Adding three cycles of induction chemotherapy with gemcitabine and cisplatin to concurrent chemoradiotherapy improved 3-year recurrence-free survival (85.3%, vs. 76.5% with concurrent ...chemoradiotherapy alone) and overall survival (94.6% vs. 90.3%). Patients receiving induction chemotherapy were more likely to have grade 3 or 4 myelosuppression, nausea, and vomiting.
IMPORTANCE: The dynamics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmissibility are yet to be fully understood. Better understanding of the transmission dynamics is important for the development and ...evaluation of effective control policies. OBJECTIVE: To delineate the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 and evaluate the transmission risk at different exposure window periods before and after symptom onset. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This prospective case-ascertained study in Taiwan included laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and their contacts. The study period was from January 15 to March 18, 2020. All close contacts were quarantined at home for 14 days after their last exposure to the index case. During the quarantine period, any relevant symptoms (fever, cough, or other respiratory symptoms) of contacts triggered a COVID-19 test. The final follow-up date was April 2, 2020. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Secondary clinical attack rate (considering symptomatic cases only) for different exposure time windows of the index cases and for different exposure settings (such as household, family, and health care). RESULTS: We enrolled 100 confirmed patients, with a median age of 44 years (range, 11-88 years), including 44 men and 56 women. Among their 2761 close contacts, there were 22 paired index-secondary cases. The overall secondary clinical attack rate was 0.7% (95% CI, 0.4%-1.0%). The attack rate was higher among the 1818 contacts whose exposure to index cases started within 5 days of symptom onset (1.0% 95% CI, 0.6%-1.6%) compared with those who were exposed later (0 cases from 852 contacts; 95% CI, 0%-0.4%). The 299 contacts with exclusive presymptomatic exposures were also at risk (attack rate, 0.7% 95% CI, 0.2%-2.4%). The attack rate was higher among household (4.6% 95% CI, 2.3%-9.3%) and nonhousehold (5.3% 95% CI, 2.1%-12.8%) family contacts than that in health care or other settings. The attack rates were higher among those aged 40 to 59 years (1.1% 95% CI, 0.6%-2.1%) and those aged 60 years and older (0.9% 95% CI, 0.3%-2.6%). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this study, high transmissibility of COVID-19 before and immediately after symptom onset suggests that finding and isolating symptomatic patients alone may not suffice to contain the epidemic, and more generalized measures may be required, such as social distancing.
A multiple resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR‐TADF) molecule with a fused, planar architecture tends to aggregate at high doping ratios, resulting in broad full width at half ...maximum (FWHM), redshifting electroluminescence peaks, and low device efficiency. Herein, we propose a mono‐substituted design strategy by introducing spiro‐9,9′‐bifluorene (SBF) units with different substituted sites into the MR‐TADF system for the first time. As a classic steric group, SBF can hinder interchromophore interactions, leading to high device efficiency (32.2–35.9 %) and narrow‐band emission (≈27 nm). Particularly, the shield‐like molecule, SF1BN, seldom exhibits a broadened FWHM as the doping ratio rises, which differs from the C3‐substituted isomer and unhindered parent emitter. These results manifest an effective method for constructing highly efficient MR‐TADF emitters through a spiro strategy and elucidate the feasibility for steric modulation of the spiro structure in π‐framework.
By incorporating a three‐dimensional spiro unit into multiple resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters, the device efficiency is increased to nearly 1.5 times that of the unhindered emitter. Notably, the linkage pattern with spatial interaction and hindrance can maintain the narrow FWHM and curb unfavorable redshifts at a high doping ratio.
A potential concern is that their study only included cases that had a single exposure event and a 1-day exposure window. A more flexible case-selection approach might reduce bias, even though this ...approach would require methods to address uncertainty in actual infection timing. Using more comprehensive exposure windows, the estimated mean incubation period in Taiwan was 3.5 (95% CI 3.1–4.0) days, longer than Tanaka et al.’s estimates (1,2) but similar to estimates of 3.5 days from Italy (data collected during January 2022) (3) and South Korea (data collected during November–December 2021) (4) and estimates from a systematic review (3.6 days) (5).
Glucoregulatory efficiency and ATP production are key regulators for neuronal plasticity and memory formation. Besides its chemotactic and neuroinflammatory functions, the CC chemokine--CCL5 displays ...neurotrophic activity. We found impaired learning-memory and cognition in CCL5-knockout mice at 4 months of age correlated with reduced hippocampal long-term potentiation and impaired synapse structure. Re-expressing CCL5 in knockout mouse hippocampus restored synaptic protein expression, neuronal connectivity and cognitive function. Using metabolomics coupled with FDG-PET imaging and seahorse analysis, we found that CCL5 participates in hippocampal fructose and mannose degradation, glycolysis, gluconeogenesis as well as glutamate and purine metabolism. CCL5 additionally supports mitochondrial structural integrity, purine synthesis, ATP generation, and subsequent aerobic glucose metabolism. Overexpressing CCL5 in WT mice also enhanced memory-cognition performance as well as hippocampal neuronal activity and connectivity through promotion of de novo purine and glutamate metabolism. Thus, CCL5 actions on glucose aerobic metabolism are critical for mitochondrial function which contribute to hippocampal spine and synapse formation, improving learning and memory.
Metal–organic framework (MOF)-based materials are promising candidates for a range of separation applications. However, the fabrication of self-standing MOF-based thin films remains challenging. ...Herein, a facile solution casting strategy is developed for fabricating UiO-66 nanocomposite thin films (UiO66TFs) with thicknesses down to ∼400 nm. Nanosizing UiO-66 and incorporating sulfonated polysulfone additives render high dispersity and interfacial bindings between MOFs and polymer matrices, so UiO66TFs are more mechanically robust and thermally stable than their pure-polymer counterparts. Enhanced microporosity with sub-nanometer pore sizes of the self-standing membranes enables the direct translation of UiO-66-based sorption and ion-sieving properties, thus increasing water flux and separation performance (Na2SO4 rejection of 94–96%) under hydraulic pressure-driven processes and eliminating internal concentration polarization in osmotic pressure-driven processes. Enhanced separation performances are achieved with water/Na2SO4 permselectivity of 13.5 L g–1 and high osmotic water permeability up to 1.41 L m–2 h–1 bar–1, providing 3-fold higher water/Na2SO4 permselectivity and 56-fold-higher water flux than polymer membranes for forward osmosis.
Approaches to preventing or mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have varied markedly between nations. We examined the approach up to August 2020 taken by two jurisdictions which had ...successfully eliminated COVID-19 by this time: Taiwan and New Zealand. Taiwan reported a lower COVID-19 incidence rate (20.7 cases per million) compared with NZ (278.0 per million). Extensive public health infrastructure established in Taiwan pre-COVID-19 enabled a fast coordinated response, particularly in the domains of early screening, effective methods for isolation/quarantine, digital technologies for identifying potential cases and mass mask use. This timely and vigorous response allowed Taiwan to avoid the national lockdown used by New Zealand. Many of Taiwan's pandemic control components could potentially be adopted by other jurisdictions.
Aluminum oxynitride (AlON) ceramics doped with different sintering aids were synthesized by spark plasma sintering process. The microstructures, mechanical, and optical properties of the ceramics ...were investigated. The results indicate that the optimal amount of sintering aids is 0.06 wt% La2O3 + 0.16 wt% Y2O3 + 0.30 wt% MgO. The addition of La3+ and Mg2+ decreases the rate of grain boundary migration in ceramics, promotes pore elimination, and inhibits grain growth. The addition of Y3+ facilitates liquid‐phase sintering of AlON ceramics. Moreover, the addition of Mg2+ effectively promotes twin formation in the ceramics, which hinders crack propagation and dislocation motion when the ceramics are loaded. Hence, the AlON ceramic doped with 0.06 wt% La2O3 + 0.16 wt% Y2O3 + 0.30 wt% MgO exhibits a relative density of 99.95%, an average grain size of 9.42 μm, and a twin boundary content of 10.3%, which contributes to its excellent mechanical and optical properties.
Constructing a powerful photocatalytic system that can achieve the carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction half‐reaction and the water (H2O) oxidation half‐reaction simultaneously is a very challenging but ...meaningful task. Herein, a porous material with a crystalline topological network, named viCOF‐bpy‐Re, was rationally synthesized by incorporating rhenium complexes as reductive sites and triazine ring structures as oxidative sites via robust −C=C− bond linkages. The charge‐separation ability of viCOF‐bpy‐Re is promoted by low polarized π‐bridges between rhenium complexes and triazine ring units, and the efficient charge‐separation enables the photogenerated electron–hole pairs, followed by an intramolecular charge‐transfer process, to form photogenerated electrons involved in CO2 reduction and photogenerated holes that participate in H2O oxidation simultaneously. The viCOF‐bpy‐Re shows the highest catalytic photocatalytic carbon monoxide (CO) production rate (190.6 μmol g−1 h−1 with about 100 % selectivity) and oxygen (O2) evolution (90.2 μmol g−1 h−1) among all the porous catalysts in CO2 reduction with H2O as sacrificial agents. Therefore, a powerful photocatalytic system was successfully achieved, and this catalytic system exhibited excellent stability in the catalysis process for 50 hours. The structure–function relationship was confirmed by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations.
A crystalline network is constructed by incorporating rhenium complexes and triazine ring structures as catalytic sites via robust −C=C− bonding. Appreciable charge‐separation and transfer efficiency drive both the photocatalytic oxidative and reductive reactions in the conversion of CO2 to CO with H2O, and without any additional sacrificial agents or photosensitizers.
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