Effects of nitrogen and carbon doping on properties and photocatalytic activity of TiO2-In2O3 composite

Chung-Hsin Wu,Chao-Yin Kuo,Jui-Tai Wu,Pui-Kwan Andy Hong,Chih-Hao Lai,Wei-Yang Chung 한국화학공학회 2015 Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering Vol.32 No.5

TiO2-In2O3 (Ti-In) was synthesized by the sol-gel method and the composite was further doped with nitrogen and carbon to create Ti-In-N and Ti-In-C, respectively. The dye C.I. Reactive Red 2 (RR2) was used a model compound to be subjected to various composites and measured for removal by photocatalytic degradation and adsorption. Ti-In-N possessed a larger mean diameter than Ti-In-C, while the latter possessed a greater anatase content and surface area than the former. After N or C doping, the spectra of corresponding Ti-In-N and Ti-In-C showed absorption edges at longer wavelengths than the parent Ti-In. Ti-N-O and Ti-O-C bonds were found in Ti-In-N and Ti-In-C composites, respectively. Ti-In-N was more effective for RR2 photodegradation than Ti-In-C, and the Ti-In-C removed more RR2 by adsorption than Ti-In-N.

Determination of Geographical Origin of Tea using Near Infrared Spectroscopy

( Tsung-hsin Wu ),( I-chun Tung ),( Han-chun Hsu ),( Suming Chen ),( Chao-yin Tsai ),( Yung-kun Chuang ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

Tea is one of the most consumed beverages in the world. Every tea has its own aroma and flavor characteristics due to geographic differences in environment and climate. Oolong tea, a very popular kind of partial fermentation tea in Taiwan, is generally more expensive and enjoyable. While tea leaves produced from the other countries are generally cheaper and not easily discernible, many stores mainly use cheaper tea leaves which are imported from Vietnam, India, and China, where adulteration and counterfeit may happen in tea market. To date, determination of geographical origin of tea is mainly depends on sensory evaluation, which lacks of objectivity in science. Therefore, determination of geographical origin of tea is necessary. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a rapid and nondestructive analytical method which has become a powerful tool by associating with chemometrics for food industry. In the present study, the quality-related constituents of tea, including total polyphenols, total free amino acids, pH value, and water were evaluated by NIRS with modified partial least square regression (MPLSR). The calibration models built by MPLSR showed satisfied results. For total polyphenols, the results of the calibration model were Rc = 0.983 and SEC = 4.268 mg/g. The results of free amino acids were R_c = 0.913 and SEC = 3.368 mg/g. The results of pH value were R_c = 0.972 and SEC = 0.105. The results of moisture were R_c = 0.969 and SEC = 0.470 %. To identify the geographical origin of tea, the qualitative method of support vector machine (SVM) will also be applied in this study. The SVM result of identify the partially fermented tea origins was achieved and the accuracies for calibration and prediction sets were both 100%. In summary, NIRS associated with chemometrics provides a useful tool for internal quality inspection and origin identification of tea.

Research on Near Infrared Spectroscopy Application for Aflatoxin Testing on Rice

( I-chun Tung ),( Tsung-hsin Wu ),( Han-chun Hsu ),( Suming Chen ),( Chao-yin Tsai ),( Yung-kun Chuang ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

Rice is one of the most important staple food in the world. In many countries, environments with high temperature/humidity may provide favorable conditions for fungal propagation and production of aflatoxins during rice storage. Aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁), one of the secondary metabolites produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, is particularly carcinogenic to humans. People might very likely cause severe illness once rice is contaminated by aflatoxins. Therefore, the objective of this study is to develop a nondestructive method for rapid and accurate detection of the AFB₁ content in rice. In the present study, evaluation of AFB₁ contaminated rice were conducted by using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique with chemometrics. NIR Spectra and the AFB₁ contents of the artificially contaminated rice samples were measured by FOSS NIRS 6500 spectrometer and LC-MS/MS, respectively. Modified partial least square regression (MPLSR), a commonly used multivariate analysis method was then used to build calibration models. In summary, NIRS associated with chemometrics could provide a useful tool for rapid and accurate detection of AFB₁ content in rice.

Integration of Independent Component Analysis with Near Infrared Spectroscopy for Evaluation of Tea Quality

( Yung-kun Chuang ),( Tsung-hsin Wu ),( I-chun Tung ),( Han-chun Hsu ),( Suming Chen ),( Chao-yin Tsai ) 한국농업기계학회 2018 한국농업기계학회 학술발표논문집 Vol.23 No.1

Tea is a widely consumed drink among elderly people in Chinese population. The consumption is growing in different ages because of the founding of many handy-tea-drink stores in Taiwan. However, determination of tea quality is still mainly based on sensory evaluation, which lacks of objectivity in science. Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, a rapid nondestructive inspection method, has been widely applied for evaluation of internal quality of agricultural products. Because an NIR spectrum of a mixture on first approximation is the linear addition of individual spectra of the constituents in the mixture, such a spectrum thus can be regarded as an assembly of ‘blind sources’ as the proportion of constituents in the samples remains unknown. Independent component analysis (ICA), a multiuse statistical approach originally used to implement ‘blind source separation’ in signal processing, is capable of disassembling the mixture’s signals with only a small loss of information and does not require any additional information from the source. To date, ICA has not been applied to analysis of the internal quality of tea. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to examine internal quality of tea in terms of quantitative approaches using NIR spectroscopy combined with ICA technique. The internal quality-related indices of tea, including tea polyphenols (TP), free amino acids (FAA), water, and pH value were evaluated simultaneously. The results show that ICA with NIR has the potential to be adopted as an effective method for evaluating internal quality of tea.

Gender Differences Associated with Pain Characteristics and Treatment in Taiwanese Oncology Outpatients

Liang, Shu-Yuan,Wang, Tsae-Jyy,Wu, Shu-Fang,Chao, Ta-Chung,Chuang, Yeu-Hui,Tsay, Shiow-Luan,Tung, Heng-Hsin,Lee, Ming-Der Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.7

The purpose of this descriptive and comparative study was to examine gender differences relevant to pain intensity, opioid prescription patterns and opioid consumption in Taiwanese oncology outpatients. The 92 participants had been prescribed opioid analgesics for cancer-related pain at least once in the past week and were asked to complete the Brief Pain Inventory - Chinese questionnaire and to recall the dosage of each opioid analgesic that they had ingested within the previous 24 hours. For opioid prescriptions and consumption, all analgesics were converted to morphine equivalents. The results revealed a significant difference between males and female minimum pain thresholds (t = 2.38, p = 0.02) and current pain thresholds (t = 2.12, p = 0.04), with males reporting a higher intensity of pain than females. In addition, this study found that males tended to use prescribed opioid analgesics more frequently than females on the bases of both around the clock (ATC) (t = 1.90, p = 0.06) and ATC plus as needed (ATC + PRN) (t = 2.33, p = 0.02). However, there was no difference between males and females in opioid prescriptions on an ATC basis (t = 0.52, p = 0.60) or at an ATC + PRN basis (t = 0.40, p = 0.69). The results suggest that there may be a gender bias in the treatment of cancer pain, supporting the proposal of routine examination of the effect of gender on cancer pain management. These findings suggest that clinicians should be particularly aware of potential gender differences during pain monitoring and the consumption of prescribed opioid analgesics.

The Application of Nursing Instructor in Teaching Knowledge of Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)

Huang Li-Hua,Teng Ying-Hock,Wu Chao-Hsin 한국간호과학회 2009 한국간호과학회 학술대회 Vol.2009 No.10

Delay of Surgery for Spinal Metastasis due to the COVID-19 Outbreak Affected Patient Outcomes

Chia-Jung Hsieh,Chun-Yu Wu,Yen-Heng Lin,Yu-Cheng Huang,Wen-Chi Yang,Tom Wei-Wu Chen,Wei-Li Ma,Wei-Hsin Lin,Feng-Ming Hsu,Furen Xiao,Shih-Hung Yang,Dar-Ming Lai,Chang-Mu Chen,Shin-Yi Chao,Fon-Yih Tsuan 대한척추신경외과학회 2023 Neurospine Vol.20 No.4

Objective: The present study is to analyze the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 2019) outbreak and the subsequent lockdown on the outcomes of spinal metastasis patients. Methods: The study was a retrospective analysis of data from a prospective cohort study. All patients underwent surgical intervention for spinal metastases between January 2019 and December 2021 and had at least 3 months of postoperative follow-up. The primary outcome was overall mortality during the 4 different stages (pre-COVID-19 era, COVID-19 pandemic except in Taiwan, national lockdown, lifting of the lockdown). The secondary outcomes were the oncological severity scores, medical/surgical accessibility, and patient functional outcome during the 4 periods as well as survival/mortality. Results: A total of 233 patients were included. The overall mortality rate was 41.20%. During the Taiwan lockdown, more patients received palliative surgery than other surgical methods, and no total en bloc spondylectomy was performed. The time from surgeon visit to operation was approximately doubled after the COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan (75.97, 86.63, 168.79, and 166.91 hours in the 4 periods, respectively). The estimated survival probability was highest after the national lockdown was lifted and lowest during the lockdown. In the multivariate analysis, increased risk of mortality was observed with delay of surgery, with emergency surgery having a higher risk with delays above 33 hours, urgent surgery (below 59 and above 111 hours), and elective surgery (above 332 hours). Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic and related policies have altered daily clinical practice and negatively impacted the survival of patients with spinal metastases.

Deubiquitination and Stabilization of PD-L1 by CSN5

Lim, Seung-Oe,Li, Chia-Wei,Xia, Weiya,Cha, Jong-Ho,Chan, Li-Chuan,Wu, Yun,Chang, Shih-Shin,Lin, Wan-Chi,Hsu, Jung-Mao,Hsu, Yi-Hsin,Kim, Taewan,Chang, Wei-Chao,Hsu, Jennifer L.,Yamaguchi, Hirohito,Ding Elsevier 2016 Cancer cell Vol.30 No.6

<P><B>Summary</B></P> <P>Pro-inflammatory cytokines produced in the tumor microenvironment lead to eradication of anti-tumor immunity and enhanced tumor cell survival. In the current study, we identified tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) as a major factor triggering cancer cell immunosuppression against T cell surveillance via stabilization of programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1). We demonstrated that COP9 signalosome 5 (CSN5), induced by NF-κB p65, is required for TNF-α-mediated PD-L1 stabilization in cancer cells. CSN5 inhibits the ubiquitination and degradation of PD-L1. Inhibition of CSN5 by curcumin diminished cancer cell PD-L1 expression and sensitized cancer cells to anti-CTLA4 therapy.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> TNF-α stabilizes cancer cell PD-L1 in response to chronic inflammation </LI> <LI> Activation of NF-κB by TNF-α induces CSN5 expression leading to PD-L1 stabilization </LI> <LI> CSN5 enzyme activity controls T cell suppression via PD-L1 deubiquitination </LI> <LI> Destabilization of PD-L1 by CSN5 inhibitor curcumin benefits anti-CTLA4 therapy </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical Abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>