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In the United States (US), the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program is the only comprehensive source of population-based information that includes stage of cancer at the time of diagnosis and patient survival data. This program aims to provide a database about cancer incidence and survival for studies of surveillance and the development of analytical and methodological tools in the cancer field. Currently, the SEER program covers approximately half of the total cancer patients in the US. A growing number of clinical studies have applied the SEER database in various aspects. However, the intrinsic features of the SEER database, such as the huge data volume and complexity of data types, have hindered its application. In this review, we provided a systematic overview of the commonly used methodologies and study designs for retrospective epidemiological research in order to illustrate the application of the SEER database. Therefore, the goal of this review is to assist researchers in the selection of appropriate methods and study designs for enhancing the robustness and reliability of clinical studies by mining the SEER database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smoother pavement provides a comfortable, safe and economical riding experience to the public and prolongs the life of the pavement with low maintenance costs. Hence, obtaining a smooth pavement is considered a necessity by many transportation agencies around the world. In order to achieve a smooth pavement, smoothness specifications are developed. Smoothness specifications mainly consist of four parts: smoothness measuring equipment, smoothness indices and analysis method, acceptance limits, and incentive/disincentive payment schemes. This paper summarizes smoothness specifications in the United States and various countries around the world and provide an overview on the comparison of smoothness measurement. The smoothness measuring devices, indices, limits and payment schemes vary from country-to-country International Roughness Index is the most used smoothness index in the US and around the world. Inertial profilers are used to measure the pavement profile for smoothness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first long length, transmission level voltage, cold dielectric, high temperature superconductor power cable has been successfully installed in the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) grid. The cable is capable of carrying 574 MVA at a voltage of 138 Ky. Three 600 m long phase conductors were manufactured and shipped to the LIPA site. The installation process included pulling three cables through three separate 600 m long underground conduits and assembly of three terminations at each end. The project has been funded by the US Department of Energy and is led by American Superconductor. The project team is comprised of Nexans, Air Liquide and LIPA. This paper describes the cable system, installation process and an overview of various testing results before and after installation. In addition, details of an initial successful cool-down process are presented. It also includes the performance results in grid operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US Department of Homeland Security is currently funding the design, development and demonstration of an inherently fault current limiting HTS cable, called Secure Super Grids, under the Hydra project with Con Edison. The cable is 300 m long and is being designed to carry 96 MVA at a distribution level voltage of 13.8 kV. The cable will be built using cable system experience gained by AMSC and Ultera (a Southwire and nkt Cables joint venture) on previous projects. The underground cable will be permanently installed and energized in New York City in 2010. The project is led by American Superconductor who is teamed with Ultera and Con Edison. This paper describes the general goals and design criteria of the project. An overview of the concept of Secure Super Grids and advantages of this type of cable are presented in a grid-based network modeling. In addition, the design issues such as tailoring of the HTS wire to provide adequate thermal stability and electrical properties both under normal operation and during a fault are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The TBC (Tre-2/Bub2/Cdc16, TBC) structural domain is now considered as one of the factors potentially regulating tumor progression. However, to date, studies on the relationship between TBC structural domains and tumors are limited. In this study, we identified the role of TBC1 domain family member 8 (TBC1D8) as an oncogene in colorectal cancer (CRC) by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and Cox regression analysis, showing that TBC1D8 may independently predict CRC outcome. Functional enrichment and single-cell analysis showed that TBC1D8 levels were associated with hypoxia. TBC1D8 levels were also positively correlated with M2 macrophage infiltration, which may have a complex association with hypoxia. Taken together, these results show that the TBC1D8 gene is involved in colorectal carcinogenesis, and the underlying molecular mechanisms may include hypoxia and immune cell infiltration., (© 2022. The Author(s).)