Multivariate analysis of prognostic factors for the two groups of NPC patients.

Multivariate analysis of prognostic factors for the two groups of NPC patients.</p

Type 2 Diabetic Mellitus Is a Risk Factor for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A 1:2 Matched Case–Control Study

<div><p>Background</p><p>Diabetes has been identified as an adverse prognostic variable which associated with an increased mortality in various cancers, including colorectal, lung, and breast cancers. However, previous studies provided inconsistent results on the association between diabetes and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The main aim of this study was to investigate the associations between diabetes mellitus and the survival of NPC patients.</p><p>Methods</p><p>This study was designed as a 1:2 matched case–control study. Cases were patients who met the criteria for the diagnosis of type 2 diabetic mellitus (DM) below. Controls, matched 1:2, were patients who were normoglycemic (NDM). The survival rates were assessed by Kaplan–Meier analysis, and the survival curves were compared using a log-rank test. Multivariate analysis was conducted using the Cox proportional hazard regression model.</p><p>Results</p><p>Both locoregional relapse-free survival (LRRFS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in the NDM group were higher than that in the DM group (p = 0.001 and p = 0.033). Additionally, subset analyses revealed that the differences in OS, LRRFS, and DFS were all significant between the two groups in the N0-N1 subset (p = 0.007, p =.000 and p = 0.002). The LRRFS was higher in the NDM group in the III-IV, T3-T4 and N0-N1 subsets (p = 0.004, p = 0.002 and p =.000). In T3-T4 subset, the NDM group experienced higher DFS than the DM group (p = 0.039). In multivariate analysis, T stage and N stage were found to be independent predictors for OS, DMFS and DFS; chemotherapy was a significant prognostic factor for DMFS and DFS, age for OS, and diabetes for LRRFS and DFS.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Type 2 diabetic mellitus is associated with poorer prognosis among patients with NPC.</p></div

Patterns of disease failure in the two groups of NDM and DM.

<p>Patterns of disease failure in the two groups of NDM and DM.</p

Theoretical Studies on Gas-Phase Reactions of Sulfuric Acid Catalyzed Hydrolysis of Formaldehyde and Formaldehyde with Sulfuric Acid and H₂SO₄···H₂O Complex

The gas-phase reactions of sulfuric acid catalyzed hydrolysis of formaldehyde and formaldehyde with sulfuric acid and H₂SO₄···H₂O complex are investigated employing the high-level quantum chemical calculations with M06-2X and CCSD­(T) theoretical methods and the conventional transition state theory (CTST) with Eckart tunneling correction. The calculated results show that the energy barrier of hydrolysis of formaldehyde in gas phase is lowered to 6.09 kcal/mol from 38.04 kcal/mol, when the sulfuric acid is acted as a catalyst at the CCSD­(T)/aug-cc-pv­(T+d)­z//M06-2X/6-311++G­(3df,3pd) level of theory. Furthermore, the rate constant of the sulfuric acid catalyzed hydrolysis of formaldehyde combined with the concentrations of the species in the atmosphere demonstrates that the gas-phase hydrolysis of formaldehyde of sulfuric acid catalyst is feasible and could be of great importance for the sink of formaldehyde, which is in previously forbidden hydrolysis reaction. However, it is shown that the gas-phase reactions of formaldehyde with sulfuric acid and H₂SO₄···H₂O complex lead to the formation of H₂C­(OH)­OSO₃H, which is of minor importance in the atmosphere

Characteristics of the 558 patients with NPC.

<p>Characteristics of the 558 patients with NPC.</p

Theoretical Study of the Hydration of Atmospheric Nucleation Precursors with Acetic Acid

While atmosphere is known to contain a significant fraction of organic substance and the effect of acetic acid to stabilize hydrated sulfuric acids is found to be close that of ammonia, the details about the hydration of (CH3COOH)­(H2SO4)2 are poorly understood, especially for the larger clusters with more water molecules. We have investigated structural characteristics and thermodynamics of the hydrates using density functional theory (DFT) at PW91PW91/6-311++G­(3df,3pd) level. The phenomena of the structural evolution may exist during the early stage of the clusters formation, and we tentatively proposed a calculation path for the Gibbs free energies of the clusters formation via the structural evolution. The results in this study supply a picture of the first deprotonation of sulfuric acids for a system consisting of two sulfuric acid molecules, an acetic acid molecule, and up to three waters at 0 and 298.15 K, respectively. We also replace one of the sulfuric acids with a bisulfate anion in (CH3COOH)­(H2SO4)2 to explore the difference of acid dissociation between two series of clusters and interaction of performance in clusters growth between ion-mediated nucleation and organics-enhanced nucleation

Structural Exploration of Water, Nitrate/Water, and Oxalate/Water Clusters with Basin-Hopping Method Using a Compressed Sampling Technique

Exploration of the low-lying structures of atomic or molecular clusters remains a fundamental problem in nanocluster science. Basin hopping is typically employed in conjunction with random motion, which is a perturbation of a local minimum structure. We have combined two different sampling technologies, “random sampling” and “compressed sampling”, to explore the potential energy surface of molecular clusters. We used the method to study water, nitrate/water, and oxalate/water cluster systems at the MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory. An isomer of the NO₃^–(H₂O)₃ cluster molecule with a 3D structure was lower in energy than the planar structure, which had previously been reported by experimental study as the lowest-energy structure. The lowest-energy structures of the NO₃^–(H₂O)₅ and NO₃^–(H₂O)₇ clusters were found to have structures similar to pure (H₂O)₈ and (H₂O)₁₀ clusters, which contradicts previous experimental result by Wang et al.(<i>J. Chem. Phys.</i> <b>2002</b>, <i>116</i>, 561–570). The new minimum energy structures for C₂O₄^2–(H₂O)₅ and C₂O₄^2–(H₂O)₆ are found by our calculations

Univariate analysis of prognostic factors for the two groups of NPC patients.

<p>Univariate analysis of prognostic factors for the two groups of NPC patients.</p

Subset analyses on tumor control in the two groups of NDM and DM.

<p>Subset analyses on tumor control in the two groups of NDM and DM.</p

Sequences of oligonucleotides used in the paper.

<p>Sequences of oligonucleotides used in the paper.</p