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Purpose: It is unclear which kind of interventional therapies is the best when treating early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We conducted Bayesian network meta-analyses to compare local tumor progression (LTP), total tumor recurrence and survival rates and to rank the best intervention arm. Materials and methods: A literature search of Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane library and Clinicaltrials.gov was conducted and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the outcomes of interventional therapies on early-stage HCC were enrolled. The quality assessment was conducted using Cochrane Collaboration's tool, while the outcome synthesis of the network meta-analysis was conducted using R-3.3.4 software. Results: A total of 35 RCTs were enrolled for further analysis. Using network meta-analysis, it was demonstrated that radiofrequency ablation (RFA) plus adjuvant therapies achieved the best performance in decreasing the LTP rate in early-stage HCC, while hepatic resection ranked as the best arm among all the interventional techniques for LTP at 3 years. Meanwhile, hepatic resection and RFA plus adjuvant therapies were the top two best arms in decreasing total recurrence. Furthermore, RFA plus adjuvant therapeutics ranked the best in achieving overall survival outcome, followed by hepatic resection. For disease-free survival, hepatic resection was the best, while for LTP-free survival, the difference among the included treatments was not significant. Conclusions: Our network meta-analysis showed that RFA-based adjuvant therapies might be the most effective interventions in achieving the best outcomes, while hepatic resection exhibited the best performance in several situations in treating early-stage HCC. More RCTs are needed to draw more solid conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In coastal engineering, the cyclic loading caused by traffic, wind, and waves is superimposed on the initial static shear stress in certain infrastructures such as embankments. In some cases, a portion of the subgrade soil is overconsolidated owing to the process of surcharge preloading. Therefore, it is of great practical relevance to study the effects of the initial static shear on the undrained cyclic response of overconsolidated soft marine clay. In this study, a series of monotonic and cyclic triaxial tests were conducted on soft marine clay with a broad range of initial static shear stress ratios (SSRs) and overconsolidation ratios (OCRs) to investigate the pore water pressure response and deformation characteristics. Several useful conclusions were drawn. Importantly, the development and maximum number of cycles of the permanent pore water pressure were found to depend on the SSR and OCR values. Based on the shakedown theory and typical stress–strain relationship, the development of the permanent axial strain was classified into three ranges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]