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Objectives: Our meta-analysis performed a systematic evaluation on the therapeutic efficacy and safety of tumour vaccines for the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCT). Data sources: PubMed, the Cochrane Center Register of Controlled Trials, Science Direct and EMBASE were searched from January 1980 until January 2015. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies: RCT were included; the control arm had to receive either placebo or chemotherapy or no treatment. Main outcome measures: The quality of the data from individual papers was assessed for overall survival (OS), clinical response rate and side effects. Results: Overall, 11 RCT of advanced NSCLC with a total of 3986 patients were conducted for meta-analysis. The results showed that the vaccine arm significantly extended primary endpoint median overall survival compared with control group (p<0.00001) (HR 0.760; 95% CI 0.644 to 0.896; p=0.001). Three subgroup patients with tumour vaccine at 1-year, 2-year and 3-year survival rates also gained significant benefits compared with their corresponding control group (p=0.0004, 0.03 and 0.19, respectively). Besides, a significant improvement in median time to progression (TTP), median progression-free survival (PFS) and a trend of improvement in objective response rate were observed after tumour vaccine treatment (p=0.001, 0.005 and 0.05, respectively; median PFS HR 0.842; 95% CI 0.744 to 0.954; p=0.007). A few severe adverse effects occurred in the tumour vaccine group, but fewer side effects were observed in the vaccine group compared with the control group (p<0.00001). Conclusions: Taken together, NSCLC tumour vaccines markedly prolong median OS (p<0.00001), median TTP (p=0.001) and median PFS (p=0.005), improve clinical response rate (p=0.05) and lessen adverse side effects (p<0.00001). Our meta-analysis suggests tumour vaccines improve the efficacy of the treatment, and also provide superiority in treatment of patients with advanced NSCLC among a variety of immunotherapy strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have shown that we can gain additional information on time series by investigating their accompanying complex networks. In this work, we investigate the fundamental topological and fractal properties of recurrence networks constructed from fractional Brownian motions (FBMs). First, our results indicate that the constructed recurrence networks have exponential degree distributions; the average degree exponent (λ) increases first and then decreases with the increase of Hurst index H of the associated FBMs; the relationship between H and (λ) can be represented by a cubic polynomial function. We next focus on the motif rank distribution of recurrence networks, so that we can better understand networks at the local structure level. We find the interesting superfamily phenomenon, i.e., the recurrence networks with the same motif rank pattern being grouped into two superfamilies. Last, we numerically analyze the fractal and multifractal properties of recurrence networks. We find that the average fractal dimension (dB) of recurrence networks decreases with the Hurst index H of the associated FBMs, and their dependence approximately satisfies the linear formula (dB) ≈ -- H, which means that the fractal dimension of the associated recurrence network is close to that of the graph of the FBM. Moreover, our numerical results of multifractal analysis show that the multifractality exists in these recurrence networks, and the multifractality of these networks becomes stronger at first and then weaker when the Hurst index of the associated time series becomes larger from 0.4 to 0.95. In particular, the recurrence network with the Hurst index H = 0.5 possesses the strongest multifractality. In addition, the dependence relationships of the average information dimension (D( 1)) and the average correlation dimension (D(2)) on the Hurst index H can also be fitted well with linear functions. Our results strongly suggest that the recurrence network inherits the basic characteristic and the fractal nature of the associated FBM series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the effects of parental death on children's well- being using six administrative data sets from Taiwan. Information collected at different points in children's lives and detailed parental mortality records are used to show that parental death has significant long- term implications for human capital accumulation: the quality of education of high income children is significantly reduced; the impact of a father's death on his son's probability of acquiring higher education increases with income; children are more likely to substitute an income earning occupation in place of higher education; low- income girls are also more likely to marry during their teenage years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fusarium verticillioides is the primary causal agent of Fusarium ear and kernel rot in maize, producing fumonisin mycotoxins that are toxic to humans and domestic animals. Rapid detection and monitoring of fumonisin-producing fungi are pivotally important for the prevention of mycotoxins from entering into food/feed products. Chicken-derived single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) against cell wall-bound proteins from F. verticillioides were isolated from an immunocompetent phage display library. Comparative phage enzyme-linked immunosorbant assays (ELISAs) and sequencing analyses identified four different scFv antibodies with high sensitivity. Soluble antibody ELISAs identified two highly sensitive scFv antibodies, FvCA3 and FvCA4, with the latter being slightly more sensitive. Three-dimensional modeling revealed that the FvCA4 may hold a better overall structure with CDRH3, CDRL1 and CDRL3 centered in the core region of antibody surface compared with that of other scFvs. Immunofluorescence labeling revealed that the binding of FvCA4 antibody was localized to the cell walls of conidiospores and hyphae of F. verticillioides, confirming the specificity of this antibody for a surface target. This scFv antibody was able to detect the fungal mycelium as low as 10-2 µg/mL and contaminating mycelium at a quantity of 10-2 mg/g maize. This is the first report that scFv antibodies derived from phage display have a wide application for rapid and accurate detection and monitoring of fumonisin-producing pathogens in agricultural samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a practical and effective seismic resisting technology, the base isolation system has seen extensive applications in buildings and bridges. However, a few problems associated with conventional lead-rubber bearings have been identified after historical strong earthquakes, e.g., excessive permanent deformations of beatings and potential unseating of bridge decks. Recently the applications of shape memory alloys (SMA) have received growing interest in the area of seismic response mitigation. As a result, a variety of SMA-based base isolators have been developed. These novel isolators often lead to minimal permanent deformations due to the self-centering feature of SMA materials. However, a rational design approach is still missing because of the fact that conventional design method cannot be directly applied to these novel devices. In light of this limitation, a displacement-based design approach for highway bridges with SMA isolators is proposed in this paper. Nonlinear response spectra, derived from typical hysteretic models for SMA, are employed in the design procedure. SMA isolators and bridge piers are designed according to the prescribed performance objectives. A prototype reinforced concrete (RC) highway bridge is designed using the proposed design approach. Nonlinear dynamic analyses for different seismic intensity levels are carried out using a computer program called "OpenSees". The efficacy of the displacement-based design approach is validated by numerical simulations. Results indicate that a properly designed RC highway bridge with novel SMA isolators may achieve minor damage and minimal residual deformations under frequent and rare earthquakes. Nonlinear static analysis is also carried out to investigate the failure mechanism and the self-centering ability of the designed highway bridge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The polymer gel electrolyte using polyacrylamide and 1 M Li2SO4 aqueous solution was prepared to study the applicability of polymer gel electrolyte to the activated carbon (AC)/lithium intercalated compound hybrid supercapacitors. The polymer gel electrolyte was found to have high conductivity, which even exceeded that of the 1 M Li2SO4 aqueous solution counterpart, and wide stable potential window. A supercapacitor consisting of LiMn2O4 positive and AC negative electrodes using the polymer gel electrolyte was assembled and its charge-discharge profile at various temperatures was investigated and compared to that of a similar hybrid supercapacitor based on Li2SO4 aqueous solution electrolyte. Moreover, the effects of polymer gel electrolyte on the capacitance profile, rate capability, self-discharge rate, leakage current, and cycle ability of the hybrid supercapacitor were intensively investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes some of the recent advances in the technology for creating transgenic plants that are highly resistant to pathogenic viruses, bacteria and fungi through plantibodies. The authors discuss the methods developed for the isolation of recombinant antibodies with high specificity and affinity, which serve as the foundation for plantibody-based resistance.

Between 1895 and 1945, the Japanese colonial government virtually eliminated opium use in Taiwan by licensing and treating existing users, prohibiting sales to others, and raising the price. We evaluate these policies using a two-part model to describe the fraction of the population using opium and consumption among users, and the rational addiction model by Becker et al. (1991). We confirm that opium is addictive and find no evidence supporting the rational addiction hypothesis. Demand is price-elastic with estimated shortand long-run demand elasticities of -0.48 and - 1.38. These results have implications for control of other addictive substances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explain the stabilization mechanism of the carbon-ion-implanted GaN under the diamond growth environment, the luminescence characteristics and structure evolution correlative with sites’ carbon atoms located for high-fluence carbon-ion-implanted GaN are discussed. GaN is implanted with carbon ion using fluence of 2 × 1017cm−2and energy of 45 keV. Then the implanted samples are annealed at 800°C for 20 min and 1 h under the N2atmosphere. The luminescence characteristics of carbon-ion-implanted GaN are evaluated by photoluminescence spectrum at wavelength 325 nm. The lattice damage of GaN is characterized by Raman spectrum and the corresponding vacancy-defect evolution before and after annealing is measured by slow positron annihilation. The results show that most of the carbon atoms will be located at the interstitial sites after carbon ion implantation due to the weak mobility. As the implanted samples are annealed, strong yellow luminescence is emitted and the vacancies for Ga (VGa) are reduced resulting from the migration of interstitial carbon (Ci) and formation of complexes (CGaand/or CGa-Ci) between them. As the annealing time is prolonged, the carbon ions accommodated by the vacancies are saturated, vacancy clusters with carbon atoms appear and the concentration of CGadiminishes, which will have an adverse effect on the diamond film nucleation and growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background aims. The aim of this study was to investigate whether active specific immunotherapy (ASI) is able to demonstrate therapeutic efficacy against colorectal cancer. Methods. We conducted a systematic review of published papers from MEDLINE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, the Wanfang Database, the China Science and Technology Periodical Database and China Journal Net. Published data were extracted independently by two authors who used predefined database templates. The effects of ASI were compared with those of surgery alone, and a pooled analysis was performed with the use of the data from random- or fixed-effect models. Results. Twelve trials matched our inclusion criteria (n = 2993, including 1842 control subjects). The overall analysis showed a significant survival benefit [1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-and 7-year overall survival (OS), P < 0.05; 10-year OS, P < 0.001] in favor of ASI immunotherapy combined with surgery, but there was not an improvement in the 8- or 9-year OS (P > 0.05). The disease-free survival (DFS) rate was improved after the combination of ASI immunotherapy (2-, 3-, 5- and 10-year DFS, P < 0.05), but no significant improvement was noted for the 1-, 4-, 6-, 7-, 8- or 9-year DFS (P > 0.05). In addition, the disease-specific survival (DSS) was improved at some time points after the combination of ASI immunotherapy and surgery (2-, 3-, 4-, 5- and 6-year DSS, P < 0.05, but not the 1-, 7-, 8- or 9-year DSS, P > 0.05). An improved 2-, 3-, 4-, 5- and 6-year recurrence-free interval (RFI) (P < 0.05) was also observed in patients who received ASI therapy, but this was not observed for the 1-year RFI (P > 0.05). Furthermore, an analysis of the recurrence-free survival (RFS) showed that it was significantly increased in the ASI plus surgery group (1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5- and 6-year RFS, P < 0.001). The funnel plots showed that the analyses were relatively reliable and the publication bias was small. Conclusions. The combination of ASI immunotherapy and surgery was superior in prolonging the overall survival time and enhancing the recurrence-free survival rate compared with surgery alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Despite N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is functionally important in various biological processes, its role and the underlying regulatory mechanism in the liver remain largely unexplored. In the present study, we showed that fat mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO, an m6A demethylase) was involved in mitochondrial function during hepatic ischemia–reperfusion injury (HIRI). We found that the expression of m6A demethylase FTO was decreased during HIRI. In contrast, the level of m6A methylated RNA was enhanced. Adeno-associated virus-mediated liver-specific overexpression of FTO (AAV8-TBG-FTO) ameliorated the HIRI, repressed the elevated level of m6A methylated RNA, and alleviated liver oxidative stress and mitochondrial fragmentation in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) was a downstream target of FTO in the progression of HIRI. FTO contributed to the hepatic protective effect via demethylating the mRNA of Drp1 and impairing the Drp1-mediated mitochondrial fragmentation. Collectively, our findings demonstrated the functional importance of FTO-dependent hepatic m6A methylation during HIRI and provided valuable insights into the therapeutic mechanisms of FTO.

Background aims. In this study, we investigate whether bone marrow mononuclear cells (BM-MNC) or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PB-MNC) have therapeutic efficacy in type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods. Search terms included stem cell, bone marrow cell, peripheral blood cell, umbilical cord blood and T2D in MEDLINE, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, EMBASE, the Wanfang Database, the China Science and Technology Periodical Database and China Journal Net. Results. Fifteen trials met our inclusion criteria (n = 497). One group included 266 cases with BM-MNC therapy and the other group contained 231 cases with PB-MNC treatment. Glycosylated hemoglobin was decreased after BM-MNC or PBMNC therapy compared with that before (12 months: P< 0.001; 6 months: P< 0.001; 3 months: P< 0.05). Fasting plasma glucose was reduced in BM-MNC therapy group compared with control after 12-month follow-up (P < 0.001) and after BM-MNC therapy compared with that before (9 months: P < 0.001) but was not obvious in other stages. Meanwhile, the analysis showed that C-peptide level increased after BM-MNC and PB-MNC therapy compared with the control therapy (12 months: P < 0.001) and with that before therapy (6 months: P < 0.05). Insulin requirement reduction was also observed in patients receiving BM-MNC therapy (3, 6, 9 and 12 months: P < 0.05). Conclusions. To a certain extent, BM-MNC or PBMNC therapy for T2D demonstrated superiority of glycemic control, increased insulin biosynthesis and elevated insulin secretion from existing β-cells and might prevent islet cell loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The expression of survivin is a promising prognostic indicator for some carcinomas. However, evidence for the prognostic value of survivin with respect to survival in hepatocellular carcinoma remains controversial. AIM: To conduct a systematic review of studies evaluating survivin expression in hepatocellular carcinoma as a prognostic indicator. METHODS: The relevant literature was searched using PubMed, EMBASE, and Chinese biomedicine databases, and two meta-analyses were performed. One studied the association between survivin expression and the overall survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, whereas the other studied the association between survivin expression and disease-free survival. Studies were pooled, and summary hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated. Subgroup analyses were also conducted. RESULTS: Fourteen eligible studies with a total of 890 patients were included in this study. Two meta-analyses were performed according to the different outcomes by which prognosis was valued. The combined HR of the overall survival studies was 2.33 (95% CI: 1.65-3.31). The combined HR of disease-free survival studies was 2.13 (95% CI: 1.65-2.75). These data appeared to be significant when stratified by detection method, the language of publication, and HR estimate. The heterogeneities were highly significant (I(2)>50%) when subgroup analyses of overall survival rate were conducted, whereas little heterogeneity was found when subgroup analyses of disease-free survival rate were carried out. The positive expression of survivin in the cytoplasm was significantly correlated with poor prognosis in HCC (HR>1). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that survivin expression was correlated with poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, regardless whether they were assessed by overall survival or disease-free survival.

OBJECTIVE: The prognostic significance of survivin for the survival of patients with gastric cancer remains controversial. Thus, the objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review of the literature evaluating survivin expression in gastric cancer as a prognostic indicator. METHODS: Relevant literature was searched using PubMed, EMBASE, and Chinese biomedicine databases. A meta-analysis of the association between survivin expression and overall survival in patients with gastric cancer was performed. Studies were pooled and summary hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated. Subgroup analyses were also conducted. RESULTS: Final analysis of 1365 patients from 16 eligible studies was performed. Combined HR suggested that survivin expression had an unfavorable impact on survival of gastric cancer patients (HR=1.39, 95% CI: 1.16-1.68). The unfavorable impact also appeared significant when stratified according to the studies categorized by patients' ethnicity, detection methods, type of sample, and HR estimate. The combined HR in the English literature showed an inverse effect on survival (HR=1.40, 95% CI: 1.13-1.75), while HR in the non-English literature did not (HR=1.38, 95% CI: 0.93-2.05). When stratified according to the location of survivin expression, combined HR showed that expression in cytoplasm was significantly associated with poor prognosis of gastric cancer patients (HR=1.46, 95% CI: 1.12-1.90). While expression in nucleus was not significantly associated with poor prognosis (HR=1.29, 95% CI: 0.72-2.31), the heterogeneity was highly significant (chi-squared=11.5, I(2)=74%, p=0.009). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that survivin expression was associated with a poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer. Cytoplasmic expression of survivin may be regarded as a prognostic factor for gastric cancer patients. In contrast, survivin expression in nucleus did not have a significant impact on patients' overall survival.

The article presents an analysis of adoptive cellular immunothearpy used in the treatment of patients with breast cancer. The therapeutic efficacy of dendritic cells (DC), cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells, and the combination of DC and CIK cells in the treatment of breast cancer in six hundred thirty-three patients is analyzed. DC-CIK cell therapy is reported to have prolonged survival time and improved the efficacy of the treatment of patients with breast cancer.

This work was launched to study on the chemical constituents from Euphorbia thymifolia. Thirteen compounds were isolated from the 95% ethanol extract of the aerial parts of E. thymifolia by column chromatographies on silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, MCI, and ODS, and preparative HPLC, including two thymol derivatives(1-2), four alkaloids(3-6), five isocoumarins(7-11), together with two ellagic acids(12-13). All the compounds are listed as follows:(Z)-8,9-dehydro-9,10-diisobutyryloxythymol(1), 8-hydro-xy-9,10-diisobutyryloxythymol(2), N-(N-benzoyl-L-phenylalanyl)-L-phenylalanol(3), aurantiamide acetate(4), 1-carboethoxy-β-carboline(5), isoechinulin A(6), ethyl brevifolincarboxylate(7), euphorhirtin B(8), 4,5-didehydro chebulic acid triethyl ester(9), euphorhirtin G(10), pomegranatate(11), 3,3',4'-tri-O-methylellagic acid(12), 3,3'-di-O-methylellagic acid(13). Compound 1 is a new compound. Except for compound 4, the others were isolated from this plant for the first time. All the compounds were screened for anti-neuroinflammatory activity in vitro, and compounds 1-3 and 7 showed significant activity with IC&#95;(50) values of 0.19,12.93,7.29,25.4 μmol·L~(-1).

Aim: To investigate whether autologous dendritic cell (DC)-cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell therapy is able to improve the therapeutic efficacy of chemotherapy in colon cancer., Methods: We conducted a systematic review of published papers from the sources of MEDLINE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, the Wanfang Database, the China Science and Technology Periodical Database and China Journal Net. Published data were extracted independently by two authors using predefined database templates. The quality of the data from individual papers was also assessed. The effects of chemotherapy were compared with those of chemotherapy in combination with DC-CIK immunotherapy. The pooled analysis was performed using the data from random or fixed-effect models., Results: Seven trials matched our inclusion criteria (n = 533). The overall analysis showed significant survival benefit [one-year overall survival (OS), P < 0.0001; two-year OS, P = 0.009; three-year OS, P = 0.002] in favor of DC-CIK immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy. Disease-free survival (DFS) rate was improved after the combination of DC-CIK immunotherapy and chemotherapy (one-year DFS, P < 0.0001; two-year DFS, P = 0.002; three-year DFS, P = 0.02). An improved overall response rate (P = 0.009) was also observed in patients who received DC-CIK therapy. Furthermore, the analysis of T-lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood indicated that the number of CD4⁺ T cells significantly increased in the DC-CIK plus chemotherapy group (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: The combination of DC-CIK immunotherapy and chemotherapy was superior in prolonging the survival time and enhancing immunological responses.