PURPOSE: To analyze the safety and clinical outcome of laparoscopic nephroureterectomy (LNUT) for native upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UC) in renal transplant (RT) recipients. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 956 RT recipients from January 2003 to December 2010 to evaluate the benefit of LNUT for patients who were diagnosed with de novo UC after renal transplantation. RESULTS: Women predominated (10/11, 91 %) in the 11 patients with upper tract UC who underwent LNUT. Five patients underwent LNUT ipsilateral to the transplanted kidney, 4 patients underwent contralateral LNUT, and 2 patients underwent bilateral LNUT. Nine were operated with LNUT combining resection of bladder cuff, 2 with right ureteral cancer underwent open ureterectomy with bladder cuff due to severe adhesions attached to the lesion. The mean surgical duration was 184.2 min (105-305), the mean blood loss was 182.3 ml (20-500), and the mean hospitalization time was 6.7 days (5-9). The mean levels of preoperative and postoperative serum creatinine were 0.99 mg/dl (0.78-1.16) and 1.01 mg/dl (0.89-1.18), respectively. No intraoperative complications occurred. One patient died of multiple metastases at 13 months after LNUT. The mean follow-up of the remaining 10 patients after diagnosis was 21.7 months (3-48). Two patients had recurrent bladder cancer and underwent transurethral resection of the tumor. Eight patients showed no evidence of disease during the follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: LNUT is a safe and effective approach with low morbidity in transplant recipients, and this therapy provides less trauma, quicker recovery, and acceptable oncological outcomes.

Multitendoned extrinsic muscles of the human hand can be divided into several neuromuscular compartments (NMCs), each of which contributes to the ability of human finger to produce independent finger movements or force. The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in the spatial activation of flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS) during the fingertip force production with non-invasive multichannel surface electromyography (sEMG) technique. 7 healthy Subjects were instructed to match the target force level for 5s using individual index finger (I), individual middle finger (M) and the combination of the index and middle finger (IM) respectively. Simultaneously, a 2 × 6 electrode array was employed to record multichannel sEMG from FDS as finger force was produced. The entropy and center of gravity of the sEMG root mean square (RMS) map were computed to assess the spatial inhomogeneity in muscle activation and the change in spatial distribution of EMG amplitude related to the force generation of specific task finger. The results showed that the area and intensity of high amplitude region increased with force production, and the entropy increased with force level under the same task finger. The findings indicate that the change of spatial distribution of multitendoned extrinsic hand muscle activation is correlated to specific biomechanical functions.

In the present work, we report exploitation of spatial symmetry in calculations of ground state energy and analytic first derivatives of closed-shell molecules based on our previously developed coupled-cluster (CC) approach with spin-orbit coupling. Both time-reversal symmetry and spatial symmetry for D(2h) and its subgroups are exploited in the implementation. The symmetry of a certain spin case for the amplitude, intermediate, or density matrix is determined by the symmetry of the corresponding spin functions and the direct product decomposition method is employed in computations involving these quantities. The reduction in computational effort achieved through the use of spatial symmetry is larger than the order of the molecular single point group. Symmetry exploitation renders application of the CC approaches with spin-orbit coupling to larger closed-shell molecules containing heavy elements with high accuracy.

Recent experimental evidence support the model in which the simultaneous induction of BMI-1 and USP22 is critical during cancer progression. Whether this model may affect gastric cancer (GC) progression is worthy of additional study. In this study, we examined the significance of the USP22 and BMI-1 expression in GC (n = 219), non-cancerous mucosa (n = 37), and lymph node metastasis (n = 37). The protein expression level of USP22 and BMI-1 were concomitantly up-regulated from non-cancerous mucosa to primary carcinoma and from carcinomas to lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001). A statistical correlation was observed between USP22 and BMI-1 expression in GC tissues (n = 219, r = 0.634, P < 0.001) and in lymph node metastasis (n = 37, r = 0.689, P < 0.001). The incidence of positive expression was 57.08% for USP22, 49.32% for BMI-1, and 45.21% for USP22/BMI-1 in 219 GC tissues, respectively. Co-positive of USP22/BMI-1 was significantly correlated with gross features (x(2)= 14.256, P < 0.001), differentiation (x(2)= 5.872, P = 0.015), pT classification (x(2)= 18.486, P < 0.001), pN classification (x(2)= 9.604, P = 0.002), pM classification (x(2)= 32.766, P < 0.001), and AJCC stage (x(2)= 58.278, P < 0.001). Notably, high USP22/BMI-1 expression was significantly associated with shorter disease-specific survival (P < 0.001). By Cox regression analysis, co-positive of USP22/BMI-1 was found to be an independent prognostic factor (P = 0.002). Our results indicated the simultaneous activation of USP22 and BMI-1 may associate with GC progression and therapy failure.

This study was aimed to investigate the effect of cord blood dendritic cells (DCs) on the in vitro proliferation capability, immunophenotype changes, level of secreted cytokines and activity against leukemia cells of the homologous cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells. DCs and CIK cells were induced from cord blood mononuclear cells. They were co-cultured at the ratio of 1:5, and CIK cells from cord blood or DC-CIK cells from peripheral blood were cultured as controls. Immunophenotypic changes were analyzed by flow cytometry, increased number of cells were counted by trypan-blue staining, the killing activity to leukemia cells was assayed by MTT, the levels of interferon-γ (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-12 (IL-12) in the cultured supernatant were detected by ELISA. The results showed that the proliferation capability of cord blood DC-CIK cells was significantly higher than that of cord blood CIK cells and peripheral blood DC-CIK cells (p < 0.05 and p < 0.05). Under the same condition, the rate of double positive cells with CD3(+)CD8(+) and CD3(+)CD56(+) in CIK cells was significantly enhanced by co-culture with cord blood DCs (p < 0.05). The level of IL-12, IFN-γ, and TNF-α in cultured supernatants of cord blood DC-CIK cells increased noticeably on day 3 as compared with CIK cells cultured alone (p < 0.01, p < 0.05, p < 0.05). Within the effector-target ratio range between 2.5:1 to 20:1, the activity of cord blood DC-CIK cells against all subtypes of acute leukemia cells was much higher than that of CIK cells (p < 0.05), and there was no significant difference among all subtypes of acute leukemia cells, which was the same with the killing effect of peripheral blood DC-CIK cells against leukemia cells. It is concluded that the proliferation capability and anti-leukemia effect of the homologous CIK cells can be enhanced by cord blood DCs. The proliferation capability of cord blood DC-CIK cells is stronger than that of peripheral blood DC-CIK cells, but there is no significant differences of cytotoxicity between DCs and CIK cells. As the cord blood is easily gained and does not easily cause a serious graft rejection, the DC-CIK cells should be clinically applied more extensively as novel immune therapy.

The entire potential energy curve of the Ca(2) ground state generated by the Tang-Toennies potential model with its parameters specified by the three theoretical dispersion coefficients and the experimentally determined equilibrium distance and well depth is in excellent agreement with the accurate experimental potential of Allard et al.[Phys. Rev. A 66, 042503 (2002)]. The reduced potential of Ca(2) is almost identical with that of Hg(2). This leads to the conjecture that the ground state van der Waals dimer potentials of group IIA, except Be, and group IIB elements have the same shape, which is different from that of the rare-gas dimers. The potentials of Ca-RG complexes (RG=He,Ne,Ar,Kr,Xe) are generated by the same potential model with its parameters calculated from the homonuclear potentials of calcium and rare-gas dimers with combining rules. The predicted spectroscopic constants are comparable to other theoretical computations.

The saturation of second-harmonic generation is observed for the first time to our knowledge in GaAs-GaAlAs asymmetric quantum wells. The sample, which consists of 200 periods of a 30-nm Ga(0.6)Al(0.4)As barrier, a 4.5-nm Ga(0.4)Al(0.09)As step barrier, and a 6-nm GaAs well, is pumped by a CO(2) TEA laser. The saturation of second-harmonic conversion is found to occur near 16 MW/cm(2). The power conversion efficiency is measured to be of the order of 3.4 x 10(-4). These results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions from a density matrix treatment.

Background: Alterations in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) subfractions, especially in the HDL2b subfraction, have been reported in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, new methods for convenient and reliable quantitation of HDL2b are yet to be developed. Methods: Thirty-eight patients with T2DM were enrolled and age-, sex- and body mass index (BMI)-matched controls were selected from the same population. A microfluidic chip method was employed to analyse serum HDL subfractions. Results: The microfluidic chip method revealed a significant reduction in HDL2b and its ratio to total HDL in T2DM patients. There was a reverse correlation for total HDL and HDL2b, and its ratio with triglycerides, homeostasis model assessment-insulin sensitivity index (HOMA-IS) and insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR). Conclusions: We have shown a reduction of HDL2b and its ratio to total HDL by a novel chip method in T2DM patients. The significant correlation between HDL2b and HOMA-IS and HOMA-IR may have further predictive value in clinical utility.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the outcomes of renal transplantation with donor kidneys with multi-branched renal arteries. METHODS: The data about operation time, volume of intra-operational blood loss, postoperative complications, and post-operational renal function status of 251 recipients of donor kidneys with single-branched renal artery (Group A), 12 recipients of donor kidneys with double-branched renal arteries the diameter of one of which was < 2 mm or the estimated blood supply areas of one of which were < 10%(Group B), and 35 recipients of donor kidneys with renal arteries with 2 or more than 2 branches (Group C). RESULTS: The operation time was (115 +/- 34) min in Group A and was (120 +/- 31) min in Group B, both shorter than that of Group C [(133 +/- 55) min], however, not significantly. There were not significant differences in the intra-operational volume of blood loss, 1-year survival rate of patient/transplanted kidney, and post-operational creatinine level among these three groups. The complication rate was 7.6%(19/251) in Group A, 16.7%(2/12) in Group B, and 11.4% in Group C (4/35). CONCLUSION: There are not significant differences in the intra-operational status and post-operational outcomes among the operations of renal transplantation with donor kidneys with different amounts of renal arteries.

This study was aimed to investigate the effect of dendritic cells (DC) on the proliferation capability, immunophenotype changes, level of secreted cytokines and activity against leukemia of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells in vitro. DCs and CIK cells were induced from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of healthy volunteers. They were co-cultured meanwhile CIK cells were cultured alone as controls. Increased number of cells were counted by trypan-blue staining; the killing activity was detected by MTT assay; immunophenotype changes were analyzed by flow cytometry; the IL-12 and INF-gamma levels of the cultured supernatants were detected by ELISA kits. The results showed that the proliferation capability of DC-CIK cells was significantly higher than that of CIK cells (p < 0.05). Under the same condition, the ratio of double positive cells such as CD3(+) CD8(+), CD3(+) CD56(+) in CIK cells was significantly enhanced by co-cultured with DC cells (p < 0.05). The levels of IL-12 and INF-gamma in cultured supernatants of DC-CIK cells increased noticeably on day 3 as compared with CIK cells cultured alone (p < 0.01, p < 0.05). Within the effector-target ratio range between 5:1 to 40:1, the activity of DC-CIK cells against leukemia cells were much higher than that of CIK cells (p < 0.05), and this effect showed a positive correlation with the effector-target ratio. It is concluded that the proliferation capability of DC-CIK cells, the level of their secreted cytokines and their activity against leukemia cells are significantly higher than those of CIK cells. This research may suggest an approach for clinical immunotherapy against leukemia with DC-CIK cells.