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Background An early indicator for monitoring the effect of adjuvant treatment after lung cancer surgery is urgently needed. The study was to explore the effects of epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in NSCLC patients with postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. Methods Two drugs (platinum-containing chemotherapeutics + platinum-free chemotherapeutics) first-line chemotherapy regimen were given after surgery. MRNA of EpCAM was detected. Chest computed tomography, head computed tomography and abdominal B-ultrasound were reviewed before the first and third chemotherapy. Results EpCAM in CTCs from peripheral blood between the recurrent group and the non-recurrent group at 1 day before surgery, first, second and third adjuvant chemotherapy were no significant differences (P>0.05). Only one day before the fourth adjuvant chemotherapy treatment, it showed significant difference between the recurrent group and the non-recurrent group (P=0.008). There was a significant difference between the time of imaging diagnosis of recurrence or metastasis and the time of monitoring the expression level of EpCAM in CTCs from peripheral blood (P

The microstructures and shape memory behaviors of Ti-18Nb-6Zr (at.%) alloy subjected to different heat treatments were investigated through optical microscopy (OM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and tensile tests. Recrystallization occurs in cold-rolled Ti-18Nb-6Zr alloy after solution treatment at 600~800 °C. The cooling rate after solution treatment at 800°C shows a dramatic effect on the microstructure of the alloy. The microstructures for the water quenching (WQ) and oil quenching (OQ) specimens are composed of single α'' martensite phase, while for the air cooling (AC) specimen, the microstructure consists of predominant β phase and a small amount of fine athermal ω phase. During tensile deformation, two-stage yielding is observed in the alloy subjected to 800°C/0.5h/WQ heat treatment. The stress for martensite variants reorientation and the yield stress for plastic deformation are 310MPa and 455MPa, respectievely, and the maximum shape memory strain of 3.1% is obtained with pre-strain of 6%.

The Ti-6.5Al-2Sn-4Zr-1.5Mo-2Nb-0.25Fe-0.2Si (wt%) alloy is a novel two-phase high temperature alloy for short-term application. The effects of different heat treatments on the microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated through electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), optical microcopy (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) and tensile tests at room temperature and 650°C. Subjected to the annealing treatment at α+β region (1010 °C/2 h, FC to 990 °C+990 °C/2 h, AC), the microstructure was composed of bimodal structure, which consists of equiaxed primary α (αp) phase and lamellar transformed β (βt) structure. As a strong β stabilizer, the content of Fe in α phase is much less than that in β phase. Annealing at β region (1040 °C/2 h, AC) resulted in the formation of widmannstatten structure, consisting of coarse raw β grain and secondary α phase precipitated on the β grain. With respect to the tensile property, different heat-treated alloys obtained similar strength. However, widmannstatten structure was characterized by lower plasticity, with the elongation only half that of bimodal structure. The fracture characteristics at room temperature for the alloy with bimodal structure and widmannstatten structure are dominated by ductile fracture and cleavage fracture, respectively.

This paper aimed to study the dynamic compression properties of Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy sections. The Ti-6Al-4V sections were extruded above the β-transus temperature with extruding ratio of 85, and then heat treated by conventional annealing at 750°C, or annealing at 1200°C by two routes. Dynamic compression properties were investigated by Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar system at strain rate of 3000±200 s-1. The results show that the dynamic compression properties of as-extruded specimens are comparable to the specimens after conventional annealing at 750°C. Compared to Widmannstatten microstructure with original beta grains in size of 200 μm ~ 300 μm obtained by conventional annealing, the microstructure obtained by annealing at 1200°C with coarse grains consisted of fine α-lamellae exhibits comparable dynamic strength but the capability of plastic deformation reduced about 20%. For the microstructure obtained by annealing at 1200°C with coarse grains consisted of coarse α-lamellae, the dynamic strength slightly decreased, while the capability of plastic deformation reduced about 60%.

The effects of single annealing on microstructure and mechanical properties of an (α+β) high-temperature titanium alloy (Ti-6.5Al-2Sn-4Zr-2Mo-2Nb-1W-0.2Si) were studied by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and tensile testing. The results showed that with annealing temperature increasing the volume fraction of primary α phase decreased gradually, while the volume fractions of transformed β structure and secondary α phase increased, and the sizes of these phases became coarse. Elevating the annealing temperature, the room temperature strength didn't change at first and then decreased, the high temperature strength increased gradually, and the ultimate tensile strength and yield strength at 650°C can reach more than 700 MPa and 500 MPa, respectively. Meanwhile, both room temperature and high temperature ductility decreased with the annealing temperature increasing. In order to acquire good strength at high temperature and plasticity at room temperature, the best single annealing temperature is 980°C.

The effects of ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT) on the distribution of residual stress and on the microstructure of TA15 (Ti-6.5Al-2Zr-1Mo-1V) alloy joints by electron beam welding (EBW) were investigated. The results demonstrated that a marked microstructure change occurred after welding and the microstructure of welded joint presented a transitional change, i.e. martensite appeared in the fusion zone while equiaxed α in base mental. The residual stress in fusion zone was mainly tensile stress, and the maximum longitudinal stress value was 817MPa, which located in the centerline of welded joint. The results indicated that different impact methods have different influence on residual stress distribution. After employing UIT on welding toe, the residual stress near the welded joint exhibited a uniform distribution and the maximum tensile stress dropped to-153MPa. While after applying UIT on full coverage, the curve of the residual stress was steep and the maximum stress was still tensile stress. After UIT, no significant change occurred in microstructure and the tensile strength has a little change.

In this paper, three different double annealing treatments were applied on the 3mm-thick Ti-6Al-2Sn-4Zr-1Mo-2Nb-0.2Si (Ti62421S) alloy plate. Optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and tensile tests were used to investigate the microstructure and mechanical properties under different temperatures of Ti62421S alloy. The results show that the content of primary α phase (αp) decreases while transformed β structure (βt) increases with the increasing first-stage annealing temperature. After double annealing treatment, ordered α2 phase particles precipitate within αp and the size increases with first annealing temperature. This leads to that with increasing first annealing temperature, ultimate tensile strength (UTS) at 600~650°C increases while elongation decreases. After 1000°C/1h/AC+ 750°C/2h/AC annealing, Ti62421S alloy plate exhibits superior combination of mechanical properties at room and elevated temperatures.

The microstructure, room temperature and 650 °C tensile properties of an (α + β) titanium alloy were investigated after aging over a temperature range of 600–750 °C following solution treatment. The results exhibit that both aging temperature and aging time influence the precipitation behavior of α2 phase, and the size of α2 phase affects the tensile properties. The growth speed of α2 phase gets quicker with the aging temperature increasing under the same aging time. For a given aging temperature, the size of α2 phase gets larger when prolonging the aging time. There are significant improvements in yield and ultimate tensile strength at room temperature and 650 °C after aging at 600 °C for 2 h, but these values decrease with the size of α2 phase increasing. It is found that α2 phase, less than 7 nm, does not impair the room-temperature ductility. However, when the size of α2 phase grows up from 7 to 15 nm, ductility decreases drastically. During 650 °C tensile process, with the particle size increasing from 3 to 15 nm, the interaction between moving dislocations and coherent particles changes from cutting mechanism to bypass mechanism. With the α2 particle size increasing from 3 to 15 nm, the interaction between moving dislocations and coherent particles changes from cutting mechanism to bypass mechanism at 650 °C, and 6 nm is in the range of critical radius, which corresponds to the maximum strengthening effect of α2 phase at 650 °C

Ti-6Al-3Sn-3Zr-3Mo-3Nb-1W-0.2Si (BTi-6431S) alloy is a novel two-phase high temperature titanium alloy for short-term using in aerospace industry up to 700°C. The effects of heat treatment on the microstructure evolution of BTi-6431S alloy bar were investigated through optical microscopy (OM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that solution treatment in β region at 1010°C followed by water quenching results in the formation of orthorhombic martensite α′′ phase, while air cooling leads to the formation of hexagonal martensite α′ phase. When solution-treated in α+β phase field at temperatures from 900°C to 980°C following by water quenching, the content of primary α phase decreases with the increase of heat treatment temperature. For the alloy subjected to identical heat treatment, the content of Al in α phase is much higher than that in β phase, while the contents of Nb, Mo and W elements in α phase are much less than those in β phase.

This paper aimed to study the quasi-static and dynamic properties of a titanium alloy plate with nominal composition Ti-3.5Al-2.5V-1.5Fe-0.25O (ATI 425TM titanium alloy with lower limit of Al element) in thickness of 8 mm. The quasi-static tensile properties were investigated by MTSTM testing system at strain rate of 10-3 s-1, while dynamic compression properties by Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar system at strain rate of 3000±200 s-1. The results show that the quasi-static prperties of the Ti-3.5Al-2.5V-1.5Fe-0.25O plate are comparable to the commercial Ti-6Al-4V plate in 8mm-thick. The Ti-3.5Al-2.5V-1.5Fe-0.25O plate exhibats good dynamic strength. The average dynamic flow stress is 100MPa higher than that of Ti-6Al-4V plate. However, the maximum strain during homogeneous plastic deformation of Ti-3.5Al-2.5V-1.5Fe-0.25O plate is only 50~60% of that of Ti-6Al-4V plate.

Aberrant promoter methylation of RUNX3 has been reported in several tumors including human breast cancer (BC). However, the association between RUNX3 hypermethylation and incidence of BC remains elusive. In this study, a detailed literature search was performed in Medline and Google Scholar for related research publications. Analysis of pooled data were executed. Odds ratios with corresponding confidence intervals were determined and summarized, respectively. Finally, 13 studies were identified for the meta-analysis. Analysis of the pooled data showed that RUNX3 hypermethylation was significantly higher in both ductal carcinoma in situ and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) than in normal breast tissues. In addition, RUNX3 methylation was significantly higher in IDC than in benign tumor. However, RUNX3 methylation was not significantly higher in IDC than in ductal carcinoma in situ. We also determined that RUNX3 hypermethylation was significantly higher in ER positive BC than in ER negative BC. In addition, high RUNX3 mRNA expression was found to be correlated with better overall survival and relapse-free survival for all BC patients. Our results strongly support that RUNX3 hypermethylation may play an important role in BC incidence. RUNX3 methylation is a valuable early biomarker for the diagnosis of BC. Further large-scale studies will provide more insight into the role of RUNX3 hypermethylation in the carcinogenesis and clinical diagnosis of BC patients.

The effects of stress-relief annealing on the distribution of residual stress and on the microstructure of TA15 (Ti-6.5Al-2Zr-1Mo-1V) alloy joints by electron beam welding (EBW) were investigated. The results indicated that the microstructure of welded joint presented a transitional change, i.e. basket-weave structure appeared in the fusion zone while equiaxed α structure in base metal. No significant change occurred in microstructure after annealing at 650°C for 2 h. The residual stress in fusion zone was mainly tensile stress and the maximum longitudinal stress value was 473MPa. After annealing, the residual stress near the welded joint exhibited a uniform distribution and the maximum stress droped to 150 MPa. The yield stress and tensile stress of the TA15 welding zone were 1016 MPa and 1100 MPa respectively.

The degradation of polycarbonate (PC) food contact materials was studied based on analysis with GC-MS, FTIR, UV-Vis and TG techniques. It was evident that the processing temperature of the materials significantly enhanced the release of bisphenol A, an endocrine disruptor. Investigation of the redshift of UV band also revealed that high temperatures accelerated the aging degradation of PC.

A method for the determination of seven hazardous elements in Non-stick Pan Materials in five food simulants by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was established. Using this method, the experiments were carried out on the samples of imitated migratory elements (Cr、Mn、Ni、Cu、As、Pb、Cd) in food simulants of water, 4%(W/V) acetic acid solution, 10%(V/V) ethanol solution, 2g/L sodium chloride solution and olive oil. The sample preparation method of five food simulants was confirmed through experiment. Experiments by resolution, stability, sensitivity and other parameters were adjusted tuning instrument to determine the instrument to achieve the best working condition. The linear range of this methods was 0.1~50ng/ml. For all elements, the correlation coefficient of the calibration curves was above 0.9990 and the detection limits were within the range of 0.008~0.12ng/ml. Most of the recoveries at 1ng/ml concentration level was from 85.34%~112.3%, while the RSD was from 0.37%~4.1%.

This paper study the migration characteristics and degradation kinetics of bisphenol A using TGA - gas chromatography - mass spectrometry and found that bisphenol A polycarbonate in the thermal oxidative aging conditions of 130 °C de-gradated to bisphenol A. At the range of 0 h to 120 h, the bisphenol A content of environmental hormones increased with time. When it reached 120 h, bisphenol A environmental hormone content decreased slightly with aging time. The content of bisphenol A reached 495mg/kg when the thermal oxidative aging time was 168 h, which was decreased compared to the content of 442mg/kg at 120 h. Polycarbonate thermal decomposition kinetics study showed that the thermal decomposition of polycarbonate can be divided into three phases. The first thermal decomposition occurred at the range of 415° C to 425 ° C, the polycarbonate end groups fracture of the second stage at 493.6°C , the main fracture of the main chain rearrangement and crosslinking, and the third stage at 598.7°C, the degradation of the chain continues to decompose and the decomposition of the crosslinked carbon precursor; thermal oxidation aging of polycarbonate decreased the heat stability and promote the thermal decomposition of polycarbonate. Comparing the oxidation induction period, thermal weight loss rate and activation energy of polycarbonate before and after thermal oxidative aging, it c found that the thermal stability of the hot oxygen aging of polycarbonate is reduced.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is usually used as food packaging materials. And the heavy metal introduced during the process of manufacture usually exists in the spaces between macromolecules as monomer form. When PET contacts with real food, some heavy metals will migrate into the food since the motion of these molecules overcomes the binding power. As a result, it does great harm to our health. In this article PET was disposed in different thermal ageing conditions in order to accelerate its aging process. Then the original and aged PET samples were tested by Different Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) to characterize its crystallinity. And migration experiments was conducted on them using 4% acetic acid (V/V) as food simulate, the heavy metal content in food simulates was detected by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), so that we can get the migration characteristics of heavy metal. The results show that different aging conditions can do harm to the structure of PET in varying degrees by changing its crystallinity and molecules arrangement. But the difference of crystallinity has no obvious effect on Sb migration characteristic of PET samples. While, the migration quantity of Sb increases significantly with the increase of migrate temperature. It will provide an important reference to the evaluation of use security and service life of PET in real usage to study the relation between heavy metal migration features and aging degree.

Titanium and its alloys have been widely used as implants replacing hard human tissues in biomedical fields. To improve the stability of implants in the surrounding bone tissues, the materials with porous structures were fabricated. In this paper powder metallurgy technique was employed to fabricate porous Ti-39Zr-6Nb (wt.%) alloys. The porous structures and mechanical properties of the porous alloys were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and compressive tests. The results showed that with increasing the sintering temperature the porosity of the alloys decreased and the compressive strength and the elastic modulus increased. The porosity of the alloys was in the range from 20.8% to 23.2%, and the pore sizes mostly centered in 10~30μm. The compressive strength and the elastic modulus were in the range from 110.4 to 292.4MPa and 4.7 to 12.4GPa respectively, which was close to human bone.

The fracture-behaviors of two Ti-Al-Sn-Zr-Mo-Nb-W-Si alloys with different slow-diffusing &beta, stabilizing elements (Mo, W) were investigated through in-situ tensile testing at 650 &deg, C via scanning electron microscopy. These alloys have two phases: the &alpha, phase with hcp-structure (a = 0.295 nm, c = 0.468 nm) and the &beta, phase with bcc-structure (a = 0.332 nm). Three-dimensional atom probe (3DAP) results show that Mo and W mainly dissolve in the &beta, phase, and they tend to cluster near the &alpha, /&beta, phase boundary. Adding more slow-diffusing &beta, stabilizing elements can improve the ultimate tensile strength and elongation of the alloy at 650 &deg, C. During tensile deformation at 650 &deg, C, microvoids mainly initiate at &alpha, interfaces. With increases in the contents of Mo and W, the &beta, phase content increases and the average phase size decreases, which together have excellent accommodative deformation capability and will inhibit the microvoids&rsquo, nucleation along the interface. In addition, the segregation of Mo and W near the &alpha, interface can reduce the diffusion coefficient of the interface and inhibit the growth of microvoids along the interface, which are both helpful to improve the ultimate tensile strength and plasticity.

Compressive properties, microstructure features and deformation modes were investigated in binary Ti-(2,4,8) wt% V alloys during quasi-static (1 × 10−3 s−1) and dynamic (3 × 103 s−1) compressions. The compressive behavior shows a strong dependence on the loading strain rate and vanadium content contained in pure Ti, such that the flow stress increases with the increase in strain rate and vanadium content ranging from 2 wt% to 8 wt%. The microstructure features are clearly different from each other for alloys with different vanadium contents or under quasi-static and dynamic loading conditions. An examination of deformation microstructures by optical microscopy and electron backscattered diffraction indicates that twinning behavior occurs during quasi-static and dynamic compressions and the twinning density increases with strain rate increasing but decreases with vanadium addition. The existence of $$\left\{ {10\bar{1}2} \right\}$$ , $$\left\{ {11\bar{2}1} \right\}$$ and $$\left\{ { 1 1 {\bar{{2}}{2}}} \right\}$$ type twinning was further identified. With the help of the calculated Schmid factor map, the values of critical resolved shear stress of twinning types mentioned above have been obtained and verified to be rarely affected by the loading strain rate but sensitive to the vanadium content. In vanadium-rich alloys (Ti-8V), twins are rarely observed but dislocation slip mechanism is active by transmission electron microscopy investigations. With vanadium content increasing, both the critical resolved shear stress of twinning types and the content of β phase with abundant slip systems increase, reflecting a suppression of twinning but an active dislocation slip mechanism.

Ti-62421S (Ti–6Al–2Sn–4Zr–2Nb–1Mo–0.2Si) is a novel short-time using high-temperature titanium alloy. The effects of annealing on microstructure and tensile properties of Ti-62421S alloy plate were studied through optical microscopy (OM), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and tensile tests. The results show that, with annealing temperature increasing, the volume fraction of primary α (αp)-phase decreases while that of transformed β (βt)-structure and secondary α (αs)-phase increases. The room-temperature strength and plasticity are insensitive to annealing temperature. However, with annealing temperature increasing, the tensile strength decreases at 550 °C, while increases at 600 and 650 °C instead. It is suggested that, at 550 °C, the strengthening mechanism is mainly boundary strengthening and the biggest contributor is αp-phase by providing αp/β-boundary area. Above 600 °C, the strengthening mechanism is grain strengthening, where αs-phase strengthens the β-phase.

Ti-6Al-4V plates in thickness of 8 mm were directly hot rolled and then heat treated in various routes by a single electron beam cold hearth melted (EBCHM) ingot, in which the weight percentage of recycled titanium scraps was at least about 50 wt%. The dynamic stress-strain behaviors of the plates with typical microstructures were investigated by Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar system at the strain rates of 2000 s-1~ 3000 s-1. The results show that the dynamic compression properties of EBCHM-ingot Ti-6Al-4V plates are relative to that of commercial VAR-ingot plates. The dynamic properties in normal direction of the plates are not sensitive to variations in the fraction of primary alpha phase.

This study derived the five parameters in Johnson-Cook equation of CP titanium Gr2. Quasi-static and dynamic compression tests were designed to measure mechanical properties at strain rates of 10-3s-1 and 6000s-1. In order to secure the validity of tested data, a novel fixture was proposed to reduce the displacement measurement error in MTS testing system and the signal processing procedure of compressive split Hopkinson pressure bar for the present study was demonstrated. With the tested data and calculated adiabatic heating temperature rise, parameters A, B, n, m, C have been derived based on mathematical deduction and solve. It was found that the constructed constitutive model fit the tested data well and was able to restore the yield strength value at high strain rate.

A series of Ti–Al–V titanium alloy bars with nominal composition Ti–7Al–5V ELI, Ti–5Al–3V ELI, commercial Ti–6Al–4V ELI and commercial Ti–6Al–4V were prepared. These alloys were then heat treated to obtain bimodal or equiaxed microstructures with various contents of primary α phase. Dynamic compression properties of the alloys above were studied by split Hopkinson pressure bar system at strain rates from 2,000 to 4,000 s−1. The results show that Ti–6Al–4V alloy with equiaxed primary α (αp) volume fraction of 45 vol% or 67 vol% exhibits good dynamic properties with high dynamic strength and absorbed energy, as well as an acceptable dynamic plasticity. However, all the Ti53ELI specimens and Ti64ELI specimens with αp of 65 vol% were not fractured at a strain rate of 4,000 s−1. It appears that the undamaged specimens still have load-bearing capability. Dynamic strength of Ti–Al–V alloy can be improved as the contents of elements Al, V, Fe, and O increase, while dynamic strain is not sensitive to the composition in the appropriate range. The effects of primary alpha volume fraction on the dynamic properties are dependent on the compositions of Ti–Al–V alloys.

The SiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized with a ydrothermal method and modified by oleic acid. The tribological properties of the modified SiO2 nanoparticles as bricating oil additives are studied by friction test. It was found that the nanoparticles as additives in lubricant oil can effectively improve anti-friction and anti-wear roperties. The anti-friction and anti-wear mechanisms were discussed and the lubricating effect of SiO2 nanoparticles can be attributed to rolling effect and self-repairing effect of mechanism.

Glioblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor and has a poor prognosis. Tachykinin receptor neurokinin-1 (NK1R) is a promising target in glioblastoma therapy because of its overexpression in human glioblastoma. NK1R agonists promote glioblastoma cell growth, whereas NK1R antagonists efficiently inhibit cell growth both in vitro and in vivo. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in these effects are incompletely understood. β-Arrestins (ARRBs) serve as scaffold proteins and adapters to mediate intracellular signal transduction. Here we show that the ARRB1-mediated signaling pathway is essential for NK1-mediated glioblastoma cell proliferation. ARRB1 knockdown significantly inhibited NK1-mediated glioblastoma cell proliferation and induced G2/M phase cell cycle arrest. ARRB1 knockdown cells showed remarkable down-regulation of CDC25C/CDK1/cyclin B1 activity. We also demonstrated that ARRB1 mediated prolonged phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and Akt in glioblastoma cells induced by NK1R activation. ERK1/2 and Akt phosphorylation are involved in regulating CDC25C/CDK1/cyclin B1 activity. The lack of long-term ERK1/2 and Akt activation in ARRB1 knockdown cells was at least partly responsible for the delayed cell cycle progression and proliferation. Moreover, we found that ARRB1-mediated ERK1/2 and Akt phosphorylation regulated the transcriptional activity of both NF-κB and AP-1, which were involved in cyclin B1 expression. ARRB1 deficiency increased the sensitivity of glioblastoma cells to the treatment of NK1R antagonists. Taken together, our results suggest that ARRB1 plays an essential role in NK1R-mediated cell proliferation and G2/M transition in glioblastoma cells. Interference with ARRB1-mediated signaling via NK1R may have potential significance for therapeutic strategies targeting glioblastoma.

Aberrant promoter methylation of RUNX3 has been reported in several tumors including human breast cancer (BC). However, the association between RUNX3 hypermethylation and incidence of BC remains elusive. In this study, a detailed literature search was performed in Medline and Google Scholar for related research publications. Analysis of pooled data were executed. Odds ratios with corresponding confidence intervals were determined and summarized, respectively. Finally, 13 studies were identified for the meta-analysis. Analysis of the pooled data showed that RUNX3 hypermethylation was significantly higher in both ductal carcinoma in situ and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) than in normal breast tissues. In addition, RUNX3 methylation was significantly higher in IDC than in benign tumor. However, RUNX3 methylation was not significantly higher in IDC than in ductal carcinoma in situ. We also determined that RUNX3 hypermethylation was significantly higher in ER positive BC than in ER negative BC. In addition, high RUNX3 mRNA expression was found to be correlated with better overall survival and relapse-free survival for all BC patients. Our results strongly support that RUNX3 hypermethylation may play an important role in BC incidence. RUNX3 methylation is a valuable early biomarker for the diagnosis of BC. Further large-scale studies will provide more insight into the role of RUNX3 hypermethylation in the carcinogenesis and clinical diagnosis of BC patients.

Ti-62A alloy plates with three different types of microstructure, fully equiaxed, bimodal, and Widmanstatten, were obtained by various heat treatments to investigate the effects of microstructure on the tensile and fracture properties at room temperature. The results reveal that Widmanstatten microstructure exhibits good damage tolerance behavior considering strength, fracture toughness, and fatigue crack growth behavior, while the bimodal microstructure shows good comprehensive properties considering the plasticity synthetically. Optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) microstructure analyses on fracture and fatigue crack path demonstrate that the dependence of mechanical properties and fatigue crack growth behavior on microstructural feature are attributed to the α lamellae width and the α colony size.

A titanium alloy with the composition of Ti-Al-Sn-Zr-Mo-V-Si-Cr, named Ti-62A alloy, were rolled into thick plates by four different routes, followed by solution heat treated and aging treated. Effects of various rolling routes and heat treatment processes on tensile properties, fracture toughness and resistance to fatigue crack growth were investigated. The results reveal that a rolling heats above β-transus before final rolling pass is helpful to improve comprehensive properties. The properties of Ti-62A alloy can be adjusted in a large range depending on heat treatment.

TA15 (Ti-6.5Al-2Zr-1Mo-1V) and BTi-6431S (Ti-6.5Al-3Sn-3Zr-3Mo-3Nb-1W-0.2Si) titanium alloy plates were welded through gas tungsten arc welding (TIG) and different ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT) were conducted on the weldment. The effects of ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT) on the microstructure and residual stress distribution and mechanical properties for the welding joint were investigated through optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and tensile tests. After TIG welding, the structure of welding joint is composed of fusion zone (FZ), heat-affected zone (HAZ) and base metal. The FZ is widmannstatten structure with coarse β grains and a large number of acicular α due to the fast cooling rate. The microstructure in the HAZ shows a gradual change because of the presence of temperature gradients during welding. The residual stress after TIG is mainly tensile stress and the maximum longitudinal stress appears in the centerline of welding joint. The UIT process shows dramatic influence on residual stress distribution. After employing UIT twice, the residual stress near the welding joint shows a uniform distribution and the maximum tensile stress changes to compressive stress. However, the tensile properties at room temperature almost remain unchanged after UIT.

To discuss the feasibility of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery(VATS) bronchial sleeve lobectomy for NSCLC,and to describe this treatment method and the major Indications.Between September 2010 and December 2012, 10 patients in our hospital underwent VATS bronchial sleeve lobectomy.The patients were one female and nine males.Included 3 cases on the right upper lobe, 3 cases on the right lower lobe, 1 case on the right middle lobe, 2 cases on the left upper lobe, 1 case on the left lower lobe.2 cases underwent VATS bronchial sleeve lobectomy and sleeve resection of the pulmonary artery.10 cases were finished by Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery.They all recovered well.No patient showed bronchopleural fistula, empyema and atelectasis.There was no perioperative death.Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lobectomy including bronchial sleeve lobectomy is therefore considered to be a feasible surgical modality for the treatment of patients with NSCLC.

OBJECTIVE To explore the effects of different proportions of Fructus Cnidii (Shechuangzi) and Psoralea corylifolia (Buguzhi) on highly metastatic human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231BO and bone marrow stromal cell line ST-2 in vitro. METHODS Thirty-six female SD rats were randomly divided into 6 groups to prepare the drug-medicated sera by administering with different proportions of Fructus Cnidii and Psoralea corylifolia, including 4:0 group, 3:1 group, 1:1 group, 1:3 group, 0:4 group and control group. MDA-MB-231BO cells and ST-2 cells were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium containing drug-medicated serum. Inhibition rates of MDA-MB-231BO cells and ST-2 cells were measured by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) method; migration ability of MDA-MB-231BO cells was tested by a cell migration experiment; alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) of ST-2 cells was measured by using 4-nitrophenyl phosphate disodium salt, and mineralized nodule formation of ST-2 cells was measured by alizarin red staining. RESULTS Sera contaning different proportions of Fructus Cnidii and Psoralea corylifolia inhibited the migration activity of MDA-MB-231BO cells as compared with the blank serum, and serum contaning Fructus Cnidii and Psoralea Corylifolia at proportion of 1:1 had the best function (P

To investigate the resident dietary cadmium exposure in Jiangsu province and assess its safety.Cadmium concentration of 229 food items under 12 food groups were obtained from the food surveillance program in Jiangsu province between 2001 and 2006. Food consumption data of 778 food items of 3938 residents who were classified into four age groups (7, 7-, 13-, 18-) were got from the Nutrition and Health Status Survey of the Jiangsu resident in 2002 by 24 h dietary recall on three consecutive days. Dietary cadmium exposures for the residents of different age groups were obtained by using both point estimation and simple distribution estimation through integrating the two datasets above. The safety of dietary cadmium exposure was assessed.Point estimation showed that the average dietary cadmium intakes of different age groups ranged from 5.7 to 8.6 microg/kg, accounting for 567.1% - 857.1% of the provisional tolerable daily intake (PTDI, 1.0 microg/kg). Result of simple distribution method showed mean daily cadmium exposure of different age groups ranged from 0.2 to 0.4 microg/kg, accounting for 20% - 40% of PTDI. Mean weekly cadmium exposure ranged from 1.4 to 2.5 microg/kg, accounting for 20% - 35.7% of the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI, 7.0 microg/kg). The mean daily dietary cadmium exposure for different groups were as follows:7, 0.4 microg/kg; 7-, 0.3 microg/kg; 13-, 0.2 microg/kg; 18-, 0.2 microg/kg. Differences of daily dietary cadmium exposures among groups were significant (F = 69.0, P0.05). The mean weekly dietary cadmium exposure for different groups were:7, 2.5 microg/kg; 7-, 2.0 microg/kg; 13-, 1.4 microg/kg; 18-, 1.4 microg/kg. Differences of weekly dietary cadmium exposures among groups were also significant (F = 41.6, P0.05). The P97.5 of daily cadmium exposure for7 and 7- were 1.4 and 1.2 microg/kg, respectively, both of which were higher than PTDI. The P99.0 of daily cadmium exposure for 13- and 18- were 1.3 and 1.1 microg/kg, respectively. The daily dietary exposure from cereals for different age groups were 21.5 - 253.4 microg/kg, occupying 42.2% - 47.8% of the total daily exposure. Vegetables were 8.0 - 119.4 microg/kg, occupying 14.6% - 20.1%.The average level of dietary cadmium exposures for residents in Jiangsu province calculated by simple distribution estimation were much lower than that calculated by point estimation and were considered to be at no risk. P97.5 or P99.0 of daily or weekly dietary cadmium exposure of different age groups exceeded PTWI and PTDI. The main food types of dietary cadmium exposure were cereals and vegetables.

To investigate superior vena cava (SVC) and anonymous vein resection with prosthesis replacement for lung carcinoma and mediastinal tumor, and to assess the surgical procedure and prognosis.Experimental research: Eighteen adult dogs were divided randomly into two groups. Group A (n = 9) underwent blocking of the SVC system, and Group B (n = 9) underwent SVC resection with prosthesis replacement. The SVC pressure and histological changes of brain tissue were measured and evaluated for group A. The histological changes of prosthesis were studied in group B. Clinical research: Fifty-six patients with thoracic neoplasm were studied, of which 42 were lung carcinoma and 14 were mediastinal tumor. Resection of primary lesions and metastatic lymph nodes with replacement of SVC system were performed for all patients. Long-term follow-up was performed.Experimental research: In Group A, the pressure of SVC was higher when both SVC and the azygous vein were blocked as compared to SVC blocking only (P0.05); hyperemia and edema of brain tissue were not observed in two-hour obstruction. The inner face of vascular prosthesis was covered with fibrin two months after operation in group B. Vascular endothelial cells were found to grow in it, and there was no thrombosis without anticoagulation. Clinical research revealed that there was no death associated with the operation and there was no early or late obstruction of SVC. The survival rates of the patients with lung carcinoma in 1, 3 and 5 years were 84.2% 40.9% and 38.9% respectively. The patients with mediastinal tumor were all alive except 1 patient who died of metastasis.Radical resection combined with prosthesis replacement of SVC system extends the indications of thoracic neoplasm resection and improve the long-term survival rate and living qualities of the patients. It may be recommended in the surgical treatment of thoracic tumor.