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Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Other. Main funding source(s): Industry Alignment Fund – Pre-positioning Programme Background Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is the visceral fat deposit within the pericardium that surrounds the heart and the coronary arteries. EAT volume measured from non-contrast CT (NCCT) has been demonstrated to be significantly associated with adverse cardiovascular risk,1 particularly in patients with coronary artery disease.2 However, routine measurement of EAT volume is still challenging in clinical practice, as it is a tedious manual process and prone to human error. Purpose We aimed to develop a fully automated AI toolkit (i.e., AI EAT) for the quantification of EAT from routine NCCT scans and assess its performance in reference to clinical ground truth. Methods This is a multicenter study which performs CT scans in 5000 Asian Admixture patients (APOLLO study NCT05509010). In the current stage of this study, NCCT data analysis were conducted in 551 patients with 26,037 images. AI EAT was developed via a novel deep learning framework using an ensemble region-based UNet. The region-based UNet uses 2 component UNet models to perform segmentation of pericardium at the apex region and non-apex region (middle and basal). EAT volume was obtained by automated thresholding of the voxels (-190 to -30 Hounsfield Unit) within the pericardium (Figure 1). The network was trained in 501 patients with 23,712 NCCT images and tested in 50 patients with 2,325 NCCT images. The performance of AI EAT was evaluated with respect to clinical ground truth using Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), Pearson correlation, and Bland-Altman analysis. Results The AI EAT quantification process took less than 10 seconds per subject, compared with 20-30 minutes for expert readers. Compared to clinical ground truth, our AI EAT achieved a DSC of 0.96±0.01 and 0.91±0.02 for pericardium and EAT segmentations, respectively. There was strong agreement between the AI EAT and clinical ground truth in deriving the EAT volume (r=0.99, P Conclusion End-to-end deep learning system accurately quantifies epicardial adipose tissue in standard NCCT images without manual segmentation.

Accessing cyclic carbonate monomers on large scales is critical for development of any new carbonate-based material platform. This is particularly important in the context of using automated experimental systems for materials synthesis, which can often require large inputs of starting materials. However, the synthesis of carbonate monomers can be a challenging and tedious endeavor, requiring multiple synthetic steps and purifications. To address this, we report a drastically improved and scalable process for the synthesis of carbonate monomers via a two-step route that avoids the use of hazardous phosgene or chloroformate reagents. The cyclic carbonate monomers can be obtained in high yields and with minimal need for chromatographic purification. This process enables rapid access to a broad array of functional groups on the carbonate monomer and monomers generated from procedure can readily be polymerized via ring-opening polymerization.

Background Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) were closely associated with asthma. However, there were no perspective studies about the effects of glucocorticoid on ILC2s in asthma patients. Our objective was to perform a perspective study and evaluate the ILC2 activity after glucocorticoid therapy in asthma patients. Methods The asthma and asthma with allergic rhinitis patients were treated with glucocorticoid for 3 months. The circulating ILC2 levels were evaluated. The effects of glucocorticoid on ILC2s and possible signalling pathways were investigated in vitro. Results The patients were well‐controlled, and the high ILC2 levels were significantly decreased at 1 and 3 months after treatment. Peripheral blood monocytes from allergic patients produced dramatic IL‐5, IL‐13 and IL‐9 in response to IL‐25, IL‐33 plus IL‐2, and glucocorticoid significantly decreased their levels. Moreover, ILC2s were identified to be the predominant source of IL‐5, IL‐13 and IL‐9, and glucocorticoid treatment was able to reverse their high levels. STAT3, STAT5, STAT6, JAK3 and MEK signalling pathways were proved to be involved in regulating ILC2 activity under the glucocorticoid treatment. Conclusion The data suggested that glucocorticoid administration could be effective in treating asthma by regulating ILC2s via MEK/JAK‐STAT signalling pathways. This provides a new understanding of glucocorticoid application in regard to allergic diseases.

Carbon and oxygen burning reactions, in particular, $^{12}$C+$^{12}$C fusion, are important for the understanding and interpretation of the late phases of stellar evolution as well as the ignition and nucleosynthesis in cataclysmic binary systems such as type Ia supernovae and x-ray superbursts. A new measurement of this reaction has been performed at the University of Notre Dame using particle-$\gamma$ coincidence techniques with SAND (a silicon detector array) at the high-intensity 5U Pelletron accelerator. New results for $^{12}$C+$^{12}$C fusion at low energies relevant to nuclear astrophysics are reported. They show strong disagreement with a recent measurement using the indirect Trojan Horse method. The impact on the carbon burning process under astrophysical scenarios will be discussed., Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett

Summary The use of topical antiseptics in the treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD) has previously been explored. However, no triclosan-containing leave-on emollient has been evaluated previously, to our knowledge. The aims of this study were to assess the safety and efficacy of an emollient containing triclosan compared with the emollient alone (vehicle) for the treatment of AD. Eligible patients with mild to moderate AD were randomized to receive either the study cream or vehicle. All patients also received a low-potency corticosteroid cream to use during the treatment phase of the study if necessary. Patients were assessed for severity according to the SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) Index, amount of corticosteroid used, patient assessment of cream, and adverse events (AEs). In total, 60 patients received either the study cream or vehicle, and an intention-to-treat analysis was performed. At day 14, there was a significant decrease in SCORAD from baseline for the study cream compared with vehicle (P < 0.05). At day 27, although there was an improved mean reduction from baseline, this was no longer significant (P > 0.05). Only four patients had mild treatment-related AEs. The mean total amount of topical steroid applied by the patients using the study was significantly lower than that used by controls (P = 0.40). Triclosan-containing leave-on emollient was safe and highly acceptable to patients. However, the overall benefit on day 27 was not significant. Nevertheless, the amount of topical steroid used by patients was significantly less with the study cream than with the vehicle, thus further studies are needed to confirm its steroid-sparing effect.

An experimental design was employed in the investigation of the impact of two status cues, language style and source expertise, on people’s perceptions of online political discussants and their intentions and motivations to participate in local online political discussion fora. Specifically, the colloquial form of Singapore English, known as Singlish, was manipulated, together with information about the expertise of a discussant, in a 2 3 2 between-subjects factorial design, with the discussion issue manipulated as a within-subjects variable. Eighty undergraduates, 42 male and 38 female, participated in the study. Overall, the results of this study provide very limited support for the significant effects of status cues on perceptions and participation. The implications of the results of this study for theories of computer-mediated communication and linguistics in the context of the Internet are discussed. Published version

We studied the appearance of retinoblastoma on unenhanced and gadolinium-enhanced images and the accuracy of tumour staging with MR imaging. The MR images were obtained in 18 children with retinoblastoma and compared with histopathological findings after enucleation. The MR imaging included T1-weighted and dual-echo T2-weighted images before, and T1-weighted images after, gadopentetate dimeglumine injection. The contrast between tumour and ipsilateral vitreous strongly increased (57 %) after gadolinium on T1-weighted images (p = 0.004). Tumour was strongly hypointense as compared with ipsilateral vitreous in all patients using heavily T2-weighted (TE = 120 ms) images (p = 0.001). The estimated T2 of tumour (mean 96 + 14 ms) did not correlate with histological grading or degree of calcification. Unenhanced T1-weighted MR images rightfully excluded extrascleral growth in 16 of 16 cases, but its presence was confirmed after enucleation in only one of 2 abnormal MR scans. Invasion of the optic nerve behind the cribriform plate was confirmed in 2 of 3 abnormal gadolinium-enhanced MR scans, but also in 1 of the 15 cases in which MR images were normal. The T2-weighted images were useful in assessing retinal detachment. We conclude that heavily T2-weighted images, unenhanced T1-weighted images and gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted MR images are complementary in characterizing and staging retinoblastoma.

For a four-year period the development of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) was determined among neonates considered at risk of acquiring this condition. Fifty-six out of 249 premature infants developed some degree of ROP. Comparison of these infants with a group of 56 controls, admitted to hospital in the same period and matched for sex, birth weight, and gestational age, showed significant differences for sepsis, blood transfusions, and the period of oxygen monitoring in relation to the period of oxygen administration. The most consistent factor associated with the development of ROP was gestational age at the time of birth, though no gestational age group was entirely devoid of ROP. This suggests that screening for ROP should not be restricted to high-risk premature infants only.