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The clinical outcomes between left-sided colon cancer and middle/low rectal cancer seem to be different. This study aimed to examine the effect of primary tumor location regarding the left-sided colon and middle/low rectum on the overall survival (OS) of patients who underwent colorectal hepatic metastasectomy.

Anti-PD-1 therapy and chemotherapy is a recommended first-line treatment for recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, but the role of PD-1 blockade remains unknown in patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. We assessed the addition of sintilimab, a PD-1 inhibitor, to standard chemoradiotherapy in this patient population.

The vortex generator (VG) and its well-known effect in flow optimization are widely studied and employed across different engineering sectors. However, while the same working principles of VG may be well suited for the applications on surface-cleaning technologies, such promising potential is hardly, if any, explored in the published literature. Therefore, in the present study, the influence on flow-induced particle resuspension brought by a rectangular VG in a channel flow is investigated with the help of high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics simulations. Substantial increases of particle removal forces and resuspension rates are discovered in long, strip-like regions with reduced boundary-layer thickness resulted from the VG-induced vortices, and the enhancement effect is especially significant for configurations with the VG installed at a greater angle of attack. It is also shown that while the resuspension enhancements on the lower and the upper surfaces of the channel exhibit distinct statistical characteristics, having a VG in the channel improves the overall particle-removing capability of the channel flow by introducing higher surface-averaged removal forces and particle resuspension rates. Last but not least, the increase of resuspension rate is especially significant for the smaller, micron-scale particles which are otherwise hardly disturbed by a VG-less channel flow, and such resuspension-enhancement effect generally subsides with increasing particle size.

The development of a pragmatic biosensor for diagnosing acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is of paramount significance. However, the detection of cardiac Troponin I (cTnI) presents formidable challenges owing to the intricate composition and scant concentration of cTnI in clinical samples. Therefore, we propose an innovative approach employing an aptamer biosensor predicated on MXene/multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to discern cTnI. By integrating the MXene/MWCNTs nanomaterial, our aptasensor manifests remarkable amplification effects, thereby enabling an extensive detection range spanning from 10 to 106pg/mL, while attaining an unparalleled detection sensitivity with an exceptionally low limit of 6.21 pg/mL. Furthermore, our aptasensor exhibits favourable selectivity, reproducibility, and stability. Moreover, our aptasensor showcases a robust clinical correlation equation of y= 1.202x+ 0.0147, accompanied by an R2value of 0.9797. A notable p-value discrepancy is observed between the AMI and healthy control groups. Remarkably, the area under the curve (AUC) achieved amounts to 0.981, with a sensitivity of 0.938 and specificity of 0.923. These outstanding attributes, coupled with its exceptional clinical performance, position our aptasensor as the optimal choice for the practical monitoring of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) disease.

This article presents a multichannel EEG/BIOZ acquisition application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) with 4 EEG channels and a BIOZ channel, a switch resistor low-pass filter (SR-LPF). Each EEG channel includes a frontend, and a 4-channel multiplexed analog-to-digital converter (ADC), while the BIOZ channel features a pseudo sine current generator and a pair of readout paths with multiplexed SR-LPF and ADC. The ASIC is designed for size and power minimization, utilizing a 3-step ADC with a novel signal-dependent low power strategy. The proposed ADC operates at a sampling rate of 1600 S/s with a resolution of 15.2 bits, occupying only 0.093 mm2. With the help of the proposed signal-dependent low-power strategy, the ADC's power dissipation drops from 32.2 μW to 26.4 μW, resulting in an 18% efficiency improvement without performance degradation. Moreover, the EEG channels deliver excellent noise performance with a NEF of 7.56 and 27.8 nV/√Hz at the expense of 0.16 mm2 per channel. In BIOZ measurement, a 5-bit programmable current source is used to generate pseudo sine injection current ranging from 0 to 22 μApp, and the detection sensitivity reaches 2.4 mΩ/√Hz. Finally, the presented multichannel EEG/BIOZ acquisition ASIC has a compact active area of 1.5 mm2 in an 180nm CMOS technology.

This article presents a wirelessly powered closed-loop neuromodulation system, containing both implantable and wearable parts. The implantable part is an implantable neuromodulator tag that contains a customized application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for neurostimulation and recording, an off-the-shelf near-field communication (NFC) proximity integrated circuit card (PICC) chip, and one coupling coil for communication and power transferring. There is a wireless monitoring device, an NFC reader, electroencephalogram (EEG) electrodes, and near-infrared spectrum (NIRS) modules in wearable part. Intracranial neural recorder and wearable EEG/NIRS modules are able to provide multimodal biological information, such as local field potentials (LFPs), EEG, and cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (StO $_{{2}}{)}$ for algorithms to propose a more precise closed-loop stimulation strategy for better treatment effect. The ASIC chip is fabricated in a 0.18- $\mu \text{m}$ CMOS technology. The stimulator has a limited size of 0.027 mm2. Its stimulation current ranges from 0 to 0.6 mA with a bandwidth of 10 Hz–8 kHz, which is able to support precise neuromodulation. The recording channel features a bandwidth of 0.5–100 Hz with a noise floor of $0.93 \mu \text{V}_{\text {rms}}$ . The entire neuromodulator tag has a small footprint of $20\times 24\times1.4$ mm, and its weight is only 0.25 g.

[Display omitted] Here, we fabricate poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS)-based flexible micro-supercapacitors (MCSs) using direct ink writing (DIW) printing. To produce inks suitable for DIW printing, inks with various PEDOT:PSS concentrations are prepared, and their rheological properties and printability are systematically investigated. The optimized PEDOT:PSS ink allows stable printing without spreading and nozzle clogging issues, leading to the successful fabrication of well-defined interdigitated electrode patterns. The resulting PEDOT:PSS-based MSC exhibits high energy storage performance (2005 μF/cm2 at 10 μA/cm2) and outstanding cycle stability (capacitance retention of 87% after 10,000 cycles). Taking advantage of the flexibility of the PEDOT:PSS electrode, the MSC maintains its performance even under bending stress. Moreover, the practicality of the system is demonstrated by tailoring the overall operating voltage and output capacitance through printing MSCs connected in series and parallel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stainless steel (SS) and polyether ether ketone (PEEK) C18 columns were submerged in an ultrasonic bath operating at a frequency of 36 kHz to separate a mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), including naphthalene, anthracene, and pyrene, using high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultrasound radiation applied at intensities ranging from 0% to 100% of the 900 W output power. Sono‐gradient elution was used to ultrasonically irradiate the mixture at specific points during the elution to improve the separation factor by increasing the interval between the target peaks and shorten the analysis time by reducing the retention time of the desired PAH peak. Sono‐gradient elution

In recent years, Biomedical Named Entity Recognition (BioNER) systems have mainly been based on deep neural networks, which are used to extract information from the rapidly expanding biomedical literature. Long-distance context autoencoding language models based on transformers have recently been employed for BioNER with great success. However, noise interference exists in the process of pre-training and fine-tuning, and there is no effective decoder for label dependency. Current models have many aspects in need of improvement for better performance. We propose two kinds of noise reduction models, Shared Labels and Dynamic Splicing, based on XLNet encoding which is a permutation language pre-training model and decoding by Conditional Random Field (CRF). By testing 15 biomedical named entity recognition datasets, the two models improved the average F1-score by 1.504 and 1.48, respectively, and state-of-the-art performance was achieved on 7 of them. Further analysis proves the effectiveness of the two models and the improvement of the recognition effect of CRF, and suggests the applicable scope of the models according to different data characteristics.

Trajectory tracking of underactuated marine vessels has become an intense research area in the nonlinear control community over the past two decades. In the authors’ previous work, an asymptotic tracking scheme was proposed by introducing two polar coordinate transformations, which can transform two-input-three-output underactuated system model into a certain two-input-two-output one. Therefore, it becomes possible to solve the trajectory tracking problem of these kinds of underactuated system using general backstepping method. However, since the polar coordinate transformation does not satisfy to be a diffeomorphism, the proposed tracking scheme in the polar frame cannot guarantee the same tracking performance in the Cartesian frame. With this consideration, in this paper the authors aim to analyze and establish a generalized condition under which the proposed tracking scheme in the previous work can guarantee the same tracking property in the Cartesian frame. The analysis results are verified through numerical studies as well.

In this article, we present an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for gripper finger haptic force feedback in minimally invasive surgery (MIS). It consists of a driving current source, a sensing channel, a digital to analog converter (DAC), a power management unit (PMU), a clock generator and a digital control unit (DCU). The driving current source features a 6-bit DAC to provide a temperature-insensitive current from 0.27 mA to 1.15 mA for the sensor array. The sensing channel contains a programmable instrumentation amplifier (PIA), a low-pass filter (LPF), an incremental analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with its input buffer (BUF). The gain of the sensing channel ranges from 2.76 to 140. The DAC generates a tunable reference voltage to compensate possible sensor array offset. The input referred noise of the sensing channel is around 3.6 μVrms at a sampling rate of 850S/s. A custom 2-wire communication protocol is implemented to support two chips on gripper fingers operating in parallel with low latency, ensuring real-time surgical condition estimation for surgeons. Manufactured in the TSMC 180nm CMOS technology, this chip occupies only 1.37 mm2 core area, and the entire system requires only 4 wires (including power / ground) to operate. Combined with its high accuracy, low latency, and high integration level, this work allows real-time, high-performance haptic force feedback with compact system size, particularly suitable for MIS applications.

Graphene is a promising active material for electric double layer supercapacitors (EDLCs) due to its high electric conductivity and lightweight nature. However, for practical uses as a power source of electronic devices, a porous structure is advantageous to maximize specific energy density. Here, we propose a facile fabrication approach of mesoporous graphene (m-G), in which self-assembled mesoporous structures of poly(styrene)-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) copolymer (PS-b-P2VP) are exploited as both mesostructured catalytic template and a carbon source. Notably, the mesostructured catalytic template is sufficient to act as a rigid support without structural collapse, while PS-b-P2VP converts to graphene, generating m-G with a pore diameter of ca. 3.5 nm and high specific surface area of 186 m2/g. When the EDLCs were prepared using the obtained m-G and ionic liquids, excellent electrochemical behaviors were achieved even at high operation voltages (0 ∼ 3.5 V), including a large specific capacitance (130.2 F/g at 0.2 A/g), high-energy density of 55.4 W h/kg at power density of 350 W/kg, and excellent cycle stability (>10,000 cycles). This study demonstrates that m-G is a promising material for high-performance energy storage devices.

Stretchable ionic conductors have been actively developed due to the increasing demand for wearable electrochemical platforms. Herein, we propose a convenient and effective strategy for tailoring the mechanical deformability of ionic conductors. The mixing of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA, polymer gelator) and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([BMI][TFSI], ionic liquid) produces mechanically stiff ionic conductors. To reduce the chain entanglement of polymer gelators and induce effective dissipation of applied stresses, flexible poly(butyl acrylate) (PBA) with a low glass-transition temperature is additionally doped into the ionic conductor. An extremely stretchable (∼1500%) homogeneous ternary ionic conductor is obtained without a notable change in electrochemical characteristics, unless the content of PBA exceeds the macrophase separation limit of 3 wt %. In addition, the mechanical elasticity (1.8 × 105Pa) and durability (e.g., recovery ratio of ∼86.3% after 1000 stretching/releasing cycles) of the conductor further support its suitability as a strain sensory platform. In contrast to conventional ionoskins that have to fit the area of target body parts, even a small piece of the ternary ionic conductor successfully monitors human motion over large areas by taking advantage of its superior deformability.

As a highly efficient anticancer agent, doxorubicin (DOX) is used for treatment of various cancers, but DOX-induced oxidative damages contribute to a degenerative irreversible cardiac toxicity. Saikosaponin D (SSD), which is a triterpenoid saponin with many biological activities including anti-inflammatory effects and antioxidant properties, provides protection against pathologic cardiac remodeling and fibrosis. In the present study, we investigated the work of SSD for DOX-induced cardiotoxicity and the involved mechanisms. We observed that DOX injection induced cardiac injury and malfunction and decreased survival rate. Besides, DOX treatment increased lactate dehydrogenase leakage, cardiomyocyte apoptosis, and myocardium fibrosis and decreased the size of cardiomyocytes. Meanwhile, all the effects were notably attenuated by SSD treatment. In vitro, we found that 1 μM SSD could enhance the proliferation of H9c2 cells and inhibit DOX-induced apoptosis. It was found that the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and reactive oxygen species were significantly reduced by improving the activities of the endogenous antioxidative enzymes including catalase and glutathione peroxidase. Furthermore, SSD treatment could downregulate the DOX-induced p38 phosphorylation. Our results suggested that SSD efficiently protected the cardiomyocytes from DOX-induced cardiotoxicity by inhibiting the excessive oxidative stress via p38-MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase, MAPK) signaling pathway.

Each part of rat brain structure matures at different stages, in which the grid cells develop continuously in the whole infancy and mature after infancy. Neurophysiological studies have found that 70% of environmental information is collected through visual pathway, so the development signals of grid cells should also be mainly from the visual input. Based on these, this paper proposes a grid cells development model based on visual drive. The visual information is collected by the robot equipped with camera as the driving signal to stimulate the changes of grid nodes, so that the grid field can gradually display the hexagonal firing field throughout the whole space. The experimental results confirm that the model can show the changes of firing characteristics during the development of grid cells, which lays a foundation for the research of robot environment cognitive model based on rat brain structure.

Objective: To observe the therapeutic effect of sinew-regulating bone-setting manipulations for knee osteoarthritis (KOA) model rabbits and its impacts on the chondrocyte apoptosis rate and the levels of interleukin (IL)-1β and nitric oxide (NO). Methods: According to the random number table method, 30 New Zealand white rabbits were divided into a normal group (n=9) and a modeling group (n=21). Rabbits in the modeling group were used to establish KOA models with the modified Hulth method. At the 8th week, three rabbits were sacrificed to verify the model and the remaining 18 rabbits were randomly divided into a model group (n=9) and an intervention group (n=9). Rabbits in the normal group and model group were bred routinely without any intervention. Rabbits in the intervention group were treated with the sinew-regulating bone-setting manipulations, 10 min/time, once every other day for a total of 20 times. The Lequesne MG knee function rating was used to evaluate the behavioral differences of the rabbits in each group. The Pelletier score was used to evaluate the general changes of the rabbits. The Mankin score was used to evaluate the pathology of knee cartilages. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and nitrate reductase methods were used to determine the levels of IL-1β and NO in serum and synovial fluid of each group, respectively. In situterminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated nick and labeling method was used to determine the apoptosis of chondrocytes in each group. Results: Compared with the normal group, the scores of Lequesne MG, Pelletier and Mankin, and the levels of IL-1β and NO in the model group were increased (P<0.05), which indirectly indicated the success of the model. Compared with the model group, the scores of Lequesne MG, Pelletier and Mankin, IL-1β and NO levels, and chondrocyte apoptosis rate of the intervention group were decreased, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion: The sinew-regulating bone-setting manipulations can reduce the levels of IL-1β, NO, and chondrocyte apoptosis rate, and delay the articular cartilage degeneration, therefore, having a good therapeutic effect on KOA.

The development of elastic ionic conductors offers opportunities to fabricate key wearable ionic components such as ionoskins that can perceive mechanical deformation. However, there is still plenty of room to overcome the trade-off between sensitivity and detectable range of previous systems and impart additional functionality. Here, we propose porous ion gels for high-performance, functional ionic sensory platforms. The porous ion gels can be effectively deformed by closing pores even with a small pressure, and a large change in the contact area of the gel and the electrode is induced, leading to a significant difference in electrical double-layer capacitance. The porous ion gels are applied to ionoskins after optimizing mechanical characteristics by adjusting gel parameters. The device indicates a high sensitivity of ∼152.8 kPa–1, a broad sensory pressure range (up to 400 kPa), and excellent durability (>6000 cycles). Successful monitoring of various human motions that induce different magnitudes of pressure is demonstrated with high precision. More interestingly, the functionality of the porous ion gel is extended to include electrochemiluminescence (ECL), resulting in the production of emissive ECL ionoskins. The ECL intensity from the emissive ionoskin is linearly correlated with the applied pressure, which can even be inferred even by the naked eye. The porous ion gel-based functional ionoskins are expected to be key components in future sensory ionotronics.

Electrochemical conversion of CO2into valuable products is a promising approach. Efficient electrocatalysts are highly desirable but remain to be developed. Here, we proposed a molecular encapsulation strategy to enrich intermediates for facilitating electrochemical conversion of CO2to C2H4. This strategy is combining M-TCPP [M = FeCl, Co, and Ni; TCPP = tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin] with a Cu-based metal–organic framework (Cu-MOF) to create a series of metalloporphyrin-decorated Cu catalysts with a coral-like shape (named as M-TCPP@Cu). M-TCPP in the catalysts could supply more CO intermediates to the Cu sites, giving high selectivity for producing C2H4and lowering overpotentials for CO2reduction. Meanwhile, the coral-like structure of the catalyst with abundant active sites is conducive to mass diffusion and benefits the conversion of CO2. We realized a higher C2H4Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 33.42% at −1.17 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) on the Fe-TCPP@Cu electrode than that on the sole Cu electrode (16.85%, at −1.27 V vs RHE). Furthermore, due to the encapsulated structure resulted from one-pot reaction that ensures the dispersion of active centers in M-TCPP, metalloporphyrin-decorated Cu catalysts show better performance than the physical mixture of Cu-MOFs and M-TPPs (M = FeCl, Co, and Ni; TPP = 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin). The results provide a new strategy for the design of high-performance Cu catalysts from Cu-MOFs for CO2conversion.

Tungsten and its alloys with high strength, thermal conductivity, and plasma radiation resistance are highly desirable for applications in medical, electronic and also nuclear facilities. However, the high melting point and high ductile–brittle transition temperature limit the fabrication of complex parts by using traditional methods, such as powder metallurgy. As a kind of additive manufacturing technology, laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) was used to fabricate tungsten and its alloys in recent years because of its high energy density and low action time. This paper reviewed the recent progress of LPBF fabricated tungsten. Two main challenges, which are the lack of density and cracking problem, are focused. The methods to solve these problems are reviewed. In terms of improving the density, decreasing oxygen content, optimizing the process parameter, and adopting spherical powder were proved effective. In terms of cracking problem, the method of alloying, such as adding secondary phase nanoparticles and alloy elements, could significantly reduce the cracking density. However, the crack problem has not been completely solved up to now. Finally, future developments and potential new research directions for LPBF tungsten are proposed.

Ion gels consisting of room-temperature ionic liquids and polymer gelators are considered attractive solid-state electrolyte platforms for functional electrochemical applications due to their tunable electrochemical/mechanical properties, nonvolatility even in a vacuum, and compatibility with various solution processes. Accordingly, a number of studies have been reported on improving the functionality of ion gels and their use in diverse applications. In this Perspective, we highlight recent representative advances in the development of functional gels based on judiciously designed copolymer gelators or prepared by incorporating redox species. In addition, we introduce versatile applicability of ion gels in a variety of applications including electrochemical displays, smart sensory systems, and energy generation/storage systems.

Bin microphysics schemes prognose the raindrop size distribution (RSD), which can be directly evaluated through comparison with disdrometer observations. This evaluation will provide implications on the reliability of simulated cloud microphysics by bin microphysics schemes. In this study, the RSDs of a precipitation event associated with an extratropical cyclone passing South Korea are simulated using a bin microphysics scheme and compared with those observed by a ground‐based disdrometer. The simulated mean RSD overall agrees with the observation. However, notable overestimations appear in the large‐ (3.3–4.3 mm) and small‐ (0.56–1.88 mm) diameter ranges, which respectively stem from the biases in two different time periods, one dominated by stratiform rain and the other largely involved with convective rain. In the stratiform‐rain‐dominated period, the melting of snow is the largest contributor to RSDs. The overestimation in the large‐diameter range in this period can be associated with overly active ice–ice collection at upper levels, which generates a local maximum in RSD at the diameter of 3.3 mm that is not seen in the observed RSDs. In the convective‐rain‐involved period, the warm‐rain collision–coalescence is the largest contributor to RSDs. The overestimation in the small‐diameter range and underestimation in the large‐diameter range imply that the collisional growth of raindrops is represented to be weaker than that in reality. The findings in this study suggest that the RSDs simulated using a bin microphysics scheme can have some systematic biases associated with misrepresentation of some microphysical processes. Bin microphysics schemes are a type of cloud microphysics schemes that allow for the particle size distributions of hydrometeors to take any form at the expense of huge computational resources, aiming to represent the cloud microphysics as realistically as possible. In this study, the raindrop size distributions predicted using a bin microphysics scheme are evaluated through comparison with ground‐based observations obtained using a disdrometer. The mean raindrop size distribution is overall well reproduced, but the raindrop number concentration is overestimated in the small‐ and large‐diameter ranges. The overestimation in the large‐diameter range occurs in the period when stratiform rain is dominant, attributable to the overgrowth of ice particles via ice–ice collection and their melting into large raindrops. The overestimation in the small‐diameter range occurs in the period when convective rain is largely involved, which is attributed to the insufficient growth of raindrops via coalescence with other drops. Raindrop size distributions simulated using a bin microphysics scheme are evaluated in comparison with disdrometer observationsFor stratiform rain, the number of large raindrops is overestimated due to overgrowth of snow particles by aggregation and their meltingWhen convective rain is largely involved, the number of small raindrops is overestimated due to insufficient warm‐rain collision–coalescence Raindrop size distributions simulated using a bin microphysics scheme are evaluated in comparison with disdrometer observations For stratiform rain, the number of large raindrops is overestimated due to overgrowth of snow particles by aggregation and their melting When convective rain is largely involved, the number of small raindrops is overestimated due to insufficient warm‐rain collision–coalescence

Testosterone (TST) and midazolam (MDZ) are widely used as probes to detect CYP3A4/5 activity, but the data acquired with these two substrates do not correlate well at the microsomal level (per milligram of microsomal protein), and the reason is unclear. In this study, CYP3A4/5 activity was probed with TST and MDZ at the microsomal and enzyme levels (per picomole of CYP3A4/5) in 72 human liver samples. Correlation coefficients were lower in Vmaxand CLintat the microsomal level, as compared with those at the enzyme level (Vmax0.658 vs 0.883; CLintno correlation vs 0.796). Compared with TST, MDZ was found to correlate better with the content of CYP3A4/5 (no correlation vs 0.431) and CYP3A5 (no correlation vs 0.447), and huge variations in enzyme content existed among different genotypes, which explained the lower degree of correlation at the microsomal level. In addition, different genotypes had varying effects on activity at the enzyme level, whereas the difference between activity at the enzyme level probed with TST and that probed with MDZ was not obvious (P> 0.05), indicating that the effect of gene polymorphisms on correlation between activity probed with these two substrates was limited at the enzyme level. In conclusion, our study demonstrates a high degree of correlation between CYP3A4/5 activity probed with TST and MDZ at the enzyme level but not at the microsomal level and allows us to correctly understand the influence of gene polymorphisms on the correlations.