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In this study, we developed an electric double-layer (EDL) extended-gate field effect transistor sensor based on aptamers to detect cadmium ions (Cd2+). Since the aptamer has a specific binding ability to cadmium ions. The signal is amplified through the transconductance of the FET. The linear detection range of this sensor for cadmium ions is from 1 nM to 10 uM. The Cd2+ calibration curve is shown a high correlation coefficient (R2 = 0.981) and an excellent detection limit as low as 0.094 nM. Importantly, it responds to Cd2+ within 10 seconds. The sensor exhibits high selectivity in the presence of other heavy metals. It also can be reused without significant signal attenuation. The advantages of this method are convenient portability, short detection time, high sensitivity, and simple operation. It has a good prospect for detection in the daily life of cadmium environmental pollution.

Iris species, commonly known as rainbow flowers because of their attractive flowers, are extensively grown in landscape gardens. A few species, including Belamcanda chinensis, the synonym of I. domestica and I. tectorum, are known for their medicinal properties. However, research on the genomes and evolutionary relationships of Iris species is scarce. In the current study, the complete chloroplast (CP) genomes of I. tectorum, I. dichotoma, I. japonica, and I. domestica were sequenced and compared for their identification and relationship. The CP genomes of the four Iris species were circular quadripartite with similar lengths, GC contents, and codon usages. A total of 113 specific genes were annotated, including the ycf1 pseudogene in all species and rps19 in I. japonica alone. All the species had mononucleotide (A/T) simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and long forward and palindromic repeats in their genomes. A comparison of the CP genomes based on mVISTA and nucleotide diversity (Pi) identified three highly variable regions (ndhF-rpl32, rps15-ycf1, and rpl16). Phylogenetic analysis based on the complete CP genomes concluded that I. tectorum is a sister of I. japonica, and the subgenus Pardanthopsis with several I. domestica clustered into one branch is a sister of I. dichotoma. These findings confirm the feasibility of superbarcodes (complete CP genomes) for Iris species authentication and could serve as a resource for further research on Iris phylogeny.

Background To analyze the clinical efficacy of GeloMyrtol (GM) in treating pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP). Methods PMP patients treated with cytoreductive surgery (CRS) plus hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) at Beijing Shijitan Hospital from July 2015 to April 2022 were included in this study. Patients who took GM before CRS + HIPEC were defined as study group and patients who did not take GM were defined as control group. Kaplan-Meier survival method was used to compare overall survival (OS) of two groups. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the independent prognostic factors. Results Among the included 470 PMP patients, 212 (45.1%) cases were in study group and 258 (54.9%) cases in control group. The median OS (mOS) was 156.3 (95%CI: not reached) months in the study group vs. 68.0 (95%CI: 51.9–84.1) months in the control group (P P

Additional files 1: Table S1. Risk of bias assessment of the randomized controlled trials for meta-analysis using the Cochrane tool. Table S2. Quality assessment of the cohort studies for the meta-analysis using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale.

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are evolutionarily conserved proteins of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and play a crucial role in innate immune systems recognition of conserved pathogen-related molecular samples (PAMPs). We identified and characterized TLR18 from Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), OnTLR18, to elucidate its role in tissue expression patterns, modulation of gene expression after microbial challenge and TLR ligands, subcellular localization in fish and human cells, and the possible effectors TLR18 induces in a melanomacrophage-like cell line (tilapia head kidney (THK) cells). OnTLR18 expression was detected in all tissues examined, with the highest levels in the intestine and the lowest in the liver. OnTLR18 transcript was up-regulated in immune-related organs after bacterial and polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly I:C) challenges and in the THK cells after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation. In transfected THK and human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells, OnTLR18 localizes in the intracellular compartment. OnMyD88 and OnTRIF, but not OnTIRAP, were co-immunoprecipitated with OnTLR18, suggesting that the former two molecules are recruited by OnTLR18 as adaptors. The constitutively active form of OnTLR18 induced the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, type I interferon (IFN), and antimicrobial peptides such as tumor necrosis factor α, interferon (IFN) d2.13, tilapia piscidin (TP)2, TP3, TP4, and hepcidin in THK cells. Our results suggest that OnTLR18 plays an important role in innate immunity through initiating nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) and IFN signaling pathways via OnMyD88 and OnTRIF and induces the production of various effectors in melanomacrophages.

Advanced adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) has a poor prognosis and is often resistant to the conventional regimens of mitotane administration and systemic chemotherapy. In addition to surgery, local therapeutic measures can be valuable. Here, we present the case of a 33-year-old woman who developed left retroperitoneal local recurrent ACC with hepatic and pulmonary metastases 1 year after radical adrenalectomy. The tumors progressed under chemotherapy and mitotane treatments. She was treated with yttrium-90 selective internal radiation therapy (90Y SIRT) for hepatic metastases and cryoablation of the local recurrent tumor, after which significant tumor shrinkage was observed. She then received radiofrequency ablation for the residual hepatic metastases and radiotherapy to the residual local recurrent tumor. Complete remission was achieved and maintained at least until the data cutoff day (15.8 months after the last treatment). This is the first published report of cryoablation in a patient with ACC and the third report of 90Y SIRT use for hepatic metastasis of ACC. Cryoablation and 90Y SIRT are local treatment choices for ACC that are worthy of further study.

Pyrrosia petiolosa, Pyrrosia lingua and Pyrrosia sheareri are recorded as original plants of Pyrrosiae Folium (PF) and commonly used as Chinese herbal medicines. Due to the similar morphological features of PF and its adulterants, common DNA barcodes cannot accurately distinguish PF species. Knowledge of the chloroplast (cp) genome is widely used in species identification, molecular marker and phylogenetic analyses. Herein, we determined the complete cp genomes of three original species of PF via high-throughput sequencing technologies. The three cp genomes exhibited a typical quadripartite structure with sizes ranging from 158 165 to 163 026 bp. The cp genomes of P. petiolosa and P. lingua encoded 130 genes, whilst that of P. sheareri encoded 131 genes. The complete cp genomes were compared, and five highly divergent regions of petA-psbJ, matK-rps16, ndhC-trnM, psbM-petN and psaC-ndhE were screened as potential DNA barcodes for identification of Pyrrosia genus species. The phylogenetic tree we obtained indicated that P. petiolosa and P. lingua are clustered in a single clade and, thus, share a close relationship. This study provides invaluable information for further studies on the species identification, taxonomy and phylogeny of Pyrrosia genus species.

To understand the regulatory relationship between the environment and Cistanche salsa, here we integrated the macro- and microdimension methods. From a macroperspective, the MaxEnt model indicated that countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, such as China, Egypt, and Libya, were particularly suitable for growth of C. salsa from ancient times (Last Glacial Maximum and mid-Holocene) to the future (2050 and 2070). The Jackknife test revealed that precipitation is an important ecological factor that affects C. salsa's distribution. From a microperspective, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing data showed that the soil microbial communities of three ecotypes (desert-steppe, grassland, and gravel-desert) were significantly different (p < 0.001). Core microbiome analysis demonstrated that the bacterial genera Arthrobacter, Sphingomonas, and Bacillus were enriched core taxa of C. salsa. LEfSe and random forest were used to excavate the Gillisia (desert-steppe), Flavisolibacter (grassland), and Variibacter (gravel-desert) as biomarkers that can distinguish among microbial communities from the three ecotypes. The prediction profile showed that the metabolic function of the microbial community was enriched in metabolic pathways and environmental information processing. Correlation analyses revealed that the altitude, precipitation of the warmest quarter (bio18), mean diurnal range (bio2), and mean temperature of the warmest quarter (bio10) were important ecological factors that affect the composition of soil microbial communities. This work provided new insights into the regulatory relationship among the suitable distribution of C. salsa, soil microbial communities, and ecological drivers. Moreover, it deepened the understanding of the interaction between desert plants and ecological factors in arid environments.

What factors affect the incidence of mosaic embryos resulting from assisted reproductive technology?A retrospective analysis of data from preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies in 544 couples was conducted using data from an electronic medical record database.Of 1910 embryos studied, 127 (6.6%) were mosaic. In multivariable logistic regression analysis, mosaicism incidence increased in embryos from IVF versus intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) (odds ratio [OR] 4.560, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.800-7.424, P0.001), and in embryos from abnormal versus normal semen (OR 3.496, 95% CI 2.455-4.979, P0.001). Embryos tested using SurePlex 24Sure had lower mosaicism percentages than those tested using MALBAC-NGS and PicoPLEX GenetiSure (OR 2.726, 95% CI 1.532-4.852, P = 0.001; OR 2.389, 95% CI 1.537-3.711, P0.001, respectively).Semen quality, fertilization method and detection system are independent factors associated with embryonic mosaicism.

In this work, we present the first study on organic semiconductors as a photoconductive terahertz spatial light modulator (THz SLM), to the best of the authors’ knowledge. The characterization includes modulation depth (MD) created by the photocarriers within the material and the measurement of carrier lifetime, relating to the operation speed of the material. We observed 16.50% of MD, and the carrier lifetime was measured to be 4.527 ns. As the carrier lifetime is similar to gallium arsenide (GaAs), we compare both and discover an order of magnitude enhancement in MD. This report shows that organic semiconductors can serve as a promising high-speed THz SLM for real-time terahertz imaging.

Objective: We aimed to study the prognostic role of CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) in patients with different stages of colorectal cancer (CRC). Material and Methods: We analyzed CIMP in stage I–IV CRC specimens from patients who were diagnosed between 2005 and 2013. CIMP status was determined using a 5-gene MethyLight-based assay. The clinicopathologic characteristics were reviewed and the overall survival (OS) was compared between patients with CIMP-high CRC and those with CIMP-low/negative CRC. Results: Among 450 CRC specimens with successfully determined CIMP statuses, 74 (16.4%) were CIMP-high CRC. Although there was no difference in OS between patients with CIMP-high and CIMP-low/negative CRC across all stages (p = 0.4526), intriguingly, patients with stage IV CIMP-high CRC had significantly worse OS than those with stage IV CIMP-low/negative CRC (p = 0.0047). In a multivariate analysis, CIMP status remained an independent prognostic factor for overall mortality (HR = 5.60, 95% CI: 2.12–14.79, p = 0.0005) in metastatic CRC after adjusting for clinicopathologic variables and anti-cancer therapies. Conclusion: Our results revealed that the presence of CIMP independently predicts poor OS in patients with stage IV CRC.

The Polubarinova-Galin is identified with what is called the string equation in contexts of integrable hierarchies. In the non-univalent case the string equation requires further specification. We discuss the arising difficulties in this respect and illustrate by some examples.

The major assertion (Theorem 5.1) in this chapter is that starting Laplacian growth from any simply connected planar domain with smooth boundary, the solution, in a weak form, can be continued forever as an evolution of simply connected domains. The price for keeping the domains simply connected is that the solution must be allowed to go up on a branched Riemann surface above the complex plane, a Riemann surface which is not known in advance and has to be created along with the solution. The proof of Theorem 5.1 depends on several technical lemmas, one of which (Lemma/Conjecture 5.3) is stated as a conjecture. There is no real doubt concerning the validity of that lemma/conjecture, but at present a rigorous proof is missing.

The basic definitions and properties related to the Polubarinova-Galin and the Lowner-Kufarev equations are set up. This includes discussing subordinations and liftings to Riemann surfaces.

Laplacian growth and partial balayage are extended to Riemann surfaces. The Riemann surfaces considered are more precisely covering surfaces of the complex plane, and the somewhat abstract theory is illustrated by examples. It is also shown that the partial balayage, which represents time evolution, commutes with the covering projection in a natural sense.

The behaviour of such Riemann surface weak solutions for which the derivative of the conformal map is a rational function is investigated. The solution stays on the same form locally, as long as the zeros of the mentioned derivative stay away from the unit circle. However, when such zeros do reach the unit circle and new branch points are created, the rational function changes its structure, acquiring new zeros and poles. Two approaches for handling these questions are used: one direct approach and one via quadrature Riemann surfaces.

We formulate the dependence of the conformal map on harmonic moments and other parameters within a Hamiltonian framwork and by systematically using differential forms and other concept from differential geometry. This gives alternative ways of expressing Poisson brackets and the string equation.

Weak solutions, of variational inequality type, are introduced. Their defining properties can be equivalently expressed in terms of quadrature identities for subharmonic functions, or in terms of partial balayage. Some versions of inverse balayage are also discussed, this needed as a preparatory step for constructing more general Laplacian evolutions. Finally, the exponential transform and the elimination function are introduced.

Current guidelines suggest that adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) be administered to all locally advanced (clinically T3–4 or N-positivity) rectal cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) and radical surgical resection regardless of the final pathological staging (yp staging). This study aimed to evaluate the necessity of AC for ypT0-2N0 rectal cancer. Patients with ypT0-2N0 rectal cancer, who received nCRT and radical surgical resection, were recruited retrospectively at a university hospital. The main outcome was to evaluate the 5-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) between ypT0-2N0 rectal cancer patients with AC and those without AC. We also identified potential independent prognostic factors associated with poor outcomes. One hundred and ten ypT0-2N0 rectal cancer patients (ypT0: n = 6; ypT1: n = 44; ypT2: n = 60) were followed up for a median of 60 months. No significant difference was observed in DFS and 5-year OS between patients with AC and those without AC. The risk of recurrence was associated with the postoperative pathological staging (0% with ypT0, 2.4% with ypT1, and 10% with ypT2). In the multivariate analysis, retrieval of < 12 lymph nodes was an independent favorable prognostic factor, which correlated with a higher OS (HR: 2.263; 95% CI: 1.093–4.687, P = 0.028). Intra-tumor lymphovascular and perineural invasion were poor prognostic markers for shorter DFS (HR: 5.940; 95% CI: 1.150–30.696, P = 0.033). Postoperative AC is not required for patients with ypT0-2N0 rectal cancer downstaged by nCRT, especially in those without poor prognostic factors.

Rationale: Currently, the 5-year survival rate remains poor for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), and the purpose of therapy is to prolong survival while maintaining the quality of life. Trifluridine/tipiracil, an oral drug combining trifluorothymidine and a thymidine phosphorylase inhibitor, is indicated as salvage therapy for mCRC patients who have progressed after all available regimens. Combination of local treatments with systemic therapy such as trifluridine/tipiracil represents an apt management strategy for mCRC patients. Patient concerns: A 72-year-old man diagnosed with stage IV rectal adenocarcinoma (KRAS mutation) with peritoneal carcinomatosis and liver metastases developed resistance to 2 lines of treatment (bevacizumab/irinotecan/S-1 and bevacizumab/oxaliplatin/HDFL [high-dose 24-hour infusion of 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin regimen]) within 5 months. Diagnosis: Refractory stage IV rectal adenocarcinoma. Interventions: Systemic treatment of trifluridine/tipiracil has been given for approximately 15 months in addition to radiotherapy, Yttrium-90 radioembolization, and trans-arterial chemoembolization for peritoneal and liver metastases. Outcomes: After 15 months, the patient was still taking trifluridine/tipiracil for disease control with a good quality of life. Lessons: Trifluridine/tipiracil plus other appropriate local therapy may significantly prolong patients survival with a satisfactory quality of life for patients with refractory mCRC. The favorable safety profile of trifluridine/tipiracil renders it a suitable option to be combined with other local therapies for metastatic lesions.

To understand the regulatory relationship between the environment and

Frequency is an important index to reflect stability of the power system. NERC’s Control Performance Standard 1 (CPSI) is to assess control area’s ability in maintaining frequency quality. This paper proposes a stepwise regression method to identify important frequency-control correlation factors for developing a CPSI model. The CPSI model is constructed by the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network. The well trained CPSI model is then integrated into a unit commitment (UC) program to realize a CPSI compliant UC (UC-CPSI). The performance of the proposed UC-CPSI is validated by simulation case and is compared with the case without the frequency constrained UC.

AIM Pain assessment and management have been important criteria in hospital accreditation in Taiwan since 2007. We used a Taiwanese health insurance database to determine factors influencing patterns of strong opioid use in cancer patients in their final 12 months of life. METHODS Data from patients with cancer in Taiwan outpatient clinics with cancer-related deaths between 2008 and 2011 were included in the analysis. Strong opioid prescription data from the last 12 months of each patient's life, as well as patient, physician, and hospital characteristics, were collected from the National Health Insurance Research Database. RESULTS Among 162 679 patients, more were male (63.6%) than female (36.4%) and almost half (49.3%) were ≥70 years old. Most (44.9%) patients had gastrointestinal cancer. More than one-third (35.4%) of patients were prescribed strong opioids during the 12 months before death, and more than half (53.2%) of those prescribed opioids received them in the 3 months before death. Median duration of strong opioid use was 81 days before death. Patients with head/neck cancer (52.8%) or who were treated in hematology and oncology departments (45.8%) were most likely, and patients with gastrointestinal cancer (hazard ratio = 0.65; 95% confidence interval, 0.64-0.67) or treated in gastroenterology departments (hazard ratio = 0.88; 95% confidence interval, 0.84-0.93) were least likely to be prescribed strong opioids. CONCLUSION Strong opioid prescriptions varied among patients with different cancer diagnoses and physicians. Information from this study can guide efforts to improve patient and physician education about cancer pain management.

The phenotypic characteristics of traditional serrated adenoma (TSA)-associated malignancies remain obscure. This study was a morphologic reappraisal of 27 colorectal carcinomas arising from TSA (TSA-CRCs) and 53 BRAF-mutated/microsatellite-stable colorectal carcinomas (BRAF-mut/MSS CRCs). Makinen's criteria for serrated adenocarcinoma were applied to assess the morphologic similarity of the 2 entities. Tumor budding, another histologic feature of serrated adenocarcinoma, was also evaluated. Phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN), a commonly mutated gene in the serrated pathway, was assessed with immunohistochemistry. Tumors with aberrant PTEN expression were subjected to molecular analysis using quantitative methylation assay, exon sequencing, and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Most cases (>90%) of TSA-CRCs and BRAF-mut/MSS CRCs exhibited a constellation of serrated morphology, including epithelial serrations, abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm, and discernible/vesicular nuclei. A majority (65%) of them qualified for the diagnosis of serrated adenocarcinoma. High-grade tumor budding was closely associated with serrated morphology and was a significant independent factor for poor patient survival in multivariate analysis (P=0.008). Aberrant PTEN expression was detected in nearly half of the cases of both entities (P=0.501). Among the 44 samples with aberrant PTEN expression, 8 harbored PTEN somatic mutations, which were characterized by random distribution without hotspot clustering, 12 had promoter hypermethylation, and 14 had deleted alleles. These findings support a unique model of colorectal carcinogenesis that is similar between TSA-CRCs and BRAF-mut/MSS CRCs. Both entities exhibited common histologic patterns and similar molecular alterations and may well constitute the TSA pathway.