• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.6385-6390
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• 2012

A number of studies have been conducted to explore the association of XRCC1 polymorphisms with thyroid cancer risk, but the results have been inconsistent. Thus we performed the present meta-analysis to clarify this issue based on all of the evidence available to date. Relevant studies were retrieved by searching PubMed and statistical analysis conducted using Stata software. Nine studies were included in this meta-analysis (1,620 cases and 3,557 controls). There were 6 studies (932 cases and 2,270 controls) of the Arg194Trp polymorphism, 7 studies (1432 cases and 3356 controls) of the Arg280His polymorphism and 9 studies (1,620 cases and 3,557 controls) for the Arg399Gln polymorphism. No association of XRCC1 Arg194Trp, Arg280His and Arg399Gln polymorphism with thyroid cancer risk was observed in the overall analysis. However, subgroup analysis revealed: 1) an elevated risk in aa vs AA analysis (OR=2.03, 95%CI= 1.24-3.31) and recessive genetic model analysis (OR=1.93, 95%CI= 1.20-3.08) in the larger sample size trials for XRCC1 Arg194Trp polymorphism; 2) a decreased thyroid cancer risk on subgroup analysis based on ethnicity in Aa vs AA analysis (OR=0.84, 95%CI= 0.72-0.98) and in a dominant genetic model (OR=0.84, 95%CI= 0.72-0.97) in Caucasian populations for the XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism; 3) a decreased thyroid cancer risk on subgroup analysis based on design type in Aa vs AA analysis (OR=0.72, 95% CI= 0.54-0.97) among the PCC trials for the Arg399Gln polymorphism. Our results suggest that the XRCC1 Arg399Gln polymorphism may be associated with decreased thyroid cancer risk among Caucasians and XRCC1 Arg194Trp may be associated with a tendency for increased thyroid cancer risk in the two larger sample size trials.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.6077-6081
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• 2012

Background: This study was performed to analyze the prognostic implications of pretreatment or preoperative thrombocytosis in women with gynecologic malignancies. Material and Methods: We surveyed 2 medical databases, PubMed and EMBASE, to identified all relevant studies. A total of 14 (n=3,490) that evaluated the link between thrombocytosis and 5-year survival were included. REVMAN version 5.1 was used for our analysis and publication bias was evaluated using the Begg's funnel plot and tested by STATA 11.0. Risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) generated by the random effect model were used to assess the strength of any association. Results: 709(20.3%) of the 3,490 patients exhibited thrombocytosis (platelet counts > $400{\times}10^9/L$) at primary diagnosis, and their mortality was 1.62-fold higher compared with the others (RR=1.62, 95%CI=[1.28-2.05], p<0.0001). Thrombocytosis failed to have a stronger effect on the survival of advanced patients of stages III to IV in our study (n=478, RR=1.29, 95% CI=[1.13-1.48], p=0.0003), nor in women with cervical cancer in stage IB (n=1371, RR=1.73, 95% CI=[1.71-2.58], p=0.007). In addition, when adjusted for different carcinoma, it was associated with worse prognosis for all except the ones with vulvar cancer (n=201, RR=0.43, 95% CI=[0.14-1.29], p=0.13). Conclusions: This meta-analysis indicated that thrombocytosis might be associated with a worse prognosis for patients with gynecologic malignancies but without specificity or sensitivity for the ones in advanced stage. When adjusted for different gynecologic malignancies, it showed a significant effect on survival of all except vulvar cancers.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.17
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• pp.7097-7103
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• 2014

Over-expression of de novo lipogenesis (DNL) genes is associated with the prognosis of various types of cancers. However, the effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in these genes on recurrence and survival of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients after surgery are still unknown. In this study, a total of 500 NSCLC patients who underwent surgery treatment were included. Eight SNPs in 3 genes (ACACA, FASN and ACLY) of the DNL pathway were examined using the Sequenom iPLEX genotyping system. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression and Kaplan-Meier curves were used to analyze the association of SNPs with patient survival and tumour recurrence. We found that two SNPs in the FASN gene were significantly associated with the recurrence of NSCLC. SNP rs4246444 had a significant association with lung cancer recurrence under additive model (hazard ratio [HR], 0.82; 95% confidence interval [95%CI], 0.67-1.00; p=0.05). Under the dominant model, rs4485435 exhibited a significant association with recurrence (HR, 0.75; 95%CI, 0.56-1.01; p=0.05). Additionally, SNP rs9912300 in ACLY gene was significantly associated with overall survival in lung cancer patients (HR, 1.41; 95%CI, 1.02-1.94, p=0.04) under the dominant model. Further cumulative effect analysis showed moderate dose-dependent effects of unfavorable SNPs on both survival and recurrence. Our data suggest that the SNPs in DNL genes may serve as independent prognostic markers for NSCLC patients after surgery.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1567-1574
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• 2014

The incidence and mortality rates of liver and nasopharyngeal cancer in Guangxi province of China have always been among the highest in the world, and cancer is one of the major diseases that pose a threat to the health of residents in Guangxi. However, no systematic study has been performed to evaluate the time trends in the structure of cancer-related deaths and cancer mortality. In this study, we reveal sex, age and geography differences of cancers mortality between three death surveys (1971 to 1973, 1990 to 1992, and 2004 to 2005). The results show that the standardized mortality rate of cancer in Guangxi residents has risen from 43.3/100,000 to 84.2/100,000, the share of cancer deaths in all-cause deaths has increased from 13.3% to 20.7%, and cancer has become the second most common cause of death. The five major cancers, liver cancer, lung cancer, gastric cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer and colorectal cancer, account for 60% of all the cancer deaths. Cancers with growing mortality rates over the past 30 years include lung cancer, colorectal cancer, liver cancer and female breast cancer, of which lung cancer is associated with the sharpest rise in mortality, with a more than 600% rise in both men and women. Cancer death in Guangxi residents occurs mainly in the elderly population above 45 years of age, especially in people over the age of 65. The areas with the highest mortality rates for liver cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer, which feature regional high incidences, include Chongzuo and Wuzhou. Therefore, for major cancers such as liver cancer, lung cancer, gastric cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer and female breast cancer in Guangxi, we can select high-risk age groups as the target population for cancer prevention and control efforts in high-prevalence areas in a bid to achieve the ultimate goal of lowering cancer mortality in Guangxi.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.304-311
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• 2001

A study has been carried out on the extraction chromatographic separation of fission products from spent pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuels for inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometric analysis. Impregnation capacity of tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP), which is well known as an extractant in the field of uranium separation from various nuclear grade materials, on Amberlite XAD polymeric macroporous support materials was measured. Amberlite XAD-16 of which the surface area is the highest was selected as a support material because its TBP impregnation capacity was the largest in Amberlite XADs. Sorption behaviour of this TBP impregnated resin was investigated for the fission product elements using acidic solutions simulated for dissolver solutions of spent PWR fuels. The parameters affecting the performance of the separation system were optimized. The fission product elements studied excluding Pd and Ru were quantitatively recovered with the precision of less than 3.1%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.479-487
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• 2015

The thallium-doped sodium iodide [NaI(Tl)] scintillation detector is preferred as a gamma spectrometer in many fields because of its general advantages. A silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) has recently been developed and its application area has been expanded as an alternative to photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). It has merits such as a low operating voltage, compact size, cheap production cost, and magnetic resonance compatibility. In this study, an array of SiPMs is used to develop an NaI(Tl) gamma spectrometer. To maintain detection efficiency, a commercial NaI(Tl) $2^{\prime}{\times}2^{\prime}$ scintillator is used, and a light guide is used for the transport and collection of generated photons from the scintillator to the SiPMs without loss. The test light guides were fabricated with polymethyl methacrylate and reflective materials. The gamma spectrometer systems were set up and included light guides. Through a series of measurements, the characteristics of the light guides and the proposed gamma spectrometer were evaluated. Simulation of the light collection was accomplished using the DETECT 97 code (A. Levin, E. Hoskinson, and C. Moison, University of Michigan, USA) to analyze the measurement results. The system, which included SiPMs and the light guide, achieved 14.11% full width at half maximum energy resolution at 662 keV.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.77-77
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• 2017

The sensitivities to photoperiod and temperature give guidance to choose an adaptable genotype for specific area in soybean production. However, there is insufficient information about the variation of sensitivities to photoperiod and temperature with wide genetic background. We investigated the sensitivities to photoperiod and temperature using 82 soybean mini core collection lines provided by NIAS gene bank of Japan. The seeds were sown on 28 May and 4 August in 2015, 24 May and 5 August in 2016 at field in Saga, Japan ($33^{\circ}$ 14' 32'' N, $130^{\circ}$ 17' 28'' E) for the early (average photoperiod and temperature: 15.2 h and $25.1^{\circ}C$) and late (13.6 h and $27.2^{\circ}C$) sowing respectively. The plants were also grown in the growth chamber under 12 h photoperiod with three temperature regimes (day/night temperature: $25/18^{\circ}C$, $28/22^{\circ}C$ and $33/28^{\circ}C$). Emergence date, days to first flower were recorded with 10 plants in the field and 2 plants in the growth chamber for each line. The data for daily average temperatures and photoperiodic hours were collected from weather station. The days from emergence to first flower open (DEF) were varied from 23-92 (2015 and 2016) in early sowing whereas 18-68 (2015) and 18-59 (2016) in late sowing. The shortened DEF in late sowing could be caused by both short photoperiod and high temperature in late sowing. However, the accumulated temperatures during emergence to first flower open (ATEF) were less variable in comparison with DEF, suggesting the ATEF is dependent mostly on the photoperiod. The ATEF were found same between early and late sowing in some early flowering lines (e.g. $686.7^{\circ}C$ and $687.6^{\circ}C$ in HEUKDAELIPS, $728.8^{\circ}C$ and $706.3^{\circ}C$ in WILLIAMS'82) which indicated that these would be insensitive to day length. In the growth chamber experiment, the variation in both DEF and ATEF was a little greater at low temperature ($25/18^{\circ}C$) but almost same at middle ($28/22^{\circ}C$) and high ($33/28^{\circ}C$) temperatures. Since the less differences in ATEF were found between the three temperatures, it is suggested that the temperature plays only a quantitative effect on the flower initiation, and the large ATEF in some lines may indicate the stronger photosensitivity even at 12 h or longer juvenile phase. Some lines with the lowest ATEF regardless of growth conditions, such as FISKEBY V, KE 32 (ATEF: 559.6-666.5, 587.7-709.5) might lack the sensitivities to both photoperiod and temperature. The results suggested that soybean genotypes has wider variation in sensitivity to photoperiod, whereas less variation to temperature.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.245-265
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• 1991

The purpose of this study was to observe the changes of the elemental transmission and bond strength between the metal and porcelain according to various kinds of ion beam mixing method. ion beam mixing of $meta1/SiO_2$ (silica), $meta1/Al_2O_3$(alumina) interfaces causes reactions when the $Ar^+$ was implanted into bilayer thin films using a 100KeV accelerator which was designed and constructed for this study. A vacuum evaporator used in the $10^{-5}-10^{-6}$ Torr vacuum states for the evaporation. For this study, three kinds of porcelain metal selected, -precious, semiprecious, and non-precious. Silica and alumina were deposited to the metal by the vacuum evaporator, separately. One group was treated by two kinds of dose of the ion beam mixing $(1\times10^{16}ions/cm^2,\;5\times10^{15}ions/cm^2)$, and the other group was not mixed, and analyzed the effects of ion beam mixing. The analyses of bond strength, elemental transmissions were performed by the electron spectroscopy of chemical analysis (ESCA), light and scanning electron microscope, scratch test, and micro Vickers hardness tests. The finding led to the following conclusions. 1. In the scanning electron and light microscopic views, ion beam mixed specimens showed the ion beam mixed indentation. 2. In the micro Vickers hardness and scratch tests, ion beam mixed specimens showed higher strength than that of non mixed specimens, however, nonprecious metal showed a little change in the bond strength between mixed and non mixed specimens. 3. In the scratch test, ion beam mixed specimens showed higher shear strength than that of non treated specimens at the precious and semiprecious groups. 4. In the ESCA analysis, Au-O and Au-Si compounds were formed and transmission of the Au peak was found ion beam mixed $SiO_2/Au$ specimen, simultaneously, in the higher and lower bonded areas, and ion beam mixed $SiO_2/Ni-Cr$ specimen, oxygen, that was transmitted from $SiO_2\;to\;SiO_2/Ni-Cr$ interface combined with 12% of Ni at the interface.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.142-146
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• 2020

Background: Tritium (³H) analysis in groundwater was difficult because of its low activity. Therefore, the electrolytic enrichment method was used. To improve the detection limit and for performing simple analysis, a high-volume counting vial with the available liquid scintillation counter (LSC) was investigated. Further, it was compared with a conventional 20-mL counting vial. Materials and Methods: The LSC with the electrolytic enrichment method was used ³H analysis in groundwater. A high-volume 145-mL counting vial was compared with a conventional 20-mL counting vial to determine the counting characteristics of different LSCs. Results and Discussion: When a Quantulus LSC was used, the counting window between channels 35 and 250 was used. The background count was approximately 1.86 cpm, and the counting efficiency increased from 8% to 40% depending on the mixing ratio of the volume of sample and cocktail solution. For LSC-LB7, the optimum counting window was between 1 and 4.9 keV, which was selected by the factory (Hitachi Aloka Medical Ltd., Japan) by considering quenching using a standard external gamma source. The background count of LSC-LB7 was approximately 3.60 ± 0.29 cpm when the 145-mL vial was used and 2.22 ± 0.17 cpm when the 20-mL vial was used. The minimum detectable activity (MDA) of the 20-mL vial was greater for LSC-LB7 than for Quantulus. The MDA with the 145-mL vial was improved to 0.3 Bq/L when compared with the value of 1.6 Bq/L for the 20-mL vial. Conclusion: The counting efficiency when using the 145-mL vial was 27%, whereas it was 18% when using the 20-mL vial. This difference can be attributed to the vial volume. The figure of merit (FOM) of the 145-mL vial was four times greater than that of the 20-mL vial because the volume of the former vial is approximately seven times greater than that of the latter. Further, the MDA for ³H decreased from 1.6 to 0.3 Bq/L. The counting efficiency and FOM of LSC-LB7 was slightly less than those of Quantulus when the 20-mL vial was used. The background counting rate of the Quantulus was lower than that of the LSC-LB7.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.14
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• pp.5681-5686
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• 2015

Background: Pancreatic cancer ranks fourth in deaths caused by cancers throughout the world. Gemcitabine chemotherapy is the primary method of treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer, and in asco2014, it is still firstline chemotherapy. Howeve,r gemcitabine+fluorouracil regimens are also licensed and widely used worldwide. Clinical trials are the best way to evaluate drug efficacy. In this study, we performed a systematic review and a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess whether gemcitabine+fluoropyrimidine combination therapy improves the prognosis of unresectable pancreatic cancer compared with gemcitabine treatment alone. Materials and Methods: A quantitative up-to-date meta-analysis was undertaken to investigate the efficacy of gemcitabine-based combination treatment compared with gemcitabine monotherapy for locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer. Inclusion was limited to high-quality randomized clinical trials. Results: A total of 12 studies were included in the present analysis, with a total of 3,038 patients recruited. The studies were divided into three subgroups including 5-FU / CAP / S-1 combined with gemcitabine. For the primary endpoint of overall survival (OS), gemcitabine-based combination therapy demonstrated significantly better outcome (HR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.81-0.95) than gemcitabine monotherapy. The analysis of progression free survival (PFS) also provided a significant result for the combined therapy in a total of 8 trials (2,130 patients) (HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.63-0.86). With subgroup analysis according to the method of dosing delivery, we found that in the injection group with 3 trials (889 patients), a negative result was found (HR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.77-1.12); while a positive result was observed in the oral group with 9 trials (2,149 patients) (HR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.80-0.95). Conclusions: Gemcitabine combination therapy provides a modest improvement of survival, but is associated with more toxicity compared with gemcitabine monotherapy.