Novel and Effective Almagate Enema for Hemorrhagic Chronic Radiation Proctitis and Risk Factors for Fistula Development

Yuan, Zi-Xu,Ma, Teng-Hui,Zhong, Qing-Hua,Wang, Huai-Ming,Yu, Xi-Hu,Qin, Qi-Yuan,Chu, Li-Li,Wang, Lei,Wang, Jian-Ping Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2016 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.17 No.2

Radiation proctitis is a common complication after radiotherapy for pelvic malignant tumors. This study was conducted to assess the efficacy of novel almagate enemas in hemorrhagic chronic radiation proctitis (CRP) and evaluate risk factors related to rectal deep ulcer or fistula secondary to CRP. All patients underwent a colonoscopy to confirm the diagnosis of CRP and symptoms were graded. Typical endoscopic and pathological images, risk factors, and quality of life were also recorded. A total of 59 patients were enrolled. Gynecological cancers composed 93.1% of the primary malignancies. Complete or obvious reduction of bleeding was observed in 90% (53/59) patients after almagate enema. The mean score of bleeding improved from 2.17 to 0.83 (P<0.001) after the enemas. The mean response time was 12 days. No adverse effects were found. Moreover, long-term successful rate in controlling bleeding was 69% and the quality of life was dramatically improved (P=0.001). The efficacy was equivalent to rectal sucralfate, but the almagate with its antacid properties acted more rapidly than sucralfate. Furthermore, we firstly found that moderate to severe anemia was the risk factor of CRP patients who developed rectal deep ulcer or fistulas (P= 0.015). We also found abnormal hyaline-like thick wall vessels, which revealed endarteritis obliterans and the fibrosis underlying this disease. These findings indicate that almagate enema is a novel effective, rapid and well-tolerated method for hemorrhagic CRP. Moderate to severe anemia is a risk factor for deep ulceration or fistula.

First-Principles Study of the Influence of Zirconium on the Diffusion of Uranium Defects in Uranium Dioxide

Huan Wang,Yu Zou,Zhong Zhang,Kai-Yuan Wang,Huan An,Chang-Yong Zhan,Jun Wang,Jian-Chun Wu 한국물리학회 2019 THE JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY Vol.74 No.8

The migration properties of uranium vacancies and interstitials in zirconium-doped uranium dioxide are studied by using density functional theory (DFT) and the climbing-image nudge elastic band (CI-NEB) method. The strong correlations among uranium $5f$ electrons were described by using a spherically averaged Hubbard parameter. In the model, the zirconium atoms are introduced by replacing the uranium atoms at the nearest and the next nearest neighbor sites along the diffusion path of uranium defects. The doping with zirconium obviously reduces the migration barriers for defects in uranium dioxide. The effect of doping with zirconium on the diffusion of uranium defects decreases with increasing distance between the zirconium dopant and the uranium defects. Further, we investigated the lattice distortion and the electron transfer associated with the migration of uranium defects, and we analyzed the physical origin of the reduction in the migration barriers caused by zirconium doping.

Self-assembly and Mechanism of L-Alanine-based Dihydrazide Derivative as Excellent Gelator of Organic Solvents

Wang, Chuan-Sheng,Wang, Xiao-Hong,Li, Zhi-Yuan,Wei, Wei,Shi, Zhong-Liang,Sui, Zhi-Tong Korean Chemical Society 2011 Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society Vol.32 No.4

A new organogelator, L-Alanine dihydrazide derivative can self-assemble in various organic solvents and turned them into thermally reversible physical supramolecular organogels at extremely low concentrations (< 2 wt %). The gel-sol phase transition temperatures ($T_{GS}$) were determined as a function of gelator concentration and the corresponding enthalpies (${\Delta}H_g$) were extracted. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements revealed that the interspaces of fiber-like network structures were diminished with the increasing of the LMOG concentration. FT-IR spectroscopy studies revealed that hydrogen-bonding and hydrophobic interaction were the driving forces for the formation of the gels. Based on the data of XRD and molecular modeling, the possible packing modes for the formation of organogelator aggregates were proposed.

Interaction of Coping Styles and Psychological Stress on Anxious and Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Breast Cancer Patients

Wang, Xi,Wang, Shu-Sen,Peng, Rou-Jun,Qin, Tao,Shi, Yan-Xia,Teng, Xiao-Yu,Liu, Dong-Gen,Chen, Wei-Qing,Yuan, Zhong-Yu Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.4

Purpose: This study aimed to assess possible interactive effects of coping styles and psychological stress on depression and anxiety symptoms in Chinese women shortly after diagnosis of breast cancer. Methods: Four hundred and one patients with breast cancer were face-to-face interviewed by trained research staff according to a standardized questionnaire including information on socio-demographic characteristics, psychological stress, coping styles, and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Interactive effects were assessed by hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Results: There were significant associations of the four domains of psychological stress with anxiety and depressive symptoms except for the relationship between "worrying about health being harmed" and depressive symptoms. "Abreaction coping behavior" and "escaping coping behavior" significantly increased the level of both anxiety and depressive symptoms; whereas an "active coping style" reswulted in significant decrease. The interaction of "active coping behavior" with "worrying about health being harmed" significantly increased the risk of the anxiety symptoms, while adopting "self-relaxing coping behavior" was associated with significant decrease. The interaction of "worry about daily life and social relationship being restricted" with "escaping coping behavior" significantly increased the risk of the depressive symptoms. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that certain coping styles might moderate the association of psychological stress with anxiety and depressive symptoms in Chinese women with breast cancer.

Optimization of algal lipid extraction by mixture of ethyl acetate and ethanol via response surface methodology for biodiesel production

Zhong-Ming Wang,Weidong Lu,Md Asraful Alam,Ying Pan,William Junior Nock,Zhen-Hong Yuan 한국화학공학회 2016 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.33 No.9

The effects of extraction time, extraction temperature, solvent to biomass ratio and solvent composition on lipid yield from lyophilized Chlorococcum sp. biomass using a mixture of ethyl acetate and ethanol (EAE), a new proposed solvent, were studied. Subsequently, the process conditions of extraction by EAE were optimized using Box- Behnken design (BBD). The results revealed that the extraction temperature had the greatest effect on lipid extraction efficiency, followed by volume ratio of ethyl acetate to ethanol (EA/E) and extraction time. The largest lipid extraction yield of 15.74% was obtained under the following extraction conditions: 40mL solvents per gram of biomass for 270 min with gentle stirring at 80 oC by EAE with an EA/E of 1.0. Furthermore, palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, and linoleic acid were the most abundant fatty acids in the lipids extracted, indicating the great potential of the proposed lipid extraction procedure for microalgae-based biodiesel production.

Application of Amidase to the Reduction of Stickies in Recycled OCC Pulp

Yuan-Shing Perng,Xiang-Huai Sean Wang,Zhong-Ji Wu,Meng-Kuan Hsiao,Eugene I-Chen Wang 한국펄프·종이공학회 2016 한국펄프·종이공학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.2016 No.10

The putative polysaccharide synthase AfCps1 regulates Aspergillus fumigatus morphogenesis and conidia immune response in mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages

Wang Sha,Yuan Anjie,Zeng Liping,Hou Sikai,Wang Meng,Li Lei,Cai Zhendong,Zhong Guowei 한국미생물학회 2021 The journal of microbiology Vol.59 No.1

Aspergillus fumigatus is a well-known opportunistic pathogen that causes invasive aspergillosis (IA) infections with high mortality in immunosuppressed individuals. Morphogenesis, including hyphal growth, conidiation, and cell wall biosynthesis is crucial in A. fumigatus pathogenesis. Based on a previous random insertional mutagenesis library, we identified the putative polysaccharide synthase gene Afcps1 and its paralog Afcps2. Homologs of the cps gene are commonly found in the genomes of most fungal and some bacterial pathogens. Afcps1/cpsA is important in sporulation, cell wall composition, and virulence. However, the precise regulation patterns of cell wall integrity by Afcps1/cpsA and further effects on the immune response are poorly understood. Specifically, our in-depth study revealed that Afcps1 affects cell-wall stability, showing an increased resistance of ΔAfcps1 to the chitinmicrofibril destabilizing compound calcofluor white (CFW) and susceptibility of ΔAfcps1 to the β-(1,3)-glucan synthase inhibitor echinocandin caspofungin (CS). Additionally, deletion of Afcps2 had a normal sporulation phenotype but caused hypersensitivity to Na+ stress, CFW, and Congo red (CR). Specifically, quantitative analysis of cell wall composition using high-performance anion exchange chromatography- pulsed amperometric detector (HPAEC-PAD) analysis revealed that depletion of Afcps1 reduced cell wall glucan and chitin contents, which was consistent with the downregulation of expression of the corresponding biosynthesis genes. Moreover, an elevated immune response stimulated by conidia of the ΔAfcps1 mutant in marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs) during phagocytosis was observed. Thus, our study provided new insights into the function of polysaccharide synthase Cps1, which is necessary for the maintenance of cell wall stability and the adaptation of conidia to the immune response of macrophages in A. fumigatus.

Effect of Dietary β-1,3/1,6-glucan Supplementation on Growth Performance, Immune Response and Plasma Prostaglandin E₂, Growth Hormone and Ghrelin in Weanling Piglets

Wang, Zhong,Guo, Yuming,Yuan, Jianmin,Zhang, Bingkun Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2008 Animal Bioscience Vol.21 No.5

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of ${\beta}$-1,3/1,6-glucan on growth performance, immunity and endocrine responses of weanling piglets. One hundred and eighty weanling piglets (Landrace$\times$Large White, $7.20{\pm}0.25kg$ BW and $28{\pm}2$ d of age) were randomly fed 1 of 5 treatment diets containing dietary ${\beta}$-1,3/1,6-glucan supplemented at 0, 25, 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg for 4 wks. Each treatment was replicated in 6 pens containing 6 pigs per pen. On d 14 and 28, body weight gain, feed consumption and feed efficiency were recorded as measures of growth performance. Peripheral blood lymphocyte proliferation and serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) were measured to study the effect of dietary ${\beta}$-1,3/1,6-glucan supplementation on immune function. Plasma prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), growth hormone (GH) and ghrelin were measured to investigate endocrine response to ${\beta}$-1,3/1,6-glucan supplementation. Our results suggest that average daily gain (ADG) and feed efficiency had a quadratic increase trend with dietary ${\beta}$-1,3/1,6-glucan supplementation from d 14 to 28, whereas it had no significant effect on average daily feed intake (ADFI). The treatment group fed with 50 mg/kg dietary ${\beta}$-1,3/1,6-glucan supplementation showed a numerical increase in ghrelin, a similar change trend with ADG and no significant effect on GH. Lymphocyte proliferation indices, serum IgG and plasma PGE2 concentrations varied linearly with dietary supplementation levels of ${\beta}$-1,3/1,6-glucan on d 14. Higher levels of ${\beta}$-1,3/1,6-glucan may have a transient immuno-enhancing effect on the cellular and humoral immune function of weanling piglets via decreased PGE2. Taking into account both immune response and growth performance, the most suitable dietary supplementation level of ${\beta}$-1,3/1,6-glucan is 50 mg/kg for weanling piglets.

Effect of Lateral Boundary Scheme on the Simulation of Tropical Cyclone Track in Regional Climate Model RegCM3

Xiaodan Wang,Zhong Zhong,Yijia Hu,Huihui Yuan 한국기상학회 2010 Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences Vol.46 No.2

The effect of the lateral boundary scheme in regional climate model (RCM) on the track simulation of tropical cyclone (TC) was investigated using RegCM3, for the case of Winnie (1997), which formed in the Western Pacific and landed on China in August 1997. The results show that there is an inevitable simulation error in the track of Winnie, and the narrower buffer zone size (BZS) will make a great error. However, it was demonstrated that a much broader BZS does not allow a better track simulation of Winnie, and the optimal BZS does not reduce the track error substantially. Moreover, the configuration scheme of nudging parameters plays an important role in the track simulation, and different nudging parameter configuration scheme could make the root mean square errors (RMSEs) of simulated track by more than two times. Nevertheless, the optimal configuration scheme can reduce the track error effectively by maintaining the equilibrium between the two additional nudging terms in the prognostic equations in the buffer zone, whereas both the strong nudging scheme and the weak nudging scheme distort the track simulation of the Winnie. It is also found that the simulated weaker west Pacific subtropical high (WPSH), which leads to the turning of the TC ahead of time, is the reason for the track simulation error. A possible approach for reducing track simulation error of TCs is also discussed.

Early Enteral Nutrition and Sepsis-Associated Acute Kidney Injury: A Propensity Score Matched Cohort Study Based on the MIMIC-III Database

Jun Wang,Li Jiang,Sheng Ding,Si-Yi He,Shun-Bi Liu,Zhong-Jie Lu,Yuan-Zhang Liu,Li-Wen Hou,Bin-Su Wang,Jin-Bao Zhang 연세대학교의과대학 2023 Yonsei medical journal Vol.64 No.4

Purpose: We aimed to analyze the optimal timing of enteral nutrition (EN) in the treatment of sepsis and its effect on sepsis-asso ciated acute kidney injury (SA-AKI.)Materials and Methods: The MIMIC-III database was employed to identify patients with sepsis who had received EN. With AKI as the primary outcome variable, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were utilized to calculate the optimal cut-off time of early EN (EEN). Propensity score matching (PSM) was employed to control confounding effects. Logistic regressions and propen sity score-based inverse probability of treatment weighting were utilized to assess the robustness of our findings. Comparisons within the EEN group were performed. Results: 2364 patients were included in our study. With 53 hours after intensive care units (ICU) admission as the cut-off time of EEN according to the ROC curve, 1212 patients were assigned to the EEN group and the other 1152 to the delayed EN group. The risk of SA-AKI was reduced in the EEN group (odds ratio 0.319, 95% confidence interval 0.245–0.413, p<0.001). The EEN patients re ceived fewer volumes (mL) of intravenous fluid (IVF) during their ICU stay (3750 mL vs. 5513.23 mL, p<0.001). The mediating ef fect of IVF was significant (p<0.001 for the average causal mediation effect). No significant differences were found within the EEN group (0–48 hours vs. 48–53 hours), except that patients initiating EN within 48 hours spent fewer days in ICU and hospital. Conclusion: EEN is associated with decreased risk of SA-AKI, and this beneficial effect may be proportionally mediated by IVF volume.