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Physical properties of tritium (T) and deuterium (D) have been of great interest as a fuel for nuclear fusion. However, several kinds of the physical properties in a cryogenic environment have not been reported. Optical properties in liquid and solid phases are indispensable for the quality control of the DT fuel. We study the dependence of the refractive index of solid DT on temperature. A dedicated cryogenic system has been developed and forms a transparent solid DT in a prism cell. Refractive index measurements based on Snell's law were conducted. The refractive indexes of solid DT are from 1.1618 ± 0.0002 to 1.1628 ± 0.0002 in the temperature range of 19.40 K to 17.89 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC) is a rare congenital cardiac malformation, and prenatal detection of TAPVC malformation remains a challenging. TAPVC can be easily missed or misdiagnosed in prenatal examinations. This study was aimed to use the modified vascular corrosion casting technique to prepare fetal cardiovascular casts with TAPVC and investigate the utility of cardiovascular casting for the demonstration of fetal TAPVC. The retrospective study enrolled twenty fetuses (22 to 29 + 4 gestational weeks) with TAPVC diagnosed by prenatal echocardiography and casting technique from May 2015 to May 2020. Pre- and postnatal medical records, including results obtained by prenatal ultrasound, postpartum computed tomography angiography, as well as anatomic and cardiovascular casting findings were carefully reviewed and analyzed. In twenty cases, 80% (16/20) had intra- or extracardiac malformations. The TAPVC types were supracardiac (n = 8), cardiac (n = 6), infracardiac (n = 4), and mixed (n = 2). The diagnosis of 1 case each of supracardiac and cardiac TAPVC was modified to partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection; additionally, 4 malformations were missed and 2 were misdiagnosed, including an anomalous left brachiocephalic vein in supracardiac TAPVC, abnormal inflow of the hepatic vein and a double inferior vena cava in infracardiac TAPVC; and bilateral ductus arteriosus in infracardiac TAPVC; a tetralogy of Fallot in cardiac TAPVC that was corrected to right ventricular double outlet; and an absence of ductus arteriosus that was misdiagnosed as slim ductus arteriosus. Comparing with ultrasound, casting technique has its own superiority in exhibiting TAPVC abnormalities, especially in certain types such as course, origin and absence abnormalities of ductus. Postpartum cardiovascular casts can accurately depict the branch structure of the heart's larger vessels, and may be used as a clinical assessment and teaching method in complex cardiac malformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to examine the concurrent validity of 2 Chinese versions of the short version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in patients with stroke, i.e., MoCA 5-minute protocol and National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Canadian Stroke Network (NINDS-CSN) 5-minute Protocol. A total of 54 patients and 27 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. In this study, the Neurobehavioural Cognitive Status Examination (NCSE) was used as an external criterion of cognitive impairment. We found that the 5-min protocol did not differ from the MoCA in differentiating patients with cognitive impairments from those without (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, AUC, of 0.948 for the MoCA 5-min protocol v.s. 0.984 for MoCA, P = 0.097). These three assessments demonstrated equal performance in differentiating patients with stroke from controls. The Chinese version of the MoCA 5-min protocol can be used as a valid screening for patients with stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anatomy of ductus arteriosus (DA) can be varied in different congenital heart defects (CHDs), and it is difficult to fully discover the DA and other associated cardiac anomalies by prenatal ultrasound. This study was aimed to use the modified vascular corrosion casting technique to prepare fetal cardiovascular casts with DA anomalies, assess the casting effectiveness in evaluating the great vessels of the fetal heart and investigate the utility of cardiovascular casting for the demonstration of fetal DA abnormalities. This retrospective study enrolled fourteen fetuses (23 to 28+2 gestational weeks) with severe CHDs diagnosed by prenatal echocardiography and casting technique from January 2013 to July 2019. The sonographic features of DAs were carefully observed and other associated cardiovascular anomalies were also evaluated during the screening. The architectures of DAs and the whole cardiovascular system were observed and analyzed, and then the cast findings were compared with prenatal ultrasonic results. In fourteen cases, 18 ductal abnormities were indicated by prenatal echocardiography in fourteen cases, while 25 were revealed by casting. Cast findings included 4 cases of ductal stenosis, 1 case of ductal dilation, 6 cases of ductal circuity, 3 cases of right-sided ductus, 5 cases of anomalous ductal connection, 1 case of bilateral ductus and 5 cases of absent ductus. Cast findings consisted with ultrasound in 10 ductal abnormalities, revealed additional 15 ductal abnormalities miss-diagnosed by sonography, and corrected 6 abnormalities misdiagnosed prenatally. Meanwhile, 3 ductal abnormalities (reversed flow) could not be demonstrated by casts but only by ultrasound. Cast models can visually display the anatomical characteristics of ductus arteriosus, and could be successfully used in the demonstration of ductus abnormalities in fetuses with severe CHDs. Comparing with ultrasound, casting technique has its own superiority in exhibiting ductus abnormalities, especially in certain types such as course, origin and absence abnormalities of ductus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-performance transfer printing method using a new soluble tape which can be dissolved in acetone is proposed to be used in heterogeneous integration. Si inks array was transferred from SOI wafers onto various substrates without adhesion promoter by this new method which we refer to as the acetone soluble tape (AST) method to compare with other transfer printing methods by using thermal release tape (TRT), water soluble tape (WST) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). By using the AST method, the transfer printing process does not involve interface contention between stamp/inks and inks/receiver substrate so that it maximizes the transfer printing efficiency. Experimental results present the AST method has good performances, and various alien substrates, even curvilinear surfaces, can be selected as receiver substrates by the AST method. To examine the quality of the transferred Si inks, the Si TFTs were fabricated by using the Si membrane transferred by the AST method on sapphire substrate and the devices show the good performance. All the results confirm that the AST method is an effective method in heterogeneous integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ewing sarcoma (EWS) is a malignant tumor arising in bone or soft tissue that occurs in adolescent and young adult patients as well as adults later in life. Although non-metastatic EWS is typically responsive to treatment when newly diagnosed, relapsed cases have an unmet need for which no standard treatment approach exists. Recent phase III clinical trials for EWS comparing 7 vs 5 chemotherapy drugs have failed to improve survival. To extend the durability of remission for EWS, we investigated 3 non-chemotherapy adjuvant therapy drug candidates to be combined with chemotherapy. The efficacy of these adjuvant drugs was investigated via anchorage-dependent growth assays, anchorage-independent soft-agar colony formation assays and EWS xenograft mouse models. Enoxacin and entinostat were the most effective adjuvant drug in both long-term in vitro and in vivo adjuvant studies. In the context that enoxacin is an FDA-approved antibiotic, and that entinostat is an investigational agent not yet FDA-approved, we propose enoxacin as an adjuvant drug for further preclinical and clinical investigation in EWS patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many Chinese wrinkle studies continue to use non-Chinese scales because few Chinese-based wrinkle scales have been developed. The study aims to develop a crow's feet grading scale for Chinese individuals. We enrolled 608 healthy Chinese subjects and measured data through the DermaTOP system. We chose exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to reduce the dimensions of the data. A three-factor structure was obtained by using EFA, and it explained a cumulative total of 89.551% of the variance. A computational formula was obtained by calculating the total factor tilt scores and taking the variance contribution rate of three factors as the weight. Based on the computational formula, a grading map was designed and tested. The model validation was conducted using both subjective assessments from the expert panel and objective results from the model calculations. The results showed that our grading scale model is stable. This study developed a Chinese crow's feet (CCF) grading scale, which included a parameter, a grading map, and literal descriptions. The CCF grading scale is a validated tool for evaluating the effects of cosmetics or specific therapies. More importantly, the CCF scale was developed based on objective data, which may inspire new ideas for wrinkle grading scale development in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dysfunction of placenta is common in somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) cloned cattle and would cause aberrant fetal development and even abortion, which occurred with highest rate at the mid- to late gestation. However, the mechanism of abnormal placentas was unclear. To analyze the transcriptome-wide characteristics of abnormal placentas in SCNT cloned cattle, the mRNA, lncRNA and miRNA of placental cotyledon tissue at day 180 after gestation were sequenced. A total of 19,055 mRNAs, 30,141 lncRNAs and 684 miRNAs were identified. Compared with control group, 362 mRNAs, 1,272 lncRNAs and nine miRNAs (six known and three novel miRNAs) were differentially expressed (fold change ≥ 2 and P-value < 0.05). The differentially expressed genes were functionally enriched in urea and ions transmembrane transport, which indicated that the maternal-fetal interactions were disturbed in impaired placentas. Furthermore, the competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) networks were identified to illustrate their roles in abnormal placental morphology. The present research would be helpful to discover the mechanism of late gestational abnormality of SCNT cattle by provides important genomic information and insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ewing sarcoma (EWS) is a malignant tumor arising in bone or soft tissue that occurs in adolescent and young adult patients as well as adults later in life. Although non-metastatic EWS is typically responsive to treatment when newly diagnosed, relapsed cases have an unmet need for which no standard treatment approach exists. Recent phase III clinical trials for EWS comparing 7 vs 5 chemotherapy drugs have failed to improve survival. To extend the durability of remission for EWS, we investigated 3 non-chemotherapy adjuvant therapy drug candidates to be combined with chemotherapy. The efficacy of these adjuvant drugs was investigated via anchorage-dependent growth assays, anchorage-independent soft-agar colony formation assays and EWS xenograft mouse models. Enoxacin and entinostat were the most effective adjuvant drug in both long-term in vitro and in vivo adjuvant studies. In the context that enoxacin is an FDA-approved antibiotic, and that entinostat is an investigational agent not yet FDA-approved, we propose enoxacin as an adjuvant drug for further preclinical and clinical investigation in EWS patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islands are often considered to be more susceptible to biological invasions and to suffer greater impacts from invaders than mainland areas, and this difference is generally attributed to differences in species introductions, ecological factors or human activities between islands and mainland areas. Genetic variation, as a good estimate of evolutionary potential, can influence the invasion process and impacts of alien species. However, few studies have compared the genetic diversity of alien species between islands and a corresponding mainland. Here, we examined the genetic variation and differentiation in feral populations (30 sampled individuals/population) of a globally invasive species (the American bullfrog, Lithobates catesbeianus) that was extensively farmed on 14 islands in the Zhoushan Archipelago of China and in three nearby regions on the mainland. We quantified the relative importance of propagule pressure and hunting pressures on the genetic variation of bullfrog populations and found that insular populations have greater genetic variation than their mainland counterparts. Although genetic differentiation between the populations was observed, no evidence of recent bottlenecks or population expansion in any of the tested population was found. Our results suggest that the propagule pressures of bullfrogs escaping from farms, multiple releases and hunting pressure influence the genetic variation among bullfrog populations. These results might have important implications for understanding the establishment and evolution of alien species on islands and for the management of invasive species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]