Adding three cycles of induction chemotherapy with gemcitabine and cisplatin to concurrent chemoradiotherapy improved 3-year recurrence-free survival (85.3%, vs. 76.5% with concurrent ...chemoradiotherapy alone) and overall survival (94.6% vs. 90.3%). Patients receiving induction chemotherapy were more likely to have grade 3 or 4 myelosuppression, nausea, and vomiting.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by infection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is transmitted through respiratory droplets and close contact 1–4. To ...diagnose COVID-19, oropharyngeal swab (OP swab) sampling is widely used for viral nucleic acid detection 3. However, healthcare workers who perform OP swab are at high risk of infection due to aerosol from patients during the process of sampling. And the quality of manual OP swabs is inconsistent among different collectors, which may lead to misdiagnosis 5. Use of a remote-controlled OP swab robot has the potential to avoid close contact between healthcare workers with patients, and thus reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection during sampling. Here, we invented a robotic sampling (RS) system and evaluated the safety and efficacy of this system on OP swab sampling during the period of pandemic.
Clinical application of the safety and effectiveness of an intelligent oropharyngeal-swab robot, and its implication for the COVID-19 pandemic
https://bit.ly/2BUsV55
Phosphors emitting visible and near-infrared persistent luminescence have been explored extensively owing to their unusual properties and commercial interest in their applications such as ...glow-in-the-dark paints, optical information storage, and in vivo bioimaging. However, no persistent phosphor that features emissions in the ultraviolet C range (200-280 nm) has been known to exist so far. Here, we demonstrate a strategy for creating a new generation of persistent phosphor that exhibits strong ultraviolet C emission with an initial power density over 10 milliwatts per square meter and an afterglow of more than 2 h. Experimental characterizations coupled with first-principles calculations have revealed that structural defects associated with oxygen introduction-induced anion vacancies in fluoride elpasolite can function as electron traps, which capture and store a large number of electrons triggered by X-ray irradiation. Notably, we show that the ultraviolet C afterglow intensity of the yielded phosphor is sufficiently strong for sterilization. Our discovery of this ultraviolet C afterglow opens up new avenues for research on persistent phosphors, and it offers new perspectives on their applications in terms of sterilization, disinfection, drug release, cancer treatment, anti-counterfeiting, and beyond.
All-inorganic perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) have emerged as a new generation of low-cost semiconducting luminescent system for optoelectronic applications. The room-temperature photoluminescence ...quantum yields (PLQYs) of these NCs in the green and red spectral range approach unity. However, their PLQYs in the violet are much lower, and an insightful understanding of such poor performance remains missing. We report a general strategy for the synthesis of all-inorganic violet-emitting perovskite NCs with near-unity PLQYs through engineering local order of the lattice by nickel ion doping. A broad range of experimental characterizations, including steady-state and time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectra, and magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, reveal that the low PLQY in undoped NCs is associated with short-range disorder of the lattice induced by intrinsic defects such as halide vacancies and that Ni doping can substantially eliminate these defects and result in increased short-range order of the lattice. Density functional theory calculations reveal that Ni doping of perovskites causes an increase of defect formation energy and does not introduce deep trap states in the band gap, which is suggested to be the main reason for the improved local structural order and near-unity PLQY. Our ability to obtain violet-emitting perovskite NCs with near-perfect properties opens the door for a range of applications in violet-emitting perovskite-based devices such as light-emitting diodes, single-photon sources, lasers, and beyond.
Full text
Available for:
IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Cesium lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) have emerged as promising luminescent materials for a range of applications. However, the creation of highly luminescent violet-emitting CsPbCl3 NCs ...mostly relies on doping of a limited number of small-sized metal ions or post-synthetic surface treatment of NCs. Alkaline-earth (AE) metals (e.g., Ca2+, Sr2+, and Ba2+) have been proposed to be able to substitute Pb2+ in halide perovskites, yet it remains incompletely understood whether AE metal ions can be incorporated into the perovskite lattice or can be merely situated at the surface. Here, we explore the possibility of using AE metal ions for the suppression of the formation of trap centers, which leads us to develop a one-pot synthetic passivation strategy to boost the violet-emitting efficiency of CsPbCl3 NCs through the creation of a Ca2+/Sr2+ involved passivation layer. The photoluminescence quantum yield of violet emission reaches 77.1% by incorporating an optimal amount of Ca2+. A wide range of optical and structural characterizations, coupled with first-principles calculations, aid in clarifying the underlying mechanism for the AE-metal-dependent passivation of CsPbCl3 NCs. Specifically, based on the experimental and theoretical results, a model is proposed for the observed abnormal incorporation phenomenon of AE2+ ions in NCs (i.e., Ba2+ can be incorporated into the core of NCs, Ca2+/Sr2+ can only be at/near the surface, while Mg2+ can neither be in the core nor at the surface). We believe that the knowledge gained here may not only offer a new perspective to obtain high-efficiency violet-emitting perovskite NCs through a one-pot synthetic passivation but can also help elucidate the functions that AE2+ ions play in the optimization of perovskite optoelectronic devices.
Full text
Available for:
IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Inspired by concerns of the effects of a warming climate, drought variation and its impacts have gained much attention in China. Arguments about China's drought persist and little work has utilized ...agricultural drought survey area to evaluate the impact of natural drought on agriculture. Based on a newly revised self‐calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) model driven with air‐relative‐humidity‐based two‐source (ARTS) E0 (PDSIARTS; Yan et al., 2014), spatial and temporal variations of drought were analyzed for 1982–2011 in China, which indicates that there was nonsignificant change of drought over this interval but with an extreme drought event happened in 2000–2001. However, using air temperature (Ta)‐based Thornthwaite potential evaporation (EP_Th) and Penman‐Monteith potential evaporation (EP_PM) to drive the PDSI model, their corresponding PDSITh and PDSIPM all gave a significant drying trend for 1982–2011. This suggests that PDSI model was sensitive to EP parameterization in China. Annual drought‐covered area from agriculture survey was initially adopted to evaluate impact of PDSI drought on agriculture in China during 1982–2011. The results indicate that PDSIARTS drought area (defined as PDSIARTS < −0.5) correlated well with the agriculture drought‐covered area and PDSIARTS successfully detected the extreme agriculture drought in 2000–2001 during 1982–2011, i.e., climate factors dominated the interannual changes of agriculture drought area, while PDSITh and PDSIPM drought areas had no relationship with the agriculture drought‐covered area and overestimated the uptrend of agriculture drought This study highlights the importance of coupling PDSI with drought survey data in evaluating the impact of natural drought on agriculture.
Key Points
Nonsignificant change of drought in China during 1982–2011 revealed by PDSIARTS model
PDSIARTS denoted‐natural drought dominated interannual changes of agricultural drought survey area
Thornthwaite and Penman PET‐based PDSI overestimated drying trend for whole China including cropland
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Previous studies have demonstrated that serum amyloid A (SAA) levels are correlated with the clinical outcomes of solid tumors. However, the available data have not been systematically evaluated. The ...objective of the present meta-analysis was to explore the prognostic value of SAA levels in solid tumors.
Eligible studies were identified from the PubMed, EMBASE and Science Citation Index electronic databases. The clinical characteristics, disease/progression-free survival (DFS/PFS) and overall survival (OS) were extracted from the eligible studies. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated with Stata 12.0 software. We also performed subgroup, meta-regression and sensitivity analyses.
In total, 12 eligible studies including 2749 patients were enrolled in the present meta-analysis. The pooled HRs with 95% CIs showed that elevated levels of SAA were significantly associated with poor OS (HR = 3.01, 95% CI 1.96-4.63) and DFS/PFS (HR = 1.67, 95% CI 1.31-2.12) in patients with solid tumors. Although publication bias was seem found in the studies with regard to OS, a further trim and fill analysis revealed that the adjusted HR was 3.02 (95% CI 1.96-4.63), which was close to the original HR. Subgroup analysis confirmed an elevated level of SAA as a strong prognostic marker in patients with solid tumors, regardless of tumor type, detection method, cut-off value, sample size, area and variance analyses.
Our meta-analysis indicated that elevated levels of SAA might be an unfavorable prognostic marker for OS in patients with solid tumors.
Full text
Available for:
IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
The population of patients with huge hepatocellular carcinoma (H‐HCC diameter > 10.0 cm) is an odd group that is not well adjudicated in the current staging systems, whose prognosis after curative ...resection varies. We aimed to develop novel models to predict the long‐term outcomes of patients with H‐HCC without portal vein tumor thrombus after hepatectomy. There were 1076 H‐HCC patients enrolled who underwent curative liver resection in five institutions in China. In total, 670 patients were recruited from our center and randomly divided into the training cohort (n = 502) and internal validation (n = 168) cohorts. Additionally, 406 patients selected from other four centers as the external validation cohort. Novel models were constructed based on independent preoperative and postoperative predictors of postsurgical recurrence (PSR) and postsurgical mortality (PSM) determined in multivariable cox regression analysis. The predictive accuracy and discriminative ability of the model were measured using Harrell's concordance index (C index) and calibration curve and compared with five conventional HCC staging systems. PSR model and PSM model were constructed based on tumor number, microscopic vascular invasion, tumor differentiation, preoperative alpha‐fetoprotein level, albumin‐bilirubin grade, liver segment invasion, neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio or platelet‐to‐neutrophil ratio, and surgical margin or intraoperative blood transfusion. The C‐indexes were 0.84 (95% CI, 0.78‐0.90) and 0.85 (95% CI, 0.78‐0.91) for the PSR and PSM models, respectively, which were substantially higher than those of the five conventional HCC staging systems (0.63‐0.75 for PSR; 0.66‐0.77 for PSM). The two novel models achieved more accurate prognostic predictions of PSR and PSM for H‐HCC patients after curative liver resection.
What's new?
There is no individual prognostic score or tool to predict the prognosis of patients with huge hepatocellular carcinoma (H‐HCC, diameter > 10.0 cm) after hepatectomy. In this large retrospective cohort study, the authors developed two novel models which could accurately and objectively predict postsurgical recurrence and mortality for patients with H‐HCC after curative liver resection. The models, which are publicly available, are based on eight conventional and easily obtainable clinicopathological and surgical variables. The models could be used to guide postoperative monitoring for patients with a high risk of recurrence, and may thus potentially contribute to improving survival in these patients.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Objective: To study whether miR-21 targets and inhibits tumor suppressor gene PTEN can promote prostate cancer cell proliferation and invasion,Methods: Prostate cancer cell lines PC-3 were cultured ...and divided into negative control group(NC group),miR-21 group,pc DNA3.1 group,miR-21+pc DNA3.1 group and miR-21+PTEN group that were transfected with different mi R and plasmid,respectively,After 12 h and 24 h of transfection,the cell viability and invasive cell number were determined; after 24 h of transfection,Bcl-2,Survivin,MMP2,MMP9,PTEN,PI3 K,and AKT expression in cells were determined,Results: After 12 h and 24 h of transfection,OD value and invasive cell number of miR-21 group were significantly higher than those of NC group; after 24 h of transfection,Bcl-2,Survivin,MMP2,MMP9,PI3 K and AKT expression levels were significantly higher than those of NC group while PTEN expression level was significantly lower than that of NC group; after 12 h and 24 h of transfection,OD value and invasive cell number of mi R-21+pcDNA3.1 group were significantly higher than those of pc DNA3.1 group,and the OD value and invasive cell number of mi R-21+PTEN group were significantly lower than those of mi R-21+pcDNA3.1 group; after 24 h of transfection,Bcl-2,Survivin,MMP2 and MMP9 content of mi R-21+pc DNA3.1 group were significantly higher than those of pcDNA3.1 group,and Bcl-2,Survivin,MMP2 and MMP9 content of miR-21+PTEN group were significantly lower than those of mi R-21+pcDNA3.1 group,Conclusions: miR-21 can target and inhibit tumor suppressor gene PTEN expression to promote prostate cancer cell proliferation and invasion.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
PDF
