Plasmonic Hybrid Thin Film for Broadband Absorption and Characterization of Its Optical and Electrical Properties

We developed a simple and effective technique for fabricating a hybrid nanostructure of graphene-silver nanoparticles. The structure was prepared by stacking method with polyvinylpyrrolidone as a stabilizer. The chemical linking of G-PVP-Ag is possible through PVP-based ligand chemistry. The resulting hybrid film exhibited 87% transparency. The electrical properties under UV light increased compared with only one material. The conversion efficiency of a solar cell fabricated with the hybrid structure also increased approximately by 1.5% compared with that of solar cell fabricated without the hybrid film

IL1 Receptor Antagonist Controls Transcriptional Signature of Inflammation in Patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Inflammation affects tumor immune surveillance and resistance to therapy. Here, we show that production of IL1β in primary breast cancer tumors is linked with advanced disease and originates from tumor-infiltrating CD11c+ myeloid cells. IL1β production is triggered by cancer cell membrane-derived TGFβ. Neutralizing TGFβ or IL1 receptor prevents breast cancer progression in humanized mouse model. Patients with metastatic HER2- breast cancer display a transcriptional signature of inflammation in the blood leukocytes, which is attenuated after IL1 blockade. When present in primary breast cancer tumors, this signature discriminates patients with poor clinical outcomes in two independent public datasets (TCGA and METABRIC).Significance: IL1β orchestrates tumor-promoting inflammation in breast cancer and can be targeted in patients using an IL1 receptor antagonist. Cancer Res; 78(18); 5243-58

Predicting incident fatty liver using simple cardiometabolic risk factors at baseline

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes and chronic liver disease but identifying patients who have NAFLD without resorting to expensive imaging tests is challenging. In order to help identify people for imaging investigation of the liver who are at high risk of NAFLD, our aim was to: a) identify easily measured risk factors at baseline that were independently associated with incident fatty liver at follow up, and then b) to test the diagnostic performance of thresholds of these factors at baseline, to predict or to exclude incident fatty liver at follow up.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>2589 people with absence of fatty liver on ultrasound examination at baseline were re-examined after a mean of 4.4 years in a Korean occupational cohort study. Multi-variable logistic regression analyses were used to identify baseline factors that were independently associated with incident fatty liver at follow up. The diagnostic performance of thresholds of these baseline factors to identify people with incident fatty liver at follow-up was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>430 incident cases of fatty liver were identified. Several factors were independently associated with incident fatty liver: increased triglyceride (per mmol/l increase) OR 1.378 [95%CIs 1.179, 1.611], p < 0.0001; glucose (per mmol/l increase) OR 1.215 [95%CIs 1.042, 1.416], p = 0.013; waist (per cm increase) OR 1.078 [95%CIs 1.057, 1.099], p < 0.001; ALT (per IU/L increase) OR 1.009 [95%CIs 1.002, 1.017], p = 0.016; and platelets (per 1x10⁹/L increase) OR 1.004 [1.001, 1.006], p = 0.001; were each independently associated with incident fatty liver. Binary thresholds of the five factors were applied and the area under the ROC curve for incident fatty liver was 0.75 (95%CI 0.72–0.78) for the combination of all five factors above these thresholds.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Simple risk factors that overlap considerably with risk factors for type 2 diabetes allow identification of people at high risk of incident fatty liver at who use of hepatic imaging could be targeted.</p