Cycle number of neoadjuvant chemotherapy might influence survival of patients with T1-4N2-3M0 nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Objective： Stage N2-3 nasopharyngeal carcinoma（NPC） shows a high risk of distant metastasis, which will finally cause death. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of neoadjuvant chemotherapy（NACT） of various cycles before radical radiotherapy on distant metastasis and survival of patients with stage N2-3 diseases.Methods： In this study, a total of 1,164 consecutive patients with non-metastatic N2-3 NPC were recruited and prospectively observed. Then 231 patients who received NACT of 4 cycles（NACT=4 group） were matched 1：2：1 to 462 patients treated with NACT of 2 cycles（NACT=2 group） and 231 patients treated without NACT（NACT=0 group）, according to age, histological subtype, N stage and NACT regimen. Five candidate variables（sex, T stage, concurrent chemotherapy, intensity-modulated radiation therapy and cycle number of NACT） were analyzed for their association with patients＇ survival.Results： After matching, the overall survival（OS）, disease-free survival（DFS）, local-recurrence-free survival（RFS） and distant-metastasis-free survival（MFS） of the NACT=4 group（89.2%, 81.0%, 83.3% and 84.8%,respectively） were better than those of the NACT=2 group（83.3%, 72.5%, 81.2% and 77.9%, respectively） and the NACT=0 group（74.0%, 63.2%, 74.0% and 68.8%, respectively）. In multivariate analysis, the cycle number of NACT maintained statistical significance on the OS, DFS, RFS and MFS（all P〈0.05）.Conclusions： For N2-3 NPC, cycle number of NACT appeared to be an independent factor associated with an improvement of survival.

ON NUMBER OF LIMIT CYCLES FOR THE QUADRATIC SYSTEMS WITH A WEAK FOCUS AND A STRONG FOCUS

It is proved that the quadratic system with a weak focus and a strong focus has at most one limit cycle around the strong focus, and as the weak focus is a 2nd order(or 3rd order) weak focus the quadratic system has at most two(one) limit cycles which have (1,1) distribution ((0,1) distribution).

Life cycle assessment for municipal solid waste treatment and utilization

Using the method of life cycle assessment (LCA), the paper studies systematically on municipal solid waste incineration and ecological engineering treatment in Guanghan City. The results showed that the environmental impact potentials of incineration and ecological engineering treatment is 4\^89×10 -2 and 1\^23×10 -2 respectively ; the net energy consumption is -3\^44×10 2 MJ/ton and -2\^90×10 1 MJ/ton, respectively; the net treatment cost is 84.76 RMB Yuan/ton and 32\^52 RMB Yuan/ton, respectively. Comparing with sole incineration, ecological engineering integrates the advantages of incineration and composing, which not only can reduce the amount of waste for incineration and decrease the second environmental pollution, but also can produce high quality compound fertilizer by adding certain amount of chemical fertilizer into compost. It is proved that ecological engineering treatment is an environmental sustainable and economic afforadably method.

On the Characterization of Maximal Planar Graphs with a Given Signed Cycle Domination Number

Let G = （V, E） be a simple graph. A function f ： E → {＋1,-1} is called a signed cycle domination function （SCDF） of G if ∑e∈E（C） f（e） ≥ 1 for every induced cycle C of G. The signed cycle domination number of G is defined as γ′sc（G） = min{∑e∈E f（e）｜ f is an SCDF of G}. This paper will characterize all maxima] planar graphs G with order n ≥ 6 and γ′sc（G） =n.

Fatigue Behaviour of Tubular Joints Made of China-Made Platform Steel

In China, a nationwide research program on fatigue behaviour of tubular joints made of China-made platform steel was carried out from 1983 to 1990, which was set by the Tubular Joint Research Committee for Offshore Structures (TJCOS) of China. This paper gives an outline of the basic properties of the China-made platform steel and fatigue test of tubular joints, including test specimens, test particulars and test results. A p-S-N curve based on the test results was established which reveals that the fatigue strength of tubular joints is fairly good. The thickness effect and effect of corrosion on fatigue strength in sea water are briefly discussed.

A 12-bit 30-MS/s VCO-based SAR ADC with NOC-assisted multiple adaptive bypass windows

This paper proposes a technique that uses the number of oscillation cycles(NOC)of a VCO-based comparator to set multiple adaptive bypass windows in a 12-bit successive approximation register(SAR)analog-to-digital converter(ADC).The analysis of the number of bit cycles,power and static performance shows that three adaptive bypass windows reduce power consumption,and decrease DNL and have similar INL,compared with the SAR ADC without bypass windows.In addition,a 1-bit split-and-recombination redundancy technique and a general bypass logic digital error correction method are proposed to address the settling issues and optimize the size of the bypass window.This design is implemented in 40 nm CMOS technology.The conversion frequency of the ADC reaches up to 30 MS/s.The ADC achieves an SFDR of 85.35 dB and 11.12-bit ENOB with Nyquist input,consuming 380μW,down from 427μW without multiple adaptive bypass windows,at a 1.1 V supply,resulting in a figure of merit(FoM)of 5.69 fJ/conversion-step.

CYCLE CONTR0L FUNCTIONS AND THE NUMBER 0F LIMIT CYCLES

The cycle coatrol function is defined and used to estimate tbe number of limit cycles for someplanar autonomous systems. Some sufficient conditions for the existence of no or at most one limitcycles are given.

Investigation of influential factors on the tensile strength of cold recycled mixture with bitumen emulsion due to moisture conditioning

The present study attempts to investigate the effect of moisture conditioning on the in- direct tensile strength （ITS） of cold recycled mixture with bitumen emulsion. Firstly, samples were prepared using a Superpave gyratory compactor. They were hence condi- tioned using moisture induced sensitivity tester （MIST） device. Factorial design was carried out considering four factors each at two different levels. These factors were specimen thickness, air voids content, pressure and number of cycles. In the MIST device, samples are cyclically subjected to water pressure through the sample pores. The MIST conditioned samples were tested for indirect tensile strength. The analysis of two-level full-factorial designed experiments revealed that all four factors have a negative effect on tensile strength of cold recycled mixture with bitumen emulsion. Specimen thickness was the most significant factor affecting the tensile strength followed by air voids content. In two- factor interaction, specimen thickness-number of cycles, air voids content-pressure, and pressure-number of cycles were significant. The most significant three-factor interaction was specimen thickness-pressure-number of cycles. The results from the study suggest that in measuring tensile strength, the appropriate specimen thickness and air voids content should be selected to quantify the representative tensile strength for in-situ conditions.

Thermal Behavior Analysis of Stacked-type Supercapacitors with Different Cell Structures

As a new energy storage element,supercapacitors have characteristics such as high power density,fast charge and discharge rates,green environmental protection,and long cycle life.Temperature is an important parameter of supercapacitors which significantly influences the stability of the supercapacitors.In this study,the finite element method is used to realize a coupling between a one-dimensional electrochemical model and a three-dimensional thermal model.Then,based on this model,the concept of limited cycle numbers is defined,and different unit quantities,unit size,and the effect of temperature under different temperature environments such as low temperature,room temperature,and high temperature on stacked-type supercapacitors is studied.Finally,stacked-type supercapacitors are compared with rolled-type supercapacitors considering the same cell size,density,and volume approximations.The simulation results show that the higher the number of packaging units,the lower is the limit cycle number.This phenomenon is more pronounced under high current than under low current conditions.Increasing the package size of the porous electrode or separator decreases the limiting cycles.Under the same unit volume scenario,improving the separator size proportion can accurately control the temperature rise at small current values.Under the same material,volume,and density approximations,the temperature rises slowly for stacked-type supercapacitors as compared to rolled-type supercapacitors.This phenomenon is more pronounced with an increase in current.

Sewage sludge disintegration by high-pressure homogenization: A sludge disintegration model

High-pressure homogenization （HPH） technology was applied as a pretreatment to disintegrate sewage sludge. The effects of homogenization pressure, homogenization cycle number, and total solid content on sludge disintegration were investigated. The sludge disintegration degree （DDCOD）, protein concentration, and polysaccharide concentration increased with the increase of homogenization pressure and homogenization cycle number, and decreased with the increase of sludge total solid （TS） content. The maximum DDCOD of 43.94% was achieved at 80 MPa with four homogenization cycles for a 9.58 g/L TS sludge sample. A HPH sludge disintegration model of DDCOD= kNaPb was established by multivariable linear regression to quantify the effects of homogenization parameters. The homogenization cycle exponent a and homogenization pressure exponent b were 0.4763 and 0.7324 respectively, showing that the effect of homogenization pressure （P） was more significant than that of homogenization cycle number （N）. The value of the rate constant k decreased with the increase of sludge total solid content. The specific energy consumption increased with the increment of sludge disintegration efficiency. Lower specific energy consumption was required for higher total solid content sludge.