Longitudinal trends in prostate cancer incidence, mortality, and survival of patients from two Shanghai city districts: a retrospective population-based cohort study, 2000-2009.

BackgroundProstate cancer is the fifth most common cancer affecting men of all ages in China, but robust surveillance data on its occurrence and outcome is lacking. The specific objective of this retrospective study was to analyze the longitudinal trends of prostate cancer incidence, mortality, and survival in Shanghai from 2000 to 2009.MethodsA retrospective population-based cohort study was performed using data from a central district (Putuo) and a suburban district (Jiading) of Shanghai. Records of all prostate cancer cases reported to the Shanghai Cancer Registry from 2000 to 2009 for the two districts were reviewed. Prostate cancer outcomes were ascertained by matching cases with individual mortality data (up to 2010) from the National Death Register. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyze factors associated with prostate cancer survival.ResultsA total of 1022 prostate cancer cases were diagnosed from 2000 to 2009. The average age of patients was 75 years. A rapid increase in incidence occurred during the study period. Compared with the year 2000, 2009 incidence was 3.28 times higher in Putuo and 5.33 times higher in Jiading. Prostate cancer mortality declined from 4.45 per 105 individuals per year in 2000 to 1.94 per 105 in 2009 in Putuo and from 5.45 per 105 to 3.5 per 105 in Jiading during the same period. One-year and 5-year prostate cancer survival rates were 95% and 56% in Putuo, and 88% and 51% in Jiading, respectively. Staging of disease, Karnofsky Performance Scale Index, and selection of chemotherapy were three independent factors influencing the survival of prostate cancer patients.ConclusionsThe prostate cancer incidence increased rapidly from 2000 to 2009, and prostate cancer survival rates decreased in urban and suburban Chinese populations. Early detection and prompt prostate cancer treatment is important for improving health and for increasing survival rates of the Shanghai male population

Dynamic analysis of buried steel pipeline subjected to blast seismic waves

A solution for dynamic stress concentration of buried pipeline with different material properties subjected to incident P waves is given by wave function expansion method. Through the quantitative analysis of the dynamic response of pipeline structures subjected to blasting seismic waves, the influence of the incident wave numbers, diameter-thick ratio and buried depth on dynamic stress concentration of both Q235 and X70 pipelines was revealed in the paper

NP-Hardness of Tensor Network Contraction Ordering

We study the optimal order (or sequence) of contracting a tensor network with a minimal computational cost. We conclude 2 different versions of this optimal sequence: that minimize the operation number (OMS) and that minimize the time complexity (CMS). Existing results only shows that OMS is NP-hard, but no conclusion on CMS problem. In this work, we firstly reduce CMS to CMS-0, which is a sub-problem of CMS with no free indices. Then we prove that CMS is easier than OMS, both in general and in tree cases. Last but not least, we prove that CMS is still NP-hard. Based on our results, we have built up relationships of hardness of different tensor network contraction problems.Comment: Jianyu Xu and Hanwen Zhang are equal contributors. 10 pages (reference and appendix excluded), 20 pages in total, 6 figure

Cardiac Specific Overexpression of Mitochondrial Omi/HtrA2 Induces Myocardial Apoptosis and Cardiac Dysfunction.

Myocardial apoptosis is a significant problem underlying ischemic heart disease. We previously reported significantly elevated expression of cytoplasmic Omi/HtrA2, triggers cardiomyocytes apoptosis. However, whether increased Omi/HtrA2 within mitochondria itself influences myocardial survival in vivo is unknown. We aim to observe the effects of mitochondria-specific, not cytoplasmic, Omi/HtrA2 on myocardial apoptosis and cardiac function. Transgenic mice overexpressing cardiac-specific mitochondrial Omi/HtrA2 were generated and they had increased myocardial apoptosis, decreased systolic and diastolic function, and decreased left ventricular remodeling. Transiently or stably overexpression of mitochondria Omi/HtrA2 in H9C2 cells enhance apoptosis as evidenced by elevated caspase-3, -9 activity and TUNEL staining, which was completely blocked by Ucf-101, a specific Omi/HtrA2 inhibitor. Mechanistic studies revealed mitochondrial Omi/HtrA2 overexpression degraded the mitochondrial anti-apoptotic protein HAX-1, an effect attenuated by Ucf-101. Additionally, transfected cells overexpressing mitochondrial Omi/HtrA2 were more sensitive to hypoxia and reoxygenation (H/R) induced apoptosis. Cyclosporine A (CsA), a mitochondrial permeability transition inhibitor, blocked translocation of Omi/HtrA2 from mitochondrial to cytoplasm, and protected transfected cells incompletely against H/R-induced caspase-3 activation. We report in vitro and in vivo overexpression of mitochondrial Omi/HtrA2 induces cardiac apoptosis and dysfunction. Thus, strategies to directly inhibit Omi/HtrA2 or its cytosolic translocation from mitochondria may protect against heart injury

Hydrodynamic Analysis of 3-SPS Wave Energy Conversion Device

Wave energy has the advantages of high energy density, renewability, and wide distribution, and has been highly valued by many coastal countries. The wave energy conversion device can convert wave energy into electric energy, which is of great significance for alleviating problems such as energy crisis and greenhouse effect. The traditional wave energy conversion device can only gain the energy along the heave direction, and the kinetic energy of the buoy is not fully utilized. To improve the energy utilization efficiency of the wave energy conversion device, this paper proposed a new type of 3-SPS wave energy conversion device. Based on linear waves and Lagrangian equation, a hydrodynamic model of the device was established. The displacement and velocity of the device float under the action of linear waves were analyzed. The results show that the 3-SPS wave energy conversion device can collect the kinetic energy of the buoy in its heaving, surging and pitching movement at the same time; the kinetic energy of the buoy in the heaving direction is much greater than the kinetic energy in the surging and pitching directions; the buoy can capture kinetic energy in multiple directions of motion, indicating that the 3-SPS wave energy conversion device has a high energy utilization efficiency. This paper provides some useful references for the optimal design of the new wave energy device

Centrifuge experiment and numerical study on the dynamic response of air-backed plate to underwater explosion

This work compares experimental and numerical results concerning the elastic dynamic response of air-backed plate to underwater explosion. Experiments were performed in a centrifuge, both the shock loadings and structure responses were tested, and the bubble oscillation considering centrifugal force was predicted with Geer and Hunter model. The experimental and numerical results illustrates that the centrifugal force have no effect on shockwave for the short duration of action, and with the increase of centrifugal force, the bubble pulse motion cycle, maximum bubble radius, and peak pressure of bubble pulse decreased; both the peak of high-frequency and low-frequency response of the plate decline slightly when alpha damping rising ,the high-frequency response mode almost have no change with different alpha damping ,while, the low-frequency response tends to be an obvious oscillation waveform when the alpha damping is too low; although the difference of the peak acceleration owing to shock wave and bubble reaches to tens of times, the strain responses caused by the two factors are very close, which enucleates that the train response is related to shock energy and has a higher sensitivity to time accumulation; both the peak acceleration and peak strain due to the shock wave remain steady and the two kinds of response by bubble pulse decrease with the centrifugal force increasing; when the target position is more close to the area that the shock wave vertically impact ,the linear correlation between peak velocity and shock factor is much better. Key words: underwater explosion; centrifugal effect; FEM