Existing data on folate status and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) prognosis are scarce. We prospectively examined whether serum folate concentrations at diagnosis were associated with liver cancer-specific survival (LCSS) and overall survival (OS) among 982 patients with newly diagnosed, previously untreated HCC, who were enrolled in the Guangdong Liver Cancer Cohort (GLCC) study between September 2013 and February 2017. Serum folate concentrations were measured using chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay. Cox proportional hazards models were performed to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % CI by sex-specific quartile of serum folate. Compared with patients in the third quartile of serum folate, patients in the lowest quartile had significantly inferior LCSS (HR = 1·48; 95 % CI 1·05, 2·09) and OS (HR = 1·43; 95 % CI 1·03, 1·99) after adjustment for non-clinical and clinical prognostic factors. The associations were not significantly modified by sex, age at diagnosis, alcohol drinking status and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage. However, there were statistically significant interactions on both multiplicative and additive scale between serum folate and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels or smoking status and the associations of lower serum folate with worse LCSS and OS were only evident among patients with CRP > 3·0 mg/l or current smokers. An inverse association with LCSS were also observed among patients with liver damage score ≥3. These results suggest that lower serum folate concentrations at diagnosis are independently associated with worse HCC survival, most prominently among patients with systemic inflammation and current smokers. A future trial of folate supplementation seems to be promising in HCC patients with lower folate status.

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In this paper, the short beam shear (SBS) test combined with digital image correlation (DIC) and finite element model updating (FEMU) method is conducted for identification the constitutive parameters of unidirectional composite laminates by minimizing the objective function which is established based on the variance of measured strain and numerical calculated strain. This method has the advantages of insensitive to initial value and high identification efficiency. By changing the test parameters, specimens with different principal planes were used in the SBS test and different failure modes achieved. The standard deviation of E22C and E33C was 8.47% and 3.58% respectively. The comparison of the identification results of the same batch of specimens, different principal planes, different failure modes and different ROI shows that the results of constitutive identification using the area directly under the indenter is reliable.

The aim of this study is to assess the capability of estimating Leaf Area Index (LAI) from high spatial resolution multi-angular Vis-NIR remote sensing data of WiDAS (Wide-Angle Infrared Dual-mode Line/Area Array Scanner) imaging system by inverting the coupled radiative transfer models PROSPECT-SAILH. Based on simulations from SAILH canopy reflectance model and PROSPECT leaf optical properties model, a Look-up Table (LUT) which describes the relationship between multi-angular canopy reflectance and LAI has been produced. Then the LAI can be retrieved from LUT by directly matching canopy reflectance of six view directions and four spectral bands with LAI. The inversion results are validated by field data, and by comparing the retrieval results of single-angular remote sensing data with multi-angular remote sensing data, we can found that the view angle takes the obvious impact on the LAI retrieval of single-angular data and that high accurate LAI can be obtained from the high resolution multi-angular remote sensing technology.