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Transition metal carbides (TMCs) are a class of materialswith excellent dielectric properties and thermal stability, which exhibit enormous potential in high temperature electromagnetic wave absorption (EWA). However, the high dielectric constant and electrical conductivity of TMCs usually cause impedance mismatch, and their high density also prevents further practical applications. To solve these problems, the lightweight and impedance matching NbC nanowires (NbCnws) were prepared by using bamboo powder as a carbon source and subsequent carbothermal reduction reaction process. The as-synthesized NbCnws all exhibit a low density of 0.23 g/cm³ and superior EMA performance. It is worth noting that the minimum reflection loss (RLmin) of the sample is -43.03 dB at 5.92 GHz and the corresponding matching thickness is only 3.7 mm when sintering temperature is 1500°C. The excellent electromagnetic wave absorption (EWA) performance is attributed to good impedance matching and strong dielectric loss. This research work provides a prospect for the development and utilization of one-dimensional TMC materials in the field of microwave absorption materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: Heparanase is the only confirmed endoglycosidase that cleaves heparan sulfate (HS), a ubiquitous glycosaminoglycan with various essential roles in multiple pathological processes. Thus, the development of heparanase inhibitors has become an attractive strategy for drug discovery, especially in tumour therapy, in which HS mimetics are the most promising compounds. The various biological effects of heparanase also suggest a role for HS mimetics in many non‐cancer indications, such as type 1 diabetes. However, the potential benefits of HS mimetics in obesity‐related type 2 diabetes have not been elucidated. Experimental Approach: In this study, we investigated muparfostat (PI‐88), a developed HS mimetic currently enrolled in Phase III clinical trials, in obese mouse models and in vitro cultured murine hepatocytes. Key Results: Daily administration of muparfostat for 4 weeks caused hyperlipidaemia and aggravated hepatic steatosis in obese mice models, but not in lean animals. In cultured hepatocytes, muparfostat did not alter lipid accumulation. Acute tests suggested that muparfostat binds to lipoprotein lipase in competition with HS on vascular endothelial cell surfaces, thereby reducing the degradation of circulating triglycerides by lipoprotein lipase and subsequent uptake of fatty acids into vascular endothelial cells and causing hyperlipidaemia. This hyperlipidaemia aggravates hepatic steatosis and causes liver injury in muparfostat‐treated obese mice. Conclusions and Implications: The binding activity of HS mimetics to lipoprotein lipase should be investigated as an additional pharmacological effect during heparanase inhibitor drug discovery. This study also provides novel evidence for an increased risk of drug‐induced liver injury in obese individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stretchable organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) are important components for flexible/wearable electronics. However, the efficiency of the existing stretchable OLEDs is still much lower as compared with their rigid counterparts, one of the main reasons being the lack of ideal flexible transparent electrodes. Herein, we propose and develop a printed embedded metal composite electrode (PEMCE) strategy that enables the fabrication of ultra‐thin, highly flexible transparent electrodes with robust mechanical properties. With the flexible transparent electrodes serves as the anodes, flexible/stretchable white OLEDs have been successfully constructed, achieving a current efficiency of up to 77.4 cd A−1 and a maximum luminance of 34 787 cd m−2. The current efficiency of the resulting stretchable OLEDs is the highest ever reported for flexible/stretchable white OLEDs, which is about 1.2 times higher than that of the reference rigid devices based on ITO/glass electrodes. The excellent optoelectronic properties of the printed embedded transparent electrodes and the light extraction effect of the Ag‐mesh account for the significant increase in current efficiency. Remarkably, the electroluminescence performance still retains ~83% of the original luminance even after bending the device 2000 cycles at a radii of ~0.5 mm. More importantly, the device can withstand tensile strains of up to ~100%, and even mechanical deformation of 90% tensile strain does not result in a significant loss of electroluminescence performance with current efficiency and luminance maintained at over 85%. The results confirm that the PEMCE strategy is effective for constructing ultra‐flexible transparent electrodes, showing great promise for use in a variety of flexible/stretchable electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: Gut microbiota dysbiosis induced by acute pancreatitis (AP) exacerbates pancreatic injury and systemic inflammatory responses. The alleviation of gut microbiota dysbiosis through faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is considered a potential strategy to reduce tissue damage and inflammation in many clinical disorders. Here, we aim to investigate the effect of gut microbiota and microbiota‐derived metabolites on AP and further clarify the mechanisms associated with pancreatic damage and inflammation. Experimental Approach: AP rat and mouse models were established by administration of caerulein or sodium taurocholate in vivo. Pancreatic acinar cells were exposed to caerulein and lipopolysaccharide in vitro to simulate AP. Key Results: Normobiotic FMT alleviated AP‐induced gut microbiota dysbiosis and ameliorated the severity of AP, including mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative damage and inflammation. Normobiotic FMT induced higher levels of NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide)‐associated metabolites, particularly nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN). NMN administration mitigated AP‐mediated mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative damage and inflammation by increasing pancreatic NAD+ levels. Similarly, overexpression of the NAD+‐dependent mitochondrial deacetylase sirtuin 3 (SIRT3) alleviated the severity of AP. Furthermore, SIRT3 deacetylated peroxiredoxin 5 (PRDX5) and enhanced PRDX5 protein expression, thereby promoting its antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory activities in AP. Importantly, normobiotic FMT‐mediated NMN metabolism induced SIRT3–PRDX5 pathway activation during AP. Conclusion and Implications: Gut microbiota‐derived NMN alleviates the severity of AP by activating the SIRT3–PRDX5 pathway. Normobiotic FMT could be served as a potential strategy for AP treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superenhancers drive abnormal gene expression in tumors and promote malignancy. However, the relationship between superenhancer‐associated long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) and abnormal metabolism is unknown. This study identifies a novel lncRNA, fatty acid synthesis‐related lncRNA (FASRL), whose expression is driven by upstream stimulatory factor 1 (USF1) through its superenhancer. FASRL promotes hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, FASRL binds to acetyl‐CoA carboxylase 1 (ACACA), a fatty acid synthesis rate‐limiting enzyme, increasing fatty acid synthesis via the fatty acid metabolism pathway. Moreover, the expression of FASRL, USF1, and ACACA is increased, and their high expression indicates a worse prognosis in HCC patients. In summary, USF1 drives FASRL transcription via a superenhancer. FASRL binding to ACACA increases fatty acid synthesis and lipid accumulation to mechanistically exacerbate HCC. FASRL may serve as a novel prognostic marker and treatment target in HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Metformin is an oral anti‐hyperglycemic recommended by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) as a preferred initial pharmacologic agent for type 2 diabetes. Metabolic acidosis is a rare yet severe side effect of it. We examined the association of metformin use and dosage on the risk of metabolic acidosis in diabetic patients with different degrees of chronic hepatitis B (CHB)‐related cirrhosis and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: Metabolic acidosis was defined by blood pH ≤7.35, together with lactate >5 mmol/L or arterial bicarbonate ≤18 mmol/L or venous bicarbonate ≤21 mmol/L, and/or diagnosis codes. Child‐Pugh class and CKD stage were included in the model as time‐dependent covariates. Age, gender, comorbidities, and use of relevant medications were adjusted as covariates. Maximum daily dose of metformin was classified into ≤1000 mg and >1000 mg. Results: We identified 4431 diabetic patients with CHB‐related cirrhosis between 2000 and 2017 from a territory‐wide database in Hong Kong. The risk of metabolic acidosis increased with Child‐Pugh class B and C cirrhosis regardless of CKD stage (adjusted subdistribution hazard ratio [aSHR] ranged from 3.50 to 86.16). Metformin use was associated with a higher risk in patients with Child‐Pugh class B or C cirrhosis and stage 3A CKD or above (aSHR ranged from 1.55 to 2.46). In stage 4/5 CKD, a daily dose of metformin ≤1000 mg was still associated with a higher risk of metabolic acidosis regardless of the severity of cirrhosis (aSHR ranged from 2.45 to 3.92). Conclusion: In conclusion, patients with Child‐Pugh class B cirrhosis or above were at a higher risk of metabolic acidosis. Metformin further increased the risk in patients with Child‐Pugh class B cirrhosis or above and stage 3A CKD or above. Dose adjustment in stage 4/5 CKD did not reduce the risk of metabolic acidosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility of 3D printing of kidney and perinephric fat based on low‐dose CT technology. Patients and Methods: A total of 184 patients with stage T1 complex renal tumors who underwent laparoscopic nephrectomy were prospectively enrolled and divided into three groups: group A (conventional dose kidney and perinephric fat 3D printing group, n = 62), group B (low‐dose kidney and perinephric fat 3D printing, n = 64), and group C (conventional dose merely kidney 3D printing group, n = 58). The effective dose (ED), signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR), and contrast‐to‐noise ratio (CNR) were determined. The 3D printing quality was evaluated using a 4‐point scale, and interobserver agreement was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Results: The ED of group B was lower than that of group A, with a decrease of 55.1%. The subjective scores of 3D printing quality in all groups were 3 or 4 points. The interobserver agreement among the three observers in 3D printing quality was good (ICC = 0.84–0.92). The perioperative indexes showed that operation time (OT), warm ischemia time (WIT), estimated blood loss (EBL), and laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) conversion to laparoscopic radical nephrectomy (LRN) in groups A or B were significantly less than those in group C. LPN was more frequent in group A and group B than in group C (all p < 0.017). There were no significant differences in perioperative indexes between group A and group B (all p > 0.017). Conclusion: Low‐dose CT technology can be effectively applied to 3D printing of kidney and perinephric fat and reduce the patient's radiation dose without compromising 3D printing quality. 3D printing of kidney and perinephric fat can significantly increase the success rate of LPN and decrease OT, WIT, and EBL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Background: It is unknown whether patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) who achieved hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seroclearance spontaneously or following anti‐viral therapy have similar clinical outcomes. Aim: To compare the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with CHB who either cleared HBsAg spontaneously or following anti‐viral therapy Methods: Adult CHB‐monoinfected patients who cleared HBsAg between January 2000 and March 2019 were identified from a territory‐wide database in Hong Kong. Patients with liver transplantation and/or HCC before HBsAg loss were excluded. Patients' demographics, comorbidities, anti‐viral treatment, laboratory parameters and HCC development were analysed. Results: Of 7,124 identified patients with CHB who cleared HBsAg, mean age was 58.1 ± 13.8 years; 4,340 (60.9%) were male; 451 (6.3%) had cirrhosis; 5,917 (83.1%) and 1,207 (16.9%) had spontaneous and nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA)‐induced HBsAg seroclearance, respectively. Most patients had normal liver function at HBsAg loss. Patients with NA‐induced HBsAg seroclearance were younger, and more likely to be male and cirrhotic than patients with spontaneous HBsAg loss. At a median (interquartile range) follow‐up of 4.3 (2.2‐7.6) years, 97 (1.6%) and 16 (1.3%) patients with spontaneous and NA‐induced HBsAg loss developed HCC, respectively. Patients who achieved NA‐induced HBsAg loss had comparable HCC risk as those with spontaneous HBsAg loss (adjusted subdistribution hazard ratio 0.75, 95% CI 0.43‐1.32, P = 0.323). The results remained robust in propensity score weighting and matching analyses. Conclusion: The HCC risk was similarly low after either spontaneous or NA‐induced HBsAg seroclearance in a territory‐wide cohort of patients with CHB who had cleared HBsAg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative splicing (AS) is assumed to play important roles in the progression and prognosis of cancer. Currently, the comprehensive analysis and clinical relevance of AS in lower‐grade diffuse gliomas have not been systematically addressed. Here, we gathered alternative splicing data of lower‐grade diffuse gliomas from SpliceSeq. Based on the Percent Spliced In (PSI) values of 515 lower‐grade diffuse glioma patients from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we performed subtype‐differential AS analysis and consensus clustering to determine robust clusters of patients. A total of 48 050 AS events in 10 787 genes in lower‐grade diffuse gliomas were profiled. Subtype‐differential splicing analysis and functional annotation revealed that spliced genes were significantly enriched in numerous cancer‐related biological phenotypes and signalling pathways. Consensus clustering using AS events identified three robust clusters of patients with distinguished pathological and prognostic features. Moreover, each cluster was also associated with distinct genomic alterations. Finally, we developed and validated an AS‐related signature with Cox proportional hazards model. The signature, significantly associated with clinical and molecular features, could serve as an independent prognostic factor for lower‐grade diffuse gliomas. Thus, our results indicated that AS events could discriminate molecular subtypes and have prognostic impact in lower‐grade diffuse gliomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transcriptomic data derived from bulk sequencing have been applied to delineate the tumor microenvironment (TME) and define immune subtypes in various cancers, which may facilitate the design of immunotherapy treatment strategies. We herein gathered published gene expression data from diffuse lower‐grade glioma (LGG) patients to identify immune subtypes. Based on the immune gene profiles of 402 LGG patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas, we performed consensus clustering to determine robust clusters of patients, and evaluated their reproducibility in three Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas cohorts. We further integrated immunogenomics methods to characterize the immune environment of each subtype. Our analysis identified and validated three immune subtypes—Im1, Im2, and Im3—characterized by differences in lymphocyte signatures, somatic DNA alterations, and clinical outcomes. Im1 had a higher infiltration of CD8+ T cells, Th17, and mast cells. Im2 was defined by elevated cytolytic activity, exhausted CD8+ T cells, macrophages, higher levels of aneuploidy, and tumor mutation burden, and these patients had worst outcome. Im3 displayed more prominent T helper cell and APC coinhibition signatures, with elevated pDCs and macrophages. Each subtype was associated with distinct somatic alterations. Moreover, we applied graph structure learning‐based dimensionality reduction to the immune landscape and revealed significant intracluster heterogeneity with Im2 subtype. Finally, we developed and validated an immune signature with better performance of prognosis prediction. Our results demonstrated the immunological heterogeneity within diffuse LGG and provided valuable stratification for the design of future immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainfall is not only related to current and previous meteorological conditions but also to meteorological conditions of the current location and surrounding regions. Existing short-term rainfall prediction methods mainly focus on radar echo extrapolation to predict the future radar echo maps, and then retrieve rainfall based on the predicted radar echo maps. These methods obtain rainfall through two separate steps usually leading to large accumulated errors. However, Tiny-RainNet is proposed by combining convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with bi-directional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) to directly predict future rainfall based on sequential radar echo maps. The structure of Tiny-RainNet is simpler than existing rainfall prediction models combining CNNs with LSTM. In order to further reduce computational complexity of the Tiny-RainNet and obtain good rainfall prediction results, 10 × 10, not the original 101 × 101, sequential radar maps are used as inputs of the Tiny-RainNet after making many tests considering temporal-spatial meteorological conditions. The proposed model takes into account the influence of temporal-spatial meteorological conditions on rainfall prediction. This avoids the accumulated error caused by multi-step prediction methods. The overall performance of the Tiny-RainNet model performs better than fully connected LSTM, LSTM and convolutional LSTM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Laparoscopic nephrectomy (LN) has become the preferred method for renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Adequate preoperative assessment or intraoperative navigation is key to the successful implementation of LN. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical application value of mixed‐reality–assisted surgical navigation (MRASN) in LN. Patients and Methods: A total of 100 patients with stage T1N0M0 renal tumors who underwent laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) or laparoscopic radical nephrectomy (LRN) were prospectively enrolled and divided into a mixed‐reality‐assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy (MRALN) group (n = 50) and a non–mixed‐reality‐assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy (non‐MRALN) group (n = 50). All patients underwent renal contrast‐enhanced CT scans. The CT DICOM data of all patients in the MRALN group were imported into the mixed‐reality (MR) postprocessing workstation and underwent holographic three‐dimensional visualization (V3D) modeling and MR displayed, respectively. We adopted the Likert scale to evaluate the clinical application value of MRASN. The consistency of evaluators was assessed using the Cohen kappa coefficient (k). Results: No significant differences in patient demographic indicators between the MRALN group and the non‐MRALN group (P >.05). The subjective score of MRASN clinical application value in operative plan formulation, intraoperative navigation, remote consultation, teaching guidance, and doctor‐patient communication were higher in the MRASN group than in the non‐MRASN group (all P <.001). There were significantly more patients for whom LPN was successfully implemented in the MRALN group than in the non‐MRALN group (82% vs 46%, P <.001). The MRALN group had a shorter operative time (OT) and warm ischemia time (WIT) and less estimated blood loss (EBL) than the non‐MRALN group (all P <.001). Conclusion: MRASN is helpful for operative plan formulation, intraoperative navigation, remote consultation, teaching guidance, and doctor‐patient communication. MRALN may effectively improve the successful implementation rate of LPN and reduce the OT, WIT, and EBL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipid metabolism reprogramming plays important role in cell growth, proliferation, angiogenesis and invasion in cancers. However, the diverse lipid metabolism programmes and prognostic value during glioma progression remain unclear. Here, the lipid metabolism‐related genes were profiled using RNA sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) database. Gene ontology (GO) and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) found that glioblastoma (GBM) mainly exhibited enrichment of glycosphingolipid metabolic progress, whereas lower grade gliomas (LGGs) showed enrichment of phosphatidylinositol metabolic progress. According to the differential genes of lipid metabolism between LGG and GBM, we developed a nine‐gene set using Cox proportional hazards model with elastic net penalty, and the CGGA cohort was used for validation data set. Survival analysis revealed that the obtained gene set could differentiate the outcome of low‐ and high‐risk patients in both cohorts. Meanwhile, multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that this signature was a significantly independent prognostic factor in diffuse gliomas. Gene ontology and GSEA showed that high‐risk cases were associated with phenotypes of cell division and immune response. Collectively, our findings provided a new sight on lipid metabolism in diffuse gliomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Malayan pangolin (Manis javanica) is a mammal that feeds primarily on ants and termites, which contain the energy‐rich carbohydrate chitin. Chitin is digestible by endogenous enzymes of the typical mammalian gastrointestinal tract, especially the acidic mammalian chitinase (AMCase). The objective of this research was to determine whether AMCase activity is expressed in the stomach of M. javanica. The stomach tissues were divided into three parts: the gastric sack, the oxyntic glands, and the pyloric musculature, which were assayed by conventional RT‐PCR, quantitative reverse transcriptase‐coupled PCR (qPCR) and western blot. Information regarding 3D structural models of AMCase was also obtained. In conclusion, acidic mammalian chitinase is highly expressed in the oxyntic glands of the M. javanica species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Iatrogenic radial nerve injury is a great challenge for orthopaedic surgeons who deal with distal‐third diaphyseal humerus fractures. Conventional open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) remains the gold standard, but complications such as nonunion and iatrogenic radial nerve injury still occur. We fixed the fractures with a lateral locking compression plate (LCP) subcutaneously after small incision reduction to protect the radial nerve. This study reports the clinical and radiographic outcomes of our modified method. Methods: Thirty‐eight patients with distal‐third diaphyseal humerus fractures were treated with lateral subcutaneous LCP and small incision reduction at our department between September 2013 and August 2016. There were 33 males and 5 females, with an average age of 30.3 years (range, 17 to 49 years). All the cases were types A or B (AO/OTA classification, type A, 24 cases; type B, 14 cases). Among them, 6 cases were combined with preoperative radial nerve palsy. All patients were diagnosed with closed humeral fractures after X‐ray examination, and had typical upper limb pain, swelling, and movement disorders. The operations were performed by a single surgeons’ team. Union time, range of motion (ROM), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) shoulder rating scale, and Mayo Elbow Performance Index (MEPI) scores were assessed to evaluate the postoperative results. Results: All patients were followed up for an average of 11.4 months (range, 3 to 36 months). The average operation time was 75.5 min (range, 60 to 150 min) and average intraoperative radiation exposure was 10.5 s (range, 8 to 18 s). Bony union was achieved in all cases after an average of 16.2 weeks (range, 12 to 25 weeks). No complications such as infection or screw and plate fracture occurred, and no iatrogenic radial nerve injury was observed. According to the UCLA shoulder rating scale, the average score was 33.7 (range, 31 to 35), with 33 excellent (86.8%) and 5 good cases (13.2%). They were all excellent according to their MEPI scores (ranging, 94 to 100, with an average of 97.4). The average operation time for secondary removal of the plate was 15.2 min (range, 10 to 20 min), and no complications such as infection or secondary radial nerve injury occurred. Conclusions: Lateral subcutaneous LCP and small incision reduction may reduce the risk of iatrogenic radial nerve injury significantly in the treatment of distal‐third diaphyseal humerus fractures. It also leads to solid fixation, good postoperative function, and convenient removal of the plate without injuring the radial nerve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preclinical and clinical studies demonstrated that the inhibition of cholinergic supersensitivity through nicotinic antagonists and partial agonists can be used successfully to treat depressed patients, especially those who are poor responders to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). In our effort to develop novel antidepressant drugs, LF-3-88 was identified as a potent nicotinic acetylcholine receptor ( nAChR) partial agonist with subnanomolar to nanomolar affinities for β2-containing nAChRs ( α2 β2, α3 β2, α4 β2, and α4 β2*) and superior selectivity away from α3 β4 − ( Ki > 104 nmol/L) and α7- nAChRs ( Ki > 104 nmol/L) as well as 51 other central nervous system (CNS)-related neurotransmitter receptors and transporters. Functional activities at different nAChR subtypes were characterized utilizing 86Rb+ ion efflux assays, two-electrode voltage-clamp (TEVC) recording in oocytes, and whole-cell current recording measurements. In mouse models, administration of LF-3-88 resulted in antidepressive-like behavioral signatures 15 min post injection in the SmartCube® test (5 and 10 mg/kg, i.p.; about 45-min session), decreased immobility in the forced swim test (1-3 mg/kg, i.p.; 1-10 mg/kg, p.o.; 30 min pretreatment, 6-min trial), and decreased latency to approach food in the novelty-suppressed feeding test after 29 days chronic administration once daily (5 mg/kg but not 10 mg/kg, p.o.; 15-min trial). In addition, LF-3-88 exhibited a favorable profile in pharmacokinetic/ADME-Tox (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity) assays. This compound was also shown to cause no mortality in wild-type Balb/CJ mice when tested at 300 mg/kg. These results further support the potential of potent and selective nicotinic partial agonists for use in the treatment of depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]