Intraperitoneal chemotherapy and its evolving role in management of gastric cancer with peritoneal metastases

Advanced gastric cancer （GC） has been recognized as lethal disease when peritoneal metastases （PM） occurred.There is no standard treatment for advanced GC with PM.Until 1980s,the therapeutic arena for these patients had remained stagnant,with no therapeutic approach having shown a survival gain in GC with PM.However,cytoreductive surgery （CRS） with peritonectomy procedures and intraperitoneal chemotherapy （IPC） promising new combined therapeutic approach to achieve disease control for GC with PM.The recent publications changed the GC with PM treatment landscape by providing an evidence that CRS and IPC led to prolongation in overall survival （OS）.This review will provide an overview of the evolving role of CRS and IPC in the management of advanced GC with PM in the current era.

Comparison of efficacy between electroacupuncture and the combination of collateral bloodletting,cupping,and acupoint application for cervical spondylosis radiculopathy(CRS)

Objective To observe the efficacy of treating young patients with cervical spondylosis radiculopathy （CRS） by collateral bloodletting, cupping, and acupoint application. Methods Sixty-one CRS patients were randomly divided into an acupoint application group （group A, 31 cases） and an electroacupuncture group （group B, 30 cases）. Both sides of the spine and scapula were treated with collateral bloodletting, cupping, and acupoint application over Ashi points in group A. The following points received electroacupuncture in group B： Jiaji （夹脊 EX-B2）, Fengchi （风池 GB 20）, Jianjing （肩井 GB 21）, Jianyu （肩髃 LI 15）, Waiguan （外关 TE 5）, Houxi （后溪 SI 3） and Dazhui （大椎 GV 14）. Patients in the two groups were compared in terms of scores for total symptoms and signs, and the theraputic effect of each method was analyzed. Results Total score of symptoms and signs of the two groups were both more significantly improved compared to that before treatment （9.96 ± 2.02 vs 15.87 ± 1.84, P〈0.05 in group A; 10.02 ± 1.76 vs 13.59 ± 1.52, P〈0.05 in group B）. The differences in two groups before and after treatment were 5.91 ± 1.95 in group A, 3.53 ± 1.68 in group B, they were statistically significant （P〈0.05）. The total effective rate of group A [93.6% （29/31）] was better than that of group B [83.3% （25/30）], and the differences were statistically significant （P〈0.05）. Conclusion Good therapeutic effects can be achieved in treating young CRS patients with collateral bloodletting, cupping, and acupoint application.

Optimal synthesis of compression refrigeration system using a novel MINLP approach

The optimal design of a compression refrigeration system(CRS) with multiple temperature levels is very important to chemical process industries and also represents considerable challenges in process systems engineering. In this paper, a general methodology for the optimal synthesis of the CRS, which simultaneously integrates CRS and Heat Exchanger Networks(HEN) to minimize the total compressor shaft work consumption based on an MINLP model, has been proposed. The major contribution of this method is in addressing the optimal design of refrigeration cycle with variable refrigeration temperature levels. The method can be used to make major decisions in the CRS design, such as the number of levels, temperature levels, and heat transfer duties. The performance of the developed methodology has been illustrated with a case study of an ethylene CRS in an industrial ethylene plant, and the optimal solution has been examined by rigorous simulations in Aspen Plus to verify its feasibility and consistency.

Effect of the coordinated reset stimulations on controlling absence seizure

Based on a macroscopic mean-field model associating with the thalamus and cerebral cortex, we investigate how the newly proposed coordinated reset stimulation(CRS) strategy controls the absence seizures as some key parameters are changed.Different from the previous stimulation processes, CRS represents the intermittent pulse current administered to different structures including cortex, specific relay nuclei(SRN) and thalamus reticular nucleus(TRN) at different time by using three different micro-electrodes. In particular, we first simulate a typical absence epilepsy activity under the combined effect of the coupling strength between inhibitory interneurons(IIN)-excitatory pyramidal neurons(EPN) and EPN-TRN pathway. And then we explore the control mechanism of different parameters of 3:2 ON-OFF CRS on spike and slow-wave discharges(SWDs)region. Through analyzing the corresponding two-dimensional bifurcation diagrams, we find CRS is effective on controlling absence seizures in proper ranges of stimulation parameters. Especially, the combination of frequency and positive input duration can inhibit the pathological area more effectively. The obtained results might be helpful to study the pathophysiology mechanism of epilepsy, although the CRS's feasibility still needs further exploration in clinical experiments.