ars to be safe in COVID-19. Weaning from mechanical ventilation is a challenging step during recovery from critical illness. Weaning failure or early reintubation are associated with increased morbidity and mortality, exposing patients to life-threatening complications. Cardiac dysfunction represents the most common cause of weaning failure. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the association between transthoracic echocardiographic parameters and weaning failure. We performed a systematic search of MEDLINE and EMBASE screening for prospective studies providing echocardiographic data collected just before the beginning of spontaneous breathing trial and outcome of the weaning attempt. We primarily focused on parameters currently recommended for evaluation of left ventricular (LV) systolic or diastolic dysfunction. We included 11 studies in our primary analysis, which included data on LV ejection fraction (LVEF, n=10 studies) and parameters recommended for the assessment of LV diastolic function (E/e' ration between weaning failure and LV systolic dysfunction as evaluated by LVEF is more unclear. More studies are needed to clarify this aspect and regarding the role of right ventricular function. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), featuring uncontrolled proliferation and migration of tumor cells, is one of the most serious malignancies with high morality. An increasing number of evidences have demonstrated that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the progression of multiple cancers. It has been acknowledged that lncRNA TMPO-AS1 plays an oncogenic role in diverse cancers. Reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to determine the expression of TMPO-AS1, miR-429 and GOT1 in HCC tissues and cell lines. Cell viability, proliferation, apoptosis, and stemness characteristics were detected by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), colony formation, flow cytometry, sphere formation and western blot assays, separately. The relationship among TMPO-AS1, miR-429 and GOT1 was predicted by starBase database and confirmed using luciferase reporter and RNA pull-down assays. In this study, our findings revealed that TMPO-AS1 expression was upregulated in HCC tissues and cell lines. TMPO-AS1 aggravated HCC progression via promoting cell proliferation, stemness as well as suppressing cell apoptosis. Further, molecular mechanism exploration discovered that TMPO-AS1 functioned as a molecular sponge for miR-429 and GOT1 served as a downstream target gene of miR-429 in HCC. Furthermore, there was a negative relationship between GOT1 and miR-429 as well as a positive correlation between GOT1 and TMPO-AS1 in HCC. Rescue assays suggested that overexpression of GOT1 partially reversed the inhibitory effects of TMPO-AS1 knockdown on HCC progression. Taken together, these findings indicated that TMPO-AS1 acted as a tumor motivator to expedite HCC progression via targeting miR-429/GOT1 axis, which may provide a fresh treatment strategy for HCC. Taken together, these findings indicated that TMPO-AS1 acted as a tumor motivator to expedite HCC progression via targeting miR-429/GOT1 axis, which may provide a fresh treatment strategy for HCC. Individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) have difficulty maintaining optimal vitamin D status due to pancreatic insufficiency-induced malabsorption, inadequate sunlight exposure, and poor intake of vitamin D containing foods. Vitamin D deficiency may increase the risk of pulmonary exacerbations of CF. The objective of this study was to assess factors impacting vitamin D status in patients with CF recently hospitalized for a pulmonary exacerbation of CF. This was a pre-planned analysis of vitamin D intake in patients enrolled in a multi-center, double-blind, randomized controlled study examining vitamin D therapy for pulmonary exacerbation of CF. Demographic information, responses from a habitual sun exposure questionnaire and food frequency questionnaire, and vitamin D supplement usage were queried and compared to serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations. A total of 48 subjects were included in this analysis. Subjects were taking approximately 1,200 IU of vitamin D daily. Reported vitamin D intake, age, race, employment, and education were not significantly associated with vitamin D status in this population. However, smoking status, sunlight exposure in the last 3 years, and skin type (in the bivariate model) were all significantly associated with vitamin D status (all p<0.05). Sunlight exposure was the most predictive determinant of vitamin D status in patients with CF prior to pulmonary exacerbation. Subjects reported vitamin D intake below the recommended amounts. The role and mode of optimizing vitamin D status prior to a pulmonary exacerbation needs further investigation. Sunlight exposure was the most predictive determinant of vitamin D status in patients with CF prior to pulmonary exacerbation. Subjects reported vitamin D intake below the recommended amounts. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/etc-159.html The role and mode of optimizing vitamin D status prior to a pulmonary exacerbation needs further investigation. Specific factors correlated with hypothyroidism in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients remain unclear. Therefore, we aim to evaluate the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in Chinese patients with SLE and the relationship between clinical hypothyroidism and SLE. We conducted a cross sectional study of the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in 672 patients with SLE and 605 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Demographic, clinical, and biochemical data were compared between 58 patients with SLE with hypothyroidism and 197 patients with SLE with euthyroidism. Multivariate analysis was performed using binomial logistic regression analysis. Spearman's rank correlation was used to identify an association between thyroid function and disease activity. The prevalence of thyroid dysfunction was significantly higher in patients with SLE than in controls (70.7% vs 19.7%). SLE was associated with higher rates of hypothyroidism (9.6%, P≤0.001) and euthyroid sick syndrome (49.6%, P≤0.001) compared with control subjects.