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Hyperspectral (HS) image fusion aims at integrating a panchromatic (PAN) image and an HS image, featuring the fused image with the spatial quality of the former and the spectral diversity of the latter. The classic fusion algorithm generally includes three consecutive procedures that are upsampling, detail extraction, and detail injection. In this article, we propose an HS and PAN image fusion method based on generative adversarial network and local estimation of injection gain. Instead of upsampling the HS image by classical interpolation techniques, a generative adversarial super-resolution network (GASN) is designed to obtain the interpolated HS image in the fusion framework. GASN establishes a spectral-information-based discriminator to conduct adversarial learning with the generator, so as to preserve the spectral information of the low-resolution HS image. An image segmentation-based injection gain estimation (ISGE) algorithm is subsequently proposed for HS and PAN images fusion. The injection gain is estimated over image segments obtained by a binary partition tree approach to improve the fusion performance. The proposed GASN and ISGE are implemented into two credible global estimation pansharpening methods, and experimental results prove the performance improvement of the proposed method. The proposed method is also compared with existing state-of-the-art methods, and experiments on several public databases demonstrate that the proposed method is competitive or superior to the state-of-the-art fusion methods.

Background The side effects of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) and myelosuppression reduce the cancer patients’ adherence to chemotherapy. Many Chinese patients choose Chinese medicine (CM) during chemotherapy to reduce side effects; however, the evidence is lacking. The efficacy of a CM herbal treatment protocol, Jianpi Bushen Sequential Formula (健脾补肾续贯方, JBSF) will be evaluated on chemotherapy completion rate among patients with colon cancer. Methods A multi-center double-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted on 400 patients with colon cancer who will receive 8 cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy with oxaliplatin and capecitabine (CAPEOX). Patients will be randomized 1:1 to receive the JBSF or placebo formula. The primary outcome is the overall chemotherapy completion rate. The secondary outcomes include individual chemotherapy completion rate, 4-cycle completion rate of chemotherapy, time to treatment failure, relative dose intensity and treatment toxicity. Follow-up visits will be scheduled before every and after last chemotherapy. Discussion This study will provide evidence on whether JBSF can improve the chemotherapy completion rate and reduce side effects among patients with colon cancer. (Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, No. NCT03716518)

Background Although programmed cell death‐ligand 1 (PD‐L1) plays a well‐known function in immune checkpoint response by interacting with programmed cell death‐1 (PD‐1), the cell‐intrinsic role of PD‐L1 in tumors is still unclear. Here, we explored the molecular regulatory mechanism of PD‐L1 in the progression and metastasis of ovarian cancer. Methods Immunohistochemistry of benign tissues and ovarian cancer samples was performed, followed by migration, invasion, and angiogenesis assays in PD‐L1‐knockdown ovarian cancer cells. Immunoprecipitation, mass spectrometry, and chromatin immunoprecipitation were conducted along with zebrafish and mouse experiments to explore the specific functions and mechanisms of PD‐L1 in ovarian cancer. Results Our results showed that PD‐L1 induced angiogenesis, which further promoted cell migration and invasion in vitro and in vivo of ovarian cancer. Mechanistically, PD‐L1 was identified to directly interact with vascular endothelial growth factor receptor‐2 (VEGFR2) and then activated the FAK/AKT pathway, which further induced angiogenesis and tumor progression, leading to poor prognosis of ovarian cancer patients. Meanwhile, PD‐L1 was found to be regulated by the oncogenic transcription factor c‐JUN at the transcriptional level, which enhanced the expression of PD‐L1 in ovarian cancer. Furthermore, we demonstrated that PD‐L1 inhibitor durvalumab, combined with the antiangiogenic drug, apatinib, could enhance the effect of anti‐angiogenesis and the inhibition of cell migration and invasion. Conclusion Our results demonstrated that PD‐L1 promoted the angiogenesis and metastasis of ovarian cancer by participating in the c‐JUN/VEGFR2 signaling axis, suggesting that the combination of PD‐L1 inhibitor and antiangiogenic drugs may be considered as a potential therapeutic approach for ovarian cancer patients., This manuscript demonstrated that PD‐L1 promoted the angiogenesis and metastasis of ovarian cancer by participating in the c‐JUN/VEGFR2 signaling axis, and suggested that the combination of PD‐L1 inhibitor and antiangiogenic drugs may be considered as a potential therapeutic approach for ovarian cancer patients.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common malignancy and ranks as the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Despite the improvements in CRC diagnosis and treatment approaches, a considerable proportion of CRC patients still suffers from poor prognosis due to late disease detections and lack of personalized disease managements. Recent evidences have not only provided important molecular insights into their mechanistic behaviors but also indicated that identification of cancer-specific long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) could benefit earlier disease detections and improve treatment outcomes in patients suffering from CRC. LncRNAs have raised extensive attentions as they participate in various hallmarks of CRC. The mechanistic evidence gleaned in the recent decade clearly reveals that lncRNAs exert their oncogenic roles by regulating autophagy, epigenetic modifications, enhancing stem phenotype and modifying tumor microenvironment. In view of their pleiotropic functional roles in malignant progression, and their frequently dysregulated expression in CRC patients, they have great potential to be reliable diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, as well as therapeutic targets for CRC. In the present review, we will focus on the oncogenic roles of lncRNAs and related mechanisms in CRC as well as discuss their clinical potential in the early diagnosis, prognostic prediction and therapeutic translation in patients with this malignancy.

To improve the properties of mullite-based thermal insulation materials typically prepared by foam-casting method, samples were heat treated under carbon monoxide atmosphere created by a carbon bed at 600 °C and 800 °C, respectively. The effects of reduction process on microstructure, pore size distribution, phase evolution, cold crushing strength (CCS), and thermal conductivity of the resultant materials were systematically studied. The results showed that the formation of high aspect ratio mullite whiskers and small amounts of glassy phases among whiskers during the reduction process are demonstrated as the key factors in improving the properties of the resultant materials. The mechanical properties are determined to be significantly enhanced for the binding effect of glassy phase among whiskers with soaking duration gradually increased to 48 h. And the lower thermal conductivity of samples treated for 24–48 h are mainly due to the high connectivity and lowered size of pores from the accumulation of high aspect ratio whiskers. Compared with samples treated at 800 °C, both the highest CCS (4.2 MPa) and minimum thermal conductivity (0.15 W/m K) were obtained in the sample heat treated at 600 °C for 48 h. Hence, it was demonstrated that the use of low-temperature reduction process could enhance the mechanical and thermal insulation properties of mullite-based thermal insulation materials.

PURPOSE Gliomas are life-threatening brain tumors, and the extent of surgical resection is one of the strongest influences on survival rate. However, the proper distinction of infiltrated tissue remains elusive. The aim of this study was to use multimodal analyses to demarcate peritumoral tissue (PT) from tumoral (TT) and healthy tissue (HT). METHODS A total of 40 patients with histologically confirmed glioma were recruited. We analyzed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) using the voxel-based mean blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal and the corresponding structural MRI (s-MRI) alongside RNA sequencing, whole-exome sequencing, and histology results of biopsy samples obtained from PT, HT, and TT. RESULTS We demarcated a functionally defined PT area where the mean BOLD signal gradually decreased near the edge of the tumor and extended beyond the TT borders (as defined by s-MRI), which was confirmed on a case-by-case basis. Correspondingly, genetic analyses showed a gene expression pattern and mutational landscape of the PT that were distinct from that seen in HT and TT. The genetic characterization of PT relative to HT and TT converged with the MRI-defined PT zones. This was confirmed in three individual cases after additional histologic analysis. A wider PT was associated with a longer progression-free survival, which suggests PT might act as an intermediate area between TT and HT. CONCLUSION Combined multimodal imaging and genetic analyses can allow for an objective demarcation of the PT in glioma and a robust classification of the degree of infiltration of the PT. These findings could help improve both neurosurgical resection and radio-oncologic therapy.

Background Ischemic heart disease is an imperative cause of high morbidity and mortality globally. The cardiac ischemia/reperfusion damage occur in both reperfusion and ischemia. Objective In this exploration, we have planned to examine the cardio-protective action of phyllanthin against the myocardial ischemic-reperfusion injury in mice. Materials and methods The myocardial ischemic reperfusion injury (MI-RI) stimulated via coronary artery occlusion, followed by the 10 mg/kg of phyllanthin treatment. The serum cardiac markers and pro-inflammatory markers level was investigated by using the assay kits. The expressions of oxidative stress and inflammatory markers level were investigated by immunohistochemical analysis. Lipid peroxidation, antioxidant enzymes, and ATPase levels level was examined by standard methods. The expression of oxidative stress markers were inspected by the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction technique. The heart histology was investigated microscopically. Results The phyllanthin treatment increased the body weight, and heart weight also diminished the infarct size in the MI/RI mice. Cardiac markers status was diminished and the blood pressure markers were augmented by the phyllanthin. Histological analysis revealed the protective role of phyllanthin. Suppressed lipid peroxidation and enhanced antioxidant enzymes were noted in the phyllanthin treated mice MI-RI mice. Phyllanthin appreciably suppressed the pro-inflammatory regulators that is, NF-αB p65, IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α and enhanced the antioxidant marker expressions. ATPase levels were improved by the phyllanthin in the MI-RI mice. Conclusion These novel findings were confirmed the therapeutic role of phyllanthin against the MI-RI in mice. Hence, it can be a promising agent to treat the MI-RI induced cardiac dysfunction.

The next-generation satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) will follow the dual-frequency multi-constellation (DFMC) protocol and broadcast satellite clock-ephemeris corrections and integrity information via GPS L5-like signals to improve the accuracy and integrity for GNSS dual-frequency users. BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS)-3 B1C/B2a dual-frequency users will obtain a higher positioning accuracy using DFMC clock-ephemeris corrections. This paper focuses on an approach for the generation of DFMC SBAS corrections and its preliminary results. Analyzing the signal-in-space ranging error characteristics of BDS-3 satellites reveals that it is impossible to obtain orbits that are more accurate than the broadcast orbits using regionally distributed SBAS monitoring stations. Therefore, a novel DFMC SBAS correction generation approach for BDS-3 satellites is proposed in which only clock offset corrections are calculated. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated using measurements from mainland China. By using clock corrections only, B1C/B2a dual-frequency users can obtain the best accuracy. The results of the BDS-3 B1C/B2a dual-frequency positioning experiment show that the user equivalent ranging error is reduced from 0.59 m to 0.37 m with clock corrections but is reduced to only 0.43 m with the addition of clock-ephemeris corrections. With clock corrections only, the 95% positioning errors are reduced from 3.57 m to 1.53 m and from 3.79 m to 2.24 m in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively, indicating a 48% reduction in positioning errors compared to users without SBAS corrections; however, the error reduction is only 40% with clock-ephemeris corrections.

Background: Over half of patients with advanced cancer report appetite loss or anorexia. Previous studies have shown the benefit of acupuncture for cancer-related nausea and vomiting, but limited evidence exists for its role in appetite improvement. Our study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and safety of auricular acupuncture to improve appetite for cancer patients with advanced disease. Methods: We performed a two-arm parallel, pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) of auricular acupuncture versus usual care control in patients with stage III or IV cancer who experienced appetite loss. The primary outcome was changed in the Simplified Nutritional Appetite Questionnaire (SNAQ; score range, 4–20) between two groups from baseline to weeks 2 and 4, with secondary outcomes including change in weight, as well as an additional evaluation at week 8 for durability of treatment effects. We used independent two-sample t-test for the change in mean score for each outcome during or after treatment. We assessed the interaction between time and treatment from baseline to weeks 2, 4, and 8 using mixed-effects models by ANOVA test. Results: We randomized 55 patients to auricular acupuncture (N=27) or control group (N=28). By week 4, the auricular acupuncture group had a significantly higher escalation in the SNAQ score than the control group compared with baseline [mean difference 3.69; 95% confidential interval (95% CI): 2.5, 4.8; P

Aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) aims to detect the targets (which are composed by continuous words), aspects and sentiment polarities in text. Published datasets from SemEval-2015 and SemEval-2016 reveal that a sentiment polarity depends on both the target and the aspect. However, most of the existing methods consider predicting sentiment polarities from either targets or aspects but not from both, thus they easily make wrong predictions on sentiment polarities. In particular, where the target is implicit, i.e., it does not appear in the given text, the methods predicting sentiment polarities from targets do not work. To tackle these limitations in ABSA, this paper proposes a novel method for target-aspect-sentiment joint detection. It relies on a pre-trained language model and can capture the dependence on both targets and aspects for sentiment prediction. Experimental results on the SemEval-2015 and SemEval-2016 restaurant datasets show that the proposed method achieves a high performance in detecting target-aspect-sentiment triples even for the implicit target cases; moreover, it even outperforms the state-of-the-art methods for those subtasks of target-aspect-sentiment detection that they are competent to.

To satisfy the demands of civil aviation organizations and other users of satellite navigation systems for high-precision and high-integrity service performance, many countries and regions have established satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) referring to the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) service standards and agreements. The BeiDou SBAS (BDSBAS) provides both single-frequency service, which augments Global Positioning System (GPS) L1 C/A signal, and dual-frequency multi-constellation (DFMC) service, which augments BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) B1C and B2a dual frequency signals presently, meeting the requirements of the RTCA DO-229D protocol and the SBAS L5 DFMC protocol requirements, respectively. As one of the main error sources, the pseudorange bias errors of BDSBAS monitoring receivers were estimated and their effect on the performance of the BDSBAS service was analyzed. Based on the user algorithms of SBAS differential corrections and integrity information, the service accuracy, integrity, and availability of the BDSBAS were evaluated using real observation data. The results show that the maximum of monitoring receiver pseudorange bias errors between L1P and L1P/L2P can reach 1.57 m, which become the most important errors affecting the performance of the BDSBAS service. In addition, the results show that the pseudorange bias of GPS BlockIII is the smallest, while that of GPS BlockIIR is the largest. Compared with the positioning accuracy of the open service of the core constellation, the positioning accuracy of the BDSBAS service can be improved by approximately 47% and 36% for the RTCA service and DFMC service, respectively. For RTCA services, the protection limit (PL) calculated with the integrity information can 100% envelop the positioning error (PE) and no integrity risk event is detected. The service availability of BDSBAS for APV-I approach is approximately 98.8%, which is mainly affected by the availability of ionospheric grid corrections in the service marginal area. For DFMC service, the integrity risk is not detected either. The service availability for CAT-I approach is 100%. Improving the availability of ionospheric grid corrections is one of the important factors to improve service performance of BDSBAS RTCA service.

The aim of this study was to explore the prognostic factors in stage I-III colorectal cancer (CRC) patients who had survived for over five years. A total of 9754 stage I-III CRC patients who received curative surgery in the Department of Colorectal Surgery, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center were enrolled in this study. Of them, 3640 patients had survived for over five years after surgery. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed in the entire cohort and those who had survived for over five years. Compared with patients in the entire cohort, patients who had survived for over five years were more likely to be younger, have less disease of signet ring cell histology, perineural invasion and vascular invasion, more well differentiated tumors and stage I disease. In the entire cohort, increased age, signet ring cell, poor differentiation, more advanced pathological stage, perineural invasion and vascular invasion were inversely associated with disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) using multivariable Cox regression analyses. Only age, pathological stage and perineural invasion remained significant in patients who had survived for over five years. Moreover, tumor location was an independent factor for OS in this subgroup. Predictors for prognosis of CRC change over time. Age, pathological stage and perineural invasion deserve more attention among patients who have survived for over five years.

The prognostic value of tumor regression grade (TRG) in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy has been explored extensively. However, whether TRG is predictive of outcome in colon cancer following preoperative chemotherapy has not been reported.A total of 276 colon cancer patients who had undergone preoperative chemotherapy and surgery in Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center during the period March 2014 through November 2019 were recruited in this study. 113 (40.9%) and 163 (59.1%) patients were diagnosed with locally advanced colon cancer (LACC) and metastatic colon cancer (mCC) before preoperative chemotherapy, respectively. The TRG was divided into TRG0 (complete response), TRG1 (good response), TRG2 (moderate response), and TRG3 (poor response).Of the 276 patients 4.0% were TRG0, 5.4% were TRG1, 29.3% were TRG2, 61.2% were TRG3. TRG0 and TRG1 or TRG0, TRG1 and TRG2 were combined to simplify analysis due to limited sample size. In entire cohort, the 3-year overall survival for TRG0-1, TRG2, and TRG3 groups were 80.0%, 68.8% and 43.3% (P = .003). In LACC cohort, TRG was not associated with patients' prognosis, which largely resulted from limited outcome events. In mCC cohort, the 3-year overall survival for TRG0-1, TRG2, and TRG3 groups were 74.3%, 62.8% to 28.1% (P0.001). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that TRG was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival in both entire cohort and mCC cohort (TRG3 vs. TRG0-2).TRG is a prognostic factor in predicting long-term outcomes of mCC patients treated with preoperative chemotherapy.

Late recurrence (5 or more years) after radical resection of colorectal cancer (CRC) is rare. This study aims to investigate the features of late recurrence in stage I–III CRC. A total of 9,754 stage I–III patients with CRC who underwent radical surgery without receiving neoadjuvant therapy, at the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center (FUSCC), were enrolled in this study. These patients were divided into three groups: early recurrence (3 months−2 years), intermediate recurrence (2–5 years), and late recurrence (over 5 years). The median duration of follow-up was 53.5 ± 30.1 months. A total of 2,341 (24.0%) patients developed recurrence. The late recurrence rate was 11.7%. Patients with a higher risk of late recurrence were more likely to be older, to be at the T4 stage, to have a higher degree of colon cancer, to have a lower frequency of signet ring cell carcinoma, to have fewer poorly differentiated tumors, to be at the early stage of CRC, along with less perineural and vascular invasions. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified age, differentiation, T stage, N stage, perineural, and vascular invasions as independent factors for late recurrence. Late recurrent CRC has some distinctive characteristics. Although recurrence over 5 years after surgery is infrequent, an enhanced follow-up is still needed for the selected patients after 5 years.

ObjectiveTo elucidate the prognostic significance of mean corpuscular volume (MCV), with implications of habitual alcohol intake in stage II-III colorectal cancer (CRC).BackgroundMCV had the potential to become an ideal prognostic biomarker and be put into clinical application. Few studies, however, have explored whether habitual alcohol intake which greatly increased the value of MCV would affect the prognostic role of MCV.MethodsEligible patients were identified from the CRC database of Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center (FUSCC) between January 2012 and December 2013. Survival analyses were constructed using the Kaplan–Meier method to evaluate the survival time distribution, and the log-rank test was used to determine the survival differences. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models were built to calculate the hazard ratios of different prognostic factors.ResultsA total of 694 patients diagnosed with stage II-III CRC between January 2012 and December 2013 were identified from FUSCC. Low pretreatment MCV was independently associated with 72.0% increased risk of overall mortality compared with normal MCV (HR = 1.720, 95%CI =1.028-2.876, P =0.039, using normal MCV as the reference). In patients with habitual alcohol intake, however, pretreatment MCV positively correlated with the mortality (P = 0.02) and tumor recurrence (P = 0.002) after adjusting for other known prognostic factors.ConclusionsIn CRC patients without habitual alcohol intake, low (

Introduction: Spleen Deficiency Syndrome (SDS) is recognized as one of the most common Traditional Chinse Medicine (TCM) syndromes in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). However so far there is no existing patient-reported outcome (PRO) to evaluate SDS. Our study aimed to develop and validate a PRO TCM-SDS scale for CRC in China. Methods: We developed an initial 8-item TCM-SDS scale for CRC based on literature review and consultation with experts. We then pilot tested the scale ( n = 40) and performed item revision. We conducted a survey study among CRC patients from oncology clinics at a TCM Hospital to further determine the reliability and validity of the scale. Results: Among 100 patients finally enrolled and analyzed in the survey study, 46% were female with median age of 60 years old, 77% had left side tumors and 23% had stage IV disease. Factor loading indicated that there were three domains within TCM-SDS scale. The final TCM-SDS scale involves 5 items including “I feel loss of appetite,” “I feel abdomen fullness,” “I feel my arms and legs lack strength,” “I feel short of breath when talking,” and “My stool is formless” (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient 0.76). We calculated the total score of the scale by summing the 5 individual items and normalizing them to a value maximum of 10, with higher scores indicating greater burden of spleen deficiency syndrome. The average spleen deficiency score for all patients was 3.55 ± 1.54. Among them, those who had stage IV disease had higher scores than stage I-III patients (4.30 vs 3.38, P = .015). Test-retest reliability after 2 weeks showed Pearson coefficient of 0.67 and all items were highly related ( P Conclusion: The patient-reported TCM-SDS scale for CRC showed adequate initial reliability and validity. The development of the scale provided an outcome measurement tool, which could facilitate future studies to better evaluate the role of TCM in treating CRC.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) on leukopenia/neutropenia induced by chemotherapy in adults with colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: Eight electronic databases were searched from their inception to June 2020. Randomized controlled trials with clarified sequence generation were qualified. Two reviewers independently conducted the screening and data extraction. Methodological quality was assessed using the Risk of Bias tool. RevMan 5.4 was applied to the meta-analysis. Results: Twenty-seven studies involving 1867 participants were qualified, of which 26 were included in the quantitative synthesis. Meta-analysis showed that CHM significantly reduced the incidence of leukopenia induced by chemotherapy (RR = 0.69; 95% CI 0.59-0.82), as well as the grade 3/4 leukopenia (RR = 0.71; 95% CI 0.55-0.90). Meanwhile,CHM decreased the occurrence of neutropenia (RR = 0.52, 95% CI 0.35-0.77), especially for the grades 3/4 neutropenia (RR = 0.42, 95% CI 0.27-0.64). Twenty-six of the included studies focused on the adverse events related to CHM. Conclusion: CHM may relieve neutropenia/leukopenia induced by chemotherapy in adults with colorectal cancer.

Intracranial solitary fibrous tumors/hemangiopericytomas (SFT/HPCs) are vascular tumors that have a high rate of local recurrence and extracranial metastases. Intradural extramedullary spinal dissemination of intracranial SFT/HPC is extremely rare. There is a paucity of data available to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of intraspinal dissemination of intracranial SFT/HPC. Herein, we presented a case of intracranial SFT/HPC with intraspinal metastasis. The resected tumor specimens were enrolled in a clinical sequencing program, including whole-exome and transcriptome sequencing. By comparing genomic sequencing data of the intracranial tumors with intraspinal metastasis, we established the somatic mutational profiles of these tumors. Clonality analysis revealed a distinct subclonal structure in the intracranial tumor and its intraspinal metastasis, which might reflect the possibility of intratumoral clonal selection and evolution during the process of tumor dissemination. Through bioinformatics analysis and Sanger sequencing validation, a DSTYK mutation (Met296Ile) was identified as a candidate driver of intraspinal metastasis in this SFT/HPC case. Further, an intracranial tumor-derived SFT/HPC cell line, HPC3, was established to explore the mechanisms of the DSTYK mutation in promoting SFT/HPC metastasis. Based on the HPC3 cell model, we found that the DSTYK mutation promoted cell migration and invasion of HPC3 cells via activation of ERK1/2 signaling, which was inhibited by the MEK/ERK inhibitor AZD6244. The DSTYK mutation was also shown to upregulate the expression of two metastasis-related molecules: MMP2 and MMP9 in HPC3 cells; however, this effect was attenuated by AZD6244 treatment. Therefore, the DSTYK mutation may activate ERK1/2/MMP2/9 signaling to promote tumor cell metastasis in SFT/HPC. In conclusion, our study revealed the potential role of DSTYK mutation in the regulation of intraspinal metastasis of SFT/HPC, which might provide new biological insights into this rare disease.

BackgroundOsteosarcoma (OTS) is aggressive bone malignancy without well-recognized prognosis biomarker. Tumor mutational burden (TMB) has been proved as effective biomarker in predicting clinical outcomes in several cancer types. However, its prognostic value in OTS remains unknown. In this study, we aim to evaluate the implication of TMB in OTS patients.MethodsTo depict the landscape of somatic mutations in OTS, we performed Whole-Exome Sequencing (WES) on 31 OTS tissue samples and corresponding White Blood Cells (WBCs) as matched control. TMB was calculated as the total number of somatic alterations in coding regions normalized to the per sequenced genomic megabase (~30.4Mb in WES). The prognostic values of TMB were evaluated by Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox regression models.ResultsThe median age was 16.0 years at diagnosis, and 54.8% of patients were male. The most common genetic alterations were mainly involved in cell cycle and DNA damage response and repair, including H3F3A, TP53, MYC, and CDKN2A/B. The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 775.5 days in TMB-High (defined as third quartile of TMB value, 400 days), while 36.4% of all patients with TMB-Low were PFS-Long (P=0.003). TMB were significantly greater in PFS-Long than in PFS-Short (P=0.002). Moreover, the median overall survival (OS) was 1,307 days in TMB-High versus 672.5 days in TMB-Low. Furthermore, TMB-High group had significantly improved PFS (P=0.04) and OS (P=0.03).ConclusionsTMB-High can be used as prognostic marker for OTS. Our findings demonstrate that TMB may be helpful in combination with traditionally clinicopathologic risk factors to optimize risk stratification and guide treatment decisions.

The BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) tracks medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites using only regional tracking stations in China. As a result, the broadcast clock accuracy of the MEO satellites decreases rapidly during the invisible arcs because of the lack of available observations. The inter-satellite link (ISL) technology of the third generation of BDS (BDS-3) can be used to extend the visible arcs of MEO satellites and to measure the relative inter-satellite clock in nearly real time. We propose a broadcast clock approach for BDS-3 by integrating observations from regional tracking stations and ISLs. The clock error between satellites is obtained through centralized estimation based on ISLs. The Ka-band hardware delay is calibrated by taking the double difference between ISL-centralized clock and the Multi-satellite Precise Orbit Determination clock. The deviation between the ISL-centralized clock and the BeiDou time is obtained using only one Two-way Satellite Time Comparison station or anchor station. To validate the algorithms, we analyze clock estimation and prediction accuracy, hardware delay stability, and time synchronization accuracy. The results show that the frequency stability of the BDS-3 onboard passive hydrogen maser (PHM) and rubidium atomic frequency standard (RAFS) is competitive to those of the GPS IIF RAFS and Galileo FOC PHM and better than those of GPS IIR RAFS. The root-mean-square error of the 2-h clock prediction is better than 0.25 ns, and the validation result relative to the post-processed precise clock product is better than 0.4 ns. The time synchronization accuracy of better than 1 ns can be obtained based on only one TSTC station or an anchor station, and the standard deviation of Ka-band hardware delay is about 0.12 ns. It is believed that the ISL and the proposed algorithms will bring a significant upgrade in the estimation of BDS-3 broadcast clock; the broadcast clock accuracy will be greatly improved, and reliance on the ground segment will also be reduced significantly.

Facing serious environmental and traffic problems, urban rail transit companies, with the features of large capacity and high efficiency, have become an important choice for many large cities that are prioritizing public transportation and encouraging green travel options. As the construction speed of rail transit projects accelerates, the demand for materials and devices required for construction and operation is also increasing for urban rail transit companies. Therefore, the scientific selection of suppliers to meet construction and operation demands has become a problem that must be addressed. This paper presents an intuitionistic fuzzy factorial analysis model in a random environment, where correlative phenomena among each of the indicators and a random decision-making environment are considered. The evaluation indicator system of rail suppliers is established by considering the influencing factors. The extracted common factors indicate the nature of the studied object in a most direct way. The suppliers are evaluated from the perspective of the number of intuitionistic fuzzy factors and are ranked by their scores. Finally, the Tianjin urban rail transit company is used as a case study to illustrate the validity and feasibility of the method. The results can help urban rail transit companies improve their existing supplier selection method.

Aim: Quxie capsule(QX), a TCM compound, had shown benefit on survival outcomes for metastatic colorectal cancer(mCRC) patients and could inhibit tumor growth through immune regulation. This study aimed to evaluate whether such effect is associated with gut microbiome modulation. Method: We conducted a randomized double-blinded placebo controlled clinical trial in Xiyuan Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. All patients were randomly assigned into QX or placebo control group. Before and after 1-month interventions, we collected patients’ stool samples for microbiome analysis by 16s rRNA sequencing approaches, as well as blood samples to analyze T lymphocyte subsets by flow cytometry methods. Microbiome analysis among groups was done through bioinformation analysis platform. The study had been proved by the ethics committee of Xiyuan Hospital (2016XLA122-1) had been registered on Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (registration number: ChiCTR2000029599). All patients consented before enrollment. Results: We randomly assigned 40 patients and 34 were finally analyzed. Among them, 29% were female, with an average age of 63 years old, and 74% had liver or lung metastasis. Both CD4 T(TH) cell and CD8 T(TC) cell counts increased after QX treatment, while TH cells were significantly more in QX than in control group (737 vs 449, P = .024). Microbiome community analysis on Class level showed that the proportion of Actinobacteria declined in the control group, but significantly increased after QX treatments (0.83% vs 4.7%, P = .017). LEfSe analysis showed that after treatments, samples from QX group were highly related with Oscillibacter, Eubacterium, and Lachnospiraceae. RDA analysis showed that after QX interventions, stool samples and microbiome species had relevance with TC/TH cells counts but were not statistically significant. Heatmap analysis on Genus level revealed that after QX treatments, higher amounts of TH cells were significantly associated with less abundance of g_Bifidobacterium (coef. −0.76, P = .002), Collinsella (coef.−0.61, P = .02), Ruminiclostridium_9 (coef. −0.64, P = .01). Conclusion: QX capsule could enhance TH cells level among mCRC patients and increase the abundance of gut anticancer bacteria such as Actinobacteria as well as butyrate-producing bacteria such as Lachnospiraceae. These results indicated that QX capsule might have the property of dual effects of antitumor and immunity enhancement, both mediated by the microbiome.

To verify the efficacy of Quxie Capsule in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).It was a block randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Sixty patients with mCRC were randomized into 2 groups at a 1:1 ratio. The patients in the treatment group received conventional therapy including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy and supportive care, and Chinese herbal medicine combined with Quxie Capsule (each capsule of 0.4 g was orally administered at 50 mg/kg, twice daily, day 1-20, in a 30-day course) for 3 months. The patients in the control group received conventional therapy and Chinese herbal medicine combined with placebo for 3 months. Main outcome measures were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Subgroup analysis was performed according to therapy lines, right or left-sided colon, targeted therapy and RAS gene status to determine the differences in PFS and OS between the two groups. Patients were followed up every 3 months until December 31st, 2018.Median follow-up time was 19.4 months. The median OS was 23.9 months in the treatment group [95% confidence interval (CI) 15.9-28.5] vs. 14.3 months in the control group (95% CI 11.3-21.4, P;0.05). Hazard ratio (95% CI) was 0.55 (0.31-0.95, P=0.040). There were no significant differences between the two groups in PFS (P0.05). In the subgroups of ⩾second-line therapy, non-targeted therapy, RAS gene wild type and left-sided colon, the treatment group showed a significant survival benefit compared with the control group (P;0.05 or P;0.01), respectively.Quxie Capsule can reduce the risk of death and prolong the OS of patients with mCRC. (Registration No. ChiCTR-IOR-16009733).

On December 27, 2018, the basic system of the third-generation BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS-3) completed the deployment of its constellation of 18 MEO networking satellites as well as the construction of the operation control system (OCS) and began to provide basic navigation services to users worldwide. Compared with BDS-2, BDS-3 aims to offer users better navigation signals and higher precision with a series of new technologies. For example, the spaceborne atomic clock of BDS-3 is upgraded for higher performance, the Ka-band inter-satellite link is adopted for inter-satellite ranging and communication, and new B1C and B2a signals are broadcast in addition to B1I and B3I signals (compatible with BDS-2). In addition, a 9-parameter model based on a spherical harmonic function is employed for ionospheric delay corrections. Using the observation data from 18 satellites of the basic system, this paper conducts a comprehensive evaluation of the pseudorange measurement characteristics, signal-in-space (SIS) accuracy of navigation messages and global service capability of BDS-3. The results indicate that the pseudorange measurement multipath effect and observation noise of BDS-3 satellites are better than those of BDS-2; additionally, with the support of inter-satellite links, the user range error (URE) of the BDS-3 satellite broadcast ephemeris is better than 10 cm, the precision of the broadcast clock parameter is better than 1.5 ns, and the SIS accuracy is better than 0.6 m overall. Different from the traditional Klobuchar model, the BeiDou global broadcast ionospheric delay correction model (BDGIM) can provide ionospheric delay corrections better than 70% for worldwide single-frequency users. The service capability evaluation of the basic system consists mainly of the accuracy improvement of the B1I and B3I signals according to BDS-2 as well as the global positioning accuracy of the new signals. These results prove that the BDS-3 basic system has achieved the design goal; that is, both the horizontal and the vertical global positioning accuracies are better than 10 m (95%). In the future, 6 MEO satellites as well as 3 GEO satellites and 3 IGSO satellites for regional enhancement purposes will be deployed for full operation; consequently, BDS-3 will definitely provide a higher SIS accuracy and better service capability.

Background: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is widely used among Chinese cancer patients. However, little is known about Chinese patients’ expectations and barriers toward using TCM for cancer. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey within a patient-support group, the Beijing Anti-Cancer Association. We measured the outcome, Chinese cancer survivors’ expectations and barriers toward TCM utilization, using a modified version of ABCAM (Attitudes and Beliefs towards Complementary and Alternative Medicine), the ABTCM (Attitudes and Beliefs towards Traditional Chinese Medicine). We used multivariate models to evaluate the impact of socioeconomic status and clinical factors on their expectations and barriers (including treatment concerns and logistical challenges domain) toward TCM. Results: Among 590 participants, most patients expected TCM to boost their immune system (96%), improve their physical health (96%), and reduce symptoms (94%). Many had logistical challenges (difficulty decocting herbs (58%) and finding a good TCM physician (55%)). A few were concerned that TCM might interfere with conventional treatments (7.6%), and that many TCM treatments are not based on scientific research (9.1%). In the multivariable regression model, age ≤60 years was independently associated with higher expectation score ( P = .031). Age ≤60 years (coefficient 5.0, P = .003) and localized disease (coefficient 9.5, P = .001) were both associated with higher treatment concerns. Active employment status (coefficient 9.0, P = .008) and localized disease (coefficient 7.5, P = .030) were related to more logistical challenges. Conclusion: Age and cancer stage were related to Chinese cancer patients’ perceived expectations and barriers toward TCM use. Understanding these attitudes is important for reshaping the role that TCM plays in China’s patient-centered comprehensive cancer care model.

Purpose We aimed to quantify Chinese cancer survivors’ perceived needs for survivorship care and to evaluate whether these needs could impact their willingness to use traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey with members of the Beijing Anti-Cancer Association in China. We measured perceived needs with the seven-item Brief Chinese Cancer Survivorship Needs Scale that assesses psychological, functional, nutritional, social, body image, pain, and symptom needs. The outcome variable was willingness to use TCM for survivorship care. We performed multivariable logistic regression analyses to evaluate whether perceived needs are associated with willingness. Results A total of 600 patients were invited, with a response rate of 81%. The mean (standard deviation) score of the perceived needs scale (0 to 10) was 4.4 (2.2), with the majority of participants endorsing nutritional (72%), symptom (65%), and psychological (54%) needs. Among survivors, 387 (80%; 95% CI, 76% to 83%) were willing to use TCM for survivorship care. In multivariable analysis, a higher perceived needs score (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.33; 95% CI, 1.14 to 1.56; P < .001) was associated with greater willingness to use TCM. Specifically, nutritional (OR, 3.17; 95% CI, 1.79 to 5.62; P < .001) and symptom needs (OR, 3.15; 95% CI, 1.79 to 5.55; P < .001) had the strongest relationship. Conclusion A higher level of perceived needs, especially in the areas of nutrition and symptoms, was associated with greater willingness to use TCM for survivorship care.

Background: In 2010, scientific community reached a consensus regarding its subtyping (WNT/β-catenin, Sonic Hedgehog, Group 3, and Group 4). Research demonstrated that different subtype displays distinct genotypic characteristics as well as prognostics. Currently, transcriptomic profiling via NanoString is well-accepted for medulloblastoma subtyping. However, this platform requires high quality RNA sample. An alternative approach is in need for more robust and accurate subtyping. In this study, we explored the feasibility of using machine learning approach for medulloblastoma subtyping based on genome-wide SCNVs. Method: We retrieved SNP array CEL data of 1097 medulloblastoma (GSE37385) from GEO. 800 samples were remained for further analysis after QC. 32 medulloblastoma samples were collected from Robinson G, et's study as independent validation set. Penncnv was used to calculate log R ratio and B allele frequency. DNAcopy was used for CNV segmentation. GISTIC2 was applied to obtain arm and focal SCNAs. A number of classifiers were trained using SCNAs as well as age and gender. Feature selection was conducted in a model specific manner. Model performance was assessed using AUROC. Result: Benchmark on validation set showed that accuracy of Naïve Bayes, Random Forest, AdaBoost, Logistic Regression and SVM are 76.25%, 75%, 75%, 77.5% and 80.62% respectively. AUROC is 90.98%, 92.3%, 91.32%, 92.1% and 92.02% in corresponding order. The relatively overfitting and comparable performance across most models implied that SCNAs own moderate predictive power in medulloblastoma subtyping. Generally, SVM with linear kernel demonstrated superior and balanced performance than other models. Feature importance evaluation via Random Forest and AdaBoost showed better predictive power of arm-level SCNAa of 6p, 6q, 7p, 7q, 16q, 17p, 17q, consistently with previous studies. Focal SCNAs on SIRPB1 and age owned high predictive power. Nanostring performs poorly on distinguishing Group 3 and Group 4. Our method showed same tendency, indicating transcriptomic as well as genomic similarity between these two groups. We decided to permit 10% of validation samples as ‘prediction failure' for those with highly similar SCNAs characteristics. Upon this modification, accuracy of most model raised 3% on average. Conclusion: Our study evaluated the feasibility of using genome-wide SCNAs profile for medulloblastoma subtyping. Benchmark showed moderate predictive power using SCNAs. Among a number of machine learning approaches, SVM with linear kernel demonstrated superior performance. Citation Format: Cheng Yan, Dan Wang, Lan Su, Yufei Yang, Hao Du. A machine learning approach for accurate medulloblastoma subtyping using arm-level SCNAs [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr 155.

The correlation between right hepatic vein (RHV) diameter and inferior RHV (IRHV) incidence and that between IRHV incidence and other clinical features remain unclear. We investigated factors correlated with IRHV incidence as well as provide a simple and reliable method for predicting IRHV presence preoperatively.We obtained computed tomography (CT) imaging data of 1980 patients from the Department of Radiology, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, from July 1, 2016, to July 1, 2017. We excluded patients with heart disease, inferior vena cava (IVC) disease, history of liver surgery or trauma, space-occupying lesions in the liver, and other diseases, which can cause hepatic hemodynamic changes. CT images of patients were three-dimensionally reconstructed. We measured RHV and IRHV diameter as well as the angle between the RHV and the IVC.Data on 299 patients were included in this study; the incidence of IRHV was 34.44%. Sex, age, and the angle between the RHV and IVC did not correlate with IRHV incidence. RHV diameter negatively correlated with IRHV incidence (P 0.05). The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for IRHV incidence was 0.878. The diagnostic threshold value of RHV diameter was 8.86 mm.A negative correlation was found between RHV diameter and IRHV incidence, suggesting that IRHV is absent with RHV diameter 8.86 mm, but is present with RHV diameter 8.86 mm. This suggests that measuring only RHV diameter can predict the presence of an IRHV when IRHV-related hepatectomy and IRHV preserved living donor liver transplantation are needed.

Quxie capsule (QX), a herbal remedy used in traditional Chinese medicine, is routinely used in advanced colorectal cancer treatment in Xiyuan Hospital in Beijing, China. However, the mechanism(s) underlying the effect of QX in colorectal cancer remain unclear, which hampers the optimal use of QX for the treatment of the disease. The transcription factor forkhead box O1 (Foxo1) plays important roles in regulation of cell cycle, apoptosis, and immune response in various cancers. In this study, we examined the antitumor efficacy of QX in a mouse model of colorectal cancer and further investigated the mechanism by which QX regulated Foxo1 protein-mediated pathways. QX administered via gavage daily for 2 weeks in mice carrying CT26 mouse colon tumors resulted in significantly lower mean tumor weight (0.93 ± 0.32 g) compared with that in vehicle control-treated mice (1.57 ± 0.57 g, P

e16013 Background: Different primary tumor sites could impact colorectal cancer (CRC)’s survival outcomes and treatment effects. Previous studies had found that gut micro-biome distributions were different between left and right colon cancer(LCC, RCC). Out study aimed to further investigate the association between micro-biome and T lymphocytes among different tumor sites of patients with metastatic CRC. Methods: Between April 2018 and Mars 2019, we enrolled 40 metastatic CRC patients in Xiyuan Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China. We collected patients’ stool samples for micro-biome analysis by 16s rRNA sequencing approaches, as well as patients’ blood samples to analyses T lymphocyte subsets by flow cytometry methods. The study had been proved by ethics committee of Xiyuan Hospital (2016XLA122-1). All patients consented before enrollment. Results: Among 40 patients, 28% were female, with average age of 63±15 years old. There were 10 RCC, 9 LCC and 21 rectal cancer(RC) patients. Alpha diversity analysis showed that sobs index of the micro-biome of patients with RC and RC was significantly higher than whom were RCC(254.89±99, 247±89 versus.[vs.]101.17±51, p= 0.001). PCoA analysis on OTU level detected that first principal component[PC1] (26.24%) could be separated significantly between RCC and LCC( p= 0.048), as well as between RC and RCC (PC1,14.17%, p= 0.024). Community analysis showed that the proportion of Bacteroidetes was significantly higher in patients with RCC than whom with LCC and RC( p= 0.009). Conversely, the proportion of Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Verrucomicrobia were higher in LCC patients than others( p= 0.37, 0.047 and 0.032 respectively). Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) analysis proved that the CD4+ and CD8+ T cells counts were environmental factors, which were significantly associated with certain micro-biome and samples from different tumor sites( p= 0.037 and 0.01 respectively). Trends showed that CD4+ T cells were positively related with samples of RC and bacteria parabacteroides and bifidobacterium, while CD8+ T cells were positively related with samples of RCC and bacteria Lachnospira, Sutterella and Bacteroides. Conclusions: In our study, we found that patients with LCC and RC had more beneficial gut micro-biome than whom with RCC. In addition, such difference might be associated with body T cell immunity.

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the effectiveness of Chinese medicine (CM) for immunological function in women with breast cancer or a history of breast cancer when CM is compared with no treatment, placebo, conventional therapies, acupuncture or other forms of alternatives defined in the review. We will also assess adverse effects resulting from CM intervention.

Women with aggressive triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) are at high risk of brain metastasis, which has no effective therapeutic option partially due to the poor penetration of drugs across the blood−brain barrier. Trifluoperazine (TFP) is an approved antipsychotic drug with good bioavailability in brain and had shown anticancer effect in several types of cancer. It drives us to investigate its activities to suppress TNBC, especially the brain metastasis. In this study, we chose three TNBC cell lines MDA-MB-468, MDA-MB-231, and 4T1 to assess its anticancer activities along with the possible mechanisms. In vitro, it induced G0/G1 cell cycle arrest via decreasing the expression of both cyclinD1/CDK4 and cyclinE/CDK2, and stimulated mitochondria-mediated apoptosis. In vivo, TFP suppressed the growth of subcutaneous xenograft tumor and brain metastasis without causing detectable side effects. Importantly, it prolonged the survival of mice bearing brain metastasis. Immunohistochemical analysis of Ki67 and cleaved caspase-3 indicated TFP could suppress the growth and induce apoptosis of cancer cells in vivo. Taken together, TFP might be a potential available drug for treating TNBC with brain metastasis, which urgently needs novel treatment options.

Ovarian cancer is the most malignant gynecologic cancer among women worldwide. Cryptotanshinone (CT), isolated from Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, has been identified as a potential therapeutic agent in treating several malignant tumors, but the molecular mechanism of CT in ovarian cancer still remains illustrated. Here, we sought to elucidate the regulatory function of CT on cell glucose metabolism in ovarian cancer. The treatment of CT on ovarian cancer cells effectively inhibited glucose uptake and lactate production in ovarian cancer cells. The expression levels of glycolysis‐related proteins, such as GLUT1, LDHA, and HK2, were decreased by the treatment of CT detected by qRT‐PCR and immunoblotting. Mechanistically, CT exerted its anti‐tumor effect by targeting STAT3/SIRT3/HIF‐1α signaling pathway in vitro and in vivo, which could be rescued by the introduction of SIRT3 shRNA in ovarian cancer cells. The clinical data showed that the expression level of STAT3 in ovarian cancer patients’ sera and tissues was positively correlated with those of GLUT1, LDHA, HK2 and HIF‐1α, but negatively with that of SIRT3These findings provide evidence that CT inhibited cellular glycolysis‐induced cell growth and proliferation through repression of STAT3/SIRT3/HIF‐1α signaling pathway, indicating that CT may be developed as a chemotherapeutic agent to treat ovarian cancer.

Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD), as one of the most widely used brominated flame retardants (BFRs), is of great concern globally because of its persistence in the environment and negative impacts on humans and animals. HBCDD has been mainly used in flame-retarded expanded (EPS) and extruded (XPS) polystyrene foams for insulation in the construction industry. Most of these products will become a part of the construction and demolition (C&D) waste at the end of their life cycle (30-50 years) which is typically disposed of into landfills or incineration. However, the recycling of this material takes quite a low share compared with landfill and incineration. Consequently, high environmental risks will exist in these disposal approaches due to the HBCDD in C&D waste. Currently, XPS or EPS products containing HBCDD in the construction industry have not reached the end of their life cycle in most countries. Relatively little attention has been paid to this emergency issue by either the government or public. Furthermore, C&D waste is most likely disposed of by direct dumping, simple stacking, or open burning in developing countries. Therefore, this paper highlights the global environmental risks of HBCDD from C&D waste. Areas of research for key problems of HBCDD contained in C&D waste are suggested to help control and finally eliminate the impact.

We describe the nonlinear optical response of low-loss Si0.6Ge0.4/Si waveguides in the mid-IR between 3.3 μm and 4 μm using femtosecond long pulses. Furthermore, we estimate the three-photon and four-photon absorption coefficients together with the nonlinear refractive index of Si0.6Ge0.4/Si waveguides, which are found to be comparable to previous work on the same material but with different waveguide length and geometries, and with longer optical pulses. Therefore, this work corroborates the previous measurements and thus provides some guidelines for future nonlinear device work. Using the estimated coefficients, the nonlinear FOM of Si0.6Ge0.4/Si waveguides in the mid-infrared(mid-IR) is evaluated. An optimum FOM is observed around 4 μm due to the decrease of the three-photon absorption coefficient, together with a small four-photon absorption coefficient. We find that this optimum of the FOM also depends on the coupled peak intensity since the three and four-photon absorption scales differently with this parameter. Finally, we compare the impact of free carrier absorption at mid-infrared wavelengths versus near-infrared (near-IR) wavelengths for these femtosecond long pulses, and highlights the need to accurately account for free carrier effects even when using ultrashort optical pulses in the mid-IR. This work provides useful groundwork for the design of photonic devices such as supercontinuum sources based on this material platform.

Nonradiative Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is an important mechanism of organic solar cells, which can improve the exciton migration over a long distance, resulting in improvement of efficiency of solar cells. However, the current observations of FRET are very limited, and the efficiencies are less than 9%. In this study, FRET effect was first observed between two nonfullerene acceptors in ternary solar cells, which improved both the absorption range and exciton harvesting, leading to the dramatic enhancement in the short circuit current and power conversion efficiency. Moreover, this strategy is proved to be a versatile platform for conjugated polymers with different bandgaps, resulting in a remarkable efficiency of 10.4%. These results demonstrated a novel method to enhance the efficiency of organic soar cells.

As one of the world’s fastest developing countries, China is inevitably facing the problem of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Owing in part to an inadequate management framework, insufficient and improper disposal of POP waste has caused serious pollution problems. In this study, we discuss: (1) the generation, amount, and distribution of POP waste in China; (2) past experience with respect to POP treatment and existing problems in management of POP waste. Additionally, we put forward suggestions regarding POP management. The results showed that the total amount of pesticide POP waste was about 4,059–6,093 tons, and more than 2,750 tons pesticide waste have been disposed in recent years. The total amount of polychlorinated biphenyl waste with high concentrations was approximately 50,000 tons; some of them have been disposed by incineration. Dioxin released to the environment through waste was 4,979 g I-TEQ in 2004. To eliminate environmental risk of POP waste, a series of disposal activities have been conducted or planned, but the disposal technique was still single on the whole. Furthermore, we suggest the POP waste inventory should be elevated, and then taking measures to promote disposal and treatment of wastes and strengthening POP waste environmental regulatory capacity building. This work may contribute to understanding the current situation of POP waste, and to developing an inventory of POP waste in the country. Moreover, as there may be many similar situations worldwide, especially in developing countries, the Chinese POP management experience can also provide valuable information to control and manage POP waste.

Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine formula, such as the Quxie Capsule (QXC), has been used for advanced colorectal cancer treatment with favorable clinical outcome at Xiyuan Hospital in Beijing, China. However, the mechanism(s) underlying the anticancer effect of QXC in colon cancer still remain unclear, which hampers its optimal use for the treatment of colon cancer. The purpose of this study is to examine whether, and if yes, how QXC exerts anti-tumor activity via alteration of gut microbiota and related pathways. The antitumor efficacy of QXC was tested in CT-26 syngeneic mouse colon cancer models. Gut microbiome was measured by 16sRNA sequencing in fecal samples. Signaling protein expression profile in tumor tissues was assessed by RPPA and validated by Western blot. QXC gavaged to mice carrying CT26 tumors for 2 weeks significantly reduced the average tumor weight (0.92 ± 0.15g) compared to that of the vehicle control (1.57 ± 0.1689, p < 0.05). In contrast, when mice bearing CT26 tumor were pretreated antibiotics, the tumor weight (0.51±0.11g) in QXC treated mice was not statistically significantly smaller than that of vehicle control (0.76±0.13g, p>0.05). Mice pretreated with vehicle for 12 days then transplanted with fecal from QXC treated mice had smaller tumor compared with vehicle only group (p0.05). The result of 16sRNA sequencing showed that the ratio of Firmicutes over Bacteriodetes (F/B) was decreased by 2.03 folds in tumor-bearing mice compared to non-tumor-bearing mice (p Citation Format: Dongmei Chen, Daoyuan Wei, Yufei Yang, Peiying Yang. Quxie capsule inhibits the colon tumor growth through modulating the gut microbiome and tumor myosin 11 expression [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1859.

e15030 Background: To verify the efficacy of Quxie Capsule in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Methods: This is a update of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Between April 2014 and July 2015, 121 patients were enrolled in the study. Sixty patients were eligible and randomized to the two groups at a 1:1 ratio. Treatment group received conventional therapy and Chinese herbal medicine combined with Quxie Capsule for 3 months. Control group received conventional therapy and Chinese herbal medicine combined with placebo for 3 months. Main outcome measures were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). As of Dec 31st 2018, one patient in the control group was still alive, and all the other patients reached the main clinical endpoint. Median follow-up time was 19.4 months. Bo Ao Tong (Beijing) Medical Technology Co. Ltd. was responsible for the protocols of blind and block randomization. Results: The median OS were 23.9 months in the treatment group [95% confidence interval (CI) 15.9–28.5] vs. 14.3 months in the control group (95% CI 11.3–21.4) (Kaplan–Meier, Log-rank P=0.032), hazard ratio (95%CI)= 0.55 (0.31, 0.95), P=0.04. In the subgroups of left-sided colon, RAS wild type, non-targeted therapy, colon cancer and ≥second-line therapy, the median OS of the treatment group and the control group were respectively: 20.9 vs 12.2m, 17.4 vs 14.4m, 20.8 vs 12.0m, 25.1 vs 18.5m, 25.1 vs 12.0m ( P=0.037, 0.019, 0.022, 0.018, 0.007). There were no significant differences between the two groups in PFS. Conclusions: Quxie Capsule showed good efficacy, can reduce the risk of death and prolong the OS of patients with mCRC. Clinical trial information: ChiCTR-IOR-16009733.

We collected street dust from Huainan, a typical coal-mining city in China, to investigate the contamination features and health risks of heavy metals. Concentrations of Co, Cr, Cu, Pb, As, and Sb were generally low to moderate, while pollution levels of Cd and Hg were moderate to high. Concentrations of Cd and Hg were associated with considerable health risks at 64.3% and 58.6% of sites, respectively. In particular, about a fifth of samples had associated high risks as a result of Hg contamination levels. Relative to other urban areas, the street dust from the mining area had no more severe metal pollution, which might be partly attributed to the deposition of coal dust onto street dusts. A source assessment indicated that metals in dust form Huainan were mainly derived from vehicular-related activities, industrial emissions, weathering of coal dust and natural soils, and coal combustion. Although the health risk levels from exposure to individual metals in dusts were low, the non-carcinogenic risks from multiple metals to local children exceeded the acceptable level (1.0), suggesting that the overall risk from exposure to multiple metals in dust is concerning.

Concentrations of heavy metals (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb and Sb) in vegetables, meat and fish purchased from traditional agri-product markets in Huainan, China, were measured. Concentrations of the eight metals in most of the measured samples were lower than their respective maximum allowable concentrations (MACs), except for Pb, Cd, Cr and Cu in some of the samples exceeded safe limits. Based on local food consumption, the intake of individual metals was estimated to be less than their respective recommended limits. However, the overall target hazard quotient (THQ) for the eight metals was 1.07 based on the digestion of leafy vegetables and 2.12 based on the consumption of all of the investigated foods. The results of this study suggest that the overall risk from exposure to multiple metals in foods should be of concern, even though low-to-moderate heavy metal pollution is present in foods from Huainan markets.

The polarization properties of a two-axis periscopic optical scanner constituted by a pair of rotating planar mirrors have been studied by using the three-dimensional polarization ray-tracing matrix method. The separate and cumulative matrices that define the transformation of the polarization state are obtained and expressed in terms of the rotation angles of two mirrors. The variations of diattenuation and retardance are investigated and graphically shown as functions of the rotation angles. On this basis, a further investigation about the cumulative polarization aberrations of three different metal-coated periscopic scanners is accomplished. Finally, the output polarization states of the three metal-coated scanners are calculated with the input beam of the arbitrary polarization states, and the results show that aluminum film is more appropriate than gold film or silver film for the polarization-maintaining periscopic scanner.

This study aimed to survey the characteristics and treatments of cancer pain in Beijing hospitals, China. At 20:00 on December 22, 2009, there conducted a questionnaire survey in 2238 patients with malignant tumors of 26 hospitals in Beijing, and the survey results were statistically analyzed. The 531 cases in 2238 patients had pained and 121 cases (22.79%) had outbreak pain with one week. At 20:00 on December 22, 2009, 199 cases (38%) in the above-mentioned 531 pain patients suffered the moderate to severe pain (pain scores ≥ 4). The number of pain (pain scores ≥ 4) patients in the consecutive three days from December 20 to December 22 were 150. In the 531 cancer pain patients of the surveyed hospitals, 38% of the patients were not satisfied with the pain control. Doctors believed that the main reason for pain not controlled was the non-standard treatment, but patients considered to be afraid of addiction.