catena-Poly[[(dimethyl sulfoxide-κO)zinc(II)]-μ-(E)-2-[(2-oxido-1-naphth­yl)­methyl­eneamino]propanoato-κ4 O 2,N,O 1:O 1′]

In the title coordination polymer, [Zn(C14H11NO3)(C2H6OS)]n, each ZnII ion is five-coordinated in a slightly distorted trigonal–bipyramidal coordination environment, formed by three O atoms from two 2-[(2-oxido-1-naphth­yl)­methyl­eneamino]propanoate ligands, one O atom from a dimethyl sulfoxide mol­ecule and the N atom from the amino­propanoate ligand. The propanoate ligands bridge ZnII ions, forming a zigzag chain parallel to [010]

High staphylococcus epidermidis colonization and impaired permeability barrier in facial seborrheic dermatitis

Background: Seborrheic dermatitis (SD) is a common inflammatory skin condition. The etiology is unclear, although overgrowth of Malassezia on the skin has been suggested to cause SD. This study investigated whether colonization with Staphylococcus plays a role in facial SD, which was not well addressed previously. Methods: The study was conducted from September 1, 2011 to February 20, 2012 in the First Hospital of China Medical University. In the first phase, the study evaluated the level of transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and the number of colony-forming units (CFU) of Staphylococcus in defined skin areas of SD patients who were human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositive (HIV [+] SD [+] group, n = 13), classical SD (HIV [−] SD [+] group, n = 24) patients, HIV seropositive-non-SD (HIV [+] SD [−] group, n = 16) patients, and healthy volunteers (HIV [−] SD [−] group, n = 16). In the second phase, we enrolled another cohort of HIV (−) SD (+) patients who applied topical fusidic acid (n = 15), tacrolimus (n = 16), or moisturizer (n = 12). Changes in the Seborrheic Dermatitis Area Severity Index (SDASI), TEWL, and Staphylococcus density were evaluated 2 weeks later. Comparisons of each index were performed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and least significant difference method. Results: The level of TEWL was greater through lesional sites in the HIV (+) SD (+) group than that in HIV (+) SD (−) and HIV (−) SD (−) groups (95% confidence interval [CI]: 18.873–47.071, P < 0.001 and 95% CI: 28.755–55.936, P < 0.001, respectively). The number of CFU of Staphylococcus was greater in the HIV (+) SD (+) group than that in HIV (+) SD (−) and HIV (−) SD (−) groups (95% CI: 37.487–142.744, P = 0.001 and 95% CI: 54.936–156.400, P < 0.001, respectively). TEWL was significantly more improved in patients treated with tacrolimus and fusidic acid than that in those treated with moisturizers (95% CI: 7.560–38.987, P = 0.004 and 95% CI: 4.659–37.619, P = 0.011, respectively). Topical tacrolimus and fusidic acid were significantly associated with decreased SDASI as compared with moisturizer (95% CI: 0.03–0.432, P = 0.025 and 95% CI: 0.033–0.44, P = 0.024, respectively). Conclusions: High colonization with Staphylococcus epidermidis, along with impaired skin permeability barrier function, contributes to the occurrence of SD

Isolation of Secondary Metabolites from the Soil-Derived Fungus <i>Clonostachys rosea</i> YRS-06, a Biological Control Agent, and Evaluation of Antibacterial Activity

The fungus <i>Clonostachys rosea</i> is widely distributed all over the world. The destructive force of this fungus, as a biological control agent, is very strong to lots of plant pathogenic fungi. As part of the ongoing search for antibiotics from fungi obtained from soil samples, the secondary metabolites of <i>C. rosea</i> YRS-06 were investigated. Through efficient bioassay-guided isolation, three new bisorbicillinoids possessing open-ended cage structures, tetrahydrotrichodimer ether (<b>1</b>) and dihydrotrichodimer ether A and B (<b>2</b> and <b>3</b>), and 12 known compounds were obtained. Their structures were determined via extensive NMR, HR-ESI-MS, and CD spectroscopic analyses and X-ray diffraction data. Compounds <b>1</b>–<b>3</b> are rare bisorbicillinoids with a γ-pyrone moiety. The biological properties of <b>1</b>–<b>15</b> were evaluated against six different Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Bisorbicillinoids, <b>2</b>–<b>5</b>, and TMC-151 C and E, <b>14</b> and <b>15</b>, showed potent antibacterial activity

Revealing Strong Flexoelectricity and Optoelectronic Coupling in 2D Ferroelectric CuInP₂S₆ Via Large Strain Gradient

The interplay between flexoelectric and optoelectronic characteristics provides a paradigm for studying emerging phenomena in various 2D materials. However, an effective way to induce a large and tunable strain gradient in 2D devices remains to be exploited. Herein, we propose a strategy to induce large flexoelectric effect in 2D ferroelectric CuInP2S6 by constructing a 1D-2D mixed-dimensional heterostructure. The strong flexoelectric effect is induced by enormous strain gradient up to 4.2 × 106 m–1 resulting from the underlying ZnO nanowires, which is further confirmed by the asymmetric coercive field and the red-shift in the absorption edge. The induced flexoelectric polarization efficiently boosts the self-powered photodetection performance. In addition, the improved photoresponse has a good correlation with the induced strain gradient, showing a consistent size-dependent flexoelectric effect. The mechanism of flexoelectric and optoelectronic coupling is proposed based on the Landau–Ginzburg-Devonshire double-well model, supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. This work provides a brand-new method to induce a strong flexoelectric effect in 2D materials, which is not restricted to crystal symmetry and thus offers unprecedented opportunities for state-of-the-art 2D devices

Eventcube: Multi-dimensional search and mining of structured and text data

ABSTRACT A large portion of real world data are either text data or structured (e.g., relational) data. Moreover, such data are often linked together (e.g., structured specification of products linking with the corresponding product descriptions and customer comments). Even for text data such as news data, typed entities can be extracted with entity extraction tools. The EventCube project constructs TextCube and TopicCube from interconnected structured and text data (or from text data via entity extraction and dimension building), and performs multidimensional search and analysis on such datasets, in an informative, powerful, and userfriendly manner. This proposed EventCube demo will show the power of the system not only on the originally designed ASRS (Aviation Safety Report System) data sets, but also on news datasets, collected from multiple news agencies. The system has high potential to be extended in many powerful ways and serve as a general platform for search, OLAP (online analytical processing) and data mining on integrated text and structured data. After the system demo in the conference (if accepted), the system will be put on the web for public access and evaluation

Transperitoneal vs retroperitoneal laparoscopic radical nephrectomy: a double-arm, parallel-group randomized clinical trial

Abstract Objective To compare the outcomes of patients undergoing Retroperitoneal laparoscopic Radical nephrectomy (RLRN) and Transperitoneal laparoscopic Radical nephrectomy (TLRN). Methods A total of 120 patients with localized renal cell carcinoma were randomized into either RLRN or TLRN group. Mainly by comparing the patient perioperative related data, surgical specimen integrity, pathological results and tumor results. Results Each group comprised 60 patients. The two group were equivalent in terms of perioperative and pathological outcomes. The mean integrity score was significantly lower in the RLRN group than TLRN group. With a median follow-up of 36.4 months after the operation, Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed no significant difference between RLRN and TLRN in overall survival (89.8% vs. 88.5%; P = 0.898), recurrence-free survival (77.9% vs. 87.7%; P = 0.180), and cancer-specific survival (91.4% vs. 98.3%; P = 0.153). In clinical T2 subgroup, the recurrence rate and recurrence-free survival in the RLRN group was significantly worse than that in the TLRN group (43.2% vs. 76.7%, P = 0.046). Univariate and multivariate COX regression analysis showed that RLRN (HR: 3.35; 95%CI: 1.12–10.03; P = 0.030), male (HR: 4.01; 95%CI: 1.07–14.99; P = 0.039) and tumor size (HR: 1.23; 95%CI: 1.01–1.51; P = 0.042) were independent risk factor for recurrence-free survival. Conclusions Our study showed that although RLRN versus TLRN had roughly similar efficacy, TLRN outperformed RLRN in terms of surgical specimen integrity. TLRN was also significantly better than RLRN in controlling tumor recurrence for clinical T2 and above cases. Trial registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ( https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=24400 ), identifier: ChiCTR1800014431, date: 13/01/2018

Additional file 1 of Transperitoneal vs retroperitoneal laparoscopic radical nephrectomy: a double-arm, parallel-group randomized clinical trial

Additional file 1: Supplementary Table 1. Univariate and multivariate analysis of recurrence-free survival in patients with clinical T2 stage RCC