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Background: The objective of this study was to explore the abilities of atezolizumab plus chemotherapy in preventing brain metastases (BMs) among metastatic non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without initial BMs, as well as the risk factors of BMs. Methods: Individual patient data from three trials involving first‐line atezolizumab for metastatic NSCLC (IMpower130, IMpower131, and IMpower150) were pooled. Among patients without baseline BMs and without epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and/or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) mutations, those receiving atezolizumab + chemotherapy ± bevacizumab were classified as the atezolizumab plus chemotherapy group and those receiving placebo + chemotherapy ± bevacizumab were classified as the chemotherapy group. The cumulative incidences of BM (CI‐BMs) between the two groups were compared. Other factors associated with the CI‐BM were analyzed by Cox regression analyses. Results: With a median follow‐up of 17.6 months (range, 0.03–33.64 months), 74 (3.1%) of the 2380 enrolled patients developed BMs, including 50 (3.1%) and 24 (3.0%) in the atezolizumab plus chemotherapy group (n = 1589) and the chemotherapy group (n = 791), respectively. The CI‐BMs at 6, 12, and 24 months were 1.7%, 2.8%, and 3.3%, respectively. After taking competing risk events into account, there was no significant difference in the CI‐BMs between the two groups (p =.888). Nevertheless, the use of bevacizumab and the histology of nonsquamous NSCLC were found to be independently associated with the risk of BMs. Conclusions: In patients with metastatic EGFR/ALK wild‐type NSCLC without baseline BMs, adding atezolizumab in the first‐line treatment might not reduce the CI‐BM. However, the administration of bevacizumab may reduce the risk of BMs. In patients with metastatic EGFR/ALK wild‐type non–small cell lung cancer without baseline brain metastases (BMs), adding atezolizumab in the first‐line treatment could not reduce the cumulative incidence of BM. However, administration of bevacizumab may reduce the risk of BMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) are widely used in lighting and display applications. Carbon quantum dots (CQDs), which have high biocompatibility, high resistance to photobleaching, and full‐spectrum luminescence, have inherent advantages as fluorescent materials for LED devices. Herein, multicolor CQDs are prepared by a new reagent engineering strategy due to the difference of effective conjugate length and the surface electron‐withdrawing groups of CQDs. White CQDs are realized by mixing blue, green, and red CQDs proportionally. Then, the aggregation‐caused quenching phenomenon of CQDs is suppressed through the hydrogen‐bonding network of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs). Multicolor fluorescent films are prepared from CQDs and CNFs by simple mixing and casting methods. Finally, thin‐film encapsulation based on the photosensitive resin ABPE‐10 coating can be realized and rapidly assembles into fluorescent films with different light‐emitting colors into LED devices, leading to have superior thermal performance compared with conventional LEDs. White LEDs have excellent white‐light illumination performance, with Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage color coordinates of (0.33, 0.37), a correlated color temperature of 5688 K, and a color rendering index of 86. This strategy provides a convenient and scalable pathway for low‐cost, environmentally friendly, and high‐performance CQDs‐based LEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circ_UBAP2 is extensively engaged in regulating the development of various malignancies, containing osteosarcoma (OS). However, its biological significance and function are not fully understood. In this study, we found that circ_UBAP2 and HMGA1 levels were up‐regulated, and miR‐370‐3p and miR‐665 expressions were decreased in osteosarcoma tissues. Inhibition of circ_UBAP2 or HMGA1 expression in OS cells, cell viability, invasion and migration abilitities were notably hindered, and cell apoptosis abilities were increased. Bioinformatics analysis predicted that miR‐665 and miR‐370‐3p were the downstream targets of circ_UBAP2, and the dual luciferase experiment demonstrated the correlation between them. In addition, inhibition of miR‐665 and miR‐370‐3p expression could significantly reverse the impact of knocking down circ_UBAP2 on OS cells. HMGA1 was discovered to become the downstream target of both miR‐665 and miR‐370‐3p. It was shown that over‐expression of miR‐665 or miR‐370‐3p notably stimulated the cell growth, invasion, and migration of osteosarcoma cells, while hindered cell apoptosis. Nevertheless, this effect could be reversed by concurrent over‐expression of HMGA1. Our data strongly prove that circ_UBAP2 makes a vital impact on promoting the proliferation, invasion as well as migration of osteosarcoma cells via down‐regulating the level of miR‐665 and miR‐370‐3p, and later up‐regulating the level of HMGA1. In conclusion, circ_UBAP2 is upregulated in osteosarcoma, and it competitively adsorbs miR‐370‐3p and miR‐665, resulting in up‐regulation of HMGA1, thus promoting OS development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fabrication of self‐healing elastomers with high thermal stability for use in extreme thermal conditions such as aerospace remains a major challenge. A strategy for preparing self‐healing elastomers with stable covalent bonds and dynamic metal–ligand coordination interactions as crosslinking sites in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is proposed. The added Fe (III) not only serves as the dynamic crosslinking point at room temperature which is crucial for self‐healing performance, but also plays a role as free radical scavenging agent at high temperatures. The results show that the PDMS elastomers possessed an initial thermal degradation temperature over 380 °C and a room temperature self‐healing efficiency as high as 65.7%. Moreover, the char residue at 800 °C of PDMS elastomer reaches 7.19% in nitrogen atmosphere, and up to 14.02% in air atmosphere by doping a small amount (i.e., 0.3 wt%) of Fe (III), which is remarkable for the self‐healing elastomers that contain weak and dynamic bonds with relatively poor thermal stability. This study provides an insight into designing self‐healing PDMS‐based materials that can be targeted for use as high‐temperature thermal protection coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: MET is a notable driver gene in the diversity of aberrations with clinical relevance, including exon 14 skipping, copy number gain, point mutations, and gene fusions. Compared with the former two, MET fusions are severely under‐reported, leaving a series of unanswered questions. In this study, we addressed this gap by characterizing MET fusions in a large, real‐world Chinese cancer population. Methods: We retrospectively included patients with solid tumors who had DNA‐based genome profiles acquired through targeted sequencing from August 2015 to May 2021. MET fusion‐positive (MET+) patients were subsequently selected for clinical and molecular characterization. Results: We screened 79,803 patients across 27 tumor types and detected 155 putative MET fusions from 122 patients, resulting in an overall prevalence of 0.15%. Lung cancer comprised the majority of MET+ patients (92, 75.4%). Prevalence was markedly higher in liver cancer, biliary tract cancer, and renal cancer (range 0.52%–0.60%). It was lower in ovarian cancer (0.06%). A substantial proportion (48/58, 82.8%) of unique partners were reported for the first time. High heterogeneity was observed for partners, with ST7, HLA‐DRB1, and KIF5B as the three most common partners. Mutational landscape analysis of lung adenocarcinoma (n = 32) revealed a high prevalence of TP53 in MET+ alterations, EGFR L858R, EGFR L861Q, and MET amplification. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is currently the largest study in characterizing MET fusions. Our findings warrant that further clinical validation and mechanistic study may translate into therapeutic avenues for MET+ cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the reporting quality and risk of bias of Cochrane individual participant data meta‐analyses (IPD‐MAs). Methods: We searched the Cochrane Library and identified the Cochrane IPD‐MAs. We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta‐Analyses of individual participant data (PRISMA‐IPD) assessed the reporting quality of included Cochrane IPD‐ MAs, and the Risk Of Bias In Systematic reviews (ROBIS) tool was used to assess the risk of bias. We performed stratified and correlation analyses to explore factors affecting the quality. Results: Forty‐six Cochrane IPD‐MAs were included in our study. Twenty‐six Cochrane IPD‐MAs (56.5%) had statistical or epidemiological authors involved, and 31 (67.4%) contained only IPD data. Thirty‐five studies (76.1%) did not report whether they used 1‐stage or 2‐stage methods, and forty (87.0%) did not report the statistical techniques used for missing participant data. We found that the entire compliance reported PRISMA‐IPD items of Cochrane IPD‐MAs published after 2015 (n = 18; Mean ± SD: 26.61 ± 2.75) was higher than those studies published in 2015 and before (n = 28; Mean ± SD: 22.61 ± 4.73), the difference was statistically significant (p = 0.002). A strong positive correlation was found between the fully reported PRISMA‐IPD items and fully accordance ROBIS items (Spearman's: ρ = 0.653, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The quality of Cochrane IPD‐MAs is not high, especially in the reporting of statistical methods. There was room for further improvement in IPD retrieval, IPD integrity and statistical analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Primary pure mucinous adenocarcinoma (PMA) is a rare type of lung cancer with unique clinical and prognostic features. Previous studies have shown that PMA have more early‐stage cancer compared with other adenocarcinoma (ADC) subtypes. The clinicopathological features and optimal treatment strategies of resectable locally advanced mucinous adenocarcinoma lack evidence and require further study. Methods: In this study, we collected information from patients with stage III‐N2 PMA who underwent radical surgery between 2004 and 2016 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. The clinicopathological parameters, treatments, overall survival (OS), and cancer‐specific survival (CSS) were evaluated. Results: Of 242,699 eligible lung adenocarcinoma patients, 124 with PMA and 3405 with other ADCs of stage III‐N2 received radical surgery were identified. Compared with other ADCs, PMA tended to appear more in the lower lobes, with higher degree of differentiation, less early T stage, and more positive lymph nodes numbers. Patients with PMA had significantly worse survival than other ADCs (OS = 45.0 vs. 57.1 months, p = 0.005, CSS = 51.8 vs. 65.5 months, p = 0.017). We explored the benefit population of postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) and found that the population with ≤7 positive lymph nodes could benefit from PORT, and OS was significantly improved (41.2 vs. 69.3 months, p = 0.034). For patients with >7 positive lymph nodes, PORT did not provide a survival benefit, while chemotherapy improved OS (10.9 vs. 23.3 months, p = 0.041). Multivariate analysis showed that race, tumor location, number of positive lymph nodes, and PORT were independent prognostic factors in patients with postoperative III‐N2 lung PMA. Conclusion: The prognosis of patients with resectable III‐N2 primary lung PMA was significantly worse than that of other ADCs, and PORT was an independent prognostic factor. Patients with ≤7 positive lymph nodes could benefit from PORT and those with >7 positive lymph nodes could benefit from chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, novel embolic microspheres with efficient drug delivery and slow drug release properties were developed, which have potential applications in transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). The microspheres were prepared by suspension polymerization using vinyl acetate, 10‐Undecen‐1‐ol (UO), multi‐walled carbon nanotubes, and crosslinking agent (1,4‐butanediol divinyl ether). In the process, porous titanium tubes are used to control the particle size of the microspheres. In addition, the introduction of long‐chain (UO) makes the microsphere good swelling property in acetone. Multi‐walled carbon nanotubes modified by hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS) are helpful for increasing both spherical morphology stabilization and swelling properties in acetone as well (C‐PVA‐2UO/CNT). Target drug was dissolved in acetone and the mcirospheres were dispersed in acetone to realize drug load. In vitro biocompatibility analysis showed that C‐PVA‐2UO/CNT is non‐cytotoxic and hemocompatible. The sustained drug release properties of C‐PVA‐2UO/CNT were confirmed by drug indomethacin (IMC) loading and release experiments. These findings suggest that the newly developed C‐PVA‐2UO/CNT has great potential to be used as a drug‐loaded embolization agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the most effective delivery format of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT‐I) on insomnia in cancer patients. Methods: We searched five databases up to February 2021 for randomized clinical trials that compared CBT‐I with inactive or active controls for insomnia in cancer patients. Outcomes were insomnia severity, sleep efficiency, sleep onset latency (SOL), wake after sleep onset (WASO), and total sleep time (TST). Pairwise meta‐analyses and frequentist network meta‐analyses with the random‐effects model were applied for data analyses. Results: Sixteen unique trials including 1523 participants met inclusion criteria. Compared with inactive control, CBT‐I could significantly reduce insomnia severity (mean differences [MD] = −4.98 points, 95% confidence interval [CI]: −5.82 to −4.14), SOL (MD = −12.29 min, 95%CI: −16.48 to −8.09), and WASO (MD = −16.58 min, 95%CI: −22.00 to −11.15), while increasing sleep efficiency (MD = 7.62%, 95%CI: 5.82% to 9.41%) at postintervention. Compared with active control, CBT‐I could significantly reduce insomnia severity (MD = −2.75 points, 95%CI: −4.28 to −1.21), SOL (MD = −13.56 min, 95%CI: −18.93 to −8.18), and WASO (MD = −6.99 min, 95%CI: −11.65 to −2.32) at postintervention. These effects diminished in short‐term follow‐up and almost disappeared in long‐term follow‐up. Most of the results were rated as "moderate" to "low" certainty of evidence. Network meta‐analysis showed that group CBT‐I had an increase in sleep efficiency of 10.61%, an increase in TST of 21.98 min, a reduction in SOL of 14.65 min, and a reduction in WASO of 24.30 min, compared with inactive control at postintervention, with effects sustained at short‐term follow‐up. Conclusions: CBT‐I is effective for the management of insomnia in cancer patients postintervention, with diminished effects in short‐term follow‐up. Group CBT‐I is the preferred choice based on postintervention and short‐term effects. The low quality of evidence and limited sample size demonstrate the need for robust evidence from high‐quality, large‐scale trials providing long‐term follow‐up data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In recent years, there are several systematic reviews published on animal experiments of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta‐analysis) guidelines provide a guarantee for significantly improving the reporting quality of systematic reviews (SRs) and meta‐analysis (MAs) to a certain extent; however, there are still certain defects found in the quality of SRs/MAs of animal experiments of TCM. It has been found that especially, the descriptions of the rationale and animal characteristics of TCM interventions are inadequate. As a result, we have developed a novel reporting guideline for SRs/MAs of animal experimental in the field of TCM (PRISMA‐ATCM) to overcome these problems. Methods: PRISMA‐ATCM reporting guidelines were formed by analyzing both the status and quality of published SRs/MAs of animal experiments and consulting experts in the related fields, and then by Delphi consultation, consensus meeting and revision. Results: Among the 27 items on the PRISMA checklist, Title (1), Structured summary (2), Rationale (3), Objectives (4), Protocol and registration (5), Eligibility criteria (6), Data items (11), Planned methods of analysis (14), Study characteristics (18), Summary of evidence (24), Limitations (25), and Funding (27) have been extensively revised and expanded, to specifically include the details about TCM intervention and animal characteristics. In addition, illustrative examples and explanations have been provided for each item. Conclusion: PRISMA‐ATCM could markedly improve the quality SRs/MAs of animal experiments in the field of TCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Qingjin Yiqi granules (QJYQ) on post‐COVID‐19 condition (PCC). Method: Patients who met the inclusion criteria were randomly assigned to two groups, the QJYQ group received QJYQ combined with standard rehabilitation treatments (SRTs) and the control group only received SRTs. The treatment course was 14 days. The primary outcomes were modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) scale and Borg scale, while the secondary outcomes included symptoms score and 6‐minute walking distance (6MWD). The safety outcome was the incidence of adverse events. Results: A total of 388 patients with PCC were enrolled and randomly assigned to the QJYQ group (n = 194) and the control group (n = 194). Compared to the controls, the mMRC scale was improved in the QJYQ group, which was better than that of the control group [β (95%CI): –0.626 (–1.101, –0.151), p = 0.010]. A significant improvement in Borg scale was also observed in the QJYQ group compared to the control group [β (95%CI): –0.395(–0.744, –0.046), p = 0.026]. There was no statistically significant difference in symptoms score and 6MWD between the two groups (p = 0.293, p = 0.724). No treatment‐related adverse events were observed in either group. Conclusions: QJYQ can bring benefits to patients with PCC, mainly in the improvement of breathlessness and fatigue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishment of a precise control model is conducive to efficient extraction of heteropolysaccharides (Hete) from lignocellulose biomass during alkali treatment process. Thus, this work focused on studying the dissolution behaviors of heteropolysaccharides from hemp stalk under different extraction conditions and developing a precise model to describe its solid–liquid mass transfer process. The results showed that under the optimal liquid to material ratio condition, alkali concentration and extraction time were the main factors affecting the extraction efficiency, followed by temperature and hydrogen peroxide dosage. Meanwhile, the influence of the flow state of lye and the particle size of hemp stalk cannot be also ignored. The established mass transfer models showed that the diffusion activation energy of heteropolysaccharides during laminar‐ and turbulent‐flow states were 1.1044 and 1.1015 kJ/mol, respectively, which totally proved that the dissolution of heteropolysaccharide under alkaline condition was a solid–liquid diffusion‐dominated mass transfer process. The internal and external verification results showed that the correlation and robustness of laminar‐ and turbulent‐type diffusion models were very good and suitable for controlling the dissolution of heteropolysaccharides from hemp stalk or similar plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LINC01410 is a tumor promoter that is upregulated in some cancer types, such as osteosarcoma (OS). Nonetheless, its role in OS and the underlying molecular mechanism have not been fully understood. Hence, we sought to elucidate it. We performed reverse‐transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction for examining LINC01410, miR‐497‐5p and HMGA2 levels. Additionally, we carried out the cell counting kit‐8 and Transwell assays for detecting cell proliferation and invasion/migration. Bioinformatics predicted that there was a miR‐497‐5p binding site in LINC01410 or HMGA2; meanwhile, miR‐497‐5p was found to interact with HMGA2 and LINC01410 through dual‐luciferase reporter assay. LINC01410 and HMGA2 were high, and miR‐497‐5p showed low expression in OS tissues and cells. Cell function assay demonstrated that LINC01410 or HMGA2 knockdown or miR‐497‐5p overexpression obviously restrained OS proliferation, invasion, and migration. Oppositely, inhibiting miR‐497‐5p had the opposite effects. Functionally, miR‐497‐5p bound with LINC01410 3′‐untranslated region and HMGA2 was found to be the miR‐497‐5p target gene. Lastly, LINC01410 enhanced OS cell growth, invasion, and migration via decreasing miR‐497‐5p expression, whereas increasing that of HMGA2. We have demonstrated that LINC01410 promoted OS development partly by miR‐497‐5p/HMGA2 signal transduction pathway and this provides a reference for studying the mechanism of LINC01410 in OS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To present a review on the traditional and new biomarkers of pulmonary embolism (PE). Data source A systematic search has been carried out using keywords as PE, biomarker, diagnosis and risk stratification. Results: The results of this work have been structured into three parts: first, conventional biomarkers for vascular, cardiac and inflammation, including static markers and dynamic markers for measuring the time course; next, a review of new biomarkers in recent years, such as RNAs and markers obtained through proteomics and mass spectrometry; finally, use of new detection methods to directly detect the activity of existing markers, such as the determination of coagulation factor II and plasmin activities based on the proteolytic activation of an engineered zymogen. Conclusions: This work summarized the characteristics of current traditional biomarkers for clinical diagnosis and risk stratification of PE, as well as a series of newly discovered biomarkers obtained through various clinical experimental methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past years, network meta‐analysis (NMA) has been widely used among clinicians, guideline makers, and health technology assessment agencies and has played an important role in clinical decision‐making and guideline development. To inform further development of NMAs, we conducted a bibliometric analysis to assess the current status of published NMA methodological studies, summarized the methodological progress of seven types of NMAs, and discussed the current challenges of NMAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has caused hundreds of thousands of infections and deaths. Efficient diagnostic methods could help curb its global spread. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a method for accurately diagnosing COVID‐19 based on computed tomography (CT) scans in real time. Methods: We propose an architecture named "concatenated feature pyramid network" ("Concat‐FPN") with an attention mechanism, by concatenating feature maps of multiple. The proposed architecture is then used to form two networks, which we call COVID‐CT‐GAN and COVID‐CT‐DenseNet, the former for data augmentation and the latter for data classification. Results: The proposed method is evaluated on 3 different numbers of magnitude of COVID‐19 CT datasets. Compared with the method without GANs for data augmentation or the original network auxiliary classifier generative adversarial network, COVID‐CT‐GAN increases the accuracy by 2% to 3%, the recall by 2% to 4%, the precision by 1% to 3%, the F1‐score by 1% to 3%, and the area under the curve by 1% to 4%. Compared with the original network DenseNet‐201, COVID‐CT‐DenseNet increases the accuracy by 1% to 3%, the recall by 4% to 9%, the precision by 1%, the F1‐score by 1% to 3%, and the area under the curve by 2%. Conclusion: The experimental results show that our method improves the efficiency of diagnosing COVID‐19 on CT images, and helps overcome the problem of limited training data when using deep learning methods to diagnose COVID‐19. Significance: Our method can help clinicians build deep learning models using their private datasets to achieve automatic diagnosis of COVID‐19 with a high precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and objectives: Thousands of healthcare workers (HCWs) have been infected with 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID‐19) during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Laboratory personnel in blood transfusion departments may be infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) if laboratory biosafety protection is insufficient. Therefore, we investigated the current situation of laboratory biosafety protection in blood transfusion departments to determine how to improve the safety of laboratory processes. Materials and methods: An online survey was conducted in blood transfusion departments from 1st to 6th May 2020 in China. A total of 653 individuals completed the questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed with reference to COVID‐19 laboratory biosafety summarized in Annex II. All responses were summarized using only descriptive statistics and expressed as frequencies and ratios [n (%)]. Results: Most participants were concerned about COVID‐19. Some participants had inadequate knowledge of COVID‐19. Two participants stated that there were laboratory personnel infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 in their departments. A total of 31 (4.7%) participants did not receive any safety and security training. In terms of laboratory biosafety protection practices, the major challenges were suboptimal laboratory safety practices and insufficient laboratory conditions. Conclusion: The major deficiencies were insufficient security and safety training, and a lack of personal protective equipment, automatic cap removal centrifuges and biosafety cabinets. Consequently, we should enhance the security and safety training of laboratory personnel to improve their laboratory biosafety protection practices and ensure that laboratory conditions are sufficient to improve the safety of laboratory processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the high value‐added (ultra‐low degree of polymerization [ULDP]) polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) product was successfully prepared by oxidative chain scission method with sodium hypochlorite as an oxidant. When the molar ratio of PVA to NaClO is not less than 1:1.8, the reaction is stirred for several hours (≥2 h) at a temperature not exceeding 50°C. After precipitation and washing in methanol, PVA with polymerization degree of 38–150 can be obtained after drying. The infrared spectrum (IR) and nuclear magnetic hydrogen spectrum (1H‐NMR) test proved that the product obtained by this method is indeed PVA. The results of 1H‐NMR also showed that the chain broken has no selectivity and the stereoregularity of hydroxyl group did not change significantly. Through radical quenching experiment and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analysis, it is proved that OCl− is the main active oxide, ·Cl makes the oxidative chain scission process can be realized quickly, and ·OH is an indispensable factor for obtaining ULDP PVA. Under the combined action of these three, high value‐added PVA with ULDP was successfully prepared. Additionally, the sodium hypochlorite oxidized the ·OH captured by 5,5‐dimethyl‐1‐pyrroline‐n‐oxide (DMPO‐OH) to 2‐hydroxy‐5,s‐dimethyl‐1‐pyrroline‐N‐oxide (HDMPO‐OH) in an alkaline environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop an algorithm for seismic data filtering to preserve the boundary information of faults and other geological bodies while suppressing the noise. Based on the theory of anisotropic diffusion filtering, this method explores the relationship between eigenvalues of the structure tensor and local structural features of three‐dimensional seismic images and innovatively introduces the definition of stratigraphic coherence coefficients. Then we propose a new system to design the eigenvalues of the diffusion tensor by using the fault confidence measure and stratigraphic coherence coefficients, which can control the filtering intensity of seismic data in different orientations. The value of fault confidence measure is close to 0 where there are flat continuous reflectors and the intensity of diffusion is strong. On the contrary, the diffusion is very weak within presumptive fault zones. Results of both synthetic model and real data prove that the proposed method can effectively suppress noise, preserve faults well and enhance the continuity of the reflectors, which can provide basic data with high signal‐to‐noise ratio for subsequent seismic interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Ultrasound image segmentation is a challenging task due to a low signal‐to‐noise ratio and poor image quality. Although several approaches based on the convolutional neural network (CNN) have been applied to ultrasound image segmentation, they have weak generalization ability. We propose an end‐to‐end, multiple‐channel and atrous CNN designed to extract a greater amount of semantic information for segmentation of ultrasound images. Method: A multiple‐channel and atrous convolution network is developed, referred to as MA‐Net. Similar to U‐Net, MA‐Net is based on an encoder–decoder architecture and includes five modules: the encoder, atrous convolution, pyramid pooling, decoder, and residual skip pathway modules. In the encoder module, we aim to capture more information with multiple‐channel convolution and use large kernel convolution instead of small filters in each convolution operation. In the last layer, atrous convolution and pyramid pooling are used to extract multi‐scale features. The architecture of the decoder is similar to that of the encoder module, except that up‐sampling is used instead of down‐sampling. Furthermore, the residual skip pathway module connects the subnetworks of the encoder and decoder to optimize learning from the deeper layer and improve the accuracy of segmentation. During the learning process, we adopt multi‐task learning to enhance segmentation performance. Five types of datasets are used in our experiments. Because the original training data are limited, we apply data augmentation (e.g., horizontal and vertical flipping, random rotations, and random scaling) to our training data. We use the Dice score, precision, recall, Hausdorff distance (HD), average symmetric surface distance (ASD), and root mean square symmetric surface distance (RMSD) as the metrics for segmentation evaluation. Meanwhile, Friedman test was performed as the nonparametric statistical analysis to evaluate the algorithms. Results: For the datasets of brachia plexus (BP), fetal head, and lymph node segmentations, MA‐Net achieved average Dice scores of 0.776, 0.973, and 0.858, respectively; with average precisions of 0.787, 0.968, and 0.854, respectively; average recalls of 0.788, 0.978, and 0.885, respectively; average HDs (mm) of 13.591, 10.924, and 19.245, respectively; average ASDs (mm) of 4.822, 4.152, and 4.312, respectively; and average RMSDs (mm) of 4.979, 4.161, and 4.930, respectively. Compared with U‐Net, U‐Net++, M‐Net, and Dilated U‐Net, the average performance of the MA‐Net increased by approximately 5.68%, 2.85%, 6.59%, 36.03%, 23.64%, and 31.71% for Dice, precision, recall, HD, ASD, and RMSD, respectively. Moreover, we verified the generalization of MA‐Net segmentation to lower grade brain glioma MRI and lung CT images. In addition, the MA‐Net achieved the highest mean rank in the Friedman test. Conclusion: The proposed MA‐Net accurately segments ultrasound images with high generalization, and therefore, it offers a useful tool for diagnostic application in ultrasound images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the negative impact of the extensive utilization of batteries on the environment, sustainability of the cells needs to be included in the systemic research of batteries. Herein, a dissolvable ionic crosslinked polymer (DICP) is exploited as a binder for lithium–sulfur batteries by crosslinking the polyacrylic acid and polyethyleneimine through carboxy‐amino ionic interaction. This interaction is pH‐controlled, and therefore, the crosslinked binder network can be readily dissociated under basic conditions, providing a facile strategy enabling valuable components recycled through a convenient washing method. The sulfur cathode prepared using the recycled carbon–sulfur composite can deliver comparable capacity as that of fresh electrode. In addition, evidence from cell performance and characterizations, such as in situ X‐ray absorption spectroscopy, in situ UV–visible spectroscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculation, confirms that DICP is a more effective binder than its commercial counterpart on suppressing polysulfide dissolution in the electrolyte. Exploiting reversible crosslinked polymer binder for recyclable Li–S batteries with ameliorated electrochemical performance, this study illuminates sustainable development for large‐scale energy storage systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sedimentation always leads to loss of reservoir storage. This is an important issue for reservoir management, particularly for reservoirs on the Yellow River. As a result of sedimentation, sandbars are frequently found at the mouth of tributaries in reservoirs. The evolution of a tributary mouth sandbar, including its formation and scouring, plays a key role in reservoir sedimentation. However, there are few effective numerical models reported in previous studies for tributary mouth sandbar evolution in reservoirs. In this study, we propose two modules for evolution processes of mouth sandbars: one for intrusion and sedimentation and the other for scouring process. Both modules coupled turbidity current, open‐channel flow, and flow exchanges between the main stream and tributaries. Field measurements and laboratory experiments with different set‐ups were used to test the capabilities of the two proposed modules. By coupling formation and scouring modules with a 2D morphodynamic model in reservoirs, we successfully built a novel numerical model to simulate the evolution processes of tributary mouth sandbars in reservoirs. A field‐scale application of the coupled model was undertaken to simulate evolution of tributary mouth sandbars in the Xiaolangdi Reservoir, Yellow River. The results indicate that the numerical model in this study is more practical than previous models and could provide great support for optimizing reservoir operation in other systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For an object with large vertical size that exceeds the certain depth of a stereo light microscope (SLM), its image will be blurred. To obtain clear images, we proposed an image fusion method based on the convolutional neural network (CNN) for the microscopic image sequence. The CNN was designed to discriminate clear and blurred pixels in the source images according to the neighborhood information. To train the CNN, a training set that contained correctly labeled clear and blurred images was created from an open‐access database. The image sequence to be fused was aligned at first. The trained CNN was then used to measure the activity level of each pixel in the aligned source images. The fused image was obtained by taking the pixels with the highest activity levels in the source image sequence. The performance was evaluated using five microscopic image sequences. Compared with other two fusion methods, the proposed method obtained better performance in terms of both visual quality and objective assessment. It is suitable for fusion of the SLM image sequence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tongue diagnosis is an important concept in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The tongue colour and coating can aid understanding of the body's physiological mechanisms, as well as the pathology of diseases. Existing research has focused on using digital images and tongue colour classification, without considering the other visible bands of information in the tongue. In this study, a visible hyperspectral image system, with an approximate spectral range of 400–1000 nm, was used to predict the tongue colour values and the coating position in TCM, and a stacked autoencoder (SAE) predict model based on spectral–spatial feature was performed to digital the tongue colour space and the coating. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the spectral–spatial feature with SAE model in predicting the CIELAB values of L, a, and coating position, thus the authors provide a new technique for the objective and digitising development of TCM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, the acoustically and thermally insulating epoxy foams were prepared using non‐traditional expandable microspheres. The effect of foaming temperature and microsphere content on the morphology, the mechanical strength, the thermal insulation and acoustical properties of the epoxy foams was investigated in detail. It can be found that the closed pores can be partially opened by adjusting the preparation parameters, which is also accompanied by obvious changes in acoustic and thermal insulation properties. By giving high‐content expandable microspheres above 2 wt%, the epoxy foams exhibit highly thermal insulation, and meanwhile achieving an acceptable mechanical property. The results convince us that such light‐weight epoxy foams will outshine as the promising structural, soundproof and heat‐insulated material in many multifunctional systems, such as buildings, vehicles and aircrafts. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 59:799–806, 2019. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nano‐fibrillated cellulose (NFC), an abundant natural biomacromolecule, has received much attention in the field of catalyst preparation due to its unique properties. Herein, NFC is used as a versatile carrier of ruthenium and copper nanoparticles to enhance their performance in the catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) into 2,5‐bis(hydroxymethyl)furan (BHMF). The obtained RuCu@NFC was first characterized by SEM‐EDX, TEM, FT‐IR, XRD, TGA, and XPS techniques. The results showed that ruthenium and copper nanoparticles were well‐distributed on the surface of NFC, and NFC had a good thermal stability under the temperature of 210 °C. The CTH of HMF into BHMF study showed that a 97.0% of HMF conversion with a satisfactory BHMF selectivity up to 91.5% was obtained at 210 °C in 12 h over RuCu@NFC using isopropanol as the H‐donor. And RuCu@NFC was a robust catalyst that could be continuously used at least third times without significant loss in its catalytic activity. Nano‐fibrillated cellulose (NFC) was used as a versatile carrier to prepare RuCu@NFC catalyst, which exhibited a good thermal stability and excellent catalytic activity for the catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) into 2,5‐bis(hydroxymethyl)furan (BHMF), it could be continuously used at least third times without significant loss in its catalytic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three Brønsted acidic imidazole dicationic ionic liquids (ILs) with different length of alkyl chains, [Cn(Mim)2][HSO4]2 (n = 3, 6, 12), were prepared and used as catalyst for the esterification reaction of free fatty acids and methanol. Taking oleic acid as model acid, the catalytic performances of the synthesized ILs for the esterification were evaluated. The main physicochemical properties of the ILs, thermal stability, acidity, solubility in common solvents, and causticity on Austenitic stainless steel 316, were examined. [C3(Mim)2][HSO4]2 demonstrated the highest catalytic activity and enabled to assess the preliminary optimum esterification condition of oleic acid and methanol. Under optimized reaction conditions, the yield of oleic acid methyl ester was up to 95 %. The ILs have great potential as catalysts for producing fatty acid methyl esters from long‐chain free fatty acids. Brønsted acidic imidazole dicationic ionic liquids have great potential for application as green catalyst for producing fatty acid methyl esters from long‐chain free fatty acids. They efficiently catalyze transesteri‐fication reactions under mild reaction conditions while causing less corrosion on the reaction equipment. Three such catalysts with different length of alkyl chains were prepared and tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presently, very few strategies are available for directly converting glucose‐like compounds to 5‐ethoxymethylfurfural (EMF), a remarkable biofuel candidate. We report here on this conversion effectively using aluminum‐based mixed‐acid catalyst in co‐solvent medium. The combination of aluminum triflate and Amberlyst‐15 exhibited an admirable synergistic catalytic effect for the one‐pot cascade conversion of glucose. Importantly, the interfusion of dimethyl sulfoxide into ethanol as co‐solvent medium can significantly promote the formation of EMF reducing the extent of side reactions. Based on this protocol, the effects of key process variables on the conversion of glucose were investigated via response surface methodology, leading to EMF in up to a 48.1% yield. The catalytic system can be separated with the reaction products and demonstrates reusability. Also, the generality of developed catalytic strategy can extended to synthesize EMF directly from glucose‐based polysaccharides, such as sucrose and starch. The combination of Al(OTf)3 and Amberlyst‐15 exhibited an admirable synergistic catalytic effect for the efficient transformation of glucose in ethanol–DMSO medium to synthesize 5‐ethoxymethylfurfural (EMF) in up to 48.1% yield. DMSO as co‐solvent can significantly promote the formation of EMF reducing the extent of side reactions. The catalytic system demonstrates adaptability of glucose‐like feedstock and reusability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prognostic value of surgery and postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) for primary thymic neuroendocrine tumors (TNETs) was estimated using the SEER database. Methods: This retrospective study used SEER data of TNET patients between 1998 and 2015. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed according to whether surgery was performed. The prognostic effects on overall survival (OS) and cancer‐specific survival (CSS) were evaluated using multivariate Cox regression. Results: A total of 3947 patients were included: 293 (7.4%) TNET, 2788 (70.6%) thymoma, and 866 (21.9%) thymic carcinoma. Compared to other subtypes, TNET patients were younger, included a larger proportion of men, had a well or moderately differentiated histological grade, higher disease stage at diagnosis, and were more likely to have regional lymph node metastasis. The median OS and CSS for TNET were 82.9 (95% confidence interval 74.3–91.4) and 101.9 (95% confidence interval 91.9–111.8) months, respectively, significantly shorter than for thymomas. In the matched cohort of TNET patients, multivariate analysis of OS and CSS revealed a significantly poorer prognosis in the non‐surgery group (P < 0.001). Compared to total/radical resection, TNET patients who underwent debulking resection had significantly inferior outcomes (P < 0.05). Postoperative radiotherapy favorably impacted OS and CSS in Masaoka–Koga stage III–IV TNET patients; this OS impact was also observed in stage IIB patients. Conclusion: TNETs are extremely rare with relatively dismal outcomes. This analysis revealed the role of complete surgical resection and the favorable effect of postoperative radiotherapy in specific TNET subgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Poly(vinyl formal) (PVF) foams are usually prepared using poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) of high degree of polymerization, the most reported degree of polymerization being 1700. In the work reported, PVA of low degree of polymerization of 500 was used to prepare PVF foams, which is a great challenge because of the weaker hydrogen bond interaction than that for a higher degree of polymerization. By changing the concentration (from 10 to 20 wt%) of PVA solution, PVF foams were successfully obtained. It was found that a higher PVA concentration prevented foam volume shrinkage and the best concentration was 16 wt%. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the PVF foams had two kinds of pore structures, closed and open cell. The water absorption capacity and thermal properties of the PVF foams were carefully investigated. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: Conventional cellulosic paper, rendered electro‐conductive, may hold considerable promise for diversified applications in such areas as electro‐magnetic interference shielding and energy storage. Here, an electro‐conductive cellulosic paper was prepared by surface application of multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)/polyaniline (PANI) nanocomposites onto a conventional base paper. MWCNTs/PANI nanocomposites were prepared by in situ polymerization of aniline with different contents of MWCNTs and used as electro‐conductive filler for the fabrication of electro‐conductive surface‐coated paper. The achieved MWCNTs/PANI nanocomposites exhibited a core‐shell structure, as evidenced by TEM. Effects of feeding ratios of MWCNTs on the rheological behavior of nanocomposite coatings, as well as the mechanical properties and electrical conductivity of surface‐coated paper were studied. Results revealed that the rheological behavior of the nanocomposite coatings showed strong dependence on the MWCNTs content. Moreover, both the electro‐conductivity and mechanical properties of surface‐coated paper were improved as a function of surface application of MWCNTs/PANI nanocomposites, particularly, in presence of an optimum content of MWCNTs. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 46329. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, we aimed to identify an immunohistochemical (IHC)‐based classifier as a prognostic factor in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). A cohort of 235 patients with ESCC undergoing radical esophagectomy (with complete clinical and pathological information) were enrolled in the study. Using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression model, we extracted six IHC features associated with progression‐free survival (PFS) and then built a classifier in the discovery cohort (n = 141). The prognostic value of this classifier was further confirmed in the validation cohort (n = 94). Additionally, we developed a nomogram integrating the IHC‐based classifier to predict the PFS. We used the IHC‐based classifier to stratify patients into high‐ and low‐risk groups. In the discovery cohort, 5‐year PFS was 22.4% (95% CI: 0.14–0.36) for the high‐risk group and 43.3% (95% CI: 0.32–0.58) for the low‐risk group (P = 0.00064), and in the validation cohort, 5‐year PFS was 20.58% (95% CI: 0.12–0.36) for the high‐risk group and 36.43% (95% CI: 0.22–0.60) for the low‐risk group (P = 0.0082). Multivariable analysis demonstrated that the IHC‐based classifier was an independent prognostic factor for predicting PFS of patients with ESCC. We further developed a nomogram integrating the IHC‐based classifier and clinicopathological risk factors (gender, American Joint Committee on Cancer staging, and vascular invasion status) to predict the 3‐ and 5‐year PFS. The performance of the nomogram was evaluated and proved to be clinically useful. Our 6‐IHC marker‐based classifier is a reliable prognostic tool to facilitate the individual management of patients with ESCC after radical esophagectomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Fly ash, inexpensive and not eco-friendly material, is the residue from the coal burning in thermal power stations. If ways can be found to use it, it will facilitate applications for the ash materials and simultaneously reduce the pollution. In this study, silane-grafted ultrafine fly ash (S-UFA) was used as a reinforcing filler in poly(lactic acid) (PLA) to prepare a series of PLA/S-UFA composites. The tensile strength of PLA/S-UFA composites increases with the increase of S-UFA content when less than 20 wt %; after a loading fraction greater than 30 wt %, the tensile strength of the composites decreases with the increasing S-UFA weight fraction. The morphology of PLA/S-UFA composites was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was applied to investigate the crystal structure of S-UFA and the composites. The thermal properties of these composites were studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The TGA results showed that the thermal stability of PLA/S-UFA composites slightly decreased with the increasing S-UFA loading fraction. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43716. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using three experiments, the present study investigates the impact of social exclusion on attention. Specifically, we investigate whether social exclusion promotes attentional bias to social acceptance cues (smiling faces) or social exclusion cues (angry faces) among an Asian population. The Cyberball game was adopted to manipulate social inclusion or exclusion, and a dot-probe task was used to measure individuals' responses to smiling or angry faces. In Experiments 1 and 2, each trial consisted of either a smiling or angry face that was paired with a neutral face. In Experiment 1, when the stimulus onset-asynchronies (SOA) were 500 ms, the inhibition of return emerged, indirectly indicating that social exclusion promotes sensitivity to social acceptance cues. In Experiment 2, after setting the SOA to 200 ms, we found that social exclusion promotes attentional bias to smiling faces compared to neutral faces. In Experiment 3, both smiling and angry faces were shown during each trial, and we found that social exclusion promotes attentional bias to smiling faces compared to angry faces. Therefore, the present study extends our understanding of the relationship between social exclusion and attention. Overall, it appears that after social exclusion, the desire for social reconnection trumps the desire to avoid social exclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Hyperbranched polyurethane (HBPU), with low-molecular-weight polyethylene glycol space segments between the branching points, was synthesized by a pseudo one-pot procedure. HBPU was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and gel permeation chromatography. The HBPU was used as a modifier of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA)/anhydride system. The rheological properties of HBPU-G3/DGEBA blends were investigated by rotational rheometer. A slight decrease in viscosity of modified blends was observed by adding low content of HBPU and there was chemical reaction between HBPU and epoxy resin even without a hardener. The mechanical and thermal properties of the HBPU-G3/DGEBA thermosets were characterized and compared with that of the neat epoxy thermosets. Their impact fracture surfaces were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, and the results indicated that no phase separation occurred in the DGEBA/anhydride system after the introduction of HBPU, which was confirmed by dynamic mechanical analysis and thermogravimetric analysis. After addition of 10 wt % HBPU, the toughness of the modified thermosets was found to be significantly improved without sacrificing their processability and thermal and mechanical properties to a large extent. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40614. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By trapping sediment in reservoirs, dams interrupt the continuity of sediment transport through rivers, resulting in loss of reservoir storage and reduced usable life, and depriving downstream reaches of sediments essential for channel form and aquatic habitats. With the acceleration of new dam construction globally, these impacts are increasingly widespread. There are proven techniques to pass sediment through or around reservoirs, to preserve reservoir capacity and to minimize downstream impacts, but they are not applied in many situations where they would be effective. This paper summarizes collective experience from five continents in managing reservoir sediments and mitigating downstream sediment starvation. Where geometry is favorable it is often possible to bypass sediment around the reservoir, which avoids reservoir sedimentation and supplies sediment to downstream reaches with rates and timing similar to pre-dam conditions. Sluicing (or drawdown routing) permits sediment to be transported through the reservoir rapidly to avoid sedimentation during high flows; it requires relatively large capacity outlets. Drawdown flushing involves scouring and re-suspending sediment deposited in the reservoir and transporting it downstream through low-level gates in the dam; it works best in narrow reservoirs with steep longitudinal gradients and with flow velocities maintained above the threshold to transport sediment. Turbidity currents can often be vented through the dam, with the advantage that the reservoir need not be drawn down to pass sediment. In planning dams, we recommend that these sediment management approaches be utilized where possible to sustain reservoir capacity and minimize environmental impacts of dams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT One kind of branched Poly(vinyl alcohol) has been synthesized via common radical copolymerization of vinyl acetate in methanol by adding a bifunctional monomer Allyl methacrylate (AMA) followed by saponification. The comonomer AMA has two reactive double bonds that can provide the branching points to macromolecule chain structure. With these reactive points, the copolymer with long chain branches can be obtained. The long chain branches bring the copolymer higher viscosity by the entanglement of them between macromolecules and strong hydrogen bonding between long chain branches. The viscosity of the water solutions increased with the amount of the comonomers' addition increased. The branched PVA has good water maintenance properties at relatively high temperature. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 4608-4612, 2013 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background To compare surgical results, pathological staging, and survival between complete and minimal mediastinal lymph node dissection for non-small cell lung cancer ( NSCLC). Methods A randomized controlled trial was carried out in 202 patients who were assigned to undergo either skeletonized complete mediastinal lymph node dissection ( CLD) or minimal mediastinal lymph node dissection ( MLD). Clinical and pathological characteristics, surgical results, postoperative staging, and five-year survival were recorded for statistical analysis. Results Significantly more stations of lymph nodes were harvested through CLD, than MLD (8.9 vs. 6.2, P < 0.001). There was no difference in major complications ( CLD 14.7% vs. MLD 14.0%, P = 0.884) or postoperative death ( CLD 2.1% vs. MLD 1.9%, P = 0.904). No significant difference was detected in pathological staging between the two groups. The p N2 rates (27.1% vs. 24.2%), skip-mediastinal metastasis (9.3% vs. 7.4%), and multi-stational mediastinal involvement (15.0% vs. 16.8%) were similar between MLD and CLD. However, CLD had significantly better five-year survival than MLD (55.7% vs. 37.7%, P = 0.005), especially in patients with a tumor size >3 cm, pleural invasion, pN1-N2, stage II- III, adenocarcinoma, and low-differentiation carcinoma. Upon multivariate analysis, CLD, along with stage I and high-differentiation, were independent prognostic factors for better overall survival. Conclusions Complete and minimal mediastinal dissections have similar surgical risks and mediastinal staging effect in patients with NSCLC. Minimal dissection is enough for early stage high-differentiation tumors. For patients with stage II-III or low-differentiation carcinoma, skeletonized complete mediastinal dissection may improve survival compared with minimal dissection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT For scoliosis assessment, a system was developed to estimate the three-dimensional (3D) rotation angles of vertebrae from biplanar radiographs. The proposed approach was based on the generalized Hough transform (GHT) technique to match the projected contours of the standard 3D primitive with vertebral edges detected in biplanar radiographs. A deformation tolerant matching strategy was proposed to extend the GHT for an inexact contour matching. The system was implemented on a graphics processing unit (GPU). Seventeen dry vertebral specimens were used to evaluate accuracy. Precision was tested by three operators on 181 vertebrae from radiographs of 15 patients. With GPU computing, the average estimation time was 10 s for a vertebra. Results showed that the 3D estimation error was less than 2.5° with the mean value of 1.6°. The intraoperator variability was within 1.6° and the interoperator variability was within 2.2°. These promising results indicate that the proposed system can help orthopedic surgeons measure the 3D vertebral rotation angles from two-dimensional radiographs for better assessment of scoliosis. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 23, 272-279, 2013 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poly(vinyl cinnamates) (PVCi) with different degrees of substitution (DS) are synthesized by grafting p-chloro-substituted cinnamic acid onto poly(vinyl alcohol). The chemical structures of PVCi were confirmed by 1H NMR. Amphiphilic PVCi copolymers were self-assembled into particles in a selective solvent. The morphology and diameter of particles have been studied by scanning electron microscopic and dynamic light scattering. The morphology and hydrodynamic diameter have strong relationship with DS and water content introduced during self-assembly process. The prepared PVCi could photo-cross-link at λ = 360 nm due to the photodimerization between pendant cinnamate groups. However, the self-assembled PVCi particles did not present photo-crosslinking behavior. The formed regular particles could disperse in aqueous solution, which increases their applications in biomedical fields. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2013. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ubiquinol is a plasma antioxidant. The mechanisms responsible for maintenance of plasma ubiquinol are poorly understood. Here, we show that metabolites of chlorophyll can be found in blood plasma of animals that are given a chlorophyll-rich diet. We also show that these metabolites catalyze the reduction of plasma ubiquinone to ubiquinol in the presence of ambient light, in vitro. We propose that dietary chlorophyll or its metabolites, together with light exposure, regulate plasma redox status through maintaining the ubiquinol pool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, SnCl was chosen as a solid catalyst for esterification of free fatty acids (FFA) in Zanthoxylum bungeanum seed oil (ZSO). A central composite rotatable design was used to investigate the effect of the methanol-to-oil molar ratio, catalyst amount and reaction time on the SnCl-catalyzed esterification of FFA. The methanol-to-oil molar ratio and reaction time clearly affected the conversion efficiency of FFA in the test ranges. Response surface methodology was used to optimize the conditions for SnCl-catalyzed esterification. A quadratic polynomial equation was obtained for conversion efficiency of FFA by multiple regression analysis and verification experiments confirmed the validity of the predicted model. Under the optimum conditions, the conversion efficiency of FFA in vegetable oil reached above 96 %. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of SnCl as an acid catalyst for the reduction of high FFA content in vegetable oils to a low level by one-step esterification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses the articles published within this issue, the main theme of which is social memory, including one on the information revolution of the 1990s, one on the partition of British India, and one on Chinese bloggers.

This paper will study the role that new media plays in shaping social memory by exploring China's grass-root narratives existing in blogs. By conducting a content analysis, the main features of China's storytellers are illuminated. While emphasizing the role of narratives in shaping a nation's social memory in China, explanations for the source of a new social memory are being searched. In doing so, the linear-model of cause and effect between technology and social change, including McLuhan's term 'digital village' are being questioned. The author predicts that, under today's circumstances, China's memory policy including an internalized self-censorship will still have its effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]