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This paper investigates a novel finite-time saturated deployment control approach for the tethered satellite system in the presence of uncertain dynamics and space perturbations, as well as state constraints. First, an integral Lyapunov function is constructed to remove the hard state constraints characterized by a finite-time convergent performance function. Then, a backstepping finite-time deployment controller is devised via using an extended state observer (ESO) to approach the unknown dynamics, perturbations and saturation deviation. Compared with the existing finite-time control methods, the prominent advantage of the proposed one is that the finite-time saturated deployment control is achieved without violating the state constraints and using fractional state feedback. Finally, an illustrative example is organized to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Disseminated cryptococcosis is extremely rare and is easily misdiagnosed as a malignant lymphoma. 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography (PET)/ computed tomography (CT) may be useful to assess the involvement of disseminated cryptococcosis and to evaluate residual disease after treatment.A 21-years-old man presented with fever and cough for a month, with multiple red nodules scattered on the skin. 18F- Fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT revealed multiple hypermetabolic lymph nodes in the upper and lower parts of the diaphragmatic region and hypermetabolic nodules in the skin. According to the PET/CT results, malignant lymphoma was considered a possibility, especially T-cell lymphoma involving the skin.Cryptococcosis was diagnosed using inguinal lymph node biopsy and blood culture.The patient received two months of amphotericin B, fluconazole, and half a month of meropenem.The patient's body temperature returned to normal and the red nodules on the skin disappeared. Most of the hypermetabolic enlarged lymph nodes disappeared, which was confirmed by reexamination with PET/CT.Disseminated cryptococcosis is easily misdiagnosed as malignant lymphoma, especially when the lymph nodes are more involved. When multiple hypermetabolic enlarged lymph nodes appear on PET/CT, except for lymphoma, specific infections should also be considered.

Background: Hypoxia is an important cause of recurrence and metastasis of malignant tumors. Noninvasive detection of the extent of hypoxic areas of tumors is essential for delineation of radiotherapy target areas and dose. Objectives: To investigate the feasibility of 99Tcm-2-(2-methyl-5-nitro-1H-imidazol-1-yl) ethyl dihydrogen phosphate (99Tcm-MNLS) hypoxic imaging to monitor the tumor hypoxic state in tumor-bearing mice after radiotherapy. Materials and Methods: Tumor-bearing mice were divided into eight groups: imaged 24 hours before radiotherapy (A24 h before), imaged immediately after radiotherapy (Aimmediately), imaged 24 hours after radiotherapy (A24 h), imaged 48 hours after radiotherapy (A48 h), and the corresponding control groups. Mice in each group received hypoxia imaging at the corresponding time point to calculate the radioactivity ratio of tumor/non-tumor (T/NT). Hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) was determined by immunohistochemistry to investigate the relationship between T/NT ratio and HIF-1α expression in radiotherapy and control groups. Results: T/NT ratio and the expression of HIF-1α in A24 h group were not significantly different from those in A24 h before and control groups, but lower than those in the Aimmediately group and higher than those in the A48 h group. T/NT ratio and the expression of HIF-1α in the A24 h before group had no significant difference compared with those in its control group, while those in the Aimmediately group were remarkably higher than those in its control group. On the other hand, those in A48 h group were lower than those in its control group. There was a positive correlation between T/NT ratio and HIF-1α expression in radiotherapy group and control group at different time points. Conclusion: 99Tcm-MNLS tumor hypoxic imaging can evaluate the tumor hypoxic status of tumor-bearing mice after radiotherapy.

The clinical applications of the quantitative single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT) are being expanded to a variety of fields of nuclear medicine. However, clinical application of quantitative SPECT/CT for the evaluation of Graves’ disease (GD) still needs further investigation. Our aim was to investigate the feasibility of standard uptake value (SUV) of the thyroid for the clinical diagnosis and evaluation of GD. In this prospective multicenter study, 116 patients diagnosed with GD (Graves group) and 74 healthy volunteers (control group) were enrolled from 8 different hospitals. All patients underwent technetium pertechnetate (TcO99m4-) SPECT/CT imaging with Q.Metrix quantitative software and 24-hour thyroid radioactive iodine uptake (24h-RAIU) test. The SUVmax and SUVmean in Graves group were significantly higher than those of control group (P3and 0.449 and 0.464 for FT4, respectively (allPPP

A 50-year-old woman presented with a mass in the upper outer quadrant of her left breast, which proved to be a mucinous cystadenocarcinoma by biopsy. An F-FDG PET/CT was performed for staging, which showed that the breast tumor was the only lesion with abnormal F-FDG avidity. Breast-conserving surgery was performed following a negative sentinel lymph node biopsy of the left axilla, and primary mucinous cystadenocarcinoma of the breast was finally diagnosed.

A CT scan was performed on a 67-year-old man newly diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. The scan revealed a low-density lesion in the liver, a left renal nodule, and a right renal cystic mass. Intense F-FDG uptake was observed in the liver lesion and left renal nodule. No abnormal uptake was observed in the right renal mass. In addition, another focal intense uptake was observed in segment VII of the liver. Biopsies revealed intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas in the 2 liver lesions, papillary renal cell carcinoma in the left renal lesion and clear cell renal cell carcinoma in the right renal lesion.

A 74-year-old man with multiple soft tissue lesions in the lung, which were suspected to be metastatic neoplasms, underwent F-FDG PET/CT scan to detect primary malignancy. The images demonstrated that the lung and 2 retroperitoneal lymph nodes were the only affected organ or tissues with suspected primary lung neoplasms. Multiple intestinal-type adenocarcinoma was eventually diagnosed by CT-guided transthoracic needle aspiration biopsy.

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumor. Although cisplatin is the primary chemotherapy used in osteosarcoma treatment, the cisplatin resistance remains a big challenge for improving overall survival. The store-operated calcium (Ca2+) entry (SOCE) and its major mediator Stim1 have been shown to be implicated in a number of pathological processes typical for cancer. In this study, we showed that Stim1 expression was significantly increased in chemo-resistant osteosarcoma tissues compared with chemo-sensitivity tissues. Patients with Sitm1 expression exhibited poorer overall survival than Stim1-negative patients. Moreover, un-regulation of Stim1 expression and SOCE were also observed in cisplatin-resistant MG63/CDDP cells compared with their parental cells. Cisplatin treatment obviously reduced Stim1 expression and SOCE in cisplatin-sensitivity MG63 cells, but had no effects on MG63/CDDP cells. In addition, cisplatin resulted in a more pronounced increase of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in MG63 cells than in their resistant variants, which was evidenced by the activation of molecular markers of ER stress, GRP78, CHOP and ATF4. Knockdown of Stim1 using siRNA remarkably enhanced cisplatin-induced apoptosis and ER stress in MG63/CDDP cells, thereby sensitizing cancer cells to cisplatin. On the other hand, overexpression of Stim1 markedly reversed apoptosis and ER stress following cisplatin treatment. Taken together, these results demonstrate that Stim1 as well as Ca2+ entry contributes cisplatin resistance via inhibition of ER stress-mediated apoptosis, and provide important clues to the mechanisms involved in cisplatin resistance for osteosarcoma treatment. Stim1 represents as a target of cisplatin and blockade of Stim1-mediated Ca2+ entry may be a useful strategy to improve the efficacy of cisplatin to treat osteosarcoma. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13577-017-0167-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.