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Objectives: To explore the effects of different test positions on quantitative muscle strength of wrist and finger flexor muscle groups and to establish a standardized muscle strength test protocol for each muscle group., Methods: Forty healthy subjects (12 males and 28 females) were recruited. A portable digital quantitative muscle strength tester, Micro FET2 TM , was used to measure the flexor muscle strength of each finger and the wrist joint at the 30° extension, 0° neutral, and 30° flexion, respectively. Palmar abduction strength of the thumb was measured at 30° and 60°, respectively. Ten subjects were randomly selected from the 40 subjects, and the quantitative muscle strength of each muscle group was tested again by the same operator after an interval of 10 to 15 days., Results: Except for the fact that in males, there was no significant difference in flexor muscle strength of thumb and wrist joint between 30° of wrist extension and neutral 0° position, the muscle strength of the other fingers flexion and wrist palmar flexor showed the following characteristics：30° of wrist extension > neutral 0° position > 30° of flexion, and the PAST was 30°>60°; The flexor muscle strength of all the subjects was thumb > index finger > middle finger > ring finger > little finger; All muscle strength values of male were greater than those of female, and the difference was statistically significant ( P <0.05); There was no significant difference between the left and right side muscle strength values of all subjects ( P >0.05). The reliability of muscle strength values measured at different times in 10 subjects was good., Conclusions: The quantitative muscle strength of each muscle group of the hand and wrist is affected by the test position, and a standardized and uniformed test position should be adopted in the actual identification. Micro FET2 TM has good reliability for hand and wrist quantitative muscle strength testing. The 30° extension of the wrist can be used as the best standardized test position for the flexion muscle strength of each finger and wrist joint. The 30° position can be used as the best standardized test position for PAST.

We aimed to develop and validate a predictive model for identifying long-term survivors (LTS) among glioblastoma (GB) patients, defined as those with an overall survival (OS) of more than 3 years. A total of 293 GB patients from CGGA and 169 from TCGA database were assigned to training and validation cohort, respectively. The differences in expression of immune checkpoint genes (ICGs) and immune infiltration landscape were compared between LTS and short time survivor (STS) (OS<1.5 years). The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) were used to identify the genes differentially expressed between LTS and STS. Three different machine learning algorithms were employed to select the predictive genes from the overlapping region of DEGs and WGCNA to construct the nomogram. The comparison between LTS and STS revealed that STS exhibited an immune-resistant status, with higher expression of ICGs (P<0.05) and greater infiltration of immune suppression cells compared to LTS (P<0.05). Four genes, namely, OSMR, FMOD, CXCL14, and TIMP1, were identified and incorporated into the nomogram, which possessed good potential in predicting LTS probability among GB patients both in the training (C-index, 0.791; 0.772-0.817) and validation cohort (C-index, 0.770; 0.751-0.806). STS was found to be more likely to exhibit an immune-cold phenotype. The identified predictive genes were used to construct the nomogram with potential to identify LTS among GB patients., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Objectives: To study the virtual reality-pattern visual evoked potential (VR-PVEP) P100 waveform characteristics of monocular visual impairment with different impaired degrees under simultaneous binocular perception and monocular stimulations., Methods: A total of 55 young volunteers with normal vision (using decimal recording method, far vision ≥0.8 and near vision ≥0.5) were selected to simulate three groups of monocular refractive visual impairment by interpolation method. The sum of near and far vision ≤0.2 was Group A, the severe visual impairment group; the sum of near and far vision <0.8 was Group B, the moderate visual impairment group; and the sum of near and far vision ≥0.8 was Group C, the mild visual impairment group. The volunteers' binocular normal visions were set as the control group. The VR-PVEP P100 peak times measured by simultaneous binocular perception and monocular stimulation were compared at four spatial frequencies 16×16, 24×24, 32×32 and 64×64., Results: In Group A, the differences between P100 peak times of simulant visual impairment eyes and simultaneous binocular perception at 24×24, 32×32 and 64×64 spatial frequencies were statistically significant ( P <0.05); and the P100 peak time of normal vision eyes at 64×64 spatial frequency was significantly different from the simulant visual impairment eyes ( P <0.05). In Group B, the differences between P100 peak times of simulant visual impairment eyes and simultaneous binocular perception at 16×16, 24×24 and 64×64 spatial frequencies were statistically significant ( P <0.05); and the P100 peak time of normal vision eyes at 64×64 spatial frequency was significantly different from the simulant visual impairment eyes ( P <0.05). In Group C, there was no significant difference between P100 peak times of simulant visual impairment eyes and simultaneous binocular perception at all spatial frequencies ( P >0.05). There was no significant difference in the P100 peak times measured at all spatial frequencies between simulant visual impairment eyes and simultaneous binocular perception in the control group ( P >0.05)., Conclusions: VR-PVEP can be used for visual acuity evaluation of patients with severe and moderate monocular visual impairment, which can reflect the visual impairment degree caused by ametropia. VR-PVEP has application value in the objective evaluation of visual function and forensic clinical identification.

CTCF mediates chromatin insulation and long-distance enhancer-promoter (EP) interactions; however, little is known about how these regulatory functions are partitioned among target genes in key biological processes. Here, we show that Ctcf expression is progressively increased during induced pluripotency. In this process, CTCF first functions as a chromatin insulator responsible for direct silencing of the somatic gene expression program and, interestingly, elevated Ctcf expression next ensures chromatin accessibility and contributes to increased EP interactions for a fraction of pluripotency-associated genes. Therefore, CTCF functions in a context-specific manner to modulate the 3D genome to enable cellular reprogramming. We further discover that these context-specific CTCF functions also enlist SMARCA5, an imitation switch (ISWI) chromatin remodeler, together rewiring the epigenome to facilitate cell-fate switch. These findings reveal the dual functions of CTCF in conjunction with a key chromatin remodeler to drive reprogramming toward pluripotency., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Catamenial pneumothorax is characterized by spontaneous recurring pneumothorax during menstruation, which is a common clinical manifestation of thoracic endometriosis syndrome. There are still controversies about its pathogenesis., Case Presentation: A 43-year-old woman with a history of endometriosis came to our hospital due to recurring pneumothorax during menstruation. Uniportal Video-assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS) exploration was performed on the eve of menstruating. We thoroughly explored the diaphragm, visceral and parietal pleura: The lung surface was scattered with yellowish-brown implants; no bullae were found; multiple diaphragmatic defects were found on the dome. And surprisingly, we caught a fascinating phenomenon: Bubbles were slipping into pleural cavity through diaphragmatic defects. We excised the diaphragmatic lesions and wedge resected the right upper lung lesion; cleared the deposits and flushed the thoracic cavity with pure iodophor. Diaphragmatic lesions confirmed the presence of endometriosis, and interestingly enough, microscopically, endometrial cells were shedding with impending menses. After a series of intraoperative operations and postoperative endocrine therapy, the disease did not recur after a period of follow-up., Conclusion: We have witnessed the typical signs of catamenial pneumothorax at the accurate timing: Not only observed the process of gas migration macroscopically, but also obtained pathological evidence of diaphragmatic periodic perforation microscopically, which is especially precious and confirms the existing theory that retrograde menstruation leads to diaphragmatic endometriosis, and the diaphragmatic fenestration is obtained due to the periodic activities of ectopic endometrium.

In the study, we obtained 36 pairs of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) tissues and adjacent non-tumorous tissues. Then, we chose a specific hub-target gene of miRNA and used qRT-PCR to evaluate the expression of PECAM1. We found that the expression level of PECAM1 mRNA in LUAD was significantly lower than that in adjacent nontumor tissues (P<0.0001). Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted on 481 LUAD patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) according to the Cox proportional hazard regression model to evaluate the impact of PECAM1 expression and other clinicopathological factors on survival. The results showed that the low expression of PECAM1 was an important independent predictor of poor overall survival (HR, 0.704; 95% CI, 0.518-0.957; P = 0.025). Based on the Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) database, the relationship between PECAM1 expression and B cell, CD8+ T cell, CD4+ T cell, macrophage, neutrophil, and dendritic cell infiltration was weak in LUAD (P<0.01). In particular, a more significant positive correlation between PECAM1 expression and HLA-complex members, CD1C, NRP1, and ITGAX expression in dendritic cell was detected in LUAD. The mechanism which PECAM1 involved in the development of LUAD may be closely related to changes in the immune microenvironment.

Abstract: Objective To explore a kind of visual evoked potential test equipment and method that is more suitable for the application of forensic clinical visual acuity evaluation. Methods Thirty-four volunteers （68 eyes） were selected, including 15 males and 19 females, aged between 20 and 40 years. Test lenses were placed before the tested eyes of volunteers to induce refractive myopia with insert method, and the diopter lenses were adjusted so that the visual acuity level of one eye of volunteers was above 0.8, and the visual acuity of the other eye was at moderate damage level （<0.3 and ≥0.1）. The tests were carried out under the binocular simultaneous asynchronous stimulation mode （hereinafter referred to as "binocular mode"） and monocular separate stimulation mode （hereinafter referred to as "monocular mode"） of virtual reality-pattern visual evoked potential （VR-PVEP）, and the amplitude of PVEP of volunteers under the two modes was compared at four spatial frequencies of 8×8, 16×16, 24×24 and 32×32. Results The differences in the amplitude of P100 wave between monocular and binocular modes at 8×8 spatial frequency had no statistical significance and the differences in amplitude of P100 wave between monocular and binocular modes at 16×16, 24×24, and 32×32 spatial frequencies had statistical significance （ P <0.05）. The amplitude of the same eye in monocular mode was higher than that in binocular mode. Through correlation analysis, it was found that the amplitude of P100 wave in monocular mode was moderately correlated with amplitude of P100 wave in binocular mode. Conclusion In forensic identification practice, VR-PVEP is helpful for overcoming the disturbance of poor fixation, and to increase the reliability of PVEP evaluation results. It can greatly shorten the detection time of PVEP and improve work efficiency., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Editorial Department of Journal of Forensic Medicine.)

Objective: To discuss the influence of micro ribonucleic acid (miR)-451 on cell proliferation and apoptosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by regulating liver kinase B1 (LKB1) signals and activating adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK)., Materials and Methods: Lung cancer A549 cells were divided into control group, miR-451 mimic group, and miR-451 inhibitor group. The cell proliferation and migration ability, as well as the expression of LKB1 and AMPK in the three groups, were determined via Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), transwell assay, and cell counting kit-8 (CCK8) assay, respectively., Results: Compared with that in control group, the number of migrating cells evidently declined in miR-451 mimic group, while that in miR-451 inhibitor group was significantly increased, and the differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05). At 7 d of cell culture, the cell proliferation ability in miR-451 mimic group was higher than that in control group, while it was higher in control group than that in miR-451 mimic group, and there were significant differences among the three groups (p < 0.05). The expression of LKB1 and AMPK was significantly decreased in miR-451 mimic group compared with that in miR-451 inhibitor group and control group, and the differences had statistical significance (p < 0.05). The differences in activities of LKB1 and AMPK between miR-451 inhibitor group and control group were not significant (p > 0.05)., Conclusions: LKB1/AMPK can be involved in the cell metabolism of NSCLC and miR-451 is negatively correlated with LKB1/AMPK. Therefore, miR-451 may inhibit cell proliferation and migration of NSCLC via regulating LKB1/AMPK.

Background: To explore the risk factors and prevention methods of cervical mechanical anastomotic fistula and stenosis after the radical resection of esophageal cancer., Methods: From March 2018 to November 2018, 128 patients undergoing mechanical anastomosis of esophageal cancer were selected from the Department of Thoracic Surgery of The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University. All the enrolled patients were operated on using the Mckeown method, and a retrospective study was conducted. Data for preoperative and postoperative test indices, intraoperative embedding materials, postoperative complications, and preoperative and postoperative treatment were collected, and the relationship between various factors and the incidence of cervical anastomotic fistula and stenosis was analysed. Univariate analysis was conducted using t tests or Fisher's exact probability method, and multivariate analysis was conducted using logistic regression models., Results: All 128 patients successfully underwent surgery without dying. The enrolled patients were evaluated using the Stooler classification, with 28 patients having grade 0, 41 patients having grade 1, 34 patients having grade 2, 21 patients having grade 3, and 4 patients having grade 4 stenosis. Patients with stenosis of grade 3 or above had obvious choking sensation, which could only be relieved by balloon dilation. Symptoms in all patients with stenosis were relieved by balloon dilation. There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding embedding materials, preoperative choking history, history of alcohol consumption, history of hypertension, history of coronary heart disease, history of diabetes, postoperative calcium concentration, average albumin concentration, average platelet concentration, body mass index, anastomotic fistula, preoperative chemotherapy, postoperative chemotherapy, or postoperative cough (P>0.05). There were significant differences in postoperative reflux (χ 2 =11.338, P<0.05) and scar constitution (χ 2 =12.497, P<0.05). The effects of embedding materials in patients with anastomotic fistula were significantly different (χ 2 =4.372, P<0.05)., Conclusions: Postoperative reflux and scar constitution may be risk factors for postoperative anastomotic stenosis after resection of esophageal cancer. There was almost no difference in the effects on esophageal anastomotic stenosis between embedding materials and the omentum majus, but Neoveil ® may have certain advantages in preventing cervical anastomotic fistula, and thus may have certain clinical application value., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

In order to promote the application of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (ANAMMOX) to treat municipal wastewater, nitrosation was coupled with ANAMMOX and an ABR decarbonization system at the front of it; then used to build a system in which ABR decarbonization-nitrosation coupled with ANAMMOX was used to treat municipal wastewater. The high throughput sequencing technology of MiSeq was employed to analyze the structure of the microbial community in the sludge. Results showed that the average effluent COD concentration of the carbon removal system was 120 mg·L -1 and that the subsequent nitrosation system and ANAMMOX system would not be adversely affected by the effluent COD. Controlled by matching the nitrosation effluent with that from the ABR carbon removal system 2:1, the ANAMMOX influent, kept the ratio of the NO 2 - -N and NH 4 + -N matrix to ANAMMOX at about 1:1. The total nitrogen removal rate of the integrated reactor was 86%-92% and the COD of the effluent was 20-40 mg·L -1 . After the experiment, the number of bacteria in class γ -Proteobacteria in the nitrosation system, which are closely related to denitrification, increased. Members of class Sphingobacteria, which have the function of enhancing the growth rate of microorganisms and enhancing the rate of denitrification, were significantly increased in the ANAMMOX system. The nitrogen and carbon in the municipal wastewater could be stably and efficiently removed by the ABR Decarbonization-Nitrosation coupled with ANAMMOX process.

In order to explore the nitrogen removal performance of nitrosation flocculent sludge subject to long-term storage, nitrosation flocculent sludge which had been stored at 4℃ for ten months was inoculated in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) to investigate its activity recovery performance. MiSeq high throughput sequencing technology was also employed to analyze the structure of the microbial community before and after reactivation. Results showed that, under DO control of DO 0.4-0.8 mg·L -1 , pH value of about 8 and temperature of (30±1)℃, the sludge could be reactivated in 15 days. Both the removal efficiency of ammonia nitrogen and the accumulation ratio of nitrite nitrogen were higher than 90%. The color of the sludge quickly changed from grey at early inoculation to brown, while the sludge volume index (SVI) quickly decreased and both mixed liquor volatile suspended solids (MLVSS)/mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) and extracellular polymer substances (EPS) significantly increased. With the recovery of nitrosation performance, anaerobic and heterotrophic bacteria were washed out, the relative abundance of ammomia-oxidizing bacteria such as Nitrosomonas significantly increased, while the growth of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria such as Nitrospria was selectively inhibited. Nitrosation flocculent sludge could be inoculated after long-term storage to achieve rapid start-up of partial nitrification and allow practical application of partial nitrification processes.

Physiological levels of glucocorticoids (GCs) are required for proper metabolic control, and excessive GC action has been linked to a variety of pandemic metabolic diseases. MicroRNA (miRNA)-19b plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of GC-induced metabolic diseases. This study explored the potential of miRNA-based therapeutics targeting adipose tissue. Our results showed that overexpressed miR-19b in stromal vascular fraction (SVF) cells derived from subcutaneous adipose tissue had the same effects as dexamethasone (DEX) treatment on the inhibition of adipose browning and oxygen consumption rate. The inhibition of miR-19b blocked DEX-mediated suppression of the expression of browning marker genes as well as the oxygen consumption rate in differentiated SVF cells derived from subcutaneous and brown adipose tissue. Overexpressed miR-19b in SVF cells derived from brown adipose tissue had the same effects as DEX treatment on the inhibition of brown adipose differentiation and energy expenditure. Glucocorticoids transcriptionally regulate the expression of miR-19b via a GC receptor-mediated direct DNA binding mechanism. This study confirmed that miR-19b is an essential target for GC-mediated control of adipose tissue browning. It is hoped that the plasticity of the adipose organ can be exploited in the next generation of therapeutic strategies to combat the increasing incidence of metabolic diseases, including obesity and diabetes., (Copyright © 2018 Endocrine Society.)

Serum urate levels are reported to be significantly lowered in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and inversely correlated to the risk and progression of PD. However, the mechanism by which urate affects PD is poorly understood. Here we showed that treatment with uric acid (UA) resulted in an autophagy activity enhancement in PC12 cells in dose- and time-dependent manners, as indicated by LC3-II increase and P62 decrease. Moreover, UA was still able to increase the LC3-II level and the number of LC3 puncta in the presence of Bafilomycin A1, a lysosomal inhibitor. These changes of autophagic markers were preceded by mTOR inhibition and ULK1 activation. Co-treatment with 3-benzyl-5-((2-nitrophenoxy) methyl)-dihydrofuran-2(3H)-one (3BDO), an mTOR activator, abolished the UA-induced LC3-II increase. More importantly, UA reduced SNCA/α-synuclein accumulation in PC12 cells that overexpress wildtype or A53T mutant SNCA, and this was blocked by Bafilomycin A1 co-treatment. The in vivo study showed that UA administration was able to modulate the levels of autophagy markers, increase the autophagosome/autolysosome formation, and reduce SNCA accumulation in the midbrain of SNCA A53T transgenic mice. Taken together, our findings suggest that UA could induce autophagy activation via an mTOR-dependent signaling and ameliorate SNCA accumulation. This implicates that urate-elevating agent may become a potential strategy for PD therapy., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

MicroRNAs (miRs) have emerged as being important in cancer biology. miR‑191 is a conserved miRNA, which has been investigated in detail and is reported to be induced by hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)‑1α and has an contributory action in the progression of breast, hepatic and pancreatic cancer. However, the effects of miR‑191 in the progression of lung cancer are a subject of debate. In the present study, it was found that the expression of miR-191 was significantly upregulated in non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells in patients in vivo. However, the levels of miR‑191 remained unchanged in SK‑MES‑1, A549 and NCI‑H460 NSCLC cell lines, compared with the level in the normal HBE lung cell line, however, the levels were markedly upregulated in these NSCLC cell lines under conditions of chronic hypoxia. Subsequently, an miR‑191 mimic was transfected into the NSCLC cell lines to examine its effect on the progression of the NSCLC cells in vitro. The data obtained using MTT and Cell counting kit‑8 assays revealed that miR‑191 had no effect on the proliferation of the cells under normal condition, however, their proliferation was promoted under mild hypoxic conditions. In addition, the results of a Transwell migration assay showed that miR‑191 had a promoting effect on NSCLC cell migration under the conditions of chronic hypoxia. Furthermore, the TargetScan bioinformatics server and 3'-untranslated region luciferase reporter assay indicated that the transcription factor, nuclear factor 1α (NFIA) was a target of miR‑191. Subsequent western blot analysis showed that, in chronic‑hypoxia, the protein levels of NFIA and the tumor suppressor, CCAAT-enhancer-binding protein α, were sharply reduced in A549 cells. In conclusion, miR‑191 was induced by chronic hypoxia and promoted the proliferation and migration of NSCLC cells under chronic hypoxic conditions. This promotion may be associated with its targeting of NFIA. The present findings may provide a potential molecular target for the therapeutic treatment of NSCLC.

The objective of this work is to synthesize indolacin-5-fluorouracil-1-ylmethyl ester and the structure was confirmed by means of UV, IR, 1 H-NMR, 13 C-NMR and mass spectrometry. The physicochemical parameters of melting point, solubility, apparent partition coefficient were investigated. S180 sarcoma, H22 hapatitic cancer and Lewis-transplanted mice were used to evaluate the anti-tumor activity of indolacini-5-fluorouracil-1-ylmethyl ester compared with 5-fluorouracil in vivo. Anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities were evaluated in mice. The inhibitory ratio of indolacini- 5-fluorouracil-1-ylmethyl ester is comparative to that of 5-fluorouracil. This study indicates that 5-fluorouracil-1-ylmethyl ester may represent a new anticancer predrug of 5-fluorouracil to produce a combined effect of indolacin and 5-fluorouracil for cancer therapy.

Recent evidence haas indicated that meningioma-associate protein (MAC30) exhibits different expression patterns in various tumors. However, little is known about the value of MAC30 in human squamous cell carcinoma of lung (SQCLC). The purpose of our study was to investigate the expression of MAC30 and to explore its clinical significance in SQCLC patients. A total of 156 Chinese patients diagnosed with SQCLC were selected for this study. The expression of MAC30 in all tissues was confirmed by immunohistochemical staining. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed to analyze MAC30 mRNA expression in 32 cases of SQCLC patients with corresponding non-tumor lung tissues. We observed enhanced mRNA expression of MAC30 in SQCLC as compared to control samples. Further, elevated MAC30 protein expression was strongly associated with poor tumor differentiation, TNM stage, and lymph node metastasis. In addition, we observed that patients with increased MAC30 expression demonstrated poor overall survival. Multivariate analysis explicated that increased MAC30 expression was a valuable independent predictable factor for poor tumor differentiation and short survival in SQCLC patients. Our present study suggests that MAC30 may serve as a biomarker for poor tumor differentiation and outcomes of patients with SQCLC.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Magnolia officinalis is one of the commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of fever, chronic bronchitis and stomach ailments. Magnolol and honokiol are isomers with hydroxylated biphenol compound in the extract of Magnolia officinalis. This study aims to determine the isomers in rat plasma and evaluate their pharmacokinetic pattern after administration emulsion., Materials and Methods: Sprague Dawley male rats received either an intravenous (i.v.25, mg/kg) or oral (50mg/kg) dose of the emulsion of the isomer. A sensitive and specific ultra-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was developed for the investigation of the pharmacokinetics of magnolol and honokiol in rats. Kaempferol was employed as an internal standard., Results: The plasma samples were deproteinized with acetonitrile, the post-treatment samples were analyzed on an Agela C18 column interfaced with a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer in negative electrospray ionization mode. Acetonitrile and 5 mmol/L ammonium acetate buffer solution (65: 35, v/v) was used as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. Following oral administration of emulsion to rats, magnolol attained mean peak plasma concentrations of 426.4 ± 273.8 ng/mL at 1.20 h, whereas honokiol reached peak plasma concentrations of 40.3 ± 30.8 ng/mL at 0.45 h. The absolute bioavailability of magnolol and honokiol is 17.5 ± 9.7% and 5.3 ± 11.7%. By comparison, the AUC0-∞ of magnolol was 5.4 times higher than that of honokiol after intravenous administration, but AUC0-∞ of magnolol was about 18-fold higher than honokiol after oral administration., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The aim of this study was to investigate the in vitro and in vivo performance of salbutamol sulfate press-coated tablets for delayed release. The in vitro release behavior of press-coated tablets with the outer layer of PEG 6000/ Eudragit S100 blends (2:1) in pH 1.2 (0.1 mol L-1 HCl) and then pH 6.8 buffer solution was examined. Morphological change of the press-coated tablet during in vitro release was recorded with a digital camera. Release of salbutamol sulfate from press-coated tablets was less than 5 % before 3 h and was completed after 8 h in pH 6.8 phosphate buffer solution. In vivo gamma scintigraphy study carried out on healthy men indicated that the designed system released the drug in lower parts of the GI tract after a lag time of 5 hours. The results showed the capability of the system of achieving delayed release of the drug in both in vitro and in vivo gamma scintigraphy studies.

Objective: To observe the chronicity decompression effect of Astragalus Membranaceus(AM) and evaluate the effect on baroreflex sensitivity (BRS)., Method: Nineteen spontaneously hypertensive rats(SHR) were randomly divided into four groups. The AM groups were intraperitoneally administered with AM parenteral solution 0.9 mL, 1.2 mL and 1.8 mL respectively and the control group was not given AM for eight weeks. Then the change of blood pressure was observed successivly. After eight weeks, BRS were also determined. At last, the difference of blood pressure and BRS among the groups were compared., Result: Blood pressure in the control group became higher and higher frome the third week to the eighth week, but the other SHR admistered with AM showed no changein blood pressure level. We also found that the BRS in AM group was higher than that in the control group(P < 0.01)., Conclusion: AM can promote the BRS in SHR.

Cisplatin-induced apoptosis in epithelial ovarian cancer cells is in part a consequence of suppressed Xiap expression and upregulation of the Fas/FasL system. Changes in the expression of these 'cell death' and 'cell survival' genes lead to activation of caspase-3, and cleavage of MDM2 and FAK. Failure of cancer cells to maintain a balance in the expression of these genes in favor of apoptotic cell death may be an important factor of chemoresistance. Xiap may be a novel target for gene therapy of human ovarian epithelial cancer and, dependent on P53 status, expression of Xiap antisense alone or in combination with wild-type P53 sense may offer a new approach for the treatment of the chemoresistant cancer., (Copyright 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel)

Ferritin in 93 ovarian epithelial tumors, 10 normal adult ovaries and 4 fetal ovaries were studied with double-PAP technique. Ferritin was demonstrated in 38.89% of the benign ovarian tumors, 46.67% of the borderline and 70.0% of the malignant tumors (P less than 0.05). The positive distribution of ferritin in the serous tumors was more than that in the mucinous and endometrioid tumor (P less than 0.05) and the positive grading of ferritin starring was corresponding to the pathohistopathologic grading of the ovarian tumors. It is considered that ferritin might be used as an immunohistochemical marker in the study of ovarian tumors.

An incoherent multiplexed optical processor is described that computes in real time the moments of images sensed by a TV camera and displayed on a monitor. The first ten moments are generated in parallel and are detected by a photodetector array. They are collected by a microcomputer for subsequent pattern recognition use. Calibration and resolution problems are discussed with regard to the effective 2% system accuracy. Its use in real-time processing of one hundred handwritten pages shows the processor to be a practical moment generator.