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In practical mechanical fault detection and diagnosis, it is difficult and expensive to collect enough large-scale supervised data to train deep networks. Transfer learning can reuse the knowledge obtained from the source task to improve the performance of the target task, which performs well on small data and reduces the demand for high computation power. However, the detection performance is significantly reduced by the direct transfer due to the domain difference. Domain adaptation (DA) can transfer the distribution information from the source domain to the target domain and solve a series of problems caused by the distribution difference of data. In this survey, we review various current DA strategies combined with deep learning (DL) and analyze the principles, advantages, and disadvantages of each method. We also summarize the application of DA combined with DL in the field of fault diagnosis. This paper provides a summary of the research results and proposes future work based on analysis of the key technologies.

Doping enables manipulation of both the electrical and optical properties of halide perovskites. Herein, we incorporated Te4+ into Cs2ZrCl6 single crystal, simultaneously preserving the vacancy-ordered structure, to obtain an efficient yellow-emitting perovskite with a near-unity photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY ≈ 97.6%). Te4+ doping modifies the hue and emission color of pristine Cs2ZrCl6, generates new absorption channels, and successfully extends the excitation energy from

Semi-supervised soft sensor has gradually become a more practical solution due to the difficulty in collecting labels for industrial soft sensor. Currently, the commonly-used manifold regularization assumes similar inputs result in similar outputs, but such similarity assumption fails when temporality exists. Moreover, the performance of soft sensor is vulnerable to anomaly, so anomaly is generally discarded before modelling. The latent information in anomaly has seldom been explored for modelling yet. To overcome the limitation of manifold regularization and explore the usability of anomaly, a novel semi-supervised soft sensor, named Consistent-Contrastive Network (CC-Net), is proposed to build a temporality-aware and robust-to-anomaly soft sensor. Specifically, CC-Net consists of two branches, namely label branch and feature branch, to map the input into label and feature respectively. In the label branch, labeled samples are used in supervised manner. For unlabeled samples, two regularization terms, consistency and temporal consistency, are designed to constrain the pseudo-labels consistent against noise and along time respectively, which can adapt to temporality. In the feature branch, the idea of contrastive learning is applied to separate normal samples and anomalies. Such design properly utilizes the distribution information in anomaly as regularizer. With the designed regularization terms and the utilization of anomalies, CC-Net implements a temporality-aware and robust-to-anomaly soft sensor, which is demonstrated by real denitrification and desulphurization cases.

A room-temperature broadband (visible to near infrared spectrum) photodetector based on single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and graphene heterojunction was fabricated in this work, by drop-casting the SWCNTs suspension onto the graphene field-effect transistor with the buried-gate electrode. A high photoresponsivity of 109 A/W and a fast photoresponse speed of 2.9 ms were obtained within the visible region based on the photogating effect. This high gain mechanism leads to a high photoconductive gain (9.1 106). In addition, the photodetector exhibits a photoresponsivity of 51.5 A/W at 940 nm, indicating a wide spectrum detection capability. Moreover, a higher photoresponsivity can be obtained by tuning the source-drain and gate bias voltages. This approach provides an easy and feasible way to achieve broadband heterojunction photodetectors with high-performance.

To efficiently remove all recurrent lymph nodes (rLNs) and minimize complications, we developed a combination approach that consisted of 68Gallium prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) ligand positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) and integrated indocyanine green (ICG)-guided salvage lymph node dissection (sLND) for rLNs after radical prostatectomy (RP). Nineteen patients were enrolled to receive such treatment. 68Ga-PSMA ligand PET/CT was used to identify rLNs, and 5 mg of ICG was injected into the space between the rectum and bladder before surgery. Fluorescent laparoscopy was used to perform sLND. While extensive LN dissection was performed at level I, another 5 mg of ICG was injected via the intravenous route to intensify the fluorescent signal, and laparoscopy was introduced to intensively target stained LNs along levels I and II, specifically around suspicious LNs, with 68Ga-PSMA ligand PET/CT. Next, both lateral peritonea were exposed longitudinally to facilitate the removal of fluorescently stained LNs at levels III and IV. In total, pathological analysis confirmed that 42 nodes were rLNs. Among 145 positive LNs stained with ICG, 24 suspicious LNs identified with 68Ga-PSMA ligand PET/CT were included. The sensitivity and specificity of 68Ga-PSMA ligand PET/CT for detecting rLNs were 42.9% and 96.6%, respectively. For ICG, the sensitivity was 92.8% and the specificity was 39.1%. At a median follow-up of 15 (interquartile range [IQR]: 6–31) months, 15 patients experienced complete biochemical remission (BR, prostate-specific antigen [PSA] 0.2 ng ml−1. Therefore, 68Ga-PSMA ligand PET/CT integrating ICG-guided sLND provides efficient sLND with few complications for patients with rLNs after RP.

In view of the lack of data association in spatiotemporal information analysis and the lack of spatiotemporal situation analysis in knowledge graphs, this paper combines the semantic web of the geographic knowledge graph with the visual analysis model of spatial information and puts forward the comprehensive utilization of the related technologies of the geographic knowledge graph and big data visual analysis. Then, it realizes the situational analysis of COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) and the exploration of patient relationships through interactive collaborative analysis. The main contributions of the paper are as follows. (1) Based on the characteristics of the geographic knowledge graph, a patient entity model and an entity relationship type and knowledge representation method are proposed, and a knowledge graph of the spatiotemporal information of COVID-19 is constructed. (2) To analyse the COVID-19 patients’ situations and explore their relationships, an analytical framework is designed. The framework, combining the semantic web of the geographic knowledge graph and the visual analysis model of geographic information, allows one to analyse the semantic web by using the node attribute similarity calculation, key stage mining, community prediction and other methods. (3) An efficient epidemic prevention and anti-epidemic method, which is of referential significance, is proposed. It is based on experiments and the collaborative analysis of the semantic web and spatial information, allowing for real-time situational understanding, the discovery of patients’ relationships, the analysis of the spatiotemporal distribution of patients, super spreader mining, key node analysis, and the prevention and control of high-risk groups.

Inspired by simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) style workflow, this article presented an online sequential structure from motion (SfM) solution for high-frequency video and large baseline high-resolution aerial images with high efficiency and novel precision. First, as traditional SLAM systems are not good in processing low overlap images, based on our novel hierarchical feature matching paradigm with multihomography and BoW, we proposed a robust tracking method where the relative pose and its scale are estimated separately followed by a joint optimization by considering both perspective-n-point (PnP) and epipolar constraints. Second, to further optimize the camera poses for the sparse map and dense pointcloud reconstruction, we provided a graph-based optimization with reprojection and GPS constraints, which make the camera trajectory and map georeferenced. We also incrementally generated the dense point cloud in real time from keyframes after local mapping optimization. Finally, we use a publicly available aerial image dataset with sequences of different environments, to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, meanwhile, the robust performance of our solution is demonstrated with applications of high-quality aerial images mosaic and digital surface model (DSM) reconstruction in real time. Compared with the state-of-the-art SLAM and traditional SfM methods, the presented system can output large-scale high-quality ortho-mosaic and DSM in real time with the low computational cost.

Modern interventional x-ray systems are often equipped with flat-panel detector-based cone-beam CT (FPD-CBCT) to provide tomographic, volumetric, and high spatial resolution imaging of interventional devices, iodinated vessels, and other objects. The purpose of this work was to bring an interchangeable strip photon-counting detector (PCD) to C-arm systems to supplement (instead of retiring) the existing FPD-CBCT with high quality, spectral, and affordable PCD-CT imaging option. With minimal modification to the existing C-arm, a 51×0.6 cm2 PCD with a 0.75 mm CdTe layer, two energy thresholds, and 0.1 mm pixels was integrated with a Siemens Artis Zee interventional imaging system. The PCD can be translated in and out of the field-of-view to allow the system to switch between FPD and PCD-CT imaging modes. A dedicated phantom and a new algorithm were developed to calibrate the projection geometry of the narrow-beam PCD-CT system and correct the gantry wobbling-induced geometric distortion artifacts. In addition, a detector response calibration procedure was performed for each PCD pixel using materials with known radiological pathlengths to address concentric artifacts in PCD-CT images. Both phantom and human cadaver experiments were performed at a high gantry rotation speed and clinically relevant radiation dose level to evaluate the spectral and non-spectral imaging performance of the prototype system. Results show that the PCD-CT system has excellent image quality with negligible artifacts after the proposed corrections. Compared with FPD-CBCT images acquired at the same dose level, PCD-CT images demonstrated a 53% reduction in noise variance and additional quantitative imaging capability.

Based on the well-known principle of selective photothermolysis, laser has been a promising way for the treatment of port wine stains (PWSs). The laser wavelengths used for PWS’s clinical treatment include but are not limited to pulsed dye laser (PDL) in 585–600 nm, long-pulse 755-nm alexandrite, and 1064-nm Nd:YAG lasers. The objective of this study was to investigate the optimal wavelength for PWS’s laser treatment. A two-scale mathematic model was constructed to simultaneously quantify macroscale laser energy attenuation in two-layered bulk skin and microscale local energy absorption on target blood vessels within Krogh unit. The effects of morphological parameters, including epidermal melanin content, epidermal thickness, dermal blood content, blood vessel depth, and diameter on laser energy deposition within target blood vessels, were investigated from the visible to near-infrared bands (500–1100 nm). The energy deposition ratio of target blood vessel to epidermal surface was proposed to determine the optimal laser wavelength for PWS with different skin morphological parameters. The bioheat transfer modeling and animal experiment are also conducted to prove our wavelength optimization. The optimal wavelengths for lightly pigmented skin with small and shallow target blood vessels are 580–610 nm in the visible band. This wavelength coincides with commercially used PDL. The optimal wavelength shifts to 940 nm as the epidermal pigmentation increases or the size and blood vessel depth increases. The optimal wavelength changes to 1005 nm as the epidermal pigmentation or the size and burying depth of target blood vessel further increases. Nine hundred forty nanometers can be selected as a general wavelength in PWS treatment to meet the need in most widely morphological structure. Lasers with wavelengths in the 580–610, 940, and 1005 nm regions are effective for treating PWS because of their high optical selectivity in blood over the epidermis.

To evaluate utility of advanced CT techniques including HighlY constrained back-projection and dual-energy CT for intra- and post-procedure hepatic microwave ablation zone monitoring. 8 hepatic microwave ablations were performed in 4 adult swine (5 min/65 W). Low-dose routine CECT and dual-energy CT images were obtained every 1 min during ablation. Images were reconstructed ± HYPR. Image quality and dose metrics were collected. 21 MWA were performed in 4 adult swine. Immediate post-procedure CECT was performed in the arterial, portal venous, and delayed phases using both routine and DECT imaging with full-dose weight-based IV contrast dosing. An additional 16 MWA were subsequently performed in 2 adult swine. Immediate post-procedure CT was performed with half-dose IV contrast using routine and DECT. 12 patients (10 M/2F, mean age 62.4 yrs) with 14 hepatic tumors (4 HCC, 10 metastatic lesions) treated with MWA were prospectively imaged with DECT 1 month post-procedure. 120 kV equivalent images were compared to DECT [51 keV, iodine material density]. Image quality and dose metrics were collected. Gas created during MWA led to high CNR in all intraprocedural CT datasets. Optimal CNRs were noted at 4 min with CNR 6.7, 15.5,15.9, and 21.5 on LD-CECT, LD-CECT + HYPR, DECT, and DECT + HYPR, respectively (p

The underground mining roadways are composed of different strata in southern China mining areas. In the rock-coal composite roadways (RCCRs), surrounding rock comprises coal seam and other strata, such as sandstone, mudstone and siltstone. In this paper, a systematic laboratory experimental study was carried out in which uniaxial compressive strength test was used to investigate the reinforcement of fabricated rock-coal composite (RCC) specimens possessing different anchoring (bolting) setups: no bolt, one horizontal bolt in the coal, two horizontal bolts in the coal and one horizontal bolt in the coal together with an inclined bolt crossing the coal-rock interface. The results show that the failure of RCC specimens with no bolts initially occurs in the coal. Bolting improves the mechanical behaviour of the RCC specimens and the level of improvement is related to the number and orientation of the bolts. Using one horizontal bolt in the coal together with a 30° inclined bolt crossing the coal-rock interface results in the highest strength and the most effective reduction of differential deformation of the RCC specimens. Based on the experimental laboratory results, a field study was carried out to demonstrate further the effectiveness of the inclined bolting and anchoring crossing the coal-rock interface in the stress compression zone for restraining the uneven deformation of the RCCR.

Background Iodine material images (aka iodine basis images) generated from dual energy CT (DECT) have been used to assess potential perfusion defects in the pulmonary parenchyma. However, iodine material images do not provide the needed absolute quantification of the pulmonary blood pool, as materials with effective atomic numbers (Zeff ) different from those of basis materials may also contribute to iodine material images, thus confounding the quantification of perfusion defects. Purpose The purposes of this work were to (i) demonstrate the limitations of iodine material images in pulmonary perfusion defect quantification and (ii) develop and validate a new quantitative biomarker using effective atomic numbers derived from DECT images. Methods The quantitative relationship between the perfusion blood volume (PBV) in pulmonary parenchyma and the effective atomic number (Zeff ) spatial distribution was studied to show that the desired quantitative PBV maps are determined by the spatial maps of Zeff as PBVZeff (x) = a Zeff β (x) + b, where a, b, and β are three constants. Namely, quantitative PBVZeff is determined by Zeff images instead of the iodine basis images. Perfusion maps were generated for four human subjects to demonstrate the differences between conventional iodine material image-based PBV (PBViodine ) derived from two-material decompositions and the proposed PBVZeff method. Results Among patients with pulmonary emboli, the proposed PBVZeff maps clearly show the perfusion defects while the PBViodine maps do not. Additionally, when there are no perfusion defects present in the derived PBV maps, no pulmonary emboli were diagnosed by an experienced thoracic radiologist. Conclusion Effective atomic number based quantitative PBV maps provide the needed sensitive and specific biomarker to quantify pulmonary perfusion defects. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Study design A Biomechanical in vitro Investigation. Objective To evaluate the function and stability of self-designed biomimetic artificial atlanto-odontoid joint(BAAOJ) replacement on the atlantoaxial joint. Summary of background data Upper cervical fusion surgery is a common treatment for various atlantoaxial disorders, and favorable clinical outcome has been achieved. However, the fusion surgery results in loss of atlantoaxial motion as well as adjacent segments degeneration, reducing the quality of life of patients and might produce severe neurological symptoms. Non-fusion technology is expected to solve the above problems, but various designed devices have certain defects and are still in the exploratory phase. Methods Biomechanical tests were conducted on 10 fresh human cadaveric craniocervical specimens in the following sequence:(1) intact condition, (2) after the BAAOJ arthroplasty, (3) after BAAOJ fatigue test, (4) after odontoidectomy, and (5) after anterior rigid plate fixation. Three-dimensional movements of the C1-C2 segment were evaluated to investigate the function and stability of BAAOJ arthroplasty compared with the intact condition after the BAAOJ fatigue test, odontoidectomy, and rigid plate fixation. Results Comparing the BAAOJ implantation to the intact state, the ROM and neutral zone (NZ) were slightly reduced in all directions (P>0.05). Compared with the rigid plate fixation, the BAAOJ implantation significantly increased the ROM and NZ in all directions, especially in the axial rotation (P Conclusion We designed a BAAOJ for correcting atlantoaxial disorders arising from atlantoaxial instability. As a non-fusion device, the most critical feature of BAAOJ replacement is the retention of flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation range of motion similar to the normal state. It can also stabilize the atlantoaxial complex, and the BAAOJ itself has a good initial stability.Level of Evidence: 4.

The sparse reconstruction of two-dimensional (2-D) ultrasound images has proven effective in detecting microdefects in acoustic microimaging (AMI). However, in terms of the acquisition method of a blur kernel for the AMI detection of microdefects, it is difficult for the experimental method to prepare a micrometer-level point source, and the simulation method needs to build different simulation models for different ultrasonic probes. These two methods are troublesome and limit the blur kernel function for sparse reconstruction. This article develops a super-resolution blind estimation algorithm for AMI to generalize the sparse model to different ultrasonic imaging devices and probes. The original blurred image is denoised based on the 2-D sparse representation to perform blur kernel estimation normally. Then, the blur kernel function based on the maximum a posteriori estimation is estimated in the denoised image. We reconstruct the deblurred C -scan images of complex defects with the blur kernel function. The results indicate that the sparse reconstruction for the microdefect detection of a 2-D ultrasound image based on the blind estimation is effective for resolution improvement and signal-to-noise ratio enhancement of microdefect detection.

BACKGROUND Ovarian pregnancy after assisted reproductive technology treatment has rarely been reported; ovarian pregnancy following intrauterine insemination (IUI) is even rarer, and only nine cases have previously been reported. CASE SUMMARY We report a case of ovarian pregnancy rupture after ovulation induction and IUI. The patient presented with bilateral lower abdominal pain and was referred to the emergency department. Ultrasound examination revealed ovarian pregnancy and intraperitoneal bleeding. Laparoscopy revealed an ovarian pregnancy with hemoperitoneum, which was subsequently removed. Pelvic adhesions were detected intraoperatively, which were treated immediately. The patient spontaneously conceived an intrauterine pregnancy 3 mo later, which was ongoing at the time of writing this study. CONCLUSION Close attention should be paid to any history of pelvic inflammatory disease before commencing IUI treatment,and patients with such a history should be closely followed up after IUI. Early measurement of serum β-human chorionic gonadotropin levels and ultrasonic examination are essential for timely diagnosis of ovarian pregnancy after ovulation induction and IUI to avoid more serious complications.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between blood glucose level and the prevalence and frequency of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in women. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study of female participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey database between 2007 and 2016. Dose-response analysis curves and univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to determine the relationship between blood glucose level and the prevalence and frequency of SUI. RESULTS A total of 10,771 participants were included in this study, of which 6,466 (60.0%) reported no SUI, 4,305 (31.1%) reported monthly SUI, and 953 (8.8%) reported weekly SUI. We found that the blood glucose levels were higher in the weekly SUI group than in the monthly SUI and no SUI groups. Based on blood glucose levels, participants were divided into 3 groups: ≤86.0 mg/dL group, >86.0 to 98.0 mg/dL group, and >98.0 mg/dL group. Dose-response curves showed a nonlinear positive correlation between blood glucose levels and the prevalence and extent of SUI, and participants in the glucose >98.0 mg/dL group had a 15.2% higher risk (adjusted odds risk, 1.152; 95% confidence interval, 1.027-1.293; P = 0.016) of SUI prevalence and 12.5% higher risk (adjusted odds risk 1.125; 95% confidence interval, 1.009-1.255; P = 0.034) of SUI frequency than participants in the glucose ≤86.0 mg/dL group. CONCLUSIONS We found that the prevalence and frequency of SUI in women were positively correlated with blood glucose levels, and these findings warrant further study and application to clinical practice to control SUI in women.

Aims Aortic aneurysm and dissection (AAD) are high-risk cardiovascular diseases with no effective cure. Macrophages play an important role in the development of AAD. As succinate triggers inflammatory changes in macrophages, we investigated the significance of succinate in the pathogenesis of AAD and its clinical relevance. Methods and results We used untargeted metabolomics and mass spectrometry to determine plasma succinate concentrations in 40 and 1665 individuals of the discovery and validation cohorts, respectively. Three different murine AAD models were used to determine the role of succinate in AAD development. We further examined the role of oxoglutarate dehydrogenase (OGDH) and its transcription factor cyclic adenosine monophosphate-responsive element-binding protein 1 (CREB) in the context of macrophage-mediated inflammation and established p38αMKO Apoe –/– mice. Succinate was the most upregulated metabolite in the discovery cohort; this was confirmed in the validation cohort. Plasma succinate concentrations were higher in patients with AAD compared with those in healthy controls, patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and patients with pulmonary embolism (PE). Moreover, succinate administration aggravated angiotensin II-induced AAD and vascular inflammation in mice. In contrast, knockdown of OGDH reduced the expression of inflammatory factors in macrophages. The conditional deletion of p38α decreased CREB phosphorylation, OGDH expression, and succinate concentrations. Conditional deletion of p38α in macrophages reduced angiotensin II-induced AAD. Conclusion Plasma succinate concentrations allow to distinguish patients with AAD from both healthy controls and patients with AMI or PE. Succinate concentrations are regulated by the p38α–CREB–OGDH axis in macrophages.

The survival of foodborne pathogens under stressful food processing conditions and in host’s gastrointestinal tract has been widely reported to cause the outbreak of human diseases. Generally, antibiotics have been used to elimi-nate the microbial flora of foodborne pathogens. However, the overuse of antibiotics has contributed to the emergence and spread of multi-drug-resistant foodborne pathogens. Kombucha is a beverage prepared by fermenting sugared tea or other substrates with a symbiotic culture of yeasts and bacteria, and has been proved to fight food-borne pathogens and affect gastrointestinal microbial flora to prevent foodborne illnesses. In this context, this review primarily focused on microbiological and chemical compositions of kombucha obtained by fermenting different substrates. It further discussed the antimicrobial activity of kombucha, as well as potential antimicrobial agents found in kombucha, and the limitations of kombucha in the food industry. In addition, the need for developing antimicrobial agents from kombucha has been discussed for potential applications. The information provided in this review indicates that kombucha could serve as an alternative approach to control pathogens in place of using antibiotics.

Lead-free halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) have received increasing attention owing to their low toxicity and high stability. Localized charge distribution and strong carrier-phonon coupling in lead-free perovskite NCs facilitates the formation of self-trapped excitons (STEs), which typically give a broadband photoluminescence (PL) emission with a large Stokes shift. In this Perspective, we highlight how PL modulations can give rise to an efficient white-light emission by understanding and tuning the ultrafast dynamics of STEs in lead-free perovskite NCs. We then present the exciton energy transfer mediated by STEs to provide an efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence and dopant PL. We also illustrate promising directions for future applications based on STEs. We hope that this Perspective can provide a new viewpoint for researchers to understand the ultrafast dynamics of STEs and promote lead-free perovskite NCs for optoelectronic applications.

In this article, a novel dual-mode monoblock dielectric resonator (MDR) for compact monoblock dielectric bandpass filters is presented and put into practical use for the first time. In the dual-mode resonator, two dissimilar TEM modes are generated by forming two perpendicular metalized blind holes in a silver-coated cuboid-shapes dielectric block. The resonator can maximize the space utilization with up to 50% volume reduction while maintaining a wide spurious-free frequency band. The coupling of the two modes in such a resonator can be effectively controlled by one or more partial-height metalized posts. A convenient input/output (I/O) coupling scheme for surface-mount applications is introduced, and versatile coupling arrangements for realizing various filter characteristics are presented. To demonstrate the proposed filter miniaturization technique, a six-pole inline bandpass filter with one pure imaginary transmission zero (TZ) in a 3.5-GHz band is electromagnetic (EM) designed, and a ten-pole symmetric bandpass filter with two pure imaginary TZs in a 2.6-GHz band of fifth-generation (5G) new radio (NR) frequency band is designed, prototyped, and tuned. Experimental results show that the proposed dual-mode MDR filter can obtain an acceptable RF performance for 5G applications with a significant volume reduction compared to existing single-mode solutions.

Aim: To explore the clinical utility of the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) for predicting the prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Patients & methods: After calculating the SII in 180 patients with ESCC, the relationship between SII values and the pre-/post-radiotherapy SII ratio and overall survival was determined. Results: The median overall survival was 649 days for the entire group and 909 and 466 days for the high and low pre-/post-radiotherapy SII ratio groups, respectively. Multivariate analysis identified Karnofsky performance status (p = 0.045), lymphatic metastasis (p = 0.032), mid-radiotherapy SII (p < 0.001) and pre-/post-radiotherapy SII ratio (p = 0.003) as independent prognostic factors. Conclusion: The pre-/post-radiotherapy SII ratio and mid-radiotherapy SII are potentially effective markers for predicting ESCC prognosis.

BACKGROUND Primary cardiac tumors are uncommon, of which cardiac myxoma accounts for 50%-80%. Left ventricular myxoma has been rarely reported, accounting for only 3%-4% of all cardiac myxomas. Multiple left ventricular myxomas are, relatively, even rarer. CASE SUMMARY In this report, we present a case of multiple left ventricular myxomas combined with severe rheumatic valve lesions. Symptomatically, the patient presented with fatigue, shortness of breath, and palpitation after activities. The patient underwent complete surgical resection of multiple left ventricular myxomas combined with mechanical replacement of the mitral and aortic valves, tricuspid valvuloplasty. The patient recovered well after the operation, with no obvious related complications. CONCLUSION Multiple left ventricular myxomas may coexist with severe rheumatic valve disease. Operation is an effective treatment.

Lead-free double perovskite nanocrystals (NCs), such as Cs2AgInCl6, have attracted considerable attention as stable and non-toxic alternatives to lead-based perovskites. However, the low photoluminescence (PL) intensity of pristine Cs2AgInCl6 limits its practical applications. In this study, a series of Cs2AgIn1−γ−xBixLaγCl6 NCs were synthesized to break the parity-forbidden transition and modify the associated optical functionalities. A broadband bright warm-white emission in the visible region was achieved, with an excellent PL quantum yield of 60%. The dynamic mechanism, involving ultrafast transient absorption, suggests that high-efficiency PL is induced by triplet self-trapping exciton emission. The incorporation of La3+-Bi3+ facilitated the singlet-triplet transition by increasing the lifetime and quickening the intersystem crossing process. This finding provides a reliable method for optimizing the optical properties of emerging lead-free halide perovskite NCs.

It is a complex issue to select the support structure parameters for a deep-buried roadway with fractured surrounding rock; especially when the support structure parameters need to be adjusted, the influence degree of support structure parameters on roadway deformation needs to be determined. The deformation of deep-buried roadway’s fractured surrounding rock development was investigated using multi-index orthoplan in this paper. According to the coal mine field investigation, support structure’s failure often occurs, and some need to be repaired many times. Through the roadway surrounding rock drilling, it was found that the stress of the surrounding rock was relieved, resulting in the cavity and separation of the stratum layer. The two sidewalls’ development and roof fractures are mainly tangential, and the original rock state appears only beyond 6.3∼8.2 m. The length of bolts, the row distance between bolts, the length of cables, and the row distance of U-shaped steel were selected as control factors in the multi-index orthogonal design, and roadway’s deformation values were taken as the test indexes. According to the orthoplan, nine numerical simulation schemes were designed, and FLAC3D was used for establishment. The range analysis method was used to analyze the test results. The results show that the control factors’ influence order on the total deformation of the roadway is as follows: row spacing between U-shaped steel > bolt length > cable length > row spacing between bolts, the influence order on the deformation of the roadway floor is as follows: row spacing between U-shaped steel > row spacing between bolts > bolt length > cable length, same as the left sidewall and right sidewall, and the influence order on the roadway roof’s deformation is as follows: row spacing between U-shaped steel > bolt length = cable length > row spacing between bolts, which provide a reference for the support design of deep-buried roadways with fractured surrounding rock, especially the adjustment of the supporting structure.

Bone marrow mononuclear cell therapy improves cardiac repair after myocardial infarction (MI), in-part through signaling to resident cardiac cells, such as fibroblasts, which regulate scar formation. The efficacy of cell therapy declines with age, as aging of both donor and recipient cells decreases repair responses. Autophagy regulates the microenvironment by both extracellular vesicle (EV)-dependent and independent secretion pathways. We hypothesized that age-related autophagy changes in bone marrow cells (BMCs) alter paracrine signaling, contributing to lower cell therapy efficacy. Here, we demonstrate that young Sca-1+ BMCs exhibited a higher LC3II/LC3I ratio compared to old Sca-1+ BMCs, which was accentuated when BMCs were cultured under hypoxia. To examine the effect on paracrine signaling, old cardiac fibroblasts were cultured with conditioned medium (CM) from young and old Sca-1+ BMCs. Young, but not old CM, enhanced fibroblast proliferation, migration, and differentiation, plus reduced senescence. These beneficial effects were lost when autophagy or EV secretion in BMCs was blocked pharmacologically, or by siRNA knockdown of Atg7. Therefore, both EV-dependent and -independent paracrine signaling from young BMCs is responsible for paracrine stimulation of old cardiac fibroblasts. In vivo, bone marrow chimerism of old mice with young BMCs increased the number of LC3b+ cells in the heart compared to old mice reconstituted with old BMCs. These data suggest that the deterioration of autophagy with aging negatively impacts the paracrine effects of BMCs, and provide mechanistic insight into the age-related decline in cell therapy efficacy that could be targeted to improve the function of old donor cells.

Background The human endometrium in premenopausal women is an active site of physiological angiogenesis, with regenerative cells present, suggesting that the endometrium contains adult angiogenic stem cells. In the context of cardiac repair after ischemic injury, angiogenesis is a crucial process to rescue cardiomyocytes. We therefore investigated whether human endometrium-derived stem cells (hEMSCs) can be used for cardiac repair after ischemic injury and their possible underlying mechanisms. Methods Comparisons were made between hEMSCs successfully isolated from 22 premenopausal women and human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) derived from 25 age-matched patients. Cell proliferation, migration, differentiation, and angiogenesis were evaluated through in vitro experiments, while the ability of hEMSCs to restore cardiac function was examined by in vivo cell transplantation into the infarcted nude rat hearts. Results In vitro data showed that hEMSCs had greater proliferative and migratory capacities, whereas hBMSCs had better adipogenic differentiation ability. Human umbilical cord vein endothelial cells, treated with conditioned medium from hEMSCs, had significantly higher tube formation than that from hBMSCs or control medium, indicating greater angiogenic potentials for hEMSCs. In vivo, hEMSC transplantation preserved cardiac function, decreased infarct size, and improved tissue repair post-injury. Cardiac metabolism, assessed by 18F-FDG uptake, showed that 18F-FDG uptake at the infarction area was significantly higher in both hBMSC and hEMSC groups, compared to the PBS control group, with hEMSCs having the highest uptake, suggesting hEMSC treatment improves cardiomyocyte metabolism and survival after injury. Mechanistic assessment of the angiogenic potential for hEMSCS revealed that angiogenesis-related factors angiopoietin 2, Fms-like tyrosine kinase 1, and FGF9 were significantly upregulated in hEMSC-implanted infarcted hearts, compared to the PBS control group. Conclusion hEMSCs, compared to hBMSCs, have greater capacity to induce angiogenesis, and improved cardiac function after ischemic injury.

In this paper, a general method for synthesizing dispersive coupling matrix (DCM) of coupled-resonator bandpass filters with the general dispersion is proposed. Compared to the dispersion-less coupling matrix synthesized by classic approaches, the DCM incorporates the identity of the physical realization and provides an accurate description of the filter. Moreover, the DCM can accurately describe the complex resonators and coupling elements with intentional strong dispersion. A DCM consists of two parts: the frequency-invariant part that corresponds to the coupling matrix at the center frequency and the frequency-variant part that reflects the dispersion of the physical realization. By iteratively adjusting the transmission zeros governed by the given filter topology and ignoring the transmission zeros brought by the dispersion, the synthesis method can directly obtain the frequency-invariant part so that the overall DCM leads to an equal-ripple response. To illustrate the general synthesis method, two design examples are presented, which include a filter with unintentional weak dispersion and a filter with intentional strong dispersion. The examples are validated by EM simulation, demonstrating the effectiveness, accuracy, and generality of the proposed synthesis framework. Key words: dispersive coupling matrix, filter synthesis, microwave bandpass filter

BACKGROUND The factors affecting the short-term and long-term prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT) receiving transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) are still unclear. AIM To clarify the predictors correlated with the short-term and long-term survival of HCC patients with PVTT who underwent TACE. METHODS The medical records of 181 HCC patients with PVTT who underwent TACE at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University from January 2015 to July 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. We explored the short-term and long-term prognostic factors by comparing the preoperative indicators of patients who died and survived within 3 mo and 12 mo after TACE. Multivariate analyses were conducted using logistic regression. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (area under curve) was used to evaluate the predictive ability of the factors related to the short-term and long-term prognosis. RESULTS The median survival time was 4.8 mo (range: 2.5-8.85 mo). The 3 mo, 6 mo, and 12 mo survival rates were 68.5%, 38.7%, and 15.5%, respectively. In multivariable analysis, total bilirubin, sex, and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were closely linked to short-term survival. When AST ≥ 87 U/L and total bilirubin ≥ 16.15 µmol/L, the 3-mo survival rate after TACE was reduced significantly (P < 0.05). AST had the best predictive ability, followed by total bilirubin, while sex had the worst predictive ability for short-term survival area under curve: 0.763 (AST) vs 0.707 (total bilirubin) vs 0.554 (sex)]. The long-term survival outcome was significantly better in patients with a single lesion than in those with ≥ three lesions (P = 0.009). Patients with massive block HCC had a worse long-term survival than patients with nodular and diffuse HCC (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION AST, total bilirubin, and sex are independent factors associated with short-term survival. The number of tumors and the gross pathological type of tumor are related to the long-term outcome.

Ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the deadliest gynecological malignancy. Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is its most common form. OC has both, a poor prognosis and a high mortality rate due to the difficulties of early diagnosis, limitation of current treatment and resistance to chemotherapy. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) is a heterogeneous group of cell-derived submicron vesicles, which can be detected in body fluids, and it can be classified into three main types including exosomes, micro-vesicles, and apoptotic bodies. : Cancer cells can produce more EVs than healthy cells. Moreover, the contents of these EVs have been found distinctive from each other. It has been considered that EVs shedding from tumor cells may be implicated in clinical applications, such as a tool for tumor diagnosis, prognosis and potential treatment of certain cancers. : In this review, we provide a brief description of EVs. in diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and drug-resistantance of OC. Cancer-related EVs show powerful influences on tumors by various biological mechanisms. However, the contents mentioned above remain in the laboratory stage and there is a lack of large-scale clinical trials, and the maturity of the purification and detection methods is a constraint. In addition, amplification of oncogenes on ecDNA is remarkably prevalent in cancer. It may be possible that ecDNA can be encapsulated in EVs and thus detected by us. In summary, much more research on EVs needs to be performed to reveal breakthroughs in OC and to accelerate the process of its application in clinic.

Nemaline myopathy (NM) is a congenital myopathy of great heterogeneity, characterized by the presence of rods in the cytoplasm of muscle fibers. The samples of 16 nemaline myopathy patients diagnosed by characteristically pathological features went through whole exon sequencing. Clinico-pathological and genetic features of the cases were systematically analyzed. According to the classification of nemaline myopathy by ENMC, 8 cases are typical congenital subtype, 6 cases are childhood/juvenile onset subtype and 2 case are adult onset subtype. In histological findings, characteristic purple-colored rods are discovered under modified gömöri trichrome staining (MGT). Electron microscopy revealed the presence of high electron-dense nemaline bodies around the submucosa and the nucleus nine patients (9/16 56.3%) were detected pathogenic causative mutations, among whom mutations in the NEB gene were the most frequent (6 patients, 66.7%). KBTBD13 gene mutation was discovered in two patients and ACTA1 gene mutation was discovered in 1 patient. Nemaline myopathy is a congenital myopathy with highly clinico-pathological and genetic heterogeneity. NEB gene mutation is the most common mutation, in which splicing change c.21522 +3A > G is hotspot mutation in Chinese NM patients.

This study quantitatively analyzed the shape, angularity, and roughness of road aggregate particles. A contactless three-dimensional (3D) scanning technique was used to capture the 3D coordinate data of point clouds on an aggregate surface. The data were then used to reconstruct 3D elevation digital models of aggregate particles. Six independent feature parameters were subsequently used as an evaluation index to quantitatively describe the multilevel features of the 3D morphology of road aggregates. The methods for calculating and analyzing the feature parameters on the basis of the cloud data of the aggregate scanning point were also presented. The 3D morphologies of four types of road aggregates were studied. On the basis of the results, an aggregate polishing testing system was developed, and the practicability of the 3D roughness coefficient index was demonstrated accordingly. Results show that (1) the sphericity index can describe the compactness of aggregate shape, (2) the shape factor index can describe the needle-flake properties of aggregates, (3) the ellipsoid index can evaluate the sharp edges and corners of aggregates, (4) the maximum surface curvature can be used to identify the local angular features of particles, (5) the two-dimensional roughness index can be used to analyze the anisotropic characteristics of the surface profiles of aggregates, and (6) the 3D roughness index is suitable for evaluating the roughness of aggregate surface texture at the mesoscopic level. Under the experimental conditions of this study, the shape and angular features of aggregate particles matched the requirements of road performance. This result benefitted the formation of an aggregate skeleton structure in asphalt concrete with S>0.76, SF of 0.80-1.20, and E of 0.79-0.88. The aggregate texture was uneven, and the physical adsorption between the asphalt and the aggregates on the contact surface was relatively high when JRC3D ≥ 11.0.

Image matching plays an important role in various computer vision tasks, such as image retrieval and loop closure detection in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping. The authors propose a discriminative patch‐based image matching method that converts the problem of whole image matching to that of local patch matching. To construct the patch representation, the Patch‐Level Vision Similarity Compare Network (PL‐VSCN) is proposed to produce the patch feature. In the image matching process, local patches that potentially contain objects within images are initially detected, and the discriminative feature of each patch is extracted based on the pre‐trained PL‐VSCN. Then, the similarities between the patch pairs are calculated to construct the similarity matrix, and the corresponding patch pairs are detected based on the mutual matching mechanism on the similarity matrix. Experimental results indicate that the proposed PL‐VSCN can generate the discriminative patch feature, which can accurately match the patch pairs with the corresponding content and distinguish those with non‐corresponding content. In addition, the comparison experiments demonstrate that the proposed image matching method outperforms existing approaches on most datasets and effectively completes the image matching task.

Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic intestinal inflammatory disease. Crone’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are types of IBD. There is a need for a more accurate, noninvasive biomarker to distinguish CD from UC. Purpose To verify the diagnostic value of combined serum trypsin 2 (PRSS2) and serum amyloid P component (SAP) evaluation in distinguishing CD from UC. Methods The subjects included 28 normal controls (NC) as well as 44 UC, 72CD, 16 colorectal cancer (CRC), 10 colorectal polyps, and 10 cancer cases. Serum SAP, PRSS2, CRP, and CEA were measured and compared. Results The concentration of CEA in CRC and other gastrointestinal tumors was significantly higher than that in UC, CD, and colorectal polyps. The concentration of CRP was significantly higher in UC and CD than that in the healthy group, but there were no significant differences when compared to the intestinal polyp group. Serum PRSS2 concentration was significantly higher in the UC and CD groups than that in the colorectal polyp group, and the average serum concentration of SAP in CD was significantly higher compared to UC. In patients with colorectal polyps, there was no correlation between PRSS2 and CRP. ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC of PRSS2 used to distinguish IBD patients from healthy controls or colorectal polyp patients was 0.730 and 0.774, respectively. The AUC of SAP used to distinguish CD from UC was 0.706. The AUC of combined PRSS2 and SAP was not different from the AUC for individual SAP. Finally, we demonstrated that the expression of SAP in CD patient tissues was significantly higher than that in UC patients. Conclusion The combined analysis of serum SAP and PRSS2 has differential diagnostic value for CD and UC.

We report >100-Gb/s direct-detection (DD) transmission using an integrated silicon optical receiver, which comprised a fully-differential 28-nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) transimpedance amplifier (TIA) wire-bonded to a Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) balanced photodiode (PD). The fully-differential TIA architecture enabled significant bit-error-rate (BER) and signal-to-noise ratio improvements over a single-output TIA design when introducing it to the DD transmission. We experimentally validated its effectiveness in both back-to-back (B2B) and 2-km long standard single-mode fibre (SSMF) links using 50/100-Gb/s signals, including Nyquist on-off keying (OOK), Nyquist 4-ary pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4), uniformly-loaded DD optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DDO-OFDM) and adaptively-loaded DDO-OFDM. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the integrated optical receiver was capable of balancing the trade-off between its electrical bandwidth and transimpedance gain by simply adjusting a voltage supply to the TIA. Without the need for optical amplification and while keeping the BERs below the 7% forward error correction limit, up to 173.22-Gb/s and 139.86-Gb/s adaptively-loaded DDO-OFDM transmission was achieved for B2B and 2-km transmission, respectively. The demonstrated results highlight the potential of the integrated silicon optical receiver, fabricated using the standard CMOS process for high-speed and short-reach optical interconnects.

Background Radiologists are proficient in differentiating between chest radiographs with and without symptoms of pneumonia but have found it more challenging to differentiate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia from non–COVID-19 pneumonia on chest radiographs. Purpose To develop an artificial intelligence algorithm to differentiate COVID-19 pneumonia from other causes of abnormalities at chest radiography. Materials and Methods In this retrospective study, a deep neural network, CV19-Net, was trained, validated, and tested on chest radiographs in patients with and without COVID-19 pneumonia. For the chest radiographs positive for COVID-19, patients with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction results positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 with findings positive for pneumonia between February 1, 2020, and May 30, 2020, were included. For the non–COVID-19 chest radiographs, patients with pneumonia who underwent chest radiography between October 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019, were included. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity were calculated to characterize diagnostic performance. To benchmark the performance of CV19-Net, a randomly sampled test data set composed of 500 chest radiographs in 500 patients was evaluated by the CV19-Net and three experienced thoracic radiologists. Results A total of 2060 patients (5806 chest radiographs; mean age, 62 years ± 16 [standard deviation]; 1059 men) with COVID-19 pneumonia and 3148 patients (5300 chest radiographs; mean age, 64 years ± 18; 1578 men) with non–COVID-19 pneumonia were included and split into training and validation and test data sets. For the test set, CV19-Net achieved an AUC of 0.92 (95% CI: 0.91, 0.93). This corresponded to a sensitivity of 88% (95% CI: 87, 89) and a specificity of 79% (95% CI: 77, 80) by using a high-sensitivity operating threshold, or a sensitivity of 78% (95% CI: 77, 79) and a specificity of 89% (95% CI: 88, 90) by using a high-specificity operating threshold. For the 500 sampled chest radiographs, CV19-Net achieved an AUC of 0.94 (95% CI: 0.93, 0.96) compared with an AUC of 0.85 (95% CI: 0.81, 0.88) achieved by radiologists. Conclusion CV19-Net was able to differentiate coronavirus disease 2019–related pneumonia from other types of pneumonia, with performance exceeding that of experienced thoracic radiologists. © RSNA, 2021 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

Esophageal stricture is a distressing issue for patients with early esophageal cancer following extensive endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), and the current steroid-based approaches are unsatisfactory for stricture prophylaxis. We evaluated the efficacy of oral hydrocortisone sodium succinate and aluminum phosphate gel (OHA) for stricture prophylaxis after extensive ESD.Patients undergoing 3/4 circumferential ESD were randomized to either the endoscopic loco-regional triamcinolone acetonide injection (ETI) plus oral prednisone group or the OHA group. The primary endpoint was incidence of esophageal stricture, and the secondary endpoints included adverse events (AEs) and endoscopic balloon dilations (EBDs).The incidence of esophageal stricture in OHA group (per-protocol analysis, 9.4%, 3/32; intention-to-treat analysis, 12.1%, 4/33) was significantly less than that of control group (per-protocol analysis, 35.5%, 11/31, P = 0.013; intention-to-treat analysis, 39.4%, 13/33, P = 0.011). Two sessions of EBD were necessary to release all strictures in the OHA group, while the similar EBDs (median 2, range 1-4) for 11 of the control. Operation-related AEs included infection (control vs. OHA group = 9.7% vs. 31.3%, P = 0.034), operation-related hypokalemia (19.4% vs. 31.3%, P = 0.278), perforation (3.2% vs. 3.1%), post-ESD hemorrhage (6.5% vs. 0%), and cardiac arrhythmia (0% vs. 6.3%). Steroid-related AEs included steroid-related hypokalemia (16.1% vs. 25%) and bone fracture (3.2% vs. 0%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that OHA was an independent protective factor for stricture (OR 0.079; 95%CI 0.011, 0.544; P = 0.01) and mucosal defect 11/12 circumference was an independent risk factor (OR 49.91; 95%CI 6.7, 371.83; P 0.001).OHA showed significantly better efficacy in preventing esophageal stricture after 3/4 circumferential ESD compared to ETI plus oral prednisone.

This study investigates metaphors used in mergers and acquisitions texts in a Chinese financial newspaper, The 21st Century Business Herald. Based on corpus data, we approach the rhetorical motive and persuasive power hidden behind metaphors from the perspective of rhetorical criticism. The study found four major metaphors: war, marriage, struggle and hunting, and game, in the financial texts about mergers and acquisitions. The war metaphor is the most common variety, followed by the marriage metaphor, suggesting the role of power perception and gender perception in the representation of financial affairs.

The existence of Gram-negative bacteria in the brain, regardless of underlying immune status has been demonstrated by recent studies. The colocalization of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) with Aβ1-40/42 in amyloid plaques supports the hypothesis that brain microbes may be the cause, triggering chronic neuroinflammation, leading to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). To investigate the behavioral changes induced by infectious neuroinflammation, we chose the third ventricle as the site of a single LPS injection (20 μg or 80 μg) in male Wistar rats to avoid mechanical injury to forebrain structures while inducing widespread inflammation throughout the brain. Chronic neuroinflammation induced by LPS resulted in depressive-like behaviors and the impairment of spatial learning; however, there was no evidence of the development of pathological hallmarks (e.g., the phosphorylation of tau) for 10 months following LPS injection. The acceleration of cholesterol metabolism via CYP46A1 and the retardation of cholesterol synthesis via HMGCR were observed in the hippocampus of rats treated with either low-dose or high-dose LPS. The rate-limiting enzymes of cholesterol metabolism (CYP46A1) in SH-SY5Y cells and synthesis (HMGCR) in U251 cells were altered by inflammation stimulators, including LPS, IL-1β, and TNF-α, through the TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB signaling pathway. The data suggest that chronic neuroinflammation provoked by the administration of LPS into the third ventricle may induce depressive-like symptoms and that the loss of cholesterol might be a biomarker of chronic neuroinflammation. The lack of pathological hallmarks of AD in our model indicates that Gram-negative bacteria infection might not be a single cause of AD.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) play critical roles in tumorigenesis and the progression of various cancers. We previously identified a novel upregulated circRNA, circBCBM1 (hsa_circ_0001944), in the context of breast cancer brain metastasis. However, the potential biological function and molecular mechanism of circBCBM1 in breast cancer brain metastasis remain largely unknown. In this study, we confirmed that circBCBM1 was a stable and cytoplasmic circRNA. Functionally, circBCBM1 promoted the proliferation and migration of 231-BR cells in vitro and growth and brain metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, circBCBM1 acted as an endogenous miR-125a sponge to inhibit miR-125a activity, resulting in the upregulation of BRD4 (bromodomain containing 4) and subsequent upregulation of MMP9 (matrix metallopeptidase 9) through Sonic hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway. Importantly, circBCBM1 was markedly upregulated in the breast cancer brain metastasis cells and clinical tissue and plasma samples; besides, circBCBM1 overexpression in primary cancerous tissues was associated with shorter brain metastasis-free survival (BMFS) of breast cancer patients. These findings indicate that circBCBM1 is involved in breast cancer brain metastasis via circBCBM1/miR-125a/BRD4 axis. CircBCBM1 may serve as a novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarker and potential therapeutic target for breast cancer brain metastasis.

To evaluate the clinical efficacy of continuing cetuximab vs bevacizumab plus chemotherapy crossover after first progression to cetuximab regimen in wild-type KRAS, NRAS and BRAF V600E mCRC, we conducted this prospective, open-label and randomized phase 2 trial in three cancer centers from Oct 1, 2016 to July 1, 2020. Eligibility criteria included documented progressive disease during or after first-line treatment with cetuximab regimen; second biopsy confirmed as KRAS, NRAS and BRAF V600E wild-type mCRC. Patients were randomized to arm A (cetuximab+chemo) or arm B (bevacizumab+chemo) with second-line chemotherapy crossover. The primary end point was progression free survival (PFS). Secondary end points included objective response rate (ORR), overall survival (OS) and toxicity. Tissue VEGFA, ERBB2 and MET mRNA were examined by real time RT-PCR. A total of 104 patients (53 in arm A and 51 in arm B) were enrolled. Median PFS was 7.7 months (95% CI: 6.5-8.9) for arm A and 6.3 months (95% CI: 4.5-8.1) for arm B (p=0.931). Median OS was 18.2 months (95% CI: 14.5-21.9) for arm A and 16.4 months (95% CI: 14.2-18.6) for arm B (p=0.339). The ORR was 28.3% and 19.6% in arm A and arm B (p=0.31), respectively. MET mRNA was highly expressed in the cetuximab-progressed tumors, but treatment responsiveness to cetuximab or bevacizumab in each arm was not correlated with the MET expression level. The results showed no significant difference in PFS, OS and ORR between the two arms, but a trend in favor of the cetuximab continuation plus chemotherapy crossover was examined in all end points. High expression of MET in cetuximab-progressed tumors may indicate an existence of MET-dependent tumor cell population.

Background: Emerging evidences have indicated that IRF6, as a member of the Interferon regulatory factors (IRFs) family, plays important roles in a variety of tumors. However, the expression status of IRF6 and its prognostic value in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remain unclear. Methods: In this study, we used TCGA-KIRC, GEO and TIP databases and immunohistochemistry staining to determine the expression profile, clinico-pathological features and prognostic value of IRF6 in ccRCC. MSP and demethylation analysis were utilized to verify the regulatory effect of DNA methylation on IRF6 expression. Results: Our results found that IRF6 expression was downregulated in ccRCC tissues and cell lines, and decreased IRF6 expression was associated with worse clinicopathological features and poorer prognosis. Besides, the results of multivariate Cox regression analysis also confirmed that decreased IRF6 expression was an independently risk factor predictor of shorter Overall Survival (OS) (HR: 0.8524, 95%CI: 0.7614-0.9543, P=0.0056) and Disease Free Survival (DFS) (HR: 0.7024, 95%CI: 0.6087-0.8104, P

This article analysed and optimised horizontal Silicon insulator Silicon capacitor (H-SISCAP) phase shifter structures with insulator thickness tox up to 40 nm. The phase shifter has an effective capacitance ( C eff) around 0.5 fF/μm and a phase change efficiency 1.8 V ·cm, of which the balance between capacitance and phase efficiency is comparable with silicon rib waveguide based depletion type phase shifters. Silicon Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) modulators with 200 μm long H-SISCAP phase shifters optimised for TM polarised light have been fabricated and demonstrated with a 3 dB EO bandwidth above 35 GHz and intrinsic H-SISCAP RC bandwidth around 150 GHz. The modulator displays open eye-diagrams for data rates up to 60 Gbit/s without detection equalization and 72 Gbit/s with 2 taps equalization in NRZ-OOK operation. The demonstrated H-SISCAP phase shifter paves the way to build high bandwidth segmented, travelling wave and compact ring resonators modulators for applications of optical transmitters, microwave generations, and LIDAR applications, etc.