Ovarian aging is a significant challenge in gynecology, and there is currently no effective treatment for it. However, the medicinal agent Qingxin Zishen decoction (QZD) has shown potential in the ...treatment of ovarian dysfunction. The present study aimed to evaluate the mitochondrial apoptotic mechanism of delayed ovarian aging in QZD in aging rats. The healthy female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (n = 40, 350 ± 20 g) were randomly assigned to different dosage groups and 4-month-old SD rats (n = 10) were assigned to the control group. QZD groups were treated with QZD for four weeks, and ovarian tissues were extracted for mRNA and protein assays to examine the role of the apoptotic pathway in QZD. The results showed that QZD treatment for four weeks significantly increased the mRNA and protein expressions of the anti-apoptotic gene B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and Bcl-2/Bax ratio, as well as downregulated the pro-apoptotic genes Bax, caspase-3, and caspase-9. Moreover, QZD treatment effectively reduced the expression of cytochrome C (cyto-C) and apoptotic protease-activating factor 1 (Apaf-1), both of which are components of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. These changes exhibited a dose-response manner. The findings suggest that QZD might have therapeutic potential in delaying ovarian mitochondrial function decline and in preventing and treating ovarian aging-related diseases by downregulating and upregulating the pro-apoptotic (Bax, caspase-3, caspase-9, cyto-C, Apaf-1) and anti-apoptotic (Bcl-2 and Bcl-2/Bax ratio) genes, respectively.
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•Pro-apoptotic markers were downregulated in the ovaries of rats treated with Qingxin Zishen decoction (QZD).•BCL-2 and Bcl-2/Bax ratio were upregulated in the ovaries of aged rats following QZD administration.•QZD could potentially delay ovarian mitochondrial function decline and be used to treat ovarian aging-related diseases.
Ovarian neuroendocrine carcinoma (O-NEC) is a relatively uncommon neoplasm, and the current knowledge regarding its diagnosis and management is limited. In this series, our objective was to provide ...an overview of the clinicopathological characteristics of the disease by analyzing clinical case data to establish a theoretical foundation for the diagnosis and management of O-NEC.
We included three patients in the present case series, all of whom were diagnosed with primary O-NEC based on pathomorphological observation and immunohistochemistry. Patient 1 was a 62-year-old patient diagnosed with small cell carcinoma (SCC) of the pulmonary type. Post-surgery, the patient was diagnosed with stage II SCC of the ovary and underwent standardized chemotherapy; however, imaging examinations conducted at the 16-month follow-up revealed the existence of lymph node metastasis. Unfortunately, she passed away 21 months after the surgery. The other two patients were diagnosed with carcinoid tumors, one at age 39 and the other at age 71. Post-surgery, patient 2 was diagnosed with a carcinoid in the left ovary, whereas patient 3 was diagnosed with a carcinoid in her right ovary based on clinical evaluation. Neither of the cases received adjuvant therapy following surgery; however, they have both survived for 9 and 10 years, respectively, as of date.
Primary O-NECs are rare and of diverse histological types, each of which has its own unique biological features and prognosis. SCC is a neoplasm characterized by high malignancy and a poor prognosis, whereas carcinoid tumors are of lesser malignancy and have a more favorable prognosis.
The casting defects that appear the inside surface of a wet-type cylinder liner (WTCL), such as macrosegregation and shrinkage holes, are important factors that affect the quality of the WTCL ...produced by centrifugal casting. To reduce these defects, a model of centrifugal casting WTCL based on the ProCAST software was constructed in this study, and the simulated result was used to optimize the casting process. The temperature field of the casting WTCL was simulated based on actual solidification, and the solidification process and casting defect were analyzed. Results show that the simulated temperature field is in accordance with the actual process and the casting defects appear in the final solidification zone and inside the sub-surface near the thick-wall side. These defects were later revealed on the surface after machining. The factors that affect the temperature field and the solidification process, such as the cooling-down method, mold structure, coating material, and coating structure, were also analyzed. Based on these analyses, an improved method was proposed.
•The model for a horizontal centrifugal casting is established used ProCAST.•The effects of technological parameters on defect area were investigated.•The difference in coating thickness has a significant influence on the temperature filed.•An optimized schedule was designed to guide the improvement of the actual process.
Polysaccharides present in the glycocalyx and extracellular matrix are highly important for a multitude of functions. Oligo- and polysaccharides-based biomaterials are being developed to mimic the ...glycocalyx, but the spatial functionalization of these polysaccharides represents a major challenge. In this paper, a series of benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide (BTA) based supramolecular monomers is designed and synthesized with mono- (BTA-β-d-glucose; BTA-Glc and BTA-α-d-mannose; BTA-Man) or disaccharides (BTA-β-d-cellobiose; BTA-Cel) at their periphery or a monosaccharide (BTA-OEG4-α-d-mannose; BTA-OEG4-Man) at the end of a tetraethylene glycol linker. These glycosylated BTAs have been used to generate supramolecular assemblies and it is shown that the nature of the carbohydrate appendage is crucial for the supramolecular (co)polymerization behavior. BTA-Glc and BTA-Man are shown to assemble into micrometers long 1D (bundled) fibers with opposite helicities, whereas BTA-Cel and BTA-OEG4-Man formed small spherical micelles. The latter two monomers are used in a copolymerization approach with BTA-Glc, BTA-Man, or ethylene glycol BTA (BTA-OEG4) to give 1D fibers with BTA-Cel or BTA-OEG4-Man incorporated. Consequently, the carbohydrate appendage influences both the assembly behavior and the internal order. Using this approach it is possible to create 1D-fibers with adjustable saccharide densities exhibiting tailored dynamic exchange profiles. Furthermore, hydrogels with tunable mechanical properties can be achieved, opening up possibilities for the development of multicomponent functional biomaterials.
With the increase of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions, it is urgent to develop efficient and environmentally friendly adsorption technology for removing these VOCs. In this study, N-doped ...mesoporous molecular sieve adsorbents were prepared by using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, urea and melamine as templates. The addition of urea and melamine improves the periodicity of mesoporous structure, significantly increases the specific surface area, pore size and pore volume, and modifies the surface properties. The adsorption capacity of N-doped mesoporous molecular sieve adsorbent for acetone is increased by 85% than that of pristine mesoporous silica, and more than 91.5% of the initial adsorption capacity is maintained after five adsorption and desorption cycles. The adsorption process is considered as a multilayer adsorption according to Freundlich models. This N-doped mesoporous molecular sieve is expected to an ideal adsorbent for reducing VOCs emission and protecting the environment.
Streptococcus agalactiae is a major pathogen of tilapia causing significant economic losses for the global aquatic industry yearly. To elucidate the role of cel‐EIIB protein‐mediated ...phosphotransferase systems (PTS) in the virulence regulation of S. agalactiae, cel‐EIIB gene deletion in a virulent strain THN0901 was achieved by homologous recombination. The cellobiose utilization of △cel‐EIIB strain was significantly decreased relative to S.a.THN0901 strain incubating in LB with 10 mg/ml cellobiose (p < 0.05). The biofilm formation ability of △cel‐EIIB strain was also significantly decreased when cultured in BHI medium (p < 0.05). Under a lower infection dose, the accumulative mortality of tilapia caused by △cel‐EIIB strain was dramatically decreased (20%), of which S.a.THN0901 strain and △cel‐EIIB::i strain were 53.33% and 50%, respectively. The competition experience using tilapia model indicated the invasion and colonization ability of △cel‐EIIB strain was significantly weaker than that of S.a.THN0901 strain (p < 0.05). Compared to △cel‐EIIB::i strain, the mRNA expression of csrS, csrR, rgfA, rgfC, bgrR and bgrS was significantly downregulated in △cel‐EIIB strain (p < 0.05). In conclusion, cel‐EIIB protein‐mediated cel‐PTS not only contributes to biofilm formation and virulence regulation, but also plays an important role in the invasion and colonization of S. agalactiae.
The number of young patients diagnosed with breast cancer is on the rise. We studied the rate trend of local recurrence (LR) and regional recurrence (RR) in young breast cancer (YBC) patients and ...outcomes among these patients based on molecular subtypes.
A retrospective cohort study was conducted based on data from Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital for patients ≤ 35 years of age with pathologically confirmed primary invasive breast cancer surgically treated between 2006 and 2014. Patients were categorized according to molecular subtypes on the basis of hormone receptor (HR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status. The 5-year rates for LR, RR, and distant metastases (DM) were estimated by Kaplan-Meir statistics. Nelson-Aalen cumulative-hazard plots were used to describe local recurrence- and distant metastasis-free intervals.
We identified 25,284 patients with a median follow-up of 82 months, of whom 1099 (4.3%) were YBC patients ≤ 35 years of age. The overall 5-year LR, RR, and DM rates in YBC patients were 6.7%, 5.1%, and 16.6%, respectively. The LR and RR rates demonstrated a decreasing trend over time (P = 0.028 and P = 0.015, respectively). We found that early-stage breast cancer and less lymph node metastases increased over time (P = 0.004 and P = 0.007, respectively). Patients with HR-/HER2+ status had a significantly higher LR (HR 20.4; 95% CI, 11.8-35.4) and DM (HR 37.2; 95% CI, 24.6-56.3) at 10 years. Breast-conserving surgery (BCS) or mastectomy did not influence rates of LR and RR. In the overall population, the 5-year survival of YBC patients exceeded 90%.
The rates of LR and RR with YBC patients demonstrated a downward trend and the proportion of early-stage breast cancer increased between 2006 and 2014. We report the highest LR rates in this young population were associated with HR-/HER2+ tumors.
Our purpose was to compare long-term survival outcomes and sequelae between child and adult nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in the era of intensity modulated radiation therapy.
Data on 285 patients ...with NPC aged ≤18 years at diagnosis and treated with intensity modulated radiation therapy between January 2004 and November 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. A propensity score matching method was adopted to screen matched adult patients with NPC at a ratio of 1:3. Survival outcomes and treatment-related toxicities between child and adult groups were compared.
In total, 159 children and 477 adult patients with NPC were included in this study. The 5-year overall survival, distant metastasis-free survival, locoregional relapse-free survival, and disease-free survival between children and adults were 89.2% versus 83.6% (P = .144), 88.7% versus 83.5% (P = .124), 96.4% versus 89.1% (P = .013), and 86.5% versus 77.3% (P = .021), respectively. Subgroup analyses revealed that the young age was an independent prognostic factor of overall survival, distant metastasis-free survival, and locoregional relapse-free survival in the advanced N stage (N2-3) group and disease-free survival in the advanced T stage (T3-4) group and N2-3 and stage III-IVA groups. The most common sequela was ototoxicity (68.9%) in child patients and xerostomia (70.8%) in adult patients. Adult survivors had a significantly higher incidence of grade 3 to 4 late toxicities in xerostomia (17.6% vs 8.9%; P = .004), skin dystrophy (9.3% vs 3.7%; P = .022), neck fibrosis (8.3% vs 4.4%; P < .001), and radiation encephalopathy (0.8% vs 0; P = .006). Child survivors were more likely to develop grade 3 to 4 growth retardation and endocrine insufficiency (3.0% vs 0.3%; P = .014).
Child patients with NPC achieved significantly better survival outcomes but fewer late toxicities than adult patients. However, we should pay great attention to growth problems of child survivors.
Humor has been widely used in advertising in recent decades. Various studies found that humor could significantly improve advertising performance. However, most of these studies were conducted in a ...Eastern context and did not consider cultural factors. In a cross-cultural research framework, the current study explored the effects of advertisement characteristics (i.e., brand nationality and humor tactics) on Chinese and United States audiences' attitudes toward humorous advertisements. Results showed that the attitudinal differences between Chinese audiences and United States audiences was not significant at the aggregate level. Instead, the differences lie in an audience's responsiveness to characteristics of the ads. Specifically, while United States audiences showed a strong preference for ads featuring Chinese brands compared to those of United States brands, Chinese audiences did not differentiate them. United States audiences preferred ads using self-enhancing tactics to those using affiliative tactics, whereas, again Chinese audiences did not differentiate. We also explored whether individual differences in cultural values could account for the effect of audience nationality. Results suggest that differences embedded in culture groups, as indicated by audience nationality, could not be explained or substituted by individual variance in humor tolerance and uncertainty avoidance. Limitations and future directions were discussed.
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