Electron-boson coupling plays a key role in superconductivity for many systems. However, in copper-based high-critical temperature (
) superconductors, its relation to superconductivity remains ...controversial despite strong spectroscopic fingerprints. In this study, we used angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to find a pronounced correlation between the superconducting gap and the bosonic coupling strength near the Brillouin zone boundary in Bi
Sr
CaCu
O
The bosonic coupling strength rapidly increases from the overdoped Fermi liquid regime to the optimally doped strange metal, concomitant with the quadrupled superconducting gap and the doubled gap-to-
ratio across the pseudogap boundary. This synchronized lattice and electronic response suggests that the effects of electronic interaction and the electron-phonon coupling (EPC) reinforce each other in a positive-feedback loop upon entering the strange-metal regime, which in turn drives a stronger superconductivity.
Abstract Background The necessity of routine sub-nipple biopsy was uncertain, and the role of preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in detecting nipple invasion in patients who have been ...selected for nipple-sparing mastectomy (NSM) has not been adequately evaluated. Methods We retrospectively collected and analyzed the medical and surgical records of 434 patients with primary operable breast cancer who met the criteria for NSM and underwent breast surgery during the period January 2011 to December 2015. Patients were stratified into three risk groups (low, intermediate, and high) according to tumor size and tumor-to-nipple distance. Results Among the 434 patients in this study, 29 (6.7%) had occult invasion of the nipple-areola complex (NAC). Sub-nipple biopsy had a sensitivity of 84.6%, a specificity of 100%, a false negative rate of 1.2%, a false positive rate of 0%, and an overall accuracy rate of 98.8% in confirming NAC invasion. The NAC invasion rate was 0% in the low-risk group, 5.1% in the intermediate-risk group, and 19.7% in the high-risk group (P<0.01). The overall NPV of preoperative MRI for predicting NAC invasion was 94.8%. Cost analysis revealed that the cost of NSM with sub-nipple biopsy was significantly higher than that of NSM alone, with a mean difference in cost of USD 238.5 (P<0.01). Conclusion The high negative predictive value of MRI for NAC invasion is useful for selection of patients receiving NSM. Sub-nipple biopsy is a reliable procedure to detect occult NAC invasion, however, routine use is not cost-effect for low risk patients.
An analytical model for predicting the yield strength of particulate-reinforced metal matrix nanocomposites has been developed. The strengthening effects involving (i) Orowan strengthening effect, ...(ii) enhanced dislocation density due to the residual plastic strain caused by the difference in the coefficients of thermal expansion between the matrix and particles, and (iii) load-bearing effect have been taken into account in the model. The prediction is in good agreement with the experimental data reported in the literature.
The associations between long-term risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and spontaneous seroclearance of HBV e antigen (HBeAg), HBV DNA and HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) have never been examined by a ...prospective study using serially measured seromarkers. This study aimed to assess the importance of spontaneous HBeAg, HBV DNA and HBsAg seroclearance in the prediction of HCC risk.
This study included 2946 HBsAg seropositive individuals who were seronegative for antibodies against HCV and free of liver cirrhosis. Serial serum samples collected at study entry and follow-up health examinations were tested for HBeAg, HBV DNA and HBsAg. Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate the HRs of developing HCC after seroclearance of HBV markers.
The HR (95% CI) of developing HCC after seroclearance of HBeAg, HBV DNA and HBsAg during follow-up was 0.63 (0.38 to 1.05), 0.24 (0.11 to 0.57) and 0.18 (0.09 to 0.38), respectively, after adjustment for age, gender and serum level of alanine aminotransferase at study entry. High HBV DNA levels at the seroclearance of HBeAg (mean±SD, 4.35±1.64 log10 IU/mL) may explain the non-significant association between HBeAg seroclearance and HCC risk. Among HBeAg seronegative participants with detectable serum HBV DNA at study entry, the lifetime (30-75-years-old) cumulative incidence of HCC was 4.0%, 6.6% and 14.2%, respectively, for those with seroclearance of both HBV DNA and HBsAg, seroclearance of HBV DNA only, and seroclearance of neither.
Spontaneous seroclearance of HBV DNA and HBsAg are important predictors of reduced HCC risk.
The emergence of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)/programmed death-1 (PD-1)–targeted therapy has demonstrated the importance of the PD-L1: PD-1 interaction in inhibiting anticancer T-cell immunity ...in multiple human cancers, generating durable responses and extended overall survival. However, not all patients treated with PD-L1/PD-1–targeted therapy experience tumor shrinkage, durable responses, or prolonged survival. To extend such benefits to more cancer patients, it is necessary to understand why some patients experience primary or secondary immune escape, in which the immune response is incapable of eradicating all cancer cells. Understanding immune escape from PD-L1/PD-1–targeted therapy will be important to the development of rational immune-combination therapy and predictive diagnostics and to the identification of novel immune targets. Factors that likely relate to immune escape include the lack of strong cancer antigens or epitopes recognized by T cells, minimal activation of cancer-specific T cells, poor infiltration of T cells into tumors, downregulation of the major histocompatibility complex on cancer cells, and immunosuppressive factors and cells in the tumor microenvironment. Precisely identifying and understanding these mechanisms of immune escape in individual cancer patients will allow for personalized cancer immunotherapy, in which monotherapy and combination immunotherapy are chosen based on the presence of specific immune biology. This approach may enable treatment with immunotherapy without inducing immune escape, resulting in a larger proportion of patients obtaining clinical benefit.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in the US and worldwide. CRC is the second most common cancer‐related death in both men and women globally. Chronic ...inflammation has been identified as one of the major risk factors of CRC. It may drive genetic and epigenetic/epigenomic alterations, such as DNA methylation, histone modification, and non‐coding RNA regulation. Current prevention modalities for CRC are limited and some treatment regimens such as use the nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drug aspirin may have severe side effects, namely gastrointestinal ulceration and bleeding. Therefore, there is an urgent need of developing alternative strategies. Recently, increasing evidence suggests that several dietary cancer chemopreventive phytochemicals possess anti‐inflammation and antioxidative stress activities, and may prevent cancers including CRC. Curcumin (CUR) is the yellow pigment that is found in the rhizomes of turmeric (Curcuma longa). Many studies have demonstrated that CUR exhibit strong anticancer, antioxidative stress, and anti‐inflammatory activities by regulating signaling pathways, such as nuclear factor erythroid‐2‐related factor 2, nuclear factor‐κB, and epigenetics/epigenomics pathways of histones modifications, and DNA methylation. In this review, we will discuss the latest evidence in epigenetics/epigenomics alterations by CUR in CRC and their potential contribution in the prevention of CRC.
The complex interplay of spin, charge, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom provides a plethora of exotic phases and physical phenomena. In recent years, complex spin topologies have emerged as a ...consequence of the electronic band structure and the interplay between spin and spin-orbit coupling in materials. Here we produce complex topologies of electrical polarization--namely, nanometre-scale vortex-antivortex (that is, clockwise-anticlockwise) arrays that are reminiscent of rotational spin topologies--by making use of the competition between charge, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom in superlattices of alternating lead titanate and strontium titanate layers. Atomic-scale mapping of the polar atomic displacements by scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals the presence of long-range ordered vortex-antivortex arrays that exhibit nearly continuous polarization rotation. Phase-field modelling confirms that the vortex array is the low-energy state for a range of superlattice periods. Within this range, the large gradient energy from the vortex structure is counterbalanced by the corresponding large reduction in overall electrostatic energy (which would otherwise arise from polar discontinuities at the lead titanate/strontium titanate interfaces) and the elastic energy associated with epitaxial constraints and domain formation. These observations have implications for the creation of new states of matter (such as dipolar skyrmions, hedgehog states) and associated phenomena in ferroic materials, such as electrically controllable chirality.
Heterogeneous materials consisting of different phases are ideally suited to achieve a broad spectrum of desirable bulk physical properties by combining the best features of the constituents through ...the strategic spatial arrangement of the different phases. Disordered hyperuniform heterogeneous materials are new, exotic amorphous matter that behave like crystals in the manner in which they suppress volume-fraction fluctuations at large length scales, and yet are isotropic with no Bragg peaks. In this paper, we formulate for the first time a Fourier-space numerical construction procedure to design at will a wide class of disordered hyperuniform two-phase materials with prescribed spectral densities, which enables one to tune the degree and length scales at which this suppression occurs. We demonstrate that the anomalous suppression of volume-fraction fluctuations in such two-phase materials endow them with novel and often optimal transport and electromagnetic properties. Specifically, we construct a family of phase-inversion-symmetric materials with variable topological connectedness properties that remarkably achieves a well-known explicit formula for the effective electrical (thermal) conductivity. Moreover, we design disordered stealthy hyperuniform dispersion that possesses nearly optimal effective conductivity while being statistically isotropic. Interestingly, all of our designed materials are transparent to electromagnetic radiation for certain wavelengths, which is a common attribute of all hyperuniform materials. Our constructed materials can be readily realized by 3D printing and lithographic technologies. We expect that our designs will be potentially useful for energy-saving materials, batteries and aerospace applications.
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Ubiquitously distributed in different plant species, plant lectins are highly diverse carbohydrate‐binding proteins of non‐immune origin. They have interesting pharmacological activities and ...currently are of great interest to thousands of people working on biomedical research in cancer‐related problems. It has been widely accepted that plant lectins affect both apoptosis and autophagy by modulating representative signalling pathways involved in Bcl‐2 family, caspase family, p53, PI3K/Akt, ERK, BNIP3, Ras‐Raf and ATG families, in cancer. Plant lectins may have a role as potential new anti‐tumour agents in cancer drug discovery. Thus, here we summarize these findings on pathway‐ involved plant lectins, to provide a comprehensive perspective for further elucidating their potential role as novel anti‐cancer drugs, with respect to both apoptosis and autophagy in cancer pathogenesis, and future therapy.
The momentum dependence of the nematic order parameter is an important ingredient in the microscopic description of iron-based high-temperature superconductors. While recent reports on FeSe indicate ...that the nematic order parameter changes sign between electron and hole bands, detailed knowledge is still missing for other compounds. Combining angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with uniaxial strain tuning, we measure the nematic band splitting in both FeSe and BaFe_{2}As_{2} without interference from either twinning or magnetic order. We find that the nematic order parameter exhibits the same momentum dependence in both compounds with a sign change between the Brillouin center and the corner. This suggests that the same microscopic mechanism drives the nematic order in spite of the very different phase diagrams.
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