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Objectives/Hypothesis: The co‐occurrence of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and congenital heart disease (CHD) is a rare condition with complex etiologies. The purpose of this study is to assess the etiologies, clinical features, and outcomes of cochlear implant (CI) in this patient population. Study Design: Case series and literature review. Methods: Clinical data of children who were diagnosed with SNHL and CHD and received CIs at a tertiary hospital from 2016 to 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. A literature review was performed to identify patients with SNHL and CHD. Findings: Of the 382 children who underwent cochlear implantation at our center, eight (2.1%) were diagnosed with SNHL and CHD. A literature review identified 1525 patients from 254 studies; the database therefore consisted of 1533 patients. The most common genetic etiologies of co‐occurring SNHL and CHD were CHARGE syndrome (36.3%), Turner syndrome (8.4%), 22q11.2 deletion (3.0%), Noonan syndrome (2.9%), and Down syndrome (2.5%), whereas the most common non‐genetic etiologies were congenital rubella syndrome (22.9%) and SNHL after early cardiac surgery (5.5%). Most of the patients presented with congenital, bilateral, severe‐profound SNHL requiring early rehabilitation. Of the 126 children who received CIs at a median age of 2.5 years, half showed delayed speech development at last follow‐up. Conclusions: Co‐occurring SNHL and CHD is a rare condition with complex etiologies. Timely hearing intervention with long‐term follow‐up and proper timing of heart surgery is essential for these children. Level of Evidence: 4, case series Laryngoscope, 134:400–409, 2024 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the lack of corresponding magmatic records, the timing of the opening of the Yarlung–Tsangpo Neo‐Tethyan Ocean remains controversial. The Middle Permian Luerma igneous complex, which is situated in the western Gangdese magmatic belt of the southern Lhasa subterrane, western Tibet, can be divided into four or more rock types, including foid gabbro, amphibole gabbro, monzogabbro, and pyroxene‐bearing monzodiorite. Through zircon U–Pb dating using laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry, the age of the Luerma igneous complex is determined to be ~261 Ma. The complex is rich in titanium, iron, magnesium, and total alkalis, with medium to high levels of calcium, potassium and aluminium, as well as low levels of silicon. Therefore, it is classified as a shoshonite–latite rock series. The complex is relatively enriched in light rare earth elements and high‐field‐strength elements, without obvious Eu and Ce anomalies. These rocks exhibit relatively low (87Sr/86Sr)i values, high εNd(t) values, and high εHf(t) values. The geochemical and isotopic characteristics indicate that the magmas are derived from partial melting of the upper mantle in an intraplate tectonic environment. The new data presented here provide supplementary evidence for the initial rifting of the Lhasa terrane from the northern margin of Gondwana during the Middle Permian. These data also confirm that the opening of the Yarlung–Tsangpo Neo‐Tethyan Ocean occurred in the Middle Permian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enhanced geothermal system (EGS) is the key to improving the heat production efficiency of hot dry rock (HDR). Due to the existence of EGS, the reservoir produces significant heterogeneity, so the optimal design of well location and injection rate has an important influence on the heat recovery effect of an EGS. To solve this problem, a calculation model for the heat output of an EGS under multifield coupling is established in this paper, and the influence of well location and injection rate on the heat recovery effect under different scales of EGS is deeply analyzed. The results show that the production well location and injection well displacement have a great influence on the heat recovery effect under different fracture‐network scales. The larger the size of the fracture network, the larger the effective utilization area of reservoir heat recovery and the better the effect of heat recovery. The closer the production well is to the fracture network and in the direction of the fracture network, the larger the effective utilization area of reservoir heat recovery is, and the better the effect of heat recovery is. The higher the injection well displacement is, the larger the effective utilization area of reservoir heat recovery is, and the better the heat recovery effect is. The research results have important guiding significance for the optimization of the scale, well placement, and water injection displacement of the EGS in the HDR reservoir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driving in interactive dynamic traffic is a huge challenge for autonomous vehicles, especially for motion planning. The autonomous vehicle not only needs to predict the future states of the social vehicles to avoid a collision but also realizes the comfort and continuous plan. To deal with the problem, a spatio‐temporal decision‐making and motion planning framework with flexible constraints based on previous work is proposed. Improvements can be highlighted in three aspects. First, a neural network for trajectory prediction is trained and it is integrated into the framework, which can learn the social vehicles' reactions in the negotiation better and give more accurate predictions. Second, instead of setting the fixed local targets, the flexible‐constraint mechanism is introduced to increase the success rate of continuous planning, specifically, the local planning target is determined conditioned on the situation with an elastic factor. Third, two popular simulators with randomly disposed traffic participants are exploited, where vehicles are mutually influenced, more similar to real‐world traffic. The closed‐loop tests with zero crashes and the comparative experiments with traditional models demonstrate the superior performance and practical significance of the proposed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The positive prediction of prognosis and immunotherapy within tertiary lymphoid structure (TLS) in cancerous tissue has been well demonstrated, including liver cancer. However, the relationship between TLS and prognosis in the peritumoral region of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has received less attention. Few studies on whether TLS, as a typical representative of acquired immune cell groups, is associated with innate immune cells. The aim of this paper was to identify the prognostic role of peritumor TLS in HCC and to simply explore the relationship with neutrophils infiltration. Methods: This study included cancerous and paracancerous tissue from 170 patients after surgical resection of HCC. TLS was examined and identified by pathological H&E examination, and the impact on prognosis was further classified by determination of total TLS area. Immunohistochemical staining of CD15+ neutrophils was also performed on half of the cases. The obtained results were validated by external public database, as TLS has been widely shown to be tagged with 12 chemokines. Results: In peritumoral tissue, the TLS− group had better overall survival (OS) and disease‐free survival (DFS) outcomes compared with the TLS+ group. On the contrary, the intratumor TLS+ group showed better DFS outcomes. When further investigating the relationship between TLS area distribution and DFS, progressively worse prognosis was only found in the peritumor region with increasing TLS density (TLS− vs. TLSL vs. TLSH). In addition, neutrophil infiltration increased in parallel with TLS density in the peritumoral region, which was not observed in the intratumoral region. Conclusions: TLS might have a dual prognostic role in different regions of HCC. The abundance of peritumoral TLS is an independent influence of DFS. The inconsistent correlation between neutrophils and corresponding TLS in different regions may indicate different pathways of immune aggregation and may serve as an explanation for the different prognosis of TLS, which needs to be specifically explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To analyze necrotic femoral head after long‐term internal fixation for femoral neck fractures using micro‐computed tomography (CT) for bone histomorphometry. Methods: The experimental group included six patients (two men and four women; mean age 62.00 ± 9.36 years) who underwent hip arthroplasty at 47.67 ± 14.22 months after internal fixation. Surgery was performed because of femoral head necrosis after femoral neck fracture between October 2018 and October 2020. The control group included three patients (two men and one woman; mean age 69.33 ± 4.62 years) who underwent hip arthroplasty for femoral neck fracture. In the experimental group, micro‐CT quantitative analysis of the whole femur, sclerotic region around screws, screw paths, sclerotic region and screw paths, and relatively normal region was performed. The bone volume fraction (BV/TV), number of bone trabeculae (Tb.N), connection density (Conn.D), thickness of bone trabeculae (Tb.Th), separation of bone trabeculae (Tb.SP), structural model index (SMI), and bone mineral density (BMD) of each part were quantitatively analyzed. Results: The BV/TV (0.3180 ± 0.0617), Conn.D (6.9261 ± 2.4715/mm3), Tb.Th (0.3262 ± 0.0136 μm), and BMD (298.9241 ± 54.2029 g/cm3) of the sclerotic region around the screws were significantly higher in the experimental group than the BV/TV (0.1248 ± 0.0390), Conn.D (2.5708 ± 0.5187/mm3), Tb.Th (0.1713 ± 0.0333 μm), and BMD (66.5181 ± 43.0380 g/cm3) in the control group (P < 0.05). The BV/TV (0.2222 ± 0.0684), Tb.Th (0.2775 ± 0.0326 μm), and BMD (195.0153 ± 71.8509 g/cm3) in the collapsed region were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group (P < 0.05). In the experimental group, the volume ratio of the sclerotic region around screws and screw paths to the entire femoral head was 0.4964 ± 0.0950. Conclusion: After internal fixation for femoral neck fracture, a large number of sclerotic plate‐like trabeculae were observed around the long‐term retained implant. The screw paths and surrounding sclerotic comprise approximately 50% of the femoral head volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, two linear poly(N‐vinylcaprolactam)s (PNVCLs) with different molecular weights were first synthesized as polymeric supporters by reversible addition‐fragmentation chain transfer polymerization and then were used to prepare cathepsin B and thermal dual‐stimuli responsive amphiphilic linear–dendritic block copolymers (LDBCs) PNVCLn‐b‐d(Phe‐Lys)1–3 (n = 66, 100) with linear PNVCL and dendritic phenylalanyl‐lysine (Phe‐Lys) dipeptides via stepwise peptide chemistry. The copolymers were characterized by 1H NMR spectra and gel permeation chromatography and exhibited a controlled molecular weight and a narrow molecular weight distribution (polydispersity index ≤ 1.27). They self‐assemble into stable micelles at relatively low critical micelle concentrations (0.007–0.019 mg mL−1) in aqueous solution. These micelles are capable of dissociating to release the encapsulated anticancer drug doxorubicin upon cathepsin B treatment. The doxorubicin release rates from PNVCLn‐b‐d(Phe‐Lys)1–3 micelles decreased with increasing generation of Phe‐Lys dipeptide dendrons and decreasing molecular weight of PNVCL. In addition, the lower critical solution temperatures of the copolymers increased with an extension of the enzyme incubation time. The results of in vitro cytotoxicity and cell uptake experiments showed that LDBCs show no cytotoxicity even at a high LDBC concentration of 0.4 mg mL−1 and the drug‐loaded micelles can be enriched in tumor cells. Such smart copolymers could be efficiently used in targeted therapy systems. © 2021 Society of Industrial Chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Straw return plays an important role in the improvement of farmland ecological environments, increasing soil fertility, crop quality, and yield. However, in the early growth of rice (Oryza sativa L.), straw decomposition and rice growth may be inhibited by suboptimal carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratios. We, therefore, explored methods that could alleviate the inhibition of straw decomposition using different combinations of ammonium bicarbonate and compound fertilizer. No fertilizer (CK) and compound fertilizer (S0) were used as the control. The ratios of added ammonium bicarbonate were 10% (S1), 20% (S2), 30% (S3), and 40% (S4), respectively. Compared with the S0 treatment, the S2 treatment accelerated straw decomposition, promoted the early growth of tillers and roots, and improved the leaf area index, dry matter accumulation, and N use efficiency (apparent N utilization, agronomic N utilization, and partial factor productivity increased by 4.05‒19.48% in two years). Moreover, panicle number, filled‐grain percentage, and 1000‐grain weight were significantly higher in the S2 treatment than other treatments. The grain yield of S2 treatment was significantly higher than that of S0 treatment by 4.06% (2019) and 5.66% (2020). Regression analysis revealed that the optimal ratios of ammonium bicarbonate for increasing straw decomposition and grain yield were relatively close, 16.27% and 14.60%, respectively. These results suggest that compared with conventional fertilization method (S0), the 20% treatment is a more effective fertilization method that prevents inhibition of straw decomposition, promoting rice growth and yield, and improving nitrogen (N) use efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hole transport materials that interact with the indium tin oxide (ITO) surface can be processed into monomolecular layers (MLs), which often exhibit different surface and electronic properties than their thin‐film counterparts. Herein, it is found that poly[bis(4‐phenyl)(2,4,6‐trimethylphenyl)amine] (PTAA) films (R‐PTAA) can be easily processed into ML (M‐PTAA) due to the van der Waals interaction between ITO and PTAA. However, compared with R‐PTAA, the work function (WF) and conductivity of M‐PTAA are simultaneously reduced by the charge transfer at the ITO/PTAA interface. To address this issue, a modified monomolecular layer strategy (m‐MLS) is developed, where a small amount of 2,3,5,6‐tetrafluoro‐7,7,8,8‐tetracyanoquinodimethane (F4TCNQ) is introduced to enhance the interaction force between ITO and PTAA. PTAA treated by m‐MLS (F‐PTAA) has a hydrophilic physical surface, closely matching electronic energy level with the perovskite layer and smaller bulk resistance. As a result, the efficiency and reproducibility of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are substantially improved. PSCs based on F‐PTAA demonstrated the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.7% with a fill factor of over 80%. This study inspires the development of novel interface modification materials, and provides a simple and convenient direction for the fabrication of high‐performance and reproducible inverted PSCs with high fill factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spin waves (SWs) in coupled Co/FeNi bilayers are probed by the Brillouin light‐scattering technique. Two types of SWs, magnetostatic surface spin waves (MSSWs) and perpendicular standing SWs, are identified. The dispersion relations of MSSWs obtained from the Stokes and anti‐Stokes measurements display, respectively, positive and negative group velocities. The anti‐Stokes branch with positive phase velocities and negative group velocities is called the backward magnetostatic surface mode that originates from the magnetostatic interaction in the bilayer. Experimental data agree well with our theoretical calculations. Our results are used to understand SWs propagation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B-cell-specific Moloney murine leukemia virus insertion site 1 (BMI1) is a member of the polycomb group of transcriptional repressors. Until now, its expression and functional significance in pancreatic carcinogenesis was unknown. In the present study, we demonstrated that expression of BMI1 was markedly up-regulated in pancreatic cancer cell lines and surgically resected cancer specimens. In addition, BMI1 expression levels correlated positively with the presence of lymph node metastases and negatively with patient survival rates, suggesting a role for BMI1 in the progression of pancreatic cancer. Furthermore, stable down-regulation of BMI1 suppressed cell growth, delayed the G1/S transition, and enhanced the susceptibility of different pancreatic cell lines to apoptosis following expression of a lentiviral-mediated shRNA targeted for BMI1. Expression of the short-hairpin RNA also correlated with the up-regulation of p21 and Bax and the down-regulation of cyclin D1, cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK)-2 and -4, Bcl-2, and phospho-Akt. Finally, growth suppression following BMI1 depletion was confirmed in a nude mouse model. In conclusion, our findings indicate that BMI1 plays an important role in the late progression of pancreatic cancer and may represent a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. ( Cancer Sci 2010) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

N-Myc downstream-regulated gene 2 (NDRG2), a new member of the N-Myc downstream-regulated gene family, has been found to be a differentially expressed gene involved in a variety of cancers. The present study aimed to investigate the expression of NDRG2 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Immunohistochemistry was performed in 154 samples from patients with ESCC to detect the expression level of NDRG2 and C-MYC. Results indicated that the expression level of NDRG2 in the cancer samples was significantly lower than that in normal tissues; the trend of C-MYC was the reverse. The Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test showed significant difference in the expression of NDRG2 in patients with different T stage, TNM stage, and differentiation degree of cancers ( P = 0.036, 0.031, 0.001, respectively). Patients in stages I and II were followed up for 5 consecutive years and Kaplan–Meier survival analysis demonstrated that the survival time of ESCC patients with high expression of NDRG2 was longer than those with low expression during the 5-year follow-up period ( P = 0.0018). Cox regression analysis indicated that low expression of NDRG2, cancer stage of pT1, and distant organ metastasis (pM1) were the independent poor prognostic factors of ESCC ( P = 0.004, 0.019, 0.0013, respectively). Furthermore, up-regulation of NDRG2 was introduced to ESCC cell lines (EC9706 and EC109) by plasmid transfection. In vivo and in vitro studies indicated that overexpression of NDRG2 markedly reduced proliferation and promoted the apoptosis of EC9706 and EC109 cells. In summary, our results demonstrated that NDRG2 played an important role in the proliferation of ESCC cells and the expression of NDRG2 in ESCC was closely related with the prognosis. ( Cancer Sci 2010; 101: 1292–1299) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Srb/mediator proteins that are associated with RNA polymerase II holoenzyme have been implicated in transcriptional repression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We show here that the defect in repression of SUC2 caused by mutation of SRB8, SRB9, SRB11, SIN4 or ROX3 is suppressed by increased dosage of the SFL1 gene, and the genetic behavior of the sfl1 mutation provides further evidence for a functional relationship. Sfl1 acts on SUC2 through a repression site located immediately 5′ to the TATA box, and Sfl1 binds this DNA sequence in vitro. Moreover, LexA­Sfl1 represses transcription of a reporter, and repression is reduced in an srb9 mutant. Finally, we show that Sfl1 co-immunoprecipitates from cell extracts with Srb9, Srb11, Sin4 and Rox3. We propose that Sfl1, when bound to its site, interacts with Srb/mediator proteins to inhibit transcription by RNA polymerase II holoenzyme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fragmentomic features of circulating cell free mitochondrial DNA (ccf-mtDNA) including fragmentation profile, 5' end base preference and motif diversity are poorly understood. Here, we generated ccf-mtDNA sequencing data of 1607 plasma samples using capture-based next generation sequencing. We firstly found that fragmentomic features of ccf-mtDNA were remarkably different from those of circulating cell free nuclear DNA. Furthermore, region-specific fragmentomic features of ccf-mtDNA were observed, which was associated with protein binding, base composition and special structure of mitochondrial DNA. When comparing to non-cancer controls, six types of cancer patients exhibited aberrant fragmentomic features. Then, cancer detection models were built based on the fragmentomic features. Both internal and external validation cohorts demonstrated the excellent capacity of our model in distinguishing cancer patients from non-cancer control, with all area under curve higher than 0.9322. The overall accuracy of tissue-of-origin was 89.24% and 87.92% for six cancer types in two validation cohort, respectively. Altogether, our study comprehensively describes cancer-specific fragmentomic features of ccf-mtDNA and provides a proof-of-principle for the ccf-mtDNA fragmentomics-based multi-cancer detection and tissue-of-origin classification., (© 2024. The Author(s).)