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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is highly resistant to radiation therapy (RT), chemotherapy, or a combination of these modalities, and surgery remains the only curative intervention for localized disease. Although cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are abundant in PDAC tumors, the effects of RT on CAFs and the response of PDAC cells to RT are unknown. Using patient samples and orthotopic PDAC biological models we showed that RT increased inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in the tumor tissues. Mechanistic in vitro studies showed that, although undetectable in RT-activated tumor cells, iNOS expression and nitric oxide (NO) secretion were significantly increased in CAFs secretome following RT. Culture of PDAC cells with conditioned media from RT-activated CAFs increased iNOS/NO signaling in tumor cells through nuclear factor kappa B (NFĸB), which in turn elevated the release of inflammatory cytokines by the tumor cells. Increased NO after RT in PDAC contributed to an acidic microenvironment that was detectable using the radiolabeled pH (low) insertion peptide (pHLIP®). In murine orthotopic PDAC models, pancreatic tumor growth was delayed when iNOS inhibition was combined with RT. These data show the important role that iNOS/NO signaling plays in the effectiveness of RT to treat PDAC tumors. Copyright ©2020, American Association for Cancer Research.PURPOSE To evaluate the effects of 0.01% and 0.02% atropine eye drops on myopia progression, pupil diameter and accommodative amplitude in myopic children. METHODS A cohort study assessed 400 myopic children divided into three groups 138 and 142 children were randomised to use either 0.02% or 0.01% atropine eye drops, respectively. They wore single-vision (SV) spectacles, with one drop of atropine eye drop applied to both eyes once nightly. Control children (n=120) only wore SV spectacles. Repeated measurements of spherical equivalent refractive errors (SERs), axial length (AL), pupil diameter and accommodative amplitude were performed at baseline, and 4, 8 and 12 months after treatment. RESULTS After 12 months, the SER change was -0.38±0.35D, -0.47±0.45D, -0.70±0.60D and AL change was 0.30±0.21 mm, 0.37±0.22 mm, 0.46±0.35 mm in the 0.02%, 0.01% atropine and control groups, respectively. There were significant differences in the change in AL and SER between three groups (all p less then 0.001). Between baseline and the 12-month visit, the overall change in accommodative amplitude was 1.50±0.25D, 1.61±0.31D and change in pupil diameter was 0.78±0.42 mm, 0.69±0.39 mm, with 0.02% and 0.01% atropine, respectively. Accommodative amplitude significantly decreased and pupil diameter significantly increased in two atropine groups (all p less then 0.001). Moreover, there was no statistical difference in the change difference in accommodative amplitude and pupil diameter between two atropine groups (p=0.24, p=0.38), whereas the accommodative amplitude (p=0.45) and pupil diameter (p=0.39) in the control group remained stable. CONCLUSIONS 0.02% atropine eye drops had a better effect on myopia progression than 0.01% atropine, but 0.02% and 0.01% atropine showed similar effects on pupil diameter and accommodative amplitude after 12 months of treatment. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER ChiCTR-IPD-16008844. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.BACKGROUND There is scarcity of data on impact of rituximab on anthropometrical parameters (weight, height and body mass index i.e. BMI SD score (SDS)) among children with steroid-dependent nephrotic syndromes (SDNS). METHODS Multicentre retrospective review. RESULTS 102 children with SDNS (male 63%; n=64), median age 7 (IQR 4.3-9.6) years, received a total of 217 rituximab infusions (total 110 cycles). At median follow-up of 2.1 (IQR 1.3-2.8) years, 58 (57%) children were off steroids and a significant fall in steroid threshold for relapse was noted (median 0.6; IQR 0.4-0.9 to median 0.3; IQR 0.12 - 0.5 mg/kg/alternate day, p=0.005). Anthropometric parameters (BMI SDS 0.92±1.8 to 0.25±1.47, p=0.003; weight SDS 0.20±1.6 to -0.11±1.3, p=0.01; and height SDS -0.93±1.88 to -0.45±1.54, p=0.04) as well as obesity (38% to 20%, p=0.003) and short stature (11% to 3%, p=0.02) improved. Results remained significant even when analysis was restricted to children ≤12 years (n=88), (BMI SDS 0.97±1.98 to 0.25±1.5, p=0.001; weight SDS 0.33±1.6 to 0.02±1.2, p=0.01; and height SDS -0.67±1.84 to -0.186±1.42, p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS Use of rituximab resulted in significant steroid sparing effect with an improvement in both growth and obesity parameters. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.This article concentrates on event-based secure leader-following consensus control for multiagent systems (MASs) with multiple cyber attacks, which contain replay attacks and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. A new multiple cyber-attacks model is first built by considering replay attacks and DoS attacks simultaneously. Different from the existing researches on MASs with a fixed topological graph, the changes of communication topologies caused by DoS attacks are considered for MASs. Besides, an event-triggered mechanism is adopted for mitigating a load of network bandwidth by scheduling the transmission of sampled data. Then, an event-based consensus control protocol is first developed for MASs subjected to multiple cyber attacks. In view of this, by using the Lyapunov stability theory, sufficient conditions are obtained to ensure the mean-square exponential consensus of MASs. Furthermore, the event-based controller gain is derived by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, an example is simulated for confirming the effectiveness of the theoretical results.This article is concerned with the finite-time containment control problem for nonlinear multiagent systems, in which the states are not available for control design and the control input contains time delay. Fuzzy-logic systems (FLSs) are used to approximate the unknown nonlinear functions and a novel distributed fuzzy state observer is proposed to obtain the unmeasured states. TJ-M2010-5 Under the framework of cooperative control and finite-time Lyapunov function theory, an observer-based adaptive fuzzy finite-time output-feedback containment control scheme is developed via the adaptive backstepping control design algorithm and integral compensator technique. The proposed adaptive fuzzy containment control method can ensure that the closed-loop system is stable and all followers can converge to the convex hull built by the leaders in finite time. A simulation example is provided to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control method.