SLS Fabrication of Highly Porous Model Including Fine Flow Channel Network Aiming at Regeneration of Highly Metabolic Organs

Fabrication of very porous scaffold for regeneration of highly metabolic organs is reported. Polycaprolactone (PCL) powder was mixed with fine salt grains as filler and SLS processed to develop a model including fine flow channel network. The fabricated model was rinsed with water to dissolve the salt, and high porosity of 90% was successfully obtained. Additionally, residual powder in the channels was effectively removed by solution of the filler. Through micro-CT observation, it was confirmed that channels of which diameter was smaller than 1mm were successfully fabricated and repeating branching and merging. Result of culture test is also reported.Mechanical Engineerin

THE VALUE OF CHIEF DATA OFFICER PRESENCE ON FIRM PERFORMANCE

In the era of big data, there are more and more organizations trying to establish a new breed of executive, Chief Data Officer (CDO), to identify new business opportunity from data assets and optimize corporate revenue. However, the relationship between CDO presence and firm’s financial performance has not been rigorously studied and validated in literature. Based on upper echelon theory and strategic change perspectives, we examined the impact of pre-performance on the CDO appointment, as well as the CDO presence on post-performance. We collected a multi-industry dataset of 68 firms with a CDO position. The results show that the return on assets (ROA) is positively related to CDO appointment, while, market to book ratio (M/B) is negatively related to CDO appointment. In addition, we found that firms with CDO have superior financial performance than their peers who do not. This study provides an initial step towards understanding the empirical linkages between CDO presence and firm performance

Assessing the Relevancy of National Culture in Predicting the Efficacy of Constraints in the Information Systems Consulting Domain

Opportunism is present in professional services and, as a result, organizations adopt mechanisms to constrain it. Despite the work on constraining opportunistic consultants, researchers have generally ignored the potential impact of national culture on the efficacy of constraint mechanisms. Using the theory of relationship constraints (TRC), this study examines the effectiveness of different constraint mechanisms for information systems (IS) consultants in the United States and China based on different levels of information asymmetry, tacit and explicit knowledge. While we found support in both cultures for the salience of these dimensions, we also found important distinctions for the effectiveness of different constraints between the cultures. Legal constraints are more effective in China while social constraints are more effective in the United States. While TRC is relevant in both cultures, national culture moderates the effectiveness of various constraint mechanisms and highlights the need for additional study

Personalized Estimate of Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting: Development and External Validation of a Nomogram in Cancer Patients Receiving Highly/Moderately Emetogenic Chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) is presented in over 30% of cancer patients receiving highly/moderately emetogenic chemotherapy (HEC/MEC). The currently recommended antiemetic therapy is merely based on the emetogenic level of chemotherapy, regardless of patient's individual risk factors. It is, therefore, critical to develop an approach for personalized management of CINV in the era of precision medicine.A number of variables were involved in the development of CINV. In the present study, we pooled the data from 2 multi-institutional investigations of CINV due to HEC/MEC treatment in Asian countries. Demographic and clinical variables of 881 patients were prospectively collected as defined previously, and 862 of them had full documentation of variables of interest. The data of 548 patients from Chinese institutions were used to identify variables associated with CINV using multivariate logistic regression model, and then construct a personalized prediction model of nomogram; while the remaining 314 patients out of China (Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan) entered the external validation set. C-index was used to measure the discrimination ability of the model.The predictors in the final model included sex, age, alcohol consumption, history of vomiting pregnancy, history of motion sickness, body surface area, emetogenicity of chemotherapy, and antiemetic regimens. The C-index was 0.67 (95% CI, 0.62-0.72) for the training set and 0.65 (95% CI, 0.58-0.72) for the validation set. The C-index was higher than that of any single predictor, including the emetogenic level of chemotherapy according to current antiemetic guidelines. Calibration curves showed good agreement between prediction and actual occurrence of CINV.This easy-to-use prediction model was based on chemotherapeutic regimens as well as patient's individual risk factors. The prediction accuracy of CINV occurrence in this nomogram was well validated by an independent data set. It could facilitate the assessment of individual risk, and thus improve the personalized management of CINV

Prepared for PrEP:preferences for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis among Chinese men who have sex with men in an online national survey

BACKGROUND: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is not widely available in China. Previous studies reported low awareness and inconclusive findings on the acceptability of PrEP among Chinese men who have sex with men (MSM). METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of an online national survey comparing preferences for oral and long-acting injectable PrEP among MSM and identifying correlates of preferences. The study did not collect detailed information about partner types that may influence negotiated safety and PrEP uptake. RESULTS: Nine-hundred and seventy-nine men from the larger sample of 1045 men responded to the PrEP survey questions. Most men (81.9%) had never heard of PrEP, but reported interest in using PrEP. More participants chose injectable PrEP (36.3%) as their preferred formulation than oral PrEP (24.6%). Men who had at least two HIV tests (adjusted OR = 1.36, 95%CI 1.04, 1.78) more commonly preferred injectable PrEP. CONCLUSION: Our findings may help inform PrEP messaging in areas where PrEP has yet to be scaled up

The 2021 yearbook of neurorestoratology

Breakthroughs with rapid changes are the themes of the development in Neurorestoratology this year. Given the very difficult circumstances of the persistent COVID-19 pandemic, most of the colleagues in Neurorestoratology have conducted meaningful research and obtained encouraging results, as described in the 2020 Yearbook of Neurorestoratology. Neurorestorative progress during 2021 depicts recent findings on the pathogenesis of neurological diseases, neurorestorative mechanisms and clinical therapeutic achievements. The pathogenesis and risk factors of Alzheimer\u27s disease were parts of the most prominent hot research topics. Yet, it remains controversial whether β-amyloid accumulation and tau protein deposition are the results of, or the reasons for the neurodegenerative processes. Neurogenesis is an important neurorestorative mechanism, however, it is questionable whether neural stem cells are present in the adult humans brain. Thus, neurogenesis may not derive from endogenous neural stem cells in the adult humans. Neurorestorative treatments were important areas of the 2021 research efforts and these therapies are improving the quality of life in patients with neurological diseases. There was major exploration of cell-based therapies for neurological disease and injury. However, unfortunately several multi-center, double-blind or observing-blind, placebo controlled, randomized clinical trials of mesenchymal stromal cells or products of mesenchymal stem cells failed to show positive results in ischemic stroke when employed in the sub-acute or recovery phases as there were no appreciable differences in the quality of life as compared with controls. Excitingly, increased numbers of clinical investigations of brain–computer interface (BCI) were reported that showed benefits for patients with neurological deficits. In pharmaceutical neurorestorative therapies, Aducanumab (Aduhelm) and Sodium Oligomannate are approved respectively by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and the China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) to treat patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer\u27s disease. Although, the decisions to approve these drugs are highly contentious in the medical and scientific community because of the contradictory findings or other problems associated with the drug usage. We believe that repeating low-level evidence studies that showed negative results or scanty evidences in randomized control trials is of little significance. However, we strongly recommend conducting multi-center, double-blind, placebo controlled, randomized clinical trials for promising innovative therapeutic methods to facilitate their possible clinical translation

Revealing the two-dimensional electronic structure and anisotropic superconductivity in a natural van der Waals superlattice (PbSe)1.14_{1.14}NbSe2_2

Van der Waals superlattices are important for tailoring the electronic structures and properties of layered materials. Here we report the superconducting properties and electronic structure of a natural van der Waals superlattice (PbSe)$_{1.14}$NbSe$_2$. Anisotropic superconductivity with a transition temperature $T_c$ = 5.6 $\pm$ 0.1 K, which is higher than monolayer NbSe$_2$, is revealed by transport measurements on high-quality samples. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements reveal the two-dimensional electronic structure and a charge transfer of 0.43 electrons per NbSe$_2$ unit cell from the blocking PbSe layer. In addition, polarization-dependent ARPES measurements reveal a significant circular dichroism with opposite contrast at K and K' valleys, suggesting a significant spin-orbital coupling and distinct orbital angular momentum. Our work suggests natural van der Waals superlattice as an effective pathway for achieving intriguing properties distinct from both the bulk and monolayer samples.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Ripk3 signaling regulates HSCs during stress and represses radiation-induced leukemia in mice

Receptor-interacting protein kinase 3 (Ripk3) is one of the critical mediators of inflammatory cytokine-stimulated signaling. Here we show that Ripk3 signaling selectively regulates both the number and the function of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) during stress conditions. Ripk3 signaling is not required for normal homeostatic hematopoiesis. However, in response to serial transplantation, inactivation of Ripk3 signaling prevents stress-induced HSC exhaustion and functional HSC attenuation, while in response to fractionated low doses of ionizing radiation (IR), inactivation of Ripk3 signaling accelerates leukemia/lymphoma development. In both situations, Ripk3 signaling is primarily stimulated by tumor necrosis factor-α. Activated Ripk3 signaling promotes the elimination of HSCs during serial transplantation and pre-leukemia stem cells (pre-LSCs) during fractionated IR by inducing Mlkl-dependent necroptosis. Activated Ripk3 signaling also attenuates HSC functioning and represses a pre-LSC-to-LSC transformation by promoting Mlkl-independent senescence. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Ripk3 signaling induces senescence in HSCs and pre-LSCs by attenuating ISR-mediated mitochondrial quality control