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Background We aimed to establish a radiomic prediction model for tumor spread through air spaces (STAS) in lung adenocarcinoma using radiomic values from high-grade subtypes (solid and micropapillary). Methods We retrospectively reviewed 327 patients with lung adenocarcinoma from two institutes (Cohort 1: 227 patients; Cohort 2: 100 patients) between March 2017 and March 2019. STAS was identified in 113 (34.6%) patients. A high-grade likelihood prediction model was constructed based on a historical cohort of 82 patients with “near-pure” pathological subtype. The STAS prediction model based on the patch-wise mechanism identified the high-grade likelihood area for each voxel within the internal border of the tumor. STAS presence was indirectly predicted by a volume percentage threshold of the high-grade likelihood area. Performance was evaluated by receiver operating curve analysis with 10-repetition, 3-fold cross-validation in Cohort 1, and was individually tested in Cohort 2. Results Overall, 227 patients (STAS-positive: 77 [33.9%]) were enrolled for cross-validation (Cohort 1) while 100 (STAS-positive: 36 [36.0%]) underwent individual testing (Cohort 2). The gray level co-occurrence matrix (variance) and histogram (75th percentile) features were selected to construct the high-grade likelihood prediction model, which was used as the STAS prediction model. The proposed model achieved good performance in Cohort 1 with an area under the curve, sensitivity, and specificity, of 81.44%, 86.75%, and 62.60%, respectively, and correspondingly, in Cohort 2, they were 83.16%, 83.33%, and 63.90%, respectively. Conclusions The proposed computed tomography-based radiomic prediction model could help guide preoperative prediction of STAS in early-stage lung adenocarcinoma and relevant surgeries.

Vibrational spectra of the methyl groups in mono-methylamine (MMA), dimethylamine (DMA), and trimethylamine (TMA) monomers and their clusters were measured in three experimental set-ups to capture their complex spectral features as a result of bend/umbrella-stretch Fermi resonance (FR). Multiple bands were observed between 2800 and 3000 cm-1 corresponding to the methyl groups for MMA and DMA. On the other hand, the corresponding spectrum of TMA is relatively simple, exhibiting only four prominent bands in the same frequency window, even though TMA has a larger number of methyl groups. The discrete variable representation (DVR) based ab initio anharmonic algorithm with potential energy surface (PES) at CCSD/aug-cc-pVDZ quality is able to capture all the experimentally observed spectral features across all three amines, and the constructed vibrational Hamiltonian was used to analyze the couplings that give rise to the observed FR patterns. It was observed that the vibrational coupling among CH stretch modes on different methyl groups is weak (less than 2 cm-1) and stronger vibrational coupling is found to localize within a methyl group. In MMA and DMA, the complex feature between 2850 and 2950 cm-1 is a consequence of closely packed overtone states that gain intensities by mixing with the stretching modes. The simplification of the spectral pattern of TMA can be understood by the red-shift of the symmetric CH3 stretching modes by about 80 cm-1 relative to MMA, which causes the symmetric CH3 stretch to shift outside the FR window.

Solitary pulmonary capillary hemangioma (SPCH) is a benign lung tumor that presents as ground-glass nodules (GGN) on computed tomography (CT) images, mimicking lepidic-predominant adenocarcinoma (LPA). This study aimed to establish a discriminant model using a radiomic feature analysis to distinguish SPCH from LPA in lung GGNs. This study included 13 and 49 patients who underwent complete resection for lung SPCH and LPA, respectively. An SPCH/LPA classification model was proposed based on a two-level decision tree and 26 radiomic features extracted from each segmented lesion, including 5 and 21 features from the histogram and co-occurrence matrix, respectively. The two-level decision tree was constructed based on the training data with a support vector machine (SVM) as the classifier in each tree node. For comparison, a baseline model was built with the same 26 features using an SVM as the classifier. Both models were assessed by the leave-one-out cross-validation method. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of the proposed SPCH/LPA model were 0.954, 91.9%, 92.3%, and 91.8%. The proposed SPCH/LPA model significantly outperformed the baseline model (p

Anti-angiogenic drugs (AADs) are currently the main choice for systemic treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, but treatment-related proteinuria can affect the routine use of AADs, which in turn affects the overall efficacy, its prevention is a clinical aspiration. At present, most clinicians give angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) to alleviate proteinuria according to diabetic nephropathy guidelines or expert recommendations. However, its efficacy and whether it promotes cancer are controversial. Our clinical work has found that the use of ACEIs has not effectively relieved proteinuria, and some cases even have obvious tumor progression. Here we confirmed that in different tumor-bearing mouse models, ACEIs not only did not delay the appearance of proteinuria or reduce the degree of proteinuria caused by AADs, but also reduced the anti-cancer efficacy of AADs, and the reduction of anticancer efficacy has nothing to do with the change of VEGF signaling pathway, Our study show the combination of ACEIs and AADs aggravates the production of kidney-derived erythropoietin(EPO). In turn, EPO compromises the anti-angiogenic effects of AADs and decreases antitumor activity. This study presents treatment of proteinuria caused by AADs with ACEIs is useless and plays a role in drug resistance. Our purpose is to contribute to the rational management of side effects of AADs and to develop relevant guidelines.

Background The risk of recurrent colonic adenoma associated with high-grade dysplasia (HGD) colon polyps at baseline colonoscopy remains unclear. We conducted a clinical cohort study with patients who underwent polypectomy during screen colonoscopy to assess recurrent colonic adenoma risk factors. Methods 11,565 patients at our facility underwent screen colonoscopy between September 1998 and August 2007. Data from patients with HGD colon polyps who had undergone follow-up colonoscopy were included for analysis. Results Data from 211 patients was included. Rates of metachronous adenoma and advanced adenoma at follow-up were 58% and 20%, respectively. Mean follow-up period was 5.5 ± 1.8 (3–12) years. Univariate logistic regression analysis revealed that an adenoma count of ≥ 3 at baseline colonoscopy was strongly associated with overall recurrence, multiple recurrence, advanced recurrence, proximal recurrence, and distal adenoma recurrence with odds ratios of 4.32 (2.06–9.04 95% CI), 3.47 (1.67–7.22 95% CI), 2.55 (1.11–5.89 95% CI), 2.46 (1.16–5.22 95% CI), 2.89 (1.44–5.78 95% CI), respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed gender (male) [P = 0.010; OR 3.09(1.32–7.25 95% CI)] and adenoma count ≥ 3 [P = 0.002; OR 3.08(1.52–6.24 95% CI)] at index colonoscopy to be significantly associated with recurrence of advanced adenoma. Conclusion Recurrence of colonic adenoma at time of follow-up colonoscopy is common in patients who undergo polypectomy for HGD colon adenomas during baseline colonoscopy. Risk of further developing advanced adenomas is associated with gender and the number of colon adenomas present.

The demand for sustainable energy has motivated the development of artificial photosynthesis. Yet the catalyst and reaction interface designs for directly fixing permanent gases (e.g. CO

Background The clinical characteristics of patients with high-grade dysplasia (HGD) in colon polyps at baseline colonoscopy in relation to the risk of recurrent colonic adenomas have been unclear. We conducted this hospital- based cohort study recruiting patients who had undergone polypectomy at screening colonoscopy to assess the risk factors of recurrent colonic adenomas. Methods 11,565 subjects had undergone screening colonoscopic examinations between September 1998 and August 2007. The patients who had HGD in colon polyps and had undergone surveillance colonoscopy were eligible. Results A total of 211 patients were recruited. The rates of metachronous adenomas and advanced adenomas at surveillance colonoscopy were 58% and 20%, respectively, during the mean follow-up period of 5.5 ± 1.8 (3–12) years. On univariate logistic regression analysis, the number of adenomas ≥ 3 at baseline colonoscopy was strongly associated with the rates of overall recurrence, multiple recurrence, advanced recurrence, proximal recurrence, and distal adenoma recurrence with odds ratios of 4.32 (2.06–9.04 95%CI), 3.47 (1.67–7.22 95%CI), 2.55 (1.11–5.89 95%CI), 2.46 (1.16–5.22 95%CI), 2.89 (1.44–5.78 95%CI), respectively. On multivariate analysis, male gender [P = 0.010; OR 3.09(1.32–7.25 95% CI)] and number of adenomas ≥ 3 [P = 0.002; OR 3.08(1.52–6.24 95%CI)] at index colonoscopy were significantly associated with recurrent advanced adenomas. Conclusions Recurrence of colonic adenomas at surveillance colonoscopy is common in patients who had undergone polypectomy for colon adenomas with HGD at baseline colonoscopy. The risk of developing future advanced adenomas is associated with the number of colon adenomas and male gender.

Simple Summary The weight of an animal conforms to a certain growth pattern. Among others, feed, environment, and body composition, in addition to genetics, affect the animal’s feed consumption and body weight. Under normal circumstances, the body weight of an animal is mainly affected by feed intake, and body composition may significantly influence feed intake. Therefore, this report sets out the effects of fat accumulation on lipid metabolism and appetite, and finally introduces the effects of feeding patterns on animal feed intake. Abstract In addition to the influence of genes, the quality of poultry products is mainly controlled by the rearing environment or feed composition during rearing, and has to meet human use and economical needs. As the only source of energy for poultry, feed considerably affects the metabolic pattern of poultry and further affects the regulation of appetite-related endocrine secretion in poultry. Under normal circumstances, the accumulation of lipid in adipose reduces feed intake in poultry and increases the rate of adipose metabolism. When the adipose content in cells decreases, endocrines that promote food intake are secreted and increase nutrient concentrations in serum and cells. By regulating the balance between appetite and adipose metabolism, the poultry’s growth and posture can maintain a balanced state. In addition, increasing fiber composition in feed can effectively increase poultry welfare, body weight, lean composition and antioxidant levels in poultry. According to this, the concept that proper fiber content should be added to feed should be considered for better economic benefits, poultry welfare and meat productivity.

BACKGROUND As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rapidly spreads worldwide, some attention has focused on studying the relationship between atmospheric pollution and the disease. Fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM2.5) is the most harmful form of atmospheric pollution because it can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the blood stream unfiltered. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of risk factors associated with atmospheric pollution on the spread of COVID-19, taking Italy as an example. METHODS For descriptive statistical methods, the statistics of minimum, maximum, mean, median, standard deviation, rank, mean rank, and rank summation as well as time-series charts were used to depict the profiles of the relations among these input and output variables. For inferential statistical methods, Mann-Whitney U tests and Pearson, Kendall, and Spearman correlation tests were introduced to obtain more reliable conclusions regarding the study topic. RESULTS Statistical analysis showed that higher PM2.5 concentration and an industrial orientation may increase the spread of COVID-19. Moreover, 3-week time-shift and nonlinear relations may be optimal for use with PM2.5 concentration for predicting the spread of COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS Our results empirically proved that certain risk factors associated with atmospheric pollution (such as PM2.5 concentration and industrial orientation) affect the spread of COVID-19. In future analyses, additional factors that may affect the outcomes of COVID-19 as well as data from other countries will be included to obtain more complete conclusions. CLINICALTRIAL None.

We report the temporal change of the near-surface(

It is an important problem that let students do practices according to course objectives, but not take tricky shortcuts. For example, one can use build-in libraries to solve a sorting question and does not really understand the fundamental principles of the sorting algorithm. To avoid this kind of problems, our research team proposed the python-based Selective Syntactic Compiler (pySSC) to limit students can only apply permitted grammars. Also, we build an instant, interactive and online compiler for the pySSC usage. Teachers can use the pySSC platform to some specific syntax constraints and then students can use this platform to build codes as well as to get real-time feed-backs. Finally, our research team also executed a questionnaire-based survey to evaluate the performance of the pySSC in terms of three types of affordances, namely cognitive, perceived and functional affordances.

A hot stamping clinching tool that integrates a forming system, a heating system and a cooling system is developed. A traditional heating furnace is replaced by resistance heating technology. DEFORM-3D is used to simulate the heating process, cooling efficiency and formability in the design stage. A series of experiments confirms the design of the tool. Results show that the tool structure accurately controls the movement of the electrode and the punch stroke. Experiments showed that the condition of the sheet’s surface, the sheet’s thickness and its size affect the resistance heating. If the contact surface between sheets is uneven, current flows through from the partial contact point, which results in non-uniform heating. If two layers of sheets of different thickness are heated at the same time, the thinner the sheet, the faster is the heating rate. An increase in the sheet’s size results in a decrease in the heating rate. In terms of the connection strength, due to the high cooling rate in the present experimental, the tensile strength of the sheet at the clinching point is increased by 3 to 4 times. Resultant the elongation is reduced to less than 2% so the cracking point occurs around the clinching joint and not the joint point itself, during shear strength test. Therefore, it is important to control the cooling process to get better clinching joint condition.

Background Breast cancer ranks second in the list of cancer-related deaths for women. Even under multidisciplinary treatment, 25-50% of patients with breast cancer still ultimately develop metastasis, leading to poor prognosis. In addition to inducing angiogenesis, vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) is believed to directly increase cancer cell metastatic potential and overexpression of VEGF-A is associated with higher invasiveness of breast cancer. 1α,25(OH)2D3, the active form of vitamin D, and its analogs have been widely applied as anticancer agents in the past. Material and methods Western blot, migration and invasion assays, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and immunofluorescent stain were applied in this study. Result VEGF-A increased cell migration and invasion in estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer MCF-7 cells. VEGF-A induced an autocrine loop in MCF-7 cells as VEGF-A treatment increased both VEGF-A expression and secretion. The expression of VEGF receptor type 2 (VEGFR2) and neuropilin 1 was also up-regulated by VEGF-A in MCF-7 cells. In addition, F-actin synthesis and LIM domain kinase 1 (LIMK-1) phosphorylation were increased by VEGF-A. VEGF-A also increased β-catenin expression and nuclear translocation of both β-catenin and nuclear factor-ĸB (NF-ĸB), indicating increased β-catenin and NF-ĸB activity. 1α,25(OH)2D3 and MART-10, an analog of 1α,25(OH)2D3, effectively repressed VEGF-A-induced MCF-7 cell migration and invasion and other VEGF-A-induced effects on MCF-7 cells, with MART-10 being more potent than 1α,25(OH)2D3 Conclusion: MART-10 can be deemed as a promising agent for prevention and treatment of metastasis of ER+ breast cancer with VEGF-A overexpression.

Histological subtypes of lung adenocarcinomas (ADCs) classified by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer/American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society (IASLC/ATS/ERS) system have been investigated using radiomic approaches. However, the results have had limitations since80% of invasive lung ADCs were heterogeneous, with two or more subtypes. To reduce the influence of heterogeneity during radiomic analysis, computed tomography (CT) images of lung ADCs with near-pure ADC subtypes were analyzed to extract representative radiomic features of different subtypes.We enrolled 95 patients who underwent complete resection for lung ADC and a pathological diagnosis of a "near-pure" (≥70%) IASLC/ATS/ERS histological subtype. Conventional histogram/morphological features and complex radiomic features (grey-level-based statistical features and component variance-based features) of thin-cut CT data of tumor regions were analyzed. A prediction model based on leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) and logistic regression (LR) was used to classify all five subtypes and three pathologic grades (lepidic, acinar/papillary, micropapillary/solid) of ADCs. The validation was performed using 36 near-pure ADCs in a later cohort.A total of 31 lepidic, 14 papillary, 32 acinar, 10 micropapillary, and 8 solid ADCs were analyzed. With 21 conventional and complex radiomic features, for 5 subtypes and 3 pathological grades, the prediction models achieved accuracy rates of 84.2% (80/95) and 91.6% (87/95), respectively, while accuracy was 71.6% and 85.3%, respectively, if only conventional features were used. The accuracy rate for the validation set (n = 36) was 83.3% (30/36) and 94.4% (34/36) in 5 subtypes and 3 pathological grades, respectively, using conventional and complex features, while it was 66.7% and 77.8% only using conventional features, respectively.Lung ADC with high purity pathological subtypes demonstrates strong stratification of radiomic values, which provide basic information for accurate pathological subtyping and image parcellation of tumor sub-regions.

Ching-Chih Hu,1,2 Cheng-Hao Weng,2,3 Liang-Che Chang,4 Chih-Lang Lin,1,2 Yen-Ting Chen,1 Ching-Fang Hu,5 Man-Chin Hua,2,6 Li-Wei Chen,1 Rong-Nan Chien2,7 1Department of Hepatogastroenterology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Keelung, Taiwan; 2College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Linkou, Taiwan; 3Department of Nephrology and Poison Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan; 4Department of Pathology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Keelung, Taiwan; 5Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Keelung, Taiwan; 6Department of Pediatrics, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Keelung, Taiwan; 7Department of Hepatogastroenterology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan Purpose: Eradication of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) after interferon-based therapy and its association with the reduction of risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in HCV-infected patients with advanced fibrosis is controversial. The study is aimed to develop a simple scoring model for HCC prediction among advanced fibrotic chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients after pegylated interferon (pegIFN) and ribavirin (RBV) therapy. Patients and methods: We enrolled 271 biopsy-proven CHC patients with advanced fibrosis between 2003 and 2016, and divided them into non-HCC (n=211) and HCC (n=60) groups. The median observation duration was 6.0 years (range: 0.9–12.6 years). Results: The HCC prevalence after pegIFN and RBV therapy in CHC patients with sustained virologic response (SVR) and without SVR was 14.7% and 32.2%, respectively. Multivariate Cox regression showed age ≥59.5 years old at initiation of therapy (HR: 2.542, 95% CI: 1.390–4.650, P=0.002), pretreatment total bilirubin ≥1.1 mg/dL (HR: 2.630, 95% CI: 1.420–4.871, P=0.002), pretreatment platelet counts

Background: Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) is a curable malignancy. However, some patients are refractory to frontline therapy. Early prediction of response to frontline therapy could identify patients who may benefit from more intensive therapy. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) has an established role in the management of HL. Radiomic features provide a way of quantifying imaging phenotypes and have shown promising results as predictors of outcomes in different lymphomas. Furthermore, great interest has been focused on the heterogeneity of standardized uptake value (SUV) within a single lesion. Since high SUV component (HSc) and low-SUV component (LSc) regions within a single lesion may be associated with different phenotypical characteristics, the radiomic analysis for each regional SUV component may provide a more complete description of lesions. Therefore, we proposed and evaluated new descriptors to quantify the image phenotypes based on HSc and LSc of lesions in HL. Methods: A total of 61 patients with HL of all stages who were seen at MD Anderson Cancer Center between 2016 and 2020 and had analyzable pre-treatment PET/CT were selected. All patients received standard of care ABVD or AVD regimens with or without radiation (Table 1A). Pre-treatment PET/CT scans were analyzed, and HL lesions were semi-automatically segmented using MIM 7 (Cleveland, OH) based on a SUV max threshold of 2.5. Manual edits were made and reviewed by a nuclear medicine physician and a lymphoma specialist. A total of 110 radiomic features were extracted from the segmented lesions in CT and PET using the open-source package of 'PyRadiomics' (Table 1B). Detailed description and algorithms of the extracted radiomics features are available at https://pyradiomics.readthedocs.io/en/latest/features.html. Additionally, each lesion was partitioned into HSc and LSc based on a cutoff value of 3 times the liver SUV mean (Figure A). The ratio of features between SUV components (HSc, LSc) and the lesion area was calculated. Furthermore, the feature difference between HSc and LSc was obtained. The maximum, minimum, average, and standard deviation of the radiomic features within multiple lesions were computed to reveal the distribution of features. A sequential forward feature selection was applied to select the significant features for building a logistic regression model, to predict refractory disease according to Lugano criteria. Two logistic regression models were constructed for early and advanced stage patients. Quantitative measures, namely metabolic tumor volume (MTV), total lesion glycolysis (TLG), and SUV max were measured for comparison. The leave-one-out-cross-validation (LOOCV) was applied to yield the receiver-operator-characteristics curve; the area under the curve (AUC) was then computed to evaluate the performance of the proposed model compared to quantitative measurements using DeLong's test. Results: The average of small dependence high gray level emphasis (GLDM) from PET, the difference of major axis length between high- and low- SUV component from PET, and the difference of 10th Percentile (histogram) between high- and low- SUV component from PET were selected for identifying the refractory disease in early stage lesions; the maximum of correlation (GLCM) from PET, SD of small dependence emphasis (GLDM) from PET, and SD of the inverse difference moment normalized (GLCM) from PET were selected for identifying refractory disease in advanced stage lesions. Based on LOOCV, the proposed radiomics model achieved an AUC of 0.93 for refractory disease prediction, which was significantly superior to MTV (AUC, 0.66; P = 0.01), TLG (AUC, 0.64; P = 0.01), and SUV max (AUC, 0.61; P = 0.01) (Figure B) Conclusion: High and low SUV components-based radiomic model of PET/CT was potentially useful for upfront prediction of refractory HL. Validation in a larger cohort using different segmentation methods, inclusion of additional treatment subgroups, comparison to other predictors, and correlation with survival outcomes are underway. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures Ahmed: Seagen: Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; Tessa Therapeutics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Xencor: Research Funding. Steiner: BMS: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Research Funding; Rafael Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding. Pinnix: Merck Inc: Research Funding. Wang: Molecular Templates: Research Funding; The First Afflicted Hospital of Zhejiang University: Honoraria; Hebei Cancer Prevention Federation: Honoraria; Bayer Healthcare: Consultancy; Mumbai Hematology Group: Honoraria; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Research Funding; BioInvent: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Physicians Education Resources (PER): Honoraria; Miltenyi Biomedicine GmbH: Consultancy, Honoraria; Scripps: Honoraria; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Imedex: Honoraria; Dava Oncology: Honoraria; Epizyme: Consultancy, Honoraria; Clinical Care Options: Honoraria; BGICS: Honoraria; CAHON: Honoraria; VelosBio: Consultancy, Research Funding; Loxo Oncology: Consultancy, Research Funding; InnoCare: Consultancy, Research Funding; BeiGene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Anticancer Association: Honoraria; Genentech: Consultancy; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; CStone: Consultancy; Newbridge Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria; Juno: Consultancy, Research Funding; Acerta Pharma: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Chinese Medical Association: Honoraria; Kite Pharma: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Oncternal: Consultancy, Research Funding; DTRM Biopharma (Cayman) Limited: Consultancy; OMI: Honoraria; Moffit Cancer Center: Honoraria; Lilly: Research Funding.

Background:A dentist always checks a patient by using panoramic radiography (PR) initially. The measurement of the minimal distance (MD) between the alveolar crest and the mandibular canal (MC) superior border is critically important before the dental implant surgery, extraction of 3Objective:A software is needed for training dentists as well as a tool of demonstration to patients in clinics precisely and quickly. Moreover, it should be able to calculate the MD between the alveolar crest and the MC superior border before dental implant.Methods:A computer-aided software system to semi-automatically detect the MC and mental foramen (MF) in the PR with minimal human interference is proposed.Results:The result shows that the averaged relative error (RE) is 1.83% with a standard deviation of 2.31%.Conclusion:The results show that the proposed algorithm is able to detect the MC superior and inferior borders. This system has the potential to train young clinicians and to replace the manual work in measuring the MD between the alveolar crest and the MC superior border with a minimal human intervention.

We report the near-surface ( V p ), shear wave velocity ( V s ), V p / V s ratio, Poisson's ratio and V s anisotropy of Taiwan by applying seismic coda interferometry to 34 borehole-surface station pairs. We find clear characteristic cos ⁡ 2 θ dependence of V s in all the determinations, and about half of the amplitudes of anisotropy are larger than 10%, with the largest amplitudes up to 34%. The patterns of anisotropy fall into two categories, OPA (Orogeny-Parallel Anisotropy) and SAA (Stress-Aligned Anisotropy). Both types of anisotropy fit well the local geological fabrics and/or the ambient stress, and show strong correlation with the Poisson's ratios at the borehole sites. With these new findings and reported tomographic results, we infer that the SAA are likely confined to the uppermost portion of the crust, in particular to the fluid-saturated late-Quaternary deposits. The strong near-surface anisotropy also implies that delay times contributed by the shallow crust might have been underestimated in studies of shear-wave splitting measurements using the direct arrivals of earthquake waves.

Knowledge sharing and peer learning are important characteristics for learning similar engineering topics, especially suitable for the learning in college. Software design is an advanced required course for software engineering departments. However, most students might have no enough incentives to learn it by themselves. To distinguish the performance of the peer learning, we adopted the peer learning in software design course to analyze the possibility of adoption. Our selected course was a junior major and held on the second semester. Its regulations are declared twice before the due date of the course selection. Students can group their peer learning team by at most three ones, so they can choose as individual learning. Both review and summary quizzes were held at the first and the last 15-min in the Moodle every week, respectively. There were 34 students attending this experiment with four 3-student groups, five 2-student groups, and 12 singles. A web-based tool was designed to illustrate the peer learning performance and students can browse their own score analysis anywhere. Inside the experimental weeks, we found most students attend the course on time. Though the effect of the adopted approach (may be due to too few samples) is not clear, we found evidence from the descriptive statistics and detailed analyses of the experiment results. The peer learning by grouping could have large chance to be better than individual study. It encourages us to adopt the same educational practice to our software design course, even other software related courses.

New titanium-dioxide (TiO2) colloids composed of nano-crystalline TiO2 and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) have been developed for use in the working electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The surface morphology and electrical characteristics of the TiO2 colloid electrodes were studied. The analysis of the surface morphology of the TiO2 colloids was conducted by an atomic force microscope (AFM) and a field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). The photovoltaic characteristics of the TiO2 colloids with different compositions were investigated. The TiO2 content of the colloids determined the photovoltaic conversion ability of DSSCs. Colorful colloids were implemented by adding pigments to the TiO2 colloids. The processes of the TiO2 colloids demonstrated the advantages of simple fabrication and low cost. The flexible property of the TiO2 colloids showed great potential for application in flexible optoelectronics.

This paper utilizes spectrally efficient carrierless amplitude and phase (CAP) modulation and four wavelength division multiplexing channels in formulation of a high-capacity transmission system. The dispersion and loss associated with a single-mode fiber of 60 km can result in severe power fading and insufficient loss budget, respectively. This study employed high launch power to overcome these issues and thereby achieve long-reach transmission without the need for dispersion compensation or an optical inline amplifier. Modified Volterra filtering is used to deal with the linear and nonlinear distortions within the system. This allowed for the inclusion of cost-effective 10-GHz-class electro-absorption modulators and p-i-n detectors for 4- $\lambda$ 224-Gb/s 32-CAP 60-km transmission with a loss budget of 26 dB/channel. The proposed system provides support for the 64 optical network units (ONUs) with downstream transmission of $>$ 3 Gb/s/ONU for future long-reach passive optical networks. We also examined the transmission performance of each channel under various launch powers. Increasing launch power from 9 to 18 dBm/channel increases the loss budget by 9 dB and expands the total capacity by 42%.

Background: The Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) mutant genotypes contain an allele encoding defective ALDH2 with reduced efficacy of alcohol metabolism leading to accumulation of highly toxic and carcinogenic acetaldehyde. It can induce unpleasant “Asian flush syndrome” and associate with increased risk of cancers. However, to date, little is known about ALDH2 genotypes in relation to the postoperative prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: From 2002 to 2012, 419 HCC patients receiving surgical resection of HCC were enrolled for ALDH2-rs671 genotyping and outcome correlation. Results: Of the patients included, 202 were ALDH2-rs671 “GG” (wild type) and 217 were mutant (defective) “AA” + “GA” genotype. Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that “GG” genotype significantly associated with shorter metastasis-free (P = 0.034) and overall (P = 0.005) survival, but not recurrence-free survival (P = 0.281). Univariate followed by multivariate Cox proportional hazard analysis showed that “GG” genotype was an independent clinical predictor for shorter time-to-distant metastasis (adjusted P = 0.019) and shorter overall survival (adjusted P = 0.001). Subgroup analysis showed that in patients with negative hepatitis B surface antigen, Edmonson's histology grade < 3, and aspartate transaminase > alanine transaminase, the ALDH2-rs671-GG genotype was associated with both shorter time-to-metastasis and shorter overall survival. Conclusions: HCC patients carrying a defective allele of ALDH2 had a favorable postoperative outcome.

Photocatalytic nitrogen fixation can produce ammonia from nitrogen and water under ambient conditions in the presence of sunlight. Here, we report that alkali metal cations (Li+, Na+, and K+) can significantly promote nitrogen activation and plasmonic nanocrystals (Au and Ag) can sensitize photocatalysts under visible light. The ammonia yield and selectivity on Au/P25 under UV-vis irradiation could be increased from 0.085 mmol g-1 h-1 and 75% to 0.43 mmol g-1 h-1 and 94.5% when promoted by K+, showing a visible-light-driven activity of 0.14 mmol g-1 h-1 and an AQE of 0.62% at 550 nm. The activity could be further increased to 1.02 (UV-vis) and 0.32 (visible) mmol g-1 h-1 with AQE of 0.93% at 550 nm with methanol added as the sacrificial agent. This strategy could be applied to a series of photocatalysts (e.g. TiO2, ZnO, and BiOBr) and may represent a general approach for designing efficient nitrogen fixation processes.

Objective Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a devastating disease. Interferon α-inducible protein 27 (IFI27), originally known to involve in innate immunity, is later found to intervene in cell proliferation, leading to inventive studies regarding the role of IFI27 in cancer treatment. We aimed to investigate the role of IFI27 in CCA. Materials and methods Cell proliferation, migration, and invasion assays, Western blot, gene transfection and knockdown, immunofluorescent and immunohistochemical stains, and xenograft animal model were applied. Results IFI27 knockdown in CCA cells induced cell cycle arrest in S phase, resulting in lower cell proliferative rate in vitro and in vivo. IFI27 knockdown attenuated CCA cell migration and invasion through inhibition of epithelial–mesenchymal transition, which was supported by increased E-cadherin and decreased N-cadherin and fibronectin. Filamentous actin level was also reduced. IFI27 knockdown further repressed expression and secretion of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A), a strong stimulator of angiogenesis, through downregulation of c-jun and c-fos, which was supported in vitro by the finding that human vascular endothelial cells grew more slowly in conditioned medium of IFI27 knockdown on CCA cells and in vivo by the lower erythropoietin concentration found in the xenografted tumors derived from IFI27 knockdown on CCA cells. In addition, anti-VEGF-A antibody treatment was able to repress CCA cell growth. To the contrary, IFI27 overexpression could increase CCA cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Clinically, higher IFI27 expression was linked to inferior overall survival of CCA patients. Conclusion Our data strongly suggest that IFI27 could be deemed as a potential target for CCA treatment.

This study explores the influence of prior information for deep learning networks to discriminate the benign and malignant of pulmonary tumors in computed tomography. In this study, because the number of nodule samples is sparse, this study proposes the concept of Multiple-Window to provide prior knowledge for Convolutional neural network (CNN). In the Multiple-Window CNN, we use the 5 windows including lung window, abdomen window, bone window, and chest window to generate the nodule sample. The sparse number of nodule samples, through the characteristics of the CT image dynamic range, make more prior information in a limited amount of data. The results show that the increase of suitably prior information (window channel) be included, CNN performance has improved. When the input is original dicom image, the accuracy of CNN is 0.82, sensitivity is 0.82, and specificity is 0.82. When the input is 4 kinds channel of window type, the accuracy is 0.9, sensitivity is 0.84, and specificity is 0.96.

Background: Transbronchial dye marking is a preoperative localization technique aiding pulmonary resection. Post-marking computed tomography (CT) is performed to confirm the locations of the actual markings. This study aimed to evaluate the CT images of dye markings that present as ground-glass opacities (GGO), using quantitative feature analysis. Methods: Thin-slice (1 mm) CT images of the dye markings and true ground glass nodule (GGN) lesions were obtained for quantitative analysis with gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) features. The quantification features including correlation, auto correlation, contrast, energy, entropy, and homogeneity were evaluated. Statistical analysis with boxplot was performed. Results: GLCM features of multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) images of the dye markings (n=13) and true GGN lesions (n=13) differed significantly in contrast, energy, entropy, auto correlation, and homogeneity. Cone beam computed tomographic (CBCT) image features of another group of dye markings (n=15) also showed a different distribution of feature values, than those of the MDCT images. Conclusions: Quantitative analysis of the dye marking images revealed a discriminative variance, compared with those of the true GGN lesions. Furthermore, the image textures of dye markings on MDCT and CBCT also presented with obvious discrepancies.

To date, studies on nuclear emergency evaluation focus on emergency preparedness and medical rescue ability. The evaluation of Rescue Measures at containment vessel is critical for Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) emergency response under the severe accident. In this paper, a comprehensive evaluation index system was established for rescue measures of China national nuclear emergency engineering rescue team at containment vessel with the consideration of timeliness and accuracy of rescue process, rescuers’ safety and rescue effects. A series of formulas was proposed to calculate the objective indicators’ scores, meanwhile, Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation method was applied to calculate subjective indicators’ scores with a weight distribution estimating by Analytic Hierarchy Process method. A case study on M310 NPP was carried out to demonstrate the evaluation method. The proposed method based the established index system can not only evaluate the rescue teams’ ability, but also reveal the weaknesses and problems during the rescue process.

Mechanical property and durability of timber members is significantly affected by their surface moisture emissivity which determines the rate they exchange the moisture with the surrounding air. The surface moisture emissivity depends on various parameters including the air flow rate, the temperature and the surface treatment. However, there currently lacks a suitable method for measuring it in the actual working environment of the timber structures. This paper proposes such a method which can identify the surface moisture emissivity factor for timber members with different kinds of surface treatment in their unsteady moisture transfer process. The method is based on Bayesian updating of the numerical model of moisture transfer process of the wood based on the overall weight change. The numerical model considers coupled transfer of the vapour and the bound water. Influences of the sorption hysteresis were also included. Using the method, moisture emissivity factor of different kinds of timber surfaces can be measured by weighting their small-sized samples exposed to ambient climate. Steady moisture transfer process, controlled temperature and RH environment, or the information of the moisture gradient in the samples are not required. Using the method, surface moisture emissivity factor of a pine wood was determined without and with different kinds of surface paint. The measured factor was validated by additional experimental data.

The heavy molecular bonds of liquid fuels can be broken with the assistance of a nitromethane fuel additive by virtue of its explosive and flammable properties to obtain greater heat release. Because of the immiscibility between nitromethane and petro-diesel, two-phase emulsions of nitromethane dispersed in the oil phase of a mixture of diesel and biodiesel were prepared. The experimental results show that microwave irradiation produced an emulsion with a larger number of dispersed nitromethane droplets in the continuous oil mixture, a smaller mean droplet size, and lower turbidity than magnetic stirring, and thus was a better method for preparation of the two-phase emulsion. The increase in the nitromethane weight fraction increased the number of dispersed nitromethane droplets and the emulsion turbidity. In addition, allowing the emulsion preparation to remain motionless for a longer period of time after either method resulted in an obvious reduction in the emulsification stability (ES).

In order to establish the relation between damage state and member deformation of the L-section RC shear wall, 216 FE models designed to meet the requirements of the Chinese codes were set up. The analysis fully considers the variation of parameters including axial load ratio and shear span ratio etc. According to the results, criteria of classifying failure modes of L-section RC shear walls are proposed. Failure modes are determined by shear-span ratio, moment-shear ratio and end columns' reinforcement ratio. Deformation limits corresponding to respective performance levels are put forward. Fitted formulas of calculating the limits are also presented. It is shown that the categorization criteria are reliably accurate in predicting failure modes. Deformation limits of a given L-section RC shear wall could be determined via axial load ratio and moment-shear ratio. The fitted formulas possess a satisfactory correlation with numerical results.

Background and Aim: CO2 has been reported to be absorbed from the bowel more rapidly than air, resulting in a discomfort reduction after colonoscopy. Its role in deeply sedated patients is limited. This study was designed to investigate the efficacy and safety of CO2 insufflation during colonoscopy in patients deeply sedated with propofol. Methods: A total of 125 continuous patients were randomly assigned to receive either CO2 (n = 63) or air (n = 62) insufflation during propofol-sedated colonoscopy. Postcolonoscopy abdominal pain, distention, and satisfaction were assessed at 1, 3, and 24 h after the procedure, and the proportions of pain-free and distention-free patients were compared. Residual bowel gas in the colon and small bowel was evaluated at 1 h after colonoscopy. End-tidal CO2 and O2 saturation was measured for safety analysis. Results: There was a significant difference between the two groups regarding the postcolonoscopy abdominal pain, distention, and subjective satisfaction at 1 h (P

Lazear's jack–of–all–trades theory suggests that individuals with balanced skills are more likely to become entrepreneurs, and that balanced skills can be accumulated by studying a varied curriculum, working in a variety of functions, and working for a variety of employers. We reexamine the theory using a matched case–control sample, constructed from a professional networking website that controls for unobserved heterogeneity in employer and job characteristics. We find evidence that variety predicts entry into entrepreneurship, largely through its positive association with the likelihood of having certain specific skills. However, our analysis also demonstrates that attempts to identify the effects of skill variety on entrepreneurship are likely to be highly sensitive to sample construction and regression specification.

Pheochromocytomas and left ventricular noncompaction (LVNC) are both rare diseases. In this patient, the long duration of the catecholamine-secreted pheochromocytoma caused myocardial ischemia, pressure overload, and hypertrophy, resulting in the onset of heart failure (HF). The LVNC might be associated with the acute attack of HF induced by the pheochromocytoma. This is the first case reporting LVNC in combination with HF secondary to pheochromocytoma.

This paper presents the finite element analyses and experimental studies of the melting notch tip in the steel strip under the electro-thermal machining associated with high electric current. Under the electric load, a hot spot occurs at the notch tip due to the electric current density concentration and Joule heating effect. This hot spot will melt when the applied electric energy is sufficient. Numerical results predict the temperature field and melting size of the hot spot. Experimental studies show the hot spot, melting area, solidification, shrinking hole and heat affected zone around the notch tip under the electro-thermal machining. The results of this study provide the concepts for increasing the fatigue life or stopping the crack propagation.

The survival rate of anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is still very poor due to its fast growth and high metastatic potential. Currently, no effective treatment is available. The active form of vitamin D3, 1α,25(OH)2D3, has been shown to have a anti-metastatic effect in pre-clinical studies, however induction of hypercalcemia hampered its clinical application. The new class of less-calcemic vitamin D analog, 19-nor-2α-(3-hydroxypropyl)-1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (MART-10), is much more potent than 1α,25(OH)2D3 to repress cancer growth and metastasis in a variety of cancers. In this study, we demonstrated that both 1α,25(OH)2D3 and MART-10 could effectively inhibit the migration and invasion of ATC cells, 8305C and 8505C, with MART-10 much more potent than 1α,25(OH)2D3. The anti-metastatic effect of 1α,25(OH)2D3 and MART-10 on ATC cells is mediated by reversal of cadherin switch (upregulation of E-cadherin and downregulation of N-cadherin), which led to the attenuation of EMT process, and decrease of F-actin formation. We further showed that the expressions of Slug, the EMT-related transcriptional factor, and MMP-9 were inhibited by 1α,25(OH)2D3 and MART-10 in 8505C cells, but not in 8303C cells. Since metastasis is the important cause of ATC-related death, our results strongly encourage the further in vivo study of MART-10 application against ATC.

This is an experimental investigation to study the nonlinear coupling characteristics of a propane/air flame with acoustic standing waves, using chemiluminescence emission and phase-locked PIV measurements. A variety of coupling modes are observed for the excitation source with combustion instability oscillations and its harmonics and sub-harmonics. The frequency analysis shows that flame/acoustic coupling behaviour results in complex nonlinear coupling. The coupling behaviour is weak at lower excitation intensities (0.3 V). At a voltage amplitude of 2 V, the results show that the excitation frequency (fe) is only coupled with the sub-harmonic frequency (fe/5) for the premixed flame. However, for the diffusion flame, more complex frequency components are observed, which exhibit relationships of fe±ff and fe±fe/5. At a voltage amplitude of 13.7 V, the sub-harmonic frequencies (2fe/5 and 3fe/5) and the premixed flame buoyancy oscillations (ff) are increased. PIV measurements provide detailed flow velocity vector fields in an acoustically excited tube for different phase angles and the effect on the flames at different equivalence ratios, which increases the understanding of flame oscillation behaviour. It is found that all of the nonlinear phenomena that are observed occur because of the coupling between buoyant and acoustic excitation and create complex nonlinear frequency couplings.

Acne is a skin disease common in adolescents and increasingly common in the adult population. The major pathologic events of acne vulgaris include increased sebum production, retention hyperkeratosis, carrying commensal skin microbiota, and inflammation. In recent years, more than 10,000 compounds have been isolated and identified from marine organisms. The aim of this study was to discover the potential anti-acne activity of fraction 9 + 10 (SF-E) of Sinularia flexibilis extract and six cembrene diterpenoids. We found that the SF-E significantly reduced Cutibacterium acnes-induced edema in Wistar rat ears. The cembrene diterpenoids including 11-dehydrosinulariolide (SC-2), 3,4:8,11-bisepoxy-7-acetoxycembra-15(17)-en-1,12-olide (SC-7), and sinularin (SC-9) reduced nitric oxide (NO) production with 50% inhibitory concentration of 5.66 &plusmn, 0.19, 15.25 &plusmn, 0.25, and 3.85 &plusmn, 0.25 &mu, M, respectively, and inducible NO synthase expression in RAW 264.7 cells. Moreover, treatment with SC-2, SC-7, and SC-9 significantly suppressed lipopolysaccharide- and heat-killed C. acnes-induced expression of proteins involved in mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway in both RAW 264.7 and HaCaT cells. After treatment with SC-2, SC-7, and SC-9, over-proliferation of HaCaT cells was significantly terminated. In summary, SC-2, SC-7, and SC-9 showed anti-inflammatory effects in RAW 264.7 cells, suggesting that these cembrene diterpenoids obtained from S. flexibilis are natural marine products with potential anti-acne activities.

Impact-oriented accelerators, a relatively new type of entrepreneur support program, are proliferating as practitioners, philanthropic funders, and investors work to unlock the full potential of entrepreneurship-led economic development. These accelerators aspire to support entrepreneurs, in large part by driving investment into promising ventures that work in marginalized sectors and regions around the world. Given the opportunity costs of the human, organizational, and financial resources required to run accelerators, it is important to determine whether they are having this intended impact. To assess the effect of acceleration on outside equity investment, we analyze application and follow-up data from a matched sample of 1647 entrepreneurs who applied to 77 impact-oriented accelerators. Our main finding is promising. In the first follow-up year, accelerator program participants attract significantly more outside equity than their rejected counterparts. Further analysis suggests that this positive equity bump is not due to cherry picking obviously promising ventures during selection processes. Moreover, the effect is tied to the number of accelerated months in the follow-up year. Despite these promising observations, we find that the equity investment effect does not extend to ventures working in emerging markets, or to those with women on their founding teams. Thus, the benefits of accelerators for entrepreneurship-led development are not yet reaching the places and people that have the hardest time attracting capital on their own. We conclude the paper by outlining the challenges associated with extending the positive effects of acceleration into entrepreneurial domains that are most challenging from an economic development perspective.

Background/Purpose: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now a global liver disease. The fatty liver index (FLI), which is calculated by the equation comprising waist circumference, body mass index (BMI), triglyceride, and gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), is frequently used for hepatic steatosis evaluation. This study aimed to evaluate the optimal cut-off point of FLI to select subjects for abdominal ultrasonography (US) screening for NAFLD in the community. Methods: From August 2013 to August 2016, a community-based study was performed in the northeastern region of Taiwan. All subjects participated in a demographic survey, blood testing, and abdominal US. The formula for FLI is: FLI = [e 0.953×loge (TG)+0.139×BMI+0.718×loge (GGT) +0.053×waist circumference−15.745]/[1 + e 0.953×loge (TG)+0.139×BMI+0.718×loge (GGT)+0.053×waist circumference−15.745] × 100. Results: A total of 1371 subjects were included (746 in NAFLD group and 625 in the control group). The mean ages were 57.1 years in the control group and 56.3 years in the NAFLD group. The optimal cut-off points of FLI to discriminate fatty liver by abdominal US were 20 in male and 10 in female (sensitivity 80.3% and 76.1%; specificity 66.9% and 65.5%, respectively). FLI was correlated with the severity of fatty liver by abdominal US, predict fat component percent and NAFLD fibrosis score, especially in the female subjects. Conclusion: FLI could be a tool to select subjects for abdominal US in a large community survey. The cut-off point of FLI might be set to 10 for female and 20 for male subjects, to increase the sensitivity for selecting subjects to receive abdominal US. Keywords: Fatty liver, Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Ultrasonography

The impacts of silicon (Si) on cadmium (Cd) bioavailability in soil and Cd accumulation in rice plants were investigated in pot experiments with rice (