Non-invasive imaging for predicting labial salivary gland biopsy outcomes in patients with suspected primary Sjögren syndrome.

To identify the value of salivary gland ultrasound (SGUS) combined with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance sialography (MRS) in predicting the results of labial salivary gland biopsy (LSGB) in patients with suspected primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS), and construct a nomogram model to predict LSGB results. A total of 181 patients who were admitted with suspected pSS from December 2018 to April 2023 were examined and divided into a training set (n = 120) and a validation set (n = 61). Baseline data of the two groups were examined, and the value of SGUS, MRI, and MRS in predicting LSGB was analyzed. Multivariate logistic analysis was used to screen for risk factors, and nomogram prediction models were constructed using these results. In the training set, the SGUS, MRI, and MRS scores of patients in the LSGB + group were higher than those in the LSGB - group (all P < 0.001). The positive prediction value (PPV) was 91% for an SGUS score of 3, and 82% for MRI and MRS scores of 2 or more. We developed a nomogram prediction model based on SGUS, MRI, and MRS data, and it had a concordance index (C-index) of 0.94. The Hosmer-Lemeshow test (χ2 = 3.17, P = 0.92) also indicated the nomogram prediction model had good accuracy and calibration for prediction of LSGB results. A nomogram model based on SGUS, MRI, and MRS results can help rheumatologists decide whether LSGB should be performed in patients with suspected pSS.

The value of MRI-based radiomics for evaluating early parotid gland injury in primary Sjögren's syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the value of machine learning models (ML) based on MRI radiomics in diagnosing early parotid gland injury in primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS). METHODS: A total of 164 patients (114 in the training cohort and 50 in the testing cohort) with pSS (n=82) or healthy controls (HC) (n=82) were enrolled. Itksnap software was used to perform two-dimensional segmentation of the bilateral parotid glands on T1-weighted (T1WI) and fat-suppressed T2-weighted imaging (fs-T2WI) images. A total of 1548 texture features of the parotid glands were extracted using radiomics software. A radiomics score (Radscore) was constructed and calculated. A t-test was used to compare the Radscore between the two groups. Finally, five machine learning models were trained and tested to identify early pSS parotid injury, and the performance of the machine learning models was evaluated by calculating the acceptance operating curve (ROC) and other parameters. RESULTS: The Radscores between the pSS and HC groups showed significant statistical differences (p<0.001). Among the five machine learning models, the Extra Trees Classifier (ETC) model performed high predictive efficacy in identifying early pSS parotid injury, with an AUC of 0.87 in the testing set. CONCLUSION: MRI radiomics-based machine learning models can effectively diagnose early parotid gland injury in primary Sjögren's syndrome.

The causal effects of age at menarche, age at first live birth, and estradiol levels on systemic lupus erythematosus: A two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether age at menarche (AAM), age at first live birth (AFB), and estradiol levels are causally correlated with the development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS: A two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was performed after data was collected from a dataset of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) related to SLE (as outcome), and from open access databases to find statistics related to AAM, AFB, and estradiol levels (as exposure). RESULT: In our study, a negative causal correlation between AAM and SLE was confirmed by MR analysis (MR egger: beta = 0.116, SE = 0.948, p = 0.909; weighted median: beta = -0.416, SE = 0.192, p = 0.030; and IVW: beta = -0.395, SE = 0.165, p = 0.016). However, there were no genetic causal effects of AFB and the estradiol levels on SLE, based on the results of MR analysis as follows: AFB (MR egger: beta = - 2.815, SE = 1.469, p = 0.065; Weighted median: beta = 0.334, SE = 0.378, p = 0.377; and IVW: beta = 0.188, SE = 0.282, p = 0.505) and the estradiol levels (MR egger: beta = 0.139, SE = 0.294, p = 0.651; weighted median: beta = 0.063, SE = 0.108, p = 0.559; IVW: beta = 0.126, SE = 0.097, p = 0.192). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings revealed that AAM may be associated with increased risk of the development of SLE, while there were no such causal effects from AFB and estradiol levels.

A simple and sensitive electrochemical sensor for the detection of peptidase activity.

In this work, a simple and sensitive electrochemical sensor was proposed for the detection of ß-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) activity. Firstly, the BACE1 specific peptide was modified onto the Au electrode to graft a single-strand DNA with polycytosine DNA sequence (dC12) via amide bonding between peptide and dC12. Because the dC12 is abundant in phosphate groups, thus it can react with molybdate to form redox molybdophosphate, which can generate electrochemical current. Using BACE1 as a model peptidase, the proposed sensor shows a linear response range from 1 to 15 U/mL and limit of detection down to 0.05 U/mL. The sensor displays good performance for the BACE1 activity detection in human serum samples, which may have potential applications in the clinical diagnostics of Alzheimer's disease.

Construction of a lncRNA-mediated ceRNA network and a genomic-clinicopathologic nomogram to predict survival for breast cancer patients.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among women and a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The diagnosis of early patients and the prognosis of advanced patients have not improved over the past several decades. The purpose of the present study was to identify the lncRNA-related genes based on ceRNA network and construct a credible model for prognosis in BC. Based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, prognosis-related differently expressed genes (DEGs) and a lncRNA-associated ceRNA regulatory network were obtained in BC. The patients were randomly divided into a training group and a testing group. A ceRNA-related prognostic model as well as a nomogram was constructed for further study. A total of 844 DElncRNAs, 206 DEmiRNAs and 3295 DEmRNAs were extracted in BC, and 12 RNAs (HOTAIR, AC055854.1, ST8SIA6-AS1, AC105999.2, hsa-miR-1258, hsa-miR-7705, hsa-miR-3662, hsa-miR-4501, CCNB1, UHRF1, SPC24 and SHCBP1) among them were recognized for the construction of a prognostic risk model. Patients were then assigned to high-risk and low-risk groups according to the risk score. The Kaplan-Meier (K-M) analysis demonstrated that the high-risk group was closely associated with poor prognosis. The predictive nomogram combined with clinical features showed performance in clinical practice. In a nutshell, our ceRNA-related gene model and the nomogram graph are accurate and reliable tools for predicting prognostic outcomes of BC patients, and may make great contributions to modern precise medicine.

Voltage driven chemiresistor with ultralow power consumption based on self-heating bridged WO3 nanowires.

Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS)-based chemiresistors have been widely used for detecting harmful gases in many industrial and indoor/outdoor applications, which possess the advantages of small size, low cost, integratability, and ease of use. However, power consumption has become a critical parameter for practical applications. Several methods have been explored to reduce power consumption including reducing the operation temperature, use of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), and self-heating working mode. Among them, the self-heating working mode has attracted significant attention. Herein, a facile approach of modulating bridged NW chemiresistor by Joule heating effect is proposed to combine both the superiority of single crystal nanowire (NW) carrier channels and power consumption optimization of the self-heating mode. The WO3-bridged NW chemiresistors and WO3 film NW chemiresistors are both constructed to investigate gas responses and power consumption. Substantially magnified electrical responses (Rg/Ra) of WO3 NW chemiresistor toward NO2 is demonstrated by constructing a bridged structure. Under the optimal external heating condition, the responses of chemiresistors toward 5 ppm NO2 can be boosted from 369.7 (film NW) to 1089.7 (bridged NW). The responses to 5 ppm NO2 under the self-heating mode also can be boosted from 13.6 (film NW) to 24.6 (bridged NW) with a drastically declined power consumption. Self-heating bridged NWs allows for localizing the Joule heat within the nanojunction, and thus substantially lowers the power consumption to 0.13 µW (300 °C). This provides an additional opportunity for reducing power consumption of oxide chemiresistors for air quality monitoring in future.

Value of magnetic resonance imaging and sialography of the parotid gland for diagnosis of primary Sjögren syndrome.

AIM: To evaluate the utility of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance sialography (MRS) for diagnosis of primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS) singly or integrated with 2016 American College of Rheumatology (ACR)/European League Against Rheumatic Diseases (EULAR) classification criteria. METHODS: The diagnostic efficiencies of MRI, MRS, and labial salivary gland biopsy (LSGB) were evaluated. The prediction model was established by multivariate analysis. Finally, performance of the ACR/EULAR criteria was evaluated after addition of MRI + MRS or replacement of original items by MRI + MRS. RESULTS: The combined use of LSGB + MRI + MRS provided the greatest diagnostic value. MRI and MRS grade had positive correlations with disease duration and pathological grade of the labial gland (both P < 0.001). MRI and MRS grade had positive correlations with xerostomia severity and negative correlations with unstimulated salivary flow rate (both P < 0.001). The consistency of MRI grade and MRS grade in the diagnosis of parotid gland lesions was poor (κ = 0.253, P < 0.001). The diagnostic efficiency of our prediction model (AUC 0.906) was similar to that of criteria from the ACR/EULAR (AUC 0.930). Adding MRI + MRS to the ACR/EULAR criteria improved the sensitivity (92.3% vs 90.8%), whereas the specificity remained the same (88.9% vs 89.1%). Replacing LSGB by MRI + MRS in the ACR/EULAR criteria decreased both sensitivity and specificity (88.1% vs 90.8% and 86.4% vs 89.1%, respectively). CONCLUSION: The combined application of MRI and MRS has ideal clinical application value in the diagnosis of early-stage pSS. Validity of the ACR/EULAR criteria remains high after incorporation of MRI + MRS.

Boosting Electrical Response toward Trace Volatile Organic Compounds Molecules via Pulsed Temperature Modulation of Pt Anchored WO3 Chemiresistor.

Insufficient limit of detection (LoD) toward volatile organic compounds (VOCs) hinders the promising applications of metal oxide chemiresistors in emerging air quality monitoring and/or breath analysis. There is an inherent limitation of widely adopted strategies of creating sensitive chemiresistors then operating at the optimized temperature via a continuous heating (CH) mode. Herein, a strategy combining Pt single atoms anchoring (chemical sensitization) with pulsed temperature modulation (PTM, physical sensitization) is proposed. Apart from generating abundant surface asymmetric oxygen vacancy (Pt-VO -W) active sites at pulsed high temperature (HT) stage, inward diffusion of trace target VOCs across the sensing layer at pulsed low temperature stage (driven by PTM induced concentration gradient), can greatly enhance the charge interaction probability between the generated surface active species and the surrounding VOCs, and thus offers a novel avenue on addressing the bottleneck issue of low LoD by PTM. Triggered by HT of 300 °C, the responses of Pt anchored WO3 chemiresistor to 1 ppm trimethylamine (TMA) and xylene can be drastically boosted from 1.9 (CH) to 6541.5 (PTM) and 1.5 (CH) to 1001.1 (PTM), respectively. And ultra-low theoretic LoD of 0.78 ppt (TMA) and 0.18 ppt (xylene) are successfully achieved, respectively.

Unveiling low-temperature thermal oxidation growth of W18O49 nanowires with metastable ß-W films.

With features of innate tunnels and oxygen vacancies derived from a unique geometrical structure and sub-stoichiometric compositions, W18O49 nanowires have been explored as multifunctional materials with diverse applications. Though thermal oxidation offers a facile method to synthesize patterned W18O49 nanowires, the relatively high growth temperature (≳500 °C) hinders their emerging applications in flexible or wearable electronics. In this work, aiming to lower the growth temperature of W18O49 nanowires by thermal oxidation, the temperature and oxygen partial pressure dependent growth has been systematically investigated for both W films and powders. W18O49 nanowires could be steadily obtained with appropriate temperature and oxygen pressure ranges for both cases, while the growth temperature of a W film (metastable ß phase dominant) could be much lower than that of W powder (α phase). The structural analysis indicates that metastable ß-W is susceptible to oxidation in comparison with α-W and thus generates oxidation-induced chemical compression for nanowire growth. The growth temperature of W18O49 nanowires could be reduced to ca. 400 °C, which paves the way for the in situ patterning of W18O49 nanowires on indium-tin-oxide (ITO) glass substrates and flexible substrates.

Naringin alleviates acetaminophen-induced acute liver injury by activating Nrf2 via CHAC2 upregulation.

Severe acetaminophen (APAP)-induced hepatic damage is the second most common cause for hepatic transplantation. Clinically, hepatic damage caused by APAP is treated using N-acetyl-L-cysteine, which can induce numerous side effects. Naringin, a bioflavonoid abundant in grapefruit and other citrus fruits, displays marked antiinflammatory and antioxidant activities. Herein, we aimed to investigate the potential mechanism underlying naringin-mediated protection against APAP-induced acute hepatotoxicity. We observed that naringin afforded protection against APAP-induced acute liver failure in mice. Importantly, pretreatment with naringin before APAP administration further increased antioxidant enzyme expression, inhibited the production of proinflammatory cytokines, and activated apoptotic pathways. Furthermore, we observed that the protective effect was associated with the upregulation of cation transport regulator-like protein 2 (CHAC2) and nuclear factor erythroid derived-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2). Notably, CHAC2 knockdown inhibited Nrf2 activation and naringin-mediated antioxidant, antiinflammatory, and antiapoptotic effects in APAP-induced liver injury. Likewise, si-Nrf2 blocked the protective effect of naringin against APAP-induced liver injury. Collectively, our results indicate that naringin may be a potent CHAC2 activator, alleviating APAP-induced hepatitis via CHAC2-mediated activation of the Nrf2 pathway. These data provide new insights into mechanisms through which CHAC2 regulates APAP-induced liver injury by targeting Nrf2, which should be considered a novel therapeutic target.

The effects of a hypertension diagnosis on health behaviors: A two-dimensional regression discontinuity analysis.

This paper explores how a diagnosis of hypertension might affect a person's health-related behaviors. The analysis uses a two-dimensional regression discontinuity design because hypertension is diagnosed when a person's systolic or diastolic blood pressure (SBP or DBP) surpasses a pre-established threshold. We find that those closely above the SBP threshold significantly adjusted their lifestyle, such as reducing daily fat intake and quitting smoking, while those just surpassing the DBP cutoff did not. Further mechanism analysis suggests that the possibility of constraints, rather than education and income gradients, does more to explain the disparate behaviors of subjects near the SBP and DBP thresholds. Those around the DBP threshold generally have tighter work schedules and undertake more competitive jobs, which hinder them from improving their lifestyle. Overall, our findings complement the existing literature by posing a new perspective for understanding people's potential reluctance to adjust their behavior.

In Situ Assembly of Ordered Hierarchical CuO Microhemisphere Nanowire Arrays for High-Performance Bifunctional Sensing Applications.

Seeking a facile approach to directly assemble bridged metal oxide nanowires on substrates with predefined electrodes without the need for complex postsynthesis alignment and/or device procedures will bridge the gap between fundamental research and practical applications for diverse biochemical sensing, electronic, optoelectronic, and energy storage devices. Herein, regularly bridged CuO microhemisphere nanowire arrays (RB-MNAs) are rationally designed on indium tin oxide electrodes via thermal oxidation of ordered Cu microhemisphere arrays obtained by solid-state dewetting of patterned Ag/Cu/Ag films. Both the position and spacing of CuO microhemisphere nanowires can be well controlled by as-used shadow mask and the thickness of Cu film, which allows homogeneous manipulation of the bridging of adjacent nanowires grown from neighboring CuO hemispheres, and thus benefits highly sensitive trimethylamine (TMA) sensors and broad band (UV-visible to infrared) photodetectors. The electrical response of 3.62 toward 100 ppm TMA is comparable to that of state-of-the-art CuO-based sensors. Together with the feasibility of in situ assembly of RB-MNAs device arrays via common lithographic technologies, this work promises commercial device applications of CuO nanowires.

Discriminating BTX Molecules by the Nonselective Metal Oxide Sensor-Based Smart Sensing System.

Discriminating structurally similar volatile organic compounds (VOCs) molecules, such as benzene, toluene, and three xylene isomers (BTX), remains a significant challenge, especially, for metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) sensors, in which selectivity is a long-standing challenge. Recent progress indicates that temperature modulation of a single MOS sensor offers a powerful route in extracting the features of adsorbed gas analytes than conventional isothermal operation. Herein, a rectangular heating waveform is applied on NiO-, WO3-, and SnO2-based sensors to gradually activate the specific gas/oxide interfacial redox reaction and generate rich (electrical) features of adsorbed BTX molecules. Upon several signal preprocessing steps, the intrinsic feature of BTX molecules can be extracted by the linear discrimination analysis (LDA) or convolutional neural network (CNN) analysis. The combination of three distinct MOS sensors noticeably benefits the recognition accuracy (with a reduced number of training iterations). Finally, a prototype of a smart BTX recognition system (including sensing electronics, sensors, Wi-Fi module, UI, PC, etc.) based on temperature modulation has been explored, which enables a prompt, accurate, and stable identification of xylene isomers in the ambient air background and raises the hope of innovating the future advanced machine olfactory system.

Heterostructural (Sr0.6Bi0.305)2Bi2O7/ZnO for novel high-performance H2S sensor operating at low temperature.

Exploring novel sensing materials enabling selective discrimination of trace ambient H2S at lower temperature is of utmost importance for diverse practical applications. Herein, heterostructural (Sr0.6Bi0.305)2Bi2O7/ZnO (SBO/ZnO) nanomaterials were proposed. Synergetic effect of promoting analyte adsorption (via multiplying oxygen vacancy defects) and reversible sulfuration-desulfuration reaction induced unique band alignment among SBO/ZnO/ZnS, contributes to the sensitive and selective response toward H2S molecules. Novel SBO/ZnO (10%) sensor possesses excellent sensing H2S performances, including a high response (107.6 for 10 ppm), low limit of detection of 20 ppb, good selectivity and long-term stability. Together with the merits of low operation temperature of 75 °C and weak humidity dependence (endowed by the hydrophobic SBO), present heterostructural SBO/ZnO sensor paves the way for the practical monitoring of trace H2S pollutants in diverse workplaces including petroleum and natural gas industries.

CircWAC induces chemotherapeutic resistance in triple-negative breast cancer by targeting miR-142, upregulating WWP1 and activating the PI3K/AKT pathway.

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapeutic resistance is the main cause of clinical treatment failure and poor prognosis in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). There is no research on chemotherapeutic resistance in TNBC from the perspective of circular RNAs (circRNAs). METHODS: TNBC-related circRNAs were identified based on the GSE101124 dataset. Quantitative reverse transcription PCR was used to detect the expression level of circWAC in TNBC cells and tissues. Then, in vitro and in vivo functional experiments were performed to evaluate the effects of circWAC in TNBC. RESULTS: CircWAC was highly expressed in TNBC and was associated with worse TNBC patient prognosis. Subsequently, it was verified that downregulation of circWAC can increase the sensitivity of TNBC cells to paclitaxel (PTX) in vitro and in vivo. The expression of miR-142 was negatively correlated with circWAC in TNBC. The interaction between circWAC and miR-142 in TNBC cells was confirmed by RNA immunoprecipitation assays, luciferase reporter assays, pulldown assays, and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Mechanistically, circWAC acted as a miR-142 sponge to relieve the repressive effect of miR-142 on its target WWP1. In addition, the overall survival of TNBC patients with high expression of miR-142 was significantly better than that of patients with low expression of miR-142, and these results were verified in public databases. MiR-142 regulated the expression of WWP1 and the activity of the PI3K/AKT pathway. It was confirmed that WWP1 is highly expressed in TNBC and that the prognosis of patients with high WWP1 expression is poor. CONCLUSIONS: CircWAC/miR-142/WWP1 form a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network to regulate PI3K/AKT signaling activity in TNBC cells and affect the chemosensitivity of cells.

Elevated ovarian pentraxin 3 in polycystic ovary syndrome.

PURPOSE: Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) plays a crucial role in cumulus expansion and fertilization. The ovarian PTX3 level in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) remains uncertain. In the present study, we investigated the follicular PTX3 levels and found the influence of reproductive hormones on ovarian PTX3 concentration. METHODS: This study was based on 204 healthy-weight women (102 PCOS and 102 normal ovulating subjects) undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Follicular fluid (FF) was collected during oocyte retrieval. The PTX3 levels and other hormone levels in FF samples were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: The PTX3 level in the follicle was significantly higher in the healthy-weight PCOS women than controls. Positive correlations were found between ovarian PTX3 level and the existence of PCOS, cycle length, basal LH to FSH ratio and TT in serum, antral follicle count, and ovarian insulin and androgen level, and inverse correlations with the basal serum PRL and ovarian SHBG. In multivariant linear regression analysis, the presence of PCOS diagnosis, participants' basal LH to FSH ratio, and ovarian androstenedione level were the main predictors of ovarian PTX3 level among the enrolled subjects. CONCLUSION: Elevated ovarian PTX3 level supports the low-grade chronic inflammatory state in the follicles of PCOS. The existence of PCOS, disturbed pituitary gland, and ovarian hyperandrogenism might also be related to this state of low-grade chronic inflammation and could be a subject of further study.

Naringin attenuates renal interstitial fibrosis by regulating the TGF-ß/Smad signaling pathway and inflammation.

Interstitial fibrosis is a typical feature of all progressive renal diseases. The process of fibrosis is frequently coupled with the presence of pro-fibrotic factors and inflammation. Naringin is a dihydroflavone compound that has been previously reported to exhibit anti-fibrotic effects in the liver, where it prevents oxidative damage. In the present study, a rat model of renal interstitial fibrosis and fibrosis cell model were established to evaluate the effects of naringin on inflammatory proteins and fibrosis markers in kidney of rats and NRK-52E cells, and to elucidate the role of the TGF-ß/Smad signaling pathway in this mechanism. Compared with those in fibrotic NRK-52E cells that were stimulated by transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß), gene expression levels of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), collagen 1 (COL1A1), collagen 3 (COL3A1), interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were all found to be significantly decreased in fibrotic NRK-52E cells following treatment with naringin (50, 100 and 200 ng/ml). Results from the histopathological studies showed that naringin treatment preserved the renal tissue structure and reduced the degree of fibrosis in the kidney tissues of rats that underwent unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO). In addition, naringin administration reduced the expression of α-SMA, COL1A1, COL3A1, IL-1ß, IL-6 and TNF-α in the kidneys of rats following UUO. The current study, using western blot analysis, indicated that naringin also downregulated the activation of Smad2/3 and the expression of Smad4, high-mobility group protein B1, activator protein-1, NF-κB and cyclooxygenase-2 whilst upregulating the expression of Smad7 in fibrotic NRK-52E cells and rats in the UUO group. In conclusion, naringin could antagonize renal interstitial fibrosis by regulating the TGF-ß/Smad pathway and the expression of inflammatory factors.

Rehabilitation of patients with COVID-19.

INTRODUCTION: In 2020, due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a pandemic. As of 11 August 2020, the cumulative number of confirmed cases worldwide had reached 19 million, with 700,000 reported deaths, indicating this pandemic's significant global impact. AREAS COVERED: We reviewed the application of rehabilitation therapy in the clinical treatment of COVID-19 patients. A systematic search was performed using PubMed, Springer, CNKI, and Wanfang Data of database up to 1 August 2020. The search terms included the English terms and their Chinese equivalents: 'COVID-19,' 'ARDS,' 'rehabilitation,' 'critically ill patients,' 'physiotherapy,' 'respiratory rehabilitation,' 'traditional Chinese medicine,' and 'psychotherapy.' EXPERT OPINION: Rehabilitation research concerning patients with COVID-19 remains ongoing. Rehabilitation guidance for such patients with COVID-19 is based on previous experience. However, as different patients have differing degrees of dysfunction, personalized plans need to be designed according to the patients' age, sex, lifestyle, hobbies, occupation, and physical conditions. The rapid development of remote devices that can monitor patients' real-time physical conditions post-discharge may encourage better adherence to rehabilitation training.

Generic Approach to Boost the Sensitivity of Metal Oxide Sensors by Decoupling the Surface Charge Exchange and Resistance Reading Process.

As one of the bottleneck parameters for practical applications of metal oxide semiconductor-based gas sensors, sensitivity enhancement has attracted significant attention in the past few decades. In this work, alternative to conventional strategies for designing sensitive surfaces via morphology/defect/heterojunction control (then operating at an optimized isothermal temperature with a maximal response), a facile enhancement approach by decoupling surface charge exchange and resistance reading process (possessing different temperature-dependent behaviors) through pulsed temperature modulation (PTM) is reported. Substantially magnifying electrical responses of a generic metal oxide (e.g., WO3) micro-electromechanical systems sensor toward diverse analyte molecules are demonstrated. Under the optimal PTM condition, the response toward 10 ppm NO2 can be boosted from (isothermal) 99.7 to 842.7, and the response toward 100 ppm acetone is increased from (isothermal) 2.7 to 425, which are comparable to or even better than most of the state-of-the-art WO3-based sensors. In comparison to conventional (isothermal) operation, PTM allows to sequentially manipulate the physisorption/chemisorption of analyte molecules, generation of surface reactive oxygen species, and sensor resistance reading and thus provides additional opportunities in boosting the electrical response of oxide sensors for advanced health and/or environment monitoring in future.

Prognostic value of the systemic inflammation response index (SIRI) before and after surgery in operable breast cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: The new systemic inflammation response index (SIRI) constructed based on neutrophil, monocyte and lymphocyte counts in peripheral blood is considered to be related to the prognosis of a variety of tumours. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prognostic value of the SIRI in operable breast cancer patients and establish a nomogram to predict the survival of breast cancer patients. METHODS: A total of 949 patients with operable breast cancer were enrolled in the present study. RESULTS: The overall survival (OS) of breast cancer patients with SIRI ⩽ 0.65 was significantly higher than that of breast cancer patients with SIRI > 0.65 (P< 0.001). A nomogram generated based on SIRI, grade and TNM stage and SIRI predicted the 5- and 10-year survival rates of breast cancer patients more accurately than TNM stage alone. In addition, the change in SIRI relative to baseline at 4 weeks after surgery was closely related to the survival of breast cancer patients. Compared with those with no SIRI changes (absolute value of variation < 25%), breast cancer patients with an increase in SIRI > 75% or 25-75% had worse OS (P< 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The SIRI before and after surgery is closely related to the prognosis of breast cancer patients.