Search

In this letter, a V-band (50-75 GHz) ultralow-power low-noise amplifier (LNA) in 90-nm CMOS technology is presented. A double-transformer-coupling (DTC) technique is used to improve the gain and noise performance of the LNA. The combination of self-resonant-transformer-matching (SRTM) and gain-boosting technique is also utilized to achieve wideband output matching with high gain in a single-ended common-source (CS) amplifier. The measured small-signal gain is 16.8 dB with 3-dB bandwidth that covers from 50 to 67 GHz and the measured lowest in-band noise figure (NF) of 5.4 dB. The LNA consumes only 5.7 mW with a compact chip area of 0.6 x 1 mm².

The current hydrogen generation technologies, especially biomass gasification using fluidized bed reactors (FBRs), were rigorously reviewed. There are involute operational parameters in a fluidized bed gasifier that determine the anticipated outcomes for hydrogen production purposes. However, limited reviews are present that link these parametric conditions with the corresponding performances based on experimental data collection. Using the constructed artificial neural networks (ANNs) as the supervised machine learning algorithm for data training, the operational parameters from 52 literature reports were utilized to perform both the qualitative and quantitative assessments of the performance, such as the hydrogen yield (HY), hydrogen content (HC) and carbon conversion efficiency (CCE). Seven types of operational parameters, including the steam-to-biomass ratio (SBR), equivalent ratio (ER), temperature, particle size of the feedstock, residence time, lower heating value (LHV) and carbon content (CC), were closely investigated. Six binary parameters have been identified to be statistically significant to the performance parameters (hydrogen yield (HY)), hydrogen content (HC) and carbon conversion efficiency (CCE) by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The optimal operational conditions derived from the machine leaning were recommended according to the needs of the outcomes. This review may provide helpful insights for researchers to comprehensively consider the operational conditions in order to achieve high hydrogen production using fluidized bed reactors during biomass gasification.

A fully integrated one-stage cascode wideband power amplifier (PA) in 65-nm CMOS technology is presented in this letter. A matching technique is leveraged to achieve broadband matching network, which provides optimum load impedance for maximum output power within a wide operating frequency range. The proposed PA shows measured results of 24.5-dBm saturated output power ( $P_{\mathrm {sat}}$ ) covering the full $Ka$ -band (26.5–40 GHz) and 38.2% output 1-dB compression point (OP1dB) fractional bandwidth (BW) from 25 to 37 GHz. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the proposed PA demonstrates superior output power BW performance compared with the reported state-of-the-art $Ka$ -band CMOS PAs.

While terahertz spectroscopy can provide valuable information regarding the charge transport properties in semiconductors, its application for the characterization of low-conductive two-dimensional layers, i.e., σs

A variable gain distributed amplifier (VGDA) for the Rx path of ultrawideband phased-array system is implemented in 90-nm CMOS process and presented in this letter. In order to achieve high gain and wideband with relative low dc power dissipation ( $P_{\mathrm {dc}}$ ), the combination of the conventional distributed amplifier (CDA) and the cascaded single-stage distributed amplifier (CSSDA) is utilized to the circuit. Moreover, the active variable termination resistor (AVTR) is adopted to adjust the flatness of gain. According to the experimental results, the proposed VGDA achieves a 21-dB peak gain with a 40-GHz 3-dB bandwidth (3.7–43.7 GHz), 18-dB gain control range (GCR), and 16° maximum phase variation.

BACKGROUND To distinguish early-stage lung cancer from benign disease in pulmonary nodules, especially lesions with ground-glass opacity (GGO), we assessed gene mutations of ctDNA in peripheral blood using targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS). METHODS Single pulmonary nodule patients without mediastinal lymph nodes and symptoms that were hard to diagnose by chest CT and lung cancer biomarker measurement in multiple medical centers were enrolled into the study. All patients accepted minimally invasive surgery but refused preoperative biopsy. Gene mutations in preoperative blood samples were detected by targeted NGS. Mutations with significant differences between lung tumors and benign lesions, as grouped by postoperative pathology, were screened. Protein expression was determined by immunohistochemistry. Highly expressed genes were selected as biomarkers to verify the mutations in peripheral blood. RESULTS In the training set, the RNF213, KMT2D, CSMD3 and LRP1B genes were mutated more frequently in early-stage lung cancer (27 cases) than in benign nodules (15 cases) (P

An ultralow-power $K$ -band low-noise amplifier (LNA) for next generation radio astronomical receivers fabricated in 65-nm CMOS technology is presented in this letter. A gate–source transformer feedback is utilized for the simultaneous noise and impedance matching. In order to achieve high gain with limited dc power consumption ( $P_{\mathrm {dc}}$ ), a single-ended neutralization technique is applied to the circuit. According to measurement, the proposed $K$ -band LNA achieves a 19.1-dB small signal gain with 2.8-GHz 3-dB bandwidth (21.2–24 GHz) and noise figure of 3.6 dB with only 0.99 mW $P_{\mathrm {dc}}$ . To the best of author’s knowledge, this LNA shows the highest figure of merit (FoM), which is 7071 1/W, among published $K$ -band low-power LNAs.

An aluminum-based deep-ultraviolet surface plasmon resonance (DUV-SPR) sensor is promising for biological applications. Design aspects of a DUV-SPR sensor are here considered by using Fresnel multilayer model. Angular and wavelength interrogation modes are used, where fused silica, sapphire, and acrylic solacryl ultraviolet transmittance (acrylic SUVT) are used as optical substrates. Aluminum at its oxidized state (alumina) is also considered as an aluminum overlayer. Our 4-layer Kretschmann-Raether-based SPR sensor is applied for gaseous and aqueous solutions, where some figures of merit are used to analyze the sensor performance. Values for sensitivity, linewidth (FWHM, full width at half maximum), and FOM (figure of merit or quality factor) are calculated. Resolution is also found and compared with other devices by using a known formulation. The results indicate that our sensor has a higher sensitivity for both gaseous and aqueous solutions when compared with the visible light-based sensor. For aqueous solutions, analyte is simulated as a bulk or a monolayer. Therefore, DUV-SPR sensors are a good alternative to the conventional visible-based SPR devices, where the performance is similar or higher for some conditions, having a higher affinity for some proteins.

This paper presents a G-band on-off -keying transmitter and a G-Band receiver in 65-nm bulk CMOS process. The proposed transmitter includes a high-efficiency push–push voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with body-bias and a switch-based modulator using the folded coupled-line topology. The benefits of the folded coupled-line in switch design are theoretically analyzed and proved. The receiver utilized a topology based on envelope detector and inverter-chain-based output buffer. The standalone VCO demonstrates a peak dc-RF efficiency of 4.1% at 209 GHz with 1.02 dBm output power. The switch-based modulator performs a minimum insertion loss of 1.6 dB with isolation better than 21 dB. The transmitter exhibits a maximum output power of −0.04 dBm at 208 GHz with 3% efficiency and a phase noise of −84.9 dBc at 1-MHz offset. The transmitter and receiver achieve 7.5-Gb/s errorless [bit error rate (BER) < 1 × 10−12] data rate with 1.73 pJ/b energy efficiency and 9 Gb/s with 1 × 10−4 BER in loop-back test. The results of both the transmitter/receiver and standalone components show competitive performances at the frequency over 200 GHz among the designs in CMOS process.

Bladder cancer (BCa) is a heterogeneous disease with various tumorigenic mechanisms and clinical behaviors. The current tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging system is inadequate to predict overall survival (OS) in BCa patients. We developed a BCa-specific, long-non-coding-RNA (lncRNA)-based nomogram to improve survival prediction in BCa. We obtained the large-scale gene expression profiles of samples from 414 BCa patients in The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Using an lncRNA-mining computational framework, we identified three OS-related lncRNAs among 826 lncRNAs that were differentially expressed between BCa and normal samples. We then constructed a three-lncRNA signature, which efficiently distinguished high-risk from low-risk patients and was even viable in the TNM stage-II, TNM stage-III and ≥65-year-old subgroups (all P

Previous research has mostly focused on Internet use behaviors, such as usage time of the Internet or social media after individuals experienced offline social exclusion. However, the extant literature has ignored online response behaviors, such as online review responses to social exclusion. To address this gap, drawing on self-protection and self-serving bias, we proposed three hypotheses that examine the effect of offline social exclusion on online reviews, which are verified by two studies using different simulating scenarios with 464 participants. The results show that when individuals are socially excluded offline, regardless of where the exclusion comes from (businesses or peers), they will be more likely to give negative online reviews. In addition, brand awareness moderates the effect of offline social exclusion on online reviews. Specifically, if the brand is less known, compared with social inclusion, offline social exclusion will lead individuals to give more negative online reviews; conversely, for well-known brands, no significant difference exists in the online reviews between social exclusion and inclusion.

We study the application of metallic gratings with subwavelength apertures to characterize sheet charges of very low conductivity (~μSie) in a transmission geometry. The gratings provide increased E-field enhancement and interaction length in the vicinity of the aperture which allows for enhanced absorption by the two-dimensional sheet charges, which would otherwise be undetectable in a transmission measurement. We explore the design space to obtain both broadband and resonant behavior by altering the pitch of the gratings (w.r.t. λ) in order to be applicable for both characterization and device applications.

This paper presents a 25-31 GHz LNA using 0.15-μm gallium arsenide (GaAs) pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) process. The LNA exhibits a measured small signal gain of 11.3-14.3 dB from 22 to 34 GHz with S 11 22

In this paper, a 16 to 53 GHz linearized mixer with active balun in 65-nm CMOS technology for the 5G application is presented. An active balun is used to cancel the 3rd-order intermodulation (IM3) power in larger RF/IF power region of the mixer. In addition, by using the stabilized design in the IF inverter buffer amplifier, the stability of the proposed structure at high frequency can be improved by sacrificing very little gain. The measured conversion gain is -0.5\pm 2dB with operating frequency that covers from 16 to 53 GHz, and the measured $IP_{1dB}/IIP_{3}$ are -1.5/20 dBm and 0/21 dBm at 28 and 38 GHz, respectively. In addition, the measurement result of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) demodulation is presented. The mixer consumes only 5.9-mW dc power, including the buffer and active balun, with a compact chip area of $0.51\times 0.67mm^{2}$.

This paper presents a switchless bidirectional power amplifier-low noise amplifier (PA-LNA) in 90-nm CMOS process for millimeter-wave (mm-wave) phased-array front-end chip. This PA-LNA uses current-type transformer (TF) as a bidirectional matching network for PA and LNA inputs/outputs without using lossy T/R switches. As a side benefit, avoiding the use of the T/R switches not only saves the chip area, but also prevents performance degradation in PA and LNA modes. The proposed PA-LNA achieves peak small-signal gain of 18.3 dB and 17.6 dB in PA and LNA mode, respectively. In the PA mode, it achieves the measured peak saturated output power (Psat) of 15.1 dBm with 29 % peak power-added efficiency (PAE MAX ) and 13.3 dBm peak 1-dB output power (OP 1dB ) at 33 GHz, while LNA mode achieves minimum noise figure (NF) of 4.7 dB at 36 GHz. The reverse isolation in both modes is better than 43 dB. The core size without pads is 0.21 mm2.

This paper presents a broadband, variable gain low noise amplifier (VGLNA) with low phase variation in 90-nm CMOS technology. The cascaded PMOS gain-boosting current steering VGA and a modified current steering VGA with the inductive phase-inversion network is utilized to compensate phase variation within the gain control range (GCR). In order to enhance overall gain of the circuit, gm-boosting and single-ended neutralization techniques are applied to the circuit. The VGLNA exhibits a peak gain of 21.4 dB at 37 GHz, 3-dB bandwidth covering from 26 to 30.5 GHz (band1) and 33.8 to 40.6 GHz (band2), respectively. An RMS phase error less than 4.3° and the maximum phase variation of 7.2° are achieved within the 9.8-dB gain control range (GCR) in the 3-dB bandwidth. The noise figure is 4.7 dB at 36 GHz in the maximum gain state. The chip consumes 17.9 mW dc power from 1-V voltage supply. To the author's knowledge, this circuit shows the highest figure-of-merit (FOM) among previous published CMOS VGAs with low phase variation design.

This letter presents a fully integrated ${K}$ -band high output 1-dB compression point ( $OP_{1\text {dB}}$ ) power amplifier (PA) fabricated in the 90-nm CMOS process. Common-drain (CD) structure is adopted to achieve high $OP_{1\text {dB}}$ . Since the CD structure suffers from the poor stability and power gain, the proposed neutralization technique for the CD amplifier is used to improve both of them simultaneously. The measured results of the proposed PA demonstrate the saturated output power ( $P_{\text {sat}}$ ) of 22.9 dBm with 24.2% peak power-added efficiency (PAE), $OP_{1\text {dB}}$ of 22.5 dBm with 22.5% PAE. To the best of authors’ knowledge, the proposed CD PA is the first CMOS CD PA above 10 GHz.

This article presents a V-band three-stage power amplifier (PA) fabricated in 65-nm CMOS technology with remarkable performances of output power, efficiency, and power gain. A cascode amplifier is proposed to optimize the power performances at millimeter-wave (mm-wave). A current-combining radial structure transformer power combiner with a low impedance transmission line is used to combine four differential power cells efficiently and to further improve the output power. Meanwhile, two common-source (CS) amplifiers are cascaded to achieve high power gain. The measured results of the proposed PA demonstrate the saturated output power ( $P_{\mathrm {sat}}$ ) of 23.7 dBm, output 1-dB compression point ( OP 1 dB) of 19.9 dBm, peak power added efficiency (PAE) of 22.1%, and 29.7-dB power gain at 60 GHz with only 0.653-mm2 chip size.

Purpose: Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are a novel class of small non-coding RNAs, which are not easily degraded but detectable in human body fluids. Recent studies have shown that aberrant piRNA expression is a signature feature across multiple tumor types. However, the expressions of piRNAs in serum of tumor patients and their potential clinical values remain largely unclear. Patients and methods: High-throughput sequencing was performed to investigate the serum piRNA profiles, followed by evaluations in serum samples of 220 colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and 220 healthy controls using reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). Biomarker panels including piRNA-based Panel I and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-based Panel II, were developed by logistic regression model, and their diagnostic potentials were compared. Fagan's nomogram was plotted to promote clinical application. Results: We identified five differentially expressed serum piRNAs (piR-001311, piR-004153, piR-017723, piR-017724 and piR-020365), which, when combined in the piRNA-based Panel I, outperformed the CEA-based Panel II (P

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have emerged as useful prognostic biomarkers in many cancers. In the present study, we investigated the potential application of lncRNA markers for the prognostic prediction of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). We first identified ESCC-specific lncRNA signatures by comparing ESCC tissues with normal tissues. Subsequently, Kaplan-Meier (KM) method in combination with the univariate Cox proportional hazards regression (UniCox) method was applied to screen prognostic lncRNAs. By combining the differential and prognostic lncRNAs, we developed a prognostic model using cox stepwise regression analysis. The obtained prognostic prediction model could effectively predict the 3-year and 5-year prognosis and survival of ESCC patients by time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (area under curve = 0.87 and 0.89, respectively). Besides, we generated a lncRNA-based molecular classification of ESCC using an unsupervised clustering method (k-means) and obtained two subgroups of ESCC patients with a significant association with race and Barrett's esophagus (BE) (both P

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal cancers with minimally effective treatments, highlighting the importance of developing novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Here, we disclosed the mechanisms that leukocyte cell-derived chemotaxin-2 (LECT2) modulates PDAC development using in vitro and in vivo models. LECT2 is downregulated in metastatic PDACs compared with the primary tumor, and its expression is correlated with multiple clinical pathologic features and prognosis. The absence promotes multiple malignant behaviors, including cell proliferation, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, migration, and invasion. In vivo studies showed that LECT2 overexpression inhibits tumor growth and lung metastasis. Mechanistically, LECT2 inhibits FOXM1 signaling by targeting HGF/MET to retard PDAC progression, revealing LECT2 as a promising biomarker and therapeutic target for PDAC in the future.

A 38-GHz high linearity and high efficiency power amplifier is implemented in 65-nm CMOS process. To improve the back-off efficiency, transistors of the driver stage are biased in deep class-AB. Insertion loss from output stage matching is only 1 dB, resulting in high efficiency. A two-stage common source PA is designed to provide enough gain. This PA achieves a 20.5-dB small-signal gain, 14.6-dBm PSAT, 35.8% peak power-added efficiency (PAE), 13.1-dBm P1dB, and 30.1% PAE1dB. The linearity, which is measured in error vector magnitude (EVM) of 64-QAM with 250 MHz bandwidth, is better than -25 dB, at the power level of 10.1-dBm output power with 17% PAE. The chip size including all pads is 0.2964 mm2.

Optoelectronic devices in the UV range have many applications including deep-UV communications, UV photodetectors, UV spectroscopy, etc. Graphene has unique exciton resonances, that have demonstrated large photosensitivity across the UV spectrum. Enhancing UV absorption in graphene has the potential to boost the performance of the various opto-electronic devices. Here we report numerical study of UV absorption in graphene on aluminum and magnesium hole-arrays. The absorption in a single-layer graphene on aluminum and magnesium hole-arrays reached a maximum value of 28% and 30% respectively, and the absorption peak is tunable from the UV to the visible range. The proposed graphene hybrid structure does not require graphene to be sandwiched between different material layers and thus is easy to fabricate and allows graphene to interact with its surroundings.

Exploiting cancer metabolism for the clinical benefit of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a topic under active investigation. Ubiquitin-specific peptidase 48 (USP48), a member of the ubiquitin-specific protease family, is involved in tumor growth, inflammation, and genome stability. However, the role of USP48 in HCC tumorigenesis remains unknown. In this study, we report that expression of USP48 is downregulated in diethylnitrosamine-induced liver tumorigenesis in mice as well as in human HCC. USP48 physically bound and stabilized SIRT6 by K48-linked deubiquitination at the K33 and K128 sites of SIRT6, which impeded metabolic reprogramming to hamper HCC tumorigenesis. Moreover, methyltransferase-like 14 (Mettl14)–induced m6A modification participated in the regulation of USP48 in HCC by maintaining USP48 mRNA stability. Our work uncovers the tumor-suppressive function of the Mettl14–USP48–SIRT6 axis via modulation of glycolysis, providing new insights into the critical roles of metabolic activities in HCC and identifying an attractive target for future treatment studies. Significance: These findings demonstrate that USP48 is regulated by Mettl14-induced m6A modification and stabilizes SIRT6 to attenuate HCC glycolysis and malignancy.

A 17.7-42.9-GHz low-power CMOS low noise amplifier (LNA) for radio astronomical receivers in 65-nm CMOS technology is presented in this paper. Based on several bandwidth enhancement techniques, the proposed LNA achieves high gain, good noise Figure simultaneously in a wide frequency range while consuming low power. The LNA achieves the 20.1-dB peak gain, and the noise Figure (NF) between 2.8 and 4.3 dB within the 3-dB bandwidth covering 17.7 to 42.9 GHz. The dc power consumption of this design is only 18 mW, while the OP 1dB is 2.2 dBm at 28GHz. The figure-of-merit (FOM) of this work is 19 GHz/mW, which reveals the competitiveness among published K-band and Ka-band LNAs. The whole chip occupies 0.45 mm2 including pads.

A 14-to-9l GHz distributed amplifier (DA) composed of a conventional distributed amplifier (CDA) and a cascaded single-stage distributed amplifier (CSSDA) in 65-nm CMOS is presented. To broaden the gain bandwidth and enhance the high-frequency small signal gain, the DA adopts the technique of multi-drive inter-stack coupling. According to the measured results, the proposed DA demonstrates a small signal gain of 30 dB, a 3-dB bandwidth of 77 GHz, and a gain-bandwidth product of 2435 GHz with total dc power of 254mW. The maximum OP 1dB is 7.4 dBm between 40 and 67 GHz, and the noise Figure is between 5.9 and 7.2 dB from 10 to 42 GHz. The chip size of the DA is 0.62 mm2. To authors’ knowledge, this circuit performs highest gainbandwidth (GBW) product in the CMOS process with DA topology.

Gastrointestinal cancer is currently one of the main causes of cancer death, with a large number of cases and a wide range of lesioned sites. A high fat diet, as a public health problem, has been shown to be correlated with various digestive system diseases and tumors, and can accelerate the occurrence of cancer due to inflammation and altered metabolism. The gut microbiome has been the focus of research in recent years, and associated with cell damage or tumor immune microenvironment changes via direct or extra-intestinal effects; this may facilitate the occurrence and development of gastrointestinal tumors. Based on research showing that both a high fat diet and gut microbes can promote the occurrence of gastrointestinal tumors, and that a high fat diet imbalances intestinal microbes, we propose that a high fat diet drives gastrointestinal tumors by changing the composition of intestinal microbes.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus first broke out in China in early 2020. The early symptoms of COVID-19 are similar to those of influenza. Therefore, during the epidemic, patients with similar symptoms will be tested for multiple pathogens at the same time. In order to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2, China has taken many measures. Under this special situation, have the types and epidemic characteristics of respiratory viruses changed? The nucleic acid test results of influenza A virus, influenza B virus and respiratory syncytial virus, as well as the antibody test results of 8 common respiratory viruses of Jinan Central Hospital were collected before and after the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2, and age distribution and time distribution characteristics were statisticed. Furthermore the epidemiological characteristics of this new virus before and after the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic was compared. In the early stage of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, influenza A, influenza B and respiratory syncytial virus nucleic acid test samples were large, and the positive rate of the three viruses was high. After that, the sample size and positive rate decreased significantly. No co-infection of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses was found in our hospital. The sample size before the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak was larger than that after the outbreak, but the positive rate of the outbreak was lower than that after the outbreak. And the infection rate of children decreased in the middle and late stages of the epidemic. This is because since January 23, in order to prevent the spread of the new crown epidemic, my country has adopted measures such as wearing masks, not gathering together, and quarantining at home. This not only prevents the spread of the new crown virus, but also prevents the common respiratory tract. The spread of the virus has reduced the incidence of residents.

Ultraviolet (UV) plasmonic nanostructures hold promises in enabling label-free sensing of biomolecules using their native fluorescence. Several UV plasmonic structures have been explored to enhance native fluorescence of biomolecules, including metallic thin film, particle array, hole array using aluminum, magnesium, indium, etc. However, the enhancement factor of them is quite small, with less than 80 times for nucleic acids and less than 15 times for amino acids. In order to achieve higher enhancement factor, we study a bowtie nano-antenna (BNA) made of aluminum (Al) in the ultraviolet region. The effect of the native oxide layer on Al is also investigated. The numerical simulation has shown 1026x net enhancement with the optimal geometry.

UV plasmonics has drawn increased attention in recent years, holding promise in enabling label-free sensing of biomolecules such as DNA, peptides, and proteins whose intrinsic fluorescence lies in the UV range. However, these biomolecules exhibit relatively small quantum yields (QY) and extinction cross sections. In order to realize label-free detection of biomolecules, significant enhancement needs to be achieved. Several plasmonic structures have been reported to enhance native fluorescence of DNA and amino acids, with

An ongoing outbreak of pneumonia associated with SARS-CoV-2 has now been confirmed globally. In absence of effective vaccines, infection prevention and control through diagnostic testing and quarantine is critical. Early detection and differential diagnosis of respiratory infections increases the chances for successful control of COVID-19 disease. The nucleic acid RT-PCR test is regarded as the current standard for molecular diagnosis with high sensitivity. However, the highest specificity confirmation target ORF1ab gene is considered to be less sensitive than other targets in clinical application. In addition, a large amount of recent evidence indicates that the initial missed diagnosis of asymptomatic patients with SARS-CoV-2 and discharged patients with “re-examination positive” may be due to low viral load, and the ability of rapid mutation of coronavirus also increases the rate of false negative results. We aimed to evaluate the sensitivity of different nucleic acid detection kits so as to make recommendations for the selection of validation kit, and amplify the suspicious result to be reportable positive by means of simple continuous amplification, which is of great significance for the prevention and control of the current epidemic and the discharge criteria of low viral load patients.

The global outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 spread rapidly throughout the world which transmitted among humans through various routes. Asymptomatic (carriers) and possible fecal-oral transmission, resulted into a large-scale spread. These issues pose great challenges to disease diagnosis and epidemic control. We obtained data on 29 cases of COVID-19 patients in Jinan, China, and reported the clinical data of asymptomatic patients confirmed with stool samples positive. Some patients with gastrointestinal infections are secondary to pulmonary infections, and during the patients' recovery period, the virus may still existin the patient's gastrointestinal tract over 7 days. We combined with epidemiological and clinical data of asymptomatic patients to analyze the possible routes of viral transmission and infection, including eyes-nose, hands-eyes, fecal-oral, and eyes-oral, et al., thus first presented the two-way transmission through eyes-oral. Through associating infection symptoms with the transmission routes of virus and the patient course of the disease, we expect to provide guidelines for clinical diagnosis and the basis for suppressing the spread of the virus and antiviral treatment.

Background We have previously developed a unique metastasis‐associated signature consisting of six long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs), including a novel lncRNA, namely LINC02323. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the underlying roles of LINC02323 in the migration, invasion and TGF‐β‐induced epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) cells. Methods The distribution of LINC02323 was detected by the nuclear‐plasma separation experiment. Cell proliferation was assessd by MTT assay, and cell migration and invation were detected by transwell assays. EMT was detected by RT‐qPCR and western blotting. Interaction between miRNA and LINC02323 was predicted by starBase v2.0 and confirmed by the double luciferase reporting system. Results LINC02323 was distributed in the cytoplasm and nucleus. The overexpression or deletion of LINC02323 did not affect the proliferation of LUAD cells, while significantly affected the migration and invasion of LUAD cells. TGF‐β‐induced EMT process was significantly affected by both RNA interference (RNAi) and overexpression of LINC02323. The predicted results showed that there were binding sites between LINC02323 and miR‐1343‐3p. The expression of LINC02323 was found to be negatively correlated with miR‐1343‐3p in LUAD by analyzing The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The double luciferase reporting system, RT‐qPCR and western blotting experiments confirmed that LINC02323 could bind to miR‐1343‐3p, which bound to TGF‐β receptor 1 (TGFBR1). Inhibition of miR‐1343‐3p reversed LINC02323 silencing‐mediated suppression of migration, invasion and EMT. Conclusions LINC02323 acts as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA), which sponged miR‐1343‐3p to upregulate the TGFBR1 expression and promote the EMT and metastasis in LUAD. Key points Significant findings of the study LINC02323 promotes epithelial‐mesenchymal transition and metastasis via sponging miR‐1343‐3p in lung adenocarcinoma. What this study adds LINC02323 is a key molecule in the process of invasion and metastasis of LUAD and might be used as a potential target in metastatic cancer., LINC02323 acts as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA), which sponged miR‐1343‐3p to upregulate the TGFBR1 expression and promote the EMT and metastasis in LUAD.

Most of the fiber optic-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors use gold or silver metal as part of the sensing region. It is known from the literature that silver presents a better performance in terms of sensitivity, although is less stable and strongly affected by oxidation, which in turns reduces its lifetime. To overcome this effect, other materials, such as gold, are proposed as alternatives in combined use with silver, forming bimetallic layers, leading to a higher sensor performance. Furthermore, adding graphene layers over the aforementioned sensors is prominent due to graphene electrical and optical properties. In this work, we propose a sensitivity enhancement of silver-based SPR sensors by adding an ultrathin layer of gold over the silver metal in order to protect against oxidation and also by adding graphene layers over the bimetallic SPR sensor, to increase the evanescent electric field. We also simulate, for comparison, a gold-based SPR sensor with graphene overlay, and it is observed, it is observed a sensitivity increase of over 90% when 13 graphene layers are added. For the silver-based sensor, an increase in sensitivity of approximately 50% (from 3,710 nm/RIU to 5,601.1 nm/RIU) is also achieved, when silver is covered with 13 graphene layers. For the silver and gold bimetallic layer sensor, sensitivity increases from 3,360 nm/RIU to 5,321.1 nm/RIU, using 19 graphene layers, which corresponds to an increase of almost 60%. FWHM and FOM parameters are also improved for all the analyzed configurations, in comparison with the conventional silver-gold bimetallic sensor.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) plays a vital part in cancer treatment due to its unique superiority. Huoxue Yiqi Recipe-2 (HYR-2) was supposed to have therapeutic effect on lung cancer, which came from Ze Qi Decoction in one of the four great classics of TCM called "Synopsis of Prescriptions of the Golden Chamber". Network pharmacology demonstrated that the targets of active components from HYR-2 were significantly enriched in the signaling pathways, which were closely associated with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1). Then, data about NSCLC was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus database (GEO). The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and DisGeNET was analyzed by bioinformatics, and 214 biomarkers for NSCLC were obtained, containing 14 targets of active components from HYR-2 (which were significantly enriched in the PD-L1 related signaling pathway). In vivo and in vitro experiments showed that HYR and HYR-2 could inhibit the growth of lung cancer and down-regulate the expression of PD-L1, which might be related to the blocking effect of HYR-2 on the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. Furthermore, HYR-2 promoted the transformation of M2 macrophages into M1 macrophages as well. It is deserved to be mentioned that the level of Akkermansia muciniphila was also significantly elevated by HYR-2, which was believed to enhance the therapeutic effect of PD-L1 antibodies. To sum up, HYR-2 might play an anti-lung cancer effect by down-regulating PD-L1 together with up-regulating Akkermansia muciniphila.

Exosomes are small membrane vesicles released by many cells. These vesicles can mediate cellular communications by transmitting active molecules including long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs). In this study, our aim was to identify a panel of lncRNAs in serum exosomes for the diagnosis and recurrence prediction of bladder cancer (BC). The expressions of 11 candidate lncRNAs in exosome were investigated in training set (n = 200) and an independent validation set (n = 320) via quantitative real‐time PCR. A three‐lncRNA panel (PCAT‐1, UBC1 and SNHG16) was finally identified by multivariate logistic regression model to provide high diagnostic accuracy for BC with an area under the receiver‐operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.857 and 0.826 in training set and validation set, respectively, which was significantly higher than that of urine cytology. The corresponding AUCs of this panel for patients with Ta, T1 and T2‐T4 were 0.760, 0.827 and 0.878, respectively. In addition, Kaplan‐Meier analysis showed that non‐muscle‐invasive BC (NMIBC) patients with high UBC1 expression had significantly lower recurrence‐free survival (P = 0.01). Multivariate Cox analysis demonstrated that UBC1 was independently associated with tumour recurrence of NMIBC (P = 0.018). Our study suggested that lncRNAs in serum exosomes may serve as considerable diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of BC.

The study of plasmonic nanostructures in the ultraviolet (UV) is a relatively uncharted field because of the challenges in both engineering and materials science. In this work, two-dimensional peri...

The value of targeting VEGFR (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor) drugs has demonstrated encouraging anti-cancer activity in advanced solid tumors within current clinical trials. This study aimed to serve as the first systemic review to assess their safety and efficacy according to biochemical characteristics of targeting VEGFR drugs in gastric cancer. We analyzed eight clinical trials on targeting VEGFR drugs in gastric cancer. Results showed that targeting VEGFR drugs significantly improved overall survival (OS) [Hazard Ratio (HR) 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.55, 0.83), P < 0.001], progression free survival (PFS) [HR 0.50, 95% CI (0.34, 0.66), P < 0.001], disease control rate (DCR) [Odds Ratio (OR) 3.83, 95% CI (2.39, 6.15), P < 0.001] and significantly decreased the progressive disease rate(PDR)[OR 0.45, 95% CI (0.34, 0.59), P < 0.001], but not objective response rate (ORR) [OR 1.46, 95% CI (0.93, 2.29), P = 0.098]. Further subgroup revealed that VEGFR antibody (VEGFR-Ab) drugs were superior to VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (VEGFR-TKI) drugs in terms of the OS, PFS and PDR. To determine the toxic effect of targeting VEGFR drugs, the relative risk of adverse events (grade ≥ 3) of special interest(AESIs) were estimated. Most of these were predictable and manageable. Furthermore, less AESIs were observed in the VEGFR-Ab than the VEGFR-TKI drugs. In conclusion, VEGFR drugs were effective targeted therapy in advanced or metastatic gastric cancer, and its toxicity is within a controllable range. VEGFR-Ab drugs were more effective than VEGFR-TKI drugs in terms of the OS, PFS and PDR of gastric cancer patients with little toxicity.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is among the dangerous human cancers, is the 10th highly prevalent cancer, and the fourth sole cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States of America. Notwithstanding the significant commitment, the forecast for people with this burden continues to have a five-year survival rate of just 4-6%. The most critical altered genes within PDAC consist of K-ras the proto-oncogene which is usually mutationally activated above 90% cases and tumor suppressors likeTrp53 are altered at 55%. To face the burden of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, a variety of genetically engineered pancreatic cancer mice models have been created over the last past years. These models have distinctive features and are not all appropriate for preclinical studies. In this review, we focus on differences between two mice models K-rasLSL.G12D/+;Pdx-1-Cre(KC) and K-rasLSL.G12D/+; Trp53R172H/+; Pdx-1-Cre(KPC) in terms of their modeling biology and their clinical relevance.

Aluminum-based deep-ultraviolet surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors have gained much interest in the last years. Multilayer Fresnel-based theoretical investigations were used here to investigate the influence of substrate materials on an aluminum-based SPR sensor. The reflectivity curves were obtained for a wavelength of 266 nm, by considering fused silica, sapphire, calcium fluoride and acrylic solacryl UVT as substrate materials. Performance parameters indicate that sapphire, acrylic solacryl and fused silica may be good alternatives for the design of sensors for gaseous and aqueous solutions. A comparison was also made with a gold-based SPR sensor, and the aluminum-based sensor had better results.

Background Versican (VCAN) is a large aggregating extracellular matrix proteoglycan implicated in the pathogenesis of most human cancers but its role in gastric cancer is not yet elucidated. We designed the present study to investigate the expression, prognostic value, relationship between genetic alterations and patient’s outcome, disease associations, as well as genetic and protein interactions of VCAN in gastric cancer. Methods Expression of VCAN in tumor and normal tissues was studied with ONCOMINE, UALCAN, and GEPIA databases and the human protein atlas. UALCAN, GEPIA, OncoLnc and Kaplan-Meier plotter were used to assess the prognostic values of VCAN in gastric cancer. Subgroup analysis of the clinical significance of VCAN in gastric cancer was done using Kaplan-Meier plotter. Genetic alterations of VCAN and their associations with patient’s outcome were studied with cBioPortal. Open targets platform was used to study diseases associated with VCAN, GeneMANIA was used to obtain the neighbor genes interaction network of VCAN, and STRING was used to examine VCAN interaction with other proteins. Results VCAN was upregulated and associated with clinical cancer stages. High VCAN expression predicted unfavorable outcome for all patients; subgroup analysis showed worse outcomes for patients treated with surgery or other adjuvants (other than 5-FU based adjuvant) but better outcome for patients treated with 5-FU based adjuvant, associating VCAN expression with chemosensitivity to 5-FU based adjuvants, but chemoresistance to other adjuvants. Genetic alteration of VCAN correlated with a favorable outcome in terms of disease-free survival for patients. Also, open targets platform showed that VCAN is associated with gastric cancer and is a potential therapeutic target for the disease. Finally, interaction of VCAN with neighbor genes and proteins revealed that VCAN interacts with genes and proteins that drive tumorigenesis and cancer progression. Conclusion The results of this study show that VCAN is an oncogene in gastric cancer whose expression can be applied as a biomarker for prognostic prediction, selection of appropriate chemotherapy drugs/monitoring of treatment response, and is a potential therapeutic target for gastric cancer.

Despite of increasing understandings of UV plasmonic materials, materials that can enable active tuning of UV plasmonic resonance has not been reported. Here, we demonstrate a modification of UV SPR on an aluminum (Al) hole-array by coupling Graphene π plasmon resonance with Al SPR. Graphene monolayer exhibits an abnormal absorption peak in the UV region (270-290nm) due to π plasmon resonance. The location and intensity of the absorption peak depend on the position of Fermi-level, which can be adjusted by electric or chemical doping. Al SPR is shown here to be modified by coupling Graphene π plasmon resonance with Al SPR. FDTD simulation shows the modification of Al hole-array transmission by adding a single layer of Graphene on top. The shifts of transmission dips after adding a Graphene layer shows a distinct transition at around the Graphene π plasmon position. For transmission dips that are located at shorter wavelength compared to Graphene π plasmon, up to 8nm blue shifts occur after adding Graphene. On the other hand, up to 20nm redshifts occur for transmission dips that are at a longer wavelength relative to Graphene π plasmon. This change in the sign of shifts of transmission dips corresponds to the change in the sign of the real permittivity of Graphene. The amount of shifts diminishes as the transmission dip moves further away from Graphene π plasmon resonance into the visible spectrum. Experimentally we have observed redshifts of SPR dips but not blue shifts possibly due to the poor light collection below 250nm.

This paper presents a 38-54 GHz sub-harmonic up-conversion mixer in 65 nm CMOS process using derivative superposition third-order transconductance cancellation technique. The measurement results demonstrate -2.5 dB conversion gain and -11.7 dBm OP1dB at IF input frequency of 100 MHz and RF frequency of 41 GHz with relatively low power. The 3-dB RF bandwidth covers 38 to 54 GHz. The dc power consumption of the mixer is 8.5 mW. The improvement of OIP3 is 4 dB (from 0 to 4 dBm). The chip area of the proposed mixer is 0.8 × 0.55 mm2.

Introduction To distinguish early stage lung cancer from benign disease of the lung nodules, especially the lesions with ground-glass opacity (GGO) or ground-glass nodule (GGN), we assessed gene mutations of the ctDNA in peripheral blood by using targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS). Methods Single lung nodule patients without mediastinal lymph nodes or symptoms hardly diagnosed by chest CT and biomarker of lung cancer were enrolled. All patients received minimally invasive surgery but refused preoperative biopsy. Gene mutations of pre-operative blood samples were detected by targeted NGS. Mutations with statistical differences were screened in lung cancer and benign disease grouped by postoperative pathology. Gene expression was determined by immunohistochemistry. Highly expressed genes were selected as biomarkers to verify the mutations in peripheral blood. Results In training set, RNF213, KMT2D, CSMD3 and LRP1B genes mutated more frequently in early stage lung cancer (25cases) than benign nodules (18cases) (P

This paper presents two fully-integrated broadband, high-gain MMIC low noise amplifiers (LNAs) with differential input and single-ended output for Square Kilometre Array (SKA) astronomical receiver. This amplifier was implemented using 0.15-μm GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) process. The R-L-C feedback is applied for broadband design, and the fully on chip LC balun is introduced behind the first-stage in LNA1 and the third-stage in LNA2, respectively. The 3-dB bandwidth of the LNA1 covers from 2.7 to 5.7 GHz and LNA2 covers from 4.3 to 16.3 GHz. The measurement results demonstrate small signal peak gain 31.7/35.4 dB, average in-band noise figure of 0.92/1.05 dB with DC power consumption of 48/90 mW. The chip area of both the amplifiers is 2.5 × 2 mm2.

This paper presents a fully integrated one-stage three-stack Ka-band power amplifier (PA) with neutralization technique in 65-nm CMOS process for 5G applications. A transformer-based power combiner is adopted to combine two differential PA cells to increase the output power. Four small size stacked sets are combined together as one differential PA cell for increasing efficiency. A shunt feedback drain-source capacitor is utilized to divide the output voltage equally between drain and source of each individual transistor in three-stack PA. The proposed PA achieves the measured saturated output power (P sat ) of 24.8 dBm with 24.3% peak power added efficiency (PAE), output 1-dB compression point (OP 1dB ) of 21.7 dBm and 17.5-dB power gain at 38 GHz. The chip size without pads is 0.146 mm2. To the author’s best knowledge, this stacked PA demonstrates the best power performance compared with the reported CMOS PAs around 38 GHz.

Background Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common respiratory disease with high morbidity and mortality. The most important pathophysiological change of COPD is airway obstruction. Airway obstruction can cause airflow restriction and obstructive ventilation dysfunction. Currently, many studies have shown that there is EMT phenomenon in the process of airway remodeling of COPD. Cullin4A (CUL4A) is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that interacts with other factors to form the E3 complex. Studies have shown that CLU4A is associated with EMT in non-small cell lung cancer and other cancers. However, its relationship with EMT in COPD has not been reported systematically. In this study, we detected the expression of CUL4A in lung epithelium of COPD patients. In addition, the regulatory effect and mechanism of CUL4A on EMT in COPD were clarified in small airway epithelial cells. Methods The expression of CUL4A was assessed by immunohistochemistry in lung epithelium specimens from smokers, non-smokers and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The role of CUL4A on cigarette smoke extract (CSE)-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in human small airway epithelial cells (HSAEpiCs) was assessed by silencing or overexpression CUL4A in vitro. Cigarette smoke is recognized as a high-risk factor in the induction of COPD, and its damage to the airway involves airway damage, airway inflammation and airway remodeling. Results The results shown that CUL4A expression in small airway epithelium was significantly increased in patients with COPD. We also observed a significant negative association between CUL4A and FEV1%, a useful clinical marker for the diagnosis and evaluation of COPD severity, in small airway epithelial cells. In vitro, CSE-induced EMT is associated with high expression of CUL4A, and targeted silencing of CUL4A with shRNA inhibits CSE-induced EMT in human small airway epithelial cells. Conclusions Our results showed that CUL4A was overexpressed in lung epithelium of COPD patients, and CUL4A could regulate EMT of human small airway epithelium, which revealed a new mechanism of remodeling of small airway epithelium of COPD patients. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12931-019-1048-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Neonatal hypoxia ischemia causes severe brain damage. Stem cell therapy is a promising method for treating neuronal diseases. Clinical translation of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) for the recovery of neurons after hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) may represent an effective therapy. Primary neurons were exposed to oxygen–glucose deprivation (OGD) and subsequently cocultured with UC-MSCs. Apoptosis was examined by Annexin V-FITC-PI. Genes related to apoptosis were detected using RT-PCR and western-blot analyses. Using an in vivo model, HIE was induced in postnatal day 7 mice, and UC-MSCs were transplanted via the intraventricular route. UC-MSC migration was investigated by immunofluorescence, and lesion volumes were measured by TTC staining. Apoptosis in injured brain cells was detected by the TUNEL assay. RT-PCR and ELISA were used to detect the expression of inflammatory factors in cells and animal tissues. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that apoptosis in injured neurons was inhibited by UC-MSCs. The RT-PCR and western blot results indicated that coculture inhibited the expression of proapoptotic genes and upregulated expression of antiapoptotic genes. In the animal model, transplanted UC-MSCs migrated toward the cerebral lesion site and decreased the lesion extent in HIE. TUNEL staining showed that the MSC group exhibited significantly reduced numbers of TUNEL-positive cells. RT-PCR and ELISA showed that UC-MSCs inhibited the upregulation of TNF-α and IL-1β in response to hypoxic ischemic injury. These results indicate that UC-MSCs exert neuroprotective effects against hypoxic ischemic injury by inhibiting apoptosis, and the mechanism appears to be through alleviating the inflammatory response.