RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: Although Osteopontin (OPN) has been reported to be associated with many different human cancers, the data on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are not definitive. This study aimed to explore the prognostic effect of OPN expression and clinicopathological characteristics in patients with NSCLC. METHODS: This study followed all aspects of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) report. PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library were searched to identify the relative studies. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to estimate the prognostic value of the OPN in patients with NSCLC. The odds ratio (OR) was calculated to represent the relationship between OPN expression and clinicopathological parameters. RESULTS: A total of fifteen studies with 2173 participants were finally included. The results revealed that high expression of OPN was significantly associated with poorer overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.89; 95%CI = 1.68-2.11; p < 0.001). Moreover, a significant correlation was observed between increased OPN expression and poorly differentiated (well and moderately differentiated vs. poorly differentiated; pooled OR = 0.38; 95% CI = 0.23-0.64; p < 0.001), lymph node metastasis (absence vs. presence; pooled OR = 0.49; 95%CI = 0.32-0.74; p < 0.001), and distant metastasis (absence vs. presence; pooled OR = 0.18; 95%CI = 0.11-0.29; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis implies that OPN might be a valuable biomarker for a poor prognosis and poor clinicopathological outcomes for patients with NSCLC.

Our findings suggest that osteopontin is an important biomarker for poor prognosis and poor clinicopathological outcome in Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.Increased expression of osteopontin in NSCLC patients is associated not only with poorer survival but also with tumor differentiation, lymph node metastasis, and distant metastasis.This may be due to that osteopontin promotes multiple pathological processes including cancer cell proliferation, invasion, tumor progression, and metastasis in NSCLC.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

To evaluate the acute and chronic 28-day repeated-dose oral toxicity of Guixiong Yimu San (GYS) in mice and rats, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to determine the stachydrine hydrochloride in GYS as the quality control. In the acute toxicity trial, the mice were administered orally at a dose rate of 30.0 g GYS/kg body weight (BW) three times a day. The general behavior, side effects, and death rate were noticed for 14 days following treatment. In the subacute toxicity trial, the rats were administered orally at a dose rates of30.0, 15.0, and 7.5 g GYS/kg BW once a day for 28 days. The rats were monitored every day for clinical signs and deaths; changes in body weight and relative organ weights (ROW) were recorded every week, hematological, biochemical, and pathological parameters were also examined at the end of treatment. The results showed that the level of stachydrine hydrochloride in GYS was 2.272 mg/g. In the acute toxicity trial, the maximum-tolerated dose of GYS was more than 90.0 g/kg BW, and no adverse effects or mortalities were noticed during the 14 days in the mice. At the given dose, there were no death or toxicity signs all through the 28-day subacute toxicity trial.The oral administration of GYS at a dose rate of 30.0 g/kg/day BW had no substantial effects on BW, ROW, blood hematology, gross pathology, histopathology, and biochemistry (except glucose), so 30.0 g/kg BW/day was determined as the no-observed-adverse-effect dosage.

RESUMEN

Objective: To investigate the effect of comprehensive care based on appropriate Chinese medicine techniques on urinary retention and bladder function recovery after total hysterectomy in patients with cervical cancer. Methods: A total of 148 cases admitted after radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer from January 2019 to early September 2019 were used as the observation sample and were divided into control and experimental groups based on a randomized double-blind method. There were 74 cases each. The control group was given comprehensive care, and the experimental group was given comprehensive care based on appropriate Chinese medicine techniques. The intervention period was 2 weeks after surgery. The recovery rate of bladder function and the occurrence of urinary retention were compared between the two groups, and the duration of postoperative retention of urinary catheter, the amount of residual urine, and the feeling of urination were counted. Results: The experimental group had better urinary catheter retention time, time to first spontaneous voiding, time to get out of bed, and time to anal discharge than the control group; the experimental group had a higher rate of good bladder function recovery than the control group and better bladder recovery time, residual urine volume, and incidence of urinary retention than the control group; the patients in the experimental group had better UDI-6 scores. Conclusion: The implementation of comprehensive care based on appropriate Chinese medicine techniques can relieve patients' difficulty in urination and improve their quality of life.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Objective. Motor imagery (MI) is a mental representation of motor behavior and a widely used pattern in electroencephalogram (EEG) based brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. EEG is known for its non-stationary, non-linear features and sensitivity to artifacts from various sources. This study aimed to design a powerful classifier with a strong generalization capability for MI based BCIs.Approach. In this study, we proposed a cluster decomposing based ensemble learning framework (CDECL) for EEG classification of MI based BCIs. The EEG data was decomposed into sub-data sets with different distributions by clustering decomposition. Then a set of heterogeneous classifiers was trained on each sub-data set for generating a diversified classifier search space. To obtain the optimal classifier combination, the ensemble learning was formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem and a stochastic fractal based binary multi-objective fruit fly optimization algorithm was proposed for solving the ensemble learning problem.Main results.The proposed method was validated on two public EEG datasets (BCI Competition IV datasets IIb and BCI Competition IV dataset IIa) and compared with several other competing classification methods. Experimental results showed that the proposed CDECL based methods can effectively construct a diversity ensemble classifier and exhibits superior classification performance in comparison with several competing methods.Significance. The proposed method is promising for improving the performance of MI-based BCIs.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: Motor imagery (MI) related features are typically extracted from a fixed frequency band and time window of EEG signal. Meanwhile, the time when the brain activity associated with the occurring task varies from person to person and trial to trial. Thus, some of the discarded EEG data with time may contain MI-related information. NEW METHOD: This study proposes a temporal frequency joint sparse optimization and fuzzy fusion (TFSOFF) method for joint frequency band optimization and classification fusion on multiple time windows to effectively utilize the signals of all time period within the MI task. Raw EEG data are first segmented into multiple subtime windows using a sliding window approach. Then, a set of overlapping bandpass filters is performed on each time window to generate a set of overlapping subbands, and common spatial pattern is used for feature extraction at each subband. Joint frequency band optimization is conducted on multiple time windows using a joint sparse optimization model. Fuzzy integral is used to fuse each time window after joint optimization. RESULTS: The proposed TFSOFF is validated on two public EEG datasets and compared with several other competing methods. Experimental results show that the proposed TFSOFF can effectively extract MI related features of all time period EEG signals within the MI task and helps improving the classification performance of MI. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS: The proposed TFSOFF exhibits superior performance in comparison with several competing methods. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed method is a suitable method for improving the performance of MI-based BCIs.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Distributed driver electric vehicle (DDEV) works under various road excitations in practice, which may cause the changes in steering performance significantly. However, the various road excitations are not a priority for stable steering problem of DDEV, and this possibly leads to unstable steering performance, particularly oversteer or tail flick. To solve this problem, an interacting multiple model-based adaptive control system (IMM-ACS) is presented in this work. The proposed IMM-ACS integrates an interacting multiple model controller (IMMC) and a stable steering controller (SSC). The IMMC is designed to establish an adaptive vehicle model based on four typical road models, and to improve the adaptability of control system to various road excitations by the model interaction method. The SSC is designed to guarantee the yaw and longitudinal stability based on the adaptive vehicle model, by the active steering and torque distribution, and the SSC is realized by the model predictive controller (MPC). Besides, this work establishes a Carsim-Matlab co-simulation platform, where the simulation is designed and the results show that the proposed IMM-ACS can achieve excellent steering performance for DDEV with the adaptive capacity.

RESUMEN

In this paper, the tracking performance limitation of networked control systems (NCSs) is studied. The NCSs are considered as continuous-time linear multi-input multioutput (MIMO) systems with random reference noises. The controlled plants include unstable poles and nonminimum phase (NMP) zeros. The output feedback path is affected by multiple communication constraints. We focus on some basic communication constraints, including additive white noise (AWN), quantization noise, bandwidth, as well as encoder-decoder. The system performance is evaluated with the tracking error energy, and used a two-degree-of-freedom (2DOF) controller. The explicit representation of the tracking performance is given in this paper. The results indicate the tracking performance limitations rely to internal characteristics of the plant (unstable poles and NMP zeros), reference noises [the reference noise power distribution (RNPD) and its directions], and the characteristics of communication constraints. The characteristics of communication constraints include communication noise power distribution (CNPD); quantization noise power distribution (QNPD), and their distribution directions; transform bandwidth allocation (TBA); transform encoder-decoder allocation (TEA), and their allocation directions; and NMP zeros and MP part of bandwidth. Moreover, the tracking performance limitations are also affected by the angles between the each transform NMP zero direction and RNPD direction, and these angles between each transform unstable poles direction and the direction of communication constraint distribution/allocation. In addition, for MIMO NCSs, bandwidth (there are not identical two channels) can always affect the direction of unstable poles, and the channel allocation of bandwidth and encode-decode may be used for a feasible method for the performance allocation of each channel. Finally, an instance is given for verifying the effectiveness of the theoretical outcomes.

RESUMEN

In this study, we used a combined stochastic process and value-at-risk (VaR) method to examine an electronic commerce expansion decision. By modeling uncertain benefits as a stochastic process, maximum losses of alternative decisions were quantified and compared to help managers to make information system/information technology (IS/IT) project decisions. Our results, based on the maximum loss perspective, demonstrated that uncertainty plays a critical role in evaluating IS/IT projects. More importantly, the results illustrate that VaR serves as a useful tool in decision-making for managers to quantify the value of maximum possible loss and to help them reach decisions.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Nitrogen isotopic composition of new, middle-aged and old camphor leaves in upper and lower canopies has been determined in a living area, near a motorway and near an industrial area (Jiangan Chemical Fertilizer Plant). We found that at sites near roads, more positive δ(15)N values were observed in the camphor leaves, especially in old leaves of upper canopies, and ∆δ(15)N=δ(15)N(upper)-δ(15)N(lower)>0, while those near the industrial area had more negative δ(15)N values and ∆δ(15)N<0. These could be explained by two isotopically different atmospheric N sources: greater uptake from isotopically heavy pools of atmospheric NO(x) by old leaves in upper canopies at sites adjacent to roads, and greater uptake of (15)N-depleted NH(y) in atmospheric deposition by leaves at sites near the industrial area. This study presents novel evidence that (15)N natural abundance of camphor leaves can be used as a robust indicator of atmospheric N sources.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the feasibility and possible mechanism of non traditional hepatic lobectomy using nitinol alloy net blocker of biliary intrahepatic duct. METHODS: Biliary intrahepatic ducts of the experimental pigs were blocked with and without dissepiment blockers. The histological changes and expressions of TGF-betal and TIMP-1 in the livers were compared. RESULTS: Blockage of biliary intrahepatic duct using nitinol alloy net blocker without dissepiment resulted in obvious atrophy of the focus liver. The mean weight and size of the focus liver was only 1/4 of the controls (P < 0.05), with liver cells almost completely taken by collagen fibers. Higher expressions of TGF-beta1 and TIMP-1 were found in the group without dissepiment than in the group with dissepiments (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Using nitinol alloy net blocker for selective hepatic lobectomy is as effective as traditional hepatic lobectomy. It may offer a new way for treating intrahepatic bile duct stones.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect and mechanism of ligand pioglitazone (PGZ) activating PPAR-gamma on the invasiveness of cholangiocarcinoma cell in vitro. METHODS: Human hilar cholangiocarcinoma cell line QBC939 was selected and cultured in vitro for this research. The rate of QBC939 cell growth inhibition was detected by MTT, and the influence of PGZ on the expression of MMP-7 mRNA and TIMP-1 mRNA was measured by using FQ-PCR. The in vitro invasiveness and mobility of QBC939 were quantified by Matrigel invasion assay and crossing-river test. RESULTS: Among the low concentration (5 micromol/L-40 micromol/L) groups at the point of 12-hours, PGZ did not show to inhibit significantly the growth of QBC939 cells (P>0. 05). However, the PGZ could down-regulate the expression of MMP-7 mRNA in QBC939 cells (P<0. 01), and up-regulate the TIMP-1 mRNA expression to be without obvious statistics significance (P>0. 05). At last, PGZ could reduce the number of QBC939 cell breaking through the matrigel and prolonging the time of crossing-river significantly (P< 0. 01) in a dose-dependent manner. CONCLUSION: For ligand PGZ to activate PPAR-gamma can inhibit the invasiveness of QBC939 cells in vitro via regulating the expression of MMP-7 and the mobility of QBC939 cells probably.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect that PPAR-gamma (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, PPAR-gamma) ligand rosiglitazone (rosiglitazone, RGZ) inhibits the cell proliferation of cholangiocarcinoma. METHODS: The cell line QBC939 of cholangiocarcinoma was interfered with different concentration of RGZ, and then calculated for the rate of cell proliferation inhibited at different concentration. The change of cell cycle and the rate of cell apoptosis at each concentration were detected by FCM. RESULTS: RGZ showed the significant effect on inhibiting the cell proliferation of cholangiocarcinoma, especially on the 1200 mg/L concentration group. The highest inhibited rate of QBC939 cell proliferation could be up to 83.66%. After RGZ used to treat the cultured QBC939 cell for 48 h and 72 h, the inhibited rates of QBC939 cell proliferations of 1200 mg/L, 600 mg/L,300 mg/ L,150 mg/L, 75 mg/L and 37.45 mg/L groups were compared to those of control group, and with the statistics result of P < 0.001. Meanwhile the cell cycles were controlled significantly as well, 62.77% of the cells were detained in stage G0/G1. CONCLUSION: In vitro PPAR-gamma ligand rosiglitazone has the significant proliferation inhibition effect to cell lines QBC939 of cholangiocarcinoma.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate radial artery (RA) and internal mammary artery (IMA) grafts in coronary artery bypass and the use of color Doppler ultrasound in the peri-operative evaluation of IMA and radial-ulnar collateral circulation. METHODS: From June 1998 to June 2000, sixty cases of coronary bypass revascularization with RA and IMA were performed. Preoperatively, the radial-ulnar collateral circulation was evaluated with the modified Allen's test, color Doppler ultrasound and noninvasive oxygen saturation measurement. The IMA lumen and blood flow were measured at the first intercostal space with color Doppler ultrasound preoperatively and postoperatively. RESULTS: One patient (1.7%) died of serious cardiac arrhythmia on the fourth postoperative day. There were no arterial graft harvest related complications. Before harvesting, the ulnar artery blood flow was 30.78 +/- 9.71 ml/min, and it increased to 43.36 +/- 13.98 ml/min (40.87% increase, P < 0.01) after the operation. Compared with the baseline, there was no obvious change of IMA blood flow postoperatively (P > 0.05), but the systolic/diastolic flow ratio markedly decreased from 8.57 +/- 3.98 ml/min to 3.41 +/- 4.87 ml/min (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Arterial grafts can be safely used for coronary bypass revascularization with good results. The ulnar artery blood flow can increase compensatively after RA harvesting. The diastolic blood flow of grafted IMA markedly increased postoperatively. Color Doppler ultrasound was very helpful both in evaluating the radial-ulnar collateral circulation before RA harvesting and in assessing the patency of the grafted IMA after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).

Asunto(s)