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Background: Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) based on computer and robot-assisted technology is becoming more and more popular.Methods: Intuitive motion control implemented by kinematic algorithm o...

Background/AimThis study aims to examine differences between outer regional (OR) and remote/very remote (RVR) patients in northern Queensland, Australia in the times taken to receive various aspects of head and neck cancer management.MethodsOur study prospectively recruited head and neck cancer patients presenting to three North Queensland regional hospitals from January 2009 to January 2011. Data on demographic and cancer-specific details, comorbidities and timing of presentation to various services, were collected using a self-administered questionnaire that included two questions in relation to possible reason for delays to health services. Multivariate linear regression analyses were conducted to assess the effects of various demographic characteristics on time delays. Survival and disease recurrence data were analysed in 2014.ResultsOne hundred and fifty-eight patients participated. RVR patients had significantly longer median times between diagnosis and first treatment compared with OR patients (P=0.015). Indigenous patients had significant delays from diagnosis to first treatment (P=0.013) and visit to first specialist and treatment (P=0.031) compared to non-Indigenous patients. Longer median times between symptoms and first treatment was associated with low income (P=0.03) and lower education level (P=0.04). Disease recurrence was higher for RVR patients compared with OR patients (P=0.04), without significant differences in overall survival. Possible reasons for delays included patient and professional factors.ConclusionSignificant delays in various aspects of head and neck cancer management were associated with remoteness, Indigenous and socioeconomic status. While patient and professional factors could be addressed at local levels, sustainable improvement in outcomes requires a state and national level approach.

Salmonella enteric serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) is a zoonotic pathogen causing public health hazards. Identification of genes related to macrophages resistance to S. Typhimurium and their immune mechanisms can provide a theoretical basis for disease resistance. In this study, sixty significant differentially expressed genes were screened between susceptible and resistant sheep macrophages by transcriptome RNA-seq. Eight significantly enriched GO terms and six canonical pathways were involved by GO and KEGG enrichment analysis. Furthermore, knockdown of HMOX1 and SLPI increased remarkably the clearance of S. typhimurium, but SPP1 had little effect on the clearance of S. Typhimurium within sheep macrophages. Altogether, these results suggest that many genes of macrophages were reprogrammed via S. Typhimurium infection, some of which may facilitate host defence against Salmonella, while others allow Salmonella to escape.

As an important micronutrient, selenium (Se) plays many essential roles in immune response and protection against pathogens in humans and animals, but underlying mechanisms of Se-based control of salmonella growth within macrophages remain poorly elucidated. In this study, using RNA-seq analyses, we demonstrate that Se treatment (at an appropriate concentration) can modulate the global transcriptome of chicken macrophages HD11. The bioinformatic analyses (KEGG pathway analysis) revealed that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were mainly enriched in retinol and glutathione metabolism, revealing that Se may be associated with retinol and glutathione metabolism. Meanwhile, Se treatment increased the number of salmonella invading the HD11 cells, but reduced the number of salmonella within HD11 cells, suggesting that enhanced clearance of salmonella within HD11 cells was potentially modulated by Se treatment. Furthermore, RNA-seq analyses also revealed that nine genes including SIVA1, FAS, and HMOX1 were differentially expressed in HD11 cells infected with salmonella following Se treatment, and GO enrichment analysis showed that these DEGs were mainly enriched in an extrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway. In summary, these results indicate that Se treatment may not only affect retinol and glutathione metabolism in macrophages, but could also inhibit salmonella-induced macrophage apoptosis via an extrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway involving SIVA1.

A key challenge in developing countries interested in providing early childhood development programs at scale is whether these programs can be effectively delivered through existing public service infrastructures. We present the results of a randomized experiment evaluating the effects of a home-based parenting program delivered by cadres in China’s Family Planning Commission (FPC) - the former enforcers of the onechild policy. We find that the program significantly increased infant skill development after six months and that increased investments by caregivers alongside improvements in parenting skills were a major mechanism through which this occurred. Children who lagged behind in their cognitive development and received little parental investment at the onset of the intervention benefited most from the program. Household participation in the program was associated with the degree to which participants had a favorable view of the FPC, which also increased due to the program. ispartof: pages:1-36 status: published

This paper introduces the concept of material design, material design, the development status of material design outlook, etc.

The master-slave control technology of isomeric surgical robot for minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is studied in order to meeting the requirement for robot MIS. The master-slave control hardware platform is built based on distributed fieldbus. The incremental control method based on separation of gesture from position is proposed by analyzing the master-slave structure configuration of the MIS robotic system, which solves the workspace mismatch problem between the master hand and slave arm caused by the isomeric structure, and realizes the hand-eye coordination control of MIS robot, position and gesture adjustment of the master hands, and operating precision selecting, et al. The master-slave trajectory tracking and animal experiments are carried out. The experimental results show that the master-slave control hardware platform for MIS robot built in this paper can satisfy the master-slave operation requirement of the surgical robot for MIS. The proposed master-slave control method based on separation of gesture from position is able to eliminate the influence caused by isomeric master-slave structure, and achieve the hand-eye coordination operation for the doctor. Meanwhile, the realization of control functions, such as adjusting master hands, operation precision selecting, and so on, increases the usability of the surgical robotic system.

To evaluate the role of Jiangzhi Xiaoban Tablet (JXT) in improving heartfunction of coronary heart disease (CHD) patients by tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and speckle trackingimaging (STI) technology.Recruited were 60 inpatients with confirmed CHD by coronary angiography at First Affiliated Hospital, Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine from October 2013to November 2014. They were assigned to the treatment group (group A) and the control group (groupB) according to random digit table, 30 cases in each group. Patients in group A took JXT, 0.45 g/tablet,4 tablets each time, 3 times per day, while those in group B took Simvastatin Tablet, 20 mg/tablet, 1 tablet each time, once per evening. The therapeutic course for all was 8 weeks. The long axis view of theheart of 18 segments STI Peak strain LS and TDI peak systolic Sa parameters were performed in all patients before and after treatment.Before treatment segments of STI strain LS and TDI longitudinal peak systolic peak Sa were not statistically different between the two groups (P0.05). Each segment of STI peak longitudinal strain LS and TDI peak systolic Sa in the two groups were higher after treatment than before treatment (P0.05). After treatment each segment of STI parameters of LS and eachTDI segment parameters of Sa were significantly lower in group B than in group A (P0.01).JXT could improve heart function of CHD patients to different degrees, and its curative effect was betterthan that of routine Western medicine (Simvastatin Tablets) treatment.

In this paper, we focus on the theoretical localization accuracy of two localization algorithms in noncoherent MIMO radar systems with widely separated antennas. The first one is the optimal method for multitarget localization which is simply to expand the dimension of the parameter vector and thus perform a global maximum of the joint likelihood function of all the targets. The second one is a suboptimal called successive-interference-cancellation (SIC) algorithm proposed in our previous work [1] which localizes targets one-by-one and clears the interference of previous declared targets. The Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for these two algorithms has been derived and compared with emphasis on special cases where some targets share no common range bins with any other targets. Numerical results demonstrate that the suboptimal SIC algorithm has little theoretical performance loss compared with the optimal method even when targets share some common range bins and the loss may be reduced by increasing the number of radar elements.

This paper addresses the multi-target localization problem for noncoherent multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar with widely separated antennas. To this end, we first adopt a high-dimensional parameter vector, which is the concatenation of the parameters to be estimated for individual targets, and then propose a novel multi-target localization algorithm by estimating the high-dimensional parameter vector based on maximum-likelihood estimation (MLE). However, this solution is usually computationally intractable for most realistic problems as it is involved with a high-dimensional joint maximization. Therefore we also propose a suboptimum algorithm which allows trading better localization accuracy for a much lower implementation complexity. Numerical examples are provided to assess and compare the performances of the proposed multi-target localization algorithms.

We report the improved performance of the conventional contact 1.3 mum GaInNAs vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) grown by metal-organic vapour-phase epitaxy (MOVPE). A new wet etching approach was applied in the fabrication of 1.3 mum GaInNAs oxide-confined VCSELs. The threshold current of single mode device is 1.0 mA. The multiple mode devices show very low threshold currents below 2 mA at 5-85degreesC, which were the best results for 1.3 mum GaInNAs VCSELs reported. Maximum single mode output power of 0.256 mW and the maximum multiple mode power of 0.883 mW were obtained at room temperature.

6589Background: As CC becomes increasingly complex clinicians face the challenge of meeting patients’ holistic care needs within limited time. Moreover, inefficient information technology systems (...

Due to unreliable wireless media, dynamic network topology and lack of infrastructure of mobile ad hoc network, it is very vulnerable to security threats and can be attacked more easily. Mobile ad hoc network security is becoming the problem which restricted it to be applied in actual world. The infrastructure-less nature and network dynamics of mobile ad hoc networks make the conventional PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) less suitable. In this paper, we present these challenges in detail, identify the requirements for such solutions, and propose an improved PKI solution for mobile ad hoc networks.

A comprehensive physical model describing the dependence of the steering performances on the various physical parameters of a liquid crystal optical phased array (LCOPA) is proposed. Then several typical factors affecting the steering performances of the LCOPA are investigated. The quantificational computation and simulation of the influence factors are discussed in details, the relationship between key performances of LCOPA with the influence factors are analyzed numerically, and the optimization methods are conducted based on analysis results. Finally, the experimental results of laser are compared with the simulation results based on the comprehensive model, the simulation far-field diffraction patterns are basically accord with experimental photographs.