Clinical analysis of vulvar cancer

Background: The purpose of this study is to understand the incidence, related factors, and the prognosis factors in order to avoid risk, proper method of diagnosis and treatment and reduce complications and provide the basis.Methods: 85 Vulvar cancer (VC) patients treated in our hospital from 2002.10 to 2012.10 were collected and analyzed by retrospective comparative methods. SPSS19.0 application software was used for the statistical analysis. The clinical data are analyzed by chi-square and F test statistic methods. P < 0.05 was a significant difference between the judgment standard.Results: During 10 years, we treated 3391 cases of the primary malignant tumors including 85 VC cases; VC was 2.89% (85/3391). The age was between 24～88 years old, mean was 57.09±12.93 yrs. old, variable age of the VC had been juvenescence trend (F=6. 013，P=0.016＜0.05＝). The differences between the urban and rural residential area have some influence to the onset of VC. Rural patients are more than urban patients. By statistical analysis, region distribution in these two groups was remarkably different=4.16，P=0.045＜0.05, but the urban proportion of patients in different years has no difference（χ2=0.080, P=0.777）.Conclusion: The number of cases increased progressively in young age. VC patients were more in rural area than urban. History of malignant tumor and obesity has the positive correlation with VC. High-risk groups should be alert to the possibility of VC. Preoperative diagnosis should be Colposcopic, biopsy in order to improve the accuracy of earlier diagnosis. Vulvar resects have an effect on the healing of the incision. Follow-up rate is low; It is difficult to say statistically survival rate is 5 years

Extraction, Isolation and Identification of Antimicrobial Substances from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens CMN1308

Four separation methods of antimicrobial substances produced by CMN1308 (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens) were evaluated and selected according to number of antimicrobial substances and its activity in vitro. The results showed that extraction by acid precipitation of the fermentation supernatant of CMN1308 was the best with a diameter of inhibition zone of pathogen fungi P. expansum of 12.3 mm in a laboratory bioassay. Applying a silica thin layer chromatography (TLC), SDS-PAGE and other separation technologies we isolate antimicrobial substances, and the separated band were cut off for mass spectrometry analysis. The TLC of crude extract of CMN1308 show a topical band corresponding with the surfactin standard (Rf value =0.75), proved that the strain CMN1308 can produce this surface active compound. The mycoprotein extracted from CMN1308 was separated by Tricine-SDS-PAGE modified with the addition of urea in the separation gel. After mass spectrometric analysis and protein characterization, the isolated mycoprotein showed a maximum ion peak at M/Z of 2679 and molecular weight of 29.5 kDa, matching with protein flagellin. The extracellular antimicrobial protein of strain CMN1308 display four bands after urea-Tricine-SDS-PAGE, but after mass spectrometry analysis only two bands were identified. Band “A” with a maximum ion peak at M/Z of 1926 and molecular weight of 49.8 kDa, aligned with NCBI database, matching with DLDH (dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase enzyme). Band “D” show the maximum ion peak at M/Z of 2936 and molecular weight of 22.4 kD, matching with a chitin binding protein. Thus, the strain CMN1308 has the potential to be developed as a commercial biological control agent for chestnut common pathogenic fungi

Inhibitor selectivity between aldo–keto reductase superfamily members AKR1B10 and AKR1B1: Role of Trp112 (Trp111)

AbstractThe antineoplastic target aldo–keto reductase family member 1B10 (AKR1B10) and the critical polyol pathway enzyme aldose reductase (AKR1B1) share high structural similarity. Crystal structures reported here reveal a surprising Trp112 native conformation stabilized by a specific Gln114-centered hydrogen bond network in the AKR1B10 holoenzyme, and suggest that AKR1B1 inhibitors could retain their binding affinities toward AKR1B10 by inducing Trp112 flip to result in an “AKR1B1-like” active site in AKR1B10, while selective AKR1B10 inhibitors can take advantage of the broader active site of AKR1B10 provided by the native Trp112 side-chain orientation

Atmospheric nitrous acid (HONO) at a rural coastal site in North China: Seasonal variations and effects of biomass burning

Nitrous acid (HONO) plays a significant role in atmospheric chemistry due to its contribution to hydroxyl radical (OH). However, no scientific consensus has been achieved about the daytime HONO formation mechanisms. To identify the seasonal variations of HONO chemistry and the impacts of biomass burning (BB), we performed a two-phased field study in winter-spring and summer (covering a harvest season) in 2017 at a rural coastal site in North China. Though the mean HONO concentration in winter-spring (0.26 +/- 0.28 ppbv) was higher than in summer (0.17 + 0.19 ppbv), the maximum HONO concentrations were comparable (similar to 2 ppbv) in the two campaigns. Both the HONO/NOx ratio and nocturnal heterogeneous conversion efficiency of HONO (C-HONO) in summer were over twice of that in winter-spring. The daytime budget analysis also revealed that the strength of P(othe)r (i.e., the HONO sources apart from the reaction of OH + NO) in summer was double of that in winter-spring. BB affected the HONO concentration by enhancing the contribution of heterogeneous HONO production on the aerosol surface but weakening the role of photo-related HONO formation. HONO photolysis was a significant source of OH in both winter-spring and summer, and its contribution could be further enhanced during the BB episode in summer. Our study demonstrates the significant seasonal variations of HONO and the effects of BB, and suggests needs for more multi-season observations and considerations of BB, especially during the harvest time, in HONO research

A New Chinese Medicine Intestine Formula Greatly Improves the Effect of Aminosalicylate on Ulcerative Colitis

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic lifelong inflammatory disorder of the colon. Current medical treatment of UC relies predominantly on the use of traditional drugs, including aminosalicylates, corticosteroids, and immunosuppressants, which failed to effectively control this disease’s progression and produced various side effects. Here, we report a new Chinese medicine intestine formula (CIF) which greatly improved the effect of mesalazine, an aminosalicylate, on UC. In the present study, 60 patients with chronic UC were treated with oral mesalazine alone or in combination with CIF enema. The combination of mesalazine and CIF greatly and significantly improved the clinical symptoms and colon mucosal condition and improved the Mayo Clinic Disease Activity Index and health-related quality of life, when compared to mesalazine alone. In particular, the addition of CIF further decreased serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and hypersensitivity C-reactive protein but in contrast increased interleukin-4. Thus, the results demonstrate the beneficial role of CIF in UC treatment, which may be mediated by the regulation of inflammation

Advanced Data Encryption ​using 2D Materials

Advanced data encryption requires the use of true random number generators (TRNGs) to produce unpredictable sequences of bits. TRNG circuits with high degree of randomness and low power consumption may be fabricated by using the random telegraph noise (RTN) current signals produced by polarized metal/insulator/metal (MIM) devices as entropy source. However, the RTN signals produced by MIM devices made of traditional insulators, i.e., transition metal oxides like HfO and AlO, are not stable enough due to the formation and lateral expansion of defect clusters, resulting in undesired current fluctuations and the disappearance of the RTN effect. Here, the fabrication of highly stable TRNG circuits with low power consumption, high degree of randomness (even for a long string of 2 − 1 bits), and high throughput of 1 Mbit s by using MIM devices made of multilayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is shown. Their application is also demonstrated to produce one-time passwords, which is ideal for the internet-of-everything. The superior stability of the h-BN-based TRNG is related to the presence of few-atoms-wide defects embedded within the layered and crystalline structure of the h-BN stack, which produces a confinement effect that avoids their lateral expansion and results in stable operation.M.L. acknowledges generous support from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (grants no. 2018YFE0100800, 2019YFE0124200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants no. 61874075), the Collaborative Innovation Centre of Suzhou Nano Science & Technology, the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, and the 111 Project from the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China. A.A. and S.R. acknowledge the project: ModElling Charge and Heat trANsport in 2D-materIals based Composites—MECHANIC reference number: PCI2018-093120 funded by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. ICN2 is funded by the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya and is supported by the Severo Ochoa program from Spanish MINECO (Grant No. SEV-2017-0706). Y.S. acknowledges support from the European Union (Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions (grant no. 894840). The authors acknowledge technical advice from H.-S. Philip Wong from Stanford University and Xiaoming Xie from Chinese Academy of Sciences

Seroprevalence of Neutralizing Antibodies to Human Adenovirus Type 4 and 7 in Healthy Populations From Southern China

Human adenoviruses type 4 (HAdV4) and 7 (HAdV7) are two major respiratory pathogens and sporadically cause outbreaks of acute respiratory diseases. The neutralizing antibody (nAb) response to these two adenoviruses in civilian populations, which is important for dissecting previous circulations and predicting potential outbreaks, remains largely unknown. In this study, we generated replication-competent HAdV4 and HAdV7 reporter viruses expressing secreted-alkaline-phosphatase (SEAP), and established neutralization assays to investigate the seroprevalence of pre-existing nAb in healthy volunteers from Hunan Province, southern China. The seropositivity rates are 58.4 and 63.8% for anti-HAdV4 nAb and anti-HAdV7 nAb, respectively. High nAb titers (&gt; 1000) were frequently detected in HAdV4-seropositive individuals, whereas most HAdV7-seropositive volunteers had moderate nAb titers (201–1000). The seropositivity rates of anti-HAdV4 nAb and anti-HAdV7 nAb increase with age, with individuals younger than 20 exhibiting the lowest seropositivity rates. Both seropositivity rates and nAb titers are comparable between different sex groups. Notably, HAdV4-seropositive individuals tend to be HAdV7-seropositive and vice versa. Because HAdV4 antisera showed no neutralizing activity to HAdV7 whereas HAdV7 antisera cannot neutralize HAdV4, a subgroup of individuals might be susceptible to infection by HAdV4 and HAdV7 and thus generate nAb to both of them. These results revealed the continuous circulation of HAdV4 and HAdV7 and the lack of protective immunity in more than 35% of people, which emphasized the surveillance of these two HAdVs and the development of prophylactic vaccines

Global adaptive output-feedback stabilization for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with unknown growth rate and unknown output function

This paper addresses the problem of global adaptive stabilization by output-feedback for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with unknown growth rate and unknown output function. By constructing a suitable Lyapunov function, a new systematic design scheme is proposed to derive an adaptive output-feedback controller with appropriate design parameters based on a dynamic high-gain, under which the system states can be globally regulated to zero. Because the proposed method uses the adaptive technique rather than the time-varying one, it does not require a priori known information about either the growth rate or the upper and lower bounds of the derivative of the unknown output function. This makes the investigated system substantially different from the existing results and also highlights the main contributions of the paper. A practical example is presented to show the validity of the theoretical results

Adaptive output-feedback tracking for nonlinear systems with rather general control coefficients

This paper studies the problem of global practical tracking by output feedback for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with unmeasured state-dependent growth and unknown time-varying control coefficients. Compared with the closely related works, the remarkableness of this paper is that the upper and lower bounds of unknown control coefficients are not required to be known a priori. Motivated by our recent works, by combining the methods of universal control and deadzone with the backstepping technique and skillfully constructing a novel Lyapunov function, we propose a new adaptive tracking control scheme with appropriate design parameters. The new scheme guarantees that the state of the resulting closed-loop system is globally bounded while the tracking error converges to a prescribed arbitrarily small neighborhood of the origin after a finite time. Two examples, including a practical example, are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results

Nanoparticle-Based Wound Dressing: Recent Progress in the Detection and Therapy of Bacterial Infections

Bacterial infections in wounds often delay the healing process, and may seriously threaten human life. It is urgent to develop wound dressings to effectively detect and treat bacterial infections. Nanoparticles have been extensively used in wound dressings because of their specific properties. This review highlights the recent progress on nanoparticle-based wound dressings for bacterial detection and therapy. Specifically, nanoparticles have been applied as intrinsic antibacterial agents or drug delivery vehicles to treat bacteria in wounds. Moreover, nanoparticles with photothermal or photodynamic property have also been explored to endow wound dressings with significant optical properties to further enhance their bactericidal effect. More interestingly, nanoparticle-based smart dressings have been recently explored for bacteria detection and treatment, which enables an accurate assessment of bacterial infection and a more precise control of on-demand therapy