Long-term outcomes of mitral valve annuloplasty versus subvalvular sparing replacement for severe ischemic mitral regurgitation

Background: Although practice guidelines recommend surgery for patients with severe chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation (CIMR), they do not specify whether to repair or replace the mitral valve. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term outcomes in patients with severe CIMR undergoing mitral valve annuloplasty (MVA) versus subvalvular sparing mitral valve replacement (MVR).  Methods: 392 consecutive patients who underwent MVA or subvalvular sparing MVR for treatment of severe CIMR were retrospectively reviewed. Results: After adjustment for baseline differences with multivariable regression analysis at 53 months follow-up (interquartile range, 34–81 months), there was no significant difference between the two groups for risk of major adverse cardiac or cerebrovascular events (MACCE), cardiac death, or all-cause death. Propensity score matching extracted 77 pairs. During the follow-up, compared with the MVR group, both the left atrium and left ventricle end-diastolic diameter were markedly larger (p = 0.013 and p = 0.033, respectively), and the incidence of mitral regurgitation recurrence was significantly higher in the MVA group (p < 0.001). No significant difference was observed between the two propensity score-matched groups in composite in-hospital outcomes, overall survival, freedom from cardiac death or MACCE, except subvalvular sparing MVR was associated with a lower incidence of hospitalization for heart failure than MVA (p = 0.015). Conclusions: Subvalvular sparing MVR is a suitable management of patients with severe CIMR, it is more favorable to ventricular remodeling and is associated with a lower incidence of hospitalization for heart failure than MVA

Predicting functional mitral stenosis after restrictive annuloplasty for ischemic mitral regurgitation

Background: Although it has been realized that restrictive mitral valve annuloplasty (MVA) may re­sult in clinically significant functional mitral stenosis (MS), it still cannot be predicted. The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors for clinically significant functional MS following restrictive MVA surgery for chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation (CIMR). Methods: One hundred and fourteen patients who underwent restrictive MVA with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for treatment of CIMR were retrospectively reviewed. Clinically significant functional MS was defined as resting transmitral peak pressure gradient (PPG) ≥ 13 mmHg. Results: During the follow-up period (range 6–12 months), 28 (24.56%) patients developed clinically significant functional MS. The PPG at follow-up was significantly higher than that measured in the early postoperative stage (3–5 days after surgery). Moreover, there was a linear correlation between the two measurements (r = 0.398, p < 0.001). Annuloplasty size ≤ 27 mm and early postoperative PPG ≥ 7.4 mmHg could predict clinically significant functional MS at 6–12 months postoperatively. Conclusions: Chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation patients treated with restrictive MVA and CABG have significant increases in PPG postoperatively. Annuloplasty size ≤ 27 mm and early postopera­tive PPG ≥ 7.4 mmHg can predict clinically significant functional MS at 6–12 months after surgery

Text Style Transfer Back-Translation

Back Translation (BT) is widely used in the field of machine translation, as it has been proved effective for enhancing translation quality. However, BT mainly improves the translation of inputs that share a similar style (to be more specific, translation-like inputs), since the source side of BT data is machine-translated. For natural inputs, BT brings only slight improvements and sometimes even adverse effects. To address this issue, we propose Text Style Transfer Back Translation (TST BT), which uses a style transfer model to modify the source side of BT data. By making the style of source-side text more natural, we aim to improve the translation of natural inputs. Our experiments on various language pairs, including both high-resource and low-resource ones, demonstrate that TST BT significantly improves translation performance against popular BT benchmarks. In addition, TST BT is proved to be effective in domain adaptation so this strategy can be regarded as a general data augmentation method. Our training code and text style transfer model are open-sourced.Comment: acl2023, 14 pages, 4 figures, 19 table

Apolygus lucorum genome provides insights into omnivorousness and mesophyll feeding.

peer reviewedApolygus lucorum (Miridae) is an omnivorous pest that occurs worldwide and is notorious for the serious damage it causes to various crops and substantial economic losses. Although some studies have examined the biological characteristics of the mirid bug, no reference genome is available in Miridae, limiting in-depth studies of this pest. Here, we present a chromosome-scale reference genome of A. lucorum, the first sequenced Miridae species. The assembled genome size was 1.02 Gb with a contig N50 of 785 kb. With Hi-C scaffolding, 1,016 Mb contig sequences were clustered, ordered and assembled into 17 large scaffolds with scaffold N50 length 68 Mb, each corresponding to a natural chromosome. Numerous transposable elements occur in this genome and contribute to the large genome size. Expansions of genes associated with omnivorousness and mesophyll feeding such as those related to digestion, chemosensory perception, and detoxification were observed in A. lucorum, suggesting that gene expansion contributed to its strong environmental adaptability and severe harm to crops. We clarified that a salivary enzyme polygalacturonase is unique in mirid bugs and has significantly expanded in A. lucorum, which may contribute to leaf damage from this pest. The reference genome of A. lucorum not only facilitates biological studies of Hemiptera as well as an understanding of the damage mechanism of mesophyll feeding, but also provides a basis on which to develop efficient control technologies for mirid bugs

Effect of preoperatively continued aspirin use on early and mid-term outcomes in off-pump coronary bypass surgery: a propensity score-matched study of 1418 patients.

To date, effect of preoperatively continued aspirin administration in off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is less known. We aimed to assess the effect of preoperatively continued aspirin use on early and mid-term outcomes in patients receiving off-pump CABG.From October 2009 to September 2013 at the Fuwai Hospital, 709 preoperative aspirin users were matched with unique 709 nonaspirin users using propensity score matching to obtain risk-adjusted outcome comparisons between the two groups. Early outcomes were in-hospital death, stroke, intra- and post-operative blood loss, reoperation for bleeding and blood product transfusion. Major adverse cardiac events (death, myocardial infarction or repeat revascularization), angina recurrence and cardiogenic readmission were considered as mid-term endpoints.There were no significant differences among the groups in baseline characteristics after propensity score matching. The median intraoperative blood loss (600 ml versus 450 ml, P = 0.56), median postoperative blood loss (800 ml versus 790 ml, P = 0.60), blood transfusion requirements (25.1% versus 24.4%, P = 0.76) and composite outcome of in-hospital death, stroke and reoperation for bleeding (2.8% versus 1.6%, P = 0.10) were similar in aspirin and nonaspirin use group. At about 4 years follow-up, no significant difference was observed among the aspirin and nonaspirin use group in major adverse cardiac events free survival estimates (95.7% versus 91.5%, P = 0.23) and freedom from cardiogenic readmission (88.5% versus 85.3%, P = 0.77) whereas the angina recurrence free survival rates was 83.7% and 73.9% in the aspirin and nonaspirin use group respectively (P = 0.02), with odd ratio for preoperative aspirin estimated at 0.71 (95% confidence interval, 0.49-1.04, P = 0.08).Preoperatively continued aspirin use was not associated with increased risk of intra- and post-operative blood loss, blood transfusion requirements and composite outcome of in-hospital death, stroke and reoperation for bleeding in off-pump CABG. Preoperative aspirin use tended to decrease the hazard of mid-term angina recurrence

Recyclable Carbon Cloth-Supported ZnO@Ag₃PO₄ Core–Shell Structure for Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Dye

The extensive use of organic dyes in industry has caused serious environmental problems, and photocatalysis is a potential solution to water pollution by organic dyes. The practical application of powdery photocatalysts is usually limited by the rapid recombination of charge carriers and difficulty in recycling. In this study, recyclable carbon cloth-supported ZnO@Ag3PO4 composite with a core–shell structure was successfully prepared by solvothermal treatment and subsequent impregnation–deposition. The as-prepared carbon cloth-supported ZnO@Ag3PO4 composite showed an improved photocatalytic activity and stability for the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB), a model organic dye, under visible light irradiation. The decomposition ratio of RhB reached 87.1% after exposure to visible light for 100 min, corresponding to a reaction rate constant that was 4.8 and 15.9 times that of carbon cloth-supported Ag3PO4 or ZnO alone. The enhanced performance of the composite can be attributed to the effectively inhibited recombination of photoinduced electron–hole pairs by the S-scheme heterojunction. The carbon fibers further promoted the transfer of charges. Moreover, the carbon cloth-supported ZnO@Ag3PO4 can be easily separated from the solution and repeatedly used, demonstrating a fair recyclability and potential in practical applications

Research Advances of Porous Polyimide—Based Composites with Low Dielectric Constant

With the burgeoning of the microelectronics industry, in order to improve the transmission speed between chips in large-scale integrated circuits to meet the demands of high integration, it is necessary for interlayer insulation materials to possess a lower dielectric constant (k). Polyimide (PI) has been widely used as interlayer insulation materials for large-scale integrated circuits, and the exploration on reducing their dielectric constant has attracted extensive attention in recent years. In this work, porous PI-based composites with a low dielectric constant are mainly reviewed. The application of porous SiO2, graphene derivatives, polyoxometalates, polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane and hyperbranched polysiloxane in reducing the dielectric constant of PI is emphatically introduced. The key technical problems and challenges in the current research of porous polyimide materials are summarized, and the development prospect of low k polyimide is also expounded

Ethylenediurea Reduces Grain Nitrogen but Enhances Protein and Carbon Yield in Rice Cultivars

Ethylenediurea (EDU) is an indicator of surface ozone (O3), has a high potential to be developed as an applicable protectant for crops against O3 phytotoxicity. Studies on the effects of EDU on grain quality are few, limiting evaluation of the efficiency of EDU protection. In order to understand the effects of EDU on grain quality in rice, a field study was conducted in a rice paddy, where EDU solutions were foliar applied to rice plants. At maturity, grain nitrogen concentrations (GN) in 21 rice cultivars and related traits were analyzed. Mean across 21 cultivars, GN was reduced by EDU by 3.81%, suggesting that O3 in ambient air is affecting grain quality. GN negatively correlated with grain weight and source/sink ratio, but positively correlated with spikelet density. Moreover, GN changes to EDU were rice type dependent, which were −0.43%, −0.72%, and 1.19% in indica, japonica, and hybrid rice, respectively. These results suggest that EDU promotes sink in rice, which helps to increase grain yield, but allocation of nitrogen is not enough to maintain GN in both indica and japonica cultivars. Rice types and cultivars’ variations in the responses of GN to EDU highlight a possibility to adjust grain quality by EDU, combining cultivar selection and agricultural management in response to surface O3 pollution

Event-Free Kaplan-Meier Estimates for Preoperative Aspirin and Nonaspirin Use Group.

<p>Shown are percent survival free from Mace (A), survival free of Angina recurrence (B) and survival free from rehospitalization due to cardiac reasons(C). MACE: major adverse cardiac event.</p