Maintenance Chemotherapy With Chinese Herb Medicine Formulas vs. With Placebo in Patients With Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer After First-Line Chemotherapy: A Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Blind Trial

Background: Chinese Herb Medicine Formulas (CHMF) was reported to improve the quality of life (QoL) in advanced NSCLC patients. The present study was designed to investigate whether maintenance chemotherapy plus CHMF in patients would improve QoL and progression-free survival (PFS).Methods: Seventy-one patients were enrolled from 8 medical centers in China, and were randomly assigned to a maintenance chemotherapy plus CHMF group (n = 35) or a maintenance chemotherapy plus placebo group (n = 36). The outcome measures included PFS, Karnofsky performance status (KPS) scores, QoL (assessed with the lung cancer symptom scale (LCSS) questionnaire), and adverse events (AEs).Results: Patients in the CHMF group showed significant improvements in median PFS (HR = 0.55, 95% CI 0.28–0.88, P = 0.019), KPS scores (P = 0.047), fatigue (cycle [C] 3: P = 0.03), interference with daily activities (C3: P = 0.04) and dyspnea (C2: P = 0.03) compared with patients in the placebo group. Compared with the placebo group, the incidence of AEs decreased in the CHMF group, including loss of appetite (C2: P = 0.011, C4: P = 0.004) and dry mouth (C4: P = 0.011).Conclusion: The essential finding of our study is that maintenance chemotherapy combined with CHMF may prolong PFS, relieve symptoms, improve QoL and alleviate the side effects

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Identification of key microRNAs and genes in preeclampsia by bioinformatics analysis

<div><p>Preeclampsia is a leading cause of perinatal maternal–foetal mortality and morbidity. The aim of this study is to identify the key microRNAs and genes in preeclampsia and uncover their potential functions. We downloaded the miRNA expression profile of GSE84260 and the gene expression profile of GSE73374 from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Differentially expressed miRNAs and genes were identified and compared to miRNA-target information from MiRWalk 2.0, and a total of 65 differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMIs), including 32 up-regulated miRNAs and 33 down-regulated miRNAs, and 91 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), including 83 up-regulated genes and 8 down-regulated genes, were identified. The pathway enrichment analyses of the DEMIs showed that the up-regulated DEMIs were enriched in the Hippo signalling pathway and MAPK signalling pathway, and the down-regulated DEMIs were enriched in HTLV-I infection and miRNAs in cancers. The gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway (KEGG) enrichment analyses of the DEGs were performed using Multifaceted Analysis Tool for Human Transcriptome. The up-regulated DEGs were enriched in biological processes (BPs), including the response to cAMP, response to hydrogen peroxide and cell-cell adhesion mediated by integrin; no enrichment of down-regulated DEGs was identified. KEGG analysis showed that the up-regulated DEGs were enriched in the Hippo signalling pathway and pathways in cancer. A PPI network of the DEGs was constructed by using Cytoscape software, and FOS, STAT1, MMP14, ITGB1, VCAN, DUSP1, LDHA, MCL1, MET, and ZFP36 were identified as the hub genes. The current study illustrates a characteristic microRNA profile and gene profile in preeclampsia, which may contribute to the interpretation of the progression of preeclampsia and provide novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for preeclampsia.</p></div

Hepatoprotective potential of Aloe vera polysaccharides against chronic alcohol-induced hepatotoxicity in mice

Abstract BACKGROUND: Aloe vera polysaccharides are reported to exhibit multiple biological effects, including anti-oxidation, antiinflammation and immune enhancement. However, their influence on alcoholic liver disease (ALD) remains unclear. This study was designed to determine the protective effect of extracted A. vera polysaccharides (AVGP) against ALD in a chronic alcohol-feeding mouse model and investigate the possible underlying mechanisms

Antibacterial activities of bayberry extract on foodborne pathogens and identification of its active components

Bayberries are important sources of phytochemicals. In this paper, the active substances of bayberry extract (BE) were investigated, and based on this, the inhibitory effects of BE on the six tested food-borne pathogens were futher evaluated. Finally, the main antibacterial components in the extracts were identified by UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, UPLC-UV spectrum and UPLC-ESI-MS. The results showed that the content of total phenolic was the greatest, and BE has a good inhibitory effect on the growth curve of six foodborne pathogens, and average inhibition zone diameter (IZD) reached 19.5 mm. Furthermore, the four main antimicrobial components, cyanidin 3-O-glucoside, flavonoid deoxy hexacoside, quercetin 3-O-glucoside, and quercetin deoxidized hexacoside, were identified from the BE. Practical applications: Bayberries are important sources of phytochemicals such as phenolic acids, anthocyanins, and flavonol glycosides. Recent findings from our laboratory revealed the BE had a significant bacteriostatic effect. Therefore, this paper investigated the antibacterial activity of BE to 6 common foodborne pathogens, and on this basis further confirmed the effective active components of BE. This study provides an important reference for BE application in food, pharmaceutical and chemical fields

金属镁的氧化及氧化机理研究进展

As the lightest commercial metal structure material, magnesium alloy shows a wide application prospect in aerospace, automobile, 3C pro-ducts and other fields. At the same time, it is of great strategic significance to promote the application of magnesium alloy materials, in the face of the increasing shortage of iron and aluminum resources in the world and the dilemma of a large number of imported iron and aluminum ores. Compared with common steel and aluminum alloy, the research and development of magnesium alloy are not enough, and its application is also limited. The poor corrosion resistance of magnesium alloy is partly due to the high chemical activity of magnesium and the lack of protective effect of the film formed on the surface. Especially at high temperature, magnesium and its alloys are easy to oxidize, even burn, and release a lot of heat, which has become one of the bottlenecks limiting the extensive application of magnesium alloys. In recent years, a lot of researches have been carried out on the oxidation mechanism and influencing factors of magnesium and its alloys. It is considered that the oxidation of magnesium alloy is affected by factors, such as P-B value of oxide film, evaporation and diffusion of magnesium and so on. At present, the oxidation resistance of magnesium is improved by alloying. This provides theoretical support for the preparation of magnesium alloy with high oxidation resistance. At the same time, it expands the application prospect of magnesium alloy at high temperature, and will bring huge economic benefits to magnesium alloy industry. This paper summarizes the research progress of oxidation characteristics and mechanism of magnesium and its alloys at home and abroad. Firstly, the oxidation of magnesium is briefly introduced. Secondly, the mechanism and influencing factors of magnesium oxidation are analyzed, and the influence rules and mechanism of P-B value, diffusion, evaporation, microstructure and alloy elements on the oxidation behavior of magnesium are emphatically discussed. Finally, the shortcomings of the current research are summarized, and suggestions on the research direction of magnesium oxidation resistance are put forward