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Au@TiO2 core–shell hollow microspheres with multiple nanocores and porous shells have been synthesized by a simple and effective hydrothermal method using TiF4 as TiO2 precursor. The size of micros...

Au@TiO2 core–shell hollow nanoparticles were prepared by a simple hydrothermal method without surfactants or templates. The core–shell structure materials were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and specific surface area of the test (BET). The catalytic activity was tested in a stainless reactor with a fixed bed and connected with a gas chromatograph. The results show that the microstructure, crystallography, and morphology were correlated with the hydrothermal reaction time and temperature, and the properties of the solvent. The crystallinity degree of TiO2 and the particle size increased with the reaction time and temperature. Particles with different morphologies can be obtained when using different solvents. The size of microsphere can be controlled easily by changing the amount of TiF4. This material exhibited the complete CO conversion temperature to be about 130 °C and no deactivation was observed after 1,000 min reaction.

Bevacizumab (Bev), a monoclonal antibody against vascular endothelial growth factor, when combined with standard first-line chemotherapy, shows impressive clinical benefit in advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (ns-NSCLC). Our study aims to investigate whether the addition of Bev to pemetrexed improves progression-free survival (PFS) in advanced ns-NSCLC patients after the failure of at least one prior chemotherapy regimens. Patients with locally advanced, recurrent, or metastatic ns-NSCLC, after failure of platinum-based therapy, with a performance status 0 to 2, were eligible. Patients received 500 mg/m2 of pemetrexed intravenously (IV) day 1 with vitamin B12, folic acid, and dexamethasone and Bev 7.5 mg/kg IV day 1 of a 21-day cycle until unacceptable toxicity, disease progression or the patient requested therapy discontinuation. The primary end point was PFS. Between December 2011 and October 2013, 33 patients were enrolled, with median age of 55 years and 36.4 % men. Twenty-three patients (69.7 %) had received two or more prior regimens, and 28 patients (84.8 %) had received chemotherapy containing pemetrexed. The median number of the protocol regimens was 4. Median PFS was 4.37 months (95 % CI 2.64–6.09 months). Median overall survival (OS) was 15.83 months (95 % CI 10.52–21.15 months). Overall response rates were 6.45 %. Disease control rate was 54.84 %. No new safety signals were detected. No patient experienced drug-related deaths. The combination of Bev and pemetrexed every 21 days is effective in ns-NSCLC patients who failed of prior therapies with improved PFS. Toxicities are similar with historical data of these two agents and are tolerable. Our results may provide more a regimen containing Bev and pemetrexed for Chinese clinical practice in previously treated ns-NSCLC.

This study mainly deals with the preparation of MgO/B2O3 coatings by plasma spraying on the SUS304 surface and the effects of heat-resistant. The power materials of low thermal conductivity were selected to control the heat divergent performance of high temperature parts. The reticular micro-structure between the cover thermal layer and the substrate was prepared by using the plasma spraying method. The powder mixture of MgO and B2O3 were selected as spraying materials and the SUS304 was used as the substrate material. The MgO/B2O3 coating was prepared on the surface of the SUS304 to provide better cover thermal performance. The properties of the microstructures and the morphologies were studied by Optical Microscope, Scanning Electron Microscope, Electron Probe Microanalyzer, and X-ray Diffraction. The results showed that the cover thermal performance has been improved.

Image segmentation plays an important role in medical image processing. Fuzzy c-means (FCM) is one of the popular clustering algorithms for medical image segmentation. But FCM is highly vulnerable to noise due to not considering the spatial information in image segmentation. This paper introduces medium mathematics system which is employed to process fuzzy information for image segmentation. It establishes the medium similarity measure based on the measure of medium truth degree (MMTD) and uses the correlation of the pixel and its neighbors to define the medium membership function. An improved FCM medical image segmentation algorithm based on MMTD which takes some spatial features into account is proposed in this paper. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is more antinoise than the standard FCM, with more certainty and less fuzziness. This will lead to its practicable and effective applications in medical image segmentation.

The pretreatment albumin/globulin ratio (AGR) has been used as a prognostic factor in various cancers. This study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of AGR in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). We tested albumin and total proteins in plasma samples from 276 SCLC patients from our cancer center between January 2003 and December 2006. The AGR was defined by the formula: albumin/(total proteins–albumin). The correlation between AGR and overall survival (OS) was examined by Kaplan–Meier and Cox regression methods. For validation, AGR was used to evaluate the prognosis of SCLC in another independent group. Total 276 patients (testing) and 379 patients (validation) were finally enrolled. The median OS was 15.31 months for testing patients and 15.06 months for validation patients, respectively. We determined 1.29 as the cutoff value by using the biostatistical tool (Cutoff Finder), then the patients in the testing group were classified into 2 groups. Kaplan–Meier curves showed high AGR group had significantly longer OS than low AGR group (P = 0.026). According to multivariate analyses, AGR was an independent prognostic factor for OS of SCLC patients in the testing group (HR, 1.35, 95% CI: 1.01–1.81, P = 0.046). In the validation group, AGR was also verified as a predictive factor for OS (P

Wavelet transform method has been widely used in image filtering, the wavelet threshold de-noising method can treat Gaussian noise with randomness well. This paper proposes that after the wavelet transform the high frequency coefficients need a more accurate processing, And the classical hard threshold method has been improved by introducing the measure of medium truth scale. The new method can effectively handle strong Gaussian noise with larger variance through theoretical analysis and experimental simulation, and get a fine recovery image. It also provides a new approach for wavelet de-noising.

This paper propose an improved image filtering algorithm which is based on median filteringing algorithm and medium filteringing algorithm according to the simpleness of median filteringing algorithm and the significant denoising effect of medium filteringing algorithm. The new algorithm combines the two algorithms and thus gets a better filtering effect. We did the simulation using MATLAB, and then did the objective evaluation using the classical method PSNR. Simulation results showed that the new algorithm has a better denoising effect than the medium filteringing algorithm and reduces the denoising time as well. Thus the improved algorithm has a better practicalility.

In the field of image processing histogram equalization is a method to enhance images by adjusting the image contrast. The idea is to change the original image histogram from the more concentrated gray-scale range into all the uniform distribution. There is a shortcoming that gray-scale merging in traditional histogram equalization image enhancement. A gray-scale retention histogram equalization can reduce the adverse effects of the gray-scale mergering and retain more image details. This method has been improved in this paper, we use Measure of Medium Truth Degree to determine which is better, the method retains high gray-level or the one retains the low gray-level.

The Otsu algorithm is one of the most widely applied threshold-based image segmentation algorithms. However, its rather large calculation amount and poor real-time quality has limited its further application. In this paper, a new segmentation method combined Otsu and particle swarm optimization is proposed. An improved particle swarm optimization with the improvements of particle's best fitness value as the inertia weight of PSO is proposed to improve the selecting speed of the threshold of Otsu. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method is better than the original Otsu and Otsu based on standard PSO in terms of both execution time and solution precision.

The expression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is related to tumor progression in many human malignancies. This study evaluated the significance of HER2 in early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Specimens were obtained from 172 patients with early-stage (T1–T2N0M0) NSCLC, which included T1N0M0 (n = 52) and T2N0M0 (n = 120). The expression of HER2 was determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC). HER2 expression and its relationship with clinicopathological parameters and survival were analyzed. The expression of HER2 was significantly higher in the non-squamous cell carcinoma than in the squamous cell carcinoma (74.3 % vs. 53.7 %, p = 0.008). HER2 expression and tumor size were independent prognostic indicators in the multivariate analysis (p = 0.007 and p = 0.015, respectively). Expression of HER2 indicated a worse 5-year overall survival (65 % vs. 86 %, p = 0.014), especially for stages IB and IIA diseases (p = 0.035 and p = 0.043, respectively) and adenocarcinoma (p = 0.047). Therefore, HER2 may be related with the pathogenesis of NSCLC and act as an unfavorable prognostic factor in T1N0M0 and T2N0M0 NSCLC, especially in stages IB and IIA diseases.

A fundamental problem in machine learning is to discriminate a representative set of features on which to construct a classification model for a particular task. This paper presents a feature selection algorithm RF-MI for multiple classes based on ReliefF algorithm and Mutual Information (MI) measure. RF-MI algorithm gets a feature subset by excluding irrelevant and redundant features from original features based on ReliefF algorithm and MI measure respectively, adjusting the feature weight threshold δ and the correlation threshold θ respectively by the classification performance of a specific classifier when using newly generated feature subsets on training data sets, and repeating above procedures until the best classification performance is achieved. Experiments conducted on UCI data sets showed that the presented RF-MI algorithm is better than both ReliefF and GR algorithms in minishing the feature set on the premise that better classification accuracy is maintained. That means classification models based on the feature subset derived from the algorithm can have lower time and space complexity.

Image segmentation is one of the most important research areas in image processing and computer vision, and is a key step in image processing and image analysis. This paper introduces medium mathematics system which is employed to process fuzzy information for image segmentation. Based on the measure of medium truth degree, this paper presents a novel image segmentation method by introducing the distance ratio function to measure the gray level similarity degree between a single pixel and clustering center. Experiments show that the algorithm can effectively preserve the image details and get an ideal segmentation results compared with that of the classical algorithms.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Empoasca vitis was sequenced. The length of the mitogenome is 15,154 bp with 78.35% AT content (GenBank accession No. KJ815009). The genome encode 37 typical mitochondrial genes including 22 transfer RNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes and an A+T-rich region. The gene arrangement is similar to that of Drosophila yakuba, the presumed ancestral insect mitochondrial gene arrangement. Except for cox2 using GTG as start codon, other protein-coding genes (PCGs) share the start codons ATN. Usual termination codon TAA and incomplete stop codon T are using by 13 protein-coding genes. The A+T-rich region has a length of 977 bp with the AT content high to 88.95%.

Evaluation is the basis of making decision scientifically in management work of science research and real world. This paper introduces medium mathematics system which is employed to process fuzzy information for evaluation. Based on measuring of medium truth scale, this paper presents a new evaluation method which uses logic truth value to judge individuals roundly. It uses distance ratio function to make the evaluation of one-item and uses sum function of weighting distance ratio to make the comprehensive evaluation of n-items. The analysis to the result of application examples shows that the new evaluation method based on measuring of medium truth scale is more reasonable and scientific than general methods.

In this study, olivine-structured lithium manganese phosphate (LiMnPO4) (S1/C and S2/C) has been prepared via a simple solvothermal process using ethylene glycol (EG) as solvent, and the effects of two different feeding sequences during the preparation are comparatively studied. The morphology, crystal structure and charge–discharge performance of the obtained samples are characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and various electrochemical testing techniques. The results show that the feeding sequence and the solvent environment seriously affect the crystal structure, the micro-morphologies and the electrochemical properties of the resulting LiMnPO4-based electro-active material. The nanosheet-like morphology of LiMnPO4 with the ac plane parallel to the platelet of nanosheet and the b axis vertical to the platelet of nanosheet (the ac plane) has been successfully prepared by the synthesis route of S2/C, which exhibits superior cell performances to that of S1/C. In particular, the nanosheet-like S2/C shows a relatively improved rate performance, in which specific discharged capacities of 83.7 mAh · g−1, 54.2 mAh · g−1, 24.9 mAh · g−1 are obtained at the rates of 1C, 2C and 5C, compared to 72.4 mAh · g−1, 32.9 mAh · g−1 and 9.2 mAh · g−1 for S1/C sample.

This paper presents the first implementation of batch-transferred microrelays for a broad range of RF applications and substrates. The transferred relays include a variety of electrostatic pull-down type structures, as well as see-saw type structures. The batch-transfer methodology allows integration of optimized MEMS in RF systems on substrates such as sapphire, GaAs, and even CMOS. Gold-to-gold contact series microrelays with insertion loss of 40 dB of isolation and

This paper proposes a general architecture for using evolutionary algorithms to achieve MEMS design synthesis. Functional MEMS devices are designed by combining parameterized basic MEMS building blocks together using Multi-objective Genetic Algorithms (MOGAs) to produce a pareto optimal set of feasible designs. The iterative design synthesis loop is implemented by combining MOGAs with the SUGAR MEMS simulation tool. Given a high-level description of the device’s desired behavior, both the topology and sizing are generated. The topology or physical configuration includes the number and types of basic building blocks and their connectivity. The sizing of the designs entails assigning numerical values to parameterized building blocks. A sample from the pareto optimal set of designs is presented for a meandering resonator example, along with convergence plots.Copyright © 2002 by ASME