Case report: Primary pulmonary low grade fibromyxoid sarcoma progressing to dedifferentiation: probably due to TP53 driver mutation.

Low Grade Fibromyxoid Sarcoma (LGFMS), a rare entity characterized by bland histologic features, typically affects deep soft tissues of the trunk and lower extremities. Rare cases have been reported arising from the viscera and few demonstrating morphology of high-grade dedifferentiation. Here we report a 39-year-old Chinese woman presenting with primary lung LGFMS, which metastasized to the pancreas five years after diagnosis and then relapsed ten years later as a mediastinum mass. Microscopically, the lung and pancreatic lumps shared similar classical features of LGFMS, composed of bland spindle-shaped cells with low mitotic activity. However, the mediastinal mass had dedifferentiated morphology of dense sheets of round and epithelioid cells with high degree of nuclear pleomorphism and brisk mitosis. Molecular studies showed both classical and dedifferentiated areas had FUS::CREB3L2 rearrangement. However, the mediastinal dedifferentiated area presented with extra H193Y mutation of the TP53. Moreover, the mediastinal tumor displayed a strong and diffuse pattern of p53 expression immunohistochemically, but the primary lung and secondary pancreatic masses did not. Thus, we diagnosed the mediastinal mass as dedifferentiated LGFMS and proposed that TP53 mutation was probably the driver gene alteration in the process, which, to the best of our knowledge, has not been reported in the existing literature.

A Pyrene-Fused Dimerized Acceptor for Ternary Organic Solar Cells with 19% Efficiency and High Thermal Stability.

A pyrene-fused dimerized electron acceptor has been successfully synthesized and subsequently incorporated as the third component in ternary organic solar cells (OSCs). Diverging from the traditional dimerized acceptors with a linear configuration, this novel electron acceptor displays a distinctive "butterfly-like" structure, comprising two Y-acceptors as wings fused with a pyrene-based backbone. The extended π-conjugated backbone and the electron-donating nature of pyrene enable the new acceptor to show low solubility, elevated glass transition temperature (Tg ), and low-lying frontier energy levels. Consequently, the new dimerized acceptor seamlessly integrates as the third component into ternary OSCs, enhancing electron transporting properties, reducing non-radiative voltage loss, and elevating open-circuit voltage. These merits have enabled the ternary OSCs to show an exceptional efficiency of 19.07%, a marked improvement compared to the 17.6% attained in binary OSCs. More importantly, the high Tg exhibited by the pyrene-fused electron acceptor helps to stabilize the morphology of the photoactive layer thermal-treated at 70 °C, retaining 88.7% efficiency over 600 hours. For comparison, binary OSCs experience a decline to 73.7% efficiency after the same duration. These results indicate that the "butterfly-like" design and the incorporation of a pyrene unit is a promising strategy in the development of dimerized electron acceptors for OSCs.

13% Single-Component Organic Solar Cells based on Double-Cable Conjugated Polymers with Pendent Y-Series Acceptors.

Double-cable conjugated polymers with pendent electron acceptors, including fullerene, rylene diimides, and nonfused acceptors, have been developed for application in single-component organic solar cells (SCOSCs) with efficiencies approaching 10%. In this work, Y-series electron acceptors have been firstly incorporated into double-cable polymers in order to further improve the efficiencies of SCOSCs. A highly crystalline Y-series acceptor based on quinoxaline core and the random copolymerized strategy are used to optimize the ambipolar charge transport and the nanophase separation of the double-cable polymers. As a result, an efficiency of 13.02% is obtained in the random double-cable polymer, representing the highest performance in SCOSCs, while the regular double-cable polymer only provides a low efficiency of 2.75%. The significantly enhanced efficiencies are attributed to higher charge carrier mobilities, better ordering conjugated backbones and Y-series acceptors in random double-cable polymers.

Rumor detection driven by graph attention capsule network on dynamic propagation structures.

Rumor detection aims to judge the authenticity of posts on social media (such as Weibo and Twitter), which can effectively prevent the spread of rumors. While many recent rumor detection methods based on graph neural networks can be conducive to extracting the global features of rumors, each node of the rumor propagation structure learned from graph neural networks is considered to have multiple individual scalar features, which are insufficient for reflecting the deep-level rumor properties. To address the above challenge, we propose a novel model named graph attention capsule network on dynamic propagation structures (GACN) for rumor detection. Specifically, GACN consists of two components: a graph attention network enforced by capsule network that can encode static graphs into substructure classification capsules for mining the deep-level properties of rumor, and a dynamic network framework that can divide the rumor structure into multiple static graphs in chronological order for capturing the dynamic interactive features in the evolving process of the rumor propagation structure. Moreover, we use the capsule attention mechanism to combine the capsules generated from each substructure to focus more on informative substructures in rumor propagation. Extensive validation on two real-world datasets demonstrates the superiority of GACN over baselines.

Ameliorated Li+ extraction/insertion kinetics and stability of LiMnPO4 by Al3+ doping.

The effect of doping Al3+ into Li1-xAlxMnPO4 is investigated by comparing the properties of LiMnPO4 and Li0.98Al0.02MnPO4 and their delithiated phases. Through the experiment of chemical delithiation and the measurements of potentiostatic intermittent titration technique (PITT) and chronoamperometry, it is found that doping Al3+ into LiMnPO4 to obtain Li0.98Al0.02MnPO4 can accelerate the kinetics of Li+ extraction/insertion, which improves the rate capability of LiMnPO4. In addition, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC) measurements reveal that the Al3+ doping can also effectively ameliorate the stability of the delithiated phase of LiMnPO4.

N-Annulated Perylene Bisimide-Based Double-Cable Polymers with Open-Circuit Voltage Approaching 1.20 V in Single-Component Organic Solar Cells.

In this work, we have introduced single/double-sided N-annulated perylene bisimide (PBI) with deep energy levels into double-cable polymers with poly[1-(5-(4,8-bis(4-chloro-5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)-6-methylbenzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophen-2-yl)thiophen-2-yl)-5,7-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-3-(5-methylthiophen-2-yl)-4H,8H-benzo[1,2-c:4,5-c']dithiophene-4,8-dione] (PBDB-T-Cl) as a donor backbone, marking as s-PPNR and as-PPNR, according to the molecular symmetry. Both double-cable polymers displayed a high open-circuit voltage approaching 1.20 V in light of high energy level discrepancy between electron-donating and electron-withdrawing parts, which is the highest open-circuit voltage among double-cable-based single-component organic solar cell (SCOSC) devices. Additionally, the asymmetric polymer displayed improved absorption spectra, thereby promoting crystallization and phase separation. Consequently, the as-PPNR-based SCOSCs achieved a power conversion efficiency of 5.05% along with a higher short-circuit current density and fill factor than their s-PPNR-based counterparts. In this work, we have successfully incorporated N-annulated PBI into double-cable polymers and revealed the important effects on structural symmetry and phase separation of double-cable polymers for higher SCOSC performance.

Diffuse intrathyroidal dissemination of papillary thyroid carcinoma with no stromal fibrosis at presentation: A pattern of aggressive differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Multifocal Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is a very common condition. In certain cases, it is possible to find tens to hundreds of foci with a diffuse intrathyroidal spread in the whole thyroid with no stromal fibrosis. Herein, PTC with such features was nominated as diffuse disseminate variant (DDV) PTC. The aim of the present study was to investigate the histopathological characteristics, molecular features, and biological behavior of DDV and compare the characteristics of DDV to diffuse sclerosing variant (DSV) PTC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-four DDV and 23 DSV cases were identified from consecutive surgical specimens diagnosed with PTC between 2014 and 2019. Targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) was applied to investigate the mutation spectrum of DDV and DSV. RESULTS: DDV was commonly diagnosed in young patients and exhibited high rates of LNM (100 %), ETE (61.8 %), and LVI (44.1 %); however, they did not differ from DSV (P > 0.05). Male patients were more frequently diagnosed with DDV than with DSV (P < 0.001). The size of the largest tumor was significantly greater in DDV than in DSV patients (P = 0.008). In addition, BRAFV600E mutation was significantly higher in the DDV than in the DSV group (P < 0.001). The RET/PTC rearrangement was more frequent in DSV than in DDV patients; however, the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.106). Moreover, DDV had a higher rate of recurrence compared to DSV treated with the same protocol (total thyroidectomy followed by radioactive iodine (RAI) treatment) (47.1 % and 8.7 %, P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: DDV should be regarded as a novel aggressive variant of PTC with distinct clinicopathological characteristics, aggressive biological behaviors, and a high recurrence.

Receding Dynamics of Droplet Deposition on a Smooth Surface from a Central Jet to Secondary Droplet Emission.

A droplet impacting a solid surface undergoes deposition, splashing, or rebounding, depending on the properties of the droplet and impacted surface. The deposition pattern attracts lots of attention for the reasons of its predictable behavior on wetting and dewetting. The phenomenon of the central jet, even breaking up into a secondary droplet, is observed during gentle deposition on partially wettable surfaces. The mechanism behind the central jet is addressed by the dual role of the inertia force. In this paper, the dynamic characteristics of droplet deposition are analyzed with a focus on the receding process from jetting to secondary droplet emission. The jet is pinched off into a small secondary droplet when the impacting Weber (We) number is within the range of approximately 26-54. The secondary droplet is then ejected because of the collision with the upward jet. The convergence of capillary waves on the liquid film is employed to explain the two-stage upward jet. The jet tip is pinched off because of Rayleigh-Plateau instability, leading to the generation of the secondary droplet. A geometric model of a two-floor cylinder is further proposed to describe the equivalent recession of the capillary wave. The equivalent radius of the receding wave is linear with time, and the jet height exhibits a scaling law of Djet ∼ (t - 0.8)1/2 with normalized time. Additionally, the dynamic characteristics are investigated from time and size views. With various Weber numbers, the normalized receding, jetting, and tip times are found to remain almost constant. A piecewise relationship with the Weber number is revealed for the normalized receding wave and the tip height. The wave recedes at the characteristic velocity of 0.23 m/s. Moreover, the normalized jet height and tip diameter, as well as secondary droplet diameter, are independent of the inertia force. The emission velocity and kinetic energy of the secondary droplet are found to reach the maximum at We ∼ 41.6.

IL36 indicating good prognosis in human Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Background and Aim: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the leading cause of cancer death in men before the age of 60 years in China. Interleukin (IL)36 played important roles in antitumor immune responses, but its role in HCC is still unknown. We aimed to explore the correlation between IL36 and prognosis of HCC patients. Methods: The expression of IL36 was measured by Immunohistochemistry (IHC), serum Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and flow cytometry (FCM). Chi-square test was performed to analyze the relationship between IL36 expression and clinical parameters of HCC patients. The correlation between IL36 expression and prognosis of HCC patients was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis. Results: The IL36 expression in HCC tumor samples was lower than that in paired peri-tumor samples; the analyses suggested that there was no correlation between IL36 expression and age, gender, and tumor size, but tight relationship between IL36 expression and liver cirrhosis, metastasis and some other clinical parameters. The results of Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated positive expression of IL36 could induce high survival rate of patients. The detection of IL36 with ELISA suggested that expression of IL36 in serum was the highest in patients of HCC, other than the chronic hepatitis patients and the healthy. The result of FCM suggested the expression of IL36 was higher in CD4+ T cells than other immune cells. Conclusions: There is a close relationship between the expression of IL36 and the prognosis of HCC, higher expression of IL36 suggested better prognosis and longer survival of HCC.

Nitrogen-Doped Unusually Superwetting, Thermally Insulating, and Elastic Graphene Aerogel for Efficient Solar Steam Generation.

By removing the oxygen-containing functional groups, thermal treatment in inert gas has been widely reported to improve the hydrophobicity of carbon materials. However, this work reports a contrary phenomenon for the nitrogen-doped graphene aerogel (NGA). As the temperature of thermal treatment increases from 200 to 1000 °C, NGA becomes more and more hydrophilic and the superwetting property remains for weeks in air. To uncover this unusual phenomenon, the effect of nitrogen doping is studied through both experiment and MD simulations. The effects of air exposure and air humidity are further investigated in detail to illustrate the whole physical picture clearly. The superwetting behavior is attributed to the preferential adsorption of water molecules to the nitrogen-doped sites, which significantly inhibits airborne hydrocarbon adsorption. In combination with the excellent properties including mechanical elasticity, high light absorption, and good thermal insulation, an efficient photothermal and solar steam generation performance is demonstrated by using NGA-600 as the photothermal material, presenting a high energy conversion efficiency of 86.2% and good recycling stability.

A low-grade malignant soft tissue tumor with S100 and CD34 co-expression showing novel CDC42SE2-BRAF fusion with distinct features.

Recently, a novel group of spindle cell tumors defined by S100 and CD34 co-expression harboring recurrent fusions involving RET, RAF1, BRAF, and NTRK1/2 gene has been identified. Morphologically, they are characterized by monomorphic neoplasm cells, "patternless" growth pattern, stromal, and perivascular hyalinization, lacked necrosis. We reported a 52-year-old Chinese female patient with a S100 and CD34 co-expression sarcoma presenting in the right proximal forearm. The forearm mass initially emerged 19 months ago when it was misdiagnosed as a solitary fibrous tumor and was surgically removed without further treatment. Microscopically, the primary and the recurred tumors share the same features, resembling the morphology of the recently characterized group. Nevertheless, some distinct features, such as predominantly epithelioid tumor cells and focally staghorn vessels, were also present in our case. Genomic profiling with clinical next-generation sequencing was performed and revealed CDC42SE2-BRAF gene fusion, MET amplification, and CDKN2A/B deletion. Both FISH and nested RT-PCR were performed to confirm the gene fusion. The patient was treated with crizotinib for two cycles but showed no obvious benefit. The presented case adds to the spectrum of the novel, characterized solid tumors, and provides suggestions for emerging therapeutic strategies for precision medicine involving targeted kinase inhibitors.

Integrated analysis of genomic and transcriptomic profiles identified a prognostic immunohistochemistry panel for esophageal squamous cell cancer.

BACKGROUND: The poor outcome of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) highlights the importance of the identification of novel effective prognostic biomarkers. We aimed to identify a clinically applicable prognostic immunohistochemistry (IHC) panel for ESCC. METHODS: An integrated analysis was performed to screen and establish a prognostic panel using exome sequencing profile from 81 pairs of ESCC samples and RNA expression microarray data from 119 ESCC subjects. Two independent ESCC cohorts were recruited as training and validation groups to test the prognostic value. RESULTS: Three genes were selected, namely, ANO1, GAL, and MMP3, which were aberrantly expressed in ESCC tumor tissues (P < .001). Among them, ANO1 and MMP3 were reserved for the construction of the prognostic panel due to their significant association with the prognosis of ESCC patients (P = .015 and P < .001). Patients with both ANO1+ and MMP3+ had a poorer prognosis than that with ANO1-/MMP3+, ANO1+/MMP3-, or ANO1-/MMP3 - in both the training set and validation set (P < .001). Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that the combination of IHC panel and eighth American Joint Commission on Cancer staging yielded a better prognostic predictive efficacy compared with the two indexes alone (P < .001, area under curve: 0.752). Finally, a nomogram was created by integrating the IHC markers and clinicopathological risk factors to predict prognosis with a C-index of 0.695 (95% confidence interval: 0.657-0.734). CONCLUSION: Using an integrated multistage screening strategy, we identified and validated a valuable prognostic IHC panel for ESCC.

A new strategy to hydrothermally synthesize olivine phosphates.

A new strategy based on the P excess reaction system is innovated to hydrothermally synthesize olivine phosphates (LiMPO4), and even unoptimized samples still show competitive electrochemical performance. Meanwhile, it is found that the presence of NH4+ in the P excess reaction system is detrimental to the efficient hydrothermal synthesis of LiMPO4.

Parathyromatosis type 2 detected by 99mTc-MIBI SPECT/CT.

Parathyromatosis, which is defined as multiple foci of benign hyperfunctioning parathyroid tissue in neck or mediastinum, is a rare but severe cause of persistent/recurrent renal hyperparathyroidism (rHPT) after parathyroidectomy (PTX). It is hard to detect and remove all the foci. We present a case of parathyromatosis in a haemodialysed patient, who had three PTXs for persistent/recurrent rHPT and was free of recurrence during 31-month follow-up after the third PTX. 99mTc-MIBI SPECT/CT scan prior to the third PTX located all the lesions. The presented case suggests that preoperative 99mTc-MIBI SPECT/CT is useful for successful surgical removal of parathyromatosis.

Prognostic signifcance of IL35 expression in human hepatocellular carcinoma.

OBJECT: This study was performed to explain the underlying role of IL35 on the prognosis of patients with HCC. METHODS: The expression of IL35 at the protein level was detected with immunohistochemistry (IHC). Chi-square test was performed to analyze the relationship between IL35 expression and clinical parameters of HCC patients. The correlation between expression level of IL35 and the prognosis of patients with HCC was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression method. RESULTS: The positive rate of IL35 expression in HCC samples was about 62.7%, which was significantly higher than that in paired normal specimens (12%). The analyses suggested that there was no correlation between IL35 expression and age, gender, and tumor size (P>0.05), but a tight relationship was found between IL35 expression and metastasis, AFP, HBV infection, Child-Pugh (P<0.05). Susequent Kaplan-Meier analysis result indicated that positive expression of IL35 induced low survival rate of HCC patients, and the Cox regression analysis suggested that IL35 might be a biomarker for prognosis of patients with HCC. CONCLUSION: Generally, results of this study demonstrated that expression of IL35 shared a close association with the prognosis of patients with HCC. Therefore, IL35 could be considered as a novel index for prognosis of patients with HCC.

Tumor Abnormal Protein as a Novel Biomarker in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: High level of serum tumor abnormal protein (TAP) may be useful in early diagnosis of cancers. This study aims to investigate the diagnostic value of TAP in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). METHODS: Abnormal sugar chain glycoproteins from peripheral blood of 139 patients with PTC, 39 patients with benign thyroid nodular and 35 healthy individuals were used. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was performed to evaluate diagnostic value of tumor abnormal protein (TAP). Moreover, the relationship between TAP value and its clinical characteristics was further analyzed. RESULTS: TAP level was significantly higher in PTC patients than in benign thyroid nodular patients or healthy individuals (p < 0.001). We also noted that TAP level was associated with multifocus (p = 0.015), but not associated with other clinical characteristics such as age, gender, tumor size, and extra-thyroidal extension. Based on the area under ROC curve of 0.849 (95% CI: 0.795 - 0.893), the cutoff value of TAP is 122.6 µm2 and the sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of PTC is 79.2% and 86.5%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: TAP may be a novel biomarker for PTC and be useful in the adjuvant diagnosis of PTC.

A Revisit to High Thermoelectric Performance of Single-layer MoS2.

Both electron and phonon transport properties of single layer MoS2 (SLMoS2) are studied. Based on first-principles calculations, the electrical conductivity of SLMoS2 is calculated by Boltzmann equations. The thermal conductivity of SLMoS2 is calculated to be as high as 116.8 Wm(-1) K(-1) by equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. The predicted value of ZT is as high as 0.11 at 500 K. As the thermal conductivity could be reduced largely by phonon engineering, there should be a high possibility to enhance ZT in the SLMoS2-based materials.

The effects of wind and posture on the aerodynamic performance during the flight stage of skiing.

Numerical simulation is conducted to evaluate the wind and posture effects on the aerodynamic performance of a skier during the flight stage. Both steady and unsteady models are applied on a 2D geometry. Using the Fluent code, the fundamental equations of fluid flow are solved simultaneously. In particular we focus on the influence of wind speed and direction on aerodynamic forces with several different postures of the skier in steady modeling. For a chosen case, the unsteady models are used to predict the transient characteristics of streamline distributions and aerodynamic forces. It is found that the skier's postures, wind speed, and direction play a significant role. The wind condition affects the pressure force (the form drag) on the skier and makes it a resistance or thrust regarding wind directions. The optimized posture with a minimization of resistance under a facing wind is determined as a moving-forward body of the skier. The unsteady modeling reveals that the wake around the skier and aerodynamic forces are strongly dependent on time. This initial study not only provides a qualitative and theoretical basis for the athletes to understand the effects of wind and postures, and then to optimize their postures according to the wind condition during the flight stage of skiing, but also builds the foundation for the systematic study of skiing process with more advanced CFD models in the future.

Carbonate anions controlled morphological evolution of LiMnPO4 crystals.

LiMnPO4 with a morphology controlled by carbonate anions was prepared via a simple template-free hydrothermal reaction; the LiMnPO4 shows a promising electrochemical activity as cathode material for lithium ion batteries.