Search

AIMS: The clinical correlates and outcomes of asymptomatic atrial fibrillation (AF) in hospitalized patients are largely unknown. We aimed to investigate the clinical correlates and in-hospital outcomes of asymptomatic AF in hospitalized Chinese patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted a cross-sectional registry study of inpatients with AF enrolled in the Improving Care for Cardiovascular Disease in China-Atrial Fibrillation Project between February 2015 and December 2019. We investigated the clinical characteristics of asymptomatic AF and the association between the clinical correlates and the in-hospital outcomes of asymptomatic AF. Asymptomatic and symptomatic AF were defined according to the European Heart Rhythm Association score. Asymptomatic patients were more commonly males (56.3%) and had more comorbidities such as hypertension (57.4%), diabetes mellitus (18.6%), peripheral artery disease (PAD; 2.3%), coronary artery disease (55.5%), previous history of stroke/transient ischaemic attack (TIA; 17.9%), and myocardial infarction (MI; 5.4%); however, they had less prevalent heart failure (9.6%) or left ventricular ejection fractions ≤40% (7.3%). Asymptomatic patients were more often hospitalized with a non-AF diagnosis as the main diagnosis and were more commonly first diagnosed with AF (23.9%) and long-standing persistent/permanent AF (17.0%). The independent determinants of asymptomatic presentation were male sex, long-standing persistent AF/permanent AF, previous history of stroke/TIA, MI, PAD, and previous treatment with anti-platelet drugs. The incidence of in-hospital clinical events such as all-cause death, ischaemic stroke/TIA, and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) was higher in asymptomatic patients than in symptomatic patients, and asymptomatic clinical status was an independent risk factor for in-hospital all-cause death, ischaemic stroke/TIA, and ACS. CONCLUSION: Asymptomatic AF is common among hospitalized patients with AF. Asymptomatic clinical sta

Tianzhuo Zhang,1,2,* Nan Song,3,* Shuo Li,2,* Ling Yu,2 Yining Xie,2 Zhijie Yue,2 Rui Zhang,4 Lijie Wang,4 Hongyu Tan2 1Department of Gastroenterology, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children’s Health, Beijing, 100045, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Anesthesiology, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education/Beijing), Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing, 100142, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Gynecology, Key laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education/Beijing), Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing, 100142, People’s Republic of China; 4Philips (China) Investment Co., Ltd., Beijing, 100600, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Hongyu Tan, Department of Anesthesiology, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education/Beijing), Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, Beijing, 100142, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-10-88196409, Email maggitan@yeah.netPurpose: This study aims to evaluate the effect of S-ketamine on slow wave sleep (SWS) and the related changes in serum protein in gynecological patients after open abdomen surgery.Methods: This was a randomized controlled trial. One hundred gynecological patients undergoing open abdomen surgery were randomized into an S-ketamine group (group S) or placebo group (0.9% saline; group C). During operation, patients in group S received adjuvant S-ketamine infusion (0.2 mg·kg− 1·h− 1) while those in group C received 0.9% saline. All patients were connected to patient-controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA) pump in the end of the surgery and the patients in group S with an additional S-ketamine in PCIA pump. Polysomnogram (PSG) was monitored during the next night after surgery with PCIA pump. B

The Stellar Abundances and Galactic Evolution Survey (SAGES) of the northern sky is a specifically-designed multi-band photometric survey aiming to provide reliable stellar parameters with accuracy comparable to those from low-resolution optical spectra. It was carried out with the 2.3-m Bok telescope of Steward Observatory and three other telescopes. The observations in the $u_s$ and $v_s$ passband produced over 36,092 frames of images in total, covering a sky area of $\sim9960$ degree$^2$. The median survey completeness of all observing fields for the two bands are of $u_{\rm s}=20.4$ mag and $v_s=20.3$ mag, respectively, while the limiting magnitudes with signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 100 are $u_s\sim17$ mag and $v_s\sim18$ mag, correspondingly. We combined our catalog with the data release 1 (DR1) of the first of Panoramic Survey Telescope And Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS1, PS1) catalog, and obtained a total of 48,553,987 sources which have at least one photometric measurement in each of the SAGES $u_s$ and $v_s$ and PS1 $grizy$ passbands, which is the DR1 of SAGES and it will be released in our paper. We compare our $gri$ point-source photometry with those of PS1 and found an RMS scatter of $\sim2$% in difference of PS1 and SAGES for the same band. We estimated an internal photometric precision of SAGES to be on the order of $\sim1$%. Astrometric precision is better than $0^{\prime\prime}.2$ based on comparison with the DR1 of Gaia mission. In this paper, we also describe the final end-user database, and provide some science applications., Comment: 49 pages, 21 figures, 5 table, accepted for publication in ApJS

We present the discoveries of two giant planets orbiting the red giant branch (RGB) star HD 112570 and the red clump (RC) star HD 154391, based on the radial velocity (RV) measurements from Xinglong station and Okayama Astrophysical Observatory (OAO). Spectroscopic and asteroseismic analyses suggest that HD 112570 has a mass of $1.15\pm0.12\,M_{\odot}$, a radius of $9.85\pm0.23\,R_{\odot}$, a metallicity [Fe/H] of $-0.46\pm0.1$ and a ${\rm log}\,g$ of $2.47\pm0.1$. With the joint analysis of RV and Hipparcos-Gaia astrometry, we obtain a dynamical mass of $M_{\rm p}={3.42}_{-0.84}^{+1.4}\ M_{\rm Jup}$, a period of $P={2615}_{-77}^{+85}$ days and a moderate eccentricity of $e={0.20}_{-0.14}^{+0.16}$ for the Jovian planet HD 112570 b. For HD 154391, it has a mass of $2.07\pm0.03\,M_{\odot}$, a radius of $8.56\pm0.05\,R_{\odot}$, a metallicity [Fe/H] of $0.07\pm0.1$ and a ${\rm log}\,g$ of $2.86\pm0.1$. The super-Jupiter HD 154391 b has a mass of $M_{\rm p}={9.1}_{-1.9}^{+2.8}\ M_{\rm Jup}$, a period of $P={5163}_{-57}^{+60}$ days and an eccentricity of $e={0.20}_{-0.04}^{+0.04}$. We found HD 154391 b has one of the longest orbital period among those ever discovered orbiting evolved stars, which may provide a valuable case in our understanding of planetary formation at wider orbits. Moreover, while a mass gap at $4\,M_{\rm Jup}$ seems to be present in the population of giant stars, there appears to be no significant differences in the distribution of metallicity among giant planets with masses above or below this threshold. Finally, The origin of the abnormal accumulation near 2 au for planets around large evolved stars ($R_{\star}>21\,R_{\odot}$), remains unclear., Comment: 26 pages, 18 figures, 8 tables, Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal

Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) functional connectivity (FC) analysis provides valuable insights into the relationships between different brain regions and their potential implications for neurological or psychiatric disorders. However, specific design efforts to predict treatment response from rs-fMRI remain limited due to difficulties in understanding the current brain state and the underlying mechanisms driving the observed patterns, which limited the clinical application of rs-fMRI. To overcome that, we propose a graph learning framework that captures comprehensive features by integrating both correlation and distance-based similarity measures under a contrastive loss. This approach results in a more expressive framework that captures brain dynamic features at different scales and enables more accurate prediction of treatment response. Our experiments on the chronic pain and depersonalization disorder datasets demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms current methods in different scenarios. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to explore the integration of distance-based and correlation-based neural similarity into graph learning for treatment response prediction., Comment: Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference on Neural Information Processing (ICONIP)

Aspect-based sentiment analysis is a long-standing research interest in the field of opinion mining, and in recent years, researchers have gradually shifted their focus from simple ABSA subtasks to end-to-end multi-element ABSA tasks. However, the datasets currently used in the research are limited to individual elements of specific tasks, usually focusing on in-domain settings, ignoring implicit aspects and opinions, and with a small data scale. To address these issues, we propose a large-scale Multi-Element Multi-Domain dataset (MEMD) that covers the four elements across five domains, including nearly 20,000 review sentences and 30,000 quadruples annotated with explicit and implicit aspects and opinions for ABSA research. Meanwhile, we evaluate generative and non-generative baselines on multiple ABSA subtasks under the open domain setting, and the results show that open domain ABSA as well as mining implicit aspects and opinions remain ongoing challenges to be addressed. The datasets are publicly released at \url{https://github.com/NUSTM/MEMD-ABSA}.

Few-shot open-set recognition aims to classify both seen and novel images given only limited training data of seen classes. The challenge of this task is that the model is required not only to learn a discriminative classifier to classify the pre-defined classes with few training data but also to reject inputs from unseen classes that never appear at training time. In this paper, we propose to solve the problem from two novel aspects. First, instead of learning the decision boundaries between seen classes, as is done in standard close-set classification, we reserve space for unseen classes, such that images located in these areas are recognized as the unseen classes. Second, to effectively learn such decision boundaries, we propose to utilize the background features from seen classes. As these background regions do not significantly contribute to the decision of close-set classification, it is natural to use them as the pseudo unseen classes for classifier learning. Our extensive experiments show that our proposed method not only outperforms multiple baselines but also sets new state-of-the-art results on three popular benchmarks, namely tieredImageNet, miniImageNet, and Caltech-USCD Birds-200-2011 (CUB)., Comment: Accpeted to ACM MM 2022

Xin Gao,1 Xuemei He,1 Hiroyuki Oshima,2 Daisuke Miyatake,2 Yukio Otsuka,2 Kota Kato,3 Chunxiao Cai,4 Tomasz Wojtkowski,5 Nan Song,6 Yuichiro Kaneko,7 Aixin Shi1 1Clinical Trial Center, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology; Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Clinical Pharmacology and Exploratory Development, Astellas Pharma Inc., Tokyo, Japan; 3Analysis & Pharmacokinetics Research Labs., Astellas Pharma Inc., Ibaraki, Japan; 4Development Medical Department, Astellas (China) Investment Co., Ltd, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 5Data Science Development, Astellas Pharma US, Inc., Northbrook, IL, USA; 6Development Division Biostatistics and Statistical Programming, Astellas (China) Investment Co., Ltd, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 7Biostatistics Group, Japan-Asia Data Science, Development, Astellas Pharma Inc, Tokyo, JapanCorrespondence: Aixin Shi, Clinical Trial Center, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology; Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Science, Beijing, 100730, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-10-85133632, Email aixins0302@126.comObjective: To investigate the pharmacokinetics and safety of peficitinib (Janus kinase inhibitor for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis) in healthy Chinese subjects following single and multiple doses.Methods: This open-label, randomized study was conducted at one site in China. Subjects received peficitinib 50, 100 or 150 mg as a single dose on Day 1 (fasted) and once daily from Days 8 to 13 in the multiple-dose period (fed). Blood samples were collected before administration each day, and up to 72h post administration. Pharmacokinetic assessments included area under the concentration curve (AUC), half-life (t1/2), maximum concentration (Cmax), and time to maximum concentration (tmax) of peficitinib and its metabolites (H1, H2 and H4). Treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were eval

Nan Song,1,2,* Xi-Sheng Shan,1,2,* Yi Yang,3 Zhong Zheng,4 Wen-Cheng Shi,4 Xiao-Yan Yang,3 Yang Li,3 Ai-Ping Tan,3 Hong Liu,5 Ke Peng,1,2 Fu-Hai Ji1,2 1Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 2Institute of Anesthesiology, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Anesthesiology, the People’s Hospital of SND, Suzhou, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Anesthesiology, Taicang First People’s Hospital, Taicang, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of California Davis Health System, Sacramento, CA, USA*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Fu-Hai Ji, Chair and Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Street, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215006, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-512-67780056, Email jifuhaisuda@163.com Ke Peng, Acting Vice Chair for Research and Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Street, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215006, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-512-67780055, Email pengke0422@163.comBackground: Same-visit bidirectional endoscopy (esophagogastroduodenoscopy and colonoscopy) is widely performed under sedation. At present, the optimal sedation regimen remains unclear. This study aims to test the hypothesis that a low-dose esketamine added to propofol sedation reduces hemodynamic and respiratory adverse events in these procedures.Methods: In this multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 660 adult patients scheduled for same-visit bidirectional endoscopy under sedation from 3 teaching hospitals in China will be recruited. Patients will be randomly allocated, in a 1:1 ratio, to an esketamine group or a normal saline group (n = 330 in each group), stratified

Phototheranostics involving both fluorescence imaging and photodynamic therapy has been recognized to be potentially powerful for cancer treatment by virtue of various intrinsic advantages. However, the state-of-the-art materials in this area are still far from ideal toward practical applications, ascribed to their respective and collective drawbacks, such as inefficient imaging quality, inferior reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, the lack of subcellular-targeting capability, and dissatisfactory delivery. In this paper, these shortcomings are successfully addressed through the integration of finely engineered photosensitizers with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) features and well tailored nanocarrier systems. The yielded AIE NPs simultaneously exhibit broad absorption in the visible-light region, bright near-infrared fluorescence emission, high ROS generation, as well as tumor lysosomal acidity-activated and nucleus-targeted delivery functions, making them promising for precise and efficient phototheranostics. Both in vitro and in vivo evaluations show that the presented nanotheranostic systems bearing good photostability and appreciable biosecurity perform well in fluorescence imaging-guided photodynamic cancer therapy. This study thus not only extends the application scopes of AIE nanomaterials but also offers useful insights into constructing advanced cancer phototheranostics.

Supramolecular approaches have opened up vast possibilities to construct versatile materials, especially those with stimuli-responsiveness and integrated functionalities of multi-modal diagnosis and synergistic therapeutics. In this study, a hybrid theranostic nanosystem named TTPY-Py⊂CP5@AuNR is constructed via facile host–guest interactions, where TTPY-Py is a photosensitizer with aggregation-induced emission and CP5@AuNR represents the carboxylatopillar[5]arene (CP5)-modified Au nanorods. TTPY-Py⊂CP5@AuNR integrates the respective advantages of TTPY-Py and CP5@AuNR such as the high performance of reactive oxygen species generation and photothermal conversion, and meanwhile shows fluorescence responses to both temperature and pH stimuli. The successful modification of CP5 macrocycles on AuNRs surfaces can eliminate the cytotoxicity of AuNRs and enable them to serve as the nanocarrier of TTPY-Py for further theranostic applications. Significantly, in vitro and in vivo evaluations demonstrate that this supramolecular nanotheranostic system possesses multiple modalities including intensive fluorescence imaging (FLI), photoacoustic imaging (PAI), efficient photodynamic therapy (PDT), and photothermal therapy (PTT), indicating its great potential for FLI-PAI imaging-guided synergistic PDT-PTT therapy. Moreover, TTPY-Py can be released upon activation by the acidic environment of lysosomes and then specifically light up mitochondria. This study demonstrates a new strategy for the design of versatile nanotheranostics for accurate tumor imaging and cancer therapies. © 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH

Phototheranostics involving both fluorescence imaging and photodynamic therapy has been recognized to be potentially powerful for cancer treatment by virtue of various intrinsic advantages. However, the state-of-the-art materials in this area are still far from ideal toward practical applications, ascribed to their respective and collective drawbacks, such as inefficient imaging quality, inferior reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, the lack of subcellular-targeting capability, and dissatisfactory delivery. In this paper, these shortcomings are successfully addressed through the integration of finely engineered photosensitizers with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) features and well tailored nanocarrier systems. The yielded AIE NPs simultaneously exhibit broad absorption in the visible-light region, bright near-infrared fluorescence emission, high ROS generation, as well as tumor lysosomal acidity-activated and nucleus-targeted delivery functions, making them promising for precise and efficient phototheranostics. Both in vitro and in vivo evaluations show that the presented nanotheranostic systems bearing good photostability and appreciable biosecurity perform well in fluorescence imaging-guided photodynamic cancer therapy. This study thus not only extends the application scopes of AIE nanomaterials but also offers useful insights into constructing advanced cancer phototheranostics.

In this study we aim to examine gene-environment interactions (GxEs) between genes involved with estrogen metabolism and environmental factors related to estrogen exposure. GxE analyses were conducted with 1970 Korean breast cancer cases and 2052 controls in the case-control study, the Seoul Breast Cancer Study (SEBCS). A total of 11,555 SNPs from the 137 candidate genes were included in the GxE analyses with eight established environmental factors. A replication test was conducted by using an independent population from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC), with 62,485 Europeans and 9047 Asians. The GxE tests were performed by using two-step methods in GxEScan software. Two interactions were found in the SEBCS. The first interaction was shown between rs13035764 of NCOA1 and age at menarche in the GE|2df model (p-2df = 1.2 × 10-3). The age at menarche before 14 years old was associated with the high risk of breast cancer, and the risk was higher when subjects had homozygous minor allele G. The second GxE was shown between rs851998 near ESR1 and height in the GE|2df model (p-2df = 1.1 × 10-4). Height taller than 160 cm was associated with a high risk of breast cancer, and the risk increased when the minor allele was added. The findings were not replicated in the BCAC. These results would suggest specificity in Koreans for breast cancer risk.

Yu-fan Yang,1,* Hui Wang,1,2,* Nan Song,1,* Ya-hui Jiang,1 Jun Zhang,1 Xiao-wen Meng,1 Xiao-mei Feng,3,4 Hong Liu,5 Ke Peng,1 Fu-hai Ji1 1Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Anesthesiology, Wuxi People’s Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Anesthesiology, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; 4Transitional Residency Program, Intermountain Medical Center, Murray, UT, USA; 5Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of California Davis Health, Sacramento, CA, USA*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Ke Peng; Fu-hai JiDepartment of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 899 Pinghai Road, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215006, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-159-6215-5989; +86-512-6797-2352Email pengke0422@163.com; jifuhaisuda@163.comBackground: Endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS)-mediated myocardial inflammation and apoptosis plays an important role in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Dexmedetomidine has been used clinically with sedative, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory properties. This study aimed to determine the effects of dexmedetomidine pretreatment on inflammation, apoptosis, and the expression of ERS signaling during myocardial I/R injury.Methods: Rats underwent myocardial ischemia for 30 min and reperfusion for 6 h, and H9c2 cardiomyocytes were subjected to oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) injury (OGD for 12 h and reoxygenation for 3 h). Dexmedetomidine was administered prior to myocardial ischemia in rats or ODG in cardiomyocytes. In addition, the α 2-adrenergic receptor antagonist (yohimbine) or the PERK activator (CCT020312) was given prior to dexmedetomidine treatment.Results: Dexmedetomidine pretreatment decreased serum levels of cardiac

Phototheranostics involving both fluorescence imaging and photodynamic therapy has been recognized to be potentially powerful for cancer treatment by virtue of various intrinsic advantages. However, the state-of-the-art materials in this area are still far from ideal toward practical applications, ascribed to their respective and collective drawbacks, such as inefficient imaging quality, inferior reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, the lack of subcellular-targeting capability, and dissatisfactory delivery. In this paper, these shortcomings are successfully addressed through the integration of finely engineered photosensitizers with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) features and well tailored nanocarrier systems. The yielded AIE NPs simultaneously exhibit broad absorption in the visible-light region, bright near-infrared fluorescence emission, high ROS generation, as well as tumor lysosomal acidity-activated and nucleus-targeted delivery functions, making them promising for precise and efficient phototheranostics. Both in vitro and in vivo evaluations show that the presented nanotheranostic systems bearing good photostability and appreciable biosecurity perform well in fluorescence imaging-guided photodynamic cancer therapy. This study thus not only extends the application scopes of AIE nanomaterials but also offers useful insights into constructing advanced cancer phototheranostics.

Supramolecular approaches have opened up vast possibilities to construct versatile materials, especially those with stimuli-responsiveness and integrated functionalities of multi-modal diagnosis and synergistic therapeutics. In this study, a hybrid theranostic nanosystem named TTPY-Py⊂CP5@AuNR is constructed via facile host–guest interactions, where TTPY-Py is a photosensitizer with aggregation-induced emission and CP5@AuNR represents the carboxylatopillar[5]arene (CP5)-modified Au nanorods. TTPY-Py⊂CP5@AuNR integrates the respective advantages of TTPY-Py and CP5@AuNR such as the high performance of reactive oxygen species generation and photothermal conversion, and meanwhile shows fluorescence responses to both temperature and pH stimuli. The successful modification of CP5 macrocycles on AuNRs surfaces can eliminate the cytotoxicity of AuNRs and enable them to serve as the nanocarrier of TTPY-Py for further theranostic applications. Significantly, in vitro and in vivo evaluations demonstrate that this supramolecular nanotheranostic system possesses multiple modalities including intensive fluorescence imaging (FLI), photoacoustic imaging (PAI), efficient photodynamic therapy (PDT), and photothermal therapy (PTT), indicating its great potential for FLI-PAI imaging-guided synergistic PDT-PTT therapy. Moreover, TTPY-Py can be released upon activation by the acidic environment of lysosomes and then specifically light up mitochondria. This study demonstrates a new strategy for the design of versatile nanotheranostics for accurate tumor imaging and cancer therapies. © 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH

In this study we aim to examine gene-environment interactions (GxEs) between genes involved with estrogen metabolism and environmental factors related to estrogen exposure. GxE analyses were conducted with 1970 Korean breast cancer cases and 2052 controls in the case-control study, the Seoul Breast Cancer Study (SEBCS). A total of 11,555 SNPs from the 137 candidate genes were included in the GxE analyses with eight established environmental factors. A replication test was conducted by using an independent population from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC), with 62,485 Europeans and 9047 Asians. The GxE tests were performed by using two-step methods in GxEScan software. Two interactions were found in the SEBCS. The first interaction was shown between rs13035764 of NCOA1 and age at menarche in the GE|2df model (p-2df = 1.2 × 10−3 ). The age at menarche before 14 years old was associated with the high risk of breast cancer, and the risk was higher when subjects had homozygous minor allele G. The second GxE was shown between rs851998 near ESR1 and height in the GE|2df model (p-2df = 1.1 × 10−4 ). Height taller than 160 cm was associated with a high risk of breast cancer, and the risk increased when the minor allele was added. The findings were not replicated in the BCAC. These results would suggest specificity in Koreans for breast cancer risk.

In this study we aim to examine gene-environment interactions (GxEs) between genes involved with estrogen metabolism and environmental factors related to estrogen exposure. GxE analyses were conducted with 1970 Korean breast cancer cases and 2052 controls in the case-control study, the Seoul Breast Cancer Study (SEBCS). A total of 11,555 SNPs from the 137 candidate genes were included in the GxE analyses with eight established environmental factors. A replication test was conducted by using an independent population from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC), with 62,485 Europeans and 9047 Asians. The GxE tests were performed by using two-step methods in GxEScan software. Two interactions were found in the SEBCS. The first interaction was shown between rs13035764 of NCOA1 and age at menarche in the GE|2df model (p-2df = 1.2 × 10−3 ). The age at menarche before 14 years old was associated with the high risk of breast cancer, and the risk was higher when subjects had homozygous minor allele G. The second GxE was shown between rs851998 near ESR1 and height in the GE|2df model (p-2df = 1.1 × 10−4 ). Height taller than 160 cm was associated with a high risk of breast cancer, and the risk increased when the minor allele was added. The findings were not replicated in the BCAC. These results would suggest specificity in Koreans for breast cancer risk.

Few-shot class-incremental learning (FSCIL) aims to design machine learning algorithms that can continually learn new concepts from a few data points, without forgetting knowledge of old classes. The difficulty lies in that limited data from new classes not only lead to significant overfitting issues but also exacerbate the notorious catastrophic forgetting problems. Moreover, as training data come in sequence in FSCIL, the learned classifier can only provide discriminative information in individual sessions, while FSCIL requires all classes to be involved for evaluation. In this paper, we address the FSCIL problem from two aspects. First, we adopt a simple but effective decoupled learning strategy of representations and classifiers that only the classifiers are updated in each incremental session, which avoids knowledge forgetting in the representations. By doing so, we demonstrate that a pre-trained backbone plus a non-parametric class mean classifier can beat state-of-the-art methods. Second, to make the classifiers learned on individual sessions applicable to all classes, we propose a Continually Evolved Classifier (CEC) that employs a graph model to propagate context information between classifiers for adaptation. To enable the learning of CEC, we design a pseudo incremental learning paradigm that episodically constructs a pseudo incremental learning task to optimize the graph parameters by sampling data from the base dataset. Experiments on three popular benchmark datasets, including CIFAR100, miniImageNet, and Caltech-USCD Birds-200-2011 (CUB200), show that our method significantly outperforms the baselines and sets new state-of-the-art results with remarkable advantages., Comment: Accpeted to CVPR2021

Using reverse thinking of the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) principle, we demonstrate an ingenious and universal protocol for amplifying molecular motions to boost photothermal efficiency of fibers. Core–shell nanofibers having the olive oil solution of AIE-active molecules as the core surrounded by PVDF-HFP shell were constructed by coaxial electrospinning. The molecularly dissolved state of AIE-active molecules allows them to freely rotate and/or vibrate in nanofibers upon photoexcitation and thus significantly elevates the proportion of non-radiative energy dissipation, affording impressive heat-generating efficiency. Photothermal evaluation shows that the core–shell nanofibers with excellent durability can reach up to 22.36 % of photothermal conversion efficiency, which is 26-fold as the non-core–shell counterpart. Such a core–shell fiber can be used for photothermal textiles and solar steam generation induced by natural sunlight with green and carbon-zero emission. © 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH

Photosensitizers with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics are of great interest for cancer theranostics involving both fluorescence imaging and photodynamic therapy (PDT). However, in the purpose of clinical trials of PDT, the development of prominent drug delivery systems for boosting the PDT efficiency of AIE photosensitizers is highly desirable but still remain a challenging task. Herein, a novel strategy is designed and performed for boosting PDT effect based on stimuli-responsive nano-micelles as extraordinary carriers for an AIE photosensitizer, namely MeTTMN. Those presented stimuli-responsive nano-micelles loading MeTTMN exhibit good biocompatibility, excellent stability, appropriate nanoparticle size, high loading efficiency, outstanding imaging quality and significantly promoted PDT performance, eventually making them remarkably impressive and significantly superior to commercially available nano-micelles carried MeTTMN. This study thus offers an ideal template for fluorescence imaging-guided PDT, as well as a promising candidate for clinical trials. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

Using reverse thinking of the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) principle, we demonstrate an ingenious and universal protocol for amplifying molecular motions to boost photothermal efficiency of fibers. Core–shell nanofibers having the olive oil solution of AIE-active molecules as the core surrounded by PVDF-HFP shell were constructed by coaxial electrospinning. The molecularly dissolved state of AIE-active molecules allows them to freely rotate and/or vibrate in nanofibers upon photoexcitation and thus significantly elevates the proportion of non-radiative energy dissipation, affording impressive heat-generating efficiency. Photothermal evaluation shows that the core–shell nanofibers with excellent durability can reach up to 22.36 % of photothermal conversion efficiency, which is 26-fold as the non-core–shell counterpart. Such a core–shell fiber can be used for photothermal textiles and solar steam generation induced by natural sunlight with green and carbon-zero emission. © 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH

Photosensitizers with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics are of great interest for cancer theranostics involving both fluorescence imaging and photodynamic therapy (PDT). However, in the purpose of clinical trials of PDT, the development of prominent drug delivery systems for boosting the PDT efficiency of AIE photosensitizers is highly desirable but still remain a challenging task. Herein, a novel strategy is designed and performed for boosting PDT effect based on stimuli-responsive nano-micelles as extraordinary carriers for an AIE photosensitizer, namely MeTTMN. Those presented stimuli-responsive nano-micelles loading MeTTMN exhibit good biocompatibility, excellent stability, appropriate nanoparticle size, high loading efficiency, outstanding imaging quality and significantly promoted PDT performance, eventually making them remarkably impressive and significantly superior to commercially available nano-micelles carried MeTTMN. This study thus offers an ideal template for fluorescence imaging-guided PDT, as well as a promising candidate for clinical trials. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

After the publication [1] the authors report corrections for Table 3, for the headers of columns 5 and 7, which should read as follows: Column 5 Header: P-value for pCR, T vs Other Arms in HR+, and Column 7 Header: P-value for pCR, T vs Other Arms in HR-. The correct version of the table can be found below. (Table presented).

After the publication [1] the authors report corrections for Table 3, for the headers of columns 5 and 7, which should read as follows: Column 5 Header: P-value for pCR, T vs Other Arms in HR+, and Column 7 Header: P-value for pCR, T vs Other Arms in HR-. The correct version of the table can be found below. (Table presented).

Star clusters are good tracers for formation and evolution of galaxies. We compared different fitting methods by using spectra (or by combining photometry) to determine the physical parameters. We choose a sample of 17 star clusters in M33, which previously lacked spectroscopic observations. The low-resolution spectra were taken with the Xinglong 2.16-m reflector of NAOC. The photometry used in the fitting includes $\rm u_{SC}$ and $\rm v_{SAGE}$ bands from the SAGE survey, as well as the published $UBVRI$ and $ugriz$ photometry. We firstly derived ages and metallicities with the {\sc ULySS} (Vazdekis et al. and {\sc pegase-hr}) SSP model and the Bruzual \& Charlot (2003) (BC03) stellar population synthesis models for the full-spectrum fitting. The fitting results of both the BC03 and {\sc ULySS} models seem consistent with those of previous works as well. Then we add the SAGE $\rm u_{SC}$ and $\rm v_{SAGE}$ photometry in the spectroscopic fitting with the BC03 models. It seems the results become much better, especially for the Padova 2000+Chabrier IMF set. Finally we add more photometry data, $UBVRI$ and $ugriz$, in the fitting and we found that the results do not improve significantly. Therefore, we conclude that the photometry is useful for improving the fitting results, especially for the blue bands ($\lambda <4000$ {\AA}), e.g., $\rm u_{SC}$ and $\rm v_{SAGE}$ band. At last, we discuss the "UV-excess" for the star clusters and we find five star clusters have UV-excess, based on the $GALEX$ FUV, NUV photometry., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS

Using reverse thinking of the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) principle, we demonstrate an ingenious and universal protocol for amplifying molecular motions to boost photothermal efficiency of fibers. Core–shell nanofibers having the olive oil solution of AIE-active molecules as the core surrounded by PVDF-HFP shell were constructed by coaxial electrospinning. The molecularly dissolved state of AIE-active molecules allows them to freely rotate and/or vibrate in nanofibers upon photoexcitation and thus significantly elevates the proportion of non-radiative energy dissipation, affording impressive heat-generating efficiency. Photothermal evaluation shows that the core–shell nanofibers with excellent durability can reach up to 22.36 % of photothermal conversion efficiency, which is 26-fold as the non-core–shell counterpart. Such a core–shell fiber can be used for photothermal textiles and solar steam generation induced by natural sunlight with green and carbon-zero emission. © 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH

Photosensitizers with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics are of great interest for cancer theranostics involving both fluorescence imaging and photodynamic therapy (PDT). However, in the purpose of clinical trials of PDT, the development of prominent drug delivery systems for boosting the PDT efficiency of AIE photosensitizers is highly desirable but still remain a challenging task. Herein, a novel strategy is designed and performed for boosting PDT effect based on stimuli-responsive nano-micelles as extraordinary carriers for an AIE photosensitizer, namely MeTTMN. Those presented stimuli-responsive nano-micelles loading MeTTMN exhibit good biocompatibility, excellent stability, appropriate nanoparticle size, high loading efficiency, outstanding imaging quality and significantly promoted PDT performance, eventually making them remarkably impressive and significantly superior to commercially available nano-micelles carried MeTTMN. This study thus offers an ideal template for fluorescence imaging-guided PDT, as well as a promising candidate for clinical trials. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

In heterogeneous networks (HetNets), how to improve spectrum efficiency is a crucial issue. Meanwhile increased energy consumption inspires network operators to deploy renewable energy sources as assistance to traditional electricity. Based on above aspects, we allow base stations (BSs) to share their licensed spectrum resource with each other and adjust transmission power to adapt to the renewable energy level. Considering the sharing fairness among BSs, we formulate a multi-person bargaining problem as a stochastic optimization problem. We divide the optimization problem into three parts: data rate control, resource allocation and energy management. An online dynamic control algorithm is proposed to control admission rate and resource allocation to maximize the transmission and sharing profits with the least grid energy consumption. Simulation results investigate the time-varying data control and energy management of BSs and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme., Comment: 29 pages, 7 figures

PurposeIntracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) overload is a major cause of cell injury during myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). Dexmedetomidine (DEX) has been shown to exert anti-inflammatory and organ protective effects. This study aimed to investigate whether pretreatment with DEX could protect H9c2 cardiomyocytes against oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) injury through regulating the Ca2+ signaling.MethodsH9c2 cardiomyocytes were subjected to OGD for 12 h, followed by 3 h of reoxygenation. DEX was administered 1 h prior to OGD/R. Cell viability, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, level of [Ca2+]i, cell apoptosis, and the expression of 12.6-kd FK506-binding protein/ryanodine receptor 2 (FKBP12.6/RyR2) and caspase-3 were assessed.ResultsCells exposed to OGD/R had decreased cell viability, increased LDH release, elevated [Ca2+]i level and apoptosis rate, down-regulated expression of FKBP12.6, and up-regulated expression of phosphorylated-Ser2814-RyR2 and cleaved caspase-3. Pretreatment with DEX significantly blocked the above-mentioned changes, alleviating the OGD/R-induced injury in H9c2 cells. Moreover, knockdown of FKBP12.6 by small interfering RNA abolished the protective effects of DEX.ConclusionThis study indicates that DEX pretreatment protects the cardiomyocytes against OGD/R-induced injury by inhibiting [Ca2+]i overload and cell apoptosis via regulating the FKBP12.6/RyR2 signaling. DEX may be used for preventing cardiac I/R injury in the clinical settings.

Bacterial infectious diseases, especially those caused by Gram-positive bacteria, have been seriously threatening human health. Preparation of a multifunctional system bearing both rapid bacterial differentiation and effective antibacterial effects is highly in demand, but remains a severe challenge. Herein, we rationally designed and successfully developed a sequence of aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) with orderly enhanced D-A strength. Evaluation of structure-function relationships reveals that AIEgens having intrinsic positive charge and proper ClogP value are able to stain Gram-positive bacteria. Meanwhile, one of the presented AIEgens (TTPy) can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) in extraordinarily high efficiency under white light irradiation due to the smaller singlet-triplet energy gap. Thanks to the NIR emission, excellent specificity to Gram-positive bacteria, and effective ROS generation efficiency, TTPy has been proved to perform well in selective photodynamic killing of Gram-positive bacteria in vitro, such as S. aureus and S. epidermidis, even in S. aureus-infected rat wounds.

The singlet oxygen (O-1(2)) generation ability of a photosensitizer (PS) is pivotal for photodynamic therapy (PDT). Transition metal complexes are effective PSs, owing to their high O-1(2) generation ability. However, non-negligible cellular toxicity, poor biocompatibility, and easy aggregation in water limit their biomedical applications. In this work, a series of red-emitting aggregation-induced emission (AIE) Ir(III) complexes containing different numbers of Ir centers (mono-, di-, and trinuclear) and the corresponding nanoparticles (NPs) AIE-NPs, are designed and synthesized. The increase of O-1(2) generation ability is in line with the increasing number of Ir centers. Compared with the pure Ir(III) complexes, the corresponding NPs offer multiple advantages: (i) brighter emission; (ii) higher phosphorescence quantum yields; (iii) longer excited lifetime; (iv) higher O-1(2) generation ability; (v) better biocompatibility; and (vi) superior cellular uptake. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments corroborate that AIE-NPs with three iridium centers possess potent cytotoxicity toward cancer cells and effective inhibition of tumor growth. To the best of knowledge, this work is the first example of NPs of multinuclear AIE Ir(III) complexes as PSs for enhanced PDT. This study offers a new method to improve the efficiency of PSs for clinical cancer treatments.

The singlet oxygen (O-1(2)) generation ability of a photosensitizer (PS) is pivotal for photodynamic therapy (PDT). Transition metal complexes are effective PSs, owing to their high O-1(2) generation ability. However, non-negligible cellular toxicity, poor biocompatibility, and easy aggregation in water limit their biomedical applications. In this work, a series of red-emitting aggregation-induced emission (AIE) Ir(III) complexes containing different numbers of Ir centers (mono-, di-, and trinuclear) and the corresponding nanoparticles (NPs) AIE-NPs, are designed and synthesized. The increase of O-1(2) generation ability is in line with the increasing number of Ir centers. Compared with the pure Ir(III) complexes, the corresponding NPs offer multiple advantages: (i) brighter emission; (ii) higher phosphorescence quantum yields; (iii) longer excited lifetime; (iv) higher O-1(2) generation ability; (v) better biocompatibility; and (vi) superior cellular uptake. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments corroborate that AIE-NPs with three iridium centers possess potent cytotoxicity toward cancer cells and effective inhibition of tumor growth. To the best of knowledge, this work is the first example of NPs of multinuclear AIE Ir(III) complexes as PSs for enhanced PDT. This study offers a new method to improve the efficiency of PSs for clinical cancer treatments.

PurposeIntracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) overload is a major cause of cell injury during myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). Dexmedetomidine (DEX) has been shown to exert anti-inflammatory and organ protective effects. This study aimed to investigate whether pretreatment with DEX could protect H9c2 cardiomyocytes against oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) injury through regulating the Ca2+ signaling.MethodsH9c2 cardiomyocytes were subjected to OGD for 12 h, followed by 3 h of reoxygenation. DEX was administered 1 h prior to OGD/R. Cell viability, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, level of [Ca2+]i, cell apoptosis, and the expression of 12.6-kd FK506-binding protein/ryanodine receptor 2 (FKBP12.6/RyR2) and caspase-3 were assessed.ResultsCells exposed to OGD/R had decreased cell viability, increased LDH release, elevated [Ca2+]i level and apoptosis rate, down-regulated expression of FKBP12.6, and up-regulated expression of phosphorylated-Ser2814-RyR2 and cleaved caspase-3. Pretreatment with DEX significantly blocked the above-mentioned changes, alleviating the OGD/R-induced injury in H9c2 cells. Moreover, knockdown of FKBP12.6 by small interfering RNA abolished the protective effects of DEX.ConclusionThis study indicates that DEX pretreatment protects the cardiomyocytes against OGD/R-induced injury by inhibiting [Ca2+]i overload and cell apoptosis via regulating the FKBP12.6/RyR2 signaling. DEX may be used for preventing cardiac I/R injury in the clinical settings.

PURPOSE: Intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) overload is a major cause of cell injury during myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). Dexmedetomidine (DEX) has been shown to exert anti-inflammatory and organ protective effects. This study aimed to investigate whether pretreatment with DEX could protect H9c2 cardiomyocytes against oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) injury through regulating the Ca2+ signaling. METHODS: H9c2 cardiomyocytes were subjected to OGD for 12 h, followed by 3 h of reoxygenation. DEX was administered 1 h prior to OGD/R. Cell viability, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, level of [Ca2+]i, cell apoptosis, and the expression of 12.6-kd FK506-binding protein/ryanodine receptor 2 (FKBP12.6/RyR2) and caspase-3 were assessed. RESULTS: Cells exposed to OGD/R had decreased cell viability, increased LDH release, elevated [Ca2+]i level and apoptosis rate, down-regulated expression of FKBP12.6, and up-regulated expression of phosphorylated-Ser2814-RyR2 and cleaved caspase-3. Pretreatment with DEX significantly blocked the above-mentioned changes, alleviating the OGD/R-induced injury in H9c2 cells. Moreover, knockdown of FKBP12.6 by small interfering RNA abolished the protective effects of DEX. CONCLUSION: This study indicates that DEX pretreatment protects the cardiomyocytes against OGD/R-induced injury by inhibiting [Ca2+]i overload and cell apoptosis via regulating the FKBP12.6/RyR2 signaling. DEX may be used for preventing cardiac I/R injury in the clinical settings.

Bacterial infectious diseases, especially those caused by Gram-positive bacteria, have been seriously threatening human health. Preparation of a multifunctional system bearing both rapid bacterial differentiation and effective antibacterial effects is highly in demand, but remains a severe challenge. Herein, we rationally designed and successfully developed a sequence of aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) with orderly enhanced D-A strength. Evaluation of structure-function relationships reveals that AIEgens having intrinsic positive charge and proper ClogP value are able to stain Gram-positive bacteria. Meanwhile, one of the presented AIEgens (TTPy) can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) in extraordinarily high efficiency under white light irradiation due to the smaller singlet-triplet energy gap. Thanks to the NIR emission, excellent specificity to Gram-positive bacteria, and effective ROS generation efficiency, TTPy has been proved to perform well in selective photodynamic killing of Gram-positive bacteria in vitro, such as S. aureus and S. epidermidis, even in S. aureus-infected rat wounds.

The singlet oxygen (O-1(2)) generation ability of a photosensitizer (PS) is pivotal for photodynamic therapy (PDT). Transition metal complexes are effective PSs, owing to their high O-1(2) generation ability. However, non-negligible cellular toxicity, poor biocompatibility, and easy aggregation in water limit their biomedical applications. In this work, a series of red-emitting aggregation-induced emission (AIE) Ir(III) complexes containing different numbers of Ir centers (mono-, di-, and trinuclear) and the corresponding nanoparticles (NPs) AIE-NPs, are designed and synthesized. The increase of O-1(2) generation ability is in line with the increasing number of Ir centers. Compared with the pure Ir(III) complexes, the corresponding NPs offer multiple advantages: (i) brighter emission; (ii) higher phosphorescence quantum yields; (iii) longer excited lifetime; (iv) higher O-1(2) generation ability; (v) better biocompatibility; and (vi) superior cellular uptake. Both in vitro and in vivo experiments corroborate that AIE-NPs with three iridium centers possess potent cytotoxicity toward cancer cells and effective inhibition of tumor growth. To the best of knowledge, this work is the first example of NPs of multinuclear AIE Ir(III) complexes as PSs for enhanced PDT. This study offers a new method to improve the efficiency of PSs for clinical cancer treatments.

Mei Yuan,1,2,* Xiao-Wen Meng,1,* Jiao Ma,1,* Hong Liu,3 Shao-Yong Song,1 Qing-Cai Chen,1 Hua-Yue Liu,1 Juan Zhang,1 Nan Song,1 Fu-Hai Ji,1 Ke Peng11Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215006, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Anesthesiology, Affiliated Suzhou Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215008, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of California Davis Health System, Sacramento, CA 95817, USACorrespondence: Fu-Hai Ji; Ke PengDepartment of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Street, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215006, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 5 126 778 0055; +86 5 126 778 0159Email jifuhaisuda@163.com; pengke0422@163.com*These authors contributed equally to this workPurpose: Intracellular calcium ([Ca2+,]i) overload is a major cause of cell injury during myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R). Dexmedetomidine (DEX) has been shown to exert anti-inflammatory and organ protective effects. This study aimed to investigate whether pretreatment with DEX could protect H9c2 cardiomyocytes against oxygen-glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) injury through regulating the Ca2+, signaling.Methods: H9c2 cardiomyocytes were subjected to OGD for 12 h, followed by 3 h of reoxygenation. DEX was administered 1 h prior to OGD/R. Cell viability, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, level of [Ca2+,]i, cell apoptosis, and the expression of 12.6-kd FK506-binding protein/ryanodine receptor 2 (FKBP12.6/RyR2) and caspase-3 were assessed.Results: Cells exposed to OGD/R had decreased cell viability, increased LDH release, elevated [Ca2+,]i level and apoptosis rate, down-regulated expression of FKBP12.6, and up-regulated expression of phosphorylated-Ser2814-RyR2 and cleaved caspase-3. Pretreatment with DEX significantly blocked the above-mentioned c

Background The identification of high-risk stage II colon cancers is key to the selection of patients who require adjuvant treatment after surgery. Microarray-based multigene-expression signatures derived from stem cells and progenitor cells hold promise, but they are difficult to use in clinical practice. Methods We used a new bioinformatics approach to search for biomarkers of colon epithelial differentiation across gene-expression arrays and then ranked candidate genes according to the availability of clinical-grade diagnostic assays. With the use of subgroup analysis involving independent and retrospective cohorts of patients with stage II or stage III colon cancer, the top candidate gene was tested for its association with disease-free survival and a benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. Results The transcription factor CDX2 ranked first in our screening test. A group of 87 of 2115 tumor samples (4.1%) lacked CDX2 expression. In the discovery data set, which included 466 patients, the rate of 5-year disease-free survival was lower among the 32 patients (6.9%) with CDX2-negative colon cancers than among the 434 (93.1%) with CDX2-positive colon cancers (hazard ratio for disease recurrence, 3.44; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.60 to 7.38; P=0.002). In the validation data set, which included 314 patients, the rate of 5-year disease-free survival was lower among the 38 patients (12.1%) with CDX2 protein-negative colon cancers than among the 276 (87.9%) with CDX2 protein-positive colon cancers (hazard ratio, 2.42; 95% CI, 1.36 to 4.29; P=0.003). In both these groups, these findings were independent of the patient's age, sex, and tumor stage and grade. Among patients with stage II cancer, the difference in 5-year disease-free survival was significant both in the discovery data set (49% among 15 patients with CDX2-negative tumors vs. 87% among 191 patients with CDX2-positive tumors, P=0.003) and in the validation data set (51% among 15 patients with CDX2-negative tumors

We report the detection of a double planetary system around the evolved intermediate-mass star HD 47366 from precise radial-velocity measurements at Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, Xinglong Station, and Australian Astronomical Observatory. The star is a K1 giant with a mass of 1.81+-0.13M_sun, a radius of 7.30+-0.33R_sun, and solar metallicity. The planetary system is composed of two giant planets with minimum mass of 1.75^{+0.20}_{-0.17}Mjup and 1.86^{+0.16}_{-0.15}Mjup, orbital period of 363.3^{+2.5}_{-2.4} d and 684.7^{+5.0}_{-4.9} d, and eccentricity of 0.089^{+0.079}_{-0.060} and 0.278^{+0.067}_{-0.094}, respectively, which are derived by a double Keplerian orbital fit to the radial-velocity data. The system adds to the population of multi-giant-planet systems with relatively small orbital separations, which are preferentially found around evolved intermediate-mass stars. Dynamical stability analysis for the system revealed, however, that the best-fit orbits are unstable in the case of a prograde configuration. The system could be stable if the planets were in 2:1 mean-motion resonance, but this is less likely considering the observed period ratio and eccentricity. A present possible scenario for the system is that both of the planets have nearly circular orbits, namely the eccentricity of the outer planet is less than ~0.15, which is just within 1.4sigma of the best-fit value, or the planets are in a mutually retrograde configuration with a mutual orbital inclination larger than 160 degree., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Background The identification of high-risk stage II colon cancers is key to the selection of patients who require adjuvant treatment after surgery. Microarray-based multigene-expression signatures derived from stem cells and progenitor cells hold promise, but they are difficult to use in clinical practice. Methods We used a new bioinformatics approach to search for biomarkers of colon epithelial differentiation across gene-expression arrays and then ranked candidate genes according to the availability of clinical-grade diagnostic assays. With the use of subgroup analysis involving independent and retrospective cohorts of patients with stage II or stage III colon cancer, the top candidate gene was tested for its association with disease-free survival and a benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. Results The transcription factor CDX2 ranked first in our screening test. A group of 87 of 2115 tumor samples (4.1%) lacked CDX2 expression. In the discovery data set, which included 466 patients, the rate of 5-year disease-free survival was lower among the 32 patients (6.9%) with CDX2-negative colon cancers than among the 434 (93.1%) with CDX2-positive colon cancers (hazard ratio for disease recurrence, 3.44; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.60 to 7.38; P=0.002). In the validation data set, which included 314 patients, the rate of 5-year disease-free survival was lower among the 38 patients (12.1%) with CDX2 protein-negative colon cancers than among the 276 (87.9%) with CDX2 protein-positive colon cancers (hazard ratio, 2.42; 95% CI, 1.36 to 4.29; P=0.003). In both these groups, these findings were independent of the patient's age, sex, and tumor stage and grade. Among patients with stage II cancer, the difference in 5-year disease-free survival was significant both in the discovery data set (49% among 15 patients with CDX2-negative tumors vs. 87% among 191 patients with CDX2-positive tumors, P=0.003) and in the validation data set (51% among 15 patients with CDX2-negative tumors

We report the detection of a double planetary system around the evolved intermediate-mass star HD 47366 from precise radial-velocity measurements at Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, Xinglong Station, and Australian Astronomical Observatory. The star is a K1 giant with a mass of 1.81+-0.13M_sun, a radius of 7.30+-0.33R_sun, and solar metallicity. The planetary system is composed of two giant planets with minimum mass of 1.75^{+0.20}_{-0.17}Mjup and 1.86^{+0.16}_{-0.15}Mjup, orbital period of 363.3^{+2.5}_{-2.4} d and 684.7^{+5.0}_{-4.9} d, and eccentricity of 0.089^{+0.079}_{-0.060} and 0.278^{+0.067}_{-0.094}, respectively, which are derived by a double Keplerian orbital fit to the radial-velocity data. The system adds to the population of multi-giant-planet systems with relatively small orbital separations, which are preferentially found around evolved intermediate-mass stars. Dynamical stability analysis for the system revealed, however, that the best-fit orbits are unstable in the case of a prograde configuration. The system could be stable if the planets were in 2:1 mean-motion resonance, but this is less likely considering the observed period ratio and eccentricity. A present possible scenario for the system is that both of the planets have nearly circular orbits, namely the eccentricity of the outer planet is less than ~0.15, which is just within 1.4sigma of the best-fit value, or the planets are in a mutually retrograde configuration with a mutual orbital inclination larger than 160 degree., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

With the development of globalization, companies will need worldwide resources for R&D. Multinational corporations (MNCs) will rely on their subunits located in different countries for R&D. As a result, knowledge transfer between headquarters and subunits or among subunits will be crucial for MNCs to operate their R&D activities. This study explores the relationship between knowledge transfer and R&D operations, using a qualitative research approach including four multinational companies. We conducted a cross-case analysis connecting four R&D configurations and two knowledge transfer mechanisms: expatriate management policy and communication frequency. Results show that both transfer mechanisms are very important for MNCs for the management of knowledge transfer in global R&D operations. However, each of these mechanisms will need different a focus depending on R&D strategy and configuration. The article summarizes recommendations for managers as drawn from these insights. © 2015 World Scientific Publishing Company., Ökad innovativitet genom strategisk HRM

A route to generate hierarchically porous zeolite ZSM-11 has been paved via solvent evaporation induced self-assembly assisted by hexadecyltrimethoxysilane to produce a preformed dry gel, followed by its subsequent transformation into zeolite via steam-assisted-crystallization. The crystallization in dry gel has been found to undergo an orientated attachment growth mechanism whereby hexadecyltrimethoxysilane directs the formation of auxiliary mesopores and inhibits the fusion of primary nucleates. Measurements such as XRD, SEM, TEM, N2-physisorption, and TEM for an inverse replica of Pt derived from hierarchical ZSM-11 have been conducted to characterize the textural properties of the material. Ammonia temperature-programmed-desorption (NH3-TPD) measurements and infrared spectra using probe molecules such as pyridine (Py-IR) and 2,4,6-collidine (Coll-IR) have been collected to investigate the acidic properties as well as the accessibility of the acid sites. The hierarchical ZSM-11 possesses more acid sites on the mesopore surfaces that are accessible towards large probe molecules such as 2,4,6-collidine. This improvement together with the enhanced pore-connectivity brings about an increase in 1,3,5-triisopropylbenzene cracking activity and benzene selectivity with respect to a conventional counterpart.

We report the detection of a substellar companion orbiting an evolved intermediate-mass ($M_\star=2.4\,M_\odot$) star HD 14067 (G9 III) using precise Doppler technique. Radial velocities of this star can be well fitted either by a periodic Keplerian variation with a decreasing linear velocity trend (P=1455 days, $K_1=92.2$ m s$^{-1}$, $e=0.533$, and $\dot{\gamma}=-22.4$ m s$^{-1}$ yr$^{-1}$) or a single Keplerian orbit without linear trend (P=2850 days, $K_1=100.1$ m s$^{-1}$, and $e=0.697$). The minimum mass ($m_2\sin{i}=7.8\,M_{\rm J}$ for the model with a linear trend, or $m_2\sin{i}=9.0\,M_{\rm J}$ for the model without a linear trend) suggests a long-period giant planet around an evolved intermediate-mass star. The eccentricity of the orbit is among the highest known for planets ever detected around evolved stars., Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ

We report the detection of a substellar companion orbiting an evolved intermediate-mass ($M_\star=2.4\,M_\odot$) star HD 14067 (G9 III) using precise Doppler technique. Radial velocities of this star can be well fitted either by a periodic Keplerian variation with a decreasing linear velocity trend (P=1455 days, $K_1=92.2$ m s$^{-1}$, $e=0.533$, and $\dot{\gamma}=-22.4$ m s$^{-1}$ yr$^{-1}$) or a single Keplerian orbit without linear trend (P=2850 days, $K_1=100.1$ m s$^{-1}$, and $e=0.697$). The minimum mass ($m_2\sin{i}=7.8\,M_{\rm J}$ for the model with a linear trend, or $m_2\sin{i}=9.0\,M_{\rm J}$ for the model without a linear trend) suggests a long-period giant planet around an evolved intermediate-mass star. The eccentricity of the orbit is among the highest known for planets ever detected around evolved stars., Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ

With the development of globalization, increasingly more companies began to use worldwide resources to do product or service research and development. Multinational corporations (MNC) became to more rely on their subunits that located in different countries to conduct innovations. As a result, keep a good knowledge transfer between headquarter and subunits or among peer subunits is crucial for MNC to operate R & D activities. This study explores the relationship between knowledge transfer and R & D operations through two knowledge transfer mechanisms and three categories of R & D configurations. By applying the qualitative strategy with a focus on four case companies (three are from Sweden, one is from China), we conduct a cross case analysis and the result shows that both expatriate management policy and communication frequency are very important knowledge transfer mechanisms for MNC to keep a good knowledge transfer in global R & D operations. In terms of expatriate management policy, it is very important for MNC sending engineers from headquarter to subunits or between peer subunits in order to transfer technology knowledge and facilitate R & D operations. Moreover, send top managers from headquarter to subunits could also help transfer process knowledge and keep overall control of subunits. In terms of communication frequency, if MNC employs a concentrated development in headquarter (or R & D center), it is very important to maintain a frequent communication between headquarter and subunits so as to keep a smooth knowledge transfer between them. And if MNC applies a dispersed research and development configuration, keep a frequent communication between peer subunits is crucial. In addition, this study also found certain connections between innovation process and R & D configurations.

With the development of globalization, increasingly more companies began to use worldwide resources to do product or service research and development. Multinational corporations (MNC) became to more rely on their subunits that located in different countries to conduct innovations. As a result, keep a good knowledge transfer between headquarter and subunits or among peer subunits is crucial for MNC to operate R & D activities. This study explores the relationship between knowledge transfer and R & D operations through two knowledge transfer mechanisms and three categories of R & D configurations. By applying the qualitative strategy with a focus on four case companies (three are from Sweden, one is from China), we conduct a cross case analysis and the result shows that both expatriate management policy and communication frequency are very important knowledge transfer mechanisms for MNC to keep a good knowledge transfer in global R & D operations. In terms of expatriate management policy, it is very important for MNC sending engineers from headquarter to subunits or between peer subunits in order to transfer technology knowledge and facilitate R & D operations. Moreover, send top managers from headquarter to subunits could also help transfer process knowledge and keep overall control of subunits. In terms of communication frequency, if MNC employs a concentrated development in headquarter (or R & D center), it is very important to maintain a frequent communication between headquarter and subunits so as to keep a smooth knowledge transfer between them. And if MNC applies a dispersed research and development configuration, keep a frequent communication between peer subunits is crucial. In addition, this study also found certain connections between innovation process and R & D configurations.