The present work was performed to investigate the association between body mass index (BMI) before transplantation and the overall survival (OS) of patients with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell ...transplantation (allo-HSCT).
Data from 310 adults who were diagnosed with acute leukemia and underwent allo-HSCT between March 2001 and December 2011 were analyzed. According to the suggested BMI categories for Asian population, patients with BMIs of ⩾23 and ⩾25 kg/m
were identified as overweight and obese, respectively. Cox proportional hazards models was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
The median follow-up time among the patients was 19.7 months (interquartile range=8.1-37.7). A total of 93 (34.8%) people died within the follow-up period. After adjusting for the potential confounders, normal-weight, overweight and obese patients showed significantly lower HRs than those of underweight patients, with a significant trend of OS improvement upon increasing BMI (P=0.019). Overweight and obese patients survived longer, with a significantly decreased HR by ~40% (HR=0.60; 95% CI: 0.38-0.95) compared with underweight and normal-weight patients.
An increased OS was seen in allo-HSCT patients with BMI⩾23 kg/m
compared to those with lower BMI. Further work are still needed to investigate of the effects of BMI or body composition on the survival of allo-HSCT patients.
Abstract Background and aims Lactotripeptides (LTPs, including IPP and VPP) have held promise in the framework of lifestyle modification for prevention and control of hypertension – a cardiovascular ...risk factor, as LTPs are reported to have an inhibitory effect on angiotensin-converting enzyme. While the number of clinical trials to test the efficacy of LTP continues to increase, the results have been inconsistent, especially in the last few years. The purpose of the present meta-analysis is to precisely estimate the pooled mean effect of LTPs on conventional blood pressure (BP) generally and on 24-h ambulatory BP (ABP) particularly, as well as the change of BP in relation to baseline BP, race, and study design, to better reflect the evolving field. Data synthesis In general analysis of 24 studies with 28 trials on 1919 human subjects, there are small reductions in both systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) with the pooled mean effects of 1.66 (95% confidence interval (CI): −2.48 and −0.84) and 0.76 mmHg (−1.31 and −0.20) in response to LTP administration. In analysis of 24-h ABP response to LTP intervention, the reductions of SBP and DBP are 1.30 (−2.49 and −0.11) and 0.57 mmHg (−1.49 and 0.35). In subgroup analysis, the anti-hypertensive efficacy appears to be related to baseline BP, ethnic differences, treatment duration and double versus not double-blind design. Conclusions The present findings indicate that the BP-lowering effect of LTP is statistically significant, though small in magnitude. More clinical investigations (especially randomized double-blind trials with ABP) are warranted to determine the anti-hypertensive efficacy of LTP conclusively.
Tea oil camellia (Camellia oleifera Abel.), one of the most famous woody oil plants, is distributed and cultivated widely in central and southern China for its strong adaptability. In September 2013, ...tea oil camellia plants with severe leaf spots were observed in commercial production fields located in Wenchang, Hainan Province. Spots were initially chlorotic, became necrotic and black with a chlorotic halo, developing to cover the entire width of the leaves, and leading to leaf death. Isolations were performed by excising pieces of symptomatic leaves from the lesion margin, surface sterilized with 90% ethanol and 0.6% sodium hypochlorite, and then placed them on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Plates were incubated in a sterile chamber at 26 ± 2°C for 2 days. A fungus was consistently isolated on PDA from all 23 diseased leaf samples. Pure cultures were obtained by monosporic culture technique. After 2 to 3 days of incubation at 26 ± 2°C with a 12-h photoperiod, the fungus initially produced white colonies with dense aerial mycelia, which later turned black (6 to 7 days). The mycelium was fast spreading, branched, and septate. Pycnidia were black, globose, ostiolate, and produced in stroma on the medium surface after 28 days at the same culture conditions as above. Conidia were initially unicellular, subovoid, hyaline, thick-walled with granular content, and 19.8 to 28.9 × 11.5 to 15.7 μm (avg. 25.1 × 13.5 μm). Mature conidia were one-septate and dark brown with longitudinal striations. These observed morphological features suggested that the fungus possessed the same characteristics as previously described for Lasiodiplodia theobromae (Pat.) Griffon & Maubl (syn = Botryodiplodia theobromae) (2). For molecular identification, the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region and fragments of the β-tubulin and elongation factor 1-alpha (EF1-α) genes were sequenced and BLASTn searches done in GenBank. Accession numbers of gene sequences submitted to GenBank were KF811055 for ITS region; KJ639047 for β-tubulin; and KJ639048 for EF1-α. For all genes used, sequences were 99 to 100% identical to reference isolate CBS164.96 of L. theobromae reported in GenBank (NR_111174, EU673110, and AY640258). Hence, both morphological and molecular characteristics confirmed the fungus as L. theobromae. To confirm fungal pathogenicity, ten 1-year-old healthy plants of C. oleifera were inoculated with the fungus. Mycelial plugs (5 mm) taken from a 7-day-old colony growing on PDA were deposited on wounds with a sterilized knife on leaves and covered with moist cotton. Ten additional control plants were treated similarly but with sterile PDA plugs. Plants were maintained in a moist chamber at 26 ± 2°C for 3 days and then in a greenhouse at 25°C and 40% relative humidity. All the inoculated plants produced typical leaf spot symptoms 3 weeks after inoculation. The fungus was consistently re-isolated from all inoculated plants. Control plants did not show any symptoms. L. theobromae has been reported to cause cankers and dieback in a wide range of hosts and is common in tropical and subtropical regions of the world (1,2), but not previously reported causing disease on C. oleifera. To our knowledge, this is the first report worldwide of leaf spot of C. oleifera caused by L. theobromae. References: (1) S. Mohali et al. For. Pathol. 35:385, 2005. (2) E. Punithalingam. Page 519 in: CMI Descriptions of Pathogenic Fungi and Bacteria. Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, Surrey, UK, 1976.
The accuracy of moving object detection has a great impact on the accuracy of extracting the shape center coordinates of moving workpieces. The classic inter-frame difference method has "cavity" and ..."double shadow" issues for workpieces with comparable internal colors. In order to solve this problem, a moving object detection algorithm combining the three-frame difference method and Online Moving Window Robust Principal Component Analysis (OMWRPCA) is proposed. By using the OMWRPCA to extract the background image in the current frame and comparing it to the previous and current frames, the "cavity" and "double shadow" problems are avoided as well as the effects of background pixels. This paper presents a case study of a visual sorting experiment bench in an "intelligent manufacturing production demonstration line". The experiments show that the workpiece shape center coordinates obtained by the improved moving object detection algorithm are closer to the actual value than those obtained by the traditional algorithm, and the
F-measure
scores are above 0.8, which are more accurate than the other two algorithms. It is compared with the traditional algorithm of the frame difference method and the Online Mixture of Gaussian Matrix Factorization (OMoGMF).
The prevention of chemotherapy‐induced nausea and vomiting was one of the most challenging supportive care issues in oncology, especially to highly emetogenic chemotherapy (HEC). A total of 645 ...patients were randomized into fosaprepitant group (fosaprepitant/placebo 150 mg d1 in combination with granisetron and dexamethasone) or aprepitant group (aprepitant/placebo 125 mg d1; 80 mg d2‐d3 plus granisetron and dexamethasone).The primary endpoint was the percentage of patients who had a complete response (CR) over the entire treatment course (0–120 hr, overall phase OP). It was assessed by using a non‐inferiority model, with a non‐inferiority margin of 10%. The difference of the CR rate was compared between two groups with chi‐square analysis. Six hundred and twenty‐six patients were included in the per protocol analysis. The percentage of patients with a CR in the fosaprepitant group was not inferior to that in the aprepitant group (90.85% versus 94.17%, p = .1302) during OP. Whether the cisplatin‐based chemotherapy or not, the CR rate of the fosaprepitant group was not inferior to that of the aprepitant group. Both regimens were well tolerated. The most common adverse event was constipation. Fosaprepitant provided effective and well‐tolerated control of nausea and vomiting associated with HEC in Chinese patients.
Abstract
The probiotic effects of Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain CF (Chen Fu) on growth performance, meat quality, and microenvironment in specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens were investigated and ...compared with Enterococcus faecium. One-hundred-eighty 7-day-old SPF chickens were randomly assigned into 3 groups with 3 replicate pens of 20 chickens each. Group 1 served as a control that was fed a basal diet without probiotics supplementation. Groups 2 and 3 were fed the basal diet supplemented with L. rhamnosus CF and E. faecium, respectively. On d 12 and 24, BW, ADG, feed conversion ratio (FCR), dressing percentage (DP), and apparent digestibility of crude protein (AD-CP) were calculated. Meat color, fat content, shear force, water content, and pH value of breast and thigh muscles; ammonia, urea nitrogen, and uric acid content in plasma; pH value, Enterococcus, Lactobacillus, and E. coli in ceca; and ammonia emission were determined. Compared with group 1, group 2 exhibited higher BW, ADG, AD-CP, DP, cecal Lactobacilli, and muscle fat content (P < 0.05) as well as lower FCR, muscle water content, plasma ammonia, pH value, E. coli, and Enterococcus in ceca, and ammonia emission (P < 0.05), and group 3 exhibited higher BW, ADG, AD-CP, DP, and muscle fat content (P < 0.05), as well as lower FCR, meat color, plasma ammonia, E. coli and Enterococcus in ceca, and ammonia emission (d 24) (P < 0.05). Compared with group 3, group 2 exhibited lower plasma ammonia level, E. coli, and pH value in ceca and ammonia emission (P < 0.05) and higher AD-CP, meat color, pH value in thigh muscles, fat content in breast muscles, and number of Lactobacillus in ceca (P < 0.05). Thus, L. rhamnosus CF improves growth performance, meat quality, and microenvironment and is a potential probiotic additive in chickens.
This study examined the association of dietary calcium intake with incident type 2 diabetes by a meta-analysis and explored the potential confounding by magnesium. Potential studies were identified ...by searching the PubMed database in September 2011. Prospective cohort studies that reported relative risks (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) of type 2 diabetes for dietary calcium intake were selected. Results were combined using either a fixed- or random-effects model. Six prospective cohort studies comprising 264268 participants and 11225 reported cases were included. All combined random-effects meta-analysis yielded a significant pooled RR of 0.85 (95% CI 0.75-0.97). However, a sensitivity analysis limited to four studies with control for magnesium yielded an attenuated, nonsignificant pooled RR of 0.94 (95% CI 0.85-1.05). In conclusion, dietary calcium intake was not independently associated with risk of type 2 diabetes. The inverse association in prior observational studies may be partially confounded by magnesium intake.
Background:The role of tumour markers such as carbohydrate antigen (CA) 125, CA 15-3, CA 19-9 and CYFRA 21-1 (a fragment of cytokeratin 19) in differentiating malignant pleural effusions (MPE) from ...benign effusions is not yet clear.Methods:After a systematic review of English language studies, sensitivity, specificity and other measures of accuracy of pleural concentrations of CA 125, CA 15-3, CA 19-9 and CYFRA 21-1 or their combinations in the diagnosis of MPE were pooled using random effects models. Summary receiver operating characteristic curves were used to summarise overall test performance.Results:Twenty-nine studies met the inclusion criteria for the analysis. The summary estimates of the sensitivity and specificity of these tumour markers were as follows: CA 125, 0.48/0.85; CA 15-3, 0.51/0.96; CA 19-9, 0.25/0.96; CYFRA 21-1, 0.55/0.91 for diagnosing MPE. The estimated summary receiver operating characteristic curves showed that the performance of pleural CA 125 and CA 19-9 measurement in the diagnosis of MPE was limited, whereas that of CA 15-3 and CYFRA 21-1 was better. When two or more of the above four tumour markers were combined, or combined with carcinoembryonic antigen, the sensitivity and specificity were all increased to different extents.Conclusions:The current evidence does not recommend using one tumour marker alone for the diagnosis of MPE, but the combination of two or more tumour markers seems to be more sensitive. The results of tumour marker assays should be interpreted in parallel with clinical findings and the results of conventional tests.
New paleomagnetic investigation was carried out on the late Neogene fluviolacustrine sequence of the Yuanmou Basin, located near the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. Magnetostratigraphic ...results indicate nine reverse magnetozones (R1 to R9) and eight normal magnetozones (N1 to N8) in the sedimentary profile, which can be correlated to the geomagnetic polarity timescale from C3n.3r to C1r.1r. The age of the sedimentary sequence of the Yuanmou Basin can thus be paleomagnetically constrained to an interval from early Pliocene to Pleistocene, with sedimentation rates varying from 12.5 to 55 cm/kyr. In addition to its highly resolved magnetostratigraphic sequence, the Yuanmou Basin provides a record of Plio-Pleistocene tectono- and climato-sedimentary processes. The mean declinations of the seventeen polarity units (excluding samples with transitional directions) can be grouped into three distinct directional intervals, Group I (2.58–1.37 Ma), Group II (4.29–2.58 Ma) and Group III (4.91–4.29 Ma). These directions indicate that the Yuanmou Basin has probably experienced vertical-axis clockwise rotation of about 12° from 1.4 Ma to 4.9 Ma, which may be related to slip activity of the Red River fault to the southwest and the Xianshuihe–Xiaojiang fault to the east.
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