Background and Aims
The use of corticosteroids in chronic drug‐induced liver injury (DILI) is an important issue. Our previous randomized controlled trial showed that patients with chronic DILI ...benefited from a 48‐week steroid stepwise reduction (SSR) regimen. However, it remains unclear whether a shorter course of therapy can achieve similar efficacy. In this study, we aimed to assess whether a 36‐week SSR can achieve efficacy similar to that of 48‐week SSR.
Methods
A randomized open‐label trial was performed. Eligible patients were randomly assigned to the 36‐ or 48‐week (1:1) SSR group. Liver biopsies were performed at baseline and at the end of treatment. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with relapse rate (RR). The secondary outcomes were improvement in liver histology and safety.
Results
Of the 90 participants enrolled, 84 (87.5%) completed the trial, and 62 patients (68.9%) were women. Hepatocellular damage was observed in 53.4% of the cohort. The RR was 7.1% in the 36‐week SSR group but 4.8% in the 48‐week SSR group, as determined by per‐protocol set analysis (p = 1.000). Significant histological improvements in histological activity (93.1% vs. 92.9%, p = 1.000) and fibrosis (41.4% vs. 46.4%, p = .701) were observed in both the groups. Biochemical normalization time did not differ between the two groups. No severe adverse events were observed.
Conclusions
Both the 36‐ and 48‐week SSR regimens demonstrated similar biochemical response and histological improvements with good safety, supporting 36‐week SSR as a preferable therapeutic choice (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03266146).
Vancomycin remains a mainstay of the treatment of Gram-positive bacterial infections. It is crucial to accurately determine vancomycin serum concentration for adequate dose adjustment.
To evaluate ...the precision and accuracy of commercial assay techniques for vancomycin concentration and to assess the comparability of vancomycin detection methods in Chinese laboratories.
Human serum samples spiked with known concentrations of vancomycin were provided to laboratories participating in the external quality assessment scheme (EQAS). Assay methods included chemiluminescence, enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and so on. The dispersion of the measurements was analysed and the robust coefficient of variation (rCV), relative percentage difference (RPD) and satisfactory rate for method groups were calculated. Moreover, performance of the Chinese laboratories was assessed.
A total of 657 results from 75 laboratories were collected, including 84 samples from 10 Chinese laboratories. The median rCV, median RPD and satisfactory rates classified by methods ranged from 1.85% to 15.87%, -14.75% to 13.34% and 94.59% to 100.00%, respectively. Significant differences were seen in precision, between kinetic interaction of microparticles in solution (KIMS) and other methods, and in accuracy, between enzyme-multiplied immunoassay technique (EMIT), fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA) and other techniques. Vancomycin detection in China mainly depended on the chemiluminescence and EMIT methods, which tended to result in lower measurements.
Although almost all assays in this study achieved an acceptable performance for vancomycin serum concentration monitoring, obvious inconsistencies between methods were still observed. Chinese laboratories were more likely to underestimate vancomycin concentrations. Thus, recognizing inconsistencies between methods and regular participation in vancomycin EQAS are essential.
Herbal medicine is widely used in Asia as well as the west. Hepatotoxicity is one of the most severe side effects of herbal medicine which is an increasing concern around the world.
Reynoutria ...multiflora
(Thunb.) Moldenke (
Polygonum multiflorum
Thunb., PM) is the most common herb that can cause herb-induced liver injury (HILI). The recent scientific and technological advancements in clinical and basic research are paving the way for a better understanding of the molecular aspects of PM-related HILI (PM-HILI). This review provides an updated overview of the clinical characteristics, predisposing factors, hepatotoxic components, and molecular mechanisms of PM-HILI. It can also aid in a better understanding of HILI and help in further research on the same.
The landslide susceptibility map estimates the quantitative relationship between known landslides and control factors, and it has been used for site selection of infrastructures and geo-disaster ...management. As landslides and rockfalls occur frequently in mountainous areas in Hebei Province, China, due to road construction, the managing government needs to evaluate the vulnerability of geo-disasters in the road slopes to avoid unfavorable site selection for subsequent road constructions. Some typical collector road slopes were used as the study area in Pingshan County, Hebei Province. By analyzing the landslide triggering factors, we determined classification criteria and proposed a comprehensive method for determining the weighting. The respective weighting was calculated by the AHP and CRITIC method, and the combination weighting was determined by the game theory method. The landslide susceptibility of collector roads was evaluated and mapped using the ArcGIS platform. The susceptibility map was validated using landslide field investigation. The validation results show the effectiveness of the susceptibility methods, given the good number of correctly classified landslides. The landslide susceptibility map could have a significant impact on reducing the vulnerability of infrastructure to landslides in Hebei Province, China.
1-Deoxynojirimycin (DNJ, C₆H
NO₄, 163.17 g/mol), an alkaloid azasugar or iminosugar, is a biologically active natural compound that exists in mulberry leaves and
(dayflower) as well as from several ...bacterial strains such as
and
species. Deoxynojirimycin possesses antihyperglycemic, anti-obesity, and antiviral features. Therefore, the aim of this detailed review article is to summarize the existing knowledge on occurrence, extraction, purification, determination, chemistry, and bioactivities of DNJ, so that researchers may use it to explore future perspectives of research on DNJ. Moreover, possible molecular targets of DNJ will also be investigated using suitable in silico approach.
To explore the research hotspot and frontier direction of TCM nursing of insomnia and provide reference for the follow-up study of the optimal scheme of TCM nursing of insomnia.
Insomnia is a common ...sleep-wake disorder, affects 6-10% of adults and was associated with independent higher risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. TCM Nursing Techniques of insomnia has a long history and has shown a definite impact. However, it's still lack of analysis in the field of the most commonly used and effective techniques, as well as the co-morbidities associated with insomnia. Therefore, the database was searched and analyzed to find effective TCM Nursing Techniques for insomnia and related diseases related to insomnia.
Randomized controlled trials on the intervention of TCM Nursing Techniques in insomnia were retrieved from Web of Science Core Collection and imported into CiteSpace 5.6.R5 visualization software. The works of literature were co-cited by keywords authors and institutions for visual analysis, and the co-morbidities associated with insomnia of TCM Nursing Techniques in literature was extracted manually. The symptoms of co-morbidities associated with insomnia were imported into Cytoscape 3.9.0 software and clustered by CytoHubba.
As of October 20, 2021, the literature published in the last 20 years from Web of Science Core Collection was screened, and the publication period of the included literature was from 2004 to 2021. From 2016 to now, the total number of articles has been increasing. A total of 146 articles were included, and the highest production year was 2020. There is little cooperation between states, institutions, and authors. China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) and Hong Kong Polytech University are leading countries and institutions in this area. MYUNGHAENG HUR is the most cited author, and J ALTERN COMPLEM MED is the most cited journal. According to cluster analysis and keyword frequency, auricular therapy, aromatherapy, and acupressure are the three most commonly used techniques. While the top five co-morbidities are fatigue, anxiety, depression, pain and hemodialysis. The three frontier topics and the main research directions are sleep quality, comorbid insomnia and clinical trial design.
We found that acupressure, aromatherapy, and auricular acupoint therapy are the most commonly used nursing methods of TCM to intervene in insomnia. However, these studies have limitations such as small sample size, lack of objectivity in evaluating sleep quality, and high heterogeneity of intervention measures, which are not conducive to forming TCM clinical nursing guidelines. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt objectified sleep quality evaluation methods, select suitable acupoints according to TCM theories, and design multi-center large-sample clinical trials based on the safety principle of randomized blind control. This study provides an in-depth perspective for insomnia research on TCM Nursing Techniques and includes information for follow-up research on TCM Nursing Techniques of insomnia.
Marine isoprene concentrations in the East China Sea were measured during two oceanographic cruises: one from October 10, 2013 to November 21, 2013 and another from May 16, 2014 to June 13, 2014. ...Mean (range) isoprene concentrations in the surface water in the study area were 32.85 (16.31–108.2) pmol L−1 in late spring and 26.83 (11.22–42.13) pmol L−1 in autumn. The isoprene concentrations showed seasonal variation and were higher in late spring, which could be attributable to terrigenous diluted water and seasonal variations of phytoplankton structure. Isoprene and chlorophyll a (Chl-a) concentrations were significantly correlated in late spring and autumn even under complex hydrographic conditions. Isoprene and Chl-a concentrations also exhibited similar variations during a 25 h period and remained high during daytime. Analysis of depth profiles indicated that isoprene concentrations in the water column peaked at the surface layer and gradually decreased with increasing depth. The atmospheric concentration of isoprene (average: 53.4 ppt; range: 14.8–141 ppt) was high in the onshore area but low in the offshore area in late spring. The mean sea-to-air fluxes of isoprene in the East China Sea were 36.12 (late spring) and 48.34 (autumn) nmol m−2 d−1. Results revealed the substantial isoprene emission from surface seawater, which was also a net source of atmospheric isoprene during the study period.
•Biogenic isoprene were determined in the East China Sea (ECS).•The distributions of isoprene were mainly affected by biological conditions.•Isoprene concentration showed diurnal and seasonal variation characteristics.•The ECS was a significant source of the atmospheric isoprene.
The aim of this study is to conduct a retrospective bibliometric analysis of articles about rehabilitation medicine using virtual reality technology. Bibliometrics is one subfield of scientometric. ...It is an effective tool for evaluating research trends in different science fields. A systematic bibliometric search was performed using three academic databases (PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science) between January 1, 1996, and December 31, 2015. Research outputs, countries, institutions, authors, major journals, cited articles, subject area and hot research topics were analyzed to base on bibliometrics methodologies. The retrieval of results was analyzed and described in the form of texts, tables, and graphics. Total of 15,191 articles were identified from three academic databases; and from them 48.32 % published as original articles. The articles were originated from 101 countries and territories. United States was ranked first with 4522 articles, and United Kingdom was on second with 1369 articles. 96.75 % of the articles are published in English. 527 articles were published by the
Lecture Notes In Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes In Artificial Intelligence And Lecture Notes In Bioinformatics.
With regard of the research institutions, Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule Zurich published 208 articles ranked first. In the past 20 years, the research outcome of rehabilitation using virtual reality technology research has increased substantially. This study provides a valuable reference for researchers to understand the overview and present situations in this field.
The fundamental theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) implies that when different diseases have the same pathogen, the syndromes of these individual diseases will be the same. "Treating ...different diseases with the same method" is a TCM principle suggesting that when different diseases have similar pathological changes during different stages of their development, the same method of treatment can be applied. Our study aims to analyze the concept "treating different diseases with the same method" from a molecular perspective, in order to clarify its biological basis and to objectively standardize future TCM syndrome research.
The TCM syndromes Qi deficiency and blood stasis have similar pathogenesis in relation to coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke. We aim to use big data technology and complex network theory to mine the genes specifically relevant to these TCM syndromes. This study aims to explore the correlation between the biological indicators of CHD and stroke from a scientific perspective.
Mining the relevant neuroendocrine-immune (NEI) genes by means of gene entity recognition, complex network construction, network integration, and decomposition to categorize relevant syndrome terms and establish a digital dictionary of gene specifically related to individual diseases. We analyzed the biological basis of "treating different diseases with the same method" from a molecular level using the TCMIP v2.0 platform in order to categorize the TCM syndromes most relevant to CHD and stroke.
We found 46 genes were involved in the TCM syndromes of Qi deficiency and blood stasis of CHD and stroke. The same genes and their molecular mechanism also appeared to be in close relation to inflammatory response, apoptosis, and proliferation.
By using information extraction and complex network technology, we discovered the biological indicators of the TCM syndromes Qi deficiency and blood stasis of CHD and stroke. In the era of big data, our results can provide a new method for the researchers of TCM syndrome differentiation, as well as an effective and specific methodology for standardization of TCM.
•The Cr-edge-doped SnSe2 ZNR exhibits spin-gapless semiconductor with the valence band and conduction band in one spin channel touching each other at Fermi energy.•The 2Cr-edge-doped SnSe2 ZNR ...exhibits half-metallicity with 100% spin polarization of conduction carriers at a wide energy range.
The magnetic and electronic properties of transition metals (TM) (TM = Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni) doped SnSe2 zigzag nanoribbons (ZNRs) are investigated by employing density functional theory. When an Sn atom on edge of ZNR is substituted by Sc atom, the ZNR behaves as bipolar magnetic semiconductors with 100% spin polarization of valence band and conduction band carriers, where the spin-polarization direction can easily be switched by an external electric field. The Cr-doped ZNR is a spin-gapless semiconductor in which the valence band and conduction band in the spin-up channel touch each other at Fermi energy. The others either are usual magnetic semiconductors or nonmagnetic semiconductors. When two Sn atoms on the edge are substituted by Cr atoms, it is observed that the SnSe2 nanoribbon exhibits half-metallic behavior. Either one Cr dopant or two Cr dopants on edge, the nanoribbons have stable 100% spin polarization of conduction carriers at a wide energy range. These findings demonstrate that the Sc-, Cr-, and 2Cr-doped SnSe2 zigzag nanoribbons are excellent candidates for spintronics.
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