In the era of smaller and smaller biopsies submitted to pathology departments for diagnosis and the advent of personalized medicine, it has become imperative to efficiently and effectively use ...patient material to reach individualized, actionable diagnoses. The use of fine needle aspirates and core biopsies as acceptable methods for obtaining sufficient material for hematopoietic neoplasms under nonemergent conditions is debatable. There are, however, scenarios where only limited material is obtainable due to anatomic site, size of the lesion or condition of the patient. In these types of settings, thoughtful approaches and unconventional means are often necessary to reach a diagnosis. In this article, we describe three such scenarios and the unique tactics taken in each to obtain a personalized actionable diagnosis.
•Our study is the first to investigate the impact of IC on long-term QoL in NPC patients based on a RCT.•A deterioration in QoL scores for long-term NPC survivors was seen from baseline over time.•IC ...followed by CCRT seemed to have better long-term QoL outcomes compared with CCRT alone.•Better long-term QoL can be explained by the lower dose to critical normal structures spared by IC.
Our previous trial confirmed that induction chemotherapy (IC) improved long-term survival outcomes in patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). In this study, we investigated the impact of IC on long-term quality of life (QoL) in this cohort.
Our trial was a randomised, open-label phase 3 trial comparing IC followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) versus CCRT alone in patients with stage III-IVB (except T3N0-1) NPC. All participants completed two self-administered questionnaires, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire C30 (QLQ-C30) and the EORTC QLQ Head and Neck Cancer–Specific Module (H&N35). As per protocol, the questionnaires had to be completed before knowledge of treatment allocation by the patient (baseline). Patients were then approached to enroll at the time of the present study period.
Ultimately, QoL data from 228 patients were included in the analysis. Most scales were both statistically and clinically decreased in both groups between baseline and the latest follow-up. The IC followed by CCRT group had significantly better outcome in role functioning, cognitive functioning, social functioning, fatigue, pain, and constipation in QLQ-C30 scales at the last follow-up. Similarly, in H&N35 scales, a significantly better result was observed in pain, sexuality, sticky saliva, pain killers use, nutritional supplements, and weight loss, but a poorer result in senses problems, for those treated by IC followed by CCRT.
IC followed by CCRT seemed to have better long-term QoL outcomes compared with CCRT alone in patients with locoregionally advanced NPC.
Coordination supramolecular assemblies of monohydroxycucurbit7uril ((HO)Q7) with alkaline earth metal ions (AE
) have been formed in aqueous HCl solution in the presence of tetrachloride cadmium ...anions (CdCl
) as a structure directing agent. The driving force for the assembly could be attributed to the interaction of the positive electro-potential outer-surface of (HO)Q7 molecules with CdCl
anions and ionic dipole interaction of the hydroxyl of (HO)Q7 molecules with CdCl
anions. Moreover, the porous structure of the (HO)Q7/AE
-based coordination supramolecular assemblies could result in potential applications in the selective sorption of polar volatile organic molecules, which may be useful in molecular sieves, sensors, absorption and separation.
Recently, a measurement-device-independent protocol for deterministic quantum secret sharing was proposed (Gao et al. in Sci Chin Phys Mech Astron 63(12):120311, 2020). Unfortunately, it was pointed ...out to be insecure against the participant attack (Yang et al. in Sci Chin Phys Mech Astron 64(6):260321, 2021). However, this participant attack strategy has an assumption that a dishonest agent has to reveal his single-photon state after other agents. Here, we give a more powerful participant attack strategy regardless of the announcement order.
Mangroves comprise a globally significant intertidal ecosystem that contains a high diversity of microorganisms, including fungi, bacteria and archaea. Archaea is a major domain of life that plays ...important roles in biogeochemical cycles in these ecosystems. In this review, the potential roles of archaea in mangroves are briefly highlighted. Then, the diversity and metabolism of archaeal community of mangrove ecosystems across the world are summarized and Bathyarchaeota, Euryarchaeota, Thaumarchaeota, Woesearchaeota, and Lokiarchaeota are confirmed as the most abundant and ubiquitous archaeal groups. The metabolic potential of these archaeal groups indicates their important ecological function in carbon, nitrogen and sulfur cycling. Finally, some cultivation strategies that could be applied to uncultivated archaeal lineages from mangrove wetlands are suggested, including refinements to traditional cultivation methods based on genomic and transcriptomic information, and numerous innovative cultivation techniques such as single-cell isolation and high-throughput culturing (HTC). These cultivation strategies provide more opportunities to obtain previously uncultured archaea.
Hydrogel as commercial soil conditioner has the potential to improve soil properties and reduce water scarcity in growing plants. However, use of polyacrylamide-based hydrogel in agriculture pose ...potential human health hazards. Hydrogel systems were prepared from temperature-responsive methylcellulose (MC) and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) blended with potassium sulfate (K2SO4, K-containing fertilizer). Blended K2SO4 in hydrogels affects the hydrophobic interaction of MC and HPMC, and hydrogels prepared in 0.25 M K2SO4 decrease the gelation temperatures of MC and HPMC from 55.6 and 67.4 °C to 27.8 and 35.1 °C, respectively. The equilibrium swelling ratio (St) of MC and HPMC hydrogels was increased 15 times and hydrogels maintained a steady appearance. The swelling kinetics of the MC and HPMC hydrogels followed Schott's second-order model and kinetic parameters indicated that adding K2SO4 can improve the initial swelling rate. K2SO4 decreases the pore size of the MC and HPMC hydrogel from 26.8 and 21.5 μm to 14.7 and 14.2 μm. A plant growth assessment indicated inhibition in plant growth occurred without the application of the hydrogels. Adding K2SO4 increases mechanical properties of the hydrogels. Treatment with 0.5% hydrogel considerably improves the water-holding and water-retention capacities of sandy soil. The 20-20-20 fertilizer release results revealed at that at 35 °C and a pH below 7, the hydrogel systems reduce the release rate of the fertilizer. The best result was observed with the Korsmeyer–Peppas model, indicating that the fertilizer transport mechanism involves Fickian diffusion and swelling-controlled release. This study discovered that environmentally responsive cellulose-based hydrogels have potential for use as soil conditioners and as controlled release devices in horticulture and agriculture.
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•Gel temperature of cellulose-based hydrogel can be adjusted by concentration of K2SO4.•Adding K2SO4 can improve the initial swelling rate and mechanical properties of hydrogels.•The hydrogels could effectively improve the water-retention capacities of sandy soil.•The hydrogels can reduce the release rate of the fertilizer.•The fertilizer release profiles reveal temperature- and pH-responsive behavior.
Backgroud: (-)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the major component of green tea, is well documented to induce apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in cancer by targeting multiple signal transduction ...pathways. However, EGCG is extremely unstable in general culture conditions and rapidly degraded. So, to what extent EGCG or which degradation products of EGCG play a role in anti-tumor is still unknown. In this study, we evaluated the effect of different treatments of EGCG on HCT116 cells.
Design: MTT assay was applied to evaluated the inhibitory effect of different treatments of EGCG on HCT116 cells. Cell cycle and apoptosis were performed by flow cytometry. Finally, western blot analysis was used to elucidate the molecular mechanism associated with cell cycle arrest and apoptosis.
Results: Compared with control, both EGCG and O-EGCG (i.e., EGCG being pre-incubated at 37°C for 3 h) significantly inhibited HCT116 cells growth. Surprisingly, we found that the inhibitory effect of O-EGCG was stronger than that of EGCG. The IC
50
values of EGCG and O-EGCG were 8.75 and 5.40 μM, respectively. Cell cycle analysis showed that 20 μM of EGCG simultaneously caused cell cycle arrest at G1 and G2 phase in HCT116 cells, differing from O-EGCG which exclusively caused cell cycle arrest at G2. This result suggested that parent EGCG at the early treatment might cause cell cycle arrest at G1. As time went on, EGCG disappeared and degraded products of EGCG were formed which might cause cell cycle arrest at G2. Further studies revealed that EGCG induced cell cycle arrest at G1 by downregulation of cyclin E and cyclin D1 and upregulation of p21. On the other hand, O-EGCG induced HCT116 cells apoptosis mainly by increasing the expression of p53 and cleaved caspase-3, which might be the underlying reason why O-EGCG had stronger inhibitory effect on HCT116 cells line than EGCG.
Conclusions: The pretreatment of EGCG may be an effective way to enhance its antitumor effect.
: Synapto‐dendritic dysfunction and rearrangement takes place over time at the peri‐infarct brain after stroke, and the event plays an important role in post‐stroke functional recovery. Here, we ...evaluated whether melatonin would modulate the synapto‐dendritic plasticity after stroke. Adult male Sprague‐Dawley rats were treated with melatonin (5 mg/kg) or vehicle at reperfusion onset after transient occlusion of the right middle cerebral artery (tMCAO) for 90 min. Local cerebral blood perfusion, somatosensory electrophysiological recordings and neurobehavioral tests were serially measured. Animals were sacrificed at 7 days after tMCAO. The brain was processed for Nissl‐stained histology, Golgi–Cox‐impregnated sections, or Western blotting for presynaptic proteins, synaptosomal‐associated protein of 25 kDa (SNAP‐25) and synaptophysin (a calcium‐binding protein found on presynaptic vesicle membranes). Relative to controls, melatonin‐treated animals had significantly reduced infarction volumes (P < 0.05) and improved neurobehavioral outcomes, as accessed by sensorimotor and rota‐rod motor performance tests (P < 0.05, respectively). Melatonin also significantly improved the SNAP‐25, but not synaptophysin, protein expression in the ischemic brain (P < 0.05). Moreover, melatonin significantly improved the dendritic spine density and the somatosensory electrophysiological field potentials both in the ischemic brain and the contralateral homotopic intact brain (P < 0.05, respectively). Together, melatonin not only effectively attenuated the loss of presynaptic protein, SANP‐25, and dendritic spine density in the ischemic territory, but also improved the reductions in the dendritic spine density in the contralateral intact brain. This synapto‐dendritic plasticity may partly account for the melatonin‐mediated improvements in functional and electrophysiological circuitry after stroke.
As wearables become more widely adopted, powering them from ambient energy sources can improve reliability and reduce reliance on batteries. Solar photovoltaic (PV) power is a viable power source for ...such emerging applications. However, because wearable applications bend and move with the user's motion, the PV panels used in these applications experience varying light intensities over multiple PV cells that reduce power generation in traditional series-string configurations. To address the PV power reduction problem, a configuration of boost converters with parallel-connected outputs are utilized, which is effective in uneven lighting conditions. Depending on the load demand and available solar power, a converter control system should quickly transition between maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and power curtailment operation. This work evaluates MPPT (perturb & observe and constant-voltage) algorithms and power curtailment (over-voltage shut-off and flexible power point tracking) methods on their effectiveness in wearable applications. Experimental results verify that the perturb & observe with flexible power point tracking effectively adapts to changes in the load and light conditions while maintaining 30% and 31% higher output power, respectively. It also maintains the maximum component temperature below <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">29{}^{\circ }</tex-math></inline-formula>C which is a safe temperature for wearable applications.
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