Ultrahigh energy storage in high-entropy ceramic capacitors with polymorphic relaxor phase

Ultrahigh-power-density multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) are critical components in electrical and electronic systems. However, the realization of a high energy density combined with a high efficiency is a major challenge for practical applications. We propose a high-entropy design in barium titanate (BaTiO3)-based lead-free MLCCs with polymorphic relaxor phase. This strategy effectively minimizes hysteresis loss by lowering the domain-switching barriers and enhances the breakdown strength by the high atomic disorder with lattice distortion and grain refining. Benefiting from the synergistic effects, we achieved a high energy density of 20.8 joules per cubic centimeter with an ultrahigh efficiency of 97.5% in the MLCCs. This approach should be universally applicable to designing high-performance dielectrics for energy storage and other related functionalities.

Primary catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome in children with midbrain infarction: a case report

Background

Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome (CAPS) is a multi-system autoimmune disease characterized by extensive thrombosis. Pediatric CAPS is extremely rare and associated with a high mortality rate, especially when midbrain infarction is involved. Hence, early diagnosis and prompt initiation of appropriate treatment for CAPS complicated by midbrain infarction are of utmost importance in achieving favorable outcomes.

Case presentation

In this report, we present the case of a 14-year-old girl who presented with neurological symptoms and digestive system infection and was initially diagnosed with an "intracranial infection". After a series of rigorous diagnostic procedures, the patient was ultimately diagnosed with primary CAPS and was immediately transferred to the intensive care unit where she was treated with anticoagulation, glucocorticoids, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy, and multiple plasma infusions. Twenty-seven days after admission, the patient's condition improved with standardized treatment, and she was discharged and followed up regularly.

Conclusion

This case report provides a description of the clinical features observed in a pediatric patient with CAPS and concurrent midbrain infarction, highlighting the crucial role of early diagnosis and timely treatment in influencing patient prognosis.

Furan Dearomatization: A Route to Diverse Fluoroalkyl/Aryl Triazoles

The 5-fluoroalkyl-1,2,3-triazoles, serving as a pivotal element in medicinal chemistry, hold substantial research significance. In this work, we developed a furan dearomatization reaction for the synthesis of various 5-fluoroalkyl-1,2,3-triazoles, which contains -CF3, -CF2H, -CF2CF3, -CF2CF2CF3, -CF2CO2Et, and -C6F5. This methodology relies on the intermolecular [3 + 2] cycloaddition/furan ring-opening triggered by α-fluoroalkyl furfuryl cation with azides to stereoselectively synthesize a series of (E)-fluoroalkyl enone triazoles. The reaction proceeds without metal participation, exhibits excellent substrate tolerance, and has excellent synthetic utility.

Therapeutic effect of notoginseng saponins before and after fermentation on blood deficiency rats

Notoginseng saponins (NS) are the active ingredients in Panax notoginseng (Burk.) F.H. Chen (PN). NS can be transformed depending on how the extract is processed. Fermentation has been shown to produce secondary ginsenosides with increased bioavailability. However, the therapeutic effect of fermented NS (FNS) requires further study. The present study compared the compositions and activities of FNS and NS in blood deficiency rats, which resembles the symptoms of anemia in modern medicine, induced by acetylphenylhydrazine and cyclophosphamide. A total of 32 rats were randomly divided into control, model, FNS and NS groups. A blood deficiency model was established and then treatment was orally administered for 21 days. The results of component analysis indicated that some saponins transformed during the fermentation process resulting in a decrease of notoginsenoside R1, and ginsenosides Rg1, Rb1 and Re, and an increase in ginsenosides Rd, Rh2, compound K, protopanaxadiol and protopanaxatriol. The animal results showed that both FNS and NS increased the number of white blood cells (WBCs), red blood cells, hemoglobin, platelets and reticulocytes, and the levels of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), erythropoietin (EPO) and thrombopoietin (TPO), decreased the G0/G1 phase and increased G2/M phase, and decreased the apoptosis rate of bone marrow (BM) cells, which suggested a contribution to the recovery of hematopoietic function of the BM cells. FNS and NS increased the protein expression levels of the cytokines IL-4, IL-10, IL-12, IL-13, TGF-β, IL-6, IFN-γ and TNF-α, and the mRNA expression levels of transcription factors GATA binding protein 3 and T-box expressed in T cell (T-bet). FNS and NS treatment also increased the number of CD4+ T cells, and decreased the enlargement of the rat spleen and thymus atrophy, which indicated a protective effect on the organs of the immune system. The results of the present study demonstrated that compared with NS, FNS showed an improved ability to increase the levels of WBCs, lymphocytes, GM-CSF, EPO, TPO, aspartate aminotransferase, IL-10, IL-12, IL-13 and TNF-α, and the mRNA expression levels of T-bet, and decrease alanine aminotransferase levels. The differences seen for FNS treatment could arise from their improved bioavailability compared with NS, due to the larger proportion of hydrophobic ginsenosides produced during fermentation.

Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 Inhibitor SHR2554 in Relapsed or Refractory Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma: Data from the First-in-Human Phase I Study

PURPOSE

Patients with peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL) in the relapsed or refractory (r/r) setting have only a limited number of therapies available, and the prognosis is extremely poor. SHR2554 is an oral inhibitor against EZH2, a rational therapeutic target for lymphomas.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

This was a multicenter, two-part, phase I study of SHR2554 in r/r mature lymphoid neoplasms. In part I, 350 mg twice daily was established as the recommended phase II dose (RP2D) based on the findings during dose escalation and expansion; subsequently, selected lymphoma subtypes were recruited in clinical expansion cohorts to receive SHR2554 at RP2D. Here, we provide an in-depth assessment of SHR2554 at RP2D in subpopulation with r/r PTCL.

RESULTS

Twenty-eight patients were included for analysis (17 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma and 11 not otherwise specified). Eighteen (64%) patients had received ≥2 lines of previous anticancer therapies. The objective response rate was 61% [95% confidence interval (CI), 41-78]. Responses were still ongoing in 59% (10/17) of the responders; estimated median duration of response was 12.3 months (95% CI, 7.4-not reached). Median progression-free survival was 11.1 months (95% CI, 5.3-22.0), and 12-month overall survival rate was 92% (95% CI, 72-98). The most common grade 3 or 4 treatment-related adverse events were decreased platelet count [nine (32%)] as well as decreased white blood cell count, decreased neutrophil count, and anemia [four (14%) for each]. No treatment-related deaths were reported.

CONCLUSIONS

This extended follow-up analysis further supports SHR2554 as a therapeutic opportunity for patients with r/r PTCL.

Two-Dimensional Spin-Crossover Molecular Solid Solutions with Tunable Transition Temperatures across 90 K

Spin-crossover (SCO) materials exhibit remarkable potential as bistable switches in molecular devices. However, the spin transition temperatures (Tc) of known compounds are unable to cover the entire ambient temperature spectrum, largely limiting their practical utility. This study reports an exemplary two-dimensional SCO solid solution system, [FeIII(H0.5LCl)2-2x(H0.5LF)2x]·H2O (H0.5LX = 5-X-2-hydroxybenzylidene-hydrazinecarbothioamide, X = F or Cl, x = 0 to 1), in which the adjacent layers are adhered via hydrogen bonding. Notably, the Tc of this system can be fine-tuned across 90 K (227-316 K) in a linear manner by modulating the fraction x of the LF ligand. Elevating x results in strengthened hydrogen bonding between adjacent layers, which leads to enhanced intermolecular interactions between adjacent SCO molecules. Single-crystal diffraction analysis and periodic density functional theory calculations revealed that such a special kind of alteration in interlayer interactions strengthens the FeIIIN2O2S2 ligand field and corresponding SCO energy barrier, consequently resulting in increased Tc. This work provides a new pathway for tuning the Tc of SCO materials through delicate manipulation of molecular interactions, which could expand the application of bistable molecular solids to a much wider temperature regime.

Spread Through Air Spaces in Residual Tumor Classification for Clinical IA Lung Adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND

We aimed to validate the prognostic implication of uncertain resection, R(un), proposed by International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and evaluate the prognostic value of spread through air spaces (STAS) in reclassifying the R classification among patients with lung adenocarcinoma after segmentectomy.

METHODS

We enrolled 1007 patients who underwent segmentectomy for c-stage IA lung adenocarcinoma between 2014 and 2017. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared to evaluate the prognostic value of IASLC-R(un) and STAS. Whether STAS would skip into complementary lobectomy was evaluated in a prospective cohort.

RESULTS

The current IASLC-R(un) failed to significantly stratify the RFS (P = .078) in segmentectomy, and STAS was a stronger risk factor of poor prognosis for both RFS and OS (P < .001). Moreover, the presence of STAS was associated with increased locoregional recurrence in patients undergoing segmentectomy (P < .001) but not in those treated with lobectomy (P = .187), indicating that only STAS-positive segmentectomy was consistent with the concept of R(un) in relapse pattern. After reclassifying STAS-positive segmentectomy into the R(un) category, the proposed R(un) showed an improvement in prognosis stratification. In addition, 2 of 30 patients (6.2%) in the prospective cohort who underwent initial segmentectomy and complementary lobectomy had STAS clusters in the complementary lobectomy specimens.

CONCLUSIONS

Unfavorable prognosis, relapse patterns consistent with R(un), and pathologic verification that saltatory spread of STAS observed in complementary lobectomy specimens supported reclassifying STAS-positive segmentectomy as R(un). STAS is a critical concern for the surgical completeness evaluation after segmentectomy.

Risk factor analysis of distant metastases in patients with primary medullary thyroid cancer: a population-based study

OBJECTIVE

Medullary thyroid carcinoma has a high rate of recurrence and distant metastasis. The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factors for distant metastasis in patients with primary medullary thyroid carcinoma.

METHODS

Patients diagnosed with primary medullary thyroid cancer between 2010 and 2015 were enrolled using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Patient demographics and tumor clinicopathological features were evaluated to identify potential risk factors for distant metastasis in patients with primary medullary thyroid cancer. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine independent risk factors for distant metastasis in patients with primary medullary thyroid carcinoma. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS statistical software (version 27.0). A two-tailed P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

We collected 685 patients with primary medullary thyroid carcinoma, 40 of whom (5.84%) developed distant metastases. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that except marital status, age, sex, race, pT stage, N stage, multifocal and capsular infiltration were significantly correlated with distant metastasis of medullary thyroid carcinoma. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that patients aged ≤ 18 years or > 55 years, Black race, higher pT stage and N stage were independent risk factors for distant metastasis of medullary thyroid carcinoma.

CONCLUSIONS

This study found that ≤ 18 years or > 55 years, black race, higher pT stage and N stage were significantly associated with distant metastasis of medullary thyroid cancer. This is important for clinicians to identify patients at high risk of distant metastasis in a timely manner.

Clinicopathological features and prognostic value of CD276 expression in female reproductive system malignancies: A meta-analysis

The relationship between CD276 and malignancies of the female reproductive system has previously been controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of CD276 expression in clinicopathological features and prognosis of female reproductive system malignant tumors through meta-analysis. PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI and Wanfang databases were searched for studies published up to December 2022 on the role of CD276 expression in the clinicopathological features and prognosis of female reproductive system malignancies. STATA 14.0 was used for meta-analysis. A total of 10 studies were included, involving 840 patients with malignant tumors of the female reproductive system. The results showed that in terms of clinicopathological features: CD276 expression was closely related to lymph node status [OR = 2.33， 95 %CI = 1.32-4.11， P = 0.003], tumor differentiation [OR = 2.15， 95 %CI = 1.27-3.63, P = 0.004], and FIGO stage [OR = 2.58， 95 %CI = 1.44-4.61, P = 0.001] of reproductive system malignant tumors. In terms of prognosis: CD276 expression is strongly associated with shorter OS in patients with female reproductive system malignancies [HR = 3.33, 95 % CI = 1.36-8.15, P = 0.01]. CD276 may be a new target for immunotherapy and a biomarker for predicting poor prognosis of female reproductive system malignancies.

A Comprehensive Survey of Continual Learning: Theory, Method and Application

To cope with real-world dynamics, an intelligent system needs to incrementally acquire, update, accumulate, and exploit knowledge throughout its lifetime. This ability, known as continual learning, provides a foundation for AI systems to develop themselves adaptively. In a general sense, continual learning is explicitly limited by catastrophic forgetting, where learning a new task usually results in a dramatic performance drop of the old tasks. Beyond this, increasingly numerous advances have emerged in recent years that largely extend the understanding and application of continual learning. The growing and widespread interest in this direction demonstrates its realistic significance as well as complexity. In this work, we present a comprehensive survey of continual learning, seeking to bridge the basic settings, theoretical foundations, representative methods, and practical applications. Based on existing theoretical and empirical results, we summarize the general objectives of continual learning as ensuring a proper stability-plasticity trade-off and an adequate intra/inter-task generalizability in the context of resource efficiency. Then we provide a state-of-the-art and elaborated taxonomy, extensively analyzing how representative strategies address continual learning, and how they are adapted to particular challenges in various applications. Through an in-depth discussion of promising directions, we believe that such a holistic perspective can greatly facilitate subsequent exploration in this field and beyond.

[The clinical significance of lateral pelvic sentinel lymph node biopsy using indocyanine green fluorescence navigation in laparoscopic lateral pelvic lymph node dissection]

Objectives: This study aims to explore the clinical significance of lateral pelvic sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) using indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence navigation in laparoscopic lateral pelvic lymph node dissection (LLND) and evaluate the accuracy and feasibility of this technique to predict the status of lateral pelvic lymph nodes (LPLNs). Methods: The clinical and pathological characteristics, surgical outcomes, lymph node findings and perioperative complications of 16 rectal cancer patients who underwent SLNB using ICG fluorescence navigation in laparoscopic LLND in the Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College during April 2017 and October 2022 were retrospectively collected and analyzed. The patients did not receive preoperative neoadjuvant radiotherapy and presented with LPLNs but without LPLN enlargement (MRI showed the maximum short axes of the LPLNs were ≥5 mm and <10 mm at first visit). Results: All 16 patients were successfully performed SLNB using ICG fluorescence navigation in laparoscopic LLND. Three patients underwent bilateral LLND and 13 patients underwent unilateral LLND. The lateral pelvic sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) were clearly fluorescent before dissection in 14 patients and the detection rate of SLNs for these patients was 87.5%. Lateral pelvic SLN metastasis was diagnosed in 2 patients and negative results were found in 12 patients by frozen pathological examinations. Among the 14 patients in whom lateral pelvic SLNs were detected, the dissected lateral pelvic non-SLNs were all negative. All dissected LPLNs were negative in two patients without fluorescent lateral pelvic SLNs. The specificity, sensitivity, negative predictive value, and accuracy was 85.7%, 100%, 100%, and 100%, respectively. Conclusions: This study indicates that lateral pelvic SLNB using ICG fluorescence navigation shows promise as a safe and feasible procedure with good accuracy. This technique may replace preventive LLND for locally advanced lower rectal cancer.

SERCA2 dysfunction triggers hypertension by interrupting mitochondrial homeostasis and provoking oxidative stress

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase 2 (SERCA2) is critical in maintaining Ca2+ homeostasis. The cysteine 674 (C674) is the key redox regulatory cysteine in regulating SERCA2 activity, which is irreversibly oxidized in the renal cortex of hypertensive mice. We have reported that the substitution of C674 by serine causes SERCA2 dysfunction and increases blood pressure by induction of endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS). This study is to explore whether the dysfunction of SERCA2 causes hypertension by interrupting mitochondrial homeostasis and inducing oxidative stress.

METHODS & RESULTS

We used heterozygous SERCA2 C674S gene mutation knock-in (SKI) mice, where one copy of C674 was substituted by serine to represent partial C674 oxidation. In renal proximal tubule (RPT) cells, the substitution of C674 by serine decreased mitochondrial Ca2+ content, increased mitochondrial membrane potential, ATP content, and reactive oxygen species (ROS), which could be reversed by ERS inhibitor 4-phenylbutyric acid or SERCA2 agonist CDN1163. In SKI RPT cells, the redox modulator Tempol alleviated oxidative stress, downregulated the protein expression of ERS markers and soluble epoxide hydrolase, upregulated the protein expression of dopamine D1 receptor, and reduced Na+/K+- ATPase activity. In SKI mice, SERCA2 agonists CDN1163 and [6]-Gingerol, or the redox modulator Tempol increased urine output and lowered blood pressure.

CONCLUSION

The irreversible oxidation of C674 is not only an indicator of increased ROS, but also further inducing oxidative stress to cause hypertension. Activation of SERCA2 or inhibition of oxidative stress is beneficial to alleviate hypertension caused by SERCA2 dysfunction.

Orbital angular momentum-mediated machine learning for high-accuracy mode-feature encoding

Machine learning with optical neural networks has featured unique advantages of the information processing including high speed, ultrawide bandwidths and low energy consumption because the optical dimensions (time, space, wavelength, and polarization) could be utilized to increase the degree of freedom. However, due to the lack of the capability to extract the information features in the orbital angular momentum (OAM) domain, the theoretically unlimited OAM states have never been exploited to represent the signal of the input/output nodes in the neural network model. Here, we demonstrate OAM-mediated machine learning with an all-optical convolutional neural network (CNN) based on Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam modes with diverse diffraction losses. The proposed CNN architecture is composed of a trainable OAM mode-dispersion impulse as a convolutional kernel for feature extraction, and deep-learning diffractive layers as a classifier. The resultant OAM mode-dispersion selectivity can be applied in information mode-feature encoding, leading to an accuracy as high as 97.2% for MNIST database through detecting the energy weighting coefficients of the encoded OAM modes, as well as a resistance to eavesdropping in point-to-point free-space transmission. Moreover, through extending the target encoded modes into multiplexed OAM states, we realize all-optical dimension reduction for anomaly detection with an accuracy of 85%. Our work provides a deep insight to the mechanism of machine learning with spatial modes basis, which can be further utilized to improve the performances of various machine-vision tasks by constructing the unsupervised learning-based auto-encoder.

The influence of heteroatoms on the circularly polarized luminescence performance of [7]helicene derivatives: aromatic vs. non-aromatic five-membered rings

Helicenes are promising candidates for circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) materials, although the performance is poor due to the unsatisfactory dissymmetric factor (glum) and fluorescence quantum efficiency (ΦF). Herein, the influence of heteroatoms (C, Si, Ge, O, S and Se) on the electronic structures and chiroptical properties of [7]helicene derivatives is systematically investigated using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT calculations combined with the thermal vibration correlation function theory. The results reveal that the non-radiative energy consumption processes for helicene systems are closely related to the variation of bond length upon electronic excitation. Moreover, by introducing five-membered rings and heteroatoms, the dipole-forbidden S1 → S0 emission of [7]helicene changes to dipole-allowed transition due to the rearrangement of occupied orbitals and lifting of the nearly degenerate orbitals, resulting in an enhancement of ΦF. As the heteroatomic radius increases, ΦF decreases while the glum increases. Compared with the derivatives containing aromatic five-membered rings ([7]H-O, [7]H-S, and [7]H-Se), the non-aromatic counterparts ([7]H-C, [7]H-Si, and [7]H-Ge) exhibit a balance in ΦF and glum values. The present study helps to clarify the relationship between structures and chiroptical properties and offers a feasible strategy for the future design of helicene-based CPL materials.

Individualized detection of TMPRSS2-ERG fusion status in prostate cancer: a rank-based qualitative transcriptome signature

BACKGROUND

TMPRSS2-ERG (T2E) fusion is highly related to aggressive clinical features in prostate cancer (PC), which guides individual therapy. However, current fusion prediction tools lacked enough accuracy and biomarkers were unable to be applied to individuals across different platforms due to their quantitative nature. This study aims to identify a transcriptome signature to detect the T2E fusion status of PC at the individual level.

METHODS

Based on 272 high-throughput mRNA expression profiles from the Sboner dataset, we developed a rank-based algorithm to identify a qualitative signature to detect T2E fusion in PC. The signature was validated in 1223 samples from three external datasets (Setlur, Clarissa, and TCGA).

RESULTS

A signature, composed of five mRNAs coupled to ERG (five ERG-mRNA pairs, 5-ERG-mRPs), was developed to distinguish T2E fusion status in PC. 5-ERG-mRPs reached 84.56% accuracy in Sboner dataset, which was verified in Setlur dataset (n = 455, accuracy = 82.20%) and Clarissa dataset (n = 118, accuracy = 81.36%). Besides, for 495 samples from TCGA, two subtypes classified by 5-ERG-mRPs showed a higher level of significance in various T2E fusion features than subtypes obtained through current fusion prediction tools, such as STAR-Fusion.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, 5-ERG-mRPs can robustly detect T2E fusion in PC at the individual level, which can be used on any gene measurement platform without specific normalization procedures. Hence, 5-ERG-mRPs may serve as an auxiliary tool for PC patient management.

Convergence of dissolving and melting at the nanoscale

Phase transitions of water and its mixtures are of fundamental importance in physical chemistry, the pharmaceutical industry, materials sciences, and atmospheric sciences. However, current understanding remains elusive to explain relevant observations, especially at the nanoscale. Here, by using molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the dissolution of sodium chloride (NaCl) nanocrystals with volume-equivalent diameters from 0.51 to 1.75 nm. Our results show that the dissolution of NaCl in aqueous nanodroplets show a strong size dependence, and its solubility can be predicted by the Ostwald-Freundlich equation and Gibbs-Duhem equation after considering a size-dependent solid-liquid surface tension. We find that the structure of dissolved ions in the saturated aqueous nanodropplet resembles the structure of a molten NaCl nanoparticle. With decreasing nanodroplet size, this similarity grows and the average potential energy of NaCl in solution, the molten phase and the crystal phase converges.

The correlation between Helicobacter pylori infection and iron deficiency anemia in women

OBJECTIVE

In recent years, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) has been increasingly associated with extra-digestive manifestations, including scleroderma, rheumatism, and blood system diseases. Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a common chronic disease worldwide, with an insidious onset, but as the disease progresses, it will eventually seriously affect the quality of life of patients. The aim of our study was to investigate the relationship between H. pylori infection, iron deficiency (ID), and IDA, and to identify potential serological markers.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We conducted a cross-sectional study of 998 individuals who had regular physical examinations at Beijing Shijitan Hospital from January 2021 to March 2022. We detected H. pylori infection by the 13C breath test, and recorded the patient's serum iron, ferritin, transferrin saturation, blood count, etc. We assessed the association between IDA and H. pylori infection and related serum markers using logistic regression and multiple linear regression. Afterward, we analyzed the correlation between sex and potential serum biomarkers.

RESULTS

Among all study participants, 57.5% of patients had H. pylori and 42.5% did not have H. pylori. ID and IDA were significantly associated with H. pylori infection in women (p=0.031). This association persisted after further adjustment for sex, metabolic variables, liver function, and kidney function. Fasting blood glucose, triglycerides, and uric acid may be associated with IDA.

CONCLUSIONS

In women, H. pylori infection is associated with ID and IDA. The relationship between H. pylori and IDA may be mediated by glycometabolism, lipid metabolism, and uric acid metabolism.

Risk factors for cervical lymph node metastasis in the central or lateral cervical region in medullary thyroid carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

PURPOSE

Compared with other types of thyroid carcinoma, patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) are more likely to develop cervical lymph node metastasis. This study was conducted to clarify the risk factors for cervical lymph node metastasis (central lymph node metastasis or lateral cervical lymph node metastasis) in MTC by meta-analysis, and to provide evidence-based basis for the treatment and prognosis of MTC.

METHODS

The literatures related to cervical lymph node metastasis in medullary thyroid carcinoma were searched in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane, CNKI and Wanfang databases, and statistical analysis was performed using Revman 5.3 and Stata 14.0 software.

RESULTS

A total of 28 papers were included in this paper, and meta-analysis showed that the occurrence of central lymph node metastasis (CLNM) in MTC patients was significantly associated with tumor size (OR = 3.07, 95%CI: 2.04-4.63, P < 0.00001), multifocality (OR = 0.29, 95%CI: 0.19-0.44, P < 0.00001), bilaterality (OR = 3.75, 95% CI: 1.95-7.14, P < 0.0001), capsular invasion (OR = 9.88, 95% CI: 5.93-16.45, P < 0.00001) and extrathyroidal extension (OR = 5.48, 95% CI: 2.61-11.51, P < 0.00001). While the occurrence of lateral cervical lymph node metastasis (LLNM) in MTC patients was strongly correlated with gender (OR = 2.97, 95%CI: 2.46-3.58, P < 0.00001), tumor size (OR = 3.88, 95%CI: 1.90-7.92, P = 0.0002 < 0.05), multifocality (OR = 0.43, 95%CI: 0.35-0.51, P < 0.00001), bilaterality (OR = 2.93, 95% CI: 1.72-4.98, P < 0.0001), capsular invasion (OR = 8.44, 95% CI: 6.11-11.64, P < 0.00001), extrathyroidal extension (OR = 7.04, 95% CI: 5.54-8.94, P < 0.00001), margin of the tumor (OR = 4.47, 95% CI: 2.37-8.44, P < 0.00001), shape of the tumor (OR = 6.81, 95% CI: 3.64-12.73, P < 0.00001), preoperative calcitonin level (SMD = 1.39, 95% CI: 0.98-1.80, P < 0.00001), preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen level (SMD = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.74-1.20, P < 0.00001) and CLNM (OR = 19.70, 95% CI: 14.16-27.43, P < 0.00001).

CONCLUSION

Tumor size, multifocality, bilaterality, capsular invasion and extrathyroidal extension are the main risk factors for developing CLNM in MTC patients; And risk factors for developing LLNM in MTC patients include: gender, tumor size, multifocality, bilaterality, capsular invasion, extrathyroidal extension, margin of the tumor, shape of the tumor, preoperative calcitonin level, preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen level and central lymph node metastasis. These risk factors can guide the individualized treatment plan and improve the prognosis of MTC patients.

Probabilistic Neural-Symbolic Models With Inductive Posterior Constraints

Neural-symbolic models provide a powerful tool to tackle complex visual reasoning tasks by combining symbolic program execution for reasoning and deep representation learning for visual recognition. A probabilistic formulation of such models with stochastic latent variables can obtain an interpretable and legible reasoning system with less supervision. However, it is still nontrivial to generate reasonable symbolic structures without the guidance of domain knowledge, since it generally involves an optimization problem with both continuous and discrete variables. Despite the challenges, the interpretability of such symbolic structures provides an interface to regularize their generation by domain knowledge. In this article, we propose to incorporate the available domain knowledge into the learning process of probabilistic neural-symbolic (PNS) models via posterior constraints that directly regularize the structure posterior. In this way, our model is able to identify a middle point where the structure generation process mainly learns from data but also selectively borrows information from domain knowledge. We further present inductive reasoning where the posterior constraints can be automatically reweighted to handle noisy annotations. The experimental results show that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance on major abstract reasoning datasets and enjoys good generalization capability and data efficiency.

Screening of astaxanthin-overproducing Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous strains via iterative ARTP mutagenesis and cell sorting by flow cytometry

AIMS

The astaxanthin-producing yeast Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous is widely used in aquaculture. Due to the production of carotenoid, this yeast shows visible color; however, high-throughput approaches for identification of astaxanthin-overproducing strains remain rare.

METHODS AND RESULTS

This study verified an effective approach to identify astaxanthin-overproducing mutants of X. dendrorhous by flow cytometry (FCM) and cell sorting. First, the mutant libraries were generated by atmospheric and room-temperature plasma (ARTP) mutagenesis. Second, a highly direct correlation between the concentrations of intracellular astaxanthin and the levels of emitting fluorescence was constructed by testing a variety of astaxanthin-contained populations via FCM and cell sorting. Third, iterative cell sorting efficiently improves the identification of astaxanthin-overproducing strains. Finally, two mutants producing 4.96 mg astaxanthin g-1 DCW (dry cell weight) and 5.30 mg astaxanthin g-1 DCW were obtained, which were 25.3% and 33.8% higher than that of the original strain, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrated that iterative ARTP mutagenesis along with cell sorting by FCM is effective for identifying astaxanthin-overproduction strains.

Kernel extreme learning with harmonized bat algorithm for prediction of pyrene toxicity in rats

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are organic pollutants and manufactured substances conferring toxicity to human health. The present study investigated whether pyrene, a type of PAH, harms rats. Our research provides an effective feature selection strategy for the animal dataset from Wenzhou Medical University's Experimental Animal Center to thoroughly examine the impacts of PAH toxicity on rat features. Initially, we devised a high-performance optimization method (SCBA) and added the Sobol sequence, vertical crossover and horizontal crossover mechanisms to the bat algorithm (BA). The SCBA-KELM model, which combines SCBA with the kernel extreme learning machine model (KELM), has excellent accuracy and high stability for selecting features. Benchmark function tests are then used in this research to verify the overall optimization performance of SCBA. In this paper, the feature selection performance of SCBA-KELM is verified using various comparative experiments. According to the results, the features of the genes PXR, CAR, CYP2B1/2 and CYP1A1/2 have the most impact on rats. The SCBA-KELM model's classification performance for the gene dataset was 100%, and the model's precision value for the public dataset was around 96%, as determined by the classification index. In conclusion, the model utilized in this research is anticipated to be a reliable and valuable approach for toxicological classification and assessment.