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To compare the efficacy and safety of folinic acid, fluorouracil and irinotecan (FOLFIRI) plus bevacizumab or aflibercept in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients pretreated with oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy.We analysed the treatment outcomes of patients receiving FOLFIRI in combination with bevacizumab or aflibercept as second-line treatment for mCRC between October 2017 and March 2020. This analysis included 67 patients receiving FOLFIRI plus aflibercept and 83 receiving FOLFIRI plus bevacizumab.The overall response rate (ORR) was 13.6% (95% confidence interval 4.85-22.34) in the FOLFIRI-aflibercept group and 14.7% (95% confidence interval 6.68-22.71) in the FOLFIRI-bevacizumab group. This difference in ORR was not statistically significant. The median progression-free survival was 8.6 months in the FOLFIRI-bevacizumab group and 8.5 months in the FOLFIRI-aflibercept group (P = 0.752). Patients in the FOLFIRI-bevacizumab group showed a median overall survival of 12.4 months, whereas patients in the FOLFIRI-aflibercept group had a median overall survival of 13.7 months (P = 0.276). There were no significant differences in survival between the two treatment groups. The adverse events were also largely similar between the two groups. However, hypertension of grade 3 or more was more frequent in the FOLFIRI-aflibercept group.FOLFIRI plus bevacizumab and FOLFIRI plus aflibercept had similar anti-tumour activities and toxicity profiles when used as second-line therapy in mCRC patients. Based on these data, both aflibercept and bevacizumab are suitable anti-angiogenic agents when used in combination with FOLFIRI for mCRC.

Background Adjuvant chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy are some of the standards of care for gastric cancer (GC). The Adjuvant chemoRadioTherapy In Stomach Tumors (ARTIST) 2 trial compares two adjuvant chemotherapy regimens and chemoradiotherapy in patients with D2-resected, stage II or III, node-positive GC. Patients and methods The ARTIST 2 compared, in a 1:1:1 ratio, three adjuvant regimens: oral S-1 (40-60 mg twice daily 4 weeks on/2 weeks off) for 1 year, S-1 (2 weeks on/1 week off) plus oxaliplatin 130 mg/m2 every 3 weeks (SOX) for 6 months, and SOX plus chemoradiotherapy 45 Gy (SOXRT). Randomization was stratified according to surgery type (total or subtotal gastrectomy), pathologic stage (II or III), and Lauren histologic classification (diffuse or intestinal/mixed). The primary endpoint was disease-free survival (DFS) at 3 years; a reduction of 33% in the hazard ratio (HR) for DFS with SOX or SOXRT, when compared with S-1, was considered clinically meaningful. The trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT0176146). Results A total of 546 patients were recruited between February 2013 and January 2018 with 182, 181, and 183 patients in the S-1, SOX, and SOXRT arms, respectively. Median follow-up period was 47 months, with 178 DFS events observed. Estimated 3-year DFS rates were 64.8%, 74.3%, and 72.8% in the S-1, SOX, and SOXRT arms, respectively. HR for DFS in the control arm (S-1) was shorter than that in the SOX and SOXRT arms: S-1 versus SOX, 0.692 (P = 0.042) and S-1 versus SOXRT, 0.724 (P = 0.074). No difference in DFS was found between SOX and SOXRT (HR 0.971; P = 0.879). Adverse events were as anticipated in each arm, and were generally well-tolerated and manageable. Conclusions In patients with curatively D2-resected, stage II/III, node-positive GC, adjuvant SOX or SOXRT was effective in prolonging DFS, when compared with S-1 monotherapy. The addition of radiotherapy to SOX did not significantly reduce the rate of recurrence after D2 gastrectomy.

This paper discusses the rolling blackouts implemented by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) on September 15, 2011, and a low-frequency oscillation that occurred at that time. On the day of the rolling blackout, spectral analysis and mode analysis were performed using the data obtained from a synchrophasor installed in the KEPCO system. Low-frequency oscillation modes near 0.68 Hz and 0.5 Hz occurring respectively before and during the process of forced load shedding were estimated. These wide-area oscillation modes may cause total blackouts, and may be good indicators of reliable system operation in the event of similar wide-area rolling blackouts in the future.

Objective Much of the genetic basis for Alzheimer disease (AD) is unexplained. We sought to identify novel AD loci using a unique family-based approach that can detect robust associations with infrequent variants (minor allele frequency

Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) is upgraded for its KSTAR 3rd campaign for new target mission to produce the D-shaped plasma with a target plasma current of 500 kA and/or pulse length of 5 s. New Plasma Facing Components (PFCs) are installed which leads to the increase of the surface area of the vessel by a factor of about 5. The vacuum conditioning such as the vessel baking has been performed in order to remove various kinds of impurities including H2O, carbon and oxygen for the plasma. The total outgassing rate in the KSTAR 1st campaign was measured as 1.5 × 10−4 mbar l s−1 which is increased by a factor of 3 (6.49 × 10−4 mbar l s−1) in the KSTAR 3rd campaign. Nevertheless, the outgassing rates per unit area have been decreased from 9.31 × 10−5 mbar l m−2 s−1 to 1.22 × 10−5 mbar l m−2 s−1 due to the upgrade of baking system and series of baking operation.

Although carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most common compressive neuropathy seen in the upper extremity of adults, it is rarely seen in children. Several reports have shown that mucopolysaccharidosis type II (Hunter syndrome), a rare genetic disorder, is one of the causes of CTS in children. Usual symptoms of CTS are pain, weakness, and paresthesias in the hand and digits. However, the diagnosis of CTS in Hunter syndrome is often delayed or unrecognized because of atypical symptoms and cognitive impairment. Here, we report the prevalence, clinical manifestation, and nerve conduction profiles of CTS in 45 Hunter syndrome patients. The mean age of the study participants was 117.1 (74.9) months (range: 4-408 months); all patients were male. Forty-three (96.0%) of the 45 patients with Hunter syndrome had CTS. Bilateral CTS was observed in all patients; 73 (82.0%) of the patients' hands had severe degree of CTS. Intriguingly, in contrast with other nerve velocities, decreases in forearm conduction velocities of the median nerve were observed in 28 (31.5%) of 89 hands with CTS. There was a significant difference in age (P < 0.001) between hands with normal, mild, moderate, and severe grades of CTS. The compound muscle action potential and sensory nerve action potential amplitudes of the median nerves decreased with age (CMAP, r = -0.526, P < 0.001; SNAP, r = -0.564, P < 0.001). Early recognition and intervention to ameliorate the symptoms of CTS are important in improving the quality of life of Hunter syndrome patients.

Thymic epithelial tumours (TETs), the most common tumour of the anterior mediastinum, are epithelial neoplasms of the thymus with a wide spectrum of morphologic features. We retrospectively analysed clinical features of TET and the correlation of World Health Organisation (WHO) histologic classification and Masaoka staging system with different treatment modalities in 195 patients, from 1995 to 2005. According to the Masaoka's staging system, there were 78 (40.0 %) patients with stage I, 38 (19.5%) with stage II, 41 (21.0%) with stage III, 38 (19.5%) with stage IV. All patients were reclassified according to the WHO criteria as follows: Type A (n=9, 4.6%), AB (n=37, 18.9%), B1 (n=29, 14.8%), B2 (n=48, 24.6%), B3 (n=40, 20.5%), C (n=32, 16.4%). There was a fairly good correlation between Masaoka staging and WHO histotype (P

We investigated outcomes according to a new clinical grading system for chronic graft-versus-host disease (chronic GVHD) in 38 patients who developed chronic GVHD after an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. We categorized the patients into three grade groups, namely, grade I, grade II and grade III, according to the presence of three risk factors: extensive skin involvement, thrombocytopenia (TP) and progressive type of onset. Sixteen patients were classified into grade 1, 19 into grade II and three into grade III. The probability of withdrawal of systemic immunosuppression (IST) at 1, 2 and 3 years was 61, 76 and 87%, respectively. Patients with grades 2 or 3 chronic GVHD had prolonged duration of systemic IST compared to grade 1 (P=0.043). The probability of GVHD-specific survival (GSS) at 5 years was 52%. Twenty-two of 38 patients with chronic GVHD were still alive and the estimated 3-year overall survival (OS) rate was 60%, whereas that for the group with chronic GVHD grade I and grade II+III was 64 and 48% (P0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that prior occurrence of acute GVHD, chronic GVHD grade, serum bilirubin over 1.5 mg/dl, date of diagnosis of chronic GVHD (day 150 versusday 150) and transplantation-risk factor were independent prognostic factors for GSS and OS.

High quality In 0.13 Ga 0.87 N/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) on (0001) sapphire substrate were fabricated by MOCVD method. The quantum well thickness is as thin as 10 A, and the barrier thickness is 50 A. We have investigated these ultrathin MQWs by continuous wave (cw) and time-resolved spectroscopy in the picosecond time scales in a wide temperature range from 10 to 290 K. In the luminescence spectrum at 10 K, we observed a broad peak at 3.134 eV which was attributed to the quantum wells emission of InGaN. The full width at half maximum of this peak was 129 meV at 10 K and the broadening at low temperatures which was mostly inhomogeneous was thought to be due to compositional fluctuations and interfacial disorder in the alloy. We also observed an intense and narrow peak at 3.471 eV due to the GaN barrier. The temperature dependence of the luminescence was studied and the peak positions and the intensities of the different peaks were obtained. The activation energy of the InGaN quantum well emission peak was estimated as 69 meV. From the measurements of luminescence intensities and lifetimes at various temperatures, radiative and non-radiative recombination lifetimes were deduced. The results were explained by considering only the localization of the excitons due to potential fluctuations.

Conducting polyaniline (PANI) was synthesized via an oxidative dispersion polymerization using poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) as a polymeric stabilizer in the presence of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) which were purified in an acidic solution. The formation of nanocomposites and their morphology in which the PANI was pierced with MWNT like a pearl necklace structure, were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). An electrorheological (ER) fluid was prepared with synthesized MWNT/PANI particles dispersed in insulating silicone oil and its ER properties were investigated by controlling applied DC electric field strengths. Synthesized MWNT/PANI particles have enhanced interparticle interactions, and the shear stresses increase with the electric field strength for a broad range of shear rate as the degree of polarization of MWNT/PANI particle increases with applied electric field strengths.

We have fabricated very high-quality In 0.13 Ga 0.87 N / GaN multiple quantum wells with thickness as small as 10 A on (0 0 0 1) sapphire substrate using metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD). We have investigated these ultra-thin multiple quantum wells by continuous wave (cw) and time resolved spectroscopy in the picosecond time scales in a wide range of temperatures from 10 K to 290 K. In the luminescence spectrum at 10 K we observed a broad peak at 3.134 eV which was attributed to the quantum wells emission of InGaN. The full-width at half-maximum of this peak was 129 meV at 10 K and the broadening at low temperatures which was mostly inhomogeneous was thought to be due to compositional fluctuations and interfacial disorder in the alloy. The ultra narrow width of the quantum well was found to have a very profound effect in increasing the emission linewidth. We also observed an intense and narrow peak at 3.471 eV due to the GaN barrier. The temperature dependence of the luminescence was studied. The peak positions and intensities of the different peaks were obtained after a careful Lorentzian analysis. The activation energy of the InGaN quantum well emission peak was estimated as 69 meV. The lifetime of the quantum well emission was found to be 720 ps at 10 K. The results were explained by considering the localization of the excitons due to potential fluctuations. At higher temperatures the non-radiative recombination was found to be very dominant.

We report the optical properties of the blue emitting LED material that belongs to the III–V nitrides family. Quantum wells of InGaN were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. Sapphire was used as the substrate material. Continuous wave and time resolved luminescence experiments were conducted in the temperature range of liquid helium to room temperature. Very intense blue luminescence was observed upto the room temperature. From the very broad linewidth of the emission it was concluded that the compositional fluctuations were dominant. At very low temperatures the lifetimes were found to be somewhat longer than the free exciton case which indicated the localization of excitons at potential fluctuations in the InGaN lattice.

Reprogrammable dataflow neural classifiers are proposed as an alternative to traditional implementations. In general, these classifiers are based on functional languages, neural-dataflow transformations, dataflow algorithmic transformations, and dataflow multiprocessors. An experimental approach is used to investigate the performance of a large-scale fine-grained dataflow classifier architecture. In this study, the functional descriptions of high level data dependency of a supervised learning algorithm are transformed into a machine executable low-level dataflow graph. The tagged token dataflow algorithmic transformation is applied to exploit the parallelism. Dataflow neural classifiers are used to implement the learning algorithm. No attempt is made to optimize the granularity of the high-level language programming blocks to balance the computation and communication. The proposed classifier architecture is more versatile than other existing architectures. Performance results show the effectiveness of dataflow neural classifiers. >

We investigate the effect of unmonochromatized synchrotron radiation (USR) on the room‐temperature reaction between a Si(111)2×1 surface and adsorbed NO. After exposition to NO of the Si(111) surface, an oxynitride/silicon interface is formed. The evolution with irradiation time of the oxynitridation of silicon and of the oxynitride/silicon interface formation is examined in situ by means of core‐level and valence‐band photoemission spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, and work‐function measurements. The analysis of the valence band and Si 2p, O 2s, and N 2s photoelectron spectra, together with the Auger Si transition, clearly exhibits additional oxynitride formation under USR. The oxygen‐to‐nitrogen ratio, O/N, from the thin oxynitride layer increased after a long time (≳10 min) of exposure to USR. Hence, USR appears to have the opposite effect to the one produced by thermal activation in which the nitridation is favored.

Since the first H-mode discharges in 2010, the duration of the H-mode state has been extended and a significantly wider operational window of plasma parameters has been attained. Using a second neutral beam (NB) source and improved tuning of equilibrium configuration with real-time plasma control, a stored energy of Wtot???450?kJ has been achieved with a corresponding energy confinement time of ?E???163?ms. Recent discharges, produced in the fall of 2012, have reached plasma ?N up to 2.9 and surpassed the n?=?1 ideal no-wall stability limit computed for H-mode pressure profiles, which is one of the key threshold parameters defining advanced tokamak operation. Typical H-mode discharges were operated with a plasma current of 600?kA at a toroidal magnetic field BT?=?2?T. L?H transitions were obtained with 0.8?3.0?MW of NB injection power in both single- and double-null configurations, with H-mode durations up to ?15?s at 600?kA of plasma current. The measured power threshold as a function of line-averaged density showed a roll-over with a minimum value of ?0.8?MW at . Several edge-localized mode (ELM) control techniques during H-mode were examined with successful results including resonant magnetic perturbation, supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI), vertical jogging and electron cyclotron current drive injection into the pedestal region. We observed various ELM responses, i.e. suppression or mitigation, depending on the relative phase of in-vessel control coil currents. In particular, with the 90? phase of the n?=?1 RMP as the most resonant configuration, a complete suppression of type-I ELMs was demonstrated. In addition, fast vertical jogging of the plasma column was also observed to be effective in ELM pace-making. SMBI-mitigated ELMs, a state of mitigated ELMs, were sustained for a few tens of ELM periods. A simple cellular automata (?sand-pile?) model predicted that shallow deposition near the pedestal foot induced small-sized high-frequency ELMs, leading to the mitigation of large ELMs. In addition to the ELM control experiments, various physics topics were explored focusing on ITER-relevant physics issues such as the alteration of toroidal rotation caused by both electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and externally applied 3D fields, and the observed rotation drop by ECRH in NB-heated plasmas was investigated in terms of either a reversal of the turbulence-driven residual stress due to the transition of ion temperature gradient to trapped electron mode turbulence or neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV) torque by the internal kink mode. The suppression of runaway electrons using massive gas injection of deuterium showed that runaway electrons were avoided only below 3?T in KSTAR. Operation in 2013 is expected to routinely exceed the n?=?1 ideal MHD no-wall stability boundary in the long-pulse H-mode (?10?s) by applying real-time shaping control, enabling n?=?1 resistive wall mode active control studies. In addition, intensive works for ELM mitigation, ELM dynamics, toroidal rotation changes by both ECRH and NTV variations, have begun in the present campaign, and will be investigated in more detail with profile measurements of different physical quantities by techniques such as electron cyclotron emission imaging, charge exchange spectroscopy, Thomson scattering and beam emission spectroscopy diagnostics.

Since the successful first plasma generation in the middle of 2008, three experimental campaigns were successfully made for the KSTAR device, accompanied with a necessary upgrade in the power supply, heating, wall-conditioning and diagnostic systems. KSTAR was operated with the toroidal magnetic field up to 3.6 T and the circular and shaped plasmas with current up to 700 kA and pulse length of 7 s, have been achieved with limited capacity of PF magnet power supplies. The mission of the KSTAR experimental program is to achieve steady-state operations with high performance plasmas relevant to ITER and future reactors. The first phase (2008–2012) of operation of KSTAR is dedicated to the development of operational capabilities for a super-conducting device with relatively short pulse. Development of start-up scenario for a super-conducting tokamak and the understanding of magnetic field errors on start-up are one of the important issues to be resolved. Some specific operation techniques for a super-conducting device are also developed and tested. The second harmonic pre-ionization with 84 and 110 GHz gyrotrons is an example. Various parameters have been scanned to optimize the pre-ionization. Another example is the ICRF wall conditioning (ICWC), which was routinely applied during the shot to shot interval. The plasma operation window has been extended in terms of plasma beta and stability boundary. The achievement of high confinement mode was made in the last campaign with the first neutral beam injector and good wall conditioning. Plasma control has been applied in shape and position control and now a preliminary kinetic control scheme is being applied including plasma current and density. Advanced control schemes will be developed and tested in future operations including active profiles, heating and current drives and control coil-driven magnetic perturbation.

Novel triangular resonators containing active and passive sections have been fabricated and characterised with various multimode-interference (MMI) lengths. The optimum MMI length and width turn out to be 108 and 9 µm, respectively. A free spectral range of approximately 228 GHz is observed near 1558 nm along with an on–off ratio of 9 dB. The proposed triangular resonator has the advantage of removing the direct coupling between the two access waveguides of the MMI coupler.