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Smokers of any age can reap substantial health benefits from quitting or reducing their smoking. E-cigarettes have been promoted as a potentially promising product for tobacco harm reduction because e-cigarettes deliver nicotine vapor without many of the hazardous chemical combustion byproducts produced by combustible cigarette smoking. However, there remains an ongoing debate on whether the use of e-cigarettes is effective in combustible cigarette smoking cessation or reduction in both adolescents and adults. Our study uses data from the 2015 (baseline) and from the 2017 (follow-up) waves of the Taiwan Adolescent to Adult Longitudinal Study (TAALS), which is a large nationwide representative cohort study of health behaviors among adolescents in Taiwan. We analyzed the data using logistic regression and multivariate regression with a post-stratification weighting procedure. Among the 474 adolescent combustible cigarette users at baseline, the use of e-cigarettes had no association with smoking cessation (aRR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.66, 1.50). Furthermore, the use of e-cigarettes was also not associated with change in combustible cigarette consumption among all adolescent combustible cigarette users at follow-up (Coef. = 0.62, 95% CI = − 36.85, 38.09). In summary, our findings suggest that e-cigarettes may not aid tobacco control among adolescent smokers. Policy makers should be cautious of the potential harms that e-cigarette may bring to young people when they are developing e-cigarette regulations.

Lipid profile (total cholesterol and lipoprotein fractions) has been found to correlate with depression and cognitive impairment across the lifespan. However, the role of lipid levels in self-rated depressive state and cognitive impairment remains unclear. In this study, we examined the relationship between lipid profile (total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) and cognition in adults with and without self-rated depression. Four hundred and thirty-eight healthy participants completed the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), and a serum lipoprotein test. Using multivariate ANOVA, partial correlation and network analysis, a network linking lipoprotein profile, depressive state and cognition was constructed. A significant difference in serum lipid profile between the high and low depressive groups was detected. Depressive state had a strong negative correlation with cognitive performance. Of the lipid profile, only high-density lipoprotein was positively correlated with depressive symptom severity, whereas the other three indices showed negative correlation with both depressive state and cognitive performance. Our results suggest that serum lipid profile may be directly linked to self-rated depression and cognitive performance. Further studies recruiting larger clinical samples are needed to elucidate the specific effect of lipoprotein on cognitive impairment in mood disorder.

We study the effect of quantum entanglement maintained by virtual excitations in an ultrastrongly-coupled harmonic-oscillator system. Here, the quantum entanglement is caused by the counterrotating interaction terms and hence it is maintained by the virtual excitations. We obtain the analytical expression for the ground state of the system and analyze the relationship between the average excitation numbers and the ground-state entanglement. We also study the entanglement dynamics between the two oscillators in both the closed- and open-system cases. In the latter case, the quantum master equation is microscopically derived in the normal-mode representation of the coupled-oscillator system. This work will open a route to the study of quantum information processing and quantum physics based on virtual excitations., 13 pages, 6 figures

Violet laser diode (VLD) based white-light source with high color rendering index (CRI) for lighting communication is implemented by covering with Y3Al5O12:Ce3+ (YAG:Ce) or Lu3Al5O12:Ce3+/CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ (LuAG:Ce/CASN:Eu) phosphorous diffuser plates. After passing the beam of VLD biased at 70 mA (~2I th ) through the YAG:Ce phosphorous diffuser, a daylight with a correlated color temperature (CCT) of 5068 K and a CRI of 65 is acquired to provide a forward error correction (FEC) certified data rate of 4.4 Gbit/s. By using the VLD biased at 122 mA (~3.5I th ) to excite the LuAG:Ce/CASN:Eu phosphorous diffuser with 0.85-mm thickness, a warm white-light source with a CCT of 2700 K and a CRI of 87.9 is obtained at a cost of decreasing transmission capacity to 2.4 Gbit/s. Thinning the phosphor thickness to 0.75 mm effectively reduces the required bias current by 32 mA to achieve the same CCT for the delivered white light, which offers an enlarged CRI of 89.1 and an increased data rate of 4.4 Gbit/s. Further enlarging the bias current to 105 mA remains the white-light transmission capacity at 4.4 Gbit/s but reveals an increased CCT of 3023 K and an upgraded CRI of 91.5.

Although many studies have examined the role of chronic inflammation in cancer development, few studies discuss the patterns of acute inflammation prior to cancer diagnosis. Patients with lung, colorectal, prostate, or breast cancer between 1 July 2006 and 31 December 2009 and their metastatic status at diagnosis were determined through the Swedish Cancer Register. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) use in the year prior to cancer diagnosis was assessed through the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register. There were 13,945 patients identified with breast cancer, 6501 with prostate cancer, 5508 with lung cancer, and 12,723 with colon cancer. For metastatic patients, there is strong evidence of higher NSAIDs use 1–3 months compared to 10–12 months prior to diagnosis (breast odds ratio (OR) = 3.54, 95% CI 2.26–5.54; prostate OR = 3.90, 95% CI 3.10–4.90; lung OR = 2.90 95% CI 2.44–3.44; colorectal OR = 1.67, 95% CI 1.36–2.05). For non-metastatic patients, increased NSAIDs use 1–3 months prior to diagnosis was also observed, but only to a smaller extent for lung and prostate cancer (prostate OR = 1.48, 95% CI 1.27–1.72; lung 1.41, 95% CI 1.19–1.67). In conclusion, if NSAIDs use reflects underlying inflammatory symptoms, there is support for the hypothesis that advanced cancer was associated with an acute inflammatory process.

Cognitive impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia (SCH). In addition to the toxic effect of Bilirubin (BIL), it has antioxidant properties that were associated with the psychopathology and cognitive impairment of psychiatric disorders. The aim of this study was to examine the correlation of serum total BIL (TBIL) concentration with cognitive impairment in SCH patients. We recruited 34 SCH patients and 119 healthy controls (HCs) in this case-control design. Cognition was assessed using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). Serum TBIL concentration was measured using the immunoturbidimetric method. Serum TBIL concentration was significantly decreased in SCH patients compared to HCs after adjusting for age, gender, and education. Serum TBIL concentration in SCH patients was also positively correlated with the RBANS immediate memory score. Further stepwise multiple regression analysis confirmed the positive association between serum TBIL concentration and immediate memory score in SCH patients. Our findings supported that the decline in serum TBIL concentration was associated with the immediate memory impairment and psychopathology of SCH.

The Verwey transition in Fe3O4 is the first metal-insulator transition caused by charge ordering. However, the physical mechanism and influence factors of Verwey transition are still debated. Herewith, the strain effects on the electronic structure of low-temperature phase (LTP) Fe3O4 with P2/c and Cc symmetries are investigated by first-principles calculations. LTP Fe3O4 with each space group has a critical strain. With P2/c, Fe3O4 is sensitive to the compressive strain, but it is sensitive to tensile strain for Cc. In the critical region, the band gap of LTP Fe3O4 with both two symmetries linearly increases with strain. When strain exceeds the critical value, DOS of spin-down t2g electron at Fe(B4) with P2/c and Fe(B42) with Cc changes between dx2-y2 and dxz + dyz. The trimerons appear in Cc can be affected by strain. With a compressive strain, the correlation of trimeron along x and y axes is strengthened, but broken along the face diagonal of FeB4O4, which is opposite at the tensile strains. The results suggest that the electronic structure of Fe3O4 is tunable by strain. The narrower or wider band gap implies a lower or higher transition temperature than its bulk without strains, which also gives a glimpse of the origin of charge-orbital ordering in Fe3O4.

MiRNA expression was determined in both proliferating and differentiated cardiac stem cells (CSCs) through a comprehensive miRNA microarray analysis. We selected miR218 for functional follow-up studies to examine its significance in CSCs. First, we observed that the expression of miR218 was altered in CSCs during differentiation into cardiomyocytes and transfection of an miR218 mimic or miR218 inhibitor affected the myocardial differentiation of CSCs. Furthermore, we observed that a negative regulator of Wnt signaling, sFRP2, was a direct target of miR218 and the protein levels of sFRP2 were increased in cells transfected with the synthetic miR218 inhibitor. In contrast, transfection with the miR218 mimic decreased the expression of sFRP2 and potentiated Wnt signaling. The subsequent down-regulation of sFRP2 by shRNA potentiated Wnt signaling, contributing to a gene expression program that is important for CSC proliferation and cardiac differentiation. Specifically, canonical Wnt signaling induced miR218 transcription. Thus, miR218 and Wnt signaling were coupled through a feed-forward positive feedback loop, forming a biological regulatory circuit. Together, these results provide the first evidence that miR218 plays an important role in CSC proliferation and differentiation through the canonical Wnt signaling pathway.

By first-principles calculations we investigate the electronic structure of tetragonal BiCoO3/BiFeO3 bilayers with different terminations. The multiferroic insulator BiCoO3 and BiFeO3 transform into metal in all of three models. Particularly, energetically favored model CoO2-BiO exhibits ferroelectric metallic properties, and external electric field enhances the ferroelectric displacements significantly. The metallic character is mainly associated to eg electrons, while t2g electrons are responsible for ferroelectric properties. Moreover, the strong hybridization between eg and O p electrons around Fermi level provides conditions to the coexistence of ferroelectric and metallic properties. These special behaviors of electrons are influenced by the interfacial electronic reconstruction with formed Bi-O electrovalent bond, which breaks OA-Fe/Co-OB coupling partially. Besides, the external electric field reverses spin polarization of Fe/Co ions efficiently, even reaching 100%.

In our previous study, we had identified SOX30 as a novel tumor suppressor that acts through direct regulation of p53 transcription in human lung cancer. Here, we sought to determine the clinical relevance of SOX30 expression in a series of surgically-resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Analysis of SOX30 expression and clinico-pathologic features reveal a significant correlation of SOX30 expression with histological type (n = 220, P = 0.008) and clinical stage (n = 220, P = 0.024). Kaplan-Meier analysis indicates an association of high SOX30 expression with better prognosis in NSCLC patients (n = 220, P = 0.007). Via multivariate Cox-regression analysis, SOX30 expression is revealed to be an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (OS) of NSCLC patients (n = 220, P = 0.014, hazard ratio (HR) = 0.816). In particular, SOX30 is a favorable and independent prognostic factor in one main subtype of NSCLC, lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) patients (n = 150, P = 0.000, HR = 0.405), but not in another main subtype of NSCLC, squamous cell carcinoma patients. Furthermore, high expression of SOX30 represents a favorable and independent factor for the prognosis of ADC patients at clinical stage II (P = 0.013), with positive lymph node (P = 0.003), at histological grade 2 (P = 0.000) or grade 3 (P = 0.025). In summary, SOX30 expression represents an important prognostic factor for survival time in ADC patients.

Exceptional properties of graphene have triggered intensive research on other 2D materials. Surface plasmon is another subject being actively explored for many applications. Herein we report a new class of core-shell nanostructure in which the shell is made of a 2D material for effective plasmonic propagation. We have designed a much enhanced chemical sensor made of plasmonic Ag(x)@(2D-WO3) that combines above advantages. Specifically, the sensor response increases from 38 for Ag(x)-WO3 mixture to 217 for the Ag(x)@(2D-WO3) core-shell structure; response and recovery time are shortened considerably to 2 and 5 seconds; and optimum sensor working temperature is lowered from 370°C to 340°C. Light irradiation is found to increase the Ag(x)@(2D-WO3) sensor response, particularly at blue wavelength where it resonates with the absorption of Ag nanoparticles. Raman scattering shows significantly enhanced intensity for both the 2D-WO3 shell and surface adsorbates. Both the resonance sensor enhancement and the Raman suggest that the improved sensor performance is due to nanoplasmonic mechanism. It is demonstrated that (1) 2D material can be used as the shell component of a core-shell nanostructure, and (2) surface plasmon can effectively boost sensor performance.

Next generation sequencing (NGS) is superseding Sanger technology for analysing intra-host viral populations, in terms of genome length and resolution. We introduce two new empirical validation data sets and test the available viral population assembly software. Two intra-host viral population ‘quasispecies’ samples (type-1 human immunodeficiency and hepatitis C virus) were Sanger-sequenced and plasmid clone mixtures at controlled proportions were shotgun-sequenced using Roche's 454 sequencing platform. The performance of different assemblers was compared in terms of phylogenetic clustering and recombination with the Sanger clones. Phylogenetic clustering showed that all assemblers captured a proportion of the most divergent lineages, but none were able to provide a high precision/recall tradeoff. Estimated variant frequencies mildly correlated with the original. Given the limitations of currently available algorithms identified by our empirical validation, the development and exploitation of additional data sets is needed, in order to establish an efficient framework for viral population reconstruction using NGS.