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Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the acceptability and efficacy of interactive short message service (SMS) in improving medication adherence in antiretroviral treatment (ART)-naïve individuals living with HIV/AIDS in Hengyang, Hunan, China. Background: SMS via mobile phone has emerged as a potential tool for improving ART adherence. However, most studies used SMS only as a medication reminder, with few studies exploring the effect of comprehensive, interactive SMS. Patients and methods: In a randomized controlled trial, 100 HIV-positive patients on ART for,3 months were randomized into control or intervention arm. Participants in the control group received routine standard instruction for ART medication in the HIV clinics, while the intervention group received 6 months of an SMS intervention in addition to the standard care. A total of 124 text messages within 6 modules were edited, preinstalled, and sent to participants according to personalized schedules. Knowledge (of HIV and HIV medications), self-reported antiretroviral adherence (Visual Analog Scale [VAS] and Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS [CPCRA] Antiretroviral Medication Self-Report), and CD4 count were assessed at baseline and immediate post-intervention. Intervention participants were interviewed after completion of the study about their satisfaction with and acceptability of the SMS intervention. Results: Baseline assessments were comparable between arms. Repeated-measures analysis showed that both HIV-related and ART medication knowledge of the intervention group showed better improvement over time than those of the control group after the intervention (P,0.0001). For the adherence measures, compared with the control group, participants in the intervention group had significantly higher VAS mean score (Z=2.735, P=0.006) and lower suboptimal adherence rate (Z=2.208, P=0.027) at the end of the study. The intervention had no effect on CD4 cell count. Almost all (96%) intervention participants reported satisfaction or high satisfaction with the SMS intervention, with 74% desiring to continue to receive the SMS intervention. The preferred frequency of messages was 1-2 messages per week. Conclusion: An interactive SMS intervention with comprehensive content shows promising efficacy in promoting medication adherence in ART-naïve individuals. Future work might further refine its ability to optimally tailor the intervention for individual preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the changes in body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) and their associations with the prevalence of hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Chinese adults. Design: 2 consecutive population-based crosssectional surveys. Setting: A total of 12 districts and seven counties in Shanghai, China. Participants: 12 329 randomly selected participants of the survey in 2002-2003, and 7423 randomly selected participants of the survey in 2009. All participants were residents of Shanghai aged 35-74 years. Outcome measures: Measured BMI and WC. Previously diagnosed and newly identified hypertension and T2DM by measured blood pressure, fasting and postload glucose. Results: While the participants of the two surveys were comparable in BMI in each age group, the participants of the 2009 survey had significantly larger WC than those of the 2002-2003 survey, with an annual percentage change being higher among participants aged 45- 49 years in men and women. The increase in prevalence of T2DM was observed in all age groups and also appeared more evident in participants aged 45-49 years. The prevalence of hypertension was observed to increase more rapidly in elderly men and middle-aged women. Obesity, both overt and central, was associated with the risk of the two diseases, but BMI was more strongly linked to hypertension while WC appeared more evidently related with T2DM. Conclusions: The prevalence of central obesity and related chronic diseases has been increasing in Shanghai, China. Our findings provide useful information for the projection of the growing burden of T2DM and hypertension in Chinese adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the effects of cold air on catecholamine (CA) levels. The CA levels of patients with cardio-cerebrovascular diseases, healthy people, Wistar rats, and spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) rats were determined before, during, and after cold air activity. The levels of dopamine (DA), norepinephrine (NE), and adrenaline (AD in humans and experimental animals changed in all three periods of cold air activity. The change in DA levels was statistically significant (P<0.05). The DA, NE, and AD levels in the controls and the Wistar rats increased during cold air activity and decreased after cold air activity. The variation in CA levels was not exactly the same between the SHR rats and the cardio-cerebrovascular disease patients. The special meteorological conditions caused by cold air affects CA secretion, which induces the occurrence, development, and outcome of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases. Moreover, the results of the animal experiments could not be directly extrapolated to humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on a study which examined the link between occupational exposure to nickel (Ni) and differential gene expression profiles in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of Ni-refinery workers in China. Affymetrix exon rays were used in gene expression profiling. It concludes that occupational exposure to Ni is associated with differential gene expression profiles in subjects' PBMCs.

Background: Glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) has been applied to identify type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in the U.S. and European countries. It has not been used in China mainly due to lack of a standardized approach to measure HbA1c, short of knowledge about racial-specific standard and deficiency of an optimal cut-off point. Methods: To evaluate combination of HbA1c and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) in diagnosing T2DM in Chinese adults, a multistage sampling cross-sectional study was conducted in Shanghai, China, in 2009. The FPG measurement, HbA1c assay, and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) were performed in 6,661 Chinese adults (3057 men, 3604 women) who had no prior history of diabetes to identify unrecognized T2DM. Results: A total of 454 participants were identified as T2DM based on the 1999 World Health Organization (WHO) diagnostic criteria. Of these patients, 239 were detected using an FPG ≥ 7.0 mmol/l and 141 were further identified using an HbA1c ≥ 43 mmol/mol (6.1%), achieving a sensitivity of 83.7% and a specificity of 89.3% for combining use of FPG and HbA1c. In subjects at high risk of diabetes, the combining use of FPG and HbA1c produced a higher sensitivity and an improved positive predictive value (PPV), and had a satisfactory specificity and negative predictive value (NPV). Conclusions: The combining use of FPG and HbA1c is a potential screening and diagnosis approach for T2DM in Chinese adults, especially among those at high risk of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is desirable that remote isolated communities can become self-sufficient in electric power through harnessing energy from renewable energy sources. Taking advantage of the high controllability of voltage source converters, a scheme to realize a stand-alone AC grid for such an isolated community is examined. It uses voltage source converter stations as frequency changers. The multi-infeed voltage source converter design succeeds in the dual roles of maintaining the grid AC voltage while balancing real power generation and loads using local information only. The stability of the power system under the proposed control scheme, as affected by the control coefficients and operating conditions, is investigated. An analysis of eigenvalue sensitivity to control parameters is also included. Proof of the concept is carried by digital simulation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE--Our objective was to determine the secular trend in prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Shanghai, China. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS--Two consecutive population-based surveys for type 2 diabetes were conducted in randomly selected adults aged 35-74 years in Shanghai in 2002-2003 (n = 12,329) and in 2009 (n = 7,423). Diagnosed type 2 diabetes was determined based on self-report, whereas those undiagnosed were identified by measured fasting and post-load glucose according to 2009 American Diabetes Association criteria. RESULTS--Age-standardized prevalence of diagnosed and undiagnosed type 2 diabetes increased from 5.1 and 4.6% in 2002-2003 to 7.4 and 5.2% in 2009. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes increased with age and was higher among men and in urban residents in both surveys (P < 0.001). Between the two surveys, the increase in the prevalence was more evident in the rural population (P < 0.001) and appeared more rapid in younger birth cohorts (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS--Our results suggest that Shanghai has experienced an increasing burden of type 2 diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of luminescent inorganic nanocrystals (NCs) doped with rare-earth (RE) ions has attracted increasing interest owing to their distinct optical properties and versatile applications in time-resolved bioassays, multiplex biodetection, DNA hybridization and bioimaging. Hexagonal TbPO4:Eu3 + NCs (10-30 nm) were synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method assisted with oleic acid (OA) surfactants, which exhibit tunable emissions from green to red by varying the concentration of Eu3 + . The Tb3 + -to-Eu3 + energy transfer efficiency observed reaches up to 94%. Different from their bulk counterparts, a new interface-state band (316 nm) in addition to the commonly observed spin-forbidden 4f-5d transition band (265 nm) of Tb3 + was found to be dominant in the excitation spectrum of NCs due presumably to the formation of surface TbPO4/OA complexes, which provides an additional excitation antenna in practical utilization. Two kinds of luminescence sites of Eu3 + in TbPO4 NCs, with the site symmetry of C2 or C1, were identified based on the emission spectra at 10 K and room temperature. Furthermore, the photoluminescence (PL) dynamics of Tb3 + ions in pure TbPO4 NCs have been revealed. Compared to the exponential PL decay in bulk counterparts induced by very fast energy migration, the non-exponential decay from 5D4 of Tb3 + in TbPO4 NCs is mainly attributed to the diffusion-limited energy migration due to more rapid energy transfer from Tb3 + to defects than the energy migration among Tb3 + . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we firstly investigated the germination rate, growth and dry weight of shoots and roots in two sorghum cultivars, Liaoza15 and Longza11, to analysis the physiological responses of sorghum to salt and ABA. We found that Liaoza15 had high salt and ABA tolerance, but Longza11 was hypersensitive to salt and ABA stress during germination and early seedling growth. Secondly, we found that salt-induced ABA accumulation was higher and more sustained in Longza11 than in Liaoza15. Nextly, we analyzed the salt-induced expression of SbABIs in the two sorghum cultivars and AtABIs in wild type Arabidopsis. The result showed that the change in SbABI5 expression in the roots was the most obvious difference between the two cultivars, namely salt did not induce SbABI5 in the roots of Longza11 but increased it by about 3-fold in the roots of Liaoza15. And the salt treatments also increased the expression of AtABI5 in the roots, suggesting changes of SbABI5 expression in the roots is a key step in the ABA signaling pathway to improve salt tolerance in sorghum. Finally, we found that the expression of SbABI5 was strongly induced by relatively low concentrations of ABA rather than by extremely high concentrations of ABA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microdialysis is a powerful in vivo sampling technique for pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) modeling of drugs in pre-clinical and clinical studies. However, the noticeable limitations of previous studies using microdialysis were that animals anesthesia in the whole experiment and the combination of microdialysis and blood sampling for drug and (or) effect detection, which can obviously influence PK and PD behavior of drugs. In this study, a simple blood microdialysis sampling system in freely-moving rats was established for simultaneous study of PK and PD of Shengmai injection (SMI) effect on inducing real-time nitric oxide (NO) release on isoproterenol (ISO) induced myocardial ischemia rats. The LC-MS/MS and HPLC with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD) methods were developed to determine ginsenside Rg1, Rg2, Re, Rf, Rb1, Rd and Rc, the main effective components of SMI, and NO x - , the main oxidation products of NO, in dialysates respectively. Through simultaneous determination of drug concentrations and NO efficacy levels in dialysate, the developed methods were successfully applied to set up concentration-time and effect-time profiles followed by PK-PD modeling of SMI effect on inducing NO release after intravenous administration of 10.8 mL kg -1 SMI in myocardial ischemia rats. The PK-PD modeling characterized the dose-effect relationships of SMI and behaved good prediction ability. The established blood microdialysis in freely-moving rats is an appealing technology for rational PK-PD studies when selecting suitable blood endogenous micromolecule as effect marker., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Total glucosides of peony (TGP), containing the effective components of paeoniflorin (Pae), albiflorin (Alb) and so on, are effective parts of Radix Paeoniae Alba. And it possesses extensive pharmacological actions, one of which is hepatoprotective effect. In recent years, abundant of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics research of TGP in hepatoprotective effects have been performed. However, the relative medicine of TGP in hepatoprotective effect has not been developed for clinical application. In order to provide reference for the development and rational clinical application of TGP, the research progresses of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of TGP in hepatoprotective effect were summarized in this paper. Pharmacokinetics research has clarified the process of absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of TGP in vivo, and liver injury disease can significantly influence its metabolic processes. Pharmacodynamics studies suggested that TGP can protect against acute liver injury, non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD), chronic liver fibrosis and liver cancer. However, the action mechanism and in vivo process about hepatoprotective effects of TGP have not been clearly revealed. How liver injury influences the metabolism of TGP and its integrated regulation through multiple targets need to be further studied. The combined pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics studies should be performed in favour of medicine development and clinical application of TGP in hepatoprotective effects., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.)

Chinese medicinal formulae are the important means of clinical treatment in traditional Chinese medicine. It is urgent to use modern advanced scientific and technological means to reveal the complicated mechanism of Chinese medicinal formulae because they have the function characteristics of multiple components, multiple targets and integrated regulation. The systematic and comprehensive research model of proteomic is in line with the function characteristics of Chinese medicinal formulae, and proteomic has been widely used in the study of pharmacological mechanism of Chinese medicinal formulae. The recent applications of proteomic in pharmacological study of Chinese medicinal formulae in anti-cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, anti-liver disease, antidiabetic, anticancer, anti-rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases were reviewed in this paper, and then the future development direction of proteomic in pharmacological study of Chinese medicinal formulae was put forward. This review is to provide the ideas and method for proteomic research on function mechanism of Chinese medicinal formulae., Competing Interests: The authors of this article and the planning committee members and staff have no relevant financial relationships with commercial interests to disclose., (Copyright© by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.)

Diffuse pulmonary lymphangiomatosis (DPL) is a rare disease that is characterized by diffuse proliferation of abnormal pulmonary lymphatic channels. DPL occurs mostly in children and young adults and often undergoes a progressive clinical course, eventually causing deterioration of the lung. Both the clinical diagnosis and treatment of DPL remain a challenge. Here, we report a case of DPL in a 53-year-old Chinese woman with comprehensive investigations including pulmonary function tests, computer tomography (CT), bronchoscopy and histological examination of the lung biopsy, and review the literature.

Objective: To explore the possible mechanisms underlying cough induced by angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) in patients with hypertension., Methods: 127 patients with hypertension were enrolled to receive ACEI (97 cases prescribed cilazapril and 30 cases prescribed benazepril hydrochloride) for 8 weeks. Patients who had coughed in the period were assigned to the cough group (48 cases) and patients who hadn't coughed were assigned to the non-cough group (79 cases). The serum ACE activity before and after administration of the drugs and the polymorphism of ACE gene (including homozygous-alleles II, DD, and heterozygous ID) were analyzed. Binary logistic regression was used as a statistical method to determine the factors associated with cough., Results: The frequencies of the I alleles and II genotype of ACE gene in the cough group (0.70% and 56.3%) were significantly higher than those in the non-cough group (0.42% and 23.3%, P < 0.05). The mean serum ACE activity before and after administration of the ACEI in the cough group [(26 +/- 6) U/L, (4 +/- 4) U/L] was significantly lower than that in the non-cough group [(33 +/- 8) U/L, (8 +/- 8) U/L, all P < 0.01]. The difference in the range of decrease of serum ACE activity after ACEI between the cough group [(22 +/- 7) U/L] and the non-cough group [(25 +/- 9) U/L] was not significant (P = 0.077). Serum ACE activity before ACEI was highest in the homozygous-alleles DD group [(36 +/- 8) U/L], secondly in the heterozygous ID group [(29 +/- 6) U/L] and the lowest in homozygous-alleles II group [(26 +/- 7) U/L], differences being significant among three groups (P < 0.01). ACEI-related cough showed no relationship with sex, smoking habit and the ACEI used., Conclusions: The serum ACE activity was associated with polymorphism of ACE gene. Cough induced by ACEI was related to I allele and II genotype. There was a relationship between the serum ACE activity before administration of ACEI and cough induced by ACEI.