Facile synthesis of freestanding Si nanowire arrays by one-step template-free electro-deoxidation of SiO2 in molten salt

This communication presents a novel kind of silicon nanomaterial: freestanding Si nanowire arrays (Si NWAs), which are synthesized facilely by one-step template-free electro-deoxidation of SiO2 in molten CaCl2. The self-assembling growth process of this material is also investigated preliminarily

Changes in axial length after vitrectomy for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment combined with choroidal detachment

AIM: To report the postoperative axial length (AL) changes in rhegmatogenous retinal detachment combined with choroidal detachment (RRD-CD) patients. METHODS: The medical records of 97 consecutive patients from January 2015 to December 2018 were reviewed. Patients included were divided into RRD-CD and RRD only groups. All patients had received AL measurements before pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) and before silicone oil removal (SOR). The changes in AL of the two groups were compared. In addition, the potential factors related to AL changes were analyzed. RESULTS: AL elongation after PPV was 1.01 mm [interquartile range (IQR): 0.37, 1.79; P=0.02] in the RRD-CD group, which was greater than in RRD only group (0.15 mm, IQR: 0.04, 0.41; P<0.001). AL increased 0.06 mm per 1 mm Hg intraocular pressure changes in the RRD-CD group (R2=0.11, P=0.03). RRD-CD patient was 11.42 times (3.54-46.80) more likely to experience post-PPV AL elongation of more than 1 mm [P<0.001, Akaike information criterion (AIC)=92.33, area under the curve (AUC)=0.839]. CONCLUSION: RRD-CD patients are very likely to have a postoperative elongation of AL. The primary intraoclular lens implantation using presurgery AL data may cause a significant refractive error in RRD-CD patients who underwent PPV

The contribution of the smartphone use to reducing depressive symptoms of Chinese older adults: The mediating effect of social participation

BackgroundDepression is a prevalent mental health disorder. Although Internet use has been associated with depression, there is limited data on the association between smartphone use and depressive symptoms. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between smartphone use and depressive symptoms among older individuals in China.Methods5,244 Chinese older individuals over the age of 60 were selected as the sample from the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS) 2018 dataset. The dependent variable “depression symptoms” was measured using the 9-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale. The study employed multiple linear regression to investigate the relationship between smartphone use (independent variable) and depressive symptoms in older people. Thorough analyses of robustness, sensitivity, and heterogeneity were conducted to ensure the robustness and sensitivity of the findings. Additionally, mediating effect analysis was performed to elucidate the mechanism through which the dependent and independent variables were related.ResultsEmpirical study indicated that smartphone use had a negative impact on depressive symptoms among older adults, specifically leading to a reduction in such symptoms. The above-mentioned result was verified through endogenous and robustness tests. The heterogeneity analysis revealed that older individuals aged 70 years and above, male, and residing in urban areas exhibited a stronger association between smartphone use and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, the mediating effect model indicated that political participation, voluntary participation, and active leisure participation mediated the relationship between smartphone use and lower levels of depression symptoms among the older adults. However, passive leisure participation had a suppressing effect on the relationship between smartphone use and reduced depressive symptoms among the older adults.LimitationsThe causal relationship between variables required further investigation with a longitudinal design.ConclusionThese findings suggested that smartphone use may be considered an intervention to reduce depression symptoms among older people by increasing levels of political participation, voluntary participation, and active leisure participation

Efficient Spatially Sparse Inference for Conditional GANs and Diffusion Models

During image editing, existing deep generative models tend to re-synthesize the entire output from scratch, including the unedited regions. This leads to a significant waste of computation, especially for minor editing operations. In this work, we present Spatially Sparse Inference (SSI), a general-purpose technique that selectively performs computation for edited regions and accelerates various generative models, including both conditional GANs and diffusion models. Our key observation is that users prone to gradually edit the input image. This motivates us to cache and reuse the feature maps of the original image. Given an edited image, we sparsely apply the convolutional filters to the edited regions while reusing the cached features for the unedited areas. Based on our algorithm, we further propose Sparse Incremental Generative Engine (SIGE) to convert the computation reduction to latency reduction on off-the-shelf hardware. With about $1\%$-area edits, SIGE accelerates DDPM by $3.0\times$ on NVIDIA RTX 3090 and $4.6\times$ on Apple M1 Pro GPU, Stable Diffusion by $7.2\times$ on 3090, and GauGAN by $5.6\times$ on 3090 and $5.2\times$ on M1 Pro GPU. Compared to our conference version, we extend SIGE to accommodate attention layers and apply it to Stable Diffusion. Additionally, we offer support for Apple M1 Pro GPU and include more results with large and sequential edits.Comment: NeurIPS 2022 T-PAMI 2023 Website: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sige/ Code: https://github.com/lmxyy/sig

Numerical Analysis of Stress Intensity Factors of a Crack in the Composite Patch Repair

The composite patch repair technology can be utilized to provide upgrades, such as higher design requirements and life extensions. However, in this case, failures easily happen on the edge interface between the substrate material and the restorative material, because of the incompatible of different properties. Failures such as flaws or cracks lying along the interface reduce the strength of the structure significantly. In this paper, the numerical solutions of hypersingular integro-differential equations are discussed in the analysis of three dimensional interfacial cracks subjected to general internal pressure,and the problem is formulated on the basis of the body force method.The stress intensity factors are given with varying material combinations. It is found that the stress intensity factors and are determined by the bi-materials constant alone, independent of elastic modulus ratio and Poisson\u27s ratio.25th International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference (ISOPE-2015), Kona, Big Island, Hawaii, USA, June 21-26, 201

Application of statins in management of glioma: Recent advances

Gliomas are common primary intra-cerebral tumors in adults, and seriously threaten the health and life of affected patients, especially highly-malignant gliomas, such as glioblastoma multiforme. The clinical prognosis of glioma patients is poor, even for those who have received comprehensive treatment including surgery and concurrent chemo- and/or radio-therapy. As a structural analog of β-hydroxy-β- methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG CoA) reductase, statins are a restrictive enzyme in the metabolism of cholesterol. Recent laboratory studies and clinical trials have demonstrated that statins can exert antitumor effect, improve clinical prognosis and significantly prolong the survival time of glioma patients. This article is aimed to highlight the mechanisms of the anti-glioma effect of statins and review recent advances in the management of the disease.Keywords: Glioma, Glioblastoma multiforme, Intra-cerebral tumors, Statins, Prognosis, Survival time, β-Hydroxy-β-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG CoA) reductas

Case report: Disitamab vedotin combined with immunotherapy demonstrated excellent efficacy in scrotal Paget’s disease with Her-2 overexpression

BackgroundExtramammary Paget’s disease (EMPD) is a rare epithelial malignancy, and approximately 30%–40% of EMPD patients overexpress human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her-2). Currently, there are no established standard treatments for advanced EMPD while anti–Her-2 therapy is recommended for Her-2–positive cases.Case presentationHere, we report a 51-year-old male diagnosed with advanced Her-2–positive EMPD, presenting with numerous lymph node metastases. This patient received disitamab vedotin (an antibody-drug conjugate, targeting Her-2) combined with serplulimab as first-line treatment. After seven cycles of combination therapy, the patient tolerated the treatment well and the lymph node lesions continued to shrink. However, the patient developed immunotherapy-related pneumonia following the eighth treatment. Hormone therapy was administered while all the anti-tumor therapies were halted. After the pneumonia improved, the patient underwent positron emission tomography-computed tomography, revealing a complete response to his tumor. To consolidate the effect, he received another five cycles of disitamab vedotin monotherapy as maintenance therapy, without experiencing any adverse events. To date, the patient has remained in good health without any recurrence 10 months after drug discontinuance.ConclusionDisitamab vedotin combined with immunotherapy demonstrated a long-term clinical benefit in advanced Her-2–positive EMPD. For rare solid tumors with Her-2 overexpression, disitamab vedotin combined with immunotherapy might offer a viable therapeutic choice