Direct Evidence of Reduction of Cloud Water after Spreading Diatomite Particles in Stratus Clouds in Beijing, China

Artificial weather modification experiments have been intensively practiced in many years over China, and some progresses have been made, including more methodologies and advanced instruments. However, a challenge question still remains for providing convincing scientific evidence during these practices and experiments. This is a very difficult scientific issue, which is related to complicated cloud physical science, such as to accurately predict the large natural variability of cloud formation and precipitation. In this study, we report a clear evidence that the cloud water is reduced after spreading diatomite particles in stratus clouds during a field experiment in Beijing, China. The analysis shows that the diatomite particles (15–20 μm in radius) are large and have strong hygroscopic property (absorbing cloud water). As a result, during the experiment, spreading large diatomite particles lead to downward motion (producing more stable atmospheric condition) and reduction of cloud water. It is noted that due to lacks of instruments, this designed experiment only can provide a qualitative result (such as photo evidence), and no quantitative result can be drawn from this experiment

The clinical outcome of pembrolizumab for patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck: a single center, real world study in China

BackgroundThe KEYNOTE-048 and KEYNOTE-040 study have demonstrated the efficacy of pembrolizumab in recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (R/M HNSCC), we conducted this real-world study to investigate the efficacy of pembrolizumab in patients with R/M HNSCC.MethodsThis is a single-center retrospective study conducted in the Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (Shanghai, China). Between December 2020 and December 2022, a total of 77 patients with R/M HNSCC were included into analysis. The primary endpoint of the study was overall survival (OS), and the secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), overall response rate (ORR)and toxicity.Efficacy was assessed according to RECIST version 1.1.SPSS 27.0 and GraphPad Prism 8.0 software were utilized to perform the statistical analysis.ResultsBy the cut-off date (February 28, 2023), the median OS,PFS and ORR were 15.97 months,8.53 months and 48.9% in patients treated with the pembrolizumab regimen in the first line therapy. Among these patients, 17 patients received pembrolizumab with cetuximab,and 18 received pembrolizumab with chemotherapy.We observed no significant differences between two groups neither in median OS (13.9 vs 19.4 months, P=0.3582) nor PFS (unreached vs 8.233 months, P= 0.2807). In the ≥2nd line therapy (n=30), the median OS, PFS and ORR were 5.7 months, 2.58 months and 20% respectively. Combined positive score (CPS) was eligible from 54 patients. For first line therapy, the median OS and PFS were 14.6 and 8.53 months in patients with CPS ≥1, and median OS and PFS were 14.6 and 12.33 months in patients with CPS ≥20. The immune-related adverse events (irAEs) were occurred in the 31 patients (31/77, 40.26%), and the most common potential irAEs were hypothyroidism (25.97%), and pneumonitis (7.79%).ConclusionOur real-world results indicated that pembrolizumab regimen is a promising treatment in patients with R/M HNSC

Pre-Treatment with Melatonin Enhances Therapeutic Efficacy of Cardiac Progenitor Cells for Myocardial Infarction

Background/Aims: Melatonin possesses many biological activities such as antioxidant and anti-aging. Cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) have emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy for myocardial infarction (MI). However, the low survival of transplanted CPCs in infarcted myocardium limits the successful use in treating MI. In the present study, we aimed to investigate if melatonin protects against oxidative stress-induced CPCs damage and enhances its therapeutic efficacy for MI. Methods: TUNEL assay and EdU assay were used to detect the effects of melatonin and miR-98 on H2O2-induced apoptosis and proliferation. MI model was used to evaluate the potential cardioprotective effects of melatonin and miR-98. Results: Melatonin attenuated H2O2-induced the proliferation reduction and apoptosis of c-kit+ CPCs in vitro, and CPCs which pretreated with melatonin significantly improved the functions of post-infarct hearts compared with CPCs alone in vivo. Melatonin was capable to inhibit the increase of miR-98 level by H2O2 in CPCs. The proliferation reduction and apoptosis of CPCs induced by H2O2 was aggravated by miR-98. In vivo, transplantation of CPCs with miR-98 silencing caused the more significant improvement of cardiac functions in MI than CPCs. MiR-98 targets at the signal transducer and activator of the transcription 3 (STAT3), and thus aggravated H2O2-induced the reduction of Bcl-2 protein. Conclusions: Pre-treatment with melatonin protects c-kit+ CPCs against oxidative stress-induced damage via downregulation of miR-98 and thereby increasing STAT3, representing a potentially new strategy to improve CPC-based therapy for MI

Analysts’ Cash Flow Forecasts, Information Asymmetry, and Financing Choices of Firms

Prior research documents mixed results regarding the usefulness of cash flow forecasts. One stream of literature documents analysts provided cash flow information is associated with more accurate earnings forecasts, better accruals quality, stronger market reaction, and more precious information about future valuation. Another stream of literature claims that cash flow forecasts are a simple extension of analysts’ own earnings forecasts and are not useful. I contribute to this debate by examining potential implications of cash flow forecasts for information environment. My dissertation consists of three separate but closely related studies, which investigate how analysts’ cash flow forecasts are linked with information environment, cost of equity capital and firms’ financing decisions. First, I directly test the association between availability of cash flow forecasts and information asymmetry. Prior studies suggest that analysts provided cash flow information help improve earnings forecasts accuracy and target price forecast accuracy by improving accruals and cash flow information. While those studies indicate positive implications of cash flow forecasts for information environment, none of the prior studies directly test the association between cash flow forecasts and information asymmetry. Using bid-ask spread and shares turnover as proxies, I predict and find firms experience lower information asymmetry after the initial presence of cash flow forecasts. The results imply an additional benefit of cash flow forecasts. Second, I test if the presence of cash flow forecasts is negatively related with information asymmetry, which in turn, reduces cost of equity capital. Extant research documents negative impact of information asymmetry on cost of equity capital. Using four implied cost of equity measures, I predict and find firms enjoy lower cost of equity capital with the presence of cash flow forecasts. Third, if the presence of cash flow forecasts is associated with information asymmetry and costs of equity capital, it is also likely to affect financing decisions of firms. I test whether firms having cash forecasts tend to issue new security issuance to raise funds by firms. I also examine whether the availability of cash forecasts are associated with relatively more debt or equity security issuance, which affect capital structure. Empirical results show mixed evidence regarding equity and debt choices. This study provides additional evidence about benefits of having cash flow forecasts. This study should be of interest to investors, analysts and managers

The efficacy and safety of JAK inhibitors for atopic dermatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the serious global problems. There were wide concerns about whether Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor was an alternative treatment for AD. Method Eight databases were searched from the earliest publication date available to January 2, 2021. We included randomized controlled trials comparing JAK inhibitors with control treatment for AD. Data were pooled using Stata.14 software and performed as mean differences (MD) and risk ratios (RR) with 95% CIs. We did subgroup analysis based on specific outcomes. Results A total of studies, ten randomized controlled trials, with 2583 patients were included in the final synthesis. This meta-analysis showed JAK inhibitor resulted in significant improvement on EASI total score (MD = −0.31; 95%CI, −0.46 to –0.17; p = .000; I2 = 90.0%, p = .000) and pruritus numerical rating scale (NRS) score (MD = −1.15; 95%CI, −1.48 to –0.83; p = .000; I2 = 95.9%, p = .000), without the higher risk of total adverse effects (RR = 1.02; 95%CI, 0.90–1.16; p = .745; I2 =27.9%, p = .206). Conclusions JAK inhibitor was a promising option for atopic dermatitis. More data and surveillance will be needed to identify efficacy, safety, and the risk of adverse effects

Insights into the Adsorption of Copper/Zinc Ions over Aged Polyethylene and Polyethylene Terephthalate Microplastics

Microplastics (MPs) have aroused growing environmental concerns due to their biotoxicity and vital roles in accelerating the spread of toxic elements. Illuminating the interactions between MPs and heavy metals (HMs) is crucial for understanding the transport and fate of HM-loaded MPs in specific environmentally relevant scenarios. Herein, the adsorption of copper (Cu2+) and zinc (Zn2+) ions over poly-ethylene (PE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) particulates before and after heat persulfate oxidation (HPO) treatment was comprehensively evaluated in simulated swine wastewater. The effects of intrinsic properties (i.e., degree of weathering, size, type) of MPs and environmental factors (i.e., pH, ionic strength, and co-occurring species) on adsorption were investigated thoroughly. It was observed that HPO treatment expedites the fragmentation of pristine MPs, and renders MPs with a variety of oxygen-rich functional groups, which are likely to act as new active sites for binding both HMs. The adsorption of both HMs is pH- and ionic strength-dependent at a pH of 4 to 6. Co-occurring species such as humic acid (HA) and tetracycline (TC) appear to enhance the affinity of both aged MPs for Cu2+ and Zn2+ ions via bridging complexation. However, co-occurring nutrient species (e.g., phosphate and ammonia) demonstrate different impacts on the adsorption, improving uptake of Cu2+ by precipitation while lowering affinity for Zn2+ owing to the formation of soluble zinc-ammonia complex. Spectroscopic analysis indicates that the dominant adsorption mechanism mainly involves electrostatic interactions and surface complexation. These findings provided fundamental insights into the interactions between aged MPs and HMs in an environmentally rele-vant scenario (i.e., simulated swine wastewater)

Interactive Visualization of Geographic Vector Big Data Based on Viewport Generalization Model

The visualization of geographic vector data is an important premise for spatial analysis and spatial cognition. Traditional geographic vector data visualization methods are data-driven, and their computational costs have increased rapidly with the growth of the scale of data used. Even if the distributed parallel strategy is used, it is still difficult to achieve a real-time response when dealing with big geographic vector data (BGVD). To solve this problem, this paper proposes a viewport generalization model and a visualization method for the online interactive visualization of BGVD. The method takes the viewport display pixel as the analysis unit and synthesizes the existence or quantity results of geographic vector data in the corresponding spatial range of each viewport display pixel into the display value of this display pixel; thus, it converts traditional computational complexity, dependent on the data scale, into computational complexity dependent on the number of pixels in the viewport. When the number of pixels in the viewport is much smaller than that of the geographic vector data, the visualization efficiency is greatly improved. In order to realize the above conversion, the pixel quadtree index (VPQ) structure and the real-time visualization algorithm of geographic vector data based on VPQ are proposed. Experiments show that the proposed method can achieve the near-real-time interactive visualization of BGVD, and provides more than a tenfold performance improvement over the best existing methods