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Background. Eosinophilic angiocentric fibrosis (EAF) is a rare benign condition of unknown aetiology that causes stenosis of the upper respiratory tract. It is most commonly found at the nasal septum and sinus mucosa causing mucosal thickening and nasal obstructive symptoms. The diagnosis is mainly based on characteristic histologic findings. Case Report. A 27-year-old young woman presented with a slow growing mass at her anterior nasal septum for over eight years. She complained of persistent nasal obstruction, epistaxis, sometimes diffused facial pain, and chronic headache. 3 years ago, the tumor was partially resected for ventilation and a nasal septum perforation was left. Imaging findings indicated soft-tissue thickening of the anterior part of septum and adjacent lateral nasal walls. Pathological examination showed numerous inflammatory cells infiltrates containing eosinophils, fibroinflammatory lesion with a whorled appearance fibrosis which typically surrounded vessels. A diagnosis of eosinophilic angiocentric fibrosiswas made. All laboratory testswere unremarkable. Skin prick testwas positive. The tumor-like lesionwas totally resected. Conclusions. EAF is a rare benign and progressive disorder causing destruction. Combined with radiological imaging of EAF historical findings contribute to the diagnosis. It is important to prevent tumor from recurrence by total resection of the lesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spinHamiltonian parameters gfactors g, gand hyperfine structure constants 161A, 161A, 163A, 163A for 161Dy3and 161Dy3isotopes in the trigonal 12fold coordinated La3site of La2Mg3NO312·24H2O crystal are calculated from a diagonalization of energy matrix method. In the method, the Zeeman and hyperfine interaction terms are added to the conventional Hamiltonian used in the studies of crystalfield energy levels, and a 66×66 energy matrix concerning the ground multiplet 6H152and the first to fifth excited multiplets 6H132, 6H112, 6H92, 6H72and 6H52are applied. The calculated results are discussed. © 2010 WILEYVCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract-Type-II n-p-n InP/GaAsSb/InP double heterostructure bipolar transistors (DHBTs) that are fabricated by optical lithography with a 0.6 × 5 μm² emitter on a 20-nm compositionally uniform GaAszSb1-x carbon-doped base with x = 0.60 and a 75-nm InP collector show current-gain cutoff frequencies as high as 423 GHz at 10 mA/μm2 and feature a BVCEO = 4 V. The pseudomorphic As-rich InP/GaAsSb DHBTs feature a high maximum dc current gain of > 160, owing to the reduction of the type-II conduction band discontinuity ΔEc and the associated recombination at the InP/GaAsSb emitter-base interface. This brief demonstrates that the InP/GaAsSb DHBT technology can combine high gain, wide bandwidths, high-current drivability, and structural simplicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To evaluate the prognostic impact of the molecular classification of grade 3 endometrioid endometrial carcinoma (G3-EEC) and its correlation with clinicopathological factors. Methods: 137 patients with G3-EEC were enrolled and molecularly classified using Sanger sequencing in exons 9–14 of the polymerase epsilon (POLE) gene and immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining for p53, MLH1 (mutL homolog 1), PMS2 (PMS1 homolog 2), MSH2 (mutS homolog 2) and MSH6 (mutS homolog 6). The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression were used for survival analysis, and the chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were used for comparisons between categorical data. Results: POLE hotspot mutations (POLEmut group) were identified in seven tumors (5.1%); 46 (33.6%) tumors showed deficient mismatch repair (dMMR group); 22 (16.1%) showed abnormal p53 staining (p53abn group); and 58 (42.3%) were classified as nonspecific molecular profiles (NSMP group). The remaining four patients (2.9%) were grouped as multi-classifiers. The median follow-up was 45.2 months (range: 6‒128 months), with an overall survival (OS) rate of 84.6% (116/137) and a progression-free survival (PFS) rate of 81.7% (112/137). There was no significant difference in the molecular subgroups with OS and PFS (p = 0.05 and p = 0.162, respectively). The prognosis was most favorable in the POLEmut, intermediate in the dMMR and NSMP, worst in the p53abn group, and unclear in the multi-classifier group. Multivariate analysis showed that the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage (FIGO 2009 and FIGO 2023) and lymphovascular space invasion were significant independent prognostic factors in OS and PFS (p < 0.05). Myometrial invasion, bizarre atypia, and peritumoral lymphocytes showed significant differences among the molecular groups (p = 0.026, p < 0.001 and p = 0.001, respectively). Conclusions: Our study demonstrated the prognostic value of the molecular classification of G3-EEC. The biological behavior of the multi-classifier group remains undefined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conclusions: The present study indicates that miR-21 is involved in progression from normal to premalignant laryngeal lesions (PLLs) and from PLLs to laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). Furthermore, normalized PCR results for miR-21 might be used to discriminate between normal and ordinary hyperplasia before the emergence of dysplasias and pre-malignant lesions with malignant potential. Objective: To investigate a sensitive marker that contributes to progression from normal tissue to PLLs and from PLLs to LSCC. Methods: In 116 PLLs and LSCC patients and 19 without dysplasia matched sets of tissue and plasma samples from Beijing Tongren Hospital, miR-21 was analysed by droplet digital PCR and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction based on paraffin-embedded tumour tissue and plasma. Results: Compared with controls, miR-21 levels in tissue and plasma were significantly higher for both PLL and LSCC groups (for both groups vs controls: p <0.0001 for tissue; p<0.05 for plasma). Areas under receiver-operating curves (AUC) for tissue miR-21 were PLL group vs controls: 0.9026 and LSCC group vs controls: 0.8681. For plasma miR-21, AUCs were PLL group vs controls: 0.7355 and LSCC group vs control: 0.6723. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2,4,6‑trihydroxy‑3‑(4‑hydroxyphenyl)‑propiophenone (phloretin) is found in apple tree leaves and the Manchurian apricot, and is a potent compound that exhibits anti‑inflammatory, antioxidant and antitumor activities. However, the effect of phloretin on esophageal cancer cells is not well‑defined. The present study aimed to examine whether and how phloretin induced apoptosis in human esophageal cancer cells. EC‑109 cells were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium and incubated with 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 μg/ml phloretin for 6, 12, 24 and 48 h. Cell proliferation was measured by an MTT assay. Cell apoptosis rate was measured using flow cytometric analysis subsequent to propidium iodide (PI) staining. The protein expression levels were determined by western blot analysis. It was found that phloretin significantly decreased viable cell numbers in a dose‑ and time‑dependent manner and induced apoptosis in EC‑109 cells. Additionally, phloretin exhibited potent anticancer activity in vitro, as evidenced by the downregulation of the anti‑apoptosis‑associated molecule B‑cell lymphoma 2 (bcl‑2) and an increase in the levels of the apoptosis‑associated molecules bcl‑2‑like protein 4 and tumor protein p53. Phloretin treatment also affected the expression of apoptotic protease activating factor‑1, the protein product of the direct binding of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein with low PI to the X‑linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein. The present results indicated that phloretin may inhibit EC‑109 cell growth by inducing apoptosis, which may be mediated through a mitochondria‑dependent pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of microRNAs (miRs) as possible biomarkers and therapy targets has been extensively investigated in a number of types of cancer. However, the aberrant expression of miRs in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), particularly during the progression of the disease, is poorly understood. In the present study, the role of miRs as possible novel early pre-diagnostic biomarkers of LSCC was investigated. TaqMan probe stem-loop quantitative polymerase chain reaction was utilized to accurately measure the amount of miR-148a and miR-375 in clinical samples of mild dysplasia, moderate dysplasia, severe dysplasia, cancer in situ, laryngeal cancer and normal epithelial controls. The application of miR-148a and miR-375 as potential predictive biomarkers for early diagnosis of LSCC was analyzed. The results of the present study suggested that miR-148a and miR-375 were significantly upregulated in LSCC tissues, and increased expression of miR-375 was associated with a more aggressive phenotype of LSCC. Additional investigation revealed that miR-148a and miR-375 increased during different dysplasia stages of LSCC carcinogenesis, and high-level expression of miR-148a or miR-375 in patients with laryngeal dysplasia may predict subsequent malignant transformation. miR-148a and miR-375 were significantly upregulated during LSCC carcinogenesis and may serve as possible predictive biomarkers for early diagnosis of LSCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This preplanned exploratory analysis was conducted to reveal the true status of correlation between tissue and plasma detection for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations, knowing that specific subgroups of NSCLC patients may be potential candidates for EGFR mutation analysis by using plasma samples. Materials and methods: Tissue samples were surgically resected from 198 patients with stage I-IV NSCLC, where stage IA to IIIA accounted for 92.4%. EGFR mutations in all these tissues were positive. Paired plasma EGFR mutations were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction; concentration of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in plasma was measured by ultraviolet spectrophotometry. Results: EGFR-activating mutation was detected in 34 plasma samples, and their mutation types were matched with that in tissue. The sensitivity of EGFR mutation for the 198 paired tissue and plasma samples was 17.2%. The sensitivity positively correlated with disease stage and negatively correlated with tumor differentiation. The sensitivity of stage IA, IB, IIA, IIB, and IIIA was 1.6%, 7.9%, 11.1%, 20%, and 33.3%, respectively; the sensitivity of high differentiation was 0% versus 36.8% for poor differentiation. There was no correlation between plasma cfDNA concentration and patient characteristics. Conclusion: We recommend using plasma cfDNA as a biomarker in stage IIIA or poorly differentiated tumors for gene diagnosis, especially in patients whose tissue samples cannot be obtained by surgery. Plasma samples can really reflect the patients' EGFR mutation types and may contain comprehensive genotypic information that comes from different parts of the tumor than tissue specimens. The concentration of plasma cfDNA does not vary with patient characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Acute invasive fungal rhinosinusitis is a lethal infectious process afflicting immunocompromised individuals. Knowledge about this disease is still limited due to the scarcity of animal models designed to study the pathogenesis of this infection. Mast cells are tissue-resident immune cells that participate in a variety of allergic and inflammatory conditions. Limited attention has been given to the role of mast cells in acute invasive fungal rhinosinusitis. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to create a rat model of acute invasive fungal rhinosinusitis based on analyzing the impact of different fungal concentrations on establishing infection, and to observe the changes of mast cells in rats with this disease. Methods Sprague-Dawley rats were divided randomly into four groups, three of which were experimental and received different concentrations of Aspergillus fumigatus inoculations, and one was a control group (D). The inoculated Aspergillus fumigatus concentrations were 5 × 107 conidia/ml in group A, 107 conidia/ml in group B, and 106 conidia/ml in group C. Before fungal inoculation, rats were immunosuppressed using cyclophosphamide and cortisone acetate, and had Merocel sponges inserted into the right nares. Hematology and histopathology investigations were then performed. Results An acute invasive fungal rhinosinusitis rat model was established successfully with an incidence rate of 90% in group A, 50% in group B and 10% in group C. Aspergillus fumigatus invasion was observed in 20% of the lungs in group A, but was not seen in the remaining groups. In addition, no fungi invaded the orbital tissue, brains, livers, spleens or kidneys of any rat. Compared with the control set, the total number of mast cells in the experimental groups was not significantly increased, but mast cell degranulation, on the other hand, was only found in infected nasal cavities. Conclusions This investigation illustrates that various fungal concentrations have different effects on the incidence of acute invasive fungal rhinosinusitis, and it also demonstrates the feasibility of using this model to study the process of fungal rhinosinusoidal invasion. In addition, the results suggest that mast cells may play a role in the protection of sinuses against acute Aspergillus fumigatus infection and in the clearance of established hyphal masses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Al2O2/GeOx/Ge gate stack fabricated by an in situ cycling ozone oxidation (COO) method in the atomic layer deposition (ALD) system at low temperature is systematically investigated. Excellent electrical characteristics such as minimum interface trap density as low as 1.9x1011 cm-2 eV-1 have been obtained by COO treatment. The impact of COO treatment against the band alignment of Al2O3 with respect to Ge is studied by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). Based on both XPS and SE studies, the origin of gate leakage in the ALD-Al2O3 is attributed to the sub-gap states, which may be correlated to the OH-related groups in Al2O3 network. It is demonstrated that the COO method is effective in repairing the OH-related defects in high-k dielectrics as well as forming superior high-k/Ge interface for high performance Ge MOS devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH) is rare in the chest wall, particularly in patients who have undergone radiotherapy for primary nasopharyngeal cancer. In the present study, a case of MFH of the upper chest wall that appeared four years after initial radiotherapy for squamous cell carcinoma of the nasopharynx is reported. Furthermore, two-step surgical management was successfully performed consisting of i) tumor-reductive excision and ii) limb salvage surgery, including wide resection of the tumor mass, defect reconstruction of the chest wall using left latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flap and dermatoplasty of the flap-supplied region. The progress of the clinical characteristics, the reasons for radiation-induced carcinogenesis, the treatment options and the prognostic factors of MFH are also reviewed. Finally, the importance of prevention and follow-up of this malignancy are highlighted and specific advice is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we first generated and characterized a polyclonal antibody against unique domain of matrlin-2 and then used this specific antibody to assess the expression pattern of matrilin-2 by immunohistochemistry. We found that marilin-2 is widely distributed in the connective tissues of many mouse tissues including heart, colon, penis, esophagus, lung, kidney, tracheal cartilage, developmental bone, and adult bone. The expression level of matrilin-2 was remarkably increased in the tissues of osteoarthritis developmental articular cartilage, compared to normal healthy tissues. Furthermore, we determined matrilin-2 expression in specific epithelial cells in stomach and ductal epithelial cells of salivary gland. In other tissues, the positive signals were mainly located around cardiac muscle cells and Purkinje fibers in the heart; corpus spongiosum in the penis; submucosa in the colon and esophagus; extra cellular matrix of cartilage in the tracheal cartilage; and, glomerulus, the basement membrane of distal convoluted tubule and renal matrix in kidney. These observations indicated that the distribution pattern of matrilin-2 is heterogeneous in each tissue. Matrilin-2 may play an important role in the communication of matrix to matrix and matrix to cells and will be used as a potential biomarker in the early stage of osteoarthritis of articular cartilage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LED) on a patterned sapphire substrate with a novel hybrid atomic layer deposition (ALD)-TiO2Al2O3 distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and Ag mirror have been proposed and fabricated. Due to the excellent thickness uniformity of ALD for the proposed reflector, high reflectivity over 99.3% at an incident angle of 5 deg has been achieved. It was also found that the reflectivity of a backside reflector with an Ag mirror slightly depends on incident light wavelength and incident angle. Moreover, because of the good adhesion between TiO2/Al2O3 DBR and the Ag mirror, the fabrication process was simplified and reliable. With a 60mA current injection, an enhancement of 5.2%, 8.9%, and 47.1% in light output power (LOP) at the 460 nm wavelength was realized for the proposed LED with Ag mirror and 3-pair ALD-TiO2Al2O3 DBR as compared with a LED with a traditional Ag mirror and 3-pair TiO2/SiO2 DBR, with Al mirror and 3-pair ALD-TiO2Al2O3 DBR, and without backside reflector, respectively. This result shows that the ALD-TiO2/Al2O3 DBR can be used to enhance the LOP greatly and improve adhesion between the sapphire substrate and the metallic mirror, and thus is very promising for fabricating high performance GaN-based LEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study consisted of two parts. One part was to analyze the survival rates of adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) in Chinese and explain the difference between our data and the literature. The other was to analyze the relationship between the expression of CD117 and the histological grade and the prognosis. Methods: A retrospective study of 80 ACC patients was performed. Clinical data were collected, and p63, CD117 were detected by immunohistochemical staining. Results: Eighty patients received follow-ups 3 to 216 months after initial diagnosis. ACC occurred in the lacrimal gland (26.3%, n = 21), nasal cavity and parasinus (33.8%, n = 27) and other sites (40.0%, n = 33). The 5-year and 10-year survival rates were 66.41% and 10.16%, respectively. Over expression of CD117 was detected in p63-negative cells in 94.3% of cases and in p63-positive cells in 45.8%. The expression of CD117 in p63-positive cells was significantly associated with the histological grade (P<0.001) and prognosis (P = 0.037) in patients in the advanced stage. Conclusions: ACC had a good 5-year survival but poor 10-year survival in Chinese, which differed from the occidental data. More p63+/CD117+ cells were associated with a higher histological grade and poorer outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide the first report of rhinofacial conidiobolomycosis caused by Conidiobolus coronatus in China. The patient was a 36-year-old male rice farmer from Jiang Xi province who presented with diffuse swelling with classical centrofacial distribution and involvement of the right paranasal sinuses. Histopathology showed granulomas with hyphae surrounded by an eosinophilic sheath (Splendore–Hoeppli phenomenon). Culture of biopsy specimens on Sabouraud’s dextrose agar led to the growth of fungi with microscopically visible conidiophores and terminal spherical conidia (primary conidium), with multiple secondary conidia and villose conidia. The patient was successfully treated with combination therapy, primarily itraconazole and terbinafine. We conclude with a brief literature review of the epidemiology of conidiobolomycosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the first description of middle ear osteomas by Thomas in 1964, only few reports were published within the English literatures (Greinwalid et al., 1998; Shimizu et al., 2003; Cho et al., 2005; and Jang et al., 2009), and only one case of the multiple osteomas in middle ear was described by Kim et al., 2006, which arose from the promontory, lateral semicircular canal, and epitympanum. Here we describe a patient with multiple middle ear osteomas arising from the promontory, incus, Eustachian tube, and bony semicanal of tensor tympani muscle. This patient also contracted the chronic otitis media in the ipsilateral ear. The osteomas were successfully removed by performing type III tympanoplasty in one stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wrinkle-free transfer of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) synthesized 2D MoS2 is a prerequisite for large-area high-performance device fabrication. The surface-energy-assisted transfer method is a suitable method for MoS2 transfer, which greatly reduces the damage to the MoS2. However, in the process of tiling the MoS2 to the new substrate, droplets are sandwiched between the MoS2 and substrate, which are difficult to remove and easily cause wrinkles and cracks. To avoid the realization of wrinkles and cracks in the transfer, we developed a modified surface-energy-assisted transfer method that modifies the spreading parameter S of residual droplets sandwiched between the MoS2 and substrate. By using this strategy, the liquids were easily to remove from the MoS2/substrate interface resulting in a smooth MoS2 film with no wrinkles. Larger area back-gated field-effect transistor (FET) arrays were also fabricated based on the transferred monolayer MoS2 (10 × 10 mm) with atomic layer deposition prepared HfO2 as the high-k gate insulator. The FETs exhibited a high on/off ratio of 108 and carrier mobility up to 118 cm2 V−1 s−1, which is the highest mobility values reported for back-gate transistors fabricated with CVD synthesized MoS2. This transfer method provides a useful strategy for the fabrication of larger area high property FETs on MoS2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interface of the two-dimensional (2D) material plays a crucial role in the properties of the material itself. When 2D materials are used as a channel for electrical devices, negative influence from surface contaminations during the fabrication process should be avoided to ensure device performance and reliability. In this article, the impacts as well as the mechanisms of the interface contaminations on the molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) field effect transistors were studied. An effective method using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) grown Al2O3 dielectric layer to reduce exposure time of MoS2 during processing was introduced. Combined with the annealing process, the fabricated MoS2 field effect transistors with a Al2O3 protective layer demonstrate a high On/Off current ratio of 5 × 107, and a hysteresis of 80 mV in terms of decent reliability. A sulfur repair mechanism on the MoS2/Al2O3 interface during annealing is revealed to explain the enhancement of the devices performance. This method can also be adopted in other 2D materials, paving the way for the next generation flexible electronics application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]