The Role of Postoperative Radiotherapy on Stage N2 Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Background and objective The clinical value of postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) in stage N2 nonsmall-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is controversy. The aim of this study is to analyze the efficacy of PORT in subgroup of stage N2 NSCLC, which can help clinicians to choose proper patients for PORT. Methods Clinical data of 359 patients with stage N2 NSCLC treated with radical surgery between Mar. 2000 and Jul. 2005 were retrospectively reviewed. Two hundred and seven patients received adjuvant chemotherapy and one hundred and four patients received adjuvant radiotherapy. First, the group of patients were analyzed to evaluate the factors affecting the overall survival. The all patients were divided based on tumor size and the number of lymph node metastasis station (single station or multiple station) so as to evaluate the role of PORT. The endpoint was overall survival (OS) and local recurrence-free survival (LRFS). Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the OS, LRFS and Log-rank was used to compare the difference in OS and LRFS between different groups. Results The median duration of follow-up was 2.3 years. 224 patients died. The median survival was 1.5 years and 1, 3, 5-year survival were 78%, 38% and 26%. Univariate analysis showed tumor size, the number of lymph node metastasis station and PORT were correlated with OS. Among patients, 5-year survival rates in PORT and non-PORT were 29% and 24% (P=0.047) respectively. In subgroups, PORT was related with high survival in patients with multiple station N2 compared to non-PORT: 36% vs 20% (P=0.013) and 33% vs 15% (P=0.002) in patients in patients with tumor size > 3 cm. Also, it was related with low local recurrence compared to non-PORT: 65% vs 48% (P=0.006) and 62% vs 48% (P=0.033). Conclusion PORT can improve overall survival for N2 NSCLC, especially the patients with the factors as follows: tumor size > 3 cm and multiple station N2 can benefit from PORT more or less

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

Cooperação Educacional China-Brasil: situação atual, desafios e perspetivas

À medida que as relações entre a China e o Brasil se aprofundam, as duas partes reforçam a sua cooperação nos domínios político, econômico e comercial. Neste processo, os intercâmbios culturais e educacionais têm sido valorizados por ambas as partes como uma via importante de promover o contato interpessoal e a aprendizagem mútua entre as duas culturas. Desde 1985, ano em que foi assinado o primeiro acordo de intercâmbio no domínio da educação entre os dois países, a cooperação educacional sino-brasileira começou a se expandir e têm se destacado as seguintes características: diversificação de conteúdos e formas de cooperação educacional; formação de um enquadramento de cooperação que engloba atores e níveis diversificados; aumento de quantidade e qualidade do ensino de línguas; e a ascensão da educação temática como instrumento de promover a aprendizagem mútua entre as culturas chinesa e brasileira. Nas últimas décadas, a cooperação educacional China-Brasil alcançou resultados variados, porém, esta continua enfrentando alguns desafios práticos, tais como a falta de institucionalização, a necessidade de alargar constantemente a sua quantidade e qualidade e a exigência de um conhecimento mútuo mais aprofundado sobre as realidades de educação das duas partes. No futuro, os dois países poderão reforçar a cooperação educacional e beneficiar ambos os povos por meio de promover a construção de mecanismos de cooperação relevantes, se focar mais na garantia de qualidade da cooperação, aprofundar os respetivos estudos sobre países e regiões, estabelecer banco de recursos de educação online e reforçar a cooperação no ensino profissional

Operator-variable binding in the initial state: A cross-linguistic study of VP ellipsis structures in Chinese and English

This paper investigates the claim that the binding relation between an operator and a variable is part of the innate language faculty, in accord with a theory of Universal Grammar. We present results of a study of the acquisition of VP ellipsis structures in Mandarin Chinese. Children from 3 years, 5 months to 6 years, 11 months show early knowledge of the ambiguity in sloppy identity structures and of operator-variable binding. Results are compared to those from an earlier parallel study in English (Foley, Nunez del and 1992a,b,c).Lors d'une étude sur l'acquisition du langage, nous avons testé l'hypothèse que les relations d'opérateur-variable caractérisent la compétence intrinsèque de l'enfant. Nous présentons ici les résultats d'une étude sur l'acquisition des structures de l'ellipse du groupe verbal en chinois. Les enfants de 3 ans, 5 mois à 6 ans, 11 mois montrent la capacité de représenter l'ambiguité de ces structures dans leurs grammaires.Guo Fangfang, Foley Claire, Chien Yu-Chin, Chiang Chi-Pang, Lust Barbara. Operator-variable binding in the initial state: A cross-linguistic study of VP ellipsis structures in Chinese and English. In: Cahiers de linguistique - Asie orientale, vol. 25 1, 1996. pp. 3-34

Passive Film Properties of Bimodal Grain Size AA7075 Aluminium Alloy Prepared by Spark Plasma Sintering

The bimodal-grain-size 7075 aluminium alloys containing varied ratios of large and small 7075 aluminium powders were prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The large powder was 100 &plusmn; 15 &mu;m in diameter and the small one was 10 &plusmn; 5 &mu;m in diameter. The 7075 aluminium alloys was completely densified under the 500 &deg;C sintering temperature and 60 MPa pressure. The large powders constituted coarse grain zone, and the small powders constituted fine grain zone in sintered 7075 aluminium alloys. The microstructural and microchemical difference between the large and small powders was remained in coarse and fine grain zones in bulk alloys after SPS sintering, which allowed for us to investigate the effects of microstructure and microchemistry on passive properties of oxide film formed on sintered alloys. The average diameter of intermetallic phases was 201.3 nm in coarse grain zone, while its vale was 79.8 nm in fine grain zone. The alloying element content in intermetallic phases in coarse grain zone was 33% to 48% higher than that on fine grain zone. The alloying element depletion zone surrounding intermetallic phases in coarse grain zone showed a bigger width and a more severe element depletion. The coarse grain zone in alloys showed a bigger electrochemical heterogeneity as compared to fine grain zone. The passive film formed on coarse grain zone had a thicker thickness and a point defect density of 2.4 &times; 1024 m&minus;3, and the film on fine grain zone had a thinner thickness and a point defect density of 4.0 &times; 1023 m&minus;3. The film resistance was 3.25 &times; 105 &Omega;cm2 on coarse grain zone, while it was 6.46 &times; 105 &Omega;cm2 on fine grain zone. The passive potential range of sintered alloys increased from 457 mV to 678 mV, while the corrosion current density decreased from 8.59 &times; 10&minus;7 A/cm2 to 6.78 &times; 10&minus;7 A/cm2 as fine grain zone increasing from 0% to 100%, which implied that the corrosion resistance of alloys increased with the increasing content of fine grains. The passive film on coarse grain zone exhibited bigger corrosion cavities after pitting initiation compared to that on fine grain zone. The passive film formed on fine grain zone showed a better corrosion resistance. The protectiveness of passive film was mainly determined by defect density rather than the thickness in this work

Distribution of five vibrio virulence-related genes among Vibrio harveyi isolates

Short Communicatio

Stem-Leaf Segmentation and Phenotypic Trait Extraction of Individual Maize Using Terrestrial LiDAR Data

Accurate and high throughput extraction of crop phenotypic traits, as a crucial step of molecular breeding, is of great importance for yield increasing. However, automatic stem-leaf segmentation as a prerequisite of many precise phenotypic trait extractions is still a big challenge. Current works focus on the study of the 2-D image-based segmentation, which are sensitive to illumination and occlusion. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) can obtain accurate 3-D information with its active laser scanning and strong penetration ability, which breaks through phenotyping from 2-D to 3-D. However, few researches have addressed the problem of the LiDAR-based stem-leaf segmentation. In this paper, we proposed a median normalized-vector growth (MNVG) algorithm, which can segment stem and leaf with four steps, i.e., preprocessing, stem growth, leaf growth, and postprocessing. The MNVG method was tested by 30 maize samples with different heights, compactness, leaf numbers, and densities from three growing stages. Moreover, phenotypic traits at leaf, stem, and individual levels were extracted with the truly segmented instances. The mean accuracy of segmentation at point level in terms of the recall, precision, F-score, and overall accuracy were 0.92, 0.93, 0.92, and 0.93, respectively. The accuracy of phenotypic trait extraction in leaf, stem, and individual levels ranged from 0.81 to 0.95, 0.64 to 0.97, and 0.96 to 1, respectively. To our knowledge, this paper proposed the first LiDAR-based stem-leaf segmentation and phenotypic trait extraction method in agriculture field, which may contribute to the study of LiDAR-based plant phonemics and precise agriculture

Evaluating maize phenotype dynamics under drought stress using terrestrial lidar

Abstract Background Maize (Zea mays L.) is the third most consumed grain in the world and improving maize yield is of great importance of the world food security, especially under global climate change and more frequent severe droughts. Due to the limitation of phenotyping methods, most current studies only focused on the responses of phenotypes on certain key growth stages. Although light detection and ranging (lidar) technology showed great potential in acquiring three-dimensional (3D) vegetation information, it has been rarely used in monitoring maize phenotype dynamics at an individual plant level. Results In this study, we used a terrestrial laser scanner to collect lidar data at six growth stages for 20 maize varieties under drought stress. Three drought-related phenotypes, i.e., plant height, plant area index (PAI) and projected leaf area (PLA), were calculated from the lidar point clouds at the individual plant level. The results showed that terrestrial lidar data can be used to estimate plant height, PAI and PLA at an accuracy of 96%, 70% and 92%, respectively. All three phenotypes showed a pattern of first increasing and then decreasing during the growth period. The high drought tolerance group tended to keep lower plant height and PAI without losing PLA during the tasseling stage. Moreover, the high drought tolerance group inclined to have lower plant area density in the upper canopy than the low drought tolerance group. Conclusion The results demonstrate the feasibility of using terrestrial lidar to monitor 3D maize phenotypes under drought stress in the field and may provide new insights on identifying the key phenotypes and growth stages influenced by drought stress