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Background Cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis is a common opportunistic infection in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The common funduscopic manifestations are haemorrhagic necrotising variety and granular variety. Frosted branch angiitis (FBA), as a special form, when it occurred after antiretroviral therapy(ART), could possibly be associated with immune reconstitution. We report a case of FBA secondary to CMV infection-associated unmasking immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS). Case presentation A 27-year-old man with human immunodeficiency virus infection developed FBA after 35 days of ART. The left Aqueous humour (AqH) tested positive for CMV DNA, and the patient was diagnosed with CMV retinitis. The degree of intraocular inflammation was reflected by increased levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 in AqH. After anti-CMV treatment and continuous ART for several months, his FBA and vision significantly improved. CMV DNA became undetectable in the left AqH, and the IL-6 and IL-8 levels in AqH decreased. Conclusion FBA could be a sign of CMV-associated unmasking IRIS. Anti-CMV treatment alone or combination with steroid treatment may be administered, depending on the changes in CMV DNA load and immunologic profile of AqH.

Sulfur-containing polymers are polymers containing at least one sulfur atom in the repeat units of their main chains. The incorporation of sulfur atoms into the polymer main chains endows polymers with enhanced properties in many areas, including improved mechanical properties, optical properties, thermal properties, and adhesive abilities toward metal ions. Such enhanced properties make sulfur-containing polymers promising polymeric materials. In terms of environmental issues caused by waste plastic, the utilization of sulfur-containing polymers is also appealing from the aspect of degradability. Hence, degradable sulfur-containing polymers, including poly(thiocarbonate)s, poly(thioester)s, and poly(sulfite)s, are drawing more and more attention. However, the synthesis of these polymers involves problems like mixed structures and weak stereochemistry control of the resultant polymers due to the intrinsic properties of sulfur atoms, such as strong nucleophilicity and coordinative abilities. Thus, tackling the problems caused by sulfur chemistry is the main challenge relating to the precise synthesis of sulfur-containing polymers. Herein, this review describes recent progress made regarding the precise synthesis of sulfur-containing polymers from the perspectives of structure control, stereochemistry control, and topological structure modification.

The development of “metal-free” catalyst systems with high efficiency for the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of epoxides, providing polyethers with controlled molecular weights and dispersity as well as the desired main-chain sequence, is crucially required. In this paper, we present a binary catalyst system, in which triphenylboroxin (TPBX) is employed as a catalyst in conjunction with bis-(triphenylphosphine)iminium chloride (PPNCl) as the initiator, for the ROP of epoxides to precisely synthesize polyethers. The binary TPBX/PPNCl system exhibits good activity under mild conditions, yielding polyethers with predictable molecular weights and low dispersity (Đ < 1.25). Of importance is that the ROP of epoxides mediated by the binary system shows a living polymerization character, allowing for the synthesis of multi-block polyethers. In addition, the synthesis of propylene oxide/ethylene oxide copolyethers with a random structure is achieved. Furthermore, on the basis of the kinetics study, a bimolecular TPBX cooperatively catalyzed mechanism is proposed and verified by density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

The copolymerization of epoxides and cyclic thioanhydrides provides a promising method to produce polythioesters and represents an alternative route to the step-growth condensation of dithiols and ...

We report a new semiaromatic poly(thioester) obtained through the copolymerization of phthalic thioanhydride and propylene oxide. The reaction was catalyzed by a chromium-based complex in conjuncti...

The neuroprotective effects of estrogen against cerebral ischaemia have been confirmed by multiple basic and clinical studies. However, most of these studies used exogenous estrogen administered via different injection methods, and the neuroprotective effects of endogenous estrogen produced by ovaries during different phases of estrous cycle and the underlying mechanisms involved have rarely been explored. In this study, we first identified the stage of estrous cycle via vaginal smears and then measured serum estradiol levels at each phase via radioimmunoassay. We found that the estradiol level was highest in the proestrous and lowest in the diestrous. However, ovariectomy or treatment with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole significantly decreased estradiol levels compared to that of rats in diestrous. Western blotting showed that ovariectomy or letrozole treatment significantly decreased ERα and Bcl-2 protein expression and dramatically increased Bax protein expression compared with the rats in diestrous or proestrous. Rats also underwent 2h of ischaemia via middle cerebral artery occlusion followed by a 24-h reperfusion. Ovariectomy or letrozole treatment significantly decreased the neurological scores and the number of intact neurons detected via Nissl staining and dramatically increased the infarct volume detected via TTC staining and the extent of apoptosis detected via TUNEL staining and Western blotting for cleaved-caspase 3 protein expression. These results demonstrate that endogenous estrogen alleviates ischaemia-reperfusion injury by maintaining Bcl-2 expression via ERα signalling pathway and highlight the neuroprotective effects of endogenous estrogen during different stages of the estrous cycle, providing preliminary information on the underlying mechanism of this process.

Background Computed tomography (CT)-guided percutaneous implantation of 125Iodine radioactive seeds requires the precise arrangement of seeds by tumor shape. We tested whether selecting target areas, including subclinical areas around tumors, can influence locoregional recurrence in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Method We divided 82 patients with NSCLC into two groups. Target areas in group 1 (n = 40) were defined along tumor margins based on lung-window CT. Target areas in group 2 (n = 42) were extended by 0.5 cm in all dimensions outside tumor margins. Preoperative plans for both groups were based on a treatment plan system, which guided 125 I seed implantation. Six months later, patients underwent chest CT to evaluate treatment efficacy (per Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1). We compared locoregional recurrences between the groups after a year of follow-up. We then used the treatment plan system to extend target areas for group 1 patients by 0.5 cm (defined as group 3 data) and compared these hypothetical group 3 planned seeds with the actual seed numbers used in group 1 patients. Results All patients successfully underwent implantation; none died during the follow-up period. Recurrence was significantly lower in group 2 than in group 1 ( P < 0.05). Group 1 patients and group 3 data significantly differed in seed numbers ( P < 0.01). Conclusion Our results imply that extending the implantation area for 125 I seeds can decrease recurrence risk by eradicating cancerous lymph-duct blockades within the extended areas.

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of carboplatin-based preoperative chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer patients (TNBC). Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, the Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, major clinical trial registries, and abstract collections from major international meetings were systematically searched for relevant randomized controlled trials. Endpoints included rates of pathologic complete response (pCR), overall response (ORR), breast-conserving surgery (BCS) and toxicity. Pooled relative risk (RR) was calculated for each endpoint using a fixed- or random-effect model depending on the heterogeneity among included studies. Results: A total of 5 randomized controlled trials involving 1007 patients were included in the meta-analysis. Carboplatin-based chemotherapy was associated with a pooled pCR rate of 53.3%, which was significantly higher than the rate associated with non-carboplatin therapy (37.8%, RR: 1.41, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.23 to 1.62, p less than 0.00001). Compared with non-carboplatin therapy (48.1%), carboplatin-based chemotherapy increased BCS rate (59.7%, RR: 1.24, 95%CI: 1.06 to 1.46, p =0.007). Carboplatin-based chemotherapy was associated with similar ORR as non-carboplatin therapy. Carboplatin-based chemotherapy was associated with higher incidence of grade 3 or 4 anemia, neutropenia, febrile neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia than non-carboplatin therapy, while the 2 regimens were associated with similar incidence of fatigue, leucopenia, and nausea/vomiting. Conclusion: The available evidence suggests that carboplatin-based preoperative chemotherapy is associated with significantly better pCR and BCS rates than non-carboplatin-based therapy in TNBC patients. Saudi Med J 2017; Vol. 38 (1): 18-23 doi: 10.15537/smj.2017.1.14969 How to cite this article: Wang LY, Xie H, Zhou H, Yao WX, Zhao X, Wang Y. Efficacy of carboplatin-based preoperative chemotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Saudi Med J . 2017 Jan;38(1):18-23. doi: 10.15537/smj.2017.1.14969.

We present FaceWidgets, a device integrated with the backside of a head-mounted display (HMD) that enables tangible interactions using physical controls. To allow for near range-to-eye interactions, our first study suggested displaying the virtual widgets at 20 cm from the eye positions, which is 9 cm from the HMD backside. We propose two novel interactions, widget canvas and palm-facing gesture, that can help users avoid double vision and allow them to access the interface as needed. Our second study showed that displaying a hand reference improved performance of face widgets interactions. We developed two applications of FaceWidgets, a fixed-layout 360 video player and a contextual input for smart home control. Finally, we compared four hand visualizations against the two applications in an exploratory study. Participants considered the transparent hand as the most suitable and responded positively to our system.

An adaptive control schemes is presented to the projective synchronization of different chaotic neural networks with mixed time delays. The adaptive controller is designed by a linear matrix inequality approach. The proposed approach in this paper gives the flexibility to construct one adaptive control law, and the merit of the adaptive controller with one parameter is that projective synchronization errors can be reached zero field at fast speed. Finally, numerical simulation results are given to validate the design method.

The precise synthesis of poly(thioester)s with diverse structures is still a significant challenge in the polymeric materials field. Herein, we report a novel approach to the synthesis of well-defined poly(thioester)s by the controlled alternating copolymerization of cyclic thioanhydrides and episulfides induced by simple organic ammonium salts. Both the cation and anion have strong effects on the copolymerization. [PPN]OAc ([PPN]=bis(triphenylphosphine)iminium) with a bulky cation was proven to be efficient in initiating this polymerization, yielding poly(thioester)s with a completely alternating structure, controlled molecular weight, and narrow polydispersity. The poly(thioester) obtained from succinic thioanhydride and propylene sulfide is a typical semicrystalline material, possessing a high refractive index of up to 1.78. Because it uses readily available monomers, this method is expected to open up a new route to poly(thioester)s with diverse structures and properties.

As electromechanical actuators (EMA) play an increasingly important role in flight control systems, effective fault diagnosis for them has become an important subject. Considering the actual situation and the cost of setting up the fault, this paper establishes the simulation model of EMA, and realizes the fault diagnosis using neural network: firstly, the simulation model of EMA is built in AMESim, and the characteristic parameters which can represent the working state of EMA are selected, and the original fault data are obtained by fault injection. Then wavelet analysis is used to extract fault features to train BP neural network. The results show that the diagnostic accuracy is more than 95% when the parameters are set reasonably, and the validity of the method is verified.

During the operation of the waterflooding technique, it is necessary to identify the waterflooding areas to enhance oil displacement efficiency. A casing-surface electrical resistivity tomography (CSERT) system using a well casing as a long electrode is able to detect a wide lateral scope, but its vertical resolution and ability to identify deep anomalies in the reservoir are limited, particularly for reservoirs with high-conductivity anomalies in the shallow subsurface, which disturb the response from the water floods at depth. In this study, we first simplified this kind of reservoir into a dual layered anomaly model. Then the log–inject–log method with time-lapse inversion was proposed and evaluated regarding its ability to improve the imaging of the deep waterflooding areas and the shallow anomaly. The results were compared with the commonly used static measurement with static inversion. In the static inversion results, the shallow anomaly was imaged well but the deep anomaly was unobservable. The results of the proposed log–inject–log method with time-lapse inversion showed that it is able to identify the shallow and deep anomalies better under various conditions, thus validating its ability to improve the vertical resolution of the CSERT system.

The crosstalk between apoptosis and autophagy contributes to tumorigenesis and cancer therapy. The process by which BetA (betulinic acid), a naturally occurring triterpenoid, regulates apoptosis and autophagy as a cancer therapy is unclear. In this study, we show for the first time that protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) acts as a switch to regulate apoptosis and autophagic cell death mediated by BetA. Under normal conditions, caspase-3 is activated by the mitochondrial pathway upon BetA treatment. Activated caspase-3 cleaves the A subunit of PP2A (PP2A/A), resulting in the association of PP2A and Akt. This association inactivates Akt to initiate apoptosis. Overexpression of Bcl-2 attenuates the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway, resulting in caspase-3 inactivation and the dissociation of PP2A and Akt. PP2A isolated from Akt binds with DAPK to induce autophagic cell death. Meanwhile, in vivo tumor experiments have demonstrated that BetA initiates different types of cell death in a myeloma xenograft model. Thus, PP2A can shift myeloma cells from apoptosis to autophagic cell death. These findings have important implications for the therapeutic application of BetA, particularly against apoptosis-resistant cancers.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is an important sustainable technique because of its ability to detect trace-level analytes including pesticides, heavy metals, explosives, proteins, pathogens, and other chemical and biological contaminants. In this paper, we report a facile approach to highly sensitive SERS substrates by combining hierarchically patterned micro- and nanostructures with silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) adsorbed on poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) surface. The patterned structures were fabricated using breath figures as dynamic templates in which polar block enriches at the rim of the pores. This characteristic of the breath figure method makes it possible to employ a simple coating technique to construct substrates decorated with Ag NPs, which have a diameter mostly ranging from 18 to 30 nm. Results indicate that the hierarchically ordered substrates show enhancement factors as high as 4 × 108. It is also found that the enhancement factors are concentration-depende...

Colorectal adenocarcinoma originating in intestinal glandular structures is the most common form of colon cancer. In clinical practice, the morphology of intestinal glands, including architectural appearance and glandular formation, is used by pathologists to inform prognosis and plan the treatment of individual patients. However, achieving good inter-observer as well as intra-observer reproducibility of cancer grading is still a major challenge in modern pathology. An automated approach which quantifies the morphology of glands is a solution to the problem. This paper provides an overview to the Gland Segmentation in Colon Histology Images Challenge Contest (GlaS) held at MICCAI’2015. Details of the challenge, including organization, dataset and evaluation criteria, are presented, along with the method descriptions and evaluation results from the top performing methods.

Take the superheated steam system of a 330MW unit as the object, by means of the collection and research on the data of the overheating system of thermal power units and simulation tools in matlab, the results were analyzed, and then presents a construction method of the dynamic compensating function which take the load as the variable, at last, simulate and verify the constructor function.

The oil gathering and transportation process is a key link in the oil industry. In this paper, to reengineer the ground works process of an oil production plant as an example of business process reengineering, the simulations of the oil and gas gathering and transportation process before and after the business process reengineering are conducted by using of SIMPROCESS software. While the utilization rate of various devices is compared with process simulation results to find the bottlenecks in processes, and a brief analysis of activities costs is presented.

Hydrocyclones are widely used in industry, of which the geometrical design using CFD techniques is gaining more popularity in recent years. In this study, the Euler-Euler approach and the Reynolds stress model are applied to simulate the liquid-solid flowfield in a hydrocyclone. The methodology is validated by a good agreement between experimental data and numerical results. Within the research range, the simulation indicates that the liquid-solid separation mainly occurs in the conical segment, and increasing conical height or decreasing cylindrical height helps to improve the grade efficiencies of solid particles. Based on these results, two of the same hydrocyclones are designed and installed in series to establish a liquid-solid separation system. Many experiments are then conducted under different conditions, in which the effects of the water cut and the second hydrocyclone on the separation are investigated. The results also confirm that smaller solid particles are more susceptible to the inlet conditions, and the second hydrocyclone plays a more important role as the water cut reduces.

The casing damage is a serious problem when the steam-injection method is applied in the oilfields. In this work, the commercial software ANSYS is used to predict the thermal expansion and the thermal stresses of casings in steam-injection wells under different conditions, including steam channeling, well shut-in and cavitation in cement ring. The results indicate that nearly no temperature change occurs in oil-layer areas 4.0 m-6.0 m away from the casing center. When steam channeling appears, the maximum Mises stress of both the casing and the cement ring occurs on the interior wall. During the shut-in operation, while the maximum thermal expansion ocurs within the temperature-transition area, the maximum thermal stress will be on the interior wall of casing, exceeding the thermo-elastic yield ultimate stress of N80 steel. Besides, the thermal stress is much higher than the elastic strain limit if certain amounts of cavitations appear in the cement ring. Based on the results, some preventive measures against casing damage are proposed, which are verified through the successful application of TP120TH casings during well completion in Liao’he oilfield.

The horizontal migration of proppant was numerically investigated with a two-fluid model, in which the interaction between fracturing fluid and proppant, along with that among proppants was taken into account through interphase forces. The migration process and the volumetric concentration of the proppant were examined under various conditions, and the averaged volumetric concentration of the proppant was obtained. The present research might be useful in the process design of the hydraulic fracturing in the oilfields.

Liquid/solid hydrocyclones are widely used for various applications. Based on massive experiments, the relationships between separation efficiency and liquid velocity, oil/water ratio, as well as the number of hydrocyclones were investigated. The phenomenon of smaller particles more sensitive to changes of parameters was explained theoretically through force balance analysis. Besides, the dependence of separation efficiency on the Reynolds number and the Stokes number was regressed based on dimensional analysis. Finally, some valuable suggestions were put forward for the practical application of liquid/solid hydrocyclones.

Numerical simulation and experimental research on sand removal was performed. The sedimentation mechanism of sand particles of various diameters was investigated under different oil/water ratios and oil viscosities. Moreover, commercial CFD software FLUENT was applied to simulate numerically gravitational sedimenttation separation. Through the comparison between simulation and experimental results, a kind of high-efficient sand-removal method was put forward. The work was completed jointly by the Institute of Mechanics, CAS and China National Offshore Oil Corporation during the "tenth-five-year" period.

Helical pipes are the core components of combination-type oil/water separator. Study on oil/water separation mechanism inside helical pipes was conducted through numerical simulation and experiments. The modified design based on the research has been successfully applied in high-efficiency oil/water separator.

Gefitinib is widely used in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), in whom chemotherapy had failed. Previous trials reported inconsistent findings regarding the efficacy of gefitinib on overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS). This study was to evaluate the effects of chemotherapy plus gefitinib versus chemotherapy alone on survival of patients with NSCLC.We systematically searched Medline, EmBase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, reference lists of articles, and proceedings of major meetings for relevant literature. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing chemotherapy with and without gefitinib in the treatment of patients with advanced NSCLC were included in our analysis. The primary endpoints were OS and PFS.Of 182 relevant studies, 12 were included in the final analysis, which consisted of 6844 patients with NSCLC. Overall, we noted that gefitinib therapy had an 8% improvement in the OS as compared to the gefitinib-free therapy, but this difference was not statistically significant (HR, 0.92; 95% CI: 0.85-1.00; P=0.051). Furthermore, gefitinib therapy had significantly longer PFS compared to gefitinib-free therapy (HR, 0.72; 95% CI 0.60-0.87, P=0.001). Patients receiving gefitinib therapy also had a more frequent objective response rate (ORR) than the control arm (OR, 2.51; 95% CI, 1.67-3.78, P0.001). Rashes, diarrhea, dry skin, pruritus, paronychia, and abnormal hepatic function were more frequent in the gefitinib therapy group.Treatment with gefitinib had a clear effect on PFS and ORR, and it might contribute considerably to the OS. Furthermore, there was some evidence of benefit for gefitinib therapy among patients with adenocarcinoma.

To observe the inhibition of neovascularisation in the oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) mice by a stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1) antagonist.Experimental study. Fifty-eight 7-day-old C57BL/6 mice were divided into 3 groups randomly, the control group (n = 17), the test group (n = 17) and the medication group (n = 24). According to the dosage of AMD3100, the medication group (n = 24) were divided into low dose group, high dose group, low dose control group, and high dose control group (each group n = 6). Each group (19-day-old) was sacrificed to perform ADPase staining, paraffin sections and immunohistochemical staining (anti-VEGF and anti-SDF-1). The average positive staining area percentage (APSAP) was measured as the outcomes and processed with the Students' t-test.Real-time PCR showed expression of both VEGF mRNA (0.080 ± 0.022 vs. 0.123 ± 0.032) and SDF-1 mRNA (0.731 ± 0.099 vs.0.544 ± 0.108) in retinas from the control group and test group, respectively. The expression of these factors in the test group was significantly higher (t = 2.488, P = 0.038;t = 2.864, P = 0.021). The number of neovascular endothelial nuclear that broke through the retinal internal limiting membrane in the paraffin section in the high dose group and the low dose group was significantly less than that in the self-control group (t = -9.507, P = 0.000; t = -10.761, P = 0.000). The appearance of ADPase staining sections in the medication group was more similar to the simple control group than that of the test group. Immunohistochemical staining sections showed that VEGF and SDF-1 expressed in neuroepithelial cells in each group. APSAP in the high dose group and the low dose group was significantly lower than that in the self-control group (VEGF: t = -7.249, P = 0.000; t = -9.02, P = 0.000; SDF-1: t = -5.246, P = 0.000; t = -5.216, P = 0.000).These results indicate that AMD3100 block the SDF-1 receptor to reduce the effect of SDF-1, decrease the production of VEGF protein and inhibite neovascularization.

To detect the changes of heat shock protein(HSP) expression in human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells after treated by quercetin through a proteomics strategy termed SILAC (stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture)-MS (mass spectrometry).HepG2 cells cultured in d3-labeled DMEM medium were passaged for more than ten generations to reach an enough high labeling ratio. MTT assay was used to assess the inhibitory effect of quercetin on proliferation of HepG2 cells. In SILAC, total protein was extracted from control HepG2 cells and those treated by 50 µmol/L quercetin for 48 h, and then mixed to a 1:1 ratio. After in-gel digestion and idenfication by LC-MS/MS analysis, quantification informations of changed proteins were acquired by searching on Mascot 2.0 program (MatrixScience Ltd., London) against SWISS-PROT protein database. To ensure a high confidence level for identification, those peptides with Mascot scores below the threshold value were excluded from analysis and not included in the list of quantified proteins (P0.01). Protein abundance was calculated as ratios of the peak intensity of the fragment ions from the labeled versus the unlabeled peptides. RT-PCR was uesd to verify the reliability of HSPs changes by quercetin treatment from the SILAC-MS results.After passaged for ten generations, the d3-labeling ratio was above 95%. MTT showed that quercetin inhibited the proliferation of HepG2 cells obviously, with a IC(50) close to 50 µmol/L, and in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner. The MS showed that the expression of almost all heat shock family proteins was down-regulated a lot. The expression of HSP90 exposed to quercetin for 48 h was decreased to 49.3% of the normal HepG2 cells, and the expression of HSP70 was decreased to 43.6% of the normal Hep G2 cells. Quantitation information showed that the expression of HSP90α, HSP76, HSP60 and HSP27 was declined to 59.3%, 44.2%, 51.3% and 62.6%, respectively. Those results demonstrated that the quantification for changed protiens by SILAC-MS was correct.Quercetin can exert a significant inhibitory effect on whole expression of heat shock proteins in HepG2 cells. We suppose this maybe one of the pathways through which quercetin plays an important anti-tumor role. SILAC-MS is a reliale technique and can be used to quantify the changes of whole protein spectrum in HepG2 cells before and after treatment with some exogeneous factors.

A new species of Nosema was described from the grasshopper Melanoplus packardii (Orthoptera: Acrididae). Infections appeared to be confined to the fat body. Merogonial stages included uni-, bi-, quadri-, and multinucleate forms. Filaments or chains of meronts or early sporonts appeared to develop from the uncoiling of the multinucleate (usually octonucleate) meronts. Apansporoblastic sporonts were diplokaryotic and disporous. Binucleate sporoblasts were ovocylindrical and measured 2.7 ± 0.5 μm by 1.6 ± 0.3 μm in fixed, Giemsa-stained preparations. Spores were ovocylindric and measured 3.06 ± 0.47 μm by 1.47 ± 0.16 μm in fresh preparations and 2.8 ± 0.5 μm by 1.4 ± 0.2 μm in fixed, Giemsa-stained preparations. Polar tubes occurred in five to seven coils.

Morphine sulfate controlled-released tablet and morphine hydrochloride sustained-released tablet are preferred medicines for treating moderate-severe cancer pain. There are some differences between the two medicines in their efficacy, metabolism and adverse events. This study was to compare the efficacy and toxicities between morphine sulfate controlled-released tablet and morphine hydrochloride sustained-released tablet in treating moderate-severe cancer pain.A total of 121 patients with moderate-severe cancer pain were randomized into two groups: 61 were treated with morphine sulfate controlled-released tablet and 60 were treated with morphine hydrochloride sustained-released tablet. Analgesic efficacy and toxicities of the two medicines were observed.Of the 61 patients treated with morphine sulfate controlled-released tablet, 12 had moderate pain, 49 had severe pain; the total response rate was 91.80%. Of the 60 patients treated with morphine hydrochloride sustained-released tablet, 13 had moderate pain, 47 had severe pain; the total response rate was 91.67%. There was no significant difference in the efficacy between the two medicines. Digestive system adverse events, including nausea, vomiting and constipation, were more common in morphine hydrochloride sustained-released tablet group than in morphine sulfate controlled-released tablet group (66.66% vs. 34.43%, P0.05).Both morphine sulfate controlled-released tablet and morphine hydrochloride sustained-released tablet are safety in treating moderate-severe cancer pain and the toxicities are tolerable. We recommend to take morphine sulfate controlled-released tablet for older patients and the patients with digestive disorders.

Tetrahexahedral Pd nanocrystals (THH Pd NCs) with {730} high-index facets were directly produced on a glassy carbon substrate in a dilute PdCl(2) solution by a newly developed programmed electrodeposition method. The THH Pd NCs, thanks to their high density of surface atomic steps, exhibit 4-6 times higher catalytic activity than commercial Pd black catalyst toward ethanol electrooxidation in alkaline solutions. This straightforward method provides a promising route to facile preparation of high-index-faceted metal nanocatalysts with high catalytic activity.