Disordered hyperuniform structures are locally random while uniform like crystals at large length scales. Recently, an exotic hyperuniform fluid state was found in several nonequilibrium systems, ...while the underlying physics remains unknown. In this work, we propose a nonequilibrium (driven-dissipative) hardsphere model and formulate a hydrodynamic theory based on Navier–Stokes equations to uncover the general mechanism of the fluidic hyperuniformity (HU). At a fixed density, this model system undergoes a smooth transition from an absorbing state to an active hyperuniform fluid and then, to the equilibrium fluid by changing the dissipation strength. We study the criticality of the absorbing-phase transition. We find that the origin of fluidic HU can be understood as the damping of a stochastic harmonic oscillator in q space, which indicates that the suppressed long-wavelength density fluctuation in the hyperuniform fluid can exhibit as either acoustic (resonance) mode or diffusive (overdamped) mode. Importantly, our theory reveals that the damping dissipation and active reciprocal interaction (driving) are the two ingredients for fluidic HU. Based on this principle, we further demonstrate how to realize the fluidic HU in an experimentally accessible active spinner system and discuss the possible realization in other systems.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
As of June 8, 2020, the global reported number of COVID-19 cases had reached more than 7 million with over 400 000 deaths. The household transmissibility of the causative pathogen, severe acute ...respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), remains unclear. We aimed to estimate the secondary attack rate of SARS-CoV-2 among household and non-household close contacts in Guangzhou, China, using a statistical transmission model.
In this retrospective cohort study, we used a comprehensive contact tracing dataset from the Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention to estimate the secondary attack rate of COVID-19 (defined as the probability that an infected individual will transmit the disease to a susceptible individual) among household and non-household contacts, using a statistical transmission model. We considered two alternative definitions of household contacts in the analysis: individuals who were either family members or close relatives, such as parents and parents-in-law, regardless of residential address, and individuals living at the same address regardless of relationship. We assessed the demographic determinants of transmissibility and the infectivity of COVID-19 cases during their incubation period.
Between Jan 7, 2020, and Feb 18, 2020, we traced 195 unrelated close contact groups (215 primary cases, 134 secondary or tertiary cases, and 1964 uninfected close contacts). By identifying households from these groups, assuming a mean incubation period of 5 days, a maximum infectious period of 13 days, and no case isolation, the estimated secondary attack rate among household contacts was 12·4% (95% CI 9·8–15·4) when household contacts were defined on the basis of close relatives and 17·1% (13·3–21·8) when household contacts were defined on the basis of residential address. Compared with the oldest age group (≥60 years), the risk of household infection was lower in the youngest age group (<20 years; odds ratio OR 0·23 95% CI 0·11–0·46) and among adults aged 20–59 years (OR 0·64 95% CI 0·43–0·97). Our results suggest greater infectivity during the incubation period than during the symptomatic period, although differences were not statistically significant (OR 0·61 95% CI 0·27–1·38). The estimated local reproductive number (R) based on observed contact frequencies of primary cases was 0·5 (95% CI 0·41–0·62) in Guangzhou. The projected local R, had there been no isolation of cases or quarantine of their contacts, was 0·6 (95% CI 0·49–0·74) when household was defined on the basis of close relatives.
SARS-CoV-2 is more transmissible in households than SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Older individuals (aged ≥60 years) are the most susceptible to household transmission of SARS-CoV-2. In addition to case finding and isolation, timely tracing and quarantine of close contacts should be implemented to prevent onward transmission during the viral incubation period.
US National Institutes of Health, Science and Technology Plan Project of Guangzhou, Project for Key Medicine Discipline Construction of Guangzhou Municipality, Key Research and Development Program of China.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Bacterial infections remain a leading threat to global health because of the misuse of antibiotics and the rise in drug‐resistant pathogens. Although several strategies such as photothermal therapy ...and magneto‐thermal therapy can suppress bacterial infections, excessive heat often damages host cells and lengthens the healing time. Here, a localized thermal managing strategy, thermal‐disrupting interface induced mitigation (TRIM), is reported, to minimize intercellular cohesion loss for accurate antibacterial therapy. The TRIM dressing film is composed of alternative microscale arrangement of heat‐responsive hydrogel regions and mechanical support regions, which enables the surface microtopography to have a significant effect on disrupting bacterial colonization upon infrared irradiation. The regulation of the interfacial contact to the attached skin confines the produced heat and minimizes the risk of skin damage during thermoablation. Quantitative mechanobiology studies demonstrate the TRIM dressing film with a critical dimension for surface features plays a critical role in maintaining intercellular cohesion of the epidermis during photothermal therapy. Finally, endowing wound dressing with the TRIM effect via in vivo studies in S. aureus infected mice demonstrates a promising strategy for mitigating the side effects of photothermal therapy against a wide spectrum of bacterial infections, promoting future biointerface design for antibacterial therapy.
A localized thermal‐management strategy from thermal‐disrupting interface induced mitigation (TRIM) is developed to maintain intercellular cohesion and reduce function loss of epidermis tissue for topical antibacterial therapy. A dressing film with the TRIM effect inhibits aggregation of bacteria, promotes selective elimination of pathogens, and shortens the healing process.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Epidermal bioelectronics that can monitor human health status non‐invasively and in real time are core to wearable healthcare equipment. Achieving mechanically tolerant surface bioreactions that ...convert biochemical information to detectable signals is crucial for obtaining high sensing fidelity. In this work, by combining simulations and experiments, a typical epidermal biosensor system is investigated based on a redox enzyme cascade reaction (RECR) comprising glucose oxidase/lactate oxidase enzymes and Prussian blue nanoparticles. Simulations reveal that strain‐induced change in surface reactant flux is the key to the performance drop in traditional flat bioelectrodes. In contrast, wavy bioelectrodes capable of curvature adaptation maintain the reactant flux under strain, which preserves sensing fidelity. This rationale is experimentally proven by bioelectrodes with flat/wavy geometry under both static strain and dynamic stretching. When exposed to 50% strain, the signal fluctuations for wavy bioelectrodes are only 7.0% (4.9%) in detecting glucose (lactate), which are significantly lower than the 40.3% (51.8%) in flat bioelectrodes. Based on this wavy bioelectrode, a stable human epidermal metabolite biosensor insensitive to human gestures is further demonstrated. This mechanically tolerant biosensor based on adaptive curvature engineering provides a reliable bio/chemical‐information monitoring platform for soft healthcare bioelectronics.
Mechanical tolerance of bioreactions is crucial for obtaining high biosensing fidelity. By combining simulations and experiments, it is found that strain‐induced change in reactant flux accounts for the performance drop in flat bioelectrodes. Wavy bioelectrodes capable of curvature adaptation maintain the reactant flux and preserve biosensing performance under static strain and dynamic stretching, which are demonstrated in gesture‐insensitive epidermal metabolite biosensors.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Understanding the behaviors of a single active chain in complex environments is not only an interesting topic in non-equilibrium physics but also has applicative implications in biological/medical ...engineering. In this work, by using molecular simulations, we systematically study the dynamical and conformational behaviors of an active polymer in crowded environments,
i.e.
, a single active chain confined in 2D space with randomly arranged obstacles. We found that the competition between the chain's activity and rigidity in the presence of obstacles leads to many interesting dynamical and conformational states, such as the diffusive expanded state, the diffusive collapsed state, and the localized collapsed state. Importantly, we found a counter-intuitive phenomenon,
i.e.
, crowded environments facilitate the diffusion of the active polymer within a large parameter space. As the crowdedness (packing fraction of obstacles) increases, the parameter space in which crowding-enhanced diffusion occurs still remains. This abnormal dynamics is attributed to a structural reason that the obstacles prevent active chains from collapsing. Our findings capture some generic features of active polymers in complex environments and provide insights into the design of novel drug delivery systems.
Active polymers diffuse more rapidly in crowded environments than in free space because of the swollen of conformation.
Objectives
To investigate whether ureteroscopy (URS) before radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) for upper tract urothelial carcinomas (UTUCs) has an impact on oncological outcomes.
Patients and Methods
...We performed a systematic literature search of PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE for citations published prior to September 2017 that described URS performed on patients with UTUC and conducted a standard meta‐analysis on survival outcomes.
Results
Our meta‐analysis included eight eligible studies containing 3975 patients. The results were as follows: cancer‐specific survival (CSS; hazard ratio HR 0.76, 95% confidence interval CI 0.59–0.99; P = 0.04), overall survival (OS; HR 0.76, 95% CI 0.48–1.21; P = 0.24), recurrence‐free survival (RFS; HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.69–1.14; P = 0.37), metastasis‐free survival (MFS; HR 1.06, 95% CI 0.82–1.36; P = 0.66), and intravesical recurrence‐free survival (IRFS; HR 1.51, 95% CI 1.29–1.77; P < 0.001). When excluding previous bladder tumour history, the result for IRFS was a HR of 1.81 (95% CI 1.53–2.13; P < 0.001).
Conclusions
This meta‐analysis indicated that URS before RNU did not have a negative impact on CSS, OS, RFS, or MFS in patients with UTUC. However, patients were at higher risk of intravesical recurrence after RNU when they had undergone URS before RNU. Further studies are needed to assess the effects of post‐URS intravesical chemotherapy on intravesical recurrence.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Designing protocols to dynamically direct the self-assembly of colloidal particles has become an important direction in soft matter physics because of promising applications in the fabrication of ...dynamic responsive functional materials. Here, using computer simulations, we found that in the mixture of passive colloids and eccentric self-propelled active particles, when the eccentricity and self-propulsion of active particles are high enough, the eccentric active particles can push passive colloids to form a large dense dynamic cluster, and the system undergoes a novel dynamic demixing transition. Our simulations show that the dynamic demixing occurs when the eccentric active particles move much faster than the passive particles such that the dynamic trajectories of different active particles can overlap each other while passive particles are depleted from the dynamic trajectories of active particles. Our results suggest that this is in analogy to the entropy-driven demixing in colloid-polymer mixtures, in which polymer random coils can overlap with each other while depleting the colloids. More interestingly, we find that by fixing the passive colloid composition at a certain value with increasing density, the system undergoes an intriguing re-entrant mixing, and the demixing only occurs within a certain intermediate density range. This suggests a new way of designing active matter to drive the self-assembly of passive colloids and fabricate dynamic responsive materials.
Sunitinib resistance is, nowadays, the major challenge for advanced renal cell carcinoma patients. Illuminating the potential mechanisms and exploring effective strategies to overcome sunitinib ...resistance are highly desired. We constructed a reliable gene signature which may function as biomarkers for prediction of sunitinib sensitivity and clinical prognosis. The gene expression profiles were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. By performing GEO2R analysis, numerous differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were found to be associated with sunitinib resistance. To acquire more precise DEGs, we integrated three different microarray datasets. Functional analysis revealed that these DEGs were mainly involved in Rap1 signaling pathway, p53 signaling pathway and Ras signaling pathway. Then, top five hub genes, BIRC5, CD44, MUC1, TF, CCL5, were identified from protein–protein interaction (PPI) network. Sub‐network analysis carried out by MCODE plugin revealed that key DEGs were related with PI3K‐Akt signaling pathway, Rap1 signaling pathway and VEGF signaling pathway. Next, we established sunitinib‐resistant OS‐RC‐2 and 786‐O cell lines and validated the expression of five hub genes in cell lines. To further evaluate the potentials of five‐gene signature for predicting clinical prognosis, we analyzed RCC patients with gene expressions and overall survival information from two independent patient datasets. The Kaplan–Meier estimated the OS of RCC patients in the low‐ and high‐risk groups according to gene expression signature. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that the prognostic power of five‐gene signature was independent of clinical features. In conclusion, we developed a five‐gene signature which can predict sunitinib sensitivity and OS for advanced RCC patients, providing novel insights into understanding of sunitinib‐resistant mechanisms and identification of RCC patients with poor prognosis.
We developed a five‐gene signature which can predict sunitinib sensitivity and OS for advanced RCC patients, providing novel insights into understanding of sunitinib‐resistant mechanisms and identification of RCC patients with poor prognosis.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Designing and fabricating self-assembled open colloidal crystals have become one major direction in the soft matter community because of many promising applications associated with open colloidal ...crystals. However, most of the self-assembled crystals found in experiments are not open but close-packed. Here, by using computer simulation, we systematically investigate the self-assembly of oppositely charged colloidal hard spheres confined between two parallel hard walls, and we find that the confinement can stabilize multi-layer NaCl-like (simple cubic) open crystals. The maximal number of layers of stable NaCl-like crystals increases with decreasing inverse screening length. More interestingly, at finite low temperature, the large vibrational entropy can stabilize some multi-layer NaCl-like crystals against the most energetically favoured close-packed crystals. In the parameter range studied, we find up to 4-layer NaCl-like crystals to be stable in confinement. Our photonic calculation shows that the inverse 4-layer NaCl-like crystal can already reproduce the large photonic band gaps of the bulk simple cubic crystal, which open in the low frequency range with a low dielectric contrast. This suggests new possibilities of using confined colloidal systems to fabricate open crystalline materials with novel photonic properties.
Computer simulation shows that multi-layer simple cubic open crystals can exist in systems of oppositely charged colloids in confinement.
•The proposed approach based on Chebyshev inclusion function and least square method.•An uncertain gear vibration experiment is firstly designed and performed.•Effects of different uncertain ...parameters on system amplitude-frequency responses.
Gear transmission systems are widely used in mechanical equipment. Due to manufacturing and processing errors, material defects, wear and external environments, there are uncertain parameters such as mass, mesh stiffness and support stiffness. Parametric uncertainty plays an important role in response predictions of the gear transmission systems. In order to evaluate reasonably the dynamic characteristics of the gear transmission systems, a dynamic model of an uncertain single-stage gear system is established. The dynamic responses of the bounded uncertain gear transmission system are investigated by an interval analysis method based on the Chebyshev inclusion function. A matrix form of the least square method is applied to improve the calculation efficiency of the interval approach. The investigation reveals the effects of different uncertain parameters on amplitude-frequency responses of the gear system. It is the first time to design and to implement a test rig of an uncertain single-stage spur gear transmission system. The experimental results verify the accuracy and the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis results. The results demonstrate that the parametric uncertainty may propagate in the gear transmission system and the propagation results in significant variations of the dynamic responses.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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