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Small bowel adenocarcinoma (SBA), particularly duodenal adenocarcinoma (DA), is a rare gastrointestinal cancer with a dismal prognosis. Data on SBA treatments are limited, and the therapeutic strategy remains uncertain. Currently, chemotherapy is the most used treatment; however, it has a poor median progression-free survival (mPFS) of no more than five months in the second-line setting. We report a case with DA that responded well to the immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) tislelizumab plus irinotecan in the second-line treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first report of administering ICIs plus chemotherapy to SBA. Despite the absence of microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) and high tumor mutational burden (TMB), the patient with TP53/KRAS mutation achieved a significantly long PFS of 17 months, and the benefit is still ongoing. The mechanism of this remarkable efficacy might be associated with an increase in tumor immunogenicity after chemotherapy. The current study presents a promising effect of ICIs plus chemotherapy on SBA, affirming the need to investigate the clinical value of this combination in SBA and the underlying mechanism behind it.

IntroductionAneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is a type of stroke that occurs due to a ruptured intracranial aneurysm. Although advanced therapies have been applied to treat aSAH, patients still suffer from functional impairment leading to prolonged stays in the NICU. The effect of early progressive mobilization as an intervention implemented in the ICU setting for critically ill patients remains unclear.MethodsThis retrospective study evaluated ICF-based early progressive mobilization's validity, safety, and feasibility in severe aSAH patients. Sixty-eight patients with aSAH with Hunt-Hess grades III-IV were included. They were divided into two groups—progressive mobilization and passive movement. Patients in the progressive mobilization group received progressive ICF-based mobilization intervention, and those in the passive movement group received passive joint movement training. The incidence of pneumonia, duration of mechanical ventilation, length of NICU stay, and incidence of deep vein thrombosis were evaluated for validity. In contrast, the incidence of cerebral vasospasm, abnormally high ICP, and other safety events were assessed for safety. We also described the feasibility of the early mobilization initiation time and the rate of participation at each level for patients in the progressive mobilization group.ResultsThe results showed that the incidence of pneumonia, duration of mechanical ventilation, and length of NICU stay were significantly lower among patients in the progressive mobilization group than in the passive movement group (P = 0.031, P = 0.004, P = 0.012), but the incidence of deep vein thrombosis did not significantly differ between the two groups. Regarding safety, patients in the progressive mobilization group had a lower incidence of cerebral vasospasm than those in the passive movement group. Considering the effect of an external ventricular drain on cerebral vasospasm (P = 0.015), we further analyzed those patients in the progressive mobilization group who had a lower incidence of cerebral vasospasm in patients who did not have an external ventricular drain (P = 0.011). Although we found 2 events of abnormally increased intracranial pressure in the progressive mobilization group, there was no abnormal decrease in cerebral perfusion pressure in the 2 events. In addition, among other safety events, there was no difference in the occurrence of adverse events between the two groups (P = 0.073), but the number of potential adverse events was higher in the progressive mobilization group (P = 0.001). Regarding feasibility, patients in the progressive mobilization group were commonly initiated 72 h after admission to the NICU, and 47.06% were in the third level of the mobilization protocol.DiscussionWe conclude that the ICF-based early progressive mobilization protocol is an effective and feasible intervention tool. For validity, more mobilization interventions might lead to less pneumonia, duration of mechanical ventilation and length of stay for patients with severe aSAH in the NICU, Moreover, it is necessary to pay attention over potential adverse events (especially line problems), although we did not find serious safety events.

The North China Craton (NCC) was stable for more than 2.0 Gyr before a Jurassic–Cretaceous large-scale lithospheric thinning event, but the geodynamic setting during the early phases (Late Jurassic) of NCC reworking remains controversial. We present new petrological and whole-rock geochemical data, zircon and apatite geochemistry, U–Pb ages, O isotopic data, and Sr–Nd isotopic data for two phases of Late Jurassic granite (Linglong and Luanjiahe) from the Jiaobei terrane, southeastern NCC. LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb dating suggests that the Linglong granite formed about 6 Myr earlier than Luanjiahe granite (158 Ma vs 152 Ma), after the inception of the paleo-Pacific plate subduction. High zircon U/Yb ratios, high δ18O values [7.89 ± 0.10‰ to 7.67 ± 0.14‰ (2σ)], and inherited zircon age spectra, as well as high apatite F/Cl ratios and Sr–Nd isotopic compositions, suggest that the Linglong and Luanjiahe granites formed by partial melting of ancient thickened lower continental crust of the NCC and Yangtze Craton. Magma evolution modelling based on Rb and Rb/Nb data suggests a similar decoupled assimilation-fractional crystallization process for the generation of Linglong and Luanjiahe granite but with different assimilation degrees. The water contents of parental magma evaluated by using whole-rock Ba, Sr and apatite F, Cl data indicate that the Linglong granite was formed in a relatively water-rich environment than Luanjiahe. This is consistent with the presence of amphibole and minor negative Eu anomalies in the Linglong granite, as water input can promote amphibole fractionation and suppresses plagioclase crystallization. Considering the similar magma sources but distinct water contents of the granites, and the oblique Paleo-Pacific plate subduction setting in the Late Jurassic, the fluids were likely released from the ocean plate beneath a stacked thickened crust. Since the earliest mafic dikes (OIB-type) in the NCC are coeval with the Luanjiahe granite, we suggest that the lower water contents of the Luanjiahe granite were associated with roll-back that resulted in an increasing distance from slab to continental crust. Such a tectonic transition from subduction compression (158 Ma) to initial extension (152 Ma) in the Late Jurassic perhaps possibly marks the beginning of the reworking of the NCC.

Soft-tissue sarcomas (STS), with over 100 different histologic subtypes, are rare tumors that account for 1% of all adult malignancies. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) display certain benefits in some subtypes, especially in undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS), alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS), and leiomyosarcoma (LMS). However, efficacy is difficult to predict. High tumor mutational burden (TMB-H) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression are the strongest features associated with the efficacy of immunotherapy, although they are rarely found in STS patients. Until now, whether or not PD-L1 expression and TMB are related to the efficacy of immunotherapy has not been determined. In this study, we report data obtained from two STS patients, one ASPS and one UPS with a high TMB, that benefited from anlotinib combined with toripalimab following resistance to anlotinib monotherapy. A 26 year-old female patient was diagnosed with ASPS. PD-L1 was negative. Next generation sequencing (NSG) revealed ASPSCR1-TFE3 fusion and TMB-H. Following eight months of anlotinib monotherapy, the patient’s disease progressed but continued to benefit from subsequent use of anlotinib combined with toripalimab for 19 months. Another 63 year-old male patient was diagnosed with UPS. PD-L1 was positive and NGS revealed TMB-H. Following 19 months of anlotinib monotherapy, the patient’s disease progressed but continued to benefit from subsequent use of anlotinib combined with toripalimab. DFS is 23 months to follow-up time. The results presented are the first to report the relationship between TMB and the efficacy of immunotherapy in STS. Based on our results, we hypothesis that anlotinib combined with toripalimab is effective for the treatment of some advanced ASPS or UPS. TMB may be a potential predictive biomarker for ICI treatment and deserves additional study.

To reveal the composition and distribution of the impact force of the dry granular flow against a flexible barrier, five groups of physical experiments in different slope angles have been carried out. The flow velocities, flow heights and tensile forces of the cables were measured using the high camera and the load cells. Then we developed a model to calculate the total impact force of the dry granular flow against the barrier based on the tensile force of each cable. The results show that the main components the distribution of the maximum impact force vary with the pileup characteristics of the dead zone. The distributions of the maximum impact force change from linearity to nonlinear with the increase in the proportion of the impact force of flowing layer in the maximum impact force. The hydro-static model, the hydro-dynamic model and the limit equilibrium method were using for the estimation of the maximum impact force, respectively. Compared with the estimated results, the hydro-static model is more suitable for estimating the maximum impact force of the dry granular flow when the pileup height is five times greater than the flow height. The empirical static coefficients have close relationship with the ratio of the pileup length to the pileup height.

For a K-user interference channel, the degree of freedom (DoF) which can be achieved through interference alignment (IA) is constrained to signal space dimension governed by the number of Tx/Rx antennas. To overcome this problem, IA can be combined with interference cancellation (IC), involving a new receiver architecture associated with signaling over backhaul links among the different users, as another interference mitigation scheme which is referred to as interference alignment and cancellation (IAC). In our earlier work, by proposing an IAC graph, we have derived the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of closed-form solutions for IAC subject to the given DoF requirement for individual user. Furthermore, we have also shown that it can achieve the theoretically maximum possible DoF, which is 2M for MIMO system with M Tx/Rx antennas. Following our previous works on IAC, we aim to investigate the design criteria to obtain such closed-form transceivers when they exist. We first develop a general closed-form IAC transceiver design for any given DoF requirement of individual user and then, we specify how the optimal IAC transceiver can be designed to achieve the theoretically maximum DoF of 2M, beating the performance of conventional IA with much less computational complexity., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures

Crystallization behavior and morphology of PLA blended with 0.05–1.00 wt % loadings of poly(D-lactic acid) (PDLA) forming stereocomplex crystallites as in-situ nucleating agents, were studied using wideangle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and polarizing-light optical microscopy (POM). Blending PLA with small amount of PDLA does lead to formation of PLA stereocomplex (SC), although the PLA is a random copolymer. The in-situ formed SC crystal acted as nucleation sites in blends and accelerated the crystallization of PLA by decreasing the half-time (t1/2). The nucleation efficiency of PDLA obviously increased and the crystallization induction time decreased while the content of PDLA reached up to 0.20 wt %. While the content of PDLA is 0.2 wt %, the nucleation efficiency of PDLA is up to 43.8%, and the induction time decreased from 430 to 88 s. In addition, compared with pure PLA, t1/2 decreases from 15.1 to 3.5 min at Tc = 127.5°C while the amount PDLA is 1.0 wt %. The equilibrium melting temperature of PLA decreased from 187.2 to 181.2°C with the increase of PDLA content.

Seafood is regarded as a high-purine food that may induce gout, which has attracted extensive attention concerning its safety. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a simple and reliable method to determine the purine content in seafood and its change during storage to offer consumers healthy diet information.; Results: Chromatographic separation was carried out using Waters Atlantis dC18 column, and potassium phosphate monobasic solution (0.02 mol L-1 , pH 3.6) as a mobile phase. The average recovery yields of four purines were 91.5-105.0%, and relative standard deviation values were around 1.8-6.5%. Shrimp and snail contained higher amounts of purine than fish and bivalves; the livers and skins of fish contained higher amounts of purine than muscles; and the main purine varied depending on the type of seafood. Also, purine content of seafood changed during storage.; Conclusion: The purine content of seafood differed depending on species, body part and degree of freshness, which could recommend consumers a healthy diet, especially for people with hyperuricemia and gout. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.; © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.

In view of the serious infection of doctors and nurses in epidemic area, a mobile nursing robot was designed. The robot takes stm32f107 as the core, ultrasonic and infrared sensors as the sensing module, collects the obstacle signals through ultrasonic and infrared sensors, and avoids after stm32f107 processing, so as to realize the free movement of the robot. According to the genetic algorithm, the mobile nursing robot can get the best path, according to the obstacle data in the best path, using the attitude calculation method to achieve the turn. It has been proved that the combination of genetic algorithm and attitude estimation can improve the working efficiency and accuracy of mobile nursing robot.

Cyclin dependent kinases 2 (CDK2), a kind of serine/threonine protein kinase, can form a complex with Cyclin A, which is indispensible ingredient in co-regulating the cell cycle of the DNA synthesis phase (S phase). The disorder of CDK2 gives rise to abnormal cell cycle regulation and thus results in tumor progression. In recent years, the development of highly effective CDK2 inhibitors has become one of the most talked about topics in the field of antitumor drug research. Firstly, the recombinant plasmids of CDK2 and Cyclin A were constructed in this paper. Then the soluble expression protein of CDK2 and Cyclin A were induced in E. coli BL21 (DE3) Plyss cells. The proteins were purified by Ni-beads and eluted by imidazole to obtain recombinant CDK2 and Cyclin A respectively. Next, the in vitro CDK2 kinase activity test platform was constructed with purified CDK2 and Cyclin A. Roscovitine, a well-known CDK inhibitor, was used as a positive control in our screening system. The half of the inhibition concentration (IC50) of Roscovitine in the system was 1.87 μM, which is in agreement with the previous reported. In summary, we established a rapid and stable CDK2 expression system, which could be used for the inhibitor screening and lay a good foundation for the study of new CDK inhibitors in the future.

Detection of circulating tumor DNA using droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) is a highly-sensitive, minimally invasive alternative to serial biopsies for assessment and management of cancer. We used ddPCR to assess the utility of measuring plasma concentrations of common epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations (L858R, exon 19 deletion, and T790M) in 57 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs). High baseline plasma EGFR mutation (pEGFRmut) concentrations were associated with shorter progression-free survival (8.43 months) than low baseline pEGFRmut (16.23 months; p = 0.0019). By contrast, there were no differences in tumor shrinkage or overall survival between groups. During EGFR-TKI treatment, pEGFRmut levels decreased to zero in 89.58% of patients. Twenty-five of the 27 patients who progressed had basal pEGFRmut, and 18 also had circulating T790M. All 20 patients with dramatic progression (according to a categorization system for EGFR-TKIs failure) had basal pEGFRmut, and 13 had T790M mutation at progression. These results support the use of ddPCR for analysis of plasma EGFR mutations for prediction of PFS and to monitor clinical responses to EGFR-TKIs in NSCLC patients.

By using Aydan’s idea in this paper, the basal failure plane of anti-dipped rock slope will be regarded as a linear type plane. However, we consider that there is an angle (also called failure angle) between the basal failure plane and plane normal to the discontinuities, and the value of the failure angle is determined by the stress state of the rock stratums. Based on the principle of the minimum factor of safety, we suppose that the best failure angle is the one with the minimum factor of safety, and a new method to search for the best failure angle is introduced in this paper. The scope of slope failure angle will be in zero to θ0 (the difference between face slope angle and plane normal to the discontinuities). By changing the failure angle constantly, a series of slope safety factors can be obtained through the limit equilibrium method. The minimum one is defined as the final safety factor and the failure angle corresponding to the final safety factor is the final failure angle. The linear type failure plane corresponding to the final safety factor is the basal failure plane of slope. Taking Galandrood highway slope as a numerical example, the result shows that the obtained safety factor is smaller than that obtained by Aydan’s method.

Information on soil water storage (SWS) within soil profiles is essential in order to characterize hydrological and biological processes. One of the challenges is to develop low cost and efficient sampling strategies for area estimation of profile SWS. To test the existence of certain sample locations which consistently represent mean behavior irrespective of soil profile wetness, temporal stability of SWS in ten soil layers from 0 to 400 cm was analyzed in two land uses (grassland and shrub land), on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Temporal stability analyses were conducted using two methods viz. Spearman rank correlation coefficient (r s) and mean relative differences. The results showed that both spatial variability and time stability of SWS increased with increasing soil depth, and this trend was mainly observed at above 200 cm depth. High r s (p

Background: In this paper, the phase modulation coding/decoding technology is discussed for the application in the high attenuation medium based on the simulation and the experiment. Methods: For the decoding perspective, the matched filter and the inverse filter are compared. An extra processing is introduced right after the matched filtering to restrain the range sidelobes. Furthermore, in the latter part of this paper, the factors to cause a degeneration in signal-noise ratio are quantitatively evaluated by simulation beam pattern and Doppler signal. Results: Based on the experiments and simulation in this paper, it's found that the signal amplitude get significant boosted (30dB) while the range resolution is compatible with the span of a single pulse. It's also proved that the frequency dependent phase distortion from attenuation will cause more degeneration than Doppler effect, but even this influence can be compensated by the equalization.

This paper proposes a on-line modeling and control approach through Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy-neural model for a class of generalized multiple input multiple output (MIMO) nonlinear dynamic systems with external disturbances. Nonlinear systems are exactly formed a linearized system via the mean value theroem, and then the T-S fuzzy-neural model can approximate the linearized system. Then on-line identificatoin algorithm and an adaptive scheme are used on tracking controller design. A hypersonic vehicle is modeled and attitude controller is designed using the proposed method. Simulation results on guidance, navigation and control (GNC) platform show a satisfactory performance for the attitude tracking.

Virtualization technology brings us a lot of benefits, but the loss in performance hindered its more widespread application. This paper studies the communication process between hardware-assisted virtualization domains to identify the performance bottleneck, proposes and implements a method to enhance inter-domain communication performance. In the new method, the inter-domain communication path bypasses the domain 0, achieves high-speed data transmission between domains through the shared memory. The new method reduces the data transmission path, improves the communication latency and bandwidth, reduces the number of domain switch, and significantly improves the performance.

Space-time adaptive processing technique is an adaptive processing scheme in both space and time, which could suppress broadband jammer effectively. STAP at subarray level for phased array is studied. The structure of subarray level STAP is analyzed and the signal model is presented. The space-time covariance matrix and steering vector are constructed. Subarray level STAP could suppress broadband jammer effectively; compared with conventional ADBF at subarray level (only adaptive processing in space), better null performance in the jammer direction could be achieved and output SINR could be improved remarkably. Simulation results demonstrate the validity of the introduced approach.

In MIMO communication systems, the channel correlation has influence on the pairwise error probability of space-time coding, and the channel correlation matrix can be modeled as the Kronecker product of the temporal correlation matrix and the spatial correlation matrix. The Euclidean distance between two space-time codeword can be written as the combination of independent chi-square random variables, and the probability density function of the Euclidean distance is calculated by Laplace transform, thus the closed-form expression for the pairwise error probability is derived. Simulation results verify the validity of our method.

The multiband behavior of isosceles triangle Sierpinski Gasket antenna is studied in this paper with an iterative method. Based on a Sierpinski Gasket antenna which has finite iterations, a multiport network iterative model has been built to analysis the S parameters. The model is simple, but the computational result has effective prediction in antenna's multiband. Comparing with equilateral triangle one, this paper's result is more complex but representative. The measured data from other papers' has assessed the result's validity.

Relayed transmission is a promising technique that helps in attaining broader coverage and in combating the impairment of the wireless channel. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique is promising for the next generation wireless communication system. Therefore, the combination of two techniques named OFDM-relay will be a good candidate technology for future wideband wireless communication. This paper investigates the resource allocation of two-hop regenerative OFDM relay system with/without diversity. Optimization of power allocation (PA) is proposed to maximize the channel capacity and subcarrier pairing strategy is adopted to improve the system performance further. In addition, the resource allocation for multi-hop OFDM system without diversity is also presented. The resource allocation is based on the instantaneous channel state information (ICSI) and aims to maximize the system capacity. The order pairing strategy is proved to be a good choice for multi-hop regenerative OFDM relay system without diversity. The simulation results show that combining with the pairing algorithm, efficient power allocation will greatly improve the system capacity.

Leaded and lead-free BGA packages were tested in board level drop test defined in the JEDEC standard. The results of experiment were employed to modify the Darveaux model to extend its application to the drop test by re-calculating the values of the parameters contained in this model. FEA models with different materials, height and pitch of solder balls were established. The characteristic of the impact applied on the PCB assembly in the drop test is the very high peak acceleration and very short pulse duration. The stress and strain of the typical nodes in these models were calculated in LS-DYNA, which is very appropriate for the simulations under these conditions. The average strain energy density was also calculated to predict the lifetime of solder joints in these different material and geometrical conditions through this modified Darveaux model. The experiment and simulation reveal that the solder joints in the corners of the package suffer much higher plastic strain and are more susceptible to fail. The mainly failure mechanism in board level drop test is the plastic-strain-induced crack at the interface between the solder balls and the pads in the packages. Lead-free solder joints have longer lifetime in board level drop test than leaded ones because of their relatively higher elastic modulus and yield stress. Optimal height and pitch of solder balls exist, which lead to lowest plastic strain and best performance in the drop test

This thesis develops semi-automated methods to generate testbenches for VHDL models of communication systems. To illustrate the methods, a VHDL model was constructed for the speech-coding channel of the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). GSM is the Pan-European digital mobile telephony standard specified by the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI). This thesis emphasizes the error detection and error correction procedures that form an important part of the standard. First, a test bench template was generated using "Testbench Pro", a waveform generation tool developed by SynaptiCAD. The template includes a random sequence of speech data. A C program was then developed as a user interface to control the simulation procedure. Using the C program, the user can select a test bench template and specify the input test vectors. The C program adds the user's test vectors to the test bench template to create a final VHDL test bench that is ready for simulation. The testing data is then encoded by the GSM encoder models, passed through the noisy channel model that introduces errors into the data stream and, finally, passed through the GSM decoder models which attempt to correct the channel errors. Sophisticated error detection and error correction algorithms are used in the encoder/decoder models to increase the reliability of data transmission over the noisy channel. Finally, the original speech data is compared to the decoder output to detect any remaining bit errors and to evaluate the system performance. The simulation system is semi-automated. The user selects a set of parameters using the C program interface. A testbench is then automatically created and simulated. Two final report files are automatically generated. No user interaction is needed after the initial parameter selection. Several experiments were performed to illustrate the various features of the automated testbench generation system. Master of Science

Space-charge forces acting in mismatched beams have been identified as a major cause of beam halo. In this paper,we describe the beam halo experimental results in a FODO beam line at IHEP. With this beam transport line, experiments are carried out to compare the measured data with the multi-particle...

The aim is to prepare a kind of sodium alginate microcapsules which could slowly release fish allergens.The spherical alginate microcapsules were prepared by the ionotropic gelation method and the microcapsules were formed by adding sodium alginate into aqueous solution containing calcium chloride.The prepared microcapsules were characterized by FTIR,DSC and SEM methods.The releasing mechanism of parvalbumin from the microcapsules was established based on equation fitting of release kinetics model.Parvalbumin could be embedded into alginate microcapsules.The entrapment efficiency was 69.24% while the loading ratio was 21.06%.The surface of microcapsules which had plenty of tiny holes was rough.The result of protein release in vitro showed that parvalbumin released rapidly in the first 5 hours,and then gradually achieved maximum.The release kinetics model suited Higuchi equation and Ritger-Peppas equation well.Fish allergen could be entrapped by sodium alginate,meanwhile allergen controlled-release was achieved.The mechanism fits with skeleton erosion in addition to protein diffusion mechanism.

High output power very-small-aperture laser has been created on 650nm edge emitting laser diodes.The far-field output power is 0.4mW at the 25mA driving current,and the highest output power exceeds 1mW. The special fabrication process is described and the failure mechanism leading to the short lifetime of the devices is discussed.

In this paper we demonstrate theoretically and numerically that the conjugate inversion of the frequency spectra of solitons , periodically along the optical fiber lines, can restrain effectively both the interactions among the solitons and the influence of the self-frequency shift of the solitons on the ultra-short soliton-pair propagations.

We present a photonic meta-material with planar dielectric chiral structures on SU-8 realized using nanoimprint lithography (NIL). A Si template with chiral structure arrays was first fabricated by electron beam lithography (EBL) followed by reactive ion etch (RIE). The chiral pattern on the template was then transferred to a SU-8 layer spin coated on Pyrex using an in-house developed press. The imprint property of SU-8 under various pressures and temperatures was systematically studied. The optimized imprint process was successfully applied for the fabrication of planar chiral structure in SU-8. The periodically distributed chiral elements form a photonic crystal with the pitch of 4 μm. Optical diffraction of such kind of periodically arranged chiral structures in SU-8 has been observed for the first time.