Search

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of gemcitabine plus cisplatin concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Patients with NPC were randomly assigned to the gemcitabine plus cisplatin (GP) group or fluorouracil plus cisplatin (PF) group. Primary end-point was disease-free survival (DFS); secondary endpoints: overall survival, distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), locoregional relapse-free survival, and treatment-related adverse events. Seventy-six patients were prospectively enrolled and the median follow-up time was 41 months (9–61 months). Three-year DFS were similar between the GP and PF groups (73.7% vs. 60.5%, HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.30–1.44; P = 0.30). Distant metastasis was the most common failure form in PF compared with GP (P = 0.034). Three-year DMFS was significantly better in the GP group than PF group (89.5% vs. 71.1%, P = 0.045). Grade 3–4 gastrointestinal toxicities (vomiting and diarrhea) were significantly more common in the PF group; grade 3–4 neutropenia and thrombocytopenia were more common in the GP group. Gemcitabine plus cisplatin could be used as an alternative regimen in CCRT for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Global satellite positioning technology has been applied to transport, mapping, security, agriculture, forestry and other fields. In this study, we summarized the application of satellite positioning technology in forestry, pointed out issues of low signal amplitude, and low accuracy of positioning in practical application. This paper introduced the theories of several commonly used assist positioning technologies, such as, Wi-Fi positioning, wireless sensor network positioning and inertial navigation, analyzed its application in forestry base on its characteristics of these positioning technologies, then proposed the technical method of the combining positioning. Designed the locating scheme of forestry based on nature reserve patrol business, and briefly introduced its basic theories. In this study, we analyzed the feasibility of the application of wireless positioning in forestry by control variables and regression analysis.

This paper described a web GIS application of desertification status of Ruoergai area based on Google Maps. Desertification data were categorized as types, degrees, area of land desertification. Each category was classified/defined based on former research. The system was implemented based on detailed design by employing technologies such as Google Map API, data cache and struts2, etc. Application of the system proved to be applicable for demonstration of desertification status of Ruoergai area.

Spatial data is becoming increasingly important in forestry resource management and decision making. However, huge amount of accumulated spatial data were not fully utilized due to the difficulty of sharing and integration. A forest spatial data sharing and integration system was developed based on GeoServer. A distributed architecture was adopted to address the data storage in different organizations. WMS and WFS were the main service for data sharing and integration. Applications demonstrate that the system can easily share and integrate various spatial data.

Forest fire is one of the most detrimental factors affecting forest resources. Forest fire prevention and suppression requires a lot of information of fire field in decision making. A GIS based assistant information system for forest fire prevention direction was developed. The system makes use of spatial data and fire monitoring data from sensor nodes to provide important assistant information for forest fire prevention. It also provides a series of Web service APIs for forest fire prevention application development. Test demonstrated that the system is applicable and helpful to forest fire prevention.

A GIS based decision support system for eucalypt cultivation and management was developed. The system can help farmers make decision in planting suitability, eucalypt variety selection, planting scheme making etc. The system can also make an economic evaluation for the selected variety so that users can make decision to plant or not. The system supports two groups of users which are eucalypt farmers who cultivate eucalypt in a small scale and forest farms who cultivate eucalypt in a relatively large scale.

Meteorological conditions play an important role in agricultural practice and agricultural DSS usually takes weather data as a critical data source. A meteorological data service system was designed and implemented to provide better performance for Chinese users. Based on the service system, a web application providing online weather data retrieval and downloading was also developed. The service system was practically used in a decision support system for eucalypt management, and proved to be very feasible as an online weather data source for agricultural decision support system. Base on this service system, it is expected that agricultural researchers and decision support systems can easily obtain weather data and further improve their agricultural decision making process.

In recent years, with the rapid development of society and the deepening of education reform, the ideological and political education is more and more attention. Education courses in colleges and universities is the main channel of ideological and political education of college students, college students' autonomous learning is an important platform, in this paper, the difficulties facing education courses in colleges and universities and the trend of college students' autonomous learning ability weakened, talk about how to take the student as under the guidance of this concept, explore the application of autonomous learning in education courses, to enhance the efficiency of the education courses.

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) has the environmentally friendly effect. The SCC can be prepared by using the technical approaches of “Double adding” (adding mineral admixtures and chemical admixtures and) low W/B (the ratio of water to composite binder). According to the requirements of design and construction, SCC of C30～C60 can be produced by selecting materials used and adjusting the amount and composition of composite binder, the dosage and composition of high performance chemical admixture as well as W/B, based on the reasonable component of SCC with volume. It had been applied successfully in some construction works in several, such as concrete filled steel pipe column and strengthening of concrete structure.

Interleukin (IL)-6 has been shown to decrease cardiac contractility via a nitric oxide synthase (NOS)-dependent pathway during acute exposure. We previously reported that IL-6 decreases contractility and increases inducible NOS (iNOS) in adult rat ventricular myocytes (ARVM) after 2 h exposure. The goal of this study was to investigate the cellular mechanism underlying this chronic IL-6-induced negative inotropy and the role of iNOS. Pretreatment for 2 h with 10 ng ml−1 IL-6 decreased the kinetics of cell shortening (CS) and contractile responsiveness to Ca2+o ([Ca2+]o from 0 to 2 mm) in ARVM. We first examined whether IL-6 reduced Ca2+ influx via L-type Ca2+-channel current (ICa,L). Whole-cell ICa,L in ARVM was measured under conditions similar to those used for CS measurements, and it was found to be unaltered by IL-6. The sarcoplasmic reticular (SR) function was then assessed by examining postrest potentiation (PRP) and caffeine responsiveness of CS. Results showed that treatment with IL-6 for 2 h significantly decreased PRP, which was concomitant with a decrease in the phosphorylation of phospholamban. Following removal of IL-6, PRP and responsiveness to 10 mm caffeine were also reduced. Meanwhile, the IL-6-induced increase in nitric oxide (NO) production after 2 h (but not 1 h) was abolished by NG-monomethyl-l-arginine (l-NMMA) and 2-amino-5,6-dihydro-6-methyl-4H-1,3-thiazine (AMT; a selective inhibitor of iNOS). Furthermore, IL-6-elicited suppressions of PRP and responsiveness to caffeine and Ca2+o were abolished by L-NMMA and AMT. Thus, these results suggest that activation of iNOS mediates IL-6-induced inhibition of SR function in ARVM during chronic exposure.

We previously showed that chronic exposure to interleukin (IL)-6 decreases contractile and sarcoplasmic reticular (SR) function assessed by postrest potentiation (PRP) via a nitric oxide (NO)-dependent mechanism in adult rat ventricular myocytes (ARVM). Cyclic GMP (cGMP) has been associated with NO-associated negative inotropic effects of IL-6 during acute exposure; however, its role in chronic cardiac effects of IL-6 remains unclear. The present study examined the roles of cGMP and peroxynitrite (ONOO−) in chronic IL-6-induced negative inotropy in ARVM. After ARVM were exposed to IL-6 for 2–24 h, intracellular cGMP contents were time dependently increased; this was mimicked by a NO donor and abolished by 1H-[1,2,4]oxadiazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalin-1-one (ODQ), an inhibitor of soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC), or Rp-8-Br-cGMP, an inhibitor of cGMP-dependent protein kinase G (PKG). Meanwhile, the IL-6-induced decrease in PRP at 2 h was blocked by ODQ or Rp-8-Br-cGMP. By contrast, ODQ or Rp-8-Br-cGMP only attenuated the inhibition of PRP induced by IL-6 after 24 h exposure. Furthermore, IL-6 time dependently increased superoxide anion production and ONOO− formation; the latter was abolished by 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(4-sulphonatophenyl)-porphyrinato iron (III) (FeTPPS), an ONOO− decomposition catalyst. Interestingly, FeTPPS had no effect on the IL-6-elicited decrease in PRP at 2 h, but attenuated it after 24 h exposure. Moreover, inhibition of sGC/cGMP/PKG, but not ONOO− formation, abolished the IL-6-induced inhibition of kinetics of myocyte contraction during 24 h exposure. We conclude that while the sGC/cGMP/PKG pathway was the primary mechanism for chronic IL-6-induced negative inotropy at 2 h, both sGC/cGMP/PKG and ONOO−, at least in part, mediate the IL-6-induced inhibition of SR function after 24 h exposure.

Interleukin (IL)-6 decreases cardiac contractility via a nitric oxide (NO)-dependent pathway. However, mechanisms underlying IL-6-induced NO production remain unclear. JAK2/STAT3 and ERK1/2 are two well known signaling pathways activated by IL-6 in non-cardiac cells. However, these IL-6-activated pathways have not been identified in adult cardiac myocytes. In this study, we identified activation of these two pathways during IL-6 stimulation and examined their roles in IL-6-induced NO production and decrease in contractility of adult ventricular myocytes. IL-6 increased phosphorylation of STAT3 (at Tyr(705)) and ERK1/2 (at Tyr(204)) within 5 min that peaked at 15-30 min and returned to basal levels at 2 h. Phosphorylation of STAT3 was blocked by genistein, a protein tyrosine kinase inhibitor, and AG490, a JAK2 inhibitor, but not PD98059, an ERK1/2 kinase inhibitor. The phosphorylation of ERK1/2 was blocked by PD98059 and genistein but not AG490. Furthermore, IL-6 enhanced de novo synthesis of iNOS protein, increased NO production, and decreased cardiac contractility after 2 h of incubation. These effects were blocked by genistein and AG490 but not PD98059. We conclude that IL-6 activated independently the JAK2/STAT3 and ERK1/2 pathways, but only JAK2/STAT3 signaling mediated the NO-associated decrease in contractility.

We previously showed that chronic exposure to interleukin (IL)-6 decreases contractile and sarcoplasmic reticular (SR) function assessed by postrest potentiation (PRP) via a nitric oxide (NO)-dependent mechanism in adult rat ventricular myocytes (ARVM). Cyclic GMP (cGMP) has been associated with NO-associated negative inotropic effects of IL-6 during acute exposure; however, its role in chronic cardiac effects of IL-6 remains unclear. The present study examined the roles of cGMP and peroxynitrite (ONOO−) in chronic IL-6-induced negative inotropy in ARVM. After ARVM were exposed to IL-6 for 2–24 h, intracellular cGMP contents were time dependently increased; this was mimicked by a NO donor and abolished by 1H-[1,2,4]oxadiazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalin-1-one (ODQ), an inhibitor of soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC), or Rp-8-Br-cGMP, an inhibitor of cGMP-dependent protein kinase G (PKG). Meanwhile, the IL-6-induced decrease in PRP at 2 h was blocked by ODQ or Rp-8-Br-cGMP. By contrast, ODQ or Rp-8-Br-cGMP only attenuated the inhibition of PRP induced by IL-6 after 24 h exposure. Furthermore, IL-6 time dependently increased superoxide anion production and ONOO− formation; the latter was abolished by 5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(4-sulphonatophenyl)-porphyrinato iron (III) (FeTPPS), an ONOO− decomposition catalyst. Interestingly, FeTPPS had no effect on the IL-6-elicited decrease in PRP at 2 h, but attenuated it after 24 h exposure. Moreover, inhibition of sGC/cGMP/PKG, but not ONOO− formation, abolished the IL-6-induced inhibition of kinetics of myocyte contraction during 24 h exposure. We conclude that while the sGC/cGMP/PKG pathway was the primary mechanism for chronic IL-6-induced negative inotropy at 2 h, both sGC/cGMP/PKG and ONOO−, at least in part, mediate the IL-6-induced inhibition of SR function after 24 h exposure.