Browse Articles

Pathways and selectivity of Fenton degradation of different precursor species of dissolved organic matter

A compact design of MIMO patch antenna with high gain and symmetrical radiation pattern

This paper presents a compact design of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) microstrip patch antenna with high gain and symmetrical radiation pattern. The proposed antenna consists of dual-polarized crossed patches and T-junction power dividers. This combination makes the proposed design achieve high gain and high isolation with compact size and not requiring any additional decoupling structure. Especially, the use of dual-polarized patch can help to decrease the number of radiating elements while exhibiting high gain radiation. Besides, symmetrical radiation pattern in the broadside direction is also obtained. A prototype of 2-port MIMO antenna with overall dimensions of 0.72λ × 0.48λ × 0.04λ is fabricated and tested. The measured operating bandwidth is from 4.74 to 4.87 GHz. Across this band, high isolation of better than 20 dB can be obtained with small element spacing of 0.005λ. Besides, the measured far-field results observe symmetrical measured radiation pattern and broadside gain of 7.3 dBi. Further investigation also indicates that the proposed approach can be applied with large scale MIMO designs of 4 or 6 ports.

Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characterization of remimazolam in older Japanese adults who underwent general anesthesia at early stage of infusion

Who Will Care for America? Immigration Policy and the Coming Health Workforce Crisis

Orbitrap noise structure and method for noise unbiased multivariate analysis

Abstract Orbitrap mass spectrometry is widely used in the life-sciences. However, like all mass spectrometers, non-uniform (heteroscedastic) noise introduces bias in multivariate analysis complicating data interpretation. Here, we study the noise structure of an Orbitrap mass analyser integrated into a secondary ion mass spectrometer (OrbiSIMS). Using a stable primary ion beam to provide a well-controlled source of ions from a silver sample, we find that noise has three characteristic regimes: at low signals the Orbitrap detector noise and a censoring algorithm dominates; at intermediate signals counting noise specific to the ion emission process is most significant; and at high signals additional sources of measurement variation become important. Using this understanding, we developed a generative model for Orbitrap data that accounts for the noise distribution and introduce a scaling method, termed WSoR, to reduce the effects of noise bias in multivariate analysis. We compare WSoR performance with no-scaling and existing scaling methods for three biological imaging data sets including drosophila central nervous system, mouse testis and a desorption electrospray ionisation (DESI) image of a rat liver. WSoR consistently performed best at discriminating chemical information from noise. The performance of the other methods varied on a case-by-case basis, complicating the analysis.

Correction: Structural and functional features of medium spiny neurons in the BACHDΔN17 mouse model of Huntington’s Disease

Inflammatory, fibrotic and endothelial biomarker profiles in COVID-19 patients during and following hospitalization

Addressing Alcohol Use

Synaptic loss pattern is constrained by brain connectome and modulated by phosphorylated tau in Alzheimer’s disease

Correction: Factors in COVID-19 vaccine uptake in five racial/ethnic Colorado communities: A report from the Colorado CEAL project

Interplay of kidney function and anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in COVID-19 mortality: a prospective cohort study

Expansion of <i>tetM</i> -Carrying <i>Neisseria gonorrhoeae</i> in the United States, 2018–2024

Thiol-thiol cross-clicking using bromo-ynone reagents

Development of a novel PIK3CA-mutated pancreatic tumor mouse model and evaluation of the therapeutic effects of a PI3K inhibitor

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a fatal malignancy. Personalized medicine based on genetic mutations is required to improve its prognosis. The PI3K/AKT pathway plays a crucial role in cancer progression. While PI3K inhibitors have been developed for several malignancies, none have been clinically applied to PDAC. PIK3CA encodes the catalytic subunit of Class IA PI3K, and an activating mutation such as E545K and H1047R is oncogenic. In this study, we developed a novel pancreatic cancer mouse model with PIK3CAH1047R mutation, designated Ptf1acre/+; Rosa26-LSL-PIK3CAH1047R:p53loxP/loxP (PPC) mice. At 150 days of age, PPC mice developed PDAC and AKT was activated in their tumor epithelial cells. We established a pancreatic cancer cell line from PPC mice, and alpelisib, an inhibitor of PI3K p110α, inhibited the proliferation of PPC cells in vitro. Furthermore, PPC cells were subcutaneously transplanted into NOD/SCID mice, and alpelisib significantly reduced the tumor burden of PPC cells. Western blotting upon treatment with alpelisib revealed compensatory activation of ERK in PPC cells. Combination treatment with alpelisib and the MEK inhibitor PD98059 significantly inhibited cell proliferation. These data indicate that PIK3CA mutation may be oncogenic in PDAC and that PI3K inhibitors can be effective against such tumors. Dual inhibition of the PI3K/AKT and MEK/ERK pathways may enhance therapeutic effects in PI3K/AKT-activated pancreatic tumors.

Associations between the SMARS score derived from CT and MRI with histopathological features in HCC

Abstract There are complex associations between the imaging phenotype and underlying histopathology of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC). The recently proposed SMARS score (acronym comprising Shape of tumour, Mosaic architecture, AFP level, Rim APHE, and Satellite lesion) could discriminate proliferative and non-proliferative HCC tumours in a non-invasive way and was associated with treatment outcomes. However, a systematic validation of this score is needed and it is unclear whether associations with histopathology features exist. The present study elucidates possible correlations between the SMARS score defined by CT and MRI images with immunohistochemistry features of the pathological specimens in a curatively treated HCC cohort. A total of 44 patients (mean age: 59.6 ± 10.7 years) with histologically confirmed HCC, who underwent curative surgical resection, were included in the present analysis. Contrast enhanced MRI and CT images were performed before surgery and the SMARS score was calculated. The pathological specimens were analyzed for programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1), Glypican-3, CD3-tumour infiltrating lymphocyte, CD68 positive cells, CD34 positive microvessel density (MVD). The median SMARS score derived from MRI images was 1.4 (interquartile range: -0.32; 2.18) and from CT images it was − 0.32 (interquartile range: -1.08; 0.56). According to the proposed threshold, 29 tumours were categorized as proliferative HCC (82.9%) and six tumours as nonproliferative HCC (17.1%) accordingly to the MRI SMARS score. According to the CT SMARS score 24 tumours were categorized as proliferative HCC (61.5%) and 15 as nonproliferative HCC (38.5%). The SMARS score derived from MRI images showed no correlations with the PD-L1, CD68, CD3 and MVD parameters. However, a moderate association was shown between the SMARS score with the Glypican-3 expression (r = 0.37, p = 0.03). The SMARS score derived from CT images, instead, showed correlations with two of the PD-L1 parameters (for PD-L1 tumour positive score r=-0.37, p = 0.02 and for PD-L1 combined positive score r=-0.35, p = 0.03) while no other association with the remaining parameters was detected. The SMARS score as a promising novel imaging score is associated with the Glypican-3 and PD-L1 expression in curatively treated HCC patients. Differences between the CT and MRI defined score needs to be investigated in further trials on larger patient cohorts.

Thrombolysis before Thrombectomy in Stroke — A Bridge Not Fallen

Mapping the chemical complexity of plastics

Publisher Correction: The P-loop NTPase RUVBL2 is a conserved clock component across eukaryotes

Custom CRISPR–Cas9 PAM variants via scalable engineering and machine learning

Magnetic nanostickers for active control of interface-enhanced selective bioadhesion

Abstract Natural biological tissues exhibit different mechanical and surface properties. These disparate features make their connections with engineering materials quite difficult due to the lack of universal methods for tuning the interfacial bonding over a wide range. However, the precise control of interfacial properties, including modulus and adhesion on diverse biological tissues, requires overcoming multiple inherent and external barriers. Here we propose an interface-enhanced strategy by spatial and temporal anchoring of magnetic nanostickers for controlled bioadhesive properties. Fully exploiting the interactions from nanostickers by remote control enables the attached patch to achieve extremely high adhesion energy ( ~ 1250 J m-2) and interfacial fatigue resistance with a threshold of ~50 J m-2, at a very low area density of nanostickers (4 μg/mm2). The controlled interfacial properties as well as space and time for anchoring, lead to comprehensively tunable bioadhesion on diverse tissues such as skin, intestine, liver, and kidney, which are strongly desired in biomedical applications. Integration with fragile tissues in female Sprague-Dawley rats for 10 days further demonstrates that the anchored biointerface can adapt to the in vivo environment and promote postoperative recovery. The biointerface bridged by intelligent nanostickers prompts the methodology for bioadhesion towards controllable orientation.