Effect of younger age on survival outcomes in T1N0M0 breast cancer: A propensity score matching analysis

Purpose We evaluated the effect of younger age on recurrence risk in Chinese women diagnosed with T1N0M0 breast cancer (BC), using propensity score matching (PSM) analysis. Methods We included 365 women who were diagnosed with T1N0M0 BC between 2003 and 2016, and who received surgery at our center. They were classified as younger (≤40 years) and older (>40 years). We used PSM to balance clinicopathologic characteristics between the two age groups. Survival was analyzed by the Kaplan–Meier method, before and after PSM. Results Over a median follow‐up period of 79 months, 54 patients developed recurrences. Before PSM, younger patients had worse recurrence‐free survival (RFS) than older patients. Significantly worse RFS was seen in younger patients with HER2+ BC compared with their older counterparts. Younger patients had higher rates of locoregional recurrence rather than metastasis, especially in the first 5 years after diagnosis. After PSM, the two age groups still significantly differed in 5‐year RFS. Conclusion Among PSM pairs with T1N0M0 BC, with equal baselines and treatment conditions, we found that patients who presented at younger ages had worse outcomes, independently of other pathological features. Younger patients with BC may require more individualized therapy to improve their prognosis

Circular RNA hsa_circ_001783 regulates breast cancer progression via sponging miR-200c-3p

Increasing evidence suggests circular RNAs (circRNAs) exert critical functions in tumor progression via sponging miRNAs (microRNAs). However, the role of circRNAs in breast cancer remains unclear. Here we systematically analyzed the circular RNAs in breast cancer based on their characteristic in sponging disease-specific miRNAs and identified hsa_circ_001783 as a top ranked circRNA in our computation and verified its high expression in both breast cancer cells and cancer tissue. A higher level of hsa_circ_001783 was significantly correlated with heavier tumor burden and poorer prognosis of patients with breast cancer. Knockdown of this circRNA remarkably inhibited the proliferation and invasion of breast cancer cells. Importantly, hsa_circ_001783 promoted progression of breast cancer cells via sponging miR-200c-3p. Taken together, hsa_circ_001783 may serve as a novel prognostic and therapeutic target for breast cancer

Superconductivity and orbital-selective nematic order in a new titanium-based kagome metal CsTi3Bi5

Fabrication of new types of superconductors with novel physical properties has always been a major thread in the research of superconducting materials. An example is the enormous interests generated by the cascade of correlated topological quantum states in the newly discovered vanadium-based kagome superconductors AV3Sb5 (A=K, Rb, and Cs) with a Z2 topological band structure. Here we report the successful fabrication of single-crystals of titanium-based kagome metal CsTi3Bi5 and the observation of superconductivity and electronic nematicity. The onset of the superconducting transition temperature Tc is around 4.8 K. In sharp contrast to the charge density wave superconductor AV3Sb5, we find that the kagome superconductor CsTi3Bi5 preserves translation symmetry, but breaks rotational symmetry and exhibits an electronic nematicity. The angular-dependent magnetoresistivity shows a remarkable two-fold rotational symmetry as the magnetic field rotates in the kagome plane. The scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopic imaging detect rotational-symmetry breaking C2 quasiparticle interference patterns (QPI) at low energies, providing further microscopic evidence for electronic nematicity. Combined with first-principle calculations, we find that the nematic QPI is orbital-selective and dominated by the Ti dxz and dyz orbitals, possibly originating from the intriguing orbital bond nematic order. Our findings in the new "135" material CsTi3Bi5 provide new directions for exploring the multi-orbital correlation effect and the role of orbital or bond order in the electron liquid crystal phases evidenced by the symmetry breaking states in kagome superconductors

Autophagy-associated circRNA circCDYL augments autophagy and promotes breast cancer progression

Background Although both circular RNAs (circRNAs) and autophagy are associated with the function of breast cancer (BC), whether circRNAs regulate BC progression via autophagy remains unknown. In this study, we aim to explore the regulatory mechanisms and the clinical significance of autophagy-associated circRNAs in BC. Methods Autophagy associated circRNAs were screened by circRNAs deep sequencing and validated by qRT-PCR in BC tissues with high- and low- autophagic level. The biological function of autophagy associated circRNAs were assessed by plate colony formation, cell viability, transwells, flow cytometry and orthotopic animal models. For mechanistic study, RNA immunoprecipitation, circRNAs pull-down, Dual luciferase report assay, Western Blot, Immunofluorescence and Immunohistochemical staining were performed. Results An autophagy associated circRNA circCDYL was elevated by 3.2 folds in BC tissues as compared with the adjacent non-cancerous tissues, and circCDYL promoted autophagic level in BC cells via the miR-1275-ATG7/ULK1 axis; Moreover, circCDYL enhanced the malignant progression of BC cells in vitro and in vivo. Clinically, increased circCDYL in the tumor tissues and serum of BC patients was associated with higher tumor burden, shorter survival and poorer clinical response to therapy. Conclusions circCDYL promotes BC progression via the miR-1275-ATG7/ULK1-autophagic axis and circCDYL could act as a potential prognostic and predictive molecule for breast cancer patients

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Optimality Conditions and Algorithms for Top-K Arm Identification

We consider the top-k arm identification problem for multi-armed bandits with rewards belonging to a one-parameter canonical exponential family. The objective is to select the set of k arms with the highest mean rewards by sequential allocation of sampling efforts. We propose a unified optimal allocation problem that identifies the complexity measures of this problem under the fixed-confidence, fixed-budget settings, and the posterior convergence rate from the Bayesian perspective. We provide the first characterization of its optimality. We provide the first provably optimal algorithm in the fixed-confidence setting for k>1. We also propose an efficient heuristic algorithm for the top-k arm identification problem. Extensive numerical experiments demonstrate superior performance compare to existing methods in all three settings