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Quantifying the mechanical properties of the iris can offer valuable insights into the pathophysiology of primary angle closure glaucoma. However, current techniques for iris elastography remain ex vivo with limited clinical applications. This article describes a proposition for a non-contact and non-invasive air-puff optical coherence elastography (OCE) system that can evaluate iris elasticity in vivo. Ten eyes recruited from seven subjects underwent OCE imaging acquisition under three different illumination conditions. The Young's modulus of each eye was detected and shown to be inversely proportional to the iris length, indicating a relationship between mechanical properties and morphology of the iris. With its noninvasive and high-resolution features, this air-puff system shows great potential for applications in clinical ophthalmology.

Summary Background To observe the effect of early nutritional intervention on radiation-induced oral mucositis and nutritional status in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). Methods A total of 54 HNC patients were divided into early (28 cases) and late (26 cases) nutritional intervention groups. The early group received enteral nutrition at the beginning of radiotherapy (RT), while the late group received enteral nutrition after restricted feeding. Operators reported and assessed the timing and extent of oral mucositis and nutritional status during treatment. The nutritional status assessment indicators included body weight; body mass index (BMI); Patient-Generated–Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) score; levels of albumin, hemoglobin and pre-albumin and total lymphocyte count. Results The incidence of high-grade oral mucositis was significantly lower in the early group than that in the late group (P 0.05). During therapy, more patients in the early group were well-nourished and fewer were malnourished according to PG-SGA scores (P Conclusion Early nutritional intervention can reduce the incidence of high-grade oral mucositis during RT in patients with HNC and improve the nutritional status during treatment, which has important clinical significance.

We demonstrate a three-axis vector magnetometer based on ensembles of negatively charged nitrogen vacancy centers in single-crystal diamond. A diamond with $\text{C}_{3v}$ symmetry was used to establish the coordinate system for vector magnetic field sensing. We control the external static magnetic field with three-axis Helmholtz coils. Four pairs of magnetic resonance peaks were obtained, which were used to calculate the three Cartesian components of the magnetic field with sensitivity of $\sim5\;\text{nT}/ \sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ for each Cartesian component, free of interaxis error. The magnetometer is suitable for single-chip manufacturing.

Quantum sensing based on nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond has shown excellent properties. Combined with the imaging technique, it shows exciting practicability. Here, we demonstrate the simultaneously imaging technique of magnetic field and temperature using a wide-field quantum diamond microscope. We describe the operating principles of the diamond microscope and report its sensitivity (magnetic field ${\sim}1.8~\mu \mbox{T/Hz}^{1/2}$ ∼ 1.8 μ T/Hz 1 / 2 and temperature ${\sim}0.4~\mbox{K/Hz}^{1/2}$ ∼ 0.4 K/Hz 1 / 2 ), spatial resolution (1.3 μm), and field of view ($400 \times 300~\mu \mbox{m}^{2}$ 400 × 300 μ m 2 ). Finally, we use the microscope to obtain images of an integrated cell heater and a PCB, demonstrating its ability in the application of magnetic field and temperature simultaneously imaging at wide-field.

Telecare Medicine Information System (TMIS) refers to a medical model that uses communication and information technology to realize multiple medical functions such as remote disease diagnosis, treatment, and health care. Because TMIS is carried out on an insecure public Internet, a large number of mutual authentication and key agreement protocols for TMIS have been proposed to protect the privacy of patients. Recently, Ostad-Sharif et al. proposed a novel anonymous authentication and key agreement scheme for TMIS. In this work, we will demonstrate that Ostad-Sharif et al.'s scheme exists the problems of strong authentication and inefficient password change, and it cannot resist the off-line password guessing attack. To overcome the weaknesses found in Ostad-Sharif et al.'s scheme, we propose a biometrics-based mutual authentication and key agreement protocol for TMIS, making full use of the advantages of one-way hash function and elliptic curve cryptosystem (ECC). The security of the proposed scheme is formally proved under the widely used random oracle model (ROM), and various known malicious attack resistances also are presented by the heuristic discussion. Compared with the existing related schemes, the computation cost and communication overhead of our scheme are reduced by 74.5% and 27.3% respectively.

BackgroundBefore the introduction of the chemotherapeutic agent methotrexate, radiotherapy (RT) and steroids have been the sole, first-line treatment of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL). With the application of methotrexate, the role of RT in the treatment of PCNSL has been challenged. MethodsWe performed observation analysis on 2,486 PCNSL patients between 1988 and 2016 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. Propensity score matching (PSM) was employed to ensure well-balanced characteristics of two groups of patients who received RT and those who did not receive it. Two randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were pooled to further evaluate the role of consolidation whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) in PCNSL. To clarify whether WBRT is necessary for PCNSL, 27 relapsed patients who attained complete response (CR), partial response (PR) or stable disease (SD) during or after first-line treatment without WBRT for newly diagnosed PCNSL in our institution was retrospectively analyzed; the pattern and location of relapse was identified. ResultsAfter matching, there was no statistical difference on survival between the two groups. In patients did not received chemotherapy, RT significantly improved the survival of patients who undergone biopsy (All P < .0001) or subtotal resection (All P < .0001). In particular, RT helped improve survival for patients with other infectious and parasitic diseases including HIV (OIPDH). Pool-analysis shown the better progression free survival (PFS) of patients with WBRT arm compared with no WBRT arm in per-protocol (PP) population (HR 0.71, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.98). In the 27 relapse patients, 17 (63%) had new measurable enhancing lesions at relapse at a spatially distinct site, the remote recurrence after CR was 9/11 (82%), and after PR was 8/15 (53%). Single lesion occurred remote recurrence was 11/13 (85%), while multiple lesions were 7/14 (50%). We also established a novel prediction model with excellent performance to estimate the potential benefit from RT with respect to the end point of overall survival. ConclusionsRT is still an important method in the treatment of PCNSL, which cannot be removed. More precise studies should be carried out to perfect the treatment strategies of the disease.

The efficacy of hypofractionated radiotherapy (HFRT) in glioblastoma (GBM) without age restrictions remains unclear. The aim of this meta-analysis is to access the survival outcomes of HFRT in these patients.A comprehensive electronic literature search of PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane Library was conducted up to June 1, 2020. The main evaluation data were the overall survival (OS) rate at 12 months and 24 months and the progression-free survival (PFS) rate at 6 and 12 months. The secondary evaluation data was the incidence of radionecrosis and adverse events. The study was performed using R "meta" package.Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria, which totally contained 484 participants. The 12-month OS and 24-month OS rate of HFRT in GBM were 71.3% and 34.8%, while the 6-month PFS and 12-month rate were 74.0% and 40.8%. Compared to low-BED (biological equivalent dose) schedules (78Gy), high-BED schedules may increase survival benefit both in PFS-6 (P=0.003) and PFS-12 (P=0.011), while the difference did not show on OS. Different dose per fraction had no significant effect on both OS and PFS. Incidence of radionecrosis was 14.2%. Although the overall incidence of adverse reactions cannot be quantified, the toxicity of HFRT was acceptable.Compared with survival data for standard treatment, HFRT seemed to improve overall survival and progression-free survival, while high BED schedules may future increase benefit on PFS. Meanwhile, the toxicity of HFRT was tolerable. Further randomised controlled clinical studies are needed to confirm these findings.

This study presents a wireless passive high-temperature pressure sensor based on sapphire direct bonding technology. The design, fabrication, and measurement of the sensor are demonstrated and discussed. Single-crystal sapphire is used to fabricate the sensor owing to its outstanding characteristics, and the prototype sensor consists of an inductance, a variable capacitance, and an embedded vacuum-sealed cavity formed by sapphire direct bonding. Compared with other manufacturing technologies, the sapphire direct bonding process is simple and can effectively avoid the deformation and collapse of the embedded cavity, thereby leading to a better sensor performance. A more compact sensor with greater sensitivity has been fabricated in this study. The copper interrogating antenna is employed to detect the variation in the sensor’s resonant frequency caused by the pressure applied. The characterization in high-temperature pressure environments successfully demonstrates the sensing capabilities for pressures from 20 kPa to 600 kPa up to 600 °C. At 600 °C, the sensor sensitivity reaches as high as 10 kHz/kPa. The proposed sensor can be applied for the monitoring of gas pressure in harsh environments, such as environments with high temperatures and chemical corrosion.

The secure storage of the sensitive data in mobile devices is an urgent issue. Most of the existed encryption algorithms are location independent, which means the encrypted data can be decrypted anywhere. In this work, we propose a novel location-based encryption model using a fuzzy vault scheme. First, we may choose a proper encryption algorithm, a symmetric algorithm or an asymmetric encryption algorithm, to encrypt the sensitive data in mobile devices. Then, the crucial issue comes to securely storing the secret key in the encryption algorithm, and it will be solved in the secret key protection phase by applying a fuzzy vault scheme using a location-based digital fingerprint, which represents the valid user in the valid location region. We bind the digital fingerprint and the secret key together to construct a fuzzy vault for storing the both securely. We simulate our model on an Android device and make some performance and security analysis on it. The main contribution of our model is applying a fuzzy vault scheme which uses the location information captured by the user’s mobile devices to securely protect the secret key used in the cryptosystem for encrypting the users sensitive data on the user’s mobile devices.

A flexible mechanical deformation test system, which is a combination of the microwave and the flexible film, is proposed. The system consists of a U-shaped microwave resonator, coaxial transmission line, and PDMS flexible substrate. Microwave signals are generated from the vector network analyzer and loaded to the coaxial transmission line and then coupled to the U-shaped resonator through the coupling loop. The resonator works at the gigahertz band with the test range from 3 GHz to 40 GHz. The resonant frequency of the resonator can be adjusted by changing the shape of PDMS, and the related signals can be detected by using the S11 parameter of the microwave. The response time of the U-shaped resonator is less than 20 ms, and the sensitivity on the curved surface is 12.5 Hz/nm.

The nitrogen-vacancy color centers in diamond can be used as an excellent magnetic sensor. In this work, we present a wide-field planar magnetic imaging technique based on nitrogen-vacancy color centers. Through optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) which is readout from a scientific CMOS camera to extract resonance frequency, we experimentally reconstruct the magnetic field distribution of permanent magnets and particles of magnetite (Fe3O4). Moreover, by using this method we imagined the magnetic field distribution of one integrated cell heater widely used in temperature control with magnetic field suppression. And the experiment shows that this technique can be applied in engineering. The imaging field of this technology can reach the sub-millimeter level and the spatial resolution can reach the optical diffraction limit. The presented wide-field NV imaging technique offers wide-field imaging, high spatial resolution, and high magnetic sensitivity.

Based on the effective radiological responses, bevacizumab (BEV) has been widely used in the treatment of recurrent high-grade glioma. Although the current standard dose is 5 mg/kg/week, the optimal dosage of BEV is controversial, as few dose-response studies have been performed in recent years. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to explore the value of reduced-dose bevacizumab versus standard-dose bevacizumab in recurrent high-grade glioma treatment.Three major electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library) were searched for eligible documents published before February 2020. Literature on low-dose bevacizumab versus conventional dose in progressive high-grade glioma was included, and the endpoints of eligible researches should be progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). All available data were collected and then analyzed with Stata software.Four cohort studies were evaluated, including 552 patients (reduced-dose BEV group: 257, standard-dose BEV group: 295). Low dose BEV seems to slightly improve survival compared to conventional dose as HR1 indicates a protective effect, but no significant differences in OS (HR 0.77; 95 % CI 0.53-1.10; P = 0.151) and PFS (HR 0.66; 95 % CI 0.37-1.20; P = 0.175) were found between the two groups in this study.Reduced-dose bevacizumab schedule resulted in similar OS and PFS to standard-dose bevacizumab in recurrent high-grade glioma, with less side effects and less cost of treatment. Therefore, low-dose bevacizumab represents a promising therapeutic option for recurrent high-grade glioma patients. Further prospective randomized trials are needed to confirm our results.

Phagocytosis, an evolutionarily conserved process in animals, plays a central role in host defense against pathogens. As reported, Rab6 GTPase was involved in the regulation of hemocytic phagocytosis in invertebrates. However, the role of Rab6 GTPase in mammalian phagocytosis remains to be addressed. In this study, the results showed that Rab6 GTPase took great effects on phagocytosis of mouse leukemic monocyte macrophages (RAW 264.7 cells). It was revealed that Rab6 GTPase was required during the phagosome maturation by its interaction with bicaudal-D1 (BICD1) protein. Further data presented that the Rab6 GTPase-regulated phagocytosis could influence the proliferation of Staphylococcus aureus in macrophages. Therefore, our study demonstrated a novel insight into the mechanism of regulation of mammalian phagocytosis by Rab6 GTPase and a novel strategy for the control of Staphylococcus aureus.

A method for enhancement of the sensitivity of a spin sensor based on an ensemble of nitrogen vacancy (NV) color centers was demonstrated. Gold nanoparticles (NPs) were deposited on the bulk diamond, which had NV centers distributed on its surface. The experimental results demonstrate that, when using this simple method, plasmon enhancement of the deposited gold NPs produces an improvement of ∼10 times in the quantum efficiency and has also improved the signal-to-noise ratio by approximately ∼2.5 times. It was also shown that more electrons participated in the spin sensing process, leading to an improvement in the sensitivity of approximately seven times; this has been proved by Rabi oscillation and optical detection of magnetic resonance (ODMR) measurements. The proposed method has proved to be a more efficient way to design an ensemble of NV centers-based sensors; because the result increases in the number of NV centers, the quantum efficiency and the contrast ratio could greatly increase the device’s sensitivity.

Background The macrophage, one of the several key immune cell types, is believed to be involved in tumorigenesis. However, the mechanism of macrophages promoting tumor progression is largely unknown. Methods The differentially secreted proteins of M1 and M2 macrophages were analyzed by mass spectrometry. We performed GST pull-down assay for the identification of cell-membrane receptors that interact with chitinase 3-like protein 1 (CHI3L1) protein. The mouse model was used to validate the function of CHI3L1 in cancer metastasis in vivo. Protein phosphorylation and gene expression were performed to study the signaling pathway activation of cancer cells after CHI3L1 treatment. Results M2 macrophage-secreted CHI3L1 promoted the metastasis of gastric and breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. The CHI3L1 protein functioned by interacting with interleukin-13 receptor α2 chain (IL-13Rα2) molecules on the plasma membranes of cancer cells. Activation of IL-13Rα2 by CHI3L1 triggered the activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathway, leading to the upregulated expression of matrix metalloproteinase genes, which promoted tumor metastasis. The results of this study indicated that the level of CHI3L1 protein in the sera of patients with gastric or breast cancer was significantly elevated compared with those of healthy donors. Conclusions Our study revealed a novel aspect of macrophages with respect to cancer metastasis and showed that CHI3L1 could be a marker of metastatic gastric and breast cancer in patients. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13045-017-0408-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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For quantum sensing based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond, microwave irradiation with uniform power density and large detection volume is necessary to achieve ultrahigh sensitivity. We demonstrate the fabrication of a double magnetic ring stereoscopic antenna used for the tridimensional uniform control of NV spin ensembles with a 4π mm2 × 2 mm large volume. Compared with those of traditional microwave antennas (copper wire and single-loop antenna), the sensitivity of the sensor can be improved 4.93 and 9.98 times, and the linearity of the lock-in signal can be increased by 2.04 and 1.11%, respectively. Moreover, the proposed antenna can suppress the thermal noise generated by itself and is amenable to three-dimensional (3D) integration.

Sensing properties of nitrogen (N)-riched diamond as the core component of the sensors based on ensemble nitrogen vacancy (NV) color centers has direct impact on sensors' performance. The concentration of paramagnetic centers (mainly NV−, NV0, and N) in N-riched diamond plays a decisive role in diamond sensing properties. Here, we proposed a method to evaluate sensing properties of N-riched diamonds as the sensor sensitive unit by associating parameters R (contrast) and (inhomogeneous spin relaxation time) in the ideal sensing model with concentrations of paramagnetic centers. The results can be used to design high sensitivity solid-spin-based sensors and explore the novel spin functional materials.

Breast cancer is a serious health problem worldwide. Inhibition of apoptosis plays a major role in breast cancer tumorigenesis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play crucial roles in the regulation of apoptosis. However, the regulation of breast cancer apoptosis by miRNAs has not been intensively investigated. To address this issue, the effect of miR-100 on the cell proliferation of different breast cancer cells was characterized in the present study. The results showed that miR-100 was significantly upregulated in SK-BR-3 cells compared with other human breast cancer cells (MCF7, MDA-MB-453, T47D, HCC1954 and SUM149). Silencing miR-100 expression with anti-miRNA-100 oligonucleotide (AMO-miR-100) initiated apoptosis of SK-BR-3 cells in vitro and in vivo. However, the overexpression of miR-100 led to the proliferation inhibition of the miR-100-downregulated breast cancer cells. Antagonism of miR-100 in SK-BR-3 cells increased the expression of MTMR3, a target gene of miR-100, which resulted in the activation of p27 and eventually led to G2/M cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis. The downregulation of miR-100 sensitized SK-BR-3 cells to chemotherapy. Therefore, our finding highlights a novel aspect of the miR-100-MTMR3-p27 pathway in the molecular etiology of breast cancer.

In this letter, we present a sapphire direct bonding method using plasma surface activation, hydrophilic pre-bonding, and high temperature annealing. Through the combination of sapphire inductively coupled plasma etching and the direct bonding process, a vacuum-sealed cavity employable for high temperature applications is achieved. Cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy (SEM) research of the bonding interface indicates that the two sapphire pieces are well bonded and the cavity structure stays intact. Moreover, the tensile testing shows that the bonding strength of the bonding interface is in excess of 7.2 MPa. The advantage of sapphire direct bonding is that it is free from the various problems caused by the mismatch in the coefficients of thermal expansion between different materials. Therefore, the bonded vacuum-sealed cavity can be potentially further developed into an all-sapphire pressure sensor for high temperature applications.