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We propose a flexible low complexity design (FLCD) of coded distributed computing (CDC) with empirical evaluation on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). CDC can expedite MapReduce like computation by trading increased map computations to reduce communication load and shuffle time. A main novelty of FLCD is to utilize the design freedom in defining map and reduce functions to develop asymptotic homogeneous systems to support varying intermediate values (IV) sizes under a general MapReduce framework. Compared to existing designs with constant IV sizes, FLCD offers greater flexibility in adapting to network parameters and significantly reduces the implementation complexity by requiring fewer input files and shuffle groups. The FLCD scheme is the first proposed low-complexity CDC design that can operate on a network with an arbitrary number of nodes and computation load. We perform empirical evaluations of the FLCD by executing the TeraSort algorithm on an Amazon EC2 cluster. This is the first time that theoretical predictions of the CDC shuffle time are validated by empirical evaluations. The evaluations demonstrate a 2.0 to 4.24x speedup compared to conventional uncoded MapReduce, a 12% to 52% reduction in total time, and a wider range of operating network parameters compared to existing CDC schemes., 13 pages, 4 figures

Unique, rapid identification and quantification of the dominant aging modes in lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) with early and non-specialized test data is a significant scientific challenge. Leveraging synthetic-data, deep-learning (DL) techniques have great potential to enable fast and robust classification and quantification of battery aging modes that produce different patterns of cell aging. This study presents, for the first time, a synthetic–data-based DL modeling framework for rapid and automatic classification and quantification of battery-aging modes and resultant aging, with experimental validation of the technique. Availing synthetic dQ.dV−1 curves for roughly 26,000 initial conditions and aging modes, the framework classified the dominant aging modes for cells undergoing fast charge in less than 100 cycles. Upon classification, the framework quantified the evolution of the aging modes, which were often not uniform with cycling, for 22 Gr/NMC532 pouch cells tested up to 600 cycles at different charging rates (1C–9C).

Photocatalytic water splitting is a promising strategy to produce hydrogen as a sustainable and clean energy carrier, based on abundant solar energy and semiconductor photocatalysts, and it has received extensive research and discussion over the past several decades. It is challenging, however, to achieve an efficient solar-to-hydrogen evolution process with a single particulate photocatalyst due to the weak solar spectrum harvest and the rapid recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs during the photocatalysis reaction. Combining semiconductors to create different co-catalysts presents a viable solution to the above issues. Recently, semiconductor photocatalysts modified by different transition metal sulfide-based co-catalysts with designed functions, especially in light absorption enhancement and charge-carrier-separation efficiency promotion, have attracted much attention. As continued breakthroughs have been made in the preparation, modification, and solar-to-hydrogen evolution application of the 1T phase MS2 (M = W, Mo) co-catalyst-based photocatalysis system in recent years, we believe that a comprehensive review of this kind of co-catalyst would further promote its research and development to address the energy and environmental challenges that we are currently facing. Herein, recent studies and progress are summarized on the fabrication of 1T phase MS2 (M = W, Mo)-based co-catalyst materials, as well as their roles and functional mechanisms for photocatalytic H2 evolution. Finally, concluding perspectives on the opportunities in and challenges for the further exploration of the 1T-MS2 (M = W, Mo)-based solar-to-hydrogen evolution system are presented.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most common degenerative diseases of the human nervous system and has a wide range of serious impacts on human health and quality of life. Recently, research targeting high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) in PD has emerged, and a variety of laboratory methods for inhibiting HMGB1 have achieved good results to a certain extent. However, given that HMGB1 undergoes a variety of intracellular modifications and three different forms of extracellular redox, the possible roles of these forms in PD are likely to be different. General inhibition of all forms of HMGB1 is obviously not ideal and has become one of the biggest obstacles in the clinical application of targeting HMGB1. In this review, pure mechanistic research of HMGB1 and in vivo research targeting HMGB1 were combined, the effects of HMGB1 on neurons and immune cell responses in PD are discussed in detail, and the problems that need to be focused on in the future are addressed.

WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVES Ciclosporin (CsA), a potent immunosuppressive agent used to prevent graft-versus-host disease in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HSCT) recipients, is characterized by large inter-individual variability and a narrow therapeutic range. The aim of this study was to develop a population pharmacokinetic model for CsA in Chinese allo-HSCT recipients and to identify covariates influencing CsA pharmacokinetics. METHODS A total of 758 retrospective drug monitoring data points were collected after intravenous infusion or oral administration of CsA from 59 patients. Population pharmacokinetic analysis was performed using nonlinear mixed effects modelling expressed by differential equations. Monte Carlo simulation was applied to optimize dosage regimens. The final model was validated using bootstrap and normalized prediction distribution errors. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results showed that the daily CsA dose, haematocrit, total bile acid, C-reactive protein (CRP) and co-administration of triazole antifungal agent were identified as significant covariates for clearance (CL) of CsA. The typical value of CL was 19.8 L/h with an inter-individual variability of 13.1%. The volume of distribution was 1340 L. Bioavailability was 67.2% with an inter-individual variability of 8.5%. Dosing simulation based on the developed model indicated that patients with high CRP concentration required a higher daily dose to attain the therapeutic trough concentration. The influence of CRP ultimately on the therapy outcome of CsA is not clear, which needs further study. WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION CRP concentration was identified as a novel marker associated with CsA pharmacokinetics, which should be considered when determining the appropriate dosage of CsA in allo-HSCT recipients.

Autonomous spacecraft proximity technology is vital for current and future on-orbit service missions, especially to solve the difficult problem of ultra-close-range safe proximity to complex-shaped spacecraft. This paper designs a novel Gaussian mixture model (GMM) based artificial potential function (APF) to describe the movement constraint, which is generated by the complex shape of the target spacecraft. Next, a novel GMM-FTC controller is designed by combining fixed-time control (FTC) with GMM-APF. The proposed GMM-FTC not only retains the advantages of FTC method, whose stabilization time is independent of the initial state, but also solves the collision avoidance in the presence of complex shape obstacle. Finally, numerical simulation verifies the effectiveness of the developed method.

Background A virilizing ovarian tumor (VOT) is a rare cause of hyperandrogenism in pre- and postmenopausal women. Although transvaginal ultrasound is considered as the first-line imaging method for ovarian tumors, it is examiner-dependent. We aimed to summarize the clinical and ultrasound manifestations of VOTs to help establish the diagnosis with emphasis on those causing diagnostic difficulty. Method We retrospectively identified 31 patients with VOTs who underwent surgery at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Results Patients with VOTs were predominantly premenopausal. All patients showed androgenic manifestations with serum testosterone levels elevated to varying degrees. The tumor size of VOTs was significantly correlated with age (P P = 0.018). Twenty-seven out of 31 VOTs were successfully identified by ultrasound. On ultrasound, VOTs are mostly solid and hypoechoic masses with enhanced vascularity. Four VOTs (0.7–1.5 cm) were radiologically negative, and they were the smallest among all patients. Conclusion Patients with VOTs showed androgenic manifestations with varying degrees of hyperandrogenemia. Older patients tend to have smaller VOTs. Ultrasound is an effective method for the detection of VOTs. Some VOTs can be very small and difficult to visualize radiologically, especially in postmenopausal patients. Examiners must remain vigilant about very small VOTs on the basis of endocrine symptoms.

The reliable operation of flexible display devices poses a significant engineering challenge regarding the metrology of high barriers against water vapor. No reliable results have been reported in the range of 10–6 g∙(m2∙d)−1, and there is no standard ultra-barrier for calibration. To detect trace amount of water vapor permeation through an ultra-barrier with extremely high sensitivity and a greatly reduced test period, a predictive instrument was developed by integrating permeation models into high-sensitivity mass spectrometry measurement based on dynamic accumulation, detection, and evacuation of the permeant. Detection reliability was ensured by means of calibration using a standard polymer sample. After calibration, the lower detection limit for water vapor permeation is in the range of 10–7 g∙(m2∙d)−1, which satisfies the ultra-barrier requirement. Predictive permeation models were developed and evaluated using experimental data so that the steady-state permeation rate can be forecasted from non-steady-state results, thus enabling effective measurement of ultra-barrier permeation within a significantly shorter test period.

Behavioral sensitization is a progressive increase in locomotor or stereotypic behaviours in response to drugs. It is believed to contribute to the reinforcing properties of drugs and to play an important role in relapse after cessation of drug abuse. However, the mechanism underlying this behaviour remains poorly understood. In this study, we showed that mTOR signaling was activated during the expression of behavioral sensitization to cocaine and that intraperitoneal or intra-nucleus accumbens (NAc) treatment with rapamycin, a specific mTOR inhibitor, attenuated cocaine-induced behavioural sensitization. Cocaine significantly modified brain lipid profiles in the NAc of cocaine-sensitized mice and markedly elevated the levels of phosphatidylinositol-4-monophosphates (PIPs), including PIP, PIP(2,) and PIP(3). The behavioural effect of cocaine was attenuated by intra-NAc administration of LY294002, an AKT-specific inhibitor, suggesting that PIPs may contribute to mTOR activation in response to cocaine. An RNA-sequencing analysis of the downstream effectors of mTOR signalling revealed that cocaine significantly decreased the expression of SynDIG1, a known substrate of mTOR signalling, and decreased the surface expression of GluA2. In contrast, AAV-mediated SynDIG1 overexpression in NAc attenuated intracellular GluA2 internalization by promoting the SynDIG1–GluA2 interaction, thus maintaining GluA2 surface expression and repressing cocaine-induced behaviours. In conclusion, NAc SynDIG1 may play a negative regulatory role in cocaine-induced behavioural sensitization by regulating synaptic surface expression of GluA2.

RDMA ( Remote Direct Memory Access ) has gained considerable interests in network-attached in-memory key-value stores. However, traversing the remote tree-based index in ordered key-value stores with RDMA becomes a critical obstacle, causing an order-of-magnitude slowdown and limited scalability due to multiple round trips. Using index cache with conventional wisdom—caching partial data and traversing them locally—usually leads to limited effect because of unavoidable capacity misses, massive random accesses, and costly cache invalidations. We argue that the machine learning (ML) model is a perfect cache structure for the tree-based index, termed learned cache . Based on it, we design and implement XStore , an RDMA-based ordered key-value store with a new hybrid architecture that retains a tree-based index at the server to perform dynamic workloads (e.g., inserts) and leverages a learned cache at the client to perform static workloads (e.g., gets and scans). The key idea is to decouple ML model retraining from index updating by maintaining a layer of indirection from logical to actual positions of key-value pairs. It allows a stale learned cache to continue predicting a correct position for a lookup key. XStore ensures correctness using a validation mechanism with a fallback path and further uses speculative execution to minimize the cost of cache misses. Evaluations with YCSB benchmarks and production workloads show that a single XStore server can achieve over 80 million read-only requests per second. This number outperforms state-of-the-art RDMA-based ordered key-value stores (namely, DrTM-Tree, Cell, and eRPC+Masstree) by up to 5.9× (from 3.7×). For workloads with inserts, XStore still provides up to 3.5× (from 2.7×) throughput speedup, achieving 53M reqs/s. The learned cache can also reduce client-side memory usage and further provides an efficient memory-performance tradeoff, e.g., saving 99% memory at the cost of 20% peak throughput.

Neuroimaging technique is a powerful tool to characterize the abnormality of brain networks in schizophrenia. However, the neurophysiological substrate of schizophrenia is still unclear. Here we investigated the patterns of brain functional and structural changes in female patients with schizophrenia using elastic net logistic regression analysis of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data. Data from 52 participants (25 female schizophrenia patients and 27 healthy controls) were obtained. Using an elastic net penalty, the brain regions most relevant to schizophrenia pathology were defined in the models using the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and gray matter, respectively. The receiver operating characteristic analysis showed reliable classification accuracy with 85.7% in ALFF analysis, and 77.1% in gray matter analysis. Notably, our results showed eight common regions between the ALFF and gray matter analyses, including the Frontal-Inf-Orb-R, Rolandic-Oper-R, Olfactory-R, Angular-L, Precuneus-L, Precuenus-R, Heschl-L, and Temporal-Pole-Mid-R. In addition, the severity of symptoms was found positively associated with the ALFF within the Rolandic-Oper-R and Frontal-Inf-Orb-R. Our findings indicated that elastic net logistic regression could be a useful tool to identify the characteristics of schizophrenia -related brain deterioration, which provides novel insights into schizophrenia diagnosis and prediction.

Jie Wang,1,2 Yun Wu,3 Md Nazim Uddin,2,4 Rong Chen,5 Jian-Ping Hao5 1Department of Pharmacy, First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, 830011, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Basic Medicine and Clinical Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, 211198, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of General Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, 830011, People’s Republic of China; 4Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Dhaka, 1205, Bangladesh; 5Department of Hematology, First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, 830011, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Jian-Ping Hao No. 137 Liyushan S. Road, Urumqi, Xinjiang, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 13579876416Email 13579876416@163.comIntroduction: Essential thrombocytosis (ET) is a group of myeloproliferative neoplasms characterized by abnormal proliferation of platelet and megakaryocytes. Research on potential key genes and novel regulatory markers in essential thrombocythemia (ET) is still limited.Methods: Downloading array profiles from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, we identified the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) through comprehensive bioinformatic analysis. GO, and REACTOME pathway enrichment analysis was used to predict the potential functions of DEGs. Besides, constructing a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network through the STRING database, we validated the expression level of hub genes in an independent cohort of ET, and the transcription factors (TFs) were detected in the regulatory networks of TFs and DEGs. And the candidate drugs that are targeting hub genes were identified using the DGIdb database.Results: We identified 63 overlap DEGs that included 21 common up-regulated and 42 common down-regulated genes from two datasets. Functional enrichment analysis shows that the DEGs are mainly enriched in the immune system and inflammatory processes. Through PPI network analysis, ACTB, PTPRC, ACTR2, FYB, STAT1, ETS1, IL7R, IKZF1, FGL2, and CTSS were selected as hub genes. Interestingly, we found that the dysregulated hub genes are also aberrantly expressed in a bone marrow cohort of ET. Moreover, we found that the expression of CTSS, FGL2, IKZF1, STAT1, FYB, ACTR2, PTPRC, and ACTB genes were significantly under-expressed in ET (P< 0.05), which is consistent with our bioinformatics analysis. The ROC curve analysis also shows that these hub genes have good diagnostic value. Besides, we identified 4 TFs (SPI1, IRF4, SRF, and AR) as master transcriptional regulators that were associated with regulating the DEGs in ET. Cyclophosphamide, prednisone, fluorouracil, ruxolitinib, and lenalidomide were predicted as potential candidate drugs for the treatment of ET.Discussion: These dysregulated genes and predicted key regulators had a significant relationship with the occurrence of ET with affecting the immune system and inflammation of the processes. Some of the immunomodulatory drugs have potential value by targeting ACTB, PTPRC, IL7R, and IKZF1 genes in the treatment of ET.Keywords: essential thrombocythemia, hub genes, regulatory markers, candidate drugs, bioinformatics analysis

The development of new-type memristors with special performance is of great interest. Herein, an inorganic-organic hybrid crystalline polyoxometalate (POM) with usual dynamic structures is reported and used as active material for fabricating memristor with unique temperature-regulated resistive switching behaviors. The hybrid POM not only exhibits tunable thermochromic properties, but also thermal-induced reversible aggregation and disaggregation reactions, leading to reversible structural transformations in SCSC fashion. Further, the memory device using the hybrid POM as active layer exhibits uncommon performance, which can keep resistive switching silent in the low temperature range of 30-150 °C, but show nonvolatile memory behavior in the high temperature range of 150-270 °C. Particularly, the silent and working states at three special temperatures (30, 150 and 270 °C) can be monitored by chromism. The correlation between structure and resistive switching property of the material has been discussed. The work demonstrates that crystalline inorganic-organic hybrid POMs are promising materials for making memristors with superior performance.

Train derailments in railway switches are becoming more and more common, which have caused serious casualties and economic losses. Most previous studies ignored the derailment mechanism when vehicles pass through the turnout. With this consideration, this work aims to research the 3D derailment coefficient limit and passing performance in turnouts through the quasi-static analysis and multi-body dynamic simulation. The proposed derailment criteria have considered the influence of creep force and wheelset yaw angle. Results show that there are two derailing stages in switch panel, which are climbing the switch rail and stock rail, respectively. The 3D derailment coefficient limit at the region of top width 5 mm to 20 mm is much lower than the main track rail, which shows that wheels are more likely to derail in this area. The curve radius before the switch rail is suggested to be set as 350 m. When the curve radius before turnout is 65 m, the length of the straight line between the curve and turnout needs to be larger than 3 m. This work can provide a good understanding of the derailment limit and give guidance to set safety criteria when vehicles pass through the turnout.

This paper presents a method for the optimisation of wheel–rail profiles, and this is based on the relationships between the equivalent conicity, RRD curve and rail profile slope. This method can b...

Objective To examine the incidence and risk factors of in‐hospital prosthesis‐related complications (PRCs) following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) using a large‐scale national database. Methods A retrospective database analysis was performed based on Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) from 2005–2014. Patients who underwent TKA were included. The recruited cases were divided into two groups according to the occurrence of PRCs. Patient demographics (age, sex, and race), hospital characteristics (type of admission and payer, and bedsize, teaching status, location, and region of hospital), length of stay (LOS), total charges during hospitalization, in‐hospital mortality, comorbidities, and perioperative complications were analyzed. Results A total of 1,227,244 TKAs were captured from the NIS database. There were 8484 cases of in‐hospital PRCs after TKA and the overall incidence was 0.69%, with a slight downward trend annually. Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) was the main category among PRCs (0.20%), followed by mechanical loosening (0.04%), dislocation (0.02%), and periprosthetic fracture (PPF) (0.01%). Patients suffered from in‐hospital PRCs were 3 years younger (64 years vs 67 years) and 6.51% more likely to be male (43.60% vs 37.09%) compared to the nonaffected population (P, The objective of this study was to examine the incidence and risk factors of in‐hospital prosthesis‐related complications (PRCs) after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) based on Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS). A relatively low incidence and several risk factors of in‐hospital PRCs after TKA were identified.

Crowdsourced package delivery has gained great interest from the logistics industry and academe due to its significant economic and environmental impact. However, there are few research achievements about incentive mechanism to motivate people to participate. A novel domain‐of‐influence based pricing strategy for crowdsourced delivery is proposed. The three‐stage package delivery framework is extended with the proposed pricing algorithm, which can iteratively figure out the price that represents a state of balance between the package demand and driver supply. To create better matching, even hyperbolic temporal discounting function is employed to estimate the driver's perceived reward to accept the package. The performance is evaluated using the Jinan dataset and real delivery data. Results show that economic utility and stable assignment rate have been increased by over 9% and over 6%, respectively, while the average delivery time and average delivery price have also been improved.

Objective At present, there are several guidelines for cancer complicated with VTE, but there is no specific recommendation for the treatment of lung cancer complicated with VTE. Whether is necessary to explore treatment and prevention of VTE in lung cancer. Background Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common complication of severe lung cancer that can entail many adverse effects for patients. The incidence of VTE is higher in patients with lung cancer than in those with other kinds of solid tumors, and it is especially high among patients with lung adenocarcinoma, at advanced tumor-node-metastasis (TNM)stages, or with a history of central venous catheter (CVC) or chemotherapy. However, the clinical symptoms of VTE in patients with lung cancer are not typical and cannot be detected easily, and the clinical prevention rate is low. In the acute phase of VTE in lung cancer, the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status score of patients typically ranges from 2 to 4 points, leaving end-stage maintenance therapy as the only treatment option. Methods Here, we analyze the existing literature and discuss the current status (including epidemiology, clinical manifestations, and risk factors), risk assessment tools, and the treatment and prevention of VTE in severe lung cancer. We focus particularly on the use of low-molecular-weight heparin and new oral anticoagulants (including in the management of thrombocytopenia after antitumor therapy) in lung cancer patients with VTE. Conclusions Large-scale prospective multicenter studies on the treatment and prevention of VTE in lung cancer are necessary.

Domain adaptation aims to solve the problems of lacking labels. Most existing works of domain adaptation mainly focus on aligning the feature distributions between the source and target domain. However, in the field of Natural Language Processing, some of the words in different domains convey different sentiment. Thus not all features of the source domain should be transferred, and it would cause negative transfer when aligning the untransferable features. To address this issue, we propose a Correlation Alignment with Attention mechanism for unsupervised Domain Adaptation (CAADA) model. In the model, an attention mechanism is introduced into the transfer process for domain adaptation, which can capture the positively transferable features in source and target domain. Moreover, the CORrelation ALignment (CORAL) loss is utilized to minimize the domain discrepancy by aligning the second-order statistics of the positively transferable features extracted by the attention mechanism. Extensive experiments on the Amazon review dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of CAADA method.

Background Racial disparities among clinical trial participants present a challenge to assess whether trial results can be generalized into patients representing diverse races and ethnicities. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of race and ethnicity on treatment response in patients with advanced non‐small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) treated with programmed cell death‐1 (PD‐1) or programmed cell death‐ligand 1 (PD‐L1) inhibitors through analysis of real‐world data (RWD). Materials and Methods A retrospective cohort study of 11,138 patients with lung cancer treated at hospitals within the Mount Sinai Health System was performed. Patients with confirmed aNSCLC who received anti‐PD‐1/PD‐L1 treatment were analyzed for clinical outcomes. Our cohort included 249 patients with aNSCLC who began nivolumab, pembrolizumab, or atezolizumab treatment between November 2014 and December 2018. Time‐to‐treatment discontinuation (TTD) and overall survival (OS) were the analyzed clinical endpoints. Results After a median follow‐up of 14.8 months, median TTD was 7.8 months (95% confidence interval, 5.4–not estimable [NE]) in 75 African American patients versus 4.6 (2.4–7.2) in 110 White patients (hazard ratio [HR], 0.63). Median OS was not reached (18.4–NE) in African American patients versus 11.6 months (9.7–NE) in White patients (HR, 0.58). Multivariable Cox regression conducted with potential confounders confirmed longer TTD (adjusted HR, 0.65) and OS (adjusted HR, 0.60) in African American versus White patients. Similar real‐world response rate (42.6% vs. 43.5%) and disease control rate (59.6% vs. 56.5%) were observed in the African American and White patient populations. Further investigation revealed the African American patient group had lower incidence (14.7%) of putative hyperprogressive diseases (HPD) upon anti‐PD‐1/PD‐L1 treatment than the White patient group (24.5%). Conclusion Analysis of RWD showed longer TTD and OS in African American patients with aNSCLC treated with anti‐PD‐1/PD‐L1 inhibitors. Lower incidence of putative HPD is a possible reason for the favorable outcomes in this patient population. Implications for Practice There is a significant underrepresentation of minority patients in randomized clinical trials, and this study demonstrates that real‐world data can be used to investigate the impact of race and ethnicity on treatment response. In retrospective analysis of patients with advanced non‐small cell lung cancer treated with programmed cell death‐1 or programmed cell death‐ligand 1 inhibitors, African American patients had significantly longer time‐to‐treatment discontinuation and longer overall survival. Analysis of real‐world data can yield clinical insights and establish a more complete picture of medical interventions in routine clinical practice., Racial disparities in clinical trials affect whether trial results can be generalized for diverse patient populations. This article evaluates real‐world data to assess the impact of race and ethnicity on treatment response in patients with advanced non‐small cell lung cancer treated with PD‐1 or PD‐L1 inhibitors.

In this paper, we develop methods for efficient and accurate information extraction from calcium-imaging-based neural signals. The particular form of information extraction we investigate involves predicting behavior variables linked to animals from which the calcium imaging signals are acquired. More specifically, we develop algorithms to systematically generate compact deep neural network (DNN) models for accurate and efficient calcium-imaging-based predictive modeling. We also develop a software tool, called NeuroGRS, to apply the proposed methods for compact DNN derivation with a high degree of automation. GRS stands for Greedy inter-layer order with Random Selection of intra-layer units, which describes the central algorithm developed in this work for deriving compact DNN structures. Through extensive experiments using NeuroGRS and calcium imaging data, we demonstrate that our methods enable highly streamlined information extraction from calcium images of the brain with minimal loss in accuracy compared to much more computationally expensive approaches.

Rong Chen,1,2,* Fang-Ying Lu,1,2,* Bing Liu,1,2 Jingwen Huang,1,2 Min Zhou,1,2 Ranran Dai,1,2 Yi Guo1,2 1Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of Respiratory Diseases, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yi Guo; Ranran DaiDepartment of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, No. 197, Rui Jin 2nd Road, Shanghai, 200025, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 131 6622 1556; Tel +86 131 6622 1556Fax +86 21 6467 4301Email guoyi621@qq.com; drr11154@rjh.com.cnPurpose: Anlotinib is a multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor that inhibits tumor angiogenesis and cell proliferation. It is widely used as a third-line therapy for lung cancer. However, reliable prognostic biomarkers for predicting the efficacy of anlotinib are lacking. We conducted a retrospective study to investigate the prognostic value of serological inflammatory biomarkers in anlotinib treatment.Patients and Methods: Patients with advanced lung cancer treated with anlotinib monotherapy were enrolled. Cox regression was conducted to analyze the significant factors related to progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The objective response rate (ORR) was compared based on the median cut-off value of the significant inflammation index. Meanwhile, we created survival curves to compare the two groups and performed receiver operating characteristic curve analysis to assess the predictive ability of the inflammation index.Results: Among a total of 71 patients, the median PFS was 5.5 months and the median OS was 9.5 months. The ORR and disease control rate were 16.9% and 84.5%, respectively. According to univariate and multivariate analyses, absolute neutrophil count (ANC) was the only indicator associated with both PFS (hazard ratio [HR] =1.095, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.030– 1.163, P=0.003) and OS (HR=1.057, 95% CI 1.003– 1.113, P=0.037). In the group with ANC ≥ 4.58, the ORR was relatively lower (8.1% vs 26.5%, P=0.057), but not statistically significant; PFS and OS were relatively shorter (median PFS 5.0 [95% CI 4.4– 9.6] vs 7.0 months [95% CI 4.4– 5.7], P=0.024 and median OS 7.3 [95% CI 4.7– 10.0] vs 17.6 months [95% CI 12.3– 22.9], P < 0.001). ANC had a relatively high discriminatory ability to predict 10-month survival, with an area under the curve of 0.729, sensitivity of 82.5%, and specificity of 67.7%.Conclusion: Elevated pre-treatment ANC was associated with a poor prognosis. Patients with lower peripheral blood levels of ANC might benefit from anlotinib.Keywords: lung cancer, anlotinib, absolute neutrophil count, progression-free survival, overall survival

Virtual teams, through their ability to bridge space over time, are an important component of globally dispersed enterprises. Inclusion consists of a team’s mission, effort, and practice to sustain a diverse workplace and leverage the influence of diversity to realize a rival business advantage. This study examined the role of inclusive non-spatial proximity and knowledge sharing in fostering innovation performance of virtual teams. Survey responses were received from 143 subjects with working experience in virtual teams of the top-2000 global enterprises in Taiwan and China that possess high rankings in the integration of international cooperation. The model was assessed and validated using partial least squares regression. According to the empirical results, organizational proximity influences technical innovation through knowledge contribution. Furthermore, cognitive proximity influences technical innovation through knowledge absorption. Finally, the relationships between cognitive proximity and knowledge absorption and between institutional proximity and knowledge contribution were shown to have industrial differences.

A facile colloidal layer-by-layer deposition of amorphous AlOx is applied on the CsPbBr3 perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs). The CsPbBr3 PNCs show improved photoluminescence intensity and excellent wat...

The sea area supervision is the premise and guarantee of safeguarding national security, protecting national sovereignty, and realizing the development of marine resources, and its importance is self-evident. To carry out the national sea area work more efficiently, this study designed low altitude-Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) remote sensing system applied to the sea area supervision and analyzed the remote sensing photography technology and remote sensing image processing technology. Experiments verified the effectiveness of the system. The research results show that the UAV-based low altitude remote sensing system can extract high-precision sea area information through aerial images’ interpretation. It is hoped that this study can provide some reference for improving the efficiency of current sea area supervision.

In this work, we present an in situ method to probe the evolution of photoelectrochemically driven surface oxidation on photoanodes during active operation in aqueous solutions. A standard solution of K4Fe(CN)6-KPi was utilized to benchmark the photocurrent and assess progressive surface oxidation on Ta3N5 in various oxidizing solutions. In this manner, a proportional increase in the surface oxygen concentration was detected with respect to oxidation time and further correlated with a continuous decline in the photocurrent. To discern how surface oxidation alters the photocurrent, we experimentally and theoretically explored its impact on the surface carrier recombination and the interfacial hole transfer rates. Our results indicate that the sluggish photocurrent demonstrated by oxidized Ta3N5 arises because of changes in both rates. In particular, the results suggest that the N-O replacement present on the Ta3N5 surface primarily increases the carrier recombination rate near the surface and to a lesser degree reduces the interfacial hole transfer rate. More generally, this methodology is expected to further our understanding of surface oxidation atop other nonoxide semiconductor photoelectrodes and its impact on their operation.

Assembly deviations of wheelsets cause differential wheelset misalignments and change the wheel-rail contact relationship in railway turnouts. In this paper, the motion conditions of wheelsets unde...

Semiconductor photocatalysis has been regarded as one of the most promising methods for treatment of Cr(VI)-containing wastewater, but the high recombination rate of photogenerated carriers and photocorrosion have limited severely its practical application. The objective of the current study was to employ a layered double hydroxide (LDH) to mitigate these problems by designing and constructing a multiple heterojunction system of g-C3N4/LDH/Ag3PO4 (CNLDHAP) through a two-step hydrothermal route. The structures, morphologies, chemical states, and optical properties of the products were investigated systematically. The CNLDHAP composite showed superior photocatalytic activity for Cr(VI) reduction than that of the individual components under visible-light irradiation. The composite exhibited high photocatalytic reduction stability after five recycles. The enhanced photocatalytic performance may originate from the very efficient separation of photogenerated carriers of the multiple heterojunction system. Possible photocatalytic mechanisms for the reduction of Cr(VI) over the CNLDHAP composite photocatalyst are proposed.

Black phase CsPbI3 perovskites have emerged as one of the most promising materials for use in optoelectronic devices due to their remarkable properties. However, black phase CsPbI3 usually possesses poor stability and involves a phase change process, resulting in an undesired orthorhombic (δ) yellow phase. Here, the enhanced stability of CsPbI3 nanocrystals is achieved by incorporating the Cu2+ ion into the CsPbI3 lattice under mild conditions. In particular, the Cu2+-doped CsPbI3 film can maintain red luminescence for 35 days in air while the undoped ones transformed into the nonluminescent yellow phase in several days. Furthermore, first-principles calculations verified that the enhanced stability is ascribed to the increased formation energy due to the successful doping of Cu2+ in CsPbI3. Benefiting from such an effective doping strategy, the as-prepared Cu2+-doped CsPbI3 as an emitting layer shows much better performance compared with that of the undoped counterpart. The turn-on voltage of the Cu2+-doped quantum-dot light-emitting diode (QLED) (1.6 V) is significantly reduced compared with that of the pristine QLED (3.8 V). In addition, the luminance of the Cu2+-doped QLED can reach 1270 cd/m2, which is more than twice that of the pristine CsPbI3 QLED (542 cd/m2). The device performance is believed to be further improved by optimizing the purification process and device structure, shedding light on future applications.

Use of the photothermal effect to control droplet evaporation shows great promise in various applications. Droplet evaporation initiated by direct photothermal conversion between light and fluid is limited by the interaction between the wavelength and fluid type. Here, we report laser-induced sessile droplet evaporation on a hydrophobic photothermal conversion substrate formed by embedding Ti₂O₃ particles into polydimethylsiloxane. Our results indicated that the photothermal conversion substrate could efficiently convert light energy into heat to enable droplet evaporation on it. Unlike droplet evaporation actuated by direct photothermal conversion, in which higher interface temperature was located at the laser projection region, the droplet evaporation on the photothermal conversion substrate showed higher temperature near the triple-phase contact line because of heat transfer from the substrate to the droplet and small heat transfer resistance resulting from small height at the edge. Due to the increased substrate temperature, the droplet evaporation on the photothermal conversion substrate could exhibit a relatively stable and long-term constant contact angle mode even under the localized heating effect. Moreover, by controlling the laser beam position, droplet evaporation could exhibit a directional long-term constant contact angle mode. The obtained results will be helpful for the design and operation of droplet microfluidics based on the photothermal conversion substrate.

Land‐surface observation is easily affected by the light transmission and scattering of semi‐transparent clouds, high or low, resulting in blurring and reduced contrast of ground objects. To improve the visual appearance of remote sensing images, the authors present a deep learning method for thin cloud removal using a new attentive generative adversarial network without prior knowledge or assumptions, which copes with thin clouds that are unevenly distributed on different images and learns the attention map with weighted information about spatial features. Such a spatial attention model can endow each pixel with the global spatial context information. Consequently, the generative network focuses on the thin cloud regions to generate better local image restoration, and the discriminative network can evaluate the local consistency of the repaired regions. The experimental results show that this method is superior to state‐of‐the‐art methods in recovering detailed texture information.

Background This study sought to test the effectiveness of EVOSKIN®Palm and sole moisturizing cream (PSMC) in preventing and treating hand-foot syndrome (HFS) during capecitabine chemotherapy. Methods Stage II/III colorectal cancer patients receiving capecitabine adjuvant chemotherapy were randomly allocated to receive either EVOSKINPSMC or physiological saline treatments for their hands and feet. Treatment was initiated along with adjuvant chemotherapy and continued till the end of chemotherapy. Participants' skin responses were evaluated every 3 weeks. Results During the study, 51 participants in the EVOSKIN PSMC group and 54 participants in the physiological saline group completed at least three cycles of capecitabine chemotherapy. The total incidence of HFS in the EVOSKIN PSMC group was lower than that in the physiological saline group (56.8% vs. 75.9%, P=0.006), as was the incidence of Grade 3/4 HFS (6.0% vs. 18.5%, P=0.011). The incidence of HFS became significant after 6weeks of chemotherapy. Further, the incidence of severe HFS was significant from as early as 3weeks after the commencement of chemotherapy despite the use of EVOSKIN PSMC to manage the condition. Notably, the incidence of Grade 1/2 HFS was not statistically significant between the two groups (26/51 vs. 32/54, 52.0% vs. 59.2%, P=0.194). Conclusions The incidence of severe HFS among individuals using oral capecitabine can be reduced by the prophylactic treatment of EVOSKIN PSMC, this treatment is reasonable and acceptable for patients with capecitabine chemotherapy.

We here report a new pentagonal network structure of the PtM2 (M = S, Se, Te) monolayers with the P21/c (no. 14) space group. The electronic structure and thermoelectric properties of the pentagonal PtM2 monolayers are calculated through the VASP and BoltzTraP codes. We verify their dynamic and thermodynamic stabilities by calculating their phonon spectra and simulating ab initio molecular dynamics. It is found that the new material belongs to the medium-wide indirect band gap semiconductors from the PBE and HSE06 methods. At 300 K, the lattice thermal conductivities (Kl) of the pentagonal PtTe2 in the x and y directions are the smallest among these three materials, being 1.77 and 5.17 W/m K, respectively. The anisotropic zT values (2.60/1.14) in the x/y direction of the pentagonal PtTe2 at 300 K are much greater than those of the pentagonal PtSe2 (1.75/0.82) and the pentagonal PtS2 (0.58/0.16) at 300 K. Importantly, the p-type pentagonal PtTe2 also has excellent thermoelectric properties at 600 K, with a zT value of 5.03 in the x direction, indicating that the p-type pentagonal PtTe2 has a good application potential in the thermoelectric field.

To develop and validate a CT-based radiomics nomogram in preoperative differential diagnosis of SCNs from mucin-producing PCNs. A total of 89 patients consisting of 31 SCNs, 30 IPMNs, and 28 MCNs who underwent preoperative CT were analyzed. A total of 710 radiomics features were extracted from each case. Patients were divided into training (n = 63) and validation cohorts (n = 26) with a ratio of 7:3. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method and logistic regression analysis were used for feature selection and model construction. A nomogram was created from a comprehensive model consisting of clinical features and the fusion radiomics signature. A decision curve analysis was used for clinical decisions. The radiomics features extracted from CT could assist with the differentiation of SCNs from mucin-producing PCNs in both the training and validation cohorts. The signature of the combination of the plain, late arterial, and venous phases had the largest areas under the curve (AUCs) of 0.960 (95% CI 0.910–1) in the training cohort and 0.817 (95% CI 0.651–0.983) in the validation cohort with good calibration. The value and efficacy of the nomogram was verified using decision curve analysis. A comprehensive nomogram incorporating clinical features and fusion radiomics signature can differentiate SCNs from mucin-producing PCNs.

Wheel flat is a form of wheel tread defect that reduces the service life and running safety of trains and tracks. Based on the multi-body system dynamics theory, a rigid-flexible vehicle-turnout dy...

OBJECTIVES Behcet's disease (BD) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by recurrent oral aphthous ulcers, intestinal lesions, genital ulcers, uveitis, and skin lesions. Evidence regarding mucosal healing for the prognosis of intestinal BD is scarce. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine the association between mucosal healing and long-term outcomes of patients with intestinal BD. METHODS Relevant studies were identified in a comprehensive search of PubMed, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE databases. Studies reporting long-term outcomes of mucosal healing in patients with intestinal BD were included. Pooled risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for disease recurrence and surgery were calculated using the Mantel-Haenszel random-effects models. Heterogeneity among the eligible studies was evaluated using the Q test and I2 statistics. RESULTS Of the 4785 studies initially identified, 8 were finally included. The pooled RR for the association between mucosal healing and disease recurrence was 0.41 (95% CI 0.30-0.57, P

In this work, the localized photothermal effect of a focused infrared laser-induced migration and coalescence of the droplets in a microchannel was visually studied. Experimental results showed tha...

As of August 23, 2020, the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has infected more than 23,518,340 people and caused more than 810,492 deaths worldwide including 4,717 deaths in China. We present a case of a 53-year-old woman who was admitted to the hospital because of dry coughs and high fever on January 26, 2020, in Wuhan, China. She was not tested for SARS-CoV-2 RNA until on hospital day 11 (illness day 21) because of a significant shortage of test kits at the local hospital. Then, her test was positive for COVID-19 on hospital day 20. Despite intensive medical treatments, she developed respiratory failure with secondary bacterial infection and expired on hospital day 23 (3 days after she was tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA). A systemic autopsy examination, including immunohistochemistry and ultrastructural studies, demonstrates that SARS-CoV-2 can infect multiple organs with profound adverse effect on the immune system, and the lung pathology is characterized by diffuse alveolar damage. Extrapulmonary SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in several organs postmortem. The detailed pathological features are described. In addition, this report highlights the value of forensic autopsy in studying SARS-CoV-2 infection and the importance of clinicopathological correlation in better understanding the pathogenesis of COVID-19.

The ballasted track structure of a high-speed railway repeatedly bears the action of vehicle loads, and the vibration energy is gradually diluted and dissipated due to the ballasted bed. It is difficult to monitor the structural health of ballasted track. By embedding sensors into the ballast, a ballast sensor was obtained. It was positioned on the ballasted track to study the structural health monitoring (SHM) under an impact excitation and to verify the Discrete Element Method (DEM)–Multi-body Dynamics (MBD) co-simulation model. Therefore, the SHM of the ballasted track is realized. The results showed that distributed ballast sensors can realize the SHM status of the ballasted track. Under an impact excitation, the peak of the main vibration frequency of the ballast at the sleeper box, sleeper end and ballast shoulder occurred at a frequency of 153 Hz. At twice the frequency, a secondary peak appeared in the ballast vibration amplitude at the sleeper box, while the vibration amplitudes at the sleeper end and ballast shoulder were suppressed. In low-frequency regime, the vibration damping performance of the ballasted bed structure was better than that in high-frequency regime. When the ballasted track structure was excited by high-frequency vibrations, the surface layer of the ballast at the sleeper box tended to splash, which affected the structural health state. Under the moving wheel load, both sides of the ballasted bed form a “cyclone” shape.

Esophagojejunostomy is a challenging step in laparoscopic gastrectomy. Although the overlap method is a safe and feasible approach for esophagojejunostomy, it has several technical limitations. We developed novel modifications for the overlap method to overcome these disadvantages. Forty-eight consecutive gastric cancer patients underwent totally laparoscopic total gastrectomy or laparoscopic proximal gastrectomy with double-tract reconstruction at our institution from January 2019 to April 2020 using the overlap method with the following modifications. The esophagus was initially rotated by 90° counterclockwise, followed by transection of two-thirds of the esophageal diameter. The unstapled esophagus was then transected with a harmonic ultrasonic scalpel to enable esophagostomy at the posterior side of the esophagus. A side-to-side esophagojejunostomy was then formed at the posterior side of the esophagus using an endoscopic linear stapler through the right lower trocar. The common entry hole was closed via hand sewing method using V-Loc suture. This procedure was termed “esophagus two-step-cut overlap method.” Only one patient suffered from esophagojejunal anastomotic leakage but subsequently recovered after conservative treatment. Patients did not experience anastomotic bleeding or stricture. Our modified overlap method provides satisfactory surgical outcomes and overcomes several technical limitations, such as entering the false lumen of the esophagus, unnecessary pollution caused by nasogastric tube, and unintended left crus stapling during anastomosis.

There are few epidemiological studies on the relationships between trace element exposure and depression in the elderly Chinese population. We studied the levels of strontium (Sr), manganese (Mn), vanadium (V), barium (Ba), aluminum (Al), titanium (Ti), arsenic (As) and selenium (Se) in whole blood, and the relationships between trace element exposure and depressive symptoms in elderly Chinese individuals in a community. Data was obtained from the baseline investigation of the Health of Elderly and Environment Risk Factor Cohort, established in Lu'an municipality, Anhui Province, China, from June to September 2016. The levels of eight trace elements were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), reflecting individuals’ exposure levels. The geriatric depression scale (GDS-30) was applied to screen depression in the elderly cohort. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the associations between trace elements and depressive symptoms. All analyses were stratified by sex. Results show that among of 954 elderly participants, 27.13%, had depressive symptoms according to the GDS-30. The detection rate of Al was 91.70%, the detection rate of Ti was 89.55%, and the detection rate of other six mineral elements was 94.12–94.31%. High concentrations of Sr and Ba were found to be risk factors for depressive symptoms. Sr and Ba tertiles were related to an increased risk of depressive symptoms, with odds ratios (ORs) of 1.84 and 2.15 for the highest tertiles, respectively. When stratified by sex, increased whole blood levels of Sr and Ba were associated with depressive symptoms in women, but not in men.

Scale-up is required in the practical application of microfluidic fuel cells. Using an array of electrodes is demonstrated as a promising way. However, the non-uniform current density distribution in array anodes will significantly limit the power output. In this study, current density distribution in air-breathing microfluidic fuel cells with an array of graphite rod anodes is tested under acidic and alkaline conditions. The array anode is divided into four layers according to their distance to cathode. Current density of each layer is recorded individually. The cell performance under alkaline media is better than that under acidic media and various current density distributions are found under different media. When the air-breathing microfluidic fuel cell is operated under acidic media, at current densities lower than 50 mA cm−3, current densities of two-layer anodes far from the cathode are higher than that of the other layers, while the reverse happens at current densities higher than 50 mA cm−3. This is mainly due to the enhanced fuel transport caused by CO2 bubbles and the lower ohmic resistance. Moreover, the generated CO2 bubbles lead to fluctuation of discharging densities especially at low voltages. However, for the air-breathing microfluidic fuel cell operated under alkaline media, two-layer anodes far from the cathode are main contributor to the total current density at all operation voltages.

Piezoelectric and thermoelectric materials that can directly convert mechanical and thermal energy into electricity have attracted great interest because of their practical applications in overcoming the challenges of the energy crisis. In this research, a new family of two-dimensional (2D) group-VI Janus ternary compounds with α and γ phases are predicted. After the stability testing, only the α-TeSSe monolayer has dynamic and thermal stability. The band structure and the optic, piezoelectric, and thermoelectric performances of the Janus α-TeSSe monolayer are calculated via the first-principles calculations. Janus α-TeSSe is a narrow indirect bandgap semiconductor with a value of 0.953 eV at HSE06 functional considering the spin-orbit coupling (SOC), which is beneficial to its thermoelectric performance, and its excellent absorption coefficients indicate that it may be a promising optoelectronic material. The piezoelectric calculations show that Janus α-TeSSe exhibits not only appreciable in-plane piezoelectricity (d11 = 17.17 pm/V ) but also superior vertical piezoelectricity (d31 = 0.22 pm/V). Furthermore, a new TansOpt code is used to calculate the electrical transport coefficients with a constant electron-phonon coupling approximation, which is more accurate than the constant relaxation time approximation. The origin of ultralow lattice thermal conductivity is also discussed in detail. Finally, ultrahigh ZT values of 0.77 and 1.95 occur in n-type and p-type doping at 600 K, respectively, indicating it is a promising thermoelectric material. Our work demonstrates that Janus α-TeSSe monolayers have potential applications in optoelectronic, piezoelectric, and thermoelectric devices, which will greatly stimulate research-related experiments.

Objective: To explore the inverted T-shaped flap nursing after breast-conserving surgery combined with the reverse double V-shaped mastoconstriction suspension for breast cancer, and summarizes the nursing methods and experience. Method: 5 patients who underwent reverse double V-shaped mastoconstriction suspension and formed inverted T-shaped flap incision were selected from the same medical group in the Department of Breast Cancer of Sun Yat-sen University’s Cancer Center from February 1, 2019 to April 30, 2019, and they were evaluated for the recovery of blood supply of skin flap, sensory function of nipple and areola, breast satisfaction, etc. Results: Among the 5 patients in this group, the flaps of them all survived smoothly. The one-year follow-up after the operation showed that they were satisfied with the appearance of the breast after the operation, with normal sensory function, and no secondary sagging. Conclusion: The most important thing about the inverted T-shaped flap after the reverse double V-shaped mastoconstriction suspension for breast cancer is the blood supply. Close observation of the condition of the skin flap after the operation, strengthening the care of the skin flap, and preventing infection are the keys to the success of the operation.

Photocatalytic technology can convert CO2 molecules into clean fuels by solar energy, which can alleviate the energy and environmental crisis caused by the consumption of fossil fuels and the greenhouse effect. It is extremely challenging to develop semiconductor photocatalytic materials to achieve high-efficiency catalysis of CO2 reduction with a suitable band gap, effective use of sunlight, and better oxidation-reduction capability for photogenerated holes and electrons. Tungsten oxides mainly exist in the form of WO3, W18O49 (or WO2.72), WO3·0.33H2O, etc., and their visible light response and suitable band structure have certain potential in the photocatalytic CO2 reduction process. At the same time, in view of their shortcomings such as the negative conduction band position, the small amount of CO2 adsorption, and the serious recombination of photogenerated electron holes, the crystal plane/crystal phase/structure/defect/composition can be adjusted to treat their surfaces/interfaces to improve their catalytic activity. In this review, we first briefly introduce the different methods of controlling tungsten oxide. Then, the activities and mechanisms of different types of tungsten oxides-based photocatalysts in catalytic CO2 reduction are summarized. Finally, solutions to the problems for the material design and application of tungsten oxide-based photocatalysts in high-efficiency catalytic CO2 reduction are proposed, and future prospects are discussed.

Background Gastric cancer is one of the Lynch syndrome (LS)-associated malignancies. Previous studies have suggested that LS patients with gastric cancer also had chronic atrophic gastritis in the background mucosa, but further histologic characterization was not attempted. This study aims to understand the histologic features of background chronic gastritis in LS patients with gastric adenocarcinoma. Methods Eleven LS-associated gastric cancer cases were collected from five institutions. Demographics and clinical features were retrieved by review of medical charts. Pathological material was reviewed for tumor location and histologic type. In addition, non-neoplastic gastric mucosa was assessed for inflammation (chronic and active), atrophy, intestinal metaplasia (IM) in the antrum and body, as well as pyloric gland metaplasia and enterochromaffin-like (ECL) cell hyperplasia in the body. Results Eleven LS patients with gastric cancer (four male and seven female) with a mean age of 63 years (range: 23 - 83) were included. Ten (90.9%) had personal cancer histories; however none of the patients had family history of gastric cancer. Eight (72.7%) patients underwent gastrectomy and three had endoscopic resection. Nine (81.8%) patients had tumor in the fundus and/or body and two had tumor present in the antrum. Seven (63.6%) cases were intestinal type or mixed type carcinoma, and the remaining four were signet ring cell carcinoma. Eight (of 11, 72.7%) patients had chronic gastritis, five (45.4%) had atrophy, and four (36.3%) had intestinal metaplasia. Four of five patients with both antrum and body mucosa available for evaluation (80%), demonstrated body-predominant chronic gastritis. Four patients had germline MLH1 alterations and all of these patients had chronic gastritis, including one Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) gastritis and three H. pylori-negative gastritis. Conclusions None of LS patients with gastric cancer in our cohort had a family history of gastric cancer. Gastric adenocarcinomas in LS patients were primarily located in the fundus and/or body. Two-thirds of these tumors were of intestinal type and had a background chronic, H. pylori-negative gastritis. These results support a chronic atrophic gastritis with intestinal metaplasia-dysplasia-carcinoma sequence in LS-related gastric tumorigenesis, particularly in MLH1-mutated LS patients.

Breast cancer patients face different nutritional problems at each stage. However, the nutrition of breast cancer patients has not been taken seriously. As a result, some patients cannot tolerate treatment due to poor nutrition, thus affecting the prognosis. This study aims to introduce a typical case to explore the whole-course (started at admission and ended 5 years after surgery) and Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs) (comprising physician, primary nurse, case manager, nutrition liaison and nutrition specialist nurse) nutritional management mode of breast cancer patients. The patient successfully completed the scheduled treatment by implementing the whole-course and multidisciplinary nutrition management. The mode can prospectively and dynamically estimate the changes in patients’ nutritional status, and provide timely nutritional intervention to promote patient outcomes.

Two-dimensional all-inorganic halide perovskites (CsPbX3, X = Cl, Br or I) have emerged as prominent materials due to their unique properties, including ultrathin thickness in high surface area for catalysis, good mechanical flexibility for flexible electronics/optoelectronics, and high charge extraction and transport for photodetectors. However, the high luminescence of two-dimensional Mn-doped CsPbX3 that is crucial to light-emitting diodes and display applications remains unfulfilled. The existing synthesis approaches of two-dimensional Mn-doped CsPbX3 usually result in low luminescence because of either low solubility of precursors at low temperature or high concentrated nanocubes at high temperature (e.g. 180 °C). Herein, we report a moderate-temperature and atmospheric approach to synthesize highly luminescent Mn-doped CsPbCl3 nanoplatelets with only 4 monolayers. Different Mn–Pb feed ratios are explored to study the morphology evolution from nanocubes to nanoplatelets and the corresponding influence of two emission peaks at around 400 nm and 600 nm. The photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of our Mn-doped CsPbCl3 nanoplatelets is up to 53.76%, which is the highest reported value in Mn-doped two-dimensional all-inorganic halide perovskites. The nanoplatelets exhibit excellent stability at room temperature in air (over 60 days). For the first time, both orange-red and warm white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been achieved through the nanoplatelets as the color conversion materials. Moreover, flexible composite fluorescent polymer films based on the nanoplatelets are demonstrated with high luminescence and stability (over 6 months), which indicate prominent potential in flexible displays.

Background: The evidence supporting the use of antiresorptive and anabolic agents for fracture prevention in elderly patients is still inconclusive. Whether it is too late to alter the course of the disease in this age-group has remained uncertain. Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy and safety of antiresorptive and anabolic agents in elderly patients. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and post hoc analyses of RCTs reporting efficacy outcomes or adverse events of antiresorptive and anabolic agents in elderly patients. Statistical heterogeneity was assessed with the Cochran Q χ2 test and I2 statistic. All results were expressed as relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: The meta-analysis included 1 RCT and 11 post hoc analyses of data from 10 double-blind placebo-controlled RCTs. Antiresorptive therapy significantly reduced the pooled incidence of vertebral fractures (RR = 0.43; 95% CI = 0.35–0.53; and p < 0.001). It was also associated with lower risk of nonvertebral and hip fractures (RR = 0.84; 95% CI = 0.74–0.96; and p = 0.009 and RR = 0.75; 95% CI = 0.58–0.97; and p = 0.028, respectively). For any adverse events, no difference was observed between antiresorptive agents and placebo groups (RR = 1.01; 95% CI = 1.00–1.02; and p = 0.23). Conclusions: Both antiresorptive and anabolic agents represented potentially important osteoporosis treatments, showing significant effects on reducing vertebral, nonvertebral, or hip fracture risk, and were well-tolerated by elderly patients. Even in the elderly, maybe it is not too late to alter the course of the disease.