Type 2 diabetes, glycaemic traits and upper gastrointestinal cancer risk: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) has been linked with site-specific upper gastrointestinal (UGI) cancers during the past decades, but associations are still inconclusive. This study aimed to determine the association between T2D, glycaemic traits (random blood glucose and HbA1c) and UGI cancer (oesophageal and gastric cancer). METHODS: In the present study, based on the large-scale prospective cohort of UK Biobank, we included 452 631 eligible participants. T2D was defined according to baseline self-report data, clinical data and biochemistry data. Random blood glucose and HbA1c were measured at baseline. Polygenic risk score was used to classify individuals into different UGI cancer genetic risks. Multivariable Cox regression models were used to estimate HRs and 95% CIs. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 10.26 years (IQR: 9.47-10.97), 1392 incident UGI cancer cases were identified. T2D was significantly associated with a 44% increment in UGI cancer risk (95% CI 1.22 to 1.70, p<0.001). Moreover, per SD increase in random blood glucose and HbA1c was associated with 7% (95% CI 1.03 to 1.12, p<0.001) and 6% (95% CI 1.04 to 1.09, p<0.001) increased hazards of developing UGI cancer, respectively. Patients with T2D at high genetic risk had a 2.33-fold hazard of UGI cancer (95% CI 1.66 to 3.28, p<0.001), compared with non-T2D individuals at low genetic risk. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that T2D and elevated levels of glycaemic traits may be risk factors for incident UGI cancer. Individuals with a high genetic risk and T2D have a significantly increased risk of developing UGI cancer.

Identification of novel lncRNAs associated with sensitivity of HIV antiretroviral therapy: A two-stage matched case-control study.

BACKGROUND: To identify long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) that may be used as potential biomarkers of sensitivity to antiretroviral therapy (ART) against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. METHOD: A two-stage matched case-control study was conducted. First, in the screening stage, peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) of six subjects receiving lamivudine-based ART (3 ART-resistant and 3 ART-sensitive subjects with matching durations of ART) were subjected to comprehensive microarray expression profiling in order to screen out lncRNAs associated with ART sensitivity. Secondly, during the validation stage, promising lncRNAs were evaluated via a 1:4 matched case-control study using 50 subjects (10 ART-resistant and 40 ART-sensitive subjects with matching durations of ART). RESULTS: Seven lncRNAs were screened out (P < 1.06 × 10-3) in the first stage. Among these, two lncRNAs (n341598 and n407911) survived validation conducted at the second stage (n341598: P < 0.001; n407911: P = 0.007), while another lncRNA n406445 showed marginally significant (P = 0.049). All three showed higher expression in ART-resistant subjects compared to that in ART-sensitive subjects. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) for n341598 was 0.867 (95 % CI: 0.796-0.966; P < 0.001), which was better than that for n406445 (0.702) and n407911 (0.780). Meanwhile, the AUC for n341598 was better than that of any combination of the three lncRNAs. CONCLUSION: Our study identified three highly expressed lncRNAs in patients with HIV ART-resistant, among which the lncRNA n341598 may be utilized as an optimal biomarker to distinguish ART-resistant and ART-sensitive patients. Further studies aimed at revealing the molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of ART sensitivity by n341598 are warranted to complement our findings.

Analysis of hospitalization expenses of 610 HIV/AIDS patients in Nantong, China.

BACKGROUND: The goal of this study was to describe the expenses related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) management and care in Nantong Infectious Disease Hospital from October 2013 through June 2017. METHODS: The information of 610 HIV/AIDS inpatients were collected from the Electronic Medical Record System of the hospital. Univariate and path analysis were employed to evaluate the association between hospitalization expense and its related factors. RESULTS: The average hospitalization expenses per person was 5454 RMB (Renminbi, the currency of China, about $808 USD) and 23,555 RMB (about $3489 USD), respectively for HIV/AIDS patients. The average length of hospital stay was 10.0 ± 5.5 days for HIV patients and 21.7 ± 12.4 days for AIDS patients. For HIV patients, laboratory test fees constituted 37.46% of total expenses; while drug fees accounted for the largest proportion for AIDS patients. Path analysis indicated that the length of hospital stay was the most important factor affecting total expenses (total path coefficient = 0.563 for HIV patients and 0.649 for AIDS patients). Total expenses for HIV-infected females was higher than that of males (total path coefficient = 0.217), and the more complications led to higher expenses for AIDS patients. CONCLUSIONS: Though antiretroviral therapy (ART) is provided for free in China, associated medical care, particularly hospitalizations and fees, continue to drive up the medical costs of patients living with HIV and AIDS. Understanding the factors influencing these costs are crucial for determining policies and strategies that can reduce the economic burden of HIV/AIDS patients in China.

Photoelectric Cardiac Pacing by Flexible and Degradable Amorphous Si Radial Junction Stimulators.

Implanted pacemakers are usually bulky and rigid electronics that are constraint by limited battery lifetimes, and need to be installed and repaired via surgeries that risk secondary infection and injury. In this work, a flexible self-powered photoelectric cardiac stimulator is demonstrated based on hydrogenated amorphous Si (a-Si:H) radial p-i-n junctions (RJs), constructed upon standing Si nanowires grown directly on aluminum thin foils. The flexible RJ stimulators, with an open-circuit voltage of 0.67 V and short-circuit current density of 12.7 mA cm-2 under standard AM1.5G illumination, can be conformally attached to the uneven tissue surface to pace heart-beating under modulated 650 nm laser illumination. In vivo pacing evaluations on porcine hearts show that the heart rate can be effectively controlled by the external photoelectric stimulations, to increase from the normal rate of 101-128 beating min-1 . Importantly, the a-Si:H RJ units are highly biofriendly and biodegradable, with tunable lifetimes in phosphate-buffered saline environment controlled by surface coating and passivation, catering to the needs of short term or lasting cardiac pacing applications. This implantable a-Si:H RJ photoelectric stimulation strategy has the potential to establish eventually a self-powered, biocompatible, and conformable cardiac pacing technology for clinical therapy.

Coupled boron-doping and geometry control of tin-catalyzed silicon nanowires for high performance radial junction photovoltaics.

Geometry and doping control in silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are both crucial aspects in fabricating three-dimensional (3D) radial junction thin film solar cells, while the coupling between them remains a peculiar aspect to be better understood. In this work, we focus on the geometry evolution and the doping effects realized in tin-catalyzed SiNWs grown via a plasma-enhanced vapor-liquid-solid procedure by using different diborane (B2H6) dopant flows. It is shown that with the increase of B2H6 flow rate from 0.3 to 2.1 SCCM, the radial growth of SiNWs is greatly accelerated by more than 30%, while the length is shortened to 50%. This can be related to the enhanced chemisorption probability of SiHx radicals, with the addition of B2H6, on the SiNW sidewall during silane (SiH4) plasma deposition in PECVD system, which leads to easier nucleation directly on the sidewalls and faster radial expansion of the SiNWs. A trade-off has to be sought between seeking a strong light trapping and ensuring a sufficient doping for high-quality PIN junction with the increase of B2H6 doping flow. These new understandings lay a critical basis for understanding and searching for an optimal growth control for constructing high-performance 3D radial junction thin-film solar cells.

Broadband quarter-wave birefringent meta-mirrors for generating sub-diffraction vector fields.

Independent manipulation of phase and polarization of optical fields is of great interest in various applications, including vector-field generation, optical tweezers, and nanolithography. The integration of phase and polarization manipulation on a single optical device may greatly simplify optical systems and eases optical alignment. In this Letter, a family of reflective cross-shaped quarter-wave birefringent metasurfaces is proposed to achieve full control of polarization and phase of reflected waves. Based on the proposed metasurfaces, two meta-mirrors are designed with integrated functions of polarization conversion and sub-diffraction focusing. Numerical investigations also reveal the achromatic focusing performance of the two meta-mirrors. The proposed metasurfaces with independent manipulation of polarization and phase provide flexible building blocks for constructing complicated vector optical fields.

All-dielectric metalens for terahertz wave imaging.

Terahertz wave imaging offers promising properties for non-destructive testing applications in the areas of homeland security, medicine, and industrial inspection. However, conventional optical lenses are heavy and bulky and difficult to integrate. An all-dielectric metasurface provides an attractive way to realize a planar lens of light weight that is ultrathin and offers ease of integration. Terahertz lenses based on various metasurfaces have been studied, especially for the application of wave focusing, while there are few experimental demonstrations of terahertz wave imaging lenses based on an all-dielectric metasurface. In the present work, we propose a metalens based on an all-dielectric metasurface with a sub-wavelength unit size of 0.39λ for terahertz wave imaging and experimentally demonstrate its performance in focusing and imaging. A large numerical aperture metalens was fabricated with a focal length of 300λ, radius of 300λ, and numerical aperture of 0.707. The experimental results show that the lens can focus THz waves with an incident angle up to 48°. More importantly, clear terahertz wave images of different objects were obtained for both different cases of forward- and inverse-incident directions, which demonstrate the reversibility of the metalens for imaging. Such a metalens provides a way for realization of all-planar-lens THz imaging system, and might find application in terahertz wave imaging, information processing, microscopy, and others.

Conducting Polymers and Their Applications in Diabetes Management.

Advances in conducting polymers (CPs) have promoted the development of diabetic monitoring and treatment, which is of great significance in human healthcare and modern medicine. CPs are special polymers with physical and electrochemical features resembling metals, inorganic semiconductors and non-conducting polymers. To improve and extend their properties, the fabrication of CPs and CP composites has attracted intensive attention in recent decades. Some CPs are biocompatible and suitable for biomedical use. Thus, the intriguing properties of CPs make wearable, noninvasive, continuous diabetes managing devices and other potential applications in diabetes possible in the near future. To highlight the recent advances of CPs and their derived materials (especially in conducting polymer hydrogels), here we discuss their fabrication and characterization, review the current state-of-the-art research in diabetes management based on these materials and describe current challenges as well as future potential research directions.