Abstract
Interest in bringing p- and n-type monolayer semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) into contact to form rectifying pn diode has thrived since it is crucial to control the ...electrical properties in two-dimensional (2D) electronic and optoelectronic devices. Usually this involves vertically stacking different TMDs with pn heterojunction or, laterally manipulating carrier density by gate biasing. Here, by utilizing a locally reversed ferroelectric polarization, we laterally manipulate the carrier density and created a WSe
2
pn homojunction on the supporting ferroelectric BiFeO
3
substrate. This non-volatile WSe
2
pn homojunction is demonstrated with optical and scanning probe methods and scanning photoelectron micro-spectroscopy. A homo-interface is a direct manifestation of our WSe
2
pn diode, which can be quantitatively understood as a clear rectifying behavior. The non-volatile confinement of carriers and associated gate-free pn homojunction can be an addition to the 2D electron–photon toolbox and pave the way to develop laterally 2D electronics and photonics.
Nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep is associated with fading consciousness in humans. Recent neuroimaging studies have demonstrated the spatiotemporal alterations of the brain functional connectivity ...(FC) in NREM sleep, suggesting the changes of information integration in the sleeping brain. However, the common stationarity assumption in FC does not satisfactorily explain the dynamic process of information integration during sleep. The dynamic FC (dFC) across brain networks is speculated to better reflect the time‐varying information propagation during sleep. Accordingly, we conducted simultaneous EEG‐fMRI recordings involving 12 healthy men during sleep and observed dFC across sleep stages using the sliding‐window approach. We divided dFC into two aspects: mean dFC (dFCmean) and variance dFC (dFCvar). A high dFCmean indicates stable brain network integrity, whereas a high dFCvar indicates instability of information transfer within and between functional networks. For the network‐based dFC, the dFCvar were negatively correlated with the dFCmean across the waking and three NREM sleep stages. As sleep deepened, the dFCmean decreased (N0~N1 > N2 > N3), whereas the dFCvar peaked during the N2 stage (N0~N1 < N3 < N2). The highest dFCvar during the N2 stage indicated the unstable synchronizations across the entire brain. In the N3 stage, the overall disrupted network integration was observed through the lowest dFCmean and elevated dFCvar, compared with N0 and N1. Conclusively, when the network specificity (dFCmean) breaks down, the consciousness dissipates with increasing variability of information exchange (dFCvar).
Mucormycosis is a fungal infection caused by environmentally acquired molds. We investigated a cluster of cases of cutaneous mucormycosis among persons injured during the May 22, 2011, tornado in ...Joplin, Missouri.
We defined a case as a soft-tissue infection in a person injured during the tornado, with evidence of a mucormycete on culture or immunohistochemical testing plus DNA sequencing. We conducted a case-control study by reviewing medical records and conducting interviews with case patients and hospitalized controls. DNA sequencing and whole-genome sequencing were performed on clinical specimens to identify species and assess strain-level differences, respectively.
A total of 13 case patients were identified, 5 of whom (38%) died. The patients had a median of 5 wounds (range, 1 to 7); 11 patients (85%) had at least one fracture, 9 (69%) had blunt trauma, and 5 (38%) had penetrating trauma. All case patients had been located in the zone that sustained the most severe damage during the tornado. On multivariate analysis, infection was associated with penetrating trauma (adjusted odds ratio for case patients vs. controls, 8.8; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.1 to 69.2) and an increased number of wounds (adjusted odds ratio, 2.0 for each additional wound; 95% CI, 1.2 to 3.2). Sequencing of the D1-D2 region of the 28S ribosomal DNA yielded Apophysomyces trapeziformis in all 13 case patients. Whole-genome sequencing showed that the apophysomyces isolates were four separate strains.
We report a cluster of cases of cutaneous mucormycosis among Joplin tornado survivors that were associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Increased awareness of fungi as a cause of necrotizing soft-tissue infections after a natural disaster is warranted.
Using network analysis of resting-state functional MRI data, we demonstrate that significant randomization of global network metrics, and greater resilience to targeted attack on network hubs, was ...replicably demonstrable in Chinese patients with schizophrenia, and was also demonstrated for the first time in their nonpsychotic first-degree relatives. These results support the hypothesis that functional networks are abnormally randomized and resilient in schizophrenia and indicate that network randomization/resilience may be an endophenotype, or marker of familial risk, for schizophrenia. We suggest that the greater randomization of the brain network endophenotype of schizophrenia may confer advantages in terms of greater resilience to pathological attack that may explain the selection and persistence of risk genes for schizophrenia in the general population.
Schizophrenia is increasingly conceived as a disorder of brain network organization or dysconnectivity syndrome. Functional MRI (fMRI) networks in schizophrenia have been characterized by abnormally random topology. We tested the hypothesis that network randomization is an endophenotype of schizophrenia and therefore evident also in nonpsychotic relatives of patients. Head movement-corrected, resting-state fMRI data were acquired from 25 patients with schizophrenia, 25 first-degree relatives of patients, and 29 healthy volunteers. Graphs were used to model functional connectivity as a set of edges between regional nodes. We estimated the topological efficiency, clustering, degree distribution, resilience, and connection distance (in millimeters) of each functional network. The schizophrenic group demonstrated significant randomization of global network metrics (reduced clustering, greater efficiency), a shift in the degree distribution to a more homogeneous form (fewer hubs), a shift in the distance distribution (proportionally more long-distance edges), and greater resilience to targeted attack on network hubs. The networks of the relatives also demonstrated abnormal randomization and resilience compared with healthy volunteers, but they were typically less topologically abnormal than the patientsâ networks and did not have abnormal connection distances. We conclude that schizophrenia is associated with replicable and convergent evidence for functional network randomization, and a similar topological profile was evident also in nonpsychotic relatives, suggesting that this is a systems-level endophenotype or marker of familial risk. We speculate that the greater resilience of brain networks may confer some fitness advantages on nonpsychotic relatives that could explain persistence of this endophenotype in the population.
Recent research on Alzheimer's disease (AD) has shown that the decline of cognitive and memory functions is accompanied by a disrupted neuronal connectivity characterized by white matter (WM) ...degeneration. However, changes in the topological organization of WM structural network in AD remain largely unknown. Here, we used diffusion tensor image tractography to construct the human brain WM networks of 25 AD patients and 30 age- and sex-matched healthy controls, followed by a graph theoretical analysis. We found that both AD patients and controls had a small-world topology in WM network, suggesting an optimal balance between structurally segregated and integrative organization. More important, the AD patients exhibited increased shortest path length and decreased global efficiency in WM network compared with controls, implying abnormal topological organization. Furthermore, we showed that the WM network contained highly connected hub regions that were predominately located in the precuneus, cingulate cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which was consistent with the previous diffusion-MRI studies. Specifically, AD patients were found to have reduced nodal efficiency predominantly located in the frontal regions. Finally, we showed that the alterations of various network properties were significantly correlated with the behavior performances. Together, the present study demonstrated for the first time that the Alzheimer's brain was associated with disrupted topological organization in the large-scale WM structural networks, thus providing the structural evidence for abnormalities of systematic integrity in this disease. This work could also have implications for understanding how the abnormalities of structural connectivity in AD underlie behavioral deficits in the patients.
White matter hyperintensity (WMH) is associated with vascular hemodynamic alterations and reflects white matter injury. To date, the sex difference of tract‐specific WMH and the relationship between ...high blood pressure (BP) and tract‐specific WMH remain unclear. We recruited 515 subjects from the Shanghai Changfeng study (range 53–89 years, mean age 67.33 years). Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) were collected and used to calculate pulse pressure (PP). Magnetic resonance T1 and T2 FLAIR images were acquired to measure WMH and calculate WMH index. The ANCOVA test was performed to test the difference between sexes, and the linear regression model was used to examine the associations between BP and WMH index. Men showed higher WMH index than women in all white matter tracts (p < .001, respectively) except for the bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and its left temporal part (tSLF). High SBP and PP was associated with a lower WMH index on the left corticospinal tract (CST), SLF, tSLF and right cingulum in hippocampus (p ≤ .001, respectively) in women, while high DBP was associated with a higher WMH index on the bilateral CST (left p < .001; right p = .001), left inferior longitudinal fasciculus (p < .001) and inferior fronto‐occipital fasciculus (p = .002) in men. Men tend to have more WMH compared to women. A high SBP/PP relates to a lower WMH burden in women. This suggests that women could benefit from higher blood pressure in older age.
This middle‐aged and elderly community‐based study revealed that men had significantly greater WMH index than women in all of the white‐matter tracts except for the bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus and its left temporal part, which highlight the health advantage for women in older age. Higher SBP/PP was found to be correlated with lower WMH index in women, suggesting that women may benefit from a higher blood pressure in older age. Blood pressure was found to be associated with WMH index in a different way in both sexes, suggesting sex stratification is important when considering vascular risk on WMH with increasing age.
Recurrence after successful treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is challenging because of limited retreatment options. This study aimed to determine rates and predictors of MDR-TB ...recurrence after successful treatment in Taiwan. Recurrence rates were analyzed by time from treatment completion in 295 M DR-TB patients in a national cohort. Factors associated with MDR-TB recurrence were examined using a multivariate Cox regression analysis. Ten (3%) patients experienced MDR-TB recurrence during a median follow-up of 4.8 years. The overall recurrence rate was 0.6 cases per 1000 person-months. Cavitation on chest radiography was an independent predictor of recurrence (adjusted hazard ratio aHR = 6.3; 95% CI, 1.2-34). When the analysis was restricted to 215 patients (73%) tested for second-line drug susceptibility, cavitation (aHR = 10.2; 95% CI, 1.2-89) and resistance patterns of extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) or pre-XDR-TB (aHR = 7.3; 95% CI, 1.2-44) were associated with increased risk of MDR-TB recurrence. In Taiwan, MDR-TB patients with cavitary lesions and resistance patterns of XDR-TB or pre-XDR-TB are at the highest risk of recurrence. These have important implications for MDR-TB programs aiming to optimize post-treatment follow-up and early detection of recurrent MDR-TB.
Introduction
Low‐energy extracorporeal shock wave therapy (LiESWT) is a new potential treatment for intractable interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS), and this paper will evaluate its ...therapeutic effects on IC/BPS.
Materials and Methods
This prospective clinical trial enrolled 30 women who have been diagnosed with IC/PBS to receive LiESWT treatment at an intensity of 0.25 mJ/mm2 and a frequency of 3 pulses/second, for a total of 3000 pulses within 8 weeks. And we assessed questionnaires (including O'Leary‐Sant Interstitial Cystitis Symptom Index (ICSI)), 3‐day voiding diary, and urodynamic study at the following intervals: 4 weeks of LiESWT (W4), 8 weeks of LiESWT (W8), 1‐month follow‐up (F1), 3‐month follow‐up (F3) after LiESWT, and 1 year follow‐up (F12).
Results
The primary outcome of questionnaires showed significant improvement of symptoms compared to baseline (W0), especially on ICSI(12.87 ± 3.44 before treatment and 7.87 ± 5.27 at F12, p < 0.05). 3‐day voiding diary also revealed significant decrease in daytime voiding frequency (15.57 ± 5.22 times before treatment and 10.70 ± 4.21 times at F1, p < 0.05) and significant increase on average voiding volume (95.85 ± 35.30 mL before treatment and 161.27 ± 74.21 mL at F1, p < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in all parameters of the urodynamic study.
Conclusion
LiESWT can mitigate pain and lower urinary tract symptoms and improve the quality of life in IC/PBS patients, but does not increase the maximal cystometric capacity.
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common malignant neoplasm of the oral cavity and the fourth leading malignancy and cause of cancer-related death in the male population of Taiwan. Most ...cases are detected at advanced stages, resulting in poor prognosis. Therefore, improved detection of early oral health disorders is indispensable. The involvement of oral bacteria in inflammation and their association with OSCC progression provide a feasible target for diagnosis. Due to the nature of oral neoplasms, the diagnosis of epithelial precursor lesions is relatively easy compared with that of other types of cancer. However, the transition from an epithelial precursor lesion to cancer is slow and requires further and continuous follow-up. In this study, we investigated microbiota differences between normal individuals, epithelial precursor lesion patients, and cancer patients with different lifestyle habits, such as betel chewing and smoking, using next-generation sequencing. Overall, the oral microbiome compositions of five genera, Bacillus, Enterococcus, Parvimonas, Peptostreptococcus, and Slackia, revealed significant differences between epithelial precursor lesion and cancer patients and correlated with their classification into two clusters. These composition changes might have the potential to constitute a biomarker to help in monitoring the oral carcinogenesis transition from epithelial precursor lesion to cancer.
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