Interferon-Induced Protein With Multiple Tetratricopeptide Repeats 3 Is Associated With Response to Chemotherapy and Recurrence but Not With Survival.

Objectives: The interferon-induced protein with multiple tetratricopeptide repeats 3 (IFIT3) seems to be associated with the prognosis in pancreatic cancer. Here we clarify whether the heterogeneity of IFIT3 expression affects previous IFIT3 analysis.

Methods: This retrospective study analyzes pancreatic cancer tissue samples retrieved by surgery from 2 independent patient cohorts.

Aerosol-Assisted Assembly of Mesoporous Carbon Spheres With Fast and Stable K-ion Storage.

Cost effective anode material with rational design is of significance for rechargeable potassium ion batteries (KIBs). Graphite anode currently still suffers unfavorable rate capability and moderate cycling stability. In this work, we report a mesoporous carbon sphere with rich porous structure as an anode material for KIBs with the assistance of an aerosol spray technology.

The prevalence and risk factors of PTSD symptoms among medical assistance workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The outbreak of COVID 19 in December 2019 spread quickly and overwhelmed the local healthcare system of the epicenter. A total of 346 medical assistance teams with 42,600 reserve medics were mobilized from around the country for emergency assistance. This study aims to examine the incidence of mental health symptoms and predictors of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) symptoms among the reserve medics working in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province.

Quantitative assessment of portal hypertension with bi-parametric dual-frequency hepatic MR elastography in mouse models.

Objectives: To determine the potential of bi-parametric dual-frequency hepatic MR elastography (MRE) for predicting portal pressure (PP) in mouse models of portal hypertension (PHTN) with the presence of varying hepatic fibrosis.

Methods: We studied 73 wild-type male mice, including 22 mice with hepatic congestion, 20 mice with cholestatic liver injury, and 31 age-matched sham mice. Hepatic shear stiffness (SS) and volumetric strain (VS) were calculated by 3D MRE acquired at 80 and 200 Hz.

Resilient H∞ State Estimation for Discrete-Time Stochastic Delayed Memristive Neural Networks: A Dynamic Event-Triggered Mechanism.

In this article, a resilient H approach is put forward to deal with the state estimation problem for a type of discrete-time delayed memristive neural networks (MNNs) subject to stochastic disturbances (SDs) and dynamic event-triggered mechanism (ETM). The dynamic ETM is utilized to mitigate unnecessary resource consumption occurring in the sensor-to-estimator communication channel. To guarantee resilience against possible realization errors, the estimator gain is permitted to undergo some norm-bounded parameter drifts.

Homocysteine level, body mass index and clinical correlates in Chinese Han patients with schizophrenia.

Obesity is common comorbidity in patients with schizophrenia. Previous studies have reported that homocysteine (Hcy) is increased in schizophrenia. However, no study has reported the association between BMI and Hcy levels in schizophrenia.

A Theoretical Analysis on the Oxidation and Water Dissociation Resistance on Group-IV Phosphide Monolayers.

Group-IV phosphide monolayers (MP, M=C, Si, Ge and Sn) provide a versatile platform for photocatalysts, as well as optoelectronic and nanoelectronic devices. Herein, comprehensive first-principles calculations and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations were performed to explore their stabilities in the air. We identified that the MP monolayers have excellent mechanical properties and their carrier mobilities are higher than that of phosphorene.

Forensic genomics of a novel type from a neonatal intensive care unit in China reveals patterns of colonization, evolution and epidemiology.

During March 2017, a neonatal patient with severe diarrhoea subsequently developed septicaemia and died, with isolated as the causative microorganism. In keeping with infection control protocols, the coincident illness of an attending staff member and three other neonates with infection triggered an outbreak response, leading to microbiological assessment of isolates collected from the staff member and all 21 co-housed neonates. Multilocus sequence typing and genomic sequencing identified that the isolates from the 21 neonates were of a new sequence type, ST2727, and taxonomically belonged to subsp.

Combined application of single-energy metal artifact reduction and reconstruction techniques in patients with Cochlear implants.

Background: The purpose of this study was to develop an effective method of reducing metal artifacts in cochlear implant (CI) electrodes.

Methods: The temporal bones of 30 patients (34 ears) after CI were examined with 320-detector row computed tomography, which was evaluated by two senior radiologists using a double-blind method. Noise, artifact index, signal-to-noise ratio, and the subjective image quality score were compared before versus after using single-energy metal artifact reduction (SEMAR).

[Gefitinib inhibits glycolysis and induces programmed cell death in non-small cell lung cancer cells].

Objective: To observe the cell death pattern induced by gefitinib in non-small cell lung cancer A549 and H1975 cells and explore the possible mechanism in light of glycolysis.

Methods: The inhibitory effects of gefitinib at 20, 30, or 40 μmol/L in A549 cells and at 20, 40, or 80 μmol/L in H1975 cells were examined using MTT assay. The changes of lactic acid level in the cells were determined with a lactic acid kit, and the expression levels of glycolysis-related proteins (PKM2 and HK2) and the proteins in PI3K-Akt-mTOR signaling pathway were detected using Western blotting.

Emerging Potassium-ion Hybrid Capacitors.

As a new type of capacitor-battery hybrid energy storage device, metal-ion capacitors have attracted widespread attention because of their high-power density while ensuring energy density and long lifespan. Potassium-ion capacitors (KICs) featuring the merits of abundant potassium resources, lower standard electrode potential, and low cost have been considered as potential alternatives to lithium-/sodium-ion capacitors. However, KICs still face issues including unsatisfactory reaction kinetics, low energy density, and poor lifetime owing to the large radius of the potassium ion.

H and l-l state estimation for delayed memristive neural networks on finite horizon: The Round-Robin protocol.

In this paper, a protocol-based finite-horizon H and l-l estimation approach is put forward to solve the state estimation problem for discrete-time memristive neural networks (MNNs) subject to time-varying delays and energy-bounded disturbances. The Round-Robin protocol is utilized to mitigate unnecessary network congestion occurring in the sensor-to-estimator communication channel. For the delayed MNNs, our aim is to devise an estimator that not only ensures a prescribed disturbance attenuation level over a finite time-horizon, but also keeps the peak value of the estimation error within a given range.

The fusiform gyrus exhibits an epigenetic signature for Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia, and patients with advanced AD frequently lose the ability to identify family members. The fusiform gyrus (FUS) of the brain is critical in facial recognition. However, AD etiology in the FUS of AD patients is poorly understood.

Altered gut microbiota associated with symptom severity in schizophrenia.

Background: The gut microbiome and microbiome-gut-brain (MGB) axis have been receiving increasing attention for their role in the regulation of mental behavior and possible biological basis of psychiatric disorders. With the advance of next-generation sequencing technology, characterization of the gut microbiota in schizophrenia (SZ) patients can provide rich clues for the diagnosis and prevention of SZ.

Methods: In this study, we compared the differences in the fecal microbiota between 82 SZ patients and 80 demographically matched normal controls (NCs) by 16S rRNA sequencing and analyzed the correlations between altered gut microbiota and symptom severity.

L226Q Mutation on Influenza H7N9 Virus Hemagglutinin Increases Receptor-Binding Avidity and Leads to Biased Antigenicity Evaluation.

Since the first outbreak in 2013, the influenza A (H7N9) virus has continued emerging and has caused over five epidemic waves. Suspected antigenic changes of the H7N9 virus based on hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay during the fifth outbreak have prompted the update of H7N9 candidate vaccine viruses (CVVs). In this study, we comprehensively compared the serological cross-reactivities induced by the hemagglutinins (HAs) of the earlier CVV A/Anhui/1/2013 (H7/AH13) and the updated A/Guangdong/17SF003/2016 (H7/GD16).

LC-MS based metabolomics reveals metabolic pathway disturbance in retinal pigment epithelial cells exposed to hydroxychloroquine.

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is frequently used medications for many auto-immunity diseases. However, HCQ induced retinal toxicity, which might result in irreversible retinopathy, is one of the most important complications of HCQ. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the HCQ retinal toxicity is still not well known.

MR elastography of liver: current status and future perspectives.

Non-invasive evaluation of liver fibrosis has evolved over the last couple of decades. Currently, elastography techniques are the most widely used non-invasive methods for clinical evaluation of chronic liver disease (CLD). MR elastography (MRE) of the liver has been used in the clinical practice for nearly a decade and continues to be widely accepted for detection and staging of liver fibrosis.

Author Correction: Effect of FeCoNiCrCu High-entropy-alloy Substrate on Sn Grain Size in Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu Solder.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

First description of antimicrobial resistance in carbapenem-susceptible Klebsiella pneumoniae after imipenem treatment, driven by outer membrane remodeling.

Background: The emergence of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) poses a looming threat to human health. Although there are numerous studies regarding porin alteration in association with the production of ESBLs and/or AmpC β-lactamase, a systematic study on the treatment-emergence of porins alteration in antibiotic resistance does not yet exist. The aim of this study was to investigate the underlying mechanism of resistance of K.

Broadband terahertz absorber with a flexible, reconfigurable performance based on hybrid-patterned vanadium dioxide metasurfaces.

An actively tunable broadband terahertz absorber is numerically demonstrated, which consists of four identical vanadium dioxide (VO) square loops and a metal ground plane separated by a dielectric spacer. Simulation results show that an excellent absorption bandwidth of 90% terahertz absorptance reaches as wide as 2.45 THz from 1.

Efficacy of interleukin-6 in combination with D-dimer in predicting early poor postoperative prognosis after acute stanford type a aortic dissection.

Background: We studied early poor postoperative prognosis in acute Stanford type A aortic dissection (ATAAD) patients and investigated the predictive effect of interleukin-6 (IL-6) combined with D-dimer in the early poor postoperative prognosis after ATAAD.

Methods: Data on 141 ATAAD patients, who underwent emergency surgery between January 2018 and December 2018 at our hospital, were studied. We analyzed early postoperative prognosis using two patient groups.

Delay-distribution-dependent state estimation for neural networks under stochastic communication protocol with uncertain transition probabilities.

In this paper, the protocol-based remote state estimation problem is considered for a kind of delayed artificial neural networks. The random time-varying delays fall into certain intervals with known probability distributions. For the sake of reducing the data collisions in communication channel from the sensors to the estimator, the stochastic communication protocol (SCP) is employed to decide which sensor is allowed to transmit its data to the remote estimator through the channel at each fixed instant.

Inflammatory IFIT3 renders chemotherapy resistance by regulating post-translational modification of VDAC2 in pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal cancers worldwide and effective therapy remains a challenge. IFIT3 is an interferon-stimulated gene with antiviral and pro-inflammatory functions. Our previous work has shown that high expression of IFIT3 is correlated with poor survival in PDAC patients who receive chemotherapy suggesting a link between IFIT3 and chemotherapy resistance in PDAC.