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In this paper, a new technique is introduced to obtain non-uniform Berry-Esseen bounds for normal and nonnormal approximations by unbounded exchangeable pairs. This technique does not rely on the concentration inequalities developed by Chen and Shao [4,5] and can be applied to the quadratic forms and the general Curie-Weiss model.

To determine whether an elevated neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is negatively associated with tumor recurrence in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after liver transplantation (LT), and to determine the optimal predictive NLR cut-off value.The data of HCC patients who had undergone LT came from the China Liver Transplant Registry database. We collected data from 326 liver cancer patients who had undergone LT at our medical center. We divided the patients into groups based on their NLRs (3, 4 or 5). We then compared the clinicopathological data and long-time survival between these groups. Meanwhile, we used receiver operating characteristic analysis to determine the optimal NLR cut-off.Of 280 HCC patients included in this study, 263 were HBV positive. Patients with an NLR3 and patients with an NLR ≥ 3 but4 showed no significant differences in overall survival (OS) (P = 0.212) or disease-free survival (DFS) (P = 0.601). Patients with an NLR ≥ 4 but5 and patients with an NLR ≥ 5 also showed no significant differences in OS (P = 0.208) or DFS (P = 0.618). The 1-, 3- and 5-year OS rates of patients with an NLR4 vs an NLR ≥ 4 were 87.8%, 63.8% and 61.5% vs 73.9%, 36.7% and 30.3%, respectively (P0.001). The 1-, 3- and 5-year DFS rates of patients with an NLR4 vs NLR ≥ 4 were 83.9%, 62.9% and 60.7% vs 64.9%, 30.1% and 30.1%, respectively (P0.001). Univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that three factors, including NLR ≥ 4 (P = 0.002), were significant predictors of tumor recurrence in HCC patients after LT.A preoperative elevated NLR significantly increased the risk for tumor recurrence in HCC patients after LT.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been demonstrated to play an important role in regulation of the immuno-inflammatory response; however, the function of miRNAs in periodontal inflammation has not been investigated. The objective of this study was to explore the properties of miRNAs in periodontal inflammation by comparing miRNA profiles of inflamed and healthy gingival tissues. Gingival tissues were obtained from 10 periodontitis patients and 10 healthy subjects. After RNA extraction, miRNA profiles were analyzed by microarray, and expression levels of selected miRNAs were confirmed by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Analyses using two computational methods, Targetscan and MicroRNA.org, were combined to identify common targets of these miRNAs. Finally, the individual miRNA expression levels of three toll-like receptor (TLR)-related miRNAs from inflamed and healthy gingival tissues were evaluated by RT-PCR. Ninety-one miRNAs were found to be upregulated and thirty-four downregulated over two-fold in inflamed gingival tissue compared with those in healthy gingival tissue. Twelve selected inflammatory-related miRNAs, hsa-miR-126*, hsa-miR-20a, hsa-miR-142-3p, hsa-miR-19a, hsa-let-7f, hsa-miR-203, hsa-miR-17, hsa-miR-223, hsa-miR-146b, hsa-miR-146a, hsa-miR-155, and hsa-miR-205 showed comparable expression levels by microarray and real-time quantitative RT-PCR analyses. In addition, the putative inflammation targets of these miRNAs were predicted, and three that were tested (hsa-miRNA-146a, hsa-miRNA-146b, and hsa-miRNA-155), showed significant differences between inflamed and healthy gingiva. This remarkable difference in miRNA profiles between periodontal diseased and healthy gingiva implicates a probable close relationship between miRNAs and periodontal inflammation. The data also suggest that the regulation of TLRs in periodontal inflammation may involve miRNA pathways.