Adenovirus-mediated wild-type p53 gene transfer in combination with bronchial arterial infusion for treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer, one year follow-up

Objective: In the present study, we have examined the safety and efficacy of recombinant adenovirus encoding human p53 tumor suppressor gene (rAd-p53) injection in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the combination with the therapy of bronchial arterial infusion (BAI). Methods: A total of 58 patients with advanced NSCLC were enrolled in a non-randomized, two-armed clinical trial. Of which, 19 received a combination treatment of BAI and rAd-p53 (the combo group), while the remaining 39 were treated with only BAI (the control group). Patients were followed up for 12 months, with safety and local response evaluated by the National Cancer Institute’s Common Toxicity Criteria and response evaluation criteria in solid tumor (RECIST), respectively. Time to progression (TTP) and survival rates were also analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method. Results: In the combo group, 19 patients received a total of 49 injections of rAd-p53 and 46 times of BAI, respectively, while 39 patients in the control group received a total of 113 times of BAI. The combination treatment was found to have less adverse events such as anorexia, nausea and emesis, pain, and leucopenia (P<0.05) but more arthralgia, fever, influenza-like symptom, and myalgia (P<0.05), compared with the control group. The overall response rates (complete response (CR)+partial response (PR)) were 47.3% and 38.4% for the combo group and the control group, respectively (P>0.05). Patients in the combo group had a longer TTP than those in the control group (a median 7.75 vs 5.5 months, P=0.018). However, the combination treatment did not lead to better survival, with survival rates at 3, 6, and 12 months in the combo group being 94.74%, 89.47%, and 52.63%, respectively, compared with 92.31%, 69.23%, and 38.83% in the control group (P=0.224). Conclusion: Our results show that the combination of rAd-p53 and BAI was well tolerated in patients with NSCLC and may have improved the quality of life and delayed the disease progression. A further study to better determine the efficacy of this combination therapy is warranted.     

板块构造学说与地壳发展的基本规律

本文通过分析板块构造学说诞生的过程及其基本原理,进而运用板块构造学说解释地壳发展的基本规律与全球海陆演化的基本模式。     

Gamma-ray bursts: huge explosion in the early Universe

Long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are bright flashes of high-energy photons that can last for tens of minutes; they are generally associated with galaxies that have a high rate of star formation and probably arise from the collapsing cores of massive stars, which produce highly relativistic jets (collapsar model). Here we describe gamma- and X-ray observations of the most distant GRB ever observed (GRB 050904): its redshift (z) of 6.29 means that this explosion happened 12.8 billion years ago, corresponding to a time when the Universe was just 890 million years old, close to the reionization era. This means that not only did stars form in this short period of time after the Big Bang, but also that enough time had elapsed for them to evolve and collapse into black holes.     

炼钢连铸生产计划调度一体化的仿真优化模型

为解决炼钢-连铸生产计划制定的可执行性与调度过程的时间不确定性影响问题,建立了一种计划调度一体化的仿真优化模型。模型以炼钢生产流程中的物流为对象,将连铸的连浇批量计划完成作为仿真的目标导向,同时考虑了过程的实时信息,并将生产调度原则抽象作为仿真模型的局域演化规则;模型可根据生产目标、过程信息按局域规则进行工位状态更新和物流迁移,从而实现目标导向下的自组织仿真。对于任意设定的时间范围,通过仿真模型的一次连续演化即得到可执行的炼钢连铸炉次计划,即初始调度方案。以某钢厂8h的生产实际数据检验了该仿真优化方法的有效性。     

略论藏族神山崇拜的文化特征及功能

神山崇拜作为远古藏族祖先的信仰方式，经历了从原生型苯教到雍仲苯教再到藏传佛教的发展阶段。其间，佛教和苯教都采纳了神山崇拜这一信仰方式。由此，神山崇拜从、“自然宗教”过渡到了“伦理宗教”曲形态。在这漫长的演变过程中，相应地衍生出了一套独特的祭祀方式，这种祭祀方式逐渐地向民间扩展并不断规范化，又使它超出了宗教信仰的范围，具有了民俗文化的性质、特色和功能。     

Near-infrared fluorescent aptamer-templated silver nanoclusters facilely synthesized for cellular imaging applications

Fluorescent metal nanoclusters(NCs)have received extensive attention for their potential uses in bionanotechnology.Here,we develop a facile strategy to synthesize near-infrared fluorescent silver nanoclusters(Ag NCs)stabilized by MUC1 aptamer.The MUC1-Ag NCs are characterized by UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy,fluorescence spectroscopy,transmission electron microscopy,and fluorescence lifetime.These results indicated that the MUC1-Ag NCs possess bright near-infrared luminescence,high stability,and excellent biocompatibility.The cellular imaging of MUC1-Ag NCs by confocal laser microscopy demonstrated them to be promising candidates as novel fluorescent probes for biomedical application.     

Proton-proton correlations observed in two-proton radioactivity of 94Ag

The stability and spontaneous decay of naturally occurring atomic nuclei have been much studied ever since Becquerel discovered natural radioactivity in 1896. In 1960, proton-rich nuclei with an odd or an even atomic number Z were predicted to decay through one- and two-proton radioactivity, respectively. The experimental observation of one-proton radioactivity was first reported in 1982, and two-proton radioactivity has now also been detected by experimentally studying the decay properties of 45Fe (refs 3, 4) and 54Zn (ref. 5). Here we report proton-proton correlations observed during the radioactive decay of a spinning long-lived state of the lightest known isotope of silver, 94Ag, which is known to undergo one-proton decay. We infer from these correlations that the long-lived state must also decay through simultaneous two-proton emission, making 94Ag the first nucleus to exhibit one- as well as two-proton radioactivity. We attribute the two-proton emission behaviour and the unexpectedly large probability for this decay mechanism to a very large deformation of the parent nucleus into a prolate (cigar-like) shape, which facilitates emission of protons either from the same or from opposite ends of the 'cigar'.