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BACKGROUND Cetuximab in combination with oral fluoropyrimidine (FP) remains controversial in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). In view of the regional variation in the tolerability of FP, we conducted a retrospective analysis to compare oral FP with infusional FP in combination with cetuximab in Chinese population. AIM To compare the efficacy and safety profile of cetuximab in combination with oral FP and infusional FP in Chinese population in the real-world setting. METHODS A retrospective cohort study was done to analyse consecutive patients with Kras wild-type mCRC who received first-line treatment with cetuximab and FP-based chemotherapy in our unit from January 2010 to December 2015. Ninety-five eligible patients were included. The median follow-up of our cohort was 65.0 mo. RESULTS The median progression-free survival (mPFS) and median overall survival (mOS) of the entire cohort were 9.66 mo (95%CI: 7.72–12.5) and 25.8 mo (95%CI: 18.7–35.6), respectively. Between oral FP and infusional FP, there was no statistical significant difference in the mPFS [9.79 mo (95%CI: 7.49–12.7) vs 9.63 mo (95%CI: 6.34–13.4); P = 0.72] and mOS [25.8 mo (95%CI: 15.2–35.6) vs 26.3 mo (95%CI: 18.7–41.2); P = 0.63]. Grade 3 or above adverse events were reported in 28.4% of patients, being similar with oral and infusional FP, and included 10.5% of neutropenia and 2.1% of diarrhoea events. CONCLUSION The current analysis demonstrates comparable efficacy and safety profiles of cetuximab in combination with oral and infusional FP in Chinese population. The results expand treatment options for Chinese patients and invite revision of existing treatment guidelines to incorporate oral FP-based chemotherapy plus cetuximab.

There are many problems in the traditional teaching of modern electrical control technology, such as teacher-centered, not paying attention to the process examination and ability training. OBE is the abbreviation of output-oriented education, its core concept is student-centered and focuses on what students can produce after receiving education. Based on the concept of OBE education and the requirements of engineering education certification, aiming at the practical characteristics of modern electrical control technology, taking the actual occupation demand as the guidance and focusing on the cultivation of practical engineering application ability, the targeted reform is carried out from the four aspects of teaching content, practical teaching, assessment method and curriculum design. With students as the center and results as the guidance, teachers can raise their expectations of students' learning, set challenging goals, and cultivate outstanding professionals serving the society and enterprises.

The disease spots on the grape leaves can be detected by using the image processing and deep learning methods. However, the accuracy and efficiency of the detection are still the challenges. The convolutional substrate information is fuzzy, and the detection results are not satisfactory if the disease spot is relatively small. In particular, the detection will be difficult if the number of pixels of the spot is

Background Mandibular fracture healing is a complex process involving nerves and growth factors. Nerve growth factor (NGF) not only facilitates the maintenance of sympathetic neurite growth but also stimulates other growth factors that can promote the essential osteogenesis and angiogenesis for fracture healing. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the combined effects of NGF, bone morphogenic protein-9 (BMP-9), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) to accelerate the healing of mandible fractures. Methods The models of mandible fracture with local nerve injury established in 48 rabbits were randomly divided into nerve growth factor group (NGF group), gelatin sponge group (GS group), blank group, and intact group. The recovery of nerve reflex was assessed by observing the number of rabbits with lower lip responses to acupuncture. The fracture healing was observed with visual and CBCT, and then callus tissues from the mandibular fracture area were collected for hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining observation, and the expression of BMP-9 and VEGF in callus at different stages was detected by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Results Needling reaction in the lower lip showed the number of animals with nerve reflex recovery was significantly higher in the NGF group than that in the GS and blank groups at the 2nd and 4th weeks after the operation. The combined results of macroscopic observation, CBCT examination, and histological analysis showed that a large number of osteoblasts and some vascular endothelial cells were found around the trabecular bone in the NGF group and the amount of callus formation and reconstruction was better than that in the GS group at the 2nd week after the operation. The qRT-PCR results indicated that the expression levels of BMP-9 and VEGF in the four groups reached the highest values at the 2nd week, while the expression levels of both in the NGF group were significantly higher than that in the GS group. Conclusion The exogenous NGF could accelerate the healing of mandible fractures. This work will provide a new foundation and theoretical basis for clarifying the mechanism of fracture healing, thereby promoting fracture healing and reducing the disability rate of patients.

Mobile travel has become a significant trend due to the emergence of smartphones and mobile technology. Existing researches show that the integration of location-based services (LBS) is potentially adding significant values to the mobile tourism industry. The purpose of this study is to develop a location-based mobile application for theme park visitors to enhance their visiting experience. The application of location- based solutions such as interactive map, push notification services with geofencing and augmented reality tour guide will be involved in this study. Google Map SDK for Android, Google ARCore Sceneform, GeoFire and SQLite methodology is adopted to build the application. An online survey is conducted to evaluate the user acceptance for the mobile application by sending Android Package Kit (APK) to the users. The result shows that majority of respondents had positive attitude towards the application and agreed that the application will enhance their park visiting experience. The conclusion can be drawn that the application can be further improved with features which contributes to the digitalization of outdoor parks or other fields in mobile tourism.

Fine gas-atomized powders were prepared for fabricating 316L stainless steel by selective laser melting (SLM) for medical implant applications. The effect of 3D printing laser power on the microstructure, biocompatibility, mechanical and corrosion properties of SLM 316L were systematically investigated and compared with the traditionally quenched. The SLM 316L showed irregular grains with many sub-grains and a thicker passive film with lower Mo content than the quenched 316L. SLM 316L formed at high laser power showed improved elongation, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility, while that prepared at low power showed poorer performance and was unstable during long-term experiments in simulated body fluid. Keywords: 3D printing, 316L stainless steel, Selective laser melting, Transmission electron microscopy, Corrosion, Bio-compatibility

Solanum rostratum Dunal is a common invasive weed that can cause significant harm to local natural environments and ecosystems. The prerequisite for preventing and managing the invasion of Solanum rostratum Dunal is timely detection and reasonable assessment of its damage level. Therefore, this paper proposes a deep learning-based image segmentation method for the detection of the invasion degree of Solanum rostratum Dunal. The Solanum rostratum Dunal images are acquired by UAV and then cropped into sub-images of the same size following a specific processing method. The sub-images are fed into a U-Net based convolutional neural network DeepSolanum-Net for processing. The pixels belonging to the Solanum rostratum Dunal plants are extracted and labeled after the sub-images pass through the DeepSolanum-Net. All the processed sub-images are stitched and reduced to the size of the original image, and all the target pixels belonging to the Solanum rostratum Dunal in the original image are segmented out from the background image. The coverage rate and the area covered by the Solanum rostratum Dunal on the ground are calculated based on the image segmentation results and the flight altitude of the UAV. A field test is executed and the test results demonstrate that the recognition precision of effective pixels of Solanum rostratum Dunal plants reach 89.95% and the recall rate reach 90.3% when the proposed method is used.

Influence of temperature on the electrochemical and passivation behavior of 2507 super duplex stainless steel in the simulated desulfurized flue gas condensates in thermal power plant chimney are investigated. Cathodic reactions are enhanced with temperature, accompanying with the involvement of oxygen reduction when the temperature is raised to 60 °C or higher. The unchanged semiconductor type, enrichment of Cr and thickening of the passive film are observed as the temperature increases. The temperature-induced variations of film structure and doping concentrations are responsible for the degradation of protective ability of the passive film.

According to clinical reports, people with ages between 60 to 79 years have a high risk of stroke. The most obvious facial features of stroke are expressional asymmetry and mouth askew. In this study, we proposed a facial stroke recognition system that assists patients in self-judgment. Facial landmarks were tracked by an ensemble of regression trees (ERT) method. Two symmetry indexes area ratio and distance ratio between the left and right side of the eye and mouth were calculated. Local Ternary Pattern (LTP) and Gabor filter were used to enhance and to extract the texture features of the region of interest (ROI), respectively. The structural similarity of ROI between the left and right face was calculated. After that, we modified the original feature selection algorithm to select the best feature set. To classify facial stroke, the Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and Bayesian Classifier were adopted as classifier. The experimental results show that the proposed system can accurately and effectively distinguish stroke from facial images. The recognition accuracy of SVM, Random Forest, and Bayes are 100%, 95.45%, and 100%, respectively.

Background: Fan therapy is often suggested for relieving the symptom of dyspnea in patients with advanced cancer, but relevant literature among Asians is limited. Objective: Phase 2 clinical trial to assess the clinical feasibility and outcome of using an electric fan to alleviate the symptom of dyspnea in Chinese patients with advanced cancer. Methods: Thirty patients with advanced cancer having unresolved breathlessness were recruited from Hospice and Palliative Care Centre of Kiang Wu Hospital in Macau. Participants were randomly and equally allocated to the experimental group and the control group, respectively. Outcome Measures: Verbal numerical rating scale (NRS) of breathlessness, respiratory rate (RR), and saturation of peripheral oxygen (SpO2) was collected before and after the intervention. Results: T test was used to analyze the data collected. There was a significant difference in the NRS scores of the experimental group ( P < .01), indicating a significant reduction in the patients’ sensation of breathlessness after fan therapy, whereas no significant difference was found in the objective statistic results of RR and SpO2. No significant difference ( P > .05) was found in the control group for all the 3 variables before and after routine treatment. Conclusion: The results of the study suggested that fan therapy could be effective in alleviating dyspnea in Chinese patients with advanced cancer. It should be considered as one of the nonpharmacological treatment option. Future large-scale phase 3 clinical trials are warranted.

9 páginas.-- L. Courtney Smith ... et al., The 13th Congress of the International Society of Developmental and Comparative Immunology took place in Murcia Spain from June 28 to July 3, 2015 at the Victor Villegas Auditorium and Convention Center. There were two or three parallel sessions during the Congress that covered a wide range of immunological topics and brought researchers together from around the world who work in different areas of immunology. The Congress included three plenary presentations, 12 oral sessions, two poster sessions, and a special symposium. Here we report on some of the talks and a few of the posters that were presented at the meeting, Funding from the US National Science Foundation (IOS-1461716) awarded to LCS and Louise Rollins-Smith (Vanderbilt University, USA) supported students and postdocs from laboratories in the US to attend the 13th Congress of ISDCI

Purpose The aim of this study was to understand the association between various genetic mutation and (18)F-FDG PET-related parameters in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods One hundred three CRC patients who had undergone preoperative PET/CTs were included in this study. Several PET/CT-related parameters, including SUV(max), and various thresholds of metabolic tumor volume, total lesion glycolysis, and PET/CT-based tumor width (TW) were measured. Using high-resolution melting methods for genetic mutation analysis, tumor- and PET/CT-related parameters were correlated with various genetic alterations including TP53, KRAS, APC, BRAF, and PIK3CA. Mann-Whitney U test and logistic regression analysis were carried out for this analysis. Results Genetic alterations in TP53, KRAS, and APC were found in 41 (40%), 34 (33%), and 27 (26%) of tumors, respectively. PIK3CA and BRAF were exhibited by 5 and 4 of the patients with CRC. TP53 mutants exhibited higher SUV(max). The odds ratio was 1.28 (P = 0.04; 95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.61). Tumors with a mutated KRAS had an increased accumulation of FDG using a 40% threshold level for maximal uptake of TW (TW(40%)), whereas the odds ratio was 1.15 (P = 0.001; 95% confidence interval, 1.06-1.24). The accuracy of SUV(max) greater than 10 in predicting TP53 mutation was 60%, whereas that for TW(40%) for KRAS was 61%. Conclusions Increased SUV(max) and TW(40%) were associated in CRC tumors with TP53 and KRAS mutations, respectively. Further studies are required because of the low predictive accuracy.

This paper analyzes a fractured lightning rod on a tower structure at a 500kV substation. By examining the residues of the rods, and utilizing simulation test and finite element analysis, the causes for this incident are discussed in detail, and a technical rationale is provided for preventative measures of incidents of this type.

After the political transition in 1999, the economic performance of Macau skyrocketed within a short period of time. Globalisation and the changing political, economic and social landscapes have all exerted influence on higher education. The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of globalisation on public higher education in Macau after the change of sovereignty. The method of study is to analyse facts and figures provided by official sources. Five major dimensions are explored. First, the demand for higher education has increased. Second, government expenditure on higher education has multiplied. Third, the amount of resources coming from the private sector has been boosted. Fourth, the degree of internationalisation has been enhanced. Fifth, there is an aspiration from the government to establish a world class university. In many parts of the world, governments have decreased their expenditure on higher education. In Macau the experience is different. The Macau government generates large amounts of revenue from taxation, and therefore, it is able to increase its investment in higher education. However, it is noted that although educational opportunities are plentiful, distribution of resources is seriously uneven.

Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) plays an important part in the repair of cartilage in osteoarthritis. It has been hypothesised that intra-articular injection of TGF-β₁ promotes repair of cartilage and protects the subchondral bone from damage in osteoarthritic temporomandibular joints (TMJs). We made bilateral partial perforations of the disc to induce osteoarthritic joints in 36 rabbits. TGF-β₁ 20, 40, or 80 ng were injected into the right joint, and vehicle alone was injected into the left joint. Four additional animals were used as normal controls. Microcomputed tomography was used to quantify the three-dimensional microarchitecture of subchondral bone, followed by assessment of the proteoglycan content. All joints treated with TGF-β₁ were covered by a layer of well-organised fibrocartilage, and had increased proteoglycan content and normal microarchitectural properties, whereas the joint treated by vehicle alone had typical osteoarthritis-related degradation of cartilage and sclerosis of subchondral bone. These results suggested that TGF-β₁ is an effective way of treating osteoarthritis of the TMJ.

This study investigated the effects of in vitro chondrogenic differentiated mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on cartilage and subchondral cancellous bone in temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis (TMJOA). Four weeks after induction of osteoarthritis (OA), the joints received hylartin solution, non-chondrogenic MSCs or in vitro chondrogenic differentiated MSCs. The changes in cartilage and subchondral cancellous bone were evaluated by histology, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and micro-computed tomography (CT). Implanted cells were tracked using Adeno-LacZ labelling. The differentiated MSC-treated group had better histology than the MSC-treated group at 4 and 12 weeks, but no difference at 24 weeks. Increased mRNA expression of collegan II, aggeran, Sox9 and decreased matrix metalloproteinase 13 (MMP13) were observed in differentiated MSC-treated groups compared to the undifferentiated MSC-treated group at 4 weeks. The differentiated MSC-treated group had decreased bone volume fraction, trabecular thickness and bone surface density, and increased trabecular spacing in the subchondral cancellous bone than the undifferentiated MSC-treated group. Transplanted cells were observed at cartilage, subchondral bone, and the synovial membrane lining at 4 weeks. Intra-articular injection of MSCs could delay the progression of TMJOA, and in vitro chondrogenic induction of MSCs could enhance the therapeutic effects. This provides new insights into the role of MSCs in cell-based therapies for TMJOA.

Nowadays, the safety effection study of the surface explosion operations on underground cavern safety become more and more important along with engineering construction's development. In this paper, effection of open stope surface explosive operations on underlying gap cavern as an example on studying the effection of blasting shock on underground cavern stability with the method of field monitoring and numerical simulation.When the explosion source and seismic gap are almost in the same level, the longitudinal wave leads the role of damage effect. The most dangerous part of the mined-out area is the spandrel. The collapse models of mined-out area manifest are as follows, cracks appear on 45. Inclined top of surface in mined-out area, the spandrels appear broken, surface cracks expand further, broken parts of spandrel are aggravated, arch waist are in jog and the side collapse inward in the end.

The modern 2d digital topographic map can not meet the people to the 3d information needs.This paper analyzes the AutoCAD graphics file format.Use of MATLAB platform,designed the interface of the program based on the data extracted from DXF file,and extract valid data. Apply this method to extract terrain data of the contour to establish 3d geological model which has obtained a better effect. And solve the AutoCAD system and MATLAB data sharing between effectively.Use of the powerful graphics features of MATLAB, we have put forward a new way for 3d geological modeling and generation DEM.

Foundation failure mode of high filling culverts involves calculation theory and method of subgrade bearing capacity, and it has great theoretical and practical values. After model of the culvert has been established, finite difference method will be used to do the numerical simulation in FLAC3D. Reaserch suggests that traditional Terzaghi/Meyerhof failure mode are not suitable for relatively deep buried subgrade of high filling culvert. Foundation failure of high filling culvert is caused by difference in stiffness and earth press, which result in settlement difference, and then forms subsidiary shear stress on the sliding surface. When stress value reaches shear strength of the foundation soil, shear failure occured.

This paper presents a high precision direct multi-cell Battery Voltage Detecting Circuit (BVDC) for Battery Management Systems (BMS) in electric vehicles. BVDC in BMS must be able to accommodate direct voltage input up to tens of volts from series connected batteries, fulfil the precision needs by battery state of charge estimation algorithm. The BVDC circuit is designed with a 0.5μm 1-poly 3-metal high voltage (HV) 60V Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) semiconductor process. System optimization design of HV multiplexer and incremental sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in BVDC circuit eliminates the need of amplifier-resistor based level shift, and any static current through HV signal path, which greatly improved the conversion accuracy. Post layout extracted simulation result shows that the typical conversion error is less than 0.3mV@1MHz for series connected batteries without extra calibration.

Several studies have proven the ability of NEL-like molecule-1 (Nell-1) to induce chondrogenesis and make it as a potential candidate for articular cartilage repair. In the current study, the chondroprotective effect of Nell-1 on osteoarthritis (OA) of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) was investigated by intra-articular injection. Bilateral partial discectomy was performed in 24 rabbits to induce TMJOA. Four weeks later, the right TMJ was treated with Nell-1 as the experimental group, whereas the left was treated with physiologic saline as the control group. Twelve rabbits each time were randomly killed at 12 and 24 weeks after injection, respectively. Histologic observation and metabolic analysis by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction were used for evaluation. All TMJs appeared as OA-like histologic changes after intra-articular injection. However, the degree of osteoarthritis in the experimental group was less severe than that in the control group during the experimental time. The expression of type II collagen and aggrecan messenger RNA was significantly higher than the control group at 12 weeks after injection. However, no difference in the expression of aggrecanase or interleukin 1 messenger RNA was observed. The results suggest that intra-articular injection of Nell-1 may be a good alternative for the treatment of cartilage degeneration in OA.

Social network is a cyber nation. The knowledge and information exchanged between different social networks are important in enhancing user experience. However, sharing information should not be completely barrier free as weak polices and uncontrolled sharing could lead to numerous security risks. Thus, we propose a method to effectively share information in a secure and efficient manner by establishing collaboration between social networks. The proposed method implements sharing components without changing the original data and system structure. Various social networks can be connected to each other; this connection can be referred to as a united social network (USN). Within a USN, each member social network has its own sharing policy and controls its shared information. Any two social networks can initialize communication and mutually determine sharing policies. Then, information can be shared between networks using the proposed schema. A social network user's decisions are involved in each sharing decision. This determines access parameters. Privacy can be systematically preserved by defining subject (requester) attributes, environment attributes, and resource attributes while information is shared among different collaborative social networks.

This study sought to evaluate the effects of intra-articular injection of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) suspended in hyaluronan (HA) on the cartilage and subchondral cancellous bone repair in osteoarthritis (OA) of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). Disc perforation was performed bilaterally in rabbit TMJs to induce OA. Four groups of animals (n = 12) received OA induction only, and either intra-articular HA injection alone, intra-articular IGF-1 injection alone, or a combination of HA and IGF-1 injection. All therapy was begun 4 weeks after OA induction. The animals were killed 12 or 24 weeks after the first injection, for histology and micro-CT examinations. Two additional animals were used as normal controls. Typical cartilage and subchondral cancellous bone lesions were observed in the OA group. No protective effect on cartilage and subchondral cancellous bone was found in the HA or IGF-1 alone groups. Better histological repair and nearly normal micro-architectural properties of the subchondral cancellous bone were observed in the HA + IGF-1 group compared with the HA or IGF-1 alone groups. HA may be used as an effective carrier for intra-articular injection of IGF-1 and the combination of HA/IGF-1 shows promise as a new rational approach to therapy of TMJ OA.

The development of private higher education in Macau has experienced rapid growth in the past two decades. The purpose of this paper is to understand this trend by investigating the facts and figures supplied by official sources and to analyze the role between the Government and the private sector. This paper shows that the attitude of the Macau Government is neither authoritative nor laissez-faire toward private higher education. On the one hand, the Government is investing heavily in the public sector. On the other hand, it is assisting the private sector by various means. However, there is a lack of systematic planning in the area of public-private partnership. There are also two issues which may hinder the current development of private higher education. They are an outdated legal framework and a lack of standardized quality assurance measures.

Objective This study aimed to examine the effect of injection of transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) on articular cartilage in osteoarthritic temporomandibular joint (TMJ). Study design Disc perforation was performed bilaterally in 24 rabbits to induce osteoarthritis (OA). The right joint was injected with TGF-β as experimental groups, and the left joint with physiologic saline as control. Animals were killed at different intervals. Histology and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was performed for comparison. Results All joints showed OA-like changes, but the degree in the experimental was significantly less severe than in the control. At 12 weeks a significantly greater expression of aggrecan and collagen type II was found in the experimental compared with the control joints. However, no difference in either anabolic or catabolic genes was found between the two groups at 24 weeks. Conclusions Transforming growth factor β may have a potential benefit in protecting articular cartilage during the development of TMJ OA.

Social networks have gained unprecedented popularity recently, and more social networks have emerged for specific purposes. People create information in social network. The process of information creation involves many human interactions such as tagging, selecting and grouping Human interacted data creation assigns abundant semantic to data. Multiple attributes have been added to data upon data creation. Some of these attributes are related to resource access control policy. A social network may not want its information open totally, therefore, each social network has to have its own resource access policy. This paper proposes an architecture for users to share information cross social networks in a secure, effective and efficient way. The proposed architecture also let social network decide which kind of information to be shared. The proposed architecture provides an attribute-based information sharing mechanism for collaborative social networks to share their information.

Interleukin 1 (IL-1) plays a central role in cartilage deterioration in osteoarthritis (OA). Interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) is a natural receptor antagonist and blocks the effects of IL-1. In this study, partial disk perforation was performed bilaterally to induce an osteoarthritic joint in rabbit temporomandibular joint. Fifty micrograms of recombinant human IL-1Ra was injected into the right joint, and the contralateral joint received vehicle injection 4 weeks postoperatively. Animals were killed at different intervals. Histology and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction were performed for comparison. The vehicle-treated joint had typical OA-related cartilage degradation, whereas the lesions in cartilage of the IL-1Ra-treated joint were less severe than the control joint. At 12 weeks, a higher expression of aggrecan and collagen type II and a lower expression of aggrecanase were observed in the treated joint than in the control joint. At 24 weeks after injection, the expression of aggrecan and collagen type II was also higher in the treated joint than in the control joint. However, no difference in either aggrecanase or tumor necrosis factor α was found between 2 groups at 24 weeks. Our results suggest that intra-articular administration of IL-1Ra into the temporomandibular joint may be a good alternative for the treatment of cartilage degeneration in OA. There was also evidence confirming that supplemented IL-1Ra functions by modifying the signal transduction mechanisms specific to IL-1.

Although doctors try their best to protect transplants during surgery, there remain great challenges for the higher survival rate and less rejection of transplants after organ transplantation. Growing evidence indicates that the stem cells could function after injury rather than aging, implying that suitable injury may activate the stem cells of damaged organs. Furthermore, it has been revealed that stem cells can be used to induce tolerance in transplantation and the ultrasound has great biological effects on organs. Basing on these facts, we hypothesize that the stem cells within the transplants can be activated by ultrasound with high-frequency and medium-intensity. Therefore, the stem-cell-activated organs (SCAO) can be derived, and the SCAO will be better transplant option for organ transplantation. We postulate the ultrasound can change the molecular activity and/or quantity of the stem cells, the membrane permeability, the cell-cell junctions, and their surrounding microenvironments. As a result, the stem cells are activated, and the SCAO will acquire more regenerative capacity and less rejection. In the paper, we also discuss the process, methods and models for verifying the theory, and the consequences. We believe the theory may provide a practical method for the clinical application of the ultrasound and stem cells in organ transplantation.

Nowadays , the main problems of the expert system are as follows: The illation is simple, the knowledge base cannot change dynamically, the capacity of the on-site handling is weak, and cannot make the most of the network to realize the Remote Network Services, and so on. We design a new kind of expert system based on the GSM, it can realize the dynamical change knowledge base of expert system and solve the problems which could not be solved in current expert system through the network, and can realize the on-site handling processing using the mobile termination.

Dislocation of the mandibular condyle into the middle cranial fossa is extremely rare. The authors present a case of superior dislocation of left condyle into the middle cranial fossa. The dislocated condyle was reduced successfully and then a flap of temporal muscle and a thin titanium network were used to repair the defect in the middle cranial fossa.

Ultrasonic detection method is used in this system, a solutions based on the uClinux embedded operating system and Samsung S3C2410 processor is proposed. The hardware design and software design for system are discussed in detail. The paper studies the application technology of Neural networks and wavelet transform in PD online monitoring system in power transformer. This system has the characteristic of small volume, low cost, high accuracy, high reliability and etc. It can be used widely in future.

The molten steel temperature is an important processing target for steel-making. Because of high temperature and strong erosion from steel and slag at present, the continuous steel temperature information can not be obtained by existing measurement method. In view of this kind of situation, this article introduces the soft measuring technique of the molten steel temperature based on the intelligent technology. The artificial neural network model is used to predict the initial temperature trend, and then an expert system is used to compensate the error caused in special conditions. The movement result indicated that the adaptation and accuracy of the steel temperature prediction have been improved, and the measure has the advantages of soft measurement method in safety, operation control and economy benefit, which demonstrates the system possesses a very extensive protect.

In view of the camera calibration existent questiones, on the basis of Stereo Vision,a new method of camera calibration for binocular vision based on genetic programming is proposed. It is used to learn the relationships between the image information and the 3D information. For two-cameras system, the complicated relation between the cameras is established by training the genetic programming without the parameters of the cameras calibrated. It neither requires an accurate mathematical model nor needs any prior knowledge about the parameters. The 3D information of target is achieved from genetic programming output.The results of the experiment showed that this method was more accurate with traditional visual calibration methods.

A pipelined ADC architecture that exhibits both power and area efficiencies is proposed to be accountable for the major baseband functions of the recently introduced two-step-channel-select (2-SCS) low-IF receiver. Such architecture comprises: 1) a sample and hold (S/H) front-end implementing analog-double quadrature sampling (A-DQS) for IF-to-baseband downconversion and IF channel selection; and 2) one OTA-shared pipeline ADC is employed for digitalization both I and Q channels through I/Q-multiplexing. An IC prototype was designed in a 0.35/spl mu/m CMOS process with 20-MS/s 8-bit resolution, which has been targeted for 2.4-GHz ISM band standards. The key simulated performances achieved 7.7-b ENOB with INL and DNL within /spl plusmn/0.5 LSB and /spl plusmn/0.34 LSB, respectively. A competitive chip area of only 1.34 mm/sup 2/ is achieved, while dissipating an average of 54.5 mW from 2.5 V.

Background and Study Aims: The gender preference of patients for doctors has been noted in many areas of medicine, but has never been studied in those undergoing the potentially embarassing procedures of colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy. We were interested in whether patients did express a preference for either the sex of a doctor, or a doctor whom they had previously met, so that we might in future consider offering a choice of endoscopist. Patients and Methods: A total of 101 patients attending for colonoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopy were prospectively asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire enquiring about gender preference and preference for an endoscopist with whom they were familiar. The questionnaire also asked about the patient's age and whether patients felt sufficiently strongly about their choice that they would be prepared to wait longer for the procedure if necessary. Results: The response rate for completion of the questionnaire was 100% (65 female patients and 34 male patients, with two patients not disclosing their sex). Among the female patients, 48 % preferred a female colonoscopist, whereas no male patients preferred a male colonoscopist (χ2 = 26.8, df = 2; P < 0.0001). Women also felt more strongly about seeing a familiar colonoscopist, with 56 % of women and 35 % of men preferring the same doctor they had seen in the outpatient department to perform the test (χ2 = 21.2, df = 2, P < 0.0001). Conclusion: By offering the choice of a female endoscopist to female patients, and a doctor that the patient has already met in the outpatient department to perform the procedure, the stress of lower gastrointestinal endoscopy might be minimized. This might reduce the proportion of patients failing to attend for booked procedures and thereby increase both the detection of serious pathology and the efficiency of the endoscopy unit.

Summary Objective Articular cartilage of the mandibular condyle has limited ability to regenerate itself after injury. This study was to investigate whether osteochondral defects in mandibular condyle could be repaired by NELL-1(NEL-like molecule-1)-modified autogenous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) and poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) composite. Methods Osteochondral defects of 3mm-diameter×5mm-depth were created unilaterally in the central part of the condyle in 50 adult goats. The injury sites were treated with NELL-1-modified BMMSCs/PLGA, BMMSCs/PLGA, PLGA alone, or left empty. The defect area was monitored using gross examination, histology, immunohistochemistry, and micro-computed tomography (μ-CT). Implanted BMMSCs were tracked using Adeno-LacZ labeling. Results The NELL-1-modified BMMSCs/PLGA group showed vigorous and rapid repair leading to regeneration of fibrocartilage at 6 weeks and to complete repair of native articular cartilage and subchondral bone at 24 weeks. The BMMSCs/PLGA group also completely repaired the defect with fibrocartilage at 24 weeks, but the cartilage in the BMMSCs/PLGA group was less well-organized than the NELL-1-modified BMMSCs/PLGA. The osteochondral defects in the PLGA and empty defect groups were poorly repaired, and no cartilage in the empty defect group or only small portion of cartilage in the PLGA group was found. In vivo viability of implanted cells was demonstrated by the retention for 6 weeks in the defects. Conclusion These findings demonstrated that NELL-1-modified BMMSCs/PLGA composite can rapidly repair large osteochondral defect in the mandibular condyle with regeneration of native fibrocartilage and subchondral bone.