Thermally enhanced photoluminescence and temperature sensing properties of Sc2_2W3_3O12_{12}:Eu3+^{3+} phosphors

Currently,lanthanide ions doped luminescence materials applying as optical thermometers have arose much concern. Basing on the different responses of two emissions to temperature, the fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) technique can be executed and further estimate the sensitivities to assess the optical thermometry performances. In this study, we introduce different doping concentrations of Eu$^{3+}$ ions into negative expansion material Sc$_2$W$_3$O$_{12}$:Eu$^{3+}$, accessing to the thermal enhanced luminescence from 373 to 548 K, and investigate the temperature sensing properties in detail. All samples exhibit good thermally enhanced luminescence behavior. The emission intensity of Sc$_2$W$_3$O$_{12}$: 6 mol% Eu$^{3+}$ phosphors reaches at 147.81% of initial intensity at 473 K. As the Eu doping concentration increases, the resistance of the samples to thermal quenching decreases. The FIR technique based on the transitions 5D0-7F1 (592 nm) and 5D0-7F2 (613 nm) of Eu$^{3+}$ ions demonstrate a maximum relative temperature sensitivity of 3.063% K-1 at 298 K for Sc$_2$W$_3$O$_{12}$:Eu$^{3+}$: 6 mol% Eu$^{3+}$ phosphors. The sensitivity of sample decreases with the increase of Eu$^{3+}$ concentration. Benefiting from the thermal enhanced luminescence performance and good temperature sensing properties, the Sc$_2$W$_3$O$_{12}$:Eu$^{3+}$: Eu$^{3+}$ phosphors can be applies as optical thermometers

Insights on Distinct Left Atrial Remodeling Between Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

BACKGROUND: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and atrial fibrillation (AF) commonly coexist with overlapping pathophysiology like left atrial (LA) remodeling, which might differ given different underlying mechanisms. OBJECTIVES: We sought to investigate the different patterns of LA wall remodeling in AF vs. HFpEF. METHODS: We compared LA wall characteristics including wall volume (LAWV), wall thickness (LAWT), and wall thickness heterogeneity (LAWT[SD]) and LA structure, function among the controls (without AF or HFpEF, n = 115), HFpEF alone (n = 59), AF alone (n = 37), and HFpEF+AF (n = 38) groups using multi-detector computed tomography and echocardiography. RESULTS: LA wall remodeling was most predominant and peak atrial longitudinal strain (PALS) was worst in HFpEF+AF patients as compared to the rest. Despite lower E/e' (9.8 ± 3.8 vs. 13.4 ± 6.4) yet comparable LA volume, LAWT and PALS in AF alone vs. HFpEF alone, LAWV [12.6 (11.6–15.3) vs. 12.0 (10.2–13.7); p = 0.01] and LAWT(SD) [0.68 (0.61–0.71) vs. 0.60 (0.56–0.65); p < 0.001] were significantly greater in AF alone vs. HFpEF alone even after multi-variate adjustment and propensity matching. After excluding the HFpEF+AF group, both LAWV and LAWT [SD] provided incremental values when added to PALS or LAVi (all p for net reclassification improvement <0.05) in discriminating AF alone, with LAWT[SD] yielding the largest C-statistic (0.78, 95% CI: 0.70–0.86) among all LA wall indices. CONCLUSIONS: Despite a similar extent of LA enlargement and dysfunction in HFpEF vs. AF alone, larger LAWV and LAWT [SD] can distinguish AF from HFpEF alone, suggesting the distinct underlying pathophysiological mechanism of LA remodeling in AF vs. HFpEF

Insights on Distinct Left Atrial Remodeling Between Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

Background: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and atrial fibrillation (AF) commonly coexist with overlapping pathophysiology like left atrial (LA) remodeling, which might differ given different underlying mechanisms. Objectives: We sought to investigate the different patterns of LA wall remodeling in AF vs. HFpEF. Methods: We compared LA wall characteristics including wall volume (LAWV), wall thickness (LAWT), and wall thickness heterogeneity (LAWT[SD]) and LA structure, function among the controls (without AF or HFpEF, n = 115), HFpEF alone (n = 59), AF alone (n = 37), and HFpEF+AF (n = 38) groups using multi-detector computed tomography and echocardiography. Results: LA wall remodeling was most predominant and peak atrial longitudinal strain (PALS) was worst in HFpEF+AF patients as compared to the rest. Despite lower E/e' (9.8 ± 3.8 vs. 13.4 ± 6.4) yet comparable LA volume, LAWT and PALS in AF alone vs. HFpEF alone, LAWV [12.6 (11.6–15.3) vs. 12.0 (10.2–13.7); p = 0.01] and LAWT(SD) [0.68 (0.61–0.71) vs. 0.60 (0.56–0.65); p &lt; 0.001] were significantly greater in AF alone vs. HFpEF alone even after multi-variate adjustment and propensity matching. After excluding the HFpEF+AF group, both LAWV and LAWT [SD] provided incremental values when added to PALS or LAVi (all p for net reclassification improvement &lt;0.05) in discriminating AF alone, with LAWT[SD] yielding the largest C-statistic (0.78, 95% CI: 0.70–0.86) among all LA wall indices. Conclusions: Despite a similar extent of LA enlargement and dysfunction in HFpEF vs. AF alone, larger LAWV and LAWT [SD] can distinguish AF from HFpEF alone, suggesting the distinct underlying pathophysiological mechanism of LA remodeling in AF vs. HFpEF.</p

Clinical Characteristics, Racial Inequities, and Outcomes in Patients with Breast Cancer and COVID-19: A COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Limited information is available for patients with breast cancer (BC) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), especially among underrepresented racial/ethnic populations. METHODS: This is a COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) registry-based retrospective cohort study of females with active or history of BC and laboratory-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection diagnosed between March 2020 and June 2021 in the US. Primary outcome was COVID-19 severity measured on a five-level ordinal scale, including none of the following complications, hospitalization, intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation, and all-cause mortality. Multivariable ordinal logistic regression model identified characteristics associated with COVID-19 severity. RESULTS: 1383 female patient records with BC and COVID-19 were included in the analysis, the median age was 61 years, and median follow-up was 90 days. Multivariable analysis revealed higher odds of COVID-19 severity for older age (aOR per decade, 1.48 [95% CI, 1.32-1.67]); Black patients (aOR 1.74; 95 CI 1.24-2.45), Asian Americans and Pacific Islander patients (aOR 3.40; 95 CI 1.70-6.79) and Other (aOR 2.97; 95 CI 1.71-5.17) racial/ethnic groups; worse ECOG performance status (ECOG PS ≥2: aOR, 7.78 [95% CI, 4.83-12.5]); pre-existing cardiovascular (aOR, 2.26 [95% CI, 1.63-3.15])/pulmonary comorbidities (aOR, 1.65 [95% CI, 1.20-2.29]); diabetes mellitus (aOR, 2.25 [95% CI, 1.66-3.04]); and active and progressing cancer (aOR, 12.5 [95% CI, 6.89-22.6]). Hispanic ethnicity, timing, and type of anti-cancer therapy modalities were not significantly associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes. The total all-cause mortality and hospitalization rate for the entire cohort was 9% and 37%, respectively however, it varied according to the BC disease status. CONCLUSIONS: Using one of the largest registries on cancer and COVID-19, we identified patient and BC-related factors associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes. After adjusting for baseline characteristics, underrepresented racial/ethnic patients experienced worse outcomes compared to non-Hispanic White patients. FUNDING: This study was partly supported by National Cancer Institute grant number P30 CA068485 to Tianyi Sun, Sanjay Mishra, Benjamin French, Jeremy L Warner; P30-CA046592 to Christopher R Friese; P30 CA023100 for Rana R McKay; P30-CA054174 for Pankil K Shah and Dimpy P Shah; KL2 TR002646 for Pankil Shah and the American Cancer Society and Hope Foundation for Cancer Research (MRSG-16-152-01-CCE) and P30-CA054174 for Dimpy P Shah. REDCap is developed and supported by Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research grant support (UL1 TR000445 from NCATS/NIH). The funding sources had no role in the writing of the manuscript or the decision to submit it for publication. CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: CCC19 registry is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04354701

Recent Insights into Neutrophil Extracellular Traps in Cardiovascular Diseases

Neutrophils are primary effector cells of the innate immune system. Emerging evidence has consistently shown that activated neutrophils produce and release neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) that play roles in immunity and non-infectious diseases. NETs are composed of DNA and proteins and serve as a structural platform for pathogen sequestration and degradation. In contrast to their protective role during pathogenic infection, NETs are pathologically involved in cardiovascular disease (CVD). In this review, we introduce the formation, release, and clearance of NETs and the regulatory mechanisms of NETs formation, followed by an overview of the clinical evidence for the involvement of NETs in CVD. Because atherosclerosis is a fundamental part of the pathogenesis of CVD, we chose to focus on the mechanisms by which NETs promote endothelial cell damage and collaborate with macrophages and platelets to accelerate plaque progression and thrombosis. Finally, we present options for clinical intervention to inhibit NETs production and release in the treatment of CVD. In conclusion, this review integrates the latest findings and provides new insights into NETs, which represent a novel biomarker and therapeutic target in clinical practice

An Improved Method Based on EEMD-LSTM to Predict Missing Measured Data of Structural Sensors

Time history testing using a shaking table is one of the most widely used methods for assessing the dynamic response of structures. In shaking-table experiments and on-site monitoring, acceleration sensors are facing problems of missing data due to the fact of measurement point failures, affecting the validity and accuracy of assessing the structural dynamic response. The original measured signals are decomposed by ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), and the widely used deep neural networks (DNNs), gated recurrent units (GRUs), and long short-term memory networks (LSTMs) are used to predict the subseries of the decomposed original measured signal data to help model and recover the irregular, periodic variations in the measured signal data. The raw acceleration data of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage tank in shaking-table experiments were used as an example to compare and discuss the method’s performance for the complementation of missing measured signal data. The results of the measured signal data recovery showed that the hybrid method (EEMD based) proposed in this paper had a higher complementary performance compared with the traditional deep learning methods, while the EEMD-LSTM exhibited the best missing data complementary accuracy among all models. In addition, the effect of the number of prediction steps on the prediction accuracy of the EEMD-LSTM model is also discussed. This study not only provides a method to fuse EEMD and deep learning models to predict measured signal’ missing data but also provides suggestions for the use of EEMD-LSTM models under different conditions

Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the supportive care needs survey for caregivers of children with Paediatric cancer (SCNS‐C‐Ped‐C)

Abstract Aim To revise the Supportive Care Needs Survey for Partners and Caregivers of Cancer Patients (SCNS‐P&C) and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese Version of the Supportive Care Needs Survey for Caregivers of Children with Paediatric Cancer (SCNS‐C‐Ped‐C) in caregivers of children with paediatric cancer. Design A cross sectional design was used. Methods In this methodological research, the reliability and validity of the SCNS‐C‐Ped‐C were measured by a questionnaire survey among 336 caregivers of children with paediatric cancer in China. The construct validity was evaluated by exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency was examined by Cronbach's alpha, split‐half reliability, and corrected item‐to‐total correlation coefficients. Results The exploratory factor analysis revealed six factors consist of: Healthcare and Informational Needs, Daily Care and Communication Needs, Psychological and Spiritual Needs, Medical Service Needs, Economic Needs, and Emotional Needs, explaining 65.615% of the variance. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.968 at full scale and 0.603–0.952 on the six domains. The split‐half reliability coefficient was 0.883 at full scale and 0.659–0.931 on the six domains. Conclusions The SCNS‐C‐Ped‐C demonstrated both reliability and validity. It can be used to evaluate multi‐dimensional supportive care needs for caregivers of children with paediatric cancer in China

A Higher Dose of <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> Enterotoxin B Led to More Th1 and Lower Th2/Th1 Ratio in Th Cells

Exposure to Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B (SEB) is one of the causes of food poisoning and is associated with several immune diseases due to its superantigen capability. This study aimed to characterize the differentiations of naïve Th cells stimulated with different doses of SEB. The expression of T-bet, GATA-3, and Foxp3 or secretion of IFN-γ, IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, and IL-10 were evaluated in wild-type (WT) or DO11.10 CD4 T cells co-cultured with bone marrow dendritic cells (BMDCs). We found that the balance of Th1/Th2 could be dominated by the doses of SEB stimulation. A higher SEB dose could induce more Th1 and a lower Th2/Th1 ratio in Th cells co-cultured with BMDCs. This different tendency of Th cell differentiation induced by the SEB complements the existing knowledge about SEB acting as a superantigen to activate Th cells. Additionally, it is also helpful in managing the colonization of S. aureus and food contamination of SEB

1,6-Conjugated Addition-Mediated [2+1] Annulation: Approach to Spiro[2.5]octa-4,7-dien-6-one

A formal 1,6-conjugated addition-mediated [2+1] annulation to synthesize spiro[2.5]­octa-4,7-dien-6-one with <i>p</i>-quinone methides and sulfur ylides has been described. This domino-type process was highly diastereoselective and exhibited good functional group tolerance and scalability without the use of metals and bases