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Background: The aim of the present meta-analysis was to investigate the correlation of serum homocysteine (Hcy) concentration and ulcerative colitis (UC) through pooling all the relevant publications.

Open in new tab Download slide Open in new tab Download slide OBJECTIVES To investigate the impact of lung window (LW) and mediastinal window (MW) settings on the clinical T classifications and prognostic prediction of patients with subsolid nodules. METHODS Seven hundred and nineteen surgically resected subsolid nodules were reviewed, grouping into pure ground-glass nodules (n  = 179) or part-solid nodules (n  = 540) using LW. Interobserver agreement on nodule classifications was assessed via kappa-value, and predictive performance of the solid portion measurement in LW and MW for pathological invasiveness and malignancy were compared using receiver-operating characteristic analysis. Cox regression was used to identify prognostic factors. Prognostic significance of T classifications based on LW (c[l]T) and MW (c[m]T) was evaluated by Kaplan–Meier method after propensity score matching. The performance of c(m)T for discrimination survival was estimated via the concordance index (C-index), net reclassification improvement and integrated-discrimination improvement. RESULTS By adopting MW, 124 part-solid nodules were reclassified as pure ground-glass nodules, and interobserver agreement improved to 0.917 (95% confidence interval 0.888–0.946). The solid portion size under MW more strongly predicted pathological invasiveness (P  =   0.030), but did not better predict pathological malignancy. For remaining 416 part-solid nodules, c(l)T and c(m)T were both independent risk factors. c(m)T led to T classifications shifts in 321 nodules (14 upstaged and 307 downstaged) with no significant prognostic difference existing between the shifted c(m)T and matching c(l)T group after propensity score matching. The corrected C-index was improved to 0.695 (0.620–1.000) when adopting c(m)T with no significant difference in net reclassification improvement (P  =   0.098) and integrated-discrimination improvement (P  =   0.13) analysis. CONCLUSIONS As there is no significant benefit provided by MW in evaluating clinical T classification and prognosis, the current usage of LW is appropriate for assessing subsolid nodules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multidisciplinary robust optimization design framework, concurrent subsystem robust design optimization, is proposed to obtain robust optimum solution in the large-scaled and coupled system. In this framework, response surfaces in the form of artificial neural networks provide information pertaining to system performance characteristics, and individual subsystems engage in performing robust optimization design in parallel while communicating with the system level. This optimization approach incorporates uncertainty analysis and generates a global robust optimum solution in an iterative fashion. Two applications are considered, and the results demonstrate that the approach yields a reasonable robust optimum solution, and it is a potential and efficient multidisciplinary robust optimization approach . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method of generating n-sided (n=3, 5, 6) G2 blending surfaces (except that the 3-sided blending surface is C0 continuous at the three vertexes and the 5-sided blending surface is C0 continuous at a vertex) is presented in this paper. When this method is used to generate n-sided (n=3, 5, 6) G2 blending surfaces between the base surfaces, the base surfaces are expressed as n-sided (n=3, 5, 6) by reparameterising the base surfaces; then the n-sided (n=3, 5, 6) G2 blending surfaces are convex combinations of the base surfaces expressed as n-sided (n=3, 5, 6) surfaces. When the contact curves are arbitrary curves in the base surfaces, the regions near the contact curves in the base surfaces are reparameterised and expressed as n-sided (n=3, 5, 6) surfaces; then the n-sided (n=3, 5, 6) G2 blending surfaces are convex combinations of the reparameterised local base surfaces expressed as n-sided (n=3, 5, 6) surface styles. The shape of the n-sided (n=3, 5, 6) blending surfaces can be adjusted by changing the size of the reparameterised local base surfaces and the combination weights. An example of a 5-sided surface generated between an aerofoil, the body and the fringe surface of a missile is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]