146 research outputs found
Clinical effects of laparoscopic surgery for the treatment of endometriosis and endometriosis-fertility: A retrospective study of 226 cases
IntroductionTo determine the clinical effects of laparoscopic surgery (LS) in the treatment of endometriosis and endometriosis-fertility.MethodsTwo hundred twenty-six patients with endometriosis who underwent LS (LS group, n = 176) or laparotomy (LT group, n = 50) at the Third Hospital of Shijiazhuang City from June 2011 to June 2013 were included in this study, and their clinical outcomes for endometriosis and infertility were compared. All patients were followed up for 1 year after surgery to determine postoperative pregnancies in patients with endometriosis.ResultsThe operative times between the LS and LT groups were not significantly different (P > 0.05); however, the length of stay in the hospital and blood loss in the LS group were significantly different from the LT group (P < 0.05). The incidence of postoperative symptoms were lower in the LS group than the LT group (P < 0.05). The postoperative pregnancy rates in the two groups were significantly different, including the infertility patients (P < 0.05).ConclusionsCompared with LT, LS significantly reduced pain and improved the quality of life in women with endometriosis. These results can provide a reference for the clinical treatment of endometriosis
Strong enhancement of photoresponsivity with shrinking the electrodes spacing in few layer GaSe photodetectors
A critical challenge for the integration of the optoelectronics is that
photodetectors have relatively poor sensitivities at the nanometer scale. It is
generally believed that a large electrodes spacing in photodetectors is
required to absorb sufficient light to maintain high photoresponsivity and
reduce the dark current. However, this will limit the optoelectronic
integration density. Through spatially resolved photocurrent investigation, we
find that the photocurrent in metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetectors
based on layered GaSe is mainly generated from the photoexcited carriers close
to the metal-GaSe interface and the photocurrent active region is always close
to the Schottky barrier with higher electrical potential. The photoresponsivity
monotonically increases with shrinking the spacing distance before the direct
tunneling happen, which was significantly enhanced up to 5,000 AW-1 for the
bottom contacted device at bias voltage 8 V and wavelength of 410 nm. It is
more than 1,700-fold improvement over the previously reported results. Besides
the systematically experimental investigation of the dependence of the
photoresponsivity on the spacing distance for both the bottom and top contacted
MSM photodetectors, a theoretical model has also been developed to well explain
the photoresponsivity for these two types of device configurations. Our
findings realize shrinking the spacing distance and improving the performance
of 2D semiconductor based MSM photodetectors simultaneously, which could pave
the way for future high density integration of 2D semiconductor optoelectronics
with high performances.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figure
A Survey on Service Route and Time Prediction in Instant Delivery: Taxonomy, Progress, and Prospects
Instant delivery services, such as food delivery and package delivery, have
achieved explosive growth in recent years by providing customers with
daily-life convenience. An emerging research area within these services is
service Route\&Time Prediction (RTP), which aims to estimate the future service
route as well as the arrival time of a given worker. As one of the most crucial
tasks in those service platforms, RTP stands central to enhancing user
satisfaction and trimming operational expenditures on these platforms. Despite
a plethora of algorithms developed to date, there is no systematic,
comprehensive survey to guide researchers in this domain. To fill this gap, our
work presents the first comprehensive survey that methodically categorizes
recent advances in service route and time prediction. We start by defining the
RTP challenge and then delve into the metrics that are often employed.
Following that, we scrutinize the existing RTP methodologies, presenting a
novel taxonomy of them. We categorize these methods based on three criteria:
(i) type of task, subdivided into only-route prediction, only-time prediction,
and joint route\&time prediction; (ii) model architecture, which encompasses
sequence-based and graph-based models; and (iii) learning paradigm, including
Supervised Learning (SL) and Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL). Conclusively,
we highlight the limitations of current research and suggest prospective
avenues. We believe that the taxonomy, progress, and prospects introduced in
this paper can significantly promote the development of this field
Towards a high-intensity muon source at CiADS
The proposal of a high-intensity muon source driven by the CiADS linac, which
has the potential to be one of the state-of-the-art facilities, is presented in
this paper. We briefly introduce the development progress of the
superconducting linac of CiADS. Then the consideration of challenges related to
the high-power muon production target is given and the liquid lithium jet muon
production target concept is proposed, for the first time. The exploration of
the optimal target geometry for surface muon production efficiency and the
investigation into the performance of liquid lithium jet target in muon rate
are given. Based on the comparison between the liquid lithium jet target and
the rotation graphite target, from perspectives of surface muon production
efficiency, heat processing ability and target geometry compactness, the
advantages of the new target concept are demonstrated and described
comprehensively. The technical challenges and the feasibility of the
free-surface liquid lithium target are discussed
Oviductal extracellular vesicles from women with endometriosis impair embryo development
ObjectiveTo investigate the influence of oviductal extracellular vesicles from patients with endometriosis on early embryo development.DesignIn vitro experimental studySettingUniversity-affiliated hospital.PatientsWomen with and without endometriosis who underwent hysterectomy (n = 27 in total).InterventionsNone.Main outcome measuresOviductal extracellular vesicles from patients with endometriosis (oEV-EMT) or without endometriosis (oEV-ctrl) were isolated and co-cultured with two-cell murine embryos for 75 hours. Blastocyst rates were recorded. RNA sequencing was used to identify the differentially expressed genes in blastocysts cultured either with oEV-EMT or with oEV-ctrl. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis were performed to identify potential biological processes in embryos that oEV-EMT affects. The functions of oEV on early embryo development were determined by reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, mitochondrial membrane potentials (MMP), total cell numbers, and apoptotic cell proportions.ResultsExtracellular vesicles were successfully isolated from human Fallopian tubal fluid, and their characterizations were described. The blastocyst rates were significantly decreased in the oEV-EMT group. RNA sequencing revealed that oxidative phosphorylation was down-regulated in blastocysts cultured with oEV-EMT. Analysis of oxidative stress and apoptosis at the blastocysts stage showed that embryos cultured with oEV-EMT had increased ROS levels, decreased MMP, and increased apoptotic index. Total cell numbers were not influenced.ConclusionOviductal extracellular vesicles from patients with endometriosis negatively influence early embryo development by down-regulating oxidative phosphorylation
Global Meteorological Drought: A Synthesis of Current Understanding with a Focus on SST Drivers of Precipitation Deficits
Drought affects virtually every region of the world, and potential shifts in its character in a changing climate are a
major concern. This article presents a synthesis of current understanding of meteorological drought, with a focus on the
large-scale controls on precipitation afforded by sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies, land surface feedbacks, and
radiative forcings. The synthesis is primarily based on regionally focused articles submitted to the Global Drought
Information System (GDIS) collection together with new results from a suite of atmospheric general circulation model
experiments intended to integrate those studies into a coherent view of drought worldwide. On interannual time scales,
the preeminence of ENSO as a driver of meteorological drought throughout much of the Americas, eastern Asia,
Australia, and theMaritime Continent is now well established, whereas in other regions (e.g., Europe, Africa, and India),
the response to ENSO is more ephemeral or nonexistent. Northern Eurasia, central Europe, and central and eastern
Canada stand out as regions with few SST-forcedimpacts on precipitation oninterannual time scales.Decadal changesin
SST appear to be a major factor in the occurrence of long-term drought, as highlighted by apparent impacts on precipitation
of the late 1990s ‘‘climate shifts’’ in the Pacific and Atlantic SST. Key remaining research challenges include (i)
better quantification of unforced and forced atmospheric variability as well as land–atmosphere feedbacks, (ii) better
understanding of the physical basis for the leading modes of climate variability and their predictability, and (iii) quantification of the relative contributions of internal decadal SST variability and forced climate change to long-term drought
Expert consensus on spontaneous ventilation video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery in primary spontaneous pneumothorax (Guangzhou)
SUMOylation Represses Nanog Expression via Modulating Transcription Factors Oct4 and Sox2
Nanog is a pivotal transcription factor in embryonic stem (ES) cells and is essential for maintaining the pluripotency and self-renewal of ES cells. SUMOylation has been proved to regulate several stem cell markers' function, such as Oct4 and Sox2. Nanog is strictly regulated by Oct4/Sox2 heterodimer. However, the direct effects of SUMOylation on Nanog expression remain unclear. In this study, we reported that SUMOylation repressed Nanog expression. Depletion of Sumo1 or its conjugating enzyme Ubc9 increased the expression of Nanog, while high SUMOylation reduced its expression. Interestingly, we found that SUMOylation of Oct4 and Sox2 regulated Nanog in an opposing manner. SUMOylation of Oct4 enhanced Nanog expression, while SUMOylated Sox2 inhibited its expression. Moreover, SUMOylation of Oct4 by Pias2 or Sox2 by Pias3 impaired the interaction between Oct4 and Sox2. Taken together, these results indicate that SUMOylation has a negative effect on Nanog expression and provides new insights into the mechanism of SUMO modification involved in ES cells regulation
Tubeless video-assisted thoracic surgery for pulmonary ground-glass nodules: expert consensus and protocol (Guangzhou)
Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome
The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead
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