Perioperative nutritional therapy requires the consideration of metabolic changes, and it is desirable to reduce stress aiming at early metabolic normalization. Glutathione (GSH) is a tripeptide ...composed of glutamic acid, cysteine, and glycine. It is one of the strongest antioxidants in the body and important for adjusting immune function. Cystine and theanine (γ-glutamylethylamide) provide substrates of GSH, cysteine and glutamic acid, promoting the synthesis of GSH. It has been reported that the ingestion of cystine (700 mg) and theanine (280 mg) exhibits inhibitory effects against excess inflammation after strong exercise loads in athletes, based on which its application for invasive surgery has been tried. In patients undergoing gastrectomy, ingestion of cystine (700 mg) and theanine (280 mg) for 10 days from 5 days before surgery inhibited a postoperative increase in resting energy expenditure, promoted recovery from changes in interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, lymphocyte ratio, and granulocyte ratio and inhibited an increase in body temperature. In a mouse small intestine manipulation model, preoperative 5-day administration of cystine/theanine inhibited a postoperative decrease in GSH in the small intestine and promoted recovery from a decrease in behavior quantity. Based on the above, cystine/theanine reduces surgical stress, being useful for perioperative management as stress-reducing amino acids.
The sp2/sp3 domain fraction of multilayer graphene oxide (GO) is tuned in situ and in a non‐volatile manner by using a proton‐induced redox reaction at the interface of GO and the yttria‐stabilized ...zirconia proton‐conductor. This method opens the door for transparent, ultrathin, flexible, and low cost carbon‐nanoionics devices that can control not only electronic transport, but also other properties such as photoluminescence and optics.
A pancreatic β-cell line MIN6 was previously established in our lab from an insulinoma developed in an IT6 transgenic mouse expressing the SV40 T antigen in β-cells. This cell line has been widely ...used for in vitro analysis of β-cell function, but tends to lose the mature β-cell features, including glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS), in long-term culture. The aim of this study was to develop a stable β-cell line that retains the characteristics of mature β-cells. Considering that mice derived from a cross between C3H and C57BL/6 strains are known to exhibit higher insulin secretory capacity than C57BL/6 mice, an IT6 male mouse of this hybrid background was used to isolate insulinomas, which were independently cultured. After 7 months of continuous culturing, we obtained the MIN6-CB4 β-cell line, which stably maintains its GSIS. It has been noted that β-cell lines express the glucagon (Gcg) gene at certain levels. MIN6-CB4 cells were utilized to assess the effects of differential Gcg expression on β-cell function. Our data show the functional importance of Gcg expression and resulting basal activation of the GLP-1 receptor in β-cells. MIN6-CB4 cells can serve as an invaluable tool for studying the regulatory mechanisms of insulin secretion, such as the GLP-1/cAMP signaling, in β-cells.
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•In situ hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was performed to investigate the origin of irreversibility in electrochromic LixWO3 thin films.•The appearance of irreversibility was ...observed in LixWO3 during operation.•Reversible/irreversible components generated during operation were distinguished and evaluated quantitatively.
Three kinds of components are known in the insertion of Li+ into electrochromic WO3 (LixWO3): (i) reversible Li+, (ii) irreversible Li2WO4 formation and (iii) irreversible Li+ trapping. To develop LixWO3-based electrochromic devices, in situ hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES), in situ Raman spectroscopy and electrochemical measurements were performed. In situ HAXPES can quantitatively distinguish (i) reversible Li+ and (iii) irreversible Li+ trapping as the variation in the oxidation state of the W ion whereas the electrochemical measurements can evaluate (i) reversible Li+ and the sum of (ii) irreversible Li2WO4 formation and (iii) irreversible Li+ trapping. Furthermore, in situ Raman spectroscopy detected the enhancement of crystallinity due to Li+ insertion with high sensitivity. The combination of the in situ HAXPES and the electrochemical measurements enables the separation and quantitative evaluation of (i), (ii) and (iii). The inserted Li+ conversion ratios of (i) reversible Li+, (ii) irreversible Li2WO4 formation and (iii) irreversible Li+ trapping to the entire inserted Li+ were clarified. (i.e., 41.4 %, 50.9 %, and 7.7 %, respectively).
2D Transition Metal Dichalcogenides hold a promising potential in future optoelectronic applications due to their high photoresponsivity and tunable band structure for broadband photodetection. In ...imaging applications, the detection of weak light signals is crucial for creating a better contrast between bright and dark pixels in order to achieve high resolution images. The photogating effect has been previously shown to offer high light sensitivities; however, the key features required to create this as a dominating photoresponse has yet to be discussed. Here, we report high responsivity and high photogain MoS
2
phototransistors based on the dual function of HfO
2
as a dielectric and charge trapping layer to enhance the photogating effect. As a result, these devices offered a very large responsivity of 1.1 × 10
6
A W
−1
, a photogain >10
9
, and a detectivity of 5.6 × 10
13
Jones under low light illumination. This work offers a CMOS compatible process and technique to develop highly photosensitive phototransistors for future low-powered imaging applications.
MoS
2
is a promising two-dimensional material for optoelectronics. Here, MoS
2
phototransistors with a dual-functioning HfO
2
dielectric and charge
-
trapping layer achieve a responsivity of 1.1×10
6
, due to an enhanced photogating effect from band edge alignment with oxygen vacancies.
Purpose
Inflammation-based markers predict long-term outcomes of various malignancies. We investigated the relationship between these markers and the long-term survival in obstructive colorectal ...cancer (OCRC) patients with self-expandable metallic colonic stents (SEMSs) who subsequently received curative surgery.
Methods
We retrospectively analyzed 72 consecutive pathological stage II and III OCRC patients between 2013 and 2019. The prognostic significance of the prognostic nutritional index (PNI), neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte–monocyte ratio (LMR), and platelet–lymphocyte ratio (PLR) was evaluated.
Results
The overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival, and disease-free survival (DFS) were significantly shorter in the PNI < 35 group than in the PNI ≥ 35 group (
p
= 0.006,
p
< 0.001, and
p
= 0.003, respectively), and multivariate analyses revealed the PNI to be the only inflammation-based marker independently associated with the survival. A PNI < 35 was significantly associated with an elevated CA 19–9 level (
p
= 0.04) and longer postoperative hospital stay (
p
= 0.03). Adjuvant chemotherapy was also significantly associated with the OS (
p
= 0.040) and DFS (
p
= 0.011) in multivariate analyses.
Conclusion
The results showed that the PNI was a potent prognostic indicator. For OCRC patients, both systemic inflammation and the nutrition status seem to be important for predicting the prognosis, and administering adjuvant chemotherapy was very important.
We consider primal-dual pairs of semidefinite programs and assume that they are singular, i.e., both primal and dual are either weakly feasible or weakly infeasible. Under such circumstances, strong ...duality may break down and the primal and dual might have a nonzero duality gap. Nevertheless, there are arbitrary small perturbations to the problem data which would make them strongly feasible thus zeroing the duality gap. In this paper, we conduct an asymptotic analysis of the optimal value as the perturbation for regularization is driven to zero. Specifically, we fix two positive definite matrices,
I
p
and
I
d
, say, (typically the identity matrices), and regularize the primal and dual problems by shifting their associated affine space by
η
I
p
and
ε
I
d
, respectively, to recover interior feasibility of both problems, where
ε
and
η
are positive numbers. Then we analyze the behavior of the optimal value of the regularized problem when the perturbation is reduced to zero keeping the ratio between
η
and
ε
constant. A key feature of our analysis is that no further assumptions such as compactness or constraint qualifications are ever made. It will be shown that the optimal value of the perturbed problem converges to a value between the primal and dual optimal values of the original problems. Furthermore, the limiting optimal value changes “monotonically” from the primal optimal value to the dual optimal value as a function of
θ
, if we parametrize
(
ε
,
η
)
as
(
ε
,
η
)
=
t
(
cos
θ
,
sin
θ
)
and let
t
→
0
. Finally, the analysis leads us to the relatively surprising consequence that some representative infeasible interior-point algorithms for SDP generate sequences converging to a number between the primal and dual optimal values, even in the presence of a nonzero duality gap. Though this result is more of theoretical interest at this point, it might be of some value in the development of infeasible interior-point algorithms that can handle singular problems.
Abstract
Reservoir computing (RC) is a machine learning framework suitable for processing time series data, and is a computationally inexpensive and fast learning model. A physical reservoir is a ...hardware implementation of RC using a physical system, which is expected to become the social infrastructure of a data society that needs to process vast amounts of information. Ion-gating reservoirs (IGR) are compact and suitable for integration with various physical reservoirs, but the prediction accuracy and operating speed of redox-IGRs using WO
3
as the channel are not sufficient due to irreversible Li
+
trapping in the WO
3
matrix during operation. Here, in order to enhance the computation performance of redox-IGRs, we developed a redox-based IGR using a (104) oriented LiCoO
2
thin film with high electronic and ionic conductivity as a trap-free channel material. The subject IGR utilizes resistance change that is due to a redox reaction (LiCoO
2
⟺ Li
1−
x
CoO
2
+
x
Li
+
+
x
e
−
) with the insertion and desertion of Li
+
. The prediction error in the subject IGR was reduced by 72% and the operation speed was increased by 4 times compared to the previously reported WO
3
, which changes are due to the nonlinear and reversible electrical response of LiCoO
2
and the high dimensionality enhanced by a newly developed physical masking technique. This study has demonstrated the possibility of developing high-performance IGRs by utilizing materials with stronger nonlinearity and by increasing output dimensionality.
Oxaliplatin frequently causes severe peripheral neuropathy as a dose-limiting toxicity. However, this toxicity lacks a strategy for prevention. Cystine/Theanine is a supplement, which includes ...precursors for the biosynthesis of glutathione. In this study, we investigated the effects of Cystine/Theanine on oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy using an in vivo model. Repeated injection of oxaliplatin (4 mg/kg intraperitoneally twice a week for 2 weeks) caused mechanical allodynia, cold hyperalgesia and axonal degeneration of the sciatic nerve in rats. Mechanical allodynia and axonal degeneration, but not cold hyperalgesia, were ameliorated by daily co-administration of Cystine 200 mg/kg orally (p.o.) and Theanine (80 mg/kg p.o.). Moreover, co-administration of Cystine and Theanine to rats significantly increased the glutathione level in the sciatic nerve compared with the oxaliplatin group. Furthermore, Cystine and Theanine did not attenuate the tumour cytotoxicity of oxaliplatin in C-26 tumour cell-bearing mice. These findings suggest that Cystine and Theanine may be beneficial for preventing oxaliplatin-induced peripheral neuropathy.
Purpose
Intestinal decompression using self-expandable metallic colonic stents (SEMSs) as a bridge to surgery is now considered an attractive alternative to emergency surgery. However, data regarding ...the optimal timing of surgery after stenting are limited.
Methods
We investigated the impact of the interval between stenting and surgery on short- and long-term outcomes in 92 obstructive colorectal cancer (OCRC) patients who had a SEMS inserted and subsequently received curative surgery.
Results
The median age of the patients was 70.5 years, and the median interval between SEMS insertion and the surgery was 17 (range 5–47) days. There were 35 postoperative complications, including seven major postoperative complications. An interval of more than 16 days was an independent predictor of a poor relapse-free survival (hazard ratio HR = 3.12, 95% confidence interval CI 1.24–7.81,
p
= 0.015). An interval of more than 35 days was independently associated with major postoperative complications (HR = 16.6, 95% CI 2.21–125,
p
= 0.006).
Conclusion
A longer interval between stenting and surgery significantly compromised the short- and long-term outcomes. Surgery within 16 days after stenting might help maximize the benefit of SEMS without interfering with short- and long-term outcomes.
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