ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Spontaneous abortion is a common complication of pregnancy that can lead to adverse physical and psychological outcomes for women. Vitamin D is reported to be associated with reproductive functions, whereas its casual effects on abortion remains unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed to systematically assess the causal relationships between serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentration and the risk of spontaneous abortion. GWAS summary data of 25(OH)D were used as exposure, and data of spontaneous abortion was considered as outcome. A retrospective study was additionally conducted to verify the MR results. RESULTS: MR estimates showed that a higher 25(OH)D level was potentially associated with decreased risk of spontaneous abortion (IVW, OR = 0.98, 95%CI = 0.90-1.06; MR Egger, OR = 0.94, 95%CI = 0.84-1.05; Weighted median, OR = 0.93, 95%CI = 0.82-1.06; Weighted mode, OR = 0.93, 95%CI = 0.84-1.03), though the P-value was not statistically significant. The retrospective study also produced consistent result of Vitamin D's protective role to spontaneous abortion. The P-value was very close to statistical significance (P = 0.053). CONCLUSIONS: This study reports the potential protective role of serum 25(OH)D concentration to spontaneous abortion, suggesting that increased vitamin D levels may decrease the risk of abortion. Further larger prospective studies and/or even randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm causal relationship between vitamin D and abortion.
Subject(s)
Abortion, Spontaneous , Mendelian Randomization Analysis , Vitamin D , Humans , Female , Abortion, Spontaneous/epidemiology , Vitamin D/blood , Vitamin D/analogs & derivatives , Retrospective Studies , Pregnancy , Adult , Genome-Wide Association StudyABSTRACT
The emerging market of wearable devices for tracking and positioning requires the development of highly flexible magnetic sensors. Due to the stable magnetoresistance ratio and simple fabrication process, sensors based on the anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) effect have been proposed as promising candidates. However, the stability of AMR sensors under different bending situations has rarely been investigated. In this work, we proposed a flexible AMR magnetic sensor deposited on an ultra-thin Kapton substrate, which exhibits excellent anti-fatigue behavior at different bending curvatures ranging from 1/3 to 1/10 mm-1. Experimental results show that the sensitivity of our proposed flexible AMR sensor remains as high as 0.25 Oe-1 after being bent 500 times, showing promising potential for application in wearable electronic devices.
ABSTRACT
Background: The geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) is a commonly used method to assess nutritional risk for predicting potential surgical site infections (SSI) in cancer patients. This study aims to create and verify a simple nomogram and a dynamic web-based calculator for predicting the risk of SSI among gynecologic oncology patients. Methods: A retrospective evaluation was conducted on patients who were admitted into a tertiary hospital in China with confirmed diagnosis of gynecologic cancer between 01 August 2017 and 30 November 2021. A two-piecewise linear regression model with a smoothing function was used to investigate the non-linear association between GNRI and SSI to determine the ideal cut-off point. Three models were developed on the basis of different variables to predict SSI in gynecologic oncology patients. Through a nomogram the concordance index (C-index), the Akaike information criterion (AIC), and the integrated discrimination index (IDI) were used to determine the final model. Finally, the performance of the nomogram was validated using the 1,000-bootstrap resamples method and analyzed using C-index, GiViTI calibration belts, and decision curve. Also, a user-friendly dynamic web-based calculator was developed. Results: A total of 1,221 patients were included in the analysis. A non-linear association could be observed between GNRI and SSI risk with a GNRI cut-off value of 101.7. After adding GNRI to Model 2 (which comprised Morse Fall Scale score, preoperative length of stay, operation time, and estimated blood loss), the AIC value decreased, the C-index value increased and IDI increased significantly. The nomogram C-index in the development cohort and internal validation cohort demonstrates a moderate-high degree of discrimination. The GiViTI calibrated belt showed a good agreement between the observed and predicted probabilities of SSI. The decision curve validates the clinical feasibility of the nomogram with a threshold value between 0 and 49%. Conclusion: The GNRI cut-off value of 101.7 allowed for appropriate stratification of patients into distinct SSI risk groups. This study found that including GNRI in the above nomogram (Model 2) would enhance its potential to predict SSI in gynecologic oncology patients.
ABSTRACT
An investigation of relaxed alignment tolerance in monolithic ring lasers is presented. It was found that the relaxed alignment tolerance is strongly dependent on the out-of-plane angle. A preferred region for the out-of-plane angle is proposed. In this region the resonator has greatly relaxed alignment tolerances, and the unidirectional operation can be obtained under a much-lower magnetic field. Two lasers have been constructed in the region, and satisfactory performance was found, in good agreement with the theoretical analysis.
