Sorafenib Continuation after First Disease Progression Could Reduce Disease Flares and Provide Survival Benefits in Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma: a Pilot Retrospective Study

Fu, Si-Rui,Zhang, Ying-Qiang,Li, Yong,Hu, Bao-Shan,He, Xu,Huang, Jian-Wen,Zhan, Mei-Xiao,Lu, Li-Gong,Li, Jia-Ping Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.7

Background: Sorafenib is a promising drug for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, treatment may be discontinued for multiple reasons, such as progressive disease, adverse events, or the cost of treatment. The consequences of sorafenib discontinuation and continuation are uncertain. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 88 HCC patients treated with sorafenib from July 2007 to January 2013. Overall survival (OS), post-disease progression overall survival (pOS), and time to disease progression (TTP) were compared for survival analysis. Cox proportional hazard regression was performed to assess the effect of important factors on OS in the overall patient population and on pOS in patients who continued sorafenib treatment. Results: Sorafenib was discontinued and continued in 24 and 64 patients, respectively. The median OS (355 vs 517 days respectively; p=0.015) and median post-PD OS (260 vs 317 days, respectively; p=0.020) were statistically different between the discontinuation and continuation groups. Neither the median time to first PD nor the time to second PD were significantly different between the 2 groups. In the discontinuation group, 3 of the 24 patients (12.5%) suffered disease outbreaks. In Cox proportional hazard regression analysis after correction for confounding factors, BCLC stage (p=0.002) and PD site (p=0.024) were significantly correlated with pOS in patients who continued sorafenib treatment. Conclusions: Sorafenib discontinuation may cause HCC flares or outbreaks. It is advisable to continue sorafenib treatment after first PD, particularly in patients with Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage B disease or only intrahepatic PD.

Mechanical evaluation of polymer microneedles for transdermal drug delivery: In vitro and in vivo

Rui Xuan Liu,Yu Ting He,Ling Liang,Liu Fu Hu,Yue Liu,Rui-xing Yu,Bo Zhi Chen,Yong Cui,Xin Dong Guo 한국공업화학회 2022 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.114 No.-

In this study, we reported two types of PMNs based on polylactic acid (PLA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA),respectively. Parafilm M film, porcine skin, and rats’ models were operated to evaluate the mechanicalproperties in vitro and in vivo to find optimal parameters for efficient insertion. Insertion depth was measuredusing Digital Force Gauge by changing insertion force and speed, respectively. Results showed thatincreasing the insertion force and speed used for PMNs application led to a significant increase in thedepth of insertion. A force of 18 N under a speed of 330 mm/min was the optimal condition for insertingPMNs array into ParafilmM film and porcine skin. In addition, PLA-MNs exhibited higher robustness andenhanced homogeneity in insertion depth compared with PVA-MNs, but PVA-MNs were able to reachmuch deeper insertion depth. Moreover, Sprague Dawley (SD) rat experiments confirmed the effectivenessof optimal insertion parameters for transdermal drug delivery. This study illustrated not only thedevelopment of novel PMNs but also the mechanical evaluation for the design of PMNs.

GIS based Visual Expression of Marine Numerical Simulation- Flow Field and Silt Sediment as Example

Wang Rui-Fu,Chen Li-li,Bai Tao,Wang Fang-zheng 보안공학연구지원센터 2016 International Journal of Hybrid Information Techno Vol.9 No.1

Numerical simulation has been widely applied in ocean engineering owing to its low cost, short cycle and wide application range. However, post-processing software of numerical simulation doesn’t support production specification of marine engineering and other industries, and integration production is not flexible. According to particularity of numerical simulation and user requirements, this paper took GIS as the solution to achieve dynamic visualization of numerical simulation and one-click generation of business products. Firstly, based on its characteristics, convert marine numerical simulation data into vector field represented by arrows or scalar field represented by grid. Secondly, GIS based spatial display and analysis technology is used to realize the visualization expression of marine numerical simulation data. In order to improve the effect of display and expression, we achieve rendering through symbol and color stretching mapping. Finally, we output numerical thematic map through custom map range and great map decoration function.

A Rapid Field Measurement Method for the Determination of Joint Roughness Coefficient of Large Rock Joint Surfaces

Rui Yong,Xi Fu,Man Huang,Qifeng Liang,Shi-Gui Du 대한토목학회 2018 KSCE JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING Vol.22 No.1

An accurate measurement of the Joint Roughness Coefficient (JRC) of large rock joints is essential for understanding the mechanical behavior and permeability characteristics of rock mass. Determining the surface roughness of rock joints in situ, however, is timeconsuming and depends on sophisticated instruments. This study was carried out to develop a systematic method of measuring the JRC values of large joint roughness profiles. The roughness profiles were accurately recorded by a hand profilograph in the field and then digitized with flexibly adjusted sampling intervals by the grayscale image processing method. The digitized profiles were correlated closely with the original roughness profiles. A computerized approach for JRC quantitative evaluation was proposed based on the roughness amplitude/joint length relationship with JRC. The interval effect analysis showed that this method was effective for estimating the JRC values of different sized rock joints. This JRC measurement method has been successfully used in a case study of killas rock joints in Changshan City, P.R. China.

Stability and Controller Design of Discrete-time Switched Systems Based on Transferring-dependent Lyapunov Function Approach

Fu-Peng Li,Rui-Hua Wang,Shu-Min Fei 제어·로봇·시스템학회 2022 International Journal of Control, Automation, and Vol.20 No.4

This paper studies stability and controller design for discrete-time switched systems with unstable subsystems under the slow/fast admissible edge-dependent average dwell time (AED-ADT) switching. Different from the previous research results, it is the first time to propose transferring-dependent convex Lyapunov function (CLF) and transferring-dependent Lyapunov function (LF). Then, considering a slow/fast AED-ADT switching scheme, some excellent stability criteria are established according to transferring-dependent CLF and transferring-dependent LF, which have less restrictiveness compared with existing results. Corresponding to the novel transferring-dependent LFs and the properties of slow/fast AED-ADT switching, the new transferring-dependent convex controller (TDCC) and transferring-dependent ordinary controller (TD-OC) are devised to stabilize the underlying system. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified by two numerical examples.

Simulation of Position based Robotic Visual Servo

Rui Zhao,Maheshwar Pd. Sah,Hyongsuk Kim,FU Zhu-mu 제어로봇시스템학회 2010 제어로봇시스템학회 합동학술대회 논문집 Vol.2010 No.12

This paper presents a complete design methodology for Cartesian position based visual servo control of robots with a single camera mounted on the end-effectors. Generally Position based visual servo control requires explicit calculation of the relative position and orientation of the object with respect to the camera. In Position based visual servo, the image capturing and processing time cannot be neglected and also the process of estimating the object position is greatly affected by noise. In this paper, Kalman filter is implemented on the visual servo for the estimation of object motion. In order to control it’s angle and position, a PD controller adjust PD parameters to minimize the exceedance and respond-time, and results the emulator to approve the PD arithmetic which reduces the influence of noise and time elapse compare to the position based visual servo method. The features of algorithm, is verified by simulation results

Study on the function of Helicoverpa armigera Wnt1 gene using CRISPR/Cas9 system

Fu Xiaozheng,Li Rui,Qiu Qiqi,Wang Mengke,Zhao Te,Zhou Lin 한국응용곤충학회 2022 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.25 No.1

The Wnt signaling pathway, as a highly conserved signaling pathway in evolution, plays an important role in many biological processes. The research of Wnt signaling pathway through gene editing has been implemented in a variety of organisms. Among the various genome editing tools available for functional genomic research, CRISPR is popular because of its ease of use and versatility. Here, we use the CRISPR/Cas9 system to knock out the HaWnt1 gene of the important agricultural pest Helicoverpa armigera to explore the impacts on embryo development. Direct injection of Cas9 protein and Wnt1-specific single guide RNA (sgRNA) into H. armigera embryos successfully induced Wnt1 gene deletion mutants, which showed high lethality, abnormal segmenta tion, defected appendages and defected pigmentation. qRT-PCR analysis revealed that the deletion of Wnt1 gene affected the expression of several genes, which were closely related to the growth and development of insects. Our results indicate that HaWnt1 signaling pathway is essential for embryonic development of H. armigera. The study of the function of HaWnt1 gene not only lays the foundation for the study of the somatic development pattern of H. armigera, but also provides a candidate gene for genetic control of H. armigera.

Applying the statistical experimental method to evaluate the process conditions of TiO_2 nanotube arrays by anodization method

Rui Liu,Ching-Shieh Hsieh,Wein-Duo Yang,Liang-Sheng Qiang,Jian-Fu Wu 한국물리학회 2011 Current Applied Physics Vol.11 No.6

Vertically oriented TiO_2 nanotube arrays were successfully produced by the anodization technique in NH_4F/H_3PO_4 electrolyte. The structure and morphology were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD)and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). It is found that TiO_2 nanotube arrays annealed at 500 ℃ containing 100% anatase phase and entirely converted into rutile at 800 ℃. The response surface methodology (RSM) and Box-Behnken design were applied to find the optimal factor conditions in production of TiO_2 nanotube arrays. Based on the results in preliminary experiments, we selected anodization time, anodization voltage and NH4F concentration as the key factors to investigate their effects on responses. The regression models were built by fitting the experimental results with a second-order polynomial. By using the regression models, the optimal factor conditions were obtained as follows: anodization time of 300 min; anodization voltage of 15.39 V; NH_4F concentration of 0.50 M. Corresponding to the optimal factor conditions, the predicted average length and diameter of nanotube array were 1429 nm and 33 nm, respectively. Confirmation experiments using the optimized conditions were performed: TiO_2 nanotube arrays were obtained with an average tube length of 1420 nm and average tube diameter of 36 nm. The experimental results are in good agreement with the predicted results.

Genetic variation and phylogenetic relationships of the ectomycorrhizal Floccularia luteovirens on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Rui Xing,Qing-bo Gao,Fa-qi Zhang,Peng-cheng Fu,Jiu-li Wang,Hui-ying Yan,Shi-long-Chen 한국미생물학회 2017 The journal of microbiology Vol.55 No.8

Floccularia luteovirens, as an ectomycorrhizal fungus, is widely distributed in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. As an edible fungus, it is famous for its unique flavor. Former studies mainly focus on the chemical composition and genetic structure of this species. However, the phylogenetic relationship between genotypes remains unknown. In this study, the genetic variation and phylogenetic relationship between the genotypes of F. luteovirens in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was estimated through the analysis on two protein-coding genes (rpb1 and ef-1α) from 398 individuals collected from 24 wild populations. The sample covered the entire range of this species during all the growth seasons from 2011 to 2015. 13 genotypes were detected and moderate genetic diversity was revealed. Based on the results of network analysis, the maximum likelihood (ML), maximum parsimony (MP), and Bayesian inference (BI) analyses, the genotypes H-1, H-4, H-6, H-8, H-10, and H-11 were grouped into one clade. Additionally, a relatively higher genotype diversity (average h value is 0.722) and unique genotypes in the northeast edge of Qinghai- Tibet plateau have been found, combined with the results of mismatch analysis and neutrality tests indicated that Southeast Qinghai-Tibet plateau was a refuge for F. luteovirens during the historical geological or climatic events (uplifting of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau or Last Glacial Maximum). Furthermore, the present distribution of the species on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau has resulted from the recent population expansion. Our findings provide a foundation for the future study of the evolutionary history and the speciation of this species.

Breakup dynamics of ferrofluid droplet in a microfluidic T-junction

Rui Ma,Taotao Fu,Qindan Zhang,Chunying Zhu,Youguang Ma,Huai Z. Li 한국공업화학회 2017 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.54 No.-

This paper investigated the breakup dynamics of ferrofluid droplet in a microfluidic T-junction with the magnetic field. Droplet breakup types with permanent obstruction, part obstruction and without obstruction were observed. The droplet breakup processes with permanent and part obstruction could be divided into squeezing, transition and pinch-off stages. The minimum width of droplet neck could be scaled as power-law relationships with time for squeezing stage and with remaining time for the last two stages. The droplet breakup process without obstruction has only last two stages. The results show that the magnetic field could affect the dynamics of droplet breakup.