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Vacuum freeze-drying is a promising technology widely used in pharmaceuticals. Preparing products with prebuilt porosity has attracted considerable attention due to its potential in shortening process duration. However, the design space for the primary drying of initially unsaturated products remains unclear. A novel index, average power, was proposed in this paper to represents the collapse risk. And a multiphase model was employed in this paper to build the design space for the products with initial voids. The simulation results show that both the drying time and average power show higher sensitivity to the temperature variation than pressure. In addition, the initial saturation has significant impacts on the design space, with small initial saturation resulting in vast design space and vice versa, which implies that small initial saturation is more beneficial for the actual production. This paper would be helpful for the development of freeze-drying.

Background Angiocentric glioma (AG) is a rare, low-grade glioma with slow growth. In 2007, AG was first classified as a solid tumor according to the WHO classification of the central nervous system (WHO class I). The outcome and prognosis of most of the cases are very good, but a few cases with tumor metastasis and disease progression, even death, have been reported. We report a case and systematically analyze previous literature to increase our understanding of the disease and determine the factors that may affect disease progression to make prognostic judgments. Case presentation A young male patient complained of a 3-year history of epilepsy. Anti-epileptic drug treatment was ineffective. An imaging examination revealed a lesion in the left parietal cortex area. Thus, the lesion was completely resected. The pathological diagnosis was angiocentric glioma. During a follow-up of two years, the patient had epilepsy relief controlled by sodium valproate and a disease-free period. Conclusion AG is an epilepsy-related low-grade glioma that heals after complete resection in most reported cases. However, few reported cases have had disease progression and death. This result may be due to the pathological complexity of the diseased tissue. In addition, AG is usually found to have an MYB–QKI rearrangement on genetic analysis. Due to the small number of reported cases and studies, our understanding and knowledge of this disease are still lacking. The potential malignant changes and prognostic factors need to be verified in more than clinical cases and basic research in the future.

Layered Aurivillius compound Bi5Ti3CrO15 has been synthesized by a hydrothermal method for the application as a photocatalyst to liberate hydrogen from water. Bi5Ti3CrO15 owns a narrow band gap (Eg ~2.46 eV) and shows stable photocatalytic activity under both full range (λ ≥250 nm) and visible light illumination (λ ≥420 nm). A short hydrothermal reaction time is critical to achieve high photocatalytic activity as defects such as Cr6+ and Bi5+ can be avoided. An AQE as high as 3.66% at 420 nm ± 20 nm has been recorded, warranting promising application in the field of solar energy conversions. DFT calculation reveals the important role of Cr3+cations for visible light sensitivity of Bi5Ti3CrO15.

Zhiping Wan,1,* Chunlin Li,2,* Jinmao Gu,1,* Jun Qian,1 Junle Zhu,1 Jiaqi Wang,2 Yinwen Li,2 Jiahao Jiang,1 Huairui Chen,1 Chun Luo1 1Department of Neurosurgery, Tongji Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, People’s Republic of China; 2Trauma Center, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Chun Luo; Huairui Chen Email boyluochun@126.com; chen13761626536@163.comBackground: Glioma is the most common and malignant primary brain tumour in adults and has a dismal prognosis. Temozolomide (TMZ) is the only clinical first-line chemotherapy drug for malignant glioma up to present. Due to poor aqueous solubility and toxic effects, TMZ is still inefficient and limited for clinical glioma treatment.Methods: UiO-66-NH2 nanoparticle is a zirconium-based framework, constructed by Zr and 2-amino-1,4-benzenedicarboxylic acid (BDC-NH2) with octahedral microporous structure, which can be decomposed by the body into an ionic form to discharge. We prepared the nanoscale metal-organic framework (MOF) of UiO-66-NH2 to load TMZ for therapy of malignant glioma, TMZ is released from UiO-66-NH2 through a porous structure. The ultrasound accelerates its porous percolation and promotes the rapid dissolution of TMZ through low-frequency oscillations and cavitation effect. The biological safety and antitumor efficacy were evaluated both in vitro and in vivo.Results: The prepared TMZ@MOF exhibited excellent biocompatibility and biosafety due to minimal drug leakage without ultrasound intervention. We further used the flank model of glioblastoma to verify the in vivo therapeutic effect. TMZ@UiO-66-NH2 nanocomposites could be well delivered to the tumour tissue, which led to local enrichment of the TMZ concentration. Furthermore, TMZ@UiO-66-NH2 nanocomposites under ultrasound demonstrated much more efficient inhibition for tumor growth than TMZ@UiO-66-NH2 nanocomposites and TMZ alone. Meanwhile, the bone marrow suppression side effects of TMZ were significantly reduced by TMZ@UiO-66-NH2 nanocomposites.Conclusion: In this work, TMZ@UiO-66-NH2 nanocomposites with ultrasound mediation could effectively improve the killing effect of malignant glioma and decrease TMZ-induced toxicity in normal tissues, demonstrating great potential for the delivery of TMZ in the clinical treatment of malignant gliomas.Keywords: MOF, TMZ, ultrasound glioma

To scale the ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) technology toward 28 nm or beyond, it is critical to develop stacked capacitor (with sufficient surface area) to allow good sense margin for the 1-transistor- 1-capacitor (1T1C) bit cell. Therefore, to enable 3-D integration in back-end-of-line (BEOL) process, it is essential to optimize the fabrication recipes in low-thermal budget ( 50 s) in low temperature (\sim 350 °C), the ferroelectric properties of HZO could be fully manifested. No degradation is shown in the remnant polarization ( ${P}_{r}$ ) under the optimized low-temperature process. Furthermore, the retention/endurance characteristics with different ${P}_{r}$ states were measured to determine the minimally required write voltage. Finally, the SPICE simulation is conducted to evaluate the sense margin of the projected 28-nm 1T1C array with stacked cylindrical capacitors using the measured ${P}_{r}$ drift behavior over time.

We updated the experience on percutaneous microwave ablation for renal cell carcinoma with five-center data and long-term follow-up. This retrospective study reviewed the T1N0M0 renal cell carcinoma patients who underwent microwave ablation between April 2006 and December 2019. Clinicopathological and procedural data were collected. Technical effectiveness and complications were assessed, and the Kaplan-Meier method was used for cancer-specific survival, disease-free survival, overall survival, and local neoplastic process analyses. A total of 323 consecutive patients (mean age, 62.9 years ± 14.0) with 371 biopsy-proved tumors (mean diameter, 2.9 cm ± 1.2) were enrolled, and 42.6% of the tumors were located adjacent to collecting system/bowel and technical effectiveness was achieved in 360 (97.0%) tumors. For 275 cT1a patients, during median follow-up time of 66.0 months (IQR, 58.4–73.6), 10-year local neoplastic processes, cancer-specific survival, disease-free survival, and overall survival rates were 1.9%, 87.4%, 71.8, and 67.5%, respectively. For 48 cT1b patients, during the median follow-up time of 30.4 months (IQR, 17.7–44.8), 5-year local tumor progression, cancer-specific survival, disease-free survival, and overall survival rates were 11.3%, 91.4%, 69.1, and 89.2%, respectively. Major complications showed no differences between cT1a (3.5%) and cT1b (6.9%) patients (p = 0.28). A clinical risk stratification system was developed based on multivariable model to predict DFS and CSS with c-indexes of 0.78 (95% CI: 0.71–0.85) and 0.77 (95% CI: 0.65–0.90), respectively. With matured follow-up at five institutions, ultrasound-guided percutaneous microwave ablation is a reliable treatment option for cT1a renal cell carcinoma even in dangerous location and appears to be promising for cT1b tumors. • To our knowledge, this is the first multicenter cohort of long-term oncologic outcomes with percutaneous MWA of cT1 RCC. • The predicting model we developed is accurate to predict the long-term DFS and CSS, which can help to provide a better MWA prognostication over routinely available clinical information. • The available evidence shows that microwave ablation of clinical stage T1 RCC is safe and reliable with promising long-term oncologic outcomes, especially for cT1a RCC with excellent 10-year results.

Many companies customize commercial enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages to meet their specific needs by collaborating with the ERP vendors. Nevertheless, research into the relationships amo...

The occurrence of ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury leads to dysfunction as well as high rates of morbidity and mortality in stroke, and new effective therapeutic strategies for I/R are still needed. We investigated the effect of IL-27 on I/R injury-induced neurological function impairment, cerebral infarction volume and variation in levels of inflammatory factors in mice with middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), as well as concentration of LDH and neuronal apoptosis in a neuron oxygen-glucose deprivation and reperfusion (OGD/R) model mediated by gp130/STAT3 signaling in vitro. Our results indicated that IL-27 could bind to its receptor of gp130 to attenuate the I/R injury-induced impairment function and cerebral infarction volume, and decrease inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β and MCP-1 but increase anti-inflammatory factors IL-10 and TGF-β in vivo, while inhibiting LDH leakage and neuronal apoptosis through activation of STAT3 to antagonize I/R induction. Our results suggest that IL-27 may protect the brain from I/R injury through the gp130/STAT3 signaling pathway.

To investigate the dynamic changes of Krebs von den Lungen‐6 (KL‐6) among patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) and the role of KL‐6 as a noninvasive biomarker for predicting long‐term lung injury, the clinical information and laboratory tests of 166 COVID‐19 patients were collected, and a correlation analysis between KL‐6 and other parameters was conducted. There were 17 (10.2%, 17/166) severe/critical and 149 (89.8%, 149/166) mild COVID‐19 patients in our cohort. Serum KL‐6 was significantly higher in severe/critical COVID‐19 patients than in mild patients (median 898.0 vs. 451.2 U/ml, p 100 days postonset) was well correlated to those concentrations within 10 days postonset (Pearson r = .867, p, Highlights KL‐6 is a biomarker for assessing COVID‐19 severityKL‐6 predicts the prognosis of COVID‐19 patientsKL‐6 is associated with CT lung lesions areas.

Ferroelectric tunnel junction (FTJ) based crossbar array is a promising candidate for the implementation of low-power and area-efficient neuro-inspired computing. In this paper, we fabricated and measured a 10 nm thick Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 FTJ with > 100 on/off ratio and multi-state storage. We found out that the current density of this FTJ is too low for sensing circuitry to distinguish reliably and efficiently. To overcome the low current of FTJs, we suggested using an ultra-thin 1 nm FTJ and employing the concept of stacked capacitors from modern DRAM processes. Following this idea, we further projected a 1 nm thick stacked FTJ and ran the crossbar arrays in the 20 nm node, which shows a desirable summed current level on the order of 10 μA. To model a realistic data pattern of on-state and off-state devices in a 1024 × 1024 array, we mapped quantized weights from a fully connected layer of a deep neural network to the memory cells. The current accuracy and delay are evaluated using array-level SPICE simulations with the consideration of interconnect parasitics. The overall results suggest that FTJ crossbar array is of the potential for realizing neuro-inspired computing.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been redetected after discharge in some coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. The reason for the recurrent positivity of the test and the potential public health concern due to this occurrence are still unknown. Here, we analyzed the viral data and clinical manifestations of 289 domestic Chinese COVID-19 patients and found that 21 individuals (7.3%) were readmitted for hospitalization after detection of SARS-CoV-2 after discharge. First, we experimentally confirmed that the virus was involved in the initial infection and was not a secondary infection. In positive retests, the virus was usually found in anal samples (15 of 21, 71.4%). Through analysis of the intracellular viral subgenomic messenger RNA (sgmRNA), we verified that positive retest patients had active viral replication in their gastrointestinal tracts (3 of 16 patients, 18.7%) but not in their respiratory tracts. Then, we found that viral persistence was not associated with high viral titers, delayed viral clearance, old age, or more severe clinical symptoms during the first hospitalization. In contrast, viral rebound was associated with significantly lower levels of and slower generation of viral receptor-binding domain (RBD)-specific IgA and IgG antibodies. Our study demonstrated that the positive retest patients failed to create a robust protective humoral immune response, which might result in SARS-CoV-2 persistence in the gastrointestinal tract and possibly in active viral shedding. Further exploration of the mechanism underlying the rebound in SARS-CoV-2 in this population will be crucial for preventing virus spread and developing effective vaccines.

Elbow pipes are important components for ice slurry pipeline transport. However, the flow characteristics of ice slurry in elbow are far from fully being understood, especially the influence of ice particle kinetics on ice particle size distribution (PSD). This study is intended to provide a better understanding of the behavior of ice slurry flow in elbow pipe. A CFD-PBM coupled model is employed to investigate the flow characteristics of ice slurry in horizontal 90° elbow pipe. The quadrature method of moments is utilized to solve the population balance equations. Based on the revised model, the flow characteristics of ice slurry in the horizontal 90° elbow pipe are investigated. The simulation results show that in the range of calculations, the pressure drop of elbow pipe is increased with the increase of velocity and ice packing fraction (IPF). An adverse pressure gradient is formed due to the change in flow direction. The emergence of secondary flow is caused by the centrifugal force. It makes the ice particles gather on the outer wall of the elbow section. The ice diameter increases along the flow direction due to the aggregation. The evolution of particle size distribution (PSD) is not significant. However, aggregation and stratification cannot be ignored in the process of long distance transport of ice slurry. The results are of significance for guiding the safety design and operation of ice slurry transportation.

Introduction: aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is a devastating disease caused by intracranial aneurysm (IA) rupture. Lysyl oxidase (LOX) family genes (LOX-like [LOXL] 1–4) have roles in collagen cross-linking in the extracellular matrix and may be associated with IA rupture. We aimed to explore the association between LOX polymorphisms and the risk of aSAH. Methods This case-control study included two cohorts: 133 and 115 single ruptured and unruptured IA patients, and 65 and 71 multiple ruptured and unruptured IAs patients, respectively. Genotyping of 27 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in LOX was performed. Logistic regression analysis was performed to calculate the odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of the SNPs of LOX and risk of aSAH. Results LOX rs180044 and LOXL4 rs3793692 were positively associated with the risk of single IA rupture in the recessive model (OR = 5.66, 2.06; 95% CI = 1.22–26.24, 1.11–3.82, respectively) and LOX rs10519694 demonstrated a protective effect on single IA rupture (dominant model: OR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.21–0.83; recessive model: OR = 0.16, 95% CI = 0.04–0.65; additive model: OR = 0.46, 95% CI = 0.28–0.78). LOXL1 rs2165241, LOXL2 rs1063582, and LOXL3 rs17010021 demonstrated risk effects on multiple IAs rupture. LOXL3 rs17010022 showed a protective effect on multiple IAs rupture (dominant model: OR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.21–0.82; additive model: OR = 0.51, 95% CI = 0.30–0.85). Discussion LOX and LOXL4 may be susceptible to single IA rupture, whereas LOXL1-3 may have a role in susceptibility to multiple IAs rupture in the Chinese population, suggesting LOX family genes may associated with aSAH.

BACKGROUND Renal epithelioid angiomyolipoma (EAML) is a rare and potentially malignant mesenchymal lesion mainly composed of epithelioid cells. Although some case reports or small case series have been published, the computed tomography (CT) manifestations and radiologic-pathologic correlation depending on different epithelioid component percentages have not been studied before. OBJECTIVE To investigate the CT manifestation and radiologic-pathologic correlation between renal EAML and angiomyolipoma (AML) with epithelioid component. METHODS The clinicopathologic and imaging data of 53 patients with an original diagnosis of EAML or AML with epithelioid component were retrospectively collected from three hospitals. All tissue specimens were re-sectioned and re-observed under the microscope. Samples were divided into an EAML group (≥ 80% epithelioid component, n = 25) and AML with epithelioid component group (5% ≤ epithelioid component

Multiple laparoscopic pediatric herniorrhaphy techniques have been reported for the treatment of pediatric inguinal hernia (PIH) in the past three decades. These operations are becoming more manageable, showing a trend toward increasing use of extracorporeal knotting and decreasing use of working ports. We have developed our own technique termed single-site laparoscopic percutaneous extraperitoneal closure (SLPEC) of the internal ring using a homemade sled needle. This study included children who underwent laparoscopic surgery for treatment of indirect PIHs from January 2019 to May 2020. All patients underwent high ligation surgery with a modified single-site laparoscopic technique mainly performed by extracorporeal suturing with our homemade sled needle. The patients’ historical clinical data were analyzed. In total, 220 children were enrolled in this study. Among them, 200 and 20 were preoperatively diagnosed with unilateral and bilateral PIHs, respectively. All operations were successfully performed by the first author. The mean operation time was 10.1 min (range, 8–15 min) for unilateral hernias and 17.3 min (range, 13–22 min) for bilateral hernias. The mean postoperative stay was 21 h. During the mean follow-up period of 1 year, only one case of recurrence was noted. No patients developed major complications. No obvious scar was present postoperatively. Modified SLPEC of the internal ring utilizing a homemade sled needle is a safe and feasible alternative treatment for PIH. It has the advantages of minimal invasiveness, rapid recuperation, low recurrence, and low cost and is worthy of popularization in the clinical setting.

Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 (HZO) ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) has been demonstrated in 130nm node with 1T1C structure. To scale FeRAM to 28nm or beyond, a high-aspect ratio embedded DRAM-like 3D cylinder capacitor is expected to ensure sufficient cell capacitance and sense margin. In this work, we investigate an alternative approach with 2T1C structure that takes advantages of a back-end-of-line (BEOL) oxide channel writing transistor, a small planar ferroelectric capacitor, and a silicon logic reading transistor. Firstly, the proof-of-concept of 2T1C bit cell was experimentally demonstrated. Then, the scalability towards 28nm was simulated with array-level parasitics. Thanks to the transconductance reading out mechanism, a 784 nm2 ferroelectric capacitor in 2T1C could significantly reduce energy consumption 6.5–11× compared to the traditional 1T1C FeRAM with similar cell area at 28nm.

Objective: To explore the effectiveness and safety of apatinib in patients with malignant glioma. Methods: This is a retrospective case-control study in a single center. Patients with new postoperative pathological diagnosis of malignant glioma (WHO Ⅲ~Ⅳ) were selected. Enrolled patients received concurrent chemoradiotherapy (60Gy/30f/6w; TMZ75mg/m2,po,d1-d42)combined with or without apatinib (250mg, po, d1-d42,qd), then maintain 6 cycles(28 days a cycle)of TMZ chemotherapy(200mg/m2, d1-d5) .The primary endpoints were progression free survival (PFS) and the grade of peritumoral brain edema (PTBE) evaluated by edema index(EI). The secondary endpoint was overall survival(OS). Hazard ratios of PFS and OS were compared between trials in a Cox proportional hazards model.Results: 48 patients (24 in apatinib group and 24 in control group) were enrolled in this study. The results elucidated that the mPFS of the apatinib group was longer than control group, but the difference was not statistically significant(9.63 vs. 7.33 months; P=0.073).As for mOS, the results of two groups were almost similar.(15.47 vs. 14.70 months, P=0.612). Cox multivariate regression model revealed that Apatinib was not a prognostic factor for PFS and OS (P>0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that tumor grade was an important risk factor for PFS and OS.The grade of PTBE was improved in 15 of 23 patients (65.2%) in apatinib group versus 6 of 24 (25%) in control group. There was no grade 3 or 4 adverse events and serious adverse events.Conclusion: Apatinib group can improve mPFS by 2.3 months in patients with malignant glioma,but there was no statistical significance (P>0.05).The results also indicated that apatinib conferred a significant beneficial effect on PTBE improvement. All occurred adverse reactions were moderate and controllable.

To evaluate the effects of ablation strategies on local tumor progression (LTP) after microwave ablation (MWA) of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) measuring 3–5 cm. Between December 2011 and May 2017, 71 HCC patients with 71 nodules treated by ultrasound(US)-guided percutaneous MWA were divided into parallel (group A) and crossed (group B) antenna placement groups. All patients underwent MWA using two antennas with four insertions. LTP and overall survival (OS) rates were compared between the two groups. The median follow-up time was 16.8 months. There was no significant difference in the complete ablation rate and treatment sessions between the two groups. LTP was diagnosed in 8 of 48 nodules (16.7%) in group A and 1 of 23 nodules (4.3%) in group B, with no significant difference between two groups (P = 0.115). The 1-, 2-, and 3-year OS rates were 88.5%, 79%, and 71.8% in group A and 93.8%, 87.5%, and 87.5% in group B, respectively (P = 0.236). Multivariate analysis showed that the tumor diameter (P = 0.017), the distance between the antennas (P = 0.032), and the total emission time (P = 0.015) were associated with LTP. There were trends with lower LTP and improved OS in group B, despite the lack of statistically significant differences between the two strategies at a level of P

The gut is implicated in the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis (AP) and the infectious complications of AP are commonly associated with enteric bacteria, yet whether gut microbiota dysbiosis participants in AP severity remains largely unknown. We collected clinical information and fecal samples from 165 adult participants, including 41 with mild AP (MAP), 59 with moderately severe AP (MSAP), 30 with severe AP (SAP) and 35 healthy controls (HC). The serum inflammatory cytokines and gut barrier indexes were detected. Male C57BL/6 mice with AP were established and injuries of pancreas were evaluated in antibiotic-treated mice, germ-free mice as well as those transplanted with fecal microbiota. The gut microbiota was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The structure of gut microbiota was significantly different between AP and HC, and the disturbed microbiota was closely correlated with systematic inflammation and gut barrier dysfunction. Notably, the microbial composition changed further with the worsening of AP and the abundance of beneficial bacteria such as Blautia was decreased in SAP compared with MAP and MSAP. The increased capacity for the inferred pathway, bacterial invasion of epithelial cells in AP, highly correlated with the abundance of Escherichia–Shigella. Furthermore, the antibiotic-treated mice and germ-free mice exhibited alleviated pancreatic injury after AP induction and subsequent fecal microbiota transplantation in turn exacerbated the disease. This study identifies the gut microbiota as an important mediator during AP and its dysbiosis is associated with AP severity, which suggests its role as potential therapeutic target.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major metabolic disorder and an increasing health problem worldwide. Effective non-invasive therapies for DM are still lacking. Here, we have developed Microcurrent electrical nerve stimulation (MENS), a non-invasive therapy, and tested on 46 mice clustered into five groups, such as control, STZ-induced DM, and MENS treatment groups. Experimental results show that MENS treatment is able to improve seven biochemical indexes (e.g., hemoglobin A1c and glucose level). To investigate the mechanisms of MENS treatment on STZ-induced DM, we selected six representative samples to perform microarray experiments for several groups and developed an integrated Hierarchical System Biology Model (HiSBiM) to analyze these omics data. The results indicate that MENS can affect fatty acid metabolism pathways, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathway and cell cycle. Additionally, the DM biochemical indexes and omics data profiles of MENS treatment were found to be consistent. We then compared the therapeutic effects of MENS with anti-diabetic compounds (e.g., quercetin, metformin, and rosiglitazone), using the HiSBiM four-level biological functions and processes of multiple omics data. The results show MENS and these anti-diabetic compounds have similar effect pathways highly correlated to the diabetes processes, such as the PPAR signaling pathway, bile secretion, and insulin signaling pathways. We believe that MENS is an effective and non-invasive therapy for DM and our HiSBiM is an useful method for investigating multiple omics data.

Hookah smoking is becoming increasingly popular worldwide and recent epidemiological studies indicate that it is significantly associated with respiratory diseases, and could contain constituents more harmful than cigarette smoking. However, the gene expression alterations and mechanisms of disease development induced by the hookah constituents are still unclear. Here, we are the first to propose a new experimental design and use RNA sequencing to profile bronchial epithelial cells from different hookah smoking exposure conditions (GSE162386). For our hookah-smoking dataset, we developed an integrated genome-wide model, hierarchical-systems biology model (HiSBiM), to systematically investigate the effects of smoking hookah and to compare the biological pathways with public cigarette smoking datasets. Our results show that the infectious disease-related pathways were enriched in hookah smoking than in cigarette smoking, which could be due to polluted hookah devices or pathogen contaminated water filters. Furthermore, we investigate the subsystem and pathway differences in hookah smoking between charcoal and electronic heating ways. We observed that cardiovascular and atherosclerosis-related pathways were activated after exposure to charcoal combustion, which may relate to combustion components carbon monoxide and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Overall, our results show that hookah smoking could involve a higher risk in several diseases than cigarette smoking and link the relations between hookah constituents to diseases. We believe that our HiSBiM is a useful integrated method for providing multiple-level valued insights for genome-wide analysis on various omics data sets.

We demonstrate, for the first time, monolithic 3D (M3D) integration of back-end-of-line (BEOL) compatible Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 (HZO) ferroelectric FET (FeFET) with front-end-of-line (FEOL) high-k/metal gate (HKMG) Si-NMOS. We use low thermal budget ( 2 O 3 (IWO) semiconducting oxide channel and demonstrate high remnant polarization charge density 2P R , of 40μC/cm2 reliable with switching characteristics. We report (a) read memory window of 0.45V in ultra-scaled 20nm channel length IWO FeFET, (b) write speed of 100ns, and (c) write endurance >108 cycle. We further demonstrate a 2bit/cell synaptic weight cell with well separated conductance states. System-level analysis of compute-in-memory (CIM) accelerators for performing inference on CIFAR-10 image dataset using VGG-8 model shows that 22nm BEOL FeFET achieves 3× higher energy-efficiency than 7nm SRAM while occupying a smaller memory array area due to area folding enabled by M3D architecture.

Identifying outcome predictors for ischemic stroke is beneficial for choosing correct intervention protocols. Thus, it is necessary to systemically evaluate histological outcome-associated changes such as hemodynamics, behavior, and body weight during the early phase of ischemia. Here, 50 mice were subjected to 45-min middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) using Longa's method. Hemodynamic changes were monitored by Doppler laser probe, and behaviors were evaluated by scales while the tissues were visualized by staining. The results by correlation analysis demonstrated that with a probe located near the posterior boundary zone of MCA territory, the latency of anoxic depolarization, as well as the cerebral blood flow reduction during MCAO were confirmed to be predictors for the infarct volume on day 3 post-ischemia; histology showed that the risk of a space-occupying secondary hemorrhage was significantly correlated with the increase of infarct volume versus the traditional Bederson's neurological deficit scale, a renewed combined behavioral scoring method performed nicely to reflect the severity of tissue lesions. Weight loss was a valuable metric for the enlargement of both infarct volume and secondary hemorrhage. Monitoring changes during early-phase ischemia may benefit the optimization of ischemia models and the discovery of potential intervention targets.See Video Abstract, http:/links.lww.com/WNR/A601).

Background Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) has been considered to be an independent risk factor of heart failure (HF). Objectives To further determine the plasma levels of TMAO in patients who have HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), and to analyze the relationship between TMAO and HFpEF risk. Methods A total of 57 control participants and 61 patients with HFpEF were recruited. We measured and analyzed plasma levels of TMAO and performed biochemical examination of all patients. Results The mean (SD) plasma levels of TMAO in patients with HFpEF (6.84 [1.12] μmol/L) were significantly higher than in controls (1.63 [0.08] μmol/L; P Conclusions TMAO level was highly associated with HFpEF risk.

Abnormal blood coagulation often occurs in critically ill patients, which seriously affects their prognosis. This retrospective study investigated the implications of changes in blood coagulation in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Records were reviewed for patients admitted with COVID-19 between February 4 and 16, 2020. The primary outcome was in-hospital death. A total of 85 patients were included, of whom 12 died in the hospital. The admission prothrombin time (PT), international normalized ratio (INR), and levels of D-dimer and fibrin/fibrinogen degradation products (FDP) were significantly higher in non-survivors than in survivors, while the reverse was true for prothrombin time activity (PT-act) and PaO2/FiO2. Multivariate logistic regression showed that PT-act < 75% was independently associated with mortality. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curves for PT-act, D-dimer, and FDP at admission could significantly predict mortality. The AUCs for PT-act were larger than those for D-dimer and FDP; however, there was no significant difference. After 2 weeks of treatment, the coagulation parameters of the surviving patients improved. COVID-19 is often accompanied by abnormal coagulation. PT-act at admission is able to predict mortality in patients with COVID-19 as can D-dimer and FDP levels. PT-act < 75% is independently associated with mortality.

OBJECTIVES: Compared with nipple sparing mastectomy (NSM), microwave ablation (MWA) is one relatively new modality indicated for selected breast cancer with nipple sparing, and with little of evidence-based medical research for decision-making. The objective of this study was to compare the effect of ultrasound-guided percutaneous MWA and NSM for breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted in a single institution from 2014 to 2020. Women with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast ≤ 5 cm treated by MWA or NSM were enrolled. The primary end point was tumor progression in the intention-to-treat population. Secondary end points included survival, cosmetic results, and complications. RESULTS: 21 patients in MWA group and 43 in NSM group were evaluated. The mean tumor size was 2.3 cm (range, 0.3-5.0 cm). Median follow-up was 22.7 months (range, 10.6–58.5 months). The mean age of MWA was 24 years older than that of NSM group. All the patients achieved technique effectiveness. One local tumor progression and one ipsilateral breast recurrence occurred at 42 and 28 months after MWA, respectively. One ipsilateral breast recurrence and one bone metastasis occurred at 31.2 and 34 months after NSM. Two groups had no significant difference in tumor progression (P = 0.16). No participants in both groups developed cancer related death (P > 0.99) and major complications (P > 0.99). However, MWA needed less hospitalization time (P

Background The degree of myocardial injury, as reflected by troponin elevation, and associated outcomes among US hospitalized patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) are unknown. Objectives To describe the degree of myocardial injury and associated outcomes in a large hospitalized cohort with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19. Methods Patients with COVID-19 admitted to one of five Mount Sinai Health System hospitals in New York City between February 27th and April 12th, 2020 with troponin-I (normal value 0.09 ng/dL, n=530, 19.4%) were significantly associated with higher risk (adjusted HR 3.03, 95% CI 2.42-3.80; P, Condensed Abstract Myocardial injury reflected as elevated troponin in Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) is not well characterized among US patients. We describe the prevalence of myocardial injury and its impact on outcomes among hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 who had troponin-I measurements within 24 hours of admission (N=2,736). Elevated troponin concentrations (normal

Ferroelectric tunnel junction (FTJ) based on alloyed HfO 2 and ZrO 2 is emerging as a promising two-terminal device candidate for the crossbar array for high density memory and compute-in-memory. FTJ is able to operate under non-destructive read mechanism as opposed to the ferroelectric capacitor. Herein, we report an optimized fabrication process that boosts the on-state current while suppressing the off-state current leading to an improved performance in Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 (HZO) based FTJs. The plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposited (PEALD) of HZO and the incorporation of an interlayer Al 2 O 3 are keys to improve the HZO-based FTJ in terms of the on/off ratio and cycling endurance.

Background: The diagnosis performance of B-mode ultrasound (US) for focal liver lesions (FLLs) is relatively limited. The aim of this study was to develop a deep convolutional neural network of US (DCNN-US) for aiding radiologists in classification of malignant from benign FLLs with high sensitivity and specificity. Methods: This prospective multicentre study was conducted in 13 hospitals with different levels in China. Patients who had non-cystic FLLs with pathological results were enrolled. The FLLs from 11 hospitals were randomly divided into training and internal validations (IV) cohorts with a 4:1 ratio for developing and evaluating DCNN-US. Diagnostic performance of the model was verified using external validation (EV) cohort from another two hospitals. Three models were developed by using lesion (ModelLesion, ModelL), liver background images (Model Lesion+Background, ModelL B) and clinical factors (ModelLesion+Background +clinic, ModelL BC) to diagnose FLLs, respectively. The diagnosis value of DCNN-US was compared with that of contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT)/magnetic resonance image (MRI) and 236 radiologists, respectively. Findings: We enrolled 24,343 US images of 2,143 patients to develop and test DCNN-US model. The diagnostic area under the curve (AUC) values of ModelL B increased 6% than ModelL, and Model L BC increased nearly 11% than ModelL B. The AUC of ModelLBC for FLLs were 0.925 (95% CI: 0.886–0.963), and 0.924 (95% CI: 0.889–0.959) in the IV and EV cohorts, respectively. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of ModelL BC were superior to 15-year skilled radiologists (86.5% vs 76.1%, and 85.5% vs 75.9%, respectively) (both p

Hypoalbuminemia and anemia are frequent among in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). We assess whether serum albumin and hemoglobin at admission can predict outcome in children with moderate to severe TBI.This retrospective study was conducted in a tertiary pediatric hospital between May 2012 and Jun 2018 included children with an admission Glasgow Coma Scale of ≤13.A total of 213 patients were included of whom 45 died in hospital. Multivariate logistic regression showed that hypoalbuminemia (serum albumin

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of combination therapy of LY294002, a specific inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), with hydrogen-rich saline on the proliferation and apoptosis of the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) A549 cell line and the mechanisms underpinning this. Excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) may induce DNA mutations, DNA damage, genomic instability and cell proliferation, and ROS are involved in several types of cancer, particularly lung cancer. In a previous study, hydrogen was recognized as an antioxidant in preventive and therapeutic applications. The PI3K/protein kinase B (Akt) pathway is an important signaling pathway that may activate downstream of a series of extracellular signals and impact on cellular processes including cell proliferation, apoptosis and survival. To date, the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway has been indicated as a feasible target for novel antineoplastic drugs. Different strategies combining the two treatment modalities have been used in cancer therapy in order to achieve an improved therapeutic response and longer control of tumor modalities control. The present study investigated the effect of hydrogen-rich saline alone and in combination with the PI3K inhibitor, LY294002, on the proliferation, oxidative stress and apoptosis of NSCLC A549 cells. This combination therapy may be more effective than separate drug treatment; it decreased the malondialdehyde level and increased the superoxide dismutase activity. The combination therapy also enhanced the efficacy of anti-proliferation and apoptosis. Similarly, the results of the present study demonstrated that administration of the two agents in combination may inhibit phospho-Akt activity, and reduce expression of heme oxygenase-1 and nuclear factor-κB p65. The results further suggested that the combination therapy may reduce cell proliferation and promote cell apoptosis by downregulating Akt phosphorylation and inhibiting the PI3K pathway in NSCLC cell lines. Therefore, the present study provided evidence that combined therapy may be a novel therapeutic option for patients with NSCLC.

Introduction Empagliflozin is a new, emerging oral hypoglycemic agent (OHA) which has shown significant benefits in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with cardiovascular disease. In this analysis, our aim was to systematically compare the adverse drug events (ADEs) associated with a low (10 mg) versus a high (25 mg) dose of empagliflozin as (1) monotherapy, (2) as an add-on to other OHAs, and (3) as an add-on specifically to metformin, in patients who were treated for T2DM. Methods This was a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that compared empagliflozin 10 mg versus 25 mg in patients who were treated for T2DM and which reported adverse drug reactions as their clinical endpoints. Statistical analysis was carried out using the latest version of the RevMan software (ver. 5.3) whereby odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were generated. Results Eight trials with a total number of 8514 patients treated for T2DM were included in this meta-analysis and systematic review, of whom 4261 patients received 10 mg empagliflozin and 4253 patients received 25 mg empagliflozin. Our results showed that there were no significant differences between the patients with T2DM receiving 10 empagliflozin and those receiving 25 mg empagliflozin in terms of drug-related adverse effects (OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.93–1.21; P = 0.40, I2 = 0%), adverse events leading to drug discontinuation (OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.86–1.14; P = 0.87, I2 = 0%), and serious adverse events (OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.95–1.18; P = 0.31, I2 = 0%) when empagliflozin was provided as monotherapy or as an add-on to other anti-diabetic medications. The same results were obtained when empagliflozin was used as an add-on to metformin or as monotherapy. The duration of the follow-up periods did not affect the results. However, the incidence of genital and urinary tract infections (UTIs) was significantly higher in female patients than in male patients with 10 or 25 mg empagliflozin. Conclusions The incidence of ADEs was not significantly different in T2DM patients receiving 10 versus 25 mg empagliflozin as monotherapy or as add-on to metformin or other anti-diabetic drugs during a shorter or longer follow-up period. However, genital and UTIs were more common in female patients with T2DM irrespective of empagliflozin dosage.

Xixia Liu,1,2 Yuhan Liao,1 Xiuxiu Wang,1 Donghua Zou,1 Chun Luo,1 Chongdong Jian,1 Yuan Wu1 1Department of Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, 2Department of Rehabilitation, People’s Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning, China Abstract: MicroRNA (miRNA) is believed to play a crucial role in the cause and treatment of epilepsy by controlling gene expression. However, it is still unclear how miRNA profiles change after multiple prolonged seizures and aggravation of brain injury in chronic epilepsy (CE). To investigate the role of miRNA in epilepsy, we utilized the CE rat models with pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) and miRNA profiles in the hippocampus. miRNA profiles were characterized using miRNA microarray analysis and were compared with the rats in the sham group, which received 0.9% physiological saline treatment at the same dose. Four up-regulated miRNAs (miR-139–3p, -770–5p, -127–5p, -331–3p) and 5 down-regulated miRNAs (miR-802–5p, -380–5p, -183–5p, -547–5p, -344a/-344a–5p) were found in the CE rats (fold change >1.5, P

A 59-year-old woman was referred to the institution with burdens of idiopathic ventricular tachycardia (IVT). Electroanatomic mapping revealed a complex fractionated, high frequency potential with long duration preceding the QRS onset of the IVT. The real end point of ablation was the disappearance of the conduction block of Purkinje potential during the sinus rhythm besides the disappearance of the inducible tachycardia. Location of distal catheter was at the moderator band (MB) by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). Only irrigated radiofrequency current was delivered at both insertions of the MB which can completely eliminate the IVT.

Purpose: Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is recently the main risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). Plasma lipid levels are conventionally used to predict coronary risk, but the correlation between TMAO and plasma lipid levels in unstable angina pectoris (UAP) was unclear. Our objective was to compare the plasma level of TMAO to lipoprotein ratios and conventional lipid parameters in UAP patients. Methods: A total of 114 control participants and 184 UAP patients were enrolled. Demographic characteristics were collected. Plasma levels of TMAO and lipid in all patients were measured and analyzed. The receiver operating characteristic analysis (ROC), univariate, and multivariate logistic regression analyses were carried out to examine the relationship between TMAO, lipoprotein ratios, conventional lipid parameters, and UAP. Results: The plasma levels of TMAO were remarkably increased in UAP patients (3.28 ± 1.97 µM) compared with control participants (1.52 ± 0.59 µM, P < 0.01). TMAO was significantly correlated with lipid levels in UAP patients. The ROC, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis both showed that the TMAO significantly increased the risk for occurrence of UAP. Conclusions: Our data indicate that the TMAO is superior to lipoprotein ratios and conventional lipid parameters in predicting occurrence of UAP.

BACKGROUND To investigate the clinical characteristics, influencing factors, and their impact on survival in patients with brain metastases from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (BM-ESCC). METHODS A total of 67 patients with patients with newly diagnosed BM-ESCC were retrospectively analyzed from December 2000 to December 2016, in order to examine the correlation between clinicopathological characteristics and brain metastases, and between brain metastases and survival. RESULTS The number of BM-ESCC was positively correlated with T and N stages (P

Deep-learning algorithms require large and parallel multiplication and accumulation (MAC), which fits hardware accelerators consist of parallel processing elements (PEs) to speed up. As the PE number increases, how to distribute data in time becomes the key problem. Improving the accelerator performance needs to balance the computation power and the data communication bandwidth, which forms a roofline model of the throughput. In addition to hardware setup, the combination of neural network operators, layers, also causes the roofline curve to shift. Optimizing the performance, power, cost of the accelerators needs to link the neural network models to the physical hardware setup, which indicates custom and model-specific are essential. This presentation introduces an example of custom deep-learning accelerating system developed from open-source NVIDIA deep-learning accelerator (DLA). We supplement an environment for developing the system, from model quantization, model compilation, test generation, to driving tools. FPGA prototypes and test chips are designed, running an application of object detection, offering 70% MAC network utilization.

Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for bifurcation lesions has often been challenging for Interventionists. Application of the correct intra-procedural technique is vital to generate beneficial outcomes after PCI. We aimed to systematically compare the post interventional cardiovascular outcomes which were reported using crush versus provisional stenting techniques for bifurcation lesions. A computerized search was carried out through Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central and through www.ClinicalTrials.gov for English publications comparing crush versus the provisional stenting techniques for coronary bifurcation lesions during PCI. Major adverse cardiac events, all-cause mortality, cardiac death, myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis, target vessel and target lesion revascularizations were the endpoints in this analysis. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were generated during statistical analysis to represent the data. Six studies consisting of a total number of 2220 participants (1085 participants were assigned to the crush stenting technique and 1135 participants were assigned to the provisional stenting technique) enrolled between years 2004 and 2016 were included in this analysis. During a follow-up time period from six to sixty months, major adverse cardiac events (OR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.59–0.91; P = 0.005), target vessel revascularization (OR: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.43–0.89; P = 0.01) and target lesion revascularization (OR: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.45–0.85; P = 0.003) were significantly lower in patients who were assigned to the crush stenting technique. However, all-cause mortality (OR: 0.90, 95% CI: 0.48–1.68; P = 0.74), cardiac death (OR: 0.56, 95% CI: 0.29–1.08; P = 0.08), myocardial infarction (OR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.62–1.27; P = 0.53) and stent thrombosis (OR: 0.72, 95% CI: 0.36–1.42; P = 0.34) were not significantly different. In patients with coronary bifurcation lesions undergoing PCI, crush stenting technique was associated with significantly lower major adverse cardiac events and repeated revascularization without any change in mortality, myocardial infarction and stent thrombosis when compared to the provisional technique showing a benefit of crush over the provisional stenting technique during PCI.

Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection (CHB) in children remains a public health challenge despite significant success in programme is established to prevent mother-to-child transmission. In particular, CHB in Chinese children are mostly acquired through vertical transmission, which differs from the common infection route reported in other countries and regions. This situation has resulted in a high endemic prevalence of CHB in Chinese adults. Thus, successful treatment of children with CHB will prevent the development of advanced liver diseases in late adulthood. However, there is still no consensus on the clinical guideline to treat paediatric CHB. In this study, we evaluated the potential of interferon alpha (IFNa) treatment for Chinese children with CHB. A total of 41 patients with CHB aged 3-17 years were enrolled in this retrospective study: 21 patients were treated with pegylated (PEG)-IFNa and 20 patients without treatment served as the control group. The rates of HBV DNA suppression, hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) clearance and hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) clearance were significantly higher in the PEG-IFNa treatment group than in the control group (P < 0.05 at 48 weeks). Unexpectedly, PEG-IFNa treatment achieved a high rate of HBsAb production, far exceeding the clinical outcome in documented PEG-IFNa-treated CHB adults. Further analysis revealed that younger children (3-6 years old) were more responsive to PEG-IFNa treatment with respect to achieving a protective level of HBsAb in a short treatment cycle than adolescents (10-17 years old). Overall, these results indicate that the immune system of children might have a preserved PEG-IFNa-mediated mechanism to completely control HBV, which can help to design new strategies to treat CHB patients.

BACKGROUND There is no consensus regarding the relationship between HBV DNA and liver fibrosis, and the relationship between HBV DNA and the degree of liver cirrhosis has not been reported in patients with chronic HBV infection. METHODS From January 2011 to December 2016, liver biopsies were performed on 396 patients with chronic hepatitis B and cirrhosis. Assessments of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis were based on the Laennec staging system. RESULTS Serum levels of HBV DNA were correlated with fibrosis and cirrhosis (KW = 73.946, P

In this paper, a dual-mode buffer memory based on the CMOS compatible HfZrO2 ferroelectric material is proposed for DNN accelerators. It can operate in both volatile eDRAM mode and non-volatile ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM) mode. The functionality of the proposed dual-mode memory bit-cell design is verified using SPICE simulation with the multi-domain Preisach physical model. A data-lifetime-aware memory mode configuration protocol is proposed to optimize the buffer access energy for both DNN inference and training. Detailed circuitry and architectural support for the dual-mode memory are discussed. For DNN training with ferroelectric-field-effect-transistor (FeFET) and SRAM-based compute-in-memory (CIM) accelerator, the proposed dual-mode buffer design improves the overall energy efficiency by 92.2%~98.7%, 44.1%~47.6%, 12.6%~13.0% compared to baseline designs using SRAM buffer with the same buffer area, eDRAM and FeRAM with the same buffer capacity, respectively. For DNN inference with tensor-processing-unit (TPU)-like systolic array, the energy efficiency during computing is improved by 40.7%~45.6%, 18.4%~29.6% compared to the designs with eDRAM and FeRAM buffer, respectively. By storing the persistent data using the non-volatile mode, the energy efficiency of systolic array is improved by 2.3~5.5 over SRAM-based design when standby is frequent.

On the basis of endocrine therapy for patients with low burden metastatic prostate cancer (LBMP), the clinical efficacy and quality of life were compared between prostate-only directed radiotherapy (PODT) and prostate and metastasis radiotherapy (PMRT). From November 2009 to November 2015, total 91 patients newly diagnosed with LBMP were retrospectively analyzed, of which 52 patients received PODT and 39 patients received PMRT. The biochemical failure free interval (IBF), prostate specific survival (PCSS), and overall survival (OS) time were compared between the 2 groups, and expanded prostate cancer index composite (EPIC) scale was used to evaluate the difference in quality of life between the 2 groups. The median IBF of the PODT group was 31 months, which was significantly lower than the 39 months of the PMRT group (P .05); the side effects of acute radiotherapy in PMRT group were significantly higher than PODT group (P .05). Patients with LBMP receiving PMRT can improve IBF, but cannot increase PCSS and OS, and increase the incidence of acute radiation injury.

Nowadays, stroke is a leading cause of disability in adults. Assessment of motor performance has played an important role in rehabilitation for post stroke patients. Therefore, it is quite important to develop an automatic assessment system of motor function.The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of the single task upper-limb movements quantitatively among stroke survivors.Eleven normal subjects and thirty-five subjects with stroke were involved in this study. The subjects, who were wearing the micro-sensor motion capture system, performed shoulder flexion in a sitting position. The system recorded three-dimensional kinematics data of limb movements in quaternions. By extracting the significant features from these data, we built a linear model to acquire the functional assessment score (FAS).All of the kinematics features have a significant statistical difference (P0.05) between patients and healthy people, while the feature values have a high correlation with Fugl-Meyer (FM) scores (r0.5, p0.05), indicating that these features are able to reflect the level of motion impairment. Furthermore, most samples of the linear model locate in the confidence interval after regression, with the residual approaching a normal distribution. These results show that the FAS is capable of motor function assessment for stroke survivors.These findings represent an important step towards a system that can be utilized for precise single task motor evaluation after stroke, applicable to clinical research and as a tool for rehabilitation.

When viewing three-dimensional (3D) images, whether in cinemas or on stereoscopic televisions, viewers experience the same problem of image brightness loss. This study aims to investigate image brightness loss in 3D displays, with the primary aim being to quantify the image brightness degradation in the 3D mode. A further aim is to determine the image brightness relationship to the corresponding two-dimensional (2D) images in order to adjust the 3D-image brightness values. In addition, the photographic principle is used in this study to measure metering values by capturing 2D and 3D images on television screens. By analyzing these images with statistical product and service solutions (SPSS) software, the image brightness values can be estimated using the statistical regression model, which can also indicate the impact of various environmental factors or hardware on the image brightness. In analysis of the experimental results, comparison of the image brightness between 2D and 3D images indicates 60.8% degradation in the 3D image brightness amplitude. The experimental values, from 52.4% to 69.2%, are within the 95% confidence interval

Tunable, non-volatile, small-signal capacitance is observed and characterized in a TiN/ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO)/TiN stack. The non-volatility of the small-signal capacitance originates from the non-uniform distribution of oxygen vacancies near/at the bottom electrode, resulting in polarity-dependent responses of the domain-wall vibration. Our hypothesis also agrees with the observed frequency dispersion, which could be explained with the Maxwell Wagner effect. Furthermore, we have shown more than 104 endurance and 10-year retention at 85 °C for this non-volatile capacitance. With tunable capacitance at a fixed bias, HZO capacitors can potentially be applied to reconfigurable analog or mixed-signal circuits.

Background The diagnosis performance of B-mode ultrasound (US) for focal liver lesions (FLLs) is relatively limited. We aimed to develop a deep convolutional neural network of US (DCNN-US) for aiding radiologists in classification of malignant from benign FLLs. Materials and methods This study was conducted in 13 hospitals and finally 2143 patients with 24,343 US images were enrolled. Patients who had non-cystic FLLs with pathological results were enrolled. The FLLs from 11 hospitals were randomly divided into training and internal validations (IV) cohorts with a 4:1 ratio for developing and evaluating DCNN-US. Diagnostic performance of the model was verified using external validation (EV) cohort from another two hospitals. The diagnosis value of DCNN-US was compared with that of contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT)/magnetic resonance image (MRI) and 236 radiologists, respectively. Findings The AUC of ModelLBC for FLLs was 0.924 (95% CI: 0.889–0.959) in the EV cohort. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of ModelLBC were superior to 15-year skilled radiologists (86.5% vs 76.1%, p = 0.0084 and 85.5% vs 76.9%, p = 0.0051, respectively). Accuracy of ModelLBC was comparable to that of contrast enhanced CT (both 84.7%) but inferior to contrast enhanced MRI (87.9%) for lesions detected by US. Interpretation DCNN-US with high sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing FLLs shows its potential to assist less-experienced radiologists in improving their performance and lowering their dependence on sectional imaging in liver cancer diagnosis.

On 23 April 2018, the Food and Drug Administration-based Advisory Committee approved the use of baricitinib 2 mg for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and suggested the possibility of serious adverse events associated with baricitinib 4 mg. Hence, we aimed to systematically compare the risk of adverse drug events observed with baricitinib 2 mg versus 4 mg for the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Electronic databases including the Cochrane library, MEDLINE, EMBASE and http://www.ClinicalTrials.gov were searched for relevant English publications until April 2018. Adverse drug events at 12 weeks and 24 weeks were considered as the clinical endpoints. RevMan 5.3 software was used to analyze the data whereby risk ratios (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Four trials consisting of a total of 959 participants were included in this analysis. At 12 weeks, no significant difference was observed between 2 mg and 4 mg baricitinib for serious adverse events (RR 1.33; 95% CI 0.63–2.78; p = 0.46), any adverse events after the start of therapy (RR 1.09; 95% CI 0.98–1.21; p = 0.13), discontinuation of drugs due to adverse events (RR 1.19; 95% CI 0.61–2.34; p = 0.60), malignancies (RR 3.03; 95% CI 0.12–73.90; p = 0.50), and major adverse cardiac events (RR 2.95; 95% CI 0.12–71.91; p = 0.51). Infections including herpes zoster infections and serious infections were also similarly manifested. At 24 weeks, serious adverse events (RR 1.84; 95% CI 1.02–3.30; p = 0.04) were significantly higher with baricitinib 4 mg compared with the 2-mg dosage. However, total adverse events after the start of therapy, discontinuation of drug due to adverse events, malignancies, major adverse cardiac events, infections including herpes zoster, and serious infections were not significantly different between the two doses. No significant differences in adverse drug events were observed between baricitinib 2 mg and 4 mg at 12 weeks’ follow-up. However, this analysis showed the risk of serious adverse events to be significantly higher with baricitinib 4 mg compared with baricitinib 2 mg at 24 weeks’ follow-up. This hypothesis should be confirmed in larger trials with longer follow-up time periods.

In the PCB industry, automatic optical inspection (AOI) system takes an important role to increase yield rate. However, the false alarm rate of AOI equipment is high. Therefore, the high cost of human visual inspection at verify and repair system (VRS) station is becoming a problem. Therefore, we propose an automatic defect verification system, called Auto-VRS, to decrease the false alarm rate and reduce operator's workload. The proposed system is composed of two subsystems, referred to fast circuit comparison and deep neural network based defect classification. The fast circuit comparison is to find the accurate defect region of interest (ROI). The deep neural network based defect classification is to verify which is real defect or pseudo defect. The experiment results showed that the Auto-VRS can recognition defects well and has the significant reduction in both false alarm rate and escape rate. With the advantage of the Auto-VRS, it can further improve the VRS operator's efficiency and accuracy in the future.