Which Indicator Among Lumbar Vertebral Hounsfield Unit, Vertebral Bone Quality, or Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry-Measured Bone Mineral Density Is More Efficacious in Predicting Thoracolumbar Fragility Fractures?

Bo Zhang,Lu-Ping Zhou,Xian-Liang Zhang,Dui Li,Jia-Qi Wang,Chong-Yu Jia,Hua-Qing Zhang,Liang Kang,Ren-Jie Zhang,Cai-Liang Shen 대한척추신경외과학회 2023 Neurospine Vol.20 No.4

Objective: Hounsfield units (HU), vertebral bone quality (VBQ), and bone mineral density (BMD) can all serve as predictive indicators for thoracolumbar fragility fractures. This study aims to explore which indicator provides better risk prediction for thoracolumbar fragility fractures. Methods: Patients who have received medical attention from The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University for thoracolumbar fragility fractures were selected. A total of 78 patients with thoracolumbar fragility fractures were included in the study. To establish a control group, 78 patients with degenerative spinal diseases were matched to the fracture group on the basis of gender, age, and body mass index. The lumbar vertebral HU, the VBQ, and the BMD were obtained for all the 156 patients through computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). The correlations among these parameters were analyzed. The area under curve (AUC) analysis was employed to assess the predictive efficacy and thresholds of lumbar vertebral HU, VBQ, and BMD in relation to the risk of thoracolumbar fragility fractures. Results: Among the cohort of 156 patients, lumbar vertebral HU exhibited a positive correlation with BMD (p < 0.01). Conversely, VBQ showed a negative correlation with HU, BMD (p < 0.05). HU and BMD displayed a favorable predictive efficacy for thoracolumbar fragility fractures (p < 0.01), with HU (AUC = 0.863) showcasing the highest predictive efficacy, followed by the DEXA-measured BMD (AUC = 0.813). VBQ (AUC = 0.602) ranked lowest among the 3 indicators. The thresholds for predicting thoracolumbar fragility fractures were as follows: HU (88),VBQ (3.37), and BMD (0.81). Conclusion: All 3 of these indicators, HU, VBQ, and BMD, can predict thoracolumbar fragility fractures. Notably, lumbar vertebral HU exhibits the highest predictive efficacy, followed by the BMD obtained through DEXA scanning, with VBQ demonstrating the lowest predictive efficacy.

Effects of photoperiod on nutrient digestibility, hair follicle activity and cashmere quality in Inner Mongolia white cashmere goats

Chong Zhi Zhang,Hai Zhou Sun,Sheng Li Li,Dan Sang,Chun Hua Zhang,Lu Jin,Marco Antonini,Cun Fa Zhao 아세아·태평양축산학회 2019 Animal Bioscience Vol.32 No.4

Objective: This study investigated the effects of photoperiod on nutrient digestibility, hair follicle (HF) activity and cashmere quality in Inner Mongolia white cashmere goats. Methods: Twenty-four female (non-pregnant) Inner Mongolia white cashmere goats aged 1 to 1.5 years old with similar live weights (mean, 20.36±2.63 kg) were randomly allocated into two groups: a natural daily photoperiod group (NDPP group:10 to 16 h light, n = 12) and a short daily photoperiod group (SDPP group: 7 h light:17 h dark, n = 12). All the goats were housed in individual pens and fed the same diets from May 15 to October 15, 2015. The digestibility of crude protein (CP), dry matter (DM), and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) were measured in different months, along with secondary hair follicle (SHF) activity, concentration of melatonin (MEL), and cashmere quality. Results: Although there was no significant difference in the live weights of goats between the SDPP and NDPP groups (p>0.05), the CP digestibility of goats in the SDPP group was significantly increased compared to the NDPP group in July, September, and October (p<0.05). For the DM and NDF digestibility of goats, a significant increase (p<0.05) was found during in September in the SDPP group. Furthermore, compared to the NDPP group, the SHF activity in July, the MEL concentration in July, and the cashmere fiber length and fiber weight in October were significantly increased in the SDPP group (p<0.05). Conclusion: The cashmere production of Inner Mongolia white cashmere goats was increased without obvious deleterious effects on the cashmere fibers in the SDPP group (metabolizable energy, 8.34 MJ/kg; CP, 11.16%; short daily photoperiod, 7 h light:17 h dark).

FACS-seq as a Powerful Tool for Profiling the Dose-response Curves of Biosensors in a Massively Parallel Manner

Chong ZHANG 한국생물공학회 2021 한국생물공학회 학술대회 Vol.2021 No.4

Living organisms have a variety of mechanisms to sense and respond to the environmental signals by dynamically regulating their genetic expression networks. Harnessing this ability, genetically encoded biosensors, mimicking natural regulation networks by assembling basic biological parts like promoter, ribosome binding site, operator, reporter etc. into genetic circuit, are developed to recognize the analytes and transduce their signals to a measurable output. Dose-response curve, mapping the genetic circuits to their function, shapes how individual biosensors respond to the specific signals, which is crucial not only for the specific usage scenario of genetic encoded biosensor, but also for illustrating their regulatory functions in living cells. In this report, we would like show our recent attempts on the application of a dose-response profiling method, namely fluorescence-activated cell sorting coupled with next-generation sequencing (FACS-seq), in generating accurate dose-response curves for thousands of biosensors in a massively parallel manner, which provides a powerful platform for dissecting the mechanistic basis of the regulatory elements in living cells, and for the fine tuning of biosensors in a customized and low-cost manner. As the first example, we focused on tnaC, which encodes the tryptophan operon leader peptide in bacteria and is a model of macromolecular-machinery-dynamics-dependent regulatory elements. Working as a molecular sensor, tnaC responds to intracellular tryptophan (Trp) and regulates the biosynthesis of indol. We used FACS-seq to generate accurate response curves for all possible codon substitutions in tnaC. The FACS-seq results allowed us to generate comprehensive genotype-phenotype maps for 1,450 tnaC variants in living cells. The results clarified the nature of several transient, previously enigmatic states involving RNAP and the ribosome, and these states play important roles in the tnaC sensor response. Using in silico modeling and additional experiment, we further demonstrated the molecular basis of the quantitative relation between basal and inductive response, as well as the range of detection of the sensor. In the second example, we developed a novel biological parts assembly workflow to encode genetic circuits with short DNA barcodes, which make sure one-to-one correspondence of the barcodes and biological parts combinations, enabling high-throughput generation of dose-response curves of higher-order combinatorial biosensor space. As a proof of concept, we applied our novel workflow for the fine-tuning of the dose-response curve of malonyl-CoA biosensor based on FapR-fapO system in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. With our 5-step encoding workflow, a trackable combinatorial library contained 5155/5184 combinations with 6 levels of TF dosage, 4 different operator positions, and 216 possible UAS designs, was constructed. FACS-seq successfully characterized the response curve of 2,632 biosensors out of 5184 combinations, providing large-scale genotype-phenotype association data of the designed biosensors. Machine-learning algorithms were then developed to predict uncharacterized dose-response curves and identify key features in the whole combinatorial library, generating a panoramic scanning map of the combinatorial space. With the assistance of our novel workflow, 3755 dose-response curves were obtained at a cost of $1.37 per curve, and a malonyl-CoA biosensor with the largest dynamic response range reported so far was successfully acquired.

Centrifuge Modelling and Analysis of Ground Reaction of High-speed Railway Embankments over Medium Compressibility Ground

Chong-lei Zhang,Guan-lu Jiang,Xian-feng Liu,Li-jun Su 대한토목학회 2018 KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering Vol.22 No.12

The objective of this study is to verify the feasibility of using centrifugal model tests to characterize the ground reaction response of a high-speed railway embankment to predict its ground settlement. To do so, a series of Centrifugal Model Tests (CMTs) of the embankment were performed to investigate the variation of ground reaction and corresponding derived modulus at different embankment ratios. The ground reaction determined from the CMTs was compared with those obtained from corresponding fullscale field tests of instrumented embankment. The results show that the ground reaction at the embankment centreline gradually approaches the embankment weight (γH) with increasing embankment ratio. Considering the embankment filling process with different embankment ratios, it seems inappropriate to employ the value of γH as the ground reaction without any correction in settlement prediction. Finally, the predictive capability of the proposed approach for embankment settlement estimation was assessed against the corresponding field measurements and those determined based on the calculation methods suggested in the current design standard in China. The results show that the proposed simple approach satisfactorily estimates the ground settlement of HSR embankments and its deviation of predicted settlements is below 11.9% compared with the data obtained from the field full-scale tests. However, the deviation of the result calculated by the current recommend design standard is 17.7%-148.3%.

九鼎설화의 흐름과 중국 전통문화(번역문)

Zhang Chong 숭실사학회 2010 숭실사학 Vol.25 No.-

Hybrid discretization method for time-delay nonlinear systems

Zhang, Zheng,Kostyukova, Olga,Zhang, Yuanliang,Chong, Kil-To 대한기계학회 2010 JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Vol.24 No.3

A hybrid discretization scheme that combines the virtues of the Taylor series and Matrix exponential integration methods is proposed. In the algorithm, each sampling time interval is divided into two subintervals to be considered according to the time delay and sampling period. The algorithm is not too expensive computationally and lends itself to be easily inserted into large simulation packages. The mathematical structure of the new discretization scheme is explored and described in detail. The performance of the proposed discretization procedure is evaluated by employing case studies. Various input signals, sampling rates, and time-delay values are considered to test the proposed method. The results demonstrate that the proposed discretization scheme is better than previous Taylor series method for nonlinear time-delay systems, especially when a large sampling period is inevitable.

Ginseng berry polysaccharides on infl ammation-associated colon cancer: inhibiting T-cell differentiation, promoting apoptosis, and enhancing the effects of 5-fl uorouracil

Chong-Zhi Wang,Lifei Hou,Jin-Yi Wan,Haiqiang Yao,Jinbin Yuan,Jinxiang Zeng,Chan Woong Park,Su Hwan Kim,Dae Bang Seo,Kwang-Soon Shin,Chun-Feng Zhang,Lina Chen,Qi-Hui Zhang,Zhi Liu,Clara Sava-Segal,Chun 고려인삼학회 2020 Journal of Ginseng Research Vol.44 No.2

Background: Ginseng is a commonly used herbal medicine in treating various medical conditions. Chronic gut inflammation is a recognized factor for the development of colorectal cancer (CRC). In thisproject, Asian ginseng berry polysaccharide preparations were used to assess their effects on CRC andrelated immune regulation mechanisms. Methods: Ginseng berry polysaccharide extract (GBPE) and purified ginseng berry polysaccharideportion (GBPP) were used to evaluate their activities on human HCT-116 and HT-29 CRC cell proliferation. Interleukin-8 secretion analysis was performed on HT-29 cells. Naive CD4 cell isolation and T-helper celldifferentiation were performed and determined using flow cytometry for Th1 and Treg in addition to cellcycle and apoptotic investigation. Results: GBPE and GBPP significantly inhibited interleukin-8 secretion and cancer cell proliferation,inhibited CD4þIFN-gþ cell (Th1) differentiation, and decreased CD4þFoxP3þ cell (Treg) differentiation. Compared to the GBPE, GBPP showed more potent antiinflammatory activities on the malignant cells. This is consistent with the observation that GBPP can also inhibit Th1-cell differentiation better, suggestingthat it has an important role in antiinflammation, whereas Treg cells hinder the body’s immuneresponse against malignancies. Supported by cell cycle and apoptosis data, GBPE and GBPP, at variousdegrees, remarkably enhanced the anticancer activities of 5-fluorouracil. Conclusion: Data from this project suggested that Asian ginseng berry potentially has clinical utility inmanaging enteric inflammation and suppressing CRC through immunomodulation mechanisms.

Determination of Survival of Gastric Cancer Patients With Distant Lymph Node Metastasis Using Prealbumin Level and Prothrombin Time: Contour Plots Based on Random Survival Forest Algorithm on High-Dimensionality Clinical and Laboratory Datasets

Zhang, Cheng,Xie, Minmin,Zhang, Yi,Zhang, Xiaopeng,Feng, Chong,Wu, Zhijun,Feng, Ying,Yang, Yahui,Xu, Hui,Ma, Tai The Korean Gastric Cancer Association 2022 Journal of gastric cancer Vol.22 No.2

Purpose: This study aimed to identify prognostic factors for patients with distant lymph node-involved gastric cancer (GC) using a machine learning algorithm, a method that offers considerable advantages and new prospects for high-dimensional biomedical data exploration. Materials and Methods: This study employed 79 features of clinical pathology, laboratory tests, and therapeutic details from 289 GC patients whose distant lymphadenopathy was presented as the first episode of recurrence or metastasis. Outcomes were measured as any-cause death events and survival months after distant lymph node metastasis. A prediction model was built based on possible outcome predictors using a random survival forest algorithm and confirmed by 5×5 nested cross-validation. The effects of single variables were interpreted using partial dependence plots. A contour plot was used to visually represent survival prediction based on 2 predictive features. Results: The median survival time of patients with GC with distant nodal metastasis was 9.2 months. The optimal model incorporated the prealbumin level and the prothrombin time (PT), and yielded a prediction error of 0.353. The inclusion of other variables resulted in poorer model performance. Patients with higher serum prealbumin levels or shorter PTs had a significantly better prognosis. The predicted one-year survival rate was stratified and illustrated as a contour plot based on the combined effect the prealbumin level and the PT. Conclusions: Machine learning is useful for identifying the important determinants of cancer survival using high-dimensional datasets. The prealbumin level and the PT on distant lymph node metastasis are the 2 most crucial factors in predicting the subsequent survival time of advanced GC.

Cyanidin-3-Glucoside-Rich Extract from Chinese Bayberry Fruit Protects Pancreatic b Cells and Ameliorates Hyperglycemia in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Mice

Chong-De Sun,Bo Zhang,Jiu-Kai Zhang,Chang-Jie Xu,Yu-Lian Wu,Xian Li,Kun-Song Chen 한국식품영양과학회 2012 Journal of medicinal food Vol.15 No.3

Chinese bayberry fruit is a rich source of anthocyanins, especially cyanidin-3-glucoside (C3G). The present study investigated the protective effects of C3G-rich bayberry fruit extract (CRBFE) against pancreatic b cells against oxidative stress–induced injury as well as its hypoglycemic effect in diabetic mice. Bayberry extract from ‘‘Biqi’’ was used for both in vitro and in vivo testing because of its high C3G content and high antioxidant capacity. Pretreatment of b cells with CRBFE (containing 0.5 lmol/L C3G) prevented cell death, increased cellular viability, and decreased mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production and cell necrosis induced by 800 or 1200 lmol/L H2O2. CRBFE dose-ependently up-regulated pancreatic duodenal homeobox 1 gene expression, contributing to increased insulin-like growth factor II gene transcript levels and insulin protein in INS-1 cells. In addition, adminitration of CRBFE (150 lg of C3G/10 g of body weight twice per day)significantly reduced blood glucose in streptozotocin-induced diabetic ICR mice and increased the glucose tolerance in an oral glucose tolerance test (P < .05). Such results indicated that CRBFE might be useful in prevention and control of diabetes mellitus and diabetes-associated complications.

Time-Discretization of Delayed Multi-Input Nonlinear System Using A new algorithm

Zhang Qiang(장강),Zheng Zhang(장정),Sung Jung Kim(김성중),Kil To Chong(정길도) 대한전기학회 2007 정보 및 제어 심포지엄 논문집 Vol.2007 No.4