Clinical characteristics of three distinct types of pancreatitis with overlapping etiologies: A ten-year retrospective cohort study.

Background: Hypertriglyceridemia (HTG) is frequently observed in non-HTG-induced acute pancreatitis (AP), such as in the early stage of acute biliary pancreatitis (ABP). There is overlap in the etiologies of ABP, HTG-AP, and biliary-hypertriglyceridemia acute pancreatitis (BHAP), which may be perplexing for clinicians.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 394 AP patients.

Efficacy of neoadjuvant CapeOX/mFOLFOX6 without radiation for patients with baseline resectable mid-low locally advanced rectal cancer.

Objectives: Chemotherapy without radiation therapy for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) has attracted increasing attention, but the optimal schema remains controversial. In this study, we aimed to assess the efficacy and toxicity of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (nCT) of two regimens for patients with mid-low baseline resectable LARC.

Methods: A retrospective study was performed in 131 patients with baseline resectable LARC in a single center between April 2016 and August 2020.

Sortilin regulates keratinocyte proliferation and apoptosis through the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway.

Sortilin is found to regulate proliferation and death of different cells, while its role in regulating keratinocyte proliferation and apoptosis is still unknown. In this study, we found that sortilin levels significantly increased in psoriasis patients, and sortilin suppression eliminated the proliferation of HaCaT cells induced by M5 cocktail solution and enhanced the levels of cleaved caspase 3 protein and the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio; however, levels of p-PI3K and p-AKT were decreased. In addition, sortilin silencing remitted the characteristic changes associated with psoriasis-like skin lesions.

[Water use strategy of Tamarix chinensis during a drought year in the coastal wetlands of the Yellow River Delta, China].

Tamarix chinensis, the dominant species of plant communities in the coastal wetlands of the Yellow River Delta, was selected to study the water use strategy of coastal plants at different habitats during a drought year. The ΔO values for xylem water of T. chinensis were analyzed.

[Changes in chemistry component structure and microstructure characterization of acetylated wood before and after UV radiation].

The poplar powder was acetylated with different duration as sample, processed ray radiation by using ultraviolet test box, contrasting the influences to lightfastness of wood with different acetylation degree, analyzing changing rules of characteristic peaks' intensity which belonged to the chemistry components of samples based on FTIR spectra, and the relationship between duration of acetylation and changes of chemistry components was established, The results showed that: Before UV radiation, the characteristic peaks' intensity of acetylated poplar powder at 1 739 cm(-1) which belonged to C = O in saturated esters compounds and 1 385 cm(-1) which belonged to C-H in acetate were higher than untreated ones', the poplar powder with 40 min's acetylation has the highest characteristic peaks' intensity, highest weight gain rate, remarkable acetylation effect; After UV radiation, characteristic peaks' intensity of Benzene at 1 504 cm(-1) which belonged to lignin of poplar powder was obviously higher than untreated ones', and characteristic peaks' intensity of poplar powder with 40 min's acetylation was the highest, this showed that acetylation could effectively reduce the light degradation of wood chemistry components, in order to improve the lightfastness, especially the poplar powder with 40 min's acetylation; SEM photos showed that, the fibrous surface of acetylated poplar powder was more smooth and had more narrow particle size than untreated ones', so acetylation can effectively improve the stability of wood.

Synthesis and evaluation of novel organogermanium sesquioxides as antitumor agents.

Five new organogermanium sesquioxides have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis and IR spectra. All the compounds were tested for antitumor activities against KB, HCT, and Bel cells in vitro. Compound 5 (gamma-thiocarbamido propyl germanium sesquioxide) showed excellent antitumor activity, and its inhibition yield to KB, HCT, and Bel cells was 92.

Ultrawide-bandwidth slow-light system based on THz plasmonic graded metallic grating structures.

We explore a novel mechanism for slowing down THz waves based on metallic grating structures with graded depths, whose dispersion curves and cutoff frequencies are different at different locations. Since the group velocity of spoof surface plasmons at the cutoff frequency is extremely low, THz waves are actually stopped at different positions for different frequencies. The separation between stopped waves can be tuned by changing the grade of the grating depths.

Bidirectional subwavelength slit splitter for THz surface plasmons.

We have conducted a feasibility study of a frequency splitter operating at THz frequencies, based on a bidirectional subwavelength slit simulated using two-dimensional finite difference time domain (FDTD) techniques. The near-field wave emanating from the narrow slit serves as a subwavelength-scaled excitation source. By placing two optimized grating structures on the opposite sides of the slit, the THz waves at different frequencies are guided in the two desired directions.