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Purpose: To compare the effectiveness and safety between abiraterone and enzalutamide in the treatment of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Methods: We systematically searched for relevant articles from PubMed, Cochrane, Embase from their inception through November 4, 2019. Available articles from conferences were searched. The endpoints were prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response, overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), number of patients with any adverse event (AE). Results: 15 cohort studies involving 3546 participants were included in this meta-analysis. Pooled result showed that PSA response rate in the enzalutamide group was significantly greater than that in the abiraterone group (867 patients, risk ratio (RR) 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.61-0.79, p＜0.00001, I2=29%). There was no significant difference in the total incidence of AEs between two groups (730 patients, RR 0.42, 95% CI 0.14-1.31, p = 0.14, I2=84%). The common adverse events observed in the published articles were fatigue and perceived cognitive impairments. Patients who received enzalutamide had the higher risk to have the feeling of fatigue compared with abiraterone group (2555 patients, RR 0.45, 95% CI 0.24-0.85, p=0.01, I2=92%). And there was no statistical difference between two groups respect to the side effect of perceived cognitive impairments (1856 patients, RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.47-1.88, p=0.85, I2=15%). Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that enzalutamide was associated with higher PSA response rate compared to abiraterone in patients with mCRPC, and no significant difference was found between two groups in the overall AE. But enzalutamide use induced higher risk of the AE of fatigue.

Highlights • Self-reported depression appeared in the early stage of recovery even when COVID-19 patients discharged from hospital. • Self-reported depression has no significant correlation with gender, age, comorbidities, severity of initial infection, duration of initial illness of SARS-CoV-2. • Patients with self-reported depression exhibited increased immune response, as indicated by increased white blood cell and neutrophil counts, as well as neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio. • Appropriate psychological interventions are necessary, and changes in immune function should be emphasized during long-term follow up of these patients., Self-reported depression has been observed in coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients, infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), during discharge from the hospital. However, the cause of this self-reported depression during the convalescent period remains unclear. Here, we report the mental health status of 96 convalescent COVID-19 patients who were surveyed using an online questionnaire at the Shenzhen Samii Medical Center from March 2 to March 12, 2020 in Shenzhen, China. After obtaining their informed consent, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics of patients, including routine blood and biochemical data. The results suggested that patients with self-reported depression exhibited increased immune response, as indicated by increased white blood cell and neutrophil counts, as well as neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio. However, the mechanism linking self-reported depression to these cellular changes needs further study. In conclusion, self-reported depression occurred at an early stage in convalescent COVID-19 patients, and changes in immune function were apparent during short-term follow-up of these patients after discharge. Appropriate psychological interventions are necessary, and changes in immune function should be emphasized during long-term follow up of these patients.

What is known and objective Pneumocystis jiroveci (P jiroveci) is an important opportunistic fungus and causes pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (PJP) in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs). By using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument, the objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of PJP prophylaxis clinical practice guidelines (CPGs), and to help develop, update or improve guideline. Methods A search was conducted for PJP prophylaxis CPGs using PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), WanFang data, VIP Database, Google and guideline websites (until 18 January 2020). Data extraction and quality assessment were independently assessed by two appraisers, and the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess interrater reliability. The specific recommendations were evaluated based on the quality results. Results and discussion A total of 6 CPGs were included. The highest median scores were in the clarity of presentation domain (92%), and the lowest median scores were in the applicability domain (25%). The Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcome (KDIGO) and Renal Association (RA)/British Transplantation Society (BTS) CPGs were strongly recommended. The specific recommendations were inconsistent, such as the dose, frequency and duration. What is new and conclusion The KDIGO and RA/BTS CPGs were strongly recommended. Not only the quality of the PJP prophylaxis CPGs needs to be improved during the development progress, but also the specific recommendations should be further refined.

In the standard bag-of-visual-words model, the relationship between visual words and geometric structure information embedding in Voronoi cells is important for expressing the topology of the feature space. However, this information is usually ignored by recent works. To overcome it, the authors proposed a hybrid heterogeneous structure model (HHSM), where local hyperspheres and local structure subspaces are applied to simulate the intrinsic structure of the feature space. Firstly, the local hypersphere is formed by choosing some links between parts of visual words, with the use of a proposed decision strategy derived from k-dense neighbour algorithm. In order to capture the geometric structure information around the visual word, they then construct the local structure subspace with the transformed PCA principal vectors of the visual features within a Voronoi cell. Finally, this study introduces a novel feature encoding method based on the HHSM. Experiments are conducted on 15-Scenes, Pascal VOC2007, Caltech101, Caltech256 and MIT Indoor 67 datasets, which include 4485, 9963, 9146, 30607 and 15620 images, respectively. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in improving the accuracy of the classification. In addition, the proposed method achieves comparable performance when combined with CNN local features.

Background Two new drugs, abiraterone and enzalutamide, had recently shown beneficial effects on survival in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. We systematically reviewed the efficacy and safety of abiraterone and enzalutamide in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer in real-world practice. Methods A search from PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, Embase was conducted up to 6 March 2019. Available articles from conferences were searched. The endpoint was prostate-specific antigen response, overall survival, progression-free survival, number of patients with any adverse event. Results Fourteen cohort studies involving 3469 participants were included. Pooled result showed that prostate-specific antigen response was higher for patients receiving enzalutamide than abiraterone (790 patients, odds ratio (OR) 0.47, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.29–0.77, P = 0.003, I2=59%). Enzalutamide was significantly associated with increased adverse events rate in comparison with abiraterone (730 patients, OR 0.35, 95%CI 0.13–0.92, P = 0.03, I2=65%). There was no statistical difference between abiraterone and enzalutamide with respect to perceived cognitive impairments (1856 patients, OR 0.90, 95%CI 0.29–2.76, P = 0.85, I2=5%). Enzalutamide was significantly associated with increased fatigue risk in comparison with abiraterone (2477 patients, OR 0.46, 95%CI 0.34–0.63, P＜0.00001, I2=0%). Conclusions Our results demonstrated that enzalutamide was more efficacious than abiraterone for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, but was associated with a significantly elevated risk of side effects, particularly fatigue.

Aim: SARS-coronavirus 2 main protease (Mpro) and host toll-like receptors (TLRs) were targeted to screen potential inhibitors among traditional antiviral medicinal plants. Materials & methods: LeDock software was adopted to determine the binding energy between candidate molecules and selected protein pockets. Enrichment analyses were applied to illustrate potential pharmacology networks of active molecules. Results: The citrus flavonoid rutin was identified to fit snugly into the Mpro substrate-binding pocket and to present a strong interaction with TLRs TLR2, TLR6 and TLR7. One-carbon metabolic process and nitrogen metabolism ranked high as potential targets toward rutin. Conclusion: Rutin may influence viral functional protein assembly and host inflammatory suppression. Its affinity for Mpro and TLRs render rutin a potential novel therapeutic anti-coronavirus strategy.

A periodically-poled LiNbO3 (PPLN) crystal features space-dependent second-order nonlinear coefficients, which is one of the most important materials to effectively control nonlinear optical interactions through quasi-phase matching (QPM). By using electric-field poling method, 1D and 2D PPLN crystals have been successfully fabricated for laser frequency conversion, quantum light sources, nonlinear beam shaping and nonlinear optical imaging. Recently, femtosecond laser engineering technique is utilized to prepare 3D domain structures inside LiNbO3 crystal, which provides a promising platform to control nonlinear interacting waves in 3D configuration. After 40 years of developments, PPLN crystals still have exciting prospects in fundamental researches and practical applications for integrated photonic chip, quantum information processing, and so on.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality among the patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Arterial stiffness is a well-accepted predictor of cardiovascular mortality in general population and ESRD patients. The aim of this study was to compare the change of arterial stiffness in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) and ESRD patients, and further investigate the impact of kidney transplantation (KT) on arterial stiffness. A total of 138 maintenance hemodialysis patients, 198 KTRs and 75 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. The carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (CF-PWV) and carotid-radial PWV (CR-PWV) were determined, and the correlations of PWV with biochemical parameters were analyzed. CF-PWV was highest in the maintenance hemodialysis patients, but similar between KTRs and healthy volunteers. Bivariate correlation analysis among KTRs demonstrated that CF-PWV was positively correlated with high level of peripheral diastolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, mean artery pressure, BUN and HDL, but negatively correlated with albumin. Univariate polytomous logistic regression analysis showed that age, BMI, systolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, length of KT and BUN were associated with the increase of CF-PWV value. Aortic stiffness could be improved after KT. Meanwhile, age, BMI, systolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, length of KT and BUN were independent predictors of the increase of CF-PWV in KTRs.

Satellites have shown free-space quantum-communication ability; however, they are orbit-limited from full-time all-location coverage. Meanwhile, practical quantum networks require satellite constellations, which are complicated and expensive, whereas the airborne mobile quantum communication may be a practical alternative to offering full-time all-location multi-weather coverage in a cost-effective way. Here, we demonstrate the first mobile entanglement distribution based on drones, realizing multi-weather operation including daytime and rainy nights, with a Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt S-parameter measured to be 2.41 ± 0.14 and 2.49 ± 0.06, respectively. Such a system shows unparalleled mobility, flexibility and reconfigurability compared to the existing satellite and fiber-based quantum communication, and reveals its potential to establish a multinode quantum network, with a scalable design using symmetrical lens diameter and single-mode-fiber coupling. All key technologies have been developed to pack quantum nodes into lightweight mobile platforms for local-area coverage, and arouse further technical improvements to establish wide-area quantum networks with high-altitude mobile communication., We demonstrate the first drone-based entanglement distribution under multi-weather conditions, which exhibits the third possible experimental strategy for quantum communication, in addition to fiber and satellite.

Structure-preserving image filtering is an image smoothing technique that aims to preserve prominent structures while removing unwanted details in natural images. However, relevant studies mainly focus on small variances/fluctuations suppression and are vulnerable to separate pixels connected by some low-contrast edges or cluster pixels which exhibit strong differences between neighbors in highly textured region. Inspired by the fact that the human visual system significantly outperforms manually designed operators in extracting meaningful structures from natural scenes, we present an efficient structure-preserving filtering method which integrates similarity, proximity and continuation principles of human perception to accomplish high-contrast details (textures/noises) smoothing. Additionally, a Liebig’s law of minimum-based distance transform is presented to seamlessly incorporate the three properties for the description of the filter kernel. Experiments demonstrate that our distance transform keeps a clustering-like manner of separating different image pixels and grouping similar ones with the awareness of structure. When integrating this affinity measure into the bilateral-filter-like framework, our method can efficiently remove high-contrast textures/noises while preserving major structures.

Background/aims The effects of microRNA-423 on proliferation and drug resistance of breast cancer cells were explored, the downstream target genes of miR-423 and the targeted regulatory relationship between them were studied. Methods RT-qPCR was used to detect the expression of miR-423 in breast cancer tissues and cell lines, and the transfection efficiency of miR-423 inhibitory vector miR-423-inhibitor was constructed and verified. CCK-8 and colony formation assays were used to examine the effect of miR-423 on tumor cell proliferation. Target gene prediction and screening and luciferase reporter assay were used to verify downstream target genes of miR-432. The mRNA and protein expression of miR-423target gene ZFP36 was detected by RT-qPCR and Western blotting. Results The expression of miR-423 was significantly higher than that in normal tissues. Compared to the non-malignant mammary epithelial cell line MCF-10A, the expression of miR-423 was significantly raised in MCR-7 and MCF-7/ADR cells. ZFP36 was a downstream target gene of miR-423 and negatively correlated with the expression of miR-423 in breast cancer. The knockdown of miR-423 can significantly enhance the cytotoxicity of the drug, increase the apoptotic rate of MCF-7/ADR cells. miR-423 was capable of activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway leading to chemoresistance and proliferation, whereas overexpression of ZFP36 reduced drug resistance and proliferation. Conclusion miR-423 acted as an oncogene to promote tumor cell proliferation and migration. ZFP36 was a downstream target gene of miR-423, and miR-423 inhibited the expression of ZFP36 via Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway of breast cancer cells.

Background Recently, the roles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) in human diseases have been unveiled, this research was conducted to explore the impacts of lncRNA SET-binding factor 2-antisense RNA1 (SBF2-AS1), miR-143 and resistance to ralstonia solanacearum 1 (RRS1) on breast cancer (BC) development. Methods The expression of SBF2-AS1, miR-143 and RRS1 in BC tissues, as well as in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cell lines were assessed. Subsequently, the cells were transfected with miR-143 mimics or/and silenced or overexpressed SBF2-AS1 plasmids, and their negative controls. Then the proliferation, colony formation ability, cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, invasion and migration of the cells were assessed through gain- and loss-of-function experiments. Furthermore, the tumor growth, ki-67 expression and apoptosis in vivo were observed by subcutaneous tumorigenesis in nude mice. Binding relation between SBF2-AS1 and miR-143, and that between miR-143 and RRS1 were confirmed. Results SBF2-AS1 and RRS1 were amplified, while miR-143 was reduced in BC tissues and cells. Reduced SBF2-AS1 and elevated miR-143 could repress the proliferation, invasion and migration via restraining RRS1 expression. Moreover, knockdown of SBF2-AS1 up-regulated miR-143 to promote the apoptosis of BC cells by downregulating RRS1, resulting in a prohibitive effect on the tumorigenesis and progression of BC. Results of in vivo experiments indicated that the inhibited SBF2-AS1 and overexpressed miR-143 could restrict BC cell proliferation and promote apoptosis, and decelerate tumor growth in xenografts. Conclusion We have discovered in this study that down-regulated SBF2-AS1 could inhibit tumorigenesis and progression of BC by up-regulation miR-143 and repressing RRS1, which provides basic therapeutic considerations for a novel target against BC.

In this paper, we propose a multi-scale visual tracking algorithm based on attention mechanism to solve the problem that the appearance characteristic model of region proposals network has weak ability to distinguish foreground and semantic background. The method introduces attention mechanism on the basis of region proposals network to realize the self-adaptive salient characteristic expression. The attention mechanism is essentially realized by convolutional neural network. The feature optimization mainly includes spatial attention selection and channel attention selection. Specifically, the spatial attention convolutional neural network is used to learn the planar weights to enhance the foreground and suppress the interference background. The channel attention convolutional neural network is used to learn dimensional weights and discard redundant noisy feature maps to simplify appearance characteristic expression. In addition, spatial and channel attention network respectively deal with high-level and low-level features according to their structural differences to focus on the similarity appearance characteristic and semantic classification characteristic. The experimental results illustrate the outstanding performance compared with several state-of-the-art visual tracking methods on the challenging video sequences.

BK virus-associated nephropathy (BKVN) remains a major infectious complication due to powerful immunosuppression in kidney transplant recipients, and its histologic appearance can mimic rejection, leading to diagnostic and treatment dilemmas thus molecular diagnostic methods would be beneficial. We collected gene expression profiles of 169 kidney biopsies taken from BKVN, rejection, and stable functioning allografts, based on single sample gene set enrichment analysis and random forest algorithm, and three hallmark activities associated with DNA damage and proliferation were found to be relatively specific in BKVN. Subsequently, weighted gene co-expression network analysis and support vector machines (SVM) algorithm identified

Purpose. The complex etiological variables and high heterogeneity of bladder cancer (BC) make prognostic prediction challenging. We aimed to develop a robust and promising gene signature using advanced machine learning methods for predicting the prognosis and therapy responses of BC patients. Methods. The single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) algorithm and univariable Cox regression were used to identify the primary risk hallmark among the various cancer hallmarks. Machine learning methods were then combined with survival and differential gene expression analyses to construct a novel prognostic signature, which would be validated in two additional independent cohorts. Moreover, relationships between this signature and therapy responses were also identified. Functional enrichment analysis and immune cell estimation were also conducted to provide insights into the potential mechanisms of BC. Results. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) was identified as the primary risk factor for the survival of BC patients (HR=1.43, 95% CI: 1.26-1.63). A novel EMT-related gene signature was constructed and validated in three independent cohorts, showing stable and accurate performance in predicting clinical outcomes. Furthermore, high-risk patients had poor prognoses and multivariable Cox regression analysis revealed this to be an independent risk factor for patient survival. CD8+ T cells, Tregs, and M2 macrophages were found abundantly in the tumor microenvironment of high-risk patients. Moreover, it was anticipated that high-risk patients would be more sensitive to chemotherapeutic drugs, while low-risk patients would benefit more from immunotherapy. Conclusions. We successfully identified and validated a novel EMT-related gene signature for predicting clinical outcomes and therapy responses in BC patients, which may be useful in clinical practice for risk stratification and individualized treatment.

Background. Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common malignancies in males; we aim to establish a novel angiogenesis-related gene signature for biochemical recurrence (BCR) prediction in PCa patients following radical therapy. Methods. Gene expression profiles and corresponding clinicopathological data were acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. We quantified the levels of various cancer hallmarks and identified angiogenesis as the primary risk factor for BCR. Then machine learning methods combined with Cox regression analysis were used to screen prognostic genes and construct an angiogenesis-related gene signature, which was further verified in external cohorts. Furthermore, estimation of immune cell abundance and prediction of drug responses were also conducted to detect potential mechanisms. Results. Angiogenesis was regarded as the leading risk factor for BCR in PCa patients (HR = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.38–1.81), and a novel prognostic signature based on three genes (NRP1, JAG2, and VCAN) was developed in the training cohort and successfully validated in another three independent cohorts. In all datasets, this signature was identified as a prognostic factor with promising and robust predictive values. Moreover, it also predicted higher infiltration of regulatory T cells and M2-polarized macrophages and increased drug sensitivity of angiogenesis inhibitors in high-risk patients. Conclusions. The angiogenesis-related three-gene signature may serve as an independent prognostic factor for BCR, which would contribute to risk stratification and personalized management of PCa patients after radical therapy in clinical practice.

Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) have been seriously threatened by calcium-magnesium-alumina-silicate (CMAS) corrosion. The search for novel ceramic coatings for TBCs with excellent resistance to CMAS corrosion is ongoing. Herein, CMAS corrosion resistance behavior and the mechanism of a promising Hf6Ta2O17 ceramic coating for TBCs are investigated. The results show that temperature is the most important factor affecting the CMAS behavior and mechanism. At 1250 °C, the corrosion products are composed of dense reaction products (HfSiO4, CaXHf6−xTa2O17−x) and CMAS self-crystallization products. At 1300 and 1400 °C, the corrosion products are mainly dense CaTa2O6 and HfO2, which prevent further CMAS infiltration.

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light has been widely investigated in optical manipulation, optical communications, optical storage, and precision measurement. In recent years, the studies of OAM are expanded to nonlinear and quantum optics, paving a way to high-quality nonlinear imaging, high-capacity quantum communication, and many other promising applications. In this Perspective, we first summarize the fundamental research on OAM in nonlinear optics. Then, we introduce its recent applications in nonlinear imaging (including nonlinear spiral imaging and OAM-multiplexing nonlinear holography) and high-dimensional quantum entanglement. In particular, we highlight the manipulations of OAM through various functional nonlinear photonic crystals. Finally, we discuss the further developments of OAM-based nonlinear and quantum techniques in the near future.

BACKGROUND Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) is a rare severe complication after renal transplantation, with an incidence of approximately 0.3%-2.0% in patients undergoing renal transplantation. The clinical manifestations of PTLD are often nonspecific, leading to tremendous challenges in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of PTLD. CASE SUMMARY We report two Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive PTLD cases whose main clinical manifestations were digestive tract symptoms. Both of them admitted to our hospital because of extranodal infiltration symptoms and we did not suspect of PTLD until the pathology confirmation. Luckily, they responded well to the treatment of rituximab. We also discuss the virological monitoring, clinical characteristics, diagnosis, and treatment of PTLD. CONCLUSION PTLD is a deceptive disease and difficult to diagnose. Once patients are confirmed with PTLD, immune suppressant dosage should be immediately reduced and rituximab should be used as first-line therapy.

In recent years, Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) Score has become widely recognized as a novel index to evaluate the survival in urological neoplasms patients, especially with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). The aim of this meta-analysis is to evaluate the prognostic value of CONUT score in patients with RCC and UTUC. PubMed, Web of Science and Embase were searched for data on the association between CONUT score and RCC/UTUC prognosis up to July 29, 2021. Duplicates were excluded, and inclusion/exclusion criteria were applied to all abstracts. We sorted out relevant studies and extracted the risk ratios (RRs) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) for recurrence-free survival (RFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and overall survival (OS). The relationship between gender and survival outcomes was analyzed using univariate cox regression. We analyzed seven studies including 5410 patients in the meta-analysis. A high CONUT score was associated with poor 5-year RFS (RR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.13-1.43, P = 0.0001), CSS (RR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.07-1.39, P = 0.003) and OS (RR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.10-1.41, P = 0.0005). As a result, the association between CONUT score and survival was statistically significant. In addition, gender was not related to survival outcomes. Our results show that the CONUT score is associated with RCC and UTUC outcomes and can serve as a readily available biomarker for managing this disease.

This study aims to explore the role of abnormal fatty acid metabolism (FAM) in ccRCC and construct a novel fatty acid metabolism-related gene signature (FAMGS) for prognosis. Three independent ccRCC cohorts, including The Cancer Genome Atlas, E-MTAB-1980 and our clinical cohort (including RNA-seq, microarray and RT-qPCR data), were applied as training and two independent validation cohorts. Firstly, FAM levels were found to be significantly decreased in ccRCC and correlated with degrees of malignancy, confirming the pivotal role of FAM in ccRCC. Applying the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator cox regression, we established a novel FAMGS for overall survival (OS). The FAMGS divided patients into low or high-risk groups in the training cohort and were successfully validated in both the EMTAB and our clinical validation cohorts. Additionally, the FAMGS serves as an independent risk factor for OS of ccRCC. Results of the immune cell abundance identifier (ImmuCellAI) algorithm and gene set variation analysis (GSVA) revealed that patients in the high-risk group have comprehensively impaired metabolism, including lipids, amino acids and tricarboxylic acid cycle-related pathways and a more immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. In conclusion, our study constructed and validated a novel FAMGS, which may improve the risk stratification optimization and personalized management of ccRCC.

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most common histological subtype of renal cancer. Cuproptosis is suggested to be a novel therapy target for cancer treatment. However, the function of cuproptosis and its key regulatoriFDX1/iin ccRCC remains unclear. In this study, we adequately explored the prognostic factors, clinicopathological characteristics, and function ofiFDX1/iin ccRCC. We found that the expression ofiFDX1/iwas significantly downregulated in ccRCC samples. Patients with a higheriFDX1/iexpression had a significantly better prognosis, including overall survival (OS) (Hazard ratio (HR): 2.54, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.82-3.53,ip/iamp;lt; 0.001), disease-specific survival (DSS) (HR: 3.04, 95% CI: 2.04-4.54,ip/iamp;lt; 0.001), and progression-free survival (PFS) (HR: 2.54, 95% CI: 1.82-3.53,ip/iamp;lt; 0.001).iFDX1/iwas a clinical predictor to stratify patients into the high or low risk of poor survival, independent of conventional clinical features, with the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.658, 0.677, and 0.656 for predicting the 5-year OS, DSS, and PFS. The nomogram model based oniFDX1/ihad greater predictive power than other individual prognostic parameters.iFDX1/imainly participated in the oxidative-related process and mitochondrial respiration-related processes but was not associated with immune infiltration levels. In conclusion, the cuproptosis key regulatoriFDX1/icould serve as a potential novel prognostic biomarker for ccRCC patients.

The calcineurin inhibitor (CNI)-based immune maintenance regimen that is commonly used after renal transplantation has greatly improved early graft survival after transplantation; however, the long-term prognosis of grafts has not been significantly improved. The nephrotoxicity of CNI drugs is one of the main risk factors for the poor long-term prognosis of grafts. Sirolimus (SRL) has been employed as an immunosuppressant in clinical practice for over 20 years and has been found to have no nephrotoxic effects on grafts. Presently, the regimen and timing of SRL application after renal transplantation vary, and clinical data are scarce. Multicenter prospective randomized controlled studies are particularly rare. This study aims to investigate the effects of early conversion to a low-dose CNI combined with SRL on the long-term prognosis of renal transplantation.Patients who receive four weeks of a standard regimen with CNI + mycophenolic acid (MPA) + glucocorticoid after renal transplantation in multiple transplant centers across China will be included in this study. At week 5, after the operation, patients in the experimental group will receive an additional administration of SRL, a reduction in the CNI drug doses, withdrawal of MPA medication, and maintenance of glucocorticoids. In addition, patients in the control group will receive the maintained standard of care. The patients' vital signs, routine blood tests, routine urine tests, blood biochemistry, serum creatinine, BK virus (BKV)/ cytomegalovirus (CMV), and trough concentrations of CNI drugs and SRL at the baseline and weeks 12, 24, 36, 48, 72, and 104 after conversion will be recorded. Patient survival, graft survival, and estimated glomerular filtration rate will be calculated, and concomitant medications and adverse events will also be recorded.The study data will be utilized to evaluate the efficacy and safety of early conversion to low-dose CNIs combined with SRL in renal transplant patients.Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR1800017277.

In this work, a novel signal on/off ratiometric electrochemical sensor for the selective detection of chlorpromazine (CPZ) was developed. The sensor was constructed by electrodepositing dual-monomer molecularly imprinted polymer (DMMIP) film on the surface of Pt/Co

Interval-valued time series (ITS) is a collection of interval-valued data whose entires are ordered by time. The modeling of ITS is an ongoing issue pursued by many researchers. There are diverse ITS models showing better performance. This paper proposes a new ITS model using possibility measure-based encoding-decoding mechanism involved in fuzzy theory. The proposed model consists of four modules, say, linguistic variable generation module, encoding module, inference module and decoding module. The linguistic variable generation module can provide a series of linguistic variables expressed in fuzzy sets used to described dynamic characteristics of ITS. The encoding module encodes ITS into some embedding vectors with semantics with the aid of possibility measure and linguistic variables formed by linguistic variable generation module. The inference module uses artificial neural network to capture relationship implied in those embedding vectors with semantic. The decoding module decodes for the outputs of the inference module to produce the output of linguistic and interval formats by using the possibility measure-based encoding-decoding mechanism. In comparison with existing ITS models, the proposed model can not only produce the output of linguistic format, but also exhibit better numeric performance.

Breast cancer (BC) represents the most commonly diagnosed malignancy among women. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) can be transferred by extracellular vesicles (EVs) to participate in BC progression. This study demonstrated that SNHG16 expression was significantly increased in BC tissues and cells. Overexpression of SNHG16 promoted the migration, invasion, and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) of BC cells. SNHG16 was carried by EVs. Bioinformatics analysis predicted that SNHG16 regulated PPAPDC1A expression by sponging miR-892b, which was confirmed by RNA-fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), RT-qPCR, dual-luciferase gene reporter assay, and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP). MDA-MB-157 and HS578T cells were transfected with pcDNA3.1-SNHG16, miR-892b-mimic, or si-PPAPDC1A for functional rescue experiments in vitro, and the cells were treated with MDA-MB-231 cell-derived EVs. The results confirmed that enhanced miR-892b expression partially eliminated the increase of migration, invasion, and EMT of BC cells mediated by SNHG16 or EVs. The lung metastasis model in nude mice was established by injecting HS578T cells via tail vein. The results showed that si-SNHG16 reduced the metastatic nodules and decreased the vimentin expression. In conclusion, EVs derived from BC cells transferred SNHG16 via the miR-892b/PPAPDC1A axis, thus promoting EMT, migration, and invasion of BC.

Background Kidney transplantation is now a viable alternative to dialysis in HIV-positive patients who achieve good immunovirological control with the currently available antiretroviral therapy regimens. This systematic review and meta-analysis investigate the published evidence of outcome and risk of kidney transplantation in HIV-positive patients following the PRISMA guidelines. Methods Searches of PubMed, the Cochrane Library and EMBASE identified 27 cohort studies and 1670 case series evaluating the survival of HIV-positive kidney transplant patients published between July 2003 and May 2018. The regimens for induction, maintenance therapy and highly active antiretroviral therapy, acute rejection, patient and graft survival, CD4 count and infectious complications were recorded. We evaluated the patient survival and graft survival at 1 and 3 years respectively, acute rejection rate and also other infectious complications by using a random-effects analysis. Results At 1 year, patient survival was 0.97 (95% CI 0.95; 0.98), graft survival was 0.91 (95% CI 0.88; 0.94), acute rejection was 0.33 (95% CI 0.28; 0.38), and infectious complications was 0.41 (95% CI 0.34; 0.50), and at 3 years, patient survival was 0.94 (95% CI 0.90; 0.97) and graft survival was 0.81 (95% CI 0.74; 0.87). Conclusions With careful selection and evaluation, kidney transplantation can be performed with good outcomes in HIV-positive patients.

Due to the arbitrary scales, uncertain distributions of objects and cluttered background in natural scenes, uniformly detecting salient regions remains a challenge. This paper first proposes a Gestalt-grouping connectedness method based on path analysis to reflect the topological relationship between image pixels. Inspired by the Gestalt principles of feature grouping, we apply a smoothest path-based distance metric to capture the similarity, local proximity and global continuity between image pixels. The distance is small if the image pixels belong to the same visual region and large otherwise. To identify salient regions in natural images, we then propose a path-based background saliency model that integrates both the topological connectedness and appearance dissimilarity. Experimental results demonstrate the advantage of applying the path-based background saliency model in uniformly highlighting salient regions in images with complex backgrounds.

To investigate the bond properties of deformed steel bars in concrete during construction under reversed cyclic loading, concentric pull-out tests under reversed cyclic loading were performed on specimens with six concrete ages and three concrete strength grades. The effects of concrete age and strength grade on the following bond response indicators were examined: maximum bond stress, slip corresponding to the maximum bond stress, residual bond stress, cumulative energy dissipation, unloading stiffness, and frictional bond stress factor. The results indicated that for specimens with the same concrete strength grade, with an increase in the concrete age, the maximum bond stress, residual bond stress, unloading stiffness, frictional bond stress factor, and energy-dissipation capacity increased, whereas the slip at the maximum bond stress decreased. Moreover, with regard to specimens with the same concrete age, with increasing concrete strength grade, the maximum bond stress, residual bond stress, unloading stiffness, frictional bond stress, and energy-dissipation capacity increased, whereas the slip corresponding to the maximum bond stress decreased. According to the analysis of the bond properties of the specimens with different concrete ages and strength grades, empirical bond stress–slip models of a deformed steel bars in concrete during construction under reversed cyclic loading were proposed. A good agreement was observed by comparing the proposed models with the experimental results in this study and the existing models in the literature.

We report a new type of nano-optical tip, the quantum dot decorated nano-pyramid fiber tip, for scanning near-field optical microscopy. The nano-pyramid tip has a large apex angle (70.5 degree), and consequently exhibits a significant improvement (17-fold) of the signal collection efficiency compared to conventional tapered fiber tips. Moreover, thanks to the template-based fabrication method and the surface treatment technique, the quantum-dot decorated nano-pyramid tip enjoys a clean and smooth surface, and can be produced with high accuracy and high reproducibility. Experimental results show that, with the nano-pyramid tip, the optical field distribution of a photonic nanostructure can be mapped with a 20 nm resolution ( λ /20). It provides a powerful and reliable tool for near-field optical measurements.

This research presents the test results of mechanical properties, micropore structures, and water absorption characteristics during the service period of early frost-damaged concrete to investigate the deterioration of service performance for early-age frozen concrete. The corresponding tests were conducted by considering the frost environment factors of frost onset time, frost temperature, and frost duration. The effects of these three factors on the service performance of early-age frozen concrete are discussed. The results illustrate that compared with the service performance of concrete not frozen at an early age, the performance of early-age frozen concrete degraded severely and the degradation of service performance is aggravated with decreasing frost temperature and increasing frost duration. Moreover, for the concrete that suffered from freezing at an early age with different frost onset times, the degradation of service performance caused by freezing between the initial setting and final setting time is the most critical, followed by that before the initial setting time, and it decreases gradually with increasing frost onset time after the final setting time. The study provided a set of reliable and valuable test data for researchers and engineers in structural antifreeze engineering, which is of considerable theoretical significance for revealing the damage mechanisms and objectively evaluating the damage degree of early-age frozen concrete.

Purpose To assess the longitudinal changes of allograft pathophysiology by intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) MRI in a rat model of acute renal allograft rejection. Materials and methods Acute rejection (AR) was induced by transplantation of Dark Agouti donor kidneys into Lewis recipients (n = 18). A Lewis-Lewis rat syngeneically transplanted (sTX) model served as the control (n = 6). Acute tubular necrosis (n = 6) and acute calcineurin inhibitor toxicity (n = 6) groups were established using Lewis rats. MRI was performed on postoperative day (POD) 1, 4 and 7 in the allogeneically transplanted (aTX) group and on POD4 in the other groups. Histological evaluation and PCR were performed. Results After the allogenic transplantation, all MRI parameters of allograft further decreased until POD7, and the D and ADC values in the cortex were significantly lower than that in the sTX group (1.03 ± 0.09 vs 1.52 ± 0.09 × 10−3 mm2/s, Padj Conclusions IVIM coupled with BOLD MRI allows longitudinal assessment of allograft diffusion, perfusion and oxygen consumption impairment caused by acute renal allograft rejection in rat model.

A type I core/shell structured Bi2S3@ZnS photocatalyst was synthesized by an electrostatic interaction mechanism and used for the photoelectrochemical detection of Cu2+. The Bi2S3@ZnS composite showed excellent photoelectrochemical activity and stability due to the high photoelectrochemical activity of Bi2S3 and the anti-photocorrosion function of the ZnS shell. In addition, the ZnS shell also provided a transfer platform for the photogenerated holes through its acceptor states (i.e. VZn and IS) and suppressed the recombination of photogenerated carriers. The photocurrent signal of the obtained Bi2S3@ZnS/ITO electrode was much higher than that of pure Bi2S3 under visible-light irradiation. When it was used for the photoelectrochemical sensing of Cu2+, a wide detection range (0.003–30.0 μM) and a low detection limit (0.001 μM) were observed. The sensor also displayed high stability and acceptable selectivity. It was applied to detect real samples and good results were achieved.

The authors propose a tracking algorithm based on the reliability analysis of the convolutional neural network to avoid drift. In general, most tracking algorithms implemented with the deep network consist of a single network; they obtain the tracking results according to the confidence and perform updates with the samples, which are collected based on the previous target state. However, this kind of algorithm relies heavily on the accuracy of tracking results, and slight deviations can lead to improperly labelled training samples and degrade the network. Therefore, they design a verification network to guarantee the reliability of the tracking network by correcting the results and it can be connected to a tracking network by sharing convolutional layers. The reliability verification network estimates the accuracy of the results of the tracking network and discards ambiguous results to avoid accumulating errors. Specifically, the verification network can distinguish the target from the confused candidates more precisely because of the optimised training data. The training samples of the verification network consist of characteristics and labels, and they are optimised by feature selection and label enhancement, respectively. The experimental results illustrate the outstanding performance compared with several state-of-the-art methods on the challenging video sequences.

A photonics-based radio frequency (RF) self-interference cancellation approach for radio-over-fiber (RoF) systems is proposed and demonstrated. An intermediate frequency (IF) signal and a local oscillator (LO) signal are separately modulated to a pair of optical carriers with orthogonal polarization states in the central station. The generated optically carried RF signal is then transmitted to remote base stations over fibers. After performing photodetection at the two outputs of the polarization beam splitter (PBS), a pair of upconverted RF signals with inverse phases are generated. One is used as the transmitted signal, while the other is used as the reference signal for the self-interference cancellation. In this way, the phase inversion between them is realized in the optical domain. In addition, the adjustments with the time delay and the amplitude of the reference signal are both achieved in the optical domain, guaranteeing the self-interference cancellation in a wide bandwidth. Meanwhile, the independent optical system for self-interference cancellation is avoided, simplifying the complex hardware requirements with the base stations. The cancellation depths of 33, 30, and 22 dB over 0.5-, 1-, and 3-GHz bandwidths are experimentally achieved, respectively. The ranging and imaging functions of a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar system using the established self-interference cancellation structure are experimentally verified.

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a nonsteroidal estrogenic mycotoxin, and its accurate detection in complex biological samples is still a challenge. Herein, an antifouling ratiometric electrochemical sensor has been developed for its detection. In this system, black phosphorus-graphene oxide is used as substrate to amplify the signal; ionic liquid doped molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) endows the sensing surface not only high recognition ability but also high capability to resist nonspecific adsorption. During MIP preparation a magnetic field is introduced to regulate polymer structure for improving the recognition efficiency of the sensor. The signals of ZEN and poly methylene blue (MB) serve as response signal and internal reference signal, respectively. The peak current of ZEN increases with the increase of ZEN concentration, while the peak current of poly(MB) decreases simultaneously; their ratio changes with ZEN concentration variation. The obtained ratiometric sensor shows a wide linear response range of 0.05-13 μM and a low limit of detection of 12.7 nM (S/N = 3). Furthermore, it has high selectivity, stability and reproducibility, thanks to the advanced antifouling MIP and the built-in correction of poly(MB). The sensor has been successfully applied to determine ZEN in human serum.

BACKGROUND: Minimally-invasive-perventricular-device-occlusion (MIPDO) combined superiority of surgical-repair and percutaneous-device-closure in treating perimembranous-ventricular-septal-defect (pmVSD). This study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of MIPDO for treating pmVSD, comparing with surgical-repair. METHODS: Patients aged ≥3 months with isolated pmVSDs were randomized to undergo either surgical or MIPDO procedure, with the median follow-up time of 49 months. The primary outcome was the rate of complete pmVSD closure at discharge. The secondary outcomes included the adverse events during hospitalization and follow-up, chest tube output volume, blood transfusion volume, procedural duration, ventilation time, hospitalization duration and hospitalization cost. Also, perioperative cardiac performance and systemic conditions were evaluated. RESULTS: Of the 313 patients (9 months to 42 years old; median, 4 years old) with pmVSDs recruited from 3 centers, 100 were finally enrolled and randomly allocated 1:1 into two groups. The non-inferiority (non-inferiority margin −8.0%) of MIPDO to surgical closure regarding efficacy was shown in both intention-to-treat (0, 95% CI: −0.055 to 0.055) and per-protocol populations (0.02, 95% CI: −0.018 to 0.058). Although the rate of adverse events was similar between groups, the MIPDO group showed superiority in procedural duration, ventilation time, chest tube output volume, postoperative hospitalization time and hospitalization cost compared with surgical group (P

Thermal facial recognition is getting more and more attention now. However, due to the small number of thermal imaging facial databases, models trained with existing databases are not as robust and have low recognition rates in different environments. To solve this problem, we released a new thermal surface database and added the SE attention mechanism module and SPP module to the YOLO v3 framework to improve the detection effect of the model. Compared with the original YOLO v3, the mAP value has been improved by 22.1 % and 16.7%.

Background: To study the differential gene expression and clinical significance in HIVIIs (human immunodeficiency virus-infected individuals) with penile squamous cell carcinoma.Methods: At our hospital from 2019 to 2020, we selected 6 samples of HIV-related penile squamous cell carcinoma for the experimental group and 6 samples of non-HIV-related penile squamous cell carcinoma for the control group. Transcriptome sequencing of sample mRNAs was performed by high-throughput sequencing. Differential gene expression analysis, differential GO (Gene Ontology) enrichment analysis and differential KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) pathway analysis were carried out, and the RPKM (reads per kilobase per million reads) value was used as a measure of gene expression.Results: A total of 2418 differentially expressed genes were obtained, of which 663 were upregulated and 1755 were downregulated (absolute value of logFC >1.0 and p valueConclusions: The gene expression profiles of HIV-related penile squamous cell carcinoma and non-HIV-related penile squamous cell carcinoma are significantly different and involve significant GO enrichment and KEGG metabolic pathways, and this is very meaningful for the study of NADCs (non-AIDS-defining cancers). Differential expression of genes may be an important target for the prevention of penile squamous cell carcinoma in HIVIIs.