Effect of adjuvant therapy with compound danshen drip pill on inflammatory factors and cardiac function after percutaneous coronary intervention for acute myocardial infarction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to comprehensively evaluate efficacy and safety of CDDP in patients with AMI undergoing PCI. Methods: A computerised search was conducted on the CNKI, WF, VIP, CBM, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases for RCTs of CDDP adjuvant therapy for AMI up to May 2023. STATA 17.0 was used to perform meta-analyses, sensitivity analyses, subgroup analyses, meta-regression, and publication bias assessments. TSA 0.9.5.10 Beta was used for trial sequential analysis (TSA). Evidence confidence of meta results was evaluated by GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) according to the instructions. Results: The results of the meta-analysis showed that CDDP combined with conventional western treatment (CWT) was superior to CWT in increasing LVEF and TCER and decreasing LVEDD, hs-CRP, IL-6 and TNF-α. The quality of evidence for TCER was moderate, LVEF, LVEDD, IL-6, and TNF-α were low. The TSA results showed that the total number of samples collected in this study met the requirements for meta-analysis and excluded the possibility of false positives, further confirming the efficacy of CDDP for the treatment of AMI undergoing PCI. Conclusion: Adjuvant treatment of AMI with CDDP has shown exciting and safe benefits in improving cardiac function and reducing inflammatory response in patients with AMI undergoing PCI, but the quality of some of the included studies was poor, and the results should be interpreted with caution until further confirmation by well-designed RCTs. Systematic Review Registration: [https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/#recordDetails], identifier [CRD42023453293].

Detection of pTDP-43 via routine muscle biopsy: A promising diagnostic biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease, pathologically characterized by TDP-43 aggregates. Recent evidence has been indicated that phosphorylated TDP-43 (pTDP-43) is present not only in motor neurons but also in muscle tissues. However, it is unclear whether testing pTDP-43 aggregation in muscle tissue would assist in the diagnosis of ALS. We propose three key questions: (i) Is aggregation of pTDP-43 detectable in routine biopsied muscles? (ii) Can detection of pTDP-43 aggregation discriminate between ALS and non-ALS patients? (iii) Can pTDP-43 aggregation be observed in the early stages of ALS? We conducted a diagnostic study comprising 2 groups: an ALS group in which 18 cases underwent muscle biopsy screened from a registered ALS cohort consisting of 802 patients and a non-ALS control group, in which we randomly selected 54 muscle samples from a biospecimen bank of 684 patients. Among the 18 ALS patients, 3 patients carried pathological GGGGCC repeats in the C9ORF72 gene, 2 patients carried SOD1 mutations, and 7 patients were at an early stage with only one body region clinically affected. The pTDP-43 accumulation could be detected in routine biopsied muscles, including biceps brachii, deltoid, tibialis anterior, and quadriceps. Abnormal aggregation of pTDP-43 was present in 94.4% of ALS patients (17/18) compared to 29.6% of non-ALS controls (16/54; p < 0.001). The pTDP-43 aggregates were mainly close to the sarcolemma. Using a semi-quantified pTDP-43 aggregates score, we applied a cut-off value of 3 as a diagnostic biomarker, resulting in a sensitivity of 94.4% and a specificity of 83.3%. Moreover, we observed that accumulation of pTDP-43 occurred in muscle tissues prior to clinical symptoms and electromyographic lesions. Our study provides proof-of-concept for the detection of pTDP-43 accumulation via routine muscle biopsy which may serve as a novel biomarker for diagnosis of ALS.

Impact of independent early stage extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the emergency department following the establishment of an extracorporeal life support team.

Objective: In this paper, we present a comprehensive overview of our experience in establishing and leading distinct extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR)-related teams to independently handle ECPR in the early stages in the emergency department. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 29 patients who underwent ECPR treatment in the emergency room between May 2018 and April 2022. A control group, consisting of 10 patients treated between May 2018 and September 2019 was managed using a standard rescue coordination mode. The 19 patients who received ECPR between October 2019 and April 2022 were treated by members of the department's 24-h extracorporeal life support team. We compared the implementation and operational challenges faced by the two groups, including item preparation, circuit setup, and ECPR initiation times, among other factors. Results: Gender, age, cardiac arrest risk factors, and other baseline data did not significantly differ between the two groups. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) pipeline prefilling time (from 35.27±10.34 to 13.46±5.32), ECPR establishment time (from 62.35±29.61 to 30.98±13.41), and item preparation time (from 16.42±9.78 to 3.19±1.49) all considerably decreased when compared to the control group. The rate of return of spontaneous circulation recovery rose from 37.50 % to 77.78 % (P < 0.05). The consequences of gastrointestinal and pulmonary bleeding were greatly reduced while ECPR was being used, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Significant improvements were made in the ECPR weaning rate (from 25.00 % to 38.89 %) and survival rate (from 20.0 % to 36.8 %). Conclusion: The establishment of a 24-h extracorporeal life support team significantly reduced the time needed for rescue during the early stage of independent setup of ECPR in the emergency department and serves as a guide for effective care of critically ill patients.

A visible-light-induced bromine radical initiates direct C-H alkylation of heteroaromatics.

Herein, a photoinduced direct C(sp2)-H alkylation of N-heteroaromatics by using commercially available tetrabutylammonium tribromide (TBATB) as a HAT reagent is described. The method uses O2 as the oxidant, and features metal-free, mild reaction conditions and good functional group compatibility.

Photoredox Catalysis-Enabled C-H Difluoromethylation of Heteroarenes with Pentacoordinate Phosphorane as the Reagent.

Difluoromethylated heterocyclic compounds have found broad applications in numerous bioactive molecules. Herein, we report photoredox catalysis-induced direct C-H difluoromethylation of heterocycles by using bis(difluoromethyl) pentacoordinate phosphorane (PPh3(CF2H)2, 1) as the reagent. A variety of heterocycles, such as quinoxalin-2(1H)-one, thiophene, indole, and coumarin, are readily tailored with a difluoromethyl group. The method is featured as transition-metal-free by using an organic compound Erythrosin B as the catalyst and O2 as the oxidant.

High-precision frequency estimator by using discrete Fourier transform and asymmetric discrete time Fourier transform samples.

Fast and accurate frequency estimation is significant for instrumentation and measurement. A sinusoid frequency estimator using discrete Fourier transform (DFT) is presented. DFT is implemented on the sinusoid and the maximum DFT bin is sought out to obtain the coarse estimate. Different from all the existing methods, two asymmetric discrete-time Fourier transform (DTFT) samples situated at arbitrary positions on the same side of the maximum DFT bin are employed to get the fine estimate. The theoretical mean square error is analyzed. To evaluate the estimation performance, the presented estimator is compared with the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) and state-of-art estimators through computer simulations. Simulation results demonstrate that the presented algorithm is closer to the CRLB compared with the competing methods when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) varies in a large range and is unbiased at high SNR.

Toddalia asiatica extract attenuates adjuvant-induced arthritis by modulating colon Th17/Treg balance and colony homeostasis.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Given the adverse effects of the current principal treatments, there is still a great need for effective cures for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an immune-mediated disease. Toddalia asiatica (L.) Lam is a traditional medicinal herb that can be used for RA treatment because of its anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. AIM OF THE STUDY: To investigate the possible effects of Toddalia asiatica extract (TAE) on intestinal immunity and the intestinal bacterial flora in a rat model of RA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The anti-arthritis effect of TAE was evaluated in arthritis rats induced by complete Freund's adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA). Arthritis index (AI) scores, systemic inflammation scores, histopathologic changes in the colon and ankle were detected by hematoxylin and eosin staining. Western blot analysis was performed to assess the protein expression of IL-17A, RORC, IL-1ß, IL-6, FOXP3, IL-10 in the colon. RT-PCR was performed to assess the expression of the colon's mRNA. Finally, changes to the gut microbiome by sequencing 16S rDNA. Microbial function prediction was performed using PICRUSt with the KEGG databases and correlation analysis was carried out by computing Spearman's rank correlations. RESULTS: demonstrated that TAE administration at a dose of 3 g/kg dramatically decreased AI scores, systemic inflammation scores, and histopathologic lesions of the ankle and colon in AIA rats. TAE was found to significantly reduce the expression levels of Th17-related proteins and mRNAs (IL-17A, RORC, IL-1ß and IL-6) in the colon, while increasing the expression levels of Treg-related proteins and mRNA (IL-10 and FOXP3), which helped restore the balance of Th17/Treg immune cells in the colon. Meanwhile, TAE was also found to be capable of remodeling the gut microbiota in AIA rats. Depleting RA-associated genera and thereby increasing α-diversity enriched the gut microbiota's diversity and shifted the community composition dramatically, leading to the increase of Firmicutes_unclassified, Ruminococcaceae_unclassified, Muribaculum, Subdoligranulum, Lachnospira, Marvinbryantia, and the reduction of RA-related bacteria Ligilactobacillus, Streptococcus and Eubacterium-eligens-group. Furthermore, PICRUSt analysis revealed that metabolic pathways were associated with TAE treatment, with metabolic pathways dominating. Among them, metabolic pathways were predominant. Correlation studies showed that a total of 9 microorganisms, including Ligilactobacillus, Eubacterium-eligens-group and Subdoligranulum, were significantly associated with Th17/Treg expression. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that TAE is a low-toxicity poly alkaline drug that can rapidly and effectively improve joint symptoms in RA rats and increases beneficial intestinal bacteria and decreases harmful ones, which is associated with modulating Th17/Treg interactions in intestinal T cells and reversing microbial disorders.

Quantitative Proteomics Reveal the Inherent Antibiotic Resistance Mechanism against Norfloxacin Resistance in Aeromonas hydrophila.

Recently, the prevalence of Aeromonas hydrophila antibiotic-resistant strains has been reported in aquaculture, but its intrinsic antibiotic resistance mechanisms are largely unknown. In the present study, a label-free proteomics technology was used to compare the differential protein abundances in response to norfloxacin (NOR) stress in A. hydrophila. The results showed that there were 186 proteins decreasing and 220 proteins increasing abundances in response to NOR stress. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the differentially expressed proteins were enriched in several biological processes, such as sulfur metabolism and homologous recombination. Furthermore, the antibiotic sensitivity assays showed that the deletion of AHA_0904, cirA, and cysI significantly decreased the resistance against NOR, whereas ΔAHA_1239, ΔcysA, ΔcysD, and ΔcysN significantly increased the resistance against NOR. Our results provide insights into NOR resistance mechanisms and indicate that AHA_0904, cirA, AHA_1239, and sulfur metabolism may play important roles in NOR resistance in A. hydrophila.

Proteomics analysis reveals that CirA in Aeromonas hydrophila is involved in nutrient uptake.

The colicin I receptor (CirA) is a well-studied outer membrane protein that has been reported to play important roles in antibiotic resistance, virulence, and iron homeostasis, although its exact physiological roles require further investigation. In this study, differentially expressed proteins between the ΔahcirA and wild-type (WT) strains of Aeromonas hydrophila were compared using quantitative proteomics. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that the expression of peptide, histidine, and arginine ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter system-related proteins was significantly higher in the ΔahcirA strain. Subsequent growth assays revealed that ΔahcirA grew slower than the WT strain in nutrient-limited medium when supplemented with dipeptide, histidine, and arginine as the carbon source. Far-western blot analysis further confirmed that AhCirA can directly bind to histidine/arginine and dipeptide small-molecule substrates in addition to their periplasmic-binding proteins, AhDppA and AhHisJ, respectively. These results indicate that AhCirA may play an important role in the uptake of amino acids and peptides as a channel-forming porin while also directly interacting with ABC transporters to transport nutrient substances into the plasma membrane. Overall, this study demonstrates that AhCirA is a multifunctional protein in A. hydrophila and extends our understanding of known nutrient transport mechanisms among bacteria.

Prevalence and risk factors of loneliness among patients with hematological malignancies.

To identify independent factors for predicting loneliness in patients with hematological malignancies. It is an observational cross-sectional study. 157 patients with hematologic malignancies were enrolled between March 2020 and May 2020. The sociodemographic characteristics and psychometric properties (coping styles, self-esteem, big 5 personality traits, and hope) were tested for correlation with loneliness. Multivariate hierarchical regression analysis was then utilized to identify independent risk factors for loneliness. The patients exhibited a mean global score of 36.25 that corresponded to a moderate degree of loneliness. The sociodemographic factors, including occupation, family earning, living areas, times of hospitalization, were significantly related to loneliness. In addition, the coping styles, levels of self-esteem, the big 5 personality traits, and levels of hope were significantly correlated with the degrees of loneliness. Furthermore, sociodemographic factors (occupation) and psychometric properties (coping styles and hope) were identified as independent predictors for loneliness in patients with hematological malignancies. Loneliness is highly prevalent in patients with hematological malignancies. Notably, occupation, times of hospitalization, family earning, coping styles, self-esteem, big 5 personality traits, and hope are all independent risk factors for loneliness.

Acetylome and Succinylome Profiling of Edwardsiella tarda Reveals Key Roles of Both Lysine Acylations in Bacterial Antibiotic Resistance.

The antibiotic resistance of Edwardsiella tarda is becoming increasingly prevalent, and thus novel antimicrobial strategies are being sought. Lysine acylation has been demonstrated to play an important role in bacterial physiological functions, while its role in bacterial antibiotic resistance remains largely unclear. In this study, we investigated the lysine acetylation and succinylation profiles of E. tarda strain EIB202 using affinity antibody purification combined with LC-MS/MS. A total of 1511 lysine-acetylation sites were identified on 589 proteins, and 2346 lysine-succinylation sites were further identified on 692 proteins of this pathogen. Further bioinformatic analysis showed that both post-translational modifications (PTMs) were enriched in the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, pyruvate metabolism, biosynthesis, and carbon metabolism. In addition, 948 peptides of 437 proteins had overlapping associations with multiple metabolic pathways. Moreover, both acetylation and succinylation were found in many antimicrobial resistance (AMR) proteins, suggesting their potentially vital roles in antibiotic resistance. In general, our work provides insights into the acetylome and succinylome features responsible for the antibiotic resistance mechanism of E. tarda, and the results may facilitate future investigations into the pathogenesis of this bacterium.

A prediction model with measured sentiment scores for the risk of in-hospital mortality in acute pancreatitis: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Accurate and prompt clinical assessment of the severity and prognosis of patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) is critical, particularly during hospitalization. Natural language processing algorithms gain an opportunity from the growing number of free-text notes in electronic health records to mine this unstructured data, e.g., nursing notes, to detect and predict adverse outcomes. However, the predictive value of nursing notes for AP prognosis is unclear. In this study, a predictive model for in-hospital mortality in AP was developed using measured sentiment scores in nursing notes. Methods: The data of AP patients in the retrospective cohort study were collected from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III (MIMIC-III) database. Sentiments in nursing notes were assessed by sentiment analysis. For each individual clinical note, sentiment polarity and sentiment subjectivity scores were assigned. The in-hospital mortality of AP patients was the outcome. A predictive model was built based on clinical information and sentiment scores, and its performance and clinical value were evaluated using the area under curves (AUCs) and decision-making curves, respectively. Results: Of the 631 AP patients included, 88 cases (13.9%) cases were dead in hospital. When various confounding factors were adjusted, the mean sentiment polarity was associated with a reduced risk of in-hospital mortality in AP [odds ratio (OR): 0.448; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.233-0.833; P=0.014]. A predictive model was established in the training group via multivariate logistic regression analysis, including 12 independent variables. In the testing group, the model showed an AUC of 0.812, which was significantly greater than the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) of 0.732 and the simplified acute physiology score-II (SAPS-II) of 0.792 (P<0.05). When the same level of risk was considered, the clinical benefits of the predictive model were found to be the highest compared with SOFA and SAPS-II scores. Conclusions: The model combined sentiment scores in nursing notes showed well predictive performance and clinical value in in-hospital mortality of AP patients.

A canine-derived chimeric antibody with high neutralizing activity against canine parvovirus-2.

Canine parvovirus-2 (CPV-2) infection causes serious multisystemic disease in dogs and many animal species worldwide. Previously, a monoclonal antibody (MAb) of CPV-2, 10H4, showed high neutralizing activity and therapeutic effect against CPV-2 in dogs. However, the application of mouse MAb is limited in other animals due to immune rejection. Here, the variable regions of the heavy and light chains of 10H4 were cloned and ligated with constant canine antibody regions to produce a canine-derived chimeric MAb 11D9, in a CHO-S cell expression system. The cell supernatant of the CHO cell line 11D9 exhibited a HI titer of 1:2560 against all the variants of CPV-2 (new CPV-2a, new CPV-2b, and CPV-2c), and had the same average neutralization titer as the new CPV-2a (1:11,046.5) and new CPV-2b (1:11,046.5) variants, which was slightly higher than that of CPV-2c variants (1:10,615.7). In animal experiment, the treatment of chimeric MAb 11D9 had a high therapeutic effect in beagles infected with the new CPV-2a. Overall, the canine-derived chimeric MAb 11D9 produced by CHO-S cells showed a high HI and neutralization titer against CPV-2 and the therapeutic effects against the new CPV-2a in beagles, providing potential for the prevention or treatment of CPV-2 infections in dogs.

Quantitative Proteomics Reveals That the Protein Components of Outer Membrane Vesicles (OMVs) in Aeromonas hydrophila Play Protective Roles in Antibiotic Resistance.

In recent years, the intracellular mechanisms that contribute to antibiotic resistance have received increasing attention, and outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) have been reported to be related to antibiotic resistance in several Gram-negative bacterial species. However, the intrinsic molecular mechanisms and the form of such antibiotic resistance are still largely unknown. In this study, OMVs from an oxytetracycline (OXY) sensitive aquatic pathogen, Aeromonas hydrophila (OXY-S), were found with significantly increased OXY resistance. Interestingly, the OXY-resistant strain (OXY-R) had a more protective role in OXY resistance. Therefore, a DIA-based quantitative proteomics analysis was performed to compare the differential expression of OMV proteins between OXY-R (OMVsR) and OXY-S (OMVsS). The results showed that seven proteins increased and five proteins decreased in OMVsR vs OMVsS. A subsequent antibiotics susceptibility assay showed that the deletion of icd, rpsF, and iscS significantly increased OXY sensitivity. Moreover, the exogenous addition of the crude OMV fractions of overexpressed recombinant proteins in E. coli with rRpsF, rIcd, rIscS, rOmpA, rPepA, rFrdA, and rRplQ demonstrated that these proteins promoted the OXY resistance of A. hydrophila. Overall, our results indicate the important protective role of OMVs in antibiotic resistance in A. hydrophila and provide novel insights on bacterial antibiotic resistance mechanisms.

The Lysine Acetylation Modification in the Porin Aha1 of Aeromonas hydrophila Regulates the Uptake of Multidrug Antibiotics.

Protein lysine acetylation (Kac) modification plays important roles in diverse physiological functions. However, there is little evidence on the role of Kac modification in bacterial antibiotic resistance. Here, we compared the differential expressions of whole-cell proteins and Kac peptides in oxytetracycline sensitive and oxytetracycline resistance (OXYR) strains of Aeromonas hydrophila using quantitative proteomics technologies. We observed a porin family protein Aha1 downregulated in the OXYR strain, which may have an important role in the OXY resistance. Interestingly, seven of eight Kac peptides of Aha1 decreased abundance in OXYR as well. Microbiologic assays showed that the K57R, K187R, and K197R Aha1 mutants significantly increased antibiotic resistance to OXY and reduced the intracellular OXY accumulation in OXY stress. Moreover, these Aha1 mutants displayed multidrug resistance features to tetracyclines and ß-lactam antibiotics. The 3D model prediction showed that the Kac states of K57, K187, and K197 sites located at the extracellular pore vestibule of Aha1 may be involved in the uptake of specific types of antibiotics. Overall, our results indicate a novel antibiotic resistance mechanism mediated by Kac modification, which may provide a clue for the development of antibiotic therapy strategies.

Targeting entry into mitochondria for increased anticancer efficacy of BCL-XL-selective inhibitors in lung cancer.

The BCL-XL-selective inhibitors exhibit potential clinical application value when combined with chemotherapeutic drugs for the treatment of solid tumors. However, their efficacy in these settings is still low when treated with BCL-XL inhibitors alone in solid tumors. The mechanism responsible for the poor efficacy remains unclear. We show here that unable to interact with target of BCL-XL-selective inhibitors caused by invalid entry into mitochondria is essential for their inefficacy in solid tumors. We demonstrated in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells that the instability of A-1155463 in cells as well as invalid entry into mitochondria of A-1331852, two BCL-XL-selective inhibitors, accounted for their off-target problems. Furthermore, we found that a mitochondria-targeted, non-toxic small molecule NA-2a improved the on-target effect of A-1331852 to enhance its apoptotic regulatory activity, thereby increasing its anticancer activity in NSCLC. Our results indicated that NA-2a was selectively enriched in mitochondria transported by organic-anion-transporting polypeptide (OATP) transporters, which altered the permeability of the mitochondrial membrane, thereby promoting the entrance of A-1331852 to mitochondria and enhancing its disruption of the BIM-BCL-XL complex, which finally led to the increased anticancer activity in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, our data provided overwhelming evidence that the combination of NA-2a and A-1331852 could be used as a promising synergistic therapeutic agent in NSCLC therapy.

Analysis of Different Vascular Accesses on Dialysis Quality and Infection Risk Factors of Hemodialysis Patients.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the influence of different vascular accesses on dialysis quality and infection risk factors of hemodialysis patients. METHODS: A total of 162 patients with end-stage renal disease admitted to our hospital from February 2018 to July 2020 were divided into two groups: cuff tunnel conduit (CTC) group and native arteriovenous fistula (AVF) group. Peripheral blood was collected before and 6 months after dialysis. The incidence of vascular recirculation was measured, and the risk factors of infection were analyzed. RESULTS: The levels of HB, Alb, CRP, BUN, Scr, and TP after dialysis in the two groups were lower than those before dialysis (P < 0.05). The Kt/V of patients in both groups did not exceed 1.2, and the URR value exceeded 60%. The results of independent-samples T test analysis documented that the Kt/V level of patients in the AVF group was higher than that of those in the CTC group after dialysis (P < 0.05). The results of the urea method revealed that 22 of 68 patients (32.35%) in the CVC group and 21 of 94 (22.34%) in the AVF group had vascular pathway recirculation. The χ 2 test showed that there was no remarkable difference in the incidence of vascular pathway recirculation between both groups (P > 0.05). However, the results of the nonurea method revealed that the incidence of vascular pathway recirculation in the AVF group was lower than that in the CVC group (P < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression was used to further analyze the factors with statistical significance in the single factor results. It showed that age >60 years, dialysis duration >1 year, dialysis times, diabetes, hypertension, and CTC were all independent risk factors causing vascular access infection. CONCLUSION: If all conditions permit, AVF hemodialysis is a better choice for patients with end-stage renal disease. For the elderly, long-term hemodialysis, and those with diabetes and hypertension, it is necessary to make detailed plans, strengthen the operation proficiency of CTC, and reduce the incidence of infection.

Polymer-Inorganic Thermoelectric Nanomaterials: Electrical Properties, Interfacial Chemistry Engineering, and Devices.

Though solar cells are one of the promising technologies to address the energy crisis, this technology is still far from commercialization. Thermoelectric materials offer a novel opportunity to convert energy between thermal and electrical aspects, which show the feasibility to improve the performance of solar cells via heat management and light harvesting. Polymer-inorganic thermoelectric nanocomposites consisting of inorganic nanomaterials and functional organic polymers represent one kind of advanced hybrid nanomaterials with tunable optical and electrical characteristics and fascinating interfacial and surface chemistry. During the past decades, they have attracted extensive research interest due to their diverse composition, easy synthesis, and large surface area. Such advanced nanomaterials not only inherit low thermal conductivity from polymers and high Seebeck coefficient, and high electrical conductivity from inorganic materials, but also benefit from the additional interface between each component. In this review, we provide an overview of interfacial chemistry engineering and electrical feature of various polymer-inorganic thermoelectric hybrid nanomaterials, including synthetic methods, properties, and applications in thermoelectric devices. In addition, the prospect and challenges of polymer-inorganic nanocomposites are discussed in the field of thermoelectric energy.

Combined fenestrated/chimney thoracic endovascular repair for the treatment of blunt traumatic aortic injury: A case report.

Blunt traumatic thoracic aortic injury (BTAI) is an extremely serious medical condition with a high rate of associated mortality. Recent advances in techniques such as thoracic endovascular repair offer new opportunities to manage the critical BTAI patients in an efficacious yet less invasive manner. A 65 year-old-male suffered from multiple injuries after a fall, including BTAI in the aortic arch, which resulted in dissection of the descending thoracic-abdominal aorta and iliac artery, development of an intimal flap in the left common carotid artery, and dissection of the left subclavian artery. Based on the imaging information of this patient and our clinical experience, the combined treatment of fenestrated thoracic endovascular repair and a chimney technique was immediately planned to fully repair these dissections and moreover prevent further dissection of the branching vessels, additionally to ensure sufficient blood flow in the left subclavian artery and left common carotid artery. The intervention yielded satisfactory early outcomes. Follow-up assessment at six months reported no symptoms or complications associated with the stent-graft. Computed tomography angiography further confirmed adequate stent-graft coverage of the aortic injury.