Trans-lymphatic Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound in Combination with Blue Dye Injection is Feasible for Detection and Biopsy of Sentinel Lymph Nodes in Breast Cancer

Objective: The best method for sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in early-staged breast cancer (EBC) remains controversial. This study aimed to evaluate a novel method by combining trans-lymphatic contrast-enhanced ultrasound (TLCEUS) with blue dye injection as a guidance of SLNB. Methods: TLCEUS was performed in 88 patients with newly diagnosed EBC. Methylene blue dye was percutaneously injected into enhanced sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) under ultrasound guidance, followed by standard SLNB and axillary lymph node dissection. Enhancement patterns and the arriving time (AT) of contrast agent within SLNs were evaluated. Histopathological examination of dissected nodes was performed to confirm metastasis. Results: A total of 95 enhanced SLNs were identified and biopsied in 86 of 88 patients with identification rate of 97.7%. The specificity was 75.0%, sensitivity was 83.3%, and false-negative rate was 16.7%. Contrast-enhanced SLNs with type I, type II, and type III patterns had a metastatic positive rate of 11.4% (5/44), 57.1% (12/21) and 80.0% (24/30), respectively. Metastatic positive SLNs showed a mean AT of 61.6 ± 58.7 s while metastatic negative SLNs showed a mean AT of 41.3 ± 19.9 s, which was statistically significantly different. Conclusion: The TLCEUS/blue dye method can be used as an alternative to the radioisotope/blue dye method for its feasibility and accuracy

Tuberculosis as a risk factor for systemic lupus erythematosus: Results of a nationwide study in Taiwan

Abstract Background: A previous study, with relatively small number of patients, showed tha

Memory-built-in quantum teleportation with photonic and atomic qubits

The combination of quantum teleportation and quantum memory of photonic qubits is essential for future implementations of large-scale quantum communication and measurement-based quantum computation. Both steps have been achieved separately in many proof-of-principle experiments, but the demonstration of memory-built-in teleportation of photonic qubits remains an experimental challenge. Here, we demonstrate teleportation between photonic (flying) and atomic (stationary) qubits. In our experiment, an unknown polarization state of a single photon is teleported over 7 m onto a remote atomic qubit that also serves as a quantum memory. The teleported state can be stored and successfully read out for up to 8 micro-second. Besides being of fundamental interest, teleportation between photonic and atomic qubits with the direct inclusion of a readable quantum memory represents a step towards an efficient and scalable quantum network.Comment: 19 pages 3 figures 1 tabl

Effects of egg and vitamin A supplementation on hemoglobin, retinol status and physical growth levels of primary and middle school students in

Lack of protein and vitamin A influences the growth of student in impoverished mountain areas. The aim of the study was to assess the effects of egg and vitamin A supplementation on hemoglobin, serum retinol and anthropometric indices of 10-18 years old students of a low socioeconomic status. A total number of 288 students from four boarding schools were randomly selected by using cluster sampling method in Chongqing, and they were assigned into supplement group and control group non-randomly. Students in supplement group received a single 200,000 international units vitamin A and 1 egg/day (including weekends) for 6 months. The control group did not receive any supplementation. We measured hemoglobin, serum retinol and height and weight at baseline and after supplementation. The supplementation increased the mean hemoglobin concentration by 7.13 g/L compared with 1.38 g/L in control group (p<0.001), the mean serum retinol concentration by 0.31 μmol/L compared with 0.09 μmol/L in the control group (p=0.005), the mean height-for-age z score by 0.05 compared with 0.03 in the control group (p=0.319), the mean weight-for-age z score by 0.05 compared with -0.12 in the control group (p<0.001). Our results revealed that egg and vitamin A supplementation is an effective, convenient, and practical method to improve the levels of hemoglobin, serum retinol and prevent the deterioration of growth in terms of weight for primary and middle school students from outlying poverty-stricken areas. Our intervention did not have a beneficial effect on linear growth

Thermal treatment of wood using vegetable oils: a review

Wood is an ideal building material as it is renewable and green. However, low dimensional stability and durability might restrict its usage in structural application. Therefore, modification is needed to improve the aforementioned issues. As an environmentally friendly wood modification method, heat treatment of wood using oil as a heating medium has brought to researcher’s attention to the fact that it might serve as an excellent treatment procedure in treating wood. This paper presents a review about the effects of oil heat treatment on the properties of wood such as colour stability, dimensional stability, mechanical strength and durability against termites and fungi as well as its potential to be used as construction and building materials. The pros and cons of using oil as a heating medium in wood treatment are discussed. This review shows discrepancies between the treatment methods or procedures and its resultant findings. Moreover, the effectiveness of the treatment is governed by several factors such as the type of oils used and wood species. The objective of the present paper is to conduct a review of the published literatures regarding the properties of wood modified by oil heat treatment and the results obtained were compared systematically

Longitudinal Computer Generated Holograms for Digital Frequency Control in Electronically Tunable Terahertz Lasers

A transverse computer-generated hologram (CGH) diffracts and provides flexible control of incident light by steering it to any point in the projected image plane - i.e. CGHs are able to direct the light to where it is needed and away from where it is not. In addition, the number of resolvable points in the image projection plane is a function of the CGH's pixel count. Here we report a longitudinal CGH (LCGH), a photonic structure, which swaps the ability to steer light toward fixed spatial points for digital control in the frequency domain. This is of particular interest in the context of tunable lasers. In this regard, an LCGH offers two important degrees-of-freedom (DOFs): 1) provides high-resolution wavevector or k space resolution within the Brillouin zone; 2) enables full control to define or modify the reflectivity at each resolvable k point, so attaining a target spectral response. We demonstrate the flexibility of our LCGH approach by achieving purely electronic tuning between six digitally-selected operating frequencies in a single section terahertz (THz) quantum cascade laser (QCL). These switchable single-frequency devices will simplify combining the power and flexibility of THz QCLs with spectroscopic applications, such as remote sensing, spectral analysis, and both security and medical imaging.Comment: 17 pages, 4 Figures, submitted to Nature Photonic

Thermal treatment of wood using vegetable oils: a review

Wood is an ideal building material as it is renewable and green. However, low dimensional stability and durability might restrict its usage in structural application. Therefore, modification is needed to improve the aforementioned issues. As an environmentally friendly wood modification method, heat treatment of wood using oil as a heating medium has brought to researcher’s attention to the fact that it might serve as an excellent treatment procedure in treating wood. This paper presents a review about the effects of oil heat treatment on the properties of wood such as colour stability, dimensional stability, mechanical strength and durability against termites and fungi as well as its potential to be used as construction and building materials. The pros and cons of using oil as a heating medium in wood treatment are discussed. This review shows discrepancies between the treatment methods or procedures and its resultant findings. Moreover, the effectiveness of the treatment is governed by several factors such as the type of oils used and wood species. The objective of the present paper is to conduct a review of the published literatures regarding the properties of wood modified by oil heat treatment and the results obtained were compared systematically