years, which are likely to face greater uncertainty in water availability with climate change. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.BACKGROUND The United States now has the highest death toll due to COVID-19. Many otolaryngology procedures, including laryngoscopy, bronchoscopy, and esophagoscopy, place otolaryngologists at increased risk of coronavirus transmission due to close contact with respiratory droplets and aerosolization from the procedure. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of guidelines on how to perform these procedures during the coronavirus pandemic. METHODS Literature review was performed. Articles citing laryngoscopy, bronchoscopy, esophagoscopy use with regard to COVID-19 were included. RESULTS Laryngoscopy, bronchoscopy, and esophagoscopy are all used in both emergent and elective situations. Understanding the risk stratification of cases and the varied necessity of personal protective equipment is important in protecting patients and health care workers. CONCLUSIONS Summary guidelines based on the literature available at this time are presented in order to decrease transmission of the virus and protect those involved. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Current studies indicate that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is often abnormally expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We intend to generate a multi-lncRNA signal to improve the prognosis of HCC. By analyzing 12 pairs of HCC and adjacent normal mucosal tissues, 3900 differentially expressed lncrnas were identified as candidate biomarkers for the prognosis of HCC. Then, the 12-lncrna signature was constructed using the LASSO Cox regression method and verified in the TCGA training dataset. Finally, we established a novel 12-lncrna signature that was significantly associated with overall survival (OS) in the training data set. With the use of 12-lncrna markers, patients in the training cohort were divided into high-risk and low-risk groups with significant OV differences (P  less then  .0001). Similar results were consistent in the TCGA verification dataset (P = .046). selleck products Multivariate Cox model was used to analyze and construct the risk scores of selected key lncRNA and AJCC stages. The results showed that, compared with AJCC stages, lncRNA-based risk scores were another important factor affecting the OS of patients. We found that risk scores based on lncRNA have a stronger prediction ability than the AJCC stage alone on 4-year OS. For 4-year survival rates, prediction combined with the lncRNA risk score and AJCC stage, model effectiveness (sensitivity and specificity) has reached to 0.750. To further explore the biological processes involved in prognostic lncRNA, all HCC samples in TCGA are divided into two groups according to the median lncRNA risk score, and analyzed the gene enrichment of high expression genes and low expression genes in KEGG data using goana in limma. The results suggest that the genes associated with tumor pathways, such as PI3K-Akt and ECM-receptor interaction, are highly expressed in the high risk group. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.BACKGROUND The current COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has emerged as a public health emergency. All nations are seriously challenged as the virus spreads rapidly across the globe with no regard for borders. The primary management of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) involves treating uncontrolled inflammation with most patients requiring immune based therapies. However, these therapies may weaken the immune system and potentially place IBD patients at increased risk of infections and infectious complications including those from COVID-19. AIM To summarise the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic, review unique concerns regarding IBD management and infection risk during the pandemic and assess COVID-19 management options and drug interactions in the IBD population. METHODS A literature review on IBD, SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 was undertaken and relevant literature was summarized and critically examined. RESULTS IBD patients do not appear to be more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and there is no evidence of an association between IBD therapies and increased risk of COVID-19. IBD medication adherence should be encouraged to prevent disease flare but where possible high dose systemic corticosteroids should be avoided. Patients should exercise social distancing, optimise co-morbidities and be up to date with influenza and pneumococcal vaccine. If a patient develops COVID-19, immune suppressing medications should be withheld until infection resolution and if trial medications for COVID-19 are being considered, potential drug interactions should be checked. CONCLUSION IBD patient management presents a challenge in the current COVID-19 pandemic. The primary focus should remain on keeping bowel inflammation controlled and encouraging medication adherence. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Primary immune deficiency is caused by genetic mutations that result in immune dysfunction and subsequent susceptibility to infection. Over the last decade there has been a dramatic increase in the number of genetically defined causes of immune deficiency including those which affect B cell function. This has identified critical non-redundant pathways that control the generation of protective antibody responses but also revealed that immunodeficiency and autoimmunity are often closely linked. Here we explore the molecular and cellular mechanisms of these rare monogenic conditions that disrupt antibody production, which also have implications for understanding the causes of more common polygenic immune dysfunction. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Fluoroscopy is the imaging modality routinely used for cardiac device implantation. Due to the rising concern regarding the harmful effects of radiation exposure to both the patients and operation staffs, many efforts have been made to develop alternative techniques to achieve zero-fluoroscopy implantation. In this review, we describe the different methods aimed at avoiding the application of fluoroscopy in recent years, and evaluate their feasibility and safety in cardiac electronic device implantation. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.