Partial Nephrectomy in the Treatment of Localized Renal Cell Carcinoma — Experience of Taichung Veterans General Hospital

BackgroundPartial nephrectomy has been considered an effective and efficient method in the treatment of localized renal cell carcinoma. Herein, we retrospectively review our experience with partial nephrectomy in the treatment of localized renal cell carcinoma and compared it with patients who received radical nephrectomy.MethodsFrom 1982 to 2005, 35 patients who received partial nephrectomy for localized renal cell carcinoma were enrolled in this study. Ten patients were female (28.6%). The median age was 70 years (range, 42–82 years). Sixteen (45.7%) patients had pathologic T1a tumors; 17 (48.6%) patients had pathologic T1b tumors and 2 (5.7%) patients had pathologic T2 tumor (7 cm). In the meantime, 128 patients who had T1N0M0 renal cell carcinoma and who received radical nephrectomy were assigned to a control group. Thirty-nine patients (30.5%) were female in this group. The median age was 62 years (range, 30–83 years). The tumor characteristics, location, surgical techniques and patient survival were subsequently compared.ResultsThe median tumor size in the partial nephrectomy group was 3.9 cm (range, 1.5–7.0 cm), and it was 4.5 cm (range, 1–6.5 cm) in radical nephrectomy group. The tumor size was smaller in the partial nephrectomy group (p = 0.003). The median follow-up period was 4.38 years (range, 0.05–17.99 years) in the partial nephrectomy group and 5.66 years (range, 0.01–22.25 years) in the radical nephrectomy group. There was no local recurrence or distant metastasis in the partial nephrectomy group. The 5-year overall survival was 85.0% compared with 91.4% in the radical nephrectomy group (p = 0.126). The 5-year disease-specific survival in the partial nephrectomy group was 100%. The postoperative serum creatinine level increased to > 2.0 mg/dL in 5 (14.3%) patients in the partial nephrectomy group, but no patient needed hemodialysis during follow-up.ConclusionFrom our review, partial nephrectomy is safe and provides excellent disease control in the treatment of localized renal cell carcinoma in selected patients. Renal function preservation was observed in the partial nephrectomy group, while the operated kidney showed functioning in the follow-up nuclear medicine survey

Synthesis and Characterization of a Photoelectrode with a Novel 3D Structure for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

This study designs a novel dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) in which the photoanode is derived from its three-dimensional (3D) structure. The inside of the cell has a positive illumination structure, with the purposes of increasing the area of photoelectrode thin film and of increasing the illuminated area within a fixed area in order to achieve the objective of enhancing the photoelectric conversion efficiency of cell. For the cell structure experiment, the study uses graphite paper, carbon and platinum as counter electrode materials, and then conducts measurement with cell heights of 3 mm, 5 mm, and 7 mm. The electrolyte used is a gel polymer electrolyte. The assembly of the cell is divided into vertical assembly, inclined assembly, and tandem assembly. In the 3D tandem cell experiment, the counter electrode material is platinum. Experimental results show that when cell height is 7 mm and illuminated area is 0.28 cm2, open-loop voltage is 0.662 V, short-circuit current density is 18.42 mA/cm2, fill factor is 0.31, and the photoelectric conversion efficiency is 3.85%, which is 1.65 times that under vertical assembly (2.34%) and 2.15 times that of the flat cell (1.79%)

On the stability of millimeter-wave power amplifiers

In this paper, we discuss issues affecting high-frequency power amplifier stability. Two methods for simulating K-factor stability in a monolithic millimeter-wave. integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifier will be discussed. Both methods will be used to predict the occurrence of millimeter-wave oscillations (Ka-band and above) in a W-band power amplifier. We present experimental results confirming the simulation data, and discuss how the methods may be applied to eliminate instabilities in MMIC power amplifiers

Outlier-resilient complexity analysis of heartbeat dynamics

Complexity in physiological outputs is believed to be a hallmark of healthy physiological control. How to accurately quantify the degree of complexity in physiological signals with outliers remains a major barrier for translating this novel concept of nonlinear dynamic theory to clinical practice. Here we propose a new approach to estimate the complexity in a signal by analyzing the irregularity of the sign time series of its coarse-grained time series at different time scales. Using surrogate data, we show that the method can reliably assess the complexity in noisy data while being highly resilient to outliers. We further apply this method to the analysis of human heartbeat recordings. Without removing any outliers due to ectopic beats, the method is able to detect a degradation of cardiac control in patients with congestive heart failure and a more degradation in critically ill patients whose life continuation relies on extracorporeal membrane oxygenator (ECMO). Moreover, the derived complexity measures can predict the mortality of ECMO patients. These results indicate that the proposed method may serve as a promising tool for monitoring cardiac function of patients in clinical settings

PCR-based detection and genetic characterization of porcine parvoviruses in South Korea in 2018

with the advantage of sequencing technology, many novel porcine parvoviruses (PPV) rather than PPV1 has been reported. This study ultilized specific PCR- based method and gene- based analysis to study the presence and genetic diversity of porcine parvoviruses in South Korea in 2018. The present study was conducted in 2018 and found PPV1 and PPV7 in nine out of 151 field samples (organs and semen) by the PCR method. Among these, the complete genome sequences of five strains (N2, N91, N108, N133, and N141) were recovered. Phylogenic analysis revealed that the strains N2, N91, and N108 belong to the PPV1 genotype, while N133 and N141 belong to PPV7 genotype. The PPV7 strains collected in this study had deletion mutations in the VP2 gene but differed from that of PPV7 strains collected in 2017. Among the PPV1 strains, the amino acid variations in the B cell epitopes of the VP2 protein were observed between three Korean PPV1 field strains (N2, N91, and N108) and the reference PPV1 strains. Those substitutions resulted in six out of 12 predicted epitopes having significant differences in antigenic index compared to the other PPV1 strains. This study confirmed the presence of different genotypes of porcine parvoviruses in South Korea. The PPVs circulating in South Korea were phylogenetically classified as PPV1 and PPV7 genotypes. Three Korean PPV1 strains collected in 2018 were predicted to have antigenic alteration in VP2 compared to several reference strains of PPV1.This study was supported by Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Korea Ltd. (Grant no. 20180002). The funder had no role in this study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Loss of Autophagy Diminishes Pancreatic β Cell Mass and Function with Resultant Hyperglycemia

SummaryAutophagy is a cellular degradation-recycling system for aggregated proteins and damaged organelles. Although dysregulated autophagy is implicated in various diseases including neurodegeneration, its role in pancreatic β cells and glucose homeostasis has not been described. We produced mice with β cell-specific deletion of Atg7 (autophagy-related 7). Atg7 mutant mice showed impaired glucose tolerance and decreased serum insulin level. β cell mass and pancreatic insulin content were reduced because of increased apoptosis and decreased proliferation of β cells. Physiological studies showed reduced basal and glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and impaired glucose-induced cytosolic Ca2+ transients in autophagy-deficient β cells. Morphologic analysis revealed accumulation of ubiquitinated protein aggregates colocalized with p62, which was accompanied by mitochondrial swelling, endoplasmic reticulum distension, and vacuolar changes in β cells. These results suggest that autophagy is necessary to maintain structure, mass and function of pancreatic β cells, and its impairment causes insulin deficiency and hyperglycemia because of abnormal turnover and function of cellular organelles

Measurement of 129 I Radioactivity in Groundwater of Radioactive Waste Disposal Site

The investigation of the environmental radioactivity around the radioactive waste disposal site in Gyeongju is being carried out. The radioactivity of 129 I in groundwater and seaweed are to be measured. The analytical method to measure the radioactivity of 129 I in aqueous media was established. This method contains oxidation-reduction reaction, anion-exchange separation and palladium precipitation. The 129 I radioactivity in the PdI 2 precipitates was measured by using low-energy gamma spectrometer. The counts of peak at 39.6 keV of gamma energy were used for determination of 129 I radioactivity. The chemical recovery was determined by the weights of PdI 2 precipitates. The deionized water and groundwater spiked with 129 I tracer were tested. In the case of deionized water, the relative deviations of measured concentration from spiked one are from 1.1 to 10.7%. The relative deviations of measured radioactivity from spiked one in the groundwater experiments are 2.9 and 3.7%. The measured concentration is in good agreement with spiked one. The groundwater sampled from radioactive waste disposal site was tested. The concentrations of 129 I in the groundwater are below minimum detectable activities of 36.7 and 36.6 mBq/L