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Background. Acute monocytic leukemia belongs to type M5 of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) classified by FAB, which appears a high incidence of extramedullary infiltration (EMI) and poor prognosis. In this study, we observed the inhibitory effect of ginsenoside Rk3 on the EMI of monocytic leukemia cells and initially explored its related mechanism of targeting the miR-3677-5p/CXCL12 axis. Methods. The MTT assay and colony formation assay were used to detect the inhibitory effect of Rk3 on proliferation. Both cellular migration and invasion were observed by the Transwell assay. The expression levels of miR-3677-5p, CXCL12, and CXCR4 were detected by RT-qPCR and Western blot, as well as overexpression of miR-3677-5p by transfected with lentivirus and detection of a dual luciferase reporter gene. The expression of MMP2 and TIMP2 was detected by immunofluorescence. Results. Rk3 effectively inhibits the proliferation, migration, and invasion associated with EMI of leukemia. The leukemia cells of M5 patients with EMI showed low expression of miR-3677-5p but high expression of the mRNA of CXCL12 and CXCR4. Overexpression of miR-3677-5p or intervention of CXCL12 effectively inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of SHI-1 cells. The luciferase assay showed that CXCL12 was the downstream target gene of miR-3677-5p. After overexpression of miR-3677-5p or intervention of CXCL12 in combination with Rk3, the inhibitory effect on the proliferation, migration, and invasion of SHI-1 cells was more obvious. Importantly, Rk3 significantly regulated the expression levels of miR-3677-5p, CXCL12, CXCR4, and EMI-related functional proteins including MMP2 and TIMP2. Overexpression of miR-3677-5p or intervention of CXCL12 also regulated the expression of MMP2 and TIMP2. Conclusions. The leukemia cells of M5 patients with EMI appeared to have low expression of miR-3677-5p and high expression of the mRNA of CXCL12 and CXCR4, which may be used as indicators of EMI and poor prognosis. Rk3 is effective in inhibiting the EMI of SHI-1 cells by targeting the miR-3677-5p/CXCL12 axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. An artificial liver support system (ALSS) is an effective therapy for patients with severe liver injury. A vasovagal reaction (VVR) is a common complication in various treatment settings but has not been reported previously in ALSS. Methods. This study retrospectively evaluated patients who suffered an ALSS-related VRR between January 2018 and June 2019. We collected data from VVR episodes including onset time, duration, changes in heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP), and drug treatment. Results. Among 637 patients who underwent ALSS treatment, 18 were included in the study. The incidence of VVR was approximately 2.82%. These patients were characterized by a rapid decrease in BP or HR with associated symptoms such as chest distress, nausea, and vomiting. The majority of patients (78%) suffered a VVR during their first ALSS treatment. Sixteen patients (89%) had associated symptoms after treatment began. Sixteen patients (89%) received human albumin or Ringer's solution. Atropine was used in 11 patients (61%). The symptoms were relieved within 20 min in 15 patients and over 20 min in 3 patients. Conclusions. A VVR is a rare complication in patients with severe liver injury undergoing ALSS treatment. Low BP and HR are the main characteristics of a VVR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The aim of this study was to compare clinical outcomes of three therapeutic strategies in patients with stage IB2/IIA2 cervical cancer. Methods. This is a retrospective cohort study. Patients diagnosed with stage IB2/IIA2 cervical cancer between April 2010 and December 2015 at First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University were included and classed into three groups. The primary outcomes were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). The secondary outcomes included toxicity, hospitalization costs, clinical value, and length of stay. Results. 206 patients were included: 104 used primary surgical treatment (PST), 53 used neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radical surgery (NAC + RS), and 49 used concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Fewer patients with NAC + RS had deep cervical stromal invasion than primary surgical treatment (PST) (P = 0.024). 70.2% of PST and 77.4% in NAC + RS required postoperative radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy (P = 0.634). Median follow-up was 57 months and the 3-year OS and PFS in PST, NAC + RS, and CCRT group were 87.5%, 84.9%, 85.7% and 85.6%, 79.2%, 85.7% (P = 0.856 and P = 0.424 , respectively). Three therapeutic strategies were not associated with OS and PFS. Hospitalization costs were significantly higher in NAC + RS compared to PST (P < 0.001) and CCRT (P < 0.001). Length of stay in NAC + RS was longer than PST (P < 0.001) and CCRT group (P = 0.07). Conclusion. The results of this study tend to suggest that the three therapeutic strategies were equivalent treatment options for patients with 2009 FIGO stage IB2/IIA2 cervical cancer. However, prospective larger studies are needed to confirm this. In addition, we did find that concurrent chemoradiotherapy needed shorter treatment time and less cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the pricing and coordination strategy in a green supply chain in which a manufacturer produces a green product and sells it to a risk-averse retailer. The product's demand is a random variable influenced by the green level and the retail price. The problem is modeled in three different structures, a centralized and two decentralized models, in which the upstream manufacturer and the downstream retailer act as the channel leader, respectively. This paper presents the optimal decisions for all supply chain members, analyzes the effects of green degree and risk-averse coefficient on the supply chain members' decision-making and their profits, and performs the numerical analysis. The results show that the green degree and the whole supply chain's expected profits are highest in the centralized scenario, followed by the retailer-led scenario, and lowest under the manufacturer-led scenario; the green degree and the manufacturer's expected profit increase with the risk-averse coefficient, no matter who dominates the channel; however, the risk-averse coefficient's effects on the retailer's expected utility and the retail price depends on who dominates the channel and on the greening investment parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid wireless mesh networks are more suitable to tunnels in underground mines because mesh clients can perform the routing functionality and provide end-user applications. Types of data transmitted among hybrid wireless mesh networks in underground mines are diverse and power supply of clients is limited. Using virtual potential field, a routing algorithm is proposed to support data-differentiated service in hybrid wireless mesh networks. Based on network parameters, the hybrid wireless mesh networks are abstracted as potential fields. The hop count is used to build the depth potential field. The residual energy of nodes is converted into penalty factor to symbolize the used buffer spaces of nodes, which is used to construct resource potential field to support different types of data. According to the different demands of data transmission, the proportion of these two potential fields is adjusted by a regulatory factor to form a hybrid potential field. The data packets are driven to move toward the gateway in the hybrid potential field at the same time to achieve high quality of service. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed routing algorithm has shown better performance on end-to-end delay, delivery ratio, and network lifetime, compared with similar algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid wireless mesh networks are suitable for complex environment communication in coal mine. Mesh clients with application service and routing function in hybrid wireless mesh networks can form a highly robust hybrid network with mesh routers. The processes of nutrient flux transfer and path choice in Physarum network are similar to data transmission and routing selection in hybrid wireless mesh networks. In this article, we use Physarum-inspired autonomic optimization model to design a Physarum-inspired multi-parameter adaptive routing protocol to improve the service quality of coal mine hybrid wireless mesh networks. Physarum-inspired multi-parameter adaptive routing protocol has achieved distributed routing decision by drawing the hybrid wireless mesh network parameters into Poisson’s equation of Physarum-inspired autonomic optimization model to measure the quality of link and implements two adjustment strategies to make the protocol more adaptive. The resource-dependent adjustment, which considers the irreversible energy consumption and recoverable buffer occupation, makes the energy consumption problem prominent when there is a lack of energy. The position-dependent adjustment makes routing decision efficient according to the load of different positions, which is caused by many-to-one data transmission model in coal mine. Based on NS2, simulation experiments are performed to evaluate the performance of Physarum-inspired multi-parameter adaptive routing protocol, and the results are compared with those of ad hoc on-demand distance vector, HOPNET, ANT-DSR, and Physarum-inspired routing protocols. The experimental results show that the route path selected by Physarum-inspired multi-parameter adaptive routing protocol is better than those selected by the other four protocols in the performance of average end-to-end delay and delivery ratio. The balance of energy consumption and network load is achieved and the network lifetime is effectively prolonged when using Physarum-inspired multi-parameter adaptive routing protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesh clients in hybrid wireless mesh networks can perform the routing functionality, as well as provide end-user applications that are more suitable for tunnels, to improve the connectivity of backbone networks. In this article, based on the diversity of data and limited power supply of mesh clients in hybrid wireless mesh networks in underground mines, we propose a multi-criteria routing metric to support data-differentiated service. This routing metric divides data into two types: urgent and non-urgent. End-to-end delay is calculated when transmitting urgent data, and hop count and link load are measured when transmitting non-urgent data. In order to optimize the utilization of mesh clients and to prolong the network lifetime, mesh clients and mesh routers are given different weights in the calculation of hop count. Based on the QualNet7.1 simulation platform, the performance of the proposed routing metric in transmitting urgent and non-urgent data is evaluated through numerous simulations. Simulation results indicate that the routes selected using the proposed routing metric can effectively reduce the average end-to-end delay when transmitting urgent data and reduce the utilization rate of mesh clients while simultaneously guaranteeing the capability of the network when transmitting non-urgent data. This finding satisfies the differentiated service requirements of data of different types for hybrid wireless mesh networks in coal mines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is an extremely critical resource for battery-powered wireless sensor networks. Since data transmission typically consumes more energy than any other activities on a sensor node, it is of great importance to design energy optimized routing algorithm to achieve both energy efficiency and energy balance together, in order to prolong the network lifetime. In this paper, with the help of the concept of potential field in physics, we design a distributed energy optimized routing by constructing a hybrid potential field. The goal of this basic approach is to force packets to move toward the sink at the same time to achieve energy balance among neighbors. We adopt the social welfare function from social sciences to predict equality of residual energy of neighbors after selecting different next nodes, which is used to compute the potential value in energy balance potential field. Simulation results show that the algorithm effectively extends the network lifetime, has good performance on energy balance of sensors, and decreases the average hop of data transmission with the increase of the number of sinks, compared with similar algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]