Our understanding of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has transformed with the recent discovery... more Our understanding of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has transformed with the recent discovery of therapeutically targetable oncogenic drivers, including gene fusions or rearrangements [1]. This includes gene fusions in ALK present in approximately 5% of advanced NSCLC patients, RET in 1–2%, ROS1 in 1% and NTRK in <1% [2–5]. Although individually rare, collectively they comprise a significant proportion of NSCLC. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are now established treatment options for advanced fusion-driven NSCLC patients; however, drug resistance inevitably ensues [2,6]. More recently, immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy has dramatically changed the treatment landscape for NSCLC in both the treatment naïve and resistant settings [7]. Immune checkpoint inhibition is now standard of care in the first-line setting for advanced disease, either alone or in combination with chemotherapy, in patients without EGFR or ALK genomic aberrations [8,9]. Nevertheless, NSCLC remains one of the leading causes of cancer death with many unanswered questions, including the efficacy for immune checkpoint inhibition in fusiondriven NSCLC. Importantly, there is mounting evidence suggesting extremely poor efficacy for immunotherapy in fusiondriven NSCLC [10].
The management of advanced lung cancer has been transformed with the identification of targetable... more The management of advanced lung cancer has been transformed with the identification of targetable oncogenic driver alterations. This includes anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene rearrangements. ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) are established first-line treatment options in advanced ALK rearranged non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with several next-generation ALK TKIs (alectinib, brigatinib, ensartinib and lorlatinib) demonstrating survival benefit compared with the first-generation ALK TKI crizotinib. Still, despite high objective response rates and durable progression-free survival, drug resistance inevitably ensues, and treatment options beyond ALK TKI are predominantly limited to cytotoxic chemotherapy. Anti-angiogenic therapy targeting the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling pathway has shown efficacy in combination with platinum-doublet chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC without a driver alteration, and with EGFR TKI in advanced EGFR mutated NSCLC. The role...
The discovery of therapeutically targetable oncogenic driver alterations has led to marked improv... more The discovery of therapeutically targetable oncogenic driver alterations has led to marked improvements in NSCLC outcomes. Targeted agents have been approved for an expanding list of biomarkers. Consequently, the accurate and timely identification of targetable alterations with diagnostic molecular profiling is crucial. The use of multiplexed tissue assays, such as next-generation sequencing (NGS), has increased significantly. However, significant limitations with tissue NGS remain, such as insufficient tissue, scheduling limitations, the need for repeat biopsies, and long turnaround times. Liquid biopsies, using plasma circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), have the potential to overcome these issues, with simpler sample processing requirements, greater convenience, and better patient acceptability. In particular, an early liquid biopsy may allow patients access to highly effective therapies faster, allow better symptom control and quality of life, prevent rapid clinical deterioration, and...
Market power in banking is very important to increase a bank's competitive power. The investigati... more Market power in banking is very important to increase a bank's competitive power. The investigation of this is of particular relevance to the Chinese banking industry in the light of the stability issue experienced by the Chinese commercial banks in 2019. Instead of using translog cost function or semiparametric method as a component to estimate Lerner index, this study estimates Lerner index based on data envelopment analysis. The results show that joint-stock banks have the lowest market power, while although city commercial banks have a higher level of market power than joint-stock commercial banks, it is still lower than the other three ownership types. Overall, the Chinese banking industry experienced a decline in the level of market power from 2010-2015, after which there was a slight increase in the level, the market power ended up with a value of 0.937 by the of 2018. We notice that the Chinese banking industry in general has a higher level of market power with the value of Lerner index achieved more than 0.93 for every year of the examined period.
This paper considers the use of loan loss reserves (LLRs) in the banking production process and t... more This paper considers the use of loan loss reserves (LLRs) in the banking production process and treats it as one variable with a dual role. We establish a three-stage network Data Envelopment Analysis model to address this issue. Using a sample of 43 Chinese commercial banks over the period 2011–2019, the results show that the banks with the ratio between LLRs and total loans less than 1% have higher level of efficiency compared to the ones holding the ratio greater than 1%. The results show that when excluding LLRs in the production process, the efficiency scores are significantly inflated. We find that small and medium sized banks are more efficient than their big counterparts, however, the results show that big banks hold more than enough amounts of LLRs than the one required by the regulatory authority. When LLRs are excluded from the production process, it shows that big banks perform better than small and medium sized banks. Our findings show that less liquid banks perform bet...
Physiological! ! • Shuttles for antigen presentation! • Stimulatory / inhibitory effect on immune... more Physiological! ! • Shuttles for antigen presentation! • Stimulatory / inhibitory effect on immune system! • Function as possible cancer vaccine! • Attenuate ischaemia reperfusion in myocardial infarction! • Regulation of neuronal cell function! • Mediate transfer of RNA between cells! Pathological! ! • Similar composition and mechanism of action between exosomes and retroviruses! • Similarities in biogenesis and gaining entry into cells ! • Exosomes and retroviruses may share a common ancestry ! • Tumour cells secrete exosomes to mediate cancer progression and metastasis ! • Cancer cells use exosomes as “decoy flares” to block pharmacological agents ! • Exosomes are associated with the transfer of prion proteins in CreuzfeldtJakob disease !
Current lighting methods rely on static manual techniques, which require de signers to anticipate... more Current lighting methods rely on static manual techniques, which require de signers to anticipate and account for all possible situations and actor actions. This research explores how ‘Performing Arts’ wed to ‘Affective Computing’ will lead to a new computational model of emotion. In this paper, we present a new interactive lighting design model based on cinematic and theatric lighting design approaches. The proposed model is designed to automatically, and in real-time, adjust lighting in a scene to accommodate the continually evolving dramatic situation, while maintaining the desired style, aesthetic function and ensuring visual continuity with respect to the desired response.
Due to the financial crisis around the world, stability of the banking sector is critical. Severa... more Due to the financial crisis around the world, stability of the banking sector is critical. Several rounds of banking reforms in China have aimed to improve performance and competition, and Performance, Risk and Competition in the Chinese Banking Industry provides a comprehensive analysis of performance, risk, competition and their relationships in Chinese banking industry. The book consists of seven chapters: the first chapter gives an introduction, followed by an overview of the Chinese banking sector in chapter two. Chapter three discusses corporate governance in the Chinese banking sector. The fourth and fifth chapters investigate risk, performance, competition, and their relationships. Chapter six outlines future development of the Chinese banking sector, and finally, chapter seven provides a conclusion. provides a comprehensive analysis of risk conditions in the Chinese banking sector a detailed investigation on the performance of the Chinese banking sector examines the state...
Investigation into phytochemicals from foods for disease prevention has increased substantially i... more Investigation into phytochemicals from foods for disease prevention has increased substantially in the last few decades. However, a clear strategy on the selection of the most promising foods for research has been lacking. An ethnobotanical approach represents an effective method which may improve the outcomes of phytochemical research. Research on the health properties of native Australian plants is limited. The vast number of edible plants used as foods and medicines by the Australian Aboriginal population creates opportunities for the discovery of novel physiologically active compounds. Within this review, we propose an ethnobotanical approach to accelerate research towards the utilisation of native Australian plants for foods with health-enhancing properties.
The current study proposes a new DEA model to evaluate the efficiency of 39 Chinese commercial ba... more The current study proposes a new DEA model to evaluate the efficiency of 39 Chinese commercial banks over the period 2010–2018. The paper also, in the second stage, investigates the inter-relationships between efficiency and some bank-specific variables (i.e. bank profitability, bank size, expenses management, traditional business and non-traditional business) under the Robust Endogenous Neural Network Analysis. The findings suggest that the sample of Chinese banks experiences a consistent increase in the level of bank efficiency up to 2015; the efficiency score is 0.915, after which the efficiency level declines and then experiences a slight volatility, while finally ending up with an efficiency score of 0.746 by the end of 2018. We also find that among different bank ownership types, the state-owned banks have the highest efficiency, the rural commercial banks are found to be least efficient and the foreign banks experience the strongest volatility over the examined period. The se...
Since the very beginnings of cancer therapy with chemotherapy, tumors have been treated according... more Since the very beginnings of cancer therapy with chemotherapy, tumors have been treated according to the organ or tissue of origin. The advent of precision medicine however, has recently led to growing promise for tumor-agnostic biomarkers for targeted therapies and immunotherapies, such as NTRK fusions. Despite this, prominent examples such as BRAF V600E mutations in melanoma compared to colorectal cancer, in which the site of tumor origin dramatically influences the efficacy of targeted therapies, heeds caution against disregarding the importance of cell of origin. Indeed, another illustrative example, is the almost complete absence outside of cancers originating from the lung of the classical activating EGFR mutations—exon 19 deletions and exon 21 L858R mutations. Consequently, an understanding of lineage dependency and lineage-survival oncogenes may still offer significant mechanistic insights into the malignant transformation of tumors to ultimately identify further therapeutic...
INTRODUCTION As many as 30% of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) will develop brai... more INTRODUCTION As many as 30% of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) will develop brain metastases (BMs) over the course of their illness. Here, we quantitatively compare the efficacy of the various emerging regimens for NSCLC BMs without a definitive targetable EGFR mutation/ALK rearrangement. METHODS We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov, CENTRAL and references of key studies for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published from inception until June 2020. Comparative RCTs that included >10 patients were included. We used a frequentist fixed or random-effects model for network meta-analysis. The outcomes of interest included intracranial progression-free survival (iPFS), overall survival (OS) and overall progression-free survival (PFS). RESULTS 18 studies representing 17 trials (n=2726 patients) were identified. Immune checkpoint inhibitor regimens showed significant improvement in OS compared to chemotherapy alone, including Pembrolizumab and chemotherapy (6 studies, HR 0.36, 95%CI 0.21-0.62), atezolizumab alone (HR 0.54, 95%CI 0.33-0.89), and Nivolumab and Ipilimumab (HR 0.64, 95%CI 0.42-0.97). An improvement in overall PFS was seen with use of Pembrolizumab and chemotherapy compared to chemotherapy alone (3 studies, HR 0.42, 95%CI 0.26-0.68). Studies evaluating checkpoint inhibitors did not report iPFS data, and we did not find improvement in iPFS or OS with the addition of any chemotherapy regimen to WBRT. CONCLUSIONS In this NMA, we demonstrate the promising survival benefit with use of checkpoint inhibitor-based regimens in NSCLC BMs without a targetable EGFR mutation/ALK rearrangement. Moving forward, large-scale BM-focused RCTs are necessary to establish the iPFS benefit of immune checkpoint inhibitor-based immunotherapy in this patient population.
Although there is a growing number of research articles investigating the performance in the bank... more Although there is a growing number of research articles investigating the performance in the banking industry, research on Chinese banking efficiency is rather focused on discussing rankings to the detriment of unveiling its productive structure in light of banking competition. This issue is of utmost importance considering the relevant transformations in the Chinese economy over the last decades. This is a development of a two-stage network production process (production and intermediation approaches in banking, respectively) to evaluate the efficiency level of Chinese commercial banks. In the second stage regression analysis, an integrated Multi-Layer Perceptron/Hidden Markov model is used for the first time to unveil endogeneity among banking competition, contextual variables, and efficiency levels of the production and intermediation approaches in banking. The competitive condition in the Chinese banking industry is measured by Panar–Rosse H-statistic and Lerner index under the ...
The CA (capsid) domain of immature HIV-1 Gag and the adjacent spacer peptide 1 (SP1) play a key r... more The CA (capsid) domain of immature HIV-1 Gag and the adjacent spacer peptide 1 (SP1) play a key role in viral assembly by forming a lattice of CA hexamers, which adapts to viral envelope curvature by incorporating small lattice defects and a large gap at the site of budding. This lattice is stabilized by intra- and inter-hexameric CA-CA interactions, which are important in regulating viral assembly and maturation. We applied subtomogram averaging and classification to determine the structure of CA at lattice edges and found that they form partial hexamers. These structures reveal the network of interactions formed by CA-SP1at the lattice edge. We also performed atomistic molecular dynamics simulations of CA-CA interactions stabilizing the immature lattice and of partial CA-SP1 helical bundles. Free energy calculations reveal increased propensity for helix-to-coil transitions in partial hexamers compared to complete six-helix bundles. Taken together, these results suggest that the CA...
The management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has transformed with the discovery of therap... more The management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has transformed with the discovery of therapeutically tractable oncogenic drivers. In addition to activating driver mutations, gene fusions or rearrangements form a unique sub-class, with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) and c-ros oncogene 1 (ROS1) targeted agents approved as the standard of care in the first-line setting for advanced disease. There are a number of emerging fusion drivers, however, including neurotrophin kinase (NTRK), rearrangement during transfection (RET), and neuregulin 1 (NRG1) for which there are evolving high-impact systemic treatment options. Brain metastases are highly prevalent in NSCLC patients, with molecularly selected populations such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutant and ALK-rearranged tumors particularly brain tropic. Accordingly, there exists a substantial body of research pertaining to the understanding of brain metastases in such populations. Little is known, however, on the mole...
International Journal of the Economics of Business, 2020
This study contributes to the banking literature by testing the joint impacts of profitability an... more This study contributes to the banking literature by testing the joint impacts of profitability and industry environment on several types of risk (credit risk, liquidity risk, capital risk, and insolvency risk) in a sample of Chinese commercial banks over the period 2003 to 2015. The results show that a more highly developed banking sector increases the liquidity risk and credit risk of Chinese commercial banks but decreases their capital risk. It is further suggested that profitability may lead to a reduction in credit risk and insolvency risk. The findings from the current study thus have important policy implications in terms of improving stability in the Chinese banking industry.
In this paper, we evaluate the impact of economic policy uncertainty shocks on inflation expectat... more In this paper, we evaluate the impact of economic policy uncertainty shocks on inflation expectations in China by using a MF-VAR approach. We find that China’s inflation expectations are sensitive to policy-related uncertainty shocks. Meanwhile, there exist heterogeneous impacts of national economic policy uncertainty shocks on inflation expectations in China. Overall, the inflation expectations in China rise in response to the European, Japanese and China’s own uncertainty shocks. Whereas, the reaction of the inflation expectations in China to the uncertainty shocks made by both the US and BRICS (except China and South Africa) is negative. The results also reveal that the policy-related uncertainty shocks are dominant driving force of the inflation expectations in China especially during the post-crisis period. In addition, the contribution of China’s domestic uncertainty shocks is remarkably higher than that of foreign uncertainty shocks.
adults with a history of childhood adversity. ELS reduced mtDNA gene expression in mouse hippocam... more adults with a history of childhood adversity. ELS reduced mtDNA gene expression in mouse hippocampus during development. Altered mitochondrial function may influence mitochondrial biogenesis and the pathogenesis of stressrelated psychiatric conditions.
Our understanding of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has transformed with the recent discovery... more Our understanding of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has transformed with the recent discovery of therapeutically targetable oncogenic drivers, including gene fusions or rearrangements [1]. This includes gene fusions in ALK present in approximately 5% of advanced NSCLC patients, RET in 1–2%, ROS1 in 1% and NTRK in <1% [2–5]. Although individually rare, collectively they comprise a significant proportion of NSCLC. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are now established treatment options for advanced fusion-driven NSCLC patients; however, drug resistance inevitably ensues [2,6]. More recently, immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy has dramatically changed the treatment landscape for NSCLC in both the treatment naïve and resistant settings [7]. Immune checkpoint inhibition is now standard of care in the first-line setting for advanced disease, either alone or in combination with chemotherapy, in patients without EGFR or ALK genomic aberrations [8,9]. Nevertheless, NSCLC remains one of the leading causes of cancer death with many unanswered questions, including the efficacy for immune checkpoint inhibition in fusiondriven NSCLC. Importantly, there is mounting evidence suggesting extremely poor efficacy for immunotherapy in fusiondriven NSCLC [10].
The management of advanced lung cancer has been transformed with the identification of targetable... more The management of advanced lung cancer has been transformed with the identification of targetable oncogenic driver alterations. This includes anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene rearrangements. ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) are established first-line treatment options in advanced ALK rearranged non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with several next-generation ALK TKIs (alectinib, brigatinib, ensartinib and lorlatinib) demonstrating survival benefit compared with the first-generation ALK TKI crizotinib. Still, despite high objective response rates and durable progression-free survival, drug resistance inevitably ensues, and treatment options beyond ALK TKI are predominantly limited to cytotoxic chemotherapy. Anti-angiogenic therapy targeting the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling pathway has shown efficacy in combination with platinum-doublet chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC without a driver alteration, and with EGFR TKI in advanced EGFR mutated NSCLC. The role...
The discovery of therapeutically targetable oncogenic driver alterations has led to marked improv... more The discovery of therapeutically targetable oncogenic driver alterations has led to marked improvements in NSCLC outcomes. Targeted agents have been approved for an expanding list of biomarkers. Consequently, the accurate and timely identification of targetable alterations with diagnostic molecular profiling is crucial. The use of multiplexed tissue assays, such as next-generation sequencing (NGS), has increased significantly. However, significant limitations with tissue NGS remain, such as insufficient tissue, scheduling limitations, the need for repeat biopsies, and long turnaround times. Liquid biopsies, using plasma circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), have the potential to overcome these issues, with simpler sample processing requirements, greater convenience, and better patient acceptability. In particular, an early liquid biopsy may allow patients access to highly effective therapies faster, allow better symptom control and quality of life, prevent rapid clinical deterioration, and...
Market power in banking is very important to increase a bank's competitive power. The investigati... more Market power in banking is very important to increase a bank's competitive power. The investigation of this is of particular relevance to the Chinese banking industry in the light of the stability issue experienced by the Chinese commercial banks in 2019. Instead of using translog cost function or semiparametric method as a component to estimate Lerner index, this study estimates Lerner index based on data envelopment analysis. The results show that joint-stock banks have the lowest market power, while although city commercial banks have a higher level of market power than joint-stock commercial banks, it is still lower than the other three ownership types. Overall, the Chinese banking industry experienced a decline in the level of market power from 2010-2015, after which there was a slight increase in the level, the market power ended up with a value of 0.937 by the of 2018. We notice that the Chinese banking industry in general has a higher level of market power with the value of Lerner index achieved more than 0.93 for every year of the examined period.
This paper considers the use of loan loss reserves (LLRs) in the banking production process and t... more This paper considers the use of loan loss reserves (LLRs) in the banking production process and treats it as one variable with a dual role. We establish a three-stage network Data Envelopment Analysis model to address this issue. Using a sample of 43 Chinese commercial banks over the period 2011–2019, the results show that the banks with the ratio between LLRs and total loans less than 1% have higher level of efficiency compared to the ones holding the ratio greater than 1%. The results show that when excluding LLRs in the production process, the efficiency scores are significantly inflated. We find that small and medium sized banks are more efficient than their big counterparts, however, the results show that big banks hold more than enough amounts of LLRs than the one required by the regulatory authority. When LLRs are excluded from the production process, it shows that big banks perform better than small and medium sized banks. Our findings show that less liquid banks perform bet...
Physiological! ! • Shuttles for antigen presentation! • Stimulatory / inhibitory effect on immune... more Physiological! ! • Shuttles for antigen presentation! • Stimulatory / inhibitory effect on immune system! • Function as possible cancer vaccine! • Attenuate ischaemia reperfusion in myocardial infarction! • Regulation of neuronal cell function! • Mediate transfer of RNA between cells! Pathological! ! • Similar composition and mechanism of action between exosomes and retroviruses! • Similarities in biogenesis and gaining entry into cells ! • Exosomes and retroviruses may share a common ancestry ! • Tumour cells secrete exosomes to mediate cancer progression and metastasis ! • Cancer cells use exosomes as “decoy flares” to block pharmacological agents ! • Exosomes are associated with the transfer of prion proteins in CreuzfeldtJakob disease !
Current lighting methods rely on static manual techniques, which require de signers to anticipate... more Current lighting methods rely on static manual techniques, which require de signers to anticipate and account for all possible situations and actor actions. This research explores how ‘Performing Arts’ wed to ‘Affective Computing’ will lead to a new computational model of emotion. In this paper, we present a new interactive lighting design model based on cinematic and theatric lighting design approaches. The proposed model is designed to automatically, and in real-time, adjust lighting in a scene to accommodate the continually evolving dramatic situation, while maintaining the desired style, aesthetic function and ensuring visual continuity with respect to the desired response.
Due to the financial crisis around the world, stability of the banking sector is critical. Severa... more Due to the financial crisis around the world, stability of the banking sector is critical. Several rounds of banking reforms in China have aimed to improve performance and competition, and Performance, Risk and Competition in the Chinese Banking Industry provides a comprehensive analysis of performance, risk, competition and their relationships in Chinese banking industry. The book consists of seven chapters: the first chapter gives an introduction, followed by an overview of the Chinese banking sector in chapter two. Chapter three discusses corporate governance in the Chinese banking sector. The fourth and fifth chapters investigate risk, performance, competition, and their relationships. Chapter six outlines future development of the Chinese banking sector, and finally, chapter seven provides a conclusion. provides a comprehensive analysis of risk conditions in the Chinese banking sector a detailed investigation on the performance of the Chinese banking sector examines the state...
Investigation into phytochemicals from foods for disease prevention has increased substantially i... more Investigation into phytochemicals from foods for disease prevention has increased substantially in the last few decades. However, a clear strategy on the selection of the most promising foods for research has been lacking. An ethnobotanical approach represents an effective method which may improve the outcomes of phytochemical research. Research on the health properties of native Australian plants is limited. The vast number of edible plants used as foods and medicines by the Australian Aboriginal population creates opportunities for the discovery of novel physiologically active compounds. Within this review, we propose an ethnobotanical approach to accelerate research towards the utilisation of native Australian plants for foods with health-enhancing properties.
The current study proposes a new DEA model to evaluate the efficiency of 39 Chinese commercial ba... more The current study proposes a new DEA model to evaluate the efficiency of 39 Chinese commercial banks over the period 2010–2018. The paper also, in the second stage, investigates the inter-relationships between efficiency and some bank-specific variables (i.e. bank profitability, bank size, expenses management, traditional business and non-traditional business) under the Robust Endogenous Neural Network Analysis. The findings suggest that the sample of Chinese banks experiences a consistent increase in the level of bank efficiency up to 2015; the efficiency score is 0.915, after which the efficiency level declines and then experiences a slight volatility, while finally ending up with an efficiency score of 0.746 by the end of 2018. We also find that among different bank ownership types, the state-owned banks have the highest efficiency, the rural commercial banks are found to be least efficient and the foreign banks experience the strongest volatility over the examined period. The se...
Since the very beginnings of cancer therapy with chemotherapy, tumors have been treated according... more Since the very beginnings of cancer therapy with chemotherapy, tumors have been treated according to the organ or tissue of origin. The advent of precision medicine however, has recently led to growing promise for tumor-agnostic biomarkers for targeted therapies and immunotherapies, such as NTRK fusions. Despite this, prominent examples such as BRAF V600E mutations in melanoma compared to colorectal cancer, in which the site of tumor origin dramatically influences the efficacy of targeted therapies, heeds caution against disregarding the importance of cell of origin. Indeed, another illustrative example, is the almost complete absence outside of cancers originating from the lung of the classical activating EGFR mutations—exon 19 deletions and exon 21 L858R mutations. Consequently, an understanding of lineage dependency and lineage-survival oncogenes may still offer significant mechanistic insights into the malignant transformation of tumors to ultimately identify further therapeutic...
INTRODUCTION As many as 30% of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) will develop brai... more INTRODUCTION As many as 30% of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) will develop brain metastases (BMs) over the course of their illness. Here, we quantitatively compare the efficacy of the various emerging regimens for NSCLC BMs without a definitive targetable EGFR mutation/ALK rearrangement. METHODS We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov, CENTRAL and references of key studies for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published from inception until June 2020. Comparative RCTs that included >10 patients were included. We used a frequentist fixed or random-effects model for network meta-analysis. The outcomes of interest included intracranial progression-free survival (iPFS), overall survival (OS) and overall progression-free survival (PFS). RESULTS 18 studies representing 17 trials (n=2726 patients) were identified. Immune checkpoint inhibitor regimens showed significant improvement in OS compared to chemotherapy alone, including Pembrolizumab and chemotherapy (6 studies, HR 0.36, 95%CI 0.21-0.62), atezolizumab alone (HR 0.54, 95%CI 0.33-0.89), and Nivolumab and Ipilimumab (HR 0.64, 95%CI 0.42-0.97). An improvement in overall PFS was seen with use of Pembrolizumab and chemotherapy compared to chemotherapy alone (3 studies, HR 0.42, 95%CI 0.26-0.68). Studies evaluating checkpoint inhibitors did not report iPFS data, and we did not find improvement in iPFS or OS with the addition of any chemotherapy regimen to WBRT. CONCLUSIONS In this NMA, we demonstrate the promising survival benefit with use of checkpoint inhibitor-based regimens in NSCLC BMs without a targetable EGFR mutation/ALK rearrangement. Moving forward, large-scale BM-focused RCTs are necessary to establish the iPFS benefit of immune checkpoint inhibitor-based immunotherapy in this patient population.
Although there is a growing number of research articles investigating the performance in the bank... more Although there is a growing number of research articles investigating the performance in the banking industry, research on Chinese banking efficiency is rather focused on discussing rankings to the detriment of unveiling its productive structure in light of banking competition. This issue is of utmost importance considering the relevant transformations in the Chinese economy over the last decades. This is a development of a two-stage network production process (production and intermediation approaches in banking, respectively) to evaluate the efficiency level of Chinese commercial banks. In the second stage regression analysis, an integrated Multi-Layer Perceptron/Hidden Markov model is used for the first time to unveil endogeneity among banking competition, contextual variables, and efficiency levels of the production and intermediation approaches in banking. The competitive condition in the Chinese banking industry is measured by Panar–Rosse H-statistic and Lerner index under the ...
The CA (capsid) domain of immature HIV-1 Gag and the adjacent spacer peptide 1 (SP1) play a key r... more The CA (capsid) domain of immature HIV-1 Gag and the adjacent spacer peptide 1 (SP1) play a key role in viral assembly by forming a lattice of CA hexamers, which adapts to viral envelope curvature by incorporating small lattice defects and a large gap at the site of budding. This lattice is stabilized by intra- and inter-hexameric CA-CA interactions, which are important in regulating viral assembly and maturation. We applied subtomogram averaging and classification to determine the structure of CA at lattice edges and found that they form partial hexamers. These structures reveal the network of interactions formed by CA-SP1at the lattice edge. We also performed atomistic molecular dynamics simulations of CA-CA interactions stabilizing the immature lattice and of partial CA-SP1 helical bundles. Free energy calculations reveal increased propensity for helix-to-coil transitions in partial hexamers compared to complete six-helix bundles. Taken together, these results suggest that the CA...
The management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has transformed with the discovery of therap... more The management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has transformed with the discovery of therapeutically tractable oncogenic drivers. In addition to activating driver mutations, gene fusions or rearrangements form a unique sub-class, with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) and c-ros oncogene 1 (ROS1) targeted agents approved as the standard of care in the first-line setting for advanced disease. There are a number of emerging fusion drivers, however, including neurotrophin kinase (NTRK), rearrangement during transfection (RET), and neuregulin 1 (NRG1) for which there are evolving high-impact systemic treatment options. Brain metastases are highly prevalent in NSCLC patients, with molecularly selected populations such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutant and ALK-rearranged tumors particularly brain tropic. Accordingly, there exists a substantial body of research pertaining to the understanding of brain metastases in such populations. Little is known, however, on the mole...
International Journal of the Economics of Business, 2020
This study contributes to the banking literature by testing the joint impacts of profitability an... more This study contributes to the banking literature by testing the joint impacts of profitability and industry environment on several types of risk (credit risk, liquidity risk, capital risk, and insolvency risk) in a sample of Chinese commercial banks over the period 2003 to 2015. The results show that a more highly developed banking sector increases the liquidity risk and credit risk of Chinese commercial banks but decreases their capital risk. It is further suggested that profitability may lead to a reduction in credit risk and insolvency risk. The findings from the current study thus have important policy implications in terms of improving stability in the Chinese banking industry.
In this paper, we evaluate the impact of economic policy uncertainty shocks on inflation expectat... more In this paper, we evaluate the impact of economic policy uncertainty shocks on inflation expectations in China by using a MF-VAR approach. We find that China’s inflation expectations are sensitive to policy-related uncertainty shocks. Meanwhile, there exist heterogeneous impacts of national economic policy uncertainty shocks on inflation expectations in China. Overall, the inflation expectations in China rise in response to the European, Japanese and China’s own uncertainty shocks. Whereas, the reaction of the inflation expectations in China to the uncertainty shocks made by both the US and BRICS (except China and South Africa) is negative. The results also reveal that the policy-related uncertainty shocks are dominant driving force of the inflation expectations in China especially during the post-crisis period. In addition, the contribution of China’s domestic uncertainty shocks is remarkably higher than that of foreign uncertainty shocks.
adults with a history of childhood adversity. ELS reduced mtDNA gene expression in mouse hippocam... more adults with a history of childhood adversity. ELS reduced mtDNA gene expression in mouse hippocampus during development. Altered mitochondrial function may influence mitochondrial biogenesis and the pathogenesis of stressrelated psychiatric conditions.
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Papers by aaron tan