This article reports on a noninvasive approach in detecting and following-up individuals who are at-risk or have an existing COVID-19 infection, with a potential ability to serve as an epidemic ...control tool. The proposed method uses a developed breath device composed of a nanomaterial-based hybrid sensor array with multiplexed detection capabilities that can detect disease-specific biomarkers from exhaled breath, thus enabling rapid and accurate diagnosis. An exploratory clinical study with this approach was examined in Wuhan, China, during March 2020. The study cohort included 49 confirmed COVID-19 patients, 58 healthy controls, and 33 non-COVID lung infection controls. When applicable, positive COVID-19 patients were sampled twice: during the active disease and after recovery. Discriminant analysis of the obtained signals from the nanomaterial-based sensors achieved very good test discriminations between the different groups. The training and test set data exhibited respectively 94% and 76% accuracy in differentiating patients from controls as well as 90% and 95% accuracy in differentiating between patients with COVID-19 and patients with other lung infections. While further validation studies are needed, the results may serve as a base for technology that would lead to a reduction in the number of unneeded confirmatory tests and lower the burden on hospitals, while allowing individuals a screening solution that can be performed in PoC facilities. The proposed method can be considered as a platform that could be applied for any other disease infection with proper modifications to the artificial intelligence and would therefore be available to serve as a diagnostic tool in case of a new disease outbreak.
Abstract Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) as a new non-invasive treatment developed from photodynamic (PDT), it can kill tumor cells specifically and selectively. Moreover, recently studies showed SDT has ...potential to treat solid tumor, leukemia and atherosclerosis, remove proliferative scars and kill pathogenic microorganism. As SDT has an extensive application prospect, SDT attracts more and more researchers in recently years. This thesis aims at making an informative introduction on SDT. With the assistance of related literature from 2012 to 2016, we introduce the progress of SDT research in six aspects: the therapeutic mechanism of SDT, development of the sound sensitizer, exploration of the size and frequency of ultrasonic energy, application of SDT, comparison between SDT and PDT, and current situation and future of SDT.
Sonodynamic therapy (SDT), which is based on photodynamic therapy (PDT), is a new cancer treatment modality. Unlike PDT, which has poor tissue penetration, ultrasound can penetrate deeply into ...tissues and largely target tumor tissue to mediate the cytotoxicity of sonosensitizers. We hypothesize that, similar to PDT, SDT may perform effectively as a cancer vaccine. Thus, we developed a therapeutic strategy to explore whether SDT can eliminate primary tumors, inhibit metastases, and prevent tumor relapse. In the present study, we found that HiPorfin (HPD)‐induced SDT killed tumor cells, promoted calreticulin expression on the cell surface and elicited immune responses. Meanwhile, we observed that SDT induced functional antitumor vaccination and abscopal effects in H22 tumor‐bearing mice. Furthermore, this strategy conferred an immunological memory, which could protect against tumor recurrence after the elimination of the initial tumor. These results showed important effects of SDT on immune responses.
HiPorfin (HPD)‐induced SDT killed tumor cells, promoted calreticulin expression on the cell surface and provoked immune responses. Meanwhile, we observed functional antitumor vaccination and the abscopal effect as a result of SDT in H22 tumor‐bearing mice. Furthermore, this strategy conferred an immunological memory, which could protect against tumor recurrence after elimination of the initial tumor.
Objective. To estimate global, regional, and national trends due to ectopic pregnancy as part of the 2019 Global Burden of Disease study. Methods. We systematically reviewed trends in ectopic ...pregnancy burden using data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database, including 21 regions, 195 countries, and territories over the past 30 years. The trends of ectopic pregnancy-related incidence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to all known risk factors were also analyzed. Age-standardized rates (ASRs) and their estimated annual percentage changes (EAPCs) were also calculated. Results. Incident cases, deaths, and DALYs of ectopic pregnancy increased worldwide in the past 30 years. The age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) was decreasing (EAPC = −1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI): −1.29 to −0.98), and the age-standardized death (EAPC = −0.9, 95% CI: −1.03 to −0.76) and DALY rate decreased generally (EAPC = −0.83, 95% CI: −0.98 to −0.68). In addition, the burden of ectopic pregnancy is lower in areas with higher socioeconomic development, and significant positive correlations between ASRs and sociodemographic index (SDI) were observed, especially among low-middle SDI, and low SDI quintiles carried the majority burden of ectopic pregnancy. Conclusion. Globally, the incidence, mortality, and DALY rate of ectopic pregnancy had been decreasing from 1990 to 2019. Compared with lower and decreasing ASIR in the high SDI region, ASIR in the low SDI region was always high, indicating the need for ectopic pregnancy treatment improvement and the establishment of more targeted and specific strategies in low SDI countries to reduce the incidence of ectopic pregnancy.
This study reveals the fluid-structure interaction simulation of the ballistic impact of shear thickening fluid (STF) impregnated with ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fiber ...composites. The STF/UHMWPE composites pull-out test results are fitted to obtain a similar STF rheological curve. The STF/UHMWPE composites fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model was established to reproduce the local failure and stress distribution at each stage of the ballistic impact process. The comparison of the finite element analysis (FEA) and the experimental results showed that the fitting degree of the STF/UHMWPE composites to the impact energy absorption was 94.74%. STF treatment has dual effects on the impact resistance of fabrics, increasing the friction and enhancing the thickening effect.
•STF existed on UHMWPE fibers in fluid form and could produce shear thickening effect.•Establish STF/UHMWPE fluid-structure coupled model to explore the stress mode of STF during impact process and its overall influence on composite.•STF treatment had dual effects on the ballistic impact resistance: the nanoparticles increase friction between the fibers, and nanoparticles agglomerate when the shear rate reaches critical shear rate.
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•Ca-doped Li4Ti5O12 samples were prepared by a simple solid-state method.•The high-rate performance of Li4−xCaxTi5O12 (0≤x≤0.2) anode was first reported.•Li3.9Ca0.1Ti5O12 shows the ...best high-rate performance.
Ca-doped lithium titanates with the formula of Li4−xCaxTi5O12 (x=0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2) were synthesized as anode materials by a simple solid-state reaction in an air atmosphere. The phase structure, morphologies and electrochemical properties of the prepared powders were systematically characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cyclic voltammetry (CV), respectively. XRD revealed that the Ca-doping caused no change on the phase structure and highly crystalline Li4−xCaxTi5O12 (0≤x≤0.2) powders without any impurity were obtained. SEM images showed that all samples had similar particulate morphologies and the particle size distribution was in the range of 1–2μm. It was observed that Ca-doped lithium titanates employed as the anode materials of lithium-ion batteries delivered excellent electrochemical performances, and sample Li3.9Ca0.1Ti5O12 exhibited a higher specific capacity, better cycling performance and rate capability than other samples. The Li3.9Ca0.1Ti5O12 material showed discharge capacities of 162.4mAhg−1, 148.8mAhg−1 and 138.7mAhg−1 after 100 cycles at 1C, 5C and 10C charge–discharge rates, respectively. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) revealed that the Li3.9Ca0.1Ti5O12 electrode exhibited the highest electronic conductivity and fastest lithium-ion diffusivity, which indicated that this novel Li3.9Ca0.1Ti5O12 material was promising as a high-rate anode material for the lithium-ion batteries.
•W-doped Li4Ti5O12 samples were prepared by a sol–gel method.•The high-rate performance of Li4Ti5−xWxO12 (0≤x≤0.2) anode was fully investigated.•Li4Ti4.9W0.1O12 shows the best high-rate performance.
...W-doped Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) in the form of Li4Ti5−xWxO12 (x=0.05, 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2) is prepared by sol–gel method and following two-step calcinations in the air and argon atmosphere, respectively. The as-prepared samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD analysis demonstrates that W6+ can successfully enter the structure of cubic spinel-type LTO, increase the lattice parameter and no impurities appear. XPS results further identify the existence of W6+ ion. SEM images show that all samples had similar particulate morphologies and the particle size distribution was in the range of 0.5–1μm. The results of electrochemical measurement reveal that W-doping can improve the rate capability of LTO. However, heavy W substitution causes a discharge capability loss. The electronic conductivity of Li4Ti4.9W0.1O12 powder is as high as 1.5×10−1Scm−1, which is much higher than 10−13Scm−1 of the pristine LTO. The Li4Ti4.9W0.1O12 electrode exhibits the best rate capability and cycling stability, and its discharge capacity at 10C is 128.1mAhg−1 after 100 cycles. The Li4Ti4.9W0.1O12 sample stands as a promising potentially high rate anode material for lithium-ion batteries.
Liposomes are widely used as drug delivery systems and several liposome-based nanomedicines have been approved for clinical use. Cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) have been decorated onto ...nanoparticulated vesicle such as liposomes to further improve the intracellular delivery efficiency. However, the poor selectivity of CPPs hindered their application, especially in the in vivo application. To resolve this issue, several strategies have been developed, including shielding and environment-triggered deshielding of CPPs as well as designing of environment-responsive CPPs and specific- targeting CPPs and last but not least, combination strategy. In this review, the abovementioned strategies were discussed.
With the rapid development of intelligent transportation, there comes huge demands for high-precision road network maps. However, due to the complex road spectral performance, it is very challenging ...to extract road networks with complete topologies. Based on the topological networks produced by previous road extraction methods, in this paper, we propose a Multi-conditional Generative Adversarial Network (McGAN) to obtain complete road networks by refining the imperfect road topology. The proposed McGAN, which is composed of two discriminators and a generator, takes both original remote sensing image and the initial road network produced by existing road extraction methods as input. The first discriminator employs the original spectral information to instruct the reconstruction, and the other discriminator aims to refine the road network topology. Such a structure makes the generator capable of receiving both spectral and topological information of the road region, thus producing more complete road networks compared with the initial road network. Three different datasets were used to compare McGan with several recent approaches, which showed that the proposed method significantly improved the precision and recall of the road networks, and also worked well for those road regions where previous methods could hardly obtain complete structures.
Uterine fibroids occur in 40%-60% of women and are symptomatic in 30% of the patients by causing abnormal uterine bleeding, pelvic pressure, pain, and infertility. The study aims to evaluate the ...long-term trend of uterine fibroids mortality and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in China and the relative risks of age, period, and birth cohort effects.
The mortality and DALYs of uterine fibroids from 1990 to 2019 were derived from the Global Burden of Disease 2019. The annual percentage change and average annual percent change (AAPC) were assessed using the Joinpoint regression. The effects of age, period, and birth cohort on death and DALYs were analyzed by the Age-Period-Cohort framework.
The age-standardized rates were all on the ascending trend, with the greatest increase in the age-standardized mortality rate (AAPC, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.04-2.02). The net drift was found to be 3.51% (95% CI, 2.25%-4.78%) per year for mortality and 0.34% (95% CI, 0.14%-0.53%) per year for DALYs. Significant age, period, and birth cohort effects were found for mortality and DALYs (
< 0.001 for all). The mortality risk increased overall with age, but the DALYs risk increased first and then decreased with age. The period and birth cohort risks for mortality and DALYs showed different trends.
These secular time trends and changes of mortality and DALYs reveal the socioeconomic alterations, reform of diagnosis and therapy, and changes in social lifestyles and behaviors. Uterine fibroids are still the most common benign gynecological tumors in women, and more epidemiological investigations and social health prevention and control should be applied.
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