Water-Compatible Iminium Activation: Highly Enantioselective Organocatalytic Michael Addition of Malonates to α,β-Unsaturated Enones

The highly enantioselective Michael addition of malonates to α,β-unsaturated ketones in water was reported to be catalyzed by a primary−secondary diamine catalyst containing a long alkyl chain. This asymmetric Michael addition process was found to be effective for a variety of α,β-unsaturated ketones

Compact freeform illumination design by deblurring the extended sources

Illumination is the deliberate utilization of light to realize practical or aesthetic effects. The designers combine with the environmental considerations, energy-saving goals, and technology advances with fundamental physics to develop lighting solutions to satisfy all of our ever-changing needs. Achieving highly efficient and precise control of the energy output of light sources while maintaining compact optical structures is the ultimate goal of illumination design. To realize miniaturized and lightweight luminaires, the design process must consider the extents of light sources. However, the illumination design for extended sources is still a challenging and unsolved problem. Here, we propose a method to design ultra-performance illumination optics enabled by freeform optical surfaces. The proposed method is very general with no limitations of far-field approximation and Lambertian luminescent property. We demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed method by designing several freeform lenses realizing accurate and highly efficient illumination control as well as ultra-compact structures

Prognostic value of C-reactive protein levels in patients with bone neoplasms: A meta-analysis

<div><p>Objective</p><p>The aim of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis of retrospective studies that investigated the association of preoperative C-reactive protein (CRP) levels with the overall survival (OS) of patients with bone neoplasms.</p><p>Methods</p><p>A detailed literature search was performed in the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase and PubMed databases up to August 28, 2017, for related research publications written in English. We extracted the data from these studies and combined the hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to assess the correlation between CRP levels and OS in patients with bone neoplasms.</p><p>Results</p><p>Five studies with a total of 816 participants from several countries were enrolled in this current meta-analysis. In a pooled analysis of all the publications, increased serum CRP levels had an adverse prognostic effect on the overall survival of patients with bone neoplasms. However, the combined data showed no significant relationship between the level of CRP and OS in Asian patients (HR = 1.73; 95% CI: 0.86–3.49; P = 0.125). Similar trends were observed in patients with bone neoplasms when stratified by ethnicity, histology, metastasis and study sample size.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>The results of this meta-analysis suggest that increased CRP expression indicates a poorer prognosis in patients with bone neoplasms. More prospective studies are needed to confirm the prognostic significance of CRP levels in patients with bone neoplasms.</p></div

A summary of HRs for the overall and subgroup analyses of CRP levels in patients with bone neoplasms.

A summary of HRs for the overall and subgroup analyses of CRP levels in patients with bone neoplasms.</p

Forest plot of the association between the level of CRP and OS in patients with bone neoplasms stratified by ethnicity (A), histology (B), metastasis (C) and sample size (D).

<p>Summary of estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CI for patients stratified by (A) ethnicity, (B) histology, (C) metastasis and (D) sample size.</p

Characteristics of all included studies.

<p>Characteristics of all included studies.</p

Begg’s funnel plot of the publication bias test for CRP level and OS in bone neoplasms.

<p>Summary of funnel plots of publication bias for the included studies. They are funnel plots of the publication bias for this meta-analysis of hazard ratios (HRs).</p

Forest plot of the association between the level of CRP and OS in patients with bone neoplasms.

<p>Summary of estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CI for patients with bone neoplasms.</p

Sensitivity analysis of the relationship between CRP level and OS in bone neoplasms.

<p>Sensitivity analyses were performed by excluding each study individually from the meta-analysis.</p

Flow chart of the study selection.

<p>Flow chart of the study selection.</p