Medullary thyroid carcinoma: genetic advances, treatment recommendations, and the approach to the patient with persistent hypercalcitoninemia

Medullary thyroid cancer is a tumor of the thyroid C cells that occurs in sporadic and hereditary clinical settings. Genetic testing of at-risk individuals is available and has been applied to patient management. Plasma calcitonin levels are a sensitive marker for the presence of disease. Surgery offers the best hope for cure and also is an effective modality for managing metastatic and recurrent disease.     

Industrial Policies In A Maturing Taiwan Economy

Taiwan's successful industrialisation process with significant structural change now spans four decades. This paper analyses the role of small and medium enterprises and the development of secondary import substitution industries in Taiwan in relation to some policy debates. It is argued that market friendly and self-restrained industrial policies were key to the success of Taiwan's fast industrialisation. However, when Taiwan entered a more matured economy in the 1980s, a more liberal industrial policy was introduced.     

基于组反馈融合机制的视频超分辨率模型

视频超分辨率（video super-resolution,VSR）的目的是利用多个相邻帧的信息来生成参考帧的高分辨率版本。现有的许多VSR工作都集中在如何有效地对齐相邻帧以更好地融合相邻帧信息,而很少在相邻帧信息融合这一重要步骤上进行研究。针对该问题,提出了基于组反馈融合机制的视频超分辩模型（GFFMVSR）。具体来说,在相邻帧对齐后,将对齐视频序列输入第一重时间注意力模块;然后,将序列分成几个小组,各小组依次通过组内融合模块实现初步融合。不同小组的融合结果经过第二重时间注意力模块;然后,各小组逐组输入反馈融合模块,利用反馈机制反馈融合不同组别的信息,最后将融合结果输出重建。经验证,该模型具有较强的信息融合能力,在客观评价指标和主观视觉效果上都优于现有的模型。     

Roll‐to‐roll UV embossing process applied for light bar‐based sub‐wavelength gratings for backlight

This study proposes a roll‐to‐roll process‐based sub‐wavelength grating, which is attached on a light bar to turn the side‐lit red/green/blue (620, 520, and 450 nm) incident rays into a uniformly and normally output white light with high illuminance from the light bar's surface. On the basis of the rigorous coupling wave analysis, the relationship between the first‐order transmission/reflection efficiency and the pitch of the gratings with different shapes was analyzed. The optimal design can effectively reduce the coupling length and enhance the white color balance for display applications.     

The implementation of technical practices and human factors of the toyota production system in different industries

The Toyota Production System (TPS) can result in huge benefits for companies and has been widely implemented around the world. Nevertheless, most adopters emphasize only the technical practices of the TPS, but neglect the critical role of human factors in the implementation of the TPS. Therefore, this study aims at developing an integrated TPS model that fully integrates the technical elements and human elements of the TPS with Total Quality Management (TQM) practices. An empirical study was conducted to confirm the causal relationships among these constructs. In the empirical study, questionnaires were mailed and e‐mailed to 620 companies that had implemented the TPS, and 151 of the completed questionnaires were valid. These 151 respondents were divided into eight categories. The results revealed that the implementation level of each construct was significantly different in each industry. The automobile and motorcycle industries have put a great deal of effort into the application of Humanity, Human Resource Management (HRM), and TQM practices and obtained good results. Other industries, however, ignored the implementation of HRM practices. The results also revealed that the early adopters enjoyed significant benefits from the implementation of the TPS, which led high‐tech companies to start adopting TPS practices and become lean enterprises. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Scalable influence maximization for independent cascade model in large-scale social networks

Influence maximization, defined by Kempe et al. (SIGKDD 2003), is the problem of finding a small set of seed nodes in a social network that maximizes the spread of influence under certain influence cascade models. The scalability of influence maximization is a key factor for enabling prevalent viral marketing in large-scale online social networks. Prior solutions, such as the greedy algorithm of Kempe et al. (SIGKDD 2003) and its improvements are slow and not scalable, while other heuristic algorithms do not provide consistently good performance on influence spreads. In this article, we design a new heuristic algorithm that is easily scalable to millions of nodes and edges in our experiments. Our algorithm has a simple tunable parameter for users to control the balance between the running time and the influence spread of the algorithm. Our results from extensive simulations on several real-world and synthetic networks demonstrate that our algorithm is currently the best scalable solution to the influence maximization problem: (a) our algorithm scales beyond million-sized graphs where the greedy algorithm becomes infeasible, and (b) in all size ranges, our algorithm performs consistently well in influence spread—it is always among the best algorithms, and in most cases it significantly outperforms all other scalable heuristics to as much as 100–260% increase in influence spread.     

Choline Acetyltransferase Induces the Functional Regeneration of the Salivary Gland in Aging SAMP1/Kl -/- Mice

Salivary gland dysfunction induces salivary flow reduction and a dry mouth, and commonly involves oral dysfunction, tooth structure deterioration, and infection through reduced salivation. This study aimed to investigate the impact of aging on the salivary gland by a metabolomics approach in an extensive aging mouse model, SAMP1/Klotho -/- mice. We found that the salivary secretion of SAMP1/Klotho -/- mice was dramatically decreased compared with that of SAMP1/Klotho WT (+/+) mice. Metabolomics profiling analysis showed that the level of acetylcholine was significantly decreased in SAMP1/Klotho -/- mice, although the corresponding levels of acetylcholine precursors, acetyl-CoA and choline, increased. Interestingly, the mRNA and protein expression of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), which is responsible for catalyzing acetylcholine synthesis, was significantly decreased in SAMP1/Klotho -/- mice. The overexpression of ChAT induced the expression of salivary gland functional markers (α–amylase, ZO-1, and Aqua5) in primary cultured salivary gland cells from SAMP1/Klotho +/+ and -/- mice. In an in vivo study, adeno-associated virus (AAV)-ChAT transduction significantly increased saliva secretion compared with the control in SAMP1/Klotho -/- mice. These results suggest that the dysfunction in acetylcholine biosynthesis induced by ChAT reduction may cause impaired salivary gland function     

Utilizing an Animal Model to Identify Brain Neurodegeneration-Related Biomarkers in Aging

Glycine N-methyltransferase (GNMT) regulates S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe), a methyl donor in methylation. Over-expressed SAMe may cause neurogenic capacity reduction and memory impairment. GNMT knockout mice (GNMT-KO) was applied as an experimental model to evaluate its effect on neurons. In this study, proteins from brain tissues were studied using proteomic approaches, Haemotoxylin and Eosin staining, immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, and ingenuity pathway analysis. The expression of Receptor-interacting protein 1(RIPK1) and Caspase 3 were up-regulated and activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP) was down-regulated in GNMT-KO mice regardless of the age. Besides, proteins related to neuropathology, such as excitatory amino acid transporter 2, calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase type II subunit alpha, and Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase were found only in the group of aged wild-type mice; 4-aminobutyrate amino transferase, limbic system-associated membrane protein, sodium- and chloride-dependent GABA transporter 3 and ProSAAS were found only in the group of young GNMT-KO mice and are related to function of neurons; serum albumin and Rho GDP dissociation inhibitor 1 were found only in the group of aged GNMT-KO mice and are connected to neurodegenerative disorders. With proteomic analyses, a pathway involving Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) signal was found to be associated with aging. The GnRH pathway could provide additional information on the mechanism of aging and non-aging related neurodegeneration, and these protein markers may be served in developing future therapeutic treatments to ameliorate aging and prevent diseases.     

装配式凸轮轴滚花连接机理及连接强度研究

装配式凸轮轴与传统凸轮轴相比具有重量轻、加工成本低、材料利用合理等优点。是新型的凸轮轴制造技术, 具有广泛的发展空间。而其连接方法是装配式凸轮轴制造的关键技术。本文基于相异材料的咬合连接理论, 提出了滚花式塑性变形连接机理, 对不同材料、尺寸的滚花式凸轮轴静连接强度及疲劳强度进行了实验研究, 同时分析了滚花连接的不同连接状况以及凸轮压装张紧应力。