Preparing chiral polymers by using achiral building blocks in an achiral reaction environment is very demanding because this strategy avoids the use of expensive chiral reagents. Here, a surface-confined and sequence-controlled chiral copolymer is synthesized by the organometallic reactions between the achiral precursors 4,4″-dibromo-1,1':3',1''-terphenyl and 1-ethynyl-4-[2-(4-ethynylphenyl)ethynyl]benzene on an achiral Ag(111) surface. Combined scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory explorations show that the terminal alkyne and aromatic bromide precursors undergo dehydrogenated and debrominated metalations with surface Ag adatoms to yield the organometallic polymeric products.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo assess a subject with multiple factors or attributes, a comprehensive evaluation index, or say a composite indicator, is often constructed to make a holistic judgement. The key problem is to assign weights to the factors. There are various weighting methods in the literature, but a gold standard is lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExpert Rev Anticancer Ther
February 2025
Background: The role of angiotensin system inhibitors (ASIs) in modifying the prognosis for patients undergoing pancreatic cancer resection is not yet definitively established. This meta-analysis endeavors to consolidate existing real-world data to provide a robust, evidence-based assessment of their impact on clinical outcomes.
Methods: A meticulous search strategy was devised and executed across PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases to retrieve all relevant studies evaluating the prognostic impact of ASIs in patients who have undergone resection for pancreatic cancer.
The bulk phase of transition metal nitrides (TMNs) has long been a subject of extensive investigation due to their utility as coating materials, electrocatalysts, and diffusion barriers, attributed to their high conductivity and refractory properties. Downscaling TMNs into two-dimensional (2D) forms would provide valuable members to the existing 2D materials repertoire, with potential enhancements across various applications. Moreover, calculations have anticipated the emergence of uncommon physical phenomena in TMNs at the 2D limit.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The prognostic significance of concomitant statin use in cancer treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) remains a subject of ongoing investigation. This study aims to clarify the prognostic value of statin use in this patient population and to provide a robust, evidence-based foundation to guide therapeutic decisions.
Methods: A systematic search strategy was used across a multitude of digital archives to exhaustively identify all relevant academic literature published up until June 20, 2024.
Background: Shared decision-making (SDM) is crucial in healthcare to facilitate effective communication between providers and patients, aiding in making optimal medical decisions. Communication skills training (CST) can improve physicians' ability in SDM. However, SDM CST for medical students in Taiwan is scarce, and research comparing online versus in-person CST outcomes is lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: To evaluate the value of the postvascular phase of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in differentiating between benign and metastatic lymph nodes (LNs) in patients with breast cancer (BC). : This study retrospectively analyzed 96 suspicious LNs in the lymphatic drainage area of the breast from 90 patients with BC. All LNs were assessed by conventional ultrasound (US) and CEUS following intravenous Sonazoid injection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGood lattice point (GLP) sets are a type of number-theoretic method widely utilized across various fields. Their space-filling property can be further improved, especially with large numbers of runs and factors. In this paper, Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence is used to measure GLP sets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEntropy (Basel)
October 2024
Comp Biochem Physiol B Biochem Mol Biol
December 2024
Background: Liver is one of the most preferred destinations for distant metastasis of gastric cancer (GC) and liver metastasis usually predicts poor prognosis. The achievement of liver metastasis requires continued cross-talk of complex members in tumor microenvironment (TME) including tumor associated macrophages (TAMs).
Methods: Results from 35 cases of ex vivo cultured living tissues of GC liver metastasis have elucidated that circadian rhythm disorder (CRD) of key molecules involved in circadian timing system (CTS) facilitates niche outgrowth.
Atomically precise graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) synthesized from the bottom-up exhibit promising electronic properties for high-performance field-effect transistors (FETs). The feasibility of fabricating FETs with GNRs (GNRFETs) has been demonstrated, with ongoing efforts aimed at further improving their performance. However, their long-term stability and reliability remain unexplored, which is as important as their performance for practical applications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtending the inventory of two-dimensional (2D) materials remains highly desirable, given their excellent properties and wide applications. Current studies on 2D materials mainly focus on the van der Waals (vdW) materials since the discovery of graphene, where properties of atomically thin layers have been found to be distinct from their bulk counterparts. Beyond vdW materials, there are abundant non-vdW materials that can also be thinned down to 2D forms, which are still in their early stage of exploration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Cellular senescence (CS) represents an intracellular defense mechanism responding to stress signals and can be leveraged as a "vulnerability" in cancer treatment. This study aims to construct a CS atlas for gastric cancer (GC) and uncover potential therapeutics for GC patients.
Materials And Methods: 38 senescence-associated regulators with prognostic significance in GC were obtained from the CellAge database to construct Gastric cancer-specific Senescence Score (GSS).
Flexible and stretchable thin-film transistors (TFTs) are crucial in skin-like electronics for wearable and implantable applications. Such electronics are usually constrained in performance owing to a lack of high-mobility and stretchable semiconducting channels. Tellurium, a rising semiconductor with superior charge carrier mobilities, has been limited by its intrinsic brittleness and anisotropy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElectrons not only serve as a "reactant" in redox reactions but also play a role in "catalyzing" some chemical processes. Despite the significance and ubiquitousness of electron-induced chemistry, many related scientific issues still await further exploration, among which is the impact of molecular assembly. In this work, microscopic insights into the vital role of molecular assembly in tweaking the electron-induced surface chemistry are unfolded by combined scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patients with malignancies have an increased risk of suffering ischemic stroke via several mechanisms such as coagulation dysfunction and other malignancy-related effects as well as iatrogenic causes. Moreover, stroke can be the first sign of an occult malignancy, termed as malignancy-associated ischemic stroke (MAS). Therefore, timely diagnostic assessment and targeted management of this complex clinical situation are critical.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cervical cancer survivors can experience vaginal length shortening, vaginal stenosis, vaginal elasticity deterioration, sexual frequency reduction and sexual dysfunction. This prospective, uncontrolled, monocentric clinical interventional study aimed to evaluate the effect of vaginal dilation therapy on vaginal condition and sexual function of cervical cancer survivors who had not received timely vaginal dilation.
Methods: A total of 139 patients completed the study.
Objective: The aim of this study was to develop and prospectively validate a prediction model for superficial lymphadenopathy differentiation using Sonazoid contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) combined with ultrasound (US) and clinical data.
Methods: The training cohort comprised 260 retrospectively enrolled patients with 260 pathological lymph nodes imaged between January and December 2020. Two clinical US-CEUS models were created using multivariable logistic regression analysis and compared using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis: Model 1 included clinical and US characteristics; Model 2 included all confirmed predictors, including CEUS characteristics.