Switching fractioned R-CHOP cycles to standard r-chop cycles guided by endoscopic ultrasonography in treating patients with primary gastric diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

© 2020 Liu et al. Background: Primary gastric diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (PG-DLBCL) is a common subtype of extranodal non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone (R-CHOP) as the commonly used treatment regimen. However, full cycles of standard R-CHOP present the risk of severe bleeding or perforation, even leading to emergency surgery, especially for those with deep lesions in their first 1–2 cycles of treatment. This study aims to explore the safety and efficacy of fractioned R-CHOP (rituximab d0, 50% dose of CHOP d1 and d5) followed by standard R-CHOP cycles in PG-DLBCL patients guided by endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS). Patients and Methods: Thirty-one PG-DLBCL patients were analyzed in this retrospective study. All patients had lesions infiltrated to at least the 3rd layer of the stomach under EUS at baseline. Patients switched to standard R-CHOP if they showed the reduced infiltrated layers and restricted lesions after fractioned R-CHOP cycles. Results: The overall response rate, 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients in our study were 93.5%, 75% and 84%, respectively. No treatment delay or dosage reduction from gastric adverse event was observed. None of the patients in our study suffered from severe bleeding or perforation during the treatment. Kaplan–Meier analyses showed that PG-DLBCL patients characterized by multiple localization, lesions ≥3cm, having B symptoms, lower serum albumin level, and elevated LDH level were associated with worse PFS and OS. Conclusion: Our data indicate that it might be an effective approach in treating deeply infiltrated PG-DLBCL patients by switching fractioned R-CHOP to standard R-CHOP cycles guided by EUS

Construction and validation of a prognostic model for hepatocellular carcinoma: Inflammatory ferroptosis and mitochondrial metabolism indicate a poor prognosis

BackgroundAn increasing number of innovations have been discovered for treating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC or commonly called HCC) therapy, Ferroptosis and mitochondrial metabolism are essential mechanisms of cell death. These pathways may act as functional molecular biomarkers that could have important clinical significance for determining individual differences and the prognosis of HCC. The aim of this study was to construct a stable and reliable comprehensive model of genetic features and clinical factors associated with HCC prognosis.MethodsIn this study, we used RNA-sequencing (fragments per kilobase of exon model per million reads mapped value) data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database to establish a prognostic model. We enrolled 104 patients for further validation. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses (KEGG) analysis were used for the functional study of differentially expressed genes. Pan-cancer analysis was performed to evaluate the function of the Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs). Thirteen genes were identified by univariate and least absolute contraction and selection operation (LASSO) Cox regression analysis. The prognostic model was visualized using a nomogram.ResultsWe found that eight genes, namely EZH2, GRPEL2, PIGU, PPM1G, SF3B4, TUBG1, TXNRD1 and NDRG1, were hub genes for HCC and differentially expressed in most types of cancer. EZH2, GRPEL2 and NDRG1 may indicate a poor prognosis of HCC as verified by tissue samples. Furthermore, a gene set variation analysis algorithm was created to analyze the relationship between these eight genes and oxidative phosphorylation, mitophagy, and FeS-containing proteins, and it showed that ferroptosis might affect inflammatory-related pathways in HCC.ConclusionEZH2, GRPEL2, NDRG1, and the clinical factor of tumor size, were included in a nomogram for visualizing a prognostic model of HCC. This nomogram based on a functional study and verification by clinical samples, shows a reliable performance of patients with HCC

Atomically thin photoanode of InSe/graphene heterostructure

很多物理和化学过程都发生在固体电极与溶液的表界面处，因而表面处离子的吸附、聚集及其在表面的反应都对整个反应过程起到至关重要的作用。然而使用传统的固体电极通常表现出的是体相和表面的复合性质，使得单纯研究电极材料表面效应及表面离子的动力学还存在挑战。二维材料由于其具有单原子层的厚度，晶体中所有原子都处在表面，因而可以作为一种理想的模型体系来仅针对此类表面现象进行研究。课题组选择光电化学池（PEC）分解水反应中的决速步骤氧析出半反应（OER）以作为研究表面离子行为的探针反应。光电极选择同时具有高迁移率、匹配的能级结构以及被抑制的光生电子-空穴复合的单层的二维硒化铟（InSe）材料。并且在手套箱提供的惰性气氛中用单层石墨烯对InSe进行封装，保证了光电极测试条件下长时间的稳定性。该工作揭示了二维异质结表面性质与反应活性的内在联系，希望能为研究电极表面离子效应提供新的材料平台。后续通过选择具有合适表面性能的二维材料，并与传统光电极材料结合，有望发展新型的高性能光阳极材料。 这一研究工作的实验部分是在化学化工学院曹阳教授指导下完成，博士生郑海红、鲁艺珍与广东工业大学轻工化工学院叶凯航博士为论文的共同第一作者。理论计算部分在程俊教授的指导下，由博士生胡晋媛完成。Achieving high-efficiency photoelectrochemical water splitting requires a better understanding of ion kinetics, e.g., diffusion, adsorption and reactions, near the photoelectrode's surface. However, with macroscopic three-dimensional electrodes, it is often difficult to disentangle the contributions of surface effects to the total photocurrent from that of various factors in the bulk. Here, we report a photoanode made from a InSe crystal monolayer that is encapsulated with monolayer graphene to ensure high stability. We choose InSe among other photoresponsive two-dimensional (2D) materials because of its unique properties of high mobility and strongly suppressing electron–hole pair recombination. Using the atomically thin electrodes, we obtained a photocurrent with a density >10 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode, which is several orders of magnitude greater than other 2D photoelectrodes. In addition to the outstanding characteristics of InSe, we attribute the enhanced photocurrent to the strong coupling between the hydroxide ions and photogenerated holes near the anode surface. As a result, a persistent current even after illumination ceased was also observed due to the presence of ions trapped holes with suppressed electron-hole recombination. Our results provide atomically thin materials as a platform for investigating ion kinetics at the electrode surface and shed light on developing nextgeneration photoelectrodes with high efficiency.The experimental work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFA0306900 and 2018YFA0209500), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21872114), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M682616). 该工作得到了国家重点研究计划（2018YFA0306900、2018YFA0209500），国家自然科学基金（21872114）、中国博士后科学基金（2020M682616）的支持

Changes in gastric mucosal microbiota in gastric carcinogenesis: a systematic review protocol

Introduction The human stomach is a complex and diverse microbial ecosystem. Consecutive alternations of gastric microbiota occur in gastric carcinogenesis, while the changing pattern during this process remains controversial across studies. We aim to identify the changes in the diversity and composition of gastric mucosal microbiota in gastric tumorigenesis.Methods and analysis We will search through PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane databases, as well as conference proceedings and references of review articles for observational articles reporting either the relative abundance of bacteria at the phylum or genus level or at least one of the alpha diversity indexes respectively and clearly in both gastric cancer and non-cancer groups. Selection of studies and data extraction will be performed independently by two researchers. Disagreements will be resolved through discussion. Risk of bias will be assessed using the modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Quantitative analyses will be performed using a random effects model, where the effect measurement will be expressed as the MD.Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval for this systematic review is not required, as the study is based exclusively on published documents and will not include any individual data. Findings of this study are expected to be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals or conference proceedings.PROSPERO registration number CRD42020206973

FEC: Fast Euclidean Clustering for Point Cloud Segmentation

Segmentation from point cloud data is essential in many applications, such as remote sensing, mobile robots, or autonomous cars. However, the point clouds captured by the 3D range sensor are commonly sparse and unstructured, challenging efficient segmentation. A fast solution for point cloud instance segmentation with small computational demands is lacking. To this end, we propose a novel fast Euclidean clustering (FEC) algorithm which applies a point-wise scheme over the cluster-wise scheme used in existing works. The proposed method avoids traversing every point constantly in each nested loop, which is time and memory-consuming. Our approach is conceptually simple, easy to implement (40 lines in C++), and achieves two orders of magnitudes faster against the classical segmentation methods while producing high-quality results

Comparison of Topographic Roughness of Layered Deposits on Mars

Impact craters with layered ejecta deposits are widespread on Mars. Prevailing views suggest that such ejecta were formed due to the involvement of target water and/or water ice in the impact excavation and/or the post-deposition movement of the impact ejecta. The long-runout landslides and lobate debris aprons that are likely formed due to the involvement of water ice are used as analogs to compare roughness at multiple scales, considering that these three landforms share some similarities in their geomorphology. Analog studies of the morphological similarities and differences of layered ejecta deposits with different emplacement mechanisms are an important approach to untangling how layered ejecta deposits might form on Mars and beyond. Earlier morphological comparisons were usually based on qualitative descriptions or one-dimensional topographic roughness characteristics at given azimuths; however, the emplacement processes of layered deposits are recorded in two-dimensional topography and at multiple scales. In this study, we designed a multiwavelet algorithm to characterize the multi-scale topographic roughness of different forms of Martian layered deposits. Our comparisons show that the inner facies of the layered ejecta deposits and long-runout landslides exhibited similar roughness characteristics, and the outer facies of the layered ejecta deposits were more similar in roughness to lobate debris aprons. This study highlights the importance of the spatial resolution of digital terrain models in characterizing fine topographic fluctuations on layered ejecta deposits, providing additional insights into the possible emplacement mechanisms of different parts of layered ejecta deposits

Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation by a Water-Soluble Nickel Porphyrin Complex at Neutral pH with Low Overpotential

The water-soluble cationic nickel­(II) complex of <i>meso</i>-tetrakis­(4-<i>N</i>-methylpyridyl)­porphyrin (<b>1</b>) can electrocatalyze water oxidation to O₂ in neutral aqueous solution (pH 7.0) with the onset of the catalytic wave appearing at ∼1.0 V (vs NHE). The homogeneous catalysis with <b>1</b> was verified. Catalyst <b>1</b> exhibited water oxidation activity in a pH range 2.0–8.0 and had a strict linear dependence of catalytic current on its concentration. After 10 h of constant potential electrolysis at 1.32 V (vs NHE), a negligible difference of the solution was observed by UV–vis. In addition, inspection of the working electrode by electrochemistry, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) showed no sign of deposition of NiO_<i>x</i> films. These results strongly argued that <b>1</b> is a real molecular electrocatalyst for water oxidation. The turnover frequency (TOF) for this process was 0.67 s^–1 at 20 °C. On the basis of results from the kinetic isotope effect (KIE) and inhibition experiments, electrochemical studies in various buffer solutions with different anions and pHs, and DFT calculations, a catalytic cycle of <b>1</b> for water oxidation via a formally Ni­(IV) species was proposed

One-atom-thick hexagonal boron nitride co-catalyst for enhanced oxygen evolution reactions

Abstract Developing efficient (co-)catalysts with optimized interfacial mass and charge transport properties is essential for enhanced oxygen evolution reaction (OER) via electrochemical water splitting. Here we report one-atom-thick hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as an attractive co-catalyst with enhanced OER efficiency. Various electrocatalytic electrodes are encapsulated with centimeter-sized hBN films which are dense and impermeable so that only the hBN surfaces are directly exposed to reactive species. For example, hBN covered Ni-Fe (oxy)hydroxide anodes show an ultralow Tafel slope of ~30 mV dec−1 with improved reaction current by about 10 times, reaching ~2000 mA cm−2 (at an overpotential of ~490 mV) for over 150 h. The mass activity of hBN co-catalyst is found exceeding that of commercialized catalysts by up to five orders of magnitude. Using isotope experiments and simulations, we attribute the results to the adsorption of oxygen-containing intermediates at the insulating co-catalyst, where localized electrons facilitate the deprotonation processes at electrodes. Little impedance to electron transfer is observed from hBN film encapsulation due to its ultimate thickness. Therefore, our work also offers insights into mechanisms of interfacial reactions at the very first atomic layer of electrodes