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AIM: To identify genetic defects in a Chinese family with congenital posterior polar cataracts and assess the pathogenicity. METHODS: A four-generation Chinese family affected with autosomal dominant congenital cataract was recruited. Nineteen individuals took part in this study including 5 affected and 14 unaffected individuals. Sanger sequencing targeted hot-spot regions of 27 congenital cataract-causing genes for variant discovery. The pathogenicity of the variant was evaluated by the guidelines of American College of Medical Genetics and InterVar software. Confocal microscopy was applied to detect the subcellular localization of fluorescence-labeled ephrin type-A receptor 2 (EPHA2). Co-immunoprecipitation assay was implemented to estimate the interaction between EphA2 and other lens membrane proteins. The mRNA and protein expression were analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting assay, respectively. The cell migration was analyzed by wound healing assay. Zebrafish model was generated by ectopic expression of human EPHA2/p.R957P mutant to demonstrate whether the mutant could cause lens opacity in vivo. RESULTS: A novel missense and pathogenic variant c.2870G>C was identified in the sterile alpha motif (SAM) domain of EPHA2. Functional studies demonstrated the variant's impact: reduced EPHA2 protein expression, altered subcellular localization, and disrupted interactions with other lens membrane proteins. This mutant notably enhanced human lens epithelial cell migration, and induced a central cloudy region and roughness in zebrafish lenses with ectopic expression of human EPHA2/p.R957P mutant under differential interference contrast (DIC) optics. CONCLUSION: Novel pathogenic c.2870G>C variant of EPHA2 in a Chinese congenital cataract family contributes to disease pathogenesis.

Abstract Background Early identification of populations at high cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and improvement of risk factors can significantly decrease the probability of CVD development and improve outcomes. Insulin resistance (IR) is a CVD risk factor. The triglyceride glucose (TyG) index is a simple and reliable index for evaluating IR. However, no clinical studies on the prognostic value of the TyG index in a high risk CVD population have been conducted. This study evaluated the relationship between the TyG index and prognosis in a high risk CVD population. Methods This study enrolled 35,455 participants aged 35–75 years who were at high CVD risk and visited selected health centers and community service centers between 2017 and 2021. Their general clinical characteristics and baseline blood biochemical indicators were recorded. The TyG index was calculated as ln[fasting triglyceride (mg/dl)× fasting blood glucose (mg/dl)/2]. The endpoints were all-cause death and cardiovascular death during follow-up. Cox proportional hazard models and restricted cubic spline (RCS) analysis were used to evaluate the correlation between the TyG index and endpoints. Results In the overall study population, the mean age of all participants was 57.9 ± 9.6 years, 40.7% were male, and the mean TyG index was 8.9 ± 0.6. All participants were divided into two groups based on the results of the RCS analysis, with a cut-off value of 9.83. There were 551 all-cause deaths and 180 cardiovascular deaths during a median follow-up time of 3.4 years. In the multivariate Cox proportional hazard model, participants with a TyG index ≥ 9.83 had a higher risk of all-cause death (Hazard ratio [HR] 1.86, 95% Confdence intervals [CI] 1.37–2.51, P

By investigating the absolute sensitivity and maximum dilution ratio of commercially available kits, three kinds of rapid detection kit products with the best effect were selected. Fried peanuts, roasted peanuts and peanut butter were taken as representative substrates to optimize the pre-treatment conditions of samples and the reaction conditions of kits. Unified technical evaluation was conducted according to the performance indexes in The Technical Specification for Evaluation of Rapid Food Detection Methods, and the detection limit, sensitivity, specificity, false negative rate, false positive rate, relative accuracy and consistency analysis of reference methods of all brands of rapid test kits were investigated. Our findings could provide scientific basis for the rapid determination and evaluation standard of aflatoxin B1 colloidal gold in peanut and its products.

AIM: To evaluate the feasibility of promoting genetic detection for granular corneal dystrophy type 2 (GCD2) by a questionnaire conducted among citizens in five cities in China. METHODS: The data were collected by questionnaire, and analyzed by Chi-square test and one-tailed t test in IBM SPSS statistics. RESULTS: Based on the survey data on the awareness of GCD2 genetic detection in this study and the positive predictive analysis report of the citizens in five cities in China, the vast majority (84.2%) of respondents had never heard of it and did not know that GCD2 patients have been prohibited from performing excimer surgery that can deteriorate GCD2 patients’ condition even leading to blindness. Though 3.4% of patients understood GCD2 very much, they have no idea that GCD2 could not be 100% accuracy diagnosed by the conventional inspection methods. CONCLUSION: It is feasible and necessary to use GCD2 genetic detection as an excimer preoperative examination project. In order to promote the development of detection project, a few improvements should be carried out in terms of the promoting efforts, costs, and research progress.

Majiagou landslide, a major ancient landslide in Three Gorges Reservoir region, is located in the high earthquake area of southwest China. The 2013 Badong earthquake caused an obvious deformation of landslide monitored by the sliding inclinometer. A strong earthquake may induce the reactivation of ancient landslide. So, it is necessary to research the seismic dynamic response of Majiagou landslide. For this purpose, discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA), improved by introducing the artificial joint and viscous boundary, is applied in this study. The displacements at monitoring points caused by Badong earthquake are calculated and compared with the field data, verifying the numerical method and model. Further, a strong earthquake with the peak acceleration of 1 g is assumed to act on the landside, the initiation and evolution process of landslide is simulated, and the movement features of landslide are discussed. The dynamic failure of landslide and the local amplification of seismic wave can be embodied, indicating that the improved DDA provides an alternative approach for analyzing the seismic dynamic response of jointed rock.

The facile synthesis of large size borophene is highly desirable, especially in reserving green energy by borophene-based Li-ion batteries (LIBs). In this study, an easy method of synthesizing a series of nickel foam (NF) deposited with borophene sheets without the use of catalysts is reported via an improved chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. During the CVD process, the B2O2 vapor was moved to the heated nickel foam and converted into Ni3B and crystalline B under an H2 atmosphere. Numerous micron-sized lamellar borophene with thicknesses of less than 2 nm were deposited on the surface of the nickel foam, and the borophene sheets displayed ultrathin and transparency. Deep microstructural analysis revealed the crystalline nature of pure B in the as-obtained borophene sheets, and the β12-phase is dominant. The β12-borophene holds great potential for designing high-capacity anode material for LIBs. When the nickel foam-supported borophene sheets were directly used as a self-supporting binder-free anode material for LIBs, the NF framework not only hindered the aggregation of borophene sheets and alleviated the strain change during the lithiation/delithiation process but also provided a three-dimensional highway conductive network for fast electron transport. The fabricated electrodes exhibit superior lithium storage capacity and cyclic stability than blank NF electrodes. However, the results suggest that this is still far lower than the theoretical lithium storage capacity of the boron anode. The kinetics analysis combined with density functional theory calculations demonstrated that slow electron and ion transportation in the electrodes is attributed to the existence of the Ni3B phase and deactivated borophene. This study may provide vital guidance for designing high-performance borophene-based LIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xylooligosaccharides (XO), derived from the alkaline (NaOH) extractant of Mikania micrantha, were produced using multiple staged membrane separation and enzymatic xylanolysis. Staged nanofiltration (NMX), ultrafiltration (EUMX), and centrifugation (EMX) processes for the ethanol precipitates were conducted. NMX recovered 97.26% of total xylose and removed 73.18% of sodium ions. Concentrations of total xylose were raised from 10.98 to 51.85 mg/mL by the NMX process. Recovered xylan-containing solids were hydrolyzed by the recombinant Paenibacillus xylanase. 68% XO conversions from total xylose of NMX was achieved in 24 hours. Xylopentaose (DP 5) was the major product from NMX and EMX hydrolysis. Xylohexaose (DP 6) was the major product from EUMX hydrolysis. Results of the present study suggest the applicability for XO production by nanofiltration, as NMX gave higher XO yields compared to those from a conventional ethanol-related lignocellulosic waste conversion process.

By investigating the absolute sensitivity and maximum dilution ratio of commercially available kits, three kinds of rapid detection kit products with the best effect were selected. Fried peanuts, roasted peanuts and peanut butter were taken as representative substrates to optimize the pre-treatment conditions of samples and the reaction conditions of kits. Unified technical evaluation was conducted according to the performance indexes in The Technical Specification for Evaluation of Rapid Food Detection Methods, and the detection limit, sensitivity, specificity, false negative rate, false positive rate, relative accuracy and consistency analysis of reference methods of all brands of rapid test kits were investigated. Our findings could provide scientific basis for the rapid determination and evaluation standard of aflatoxin B1 colloidal gold in peanut and its products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing use of probe vehicles generates a huge number of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) data. Limited by satellite positioning technology, further improving the accuracy of map matching (MM) is challenging work, especially for low-frequency trajectories. When matching a trajectory, the ego vehicle’s spatial-temporal information of the present trip is most useful with the least amount of data. In addition, there is a large number of other data, e.g., other vehicles’ state and past prediction results, but it is hard to extract useful information for matching maps and inferring paths. Most of the MM studies have used only the ego vehicle’s data and ignored other vehicles’ data. Based on those, this article designs a new MM method to make full use of “big data.” We first sort all the data into four groups according to their spatial and temporal distance from the present matching probe, which allows us to sort for their usefulness. Then we design three different methods to extract valuable information (scores) from them: a score for speed and bearing, one for historical usage, and another for traffic state using a spectral graph Markov neural network. Finally, we use a modified top-K shortest-path method to search the candidate paths within an ellipse region and then use the fused score to infer the path (projected location). We test the proposed method against baseline algorithms using a real-world dataset in China. The results show that all scoring methods can enhance MM accuracy. Furthermore, our method outperforms the others, especially when the GNSS probing frequency is ≤ 0.01 Hz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a top-down magnetron sputtering technique with a high deposition-rate, a one-step method for preparing germanium (Ge) hybrid film is presented. At present, graphite film is used as a current collector because it is flexible, self lubricating, and possesses a stress–strain-relieving property. In order to further suppress the volume changes of the Ge, a multilayered electrically conductive nickel film is deposited between multilayered Ge films. The cells are cycled at a current density of 200 mA g−1. An initial discharge and charge capacity of 1180.7 and 949.3 mAh g−1 are achieved by the prepared integrated pyramid patterned Ge composite film anode, respectively. The average capacity was maintained at 580 mAh g−1 after 280 cycles. In the rate capability measurement, the Ge composite demonstrated a reversible capacity of 1163.1 mAh g−1. It is easily made using magnetron sputtering, which is widely accepted in the industry. A physical approach to increase pure Ge's specific capacity and its cycle life for LIBs is demonstrated in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was implemented for the evaluation on the circulating endothelial cells' (CECs) clinical significance in the locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma treatment with endostatin-combined chemoradiotherapy. This study enrolled 47 patients with locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma who were hospitalized from May 9, 2012 to March 10, 2013. These patients were split up into the observation group (25 patients) and control group (22 patients). Patients in the observation group received the endostatin combined with induction chemotherapy and subsequently with concurrent chemoradiotherapy with endostatin. Patients in the control group were treated with inductive chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy. CECs in peripheral blood were conducted separately before or after inductive chemotherapy and additionally in the end of concurrent chemoradiotherapy. The CEC values of the observation group showed significant statistical differences (p < 0.05) before or after different therapies, whereas those data in the control group were not statistically different. And, the mostly importantly, the CEC values in the observation group and control group turned out a statistical difference. The combination of endostatin and chemoradiotherapy significantly reduced parameters of peripheral blood CECs in these patients. According to the CEC parameters' variety that we observed in the combined therapies, this study demonstrated that the CECs might be a clinical clue to evaluate this antiangiogenic chemoradiotherapy. And the clinical value of CECs will be further determined along with increasing comparative studies and clinical long-term efficacy observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Congestion control is a fundamental technology to balance the traffic load and the network. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Quick UDP Internet Connection (QUIC) protocol has flexible congestion control and at the same time possesses the advantages of high efficiency, low latency, and easy deployment at the application layer. Bottleneck bandwidth and round-trip propagation time (BBR) is an optional congestion control algorithm adopted by QUIC. BBR can significantly increase throughput and reduce latency, in particular over long-haul paths. However, BBR results in high packet loss in low bandwidth and low fairness in multi-stream scenarios. In this article, we propose the enhanced BBR congestion control (eBCC) algorithm, which improves the BBR algorithm in two aspects: (1) 10.87% higher throughput and 74.58% lower packet loss rate in the low-bandwidth scenario and (2) 8.39% higher fairness in the multi-stream scenario. This improvement makes eBCC very suitable for IoT communications to provide better QoS services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Majiagou landslide, a major ancient landslide in Three Gorges Reservoir region, is located in the high earthquake area of southwest China. The 2013 Badong earthquake caused an obvious deformation of landslide monitored by the sliding inclinometer. A strong earthquake may induce the reactivation of ancient landslide. So, it is necessary to research the seismic dynamic response of Majiagou landslide. For this purpose, discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA), improved by introducing the artificial joint and viscous boundary, is applied in this study. The displacements at monitoring points caused by Badong earthquake are calculated and compared with the field data, verifying the numerical method and model. Further, a strong earthquake with the peak acceleration of 1 g is assumed to act on the landside, the initiation and evolution process of landslide is simulated, and the movement features of landslide are discussed. The dynamic failure of landslide and the local amplification of seismic wave can be embodied, indicating that the improved DDA provides an alternative approach for analyzing the seismic dynamic response of jointed rock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

5G technology is expected to enable many innovative applications in different verticals. These applications have heterogeneous performance requirements (e.g., high data rate, low latency, high reliability, and high availability). In order to meet these requirements, 5G networks endorse network flexibility through the deployment of new emerging technologies, mainly network slicing and mobile edge computing. This article introduces a distributed blockchain-enabled network slicing (DBNS) framework that enables service and resource providers to dynamically lease resources to ensure high performance for their end-to-end services. The key component of our framework is the global service provisioning (GSP), which provides admission control for incoming service requests along with dynamic resource assignment by means of a blockchain-based bidding system. The goal is to improve users' experience with diverse services and reduce providers' capital and operational expenditures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasmonic nanostructures with large absorption areas under resonant excitation have been utilized extensively in photon‐assisted applications. In this work, dodecahedral Au nanobowls were first prepared by an easy and template‐free method only through the introduction of H2PtCl6 and I− during the growth procedure. The Au nanobowls show electron‐field enhancement due to the high curvature of the bowl edge, the open region, and dodecahedral morphology. Au/Pt nanobowls, which couple plasmonic Au and catalytic Pt, were then constructed as plasmonic electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation. The mass activity reached 497.6 mA mg−1 under visible‐light illumination, which is 1.9 times that measured in the dark. Simultaneously, the electrocatalytic stability is also greatly improved under light excitation. The enhanced properties of the plasmonic Au/Pt electrocatalysts are ascribed to the synergistic effect of the plasmon‐enhanced photothermal and hot‐carrier effects on the basis of experimental investigations. This work thus offers an effective methodology to construct efficient plasmonic electrocatalysts for fuel cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fiber films have shown greater advantages over polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) in the field of energy harvesting. Adding other substances with high piezoelectric coefficient is worth exploring to further improve the output voltage of PAN. Here, we successfully dispersed high dielectric constant barium titanate in PAN nanofiber films with different dosages using an electrospinning technology. The X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results indicated that BaTiO3 nanoparticles aid in transforming PAN from a 31-helical conformation to a planar zigzag conformation, thus improving the output voltage of PAN nanofibers significantly and also promoting its mechanical properties. In addition, the human body function monitoring experiment showed a good response current to the rhythm of elbow bending, knee bending, running, and breathing. Besides, when a simple rectifier circuit was applied, the capacitor could be charged to 2 V in less than 2 min and light a commercial LED through repeated tapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multifunctional metal nanostructures with a hollow feature, especially for nanoframes, are highly attractive owing to their high surface‐to‐volume ratios. However, pre‐grown metal nanocrystals are always involved during the preparation procedure, and a synthetic strategy without the use of a pre‐grown template is still a challenge. In this article, a template‐free strategy is reported for the preparation of novel AuPt alloy nanoframes through simply mixing HAuCl4 and H2PtCl6 under mild conditions. The alloy nanostructures show a bipyramid‐frame hollow architecture with the existence of only the ten ridges and absence of their side faces. This is the first report of bipyramid‐like nanoframes and a template‐free method under mild conditions. This configuration merges the plasmonic features of Au and highly active catalytic sites of Pt in a single nanostructure, making it an ideal multifunctional platform for catalyzing and monitoring the catalytic reaction in real time. The superior catalytic activity is demonstrated by using the reduction of nitrobenzene to the corresponding aminobenzene as a model reaction. More importantly, the AuPt nanoframes can track the reduction process on the basis of the SERS signals of the reactants, intermediates, and products, which helps to reveal the reaction mechanism. In addition, the AuPt nanoframes show much higher electrocatalytic properties toward the methanol oxidation reaction than commercial Pt/C electrocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An EEG signal (Electroencephalogram) is a bioelectric phenomenon reflecting human brain activities. In this paper, we propose a novel deep learning framework ESML (EEG-based Subject Matching Learning) using raw EEG signals to learn latent representations for EEG-based user identification and tack classification. ESML consists of two parts: one is the E S M L 1 model via an LSTM-based method for EEG-user linking, and one is the E S M L 2 model via a CNN-based method for EEG-task linking. The new model ESML is simple, but effective and efficient. It does not require any restrictions for EEG data collection on motions and thinking for users, and it does not need any EEG preprocessing operations, such as EEG denoising and feature extraction. The experiments were conducted on three public datasets and the results show that ESML performs the best and achieves significant performance improvement when compared to baseline methods (i.e., SVM, LDA, NN, DTS, Bayesian, AdaBoost and MLP). The E S M L 1 model provided the best precision at 96 % with 109 users and the E S M L 2 model achieved 99 % precision at 3-Class task classification. These experimental results provide direct evidence that EEG signals can be used for user identification and task classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A self-consistent state specific (SS) method in the framework of TDDFT is presented to account for solvent effects on absorption and emission processes for molecules in solution. In these processes, the initial state is an equilibrium state, while the polarization of the solvent is in nonequilibrium with the electron density of the solute in the final state. Nonequilibrium solvation free energy is calculated based on a novel nonequilibrium solvation model with constrained equilibrium manipulation. The bulk solvent effects are considered using the polarizable continuum method (PCM), where the solvent–solute interaction is described with a reaction field. Molecular orbitals and orbital energies in the presence of the reaction field corresponding to the excited state are employed and the response of the solvent is not included in the TDDFT calculations. A self-consistent procedure is designed to obtain the excited state reaction field. The equations based on this new nonequilibrium solvation model in the framework of the self-consistent SS-PCM/TDDFT method for calculation of vertical absorption and emission energies are presented and implemented in the Q-Chem package. Vertical absorption and emission energies for several small molecules in solution using the newly developed code are calculated and compared with available experimental data and the results of other theoretical studies. Solvent shifts of absorption and emission energies are reasonably reproduced with this approach. The new model is a promising approach to study nonequilibrium absorption and emission processes in solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonequilibrium solvation effects need to be treated properly in the study of electronic absorption processes of solutes since solvent polarization is not in equilibrium with the excited-state charge density of the solute. In this work, we developed a state specific (SS) method based on the novel nonequilibrium solvation model with constrained equilibrium manipulation to account for solvation effects in electronic absorption processes. Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) is adopted to calculate electronic excitation energies and a polarizable continuum model is employed in the treatment of bulk solvent effects on both the ground and excited electronic states. The equations based on this novel nonequilibrium solvation model in the framework of TDDFT to calculate vertical excitation energy are presented and implemented in the Q-Chem package. The implementation is validated by comparing reorganization energies for charge transfer excitations between two atoms obtained from Q-Chem and those obtained using a two-sphere model. Solvent effects on electronic transitions of coumarin 153 (C153), acetone, pyridine, (2E)-3-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-1-(2-hydroxyphenyl)prop-2-en-1-one (DMHP), and uracil in different solvents are investigated using the newly developed code. Our results show that the obtained vertical excitation energies as well as spectral shifts generally agree better with the available experimental values than those obtained using the traditional nonequlibrium solvation model. This new model is thus appropriate to study nonequilibrium excitation processes in solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, commercial FCD700 ductile irons are austenitized in the intercritical region to observe their effects upon the microstructures and mechanical properties of austempered ductile irons (ADIs). The austenitizing temperature is chosen such that ferrite, austensite, and graphite coexist in the microstructures. Strength of 974 MPa, 16.4% elongation, and impact energy of 166 J are achieved by the ADI austenitized at 1103 K and subsequently austemperted at 673 K. These properties are in contrast to 790 MPa strength, 8.2% elongation, and 42 J impact energy in as-cast FCD700. The properties are also superior to the traditionally austempered ductile iron with 967 MPa strength, 12.7% elongation, and 124 J impact energy. Combinations of the optimum ductility and strength are achieved by 8-19% of proeutectoid ferrite and over 20% of retained austenite in the intercritically treated microstructures. Nanoscale twinned and lenticular martensite forms within the micro-size blocky retained austentite islands during plastic deformation leading to the transformation induced plasticity. The intercritically austenitizing and austempering treatments provide unique combination of strength and elongation for commercial ductile irons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multimedia synchronization involves a temporal relationship between audio and visual media components. The presentation of “in-sync” data streams is essential to achieve a natural impression, as “out-of-sync” effects are often associated with user quality of experience (QoE) decrease . Recently , multi-sensory media (mulsemedia) has been demonstrated to provide a highly immersive experience for its users. Unlike traditional multimedia, mulsemedia consists of other media types (i.e., haptic, olfaction, taste, etc.) in addition to audio and visual content. Therefore, the goal of achieving high quality mulsemedia transmission is to present no or little synchronization errors between the multiple media components. In order to achieve this ideal synchronization, there is a need for comprehensive knowledge of the synchronization requirements at the user interface. This paper presents the results of a subjective study carried out to explore the temporal boundaries within which haptic and air-flow media objects can be successfully synchronized with video media. Results show that skews between sensorial media and multimedia might still give the effect that the mulsemedia sequence is “in-sync” and provide certain constraints under which synchronization errors might be tolerated. The outcomes of the paper are used to provide recommendations for mulsemedia service providers in order for their services to be associated with acceptable user experience levels, e.g. haptic media could be presented with a delay of up to 1 s behind video content, while air-flow media could be released either 5 s ahead of or 3 s behind video content. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective To compare the short-term efficacy and observe the tolerability and safety of recombinant human endostatin combined with induction chemotherapy followed by chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Methods Fifty-three patients with locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma, who received recombinant human endostatin combined with induction chemotherapy followed by chemoradiotherapy, treated in our department from December 2011 to March 2013 were included in the study group of this study. Another 48 patients, who received induction chemotherapy followed by chemoradiotherapy alone in the same period,' were chosen as a control group. The short-term outcome, overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) , and acute side effects of the two groups were compared. Results The complete remission rates of nasopharyngeal tumor in the study and control groups were 77.4% and 72.9%, respectively (P = 0. 154). The complete remission rates of patients with and without cervical lymph node metastasis were 75. 5% and 62. 6%, respectively, showing a significant difference (P =0.037). The 2-year OS, PFS, and DMFS rates for the study group were 82. 3% , 77. 2% , and 82.2% , respectively, versus 87.2%, 84.3% and 84.2% for the control group, showing a non-significant differences between the two groups (P = 0. 938, P = 0. 551, and P = 0. 725). Conclusions The short-term results of recombinant human endostatin (Endostar) combined with induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy in the treatment of locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma are slightly better than that of induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy alone, with tolerable treatment-related toxicity and no more side effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]