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Objective. The aim of this study is to evaluate the safety and tumor marker level changes of acupuncture plus chemotherapy (FOLFOX4) for advanced gastric cancer. Methods. One hundred and twenty patients with advanced gastric cancer who were treated at our hospital between May 2019 and April 2021 were recruited for prospective analysis, and all patients were allocated to the control and experimental groups in a 1 : 1 ratio using the random number table method, with 60 patients in each group. They received either chemotherapy using the FOLFOX4 regimen (control group) or the FOLFOX4 chemotherapy plus acupuncture (experimental group). Outcome measures included tumor marker levels, quality of life, and adverse events. Results. Before treatment, the two groups showed similar tumor markers levels and the MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36) scores ( P > 0.05 ). FOLFOX4 chemotherapy plus acupuncture was associated with significantly lower levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9, and CA72-4 versus FOLFOX4 chemotherapy alone ( P < 0.05 ). The patients who were given FOLFOX4 chemotherapy plus acupuncture showed significantly increased SF-36 scores versus monotherapy of the FOLFOX4 regimen ( P < 0.05 ). The joint therapy resulted in a significantly lower incidence of adverse events versus the monotherapy ( P < 0.05 ). Conclusion. Acupuncture plus chemotherapy using the FOLFOX4 regimen can effectively regulate the serum tumor marker levels of patients with advanced gastric cancer, with a high safety profile, which provides a viable treatment alternative.

Objective. This study is aimed at evaluating the miR-370-3p and miR-495-3p expression in the urine of patients with sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (SA-AKI) and exploring its diagnosis value in for SA-AKI. Methods. 184 sepsis invalids were collected and divided two groups (non-AKI group or AKI group) according to whether they had acute kidney injury. RT-qPCR was utilized to measure miR-370-3p and miR-495-3p expressions. ROC curve was performed to evaluate the diagnostic value of miR-370-3p and miR-495-3p for SA-AKI. Patients diagnosed with SA-AKI were followed up for 28 days to record survival time. The prognostic performance of miR-370-3p and miR-495-3p for SA-AKI was evaluated by survival curves. Results. Compared with non-AKI invalids, miR-370-3p and miR-495-3p expressions were obviously lower in the urine of AKI invalids. miR-370-3p and miR-495-3p expressions were markedly negatively correlated with biomarkers of renal injury. Furthermore, the area under the curve (AUC) of miR-370-3p and miR-495-3p for diagnosing sepsis SA-AKI was 0.896 and 0.814, respectively. The higher 28 days-survival rate was observed in patients with high miR-370-3p and miR-495-3p expressions. Conclusions. A novel biomarker for the early diagnosis of SA-AKI may be miR-370-3p and miR-495-3p, which was clearly reduced in the urine of SA-AKI patients.

Objective. To study the clinical efficacy of modified Yiwei Shengyang decoction combined with FOLFOX4 chemotherapy regimen in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer and its effect on tumor marker levels. Methods. A total of 106 patients with advanced gastric cancer who were treated in our hospital from September 2019 to September 2021 were recruited and assigned via random number allocation to receive either FOLFOX4 chemotherapy (control group) or modified Yiwei Shengyang decoction plus FOLFOX4 chemotherapy (observation group). Outcome measures included clinical efficacy and tumor marker levels. Results. Modified Yiwei Shengyang decoction plus FOLFOX4 chemotherapy was associated with a significantly higher efficacy (86.79%, including 22 (41.51%) cases of complete response (CR), 24 (45.28%) cases of partial response (PR), 6 (11.32%) cases of stable disease (SD), and 1 (1.89%) case of progressive disease (PD)) compared to FOLFOX4 chemotherapy alone (47.16%, including 10 (18.87%) cases of CR, 15 (28.30%) cases of PR, 21 (39.62%) cases of SD, and 7 (13.21%) cases of PD) ( P < 0.05 ). There was no significant difference in the levels of CEA and CA19-9 between the two groups before treatment ( P > 0.05 ). Modified Yiwei Shengyang decoction plus FOLFOX4 chemotherapy resulted in significantly lower levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) (2.08 ± 0.47, 15.12 ± 6.74) compared to FOLFOX4 chemotherapy alone (5.46 ± 1.84, 31.82 ± 7.48) ( P < 0.05 ). Conclusion. Modified Yiwei Shengyang decoction plus FOLFOX4 chemotherapy regimen is effective in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer. It regulates the levels of various serum tumor markers in patients and controls the disease, so it is worthy of clinical application and promotion.

In this work, the superhydrophobic fabric was fabricated by surface modification with mercaptopropyltriethoxysilane (MPTES) to incorporate thiol groups, and subsequent thiol-ene click chemistry wit...

Objective. To assess the clinical efficacy of acupuncture on neoadjuvant chemotherapy with capecitabine plus paclitaxel and radiotherapy in progressive gastric cancer. Methods. In this randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trial, 70 patients with advanced gastric cancer receiving radio-chemotherapy between May 2018 and June 2020 were assessed for eligibility in our institution and recruited. They were assigned via the random number table method at a ratio of 1 : 1 to receive either neoadjuvant chemotherapy with capecitabine plus paclitaxel and radiotherapy (control group) or acupuncture on neoadjuvant chemotherapy with capecitabine plus paclitaxel and radiotherapy (intervention group). The outcome measures included symptom mitigation, quality of life, and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) symptom scores. Results. The two groups showed similar results in abdominal circumference, intraabdominal pressure, and bowel sounds before treatment ( P > 0.05 ). Acupuncture plus conventional treatment was associated with better mitigation on intraabdominal pressure (11.08 ± 1.37 vs. 12.17 ± 2.68) and bowel sounds (4 [3, 4] vs. 3 [3, 4]) versus conventional treatment alone ( P < 0.05 ). No statistically significant difference in TCM symptom scores was observed between the two groups before treatment ( P > 0.05 ). Acupuncture plus conventional treatment resulted in a lower TCM symptom score (24.63 ± 4.56 points) versus conventional treatment (31.17 ± 4.91 points) ( P < 0.05 ). The eligible patients given acupuncture showed significantly higher scores of physical function, role function, emotional function, cognitive function, and social function (81.52 ± 5.37, 88.17 ± 5.17, 85.15 ± 6.71, 78.45 ± 5.85, and 80.98 ± 7.14) versus those without acupuncture (52.98 ± 8.23, 69.87 ± 5.54, 68.24 ± 9.22, 61.34 ± 6.27, and 64.79 ± 6.89) ( P < 0.05 ). Conclusion. Acupuncture is effective in the recovery of acute toxicity after radio-chemotherapy for patients with advanced gastric cancer, which provides a certain reference for clinical treatment and is worthy of application and promotion.

Amino-functionalized graphene oxide (GO-NH2) was prepared for enhanced antibacterial properties through excellent photothermal efficiency. This nanosheet could easily target the bacterial surface t...

Porous silicon was widely used in displays, optical sensors, and biological imaging due to its high surface areas, adjustable microstructure, large adsorption capacity and excellent optical performance. Unfortunately, there are numerous reactive silane groups on the freshly etched porous silicon surface, which are susceptible to oxidization in the air, thereby affecting the optical performance and stability of porous silicon. This study provides an efficient strategy of using photocatalytic reaction to graft dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate to freshly prepared n-type porous silicon surface, thereby generating a fluorine-modified porous silicon with high stability and superhydrophobic surface. The structure and composition of porous silicon before and after modification were analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The effects of UV light, reactant mass fraction and reaction time on the surface properties of porous silicon were studied by water contact angle (WCA) and photoluminescence (PL). The results indicated that the dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate was successfully grafted onto n-type porous silicon surface by photocatalytic reaction. The superhydrophobic and luminescent porous silicon was prepared by reacting 40 min in a dichloride solution containing 10wt% dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate under UV light. The WCA of the fluorine-modified porous silicon surface could reach 153° and had good photoluminescence intensity. This modified porous silicon surface had great stability in alkaline and air environment. After treated with alkaline droplets for 30 min, the WCA of modified porous silicon could maintain above 150° and had good photoluminescence. And under room temperature within a week, the porous silicon surface still showed great hydrophobic properties and photoluminescence intensity. In addition, the modified porous silicon has different responsiveness to ethanol solutions of different concentrations, which could be applied to alcohol sensors and has great development prospects.

In this article, a superhydrophobic polyurethane (PU) sponge with exceptional flame-retardant property, was fabricated by coating polydopamine (PDA) through one-step polymerization and surface treatment with hexamethyl disilazane (HMDS). Specifically, dopamine was polymerized in an alkaline solution to generate PDA nano-aggregates as hierarchically rough structure on PU sponge skeleton. After the sponge was further treated with HMDS, the obtained PU-PDA-HMDS sponge surface was transformed from hydrophilic into superhydrophobic with a water contact angle about 153°. The Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurement results demonstrated that the PDA nano-aggregates layer was successfully coated onto PU skeleton, and HMDS molecules were grafted onto PDA nano-aggregates layer by forming silicyl groups on sponge. When the superhydrophobic PU-PDA-HMDS sponge was used towards oil-water separation, it exhibited high oil absorption capacity and stable absorption performance even after cyclic absorption-desorption process. Meanwhile, the sponge exhibited good elastic property and recovery ability under compression test. Furthermore, the thermal stability and flame-retardant property of the sponges were measured, and the results showed the resulting PU-PDA-HMDS sponge exhibited superior thermal stability and flame-retardant property to the pristine PU or PU coated with PDA alone. Even encountering a flame attack, the PU-PDA-HMDS sponge would be self-extinguished and remained its structure integrity due to the formation of silica-hybrid char residue layer during combustion process. The formation process of silica-hybrid char residue layer and what role it exerted on enhancing flame-retardant property were proposed and discussed. Therefore, this work not only provided a simple strategy for fabricating the superhydrophobic porous composites for oil-water separation, but also opened a door to protect the combustible porous composites from fire with exceptional flame-retardant performance.

This study suggested a revision to the contact model of a fractal rough surface, by extending the modified asperity contact model developed by Morag and Etsion, into a complete contact model of a fractal surface. According to the modified asperity model, the critical area of a single asperity was scale dependent and that the asperity's plastic to elastic mode transition agreed with classical contact mechanics. The total load, area and stiffness of a fractal rough surface were studied, and obtained by summing over the contact force, area and stiffness of the asperities at all length scales. The results revealed that the contact area depended linearly on the contact load and that the contact stiffness increased with increasing contact load. The share of plastic contact area decreased as the contact load increased. The impact of the fractal roughness parameter G and fractal dimension D on the contact stiffness was also discussed, and the results showed that the rougher the surface became, corresponding to a smaller value of D and a larger value of G , the smaller the contact stiffness was.