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Aim To evaluate the effectiveness of adjuvant treatment for morcellated, uterus-confined leiomyosarcoma in a multicenter setting. Methods We identified patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage I uterine leiomyosarcoma primarily treated with surgery between 2003 and 2016. Among them, patients who underwent one of the following morcellation methods were included: (i) power morcellation; (ii) intracorporeal morcellation using scalpels or electrocautery; and (iii) vaginal morcellation. Patients' survival outcomes were compared according to the implementation of adjuvant treatment. Results From 13 institutions, 55 patients were included; 31 for adjuvant treatment group and 24 for surgery only group. The clinicopathological characteristics including the mass size, morcellation methods, extent of surgery, and mitotic count were similar between the groups. In the adjuvant treatment group, 67.7%, 19.4% and 12.9% of patients received chemotherapy, chemoradiation and radiation, respectively. After a median follow-up of 50.5 months, the adjuvant treatment and surgery only groups showed similar overall survival (5-year rate, 92.0% vs 90.4%; P = 0.959). No significant difference in progression-free survival was observed between the two groups (3-year rate, 46.1% vs 78.2%; P = 0.069). On multivariate analyses, adjuvant treatment did not affect progression-free survival (adjusted HR, 2.138; 95% CI, 0.550-8.305; P = 0.273). The adjuvant treatment group showed a trend towards more common distant metastasis, compared to the surgery only group (25.8% vs 4.2%; P = 0.062). The incidences of pelvic, retroperitoneal, and abdominal recurrences were not different between the groups. Conclusion Despite its frequent use in clinical practice, adjuvant treatment did not improve the survival outcomes of patients with morcellated, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage I uterine leiomyosarcoma.

SummaryBackground The second trimester is a period of neurogenesis and neuronal migration, which can be affected by exposure to anesthetics. Studies also suggest that multiple exposures may have a greater impact on neurodevelopment. Aim We investigated whether in utero single or multiple exposures to anesthetics caused long-term behavior changes. Methods Pregnant mice were randomly divided into four groups on gestational day 14 (GD 14). Mice in the Control × 1 group were exposed to 100% oxygen for 150 min. Mice in the Sevo × 1 group were also exposed to 100% oxygen for 150 min, except that 2.5% sevoflurane was added during the first 120 min. Mice in the Control × 3 and Sevo × 3 group were identically treated as Control × 1 and Sevo × 1 group for three consecutive days, respectively (GD 14–16). Behavioral tests were performed only with the male offspring at the age of 2–4 months. Synaptic plasticity was also compared by inducing long-term potentiation in acute hippocampal slices. Results Single or multiple sevoflurane exposures in pregnant mice during the second trimester did not cause long-lasting behavioral consequences or changes in long-term synaptic plasticity of their offspring. Conclusion Our study suggests that neither single nor multiple exposures of mice to sevoflurane during the fetal developmental period induces long-term behavioral dysfunctions or affects long-term synaptic plasticity. Additional studies focusing on early stages of neurodevelopment are necessary to confirm the effects of sevoflurane exposure during pregnancy.

BACKGROUND The effective delivery of therapeutic genes to target cells has been a fundamental goal in cancer gene therapy because of its advantages with respect to both safety and transfection efficiency. In the present, study we describe a tumor-directed gene delivery system that demonstrates remarkable efficacy in gene delivery and minimizes the off-target effects of gene transfection. METHODS The system consists of a well-verified cationic O,O'-dimyristyl-N-lysyl glutamate (DMKE), Sendai virus fusion (F) protein and hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) protein, referred to as cationic Sendai F/HN virosomes. To achieve tumor-specific recognition, anti-epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor antibody was coupled to the surface of the virosomes containing interleukin-12 (IL-12) and/or salmosin genes that have potent anti-angiogenetic functions. RESULTS Among the virosomal formulations, the anti-EGF receptor (EGFR) viroplexes, prepared via complexation of plasmid DNA (pDNA) with cationic DMKE lipid, exhibited more efficient gene transfection to tumor cells over-expressing EGF receptors compared to the neutrally-charged anti-EGFR virosomes encapsulating pDNA. In addition, the anti-EGFR viroplexes with IL-12 and salmosin genes exhibited the most effective therapeutic efficacy in a mouse tumor model. Especially when combined with doxorubicin, transfection of the two genes via the anti-EGFR viroplexes exhibited an enhanced inhibitory effect on tumor growth and metastasis in lungs. CONCLUSIONS The results of the present study suggest that anti-EGFR viroplexes can be utilized as an effective strategy for tumor-directed gene delivery. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this paper, we present a method for reconstructing a surface mesh animation sequence from point cloud animation data. We mainly focus on the articulated body of a subject - the motion of which can be roughly described by its internal skeletal structure. The point cloud data is assumed to be captured independently without any inter-frame correspondence information. Using a template model that resembles the given subject, our basic idea for reconstructing the mesh animation is to deform the template model to fit to the point cloud (on a frame-by-frame basis) while maintaining inter-frame coherence. We first estimate the skeletal motion from the point cloud data. After applying the skeletal motion to the template surface, we refine it to fit to the point cloud data. We demonstrate the viability of the method by applying it to reconstruct a fast dancing motion.

The human shoulder complex is perhaps the most complicated joint in the human body being comprised of a set of three bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Despite this anatomical complexity, computer graphics models for motion capture most often represent this joint as a simple ball and socket. In this paper, we present a method to determine a shoulder skeletal model that, when combined with standard skinning algorithms, generates a more visually pleasing animation that is a closer approximation to the actual skin deformations of the human body. We use a data-driven approach and collect ground truth skin deformation data with an optical motion capture system with a large number of markers (200 markers on the shoulder complex alone). We cluster these markers during movement sequences and discover that adding one extra joint around the shoulder improves the resulting animation qualitatively and quantitatively yielding a marker set of approximately 70 markers for the complete skeleton. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our skeletal model by comparing it with ground truth data as well as with recorded video. We show its practicality by integrating it with the conventional rendering/animation pipeline.

This paper describes materials and mechanics aspects of bending in systems consisting of ribbons and bars of single crystalline silicon supported by sheets of plastic. The combined experimental and theoretical results provide an understanding for the essential behaviors and for mechanisms associated with layouts that achieve maximum bendability. Examples of highly bendable silicon devices on plastic illustrate some of these concepts. Although the studies presented here focus on ribbons and bars of silicon, the same basic considerations apply to other implementations of inorganic materials on plastic substrates, ranging from amorphous or polycrystalline thin films, to collections of nanowires and nanoparticles. The contents are, as a result, relevant to the growing community of researchers interested in the use of inorganic materials in flexible electronics.

This paper describes experimental and theoretical studies of the mechanics of free-standing nanoribbons and membranes of single-crystalline silicon transfer printed onto patterned dielectric layers. The results show that analytical descriptions of the mechanics agree well with experimental data, and they explicitly reveal how the geometry of dielectric layers (i.e., the width and depth of the features of relief) and the silicon (i.e., the thickness and widths of the ribbons) affect mechanical bowing (i.e., ‘‘sagging’’) in the suspended regions of the silicon. This system is of practical importance in the use of semiconductor nanomaterials for electronic devices, because incomplete sagging near defects in gate dielectrics provides a level of robustness against electrical shorting in those regions which exceeds that associated with conventional deposition techniques for thin films. Fieldeffect transistors formedusingsilicon nanoribbonstransferred onto arangeofultrathingate dielectrics, includingpatterned epoxy, organic self-assembled monolayers, and HfO2, demonstrate these concepts.

In this paper, we present an integrated framework of on-line motion blending for locomotion generation. We first provide a novel scheme for incremental timewarping, which always guarantees that the time goes forward. Combining the idea of motion blending with that of posture rearrangement, we introduce a motion transition graph to address on-line motion blending and transition simultaneously. Guided by a stream of motion specifications, our motion synthesis scheme moves from node to node in an on-line manner while blending a motion at a node and generating a transition motion at an edge. For smooth on-line motion transition, we also attach a set of example transition motions to an edge. To represent similar postures consistently, we exploit the inter-frame coherency embedded in the input motion specification. Finally, we provide a comprehensive solution to on-line motion retargeting by integrating existing techniques. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

AuCl 3 efficiently catalyzes cyclization of tert -butyl allenoates into γ-butenolides. Advantage of directly using allenic ester precursor instead of corresponding acid is demonstrated in the synthesis of a variety of 2,4-disubstituted butenolides. A low catalyst loading and mild reaction condition makes this process an attractive alternative over conventional methods using strong Lewis acids.

SUMMARY We have used scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) to study changes in the structure of the Si(111) surface induced by deposition of the group III metals In and Ga. For both metals, several different ordered reconstructions are seen as a function of coverage. The STM images provide new structural information on each of these reconstructions. With In metal deposition, we have seen the surface reconstructions √3×, √3, √31× √31, √7×√3 and 4×1 as the coverage increases. In the case of Ga on Si(111), we have studied structures that exist up to 0·7 ML. At 1/3 ML, there is a √3×√3 structure identical to that of In. Above 0·3 ML there is a different phase that may correspond to the (6·3times6·3) RHEED pattern reported in this coverage range. This surface tends to grow as triangular islands at higher coverages.