Biodegradable Sodium Alginate/Carrageenan/Cellulose Composite Hydrogel Wound Dressings Containing Herbal Extracts for Promoting Blood Coagulation and Wound Healing.

Accelerating the coagulation process and preventing wound infection are major challenges in the wound care process. Therefore, new multifunctional wound dressings with procoagulant, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties have enormous potential for clinical application. In this work, biodegradable hydrogels containing herbal extracts are prepared for wound dressings. First, the active ingredients are extracted from Amaranthus spinosus (A. spinosus) and Rubia cordifolia (R. cordifolia) and added to the hydrogels prepared from microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), carrageenan, and sodium alginate. Then the composite hydrogels are air-dried to obtain the wound dressings. The wound dressings prepared in this work have good biocompatibility and moisture retention. The mechanical properties of the wound dressings are further improved with the addition of MCC. Besides, the wound dressings have excellent procoagulant, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties due to the presence of R. cordifolia extract. Overall, the most effective group of wound dressings with different ingredient formulations reduces clotting time by 75% and largely inhibits bacterial growth. The wound dressings perform well in the animal wound models to promote wound healing. These results indicate that the hydrogel wound dressings prepared in this work have great potential for medical applications.

Preliminary study of AI-assisted diagnosis using FDG-PET/CT for axillary lymph node metastasis in patients with breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: To improve the diagnostic accuracy of axillary lymph node (LN) metastasis in breast cancer patients using 2-[18F]FDG-PET/CT, we constructed an artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted diagnosis system that uses deep-learning technologies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two clinicians and the new AI system retrospectively analyzed and diagnosed 414 axillae of 407 patients with biopsy-proven breast cancer who had undergone 2-[18F]FDG-PET/CT before a mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery with a sentinel lymph node (LN) biopsy and/or axillary LN dissection. We designed and trained a deep 3D convolutional neural network (CNN) as the AI model. The diagnoses from the clinicians were blended with the diagnoses from the AI model to improve the diagnostic accuracy. RESULTS: Although the AI model did not outperform the clinicians, the diagnostic accuracies of the clinicians were considerably improved by collaborating with the AI model: the two clinicians' sensitivities of 59.8% and 57.4% increased to 68.6% and 64.2%, respectively, whereas the clinicians' specificities of 99.0% and 99.5% remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: It is expected that AI using deep-learning technologies will be useful in diagnosing axillary LN metastasis using 2-[18F]FDG-PET/CT. Even if the diagnostic performance of AI is not better than that of clinicians, taking AI diagnoses into consideration may positively impact the overall diagnostic accuracy.

Chronic gastritis classification using gastric X-ray images with a semi-supervised learning method based on tri-training.

High-quality annotations for medical images are always costly and scarce. Many applications of deep learning in the field of medical image analysis face the problem of insufficient annotated data. In this paper, we present a semi-supervised learning method for chronic gastritis classification using gastric X-ray images. The proposed semi-supervised learning method based on tri-training can leverage unannotated data to boost the performance that is achieved with a small amount of annotated data. We utilize a novel learning method named Between-Class learning (BC learning) that can considerably enhance the performance of our semi-supervised learning method. As a result, our method can effectively learn from unannotated data and achieve high diagnostic accuracy for chronic gastritis. Graphical Abstract Gastritis classification using gastric X-ray images with semi-supervised learning.

Effect of acupuncture at 3 anti-fatigue acupoints in the treatment of cancer-related fatigue in patients with cancer: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

BACKGROUND: Cancer-related fatigue (CRF), is a common distressing symptom of cancer. What's more, "Three anti-fatigue acupoints" is one of the most important components of "Jin's 3-needle therapy" created by Rui Jin, a professor of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, which can be used in the treatment of CRF. In this article, researchers will assess the safety and effect of acupuncture at 3 anti-fatigue acupoints on CRF in patients with cancer. METHODS: Literature search for relevant articles up to October 2018 will be carried out in 9 databases: Cochrane Library, Embase, PubMed, VIP, CBM, CNKI, Wanfang Database, CiNii, and OASIS. The included literatures will be randomized controlled trials of acupuncture at 3 anti-fatigue acupoints on CRF in patients with cancer. The certain common scales, which reflect the patients' fatigue degree or life quality will be the primary outcome measures. The secondary outcome measures will be defined with the blood index. After collecting the data, we will utilize Stata V.13.0. to perform data synthesis, subgroup analysis, partial sequence analysis, sensitivity analysis, and so on. A funnel plot will be used to assess reporting biases. And the funnel plot will be evaluated by the Egger and Begg tests. The quality of evidence will be judged by the grading of recommendations assessment, development, and evaluation. RESULTS: The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CONCLUSION: Our study will provide the evidence for the clinical efficacy and safety of acupuncture at 3 anti-fatigue acupoints in the treatment of CRF.

Coupling of Spinons with Defects and Phonons in the Spin Chain Compound Ca_{2}CuO_{3}.

Extrinsic spinon scattering by defects and phonons instead of intrinsic spinon-spinon coupling is responsible for resistive magnetic heat transport in one-dimensional (1D) quantum magnets. Here we report an investigation of the elusive extrinsic effect in the 1D Heisenberg S=1/2 spin chain compound Ca_{2}CuO_{3}, where the defect concentration is determined from the measured specific heat and first-principles calculations are used to separate the lattice component of the measured thermal conductivity to isolate a large magnetic contribution (κ_{m}). The obtained temperature-dependent spinon-defect and spinon-phonon mean free paths can enable a quantitative understanding of both κ_{m} and the spinon-induced spin Seebeck effect.

Dietary magnesium intake and risk of depression.

BACKGROUND: Depression is an important public health problem. The aim of the present study is to examine the association of dietary magnesium intake with risk of depression. METHODS: We assessed the association between dietary magnesium intake and risk of depression in a nationally representative sample of 17,730 adults from the 2007-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Magnesium intake was assessed by 24 h dietary recalls. Depression was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Logistic regression and restricted cubic spline models were applied to assess the relationship between dietary magnesium intake and risk of depression. RESULTS: Dietary magnesium intake was inversely associated with risk of depression, and the multivariate adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of depression for the highest vs lowest category of dietary magnesium intake was 0.47(0.34-0.66). In subgroup analysis, dietary magnesium intake was inversely associated with risk of depression among women whereas no association was found among man. The inverse association between dietary magnesium intake and risk of depression was statistically significant among all age groups. A linear relationship (Pfor nonlinearity = 0.34) was found between dietary magnesium intake and risk of depression in dose-response analysis. LIMITATIONS: This was a cross-sectional study, thus causality cannot be inferred. In addition, data was based on self-reports. CONCLUSIONS: Dietary magnesium intake was inversely associated with the risk of depression in a linear manner, which still needs to be confirmed by larger prospective studies.

Exposure to Chinese famine in early life and the risk of dyslipidemia in adulthood.

PURPOSE: Early life exposure to famine may affect the susceptibility to metabolic disorders including dyslipidemia. However, few studies explored the association between them in Chinese population. We aimed to evaluate the association between Chinese famine (1959-1961) exposure during early life and the risk of dyslipidemia in adulthood. METHODS: The study performed a historic cohort study and data were from China Health and Nutrition Survey conducted in 2009. A total of 4843 subjects born between 1941 and 1966 were categorized into fetal-infant exposed group (N = 433), childhood exposed group (N = 2132), adolescence exposed group (N = 1140), and unexposed group (N = 1138), respectively. Dyslipidemia was defined by Chinese adult dyslipidemia prevention guide (2016 edition). We compared fetal exposed group, childhood exposed group, and adolescence exposed group to unexposed group using logistic regression models to assess the effect of famine exposure on later dyslipidemia. RESULTS: The prevalence of dyslipidemia among subjects in unexposed group, fetal exposed group, childhood exposed group, and adolescence exposed group was 56.40, 64.00, 63.90, and 63.90%, respectively. Compared with unexposed group, participants exposed to famine in fetal period (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.05-1.70), childhood (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.23-1.69), and adolescence (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.17-1.71) had higher risks of dyslipidemia in adults after adjustment for potential confounders. CONCLUSION: Exposure to Chinese famine in early life was associated with increased risk of dyslipidemia in adulthood. Preventing undernutrition in early life is an appropriate recommendation to reduce the prevalence of later dyslipidemia.

Li3N-Modified Garnet Electrolyte for All-Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries Operated at 40 °C.

Lithium carbonate on the surface of garnet blocks Li+ conduction and causes a huge interfacial resistance between the garnet and electrode. To solve this problem, this study presents an effective strategy to reduce significantly the interfacial resistance by replacing Li2CO3 with Li ion conducting Li3N. Compared to the surface Li2CO3 on garnet, Li3N is not only a good Li+ conductor but also offers a good wettability with both the garnet surface and a lithium metal anode. In addition, the introduction of a Li3N layer not only enables a stable contact between the Li anode and garnet electrolyte but also prevents the direct reduction of garnet by Li metal over a long cycle life. As a result, a symmetric lithium cell with this Li3N-modified garnet exhibits an ultralow overpotential and stable plating/stripping cyclability without lithium dendrite growth at room temperature. Moreover, an all-solid-state Li/LiFePO4 battery with a Li3N-modified garnet also displays high cycling efficiency and stability over 300 cycles even at a temperature of 40 °C.

Association between Serum Copper and Serum Lipids in Adults.

BACKGROUND: As an essential trace element, copper has been considered to play an important role in lipid metabolism. However, the associations of serum copper with lipid concentration and dyslipidemia are still controversial. METHODS: We used the 2011-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to examine the relationship between serum copper and lipid concentration among participants aged 20 years and older. Multivariate linear regression was conducted to estimate the differences in the level of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Logistic regression was conducted to examine the association between serum copper and the risk of dyslipidemia. RESULTS: A total of 2,678 subjects were eligible for our analyses. The multivariable adjusted average differences (95% CIs) comparing the highest to the lowest copper tertile were 8.42 (1.45-15.38) mg/dL for TC, and 2.96 (0.02-5.90) mg/dL for HDL cholesterol. Compared with the lowest tertile of serum copper, participants had significantly higher risks of High-TC dyslipidemia (OR 1.46; 95% CI 1.02-2.08) in tertile 3 and High-LDL cholesterol dyslipidemia (OR 1.48; 95% CI 1.03-2.14) in tertile 2 after adjusting for covariates. In the stratified analyses, we found that the copper-dyslipidemia association was statistically significant in women and subjects younger than 45 years of age. CONCLUSION: High serum copper was associated with elevated serum concentrations of TC and HDL cholesterol, and was associated with increased risks of High-TC and High-LDL cholesterol dyslipidemia. However, the real association between serum copper and serum lipids should be verified in larger prospective cohort studies in -future.

Exploration of the association between dietary fiber intake and depressive symptoms in adults.

OBJECTIVE: Current evidence on the association between dietary fiber intake and the risk of depressive symptoms is inconsistent. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to explore their association. METHODS: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007 to 2014 were used in this cross-sectional study. Dietary data were obtained through two 24-h dietary recall interviews. Depressive symptoms were assessed using Patient Health Questionnaire. Logistic regression models and restricted cubic spline models were applied to evaluate the associations among dietary intakes of total, cereal, vegetable, and fruit fiber and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: A total of 16 807 adults ages 20 y or older were included in this study. Dietary intakes of total, cereal, vegetable, and fruit fiber were inversely associated with depressive symptoms in unadjusted model and multivariate-adjusted model 1. In multivariate-adjusted model 2, the odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of depressive symptoms were 0.59 (0.44-0.79), 0.90 (0.69-1.19), 0.58 (0.45-0.76), and 0.64 (0.45-0.92) for the highest versus lowest quartile of total, cereal, vegetable, and fruit fiber intakes, respectively. Dose-response analyses found that the risk of depressive symptoms was associated with total fiber intake in a nonlinear manner, whereas the relationships were linear with cereal, vegetable, and fruit fiber intakes. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggested that intakes of total fiber, vegetable fiber, and fruit fiber were inversely associated with depressive symptoms. Further larger prospective studies are needed to confirm our findings.

A deep 3D residual CNN for false-positive reduction in pulmonary nodule detection.

PURPOSE: The automatic detection of pulmonary nodules using CT scans improves the efficiency of lung cancer diagnosis, and false-positive reduction plays a significant role in the detection. In this paper, we focus on the false-positive reduction task and propose an effective method for this task. METHODS: We construct a deep 3D residual CNN (convolution neural network) to reduce false-positive nodules from candidate nodules. The proposed network is much deeper than the traditional 3D CNNs used in medical image processing. Specifically, in the network, we design a spatial pooling and cropping (SPC) layer to extract multilevel contextual information of CT data. Moreover, we employ an online hard sample selection strategy in the training process to make the network better fit hard samples (e.g., nodules with irregular shapes). RESULTS: Our method is evaluated on 888 CT scans from the dataset of the LUNA16 Challenge. The free-response receiver operating characteristic (FROC) curve shows that the proposed method achieves a high detection performance. CONCLUSIONS: Our experiments confirm that our method is robust and that the SPC layer helps increase the prediction accuracy. Additionally, the proposed method can easily be extended to other 3D object detection tasks in medical image processing.

New Mechanism for Ferroelectricity in the Perovskite Ca2-xMnxTi2O6 Synthesized by Spark Plasma Sintering.

Perovskite oxides hosting ferroelectricity are particularly important materials for modern technologies. The ferroelectric transition in the well-known oxides BaTiO3 and PbTiO3 is realized by softening of a vibration mode in the cubic perovskite structure. For most perovskite oxides, octahedral-site tilting systems are developed to accommodate the bonding mismatch due to a geometric tolerance factor t = (A-O)/[√2(B-O)] < 1. In the absence of cations having lone-pair electrons, e.g., Bi3+ and Pb2+, all simple and complex A-site and B-site ordered perovskite oxides with a t < 1 show a variety of tilting systems, and none of them become ferroelectric. The ferroelectric CaMnTi2O6 oxide is, up to now, the only one that breaks this rule. It exhibits a columnar A-site ordering with a pronounced octahedral-site tilting and yet becomes ferroelectric at Tc ≈ 650 K. Most importantly, the ferroelectricity at T < Tc is caused by an order-disorder transition instead of a displacive transition; this character may be useful to overcome the critical thickness problem experienced in all proper ferroelectrics. Application of this new ferroelectric material can greatly simplify the structure of microelectronic devices. However, CaMnTi2O6 is a high-pressure phase obtained at 7 GPa and 1200 °C, which limits its application. Here we report a new method to synthesize a gram-level sample of ferroelectric Ca2-xMnxTi2O6, having the same crystal structure as CaMnTi2O6 and a similarly high Curie temperature. The new finding paves the way for the mass production of this important ferroelectric oxide. We have used neutron powder diffraction to identify the origin of the peculiar ferroelectric transition in this double perovskite and to reveal the interplay between magnetic ordering and the ferroelectric displacement at low temperatures.

Association of total zinc, iron, copper and selenium intakes with depression in the US adults.

BACKGROUND: The aim of present study was to examine the associations of total zinc, iron, copper and selenium intakes from diet and supplements with depression. METHODS: Cross-sectional study used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009-2014 in the present study. Logistic regression models and restricted cubic spline models were applied to examine the associations of total zinc, iron, copper and selenium intakes with depression. RESULTS: A total of 14834 adults aged 18 years or older (7399 men and 7435 women) were included in the present study. Total zinc, iron, copper and selenium intakes were inversely associated with depression in unadjusted model and age- and gender-adjusted model. The multivariate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of depression were 0.68 (0.49-0.94) and 0.46 (0.32-0.67) for the highest versus lowest quartile of copper and selenium intakes, respectively. The inverse associations of depression were statistically significant for the quartile 3 versus lowest quartile of total zinc (OR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.49-0.99) and iron intake (OR: 0.66 95% CI: 0.50-0.87). Compared to those below the RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance), participants who met the RDA for zinc (OR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.56-0.99), copper (OR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.56-0.82) and selenium (OR: 0.52; 95% CI: 0.39, 0.71) had significantly lower odds of depression. LIMITATIONS: This was a cross-sectional study, limiting causal inferences. Assessment of depression was based on a self- report scale. CONCLUSION: Total zinc, iron, copper and selenium intakes may be inversely associated with depression.

Growth Model of van der Waals Epitaxy of Films: A Case of AlN Films on Multilayer Graphene/SiC.

"Volmer-Weber" island nucleation and step-flow growth model are the classical processes of the conventional epitaxy of films. However, a growth model of van der Waals epitaxy (vdWE) of films is still not very well-documented. Here, we present an example of vdWE of AlN films on multilayer graphene (MLG)/SiC by hydride vapor phase epitaxy at a high temperature of 1100 °C and reveal the orientation relationship of AlN, MLG, and SiC as (0001)[1-100]AlN||(0001)[1-100]MLG||(0001)[11-20]SiC, which suggests that the vdWE heterointerface is not an usual covalent bond and no excessive strain during the growth process owing to the incommensurate in-plane lattices. Remarkably, zigzag cracks are formed because of the anisotropy of strain after the films are cooled down to room temperature, indicating that the growth model of vdWE is different from that of conventional epitaxy. It is a layer-by-layer epitaxy, and a planar substrate without a miscut angle is essential for obtaining single-crystalline films. Additionally, the films can be transferred to foreign substrates by direct mechanical exfoliation without any stressor layer. An ultraviolet photosensor device illustrates an example of III-nitride heterogeneous integration application. Our work demonstrates an excellent step toward the vdWE of varieties of compound films on 2D materials for the applications of transferrable heterogeneous integration in future.

Calcium Intake and the Risk of Ovarian Cancer: A Meta-Analysis.

Several epidemiological studies have evaluated the association between calcium intake and the risk of ovarian cancer. However, the results of these studies remain controversial. Thus, we performed a meta-analysis to explore the association between calcium intake and the risk of ovarian cancer. Pubmed, Embase and Web of Science were searched for eligible publications up to April 2017. Pooled relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using the random-effects model. Small-study effect was estimated using Egger's test and the funnel plot. Among 15 epidemiological studies involving 493,415 participants and 7453 cases eligible for this meta-analysis, 13 studies were about dietary calcium intake, 4 studies about dairy calcium intake and 7 studies about dietary plus supplemental calcium intake. When comparing the highest with the lowest intake, the pooled RRs of ovarian cancer were 0.80 (95% CI 0.72-0.89) for dietary calcium, 0.80 (95% CI 0.66-0.98) for dairy calcium and 0.90 (95% CI 0.65-1.24) for dietary plus supplemental calcium, respectively. Dietary calcium was significantly associated with a reduced risk of ovarian cancer among cohort studies (RR = 0.86, 95% CI 0.74-0.99) and among case-control studies (RR = 0.75, 95% CI 0.64-0.89). In subgroup analysis by ovarian cancer subtypes, we found a statistically significant association between the dietary calcium (RR = 0.78, 95% CI 0.69-0.88) and the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). This meta-analysis indicated that increased calcium intake might be inversely associated with the risk of ovarian cancer; this still needs to be confirmed by larger prospective cohort studies.

High serum copper level is associated with an increased risk of preeclampsia in Asians: A meta-analysis.

Epidemiological studies evaluating the associations between serum copper and ratios of Cu/Zn and the preeclampsia (PE) risk in Asian population have produced inconsistent results. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to summarize the relationships. We hypothesize that higher serum copper and ratios of Cu/Zn may increase the PE risk. A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP (Database of Chinese Scientific and Technical Periodicals) and Wangfang databases for relevant studies up to November 2016. Pooled standardized mean difference (SMD) was calculated with random effects model. The results showed that PE patients had a higher serum copper level [SMD (95% CI): 1.05 (0.34, 1.77), Z=2.88, P for Z=0.004; I2=96.9%, P for I2<0.0001] compared with healthy pregnancy controls. In subgroup analyses, a higher serum copper level in PE patients was observed in case-control studies [SMD (95% CI): 1.39 (0.44, 2.34)]. No significant difference was found between PE patients and healthy pregnancy controls for ratios of Cu/Zn [(SMD (95% CI): 0.26 (-0.77, 1.29), Z=0.49, P for Z=0.625; I2=95.8%, P for I2<0.0001)]. In conclusion, our meta-analysis indicates that a higher serum copper level is associated with an increased risk of PE. Further studies are needed to confirm these results in future research.

Dietary zinc and iron intake and risk of depression: A meta-analysis.

The associations between dietary zinc and iron intake and risk of depression remain controversial. Thus, we carried out a meta-analysis to evaluate these associations. A systematic search was performed in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang databases for relevant studies up to January 2017. Pooled relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a random effects model. A total of 9 studies for dietary zinc intake and 3 studies for dietary iron intake were finally included in present meta-analysis. The pooled RRs with 95% CIs of depression for the highest versus lowest dietary zinc and iron intake were 0.67 (95% CI: 0.58-0.76) and 0.57 (95% CI: 0.34-0.95), respectively. In subgroup analysis by study design, the inverse association between dietary zinc intake and risk of depression remained significant in the cohort studies and cross-sectional studies. The pooled RRs (95% CIs) for depression did not substantially change in the influence analysis and subgroup analysis by adjustment for body mass index (BMI). The present meta-analysis indicates inverse associations between dietary zinc and iron intake and risk of depression.

Supervised Learning Based Hypothesis Generation from Biomedical Literature.

Nowadays, the amount of biomedical literatures is growing at an explosive speed, and there is much useful knowledge undiscovered in this literature. Researchers can form biomedical hypotheses through mining these works. In this paper, we propose a supervised learning based approach to generate hypotheses from biomedical literature. This approach splits the traditional processing of hypothesis generation with classic ABC model into AB model and BC model which are constructed with supervised learning method. Compared with the concept cooccurrence and grammar engineering-based approaches like SemRep, machine learning based models usually can achieve better performance in information extraction (IE) from texts. Then through combining the two models, the approach reconstructs the ABC model and generates biomedical hypotheses from literature. The experimental results on the three classic Swanson hypotheses show that our approach outperforms SemRep system.