Cytokine storm syndrome (CSS) is a critical clinical condition induced by a cascade of cytokine activation, characterized by overwhelming systemic inflammation, hyperferritinaemia, haemodynamic ...instability and multiple organ failure (MOF). At the end of 2019, the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) emerged in Wuhan, China, and rapidly developed into a global pandemic. More and more evidence shows that there is a dramatic increase of inflammatory cytokines in patients with COVID‐19, suggesting the existence of cytokine storm in some critical illness patients. Here, we summarize the pathogenesis, clinical manifestation of CSS, and highlight the current understanding about the recognition and potential therapeutic options of CSS in COVID‐19.
Correlations reduce the configurational entropies of liquids below their ideal gas limits. By means of first-principles molecular dynamics simulations, we obtain accurate pair correlation functions ...of liquid metals, then subtract the mutual information content of these correlations from the ideal gas entropies to predict the absolute entropies over a broad range of temperatures. We apply this method to liquid aluminum and copper and demonstrate good agreement with experimental measurements; then, we apply it to predict the entropy of a liquid aluminum–copper alloy. Corrections due to electronic entropy and many-body correlations are discussed.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been identified in solid tumors and cancer cell lines. In this study, we isolated a series of cancer cell clones, which were heterogeneous in growth rate, cell cycle ...distribution and expression profile of genes and proteins, from ovarian tumor specimens of a patient and identified a sub-population enriched for ovarian CSCs defined by CD24 phenotype. Experiments in vitro demonstrated CD24(+) sub-population possessed stem cell-like characteristics of remaining quiescence and more chemoresistant compared with CD24(-) fraction, as well as a specific capacity for self-renewal and differentiation. In addition, injection of 5 x 10(3) CD24(+) cells was able to form tumor xenografts in nude mice, whereas equal number of CD24(-) cells remained nontumorigenic. We also found that CD24(+) cells expressed higher mRNA levels of some 'stemness' genes, including Nestin, beta-catenin, Bmi-1, Oct4, Oct3/4, Notch1 and Notch4 which were involved in modulating many functions of stem cells, and lower E-cadherin mRNA level than CD24(-) cells. Altogether, these observations suggest human ovarian tumor cells are organized as a hierarchy and CD24 demarcates an ovarian cancer-initiating cell population. These findings will have important clinical applications for developing effective therapeutic strategies to treat ovarian cancer.
Bedaquiline treatment significantly improves multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patient treatment outcomes. However, safety and efficacy data are lacking for bedaquiline used with background ...regimens to treat Chinese TB patients. Here, we describe our initial clinical experience for bedaquiline treatment of a large multicentre cohort of MDR-TB and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) patients in China.
Patients (177) received 24-week bedaquiline treatment combined with personalized anti-TB drug background regimens. As primary efficacy endpoints, times to initial sputum culture conversion were measured.
Of 177 MDR-TB patients completing the 24-week treatment course, sputum culture conversion occurred for 151/177 (85.3%), while 26 had unfavourable outcomes, including 3/177 (1.7%) deaths and 23/177 (13.0%) non-responders at treatment completion. The median time to sputum culture conversion was 4 (interquartile range 2–8) weeks. Conversion rates were 33/39 (84.6%, 95% confidence interval (CI) 73.3–95.9) for MDR-TB patients, 47/56 (83.9%, 95% CI 74.3–93.6) for pre-XDR-TB patients and 71/82 (86.6%, 95% CI 79.2–94.0) for XDR-TB patients. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that patients with low body mass index (odds ratio 7.356; 95% CI 2.652–20.401) were at significantly high risk of unfavourable outcomes, with serious adverse events noted in 15 (8.5%) patients, including six with corrected QT interval (QTc) prolongation times (>500 ms).
Bedaquiline, when included in background regimens for treatment of MDR-TB and XDR-TB patients in China, was safe and associated with a high rate of culture conversion.
Carbon steel usually has high corrosion rate in water with dissolved CO2 however the steel surface can be covered by protective corrosion product film. Therefore the carbon steel can be widely used ...in oil and gas industry. This paper discusses the structure, electrochemistry performances, initiation and growth of protective corrosion product films. A duplex layer structure of FeCO3 films was found by electrochemical impedance spectrum (EIS). The physical and chemical situations of solution near carbon steel surface were investigated by ultraviolet spectrophotometry and chronopotentiometry. According to crystallography the growth mechanisms of protective CO2 corrosion product films were discussed.
The formation of disordered solid solution in the hexagonal close-packed (hcp) structure in the GdHoLaTbY alloy and its mechanical properties were investigated in this study. The single hcp phase of ...the alloy in the as-cast state was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analyses. The compressive yield strength, fracture strength, and plastic strain of the alloy are 108MPa, 880MPa, and 21.8%, respectively, and the Vickers hardness is 96HV. The results show that the yield strength, fracture strength, and hardness of the alloy obey the rule of mixture, which indicates that there is no hardening effect from entropy. Although the high entropy of mixing stabilizes the solid solution against intermetallic compounds, lack of severe lattice distortion from elastic strain or electronic interactions between principal elements impacts little on the mechanical properties.
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•The GdHoLaTbY high-entropy alloy forms a hexagonal close-packed solid solution.•The strengthening effect from the configurational entropy is not found in the alloy.•The mechanical properties and Vickers hardness of the alloy obey the rule of mixture.
This study reports the design and development of ductile and strong refractory single-phase high-entropy alloys (HEAs) for high temperature applications, based on NbTaV with addition of Ti and W. ...Assisted by CALPHAD modeling, a single body-centered cubic solid solution phase was experimentally confirmed in the as-cast ingots using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The observed elemental segregation in each alloy qualitatively agrees with CALPHAD prediction. The Vickers microhardnesses (and yield strengths) of the alloys are about 3 (and 3.5–4.4) times that those estimated from the rule of mixture. While NbTaTiVW shows an impressive yield strength of 1420MPa with fracture strain of 20%, NbTaTiV exhibits exceptional compressive ductility at room temperature.
Muscle fatigue, as a common physiological phenomenon, has attracted much attention in the fields of rehabilitation and athletic training. A wearable technology for monitoring the muscle fatigue ...anytime and anywhere is urgently needed. In this paper we apply Electrical impedance myography (EIM) technique, usually used for non-invasive detection of neuromuscular diseases with the four-electrode array, for evaluation of the local muscle fatigue status via the variation of electrical impedance. An equivalent multilayer inhomogeneous 3D finite element model of human arm was built in order to optimize the four-electrode configuration to improve EIM detection sensitivity. Current density in muscle layer and differential potential of induction electrodes were selected as the evaluation indexes for optimization. Then the in vivo experiments of dynamic contraction with different maximal voluntary contractions (MVC) were performed on the biceps brachii muscle of eight healthy volunteers. The results showed that muscle resistance (R) decreased almost 8 Ω from the completely relaxed muscle to exhaustion, which is the same trend as for the median frequency (MF) of measured surface electromyography (sEMG) signals. The model and experiments in this paper indicate the feasibility and efficiency of EIM for detection of muscle fatigue using wearable devices.
Galectin-1 (Gal-1) is involved in several pathological activities associated with tumor progression and chemoresistance, however, the role and molecular mechanism of Gal-1 activity in hepatocellular ...carcinoma (HCC) epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and sorafenib resistance remain enigmatic. In the present study, forced Gal-1 expression promoted HCC progression and sorafenib resistance. Gal-1 elevated αvβ3-integrin expression, leading to AKT activation. Moreover, Gal-1 overexpression induced HCC cell EMT via PI3K/AKT cascade activation. Clinically, our data revealed that Gal-1 overexpression is correlated with poor HCC survival outcomes and sorafenib response. These data suggest that Gal-1 may be a potential therapeutic target for HCC and a biomarker for predicting response to sorafenib treatment.
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