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Background: Helicobacter pylori infection is strongly associated with gastric cancer. However, there is currently no consensus on the association between H. pylori and gastric cancer prognosis. Methods: A systematic search was conducted on studies in PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science up to March 10, 2022. The quality of all included studies was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. The hazard ratio (HR) and its 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were extracted to analyze the association between H. pylori infection and prognosis of gastric cancer. In addition, subgroup analysis and publication bias were performed. Results: A total of 21 studies were involved. The pooled HR was 0.67 (95%CI, 0.56-0.79) for overall survival (OS) in H. pylori-positive patients, with the control (HR=1) being the H. pylori-negative group. In the subgroup analysis, the pooled HR was 0.38 (95%CI, 0.24-0.59) for OS in H. pylori-positive patients who received surgery combined with chemotherapy. The pooled HR for disease-free survival was 0.74 (95%CI, 0.63-0.8), and 0.41 (95%CI, 0.26-0.65) in patients received surgery combined with chemotherapy. Conclusions: H. pylori-positive gastric cancer patients have a better overall prognosis than negative patients. Helicobacter pylori infection has improved the prognosis of patients undergoing surgery or chemotherapy, among which the improvement was most obvious in patients undergoing surgery combined with chemotherapy.

Background: Traditional endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) has developed different methods, such as pocket method (P-ESD), traction-assisted method (T-ESD), and hybrid method (H-ESD). In this meta-analysis, the benefits and drawbacks of different ESD methods were discussed and ranked. Study Design: Studies comparing different methods of colorectal ESD were searched by using PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases. The study was conducted for five endpoints: en bloc resection rate, R0 resection rate, operation time, dissection speed, and adverse events rate. Pairwise and network meta-analyses were performed through Rev Man 5.4 and Stata 16.0. The quality of all included studies was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Results: Twenty-six studies met the inclusion criteria, including 7 RCTs and 19 non-RCTs, with a total of 3,002 patients. The pooled analysis showed that the en bloc resection rate of H-ESD was significantly lower than that of C-ESD, P-ESD, and T-ESD (RR = 0.28, 95% CI [0.12, 0.65]; RR = 0.11, 95% CI [0.03, 0.44]; RR = 8.28, 95% CI [2.50, 27.42]). Compared with C-ESD, the operation time of H-ESD and T-ESD was significantly shorter (MD = −21.83, 95% CI [−34.76, −8.90]; MD = −23.8, 95% CI [−32.55, −15.06]). Meanwhile, the operation time of T-ESD was also significantly shorter than that of P-ESD (MD = −18.74, 95% CI [−31.93, −5.54]). The dissection speed of T-ESD was significantly faster than that of C-ESD (MD = 6.26, 95% CI [2.29, 10.23]). Conclusion: P-ESD and T-ESD are probably the two best methods of colorectal ESD at present. The advantages of P-ESD are high en bloc resection rate and low incidence of adverse events. The advantages of T-ESD are rapid dissection and short operation time.

Background Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have been used to treat Barrett’s esophagus (BE), but there seems to be insufficient evidence that PPIs can prevent esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and high grade dysplasia (HGD). This study aimed to evaluate the effects of PPIs in BE patients. Methods PubMed and EMBASE were systematically searched. Stata13 and trial sequential analysis (TSA) software were used to carry out related statistics. Pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Results Using PPIs to reduce the incidence of EAC and HGD has not been confirmed (OR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.29–1.26). The pooled results of three cohort studies reported that PPIs use was protective (OR 0.48; 95% CI, 0.33–0.70). But the pooled results of five case-control study indicating PPIs use does not prove this protective effect (OR 0.73; 95% CI, 0.21–2.48). On pooled analysis of 4 US studies 2 Netherlands, protective effect on development of EAC and HGD was noted (OR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.43–0.80) and (OR, 0.16; 95% CI, 0.03–0.75). Conclusions According to the Meta analysis and TSA of existing studies, the protective effect of PPIs on the progression of BE patients to EAC and/or HGD has not been confirmed. TSA shows that more patients are needed before a clear conclusion can be reached.

Background. Little is known about the efficacy and safety of single-balloon enteroscopy (SBE) in patients with Peutz−Jeghers syndrome (PJS). The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of SBE for the treatment of small bowel polyps in patients with PJS. Methods. We conducted a single-center observational study, which included all patients diagnosed with PJS who underwent SBE for polypectomy between January 2018 and March 2021. Complete treatment was defined as the absence of polyps ≥10 mm after SBE resection. The clinical records were retrospectively reviewed. Results. 102 patients (including 40 men and 62 women) with a mean age of 28.7 years (range 13–55 y) were enrolled in our study. The intubation depth via the oral approach of patients with a history of laparotomy was significantly shorter than that of the patients without a history of laparotomy ([241.6 ± 64.2] cm vs [280.9 ± 40.2] cm, P = 0.008 ). The maximum size of the resected polyps via anus during the second hospitalization was significantly smaller than that during the first hospitalization ([2.25 ± 1.29] cm vs [4.26 ± 3.51] cm, P = 0.032 ). For patients with total enteroscopy, the complete treatment rate was 98% (49/50). For patients without total enteroscopy, all polyps larger than 10 mm in the examined segment of small bowel were resected successfully. Complications occurred in 10 of 129 hospitalizations (delayed bleeding in 4, perforation in 3, and acute pancreatitis in 3). Conclusions. SBE is effective and safe for resection of small bowel polyps in patients with PJS.

With the changing of the climate, the detection of heat stress as early as possible has become increasingly important for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production. Previous studies have demonstrated that photosynthetic parameters can serve as indicators of the stress conditions, and vegetation indices (VIs) provide the ability to non-destructively monitor photosynthetic parameters. However, it remains unclear whether VIs can be used to detect heat stress in a similar manner as the photosynthetic parameters. In addition, the optimal VIs for indicating heat stress and detecting the stress status are also currently unknown. In the present study, a heat stress experiment was designed with four temperature levels [T1, 17 °C/27 °C (Tmin/Tmax), T2 (25 °C/35 °C), T3 (29 °C/39 °C), and T4 (33 °C/43 °C)] and three treatment durations [three days (D1), six days (D2) and nine days (D3)]. Three photosynthetic parameters [leaf chlorophyll content (LCC), net photosynthesis rate (Pn), and maximum efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm)] and 17 published VIs were selected to compare their sensitivity and assess their feasibility for detecting heat stress. The results showed that Fv/Fm was the most sensitive photosynthetic parameter to heat stress and had the ability to indicate the start and end of heat stress at the slight level or the early stage. The chlorophyll index-red edge (CIred-edge), normalized difference red edge index (NDRE) and photochemical reflectance index (PRI) were sensitive to heat stress owing to their close relationships with photosynthetic parameters. Among these three VIs, PRI displayed the highest sensitivity. Nevertheless, the sensitivity of PRI was less than that of Fv/Fm, and it failed to detect the beginning and end of heat stress lasting for three days. The ability of PRI to detect heat stress became similar to that of Fv/Fm when the duration of heat stress was increased to seven days. In conclusion, Fv/Fm is the optimum indicator for detecting early-stage heat stress, in which only the photosynthetic functions change. In contrast, PRI, a non-destructive indicator, works well to indicate relatively late-stage heat stress, in which the chemical and physical characteristics of leaves (e.g., chlorophyll content) are affected.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to explore the upregulated nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB)/microRNA-155 (miR-155) in regulating inflammatory responses and relapse of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) with nasal polyps (NP), which underlies the molecular mechanism of glucocorticoid treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study recruited 25 patients with eosinophilic (Eos) CRSwNP, 25 patients with Non-Eos CRSwNP, 25 patients with CRS without NP (CRSsNP) and 30 patients with nasal septum deviation (control group). The expression of NF-kappaB/miR-155 and inflammatory cytokines was detected in epithelial tissue specimens. Additionally, a mouse model of Eos CRSwNP was established, and the mice were treated by NF-kappaB inhibitor, miR-155 antagomir, or dexamethasone (DEX) to explore the role of NF-kB/miR-155 and the anti-inflammatory effects of glucocorticoid treatment. RESULTS Results showed that the expression level of NF-kappaB/miR-155 was significantly elevated in the Eos CRSwNP group, accompanied by the upregulation of cytokines: tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin (IL)-1, IL-4, IL-5 (P

The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is a commonly used index for monitoring crop growth status. Previous studies have shown that the leaf area index (LAI) estimation based on NDVI is limited by saturation that occurs under conditions of relatively dense canopies (LAI > 2 m2 m–2). To reduce the saturation effect, we suggested new spectral indices through the spectral indices approach. The results suggested that the two-band normalized difference spectral index (NDSI = ((ρ940 – ρ730) /(ρ940 + ρ730))) resulted from the two-band spectral indices approach and the three-band modified normalized difference spectral index (mNDSI = ((ρ940 – 0.8 × ρ950) – ρ730) /((ρ940 – 0.8 × ρ950) + ρ730)) resulted from the three-band spectral indices approach, and they were able to mitigate saturation and improve the LAI prediction with a determination coefficient (R2) of 0.77 and 0.78, respectively. In the validation based on data from independent experiments, these new indices exhibited an accuracy with r...

Live migration of virtual machines (VMs) is useful for resource management of data centers and cloud platforms. The precopy algorithm is widely used for memory migration. However, when encountered with write-intensive workloads, the precopy's straightforward iteration strategy will become inefficient. Worse still, it is hard to tune the performance with the existing parameters, unless load characteristics are known in advance. In this paper, we propose an improved pre-filter-copy (PFC) algorithm. The main target is to reduce migration time and bandwidth resource consumption of the precopy algorithm, while keeping downtime at the same level. We designed a novel data filter to achieve this goal. In each round of iteration, it forecasts the pages that will be subsequently dirtied and then filters them from the send list. Meanwhile, previously filtered pages will be reconsidered, to see if they can be added to the send list. This ensures that the downtime will not be increased. Furthermore, a new parameter is proposed to improve the adaptivity of the precopy algorithm. Experimental results show that the PFC algorithm significantly reduces migration time and the amount of migrated data, while keeping the downtime at the same level.

The brain‑derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and c‑Jun NH 2‑terminal kinase (JNK) signaling pathways are therapeutic targets to prevent degeneration in the central nervous system. Dexamethasone (DXMS), a glucocorticoid, protects against vestibular brain injury, however, the molecular mechanisms have yet to be fully elucidated. To investigate whether the BDNF and JNK signaling pathways are involved in the protective effects of DXMS in rats with vestibular dysfunction, a rat model of severe vestibular deficits was established by middle ear injection of arsanilic acid (AA; 100 mg/ml; 0.05 ml). After 3 days, rat symptoms and behavior scores with vestibular disorders were detected. In brain tissues, histopathological alterations, cell apoptosis, expression levels and patterns of BDNF signaling pathway‑associated BDNF, tyrosine receptor kinase B (TrKB) and K+/Cl‑ cotransporter isoform 2 (KCC2), and the expression of apoptosis‑related cleaved‑caspase 3 and the JNK signaling pathway were detected. It was identified that DXMS relieved AA‑induced vestibular dysfunction, leading to improvement in rat behavior scores to normal levels, minimizing brain damage at the histopatholojnnkngical level, reducing cell apoptosis, enhancing the expression of BDNF, TrKB and KCC2, and downregulating cleaved‑caspase 3 and phosphorylated‑JNK1/2 in brain tissues. Together, these findings indicated the protective effect of DXMS on AA‑induced rat vestibular dysfunction, and that activating BDNF and inhibiting JNK singling pathways were the underlying mechanisms. In addition, with additional treatment of mifepristone (RU486), a specific glucocorticoid agonist, all the events elicited by DXMS mentioned above in the AA‑treated rat rats were reversed. In conclusion, DXMS was identified as a therapeutic agent targeting the BDNF and JNK singling pathways for AA‑induced rat vestibular dysfunction.

To explore the effects of simultaneous multi-level surgery intervention on the changes of the oxidative stress and the cognitive function in young and middle-aged patients with moderate-severe OSAHS.One hundred and sixteen young and middle-aged patients with moderate-severe OSAHS received simultaneous multi-level surgery. PSG,malondialdehyde (MDA), advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) and 8-isoprostaneF2α (8-iso-PGF2α) were tested, together with the evaluation of the questionnaires of Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA), mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) before and 6 months after surgery.(1) The AHI, TS90% and LSaO₂ were all improved significantly 6 months after operation. No severe complications were observed in any patient. (2) The preoperative MoCA and MMSE scores were (23.52 ± 2.64) and (26.54 ± 1.07) respectively. The cognitive impairment were detected in OSAHS patients. MoCA was negatively correlated with AHI, TS90%, MDA, AOPP and 8-iso-PGF2a, while positively correlated with LSaO₂ (P0.05, r = -0.233, -0.190, -0.256, -0.247, -0.221 and 0.215, respectively). Cognitive impairment was mainly manifested as disorder in the visual space and execu- tive function, memory and delayed recall (mainly short-term memory). (3) MoCA and MMSE scores were both increased (P0.05) after the operation. MoCA showed negative correlations with MDA, AOPP, 8-iso-PGF2α, AHI and TS90%, and positive correlation with LSaO₂ (P0.05, r = -0.495, -0.463, -0.397, -0.332, -0.292 and 0.336, respectively).Oxidative stress and cognitive dysfunction are closely related in young and middle-aged patients with Moderate-severe OSAHS. Oxidative stress may play an important role in cognitive function of young and middle-aged patients with Moderate-severe OSAHS. Multi-level surgery can improve oxidative stress so that to improve cognitive impairment.

The skeleton representation of characters is a fundamental step to handwriting recognition, but traditional skeletonization algorithms always produce unwanted artifacts or pattern distortions at regions with intersections or junctions of strokes. In this paper, we propose a novel method to eliminate these unreliable skeleton segments and improve the skeletonization of handwritten Chinese characters on the basis of ambiguous zone interpretation. This method consists of two main phases. In the first phase, the parts of characters which contain the distortions of skeleton, called ambiguous zones, are detected. Instead of exploiting any corner or dominant point detection, a set of feature points from the original skeleton and the contour information around them are manipulated in our approach. In the phase of interpretation, the continuity of skeleton segments of substrokes is estimated based on the minimum curvature variation criterion, and compensations are made to fix interstices of terminated skeleton segments. Finally, the distorted parts of characters are reconstructed by applying a cubic B-spline interpolation. Experimental results show that the proposed method can detect ambiguous zones with arbitrary shapes accurately, and produce skeletons that are close to human perceptions.

To explore the changes of microRNAs in nasal mucosa after the specific immunotherapy (SIT) for allergic rhinitis (AR) in mice.Female BALB/c mice, 6-8 weeks of age, were randomly divided into control group, model group and treatment group. AR model were established by intraperitoneal injection and intranasal challenge of ovalbumin and SIT was performed by inguinal subcutaneous injections. AR symptom scores were documented. The eosinophils (EOS) in the nasal mucosa were measured. Ovalbumin-specific IgE (OVA-sIgE) in the serum and expression of interferon-γ and interleukin-4 in the nasal lavage were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay meanwhile the ratio of interferon-γ and interleukin-4 was calculated. The microRNAs in the nasal mucosa were preliminary screened by microRNA gene microarray. Comparing with model group, the Fold changes of microRNA of the treatment group were ≥ 2.0 and the P0.05. MicroRNA target genes were predicted with GeneSpring 12.5 software. We took the intersection between genes in the signal pathway which associated with immune response,inflammation and target genes. The MEV-4-6-0 and Cytoscape_v2. 8. 2. software was applied to perform the cluster analysis and target gene regulatory networks maps.The model of AR in mice and its SIT were successful. Comparing with the model group, the Fold changes of 15 microRNAs, of which 9 microRNAs were up-regulated and 6 microRNAs were down-regulated, were ≥ 2.0 in treatment group (P0.05). Cluste analysis showed clearly that microRNAs in the treatment group and model group respectively aggregated in two branches. The 15 microRNAs had 5302 target genes, of which, 451 genes were related more with SIT by the intersection. One microRNA can regulate many target genes, and one gene can also be affected by many microRNAs. Their synergistic effects may be involved in the mechanism of SIT.The expressions of microRNAs are changed in nasal mucosa after SIT for AR in mice and we can speculate that microRNAs are involved in the process of SIT for AR. Bioinformatics methods can diminish the scope of target genes of microRNAs, which will help us studying the effect of changed microRNA on its relative target genes after SIT, and make us better understanding the mechanism of the disease and its SIT.

Recent research and industrial accomplishment has revealed the advantages of cascaded smart converter Photovoltaic (PV) system over traditional centralized and string PV system. However, smart converter normally has higher cost than central-level or string-level MPPT PV system due to the fact that each smart converter need individual MPPT controller, voltage and current sensors. In order to solve this problem, a multi-phase smart converter with single controller is proposed in this paper. Comparing to traditional smart converter, the proposed solution can largely reduce cost by saving MPPT controllers, current and voltage sensors without sacrificing energy production. The effectiveness of the proposed structure is verified by both simulation and hardware testing. The proposed multi-phase smart converter also can be extended to work as subpanel-level and string-level multi-phase PV converters.

To investigate the ultrastructure of ciliated epithelia and inflammatory changes upon repeated exposure to staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) of different concentrations in the maxillary sinus mucosa of rabbits.The rabbits were randomly divided into 2 groups (24 rabbits per group): low-dose SEA group and high-dose SEA group. The low-dose SEA group and high-dose SEA group received daily injections of 0.6 ng of SEA (2 ml) and 60 ng of SEA (2 ml) into the left maxillary sinus of rabbits for 28 days, respectively. Concurrent treatment of the right maxillary sinus with normal saline was used as control. Six rabbits chosen randomly in two groups were examined by computed tomography (CT) scans and then sacrificed to obtain the sinus mucosa from the two-side of maxillary sinuses for histological assessment on days 3, 7, 14 and 28. To characterize the inflammatory changes of the sinus mucosa examined using light microscope, hematoxylin and eosin (HE) and toluidine blue staining was performed. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy were performed to observe ultrastructure of ciliated epithelia in the maxillary sinus mucosa. SPSS 13.0 software was used to analyze the data.On days 14 and 28, CT images showed opacification of the left maxillary sinus in the high-dose SEA group. The percentage of epithelial disruption was (22.73 ± 5.72) % and (30.79 ± 4.30)% in the high-dose SEA group respectively, and were significantly greater than those in the low-dose SEA group (5.12% ± 1.98% and 5.38% ± 1.64%, q value was 10.079 and 19.132) and control group (4.08% ± 1.29% and 4.81% ± 1.62%, q value was 11.016 and 19.592, respectively, all P0.01). The subepithelial thickness in the high-dose SEA group was (113.34 ± 14.81)µm and (120.86 ± 12.35) µm respectively, and were significantly different from those of the low-dose SEA group [(71.08 ± 10.39)µm and (81.63 ± 9.32)µm, q value was 8.090 and 8.782] and control group [(37.45 ± 7.67)µm and (38.79 ± 7.68)µm, q value was 15.759 and 19.541, all P0.01]. Viewed under the electron microscope, loss of cilia was observed, a few compound cilia and cytoplasmic protrusion were found, an obvious stretching of the endoplasmic reticulum and an obvious turgescence of the mitochondria was also observed. However, in the low-dose SEA group on days 14 and 28, CT scan of the left maxillary sinus showed transparency; light microscopy observations of the maxillary sinus mucosa showed the number of eosinophils was markedly increased as compared with the high-dose SEA and control groups, the differences were significant (q value was 5.871 and 6.766 on day 14, and q value was 7.572 and 8.970 on day 28, respectively, all P0.05). But no significant differences were observed in epithelial disruption between the low-dose SEA and the control groups on days 14 and 28 (q value was 1.512 and 0.859 respectively, all P0.05); inordinate array and adhesion of cilia was observed, but cilia loss, compound cilia, cytoplasmic protrusions, mitochondrial swelling and endoplasmic reticulum stretching were not found.SEA may induce allergic inflammation of the sinus mucosa without damaging the structure of ciliated epithelia at low concentration. Whereas SEA impairs the structure of mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum in ciliated epithelial cells at high concentration, and results in cilia loss and epithelial disruption, which may be one of the main reasons to induce acute sinusitis.

The aim of this study was to determine the expression of GATA-3 and the level of Th1 and Th2 cytokines upon repeated exposure to staphylococcal enterotoxin B(SEB) of different concentrations in the maxillary sinus mucosa of rabbits.The rabbits were randomly divided into 2 groups (24 rabbits per group): low-dose SEB group and high-dose SEB group. The low-dose SEB group and high-dose SEB group received daily injections of 0.6 ng of SEB (2 ml) and 60 ng of SEB (2 ml) into the left maxillary sinus of rabbits for 28 days, respectively. Concurrent treatment of the right maxillary sinus with normal saline was used as a control. Six rabbits chosen randomly in two groups were killed on days 3, 7, 14, and 28, and to obtain the sinus mucosa from the two-side maxillary sinuses for measurement. Mucosal levels of IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, and IFN-γ were measured using ABC-ELISA. Tissue expression of GATA-3 were examined using Real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry.IFN-γ and IL-2 levels were significantly elevated in the high-dose SEB group compared with the low-dose SEB and control groups on days 7, 14, and 28 (P0.05). However, IL-4 and IL-5 levels were markedly enhanced in the low-dose SEB group compared with the high-dose SEB and control groups on days 14 and 28 (P0.05). Real-time PCR showed that the expression of GATA-3 mRNA in the low-dose SEB group was markedly enhanced, and immunohistochemical staining illustrated that the number of GATA-3 positive cells was markedly increased in the low-dose SEB group as compared with the high-dose SEB group (P0.05). No significant differences were observed in GATA-3 expression between the high-dose SEB and the control groups (P0.05).SEB promoted Th1 cytokines production at high concentrations, and enhanced Th2 cytokines expression and Th2 immune response at low concentrations.

Staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) induces T lymphocyte activation along with nasal allergic inflammation during rhinosinusitis, but it is under debate on which types of T helper (Th) cells respond exclusively or whether they respond synergically. We hypothesize that their responses may vary based on dose of SE. To test this hypothesis, we initiated to determine the nature of the T cell response and pathological feature upon repeated exposure to staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) at different doses in the maxillary sinus of rabbits. SEA (0.6 or 60 ng) was instilled daily into the left maxillary sinus of rabbits for 28 days. The right maxillary sinus receiving normal saline was used as control. Mucosal histological changes were examined by hematoxylin–eosin and toluidine blue staining. Tissue expression of myeloperoxidase (MPO), eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), T-box expressed in T cells (T-bet), and GATA binding protein 3 (GATA-3) were examined using immunohistochemistry. Mucosal levels of representative pro-inflammatory cytokines were measured using ELISA. SEA at 60 ng/day induced acute rhinosinusitis, as confirmed by CT scan. Histopathologic examination revealed epithelial disruption, subepithelial edema, and inflammatory cell infiltration. MPO and T-bet expression, as well as interleukin (IL)-2 and interferon (IFN)-γ levels, were up-regulated. However, 0.6 ng/day SEA did not cause discharge. Histological examination revealed prominent eosinophilic infiltration. ECP and GATA-3 expression, as well as IL-4 and IL-5 levels, were increased at this lower dose. In conclusion, SEA induces acute rhinosinusitis associated with a Th1-type immune response at high dose, and a predominantly Th2-biased allergic inflammation at low dose.

The rapid increase of multimedia data makes multimedia query more and more important. To better satisfy users' query requirements, developing a functional multimedia query language is becoming a promising and interesting task. In this paper, we propose a graphical multimedia query language called GMQL, which is developed based on a semi-structured data organization model. In GMQL, we combine the advantages of graphs and texts, making the query language much clear, easy to use and with powerful expressiveness. In this paper, we first present the notations and basic capabilities of GMQL by query examples. Second, we discuss the GMQL query processing techniques. Last, we evaluate and analyze our multimedia query language through the comparison with other existing multimedia query languages. The evaluation results show that, GMQL has powerful expressiveness, and thus is much applicable for multimedia information retrieval. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

UMQL is powerful general-purpose multimedia query language, which allows users to query multimedia data based on their content information. For its internal processing, a relation-extension algebra called MREA is proposed in this paper. Based on the original relation operators, MREA introduces several new operators, mainly including content selection and spatio-temporal selection that are designed for the structure-feature queries and spatio-temporal queries, respectively. The processing methods for these new operators are then given. The well application results in prototype shows that MREA is an effective query algebra and very suitable for processing UMQL-based multimedia queries.

This paper proposes a model for recovering writing sequence from offline handwritten Chinese character image. In this model, a 4-layer hierarchy is presented to model Chinese character, where characters, components, subcomponents and strokes are located at each layer, respectively. Characters are decomposed to components and components are decomposed to subcomponents in turn by four decomposing operators. The totally-ordered relations among subcomponents are retrieved by defining the corresponding rules between decomposed relations and a partially-ordered set (poset) of subcomponents, and the writing orders of subcomponent are recovered by classifying strokes and crossing stroke pairs. Finally, experimental results show that our method is effective and accurate.

In this paper, a generalized multimedia database data model based on MPEG-7 named G3M is proposed and formally defined. Different from those XML Database Management System (DBMS) solutions for MPEG-7 storage and retrieval, G3M analyses the MPEG-7 Multimedia Description Schemes (MDS) throughout to construct user-preferred database schemas, and the prototype system is built on extensible Object-Relational DBMSs. With the strong expressiveness of MPEG-7, G3M represents various aspects of multimedia data well. Domain knowledge for special application demand can be defined and used as references in G3M.

We propose a unified multimedia query language called UMQL, based on a semi-structured data model. In contrast to previous multimedia query languages that are either designed only for one particular medium or not powerful enough on multimedia query ability, UMQL is a general and powerful multimedia language which can support effectively queries based on content, structure, spatial relationships and temporal relationships of multimedia data, and finally has been shown to be very expressive and quite suitable for multimedia information retrieval.

To investigate the inhibitory effect of elemene on the tumor growth of human laryngeal squamous carcinoma (LSCC) and to explore the possible mechanism of its inhibitory effect on LSCC.Nude mice model engrafted with laryngocarcinoma was established by using human laryngeal squamous carcinoma cell line (Hep-2). When the transplantable tumor size is more than 10 mm, the mice were given elemene (120 mg/kg) in the treatment group or PBS in the control group, at the day of 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19 and 22 respectively. The animals were killed three days after the last treatment. The tumor volume, tumor weight,mice net weight and tumor inhibition rate were measured. The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3 (VEGFR-3) mRNA were quantitated by using reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction technique.Elemene could inhibit the tumor growth in vivo. The differences were statistically significant for the mice net weight, tumor weight, and tumor volume between the treatment group and the control group. The tumor inhibition percentage was 52.24%. The gene expression of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 of the treatment group is lower than that of the control group and the differences were statistically significant (P0.01).Elemene could inhibit the subcutaneous plantation of human laryngeal carcinoma in nude mice and its mechanism may be associated with inhibited expression of VEGF-C and VEGFR-3.