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Percentage total weight loss (%TWL) might be better than percentage excess weight loss to express weight loss in bariatric surgery. In this systematic review, performed according to the PRISMA statement, results of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB) are assessed in %TWL. A total of 13,426 studies were screened and 49 included, reporting data of 24,760 patients. The results show that, despite limiting data, LRYGB is favorable over LSG in terms of weight loss in short-term follow-up. Although recent guidelines recommend to use %TWL when reporting outcome in bariatric surgery, this study shows that there is still insufficient quality data in %TWL, especially on LSG. The use of %TWL as the primary outcome measure in bariatric surgery should be encouraged. Graphical abstract

The current study was planned to evaluate the supplementation of Polyvinylpyrrolidone in extender on cryopreservation of Nili-Ravi buffalo bull semen. The semen samples were collected from Nili-Ravi buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) bull kept at SPU Qadirabad, District Sahiwal, Pakistan. Qualifying semen ejaculates having motility >60%, volume >5-6ml and concentration >0.5 billion/ ml were diluted 50 × 106 motile sperm ml approximately at 37°C in Tris-citric acid extender supplemented with different concentrations of PVP (0.01, 0.05, 0.1mM). The extender without PVP was kept as control. Semen was stored at 4°C for a period of 2 h and kept at 4°C for 4h. Semen was filled in 0.5 ml French straws using suction pump at 4°C, plunged and stored in liquid nitrogen (-196°C). Semen straws were rewarmed at 37°C for 30 seconds and assessed for sperm motility, plasma membrane integrity (PMI), dead sperm percentage and the live sperm percentage. The data on the role of PVP on different parameters of semen quality were analyzed by using ANOVA and RCBD. Higher percentage (P< 0.05) of sperm motility (66.1±7.51 and 59.4±10.72) and PMI (72.9±5.39 and 75.7±6.5) was observed in extenders having 0.05 mM and 0.1mM PVP compared to extenders having 1.5mM PVP and control. The percentage acrosomal integrity was observed greater (P< 0.05) in extended semen containing 0.1mM (68.2±0.50) PVP compared to extenders having 0.01 and control.

Two derivatives of the numeric rating scale (NRS) and visual analog scale (VAS), namely patient-reported percentage pain reduction (PRPPR) and calculated percentage pain reduction (CPPR), are commonly used when evaluating pain reduction. A small number of studies have attempted to assess the agreement between PRPPR and CPPR. However, they have been limited in their scope by a focus on specific types of pain, or by their focus on specific treatment modalities. As far as the authors of this article are aware, this is the first study to assess the agreement between PRPPR and CPPR in chronic pain patients, as well as the first to assess how the duration of treatment affects the correlations between PRPPR and CPPR. The aim of this retrospective analysis was to determine whether the duration of treatment affects CPPR and PRPPR, and the discrepancy and agreement between the two. Additionally, the study assessed whether individual treatment modalities, or the lack there of, impacted the discrepancy and correlation between PRPPR and CPPR. The mean PRPPR and CPPR for the entire patient population were 59.98 and 40.71, respectively. The mean discrepancy between the two parameters was 19.27. The agreement between PRPPR and CPPR, as measured by the concordance correlation coefficient, was 0.984 (95% C.I., 0.982–0.986).

Background With the increase in the aging population worldwide, Alzheimer's disease has become a rapidly increasing public health concern. Monitoring the dementia disease burden will support health development strategies by providing scientific data. Methods Based on data obtained from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database, the numbers and age-standardized rates (ASRs) of incidence, prevalence, death and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias from 1990 to 2019 were analyzed. Calculated estimated annual percentage changes (EAPCs) and Joinpoint regression analyses were performed to evaluate trends during this period. We also evaluated the correlations between the epidemiology with the sociodemographic index (SDI), an indicator to evaluate the level of social development in a country or region that considering the education rate, economic situation and total fertility rate. Results From 1990 to 2019, the incidence and prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias increased by 147.72% and 160.89%, respectively. The ASR of incidence, prevalence, death, and DALYs in both men and female consistently increased over the study period. All the ASRs in female were consistently higher than those in men, but the increases were more pronounced in men. In addition, the ASRs of incidence, prevalence, and DALYs were positively correlated with the SDI. Moreover, the proportion of patients over 70 years old with dementia was also positively correlated with SDI level. Smoking is a major risk factor for the disease burden of dementia in males, while obesity is a major risk factor for females. Conclusions From 1990 to 2019, the Alzheimer’s disease burden increased worldwide. This trend was more serious in high-SDI areas, especially among elderly populations in high-SDI areas, who should receive additional attention. Policy-makers should take steps to reverse this situation. Notably, female were at higher risk for the disease, but the risk in men showed a faster increase. We should give attention to the aging population, attach importance to interventions targeting dementia risk factors, and formulate action plans to address the increasing incidence of dementia.

BACKGROUND: Broad scaling relationships between leaf size and function do not take into account that leaves of different size may contain different fractions of support in petiole and mid-rib. METHODS: The fractions of leaf biomass in petiole, mid-rib and lamina, and the differences in chemistry and structure among mid-ribs, petioles and laminas were investigated in 122 species of contrasting leaf size, life form and climatic distribution to determine the extent to which differences in support modify whole-lamina and whole-leaf structural and chemical characteristics, and the extent to which size-dependent support investments are affected by plant life form and site climate. KEY RESULTS: For the entire data set, leaf fresh mass varied over five orders of magnitude. The percentage of dry mass in mid-rib increased strongly with lamina size, reaching more than 40 % in the largest laminas. The whole-leaf percentage of mid-rib and petiole increased with leaf size, and the overall support investment was more than 60 % in the largest leaves. Fractional support investments were generally larger in herbaceous than in woody species and tended to be lower in Mediterranean than in cool temperate and tropical plants. Mid-ribs and petioles had lower N and C percentages, and lower dry to fresh mass ratio, but greater density (mass per unit volume) than laminas. N percentage of lamina without mid-rib was up to 40 % higher in the largest leaves than the total-lamina (lamina and mid-rib) N percentage, and up to 60 % higher than whole-leaf N percentage, while lamina density calculated without mid-rib was up to 80 % less than that with the mid-rib. For all leaf compartments, N percentage was negatively associated with density and dry to fresh mass ratio, while C percentage was positively linked to these characteristics, reflecting the overall inverse scaling between structural and physiological characteristics. However, the correlations between N and C percentages and structural characteristics differed among mid-ribs, petioles and laminas, implying that the mass-weighted average leaf N and C percentage, density, and dry to fresh mass ratio can have different functional values depending on the importance of within-leaf support investments. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that variation in leaf size is associated with major changes in within-leaf support investments and in large modifications in integrated leaf chemical and structural characteristics. These size-dependent alterations can importantly affect general leaf structure vs. function scaling relationships. These data further demonstrate important life-form effects on and climatic differentiation in foliage support costs.

A field experiment was conducted at the agricultural research station, to study the effect of planting dates (three spring dates: February 15, March 1, and March 15), and spray with boron at three concentrations (0, 20, and 30 mg L-1, and 10) on the inflorescence traits of the sweet leaf plant (Stevia). The results showed some floral vital parameters superiority, especially the anthesis date, number of inflorescences on the plant, inflorescence diameter, pollen viability percentage (in-vitro), pollen germination percentage of (in-vitro), and boron concentration in the flower ovary (221.00 days, 3963 inflorescences.plant-1, 7.922 mm, 91.67%, 47.33%, and 51.10 mg L-1, respectively). It could be conclude from this study the significant impact of changing planting dates and boron concentrations on anthesis dates, pollen vitality, fertility percentages, and seeds produced, as inflorescence parameters increased with delaying planting dates to mid-March and increasing boron concentrations

Lymphocytes and neutrophils are involved in the immune response against cancer. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between lymphocyte percentage/neutrophil percentage and the clinical characteristics of lung cancer patients, and to explore whether they could act as valuable predictors to ameliorate lung cancer prognosis. A total of 1312 patients were eligible to be recruited. Lymphocyte percentage and neutrophil percentage were classified based on their reference ranges. Survival curves were determined using Kaplan–Meier method, and univariate and multivariate cox regression analyses were performed to identify the significant predictors. Decision curve analysis was used to evaluate the clinical benefit. The results of both training and validation cohorts indicated that lymphocyte percentage exhibited high correlation with clinical characteristics and metastasis of lung cancer patients. Both lymphocyte percentage and neutrophil percentage were closely associated with survival status (all p < 0.0001). Low lymphocyte percentage could act as an indicator of poor prognosis; it offered a higher clinical benefit when combined with the clinical characteristic model. Our findings suggested that pretreatment lymphocyte percentage served as a reliable predictor of lung cancer prognosis, and it was also an accurate response indicator in lung adenocarcinoma and advanced lung cancer. Measurement of lymphocyte percentage improved the clinical utility of patient characteristics in predicting mortality of lung cancer patients.

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of conditions that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. This study aimed to investigate the association between Neutrophil-Percentage-to-Albumin Ratio (NPAR) and MetS in a large, nationally representative US population. We analyzed data from 28,178 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005–2018. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between NPAR and MetS. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) models were employed to assess the dose-response relationship. Mediation analyses were conducted to explore potential mediating effects of serum uric acid and triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index. After adjusting for confounders, participants in the highest NPAR quartile had a 14% higher risk of MetS compared to those in the lowest quartile (OR 1.14, 95%CI 1.03–1.27, P  = 0.010). RCS models revealed a monotonic increasing trend between NPAR and MetS risk (P for overall association = 0.002). Mediation analyses showed that serum uric acid and TyG index mediated 14.93% and 29.45% of the total effect of NPAR on MetS, respectively. Subgroup analyses indicated that the positive association between NPAR and MetS was more pronounced in Mexican Americans, individuals aged 20–65 years, those with lower income, males, current smokers, and moderate drinkers. Higher NPAR is associated with increased risk of MetS in the US adult population. This association is partially mediated by serum uric acid and TyG index. These findings suggest that NPAR may serve as a novel biomarker for MetS risk assessment and provide insights into potential mechanisms linking inflammation and metabolic disorders.

T cell responses are initiated by antigen and promoted by a range of costimulatory signals. Understanding how T cells integrate alternative signal combinations and make decisions affecting immune response strength or tolerance poses a considerable theoretical challenge. Here, we report that T cell receptor (TCR) and costimulatory signals imprint an early, cell-intrinsic, division fate, whereby cells effectively count through generations before returning automatically to a quiescent state. This autonomous program can be extended by cytokines. Signals from the TCR, costimulatory receptors, and cytokines add together using a linear division calculus, allowing the strength of a T cell response to be predicted from the sum of the underlying signal components. These data resolve a long-standing costimulation paradox and provide a quantitative paradigm for therapeutically manipulating immune response strength.

We describe a state-of-the-art sentiment analysis system that detects (a) the sentiment of short informal textual messages such as tweets and SMS (message-level task) and (b) the sentiment of a word or a phrase within a message (term-level task). The system is based on a supervised statistical text classification approach leveraging a variety of surface-form, semantic, and sentiment features. The sentiment features are primarily derived from novel high-coverage tweet-specific sentiment lexicons. These lexicons are automatically generated from tweets with sentiment-word hashtags and from tweets with emoticons. To adequately capture the sentiment of words in negated contexts, a separate sentiment lexicon is generated for negated words. The system ranked first in the SemEval-2013 shared task `Sentiment Analysis in Twitter' (Task 2), obtaining an F-score of 69.02 in the message-level task and 88.93 in the term-level task. Post-competition improvements boost the performance to an F-score of 70.45 (message-level task) and 89.50 (term-level task). The system also obtains state-of-the-art performance on two additional datasets: the SemEval-2013 SMS test set and a corpus of movie review excerpts. The ablation experiments demonstrate that the use of the automatically generated lexicons results in performance gains of up to 6.5 absolute percentage points.