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Jian Gao,1 Jiannan Li,2 Zengyou Luo,1 Hongyong Wang,3 Zhiming Ma1 1Department of Gastrointestinal Nutrition and Hernia Surgery, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Colorectal and Anal Surgery, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Radiotherapy, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Zhiming Ma, Department of Gastrointestinal Nutrition and Hernia Surgery, The Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China, Email mazhiming@jlu.edu.cnAbstract: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, non-specific inflammatory condition characterized by recurring inflammation of the intestinal mucosa. However, the existing IBD treatments are ineffective and have serious side effects. The etiology of IBD is multifactorial and encompasses immune, genetic, environmental, dietary, and microbial factors. The nanoparticles (NPs) developed based on specific targeting methodologies exhibit great potential as nanotechnology advances. Nanoparticles are defined as particles between 1 and 100 nm in size. Depending on their size and surface functionality, NPs exhibit different properties. A variety of nanoparticle types have been employed as drug carriers for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with encouraging outcomes observed in experimental models. They increase the bioavailability of drugs and enable targeted drug delivery, promoting localized treatment and thus enhancing efficacy. Nevertheless, numerous challenges persist in the translation from nanomedicine to clinical application, including enhanced formulations and preparation techniques, enhanced drug safety profiles, and so forth. In the future, it will be necessary for scientists and clinicians to collaborate in order to study disease mechanisms, develop new drug delivery strategies, and screen new nanomedicines.

Xiaoxiao Zhao,1 Hanjun Zhao,1 Runzhen Chen,1 Jiannan Li,1 Jinying Zhou,1 Nan Li,1 Shaodi Yan,2 Chen Liu,1 Peng Zhou,1 Yi Chen,1 Li Song,1 Hongbing Yan2 1Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Peking Union Medical College & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, BeiJing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, ShenZhen, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Hanjun Zhao, Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, No. 167, Beijing, 100037, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-15210020808, Email 15210020808@163.com Hongbing Yan, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, 12 Langshan Road, Shenzhen, 518000, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-1301339287, Email hbyanfuwai2018@163.comBackground and Aim: An elevated triglyceride-glucose (TyG) level is associated with increased risk of mortality in patients with CAD. Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) has mechanistic links to atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD) pathogenesis and is correlated with adverse outcomes. However, the incremental prognostic value of TMAO and TyG in the cohort of optical coherence tomography (OCT)-defined high-risk ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients is unknown.Methods: We studied 274 consecutive aged ≥ 18 years patients with evidence of STEMI and detected on pre-intervention OCT imaging of culprit lesions between March 2017 and March 2019.Outcomes: There were 22 (22.68%), 27 (27.84%), 26 (26.80%), and 22 (22.68%) patients in groups A-D, respectively. The baseline characteristics according to the level of TMAO and TyG showed that patients with higher level in both indicators were more likely to have higher triglycerides (p < 0.001), fasting glucose (p < 0.001) and higher incidence of diabetes (p = 0.008). The group with TMAO > median and TyG ≤ median was associated with higher rates of MA

Generative AI tools can provide people with the ability to create virtual environments and scenes with natural language prompts. Yet, how people will formulate such prompts is unclear -- particularly when they inhabit the environment that they are designing. For instance, it is likely that a person might say, "Put a chair here", while pointing at a location. If such linguistic features are common to people's prompts, we need to tune models to accommodate them. In this work, we present a wizard-of-oz elicitation study with 22 participants, where we studied people's implicit expectations when verbally prompting such programming agents to create interactive VR scenes. Our findings show that people prompt with several implicit expectations: (1) that agents have an embodied knowledge of the environment; (2) that agents understand embodied prompts by users; (3) that the agents can recall previous states of the scene and the conversation, and that (4) agents have a commonsense understanding of objects in the scene. Further, we found that participants prompt differently when they are prompting in situ (i.e. within the VR environment) versus ex situ (i.e. viewing the VR environment from the outside). To explore how our could be applied, we designed and built Oastaad, a conversational programming agent that allows non-programmers to design interactive VR experiences that they inhabit. Based on these explorations, we outline new opportunities and challenges for conversational programming agents that create VR environments., Comment: Accepted at ACM 2024 Designing Interactive Systems (DIS)

Runzhen Chen,1,2,&ast; Jiannan Li,1,3,&ast; Zhaoxue Sheng,4 Jinying Zhou,1,3 Ying Wang,1 Xiaoxiao Zhao,1,3 Nan Li,1 Weida Liu,5 Chen Liu,1,3 Peng Zhou,1,3 Yi Chen,1,3 Shaodi Yan,2 Li Song,1– 3 Hongbing Yan,2,3 Hanjun Zhao1,3 1Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China; 3Coronary Heart Disease Center, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Cardiology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 5Medical Research Center, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Hongbing Yan, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, 12 Langshan Road, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, 510000, People’s Republic of China, Email hbyanfuwai2018@163.com; hbyanfuwai@aliyun.com Hanjun Zhao, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, 167 North Lishi Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, 100037, People’s Republic of China, Email 15210020808@163.comBackground: As a specialized pro-resolving lipid mediator, resolvin D1 (RvD1) inhibits atherosclerosis progression in vivo by reducing regional oxidative stress and chronic inflammation. However, it is unclear how RvD1 is involved in human coronary artery disease. This study aims to investigate the association between plasma levels of RvD1 and culprit-plaque characteristics in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).Methods: A total of 240 STEMI patients undergoing optical coherence tomography (OCT) examination were analyzed. RvD1 levels were measured in patient plasma samples using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Xiaoxiao Zhao,1,&ast; Li Song,1,&ast; Jiannan Li,1 Jinying Zhou,1 Nan Li,1 Shaodi Yan,2 Runzhen Chen,1 Ying Wang,1 Chen Liu,1 Peng Zhou,1 Zhaoxue Sheng,1 Yi Chen,1 Hanjun Zhao,1 Hongbing Yan2 1Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Peking Union Medical College & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Fuwai Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Hongbing Yan, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, 12 Langshan Road, Shenzhen, 518000, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-13701339287, Email hbyanfuwai2018@163.com Hanjun Zhao, Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, No. 167, Beijing, 100037, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-15210020808, Email 15210020808@163.comBackground and Aims: This study aimed to determine whether convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9)-associated cardiovascular risk is modulated by triglyceride-glucose (TyG) in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients with primary percutaneous coronary disease (PCI).Methods: A total of 1541 patients with STEMI (aged ≥ 18 years) undergoing primary PCI were consecutively enrolled between March 2017 and March 2019.Outcomes: When stratifying the overall population according to TyG indices less than or greater than the median (TyG median = 9.07) as well as according to quartiles of PCSK9 levels, higher TyG index levels were significantly associated with all-cause mortality only when TyG levels were 9.07 or higher (ie, relative to quartile 1 [Q1], the adjusted HR for all-cause mortality was 3.20 [95% CI, 0.54– 18.80] for Q2, p = 0.199; 7.89 [95% CI, 1.56– 40.89] for Q3, p = 0.013; and 5.61 [95% CI, 1.04– 30.30] for Q4, p = 0.045. During a median follow-up period of 1.96 years, the HR for all-cause mortality was higher in th

Jiannan Li,1,2 Yao Sun,2 Lanqing Cao,3 Fang Wang1 1Department of Medical Microbiology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Colorectal and Anal Surgery, Jilin University Second Hospital, Changchun, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Pathology, Jilin University Second Hospital, Changchun, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Fang Wang, Department of Medical Microbiology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China, Email wf@jlu.edu.cnBackground: Colon cancer is a prevalent gastrointestinal malignancy that often exhibits distant metastasis, hindering the effectiveness of surgical interventions. In addition to well-known hematogenous and lymphatic metastasis, perineural invasion (PNI) has emerged as a significant mode of distant metastasis in colon tumors. PNI is closely associated with oncologic pain in advanced cancer patients, but the underlying mechanisms and associated biomarkers, which might be the novel therapeutic targets, remain poorly understood.Methods: In this study, we employed large databases and bioinformatics methods to identify genes strongly linked to PNI in colon cancer and investigated their involvement in tumor nerve invasion, progression mechanisms, and chemotherapy resistance. Immunohistochemical techniques were utilized to validate the expression of target genes in 384 colon cancer tissues, and their expression was correlated with clinicopathological characteristics and patient survival data in our hospital. Furthermore, we conducted a comprehensive literature review to explore the potential functions of the target genes and their associated genes.Results: Our screening revealed a significant correlation between neural proliferation differentiation and control-1 (NPDC1) expression and patient prognosis, suggesting a potential association with neural infiltration in colon cancer. Additionally, NPDC1 may promote

Live and pre-recorded video tutorials are an effective means for teaching physical skills such as cooking or prototyping electronics. A dedicated cameraperson following an instructor's activities can improve production quality. However, instructors who do not have access to a cameraperson's help often have to work within the constraints of static cameras. We present Stargazer, a novel approach for assisting with tutorial content creation with a camera robot that autonomously tracks regions of interest based on instructor actions to capture dynamic shots. Instructors can adjust the camera behaviors of Stargazer with subtle cues, including gestures and speech, allowing them to fluidly integrate camera control commands into instructional activities. Our user study with six instructors, each teaching a distinct skill, showed that participants could create dynamic tutorial videos with a diverse range of subjects, camera framing, and camera angle combinations using Stargazer., Comment: To appear in Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23), April 23--28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany

Xiaoxiao Zhao,1 Chen Liu,1 Peng Zhou,1 Zhaoxue Sheng,1 Jiannan Li,1 Jinying Zhou,1 Runzhen Chen,1 Ying Wang,1 Yi Chen,1 Li Song,1 Hanjun Zhao,1 Hongbing Yan2 1Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Peking Union Medical College & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, BeiJing, People’s Republic of China; 2Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Hongbing Yan, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, 12 Langshan Road, Shenzhen, 518000, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-13701339287, Email hbyanfuwai2018@163.com Hanjun Zhao, Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, No. 167, Beijing, 100037, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-15210020808, Email 15210020808@163.comBackground and Aims: We aimed to develop a clinical prediction tool to improve the prognosis of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) among high-risk myocardial infarction (MI) patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).Methods: The present study was a prospective and observational study. A total of 4151 consecutive MI patients who underwent primary PCI at Fuwai Hospital in Beijing, China (January 2010 and June 2017) were enrolled. Forty-eight patients without follow-up data were excluded from the study. The pre-specified criteria (Supplementary Information 1) were chosen to enroll MI patients at high risk for MACCE complications after PCI.Results: The full model included seven variables, with a risk score of 160 points. Derivation and validation cohort models predicting MACCE had C-statistics of 0.695 and 0.673. The area under the curve (AUC) of the survival receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) for predicting MACCE was 0.991 and 0.883 in the derivation and validation cohorts, respectively.Conclusion: The predicted model was internally validated and calibrated in large cohorts of patient

Runzhen Chen,1,2 Chen Liu,1– 3 Peng Zhou,1,3 Jiannan Li,1 Jinying Zhou,1 Ruoqi Song,4 Weida Liu,4 Yi Chen,1 Li Song,1,3 Hanjun Zhao,1,3 Hongbing Yan2,3 1Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China; 3Coronary Heart Disease Center, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 4State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Hanjun Zhao; Hongbing Yan, Email 15210020808@163.com; hbyanfuwai2018@163.com; hbyanfuwai@aliyun.comBackground: Associations between D-dimer and outcomes of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remain controversial. Using age-adjusted D-dimer cutoff thresholds improve the diagnostic accuracy for thrombotic diseases. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of age-adjusted D-dimer in ACS patients treated by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).Methods: A total of 3972 consecutive patients with ACS treated by PCI were retrospectively recruited. The basal age-adjusted D-dimer threshold was 500 ng/mL and was calculated as age × 10 in patients older than 50 years. Cox regression was used for outcome analysis. C-index, net reclassification index (NRI), and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) were calculated to assess the additional prognostic value of age-adjusted D-dimer when combined with established clinical risk factors. The primary outcome was all-cause death.Results: During a median follow-up of 720 days, a total of 225 deaths occurred. High D-dimer level, as defined by age-adjusted thresholds, was an independent predictor for all-cause death (hazar

Xiaoxiao Zhao,1,&ast; Li Song,1,&ast; Ying Wang,1,&ast; Jiannan Li,1 Jinying Zhou,1 Runzhen Chen,1 Chen Liu,1 Peng Zhou,1 Zhaoxue Sheng,1 Yi Chen,1 Hanjun Zhao,1 Hongbing Yan2 1Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Peking Union Medical College & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, BeiJing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, ShenZhen, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Hongbing YanFuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, 12 Langshan Road, Shenzhen, 518000, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-13701339287Email hbyanfuwai2018@163.comHanjun ZhaoDepartment of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, No. 167, Beijing, 100037, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-15210020808Email 15210020808@163.comBackground and Aim: The aim of prospective study was to determine the prognostic value of combined measures of plasma proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) and pentraxin 3 (PTX3) according to the culprit-plaque morphology (plaque rupture versus plaque erosion) in relation to the in patients with acute ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention.Methods: A total of 434 patients with STEMI aged ≥ 18 years who underwent pre-intervention OCT imaging of culprit lesions between March 2017 and March 2019 were enrolled. Finally, 235 patients who meet the inclusion criteria were enrolled and the cohort was divided into 3 groups according to PCSK9 and PTX3 levels: group A: PCSK9 < median and Pentraxin 3 (N = 72/30.6%); group B: PCSK9 ≥ median or Pentraxin 3≥ median (N = 91/38.7%); group C: PCSK9 ≥ median and Pentraxin 3≥ median (N = 72/30.6%). MACEs were defined as a composite of all-cause death, myocardial infarction (MI) recurrence, and ischemic stroke, revascularization

Ying Wang,1 Xiaoxiao Zhao,1 Peng Zhou,1 Chen Liu,1 Zhaoxue Sheng,1,2 Jiannan Li,1 Jinying Zhou,1 Runzhen Chen,1 Yi Chen,1 Li Song,1 Hanjun Zhao1 &ast;, Hongbing Yan3 &#x002A1Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Peking Union Medical College & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Cardiology, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China&ast; These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Hongbing YanDepartment of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, No. 12, Langshan Road, Xili Street, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, 518000, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-10-88322285Email hbyanfuwai2018@163.comHanjun ZhaoDepartment of Cardiology, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, No. 167 Beilishi Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, 100037, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-15210020808Email 15210020808@163.comBackground: Culprit‑plaque morphology [plaque rupture (PR) and plaque erosion (PE) identified by optical coherence tomography (OCT)] and biomarker of vascular inflammation, pentraxin-3 (PTX3), have been reported to influence clinical outcomes in coronary diseases. We aimed to investigate the prognostic implication of culprit-plaque morphology and plasma PTX3 for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).Methods: A total of 236 patients were enrolled and divided into four groups: PE/low-PTX3 (n = 57), PE/high-PTX3 (n = 47), PR/low-PTX3 (n = 78) and PR/high-PTX3 (n = 54). MACE was defined as the composite of all-cause death, recurrence of myocardial infarction, stroke and unplanned revascularization of any coronary artery.Results: During the follow-up of 1.9 years, a total of 40 (16.9%) MACE w

In this paper, we present HoloBoard, an interactive large-format pseudo-holographic display system for lecture-based classes. With its unique properties of immersive visual display and transparent screen, we designed and implemented a rich set of novel interaction techniques like immersive presentation, role-play, and lecturing behind the scene that is potentially valuable for lecturing in class. We conducted a controlled experimental study to compare a HoloBoard class with a normal class by measuring students' learning outcomes and three dimensions of engagement (i.e., behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement). We used pre-/post- knowledge tests and multimodal learning analytics to measure students' learning outcomes and learning experiences. Results indicated that the lecture-based class utilizing HoloBoard lead to slightly better learning outcomes and a significantly higher level of student engagement. Given the results, we discussed the impact of HoloBoard as an immersive media in the classroom setting and suggest several design implications for deploying HoloBoard in immersive teaching practices., Comment: 16 pages,7 figures

Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially Neural Networks (NNs), has become increasingly popular. However, people usually treat AI as a tool, focusing on improving outcome, accuracy, and performance while paying less attention to the representation of AI itself. We present AIive, an interactive visualization of AI in Virtual Reality (VR) that brings AI "alive". AIive enables users to manipulate the parameters of NNs with virtual hands and provides auditory feedback for the real-time values of loss, accuracy, and hyperparameters. Thus, AIive contributes an artistic and intuitive way to represent AI by integrating visualization, sonification, and direct manipulation in VR, potentially targeting a wide range of audiences., Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, 2021 IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AIVR)

Size and distance perception in Virtual Reality (VR) have been widely studied, albeit in a controlled laboratory setting with a small number of participants. We describe a fully remote perceptual study with a gamified protocol to encourage participant engagement, which allowed us to quickly collect high-quality data from a large, diverse participant pool (N=60). Our study aims to understand medium-field size and egocentric distance perception in real-world usage of consumer VR devices. We utilized two perceptual matching tasks -- distance bisection and size matching -- at the same target distances of 1--9 metres. While the bisection protocol indicated a near-universal trend of nonlinear distance compression, the size matching estimates were more equivocal. Varying eye-height from the floor plane showed no significant effect on the judgements. We also discuss the pros and cons of a fully remote perceptual study in VR, the impact of hardware variation, and measures needed to ensure high-quality data.

Bocong Yuan,1 Jiannan Li,2 Hairong Zhao,1 Guojun Zeng1 1School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Jiannan LiBeijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail 91122020111@bnu.edu.cnGuojun ZengSun Yat-Sen University, 135 West Xingang Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail zenggj@mail.sysu.edu.cnPurpose: This study examined the roles of population aging and national development level in affecting different phases of novel coronavirus disease development with a view to advancing preparedness and corresponding policy.Methods: Regression analysis was conducted using multisource data from the World Bank and Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard.Results: Population aging is positively associated with confirmed cases of day-10, day-20, and day-30. The positive association between population aging and death does not emerge until day-20. Countries with a higher proportion of older males face higher risks of death.. Countries with a higher proportion of males aged 70– 74 years are at the highest risk of confirmed cases. National development level is not associated with confirmed cases, but developing countries face significantly higher risks of death of day-10 and day-20.Conclusion: Prevention and control policies for older adults and underdeveloped areas and sex differences need to be studied.Keywords: population aging, sex difference, policy preparedness, national development level, pandemic

Traditional high-throughput drug combination screening requires automatic pipetting of drugs into high-density microtiter plates. Here, a drug-on-pillar platform is proposed for efficient combination drug screening. Using the proposed approach, combination drug screening can be carried out in a plug-and-play manner, allowing for high-throughput screening of large permutations of drug combinations at various concentrations, such that drug dispensing and cell-based screening can be temporally separated and therefore can potentially be performed at distant laboratories. The dispensing is implemented using our recently developed microfluidic pneumatic printing platform, which features a low-cost disposable cartridge that minimizes cross contamination. Moreover, our previously developed drug nanoformulation method with amphiphilic telodendrimers has been utilized to maintain drug stability in a dry form, allowing for convenient drug storage, shipping, and subsequent rehydration. Combining the features described above, we have implemented a 1260-spot drug combination array to study the effect of paired drugs against MDA-MB-231 triple negative human breast cancer cells. This study supports the feasibility of the drug-on-pillar platform for combination drug screening and has provided valuable insight into drug combination efficacy against breast cancer.

Jiannan Li,1 Bocong Yuan,2 Guojun Zeng2 1International School of Business and Finance, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Bocong Yuan; Guojun ZengSchool of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-Sen University, 135 West Xingang Road, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail yuanbc@mail.sysu.edu.cn; zenggj@mail.sysu.edu.cnBackground: Schools in sub-Saharan Africa respond to the widespread use of tobacco among youth with the tobacco-prohibition policies. This study empirically examined the impact of the strength of campus tobacco-prohibition policies on tobacco use among youth across 20 sub-Saharancountries.Methods: This study used data from the Global School Personnel Survey across 20 sub-Saharan countries during 2005– 2011. Respondents comprised 7,365 school personnel (valid sample size) from Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Eritrea, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo, and Uganda. Considering the potential endogeneity-estimation bias occurring in the normal ordinary least square estimation, instrumental variable estimation was used to ensure the regression results were reliable.Results: The interaction term “tobacco-prohibition policy × policy-enforcement strength” was found to negatively predict perceived seriousness of tobacco use among youth (− 0.0053, 95% CI [-0.0101, -0.0005]; p< 0.05), which indicated that when campus tobacco-prohibition policy and enforcement were both sufficiently strict, the extent to which school personnel felt concerned or anxious about tobacco use among youth in the 20 countries was lowest. A series of identification tests using instrumental variable estimation demonstrated that these regression results

The United States is currently experiencing an opioid crisis, with more than 47,000 deaths in 2017 due to opioid overdoses. Current approaches for opioid identification and quantification in body fluids include immunoassays and chromatographic methods (e.g., LC-MS, GC-MS), which require expensive instrumentation and extensive sample preparation. Our aim was to develop a portable point-of-care device that can be used for the instant detection of opioids in body fluids. Here, we reported the development of a morphine-sensitive fluorescence-based sensor chip to sensitively detect morphine in the blood using a homogeneous immunoassay without any washing steps. Morphine-sensitive illuminating peptides were identified using a high throughput one-bead one-compound (OBOC) combinatorial peptide library approach. The OBOC libraries contain a large number of random peptides with a molecular rotor dye, malachite green (MG), that are coupled to the amino group on the side chain of lysine at different positions of the peptides. The OBOC libraries were then screened for fluorescent activation under a confocal microscope, using an anti-morphine monoclonal antibody as the screening probe, in the presence and absence of free morphine. Using this novel three-step fluorescent screening assay, we were able to identify the peptide-beads that fluoresce in the presence of an anti-morphine antibody, but lost fluorescence when the free morphine was present. After the positive beads were decoded using automatic Edman microsequencing, the morphine-sensitive illuminating peptides were then synthesized in soluble form, functionalized with an azido group, and immobilized onto microfabricated PEG-array spots on a glass slide. The sensor chip was then evaluated for the detection of morphine in plasma. We demonstrated that this proof-of-concept platform can be used to develop fluorescence-based sensors against morphine. More importantly, this technology can also be applied to the discovery of other

The United States is currently experiencing an opioid crisis, with more than 47,000 deaths in 2017 due to opioid overdoses. Current approaches for opioid identification and quantification in body fluids include immunoassays and chromatographic methods (e.g., LC-MS, GC-MS), which require expensive instrumentation and extensive sample preparation. Our aim was to develop a portable point-of-care device that can be used for the instant detection of opioids in body fluids. Here, we reported the development of a morphine-sensitive fluorescence-based sensor chip to sensitively detect morphine in the blood using a homogeneous immunoassay without any washing steps. Morphine-sensitive illuminating peptides were identified using a high throughput one-bead one-compound (OBOC) combinatorial peptide library approach. The OBOC libraries contain a large number of random peptides with a molecular rotor dye, malachite green (MG), that are coupled to the amino group on the side chain of lysine at different positions of the peptides. The OBOC libraries were then screened for fluorescent activation under a confocal microscope, using an anti-morphine monoclonal antibody as the screening probe, in the presence and absence of free morphine. Using this novel three-step fluorescent screening assay, we were able to identify the peptide-beads that fluoresce in the presence of an anti-morphine antibody, but lost fluorescence when the free morphine was present. After the positive beads were decoded using automatic Edman microsequencing, the morphine-sensitive illuminating peptides were then synthesized in soluble form, functionalized with an azido group, and immobilized onto microfabricated PEG-array spots on a glass slide. The sensor chip was then evaluated for the detection of morphine in plasma. We demonstrated that this proof-of-concept platform can be used to develop fluorescence-based sensors against morphine. More importantly, this technology can also be applied to the discovery of other

Intensive exploration and navigation of hierarchical lists on smartphones can be tedious and time-consuming as it often requires users to frequently switch between multiple views. To overcome this limitation, we present PinchList, a novel interaction design that leverages pinch gestures to support seamless exploration of multi-level list items in hierarchical views. With PinchList, sub-lists are accessed with a pinch-out gesture whereas a pinch-in gesture navigates back to the previous level. Additionally, pinch and flick gestures are used to navigate lists consisting of more than two levels. We conduct a user study to refine the design parameters of PinchList such as a suitable item size, and quantitatively evaluate the target acquisition performance using pinch-in/out gestures in both scrolling and non-scrolling conditions. In a second study, we compare the performance of PinchList in a hierarchal navigation task with two commonly used touch interfaces for list browsing: pagination and expand-and-collapse interfaces. The results reveal that PinchList is significantly faster than other two interfaces in accessing items located in hierarchical list views. Finally, we demonstrate that PinchList enables a host of novel applications in list-based interaction?