Search

α-Monochlorocyclododecanone was synthesized from cyclododecane and 1,3-Dichloro-5,5-dimethylhydantoin (DCDMH) catalyzed with silica gel in MeOH. The product was obtained by crystallization with nearly 85% yield. The presented method used cheap raw materials, mild reaction conditions, simple separation method and environment-friendly process. Additionally, the current synthesis provided an ideal approach for large-scale production.

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of transhepatic arterial infusion (TAI) with transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) on liver volume of patients with liver metastases, by liver volumetry using 256-slice CT (iCT 256, Philips Healthcare). Methods: A retrospective analysis of 19 patients with liver metastases, who received combination treatment of TAI with TAE, were conducted. Residual liver volumes (LV) were measured before (LV0), after the first (LV1) and the second treatment (LV2) with iCT 256. Bland-Altman method was used to evaluate the agreements of residual liver volume between two reviewers. Residual liver volume changes were compared by One-Way ANOVA. Results: For the first reviewer, LV0, LV1, LV2 were: 872.67±139.31, 960.63±143.91, 842.13±141.45 cc. LV1 > LV0, but the difference was not significant (P = 0.061). LV2 < LV0, the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.013). LV2 < LV0, and the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.509). For the second reviewer, LV0, LV1, LV2 were: 909.99±135.46, 996.36±180.10, 845.70±131.632 cc. LV1 > LV0, the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.083). LV2 < LV1, the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.003). LV2 < LV0, the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.194). Conclusion: Combination treatment of TAI with TAE did not induce significant liver damage in patients with metastatic liver cancer, and iCT256 volumetry provided a precise measurement of liver volume and may play a critical role in the development of interventional surgery.

With the increase in mining depth of coal resources, high-temperature thermal damage has become increasingly prominent, and research on geotemperature in mining areas has received increasing attention. At present, simple temperature measurement is the most commonly used well temperature measurement method, but the obtained data cannot be used directly and need to be corrected. According to the thermal recovery law of an approximately steady-state hole, the “three-point” method is often used to correct simple well temperature data. However, the calibration work is complicated, time-consuming and laborious. Moreover, in the “three-point” method, the well depth and the time from when the well fluid stopping circulation to the temperature measurement (TSC) are not considered enough, which easily leads to deviations in the well temperature correction results. Based on the TSC and well depth, a simple well temperature correction equation was obtained by using 50 available data points with TSCs less than 20 h of approximate steady-state temperature measurements collected in the Huainan coalfield (TSC

Wireless power transmission (WPT) technology has been regarded as the best solution to the problems of wire power transmission since its concept is described by Tesla. In recent years, with the application of a large number of electrical equipment, the drawbacks of wire power supply has become more prominent. WPT has received wider attention and more development opportunities. As a core part of WPT system, the magnetic coupling mechanism (MCM) is the focus of most of the research. This article reviews and analyzes the design and optimization of MCM of WPT system. It mainly focuses on the forms of MCM designed to meet different power supply requirements, the optimization methods of MCM to improve the performance, and the electromagnetic safety of MCM to ensure the promotion and application of WPT system. For WPT system, the forms of MCM is the basis of WPT, the optimization of MCM is the guarantee of the system performance, and the electromagnetic safety of MCM is the premise of the applications. The review and analysis of this article covers the three cores of MCM. It can provide a reference for research groups, professionals, and investment representatives on WPT.

Objective: To investigate the ameliorating effect of ginsenoside Rg1 on the depression-like behaviors induced by chronic restraint stress (CRS) in rats and the underlying mechanisms. Methods: Forty male Wistar rats were divided into 4 groups according to their baseline sucrose preference: control group, model group, and Rg1-treated groups (5 and 10 mg/kg). Except for control group, the groups were exposed to CRS (6 h/day) for 28 days. All drugs were intraperitoneally administered once daily to CRS rats after restraint stress for 14 days. The behavioral tests were carried out via the open field test (OFT), sucrose preference test (SPT), forced swim test (FST), and the Morris water maze (MWM) 4 weeks following CRS induction. The levels of serum corticosterone (CORT) and the activities of the antioxidant defense biomarkers (SOD, MDA and GSH-x) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were analyzed using commercial ELISA kits. The levels of the neurotransmitter (5-HT, 5-HIAA, Ach, NE, GABA and Glu) in the PFC were measured by ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. The protein expression of BDNF, Trkb, Bax and Bcl-2 in the PFC was detected by western blotting. Results: Owing to increased sucrose consumption in the SPT, decreased immobility time in the FST, and the improved cognitive performance in MWM, chronic treatment with Ginsenoside Rg1 was found to significantly attenuate depression- like behaviors (anhedonia, behavioral despair and poor spatial memory) in rats. Moreover, CRS exposure caused evident alterations in the levels of the neurotransmitters (5-HT, 5-HIAA, Ach, GABA and Glu) and the activities of the antioxidant defense biomarkers (SOD, MDA and GSH-x) in the PFC and the levels of corticosterone in serum. However, Ginsenoside Rg1 treatment could restore these levels to normal values. Additionally, Ginsenoside Rg1 treatment significantly reverted the decreased expression of BDNF, Trkb and Bcl-2 and the increased expression of Bax in the PFC of CRS rats. Conclusions: Ginsenoside Rg1 could attenuate the CRS-induced depression-like behaviors, in part, by regulating neurotransmitter levels and HPA function, antagonizing oxidative stress and apoptosis, and restoring BDNF-TrkB signaling in PFC. Altogether, our results provide a novel basis regarding the potential therapeutic effects of Rg1 on depression. Keywords: Ginsenosides Rg1, Depression, Chronic restraint stress, Neurotransmitter, Oxidative stress, BDNF

We analyzed the number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and Epstein-Barr virus DNA (EBV DNA) for diagnosis, monitoring and prognosis of patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (mNPC). The levels of CTCs and EBV DNA were measured at baseline and after first-line chemotherapy in 148 mNPC patients prospectively enrolled between December 2014 and August 2016. We also collected 122 non-mNPC cases within the same time frame for examining CTCs and EBV DNA at baseline. In 270 NPC patients, we observed improved specificity (86.0% vs. 41.0%) and inferior sensitivity (42.3% vs. 81.3%) of CTCs as compared to EBV DNA for diagnosis of distant metastasis. mNPC patients were stratified into unfavorable and favorable prognostic groups, respectively, based on CTC of 12 at baseline and 1 after first-line chemotherapy and EBV DNA of 10,000 at baseline and 4,000 after first-line chemotherapy. Conversion of baseline unfavorable CTCs and EBV DNA to favorable after first-line chemotherapy was associated with significantly longer progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) compared to patients with unfavorable CTCs and EBV DNA at both time points. Among patients with a complete/partial response as per imaging evaluation, favorable CTCs and EBV DNA levels after first-line chemotherapy were associated with significantly longer PFS and OS. In conclusion, our data demonstrated the number of CTCs and EBV DNA before, after and during first-line chemotherapy were strong predictive markers for mNPC patients. When utilized in conjunction with imaging studies, CTCs and EBV DNA could provide additional prognostic information.

Background: The goal of this study was to explore the value of adding neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) or adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) to concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) with different risks of treatment failure. Patients and Methods: A total of 2,263 eligible patients with stage III–IVb NPC treated with CCRT ± NACT or ACT were included in this retrospective study. Distant metastasis–free survival (DMFS), overall survival, and progression-free survival were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method and differences were compared using the log-rank test. Results: Patients in the low-risk group (stage N0–1 disease and Epstein-Barr virus [EBV] DNA P= .008). Multivariate analyses also demonstrated that additional NACT was the only independent prognostic factor for DMFS (hazard ratio, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.22–0.80; P=.009). In both the intermediate-risk group (stage N0–1 disease and EBV DNA ≥4,000 copies/mL and stage N2–3 disease and EBV DNA Conclusions: The addition of NACT to CCRT could reduce distant failure in patients with low risk of treatment failure.

Background: To investigate the relationship between the pretreatment serum lipid concentrations and the clinical outcomes in patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) who were treated with a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Methods: From August 2002 to April 2005, 400 patients with stage III or stage IVa nasopharyngeal carcinoma were recruited for a randomised clinical trial of induction chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy or concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Pretreatment serum lipid concentrations were examined in 342 patients. Both univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to investigate the association of serum lipid levels with different treatment outcomes. Results: The 5-year failure-free survival rate for the low- high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and high-HDL-C groups was 52.1% and 65.5%, respectively (p=0.017), and the 5-year overall survival rate was 64.7% and 72.5%, respectively (p=0.094). The pretreatment serum level of HDL-C was a favourable prognostic factor of overall survival and failure-free survival in a Cox regression model with HR 0.65 (95% CI 0.43-0.97; p=0.036) and 0.60 (95% CI 0.41-0.88; p =0.008). No significant correlation was observed between the prognosis of patients with NPC and serum levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), or low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Conclusions: The pretreatment serum level of HDL-C was an independent prognostic factor for patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma who were treated with chemoradiotherapy.

Background Our previous trial confirmed that induction chemotherapy (IC) improved long-term survival outcomes in patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). In this study, we investigated the impact of IC on long-term quality of life (QoL) in this cohort. Methods Our trial was a randomised, open-label phase 3 trial comparing IC followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) versus CCRT alone in patients with stage III-IVB (except T3N0-1) NPC. All participants completed two self-administered questionnaires, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire C30 (QLQ-C30) and the EORTC QLQ Head and Neck Cancer–Specific Module (H&N35). As per protocol, the questionnaires had to be completed before knowledge of treatment allocation by the patient (baseline). Patients were then approached to enroll at the time of the present study period. Results Ultimately, QoL data from 228 patients were included in the analysis. Most scales were both statistically and clinically decreased in both groups between baseline and the latest follow-up. The IC followed by CCRT group had significantly better outcome in role functioning, cognitive functioning, social functioning, fatigue, pain, and constipation in QLQ-C30 scales at the last follow-up. Similarly, in H&N35 scales, a significantly better result was observed in pain, sexuality, sticky saliva, pain killers use, nutritional supplements, and weight loss, but a poorer result in senses problems, for those treated by IC followed by CCRT. Conclusion IC followed by CCRT seemed to have better long-term QoL outcomes compared with CCRT alone in patients with locoregionally advanced NPC.

Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been proved effective in color video visual tracking task. Compared with color video, hyperspectral video contains abundant spectral and material-based information which increases the instance-level discrimination ability. Therefore, hyperspectral video has huge potential for improving the performance of visual tracking task. However, deep trackers based on color video need a large number of samples to train a robust model, while it is difficult to train a hyperspectral video-based CNN model because of the lack of training samples. To tackle with this problem, a novel method is designed on basic of transfer learning technique. At first, a mapping convolutional operation is designed to embed high dimensional hyperspectral video into three channels as color video. Then, the parameters of CNN model learned on color domain are transferred into hyperspectral domain through fine-tuning. Finally, the fine-tuned CNN model is used for hyperspectral video tracking task. The hyperspectral tracker is evaluated on hyperspectral video dataset and it outperforms many state-of-the-art trackers.

As global energy consumption keeps increasing, the energy efficiency has become an important issue. Demand-side management (DSM) system is a technology that can be used to solve this issue. In many houses, there are some time periods in a day when inhabitants have high electricity demands, and these peaks will cause a burden on the smart grid. In order to solve energy efficiency problem, the demand-side management system can help users to postpone non-immediately needed demands to off-peak hour subject to the mechanism of real-time pricing policy. In addition, with the development of Internet of Things technology, the devices which have internet module can form a home area network, enabling DSM to monitor the entire state of the house and to control appliances. However, due to the uncertainty of user behavior, it is hard to find the good control policy for energy saving, considering that different users may have various habits and the appliance usage tends to be irregular. Therefore, the ability of DSM will be restricted in order to avoid disturbing the user comfort. In the proposed work, a smart home demand-side management system within home area network was implemented, including multiple agents with reinforcement learning for managing different appliances, energy storage system, and renewable energy. The proposed system also keeps the user's comfort based on the activity of user and controllability of appliances. As a result, the simulation studies show that the proposed DSM system can reduce 42.36% peak demand value and achieve 32.79% cost reduction. The cost reduction value can be further increased by 22.41% when the concept of energy self-awareness is combined into demand-side management system.

Emergency Department (ED) crowding has become an issue of delayed patient treatment and even a public healthcare problem around the world. According to recent research studies of many countries, the increasing number of patients in the emergency department which has led to unprecedented crowding and delays in care. For that reason, triage into five-level Emergency Severity Index (ESI) has become a major method for improving medical priorities in ED. Although the ESI mitigates the process of ED treatment, so far it still heavily relies on the nurse's subjective judgment and is easy to triage most patients to ESI level 3 in current practice. Therefore, a system that can help the doctors to accurately triage a patient's condition is imperative. In this work, we propose a system based on the patients' ED electronic health record to predict hospitalizations after assigned procedures in ED are completed. While most of the related studies have employed traditional machine learning for triage-related classification and highly relied on a feature selection process, our proposed system used data-to-image transform to produce the input and a convolutional neural network as a classifier. For validation, the data from an open dataset (National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey) is used which includes 118,602 patient visits of United States EDs from 2012 to 2016 survey years. To sum up, the resulting AUROC and accuracy achieve 0.86 and 0.77, respectively, in our work.

Despite evidence suggesting the utility of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) markers to stratify individuals with respect to nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) risk in NPC high-risk regions, no validated NPC risk prediction model exists. We aimed to validate an EBV-based NPC risk score in an endemic population undergoing screening for NPC. This prospective study was embedded within an ongoing NPC screening trial in southern China initiated in 2008, with 51 235 adult participants. We assessed the score's discriminatory ability (area under the receiver-operator-characteristics curve, AUC). A new model incorporating the EBV score, sex and family history was developed using logistic regression and internally validated using cross-validation. AUCs were compared. We also calculated absolute NPC risk combining the risk score with population incidence and competing mortality data. A total of 151 NPC cases were detected in 2008 to 2016. The EBV-based score was highly discriminating, with AUC = 0.95 (95% CI = 0.93-0.97). For 90% specificity, the score had 87.4% sensitivity (95% CI = 81.0-92.3%). As specificity increased from 90% to 99%, the positive predictive value increased from 2.4% (95% CI = 1.9-3.0%) to 12.5% (9.9-15.5%). Correspondingly, the number of positive tests per detected NPC case decreased from 272 (95% CI = 255-290) to 50 (41-59). Combining the score with other risk factors (sex, first-degree family history of NPC) did not improve AUC. Men aged 55 to 59 years with the highest risk profile had the highest 5-year absolute NPC risk of 6.5%. We externally validated the discriminatory accuracy of a previously developed EBV score in a high-risk population. Adding nonviral risk factors did not improve NPC prediction.

Uterine tumor resembling ovarian sex cord tumor (UTROSCT) is a rare mesenchymal neoplasm, defined as benign tumors with occasional recurrence. In a recent article by Comert et al.[1], gene fusion transcripts were found to enhance the invasive ability of these tumors. A 33-year-old patient presented to our clinic with increased menstrual flow in 2005. The pathology suggested low-grade endometrial stromal sarcoma, revealed by hysteroscopy, which was subsequently treated with abdominal radical hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and pelvic lymph node dissection. The pathology revealed adenocarcinoma cells and metastasized lymph nodes. Consequently, chemotherapy and radiotherapy were performed 5 and 24 times, respectively.

Purpose: Because of the uneven geographic distribution and small number of randomized trials available, the value of additional induction chemotherapy (IC) to concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains controversial. This study performed an individual patient data (IPD) pooled analysis to better assess the precise role of IC + CCRT in locoregionally advanced NPC. Experimental Design: Four randomized trials in endemic areas were identified, representing 1,193 patients; updated IPD were obtained. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were the primary and secondary endpoints, respectively. Results: Median follow-up was 5.0 years. The HR for PFS was 0.70 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.56–0.86; P = 0.0009; 9.3% absolute benefit at 5 years] in favor of IC + CCRT versus CCRT alone. IC + CCRT also improved OS (HR = 0.75; 95% CI, 0.57–0.99; P = 0.04) and reduced distant failure (HR = 0.68; 95% CI, 0.51–0.90; P = 0.008). IC + CCRT had a tendency to improve locoregional control compared with CCRT alone (HR = 0.70; 95% CI, 0.48–1.01; P = 0.06). There was no heterogeneity between trials in any analysis. No interactions between patient characteristics and treatment effects on PFS or OS were found. After adding two supplementary trials to provide a more comprehensive overview, the conclusions remained valid and were strengthened. In a supplementary Bayesian network analysis, no statistically significant differences in survival between different IC regimens were detected. Conclusions: This IPD pooled analysis demonstrates the superiority of additional IC over CCRT alone in locoregionally advanced NPC, with the survival benefit mainly associated with improved distant control. Clin Cancer Res; 24(8); 1824–33. ©2018 AACR.

Purpose This study was conducted to evaluate the prognostic value of treatment-related lymphopenia in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Materials and Methods A total of 413 consecutive stage II-IVb NPC patients treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) were enrolled. The overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) were calculated with the Kaplan-Meier method, and differences were compared using the log-rank test. Results A minimum (mini)–absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC) of < 390 cells/μL or ALC after 3 months of CCRT (post3m-ALC) < 705 cells/μL was significantly associated with worse outcome than mini-ALC ≥ 390 cells/μL (OS, p=0.002; PFS, p=0.005; DMFS, p=0.004) or post3m-ALC ≥ 705 cells/μL (OS, p < 0.001; PFS, p < 0.001; DMFS, p=0.001). Patients with lymphopenia (mini-ALC < 390 cells/μL and post3m-ALC < 705 cells/μL) had a worse prognosis than those without lymphopenia (mini-ALC ≥ 390 cells/μL and post3m-ALC ≥ 705 cells/μL) (OS, p < 0.001; PFS, p < 0.001; DMFS, p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that post3m-ALC was an independent prognostic factor for OS (hazard ratio [HR], 1.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.12 to 2.78; p=0.015), PFS (HR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.23 to 2.82; p=0.003), and DMFS (HR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.13 to 3.08; p=0.014). Multivariate analysis also revealed that patients with lymphopenia had a high risk of death (HR, 3.79; 95% CI, 1.75 to 8.19; p=0.001), disease progression (HR, 2.93; 95% CI, 1.59 to 5.41; p=0.001), and distant metastasis (HR, 3.89; 95% CI, 1.67 to 9.10; p=0.002). Multivariate analysis performed with time dependent Cox regression demonstrated ALC was an independent prognostic factor for OS (HR, 0.995; 95% CI, 0.991 to 0.999; p=0.025) and PFS (HR, 0.993; 95% CI, 0.988 to 0.998; p=0.006). Conclusion Treatment-related lymphopenia was a poor prognostic factor in NPC patients.

Magnetic resonant coupling (MRC) wireless power transfer (WPT) technology provides a novel solution to the tricky power-charging issue of densely connected sensor devices in the age of Internet of Things. Due to the cost and space constraints, the one-to-one MRC WPT is not suitable for charging the large number of sensor devices. The one-to-many MRC WPT requires less cost and space, but all receivers receive the power emitted from the transmitter disregarding the receivers' needs, which will lead to the accelerated aging even damage or malfunction of the receivers. In this paper, we propose a selective omnidirectional MRC WPT with multiple-receiver system. The power transmitted by an omnidirectional transmitter composed of three orthogonal circular coils will be received by any receiver located nearby. As the number of the transmitters reduces, the cost and space declines. Based on the band pass filter principle, the receivers selectively acquire the power at a designated frequency, which improves the energy efficiency and increase equipment service life. Moreover, for the proposed model, its magnetic field distribution of the simulation and physical experiments are carefully designed and performed, and their results are examined and analyzed in detail. They all confirm the capabilities of selective power transferring and the omnidirectional power transfer of the MRC WPT.

Mobike is a leader in the bicycle-sharing industry, which commits to solving short-distance travel problems through the Internet. The rapid development of shared bicycles has been bringing very convenient for our travel. However, the problems of parking, high damage rates, and difficulty in reclaim have made many urban public space resources be taken up by these bicycles. In order to help the company maintain and manage its bicycles and service sites, the main contents of this paper focus on selecting the optimal service sites for Mobikes and planning the shortest circuit planning between service sites in each region. Our experimental data are the parking locations of Mobikes in Fuzhou city. The density-based clustering algorithm and an improved ant colony algorithm are adopted in this paper: 1) to divide a large data set into $N$ small uncorrelate data sets, the density-based clustering algorithm reveals the high-density region by finding the low-density region of the dataset, and this type of algorithm is used for selecting the service sites and 2) the problem that starting from the warehouse center, then traversing all the service sites in the region, and finally returning to the warehouse center can be classified as an NP-hard problem. In this paper, an improved ant colony algorithm is used to obtain the optimal solution. The main purpose of finding the shortest circuit traversing all service sites in the region is to provide better support and maintenance for each service site.

To better manage patients with de novo metastatic NPC (mNPC) including easily identifying individuals' survival outcomes and accurately choosing the most suitable treatment.Three independent cohorts of mNPC patients (a training set of n = 462, an internal prospective validation set of n = 272 and an external prospective validation set of n = 243) were studied. The radiological characteristics of distant metastases, including number of metastatic locations, number of metastatic lesions and size of metastatic lesions, were carefully defined based on imaging data. These three factors and other potential prognostic factors were comprehensively analysed and were further integrated into new subdivisions of stage M1 using a Cox proportional hazards model.We successfully subdivided the M1 stage into three categories: M1a, oligo metastasis without liver involvement; M1b, multiple metastases without liver involvement; and M1c, liver involvement irrespective of metastatic lesions. The 3-year overall survival ranged from 54.5% to 72.8%, from 34.3% to 41.6% and from 22.6.0%-23.6% for M1a, M1b and M1c, respectively (P 0.001). Systemic chemotherapy combined with radical loco-regional radiotherapy may benefit patients in M1a and M1b, not in M1c. Further aggressive treatment of metastatic lesions based on systemic chemotherapy and definitive loco-regional radiotherapy showed no survival benefit, even for patients in M1a (P 0.05).The subdividing of M1 provided promising prognostic value and could aid clinicians in choosing the most suitable treatment for de novo mNPC patients.

To analyze the clinical outcomes of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients with post-radiation nasopharyngeal necrosis (PRNN) and construct a new risk classification system for predicting survival of PRNN.A total of 276 patients with PRNN were consecutively enrolled. Complete magnetic resonance (MR) images of the nasopharynx and neck were available for all patients and were used to assess nasopharyngeal necrosis status. After 2010, patients with PRNN were initially treated by radical endoscopic necrectomy followed by reconstruction with nasal flap (ENNF).The 1-year and 2-year overall survival (OS) was 65.0% and 51.6%, respectively. Three variables affected survival: osteoradionecrosis, re-irradiation, and internal carotid artery (ICA) exposure, and only two variables were found to be independent prognostic factors: re-irradiation (hazard ratio [HR] 1.75, P=0.001) and internal carotid artery (ICA) exposure (hazard ratio [HR] 1.80, P=0.001). These two variables were combined to create a new risk classification system for PRNN. 131 (47.5%), 110 (39.9%), and 35 (12.7%) patients were classified into low-, intermediate- and high-risk group, with the 2-year OS rates of 64.8%, 45.1%, and 22.5%, respectively (P0.001). ENNF was associated with a better OS in these three group patients compared with conservative management with statistical or marginal statistical significance (2-year OS low-risk group, 90.9% vs 61.1%, p=0.081; intermediate-risk group: 100% vs 37.8%, P=0.001; and high-risk group, 57.1% vs 20.8%, p=0.066).The new risk classification system provides accurate estimates of prognosis. ENNF surgery may lead to better survival outcome than conservative management in PRNN patients.

Purpose To evaluate the prognostic value of the restaging system after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in patients with advanced-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Materials and Methods This study was approved by the clinical research committee and a written informed consent was required before enrolling in the study. Prospectively enrolled were 412 consecutive patients with stage III-IVb NPC treated with NACT followed by concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Patients were staged before NACT and restaged after NACT. The progression-free survival (PFS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) were calculated with the Kaplan-Meier method, and differences were compared by using the log-rank test. Results Post-NACT T classification (PFS, P = .001) and N classification (PFS, P < .001; DMFS, P = .001) resulted in better survival curve separations than pre-NACT T classification and N classification. Patients downstaged from N2-N3 to N0-N1 disease had a better prognosis than did patients who continued to have N2-N3 diseases (3-year PFS, 83.8% vs 66.6%, P = .001; 3-year DMFS, 88.0% vs 78.4%, P = .026). Multivariate analysis revealed that post-NACT T classification (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.67; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.18, 2.36; P = .003) and post-NACT N classification (HR = 1.54; 95% CI: 1.17, 2.03; P = .002) were independent prognostic factors for PFS; also, post-NACT N classification (HR = 1.48; 95% CI: 1.05, 2.07; P = .025) was an independent prognostic factor for DMFS. Multivariate analysis in patients with N2-N3 disease demonstrated that the N downstaging effects of NACT was the only independent prognostic factor for PFS (HR = 0.48; 95% CI: 0.29, 0.81; P = .006) and DMFS (HR = 0.52; 95% CI: 0.28, 0.97; P = .039). Conclusion The post-NACT stage is more representative of prognosis than the pre-NACT stage in advanced-stage NPC patients, which suggests that major clinical decisions should be based on the post-NACT stage. © RSNA, 2016 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

In smart grids, demand-side management (DSM) has become an important topic since it can reduce the total electricity cost by smart control and rescheduling of loads, meanwhile, reduce the peak-to-average ratio (PAR) under real-time pricing policy. On the other hand, with the growth of computation ability in recent years and the huge amount of data collected in home area network (HAN), machine learning skills such as reinforcement learning can be well applied into the DSM problem. However, it is hard to determine an optimal energy management strategy since the uncertainty of user behavior and the electricity consumption. In the proposed work, a real-time multi-agent deep reinforcement learning based approach has been proposed to solve the DSM problem in HAN and additionally considers the user behavior to avoid disturbing user comfort, meanwhile, adaptively learns the appliance usage preference and updates the system after each day. The simulation results reveal that the proposed DSM system has improved the energy efficiency in a smart home that not only reduces the electricity cost and peak value but also the PAR value.

Background The National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines recommend intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) as the primary curative treatment for newly diagnosed nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), but the radiation-related complications and relatively high medical costs remain a consequential burden for the patients. Endoscopic nasopharyngectomy (ENPG) was successfully applied in recurrent NPC with radiation free and relatively low medical costs. In this study, we examined whether ENPG could be an effective treatment for localized stage I NPC. Methods Ten newly diagnosed localized stage I NPC patients voluntarily received ENPG alone from June 2007 to September 2017 in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. Simultaneously, the data of 329 stage I NPC patients treated with IMRT were collected and used as a reference cohort. The survival outcomes, quality of life (QOL), and medical costs between two groups were compared. Results After a median follow-up of 59.0 months (95% CI 53.4–64.6), no death, locoregional recurrence, or distant metastasis was observed in the 10 patients treated with ENPG. The 5-year overall survival, local relapse-free survival, regional relapse-free survival, and distant metastasis-free survival among the ENPG-treated patients was similar to that among the IMRT-treated patients (100% vs. 99.1%, 100% vs. 97.7%, 100% vs. 99.0%, 100% vs. 97.4%, respectively, P > 0.05). In addition, compared with IMRT, ENPG was associated with decreased total medical costs ($ 4090.42 ± 1502.65 vs. $ 12620.88 ± 4242.65, P

Background Initial 3-year results from our clinical trial in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients showed that induction chemotherapy (IC) with cisplatin and fluorouracil resulted in improved disease-free survival (DFS) with a marginally significant effect on distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), but the effect of IC on locoregional relapse-free survival and overall survival (OS) did not differ significantly. Here, we present 5-year follow-up results. Patients and methods Our trial was a randomised, open-label phase III trial comparing IC followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) versus CCRT alone in patients with stage III-IVB (except T3N0-1) NPC. The IC followed by CCRT group received cisplatin (80 mg/m2 d1) and fluorouracil (800 mg/m2 d1-5) every 3 weeks for two cycles before CCRT. Both groups were treated with 80 mg/m2 cisplatin every 3 weeks concurrently with radiotherapy. The primary end-points were DFS and DMFS. We did efficacy analyses in the 476 randomised patients (intention-to-treat population). Results After a median follow-up of 82.6 months, the 5-year DFS rate was 73.4% (95% confidence interval [CI] 67.7–79.1) in the IC followed by CCRT group and 63.1% (95% CI 56.8–69.4) in the CCRT alone group (p = 0.007). The 5-year DMFS rate was also significantly higher in the IC followed by CCRT group (82.8%, 95% CI 77.9–87.7) than in the CCRT alone group (73.1%, 95% CI 67.2–79.0, p = 0.014). Our updated analysis revealed an OS benefit of IC: the 5-year OS rate was 80.8% in the IC followed by CCRT group versus 76.8% in the CCRT alone group (p = 0.040). The proportion of patients with eye damage was significantly higher in the CCRT alone group than the IC followed by CCRT group (16.4% [39/238] versus 9.7% [23/238], p = 0.029). Conclusion IC followed by CCRT provides long-term DFS, DMFS and OS benefits compared with CCRT alone in locoregionally advanced NPC and, therefore, can be recommended for these patients.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the survival trends and patterns of failure in patients with stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treated with radiotherapy (RT) and chemotherapy over the last 20 years. Materials and Methods Thirty-eight hundred and eight patients diagnosed with stage II NPC between January 1990 and December 2012 were involved in this retrospective cohort study. All patients were treated with RT. According to the main imaging techniques and RT technology, we categorized these patients into four calendar periods: 1990-1996, 1997-2002, 2003-2007, and 2008-2012. Overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), locoregional relapse-free survival (LRFS), and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) were served as the clinical outcome. RESULTS After a median follow-up period of 84.7 months, we observed increasing trends in survival and disease control. The 3- and 5-year OS rates increased from 87.1% and 78.7% in the first calendar period to 97.4% and 94.5% in the last calendar period, respectively (p

Background Postradiation nasopharyngeal necrosis (PRNN) is a severe complication after radiotherapy in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), which can severely affect the quality of life and threaten the patient’s life. Only 13.4%–28.6% of patients can be cured by traditional repeated endoscopic debridement. Here, we introduced an innovative curative-intent endoscopic surgery for PRNN patients and evaluated its clinical efficacy. Methods Clinical data of 72 PRNN patients who underwent radical endoscopic necrectomy, followed by reconstruction using a posterior pedicle nasal septum and floor mucoperiosteum flap were analyzed to determine the efficacy of this surgery. The endpoints were complete re-epithelialization of the nasopharyngeal defect, relief of headache, and overall survival (OS). Results All surgeries were successfully performed without any severe postoperative complications or death. The median value of numeric rating scales of pain decreased from 8 before surgery to 0 after surgery (P

Underwater optical imaging is an important way to implement the seabed exploration and target recognition. There occur a lot of bubbles due to the sea wave, ship wake, marine creatures’ swimming and breathing. The underwater target imaging effect is often limited by light scattering effect of bubbles, so it is difficult to identify targets, and the general optical technology is difficult to eliminate the bubbles’ influence on imaging. In this article from the bubble theoretical derivation and the bubble simulation, we investigate the changing trend of target’s polarization information under the condition of different light incident angles in the underwater environment, data gathering, data processing and data analysis, by using the polarimetric image fusion method to suppress the influence of bubbles to build a complete target imaging research system under bubble group environment in line with the above several big aspects. According to the above problem, in this paper, the change of light intensity and polarization information of incoming light in underwater single bubble, bubble group and target’s surface are investigated; the target imaging in the bubble group environment with the change of light incident angle and polarization imaging band on the basis of the construction of experimental platform of underwater bubbles is explored; the change trends of strength and polarization information with different metal targets are studied; the change trends of strength and polarization information of underwater target under thickness of different bubble groups are analyzed; finally the underwater target images under the condition of different imaging resolutions and the using of fusion methods of polarization feature extraction and visual information of image to suppress the bubble influence on underwater target imaging are studied. The experimental results show that the target imaging under bubble group environment is influenced by many factors, and using polarimetric image fusion method can well weaken the bubble group’s influence on imaging, and improve the clarity of underwater target. In view of difficult problems about target identification existing in the high-density bubble group environment, we will use energy loss compensation or machine learning method to realize the target recognition and image restoration in the future.

// Shan-Shan Guo 1, 2, * , Lin-Quan Tang 1, 2, * , Qiu-Yan Chen 1, 2 , Lu Zhang 1, 2 , Li-Ting Liu 1, 2 , Ling Guo 1, 2 , Hao-Yuan Mo 1, 2 , Dong-Hua Luo 1, 2 , Pei-Yu Huang 1, 2 , Yan-Qun Xiang 1, 2 , Rui Sun 1, 2 , Ming-Yuan Chen 1, 2 , Lin Wang 1, 2 , Xing Lv 1, 2 , Chong Zhao 1, 2 , Xiang Guo 1, 2 , Ka-Jia Cao 1, 2 , Chao-Nan Qian 1, 2 , Mu-Shen Zeng 1 , Jin-Xin Bei 1 , Ming-Huang Hong 1, 3 , Jian-Yong Shao 1, 4 , Ying Sun 1, 5 , Jun Ma 1, 5 , Hai-Qiang Mai 1, 2 1 Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou 510060, China 2 Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, China 3 Good Clinical Practice center, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, China 4 Department of Molecular Diagnostics, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, China 5 Department of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Hai-Qiang Mai, e-mail: maihq@sysucc.org.cn Keywords: nasopharyngeal carcinoma, induction chemotherapy, concurrent chemotherapy, IMRT, EBV DNA Received: November 22, 2015 Accepted: March 28, 2016 Published: April 18, 2016 ABSTRACT Background: The effects of induction chemotherapy (IC) followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in high-risk (stage III-IVb with EBV DNA≥4000 copies/ml) nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients are unclear. Methods: A total of 325 high-risk NPC patients treated with IC+CCRT or CCRT alone who were treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) between March 2007 and March 2013 were included. For each patient in the IC+CCRT group, a matched pair in the CCRT group was matching for: gender, age, T stage, N stage, clinical stage and WHO (World Health Organization) type. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), and the secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), and locoregional relapse-free survival (LRFS). Results: There were no significant differences in OS, PFS, DMFS, and LRFS between the IC+CCRT (148 patients) and CCRT (177 patients) groups. After matching, 103 paired patients were analyzed, and there were no differences between the IC+CCRT and CCRT groups regarding clinical outcomes. Based on the subgroup analysis of 156 very-high-risk patients (stage N2-3 with EBV DNA ≥4000 copies/ml), the 5-year OS of the IC+CCRT and CCRT groups was 84.3% and 67.5% (P =0.033), respectively. Based on our multivariate analysis, the treatment group was significantly associated with OS (P=0.034; HR0.451, 95%CI 0.216-0.941). Conclusions : IC+CCRT did not improve the clinical outcomes of high-risk NPC patients compared to CCRT alone. However, in very-high-risk patients, IC+CCRT treatment led to increased OS compared to patients received CCRT treatment alone.

// Lu Zhang 1, 2, * , Huai Liu 4, 5, 6, * , Lin-Quan Tang 1, 2 , Qiu-Yan Chen 1, 2 , Shan-Shan Guo 1, 2 , Li-Ting Liu 1, 2 , Ling Guo 1, 2 , Hao-Yuan Mo 1, 2 , Chong Zhao 1, 2 , Xiang Guo 1, 2 , Ka-Jia Cao 1, 2 , Chao-Nan Qian 1, 2 , Mu-Sheng Zeng 1 , Jian-Yong Shao 1, 7 , Ying Sun 1, 8 , Jun Ma 1, 8 , Ming-Huang Hong 1, 3 , Hai-Qiang Mai 1, 2 1 Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, P. R. China 2 Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China 3 GCP center, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China 4 Department of Radiotherapy, Hunan Cancer Hospital, Changsha, P. R. China 5 Department of Radiotherapy, The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha, P. R. China 6 Key Laboratory of Translational Radiation Oncology, Changsha, P. R. China 7 Department of Molecular Diagnostics, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China 8 Department of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, P. R. China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Ming-Huang Hong, e-mail: hongmh@sysucc.org.cn Hai-Qiang Mai, e-mail: maihq@sysucc.org.cn Keywords: nasopharyngeal carcinoma, pregnancy, prognosis, survival Received: December 10, 2015 Accepted: February 21, 2016 Published: March 09, 2016 ABSTRACT Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the prognosis of pregnancy-associated patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in a young population. Methods: From June 1999 to December 2010, 51 patients aged ≤ 35 years who were diagnosed with NPC during pregnancy or within one year after delivery were admitted into the pregnancy-associated group in our institution. An additional 51 patients who were not pregnant at diagnosis were selected from 451 patients based on the matching criteria to match the pregnancy-associated female patients. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). The secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) and distant-metastasis failure-free survival (DMFS) and locoregional failure-free survival (LRFS). Results: The advanced stage was not different between the pregnant and the non-pregnant group before matching (69.8% vs. 70.3%, P = 0.690). No difference in OS at the median follow-up time of 92 months was observed between the pregnancy-associated and the non-pregnant group (85.4% vs. 92.2%, P = 0.478); likewise, no differences were observed regarding PFS and DMFS. However, the pregnancy-associated group had worse LRFS than the non-pregnant group (84.8% vs. 95.9%, P = 0.033). When the pregnancy-associated patients were dichotomized into an early pregnancy group and a late pregnancy group, our data showed that pregnancy interval did not seem to impact the risk of death or relapse. Conclusion: Our results show that patients in the pregnant group did not seem to have more advanced stage or inferior survival than that in the non-pregnant group.

// Meng-Xia Zhang 1, 2, * , Yi-Jun Hua 1, 2, * , Hai-Yun Wang 1, 3 , Ling Zhou 1 , Hai-Qiang Mai 1, 2 , Xiang Guo 1, 2 , Chong Zhao 1, 4 , Wen-Lin Huang 1 , Ming-Huang Hong 1, 2 , Ming-Yuan Chen 1, 2 1 State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510060, P. R. China 2 Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510060, P. R. China 3 Department of Pathology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510060, P. R. China 4 Department of Radiotherapy, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510060, P. R. China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Ming-Yuan Chen, e-mail: chmingy@mail.sysu.edu.cn Ming-Huang Hong, e-mail: hongmh@sysucc.org.cn Keywords: nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), hexokinase II (HK-II), survival, 3-bromo-2-oxopropionate-1-propyl ester (3-BrOP), therapeutic target Received: September 29, 2015 Accepted: January 18, 2016 Published: February 01, 2016 ABSTRACT Tumor cells preferentially use anaerobic glycolysis rather than oxidative phosphorylation to generate energy. Hexokinase II (HK-II) is necessary for anaerobic glycolysis and displays aberrant expression in malignant cells. The current study aimed to evaluate the role of HK-II in the survival and biological function of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Our study demonstrated that high expression of HK-II was associated with poor survival outcomes in NPC patients. When using 3-BrOP (an HK-II inhibitor) to repress glycolysis, cell proliferation and invasion were attenuated, accompanied by the induction of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at the G1 stage. Furthermore, 3-BrOP synergized with cisplatin (DDP) to induce NPC cell death. Collectively, we provided that the aberrant expression of HK-II was associated with the malignant phenotype of NPC. A combined treatment modality that targets glycolysis with DDP holds promise for the treatment of NPC patients.

This paper proposes the method of enlarging section combined with prestressed tendon (Enlarging Section-Prestress Method), which has the advantages of both increasing section and external prestressing, such as reducing section height, the prestressing tendon do not rust easily, and the appearance is beautiful. Model tests were carried out, two rectangular beam models with the same section and length were made, one was reinforced by Enlarging Section-Prestress Method, and no reinforced action was taken as a control. Two points of concentrated load were applied to the model beams, and the two tests were compared in terms of deflection-load characteristics and crack development. The experimental results show that the Enlarging Section-Prestress Method is effective, which improved the ultimate bearing capacity of the beam obviously, and reduced the deflection of the trabecular beam.

Pumping tests are the most commonly used method for obtaining hydraulic conductivities in mine hydrogeological work, while draining tests are a new hydrogeological test method in recent years. However, the hydraulic conductivities obtained from draining tests are different in some extent from those from pumping tests. Sometimes the differences are even of an order of magnitude. In this paper, the draining tests are carried out in 5 coal mines, the corresponding pumping test data are collected, the data are compared and analyzed in several aspects, and the fractured aquifer is taken as an example for theoretical analysis. After analysis and discussion, it is found the main reason for the differences is intensity effects. Since the amount of the water used in draining tests is much larger than that in pumping tests, some of the ineffective fissures occupied by capillary water and bound water are converted into effective fissures, resulting in an increase in hydraulic conductivities. Therefore, intensity effects on hydraulic conductivities are of great theoretical significance in hydrogeological research.

In the big data processing systems, the amount of data is increasing. At the same time, the real-time requirement of data processing and analysis is higher and higher. Therefore, it is required that the big data processing and analysis systems have better performance. Job scheduling plays an important role in improving the overall system performance in big data processing frameworks. However, job scheduling is a difficult NP-hard problem. There are many factors that need to be considered for job scheduling. For example, jobs have dependencies among stages, therefore we should not allocate resources to tasks that are not ready. Sometimes, there are constraints between jobs. These are a challenge to the scheduling performance of big data processing and analysis systems. In this paper, we try to solve the problem by translating it into Boolean Satisfiability Problem (SAT) which is an exact method. SAT-based scheduling algorithm is not a new approach, but in the past it mainly used to solve the static scheduling problems. For dynamic scheduling system, it requires all problems to be solved within a limited time, which is a challenge for SAT encoding. In this paper, we refer to the previous SAT solution to the Job Shop Scheduling Problem, and adjust the algorithm to meet the requirements of the big data processing system. At the same time, we optimized the coding approach and reduced the number of clauses. Thus, the efficiency of the problem solved is improved to meet the performance requirements. The experimental results show that the number of clauses is reduced by more than 30%, and the processing time of the SAT solver to get the solution can be reduced by more than 50%. To demonstrate its effectiveness, we have also implemented our new job scheduler in Apache Hadoop YARN, and validated its effectiveness

Mobile devices are widely used to process sensitive data. In certain situations, the sensitive data must be hidden rather than be encrypted. The existing approaches of setting up hidden space are not suitable for advanced Ext4 file system because they may require external storage device. To address the issue, we propose a novel method to establish the hidden space in Ext4 via artificially modifying the block bitmaps. To further improve usefulness of our method, we modify the multiply bits of the block bitmaps one time by creating a “host file” rather than by bit. This method is lightweight and does not require modifying the linux kernel and has no effect on the normal operations of the operating system. To validate the method performance, distributions of hidden spaces under different storage capacity are conducted. The results show that our method is effective and reliable.

To evaluate the survival benefit of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) compared with conventional two-dimensional radiotherapy (2D-CRT) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) using a large cohort with long follow-up.We retrospectively analysed 7081 non-metastatic NPC patients who received curative IMRT or 2D-CRT from February 2002 to December 2011.Of the 7081 patients, 2245 (31.7%) were administered IMRT, while 4836 (68.3%) were administered 2D-CRT. At 5 years, the patients administered IMRT had significantly higher local relapse-free survival (LRFS), loco-regional relapse-free survival (LRRFS), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) (95.6%, 92.5%, 82.1% and 87.4%, respectively) than those administered 2D-CRT (90.8%, 88.5%, 76.7% and 84.5%, respectively; p0.001). The distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) was higher for IMRT than 2D-CRT, with borderline significance (87.6% and 85.7%, respectively; p=0.056). However, no difference was observed between IMRT and 2D-CRT in nodal relapse-free survival (NRFS; 96.3% and 97.4%, respectively; p=0.217). Multivariate analyses showed that IMRT was an independent protective prognostic factor for LRFS, LRRFS and PFS, but not NRFS, DMFS or OS.IMRT provided an improved LRFS, LRRFS and PFS in both the early and advanced T classifications and overall stage for non-disseminated NPC compared with 2D-CRT. However, no significant advantage was observed in NRFS, DMFS or OS when IMRT was used.

Objective We previously reported the five-year results of a randomised trial that compared induction chemotherapy plus concurrent chemoradiotherapy (IC + CCRT) with induction chemotherapy plus radiotherapy (IC + RT) in patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The aim of this study was to report the ten-year results and to explore potential prognostic factors. Methods From August 2002 to April 2005, 408 patients with locoregionally advanced NPC were randomly assigned to receive either IC (carboplatin and floxuridine) + CCRT (carboplatin) or IC + RT. The survival rates were analysed using the Kaplan–Meier method and compared using the log-rank test. Multivariable analysis was performed to identify valuable prognostic factors. Results The ten-year overall survival, failure-free survival, locoregional failure-free survival and distant failure-free survival rates for the entire patient cohort were 49.5%, 48.0%, 80.8% and 66.9%, respectively. No significant survival differences were found between the IC + CCRT and IC + RT arms. By 3 years from the date of randomisation, 62.5% of the relapses had been detected; no recurrence occurred after 8 years. Within 3 years after randomisation, 77.0% of the metastases were detected; 0.8% was identified after 8 years. Age, Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) N-stage, serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and body mass index (BMI) were independent prognostic factors that predicted death. Smoking status and total radiotherapy dose were independent prognostic factors that predicted locoregional recurrence. UICC N-stage, LDH and BMI were independent prognostic factors that predicted distant metastasis. Conclusions Concurrent carboplatin chemotherapy did not significantly improve the long-term survival after inductive carboplatin and floxuridine chemotherapy in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. In addition to patient and tumour characteristics, LDH, BMI and smoking status were important baseline prognostic factors for tumour recurrence or distant metastasis; these are worthy of further prognostic investigation in future studies.

Recurrent tumour, node and metastasis (rTNM) stage system does not have an outstanding prognostic value for survival outcome of patients with recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma (rNPC) and it cannot aid the clinicians to choose the most suitable treatment for these patients.In total, 894 rNPC patients were consecutively enroled. All recurrent (r) tumour (T) stages (rT) and node (N) stages (rN) were stratified as resectable and unresectable based on the imaging data of the head and neck. These stages were re-subdivided into surgical T stages (sT) and surgical N stages (sN) with similar clinical characteristics and death risks and were re-integrated into a new 'surgical' stage using a Cox proportional hazards model.The 5-year overall survival (OS) was 72.0%, 55.1%, 21.1% and 10.1% in 'surgical' stages I, II, III and IV, respectively (P0.001). The 'surgical' stage was a significant independent prognostic factor for OS (hazard ratio [HR] 1.78, P0.001) and exhibited enhanced prognostic value compared with the rTNM staging system (area under receiver operating characteristics 0.68 versus 0.63, P0.001). Endoscopic nasopharyngectomy and intensity-modulated radiation therapy were significant independent positive prognostic factors for the OS of patients with primary lesions in 'surgical' stage I/II and 'surgical' stage III, respectively (P0.05). A combination of aggressive treatments for loco-regional lesions exhibited a beneficial trend for OS of patients with 'surgical' stage IV (P0.05).Compared with the rTNM stage system, the 'surgical' staging system exhibited enhanced prognostic value for rNPC patient survival and could aid clinicians in choosing the most suitable treatment for rNPC patients.

In this paper, we propose a sparse coding tracking algorithm based on the Cartesian product of two sub-codebooks. The original sparse coding problem is decomposed into two sub sparse coding problems. And the dimension of sparse representation is intensively enlarged at a lower computational cost. Furthermore, in order to reduce the number of L1-norm minimization, ridge regression is employed to exclude the substantive outlying particles according to the reconstruction error. Finally the high-dimension sparse representation is put into the classifier and the candidate with the maximal response is considered as the target. Both qualitative and quantitative evaluations on challenging benchmark image sequences demonstrate that the proposed tracking algorithm performs favorably against several state-of-the-art algorithms. The PSC under multi-task is more robust and stable than original PSC.SVM has better generalization under PSC than under SC.The PSCT has stronger discriminative ability than SCT under the same conditions.

Summary Background Cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy is currently considered to be the standard treatment regimen for patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma, but has well known side-effects such as gastrointestinal reactions, nephrotoxicity, and ototoxicity. Nedaplatin was developed to decrease the toxic effects induced by cisplatin, and in this trial we assessed whether a nedaplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy regimen was non-inferior to a cisplatin-based regimen in patients with locoregional, stage II–IVB nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Methods We did an open-label, non-inferiority, phase 3, randomised, controlled trial at two centres in China. Patients aged 18–65 years with non-keratinising stage II–IVB (T1–4N1–3 or T3–4N0) nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a Karnofsky score of at least 70, and adequate haematological, renal, and hepatic function were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive intravenously either nedaplatin 100 mg/m 2 or cisplatin 100 mg/m 2 on days 1, 22, and 43 for three cycles concurrently with intensity-modulated radiotherapy. Randomisation was done manually using a computer-generated random number code and patients were stratified by treatment centre and clinical stage. Patients and clinicians were not masked to treatment allocation. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival at 2 years; non-inferiority was shown if the upper limit of the 95% CI for the difference in 2-year progression-free survival between the two groups did not exceed 10%. Analyses were by both intention to treat and per protocol, including all patients who received at least one complete cycle of chemotherapy. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01540136, and is currently in follow-up. Findings Between Jan 16, 2012, and July 16, 2014, we randomly assigned 402 patients to nedaplatin-based (n=201) or cisplatin-based (n=201) concurrent chemoradiotherapy. In the intention-to-treat population, 2-year progression-free survival was 89·9% (95% CI 85·8–94·0) in the cisplatin group and 88·0% (83·5–94·5) in the nedaplatin group, with a difference of 1·9% (95% CI −4·2 to 8·0; p non-inferiority =0·0048). In the per-protocol analysis (cisplatin group, n=197; nedaplatin group, n=196), 2-year progression-free survival was 89·7% (95% CI 85·4–94·0) in the cisplatin group and 88·7% (84·2–94·5) in the nedaplatin group, with a difference of 1·0% (95% CI −5·2 to 7·0; p non-inferiority =0·0020). A significantly higher frequency of grade 3 or 4 vomiting (35 [18%] of 198 in the cisplatin group vs 12 [6%] of 200 in the nedaplatin group, p vs four [2%], p=0·0021), and anorexia (53 [27%] vs 26 [13%], p=0·00070) was observed in the cisplatin group compared with the nedaplatin group. 11 (6%) patients in the nedaplatin group had grade 3 or 4 thrombocytopenia compared with four (2%) in the cisplatin group (p=0·065). Patients in the cisplatin group had a higher frequency of any grade or grade 3 or 4 late auditory or hearing toxicities than did patients in the nedaplatin group (grade 3 or 4: three [2%] in the nedaplatin group vs 11 [6%] in the cisplatin group, p=0·030). No patients died from treatment-related causes. Interpretation Our findings show that nedaplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy represents an alternative doublet treatment strategy to cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy for patients with locoregional, advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Further investigations are needed to explore the potential use of this treatment as induction or adjuvant chemotherapy or in combination with other agents. Funding National Key R&D Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Sun Yat-sen University Clinical Research 5010 Program, Sci-Tech Project Foundation of Guangzhou City, National Key Basic Research Program of China, Special Support Plan of Guangdong Province, Sci-Tech Project Foundation of Guangdong Province, Health & Medical Collaborative Innovation Project of Guangzhou City, National Science & Technology Pillar Program during the Twelfth Five-year Plan Period, PhD Start-up Fund of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, Cultivation Foundation for the Junior Teachers in Sun Yat-sen University, and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

Hailun Zheng,1,2,* Huang Hong,1,* Lulu Zhang,1,2,* Xiong Cai,1,2 Meng Hu,1,2 Yuepiao Cai,2 Bin Zhou,1 Jiayuh Lin,3 Chengguang Zhao,2 Wanle Hu1 1Department of Coloproctology, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, 2Chemical Biology Research Center, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MA, USA *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Activation of the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is observed in multiple cancer types, including gastric cancer, and represents a potential drug target for chemotherapy. Currently, clinically available small-molecule inhibitors targeting STAT3 are lacking. Here, we report that nifuratel, an antiprotozoal and antifungal drug, is a potent inhibitor of STAT3. We found that nifuratel significantly suppressed proliferation and induced apoptosis of gastric cancer cells. Studies of the mechanism of action of nifuratel indicated that it acts by inhibiting the constitutive and interleukin-6-induced STAT3 activation. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that nifuratel may be a novel, clinically accessible STAT3 inhibitor in gastric cancer cells. Keywords: nifuratel, STAT3, gastric cancer, inhibitor, drug

Purpose: Metastasis is one of the most important causes of treatment failure in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). In T4 or N2-3 patients at high-risk of metastasis, concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) is inadequate and additional induction chemotherapy (IC) is controversial. There is a critical need to develop a better patient stratification to efficiently identify patients at high-risk of metastasis for additional IC. Recently, Sequestosome 1 (SQSTM1)/p62, an autophagy adaptor protein, was identified as one of the metastasis-related proteins in NPC. However, the mechanism by which SQSTM1 is involved in NPC metastasis was not investigated. Experimental Design: The effect of SQSTM1 on cell migration and invasion was examined in vitro and in vivo. SQSTM1 expression was analyzed in clinical NPC samples using IHC. Luciferase reporter analyses were conducted to identify the effects of SQSTM1 on NF-κB transcriptional activity. A prediction bio-model was constructed by Cox analysis. Retrospective and prospective randomized clinical data were adopted to build and test the model, respectively. Results: SQSTM1 mediated epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) through the NF-κB pathway to promote NPC metastasis. Inhibiting SQSTM1 enhanced sensitivity to cisplatin in NPC cells. In NPC patients, high SQSTM1 expression was associated with increased risk of distant metastasis. Furthermore, we propose a prognostic bio-model based on SQSTM1 and N-stage to predict NPC metastasis. Most importantly, our prospective randomized study suggested that IC is beneficial for NPC patients with high metastasis risk. Conclusions: The prognostic bio-model identifies NPC patients at high-risk of metastasis for additional IC. Clin Cancer Res; 24(3); 648–58. ©2017 AACR.

Purpose: We used randomized trials of radiotherapy (RT) with or without chemotherapy in non-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma to investigate the survival benefit of chemoradiotherapy regimens between two/three-dimensional radiotherapy (2D/3D RT) and intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Methods: Overall, 27 trials and 7,940 patients were included. Treatments were grouped into seven categories including RT alone, induction chemotherapy (IC) followed by RT (IC-RT), RT followed by adjuvant chemotherapy (RT-AC), IC followed by RT followed by AC (IC-RT-AC), concurrent chemo-radiotherapy (CRT), IC followed by CRT (IC-CRT), and CRT followed by AC (CRT-AC). To distinguish between 2D/3D RT and IMRT, three categories in IMRT were newly added, including CRT in IMRT, IC-CRT in IMRT, and CRT-AC in IMRT. The P score was used to rank the treatments. Results: Both fixed- and random-effects frequentist and Bayesian network meta-analysis models were applied, which provided similar results and the same ranking. IC-CRT was the most effective regimen compared with CRT-AC and CRT in the IMRT era for overall survival (OS) (HR, 95% CI, IC-CRT vs. CRT-AC, 0.61 (0.45, 0.82); IC-CRT vs. CRT 0.65 (0.47, 0.91)), progression-free survival (PFS) (0.69 (0.54, 0.88); 0.63 (0.49, 0.80)), and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) (0.58 (0.28, 1.21); 0.60 (0.42, 0.85)). CRT-AC achieved the highest survival benefit compared with CRT, and IC-CRT for loco-regional relapse-free survival (LRRFS) (0.44 (0.15, 1.28); 0.72 (0.22, 2.33)). Among these 10 categories, after distinguishing between 2D/3D RT and IMRT, IC-CRT in IMRT ranked first for OS, PFS, and DMFS, and CRT-AC in IMRT ranked first for LRRFS. Conclusion: IC-CRT should be the most suitable regimen for loco-regionally advanced NPC in the IMRT era.

With the continuous running of the nuclear power plants, a great deal of unavailable spent fuel associated assemblies were and will be produced in the aggregates of the nuclear power plants, which are usually stored in the spent fuel storage pool and occupy lots of spent fuel storage racks, making the spent fuel storage facility of the nuclear power plants face the risk of being filled up. Therefore, it drives the nuclear power plants to seek a new method to increase the spent fuel storage capacity. In order to increase the storage capacity of the spent fuel storage racks, a shearing device is proposed to shear the rods and base plates (or spider assemblies) of the spent fuel associated assemblies, reducing the storage volume of the spent fuel associated assemblies and reducing the amount of the occupied spent fuel storage racks. The technology of water-hydraulic shear is applied to carry the shear process through underwater cold extrusion, effectively ensuring the integrity of the rod structure and avoiding the pollution caused by radioactive substances. Besides, no swarf would be produced to pollute the spent fuel storage pool. Through the finite element calculation and confirmation on the spot, it is verified that the bearing requirement of the fixed blade (the key assembly unit) of the shearing device is met during the relevant disassembling process. Currently, the shearing device has been successfully applied to reducing the storage volume of the spent fuel associated assemblies in LingAo Nuclear Power Plant. Therefore, the shearing device is of certain promoting and reference value.

Background To evaluate the prognostic significance of pretreatment quality of life for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy. Methods We performed a prospective, longitudinal study on 554 newly diagnosed patients with NPC from April 2011 to January 2015. A total of 501 consecutive NPC patients were included. Patients were asked to complete the EORTC QLQ-C30 (version 3.0) and QLQ-H&N35 questionnaires before treatment. Results Global health status among QLQ-C30 correlates with EBV DNA(P = 0.019). In addition, pretreatment appetite loss was significantly correlated with EBV DNA(P = 0.02). Pretreatment teeth, opening mouth, feeding tube was significantly correlated with EBV DNA, with P value of 0.003

In this paper, a Witricity-based high-power device is proposed for wireless charging of electric vehicles. According to the specific requirements of three-stage charging for electric vehicles, four compensation modes of the Witricity system are analyzed by the Loosely Coupled Theory among transformer coils and the Substitution Theorem in circuit theory. In addition, when combining voltage withstand levels, the current withstand capability, the switching frequency of electronic switching tubes, and the features of the resonant circuit, the series-parallel (SP) compensation mode is selected as the best compensation mode for matching the capacitor of the system. The performances of coils with different ferrite core arrangements are compared by simulations and models. The feasibility of the system is verified theoretically and the system functions are evaluated by the joint simulation of Simplorer and Maxwell. Finally, a Witricity-based high-power device is proposed as designed, and the correctness of theoretical analyses and simulation results are verified.