Recent studies have shown an indirect link between platelet count and blood vessel metastasis, but this association with lymphatic vessels metastasis has not been established in NSCLC. So we investigated whether an association exists between preoperative platelet count and lymph node metastasis in NSCLC patients. Between January 2001 and January 2011, platelet counts were obtained from 883 NSCLC patients who were resistant to chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. The preoperative platelet counts, tumor metastasis, and overall survival of NSCLC patients were analyzed for correlations via statistical analysis. Upon considering patients according to their TNM lymph node metastasis stage (N0-N3), multiple comparison analyses revealed that the mean preoperative platelet count of the N0 group was significantly lower than that of the N1-N3. Analysis of variance showed that the preoperative platelet count of patients in stage I was significantly lower than that of those in stages II, III, and IV, with no significant difference among the latter three stages. According to the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, the overall survival of patients with platelet counts <214.5 × 109/L was significantly longer than that of those with platelet counts ≥214.5 × 109/L. Cox regression analysis indicated that, besides preoperative platelet count, patient age, gender, and TNM stage were independent prognostic factors. In conclusion, preoperative platelet count was significantly associated with metastasis of lymph nodes in NSCLC patients. Preoperative platelet count may be a reliable biomarker of lymph node metastasis possibility and an independent prognostic factor of overall survival in patients with NSCLC.

Multi-bolt joint distributed around the connecting members are generally adopted to meet the high-performance assembly requirements in aerospace, energy and power industries. However, the initial preload could be low due to non-optimized preload sequence and bolt stress relaxation, especially at elevated temperature. Thus, it is necessary to take elastic interaction and bolt stress relaxation into account before jointing. In this article, a general multi-bolt elastic interaction with bolt stress relaxation is modelled analytically. First, the multi-bolt joint is characterized by ‘spring-node’ model and elastic interaction stiffness. Second, the bolt residual preload can be estimated according to linear superposition of elastic interaction and bolt stress relaxation under the condition of node displacement equilibrium. Further, the influence of preloading sequence and bolt stress relaxation on residual preload distribution was numerically analyzed using a typical circular ring with 8-bolt joint. Two bolts’ preloading sequences were planned, star sequence and counterclockwise sequence, respectively. The bolt creep simulation time was set as 10 h using the power-model at intermediate temperature. From comparison, the predicted results using the developed model were consistent with the FE simulations both with and without bolt stress relaxation.

Generally, the machining vibration frequency spectrum is dominated by the tooth cutting frequency and its harmonics, the part structure and its natural frequency, and the spindle-tool subsystem natural frequency, exhibiting full-oscillatory behaviour. In order to identify the machining status, especially for those thin-walled workpiece machining, the on-machine detected monitoring signals with noise should be decomposed precisely. Actually, the signals’ inherent characteristics, such as the Q-factor, could be employed. In this article, decomposition of the full-oscillatory components from noisy machining vibration signals by minimizing the Q-factor variation is presented. The Q-factor will be calculated using quadratic interpolation of linear prediction coefficients. On this basis, the measured signals can be decomposed into high-, low- and residual-oscillatory signal components using the sparsity-enabled signal analysis. Furthermore, the signal decomposition process is repeated iteratively until the minimization of the Q-factor variation. Finally, the simulation and the thin-walled machining experiments were designed. From comparison of the signal decomposition results with the wavelet packet transform (WPT), it was shown that the signal decomposition accuracy and reliability using the proposed strategy has been improved significantly.

ABSTRACT.To study the effect of fructus polygoni orentalis extract (EFPO) on liver regeneration and proliferation of bone marrow cells on rat model of partial hepatectomy, EFPO was extracted, and 60 adult male Wistar rats were divided randomly into 6 experimental groups. Rats were treated with intergastric administration (ig) with EFPO daily. All rats were euthanized 7 days after administration, and the livers and bone marrow cells were collected. The levels of taxifolin and quercetin in EFPO were 1.238 and 0.381 mg/g, respectively. EFPO decreased the proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression of the regenerating liver. Obvious tissue damage was observed in the EFPO groups, such as a widened hepatic sinusoid cavity, several enlarged nuclei, slightly ballooning degeneration, and spotty and focal necrosis as compared to the control group. Additionally, 1.8 and 3.6 g/kg EFPO significantly inhibited proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression in bone marrows cells (P < 0.05), and induced gathering of these cells during the G O /G 1 phases (P < 0.05). The karyocyte and myelosis of bone marrows cells clearly J.Y. Yang et al. 7672©FUNPEC-RP www.funpecrp.com.br Genetics and Molecular Research 14 (3): 7671-7679 (2015) decreased, and mature erythrocytes increased (P < 0.05) in the EFPO groups. Additionally, 3.6 g/kg EFPO induced active proliferation, while the sham operation and control groups showed apparent active myeloproliferation. The maximum dosage of mice ig EFPO was 148.8 g/kg.Our results indicate that EFPO inhibits rat liver regeneration and bone marrow cell proliferation in regenerating rat liver.

Milling is a typical intermittent cutting process. As a result, tool wear is generated cyclically due to periodic process variables. However, the traditional tool wear prediction strategy based on continuous cutting model is no longer applicable. In this paper, a novel geometric approach through mesh node rigid moving for the milling cutter tool wear prediction has been developed. Firstly, a unified tool wear predictive model is established through bridging the two wear configurations before and after worn. A coupled abrasive-diffusive model is employed to calculate the tool wear volume of each point on tool face. Further, a novel iterative algorithm for tool wear prediction through mesh node rigid moving layer-by-layer and process variables redistribution is designed in discrete-time domain, which is generally decomposed into two phases according to cutting heat equilibrium state, FEM simulation and offline calculation. Last, a series of numerical and saw-milling experiments for flank wear prediction were implemented to verify the developed approach. The AISI304 and the high vanadium high-speed steel tool without coating were adopted. By comparison, the predicted results were consistent with the experimental overall. It has been proved that the proposed approach is more effective than pure FEM simulation and is suitable for long-term milling tool wear prediction.