To evaluate the prognostic value of electrocardiographic ventricular repolarisation parameters in children with dilated cardiomyopathy.

A retrospective study was conducted involving 89 children with dilated cardiomyopathy [age 5.24 (4.32, 6.15) years] as the research group, and a control group consisting of 80 healthy children matched for age and sex. Within the research group, there were 76 cases in the survival subgroup and 13 cases in the death subgroup. Ventricular repolarisation parameters were measured.

(1) Compared to the control group, both QTcmax and QTcmin were significantly prolonged in the research group (P < 0.01). Additionally, Tp-Te /QT ratios for leads III, aVL, V1, V2, and V3 showed an increase (P < 0.05), while T-wave amplitudes for leads I, II, aVL, aVF, V4, V5, and V6 exhibited a decrease (P < 0.05). (2) In comparison to the survival subgroup, the diameters of the LV, RV, LA, and RA in the death subgroup were enlarged, while the left ventricular ejection fraction and eft ventricular fractional shortening were decreased (P < 0.05). The Tp-Te /QT ratios for leads aVR, V5, and V6 also increased notably (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). The T-wave amplitude readings from leads II, aVF, and V6 demonstrated significant reductions (P < 0.05).

Abnormal ventricular repolarisation parameters were found in dilated cardiomyopathy children. Increased Tp-Te /QT ratios in aVR, V5, and V6 leads and decreased T-wave amplitudes in II, aVF, and V6 leads were risk factors for predicting mortality in children with dilated cardiomyopathy.

As cities like Beijing expand rapidly, green and blue spaces (GBS)—essential for ecosystem services (ESs) such as clean air, flood control, and recreation—are increasingly threatened. This 20-year study examines how urban expansion and policy interventions have shaped Beijing’s GBS. While green initiatives have increased natural areas, unchecked urban sprawl has fragmented these spaces, reducing their environmental benefits. Satellite data and urban planning analyses underscore a key lesson: maintaining well-connected natural zones is critical for urban resilience. These findings are broadly applicable for rapidly growing cities globally, urging urban planners to integrate ecological conservation with development, and to safeguard healthy environments and vibrant communities.

This study quantifies the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban GBS in Beijing, evaluating their essential role in delivering ESs and strengthening urban resilience. Although China has achieved substantial progress in urban greening, the ecological impacts of rapid urbanization on GBS configuration and connectivity have not been comprehensively quantified. Using an integrated analytical framework combining principal component analysis and multiple linear regression, we reveal how urban development strategies have shaped GBS dynamics over two decades. A spatially explicit analysis, utilizing geographically weighted regression, further elucidates the heterogeneous relationships among the normalized difference vegetation index, human footprint index, and ESs delivery capacity. Notably, socioeconomic incentives and green infrastructure governance—especially objective indicators such as forest, garden, and greenspace area—have effectively driven GBS expansion. However, urban expansion has led to pronounced fragmentation of peri-urban GBS, suggesting potential degradation of their ecosystem service support functions. These findings emphasize the need for adaptive GBS management strategies that balance ecological conservation with sustainable urban growth in rapidly developing cities.

Urban growth fragments green and blue spaces, reducing vital ecosystem services. Balancing conservation with development is essential for sustainable cities.

We investigated vitamin D (VitD) nutritional status in children aged 2–6 years to provide a basis for prevention and intervention strategies for VitD deficiency (VitDD) in Chinese children.

From November 2018 to September 2019, a total of 2192 healthy children aged 2–6 years were enrolled. The serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations were measured by liquid chromatography tandem MS.

Twelve jurisdictions in eight provinces and cities across northern and southern China were selected through stratified cluster sampling.

2192 children aged 2–6 years were enrolled.

(1) A serum 25(OH)D concentration of 23·87 (sd 8·24) ng/ml, a VitDS rate of 65·2 %, an insufficiency rate of 29·6 % and a deficiency rate of 5·2 % were noted. (2) Age (OR = 2·22, 95 % CI 1·86, 2·64) and spring (OR = 1·35, 95 % CI 0·91, 2·01) are risk factors for VitDD and VitDI. The male (OR = 0·68, 95 % CI 0·52, 0·90), the temperature (OR = 0·89, 95 % CI 0·86, 0·93), summer (OR = 0·25, 95 % CI 0·09, 0·68), autumn (OR = 0·26, 95 % CI 0·09, 0·74) the intake of VitD supplements (OR = 0·08, 95 % CI 0·03, 0·28), the intake frequency of dairy products (OR = 0·86, 95 % CI 0·78, 0·96) and egg products (OR = 0·83, 95 % CI 0·74, 0·93) are protective factors for VitDD and VitDI.

VitDD in children aged 2–6 years is still prevalent in China, but the influencing factors of VitD nutrition have changed. Latitude is not the main factor in the 25(OH)D concentrations of children aged 2–6 years; temperature, intake of eggs and dairy products and sampling season have more obvious impacts.

We sought to assess the degree to which environmental risk factors affect CHD prevalence using a case–control study.

A hospital-based study was conducted by collecting data from outpatients between January 2016 and January 2021, which included 31 CHD cases and 72 controls from eastern China. Risk ratios were estimated using univariate and multivariate logistic regression models and mediating effect analysis.

Residential characteristics (usage of cement flooring, odds ratio = 17.04[1.954–148.574], P = 0.01; musty smell, odds ratio = 3.105[1.198–8.051], P = 0.02) and indoor total volatile organic compound levels of participants’ room (odds ratio = 31.846[8.187–123.872, P < 0.001), benzene level (odds ratio = 7.370[2.289–23.726], P = 0.001) increased the risk of CHDs in offspring. And folic acid plays a masking effect, which mitigates the affection of the total volatile organic compound (indirect effect = -0.072[−0.138,-0.033]) and formaldehyde (indirect effect = −0.109[-0.381,-0.006]) levels on the incidence of CHDs. While food intake including milk (odds ratio = 0.396[0.16–0.977], P = 0.044), sea fish (odds ratio = 0.273[0.086–0.867], P = 0.028), and wheat (odds ratio = 0.390[0.154–0.990], P = 0.048) were all protective factors for the occurrence of CHDs. Factors including women reproductive history (history of conception control, odds ratio = 2.648[1.062–6.603], P = 0.037; history of threatened abortion, odds ratio = 2.632[1.005–6.894], P = 0.049; history of dysmenorrhoea (odds ratio = 2.720[1.075–6.878], P = 0.035); sleep status (napping habit during daytime, odds ratio = 0.856[0.355–2.063], P = 0.047; poor sleep quality, odds ratio = 3.180[1.037–9.754], P = 0.043); and work status (working time > 40h weekly, odds ratio = 2.882[1.172–7.086], P = 0.021) also influenced the CHDs incidence to differing degrees.

Diet habits, nutrients intake, psychological status of pregnant women, and residential air quality were associated with fetal CHDs. Indoor total volatile organic compound content was significantly correlated with CHDs risk, and folic acid may serve as a masking factor that reduce the harmful effects of air pollutants.

Evidence suggests the crucial role of dysfunctional default mode (DMN), salience and frontoparietal (FPN) networks, collectively termed the triple network model, in the pathophysiology of treatment-resistant depression (TRD).

Using the graph theory- and seed-based functional connectivity analyses, we attempted to elucidate the role of low-dose ketamine in the triple networks, namely the DMN, salience and FPN.

Resting-state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (rs–fcMRI) data derived from two previous clinical trials of a single, low-dose ketamine infusion were analysed. In clinical trial 1 (Trial 1), patients with TRD were randomised to either a ketamine or normal saline group, while in clinical trial 2 (Trial 2) those patients with TRD and pronounced suicidal symptoms received a single infusion of either 0.05 mg/kg ketamine or 0.045 mg/kg midazolam. All participants underwent rs–fcMRI pre and post infusion at Day 3. Both graph theory- and seed-based functional connectivity analyses were performed independently.

Trial 1 demonstrated significant group-by-time effects on the degree centrality and cluster coefficient in the right posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) cortex ventral 23a and b (DMN) and the cluster coefficient in the right supramarginal gyrus perisylvian language (salience). Trial 2 found a significant group-by-time effect on the characteristic path length in the left PCC 7Am (DMN). In addition, both ketamine and normal saline infusions exerted a time effect on the cluster coefficient in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex a9-46v (FPN) in Trial 1.

These findings may support the utility of the triple-network model in elucidating ketamine’s antidepressant effect. Alterations in DMN, salience and FPN function may underlie this effect.

Recent studies have increasingly utilized gradient metrics to investigate the spatial transitions of brain organization, enabling the conversion of macroscale brain features into low-dimensional manifold representations. However, it remains unclear whether alterations exist in the cortical morphometric similarity (MS) network gradient in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ). This study aims to examine potential differences in the principal MS gradient between individuals with SCZ and healthy controls and to explore how these differences relate to transcriptional profiles and clinical phenomenology.

MS network was constructed in this study, and its gradient of the network was computed in 203 patients with SCZ and 201 healthy controls, who shared the same demographics in terms of age and gender. To examine irregularities in the MS network gradient, between-group comparisons were carried out, and partial least squares regression analysis was used to study the relationships between the MS network gradient-based variations in SCZ, and gene expression patterns and clinical phenotype.

In contrast to healthy controls, the principal MS gradient of patients with SCZ was primarily significantly lower in sensorimotor areas, and higher in more areas. In addition, the aberrant gradient pattern was spatially linked with the genes enriched for neurobiologically significant pathways and preferential expression in various brain regions and cortical layers. Furthermore, there were strong positive connections between the principal MS gradient and the symptomatologic score in SCZ.

These findings showed changes in the principal MS network gradient in SCZ and offered potential molecular explanations for the structural changes underpinning SCZ.

Demoralization isa common psychological problem in cancer patients. The purpose of this study is to systematically evaluate the correlated factors of demoralization among cancer patients. We also summarized the available evidence, effect estimates, and the strength of statistical associations between demoralization and its associated factors.

We systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, Embase, the Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, and 2 electronic databases to identify studies published up to October 2023 with data on the correlates of demoralization. Two researchers independently reviewed references, extracted data, and assessed data quality. Meta-analysis was performed using R4.1.1 software.

Thirty-eight studies were included in this meta-analysis. For the most studied sociodemographic correlates, demoralization was negatively correlated with income (z = −0.29, 95% CI: −0.51, −0.02), education (z = − 0.11, 95% CI: − 0.16, −0.05), and age (z = −0.45, 95%CI: −0.75, −0.01). For the most studied clinical correlates, demoralization was positively correlated with symptom burden (z = 0.37, 95% CI: 0.22, 0.50) and negatively correlated with quality of life (z = −0.40, 95% CI: −0.54, −0.24). For the most studied psychosocial correlates, demoralization was negatively correlated with social support (z = −0.39, 95% CI: −0.51, −0.26) and positively correlated with anxiety (z = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.56, 0.73), depression (z = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.54, 0.67), and suicidal ideation (z = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.34, 0.60).

Demoralization showed either positive or negative associations with sociodemographic, clinical, and psychological variables. More research is needed to explore the underlying mechanisms to develop effective interventions. This review provides information on the factors associated with demoralization in cancer patients, which can be used to inform strategies for clinical care providers.

Depressive disorders pose a significant global public health challenge, yet evidence on their burden remains insufficient.

To report the global, regional and national burden of depressive disorders and their attributable risk factors from 1990 to 2021.

Data from the Global Burden of Disease 2021 were analyzed for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2021. We explored the age-standardised incidence, prevalence and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of depressive disorders by age, gender and sociodemographic index.

In 2021, there were 357.44 million incident cases, 332.41 million prevalent cases and 56.33 million DALYs. Age-standardised rates for incidence, prevalence and DALYs were 4333.62, 4006.82 and 681.14 per 100 000 persons, with annual declines of 0.06%, 0.03% and 0.04%. Uganda, Greenland and Lesotho had the highest prevalence, while Spain, Mexico and Uruguay showed the largest increases. Greenland and Brunei Darussalam had the highest and lowest age-standardised DALYs rates, respectively. DALYs peaked in the 55–59 age group for men and 60–64 for women, with higher rates in women. Regionally, a U-shaped association was found between the sociodemographic index and DALYs rates. Population growth was the main driver for the increase in DALYs cases. Childhood maltreatment was the leading risk factor, with intimate partner violence affecting more females and childhood sexual abuse more males.

Despite decreasing trends in incidence, prevalence and DALYs rates, absolute case numbers and age-standardised rates continue to increase for depressive disorders. Tackling childhood abuse and improving depressive disorder management are crucial to reducing future burdens.

Working memory deficit, a key feature of schizophrenia, is a heritable trait shared with unaffected siblings. It can be attributed to dysregulation in transitions from one brain state to another.

Using network control theory, we evaluate if defective brain state transitions underlie working memory deficits in schizophrenia.

We examined average and modal controllability of the brain's functional connectome in 161 patients with schizophrenia, 37 unaffected siblings and 96 healthy controls during a two-back task. We use one-way analysis of variance to detect the regions with group differences, and correlated aberrant controllability to task performance and clinical characteristics. Regions affected in both unaffected siblings and patients were selected for gene and functional annotation analysis.

Both average and modal controllability during the two-back task are reduced in patients compared to healthy controls and siblings, indicating a disruption in both proximal and distal state transitions. Among patients, reduced average controllability was prominent in auditory, visual and sensorimotor networks. Reduced modal controllability was prominent in default mode, frontoparietal and salience networks. Lower modal controllability in the affected networks correlated with worse task performance and higher antipsychotic dose in schizophrenia (uncorrected). Both siblings and patients had reduced average controllability in the paracentral lobule and Rolandic operculum. Subsequent out-of-sample gene analysis revealed that these two regions had preferential expression of genes relevant to bioenergetic pathways (calmodulin binding and insulin secretion).

Aberrant control of brain state transitions during task execution marks working memory deficits in patients and their siblings.