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Metastatic prostate cancer (mPCa) is responsible for most prostate cancer (PCa) deaths worldwide. The present study aims to explore the molecular differences between mPCa and PCa. The authors downloaded GSE6752, GSE6919, and GSE32269 from the Gene Expression Omnibus and employed integrated analysis to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between mPCa and PCa. Functional and pathway-enrichment analyses were performed, and a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network and modules were constructed. Clinical mPCa specimens were collected to verify the results by performing RT-qPCR. The Cancer Genome Atlas database was used to conduct a survival analysis, and an immunohistochemical assay was performed. The invasion ability of PCa cells was verified by Transwell assay. One-hundred six consistently DEGs were found in mPCa compared with PCa. DEGs significantly enriched the positive regulation of cell proliferation, cell division, and cell adhesion in small cell lung cancer and PCa. Cell division, nucleoplasm, and cell cycle were selected from the PPI network, and the top 10 hub genes were selected. CDC20 and PTTG1 with genetic alterations were significantly associated with poorer disease-free survival. Immunohistochemical assay results showed that the expression levels of CDC20 and PTTG1 in mPCa were higher than those in PCa. The results of the migration assay indicated that CDC20 and PTTG1 could enhance the migration ability of PCa cells. The present study revealed that CDC20 and PTTG1 contribute more to migration, progression, and poorer prognoses in mPCa compared with PCa. CDC20 and PTTG1 could represent therapeutic targets in mPCa medical research and clinical studies.

AIM: To provide a detailed description of the natural history of persistent subretinal fluid (SRF) after successful repair of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) and its association with visual outcome. METHODS: This was a prospective long-term follow-up for eyes undergoing scleral buckling (SB) surgery for macula-off RRD. Examinations were carried out preoperatively and postoperatively at 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12mo, until persistent SRF had completely resolved. One month postoperatively, optical coherence tomography (OCT) was used to classify SRF into three patterns: bleb-like loculated (BL), shallow-diffused (SD), and multiple blebs (MB). Serial OCT imaging was used to evaluate morphological changes in SRF until its complete disappearance. Patients were divided into two groups depending on the presence or absence of persistent SRF. RESULTS: A total of 59 patients (59 eyes) were included. There were no statistical differences between two groups at baseline, except for the proportion of patients with high myopia and a younger age. One month after surgery, OCT detected persistent SRF in 49 eyes (83.1%). The 3 morphological patterns of SRF were observed in 27 eyes (55.1%) with BL, 13 eyes (26.5%) with SD, and 9 eyes (18.4%) with MB. The mean time for complete absorption differed significantly across the three SRF patterns (F=8.097, P=0.001), which was 8.8±6.1, 20.1±12.1, and 16.7±10.2mo in BL, SD, and MB, respectively. In 9 of the 13 eyes with SD, the pattern transformed into MB type. In cases involving MB, the size and number of blebs decreased gradually until they had been completely absorbed. Eyes with persistent SRF were more likely to demonstrate disruption of the ellipsoid zone (49.0% vs 10%, P=0.034). The final best-corrected visual acuity of two groups was 0.37±0.11 (with SRF) vs 0.34±0.12 (without SRF) logMAR (P=0.499), respectively. CONCLUSION: High preoperative myopia and younger age are associated with persistent SRF. BL is the most commonly observed pattern with the shortest duration and gradually disappeared. Most cases involving SD SRF transform into MB type during resolution. The size and number of the MBs decrease gradually until they were completely absorbed. The absence of persistent SRF may contribute to slow visual recovery in the short-term but does not influence the final visual outcome.

Purpose: To investigate the incidence, risk factors, and visual outcomes of epiretinal membrane development following rhegmatogenous retinal detachment repair. Methods: This was a retrospective study of 309 eyes that underwent initial surgery for primary uncomplicated rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. Examinations were conducted preoperatively and then postoperatively at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. The study patients were categorized into two groups depending on the presence or absence of the epiretinal membrane. Results: The incidence of postoperative epiretinal membrane was 28.5%; 42.7% of these patients had severe epiretinal membrane development and therefore underwent the epiretinal membrane removal. Logistic regression analyses revealed that giant retinal tears (OR: 2.66; 95% CI: 1.045-6.792, p=0.040) and horseshoe tears (OR: 0.534; 95% CI: 0.295-0.967, p=0.039) were the significant predictors of postoperative epiretinal membrane. Triamcinolone acetonide staining was significantly associated with the prevention of epiretinal membrane (p=0.022). A total of 34 patients showed a better or an equal final best-corrected visual acuity; of which 4 eyes were evaluated at the final follow-up visit and exhibited a reduced best-corrected visual acuity. Conclusion: Our analysis demonstrated that horseshoe tears and giant retinal tears represent the risk factors for the postoperative epiretinal membrane. Triamcinolone acetonide staining had a significant preventive effect on the postoperative epiretinal membrane. Furthermore, a second round of pars plana vitrectomy, including membrane removal, led to a significant improvement in the final best-corrected visual acuity as per the last follow-up examination, albeit the recovery was limited. RESUMO Objetivos: Investigar a incidência, fatores de risco e desfechos visuais do desenvolvimento da membrana epirretiniana após reparo do descolamento regmatogênico da retina. Métodos: Trata-se de um estudo retrospectivo de 309 olhos submetidos à cirurgia inicial para descolamento regmatogênico da retina primário sem complicações. Os exames foram realizados no pré-operatório aos 1, 3, 6 e 12 meses pós-operatórios. Os pacientes foram divididos em dois grupos, dependendo da presença ou ausência de membrana epirretiniana. Resultados: A incidência de membrana epirretiniana pós-operatória foi de 28,5%; 42,7% desses pacientes apresentaram desenvolvimento grave da membrana epirretiniana e, portanto, foram submetidos à remoção desta membrana. A regressão logística mostrou que as lágrimas retinianas gigantes (RC: 2,66; 95% IC: 1,045 - 6,792, p=0,040) e lágrimas em ferradura (RC: 0,534; 95% IC: 0,295-0,967, p=0,039), foram preditores significativos de membrana epirretiniana pós-operatória. A coloração com acetonida de triancinolona foi significativamente associada à prevenção da membrana epirretiniana (p=0,022). Trinta e quatro pacientes apresentaram acuidade visual melhorada, ou igual, ou acuidade visual final melhor corrigida; 4 olhos foram avaliados na consulta final de acompanhamento e apresentaram redução da acuidade visual melhor corrigida. Conclusão: Nossa análise demonstra que as lágrimas de ferradura e as lágrimas retinianas gigantes representam fatores de risco para a membrana epirretiniana pós-operatória. A coloração com acetonida de triancinolona teve um efeito preventivo significativo na membrana epirretiniana no pós-operatório. Além disso, uma segunda rodada de vitrectomia pars plana, incluindo remoção da membrana, levou a uma melhora significativa da acuidade visual final melhor corrigida na última consulta de acompanhamento, embora a recuperação tenha sido limitada.

In view of the excellent performance of a single quasi-zero-stiffness (QZS) device in vibration attenuation, this paper presents a study on a vibration isolation floating raft system constructed with a double-layer QZS mechanism. A QZS device is a typical nonlinear isolator, hence the floating raft system is a coupled highly nonlinear isolation system. To understand the behaviors and its performance in vibration attenuation, an analytical approach is developed to describe the characteristics including the mathematical relationship between amplitude–frequency, force transmissibility, and the effects of the mass ratio and damping ratios on attenuation performance. The outcomes show that the two-degree-of-freedom QZS–QZS system is superior for vibration isolation when compared to the traditional linear system and the two other types of QZS systems. The effective vibration isolation frequency region of the QZS–QZS system is expanded to the low-frequency region by 72%. The QZS system is sensitive to the damping ratio, which decreases the resonance peak significantly. The mass ratio is a crucial design parameter in low-frequency vibration isolation design.

This paper investigates agent-oriented, manner, and frequency adverbials in Isbukun Bunun and demonstrates how voice affects the functions of adverbials and captures the notion of restructuring. Adverbial-verb constructions are shown to involve complementation rather than conjunction or adjunction. Undergoer movement, clitic climbing, and negation tests are utilized to show that Actor-Voice adverbials are regarded as nonrestructuring predicates, while Undergoer-Voice adverbials are treated as restructuring ones. Verb-adjacent clitic climbing in adverbial-verb constructions is also shown to be closely related to restructuring.

Bioreactors are good devices for biological and chemical reactions. In this paper, two-dimensional flow fields and three-dimensional flow fields were simulated using Gambit and Fluent software to determine the shear stress and velocity curves of the immunoisolated co-culture bio-reactor system (ICBS). For different speeds and S-curvature curvature, the mass transfer effect and flow field of the two sides are calculated to find suitable conditions for cell growth. It was found that the growth of cord blood CD34+ cells was most favorable when the 10 rpm co-rotation condition in the case of a two-dimensional flow field. The three-dimensional flow field focuses on the shear force of the double-tube side fluid. It is found that the shear force increases first and then decreases in the near inner wall surface area; the shear force increases gradually on the near outer wall surface.

Based on complex network theory, this paper puts forward a network construction method based on the field visibility of visibility principle, analyzes the inherent properties of electric field, and excavates the important information contained in electric field. By constructing the complex network model through uniform electric field of plate electrodes and slightly non-uniform electric field of high-pressure SF 6 gas circuit breaker (HV SF 6 GCBs), this paper introduces the complex network theories into field distribution in electric field for study. Besides, it finds that the uniform electric field network of plate electrodes presents regular network characteristics, and the slightly non-uniform electric field of SF 6 gas circuit breaker arc quenching chamber under different opening strokes is featured with scale-free and small-world properties, which belong to the features of complex network. The research results indicate: the network construction through the field visibility method has inherited some characteristics of electric field. By introducing the complex network theory, the electric field distribution can be studied from a new perspective.

Taken the high voltage SF 6 circuit breaker (HV SF 6 CB) as the research object, a novel axial vortex chamber structure with an “X-type” guide blade constructed at the nozzle is proposed to exchange the energy of the turbulent gas flow in the radial direction during the interruption and to control the gas flow temperature gradient. The 3D flow field physical and mathematical model of the arc quenching system in 550kV SF 6 CB is proposed by using finite volume method (FVM) and the influence of the “X type” guide blade structure on flow field is simulated under the small capacitive current interruption. By solving the gas flow field of the arc quenching system with variable boundaries, complex flow path, viscous and supersonic nozzle, the influences of the axial vortex nozzle structure on the velocity, pressure, density, temperature and Mach number distributions have been achieved and the dynamics behavior description of the gas flow in time and space of the with and without “X-type” guide blade in arc quenching system have been obtained.

In the past two decades, due to Taiwans national insurance policy, a substantial amount of medical and patient records have been stored in a large database. From this database, much important medical knowledge has been discovered; however, with the rapid growth of database size, it takes an increasingly long time to process queries on the database, even rather simple queries. We, therefore, propose a cloud computing model to process large volumes of medical data by using a Hadoop ecosystem. From our experimental results, we conclude that our proposed model can achieve significant speedup over traditional database systems, such as MySQL.

Linear triblock copolymers of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with two azide groups at both block junctions (PNIPAM-N3-PEG-N3-PNIPAM) are click reacted with dipropargyl oxalylate under high polymer concentration (250 g/L). Benefiting from rapid feature of alkyne-azide click reaction and spatial shielding of PNIPAM end blocks, PEG center block of PNIPAM-N3-PEG-N3-PNIPAM remains separated although PNIPAM end blocks keep in contact under this high concentration. Therefore, PNIPAM-N3-PEG-N3-PNIPAM undergoes self-cyclization at block junctions to form tadpole-shaped architecture while N3-PEG-N3 without PNIPAM end blocks inter-connects linearly. The influence of block lengths of PEG and PNIPAM on the unusual cyclization under high polymer concentration is studied.

According to the problem that it is not convenient to carry out experiments in the course of "Medical Electronic Instrument Principle", an instructional and experimental system of non-invasive electronic sphygmomanometer is designed. This system is composed of a hardware platform and a software platform. The hardware platform includes all the components to implement an electronic sphygmomanometer, such as the electric pump, valve, pressure transducer, LCD, MCU and other associated circuits. The hardware platform also has a USB interface. It can transfer data to the software platform in a predefined format. The software platform can receive data and display curves from these data to facilitate the understanding of the data processing procedure. Based on this system, teachers can demonstrate the measurement principle of the electronic sphygmomanometer, while students can practice its implementation. The system provided a good platform for the instruction and experiment of the non-invasive electronic sphygmomanometer.

Theoretically speaking, we can achieve the detection and control of the parameters of engine knock and ms-PULSE etc effectively and accurately by analysis the ionic current signals. But in actual application, it is difficult to detect the ionic current signals because of the interference of high pressure from high-tension ignition system. At present, the application of ionic current signal in the detection and control of engine knock is still in the initial early stages. We optimized the signal acquisition system, interference the suppression, achieve the effective detection of ionic current signal in the tests we mentioned in the topic, and then, we analysis and compared the character of ionic current and cylinder pressure signals we collected under different working conditions, exploration and testing is carried out for the further recognition and control of engine knock using the ionic current signals.

Part family and NX/Open programming techniques which are two kinds of parametric technology used in product modeling based on NX platform are introduced in this paper. The template of 3D part library was created on the base of analysis of different national standards. The key technology of product secondary development was narrated in detail, and the operation interface was created. Finally, a case was employed to testify the feasibility and efficiency of these two parametric modeling technologies.

Through reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization of t-butyl acrylate (tBA) and RAFT copolymerization of 2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) with poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PEGMEMA), block-comb copolymer of PtBA-b-P(PEGMEMA-co-DMAEMA) was prepared. After the self-assembly of PtBA-b-P(PEGMEMA-co-DMAEMA) into core-shell spherical micelles, P(PEGMEMA-co-DMAEMA) segments of the shell was crosslinked with 1,2-bis(2-iodoethoxy)ethane and the core of PtBA was selectively hydrolysized with trifluoroacetic acid. Thus, zwitterionic shell-crosslinked micelles with positively charged outer shell and negatively charged inner core were obtained. Dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscope, Zeta potential measurement, and nuclear magnetic resonance were used to confirm the formation of the zwitterionic shell-crosslinked micelles. They showed the excellent resistance to the variation of pH value and possessed the positive values throughout the whole range of pH range even if the carboxylic groups of the micelles was much more than ammonium groups. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011

The effect of postweld heat treatment (PWHT) on microstructure and properties of the heat affected zone (HAZ) in ASTM4130 steel fabricated by single-pass welding was investigated by weld thermal simulation test, optical microscope, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscope. The results show that the subcritical HAZ (SCHAZ) toughness slightly decreases due to the aggregation and growth of carbides. Other HAZ toughness is significantly improved showing that the 650°C/1.5h PWHT is effective. The toughness improvement of the fine-grained HAZ (FGHAZ) and the intercritical HAZ (ICHAZ) is chiefly resulted from the complete decomposition of martensite and M-A constituent. Meanwhile, the supersaturation reduction of non-equilibrium microstructure and the relief of residual stress effectively improve CGHAZ toughness.

In this paper, KBE and some key technologies, such as knowledge representation, knowledge reasoning and knowledge base design, are studied for solving the exiting design problems of modular machine tool fixtures. The methods of hybrid knowledge representation based on ontology and rule-based and case-based hybrid reasoning are introduced to intelligent design of modular machine tool fixtures. By researching the design flow of modular machine tool fixtures, a modular machine tool fixtures intelligent design system (MMTFIDS) is developed based on secondary development technology of UG/NX in the VS.NET integrated development environment. The system realizes the reuse of design knowledge and rapid design for modular machine tool fixture.

Dual thermo- and pH-sensitive network-grafted hydrogels made of poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) network and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) grafting chains were successfully synthesized by the combination of atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization, and click chemistry. PNIPAM having two azide groups at one chain end [PNIPAM-(N3)2] was prepared with an azide-capped ATRP initiator of N,N-di(β-azidoethyl) 2-chloropropionylamide. Alkyne-pending poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate-co-propargyl acrylate) [P(DMAEMA-co-ProA)] was obtained through RAFT copolymerization using dibenzyltrithiocarbonate as chain transfer agent. The subsequent click reaction led to the formation of the network-grafted hydrogels. The influences of the chemical composition of P(DMAEMA-co-ProA) on the properties of the hydrogels were investigated in terms of morphology and swelling/deswelling kinetics. The dual stimulus-sensitive hydrogels exhibited fast response, high swelling ratio, and reproducible swelling/deswelling cycles under different temperatures and pH values. The uptake and release of ceftriaxone sodium by these hydrogels showed both thermal and pH dependence, suggesting the feasibility of these hydrogels as thermo- and pH-dependent drug release devices. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011