The older the better: The characteristic of localized prostate cancer in Chinese men

AbstractObjectiveTo assess the clinicopathological features and overall survival between two groups of Chinese patients older or younger than 70 years after retropubic radical prostatectomy.MethodsFrom January 2001 to February 2010, 390 patients receive dretropubic radical prostatectomy. After excluding 89 patients with adjuvant or neoadjuvant hormonal therapy or radiotherapy, a total of 301 patients were included in this study. We arbitrarily divided these patients into younger age group (<70 years, 140 cases, 46.5%) and older age group (≥70 years, 161 cases, 53.5%). The differences in serum prostate specific antigen (PSA), Gleason score, clinical tumor stage, and biochemical-free survival were analyzed between the two groups.ResultsThere were not significant differences between the two groups in high Gleason score rate and clinical tumor stage. However, older patients had significantly lower biochemical recurrence rate than those of younger patients, and had significantly higher PSA levels. Multivariate analysis showed that older age, PSA level and clinical tumor stage were significantly associated with biochemical recurrence free survival.ConclusionIn Chinese men, older age (≥70 years) is associated with better outcome. If the physical condition permits, older age alone should not exclude patients from radical prostatectomy

Pressure-induced superconductivity in charge-density-wave compound LaTe2-xSbx (x=0 and 0.4)

Here, we have grown single crystals of LaTe2-xSbx (x=0 and 0.4) with continuously adjustable CDW. High-pressure x-ray diffraction show LaTe2 does not undergo phase transition and keep robust below 40 GPa. In-situ high-pressure electrical measurements show LaTe2-xSbx undergo semiconductor-metal-superconductivity transition at 4.6 and 2.5 GPa, respectively. With the doping of Sb, the highest Tc increases from 4.6 to 6.5 K. Theoretical calculations reveal that the CDW has been completely suppressed and the calculated Tc is about 2.97 K at 4.5 GPa, consistent with the measured value. Then, the pressure-induced superconductivity in LaTe2-xSbx can be explained in the framework of the BCS theory.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Transcriptome profile of halofuginone resistant and sensitive strains of Eimeria tenella

The antiparasitic drug halofuginone is important for controlling apicomplexan parasites. However, the occurrence of halofuginone resistance is a major obstacle for it to the treatment of apicomplexan parasites. Current studies have identified the molecular marker and drug resistance mechanisms of halofuginone in Plasmodium falciparum. In this study, we tried to use transcriptomic data to explore resistance mechanisms of halofuginone in apicomplexan parasites of the genus Eimeria (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae). After halofuginone treatment of E. tenella parasites, transcriptome analysis was performed using samples derived from both resistant and sensitive strains. In the sensitive group, DEGs associated with enzymes were significantly downregulated, whereas the DNA damaging process was upregulated after halofuginone treatment, revealing the mechanism of halofuginone-induced parasite death. In addition, 1,325 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected between halofuginone resistant and sensitive strains, and the DEGs related to translation were significantly downregulated after halofuginone induction. Overall, our results provide a gene expression profile for further studies on the mechanism of halofuginone resistance in E. tenella

One-way isolation: An effective approach for realizing safe execution environments

In this paper, we present an approach for realizing a safe execution environment (SEE) that enables users to “try out” new software (or configuration changes to existing software) without the fear of damaging the system in any manner. A key property of our SEE is that it faithfully reproduces the behavior of applications, as if they were running natively on the underlying host operating system. This is accomplished via one-way isolation: processes running within the SEE are given read-access to the environment provided by the host OS, but their write operations are prevented from escaping outside the SEE. As a result, SEE processes cannot impact the behavior of host OS processes, or the integrity of data on the host OS. Our SEE supports a wide range of tasks, including: study of malicious code, controlled execution of untrusted software, experimentation with software configuration changes, testing of software patches, and so on. It provides a convenient way for users to inspect system changes made within the SEE. If the user does not accept these changes, they can be rolled back at the click of a button. Otherwise, the changes can be “committed ” so as to become visible outside the SEE. We provide consistency criteria that ensure semantic consistency of the committed results. We also develop an efficient technique for implementing the commit operation. Our implementation results show that most software, including fairly complex server and client applications, can run successfully within the SEE. The approach introduces low performance overheads, typically below 10%

Stability Analysis of the Cyber Physical Microgrid System under the Intermittent DoS Attacks

Recent research has demonstrated the vulnerabilities of cyber physical microgrid to different rates of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, which send internal requests to degrade the victim’s performance. However, the interaction between the attacks and the security of microgrid remains largely unknown. In this paper, we address two fundamental questions: (1) What is the impact of intermittent DoS (IDoS) attacks on the security of cyber physical microgrid and (2) how can we analyze the stability of the cyber physical microgrid under IDoS attacks? To tackle these problems, we firstly model the cyber physical microgrid system considering the IDoS attacks on the network server. Based on the model, the interaction between the cyber system and the physical system is analyzed. Then, the impacts of IDoS attacks on the security of the cyber physical microgrid system are studied. It shows that the attack may lead to the system level oscillation with the information variation during the attack period. Therefore, a risk assessment method is proposed to investigate the stability of the cyber physcial microgrid system under IDoS attacks. Lastly, the proposed methodology is verified by simulation results

Positive effects of tree species richness on fine-root production in a subtropical forest in SE-China

Aims: Fine roots play an important role in the biogeochemical cycles of terrestrial ecosystems and are vital for understanding forest ecosystem functioning and services. Higher plant species diversity has been largely reported to increase aboveground community biomass, but how biodiversity affects fine-root production and the related mechanisms in forests remain unclear. In this study, we aim to answer two questions: (i) does fine-root production increase with tree species richness? (ii) Can this effect be explained by niche complementarity among species? Methods: We analyzed data from a large forest biodiversity experiment (BEF-China) with 5-year-old trees. Fine-root growth was measured as standing biomass and annual fine-root regrowth was estimated using ingrowth cores. Moreover, relative yield was calculated to test whether over- or under-yielding occurred when mixtures were compared with the average monoculture of the species included in the mixtures. We calculated functional diversity for fine-root (≤2mm in diameter) traits by Rao’s quadratic entropy index for each species mixture. The effects of manipulated tree species richness and identity on fine-root traits were analyzed with linear mixed-effects models. Mixed models were also used to test the relationships between tree species richness and fine-root standing biomass, annual regrowth and vertical heterogeneity. Important Findings: Fine roots of more than one species were found in half of the soil cores in mixtures indicating that belowground interactions in these young forest stands occurred much earlier than canopy closure. We found significant differences among species in fine-root traits such as diameter and specific root length (SRL), which suggested different resource-use strategies and niche partitioning among species. Mean fine-root diameter of species ranged from 0.31 to 0.74mm, mean SRL ranged from 12.43 m·g−1 to 70.22 m·g−1 and mean vertical distribution index β ranged from 0.68 to 0.93. There was a significant positive relationship between species richness and the evenness of the vertical distribution of fine-root standing biomass. Moreover, marginally significant positive relationships existed between species richness and standing biomass as well as annual regrowth of fine roots. Relative yields and Rao’s quadratic entropy index were both not significantly affected by species richness. However, the relative yield of fine-root standing biomass was marginally correlated with Rao’s quadratic entropy index, implying that belowground niche complementarity between species does contribute to diversity effects. In conclusion, our study showed positive effects of species richness on the filling of soil volume by fine roots in the studied experimental forest communities. This has positive effects on fine-root standing biomass and may also lead to increased aboveground biomass