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A 63-year-old man with a history of right plantar malignant melanoma (T3bN0M0, IIb) developed multiple metastases in bilateral lungs 19 months after surgery. Subsequent 18F-FDG PET/CT revealed multiple pulmonary metastases with intense FDG uptake and detected a hypermetabolic lesion in the lateral wall of the left ventricle, which was considered to be a cardiac metastasis of malignant melanoma. This lesion was later confirmed in the dynamic myocardial perfusion MR. This case demonstrates the effectiveness of 18F-FDG PET/CT in detecting occult cardiac metastases of malignant melanoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Watch-and-wait" approach is an important management option in asymptomatic follicular lymphoma (FL) patients with low tumor burden. Since most FL lesions are FDG-avid, we wonder if 18F-FDG PET/CT at baseline can help to better choose the patients who can benefit from early chemotherapy. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of baseline 18F-FDG PET/CT in newly diagnosed FL patients treated with either watch-and-wait approach or chemotherapy. Patients received chemotherapy as initial treatment had higher Ann Arbor stage, higher incidence of extranodal involvement and bulky disease, more involved lymph nodes larger than 3 cm, and higher SUVmax, MTV, and TLG than those managed with watch-and-wait approach (p < 0.05). The median PFS and TTNT in patients received chemotherapy and under watch-and-wait did not show significant difference, however patients with MTV<111.66 mL or TLG<141.50 SUVbw*mL had significantly longer PFS and TTNT than those patients with MTV≥111.66 mL or TLG≥141.50 SUVbw*mL (p < 0.05). Further analysis revealed that for patients with TLG≥141.50 SUVbw*mL or MTV≥111.66 mL, those who received chemotherapy as initial treatment had a significantly longer PFS and TTNT than those managed with initial watch-and-wait approach (p < 0.05). However, for patients with MTV<111.66 mL or TLG<141.50 SUVbw*mL in baseline PET/CT, there was no significant difference in PFS or TTNT between patients who received chemotherapy and those under watch-and-wait. Baseline 18F-FDG PET/CT may provide prognostic value and help to improve the decision-making of initial treatment plans for newly diagnosed FL patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives : Effectiveness of psychotherapy depends on patients' adherence to between-session homework (HW) to practice therapeutic skills. mHealth apps can offer continuing reminders, although frequent reminders overwhelm or burden patients and therefore are ineffective. Predicting likelihood of completing daily HW and sending contextual reminders has the potential to improve HW adherence and therefore improvesymptoms. Methods : Depressed older participants (N = 51) undergoing psychotherapy provided daily active ratings on mood, anhedonia, stress and pain via an mHealth app. Data on activity, mobilization, sociability and sleep passively were also recorded via device sensors (e.g., microphone, accelerometer, GPS etc.). Using active and passive mHealth data, we developed predictive models of daily home-work completion status using a naïve semi-supervised deep learning algorithm. Prediction accuracy was determined via time-dependent cross-validation. Results: Study participants had a mean (SD) age of 71.4 (7.76) years, mean (SD) of 14.9 (2.93) years of education, mean (SD) BIS/BAS total of 22.6 (3.36), mean (SD) MADRS total score of20.4 (6.04) and 88.2% were of female gender, 29.4% were single, 83.8% were of non-Hispanic ethnicity, 58.8% belonged to Caucasian race and 38.2% practiced Catholic religion. With 4700 person-days HW completion response, our models show an AUC of 84.7% (sensitivity = 76.2%; specificity = 80%) estimated by cross-validation. Conclusions: This paper demonstrates the feasibility of predicting adherence to psychotherapy in depressed older adults using actively and passively collected mHealth data. Digital interventions based on such predictive models can potentially increase adherence to psychotherapy and thereby improve its effectiveness without increasing the user notification burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In the field of measurement, high‐precision thermocouples need higher precision calibration equipment. However, the metal temperature equalizing block used in traditional thermocouple calibration equipment has poor temperature uniformity, and the structure of gas‐controlled heat pipe is complex and expensive, and the concentric annular heat pipes have high isothermal performance and simple structure, which can be used to improve the calibration equipment. In this study, a temperature comparison source based on potassium concentric annular heat pipe was fabricated to replace the metal temperature equalizing block, the temperature stability and temperature uniformity within 0 to 16 cm of the different metering wells at 400°C, 500°C, and 600°C were experimentally studied. The temperature stability was ±0.0026 K and the maximum axial temperature difference within 6 to 10 cm of the metering well was 0.027 K. On the vertical section of concentric annular heat pipe, due to the high specific heat of liquid working fluid, the temperature of the metering well near the bottom is higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) family is widely involved in the destruction of the pulp and apical tissues in the inflammatory process. MMP9 is closely related to oral inflammation. Nevertheless, the specific function of MMP9 during oral inflammation, as well as its mechanism, is not well understood. Our previous studies found that in experimentally induced apical periodontitis, more severe inflammation occurred in MMP9 knockout mice compared with the wild type mice. Moreover, the pathology phenomenon of alveolar bone destruction was even more evident in MMP9 knockout mice compared with the wild type mice. We proposed that MMP9 has "anti-inflammatory" properties. We aimed to study the effects of MMP9 on inflammatory response as well as on bone formation and bone destruction. We found a specific relationship between MMP9 and inflammation. qRT-PCR and Western blot revealed that the production of IL-1β, TNF-α, RANK, RANKL, TLR2, and TLR4 was reduced by MMP9 in LPS-stimulated MC3T3-E1 cells. Meanwhile, the expressions of OPG and OCN were increased by MMP9 in LPS-stimulated cells. MMP9 plays a protective role in LPS-induced inflammation, thereby providing new clues to the prevention and treatment of apical periodontitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hollow NiP microspheres were prepared using a facile one-step template-free solvothermal method. The products were characterized and the results showed that they were pure hexagonal NiP microspheres, made up of large amounts of NiP nanoparticles, and had an obvious inner space in the central of the microspheres. After being investigated, it was found that these NiP hollow spheres initially were some solid spheres, but after a specified time, they were converted to a hollow structure by an Ostwald ripening process, some even had a multi-wall hollow structure. Meanwhile, the as-prepared NiP hollow spheres showed a good photocatalytic degradation performance for Methylene Blue in aqueous solution. Electrochemical measurements turned out that the NiP hollow spheres have a great cycling performance. The initial discharge capacity capacity of is NiP hollow spheres up to 660 mAh g and it always keep in about 300 mAh g within 100 cycles at the current density of 100 mA g. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]