Projecting the 10-year costs of care and mortality burden of depression until 2032: a Markov modelling study developed from real-world data.

Background: Based on real-world data, we developed a 10-year prediction model to estimate the burden among patients with depression from the public healthcare system payer's perspective to inform early resource planning in Hong Kong. Methods: We developed a Markov cohort model with yearly cycles specifically capturing the pathway of treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and comorbidity development along the disease course. Projected from 2023 to 2032, primary outcomes included costs of all-cause and psychiatric care, and secondary outcomes were all-cause deaths, years of life lived, and quality-adjusted life-years. Using the territory-wide electronic medical records, we identified 25,190 patients aged ≥10 years with newly diagnosed depression from 2014 to 2016 with follow-up until 2020 to observe the real-world time-to-event pattern, based on which costs and time-varying transition inputs were derived using negative binomial modelling and parametric survival analysis. We applied the model as both closed cohort, which studied a fixed cohort of incident patients in 2023, and open cohort, which introduced incident patients by year from 2014 to 2032. Utilities and annual new patients were from published sources. Findings: With 9217 new patients in 2023, our closed cohort model projected the 10-year cumulative costs of all-cause and psychiatric care to reach US$309.0 million and US$58.3 million, respectively, with 899 deaths (case fatality rate: 9.8%) by 2032. In our open cohort model, 55,849-57,896 active prevalent cases would cost more than US$322.3 million and US$60.7 million, respectively, with more than 943 deaths annually from 2023 to 2032. Fewer than 20% of cases would live with TRD or comorbidities but contribute 31-54% of the costs. The greatest collective burden would occur in women aged above 40, but men aged above 65 and below 25 with medical history would have the highest costs per patient-year. The key cost drivers were relevant to the early disease stages. Interpretation: A limited proportion of patients would develop TRD and comorbidities but contribute to a high proportion of costs, which necessitates appropriate attention and resource allocation. Our projection also demonstrates the application of real-world data to model long-term costs and mortality, which aid policymakers anticipate foreseeable burden and undertake budget planning to prepare for the care need in alternative scenarios. Funding: Research Impact Fund from the University Grants Committee, Research Grants Council with matching fund from the Hong Kong Association of Pharmaceutical Industry (R7007-22).

Risk of autoimmune diseases following COVID-19 and the potential protective effect from vaccination: a population-based cohort study.

Background: Case reports suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection could lead to immune dysregulation and trigger autoimmunity while COVID-19 vaccination is effective against severe COVID-19 outcomes. We aim to examine the association between COVID-19 and development of autoimmune diseases (ADs), and the potential protective effect of COVID-19 vaccination on such an association. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted in Hong Kong between 1 April 2020 and 15 November 2022. COVID-19 was confirmed by positive polymerase chain reaction or rapid antigen test. Cox proportional hazard regression with inverse probability of treatment weighting was applied to estimate the risk of incident ADs following COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccinated population was compared against COVID-19 unvaccinated population to examine the protective effect of COVID-19 vaccination on new ADs. Findings: The study included 1,028,721 COVID-19 and 3,168,467 non-COVID individuals. Compared with non-COVID controls, patients with COVID-19 presented an increased risk of developing pernicious anaemia [adjusted Hazard Ratio (aHR): 1.72; 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.12-2.64]; spondyloarthritis [aHR: 1.32 (95% CI: 1.03-1.69)]; rheumatoid arthritis [aHR: 1.29 (95% CI: 1.09-1.54)]; other autoimmune arthritis [aHR: 1.43 (95% CI: 1.33-1.54)]; psoriasis [aHR: 1.42 (95% CI: 1.13-1.78)]; pemphigoid [aHR: 2.39 (95% CI: 1.83-3.11)]; Graves' disease [aHR: 1.30 (95% CI: 1.10-1.54)]; anti-phospholipid antibody syndrome [aHR: 2.12 (95% CI: 1.47-3.05)]; immune mediated thrombocytopenia [aHR: 2.1 (95% CI: 1.82-2.43)]; multiple sclerosis [aHR: 2.66 (95% CI: 1.17-6.05)]; vasculitis [aHR: 1.46 (95% CI: 1.04-2.04)]. Among COVID-19 patients, completion of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine shows a decreased risk of pemphigoid, Graves' disease, anti-phospholipid antibody syndrome, immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, systemic lupus erythematosus and other autoimmune arthritis. Interpretation: Our findings suggested that COVID-19 is associated with an increased risk of developing various ADs and the risk could be attenuated by COVID-19 vaccination. Future studies investigating pathology and mechanisms would be valuable to interpreting our findings. Funding: Supported by RGC Collaborative Research Fund (C7154-20GF).

Boron Modified Bifunctional Cu/SiO2 Catalysts with Enhanced Metal Dispersion and Surface Acid Sites for Selective Hydrogenation of Dimethyl Oxalate to Ethylene Glycol and Ethanol.

Boron (B) promoter modified Cu/SiO2 bifunctional catalysts were synthesized by sol-gel method and used to produce ethylene glycol (EG) and ethanol (EtOH) through efficient hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate (DMO). Experimental results showed that boron promoter could significantly improve the catalytic performance by improving the structural characteristics of the Cu/SiO2 catalysts. The optimized 2B-Cu/SiO2 catalyst exhibited excellent low temperature catalytic activity and long-term stability, maintaining the average EG selectivity (Sel.EG) of 95% at 190 °C, and maintaining the average EtOH selectivity (Sel.EtOH) of 88% at 260 °C, with no decrease even after reaction of 150 h, respectively. Characterization results revealed that doping with boron promoter could significantly increase the copper dispersion, enhance the metal-support interaction, maintain suitable Cu+/(Cu+ + Cu0) ratio, and diminish metallic copper particles during the hydrogenation of DMO. Thus, this work introduced a bifunctional boron promoter, which could not only improve the copper dispersion, reduce the formation of bulk copper oxide, but also properly enhance the acidity of the sample surface, so that the Cu/SiO2 sample could exhibit superior EG selectivity at low temperature, as well as improving the EtOH selectivity at high temperature.

Environmental implications of reduced electricity consumption in Wuhan during COVID-19 outbreak: A brief study.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Wuhan was locked down from 23 January 2020 to 8 April 2020, a total of 76 days. It is well known that the electricity consumption is a direct reflection of human activity. During the lockdown of Wuhan, most of human activities were forbidden. The reduction in human activity would inevitably lead to a reduction in electricity consumption. At the same time, anthropogenic emissions of air pollutants would also be reduced with the reduction of human activity. In this study, the correlation between electricity consumption and air pollutants during lockdown was discussed in detail. The result showed that the drop in pollutants concentrations in January should be attributed to the washout effect of rainfall rather than the lockdown. The decrease of electricity consumption in the secondary industry might play a significant role on the decrease of PM 2.5 and NO2 concentrations in Wuhan in February 2020. The decrease in NO2 concentration in March should be attributed to the reduction of pollutants emissions from the tertiary industry, which means that more attention should be paid to the control of NO2 emission in the tertiary industry. Due to reduced emissions from local sources, the role of long-range transport sources might be more significant during the lockdown of Wuhan. By PSCF analysis, southeast of Wuhan could be the major potential emission sources of PM 2.5 , especially in the northern part of Jiangxi province. It was suggested that stricter regulation of pollutants emissions should be implemented in this area.

Identification of Long Noncoding RNAs lnc-DC in Plasma as a New Biomarker for Primary Sjögren's Syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the plasma levels of lnc-DC in primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) patients and investigate the potential associations between lnc-DC and disease activity. METHODS: In this study, we recruited 358 enrollments, including 127 pSS patients without immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), 22 pSS patients with ITP, 50 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients, and 50 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 109 healthy individuals, from Xuzhou Central Hospital. The expression of anti-SSA and anti-SSB was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Spearman rank correlation test was used to analyze the relationship between lnc-DC and pSS activity. pSS activity was measured by anti-SSA, anti-SSB antibody, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and ß 2-microglobulin levels. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the diagnostic performance of plasma lnc-DC for pSS. RESULTS: Compared with healthy controls, SLE and RA patients, the lnc-DC expression levels were significantly elevated in pSS patients (P < 0.001), especially in pSS patients with ITP (P < 0.001). As expected, we also found that the lnc-DC expression positively correlated with anti-SSA (R 2 = 0.290, P < 0.001), anti-SSB (R 2 = 0.172, P < 0.001), ESR level (R 2 = 0.076, P = 0.002), and ß 2-microglobulin level (R 2 = 0.070, P = 0.003) in pSS patients. ROC curves showed that plasma lnc-DC in pSS patients had an AUC 0.80 with a sensitivity of 0.75 and specificity of 0.85 at the optimum cutoff 1.06 in discriminating SLE and RA patients. In addition, the combination of lnc-DC and anti-SSA/SSB (AUC: 0.84, sensitivity: 0.79, specificity: 0.90) improved significantly the diagnostic ability of pSS patients from SLE and RA patients. In the efficacy monitoring study, levels of plasma lnc-DC were dramatically decreased after treatment (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: These findings highlight that plasma lnc-DC as a novel biomarker for the diagnosis of pSS and can be used to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of pSS underwent interventional therapy.

Clinical application of the AUC-guided dosage adjustment of docetaxel-based chemotherapy for patients with solid tumours: a single centre, prospective and randomised control study.

BACKGROUND: Docetaxel (DTX) is a widely used anti-tumour drug, and its dosage is solely determined by body surface area (BSA). Adverse events, such as neutropenia or unsatisfied efficacy, likely occur because of differences in the pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics of patients. Thus, a feasible dosage adjustment method is needed. METHODS: A total of 209 eligible patients who provided consent were enrolled and randomised into two groups to receive the BSA- and PK-guided dosage adjustments of DTX-based chemotherapy (3 weeks per cycle). The AUC of DTX was detected, and the therapeutic window for Chinese patients was determined. The proportion of patients within the therapeutic window was evaluated. Neutropenia was examined in accordance with the toxicity grading standard suggested by the World Health Organisation. Tumour response was assessed in accordance with Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1. The primary endpoint was the incidence of neutropenia, and the secondary endpoints were disease control rate (DCR) and 3-year survival rate. RESULTS: The therapeutic window for Chinese patients was 1.7-2.5 mg·h/L. The proportion of patients within the therapeutic window was 63.89% versus 28.33% (P < 0.0001), and the incidence of neutropenia was 68.33% versus 38.89% (P = 0.001) in the experimental group versus the control group in the sixth cycle, respectively. DCR was 72% versus 85% (P = 0.018) in the control group versus the experimental group. The 3-year survival rate of the PK group was significantly higher than that of the BSA group (P = 0.034). CONCLUSIONS: The PK-guided dosage adjustment of DTX could significantly increase the proportion of patients within the therapeutic window, decrease the incidence of neutropenia and increase the DCR and the 3-year survival rate. The PK-guided dosage adjustment based on the dynamic monitoring of AUC could be a useful method for oncologists to improve individualised treatment options, optimise drug efficacy and reduce drug toxicity.

Pharmacokinetics-based Dose Management of 5-Fluorouracil Clinical Research in Advanced Colorectal Cancer Treatment.

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to explore the efficacy of pharmacokinetic-based 5-fluorouracil dose management by plasma concentration test in advanced colorectal cancer treatment. METHODS: 153 samples of advanced colorectal cancer patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to a control group and an experimental group. All patients received double-week chemotherapy with 5- fluorouracil (four weeks were used as one period), and chemotherapy duration ranged from 2 to 6 periods. In the first period, all patients were administered with the classic strategy of body surface area (BSA). RESULTS: In the subsequent periods, the control group (77 samples) continued with BSA guided chemotherapy, while the experimental group (76 samples) received pharmacokinetic AUC-based chemotherapy. The efficacy and toxic side effects were assessed during chemotherapy, and survival was recorded in a follow-up. In the AUC experimental group, the rate of diarrhea significantly decreased (37.50% vs. 70.00%, P=0.010), and incidence of oral mucositis reduced (54.17% vs. 82.50%, P=0.014). Compared with the control group, the clinical benefit rate of experimental group was much higher (90.79% vs. 79.22%, P=0.046). CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference in other 5-fluorouracil related toxic side effect events (nausea, vomiting, hand-foot syndrome) and progression-free survival between the two groups. Pharmacokinetic- based dose management of 5-Fluorouracil reduces the toxicity of chemotherapy and improves long-term efficacy of chemotherapy for advanced colorectal cancer patients.

(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(HCOO)5: An Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Conducting Magnet.

This month's cover picture results from Professor Bin Zhang's collaborative work between Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking University (China). Since the discovery of high-temperature superconductors for hole doping on parent antiferromagnetic compound La2CuO4, the antiferromagnetic molecular crystal with a (4,4) grid copper-formate framework Cu(HCOO)2(H2O)4 and its deuterated compound (Cu(DCOO)2(D2O)4) have been studied extensively for supposed dual-functional molecular crystals. The cover picture shows the ideal situation by replacing intercalated H2O with an organic donor. The organic-inorganic hybrid (BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(HCOO)5 is obtained through the electrochemical oxidation of neutral BEDT-TTF in the presence of an ammonium salt of the 1D copper-formate framework [(C2H5)3NH]2Cu2(HCOO)5 in a C6H5Cl-C2H5OH solution. For more details, read the full text of the Communication at 10.1002/open.201700041.

(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(HCOO)5: An Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Conducting Magnet.

A dual-functional organic-inorganic hybrid (BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(HCOO)5 (1) (BEDT-TTF=bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene) was obtained through the electrochemical oxidation of neutral BEDT-TTF in the presence of an ammonium salt of the one-dimensional copper-formate framework [(C2H5)3NH]2Cu2(HCOO)5 in a C6H5Cl-C2H5OH solution. Compound 1 was composed of organic donor BEDT-TTF+0⋅5 in a θ-phase arrangement and Jahn-Teller distorted (4,4) grid anion sheets [Cu2(HCOO)5-] n with S=1/2. We identified the material as a semiconductor with values of σ300K=10-1 S cm-1. The anion sheet is a coordination isomer of [Cu2(HCOO)5-] n and, compared with the starting material, shows antiferromagnetic behavior as the well-known inorganic Cu-O, Co-O square layers for creating inorganic conducting magnets. Long-range antiferromagnetic ordering was observed at 8.0 K.

{5,10,15,20-Tetra-kis[4-(hex-yloxy)phen-yl]porphyrinato}nickel(II).

The mol-ecule of the title compound, [Ni(C(68)H(76)N(4)O(4))], is located on a crystallographic inversion center. The Ni-N distances within the square-shaped coordination environment are 1.951 (2) and 1.954 (2) Å. Three terminal C atoms in one of the hexyl groups are disordered over two sets of sites, with site-occupancy factors of 0.615 (13) and 0.385 (13).

{5,10,15,20-Tetra-kis[4-(oct-yloxy)phen-yl]porphyrinato}copper(II).

In the title compound, [Cu(C(76)H(92)N(4)O(4))], the central Cu(II) ion is situated on an inversion centre. The porphyrinate core exhibits a nearly planar conformation [maximum deviation = 0.027 (3) Å], with Cu-N distances of 1.997 (2) and 2.001 (2) Å. The benzene rings of the 4-octyloxyphenyl groups are rotated at angles of 84.02 (8) and 77.02 (6)° with respect to the mean plane of the porphyrin fragment. The two terminal C atoms in the octyl group are disordered over two positions of equal occupancy.

{meso-Tetra-kis[p-(hept-yloxy)phen-yl]-porphyrinato}silver(II).

The title compound, [Ag(C(72)H(84)N(4)O(4))], crystallizes with the Ag(II) cation on a centre of symmetry. The macrocyclic 24-membered ring core is planar with a mean deviation of 0.0311 (15) Šand the four-coordinate Ag(II) cation fits into its center, at 2.0814 (19) and 2.0872 (19) Å, from the surrounding pyrrole-N atoms, in agreement with what is found in related compounds. The p-heptyl-oxyphenyl groups are rotated 75.51 (5) and 84.45 (8)° with respect to the porphyrin mean plane, due to steric hindrance with the pyrrole-H atoms of the macrocycle.

[(1,3-Benzothia-zol-2-yl)amino-carbon-yl]meth-yl piperidine-1-carbodithio-ate monohydrate.

In the title compound, C(15)H(17)N(3)OS(3)·H(2)O, the piperidine ring has a chair conformation. The crystal structure is stabilized by weak inter-molecular N-H⋯O, O-H⋯N and O-H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter-actions.

[meso-Tetra-kis(4-heptyl-oxyphen-yl)porphyrinato]nickel(II).

In the title compound, [Ni(C(72)H(84)N(4)O(4))], the four-coordinate Ni(II) ion in the middle of the planar 24-membered porphyrin ring is located on a crystallograpic inversion center, with Ni-N distances of 1.946 (2)-1.951 (2) Å. The 4-heptyl-oxyphenyl groups are twisted with respect to the porphyrin mean plane, the dihedral angles being 88.5 (3) and 79.1 (2)°.

Cloning and expression of a novel thermostable cellulase from newly isolated Bacillus subtilis strain I15.

A novel bacterial strain with high cellulase activity (2.82 U/ml) was isolated, and then identified by its morphological character and 16S rRNA sequence, and named Bacillus subtilis strain I15. The extracellular thermostable cellulase exhibited the maximum activity at 60 degrees C and pH 6.0. It was very stable since more than 90% of original CMCase activity was maintained at 65 degrees C after incubation for 2 h. The cellulase gene, celI15, was cloned and extracellularly expressed by Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3), which encoded the extracellular protein of about 52 kDa. The extracellular activity of CelI15 from E. coli BL21 was up to about 6.78 U/ml, and all the other properties were almost the same as that from the wild-type strain.

Molecular interface effect of heterogeneous molecular junctions consisting of nonfluorinated and fluorinated phthalocyanines.

We report the tunneling behavior of homogeneous and heterogeneous molecular junctions using p-type molecules of iron phthalocyanine (FePc), phthalocyanine (H(2)Pc), and copper(II) octaalkoxyl substituted phthalocyanine (CuPcOC8) and n-type molecule of copper hexadecafluorophthalocyanine (F(16)CuPc). The molecular films formed on the electrode surfaces were inspected by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The measured characteristic tunneling curves of single-component phthalocyanines revealed comparable energy gaps for homogeneous tunneling junctions using the photoemission method. In contrast, for the heterogeneous tunnel junctions of mixed phthalocyanines including fluorinated phthalocyanine a distinctive offset of the energy gaps to the positive bias voltage direction can be clearly identified. It is suggested that the substitution of phthalocyanines and surface affinity of phthalocyanines could contribute to the controlled phase separation within the heterogeneous tunneling junctions. The apparent shift of the tunneling spectra is attributed to the existence of an internal electric field originated with the phase separation of the binary mixture of p-type and n-type phthalocyanines within the tunneling junction.

Charge-transfer effect at the interface of phthalocyanine-electrode contact studied by scanning tunneling spectroscopy.

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) are used in this work to investigate the charge-transfer effect at the molecule-substrate interface of substituted metal phthalocyanines. STS results revealed that the apparent energy gaps for both fluorinated phthalocyanines and unsubstituted phthalocyanines are essentially the same, which agree with the hybrid density functional calculations. More interestingly, there is a systematic shift of the energy level of valence bands, possibly as the result of charge-transfer effect at the molecule-substrate interface.

Tunneling characteristics of octadecyl derivatives on tin and indium electrodes.

In this paper we report the tunneling behavior based on the capillary tunnel junctions of n-octadecylmercaptan (C18H37SH), octadecylamine (C18H37NH2), nonadecanoic acid (C17H35COOH), octadecanol (C18H370H), and n-iodooctadecane (C18H37I), sandwiched between tin and indium electrodes utilizing the naturally existing oxide surfaces, respectively. The surfaces of the electrodes were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) methods, and the self-assembled monolayers adsorbed on the electrode surfaces were inspected by contact angle measurements and XPS. The measured characteristic curves on tin electrode indicated a sequence of energy gaps associated with the specimen: deltaC17H35COOH > deltaC18H37OH > deltaC18H37SH > deltaC18H37NH2 > deltaC18lH37I. The results on the energy gaps obtained on indium electrodes displayed similar sequence behavior although with different gap values. The experimental observations indicate that the molecule-electrode contact, including both the functional groups and substrates, could contribute jointly to the overall conductance characteristics of molecular junctions.