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Inspired by nature’s molecular machines, the scientific research on solid-state molecular rotors is of great interest yet remains largely unexplored. Herein, we report a unique example of a thermal...

Inverted organic light-emitting diodes (IOLEDs) can be integrated with low-cost n-channel thin-film transistors for use in active-matrix OLEDs (AMOLEDs). However, the electron injection from conventional indium tin oxide (ITO) cathode to the upper electron transport layer usually suffers from a large injection barrier. To improve the electron injection efficiency, the electron injection layers (EILs) of ZnO modified by a self-assembled monolayer arginine (Arg) were developed to construct efficient IOLEDs. ZnO/Arg EILs present an ultralow work function (WF) of 2.35 eV, which is lower than that of ZnO modified by poly(ethylenimine) (PEI) (2.77 eV). The mechanism of low WF is attributed to the generation of strong molecular dipoles and interface dipoles at the interface of ZnO/Arg. The green fluorescent IOLEDs with ZnO/Arg present a low turn-on voltage (Von) of 3.5 V and a maximum current efficiency (CEmax) of 4.5 cd/A. Especially, the device possesses a half-life of 3600 h at an initial luminance of 1700 cd/m2, which is 36 times as long as that of the IOLEDs with ZnO/PEI as EILs. Furthermore, the green phosphorescent IOLEDs show a Von of 3.5 V, a CEmax of 59.1 cd/A, and a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQEmax) of 16.8%. At a luminance of 10 000 cd/m2, the efficiency roll-off of the device is only 6.3%.

Objective: To develop and validate Clinical Diversity In Meta-analyses (CDIM), a new tool for assessing clinical diversity between trials in meta-analyses of interventions. Study design and setting: The development of CDIM was based on consensus work informed by empirical literature and expertise. We drafted the CDIM tool, refined it, and validated CDIM for interrater scale reliability and agreement in three groups. Results: CDIM measures clinical diversity on a scale that includes four domains with 11 items overall: setting (time of conduct/country development status/units type); population (age, sex, patient inclusion criteria/baseline disease severity, comorbidities); interventions (intervention intensity/strength/duration of intervention, timing, control intervention, cointerventions); and outcome (definition of outcome, timing of outcome assessment). The CDIM is completed in two steps: first two authors independently assess clinical diversity in the four domains. Second, after agreeing upon scores of individual items a consensus score is achieved. Interrater scale reliability and agreement ranged from moderate to almost perfect depending on the type of raters. Conclusion: CDIM is the first tool developed for assessing clinical diversity in meta-analyses of interventions. We found CDIM to be a reliable tool for assessing clinical diversity among trials in meta-analysis. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Patients with spinal cord injury(SCI) are suffering disability and accompanying complications. Due to the complex biological processes and inhibitory microenvironment after SCI, advances in clinical treatment show obvious limitations for achieving a successful repair. Herein, we summarize recent advances in engineering strategies of using electrospun nanofibers to promote the neural regeneration and functional recovery after SCI. We firstly introduce the pathological mechanism of SCI and thus point out the challenges on the regeneration of the nerve. We then discuss the regenerative approaches by combining electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds with physical cues, biochemical cues(e.g., cells, growth factors and other biomolecules), external stimuli, and supporting materials filling in the inner lumen of the scaffolds. All these strategies have indicated their potentials to enhance the efficacy of repairing the SCI. At last, we provide a perspective on the future direction for designing the electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds in combination with imaging systems to realize the in-situ monitoring of regeneration progress for further improving the treatment outcome.

With the ongoing progress in exploring novel fabrication methods, topics towards high-performance, simply fabricated organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have received a great deal of attention. Brush-coating is a superior liquid phase thin film deposition technology with nearly 100% material utilization, which has remarkable potential application in depositing large-area uniform films. Here, a uniform and smooth polymer hole-injection layer and a small molecule light-emitting layer are successfully fabricated through brush-coating by controlling the wetting and dewetting processes. White phosphorescent OLEDs with blue and orange complementary colours are constructed by continuously brush-coating the hole-injection layer and small molecule light-emitting layer. The brush-coated white device possesses a peak luminance of 29 190 cd m−2 and a current efficiency of 29.3 cd A−1, which are comparable to those of the spin-coated device with the same structure. In addition, the brush-coated red, green and blue phosphorescent OLEDs exhibit excellent performance in our research with peak current efficiencies of 16.7, 30.4 and 20.9 cd A−1, respectively. These results demonstrate that the brush-coating technology is a simple and effective strategy for depositing uniform organic films and, consequently, fabricating a high-performance device. What's more, brush-coating is expected to be applied to the best-to-date, large-area, flexible or patterned OLEDs in the future.

Due to the voltage division of charge generation unit (CGU), the power efficiency of tandem organic light-emitting diodes (TOLEDs) is usually lower than that of the single-unit devices, which severely restricts the development and application of TOLEDs. Here, a significant improvement in power efficiency of TOLEDs is presented through adopting a non-doped CGU of LiF/Al/fullerene (C60)/1,4,5,8,9,11-hexaazatriphenylene-hexacarbonitrile (HAT-CN)/N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(1-naphthyl)-1,1′-biphenyl-4,4′-diamine (NPB). The characteristics of current–voltage and impedance spectroscopy reveal that the non-doped CGU possesses fabulous charge generation and injection capabilities. The ultra-flexible tandem white OLEDs display a maximum power efficiency of 59 lm W−1, which is 32% higher than that of single white OLEDs. What's more meaningful, the ultra-flexible devices have good mechanical flexibility and durability. After being bent for 3000 cycles at a radius of ∼3 mm, the devices retain ∼90% of the original luminance.

Breviscapine (BRE) is usually used for long-term use in patients with cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, and cerebral thrombosis. It is possible to combine it ...

Purpose: The malignancy rates within the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) category 4a and 4b lesions were examined, and the correlations with the histopathology results were analyzed. In addition, the positive predictive value (PPV) and clinical utility of BIRADS category 4a and 4b lesions for predicting a malignancy were assessed. Methods : : From January 2017 to December 2019, patients with BI-RADS category 4a and 4b lesions on breast ultrasonography (US) who underwent a subsequent core needle biopsy in the authors’ institution were evaluated. The clinical, pathological, and sonographic features were assessed to identify the malignancy rate and pathologic factors predictive of malignancy. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated. A Binary logistic regression test was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Results : : The study population included 314 lesions in 275 patients (mean age, 45.3 years; range, 21–78 years). The overall malignancy rate was 9.8% (31 of 314). The malignancy rates among the BI-RADS category 4a and 4b lesions were 9.3% (28 out of 300) and 21.4% (3 out of 14), respectively. Compared to the well-defined margins, ill-defined margins were associated with an increased risk of breast cancer with a corresponding OR (95% CI) of 1.880 (1.304-2.554). The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV of the C4a and C4b lesions were as follows: 90.3%, 3.9%, 9.4%, and 78.6%, respectively, for C4a lesions and, 9.7%, 96.1%, 21.4%, and 90.6%, respectively, for C4b lesions. Only the equivocal elasticity on ultrasonography was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer with an OR (95% CI) of 2.357 (1.004-5.532). Conclusion : : BI-RADS categories 4a and 4b are useful for predicting malignancy. Nevertheless, further studies will be needed to identify more predictive factors for breast cancer.

The objectives of this study are to conduct a comprehensive literature search and bibliometric analysis to identify the breadth and volume of pharmacological and clinical studies on pine pollen (Pinus pollen) and to identify the potential effects and the use of pine pollen. Three Chinese electronic databases and two English electronic databases were searched for pharmacological and clinical studies on pine pollen. Data were extracted and analyzed and included publication year, authors, study type, pharmacological research topics or clinical diseases/conditions, usage and type of preparation, authors' conclusions, and adverse effects. Of 239 publications identified, 180 were pharmacological studies, 37 were clinical trials, and 22 were reviews. Numbers of publications increased particularly from 2004 onward. The top 10 most frequent topics in pharmacological studies were immune regulation, antisenility, antioxidation, liver protection, inhibiting prostate hyperplasia, inhibiting tumor cell proliferation, lowering blood glucose, lowering blood lipids, antifatigue, and improving intestinal function. The top 10 most frequent clinical diseases treated or where pine pollen was used as an adjuvant were bedsores, diaper dermatitis, hyperlipidemia, oral mucositis, eczema, hyperplasia of prostate, hypertension, prostatitis, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and radiodermatitis. Eight trials reported no adverse events associated with pine pollen, one reported mild gastrointestinal reactions, but symptoms disappeared without special management. There have been an increasing number of publications on pine pollen during the past 20 years. Pharmacological studies have shown many potential benefits, and clinical studies have indicated some positive effects when it is either used as a single herb or as an adjuvant to treat disease. Its use as a topical agent, especially for skin diseases, was notable.

Natural compound eyes provide the inspiration for developing artificial optical devices that feature a large field of view (FOV). However, the imaging ability of artificial compound eyes is generally based on the large number of ommatidia. The lack of a tunable imaging mechanism significantly limits the practical applications of artificial compound eyes, for instance, distinguishing targets at different distances. Herein, we reported zoom compound eyes that enable variable-focus imaging by integrating a deformable poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microlens array (MLA) with a microfluidic chamber. The thin and soft PDMS MLA was fabricated by soft lithography using a hard template prepared by a combined technology of femtosecond laser processing and wet etching. As compared with other mechanical machining strategies, our combined technology features high flexibility, efficiency, and uniformity, as well as designable processing capability, since the size, distribution, and arrangement of the ommatidia can be well controlled during femtosecond laser processing. By tuning the volume of water injected into the chamber, the PDMS MLA can deform from a planar structure to a hemispherical shape, evolving into a tunable compound eye of variable FOV up to 180°. More importantly, the tunable chamber can functionalize as the main zoom lens for tunable imaging, which endows the compound eye with the additional capability of distinguishing targets at different distances. Its focal length can be turned from 3.03 mm to infinity with an angular resolution of 3.86 × 10-4 rad. This zoom compound eye combines the advantages of monocular eyes and compound eyes together, holding great promise for developing advanced micro-optical devices that enable large FOV and variable-focus imaging.

To cut cost and improve efficiency, an interface exciplex system of N,N′-di(naphth-1-yl)-N,N′-diphenyl-benzidine (NPB)/1,3,5-tris[N-(phenyl)benzimidazole]-benzene (TPBi) was employed as a host in solution-processed red phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PhOLEDs). The optimal red PhOLEDs based on the interfacial exciplex host (IEH) present excellent performance with a maximum power efficiency (PEmax) of 40.4 lm W−1, a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQEmax) of 17.2%, and a pretty low turn-on voltage of 2.6 V. Through ideality factor (η) measurements, the results indicate that Langevin recombination (LR) is the dominant carrier recombination pathway in the devices. And the detailed analysis of carrier recombination pathways reveals the advantages of the IEH in carrier transport and recombination. Our work highlights the working process of the IEH and provides evidence for the superiority of the IEH in high performance PhOLEDs.

Mammographic density (MD) of the breast and body mass index (BMI) are inversely associated with each other, but have inconsistent associations with respect to the risk of breast cancer. Skeletal muscle mass index (SMI) has been considered to reflect a relatively accurate fat and muscle percentage in the body. So, we evaluated the relation between SMI and MD. A cross-sectional study was performed in 143,456 women who underwent comprehensive examinations from 2012 to 2016. BMI was adjusted to analyze whether SMI is an independent factor predicting dense breast. After adjustment for confounding factors including BMI, the odds ratios for MD for the dense breasts was between the highest and lowest quartiles of SMI at 2.65 for premenopausal women and at 2.39 for postmenopausal women. SMI was a significant predictor for MD, which could be due to the similar growth mechanism of the skeletal muscle and breast parenchymal tissue. Further studies are needed to understand the causal link between muscularity, MD and breast cancer risk.

Natural creatures that enables controllable liquid transport provides the inspiration for developing novel microfluidic devices by engineering functional surfaces with superwettability. However, towards microfluidic applications, the strict requirements of sophisticated droplet manipulation make it challenging to reach this end. In this work, we report a conceptually new self-propelled droplet manipulation strategy based on reconfigurable superhydrophobic chips. The modular droplet chip (MDC) is developed by laser embossing a series of superhydrophobic structures on elastomer jigsaws that act as functional units. MDC is potable since only gravity is used as the driving force for dynamic manipulation of liquid droplets, including droplets transporting, splitting, merging and bouncing without mass loss. The MDC demonstrated reasonable anti-cross-contamination property due to the water repellence of the superhydrophobicity. Modular assembly of MDC enables different chip functions including solution dilution, SERS detection, cell labeling and chemical synthesis. As a miniature and portable experimental platform, the MDC is promising for next-generation lab-on-a-chip systems.

A novel set of hole-transporting materials (HTMs) based on π-extended diindolotriazatruxene (DIT) core structure with electron-rich methoxy-engineered functional groups were designed and synthesized via a facile two-step procedure. All compounds were afforded from inexpensive precursors without a complex purification process. Cyclic voltammograms indicate that the resulting HTMs exhibit suitable highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels, which facilitate efficient hole injection from the valence band of perovskites into the HOMO of DIT-based HTMs as confirmed by time-resolved photoluminescence. Notable power conversion efficiency of the planar perovskite solar cells with low-temperature device fabrication achieved 18.21% utilizing D2, which is competitive with the corresponding devices based on the common Spiro-OMeTAD-based HTMs. The results manifest that DIT-based compounds are promising HTMs for constructing high-efficiency planar perovskite solar cells with low-cost solution processing procedures.

Purpose: Upstaging to invasive cancer (IC) is often found after surgery in those patients diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and who underwent preoperative needle biopsy. This may change the post-surgical plans that include the re-operation, chemotherapy, and/or radiotherapy. Yet, there are no clinically available factors to predict IC in preoperatively diagnosed DCIS patients. This study evaluated the clinical and pathological predictive risk factors for upgrading DCIS to IC. Methods: This study retrospectively evaluated those patients who were diagnosed with DCIS preoperatively, and this diagnosis was followed by performing breast surgery between Jan 2005 and June 2018. Clinico-pathological factors were collected for the analysis between the pure DCIS group and the IC group. Results: Of the 431 patients included in the study, 34 (7.9%) were upstaged to IC after surgery, and 397 (92.1%) were diagnosed as having pure DCIS. The nuclear grade was the sole predictor of upstaging to IC on the analysis of the clinico-pathological factors (odds ratio [OR] = 2.39, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 1.05–5.42, P = 0.038 on the univariate analysis; aOR = 2.86, 95% CI = 1.14–7.14, P = 0.025 on the multivariate analysis). The mass’s size and characteristics, as determined by sonography, were not predictive of IC. Conclusion: The sonographic findings were not significant factors for predicting IC in preoperative DCIS patients. A high nuclear grade was the only statistically significant factor associated with IC. Considering the variability of the gauge of biopsy needles or the method for needle biopsy, large-scale prospective studies that control these variables may well reveal available predictive factors of IC in patients with DCIS.

Purpose To assess the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for erectile dysfunction (ED). Materials and methods We searched six major English and Chinese databases included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) testing acupuncture alone or in combination for ED. Dichotomous data were presented as risk ratio (RR) and continuous data were presented as mean difference (MD) both with 95% confidence interval (CI). The Revman (v.5.3) was used for data analyses. Quality of evidence across studies was assessed by the online GRADEpro tool. Results We identified 22 RCTs, fourteen of them involving psychogenic ED. Most of the included RCTs had high or unclear risk of bias. There was no difference between electro-acupuncture and sham acupuncture with electrical stimulation on the rate of satisfaction and self-assessment (RR, 1.50; 95% CI, 0.71-3.16; 1 trial). Acupuncture combined with tadalafil appeared to have better effect on increasing cure rate (RR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.00-1.71; 2 trials), and International Index of Erectile Function-5 scores (MD, 5.38; 95% CI, 4.46-6.29; 2 trials). When acupuncture plus herbal medicine compared with herbal medicine alone, the combination therapy showed significant better improvement in erectile function (RR, 1.68; 95% CI, 1.31-2.15; 7 trials). Only two trials reported facial red and dizziness cases, and needle sticking and pruritus cases in acupuncture group. Conclusions Low quality evidence shows beneficial effect of acupuncture as adjunctive treatment for people mainly with psychogenic ED. Safety of acupuncture was insufficiently reported. The findings should be confirmed in large, rigorously designed and well-reported trials.

In order to uncover the effect of pyrite on the tendency of coal to spontaneously combust, thermal analysis was carried out to characterize the reaction process of coal with different pyrite contents at four heating rates of 5, 10, 15, and 20 K min−1 in air flow from 25 to 900 °C. The Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method was applied to calculate the activation energy of coal with different pyrite contents. The results show that the thermogravimetric (TG) curve of coal samples can be divided in four stages, being water evaporation, oxygen absorption, thermal decomposition and burnout. As the mass fraction of pyrite content increased, the ignition point of the coal samples decreased and the weight loss rate during the thermal decomposition phase diminished. Meanwhile, the exothermic peak and mass loss peak moved toward lower temperatures. The peak values in the derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curves shifted to higher temperatures with higher ignition and burnout temperatures under faster heating rates, but the whole curve shape was not affected. The apparent activation energies of the coal samples declined with higher pyrite contents, so the spontaneous combustion of coal can be promoted by pyrite.

Here, we report embedded spiral zone plates (SZPs) processed by tightly focused femtosecond pulses, inducing a refractive index change in a sapphire crystal. The change in the index is investigated both experimentally and theoretically and found to be 0.93% lower than that before the laser irradiation. Benefiting from the investigation of the photorefraction, a high diffractive efficiency of up to 78% is achieved for the SZPs. In addition, the SZPs are embedded under the surface of the sapphire, which ensures that the components possess stable optical properties in the case of external refractive index changes. The high-performance elements having a high diffractive efficiency and stable optical performance will have tremendous applications in optical communication and optical manipulation.

Nonfullerene acceptors are important for increasing the power conversion efficiency of organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. The number of well-performing nonfullerene acceptors is still relatively limited compared to the wide range of donor materials making it difficult to find donor–acceptor pairs with matching optical and electronic properties. We report the synthesis of three sulfur-annulated fused perylene diimide-based compounds (2PDI-2S, 2PDI-3S, and 2PDI-4S) that have varying electron affinity. BHJ solar cells with these acceptors and the donor polymer PTB7-Th have solar power conversion efficiencies above 5% with relatively high fill factors (>60%) for nonfullerene acceptors. The origin of the performance of the BHJs was studied using a combination of physical and optoelectronic characterization methods. X-ray scattering revealed that the domains of 2PDI-nS acceptors are disordered in neat films and in BHJs. The carrier mobility was highest for 2PDI-4S leading to the highest fill factor ...

The impact of variations in serum thyroid hormone concentration within the euthyroid range on breast cancer risk remains unclear. We investigated the effect of serum thyrotropin (TSH) and thyroid hormone concentration on breast cancer risk. This cohort study involved 62,546 Korean women, aged ≥40 years, who were free of breast cancer at baseline and underwent health examination with determination of free thyroxine (FT4) and TSH. A parametric proportional hazard model was used to estimate the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). During a median follow-up of 4.8 years (interquartile range: 2.8-7.3 years), 834 incident breast cancers were identified. Compared to normal FT4 level, abnormally high serum FT4 level was associated with an increased risk of incident breast cancer with a corresponding multivariable aHR (95% CI) of 1.98 (1.02-3.83). This association tended to be stronger in postmenopausal women than in premenopausal women. Within the euthyroid range, the highest TSH tertile was associated with a lower risk of breast cancer than the lowest TSH tertile with a corresponding aHR (95% CI) of 0.68 (0.55-0.84). In contrast, highest FT4 tertile was associated with a higher risk of breast cancer than the lowest FT4 tertile. Abnormally high FT4 as well as higher FT4 within the euthyroid range were positively associated with breast cancer risk, while higher TSH concentration within the euthyroid range was negatively associated with breast cancer risk. Our findings indicate that thyroid function within both the abnormal and euthyroid ranges may contribute to the development of breast cancer.

Highly efficient inverted green fluorescent and phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are achieved by ZnO modified with solution-processed Cs2CO3 doped 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (BPhen). It is found that the n-doped interlayer greatly enhances the electron injection efficiency, significantly improving the electroluminescence efficiency of inverted OLEDs. Under the optimal Cs2CO3 doping concentration of 10 wt%, the inverted green fluorescent OLED with solution-processed double-stacked Cs2CO3:BPhen/ZnO electron-injection layers (EILs) shows a current efficiency of 5.65 ± 0.09 cd/A, which is about eightfold higher than that of the device with single ZnO EIL. Furthermore, the inverted green phosphorescent OLED was also developed showing a low turn-on voltage of 3.4 V, a maximum current efficiency of 52.5 ± 4.1 cd/A and a maximum external quantum efficiency of 14.3 ± 1.2%. The results show that constructing solution-processed double-stacked ZnO/Cs2CO3:BPhen EILs is a promising strategy to achieve highly efficient and low-cost inverted OLEDs.

Compound eyes of arthropods are widespread and fascinating visual systems created by natural evolution. Compound eyes consist of many identical small eye units called "ommatidia", each of which is an individual imaging system composed of cornea lens, crystalline cone and rhabdome. Compared with single eyes, compound eyes have distinct advantages in small volumes, large field of view, large depth of field, and high temporal resolution. Therefore, it has sparked considerable research interests in developing various manufacturing technologies towards the fabrication of artificial compound eyes that can be applied in robot vision, three-dimension imaging, motion detection and medical examination. To date, various methods have been proposed for fabricating artificial compound eyes, such as hot embossing method, thermal reflow method, microdroplet jetting method, and ultraprecision machining method. However, these methods inherently suffer from low accuracy and multi-step processing. In particular, it is extremely difficult for these methods to acquire curved artificial compound eye lens, which is quite important for promoting the optical performance and practical applications of artificial compound eyes. In recent years, femtosecond laser direct-writing (FsLDW) has emerged as a practical and promising technique for fabricating artificial compound eyes owing to its capability of three-dimensional (3D) processing and high fabrication precision. First of all, FsLDW is performed by point by point scanning process layer by layer, making it capable of realizing various 3D structures as designed. Second, the extremely high transient intensity of femtosecond laser pulses leads to a non-linear absorption effect (two-photon absorption or multi-photon absorption) with materials in a much smaller volume than the cubic size of wavelength, which endows it with a high resolution (tens of nanometers) beyond the optical diffraction limit. Moreover, the high power of femtosecond laser pulses also provides the ability to process various materials, from soft photopolymer materials to rigid substrates as hard as diamonds. For soft materials, the fabrication mechanism is two- or multi-photon polymerization of photosensitive polymers triggered by the high energy at the localized laser focus region. Through point by point process, two-photon polymerization technology by FsLDW becomes a powerful tool for fabricating complex 3D structures. In spite of this, its shortcoming is obvious as well. The single point scanning procedure causes a relatively low efficiency, which needs further improvement. For hard materials, femtosecond laser serves as an ablation source to form micro-hole, where the local material is removed or chemically modified. Femtosecond laser ablation can be combined with a subsequent etching treatment for improving efficiency, including wet etching and dry etching. The drawback of etching assisted femtosecond laser ablation technology lies in that usually only concave structures can be obtained, further soft embossing treatment is needed in order to acquire convex compound eye lens. In this review, the latest progress in femtosecond laser fabrication of artificial compound eyes is summarized. Manufacturing of artificial compound eyes by FsLDW is introduced according to the two methods mentioned above: femtosecond laser two-photon polymerization that belongs to additive manufacturing and femtosecond laser ablation that is regarded as a subtractive manufacturing method. Then, the diverse applications of artificial compound eyes produced by FsLDW are described. At last, current challenges and future perspectives in this field are discussed.

Crowds are playing an increasingly important role in the research and application of geoscience by providing spatial data via crowdsourcing. However, low-public participation and poor quality of data submissions have greatly restricted the application of spatial crowdsourcing (SC) and other similar models, thus garnering the attention of scientists in this field. In this paper, we design a precise incentive mechanism based on a Bayesian game for SC that successfully avoids the conditions limited by the Gibbard-Satterthwaite impossibility theorem. Under this mechanism, the outsourcer carries out a Bayesian game with the participants under the circumstance of incomplete information by setting a certain amount of reference information that is not visible to the participants. Participants gain far more utility by telling the truth than that of they gain by lying and thus have a stronger motivation to submit higher-quality data. In implementing this mechanism to automatically compute the actual utility of participants and integrate data results, we propose a geometric primitive matching algorithm based on the Jaccard coefficient. Through both rigorous theoretical analyses and real experiments, the incentive mechanism that we propose is incentive-compatible and can greatly improve data quality.

In this work, we reported the fabrication of flexible NO2 sensors arrays operating at room temperature on a composite film of In2O3 and graphene oxide (GO) by direct laser writing (DLW) technology. The laser treatment not only induced the photoreduction of GO, leading to a highly porous structure due to the removal of oxygen groups, but also permitted mask-free patterning through a programmable manner, enabling flexible integration of sensor arrays on any substrates. We demonstrated the fabrication of a 2 × 4 NO2 sensors array on a flexible polyimide substrate within 10 min. Our NO2 sensors based on In2O3 and reduced GO (In2O3@RGO) show liner NO2 sensing properties at room temperature, good responsivity and recovery properties, as well as excellent selectivity towards NO2. We deem that the DLW fabrication of flexible NO2 sensorsarrays may contribute to the development of flexible electronics.

Continuous and minimally-invasive monitoring of inflammation in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract can be achieved via ingestible bioengineered sensors tailored to each disease, such as Crohn’s disease. High-resolution biomolecular sensing could indicate the onset of acute disease episodes and allow for early intervention and better disease management. Our work aims to detect important but labile biomarkers in the GI tract that quickly degrade in the digestive system. For example, bleeding in the upper GI tract cannot be easily detected from stool samples and requires invasive endoscopy or laboratory analysis. Alternatively, ingestible video capsule endoscopes leverage wireless cameras for image-based monitoring of the small intestine, which is traditionally difficult to access via endoscopy [1]. However, neither of these methods can directly measure molecular mediators of disease. In contrast, our approach can detect labile biomarkers in situ via an ingestible capsule consisting of cell-based biosensors and low-power electronics.

Anthropogenic land-use change is one of the main drivers of global environmental change. China has been on a fast track of land-use change since the Reform and Opening-up policy in 1978. In view of the situation, this study aims to optimize land use and provide a way to effectively coordinate the development and ecological protection in China. We took East Guangdong (EGD), an underdeveloped but populous region, as a case study. We used land-use changes indexes to demonstrate the land-use dynamics in EGD from 2000 to 2020, then identified the hot spots for fast-growing areas of built-up land and simulated land use in 2030 using the future land-use simulation (FLUS) model. The results indicated that the cropland and the built-up land changed in a large proportion during the study period. Then we established the ecological security pattern (ESP) according to the minimal cumulative resistance model (MCRM) based on the natural and socioeconomic factors. Corridors, buffer zones, and the key nodes were extracted by the MCRM to maintain landscape connectivity and key ecological processes of the study area. Moreover, the study showed the way to identify the conflict zones between future built-up land expansion with the corridors and buffer zones, which will be critical areas of consideration for future land-use management. Finally, some relevant policy recommendations are proposed based on the research result.

Objective: To present the evidence of the therapeutic effects and safety of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) used with or without conventional western therapy for COVID-19.Methods: Clinical studies on the therapeutic effects and safety of CHM for COVID-19 were included. We summarized the general characteristics of included studies, evaluated methodological quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) using the Cochrane risk of bias tool, analyzed the use of CHM, used Revman 5.4 software to present the risk ratio (RR) or mean difference (MD) and their 95% confidence interval (CI) to estimate the therapeutic effects and safety of CHM.Results: A total of 58 clinical studies were identified including RCTs (17.24%, 10), non-randomized controlled trials (1.72%, 1), retrospective studies with a control group (18.97%, 11), case-series (20.69%, 12) and case-reports (41.38%, 24). No RCTs of high methodological quality were identified. The most frequently tested oral Chinese patent medicine, Chinese herbal medicine injection or prescribed herbal decoction were: Lianhua Qingwen granule/capsule, Xuebijing injection and Maxing Shigan Tang. In terms of aggravation rate, pooled analyses showed that there were statistical differences between the intervention group and the comparator group (RR 0.42, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.82, six RCTs; RR 0.38, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.64, five retrospective studies with a control group), that is, CHM plus conventional western therapy appeared better than conventional western therapy alone in reducing aggravation rate. In addition, compared with conventional western therapy, CHM plus conventional western therapy had potential advantages in increasing the recovery rate and shortening the duration of fever, cough and fatigue, improving the negative conversion rate of nucleic acid test, and increasing the improvement rate of chest CT manifestations and shortening the time from receiving the treatment to the beginning of chest CT manifestations improvement. For adverse events, pooled data showed that there were no statistical differences between the CHM and the control groups.Conclusion: Current low certainty evidence suggests that there maybe a tendency that CHM plus conventional western therapy is superior to conventional western therapy alone. The use of CHM did not increase the risk of adverse events.

1. Breviscapine was an active ingredient of flavonoid glycosides. Our present study was conducted to evaluate the impact of breviscapine on the pharmacokinetics of losartan and its active metabolite E-3174, and that relationship with the gene polymorphism of CYP2C9 in healthy Chinese volunteers, to provide a basis for clinical rational drug use.2. The genotypes of 217 healthy Chinese subjects were determined using PCR-RFLP. Twelve healthy subjects were selected and were known CYP2C9 genotypes (six CYP2C9*1/*3 and six CYP2C9*1/*1) in a two-phase randomised crossover design study. These subjects were given daily doses of 120 mg (40 mg, three times a day) of breviscapine or a placebo for 14 days, followed by 50 mg losartan on day 15.3. Compared with individuals carrying the CYP2C9*1/*1 genotype, the CYP2C9*1/*3 genotype showed an increase in the AUC

Background Lactation mastitis (LM) affects approximately 3% to 33% of postpartum women and the risk factors of LM have been extensively studied. However, some results in the literature reports are still not conclusive due to the complexity of LM etiology and variation in the populations. To provide nationally representative evidence of the well-accepted risk factors for LM in China, this study was aimed to systematically summary the risk factors for LM among Chinese women and to determine the effect size of individual risk factor. Material and methods Six major Chinses and English electronic literature databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wan fang Database and China Science Technology Journal Database) were searched from their inception to December 5st, 2020. Two authors extracted data and assessed the quality of included trials, independently. The strength of the association was summarized using the odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). The population attributable risk (PAR) percent was calculated for significant risk factors. Results Fourteen studies involving 8032 participants were included. A total of 18 potential risk factors were eventually evaluated. Significant risk factors for LM included improper milking method (OR 6.79, 95%CI 3.45–13.34; PAR 59.14%), repeated milk stasis (OR 6.23, 95%CI 4.17–9.30; PAR 49.75%), the first six months postpartum (OR 5.11, 95%CI 2.66–9.82; PAR 65.93%), postpartum rest time less than 3 months (OR 4.71, 95%CI 3.92–5.65; PAR 56.95%), abnormal nipple or crater nipple (OR 3.94, 95%CI 2.34–6.63; PAR 42.05%), breast trauma (OR 3.07, 95%CI 2.17–4.33; PAR 15.98%), improper breastfeeding posture (OR 2.47, 95%CI 2.09–2.92; PAR 26.52%), postpartum prone sleeping position (OR 2.46, 95%CI 1.58–3.84; PAR 17.42%), little or no nipple cleaning (OR 2.05, 95%CI 1.58–2.65; PAR 24.73%), primipara (OR 1.73, 95%CI 1.25–2.41; PAR 32.62%), low education level (OR 1.63, 95%CI 1.09–2.43; PAR 23.29%), cesarean section (OR 1.51, 95%CI 1.26–1.81; PAR 18.61%), breast massage experience of non-medical staff (OR 1.51, 95%CI 1.25–1.82; PAR 15.31%) and postpartum mood disorders (OR 1.47, 95%CI 1.06–2.02; PAR 21.27%). Conclusions This review specified several important risk factors for LM in China. In particular, the incidence of LM can be reduced by controlling some of the modifiable risk factors such as improper breastfeeding posture, improper milking method, repeated milk stasis, nipple cleaning, breast massage experience of non-medical staff and postpartum sleeping posture.

Organic light-emitting transistors (OLETs) can incorporate gate-modulated electrical switching functions and light-emitting characteristics in a single device, which has attracted great interest from both academia and industry. Among these, OLETs with ambipolar materials have the capability of transporting both holes and electrons depending on the applied voltages, and they commonly demonstrate higher emission efficiency than unipolar devices. The light emission zone can be adjusted in the channel by modulating the gate and source–drain voltages. Well-balanced carrier mobilities between holes and electrons are thus preferred. Meanwhile, the state of highly efficient OLETs with ambipolar materials and a plausible method to solve some problems have been demonstrated. This chapter mainly concentrates on device physics and architectures in the progression of ambipolar OLETs, including devices made from thin films, single crystals, heterojunction structures and perovskite semiconductors, for the purpose of providing a comprehensive understanding of the intrinsic mechanisms of ambipolar OLETs.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is highly promising for ultra-sensitive detection in a series of applications. Although extensive advances have been achieved in SERS technologies, the preparation of highly efficient SERS substrates still suffers from several limitations, including complex preparation procedures, high cost, and instability for long time storage. To address these problems, we report a novel, to the best of our knowledge, SERS platform that combines graphene oxide (GO) and cellulose composite paper with colloidal silver nanoparticle (Ag NP) ink. As an efficient substrate, the GO and cellulose composite paper that features hierarchical micro-nanostructures and improved interaction with target molecules can be fabricated on a large scale, and the Ag NP ink can be well stored, avoiding being oxidized in ambient conditions. In this way, our SERS platform not only reduces the cost, but also improved the stability. The sensitivity, reproducibility, and tunable SERS detection performance were evaluated using rhodamine 6G as probing molecules. To demonstrate the capability of our SERS platform in practical analysis, the SERS spectra of two monosodium salt solutions of different concentrations have been collected. The SERS platform has revealed great potential for practical application of SERS technologies.

The interrelationship between menopausal stage, excessive adiposity and dense breasts remains unclear. We aimed to investigate the relationship between menopausal stage and dense-breast prevalence in midlife women while considering a possible effect modification of being overweight. The present cross-sectional study comprised 82,677 Korean women, aged 35&ndash, 65 years, who attended a screening exam. Menopausal stages were categorized based on the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop (STRAW + 10) criteria. Mammographic breast density was categorized according to Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS). Dense breasts were defined as BI-RADS Breast Density category D (extremely dense). The prevalence of dense breasts decreased as menopausal stage increased (p-trend &lt, 0.001), and this pattern was pronounced in overweight women than non-overweight women (p-interaction = 0.016). Compared with pre-menopause, the multivariable-adjusted prevalence ratios (and 95% confidence intervals) for dense breasts were 0.98 (0.96&ndash, 1.00) in early transition, 0.89 (0.86&ndash, 0.92) in late transition, and 0.55 (0.52&ndash, 0.59) in post-menopause, among non-overweight women, while corresponding prevalence ratios were 0.92 (0.87&ndash, 0.98), 0.83 (0.77&ndash, 0.90) and 0.36 (0.31&ndash, 0.41) among overweight women. The prevalence of dense breasts was inversely associated with increasing menopausal stages and significantly decreased from the late menopausal transition, with stronger declines among overweight women.

The minimum weight vertex independent dominating set (MWVIDS) problem is an important version of the minimum independent dominating set. The MWVIDS problem has a number of applications in many fields. However, the MWVIDS problem is known to be NP-hard and thus computationally challenging. In this work, we present the improved memetic algorithm called MSSAS for solving the MWVIDS problem. The proposed MSSAS algorithm combines probability-based dynamic optimization (PDO) (to generate good and diverse offspring solutions by assembling elements of existing good solutions) as well as a local search phase named C_LS (to seek high-quality local optima by combining the idea of constrained-based two-level configuration checking strategy and tabu mechanism). The extensive results on popular DIMACS and BHOLIB benchmarks demonstrate that MSSAS competes favorably with the state-of-the-art algorithms. In addition, we analyze the benefits of the newly raised components including two above proposed ideas with our memetic framework. It is worth mentioning that the combination of both components has excellent effects for the MWVIDS problem.

Background The risk of breast cancer related to changes in breast density over time, including its regression and persistence, remains controversial. The authors investigated the relationship between breast density and its changes over time with the development of breast cancer in premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Methods The current cohort study included 74,249 middle-aged Korean women (aged ≥35 years) who were free of breast cancer at baseline and who underwent repeated screening mammograms. Mammographic breast density was categorized according to the American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS). A dense breast was defined as heterogeneously dense or extremely dense, and changes in dense breasts between baseline and subsequent follow-up were classified as none, developed, regressed, or persistent dense breast. Results During a median follow-up of 6.1 years (interquartile range, 4.1-8.8 years), a total of 803 incident breast cancers were identified. Baseline breast density was found to be positively associated with incident breast cancer in a dose-response manner, and this association did not significantly differ by menopausal status. The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for breast cancer comparing "heterogeneously dense" and "extremely dense" categories with the nondense category were 1.96 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.40-2.75) and 2.86 (95% CI, 2.04-4.01), respectively. With respect to changes in dense breasts over time, multivariable-adjusted HRs for breast cancer comparing persistent dense breast with none were 2.37 (95% CI, 1.34-4.21) in premenopausal women and 3.61 (95% CI, 1.78-7.30) in postmenopausal women. Conclusions Both baseline dense breasts and their persistence over time were found to be strongly associated with an increased risk of incident breast cancer in premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Lay summary Both baseline breast density and its changes over time were found to be independently associated with the risk of breast cancer in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. The risk of incident breast cancer increased in women with persistent dense breasts, whereas the breast cancer risk decreased as dense breasts regressed. The findings of the current study support that both dense breasts at baseline and their persistence over time are independent risk factors for developing breast cancer.

Recent advancements in nanotechnology have continued to stimulate the development of functional devices based on nanomaterials. However, the controllable assembly of these tiny nanomaterials into functional structures is still a big challenge for further applications; nowhere is this more obvious than in the field of nanodevices. Currently, despite the fact that self-assembly technologies have revealed great potential to reach this end, serious problems with respect to morphology control, designable assembly and even flexible patterning set huge obstacles to the fabrication of functional devices. Nowadays, in addition to self-assembly technologies that make use of interaction forces between different objects, photodynamic assembly (PDA) technology has emerged as a promising route to architect functional materials with the help of optical driving forces towards device fabrication. In this review, we summarize the recent developments in PDA technology for the designable patterning of nanoparticles (NPs). The basic fundamentals of PDA that resort to optical trapping (OT) and typical examples regarding far-field/near-field OT for the PDA of various NPs have been reviewed. In particular, femtosecond laser induced photodynamic assembly (FsL-PDA), which enables the designable patterning of NPs through a direct writing manner, has been introduced. Finally, the current challenges and future prospects of this dynamic field are discussed based on our own opinions.

Controllable direct C-H arylation with high regioselectivity is highly desirable yet remains a formidable challenge. Herein, a facile regioselective direct C-H arylation is developed for efficient construction of a variety of symmetrical dithienophthalimide-based π -conjugated molecules. The resulting methodology is applicable to a wide range of substrates, from electron-rich units to electron-deficient units with large steric end groups. Aryl halides have been confirmed to be able to couple with dithienophthalimide (DTI) via direct C-H arylation, showing high regioselectivity. Varying the functional end groups onto the DTI core has been demonstrated to fine tune the emission colors to cover most of the visible spectra. The results suggest a facile strategy towards highly selective direct C-H arylation, opening the prospects towards efficient construction of π -conjugated molecules for various potential optoelectronic applications.

Color centers are widely used in quantum information, quantum sensing, micro-nano optics and other relevant fields. In addition to the traditional ways that can generate color centers, for instance, ion beam implantation, direct laser writing (DLW) technology has recently emerged as an appealing alternative to induce color centers because it enables true three-dimensional and high precision machining. Particularly, DLW can induce color centers near/on the surface or inside the crystals with a homogeneous and pure surrounding environment, which permits subsequent integration with other components. In this paper, the recent advances in laser-induced color centers in different crystals are comprehensively reviewed, including diamond, silicon carbide, alkali halide crystals and others. Meanwhile, cutting-edge applications of laser-induced color centers are introduced. Lastly, current challenges and future perspective of this field have been discussed.

For the tandem organic light emitting diodes (TOLEDs) with the charge generation unit (CGU) of LiF/Al/MoO3, there is a significant current lateral spreading causing light emission over an extremely large area outside the OLEDs pixel, due to the conductive interfacial layer caused by the oxidation-reduction reaction between Al and MoO3 layers. To crack this nut, a buffer layer of 1,4,5,8,9,11-hexaazatriphenylene-hexacarbonitrile (HAT-CN) is inserted between Al and MoO3 layers. The result shows the HAT-CN buffer layer eliminates the spread light emission in the TOLEDs. What's more, the device characteristics show the new CGU of LiF/Al/HAT-CN/MoO3 has stronger charge generation and injection capabilities. The white TOLEDs with the new CGU exhibit a high external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 28.4%. Compared with the single OLEDs and the TOLEDs with the CGU of LiF/Al/MoO3, the efficiency is increased by 143% and 44%, respectively.

Efficient organic gain media with high optical gain and good photostability are highly desirable for organic semiconductor lasers. To shed light on the rational molecular design, in this work, a novel deep-blue organic emitter consisting of a carbazole core substituted by a diphenylamine-functionalized triazine unit and two arms of bifluorene with flexible alkyl chains (denoted as C2) was designed and synthesized. Various basic photophysics and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) characterizations were conducted with a particular focus to unravel the impact of the molecular structure on the photostability. Relatively low ASE threshold of 7.0 μJ/cm2, high net gain coefficient of 79.9 cm–1 (under 40-fold threshold pump fluence), and low optical loss coefficient of 7.0 cm–1 were recorded for C2 in neat films. For comparison, C2 was also dispersed into polystyrene (PS), a low-loss transparent matrix, with various ratios to form PS-C2 blend films. Among them, a 50 wt % PS-C2 blend film exhibited a high gain c...

In this work, vacuum-evaporated Ag-island nanostructures were incorporated into the electron transporting layer (ETL) and their effects on the performance of non-doped blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices (PhOLEDs) using an ultrathin phosphorescent dye as the emitting layer (EML) were investigated systematically. By changing the thickness and deposition rate of Ag layer, the surface morphologies and resonance absorption spectra of the Ag-island nanostructures can be fine modulated. The device performance is significantly dependent on the structure and position of Ag layer. The experimental results indicate that 0.5 nm Ag layer deposited at a rate of 0.06 A/s presents excellent spectral overlap between the resonance absorption spectra of Ag-island layer and the emission spectra of EML that impacts the electrical properties. Compared to the reference device without Ag-island layer, the current efficiency of the optimized device was enhanced by 54% from 15.1 cd/A to 23.2 cd/A when 0.5 nm Ag-island layer was incorporated into ETL with 20 nm away from EML. The performance enhancement is attributed to the synergistic effects for the improved electron transport properties induced by the Ag-island layer and the effective couplings between excitons and localized surface plasmons (LSPs).

Flexible micro-scale energy storage devices as the key component to power the flexible miniaturized electronic devices are attracting extensive attention. In this study, interdigitated asymmetric all-solid-state flexible micro-supercapacitors (MSCs) were fabricated by a simple pencil drawing process followed by electrodepositing MnO2 on one of the as-drawn graphite electrode as anode and the other as cathode. The as-prepared electrodes showed high areal specific capacitance of 220 μF/cm2 at 2.5 μA/cm2. The energy density and the corresponding power density of the resultant asymmetrical flexible MSCs were up to 110 μWh/cm2 and 1.2 μW/cm2, respectively. Furthermore, excellent cycling performance (91% retention of capacity after 1000 cycles) was achieved. The resultant devices also exhibited good electrochemical stability under bending conditions, demonstrating superior flexibility. This study provides a simple yet efficient methodology for designing and fabricating flexible supercapacitors applicable for portable and wearable electronics.

We report on the fabrication of a NO2 gas sensor from room-temperature reduction of graphene oxide(GO) via two-beam-laser interference (TBLI). The method of TBLI gives the distribution of periodic dissociation energies for oxygen functional groups, which are capable to reduce the graphene oxide to hierarchical graphene nanostructures, which holds great promise for gaseous molecular adsorption. The fabricated reduced graphene oxide(RGO) sensor enhanced sensing response in NO2 and accelerated response/recovery rates. It is seen that, for 20 ppm NO2, the response (Ra/Rg) of the sensor based on RGO hierarchical nanostructures is 1.27, which is higher than that of GO (1.06) and thermal reduced RGO (1.04). The response time and recovery time of the sensor based on laser reduced RGO are 10 s and 7 s, which are much shorter than those of GO (34 s and 45 s), indicating that the sensing performances for NO2 sensor at room temperature have been enhanced by introduction of nanostructures. This mask-free and large-area approach to the production of hierarchical graphene micro-nanostructures, could lead to the implementation of future graphene-based sensors.

Highly efficient non-doped tandem phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices (PhOLEDs) have been demonstrated by employing LiF/AL/1,4,5,8,9,11-hexaazatriphenylene hexacarbonitrile (HAT-CN) as a charge generation unit (CGU) and ultrathin phosphorescent dyes as emitting layers (EMLs). It was found that the performance of the tandem PhOLEDs was significantly dependent on the Al thickness in CGU. Analyses regarding the current density-voltage characteristics of the CGU only devices indicate that the charge carriers are generated at the HAT-CN/NPB interface, and Al/LiF layers work as assistant electron injection layers to facilitate electron extraction from CGU and injection into the adjacent electron transport layer. From the capacitance-voltage and optical transparency characteristics of CGU with different thicknesses of Al interlayer, the thick Al layer is beneficial to charge separation, while it weakens the light output of the tandem device. Under the optimal Al thickness of 5 nm, more than twofold enhancement of current efficiency is achieved for the non-doped tandem blue device. Furthermore, the non-doped tandem white PhOLED was also developed showing a maximum current efficiency of 94.9 cd/A and maximum external quantum efficiency of 31.6%.

We report here a facile, green and cost-effective fabrication of high-performance capacitive pressure sensors by drawing loop-and disc-shaped graphite electrode arrays on copying tissues. Graphene oxide enhanced foam-like paper is prepared as an efficient dielectric layer. The paper-based capacitive pressure sensor enables sensitive detection of finger touch, motion and proximity.

Purpose Several studies have reported the plausible association of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) with the prognosis of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), but the results are inconsistent. In PTC, chronic inflammation is closely related to tumor progression, and the age of the patient has a great influence on prognosis. Therefore, considering the changes in the immune system with aging, we classified the patients according to age and assessed the prognostic value of individual hematologic parameters. Methods This retrospective analysis included 1,921 patients who underwent thyroidectomy for PTC. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on their age: Y-group (age < 45) and O-group (age ≥ 45). Blood counts were measured within 14 days before surgery. Results The Y-group consisted of 914 patients aged < 45 years and the O-group consisted of 932 patients aged ≥ 45. In both groups, the common prognostic factors related to disease recurrence were only 6 or more metastatic lymph node and grossly extrathyroidal extension, and hematologic parameters were different between the 2 groups. High Platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in the Y-group and high NLR in the O-group were identified as independent predictors of disease recurrence (NLR: hazard ratio [HR], 3.28; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.23-8.73; P = 0.018; PLR: HR, 3.08; 95% CI, 1.26-7.52; P = 0.014). Conclusion The results suggest that changes in immunity with aging may affect prognosis in patients with PTC, and thus hematologic parameters might be employed as prognostic markers depending on the age of the patients.

Objective: The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of Kangfuxin lotion as adjunctive therapy for treating ulcerative colitis (UC) through a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Materials and Methods: RCTs comparing Kangfuxin lotion with no treatment, placebo, western medications or combination therapy for treatment of UC were included in this study. Two English and three Chinese electronic databases were searched. All searches ended in December 2017. Data and quality assessment carried out respectively. RevMan 5.2 software (Copenhagen, The Nordic Cochrane Centre, The Cochrane Collaboration, 2014) was used to analyze with effect estimate presented as mean difference (MD), risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: Fifteen trials with 1050 participants were included in this review. Overall, 13 trials were eligible for meta-analysis. Kangfuxin lotion combined with Mesalazine was better than Mesalazine on clinical cure rate (RR 1.45, 95% CI 1.24–1.70, 7 trials), recurrence rate of UC (RR 0.22, 95% CI 0.07–0.72, 2 trials), or endoscopic mucosal recovery (RR 8.05, 95% CI 2.64–24.57, 2 trials). And Kangfuxin lotion combined with triple live bacteria tablets (Bifidobacterium-Lactobacillus- Streptococcus thermophilus)was superior with regard to symptoms remission rate (RR 5.36, 95% CI 1.73–16.60, 3 trials), endoscopic disease activity score (MD − 2.30, 95% CI − 2.64–−1.96, 1 trial). There were no reports on the serious adverse events of Kangfuxin lotion. Conclusion: Kangfuxin lotion as adjunctive treatment appears more effective than medications alone on clinical cure rate, recurrence rate, endoscopic mucosal recovery and improvement rate of related symptoms.