The feasibility of detecting endometrial and ovarian cancer using DNA methylation biomarkers in cervical scrapings

Cheng-Chang Chang,Hui-Chen Wang,Yu-Ping Liao,Yu-Chih Chen,Yu-Chun Weng,Mu-Hsien Yu,Hung-Cheng Lai 대한부인종양학회 2018 Journal of Gynecologic Oncology Vol.29 No.1

Objective: We hypothesized that DNA methylation of development-related genes may occur in endometrial cancer (EC)/ovarian cancer (OC) and may be detected in cervical scrapings. Methods: We tested methylation status by quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction for 14 genes in DNA pools of endometrial and OC tissues. Tissues of EC/normal endometrium, OC/normal ovary, were verified in training set using cervical scrapings of 10 EC/10 OC patients and 10 controls, and further validated in the testing set using independent cervical scrapings in 30 EC/30 OC patients and 30 controls. We generated cutoff values of methylation index (M-index) from cervical scrapings to distinguish between cancer patients and control. Sensitivity/specificity of DNA methylation biomarkers in detecting EC and OC was calculated. Results: Of 14 genes, 4 (PTGDR, HS3ST2, POU4F3, MAGI2) showed hypermethylation in EC and OC tissues, and were verified in training set. POU4F3 and MAGI2 exhibited hypermethylation in training set were validated in independent cases. The mean M-index of POU4F3 is 78.28 in EC and 20.36 in OC, which are higher than that in controls (6.59; p<0.001 and p=0.100, respectively), and that of MAGI2 is 246.0 in EC and 12.2 in OC, which is significantly higher that than in controls (2.85; p<0.001 and p=0.480, respectively). Sensitivity and specificity of POU4F3/MAGI2 were 83%–90% and 69%–75% for detection of EC, and 61% and 62%–69% for the detection of OC. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate the potential of EC/OC detection through testing for DNA methylation in cervical scrapings.

Treatment outcomes of patients with stage II pure endometrioid-type endometrial cancer: a Taiwanese Gynecologic Oncology Group (TGOG-2006) retrospective cohort study

Hung-Chun Fu,Jen-Ruei Chen,Min-Yu Chen,Keng-Fu Hsu,Wen-Fang Cheng,An Jen Chiang,Yu-Min Ke,Yu-Chieh Chen,Yin-Yi Chang,Chia-Yen Huang,Chieh-Yi Kang,Yuan-Yee Kan,Sheng-Mou Hsiao,Ming-Shyen Yen 대한부인종양학회 2018 Journal of Gynecologic Oncology Vol.29 No.5

Objective: Choice of hysterectomy and adjuvant treatment for International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) 2009 stage II endometrioid endometrial cancer (EEC) is still controversial. Aims of this study were to evaluate survival benefits and adverse effects of different hysterectomies with or without adjuvant radiotherapy (RT), and to identify prognostic factors. Methods: The patients at 14 member hospitals of the Taiwanese Gynecologic Oncology Group from 1992 to 2013 were retrospectively investigated. Patients were divided into simple hysterectomy (SH) alone, SH with RT, radical hysterectomy (RH) alone, and RH with RT groups. Endpoints were recurrence-free survival (RFS), overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), adverse effects and prognostic factors for survival. Results: Total of 246 patients were enrolled. The 5-year RFS, OS, DSS and recurrence rates for the entire cohort were 89.5%, 94.3%, 96.2% and 10.2%, respectively. Patients receiving RH had more adverse effects including blood loss (p<0.001), recurrent urinary tract infections (p=0.013), and leg lymphedema (p=0.038). Age over 50-year (HR=9.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2–70.9) and grade 3 histology (HR=7.28; 95% CI, 1.45–36.6) were independent predictors of OS. Grade 3 histology was an independent predictor of RFS (HR=5.13; 95% CI, 1.38–19.1) and DSS (HR=5.97; 95% CI, 1.06–58.7). Patients receiving adjuvant RT had lower locoregional recurrence (p=0.046), but no impact on survival. Conclusion: Different treatment modalities yield similar survival outcomes. Patients receiving SH with RT had lower locoregional recurrent with acceptable morbidity. Age and tumor grading remained significant predictors for survival among patients with FIGO 2009 stage II EEC.

Attenuating Development of Cardiovascular Hypertrophy with Hydrolysate of Chicken Leg Bone Protein in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

Cheng, Fu-Yuan,Wan, Tien-Chun,Liu, Yu-Tse,Lai, Kung-Ming,Lin, Liang-Chuan,Sakata, Ryoichi Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2008 Animal Bioscience Vol.21 No.5

This study developed a natural ingredient as a functional food possessing properties of attenuation of hypertension and cardiovascular hypertrophy. In a previous study hydrolysates obtained from chicken leg bone protein using Alcalase strongly inhibited angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE) in vitro. In particular, hydrolysate (A4H) from four hours of incubation exhibited the highest ACE inhibitory activity (IC50 = 0.545 mg/ml). A4H was selected as a potent ACE inhibitor and orally administrated to spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) for eight weeks to investigate attenuating effects on age-related development of hypertension and cardiovascular hypertrophy. Results showed that treatment with A4H of SHRs attenuated the development of hypertension as effectively as the clinical antihypertensive drug captopril. Moreover, a significantly lower heart to body weight ratio and thinness of coronary arterial wall was observed in SHRs that had been treated with A4H or captopril. The results suggest that A4H can be utilized in developing an ACE inhibitor as a potential ingredient of functional foods to alleviate hypertension and cardiovascular hypertrophy.

Korean-Chinese Person Name Translation for Cross Language Information Retrieval

( Yu Chun Wang ),( Yi Hsun Lee ),( Chu Cheng Lin ) 한국언어정보학회 2007 학술대회 논문집 Vol.2007 No.-

Named entity translation plays an important role in many applications, such as information retrieval and machine translation. In this paper, we focus on translating person names, the most common type of name entity in Korean-Chinese cross language information retrieval (KCIR). Unlike other languages, Chinese uses characters (ideographs), which makes person name translation difficult because one syllable may map to several Chinese characters. We propose an effective hybrid person name translation method to improve the performance of KCIR. First, we use Wikipedia as a translation tool based on the inter-language links between the Korean edition and the Chinese or English editions. Second, we adopt the Naver people search engine to find the query name``s Chinese or English translation. Third, we extract Korean-English transliteration pairs from Google snippets, and then search for the English-Chinese transliteration in the database of Taiwan``s Central News Agency or in Google. The performance of KCIR using our method is over five times better than that of a dictionary-based system. The mean average precision is 0.3490 and the average recall is 0.7534. The method can deal with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, as well as non-CJK person name translation from Korean to Chinese. Hence, it substantially improves the performance of KCIR.

Professionals’ experiences and attitudes toward use of Traditional Chinese Medicine in hospice palliative inpatient care units: A multicenter survey in Taiwan

Yu-Jia Lin,Hsiao-Ting Chang,Ming-Hwai Lin,Ru-Yih Chen,Ping-Jen Chen,Wen-Yuan Lin,Jyh-Gang Hsieh,Ying-Wei Wang,Chung-Chieh Hu,Yi-Sheng Liou,Tai-Yuan Chiu,Chun-Yi Tu,Yi-Jen Wang,Bo-Ren Cheng,Tzeng-Ji Ch 한국한의학연구원 2021 Integrative Medicine Research Vol.10 No.2

Background: Medical staff may have difficulties in using conventional medicine to manage symptoms among terminally ill patients, including adverse effects of the treatment. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is regarded as a complementary or alternative medicine, and has been increasingly used in the field of palliative medicine in recent years. This study aimed to investigate the experiences of and attitudes toward using TCM among palliative care professionals, and to provide preliminary information about its use in palliative care. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey study conducted in eight inpatient hospice wards in Taiwan between December 2014 and February 2016. The questionnaire was self-administered, and was analyzed with descriptive statistics including Pearson’s Chi-square test and Fisher’s exact test. Results: A total of 251 palliative care professionals responded to the questionnaire, of whom 89.7% and 88.9% believed that the use of TCM could improve the physical symptoms and quality of life in terminally ill patients, respectively. Overall, 59.8%, of respondents suggested that TCM had rare side effects, and 58.2% were worried that TCM could affect the liver and kidney function of patients. In total, 89.7% and 88.0% of professionals agreed there were no suitable clinical practice guidelines and educational programs, respectively, for TCM use in palliative care. Conclusions: Most of the respondents agreed there was insufficient knowledge, skills-training, and continuing education on the use of TCM in terminally ill patients in Taiwan. These results show that to address patient safety considerations, guidelines about use of TCM in palliative care should be established.

Nonvolatile Transistor Memory Devices Based on Nanostructured Polymeric Materials

Yu-Cheng Chiu,Chien-Chung Shih,Wen-Ya Lee,Hsuan-Chun Chang,Ying-Hsuan Chou,Wen-Chang Chen 한국고분자학회 2015 한국고분자학회 학술대회 연구논문 초록집 Vol.2015 No.10

Comparing U. S. and Taiwanese Pre-service Teachers` Solving Triangular Arithmagons

( Cheng Yao Lin ),( Yu Chun Kuo ) 한국수학교육학회 2015 수학교육연구 Vol.19 No.2

The study investigated pre-service teachers’ knowledge and computational skills by using Triangular Arithmagon. Participants included 90 pre-service teachers from two schools in the United States and Taiwan. The Triangular Arithmagons Test (TAT) was used to measure pre-service teachers’ performance in whole number, fractions, and decimals operations (i.e., addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), each of which included level-1 (basic) and level-2 (advanced) tests. MANOVA analysis was performed to compare the performance between teachers from the United States and Taiwan. Results indicated that overall, pre-service teachers in Taiwan outperformed those in the United States, especially on the advanced-level tests. Pre-service teachers in the United States were found to have poor ability of solving complex operation problems. Different curriculum plans and teaching methods may lead to the performance gap between the two countries.

Fumigaclavine C attenuates adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and ameliorates lipid accumulation in high-fat diet-induced obese mice

Yu, Wan-Guo,He, Yun,Chen, Yun-Fang,Gao, Xiao-Yao,Ning, Wan-E,Liu, Chun-You,Tang, Ting-Fan,Liu, Quan,Huang, Xiao-Cheng The Korean Society of Pharmacology 2019 The Korean Journal of Physiology & Pharmacology Vol.23 No.3

Fumigaclavine C (FC), an active indole alkaloid, is obtained from endophytic Aspergillus terreus (strain No. FC118) by the root of Rhizophora stylosa (Rhizophoraceae). This study is designed to evaluate whether FC has anti-adipogenic effects in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and whether it ameliorates lipid accumulation in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice. FC notably increased the levels of glycerol in the culture supernatants and markedly reduced lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. FC differentially inhibited the expressions of adipogenesis-related genes, including the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor proteins, CCAAT/enhancer-binding proteins, and sterol regulatory element-binding proteins. FC markedly reduced the expressions of lipid synthesis-related genes, such as the fatty acid binding protein, lipoprotein lipase, and fatty acid synthase. Furthermore, FC significantly increased the expressions of lipolysis-related genes, such as the hormone-sensitive lipase, Aquaporin-7, and adipose triglyceride lipase. In HFD-induced obese mice, intraperitoneal injections of FC decreased both the body weight and visceral adipose tissue weight. FC administration significantly reduced lipid accumulation. Moreover, FC could dose-dependently and differentially regulate the expressions of lipid metabolism-related transcription factors. All these data indicated that FC exhibited anti-obesity effects through modulating adipogenesis and lipolysis.

Fabrication and Study of Novel Piezoresistive Polymer Composites Sensor for 3D Printing Applications

( Yu-yen Chen ),( Cheng-chun Huang ),( Ching-yuan Su ),( Yao-chuan Tsai ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

With the technology development, the technique of 3D printing has gradually matured. The characteristic of 3D printing is that it can print the product directly without another complex process. If the 3D printing could be applied to manufacturing sensor elements, it could be quicker and cheaper for the sensor element fabrication and the sensor forms will be applicable. Piezoresistive effect is a common sensor sensing principle which is through the deformation of the material to cause the resistance changes. In this study, a piezoresistive polymer composites material was developed, which can be manufactured by the photo-curable 3D printing. The different amount of the conductive carbon black (CB) nanoparticles was employed and added into photo-curable resin for obtaining the conductive percolation threshold of the polymer composites and measuring the piezoresistivity of the polymer composites. The conductive percolation threshold is around 1.0~1.5wt%, and the gauge factor of 1.5wt% is 9~17. The gauge factor was found which would decrease with the increasing strains. This study can be applied on fabricating the piezoresistive pressure and tactile sensors which can be used to the agricultural, industrial and various industries.

Performance Analysis of Permanent Magnet Brushless Motors for Mobility Scooters

Yu-Chuan Lu,Ming-Yang Cheng,Chun-Hsien Wu,Wei-Chih Chen,Cheng-Hu Chen 전력전자학회 2011 ICPE(ISPE)논문집 Vol.2011 No.5

Most modern commercial electric scooters are still equipped with the DC brush motor. This type of motor has mechanical structures such as permanent magnet, brush, and commutator. Therefore, it has attractive features, e.g., large start-up torque and easy to control. However, this kind of mechanical commutation often leads to drawbacks such as low power density, low reliability, and poor heat dissipation. In contrast, the Permanent Magnet Brushless Motors (PMBLMs) have advantages such as high efficiency and maintenance free, etc. Hence, the PMBLMs have great potential in becoming the actuators for electric scooters. In this paper, the performance of the PMBLMs with trapezoidal and sinusoidal back-emf waveforms driven by square wave commutation and sinusoidal commutation is investigated. To reduce the cost, low-resolution Hall sensors are used to implement sinusoidal commutation.