To realize fault-tolerant quantum computing, it is necessary to store quantum information in logical qubits with error correction functions, realized by distributing a logical state among multiple ...physical qubits or by encoding it in the Hilbert space of a high-dimensional system. Quantum gate operations between these error-correctable logical qubits, which are essential for implementation of any practical quantum computational task, have not been experimentally demonstrated yet. Here we demonstrate a geometric method for realizing controlled-phase gates between two logical qubits encoded in photonic fields stored in cavities. The gates are realized by dispersively coupling an ancillary superconducting qubit to these cavities and driving it to make a cyclic evolution depending on the joint photonic state of the cavities, which produces a conditional geometric phase. We first realize phase gates for photonic qubits with the logical basis states encoded in two quasiorthogonal coherent states, which have important implications for continuous-variable-based quantum computation. Then we use this geometric method to implement a controlled-phase gate between two binomially encoded logical qubits, which have an error-correctable function.
Primary intracranial pure yolk sac tumor is very rare. Our aim was to summarize the characteristics of primary intracranial pure yolk sac tumors from the clinical and imaging aspects in a ...retrospective study.
We studied 5 patients with primary intracranial pure yolk sac tumors in Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center from January 2015 to June 2021. A comprehensive literature search was performed on the electronic database of the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (1990 to June 2021). Clinical data based on age, sex, treatment, CT, and MR imaging findings were collected and analyzed.
A total of 25 patients were included in the study, 21 boys and 4 girls. Twenty-one patients underwent plain MR imaging and an enhanced examination, 9 patients underwent DWI, and 12 patients underwent plain CT and/or an enhanced examination. The tumors were posterior fossa in 9 cases and supratentorial in 16 cases. All tumors showed marked enhancement after enhanced scanning by MR imaging or CT. The signal on DWI was similar to that of the cerebral cortex, and the ADC map was similar to or slightly higher than that of the cerebral cortex. Among the cases, 13 were followed up from 2 months to 5 years. There was no recurrence or metastasis in 9 patients with postoperative chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy followed up for 1.5-5 years. Four patients died 2 months to 1.5 years after only an operation, or chemoradiotherapy but no operation.
There are some relatively specific imaging findings of primary intracranial yolk sac tumors that could assist in their diagnosis. Surgery combined with radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy can achieve a better prognosis.
Increasing evidence has revealed a significant association between microorganisms and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Porphyromonas gingivalis, the keystone pathogen in chronic periodontitis, is ...considered an important potential etiologic agent of OSCC, but the underlying immune mechanisms through which P. gingivalis mediates tumor progression of the oral cancer remain poorly understood. Our cohort study showed that the localization of P. gingivalis in tumor tissues was related to poor survival of patients with OSCC. Moreover, P. gingivalis infection increased oral lesion multiplicity and size and promoted tumor progression in a 4-nitroquinoline-1 oxide (4NQO)–induced carcinogenesis mouse model by invading the oral lesions. In addition, CD11b+ myeloid cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) showed increased infiltration of oral lesions. Furthermore, in vitro observations showed that MDSCs accumulated when human-derived dysplastic oral keratinocytes (DOKs) were exposed to P. gingivalis, and CXCL2, CCL2, interleukin (IL)–6, and IL-8 may be potential candidate genes that facilitate the recruitment of MDSCs. Taken together, our findings suggest that P. gingivalis promotes tumor progression by generating a cancer-promoting microenvironment, indicating a close relationship among P. gingivalis, tumor progression of the oral cancer, and immune responses.
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to regulate tumor biology and might be used for cancer diagnosis, prognosis and potential therapeutic targets. Although up-regulation of lncRNA UCA1 ...(urothelial carcinoma-associated 1) in several cancers has been found, its role in gastric cancer remains elusive. The aim of this study was to detect the expression of lncRNA UCA1 in gastric cancer and its clinical association. The expression of UCA1 was detected in 112 pairs of tumorous and adjacent normal tissues from patients with gastric cancer, as well as in four gastric cancer cell lines and a human normal gastric epithelium cell line using RT-qPCR. Results showed that UCA1 expression was remarkably increased in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines compared with that in the normal control. Clinicopathologic analysis revealed that high UCA1 expression correlated with worse differentiation, tumor size, invasion depth and TNM stage in gastric cancer. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that increased UCA1 expression contributed to poor overall survival (
p
= 0.017) and disease-free survival (
p
= 0.024) of patients. A multivariate survival analysis also indicated that UCA1 could be an independent prognostic marker. The levels of UCA1 in gastric juice from gastric patients were significantly higher than those from normal subjects (
p
= 0.016). Moreover, validation analysis showed that UCA1 levels were robust in differentiating gastric cancer patients from control subjects area under the curve (AUC) = 0.721; 95 % confidence interval (CI) = 0.655–0.788,
p
< 0.01. These results suggested that UCA1 might serve as a promising biomarker for early detection and prognosis prediction of gastric cancer.
Oxidative stress has a critical role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo. However, the specific molecular mechanism involved in oxidative stress-induced melanocyte death is not well characterized. Given ...the powerful role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the regulation of cell survival as well as the fact that the generation of miRNAs can be affected by oxidative stress, we hypothesized that miRNAs may participate in vitiligo pathogenesis by modulating the expression of vital genes in melanocytes. In the present study, we initially found that miR-25 was increased in both serum and lesion samples from vitiligo patients, and its serum level was correlated with the activity of vitiligo. Moreover, restoration of miR-25 promoted the H2O2-induced melanocyte destruction and led to the dysfunction of melanocytes. Further experiments proved that MITF, a master regulator in melanocyte survival and function, accounted for the miR-25-caused damaging impact on melanocytes. Notably, other than the direct role on melanocytes, we observed that miR-25 inhibited the production and secretion of SCF and bFGF from keratinocytes, thus impairing their paracrine protective effect on the survival of melanocytes under oxidative stress. At last, we verified that oxidative stress could induce the overexpression of miR-25 in both melanocytes and keratinocytes possibly by demethylating the promoter region of miR-25. Taken together, our study demonstrates that oxidative stress-induced overexpression of miR-25 in vitiligo has a crucial role in promoting the degeneration of melanocytes by not only suppressing MITF in melanocytes but also impairing the paracrine protective effect of keratinocytes. Therefore, it is worthy to investigate the possibility of miR-25 as a potential drug target for anti-oxidative therapy in vitiligo.
WUDAPT Ching, J.; Mills, G.; Bechtel, B. ...
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society,
09/2018, Letnik:
99, Številka:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) is an international community-based initiative to acquire and disseminate climate relevant data on the physical geographies of cities for ...modeling and analysis purposes. The current lacuna of globally consistent information on cities is a major impediment to urban climate science toward informing and developing climate mitigation and adaptation strategies at urban scales. WUDAPT consists of a database and a portal system; its database is structured into a hierarchy representing different levels of detail, and the data are acquired using innovative protocols that utilize crowdsourcing approaches, Geowiki tools, freely accessible data, and building typology archetypes. The base level of information (L0) consists of local climate zone (LCZ) maps of cities; each LCZ category is associated with a range of values for model-relevant surface descriptors (roughness, impervious surface cover, roof area, building heights, etc.). Levels 1 (L1) and 2 (L2) will provide specific intra-urban values for other relevant descriptors at greater precision, such as data morphological forms, material composition data, and energy usage. This article describes the status of the WUDAPT project and demonstrates its potential value using observations and models. As a community-based project, other researchers are encouraged to participate to help create a global urban database of value to urban climate scientists.
Multiple DNA methylation changes in the cancer methylome are associated with the acquisition of drug resistance; however it remains uncertain how many represent critical DNA methylation drivers of ...chemoresistance. Using isogenic, cisplatin-sensitive/resistant ovarian cancer cell lines and inducing resensitizaton with demethylating agents, we aimed to identify consistent methylation and expression changes associated with chemoresistance. Using genome-wide DNA methylation profiling across 27 578 CpG sites, we identified loci at 4092 genes becoming hypermethylated in chemoresistant A2780/cp70 compared with the parental-sensitive A2780 cell line. Hypermethylation at gene promoter regions is often associated with transcriptional silencing; however, expression of only 245 of these hypermethylated genes becomes downregulated in A2780/cp70 as measured by microarray expression profiling. Treatment of A2780/cp70 with the demethylating agent 2-deoxy-5'-azacytidine induces resensitization to cisplatin and re-expression of 41 of the downregulated genes. A total of 13/41 genes were consistently hypermethylated in further independent cisplatin-resistant A2780 cell derivatives. CpG sites at 9 of the 13 genes (ARHGDIB, ARMCX2, COL1A, FLNA, FLNC, MEST, MLH1, NTS and PSMB9) acquired methylation in ovarian tumours at relapse following chemotherapy or chemoresistant cell lines derived at the time of patient relapse. Furthermore, 5/13 genes (ARMCX2, COL1A1, MDK, MEST and MLH1) acquired methylation in drug-resistant ovarian cancer-sustaining (side population) cells. MLH1 has a direct role in conferring cisplatin sensitivity when reintroduced into cells in vitro. This combined genomics approach has identified further potential key drivers of chemoresistance whose expression is silenced by DNA methylation that should be further evaluated as clinical biomarkers of drug resistance.
Neonatal hypoglycemia is associated with increased risk of poor executive and visual-motor function, but implications for later learning are uncertain.
To test the hypothesis that neonatal ...hypoglycemia is associated with educational performance at age 9 to 10 years.
Prospective cohort study of moderate to late preterm and term infants born at risk of hypoglycemia. Blood and masked interstitial sensor glucose concentrations were measured for up to 7 days. Infants with hypoglycemic episodes (blood glucose concentration <47 mg/dL 2.6 mmol/L) were treated to maintain a blood glucose concentration of at least 47 mg/dL. Six hundred fourteen infants were recruited at Waikato Hospital, Hamilton, New Zealand, in 2006-2010; 480 were assessed at age 9 to 10 years in 2016-2020.
Hypoglycemia was defined as at least 1 hypoglycemic event, representing the sum of nonconcurrent hypoglycemic and interstitial episodes (sensor glucose concentration <47 mg/dL for ≥10 minutes) more than 20 minutes apart.
The primary outcome was low educational achievement, defined as performing below or well below the normative curriculum level in standardized tests of reading comprehension or mathematics. There were 47 secondary outcomes related to executive function, visual-motor function, psychosocial adaptation, and general health.
Of 587 eligible children (230 48% female), 480 (82%) were assessed at a mean age of 9.4 (SD, 0.3) years. Children who were and were not exposed to neonatal hypoglycemia did not significantly differ on rates of low educational achievement (138/304 47% vs 82/176 48%, respectively; adjusted risk difference, -2% 95% CI, -11% to 8%; adjusted relative risk, 0.95 95% CI, 0.78-1.15). Children who were exposed to neonatal hypoglycemia, compared with those not exposed, were significantly less likely to be rated by teachers as being below or well below the curriculum level for reading (68/281 24% vs 49/157 31%, respectively; adjusted risk difference, -9% 95% CI, -17% to -1%; adjusted relative risk, 0.72 95% CI, 0.53-0.99; P = .04). Groups were not significantly different for other secondary end points.
Among participants at risk of neonatal hypoglycemia who were screened and treated if needed, exposure to neonatal hypoglycemia compared with no such exposure was not significantly associated with lower educational achievement in mid-childhood.
Purpose
This study aimed to explore risk factors of postoperative complications for adult patients with incarcerated groin hernia (IGH).
Methods
From January 2010 to December 2017, consecutive ...patients undergoing emergency hernia repair for IGH in our center were retrospectively reviewed. Postoperative complications, such as surgical site infection, seroma, hernia recurrence and mortality, were investigated, with risk factors for such complications analyzed using univariate and multivariate regressions.
Results
Sixty-four patients were included, with 51 males and 13 females (mean age 65.1, range 25–98 years). Ten patients (15.6%) underwent resection of necrotic bowel and anastomosis. 43 patients (67.2%) received open tension-free herniorrhaphy with polypropylene mesh, whereas the rest (32.8%) received herniorrhaphy without mesh. The overall postoperative complication rate was 40.6% (26/64), with an incisional complication rate of 31.2% (20/64) and an infection rate of 6.2% (4/64). At a median follow-up of 32 months, hernia recurrence and mortality were recorded in five cases each (7.8%). Mesh repair was associated with decreased recurrence rate compared with non-mesh repair (2.3% vs. 19.0%,
p
= 0.019). Diabetes mellitus (OR 8.611, 95%CI 1.292–57.405;
p
= 0.026) was an independent risk factor of postoperative complications, together with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD; OR 14.365, 95%CI 1.652–127.767,
p
= 0.016), intestinal necrosis (OR 14.260, 95%CI 1.079–188.460,
p
= 0.044), and general anesthesia (OR 14.543, 95%CI 1.682–125.711,
p
= 0.015) as risk for incisional complications after surgery.
Conclusions
Diabetes mellitus was an independent risk factor of postoperative complications for IGH, along with COPD, intestinal necrosis and general anesthesia associated with incisional complications. The use of polypropylene mesh did not increase infection or recurrence rate in this cohort.
Most knowledge regarding the effects of antidepressant drugs is at the receptor level, distal from the nervous system effects that mediate their clinical efficacy. Using functional magnetic resonance ...imaging (fMRI), this study investigated the effects of escitalopram, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), on resting-state brain function in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).
Fourteen first-episode drug-naive MDD patients completed two fMRI scans before and after 8 weeks of escitalopram therapy. Scans were also acquired in 14 matched healthy subjects. Data were analyzed using the regional homogeneity (ReHo) approach.
Compared to controls, MDD patients before treatment demonstrated decreased ReHo in the frontal (right superior frontal gyrus), temporal (left middle and right inferior temporal gyri), parietal (right precuneus) and occipital (left superior occipital gyrus and right cuneus) cortices, and increased ReHo in the left dorsal medial prefrontal gyrus and left anterior lobe of the cerebellum. Compared to the unmedicated state, ReHo in the patients after treatment was decreased in the left dorsal medial prefrontal gyrus, the right insula and the bilateral thalamus, and increased in the right superior frontal gyrus. Compared to controls, patients after treatment displayed a ReHo decrease in the right precuneus and a ReHo increase in the left anterior lobe of the cerebellum.
Successful treatment with escitalopram may be associated with modulation of resting-state brain activity in regions within the fronto-limbic circuit. This study provides new insight into the effects of antidepressants on functional brain systems in MDD.
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