Description: Analytical Chemistry DOI: 10.1021/ac500060c

Description: Background: A lot of empirical studies have been conducted to evaluate the prevalence of depression and anxiety among Chinese adults with cancer. We aimed to conduct a meta-analysis in order to evaluate the prevalence and odds ratios of depression and anxiety in Chinese adults with cancer compared with those without. Methods: The three most comprehensive computerized Chinese academic databases-CNKI, Wangfang and Vip databases-were systematically screened through September 2012. PubMed and Web of Science (SCIE) were also searched from their inception until September 2012 without language restrictions, and an internet search was also used. Case--control studies assessing the prevalence of depression and anxiety among Chinese adults with cancer were analyzed. Study selection and appraisal were conducted independently by three authors. The non-weighted prevalence, pooled random-effects estimates of odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were all calculated. Results: Seventeen eligible studies with a total of 3497 subjects were included. The prevalence of depression and anxiety were significantly higher in adults with cancer compared with those without (Depression: 54.90% vs. 17.50%, OR = 7.85, 95%CI = 5.56-11.07, P = 0.000; Anxiety: 49.69% vs. 18.37%, OR = 6.46, 95%CI = 4.36-9.55, P = 0.000), the same situation was also observed in subgroup of control groups, assessment methods and cancer types. Although no difference of depression was observed in studies utilizing clinical diagnosis compared with self-report, the OR of anxiety in adults with cancer compared with those without was higher in studies utilizing clinical diagnosis (OR = 8.42, 95%CI = 4.83-14.70) than self-reports (OR = 5.83, 95%CI = 3.64-9.34). The ORs of depression and anxiety in cancer patients compared with disease group (Depression: OR = 6.03, 95%CI = 4.23-8.61; Anxiety: OR = 4.40, 95%CI = 3.05-6.36) were lower than in those compared with normal group (Depression: OR = 13.58, 95%CI = 6.26-29.46; Anxiety: OR = 15.47, 95%CI = 10.00-23.95). Conclusions: We identified high prevalence rates of depression and anxiety among Chinese adults with cancer. The findings support that the prevalence of depression and anxiety among adults with cancer should receive more attention in Chinese medical settings.

Description: The Journal of Organic Chemistry DOI: 10.1021/jo500176g

Description: Background: Studies of functional modules in a Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network contribute greatly to theunderstanding of biological mechanisms. With the development of computing science,computational approaches have played an important role in detecting functional modules. Results: We present a new approach using multi-agent evolution for detection of functional modules in PPInetworks. The proposed approach consists of two stages: the solution construction for agents in apopulation and the evolutionary process of computational agents in a lattice environment, where eachagent corresponds to a candidate solution to the detection problem of functional modules in a PPInetwork. First, the approach utilizes a connection-based encoding scheme to model an agent, andemploys a random-walk behavior merged topological characteristics with functional information toconstruct a solution. Next, it applies several evolutionary operators, i. e., competition, crossover, andmutation, to realize information exchange among agents as well as solution evolution. Systematicexperiments have been conducted on three benchmark testing sets of yeast networks. Experimentalresults show that the approach is more effective compared to several other existing algorithms. Conclusions: The algorithm has the characteristics of outstanding recall, F-measure, sensitivity and accuracy whilekeeping other competitive performances, so it can be applied to the biological study which requireshigh accuracy.

Description: Article Solid acid catalysts allow easy separation and reduction in waste not easily achievable with mineral acids. Here the authors report polystyrene sulphonic acid resins whose acid strength and catalytic performance can be tuned by changing their morphology within a confined nanospace. Nature Communications doi: 10.1038/ncomms4170 Authors: Xiaomin Zhang, Yaopeng Zhao, Shutao Xu, Yan Yang, Jia Liu, Yingxu Wei, Qihua Yang

Description: Quantifying the spatial and temporal patterns of the water lost to the atmosphere through land surface evapotranspiration (ET) is essential for understanding the global hydrological cycle, but remains much uncertain. In this study, we use the Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model (DLEM) to estimate the global terrestrial ET during 2000–2009 and project its changes in response to climate change and increasing atmospheric CO 2 under two IPCC SRES scenarios (A2 and B1) during 2010–2099. Modeled results show a mean annual global terrestrial ET of about 549 (545–552) mm yr −1 during 2000–2009. Relative to the 2000s, global terrestrial ET for the 2090's would increase by 30.7 mm/year (5.6%) and 13.2 mm/year (2.4%) under the A2 and B1 scenarios, respectively. About 60% of global land area would experience increasing ET at rates of over 9.5 mm/decade over the study period under the A2 scenario. The Arctic region would have the largest ET increase (16% compared with the 2000s level) due to larger increase in temperature than other regions. Decreased ET would mainly take place in regions like central and western Asia, northern Africa, Australia, eastern South America and Greenland due to declines in soil moisture and changing rainfall patterns. Our results indicate that warming temperature and increasing precipitation would result in large increase in ET by the end of the 21 st century, while increasing atmospheric CO 2 would be responsible for decrease of ET, given the reduction of stomatal conductance under elevated CO 2 .

Description: LiYSiO 4 :Ce is a promising scintillator and some of its properties have been reported in previous papers. In this paper, samples doped with different concentrations of Ce are prepared and studied. First, the relative light yields of the samples are measured as 28.1%–37.1% compared with a standard anthracene crystal being irradiated by α particles and as ~27.2% compared with NaI being irradiated by X-rays. Second, the effects of sample thicknesses on light yields are presented. Finally the timing behaviors of samples with different doped concentrations being irradiated with alpha particles and X-rays are discussed. The result shows that LiYSiO 4 :Ce is a kind of fast scintillator (~ 30 ns) with a moderate light yield that can be used for neutron detection.

Description: Background: Studies investigating the association between Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) have reported inconsistent findings. We conducted a meta-analysis of epidemiological studies to explore this relationship. Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted to identify the eligible studies of hepatitis infections and ICC risk up to September 2011. Summary odds ratios (OR) with their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated with random-effects models using Review Manager version 5.0. Results: Thirteen case-control studies and 3 cohort studies were included in the final analysis. The combined risk estimate of all studies showed statistically significant increased risk of ICC incidence with HBV and HCV infection (OR = 3.17, 95% CI, 1.88-5.34, and OR = 3.42, 95% CI, 1.96-5.99, respectively). For case-control studies alone, the combined OR of infection with HBV and HCV were 2.86 (95% CI, 1.60-5.11) and 3.63 (95% CI, 1.86-7.05), respectively, and for cohort studies alone, the OR of HBV and HCV infection were 5.39 (95% CI, 2.34-12.44) and 2.60 (95% CI, 1.36-4.97), respectively. Conclusions: This study suggests that both HBV and HCV infection are associated with an increased risk of ICC.

Description: Destructive gas generation with associated swelling has been a major challenge to the large-scale application of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) made from Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) anodes. Here we report root causes of the gassing behavior, and suggest remedy to suppress it. The generated gases mainly contain H2, CO2 and CO, which originate from interfacial reactions between LTO and surrounding alkyl carbonate solvents. The reactions occur at the very thin outermost surface of LTO (111) plane, which result in transformation from (111) to (222) plane and formation of (101) plane of anatase TiO2. A nanoscale carbon coating along with a stable solid electrolyte interface (SEI) film around LTO is seen most effective as a barrier layer in suppressing the interfacial reaction and resulting gassing from the LTO surface. Such an ability to tune the interface nanostructure of electrodes has practical implications in the design of next-generation high power LIBs. Scientific Reports 2 doi: 10.1038/srep00913

Description: Patients dually infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV)/hepatitis B virus (HBV) have a higher risk of developing advanced liver disease or hepatocellular carcinoma compared to monoinfected patients. Our previous study showed a similar rate of sustained virologic response (SVR) after peginterferon alfa-2a and ribavirin combination therapy in these patients compared to HCV monoinfected patients, and a high hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) seroclearance rate. The durability of hepatitis C and B clearance in dually infected patients was investigated by a 5-year follow-up study. Patients with active HCV genotype 1, both HBV coinfected (n=97) and monoinfected (n=110), received a 48-week combination therapy with peginterferon alfa-2a plus ribavirin. Patients with active HCV genotype 2/3, both HBV coinfected (n=64) and monoinfected (n=50) patients received a 24-week combination therapy. A total of 295 (91.9%) patients completed treatment and 24 weeks post-treatment follow-up; 264 (89.5%) agreed to receive additional follow-up for up to 5 years after the end of treatment. After a median follow-up of 4.6 + 1.0 years, 6 of the 232 patients achieving SVR developed HCV RNA reappearance, including 5 HCV genotype 1/HBV coinfected patients and 1 HCV genotype 2/3 monoinfected patient. Subgenomic analysis of the HCV core gene suggested that 5 patients developed delayed recurrence of HCV infection. Overall, the cumulative recurrence rate of HCV infection was 2.3% (0.4%/year; 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.9%∼5.5%). The cumulative HBsAg seroclearance rate was 30.0% (95% CI=21.5%∼42.0%); with 33.1% (95% CI=21.8%∼50.1%) in 48-week combination therapy group and 24.3% (95% CI=13.7%∼42.9%) in 24-week therapy group. Conclusion: Peginterferon alfa-2a and ribavirin therapy provides a good durability of HCV SVR and a high accumulative HBsAg seroclearance rate in patients dually infected with HCV and HBV. (H EPATOLOGY 2013.)