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The process of displaying the 3D model enables the on-site construction personnel to experience the full view of the building to improve construction efficiency if the BIM model can be integrated with other rendering software or virtual reality software and presented in a first-person perspective and a third-person perspective. Moreover, the building can be shown to people who are not familiar with the project, and the design concept can be conveyed easily so that the people have a better understanding of the building. In this way, the purpose of visual marketing is achieved. Although virtual reality (VR) software has evolved considerably, it has limited interoperability with various software applications, which has hindered its adoption within the industry. Thus, this research explores how to integrate the interoperability of BIM models with rendering and VR software to improve the effectiveness of 3D visualization. The results demonstrate that in the process of integrating the BIM model with VR environments, model conversion, attachment of materials, and light and shadow settings require the greatest attention. After the importation of a BIM model into a VR environment, the faces of the model are too high to execute the system smoothly, limiting the model’s ability to completely supplant models constructed in VR environments. Therefore, modifying the BIM model through model reduction or textural modifications is necessary. The material of the model may also change during the conversion process, demanding that the model be rendered again in the VR environment. Furthermore, real-time light and shadow rendering may reduce system performance. However, the use of baking textures to paste lightmaps onto the model is an effective method of enhancing realism.

In recent years, although there has been a significant decline in construction occupational disasters, construction and labor safety planning are still the focus of the government’s vigorous promotion. According to the data from the Institute of Labor and Occupational Safety and Health of the Ministry of Labor, the construction industry has the highest occupational accident rate per thousand people, indicating that construction occupational safety still needs to be greatly improved. BIM has been widely used in construction projects. Its visibility, coordination, and simulation characteristics should be able to find construction hazards that are relatively invisible on general 2D construction drawings. Thus, this study uses BIM to assist in analyzing the construction risks of the bridge and researches on construction activities of relatively high risks with a bridge project as an example, to reduce the risks that may occur during actual construction activities. The research results indicate that the weight of each part of the main bridge tower is obtained by the BIM model, and the crane is selected after the rated load is calculated. This process prevents the weight of hanging objects from exceeding the rated load of the crane, thereby reducing the possibility of objects flying off from the crane. Two software packages, namely SketchUp and Fuzor, are used to simulate the movement line of the crane and the gyration radius of a hanging operation in advance. This process reduces (1) the risk of collision between cranes due to an overlap of their gyration radii and (2) the risk of collision between the crane and construction personnel who enter into the gyration radius during hanging operations.

BACKGROUND This study aimed to evaluate the role of baseline circulating tumor cells (CTCs) before and during concurrent chemoradiotherapy and attempted to determine the impacts of CTCs on the outcomes in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. METHODS CTCs were detected using a negative selection strategy and flow cytometry protocol. RESULTS We observed a significant correlation between baseline CTCs and staging (P = 0.001). The CTC counts were significantly reduced within 2-4 weeks in 47 concurrent chemoradiotherapy responders (P < 0.001). Change of CTC counts correlates with progression-free survival (PFS, P = 0.01) and overall survival (OS, P = 0.01). CTC decline status was an independent prognostic factor in PFS (P = 0.03) and OS (P = 0.05) in multivariate analyses. CONCLUSION In chemoradiotherapy responders, CTCs are significantly reduced. CTC decline within the first month indicates a longer PFS and OS, suggesting that the dynamics of CTCs could be more important than CTC number alone.

Thermography is used to record the surface temperature information. The surface temperature information is an important clue to indicate the defects presented in the building because defects can always be found in those areas whose surface temperatures are different with their surrounding neighbors. The paper proposes an approach to analyze the surface temperature information according to comparing the data similarities between the interested regions and their surrounding neighbors. In doing so, the surface temperature information of the object can be clustered into several regions such that the temperature distribution in each region is homogenous such that the temperature changes can be identified and located from the clustered regions. The paper tries to employ image segmentation to segment the collected thermographs such that the potential defect locations can be narrowed down to those regions in which the changes of surface temperature are apparent. After the potential defect locations have been identified, different NDT methods (like Visual Inspection, Impact Testing, etc.) can be used to examine those locations instead of examining the whole building facades. From the experimental results, the proposed approach based on the image segmentation does offer a reliable way to determine the potential defects shown in the building.

This paper describes an experimental study on the tensile capacity of post-installed rebars setting with adhesive. Eighty-one specimens containing single or double rebars were tested by an extraction tester to investigate the influence of embedment depth, edge distance and spacing of rebars on the tensile behavior of rebar system. The experimental results show that embedment depth is the most significant factor for rebar capacity and failure mode. The edge distance and the spacing effects are more significant only for the rebars with insufficient embedment depth. This study also attempts to evaluate two available design procedures provided by manufacturers. The comparison between the experimental data and predicted values calculated according to the two design procedures shows that both of the design approaches lay on the conservative side.

We previously demonstrated that the detection of circulating cancer cells (CCC) expressing survivin mRNA could provide valuable information for predicting metastasis and recurrence in breast cancer. The objective of this study was to investigate the significance of detecting survivin-expressing CCC on the clinical outcomes of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Peripheral blood samples collected from 143 NSCLC patients and 177 healthy volunteers were quantitatively evaluated using a technique developed in our laboratory that detected reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) products based on a hybridisation-enzyme linked immunosorbant essay (ELISA), which we called RT-PCR ELISA. The presence of survivin-expressing CCC was detected in 63 cancer patients (44.1%) and was significantly associated with pathological T classification, nodal status, and disease stages (all P < 0.001). During a follow-up period of 36 months, patients who had positive survivin expressions at the time of the initial assay test had a higher relapse rate and shorter survival time when compared to those who had negative survivin expressions (all P < 0.001). Through multivariate analysis, the detection of survivin-expressing CCC was found to be an independent predictor for cancer recurrence (HR = 43.5; 95% CI = 2.67–70.9; P = 0.008) and survival (HR = 1.35; 95% CI = 1.02–4.31; P = 0.049). Thus, detection of survivin-expressing CCC could be used in the prediction of disease recurrence as well as in the prognosis of NSCLC.

To explore the association of 8-hydroxyguanine glycosidase OGG1 Ser326Cys polymorphism with semen quality and the risk of male infertility.This case-control study included 620 idiopathic infertile patients and 385 normal fertile controls. We determined their genotypes by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and analyzed their semen quality by computer-aided semen analysis (CASA).The individuals with OGG1 326 Cys/Cys showed significantly lower sperm motility and concentration ([52.1 +/- 26.7]% and (3.75 +/- 0.91) x 10(6)/ml, ln transformed value) than the Ser/Ser carriers ([59.0 +/- 21.8] % and (4.12 +/- 0.88) x 10(6)/ml, ln transformed value) (P0.05). The risk of male infertility increased 69% in the OGG1 326Cys allele carriers as compared with the Ser carriers (OR = 1.69, 95% CI: 1.24 -2.31).OGG1 326 Ser/Cys polymorphism might contribute to the risk of male infertility in the southern Chinese population.

To explore the correlation of sperm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH)-DNA adducts with semen quality and sperm apoptosis.We collected semen samples from 433 infertile Chinese men, detected sperm PAH-DNA adducts using immunofluorescence staining and flow cytometry, and determined the rate of sperm apoptosis by TUNEL.Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the level of sperm PAH-DNA adducts was correlated negatively with sperm concentration (beta = -0.632), total sperm count (beta = -0.830) and sperm motility (beta = -9.647), but positively with the rate of sperm apoptosis (beta = 0.130).Sperm PAH-DNA adducts are evidently correlated with semen quality and sperm apoptosis, and play an important role in the evaluation of male productivity.

We previously demonstrated that the detection of circulating cancer cells (CCCs) expressing survivin mRNA could provide valuable information for predicting metastasis and recurrence in breast cancer. The objective of this study was to investigate whether or not the detection of survivin expression in the peripheral blood could also have significant effects on the clinical outcomes of patients with gastric and colorectal cancer.Survivin-expressing CCCs in peripheral blood samples obtained from 55 gastric cancer patients, 86 colorectal cancer patients, and 87 healthy volunteers were quantitatively examined by using a RT-PCR ELISA. Its clinical significance was statistically evaluated.The CCCs in the peripheral blood samples were detected in 45.4% and 44.0% of gastric and colorectal cancer patients, respectively. The presence of survivin-expressing CCCs was found to be significantly associated with the degree of tumor penetration, nodal status, and disease stages for both types of cancers. During a follow-up period of 36 months, patients who had a positive detection at the time of the initial assay test had a higher relapse rate than those who had a negative detection. As well, survivin-expressing CCCs were statistically shown to be a significant and independent predictor for cancer recurrence. The detection of survivin-expressing CCCs was also demonstrated to be more accurate in terms of predicting recurrence than traditional detection methods such as plasma carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) measurements.The detection of CCCs expressing survivin mRNA could be used to accurately identify gastric and colorectal cancer patients with high risks of relapse.

We report the observation of the emission of solitons from a semiconductor circular ridge waveguide ring laser with a Y-junction coupler. The light–current (L–I) characteristics of the soliton emission through the nonwaveguide region, which refers to the photovoltaic solitons, has a low threshold value and a high quantum efficiency compare to the emission from the Y-junction coupler, and the spectrum of the soliton emission is similar to that of a linear strip laser with multimode emission. The feedback light from the end facet of the Y-junction coupling section continuously enhances the excitation of the photovoltaic solitons through the nonwaveguide region until the lasing condition is reached. It is suggested that the circular ring laser can be an alternative channel to light wave control in integrated optoelectronic system.