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Background Prostate cancer (PCa) is poor response to the immunotherapy for its high heterogeneity of immune microenvironment. In this study, we aim to introduce a new immune subtype for PCa involving M2 tumour associated macrophages (M2-TAMs). Methods Three hundred and sixty-two PCa patients and matched normal prostate tissues were selected from the Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus databases. Patients’ immune infiltration characters were then analyzed based on the gene expressions. The immune subtypes were identified by the method of unsupervised hierarchical clustering. Finally, the relationship between the M2-TAMs infiltration and anti-programmed death-ligand-1 (PD-L1) therapy was investigated in the IMvigor210 cohort. Results PCa expressed lower immune-related genes levels compared with the adjacent normal tissues. Based on the proved immunosuppressive mechanisms in PCa, tumour patients were classified into three independent subclasses with high infiltrated cytolytic activity (CYT), M2-TAMs and regulatory T cell (Tregs), respectively. Among these subtypes, M2-TAMs infiltration subtype showed the worst clinicopathological features and prognosis compared with the other two subtypes. The results of the IMvigor210 cohort demonstrated poor response of anti-PD-L1 therapy for patients with high M2-TAMs infiltration. Conclusion Prostate tumours involved in significant immunosuppression, and high infiltration of M2-TAMs can be applied to predict the effect of anti-PD-L1 therapy.Key MessagesPCa patients can be classified into three immunotypes of high infiltrated CYT, M2-TAMS, and Tregs according to the immunosuppressive mechanisms.High M2-TAMs infiltration subtype reflected the worst clinical characters, immune infiltration, and lowest expression of immune checkpoint inhibitors among the three subclasses in PCa.High M2-TAMs infiltration predicts the low response rate of anti-PD-L1 therapy.

Objective: Recently, several studies have found that obesity had a protective effect against varicocele, but no meta-analysis has confirmed this finding. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis to investigate the association between body mass index (BMI) and varicocele. Material and Methods: We searched for studies in PubMed, Science Direct and the Cochrane Library from inception until February 2018. The association between BMI and varicocele was assessed by pooling the odds ratios (ORs). Results: Eleven eligible studies with a total study population of 1.376.658 participants were included in our analysis. According to BMI, the subjects were defined as belonging to the obese, overweight and underweight groups. Our results showed that the obese group had a lower risk of varicocele when compared with the normal weight group (odds ratio [OR] 0.46, 95% confidence intervals [CIs] 0.37-0.58). Additionally, an overweight BMI had a protective effect against varicocele (OR 0.70, 95% CIs, 0.56-0.86). However, underweight patients had a more than 30% higher risk of varicocele (OR 1.31, 95% CI, 1.04-1.64). Furthermore, there was no publication bias in any of the analyses. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that BMI is negatively associated with the presence of varicocele.

In view of the system dynamics, a three-lever supply chain of agricultural products was established and analyzed, in which the supermarket is in the core place. Considering the impacts of Bullwhip Effect and inventory variation, a supermarket-leading inventory model of three-lever supply chain was constructed, the cause-and-effect figure and the flow graph were proposed. The result of simulation shows that the new model was more visible and the inventory remains lower level than before, and when the supermarket was in the core place, all the parts in supply chain could link up greatly. Thus system dynamics brings an available principle and method to research the complicated and dynamics agriculture supply chain.

CdS/CdTe Thin film solar cells are grown in a homemade close-space sublimation system where the cell fabrication of p-n junction is carried out in a continuous, in-line process. The best efficiency achieved is about 11% (AM1.5). Another cell is prepared with the same procedure except for the n-CdS layer coated by sputtering(SP), achieving an efficiency of about 10% (AM1.5). Current density-voltage and external quantum efficiency measurements are analyzed and the solar cell performances are characterized. By the comparison between the practical fitted data and theoretical calculations, the method of improving CdS/CdTe solar cell efficiency, i.e., increasing the open-circuit voltage (Voc), short circuit current (Jsc), and fill factor (FF), is proposed.