Search

Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasis (HHT) is an autosomal dominant hereditary disease, which can lead to abnormal angiogenesis. We performed contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in a patient with HHT represented with hemothorax. After targeted embolization, the condition of hemothorax improved. In this case, we explore the use of CEUS to locate the responsible vessel of hemothorax, and found that CEUS could be used as a complementary preoperative method of localization with computed tomography angiography (CTA).

PURPOSE: To propose MCUR1 gene as a potential biomarker for ovarian cancer prognosis. METHODS: The ovarian cancer patient specimen from TCGA database were analyzed using survival analysis. The immune cell infiltration ratio and checkpoints had also been investigated for different expression group of MCUR1. The function of MCUR1 as a ovarian cancer prognosis biomarker was verified in clinic. RESULTS: The low expression of MCUR1 was associated with the poor prognosis of ovarian cancer patients. The expressions of majority of immune cells and 6 checkpoints in low expression group of MCUR1 were significantly lower than that in high expression group of MCUR1 (P< 0.05). The MCUR1 could be utilized as a prognostic biomarker for ovarian cancer patients in clinic. CONCLUSION: This study has proposed a potential prognostic biomarker for ovarian cancer patients, which offers a beneficial reference for future ovarian cancer administration.

In view of the cleaning problems of photovoltaic (PV) plants, existing studies focus on the optimization of cleaning frequency or cleaning period equivalent. However, few consider the possible influence of short-term weather changes on the optimal cleaning time in this period. This paper proposes a cleaning time prediction algorithm for PV plants. By predicting the comprehensive efficiency of the system, the peak sun power, and the peak sun hour, a recursive algorithm was used to calculate the difference between the expected power generation income and the cleaning cost under different cleaning time stamps, so as to determine the optimal cleaning time in a specific period. The proposed method was verified in outdoor PV plants. The comparison and analysis of the calculation results based on the measured data and predicted data show that the proposed method can accurately predict the optimal cleaning time, control the cleaning income, and provide an effective means and basis for the later operation and maintenance of PV plants.

Facial expression recognition (FER) has been an active research area in recent years, which plays a vital role in national security and human-computer interaction. Due to the lacking of sufficient expression features and facial images, it is challenging to automatically recognize facial expression with high accuracy. In this paper, we propose a fusion handcraft feature method to improve FER from images. Firstly, a new texture feature extraction method PD-LDN (Pixel Difference Local Directional Number pattern) is proposed, which can extract more local information, reduce noise disturbance and feature dimension. Secondly, the handcrafted features including PD-LDN texture features, geometric features, and BOVW (Bag of Visual Words) semantic features are connected in parallel to an improved autoencoder network for fusion. Finally, the fused features are input into the softmax classifier for recognizing facial expression. We conduct extensive experiments on JAFFE and CK+datasets. Our proposed method shows superior performance than the state-of-the-art approaches on recognizing facial expressions.

In this paper, the conformal finite-difference time-domain (CFDTD) technique and the concept of effective dielectric constant are applied to symplectic multi-resolution time-domain (SMRTD) algorithm based on Daubechies scaling functions, resulting in a conformal SMRTD (C-SMRTD) method. Moreover, a novel implementation of perfect matched layer with auxiliary differential equation (ADE-PML) is presented for the SMRTD method. Numerical results of the radar cross section (RCS) of a dielectric sphere verify the effectiveness of the C-SMRTD method, which shows good agreement with the results derived by analytical methods. It is also shown that the accuracy of the C-SMRTD method has been significantly improved compared with the MRTD method with step approximation, and the proposed method has an advantage over CFDTD at saving the CPU time and memory. Furthermore, a vault-top tunnel model is established with the proposed method, and the characteristic of the field cross-section distribution of the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) propagation in the tunnel model is also presented and discussed.

Hotel industry, as the pillar industry of the tertiary industry, is developing at a rapid pace under the background of rapid economic growth and strong support for the tourism industry. At the same time, it also faces fierce competition at home and abroad. In the information age, more and more hotels choose informationalized management, in order to reflect the competitive advantage of the enterprise with better services, higher efficiency and lower costs. The current hotel management system has been widely used in all aspects of hotel management, integrating reception, backstage financial processing and material procurement functions in one, which basically meets the needs of the daily management of the hotel. With the advancement of the hotel information process, hotel business data also shows explosive growth. However, these data have not been effectively developed and used. This research proposes Fuzzy based Analytic Hierarchical Process (FAHP), which is utilized for considering user perception to access the making of decision. The business data processing of the management of hotels is limited to simple collection, storage, and statistics. The information obtained is superficial and regular, which cannot meet the current “customer-centered” marketing strategy of the hotel. This topic is based on the conventional hotel management system, using data mining technology to extract useful information from the existing hotel business data to establish customer segmentation model and support the decision layer to analyze the data from multi-angle and multi-level around the decision-making topic, so as to truly realize the “customer-centered” concept, improve hotel service level and improve the core competitiveness of enterprises.

In this paper, the concept of body of revolution (BOR) finite-difference time-domain method time-domain (BOR-FDTD) method is applied to symplectic multi-resolution time-domain (SMRTD) algorithm to propose a BOR-SMRTD method. In order to solve the problem that the obliquely incident pulse wave cannot be directly introduced into BOR-SMRTD method, an efficient one-dimensional time-domain algorithm for propagating obliquely incident pulse plane wave in BOR-SMRTD method is also proposed. The numerical results show that the proposed algorithm runs 51 times faster than the algorithm based on fast Fourier transform (FFT) completely. Moreover, the scattering problem of a perfect electric conductor (PEC) cylinder with finite length is calculated to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm. The surface current density distribution along a generatrix of the cylinder at a giving frequency was extracted, and the results are in good agreement with that obtained with the methods of moment (MoM) and BOR-FDTD. Finally, the radar cross section (RCS) of a PEC sphere was calculated, and the results agree well with the theoretical values.

Research purposes: To explore the clinical effect of local injection of autologous platelet-rich plasma (platelet-rich plasma) for lateral epicondylitis of humerus. Research method: A total of 58 patients with lateral epicondylitis of the humerus who were treated in the orthopedics department of our hospital from January 2018 to December 2018 were selected and included in the study. Subjects were treated with local injection of autologous platelet-rich plasma. Before the treatment, at 1 week, 1 month and 3 months after the treatment, the subjects were evaluated with visual analogue scale (VAS) and Mayo elbow function score (MEPS) for pain and elbow function. Results: Compared with before treatment, VAS decreased and MEPS increased after treatment. The four indicators of MEPS—pain, activity, stability, and daily abilities were significantly improved. Conclusion: Local injection of autologous PRP in the treatment of lateral epicondylitis of the humerus can better relieve pain symptoms and improve elbow joint function.

Research purposes: Autologous platelet-rich plasma gel (Platelet-Rich Plasma, PRP) was prepared and used for transplantation for the treatment of traumatic trauma wounds of extremities. Explore platelet-rich plasma gel (PRP) to promote the healing of exposed bone and tendon wounds. Methods: Fifteen patients with extremity bone and tendon exposed wounds were treated with autologous platelet-rich plasma gel (PRP) transplantation to observe the wound healing rate and wound healing time. Results: Among the 15 patients, 8 cases healed directly, 7 cases had active granulation growth, and second-stage skin graft wound healing; the wound healing rate was 100%, and the average wound healing time was 36 days. Conclusion: Autologous platelet-rich plasma gel (PRP) transplantation for the treatment of traumatic trauma hard wounds of the extremities, can inhibit the bacterial growth of the wounds, effectively promote the repair of soft tissue defects and accelerate the healing of bone and tendon wounds of the extremities.

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of fluoroscopic guided percutaneous antegrade ureteral stents placement used for treatment of malignant ureteral obstruction. Methods Between April 2016 and March 2018, fluoroscopic guided percutaneous ureteral stents was performed in 25 patients, including 7 patients (28%) with bilateral obstruction. The most common cancer diagnoses were cervical cancer (28%), rectal cancer (24%) and colon cancer (16%) among these patients. Clinical data were retrospectively analyzed with respect to the efficacy, safety and outcome of this treatment method. Results Percutaneous antegrade placement of ureteral stents was performed in all cases, including 12 ureters that failed in the initial retrograde ureteral stents placement. The median stent patency time for the antegrade ureteral stents were 10.4 (95% CI: 8.3-12.6) months. The primary complications included mild flank pain and discomfort (44%), hematuria (44%), urinary tract infection (8%), bladder irritation symptoms (4%), and arterial bleeding (4%). Conclusion Fluoroscopic guided percutaneous ureteral stents placement is a safe, efficient procedure and has a high success rate in patients with malignant ureteral obstruction.

In this paper, we propose an algorithm for human activity recognition based on Gaussian Process Classifier (GPC). A hierarchical strategy is firstly applied to classify dynamic and static behaviors. Then, in each layer, three kinds of classification approaches are validated and evaluated for promoting recognition accuracy. Moreover, discriminative analysis method is invoked to cast high dimension features into lower dimensional space where classes are easily separated. Extensive experiments have been conducted and three vital points are observed: Firstly, GPC achieves comparable classification accuracy with other classifiers under the same experimental condition. Secondly, in case of less training samples, GPC outperforms the prominent Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. Thirdly, unlike SVM, GPC is more robust to the high dimensional features. Furthermore, we successfully implement the presented recognition algorithm into our hardware platform and achieve 99.75% accuracy on average in dealing with four sample activities.

Background Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most common cancers in Southern China. Aldo-keto reductase 1B10 (AKR1B10) is upregulated in multiple tumors and plays an oncogenic role. Objective To examine the expression of AKR1B10 at mRNA and protein levels in nasopharyngeal tumors and correlate its expression with clinicopathological parameters. Methods A tissue microarray, paraffin blocks, and frozen surgical nasopharyngeal samples were procured. Western blot and immunohistochemistry were used to estimate AKR1B10 protein expression, and mRNA levels were detected by real time RT-PCR. Results We found that AKR1B10 expression was increased in malignant tissues compared to the normal tissues (p= 0.000). In NPC tissues, AKR1B10 expression appeared high specifically in squamous cell carcinoma, but low in basal cell carcinoma, adenoid cystic carcinoma, adenocarcinoma and undifferentiated carcinoma (p= 0.000). AKR1B10 expression also demonstrated correlation with tumor differentiation, with a high level in well and moderately differentiated but a low level in poorly differentiated carcinoma (p= 0.000). AKR1B10 was also upregulated in hyperplasia and benign tumors (p= 0.000), and demonstrated a specific nuclear distribution in these non-cancerous diseases. Conclusions AKR1B10 is overexpressed in nasopharyngeal hyperplasia, benign tumors, and carcinomas, being a potential new biomarker.

Gastric cancer remains the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, and proliferation of gastric cancer represents the major reason for its poor prognosis. Recent evidence indicates that long non-coding RNAs play crucial roles in development and progression of gastric cancer. Long non-coding RNA differentiation antagonizing non-protein coding RNA is upregulated in hepatic cell carcinoma, but the role of lncRNA differentiation antagonizing non-protein coding RNA in gastric cancer has not been explored. In this article, we found that differentiation antagonizing non-protein coding RNA is also upregulated in gastric cancer. Experiments revealed that silencing differentiation antagonizing non-protein coding RNA significantly inhibited gastric cancer cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Overexpression of differentiation antagonizing non-protein coding RNA notably increases gastric cancer cell proliferation. From RNA-seq and gene ontology annotations, we found that differentiation antagonizing non-protein coding RNA influences the gene expression programs in cell metabolic and cycle process. Taken together, our findings suggest that the long non-coding RNA differentiation antagonizing non-protein coding RNA promotes the proliferation of gastric cancer and is a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target in gastric cancer.

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common type of lung cancers, is resistant to initial chemotherapy intrinsically. The expressions of xenobiotic metabolism genes, antioxidants, and drug efflux proteins are increased in NSCLC. In addition, a redox-sensitive transcription factor named Nrf2 regulates the drug resistance via the expression of electrophile, oxidants detoxification enzymes and efflux mechanism. As was detected by real-time PCR, inhibiting Nrf2 expression through the transfection of shRNA plasmids in A549 cells significantly inhibits the expressions of glutathione pathway genes, antioxidants and multidrug resistance proteins. Using biochemical assays and free radical medical experiments in vitro, it was identified that the RNAi-mediated reduction of Nrf2 expression in lung cancer cells induces the generation of reactive oxygen species, decreases the level of reduced glutathione and results in an increase in the A549 cell proliferation inhibition rate. Thus, targeting Nrf2 activity in NSCLC could be a practical way to inhibit tumor growth and eliminate chemoresistance.

Background & Objective: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an epithelial neoplasm with high occurrence rates in southern China. The disease often metastasizes to regional lymphnodes at a very early stage. Local recurrences and metastasis occur frequently in patients with NPC and are a leading cause of death, despite improvements on treatment modalities. The molecular mechanism underlying the metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma remains poorly understood, however, and requires additional elucidation. The aim of this study was to explore possible NPC gene candidates that may play key roles in NPC metastasis. Methods: Subtractive suppression hybridization (SSH) was performed to isolate differentially expressed clones between the metastatic 5-8F and non-metastatic 6-10B nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines. Differentially expressed clones were screened and confirmed by reverse Northern blotting. The sequences of cDNA fragments were subsequently analyzed and compared to known sequences in Genbank. Results & Discussion: The SSH library contained thousands of positive clones. Random analysis of 300 clones by PCR demonstrated that 269 clones contained inserted fragments. Reverse Northern blot confirmed that 20 out of 192 clones examined were significantly up-regulated in the 5-8F cell line. Among these 20 clones, 16 were previously identified genes (flotilin-2, ezrin, pim-3, fli-1, mel, neugrin, znf216, ASB1, raly, UBE2A, keratin6A, TMED7, EIF3S9, FTL, two ribosomal proteins RPL21 and RPL16), two were predicted genes (c9orf74 and MDS006), and two sequences shared no homology with known genes listed in GenBank and may represent novel genes. The proposed functions of the genes identified in this study include cell signal transduction, cell survival, transcription regulation, cell mobility, protein synthesis, and DNA damage repair. Flotillin-2, fli-1, pim-3 and ezrin have previously been reported to be associated with tumor metastasis and progression. The remaining up-regulated genes identified in this study have not been reported to be markers of metastasis and may represent new candidates of NPC metastasis-related genes. The Results of this study may provide novel points of therapeutic intervention for NPC.