I Seed Permanent Implantation as a Palliative Treatment for Stage III and IV Hypopharyngeal Carcinoma

Objectives. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility and safety of percutaneous 125I seed permanent implantation for advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma from toxicity, tumor response, and short-term outcome. Methods. 125I seeds implant procedures were performed under computed tomography for 34 patients with advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma. We observed the local control rate, overall survival, and acute or late toxicity rate. Results. In the 34 patients (stage III, n=6; stage IV, n=28), the sites of origin were pyriform sinus (n=29) and postcricoid area (n=5). All patients also received one to four cycles of chemotherapy after seed implantation. The post-plan showed that the actuarial D90 of 125I seeds ranged from 90 to 158 Gy (median, 127 Gy). The mean follow-up was 12.3 months (range, 3.4 to 43.2 months). The local control was 2.1–31.0 months with a median of 17.7 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 13.4 to 22.0 months). The 1-, 2-, and 3-year local controls were 65.3%, 28.6%, and 9.5% respectively. Twelve patients (35%) died of local recurrence, fourteen patients (41%) died of distant metastases, and three patients (9%) died of recurrence and metastases at the same time. Five patients (15%) still survived to follow-up. At the time of analysis, the median survival time was 12.5 months (95% CI, 9.5 to 15.4 months). The 1-, 2-, and 3-year overall survival rates were 55.2%, 20.3%, and 10.9%, respectively. Five patients (15%) experienced grade 3 toxic events and nine patients (26%) have experienced grade 2 toxic events. Conclusion. This review shows relatively low toxicity for interstitial 125I seed implantation in the patients with advanced stage hypopharyngeal cancer. The high local control results suggest that 125I seed brachytherapy implant as a salvage or palliative treatment for advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma merit further investigation

Soil ridging combined with biochar or calcium-magnesium-phosphorus fertilizer application: Enhanced interaction with Ca, Fe and Mn in new soil habitat reduces uptake of As and Cd in rice

peer reviewedReducing the bioavailability of both cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As) in paddy fields is a worldwide challenge. The authors investigated whether ridge cultivation combined with biochar or calcium-magnesium-phosphorus (CMP) fertilizer effectively reduces the accumulation of Cd and As in rice grains. Field trial showed that applying biochar or CMP on the ridges was similar to the continuous flooding, which maintained grain Cd at a low level, but grain As was reduced by 55.6%, 46.8% (IIyou28) and 61.9%, 59.3% (Ruiyou 399). Compared with ridging alone, the application of biochar or CMP decreased grain Cd by 38.7%, 37.8% (IIyou28) and 67.58%, 60.98% (Ruiyou399), and reduced grain As by 38.9%, 26.9% (IIyou28) and 39.7%, 35.5% (Ruiyou 399). Microcosm experiment showed that applying biochar and CMP on the ridges decreased As in soil solution by 75.6% and 82.5%, respectively, and kept Cd at a comparably low level at 0.13–0.15 μg L−1. Aggregated boosted tree (ABT) analysis revealed that ridge cultivation combined with soil amendments altered soil pH, redox state (Eh) and enhanced the interaction of Ca, Fe, Mn with As and Cd, which promoted the concerted reduction of As and Cd bioavailability. Application of biochar on the ridges enhanced the effects of Ca and Mn to maintain a low level of Cd, and enhanced the effects of pH to reduce As in soil solution. Similar to ridging alone, applying CMP on the ridges enhanced the effects of Mn to reduce As in soil solution, and enhanced the effects of pH and Mn to maintain Cd at a low level. Ridging also promoted the association of As with poorly/well-crystalline Fe/Al and the association of Cd on Mn-oxides. This study provides an effective and environmentally friendly method to decrease Cd and As bioavailability in paddy fields and mitigate Cd and As accumulation in rice grain

Up-Regulation of Mcl-1 and Bak by Coronavirus Infection of Human, Avian and Animal Cells Modulates Apoptosis and Viral Replication

Virus-induced apoptosis and viral mechanisms that regulate this cell death program are key issues in understanding virus-host interactions and viral pathogenesis. Like many other human and animal viruses, coronavirus infection of mammalian cells induces apoptosis. In this study, the global gene expression profiles are first determined in IBV-infected Vero cells at 24 hours post-infection by Affymetrix array, using avian coronavirus infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) as a model system. It reveals an up-regulation at the transcriptional level of both pro-apoptotic Bak and pro-survival myeloid cell leukemia-1 (Mcl-1). These results were further confirmed both in vivo and in vitro, in IBV-infected embryonated chicken eggs, chicken fibroblast cells and mammalian cells at transcriptional and translational levels, respectively. Interestingly, the onset of apoptosis occurred earlier in IBV-infected mammalian cells silenced with short interfering RNA targeting Mcl-1 (siMcl-1), and was delayed in cells silenced with siBak. IBV progeny production and release were increased in infected Mcl-1 knockdown cells compared to similarly infected control cells, while the contrary was observed in infected Bak knockdown cells. Furthermore, IBV infection-induced up-regulation of GADD153 regulated the expression of Mcl-1. Inhibition of the mitogen-activated protein/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MEK/ERK) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K/Akt) signaling pathways by chemical inhibitors and knockdown of GADD153 by siRNA demonstrated the involvement of ER-stress response in regulation of IBV-induced Mcl-1 expression. These results illustrate the sophisticated regulatory strategies evolved by a coronavirus to modulate both virus-induced apoptosis and viral replication during its replication cycle

Noise Elimination for Coalcutter Vibration Signal Based on Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition and an Improved Harris Hawks Optimization Algorithm

The vibration signal of the shearer is one of the important signals for coal and rock cutting mode recognition and fault diagnosis. However, the signal collected in the field contains a large amount of background noise, which is not conducive to subsequent analysis and processing. Therefore, a noise elimination method for coalcutter vibration signal based on Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) and an Improved Harris Hawks Optimization (HHO) algorithm is proposed in this paper. The vibration signal is first decomposed by EEMD to generate a series of intrinsic mode functions (IMF). The HHO algorithm was introduced to determine the optimal denoising threshold of each IMF. In addition, the original HHO has been improved to use the natural constant as the base exponential function to determine the escape energy trend line. Simulation results show that compared with the other four denoising methods, the signal waveform processed by this method is smoother. Under different types of signals and the same intensity of noise, the SNR increases by 70.9%, 6.7%, 2.6%, and 10.53% on average, respectively. The MSE decreases by 67.6%, 12.7%, 4.5%, and 5.42% on average. Under the same type of signal and different intensity of noise environment, the SNR is improved by 74.62%, 37.70%, 5.24%, and 39.72% on average, respectively. MSE decreased by 77.38%, 53.10%, 9.88%, and 54.67% on average. Finally, the method is applied to the shearer working state diagnosis system, and its actual effect is verified

Adaptive Enhancement for Coal-Rock Cutting Sound Based on Parameter Self-Tuning Bistable Stochastic Resonance Model

The traditional bistable stochastic resonance model has always had the drawback of being difficult when choosing accurate system parameters when a weak signal is enhanced. This paper proposes a parameter self-tuning adaptive optimization method based on the bat optimization algorithm to address this issue. The cubic mapping strategy of chaos optimization is introduced in the initial process of the individual position of the bat algorithm. Chaos is characterized by randomness, sensitivity, fractal dimension, and universality. The initial problem of the algorithm falling into local extremums is overcome. The global search capability of the basic bat optimization algorithm has been improved. The improved bat optimization algorithm’s objective function is the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the target weak signal output by the bistable stochastic resonance model. An adaptive signal enhancement algorithm based on the improved bat optimization algorithm and bistable stochastic resonance (IBA-BSR) model is constructed to increase the proportion of weak signals in the mixed signal. Simulation signals are created to validate the proposed algorithm’s feasibility. The engineering application effect of this algorithm is further demonstrated by enhancing the sound signal of coal and rock cutting by a shearer in a coal face. Engineering test results demonstrate that this algorithm can significantly increase the SNR of coal and rock cutting sound signals by 42.4537 dB, and the effect is remarkable

Anti-Ferroptosis: A Promising Therapeutic Method for Thyroid Cancer

At present, many problems remain to be solved in studying the pathogenesis of thyroid cancer. Ferroptosis is a programmed cell death mode discovered in recent years, and many studies have found that ferroptosis plays a significant role in the prognosis and progression of thyroid cancer. The researchers showed that ferroptosis-related genes are essential in diagnosing thyroid cancer. Therefore, this paper summarizes some pathological and clinical characteristics of thyroid cancer and makes a series of combs on the relationship between ferroptosis and the basis and function of thyroid cancer, thus providing specific ideas for the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancer

Adaptive Enhancement for Coal-Rock Cutting Sound Based on Parameter Self-Tuning Bistable Stochastic Resonance Model

The traditional bistable stochastic resonance model has always had the drawback of being difficult when choosing accurate system parameters when a weak signal is enhanced. This paper proposes a parameter self-tuning adaptive optimization method based on the bat optimization algorithm to address this issue. The cubic mapping strategy of chaos optimization is introduced in the initial process of the individual position of the bat algorithm. Chaos is characterized by randomness, sensitivity, fractal dimension, and universality. The initial problem of the algorithm falling into local extremums is overcome. The global search capability of the basic bat optimization algorithm has been improved. The improved bat optimization algorithm’s objective function is the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the target weak signal output by the bistable stochastic resonance model. An adaptive signal enhancement algorithm based on the improved bat optimization algorithm and bistable stochastic resonance (IBA-BSR) model is constructed to increase the proportion of weak signals in the mixed signal. Simulation signals are created to validate the proposed algorithm’s feasibility. The engineering application effect of this algorithm is further demonstrated by enhancing the sound signal of coal and rock cutting by a shearer in a coal face. Engineering test results demonstrate that this algorithm can significantly increase the SNR of coal and rock cutting sound signals by 42.4537 dB, and the effect is remarkable

Structural Characteristics and the Antioxidant and Hypoglycemic Activities of a Polysaccharide from <i>Lonicera caerulea</i> L. Pomace

In this study, a novel polysaccharide, LPP, was obtained from Lonicera caerulea L. pomace by ultrasonic-assisted heating and was purified by Sephadex G-100. The structural characteristics of LPP showed that the molecular weight (Mw) was 8.53 × 104 Da; that it was mainly composed of galacturonic acid, followed by galactose; that it possessed the characteristic functional groups of polysaccharides; and that it had an absence of O-glycosidic bonds and crystalline and triple helix structures. Furthermore, LPP exhibited a favorable thermodynamic stability and antioxidant, hypoglycemic, and hypolipidemic activities in a dose-dependent manner in vitro, demonstrating that LPP can be used as an agent to regulate glycolipid metabolism. Additionally, the relationship between its bio-activities is discussed in this paper. The results revealed that the RP, •OH, and NO2− radicals had synergistic promoting effects, and polysaccharides with a strong antioxidant ability may have excellent hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects. Collectively, these results suggest that LPP has a strong bio-activity, and that Lonicera caerulea L. pomace can be used as a potential polysaccharide source