The Confederation Bridge is the world longest spanned prestressed concrete box girder bridge standing in salt water. This bridge is subjected to severe dynamic loads, such as transverse loads and vibrations, induced by strong winds and stormy sea waves, destructive seismic loads from possible ground shaking, and impact loads from heavy vehicles and huge ice floe. Therefore, the dynamic behavior of the bridge is a very important factor affecting its safety and serviceability. In the present study, a three-dimensional (3-D) model using shell elements is developed to investigate the free vibration behavior of one repetitive unit, while a frame model using 3-D beam elements is employed to simulate dynamic responses of two repetitive units with a drop-in span. The effects of nonstructural mass, pier–water interaction and foundation flexibility on free vibration behavior are also studied by means of the frame model. The results are representative for the entire bridge because of the repetitiveness in the bridge configuration. Further, field data from pull tests are used to calibrate the finite element models. Computer simulation of the pull test using the calibrated frame model correlates reasonably well with the field data.Key words: Confederation Bridge, numerical modeling, finite element model, model calibration, pull test, computer simulation.
Overweight/obesity with higher hsCRP levels is associated with reduced renal function and increased risk for CKD. BMI and hsCRP levels can be used as surrogate markers for CKD risk, especially for females.
Objective: Gastric ancer is a common cancer with high cancer-related death in the world Although, ASPN has been reported as a potential biomarker in some cancers, the relationship of ASPN and clinical pathologic features in gastric cancer has not been investigated thoroughly. Thus, the aim of study is to evaluate the function of ASPN in gastric cancer based on TCGA. Materials and methods: The gene expression data (407 cases, Workflow Type: HTSeq-Counts) and corresponding clinical information were downloaded from the TCGA Genomic Data Commons data portal. We performed the NES and nominal p value to evaluate the pathways enriched in each phenotype. Then, we analyzed the association with ASPN and clinicopathologic variables based on Wilcoxon signed-rank test and logistic regression. Result: We found that it was significantly different in ASPN expression between gastric cancer and normal tissue (P<0.001). High ASPN expression was significantly associated with high stage (Odds ratio (OR)=3.656 for stage II vs stage I and OR=0.014 for stage III vs stage I), T classification (OR=13.304 for T2 vs T1, OR=20.769 for T3 vs T1 and OR=24.857 for T4 vs T1) (all p-values< 0.05). Univariate analysis revealed ASPN could result in poor overall survival with HR=1.004 and P=0.036. Besides, multivariate analysis indicated that ASPN expression was an independent risk factor for overall survival (HR:1.010, P=0.000), age (HR: 1.046, P=0.002) and gender (HR: 1.623, P=0.026). Besides, GSEA results showed that Pentose phosphate pathway, Base excision repair, Peroxisome, Protesome, Nucleotide excision repair, and Mismatch repair were differentially enriched in gastric cancer with high ASPN expression phentype. Conclusion: ASPN expression is higher in gastric cancer than normal tissues, and considered ASPN as a potential independent molecular marker for diagnosis and prognosis of GC.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an important issue in the emergency department. In the United States, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) published clinical guideline to select patients with mild head injuries for head computed tomography (CT) scans in 2008. The aim of this study was to identify the possible benefits of compliance with these guidelines for mild head injury patients in Taiwan. Method: This was a secondary analysis on our previous study published for association of hypertension and head injuries. In our previous study, we collected data about 1290 patients with head injuries who received brain CT scans in the emergency department from September 2012 to August 2013 for a study regarding the association between head injury and hypertension. In present study, we subjected this data to further analysis to try to validate the ACEP clinical policy for mild head injuries. Results: Of these 1,290 patients, 154 were found to have brain haemorrhage on the initial brain CT scan, and 5 were in need of neurosurgical intervention. A total of 859 patients met the ACEP guideline criteria, and 117 of these had brain haemorrhages. The sensitivity and specificity of the ACEP guideline to predict brain haemorrhage were 75.97% (95% confidence interval [CI], 68.44% to 82.48%) and 34.68% (95% CI, 31.91% to 37.53%), respectively. In predicting neurosurgical intervention, the sensitivity and specificity of the guideline were 100% (95% CI, 47.82% to 100%) and 33.54% (95% CI, 30.96% to 36.2%), respectively. Conclusion: Although adoption of the ACEP clinical policy may reduce the number of brain CT scans in mild head injury patients who may need neurosurgical interventions, it is not a good selection tool in Taiwan.
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