The Yangtze Estuary in China has been intensively influenced by human activities including altered river and sediment discharges in its catchment and local engineering projects in the estuary over ...the past half century. River sediment discharge has significantly decreased since the 1980s because of upstream dam construction and water-soil conservation. We analyzed bathymetric data from the Yangtze Estuary between 1958 and 2010 and divided the entire estuary into two sections: inner estuary and mouth bar area. The deposition and erosion pattern exhibited strong temporal and spatial variations. The inner estuary and mouth bar area underwent different changes. The inner estuary was altered from sedimentation to erosion primarily at an intermediate depth (5–15m) along with river sediment decline. In contrast, the mouth bar area showed continued accretion throughout the study period. The frequent river floods during the 1990s and simultaneously decreasing river sediment probably induced the peak erosion of the inner estuary in 1986–1997. We conclude that both sediment discharge and river flood events played important roles in the decadal morphological evolution of the Yangtze Estuary. Regarding the dredged sediment, the highest net accretion rate occurred in the North Passage where jetties and groins were constructed to regulate the navigation channel in 1997–2010. In this period, the jetties induced enhanced deposition at the East Hengsha Mudflat and the high accretion rate within the mouth bar area was maintained. The impacts of estuarine engineering projects on morphological change extended beyond their sites.
•River sediment decline led to erosion in the inner estuary but not in the mouth bar.•River flooding played an important role in decadal morphological evolution.•The impacts of estuarine engineering projects extended beyond their given sites.
To analyze the outcome, including nonrelapse mortality (NRM), relapse rate (RR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS), of patients with diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin's ...lymphoma (DLBCL) relapsed after an autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) and treated with an allogeneic stem-cell transplantation (allo-SCT).
The European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation database was scanned for a first allo-SCT in relapsed DLBCL after a previous ASCT between 1997 and 2006. Other inclusion criteria were age at allo-SCT ≥ 18 years and availability of an HLA-identical sibling or a matched unrelated donor. A total of 101 patients (57 males; median age, 46 years) were included. Median follow-up for survivors was 36 months.
Myeloablative conditioning regimen was used in 37 patients and reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) was used in 64 patients. Three-year NRM was 28.2% (95% CI, 20% to 39%), RR was 30.1% (95% CI, 22% to 41%), PFS was 41.7% (95% CI, 32% to 52%), and OS was 53.8% (95% CI, 44% to 64%). NRM was significantly increased in patients ≥ 45 years (P = .01) and in those with an early relapse (< 12 months) after ASCT (P = .01). RR was significantly higher in refractory patients (P = .03). A time interval to relapse after ASCT of < 12 months was associated with lower PFS (P = .03). The use of RIC regimens was followed by a trend to a lower NRM (P = .1) and a trend to a higher RR (P = .1), with no differences in PFS and OS. No differences were seen between HLA-identical siblings and matched unrelated donors.
Allo-SCT in relapsed DLBCL after ASCT is a promising therapeutic modality. Patients with a long remission after ASCT and with sensitive disease at allo-SCT are the best candidates for this approach.
The collembolan Folsomia candida Willem, 1902, is widely distributed throughout the world and has been frequently used as a test organism in soil ecology and ecotoxicology studies. However, it is ...questioned as an ideal “standard” because of differences in reproductive modes and cryptic genetic diversity between strains from various geographical origins. In this study, we obtained two high‐quality chromosome‐level genomes of F. candida, for a parthenogenetic strain (named FCDK, 219.08 Mb, 25,139 protein‐coding genes) and a sexual strain (named FCSH, 153.09 Mb, 21,609 protein‐coding genes), reannotated the genome of the parthenogenetic strain reported by Faddeeva‐Vakhrusheva et al. in 2017 (named FCBL, 221.7 Mb, 25,980 protein‐coding genes) and conducted comparative genomic analyses of the three strains. High genome similarities between FCDK and FCBL based on synteny, genome architecture, mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences suggest that they are conspecific. The seven chromosomes of FCDK are each 25%–54% larger than the corresponding chromosomes of FCSH, showing obvious repetitive element expansions and large‐scale inversions and translocations but no whole‐genome duplication. The strain‐specific genes, expanded gene families and genes in nonsyntenic chromosomal regions identified in FCDK are highly related to the broader environmental adaptation of parthenogenetic strains. In addition, FCDK has fewer strain‐specific microRNAs than FCSH, and their mitochondrial and nuclear genes have diverged greatly. In conclusion, FCDK/FCBL and FCSH have accumulated independent genetic changes and evolved into distinct species after 10 million years ago. Our work provides important genomic resources for studying the mechanisms of rapidly cryptic speciation and soil arthropod adaptation to soil ecosystems.
The conjugate additions of oxygen-centered nucleophiles to conjugate acceptors are among the most powerful C-O bond formation reactions. The conjugate addition normally takes place at the β-position ...carbon to the electron-withdrawing group, resulting in the formation of a stabilized carbanion intermediate that can be quenched by proton or electrophiles to form the β-addition (i.e., hetero-Michael addition) products. On the contrary, the formation of α-hydroxyl or alkoxyl amides through conjugate addition needs an α,β-inverse addition. Nevertheless, a regio-inversed nucleophilic α-addition of oxygen-centered nucleophiles to α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds still remains less explored because of the electronic mismatch. In this research, we discovered the first α-specific nucleophilic addition of α,β-unsaturated amides with oxygen and fluoride nucleophiles. This region-inversed nucleophilic addition is enabled by the catalysis of a novel redox-neutral nondonor-acceptor organic photoreductant (
). As low as 0.5 mol % of visible light photoreductant was employed. The mechanistic insights were also explored. The oxidative potential of the excited state of
is obtained in -1.92 V (vs SCE), presenting a stronger reductive potential than representative metal-cored or organic photoredox catalysts. This feature enabled the umpolung of α,β-unsaturated amides to take place α-nucleophilic addition other than the normal β-addition.
We report that vertically aligned ZnO nanowire arrays (ZnO NWAs) were fabricated on 3D graphene foam (GF) and used to selectively detect uric acid (UA), dopamine (DA), and ascorbic acid (AA) by a ...differential pulse voltammetry method. The optimized ZnO NWA/GF electrode provided a high surface area and high selectivity with a detection limit of 1 nM for UA and DA. The high selectivity in the oxidation potential was explained by the gap difference between the lowest unoccupied and highest occupied molecular orbitals of a biomolecule for a set of given electrodes. This method was further used to detect UA levels in the serum of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The UA level was 25% lower in PD patients than in healthy individuals. This finding strongly implies that UA can be used as a biomarker for PD.
Electrochemical water splitting offers an attractive approach for hydrogen production. However, the lack of high‐performance cost‐effective electrocatalyst severely hinders its applications. Here, a ...multinary high‐entropy intermetallic (HEI) that possesses an unusual periodically ordered structure containing multiple non‐noble elements is reported, which can serve as a highly efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution. This HEI exhibits excellent activities in alkalinity with an overpotential of 88.2 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 40.1 mV dec−1, which are comparable to those of noble catalysts. Theoretical calculations reveal that the chemical complexity and surprising atomic configurations provide a strong synergistic function to alter the electronic structure. Furthermore, the unique L12‐type ordered structure enables a specific site‐isolation effect to further stabilize the H2O/H* adsorption/desorption, which dramatically optimizes the energy barrier of hydrogen evolution. Such an HEI strategy uncovers a new paradigm to develop novel electrocatalyst with superior reaction activities.
Novel multinary high‐entropy intermetallic compounds (HEIs) with an unusual periodically ordered structure and multiple non‐noble elements are prepared by low‐cost and scalable metallurgical technique. The HEIs present superior water splitting performance in both efficiency and stability when compared to the state‐of‐the‐art. The excellent performance for water splitting is mainly owing to their chemical complexity, unique site‐isolation effect, and dendrite‐like porous morphology.
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is an adjunctive treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). However, it is still difficult to predict which patients will respond to VNS treatment and to what extent. ...We aim to explore the relationship between preoperative heart rate variability (HRV) and VNS outcome. 50 healthy control subjects and 63 DRE patients who had received VNS implants and had at least one year of follow up were included. The preoperative HRV were analyzed by traditional linear methods and heart rhythm complexity analyses with multiscale entropy (MSE). DRE patients had significantly lower complexity indices (CI) as well as traditional linear HRV measurements than healthy controls. We also found that non-responders
had significantly lower preoperative CI including Area 1-5, Area 6-15 and Area 6-20 than those in the responders
while those of the non-responders
had significantly lower RMSSD, pNN50, VLF, LF, HF, TP and LF/HF than the responders
. In receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, Area 6-20 and RMSSD had the greatest discriminatory power for the responders
and non-responders
, responders
and non-responders
, respectively. Our results suggest that preoperative assessment of HRV by linear and MSE analysis can help in predicting VNS outcomes in patients with DRE.
•We report a new method to synthesize Ag nanoparticles on to bacterial cellulose.•Uniform spherical silver nanoparticles (10–30nm) were generated.•Ag nanoparticles close-coated BC nanofiber minimized ...the toxicity of nanoparticles.•AgNP-BC exhibited significant antibacterial activities.•It allowed attachment and growth of epidermal cells with no cytotoxicity emerged.
Bacterial cellulose has attracted increasing attention as a novel wound dressing material, but it has no antimicrobial activity, which is one of critical skin-barrier functions in wound healing. To overcome such deficiency, we developed a novel method to synthesize and impregnate silver nanoparticles on to bacterial cellulose nanofibres (AgNP-BC). Uniform spherical silver nano-particles (10–30nm) were generated and self-assembled on the surface of BC nano-fibers, forming a stable and evenly distributed Ag nanoparticles coated BC nanofiber. Such hybrid nanostructure prevented Ag nanoparticles from dropping off BC network and thus minimized the toxicity of nanoparticles. Regardless the slow Ag+ release, AgNP-BC still exhibited significant antibacterial activities with more than 99% reductions in Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Moreover, AgNP-BC allowed attachment and growth of epidermal cells with no cytotoxicity emerged. The results demonstrated that AgNP-BC could reduce inflammation and promote wound healing.
Objective
To develop and validate a model to predict seizure freedom in children undergoing cerebral hemispheric surgery for the treatment of drug‐resistant epilepsy.
Methods
We analyzed 1267 ...hemispheric surgeries performed in pediatric participants across 32 centers and 12 countries to identify predictors of seizure freedom at 3 months after surgery. A multivariate logistic regression model was developed based on 70% of the dataset (training set) and validated on 30% of the dataset (validation set). Missing data were handled using multiple imputation techniques.
Results
Overall, 817 of 1237 (66%) hemispheric surgeries led to seizure freedom (median follow‐up = 24 months), and 1050 of 1237 (85%) were seizure‐free at 12 months after surgery. A simple regression model containing age at seizure onset, presence of generalized seizure semiology, presence of contralateral 18‐fluoro‐2‐deoxyglucose–positron emission tomography hypometabolism, etiologic substrate, and previous nonhemispheric resective surgery is predictive of seizure freedom (area under the curve = .72). A Hemispheric Surgery Outcome Prediction Scale (HOPS) score was devised that can be used to predict seizure freedom.
Significance
Children most likely to benefit from hemispheric surgery can be selected and counseled through the implementation of a scale derived from a multiple regression model. Importantly, children who are unlikely to experience seizure control can be spared from the complications and deficits associated with this surgery. The HOPS score is likely to help physicians in clinical decision‐making.
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