The Role of Short Chain Fatty Acids in Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Wenxi Jian,Jiali Wu,Shefeng Zhu,Linying Xin,Chaohui Yu,Zhe Shen 대한소화기 기능성질환∙운동학회 2022 Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility (JNM Vol.28 No.4

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder that is characterized by abdominal pain and disordered bowel habits. The etiology of IBS is multifactorial, including abnormal gut-brain interactions, visceral hypersensitivity, altered colon motility, and psychological factors. Recent studies have shown that the intestinal microbiota and its metabolites short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) may be involved in the pathogenesis of IBS. SCFAs play an important role in the pathophysiology of IBS. We discuss the underlying mechanisms of action of SCFAs in intestinal inflammation and immunity, intestinal barrier integrity, motility, and the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Limited to previous studies, further studies are required to investigate the mechanisms of action of SCFAs in IBS and provide more precise therapeutic strategies for IBS.

Single-Level Cervical Artificial Disc Replacement Compared with Cage Screw Implants: 2-Year Clinical and Radiological Outcomes Especially Adjacent Level Ossification

Evan Teo Yu Ze,Yen Joshua Wong Rui,Seow Dexter,Jiali Corin Chen,Kumar Laranya,Baskar Sangeetha,Liang Shen,Kumar Naresh 대한척추외과학회 2023 Asian Spine Journal Vol.17 No.4

Study Design: Retrospective single-center, single-surgeon cohort study.Purpose: Our goal was to compare the 2-year clinical and radiological results of artificial disc replacement (ADR) and cage screw (CS) implants in patients with cervical degenerative disc disease (DDD).Overview of Literature: Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion with CS implants are an acceptable alternative to traditional cageplate construct due to perceived decreased complications of dysphagia. However, patients may experience adjacent segment disease because of increased motion and intradiscal pressure. ADR is an alternative to restore the physiological kinematics of the operated disc. Few studies directly compare ADR and CS construct for their efficacy.Methods: Patients who received single-level ADR or CS between January 2008 and December 2018 were included. Data collected was preoperatively, intraoperatively, and postoperatively (6, 12, 24 months). Demographic information, surgical information, complications, follow-up surgery, and outcome ratings (Japanese Orthopaedic Association [JOA], Neck Disability Index [NDI], Visual Analog Scale [VAS] neck and arm, 36-item Short Form Health Survey [SF-36], EuroQoL-5 Dimension [EQ-5D]) were gathered. The radiological assessment included motion segment height, adjacent disc height, lordosis, cervical lordosis, T1 slope, the sagittal vertical axis C2–7, and adjacent level ossification development (ALOD).Results: Fifty-eight patients were included (ADR: 37 and CS: 21). At 6 months, both groups’ JOA, VAS, NDI, SF-36, and EQ-5D scores significantly improved, and the positive trends persisted at 2 years. Noted no significant difference in the enhancement of clinical scores except for the VAS arm (ADR: 5.95 vs. CS: 3.43, <i>p</i> =0.001). Radiological parameters were comparable except for the progression of ALOD of the subjacent disc (ADR: 29.7% vs. CS: 66.9%, <i>p</i> =0.02). No significant difference in adverse events or severe complications seen.Conclusions: ADR and CS obtain good clinical results for symptomatic single-level cervical DDD. ADR demonstrated a significant advantage over CS in the improvement of VAS arm and reduced progression of ALOD of the adjacent lower disc. No statistically significant difference of dysphonia or dysphagia between the two groups were seen, attributed to their comparable zero profile.

Performance Analysis and Power Allocation for NOMA-assisted Cloud Radio Access Network

( Fangcheng Xu ),( Xiangbin Yu ),( Weiye Xu ),( Jiali Cai ) 한국인터넷정보학회 2021 KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Syst Vol.15 No.3

With the assistance of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), the spectrum efficiency and the number of users in cloud radio access network (CRAN) can be greatly improved. In this paper, the system performance of NOMA-assisted CRAN is investigated. Specially, the outage probability (OP) and ergodic sum rate (ESR), are derived for performance evaluation of the system, respectively. Based on this, by minimizing the OP of the system, a suboptimal power allocation (PA) scheme with closed-form PA coefficients is proposed. Numerical simulations validate the accuracy of the theoretical results, where the derived OP has more accuracy than the existing one. Moreover, the developed PA scheme has superior performance over the conventional fixed PA scheme but has smaller performance loss than the optimal PA scheme using the exhaustive search method.

The enhancement of oxygen sensitivity of ZnO macropore film by functionalizing with azo pigment

Peng, Liang,Zhai, Jiali,Wang, Dejun,Zhang, Yu,Zhao, Qidong,Wang, Ping,Pang, Shan,Fan, Zhiyong,Xie, Tengfeng Korean Society of Photoscience 2009 Photochemical & photobiological sciences Vol.8 No.6

Azo-ZnO hybrid films were prepared by functionalizing the ZnO macropore films with azo pigment (1,1'-(biphenyl-4,4'-diylbis(diazene-2,1-diyl))dinaphthalen-2-ol). Scanning electronic microscopy, current-voltage, UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy and Kelvin probe were used to characterize these films. The oxygen sensing characteristics of hybrid films and pure ZnO film were measured under the irradiation of UV light. The results show that the sensitivity of hybrid film is about 500 times higher than that of pure ZnO film. The high sensitivity to oxygen of hybrid films is mainly attributed to the increasing of the photo-generated electron concentration. Enhanced photo-induced charge separation after functionalization is confirmed by the pattern of transient photovoltage. Our results demonstrate that the functionalization with azo pigment is a promising approach to enhance the oxygen sensitivity of ZnO under the irradiation of UV light.

Study on Properties of Expansive Soil Improved by Steel Slag Powder and Cement under Freeze-Thaw Cycles

Yankai Wu,Xiaolong Qiao,Xinbao Yu,Jiali Yu,Yongfeng Deng 대한토목학회 2021 KSCE JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING Vol.25 No.2

Expansive soil is considered to be an unfavorable soil due to its swelling-shrinking behavior. In order to improve the properties of expansive soil, the addition of steel slag powder (SSP) has been used to improve expansive soil that has been mixed with the cement. In this study, a series of cylindrical improved expansive soil specimens were prepared, which were improved either by the addition of cement, cement SSP, or cement SSP sodium hydroxide (NaOH). All of the specimens were prepared with an optimum water content and then subjected to a maximum of 12 closed-system freeze-thaw (F-T) cycles. The specimens were subjected to different curing times and temperatures (-5oC,-10oC and -15oC) during the tests. After each freeze-thaw (F-T) cycle, the volume of each specimen was measured and an unconfined compression strength (UCS) test was performed. The results have shown that as the temperature of the F-T cycle decreased, the volume expansion rate increased with the increase of the length of the F-T cycle. As the curing time increased, the effect of the F-T cycles on the volume change rate of the specimens reduced and the UCS increased. The first F-T cycle had the greatest influence on the volume of the specimen as well as the UCS of the improved expansive soil. After the improved expansive soils had undergone more than eight F-T cycles, the volume change rate of the specimen tended to stabilize. The maximum F-T volume change rate of the improved soil was 1.93%.When the curing age was 60d and 90d, the strength of the specimen with cement SSP sodium hydroxide was 377.3 kPa and 294.7 kPa higher than the specimen with cement only (ES specimen), and its strength degradation rate was 18.737% and 9.97% lower than the ES specimen. The results have shown that the addition of SSP and cement improved the expansive soil; moreover, NaOH inhibited the degradation of the soil during an F-T cycle.