An adaptive integral sliding mode control strategy for medical linear accelerator vacuum system.

Medical linear accelerators (MLAs) are critical components for radiation therapy, providing a state-of-the-art treatment platform for cancer therapy. The vacuum system is one of the most important MLA subsystems and its stable operation is necessary to generate high-quality beams. For vacuum system pressure control, traditional proportional-integral-derivative (PID) strategies have disadvantages such as inaccurate and imprecise control response due to its simple calculation.

CT-CBCT deformable registration using weakly-supervised artifact-suppression transfer learning network.

Computed tomography-cone-beam computed tomography (CT-CBCT) deformable registration has great potential in adaptive radiotherapy. It plays an important role in tumor tracking, secondary planning, accurate irradiation, and the protection of at-risk organs. Neural networks have been improving CT-CBCT deformable registration, and almost all registration algorithms based on neural networks rely on the gray values of both CT and CBCT.

Tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl)phosphate Induces Mass Mortality of Crucian Carp () Embryos in Taihu Lake.

Global fishery resources have been declining for decades, leading some fisheries to collapse. Although the decline is partly due to man-made chemical contamination, causal chemicals have been identified in only a few cases. We conducted consecutive 3-year investigations of embryonic mortality in Taihu Lake, China, including heavily contaminated northern areas, including Zhushan (ZS), Meiliang (ML), and Gonghu (GH), and the less polluted southeastern Suzhou (SZ).

Systematic review and meta-analysis of effects of acupuncture on pain and function in non-specific low back pain.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of acupuncture for non-specific low back pain (NSLBP) through systematic review of published randomised controlled trials (RCTs).

Methods: Studies were identified in electronic databases from their inception to February 2018, and were grouped according to the control interventions. The outcomes of interest were pain intensity and disability.

Effects of yoga on patients with chronic nonspecific neck pain: A PRISMA systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Chronic nonspecific neck pain (CNNP) has a high prevalence and is more common among younger people. Clinical practice suggests that yoga is effective in relieving chronic pain.

Objectives: This meta-analysis aimed to quantitatively summarize the efficacy of yoga for treating CNNP.

Simultaneous determination of primary and secondary phthalate monoesters in the Taihu Lake: Exploration of sources.

While phthalates monoesters have been recognized as the bioactive metabolites of phthalates, the knowledge on their environmental occurrence and sources is limited. In this study, monomethyl phthalate (MMP), monoethyl phthalate (MEP), mono-iso-butyl phthalate (MiBP), mono-n-butyl phthalate (MnBP), and mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP) were frequently detected in water samples from the Taihu Lake in China using an improved SPE-LC-MS-MS method. The mean concentrations for MMP, MEP, MiBP, MnBP, and MEHP were 51.

Toxicity of triphenyltin on the development of retinal axons in zebrafish at low dose.

The impacts of triphenyltin (TPT) on ecological health are of particular concern due to the unexpectedly high levels found in wild fish around the world. Here, zebrafish embryos were exposed to TPT via in ovo nano-injection to study its toxicity on the development of retinal axons in fish. Lipophilic dye labeling revealed obvious defects in retinal axon development in larvae with normally shaped eyes, with incidences of 0, 1.

Dynamic evaluation of environmental impact due to tritium accidental release from the fusion reactor.

As one of the key safety issues of fusion reactors, tritium environmental impact of fusion accidents has attracted great attention. In this work, the dynamic tritium concentrations in the air and human body were evaluated on the time scale based on accidental release scenarios under the extreme environmental conditions. The radiation dose through various exposure pathways was assessed to find out the potential relationships among them.

Chromium (VI) potentiates the DNA adducts (O(6)-methylguanine) formation of N-nitrosodimethylamine in rat: implication on carcinogenic risk.

Chromium (VI) [Cr(VI)] and nitrosamines such as N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) exist commonly in the environment. To evaluate the potential influence of Cr(VI) co-exposure on the carcinogenic risk of NDMA, Female Wistar rats were treated with various concentrations of Cr(VI) and/or NDMA via drinking water for 15days and the DNA adducts (O(6)-methylguanine, O(6)-MeG) of NDMA in liver tissue was used as a bioindicator. The results showed that Cr(VI) synergistically enhanced the O(6)-MeG formation, which could lead to an increase in DNA damage and carcinogenic potential.

Biosensor medaka for monitoring intersex caused by estrogenic chemicals.

Estrogenic chemicals can induce intersex in fish species leading to disturbance of spermatogenesis and impairment of reproductive success. To overcome the shortcomings of conventional histopathological observation on intersex (low sensitivity, relatively poor accuracy, long experimental periods, as well as laborious and time-consuming), we generated a pMOSP1-EGFP transgenic medaka fish model. In this transgenic fish, the green fluorescence protein (GFP) reporter gene was derived by the regulatory elements of the OSP1 gene, which is a specific and sensitive molecular biomarker for indicating intersex occurrence in male medaka fish exposed to estrogenic chemicals.

Determination and occurrence of retinoids in a eutrophic lake (Taihu Lake, China): cyanobacteria blooms produce teratogenic retinal.

Besides retinoic acids (RAs), some retinoids such as retinal (RAL) and retinol (ROH), which are considered as RA precursors in vertebrates, are also reported to be teratogenic agents. In this study we investigated four RA precursors including RAL, ROH, retinyl palmitate, and β-carotene in the eutrophic Taihu Lake, China, by developing a sensitive analytical method. RAL and β-carotene were widely detected in natural cyanobacteria blooms and lake water.

Cyanobacteria blooms produce teratogenic retinoic acids.

Deformed amphibians have been observed in eutrophic habitats, and some clues point to the retinoic acids (RAs) or RA mimics. However, RAs are generally thought of as vertebrate-specific hormones, and there was no evidence that RAs exist in cyanobacteria or algae blooms. By analyzing RAs and their analogs 4-oxo-RAs in natural cyanobacteria blooms and cultures of cyanobacteria and algae, we showed that cyanobacteria blooms could produce RAs, which were powerful animal teratogens.