Heavy metal contamination in soil has attracted great attention worldwide. In situ stabilization has been considered an effective way to remediate soils contaminated by heavy metals. In the present ...research, a multiple-modified biochar (BCM) was prepared to stabilize Cd and Cu contamination in two different soils: a farmland soil (JYS) and a vegetable soil (ZZS). The results showed that BCM was a porous-like flake material and that modification increased its specific surface area and surface functional groups. The incubation experiment indicated that BCM decreased diethylenetriaminepentaacetic (DTPA)-extractable Cd and Cu by 92.02% and 100.00% for JYS and 90.27% and 100.00% for ZZS, respectively. The toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP)-extractable Cd and Cu decreased 66.46% and 100.00% for JYS and 46.33% and 100.00% for ZZS, respectively. BCM also reduced the mobility of Cd and Cu in soil and transformed them to more stable fractions. In addition, the application of BCM significantly increased the soil dehydrogenase, organic matter content and available K (p < 0.05). These results indicate that BCM has great potential in the remediation of Cd- and Cu-contaminated soil.
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•Multiple modifications improved the specific surface area and surface active groups of biochar.•BCM efficiently reduced the bioavailability Cd and Cu.•BCM reduced the leachability of Cd and Cu.•BCM transformed Cd and Cu to a more stable fraction.•BCM improved the properties of Cd- and Cu-contaminated soils.
Pectus excavatum (PE) is one of the most common chest wall defects. Accurate assessment of PE deformities is critical for effective surgical intervention. Index-based evaluations have become the ...standard for objectively estimating PE, however, these indexes cannot represent the whole information of chest CT images and may associated with significant error due to the individual differences. To overcome these limitations, this paper developed a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system based on the convolutional neural network (CNN) to automatically learn discriminative features and classify PE images. We also adopted block-wise fine-tuning methods based on the transfer learning strategy to reduce the potential risk of overfitting caused by limited data and experimentally explored the best fine-tuning degree. Our method achieved a high level of classification accuracy with 94.76% for PE diagnosis. Furthermore, we proposed a majority rule-based voting method to provide a comprehensively diagnostic results for each patient, which integrated the classification results of the whole thorax. The promising results support the feasibility of our proposed CNN-based CAD system for automatic PE diagnosis, which paves a way for comprehensive assessments of PE in clinics.
Oncolytic viruses are of growing importance in cancer therapeutics since they combine direct oncolytic effect and the stimulation of antitumor immunity. Emerging evidences showed that the function of ...oncolytic viruses is dependent on immune response in tumor microenvironment, and the modulation of immunity could influence their efficacy. Here we combined the interleukin 10 (IL-10) and oncolytic adenovirus Ad-hTERT to treat lung cancer and explored the underlying mechanism under combination therapy. Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) and B16F10 tumor-bearing immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice that received Ad-hTERT or IL-10 alone showed mild antitumor effect, while the combination therapy shrink tumor bulks and prolonged survival remarkably. In addition, IL-10 didn't show direct influence on tumor cell viability or Ad-hTERT mediated tumor cell lysis
. To further explore the influence of combination therapy mediated antitumor capacity, we eliminated CD8
T, CD4
T or natural killer (NK) cells in LLC and B16F10-bearing C57BL/6 mice, and found that CD8
T cells were critical mediator in the combination therapy. The combination therapy induced intensive infiltration of CD8
T cells in tumors, increased tumor-specific IFN-γ secretion by CD8
T cells. The long-term tumor-specific immune memory induced by the combination therapy rejected rechallenge by respective tumor cell lines. This study demonstrated that the therapy combining IL-10 and Ad-hTERT augmented antitumor efficacy which was CD8
T cells dependent. Our findings paved the way to combine cytokines and oncolytic viruses to enhance antitumor immunotherapy in treating cancer.
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•The Minhe serpentinites are mantle residues of multi-episode partial melting.•Fluid/melt metasomatism exerted a limited impact on the Re-Os systematics.•Re-Os ages provide temporal ...constraints on Proterozoic melt extraction.
Re-Os isotopes of the mantle-derived ultramafic rocks can provide temporal constraints on the melt extraction of ancient mantle. Here, new geochemistry and Re-Os isotopes of serpentinites from the Minhe ophiolite in the Qilian Orogenic Belt (QOB) are presented. Their geochemical compositions (e.g., abundances of heavy rare earth elements, Al2O3, Yb, Re, and Th/Yb ratio) suggest that protoliths of the serpentinites originated as mantle residues. They underwent multiple episodes of melt depletion, leading to a highly refractory nature and high degrees of partial melting (>18%). Moreover, subchondritic 187Re/188Os (0.0023–0.0399) and 187Os/188Os (0.1135–0.1210) ratios of the serpentinites, and decoupling of the Re-Os systematics and metasomatic proxies (e.g., LOI, Sr, La, and Th/Yb), demonstrate that fluid/melt metasomatism exerted a limited impact on their Re-Os isotopic systematics. Their Re-depletion ages (TRD), varying from 1.22 to 2.21 Ga, are analogues to their Re-Os model ages (TMA, 1.29–2.31 Ga). Therefore, Re-Os isotopic ages recorded by ophiolites in QOB indicate that at least two major melt-extraction episodes occurred in the lithospheric mantle during Proterozoic (1.2–1.6 Ga and 2.0–2.2 Ga). Notably, the 1.2–1.6 Ga mantle melt-depletion event may have a genetic affinity with the 1.1–1.7 Ga crustal growth. Mantle rocks from an ophiolite have a great potential in tracking ancient geological events, such as Precambrian mantle melting.
Objectives
To develop and validate a preoperative CT-based nomogram combined with radiomic and clinical–radiological signatures to distinguish preinvasive lesions from pulmonary invasive lesions.
...Methods
This was a retrospective, diagnostic study conducted from August 1, 2018, to May 1, 2020, at three centers. Patients with a solitary pulmonary nodule were enrolled in the GDPH center and were divided into two groups (7:3) randomly: development (
n
= 149) and internal validation (
n
= 54). The SYSMH center and the ZSLC Center formed an external validation cohort of 170 patients. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) algorithm and logistic regression analysis were used to feature signatures and transform them into models.
Results
The study comprised 373 individuals from three independent centers (female: 225/373, 60.3%; median IQR age, 57.0 48.0–65.0 years). The AUCs for the combined radiomic signature selected from the nodular area and the perinodular area were 0.93, 0.91, and 0.90 in the three cohorts. The nomogram combining the clinical and combined radiomic signatures could accurately predict interstitial invasion in patients with a solitary pulmonary nodule (AUC, 0.94, 0.90, 0.92) in the three cohorts, respectively. The radiomic nomogram outperformed any clinical or radiomic signature in terms of clinical predictive abilities, according to a decision curve analysis and the Akaike information criteria.
Conclusions
This study demonstrated that a nomogram constructed by identified clinical–radiological signatures and combined radiomic signatures has the potential to precisely predict pathology invasiveness.
Key Points
• The radiomic signature from the perinodular area has the potential to predict pathology invasiveness of the solitary pulmonary nodule.
• The new radiomic nomogram was useful in clinical decision-making associated with personalized surgical intervention and therapeutic regimen selection in patients with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer.
We propose a unidimensional two-way continuous-variable quantum key distribution protocol with coherent states, where the sender modulates a single quadrature of the coherent states rather than both ...quadratures to simplify the structure of a two-way system. Security analysis is performed with a general attack strategy, known as two-mode attack, which helps to reduce limitations in the analysis. The performance of the protocol under all accessible two-mode attacks at fixed distance is illustrated. Further, two typical two-mode attack strategies are obtained from it, which are one-mode attack strategy and optimal two-mode attack strategy. Between them, the one-mode attack is the simplest form of the two-mode attack, while the optimal two-mode attack is the most complicated one. Simulations show that though the system is simplified, the performance of the two-way protocol with unidimensional modulation is still comparable to that of the counterpart with Gaussian modulation even against the optimal two-mode attack when Eve's ability is maximized. Thus, the proposed protocol simplifies the two-way system while guaranteeing its performance to a certain extent. Especially in a practical system with short transmission distance and high excess noise, the protocol has a good application prospect.
Gradual distraction with an external fixator is a widely used treatment for severe postburn ankle contracture (SPAC). However, application of external fixators is complex, and conventional ...two-dimensional (2D) imaging-based surgical planning is not particularly helpful due to a lack of spatial geometry. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the surgical planning process for this procedure with patient-specific three-dimension-printed models (3DPMs). In this study, patients coming from two centers were divided into two cohorts (3DPM group vs. control group) depending on whether a 3DPM was used for preoperative surgical planning. Operation duration, improvement in metatarsal-tibial angle (MTA), range of motion (ROM), the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) scores, complications, and patient-reported satisfaction were compared between two groups. The 3DPM group had significantly shorter operation duration than the control group ((2.0±0.3) h vs. (3.2± 0.3) h,
P
<0.01). MTA, ROM, and AOFAS scores between the two groups showed no significant differences pre-operation, after the removal of the external fixator, or at follow-up. Plantigrade feet were achieved and gait was substantially improved in all patients at the final follow-up. Pin-tract infections occurred in two patients (one in each group) during distraction and were treated with wound care and oral antibiotics. Patients in the 3DPM group reported higher satisfaction than those in the control group, owing to better patient-surgeon communication. Surgical planning using patient-specific 3DPMs significantly reduced operation duration and increased patient satisfaction, while providing similar improvements in ankle movement and function compared to traditional surgical planning for the correction of SPAC with external fixators.
A deep learning-based method for evaluating the quality of pediatric pelvic X-ray images is proposed to construct a diagnostic model and verify its clinical feasibility.
Three thousand two hundred ...and forty-seven children with anteroposteric pelvic radiographs are retrospectively collected and randomly divided into training datasets, validation datasets and test datasets. Artificial intelligence model is conducted to evaluate the reliability of quality control model.
The diagnostic accuracy, area under ROC curve, sensitivity and specificity of the model are 99.4%, 0.993, 98.6% and 100.0%, respectively. The 95% consistency limit of the pelvic tilt index of the model is -0.052-0.072. The 95% consistency threshold of pelvic rotation index is -0.088-0.055.
This is the first attempt to apply AI algorithm to the quality assessment of children's pelvic radiographs, and has significantly improved the diagnosis and treatment status of DDH in children.
The seed dormancy characteristic is regarded as one of the most critical factors for pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) resistance. As a wild wheat relative species,
is a potential genetic resource for ...improving common wheat. In this study, an advanced backcross population (201 strains) containing only
segments was developed by means of synthetic octaploid wheat (hexaploid wheat Zhoumai 18 ×
T093). Subsequently, seed dormancy rate (Dor) in the advanced backcross population was evaluated on the day 3, 5 and 7, in which 2 major QTLs (
and
) were observed on chromosomes 2D and 3D with phenotypic variance explained values (PVEs) of 10.25 and 20.40%, respectively. Further investigation revealed significant correlation between
and
gene, while no association was found between the former and
gene, implying that
site could be of closer position to
. The obtained quantitative trait locus sites (QTLs) in this work could be applied to develop wheat cultivars with PHS resistance.
A unidimensional continuous-variable quantum key distribution protocol with untrusted detection is proposed, where the two legitimate partners send unidimensional modulated or Gaussian-modulated ...coherent states to an untrusted third party, i.e., Charlie, to realize the measurement. Compared with the Gaussian-modulated coherent-state protocols, the unidimensional modulated protocols take the advantage of easy modulation, low cost, and only a small number of random numbers required. Security analysis shows that the proposed protocol cannot just defend all detectors side channels, but also achieve great performance under certain conditions. Specifically, three cases are discussed in detail, including using unidimensional modulated coherent states in Alice’s side, in Bob’s side, and in both sides under realistic conditions, respectively. Under the three conditions, we derive the expressions of the secret key rate and give the optimal gain parameters. It is found that the optimal performance of the protocol is achieved by using unidimensional modulated coherent states in both Alice’s and Bob’s side. The resulting protocol shows the potential for long-distance secure communication using the unidimensional quantum key distribution protocol with simple modulation method and untrusted detection under realistic conditions.
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