[Current smoking status and awareness of tobacco hazard in adults in Beijing, 2014]

Objective: To understand the status of current smoking and awareness of hazard in adults in Beijing, 2014. Methods: A total of 19 815 subjects were randomly selected with stratified multi-stage cluster sampling from 180 communities of 36 townships of 16 districts in Beijing. Each subject received a standardized questionnaire interview. Results: The current smoking rate of the adults was 26.6% (5 253/19 738), which was higher in men (52.2%) than in women (3.6%) and higher in suburb area (28.9%) than in urban area (25.0%). The adults aged 50-59 had higher rate of current smoking. The daily smoking rate was 23.7% (4 677/19 738). The average age when smoking started was 19.2 years. On average, one smoker consumed 15.2 cigarettes per day. The average score for smoking hazard awareness was 5.8, which was higher in smokers than in non-smokers (5.5 vs. 6.0) (t=-9.854, P=0.000). In the smokers, 5.7% (298/5 213) intended to give up smoking within one month. Doctors gave advice to stop smoking for 66.0% of current smokers. The current smoking rate of patients with chronic disease was 31.8% (3 703/11 628), and 5.5% (202/3 686) of them intended to stop smoking within one month. Conclusions: The smoking rate was still high in men in Beijing. The age of starting smoking every day decreased among younger people. The levels of awareness of tobacco hazard and passive smoking were still low. The willingness of smoking cessation was low. The rate of doctor giving smoking cessation advice was low.

Investigations of high order plasmonic resonance features of the nano hyper ring

A novel silver hyper ring and its complex nanostructures are designed and its plasmonic properties are investigated numerically. It is found that these hyper ring structures have relative stable optical features. The absorption cross section of the structure changes slightly when the direction and polarization of incident light is adjusting. For the complex structure, the position of each resonance peak does not present obvious change when the relative position of the inner hyper ring and outside larger ring changes. The result of the investigation has great significance for the production of practical nanostructures and the improvement of possible applications.

HCP: A Flexible CNN Framework for Multi-label Image Classification

Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has demonstrated promising performance in single-label image classification tasks. However, how CNN best copes with multi-label images still remains an open problem, mainly due to the complex underlying object layouts and insufficient multi-label training images. In this work, we propose a flexible deep CNN infrastructure, called Hypotheses-CNN-Pooling (HCP), where an arbitrary number of object segment hypotheses are taken as the inputs, then a shared CNN is connected with each hypothesis, and finally the CNN output results from different hypotheses are aggregated with max pooling to produce the ultimate multi-label predictions. Some unique characteristics of this flexible deep CNN infrastructure include: 1) no ground-truth bounding box information is required for training; 2) the whole HCP infrastructure is robust to possibly noisy and/or redundant hypotheses; 3) the shared CNN is flexible and can be well pre-trained with a large-scale single-label image dataset, e.g., ImageNet; and 4) it may naturally output multi-label prediction results. Experimental results on Pascal VOC 2007 and VOC 2012 multi-label image datasets well demonstrate the superiority of the proposed HCP infrastructure over other state-of-the-arts. In particular, the mAP reaches 90.5% by HCP only and 93.2% after the fusion with our complementary result in [44] based on hand-crafted features on the VOC 2012 dataset.

The effect of pregabalin on acute postoperative pain in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty: A meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) was to evaluate the effect of pain control of pregabalin versus placebo after a total knee arthroplasty (TKA).

METHODS

The electronic databases: Medline, Embase, PubMed, CENTRAL (Cochrane Controlled Trials Register), Web of Science and Google were searched from inception to February 2016. This systematic review and meta-analysis were performed according to the PRISMA statement criteria. The primary endpoint was the visual analogue scale (VAS) after a TKA with rest or mobilization at 24 h and 48 h, which represents the effect of pain control after TKA. The cumulative morphine consumption is also assessed to the morphine-sparing effect. The complications of nausea, vomiting, dizziness and sedation were also compiled to assess the safety of pregabalin. Software Stata 12.0 was used for the meta-analysis. After testing for publication bias and heterogeneity across studies, data were aggregated for random-effects modelling when necessary.

RESULTS

Six clinical trials with 769 patients were used for the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis indicated that pregabalin can decrease the VAS with rest at 24 h (MD = -8.14; 95% CI -12.57 to -3.71; P < 0.001) and 48 h (MD = -7.34; 95% CI -11.65 to -3.02; P < 0.001). Pregabalin can decrease the VAS with mobilization at 24 h (MD = -6.56; 95% CI -10.45 to -2.66; P = 0.001) and 48 h (MD = -9.62; 95% CI -12.80 to -6.44; P < 0.001). The results indicated that perioperative pregabalin can decrease the cumulative morphine consumption at 24 h (SMD = -0.97; 95% CI -1.17 to -0.78; P < 0.001) and 48 h (MD = -2.23; 95% CI -2.48 to -1.97; P < 0.001). Moreover, pregabalin can decrease the occurrence of nausea and vomiting but increase the occurrence of dizziness and sedation.

CONCLUSION

Based on the current meta-analysis, pregabalin has an analgesic and opioid-sparing effect in acute postoperative pain management without increasing the rate of nausea, vomiting.

Conditional disease-free survival after liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: A two-center experience

Traditionally, survival estimates following liver transplantation (LT) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients were calculated as survival from the surgery date, but future survival probabilities can change over time and conditional disease-free survival (CDFS) may provide patients and clinicians with more accurate prognostic information. This study aimed to assess CDFS in HCC patients after LT.Three hundred eighty-four HCC patients who underwent LT were included. Disease-free survival (DFS) was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier analysis. The 3-year CDFS, which represents the probability of remaining disease free for an additional 3 years, was calculated.1-, 3-, and 5-year DFS rates after LT were 69.9%, 45.8%, and 39.0 %, respectively. Based on the concept of CDFS, the probability of surviving an additional 3 years given that the patient was disease free at 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years were 58.4%, 76.9%, and 83.1%, respectively. Multivariate analysis indicated that larger tumor size (hazard ratio [HR], 1.509; 95% CI, 1.146-1.985; P = 0.003) was associated with poorer DFS. Patients with worse prognostic features at baseline demonstrated the greater increase in CDFS over time.Survival estimates following liver transplantation of HCC patients change according to survival time accrued since surgery. CDFS estimates improved dramatically over time especially among patients with worse prognostic features at the time of surgery. CDFS may be a useful tool in counseling patients with HCC, as it is a more accurate assessment of future survival for those patients who have already survived a certain amount of time.

Observation of an Anomalous Line Shape of the η^{'}π^{+}π^{-} Mass Spectrum near the pp[over ¯] Mass Threshold in J/ψ→γη^{'}π^{+}π^{-}

Using 1.09×10^{9} J/ψ events collected by the BESIII experiment in 2012, we study the J/ψ→γη^{'}π^{+}π^{-} process and observe a significant abrupt change in the slope of the η^{'}π^{+}π^{-} invariant mass distribution at the proton-antiproton (pp[over ¯]) mass threshold. We use two models to characterize the η^{'}π^{+}π^{-} line shape around 1.85  GeV/c^{2}: one that explicitly incorporates the opening of a decay threshold in the mass spectrum (Flatté formula), and another that is the coherent sum of two resonant amplitudes. Both fits show almost equally good agreement with data, and suggest the existence of either a broad state around 1.85  GeV/c^{2} with strong couplings to the pp[over ¯] final states or a narrow state just below the pp[over ¯] mass threshold. Although we cannot distinguish between the fits, either one supports the existence of a pp[over ¯] moleculelike state or bound state with greater than 7σ significance.

GLIPR1 inhibits the proliferation and induces the differentiation of cancer-initiating cells by regulating miR-16 in osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is a common, highly malignant and metastatic bone cancer. Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of osteosarcoma may further help us to understand the pathogenesis of the disease, and offer novel targets for effective therapies. Human glioma pathogenesis-related protein 1 (GLIPR1) has been found to be downregulated in human cancers. However, its roles have not been reported in osteosarcoma. In the present study, we demonstrated that GLIPR1 protein was downregulated in osteosarcoma. Its overexpression inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion and induced the differentiation of cancer-initiating cells (CICs) in osteosarcoma. Moreover, GLIPR1 overexpression upregulated miR-16 in osteosarcoma cells. The upregulation suppressed proliferation, migration and invasion as well as induced differentiation of CICs in osteosarcoma. Thus, we conclude that GLIPR1 inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion and induced the differentiation of CICs by regulating miR-16 in osteosarcoma. The present study provides direct evidence that GLIPR1 is a bona fide tumor suppressor and identified GLIPR1 and miR-16 as key components for regulating the proliferation, migration, invasion and CICs in osteosarcoma.

[Validity, reliability, and acceptability of the scale of knowledge, attitude, and behavior of lifestyle intervention in a diabetes high-risk population]

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the validity, reliability, and acceptability of the scale of knowledge, attitude, and behavior of lifestyle intervention in a diabetes high-risk population (HILKAB), and provide scientific evidence for its usage.

METHODS

By convenient sampling, we selected 406 individuals at high risk for diabetes for survey using the HILKAB. Pearson correlation coefficient, factor analysis, independent sampling, and t-test for high- and low-score groups were used to evaluate the content validity, construct validity, and discriminant validity of the scale. Reliability of the scale was evaluated by internal consistency, which included Cronbach's α coefficient, θ coefficient, Ω coefficient, and split-half reliability. Scale acceptability was evaluated by acceptance rate and completion time of the survey.

RESULTS

In this study, 366 questionnaires (90.1%) was qnalified and the completion time was (8.62±2.79) minutes. Scores for knowledge, attitude, and behavior were 10.60±3.73, 26.56±3.58, 17.09±9.74, respectively. The scale had good face validity and content validity. The correlation coefficient of items and the dimension to which they belong was between 0.25 and 0.97, and the correlation coefficient of three dimensions and the entire scale was between 0.64 and 0.91, all with P<0.001. Factor analysis of the scale extracted eight common factors. The cumulative variance contribution rate was 65.23%, thereby reaching the 50% approved standard. Of 30 items there were 29 items with factor loadings ≥0.40, indicating the scale had good construct validity. For the high-score group, scores for knowledge, attitude, and behavior dimensions were 13.89±2.55, 29.56± 2.46, 28.05 ± 2.93, respectively, which were higher than those for the low-score group (7.67 ± 2.78, 23.89 ± 3.35, 6.25 ± 3.13); t-values were 55.14, 119.40, 95.29, respectively, with P<0.001. The scale consisted of three dimensions: knowledge, attitude, and behavior. The Cronbach's α coefficient was between 0.84 and 0.92, the θ coefficient was between 0.85 and 0.96, the Ω coefficient was between 0.90 and 0.94, and the split-half reliability was between 0.77 and 0.95, reaching the 0.70 standard letter.

CONCLUSION

The validity, reliability, and acceptability of the HILKAB scale were satisfactory for use in a population at high risk of diabetes.

[Development of the scale of knowledge, attitude, and behavior of lifestyle intervention in a diabetes high-risk population]

OBJECTIVE

To establish a scale of knowledge, attitude, and behavior of lifestyle interventions among a population at high risk of diabetes with good cultural adaptability, validity, and reliability.

METHODS

The original item pool was formed based on a literature review, group discussions, and interviews with experts. We used the Delphi method to determine core items of the scale (30 cases in the first round and 26 cases in the second round, respectively). We invited 30 experts from clinical medicine, nursing, preventive medicine, health education, and community diabetes prevention and control to completed expert consultation tables. For each item, experts were asked to provide an importance score, the judgment basis, and a familiarity score. We analyzed the positive coefficient, authoritative coefficient, degree of concentration, and harmonious coefficient, to determine the selected items. Using face-to-face questionnaire surveys, 31 participants at high risk of diabetes were selected for the pilot study. We analyzed understanding of the scale's content and presentation and corrected the scale based on the analysis.

RESULTS

We received 26 and 23 inquiry forms, respectively, in two rounds of consultation. Responses rates of the two rounds were 87% and 88%. The scores of authoritative coefficients were 0.79 ± 0.14 and 0.87 ± 0.10. The score of total scale in the first consultation was 4.32±0.25, the coefficient of variation was 0.06, and the coefficient of concordance was 0.163; in the second consultation, these were 4.58±0.21, 0.05, 0.150, respectively. In the first consultation, 22 experts proposed amendments and made suggestions, a rate of 85% (22/26). After the second round, 30 items were included in the final scale. In the pilot study, 13 males and 18 females with high risk of diabetes were interviewed. Average age of the population was (62.24 ± 10.23) years. The time to complete the survey was (9.35 ± 2.71) minutes. After the pilot study was completed, the order of the items was adjusted to ensure a reasonable and logical scale.

CONCLUSION

We developed the scale of knowledge, attitude, and behavior of lifestyle intervention in a diabetes high-risk population, using the Delphi method and a pilot study. Overall, the findings indicate that input from experts during development facilitates achievement of satisfactory concentration and coordination levels, and the use of this scale will produce credible results.

Investigating polymorphisms by bioinformatics is a potential cost-effective method to screen for germline mutations in Chinese familial adenomatous polyposis patients

The aim of this study was to investigate germline mutations of the APC, MUTYH and AXIN2 genes in Chinese patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), and further assess the value of bioinformatics in screening the pathogenic changes predisposing to FAP. APC genes from 11 unrelated FAP patients in Yunnan province in China were firstly examined by exon-specific DNA sequencing. For samples without already known pathogenic changes predisposing to FAP in the APC gene, whole-gene sequencing of MUTYH and AXIN2 was performed. Mutational analysis of each gene was performed by bioinformatics. Eleven different types of APC polymorphisms were observed in the cohort of families analyzed. Of these polymorphisms, four were missense substitutions (V1822D, V1173G, P1760H and K2057), one was a nonsense substitution (S1196X), and six were silent substitutions (Y486Y, T449T, T1493T, G1678G, S1756S and P1960P). One missense mutation (Q335H) and two intronic substitutions (c.264+11G>A and c.420+35A>G) were detected in the MUTYH gene, and four synonymous mutations (I144I, P455P, P462P and L688L) and three intonic mutations (c.1060–77G>T, c.1060–287A>G and c.1060–282 A>G) of the AXIN2 gene were observed. In addition to the already reported pathogenic mutations, by using function assessment tools and databases, the synonymous substitutions observed in the APC gene of our samples were predicted to affect splicing regulation in the translation of mRNA, while the missense mutations observed in the APC gene and MUTYH gene were predicted to be disease-related polymorphisms; however, no functional effect of the mutations was observed in the AXIN2 gene. Comprehensive screening for germline mutations in APC, MUTYH and AXIN2 genes followed by prediction of pathogenicity using bioinformatic tools contributes to a cost-effective way of screening germline mutations in Chinese familial adenomatous polyposis patients.

A bispecific anti-ErbB2 antibody potently induces ErbB2 internalization and suppresses ErbB2-overexpressing tumor growth

The anti-ErbB2 humanized antibody trastuzumab was approved for ErbB2-positive metastatic gastric and gastro-esophageal junction cancer in 2010. Despite the effectiveness of trastuzumab, its efficacy remains variable and often modest. Thus, there is an urgent need to improve ErbB2-targeting therapy. Down-regulation of surface receptors induced by monoclonal antibody (mAb) contributes to its antitumor efficacy. Previous studies have demonstrated that if two anti-ErbB2 mAbs did not compete with each other for binding to ErbB2, the combination of them can enhance ErbB2 internalization. In the present study, we investigated ErbB2 internalization-inducing ability of non-competitive anti-ErbB2 mAb combinations and surprisingly found that most of the mAb combinations tested did not down-regulate ErbB2. Only 4 of 18 non-competitive mAb pairs efficiently induced ErbB2 internalization. Interestingly, although the non-competitive anti-ErbB2 mAbs trastuzumab and pertuzumab, either alone or in combination, were ineffective at inducing ErbB2 internalization, TPL, a bispecific antibody engineered from trastuzumab and pertuzumab, potently down-regulated the ErbB2 molecule. Importantly, TPL exhibited a far greater antitumor effect on ErbB2-overexpressing gastric cancer cell line than trastuzumab plus pertuzumab, suggesting that it may be a promising agent for the treatment of gastric cancer.

The Roles of Acidosis in Osteoclast Biology

The adverse effect of acidosis on the skeletal system has been recognized for almost a century. Although the underlying mechanism has not been fully elucidated, it appears that acidosis acts as a general stimulator of osteoclasts derived from bone marrow precursors cells and enhances osteoclastic resorption. Prior work suggests that acidosis plays a significant role in osteoclasts formation and activation via up-regulating various genes responsible for its adhesion, migration, survival and bone matrix degradation. Understanding the role of acidosis in osteoclast biology may lead to development of novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of diseases related to low bone mass. In this review, we aim to discuss the recent investigations into the effects of acidosis in osteoclast biology and the acid-sensing molecular mechanism.

Observation of h_{c} Radiative Decay h_{c}→γη^{'} and Evidence for h_{c}→γη

A search for radiative decays of the P-wave spin singlet charmonium resonance h_{c} is performed based on 4.48×10^{8} ψ^{'} events collected with the BESIII detector operating at the BEPCII storage ring. Events of the reaction channels h_{c}→γη^{'} and γη are observed with a statistical significance of 8.4σ and 4.0σ, respectively, for the first time. The branching fractions of h_{c}→γη^{'} and h_{c}→γη are measured to be B(h_{c}→γη^{'})=(1.52±0.27±0.29)×10^{-3} and B(h_{c}→γη)=(4.7±1.5±1.4)×10^{-4}, respectively, where the first errors are statistical and the second are systematic uncertainties.

Downregulation of miRNA-638 promotes angiogenesis and growth of hepatocellular carcinoma by targeting VEGF

The expression and function of microRNA-638 (miR-638) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remained unknown. Using the miRNA target prediction tools, we predicted that the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) might be a direct target of miR-638. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that downregulation of miRNA-638 promotes angiogenesis and growth of HCC by targeting the VEGF signaling pathway. We found that miR-638 was significantly downregulated in HCC cells and clinical HCC specimens, and miR-638 levels were inversely correlated with tumor size, portal vein invasion and poor prognosis. Overexpression of miR-638 inhibited the processes of tumor angiogenesis in vitro and in vivo. The xenograft mouse model experiments showed miR-638 repressed tumor growth of HCC in vivo. Using a luciferase reporter assay, we identified VEGF as a direct target of miR-638. Subsequent investigation revealed that miR-638 expression was inversely correlated with VEGF expression in human HCC samples. Taken together, these results suggested that miR-638 is a novel therapeutic target for HCC and overexpression of miR-638 could suppress angiogenesis and tumor growth of HCC by inhibiting VEGF signaling.

A potential peptide vector that allows targeted delivery of a desired fusion protein into the human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231

Effective control of breast cancer has been primarily hampered by a lack of tumor specificity in treatments. One potential way to improve targeting specificity is to develop novel vectors that specifically bind to and are internalized by tumor cells. Through a phage display library, an 11-L-amino acid peptide, PI (sequence, CASPSGALRSC), was selected. PI was labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and named PI-FITC. Subsequently, the specific affinity of PI-FITC to MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells and other cancer cell lines was observed by confocal microscopy. Our previous study established that PI-FITC also shows affinity to Calu-1 human lung carcinoma cells and major histocompatibility complex class I antigen molecules; therefore, the cytomembrane proteins of the cell lines were analyzed to determine those that were common to the two cell lines and may be associated with transmembrane transduction. To further test the delivery ability of PI to MDA-MB-231 cells, PI-glutathione-S-transferase (GST) was constructed and the internalization of this fusion protein was visualized by immunofluorescence microscopy. The results revealed that PI exhibited specific affinity to MDA-MB-231 cells. Use of membrane transport inhibitors indicated that macropinocytosis and caveolin-mediated endocytosis may be involved in the endocytosis of PI. In addition, 11 membrane proteins common to MDA-MB-231 and Calu-1 may be associated with transmembrane transduction. In summary, PI was able to deliver PI-GST into MDA-MB-231 cells. Thus, PI could be modified to be a potential vector, and may contribute to the development of targeted therapeutic strategies for breast cancer.

High Order Feedback-Feedforward Iterative Learning Control Scheme with a Variable Forgetting Factor

In this work, we present a new iterative learning control (ILC) scheme for a class of non-linear systems with uncertain and non-repetitive disturbances, in order to achieve perfect tracking by proposing a high order feedback-feedforward ILC algorithm with a variable forgetting factor. The high order feedback-feedforward iterative learning controller can fully apply the previous control data to the system, which allows the system to track expectations more rapidly and precisely. Introducing a variable forgetting factor can weaken the former control output and its variance in the control law, while strengthening the robustness of the ILC. Through rigorous analyses, we demonstrate that uniform convergence of the state tracking error is guaranteed under this new ILC scheme. Simulation examples are also included to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed learning controls.

Northward expansion of paddy rice in northeastern Asia during 2000-2014

Paddy rice in monsoon Asia plays an important role in global food security and climate change. Here we documented annual dynamics of paddy rice areas in the northern frontier of Asia, including Northeastern (NE) China, North Korea, South Korea, and Japan, from 2000-2014 through analysis of satellite images. The paddy rice area has increased by 120% (2.5 to 5.5 million ha) in NE China, in comparison to a decrease in South Korea and Japan, and the paddy rice centroid shifted northward from 41.16 °N to 43.70 °N (~310 km) in this period. Market, technology, policy, and climate together drove the rice expansion in NE China. The increased use of greenhouse nurseries, improved rice cultivars, agricultural subsidy policy, and a rising rice price generally promoted northward paddy rice expansion. The potential effects of large rice expansion on climate change and ecological services should be paid more attention in the future.