Comparison of diffusion-weighted MRI acquisition techniques for normal pancreas at 3.0 Tesla

PURPOSEWe aimed to optimize diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) acquisitions for normal pancreas at 3.0 Tesla.MATERIALS AND METHODSThirty healthy volunteers were examined using four DWI acquisition techniques with b values of 0 and 600 s/mm2 at 3.0 Tesla, including breath-hold DWI, respiratory-triggered DWI, respiratory-triggered DWI with inversion recovery (IR), and free-breathing DWI with IR. Artifacts, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of normal pancreas were statistically evaluated among different DWI acquisitions.RESULTSStatistical differences were noticed in artifacts, SNR, and ADC values of normal pancreas among different DWI acquisitions by ANOVA (P < 0.001). Normal pancreas imaging had the lowest artifact in respiratory-triggered DWI with IR, the highest SNR in respiratory-triggered DWI, and the highest ADC value in free-breathing DWI with IR. The head, body, and tail of normal pancreas had statistically different ADC values on each DWI acquisition by ANOVA (P < 0.05).CONCLUSIONThe highest image quality for normal pancreas was obtained using respiratory-triggered DWI with IR. Normal pancreas displayed inhomogeneous ADC values along the head, body, and tail structures

The changes of immunoglobulin G N-glycosylation in blood lipids and dyslipidaemia

Background Alternative N-glycosylation has significant structural and functional consequences on immunoglobulin G (IgG) and can affect immune responses, acting as a switch between pro- and anti-inflammatory IgG functionality. Studies have demonstrated that IgG N-glycosylation is associated with ageing, body mass index, type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Methods Herein, we have demonstrated patterns of IgG glycosylation that are associated with blood lipids in a cross-sectional study including 598 Han Chinese aged 20–68 years. The IgG glycome composition was analysed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography. Results Blood lipids were positively correlated with glycan peak GP6, whereas they were negatively correlated with GP18 (P \u3c 0.05/57). The canonical correlation analysis indicated that initial N-glycan structures, including GP4, GP6, GP9-12, GP14, GP17, GP18 and GP23, were significantly correlated with blood lipids, including total cholesterol, total triglycerides (TG) and low-density lipoprotein (r = 0.390, P \u3c 0.001). IgG glycans patterns were able to distinguish patients with dyslipidaemia from the controls, with an area under the curve of 0.692 (95% confidence interval 0.644–0.740). Conclusions Our findings indicated that a possible association between blood lipids and the observed loss of galactose and sialic acid, as well as the addition of bisecting GlcNAcs, which might be related to the chronic inflammation accompanying with the development and procession of dyslipidaemia

Enhanced Responsivity of Photodetectors Realized via Impact Ionization

To increase the responsivity is one of the vital issues for a photodetector. By employing ZnO as a representative material of ultraviolet photodetectors and Si as a representative material of visible photodetectors, an impact ionization process, in which additional carriers can be generated in an insulating layer at a relatively large electric field, has been employed to increase the responsivity of a semiconductor photodetector. It is found that the responsivity of the photodetectors can be enhanced by tens of times via this impact ionization process. The results reported in this paper provide a general route to enhance the responsivity of a photodetector, thus may represent a step towards high-performance photodetectors

Clinicopathological characteristics, molecular landscape, and biomarker landscape for predicting the efficacy of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in Chinese population with mismatch repair deficient urothelial carcinoma: a real-world study

Urothelial carcinoma (UC) with deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) is a specific subtype of UC characterized by the loss of mismatch repair (MMR) proteins and its association with Lynch syndrome (LS). However, comprehensive real-world data on the incidence, clinicopathological characteristics, molecular landscape, and biomarker landscape for predicting the efficacy of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in the Chinese patients with dMMR UC remains unknown. We analyzed 374 patients with bladder urothelial carcinoma (BUC) and 232 patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) using tissue microarrays, immunohistochemistry, and targeted next-generation sequencing. Results showed the incidence of dMMR UC was higher in the upper urinary tract than in the bladder. Genomic analysis identified frequent mutations in KMT2D and KMT2C genes and LS was confirmed in 53.8% of dMMR UC cases. dMMR UC cases displayed microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) (PCR method) in 91.7% and tumor mutational burden-high (TMB-H) in 40% of cases. The density of intratumoral CD8+ T cells correlated with better overall survival in dMMR UC patients. Positive PD-L1 expression was found in 20% cases, but some patients positively responded to immunotherapy despite negative PD-L1 expression. Our findings provide valuable insights into the characteristics of dMMR UC in the Chinese population and highlights the relevance of genetic testing and immunotherapy biomarkers for treatment decisions

Activation of Nrf2/HO-1 Pathway by Nardochinoid C Inhibits Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in Lipopolysaccharide-Stimulated Macrophages

The roots and rhizomes of Nardostachys chinensis have neuroprotection and cardiovascular protection effects. However, the specific mechanism of N. chinensis is not yet clear. Nardochinoid C (DC) is a new compound with new skeleton isolated from N. chinensis and this study for the first time explored the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effect of DC. The results showed that DC significantly reduced the release of nitric oxide (NO) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated RAW264.7 cells. The expression of pro-inflammatory proteins including inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) were also obviously inhibited by DC in LPS-activated RAW264.7 cells. Besides, the production of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were also remarkably inhibited by DC in LPS-activated RAW264.7 cells. DC also suppressed inflammation indicators including COX-2, PGE2, TNF-α, and IL-6 in LPS-stimulated THP-1 macrophages. Furthermore, DC inhibited the macrophage M1 phenotype and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in LPS-activated RAW264.7 cells. Mechanism studies showed that DC mainly activated nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) signaling pathway, increased the level of anti-oxidant protein heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and thus produced the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects, which were abolished by Nrf2 siRNA and HO-1 inhibitor. These findings suggested that DC could be a new Nrf2 activator for the treatment and prevention of diseases related to inflammation and oxidative stress

Observation of ηc→ωω\eta_c\to\omega\omega in J/ψ→γωωJ/\psi\to\gamma\omega\omega

Using a sample of $(1310.6\pm7.0)\times10^6$ $J/\psi$ events recorded with the BESIII detector at the symmetric electron positron collider BEPCII, we report the observation of the decay of the $(1^1 S_0)$ charmonium state $\eta_c$ into a pair of $\omega$ mesons in the process $J/\psi\to\gamma\omega\omega$. The branching fraction is measured for the first time to be $\mathcal{B}(\eta_c\to\omega\omega)= (2.88\pm0.10\pm0.46\pm0.68)\times10^{-3}$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third is from the uncertainty of $\mathcal{B}(J/\psi\to\gamma\eta_c)$. The mass and width of the $\eta_c$ are determined as $M=(2985.9\pm0.7\pm2.1)\,$MeV/$c^2$ and $\Gamma=(33.8\pm1.6\pm4.1)\,$MeV.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Observation and study of the decay J/ψ→ϕηη′J/\psi\rightarrow\phi\eta\eta'

We report the observation and study of the decay $J/\psi\rightarrow\phi\eta\eta'$ using $1.3\times{10^9}$ $J/\psi$ events collected with the BESIII detector. Its branching fraction, including all possible intermediate states, is measured to be $(2.32\pm0.06\pm0.16)\times{10^{-4}}$. We also report evidence for a structure, denoted as $X$, in the $\phi\eta'$ mass spectrum in the $2.0-2.1$ GeV/$c^2$ region. Using two decay modes of the $\eta'$ meson ($\gamma\pi^+\pi^-$ and $\eta\pi^+\pi^-$), a simultaneous fit to the $\phi\eta'$ mass spectra is performed. Assuming the quantum numbers of the $X$ to be $J^P = 1^-$, its significance is found to be 4.4$\sigma$, with a mass and width of $(2002.1 \pm 27.5 \pm 21.4)$ MeV/$c^2$ and $(129 \pm 17 \pm 9)$ MeV, respectively, and a product branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(J/\psi\rightarrow\eta{}X)\times{}\mathcal{B}(X\rightarrow\phi\eta')=(9.8 \pm 1.2 \pm 1.7)\times10^{-5}$. Alternatively, assuming $J^P = 1^+$, the significance is 3.8$\sigma$, with a mass and width of $(2062.8 \pm 13.1 \pm 7.2)$ MeV/$c^2$ and $(177 \pm 36 \pm 35)$ MeV, respectively, and a product branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(J/\psi\rightarrow\eta{}X)\times{}\mathcal{B}(X\rightarrow\phi\eta')=(9.6 \pm 1.4 \pm 2.0)\times10^{-5}$. The angular distribution of $J/\psi\rightarrow\eta{}X$ is studied and the two $J^P$ assumptions of the $X$ cannot be clearly distinguished due to the limited statistics. In all measurements the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures and 4 table

Evidence of a resonant structure in the e+e−→π+D0D∗−e^+e^-\to \pi^+D^0D^{*-} cross section between 4.05 and 4.60 GeV

The cross section of the process $e^+e^-\to \pi^+D^0D^{*-}$ for center-of-mass energies from 4.05 to 4.60~GeV is measured precisely using data samples collected with the BESIII detector operating at the BEPCII storage ring. Two enhancements are clearly visible in the cross section around 4.23 and 4.40~GeV. Using several models to describe the dressed cross section yields stable parameters for the first enhancement, which has a mass of 4228.6 \pm 4.1 \pm 6.3 \un{MeV}/c^2 and a width of 77.0 \pm 6.8 \pm 6.3 \un{MeV}, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second ones are systematic. Our resonant mass is consistent with previous observations of the $Y(4220)$ state and the theoretical prediction of a $D\bar{D}_1(2420)$ molecule. This result is the first observation of $Y(4220)$ associated with an open-charm final state. Fits with three resonance functions with additional $Y(4260)$, $Y(4320)$, $Y(4360)$, $\psi(4415)$, or a new resonance, do not show significant contributions from either of these resonances. The second enhancement is not from a single known resonance. It could contain contributions from $\psi(4415)$ and other resonances, and a detailed amplitude analysis is required to better understand this enhancement