Background
The incidence and mortality of gastric cancer have declined rapidly over the past few decades, but reverse trends in the young generation's differential between sexes in some races have ...been reported in recent years. To investigate whether this divergent trend can be observed in Korea, a country with the highest incidence in the world, age- and sex-specific incidence and mortality trends were evaluated.
Methods
Gastric cancer incidence data for the years 1999–2010 and mortality data for the years 1983–2012 were obtained from the Korea Central Cancer Registry and National Statistical Office. Annual percentage changes were calculated by age group (20–39, 40–54, 55–69, 70–79) using Joinpoint regression analysis. Furthermore, age-period-cohort analysis was evaluated.
Results
Overall age-standardized gastric cancer incidence in adults aged between 20 and 79 was declining at a nonsignificant average annual percentage change (AAPC) of −0.2 % in males and −0.4 % in females in Korea during 1999–2010. Mortality was steeper at a significant rate of −4.3 and −5.9 % in males and females, respectively. However, age-specific analysis revealed a flat (males 0.2 %, 95 % CI −0.5–0.6) or increasing incidence trend (females 1.7 %, 95 % CI 0.9–2.5) in the 40–54 age group. APC analysis confirmed the decreasing incidence and mortality trend mainly by the cohort effect.
Conclusions
The differential pattern between males and females in different age groups suggests a possible effect of detection by screening practice or a signal of the change in epidemiological factors in the incidence and mortality of gastric cancer that warrants further studies.
Background
The role of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and preoperative prediction model in gastric cancer is controversial, while postoperative prognostic models are available. This study ...investigated NLR as a preoperative prognostic indicator in gastric cancer.
Methods
We reviewed patients with primary gastric cancer who underwent surgery during 2007–2010. Preoperative clinicopathologic factors were analyzed with their interaction and used to develop a prognosis prediction nomogram. That preoperative prediction nomogram was compared to a nomogram using pTNM or a historical postoperative prediction nomogram. The contribution of NLR to a preoperative nomogram was evaluated with integrated discrimination improvement (IDI).
Results
Using 2539 records, multivariable analysis revealed that NLR was one of the independent prognostic factors and had a significant interaction with only age among other preoperative factors (especially significant in patients < 50 years old). NLR was constantly significant between 1.1 and 3.1 without any distinctive cutoff value. Preoperative prediction nomogram using NLR showed a Harrell’s C-index of 0.79 and an
R
2
of 25.2%, which was comparable to the C-index of 0.78 and 0.82 and
R
2
of 26.6 and 25.8% from nomogram using pTNM and a historical postoperative prediction nomogram, respectively. IDI of NLR to nomogram in the overall population was 0.65%, and that of patients < 50 years old was 2.72%.
Conclusions
NLR is an independent prognostic factor for gastric cancer, especially in patients < 50 years old. A preoperative prediction nomogram using NLR can predict prognosis of gastric cancer as effectively as pTNM and a historical postoperative prediction nomogram.
Background
Pylorus-preserving gastrectomy (PPG) is commonly performed for early gastric cancer (EGC) located in middle third of the stomach. We investigated the surgical, oncological, and functional ...outcomes of PPG involving the upper third of stomach.
Methods
We included all patients of the period 2013–2016 who underwent PPG, distal subtotal gastrectomy (DSG), and total gastrectomy (TG) for EGC involving the upper third by carefully defining the localization. Surgical, oncological, and functional outcome analyses included postoperative morbidity, lymph-node metastasis, tumor recurrence, postoperative body weight, body mass index, hemoglobin, total protein, albumin, quantification of intraabdominal fat, and gallstone development.
Results
Overall, 288 cases were analyzed: 145 PPG, 61 DSG, and 82 TG. In the study period, patients potentially underwent PPG for EGC involving the upper third, if enough proximal remnant stomach was found whilst achieving a sufficient proximal margin. PPG resulted in less operation time (
p
< 0.001), less blood loss (
p
= 0.002) and lower postoperative morbidity compared to TG. For lymph-node (LN) stations being resected in all groups, no difference was found in number of resected LN. Recurrence-free survival was similar for all groups. PPG showed advantages regarding postoperative body weight, hemoglobin, total protein, albumin in postoperative 6 and 12 month follow-up. Lowest decrease of abdominal fat area after 12 months was seen for PPG. Gallstone incidence was significantly lower after PPG compared to TG (
p
< 0.001).
Conclusions
For EGC involving the upper third, PPG can be another good option with lower postoperative morbidity, better functional outcomes, and same oncological safety.
ABSTRACT
To understand the cosmic accretion history of supermassive black holes, separating the radiation from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and star-forming galaxies (SFGs) is critical. However, a ...reliable solution on photometrically recognizing AGNs still remains unsolved. In this work, we present a novel AGN recognition method based on Deep Neural Network (Neural Net; NN). The main goals of this work are (i) to test if the AGN recognition problem in the North Ecliptic Pole Wide (NEPW) field could be solved by NN; (ii) to show that NN exhibits an improvement in the performance compared with the traditional, standard spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting method in our testing samples; and (iii) to publicly release a reliable AGN/SFG catalogue to the astronomical community using the best available NEPW data, and propose a better method that helps future researchers plan an advanced NEPW data base. Finally, according to our experimental result, the NN recognition accuracy is around 80.29 per cent–85.15 per cent, with AGN completeness around 85.42 per cent–88.53 per cent and SFG completeness around 81.17 per cent–85.09 per cent.
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain and frequently associated with other symptoms. Patients with FM commonly report cognitive complaints, including memory ...problem. The objective of this study was to investigate the differences in neural correlates of working memory between FM patients and healthy subjects, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Nineteen FM patients and 22 healthy subjects performed an n-back memory task during MRI scan. Functional MRI data were analyzed using within- and between-group analysis. Both activated and deactivated brain regions during n-back task were evaluated. In addition, to investigate the possible effect of depression and anxiety, group analysis was also performed with depression and anxiety level in terms of Beck depression inventory (BDI) and Beck anxiety inventory (BAI) as a covariate. Between-group analyses, after controlling for depression and anxiety level, revealed that within the working memory network, inferior parietal cortex was strongly associated with the mild (r = 0.309, P = 0.049) and moderate (r = 0.331, P = 0.034) pain ratings. In addition, between-group comparison revealed that within the working memory network, the left DLPFC, right VLPFC, and right inferior parietal cortex were associated with the rating of depression and anxiety?
Our results suggest that the working memory deficit found in FM patients may be attributable to differences in neural activation of the frontoparietal memory network and may result from both pain itself and depression and anxiety associated with pain.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Gravitational Water Vortex Power (GWVP) plant is a favourable micro-hydro extraction method due to its simplicity and compatibility with ultra-low hydraulic head applications. However, the GWVP ...turbines are less efficient than other commercial hydro turbines. This study mainly focuses on improving the performance of the vortex turbine setup inside a conical basin structure using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis for different configurations of vortex turbine blades. After validating the ANSYS CFX CFD setup with available experimental results, the parametric study of the turbine was carried out based on four parameters; blade inclination, turbine height, vertical twist and horizontal curvature. The relationship between flow behaviour and performance was analysed in each case, considering the air-water interface, pressure and velocity fields. The blade inclination, similar to the conical basin inclination, yielded enhanced performance, and an optimal blade height was identified for this setup. The horizontally curved blade showed a slightly better performance than the vertical twist blade for the original design of the conical basin. However, when the drain diameter of the basin structure has increased, the performance of the vertically twisted blade showed good performance resulting in 55.3% efficiency while maintaining a stable air core.
An isotropic pitch which has a relatively high softening point and an excellent spinnability for general performance carbon fiber was successfully prepared through the low-temperature ...co-carbonization with ethylene bottom oil (EO). The special bromination and dehydrobromination reaction of the mixed biotar and EO was adapted at a relatively low temperature for minimizing the phase separation of the two raw materials. The optimized reaction conditions for bromination and dehydrobromination were the heat treatments at 110 °C for 1 h with 20 wt% of Br
2
addition and at 320 °C for 3 h under N
2
atmosphere, respectively. After removal of volatile matters by thin layer evaporation at 350 °C, the target spinnable isotropic pitch, which has a relatively softening point of 205 °C and excellent spinnability, was successfully obtained with high synthetic yield of 45 wt%. The carbon fiber fabricated using the obtained isotropic pitch precursor showed an enormous tensile strength of 1200 MPa by heat treatment alone at 800 °C for 5 min.
OBJECTIVE:To investigate the molecular characteristics of AGEJ compared with EAC and gastric adenocarcinoma.
SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA:Classification of AGEJ based on differential molecular ...characteristics between EAC and gastric adenocarcinoma has been long-standing controversy but rarely conducted due to anatomical ambiguity and epidemiologic difference.
METHODS:The molecular classification model with Bayesian compound covariate predictor was developed based on differential mRNA expression of EAC (N = 78) and GCFB (N = 102) from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort. AGEJ/cardia (N = 48) in TCGA cohort and AGEJ/upper third GC (N = 46 pairs) in Seoul National University cohort were classified into the EAC-like or GCFB-like groups whose genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic characteristics were compared.
RESULTS:AGEJ in both cohorts was similarly classified as EAC-like (31.2%) or GCFB-like (68.8%) based on the 400-gene classifier. The GCFB-like group showed significantly activated phosphoinositide 3-kinase-AKT signaling with decreased expression of ERBB2. The EAC-like group presented significantly different alternative splicing including the skipped exon of RPS24, a significantly higher copy number amplification including ERBB2 amplification, and increased protein expression of ERBB2 and EGFR compared with GCFB-like group. High-throughput 3D drug test using independent cell lines revealed that the EAC-like group showed a significantly better response to lapatinib than the GCFB-like group (P = 0.015).
CONCLUSIONS:AGEJ was the combined entity of the EAC-like and GCFB-like groups with consistently different molecular characteristics in both Seoul National University and TCGA cohorts. The EAC-like group with a high Bayesian compound covariate predictor score could be effectively targeted by dual inhibition of ERBB2 and EGFR.
Herein, we reported a facile synthesis of nanocomposite thin films containing Au nanoparticles within a NiO matrix using a simple and low-cost deposition apparatus. Au nanoparticle contents were ...controlled by changing the exposed areas of the nickel foil on the Au foil during sputtering. Surface plasmon resonance peaks were observed in the absorption spectrum, indicating that nano-sized Au particles were formed in the NiO matrix, which was also confirmed by electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Highly conductive Au nanoparticles in NiO improved the electrical conductivity, and the Au-incorporated NiO nanocomposite thin film electrode exhibited greatly enhanced pseudo-capacitive property with a 1.5 times higher specific capacity than that of the pure NiO electrode even if it is not totally capacitive. This study provides a novel and facile method for the direct preparation of metal nanoparticles embedded in oxide nanocomposite films, which will offer exciting opportunities in supercapacitors. In addition, the prepared electrodes showed enhanced electrochromic capabilities and coloration efficiency, suggesting their potential for application in electrochromic smart glass monitoring by color change for energy storage.
Background
The three-dimensional view and articulating devices in robot system might have a benefit performing the delicate procedure of pylorus-preserving gastrectomy. This study was conducted to ...evaluate the feasibility and safety of robot-assisted pylorus-preserving gastrectomy (RAPPG) and to compare the perioperative outcomes and oncologic safety between RAPPG and laparoscopy-assisted pylorus-preserving gastrectomy (LAPPG) for middle-third early gastric cancer.
Methods
Between June 2008 and December 2013, we retrospectively collected data of 68 patients with RAPPG and propensity score matched 68 patients with LAPPG for the treatment of early gastric cancer at Seoul National University Hospital. The covariates for propensity score matching were: age, sex, American Society of Anesthesiologists score, body mass index, and operators. Clinicopathologic characteristics and surgical outcomes were compared between the two groups.
Results
All RAPPG cases were performed successfully without open or laparoscopic conversion. Patient demographics and perioperative outcomes did not differ between the two groups except in operation time (258.3 vs. 193.9 min;
P
< 0.001). There was no significant difference in complication rates between the two groups (19.1 vs. 22.1 %;
P
= 0.671). The mean number of examined lymph nodes (33.4 vs. 36.5;
P
= 0.153), and the mean number of lymph nodes at each station was not different between the two groups.
Conclusions
RAPPG can be a safe treatment option for middle-third early gastric cancer in terms of surgical complications and oncologic outcomes. However, RAPPG has no benefit over LAPPG in this study.
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