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A new approach for choosing the stress terms for a hybrid stress element is based on the condition of vanishing of the virtual work along the element boundary due to the stress terms higher than constant and the additional incompatible displacement. Examples using 4-node plane stress elements have shown that when the incompatible displacements also satisfy the constant strain patch test the resulting elements will provide the most accurate solutions. Advantages of this approach for the formulation of an axisymmetric solid are also indicated.

Background: As the heterogeneity of CTCs is becoming increasingly better understood, it is clear that identifying particular subtypes of CTCs would be more relevant.Methods: We detected folate receptor (FR)-positive circulating tumor cells (FR+-CTCs) by a novel ligand-targeted polymerase chain reaction (LT-PCR) detection technique.Results: In the none-dynamic study, FR+-CTC levels of patients with lung cancer were significantly higher than controls (patients with benign lung diseases and healthy controls). With a threshold of 8.7 CTC units, FR+-CTC showed a sensitivity of 77.7% and specificity of 89.5% in the diagnosis of lung cancer. When compared with established clinical biomarkers including carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cytokeratin 19 fragment (CYFRA21-1), and neuron-specific enolase (NSE), FR+-CTC showed the highest diagnostic efficiency. Notably, the combination of FR+-CTC, CEA, NSE, and CYFRA21-1 could significantly improve the diagnostic efficacy in differentiating patients with lung cancer from benign lung disease. In our dynamic surveillance study, the CTC levels of 62 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients decreased significantly after tumor resection.Conclusion: We established a LT-PCR-based FR+-CTC detection platform for patients with lung cancer that exhibits high sensitivity and specificity. This platform would be clinical useful in lung cancer diagnosis and treatment response assessment.

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Introduction: Since currently no sensitive and specific biomarkers for early detection of lung adenocarcinoma (AD) exist and the majority of AD patients are diagnosed at late stages of disease, the development of effective screening tests for early-stage lung AD is urgently needed. Serum microRNAs (miRNAs) have been documented as novel noninvasive biomarkers in tumor diagnosis; thus, we studied the profile of serum miRNA in AD patients in order to identify the differentially expressed miRNAs as potential biomarkers for early detection of AD.Patients and Methods: Serum samples were collected from 180 AD patients and 180 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Serum miRNA profiling was performed by low-density array (LDA) using RNA extracted from blood samples of 20 patients and 20 controls. To validate the selected miRNAs, a stem-loop based RT-qPCR assay was used and serum samples from 160 patients and 160 controls were examined.Results: Profiling data showed 11 differentially expressed miRNAs in the serum samples from AD patients compared with the controls. Among them, 6 selected miRNAs in AD patients, including miR-103, miR-146a, miR-151, miR-21, miR-221, miR-222, and miR-223, were validated by RT-qPCR. In particular, the top three, miR-146a, miR-222, and miR-223, were confirmed to be significantly expressed in stage I/II AD patients compared with healthy controls.Conclusion: A panel of miRNAs with miR-146a, miR-222 and miR-223 could be used as potential noninvasive biomarkers for early detection of AD.

The Maidan fault, which is an east‐northeast trending fault in the southwestern Tian Shan, is a sinistral reverse fault that extends more than 400 km in length and constitutes the boundary between the southwestern Tian Shan and the Tarim Basin. Here we quantify its late Quaternary activity based on the interpretations of high‐resolution remote sensing images and detailed field investigations. In the Aheqi valley, an ~150‐km‐long active fault can be divided into northeastern and southwestern segments based on variations in its strike and geometry. Based on the analysis of its offset geomorphological features and the dating of Quaternary sediments, we estimate the late Quaternary shortening rate across the fault to be 1.19 ± 0.25 mm/year, the sinistral strike‐slip rate to be 1.56 ± 0.64 mm/year, and the oblique thrust rate to be 1.96 ± 0.69 mm/year. Active tectonics, GPS crustal deformation data, and seismic activity indicate that the deformation in the southwestern Tian Shan is characterized by out‐of‐sequence thrust faulting and folding. Late Quaternary deformation has been partitioned into low‐angle thrust faulting along the Kalpin Tagh foreland fold and thrust system and sinistral reverse faulting along the high‐angle range‐front Maidan fault. The sinistral Maidan fault acts as a nucleation point for slip partitioning system, which can be viewed as positive flower structure with its surrounding thrust faults.

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The cracked piezoelectric problem is observed numerically. To simulate the characteristic singularity at the crack tip, a plane piezoelectric hybrid element is derived. The new model involves displacement u, stress σ, electric displacement D and electric potential ϕ as the independent variables. The electromechanical coupling behavior of the cracked piezoelectric ceramics PZT-4 and PZT-5 is investigated. Under impermeable crack condition, the 1 r-singularity at the crack tip zone is exactly represented for σ and D. The efficiency of implementing the permeable crack condition is also inspected. To examine current energy release rate formulas, the path-independent integral is computed, and then a fitting formula for the energy release rate is obtained. In the paper, all the numerical results are compared with the previously reported theoretical solutions.