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Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has reached a pandemic level. Cardiac injury is not uncommon among COVID‐19 patients. We sought to describe the electrocardiographic characteristics and to identify the prognostic significance of electrocardiography (ECG) findings of patients with COVID‐19. Hypothesis: ECG abnormality was associated with higher risk of death. Methods: Consecutive patients with laboratory‐confirmed COVID‐19 and definite in‐hospital outcome were retrospectively included. Demographic characteristics and clinical data were extracted from medical record. Initial ECGs at admission or during hospitalization were reviewed. A point‐based scoring system of abnormal ECG findings was formed, in which 1 point each was assigned for the presence of axis deviation, arrhythmias, atrioventricular block, conduction tissue disease, QTc interval prolongation, pathological Q wave, ST‐segment change, and T‐wave change. The association between abnormal ECG scores and in‐hospital mortality was assessed in multivariable Cox regression models. Results: A total of 306 patients (mean 62.84 ± 14.69 years old, 48.0% male) were included. T‐wave change (31.7%), QTc interval prolongation (30.1%), and arrhythmias (16.3%) were three most common found ECG abnormalities. 30 (9.80%) patients died during hospitalization. Abnormal ECG scores were significantly higher among non‐survivors (median 2 points vs 1 point, p < 0.001). The risk of in‐hospital death increased by a factor of 1.478 (HR 1.478, 95% CI 1.131–1.933, p = 0.004) after adjusted by age, comorbidities, cardiac injury and treatments. Conclusions: ECG abnormality was common in patients admitted for COVID‐19 and was associated with adverse in‐hospital outcome. In‐hospital mortality risk increased with increasing abnormal ECG scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with venous tumor thrombus (VTT) and bland thrombus (BT), and to evaluate the influence of BT on surgical treatment and cancer‐specific survival (CSS) of RCC with VTT. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed clinical data of 123 patients with RCC and VTT, who underwent surgical treatment in our center between February 2015 and May 2018. Patients were divided into the BT group (21 patients) and non‐BT group (102 patients). Chi‐square and Mann‐Whitney U test were used for categorical and continuous variables respectively. Univariable log‐rank tests and multivariable Cox regressions were conducted to evaluate the prognostic significance of each variable. Kaplan‐Meier plots were performed to evaluate the influence of BT. Results: In the delayed phase of enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), BT and VTT had difference. Patients were divided according to the relative position of BT: proximal end BT (one patients), contralateral renal vein BT (two patients), distal end BT (12 patients), and multiple BT (six patients). The average length of BT was 8.4 ± 5.8 cm (range: 0.6‐20.0 cm). Patients with BT had longer operative time (P =.001), more surgical blood loss (P =.004), higher proportion of open surgery (P =.006), more postoperative complications (P =.011). BT (hazard ratio [HR] = 3.323, P =.007) were independent risk factors for poor prognosis. Conclusions: In the delayed phase of enhanced MRI, BT showed no obvious enhancement, while VTT usually showed enhancement. This was an important basis for preoperative imaging diagnosis of BT. The presence of BT increases the difficulty of surgery, and is correlated with adverse survival outcomes in patients with RCC and VTT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Mammalian cell entry proteins (Mces) contribute to Mycobacterium tuberculosis virulence. A mce homologue has been identified in the Leptospira interrogans genome, but its function was unknown. We showed that the mce gene is expressed only by pathogenic Leptospira strains tested. Leptospiral mce mRNA and Mce protein levels increased during infection of macrophages. The ability to infect macrophages was significantly lower in a strain with the mce gene deleted ( mce-). Complementation of the mce gene restored the ability of the mutant strain ( mcecom) to adhere to and invade cells. Importantly, the mce gene knock-in strain ( mce+) derived from L. biflexa acquired the ability to infect cells, and the mce+/ΔRAA knock-in strain (in which the RGD motif was replaced by RAA) was unable to infect cells. The mce- mutant was also dramatically less efficient in infecting hamsters than the wild-type L. interrogans strain, and fewer leptospires of the mutant were found in peripheral blood monocytes and the urine from infected animals. The recombinant Mce protein showed a high binding affinity to the integrins α5β1 and αVβ3. Blockade of the two integrins or the Mce protein decreased leptospiral adherence and invasiveness. The results showed that Mce is an RGD-motif-dependent virulence factor in pathogenic Leptospira species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new continuously tunable optoelectronic oscillator based on shifted dispersion‐induced RF‐fading is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The design provides wideband continuously all‐optical tunability by incorporating the shifted RF‐fading based on a Mach‐Zehnder structure in an optoelectronic feedback loop. By simply varying the path difference between the two arms of the Mach‐Zehnder configuration via an adjustable variable delay line, the fundamental frequency of the oscillator can achieve extremely high and continuous tuning with a frequency upper bound dependent on the delay properties of the variable optical delay line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C(25)H(22)P(+)·ClO(4) (-), contains two independent cations and two independent anions. The closest inter-molecular contact is a weak inter-molecular C-H⋯π(arene) inter-action.