Ultra-broadband Microwave Metamaterial Absorber

A microwave ultra-broadband polarization-independent metamaterial absorber is demonstrated. It is composed of a periodic array of metal-dielectric multilayered quadrangular frustum pyramids. These pyramids possess resonant absorption modes at multi-frequencies, of which the overlapping leads to the total absorption of the incident wave over an ultra-wide spectral band. The experimental absorption at normal incidence is above 90% in the frequency range of 7.8-14.7GHz, and the absorption is kept large when the incident angle is smaller than 60 degrees. The experimental results agree well with the numerical simulation.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures,submitted to AP

Sinusoidal Obstruction Syndrome

Sinusoidal obstructive syndrome (SOS) is a fibrous occlusive disease of hepatic sinusoids or hepatic venules. Small hepatic blood vessel damage, especially hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cell damage, is its main feature. Based on etiology, SOS is mainly classified into pyrrolidine alkaloids-related SOS, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation-related SOS, and SOS of unknown etiology. In recent years, the incidence of SOS has been increasing. However, due to the complexity of the etiology, the lack of specificity in clinical manifestations, the difficulty of early diagnosis, and the limited treatment options, it often leads to poor treatment effects and even death. This chapter aims to analyze and organize the pathogenesis, pathological characteristics, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of different types of SOS, to provide certain references for the prevention and treatment of the disease

Risk factors of CVD mortality among the elderly in Beijing, 1992 - 2009: An 18-year cohort study

Few researchers have examined the effects of multiple risk factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality simultaneously. This study was to determine the associations of combined lifestyle and other factors with CVD mortality among the elderly (n = 3,257), in Beijing, China, through data mining of the Beijing Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA). BLSA is a representative cohort study from 1992 to 2009, hosted by Xuan Wu Hospital. Competing risk survival analysis was conducted to explore the association between risk factors and CVD mortality. The factors focused mainly on lifestyle, physical condition, and the model was adjusted for age and gender. There were 273 of the 1,068 recorded deaths caused by CVD among the 2010 participants. Living in a suburban area (HR = 0.614, 95% CI: 0.410-0.921) was associated with lower CVD mortality. Increasing age (66-75: HR = 1.511, 95% CI: 1.111-2.055; ≥76: HR = 1.847, 95% CI: 1.256-2.717), high blood pressure (HR = 1.407, 95% CI: 1.031-1.920), frequent consumption of meat (HR = 1.559, 95% CI: 1.079-2.254) and physical inactivity (p = 0.046) were associated with higher CVD mortality. The study provides an instructional foundation for the control and prevention of CVD in Beijing, China

Risk factors for cerebrovascular disease mortality among the elderly in Beijing: A competing risk analysis

Objective: To examine the associations of combined lifestyle factors and physical conditions with cerebrovascular diseases (CBVD) mortality, after accounting for competing risk events, including death from cardiovascular diseases, cancers and other diseases. Methods: Data on 2010 subjects aged over 55 years were finally analyzed using competing risk models. All the subjects were interviewed by the Beijing Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), in China, between 1 January 1992 and 30 August 2009. Results: Elderly females were at a lower risk of death from CBVD than elderly males (HR = 0.639, 95% CI = 0.457-0.895). Increasing age (HR = 1.543, 95% CI = 1.013-2.349), poor self-rated health (HR = 1.652, 95% CI = 1.198-2.277), hypertension (HR = 2.201, 95% CI = 1.524-3.178) and overweight (HR = 1.473, 95% CI = 1.013-2.142) or obesity (HR = 1.711, 95% CI = 1.1754-2.490) was associated with higher CBVD mortality risk. Normal cognition function (HR = 0.650, 95% CI = 0.434-0.973) and living in urban (HR = 0.456, 95% CI = 0.286-0.727) was associated with lower CBVD mortality risk. Gray\u27s test also confirmed the cumulative incidence (CIF) of CBVD was lower in the \u27married\u27 group than those without spouse, and the mortality was lowest in the \u27nutrition sufficient\u27 group among the \u27frequent consumption of meat group\u27 and the \u27medial type group\u27 (P valu

Self-Assembled Polymeric Micellar Nanoparticles as Nanocarriers for Poorly Soluble Anticancer Drug Ethaselen

A series of monomethoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(lactide) (mPEG-PLA) diblock copolymers were synthesized, and mPEG-PLA micelle was fabricated and used as a nanocarrier for solubilization and delivery of a promising anticancer drug ethaselen. Ethaselen was efficiently encapsulated into the micelles by the dialysis method, and the solubility of ethaselen in water was remarkably increased up to 82 μg/mL before freeze-drying. The mean diameter of ethaselen-loaded micelles ranged from 51 to 98 nm with a narrow size distribution and depended on the length of PLA block. In vitro hemolysis study indicated that mPEG-PLA copolymers and ethaselen-loaded polymeric micelles had no hemolytic effect on the erythrocyte. The enhanced antitumor efficacy and reduced toxic effect of ethaselen-loaded polymeric micelle when compared with ethaselen-HP-β-CD inclusion were observed at the same dose in H22human liver cancer cell bearing mouse models. These suggested that mPEG-PLA polymeric micelle nanoparticles had great potential as nanocarriers for effective solubilization of poorly soluble ethaselen and further reducing side effects and toxicities of the drug

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival