[Quality of life and influencing factors of postoperative accelerated rehabilitation of esophageal cancer patients].

Objective: To explore the quality of life and its influencing factors of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) of esophageal cancer patients. Methods: The quality of life of 134 esophageal cancer patients was assessed using the quality of life assessment scale (EORTC QLQ-C30) developed by the European Cancer Research and Treatment Organization. Student's t test, One-way ANOVA and multiple linear regression statistical methods were used to analyze the effects of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics on patients' quality of life. Results: The overall score of quality of life (74.00) was lower than that of the general population (75.30). However, the scores of emotion and cognition in function dimension (93.97 and 95.77) were better than those of the general population (82.80 and 86.50). The results of fatigue, pain, insomnia and constipation in symptom dimension (14.18, 10.94, 11.69 and 5.72) were better than those of the general population (28.80, 20.50, 20.40 and 10.70). The pathological stage, body mass index and dietary were independent influencing factors for the quality of life of patients with esophageal cancer (P<0.05). Conclusions: ERAS can partially improve the quality of life of esophageal cancer patients. More attention should be paid to the esophageal cancer patients after surgery and take targeted measures to improve their quality of life.

The influence of oncolytic reovirus on the biological activities of umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of oncolytic reovirus on the biological activities of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) as a novel virotherapy strategy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Cell Counting Kit-8 assay was used to detect the viability of hUC-MSCs infected with different multiplicities of infection (MOIs) of reoviruses. The biological activities (proliferation, marker expression, multipotency, and migration) of hUC-MSCs were verified by assaying osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation potential, flow cytometry, and electrical cell-substrate impedance sensing, respectively. RESULTS: The viability of hUC-MSCs slightly decreased by infection with low titers of reoviruses. A MOI of 1 had no effect on the viability of hUC-MSCs within 96 h. The biological activities (proliferation, marker expression, multipotency, and migration) of hUC-MSCs were not affected by reovirus infection at a MOI of 1. CONCLUSIONS: Reovirus at a MOI of 1 had no effect on the biological activities of hUC-MSCs.

Odorant-binding protein (OBP) genes affect host specificity in a fig-pollinator mutualistic system.

The interaction between figs and their pollinating wasps is regarded as a model system for studying specialized co-evolved mutualism. Chemoreception of fig wasps plays an important role in this interaction, and odorant-binding proteins (OBP) function in the first step of odorant detection. The OBP repertoire of the fig wasp Ceratosolen solmsi is reported to be one of the smallest among insects; however, it is unknown how these OBPs are related to the complicated mating process occurring within the fig cavity and the extreme host specificity of the species. In the present study, we combined a structural analysis of the conserved cysteine pattern and motif order, a phylogenetic analysis, and previous studies on ligand-binding assays to deduce the function of OBPs. We also quantified the expression of OBP genes in different life stages of female and male fig wasps by using real-time quantitative PCR, which can help to predict the function of these genes. The results indicated that CsolOBP1 and CsolOBP2 (or CsolOBP5) in males may bind to pheromones and play important roles in mate choice, whereas CsolOBP4 and CsolOBP5 may primarily function in host localization by females through binding of volatile compounds emitted by receptive figs.

Simultaneous determination of neodymium, erbium and holmium in rare earth mixtures with 2-phenyltrifluoroacetone and octylphenol poly(ethyleneglycol) ether by third-derivative spectrophotometry.

The complexes of the rare earth metals with 2-phenyltrifluoroacetone in the presence of TX-100 are reported. The characteristic absorbances of neodymium, holmium and erbium complexes can be increased by factors of 8.5, 31 and 15 respectively, compared to those of the cholrides. The third-derivative spectra have been used to eliminate the interference of cerium, and the sensitivities are increased again by factors of 7.4, 5.5 and 6.5. A method for the direct determination of neodymium, erbium and holmium in rare earth mixtures is proposed.

Atomic force microscopy study of fine structures of the entire surface of red blood cells.

Glutaraldehyde-fixed red blood cells were imaged by tapping mode atomic force microscopy (TMAFM) in air at room temperature. The results show that TMAFM can visualize the morphology of the red blood cell at both cellular and nanometer scales. The scan size covers the range from several hundred nanometers to more than one hundred micrometers. TMAFM not only has a higher resolution than the optical microscope, but also can observe biological samples without precoating as required for scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The AFM images of the entire surface of an uncoated red blood cell with nanometer resolution are successfully reconstructed by 28 AFM images of the preselected subareas on the surface of the red blood cell. These images reveal directly the fine structures of the external surface of uncoated red blood cells in air. The surface exhibits a characteristic structure composed of a large number of closely-packed nanometer particles with a size ranging from a few nanometers to tens of nanometers. These "particulate" components are evenly distributed, and no jumping protrusion or depression structures were found. These particles give rise to a very smooth surface of the red blood cell as shown in a large-scan AFM image. In addition, the 28 AFM images obtained by the continuous scanning over 3 hours indicate that TMAFM can image soft biological samples such as red blood cells stably and reproducibly.

Optoelectronic butterfly interconnection architecture of modified signed-digit arithmetic systems: fully parallel adder and subtracter.

The carry-free property of modified signed-digit addition is discussed, and a space-position-logic-encoding scheme is proposed, which not only makes best use of the convenience of binary (0, 1) logic operation but is also suitable for the trinary (1, 0, 1-) property of modified signed-digit digits. Based on the spaceposition-logic-encoding scheme, a fully parallel modified signed-digit adder and subtracter is built by use of optoelectronic switch modules and butterfly interconnections; thus an effective combination of a parallel algorithm and a parallel architecture is implemented. The effectiveness of this architecture is verified by both simulation and experimental results.

Butterfly interconnection networks and their applications in information processing and optical computing: applications in fast-Fourier-transform-based opticalinformation processing.

As modern optical information processing has developed, research on massive and parallel rapid computing and processing has attracted more attention. In this paper, butterfly networks and a variety of types of optical information processing are studied and discussed. For a basis, one- and twodimensional butterfly interconnection networks are studied in constructions, and the relationship and the transformation between them are provided. Algorithms for both the one- and two-dimensional fast Fourier transforms are analyzed, one- and two-dimensional butterfly networks for implementing the algorithms are built, and computer-simulation results are attained. Finally, an underlying optical network system is suggested and studied in respect to its architecture and advantages; it is a new optical butterfly network hardware system consisting of two-dimensional binary phase diffraction gratings, which perform a variety of types of fast-Fourier-transform-based optical information processing.

Direct spectrophotometric determination of Nd in mixed rare earths with semi-xylenol orange and cetylpyridinium chloride.

The derivative absorption spectra of the neodymium complex with Semi-Xylenol Orange and cetylpyridinium chloride has been investigated. The characteristic absorption of the complex is approximately 350 times that of neodymium chloride. The fourth-order derivative spectrum has been used to eliminate the interference of the other lanthanides, and to increase the sensitivity by a further factor of 6. Beer's law is obeyed for 0-7.5 microg of Nd in 25 ml of solution. The relative standard deviation for 7 determinations of 1.8 microg/25 ml neodymium was 1.3%. The detection limits were 5.8 ng/ml in the absence of lanthanum and 11.2 ng/ml in the presence of 44 ng/ml lanthanum (or 36 ng/ml yttrium). The method has been used for the determination of neodymium in mixed rare earths, with satisfactory results.

Direct spectrophotometric determination of Nd and Er in mixed rare earths with 8-hydroxyquinoline-5-sulphonic acid and cetylpyridinium chloride.

Neodymium and erbium can form stable ternary complexes with 8-hydroxyquinoline-5-sulphonic acid and cetylpyridinium chloride, but a photometric method based on this does not give high enough sensitivity and is subject to interference by cerium. Use of the third derivative spectra, however, eliminates the interference by cerium and increases the sensitivity.

[Electroanalytical chemistry study of pilocarpine].

The electrochemical behaviour of pilocarpine was investigated by differential pulse polarography and cyclic voltammetry. The optimum conditions for the determination of pilocarpine were as follows: The electrolyte was 0.4 mol/L HAc-NaAc(pH 4.0) buffer solution, Zn (II) 1.0 x 10(-3) mol/L; initial potential -0.80 V (vs Ag-AgCl), final potential -1.30 V (vs Ag-AgCl), and voltage sweep rate 5 mV/s. A fair reproducibility in the above procedure and a good relationship between peak current and pilocarpine concentration (4.0 x 10(-6)-4.0 x 10(-5) mol/L) were achieved. The detection limit was 8.0 x 10(-7) mol/L. This paper also reports that the application of cyclic voltammetry to study electrode process behavior has been established. The PVC membrane ion-selective electrode for pilocarpine also was studied. It is based on the use of tetraphenylborate pilocarpine ion pair complex as the active material. The PVC membrane electrode showed Nernstian response over the pilocarpine concentration range from 1.0 x 10(-2) to 3.0 x 10(-5) mol/L, with a slope of 36 mV/decade, the detection limit being 3.0 x 10(-6) mol/L. The electrode gave fast response and good reproducibility. This method provides a rapid and simple way to the determination of pilocarpine in pharmaceutical preparations.