Safety and Efficacy of Tien-Hsien Liquid Practical in Patients with Refractory Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Parallel-Group, Phase IIa Trial

To evaluate the safety and efficacy of Tien-Hsien Liquid Practical (THL-P), a Chinese herbal mixture, in patients with refractory metastatic breast cancer, we performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, phase IIa pilot trial. Patients were randomly assigned to either receive THL-P or matching placebo and followed up every 4 weeks for 24 weeks. The primary endpoint was changes in the global health status/quality of life (GHS/QOL) scale. The secondary endpoints were changes in functional and symptom scales, immunomodulating effects, and adverse events. Sixty-three patients were enrolled between June 2009 and June 2011. The intent-to-treat population included 28 patients in the THL-P group and 11 patients in the placebo group. Compared to the placebo group, the THL-P group had significant improvement from baseline to last visit in GHS/QOL (41.7 versus −33.3; P < 0.05), CD3, CD4/CD8, CD19, CD16+56 positive cells (P < 0.05), and higher levels of physical, role, emotional, and cognitive functioning, as well as decreased fatigue and systemic side effects. Treatment-related adverse events were mild constipation and localized itching, and no serious adverse events were reported. THL-P appears to be a safe alternative adjuvant treatment for patients with refractory metastatic breast cancer, as it effectively improves QOL and palliates cancer-related symptoms

Bilinear effect in complex systems

The distribution of the lifetime of Chinese dynasties (as well as that of the British Isles and Japan) in a linear Zipf plot is found to consist of two straight lines intersecting at a transition point. This two-section piecewise-linear distribution is different from the power law or the stretched exponent distribution, and is called the Bilinear Effect for short. With assumptions mimicking the organization of ancient Chinese regimes, a 3-layer network model is constructed. Numerical results of this model show the bilinear effect, providing a plausible explanation of the historical data. Bilinear effect in two other social systems is presented, indicating that such a piecewise-linear effect is widespread in social systems.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Determination of band alignment in the single layer MoS2/WSe2 heterojunction

The emergence of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) as 2D electronic materials has stimulated proposals of novel electronic and photonic devices based on TMD heterostructures. Here we report the determination of band offsets in TMD heterostructures by using microbeam X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy ({\mu}-XPS) and scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/S). We determine a type-II alignment between $\textrm{MoS}_2$ and $\textrm{WSe}_2$ with a valence band offset (VBO) value of 0.83 eV and a conduction band offset (CBO) of 0.76 eV. First-principles calculations show that in this heterostructure with dissimilar chalcogen atoms, the electronic structures of $\textrm{WSe}_2$ and $\textrm{MoS}_2$ are well retained in their respective layers due to a weak interlayer coupling. Moreover, a VBO of 0.94 eV is obtained from density functional theory (DFT), consistent with the experimental determination.Comment: ^ These authors contributed equally. *Corresponding author E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] 20 pages, 4 figures in main tex