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Single-crystalline nickel-rich cobalt-poor layered oxides are promising cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries due to their high safety and competitive cost. However, the severe cation disorder and lithium/oxygen (Li/O) loss during the high-temperature calcination process result in slow Li-ion diffusion and inferior O stability. Herein, a LiNi0.85Co0.05Mn0.10O2 (NCM85) single-crystalline cathode was prepared at relatively lower lithiation temperatures by barium/aluminum (Ba/Al) co-doping. The increase in the c-axis caused by Ba doping with a larger ion radius and the reduction in Li/Ni disorder can enhance the Li-ion diffusion kinetics, while the strong Ba-O and Al-O bonds considerably boost the lattice O stability to alleviate O escape during the charging process. The optimized cathode exhibits a high reversible capacity of 206.5 mA h g−1 at 0.1C and 115.6 mA h g−1 at 5C. Impressively, 87.5% of initial capacity is still maintained after 500 cycles at 1C in a pouch-type full cell. This finding provides a viable and flexible method to resolve the kinetics and stability issues of other layered oxide cathodes.

Full concentration gradient ternary oxide cathodes, with a Ni-rich core and a Mn-rich surface, have been identified to effectively enhance their interfacial and structural stability for long-life Li-ion batteries. Nevertheless, a big challenge is to address the degradient effect during high-temperature lithiation. Herein, we demonstrate the synthesis of gradient LiNi0.70Co0.10Mn0.20O2 cathodes by F-doping and intergranular LixWyOz coating. The coating layer served as a physical barrier to mitigate the interdiffusion of transition metal ions during grain boundary merging. Meanwhile, the doped F ions, occupying the O sites, can further restrict ion transfer to inner primary particles by the formation of extremely strong M-F bonds. Accordingly, the resultant gradient cathodes deliver a high reversible capacity of 211.2 mAh g-1 at 0.1C in coin-type half-cells. A superior cycling stability is achieved with a high capacity retention of 93.0% at 1C after 500 cycles within 2.7-4.5 V in pouch-type full cells. This work provides a reliable technical route to obtain high-energy Li-ion batteries by the design of high-voltage concentration gradient Ni-rich cathodes.

Bladder cancer is one of the most common and deadly cancer worldwide. Current chemotherapy has shown limited efficacy in improving outcomes for patients. Nitroxoline, an old and widely used oral antibiotic, which was known to treat for urinary tract infection for decades. Recent studies suggested that nitroxoline suppressed the tumor progression and metastasis, especially in bladder cancer. However, the underlying mechanism for anti-tumor activity of nitroxoline remains unclear. Methods: CircRNA microarray was used to explore the nitroxoline-mediated circRNA expression profile of bladder cancer lines. Transwell and wound-healing assay were applied to evaluate the capacity of metastasis. ChIP assay was chosen to prove the binding of promotor and transcription factor. RNA-pulldown assay was performed to explore the sponge of circRNA and microRNA. Results: We first identified the circNDRG1 (has_circ_0085656) as a novel candidate circRNA. Transwell and wound-healing assay demonstrated that circNDRG1 inhibited the metastasis of bladder cancer. ChIP assay showed that circNDRG1 was regulated by the transcription factor EGR1 by binding the promotor of host gene NDRG1. RNA-pulldown assay proved that circNDRG1 sponged miR-520h leading to the overexpression of smad7, which was a negative regulatory protein of EMT. Conclusions: Our research revealed that nitroxoline may suppress metastasis in bladder cancer via EGR1/circNDRG1/miR-520h/smad7/EMT signaling pathway.

Bladder cancer is one of the most common and deadly cancer worldwide. Current chemotherapy has shown limited efficacy in improving outcomes for patients. Nitroxoline, an old and widely used oral antibiotic, which was known to treat for urinary tract infection for decades. Recent studies suggested that nitroxoline suppressed the tumor progression and metastasis, especially in bladder cancer. However, the underlying mechanism for anti-tumor activity of nitroxoline remains unclear. Methods: CircRNA microarray was used to explore the nitroxoline-mediated circRNA expression profile of bladder cancer lines. Transwell and wound-healing assay were applied to evaluate the capacity of metastasis. ChIP assay was chosen to prove the binding of promotor and transcription factor. RNA-pulldown assay was performed to explore the sponge of circRNA and microRNA. Results: We first identified the circNDRG1 (has_circ_0085656) as a novel candidate circRNA. Transwell and wound-healing assay demonstrated that circNDRG1 inhibited the metastasis of bladder cancer. ChIP assay showed that circNDRG1 was regulated by the transcription factor EGR1 by binding the promotor of host gene NDRG1. RNA-pulldown assay proved that circNDRG1 sponged miR-520h leading to the overexpression of smad7, which was a negative regulatory protein of EMT. Conclusions: Our research revealed that nitroxoline may suppress metastasis in bladder cancer via EGR1/circNDRG1/miR-520h/smad7/EMT signaling pathway.

Xiaoliang Liu,1,2 Feng Liu,2 Haifeng Yu,2 Qiaoqian Zhang,2 Fubao Liu2 1Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of West Anhui Health Vocational College, Lu’an City, Anhui Province, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei City, Anhui Province, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Fubao Liu, Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No. 218, Jixi Road, Hefei City, Anhui Province, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 135 1566 2646, Email liufubao88@163.comPurpose: The aims of this study were to identify the prognosis-related risk factors for HCC patients after surgery and to develop a predictive model by analysing the medical records of 152 HCC patients in our hospital.Patients and Methods: Univariate Cox regression analysis was applied to identify potential risk factors for HCC patients after surgery and to determine independent prognosis-related risk factors by multivariate analysis. Subsequently, a nomogram model was developed based on all independent factors and was validated by a validation set. Calibration and receiver operating characteristic curves were employed to evaluate the accuracy of the model. Finally, decision curve analyses were used to assess its clinical utility.Results: The univariate Cox regression analysis indicated that the patient’s age, sex, grade, different AJCC TNM stages, vascular invasion, lymphatic infiltration, and tumour size were potential prognostic-related risk factors for HCC patients (p < 0.2), and the findings of multivariate analysis revealed that grade, different AJCC TNM stages, vascular invasion, and lymphatic infiltration were independent prognostic-related risk factors for HCC patients (p < 0.05). Subsequently, we constructed a prognosis-related prediction model based on all independent prognostic predictors and validate

Fault tolerance of a blockchain is often characterized by the fraction $f$ of "adversarial power" that it can tolerate in the system. Despite the fast progress in blockchain designs in recent years, existing blockchain systems can still only tolerate $f$ below $0.5$. Can practically usable blockchains tolerate a malicious majority, i.e., $f$ above $0.5$? This work presents a positive answer to this question. We first note that the well-known impossibility of {\em byzantine consensus} for $f$ above $0.5$ does not carry over to blockchains. To tolerate $f$ above $0.5$, we use {\em byzantine broadcast}, instead of byzantine consensus, as the core of the blockchain. A major obstacle in doing so, however, is that the resulting blockchain may have extremely low throughput. To overcome this central technical challenge, we propose a novel byzantine broadcast protocol OverlayBB, that can tolerate $f$ above $0.5$ while achieving good throughput. Using OverlayBB as the core, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a novel Proof-of-Stake blockchain called BCube. BCube can tolerate a malicious majority, while achieving practically usable transaction throughput and confirmation latency in our experiments with $10000$ nodes and under $f = 0.7$. To our knowledge, BCube is the first blockchain that can achieve such properties.

Guangzhao Zhang,1,* Yanlei Hu,2,* Wuying Yuan,1 Hongli Qiu,1 Haifeng Yu,1 Jiahui Du1 1Department of Minimally Invasive Surgery, Henan Chest Hospital, Zhengzhou, Henan 450003, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Fuwai Central China Cardiovascular Hospital, Zhengzhou, Henan 451464, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jiahui Du Email zhanggz45@sina.comBackground: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a heterogeneous tumor that accounts for approximately 85% of all lung cancer cases worldwide. microRNAs (miRNAs) are believed to play an important role in regulating a variety of biological processes, including immunity and cancer. We investigated the effect of miR-519d-3p on the mitigation of NSCLC in vitro and in vivo.Methods: RT-PCR or immunohistochemical assays were used to assess the expression of miR-519d-3p. Colony formation, flow cytometry, and transwell assay were respectively used to detect proliferation, apoptosis, and invasion of A549 and NCI-H661 cell lines. Luciferase reporter assay was used to verify targeting the relationship between mir-519d-3p and VEGFA. Western blot was used to examine the expression of Ki67, caspase-3, E-cadherin, N-cadherin, VEGF, P38, and PI3K/AKT. Animal models were established by BABL/c mice to research the effect of mir-519d-3p overexpression in vivo.Results: In vitro, miR-519d-3p overexpression inhibited A549 and NCI-H661 cells proliferation, invasion, and also promoted apoptosis. In addition, miR-519d-3p overexpression downregulated VEGFA expression and decreased the P38 and PI3K/AKT phosphorylation level. In vivo, miR-519d-3p overexpression significantly restrained tumor volume (2087± 265 mm3 vs 599± 135 mm3, *P<  0.05) and tumor weight (0.45± 0.08 g vs 0.13± 0.06 g, *P< 0.05) compared with the control group. Overexpression of miR-519d-3p downregulated levels

The group testing problem consists of determining a small set of defective items from a larger set of items based on tests on groups of items, and is relevant in applications such as medical testing, communication protocols, pattern matching, and many more. While rigorous group testing algorithms have long been known with runtime at least linear in the number of items, a recent line of works has sought to reduce the runtime to ${\rm poly}(k \log n)$, where $n$ is the number of items and $k$ is the number of defectives. In this paper, we present such an algorithm for non-adaptive probabilistic group testing termed {\em bit mixing coding} (BMC), which builds on techniques that encode item indices in the test matrix, while incorporating novel ideas based on erasure-correction coding. We show that BMC achieves asymptotically vanishing error probability with $O(k \log n)$ tests and $O(k^2 \cdot \log k \cdot \log n)$ runtime, in the limit as $n \to \infty$ (with $k$ having an arbitrary dependence on $n$). This closes a recently-proposed open problem of simultaneously achieving ${\rm poly}(k \log n)$ decoding time using $O(k \log n)$ tests without any assumptions on $k$. In addition, we show that the same scaling laws can be attained in a commonly-considered noisy setting, in which each test outcome is flipped with constant probability., Comment: (v2) Expanded related work section

Many blockchain consensus protocols have been proposed recently to scale the throughput of a blockchain with available bandwidth. However, these protocols are becoming increasingly complex, making it more and more difficult to produce proofs of their security guarantees. We propose a novel permissionless blockchain protocol OHIE which explicitly aims for simplicity. OHIE composes as many parallel instances of Bitcoin's original (and simple) backbone protocol as needed to achieve excellent throughput. We formally prove the safety and liveness properties of OHIE. We demonstrate its performance with a prototype implementation and large-scale experiments with up to 50,000 nodes. In our experiments, OHIE achieves linear scaling with available bandwidth, providing about 4-10 Mbps transaction throughput (under 8-20 Mbps per-node available bandwidth configurations) and at least about 20x better decentralization over prior works.

Scheduling to avoid packet collisions is a long-standing challenge in networking, and has become even trickier in wireless networks with multiple senders and multiple receivers. In fact, researchers have proved that even {\em perfect} scheduling can only achieve $\mathbf{R} = O(\frac{1}{\ln N})$. Here $N$ is the number of nodes in the network, and $\mathbf{R}$ is the {\em medium utilization rate}. Ideally, one would hope to achieve $\mathbf{R} = \Theta(1)$, while avoiding all the complexities in scheduling. To this end, this paper proposes {\em cross-sender bit-mixing coding} ({\em BMC}), which does not rely on scheduling. Instead, users transmit simultaneously on suitably-chosen slots, and the amount of overlap in different user's slots is controlled via coding. We prove that in all possible network topologies, using BMC enables us to achieve $\mathbf{R}=\Theta(1)$. We also prove that the space and time complexities of BMC encoding/decoding are all low-order polynomials., Comment: Published in the International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN), 2019

This paper considers several closely-related problems in synchronous dynamic networks with oblivious adversaries, and proves novel Omega(d + poly(m)) lower bounds on their time complexity (in rounds). Here d is the dynamic diameter of the dynamic network and m is the total number of nodes. Before this work, the only known lower bounds on these problems under oblivious adversaries were the trivial Omega(d) lower bounds. Our novel lower bounds are hence the first non-trivial lower bounds and also the first lower bounds with a poly(m) term. Our proof relies on a novel reduction from a certain two-party communication complexity problem. Our central proof technique is unique in the sense that we consider the communication complexity with a special leaker. The leaker helps Alice and Bob in the two-party problem, by disclosing to Alice and Bob certain "non-critical" information about the problem instance that they are solving.

This paper considers several closely-related problems in synchronous dynamic networks with oblivious adversaries, and proves novel Omega(d + poly(m)) lower bounds on their time complexity (in rounds). Here d is the dynamic diameter of the dynamic network and m is the total number of nodes. Before this work, the only known lower bounds on these problems under oblivious adversaries were the trivial Omega(d) lower bounds. Our novel lower bounds are hence the first non-trivial lower bounds and also the first lower bounds with a poly(m) term. Our proof relies on a novel reduction from a certain two-party communication complexity problem. Our central proof technique is unique in the sense that we consider the communication complexity with a special leaker. The leaker helps Alice and Bob in the two-party problem, by disclosing to Alice and Bob certain "non-critical" information about the problem instance that they are solving.

In collaborative recommendation systems, privacy may be compromised, as users' opinions are used to generate recommendations for others. In this paper, we consider an online collaborative recommendation system, and we measure users' privacy in terms of the standard differential privacy. We give the first quantitative analysis of the trade-offs between recommendation quality and users' privacy in such a system by showing a lower bound on the best achievable privacy for any non-trivial algorithm, and proposing a near-optimal algorithm. From our results, we find that there is actually little trade-off between recommendation quality and privacy for any non-trivial algorithm. Our results also identify the key parameters that determine the best achievable privacy., Comment: 35 pages, 2 figures

Dapang Rao,1 Haibo Zhu,2 Kaiyuan Yu,2 Haifeng Yu,2 Liping Xie1 1Department of Urology, First Affiliated Hospital, Medical College,Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Urology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China Abstract: This article reports two cases of scrotum Paget’s disease in two biological brothers who were admitted and treated in our hospital in 2013. They are very rare cases. The present article discusses the potential management of Paget’s disease and the importance of long-term follow-up. Keywords: Paget’s disease, case report, follow-up, dissection, metastasis&nbsp

Dapang Rao,1,2 Haifeng Yu,2 Yu Bai,3 Xiangyi Zheng,1 Liping Xie1 1Department of Urology, First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Urology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Urology, Yunnan Tumor Hospital and Third Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, People’s Republic of China Background: Night-shift work is suggested to be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, but its association with prostate cancer is still controversial. We examined this association by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: Studies were identified by searching PubMed, EMBASE, Ovid, Web of Science, the Cochrane register, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases through December 25, 2014. Summary relative risks (SRRs) with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a random effects or fixed effects model. Heterogeneity and publication bias were also evaluated. Results: A total of 2,459,845 individuals from eight published studies were included in this meta-analysis. Analysis of all studies suggested that night-shift work was associated with a significantly increased risk of prostate cancer (RR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.05–1.46; P=0.011). Sensitivity analysis showed that the association remained significant when repeating the analysis after removing one study each time. Dose–response meta-analysis suggested that an increase in night-shift work of 5 years duration was statistically significantly associated with a 2.8% (95% CI: 0.3, 5.4%, P=0.030) increase in the risk of prostate cancer. There was no significant publication bias. Conclusion: Based on a meta-analysis, night-shift work is associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer. Because of the limited number of included studies and the large le

Dapang Rao,1 Haifeng Yu,2 Haibo Zhu,2 Kaiyuan Yu,2 Xiao Hu,3 Liping Xie11Department of Urology, First Affiliated Hospital, Medical College, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China; 2Department of Urology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Zhejiang University Medical College, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaObjective: To explore the therapeutic efficacy and outcome of superselective transcatheter renal artery embolization for the treatment of hemorrhage from non-iatrogenic blunt renal trauma (BRT).Methods: Sixteen patients who received superselective transcatheter renal artery embolization for non-iatrogenic BRT hemorrhage between January 2003 and December 2012 were reviewed retrospectively. Spring steel coils with gelatin sponge particles were used to embolize branches of the renal artery in 15 patients with injuries to the segmental or distal renal arteries; superselective internal iliac artery branch embolization was used to occlude hemorrhage from the branch of the renal artery in two patients with pelvic fracture complicated with internal iliac artery branch laceration; and balloon catheter occlusion was used to embolize the branch of the renal artery in one patient with renal artery trunk laceration.Results: Embolization was achieved successfully in a one-stop procedure in all cases. The patient who received balloon catheter occlusion for renal artery trunk laceration was transferred immediately to surgery for emergency nephrectomy. Another patient died of intracranial trauma 1 day after surgery, although macroscopic hematuria disappeared at the time. Macroscopic hematuria disappeared within 1 day after surgery in the other 14 patients. Follow-up visits at times ranging from 6 months to 9 years after the procedure showed normal renal function without evidence of complications in all surviving patients.Conclusion: Superselective transcatheter renal artery

Yun Fan, Zhiyu Huang, Luo Fang, Lulu Miu, Nengming Lin, Lei Gong, Haifeng Yu, Haiyan Yang, Weimin Mao Key Laboratory Diagnosis and Treatment Technology on Thoracic Oncology (Esophagus, Lung), Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China Background: Chemotherapy and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors are controversial in the treatment of patients with brain metastases from non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: We retrospectively studied the effects of solely localized treatment or localized treatment in combination with chemotherapy and/or EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors on outcomes in 210 NSCLC patients with brain metastases. The effects of treatment modality, Karnofsky performance status, age, primary tumor histology, number of brain metastases, and other factors on survival time were analyzed, and the robustness of two prognostic indices, ie, recursive partitioning analysis and graded prognostic assessment, was evaluated. Results: The median survival time in patients with systemic medication and localized treatments was higher than in those with localized treatments alone (11 versus 3 months, P=0.000). Within the systemic medication group, median survival time was significantly longer for EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors than for other types of chemotherapy (12 versus 9 months, P=0.002). In the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor group, median survival time for patients with EGFR gene mutation was 20 months versus 8 months for those with the wild-type EGFR gene. The median survival time with pemetrexed was significantly higher than with other chemotherapies (13 versus 7 months, P=0.006). In multivariate analysis, the prognosis was significantly correlated with treatment modality (P=0.000), Karnofsky performance status (P=0.000), number of brain metastases (P=0.001), and histologic tumor type (P=0.007). In the graded prognostic assessment model, survival curves for the subgroups showed clear separations. Co

YueBing Chen,1 Dapang Rao,2 Haibo Zhu,2 Haifeng Yu,2 ShiKun Yang21Department of Urology, Affiliated Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 2Department of Urology, 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, People's Republic of ChinaAbstract: Primary malignant fibrous histiocytoma of the renal pelvis is extremely rare. This article reports a pathologically confirmed case. Surgery is the main treatment for this disease. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy have been reported to be ineffective. It is difficult to differentiate it from urothelial tumor of the renal pelvis and renal cell carcinoma by preoperative laboratory and radiological evaluation. Immunohistochemical study is helpful in confirming the diagnosis of the disease. This report discusses the clinical manifestations, pathohistological characteristics, treatment, and prognosis of the case reported.Keywords: primary malignant fibrous histiocytoma, tumor, urothelium, and renal cell carcinoma