Machine-Learning Based Risk Assessment for Cancer Therapy-Related Cardiac Adverse Events Among Breast Cancer Patients.

The study aims to develop machine-learning models to predict cardiac adverse events in female breast cancer patients who receive adjuvant therapy. We selected breast cancer patients from a retrospective dataset of the Taipei Medical University Clinical Research Database and Taiwan Cancer Registry between January 2004 and December 2020. Patients were monitored at the date of prescribed chemo- and/or -target therapies until cardiac adverse events occurred during a year. Variables were used, including demographics, comorbidities, medications, and lab values. Logistics regression (LR) and artificial neural network (ANN) were used. The performance of the algorithms was measured by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). In total, 1321 patients (an equal 15039 visits) were included. The best performance of the artificial neural network (ANN) model was achieved with the AUC, precision, recall, and F1-score of 0.89, 0.14, 0.82, and 0.2, respectively. The most important features were a pre-existing cardiac disease, tumor size, estrogen receptor (ER), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), cancer stage, and age at index date. Further research is necessary to determine the feasibility of applying the algorithm in the clinical setting and explore whether this tool could improve care and outcomes.

Exploring the Sub-nanoscale Structure of Cobalt Molybdenum Sulfide and the Role of a Cobalt Promoter in Catalytic Hydrogen Evolution.

Cobalt-promoted molybdenum sulfide (CoMoS) is known as a promising catalyst for H2 evolution reaction and hydrogen desulfurization reaction. This material exhibits superior catalytic activity as compared to its pristine molybdenum sulfide counterpart. However, revealing the actual structure of cobalt-promoted molybdenum sulfide as well as the plausible contribution of a cobalt promoter is still challenging, especially when the material has an amorphous nature. Herein, we report, for the first time, on the use of positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS), being a nondestructive nuclear radiation-based method, to visualize the position of a Co promoter within the structure of MoS at the atomic scale, which is inaccessible by conventional characterization tools. It is found that at low concentrations, a Co atom occupies preferably the Mo-vacancies, thus generating the ternary phase CoMoS whose structure is composed of a Co-S-Mo building block. Increasing the Co concentration, e.g., a Co/Mo molar ratio of higher than 1.12/1, leads to the occupation of both Mo-vacancies and S-vacancies by Co. In this case, secondary phases such as MoS and CoS are also produced together with the CoMoS one. Combining the PAS and electrochemical analyses, we highlight the important contribution of a Co promoter to enhancing the catalytic H2 evolution activity. Having more Co promoter in the Mo-vacancies promotes the H2 evolution rate, whereas having Co in the S-vacancies causes a drop in H2 evolution ability. Furthermore, the occupation of Co to the S-vacancies leads also to the destabilization of the CoMoS catalyst, resulting in a rapid degradation of catalytic activity.

Crystallization Pathways and Evolution of Morphologies and Structural Defects of α-MnO2 under Air Annealing.

Manganese dioxide nanomaterials have wide applications in many areas from catalysis and Li-ion batteries to gas sensing. Understanding the crystallization pathways, morphologies, and formation of defects in their structure is particularly important but still a challenging issue. Herein, we employed an arsenal of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), neutron diffraction, positron annihilation spectroscopies, and ab initio calculations to investigate the evolution of the morphology and structure of α-MnO2 nanomaterials prepared via reduction of KMnO4 solution with C2H5OH prior to being annealed in air at 200-600 °C. We explored a novel evolution that α-MnO2 nucleation can be formed even at room temperature and gradually developed to α-MnO2 nanorods at above 500 °C. We also found the existence of H+ or K+ ions in the [1 × 1] tunnels of α-MnO2 and observed the simultaneous presence of Mn and O vacancies in α-MnO2 crystals at low temperatures. Increasing the temperature removed these O vacancies, leaving only the Mn vacancies in the samples.