Phase II trial of VEGFR2 inhibitor apatinib for metastatic sarcoma: focus on efficacy and safety

Zhichao Liao,Feng Li,Chao Zhang,Lei Zhu,Yehui Shi,Gang Zhao,Xu Bai,Shafat Hassan,Xinyue Liu,Ting Li,Peipei Xing,Jun Zhao,Jin Zhang,Ruwei Xing,Sheng Teng,Yun Yang,Kexin Chen,Jilong Yang 생화학분자생물학회 2019 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.51 No.-

Apatinib (YN968D1) is a novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR- 2). We conducted a single-arm, nonrandomized phase II study (NCT03121846) to assess the efficacy and safety of apatinib in patients with stage IV sarcoma. We recruited 64 patients with stage IV sarcoma who had failed chemotherapy. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS), and the secondary endpoints were progression-free survival rate (PFR), objective response rate (ORR), and disease control rate (DCR) at week 12. Treatment-related adverse effects (AEs) were evaluated. Fifty-nine patients were assessed for efficacy and 64 patients for AEs. The median PFS was 7.93 months. At 12 weeks, the PFR was 74%, the ORR was 16.95% (10/59), and the DCR was 86.44% (51/59). The final ORR was 15.25% (9/59) and the DCR was 57.63% (34/59). Notably, 22 patients (34.38%) who developed hypertension, hand-foot-skin reaction, or proteinuria had significantly longer OS than those without these AEs (18.20 vs. 10.73 months; P = 0.002). We conclude that apatinib is effective and well tolerated in patients with advanced sarcoma. The development of hypertension, hand-foot-skin reaction, or proteinuria may indicate a favorable prognosis, representing a novel finding in sarcoma patients.

Study on Preparation of Core-Spun Yarn Surgical Sutures by Compositing Drug-Loaded Nanofiber Membrane with PLA and Its Controllable Drug Release Performance

Zhichao Yang,Shuqiang Liu,Jingjing Li,Gaihong Wu,Man Zhang,Fu Li,Lu Jia,Yujing Zhang,Huimin Li,Xia Liu,Jingjing Zhao,Huiqin Zhang,Shiyu Li 한국섬유공학회 2023 Fibers and polymers Vol.24 No.12

Polylactic acid (PLA) surgical suture is considered to be one of the most ideal materials for tissue closure due to its rich raw materials and excellent biological properties. However, surgical sutures face great challenges due to problems such as wound infection and tissue reaction in practical applications. In order to improve the clinical applicability of surgical sutures, we constructed a new drug-loading system for core-spun surgical sutures. The shell was composed of nanofibrous membranes composed of polyglycolic acid (PGA) and polycaprolactone (PCL) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) antibacterial drugs, and the core layer adopts PLA filament. By adjusting the composition ratio of PGA and PCL in the shell, a new mode of regulating the release rate and release cycle of the suture was constructed. According to different wound healing time, different drug release cycles of surgical suture were selected. In the study, the structure of the core-spun yarn can be clearly observed by scanning electron microscope, the higher the shell PGA content and drug loading, the faster the drug release rate. When the carrier ratio PGA/PCL was 80/20 and the drug loading was 3%, the drug release rate was the fastest and the drug release was high; finally, antibacterial experiments showed that the suture had excellent antibacterial effect and could effectively kill Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The successful preparation of core-spun yarn surgical suture provides a new idea for the study of new antibacterial surgical suture.

Bridge weigh-in-motion through bidirectional Recurrent Neural Network with long short-term memory and attention mechanism

Zhichao Wang,Yang Wang 국제구조공학회 2021 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.27 No.2

In bridge weigh-in-motion (BWIM), dynamic bridge response is measured during traffic and used to identify overloaded vehicles. Most past studies of BWIM use mechanics-based algorithms to estimate axle weights. This research instead investigates deep learning, specifically the recurrent neural network (RNN), toward BWIM. In order to acquire the large data volume to train a RNN network that uses bridge response to estimate axle weights, a finite element bridge model is built through the commercial software package LS-DYNA. To mimic everyday traffic scenarios, tens of thousands of randomized vehicle formations are simulated, with different combinations of vehicle types, spacings, speeds, axle weights, axle distances, etc. Dynamic response from each of the randomized traffic scenarios is recorded for training the RNN. In this paper we propose a 3-stage Bidirectional RNN toward BWIM. Long short-term memory (LSTM) and attention mechanism are embedded in the BRNN to further improve the network performance. Additional test data indicates that the BRNN network achieves high accuracy in estimating axle weights, in comparison with a conventional moving force identification (MFI) method.

Study on flow fields of centrally fuel rich swirl burner and its applications

Zhichao Chen,Zhengqi Li,Jianping Jing,Lizhe Chen,Shaohua Wu,Yang Yao 한국화학공학회 2009 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.26 No.5

Experiments on a single-phase test facility were done to optimize primary air outlet cones of a centrally fuel rich swirl coal combustion burner. On the basis of optimized results from the single-phase test, a three-component particle-dynamics anemometer was used to measure, in the near-burner region, the characteristics of gas/particle two-phase flows for the burner with two primary air outlet cones, on a gas/particle two-phase test facility. Velocities, RMS velocities and particle volume flux profiles were obtained. According to the results, the primary air outlet cone structure of the centrally fuel rich burner was matching a 670 ton per hour boiler. The performance of the burner on a 670 ton per hour boiler was studied.

Imbalanced sample fault diagnosis method for rotating machinery in nuclear power plants based on deep convolutional conditional generative adversarial network

Zhichao Wang,Hong Xia,Jiyu Zhang,Bo Yang,Wenzhe Yin Korean Nuclear Society 2023 Nuclear Engineering and Technology Vol.55 No.6

Rotating machinery is widely applied in important equipment of nuclear power plants (NPPs), such as pumps and valves. The research on intelligent fault diagnosis of rotating machinery is crucial to ensure the safe operation of related equipment in NPPs. However, in practical applications, data-driven fault diagnosis faces the problem of small and imbalanced samples, resulting in low model training efficiency and poor generalization performance. Therefore, a deep convolutional conditional generative adversarial network (DCCGAN) is constructed to mitigate the impact of imbalanced samples on fault diagnosis. First, a conditional generative adversarial model is designed based on convolutional neural networks to effectively augment imbalanced samples. The original sample features can be effectively extracted by the model based on conditional generative adversarial strategy and appropriate number of filters. In addition, high-quality generated samples are ensured through the visualization of model training process and samples features. Then, a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is designed to extract features of mixed samples and implement intelligent fault diagnosis. Finally, based on multi-fault experimental data of motor and bearing, the performance of DCCGAN model for data augmentation and intelligent fault diagnosis is verified. The proposed method effectively alleviates the problem of imbalanced samples, and shows its application value in intelligent fault diagnosis of actual NPPs.

Post-fire test of precast steel reinforced concrete stub columns under eccentric compression

Yong Yang,Yicong Xue,Yunlong Yu,Zhichao Gong 국제구조공학회 2019 Steel and Composite Structures, An International J Vol.33 No.1

This paper presents an experimental work on the post-fire behavior of two kinds of innovative composite stub columns under eccentric compression. The partially precast steel reinforced concrete (PPSRC) column is composed of a precast outer-part cast using steel fiber reinforced reactive powder concrete (RPC) and a cast-in-place inner-part cast using conventional concrete. Based on the PPSRC column, the hollow precast steel reinforced concrete (HPSRC) column has a hollow column core. With the aim to investigate the post-fire performance of these composite columns, six stub column specimens, including three HPSRC stub columns and three PPSRC stub columns, were exposed to the ISO834 standard fire. Then, the cooling specimens and a control specimen unexposed to fire were eccentrically loaded to explore the residual capacity. The test parameters include the section shape, concrete strength of inner-part, eccentricity ratio and heating time. The test results indicated that the precast RPC shell could effectively confine the steel shape and longitudinal reinforcements after fire, and the PPSRC stub columns experienced lower core temperature in fire and exhibited higher post-fire residual strength as compared with the HPSRC stub columns due to the insulating effect of core concrete. The residual capacity increased with the increasing of inner concrete strength and with the decreasing of heating time and load eccentricity. Based on the test results, a FEA model was established to simulate the temperature field of test specimens, and the predicted results agreed well with the test results.

The multidirectional vibration and coupling dynamics of drill string and its influence on the wellbore trajectory

Lin Yang,Jia-lin Tian,Qingyou Liu,Liming Dai,Zhichao Hu,Jurui Li 대한기계학회 2020 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.34 No.7

For improving the accuracy of wellbore trajectory prediction in complex wellbore structures, especially in the kick-off section, a longitudinal, torsional and radial coupled drill string dynamics model is proposed. At the same time, the coupling dynamics model is solved based on the energy method, and the torque, weight on bit (WOB), the longitudinal displacement and velocity, the torsional angular displacement and angular velocity of the drill bit are obtained during the normal drilling and the stick-slip vibration phase. Combining the numerical example and experimental test, the differences between different models and actual drilling trajectories are compared and analyzed. The research results indicate that the torsional vibration and the longitudinal vibration have a great influence on each other in the coupling model, and the longitudinal vibration displacement increases, which can effectively reduce the torque variation range of the torsional vibration. The operation of the bit stagnation is weakened, maintaining a relatively stable rotational angular velocity of rotation. The calculation results of the wellbore trajectory are more consistent with the experimental results, and can accurately reflect the real situation of the drilling process. The theoretical model has an important reference for predicting the new well structure, especially the judgment of wellbore trajectory of complex wellbore structures such as extended reach wells, horizontal wells, deep wells and high deep wells of coalbed methane, and the prediction of downhole dynamics results.

Dynamic Analyses and Simplified Methods for Evaluating Complicated Suspend-dome Structures Subjected to Sudden Cable Failure

Chao Zhang,Zhichao Lai,Xiaoqiang Yang,Qiang Li,Zilong Zhang,Xindi Fu 한국강구조학회 2023 International Journal of Steel Structures Vol.23 No.1

Accidental cable failure may occur for complicated suspend-dome structures, resulting in the dynamic impact effect on structures. This study presents simplified analysis methods for evaluating suspend-dome structures when sudden cable failure occurs. An implicit analysis method of improved alternative load path (IAM-IAP) was employed to simply simulate the cable failure process of the beam-string structure. The IAM-IAP was also validated by comparing the calculated results with the existing test results for the truss string structure. The parameters of the cable failure process (i.e., failure time, failure path, and damping ratio) were analyzed, and suitable values were recommended. Based on the IAM-IAP, a finite element model of multi-loop cable-string suspend-dome structure (MCSS) was established and benchmarked by verifying the static responses during construction. Dynamic responses (i.e., time histories, displacements, axial forces, and dynamic amplification factors) of MCSS were systematically investigated. The dynamic amplification factor may be larger than 2, exceeding the suggested value of existing specifications. A static equivalent method with reasonable prediction accuracy was also proposed to simply assess the dynamic responses of suspend-dome structures subjected to sudden cable failure.

Diagnostic value of supersonic shear impulse elastography for malignant cervical lymph nodes: a Bayesian analysis

Yuxuan Qiu,Zhichao Xing,Qianru Yang,Yan Luo 대한초음파의학회 2022 ULTRASONOGRAPHY Vol.41 No.2

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the diagnostic performance of supersonic impulse (SSI) elastography in differentiating malignant and benign cervical lymph nodes.Methods: The Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Central databases were searched until December 1, 2020. Two different reviewers checked the studies and extracted the data. The diagnostic yields were quantitatively synthesized using a Bayesian bivariate model with an integrated nested Laplace approximation in R.Results: In total, 590 patients with 892 cervical lymph nodes who underwent SSI elastography were included. The total prevalence of malignancy was 33.7% (301/892), and the four elastic modulus values (mean, maximum, minimum, and standard deviation) were significantly different between malignant and benign lymph nodes. For the mean elastic modulus, the summary estimates for sensitivity and specificity were 0.720 (95% credible interval [CrI], 0.592 to 0.824) and 0.877 (95% CrI, 0.727 to 0.969), respectively. The estimated area under the curve (AUC) was 0.845 (95% CrI, 0.672 to 0.914). For the maximum elastic modulus, the sensitivity and specificity were estimated to be 0.809 (95% CrI, 0.698 to 0.899) and 0.816 (95% CrI, 0.643 to 0.924), respectively. The estimated AUC was 0.834 (95% CrI, 0.579 to 0.938). The minimum and standard deviation of the elastic modulus and the outcomes of the positive and negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, and risk difference were also calculated.Conclusion: SSI elastography is an acceptable imaging technique for diagnosing malignant cervical lymph nodes, and it can play a complementary role today. Both maximum and mean elastic modulus values should be taken into consideration to make a clinical judgment.

Treatment with low-energy shock wave alleviates pain in an animal model of uroplakin 3A-induced autoimmune interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome

Huixi Li,Zhichao Zhang,Jing Peng,Zhongcheng Xin,Meng Li,Bicheng Yang,Dong Fang,Yuan Tang,Yinglu Guo 대한비뇨의학회 2019 Investigative and Clinical Urology Vol.60 No.5

Purpose: To investigate whether treatment with low-energy shock wave (LESW) alleviates pain and bladder dysfunction in a mouse model of uroplakin 3A (UPK3A)-induced interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome (IC/PBS). Materials and Methods: Forty female BALB/c mice were divided into four groups (n=10/group): Sham, Sham+LESW, UPK3A, and UPK3A+LESW. At 6 weeks of age, mice were injected with an emulsion containing water and complete Freund's adjuvant with (UPK3A and UPK3A+LESW groups) or without (Sham and Sham+LESW groups) 200 µg of UPK3A. At 10 weeks, mice received a second dose of Freund's adjuvant to booster immunization. At 12 weeks, mice underwent pain assessment and a frequency volume chart (FVC) test as the pretreatment assessment. LESW treatment and pain assessment were conducted from 13 to 15 weeks. One week after the final treatment, pain assessment and the FVC were conducted again as the post-treatment assessment. Mice were euthanized and sacrificed at 17 weeks. Results: The presence of tactile allodynia and bladder dysfunction was significant in the UPK3A-injected mice. LESW raised the pain threshold and improved bladder function with decreased urinary frequency and increased mean urine output. Expression and secretion of local and systemic inflammatory markers, including tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and nerve growth factor (NGF), increased after UPK3A immunization. These markers were significantly decreased after LESW treatment (p<0.05). Conclusions: LESW treatment attenuated pain and bladder dysfunction in a UPK3A-induced model of IC/PBS. Local and systemic inflammation was partially controlled, with a reduced number of infiltrated inflammatory cells and reduced levels of TNF-α and NGF.