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Objective: To investigate whether compression therapy after thermal ablation of varicose veins can improve the prognosis of patients. Methods: Systematic research were applied for Chinese and English electronic databases(PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP Databases). Eligible prospective studies that comparing the efficacy of compression therapy and non‐compression therapy on patients after thermal ablation of varicose veins were included. The interest outcome such as pain, quality of life (QOL), venous clinical severity score (VCSS), time to return to work and complications were analyzed. Results: 10 studies were of high quality, and randomized controlled trials involving 1,545 patients met the inclusion criteria for this study. At the same time, the meta‐analysis showed that the application of compression therapy improved pain (SMD: ‐0.51, 95% CI: ‐0.95, ‐0.07) but exhibited no statistically significant effect on QOL (SMD: 0.04, 95% CI: ‐0.08, 0.16), VCSS (MD: ‐0.05, 95% CI: ‐1.19, 1.09), time to return to work (MD: ‐0.43, 95% CI: ‐0.90, 0.03), total complications (RR: 0.54, 95% CI: 0.27, 1.09), and thrombosis (RR: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.31, 1.62). Conclusion: Compression therapy after thermal ablation of varicose veins can slightly relieve pain, but it has not been found to be associated with improvement in other outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study prepared textured (Ti1/3Zr1/3Hf1/3)B2 medium‐entropy ceramics for the first time that maintain enhanced flexural strength up to 1800°C using single‐phase (Ti1/3Zr1/3Hf1/3)B2 powders, slip casting under a strong magnetic field, and hot‐pressed sintering methods. Effects of WC additive and strong magnetic field direction on the phase compositions, orientation degree, microstructure evolution, and high‐temperature flexural strength of (Ti1/3Zr1/3Hf1/3)B2 were investigated. (Ti1/3Zr1/3Hf1/3)B2 grain grows along the a,b‐axes, resulting in a platelet‐like morphology. Pressure parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field direction can promote the orientation degree and hinder the texture structure formation, respectively. Reaction products of W(B,C) and (Ti,Zr,Hf)C between (Ti1/3Zr1/3Hf1/3)B2 and WC additive can efficiently refine the (Ti1/3Zr1/3Hf1/3)B2 grain size and promote grain orientation. (Ti1/3Zr1/3Hf1/3)B2 ceramics doped with 5 vol.% WC yielded a Lotgering orientation factor of 0.74 through slip casting under a strong magnetic field (12 T) and hot‐pressed sintering at 1900°C. Furthermore, cleaning the boundary by W(B,C) and introducing texture can enhance the grain‐boundary strength and improve its high‐temperature flexural strength. The four‐point flexural strength of textured (Ti1/3Zr1/3Hf1/3)B2‐5 vol.% WC ceramics was 770 ± 59 MPa at 1600°C and 638 ± 117 MPa at 1800°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Anal squamous cell carcinoma (ASCC) is a rare malignant tumor with increasing incidence. The goal of our study was to analyze the treatment outcome and prognostic factors of ASCC in South China in the past half‐century. Methods: This study retrospectively included 59 patients with ASCC admitted from 1975 to 2018 in Sun Yat‐sen University cancer center. The clinical records and follow‐up information of all patients were collected. Survival analysis and univariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed using the "survival" and "survminer" packages of R software. Results: In 59 patients, 5 patients had distant metastasis at diagnosis. Among 54 M0 stage patients, 33 patients received chemoradiotherapy (CRT), 19 patients received local surgery, and 2 patients refused curative treatment and received the best supportive treatment (BST). The most common grade 3–4 acute toxicities during treatment were myelosuppression and radiation dermatitis. The median follow‐up time was 32 months. For the whole group, the 3‐year and 5‐year overall survival (OS) rates and disease‐free survival (DFS) were 71.1% and 63.6%, and 73.4% and 69.0%, respectively. Multivariate regression analysis showed that the T3–4 stage was an independent prognostic risk factor for OS, progression‐free survival (PFS), and DFS. And M1 was an independent prognostic risk factor for PFS and DFS. Patients in stage M0 mainly treated with CRT had better local control than those mainly treated with surgery (p = 0.027). For M0 patients, induction chemotherapy combined with CRT tends to prolong OS compared with CRT alone (p = 0.26). The 3‐year colostomy‐free survival for the whole group was 81.1%. Conclusions: CRT is recommended as the first choice for the treatment of M0 stage ASCC. Induction chemotherapy may bring better survival benefits for some patients. Patients with ASCC in China seem to have a better local control rate, which suggested different treatment strategies may be needed in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies suggest that specific binding to the complex consisting of fibroblast growth factor receptor‐1 (FGFR1) and the coreceptor beta‐Klotho (KLB) is the premise for human FGF19 and FGF21 activating the downstream signaling cascades, and regulating the metabolic homeostasis. However, it was found that human FGF21 loses its ability to bind to FGFR1–KLB after iodination with Na125I and chloramine T, whereas human FGF19 retained its affinity for FGFR1–KLB even after iodination. The molecular mechanisms underlying these differences remained elusive. In this study, we first demonstrated that an intramolecular disulfide bond was formed between cysteine‐102 and cysteine‐121 in FGF21, implying that the oxidation of the cysteine to cysteic acid, which may interfere with the active conformation of FGF21, did not occur during the iodination procedures, and thus ruled out the possibility of the two conserved cysteine residues mediating the loss of FGF21 binding affinity to FGFR1–KLB upon iodination. Site‐directed mutagenesis and molecular modeling were further applied to determine the residue(s) responsible for the loss of FGFR1–KLB affinity. The results showed that mutation of a single tyrosine‐207, but not the other five tyrosine residues in FGF21, to a phenylalanine retained the FGFR1–KLB affinity of FGF21 even after iodination, whereas replacing the corresponding phenylalanine residue with tyrosine in FGF19 did not alter its binding affinity to FGFR1–KLB, but decreased the receptor binding ability of the iodinated protein, suggesting that tyrosine‐207 is the crucial amino acid responsible for the loss of specifying FGFR1–KLB affinity of the iodinated FGF21. Human fibroblast growth factor‐21 (FGF21) but not FGF19 lost its ability to bind to FGF receptor‐1 and coreceptor beta‐Klotho (FGFR1–KLB) after iodination with Na125I and chloramine T. Our results suggesting that tyrosine‐207 in FGF21 is the crucial amino acid responsible for the loss of specifying FGFR1–KLB affinity of the iodinated FGF21. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthesis and crystal structure of a new one-dimensional mixed-ligand Cu(I) coordination polymer, [(PPh3)2Cu2(μ-I)2(μ-4,4′-bpy)]n (4,4′-bpy=4,4′-bipydine) are reported. The neutral polymer consists of (PPh3)2Cu2(μ-I)2(μ-4,4′-bpy) units bridged by 4,4′-bpy to construct an infinite chain architecture. Crystal data: C23H19CuINP, Mr=530.80, Triclinic space group (P1, No. 2), a=9.2279(8) A˚, b=9.4014(8) A˚, c=13.3663(12) A˚, α=107.445(2)°, β=106.707(2)°, γ=93.479(2)°, V=1045.8(2) A˚3, Dcalc=1.686 g m−3, Z=2. The solid state of the complex is luminescent with a peak maximum at 535 nm, upon excitation at 300–400 nm at room temperature. The emission is assigned to Copper(I) to 4,4′-bpy charge transfer (MLCT). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]