A self-aligned assembling terahertz metasurface microfluidic sensor for liquid detection.

This paper reports a new terahertz metasurface microfluidic sensor, which is actually a kind of reflective terahertz metasurface absorber with a microfluidic-channel structure located in the strong field energy region of the absorber. The metasurface structure is made on an ultra-thin quartz substrate as the cap layer, while a two-step structure is made on a silicon substrate as the pedestal layer. In order to precisely control the thickness of the microfluidic channel, the cap layer is self-aligned assembled with the pedestal layer to form the terahertz metasurface microfluidic sensor. The obtained sensor could enhance the light-matter interaction, resulting in high sensing performance. The measured results show that the sensor has a perfect absorption peak at 2.60 THz and a high Q-factor of 62.59, which are basically consistent with the simulated results. The sensitivity and FOM calculated based on the measured results of different liquids with different refractive indices is 0.733 THz per RIU and 16.4, respectively. Compared with some recently related work, the sensitivity is increased by about 40%, the Q-factor is increased by 3-5 times, and the FOM is increased by 5 times, which make the sensor have great application potential for solution detection in the terahertz frequency band.

Severe hyponatremia and diabetes insipidus caused by low-dose cyclophosphamide in breast cancer patients: A case report and literature review.

RATIONALE: Cyclophosphamide (CTX) is widely used in the treatment of malignancies and autoimmune diseases. Although severe hyponatremia caused by low-dose CTX chemotherapy is uncommon, it can lead to serious complications and even death. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 44-year-old woman with left-sided breast cancer suddenly experienced headaches, disorientation and weakness after receiving low-dose neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with CTX and doxorubicin. DIAGNOSES: The patient pathology showed invasive breast carcinoma. She developed severe hyponatremia and a generalized seizure after completing the first cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy with CTX and doxorubicin. Laboratory tests showed a serum sodium of 118 mmol/L (normal range 135-145 mmol/L) and potassium sodium 3.16 mmol/L (normal range 3.5-5.5 mmol/L). Subsequently, the patient developed secondary diabetes insipidus 4 hours after sodium supplementation, her 24-hour urine volume was 4730 mL (normal range 1000-2000 mL/24 hours), and the urine specific gravity decreased to 1.005. INTERVENTIONS: The patient was given intravenous sodium chloride (500 mL of 3%NaCl, 100 mL/hour) and potassium chloride (500 mL of 0.3%KCl, 250 mL/hour). Meanwhile, she was advised to reduce her water intake, and pituitrin was administered to prevent dehydration caused by diabetes insipidus. OUTCOMES: The patient completely recovered after correcting of the serum sodium concentration (137 mmol/L) without any neurological deficits. After discontinuing pituitrin, her 24-hour urine volume was 2060 mL and the urine specific gravity was 1.015. LESSONS: This is a typical case of severe hyponatremia induced by low-dose CTX. Clinicians and healthcare providers should be aware of this potential toxicity, and appropriate monitoring should be implemented.

Optical metasurfaces for multiplex high-performance grating-type structural colors.

Optical metasurfaces provide a significant approach for the production of structural colors due to their excellent optical control abilities. Herein, we propose trapezoidal structural metasurfaces for achieving multiplex grating-type structural colors with high comprehensive performance originating from the anomalous reflection dispersion in the visible band. Single trapezoidal metasurfaces with different x-direction periods can tune the angular dispersion regularly from 0.036 rad/nm to 0.224 rad/nm to generate various structural colors, and composite trapezoidal metasurfaces with three kinds of combinations can achieve multiplex sets of structural colors. The brightness can be controlled by adjusting the distance between the trapezoids in a pair accurately. The designed structural colors have higher saturation than traditional pigmentary colors, whose excitation purity can reach 1.00. The gamut is about 158.1% of the Adobe RGB standard. This research has application potential in ultrafine displays, information encryption, optical storage, and anti-counterfeit tagging.

High-Performance Resistive Random Access Memories Based on Two-Dimensional HAPbI4 Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Perovskite.

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have attracted extensive attention for potential memory applications because of their excellent properties, such as high charge carrier mobility and fast ion migration. Herein, the two-dimensional HAPbI4 perovskite with an octahedral structure and high stability was prepared by a facile solution method. Moreover, the resistive random access memory (RRAM) with the Ag/PMMA/HAPbI4/ITO structure has been successfully fabricated by spin coating and vacuum thermal evaporation. The as-prepared RRAM device based on HAPbI4 demonstrated superior resistive switching performance. The on/off ratio is as high as 105, and the corresponding retention of the device exceeds 10 000 s; furthermore, the RRAM device could be kept stable after being kept in the air for 24 weeks.

Long noncoding RNA H19 mediated the chemosensitivity of breast cancer cells via Wnt pathway and EMT process.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is still one of the major public health burdens worldwide, although there is tremendous progress in early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Tamoxifen was one of the most popular endocrine therapies for early-stage estrogen receptor (ER) + breast cancer patients. However, a high incidence of drug resistance develops along with poor prognosis in breast cancer. Currently, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging and are well suited to play a role in the development of cancer and tamoxifen resistance. However, there is little reported about the relationship of breast cancer resistance to tamoxifen and lncRNA H19. Here, we validated that lncRNA H19 was highly expressed in breast cancer especially in patients with late stage (III and IV), compared to normal tissues and early stage cancers (I and II). METHODS: Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was utilized for comparison of lncRNA H19 expression level in breast cancers with different stages. qPCR and Western blotting were used to detect gene and protein, respectively. RESULTS: We found that lncRNA H19 expression level manipulated breast cancer cell proliferation both in parental breast cancer cell lines and tamoxifen-resistant cell lines. Knockdown of lncRNA H19 elevated tamoxifen sensitivity for promoting cell growth and inhibiting apoptosis in tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer cells. Moreover, knockdown of H19 inhibited Wnt pathway and epithelia-mesenchymal transition in tamoxifen-resistance breast cancer cells. CONCLUSION: Taken together, the results of this study provided the evidence for H19 in regulating tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer and might provide novel options in the future treatment of tamoxifen-resistance breast cancer patients.

Clinicopathological features for predicting central and lateral lymph node metastasis in papillary thyroid microcarcinoma: Analysis of 66 cases that underwent central and lateral lymph node dissection.

Currently the surgical approach for papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC), particularly the range of lymph node dissection, remains controversial. The present study aims to evaluate the risk factors for central and lateral lymph node metastasis (CLNM and LLNM) for appropriate clinical decision of neck lymph node dissection in PTMC. A total of 66 cases of PTMC that underwent unilateral or bilateral lobectomy plus prophylactic cervical lymph node dissection were collected for clinicopathological evaluation, including age, gender, tumor size, subtypes, extrathyroidal invasion, multifocality, calcifications, loss of cellular polarity/cohesiveness (LOP/C) in the invasive front, CLNM and LLNM, and retrospectively analysis. Univariate analysis revealed that LOP/C was significantly associated with CLNM (P=0.001) and LLNM (P<0.0001). The male gender was a risk factor of CLNM (P=0.04), while the age <45 years, tumor size >0.5 cm and multifocality were high-risk factors of LLNM (P=0.022, 0.044 and 0.005, respectively). Multivariable analysis revealed that LOP/C was significantly associated with CLNM [P=0.007, odds ratio (OR)=7.765, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.773-33.996] and LLNM [P=0.029, OR=5.717, 95% CI=1.190-27.470]. Both multivariable analysis and χ2 test revealed that CLNM was another important high-risk factor of LLNM (P=0.021, OR=5.444, 95% CI=1.290-22.969, χ2=17.867, P<0.001). The present study revealed that prophylactic central lymph node dissection is essential for PTMC surgery and that prophylactic lateral lymph node dissection is recommend for patients with LOP/C and CLNM, which can be performed by intraoperative frozen section pathological examination. This must be considered discreetly in the case of patients with age <45 years, tumor size >0.5 cm and multifocal lesions.

Simultaneous Evaluation of Safety, Acceptability, Pericoital Kinetics, and Ex Vivo Pharmacodynamics Comparing Four Rectal Microbicide Vehicle Candidates.

Preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) of HIV infection with tenofovir-containing regimens is effective, but plagued by poor adherence in some studies. Options for safe, effective, and acceptable PrEP products, especially for men and women at risk of HIV via receptive anal intercourse (RAI), are needed. We performed a randomized, partially blinded, first-in-human evaluation of four candidate rectal microbicide vehicles-aqueous gel, aqueous fluid, lipid gel, and lipid fluid-to select a prototype for further clinical development. Eight seronegative participants received three doses of each product with each dose separated by at least 2 weeks: one dose was given alone without simulated RAI in clinic, another dose was followed by simulated RAI in clinic, and another dose was self-administered at home in the context of RAI with a partner. Assessments included safety, acceptability, colon histology, ex vivo HIV infectivity of colon tissue explants, and colonic luminal distribution of vehicle and HIV surrogates. Adverse events were all mild and mainly sigmoidoscopy associated. There were minor differences in colon distribution of products and little effect of RAI. Vehicle distribution covered 95% (±7% standard deviation) of the distribution of an HIV surrogate in the colonic lumen. The lipid fluid vehicle increased HIV colon tissue infectability 5-fold [log10 p24 0.68 (95% confidence interval 0.08, 1.28)] and aqueous gel provided 6-fold protection [log10 p24 0.80 (95% confidence interval 0.20, 1.41)] compared to no product baseline. Colon permeability of lipid vehicles was more than 10-fold greater than aqueous vehicles. All products received similar acceptability ratings, though trends favored the gel products. Intensive simultaneous assessment of safety and toxicity, luminal and tissue distribution, ex vivo HIV infectivity, and product acceptability in relevant sexual contexts provided clear differentiation among candidate gels very early in product development. We selected the aqueous gel for further development as a rectal microbicide vehicle.

Isoosmolar enemas demonstrate preferential gastrointestinal distribution, safety, and acceptability compared with hyperosmolar and hypoosmolar enemas as a potential delivery vehicle for rectal microbicides.

Rectally applied antiretroviral microbicides for preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) of HIV infection are currently in development. Since enemas (rectal douches) are commonly used by men who have sex with men prior to receptive anal intercourse, a microbicide enema could enhance PrEP adherence by fitting seamlessly within the usual sexual practices. We assessed the distribution, safety, and acceptability of three enema types-hyperosmolar (Fleet), hypoosmolar (distilled water), and isoosmolar (Normosol-R)-in a crossover design. Nine men received each enema type in random order. Enemas were radiolabeled [(99m)Tc-diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA)] to assess enema distribution in the colon using single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) imaging. Plasma (99m)Tc-DTPA indicated mucosal permeability. Sigmoidoscopic colon tissue biopsies were taken to assess injury as well as tissue penetration of the (99m)Tc-DTPA. Acceptability was assessed after each product use and at the end of the study. SPECT/CT imaging showed that the isoosmolar enema had greater proximal colonic distribution (up to the splenic flexure) and greater luminal and colon tissue concentrations of (99m)Tc-DTPA when compared to the other enemas (p<0.01). Colon biopsies also showed that only the hyperosmolar enema caused sloughing of the colonic epithelium (p<0.05). In permeability testing, the hypoosmolar enema had higher plasma (99m)Tc-DTPA 24-h area under the concentration-time curve and peak concentration compared to the hyperosmolar and isoosmolar enemas, respectively. Acceptability was generally good with no clear preferences among the three enema types. The isoosmolar enema was superior or similar to the other enemas in all categories and is a good candidate for further development as a rectal microbicide vehicle.

Quantification of the spatial distribution of rectally applied surrogates for microbicide and semen in colon with SPECT and magnetic resonance imaging.

AIMS: We sought to describe quantitatively the distribution of rectally administered gels and seminal fluid surrogates using novel concentration-distance parameters that could be repeated over time. These methods are needed to develop rationally rectal microbicides to target and prevent HIV infection. METHODS: Eight subjects were dosed rectally with radiolabelled and gadolinium-labelled gels to simulate microbicide gel and seminal fluid. Rectal doses were given with and without simulated receptive anal intercourse. Twenty-four hour distribution was assessed with indirect single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and direct assessment via sigmoidoscopic brushes. Concentration-distance curves were generated using an algorithm for fitting SPECT data in three dimensions. Three novel concentration-distance parameters were defined to describe quantitatively the distribution of radiolabels: maximal distance (D(max) ), distance at maximal concentration (D(Cmax) ) and mean residence distance (D(ave) ). RESULTS: The SPECT/CT distribution of microbicide and semen surrogates was similar. Between 1 h and 24 h post dose, the surrogates migrated retrograde in all three parameters (relative to coccygeal level; geometric mean [95% confidence interval]): maximal distance (D(max) ), 10 cm (8.6-12) to 18 cm (13-26), distance at maximal concentration (D(Cmax) ), 3.8 cm (2.7-5.3) to 4.2 cm (2.8-6.3) and mean residence distance (D(ave) ), 4.3 cm (3.5-5.1) to 7.6 cm (5.3-11). Sigmoidoscopy and MRI correlated only roughly with SPECT/CT. CONCLUSIONS: Rectal microbicide surrogates migrated retrograde during the 24 h following dosing. Spatial kinetic parameters estimated using three dimensional curve fitting of distribution data should prove useful for evaluating rectal formulations of drugs for HIV prevention and other indications.

[Use of allogenic acellular dermal matrix in abdominal wall hernia and defect repair in 31 cases].

OBJECTIVE: To summarize the clinical effect of allogenic acellular dermal matrix in repair of abdominal wall hernia and defect. METHODS: The clinical data were analyzed retrospectively from 31 patients with abdominal wall hernia and defect repaired by allogenic acellular dermal matrix between March 2007 and November 2009. There were 19 males and 12 females with an age range of 10-70 years (median, 42 years), including 6 abdominal wall defects caused by abdominal wall tumor resection, 4 patches infection after abdominal wall hernia repair using prosthetic mesh, 2 incisional hernia, 1 parastomal hernia, 1 recurrent parastomal hernia receiving mesh repair, 1 mesh infection caused by parastomal hernia repair using prosthetic patch, 3 mesh infection caused by tension free inguinal after hernia repair, and 13 inguinal hernia. There were 12 patients with contaminated or infectious wound. The disease duration was from 1 to 34 months (6 months on average). The defect size of abdominal wall ranged from 6 cm x 4 cm to 19 cm x 10 cm. Abdominal wall hernia or defect underwent repair using allogenic acellular dewall matrix. RESULTS: Of the 31 patients, 29 patients recovered with primary wound healing. Chronic sinus tract occurred in 1 patient and the wound was cured by change dressing. Wound dehiscence and patch exposure occurred in 1 patient, and second healing was achieved after change dressing. All the 31 patients were followed up 6-36 months, no abdominal wall hernia or hernia recurrence occurred in other patients except 1 patient who had abdominal bulge. And no foreign body sensation or chronic pain in wound area occurred. CONCLUSION: It is feasible and safe to use allergenic acellular dermal matrix patch for repair of abdominal wall hernia or soft tissue defect, especially in contaminated or infectious wound.

[Comparison of two repairing procedures for abdominal wall reconstruction in patients with flank hernia].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical therapeutic effect of extended Sublay technique via previous incision for repairing flank hernias in comparison with routine Sublay technique. METHODS: Between May 2004 and May 2009, 41 patients with flank hernia were treated by extended Sublay repair via previous incision (extended Sublay repair group, n = 18) and by routine Sublay repair (routine Sublay repair group, n = 23). In extended Sublay repair group, there were 11 males and 7 females with an average age of 45.2 years (range, 32-61 years); flank hernia was caused by flank incision operation (12 patients with surgery history of nephrectomy, adrenalectomy, and vascular procedure) and traffic accident (6 patients) with an average disease duration of 14.5 months (range, 8-23 months); and the locations were the left flank region in 11 patients (7 affected superior lumbar triangles and 4 affected inferior lumbar triangles) and the right flank region in 7 patients (5 affected superior lumbar triangles and 2 affected inferior lumbar triangles). In routine Sublay repair group, there were 14 males and 9 females with an average age of 48.7 years (range, 33-64 years); flank hernia was caused by flank incision operation (15 patients with surgery history of nephrectomy, adrenalectomy, and vascular procedure), traffic accident (6 patients), and falling (2 patients) with an average disease duration of 18.2 months (range, 11-27 months); and the locations were the left flank region in 10 patients (5 affected superior lumbar triangles and 5 affected inferior lumbar triangles) and the right flank region in 13 patients (9 affected superior lumbar triangles and 4 affected inferior lumbar triangles). There was no significant difference in general data between 2 groups (P > 0.05). RESULTS: The mesh size in extended Sublay repair group was significantly larger than that in routine Sublay repair group [(618.2 +/- 40.6) cm2 vs. (512.2 +/- 36.5) cm2, P < 0.05]. There was no significant difference in hernia ring size, operation time, and hospitalization day between 2 groups (P > 0.05). In extended Sublay repair group, the patients were followed up 17 to 35 months (26.2 months on average) with an early complication incidence of 27.8% (hematomas in 2 cases, seroma in 1 case, and chronic pain in 2 cases within 1 month) and a late complication incidence of 0 (no hernia recurrence and abdominal wall bulge during follow-up). In routine Sublay repair group, the patients were followed up 14-35 months (24.5 months on average) within early complication incidence of 13.0% (seroma in 1 case and chronic pains in 2 cases within 1 month) and a late complication incidence of 30.4% (hernia recurrence in 3 cases and abdominal wall bulge in 4 cases at 1-3 months). There was significant difference in the late complication incidence between 2 groups (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Extended Sublay technique is a safe and effective approach for flank hernia repair. Making clear the anatomy of lumbar region, harvesting adequate space for mesh overlap, and effectively-fixing are critical to ideal clinical outcomes.