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Film morphology of emissive layers is crucial to the performance and stability of solution-processable organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Compared to the interpenetration of conjugated polymer chain, small molecular emitter with a flexible side chain always presents easily aggregation upon external treatment, and caused π-electronic coupling, which is undesirable for the efficiency and stability of deep-blue OLEDs. Herein, we proposed a side-chain coupling strategy to enhance the film morphological an emission stability of solution-processable small molecular deep-blue emitter. In contrary to “parent” MC8TPA, the crosslinkable styryl and vinyl units were introduced as ended unit at the side-chain of CmTPA and OEYTPA. Interestingly, CmTPA and OEYTPA films present a relatively stable morphology and uniform deep-blue emission after thermal annealing (160 °C) in the atmosphere, different to the discontinuous MC8TPA annealed film. Besides, compared to the CmTPA and OEYTPA ones, serious polaron formation in the MC8TPA annealed film also negative to the deep-blue emission, according to transient absorption analysis. Therefore, both CmTPA and OEYTPA annealed film obtained at 140 °C present an excellent deep-blue ASE behavior with a 445 nm, but absence for MC8TPA ones, associated with the disruption of annealed films. Finally, enhancement of device performance based on CmTPA and OEYTPA film (∼40%) after thermal annealing with a similar performance curves also confirmed the assumption above. Therefore, these results also supported the effectiveness of our side-chain coupling strategy for optoelectronic applications.

Resistive switching (RS) has been studied for several applications such as information storage and bio-inspired computing, although reliability issues still prevent their massive use. In this work, we present a novel observation of trapping activity that imposes giant random conductance fluctuations, up to 3 orders of magnitude, resembling RTN in RS devices based on TiO2, HfO2 and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) under reading voltages (~ 0.1 V). These events appeared reproducible for all the aforementioned RS device types in sequential measurements and under different bias. This behavior is very beneficial to ensure recognition of the device’s two-state in applications such as stochastic computing integrated circuits (ICs).

Aims: In light of the extended overall survival and improved quality of life provided by advanced prostate cancer (PC) oral therapies, this study aimed to describe treatment adherence to advanced PC oral therapies and evaluate associated patient characteristics and subsequent healthcare resource utilization (HRU). Patients & methods: Patients with advanced PC initiating apalutamide, enzalutamide or abiraterone acetate were identified from administrative data (October 1, 2014–September 30, 2019). Adherence and persistence at six months postinitiation were used to evaluate patient factors and HRU. Results: Aged ≥75 years, Black race, chemotherapy use and higher pharmacy paid amounts were associated with poor adherence/persistence, which translated to higher HRU. Conclusions: Strategies to increase adherence and persistence may improve patient outcomes and associated HRU.

Purpose: This study provides a contemporary assessment of the treatment patterns, health care resource utilization (HRU) and costs among metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC) patients in the U.S. Materials and Methods: Adults with mCSPC were selected from Optum's de-identified Clinformatics® Data Mart Database (Commercial insurance/Medicare Advantage [COM/MA]; January 1, 2014–July 31, 2019) or Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS; January 1, 2014–December 31, 2017). The index date was the first metastatic disease diagnosis date on/after the first prostate cancer diagnosis (without prior evidence of castration resistance). Patients were observed for 12 months pre-index (baseline) through their mCSPC period (from index until castration resistance or followup end). First-line (1L) mCSPC therapy was assessed during the mCSPC period; all-cause HRU and health plan-paid costs per-patient-per-year (PPPY) were measured during baseline and mCSPC periods. Results: Among 6,517 COM/MA and 13,324 Medicare-FFS mCSPC patients over ∼10 months (median mCSPC period), 38% and 48% remained untreated/deferred treatment, and 45% and 46% received 1L androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) monotherapy, respectively. 1L abiraterone acetate and docetaxel were used among 7% and 6% of COM/MA and 1% and 2% of Medicare-FFS patients, respectively. HRU increased from baseline to mCSPC period, resulting in increased health plan-paid costs from $21,201 to $108,767 in COM/MA and from $16,819 to $69,639 PPPY in Medicare-FFS. Conclusions: This study highlights the limited use of newer therapies that improve survival in men with mCSPC in the U.S. HRU and costs increased substantially after onset of metastasis. Given the emergence of newer effective mCSPC therapies, further evaluation of future real-world mCSPC treatment patterns and outcomes is warranted.

The grade groups (GGs) of Gleason scores (Gs) is the most critical indicator in the clinical diagnosis and treatment system of prostate cancer. End-to-end method for stratifying the patient-level pathological appearance of prostate cancer (PCa) in magnetic resonance (MRI) are of high demand for clinical decision. Existing methods typically employ a statistical method for integrating slice-level results to a patient-level result, which ignores the asymmetric use of ground truth (GT) and overall optimization. Therefore, more domain knowledge (e.g., diagnostic logic of radiologists) needs to be incorporated into the design of the framework. The patient-level GT is necessary to be logically assigned to each slice of a MRI to achieve joint optimization between slice-level analysis and patient-level decision-making. In this paper, we propose a framework (PCa-GGNet-v2) that learns from radiologists to capture signs in a separate two-dimensional (2-D) space of MRI and further associate them for the overall decision, where all steps are optimized jointly in an end-to-end trainable way. In the training phase, patient-level prediction is transferred from weak supervision to supervision with GT. An association route records the attentional slice for reweighting loss of MRI slices and interpretability. We evaluate our method in an in-house multi-center dataset ( N = 570) and PROSTATEx ( N = 204), which yields five-classification accuracy over 80% and AUC of 0.804 at patient-level respectively. Our method reveals the state-of-the-art performance for patient-level multi-classification task to personalized medicine.

BACKGROUND: Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, whether clinical outcomes are better in those who receive an invasive intervention plus medical therapy than in those who receive medical therapy alone is uncertain. METHODS: We randomly assigned 5179 patients with moderate or severe ischemia to an initial invasive strategy (angiography and revascularization when feasible) and medical therapy or to an initial conservative strategy of medical therapy alone and angiography if medical therapy failed. The primary outcome was a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, or hospitalization for unstable angina, heart failure, or resuscitated cardiac arrest. A key secondary outcome was death from cardiovascular causes or myocardial infarction. RESULTS: Over a median of 3.2 years, 318 primary outcome events occurred in the invasive-strategy group and 352 occurred in the conservative-strategy group. At 6 months, the cumulative event rate was 5.3% in the invasive-strategy group and 3.4% in the conservative-strategy group (difference, 1.9 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.8 to 3.0); at 5 years, the cumulative event rate was 16.4% and 18.2%, respectively (difference, -1.8 percentage points; 95% CI, -4.7 to 1.0). Results were similar with respect to the key secondary outcome. The incidence of the primary outcome was sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction; a secondary analysis yielded more procedural myocardial infarctions of uncertain clinical importance. There were 145 deaths in the invasive-strategy group and 144 deaths in the conservative-strategy group (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.32). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, we did not find evidence that an initial invasive strategy, as compared with an initial conservative strategy, reduced the risk of ischemic cardiovascular events or death from any cause over a median of 3.2 years. The trial findings were sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction that was used. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and others; ISCHEMIA ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01471522.).

According to the manufacturer’s I-V data, we need to obtain the best parameters for assessing the photovoltaic systems. Although much work has been done in this area, it is still challenging to extract model parameters accurately. An efficient solver called SFLBS is developed to deal with this problem, in which an inheritance mechanism based on crossover and mutation is introduced. Specifically, the memory pool for storing historical population information is designed. During the sub-population evolution, the historical population will cross and mutate with the contemporary population with a certain probability, ultimately inheriting information about the dimensions that perform well. This mechanism ensures the population’s quality during the evolution process and effectively improves the local search ability of traditional SFLA. The proposed SFLBS is applied to extract unknown parameters from the single diode model, double diode model, three diode model, and photovoltaic module model. Based on the experimental results, we found that SFLBS has considerable accuracy in extracting the unknown parameters of the PV system problem, and its convergence speed is satisfactory. Moreover, SFLBS is used to evaluate three commercial PV modules under different irradiance and temperature conditions. The experimental results demonstrate that the performance of SFLBS is outstanding compared to some state-of-the-art competing algorithms. Moreover, SFLBS is still a reliable optimization tool despite the complex external environment. This research is supported by an online service for any question or needs to supplementary materials at https://aliasgharheidari.com .

Background Adenovirus pneumonia is prone to severe clinical and imaging manifestations in children. Bronchoscopic alveolar lavage (BAL) is an important adjunctive therapy for patients with severe imaging findings. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of the timing on the efficacy of bronchoalveolar lavage in children with adenovirus pneumonia. Methods This study included 134 patients with adenovirus pneumonia treated with BAL at Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center from January 2019 to January 2020.They were classified into the severe and mild groups. Based on the timing of BAL, each group was divided into the early BAL layer (received BAL within 1–9 days of the illness course) and the late BAL layer (received BAL within 10–14 days of the illness course). The clinical data of patients with different BAL timings were analyzed in two groups. Results Among the 134 patients, 70 were categorized into the mild group and 64 were categorized into the severe group. Of the 134 patients, 42 patients received BAL early (mild group: n = 21 and severe group: n = 21) and 92 patients received BAL later (mild group: n = 49 and severe group: n = 43). In the mild group, the fever and hospital duration were shorter in patients who received BAL early than in those who received BAL later (p p Conclusion For mild adenovirus pneumonia, early BAL may shorten the fever and hospital duration. However, early BAL in severe cases might not shorten the course of the disease or improve prognosis and may even increase the risks of mechanical ventilation and BAL complications.

A new photosensitive dual-anisotropic conductive Janus film (PDCJF) is proposed for the first time. It is rationally designed and manufactured by facile electrospinning. PDCJF is firstly constructed using 2,7-dibromo-9-fluorenone (DBF) with photoconductive and luminescent properties. Janus nanofibers are respectively used as the building units to construct the top layer (T-PDCJF) and the bottom layer (B-PDCJF) of PDCJF. The two layers are tightly bonded to form PDCJF. Under light irradiation, there is photosensitive dual-anisotropic conduction in PDCJF, but there is no anisotropic conduction without light. Thus, the transition of PDCJF from mono-functional magnetism to tri-functionalities is realized under light and without light. The luminescence color of PDCJF is tunable and it emits white-light. This is made possible by modulating the amounts of luminescent substances and excitation wavelength. The microscopic Janus nanofibers used as building units and macroscopic Janus film structure ensure high photosensitive dual-anisotropic conduction and excellent fluorescence in PDCJF. The two-dimensional (2D) PDCJF is rolled to obtain three-dimensional (3D) Janus-type tubes and 2D plus 3D complete flag-like structures with exceptional multi-functionalities. The new findings can strongly guide in developing advanced multi-functional nanostructures.

Artificial intelligence reveals roles of gut microbiota in driving human colorectal cancer evolution

Background Radiomics analysis is a newly emerging quantitative image analysis technique. The aim of this study was to extract a radiomics signature from the computed tomography (CT) imaging to determine the infarction onset time in patients with acute middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO). Methods A total of 123 patients with acute MCAO in the M1 segment (85 patients in the development cohort and 38 patients in the validation cohort) were enrolled in the present study. Clinicoradiological profiles, including head CT without contrast enhancement and computed tomographic angiography (CTA), were collected. The time from stroke onset (TFS) was classified into two subcategories: ≤ 4.5 h, and > 4.5 h. The middle cerebral artery (MCA) territory on CT images was segmented to extract and score the radiomics features associated with the TFS. In addition, the clinicoradiological factors related to the TFS were identified. Subsequently, a combined model of the radiomics signature and clinicoradiological factors was constructed to distinguish the TFS ≤ 4.5 h. Finally, we evaluated the overall performance of our constructed model in an external validation sample of ischemic stroke patients with acute MCAO in the M1 segment. Results The area under the curve (AUC) of the radiomics signature for discriminating the TFS in the development and validation cohorts was 0.770 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.665–0.875) and 0.792 (95% CI: 0.633–0.950), respectively. The AUC of the combined model comprised of the radiomics signature, age and ASPECTS on CT in the development and validation cohorts was 0.808 (95% CI: 0.701–0.916) and 0.833 (95% CI: 0.702–0.965), respectively. In the external validation cohort, the AUC of the radiomics signature was 0.755 (95% CI: 0.614–0.897), and the AUC of the combined model was 0.820 (95% CI: 0.712–0.928). Conclusions The CT-based radiomics signature is a valuable tool for discriminating the TFS in patients with acute MCAO in the M1 segment, which may guide the use of thrombolysis therapy in patients with indeterminate stroke onset time.

BACKGROUND There are not many drugs for teen depression, and many antidepressants are not recommended for people under the age of 14 years. Thus, cognitive behavioral therapy, such as art therapy, is widely used in the treatment of adolescent depression. Group painting therapy (GPT) is a psycho-art treatment that allows the artist to engage in the creative process of painting. METHODS Chinese and English databases were searched with a combination of words, including "Adolescent depression", "Group painting therapy", "Art therapy", and "Depression". A meta-analysis of the literature was carried out using the Cochrane system (RevMan 5.3). RESULTS Six randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included in this study, of which 4 (66.66%) adopted the correct random assignment method, and 1 (16.67%) adopted a hidden detailed assignment scheme. One (16.67%) article adopted a blind method to evaluate the results. After GPT, depressed adolescent patients' positive emotion scores improved significantly [mean deviation (MD) =4.62, 95% confidence interval (CI) (3.79, 5.45), P

Background Some children hospitalized for severe pertussis need intensive care; moreover, some children die because of deterioration alone or in combination with other complications. The purpose of this study was to identify the mortality risk factors among hospitalized children with severe pertussis. Methods This study evaluated the medical records of 144 hospitalized children with severe pertussis at the Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Centre between January 2016 and December 2019. Results The median age of patients was 2 months (IQR 1–4 months), with 90.3% of the patients aged 70.0 × 109/L (odds ratio [OR], 230.66; 95% confidence interval [CI], 5.16–10,319.09 P = 0.005) and pulmonary hypertension (PH) (OR 323.29; 95% CI 16.01–6529.42; P Conclusion Severe pertussis mainly occurred in children aged 70.0 × 109/L and PH were the prognostic independent variables associated with death.

Background While anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) therapy has been proven effective in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), approximately 40% of patients lose the response. Transmembrane TNF-α (mTNF-α) expression in the intestinal mucosa is correlated with therapeutic efficacy, and quantification of mTNF-α expression is significant for predicting response. However, conventional intravenous application of microbubbles is unable to assess mTNF-α expression in intestinal mucosa. Herein, we proposed intracolic ultrasound molecular imaging with TNF-α-targeted microbubbles (MBTNF-α) to quantitatively detect mTNF-α expression in the intestinal mucosa. Methods MBTNF-α was synthesized via a biotin–streptavidin bridging method. TNF-α-targeted ultrasound imaging was performed by intracolic application of MBTNF-α to detect mTNF-α expression in surgical specimens from a murine model and patients with IBD. Linear regression analyses were performed to confirm the accuracy of quantitative targeted ultrasound imaging. Results On quantitative TNF-α-targeted ultrasound images, a greater signal intensity was observed in the mouse colons with colitis ([1.96 ± 0.45] × 106 a.u.) compared to that of the controls ([0.56 ± 0.21] × 106 a.u., P P Conclusion Intracolic ultrasound molecular imaging with MBTNF-α enables quantitative assessment of mTNF-α expression. It may be a potential tool for facilitating the implementation of personalized medicine in IBD.

Selecting a subset of important features from a high-dimensional dataset is an important prerequisite for data mining. Meta-heuristic algorithms have gained attention in this field in recent years. The grasshopper optimization algorithm (GOA) is a meta-heuristic algorithm recently proposed based on the migration and hunting of grasshoppers in nature. However, the method suffers from a low diversity of the agents, which results in the stagnation problems, or immature convergence. To make GOA more competent in various situations, this paper stabilizes an improved GOA with new exploratory and exploitative features, which we have called it the SCGOA. The mechanism and structure of the proposed SCGOA are mainly divided into two steps: First, to balance the exploration and exploitation stages, trigonometric substitution is utilized for perturbation of the updating (evolution) of the position vectors of the individuals. Secondly, the diversity of the population is boosted using can Cauchy mutation-based strategy, which can help the grasshopper population to avoid the stagnation and lazy convergence. Therefore, Cauchy mutation is introduced to assist in an adequate variety of the position of the grasshopper population. Performance of SCGOA was validated on the latest IEEE CEC2017 benchmark functions in comparison with several well-known meta-heuristic algorithms. Various extensive results reveal that the proposed SCGOA has achieved a significant advantage over the other rivals. Finally, the Cauchy mutation-based SCGOA was also used for tackling four engineering design problems, and the results showed that SCGOA was superior to some state-of-the-art algorithms. We also developed the binary version of Cauchy mutation-based SCGOA in dealing with many feature selection datasets. The results on feature selection reveal that the binary version can outperform original GOA and other optimization algorithms, with higher classification accuracy, smaller error rate, and less number of features. We think the proposed optimizer can be widely tool for solving forms of the optimization problems. The research will be supported by open access materials and web service for any user guide at https://aliasghaheidari.com .

Consumers often spend a considerable amount of time and resources on clothing, with the hope of influencing how others perceive them. Little is known, though, about how the clothes one wears might influence him/her to behave differently. This research examines the impact of clothes style (formal vs. informal) on consumers’ choice of healthy or unhealthy foods. We find that formal and informal clothes styles can activate different clothes-image associations and thus make consumers more likely choose a food type (healthy or unhealthy) that is congruent with a specific set of clothes-image associations, referred to as clothes-food congruence. For example, wearing formal clothes can activate such formal-clothes associations as being self-controlled and organized. Formal- (vs. informal-) clothes associations are perceived to be congruent with healthy (vs. unhealthy) food choices. Hence, we suggest that clothes-food congruence mediates the relationship between clothes-image associations and food choice. Implications for research as well as for practice are discussed.

Highlights NiCo-LDHs successfully grow in situ on rod-like ZnO with unique structures.The interface of NiCo@C and rod-like ZnO result in interfacial polarization.The RLmin of NiCo@C/ZnO reaches − 60.97 dB with the EABmax of 6.08 GHz.The excellent performance comes from the effect of dielectric loss and magnetic loss. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40820-021-00704-5., Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) have a special structure and atom composition, which are expected to be an excellent electromagnetic wave (EMW) absorber. However, it is still a problem that obtaining excellent EMW-absorbing materials from LDHs. Herein, we designed heterostructure NiCo-LDHs@ZnO nanorod and then subsequent heat treating to derive NiCo@C/ZnO composites. Finally, with the synergy of excellent dielectric loss and magnetic loss, an outstanding absorption performance could be achieved with the reflection loss of − 60.97 dB at the matching thickness of 2.3 mm, and the widest absorption bandwidth of 6.08 GHz was realized at 2.0 mm. Moreover, this research work provides a reference for the development and utilization of LDHs materials in the field of microwave absorption materials and can also provide ideas for the design of layered structural absorbers. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40820-021-00704-5.

Background DJ-1 (also known as PARK7), a noted protein implicated in modulating ROS production and immune response, has been observed to play critical roles in the pathogenesis of many forms of liver disease through multiple mechanisms. However, its role and specific mechanism in acetaminophen (APAP) -induced liver injury have not been explored. Results In this present study, by employing an acute liver injury induced by APAP overdose mouse model, we demonstrated that DJ-1 knockout (DJ-1-/-) mice showed reduced liver injury and lower mortality. In accordance with these changes, there were also alleviating inflammatory responses in both the serum and the liver of the DJ-1-/- mice compared to those of the wild-type (WT) mice. Functional experiments showed that APAP metabolism did not affected by DJ-1 deficiency. In addition, to investigate DJ-1 modulates which kind of cell types during APAP-overdose-induced acute liver injury, hepatocyte-specific DJ-1-knockout (Alb-DJ-1-/-) and myeloid-specific DJ-1-knockout (Lysm-DJ-1-/-) mice were generated. Interestingly, hepatic deletion of DJ-1 did not protect APAP-overdose induced hepatotoxicity and inflammation, whereas Lysm-DJ-1-/- mice showed similar protective effects as DJ-1-/- mice which suggest that the protective effects of deletion of DJ-1 was through modulating myeloid cell function. Consistently, there were alleviated pro-inflammatory cells infiltration and reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in the liver of Lysm-DJ-1-/- mice relative to control mice. Conclusion our findings clearly defined that deletion of DJ-1 protects APAP-induced acute liver injury through decreasing inflammatory response, and suggest DJ-1 as a potential therapeutic and/or prophylactic target of APAP-induced acute liver injury.

Several studies have showed that combining peg-interferon alpha (Peg-IFNα) with nucleotide analogues has complementary effects in chronic hepatitis B (CHB), but the optimal regimen and potential mechanisms remain unclear. This was a prospective, longitudinal and multicentre clinical trial (NCT03013556). HBeAg-positive CHB naïve patients were randomly assigned to three groups: tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) monotherapy for 96 weeks, TDF alone for 48 weeks and sequentially Peg-IFNα added for 48 weeks, TDF de novo combination with Peg-IFNα for 48 weeks then TDF alone for 48 weeks. The primary endpoint was HBeAg seroconversion at week 96 and HBsAg loss as the secondary endpoint. Furthermore, the levels of 12 cytokines in serum were assessed at different time points. A total of 133 patients were included in the analysis. The rates of HBeAg seroconversion at 96 weeks were not significant different among the three groups (p = 0.157). Interestingly, patients in the Peg-IFNα add-on group showed markedly lower HBsAg level compared with the other two groups at week 96. In addition, only three patients in the Peg-IFNα add-on group achieved HBsAg loss. For the following 24 weeks from week 96, no HBsAg reappearance in the three patients and no new patients with HBsAg loss were observed in the three groups. Serum cytokine analysis showed that the baseline level of interferon-inducible protein-10 (IP-10) was strongly higher in HBeAg conversion patients and HBsAg loss patients. Compared with de novo combination and TDF alone, the addition of Peg-IFNα in TDF-treated group might be an effective strategy for HBsAg loss in HBeAg-positive CHB naïve patients.

Coal-based H2 generation has abruptly increased in recent years. The PSA-VPSA-SC process is the matured and standard framework for H2 purification and CO2 capture in many existing plants, including normal and vacuum pressure swing adsorption units in series (PSA-VPSA), and shallow condensation unit (SC). However, this standard process is frequently subjected to low H2 recovery ratio and high purification cost. In this work, H2-selective and CO2-selective membrane units, i.e., HM and CO2M, are attempted to support the standard process and ameliorate constraints. In the beginning, HM unit is arranged after VPSA to enhance H2 recovery from the decarbonized stream, i.e., the PSA-VPSA-SC/HM process. As a result, H2 recovery ratio can be enhanced significantly from 83% to 98%. In the following, VPSA is replaced with CO2M unit to reduce investment and operation cost, i.e., the PSA-CO2M-SC/HM process. Accordingly, the specific purification cost is diminished from 33.46 to 32.02 USD·(103 m3 H2)−1, saved by 4.3%, meanwhile the construction cost is falling back and just a little higher than that for the standard process. In the end, another CO2M unit is launched before PSA, i.e., the CO2M-PSA-CO2M-SC/HM process, which could unbundle CO2 enrichment partially from H2 purification, and then save more investment and operation cost. In comparison with the standard process, this ultimate retrofitted process can be superior in all the three crucial indices, i.e., recovery ratio, investment, and specific purification cost. On the whole, coal-based H2 generation can be ameliorated significantly through high efficient H2-selective and CO2-selective membrane units.

Chang Yu,1,* Xiaojun Zhu,1,* Chao Zheng,1 Yichun Luo,1 Fang Wang,1 Yueqiu Gao,1 Hailong Wu,2 Xuehua Sun,1 Xiaoni Kong1 1Central Laboratory, Department of Liver Diseases, ShuGuang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Chinese Traditional Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Imaging, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Xiaoni Kong; Xuehua SunCentral Laboratory, Department of Liver Diseases, ShuGuang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Chinese Traditional Medicine, 528 Zhangheng Road, Shanghai, 201203, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 21 20256838Email xiaoni-kong@126.com; susan_sxh@sina.comIntroduction: Mortality of sepsis is caused by an inappropriately amplified systemic inflammatory response and bacteremia. Methyl diet has been shown to associate with greater inflammation response in different diseases. This study aimed to determine whether dietary supplementation with methyl donors affects the inflammation response and mortality in sepsis and to investigate the underlying mechanisms.Methods: Four-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were fed with a high-methyl diet (HMD) or a regulator diet (RD) till the experiment time. Mice septic model was induced by Cecal ligation and puncture (CLP), lipopolysaccharide (LPS), or E.coli. Inflammatory cytokine was analyzed by ELISA and qRT-PCR. Immune cell infiltration was evaluated by H&E and IHC. The composition of gut microbiota was determined by 16S rRNA sequencing. The effect of gut microbiota on sepsis was further verified by fecal microbiome transplantation.Results: Our results showed that the diet riches in methyl donors exacerbated mortality, organ injury, and circulating levels of inflammatory mediators in CLP-induced septic mice model, compared to the control diet group. However, no significant differences have been observed in the inflammatory responses in the LPS-induced septic model and macrophages activation between the two groups of mice. There was a higher bacterial burden in CLP-induced HMD mice suggested that methyl diet might modulate gut microbiota. Bacterial 16S rRNA sequencing results showed that the composition of gut microbiota was altered. The high methyl donor diet reduced the abundance of Akkermansia and Lachnospiraceae, which were associated with protective effects in sepsis, in the gut. Moreover, fecal microbiome transplantation experiment showed that the transfer of feces, which obtained from high methyl diet mice, aggravated the mortality and inflammation responses in recipient mice.Discussion: Methyl diet enhanced CLP-induced septic mortality and inflammatory responses through altering the composition of gut microbiota. This result indicated that diet-based gut microbiota may be a new therapeutic strategy for sepsis patients.Keywords: sepsis, DNA methylation, gut microbiota, Akkermansia, Lachnospiraceae

Quasi-phase matching (QPM) enables flexible and efficient second-order nonlinearity ranging from bulk nonlinear crystals to integrated nonlinear photonic devices. Here, we propose a QPM nonlinear photonic device constructed using monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) arrays attached on a silicon nitride waveguide. QPM second harmonic generation comes from a nonlinear interaction between evanescent fields of fundamental-frequency and second-harmonic guided modes with periodical monolayer TMDC arrays. Dispersions of the device can be tuned by changing the geometric parameters of the waveguide while the nonlinear overlap integral and the QPM condition can be controlled through the distribution of TMDC arrays. Our design provides a practical way to efficiently shape second-order nonlinearities in complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor-compatible photonic platforms.

Several studies noted that increased fasting blood glucose in hospital is associated with increasing mortality of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). We conducted a meta-analysis to assess the risk of mortality after ACS in patients who had fasting hyperglycemia (FH) in hospital. We conducted searches on PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Embase for relevant studies published before August 31, 2019. We pooled odds ratios (OR) from individual studies using a random effects model. Data abstraction was conducted by two independent reviewers, and the meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager version 5.3. Eight studies were included into our research. Patients with FH showed a 3.09-fold (OR 3.09, CI 2.64–3.61; p

Objectives Abnormal expression of C-C chemokine motif ligand 5 (CCL5) occurs in many solid tumors. The mechanism by which CCL5 affects hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumor progression is still unclear. Here, we aimed to evaluate the expression level of CCL5 in HCC, explore the function of CCL5 in regulating the immune microenvironment, and elaborate its regulatory mechanism involved in tumor immunity. Methods The relative expression level of CCL5 in the tissues of HCC patients was measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay, and its related protein concentration was exanimated by immunohistochemistry. Serum CCL5 expression was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test. C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) mice and CCL5 knockout (Ccl5-/- ) mice were utilized to establish the DEN-induced HCC mouse model. The population of the immune cells was determined by flow cytometry, and peripheral serum IgM level was quantified by ELISA test. Results CCL5 expression was low in HCC patients' tissues and peripheral blood, and its expression was correlated with the overall survival (OS), recurrence, and metastasis. In the HCC mouse model, tumor sizes of the Ccl5-/- group were smaller than that of the WT group. Moreover, compared to the WT group, the population size of B cells in the tumor tissues of the Ccl5-/- group was smaller, while there was no significant difference in the other immune cell populations. Furthermore, the IgM level in the peripheral blood of the Ccl5-/- group was significantly lower than that of the WT group. Conclusions CCL5-deficiency in HCC reduces B-cell recruitment and decreases IgM secretion, leading to rapid tumor progression. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Background Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is common in elderly patients and can be alleviated by pulsed radiofrequency (PRF). However, PRF treatments display different efficacy on different nerves. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of ultrasound-guided PRF modulation on thoracic dorsal root ganglion (DRG) or intercostal nerve (ICN) for PHN in aged patients and to provide a theoretical basis for clinical treatment. Methods We classified aged patients into two groups, DRG group and ICN group, based on the needle tip position. Visual analogue scale (VAS) and concise health status questionnaire (Short-form 36 health/survey questionnaire, SF-36) were used to evaluate the pain intensity and the life quality of the patients before and 2, 4 and 12 weeks after the PRF treatments. We also recorded the adverse reactions during the treatments. Results After the PRF treatment, the scores of VAS and SF-36 (assessing general health perception, social function, emotional role, mental health, and pain) improved significantly in both groups (P P P > 0.05). Conclusions PRF therapy is safe and effective for elderly patients with postherpetic neuralgia. However, PRF treatment in dorsal root ganglion is superior to that in intercostal nerve with improving VAS and SF-36 scores to a greater extent in older patients. Trial registration ChiCTR2100044176.

Nowadays, with the increasing number of surveillance cameras, human behavior detection is of importance for public security. Detection of fight behavior using video surveillance is an essential and challenging research field. We propose a multiview fight detection method based on statistical characteristics of the optical flow and random forest. Cyberphysical systems for monitoring can obtain timely and accurate information from this method. Two novel descriptors named Motion Direction Inconsistency (MoDI) and Weighted Motion Direction Inconsistency (WMoDI) are defined to improve the performance of existing methods for videos with different shooting views and solve the misjudgment on nonfight, such as running and talking. First, YOLO V3 algorithm is applied to mark the motion areas, and then, the optical flow is computed to extract descriptors. Finally, Random Forest is used for classification based on statistical characteristics of descriptors. The evaluation results on CASIA dataset demonstrate that the proposed method can improve the accuracy and reduce the rate of missing alarm and false alarm for the detection, and it is very robust against videos with different shooting views.

BACKGROUND Strategies for integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into thyroid nodule management require additional development and testing. We developed a deep-learning AI model (ThyNet) to differentiate between malignant tumours and benign thyroid nodules and aimed to investigate how ThyNet could help radiologists improve diagnostic performance and avoid unnecessary fine needle aspiration. METHODS ThyNet was developed and trained on 18 049 images of 8339 patients (training set) from two hospitals (the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, and Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China) and tested on 4305 images of 2775 patients (total test set) from seven hospitals (the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China; the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; the Guangzhou Army General Hospital, Guangzhou, China; the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China; the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University; Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center; and the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China) in three stages. All nodules in the training and total test set were pathologically confirmed. The diagnostic performance of ThyNet was first compared with 12 radiologists (test set A); a ThyNet-assisted strategy, in which ThyNet assisted diagnoses made by radiologists, was developed to improve diagnostic performance of radiologists using images (test set B); the ThyNet assisted strategy was then tested in a real-world clinical setting (using images and videos; test set C). In a simulated scenario, the number of unnecessary fine needle aspirations avoided by ThyNet-assisted strategy was calculated. FINDINGS The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) for accurate diagnosis of ThyNet (0·922 [95% CI 0·910-0·934]) was significantly higher than that of the radiologists (0·839 [0·834-0·844]; p

To solve the electromagnetic pollution, herein, a CoFe2O4/C/PANI composite was developed by a green route, which was constructed with spinel of metal oxide, graphitized carbon and conductive polymer composites. Benefiting from the designable interfaces and increased dipoles, the microwave dielectric response capability can be boosted significantly and resulted in the enhanced microwave absorbing performance. As revealed by the reflection loss curve, the minimum reflection loss (RLmin) reached -51.81 dB at 12.4 GHz under a matched thickness of 2.57 mm. At 2.5 mm, the effective absorbing band covered 8.88 GHz, suggesting the desirable wideband feature. In our case, the method of utilization of a novel green way to fabricate multiple-component EM absorber can be a promising candidate for high-performance EM absorber.

Background Lung ultrasound (LUS) and lung ultrasound score (LUSS) have been successfully used to diagnose neonatal pneumonia, assess the lesion distribution, and quantify the aeration loss. The present study design determines the diagnostic value of LUSS in the semi‐quantitative assessment of pneumonia in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) neonates. Methods Eleven COVID‐19 neonates born to mothers with COVID‐19 infection and 11 age‐ and gender‐matched controls were retrospectively studied. LUSS was acquired by assessing the lesions and aeration loss in 12 lung regions per subject. Results Most of the COVID‐19 newborns presented with mild and atypical symptoms, mainly involving respiratory and digestive systems. In the COVID‐19 group, a total of 132 regions of the lung were examined, 83 regions (62.8%) of which were detected abnormalities by LUS. Compared with controls, COVID‐19 neonates showed sparse or confluent B‐lines (83 regions), disappearing A‐lines (83 regions), abnormal pleural lines (29 regions), and subpleural consolidations (2 regions). The LUSS was significantly higher in the COVID‐19 group. In total, 49 regions (37%) were normal, 73 regions (55%) scored 1, and 10 regions (8%) scored 2 by LUSS. All the lesions were bilateral, with multiple regions involved. The majority of the lesions were located in the bilateral inferior and posterior regions. LUS detected abnormalities in three COVID‐19 neonates with normal radiological performance. The intra‐observer and inter‐observer reproducibility of LUSS was excellent. Conclusions LUS is a noninvasive, convenient, and sensitive method to assess neonatal COVID‐19 pneumonia, and can be used as an alternative to the use of diagnostic radiography. LUSS provides valuable semi‐quantitative information on the lesion distribution and severity.

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) remains a global health problem. The persistence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in the blood for longer than 6 months after the initial infection is a sign of CHB. The therapeutic goal for the functional cure of CHB is the generation of antibodies against HBsAg. However, the adaptive immune response of patients with CHB cannot generate an efficient antiviral response. Many previous studies have evaluated T cell function and T cell therapy specifically designed to counter hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. As one of the major components of adaptive immunity, B cells also display dysfunctions in anti-HBsAg antibody (HBsAb) production and antigen presentation. Patients with CHB have amplification of CD19+CD10−CD27−CD21− atypical memory B cell subsets and CD19+CD24hiCD38hi regulatory B cells. Currently, no reviews have summarized specific B cell responses during CHB infection. Thus, in this study, we summarized B cell dysfunction during CHB progression and the potential mechanisms behind these dysfunctions to further our understanding of the mechanisms of adaptive immune response of B cells in the process of CHB development and help provide new methods and ideas for the treatment of CHB.

To explore the difference between robot assisted (RA) and stereotactic frame based (SF) stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) in patients with medically refractory epilepsy.We undertook a retrospective review of 33 SEEG cases at our center, of which 14 were SF performed from March to October 2018 and 19 were RA performed from November 2018 to December 2019. Detailed review of medical histories and operative records as well as imaging and trajectory plans was carried out for each patient, and the results related to each technique compared. A multiple linear regression model was used to test for variables that significantly influenced placement error.Compared to the SF group, the RA group had a higher mean number of electrodes per patient (10.7 ± 2.8 versus 6.4 ± 0.8, P 0.0001) and a significantly shorter mean operative time (127.3 ± 40.7 versus 152.7 ± 13.6 min, P = 0.033). For the RA group, the intracranial implantation length was positively correlated with target point error (p = 0.000), depth error (p = 0.043), and two-dimensional (2D) radial error (p = 0.041). Conversely, skull thickness was negatively correlated with the TP error (p = 0.004), depth error (p = 0.037) and 2D radial error (p = 0.000). We also analyzed the mean entry point, target point, depth and 2D radial errors, the complication rates, and the results of epileptogenic zone (EZ) localization and Engel class. The results showed no difference in these aspects between the SF group and the RA group.This study suggests that, compared to stereotactic frame based SEEG, robot assisted SEEG is significantly more efficient and comparable in safety and effectiveness.

Background & Aims DJ-1 is universally expressed in various tissues and organs and is involved in the physiological processes in various liver diseases. However, the role of DJ-1 in liver ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury is largely unknown. Methods In this study, we first examined the DJ-1 expression changes in the liver tissues of mice and clinical donor after hepatic I/R by both quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting assays. Then we investigated the role of DJ-1 in I/R injury by using a murine liver I/R model. Results We demonstrated that DJ-1 down-regulation in both human and mouse liver tissues in response to I/R injury and Dj-1 deficiency in hepatocytes but not in myeloid cells could significantly ameliorate I/R induced liver injury and inflammatory responses. This hepatoprotective effect was dependent on enhanced autophagy in Dj-1 knockout mice, because inhibition of autophagy by 3-methyladenine and chloroquine could reverse the protective effect on hepatic I/R injury in Dj-1 knockout mice. Conclusions Dj-1 deficiency in hepatocytes significantly enhanced mitochondrial accumulation and protein stability of PARKIN, which in turn promotes the onset of mitophagy resulting in elevated clearance of damaged mitochondria during I/R injury., Graphical abstract

Precise control of the photophysical process is crucial to obtain efficient organic laser materials with high optical gain and low optical losses for the realization of organic lasers. Herein, we s...

To develop algorithms to identify metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC) patients and castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients, using health claims data and laboratory test results.A targeted literature review summarized mCSPC and mCRPC patient selection criteria previously used in real-world retrospective studies. Novel algorithms to identify mCSPC and mCRPC were developed based on diagnosis codes indicating hormone sensitivity/resistance, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test results, and claims for castration and mCRPC-specific treatments. These algorithms were applied to claims data from Optum Clinformatics Extended DataMart (Date of Death) Databases (commercial insurance/Medicare Advantage [COM/MA]; 01 January 2014-31 July 2019) and Medicare Fee-for-Service (Medicare-FFS; 01 January 2014-31 December 2017).Previous real-world studies identified mCSPC primarily based on metastasis diagnosis codes, and mCRPC based on mCRPC-specific drugs. Using the current study's algorithms, 7034 COM/MA and 19,981 Medicare-FFS patients were identified as having mCSPC, and 2578 COM/MA and 11,554 Medicare-FFS as having mCRPC. Most mCSPC patients were identified based on evidence of being hormone/castration-naive. Patients were identified as having mCRPC most commonly based on rising PSA (COM/MA), or at the metastasis diagnosis date if it occurred after castration (Medicare-FFS). Among patients with mCSPC, 14-17% had evidence of progression to castration resistance during a median 1-year follow-up period, mostly based on use of mCRPC-specific drugs.Comprehensive algorithms based on claims and laboratory data were developed to identify and distinguish patients with mCSPC and mCRPC. This will facilitate appropriate identification of mCSPC and mCRPC patients based on health claims data and better understanding of patient unmet needs in real-world settings.

Literature review is an overview of existing research, it can also be used to understand research trends and directions. In recent years, the literature associated with wind power has grown rapidly...

This study aimed to explore the prognostic impact that the log odds of positive lymph nodes (LODDS) has on medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) and to develop a nomogram incorporating LODDS to predict the cancer-specific survival (CSS) of MTC. Data from 1110 MTC patients after total thyroidectomy were collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database and divided into training and validation cohorts. The prognostic efficiency of N status from the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system, the number of positive lymph nodes (PLNN), and LODDS were compared using the Harrell concordance index (C-index), the Akaike information criterion (AIC), and area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC). A multivariate Cox analysis was performed to determine the independent prognostic factors, and a nomogram based on LODDS was constructed. The nomogram's performance was assessed with the C-index, AUC, calibration curves, and decision curve analysis (DCA). Among the three lymph node (LN) staging systems, LODDS showed the highest accuracy in predicting CSS for MTC. In the training cohort, the C-index of the LODDS-based nomogram was 0.895. The AUCs were 0.949, 0.917, 0.925, and 0.901 for predicting 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year CSS, respectively. The calibration plots and DCA showed the superior clinical applicability of the nomogram. These results were verified in the validation cohort. As an independent prognostic factor for MTC, LODDS demonstrated superior prognostic efficiency over N status and PLNN. This LODDS-based nomogram yielded better performance than the AJCC tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging system in predicting CSS after surgery for MTC.

Background and Aims Emerging evidence points to a link between creeping fat and the pathogenesis of Crohn’s disease [CD]. Non-invasive assessment of the severity of creeping fat on cross-sectional imaging modality has seldom been investigated. This study aimed to develop and characterize a novel mesenteric creeping fat index [MCFI] based on computed tomography [CT] in CD patients. Methods MCFI was developed based on vascular findings on CT in a retrospective cohort [n = 91] and validated in a prospective cohort [n = 30]. The severity of creeping fat was graded based on the extent to which mesenteric fat extended around the intestinal circumference using the vessels in the fat as a marker. The accuracy of MCFI was assessed by comparing it with the degree of creeping fat observed in surgical specimens. The relationship between MCFI and fibrostenosis was characterized by determining if these correlated. The accuracy of MCFI was compared with other radiographic indices [i.e. visceral to subcutaneous fat area ratio and fibrofatty proliferation score]. Results In the retrospective cohort, MCFI had moderate accuracy in differentiating moderate–severe from mild fibrostenosis (area under the receiver operating characteristic [ROC] curve [AUC] = 0.799; p = 0.000). ROC analysis in the retrospective cohort identified a threshold MCFI of > 3 which accurately differentiated fibrostenosis severity in the prospective cohort [AUC = 0.756; p = 0.018]. An excellent correlation was shown between MCFI and the extent of fat wrapping in specimens in the prospective cohort [r = 0.840, p = 0.000]. Neither visceral to subcutaneous fat area ratio nor fibrofatty proliferation score correlated well with the degree of intestinal fibrosis. Conclusions MCFI can accurately characterize the extent of mesenteric fat wrapping in surgical specimens. It may become another non-invasive measure of CD fibrostenosis.

An improved grasshopper optimization algorithm (GOA) is proposed in this paper, termed as SGOA, which combines simulated annealing (SA) mechanism with the original GOA that is a natural optimizer widely used in finance, medical and other fields, and receives more promising results based on grasshopper behavior. To compare performance of the SGOA and other algorithms, an investigation to select CEC2017 benchmark function as the test set was carried out. Also, the Friedman assessment was performed to check the significance of the proposed method against other counterparts. In comparison with ten meta-heuristic algorithms such as differential evolution (DE), the proposed SGOA can rank first in the CEC2017, and also ranks first in comparison with ten advanced algorithms. The simulation results reveal that the SA strategy notably improves the exploration and exploitation capacity of GOA. Moreover, the SGOA is also applied to engineering problems and parameter optimization of the kernel extreme learning machine (KELM). After optimizing the parameters of KELM using SGOA, the model was applied to two datasets, Cleveland Heart Dataset and Japanese Bankruptcy Dataset, and they achieved an accuracy of 79.2% and 83.5%, respectively, which were better than the KELM model obtained other algorithms. In these practical applications, it is indicated that the proposed SGOA can provide effective assistance in settling complex optimization problems with impressive results.

The pharmacokinetic variations of a single drug in an antituberculosis regimen are associated with acquired drug resistance and therapy failure. This study aimed to develop a simple and effective method for monitoring the serum levels of isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RFP), and pyrazinamide (PZA), three antibiotics used in patients with spinal tuberculosis using capillary electrophoresis (CE). A standard solution of INH, RFP, and PZA was prepared and mixed with serum to prepare the standard curve. The detection limit, quantification limit, precision, stability, repeatability, and sample recovery were determined. Then, INH, RFP, and PZA were measured from the leftover serum samples of all patients with spinal tuberculosis who were treated with 2SHRZ/2.5H2R2Z2 combined with surgery in a tertiary hospital in Qinghai from October 2015 to September 2017. A total of 107 patients with spinal tuberculosis treated using the 2SHRZ/2.5H2R2Z2 regimen combined with surgery were included in this study. All three antibiotics had linear standard curves with high correlation coefficients (R2 = 0.9997, 0.9994, and 0.9986). The recovery rates were 98.1% for INH, 96.5% for PZA, and 97.2% for RFP. The results from the serum samples showed that the plasma concentrations of INH (4.989 ± 1.692 μg mL−1) and RFP (9.400 ± 1.711 μg mL−1) reached effective therapeutic concentrations in all patients, but not PZA (33.860 ± 1.830 μg mL−1). The CE method for measuring INH, RFP, and PZA simultaneously in serum samples of patients with spinal tuberculosis is simple, rapid, and sensitive. This method is suitable for the routine monitoring of INH, RFP, and PZA concentrations in the serum of patients with spinal tuberculosis.

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to impact populations around the globe. Information regarding the incidences and implications of arrhythmias in COVID-19 is limited. Methods A total of 463 patients with COVID-19 and who had at least one electrocardiogram recording from February 1 to March 19, 2020, in Wuhan Union Hospital were enrolled in the study. Results Arrhythmias occurred in 85 of 463 (18.4%) patients: atrial arrhythmias in 10.2%, junctional arrhythmias in 0.2%, ventricular arrhythmias in 3.5%, and conduction block in 7.3%. Compared with patients without arrhythmias, those with arrhythmias had higher mortality, both during the time from symptom onset (p

The discovery of high-efficiency broadband near-infrared (NIR) emission phosphors for light-emitting diodes (pc-LEDs) is of importance for optoelectronic devices and their emerging applications. Herein, a highly efficient broadband NIR emission phosphor LiScGe2O6:Cr3+ peaking at 886 nm with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 160 nm (∼2230 cm−1) is developed via a distorted octahedral site occupation strategy. Upon 480 nm blue-light excitation, the optimal phosphor composition LiSc0.93Ge2O6:0.07Cr3+ presents an internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of 72.6% and high external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 39.9%. A NIR LED is fabricated based on this phosphor and a blue InGaN chip, which shows a maximum NIR output power of 407.3 mW at 300 mA driving current with a photoelectric conversion efficiency of ∼8.9%, suggesting its high promise for night-vision applications. This work provides a new strategy for achieving high-efficiency Cr3+-doped NIR emission phosphors.

As an alternative renewable energy, upgraded biogas by separating CH4 and CO2 can be used to replace natural gas in automobiles and power grids. Adsorption using solid amine adsorbents is a promising technology for CO2 separation, yet the high cost and complex preparation of support materials have seriously hindered its industrial application. In this study, we developed a green and economical method to prepare nano-SiO2 supports and silica-based solid amine adsorbents; i.e., coal fly ash (CFA) derived nano-SiO2 supports, produced using CO2-assisted precipitation technology without adding templates or pore-expanding agents, were impregnated with polyethylenimine (PEI) to synthesize PEI@nano-SiO2 adsorbents for biogas upgrading via adsorbing CO2. The as-synthesized “40%-PEI@SiO2-6%” adsorbent possessed an initial CO2 uptake of 131 mg g−1 under simulated biogas flow, and showed high adsorption selectivity with a CH4 uptake of

Ipomoea cairica (L.) sweets are an invasive weed which has caused serious harm to the biodiversity and stability of the ecosystem. It is very important to accurately and rapidly identifying and monitoring Ipomoea cairica (L.) sweets in the wild for managements taking the necessary strategies to control the Ipomoea cairica (L.) sweets to rapidly grow in the wild. However, current approaches mainly depend on manual identification, which result in high cost and low efficiency. Satellite and manned aircraft are feasible assisting approaches, but the quality of the images collected by them is not well since the ground sampling resolution is low and cloud exists. In this study, we present a novel identifying and monitoring framework and method for Ipomoea cairica (L.) sweets based on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and artificial intelligence (AI). In the proposed framework, we low-costly collected the images with 8256 × 5504 pixels of the monitoring area by the UAV and the collected images are split into more small sub-images with 224 × 224 pixels for identifying model. For identifying Ipomoea cairica (L.) sweets, we also proposed a novel deep convolutional neural network which includes 12 layers. Finally, the Ipomoea cairica (L.) sweets can be efficiently monitored by painting the area containing Ipomoea cairica (L.) sweets. In our experiments, we collected 100 raw images and generated 288000 samples, and made comparison with LeNet, AlexNet, GoogleNet, VGG and ResNet for validating our framework and model. The experimental results show the proposed method is excellent, the accuracy is 93.00% and the time cost is 7.439 s. The proposed method can achieve to an efficient balance between high accuracy and low complexity. Our method is more suitable for the identification of Ipomoea cairica (L.) sweets in the wild than other methods.

Hypoxic pulmonary hypertension (HPH) is a progressive and irreversible disease that reduces survival. Echinacoside is a phenylethanoid glycoside from Tibetan herbs known for its vasorelaxant effect and for inhibiting the proliferation of rat pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells. This study aimed to investigate the effect of echinacoside on HPH. Sprague Dawley rats were housed in a hypobaric hypoxia chamber (4500 m) for 28 days to obtain the HPH model. Echinacoside (3.75, 7.5, 15, 30 and 40 mg/kg) was administered by intraperitoneal injection from the 1st to the 28th day. The mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP), right ventricular hypertrophy index, hemoglobin, hematocrit, red blood cell concentration and morphological change of pulmonary arteries were evaluated. Vascular perfusion assay was used to assess the pulmonary artery function. Echinacoside reduced mPAP, hemoglobin, hematocrit, right ventricular hypertrophy index and mean wall thickness% of pulmonary arteries in HPH rats. It significantly increased maximum vasoconstriction percentage of pulmonary arteries induced by noradrenaline in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, it improved the responsiveness of pulmonary arteries to acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside. Therefore, Echinacoside might be an effective treatment against HPH, since it regulated pulmonary artery endothelium and smooth muscle layer function and improved the remodeling of pulmonary artery.

Quetiapine and aripiprazole are currently prescribed for pregnant women to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A dramlatic decline in the plasma concentrations of these two drugs was observed if the doses remained fixed throughout pregnancy. This study aims to develop physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models to predict the pharmacokinetics of quetiapine, aripiprazole, and the active aripiprazole metabolite dehydroaripiprazole during pregnancy. We developed models using a combined ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ strategy. Models were verified by assessing goodness-of-fit plots and ratios of predicted-to-observed pharmacokinetic parameters. To extrapolate to pregnancy, we considered anatomical, physiological, and metabolic alterations. The in silico models were applied to predict steady-state pharmacokinetics in the three stages of pregnancy and to inform dose selection. We successfully constructed PBPK models that accurately predicted the pharmacokinetics of drugs in the adult population. Predictions suggested that the area under the concentration–time curve at steady state in the first, second, and third trimesters, respectively, decreased by 8.7%, 35.0%, and 49.1% for quetiapine and 12.6%, 38.8%, and 60.9% for the active moiety of aripiprazole. The third-trimester plasma concentrations of quetiapine were below the lower limit of the therapeutic range (100 ng/mL) for most of the time interval, and aripiprazole was entirely unable to reach its effective concentration (150 ng/mL). According to PBPK predictions, the doses should be increased in the latter two trimesters. We generally recommend that women during late pregnancy take at least 2.5- and 2-times their baseline doses of quetiapine and aripiprazole, respectively.

In this study, ITO and Pt layers were deposited on (100) Si substrate respectively as bottom electrode for ZnO-based resistive memory. The ITO layer was textured and its preferred orientation is highly dependent on the oxygen partial pressure of growth atmosphere. As the oxygen content increases in the range of 0%–15%, the preferential growth orientation tends to change from (400) to (222). (002)-textured ZnO thin films with different preferred orientation degree sputtered on Pt and two kinds of oriented ITO layers were comparatively investigated. The device with (400)-ITO bottom electrode was found to have the best resistive switching performance. Meanwhile, the differences in switching behaviors were also found to be closely related to the thickness-dependent crystalline structure and top contact electrode/interface. This study provides an in-depth understanding of the structural design and structure-activity relationship of high-performance ZnO-based resistive memory.

Background Chest computed tomography (CT) findings in children with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been rarely reported in a comprehensive and systematic manner. Objective We investigated the chest CT findings in children with COVID-19, and explored the differences in these findings between symptomatic patients and asymptomatic patients. Materials and methods Demographic findings, clinical characteristics, duration of hospital stay and viral shedding, and chest CT findings in 201 children infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) were retrospectively analyzed from January 15 to March 20, 2020, and divided into two groups: symptomatic group (n=136) and asymptomatic group (n=65). Chi-square test and Student’s t-test were used for statistical analysis. Results Symptomatic patients were mainly young children ≤3 years old (54/63, 86%),while asymptomatic patients were mainly children ≥ 6 years old (51/111, 46%). Fever (41%) and cough (41%) were the most common symptoms. Overall, 119/201 (59%) patients had chest CT findings, and symptomatic patients accounted for 82% (98/119). The CT findings presented as bilateral multiple lesions (60/119, 50.4%), ground-glass opacities (83/119, 70%) and/or consolidation (44/119, 37%) with a peripheral and subpleural distribution (62/83, 75%). Fifteen of 87 (7.2%) patients with lung lesions showed complete lesion absorption, and 42/87 (48%) improved within a mean of 9.1 (standard deviation [SD] 3.2) days. The mean duration of viral shedding was 8.7 (SD 4.9) days. Pleural effusion was very rare. No lymphadenopathy was found in either group. Conclusion Symptoms associated with pulmonary involvement were most common in infants and young children. The lung lesions of most patients were absorbed and improved in about 9 days.

BACKGROUND The activity staging of Crohn’s disease (CD) in the terminal ileum is critical in developing an accurate clinical treatment plan. The activity of terminal ileum CD is associated with the microcirculation of involved bowel walls. Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) can reflect perfusion and permeability of bowel walls by providing microcirculation information. As such, we hypothesize that DCE-MRI and DWI parameters can assess terminal ileum CD, thereby providing an opportunity to stage CD activity. AIM To evaluate the value of DCE-MRI and DWI in assessing activity of terminal ileum CD. METHODS Forty-eight patients with CD who underwent DCE-MRI and DWI were enrolled. The patients’ activity was graded as remission, mild and moderate-severe. The transfer constant (Ktrans), wash-out constant (Kep), and extravascular extracellular volume fraction (Ve) were calculated from DCE-MRI and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) was obtained from DWI. Magnetic Resonance Index of Activity (MaRIA) was calculated from magnetic resonance enterography. Differences in these quantitative parameters were compared between normal ileal loop (NIL) and inflamed terminal ileum (ITI) and among different activity grades. The correlations between these parameters, MaRIA, the Crohn’s Disease Activity Index (CDAI), and Crohn’s Disease Endoscopic Index of Severity (CDEIS) were examined. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were used to determine the diagnostic performance of these parameters in differentiating between CD activity levels. RESULTS Higher Ktrans (0.07 ± 0.04 vs 0.01 ± 0.01), Kep (0.24 ± 0.11 vs 0.15 ± 0.05) and Ve (0.27 ± 0.07 vs 0.08 ± 0.03), but lower ADC (1.41 ± 0.26 vs 2.41 ± 0.30) values were found in ITI than in NIL (all P < 0.001). The Ktrans, Kep, Ve and MaRIA increased with disease activity, whereas the ADC decreased (all P < 0.001). The Ktrans, Kep, Ve and MaRIA showed positive correlations with the CDAI (r = 0.866 for Ktrans, 0.870 for Kep, 0.858 for Ve, 0.890 for MaRIA, all P < 0.001) and CDEIS (r = 0.563 for Ktrans, 0.567 for Kep, 0.571 for Ve, 0.842 for MaRIA, all P < 0.001), while the ADC showed negative correlations with the CDAI (r = -0.857, P < 0.001) and CDEIS (r = -0.536, P < 0.001). The areas under the curve (AUC) for the Ktrans, Kep, Ve, ADC and MaRIA values ranged from 0.68 to 0.91 for differentiating inactive CD (CD remission) from active CD (mild to severe CD). The AUC when combining the Ktrans, Kep and Ve was 0.80, while combining DCE-MRI parameters and ADC values yielded the highest AUC of 0.95. CONCLUSION DCE-MRI and DWI parameters all serve as measures to stage CD activity. When they are combined, the assessment performance is improved and better than MaRIA.