The extraction of φ–N total cross section from d(γ,p^K+^K−)n

Qian, X.,Chen, W.,Gao, H.,Hicks, K.,Kramer, K.,Laget, J.M.,Mibe, T.,Stepanyan, S.,Tedeschi, D.J.,Xu, W.,Adhikari, K.P.,Amaryan, M.,Anghinolfi, M.,Baghdasaryan, H.,Ball, J.,Battaglieri, M.,Batourine, V Elsevier 2009 Physics letters: B Vol.680 No.5

<P><B>Abstract</B></P><P>We report on the first measurement of the differential cross section of <I>φ</I>-meson photoproduction for the d(γ,p<SUP>K+</SUP><SUP>K−</SUP>)n exclusive reaction channel. The experiment was performed using a tagged-photon beam and the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at Jefferson Lab. A combined analysis using data from the d(γ,p<SUP>K+</SUP><SUP>K−</SUP>)n channel and those from a previous publication on coherent <I>φ</I> production on the deuteron has been carried out to extract the φ−N total cross section, <SUB>σφN</SUB>. The extracted φ−N total cross section favors a value above 20 mb. This value is larger than the value extracted using vector-meson dominance models for <I>φ</I> photoproduction on the proton.</P>

Variants in hormone-related genes and the risk of biliary tract cancers and stones: a population-based study in China

Park, S. K.,Andreotti, G.,Sakoda, L. C.,Gao, Y.-T.,Rashid, A.,Chen, J.,Chen, B. E.,Rosenberg, P. S.,Shen, M.-C.,Wang, B.-S.,Han, T.-Q.,Zhang, B.-H.,Yeager, M.,Chanock, S.,Hsing, A. W. Oxford University Press 2009 Carcinogenesis Vol.30 No.4

<P>Biliary tract cancers, encompassing gallbladder, extrahepatic bile duct and ampulla of Vater cancers, are uncommon but often fatal malignancies. Hormone-related factors, including parity, oral contraceptive use, obesity, and gallstones, have been implicated in the etiology of these cancers. To further clarify the role of hormones in biliary tract cancers and biliary stones, we genotyped 18 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in nine genes involved in steroid hormone biosynthesis, metabolism and transport in a population-based case-control study in Shanghai, China. This study included subjects who completed an interview and provided blood, which totaled 411 biliary tract cancer and 893 biliary stone patients and 786 healthy Shanghai residents. The CYP1A1 IVS1 + 606 (rs2606345) T allele was associated with gallbladder [odds ratio (OR) = 2.0, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.3-3.0] and bile duct cancers (OR = 1.8, 95% CI = 1.1-3.1), whereas the CYP1A1 Ex7 + 131 (rs1048943) G allele was associated with ampulla of Vater cancer (OR = 2.9, 95% CI = 1.5-5.4). After taking into account multiple comparisons for SNPs within each gene, CYP1A1 was significantly associated with gallbladder (P = 0.004) and ampulla of Vater cancers (P = 0.01), but borderline with bile duct cancer (P = 0.06). The effect of CYP1A1 IVS1 + 606 on gallbladder cancer was more pronounced among non-obese (body mass index < 23) (OR = 3.3, 95% CI = 1.8-6.1; P interaction = 0.001). Among women taking oral contraceptives, the effect of SHBG Ex8 + 6 (rs6259) on gallbladder cancer (OR = 6.7, 95% CI = 2.2-20.5; P interaction = 0.001) and stones (OR = 2.3, 95% CI = 1.1-4.9; P-interaction = 0.05) was statistically significant. Our findings suggest that common variants in hormone-related genes contribute to the risk of biliary tract cancers and stones, possibly by modulating hormone metabolism.</P>

One-year clinical outcomes of everolimus- versus sirolimus-eluting stents in patients with acute myocardial infarction

other Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry Investigators,Chen, K.Y.,Rha, S.W.,Wang, L.,Li, Y.J.,Li, G.P.,Choi, C.U.,Park, C.G.,Seo, H.S.,Oh, D.J.,Jeong, M.H.,Ahn, Y.K.,Hong, T.J.,Kim, Y.J.,Chae, Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press 2014 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY Vol.176 No.3

Background: In contrast to many studies comparing everolimus-eluting stent (EES) with paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES), data directly comparing EES with sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) are limited, especially in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Methods: This study includes 2911 AMI patients treated with SES (n=1264) or EES (n=1701) in Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry (KAMIR). Propensity score matching was applied to adjust for baseline imbalance in clinical and angiographic characteristics, yielding a total of 2400 well-matched patients (1200 receiving SES and 1200 receiving EES). One-year clinical outcomes were compared between the two propensity score matched groups. Results: Baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics were similar between the two propensity score matched groups. One-year clinical outcomes of the propensity score matched cohort were comparable between the EES versus the SES groups including the rates of cardiac death (4.8% vs. 4.8%, P=1.000), recurrent myocardial infarction (1.4% vs. 1.7%, P=0.619), target lesion revascularization (1.4% vs. 1.6%, P=0.737), target lesion failure (7.0% vs. 7.3%, P=0.752), and probable or definite stent thrombosis (0.5% vs. 0.9%, P=0.224) except for a trend toward lower incidence of target vessel revascularization (1.9% vs. 3.0%, P=0.087) and a lower rate of total major adverse cardiac events (9.3% vs. 11.9%, P=0.034) in the EES group. Conclusions: The present propensity score matched analysis performed in a large-scale, prospective, multicenter registry suggests that the second-generation drug-eluting stent EES has at least comparable or even better safety and efficacy profiles as compared with SES in the setting of AMI.

A phase I/II and pharmacogenomic study of pemetrexed and cisplatin in patients with unresectable, advanced gastric carcinoma

Chen, Jen-Shi,Chao, Yee,Bang, Yung-Jue,Roca, Enrique,Chung, Hyun C.,Palazzo, Felipe,Kim, Yeul H.,Myrand, Scott P.,Mullaney, Brian P.,Shen, Li J.,Linn, Carlos Lippincott Williams Wilkins, Inc. 2010 ANTICANCER DRUGS Vol.21 No.8

This phase I/II study was conducted to determine the maximum recommended dose of pemetrexed when given in combination with a fixed dose of cisplatin, and the efficacy, toxicity and association of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) variants with this pemetrexed--cisplatin combination, in patients with unresectable, advanced gastric carcinoma. Patients 18–70 years of age, with stage IV disease or post-surgery recurrence, no earlier palliative chemotherapy, 0 or 1 Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, were included. The cisplatin dose was 75 mg/m. In phase I, the initial dose of pemetrexed was 600 mg/m, escalated in 100 mg/m increments. In phase II, efficacy, including overall response rate, overall survival, as well as toxicity and MTHFR pharmacogenetics were investigated. Phase I enrolled 16 patients; 700 mg/m was defined as pemetrexed recommended dose. Thirteen serious adverse events were reported; the most common grade 3/4 toxicities were haematologic (10 of 13, 76.9%). Phase II enrolled 73 patients, 69 qualified for safety and 68 for efficacy analysis; 65 for pharmacogenomic analysis. Overall response rate was 23.5% (14.1%, 35.4%), disease control rate 55.9%, median overall survival 11.8 months (95% confidence interval, 7.2–18.5 months), progression-free survival 4.9 months (95% confidence interval, 2.8–7.1 months), and median response duration 5.4 months. Patients with MTHFR A1298C variants had median overall survival of 6.6 months, significantly shorter than patients with the wild type (median 18.5 months, P=0.001). The pemetrexed--cisplatin combination in patients with advanced gastric cancer generates modest efficacy and a manageable toxicity profile. The reduced overall survival in patients with MTHFR A1298C polymorphism variants deserves further investigation.

Temporal-spatial structures of plasmas flows and turbulence around tearing mode islands in the edge tokamak plasmas

Zhao, K.J.,Nagashima, Y.,Li, F.M.,Shi, Yuejiang,Diamond, P.H.,Dong, J.Q.,Itoh, K.,Itoh, S.-I.,Zhuang, G.,Liu, H.,Chen, Z.P.,Cheng, J.,Nie, L.,Ding, Y.H.,Hu, Q.M.,Chen, Z.Y.,Rao, B.,Cheng, Z.F.,Gao, L. IOP 2017 Nuclear fusion Vol.57 No.12

<P>The temporal-spatial structures of plasma flows and turbulence around tearing mode islands are presented. The experiments were performed using Langmuir probe arrays in the edge plasmas of J-TEXT tokamak. The correlation analyses clearly show that the flows have similar structures of <I>m</I>/<I>n</I>  =  3/1 as the magnetic island does (<I>m</I> and <I>n</I> are the poloidal and toroidal mode numbers, respectively). The sign of the potential fluctuations for the flows inverses and the powers significantly reduce at <I>q</I>  =  3 surface. Approaching to the last closed flux surface for the magnetic islands, the radially elongated flow structure forms. The flows are concentrated near separatrix and show quadrupole structures. The turbulence is concentrated near X-point and partly trapped inside the magnetic islands.</P>

THE TAIWANESE-AMERICAN OCCULTATION SURVEY PROJECT STELLAR VARIABILITY. II. DETECTION OF 15 VARIABLE STARS

Mondal, S.,Lin, C. C.,Chen, W. P.,Zhang, Z.-W.,Alcock, C.,Axelrod, T.,Bianco, F. B.,Byun, Y.-I.,Coehlo, N. K.,Cook, K. H.,Dave, R.,Kim, D.-W.,King, S.-K.,Lee, T.,Lehner, M. J.,Lin, H.-C.,Marshall, S. American Institute of Physics 2010 The Astronomical journal Vol.139 No.5

<P>The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) project has collected more than a billion photometric measurements since 2005 January. These sky survey data—covering timescales from a fraction of a second to a few hundred days—are a useful source to study stellar variability. A total of 167 star fields, mostly along the ecliptic plane, have been selected for photometric monitoring with the TAOS telescopes. This paper presents our initial analysis of a search for periodic variable stars from the time-series TAOS data on one particular TAOS field, No. 151 (R.A. = 17<SUP>h</SUP>30<SUP>m</SUP>6<img entity='fs' SRC='http://ej.iop.org/icons/Entities/fs.gif' ALT='fs' ALIGN='BASELINE' />7, decl. = 27°17'30'', J2000), which had been observed over 47 epochs in 2005. A total of 81 candidate variables are identified in the 3 deg<SUP>2</SUP> field, with magnitudes in the range 8 < R < 16. On the basis of the periodicity and shape of the light curves, 29 variables, 15 of which were previously unknown, are classified as RR Lyrae, Cepheid, δ Scuti, SX Phonencis, semi-regular, and eclipsing binaries.</P>

Cytoskeletal Patterns, In Vitro Maturation and Parthenogenetic Development of Rabbit GV Oocytes

Ju, J.C.,Chen, T.H.,Tseng, J.K.,Tsay, C.,Yeh, S.P.,Chou, P.C.,Chen, C.H.,Liu, C.T. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2002 Animal Bioscience Vol.15 No.12

The purposes of this study were to optimize the in vitro maturation (IVM) and culture (IVC) systems of rabbit oocytes. Cytoskeletal structures in the germinal vesicle stage (GV) and during IVM are also investigated. Ovaries were transported from local slaughterhouses and the cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were collected from ovarian follicles (${\geq}1mm$). COCs were randomly allocated to TCM199-based medium ($T_1$, TCM-199) supplemented with $NaHCO_3$, glucose, sodium pyruvate and FSH ($T_2$), $T_2+E_2+LH$ ($T_3$), $T_3+FBS$ ($T_4$), or $T_1+E_2+LH+FSH+FBS$ ($T_5$), for IVM. In Experiment 1, COCs were retrieved from the follicles and 51 GV oocytes were fixed in the fixative (MTSB-XF) for nuclear and cytoplasmic examinations. In Experiment 2, progressive changes of both the nucleus and the cytoskeleton were examined at 0, 6, 16, and 20 h after IVM. Maturation (MR) and developmental rates were assessed in Experiment 3. Cytoplasmic microtubules (MT) were clearly observed in rabbit GV oocytes. To our knowledge, this is the first report that describes the appearance of MT structures in the GV stage ooplasm. Tremendous variations in cytoskeletal alterations were observed among treatments with the exception of the vitelline ring (VR), which is constantly visible and unchanged during maturation. Germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD) does not occur at 6 h after onset of maturation culture. When the oocytes for IVM were collected within 2 h, results from Experiment 3 showed that rates of nuclear maturation were 42, 8, 42, 37 and 65% at 16 h of IVM for $T_1$ through $T_5$, respectively, in which $T_1$, $T_4$ and $T_5$ had significantly greater MR than those in other groups (p<0.05). Morula/blastocyst development after parthenogenetic activation ranged from 20 to 63% with significantly greater rates in $T_3$, $T_4$ and $T_5$ (p<0.05). These results suggested that oocytes recovered from slaughterhouse ovaries can be matured and parthenogenetically activated in vitro, but the MR remained low in this study. Addition of $E_2$ and LH in the medium may be beneficial for cytoplasmic maturation, but FBS exerts a nega- tive role in the subsequent development of parthenogenetic embryos when energy substrates are provided in the IVC media. More studies are required for improving the MR and further development of the GV stage rabbit oocytes.

Logarithmically completely monotonic functions and Gurland's ratio for the gamma function

Y. J. Wei,S. L. Zhang,C. P. Chen 장전수학회 2007 Advanced Studies in Contemporary Mathematics Vol.15 No.2

Two logarithmically completely monotonic functions involving gamma function are proved. As an application, bounds for the ratio T(x;y) = ( x)(y)= 2((x+y)=2) is established and the corresponding result by J. D. keckic and P. M.Vasic is refined.

Exciton delocalization and dynamics in helical p-stacks of self-assembled perylene bisimides

Lim, J.,Kim, P.,Yoon, M. C.,Sung, J.,Dehm, V.,Chen, Z.,Wurthner, F.,Kim, D. THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY 2013 Chemical science Vol.4 No.1

Studies on the Use of Wet Sorghum Distiller's Grains in Lactating Cows

Chiou, P.W.S.,Chang, S.H.,Chiang, J.K.,Yu, B.,Chen, C.R. Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 1999 Animal Bioscience Vol.12 No.6

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of incorporating wet sorghum distiller's grains (WSDG) as part of their diet on the lactating performance of dairy cows. Twenty-seven Holstein milking cows were selected, all in the early lactating stage, with an average weight of 550 kg, and producing an average of 30 kg of milk daily. The cows were divided into three groups according to milk yield and lactation and were fed different total mixed rations. The diets were formulated according to NRC (1989) recommendations in three rations to (1) control diet, (2) 15% WSDG diet and (3) 30% WSDG diet. The three different diets were all formulated as iso-nitrogen and iso-energetic diets. After one week adaptation period, the experimental feeding was conducted for 8 weeks. Three ruminal cannulated cows were also examined in order to investigate ruminal fermentation of the three total mixed rations. The results showed that the milk yield, as corrected to the 4.0% fat standard, had no significant difference among the control, 15% WSDG and 30% WSDG treatment groups (p>0.05). The daily dry matter intake of the control group was higher than the other groups (p<0.05). with respect to milk composition, milk fat, milk protein and total solids, there was no significant difference among the treatment groups (p>0.05). The energy efficiency of the 30% WSDG group were significantly higher than the other treatment groups (p<0.05). Ruminal pH value showed no difference among the treatment groups (p<0.05). Ammonia-nitrogen concentration in the control group was higher than the other treatment groups (p<0.05). The concentration of total ruminal volatile fatty acid was similar in all three dietary groups.