One of the main challenges for immune checkpoint blockade antibodies lies in malignancies with limited T-cell responses or immunologically “cold” tumors. Inspired by the capability of fever-like heat in inducing an immune-favorable tumor microenvironment, mild photothermal therapy (PTT) is proposed to sensitize tumors to immune checkpoint inhibition and turn “cold” tumors “hot.” Here we present a combined all-in-one and all-in-control strategy to realize a local symbiotic mild photothermal-assisted immunotherapy (SMPAI). We load both a near-infrared (NIR) photothermal agent IR820 and a programmed death-ligand 1 antibody (aPD-L1) into a lipid gel depot with a favorable property of thermally reversible gel-to-sol phase transition. Manually controlled NIR irradiation regulates the release of aPD-L1 and, more importantly, increases the recruitment of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and boosts T-cell activity against tumors. In vivo antitumor studies on 4T1 and B16F10 models demonstrate that SMPAI is an effective and promising strategy for treating “cold” tumors.

MHO participants had a higher prevalence of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis than metabolically-healthy normal-weight participants, which supports the idea that MHO is not a harmless condition. This association, however, was mediated by metabolic risk factors at levels below those considered abnormal, which suggests that the label of metabolically healthy for obese subjects may be an artifact of the cutoff levels used in the definition of metabolic health.

Background Extremely abnormal prolongation of the electrocardiographic QT interval is associated with malignant ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. However, the implications of variations in QT-interval length within normal limits for mortality in the general population are still unclear. Methods We performed a meta-analysis to investigate the relation of QT interval with mortality endpoints. Inverse-variance weighted random-effects models were used to summarize the relative risks across studies. Twenty-three observational studies were included. Results The pooled relative risk estimates comparing the highest with the lowest categories of QT-interval length were 1.35 (95% confidence interval = 1.24–1.46) for total mortality, 1.51 (1.29–1.78) for cardiovascular mortality, 1.71 (1.36–2.15) for coronary heart disease mortality, and 1.44 (1.01–2.04) for sudden cardiac death. A 50 msec increase in QT interval was associated with a relative risk of 1.20 (1.15–1.26) for total mortality, 1.29 (1.15–1.46) for cardiovascular mortality, 1.49 (1.25–1.76) for coronary heart disease mortality, and 1.24 (0.97–1.60) for sudden cardiac death. Conclusions We found consistent associations between prolonged QT interval and increased risk of total, cardiovascular, coronary, and sudden cardiac death. QT-interval length is a determinant of mortality in the general population.

Overall hypertension prevalence has not changed in the U.S. in recent decades, though awareness, treatment, and control improved. However, hypertension epidemiology and its temporal trends may differ in younger adults compared with older adults. Our study included 41,331 participants ≥ 18 years of age from eight National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES; 1999 to 2014) and estimated temporal trends of hypertension, awareness, treatment, and control among young adults (age 18–39 years) compared with middle-age (40–59 years) and older adults (≥ 60 years). In 2013–2014, 7.3% of the U.S. young adults had hypertension. Over 1999–2014, young adults saw larger increases in hypertension awareness, treatment, and control than did older adults. However, all of these components of hypertension control were lower among young adults compared to middle-aged or older adults (74.7% younger vs. 81.9% middle vs. 88.4% older for awareness; 50.0% vs. 70.3% vs. 83.0% for treatment; and 40.2% vs. 56.7% vs. 54.4% for control). Worse hypertension awareness, treatment, and control in young adults overall were mostly driven by worse measures in young adult men compared with young adult women. More frequent healthcare visits by young adult women explained about 28% of the sex-related difference in awareness, 60% of the difference in treatment, and 52% of the sex difference in control. These findings suggest that improved access to and engagement in medical care might improve hypertension control in young adults, particularly young adult men, and reduce life-time cardiovascular risk.

Mitochondrial DNA-CN was independently associated with incident CVD in 3 large prospective studies and may have potential clinical utility in improving CVD risk classification.

Since the discovery of nanobelts of semiconducting oxides in 2001, [1] planar structures of nanobelts have been intensively researched because they present a good system for examining dimensionally confined and structurally well-defined physical and chemical phenomena. [1,2] Nanobelts, with a rectangular cross section and well-defined faceted surfaces, enable the observation of unique optical-confinement, microcavity, catalysis, and piezoelectricity effects. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9] According to classical waveguide theory, waveguides of different cross sections will exhibit different transverse optical modes.[10] Nanobelts with rectangular cross sections have been used as effective FabryPerot microcavities for lasing. [11] In the past few years, fieldeffect transistors, [12] nanometer-sized ultrasensitive gas sensors, [13] resonators, [14] and cantilevers [15] have been fabricated based on individual nanobelts. Thermal transport along the nanobelt has also been measured. [16] Recent studies on the preparation of rare-earth hydroxide and oxide nanostructures have shown that 1D nanostructures can be prepared by a hydrothermal method, which leads us to believe that 1D nanostructured hydroxides might be prepared via hydrothermal treatment of their counterpart oxides in an autoclave. [17][18][19] In turn, 1D nanostructured oxides might be obtained from dehydration of their counterpart nanostructured hydroxides. [17,18] However, the high pressure in an autoclave suggests high vessel costs, which, on a large scale, would result in expensive, high-tech production. Here, we develop an approach for the synthesis of ultralong nanobelt-like hydroxides by using a composite-hydroxide-mediated (CHM) synthesis method, [20,21] Lanthanum hydroxide (La(OH) 3 ) nanobelts were prepared by adding La(CH 3 COO) 3 to a mixture of hydroxides (NaOH/KOH = 51.5:48.5) in a covered Teflon vessel and heating the mixture in a furnace at 200°C for 48 h. An X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of the obtained La(OH) 3 product is shown in Figure 1b. All peaks can be perfectly indexed as the pure hexagonal phase (P6 3 /m (176), Joint Comittee on Powder Diffraction Standards (JCPDS) file number 36-1481) of La(OH) 3 , with lattice constants a = 6.529 Å and c = 3.859 Å.The morphology of the obtained La(OH) 3 product was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Figure 1a gives the low-magnification image of La(OH) 3 , in which the nanobelts are seen to be up to a few millimeters in length. The beltlike structure is seen in the high-magnification images in Figure 1c . By examining the nanobelts in detail, we found that the ends have an arrowlike shape (Fig. 1e) and that the cross sections are rectangular (Fig. 1f). COMMUNICATION 470

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Background Appendicitis remains a common indication for urgent surgical intervention in the United States, and early appendectomy has long been advocated to mitigate the risk of appendiceal perforation. To better quantify the risk of perforation associated with delayed operative timing, this study examines the impact of length of inpatient stay preceding surgery on rates of perforated appendicitis in both adults and children. Methods This study was a cross-sectional analysis using the National Inpatient Sample and Kids’ Inpatient Database from 1988–2008. We selected patients with a discharge diagnosis of acute appendicitis (perforated or nonperforated) and receiving appendectomy within 7 d after admission. Patients electively admitted or receiving drainage procedures before appendectomy were excluded. We analyzed perforation rates as a function of both age and length of inpatient hospitalization before appendectomy. Results Of 683,590 patients with a discharge diagnosis of appendicitis, 30.3% were recorded as perforated. Over 80% of patients underwent appendectomy on the day of admission, approximately 18% of operations were performed on hospital days 2–4, and later operations accounted for <1% of cases. During appendectomy on the day of admission, the perforation rate was 28.8%; this increased to 33.3% for surgeries on hospital day 2 and 78.8% by hospital day 8 (P < 0.001). Adjusted for patient, procedure, and hospital characteristics, odds of perforation increased from 1.20 for adults and 1.08 for children on hospital day 2 to 4.76 for adults and 15.42 for children by hospital day 8 (P < 0.001). Conclusions Greater inpatient delay before appendectomy is associated with increased perforation rates for children and adults within this population-based study. These findings align with previous studies and with the conventional progressive pathophysiologic appendicitis model. Randomized prospective studies are needed to determine which patients benefit from nonoperative versus surgically aggressive management strategies for acute appendicitis.