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Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a specific subtype of breast cancer that does not express estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2), has clinical features that include high invasiveness, high metastatic potential, proneness to relapse, and poor prognosis. Because TNBC tumors lack ER, PR, and HER2 expression, they are not sensitive to endocrine therapy or HER2 treatment, and standardized TNBC treatment regimens are still lacking. Therefore, development of new TNBC treatment strategies has become an urgent clinical need. By summarizing existing treatment regimens, therapeutic drugs, and their efficacy for different TNBC subtypes and reviewing some new preclinical studies and targeted treatment regimens for TNBC, this paper aims to provide new ideas for TNBC treatment.

Soil stabilization technology based on microbial-induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) has gained widespread interest in geotechnical engineering. MICP has been found to be able to improve soil strength, stiffness, liquefaction resistance, erosion resistance, while maintaining a good permeability simultaneously. MICP processes involves a series of biochemical reactions that are affected by many factors, both intrinsically and externally. This paper reviews various influential factors for MICP process, including bacterial species, concentration of bacteria, temperature, pH, composition and concentration of cementation solution, grouting strategies, and soil properties. Through this comprehensive review, we find that: (1) the species and strains of bacteria, concentration of bacteria solution, temperature, pH value, and the cementation solution properties all affect the characteristics of formed calcium carbonate, such as crystal type, appearance and size, which consequently affect the cementation degree and distribution in geomaterials; (2) the condition with temperature between 20 and 40 °C, pH between 7 and 9.5, the concentration of the cementation solution within 1 mol/L, and high bacteria concentration is optimal for applying MICP in soil. Under the optimal condition, relatively low temperature, high pH value, and low concentration of cementation solution could help retain permeability and vice versa; (3) the effective grain size ranging from 10 to 1000 µm. MICP treatment works most effectively for larger size, well-graded sand; (4) the multi-phase, multi-concentration or electroosmotic grouting method can improve the MICP treatment efficiency. The grouting velocity below 0.042 mol/L/h is beneficial for improving the utilization ratio of cementation solution. The recommended grouting pressure is generally between 0.1 and 0.3 bar for MICP applications in sand and should not exceed 1.1 bar for silty and clayey soils.

Importance Stroke is the leading cause of death in China. However, recent data about the up-to-date stroke burden in China are limited. Objective To investigate the urban-rural disparity of stroke burden in the Chinese adult population, including prevalence, incidence, and mortality rate, and disparities between urban and rural populations. Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study was based on a nationally representative survey that included 676 394 participants aged 40 years and older. It was conducted from July 2020 to December 2020 in 31 provinces in mainland China. Main Outcomes and Measures Primary outcome was self-reported stroke verified by trained neurologists during a face-to-face interviews using a standardized protocol. Stroke incidence were assessed by defining first-ever strokes that occurred during 1 year preceding the survey. Strokes causing death that occurred during the 1 year preceding the survey were considered as death cases. Results The study included 676 394 Chinese adults (395 122 [58.4%] females; mean [SD] age, 59.7 [11.0] years). In 2020, the weighted prevalence, incidence, and mortality rates of stroke in China were 2.6% (95% CI, 2.6%-2.6%), 505.2 (95% CI, 488.5-522.0) per 100 000 person-years, and 343.4 (95% CI, 329.6-357.2) per 100 000 person-years, respectively. It was estimated that among the Chinese population aged 40 years and older in 2020, there were 3.4 (95% CI, 3.3-3.6) million incident cases of stroke, 17.8 (95% CI, 17.5-18.0) million prevalent cases of stroke, and 2.3 (95% CI, 2.2-2.4) million deaths from stroke. Ischemic stroke constituted 15.5 (95% CI, 15.2-15.6) million (86.8%) of all incident strokes in 2020, while intracerebral hemorrhage constituted 2.1 (95% CI, 2.1-2.1) million (11.9%) and subarachnoid hemorrhage constituted 0.2 (95% CI, 0.2-0.2) million (1.3%). The prevalence of stroke was higher in urban than in rural areas (2.7% [95% CI, 2.6%-2.7%] vs 2.5% [95% CI, 2.5%-2.6%];P = .02), but the incidence rate (485.5 [95% CI, 462.8-508.3] vs 520.8 [95% CI, 496.3-545.2] per 100 000 person-years;P < .001) and mortality rate (309.9 [95% CI, 291.7-328.1] vs 369.7 [95% CI, 349.1-390.3] per 100 000 person-years;P < .001) were lower in urban areas than in rural areas. In 2020, the leading risk factor for stroke was hypertension (OR, 3.20 [95% CI, 3.09-3.32]). Conclusions and Relevance In a large, nationally representative sample of adults aged 40 years or older, the estimated prevalence, incidence, and mortality rate of stroke in China in 2020 were 2.6%, 505.2 per 100 000 person-years, and 343.4 per 100 000 person-years, respectively, indicating the need for an improved stroke prevention strategy in the general Chinese population.

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) with large electrically-actuated strain can build light-weight and flexible non-magnetic motors. However, dielectric elastomers commonly used in the field of soft actuation suffer from high stiffness, low strength, and high driving field, severely limiting the DEA’s actuating performance. Here we design a new polyacrylate dielectric elastomer with optimized crosslinking network by rationally employing the difunctional macromolecular crosslinking agent. The proposed elastomer simultaneously possesses desirable modulus (~0.073 MPa), high toughness (elongation ~2400%), low mechanical loss (tan δ m  = 0.21@1 Hz, 20 °C), and satisfactory dielectric properties ( ε r  = 5.75, tan δ e  = 0.0019 @1 kHz), and accordingly, large actuation strain (118% @ 70 MV m −1 ), high energy density (0.24 MJ m −3 @ 70 MV m −1 ), and rapid response (bandwidth above 100 Hz). Compared with VHB TM 4910, the non-magnetic motor made of our elastomer presents 15 times higher rotation speed. These findings offer a strategy to fabricate high-performance dielectric elastomers for soft actuators. Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) with large electrically actuated strain can be used in non-magnetic motors, but high stiffness, poor strength and slow response currently limit the application of DEAs. Here, the authors optimize the crosslinking network in a polyacrylate elastomer to enable a DEA with high toughness and actuation strain and use the polyacrylate to build a motor which can be driven under low electric field.

We aimed to evaluate the performance of the newly developed deep learning Radiomics of elastography (DLRE) for assessing liver fibrosis stages. DLRE adopts the radiomic strategy for quantitative analysis of the heterogeneity in two-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) images. A prospective multicentre study was conducted to assess its accuracy in patients with chronic hepatitis B, in comparison with 2D-SWE, aspartate transaminase-to-platelet ratio index and fibrosis index based on four factors, by using liver biopsy as the reference standard. Its accuracy and robustness were also investigated by applying different number of acquisitions and different training cohorts, respectively. Data of 654 potentially eligible patients were prospectively enrolled from 12 hospitals, and finally 398 patients with 1990 images were included. Analysis of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves was performed to calculate the optimal area under the ROC curve (AUC) for cirrhosis (F4), advanced fibrosis (≥F3) and significance fibrosis (≥F2). AUCs of DLRE were 0.97 for F4 (95% CI 0.94 to 0.99), 0.98 for ≥F3 (95% CI 0.96 to 1.00) and 0.85 (95% CI 0.81 to 0.89) for ≥F2, which were significantly better than other methods except 2D-SWE in ≥F2. Its diagnostic accuracy improved as more images (especially ≥3 images) were acquired from each individual. No significant variation of the performance was found if different training cohorts were applied. DLRE shows the best overall performance in predicting liver fibrosis stages compared with 2D-SWE and biomarkers. It is valuable and practical for the non-invasive accurate diagnosis of liver fibrosis stages in HBV-infected patients. NCT02313649; Post-results.

Photocatalysis has been regarded as a promising strategy for hydrogen production and high-value-added chemicals synthesis, in which the activity of photocatalyst depends significantly on their electronic structures, however the effect of electron spin polarization has been rarely considered. Here we report a controllable method to manipulate its electron spin polarization by tuning the concentration of Ti vacancies. The characterizations confirm the emergence of spatial spin polarization among Ti-defected TiO 2 , which promotes the efficiency of charge separation and surface reaction via the parallel alignment of electron spin orientation. Specifically, Ti 0.936 O 2 , possessing intensive spin polarization, performs 20-fold increased photocatalytic hydrogen evolution and 8-fold increased phenol photodegradation rates, compared with stoichiometric TiO 2 . Notably, we further observed the positive effect of external magnetic fields on photocatalytic activity of spin-polarized TiO 2 , attributed to the enhanced electron-spin parallel alignment. This work may create the opportunity for tailoring the spin-dependent electronic structures in metal oxides. Photocatalyst activity depends significantly on the material’s electronic structures. Here, authors manipulate the electron spin polarization of TiO 2 by tuning the concentration of Ti vacancies and show improved photocatalytic activities.

We describe pLink 2, a search engine with higher speed and reliability for proteome-scale identification of cross-linked peptides. With a two-stage open search strategy facilitated by fragment indexing, pLink 2 is ~40 times faster than pLink 1 and 3~10 times faster than Kojak. Furthermore, using simulated datasets, synthetic datasets, 15 N metabolically labeled datasets, and entrapment databases, four analysis methods were designed to evaluate the credibility of ten state-of-the-art search engines. This systematic evaluation shows that pLink 2 outperforms these methods in precision and sensitivity, especially at proteome scales. Lastly, re-analysis of four published proteome-scale cross-linking datasets with pLink 2 required only a fraction of the time used by pLink 1, with up to 27% more cross-linked residue pairs identified. pLink 2 is therefore an efficient and reliable tool for cross-linking mass spectrometry analysis, and the systematic evaluation methods described here will be useful for future software development. The identification of cross-linked peptides at a proteome scale for interactome analyses represents a complex challenge. Here the authors report an efficient and reliable search engine pLink 2 for proteome-scale cross-linking mass spectrometry analyses, and demonstrate how to systematically evaluate the credibility of search engines.

Multiplexing multiple orbital angular momentum (OAM) channels enables high-capacity optical communication. However, optical scattering from ambient microparticles in the atmosphere or mode coupling in optical fibers significantly decreases the orthogonality between OAM channels for demultiplexing and eventually increases crosstalk in communication. Here, we propose a novel scattering-matrix-assisted retrieval technique (SMART) to demultiplex OAM channels from highly scattered optical fields and achieve an experimental crosstalk of –13.8 dB in the parallel sorting of 24 OAM channels after passing through a scattering medium. The SMART is implemented in a self-built data transmission system that employs a digital micromirror device to encode OAM channels and realize reference-free calibration simultaneously, thereby enabling a high tolerance to misalignment. We successfully demonstrate high-fidelity transmission of both gray and color images under scattering conditions at an error rate of <0.08%. This technique might open the door to high-performance optical communication in turbulent environments.Recovering scattered data from twisted lightTwisted light beams can be made to transmit higher quality data by decoding the information present in the ‘speckle patterns’ that arise when they pass through scattering media. Lei Gong of the University of Science and Technology of China and colleagues developed the ‘scattering-matrix-assisted retrieval technique’ (SMART) to recover scattered data from multiplexed multiple orbital angular momentum (OAM) channels. These multiple twisting light beams have the potential to carry unlimited data channels, but light scattering, caused by micro-particles in the atmosphere or by energy transfer between channels, reduces data quality. The SMART platform allowed high-fidelity transmission of images, reducing the error rate by 21 times compared to previous reports. Improvements on the technique could facilitate the transfer of high quality optical data in harsh atmospheric or underwater conditions.