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Introduction: Body status, categorized as sarcopenia or obesity and assessed using body mass index and body composition, affects the outcome of bladder cancer patients. However, studies comparing disease progression, recurrence, or overall survival in patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) with different body compositions are lacking. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective study to identify the impact of body composition, sarcopenia, and obesity on the oncological prognosis of patients with NMIBC who underwent transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) intravesical instillation (IVI). Methods: Patients with NMIBC who had undergone TURBT with adjuvant IVI with BCG from March 2005 to April 2021 were included. Body composition parameters were evaluated using computed tomography images of the third lumbar vertebrae and further categorized by sarcopenia and obesity. Oncological outcomes including recurrence-free survival (RFS), progressionfree survival, and overall survival (OS) after treatment were analyzed. Results: A total of 269 patients were enrolled. Subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) density was a significant predictor of RFS, whereas psoas muscle density was a significant predictor of OS in the multivariate analysis. Patients with sarcopenia but without obesity tolerated significantly fewer BCG IVIs than patients without sarcopenia or obesity. Patients with sarcopenia had poorer RFS and OS than those without sarcopenia. In contrast, patients with obesity had better OS than those without obesity. Discussion: Body composition parameters, including SAT density and psoas muscle density, emerged as significant predictors of OS and RFS, respectively. Hence, our findings indicate that body composition is a helpful measurement to assess the oncological outcomes of patients with NMIBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) has a poor prognosis. Abiraterone acetate (AA), enzalutamide, and chemotherapy are first-line treatments for patients with mCRPC. This study examined prognostic factors for AA response in the form of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) kinetics throughout androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) in chemonaïve patients with mCRPC. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively included data from 34 chemonaïve patients with mCRPC who had received AA at some point between January 2017 and December 2018. We separated patients into two study arms according to the decrease in PSA percentages after use of AA for 3 months. We correlated PSA kinetics parameters with response and compared the two study groups with respect to PSA kinetics. Results: The patients' median age was 77 years. In the total group of patients, 64% had a response to AA, whereas 35% did not. The ratio of the PSA level at nadir to the level during ADT was significantly higher in the AA-sensitive group (19.78 vs. 1.03, p=0.019). Conclusions: Patients who experienced a dramatic change in PSA level during ADT were more likely to be resistant to AA after progression to mCRPC. Chemotherapy rather than AA might be more suitable as a first-line treatment for these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kidney cancer is one of the most lethal cancer types worldwide. The most common subtype of kidney cancer is clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), and the somatic mutations of ccRCC have been identified through the development of large databases. The present study aimed to validate the status of the associated gene mutations in a Taiwanese cohort. Targeted sequencing was used to validate the mutation status of genes related to ccRCC in Taiwanese patients who had nephrectomy for kidney cancer. The top eight mutated genes in the Catalogue Of Somatic Mutations In Cancer (COSMIC) were selected. These genes were VHL, protein polybromo-1 (PBRM1), histone-lysine N-methyltransferase SETD2, BRCA1-associated protein-1 (BAP1), lysine-specific demethylase 5C (KDM5C), TP53, MTOR and PTEN. The association between the gene mutation status of VHL, PBRM1, SETD2 and BAP1 was validated with clinicopathological parameters as well as overall survival time. Tumor cells from 96 patients with ccRCC were target sequenced. The order of mutation rate of the eight aforementioned genes was similar to that reported within COSMIC. The present Taiwanese cohort exhibited lower PBRM1 and BAP1 mutation rates compared with average, with increased mutation rates for SETD2 and KDM5C. BAP1 mutation was associated with the tumor and cancerous stage. None of these four genes were positively associated with the overall survival of patients. The PBRM1 and SETD2 mutations were mutually exclusive to BAP1 mutation. Overall, the present study provided data confirming gene alteration in Taiwanese patients with ccRCC and showed some differences when compared with Western countries. Further comprehensive genomic and epigenomic studies, as well as downstream validation, are necessary to evaluate the impact of these differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Urolithiasis is a common urinary tract disease worldwide. It has been connected to systemic diseases, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease. In the current study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between urolithiasis and the complications of acute myocardial infarction (AMI).Materials and Methods: Data were obtained from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005 of the National Health Insurance Research Database. All AMI cases, both those who were hospitalized and those who were treated in the emergency department, were identified using the International Classification of Diseases, ninth revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) code.Results: A total of 37,052 patients with urinary calculi and 148,209 control subjects were enrolled in this study. The average follow-up period was 9.51 years. The risk of AMI was higher among patients with urolithiasis (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.07, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.03-1.13). We detected a significant association between urolithiasis and intubation (aHR 1.53, 95% CI 1.36-1.73), intensive care unit treatment (aHR 1.22, 95% CI 1.13-1.32), heart failure (aHR 1.59, 95% CI 1.42-1.78), shock (aHR 1.53, 95% CI 1.32-1.77), and arrhythmias (aHR 1.18, 95% CI 1.06-1.33). Furthermore, certain medical treatments for urolithiasis were found to be related to myocardial infarction (MI). Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were significantly associated with a high risk of AMI. In contrast, allopurinol, thiazide diuretic, potassium-sparing diuretics, and α-blockers have negative association with AMI.Conclusion: Urolithiasis had a significantly increased risk of endotracheal intubation and heart failure following AMI. In addition, urolithiasis was also associated with a high risk of intensive care unit treatment, shock, and arrhythmias after AMI. Medical treatments for urolithiasis may decrease the risk of MI, except the use of NSAIDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online shopping has become one of the most popular shopping styles currently because it leads to competitive advantages on cost saving and profit increasing. The purpose of this study is to investigate the causal relationship among trust, satisfaction and loyalty on Yahoo auction website of Taiwan. The proposed model was constructed through structure equation modeling (SEM). For trust, three variables including online customer review, type of payment, and secure certificate were involved. Four variables including product quality, price, the consistency of products and photos, and delivery speed were consisted in satisfaction. With regard to loyalty, three variables including recommendation to others, repurchase intention, and membership system were comprised. Finally, the results indicated that the significant and positive relationships were found between trust and satisfaction, and between satisfaction and loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study constructed the image quality models for a small mobile display under different ambient illumination levels using Group Method and Data Handling (GMDH) and described the relationship between perceived image quality and physical measurements. 33 college students took part in this experiment and were asked to evaluate the image quality under 1,500 lux (typical indoor office illumination) and 7,000 lux (simulated outdoor environment) in Stage One and Stage Two, respectively. In each stage, the participants had to evaluate 21 images. 17 sets of the data as a training set were used to build the model and four sets of the data as a testing set were used to verify the model. The results indicated that the effects of luminance, contrast, correlated color temperature (CCT), and resolution were significant on perceived image quality under 1,500 lux. However, color temperature was not a significant physical characteristic, and an interaction between luminance and contrast was found below 7,000 lux. From the results of the experiment, it is considered that the outdoor environment (7,000 lux) is not suitable for using mobile displays. Finally, once a valid image quality model is built, the subjective image quality can be established when the measurements of significant physical characteristics are provided. The results of subjective ratings can also be provided for mobile display manufacturers to improve the product quality so that their products can meet customers' requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce the effect of parasitic mismatches and circuit sensitivity to thermal gradients or process variations for analog circuits, some pairs of modules need to be placed symmetrically with respect to a common axis, and the symmetric modules are preferred to be placed at closest proximity for better electrical properties. Most previous works handle the problem with symmetry constraints by imposing symmetric-feasible conditions in floorplan representations and using cost functions to minimize the distance between symmetric modules. Such approaches are inefficient due to the large search space and cannot guarantee the closest proximity of symmetry modules. In this paper, we present the first linear-time-packing algorithm for the placement with symmetry constraints using the topological floorplan representations. We first introduce the concept of a symmetry island which is formed by modules of the same symmetry group in a single connected placement. Based on this concept and the B*-tree representation, we propose automatically symmetric-feasible (ASF) B*-trees to directly model the placement of a symmetry island. We then present hierarchical B*-trees (HB*-trees) which can simultaneously optimize the placement with both symmetry islands and nonsymmetric modules. Unlike the previous works, our approach can place the symmetry modules in a symmetry group in close proximity and significantly reduce the search space based on the symmetry-island formulation. In particular, the packing time for an ASF-B*-tree or an HB*-tree is the same as that for a plain B*-tree (only linear) and much faster than previous works. Experimental results show that our approach achieves the best-published quality and runtime efficiency for analog placement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demonstrates a multiple negative-differential-resistance (MNDR) device based on a metal-insulator-semiconductor-insulator-metal (MISIM)-like structure. Need for multiple stable operation states in the application of MNDR in memory cells; Characteristics of anode and cathode of the negative-differential-resistance phenomenon; Conclusions.