Anticancer Therapy-Induced Atrial Fibrillation: Electrophysiology and Related Mechanisms

Some well-established immunotherapy, radiotherapy, postoperation, anticancer drugs such as anthracyclines, antimetabolites, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 blockers, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, alkylating agents, checkpoint inhibitors, and angiogenesis inhibitors, are significantly linked to cardiotoxicity. Cardiotoxicity is a common complication of several cancer treatments. Some studies observed complications of cardiac arrhythmia associated with the treatment of cancer, including atrial fibrillation (AF), supraventricular arrhythmias, and cardiac repolarization abnormalities. AF increases the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality; it is associated with an almost doubled risk of mortality and a nearly 5-fold increase in the risk of stroke. The occurrence of AF is also usually researched in patients with advanced cancer and those undergoing active cancer treatments. During cancer treatments, the incidence rate of AF affects the prognosis of tumor treatment and challenges the treatment strategy. The present article is mainly focused on the cardiotoxicity of cancer treatments. In our review, we discuss these anticancer therapies and how they induce AF and consequently provide information on the precaution of AF during cancer treatment

Prediction Method for Sugarcane Syrup Brix Based on Improved Support Vector Regression

The brix of syrup is an important parameter in sugar production. To accurately measure syrup brix, a novel measurement method based on support vector regression (SVR) is presented. With the resonant frequency and quality factor as inputs and syrup brix as the output, a mathematical model of the relationship between the resonant frequency, quality factor, and syrup brix is established. Simultaneously, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to optimize the penalty coefficient and radial basis kernel function of SVR to improve the performance of the model. The calculation model is trained and tested using the collected experimental data. The results show that the mean absolute error, mean absolute percentage error, and root mean square error of the syrup brix calculation model based on the improved SVR model can reach 0.74 °Bx, 2.24%, and 0.90 °Bx, respectively, while the determination coefficient can reach 0.9985. The simulation of the online measurement of syrup brix in the actual production process proves the excellent prediction performance of the syrup brix calculation model based on the improved PSO–SVR model, which can thus be used to predict the syrup brix

Low heart rate variability relates to the progression of gastric cancer

Abstract Background Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignant gastrointestinal tumors with the high morbidity and mortality, affecting the quality of human life. This study aimed to identify the role of heart rate variability (HRV) in patients with GC. Methods From January 2010 to June 2014, 383 consecutive patients diagnosed with GC were enrolled in this study. Clinical and pathological information from each patient were retrospectively recorded. HRV, including standard deviation of normal-to-normal RR intervals (SDNN) and root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD), were measured by electrocardiography. Results The results showed that the SDNN and RMSSD in GC patients were 19.02 ± 13.58 ms and 21.64 ± 17.57 ms, respectively. HRV decreased with advanced clinical stage (P  0.05). C-reactive protein (CRP) was higher in the low HRV group than that in high HRV group (P = 0.008). Conclusions GC patients showed a lower HRV that was correlated with tumor stage. HRV decreased with tumor progression, which may be related to a mechanism involving vagal nerve excitement inhibiting the inflammatory reaction

Study on the Design and Experimental Research on a Bionic Crab Robot with Amphibious Multi-Modal Movement

Bionic amphibious robots are the intersection of biology and robotics; they have the advantages of environmental adaptability and maneuverability. An amphibious robot that combines walking and swimming move modes inspired by a crab (Portunus) is presented in this article. The outstanding characteristic of the robot is that its environmental adaptability relies on the bionic multi-modal movement, which is based on two modular bionic swimming legs and six modular walking legs. We designed the biomimetic crab robot based on the biological observation results. The design, analysis, and simulation of its structure and motion parameters are introduced in this paper. The swimming propulsion capability and the walking performance are verified through indoor, pool, and seaside experiments. In conclusion, the designed bionic crab robot provides a platform with practical application capabilities in amphibious environment detection, concealed reconnaissance, and aquaculture

Effects of rainfall amount and frequency on vegetation growth in a Tibetan alpine meadow

Over the past decades, rainfall amount and frequency changed considerably on the Tibetan Plateau. However, how altered rainfall pattern affects vegetation growth and phenology in Tibetan alpine grasslands is poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the long-term effects of rainfall amount and frequency on production (i.e., aboveground biomass, AGB) and phenology of three perennial plants in a Tibetan alpine meadow from 1994 to 2005. Growth period (i.e., the dates from greening to senescence) was referred to plant phenology here. Our results showed that annual precipitation and total rainfall from large events (a parts per thousand yen 5 mm per day) were mainly distributed in the growing season, which increased significantly from 1994 to 2005 with more increment in May and July (p &lt; 0.05). Total AGB and growth periods of three plants were linearly correlated with annual precipitation and total rainfall from large events, but have insignificant correlations with total rainfall from small events (&lt; 5 mm per day) and rainfall frequency (including small, large, and all events). The results suggest that aboveground plant production and phenology are more sensitive to changes in large rainfall events (a parts per thousand yen 5 mm per day) than small events (&lt; 5 mm per day) in the alpine meadow ecosystems.</p