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Background Platelets play a crucial role in breast cancer (BC) progression and metastases. Mean platelet volume (MPV) is an indicator of platelet activation. The aim of the present study was to assess whether there is a difference in MPV between patients with metastatic BC with liver metastases and those with BC without liver metastases. Methods Between January 2014 and December 2017, 211 metastatic BC patients with synchronous liver metastases and 215 BC patients without metastases were retrospectively analyzed. Patients' clinicopathological characteristics data were collected. Results MPV levels were reduced in patients with liver metastases compared with those in patients without liver metastases. There were significant differences in MPV levels according to liver metastases status both in premenopausal and in postmenopausal non-TNBC or non-HER2+ patients. Moreover, in postmenopausal HER2+ or TNBC patients, MPV levels were lower in patients with liver metastases compared with those in patients without liver metastases. In the group with non-liver metastasis, platelet distribution width was significantly associated with tumor N stage. In addition, the prevalence of BC liver metastases decreased as MPV quartiles increased. After adjusting for other risk factors, the odds ratios for liver metastases according to MPV quartiles were 1.000, 0.267 (0.134-0.530), 0.072 (0.034-0.152), and 0.137 (0.066-0.281), respectively. Conclusion MPV is reduced in BC patients with liver metastases compared with that in BC patients without metastases. Moreover, MPV is independently associated with the presence of liver metastases.

A compact, high selectivity and good common-mode (CM) suppression balanced broadband bandpass filter (BPF) is proposed using hybrid hairpin-interdigital structure. Under the differential-mode (DM) excitation, the filtering topology is formed by n + 1 quarter-wavelength resonators (QWRs) and n hairpin resonators (HRs) instead of QWRs with coupled-line I/O coupling structure. But, the DM circuit still maintains high selectivity and broadband characteristics of the interdigital BPF. By reasonably choosing the coupling length and the length of the HR, the balanced BPF can not only obtain the desired DM frequency response, but the CM harmonic generated by the HR can be well suppressed by the CM transmission zero created by the coupling between the HR and half-wavelength resonator (HWR). No via-hole ground for the balanced broadband BPF is required, reducing the implementation complexity. Finally, the third-, fifth-, and seventh-order balanced broadband BPF prototypes are designed and fabricated, and the simula...

In this study, new balanced microstrip bandpass filter (BPF) based on stepped-impedance combline structure is proposed with high selectivity and high common-mode (CM) suppression performance In the beginning, a single-ended compact stepped-impedance resonator (SIR) combline BPF with enhanced performance including low insertion loss, sharp skirt and wide stopband response is designed by consisting of an array of short quarter-wavelength bi-section SIRs with a new scheme of tapped-transformer coupling at input and output ports. Under CM excitation, no special consideration or design procedure is required to suppress the CM, and the CM suppression is the nature of the parallel-coupled filter. Finally, the second- and third-order SIR combline balanced BPFs for WLAN application, without loss of generality, have been designed and implemented. The simulated and measured results show a good agreement and validate the proposed theory.

In this paper, a new compact microstrip balanced bandpass filter (BPF) and balanced-to-balanced diplexer are designed with high selectivity and common-mode (CM) suppression. The equivalent differential-mode (DM) and CM half-circuits of the proposed balanced BPF and balanced-to-balanced diplexer are analyzed in detail. Under the DM excitation, the filtering topology is formed by two coupling quarter-wavelength resonators (QWR) and source-load short-ended feedlines. Two transmission zeros can be generated near the DM passband edge to achieve high selectivity. Under the CM excitation, the transmission zero generated by the coupling between the QWR and short-ended feedline can be adjusted by the shorted stub loaded at the center to the DM passband. Moreover, the mutual loading effect of the filters with two coupling uniform resonators is approximately equivalent to a uniform resonator coupling shorted stub. Hence, the mutual loading effect of two balanced BPFs can generate new transmission zeros to deepen the...

This paper presents a tri-band bandpass filter in which a dual-band bandpass filter (BPF) and a single-band bandstop filter (BSF) are integrated into a single circuit of short length. The dual-band BPF contains several two-section stepped-impedance stubs which are mounted onto a main transmission line. The BSFs are constructed using capacitor-loaded shunt stubs which are connected by transmission lines. After circuit embedding, one wide passband of the dual-band BPF is converted into two passbands by the stopband of the BSF, resulting in a total of three passbands. A prototype tri-band filter is designed according to prescribed specifications: the required passbands are 1–1.4, 1.8–2.0 and 2.42–2.66 GHz with return loss above 10 dB, while the expected isolations between bands are above 40 dB. Optimization method is adopted for extracting the circuit parameters. The simulated and measured results are compared, and good features such as low insertion loss and high isolation are demonstrated.

We aim to investigate the pathological temporospatial characteristics of brain cell injury in the perihematomal areas. Brain autopsy samples from 44 consecutive cases of intracerebral hemorrhage were processed and analyzed following immunohistochemical staining for neurofilament (NF) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). NF and GFAP positive cells were scored and graded according to the distance from the hematoma and the time from the onset of hematoma formation. The tissues from the same region on the contralateral side of the brain were used as controls. Neurons in the perihematomal areas exhibited pyknosis or swollen necrosis, while astrocytes were swollen. Morphological abnormalities pertaining to NF appearance were attenuated with increasing distance from the hematoma wall, but were exacerbated with prolonged bleeding time. The level of NF staining abnormality was positively correlated with time from the onset of hematoma within 7 days of intracerebral hemorrhage. In contrast, the intensity of GFAP staining was negatively correlated with time from the onset of hematoma formation. This immunoreactivity was significantly higher closer to hematoma. Taken together, these data indicate that pathological alterations in neurons and astrocytes in the perihematomal area change with time from the onset of hematoma formation.

A general 6-term error model is presented for the calibration of the three-port vector network analyzer (VNA). In the general two-port 6-term error model where port i (i ≤ 3) is the signal source, and other unexcited ports are regarded as a general port. The nodes and coefficients related with the general port are replaced by the complex vectors and square matrixes. With every port connected to the power source, the actual S-parameters of the three-port device can be finally solved from the general 6-term error model. Experiment results of a three-port device attest the good performance of the general 6-term error model.

A 4-component compact 2-D finite-difference frequency-domain (FDFD) method is utilized for the analysis of dispersion characteristics of lossy circular metal waveguide. In the analysis, the surface-impedance boundary condition (SIBC) can be implemented as easy as that in 6-component method in literature. The phase constant and attenuation constant can be obtained as solution of eigen value problem for a given frequency. The results agree very well with the theoretical solutions.