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BACKGROUND: It is essential to assess the risk stratification of patients with aortic stenosis (AS). OBJECTIVE: To clarify the predictive value of red blood cell distribution width (RDW) in AS patients using a large cohort from the MIMIC-IV database. METHODS: Restricted cubic spline, the Kaplan-Meier method, and logistic and Cox regression analyses were used to explore the association between RDW and all-cause mortality in AS patients. Multivariate adjustments, propensity score matching and weighting, and subgroup analysis were conducted to exclude confounding factors. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and decision curve analysis (DCA) curves were drawn to evaluate the predictive performance of RDW. RESULTS: 1,148 patients with AS were included. Their death risks gradually increased with the elevation of RDW. Multivariate-adjusted 90-day (OR: 2.12; HR: 1.90; p = 0.001) and 1-year (OR: 2.07; HR: 1.97; p < 0.001) all-cause mortalities were significantly higher in patients with RDW≥14.7 %, which remained robust after propensity score matching and subgroup analysis. For AS patients with high RDW, those < 75 years old had higher death risks than those ≥ 75 years old. The area under the ROC curve of RDW were 0.741 and 0.75 at 90-day and 1-year follow-ups, respectively, exhibiting comparable performance to acute physiology score III and outperforming other critical illness scores in predicting the prognosis of AS patients. DCA curves also illustrated that RDW had a wide range of net benefits. CONCLUSIONS: High RDW was independently associated with increased 90-day and 1-year all-cause mortalities of AS patients, with strong predictive capability of prognosis.

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Oxygen-vacancy-induced topotactic phase transformation between the ABO2.5brownmillerite structure and the ABO3perovskite structure attracts ever-increasing attention due to the perspective applications in catalysis, clean energy field, and memristors. However, a detailed investigation of the electronic-structure evolution during the topotactic phase transformation for understanding the underlying mechanism is highly desired. In this work, multiple analytical methods were used to explore evolution of the electronic structure of SrFeO3-xthin films during the topotactic phase transformation. The results indicate that the increase in oxygen content induces a new unoccupied state of O 2pcharacter near the Fermi energy, inducing the insulator-to-metal transition. More importantly, the hole states are more likely constrained to thedx2-y2orbital than to thed3z2-r2orbital. Our results reveal an unambiguous evolution of the electronic structure of SrFeO3-xfilms during topotactic phase transformation, which is crucial not only for fundamental understanding but also for perspective applications such as solid-state oxide fuel cells, catalysts, and memristor devices.

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BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the 3rd most common cancer type in the world. The correlation between immune repertoire and prognosis of CRC has been well studied in the last decades. The diversity and stability of the immune cells can be measured by hypervariable complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) segments of the T-cell receptor (TCR). METHODS: In this study, we collected five healthy controls and 19 CRC patients' peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in three stages, namely 1 day preoperative, 3 days' postoperative, and 7 days' postoperative, respectively. Simultaneously, we have also done the comparative analysis of these two different anesthesia methods, namely TIVA and CEGA. Sequencing of the TCR segments has been performed by multiplex PCR and high-throughput next-generation sequencing. We also analyzed the distribution of CDR3 length, highly expansion clones (HECs), TRBV, and TRBJ gene usage. RESULTS: Our result showed a significant difference between TCR CDR3 length distribution and HEC distribution between CRC patients and healthy controls. We also found that TRBV11-2, TRBV12-1, TRBV16, TRBV3-2, TRBV4-2, TRBV4-3, TRBV5-4, TRBV6-8, TRBV7-8, TRBV7-9 and RBV11-2, TRBV12-1, TRBV16, TRBV3-2, TRBV4-2, TRBV4-3, TRBV5-4, TRBV6-8, TRBV7-8, and TRBV7-9 usages are different between CRC patients and healthy controls. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, CRC patients were presented with different immune repertoire in comparison with healthy controls. In this study, significant difference in TRBV and TRBJ gene usage in between case and control group could provide some potential biomarker for the diagnosis and the treatment of the patients with CRC.

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A large-scale survey was conducted in domestic animal populations from 2011 to 2015 in Qingyang, China. A total of 448,398 animals from different districts of Qingyang were tested for the presence of Brucella-specific antibodies using the Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT) and the Standard Agglutination Test (SAT). From 2011 to 2015, the yearly average positive rates were between 0.04 and 4.75% in the eight counties tested. In addition, the prevalence rates were between 0 and 9.96% in these eight counties. Sheep was the dominant host of Brucella in Qingyang, and the prevalence rate in sheep (2.74%) was higher than those in the other animals tested. Identification of 10 Brucella isolates from sheep confirmed that the epidemic strains were B. melitensis biovar 3 (n = 9) and B. melitensis biovar 1 (n = 1). MLVA-11 (multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis) analysis of the 10 isolates showed three genotypes: genotype 116 (n = 8), genotype 115 (n = 1) and genotype 136 (n = 1). Furthermore, analysis of the whole-genome sequences of the representative B. melitensis strain QY1 indicated that this isolate was closely related to isolates from China and India. The results of serum epidemiology confirmed that the region of northern Qingyang was a critical Brucella epidemic area and that the disease showed a rising trend, especially from 2013 to 2015. An analysis of the isolate genotypes suggested that sheep brucellosis mainly resulted from conventional B. melitensis (East Mediterranean group), although the external strain (American group) also occurred in Qingyang.

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Real progress has been made in improving long-term outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the past 10 years. Many communities have doubled their survival-to-hospital-discharge rate during this period. Common features of such successful programs include the following: (1) 911 dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) instruction, (2) bystander chest compression-only CPR program, (3) public access defibrillation, including targeted automated external defibrillator programs, (4) renewed emphasis on minimally interrupted chest compressions by emergency medical services responders, and (5) aggressive postresuscitation care, including targeted temperature management and early coronary angiography and intervention. An important lesson from these successful community efforts is that multiple, simultaneous changes to the local cardiac arrest response system are necessary to improve survival. The next exciting step in this quest appears to be the treatment of refractory cardiac arrest with the combination of mechanical CPR, intra-arrest hypothermia, extracorporeal CPR with mechanical circulatory support devices, and early coronary intervention.

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OBJECTIVE: To measure peripheral serum levels of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) and matrix metalloproteinase 19 (MMP19) in patients with pneumoconiosis, and to investigate their feasibility as potential biomarkers for pneumoconiosis. METHODS: Ninety-eight male patients with pneumoconiosis (49 patients in phase I, 36 patients in phase II, and 13 patients in phase III) were enrolled as subjects, which included 41 patients with silicosis and 57 patients with coal workers' pneumoconiosis. Ninety-eight healthy male physical examinees were used as controls. A fasting blood sample (3 ml) was collected from the peripheral venous blood of each patient or control, and the serum was separated from the blood sample. The expression levels of MMP9 and MMP19 in serum were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: Serum levels of MMP9 and MMP19 in patients with silicosis or coal workers' pneumoconiosis were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05). Serum levels of MMP19 in patients with silicosis were significantly higher than those in patients with coal workers' pneumoconiosis (P < 0.05). Serum levels of MMP19 in patients exposed to dust for less than 7 years were significantly higher than those in patients exposed to dust for more than 20 years (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in serum levels of MMP9 and MMP19 between patients with different levels of pulmonary function impairment (P > 0.05). Serum expression levels of MMP9 and MMP19 were positively correlated with each other in both patients with pneumoconiosis and those in the control group (P < 0.05). The serum expression level of MMP9 was negatively correlated with the stage of pneumoconiosis (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Serum MMP9 and MMP19 may be used as potential biomarkers for pneumoconiosis.

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The purpose of this study was to explore the feasibility of removing silica particles and reducing turbidity from oxide chemical mechanical polishing (oxide-CMP) wastewater. Based on the dynamic characteristics of batch electrocoagulation, three operating stages (lag, reactive, and stabilizing) are proposed to identify the relationships among the zeta potential of the silica particles, solution turbidity, and the corresponding mean particle size of the silica. Experimental results show that the silica particles were destabilized and settled at the critical mean particle size, which was estimated to be above 520nm after 10min, and the corresponding turbidity removal mostly occurred during the reactive stage. Furthermore, the corresponding mean particle size varied from 520 to 1900nm as the treatment time progressed from 10 to 20min, which also occurred during the reactive stage. Several parameters, including different electrode pairs, electrolyte concentration, applied voltage, and the optimum condition of power input were investigated. Experimental results indicate that a Fe/Al electrode pair is the most efficient choice of the four electrode pair combinations in terms of energy consumption. The optimum electrolyte concentration and applied voltage were found to be 200ppm NaCl and 30V, respectively.

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A raw-starch-digesting amylase (RSDA) gene from a Cytophaga sp. was cloned and sequenced. The predicted protein product contained 519 amino acids and had high amino acid identity to alpha-amylases from three Bacillus species. Only one of the Bacillus alpha-amylases has raw-starch-digesting capability, however. The RSDA, expressed in Escherichia coli, had properties similar to those of the enzyme purified from the Cytophaga sp.

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