Novel recombinant human thyroid-stimulating hormone in aiding postoperative assessment of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer-phase I/II study.

PURPOSE: Thyroid hormone withdrawal (THW) inevitably induced hypothyroidism in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), and we aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a novel recombinant human thyroid-stimulating hormone (rhTSH, ZGrhTSH) as an alternative of THW in China. METHODS: Totally, 64 DTC patients were enrolled with 24 in the dose-escalation cohort equally grouped into 0.9 mg × 1 day, 0.9 mg × 2 day, 1.8 mg × 1 day, and 1.8 mg × 2 day dosage, and 40 further enrolled into 0.9 mg × 2 day dose-expansion cohort. All patients underwent both ZGrhTSH phase and levothyroxine (L-T4) withdrawal phase for self-comparison in terms of TSH levels, the radioactive iodine (RAI) uptake, stimulated thyroglobulin level, and the quality of life (QoL). RESULTS: In ZGrhTSH phase, no major serious adverse events were observed, and mild symptoms of headache were observed in 6.3%, lethargy in 4.7%, and asthenia in 3.1% of the patients, and mostly resolved spontaneously within 2 days. Concordant RAI uptake was noticed in 89.1% (57/64) of the patients between ZGrhTSH and L-T4 withdrawal phases. The concordant thyroglobulin level with a cut-off of 1 µg/L was noticed in 84.7% (50/59) of the patients without the interference of anti-thyroglobulin antibody. The QoL was far better during ZGrhTSH phase than L-T4 withdrawal phase, with lower Billewicz (- 51.30 ± 4.70 vs. - 39.10 ± 16.61, P < 0.001) and POMS (91.70 ± 16.70 vs. 100.40 ± 22.11, P = 0.011) scores which indicate the lower the better. Serum TSH level rose from basal 0.11 ± 0.12 mU/L to a peak of 122.11 ± 42.44 mU/L 24 h after the last dose of ZGrhTSH. In L-T4 withdrawal phase, a median of 23 days after L-T4 withdrawal was needed, with the mean TSH level of 82.20 ± 31.37 mU/L. The half-life for ZGrhTSH clearance was about 20 h. CONCLUSION: The ZGrhTSH held the promise to be a safe and effective modality in facilitating RAI uptake and serum thyroglobulin stimulation, with better QoL of patients with DTC compared with L-T4 withdrawal.

Technology-Based Compensation Assessment and Detection of Upper Extremity Activities of Stroke Survivors: Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Upper extremity (UE) impairment affects up to 80% of stroke survivors and accounts for most of the rehabilitation after discharge from the hospital release. Compensation, commonly used by stroke survivors during UE rehabilitation, is applied to adapt to the loss of motor function and may impede the rehabilitation process in the long term and lead to new orthopedic problems. Intensive monitoring of compensatory movements is critical for improving the functional outcomes during rehabilitation. OBJECTIVE: This review analyzes how technology-based methods have been applied to assess and detect compensation during stroke UE rehabilitation. METHODS: We conducted a wide database search. All studies were independently screened by 2 reviewers (XW and YF), with a third reviewer (BY) involved in resolving discrepancies. The final included studies were rated according to their level of clinical evidence based on their correlation with clinical scales (with the same tasks or the same evaluation criteria). One reviewer (XW) extracted data on publication, demographic information, compensation types, sensors used for compensation assessment, compensation measurements, and statistical or artificial intelligence methods. Accuracy was checked by another reviewer (YF). Four research questions were presented. For each question, the data were synthesized and tabulated, and a descriptive summary of the findings was provided. The data were synthesized and tabulated based on each research question. RESULTS: A total of 72 studies were included in this review. In all, 2 types of compensation were identified: disuse of the affected upper limb and awkward use of the affected upper limb to adjust for limited strength, mobility, and motor control. Various models and quantitative measurements have been proposed to characterize compensation. Body-worn technology (25/72, 35% studies) was the most used sensor technology to assess compensation, followed by marker-based motion capture system (24/72, 33% studies) and marker-free vision sensor technology (16/72, 22% studies). Most studies (56/72, 78% studies) used statistical methods for compensation assessment, whereas heterogeneous machine learning algorithms (15/72, 21% studies) were also applied for automatic detection of compensatory movements and postures. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review provides insights for future research on technology-based compensation assessment and detection in stroke UE rehabilitation. Technology-based compensation assessment and detection have the capacity to augment rehabilitation independent of the constant care of therapists. The drawbacks of each sensor in compensation assessment and detection are discussed, and future research could focus on methods to overcome these disadvantages. It is advised that open data together with multilabel classification algorithms or deep learning algorithms could benefit from automatic real time compensation detection. It is also recommended that technology-based compensation predictions be explored.

[Spatial Distribution and Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Sediments of the Ruxi Tributary of the Three Gorges Reservoir].

Sediment column and soil samples collected from 12 sampling sites in four regions of the Ruxi River, a typical tributary of the Three Gorges Reservoir, were analyzed for eight selected heavy metals including Cr, Ni, Cu, Mn, Zn, Cd, Pb, and Hg to evaluate their spatial and vertical distribution, source, and biological toxic effects. The results showed that the average concentrations of heavy metals were (79.60±11.87), (41.340±4.999), (32.69±8.70), (823.34±125.76), (122.11±22.82), (0.393±0.140), and (29.122±6.811) mg·kg-1 for Cr, Ni, Cu, Mn, Zn, Cd, and Pb, respectively, and (74.84±39.50) µg·kg-1 for Hg, all of which exceeded the sediment background values of the Yangtze River. A spatial trend of decreasing metal concentrations was observed from the reach influenced by the human activities of Ruxi town to the backwater zone and then to the natural river reach. Moreover, in the backwater zone, the heavy metals in sediments and soil along the river were significantly lower than those in sediments, indicating that the sediments and soil were not one primary source for these metals in backwater zone sediment. From the vertical distribution of sediment, in addition to Pb, the highest level of metals was observed at 8 cm in the reach influenced by human activities, and their concentrations decreased with sediment depth in the backwater zone and natural river beach. Significant correlation was found between all the heavy metals (P<0.01, except Ni), indicating a potential homology of these metals in the Ruxi River. Evaluation results of the geoaccumulation index reveal that there exists light to partial moderate Cd and Zn pollution in the Ruxi River. The evaluation of biotoxicity effects showed that Ni was likely to have toxic effects on organisms with a probability of 10% to 75%, and Cd, Zn, Hg, Cu, Pb, and Cr are likely to have biotoxic effects at<10% probability. The combined effect values of multiple metals indicated that the risk of adverse effects was between low and lower medium in the sediments of the Ruxi River.

Understanding Levels and Motivation of Physical Activity for Health Promotion among Chinese Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Investigation.

Objective: Middle-aged and older Chinese adults (35 to 75) failed to meet the recommendations of physical activity guidelines for health promotion, because of a lack of understanding of their perspective on physical activity. This study considers the physical activity levels and motivation among middle-aged and older Chinese adults partitioned into three different participation groups (sports, exercise, and recreational and cultural activities). Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was performed on 633 participants, based on two different levels of physical activity levels. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and the Exercise Motivation Inventory (EMI-2) with 14 subscales were used to measure the participant's physical activity levels and physical activity motivation for the three different group activities. Results: Results indicate those participants' physical activity levels and motivation varied significantly among the different groups. The participants who engage in recreational and cultural activities have a higher motivation for physical activity, as compared with those whose primary form of physical activity is sports and exercise, and a higher probability to fulfill the global recommendations concerning physical activity. Participants who used recreational and cultural activities as their major type of physical activities were more motivated by "intrinsic" aspects. In contrast, those who participate in sports and exercise as their main type of physical activity are more motivated by "extrinsic" aspects. Conclusion: Close friends and family members of one's home and community have potential influence in physical activity and recreational and cultural activity participants are highly motivated and luckier than others to fulfill the goal of physical activity levels.

Multiple just-noticeable-difference-based no-reference stereoscopic image quality assessment.

Just-noticeable difference (JND) is an important characteristic of the human visual system (HVS), and some established JND models imitating the perception of human eyes already exist. However, their utilization in stereoscopic image quality assessment (SIQA) remains limited. To better simulate how HVS senses 3D images under a no-reference situation, a novel SIQA method based on multiple JND models is proposed in this paper. In our metric, the stereoscopic image pairs are decomposed into multi-scale monocular views and binocular views. Then, texture and edge information of these multi-scale images is extracted. Next, a monocular JND model, a binocular JND model, and a depth JND model are separately applied to the extracted features and the depth map. Finally, these features are synthesized and mapped to objective scores. Through experiment and comparison on public 3D image databases, the proposed method shows a competitive advantage over most state-of-the-art SIQA methods, which indicates that it has a promising prospect in practical applications.

[Distribution Characteristics and Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in the Sediments of the Estuary of the Tributaries in the Three Gorges Reservoir, SW China].

To investigate the pollution status of sediments at the junction of the Three Gorges Reservoir area, sediment samples were collected over four seasons from the junction of the estuary located at a tributary of the Ruxi River and the Yangtze River. The content of eight heavy metals (HMs), including Cr, Zn, Mn, Ni, Cu, As, Cd, and Pb, in sediments was determined by ICP-MS. The results showed the average levels of investigated HMs (in mg·kg-1) were Cr (45.24), Zn (46.46), Mn (406.14), Ni (20.885), Cu (12.49), As (7.02), Cd (0.253), and Pb (11.042). The distribution analysis indicated that the levels of HMs at the river mouth were higher than that of the tributaries of the middle reaches and the two sections nearby. The seasonal distribution shows that the heavy metal content in the spring sediment is higher than in summer, autumn and winter. In addition, the correlation analysis indicated that the eight HMs possessed similar homologous characteristics and had common exogenous inputs. The assessment of the Geo Accumulation Index showed slight Cd pollution in the estuary of Ruxi River, and the Potential Ecological Risk index showed that Cd presented moderate ecological risks. The toxic effect of benthonic organisms was possibly correlated to Ni contamination at the intersection of the tributary and main stream, which was supported by the evidence from the sediment quality criteria. In conclusion, the rating of ecological risk at the mouth of the Ruxi River tributary is slight.

No-reference stereoscopic image quality assessment guided by visual hierarchical structure and binocular effects.

Stereoscopic image quality assessment (SIQA) is an essential technique for modern 3D image and video processing systems serving as performance evaluators and monitors. However, the study on SIQA remains immature due to the complexity of the human visual system (HVS) and binocular effects that binocular vision brings about. To overcome the difficulties, a novel method is proposed that extracts and quantifies image quality-aware features related to cortex areas in charge of visual quality perception, rather than attempting to rigorously simulate the biological processing in HVS, so that the predicting accuracy is preserved while the computational complexity remains moderate. Meanwhile, binocular effects including binocular rivalry and visual discomfort are taken into consideration. Moreover, the proposed method can be operated completely without the assistance of reference images, indicating its wide practical usages. Compared to state-of-the-art works, our method shows evident superiority in terms of effectiveness and robustness.

Assessment of endothelialization of aneurysm wall over time in a rabbit model through CD31 scoring.

BACKGROUND: Intracranial aneurysms represent a significant health concern and are poorly understood despite decades of research. Our study focused on understanding temporal patterns of endothelial cell distribution in different spatial locations within the aneurysm early after creation in a rabbit model. METHODS: Elastase induced saccular aneurysms were created in rabbits and harvested on day 1 (n=3) and after 2 (n=5), 4 (n=4), 8 (n=5), and 12 (n=6) weeks. Sham operated controls (n=3) were harvested on the same day. Aneurysm and control tissue samples were subjected to en face whole mount CD31 staining for endothelial cells. Semiquantitative scoring was performed on the basis of endothelial coverage of the vessel wall (proximal, middle, and distal portions of the aneurysm dome). Mixed effects models were used to assess the effect of time and aneurysm section on endothelial coverage. RESULTS: Aneurysmal segments were near completely de-endothelialized at 4 and 8 weeks but had re-endothelialized by 12 weeks. Compared with controls, aneurysms at all time points showed decreased endothelialization, but the difference was only significant compared with the 4 and 8 week groups. Both time (P=0.03) and aneurysm section (P=0.07) were significantly associated with the degree of endothelialization. Proximal locations showed increased endothelialization compared with distal locations (P=0.03). CONCLUSION: In experimental aneurysms of rabbits, endothelial cells regress during the first month after creation, followed by ascending re-endothelialization that stays incomplete. These findings suggest that re-population of endothelial cells comes from resident cells in the adjacent parent artery and that deranged hemodynamics may affect full reconstitution of endothelial cells long term.

Generalized relative quality assessment scheme for reconstructed medical images.

A generalized relative quality (RQ) assessment scheme is proposed here based on the Bayesian inference theory, which is reasonable to make use of full reference (FR) algorithms when the evaluation of the quality of homogeneous medical images is required. Each FR algorithm is taken as a kernel to represent the level of quality. Although, various kernels generate different order of magnitude, a normalization process can rationalize the quality index within 0 and 1, where 1 represent the highest quality and 0 represents the lowest quality. To validate the performance of the proposed scheme, a series of reconstructed susceptibility weighted imaging images are collected, where each image has its subjective scale. Both experimental results and a ROC analysis show that the RQ obtained from the proposed scheme is consistent with subjective evaluation.

[Distribution and risk assessment of mercury species in soil of the water-level-fluctuating zone in the Three Gorges Reservoir].

To investigate pollution level and ecological risk of mercury in soils of the water-level-fluctuating zone in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region, 192 surface soil samples from 14 counties (districts) in Chongqing were obtained. Concentrations of THg and Hg species, bioavailable Hg were analyzed and discussed. Geoaccumulation index (I(geo)) and Håkanson potential ecological risk index (E(r)) were applied to assess the pollution status and potential ecological risk of THg and Hg species, respectively. The results showed that significant differences in the concentration of THg were found in soils of water-level-fluctuating zone in the Three Gorges Reservoir. The THg concentration ranged from 22.4 to 393.5 microg x kg(-1), with an average of (84.2 +/- 54.3) microg x kg(-1). 76.6% of the samples' THg content was higher than the soil background value in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region. The percentage of five mercury species (water-soluble Hg, HCl-soluble Hg, KOH-soluble Hg, H2O2-soluble Hg, residue Hg) in soils were 4.1%, 15.5%, 18.3%, 10.9%, 51.3%, respectively. The average concentrations of bioavailable mercury varied between 19.7-36.6 microg x kg(-1), and the percentage of bioavailable Hg was 22.1%-51.6% of THg. According to the geoaccumulation index, the soils were lightly polluted by Hg. Håkanson single potential ecological risk index evaluation showed that Hg species had a low potential ecological risk, moreover, soils of water-level-fluctuating zone in the Three Gorges Reservoir were at low ecological risk levels as evaluated by bioavailable Hg. While, the assessment results based on THg of soils was much higher than that based on the Hg species. Two methods of evaluation showed that the I(geo) and E(r) values calculated based on the Hg species better reflected the actual pollution levels of soils and its hazard to aquatic organisms.

Low-cost high-performance solid-state asymmetric supercapacitors based on MnO2 nanowires and Fe2O3 nanotubes.

A low-cost high-performance solid-state flexible asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) with α-MnO2 nanowires and amorphous Fe2O3 nanotubes grown on flexible carbon fabric is first designed and fabricated. The assembled novel flexible ASC device with an extended operating voltage window of 1.6 V exhibits excellent performance such as a high energy density of 0.55 mWh/cm(3) and good rate capability. The ASC devices can find numerous applications as effective power sources, such as powering color-switchable sun glasses and smart windows.

Surgical outcomes for gastric cancer of a single institute in southeast China.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, with social and economic development and lifestyle changes, the incidence of gastric cancer as well as the surgical results and prognoses of patients with gastric cancer have changed significantly in southeast China. METHODS: A total of 1,451 patients were divided into 2 groups according to admission time periods. Trends in clinicopathologic characteristics and operative outcomes of these patients were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: The numbers of old and young patients were significantly increased in period 2 compared with period 1. Tumors located in the proximal stomach increased from 20.26% to 36.83%. The incidence of early gastric cancer was significantly increased from period 1 to period 2. Lymph node metastasis was seen more prevalently in period 2 than in period 1. The rate of operation-related major complications decreased from 5.23% to 1.43%. Operative mortality was .49% in period 1 and .24% in period 2. The 5-year survival rate increased from 38.40% to 53.99%. CONCLUSIONS: Early diagnosis, standardized surgical treatment including pertinent lymph node dissection, and better perioperative care notably improve the outcomes of patients with gastric cancer.

Crystalline ZnO thin film by hydrothermal growth.

In this work, we have successfully synthesised ZnO crystal thin film with a high quality from hydrothermal reaction on sapphire substrate. The growth mechanism is clarified based on an extensive XTEM study. In addition, electrical and optical properties of the crystal thin film, which can be controlled by impurities, are characterized. The synthesis technique provides fairly high quality and cost-effective substrates for optoelectronic and renewable energy applications.

Rational synthesis of heterostructured nanoparticles with morphology control.

Rational synthesis of Pt-Au(n) nanoparticles (NPs) has been achieved by overgrowing Au on Pt with n, the number of Pt-Au heterojunctions in each particle, controlled from 1 to 4, and the corresponding NPs in pear-, peanut-, or clover-like morphology. Monte Carlo simulation reveals that the morphology control can be correlated to a thermodynamic equilibrium of the Au coherence energy, the overall particle surface energy, and the heterogeneous Pt-Au interfacial energy in the composite system, which is manipulated by the seeding particle size and solvent polarity. The developed synthetic strategy together with the provided fundamental understanding of heterogeneous nucleation and heterostructure growth could have great potential toward the rational synthesis of composite nanomaterials with morphology control for advanced catalytic and other functional applications.