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There is still a paucity of research on the relationship between triglyceride-glucose-body mass index (TyG-BMI) and long-term all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between the TyG-BMI index and mortality rate and to determine valuable predictive factors for the survival status of this population. Data were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 2001–2018) and the National Death Index (NDI). We used multivariate Cox regression and restricted cubic spline (RCS) to analyze the link between the TyG-BMI index and all-cause and CVD mortality. Subgroup analysis was conducted according to age, gender, race, education and poverty. In addition, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were utilized to assess the differentiation of the TyG-BMI index in predicting mortality. A total of 3089 individuals were enrolled. Over a median follow-up period of 81 months, 1097 individuals passed away. The RCS analysis revealed a U-shaped link between the TyG-BMI index and all-cause and CVD mortality. The ROC curve indicated that the TyG-BMI index has a stronger diagnostic effect than the TyG index. Subgroup analysis results demonstrated that the TyG-BMI index was more significantly correlated with all-cause and CVD mortality rates in elderly patients. In the American population, a U-shaped association was discovered between the baseline TyG-BMI index and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality rates in CKD patients. The thresholds for all-cause and CVD mortality were found to be 299.31 and 294.85, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pasteurization (PS) causes the abnormal changes in volatiles and off-flavors in juices and limit the commercial production of juices. Herein, the first study on the biochemical reaction of volatile and nonvolatile compounds in response to PS factors during the process of sea buckthorn pulp (SBP) was evaluated. Processing conditions (mainly 80 °C for 20 min) had significant effects on the volatile and nonvolatile compounds. The restricted unsaturated fatty acid metabolism led to the greatest decrease of 20.25% in esters with fruity odor, and furans, smelling like caramel and toast, exhibited the highest increase of 136.40% because of the enhancement of the Maillard reaction. Dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl trisulfide elicited a cooked onion-like off-flavor, generated mainly from Strecker degradation of sulfur-containing amino acids, strengthened by the high pH and sufficient substrates due to the highest consumption rates of 4.66% and 12.01% for organic acids and sugars. Reasonable temperature and time control are crucial to the improvement of the process for PS for the SBP industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deinococcus radiodurans (DR) exhibits strong resistance to ionizing radiation. In this study, by constructing a radiation-resistant genetically engineered strain overexpressing the Cs gene, the tolerance of the bacterium to aluminum ions was enhanced, thereby achieving the goal of microbial sustainable remediation of uranium-contaminated environments. Methods: 1. Extraction of the recombinant plasmid pRADK-Cs, transformation into DR, and verification. 2. Investigation of factors such as time and initial uranium concentration on the efficiency of uranium accumulation by the recombinant strain, characterized by changes in functional groups and surface morphology before and after accumulation using techniques such as scanning electron microscope. Conclusions: The recombinant strain Deino-Cs can reduce the inhibitory effect of aluminum ions on uranium accumulation capability, and it exhibits a higher uranium accumulation rate compared to the wild-type strain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbonaceous particles are an important chemical component of atmospheric fine particles. In this study, a single particle aerosol mass spectrometer was used to continuously measure the carbonaceous particles in Chengdu, one of the megacities most affected by haze in China, from January 22 to March 3, 2021. During the observation period, the average mass concentration of PM2.5 was 62.3 ± 37.2 μg m−3, and the emissions from mobile sources were more prominent. Carbonaceous particles accounted for 68.6% of the total particles and could be classified into 10 categories, with elemental carbon (EC) mixed with sulfate (EC-S) particles making the highest contribution (33.1%). EC particles rich in secondary components and organic carbon (OC) particles rich in secondary component exhibited different diurnal variations, suggesting different sources and mixing mechanisms. From "excellent" to "polluted" days, the contributions of EC-S, EC mixed with sulfate and nitrate (EC-SN) and OC mixed with EC (OC-EC) particles increased by 9.8%, 4.5% and 6.6%, respectively, and thus these particles are key targets for future pollution control. The potential source contribution of the southwest area was stronger than that of other areas, and the potential contribution of regional transport to EC-related particles was stronger than to OC-related particles. Most particles were highly mixed with sulfate or nitrate, and the level of secondary mixing further enhanced as pollution worsened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To compare the efficiency and safety of a novel flexible ureteral access sheath (f-UAS) and traditional ureteral access sheath (UAS) during retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS). Patients and methods: Between January 2022 and September 2022, a total of 152 consecutive cases with renal stones underwent RIRS with the f-UAS. Their outcomes were compared with those of another 152 consecutive cases undergoing RIRS with traditional UAS using a 1:1 scenario matched-pair analysis, with matching parameters including age and stone size. The f-UAS is a novel UAS with a 10-cm-long tube at the tip that can follow the bends of flexible ureteroscope (f-URS). Results: Baseline characteristics were found to be similar between the two groups. The f-UAS group demonstrated significantly higher SFR (76.3% vs. 7.2%; P < 0.001) at 1 day postoperatively and a higher clearance rate of stone volume (98.11% vs. 91.78%; P < 0.001). The f-UAS group also had lower total complications rate (9.9% vs. 22.4%; P = 0.003), lower incidence of fever (5.9% vs 11.9%; P = 0.001), shorter operative times (56.5 min vs. 59.9 min; P = 0.047), and lower usage rate of baskets (17.1% vs. 100%; P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in SFR at 1 month postoperatively (P = 0.627) and in the length of postoperative hospital stay between the two groups (P = 0.225). Conclusion: Compared to the traditional UAS during RIRS, the f-UAS showed several advantages, including higher SFR at 1 day postoperatively, shorter operative times, lower incidence of complications, and less use of basket. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permafrost active layer soils are harsh environments with thaw/freeze cycles and sub-zero temperatures, harboring diverse microorganisms. However, the distribution patterns, assembly mechanism, and driving forces of soil microeukaryotes in permafrost remain largely unknown. In this study, we investigated microeukaryotes in permafrost active layer across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) using 18S rRNA gene sequencing. The results showed that the microbial eukaryotic communities were dominated by Nematozoa, Ciliophora, Ascomycota, Cercozoa, Arthropoda, and Basidiomycota in terms of relative abundance and operational taxonomic unit (OTU) richness. Nematozoa had the highest relative abundance, while Ciliophora had the highest OTU richness. These phyla had strong interactions between each other. Their alpha diversity and community structure were differently influenced by the factors associated to location, climate, and soil properties, particularly the soil properties. Significant but weak distance-decay relationships with different slopes were established for the communities of these dominant phyla, except for Basidiomycota. According to the null model, community assemblies of Nematozoa and Cercozoa were dominated by heterogeneous selection, Ciliophora and Ascomycota were dominated by dispersal limitation, while Arthropoda and Basidiomycota were highly dominated by non-dominant processes. The assembly mechanisms can be jointly explained by biotic interactions, organism treats, and environmental influences. Modules in the co-occurrence network of the microeukaryotes were composed by members from different taxonomic groups. These modules also had interactions and responded to different environmental factors, within which, soil properties had strong influences on these modules. The results suggested the importance of biological interactions and soil properties in structuring microbial eukaryotic communities in permafrost active layer soil across the QTP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the optimal location of flexible ureteral access sheath (f-UAS) in retrograde intrarenal lithotripsy (RIRS). RIRS model was built by AutoCAD 2011 software, and imported COMSOL 5.6 software to computer simulation. An RIRS model was constructed in vitro to analyze the distribution pattern of stone fragments and compare the weight of stone fragments carried out by the irrigation fluid when the f-UAS is in different positions. Computer simulation showed that the highest flow of irrigation fluid was in the channel of flexible ureteroscopy (f-URS) and in the lumen of f-UAS. From the f-URS to the renal collection system and then to the f-UAS, the velocity of irrigation fluid changes gradually from high-flow to low-flow and then to high-flow. When the f-URS and the f-UAS are at the same level, the irrigation fluid is always at a state of high flow during the process from f-URS to f-UAS. When the f-URS and the f-UAS are at the same level, it can increase the local intrarenal pressure (IRP) at the front of f-URS. The stone fragments are mainly sediment in the low-flow region of irrigation fluid. More stone fragments could follow the irrigation fluid out of the body when the tip of f-URS and the tip of f-UAS are at the same level (P < 0.001). The f-UAS should be brought closer to the stone in RIRS. And more stone fragments can be taken out of the body by the effect of irrigation fluid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote controlling using surface electromyography (sEMG) plays a more and more important role in a human–robot interface, such as controlling prosthesis devices, and exoskeleton. Different gestures are controlled by the cooperation of muscle groups, and sEMG represent the energy of the activated muscle fibers. With the limit of the low performance of wearable device, this article proposed a remote hand gesture recognized system based on deep learning framework of multi-attention mechanism convolutional neural network using sEMG energy to decoding hand gestures with remote server host. In the first part, an adaptive channel weighted method is proposed on multi-channel data of sEMG for enhancing the related feature map of sEMG and reducing the feature map low contribution of sEMG. The second part is improving the shortcuts by adding adaptively weighted instead of a simple short concatenation of feature maps. A novel multi-attention deep learning framework with multi-view (MMDL) for hand gestures recognition is proposed in our study, using sEMG. We verify the MMDL framework on myo dataset, myoUp dataset, and ninapro DB5, with the average accuracy 99.27%, 97.86%, and 97.0%, which is improved by 0.46%, 18.88%, 7% compared with prior works. In addition, the framework can classify seven hand gestures with 99.92% accuracy on ours datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (cTENS), which uses a modulated square waveform as stimuli, has been generally used in testing and eliciting artificial tactile perception in forearm amputees. However, a novel neuromorphic TENS (nTENS) model based on neural signals has been largely ignored. In this study, we further explore the effect of nTENS patterns to elicit tactile perception in forearm amputees. Four forearm amputees were recruited to test discriminate tactile perception elicited by different TENS patterns with electroencephalography (EEG) recording at the following four stimulated sites: the index finger and the little finger on both phantom and real sides. Finally, we compared the results of cortical networks in six frequency bands at different stimulated sites between forearm amputees and able-bodied subjects. Behavioral results suggested that nTENS patterns required a lower electric charge at each stimulated site than cTENS patterns. And forearm amputees required a higher intensity in each TENS pattern than able-bodied subjects. Moreover, amputees showed a lower clustering coefficient (aCP), global efficiency (aEG), local efficiency (aEL), and a longer path length (aLP) than able-bodied subjects in all six frequency bands when stimulation was accessed. Specifically, the SMU pattern showed a higher functional network efficiency in real fingers than at phantom sites in theta, alpha, and high gamma bands. This study highlighted the characteristics of nTENS patterns in eliciting tactile perception among forearm amputees, which provided insights into evaluating the neural mechanism of tactile information processing in forearm amputees and building tactile perceptual systems for sensory rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uptaking U(VI) from the environment by biological method is an environmental friendly and efficient way. In this work, we have acquired and isolated the protein DSR A by genetic engineering, then assessed its capacity and mechanisms to absorb U(VI) from wastewater. As results, we proved that protein DSR A can precisely recognize, enrich and remove uranyl ions in simulated wastewater solution. Its great removal potential was demonstrated in the adsorption experiments, the adsorption capacity of protein DSR A can reach 182.3 mg/g in the condition at 10 mg/L U(VI) and pH = 6. The Langmuir isotherm model and the pseudo-first-order kinetic equation were used to better describe the absorption process. We can confirm that Na+, Sr2+ and K+, these three metal ions have less effect on the enrichment of U(VI) by protein DSR A compared with other common cations. Besides, we can educe some mechanisms for the removal of U (VI) by protein DSR A from the results of FTIR, SEM–EDS, XPS (binding energy = 2.0 ~ 4.0ke V), MAP and XRD analysis before and after adsorption. This work has demonstrated the great potential of genetic engineering and biological methods in dealing with environmental heavy ion pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bladder cancer (BC) survival has shown no significant improvement. This study investigated the trends in the common causes of death among patients with BC to improve the management and survival of BC. Method: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) (1992–2018) database was utilized to get the data of BC patients. We presented the proportion of six common causes of death in BC patients. We calculated the annual incidence of death due to the six most common causes and analyzed temporal trends in mortality rates using joinpoint regression. The competitive risk model was utilized to analyze the risk factors for death of BC and other causes. Results: 198037 BC patients were enrolled. BC was the most common cause of death (30.62%), followed by other cancers (22.22%), circulatory diseases (20.28%), non-disease causes (11.58%), other non-cancer diseases (8.29%), and respiratory diseases (7.01%). However, the proportion of cases dying from BC gradually decreased from 44.87% in 1992–1996 to 26.74% in 2012–2018. The proportion of deaths due to BC decreased gradually with survival time from diagnosis. Age-standardized temporal trends present an initial increase in BC-specific and other-cause mortality rates. Advanced stage and older age were the most influential risk factors for BC-specific and other-cause death, respectively. Conclusion: Although BC was still the leading cause of death, other causes, especially other cancers and circulatory diseases, gradually became more critical. The management of other comorbid conditions will be a crucial part of the treatment for BC patients, especially for those with prolonged survival and NMIBC tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review thoroughly presents the recent progress of Deinococcus radiodurans, recombinant D. radiodurans and immobilized D. radiodurans as superior adsorbents to efficiently remove toxic heavy metals ions and radionuclides. Finally, a summary and prospect on the opportunities and challenges of D. radiodurans are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1-x)(0.75Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-0.25SrTiO3)-xErBiO3 (NBST-xEB, x = 0–0.04) ceramics were fabricated through a solid state reaction method. Scanning electron microscopy investigation shows that grain size of the ceramics decreases with increasing x. X-ray diffraction results reveal that all the ceramics are pseudocubic phase. An enhanced disordering of local structure by EB doping is revealed by Raman spectra. The NBST-xEB ceramics exhibit excellent dielectric stability within a wide temperature range after EB doping. A relatively high recoverable energy storage density (Wrec) of 1.834 J/cm3 with efficiency (η) of 71% are obtained for NBST-0.02 EB ceramics under a moderate electric field of 148 kV/cm. The Wrec and η of the NBST-0.02 EB ceramics exhibit excellent fatigue stability (104) and temperature stability (Wrec > 0.834 J/cm3, η > 64%) within 30–200 °C under 100 kV/cm. With the introduction of EB, the NBST-xEB ceramics also show strong photoluminescence properties due to the presence of Er3+. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deinococcus radiodurans (DR) is highly resistant to ionizing radiation. This study aims to convert dsrA gene into DR to construct radiation-resistant genetically engineered bacteria (Deino-dsrA) with high reducibility, so as to enhance the reducing and enrichment ability of DR. Methods: the recombinant vector pRADK-dsrA was extracted and transformed into DR. 1. Radiation resistant gene engineering bacteria containing dsrA gene were constructed successfully. 2. In the most favorable conditions,contributing to approximately 92.45% U (VI) was removed. 3. Autioxidant enzyme activities in Deino-dsrA is higher than in Deino-pRADK, excepting the content of malondialdehyde. The uranium enrichment ability of the Deino-dsrA is better than the wild DR, and dsrA gene can increase its antioxidation capability by increasing the activity of oxidase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deinococcus radiodurans (DR) was used as a biological adsorbent for uranium adsorption of low-concentration uranium wastewater.The enrichment performance of the DR was investigated at several conditions,and characterized by SEM and EDS, genes with relatively different expression of DR enriched uranium were screened through RNA-seq. Through GO analysis and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis, to find the main regulatory pathways.The results show that: The DR under the culture condition, pH = 5, temperature 30 ℃, initial concentration of 10 mg/L, dosage of DR 16 mL, adsorption time for 60 min, uranium(VI) adsorption rate was 91%, the solution pH = 6.1 after enrichment; several genes were up-regulated or down-regulated, which involved in a variety of signaling pathways, mainly involving oxidative phosphorylation, various glucose metabolism and amino acid synthesis metabolism. Cytochrome C oxidase was significantly up-regulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in 2019 and the pandemic continues for more than one year, a vast amount of drug research has been conducted and few of them got FDA approval. Our objective is to prioritize repurposable drugs using a pipeline that systematically integrates the interaction between COVID-19 and drugs, deep graph neural networks, and in vitro/population-based validations. We first collected all available drugs (n = 3635) related to COVID-19 patient treatment through CTDbase. We built a COVID-19 knowledge graph based on the interactions among virus baits, host genes, pathways, drugs, and phenotypes. A deep graph neural network approach was used to derive the candidate drug's representation based on the biological interactions. We prioritized the candidate drugs using clinical trial history, and then validated them with their genetic profiles, in vitro experimental efficacy, and population-based treatment effect. We highlight the top 22 drugs including Azithromycin, Atorvastatin, Aspirin, Acetaminophen, and Albuterol. We further pinpointed drug combinations that may synergistically target COVID-19. In summary, we demonstrated that the integration of extensive interactions, deep neural networks, and multiple evidence can facilitate the rapid identification of candidate drugs for COVID-19 treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China's industrial wastewater pollution control policy urgently needs to change from government enforcement to market economy incentive, especially in regions with mature market economic conditions and improved legislative basis like Yangtze River Delta. The economic principles of Water Emissions Trading policy are to achieve a win–win situation in which pollution could be controlled meanwhile abatement costs are minimized. Existing regulations lack rules and restrictions for cross-industrial wastewater emission trading, nevertheless not all wastewater from various industrial sectors are suitable for emissions trading with each other. This study attempted to determine tradable levels of wastewater emissions rights within the selected 10 industries based on the similarity of wastewater composition. Results: The result is presented in a tradable level matrix. It shows that of all industrial wastewater, the most suitable for emissions trading are, respectively, Textile and Paper Production, Manufacture of General Purpose Machinery and Manufacture of Transport, and then Chemistry Production and Pharmaceuticals. Conclusion: Generally, this paper provides a systematic calculation method according to the similarity analysis to formulate cross-industrial wastewater emissions trading for policy reference. At the end of the article, a rationality analysis of the domestic wastewater emissions trading pilot programs was made. Even though the current wastewater emissions trading situation is not up to expectations, individual enterprises actively achieved emission reductions to play as the supply sides in the wastewater emissions trading under economic incentive from such a policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The function of natural killer (NK) cells after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is regulated by the balance between inhibitory KIRs (iKIRs) and activating KIRs (aKIRs). However, few studies have examined the subsequent expression of KIR genes unique to the donor. We defined the set of KIR genes expressed only in the donor and designed a method for measuring the expression of these KIR genes by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) based on genetic cloning techniques. In this study, we evaluated the recovery pattern of KIR genes in 252 donor-recipient pairs. The expression of each KIR unique to the donor was in line with that of KIR genes shared by the donor and recipient, such as KIR2DS1, KIR3DS1, KIR2DS4, or KIR2DS3. The timing of the peak mRNA expression of aKIRs unique to the donor was inconsistent but occurred within the first 3 months posttransplantation, whereas the peak mRNA expression of iKIRs was consistently observed in the third month after transplantation. The expression of KIR2DL2 in the third month posttransplantation was significantly higher in the transplant recipients than in the donors (p = 0.01). The KIR2DL1 and KIR3DL1 levels in the transplant recipients in the second and third months posttransplantation were also obviously higher than the donor levels (p < 0.0001). Thus, these observations should be considered when attempting to predict the correlation between mRNA expression and prognosis after allo-HSCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motor timing is an important part of sensorimotor control. Previous studies have shown that beta oscillations embody the process of temporal perception in explicit timing tasks. In contrast, studies focusing on beta oscillations in implicit timing tasks are lacking. In this study, we set up an implicit motor timing task and found a modulation pattern of beta oscillations with temporal perception during movement preparation. We trained two macaques in a repetitive visually-guided reach-to-grasp task with different holding intervals. Spikes and local field potentials were recorded from microelectrode arrays in the primary motor cortex, primary somatosensory cortex, and posterior parietal cortex. We analyzed the association between beta oscillations and temporal interval in fixed-duration experiments (500 ms as the Short Group and 1500 ms as the Long Group) and random-duration experiments (500 ms to 1500 ms). The results showed that the peak beta frequencies in both experiments ranged from 15 Hz to 25 Hz. The beta power was higher during the hold period than the movement (reach and grasp) period. Further, in the fixed-duration experiments, the mean power as well as the maximum rate of change of beta power in the first 300 ms were higher in the Short Group than in the Long Group when aligned with the Center Hit event. In contrast, in the random-duration experiments, the corresponding values showed no statistical differences among groups. The peak latency of beta power was shorter in the Short Group than in the Long Group in the fixed-duration experiments, while no consistent modulation pattern was found in the random-duration experiments. These results indicate that beta oscillations can modulate with temporal interval in their power mode. The synchronization period of beta power could reflect the cognitive set maintaining working memory of the temporal structure and attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To assess the prognostic significance of sarcomatoid differentiation for surgically treated metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Methods: Patients undergoing cytoreductive nephrectomy for mRCC in our center between 2006 and 2014 were included. All enrolled patients were separated into two groups according to the presence of sarcomatoid differentiation. Clinical and pathological variables were recorded. Student's t test or Chi-square test was applied to compare them. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression were performed to determine independent prognostic factors for oncologic outcomes. Results: Of the 184 patients with mRCC included, 27 (14.7%) patients presented with sarcomatoid differentiation. The presence of sarcomatoid differentiation was associated with higher rates of non-clear cell histology ( P = 0.009), higher Fuhrman grade ( P < 0.001), higher rates of presenting tumor necrosis ( P = 0.005), worse IMDC risk group ( P = 0.022), and MSKCC risk group ( P = 0.020). Patients with sarcomatoid differentiation showed shorter median progression-free survival and overall survival. Multivariate analysis identified that sarcomatoid differentiation was independently associated with progression-free survival (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.002, 95% CI 1.047-3.828; P = 0.036) and overall survival (HR: 1.922, 95% CI 1.073-3.445; P = 0.028). Sarcomatoid differentiation remained to be independently associated with inferior PFS (HR: 2.097, 95% CI 1.091-4.030; P = 0.026) and OS (HR: 2.245, 95% CI 1.276-3.951; P = 0.005) for clear cell mRCC. Conclusion: The presence of sarcomatoid differentiation is independently associated with poor oncologic outcomes for surgically treated mRCC patients. The association remains significant when the subject of study is restricted to clear cell mRCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have elevated the prognostic value of Ki-67 in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), but the reports are controversial and inconsistent. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to clarify the significance of Ki-67 in RCC prognosis. We systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase to identify relevant studies until April 2016. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 20 studies, including 5,398 patients, were eligible for further analysis. Results showed that high Ki-67 expression in RCC was associated with poor OS (HR = 1.95, 95% CI: 1.44-2.64), CSS (HR = 1.67, 95% CI: 1.47-1.89), and DFS (HR = 2.56, 95% CI: 1.79-3.67). In addition, high Ki-67 expression was significantly associated with TNM stage (III/IV vs. I/II: RR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.68-2.44), pathological T stage (T3/T4 vs. T1/T2: RR = 1.67, 95% CI: 1.35-2.06), metastasis (yes vs. no: RR = 2.15, 95% CI: 1.77-2.62), and Fuhrman grade (III/IV vs. I/II: RR = 1.77, 95% CI: 1.20-2.60). Our study suggested that Ki-67 was a prognostic marker in RCC. High Ki-67 expression was correlated with poor prognosis and advanced clinicopathological features, and it could serve as a biomarker for disease management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CD44 is a marker of cancer stem-like cells in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). However, the prognostic value of CD44 in RCC remains controversial. This study evaluated the correlation of CD44 expression with the clinicopathological features of RCC through a meta-analysis. We systematically searched PubMed, ISI Web of Science and Embase for relevant studies until February 2015. We collected and analysed data on clinical stage, Fuhrman grade, microvascular invasion, recurrence, five-year overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Twenty studies involving 1672 patients satisfied the inclusion criteria. Results showed that high CD44 expression in RCC was a poor prognostic marker for five-year OS (RR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.60-0.78) in a fixed-effects model and for five-year DSS (RR = 0.46, 95% CI 0.27-0.80) and five-year DFS (RR = 0.63, 95% CI 0.43-0.93) in a random-effects model. CD44 expression also correlated with Furhman grade (RR = 0.61, 95% CI 0.48-0.77), tumour recurrence (RR = 7.42, 95% CI 3.74-14.70) and MVI (Microvascular invasion) (RR = 3.63, 95% CI 1.97-6.71). This meta-analysis suggests that CD44 is a prognostic marker in RCC. High CD44 expression correlates with high Fuhrman grade, recurrence, MVI and poor prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]