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Aortic dissection is a critical cardiovascular disease due to the separation of media and adventitia caused by the rupture of vascular wall intima. The disease has a high mortality rate of about 1%-3% for each additional hour, since the adventitia of the aorta can rupture and bleed to death at any time. Although great progress has been made in clinical treatment of aortic dissection, and the mortality rate has been significantly reduced, the pathogenesis is still not very clear. At present, related studies have confirmed that inflammation of aortic wall promotes the occurrence and development of Aortic dissection. Although the mechanism of aortic dissection is more complicated, some studies have shown that the infiltration of monocytes/macrophages into the aortic wall is the main pathogenic mechanism of the disease. This review introduces the latest research results on the mechanism of macrophage infiltration and plasticity in aortic dissection.

Geochemical differentiation of soils has a series of consequences on plant and places pressure on the ecological environment. The quantitative evaluation of element migration in the Earth's critical zone is a challenging task. In this study, two demonstration study areas of

A 50-year-old woman had suffered from chronic pruritic plaque located on right retroauricular area for around 16 years, which was diagnosed as lichen simplex chronicus. Seventeen years ago, patient had multiple scalded areas distributed throughout the body and underwent autologous skin flap transplantation for the right retroauricular wound. After the wound healed, patient started experiencing paresthesia continuously on the skin grafted area and could not resist scratching. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of lichen simplex chronicus secondary to scald injury and skin flap transplantation. We successfully treated this patient with dyclonine hydrochloride cream 1% and desonide cream 0.05%.

High temperature treatment causes thermal damage to rocks in deep mining. To study the thermal effect on the energy dissipation of rocks during the dynamic cyclic loading, cyclic impact loading experiments of heat-treated rocks were carried out using the splitting Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) experimental system. The correlations among the energy dissipation, energy dissipation rate, impact times, accumulated absorbed energy per volume, failure mode and temperature were analyzed. The results show that the reflected energy under the first impact increases and finally exceeds the absorbed energy when the temperature increases; however, the total reflected energy decreases above 200 °C. The absorbed energy under the first impact and the total absorbed energy all decrease as the temperature increases, the rates of which decrease accordingly. And the same phenomenon appears for the transmitted energy and the rate of the transmitted energy. On the contrary, the rate of the reflected energy increases with the rising temperature. When the temperature increases, the fewer impact times are needed to destroy the sample. In addition, the failure modes are different when the rock is treated at different temperatures; that is, when the temperature is high, even though the absorbed energy is low, the sample breaks into powder after several impacts.

Evaluations of resources and environmental carrying capacities (GRECC) are the premise of land space planning and use control. Resource allocations and environmental capacity are the basic conditions that restrict development in a region. In this paper, based on a systematic review of China’s geological environment, groundwater resources, mineral resources, other geological resources and the environmental carrying capacity research status, the relationship between the natural resource environmental system and the socio-economic system is studied. Then a “coordination theory of resources and environmental carrying” is proposed. Next, on the basis of an evaluation experiment performed at different scales and for different types of regions, the technical methods for an evaluation of the geological resources and environmental carrying capacity at the regional (inter-provincial) and provincial scales in China are established for the first time. This paper presents a standardized method based on technical ideas, evaluation methods, and index systems for geological resource and environmental carrying capacity evaluation. Finally, an evaluation of the groundwater resource carrying capacity in China is used as an example for the demonstration of the groundwater resource background and use of state evaluation methods.

Irregular plates are very common structures in engineering, such as ore structures in mining. In this work, the Galerkin solution to the problem of a Kirchhoff plate lying on the Winkler foundation with two edges simply supported and the other two clamped supported is derived. Coordinate transformation technique is used during the solving process so that the solution is suitable to irregular shaped plates. The mechanical model and the solution proposed are then used to model the crown pillars between two adjacent levels in Sanshandao gold mine, which uses backfill method for mining operation. After that, an objective function, which takes security, economic profits and filling effect into consideration, is built to evaluate design proposals. Thickness optimizations for crown pillars are finally conducted in both conditions that the vertical stiffness of the foundation is known and unknown. The procedure presented in the work provides the guidance in thickness designing of complex shaped crown pillars and the preparation of backfill materials, thus to achieve the best balance between security and profits.

This chapter presents with granulosis rubra nasi, Fox-Fordyce disease, ophiasis and sisaipho hair regrowth pattern, pseudopelade of Brocq, alopecia areata sparing white hairs within lesion, coexistence of acquired hypertrichosis and scalp alopecia, woolly hair, monilethrix, pili annulati, trichonodosis, hair cast, trichostasis spinulosa, cutaneous pili migrans, red hair, permanent poliosis after plucking, congenital leukonychia totalis, hyperpigmentation of the nail from lead deposition, longitudinal erythronychia, chromonychias, subungual splinter hemorrhage, sebaceous gland hyperplasia, as well as sebaceous hyperplasia within epidermis after scald.

Li Yin,1,* Jia-Li Xu,2,* Ying-Ying Hu,1 Andrew Johnston,3 Zhi-Qiang Yin,1 1Department of Dermatology, 2Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Dermatology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disease related to the metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and other comorbidities. However, so far there has been no specific research concerning systemic abnormalities in psoriatic patients. Objective: A retrospective study was conducted focusing on the detailed systemic abnormalities in psoriatic patients. Methods: Psoriatic inpatients data was collected from July 2009 to September 2015. The inclusion criteria were first-time hospitalization and without administration of systemic drug therapy or exposure to phototherapy for psoriasis for at least 1 month. Detailed systemic indexes were mainly evaluated. Results: The abnormality rates of blood routine examination, urine examination, blood biochemical examination and chest X-ray of 43 psoriatic patients were significantly higher than those of 44 non-psoriasis controls, and psoriasis patients significantly had higher absolute values of leukocytes and neutrophils, and significantly lower values of lymphocytes. Compared with psoriasis vulgaris, erythrodermic psoriasis had significantly higher abnormality rates of blood biochemical examination and serum electrolyte analysis. Erythrodermic psoriasis had significantly higher absolute values of blood leukocytes, neutrophils, and lower serum calcium compared with those of psoriasis vulgaris. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio of controls was significantly lower than that of psoriatic patients, and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio of ­erythrodermic psoriasis was significantly higher in comparison with psoriasis vulgaris. Conclusion: This study is the first report in relation to a detailed assessment of systemic abnormalities in psoriatic patients prior to onset of systemic treatment. The systemic condition of psoriatic patients should be observed by clinicians before systemic therapy. Keywords: psoriasis, skin, inflammation, treatment

This study is to compare the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and cost-effectiveness of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and open thyroidectomy (OT) for benign thyroid nodules (BTNs) treatment. HRQoL and utility were assessed for 404 BTN patients immediately before treatments (RFA:OT = 137:267) and at 6-month visit. A cost-effectiveness analysis was performed from societal perspective in the China context. Resource use (hospitalization, sick leaves) was collected. We used the net monetary benefit approach and computed cost-effectiveness acceptability curves for RFA and OT. Sensitivity analyses of costs of RFA were performed. At 6-month visit, patients treated with RFA had significantly better HRQoL than patients treated with OT on general health (68.5 versus 66.7, P = 0.029), vitality (71.3 versus 67.5, P P = 0.038). RFA was more effective than OT in terms of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs; 0.01QALY/patient) but more expensive (US$823/patient). The probability that RFA would be cost effective at a US$50,000/QALY threshold was 15.5% in China, and it would be increased to 88.4% when price of the RFA device was lowered by 30%. RFA exhibited a significant improvement of HRQoL relative to OT, but is unlikely to be cost effective at its current price in short time.

This is a study designed to analyze the relationship between ground level enhancements (GLEs) and their associated solar active regions during solar cycles 22 and 23. Results show that 90.3% of the GLE events that are investigated are accompanied by X-class flares, and that 77.4% of the GLE events originate from super active regions. It is found that the intensity of a GLE event is strongly associated with the specific position of an active region where the GLE event occurs. As a consequence, the GLE events having a peak increase rate exceeding 50% occur in a longitudinal range from W20° to W100°. Moreover, the largest GLE events occur in a heliographic longitude at roughly W60°. Additionally, an analysis is made to understand the distributional pattern of the Carrington longitude of the active regions that have generated the GLE events.

We examine the solar cycle distribution of major geomagnetic storms (Dst ≤ − 100 nT), including intense storms at the level of −200 nT < Dst ≤ −100 nT, great storms at −300 nT< Dst ≤ −200 nT, and super storms at Dst ≤ −300 nT, which occurred during the period of 1957-2006, based on Dst indices and smoothed monthly sunspot numbers. Statistics show that the majority (82%) of the geomagnetic storms at the level of Dst ≤ −100 nT that occurred in the study period were intense geomagnetic storms, with 12.4% ranked as great storms and 5.6% as super storms. It is interesting to note that about 27% of the geomagnetic storms that occurred at all three intensity levels appeared in the ascending phase of a solar cycle, and about 73% in the descending one. Statistics also show that 76.9% of the intense storms, 79.6% of the great storms and 90.9% of the super storms occurred during the two years before a solar cycle reached its peak, or in the three years after it. The correlation between the size of a solar cycle and the percentage of major storms that occurred, during the period from two years prior to maximum to three years after it, is investigated. Finally, the properties of the multi-peak distribution for major geomagnetic storms in each solar cycle is investigated.

The differences between the formation processes of lab backfill samples and field backfill were analysed. An improved sampling mold, containing an outer box shell and inner sampling mold, was put forward. The new and traditional test molds were applied to make subsequent-backfill samples of Yong-ping Copper Mine. The observation of mass fraction and theory analysis of settlement and distribution of tailing particles were carried out. The research results show that the magnitude of the strength of the backfill forming in new mold is lower than that of backfill forming in traditional mold, and the biggest gap amounts to 36%.

Objective.To evaluate the benefits of conditioned medium of Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC-CM) on wound healing after fractional carbon dioxide laser resurfacing (FxCR) on human skin.Materials and Methods.Nineteen subjects were treated with FxCR on the bilateral inner arms. ADSC-CM was applied on FxCR site of one randomly selected arm. Transepidermal water loss (TEWL), skin color, and gross-elasticity of FxCR site on both arms were measured. Skin samples were taken by biopsy from three subjects 3 weeks after treatment for histopathological manifestations and mRNA expressions of procollagen types I and III, elastin genes were noted.Results.The index of erythema, melanin, and TEWL of the ADSC-CM-treated skin were significantly lower than those of the control side. The mRNA expression of type III procollagen in ADSC-CM-treated group at 3 weeks posttreatment was 2.6 times of that of the control group.Conclusion.Application of allograft ADSC-CM is an effective method for enhancing wound healing after FxCR, by reducing transient adverse effects such as erythema, hyperpigmentation, and increased TEWL.

Based on durability of fly ash concrete, the freezing and thawing, impermeability and cracking resistance of fly ash concrete were researched. The results show that the frost resistance of concrete was reduced, impermeability and crack resistance were improved with increasing the fly ash content.

To get the scattering loss of the trapezoidal core waveguide, a new analysis model is presented based on the perturbation equivalent method and modified effective-index method. Firstly, the trapezoidal core waveguide is successfully equivalent to the rectangular one with both restricting the same optical field energy by adopting the perturbation method. Then, the equivalent rectangular core waveguide is decomposed into two slab waveguides by employing the modified effective-index method. The trapezoidal core waveguide scattering theory model is established based on the slab waveguide scattering theory. With the sidewalls surface roughness in the range from 0 to 100 nm in the single model trapezodial core waveguide, optical simulation shows excellent agreement with the results from the scattering loss model presented. The relationship between the dimension and side-wall roughness with the scattering loss can be determined in the trapezoidal core waveguide by the scattering loss model.

Topical calcineurin inhibitors have proved to be suitable for the treatment of AD. We conducted a meta-analysis comparing efficacy and tolerance of tacrolimus with pimecrolimus in treatment of AD. According to our meta-analysis, tacrolimus 0.1% was more effective than pimecrolimus 1% in adult patients (week 3: risk ratio [RR] 0.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.42‐0.73), and tacrolimus (a combination of 0.03% and 0.1%) was also more effective than pimecrolimus 1% in pediatric patients (week 6 ⁄end of study: RR 0.76, 95% CI 0.63‐0.92). Regardless of age or illness severity, tacrolimus 0.1% had higher efficacy than pimecrolimus 1% in the treatment of AD (week 3: RR 0.55, 95% CI 0.42‐0.72). In adult patients, tacrolimus 0.1% had more adverse events than pimecrolimus 1% (RR 1.30, 95% CI 1.02‐1.66), but the incidence of adverse events between tacrolimus 0.1% (or 0.03%) and pimecrolimus 1% was not significantly different in pediatric patients. No matter whether the patients were adult or pediatric, more pimecrolimus-treated patients withdrew from the trials because of a lack of efficacy. Regardless of age and illness severity, more pimecrolimus 1%-treated patients withdrew from the trials because of a lack of efficacy, compared with tacrolimus 0.1% (or 0.03%)-treated patients. More pimecrolimustreated pediatric patients withdrew from the trials because of adverse events (RR 0.26, 95% CI 0.1‐0.68). More pimecrolimus 1%-treated patients withdrew from the trials because of adverse events, compared with tacrolimus 0.03%-treated patients, regardless of age (RR 0.1, 95% CI 0.02‐0.53). In conclusion, tacrolimus ointment has higher efficacy and better tolerance than pimecrolimus cream in treatment of AD.

The failure characteristics under coupled static and dynamic loading were investigated by the improved split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) with axial pre-pressure and confining pressure. The results show that the stress-strain curve of the rock under static-dynamic coupled loading is a typical class I curve when the dynamic load is comparatively high; With the decrease of the dynamic load, the stress-strain curve transforms to a typical class II curve. The dynamic failure process was recorded by high-speed photography. Analyses of fracture surface morphology show that the failure modes of specimens are tensile failure or combined shear failure when the impact load energy is low, but the failure modes of specimens become tensile failure when the impact load energy is high. The results of fractal dimension show that the elastic potential energy release leads to increase in the degree of crushing of samples when the energy of impact load is low under coupled static and dynamic loads with high stress.

The statistical properties of the solar soft X-ray (SXR) flare fluence, i.e. the time integral of SXR flux of a flare, $F_{\mathit{SXR}}$ , and sum of the $F_{\mathit{SXR}}$ of all flares produced by a solar active region (AR), $F_{\mathit{AR}}$ , during 1997–2008 have been investigated. The results show that $F_{\mathit{SXR}}$ has moderate correlation with the area of the associated AR, while the correlation between $F_{\mathit{AR}}$ and the largest area of the associated AR is also moderate. The total number of ARs that can produce at least one SXR flare during 1997–2008, $N_{t}$ , is 1408. The sum of $F_{\mathit{AR}}$ produced by 1408 ARs, $\sum F_{\mathit{AR}}$ , is 89 585.81 (erg s cm−2) and the average value of $F_{\mathit{AR}}$ is 63.6 (erg s cm−2). 34 ARs ( $F_{\mathit{AR}}\ge 500\ \mbox{erg}\,\mbox{s}\,\mbox{cm}^{-2}$ ) contributed 55.72 % of $\sum F_{\mathit{AR}}$ . 111 ARs $(100\ (\mbox{erg}\,\mbox{s}\,\mbox{cm}^{-2})\le F_{\mathit{AR}}

To quantitatively study the location errors induced by deviation of sonic speed, the line and plane location tests were carried out. A broken pencil was simulated as acoustic emission source in the rocks. The line and plane location tests were carried out in the granite rod using two sensors and the cube of marble using four sensors, respectively. To compare the position accuracy between line and plane positions, the line poison test was also carried out on the marble surface. The results show that for line positioning, the maximum error of absolute distance is about 0.8 cm. With the speed difference of 200 m/s, the average value of absolute difference from the position error is about 0.4 cm. For the plane positioning, in the case of the sensor array of 30 cm, the absolute positioning distance is up to 8.7 cm. It can be seen that the sonic speed seriously impacts on the plane positioning accuracy. The plane positioning error is lager than the line positioning error, which means that when the line position can satisfy the need in practical engineering, it is better to use the line position instead of the plane location. The plane positioning error with the diagonal speed is the minimum one.

In the present paper, the authors use wavelet transform technique to study time-series of outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR) anomaly at the equator during 1979–2005. The results show that quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) signals exist in the OLR variation and the QBO cycle has remarkable temporal variability in its amplitude and phase. The periodic length of the QBO fluctuation is about 2.2-year before 1986. After that time, the length mainly changes from about 2.4- to 2.6-year. Analyzing the anomaly data set of 850 MB trade wind index (TWI) at west Pacific during this period, we have found that the obvious time-variations characteristics of the QBO cycle also exist in the TWI change at west Pacific and are in good consistence with that of the OLR change. The quasi-biennial fluctuation of the TWI change can explain that of the OLR change to a large extent.

Taking into account reconstructed precipitation time series in Huashan mountain area of China on the one hand and sunspot numbers observations on the other hand, the authors used here continuous wavelet transform and cross wavelet transform to investigate possible connection between the two sets of indicators. The analysis was performed over the last 300 years: it is found that solar activity influences precipitation in that geographical area of China to some extent, with an excess of 5% statistical significance level red noise over the 11-year solar activity cycle.

A simplified method was proposed for the design of concrete lining in underground rock cavern/tunnel against shock loading. The loading may result from the detonation of explosives on ground surface or ground penetration projectiles exploding adjacent to the cavern/tunnel. The resulting problem necessitates the solution of the dynamics of a beam loaded by a transient pressure uniformly distributed over the span. According to mechanical characteristics of the system with rock bolt and shotcrete, a dynamic support design method based on equivalent single degree of freedom (SDOF) was put forward. The SDOF method was applied to obtaining the maximum displacement at the mid-span of the beam, which is often the controlling factor in the blast-resistant design. In the formulation of the problem, the proposed method combines the phenomena of spalling and structural dynamics theory. An example is provided to demonstrate the applicability of this simplified method.

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is still the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and carries with it large economic and social burdens. Although steady and substantial progress has been made in reducing mortality from heart failure using conventional treatments, novel pharmacologic and surgical interventions have not been effective in extending five year survival rates. Therefore, it is necessary to explore new therapies. Gene therapy was introduced in 1970s with the development of recombinant DNA technology. Due to recent progress in the understanding of myocardial metabolism and application of vector based gene transfer strategies in animal models and initial clinical trials, gene therapy possibly affords an ideal treatment alternative for CHF. In last 2 decades, much research has been done on gene therapy, using various genes, signal transduction passages and delivery methods to treat advanced heart failure. Current research in ischemic heart disease (IHD) mainly focuses on stimulating angiogenesis, modifying the coronary vascular environment, and improving the vascular endothelial function with localized gene coated catheters and stents. Compared with standard ischemic heart disease treatment, the main goal of gene therapy for CHF is to inhibit apoptosis, reduce the undesirable remodeling and increase contractility through the most efficient cardiomyocyte transfection [Katz 2012a]. In this paper, we review various gene transfer technologies in ischemic heart disease and heart failure models, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these strategies in vector-mediated cardiac gene delivery, with the main focus on the high efficiency approach of a molecular cardiac surgery delivery system.

Direct observations of solar activity are available for the past four century, so some proxies reflecting solar activity such as 14C, 10Be and geomagnetic variations are used to reconstruct solar activity in the past. In this present paper, the authors use rectified wavelet power transform and time-averaged wavelet power spectrum to investigate long-term fluctuations of the reconstructed solar activity series. Results show obvious a quasi ~500-year cycle exists in the past solar activity. Three reconstructed solar activity series from 14C variations confirm the periodic signals.

Solar activity has been found to be strongly correlated with some geophysical processes on the Earth system. In the present paper, using global dust veil index of volcanic eruptions and sunspot numbers indicating solar activity, the authors investigate the possible influence of solar activity on global volcanicity during 1700–1995. Results of wavelet analysis indicate that variations of global volcanicity have remarkable temporal characteristics, and it is high related to solar activity on about 11-year cycle, with exceeding the 5% statistical significance level against red noise.

This paper briefly introduces the maneuverable feature of the slightly inclined geosynchronous orbit (SIGSO) satellites under a new control model degraded from the geosynchronous orbit (GEO) communication satellites which will retire as most of the fuel in these satellites has been consumed. Basing on the transmitting Chinese Area Positioning System (CAPS), the authors, by analyses, indicate that such satellites can make an improvement to CAPS constellation configuration, especially to the PDOP value from simulation. The results show that the use of SIGSO satellites can (1) actualize three-dimensional (3D) navigation and positioning compared with the situation, which, only using GEO satellites, cannot be carried out, and improve navigation and positioning accuracy to some extent; (2) reuse the communication services of these satellites for more years, and GEO communication satellites will be retired at a later time and delay their time to become space debris and reduce their pollution of the space environment, so that valuable space resources are maximally used. As for the use of these satellites in the transmitting positioning system, the authors present some views and suggestions in this work.

Based on the idea of transmitting the satellite navigation and positioning system, taking the distribution and variation of the Position Dilution of Precision factor (PDOP), which is closely related with the precision of navigation and positioning, within the China area as the primary criterion, we analyze and discuss the tentative plan of constellation configuration consisting of geosynchronous orbit (GEO) communication satellites and inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites for the transmitting Chinese Area Positioning System (CAPS). We emphatically consider the effect on the PDOP by the three major orbit parameters including the inclination, eccentricity and right ascension of the ascending node (RAAN) of IGSO satellites, to research the strategies of the constellation configuration of CAPS through software emulation. Various constellation configurations are analyzed and compared and the results show that the constellation configuration, consisting of three IGSO communication satellites in three orbits with the same inclination as 50°, the difference in RAAN as 120° and the same “8” shaped ground track centered near 115°E and four or five GEO communication satellites within 60°E to 150°E, can satisfy the requirement that Chinese domain is availably covered and the navigation and positioning with high precision could be obtained. Three relatively excellent constellation configurations are initially suggested and some concerned issues are discussed in this work.

As an important measurement parameter, global total electron content (TEC) is appropriate for the study of the Sun–Earth connection. In this paper, the wavelet technique is employed to investigate the periodicities in global mean TEC during 1995–2008. Analysis results show several remarkable components (including 27-day, semiannual and annual cycles) existing in global mean TEC with obvious time-variable characteristics, besides 11-year cycle. After analyzing sunspot numbers and solar extreme ultra-violet (EUV) radiation variations during this time period, except for semiannual variations, close correlation between global mean TEC and solar variations is found, especially, a strong resemblance of the 27-day fluctuation exists in global mean TEC, sunspot and solar EUV radiation variations.

We use wavelet transform to analyze the daily relative sunspot number series over solar cycles 10–23. The characteristics of some of the periods shorter than ~600-day are discussed. The results exhibit not only the variation of some short periods in the 14 solar cycles but also the characteristics and differences around solar peaks and valley years. The short periodic components with larger amplitude such as ~27, ~150 and ~360-day are obvious in some solar cycles, all of them are time-variable, also their lengths and amplitudes are variable and intermittent in time. The variable characteristics of the periods are rather different in different solar cycles.

ZhiQiang Yin,1,* JiaLi Xu,2,* BingRong Zhou,1 Di Wu,1 Yang Xu,1 JiaAn Zhang,1 Dan Luo1 1Department of Dermatology, 2Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Topical pimecrolimus has been shown to reverse epidermal CD1a+ Langerhans cell reduction induced by high-dose ultraviolet (UV)B irradiation, but the mechanism is still unclear. This study aimed to investigate the possible mechanism of the effect of pimecrolimus on high-dose UVB-irradiated epidermal Langerhans cells.Methods: Forty human foreskin tissues were divided into four groups: control; pimecrolimus-only; UVB-only; and UVB + pimecrolimus. All tissues were cultured, and each tissue was cut into four pieces, corresponding to four time points (0 hours, 18 hours, 24 hours, and 48 hours). We collected the tissues and culture medium at each time point. The percentage of CD1a+ cells in medium was detected by flow cytometry. The tissues were detected for messenger (m)RNA and protein expression of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1ß, and E-cadherin, by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and western blot.Results: At 18 hours, 24 hours, and 48 hours, the CD1a+ cells in the culture medium of the UVB-only group and the UVB + pimecrolimus group were significantly more than in the control group, while the CD1a+ cells of the UVB + pimecrolimus group was less than of the UVB-only group. For both the UVB-only group and UVB + pimecrolimus group, TNF-α expression (by both reverse-transcription PCR and western blot) of the tissues was clearly higher and E-cadherin expression was significantly lower compared with the control group, at 18 hours, 24 hours, and 48 hours. For the UVB + pimecrolimus group, TNF-α was clearly lower and E-cadherin was significantly higher compared with the UVB-only group.Conclusion: Topical pimecrolimus inhibited epidermal Langerhans cell migration induced by high-dose UVB irradiation, via regulation of TNF-α and E-cadherin. Keywords: pimecrolimus, UVB, Langerhans cell, TNF-α, E-cadherin&nbsp

In order to determine whether local anesthetics directly affect the propagation and strength of myometrial contractions, we compared the effects of bupivacaine, ropivacaine, lidocaine and tetracaine on the contractions of myometrium isolated from pregnant and non-pregnant rats. Full-thickness myometrial strips were obtained from 18- to 21-day pregnant and non-pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats and incubated in an organ bath. When spontaneous contractions became regular, strips were exposed to cumulative concentrations of the four local anesthetics ranging from 0.01 to 300 μmol/L and the amplitude and frequency of contraction were recorded. All four compounds caused a concentration-dependent inhibition of the contractility of pregnant and non-pregnant uterine muscle. In pregnant myometrium, the concentration that caused 50% inhibition (IC(50)) was 100 μmol/L for bupivacaine, 157 μmol/L for ropivacaine,1000 μmol/L for lidocaine, and 26.3 μmol/L for tetracaine. In non-pregnant myometrium, the IC(50) was 26.9 μmol/L for bupivacaine, 40 μmol/L for ropivacaine, 384 μmol/L for lidocaine, and 7.4 μmol/L for tetracaine. These results suggested that local anesthetics do inhibit myometrial contractions in pregnant and non-pregnant rats in a concentration-dependent manner.

The goal of this study was to determine the diagnostic and prognostic potential of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (XIAP) expression in breast cancer. We analyzed a tissue microarray comprised of 100 breast cancer cases and 70 matched normal samples. Analysis of an online database, which included 2,977 patients, was also performed. There was a significant difference in cytoplasmic expression of XIAP (XIAP-C) between breast cancer tissue and matched normal (p < 0.001). Staining of XIAP-C was defined as negative (breast cancer 8.42 % vs. normal 30.91 %), slight (40.0 vs. 45.45 %), moderate (43.16 vs. 23.64 %), or high (8.42 vs. 0 %). High XIAP-C protein expression correlated with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) status (p = 0.010) and with human p53 mutant-type (P53) status (p = 0.039). We found that XIAP expression did not correlate with disease-free survival (p = 0.706) and overall survival (p = 0.496) of breast cancer patients. An Internet-based system analysis confirmed our results. In the subgroup analysis, basal-like breast cancer patients with high XIAP levels in the tumor had a significantly increased risk of relapse; thus, the up-regulation of XIAP appeared to be predictive of poor relapse-free survival (p = 0.013). Kaplan–Meier curves also identified a significant correlation between distant metastasis-free survival and XIAP expression in patients with lymph-node-negative disease (p = 0.030). In summary, expression of XIAP-C was significantly higher in breast cancer compared to normal tissue. XIAP-C expression correlated with HER-2 status and may be considered a prognostic biomarker for basal-like breast cancer patients.

Topical calcineurin inhibitors have proved to be suitable for the treatment of AD. We conducted a meta-analysis comparing efficacy and tolerance of tacrolimus with pimecrolimus in treatment of AD. According to our meta-analysis, tacrolimus 0.1% was more effective than pimecrolimus 1% in adult patients (week 3: risk ratio [RR] 0.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.42-0.73), and tacrolimus (a combination of 0.03% and 0.1%) was also more effective than pimecrolimus 1% in pediatric patients (week 6/end of study: RR 0.76, 95% CI 0.63-0.92). Regardless of age or illness severity, tacrolimus 0.1% had higher efficacy than pimecrolimus 1% in the treatment of AD (week 3: RR 0.55, 95% CI 0.42-0.72). In adult patients, tacrolimus 0.1% had more adverse events than pimecrolimus 1% (RR 1.30, 95% CI 1.02-1.66), but the incidence of adverse events between tacrolimus 0.1% (or 0.03%) and pimecrolimus 1% was not significantly different in pediatric patients. No matter whether the patients were adult or pediatric, more pimecrolimus-treated patients withdrew from the trials because of a lack of efficacy. Regardless of age and illness severity, more pimecrolimus 1%-treated patients withdrew from the trials because of a lack of efficacy, compared with tacrolimus 0.1% (or 0.03%)-treated patients. More pimecrolimus-treated pediatric patients withdrew from the trials because of adverse events (RR 0.26, 95% CI 0.1-0.68). More pimecrolimus 1%-treated patients withdrew from the trials because of adverse events, compared with tacrolimus 0.03%-treated patients, regardless of age (RR 0.1, 95% CI 0.02-0.53). In conclusion, tacrolimus ointment has higher efficacy and better tolerance than pimecrolimus cream in treatment of AD.