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Objective: To evaluate the clinical value of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) combined with concurrent chemoradiotherapy in the treatment of recurrent cervical cancer. Methods: This was a retrospective study. Eighty patients with recurrent cervical cancer were recruited and randomly divided into two groups: the experimental group and the control group, with 40 cases in each group at The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University from April, 2017 to April, 2022. Patients in the control group were only given IMRT, while those in the experimental group were given concurrent chemoradiotherapy with paclitaxel and cisplatin based on IMRT. All patients were evaluated for clinical efficacy, adverse drug reactions, and differences in the levels of SCC-Ag, CEA and CA724 and other tumor markers before and after treatment. Results: The total effective rate in the experimental group was significantly better than in the control group (p=0.02). The incidence of adverse reactions was 40% in the experimental group and 32.5% in the control group, with no statistically significant difference (p=0.48). After treatment, the levels of tumor markers in the experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group, with a statistically significant difference (p=0.00). The three years survival rate was 80% in the experimental group and 55% in the control group (p=0.03). The five years survival rate was 65% in the experimental group and 42.5% in the control group, with a statistically significant difference (p=0.04). Conclusion: Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) combined with concurrent chemoradiotherapy is a safe and effective regimen for recurrent cervical cancer, boasting significant clinical efficacy, reduced tumor markers, no significant increase in adverse reactions, and significantly improved three-years and five years survival rate. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.4.6784 How to cite this: Jin G, Li K, Niu S, Fan X, Guo Y. Efficacy and safety of intensity Modulated Radiation therapy combined with Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy in the treatment of Recurrent Cervical Cancer. Pak J Med Sci. 2023;39(4):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.4.6784 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

PLLA membranes with excellent ductility were successfully prepared by a simple solvent evaporation-induced precipitation method, without any additive. The excellent mechanical properties are mainly attributed to the interconnecting pore morphology and the plastic deformation of the pore wall during the stretching process. The interconnecting pore morphology is determined by delaying non-solvent diffusion and molecular chain pre-nucleation. It was found that the average pore size gradually decreased from 19.25 μm to 6.71 μm as the concentration of the polymer solution increased from 0.03 g/ml to 0.10 g/ml, and the elongation at break of the membrane can reach 130.8%. The crystallinity is between 33.4% and 44.5%, and the crystal form is a perfect α crystal. Membrane with interconnecting pore structure contributes to the formation of 91.2% porosity. Furthermore, the solvent evaporation-induced precipitation method can also form surfaces containing micro-nano structures which significantly improves surface hydrophobicity. The combination of high porosity and hydrophobicity makes the membrane potentially applicable to the field of oil-water separation.

Objective: To determine the application value of interstitial brachytherapy in the treatment of recurrent cervical cancer. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 72 patients with recurrent cervical cancer admitted to The Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University from September 2017 to April 2022. They were divided into two groups according to different brachytherapy methods: conventional after-load radiotherapy group and interstitial brachytherapy group. After treatment, regular outpatient reviews or telephone follow-ups were conducted to evaluate the efficacy, related toxic and side effects and prognostic factors. Results: The short-term efficacy of the interstitial brachytherapy group was significantly higher than that of the interstitial brachytherapy group (p

Two fluorescent dyes, alizarin red S (ARS) and calcein (CAL), were applied to evaluate the marking effects on the juveniles of Acanthopagrus schlegelii. The total mortality rates of the experimental groups were significantly lower (p < 0.05) than those of control groups, but no significant difference was detected between those of the two staining methods. The fluorescence microscopy observation results showed that the marking quality of ARS was better than that of CAL, with fin spines and fin rays being the best marking tissues. The optimal concentration for ARS and CAL was 200 mg/L and 350 mg/L, respectively. To ensure mark quality, the recommended dye grade was above 3, and the most suitable marking conditions were suggested to be fluorescence labeling with ARS dye at a concentration of 200 mg/L, with immersion for 24 h. The results will provide useful data information for future research on stock enhancement using the chemical marking method.

The surface functionalization of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) is crucial for promoting their diverse applications, especially regarding their use as sustainable biobased polymer reinforcements. In this study, we develop poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-CNC composites with improved tensile strength and gas-barrier performance using CNC-based nanofillers. Acrylated CNCs (ACNCs) were prepared from cellulose via one-pot acid hydrolysis/Fischer esterification; subsequently, surface modification was performed through a thiol-ene reaction to obtain surface-thiolated ACNCs, namely, DACNC, MACNC, and PACNC. The various functional groups on the surface-thiolated ACNCs not only affect the dispersion stability but also alter their interfacial interactions with the PVA matrix, thus realizing the PVA nanocomposites with tailored properties, including the thermal properties, mechanical properties, and gas barrier performance. This study demonstrates that surface-thiolated ACNCs with appropriate surface chemistry and loading levels can serve as excellent nanofillers for PVA, forming biobased composites with desired properties.

In this paper, to separate and compensate the nonlinear error in the grating interferometer, we analyze the source and generation mechanism of this error, deduce the nonlinear error model of the measured signal and the calculated phase signal, and study the characteristics of the established nonlinear error model. The reason why the frequency multiples of ideal phase signals and higher-order nonlinear errors caused by ghost reflections and angular errors of the laser’s z-axis are not integers is explained. Then, a nonlinear error separation and compensation method based on cross-correlation coefficient is proposed. Experiments show that the frequency multiplier relationship between the high-order nonlinear error and the ideal interference signal is close to but not equal to 3-fold. The peak-to-peak value of the compensated nonlinear error is reduced from 17.40 nm to 7.05 nm.

In the post-epidemic era, the digital transformation of offline stores is accelerating, and the application of new technologies promotes the customer value co-creation behavior to present new characteristics. Based on the service characteristics of offline stores, digital empowerment theory and value co-creation theory, this paper explores the influence mechanism of digital capability on customer value co-creation behavior. The empirical results show that connectivity capability has a positive impact on product service, a negative impact on perceived intrusiveness, and intelligence capability has a positive impact on product service. Product service has a positive impact on customer participation behavior and customer citizenship behavior, while perceived intrusiveness has a negative impact on them. Value co-creation elements play an important intermediary role in the relationship between digital capability and customer value co-creation behavior. When introducing technologies such as service robots, offline stores undergoing digital transformation should make proper choices, give full play to their positive role in product service, use them to reduce the perceived intrusiveness of customers, create a more harmonious and comfortable experience environment, and then stimulate customers' participation behavior and citizenship behavior.

Objective Endometrial cancer (ECa) is a common gynecological malignancy. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been identified as key regulators of human tumorigenesis and development. Herein, we explored the role and mechanism of circular RNA intraflagellar transport 80 (circ-IFT80, also called circ_0067835) in ECa. Methods Circ-IFT80, microRNA-545-3p (miR-545-3p), and family with sequence similarity 98 member A (FAM98A) were quantified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction or Western blot. The biological characteristics of ECa cells were evaluated via Cell Counting Kit-8, 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine, transwell, tube formation and flow cytometry assays. Dual-luciferase reporter assay or RNA pull-down assay was employed to verify the binding relationship between miR-545-3p and circ-IFT80 or FAM98A. Xenograft assays were conducted to analyze the effect of circ-IFT80 in vivo. Results Circ-IFT80 and FAM98A were up-regulated, and miR-545-3p was down-regulated in ECa tissues and cells. Knockdown of circ-IFT80 blocked proliferation, migration, invasion and angiogenesis and promoted apoptosis in ECa cells. Moreover, circ-IFT80 harbored a binding site for miR-545-3p, and the effects of circ-IFT80 were mediated by miR-545-3p. FAM98A was a direct target of miR-545-3p, and miR-545-3p hindered ECa cell progression via targeting FAM98A. Circ-IFT80 induced FAM98A expression through miR-545-3p. Furthermore, silence of circ-IFT80 suppressed tumor growth in vivo. Conclusion Circ-IFT80 may promote the malignant progression of ECa cells at least in part by modulating miR-545-3p/FAM98A axis, providing a potential therapeutic target for ECa., Synopsis We further investigated the potential role of circ-IFT80 in endometrial cancer (ECa) and unveiled that circ-IFT80 accelerated the malignant progression of ECa via decoying miR-545-3p and consequently enhancing FAM98A. Our findings provided novel insights into the pathogenesis of ECa and revealed promising therapeutic targets.

mSmFeO3–Bi4Ti3O12 (m = 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0) thin films were prepared on silicon wafer by sol–gel progress. Their structure, leakage current density, ferroelectricity, magnetism, and dielectric property were investigated. All the samples have a single-phase Aurivillius structure. The interplanar spacing and volume of the unit cell decrease with the increase of SmFeO3 content. Moreover, the multiferroic properties have been significantly improved, with 2Prmax ~ 62 μC/cm2 (m = 0.5) and Msmax ~ 5.8 emu/cm3 (m = 2) at room-temperature. The samples with m = 0.5, 1, 1.5 exhibit Ohmic mechanism-dominated conductive behavior, however, for m = 2 sample, the space-charge-limited current mechanism becomes dominant. The dielectric constant er of the thin films at 1 MHz for m = 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 are 498, 485, 272, and 217 respectively.

A series of CoMo/graphene selective hydrodesulfurization (HDS) catalysts were prepared using the hexamethonium bromide-assisted hydrothermal method, and the influences of the hexamethonium bromide/Mo molar ratio and the CoMoS/MoS2 ratio on the HDS activity and selectivity were investigated. The results show that the kHDS value (2.76 × 10−7 mol g−1 s−1) of thiophene and the HDS selectivity factor (13.6) over the as-prepared catalysts were 1.3 times and 1.6 times greater than those over the CoMo/graphene prepared using the conventional impregnation method. The higher HDS activity and selectivity of the as-prepared catalysts result from the higher dispersion of Mo species and the higher CoMoS/MoS2 ratio compared to the CoMo/graphene prepared by impregnation. Among all the catalysts, the catalyst with a hexamethonium bromide/Mo molar ratio of 6.0 presents the highest HDS selectivity due to its highest ratio of edge to corner Co atoms in CoMoS with a superior CoMoS/MoS2 ratio. The present investigation provides a route for developing highly selective HDS catalysts using graphene as support by adjusting the hexamethonium bromide/Mo ratio to finely tune the morphology of the active phases.

Plant pathogens employ effectors as molecular weapons to manipulate host immunity and facilitate colonization. Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense is the agent of wilt disease in banana plantlets and four races of the pathogen have been identified based on the cultivar specificity. A total of 9 SIX genes have been detected in the genome of Foc TR4 and 6 genes detected in Foc1. Among these SIX genes, SIX2 and SIX8 are only detected in Foc TR4, not identified in Foc1. Expression profiles analysis revealed that SIX genes of Foc TR4 are highly induced after inoculation to Cavendish banana plantlets. Virulence analysis of the SIX2 and SIX8 knock-out mutants showed that SIX8 is required for the virulence of Foc TR4 while SIX2 has no obvious functions. Over expression of SIX8-FLAG proteins in the SIX8 knock-out mutant partly restored the virulence. Western blot analysis suggested that SIX8 could be secreted into the extracellular space and a signal peptide resided the N-terminal polypeptide sequence. This study provides some clues for further research on mechanism of SIX8 in regulating virulence of Foc TR4.

To promote the replacement of nondegradable petrochemical-based polymers with green polylactic acid (PLA) materials, aliphatic chains-grafted cellulose nanocrystals (ECNCs) were prepared and used as nanofillers to overcome the disadvantage of poor toughness of PLA. ECNCs with core-corona structures were obtained by modifying cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) with valeryl chloride, octanoyl chloride, dodecanoyl chloride, and stearoyl chloride. ECNCs consists of a cellulose crystalline core and a soft esterified corona layer with aliphatic chains. Among the diverse ECNCs, the obtained EOCNC by esterification of octanoyl chloride exhibited most efficient enhancement of the toughness of PLA. Specifically, PLA/EOCNC-1% film displayed the best elongation at breakage of 108%, which was 6.4 times that of pure PLA. The esterified outer layer of ECNCs, which improves the interfacial compatibility, is one of the key factors contributing to toughening of PLA. These ECNCs with core-corona structure open up new directions for the application of PLA advanced composites.

The monoclinic VO2(M) has promising applications in intelligent devices but its preparation still requires improvement to permit cost-effective mass production. In this work, we report a 2-stage approach for producing VO2(M) nanorods by (1) hydrothermal reduction of vanadium pentoxide by sodium bisulfate at 220 °C to form VO2(A), and (2) subsequent thermal activated phase transformation of VO2(A) to VO2(M) at 350–450 °C in vacuum. The obtained VO2(M) nanorods showed a reversible phase transition temperature at about 62.5 °C and a narrow thermal hysteresis width of 10 °C. The mechanism of the hydrothermal reduction was studied by combined ex situ microscopic and diffraction characterization of cooled samples as well as in situ PXRD experiments, in which the hydrothermal synthesis was monitored in real time by time-resolved diffraction datasets. It was found that the hydrothermal synthesis of VO2(A) is a 4-step process: (1) reduction of V2O5 to form VO2(B) nanoparticles, (2) oriented attachment of VO2(B) nanoparticles along the [110] direction, (3) formation of VO2(B) nanorods as a results of oriented attachments, and (4) hydrothermal transformation of the metastable intermediate VO2(B) nanorods to VO2(A) nanorods. This clear understanding of the mechanism will help the further optimization of synthesis temperature and time for preparing VO2(A). This method provides a low temperature thermal treatment alternative and hence helps the reduction of cost for the production of VO2(M), bring the mass application of VO2(M) one step closer.

In the process of classifier learning, not all the samples contribute to the classifier classification. It has become an important research topic to reduce the samples under the premise of ensuring the classification accuracy of the classifier. In this paper, for the numerical sample reduction problem, the method of random forest computing attribute importance is introduced to reduce the redundant attributes in the sample and reduce the sample dimension. The sample similarity is constructed by measuring the distance between samples. By granulating the neighborhood and reducing the redundant samples in the neighborhood, a sample reduction model based on neighborhood granulation (ng-sr) is proposed The model is compared with two classification methods. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that ng-sr model is effective, and has a good effect on data preprocessing, and has strong practicability for the actual sample reduction problem.

In recent years, convolutional neural networks (CNN) have made remarkable achievements in image super-resolution (SR). But there are two problems with the networks that limit their performance. Firstly, the tasks for SR neural networks are not specific enough. Current works require the neural networks to complete the whole SR task by supervised learning, which makes the networks waste their modeling ability on low-level SR tasks. Secondly, the existing networks do not take full advantage of the features of convolution block extraction, nor have they established complete information links. In view of the problems above, this paper puts forward Partially Pre- Trained Dense Network for Image Super-Resolution (PTDSR). PTDSR first pre-trains a miniature super-resolution network, which requires very little computation. Then PTDSR fixes the parameters of the mini-network and uses a large-scale CNN to learn the residual part of SR image. This training strategy will enable the core CNN to concentrate on high-level tasks and achieve better results. PTDSR also links all features extracted by convolution blocks and fully utilize the feature information. Experiment results on benchmark data sets show that the results of PTDSR are better than those of state-of-the-art methods.

The ascomycete fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense race 4 (Foc TR4) causes vascular wilt diseases in banana (Musa spp.). In the present study, the role of SGE1 in regulating growth, conidiation, and pathogenicity of Foc TR4 was investigated. Deletion of SGE1 did not influence vegetative growth but impaired the conidiation of Foc TR4. Besides, the SGE1 deletion mutant basically lost pathogenicity on banana plantlets. Observation under the microscope indicated that the penetration and colonization processes were severely impaired in the SGE1 deletion mutant. Proteomics analysis suggested that SGE1 regulated the production of a series of proteins of Foc TR4. Taken together, our results suggest that SGE1 plays an important role in regulating conidiation and pathogenicity in fungal pathogen Foc TR4.

This article proposes a novel decamethonium bromide-assisted method for modulating the size of supported metal nanoparticles in Pd/mesoporous HZSM-5 hydrodesulfurization (HDS) catalysts. The proposed approach significantly promotes the dispersion of supported palladium nanoparticles by bridging and anchoring the palladium precursor onto the surface of mesoporous HZSM-5 as well as restraining the subsequent aggregation of palladium nanoparticles in calcination. The as-prepared catalyst possessed higher 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene HDS activity than its counterpart that was prepared via impregnation due to its smaller Pd nanoparticles, higher Pd dispersion and higher content of Pd 0 species. This strategy provides a simple pathway for preparing supported metal nanoparticles with high dispersion.

In this work, we report the fabrication of novel VO2(D) hollow core–shell microspheres (VO2(D)-HCSMs) via a facile hydrothermal method. Microscopic examination revealed that the VO2(D)-HCSMs consisted of numerous nanocrystals and had an average size of 1–10 μm and a shell thickness of 300 nm. An inside-out Ostwald ripening process was responsible for the formation of the VO2(D)-HCSMs. Meanwhile, citric acid played dual roles, acting as a reductant for reducing vanadium pentoxide and as a morphology directing agent for producing core–shell microspheres. The resulting VO2(D)-HCSMs exhibited excellent adsorption performance with a maximum adsorption capacity of 97.5 mg g−1 for methylene blue (MB). The C/VOx particles were generated by the calcination of the VO2(D)-HCSMs with adsorbed MB dye at 250 °C in air for 4 h, and the microspheres showed enhanced adsorption capacity and good reusability (over 99% MB removal after four cycles) because of the existence of amorphous carbon nanowires, making them a potential adsorbent for removing organic dyes from wastewater.

The demand of large-scale new energy grid connection and transmission promotes the development of transmission network. In order to improve the accuracy of power grid planning scheme evaluation and select a better power grid planning scheme, a power grid planning scheme evaluation and optimization method based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is proposed. Firstly, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to establish the evaluation index system of power grid planning scheme, and the weight of each index is determined. Then, the evaluation index is taken as the input of entropy weight TOPSIS, and the relative paste progress C i + of each scheme and positive ideal, and select the scheme with the largest paste progress as the most appropriate scheme. The results of case analysis show that the method can reasonably determine the weight of evaluation index, accurately evaluate the power grid planning scheme, and provide a scientific basis for the selection of power grid planning scheme.

Reprogrammed energy metabolism, especially the Warburg effect, is emerged as a hallmark of cancer. The protein lysine methyltransferase SMYD2 functions as an oncogene and is implicated in various malignant phenotypes of human cancers. However, the role of SMYD2 in tumor metabolism is still largely unknown. Here, we report that SMYD2 is highly expressed in human cervical cancer and its aberrant expression is linked to a poor prognosis. Bioinformatic analysis revealed a novel link between SMYD2 expression and aerobic glycolysis. Through loss-of-function experiments, we demonstrated that SMYD2 knockdown or inhibition induced a metabolic shift from aerobic glycolysis to oxidative phosphorylation, as evidenced by glucose uptake, lactate production, extracellular acidification, and the oxygen consumption rate. In contrast, SMYD2 overexpression promoted glycolytic metabolism in cervical cancer cells. Moreover, SMYD2 was required for tumor growth in cervical cancer and this oncogenic activity was largely glycolysis-dependent. Mechanistically, SMYD2 altered the methylation status of p53 and inhibited its transcriptional activity. Genetic silencing of p53 largely abrogated the effects of SMYD2 in promoting aerobic glycolysis. Taken together, our findings reveal a novel function of SMYD2 in regulating the Warburg effect in cervical cancer.

Focused on the design and construction of controllable surface microtopographyand interconnected pore morphologyof porous poly (L-lactic acid) membrane. Asimple solvent evaporation-induced precipitation methodis proposed to regulate microstructures by one-step method without any additive. Controllable microstructures (fibrous networks, interconnected pores, and crystallized PLLA protrusions) and interconnected pore morphology were facilely achieved by adjusting the PLLA concentration and/or precipitation temperature. In view of the shortcomings of previous foam preparation, the contact area between solvent and non-solvent was broadenedto realize the improvement of porosity and the construction of surface micro-nano structure. The results show that the crystallinity of prepared PLLA membranes is kept in a high range between 61.8% and 75.8% and the maximum watercontact angle (WCA) is largely increased to 142.3°. Surprisingly, surface wettability of PLLA membranes possess the wonderful mechanical damage resistance, and the porosity and oil-absorption capacity are increased to 90.8% and 24.1 g/grespectively. Predictably, the porous PLLA membrane has great application potential as a biodegradable oil-water separation material.

Nanocellulose crystals (NCCs) were successfully prepared via acid hydrolysis from an abundant agricultural waste (tea stalk) in China. The effective factors for NCC yield were modeled by the response surface methodology (RSM). The RSM determined the reaction conditions (H2SO4 concentration, hydrolysis temperature, and reaction time) that optimized the yield of tea stalk NCCs (TNCCs). Under the optimized operating conditions, the fundamental properties of TNCCs were characterized via transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), laser diffraction particle-size analyzer, and scanning probe microscopy (SPM). Wood NCCs (WNCCs) and microcrystalline NCCs (MNCCs) were simultaneously prepared from common wood and microcrystalline cellulose under the same conditions. The results show that TNCCs not only shows similar physical and chemical properties with WNCCs and MNCCs, but also has better stability. Therefore, this study offers novel routes for high-valued utilization of tea stalk and provides some theoretical guidance for utilizing cellulose obtained from tea stalk.

We demonstrate efficient high-power CW and passively Q-switched operations of Yb:GdCa 4 O(BO 3 ) 3 lasers. An output power of 18.2 W is generated at 1031.5 nm in CW mode, with optical-to-optical and slope efficiencies being respectively 55% and 70%, with respect to incident pump power. In passively Q-switched operation with a Cr 4+ :YAG crystal as saturable absorber, a maximum average output power of 15.6 W is produced at a pulse repetition rate of 91 kHz, with an optical-to-optical efficiency of 44%. Low-repetition-rate Q-switched action is also realized, generating an average output power of 4.2 W at 5.7 kHz, the resulting pulse energy and duration are 737 μJ and 3.6 ns, leading to a peak power amounting to 205 kW.