BackgroundRadiotherapy for breast cancer often involves some incidental exposure of the heart to ionizing radiation. The effect of this exposure on the subsequent risk of heart disease is uncertain. We performed a meta‐analysis to investigate the link between radiotherapy and long‐term cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in patients with breast cancer.Methods and ResultsWe performed a literature search using MEDLINE (January 1966 to January 2015) and EMBASE (January 1980 to January 2015) with no restrictions. Studies that reported relative risk (RR) estimates with 95%CIs for the associations of interest were included. Pooled effect estimates were obtained by using random‐effects meta‐analysis. Thirty‐nine studies involving 1 191 371 participants were identified. Patients who received left‐sided radiotherapy, as compared with those receiving right‐sided radiotherapy, experienced increased risks of developing coronary heart disease (RR 1.29, 95%CI 1.13‐1.48), cardiac death (RR 1.22, 95%CI 1.08‐1.37) and death from any cause (RR 1.05, 95%CI 1.01‐1.10). In a comparison of patients with radiotherapy and without radiotherapy, the RRs were 1.30 (95%CI 1.13‐1.49) for coronary heart disease and 1.38 (95%CI 1.18‐1.62) for cardiac mortality. Radiotherapy for breast cancer was associated with an absolute risk increase of 76.4 (95%CI 36.8‐130.5) cases of coronary heart disease and 125.5 (95%CI 98.8‐157.9) cases of cardiac death per 100 000 person‐years. The risk started to increase within the first decade for coronary heart disease and from the second decade for cardiac mortality.ConclusionsExposure of the heart to ionizing radiation during radiotherapy for breast cancer increases the subsequent risk of coronary heart disease and cardiac mortality.

Administration of macrolide antibiotics is associated with increased risk for SCD or VTA and cardiovascular death but not increased all-cause mortality.

Chen, X., Clamp, J. C. & Song, W. (2011). Phylogeny and systematic revision of the family Pseudokeronopsidae (Protista, Ciliophora, Hypotricha), with description of a new estuarine species of Pseudokeronopsis. —Zoologica Scripta, 40, 659–671. The family Pseudokeronopsidae is a taxon of hypotrich ciliates with a history of uncertainty regarding its systematic and phylogenetic relationships to other members of the order Urostylida. Phylogenetic analyses of pseudokeronopsids were made using all available molecular and morphological information, and the patterns of morphogenesis of the group were reinvestigated. Results clearly demonstrated that the genera Thigmokeronopsis and Apokeronopsis are not confamilial with Pseudokeronopsis and Nothoholosticha but, instead, must be transferred to the family Urostylidae. A new estuarine species, Pseudokeronopsis erythrina sp. n. was discovered and described using a combination of morphological and molecular characters. Species of Pseudokeronopsis are difficult to characterize but can be distinguished from one another by a combination of morphological and morphogenetic characters. Pseudokeronopsis similis is a freshwater species that has significant morphogenetic differences with other members of the genus and may not be congeneric with them.

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BackgroundAn early repolarization pattern (ERP) has been hypothesized to be arrhythmogenic in experimental studies, but the prognostic significance of the ERP in the general population is controversial. We performed a meta‐analysis to examine the link between ERP and the risk of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), cardiac death, and death from any cause.Methods and ResultsWe performed a literature search using MEDLINE (January 1, 1966 to July 31, 2015) and EMBASE (January 1, 1980 to July 31, 2015) with no restrictions. Studies that reported relative risk (RR) estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the associations of interest were included. Sixteen studies involving 334 524 subjects were identified. Compared with those without ERP, subjects with ERP experienced significantly increased risk for developing SCA (RR 2.18; 95% CI 1.29–3.68), cardiac death (RR 1.48; 95% CI 1.06–2.07), and death from any cause (RR 1.21; 95% CI 1.02–1.42), respectively. The increased risk was present predominantly in Asians and whites but not in African Americans. ERP with J‐point elevation in inferior leads, notching configuration, and horizontal or descending ST segment connote higher risk. ERP was associated with an absolute risk increase of 139.6 (95% CI 130.3–149.3) additional SCAs per 100 000 person‐years and responsible for 7.3% (95% CI 1.9–15.2) of SCA in the general population.Conclusions ERP is associated with significant increased risk for SCA, cardiac death, and death from any cause. Future studies should focus on understanding the exact mechanisms for the arrhythmia risk and developing reliable tools for risk stratification.

energy. However, the uneven distribution of lithium resources and ever-growing price make it hard to fully support the fields of large-scale energy storage and electric vehicles. [3,4] In this context, room temperature sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), which are similar to LIBs in electrochemical characteristics and working mechanisms, emerge as a promising technology for grid-scale energy storage because of the wide abundance in the earth's crust and low cost of sodium resources. [5][6][7][8][9][10] In the past decades, tremendous efforts have been made in exploring appropriate electrode materials for SIBs, such as transition metal oxides, [11][12][13][14][15] phosphates, [16][17][18][19] ferrocyanides, [9,20,21] metal alloys, [22][23][24][25] hard carbon, [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] and chalcogenides, [35][36][37][38][39][40][41] and some of them have shown acceptable electrochemical performance. What's more, a lot of reviews have summarized recent developments in electrode materials for SIBs. [42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] Nevertheless, the larger ionic radius of sodium ion (1.02 Å) compared to lithium ion (0.76 Å) and the higher molar weight of the Na have been regarded as the greatest challenge to hinder the performance improvement of SIBs, resulting in lower energy densities of SIBs compared to the lithium counterpart. In this way, SIB technology is quite suitable for the gridscale facility, where cost and longevity are the more important parameters than the energy density of the device.In the quest to build structurally stable SIBs with long lifespans, various 2D layered transition metal oxides and 3D framework materials have been studied for a long time. [50][51][52] The layered transition metal oxides can deliver high theoretical and reversible capacities, but they suffer from the multiple-phase transition during sodium uptake and lower redox potential owing to their strong covalence nature. [53,54] In addition, they are very sensitive to a moist atmosphere and the adding proportion of sodium resources during synthesis plays a critical role in the composition of the final product. Another type of widely reported cathode material is the Prussian blue analogs which have an open framework to accommodate the large Na + ions and can reversibly extract/insert two Na + per unit at high rates. [55] However, the products synthesized through the traditional process always contain a large number of lattice defects and coordinated water, which have a great influence on the active sites for Na + ion storage. Additionally, the production rate of Prussian blue analogs is low and the structure is thermally unstable, which may arise concerns about cost and safety problems when putting them into practical application. Given this It has long been the goal to develop rechargeable batteries with low cost and long cycling life. Polyanionic compounds offer attractive advantages of robust frameworks, long-term stability, and cost-effectiveness, making them ideal candidates as electrode materials for grid-scale energy stor...

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Seamounts are undersea mountains rising abruptly from the sea floor and interacting dynamically with underwater currents. They represent unique biological habitats with various microbial community structures. Certain seamount bacteria form conspicuous extracellular iron oxide structures, including encrusted stalks, flattened bifurcating tubes, and filamentous sheaths. To extend our knowledge of seamount ecosystems, we performed an integrated study on population structure and the occurrence of magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) that synthesize intracellular iron oxide nanocrystals in sediments of a seamount in the Mariana volcanic arc. We found Proteobacteria dominant at 13 of 14 stations, but ranked second in abundance to members of the phylum Firmicutes at the deep-water station located on a steep slope facing the Mariana-Yap Trench. Live MTB dwell in biogenic sediments from all 14 stations ranging in depth from 238 to 2,023 m. Some magnetotactic cocci possess the most complex flagellar apparatus yet reported; 19 flagella are arranged in a 3:4:5:4:3 array within a flagellar bundle. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences identified 16 novel species of MTB specific to this seamount. Together the results obtained indicate that geographic properties of the seamount stations are important in shaping the bacterial community structure and the MTB composition.