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In this article, a three-dimensional detection framework for detecting non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) images and guided by a multi-modality attention fusion is proposed. A total of 250 18F-FDG PET/CT scans between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2019 of patients who had histopathologically proven NSCLC were acquired. A customized dual-path 3D CenterNet is used for NSCLC detection. Moreover, we propose a multi-modality attention module that adaptively refines the multi-modality feature map fusion. Since the 3D convolutional neural network (CNN) requires many graphic memories and sliding windows, a 384×384×32 patch size is designed and used for training and testing. Five-fold cross-validation is applied for this study. The sensitivity and false positive per scan (FPPS) obtained by our proposed method are 0.96 and 1.04, respectively. Our method significantly outperforms 3D CenterNet in terms of sensitivity (P =.031). This module demonstrates the potential to be implemented in other multi-modality applications. Our result performs competitively against other lung cancer detections. Furthermore, case studies show that the proposed method can detect difficult-to-diagnose NSCLCs. Our result shows the proposed method can help radiologists and medical physicists diagnose NSCLC.

BACKGROUND: This study classifies lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) using subregion-based radiomics features extracted from positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) images. METHODS: In this study, the standard (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT images of 150 patients with lung ADC and 100 patients with SCC were retrospectively collected from the PET Center of the First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University. First, the 3D feature vector of each tumor voxel (whose basis is PET value, CT value, and CT local dominant orientation) was extracted. Using K-means individual clustering and population clustering, each tumor was divided into 4 subregions that reflect intratumoral regional heterogeneity. Next, based on each subregion, 385 radiomics features were extracted. Clinical features including age, gender, and smoking history were included. Thus, there were a total of 1,543 features extracted from PET/CT images and clinical reports. Statistical tests were then used to eliminate irrelevant and redundant features, and the recursive feature elimination (RFE) algorithm was used to select the best feature subset to classify SCC and ADC. Finally, 7 types of classifiers were tested to achieve the optimized model for the classification: support vector machine (SVM) with linear kernel, SVM with radial basis function kernel (SVM-RBF), random forest, logistic regression, Gaussian process classifier, linear discriminant analysis, and the AdaBoost classifier. Furthermore, 5-fold cross-validation was applied to obtain the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and area under the curve (AUC) for performance evaluation. RESULTS: Our model exhibited the best performance with the subregion radiomics features and SVM-RBF classifier, with a 5-fold cross-validation sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and AUC of 0.8538, 0.8758, 0.8623, and 0.9155, respectively. The interquartile range feature from subregion 2 of CT and the gender feature from the clinical reports are the 2 optimized features that achieved the highest comprehensive score. CONCLUSIONS: Our proposed model showed that SCC and ADC could be classified successfully using PET/CT images, which could be a promising tool to assist radiologists or medical physicists during diagnosis. The subregion-based method illustrated that non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) depicts intratumoral regional heterogeneity on both CT and PET images. By defining these heterogeneities through a subregion-based method, the diagnostic performance was improved. The 3D feature vector (whose basis is PET value, CT value, and CT local dominant orientation) showed superiority in reflecting NSCLC intratumoral regional heterogeneity.

Integrated nanopores are novel and versatile single-molecule sensors for individual label-free biopolymer detection and characterization. However, their studies and application requires a stable lipid bilayer to maintain protein function. Herein, we describe a method for producing lipid bilayers across a nanopore array on a silicon nitride substrate. We used a painting technique commonly used with Teflon films to embed α-hemolysin (α-HL) into bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs) to form an ion channel. This was carried out in nanofluid developed in our lab. The membrane formation process, stability of BLMs and ion channel recordings were monitored by patch clamp in real-time. BLM formation was demonstrated by electrical recording (Rm) and capacitance (Cm) of the device with the bilayer were assessed by membrane test as above 1.0 GΩ and ~20±2 pF, respectively. The silicon nitride surface and aperture edge were smooth at the nanometer lever leading to remarkable membrane stability. The membrane lifetime was 5–24 h. A single α-HL channel inserted in 30–60 min applied a potential of +100 mV. The α-HL channel currents were recorded at ~100±10 pA. Such integrated nanopores enable analysis of channel functions under various solution conditions from the same BLM. This will open up a variety of applications for ion channels including high-throughput medical screening and diagnosis.

The present study aimed to investigate the clinicopathological features of EBV positive and EBV negative gastric cancer patients and the expression levels of proliferative, apoptotic and cell signaling proteins in tissues samples from these patients. The biological role of EBV infection was assessed in gastric cancer. Results: EBV was localized in the nuclei of gastric cancer cells (positive rate 6.86%). The infection rate of EBV in normal gastric mucosal cells, which were adjacent to cancer tissues, was 0. The difference noted was significant (P = 0. 023). The expression levels of caspase-3 (P = 0.0423), FASL (P = 0.00297) and cyclin D1 (P = 0.0345) proteins were significantly different in EBV positive and negative gastric cancer tissues. When the parameters gender, age, Lauren classification, histological grade, early and advanced tumor stage, vascular and nerve invasion, TNM grade and survival status were compared, the maximum tumor diameter, number of lymph node metastasis, caspase-8, Ki67 and P53 protein expression did not reveal significant differences. Bcl-2 protein expression was positive in only one gastric cancer cell sample and negative in the other gastric cancer cell samples as well as in the corresponding normal gastric mucosal epithelial cells. However, significant differences were noted with regard to the positive expression of Bcl-2 in the immune cells of gastric cancer and adjacent tissues (P = 1.17749E-39). The expression levels of Bcl-2 in the immune cells of EBV positive and EBV negative gastric cancer tissues were not significantly different. The expression levels of caspase-8, caspase-3, FASL, Ki67, cyclin D1 and P53 proteins in gastric cancer cells were significantly different compared to those of normal gastric mucosal cells derived from adjacent tissues (P < 0.05). These findings were noted in both EBV positive and/or EBV negative gastric cancer cases (P < 0.05). The survival time of the patients with EBV positive gastric cancer was higher than that of the patients with EBV negative gastric cancer, whereas the differences were not significantly different. The aforementioned results suggested that the EBV virus may directly infect cancerous cells but not normal gastric mucosal cells. With the exception of caspase-3, the expression levels of the proteins FASL and cyclin D1 were closely associated with EBV-positive gastric cancer. EBV did not have a specific effect on the expression of the signaling molecules associated with proliferation and apoptosis of gastric cancer cells. Its effect on gastric cancer cells may be associated with other factors and requires further discussion. No significant differences were noted in the clinicopathological features of EBV positive compared to those of EBV negative gastric cancer patients. However, the prognosis of EBV positive gastric cancer patients was better than that of EBV negative gastric cancer patients. The mechanism of action associated with these processes requires further verification.

Background The purpose of this study was to investigate an association between EGFR mutation status and 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography (18 F-FDG PET-CT) image features in lung adenocarcinoma. Methods Retrospective analysis of the data of 139 patients with lung adenocarcinoma confirmed by surgical pathology who underwent preoperative 18 F-FDG PET-CT was conducted. Correlations between EGFR mutation status, clinical characteristics, and PET-CT parameters, including the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), the mean of the SUV (SUVmean), the peak of the SUV (SUVpeak) of the primary tumor, and the ratio of SUVmax between the primary tumor and the mediastinal blood pool (SUVratio), were statistically analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of EGFR mutation. Receiver operating characteristic curves of statistical quantitative parameters were compared. Results EGFR mutations were detected in 74 (53.2%) of the 139 lung adenocarcinomas and were more frequent in non-smoking patients. Univariate analysis showed that the SUVmax, SUVmean, SUVpeak, and SUVratio were lower in EGFR-mutated than in wild-type tumors. The receiver operating characteristic curves showed no significant differences between their diagnostic efficiencies. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that being a never smoker was an independent predictor of EGFR mutation. Conclusion Quantitative parameters based on 18 F-FDG PET-CT have modest power to predict the presence of EGFR mutation in lung adenocarcinoma; however, when compared to smoking history, they are not good or significant predictive factors.

Statistical shape models (SSMs) have been established as robust anatomical priors for medical image segmentation, registration and anatomy modelling. To construct an SSM which accurately models the inter-subject anatomical variations, it is crucial to compute accurate shape correspondence between the training samples. To achieve this goal, the state-of-the-art shape correspondence computation methods always require tedious segmentation of the training images, while they seldom pay enough attention to the correspondence accuracy of key anatomical landmarks like the bone joints, vessel bifurcations, etc. As a result, the computation of shape correspondence is time-consuming and the correspondence accuracy is imperfect. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a novel shape correspondence computation approach which eliminates the need for image segmentation by registering an organ shape template to the training images. This method allows the human expert to specify key anatomical landmarks in the training images to define the correspondence of the crucial landmarks. An intensity-and-landmark-combined strategy is implemented to utilized both the image intensity and expert landmarks to obtain accurate shape correspondence. This method is evaluated for the construction of head anatomy SSM and spine SSM based on computed tomography (CT) images. The SSMs constructed using the proposed method demonstrates better shape correspondence accuracy than other state-of-the-arts correspondence methods. In particular, this method obtains pixel-level surface correspondence accuracy (1.38 mm) for the skull and sub-pixel level accuracy (0.92 mm) for the spine. The generalisability and specificity of the SSMs constructed using our method are also superior to SSMs constructed using other compared correspondence methods. With this method, we propose a novel approach which takes less human intervention and produces higher quality SSM with better shape modelling accuracy.

China is experiencing significant public health challenges related to social and demographic transitions and lifestyle transformations following unprecedented economic reforms four decades ago. Of particular public health concern is the fourfold increase in overweight and obesity rates in the nation’s youth population, coupled with the low prevalence of adolescents meeting recommended levels of physical activity. Improving the overall health of China’s more than 170 million children and adolescents has become a national priority. However, advancing nationwide health initiatives and physical activity promotion in this population has been hampered by the lack of a population-specific and culturally relevant consensus on recommendations for achieving these ends. To address this deficiency and inform policies to achieve Healthy China 2030 goals, a panel of Chinese experts, complemented by international professionals, developed this consensus statement. The consensus was achieved through an iterative process that began with a literature search from electronic databases; in-depth reviews, conducted by a steering committee, of the resulting articles; and panel group evaluations and discussions in the form of email correspondence, conference calls and written communications. Ultimately, the panel agreed on 10 major themes with strong scientific evidence that, in children and adolescents aged 6–17, participating in moderate to vigorous physical activities led to multiple positive health outcomes. Our consensus statement also (1) highlights major challenges in promoting physical activity, (2) identifies future research that addresses current knowledge gaps, and (3) provides recommendations for teachers, education experts, parents and policymakers for promoting physical activity among Chinese school-aged children and adolescents. This consensus statement aligns with international efforts to develop global physical activity guidelines to promote physical activity and health and prevent lifestyle-related diseases in children and adolescents. More importantly, it provides a foundation for developing culturally appropriate and effective physical activity interventions, health promotion strategies and policy initiatives to improve the health of Chinese children and adolescents.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are reportedly involved in various cancers. The present study aimed to investigate the role of miRNA-374b in cell viability, proliferation, apoptosis, and tumor formation in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in humans. Methods: The expression level of miRNA-374b in blood and tumor tissues from NSCLC patients was analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). A 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was performed to assess the viability of NSCLC cells after transfection with miRNA-374b. Colony formation assay was performed to assess the proliferation of cells pretreated with miRNA-374b. The terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferasedUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay was performed to determine the role of miRNA-374b in apoptosis in NSCLC cells. A tumor formation assay was performed to assess the effects of miRNA-374b on tumorigenesis in NSCLC. Results: miRNA-374b was markedly downregulated in the blood and tumor tissues from NSCLC patients. Furthermore, overexpression of miRNA-374b markedly reduced the viability of NSCLC cells, but miRNA- 374b inhibitor increased the viability of NSCLC cells compared with that in negative controls. Moreover, miRNA-374b decreased the number of colonies; however, its corresponding anti-miRNA oligonucleotide (AMO) markedly increased colony formation by NSCLC cells. Also, miRNA-374b promoted the apoptosis and inhibited tumor formation in NSCLC; however, this inhibition was reversed upon treatment with the AMO. Western blot analysis revealed that miRNA-374b regulates tumor progression through the p38/ERK signaling pathway by inhibiting JAM-2 in NSCLC. Conclusions: The present results indicate that miRNA-374b inhibits tumor growth and promotes apoptosis in NSCLC through the p38/ERK signaling pathway by targeting JAM-2.

The objective of this study was to assess the effects of stocking density on growth performance, serum biochemical parameters, and muscle texture properties of genetically improved farmed tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus, GIFT). Juvenile GIFT with an average initial weight of 12.54 ± 0.45 g (mean ± SD) were randomly stocked in 16 tanks (80 L) in a recirculation aquaculture system at four densities of 10 (D1), 20 (D2), 30 (D3), and 40 (D4) fish per tank for 56 days, with quadruplicate for each density. There were no significant differences in water temperature among the four treatments (P > 0.05). D4 had the significantly lowest dissolved oxygen content (5.52 vs 5.69–6.09 mg L−1) (P > 0.05) and pH (6.63 vs 6.87–7.20) (P

To ensure the reliability of the planned multi-center clinical trial, we assessed the consistence and comparability of the quantitative parameters of the eight PET/CT units that will be used in this trial. PET/CT images were scanned using a PET NEMA image quality phantom (Biodex) on the eight units of Discovery PET/CT 690 from GE Healthcare. The scanning parameters were the same with the ones to be used in the planned trial. The 18F-NaF concentration in the background was 5.3 kBq/ml, while the ones in the spheres of diameter 37 mm, 22 mm, 17 mm and 10 mm were 8:1 as to that of the background and the ones in the spheres of diameter 28 mm and 13 mm were 0 kBq/ml. The consistency of hot sphere recovery coefficient (HRC), cold sphere recovery coefficient (CRC), hot sphere contrast (QH) and cold sphere contrast (Qc) among these 8 PET/CTs was analyzed. The variation of the main quantitative parameters of the eight PET/CT systems was within 10%, which is acceptable for the clinical trial.

To date, many digital atlases of the human head have been developed, but few incorporate the anatomical variations of the population. In this paper, for the first time, we constructed two digital head atlases (DHAs) of Chinese male and female adults, which can be deformed to simulate the inter-subject anatomical variations. The atlases were developed to assist with personalized medical treatment, population based radio magnetic simulation, and medical imaging device design. The statistical shape model approach was used to construct the atlases based on a training set of 65 computed tomography (CT) images (including those of 46 males and 19 females). To evaluate the accuracy of anatomy modeling, we compared the atlas morphometry parameters with the reference values of the Chinese population and observed the reasonable agreement between them. Compared with the existing digital human head atlases, a unique feature of the DHA is the capability of emulating individual head anatomy via model deformation. This feature is validated by registering the DHAs to patient CT images. The registered atlases provide complete anatomy of the target subjects, including the structures that are not clearly visible in the CT images.

This study aimed to investigate the incidence and risk factors of deep surgical site infection (DSSI) during hospitalisation after closed tibial plateau fractures treated with open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF). We performed this retrospective study at a university‐affiliated hospital with an advanced trauma centre. The data of adult patients with closed tibial plateau fractures treated with ORIF from January 2012 to February 2017 were extracted from the electronic medical records. Demographics, injury‐related and surgery‐related variables of DSSI and non‐DSSI groups were compared by univariate test. Multivariate logistic analysis models were used to investigate the independent risk factors. In total, 676 patients with complete data met the inclusion criteria and were included, and of them, 17 developed DSSI (2.51%) during hospitalisation. Approximately 60% (9/17) of DSSI was caused by Staphylococcus aureus. Compared to the non‐DSSI group, DSSI patients had a significantly longer stay in hospital (25.8 vs 15.2 days). Independent risk factors of DSSI identified by multivariate analysis were higher BMI (>26.0) (OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.09 to 3.27; P = 0.032), prolonged surgical duration (>138 min) (OR, 4.26; 95% CI, 1.54 to 11.19; P = 0.005) and current smoking (OR, 3.42; 95% CI, 1.47 to 8.62; P = 0.01). A relatively low incidence rate of DSSI (2.51%) was found in this study, and several significant risk factors were identified. Smoking cessation programmes should be implemented immediately after hospitalisation, especially for obesity and morbid obesity patients. Detailed and comprehensive preoperative assessment and a considerate operative plan should be guaranteed to reduce surgical duration.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of dietary ferulic acid (FA) supplementation on growth performance, antioxidant capacity and some physical characteristics of flesh in genetic improvement of farmed tilapia (GIFT) juveniles. Five diets supplemented with 0, 50, 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg FA were prepared. Weight gain was significantly increased, while feed conversion ratio, viscerosomatic index and hepatosomatic index were significantly decreased in fish fed FA diet at 100 mg/kg feed (p

Purpose To establish an accurate and reliable equation for kidney depth estimation in adult patients from different Chinese geographical regions. Method This multicenter study enrolled Eastern Asian Chinese patients with abdominal PET/CT scans at 26 imaging centers from six macro-regions across China in 3 years. Age, gender, height, weight, primary disease and its extent on PET scans of the participants were collected as potential predictive factors. Kidney depth on CT, defined as the average of the vertical distances from the posterior skin to the farthest anterior and closest posterior surfaces of each kidney, was measured as the standard reference. The new kidney depth model was constructed using a multiple regression model, and its performance was compared to those of three established models by computing the absolute value of estimation errors in comparison with CT-measured kidney depth. Results A total of 2502 patients were enrolled and classified into training (n=1653) and testing (n = 849) subsets. In the training subset, two kidney depth models were constructed: Left (cm): 0.013×age+0.117×gender-0.044×height+0.087×weight+7.951, Right (cm): 0.005×age+0.013×gender-0.035×height+0.082×weight+7.266 (weight: kg, height: cm, gender = 0 if female, 1 if male). In the testing subset, one-way analysis of variance showed that the estimation errors of the new models did not significantly differ among the 6 regions. Bland-Altman analysis determined that new equations had lower estimated biases (left: 0.039 cm, right: 0.018 cm) compared with other existing models. Conclusion The new equations were highly accurate for kidney depth estimation in adults from all over China, with lower estimation errors compared to other established models.

With the increasing progress of agricultural production systems, the requirements for the degree of automation are also growing. As the most arduous picking link in the whole agricultural production, the development of picking robots has been paid more and more attention by experts and scholars. How to make the picking robot adapt to the complex and diverse agricultural production environment and effectively replace the manual operation, it is necessary to plan the path of the picking robot carefully. In this paper, a path planning method based on ant colony algorithm is proposed. The basic ant colony algorithm has the shortcomings of slow convergence speed and easy to fall into local optimum so that the final algorithm cannot meet the needs of the target. Firstly, the grid method is used to simulate the agricultural production environment to improve the applicability of path planning. Secondly, a new pheromone initialization scheme is proposed to improve the convergence speed because of the absence of pheromone in the initial time of the basic ant colony algorithm. Then, aiming at the problem that the basic ant colony algorithm is easy to fall into an optimal local solution, a new pheromone initialization scheme is proposed. The pheromone is added or subtracted to make the ant colony converge to the optimal path better. Finally, the performance of the algorithm is improved by choosing the appropriate heuristic function. Simulation experiments show that the path planning based on the improved ant colony algorithm has a good effect on the path planning process of the picking robot.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography ((18)F-FDG PET/CT) volume-metabolic combined parameters in patients with cervical carcinoma.We retrospectively reviewed 91 consecutive patients' whole-body FDG-PET/CT images, and further measured and calculated FDG PET/CT volume-metabolic parameters, including cervical metabolic tumor volume (CMTV), cervical total lesion glycolysis (CTLG), whole-body metabolic tumor volume (WB-MTV), whole-body total lesions glycolysis (WB-TLG). The prognostic value of these tumor volume-metabolic measures was assessed by Cox Proportional Hazard Regression Analysis.The overall survival (OS) was 88.8% for patients with low CMTV (≤53.75 mL) and 45.5% for those with high CMTV (53.75 mL), respectively (P 0.01, 95% confidence interval). Univariate analysis showed that CMTV and CTLG were significant prognostic factors for OS, in addition to International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage, age, lymphadenopathy, and maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) (P 0.05 for all). On multivariate analysis, CMTV remained significant for OS, in addition to FIGO stage (P 0.05 for all). CMTV remains as prognostic factor for OS regardless of patients' FIGO stages (P 0.05). In patients in the metastatic diseases group, univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that CMTV, WB-MTV, and WB-TLG were independent prognostic factors for OS (P 0.05 for all).CMTV, WB-MTV, and WB-TLG are reliable prognostic factors for patients with cervical carcinoma and should be included in FDG-PET/CT reports to guide referral clinicians for risk-adapted therapies.

This work introduces a new strategy for visible/near-infrared (NIR) light responsive H 2 production over TiO 2 nanoparticles co-sensitized with zinc phthalocyanine derivative (Zn- tri -PcNc) and surface ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) complex, which is in situ formed on the TiO 2 nanoparticles' surfaces by using ascorbic acid (AA). The in situ formed surface LMCT complex (AA-TiO 2 ) exhibits obvious visible-light-responsive photoactivity (126.2 μmol/h) for H 2 production with a high apparent quantum yield (AQY) of 16.1% at 420 nm monochromatic light irradiation. Moreover, the co-sensitized TiO 2 nanoparticles (Zn- tri -PcNc-TiO 2 -AA) shows a much higher photoactivity (162.2 μmol/h) for H 2 production than the surface LMCT complex, and broader spectral responsive region (400–800 nm) with a relatively high AQY value (0.97%) at 700 nm monochromatic light irradiation. The present result reveals a possible substitute for the conventional Ru(II)-bipyridyl complexes or organic dyes as sensitizer of semiconductors in the field of solar fuel conversion.

In recent years, there has been increasing demand for personalized anatomy modelling for medical and industrial applications, such as ergonomics device development, clinical radiological exposure simulation, biomechanics analysis, and 3D animation character design. In this study, we constructed deformable torso phantoms that can be deformed to match the personal anatomy of Chinese male and female adults. The phantoms were created based on a training set of 79 trunk computed tomography (CT) images (41 males and 38 females) from normal Chinese subjects. Major torso organs were segmented from the CT images, and the statistical shape model (SSM) approach was used to learn the inter‐subject anatomical variations. To match the personal anatomy, the phantoms were registered to individual body surface scans or medical images using the active shape model method. The constructed SSM demonstrated anatomical variations in body height, fat quantity, respiratory status, organ geometry, male muscle size, and female breast size. The masses of the deformed phantom organs were consistent with Chinese population organ mass ranges. To validate the performance of personal anatomy modelling, the phantoms were registered to the body surface scan and CT images. The registration accuracy measured from 22 test CT images showed a median Dice coefficient over 0.85, a median volume recovery coefficient (RC (vlm)) between 0.85 and 1.1, and a median averaged surface distance (ASD)

A number of studies have demonstrated that dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) may be used to evaluate microvessel density (MVD), and may quantitatively reflect tumor angiogenesis. To investigate the dynamics, including angiogenesis and tumor cellularity, of rabbit VX2 tumors during the 4 weeks following tumor implantation, the present study used DCE-MRI combined with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) to scan the tumors at 3 days, and then at 1, 2, 3 and 4-week intervals, following tumor implantation. The dynamics, volume transfer coefficient (Ktrans) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of the tumor parenchyma were analyzed. Furthermore, the associations between Ktrans and MVD at 4 weeks after tumor implantation were analyzed. Tumor Ktrans was positively correlated with MVD at 4 weeks (r=0.674, P

Supervised learning from data, especially using deep neural networks, usually needs tons of labeled data. Considering there are plenty of handwritten samples in the Internet, how to make use of the large amount of dirty data or make them cleaner? This paper presents self-correction learning method to automatically label dirty data. The methods lend inspiration from self-training framework. It trains the classifier iteratively on the dirty data, and shifts the cluster centers, corrects or deletes samples according to the estimated confidence during the iterations. Empirical results demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively improve the quality of the data and reduce great human annotation efforts.

During the control process of the three-phase PWM rectifier, the parameters of the conventional PID controller are kept constant. It's unable to make appropriate changes according to the actual working condition of the rectifier and the change of working environment, which limits the adaptability of the rectifier to environment and working conditions. Against this point, the single neuron adaptive PID is used as the voltage outer loop controller of the three-phase PWM rectifier instead of the conventional PID. The single neuron could make online adjustment of PID parameters according to the working state of the three-phase PWM rectifier. As a result, it solves the phenomenon that the control performance of the conventional PID controller varies with different working conditions. Through theoretical analysis and simulation verification, the three-phase PWM rectifier controlled by single neuron adaptive PID controller not only own the simple parameter setting process, but strong adaptability, better dynamic and static performance.

To evaluate the efficacy of (18)F-FDG PET/CT in depicting metastatic mediastinal lymph nodes in patients with lung squamous-cell carcinoma (LSCC) or lung adenocarcinoma (LAC) in a tuberculosis-endemic country.This study retrospectively reviewed patients with LSCC or LAC, who underwent preoperative (18)F-FDG PET/CT to assess mediastinal lymph node metastasis. Patients with the short-axis of mediastinal lymph node≤15mm were included. PET/CT interpretation was analyzed in two ways. Firstly, with CT for anatomical localization, lymph nodes showing greater (18)F-FDG uptake than vessel pool on PET were regarded malignant. Secondly, lymph nodes with positive uptake on PET were considered malignant, only when nodes had neither calcification nor higher attenuation than vessel pool on CT.One hundred and sixteen LSCCs and 234 LACs were evaluated. With CT for anatomical localization, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of PET were 78.6%, 45.5%, 53.4%, 31.4% and 87.0% in LSCC group, and 61.8%, 66.3%, 65.0%, 42.9% and 80.9% in LAC group. PET showed higher specificity and accuracy in LAC group compared with LSCC group (p=0.001 and p=0.038, respectively). Considering calcification or high attenuation on CT, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV and NPV of PET/CT were 71.4%, 67.0%, 68.1%, 40.8% and 88.1% in LSCC group, and 54.4%, 86.1%, 76.9%, 61.7% and 82.2% in LAC group. Compared with PET, PET/CT possessed higher specificity and accuracy in LSCC group (p=0.000 and p=0.000, respectively), and higher specificity, accuracy and PPV in LAC group (p=0.000, p=0.000 and p=0.022, respectively).(18)F-FDG PET displays limited efficacy in assessing mediastinal lymph node metastasis with the short-axis diameter15mm in LSCC and LAC groups and higher false-positivity in LSCC group. The specificity and accuracy in LSCC and LAC groups are enhanced by interpreting attenuation characteristic on CT.

Background The pro-tumoral action of the cluster of differentiation 147 (CD147), which is associated with the chemotherapy resistance of lung adenocarcinoma, is partly due to accelerated tumor cell glycolysis. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET) metabolic parameters included maximal standardized uptake value (SUVmax), mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG), which are non-invasive markers of the glucose metabolism of tumor cells in vivo. This study aimed to clarify the correlation between PET metabolic parameters and CD147 expression, and to evaluate the prognostic value of CD147 expression in resectable lung adenocarcinoma patients. Methods A total of 89 lung adenocarcinoma chemotherapy-naive patients who underwent 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography and computerized tomography scan before pulmonary surgery were retrospectively analyzed. The PET metabolic parameters were calculated by 18F-FDG PET imaging, and CD147 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. SUVmax, SUVmean, MTV, and TLG compared for their performance in predicting the expression of CD147 were illustrated with statistical analysis. All patients were then followed-up for survival analysis. Results The SUVmax was significantly correlated with the CD147 expression and was the primary predictor for the CD147 expression of lung adenocarcinoma. A cut-off value of the SUVmax, 9.77 allowed 85.1% sensitivity and 64.3% specificity for predicting the CD147 positive lung adenocarcinoma. CD147 expression was correlated with tumor differentiation and metastasis. Univariate survival analysis showed that CD147 expression was significantly associated with a shorter overall survival (OS) time. Multivariate analysis revealed that CD147 was an independent prognostic factor of lung adenocarcinoma patients. Conclusion The SUVmax of a primary tumor measured with 18F-FDG PET may be a simple and non-invasive marker for predicting CD147 expression in lung adenocarcinoma. CD147 is an independent prognostic factor related to OS of postoperative lung adenocarcinoma patients.

In the process of rapid social and economic development, the power demand shows a trend of increasing year by year, and the continuous and stable supply of power is particularly important. By analyzing the traditional production processes of electric power, we can find out the disadvantages, what is, it is impossible to store electric energy internally. Relying on the energy storage technology developed by advanced science and technology, energy storage can be turned into reality and the quality of the power production can be effectively improved. It covers a number of process-based projects, such as production, transmission and utilization. As the operation process and foundation of the power grid cannot be changed, there is a lack of flexibility and difficulty in implementing safety control. In view of the current situation in China and the problems of electrical engineering in the future, the application and development of energy storage technology are discussed in detail.

Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) has been widely suggested as clinical indicator in diseases, including sepsis. It was thought that the cfDNA was coming from the cell lysis, necrosis and apoptosis caused by tissue damages during sepsis. M1 or M2 macrophage-type responses kill or repair in vivo, which is highly relevant with the tissue damages in sepsis. The correlation between cfDNA and M1/M2 responses during sepsis was never investigated. Here, we used bacteria injection induced septic peritonitis mouse model in both M1-dominant C57bl/6 and M2-dominant Balb/c mouse strains. We found that M2-dominant Balb/c mice showed better prognosis of septic peritonitis than C57bl/6 mice, which is corresponded with lower level of cfDNA in septic Balb/c mice compared to septic C57bl/6 mice. By assessing the M1 and M2 related cytokines in both septic Balb/c and C57bl/6 mice, we found out that Balb/c mice has lower tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) and higher interleukin 10 (IL-10) productions than C57bl/6 mice during septic peritonitis. Especially, when monitoring the monocyte subtypes in peripheral blood of these septic mice, we found out that C57bl/6 showed higher inflammatory (Ly6C(high)) monocyte (corresponding to M1 macrophage) proportion than Balb/c mice. Interestingly, we find out that cfDNA is highly correlated with the ratio of Ly6C(high) monocytes versus Ly6C(low) monocytes, which represents M1/M2 (killing/healing) responses. Our study suggested that the cfDNA is a good indicator for evaluating M1/M2 responses in septic peritonitis.

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the predictive value of the numbers of metabolically positive lymph nodes (MPLN) detected by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC). Methods We retrospectively analyzed the records of 50 patients with LAGC (stage T2-T4) who had undergone pre-operative PET/CT examination and laparotomy (total gastrectomy, n = 11; subtotal gastrectomy, n = 13; distal gastrectomy, n = 22; and bypass with gastrojejunstomy, n = 4). The numbers of MPLN were determined by combining visual observations with semi-quantitative measurements of the maximized standardized uptake value (SUVmax). Performance was investigated in terms of predicting post-surgical overall survival (OS). Results The median post-surgical OS was 32.57 months (range 3.0-94 months). The numbers of MPLN were moderately correlated with the numbers of histological positive LN (r = 0.694, p = 0.001). In univariate analyses, the numbers of MPLN (≤ 2 vs. ≥3), PET/CT LN (positivity vs. negativity), SUVmax of LN (< 2.8 vs. ≥ 2.8), TNM stage (I, II vs. III, IV), and surgery type (R0 vs. non-R0) were significantly associated with OS. In multivariate analysis, surgery type (R0 vs. non-R0) and numbers of MPLN (≤ 2 vs. ≥ 3) were both independent factors for poor OS. Conclusions This explored study indicates that the number of MPLN could provide additional information for LAGC prognosis. Patients with MPLNs ≥ 3 may be at the risk of the more bad outcomes, and the further clinical trials are needed.

The volatile flavour compounds of different Chinese traditional rice wines and the corresponding representative fungi in the wheat Qu (comparable to the koji used in sake brewing) samples were investigated. Results showed that alcohols, acids and esters were abundantly present in the three Chinese rice wines, but the types and concentrations of the volatile flavour compounds by fermentation from different wheat Qu samples were quite distinctive. Cladosporium cladosporioides, Penicillium chrysogenum, Aspergillus oryzae and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were the major components of the fungal flora in the three kinds of wheat Qu samples. Less prevalent genera and species represented in the fungal communities of the three kinds of wheat Qu samples, however, varied greatly, and the richer the flavour substances in the rice wines were, the more abundant the microbe species in the corresponding wheat Qu samples. The results indicate that the types and concentrations of volatile compounds were significantly influenced by the species of microorganisms (moulds and yeasts) in the wheat Qu, which brings a unique flavour to Chinese rice wine. Copyright © 2012 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling

Rationale and Objectives The purpose of this study was to assess the correlations between the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of colorectal carcinoma and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C), and their respective receptors using 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT). Methods Fluorine-18-FDG PET/CT scans were performed on 33 patients with colorectal carcinoma before any treatment. The SUVmax of colorectal carcinoma and the clinicopathologic data associated with lymphatic metastases were analyzed. The expression of glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1), HGF, c-Met, VEGF-C, and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 3 (VEGFR-3) in tumor tissues was analyzed using immunohistochemical methods. Lymphatic endothelial cells were marked with D2-40, and lymphatic vessel density (LVD) was recorded. The correlations were analyzed among the SUVmax of colorectal carcinoma, LVD, and the expression of GLUT1, HGF, c-Met, VEGF-C, and VEGFR-3 in tumor tissues. Results SUVmax and LVD in 15 patients with lymphatic metastases were 13.00 ± 4.51 and 6.25 ± 1.54, respectively, whereas in 18 patients with nonmetastatic nodes, SUVmax and LVD were 9.66 ± 4.82 and 4.54 ± 1.02, respectively. The differences of SUVmax and LVD between metastatic and nonmetastatic patients were statistically significant ( F = 4.153, P = .025, and F = 14.501, P = .001, respectively). There were no statistical differences of SUVmax and LVD in variably differentiated colorectal carcinoma ( F = 0.708, P = .502, and F = 0.311, P = .735, respectively). The expression rates of GLUT1 in neoplastic and normal tissue were 72.7% (24 of 33) and 21.2% (seven of 33), respectively ( P = .001). Moreover, the expression rates of GLUT1 in metastatic and nonmetastatic tissue were 93.33% (14 of 15) and 61.11% (11 of 18), respectively ( P = .038). LVD and the integrated optical density of GLUT1 were 5.31 ± 1.53 and 8.21 × 10 4 ± 4.30 × 10 4 , respectively, in tumor tissue, and there were linear correlations between SUVmax and LVD ( r = 0.373, P = .033) and between SUVmax and expression of GLUT1 ( r = 0.428, P = .013). The differences of SUVmax in HGF, c-Met, and VEGF-C groups with different expressions were statistically significant ( P = .007, P = .009, and P = .030, respectively). No correlation was found between the expression of VEGFR-3 and SUVmax. The expression of GLUT1 and HGF as well as of GLUT1 and VEGF-C was rank correlated ( r = 0.521, P = .002, and r = 0.505, P = .003, respectively). No rank correlations were found between the expression of GLUT1 and c-Met, GLUT1, and VEGFR-3. Conclusions The SUVmax of colorectal carcinoma was significantly higher in metastatic patients; the uptake of colorectal carcinoma was associated with LVD and the expression of HGF and VEGF-C but not with the expression of VEGFR-3.

Rationale and Objectives The aim of this study was to analyze the morphologic and functional features of metastatic lymph nodes of colorectal carcinoma on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomographic (PET)/computed tomographic (CT) images and correlate these with pathologic results to explore the best diagnostic performance. Methods Sixty-eight patients without any previous treatment underwent 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT examinations and subsequent operations. All lymph nodes were evaluated by recording short diameter and maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) on axial images and were carefully verified on the surgically resected specimens. The radiologic diagnostic efficacies on the basis of different diagnostic criteria were compared and evaluated with pathologic results. Results There was a significant difference for SUVmax between metastatic and benign juxtaintestinal lymph nodes (F = 96.836, P = .000) and a correlation between size and SUVmax in metastatic juxtaintestinal lymph nodes (r = 0.352, P = .038). Diagnosing according to short diameter ≥ 10 mm and SUVmax ≥ 2.5, the sensitivity, specificity, positivity prediction value (PPV), and negative prediction value (NPV) were 10.00%, 98.26%, 66.67%, and 75.84% and 82.50%, 90.43%, 75.00%, and 93.69%, respectively. Considered together, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were 10.00%, 99.13%, 80.00%, and 76.00%, respectively. Receiver-operating characteristic curves showed that the best cutoff values for SUVmax and short diameter were 2.0 and 4.85 mm, respectively; the corresponding sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV, were 91.43%, 87.83%, 69.57%, and 97.12% and 85.71%, 60.87%, 40.00%, and 98.2%, respectively. Considered together, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were 95.00%, 86.96%, 71.70%, and 98.04%, respectively. Conclusions Fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake was a more reliable indicator in diagnosing malignant juxtaintestinal lymph node of colorectal carcinoma. The optimal diagnostic efficacy could be reached by considering morphologic and functional features together.

In this paper, a new target reconstruction method considering the atmospheric refraction is presented to improve 3D reconstruction accuracy in long rang surveillance system. The basic idea of the method is that the atmosphere between the camera and the target is partitioned into several thin layers radially in which the density is regarded as uniform; Then the reverse tracking of the light propagation path from sensor to target was carried by applying Snell’s law at the interface between layers; and finally the average of the tracked target’s positions from different cameras is regarded as the reconstructed position. The reconstruction experiments were carried, and the experiment results showed that the new method have much better reconstruction accuracy than the traditional stereoscopic reconstruction method.

Health management is a new service for healthy and sub-healthy people in modern medical institutions, which will help to instruct people how to effectively control and maintain their health. Through questionnaire, systematic analysis and software engineering, the structure and function of health promotion management system are analyzed and designed. Finally, the health promotion management system based on web is constructed. People become willing to take advantage of the system to manage and direct their own health instead of becoming victims of diseases.

Introduction The purpose is to evaluate 18 F-fluorodeoxy glucose-positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) for the detection of cervical carcinoma of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stages Ib and IIa. Methods Twenty-two patients with cervical carcinoma were included in this study. Eleven of them were at the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage Ib, and the remaining patients were at stage IIa. All the patients underwent 18 F-fluorodeoxy glucose-PET/CT scan, and in 15 patients, additional delayed imaging of pelvis was performed. The PET/CT findings were compared with histopathologic and follow-up results. Results Of the 22 patients, 20 had cervical cancer with abnormal uptake that were detected directly using PET/CT without additional information from delayed imaging of pelvis; the other 2 patients showed lesions with no abnormal uptake. The use of delayed imaging of the pelvis with PET/CT corrected 1 false-negative case. Thus, the accuracy of PET/CT for early-stage cervical carcinoma was 95.45% (21/22). The uptake of early-stage cervical carcinoma showed no statistical significance between the group of stage Ib and the group of stage IIa (P > 0.05). The false-negative rate and negative predictive value of PET/CT imaging in predicting pelvic nodal involvement were 6.25% (1/16) and 93.75%, respectively. Conclusions PET/CT showed a high accuracy for the diagnosis of early-stage cervical cancer and a high-negative predictive value for predicting the pelvic nodal status in early-stage cervical cancer.

Objective To investigate the relationship between maximum standardized uptake value and pathological type, degree of differentiation, tumor size, and clinical staging of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods This study included 135 cases with pathologically proven NSCLC. Correlations between maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) and pathological type, degree of differentiation, tumor size, and clinical staging were analyzed. Results There was a significant correlation between the SUVmax of NSCLC and the pathological type (r= 0.391, P= 0.000); the SUVmax of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was higher than that of adenocarcinoma (AC) (P =0.000), and the SUVmax of AC was higher than that of bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (P = 0.004). There was a positive correlation between the SUVmax of AC and the degree of differentiation (r= 0.222, P = 0.044); SUVmax was lower in well-differentiated ACs than in moderately or poorly differentiated ACs (P=0.034 and 0.022 respectively); however, there was no statistical difference between the moderately differentiated and poorly differentiated groups (P= 1.000). There was no correlation between the SUVmax of SCC and the degree of differentiation (r= - 0.304, P= 0.054). A positive correlation was found between the SUVmax of NSCLC and tumor size (r= 0.569, P =0.000). The SUVmax of AC had a positive correlation with clinical staging (r= 0.298, P = 0.006); SUVmax was lower in stage I than in stages II, III, and IV (P = 0.047, 0.038 and 0.015, respectively); however, the SUVmax in stages II, III, and IV were not different (P= 0.708, 0.570 and 0.528, respectively). There was no correlation between the SUVmax of SCC and clinical staging (r =0.066, P = 0.680). Conclusion There was a correlation between the SUVmax of NSCLC and the pathological type and tumor size. A positive correlation was found between the SUVmax of AC and the degree of differentiation and clinical staging. There were no correlations between the SUVmax of SCC and the degree of differentiation or clinical staging.

Purpose This work investigates the correlation between positron emission tomography (PET) images and the expressions of survivin, Ki67, and CD34, as well as the clinicopathological characteristics of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods Thirty-three NSCLC cases were scanned with ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG), PET before surgery. Tumor resections were used to evaluate the expressions of survivin, Ki67, and CD34 by immunohistochemical assay. Maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), immunohistochemical results, as well as clinicopathological characteristics in NSCLC were compared and analyzed. Results The average SUVmax for the 33 NSCLC was 10.5 ± 5.4. The expressions of survivin and Ki67 were 84.8% (28 of 33) and 72.7% (24 of 33), respectively. The median count of microvasculature vessel density labeled by CD34 was 24.5 ± 6.7. In the entire group, SUVmax was significantly correlated to Ki67, histological type, as well as clinical type (P = 0.010, 0.048, 0.029, respectively). It revealed a median survival of 33 ± 0.6 months for SUVmax below 11 versus a median survival of 27 ± 1.3 months for SUVmax values above 11 (P = 0.013). There were no significant correlations between SUVmax and expressions of survivin and CD34, and no correlations involving age, sex, differentiation, tumor node metastasis stage, and lymph node metastasis. Conclusion SUV-indexed FDG metabolic activity correlated significantly with proliferative activity (Ki67 expression) as well as the histological and clinical tumor type. These biological predictive markers combined with ¹⁸F-FDG PET might provide more useful information on the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with NSCLC. These conclusions require confirmation with further studies.

Some new radiotracers might add useful information and improve diagnostic confidence of 18F-FDG imaging in tumors. A multicenter clinical trial was designed to investigate the diagnostic performance of dual-tracer (18F-FDG and 3′-deoxy-3′-18F-fluorothymidine [18F-FLT]) PET/CT in pulmonary nodules. Methods: Fifty-five patients underwent dual-tracer imaging in 6 imaging centers using the same models of equipment and standardized protocols. The images were interpreted by a collective group of readers who were unaware of the clinical data. The diagnostic performance using either tracer alone or dual-tracers together, with or without CT, was compared. The histological diagnosis or clinical findings in a 12-mo follow-up period served as the standard of truth. Results: In 16 patients with malignant tumor, 16 with tuberculosis, and 23 with other benign lesions, the sensitivity and specificity of 18F-FDG and 18F-FLT were 87.5% and 58.97% and 68.75% and 76.92%, respectively. The combination of dual-tracer PET/CT improved the sensitivity and specificity up to 100% and 89.74%. The 3 subgroups of patients could be best separated when the 18F-FLT/18F-FDG standardized uptake value ratio of 0.4–0.90 was used as the threshold. Conclusion: By reflecting different biologic features, the dual-tracer PET/CT using 18F-FDG and 18F-FLT favorably affected the diagnosis of lung nodules.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of enteral nutrition (EN) with parenteral glutamine (GLN) supplementation on inflammatory response, lymphatic organ apoptosis, immunological function and survival in septic rats by caecal ligation and puncture (CLP). Male rats were randomly assigned into two experimental groups and two sham CLP control groups (n 10 per group). After CLP or sham CLP model and nutrition programme were completed, the GLN concentrations of plasma and tissues and several indices of immunological function including serum Ig content, circulating lymphocyte number, the CD4:CD8 ratio, the neutrophil phagocytosis index (NPI), the organ index and apoptosis of thymus and spleen, and plasma cytokine levels were determined. Moreover, the survival in septic rats was observed. The results revealed that EN with parenteral GLN supplementation remarkably increased the GLN concentrations of plasma and tissues, serum Ig content, the circulating lymphocyte number, the CD4:CD8 ratio, the indexes of thymus and spleen, NPI and survival compared with the control group (PP

Background Sleep deprivation (SD) plays a complex role in central nervous system (CNS) diseases. Recent studies indicate that short-term SD can affect the extent of ischemic damage. The aim of this study was to investigate whether short-term SD could stimulate hippocampal neurogenesis in a rat model of global cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (GCIR). Methods One hundred Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into Sham, GCIR and short-term SD groups based on different durations of SD; the short-term SD group was randomly divided into three subgroups: the GCIR+6hSD*3d-treated, GCIR+12hSD-treated and GCIR+12hSD*3d-treated groups. The GCIR rat model was induced via the bilateral occlusion of the common carotid arteries and hemorrhagic hypotension. The rats were sleep-deprived starting at 48 h following GCIR. A Morris water maze test was used to assess learning and memory ability; cell proliferation and differentiation were analyzed via 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) and neuron-specific enolase (NSE), respectively, at 14 and 28 d; the expression of hippocampal BDNF was measured after 7 d. Results The different durations of short-term SD designed in our experiment exhibited improvement in cognitive function as well as increased hippocampal BDNF expression. Additionally, the short-term SD groups also showed an increased number of BrdU- and BrdU/NSE-positive cells compared with the GCIR group. Of the three short-term SD groups, the GCIR+12hSD*3d-treated group experienced the most substantial beneficial effects. Conclusions Short-term SD, especially the GCIR+12hSD*3d-treated method, stimulates neurogenesis in the hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) of rats that undergo GCIR, and BDNF may be an underlying mechanism in this process.

Background Acute and chronic brain damages including neurodegenerative diseases are a group of neuroinflammation-associated diseases characterized by cognitive function defect and progressive neuron loss. The pathophysiological procession of brain damages involves the overexpression of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2. Owing to the limited benefit to chronic brain damage and the late adverse effect of COX-2 inhibitors, the COX downstream signaling pathway has become a focus in neurological research. In order to explore the mechanism of aluminum neurotoxicity and the importance of COX2 downstream signaling pathways to chronic brain damage, the present study was designed to simultaneously observe the prostaglandin (PG) contents, and the expressions of PG synthases and PG receptors of hippocampus in a rat model induced by chronic administration of aluminium gluconate. Methods A rat model of chronic brain damage was established by chronic intragastric administration of aluminium gluconate (Al3+ 200 mg/kg per day, 5d a week for 20 weeks). PG contents, the expressions of PG synthases, and the expressions of PG receptors in rats were measured by ELISA, RT-PCR and Western blotting, respectively. Results Chronic aluminium gluconate administration resulted in hippocampal neuron injury and learning and memory disorders in rats. Aluminium gluconate administration also resulted in increased levels of PGE2, PGD2, TXA2, PGI2, and PGF2α in rat hippocampus. The DP1, EP2, IP, mPGES-1, EP4, PGIS and TXAS mRNA expressions, and the DP1, EP2 and IP protein expressions significantly increased in the Al-treated hippocampus, while the EP3 and FP mRNA and protein expressions and the TP mRNA expression decreased. Conclusions The PGS/PGs/PG receptors signaling pathway in chronic aluminium gluconate-overloaded rat hippocampus is disturbed, which may be involved in the mechanism of aluminium neurotoxicity.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of infliximab (IFX) in treatment of Crohn’s disease (CD) patients. 106 CD patients were undergoing treatment with IFX from five hospitals in Shanghai, China. Clinical remission to IFX induction therapy was defined as Crohn’s disease activity index (CDAI) < 150. Clinical response was assessed by a decrease in CDAI ≥ 70, and the failure as a CDAI was not significantly changed or increased. Ten weeks after therapy, 61 (57.5%) patients achieved clinical remission, 17 (16.0%) had clinical response, and the remaining 28 (26.4%) were failed. In remission group, significant changes were observed in CDAI, the Simple Endoscopic Score for Crohn’s Disease (SES-CD), and serum indexes. Patients with short disease duration (22.2 ± 23.2 months) and luminal lesions showed better effects compared to those with long disease duration (71.0 ± 58.2 months) or stricturing and penetrating lesions. IFX markedly downregulated Th1/Th17-mediated immune response but promoted IL-25 production in intestinal mucosa from remission group. No serious adverse events occurred to terminate treatment. Taken together, our studies demonstrated that IFX is efficacious and safe in inducing clinical remission, promoting mucosal healing, and downregulating Th1/Th17-mediated immune response in short course CD patients with luminal lesions.

Surface micro-roughness, surface chemical properties, and surface wettability are three important aspects of wafer surfaces during a wafer cleaning process, which determine the bonding quality of ordinary direct wafer bonding. In this study, InP wafers are divided into four groups and treated by different chemical processes. Subsequently, the characteristics of the treated InP surfaces are carefully studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and contact angle measurements. The optimal wafer treatment method for wafer bonding is determined by comparing the results of the processes as a whole. This optimization is later evaluated by a scanning electronic microscope (SEM), and the ridge waveguide 1.55 μm Si-based InP/InGaAsP multi-quantum-well laser chips are also fabricated.

This paper aims to study the effects of cross section of Internet finance and mobile payment on the Internet financial deepening and the interest rate liberalization. Because more than 50% of online payment is completed by way of mobile payments and financial products in Internet finance also have such two ways as online transactions and mobile client transactions, the interest rate index on behalf of the Internet finance can be largely replaced by the return of financial products in it. The study of the relationship between return of common monetary fund in transactional Internet finance and quasi benchmark fund—SHIBOR helps to determine the effect of Internet mobile payment on Internet financial deepening and the interest rate liberalization. First, ensure the stability of time series data on SHIBOR, Yu’E Bao returns, payment of the third party with ADF test and Johansen co-integration test and then build the VEC model and perform T test and AR stationary test, then make response analysis on impulse function to describe the impact of endogenous variables. Finally, make analysis and risk prevention suggestions according to empirical results based on the market situation.

Among the 55 officially recognised ethnic minority groups in China, the Yi are the seventh largest, with a population of about 7.7 million, unevenly distributed across the mountainous regions of southwest China, primarily in three provinces, Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou. This chapter focuses on the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, home to speakers of Nuosu. Nuosu is not an endangered language but it is becoming vulnerable because of the power of Chinese and changes to the demographic makeup of society. The chapter uses an educational linguistic approach to investigate trilingualism and trilingual education in Liangshan. It finds that, in common with many other ethnic minority languages in China, the maintenance of Nuosu is hindered by historical, political and sociolinguistic factors, and suggests a number of measures to improve the situation.

Objectives In clinical practice, image analysis is dependent on simply visual perception and the diagnostic efficacy of this analysis pattern is limited for mediastinal lymph nodes in patients with lung cancer. In order to improve diagnostic efficacy, we developed a new computer-based algorithm and tested its diagnostic efficacy. Methods 132 consecutive patients with lung cancer underwent 18 F-FDG PET/CT examination before treatment. After all data were imported into the database of an on-line medical image analysis platform, the diagnostic efficacy of visual analysis was first evaluated without knowing pathological results, and the maximum short diameter and maximum standardized uptake value (SUV max ) were measured. Then lymph nodes were segmented manually. Three classifiers based on support vector machine (SVM) were constructed from CT, PET, and combined PET-CT images, respectively. The diagnostic efficacy of SVM classifiers was obtained and evaluated. Results According to ROC curves, the areas under curves for maximum short diameter and SUV max were 0.684 and 0.652, respectively. The areas under the ROC curve for SVM1, SVM2, and SVM3 were 0.689, 0.579, and 0.685, respectively. Conclusion The algorithm based on SVM was potential in the diagnosis of mediastinal lymph nodes.

Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the ovary is a rare subtype of epithelial ovarian cancer. The present study reports the case of a 55-year-old patient from The Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Harbin Medical University (Harbin, Heilongjiang, China) who underwent successful surgery for recurrence of a TCC of the ovary with rectum metastases following the initial surgery and chemotherapy. Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET-CT) was used in the pre-operative detection of the tumor and the post-operative follow-up of the patient. To date, the patient has experienced 8 years of disease-free survival. The aim of the present study was to convey the good survival rate of the patient following recurrent TCC of the ovary, and the role of PET-CT in detection and follow-up, in order to aid in the future selection of appropriate diagnostic methods and therapies for this disease.

Background Neuroinflammation plays pivotal roles in the progression of cerebral ischemia injury. Prostaglandins (PGs) as the major inflammatory mediators in the brain participate in the pathophysiological processes of cerebral ischemia injury. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2) is the rate-limiting enzyme of PGs, and thus it is necessary to characterize of the expression patterns of COX2 and its downstream products at the same time in a cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) model. Methods The levels of prostacyclin (PGI2) and thromboxane (TXA2) and the expression of COX2 were detected in the rat hippocampus at different time points after reperfusion (30 min, 2 h, 6 h, 24 h, 48 h, 7 d, and 15 d). Results The COX2 mRNA and protein expressions in hippocampus both remarkably increased at 30 min, and peaked at 7 d after global cerebral I/R compared with the sham-operated group. The level of PGI2 significantly increased at 2 h after reperfusion, with a peak at 48 h, but was still significantly higher than the sham-operated animals at 15 d. TXA2 level decreased at 30 min and 2 h after reperfusion, but significantly increased at 6 h and peaked at 48 h. PGI2/TXA2 ratio increased at 30 min after reperfusion, and peaked at 48 h compared with the sham-operated animals. Conclusions I/R injury significantly increased the COX2 expression, PGI2 and TXA2 levels, and the PGI2/TXA2 ratio in rat hippocampus in a time-dependent manner. As a consequence, the increased PGI2 level and PGI2/TXA2 ratio may represent a physiological mechanism to protect the brain against the neuronal damage produced by I/R injury.

Multidetector spiral computed tomography enterography (MSCTE) and ileocolonoscopy are used in evaluating inflammatory situation of Crohn's disease (CD) patients. The purpose of this study was to determine the disease severity of CD patients by combining the intestinal wall thickness by MSCTE with ileocolonoscopy.This retrospective study included 50 patients with terminal ileal CD. Diagnosis was confirmed based on clinical features, endoscopy, and pathology. Patients underwent both MSCTE and ileocolonoscopy. Ileal wall thickness was measured and the disease severity was evaluated by CD activity index (CDAI). Intestinal mucosal lesions were scored by the simple endoscopic score for CD (SES-CD).Of the 50 patients with active terminal ileal CD, the comparison of scores between SES-CD and CDAI showed significant association with Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (p0.01). There were statistically significant correlation between the wall thickness and the SES-CD (p0.0001) as well as CDAI (p0.001), respectively, but no significant correlation between the wall thickness and the C-reactive protein (CRP) was found (p = 0.43). Moreover, we found that the wall thickness was preferential to predict the disease severity in the terminal ileal CD.MSCTE, in combination with ileocolonoscopy, is reliable to identify disease severity in CD patients and provides more accurate information in the diagnosis and treatment.

Zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) derivatives with asymmetric (Zn-tri-PcNc-2) or symmetric (Zn-tetrad-Nc) structure, which possess wide spectral response in the visible/near-IR light region, are synthesized and utilized as a sensitizer of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) with 0.5 wt% Pt-loading for photocatalytic H2 production. The experimental results indicate that Zn-tri-PcNc-2 exhibits much better photosensitization on g-C3N4 than Zn-tetrad-Nc under visible/near-IR light although Zn-tetrad-Nc possesses wider and stronger optical absorption property than Zn-tri-PcNc-2. Zn-tri-PcNc-2-Pt/g-C3N4 exhibits an average H2 production rate of 132 μmol h(-1), which is much better than that (26.1 μmol h(-1)) of Zn-tetrad-Nc-Pt/g-C3N4 under visible-light (λ ≥ 500 nm) irradiation. Moreover, Zn-tri-PcNc-2-Pt/g-C3N4 also shows much higher apparent quantum yield (AQY) than Zn-tetrad-Nc-Pt/g-C3N4 under red/near-IR light irradiation. Especially, Zn-tri-PcNc-2-Pt/g-C3N4 exhibits impressively higher AQY (1.07%) than that (0.22%) of the Zn-tetrad-Nc-Pt/g-C3N4 under 700 nm monochromatic light irradiation. The much better photoactivity of Zn-tri-PcNc-2-Pt/g-C3N4 than Zn-tetrad-Nc-Pt/g-C3N4 is caused by the asymmetric structure of Zn-tri-PcNc-2, which can result in the electronic orbital directionality of its excited state, much faster photogenerated electron transfer to g-C3N4, and higher red/near-IR light utilization efficiency as compared to Zn-tetrad-Nc-Pt/g-C3N4. The present results provide an important insight into the effects of molecular structure and optical absorption property of phthalocyanine derivatives on the photoactivity of the dye-sensitized semiconductor, and also guide us to further improve the solar energy conversion efficiency by optimizing the molecular structure and effectively utilizing the visible/near-IR light of sunlight.

OBJECT: The aim of this study was to determine the suitability of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) for screening brain tumors, based on a systematic review and meta-analysis of published data on the diagnostic performance of MRS. METHODS: The PubMed and PHMC databases were systematically searched for relevant studies up to December 2013. The sensitivities and specificities of MRS in individual studies were calculated and the pooled diagnostic accuracies, with 95% confidence intervals (CI), were assessed under a fixed-effects model. RESULTS: Twenty-four studies were included, comprising a total of 1013 participants. Overall, no heterogeneity of diagnostic effects was observed between studies. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of MRS were 80.05% (95% CI = 75.97%-83.59%) and 78.46% (95% CI: 73.40%-82.78%), respectively. The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.78. Stratified meta analysis showed higher sensitivity and specificity in child than adult. CSI had higher sensitivity and SV had higher specificity. Higher sensitivity and specificity were obtained in short TE value. CONCLUSION: Although the qualities of the studies included in the meta-analysis were moderate, current evidence suggests that MRS may be a valuable adjunct to magnetic resonance imaging for diagnosing brain tumors, but requires selection of suitable technique and TE value.

Expanding the degree of financial inclusion is one of the important ways to deepen the effect of the Internet. Internet finance in China greatly reduces the information asymmetry and decreases the transaction costs between financial participants, which to some extent promotes the reform of financial systems in China. Besides the elite and center institutional arrangements, some so-called grassroots or civilian financial structures appear. Thus the finance has begun to show a trend of financial disintermediate. This paper selected some variables to build a measure system, based on the 2015 Household Financial Survey. It firstly analyzed the correlation of variables and tested the variance factors through the analysis of use frequency of mobile payment and its transaction amount, meanwhile through the analysis of the impact of family investment structure on the Internet investment transactions. Then it used principal component analysis method to analyze multiple variables in reduced dimensionality. After that it tested ADF unit root and Granger causality of screened indexes, and established a stepwise multivariate linear regression model. Finally, this paper illustrated that the expansion of mobile payment transaction had an impact on the increase in the Internet financial investment transactions based on the empirical analysis and theoretical deduction, and then the paper gave some relevant recommendations.

This study was designed to investigate the feasibility of a method derived from fused positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) images for the delineation of gross tumor volume (GTV) in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and to explore the correlation between PET-CT and histopathological findings.Thirty-seven patients were enrolled in this study; all patients were evaluated by PET-CT and underwent surgery within 1 week after the scan. The radiation oncologist, together with the radiologist, first delineated the GTV-based CT and then with an experienced nuclear medicine physician contoured the same GTV using the distinctive visual 'halo' in fused PET-CT images. The characteristics of the halo phenomenon were analyzed, including the standardized uptake value (SUV). The excised surgical specimens were labeled and the maximum diameter of the tumor in the right-left axis of the tissue blocks was measured on consecutive histopathology slides; the histopathological slice images were scanned using a digital pathology scanner after staining with hematoxylin and eosin.The mean SUV of the external margins of the halos was 2.41±0.73 (range 1.4-4.1); the histopathological type and T-stage significantly influenced the SUV of the external margin of the halos (P=0.004 and 0.027). The correlation coefficients of maximum diameter in the right-left axis and in the anterior-posterior axis between fused PET-CT images and histopathology were 0.935 and 0.943, respectively; the values between CT imaging and histopathological examination were 0.82 and 0.763.There is a correlation between GTV based on the'halo' of fused PET-CT images and the excised surgical specimen of primary tumor.It may be feasible to use the 'halo' characteristics in fused PET-CT images to delineate GTV in NSCLCs, but its reliability should be further investigated to establish an accurate spatial imaging-pathology correlation for primary tumors delineation in NSCLCs.