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Background: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been identified as essential regulators in a plethora of cancers. Nonetheless, the mechanistic functions of circRNAs in Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) remain largely unknown. Methods: In this study, we aimed to identify novel circRNAs that regulate RCC epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and to subsequently determine their regulatory mechanisms and clinical significance. Results: circPRRC2A was identified by circRNA microarray and validated by qRT-PCR. The role of circPRRC2A in RCC metastasis was evaluated both in vitro and in vivo. We found that increased expression of circPRRC2A is positively associated with advanced clinical stage and worse survivorship in RCC patients. Mechanistically, our results indicate that circPRRC2A prevents the degradation of TRPM3, a tissue-specific oncogene, mRNA by sponging miR-514a-5p and miR-6776-5p. Moreover, circPRRC2A promotes tumor EMT and aggressiveness in patients with RCC. Conclusions: These findings infer the exciting possibility that circPRRC2A may be exploited as a therapeutic and prognostic target for RCC patients.

To summarize the experience of retroperitoneal laparoscopic ureterolithotomy (RLU) in the treatment of upper ureteral calculi and long-term follow-up results and compare them with ureteroscopic lithotomy (URL) and percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL).The clinical data of 585 patients with complex upper ureteral calculi who met the inclusion criteria from January 2006 to December 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 206 cases treated with RLU, 201 cases treated with URL and 178 cases treated with PCNL. The operation time, hospitalization time, stone clearance rate, incidence of postoperative complications and recurrence rate were observed and compared among the three groups.Among 585 eligible patients, 206 cases were treated with RLU, 201 cases were treated with URL and 178 cases were treated with PCNL. The stone clearance rate (98.54%), postoperative complication types and rate (0.97%) in the RLU group were superior to those in the URL group and the PCNL group (P 0.05). There was no significant difference in the recurrence rate (3.88%) between the RLU group and the other two groups (P 0.05).Retroperitoneal laparoscopic ureterolithotomy has many advantages in the treatment of upper ureteral calculi, including high stone clearance rate, less complications especially in ureteral stricture. Retroperitoneal laparoscopic ureterolithotomy is also safe to treat upper ureteral calculi accompanied with severe urinary tract infection.

Background Little is known about the association of the protein phosphatase 1 regulatory subunit 3B gene (PPP1R3B) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and serum lipid levels, the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) and ischemic stroke (IS) in the Chinese populations. This study detected such association in a Southern Chinese Han population. Methods Genotypes of 4 novel PPP1R3B SNPs (rs12785, rs330910, rs330915 and rs9949) in 1704 Han Chinese (CAD, 556; IS, 531 and control, 617) were determined by the Snapshot technology. Results The rs12785A and rs9949A allele frequency was higher in both CAD/IS patients than in controls. The rs330910T and rs330915T allele frequency was also higher in CAD patients than in controls. The rs330910T allele carriers in controls had lower serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels than the rs330910T allele non-carriers (P

α-Aryloxybenzyl analogues of morpholine are a significant class of compounds because of their influence on the central nervous system (CNS), with particular concentration on their antidepressant potency. (±)-Reboxetine, an example of such α-aryloxybenzyl analogues, is an orally active and selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor that is presently recognized as a prescription drug in over 60 countries for depressive sickness and has been spaciously studied for its pharmacological characteristics. (+)-(S,S)-Reboxetine is presently undergoing advanced clinical evaluation as a potential treatment for neuropathic and fibromyalgia pain. Scheming well-organized approaches to access reboxetine and its derivatives represents a significant endeavor not only for developing antidepressant drugs but also advancing medical studies by radiolabeling of reboxetine derivatives with 11C, 18F, or 123I as potential positron emission tomography radioligands for imaging the brain norepinephrine transporter system. Therefore, ...

BACKGROUND: Sulfatase 2 (SULF2) is a member of the sulfatase family, and its expression and clinical significance in bladder cancer (BCa) are not currently known. In this study, we attempted to evaluate SULF2 expression in BCa patients who underwent radical cystectomy (RC) and the relationship between SULF2 expression and clinical-pathological characteristics. METHODS: Data on SULF2 expression in BCa tissues was obtained from the Oncomine database and the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). The expression of SULF2 and vascular endothelial growth factor-D (VEGF-D) in BCa was evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in tissues from 203 patients who had undergone RC. We also explored the value of the measurement of SULF2 and VEGF-D expression for diagnosis and prognosis in BCa patients with lymphatic metastasis. RESULTS: We found an increase in SULF2 messenger RNA (mRNA) levels and gene amplification in BCa tissues from the Oncomine database. High expression of SULF2 was detected in 91/203 (44.8%) of BCa patients. Among these patients, 27 of 42 (64.3%) with lymphatic metastasis showed high SULF2 expression. Univariate analysis showed that tumor size, pathological stage, lymphatic metastasis, vascular infiltration, perineural infiltration, hydronephrosis, and VEGF-D and SULF2 expression were related to prognosis in BCa patients, and multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that SULF2 expression was an independent prognostic indicator. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that SULF2 expression resulted in an increased area under the curve (AUC) of 0.707, with a sensitivity of 71.4% and a specificity of 61.5%. CONCLUSIONS: The upregulation of SULF2 is associated with poor prognosis in high-grade BCa patients. It might be a novel diagnostic marker for BCa patients with lymphatic metastasis.

To investigate the effects of chronotherapy on blood pressure in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We searched PUBMED, EMBASE, ASN-ONLINE, the Cochrane Library and the reference articles of published papers without language restriction, for randomized and non-randomized trials that assessed the effect of chronotherapy versus morning dosing regimen drug therapy for CKD patients with hypertension. Meta-analysis was done with random-effect models. After application of inclusion/exclusion criteria, three randomized controlled trials including 3380 patients were analyzed. Compared with morning dosing regimen drug therapy, chronotherapy was associated with a significant decrease of 3.55% in sleep-time relative decline of systolic blood pressure (SBP) (mean difference [MD], 95% CI, [0.22, 6.88]). In the chronotherapy group, we noted a significant decrease in nocturnal SBP (MD −3.79 mmHg, 95% CI, [−7.18, −0.41]) and nocturnal diastolic blood pressure (MD −1.55 mmHg, 95% CI. [− 2.28, −0.82]), but there was a small increase in awake SBP by 1.19 mmHg (MD, 95% CI, [0.06, 2.31]). No significant difference was noted in all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality. This meta-analysis suggests that chronotherapy could reduce nocturnal BP in hypertensive CKD patients.

In this paper, the mechanics equation of the dynamic compaction machine arm frame is established based on the theory of statics, the arm lifting rope force is given, the influence of the wire rope force with relative position parameters changing is also discussed. The critical factors that affect the arm lifting rope force are identified. Compared the simulation and the test results, the major forces errors are less than 8%. The correctness of the theoretical study and simulation are verified. The research results could be used for the arm wire rope type selection of the dynamic compaction.

The self-assembly behavior of sphere-forming R5C30R5 triblock copolymers within a planar slit is studied by performing dissipative particle dynamics simulations. A sequence of novel structures which are not observed in bulk are formed within slits, including wetting layers, island-like structure, parallel cylinders, perpendicular cylinders and cross-cylindrical structures. Perpendicular cylinders are always formed before the increase in the layers of parallel cylinders. A phase diagram of the assembled structures with respective to the slit property and height is thus presented. The rod length is found to have a significant impact on the rod alignment, and a disordered-ordered transition of rod orientation occurs with an increase in the length of rod blocks. Some special structures, such as parallel half-cylinders and arrowhead-shaped morphology, are observed when the rod length increases to a certain extent. Our results show that the property and height of the slit and rod length all influence the self-assembly of rod-coil-rod triblock copolymers.

Fatty acids (FAs) influence cell and tissue metabolism, function, responsiveness to hormonal and other signals in addition to maintenance of membrane integrity of cells. β-Thalassemia is a prevalent inherited blood disorder characterized by abnormal red cell membrane structure and function. Induction of HbF by hydroxyurea (HU) is an enduring therapeutic intervention to manage this. Therefore, in the present study we have carried out the quantification of thirteen free fatty acids to disclose the prognosis of HU in β-thalassemia. FAs quantification was carried out using GC–MRM–MS method in the serum of 98 cases of β-thalassemia patients and out of which samples from 34 patients were collected before and after treatment with HU in addition to healthy controls (n = 31). Using the combination of random forest (RF) with GC–MRM–MS we were able to establish a classification and prediction model that can discriminate the β-thalassemia from healthy as well as from HU treated group. Docosanoic acid (C-22:0) was most significantly altered in β-thalassemia as compared to healthy at p-value of 8.3 × 10−09 while erucic acid (C-22:1 Δcis-13) can be used as potential marker of HU prognosis because its level became significantly dissimilar at p-value of 3.7 × 10−04 in same patients in response to HU. However, nervonic acid (C-24:1 Δcis-15) was found to be the key player in effectively separating three groups. In inference, we have noticed that HU therapy also rectifies the serum fatty acid profile in addition to its reported affect i.e. HbF induction in β-thalassemia patients.

The effect of nanoparticles (NPs) on the diffusivity of polymers in crowded environments is complicated. We study the diffusivity of polymers in the environment with periodically distributed immobile NPs by using off-lattice Monte Carlo simulations. Results show that the diffusion coefficient D of polymers at low temperature is dependent on the inter-particle distance d and polymer length N or end-to-end distance of polymers in dilute solution R0. At low temperature, D is large at both small and large d and a minimum is observed at intermediate d. The nonmonotonic behavior of D is due to the reason that there are two kinds of diffusion modes for the polymers at low temperature: NP-exchange motion for R0 > d and adsorption-and-desorption motion for R0 < d. Moreover, we observe the oscillation of D with N at a relatively low temperature. The novel behavior is relevant to the adsorption of polymers on NPs and is explained from the free energy barrier for polymers jumping from the ground state to others.

Metabolomics data from modern analytical instruments have become commonly more and more complex, which brings a lot of challenges to existing statistical modeling. Thus there is a need to develop new statistically efficient methods for mining the underlying metabolite information hidden in metabolomics. In this study, we provide a new strategy weighted variable kernel coupled with the support vector machine (SVM), which is termed as the WVKSVM approach. The WVKSVM approach by modifying the kernel matrix provides a feasible way to differentiate between the true and noise variables. Finally, examples are given specifically for modifying a Gaussian kernel. Compared with some popular classification methods such as Random forest (RF) and the normal SVM, the results show that WVKSVM has better prediction ability and improve the performance of SVM classifier.

BACKGROUND Soft-tissue digital defects frequently need to be covered by a flap rather than a skin graft. In hand surgery, functional preservation and aesthetic appearance are often as important as procedural efficacy. OBJECTIVE We present our clinical experience with reconstruction of digital skin defects with the free wrist crease flap. METHODS From January 2012 to September 2013, 14 digits of 14 patients (10 males, 4 females) were included for evaluation. The procedure was performed with brachial plexus block anesthesia. The superficial palmar branch of the radial artery, a subcutaneous superficial vein, and the palmar cutaneous branch of the median nerve were included in the free wrist crease flap. The flaps were used to reconstruct the skin defect of injured digits through microvascular anastomosis, and donor sites were closed primarily. RESULTS Postoperative follow-up time ranged from 3 to 25 months. All digital deformities were corrected, all flaps survived completely without ischemia, and none were aesthetically bulky. The area of free wrist crease flaps ranged from 2.5 to 5.0 cm by 2.0 to 3.1 cm. Slight wound infections appeared in two cases. Venous crisis occurred in one case, but it was successfully addressed after vascular exploration and reanastomosis. Sensation determined by static two-point discrimination measured in these flaps 2 months postsurgery was "good" at a mean 9.7 ± 2.1 mm (range, 6-14 mm). The mean motion range of the distal interphalangeal joint and proximal interphalangeal joint was 23.4 ± 6.9 degrees (0-42 degrees) and 75.8 ± 22.1 degrees (0-98 degrees) preoperatively. The mean motion range of the distal interphalangeal joint recovered to 40.3 ± 5.7 degrees (36-42 degrees), and that of the proximal interphalangeal joint was 90.3 ± 15.3 degrees (85-98 degrees) postoperatively. Both joints reached normal motion angle and difference was statistically significant preoperatively and postoperatively (p

Self-assembly of rod-coil-rod R4C12R4 triblock copolymers within a nanoslit is investigated by using dissipative particle dynamics simulations. Perpendicular lamellae (L⊥) in nonselective or weak selective slits and parallel lamellae (L∥) in coil-selective slits are observed, and both are almost independent of the slit thickness. However, in the rod-selective slits, the assembled structures are strongly dependent on the slit thickness. With an increase in the slit thickness, we sequentially observe hexagonally packed cylinders (HC) of rod blocks perpendicular to surfaces in thin slits, parallel wavy lamellae, orderly packed alternating cylinders in moderate slits, a mixture structure of HC near surfaces and L⊥ in the interior region, and finally L∥ in wide slits. Our simulation results reveal that the rod block and surface properties play an important role in the assembly of confined rod-coil-rod triblock copolymers. Results also illustrate the competition between the slit thickness and the length scale of lamellae in bulk for the confined copolymers in nanoslits.

A divide-by-3 frequency divider based on heterodyne injection-locking technique is presented. An injection-locking LC oscillator with resistive feedback and differential signal injection is implemented to achieve higher injection efficiency over a wider range. Moreover, by optimisation of inter-stage loading as well as filter-less design, only one inductor is used in this design to save silicon area. Implemented in a standard 0.18 µm CMOS process, the proposed divide-by-3 divider has a locking range from 17 to 19.1 GHz without extra frequency tuning and consumes 10 mA from a 1.8 V supply voltage.

Introduction The MHC class I chain-related molecule A (MICA) is a ligand for the natural killer group 2, member D (NKG2D) immunoreceptor activation. The engagement of tumor cell surface MICA to NKG2D stimulates the NK and T cell antitumor immunity. Shedding of MICA by tumor cells facilitates tumor immune evasion, which might partially contribute to tumor progression. Material and methods Inmunohistochemistry was performed on both normal and neoplastic renal tissues. Human renal carcinoma cell lines 786-0 and ACHIN were transfected and target sequences to silence human MMP2 by shRNA expression were established. The degree of MICA shedding was measured and quantitative real-time PCR and Western-blot analysis were performed. Results The membrane type matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2) mediated the MICA shedding, which was blocked by suppression of MMP2 expression. Concomitantly, MMP2 overexpression enhanced the MICA shedding, indicating that MMP2 was involved in the renal cell carcinoma-associated proteolytic release of soluble MICA (sMICA), which facilitated the tumor immune escape. Conclusions These findings suggested that MMP2 might be a new potential target for tumor immune therapy. Elucidation of the mechanisms by which tumors shed MICA could be of a great importance for cancer treatment in order to reinforce the NK and T cell antitumor immunity.

Resumen Introduccion La molecula A relacionada con la cadena de clase i del CMH (MICA) es un ligando del grupo 2 de celulas asesinas naturales, y miembro D (NKG2D) de la activacion de inmunorreceptores. La union de la superficie de la celula tumoral MICA con NKG2D estimula las celulas asesinas (NK) y la inmunidad de las celulas T antitumorales. La eliminacion de MICA por las celulas tumorales facilita la evasion inmune del tumor, lo cual podria contribuir en parte a la progresion tumoral. Materiales y metodos Se aplico inmunohistoquimica tanto en tejidos renales normales como neoplasicos. Se transfectaron las lineas de celulas tumorales de rinon humano 786-O y ACHIN, y se establecieron secuencias objetivo para silenciar la MMP2 humana a traves de la expresion ARNhc. Se midio el grado de eliminacion de MICA y se llevo a cabo una PCR cuantitativa en tiempo real, asi como el analisis de Western blot. Resultados La membrana de tipo metaloproteinasa de matriz-2 (MMP2) media en la eliminacion de MICA, que se bloquea por la supresion de la expresion de MMP2. Simultaneamente, la sobreexpresion de MMP2 aumenta la eliminacion de MICA, lo cual indica que MMP2 interviene en la liberacion proteolitica de MICA soluble (sMICA) asociada al carcinoma de celulas renales, que facilita el escape tumoral inmune. Conclusiones Dichos resultados sugieren que MMP2 podria ser un nuevo objetivo potencial para la terapia inmune de tumores. Un esclarecimiento de los mecanismos por los que los tumores eliminan MICA podria ser de gran importancia para el tratamiento del cancer, para asi reforzar las NK y la inmunidad antitumoral de las celulas T.

To meet the needs of universities realizing their own development model, it is important to discuss the issues of application of management information system based on informationized education. Application of management information system based on informationized education has been gradually implemented in universities. Under the action of "productive forces determine the relations of production". The reform of the teaching mode of universities has been deeply affected. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a standardized teaching system, improve the level of teaching, promote the interaction between teaching and learning, and help students to learn, obtain student feedback, and complete the functional orientation of teaching evaluation. The key of structuring higher education management information system is not the traditional physical state, but need to meet the dialectical relationship between ‘productivity’ and ‘relations of production’.

We present a nonuniform method sampling to form the 1 105 points of GPS signal for real-time implementation of prime factor Fourier transform (PFFT) processor, which uses less resource with more utilization rate, and is more efficient and computationally faster than fast Fourier transform (FFT). The high-speed capturing method by irregular sampling for GPS quick positioning is developed to obtain the specified number of sampled data to suit the requirement of fast pipelined PFFT implementation. Simulation results show that the irregular sampling method is efficient in terms of computational complexity and achieves minimum operations of sampling for 1 105 samples based PFFT processing.

In this paper, a co-prime symmetric sparse cross array is employed to estimate two- dimensional (2-D) direction-of-arrival (DOA). Some special forth-order-cumulants (FOCs) of array received data are used to construct a high-order matrix that is equivalent to a cross-covariance matrix based on two uniform linear arrays. After some modifications, an existing 2-D DOA estimation algorithm becomes more effective, and it shows further improved performance when the co-prime symmetric cross array is utilized. Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a common disease in aged men. In this study, we investigated the efficacy and safety of transurethral enucleation of prostate with button electrode plasmakinetic vaporization for the treatment of BPH. 60 patients diagnosed with BPH who were treated in our hospital from August to December, 2014 by enucleation with button electrode were retrospectively reviewed, and operation time, urinary catheter indwelling time, continuous bladder irrigation time, operation related complications, maximum urinary flow rate (Qmax), post-void residual urine volume (PVR), International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), quality of life assessment (QOL), perioperative hemoglobin and electrolytes were recorded. All the operations were completed successfully. The operation time and urinary catheter indwelling time were 45.3 ± 16.2 min and 1.72 ± 0.32 d, respectively. During the follow-up, urethral stricture (n = 1), and urinary incontinence (n = 2) were found with recovery after 1-month training. Postoperative PVR at 1, 3 and 6 months significantly decreased compared with preoperative ones (P max, QOL at 1, 3 and 6 months improved significantly (P

300 Background: Establishing an accurate LOT definition in real-world data (RWD) oncology studies is critical for measuring the effects of treatments on outcomes, which informs decisions made by clinicians, regulators, and payers. However, measuring LOT in RWD analyses is challenging and varies across disease states. LOT is generally defined by treatment (tx) start and stop dates. When available, the date of disease progression (PD) can be used to enhance the LOT definition. We explored the analytical impact of varying LOT definitions on 2L survival outcomes. Methods: A retrospective analysis of patients (pts) with mPC treated in US community practices was conducted using the Flatiron Health EHR–derived database. Two algorithms were applied to define LOT: tx change or ≥ 60-day gap in tx (LOTtx) and tx change after first PD (LOTpd). The impact on 1L and 2L sample sizes as well as 2L overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were assessed. Results: 251 pts with an mPC diagnosis between 01 March and 31 October 2015, who initiated chemotherapy ≤ 60 days after mPC diagnosis, were analyzed. Applying the LOTtx definition, 121 pts received 1L tx only and 130 received a 2L tx. Using the LOTpd definition, 145 pts received 1L tx only and 105 received a 2L tx (12 pts were excluded due to unclear time of PD relative to tx). Applying these definitions to time-to-event analyses (from start of 2L therapy) revealed longer 2L OS with LOTtx vs LOTpd (n = 130 vs 105; median 2L OS [95% CI], 5.4 [4.1-7.4] versus 4.5 [3.7-7.3] mo) but similar 2L PFS (n = 122 vs 105; median 2L PFS [95% CI], 2.8 [2.3-3.5] versus 2.8 [2.3-3.6] mo). Conclusions: In this analysis, inclusion of PD in the LOT definition impacted 1L and 2L sample sizes and 2L survival results. In aggressive diseases like mPC, a 1-mo difference in OS estimates is clinically meaningful and may influence treatment decisions. The choice of LOT definition should be based on the research question at hand, available data, and the effort to decrease misclassification bias. Additional LOT definitions, with associated strengths and limitations, will also be presented.

Accurate estimation of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is important in clinical practice. Current models derived from regression are limited by the imprecision of GFR estimates. We hypothesized that an artificial neural network (ANN) might improve the precision of GFR estimates.A study of diagnostic test accuracy.1,230 patients with chronic kidney disease were enrolled, including the development cohort (n=581), internal validation cohort (n=278), and external validation cohort (n=371).Estimated GFR (eGFR) using a new ANN model and a new regression model using age, sex, and standardized serum creatinine level derived in the development and internal validation cohort, and the CKD-EPI (Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration) 2009 creatinine equation.Measured GFR (mGFR).GFR was measured using a diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid renal dynamic imaging method. Serum creatinine was measured with an enzymatic method traceable to isotope-dilution mass spectrometry.In the external validation cohort, mean mGFR was 49±27 (SD) mL/min/1.73 m2 and biases (median difference between mGFR and eGFR) for the CKD-EPI, new regression, and new ANN models were 0.4, 1.5, and -0.5 mL/min/1.73 m2, respectively (P0.001 and P=0.02 compared to CKD-EPI and P0.001 comparing the new regression and ANN models). Precisions (IQRs for the difference) were 22.6, 14.9, and 15.6 mL/min/1.73 m2, respectively (P0.001 for both compared to CKD-EPI and P0.001 comparing the new ANN and new regression models). Accuracies (proportions of eGFRs not deviating30% from mGFR) were 50.9%, 77.4%, and 78.7%, respectively (P0.001 for both compared to CKD-EPI and P=0.5 comparing the new ANN and new regression models).Different methods for measuring GFR were a source of systematic bias in comparisons of new models to CKD-EPI, and both the derivation and validation cohorts consisted of a group of patients who were referred to the same institution.An ANN model using 3 variables did not perform better than a new regression model. Whether ANN can improve GFR estimation using more variables requires further investigation.

Objective To investigate the correlation of histological prostatitis with sexual function (erectile dysfunction [ED]) and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Methods A retrospective analysis of patients with BPH who received surgical treatment (from May 1, 2012 to November 30, 2012) was conducted, consisting of 80 patients with uncomplicated BPH and 80 patients with BPH plus histological prostatitis. The International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) symptom score and the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) before surgery were calculated. Preoperative sexual functions were compared between the 2 groups. Results Differences between both groups in age (72.56 ± 7.36 vs 71.98 ± 7.33) and IPSS score (18.65 ± 5.72 vs 20.50 ± 7.12) were not statistically significant (P >.05). Meanwhile, comparison in erectile function symptom score (14.80 ± 5.93 vs 7.35 ± 4.38) demonstrated significant differences (P

This study aimed to compare the difference between the skin expansion and contraction rates for an expanded flap with one versus two expanders.The study cohort comprised 24 cases of two overlapping expanders and 15 cases of a single implanted expander involving 22 patients. The method of "wet-cloth sampling" was applied to measure the expanded flap area and the initial unexpanded area and to calculate the skin expansion rate. Two points 5 cm apart in the center of the expanded flap were selected before the second surgical stage. After removal of the expander, the distance between the two fixed points was measured and recorded. The contraction rate of the expanded flap then was calculated.During the same period of expansion in the two groups (p = 0.06,0.01), the skin expansion rate was 3.5 ± 0.9 % in the group with two overlapping expanders and 2.6 ± 0.6 % in the control group. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (p = 0.002,0.05). The instantly expanded flap contraction rates were 30.3 ± 0.8 and 32.3 ± 0.9 %, respectively for the two groups, and the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.47,0.05). We fitted a linear regression model that was Y = 0.533 − 0.003X, where Y was the contraction rate of the expanded flap and X was the period of expansion. The contraction rate of the expanded flap was negatively correlated with the period of expansion.Compared with the traditional method of implanting a single expander, the new method of overlapping two expanders in a single cavity increased the skin expansion rate. The instantly expanded flap contraction rate did not differ significantly between the two groups, so the amount of expanded skin area absolutely increased. The clinical application of the new method is worth promoting.This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266.

To full understand engineering properties of soils on Boubyan island in Kuwait, some in-situ tests were performed along the highway and railway line, meanwhile some laboratory tests for soil samples from the different depth. It was concluded that its properties was low void ratio, low moisture content, low plasticity, low sensitivity, low permeability and high salt content. The soil classification belonged to CL and Marine-chloride-highly saline-soil.

There are nearly infinite module combination and cargo support methods for modular trailer. By summarizing moments produced by every force and revised by chassis permitted moment the load capacity can be obtained with a giving support deviation. And by calculating unit force's virtual work, the deformation of the trailer chassis can be found in same support deviation. These algorithms are very brief and can be embedded in other software.

Forty-three samples of green and black teas were analyzed by an electronic tongue technique. A class of metallic oxide-modified nickel foam electrodes (SnO2, ZnO, TiO2, Bi2O3) was compared in their sensitivity in this system. The signals obtained by cyclic voltammetry were submitted to multivariate data analysis. In the explorative analysis based on principal component analysis (PCA), the score plots showed that two of these sensors were able to distinguish varieties of teas. The resulting PCA scores were modeled with a support vector machine (SVM) that accomplished final prediction with the qualitative classification of teas. The optimal SVM model was achieved after grid search optimization of some parameters and the conduction of the three commonly used kernel functions. With a comparison of classification accuracies, Bi2O3-modified nickel foam electrode performed the best among the four electrodes and SVM model using the polynomial kernel attained the highest within the three used kernels. This work demonstrated that cyclic voltammetry combined with the SVM pattern recognition method could be successfully applied in the classification of green and black teas.

Support vector machine (SVM) has been gaining popularity in the field of chemistry. However, it also suffered from the problems of feature subset selection in most of applications. In the present study, we attempt to construct an informative novel tree kernel to address these problems. The constructed tree kernel can effectively discover the similarities of samples and handle nonlinear classification problems. Simultaneously, informative features can be evaluated by variable importance ranking in the process of building kernel by a large number of decision trees. Thus, under the framework of kernel methods, a novel tree kernel support vector machine (TKSVM) has been proposed to model the structure–activity relationship between bioactivities and molecular structures. Three datasets related to different categorical bioactivities of compounds are used to test the performance of TKSVM. The results show that the present method is a promising one compared to the SVM models with other commonly used kernels.

Introduction We aimed to investigate the effect of valproic acid (VPA) on NKG2D ligand expression in human renal carcinoma cell lines and to investigate the mechanisms. Material and methods Different concentrations of VPA from 0.5 mM to 8.0 mM were applied to 786-O and ACHN cell lines, respectively. Cell viability after treatment with VPA was determined by flow cytometry (FCM). Real-time PCR and FCM were used to detect the changes of mRNA and protein level of NKG2D ligands (MICA/B and ULBPs) in the two cell lines treated with 4 mM VPA. The cytotoxicity assay and CD107a mobilization assay were carried out to detect the cytotoxicity changes of NK cells against renal carcinoma cell lines after the same treatment. Results Valproic acid can efficiently upregulate MICA/B, ULBP1 and ULBP2 expression in the renal carcinoma cell lines at the mRNA and protein level (p < 0.05). 786-O and ACHN cells treated with VPA were more susceptible to killing by NK cells than untreated cells and the enhanced cytotoxicity of NK cells was blocked by the pretreatment of NK cells with anti-NKG2D monoclonal antibodies (p < 0.05). Conclusions Valproic acid can clearly induce the expression of NKG2D ligands of renal carcinoma cell lines, thereby enhancing the cytotoxicity of NK cells against renal carcinoma cell lines.

Large amounts of data from high-throughput analytical instruments have generally become more and more complex, bringing a number of challenges to statistical modeling. To understand complex data further, new statistically-efficient approaches are urgently needed to: (1) select salient features from the data; (2) discard uninformative data; (3) detect outlying samples in data; (4) visualize existing patterns of the data; (5) improve the prediction accuracy of the data; and, finally, (6) feed back to the analyst understandable summaries of information from the data. We review current developments in tree-based ensemble methods to mine effectively the knowledge hidden in chemical and biology data. We report on applications of these algorithms to variable selection, outlier detection, supervised pattern analysis, cluster analysis, and tree-based kernel and ensemble learning. Through this report, we wish to inspire chemists to take greater interest in decision trees and to obtain greater benefits from using the tree-based ensemble techniques.

What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? Thulium laser is a new generation of surgical laser. It is a minimally invasive technology with several advantages, including rapid vaporization and minimal tissue damage and bleeding. However, details regarding the safety and efficacy of thulium laser in treating BPH remains unknown. We performed a comparative study in 100 patients with BPH of the safety and efficacy of thulium laser resection of the prostate (TMLRP, n = 50) and bipolar transurethral plasmakinetic prostatectomy (TUPKP, n = 50). We found that the efficacy and indications were the same in TMLRP and TUPKP. In TUPKP, the morbidity of urethrostenosis was low, and was nearly bloodless in surgery and had higher safety. Nevertheless, TUPKP is more suitable for patients with larger prostate volume. Objective To compare the safety and short-term efficacy of thulium laser resection of the prostate (TMLRP) and bipolar transurethral plasmakinetic prostatectomy (TUPKP) for the treatment of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Methods A total of l00 patients diagnosed with BPH were randomly divided into two groups, treated with either TMLRP (50, group 1) or TUPKP (50, group 2). There was no significant difference in preoperative variables such as age, prostate volume, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), maximum urinary flow rate (Qmax) and postvoid residual urine volume (PVR) between the two groups. The perioperative parameters and therapeutic effects were recorded and compared between the two groups. Results There were significant differences in the following parameters between the two groups (TMLRP vs TUPKP [mean ± SD]): operation duration, 61.2 ± 24.2 vs 30.14 ± 15.9 min; catheterization time, 1.8 ± 0.4 vs 3.2 ± 0.6 d; postoperative hospital stay, 3.3 ± 0.8 vs 4.1 ± 1.3 d. The volume of blood loss and postoperative bladder irrigation were significantly lower in TMLRP group than in the TUPKP group. At 1 month after the operation, there were four cases of urethral stricture in the TUPKP group. At 3 months after the operation, IPSS, quality of life (QoL), Qmax and PVR were significantly improved, with no significant difference between the two groups. Conclusions TMLRP is superior to TUPKP in terms of safety, blood loss, recovery time and complication rate, and is as efficacious as TUPKP for treating BPH. Operation duration was significantly longer in the TMLRP group than in the TUPKP group.

Base on general three dimension nonlinear numerical simulation software, mechanism of composite soil-nail retaining structures in foundation-pit engineering are analyzed in this paper. Research contents include construction process simulation of excavation by steps, soil nailing installation and panel manufacture etc. Tension distribution range of soil layer, bottom heaving in the pit and axial force distribution along nail etc. are analyzed through the comparison of mechanical characteristics between computational results and field test data in the case of micro pile composite soil-nail support engineering. The action mechanism and working performance of composite soil-nail retaining support are also systematically studied and theoretical basis can be provided in optimal design, popularization and application.

Urethral ultrasonography is non-invasive and able to indicate the urethral lumen clearly, as well as the surrounding tissues of the posterior urethra, without contrast agent or X-ray irradiation. In this paper, we evaluate the reliability of urethral ultrasonography in the diagnosis of dysuria following bipolar transurethral plasma kinetic prostatectomy (TUPKP). A total of 120 benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) patients with dysuria undergoing TUPKP were enrolled in this study, with a mean age of 72.8 years. All the patients received urethral ultrasonography, urethroscopy and bladder neck urethra stenosis oulectomy. Among the 120 cases, there were 22 cases of bladder neck closure, 20 bladder orifice stricture, 60 urethral stricture, 10 prostate remnants, 2 calculi in prostatic urethra, 4 dysfunction of bladder detrusor muscle and 2 flap of internal urethral orifice. χ2-test was used for the comparison of ultrasonography and urethral cystoscopy in the diagnosis of dysuria following TRPKP, and no significant difference was found between two diagnostic tools (χ 2 = 0.94, P > 0.05). Urethral ultrasonography is a reliable and minimally invasive diagnostic tool for dysuria following TUPKP and is conducive to early treatment of dysuria following prostatectomy.

Based on the MapReduce job scheduling technology for design reference, this paper has put forward the maximum satisfaction scheduling algorithm of Hadoop to effectively solve the scheduling problems in MapReduce. The algorithm has tried to modify the original algorithm of Hadoop, configure a satisfaction score for each submitted job, and obtain the maximum satisfaction score of the job under the same Hadoop system environment of hardware and software. Compared with the own scheduling algorithm of Hadoop—fair share scheduling, the experiment has eventually drawn the conclusion that the maximum satisfaction scheduling algorithm can get the outcomes that customers want, reduce a certain degree of scheduling time, and enhance the system throughput.

A kernel version of k-nearest neighbor algorithm (k-NN) has been developed to model the complex relationship between molecular descriptors and bioactivities of compounds. Kernel k-NN is to perform the original k-NN algorithm by mapping the training samples in the input space into a high-dimensional feature space. It can be easily constructed by calculating the distance between samples in the feature space, directly deriving from the simple calculation of the kernel used. The developed kernel k-NN is very flexible to deal with complex nonlinear relationship, more importantly; it can also conveniently cope with some non-vectorial data only by the definition of different kernels. The results obtained from several real SAR datasets indicated that the performance of kernel k-NN is comparable to support vector machine methods. It can be regarded as an alternative modeling technique for several chemical problems including the study of structure-activity relationship (SAR). The source codes implementing kernel k-NN in R language are freely available at http://code.google.com/p/kernelmethods/. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mechanism of composite pre-reinforced micro pile soil-nail and pure soil-nail retaining structure in foundation-pit engineering are analyzed in this paper through general three dimension nonlinear numerical simulation software. Research contents include whole construction process simulation of construction such as excavation by steps, piles and soil-nail installation and panel manufacture etc. By the comparison of mechanical characteristics between the pure soil-nail and composite soil-nail retaining structures in the same slope engineering example, differences of tension distribution range of soil layer, deformation features, mechanical characteristics of support and axial force distribution along nails etc. are analyzed. Research results are verified by in-site projects and measured data. The action mechanism and working performance of composite soil-nail retaining support are also systematically studied and theoretical basis can be provided in the similar application.

In the area where hard formation buries deeply, large-diameter and extra-long cast-in-place piles set into soft fragmental rock with high pressure grouting technique may raise the bearing capacity and reduce settlement apparently. This article approaches and analyses the subject through testing data of comparing two groups of piles experiments with two different ways of construction in the same project. The research enhanced original designing arrangement, shortened construction period, reduced cost of the project and drew some valuable conclusions. As a result, it also proposed that it’s not necessary to elevate the length of piles worthlessly and set too deep into hard formation unrealistically to avoid wasting in the later similar engineering.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of Liangxue Tongyu Formula (LXTYF), a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine, on brain edema in rats with intracerebral hemorrhage and to explore the mechanism. METHODS Intracerebral hemorrhage was induced by using the intrastriatal autologous blood injection. Rats were randomized into sham-operated (SO) group, intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) group and LXTYF group. Rats in the LXTYF group were intragastrically administered with LXTYF every day while the other two groups were given normal saline. Brain water content was determined at 24, 48, 72, and 120 h after intracerebral hemorrhage. Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) level, and MMP-9 and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) mRNA expressions in perihematoma area were detected by gelatin zymography and fluorescence quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction at the four time points, respectively. RESULTS Water content in the ICH group was highly elevated after intracerebral hemorrhage, and reached to the peak at 72 h. Compared with the ICH group, the LXTYF group had lower water contents at 48, 72 and 120 h after intracerebral hemorrhage (P

Membrane proteins are crucial for many biological functions and have become attractive targets for both basic research and drug discovery. With the unprecedented increasing of newly found protein sequences in the post-genomic era, it is both time-consuming and expensive to determine the types of newly found membrane proteins solely with traditional experiment, and so it is highly demanded to develop an automatic method for fast and accurately identifying the type of membrane proteins according to their amino acid sequences. In this study, the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and support vector machine (SVM) have been used for the prediction of the types of membrane proteins. Maximum accuracy has been obtained using SVM with a wavelet function of bior2.4, a decomposition scale j = 4, and Kyte-Doolittle hydrophobicity scales. The results indicate that the proposed method may play an important complementary role to the existing methods in this area.

An efficient approach to solve scalability problem of current inter-domain routing system is to separate the edge network from the core network address space. But the approach based on core-edge separation needs a new mapping service system to distribute transition information between core and edge networks address spaces through Internet. And after separating and mapping, it needs a method to ensure it is backwards compatible with the current addressing and routing architecture. Aiming to the problem caused by mapping service and compatibility, this paper proposes a scalable inter-domain routing architecture, called SIRAS. SIRAS reuses IPv4 address space to ensure backwards compatibility, and avoids introducing a new mapping service system by extending existing DNS and protocols. The analysis shows SIRAS efficiently alleviates scalability pressure without introducing a new mapping service and protocol.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility and clinical efficacy of retroperitoneal laparoscopic partial nephrectomy for T(1)- and T(2)-stage renal-cell carcinoma (RCC) of a solitary kidney.A total of 56 patients with RCC in a solitary kidney were selected in this study, including 41 men and 15 women with a mean age of 49 years. B-type ultrasonography and CT revealed T(1)N(0)M(0) tumors in 51 cases and T(2)N(0)M(0) tumors in the remaining 5 cases; 41 cases were RCC in left kidney, and 15 were RCC in right kidney. Of them, 24 cases had RCC located in the upper pole, 24 in the inferior pole, and 8 in the central region of the kidney. The mean tumor diameter was 3.0 +/- 0.8 cm (1.5-5.5 cm). Postoperative pathology report showed 46 cases of T(1)-stage tumor (T(1a): 38; T(1b): 8) and 10 cases of T(2) stage. Retroperitoneal laparoscopic nephron-sparing surgery was performed. Surgical resection was performed along a resection line 0.5 cm from the tumors. Renal function was determined using emission CT before and after operation. Preoperative three-dimensional CT image reconstruction was performed using multislice spiral CT.All procedures were successfully performed without open conversion and serious complications. The mean warm ischemia time was 24 +/- 4.2 minutes (19-50 minutes). The mean operation time was 95 +/- 14.5 minutes. The mean blood loss volume was 105 +/- 20.4 mL. No postoperative urine leakage occurred. Both serum creatinine and nitrogen levels were normal after operation in all cases. The mean hospital stay was 9 +/- 2 days. There was no requirement for hemodialysis. No recurrence, metastasis, and implantation were observed during the 20 +/- 4 month follow-up periods, with a survival rate of 100%.Laparoscopic partial nephrectomy can be performed safely and effectively in selected patients with tumors in a solitary kidney owing to its minimal invasion, clear dissection, less hemorrhage, and rapid recovery.

The prediction of secondary structure is a fundamental and important component in the analytical study of protein structure and functions. How to improve the predictive accuracy of protein structural classification by effectively incorporating the sequence-order effects is an important and challenging problem. In this study, a new method, in which the support vector machine combines with discrete wavelet transform, is developed to predict the protein structural classes. Its performance is assessed by cross-validation tests. The predicted results show that the proposed approach can remarkably improve the success rates, and might become a useful tool for predicting the other attributes of proteins as well.

Background Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are capable of differentiating into cardiomyogenic and endothelial cells in vitro. We tested the hypothesis that transplantation of ADSCs into myocardial scar may regenerate infracted myocardium and restore cardiac function. Methods ADSCs were isolated from the fatty tissue of New Zealand white rabbits and cultured in Iscoves modified dulbeccos medium. Three weeks after ligation of left anterior descending coronary artery of rabbits, either a graft of untreated ADSCs (UASCs, n = 14), 5-azacytidine-pretreated ADSCs (AASCs, n = 13), or phosphate buffer saline (n = 13) were injected into the infarct region. Transmural scar size, cardiac function, and immunohistochemistry were performed 5 weeks after cell transplantation. Results ADSCs in culture demonstrated a fibroblast-like appearance and expressed CD29, CD44 and CD105. Five weeks after cell transplantation, transmural scar size in AASC-implanted hearts was smaller than that of the other hearts. Many ADSCs were differentiated into cardiomyocytes. The AASCs in the prescar appeared more myotube-like. AASCs in the middle of the scar and UASCs, in contrast, were poorly differentiated. Some ADSCs were differentiated into endothelial cells and participate in vessel-like structures formation. All the ADSC-implanted hearts had a greater capillary density in the infarct region than did the control hearts. Statistical analyses revealed significant improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction, myocardial performance index, end-diastolic pressure, and peak +dP/dt, in two groups of ADSC-implanted hearts relative to the control hearts. AASC-implanted hearts had higher peak -dP/dt values than did control, higher ejection fraction and peak +dP/dt values than did UASC-implanted hearts. Conclusions ADSCs transplanted into the myocardial scar tissue formed cardiac islands and vessel-like structures, induced angiogenesis and improved cardiac function. 5-Azacytidine pretreatment before implantation is desirable for augmenting myogenesis. Transplantation of 5-azacytidine-treated ADSCs into the myocardial scar was more efficient than that of untreated ADSCs in preservation of cardiac function.

To explore the long-term clinical efficacy and safety of transurethral plasmakinetic resection of the prostate (PKRP) for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).A total of 550 patients with BPH who had undergone PKRP from October 2006 to September 2009 were enrolled in this study. All patients were evaluated at baseline and follow-up (3, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 months postoperatively) by peak flow rate (Qmax), postvoid residual (PVR), quality of life (QoL), International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), and Overactive Bladder Symptom Score (OABSS). Operative details and postoperative complications regarded as safety outcomes were documented.A total of 467 patients completed the 5-year follow-up. The mean duration of surgery was 36.43 minutes, mean catheterization time was 48.81 hours, mean hospital stay was 4.21 days. At 60 months postoperatively, the mean Qmax increased from 6.94 mL/s at baseline to 19.28 mL/s, the mean PVR decreased from 126.33 mL to 10.45 mL, the mean IPSS score decreased from 15.79 to 7.51, the mean QoL score decreased from 4.36 to 1.91, and the mean OABSS score decreased from 6.39 to 3.65 (P0.001), respectively. In perioperative complications, the blood transfusion rate was 2.7%, urinary tract infection rate was 3.6%; no transurethral resection syndrome (TUR syndrome) occurred. In late complications, urethral stricture rate was 5.4%, recurrent bladder outlet obstruction rate was 2.1%, and the reoperation rate was 4.5%.PKRP is based on conventional monopolar transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) and uses a bipolar plasmakinetic system. Our results indicate that the long-term clinical efficacy and safety of PKRP for BPH are remarkable. In particular, the incidence of urethral stricture, recurrent bladder outlet obstruction, and reoperation is low. We suggest that PKRP is a reliable minimally invasive technique that may be the preferred procedure for the treatment of patients with BPH.

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Objective: To compare the safety and efficacy of conventional monopolar transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT), 2-micron continuous-wave laser and holmium laser resection techniques in the management of primary nonmuscle invasive bladder tumor (NMIBT). Methods: From January 2009 to January 2013, patients newly diagnosed primary NMIBC were enrolled in this study. The patients were divided into conventional TURBT group (n=70), holmium laser group (n=70) and 2-micron laser group (n=70) randomly. Operative time, postoperative bladder irrigation, catheterization time, hospitalization time, complications included obturator nerve reflex, bladder perforation, blood transfusion, and 2-year tumor recurrence rate were documented in all patients. Results: Characteristics of patients and tumors in all three groups were compared before surgery. There was no significant difference in operative time among the three groups. Compared with the conventional TURBT group, both 2-micron and holmium groups had less intra operative and postoperative complications, including obturator nerve reflex, bladder perforation, and postoperative bladder irritation. There were no significant differences among the three groups in the blood transfusion rate and incidence of urethral stricture. Patients in the 2-micron and holmium groups had less catheterization and hospitalization time than those in the conventional TURBT group. There was no significant difference in the 2-year tumor recurrence rate among the three groups. Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that the use of 2-micron (thulium) laser and holmium laser in the management of NMIBT were superior to conventional monopolar TURBT, while there were no significant differences between 2-micron laser and holmium laser. However, 2-micron laser and holmium laser did not have an obvious advantage over conventional TURBT in 2-year tumor recurrence rate. A longer follow-up period and larger numbers of patients are necessary to demonstrate the present result in the future.

Background The lips are a prominent part of the face and they age along with the face. Microsurgery for upper lip lifts is becoming popular because of its association with minimal trauma and rapid recovery. Objectives The authors introduced an innovative method of lifting the upper lip. Methods From January 2009 to March 2013, a cohort of 30 women underwent an upper lip lift surgical procedure. Patients received local anesthesia for a regional block of the infraorbital nerve. A T-shaped orbicularis oris and a strip of skin were excised. The superior edge of the orbicularis oris muscle was sutured to the base of the nose, and the incision was closed with a continuous intradermal suture. Postoperative follow-up time ranged from 1 to 5 years. Results At the time of follow-up, the incisional scar was not visible on the patient. The nasolabial angle was 96.20° ± 1.86° before operation and 88.23° ± 2.58° after operation. The difference was statistically significant ( P = 0.000 and P < 0.001). The upper lip angle was 65.56° ± 8.60° before operation and 51.90° ± 3.93° after operation. The difference was statistically significant ( P = 0.000) and P < 0.001). After operation, the upper lip appeared to be clearly thickened. Conclusions This innovative surgical technique is a simple and effective way to lift the upper lip. Level of Evidence 4![Graphic][1] Therapeutic [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif