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The current study aimed to compare the effects between remimazolam and propofol on hemodynamic stability during the induction of general anesthesia in elderly patients. We used propofol at a rate of 60 mg/(kg·h) in the propofol group (group P) or remimazolam at a rate of 6 mg/(kg·h) in the remimazolam group (group R) for the induction. A processed electroencephalogram was used to determine whether the induction was successful and when to stop the infusion of the study drug. We measured when patients entered the operating room (T0), when the induction was successful (T1), and when before (T2) and 5 min after successful endotracheal intubation (T3). We found that mean arterial pressure (MAP) was lower at T1-3, compared with T0 in both groups, but higher at T2in the group R, while ΔMAPT0-T2 and ΔMAPmax were smaller in the group R (ΔMAPT0-T2: the difference between MAP at time point T0 and T2, ΔMAPmax: the difference between MAP at time point T0 and the lowest value from T0 to T3). Cardiac index and stroke volume index did not differ between groups, whereas systemic vascular resistance index was higher at T1-3 in the group R. These findings show that remimazolam, compared with propofol, better maintains hemodynamic stability during the induction, which may be attributed to its ability to better maintain systemic vascular resistance levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: The tumor suppressive role of miR-1296 is observed in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, the effect of miR-1296-5p in ERBB2-positive breast cancers remains obscure. Methods: Whether ERBB2 was the target gene of the miR-1296-5p was predicted by online software, and determined by dual-luciferase activity assay. miR-1296-5p expression levels were determined in breast cancer samples (114 breast cancer tissues and 30 adjacent normal tissues) by using qRT-PCR. The effect of miR-1296-5p and inhibition of ERBB2/mTORC1 signaling on the downstream target was assessed by Western blot. SK-BR-3 and BT-474 breast cancer cell line was transfected with miR-1296-5p mimic after which cell proliferation and apoptosis were determined by the clonogenic assay and the flow cytometry system, respectively. In addition, the chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity of SK-BR-3 and BT-474 cells transfected with miR-1296-5p mimic were determined by MTT assay. Results: The luciferase assay carrying ERBB2 3'-untranslated region-based reporters expressed in SK-BR-3 and BT-474 cells suggested that ERBB2 was the target gene of miR-1296-5p. MiR-1296-5p was significantly decreased in breast cancer tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues. Moreover, it was declined in ERBB2-positive breast cancer samples compared with that in ERBB2-negative breast cancer tissues. Overexpressed miR-1296-5p reduced its target protein level and mTORC1/S6 activation, inhibited the proliferation of ERBB2-positive breast cancer cells and sensitized these cells to cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil-induced apoptosis. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that miR-1296-5p is involved in the regulation of proliferation in breast cancer cells via targeting ERBB2/mTORC1 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to investigate the response of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway and gluconeogenic enzymes in intrauterine growth-restricted rats to dietary L-arginine (L-Arg) supplementation during the lactation period early in life. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into a control group (CON), an intrauterine growth restriction group (IUGR) and an L-Arg group (LA). The pregnant rats in the CON group were fed a 21% protein diet, and those in the IUGR and LA groups were fed a 10% low protein diet, and all rats were fed a 21% protein diet after delivery. Water was available ad libitum to the pregnant rats during the 21-day lactation period, and the water provided to the LA group included 200 mg/kg/day L-Arg. Blood glucose, serum insulin, homeostasis model of assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), PI3K and protein kinase B (PKB) protein expression, and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and glucose-6-phosphatase (G-6-Pase) mRNA expression in the offspring rats were measured postnatally at 1, 3 and 8 weeks. No significant difference in blood glucose, serum insulin and HOMA-IR were identified at any time point among the three groups. PI3K and PKB expression was lower in the IUGR group offspring compared with that in the CON group offspring, but both were increased by dietary L-Arg supplementation. PEPCK mRNA and G-6-Pase mRNA expression levels in the offspring of the IUGR group were higher compared with those in the CON group but were downregulated following L-Arg supplementation. These results suggest that dietary L-Arg supplementation during the early lactation period promoted catch-up growth and reversed abnormalities in hepatic insulin signaling and gene expression of gluconeogenic enzymes in IUGR offspring rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyclically dominant systems are hot issues in academia, and they play an important role in explaining biodiversity in Nature. In this paper, we construct a five-strategy cyclically dominant system. Each individual in our system changes its strategy along a fixed direction. The dominant strategy can promote a change in the dominated strategy, and the dominated strategy can block a change in the dominant strategy. We use mean-field theory and cellular automaton simulation to discuss the evolving characters of the system. In the cellular automaton simulation, we find the emergence of spiral waves on spatial patterns without a migration rate, which suggests a new way to produce self-organized spatial patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: Microglia are an essential player in central nervous system inflammation. Recent studies have demonstrated that the astrocytic chemokine, CCL2, is associated with microglial activation in vivo. However, CCL2-induced microglial activation has not yet been studied in vitro. The purpose of the current study was to understand the role of astrocytederived CCL2 in microglial activation and to elucidate the underlying mechanism(s). Methods: Primary astrocytes were pre-treated with CCL2 siRNA and stimulated with TNF-α. The culture medium (CM) was collected and added to cultures of microglia, which were incubated with and without CCR2 inhibitor. Microglial cells were analyzed by quantitative RTPCRto determine whether they polarized to the Ml or M2 state. Microglial migratory ability was assessed by transwell migration assay. Results: TNF-α stimulated the release of CCL2 from astrocytes, even if the culture media containing TNF-α was replaced with fresh media after 3 h. CM from TNF-α-stimulated astrocytes successfully induced microglial activation, which was ascertained by increased activation of Ml and enhanced migration ability. In contrast, CM from astrocytes pretreated with CCL2 siRNA showed no effect on microglial activation, compared to controls. Additionally, microglia pre-treated with RS102895, a CCR2 inhibitor, were resistant to activation by CM from TNF-α-stimulated astrocytes. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that the CCL2/CCR2 pathway of astrocyte-induced microglial activation is associated with Ml polarization and enhanced migration ability, indicating that this pathway could be a useful tarqet to ameliorate inflammation in the central nervous system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a HBV infection model with impulsive vaccination is considered. By using fixed point theorem and stroboscopic map we prove the existence of disease-free T-periodic solution. Also by comparative theorem of impulsive differential equation we get the global asymptotic stability of the disease-free periodic solution and permanence of the disease. Numerical simulations show the influence of parameters on the dynamics of HBV, which provided references for seeking optimal measures to control the transmission of HBV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Zoledronic acid is a potent inhibitor of osteoclast-mediated bone resorption and has been widely used in bone metastasis malignancies and postmenopausal osteoporosis as a preventive therapy against skeletal-related events. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcome of zoledronic acid as an adjuvant therapy for patients with early stage breast cancer. Patients and methods Entries in the PubMed and EMBASE databases up to 12 July 2013 were systematically reviewed. Online abstracts from the proceedings of the Annual Meetings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (1992-2013) and the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) (2004-2013) were also reviewed. Primary endpoints included overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS), while secondary endpoints included bone metastasis-free survival (BMFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), and fracture-free rate (FFR). Results A total of eight studies including 3,866 subjects and 3,864 controls met our search criteria and were evaluated. The use of zoledronic acid was found to improve OS (relative risk (RR), 0.88; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.77-1.01; p-value = 0.06) and DMFS (RR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.60-1.00; p-value = 0.05). Furthermore, statistically significant benefits were associated with BMFS (RR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.66-0.99; p-value = 0.04) and FFRs (RR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.61-0.92; p-value = 0.007). In contrast, there was no significant difference in DFS with the application of zoledronic acid (RR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.72-1.09; p-value = 0.24). Sensitivity analysis further identified the improvement of 5-year OS for the adjuvant zoledronic acid therapy in early stage breast cancer patients (RR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.75-0.99; p-value = 0.03), while a borderline statistically significant benefit was observed for 5-year DFS (RR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.81-1.00; p-value = 0.06). Conclusion Zoledronic acid as an adjuvant therapy appears to improve the 5-year OS rate for early stage breast cancer patients, and was associated with a protective effect for the bone metastases and fractures evaluated in more than 7,000 patients. However, further research is needed to confirm our findings, and sub-group analyses according to menopause status or hormone status may provide further insight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We improve the traditional integrated pest management (IPM) control strategies and formulate three specific management strategies, which can be described by hybrid dynamical systems. These strategies can not only effectively control pests but also reduce the abuse of pesticides and protect the natural enemies. The aim of this work is to study how the factors, such as natural enemies optimum choice in the two kinds of different pests, timings of natural enemy releases, dosages and timings of insecticide applications, and instantaneous killing rates of pesticides on both pests and natural enemies, can affect the success of IPM control programmes. The results indicate that the pests outbreak period or frequency largely depends on the optimal selective feeding of the natural enemy between one of the pests and the control tactics. Ultimately, we obtain the only pest x2 needs to be controlled below a certain threshold while not supervising pest x1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a complex network is constructed as comprising "clusters" which can be interpreted as a group of people with regular contacts. In each "cluster" individuals contact fully. A given individual contact individuals in other "clusters" by links. Then we study the dynamical behavior of the epidemiological model in this complex network, and discuss the influence of the intra-cluster infection probability, the extra-cluster infection probability, and infection time before being detected on epidemic dynamics. The results show that extra-cluster infection reduction, early detection and swift isolation are good infection control practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Armando Ticona Bustillos and Paulo Murilo C. de Oliveira first combined learning strategy with Penna model using a third bit string to represent knowledge. There are two forms of learning strategy in their model: individual learning through trial-and-error and social learning through copying knowledge from others. Based on the Bustillos-Oliveira model, we propose a new learning strategy:. (1) Individual learning ability depending on knowledge, through which the individual learning ability is not a constant but in direct proportion to the knowledge level of individual;. (2) Double-direction Social learning, under this, not only the young can learn from the elder, but also the elder can learn from the young;. (3) The age-dependent learning capacity, we make the learning capacity a variable in inverse proportion to the age, unlike which has been represented in Bustillos and Oliveira's model as a constant. Under this new learning strategy represented above, we get different result in the level of knowledge of individuals from B-O model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Penna model, the genetic disease which influences the existence of individual has been described by bit-string. In fact, the individual will get extragenetic disease and die of that. In this paper we consider the extragenetic disease and discuss the influence of disease-resistant capability and cure on the existence of species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi-species ecological system with cyclic dominance and vacant sites is studied. The theme is the forming problem of species' defensive alliances in the corresponding systems. György Szabó and Gustavo Arial Sznaider have discussed the forming problem of species' defensive alliance in Phys. Rev. E69, 031911 (2004). Now, this problem is discussed in depth. The following conclusions are obtained: Firstly, the necessary and sufficient condition of forming defensive alliances is that the number of species is even. Secondly, in the condition where the number of species is an even number, for any density of vacant sites, there is three forms of defensive alliance as follow: • Deadlock — the habitats of specie's individuals in each alliance interweave together. • Relative preponderance — the different of the number of species' individuals between the two defensive alliances keeps steadily. • Absolute preponderance — the different of the number of species' individuals between the two defensive alliances enlarges continuously. This paper discusses the relations between the number of species and the forming of the defensive alliances, and shows the corresponding three statistical distributions of discrete density of vacant sites when there are four species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cellular automata model is developed aiming to study the epidemic on a lattice of two dimensions. The characteristics of individual including reproduction, death by inherited diseases and age are studied in the Penna model. The spreading of epidemic and the reproduction of individual are considered as cellular automata. We shall mainly discuss the influence on the number of epidemical patients by infection rate and death rate. The results show that the existence of epidemic mainly depends on the infection rate and the death rate but not the initial ratio of patients. There are two reasons for nonexistent epidemic. As long as the infection rate is less than 0.3, the epidemic cannot spread. On the other hand, if the infection rate and the death rate are both high, the individuals with epidemic die out and the epidemic cannot spread, either. The epidemic can exist all along when the combination of infection rate and death rate are in the mid area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a simulation model based on the Penna model to study the population evolution. The wealth of the individual is considered in the model. We define increasing ratio α and decreasing ratio β of the wealth presenting the individual wealth variation, also define minimum wealth PROMO which works when one reproduces. We study the influence of α and β on a species' survival or downfall, and the influence of PROMO on the age distribution of a species. According to the different values of α and β, we find diverse regimes where a species will survive or die out, and even the regime where species' survival or downfall are very sensitive. We study the relation between life expectancy and the wealth of the individual, finding that life expectancy doesn't increase but decrease a little when the wealth of the individual increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present difference equations for the simple biological aging model, which is called Stauffer model, and obtain the corresponding expression of the exact stationary solution. Considering numerically iterated solutions to those difference equations, we find that the result of iterated simulations is similar to the simulations of Stauffer model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a cellular automata model containing movable wolves, sheep and reproducible grass. Each wolf or sheep is characterized by Penna bitstrings. In addition, we introduce the energy rule and the predator–prey mechanism for wolf and sheep. With considering age-structured, genetic strings, minimum reproduction age, cycle of the reproduction, number of offspring, we get three possible states of a predator–prey system: the coexisting one with predators and prey, the absorbing one with prey only, and the empty one where no animal survived. In this paper, we mainly discuss the effect of the number of poor genes, the energy supply (food), the minimum reproduction age, the reproductive cycle and the birth rate on the above three possible final states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a model of studying attitude evolution on campus. With the Cellular Automata (CA) model, we divide the students into five groups with different studying attitudes, and discuss the influence of different proportions of students with different studies on the whole studying attitude. With the definition of the concrete correlations of the individuals, we simulate the evolution of studying attitude on campus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a lattice model based on Monte Carlo simulations, we study the role of the reproduction pattern on the fate of an evolving population. Each individual is under the selection pressure from the environment and random mutations. The habitat ("climate") is changing periodically. Evolutions of populations following two reproduction patterns are compared, asexual and sexual. We show, via Monte Carlo simulations, that sexual reproduction by keeping more diversified populations gives them better chances to adapt themselves to the changing environment. However, in order to obtain a greater chance to mate, the birth rate should be high. In the case of low birth rate and high mutation probability there is a preference for the asexual reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We presented a predator–prey lattice model containing moveable wolves and sheep, which are characterized by Penna double bit strings. Sexual reproduction and child-care strategies are considered. To implement this model in an efficient way, we build a fully parallel Cellular Automata based on a new definition of the neighborhood. We show the roles played by the initial densities of the populations, the mutation rate and the linear size of the lattice in the evolution of this model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on ischemic stroke which is a time sensitive disease and needs immediate treatment which is marked by rise in the levels of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) which is an independent bio marker for cardioembolic stroke ans is associated with negative results and a quick pathological test by doctors in the emergency department.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "A prospective study of brain natriuretic peptide levels in three subgroups: Stroke with hypertension, stroke without hypertension, and hypertension alone," by Zeynep Cakir and colleagues in issue number 2010;13.