Experimental Evaluation of Accelerated T1rho Relaxation Quantification in Human Liver Using Limited Spin-Lock Times

Feng Zhao,Min Deng,Jing Yuan,Gao-Jun Teng,Anil T Ahuja,Yi-Xiang J. Wang 대한영상의학회 2012 Korean Journal of Radiology Vol.13 No.6

Objective: It was reported lately that to obtain consistent liver T1rho measurement, at 3T MRI using six spin-lock times (SLTs), is feasible. In this study, the feasibility of using three or two SLT points to measure liver T1rho relaxation time was explored. Materials and Methods: Seventeen healthy volunteers underwent 36 examinations. Three representative axial slices were selected to cut through the upper, middle, and lower liver. A rotary echo spin-lock pulse was implemented in a 2D fast field echo sequence. Spin-lock frequency was 500 Hz and the spin-lock times of 1, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 milliseconds (ms) were used for T1rho mapping. T1rho maps were constructed by using all 6 SLT points, three SLT points of 1, 20, and 50 ms, or two SLTs of 1 and 50 ms, respectively. Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and Bland and Altman plot were used to assess the measurement agreement. Results: Two examinations were excluded, due to motion artifact at the SLT of 50 ms. With the remaining 34 examinations, the ICC for 6-SLT vs. 3-SLT T1rho measurements was 0.922, while the ICC for 6-SLT vs. 2-SLT T1rho measurement was 0.756. The Bland and Altman analysis showed a mean difference of 0.19 (95% limits of agreement: -1.34, 1.73) for 6-SLT vs. 3-SLT T1rho measurement, and the mean difference of 0.89 (95% limits of agreement: -1.67, 3.45) for 6-SLT vs. 2-SLT T1rho measurement. The scan re-scan reproducibility ICC (n = 11 subjects) was 0.755, 0.727, and 0.528 for 6-SLT measurement, 3-SLT measurement, and 2-SLT measurement, respectively. Conclusion: Adopting 3 SLTs of 1, 20, and 50 ms can be an acceptable alternative for the liver T1rho measurement, while 2 SLTs of 1 and 50 ms do not provide reliable measurement. Objective: It was reported lately that to obtain consistent liver T1rho measurement, at 3T MRI using six spin-lock times (SLTs), is feasible. In this study, the feasibility of using three or two SLT points to measure liver T1rho relaxation time was explored. Materials and Methods: Seventeen healthy volunteers underwent 36 examinations. Three representative axial slices were selected to cut through the upper, middle, and lower liver. A rotary echo spin-lock pulse was implemented in a 2D fast field echo sequence. Spin-lock frequency was 500 Hz and the spin-lock times of 1, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 milliseconds (ms) were used for T1rho mapping. T1rho maps were constructed by using all 6 SLT points, three SLT points of 1, 20, and 50 ms, or two SLTs of 1 and 50 ms, respectively. Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and Bland and Altman plot were used to assess the measurement agreement. Results: Two examinations were excluded, due to motion artifact at the SLT of 50 ms. With the remaining 34 examinations, the ICC for 6-SLT vs. 3-SLT T1rho measurements was 0.922, while the ICC for 6-SLT vs. 2-SLT T1rho measurement was 0.756. The Bland and Altman analysis showed a mean difference of 0.19 (95% limits of agreement: -1.34, 1.73) for 6-SLT vs. 3-SLT T1rho measurement, and the mean difference of 0.89 (95% limits of agreement: -1.67, 3.45) for 6-SLT vs. 2-SLT T1rho measurement. The scan re-scan reproducibility ICC (n = 11 subjects) was 0.755, 0.727, and 0.528 for 6-SLT measurement, 3-SLT measurement, and 2-SLT measurement, respectively. Conclusion: Adopting 3 SLTs of 1, 20, and 50 ms can be an acceptable alternative for the liver T1rho measurement, while 2 SLTs of 1 and 50 ms do not provide reliable measurement.

Effects of Age, Breast Density and Volume on Breast Cancer Diagnosis: A Retrospective Comparison of Sensitivity of Mammography and Ultrasonography in China's Rural Areas

Wang, Feng-Liang,Chen, Fei,Yin, Hong,Xu, Nan,Wu, Xiao-Xiang,Ma, Jing-Jing,Gao, Shen,Tang, Jin-Hai,Lu, Cheng Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.4

Purpose: Mammography has been confirmed as the only effective mode to improve the prognosis of patients with breast cancer in Western developed countries, but might not be a good choice in other areas of the world. One of the major challenges in China is to determine an optimal imaging modality for breast cancer screening. This study was designed to clarify the sensitivity of ultrasonography compared with that of mammography in rural China. Methods: We retrospectively studied the sensitivity of mammography and ultrasonography based on 306 breast cancer patients detected by the program of "screening for cervical cancer and breast cancer" performed in Chinese rural areas between January 2009 and December 2011, and analyzed the effects of age, breast density and volume on the sensitivity. Results: Stratified analysis showed that the sensitivity of breast ultrasonography was significantly higher than that of mammography in premenopausal patients (81.4% vs. 61.1%, p=0.02), in women ${\leq}$ 55 years of age (82.2% vs. 63.4%, p<0.01), in the high breast density group (American College of Radiology [ACR] levels 3-4) (85.9% vs. 60.6%, p<0.01) and in the small breast volume group (${\leq}$ 400 ml) (87.1% vs. 66.7%, p<0.01). Age had a significant effect on sensitivity of mammography (breast density and volume-adjusted odds ratio, 6.39; 95% confidence interval, 2.8-14.4 in age group > 55 compared to age group ${\leq}$ 45), but not that of ultrasonography. Neither breast density nor volume had significant effect on sensitivity of mammography or ultrasonography. Conclusions: Ultrasonography is more sensitive than mammography in detecting breast cancer in women under 55 year-old Chinese, especially in those with high-density and relatively small breasts.

Rice Production, Consumption and Trading in China (초)

( De Feng Zhu ),( Yu Ping Zhang ),( Jing Xiang ) 한국식품저장유통학회 ( 구 한국농산물저장유통학회 ) 2010 한국식품저장유통학회 학술대회 Vol.2010 No.-

China is the largest rice production country in the world. Chinese rice planting stands for 18.7 % of world rice planting area and contributes 28.5% of world rice production. Rice is a staple food in China. Its planting area and production stands for 27% and 38% of grain crops in China respectively. About 60% of the Chinese population lives on rice. Due to the decreasing rice area in the south, percentage of rice production in national grain production is decreasing in recent decades. Rice planting method is shifting from hand transplanting to labor saving planting methods, including seedling throwing, direct seeding and machine transplanting. Hybrid rice covers more than 55% of rice area. Average rice consumption per capita is 65.9 kg in the northeast and 120.9 in the south in the period from 2003 to 2009. In recent years, rice consumption per capita is decreasing by 3.3% in the northeast and 2.8% in the south annually. On the whole, the rice production in China will be sufficient to meet the consumption demand of the population in urban and rural areas. But there still exists a certain gap between the current production and domestic potential demand of quality rice in China, which will provide a great potential for rice trade. China imports and exports rice. Annual import rice is about 0.41 million ton and export 1.27million ton during the period from 1980 to 2009. Rice variety of import main is good quality rice, such as aromatic rice, while that of export main is Japonica and normal indica rice.

Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Diagnosis of Cerebral Venous Thrombosis : A Meta-Analysis

Lv, Bin,Jing, Feng,Tian, Cheng-lin,Liu, Jian-chao,Wang, Jun,Cao, Xiang-yu,Liu, Xin-feng,Yu, Sheng-yuan The Korean Neurosurgical Society 2021 Journal of Korean neurosurgical society Vol.64 No.3

Objective : A role of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in the diagnosis of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is not well-understood. This study evaluates the effectiveness of DWI in the diagnosis of CVT. Methods : Literature search was conducted in electronic databases for the identification of studies which reported the outcomes of patients subjected to DWI for CVT diagnosis. Random-effects meta-analyses were performed to achieve overall estimates of important diagnostic efficiency indices including hyperintense signal rate, the sensitivity and specificity of DWI in diagnosing CVT, and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of DWI signal areas and surrounding tissue. Results : Nineteen studies (443 patients with 856 CVTs; age 40 years [95% confidence interval (CI), 33 to 43]; 28% males [95% CI, 18 to 38]; symptom onset to DWI time 4.6 days [95% CI, 2.3 to 6.9]) were included. Hyperintense signals on DWI were detected in 40% (95% CI, 26 to 55) of the cases. The sensitivity of DWI for detecting CVT was 22% (95% CI, 11 to 34) but specificity was 98% (95% CI, 95 to 100). ADC values were quite heterogenous in DWI signal areas. However, generally the ADC values were lower in DWI signal areas than in surrounding normal areas (mean difference-0.33×10-3 ㎟/s [95% CI, -0.44 to -0.23]; p<0.00001). Conclusion : DWI has a low sensitivity in detecting CVT and thus has a high risk of missing many CVT cases. However, because of its high specificity, it may have supporting and exploratory roles in CVT diagnosis.

The Influence of Changing PV Array Interconnections under a Non-uniform Irradiance

Ding, Kun,Feng, Li,Qin, Si-Yu,Mao, Jing,Zhang, Jing-Wei,Wang, Xiang,Peng, Tao,Zhai, Quan-Xin The Korean Institute of Power Electronics 2016 JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS Vol.16 No.2

Usually, the output characteristics of a photovoltaic (PV) array are significantly affected by non-uniform irradiance which is caused by ambient obstacles, clouds, orientations, tilts, etc. Some local maximum power points (LMPP) in the current-voltage (I-V) curves of a PV array can result in power losses of the array. However, the output power at the global maximum power point (GMPP) is different in different interconnection schemes in a PV array. Therefore, based on the theoretical analysis and mathematical derivation of different topological structures of a PV array, this paper investigated the output characteristics of dual series PV arrays with different interconnections. The proposed mathematical models were also validated by experimental results. Finally, this paper also concluded that in terms of performance, the total cross tied (TCT) interconnection was not always the optimal structure, especially in a dual series PV array. When one of the PV modules was severely mismatched, the TCT worked worse than the series parallel (SP) structure. This research can provide guidance for switching the interconnection to gain the greatest energy yield in a changeable- structure PV system.

Suppressive Effect of Sinomenine Combined with 5-Fluorouracil on Colon Carcinoma Cell Growth

Zhang, Ji-Xiang,Yang, Zi-Rong,Wu, Dan-Dan,Song, Jia,Guo, Xu-Feng,Wang, Jing,Dong, Wei-Guo Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.16

It is reported that sinomenine (SIN) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) both are effective for colon cancer, but their cooperative suppressive effects and toxicity remain to be clarified in detail. This study aimed to determine suppressive effects and toxicity of sinomenine (SIN) plus 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) on LoVo colon carcinoma cells in vitro and in vivo. CCK-8, Hoechst 33258 staining and an annexin V-FITC/PI apoptosis kit were used to detect suppressive effects. Western blotting was applied to investigate the essential mechanism underlying SIN and 5-FU-induced apoptosis. SIN or 5-FU or both were injected into nude mice, and then suppressive effects and side effects were observed. SIN plus 5-FU apparently inhibited the proliferation of LoVo cells and induced apoptosis. Moreover the united effects were stronger than individually (p<0.05). The results of annexin V-FITC/PI staining and Hoechst 33258 staining showed that the percentage of apoptotic cells induced by SIN and 5-FU combined or alone was significantly higher than the control group (p<0.05). Expression of Bax and Bcl-2 was up-regulated and down-regulated respectively. SIN or 5-FU significantly inhibited effects on the volume of tumour xenografts and their combined suppressive effects were stronger (p<0.05). No obvious side effects were observed. It was apparent that the united effects of SIN and 5-FU on the growth of colorectal carcinoma LoVo cells in vitro and in vivo were superior to those using them individually, and it did not markedly increase the side effects of chemotherapy.

Comprehensive Expression Analysis Suggests Functional Overlapping of Human FOX Transcription Factors in Cancer

Zhang, Ya-Li,Sun, Feng-Ting,Zhang, Ze,Chen, Xiao-Xu,Liu, Ai-Xiang,Pan, Jing-Jing,Peng, Fei,Zhou, Shuai,Sun, Li-Jun Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.23

Forkhead-box (FOX) transcription factors comprise a large gene family that contains more than 50 members in man. Extensive studies have revealed that they not only have functions in control of growth and development, but also play important roles in different diseases, especially in cancer. However, biological functions for most of the members in the FOX family remain unknown. In the present study, the expression of 39 FOX genes in 48 kinds of cancer was mined from the Gene Expression Atlas database of European Bioinformatics Institute. The analysis results showed that some FOX genes demonstrate overlapping expression in various cancers, which suggests particular biological functions. The pleiotropic features of the FOX genes make them excellent candidates in efforts aimed to give medical treatment for cancers at the genetic level. The results also indicated that different FOX genes may have the synergy or antagonistics effects in the same cancers. The study provides clues for further functional analysis of FOX genes, especially for the pleiotropic biological functions and crosstalk of FOX genes in human cancers.

Movement of Rhizobia Inside Tobacco and Lifestyle Alternation from Endophytes to Free-Living Rhizobia on Leaves

( Kui Xian Ji ),( Feng Chi ),( Ming Feng Yang ),( Shi Hua Shen ),( Yu Xiang Jing ),( Frank B. Dazzo ),( Hai Ping Cheng ) 한국미생물 · 생명공학회 2010 Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol.20 No.2

The Influence of Changing PV Array Interconnections under a Non-uniform Irradiance

Kun Ding,Li Feng,Si-Yu Qin,Jing Mao,Jing-Wei Zhang,Xiang Wang,Tao Peng,Quan-Xin Zhai 전력전자학회 2016 JOURNAL OF POWER ELECTRONICS Vol.16 No.2

Usually, the output characteristics of a photovoltaic (PV) array are significantly affected by non-uniform irradiance which is caused by ambient obstacles, clouds, orientations, tilts, etc. Some local maximum power points (LMPP) in the current-voltage (I-V) curves of a PV array can result in power losses of the array. However, the output power at the global maximum power point (GMPP) is different in different interconnection schemes in a PV array. Therefore, based on the theoretical analysis and mathematical derivation of different topological structures of a PV array, this paper investigated the output characteristics of dual series PV arrays with different interconnections. The proposed mathematical models were also validated by experimental results. Finally, this paper also concluded that in terms of performance, the total cross tied (TCT) interconnection was not always the optimal structure, especially in a dual series PV array. When one of the PV modules was severely mismatched, the TCT worked worse than the series parallel (SP) structure. This research can provide guidance for switching the interconnection to gain the greatest energy yield in a changeable- structure PV system.

Expression of Ang-2/Tie-2 and PI3K/AKT in Colorectal Cancer

Zhang, Ji-Hong,Wang, Li-Hua,Li, Xiang-Jun,Wang, Ai-Ping,Reng, Li-Qun,Xia, Feng-Guo,Yang, Zhi-Ping,Jiang, Jing,Wang, Xiao-Dan,Wen, Chun-Yang Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.20

Purpose: To study the expression of angiogenin-2 (Ang-2) and its receptor Tie-2 in colorectal cancer and discuss the possible mechanisms behind this process. Materials and Methods: Using the streptavidin-peroxidase (SP) immunohistochemical method, paraffin sections from 100 colorectal cancer samples and 10 samples from tumor-adjacent normal tissue (> 2 cm from the edge of the gross tumor) were tested for protein expression of Ang-2, Tie-2, PI3K, and AKT. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blots were further used to measure expression of the 4 genes and proteins in 20 freshly-resected colorectal cancer samples and tumor-adjacent normal tissues. Results: In colorectal cancer tissues, the expression of the Ang-2, Tie-2, PI3K, and AKT genes and their proteins was significantly higher than in tumor-adjacent normal tissues. Protein expression in poorly-differentiated adenocarcinoma was higher than that in well and moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma. According to Duke's classification, the protein expression in Stages C and D was significantly higher than that in Stages A and B. In the group with lymphatic metastasis, the protein expression was higher than that without lymphatic metastasis. Conclusions: In colorectal cancer, the expression of the Ang-2, Tie-2, PI3K, and AKT genes and their proteins is markedly higher than those in tumor-adjacent normal tissues. No correlation was observed between protein expression and gender, location, or histologic type. Correlations did exist between protein expression and differentiation level, stage of Duke's classification, and lymphatic metastasis; in colorectal cancer tissues with lower differentiation levels, higher stages of Duke's classification, and lymphatic metastasis, the expression of all 4 proteins was higher. The study of their expression patterns and relationships with aggression and metastasis will provide a valuable experimental foundation for assessing prognosis and targeted therapy of colorectal cancer.