2021 SNMMI Illustrates Lecture Oncology as well as Treatment Part 1

GeTe alloy is a promising medium-temperature thermoelectric material but with highly intrinsic hole carrier concentration by thermodynamics, making this system to be intrinsically off-stoichiometric with Ge vacancies and Ge precipitations. Generally, an intentional increase of formation energy of Ge vacancy by element substitution will lead to an effective dissolution of Ge precipitates for reduction in hole concentration. Here, an opposite direction of decreasing the formation energy of Ge vacancies is demonstrated by substituting Cr at Ge site. This strategy produces more but nearly homogenously distributed Ge precipitations and Ge vacancies, which provides enhanced phonon scattering and effectively reduces the lattice thermal conductivity. Furthermore, Cr atom carries one more electron than Ge and serves as an electron donor for decreasing the hole carrier concentrations. Further optimization incorporates the effect of Bi substitution for facilitating band convergence. A maximum figure of merit (ZT) of 2.0 at 600 K with average ZT of over 1.2 is achieved in the sample of Ge0.92 Cr0.03 Bi0.05 Te, making it one of the best thermoelectric materials for medium-temperature application. © 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.BACKGROUND Parotidectomy is often performed as an inpatient procedure largely due to drain insertion; however, outpatient parotidectomy has increasingly become an attractive alternative for its shorter hospital stays and greater efficiency in cost-effectiveness. OBJECTIVE OF REVIEW To assess the safety and feasibility of outpatient (or same day discharge) parotidectomy compared to inpatient parotidectomy. TYPE OF REVIEW Systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis, in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. METHODS Pubmed/Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Google Scholar, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) were searched for articles published in English between 01/01/1990 to 05/10/2019. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used for quality assessment and Review Manager 5.3 for meta-analyses. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Primary outcomes assessed were postoperative complications including bleeding/haematoma, surgical site infection, seroma and facial weakness. Secondary outcome was readmission rate. RESULTS Out of 445 studies identified, 6 were selected for systematic review. The overall quality of evidence was moderate. A total of 3664 patients were included (1646 in the outpatient group and 2018 in the inpatient group). Comparing the outpatient to inpatient cohorts, there were lower complications in outpatient groups though not statistically significant for haematoma (OR= 0.45; 95% CI= 0.11-1.92; p = 0.28), surgical site infection (OR = 0.88; 95% CI = 0.46-1.69; p = 0.70), seroma (0.79; 95% CI = 0.21-3.03; p = 0.74), facial nerve weakness (OR 0.39; 95% CI = 0.14-1.08; p = 0.07) and hospital readmission (OR 0.58; 95% CI = 0.33-1.04; p = 0.07). CONCLUSIONS Outpatient parotidectomy appears to be safe and compares favourably to inpatient procedure in post-operative complication and readmission rates. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.In this series of articles, the board members of ChemSusChem discuss recent research articles that they consider of exceptional quality and importance for sustainability. This entry features Dr. S. Dai, who discusses high-entropy materials (HEMs) as new materials in catalysis. In this viewpoint, two types of HEMs (alloy and non-alloy HEMs), their synthesis, and their application in various catalytic reactions are presented. © 2020 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a central nervous disorder that can result in permanent motor and sensory damage due to a severed communication pathway. Although there is currently no effective treatment, nerve guide tubes have been used to bridge the injured stumps and act as drug delivery systems. In this study, biosynthesized cellulose (BC) nerve guides were prepared, and nerve growth factor (NGF)-a model growth factor-was incorporated into the tubular nerve guide in order to obtain a nerve guide/drug delivery system to assist the regeneration. To achieve this, Gluconacetobacter hansenii was cultivated in a special bioreactor to produce biosynthesized cellulose tubes (BCTs) in situ, and the physical and mechanical properties of the BCTs obtained from different cultivation time points were evaluated. Our results showed that the properties of the BCTs were comparable to those of the native human neural tissues, and that the NGF released from the BCTs was bioactive for at least 7 days as evaluated by PC12 cell cultures in vitro. In summary, this study evaluated the use of BCT as a drug releasing nerve guide, and our results showed that the BCT is an attractive strategy to enhance nerve regeneration after the SCI. Selleckchem BMS-986278 © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Fibrostenosis occurs in both Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Up to 21% of CD patients presented with stricturing behavior at diagnosis while rate of stenosis varies from 1-11% in UC. Despite increasing use of immunomodulators and biologics, there has been no decrease in the rate of progression from inflammatory phenotype to complicated disease phenotype (stricturing or penetrating). Presence of stenosis is an independent risk factor for surgery in patients with CD and patients are at risk of post-operative recurrence with rate up to 55% at 10 years after operation. IBD patients with strictures are at risk of malignant transformation. Thus, surveillance colonoscopy should be offered to this group of patients. Several risk factors for stricture development have been identified. In CD, patients less than 40 years old, presence of perianal disease at diagnosis, need of steroid at first flare and ileal disease are at risk of developing strictures; while in UC, patients with extensive colitis and long-standing disease are risk factors for stricture development. Recently, microbiota signatures have also been identified as marker for stricture development. Presence of Ruminococcus is associated with development of stricture in pediatric Crohn's disease. In this review, we highlight the epidemiology, risk factors and natural history of fibrostenosing IBD. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.