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Pharmaceutical patent analysis is the key to product protection for pharmaceutical companies. In patent claims, a Markush structure is a standard chemical structure drawing with variable substituents. Overlaps between apparently dissimilar Markush structures are nearly unrecognizable when the structures span a broad chemical space. We propose a quantum search-based method which performs an exact comparison between two non-enumerated Markush structures with a constraint satisfaction oracle. The quantum circuit is verified with a quantum simulator and the real effect of noise is estimated using a five-qubit superconductivity-based IBM quantum computer. The possibilities of measuring the correct states can be increased by improving the connectivity of the most computation intensive qubits. Depolarizing error is the most influential error. The quantum method to exactly compares two patents is hard to simulate classically and thus creates a quantum advantage in patent analysis.

How well people sleep and what social factors determine their sleep are two key questions that have generated great interests in public health and epidemiology recently. The goal of this review is to assess the evidence of how multi-level of social constructs relates to unhealthy sleep in recent studies. Studies document a wide range of social correlates of sleep at the individual, interpersonal, community, and societal levels. A growing number of population-based studies incorporate objective measures. Overall, disadvantaged statuses and poor social environment predict unhealthy sleep duration and poor sleep quality. Much remains unknown about the mechanisms through which social factors affect sleep. Furthermore, most studies rely on cross-sectional data and have methodological limitations that make causal inference difficult. These point to great opportunities for social epidemiology to contribute expertise in theory and rigorous analysis to uncover the secrets by which social world affects sleep.

BackgroundNumerous studies have documented factors that are associated with substance use behaviors among college-aged individuals. However, relatively few studies have considered the heterogeneity of the college experience by field of study (i.e., college major) and how that educational context might affect students’ health behaviors differently. Drawing from theories and prior research, this study investigates whether college majors are associated with different substance use behaviors, both during college and upon graduation.MethodsThe study analyzed longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 97 (N = 1031), specifically data on individuals who obtained a bachelor’s degree, to examine the associations between college fields of study and trajectories of three substance use behaviors: smoking, heavy alcohol use, and marijuana use.ResultsThe results indicate that social science and business majors were associated with more substance use behaviors than arts and humanities and STEM majors. However, social science majors were associated with a faster decrease in substance use behaviors over time. Importantly, the differences we found in mean levels of substance use behaviors and trajectories were not explained by demographic characteristics, family SES background, childhood health conditions, and employment experience. Further analysis that examined college major and each substance use behavior individually suggests that the associations were stronger for heavy alcohol use and marijuana use. Moreover, we found the associations were more pronounced in men than women.ConclusionsThe study finds that not all college majors show the same level of engagement in substance use behaviors over time, and that the associations also vary by (1) the specific substance use behavior examined and (2) by gender. These findings suggest it is important to consider that the different learning and educational contexts that college majors provide may also be more or less supportive of certain health behaviors, such as substance use. Practical implications are discussed.

We present a complete investigation of the ground state patterns and phase diagrams of the spin-1 Bose---Einstein condensates (BEC) confined in a harmonic or box potential under the influence of a homogeneous magnetic field. A pseudo-arclength continuation method with parameter switching technique is developed to study the BEC systems numerically. The continuation process is performed on the parameter space consisting of the spin---independent interaction, spin---exchange interaction and the quadratic Zeeman (QZ) energy parameters. In the first stage of the parameter switching process, we fix the QZ energy term to be zero and vary the interaction parameters from zero to the desired physical values. Next, we fix the interaction parameters and vary the QZ energy parameter in both positive and negative regions. Two types of phase transitions are found, as we vary the QZ parameter. The first type is a transition from a two-component state to a three-component (3C) state. The second type is a symmetry breaking in the 3C state. Then, a phase separation of the spin components follows. In the semi-classical regime, we find that these two phase transition curves are gradually merged.

The impact of body mass index (BMI) on the outcome of advanced gastric cancer surgery is controversial. Between December 1987 and December 2006, a total of 947 advanced gastric cancer patients receiving curative resection with retrieved lymph node number15 were studied and divided into three groups according to BMI (25, 25-30, and30 kg/m(2)).With regard to comorbidities present prior to surgery, higher BMI patients were more likely to have heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension than lower BMI patients. Compared with BMI25 kg/m(2), higher BMI patients had longer operative time and more surgery-related morbidity. Multivariate Cox proportional-hazard analysis showed that age, pathological T and N categories, and lymphovascular invasion were independent prognostic factors. The initial recurrence patterns, 5-year overall survival, and cancer-specific survival were similar among the three groups.Only in stage III gastric cancer with BMI less than 25 kg/m(2) patients receiving total gastrectomy had a more advanced pathological N category and a worse prognosis compared to those receiving subtotal gastrectomy. Higher BMI was associated with longer operative time and more surgery-related morbidity than lower BMI. BMI alone is not an independent prognostic factor.

Robotic gastrectomy has become more popular in the treatment of gastric cancer, especially in Asian countries. Until now, few studies have compared robotic surgery with open or laparoscopic surgery for gastric cancer patients.Data were prospectively collected between January 2006 and February 2012. A total of 689 patients underwent curative resection of adenocarcinoma of the stomach. Patients were separated into three groups according to the different surgical approaches used (586 open, 64 laparoscopic, and 39 robotic). The clinicopathological characteristics and surgical outcomes of the three groups were compared.The open group was associated with a larger tumor size, more D2 dissection, more advanced tumor stage, and more blood loss than the groups treated with laparoscopic and robotic methods. Robotic gastrectomy was associated with female predominance, less blood loss, shorter hospital stay, and longer operative time than open and laparoscopic gastrectomy. The retrieved lymph node numbers were similar between the open and robotic groups. Postoperative morbidity rates were similar among the three groups. In terms of the learning curve of robotic gastrectomy, operative time and docking time were significantly reduced in the recent robotic group (n=14) compared to the initial robotic group (n=25).Robotic gastrectomy could achieve extended lymph node dissection similar to open surgery. Our results showed a significant learning curve effect in the initial 25 cases of the robotic group.

The benefit of resection of gastric cancer with locoregional invasion is still under debate. This study aimed to investigate the impact of surgery on patients with gastric cancer with locoregional invasion. From January 1988 to December 2009, a total of 2,678 patients with gastric cancer underwent surgery at the Department of Surgery, Taipei Veterans General Hospital. Among these patients, 569 and 295 were diagnosed as T4a (serosa invasion without penetration of visceral peritoneum) and T4b (serosa exposure with invasion of adjacent structure), respectively. Invasion type and prognosis were analyzed in patients with gastric cancer who had either curative or palliative resection. Our results showed that patients with T4a gastric cancer had a better 5-year overall survival than patients with T4b (22.5% vs. 11.5%, P

To validate the Chinese (Taiwan) version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-49T) and develop a short form of the OHIP (OHIP-14T) for the elderly. A total of 1402 subjects, aged 65 and above, received a personal interview and oral examination. Internal consistency, measured by Cronbach’s alpha, and test–retest reliability were assessed by intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) during a 2-week interval. The criterion-related validity of OHIP-49T was evaluated through associations between the OHIP-49 score with prosthetic need and prosthetic status. A subset (OHIP-14T) questionnaire, derived through a controlled regression procedure, was compared with the original OHIP-14 by Slade (OHIP-14S). The Cronbach’s alpha and ICC values were 0.97 and 0.98 for OHIP-49T and 0.90 and 0.93 for OHIP-14T. Mean scores of the OHIP-49T were significantly associated with prosthetic status (P = 0.0013) and prosthetic need (P = 0.0004), which were examined by dentists. The OHIP-14T score had stronger discriminatory ability than OHIP-14S. The OHIP-49T showed satisfactory reliability and validity for this Taiwanese elderly population. The OHIP-14T is more effective to measure OHRQoL than OHIP-14S.

Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) gene, which encodes an oxidative response protein, plays a role in cytoprotection. A (GT)n dinucleotide repeat in HO-1 promoter is polymorphic and modulates the transcriptional activity of the gene. A HO-1 gene promoter polymorphism was reported to be associated with the risks of lung adenocarcinoma and oral squamous cancer. In this study, the correlation between the HO-1 gene promoter polymorphism and the clinicopathological characteristics, along with the risk of gastric cancer, was analyzed.We examined the genotypic frequencies of (GT)n repeats in 183 gastric cancer patients and 250 control subjects by PCR-based genotyping and DNA sequencing. The length polymorphisms of (GT)n repeats were classified into short (S) component (nor= 25), medium (M) component (26or= nor= 30) and long (L) component (nor= 31). The distribution of S, M and L components in patient and control groups were evaluated to determine the correlation with susceptibility and clinicopathological characteristics of gastric adenocarcinoma.Higher frequencies of L-allele, L-allele carrier (S/L, M/L, L/L) and S/L genotype were found in gastric cancer patients. The frequencies of M-allele, M-allele carrier (M/M, M/L, M/S) and M/M genotype were significantly lower in patients with gastric cancer than controls. Furthermore, the frequency of lymphovascular tumor invasion was significantly lower in M-allele carriers compared to non-M-allele carriers (S/S, S/L, L/L) (p = 0.009).These findings suggest that the long (GT)n repeat of HO-1 gene promoter was associated with a higher frequency of gastric adenocarcinoma, and the medium (GT)n repeat might possess protective effect against gastric adenocarcinoma with a lower frequency of lymphovascular invasion in tumors.

Recurrence after curative resection for gastric cancer remains high. We examined its incidence and factors related to recurrence pattern, while trying to avoid the interaction of various factors. A total of 611 gastric cancer patients after resection for curative intent (1988-1995) were analyzed. The result showed that 245 patients had recurrence (40.1%). Cumulative recurrence rates were 53.5%, 80%, 89.0%, 94.7%, 96.3%, 98%, and 99.5% at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 years, respectively. Over half of patients with recurrence (123; 50.2%) had an initial single recurrence. Taking single and multiple recurrence together, most recurrences (213; 86.9%) were distant metastases, 110 recurrences (44.9%) were local relapses, and 78 recurrences (49.8%) were both local and distant. Among the distant metastases, 131 patients (53.5%) had peritoneal dissemination, 106 patients (43.3%) had hematogenous metastases, and 70 patients (28.6%) had distant lymphatic spread. Scirrhous-type stromal reaction, serosa invasion, and female gender were factors negatively related to peritoneal recurrence. Medullary-type stromal reaction and male gender showed a preference for locoregional recurrence, and expanding growth tumor commonly led to hematogenous metastasis. Patients who had paraaortic lymph node metastasis were at high risk of developing distant lymphatic recurrence. It is conceivable that the patterns of recurrence and the times to recurrence provide a biological basis for clinical monitoring of patients with the aim of modifying therapeutic modalities.

Since 2008, oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has climbed to the fourth place in cancer mortality in the male population of Taiwan. Epigenetic regulations including DNA methylation and histone modification control gene expression and play important roles during cancer progression. Since the relationship between histone modification and prognosis of OSCC is inconclusive, we collected 215 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues from male patients having OSCC and surveyed them by tissue microarray-based immunohistochemical staining. The association between five histone modification-related genes, clinicopathological parameters, and prognosis of OSCC was examined. From tissue microarray immunohistochemistry staining results, we found that the nuclear staining intensity of ARK2 (Aurora kinase B-a serine/threonine-protein kinase of H3S10) was associated with poor clinical outcomes (≤3-year survival, p = 0.005). The cytosolic staining intensity of the ARK2 protein was associated with tumor stage (p = 0.006) and tumor size (T) of TNM staging system (p = 0.026). Cytoplasmic staining intensity of G9a (H3K9 methyltransferase) was associated with histological grade of differentiation (p = 0.026). EZH2 (H3K27 methyltransferase) and SUV39H1 (H3K9 methyltransferase) overexpressions in nuclei were, respectively, associated with lymph node metastasis (N, p = 0.016) and stage (p = 0.009). Our result suggests that overexpressions of histone modification-related proteins-ARK2, G9a, EZH2, and SUV39H1 but not SUV39H2 are associated with prognosis of OSCC in the male population of Taiwan. These proteins, especially ARK2, may serve as effective prognostic factors and can also be used as biomarkers for predicting various clinical outcomes of OSCCs in the Taiwanese population.