With the increased use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer, the timing of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has become increasingly important. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the ...feasibility and accuracy of SLNB for initially clinically node-negative breast cancer after NAC by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis.
We searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library from January 1, 1993 to November 30, 2015 for studies on initially clinically node-negative breast cancer patients who underwent SLNB after NAC followed by axillary lymph node dissection (ALND).
A total of 1,456 patients from 16 studies were included in this review. The pooled identification rate (IR) for SLNB was 96% 95% confidence interval (CI): 95%-97%, and the false negative rate (FNR) was 6% (95% CI: 3%-8%). The pooled sensitivity, negative predictive value (NPV) and accuracy rate (AR) were 94% (95% CI: 92%-97%, I2 = 27.5%), 98% (95% CI: 98%-99%, I2 = 42.7%) and 99% (95% CI: 99%-100%, I2 = 32.6%), respectively. In the subgroup analysis, no significant differences were found in either the IR of an SLNB when different mapping methods were used (P = 0.180) or in the FNR between studies with and without immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining (P = 0.241).
Based on current evidence, SLNB is technically feasible and accurate enough for axillary staging in initially clinically node-negative breast cancer patients after NAC.
Systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), calculated by immunoinflammatory cell counts of peripheral blood, is considered a predictor of survival outcome in several solid tumors, including gastric ...cancer (GC). However, there is no study focusing on the prognostic value of SII in the early stage of GC. This study aims to compare prognostic prediction capabilities of several inflammatory indices, nutritional indices, and tumor markers to further verify the superior prognostic value of SII in stage I-II GC patients after surgery.
In this study, 548 patients (358 in the training group and 190 in the validation group) with stage I-II GC after radical surgery were retrospectively analyzed. The peripheral blood indices of interest were SII, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), advanced lung cancer inflammation index (ALI), systemic inflammation score (SIS), prognostic nutritional index (PNI), body mass index (BMI), albumin, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cancer antigen 125 (CA125), carbohydrate-associated antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). The time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (t-ROC) curves and the area under the curve (AUC) were used to determine the optimal cutoff value and prognostic ability of each parameter. Kaplan-Meier curves and multivariable Cox regression models were used to evaluate independent prognostic factors. The nomogram was constructed based on the result of bidirectional stepwise regression model.
The optimal cutoff value of SII was 508.3. The 5-year overall survival rate of the low SII (SII-L) group was significantly higher than that of the high SII (SII-H) group (92% vs. 80%, P < 0.001), especially in the elderly and stage II patients (91% vs. 73%, P = 0.001; 86% vs. 67%, P = 0.003, respectively). The significant prognostic values of SII were consistent in most subgroups. In multivariate analysis, SII and CA19-9 were the only two independent prognostic hematology indices. The AUC value of SII (0.624) was greater than that of CA19-9 (0.528) and other prognostic parameters. Adding SII to the conventional model improved the predictive ability of 5-year overall survival as shown by the significantly increased net reclassification improvement (NRI) and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI) (P = 0.033, P = 0.053, respectively) and modestly improved consistency index (C-index) (increased by 1.6%). External validation of SII-based nomogram demonstrated favorable predictive performance and discrimination. In addition, interactive web dynamic nomogram was published to facilitate clinical use.
SII is a simple but powerful index with a high predictive value to predict survival outcome in patients with stage I-II GC after radical operation. The SII-based nomogram can provide intuitive and accurate prognosis prediction of individual patients.
Permeation grouting using cement is widely used for ground improvement. However, this method can only be used for coarse sand or gravel. To overcome this problem, permeation grouting using biogrout ...through a microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation method has also been developed. Biogrout is finer and thus can permeate through fine sand. However, biogrouting method is not efficient for medium or coarse sand. For this reason, different grouting methods or materials may have to be used when the ground conditions are highly variable. It will be more efficient and highly desirable to apply only one grouting method to ground with soils of different grain sizes. In this study, a new biogrouting method using biogrout containing bioslurry is developed to allow soil with grain sizes ranging from fine to coarse sand to be treated efficiently. Bioslurry is a slurry containing preformed urease active calcium carbonate crystals, and biogrout is made of mainly calcium ions, urea and urease-producing bacteria. The testing results on sands with grain sizes ranging from 0.30 to 2.36 mm have shown that the proposed method could be applied to sand of different sizes by varying the solid content in the bioslurry. For medium or coarse sand, biogrout with a high solid content (i.e., 20–40%) can be used, whereas for fine sand, biogrout with a low or zero solid content will work. Furthermore, the effect of grain size, the type of biogrout, and CaCO
3
content on permeability and uniaxial compression strength of grouted sand were also investigated.
Seawater based bio-cementation through microbially-induced carbonate precipitation was proposed for the calcareous sand improvement in marine environment. The method used seawater instead of ...traditional fresh water to culture urease producing-bacteria (UPB) and prepare cementation solution (CS) for the bio-cement. A series of comparative bio-treatment tests using seawater based bio-cementation and traditional bio-cementation methods on three types of soil were conducted. Experimental results indicate that seawater based bio-cementation method has the ability to improve soil physico-mechanical properties, and performed better than traditional bio-cementation method. The dominant reason can be explained as that the mixture of the productions of calcite, monohydrocalcite and calcite magnesium produced during seawater based bio-cementation process have better cementation ability than the mixture of the productions of calcite and vaterite produced during bio-cementation process. UCS of coarse Ottawa sand blocks are smaller than that of medium Ottawa sand blocks is because the specific surface area of fine sand is higher and larger number of effective bondings can be formed. UCS of calcareous sand blocks are smaller than those of coarse Ottawa sand blocks can be attributed to the fact that calcareous sand has higher porosity and rougher surface, resulting in more carbonate crystals being precipitated on un-connected locations.
Distraction osteogenesis (DO) is a unique technique for promoting bone formation in clinical practice. However the underlying mechanism remains elusive. As epigenetic mediators, microRNAs have been ...reported to play important roles in regulating osteogenesis. In this study, after successfully established the DO model of rats, a microRNA microarray was performed to find molecular targets for DO. Total 100 microRNAs were identified as differently expressed, with miR-503 being one of the most significantly up-regulated miRNAs in DO. The further investigation also showed that miR-503 was upregulated during osteogenesis in mesenchymal stem cells of rats, and overexpression of miR-503 significantly promoted osteogenesis in vitro and accelerated mineralization in DO process in vivo. By using bioinformatic investigations and luciferase activities, we successfully demonstrated that Smurf1, a negative regulator of osteogenesis, was a real target of miR-503. Furthermore, Smurf1 knockdown promoted osteogenesis and antagomir-503 abolished the promotive effect, suggesting that miR-503 mediated osteogenic differentiation via suppressing Smurf1 expression. To sum up, these findings indicated that miR-503 promoted osteogenesis and accelerated bone formation, which may shed light on the development for a potential therapeutic target for bone repair.
•Increases in NH3 emissions and intensity increased with growing N rates.•Rice had greater increases in NH3 emissions and intensity in response to N inputs.•Split and deep applications of fertilizer ...N reduced NH3 emissions and intensity.•SR and UI reduced NH3 emissions and intensity, but NI increased both.
China is the world’s largest emitter of gaseous ammonia (NH3), a compound carrying severe human health and ecosystem risks. Fertilizer N application is a major source of this atmospheric NH3. Although many studies have measured NH3 emissions from croplands in China, the effect of fertilizer management on yield-scaled NH3 emissions (i.e., NH3 intensity defined as NH3 emissions per unit crop yield) is not so clear. Thus, we performed a meta-analysis to quantify the effect of fertilizer management on NH3 emissions and NH3 intensity in China’s croplands. Results showed that the increases in NH3 emissions and NH3 intensity over a control were greater at high N rates (averaging 305kgNha−1) than at low and moderate N rates (average of 130 and 206kgNha−1, respectively), while crop yields stayed flat over this range. Rice had greater increases in NH3 emissions and NH3 intensity in response to inorganic N addition than other crops. The emission factor for NH3 was also higher for rice than other crops, and increased with increasing proportions of basal N and soil organic carbon and total N content. Relative to surface application, deep placement of fertilizer N significantly decreased NH3 emissions and NH3 intensity. Increasing the number of split applications of fertilizer N significantly reduced NH3 emissions and NH3 intensity. Organic manure amendments substituting for all or part of inorganic fertilizer N significantly mitigated NH3 emissions and led to a reduction in NH3 intensity but without statistical significance. The use of slow release fertilizers (SR) and urease inhibitors (UI) significantly reduced NH3 emissions and NH3 intensity, whereas application of nitrification inhibitors actually increased both. Overall, this meta-analysis demonstrates that appropriate fertilizer management practices such as reducing inorganic N rates, deep placement and split applications of fertilizer N, and using SR and UI can all reduce NH3 emissions and NH3 intensity in China’s croplands.
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•Kaempferol prevented the loss of tyrosine hydroxylase.•Kaempferol reduced lipid peroxidation and the levels of TNF-α and IL-6.•Kaempferol increased GSH, SOD, Gpx and ...catalase.•Kaempferol increased 5-HT, 5-HIAA and noradrenaline.•Kaempferol reduced ROS.
The present study investigated the antioxidant and neuroprotective effect of kaempferol against rotenone-induced Parkinson’s disease (PD). Kaempferol inhibits apomorphine-induced rotational behavior and inhibited lipid peroxidation and interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, while antioxidant markers were increased in a PD rat model and SH-S5Y5 cells. Kaempferol increased levels of monoamine in striatum and substantia nigra region of brain. Histopathological analyses showed that kaempferol inhibited apoptosis. Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and apoptosis were also inhibited by more than 50%. The mRNA expression of tyrosine hydroxylase was increased 0.45- and 1.04-fold at 25 and 50 µM kaempferol respectively, and protein expression of tyrosine hydroxylase was also increased. In addition, In silico molecular docking study confirmed the binding interaction between tyrosine hydroxylase and kaempferol. These results show that kaempferol act as neuroprotective agent against rotenone-induced PD model of rats and SH-S5Y5 cells by preventing the loss of tyrosine hydroxylase expression.
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are 30-150 nm membrane-bound vesicles naturally secreted by cells and play important roles in intercellular communication by delivering regulatory molecules such as ...proteins, lipids, nucleic acids and metabolites to recipient cells. As natural nano-carriers, EVs possess desirable properties such as high biocompatibility, biological barrier permeability, low toxicity, and low immunogenicity, making them potential therapeutic delivery vehicles. EVs derived from specific cells have inherent targeting capacity towards specific cell types, which is yet not satisfactory enough for targeted therapy development and needs to be improved. Surface modifications endow EVs with targeting abilities, significantly improving their therapeutic efficiency. Herein, we first briefly introduce the biogenesis, composition, uptake and function of EVs, and review the cargo loading approaches for EVs. Then, we summarize the recent advances in surface engineering strategies of EVs, focusing on the applications of engineered EVs for targeted therapy. Altogether, EVs hold great promise for targeted delivery of various cargos, and targeted modifications show promising effects on multiple diseases.
Physico-mechanical properties of shale are important parameters in evaluating the stability of potential wellbore and the design of hydraulic fracturing, which are primarily affected by their ...non-uniform spatial distribution of the microscopic physical-mechanical properties at particle scale. A series of constant strain rate experiments and stress-cycling experiments on shale specimens with different bedding dip angles were conducted to have a comprehensive understanding of the effect of the non-uniform distribution of microscopic failure stress on macroscopic physico-mechanical properties. According to the experimental results and Weibull distribution, we find that bedding dip angle and the dynamic load applying type affect the spatial distributions of microscopic failure stress. The values of crack damage stress (σ
), σ
/σ
(peak stress), ε
(strain at crack damage stress), Poissons' ratio (ν), elastic strain energy (U
) and dissipated energy (U
) of the specimens with more uniform distribution of microscopic failure stress are overall higher, while ε
(peak strain)/ε
and elastic modulus (E) are lower. The dynamic load enables the spatial distributions of microscopic failure stress trend to be more homogeneous prior to the final failure with the increment of σ
/σ
, ν, U
and U
and the decrement of E.
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