Pharmacological Monitoring of Capecitabine in a Gastric Cancer Patient with Hyperbilirubinemia

Objective: To examine therapeutic drug monitoring in managing hyperbilirubinemia caused by capecitabine in patients with gastric adenocarcinoma with extensive liver metastases. Results: The initial liver function tests showed an elevation of transaminases (aspartate amino transferase 615 UI/l, alanine aminotransferase 385.9 UI/l), hyperbilirubinemia (total bilirubin at 246.1 μmol/l), and alkaline phosphatase at 694.6 UI/l. We initiated capecitabine based combination chemotherapy, and the clinical pharmacist conducted a full-course medication monitoring of the patient’s treatment including design of individualized dosing regimens and monitoring of bilirubin, infection, cancer pain, parenteral nutrition support and adverse events. After 21 days of supervision by clinical pharmacist and clinicians, the patient’s bilirubin and transaminase decreased progressively, with aspartate aminotransferase, total bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase falling back to 57 UI/l, 69.8 μmol/l, 307.2 UI/l, respectively. The patient’s condition improved significantly at the time of discharge, with the jaundice subsided, and the bloating relieved. Conclusion: Due to adverse reactions, capecitabine requires medication monitoring during use. The relationship between effectiveness and adverse effects is controversial. Adverse reactions should not be the sole criterion for the use of drugs. Clinical pharmacists can improve the safety and effectiveness of patients’ medications and promote rational drug use by monitoring patients, which may be useful to help the doctors identify the high-risk patients for taking efficient treatment strategy decisions.

Polymer dispersed ionic liquid electrolytes with high ionic conductivity for ultrastable solid-state lithium batteries

Solid polymer electrolytes(SPEs)have emerged as one of the most promising candidates for building solid-state lithium batteries due to their excellent flexibility,scalability,and interfacial compatibility with electrodes.However,the low ionic conductivity and poor cyclic stability of SPEs do not meet the requirements for practical applications of lithium batteries.Here,a novel polymer dispersed ionic liquid-based solid polymer electrolyte(PDIL-SPE)is fabricated using the in situ polymerization-induced phase separation(PIPS)method.The as-prepared PDIL-SPE possesses both outstanding ionic conductivity(0.74 mS cm^(-1) at 25℃)and a wide electrochemical window(up to 4.86 V),and the formed unique three-dimensional(3D)co-continuous structure of polymer matrix and ionic liquid in PDIL-SPE can promote the transport of lithium ions.Also,the 3D co-continuous structure of PDIL-SPE effectively accommodates the severe volume expansion for prolonged lithium plating and stripping processes over 1000 h at 0.5 mA cm^(-2) under 25℃.Moreover,the LiFePO_(4)//Li coin cell can work stably over 150 cycles at a 1 C rate under room temperature with a capacity retention of 90.6%from 111.1 to 100.7 mAh g^(-1).The PDIL-SPE composite is a promising material system for enabling the ultrastable operation of solid-state lithium-metal batteries.

Relationship between nerve injury-induced protein gene 2 polymorphism and stroke in Chinese Han population

The aim of present study was to investigate the relationship between nerve injury-induced protein 2 （NINJ2） gene polymorphism and stroke in Chinese Han population. Fifty-two patients with large-artery atherosclerosis （LAA） infarction, 85 patients with small-artery occlusion lacunar （SAO） infarction, 50 patients with intracerebral hemorrhage （ICH） and 66 controls were included. Genotypes and alleles frequencies of the two single nucleotide polymorphisms （SNPs） of NINJ2 among different groups were analyzed and compared. In regard to rs12425791, the frequencies of the AG and AA＋AG genotypes of the LAA and SAO groups were significantly higher than those in the control group; the frequency of the A allele of the SAO group was significantly higher than that of the control group. In regard to rs11833579, there were not any significant differences between the case and the control groups. The SNP rs12425791 is significantly associated with ischemic stroke, and the A allele increases the susceptibility to stroke. The SNP rs11833579 is not significantly associated with stroke.

Kartogenin induces cartilage-like tissue formation in tendon–bone junction

Tendon-bone junctions （TBJs） are frequently injured, especially in athletic settings. Healing of TBJ injuries is slow and is often repaired with scar tissue formation that compromises normal function. This study explored the feasibility of using kartogenin （KGN）, a biocompound, to enhance the healing of injured TBJs. We first determined the effects of KGN on the proliferation and chondrogenic differentiation of rabbit bone marrow stromal cells （BMSCs） and patellar tendon stern/progenitor cells （PTSCs） in vitro. KGN enhanced cell proliferation in both cell types in a concentration-dependent manner and induced chondrogenic differentiation of stem cells, as demonstrated by high expression levels of chondrogenic markers aggrecan, collagen II and Sox-9. Besides, KGN induced the formation of cartilage-like tissues in cell cultures, as observed through the staining of abundant proteoglycans, collagen II and osteocalcin. When injected into intact rat patellar tendons in vivo, KGN induced cartilage-like tissue formation in the injected area. Similarly, when KGN was injected into experimentally injured rat Achilles TBJs, wound healing in the TBJs was enhanced, as evidenced by the formation of extensive cartilage-like tissues. These results suggest that KGN may be used as an effective cell-free clinical therapy to enhance the healing of injured TBJs.

高绝缘导热环氧塑封料的制备及表征

采用硅烷偶联剂γ-氨丙基三乙氧基硅烷(KH550)对硅微粉进行表面改性,并利用傅里叶变换红外光谱、热重分析仪进行表征。结果表明,KH550在硅微粉上的接枝率为0.4%。与未改性硅微粉填充的环氧塑封料相比,改性硅微粉填充的环氧塑封料的导热系数、体积电阻率、介电强度、熔融指数明显提高。当填充质量分数为80%时,改性硅微粉填充环氧塑封料的导热系数、体积电阻率、介电强度,熔融指数分别达到1.55 W/(m·K),4.2×10^15Ω·cm,26.2 kV/mm,7.4 g/10 min。

Pretreatment with simvastatin upregulates expression of BK-2R and CD11b in the ischemic penumbra of rats

Inhibitors of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductases, collectively known as statins, have been shown to minimize cerebral ischemic events in patients. We assessed the mechanisms of simvastatin pretreatment in preventing cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats using a model of middle cerebral artery occlusion（MCAO）.Rats were pretreated with simvastatin 14 days prior to MCAO induction. At 3, 24, and 48 hours after reperfusion,bradykinin levels in the ischemic penumbra were assayed by ELISA, mRNA levels of bradykinin B2 receptors（BK-2Rs） and CD11b were measured by fluorescent quantitative real-time PCR（RT-PCR）, and co-expression of microglia and BK-2Rs was determined by immunofluorescence. Simvastatin had no effect on bradykinin expression in the ischemic penumbra at any time point. However, the levels of BK-2R and CD11b mRNA in the ischemic penumbra,which were significantly decreased 3 hours after ischemia-reperfusion, were increased in simvastatin-pretreated rats.Moreover, the co-expression of BK-2Rs and microglia was confirmed by immunofluorescence analysis. These results suggest that the beneficial effects of simvastatin pretreatment before cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats may be partially due to increased expression of BK-2R and CD11b in the ischemic penumbra.

具有挡板的管流中Karman涡街的并行格子Boltzmann模拟

本文应用格子Boltzmann方法对具有挡板二维管道中的Karman涡街进行了数值模拟,采用并行计算模式得到了在不同雷诺数不同时间步的情况下的涡线图,计算结果较好地再现了已有的数值结果。

No-Reference Quality Assessment of Enhanced Images

Image enhancement is a popular technique,which is widely used to improve the visual quality of images.While image enhancement has been extensively investigated,the relevant quality assessment of enhanced images remains an open problem,which may hinder further development of enhancement techniques.In this paper,a no-reference quality metric for digitally enhanced images is proposed.Three kinds of features are extracted for characterizing the quality of enhanced images,including non-structural information,sharpness and naturalness.Specifically,a total of 42 perceptual features are extracted and used to train a support vector regression(SVR) model.Finally,the trained SVR model is used for predicting the quality of enhanced images.The performance of the proposed method is evaluated on several enhancement-related databases,including a new enhanced image database built by the authors.The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and advantage of the proposed metric.

Practice and Exploration of Rural Sci-tech Service Supermarket:A Case Study of Jurong Economic Forest and Fruit Industrial Branch

The rural sci-tech supermarket in Jiangsu Province is an innovative model of rural sci-tech service. With reference to the concept of modern commodity supermarket, this model integrates variety, technology and achievement information into the sci-tech supermarket platform, provides various agricultural sci-tech services, and improves farmers recognition and acceptance of science and technology, so as to accelerate conversion of scientific and technological achievements and demonstration and popularization of new varieties, new technologies and new models. This paper analyzes practice of Jurong economic forest and fruit industrial branch and presents recommendations for building Jiangsu rural sci-tech service supermarket.

Bifurcation of Bingham Streamline Topologies in Rectangular Double-Lid-Driven Cavities

Numerical simulation of the bifurcation of Bingham fluid streamline topologies in rectangular double-lid-driven cavity, with varying aspect (height to width) ratio A, is presented. The lids on the top and bottom move at the same speed but in opposite directions so that symmetric flow patterns are generated. Similar to the Newtonian case, bifurcations occur as the aspect ratio decreases. Special to Bingham fluids, the non-Newtonian indicator, Bingham number B, also governs the bifurcation besides the bifurcation parameter A.

An Analysis of Clinical Characters of Inpatients with Infection in the Department of Endocrinology

Objective:To analyze the clinical characters of 812 inpatients with infection in the Department of Endocrinology.Methods:Retrospective exhibition of these patients'clinical characters included undergoing diseases,infectious organs,history illness,blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin(HbA1C),biochemical indicators,pathogens training description and results,medical imagines,antibiotic utilization,length of stay and hospital costs,final diagnosis and situations.Results:Non-diabetic patients accounted for 176(21.67%),who were the cases of untreated well hyperthyroidism,mainly suffered with respiratory tract infection.Diabetic patients accounted for 636(78.33%).In the type2 diabetes patients 376(59.12)suffered with urinary tract infection.192(30.19%)suffered with respiratory system infection,124(19.50%)were accompanied with diabetic foot infection,which had 74(59.67%)patients with HbA1C>9.0%.Statistical comparisons showed that the days of antibiotic use and average length of stay in hospital per capita in patients with HbA1C≥8%were more than ones with HbA1C<8%in those with diabetic infections(P<0.01).The days of antibiotic use per capita in patients with HbA1C>9%were more than ones with HbA1C<7%in those with diabetic foot infections(P<0.01).Conclusion:Endocrine diseases lack rigid and effective long-term control,which may result in the complications involved with urinary tract,respiratory tract and infections in other organs.The time of hospitalization per capita and the duration of antibiotic use rise are longer in diabetic patients with poor blood sugar control and diabetic foot infection.

Chlorine substitution-dependent toxicities of polychlorinated biphenyls to the earthworm Eisenia fetida in soil

Polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs)with different chlorine substitution patterns often coexist in e-waste-processing sites.However,the single and combined toxicity of PCBs to soil organisms and the influence of chlorine substitution patterns remain largely unknown.Herein,we evaluated the distinct in vivo toxicity of PCB28(a trichlorinated PCB),PCB52(a tetrachlorinated PCB),PCB101(a pentachlorinated PCB),and their mixture to earthworm Eisenia fetida in soil,and looked into the underlining mechanisms in an in vitro test using coelomocytes.After a 28-days exposure,all PCBs(up to 10 mg/kg)were not fatal to earthworms,but could induce intestinal histopathological changes and microbial community alterations in the drilosphere system,along with a significant weight loss.Notably,pentachlorinated PCBs with a low bioaccumulation ability showed greater inhibitory effects on the growth of earthworm than lowly chlorinated PCBs,suggesting that bioaccumulation was not the main determinant of chlorine substitution-dependent toxicity.Furthermore,in vitro assays showed that the highly chlorinated PCBs induced a high-percentage apoptosis of eleocytes in the coelomocytes and significantly activated antioxidant enzymes,indicating that the distinct cellular vulnerability to lowly/highly chlorinated PCBs was the main contributor to the PCBs toxicity.These findings emphasize the specific advantage of using earthworms in the control of lowly chlorinated PCBs in soil due to their high tolerance and accumulation ability.

Inhibiting autophagy enhances sulforaphane-induced apoptosis via targeting NRF2 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Sulforaphane(SFN), a natural anti-tumor compound from cruciferous vegetables, has been reported to induce protective autophagy to cancer cells, which might impair the anti-tumor efficiency of SFN. However, the accurate function and mechanism of SFN inducing autophagy in cancers are still obscure, especially in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC), one of malignancies with high incidence in North China. Here, we mainly explored the potential function of autophagy upon SFN treatment in ESCC and molecular mechanism. We demonstrated that SFN could inhibit cell proliferation and induce apoptosis by activating caspase pathway. Moreover, we found activation of NRF2 pathway by SFN was responsible for the induction of autophagy and also a disadvantage element to the anti-tumor effects of SFN on ESCC, indicating that SFN might induce protective autophagy in ESCC. We, therefore,investigated effects of autophagy inhibition on sensitivity of ESCC cells to SFN and found that chloroquine(CQ) could neutralize the activation of SFN on NRF2 and enhance the activation of SFN on caspase pathway, thus improved the anti-tumor efficiency of SFN on ESCC in vitro and in vivo. Our study provides a preclinical rationale for development of SFN and its analogs to the future treatment of ESCC.

RICTOR/mTORC2 affects tumorigenesis and therapeutic efficacy of mTOR inhibitors in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Dysregulation of mTORCl/mTORC2 pathway is observed in many cancers and mTORC1 inhibitors have been used clinically in many tumor types;however,the mechanism of mTORC2 in tumorigenesis is still obscure.Here,we mainly explored the potential role of mTORC2 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC)and its effects on the sensitivity of cells to mTOR inhibitors.We demonstrated that RICTOR,the key factor of mTORC2,and p-AKT(Ser473)were excessively activated in ESCC and their overexpression is related to lymph node metastasis and the tumor-node-metastasis(TNM)phase of ESCC patients.Furthermore,we found that mTORCl/mTORC2 inhibitor PP242 exhibited more efficacious anti-proliferative effect on ESCC cells than mTORC1 inhibitor RAD001 due to RAD001-triggered feedback activation of AKT signal.Another,we demonstrated that down-regulating expression of RICTOR in ECa109 and EC9706 cells inhibited proliferation and migration as well as induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis.Noteworthy,knocking-down stably RICTOR significantly suppresses RAD001-induced feedback activation of AKT/PRAS40 signaling,and enhances inhibition efficacy of PP242 on the phosphorylation of AKT and PRAS40,thus potentiates the antitumor effect of RAD001 and PP242 both in vitro and in vivo.Our findings highlight that selective targeting mTORC2 could be a promising therapeutic strategy for future treatment of ESCC.

Heterocyclic Carbene-Catalyzed Hydride Transfer in the Hydroboration of Carbonyl Compounds

N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC) enabled the highly efficient catalytic hydroboration of a wide range of ketones and aldehydes under mild conditions,and a new mechanism of catalytic hydroboration reaction which involves direct hydride transfer is proposed.

BCAT1 promotes lung adenocarcinoma progression through enhanced mitochondrial function and NF-κB pathway activation

Lung cancer is one of the most prevalent and malignant cancers,among which lung adenocarcinoma(LUAD)accounts for the majority and remains a major cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide(Cui et al.,2019).Despite the growing intensity of research on the pathobiology and progression of lung cancer and the fact that many genes have been identified as potential drivers and targets for therapy(Luo et al.,2019;Zhang et al.,2019),the treatment and prognosis of lung cancer patients have hardly improved.Therefore,this study aimed to investigate the precise mechanism of lung cancer development and explore efficient diagnostic and therapeutic methods for clinical treatment.

Ecosystem service bundle index construction,spatiotemporal dynamic display,and driving force analysis

Introduction:Existing studies on ecosystem service relationships are mainly qualitative or semi-quantitative assessments,but lack of quantitative exploration of aggregated ecosystem services and their influencing factors.We mapped the distributions of 12 ecosystem services of Zhejiang Province in 2000 and 2015 at the district and county level,analyzed their relationships using Spearman’s correlation analysis,constructed ecosystem service bundle index(ESBI)for each district and county by structural equation model,and then through multiple linear regression,we explored factors associated with ESBI variations.Outcomes:Our results showed that(1)most ecosystem services were spatially clustered.There were synergies between individual ecosystem services in categories of provisioning and regulating services,respectively;(2)our proposed ESBI index system consists of overall index and sub-indices of provisioning,regulating,and cultural services.The higher the ESBI value,the more important the corresponding place for multiple aggregated ecosystem service provision.Compared to 2000,ESBI in 2015 distributed more unevenly,and the average dropped by 3.10%;and(3)the increase of ESBI was associated with its initial value,and four socioeconomic and natural factors;the decrease of ESBI was influenced by the initial value and six key socioeconomic factors.Discussion and Conclusion:Our proposed ESBI system has several advantages(e.g.,scale free,flexible weighting,quantitative and continuous indices for further analyses,and alternative non-monetary solution)in understanding and managing relationships among multiple ecosystem services.

Modern Radiotherapy in the Multidisciplinary Management of Common Cancers

Radiotherapy(RT)is an indispensable treatment for nearly all cancer types.Rapid evolution of technology has progressively increased the safely deliverable radiation dose,minimizing the exposure of uninvolved normal tissue and thus improving the efficacy,safety,and accessibility of radiation therapy.Meanwhile,multidisciplinary team management that aims to define personalized,optimal treatment strategies through shared decision-making between healthcare professionals and patients is a fundamental aspect of high-quality cancer diagnosis and treatment and often includes radiation oncology.How to combine this with other anti-tumor modalities,especially immunotherapy,in the era of modern RT has been increasingly emphasized.Here,in this review,we introduce the innovations in RT technology,and aim to provide an outline of the role of contemporary RT in the multidisciplinary treatment of most common cancers,including non-small cell lung cancer,esophageal cancer,breast cancer,hepatocellular carcinoma,gastric/esophageal-gastric junction cancer,and colorectal cancer,focusing on the main areas of innovation that are conducive to a change toward the personalized application of RT.We also discuss the future research directions for combination with modern RT.