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Seamless integration of microstructures and circuits on three-dimensional (3D) complex surfaces is of significance and is catalyzing the emergence of many innovative 3D curvy electronic devices. However, patterning fine features on arbitrary 3D targets remains challenging. Here, we propose a facile charge-driven electrohydrodynamic 3D microprinting technique that allows micron- and even submicron-scale patterning of functional inks on a couple of 3D-shaped dielectrics via an atmospheric-pressure cold plasma jet. Relying on the transient charging of exposed sites arising from the weakly ionized gas jet, the specified charge is programmably deposited onto the surface as a virtual electrode with spatial and time spans of ~mm in diameter and ~µs in duration to generate a localized electric field accordantly. Therefore, inks with a wide range of viscosities can be directly drawn out from micro-orifices and deposited on both two-dimensional (2D) planar and 3D curved surfaces with a curvature radius down to ~1 mm and even on the inner wall of narrow cavities via localized electrostatic attraction, exhibiting a printing resolution of ~450 nm. In addition, several conformal electronic devices were successfully printed on 3D dielectric objects. Self-aligned 3D microprinting, with stacking layers up to 1400, is also achieved due to the electrified surfaces. This microplasma-induced printing technique exhibits great advantages such as ultrahigh resolution, excellent compatibility of inks and substrates, antigravity droplet dispersion, and omnidirectional printing on 3D freeform surfaces. It could provide a promising solution for intimately fabricating electronic devices on arbitrary 3D surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: To explore the relationship between the tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), and their distribution characteristics as well as the prognostic value in gastric cancer (GC). Material and methods: The TLSs and four subtypes of TILs were assessed by immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. The presence of MECA-79 positive high endothelial venules (HEVs) identified among the ectopic lymphocyte aggregation area in the GC tissue was defined as valid TLSs. The number of labeled TILs was observed in 5 fields of the most positive cells in the tumor center, invasive edge and within the TLSs, at a field of vision ×40. Results: The TLS distribution was significantly higher in the tumor invasive edge than the tumor center (p < 0.001). Similarly, the infiltrating density of CD8+ T cells and GrB+ T cells was statistically significantly higher in the tumor infiltrating edge than the tumor center. The total number of TILs and FOXP3+ T cells showed a contrary distribution. There was a positive correlation of the density of TLSs and TILs with both the location and the immune phenotype. A higher frequency of TILs and TLSs is often associated with favorable clinicopathologic parameters. Higher numbers of peri-TLSs (p = 0.007), peri-CD8+ (p = 0.019) and peri-GrB+TILs (p = 0.032) were significantly correlated with the favorable overall survival. Multivariate analysis revealed that the densities of TILs (p = 0.019) and TLSs (p = 0.037) were independent prognostic predictor for GC patients. Conclusions: We provide evidence that TLSs were positively associated with lymphocyte infiltration in GC. Thus, the formation of TLSs predicts advantageous immune system function and can be considered as a novel biomarker to stratify the overall survival risk of untreated GC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor infiltration pattern (INF) and tumor origin site were reported to significantly affect the prognosis of gastric cancer (GC), while the immune status under these contexts is not clear. In this study, we correlated the density and phenotype of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) with INF and the tumor origin site to reflect the biological behavior of tumors from a new perspective and also determined their effects on overall survival (OS) and other related clinicopathological features in archival samples of 147 gastric cancers with 10-year follow-up data. We found that the INFc growth pattern (an invasive growth without a distinct border) of GC lacked immune cell infiltration, particularly the cytotoxic T cells and their activated form. It is also significantly associated with an unfavorable prognosis (P < 0.001) and proximal site (P = 0.001), positive lymph nodemetastasis (P=0.002), and later tumor-node-metastasis stage (P < 0.001). Moreover, the density and sub-type of TILs infiltration were significantly different in disparate differentiated areas for the tumor tissue with INFb. Compared with distal gastric cancer, proximal gastric cancers were prone to grow in an INFc pattern (P = 0.001) and infiltrated with fewer TILs, experiencing a shorter survival time (P = 0.013). Multivariate analysis showed that only the INF and the density of TILs were demonstrated to be the independent prognostic factors of OS for the GC. We concluded that GC with an aggressive growth pattern arising from proximal sites always had a weak immune response and resulted in a poor prognosis. The interaction between them and their synergistic or antagonistic effects in the development of tumors need to be further studied. This study opens up a new perspective for research on the biological behavior of the tumor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) is a cold plasma source that promises various innovative applications. The influence of Penning effect on the formation, propagation, and other physical properties of the plasma bullets in APPJ remains a debatable topic. By using a 10 cm wide active electrode and a frequency of applied voltage down to 0.5 Hz, the Penning effect caused by preceding discharges can be excluded. It was found that the Penning effect originating in a preceding discharge helps build a conductive channel in the gas flow and provide seed electrons, thus the discharge can be maintained at a low voltage which in turn leads to a smaller propagation speed for the plasma bullet. Photographs from an intensified charge coupled device reveal that the annular structure of the plasma plume for He is irrelevant to the Penning ionization process arising from preceding discharges. By adding NH3 into Ar to introduce Penning effect, the originally filamentous discharge of Ar can display a rather extensive plasma plume in ambient as He. These results are helpful for the understanding of the behaviors of non-equilibrium APPJs generated under distinct conditions and for the design of plasma jet features, especially the spatial distribution and propagation speed, which are essential for application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing usage of cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) power cables, it is more and more important to grasp and manage their insulation status. Nowadays, the distribution cables in urban area are of huge numbers, so it is impossible to carry out the preventive test for every cable. Therefore, it is very helpful to determine cables' testing urgency in a scientific way. Meanwhile, the main cable diagnosis methods in China are insulation resistance and withstanding voltage test, but they are difficult to quantitatively determine cable insulation status. Aiming at solving above challenges, according to the cable fault records in recent years, fuzzy evaluation analysis combining with mutual information is utilised to determine the insulation testing urgency (ITU) based on cable information including service year, laying way, load type, and length. At the same time, frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS) is introduced to diagnose the on-site cable insulation status quantitatively. Its characteristic parameters, including instantaneous electric susceptibility, DC conductivity, and hopping conductivity, are extracted by improved Havriliak-Negami (H-N) model and studied to analyse the changing trend before and after cable deterioration. The results show that the lower ITU is, the higher testing urgency is. ITU also has negative correlation with FDS characteristic parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface charge accumulation on spacer is an important factor to cause surface flashover. An experimental set-up is established to measure surface potential over a truncated cone-type spacer under DC voltage in SF6 gas at atmospheric pressure using a Kelvin vibrating electrostatic probe. The surface charge density is calibrated based on multipoint measurement technique, which takes the influence of electrostatic probe into account. The experimental results show that surface charge distribution patterns can be divided into three classes including centrosymmetric distribution, spot-like distribution, and cloud-like distribution. The symmetrically distributed charges are injected by electrode, which migrate along spacer surface through the surface conductivity. While the charges showing spot-like and cloud-like distribution are generated by the ionisation of SF6 due to local electrical field concentrated. Besides, the hetero-charges are more easily to be saturated with different charging durations and the polarity of the net charge is the same as that of applied voltage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presented movable vision measurement for the three-dimensional (3D) surface of a large-sized object has the advantages of system simplicity, low cost, and high accuracy. Aiming at addressing the problems of existing movable vision measurement methods, a more suitable method for large-sized products on industrial sites is introduced in this paper. A raster binocular vision sensor and a wide-field camera are combined to form a 3D scanning sensor. During measurement, several planar targets are placed around the object to be measured. With the planar target as an intermediary, the local 3D data measured by the scanning sensor are integrated into the global coordinate system. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through physical experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loss of a sensory input causes the hypersensitivity in other modalities. In addition to cross-modal plasticity, the sensory cortices without receiving inputs undergo the plastic changes. It is not clear how the different types of neurons and synapses in the sensory cortex coordinately change after input deficits in order to prevent loss of their functions and to be used for other modalities. We studied this subject in the barrel cortices from whiskers-trimmed mice vs. controls. After whisker trimming for a week, the intrinsic properties of pyramidal neurons and the transmission of excitatory synapses were upregulated in the barrel cortex, but inhibitory neurons and GABAergic synapses were downregulated. The morphological analyses indicated that the number of processes and spines in pyramidal neurons increased, whereas the processes of GABAergic neurons decreased in the barrel cortex. The upregulation of excitatory neurons and the downregulation of inhibitory neurons boost the activity of network neurons in the barrel cortex to be high levels, which prevent the loss of their functions and enhances their sensitivity to sensory inputs. These changes may prepare for attracting the innervations from sensory cortices and/ or peripheral nerves for other modalities during cross-modal plasticity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Cortactin acts as a prominent substrate of histone deacetylases (HDACs) and plays important roles in tumour progression in several human cancers. However, the clinical significance of its expression in human prostate cancer (PCa) has not been determined. We aimed to identify the potential role of cortactin expression in tumour progression and prognosis in PCa and the association with HDACs. Methods 256 foci with distinctive lesions in 110 prostate specimens were collected to identify the status of among cortactin, SIRT2, histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) by immunohistochemistry and its relationship with clinicopathological and follow-up data were analysed. Results The results showed that cortactin expression was significantly higher (79.1%), and SIRT2 expression was lower (37.3%) in PCa foci, when it was compared with high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia foci and benign foci, respectively. HDAC6 expression was low and had no statistical significance in PCa. High intensity of cortactin staining was significantly and independently associated with a high prostatespecific antigen (PSA) level, high Gleason score, clinical stage progression and shortened survival time in patients with PCa. High intensity of SIRT2 staining was significantly and independently associated with a high PSA level, old age, high Gleason score and clinical stage progression. Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed cortactin expression was a significant prognostic factor for survival of patients with PCa (β, 0.736; 95% CI 1.371 to 3.181; p=0.001). Conclusions The results suggested that cortactin seems to be a satisfactory marker to predict tumour progression and survival in cases of PCa. And it may be SIRT2 rather than HADAC6 is responsible for tumour occurrence and the progression of PCa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]