Copper-Vapor-Assisted Rapid Synthesis of Large AB-Stacked Bilayer Graphene Domains on Cu-Ni Alloy.

The synergic effects of Cu85Ni15 and the copper vapor evaporated from copper foil enabled the fast growth of a ≈300 μm bilayer graphene in ≈10 minutes. The copper vapor reduces the growth rate of the first graphene layer while the carbon dissolved in the alloy boosts the growth of the subsequently developed second graphene layer with an AB-stacking order.

Superconducting nanowire single photon detector at 532 nm and demonstration in satellite laser ranging.

Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) at a wavelength of 532 nm were designed and fabricated aiming to satellite laser ranging (SLR) applications. The NbN SNSPDs were fabricated on one-dimensional photonic crystals with a sensitive-area diameter of 42 μm. The devices were coupled with multimode fiber (ϕ = 50 μm) and exhibited a maximum system detection efficiency of 75% at an extremely low dark count rate of <0.

The miR-34a-LDHA axis regulates glucose metabolism and tumor growth in breast cancer.

Lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) is involved in a variety of cancers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression, prognostic roles and function of LDHA in breast cancer. We found that LDHA was upregulated in both breast cancer cell lines and clinical specimens using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR).

Genetic variants in EBV reactivation-related genes and the risk and survival of breast cancer.

Tumor susceptibility gene 101 (TSG101) and activating transcription factor 2 (ATF2) have been suggested to involve in the reactivation of EBV which has implications in the development and progression of breast cancer. Therefore, the polymorphisms of TSG101 and ATF2 may associate with breast cancer risk and prognosis. A case-control study with 1551 breast cancer cases and 1605 age-matched controls were conducted in Guangzhou, China.

The tumor-to-breast volume ratio (TBR) predicts cancer-specific survival in breast cancer patients who underwent modified radical mastectomy.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women globally, and tumor size measured as the largest diameter of the tumor focus is currently used in tumor-lymph node-metastasis (TNM) staging for prognosis and treatment decisions. The present study utilized the tumor-to-breast volume ratio (TBR) to evaluate the relative tumor size and determined the prognostic impact of TBR on survival in patients with breast cancer. Two thousand twenty-five consecutive breast cancer patients who underwent modified radical mastectomy between January 2002 and December 2008 at Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center were enrolled in this retrospective study.

Prognostic Significance of Preoperative Circulating Monocyte Count in Patients With Breast Cancer: Based on a Large Cohort Study.

Growing evidence showed that inflammation response plays an important role in cancer development and progression, and absolute lymphocyte count (ALC), absolute monocyte count (AMC), and lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR) have been used as parameters of systemic inflammation in several tumors. In this study, we evaluated the prognostic significance of preoperative ALC, AMC and LMR in breast cancer and 2000 patients between January 2002 and December 2008 at Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center were enrolled. Patients were grouped by the cut-off value according to the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis.

The Practicability of a Novel Prognostic Index (PI) Model and Comparison with Nottingham Prognostic Index (NPI) in Stage I-III Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Surgical Treatment.

Background: Previous studies have indicated the prognostic value of various laboratory parameters in cancer patients. This study was to establish a prognostic index (PI) model for breast cancer patients based on the potential prognostic factors.

Methods: A retrospective study of 1661 breast cancer patients who underwent surgical treatment between January 2002 and December 2008 at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center was conducted.

Fast growth of inch-sized single-crystalline graphene from a controlled single nucleus on Cu-Ni alloys.

Wafer-scale single-crystalline graphene monolayers are highly sought after as an ideal platform for electronic and other applications. At present, state-of-the-art growth methods based on chemical vapour deposition allow the synthesis of one-centimetre-sized single-crystalline graphene domains in ∼12 h, by suppressing nucleation events on the growth substrate. Here we demonstrate an efficient strategy for achieving large-area single-crystalline graphene by letting a single nucleus evolve into a monolayer at a fast rate.

Carrier-mediated ferromagnetism in the magnetic topological insulator Cr-doped (Sb,Bi)2Te3.

Magnetically doped topological insulators, possessing an energy gap created at the Dirac point through time-reversal-symmetry breaking, are predicted to exhibit exotic phenomena including the quantized anomalous Hall effect and a dissipationless transport, which facilitate the development of low-power-consumption devices using electron spins. Although several candidates of magnetically doped topological insulators were demonstrated to show long-range magnetic order, the realization of the quantized anomalous Hall effect is so far restricted to the Cr-doped (Sb,Bi)2Te3 system at extremely low temperature; however, the microscopic origin of its ferromagnetism is poorly understood. Here we present an element-resolved study for Cr-doped (Sb,Bi)2Te3 using X-ray magnetic circular dichroism to unambiguously show that the long-range magnetic order is mediated by the p-hole carriers of the host lattice, and the interaction between the Sb(Te) p and Cr d states is crucial.

Night-shift work increases morbidity of breast cancer and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 16 prospective cohort studies.

Night-shift work (NSW) has previously been related to incidents of breast cancer and all-cause mortality, but many published studies have reported inconclusive results. The aim of the present study was to quantify a potential dose-effect relationship between NSW and morbidity of breast cancer, and to evaluate the association between NSW and risk of all-cause mortality. The outcomes included NSW, morbidity of breast cancer, cardiovascular mortality, cancer-related mortality, and all-cause mortality.

The preoperative plasma fibrinogen level is an independent prognostic factor for overall survival of breast cancer patients who underwent surgical treatment.

Background: Previous studies have suggested that plasma fibrinogen contributes to tumor cell proliferation, progression and metastasis. The current study was performed to evaluate the prognostic relevance of preoperative plasma fibrinogen in breast cancer patients.

Method: Data of 2073 consecutive breast cancer patients, who underwent surgery between January 2002 and December 2008 at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, were retrospectively evaluated.

Plasma miR-185 as a predictive biomarker for prognosis of malignant glioma.

Introduction: Specific microRNA (miRNA) expression signatures have been identified in a variety of human cancers. More recently, increasing evidence shows that miRNAs exist in human blood serum and plasma.

Materials And Methods: Levels of miR-185 in plasma were measured by quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in 66 glioma patients, 11 pituitary adenoma patients, 32 meningioma patients, and 14 acoustic neuroma patients.

Caveolin-1, a stress-related oncotarget, in drug resistance.

Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) is both a tumor suppressor and an oncoprotein. Cav-1 overexpression was frequently confirmed in advanced cancer stages and positively associated with ABC transporters, cancer stem cell populations, aerobic glycolysis activity and autophagy. Cav-1 was tied to various stresses including radiotherapy, fluid shear and oxidative stresses and ultraviolet exposure, and interacted with stress signals such as AMP-activated protein kinase.

miR-200c inhibits breast cancer proliferation by targeting KRAS.

The microRNA, miR-200c, is involved in the tumorigenesis and progression of a variety of cancers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression, mechanism and prognostic roles of miR-200c in breast cancer. We found that miR-200c was downregulated in both breast cancer tissue and cell lines using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR).

Structure and properties of type-II clathrate Cs8Na16-xTlxGe136.

Tl-doped type-II clathrate Cs8Na16-xTlxGe136 was synthesized from its elements. The structure was characterised by single crystal and powder diffraction. Cs8Na16-xTlxGe136 crystallized in the space group Fd3[combining macron]m.

A new mild, clean and highly efficient method for the preparation of graphene quantum dots without by-products.

We demonstrated that graphene oxide (GO) can be oxidized and cut into graphene quantum dots (GQDs) by hydroxyl radicals (˙OH), which is obtained by the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide (HO) with a tungsten oxide nanowire (WO) catalyst. The clean oxidizing agent (HO) and the solid catalyst lead to a simple GQD preparing method without any by-products. The obtained GQD aqueous solution can be directly applied to fluorescence imaging in vitro without any further purification.

Trends in Radical Surgical Treatment Methods for Breast Malignancies in China: A Multicenter 10-Year Retrospective Study.

Background: Incidence rates of breast cancer continue to rise in the People's Republic of China. The purpose of this study was to describe Chinese trends in radical surgical modalities and influential imaging and demographic factors for breast malignancies.

Materials And Methods: This study was a hospital-based, multicenter, 10-year (1999-2008), retrospective study.

Breast Cancer Disparities: A Multicenter Comparison of Tumor Diagnosis, Characteristics, and Surgical Treatment in China and the U.S.

Background And Objective: Incidence of and mortality rates for breast cancer continue to rise in the People's Republic of China. The purpose of this study was to analyze differences in characteristics of breast malignancies between China and the U.S.

Large-sensitive-area superconducting nanowire single-photon detector at 850 nm with high detection efficiency.

Satellite-ground quantum communication requires single-photon detectors of 850-nm wavelength with both high detection efficiency and large sensitive area. We developed superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) on one-dimensional photonic crystals, which acted as optical cavities to enhance the optical absorption, with a sensitive-area diameter of 50 μm. The fabricated multimode fiber coupled NbN SNSPDs exhibited a maximum system detection efficiency (DE) of up to 82% and a DE of 78% at a dark count rate of 100 Hz at 850-nm wavelength as well as a system jitter of 105 ps.

LGR5 Promotes Breast Cancer Progression and Maintains Stem-Like Cells Through Activation of Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling.

The cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis suggests that a subset of cancer cells possesses stem cell properties and is crucial in tumor initiation, metastasis, and drug resistance. To determine the mechanism of CSCs in breast cancer, we focused on LGR5, a marker of adult stem cells that potentially serves as a functional factor in CSCs. LGR5 overexpression was detected in breast cancer and significantly associated with breast cancer recurrence and poor outcome.

Few-photon imaging at 1550 nm using a low-timing-jitter superconducting nanowire single-photon detector.

We demonstrated a laser depth imaging system based on the time-correlated single-photon counting technique, which was incorporated with a low-jitter superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD), operated at the wavelength of 1550 nm. A sub-picosecond time-bin width was chosen for photon counting, resulting in a discrete noise of less than one/two counts for each time bin under indoor/outdoor daylight conditions, with a collection time of 50 ms. Because of the low-jitter SNSPD, the target signal histogram was significantly distinguishable, even for a fairly low retro-reflected photon flux.

ERβ1 inversely correlates with PTEN/PI3K/AKT pathway and predicts a favorable prognosis in triple-negative breast cancer.

In contrast to the well-established role of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) in breast cancer, the significance of estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) remains controversial, especially in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). We sought to investigate the clinical importance of wild-type ERβ (ERβ1) in TNBC based on a large population, and to explore the potential molecular pathways involved in. A total of 571 patients with invasive TNBC undergoing curative surgery were included in this study.

Effect of magnetic field fluctuation on ultra-low field MRI measurements in the unshielded laboratory environment.

Magnetic field fluctuations in our unshielded urban laboratory can reach hundreds of nT in the noisy daytime and is only a few nT in the quiet midnight. The field fluctuation causes the Larmor frequency fL to drift randomly for several Hz during the unshielded ultra-low field (ULF) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements, thus seriously spoiling the averaging effect and causing imaging artifacts. By using an active compensation (AC) technique based on the spatial correlation of the low-frequency magnetic field fluctuation, the field fluctuation can be suppressed to tens of nT, which is a moderate situation between the noisy daytime and the quiet midnight.

MicroRNA-101 inhibits cell progression and increases paclitaxel sensitivity by suppressing MCL-1 expression in human triple-negative breast cancer.

Triple-negative breast cancer is the most aggressive breast cancer subtype. The aim of our study was to investigate the functional role of both miR-101 and MCL-1 in the sensitivity of human triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) to paclitaxel. We found that the expression of miR-101 was strongly decreased in triple-negative breast cancer tissues and cell lines.

Ultralight boron nitride aerogels via template-assisted chemical vapor deposition.

Boron nitride (BN) aerogels are porous materials with a continuous three-dimensional network structure. They are attracting increasing attention for a wide range of applications. Here, we report the template-assisted synthesis of BN aerogels by catalyst-free, low-pressure chemical vapor deposition on graphene-carbon nanotube composite aerogels using borazine as the B and N sources with a relatively low temperature of 900 (°)C.