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Dysphagia associated with Parkinson's disease (PD) affects the mortality and quality of life of patients with PD. Avoiding aspiration and maintaining swallowing ability are among the concerns regarding PD care. Therefore, we developed a swallowing supplement for easier swallowing and tolerability in patients with PD. Thirty patients with PD and 50 healthy controls were enrolled and their swallowing function measured using the videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) and several dysphagia scales. The Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale motor scores, Hoehn and Yahr stage, and levodopa doses were evaluated in patients with PD. The VFSS and survey were used to assess the viscosity, color, taste, nutrition, safety, and tolerability of the swallowing supplement. The MMSE score, serum albumin, and hemoglobin levels, and oral conditions were worse in the PD group than in the control group. Compared with controls, patients with PD had significantly lower total and sub-item scores of the swallowing quality of life (swal-QoL). Using commercialized yogurt, the pharyngeal delay time (PDT) and the modified penetration aspiration scale were higher in the PD group than in the control group. The swallowing supplement significantly shortened the PDT and pharyngeal transit time (PTT). Moreover, compared with commercialized yogurt, it improved pharyngeal wall coating, PTT, and aspiration in the videofluoroscopic dysphagia subscales. The survey scores were above average to good in the "easy swallowing" and "pharyngeal residual sense" items and tolerable in the remaining 6 preference items. This swallowing supplement could prevent aspiration and dysphagia complications in patients with PD.

Although Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with 6-16% of the gastric carcinoma (GC) cases, the effect of EBV infection on the tumorigenesis process and the responsiveness to chemotherapy remain unclear. We compared chemosensitivity of the EBV-positive GC (AGSEBV) and EBV-negative GC (AGS) cells to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Although 5-FU inhibited the growth of both cell lines in a dose- and time-dependent manner, the sensitivity of EBV-positive GC cells to 5-FU was lower than that of EBV-negative GC cells. The cleavage of PARP and caspase-3 was also lower in AGS-EBV cells than in AGS cells following 5-FU treatment. Both the level of Bcl-2 expression and the ratio of Bcl-2/Bax were higher in AGS-EBV than in AGS cells not only at basal state but also following 5-FU treatment. Moreover, p53 and p21 expression was enhanced further by 5-FU in AGS than in AGS-EBV cells. Immunofluorescence assay and Western blot showed that 5-FU induced the expression of EBV-lytic genes including BZLF1, BRLF1, BMRF1 and BHRF1. Our results suggest that latent and lytic EBV infection contributes to the chemoresistance to 5-FU in gastric carcinoma by modulating apoptosis related cellular genes.

Background: The hypermethylation of Alcohol dehydrogenase iron containing 1 (ADHFE1) was recently reported to be associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) differentiation. However, the effect of alcohol on ADHFE1 hypermethylation in CRC is still unclear. Methods: The methylation status and expression levels of ADHFE1 were investigated in primary tumor tissues and adjacent normal tissues of 73 patients with CRC, one normal colon cell line, and 4 CRC cell lines (HT-29, SW480, DLD-1, and LoVo) by quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (QMSP) and real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (real time PCR), respectively. The effect of alcohol on the methylation status of ADHFE1 was analyzed in HT-29, SW480, DLD-1, and CCD18Co cells using QMSP, real-time PCR, immunoblot, and cell proliferation assay. Results: ADHFE1 was hypermethylated in 69 of 73 CRC tissues (95%) compared to adjacent normal tissues (p < 0.05). The mRNA expression of ADHFE1 was significantly reduced in CRC compared to adjacent normal tissues (p < 0.05) and its expression was decreased in the alcohol consumption group (p < 0.05). ADHFE1 was hypermethylated and its expression was decreased in 4 CRC cell lines compared with normal colon cell line. Alcohol induced hypermethylation of ADHFE1, decreased its expression, and stimulated cell proliferation of HT-29, SW480, and DLD-1cells. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that the promoter hypermethylation of ADHFE1 is frequently present in CRC and alcohol induces methylation-mediated down expression of ADHFE1 and proliferation of CRC cells.

In the reverse engineering area, while the reconstruction of surfaces from scanned or digitised data has been developed, a geometric model of an existing object is often unavailable. This paper presents a new approach to the reconstruction of a surface. The proposed methodology finds the basic parts of the surface and blends surfaces between them. Each basic geometric part is divided into triangular patches which are compared using normal vectors for face grouping. Each group is categorised into analytical surfaces such as a part of a cylinder, a sphere or a cone, and plane shapes to represent the basic geometric surface. Each basic geometric surface is then implemented to the infinitive surface (unbounded plane, cylinder, cone, or sphere: cylinder, cone, and sphere are full shapes of analytical surfaces). The infinitive surface's intersections are trimmed by boundary representation model reconstruction. The proposed methodology has several advantages such as computational efficiency and automatic functional modelling in reverse engineering. Reverse engineering should be the 3D equipment of the photocopying process.