[Report of six cases with mast cell leukemia and a literature review].

From October 2021 to February 2023, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical and laboratory data of six patients (three male and three female, median age: 54 years, age range: 29-73 years) with mast cell leukemia (MCL) diagnosed in the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University (The Mastocytosis Collaborative Network of China). All patients had acute MCL, with at least one C-finding present. The main clinical presentations were hypoalbuminemia (n=4), fatigue (n=3), fever (n=2), abdominal discomfort (n=2), osteolytic lesions (n=2), dizziness (n=1), skin flushing (n=1), and weight loss (n=1). Splenomegaly and lymphadenopathy were noted in six and three patients, respectively. Six patients were strongly positive for CD117, five were positive for CD30 and CD25, and four were positive for CD2. Four patients had a normal karyotype and two patients had an abnormal karyotype. Gene mutations were detected in 4/6 cases. The median serum tryptase level was 24.9 (range: 20.1-171.9) µg/L. Two patients were treated with venetoclax and azacitidine for induction (one patient achieved partial remission by combination with afatinib, while there was no remission after combination with dasatinib in the other patient). Two patients did not achieve complete remission despite treatment with cladribine and imatinib, respectively. One patient treated with interferon combined with glucocorticoids was lost to follow-up, and one patient abandoned treatment. The follow-up time ranged from 1.1 to 21.7 months. Three patients died and two survived. Overall, MCL is a rare subtype of systemic mastocytosis with heterogeneous clinical course, and these patients have poor outcome. A better understanding of the clinical characteristics, treatment, and prognosis of MCL is urgently needed.

Caregiver Perspectives on Improving Government Nutrition Benefit Programs.

OBJECTIVES: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provide essential nutrition support for low-income families. However, many eligible families do not receive or fully redeem these benefits. We aimed to understand current and former WIC and SNAP beneficiaries' perceptions of and suggestions for improving both programs. METHODS: We conducted semistructured phone interviews with caregivers of pediatric patients who were current or former WIC and SNAP beneficiaries at 2 academic pediatric primary care clinics. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded by 2 independent coders using thematic analysis, resolving discrepancies by consensus. Interviews continued until data saturation was reached. RESULTS: We interviewed 40 caregivers who were predominantly Black (88%) mothers (90%), with 53% and 83% currently using WIC and SNAP, respectively. We identified 4 themes related to participation barriers: (1) limited product variety available through WIC, (2) inconvenience and stigma associated with purchasing WIC products, (3) SNAP income-based eligibility criteria, and (4) burdensome SNAP enrollment and recertification processes. We identified 3 themes related to suggestions for improvement: (a) decreasing stigma associated with participation, (b) allowing online or phone-based enrollment, and (c) improving coordination with health care systems. CONCLUSIONS: WIC and SNAP beneficiaries identified several modifiable barriers to enrollment and benefits redemption. Pediatric providers should advocate for programmatic improvements that make it easier for families to access and redeem benefits and should consider implementing innovative cross-sector interventions like medical-financial partnerships, direct WIC and SNAP referrals, and data sharing with government assistance offices.

Search for Rare Decays of D_{s}

Using 7.33 fb^{-1} of e^{+}e^{-} collision data collected by the BESIII detector at center-of-mass energies in the range of sqrt[s]=4.128-4.226 GeV, we search for the rare decays D_{s}^{+}→h^{+}(h^{0})e^{+}e^{-}, where h represents a kaon or pion. By requiring the e^{+}e^{-} invariant mass to be consistent with a ϕ(1020), 0.98

Assessing Methotrexate Adherence in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Using Electronic Health Record-Linked Pharmacy Dispensing Data.

OBJECTIVE: We linked pharmacy dispensing data to clinical data in the electronic health record (EHR) to 1) identify characteristics associated with adherence to methotrexate (MTX) and 2) determine the association between adherence and disease activity in patients with JIA. METHODS: We conducted a single-center retrospective cohort study of incident MTX users with JIA treated between 1/2016 and 9/2023 for ≥12 months. Using pharmacy dispensing data, complemented by EHR data, we estimated adherence using medication possession ratios (MPRs) over the first 365-days of treatment. We used Fisher's exact and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests to compare patient characteristics between adherent (MPR≥80%) and nonadherent (MPR<80%) groups and multivariable linear regression to investigate associations between MPR and active joint count. RESULTS: Among 224 patients, 81 (36.2%) were classified as nonadherent. In bivariate analysis, patients of younger age, Black race, and from areas with lower child opportunity index (COI) were more likely to be classified as nonadherent. In multivariable analysis, active joint count changed from baseline to 12-month follow-up by -0.38 joints in the adherent compared to nonadherent group (95% CI -0.74,-0.01) and by -1.18 joints in patients with polyarticular course (95% CI -2.23,-0.13). CONCLUSION: Linking dispense data to clinical EHR data offers a novel, objective method for evaluating adherence to chronic medications. We identified demographic and area-level determinants of adherence, along with small but statistically significant differences in JIA disease activity measures by adherence status. Future work is needed to evaluate adherence as a potential mediator of known outcome disparities for socially disadvantaged populations.

[Progress of interruption of schistosomiasis transmission and prospects in Yunnan Province].

Schistosomiasis was once hyper-endemic in Yunnan Province. Following concerted efforts for over 70 years, remarkable achievements have been made for schistosomiasis control in the province. In 2004, the Mid- and Long-term Plan for Schistosomiasis Prevention and Control in Yunnan Province was initiated in Yunnan Province, and the target for transmission control of schistosomiasis was achieved in the province in 2009. Following the subsequent implementation of the Outline for Key Projects in Integrated Schistosomiasis Control Program (2009-2015) and the 13th Five - year Plan for Schistosomiasis Control in Yunnan Province, no acute schistosomiasis had been identified in Yunnan Province for successive 12 years, and no local Schistosoma japonicum infections had been detected in humans, animals or Oncomelania hupensis snails for successive 6 years in the province by the end of 2020. The transmission of schistosomiasis was interrupted in Yunnan Province in 2020. This review summarizes the history of schistosomiasis, changes in schistosomiasis prevalence and progress of schistosomiasis control in Yunnan Province, and proposes the future priorities for schistosomiasis control in the province.

Strong and Weak CP Tests in Sequential Decays of Polarized Σ

The J/ψ, ψ(3686)→Σ^{0}Σ[over ¯]^{0} processes and subsequent decays are studied using the world's largest J/ψ and ψ(3686) data samples collected with the BESIII detector. The parity-violating decay parameters of the decays Σ^{0}→Λγ and Σ[over ¯]^{0}→Λ[over ¯]γ, α_{Σ^{0}}=-0.0017±0.0021±0.0018 and α[over ¯]_{Σ^{0}}=0.0021±0.0020±0.0022, are measured for the first time. The strong CP symmetry is tested in the decays of the Σ^{0} hyperons for the first time by measuring the asymmetry A_{CP}^{Σ}=α_{Σ^{0}}+α[over ¯]_{Σ^{0}}=(0.4±2.9±1.3)×10^{-3}. The weak CP test is performed in the subsequent decays of their daughter particles Λ and Λ[over ¯]. Also for the first time, the transverse polarizations of the Σ^{0} hyperons in J/ψ and ψ(3686) decays are observed with opposite directions, and the ratios between the S-wave and D-wave contributions of the J/ψ, ψ(3686)→Σ^{0}Σ[over ¯]^{0} decays are obtained. These results are crucial to understand the decay dynamics of the charmonium states and the production mechanism of the Σ^{0}-Σ[over ¯]^{0} pairs.

Revealing the Dark Side of Non-Local Attention in Single Image Super-Resolution.

Single Image Super-Resolution (SISR) aims to reconstruct a high-resolution image from its corresponding low-resolution input. A common technique to enhance the reconstruction quality is Non-Local Attention (NLA), which leverages self-similar texture patterns in images. However, we have made a novel finding that challenges the prevailing wisdom. Our research reveals that NLA can be detrimental to SISR and even produce severely distorted textures. For example, when dealing with severely degrade textures, NLA may generate unrealistic results due to the inconsistency of non-local texture patterns. This problem is overlooked by existing works, which only measure the average reconstruction quality of the whole image, without considering the potential risks of using NLA. To address this issue, we propose a new perspective for evaluating the reconstruction quality of NLA, by focusing on the sub-pixel level that matches the pixel-wise fusion manner of NLA. From this perspective, we provide the approximate reconstruction performance upper bound of NLA, which guides us to design a concise yet effective Texture-Fidelity Strategy (TFS) to mitigate the degradation caused by NLA. Moreover, the proposed TFS can be conveniently integrated into existing NLA-based SISR models as a general building block. Based on the TFS, we develop a Deep Texture-Fidelity Network (DTFN), which achieves state-of-the-art performance for SISR. Our code and a pre-trained DTFN are available on GitHub for verification.

Cross-View Representation Learning-Based Deep Multiview Clustering With Adaptive Graph Constraint.

Deep multiview clustering provides an efficient way to analyze the data consisting of multiple modalities and features. Recently, the autoencoder (AE)-based deep multiview clustering algorithms have attracted intensive attention by virtue of their rewarding capabilities of extracting inherent features. Nevertheless, most existing methods are still confronted by several problems. First, the multiview data usually contains abundant cross-view information, thus parallel performing an individual AE for each view and directly combining the extracted latent together can hardly construct an informative view-consensus feature space for clustering. Second, the intrinsic local structures of multiview data are complicated, hence simply embedding a preset graph constraint into multiview clustering models cannot guarantee expected performance. Third, current methods commonly utilize the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence as clustering loss and accordingly may yield appalling clusters that lack discriminate characters. To solve these issues, in this article we propose two new AE-based deep multiview clustering algorithms named AE-based deep multiview clustering model incorporating graph embedding (AG-DMC) and deep discriminative multiview clustering algorithm with adaptive graph constraint (ADG-DMC). In AG-DMC, a novel cross-view representation learning model is established delicately by performing decoding processes based on the cascaded view-specific latent to learn sound view-consensus features for inspiring clustering results. In addition, an entropy-regularized adaptive graph constraint is imposed on the obtained soft assignments of data to precisely preserve potential local structures. Furthermore, in the improved model ADG-DMC, the adversarial learning mechanism is adopted as clustering loss to strengthen the discrimination of different clusters for better performance. In the comprehensive experiments carried out on eight real-world datasets, the proposed algorithms have achieved superior performance in the comparison with other advanced multiview clustering algorithms.

Genetic parameter estimation and genetic evaluation of important economic traits in white and yellow broilers.

1. This study calculated descriptive statistics for the production traits of two broiler populations: 1) the Northeast Agricultural University broiler lines divergently selected for abdominal fat content (NEAUHLF white broilers), including fat and lean lines; and 2) the Guangxi yellow broilers. Their genetic parameters were estimated, including (co)variance components, heritability (h2) and genetic correlations (rg), using the REML method.2. Heritability estimates (h2) for NEAUHLF white broilers ranged from 0.07 to 0.61. Traits with high heritability (h2 >0.3) included body weight at 3, 5 and 7 weeks of age (BW3, BW5, BW7), carcass weight (CW), metatarsal circumference (MeC), liver weight (LW), gizzard weight (GW), spleen weight (SW) and testis weight (TeW), while in Guangxi yellow broilers, heritability estimates ranged from 0.18 to 0.76, with every trait exhibiting high heritability, except for SW (0.18).3. Positive genetic correlations for NEAUHLF were found (rg >0.3, ranging from 0.31 to 0.84) between BW7 and metatarsal length (MeL), MeC, body oblique length (BoL), chest angle (ChA), LW, GW, heart weight (HW) and SW. Genetic correlations between abdominal fat weight (AFW) and BW1, BW3, BW5, CW, MeL, keel length (KeL), BoL and LW were positive (rg >0.3, ranging from 0.31 to 0.58).4. Among the Guangxi population, BW (125 d of age) showed strong positive genetic correlations with all other traits (rg >0.3, ranging from 0.30 to 0.99), while AFW displayed strong positive genetic correlations with leg muscle weight (LeW), CW, BW and thigh diameter (TD) (rg >0.3, ranging from 0.44 to 0.51).5. It was concluded that the characteristics of the two populations were different, which means there is a need to use different strategies when performing the breeding work to improve productivity and efficiency in both broiler populations.

Precise Measurement of Born Cross Sections for e

Using data samples collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider at center-of-mass energies ranging from 3.80 to 4.95 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb^{-1}, a measurement of Born cross sections for the e^{+}e^{-}→D^{0}D[over ¯]^{0} and D^{+}D^{-} processes is presented with unprecedented precision. Many clear peaks in the line shape of e^{+}e^{-}→D^{0}D[over ¯]^{0} and D^{+}D^{-} around the mass range of G(3900), ψ(4040), ψ(4160), Y(4260), and ψ(4415), etc., are foreseen. These results offer crucial experimental insights into the nature of hadron production in the open-charm region.

Spatially clustered type I interferon responses at injury borderzones.

Sterile inflammation after myocardial infarction is classically credited to myeloid cells interacting with dead cell debris in the infarct zone1,2. Here we show that cardiomyocytes are the dominant initiators of a previously undescribed type I interferon response in the infarct borderzone. Using spatial transcriptomics analysis in mice and humans, we find that myocardial infarction induces colonies of interferon-induced cells (IFNICs) expressing interferon-stimulated genes decorating the borderzone, where cardiomyocytes experience mechanical stress, nuclear rupture and escape of chromosomal DNA. Cardiomyocyte-selective deletion of Irf3 abrogated IFNIC colonies, whereas mice lacking Irf3 in fibroblasts, macrophages, neutrophils or endothelial cells, Ccr2-deficient mice or plasmacytoid-dendritic-cell-depleted mice did not. Interferons blunted the protective matricellular programs and contractile function of borderzone fibroblasts, and increased vulnerability to pathological remodelling. In mice that died after myocardial infarction, IFNIC colonies were immediately adjacent to sites of ventricular rupture, while mice lacking IFNICs were protected from rupture and exhibited improved survival3. Together, these results reveal a pathological borderzone niche characterized by a cardiomyocyte-initiated innate immune response. We suggest that selective inhibition of IRF3 activation in non-immune cells could limit ischaemic cardiomyopathy while avoiding broad immunosuppression.

[Efficacy of PD-1 inhibitors combined with nab-paclitaxel and cisplatin in the neoadjuvant treatment of locally advanced hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma].

Objective: To assess the efficacy of neoadjuvant treatment with PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) inhibitors combined with paclitaxel (albumin-conjugated) and cisplatin (TP regimen) for locally advanced hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma and laryngeal organ function preservation. Methods: Data of 53 patients, including 51 males and 2 females, aged 38-70 years old, who were diagnosed with locally advanced hypopharyngeal squamous carcinoma confirmed by histology and enhanced CT at the Cancer Prevention and Control Center of Sun Yat-sen University during the initial treatment from January 1, 2019 to January 15, 2023, were retrospectively analyzed. All patients received neoadjuvant therapy with PD-1 inhibitors combined with albumin-bound paclitaxel (260 mg/m2) and cisplatin (60 mg/m2) for 3 to 4 cycles. The main outcome measures were larynx dysfunction-free survival (LDFS), overall survival (OS), and progression-free survival (PFS). Survival curves were plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method, and Cox multifactorial analysis was further performed if Cox univariate analysis was statistically significant. Results: The overall efficiency was 90.6% (48/53). The 1-year and 2-year LDFS rates were 83.8% (95%CI: 74.0% to 94.8%) and 50.3% (95%CI: 22.1% to 91.6%), the 1-year and 2-year OS rates were 95.2% (95%CI: 88.9% to 100.0%) and 58.2% (95%CI: 25.6% to 81.8%), and the 1-year and 2-year PFS rates were 83.9% (95%CI: 74.2% to 94.9%) and 53.5% (95%CI: 32.1% to 89.1%). Adverse events associated with the neoadjuvant therapy were mainly myelosuppression (45.3%), gastrointestinal reactions (37.7%) and hypothyroidism (20.8%). Conclusion: The neoadjuvant treatment of locally advanced hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma using PD-1 inhibitors combined with paclitaxel and cisplatin can provide with a higher survival rate with a improved laryngeal organ function preservation rate.

Developmental Changes in Pharyngeal Airway in the Male Population From Adolescence to Adulthood.

AIM: During adolescence, there is a significant surge in height and total body mass of males. Consequently, they simultaneously experience enhancements in their circulatory and respiratory systems, which adapt to these physiological transformations. The purpose of present study was to investigate the developmental changes in male pharyngeal airway from adolescence to adulthood. METHODS: Lateral cephalograms of 192 males were obtained and divided into 5 groups: early adolescence (age 10-13 years), middle adolescence (age 14-17 years), late adolescence (age 18-21 years), early adulthood (age 22-30 years), and middle adulthood (ages 31-50 years). The dimensions of pharyngeal airway spaces and the related anatomical structures were investigated. The one-way analysis of variance and Pearson correlation analysis were employed for statistical analysis. CONCLUSION: During middle adolescence, the pharyngeal airway seems to be nearly completed in males. A significant negative correlation was found between the ANB angle and SPS, TPS, and EPS values.

Measurements of Normalized Differential Cross Sections of Inclusive η Production in e

Using data samples collected with the BESIII detector operating at the BEPCII storage ring, the cross section of the inclusive process e^{+}e^{-}→η+X, normalized by the total cross section of e^{+}e^{-}→hadrons, is measured at eight center-of-mass energy points from 2.0000 to 3.6710 GeV. These are the first measurements with momentum dependence in this energy region. Our measurement shows a significant discrepancy compared to the existing fragmentation functions. To address this discrepancy, a new QCD analysis is performed at the next-to-next-to-leading order with hadron mass corrections and higher twist effects, which can explain both the established high-energy data and our measurements reasonably well.