Although Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) has been demonstrated to be associated with tumorigenesis in various types of human tumors, a correlation between DKK1 and urothelial carcinoma (UC) has not been reported. ...In the present study, the correlation between DKK1 expression and UC progression was investigated. Seventy-five UC patients were enrolled. The expression of DKK1 in serum and UC tissue was detected by ELISA, real-time PCR and Western blotting. Prognostic significance was assessed by using Kaplan-Meier survival estimates and log-rank tests. The results showed that serum levels of DKK1 were significantly higher in the UC patients with muscle-invasive (p=0.0001) and high-grade tumors (p=0.00001) as compared to the controls. A high-serum DKK1 was also associated with poor disease-free survival in the UC patients (hazard ratio=2.44; 95% CI 1.10-5.40; p=0.028). Furthermore, DKK1 was also overexpressed in 93% (41/44) of the UC tissues. Therefore, the findings indicate that the expression of DKK1 is associated with UC progression.
Adequate bandwidth allocations and strict delay requirements are required for real time flows, such as streaming audio and video data. Most of commonly known packet scheduling algorithms like ...Weighted Fair Queueing (WFQ) and Start-Time Fair Queueing (SFQ) were mainly designed to ensure the bandwidth reservation function. They only guarantee the queueing delay under a certain threshold. It may cause unsteady packet latencies and introduces extra handling overheads for streaming applications. A few packet scheduling algorithms were proposed in recent years to address this problem like Low Latency Queueing (LLQ) which may suffer from low priority traffic starvation problem. In this paper, we will show the unsteady queueing delay problem, ”The buffer underrun problem” for most well known packet scheduling algorithms. We propose a novel packet scheduling algorithm with history support, LLEPS, to ensure low latency and efficient packet scheduling for streaming applications via monitoring the behavior of queues and traffics.
Full text
Available for:
FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Dang-Gui-Bu-Xai-Tang (DGBXT), which includes Radix Angelicae Sinensis and Radix Astragali Membranaceus, is a traditional Chinese medicine used to modulate the lymphocyte activity of cancer patients ...after chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In the present study, we examined the cytotoxicity of DGBXT on transformed cells and the immunomodulating effects of DGBXT in a tumor-bearing murine model. DGBXT markedly inhibited the growth of the EJ-Ha-ras transformed LZEJ and LZEJ-C2 cells lines. Oral administration of DGBXT for three weeks significantly prevented the tumor development in mice that injected with LZEJ-C2 cells subcutaneously. Moreover, DGBXT effectively increased the population of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and NK cells, and down-regulated activated T helper cells (CD4+ CD25+) in spleen and tumor-draining lymph nodes (TDLN). Furthermore, DGBXT stimulated the production of tumor necrosis factor-α in in vitro cultured splenocytes. These results might explain the antitumor effects of DGBXT.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
BACKGROUND No study to date has evaluated whether multifactorial intervention can prevent diabetic nephropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and normoalbuminuria. We evaluated the effect ...of tightly controlling multiple factors recommended by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) on the development and prevention of diabetic nephropathy in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and normoalbuminuria during a 4½-year period. METHODS A longitudinal cohort study enrolled 1290 patients with type 2 diabetes and normoalbuminuria who received intensified treatment to meet the following ADA recommended goals: hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), less than 7%; systolic blood pressure, less than 130 mm Hg; diastolic blood pressure, less than 80 mm Hg; low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, less than 100 mg/dL; triglycerides, less than 150 mg/dL; and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, greater than 40 mg/dL for men and greater than 50 mg/dL for women. RESULTS During the study period, 211 patients (16.4%) developed new-onset microalbuminuria. A significant association was found between the achievement of ADA goals, including HbA1c level less than 7% (hazard ratio HR, 0.729; 95% confidence interval CI, 0.553-0.906; P = .03), systolic blood pressure less than 130 mm Hg (0.645; 0.491-0.848; P = .002), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level greater than 50 mg/dL for women and greater than 40 mg/dL for men (0.715; 0.537-0.951; P = .02) and the development of new-onset microalbuminuria. CONCLUSIONS Diabetic nephropathy can be delayed by tight simultaneous achievement of multiple ADA-recommended targets. This multifactorial intervention should be started in patients with diabetes and normoalbuminuria.Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(2):155-161-->
Robotic software and hardware systems of autonomous surface vehicles have been developed in transportation, military, and ocean researches for decades. Previous efforts in RobotX Challenges 2014 and ...2016 facilitates the developments for important tasks such as obstacle avoidance and docking. Team NCTU is motivated by the AI Driving Olympics (AI-DO) developed by the Duckietown community, and adopts the principles to RobotX challenge. With the containerization (Docker) and uniformed AI agent (with observations and actions), we could better 1) integrate solutions developed in different middlewares (ROS and MOOS), 2) develop essential functionalities of from simulation (Gazebo) to real robots (either miniaturized or full-sized WAM-V), and 3) compare different approaches either from classic model-based or learning-based. Finally, we setup an outdoor on-surface platform with localization services for evaluation. Some of the preliminary results will be presented for the Team NCTU participations of the RobotX competition in Hawaii in 2018.
A simplified closed-form equation for microstrip lines radiation is applied for calculating electromagnetic interference(EMI) problems on printed circuit board (PCB). Conventionally, radiation ...problems have to resort to full wave simulators. However, those methods always cause insufficient memory for calculating complicated structure. Even if one have enough memory, it is always time-consuming for calculating a simple structure, not to mention a whole complicated real case containing hundreds of microstrip lines and vias. This equation can be combined with two dimensional finite difference time domain methods and transmission line equation to calculate EMI of microstrip lines and vias including the effect of power ground bounce, and power ground plane resonance.
We present a direct sampling full-band capture receiver for cable and digital TV applications. It consists of a 28nm CMOS ADC-based direct sampling receiver and a 0.18um BiCMOS LNA. It is capable of ...receiving 158 channels from 48MHz to 1000MHz simultaneously, achieving up to 10Gb/s data throughput, while exceeding DOCSIS requirements. The CMOS receiver occupies 1mm 2 area while consuming 300mW. The LNA consumes 130mW. The total power dissipation from the receiver is 2.7mW per 6MHz channel.
Preeclampsia is a major cause of mortality in pregnant women but the underlying mechanism remains unclear to date. In this study, we attempted to identify candidate proteins that might be associated ...with preeclampsia in pregnant women by means of proteomics tools.
Differentially expressed proteins in serum samples obtained from pregnant women with severe preeclampsia (n = 8) and control participants (n = 8) were identified using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) followed by peptide mass fingerprinting using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS). Additional serum samples from 50 normal and 41 pregnant women with severe preeclampsia were analyzed by immunoassay for validation.
Ten protein spots were found to be upregulated significantly in women with severe preeclampsia. These protein spots had the peptide mass fingerprints matched to α1-antitrypsin, α1-microglobulin, clusterin, and haptoglobin. Immunoassays in an independent series of serum samples showed that serum α1-antitrypsin, α1-microglobulin, and clusterin levels of severe preeclampsia patients (n = 41) were significantly higher than those in the normal participants (n = 50; α1-antitrypsin 295.95 ± 50.94 mg/dL vs. 259.31 ± 33.90 mg/dL, p = 0.02; α1-microglobulin 0.029 ± 0.004 mg/mL vs. 0.020 ± 0.004 mg/mL, p < 0.0001; clusterin 77.6 ± 16.15 μg/dL vs. 67.6 ± 15.87 μg/dL, p < 0.05).
Identification of these proteins by proteomics analysis enables further understanding of the pathophysiology of preeclampsia. Further studies are warranted to investigate the role of these biomarkers in prediction of this disease.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
89.
Groundwater response to tidal fluctuation and rainfall in a coastal aquifer Hsieh, Ping-Cheng; Hsiao-Ting HsuauthorDepartment of Soil and Water Conservation, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 40227, Taiwan; Ching Biao LiaoauthorDepartment of Water Resources Engineering and Conservation, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan ...
2015
Journal Article
PDF
