagiousness, strong variability, and long incubation period. The probability of misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis can be significantly decreased with the use of automatic segmentation of COVID-19 lesions based on computed tomography images, which helps doctors in rapid diagnosis and precise treatment. This paper introduced the level set generalized Dice loss function (LGDL) in conjunction with the level set segmentation method based on COVID-19 lesion segmentation network and proposed a dual-path COVID-19 lesion segmentation network (Dual-SAUNet++) to address the pain points such as the complex symptoms of COVID-19 and the blurred boundaries that are challenging to segment. LGDL is an adaptive weight joint loss obtained by combining the generalized Dice loss of the mask path and the mean square error of the level set path. On the test set, the model achieved Dice similarity coefficient of (87.81 ± 10.86)%, intersection over union of (79.20 ± 14.58)%, sensitivity of (94.18 ± 13.56)%, specificity of (99.83 ± 0.43)% and Hausdorff distance of 18.29 ± 31.48 mm. Studies indicated that Dual-SAUNet++ has a great anti-noise capability and it can segment multi-scale lesions while simultaneously focusing on their area and border information. The method proposed in this paper assists doctors in judging the severity of COVID-19 infection by accurately segmenting the lesion, and provides a reliable basis for subsequent clinical treatment.

Identification and validation of novel biomarkers for cold-dampness syndrome of rheumatoid arthritis based on integration of multiple bioinformatics methods / 中国中药杂志

This study aims to identify the novel biomarkers of cold-dampness syndrome(RA-Cold) of rheumatoid arthritis(RA) by gene set enrichment analysis(GSEA), weighted gene correlation network analysis(WGCNA), and clinical validation. Firstly, transcriptome sequencing was carried out for the whole blood samples from RA-Cold patients, RA patients with other traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) syndromes, and healthy volunteers. The differentially expressed gene(DEG) sets of RA-Cold were screened by comparison with the RA patients with other TCM syndromes and healthy volunteers. Then, GSEA and WGCNA were carried out to screen the key DEGs as candidate biomarkers for RA-Cold. Experimentally, the expression levels of the candidate biomarkers were determined by RT-qPCR for an independent clinical cohort(not less than 10 cases/group), and the clinical efficacy of the candidates was assessed using the receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve. The results showed that 3 601 DEGs associated with RA-Cold were obtained, including 106 up-regulated genes and 3 495 down-regulated genes. The DEGs of RA-Cold were mainly enriched in the pathways associated with inflammation-immunity regulation, hormone regulation, substance and energy metabolism, cell function regulation, and synovial pannus formation. GSEA and WGCNA showed that recombinant proteasome 26S subunit, ATPase 2(PSMC2), which ranked in the top 50% in terms of coefficient of variation, representativeness of pathway, and biological modules, was a candidate biomarker of RA-Cold. Furthermore, the validation results based on the clinical independent sample set showed that the F1 value, specificity, accuracy, and precision of PSMC2 for RA-Cold were 70.3%, 61.9%, 64.5%, and 81.3%, respectively, and the area under the curve(AUC) value was 0.96. In summary, this study employed the "GSEA-WGCNA-validation" integrated strategy to identify novel biomarkers of RA-Cold, which helped to improve the TCM clinical diagnosis and treatment of core syndromes in RA and provided an experimental basis for TCM syndrome differentiation.

Outcomes and measurements of randomized controlled trial for traditional Chinese medicine in treatment of endometriosis / 中国中药杂志

This study aims to analyze the outcomes and measurements of randomized controlled trial(RCT) for traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) treatment of endometriosis(EM) and provide a basis for the building of the core outcome set(COS) of EM. The RCT for TCM treatment of EM was retrieved from medical literature databases with the time interval from inception to February 3, 2022. The Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool was employed to evaluate the risk of bias of the included RCT, and descriptive analyses of the extracted information were carried out. A total of 519 RCTs were included, with the sample sizes ranging from 28-582 patients and 239 outcome indicators(8 outcome indicators per RCT on average). According to the functional properties, the reported outcome indicators were classified into 7 indicators: clinical efficacy assessment, indicators of clinical symptoms and signs, TCM symptom efficacy indicators, physical and chemical examinations, quality of life, long-term prognosis, and safety events. All the 519 RCTs had problems, such as the lack of differentiation between primary and secondary outcome indicators(1.73% RCTs reported such differen-tiation), poor quality, confused criteria for composite outcome indicators and arbitrary combination of indicators(45 criteria for the single outcome indicator of efficiency), and messy measurements(as many as 18 measurements for TCM symptom score). In addition, as a chronic disease, EM requires long-term management. The outcome indicators vary for the patients in different disease stages, such as EM pain, EM infertility, and post-operative EM, while the specific outcome indicator sets for different EM populations remain to be developed. In addition, the time point of measurement for EM long-term outcomes remains unclear, and the definition of TCM syndromes lacks standards. The RCT for TCM treatment had a variety of problems, such as the lack of differentiation of outcome indicators, confusion in criteria and measurements, lack of specific outcome indicator sets for different EM populations, and unclear time points for long-term outcomes. Therefore, the studies about COS need to be carried out urgently.

Application of Linear Accelerator on Boarding Kilovolt Fan Beam CT and Megavolt Cone Beam CT System on Set-up Errors During Radiation Treatment / 肿瘤防治研究

Objective To quantify the setup errors for the different anatomical sites of patients who received intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) with linear accelerator on-board kilovolt fan beam CT(kV-FBCT) as non-isocenter IGRT and megavolt cone beam CT (MV-CBCT) as isocenter IGRT. Methods A retrospective analysis was performedon 70 patients who underwent radiotherapy, kV-FBCT, and/or MV-CBCT scans after each routine setup prior to IMRT. The average displacement (M), systematic error (Σ), and random error (б) at different treatment sites in the left-right, anterior-posterior, and cranial-caudal directions were calculated according to the individual displacements. The formula 2.5Σ+0.7б was used to estimate the PTV margin in respective direction. For each single patient, the root mean square in three directions was used as 3D displacement. Results A total of 1130 displacements were recorded in the 70 patients. The PTV margin was estimated to be 1.9-3.1 mm in head and neck cancer, 2.8-5.1 mm in thoracic cancer, 4.6-5.1 mm in breast cancer, 3.0-5.5 mm in upper abdominal cancer, and 3.5-6.8 mm in pelvic tumor. For the 3D mean displacements, the head and neck, thoracic, breast, upper abdominal, and pelvic cancer were 2.4±1.0, 4.0±1.6, 4.1±2.0, 4.6±2.1, and 4.6±2.1 mm, respectively. The average 3D displacement obtained by kV-FBCT and MV-CBCT were 4.1 and 3.4 mm, respectively (P=0.212). Conclusion The quantitative setup-error data can be obtained using linear accelerator on-board FBCT, and the non-isocenter IGRT induced set-up error cannot be negligible.

Screening of Clinical Efficacy Evaluation Indicators for Traditional Chinese Medicine Injections based on Mixed Method Research / 中医杂志

Currently， evidence on the efficacy and risk of traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） injections is seriously insufficient， and it is difficult to evaluate TCM injections comprehensively， truly and objectively using available efficacy evaluation indicators. Therefore， establishing a clinical efficacy evaluation system that can effectively reflect TCM injections is imperative. Core outcome set （COS） has played an important role in screening TCM efficacy evaluation indicators， however， there are still certain problems， such as large differences in efficacy indicators， non-standardization， and lack of featured and specific TCM indicators. Mixed method research （MMR） has the advantages of looking at problems from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. It is thereby proposed to use COS and MMR integrated model to establish a clinical efficacy evaluation indicator system that not only fully considers the cha-racteristics of TCM injections， but also highlights the efficacy and advantages of TCM injections from the perspective of TCM intervention. Simultaneously， an indicator screening method using MMR to optimize COS research model is formulated， which can provide ideas for the research on efficacy evaluation indicators of TCM injections.