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Previous studies have investigated the prognostic value of the advanced lung cancer inflammation index (ALI) in gastrointestinal (GI) cancers; however, the results are controversial. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the prognostic and clinicopathological role of ALI in patients with GI cancers. A systematic search of electronic databases was conducted to evaluate the prognostic and clinicopathological value of ALI in GI cancers. Nine studies comprising 3,750 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled results showed that a low ALI was significantly associated with worse overall survival (OS, hazard ratio [HR] = 1.95, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.53–2.47, P < 0.001, I2 = 63.9%) and disease-free survival/relapse-free survival (DFS/RFS, HR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.28–1.73, P < 0.001, I2 = 0%) in patients with GI cancers. In addition, decreased ALI correlated with the depth of tumor invasion and presence of distant metastasis and tended to be associated with male sex, high carcinoembryonic antigen levels, lymph node metastasis, and right-sided colon cancer. Low ALI was associated with adverse OS and DFS/RFS in patients with GI cancer. In addition, decreased ALI also correlated with clinicopathological factors, indicating higher stage of the malignancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wide energy band and high recombination rate of photogenerated carriers severely limit the photocatalytic activity of TiO2. It has been demonstrated that ion doping can induce lattice defects, change the energy band structure, optimize the separation efficiency of photogenerated carrier, thus promoting the photocatalytic activity of the catalyst. In this work, Eu-doped TiO2 was synthesized by a sol–gel method, and the composition and photogenerated carrier separation efficiency of the samples were analysed by various characterization methods. The results show that Eu-TiO2 was successfully prepared and Eu-TiO2 exhibits higher photogenerated carrier separation efficiency and generates more superoxide radicals compared to the bare TiO2. Photocatalytic activity of the samples was evaluated by the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB), and the results show that Eu doping improves the photocatalytic activity of the samples, the sample with Eu/Ti molar ratio of 0.2% displays 2.3-fold increase in photocatalytic activity compared to the blank TiO2. The improved photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the fact that Eu doping facilitates the effective separation of photogenerated carriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Catalpol is a major bioactive constituent of Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch (Scrophulariaceae), a traditional Chinese medicine, which is widely used in multiple diseases, including hypertension. Objectives: To explore whether catalpol protects against angiotensin II (Ang II)-triggered blood-brain barrier (BBB) leakage. Materials and methods: The bEnd.3 cells and BBB models were pre-treated with or without catalpol (50, 200 and 500 lM) or TAK-242 (1 lM) for 2 h and then with Ang II (0.1 lM) or LPS (1 lg/mL) for 24 h. Cell viability was determined by the MTT assay. The levels of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), tumour necrosis factor-a (TNF-a), caveolin-1 (Cav-1) and p-eNOS/eNOS were tested by western blot. The BBB permeability was evaluated by the flux of bovine serum albumin-fluorescein isothiocyanate (BSA-FITC) across monolayers. nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-jB) p65 nuclear translocation was explored by immunofluorescence staining. Results: Ang II (0.1 lM) decreased the cell viability to 86.52 ± 1.79%, elevated the levels of TLR4, MyD88, iNOS, TNF-a and Cav-1 respectively to 3.7-, 1.5-, 2.3-, 2.2- and 2.7-fold, reduced the level of p-eNOS/eNOS to 1.6-fold in bEnd.3 cells, and eventually increased BBB permeability. Catalpol dose-dependently reversed these changes at 50-500 lM. Meanwhile, catalpol (500 lM) inhibited the upregulated levels of TLR4 pathway-related proteins and NF-jB p65 nuclear translocation, decreased the enhanced transcytosis, and relieved the BBB disruption caused by both LPS (the TLR4 activator) and Ang II. The effects are same as TAK-242 (the TLR4 inhibitor). Conclusions: Catalpol relieved the Ang II-induced BBB damage, which indicated catalpol has high potential for the treatment of hypertension-induced cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We performed a meta-analysis to quantify the overall incidence and risk of proteinuria associated with five newly approved VEGFR-TKIs (regorafenib, vandetanib, cabozantinib, lenvatinib, axitinib) in cancer patients. Methods: Pubmed, Embase, ASCO abstracts, and ESMO abstracts were searched to identify relevant studies. Overall incidence rates, relative risk (RR), and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using random or fixed effects models according to the heterogeneity of included studies. Results: A total of 9,446 patients from 20 RCTs were included for the meta-analysis. The use of newly approved VEGFR-TKIs was associated with an increased risk of all-grade (RR 2.35, 95% CI 1.69–3.27, P < 0.001) and high-grade (RR 3.70, 95% CI 2.09–6.54, P < 0.001) proteinuria. On subgroup analysis, lenvatinib, axitinib, and vandetanib significantly increased the risk of all-grade proteinuria, and lenvatinib was associated with an increased risk of high-grade proteinuria. In addition, the risk of developing high-grade proteinuria events was significant for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and renal cell carcinoma (RCC), but not for patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and thyroid cancer (TC). Conclusion: Treatment with newly approved VEGFR-TKIs significantly increases the risk of developing proteinuria events in cancer patients, especially for patients treated with lenvatinib. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an iteration method to recover a space-dependent source for a time-fractional diffusion equation from the final measurement. Based on the conditional stability of the inverse problem, we prove the convergence of the iterative regularization method under the a priori parameter choice rule and the a posteriori parameter choice rule, respectively. Numerical examples in one dimension and two dimension are given to validate the effectiveness of the presented method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel glycidyl resin 2,7-bis(β-epoxypropylthio)thianthrene (4SEP) with high refractive index was synthesized and characterized by ¹HNMR, FT IR and FD-MS analyses. The kinetics of 4SEP cured with methylhexahydrophthalic anhydride (MeHHPA) was investigated by nonisothermal differential scanning calorimetry. The results revealed that the reactivity of 4SEP was higher compared with that of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) due to the weakened electron-withdrawing effect of thioether on the epoxy group. The thermal properties and refractive index of 4SEP/MeHHPA were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analyses, Abbe refractometer, prism coupler, and compared with those of the DGEBA/MeHHPA. Experimental results showed that, due to the introduction of thianthrene and thioether units, the glass transition temperature (Tg) was slightly enhanced, while the thermal stability was reduced. The refractive index of 4SEP was over 1.7000, and the refractive index of 4SEP/MeHHPA was up to 1.6808. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the large sparse systems of linear equations arising from numerical solutions of two-dimensional steady incompressible viscous flow problems in primitive variable formulation, Ran and Yuan [On modified block SSOR iteration methods for linear systems from steady incompressible viscous flow problems, Appl. Math. Comput. 217 (2010), pp. 3050–3068] presented the block symmetric successive over-relaxation (BSSOR) and the modified BSSOR iteration methods based on the special structures of the coefficient matrices. In this study, we present the modified alternating direction-implicit (MADI) iteration method for solving the linear systems. Under suitable conditions, we establish convergence theorems for the MADI iteration method. In addition, the optimal parameter involved in the MADI iteration method is estimated in detail. Numerical experiments show that the MADI iteration method is a feasible and effective iterative solver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]