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BACKGROUND Patients receiving cranial radiation face the risk of delayed brain dysfunction. However, an early medical imaging marker is not available until irreversible morphological changes emerge. PURPOSE To explore the micromorphological white matter changes during the radiotherapy session by utilizing an along-tract analysis framework. STUDY TYPE Prospective. POPULATION Eighteen nasopharyngeal carcinoma (two female) patients receiving cranial radiation. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE 3.0 T; Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and T1- and T2-weighted images (T1W, T2W); computed tomography (CT). ASSESSMENT Patients received three DTI imaging scans during the radiotherapy (RT), namely the baseline scan (1-2 days before RT began), the middle scan (the middle of the RT session), and the end scan (1-2 days after RT ended). Twelve fibers were segmented after whole-brain tractography. Then, the fractional anisotropy (FA) values and the cumulative radiation dose received for each fiber streamline were resampled and projected into their center fiber. STATISTICAL TESTS The contrast among the three scans (P1: middle scan-baseline scan; P2: end scan-middle scan; P3: end scan-baseline scan) were compared using the linear mixed model for each of the 12 center fibers. Then, a dose-responsiveness relationship was performed using Pearson correlation. P

Building environmental monitoring and compliance checking are important in ensuring environmental performance. The information required for monitoring and checking is obtained from different data sources in different information systems. In this context, information sharing between stakeholders and the semantic interoperability that prevails with varying information systems are necessary. However, the implementation of information sharing and semantic interoperability can be a challenge. This paper proposes an ontology-based framework to support environmental monitoring and compliance checking under building information modeling (BIM) environment among different information systems. The framework integrates building information from BIM, environmental information provided by sensors, and regulatory information based on building regulations and design requirements. In this framework, four specific ontologies are developed to represent relevant knowledge. Building information is extracted from BIM and then converted, together with environmental information provided by sensors, into resource description framework format as ontology instances. The regulation clauses are transformed into SPARQL (SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language) rules. A case study is performed to apply the framework, and environmental monitoring and automated compliance checking are implemented in the context of a real distributed energy station project. The testing results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed framework.

// Han Xuan 1, * , Chen Gan 1, * , Wen Li 1 , Zhonglian Huang 1 , Longsheng Wang 1 , Qianqian Jia 1 , Zhendong Chen 1 and Huaidong Cheng 1, * 1 Department of Oncology, Cancer and Cognition Laboratory, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Zhendong Chen, email: 1225886738@qq.com Huaidong Cheng, email: chd1975ay@126.com Keywords: breast cancer; network; cognitive function; MRI; chemotherapy Received: July 05, 2017 Accepted: August 17, 2017 Published: November 09, 2017 ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate the topological organization of functional brain networks in chemotherapy-treated breast cancer (BC) patients with source memory impairment. Methods: Twenty-eight patients with BCfollowingchemotherapyand40age-and education-matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited in the current study. All participants underwent source memory tests and resting-state functional MRI scans. Individual whole-brain functional brain networks were constructed and analyzed using graph-based network approaches. Results: Compared with the HCs, the BC patients showed lower scores in the source memory tests ( P < 0.001).Graph-based analyses revealed that the patients showed higher absolute global and local efficiency (both P < 0.01) but lower normalized global and normalized local efficiency (both P < 0.001) compared with the HCs. Locally, several prefrontal, occipital, and parietal regions exhibited higher nodal efficiency and functional connectivity in the patients( P < 0.05, corrected). Finally, positive correlations were observed between normalized global efficiency and Mini-Mental State Examination scores (r = 0.398, P = 0.036) and between normalized local efficiency and the source memory scores (r = 0.497, P = 0.01) in the patients. Conclusion: Chemotherapy-treated BC is associated with abnormal organization of large-scale functional brain networks, which could account for source memory dysfunction in patients with BC.

The study examines whether and how social media use can be sources of political affects.It examines both positive/negative affects and discrete negative emotions.It finds civic and political participation were triggered by different affects.It proposes a mediation-moderation mode. Although the role of affects and emotions in political participation has attracted much scholarly attention, few studies have examined whether and how media and communications can be the sources of political affects. This study argues that social media are not only information channels; they can also be effective in communicating feelings and emotions. Social media use may contribute to political affects, which in turn impinge on civic and political participation. In addition, political affects may moderate the effects of social media use on political participation. Based on a survey of university students in Guangzhou, China (N=897), this study finds that, under Chinas networked authoritarianism, political communication via social media is related to positive affects toward the government and society, while connection with activists via social media is related to negative affect. Positive and negative affects have different impact on different types of participation. Negative affects strengthen the connection between social media use and participation. The roles of three discrete negative emotions anger, anxiety and fear are also explored.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between depression and occurrence of chemotherapy induced prospective memory impairment in patients with breast cancer (BC).The 63 BC patients before and after chemotherapy were administered with the self-rating depression scale (SDS) and a battery of cognitive neuropsychological tests including event-based and time-based prospective memory (EBPM and TBPM, respectively) tasks. The changes in their prospective memory and cognitive neuropsychological characteristics before and after chemotherapy were compared. Compared with the scores before chemotherapy, the EBPM score exhibited a statistically significant difference after chemotherapy (t = 6.069, P 0.05). Further, compared with the patients without depression, the patients with depression exhibited a statistically significant difference in the EBPM score (t = -4.348, P 0.05). Post-chemotherapy, EBPM and overall cognitive functions in BC patients merged with depression were found to decline, while TBPM did not show a significant change, suggesting that the combination of chemotherapy and depression might be related with the occurrence of post-chemotherapy EBPM impairment.

The capability of High-Speed Rail (HSR) to influence urban development has received considerable attention. However, due to lack of statistical data, there are few studies examining HSR-led urban development from a national perspective. Using the brightness of nighttime lights as a proxy for economic development, this manuscript begins to offer a more complete picture of development around 124 HSR station areas in China. Moreover, the manuscript explores the causes of different development patterns among China's HSR station areas. Empirical results reveal three main findings. 1) HSR station areas with high nighttime light brightness are mainly located in Beijing, Tianjin, Yangtze River delta city cluster and Pearl River delta city cluster. HSR station areas with relatively rapid growth in nighttime light brightness are mostly distributed in Hebei province, Henan province and Anhui province. 2) The level of urban economic development, the level of city rank and the location of HSR stations are three important factors affecting the development of HSR station areas. 3) The factors affecting the development of new and existing HSR station areas are distinct from one another. The influence of the overall urban economic development level on the development of new HSR station areas is larger than such influence on existing station areas where HSR has been added to existing infrastructure. The level of city ranking and the location of HSR stations significantly affect the development around new HSR stations, but have no significant impact on the development surrounding pre-existing HSR stations.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between psychosocial distress and quality of life (QOL) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) after radiotherapy. Fifty-three patients with an initial diagnosis of NPC were enrolled in this study. The psychological Distress Thermometer (DT) and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Head & Neck (FACT-H&N) were conducted before and after radiotherapy in NPC patients. We compared the differences in psychological distress and QOL before and after radiotherapy and analyzed the correlation between psychological distress and QOL after radiotherapy. The performance on the DT was 6.60 ± 1.42 and 2.81 ± 1.43 before and after chemotherapy, respectively, with a significant difference between the time points (t = -13.73,P< 0.01). The performance on the FACT-H&N was 68.30 ± 6.14 and 39.84 ± 6.14 before and after chemotherapy, respectively, with a significant difference between the time points (t = -19.9,P< 0.01). There was a significant negative correlation between the DT score and the FACT-H&N score (r = -3.64,P< 0.01). Patients with NPC experience different degrees of psychological distress, an important factor that affects quality of life, after radiotherapy.

For the physiological signal monitoring applications, as a micro-controller based on field programmable gate array (FPGA) physiological parameters intelligent acquisition system is given, which has the advantages of low cost, high speed, low power consumption. FPGA is responsible for the completion of pulse sensor, the temperature sensor, acceleration sensor data acquisition and serial output and so on. Focuses on the design ideas and architecture of the various subsystems of the whole system, gives the internal FPGA circuit diagram of the entire system. The whole system is easy to implement and has a very good promotional value.

Electric vehicle is an important developing trend of the vehicle industry and the power and technique field. But nowadays, there still exist some problems in this field which cant be solved with mature solutions, such as long time of charging, high cost of replacing and charging station and large areas it covers, low efficiency and so on. By building an effective model, this paper brings up a conceptual design of an automatic system of replacing and charging batteries for electric vehicles with the late-model design of the multi-station device. By observing the effect of the experimental device, it can solve the problems mentioned above, but more should be done to improve it. This design, the demo system, mainly includes electric vehicle model system, replacing and charging station system and GPS navigation system, and it performs excellent in experiment.

This study aimed to investigate prospective memory impairment in patients with breast cancer with different expression of hormone receptors, including the estrogen receptor (ER) and the progesterone receptor (PR). A total of 120 patients with breast cancer who underwent chemotherapy following surgery were divided into 2 groups. The A group included 60 patients with ER−/PR− status, and the B group included 60 patients with ER+/PR+ status. After 6 cycles of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy, all patients were administered neuropsychological and prospective memory tests, such as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), verbal fluency test (VFT), and digit span test (DST), as well as examination of event-based prospective memory (EBPM) and time-based prospective memory (TBPM). As the neuropsychological background test results showed, there were no significant differences in MMSE, DST, and TBPM scores (∗:P > 0.05) between patients with breast cancer in the ER−/PR− and ER+/PR+ groups, while the VFT and EBPM scores were significantly greater in patients with breast cancer with ER+/PR+ status than in those with ER−/PR− status (∗∗: P

Estimation of directional frequency transfer functions of floating offshore structures is important to estimate their behaviours in realistic short crested irregular waves (such waves are called as directional spectrum waves) Of course, there are some theoretical calculation methods for such directional response functions, but it seems that there are not so many experimental results confirming such theoretical ones. For that purpose, square basins are needed.On the other hand, recently the authors developed a wave maker which can generate directional spectrum waves in a long towing tank, and many experiments of offshore structures are conducted in such waves.So we tried to make inverse estimation of directional transfer functions of a floating offshore structure using both one dimensional response spectrum measumred in such waves, and measured two dimensional directional wave spectrum.Estimated results by present method on heave, pitch, and roll response functions are reported here, but this method will be applicable to other situations like motions of floating structures in actual seas by measuring its motions and incoming waves.

Energy transfer processes of Tm3+ singly doped and Tm3+/Ho3+-codoped TeO2-WO3-ZnO glass have been investigated under excitation of 808 nm diode laser and the involved mechanisms are discussed. The microscopic parameters and critical radii are calculated by using Dexter model and their characteristics are analyzed. The Inokuti-Hirayama model improved by Vila et al. is utilized to fit the fluorescence decay curves of Tm3+. The results indicate that there are not only Inokuti-Hirayama-type solution but also localized interaction solution in the energy transfer processes of Tm3+ and Ho3+. Furthermore, the contribution of the localized interaction increases with the increasing of the concentrations of Tm3+ and Ho3+.

This paper reports on spectroscopic properties and energy transfer of Tm 3+ /Ho 3+ -codoped ZnO-WO 3 -TeO 2 glass upon excitation of 808nm diode laser. The J-O strength parameters， spontaneous emission probability and radiative lifetime of Ho 3+ were calculated using Judd-Ofelt theory. The absorption cross-section and stimulated emission cross-section were also investigated. Our result indicates that the highest gain of 2.0 μm emission, which comes from 5 I 7 to 5 I 8 transition of Ho 3+ , might be achieved from the glass at the rare-earth ion concentration of 0.5 mol% of Tm 2 O 3 and 0.15 mol% of Ho 2 O 3 . It is found that coefficients of the forward Tm 3+ →Ho 3+ energy transfer is about 18 times that for the backward Tm 3+ ←Ho 3+ energy transfer. The calculated fluorescence lifetime of the 5 I 7 level of Ho 3+ is 3.9 ms and the emission cross section of the 5 I 7 → 5 I 8 transition of Ho 3+ exhibits a maximum of 9.15×10 -21 cm 2 at 2027 nm. We also found that Tm 3+ /Ho 3+ -codoped tellurite glass is a promising host material for potential 2.0 μm laser by comparing the quantum efficiencies, the values of σ e × τ m and gain coefficients of fluoride and heavy metal oxide glasses respectively.