As breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women in Singapore, encouraging them to engage in preventive measures becomes increasingly important. This study aims to take a closer look at the influence of attention to media, interpersonal communication, news elaboration, and knowledge on women's (aged between 30 and 70) perceived risks of breast cancer and their intentions to engage in preventive measures in Singapore. Attention to media, frequency of interpersonal communication, fatalistic belief, and knowledge structure density were found to be associated with risk perception of breast cancer among Singaporean women. Findings also showed that frequency of interpersonal communication, risk perception, elaboration, and factual knowledge were positively associated with women's intentions to take up preventive measures such as breast selfexamination, clinical breast examination, and mammography. Implications for theory and practice were discussed.

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This study aimed to explore cross-country differences in the characteristics and determinations of self–other risk perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. We distinguished perceived risk to self from perceived risk to others and subdivided risk perceptions into three levels: personal, group, and societal. We focused on the differential impact of multiple communication channels (i.e., interpersonal communication, traditional media exposure, and new media exposure) on risk perceptions at the three levels. A sample of 790 college students completed self-report online questionnaires from May to June 2020, including 498 in China and 292 in the United States. The results showed an “ascending pattern,” revealing that participants perceived higher levels of risk to others than to themselves. In addition, U.S. college students perceived higher risks of COVID-19 than Chinese college students at all levels. As for the relations between communication and risk perceptions, the results revealed that interpersonal communication and traditional media exposure were more effective with Chinese participants, whereas new media exposure was more effective with U.S. participants. Specifically, interpersonal communication was positively associated with risk perceptions at three levels, and the magnitude of the effect was higher in the Chinese group than in the U.S. group. Traditional media exposure increased societal risk perception only for Chinese college students, and new media exposure increased societal risk perception only for U.S. college students. Our findings provide theoretical implications for the characteristics and forming mechanisms of risk perceptions and also provide practical implications for policymakers in the two countries to implement effective measures to foster individuals’ risk perceptions in relation to preventive behaviors.

Background: Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. The purpose of our meta-analysis was to assess the risk factors for brain metastases (BM) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods: Multiple databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang, were systematically searched to recruit relevant studies investigating the risk factors for BM in NSCLC patients. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to evaluate literature quality, and the meta-analysis was performed using the Review Manager 5.3. Evidence quality evaluation was carried out according to the Grading of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) standard. The estimated odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were set as effect measures. Funnel plots and sensitivity analyses were used to assess publication bias and the robustness and reliability of the combined results, respectively.Results: A total of 43 studies with 11,415 participants were included in this meta-analysis. The results indicated that the following factors were significantly associated with an increased risk of BM in NSCLC patients (P<0.05): (I) gender (female) (OR =1.

Fungal immunoregulatory proteins (FIP) are effective small molecule proteins with broad-spectrum immunomodulatory and anti-cancer activities and can be potential agents for the development of clinical drugs and health food additives. In this study, a new member of FIP named FIP-bbo was obtained through Botryobasidium botryosum genome mining. FIP-bbo has the typical characteristics of FIP but is genetically distant from other FIPs. Recombinant FIP-bbo (rFIP-bbo) was produced in an optimized E. coli expression system, and the pure protein was isolated using a Ni-NTA column. Antineoplastic experiments suggested that FIP-bbo is similar to LZ-8 in inhibiting various cancer cells (Hela, Spac-1, and A549) at lower concentrations, but it is not as potent as LZ-8. The molecular mechanism by which FIP-bbo, FIP-fve, and LZ-8 are cytotoxic to cancer cells has been discussed based on molecular dynamics simulation. Point mutations that may improve the thermal stability of FIP-fve and FIP-bbo were predicted. These results not only present a new candidate protein for the development of anticancer adjuvants, but also provide an approach for designing FIPs with high anticancer activity.

Objectives: To study the effect of ultrashort wave combined with loxoprofen sodium on serum inflammatory factors in patients with acute gouty arthritis. Methods: Records of patients with acute gouty arthritis who were treated in The Fourth Hospital of Changsha from May 2018 to September 2020, were reviewed. Of them, 77 cases were selected and divided into two groups based on the received treatment. The control group (n=39) was treated with loxoprofen sodium, and the treatment group (n=38) was treated with an ultrashort wave combined with loxoprofen sodium, for 10 continuous days. The clinical efficacy of the treatment in two groups was analyzed. Results: After treatment, the quality of life of patients in both groups was improved (P < 0.05), but there was no significant difference in the degree of improvement between the two groups (P > 0.05). After treatment, the VAS score of the treatment group was lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05), the improvement of symptoms and signs of the treatment group was better than that of the control group (P < 0.05). Serum CRP and ESR levels in the treatment group were lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05), and the serum IL-1 β, IL-8, TNF-a and MMP-3 levels of the treatment group were lower than those of the control group (P < 0.05). The total effective rate of the treatment group (94.87%) was slightly higher than that of the control group (89.47%), but the difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05). No adverse reactions occurred in all patients during the treatment. Conclusion: An ultrashort wave combined with loxoprofen sodium in the treatment of acute gouty arthritis can reduce the inflammatory reaction, improve the degree of joint pain and swelling, improve the curative effect, and do not increase the adverse reactions. The results may be related to the regulation of IL-1 β, IL-8, TNF-a and MMP-3. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.4765 How to cite this:Wu Y, Wang Y, Yuan W, Xiao X, Cheng G. Changes in serum inflammatory factors in acute gouty arthritis patients treated using ultrashort wave combined with loxoprofen sodium. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(7):---------.  doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.7.4765 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Background Stringent nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) have been implemented worldwide to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, and the circulation and seasonality of common respiratory viruses have subsequently changed. There have been few multicentre studies or comparisons of the prevalence of respiratory viruses accounting for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in hospitalized children between the pre-COVID period and the period after community and school reopening in the setting of the zero-COVID policy. Methods We included 1543 children with CAP who required hospitalization from November 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021 (period 1), and 629 children with the same conditions from November 1, 2018, to April 30, 2019 (period 2), in our study. All respiratory samples from these patients were screened for six respiratory viruses (respiratory syncytial virus [RSV], adenovirus [ADV], influenza A virus [Flu A], influenza B virus [Flu B], parainfluenza virus type 1 [PIV1], and parainfluenza virus type 3 [PIV3]) using a multiplex real-time PCR assay. Results and conclusions The median ages of the enrolled patients at the time of diagnosis were 1.5 years and 1.0 years for period 1 and period 2, respectively. In period 1, viral pathogens were detected in 50.3% (776/1543) of the enrolled patients. The most frequently identified viral pathogen was RSV (35.9%, 554/1543), followed by PIV3 (9.6%, 148/1543), PIV1 (3.6%, 56/1543), ADV (3.4%, 52/1543), Flu A (1.0%, 16/1543), and Flu B (0.8%, 13/1543). The total detection rates of these six viruses in the peak season of CAP were at the pre-COVID level. The prevalence of Flu A decreased dramatically, and circulation activity was low compared to pre-COVID levels, while the incidence of PIV3 increased significantly. There were no significant differences in the detection rates of RSV, ADV, Flu B, and PIV1 between the two periods. Our results showed that respiratory viruses accounted for CAP in hospitalized children at pre-COVID levels as communities and schools reopened within the zero-COVID policy, although the prevalence aetiology spectrum varied.