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Moreover, limiting-dilution cell transplantation experiments reveal that activated IL-7R signaling increases the overall frequency of leukemia propagating cells. Our work highlights a synergy between mutant IL7R and Myc in inducing T-ALL and demonstrates that mutant IL7R enriches for leukemia propagating potential.Postmortal interrogation of cardiac implantable electrical devices (CIED) may contribute to the determination of time of death in forensic medicine. Recent studies aimed to improve estimation of time of death by combining findings from autopsy, CIED interrogation and patients´ medical history. CIED from deceased undergoing forensic autopsy were included, if time of death remained unclear after forensic assessment. CIED explanted from deceased with known time of death were analysed as a control cohort. CIED were sent to our device interrogation lab and underwent analysis blinded for autopsy findings, medical history and police reports. The accuracy of time of death determination and the accuracy of time of death in the control cohort served as primary outcome. A total of 87 CIED were analysed. The determination of time of death was possible in 54 CIED (62%, CI 52-72%). The accuracy of the estimated time of death was 92.3% in the control cohort. Certain CIED type and manufacturers were associated with more successful determination. Blinded postmortal analysis enables a valid determination of the time of death in the majority of CIED. Analysis of explanted CIED in a cardiological core lab is feasible and should be implemented in forensic medicine.The effect of the pressureless post-sintering in hydrogen on the structural and mechanical properties of the hot isostatic pressed Al2O3 prepared by oxidized AlN powder has been studied. The micrometer size AlN powder has been oxidized in air at 900° C and sintered by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) at 1700 °C, 20 MPa nitrogen atmosphere for 5 h. Pressureless sintering (PS) has been applied for all HIP sintered samples in H2 gas at 1800° C for 10 h. It has been shown that the oxidation caused a core-shell AlN/Al2O3 structure and the amount of Al2O3 increased with increasing of the oxidation time of the AlN powder. For the first time, the green samples obtained from oxidized AlN powder have been successfully sintered first by HIP followed by post-sintering by PS under hydrogen without adding any sintering additives. All post-sintered samples exhibited the main α-Al2O3 phase. Sintering in H2 caused the full transformation of AlN to α-Al2O3 phase and their better densification. Therefore, the hardness values of post-sintered samples have been increased to 17-18 GPa having apparent densities between 3.11 and 3.39 g/cm3.A design for a CMOS-compatible active waveguide is proposed in which the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) property of the indium-tin-oxide (ITO) is used to induce large variations in the real and imaginary parts of the waveguide effective index. The proposed waveguide comprises a TiN/HfO2/ITO metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structure where the speed and power consumption are significantly improved by the application of the TiN and realization of double accumulation layers in the ITO. Simulations show the insertion loss (IL) of 0.38 dB/μm, extinction ratio (ER) of 11 dB/μm, the energy consumption of 11.87fJ/bit and electrical bandwidth of 280 GHz when the designed waveguide is used as an electro-absorption modulator. The waveguide is then used in an MZI structure to design binary and quadrature-amplitude-modulator (QAM) modulators. For binary modulator, the IL, ER, and VπLπ figures of merit are found to be 1.24 dB, 54 dB, and 6.4 V μm, respectively, which show substantial improvement over previous ITO-based designs. In the QAM design, the symmetry in the real and imaginary parts of the waveguide effective index is employed to obviate the need for additional phase shift elements. This considerably reduces the overall length of the proposed QAM modulator and improves efficiency. Simulations show the energy consumption and bit rate, of 2fJ/bit and 560 Gbps, respectively in a 4-QAM modulator with the overall length of 6.2 μm. The symmetry properties of the proposed waveguide can be further exploited to realize quadrature-phase-shift-keying (QPSK) modulators which here is used in combination with the 4-QAM to propose a design for the more advanced modulation scheme of 16-QAM. The design of ITO-based QAM modulators is here reported for the first time and the abovementioned performance parameters show the unique properties of these modulators in terms of footprint, energy consumption and modulation-speed.

To report the long-term outcomes of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) treatment in eyes with peripapillary choroidal neovascularisation (PPCNV) associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

A retrospective cohort study included patients with AMD-related PPCNV. Eyes were treated with anti-VEGF according to pro re nata regimen. Inactivation index was calculated as the proportion of disease inactivity from the total follow up time.

Sixty-seven eyes of 66 consecutive patients were included in the study; mean follow-up time was 53.2 months. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) remained stable for the first four years of follow up, with a significant deterioration in BCVA thereafter. Baseline BCVA was a significant predictor of final BCVA (p < 0.001). The mean inactivation index was 0.38 ± 0.23. Subretinal fluid (SRF) at presentation was significantly associated with decreased inactivation index (p < 0.05). Worse baseline BCVA, SRF and pigment epithelium detachment (PED), male sex, and younger patient age were associated with increased risk for recurrence after first inactivation (p < 0.05).

The use of anti-VEGF agents in the treatment of AMD-related PPCNV managed to preserve BCVA in the first four years of follow-up. Male sex, SRF and PED at presentation and baseline BCVA are associated with increased risk for PPCNV recurrence after the first inactivation, and should prompt careful follow-up in these patients.

The use of anti-VEGF agents in the treatment of AMD-related PPCNV managed to preserve BCVA in the first four years of follow-up. Male sex, SRF and PED at presentation and baseline BCVA are associated with increased risk for PPCNV recurrence after the first inactivation, and should prompt careful follow-up in these patients.

Pigment epithelial detachments (PEDs) occur in association with various chorioretinal diseases. With respect to the broad clinical spectrum of PEDs we describe fundus autofluorescence (FAF) characteristics of PEDs.

Ninety-three eyes of 66 patients (mean age 71.9 ± 11.1) with uni- or bilateral PED ( ≥ 350 µm) were included in a retrospective cross-sectional study. PEDs were secondary to age-related macular degeneration (n = 79), central serous chorioretinopathy (n = 7), polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (n = 2), pattern dystrophy (n = 3) or idiopathic PED (n = 2). FAF images were recorded using confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (488 nm excitation wavelength, detection of emission >500 nm). Diagnosis of PED was confirmed using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. A qualitative FAF grading system was established, and grading was performed by two independent readers.

PEDs showed highly variable characteristics on FAF imaging. FAF within the area of PED was found to be irregular/granular (n = 59, 63.4%), increased (n = 28, 30.1%), decreased (n = 3, 3.2 %), or normal (n = 3, 3.2%). Accompanying FAF changes included condensation of macular pigment (n = 67, 72.0%), focally increased FAF at the PED apex (n = 14, 15.1%) or elsewhere (n = 52, 55.9%), focally decreased FAF (n = 23, 24.7%), a cartwheel-like pattern (n = 10, 10.8%), a doughnut sign (n = 6, 6.5%), and a halo of decreased FAF encircling the PED (completely n = 20, 21.5% or incompletely n = 20, 21.5%).

PEDs show a variety of abnormal patterns on FAF imaging. These changes in FAF signals may be secondary to morphological and metabolic alterations within corresponding retinal layersand do not necessarily correspond with the underlying PED subtype or a specific pathology.

PEDs show a variety of abnormal patterns on FAF imaging. These changes in FAF signals may be secondary to morphological and metabolic alterations within corresponding retinal layers and do not necessarily correspond with the underlying PED subtype or a specific pathology.The aim of this study was to compare whole lung CT density histograms to predict critical illness outcome and hospital length of stay in a cohort of 80 COVID-19 patients. CT chest images on segmented lungs were retrospectively analyzed. Functional Principal Component Analysis (FPCA) was used to find the main modes of variations on CT density histograms. CT density features, the CT severity score, the COVID-GRAM score and the patient clinical data were assessed for predicting the patient outcome using logistic regression models and survival analysis. ROC analysis predictors of critically ill status 87.5th percentile CT density (Q875)-AUC 0.88 95% CI (0.79 0.94), F1-CT-AUC 0.87 (0.77 0.93) Standard Deviation (SD-CT)-AUC 0.86 (0.73, 0.93). Multivariate models combining CT-density predictors and Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio showed the highest accuracy. SD-CT, Q875 and F1 score were significant predictors of hospital length of stay (LOS) while controlling for hospital death using competing risks models. Moreover, two multivariate Fine-Gray regression models combining the clinical variables age, NLR, Contrast CT factor with either Q875 or F1 CT-density predictors revealed significant effects for the prediction of LOS incidence in presence of a competing risk (death) and acceptable predictive performances (Bootstrapped C-index 0.74 [0.70 0.78]).By precisely writing down the matrix element of the local Boltzmann operator ([Formula see text], where [Formula see text] is the Hermitian conjugate pairs of off-diagonal operators), we have proposed a new path integral formulation for quantum field theory and developed a corresponding Monte Carlo algorithm. With the current formula, the Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation is not necessary, accordingly the determinant calculation is not needed, which can improve the computational efficiency. The results show that, the simulation time has the square-law scaling with system sizes, which is comparable with the usual first-principles calculations. The current formula also improves the accuracy of the Suzuki-Trotter decomposition. As an example, we have studied the one-dimensional half-filled Hubbard model at finite temperature. The obtained results are in excellent agreement with the known solutions. The new formula and Monte Carlo algorithm could be applied to various studies in future.The study aimed to develop and validate whether the computed tomography (CT) radiomics analysis is effective in differentiating cardiac tumors and thrombi. For this retrospective study, a radiomics model was developed on the basis of a training dataset of 192 patients (61.9 ± 13.3 years, 90 men) with cardiac masses detected in cardiac CT from January 2010 to September 2019. We constructed three models for discriminating between a cardiac tumor and a thrombus a radiomics model, a clinical model, which included clinical and conventional CT variables, and a model that combined clinical and radiomics models. In the training dataset, the radiomics model and the combined model yielded significantly higher differentiation performance between cardiac tumors and cardiac thrombi than the clinical model (AUC 0.973 vs 0.870, p  less then  0.001 and AUC 0.983 vs 0.870, p  less then  0.001, respectively). In the external validation dataset with 63 patients (59.8 ± 13.2 years, 26 men), the combined model yielded a larger AUC compared to the clinical model (AUC 0.