A Highly Selective Probe for Real-Time Monitoring of Ethylenediamine with Ratiometric Luminescent and Colorimetric Dual-Mode Responses.

Ethylenediamine (EDA), as an important chemical raw material and fine chemical intermediate, has been widely applied in various industries. Real-time monitoring of EDA is highly desirable in daily life due to its potential threat to human health. Herein, we report a molecular probe named 4,4'-(9-carbazole-3,6-diyl)bis(1-(naphthalen-2-ylmethyl)pyridin-1-ium) iodide (p-N-DPC·I) with ratiometric luminescent and colorimetric dual-mode responses toward EDA, endowing a highly sensitive and selective detection method for its real-time monitoring.

Prognostic value of systemic inflammation response index in cancer patients treated with PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitors: a meta-analysis.

Background: The prognostic significance of the systemic inflammatory response index (SIRI) in patients with cancer receiving programmed cell death 1 (PD-1)/PD-1 ligand 1 (PD-L1) immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has been widely investigated; however, the results have been conflicting. As such, the present meta-analysis aimed to analyze the precise significance of the SIRI in predicting prognosis in patients with cancer undergoing ICI therapy.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search of the Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases for relevant studies, published from inception to April 25, 2024, was performed.

Diffusion Model-based FOD Restoration from High Distortion in dMRI.

Fiber orientation distributions (FODs) is a popular model to represent the diffusion MRI (dMRI) data. However, imaging artifacts such as susceptibility-induced distortion in dMRI can cause signal loss and lead to the corrupted reconstruction of FODs, which prohibits successful fiber tracking and connectivity analysis in affected brain regions such as the brain stem. Generative models, such as the diffusion models, have been successfully applied in various image restoration tasks.

Postoperative radiotherapy does not improve survival in patients with Masaoka-Koga stage IIB thymomas: A propensity score matching study based on the SEER database.

This study, based on a population, explored the prognostic value of postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) for Masaoka-Koga IIB stage thymomas. Patients diagnosed with thymoma from 2004 to 2017 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database were included in the retrospective study. Through propensity score matching, the baseline characteristics of the patients were successfully matched to mitigate the selection bias of PORT.

Pan-cancer analyses of immunogenic cell death-derived gene signatures: Potential biomarkers for prognosis and immunotherapy.

Background: Immunogenic cell death (ICD) is a type of regulated cell death that is capable of initiating an adaptive immune response. Induction of ICD may be a potential treatment strategy, as it has been demonstrated to activate the tumor-specific immune response.

Aims: The biomarkers of ICD and their relationships with the tumor microenvironment, clinical features, and immunotherapy response are not fully understood in a clinical context.

Flow-based Geometric Interpolation of Fiber Orientation Distribution Functions.

The fiber orientation distribution function (FOD) is an advanced model for high angular resolution diffusion MRI representing complex fiber geometry. However, the complicated mathematical structures of the FOD function pose challenges for FOD image processing tasks such as interpolation, which plays a critical role in the propagation of fiber tracts in tractography. In FOD-based tractography, linear interpolation is commonly used for numerical efficiency, but it is prone to generate false artificial information, leading to anatomically incorrect fiber tracts.

Diffusion MRI harmonization via personalized template mapping.

One fundamental challenge in diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) harmonization is to disentangle the contributions of scanner-related effects from the variable brain anatomy for the observed imaging signals. Conventional harmonization methods rely on establishing an atlas space to resolve anatomical variability and generate a unified inter-site mapping function. However, this approach is limited in accounting for the misalignment of neuroanatomy that still widely persists even after registration, especially in regions close to cortical boundaries.

Uncovering Heterogeneity in Alzheimer's Disease from Graphical Modeling of the Tau Spatiotemporal Topography.

Growing evidence from post-mortem and in vivo studies have demonstrated the substantial variability of tau pathology spreading patterns in Alzheimer's disease(AD). Automated tools for characterizing the heterogeneity of tau pathology will enable a more accurate understanding of the disease and help the development of targeted treatment. In this paper, we propose a Reeb graph representation of tau pathology topography on cortical surfaces using tau PET imaging data.

Personalized Patch-based Normality Assessment of Brain Atrophy in Alzheimer's Disease.

Cortical thickness is an important biomarker associated with gray matter atrophy in neurodegenerative diseases. In order to conduct meaningful comparisons of cortical thickness between different subjects, it is imperative to establish correspondence among surface meshes. Conventional methods achieve this by projecting surface onto canonical domains such as the unit sphere or averaging feature values in anatomical regions of interest (ROIs).

Shape-Aware 3D Small Vessel Segmentation with Local Contrast Guided Attention.

The automated segmentation and analysis of small vessels from imaging data is an important task for many clinical applications. While current filtering and learning methods have achieved good performance on the segmentation of large vessels, they are sub-optimal for small vessel detection due to their apparent geometric irregularity and weak contrast given the relatively limited resolution of existing imaging techniques. In addition, for supervised learning approaches, the acquisition of accurate pixel-wise annotations in these small vascular regions heavily relies on skilled experts.

FASSt : Filtering via Symmetric Autoencoder for Spherical Superficial White Matter Tractography.

Superficial white matter (SWM) plays an important role in functioning of the human brain, and it contains a large amount of cortico-cortical connections. However, the difficulties of generating complete and reliable U-fibers make SWM-related analysis lag behind relatively matured Deep white matter (DWM) analysis. With the aid of some newly proposed surface-based SWM tractography algorithms, we have developed a specialized SWM filtering method based on a symmetric variational autoencoder (VAE).

ICBP90, an epigenetic regulator, induces DKK3 promoter methylation, promotes glioma progression, and reduces sensitivity to cis-platinum.

Glioma is the most common brain malignancy, characterized by high morbidity, high mortality, and treatment-resistance. Inverted CCAAT box Binding Protein of 90 kDa (ICBP90) has been reported to be involved in tumor progression and the maintenance of DNA methylation. Herein, we constructed ICBP90 over-expression and knockdown glioma cell lines, and found that ICBP90 knockdown inhibited glioma cell proliferation, migration, and invasion.

Vessel density mapping of small cerebral vessels on 3D high resolution black blood MRI.

Small cerebral blood vessels are largely inaccessible to existing clinical in vivo imaging technologies. This study aims to present a novel analysis pipeline for vessel density mapping of small cerebral blood vessels from high-resolution 3D black-blood MRI at 3T. Twenty-eight subjects (10 under 35 years old, 18 over 60 years old) were imaged with the T1-weighted turbo spin-echo with variable flip angles (T1w TSE-VFA) sequence optimized for black-blood small vessel imaging with iso-0.

Surface-Based Probabilistic Fiber Tracking in Superficial White Matter.

The short association fibers or U-fibers travel in the superficial white matter (SWM) beneath the cortical layer. While the U-fibers play a crucial role in various brain disorders, there is a lack of effective tools to reconstruct their highly curved trajectory from diffusion MRI (dMRI). In this work, we propose a novel surface-based framework for the probabilistic tracking of fibers on the triangular mesh representation of the SWM.

Effectiveness of S-1-Based Chemoradiotherapy in Patients 70 Years and Older With Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Double-agent intravenous chemotherapy concurrent with radiotherapy is the standard of care for patients with inoperable esophageal cancer. However, patients tend to tolerate intravenous chemotherapy less well with age and comorbidities. It is essential to find a better treatment modality that improves survival outcomes without reducing the quality of life.

Time-dependent photo-activated aminoborane room-temperature phosphorescence materials with unprecedented properties: simple, versatile, multicolor-tuneable, water resistance, optical information writing/erasing, and multilevel data encryption.

Triarylboranes-based pure organic room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials are rarely investigated because of their large steric hindrance and the electron defect of the boron atom. As a result, creating functional triarylborane RTP materials is difficult. Herein, we report the first photo-activated RTP materials with lifetimes/quantum yields ≤0.

Pulmonary function protection by single-port thoracoscopic segmental lung resection in elderly patients with IA non-small cell lung cancer: A differential matched analysis.

In patients with stage IA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), uniportal video-assisted thoracic surgery (U-VATS) anatomical segmentectomy removes the lung tumor while preserving lung function as much as possible, and it is therefore an alternative to lobectomy. Patients with stage IA NSCLC receiving U-VATS segmental resection at our institution from September 2017 to June 2019 were compared with patients receiving U-VATS lobectomy. A total of 47 patients received segmentectomy and 209 patients received U-VATS lobectomy in the same period.

Retinotopic degeneration of the retina and optic tracts in autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: We investigated the correlation between retinal thickness and optic tract integrity in subjects with autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease (ADAD) causing mutations.

Methods: Retinal thicknesses and diffusion tensor images (DTI) were obtained using optical coherence tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, respectively. The association between retinal thickness and DTI measures was adjusted for age, sex, retinotopy, and correlation between eyes.

Vessel Density Mapping of Cerebral Small Vessels on 3D High Resolution Black Blood MRI.

Cerebral small vessels are largely inaccessible to existing clinical in vivo imaging technologies. This study aims to present a novel analysis pipeline for vessel density mapping of cerebral small vessels from high-resolution 3D black-blood MRI at 3T. Twenty-eight subjects (10 under 35 years old, 18 over 60 years old) were imaged with the T1-weighted turbo spin-echo with variable flip angles (T1w TSE-VFA) sequence optimized for black-blood small vessel imaging with iso-0.

Multicolor Adjustable B-N Molecular Switches: Simple, Efficient, Portable, and Visual Identification of Butanol Isomers.

As intelligent probes, dynamic and controllable molecular switches are useful tools for probing and intervening in life processes. However, the types and properties of molecular switches are still relatively single and often can only make two actions: "off" and "on". Therefore, the development of novel molecular switches with multiple colors and multiple instructions is very challenging.

Automated Mapping of Residual Distortion Severity in Diffusion MRI.

Susceptibility-induced distortion is a common artifact in diffusion MRI (dMRI), which deforms the dMRI locally and poses significant challenges in connectivity analysis. While various methods were proposed to correct the distortion, residual distortions often persist at varying degrees across brain regions and subjects. Generating a voxel-level residual distortion severity map can thus be a valuable tool to better inform downstream connectivity analysis.

Simple Stimulus-Responsive Organic Long Persistent Luminescence Systems Based on Methoxy-Functionalized Triphenylphosphine.

Triarylphosphine-based pure organic long persistent luminescence materials are rarely investigated because of their poor stability and low photoluminescence quantum yield. Herein, we demonstrate that the introduction of a methoxy group (TPP--3OMe) at the position of triphenylphosphine (TPP) can essentially promote the n → π* transition and promote intersystem crossing to generate more triplet excitons. Simultaneously, generating abundant intramolecular and intermolecular hydrogen bonds to stable excited triplet excitons is beneficial, thereby causing high-efficiency phosphorescence emission (τ = 394.