Predicting liver metastasis of gastrointestinal tract cancer by diffusion-weighted imaging of apparent diffusion coefficient values

AIM: To determine if efficacy of chemotherapy on liver metastasis of gastrointestinal tract cancer can be predicted by apparent diffusion coefficient(ADC) values of diffusion-weighted imaging(DWI). METHODS: In total, 86 patients with liver metastasis of gastrointestinal tract cancer(156 metastatic lesions) diagnosed in our hospital were included in this study. The maximum diameters of these tumors were compared with each other before treatment, 2 wk after treatment, and 12 wk after treatment. Selected patients were classified as the effective group and the ineffective group, depending on the maximum diameter of the tumor after 12 wk of treatment; and the ADC values at different treatment times between the two groups were compared. Spearman rank correlation was used to analyze the relationship between ADC value and tumor diameter. Receiver operating characteristic curve(ROC curve) was used to analyze the ADC values before treatment to predict the patient's sensitivity and specificity degree of efficacy to the chemotherapy. RESULTS: There was no difference in age between the two groups and in maximum tumor diameter before treatment and 2 wk after treatment. However, after 12 wk of treatment, maximum tumor diameter in the effective group was significantly lower than that in the ineffective group(P < 0.05). Before treatment, ADC values in the ineffective group were significantly higher than those in the effective group(P < 0.05). There was no difference in ADC values between the effective and ineffective groups after 2 and 12 wk of treatment. However, ADC values were significantly higher after 2 and 12 wk of treatment compared to before treatment in the effective group(P < 0.05). Spearman rank correlation analysis showed that ADC value before treatment and the reduced percentage of the maximum tumor diameter after 12 wk of treatment were negatively correlated, while the increase in the percentage of the ADC value 12 wk after treatment and the decrease in the percentage of the maximum tumor diameter were significantly positively correlated. The results of the ROC curve showed that ADC value with a chemotherapy ineffective threshold value of 1.14 × 10-3 mm2/s before treatment had a sensitivity and specificity of 94.3% and 76.7%, respectively. CONCLUSION: DWI ADC values can be used to predict the response of patients with liver metastasis of gastrointestinal tract cancer to chemotherapy with high sensitivity and relatively high specificity.

Application of artificial neural network to calculation of solitary wave run-up

The prediction of solitary wave run-up has important practical significance in coastal and ocean engineering, but the calculation precision is limited in the existing models. For improving the calculation precision, a solitary wave run-up calculation model was established based on artificial neural networks in this study. A back-propagation （BP） network with one hidden layer was adopted and modified with the additional momentum method and the auto-adjusting learning factor. The model was applied to calculation of solitary wave run-up. The correlation coefficients between the neural network model results and the experimental values was 0.996 5. By comparison with the correlation coefficient of 0.963 5, between the Synolakis formula calculation results and the experimental values, it is concluded that the neural network model is an effective method for calculation and analysis of solitary wave ran-up.

Progress in the application of Meleis transition theory in the nursing field

This paper reviews the development of Meleis transition theory,explores the trajectory of the development of transition theory,analyses of the transition theory at home and abroad and research status,discusses the research prospect of transition theory,in order to better apply Meleis transition theory to clinical nursing work,provide a certain basis for discipline development and nursing research.

Surgical Treatment of Ankle Syndesmosis Injuries with Syndesmosis Elastic Hook

INTRODUCTIONDistal tibiofibular syndesmosis injuries are usually associated with ankle fractures, especially common in Denis B and C fractures. Syndesmosis is essential for stability of the ankle mortise that is required for weight transmission and walking. The syndesmosis consists of the anteroinferior tibiofibular ligament, posteroinferior tibiofibular ligament, inferior transverse tibiofibular ligament, and interosseous membrane. Internal fixations of the syndesmosis were recommended by most authors to repair the associated ruptured ligaments, which bring about the adverse consequences of limiting the physiological micromovement of the tibiofibular joint to some extent.

Neurochip based on light-addressable potentiometric sensor with wavelet transform de-noising

Neurochip based on light-addressable potentiometric sensor(LAPS),whose sensing elements are excitable cells,can monitor electrophysiological properties of cultured neuron networks with cellular signals well analyzed.Here we report a kind of neurochip with rat pheochromocytoma(PC12) cells hybrid with LAPS and a method of de-noising signals based on wavelet transform.Cells were cultured on LAPS for several days to form networks,and we then used LAPS system to detect the extracellular potentials with signals de-noised according to decomposition in the time-frequency space.The signal was decomposed into various scales,and coefficients were processed based on the properties of each layer.At last,signal was reconstructed based on the new coefficients.The results show that after de-noising,baseline drift is removed and signal-to-noise ratio is increased.It suggests that the neurochip of PC12 cells coupled to LAPS is stable and suitable for long-term and non-invasive measurement of cell electrophysiological properties with wavelet transform,taking advantage of its time-frequency localization analysis to reduce noise.