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Bo Yang,1 Fang Zhao,1 Zhenfeng Zong,1 Jun Yuan,1 Xiang Song,1 Mingming Ren,1 Qingjun Meng,1 Guoguang Dai,1 Fanyi Kong,1 Shumin Xie,2 Siying Cheng,2 Tianwen Gao2 1Hebei Cangzhou Central Hospital, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Hebei, 2Xiangya Medical School of Central-South University, Changsha, People’s Republic of China Background: This study was designed to investigate the preferences for treatment of lobectomy in Chinese lung cancer patients and differences in the psychological and social factors that influence treatment decision-making.Methods: One hundred and forty patients with stage I lung cancer were recruited from Hebei Cangzhou Central Hospital. Before surgery, the patients completed a questionnaire that surveyed their preferences for treatment and the relevant influencing factors. Differences in psychological and social characteristics were compared between lung cancer patients who chose video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and those who opted for open thoracotomy.Results: Among the 135 valid questionnaires, 79 patients preferred VATS and 56 patients chose open thoracotomy. Potential side effects, doctors’ recommendation, the prognosticated chance for cure, cosmesis, and financial burden influenced the patients’ decisions.Conclusion: The minimally invasive advantages of VATS, including lesser trauma to the chest wall, earlier remission of postoperative pain, faster recovery, less bleeding, and improved cardiopulmonary function made VATS more attractive to patients needing lobectomy for lung cancer. However, the choice of VATS over open thoracotomy is still influenced by the degree of prognosticated cure and the feasibility of surgery. Keywords: lobectomy, treatment decision-making, Chinese, oncologists

Bryological Notes

Multitasking is present in all activities of daily living and needs precise assessment to allow ecological patient-specific intervention. The use of multitasking in diagnostic tools remains rare, due to the difficulties of implementing this in laboratory settings. To overcome these difficulties, Serious Games represent a good surrogate method as it offers the possibility to recreate a functional setting in a safe daily living environment and allows testing and quantifying multitasking performances in an enjoyable and motivating way. The purpose of the study was to investigate the potential of a new Serious Game based multitasking assessment tool by examining the cognitive validity and the real life representability of the tool. Eighteen healthy elderly controls participated in the study. They were asked to execute a cooking activity in the Serious Game and in real life, and were assessed using a neuropsychological test battery. Results showed that performance on the virtual cooking task was associated with multiple cognitive measures and that performances in the virtual task were highly representative of what participants did in real life. This tool is a first step toward including ecologically valid measures for a comprehensive assessment of healthy elderly controls and may help to assesses elderly patients with diseases such as Alzheimers disease. Performance on the virtual cooking task was associated with multiple cognitive measures.Performances in the virtual task were highly representative of what participants did in real life.This tool is a first step toward including ecologically valid measures for a comprehensive cognitive assessment.The serious game has the potential to be used as a multitasking assessment tool for cognition and daily living performances.

Genome-wide association studies have revealed a relationship between inter-individual variation in blood pressure and the single nucleotide polymorphism rs13107325 in the SLC39A8 gene. This gene encodes the ZIP8 protein which co-transports divalent metal cations, including heavy metal cadmium, the accumulation of which has been associated with increased blood pressure. The polymorphism results in two variants of ZIP8 with either an alanine (Ala) or a threonine (Thr) at residue 391. We investigated the functional impact of this variant on protein conformation, cadmium transport, activation of signalling pathways and cell viability in relation to blood pressure regulation. Following incubation with cadmium, higher intracellular cadmium was detected in cultured human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293) expressing heterologous ZIP8-Ala391, compared with HEK293 cells expressing heterologous ZIP8-Thr391. This Ala391-associated cadmium accumulation also increased the phosphorylation of the signal transduction molecule ERK2, activation of the transcription factor NFκB, and reduced cell viability. Similarly, vascular endothelial cells with the Ala/Ala genotype had higher intracellular cadmium concentration and lower cell viability than their Ala/Thr counterpart following cadmium exposure. These results indicate that the ZIP8 Ala391-to-Thr391 substitution has an effect on intracellular cadmium accumulation and cell toxicity, providing a potential mechanistic explanation for the association of this genetic variant with blood pressure.

The roll-to-roll manufacturing process is believed to significantly reduce the cost-price of large area organic photovoltaic systems. Therefore, we build up knowledge base concerning the influence of process conditions on the performance of polymer solar cells. Inkjet printing has been a major research in processing photoactive materials because of its advantage of non-contact deposition and the ease for patterning for various industrial processes. A large area solar cell module, with inkjet printed PEDOT:PSS Orgacon™ (Agfa-Gevaert, Belgium)and photoactive layers (based on P3HT:[C60]PCBM blend) on a flexible substrate, has been demonstrated. Both the PEDOT:PSS and photoactive layer were deposited by inkjet printing. A non-chlorinated solvent was used for the deposition of the photoactive blend. In this contribution, some of the fundamental aspects of inkjet ink and substrate interaction, and the resulting layer homogeneity of the active layer in relation to OPV-device performance are investigated. Combining both theoretical and experimental approaches, we studied the layer formation on a moisture barrier. We have enabled to deposit homogenous PEDOT and OPV using commercially available inkjet heads. Furthermore, we would like to demonstrate the ability of using inkjet printing for fabrication of OPV devices, with Agfa high conductive PEDOT:PSS and Merck and Plextronics P3HT polymers dissolved in solution. The inkjet ink properties and the substrate pretreatment have been optimized in order to ensure a stable and robust printing and drying process. The flexible solar cell module illustrated a power conversion efficiency of 3.2% under AM 1.5 conditions. ©201 1 Society for Imaging Science and Technology.

The exclusive charmonium production process in $\bar{p}p$ annihilation with an associated $��^0$ meson $\bar{p}p\to J/����^0$ is studied in the framework of QCD collinear factorization. The feasibility of measuring this reaction through the $J/��\to e^+e^-$ decay channel with the PANDA (AntiProton ANnihilation at DArmstadt) experiment is investigated. Simulations on signal reconstruction efficiency as well as the background rejection from various sources including the $\bar{p}p\to��^+��^-��^0$ and $\bar{p}p\to J/����^0��^0$ reactions are performed with PandaRoot, the simulation and analysis software framework of the PANDA experiment. It is shown that the measurement can be done at PANDA with significant constraining power under the assumption of an integrated luminosity attainable in four to five months of data taking at the maximum design luminosity., 25 pages, 22 figures

32nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 831-834, In this paper, we present our study of fill factor (FF) loss mechanism for silicon heterojunction solar cells (SHJ) in relation to the quality of surface passivation. The effective minority carrier lifetime (eff) as a function of carrier injection density (n) has been modeled to identify the limiting factor of FF in our research. We have found that defects at a-Si:H/c-Si interface can cause low-quality surface passivation, which can be characterized by minority carrier lifetime at low-injection level, leading to reduction of fill factor. We propose a new mechanism that the presence of shallow defects with positive charges at the interface contributes to degradation of fill factor of SHJ cells. This hypothesis was verified using an AFORS-HET simulation tool in our study. Based on this study, we have developed an anti-contamination tray for wafer handling at the PECVD processing step. Our results show improvement of fill factor by an absolute value of 2%. SHJ solar cells with high efficiency of greater than 23% have been successfully fabricated using this technique.

8 p., fotografías, mapas, planos, [EN]China has one of the world’s richest floras with around 33,000 vascular plants, of which up to 17,000 are endemic. Besides these astonishing figures, the Chinese flora is very interesting from the point of view of evolution, as it shows a strong relictual character with some truly "living fossils" such as Ginkgo biloba or Metasequoia glyptostroboides. At the same time, China probably harbours the most important "evolutionary front" of the world’s temperate flora, the Hengduan Mountains. Unfortunately, the flora of China also includes a high number of threatened species (with nearly 4000), mostly due to the destruction of natural habitats and the over-exploitation of natural resources. This special issue, which corresponds to volume 34 of Collectanea Botanica, is aimed to contribute to the knowledge of Chinese flora through a series of contributions (seven full-length articles and one short note) spanning several topics such as biogeography, conservation, demography, ecology, evolution, and plant-animal interactions., [ES]China tiene una de las floras más ricas del mundo con alrededor 33.000 plantas vasculares, de las cuales hasta 17.000 son endémicas. Además de estas cifras asombrosas, la flora china es muy interesante desde el punto de vista de la evolución, ya que muestra un fuerte carácter relictual con algunos auténticos «fósiles vivientes» como Ginkgo biloba o Metasequoia glyptostroboides. Al mismo tiempo, China probablemente alberga el «frente evolutivo» más importante de las floras templadas del mundo, las montañas Hengduan. Por desgracia, la flora de China también destaca por el elevado número de especies amenazadas (casi 4000), sobre todo debido a la destrucción de los hábitats y la sobreexplotación de los recursos naturales. Este número especial, que corresponde al volumen 34 de Collectanea Botanica, tiene como objetivo contribuir al conocimiento de la flora de China a través de una serie de contribuciones (siete artículos y una nota breve) que abarcan varios temas como la biogeografía, la conservación, la demografía, la ecología, la evolución y las interacciones planta-animal.

The biodiversity hotspot at the Guizhou–Yunnan–Guangxi borders is a distribution centre of tropical plants in China. It spans the whole upper reaches of Zhujiang River, the largest river in Southern China. In this paper, I aimed to explore the roles of the river in the spread and diversification of tropical plants in this area, using the Asia-endemic genus Hiptage Gaertn. (Malpighiaceae) as an example. Two diversity and endemism centres of Hiptage are recognized: Indo-China Peninsula and upper reaches of Zhujiang River (UZJ). The area-adjusted endemism index further indicates UZJ as the most important distribution region of endemic species since UZJ has a very small area (~210,000 km2) but six out of the total seven species are narrow endemics. UZJ is located at the northern edge of distribution ranges of Hiptage, which resulted mainly from the north-west–south-east river systems of UZJ promoting northward spreads of this tropical genus. The highly-fragmented limestone landscapes in this region may promote habitat isolation and tends to be the main driving factor for origins of these endemic species. Hiptage is also distinctive for its highly-specialized pollination system, mirror-image flowers, which probably facilitates species diversification via floral and pollination isolation. Other studies also found UZJ as a major diversification centre of the tropical plant families Gesneriaceae and Begoniaceae. Thereafter, it is concluded that UZJ is an “evolutionary front” of tropical plants in China, which contributes significantly to the origin and maintenance of the unique biodiversity in the area.El hotspot de biodiversidad en las fronteras de las provincias Guizhou-Yunnan- Guangxi es un centro de distribución de plantas tropicales en China. Se extiende por toda la cuenca alta del río Zhujiang, el mayor río del sur de China. En este artículo, se explora el papel del río en la propagación y la diversificación de las plantas tropicales en este área, usando el género endémico de Asia Hiptage Gaertn. (Malpighiaceae) como ejemplo. Se reconocen dos centros de diversidad y endemismo de Hiptage: la Península Indochina y el curso superior del río Zhujiang (UZJ). El índice de endemismo ajustado al área indica UZJ como la región más importante de distribución de especies endémicas, ya que, aunque UZJ tiene un área muy pequeña (~210.000 km2), seis de un total de siete especies son estrictamente endémicas. UZJ está situado en el extremo norte del área de distribución de Hiptage, lo que resultó principalmente de la disposición noroeste-sureste de los sistemas fluviales de UZJ, que facilitaron la expansión y diferenciación hacia el norte de este género tropical. Los paisajes de piedra caliza altamente fragmentados en esta región han contribuido al aislamiento de hábitat y pueden ser el principal factor para el origen de estas especies endémicas. Hiptage también se distingue por su sistema de polinización altamente especializado, con flores de imagen especular, lo que probablemente facilita la diversificación de las especies a través del aislamiento de la polinización. Otros estudios también encontraron que UZJ es un importante centro de diversificación de las familias de plantas tropicales Begoniaceae y Gesneriaceae. Por consiguiente, se concluye que UZJ es un «frente evolutivo» de plantas tropicales en China, lo que contribuye de manera significativa al origen y mantenimiento de la biodiversidad única en la zona. [zh] 南中国最大河流珠江的上游地区是热带植物的一个“进化前沿”:来自金虎尾科亚洲特有属风筝果属（Hiptage） 的证据。— 中国西南的云南-贵州-广西交界区是全球性的生物多样性热点地区，也是中国热带植物 的分布中心。这一区域横跨南中国最大河流—珠江的整个上游地区。这里，我试图以典型的热带植物类群金 虎尾科 (Malpighiaceae) 亚洲特有的风筝果属（Hiptage Gaertn.）为例，从河流的作用来解释这一地区热带 植物的扩散与物种分化及其生物多样性热点地区的形成。风筝果属具有两个物种多样性与特有中心：一个位 于中南半岛南部，一个则是珠江上游地区。面积校正后的特有性指数进一步证实，珠江上游地区是风筝果属 最集中的特有种分布地区，其大约210,000 km2的面积上有7个种，其中6个为狭域分布的地方特有种。珠江上 游地区位于风筝果属整个分布区域的北缘；风筝果属植物能扩散到这一地区，主要得益于该地的河流走向基 本都呈西北-东南走向。西北-东南走向的河道可以促进东南亚暖湿气流北进，从而允许风筝果属等热带植物 得以扩散至珠江上游地区的红水河、南盘江以及右江等地。这些地方分布着高度破碎化的岩溶地貌，又进一 步促进了局部生境隔离与物种分化。此外，风筝果属还具有极其特化的传粉系统“镜像花柱”（mirror-image flowers），可能加速了繁殖隔离与物种分化。其它研究也发现，珠江上游地区是一些典型热带植物类群如苦 苣苔科和秋海棠科的物种多样化中心。因此，珠江上游地区（滇黔桂交界区）很可能就是中国热带植物的一 个“进化前沿”，对这一地区独特生物多样性的形成与维持具有重要作用。