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Objective: Chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) is a complex and burdensome disease. However, side effects and compliance issues cannot be ignored due to the long treatment cycle. Numerous studies have confirmed the effectiveness of rutaecarpine (RUT) for treating digestive dysfunction. However, the potential mechanism of action of RUT in the context of CAG treatment remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the therapeutic effects and mechanisms of RUT in 1-methyl-3-nitro-1-nitrosoguanidine-induced CAG using network pharmacology, metabolomics, and traditional pharmacological approaches. Materials and Methods: Pathological tests and ELISA assays were used to observe the therapeutic effects of RUT treatment on CAG. Differential metabolites were identified using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, and metabolism-related target genes were enriched. The same target genes were identified between RUT and CAG diseases. The intersectional target genes were uploaded to Cytoscape for enrichment, and the nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor signaling pathway was selected to validate the mechanisms of the study. Finally, cell pyroptosis status was evaluated using the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling assay, and the expressions of associated proteins of the NOD-like receptor signaling pathway were assessed by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Results: RUT alleviated gastric mucosal damage and significantly downregulated indicators associated with inflammation and gastric atrophy. A total of 29 intersection target genes was identified, and core pathways were obtained. The NOD-like receptor signaling pathway and pyroptosis status were selected to validate the mechanisms of RUT treatment in CAG rats. The expression of NOD-related proteins and downstream factors was downregulated in the RUT group. Conclusions: RUT exerts a pharmacological effect on relieving gastric damage in CAG rats by inhibiting NOD-like receptors and inflammasomes.

CAG is a burdensome and progressive disease. Numerous studies have shown the effectiveness of RUT in digestive system diseases. The therapeutic effects of RUT on MNNG-induced CAG and the potential mechanisms were probed. MNNG administration was employed to establish a CAG model. The HE and ELISA methods were applied to detect the treatment effects. WB, qRT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, TUNEL, and GES-1 cell flow cytometry approaches were employed to probe the mechanisms. The CAG model was successfully established. The ELISA and HE staining data showed that the RUT treatment effects on CAG rats were reflected by the amelioration of histological damage. The qRT-PCR and WB analyses indicated that the protective effect of RUT is related to the upregulation of the SHH pathway and downregulation of the downstream of apoptosis to improve gastric cellular survival. Our data suggest that RUT induces a gastroprotective effect by upregulating the SHH signaling pathway and stimulating anti-apoptosis downstream.

(1) Background: Medical disputes have long been resolved via lawsuits. Alternative dispute resolutions have been promoted for their benefits and win–win results. This study aims to investigate Taiwanese hospital medical dispute capacities and burdens. (2) Methods: This study used 2015 nationwide questionnaire data. The number and value of medical disputes that occurred in 2014 was examined to evaluate hospitals’ capabilities. Poisson regressions were used to determine the impact of coping abilities on the incidence of disputes and the associated compensation. (3) Results: The response rate of the questionnaire was 90%. Hospital features associated with higher medical disputes incidence included those of a scale ≤ 100 or 200–499 and having a dispute–inform process of over 4 h. In contrast, hospitals whose compensation fund was solely based on medical liability insurance reported less medical dispute incidence. The features associated with higher compensation were lack of continuing training and having a dispute–inform process over 4 h. In contrast, hospitals with standard operating procedures for in-hospital mediation and solicitude paid lower compensation. (4) Conclusions: Hospitals with quicker response times experienced fewer medical disputes and paid lower compensation. Dispute coping skills, other than reaction time, were more visible in compensation bargaining, but were not significantly correlated with incidence.

Classic diffusely infiltrating lobular carcinoma has imaging features divergent from the breast cancers originating from the terminal ductal lobular units and from the major lactiferous ducts. Although the term “invasive lobular carcinoma” implies a site of origin within the breast lobular epithelium, we were unable to find evidence supporting this assumption. Exceptional excess of fibrous connective tissue and the unique cell architecture combined with the aberrant features at breast imaging suggest that this breast malignancy has not originated from cells lining the breast ducts and lobules. The only remaining relevant component of the fibroglandular tissue is the mesenchyme. The cells freshly isolated and cultured from diffusely infiltrating lobular carcinoma cases contained epithelial–mesenchymal hybrid cells with both epithelial and mesenchymal properties. The radiologic and histopathologic features of the tumours and expression of the mesenchymal stem cell positive markers CD73, CD90, and CD105 all suggest development in the direction of mesenchymal transition. These hybrid cells have tumour-initiating potential and have been shown to have poor prognosis and resistance to therapy targeted for malignancies of breast epithelial origin. Our work emphasizes the need for new approaches to the diagnosis and therapy of this highly fatal breast cancer subtype.

Previous literature has suggested physical exercise may improve cognitive impairments and mitigate depressive symptoms. However, few studies examined the impact of resistance exercise intervention on cognition and depression in older Chinese Americans. The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the effects of resistance exercise training on cognitive performance and depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older Chinese Americans. The study was a two-arm randomized controlled trial with pre-test/post-test design. Thirty older adults were randomly assigned into the resistance exercise intervention group or the wait-list control group. Participants’ cognitive performance and depressive symptoms were evaluated at baseline (pre-test) and at 12 weeks (post-test). The results showed that there were significant differences between the intervention and control groups on changes in symptoms of depression, global cognitive function, visuospatial/executive functions, attention, language, and orientation. However, there were no significant differences between both groups on changes in naming, abstraction, and delayed recall domains. The findings of this study suggest that resistance exercise training has a positive impact on improving cognitive performance and depressive symptoms in older adults.

Background: Data on the relationship between physical activity (PA) and hemorrhagic stroke (HS) are limited in Asian populations. This population-based longitudinal follow-up study therefore investigates whether PA is associated with a reduced risk of HS in Taiwan.Methods: A total of 58,857 subjects who had participated in the Keelung Community-based Integrated Screening Program between 2005 and 2012 were enrolled. Information about their PA, obtained using questionnaires, was used to categorize them into three groups according to their average weekly time engaged in it: (1) no PA, (2) low PA (

Objectives The role of faecal haemoglobin as a colorectal cancer screening tool has been demonstrated. However, the association between the faecal haemoglobin concentration and the risk of cardiovascular disease events and deaths is still unclear.Design Cohort study design.Setting Population-based organised integrated service screening in Keelung City, TaiwanParticipants A total of 33 355 healthy individuals aged over 40 years who were free of cardiovascular disease at study entry were followed up.Main outcomes and measures Newly diagnosed cardiovascular disease events and deaths.Results After a median follow-up of 2.39 years, a total of 2768 participants developed cardiovascular events, and after a median follow-up of 8.43 years, 317 cases of cardiovascular deaths occurred. The risk of cardiovascular disease increased with baseline faecal haemoglobin in a dose–response manner, yielding a significant elevated risk of cardiovascular disease in parallel with the incremental concentration of faecal haemoglobin (adjusted HRs=1.04, 1.10, 1.40 and 1.23 for faecal haemoglobin concentrations of 1–19, 20–49, 50–99 and ≥100 ng/mL, trend test, p

Earth pressure balance (EPB) shield tunneling in a silty sand stratum is frequently faced with the wear of rotary cutter disc, clogging, or even collapse of workface due to its noncohesive and discrete properties of silty sand material. Soil conditioning is an effective way to reduce the discrete and friction properties of silty sand and to increase its rheology and fluidity, thus improving the cutting performance of EPB machines. However, soil conditioning materials were generally prepared and injected based on past limited field experiences or lab tests which were far from reality. In this article, a ground suitability test system for simulating shield tunneling in a conditioned ground was specially developed and used in a series of tests to investigate the influences of key factors of soil conditioning on the shield cutting performance. In addition, a field experiment of shield tunneling in silty sand of Wuhan Metro was conducted for verification. The major findings were obtained as follows. (1) The proposed test system performed well in simulating and assessing the cutting performance of EPB shield in conditioned soils, and the test results agreed well with the field test. (2) The soil conditioning materials can significantly reduce the cutting torque of shield tunneling in silty sand by up to 60%–70%. (3) The optimal foam and slurry parameters are suggested in the paper for shield tunneling in silty sand, respectively. (4) The test results reveal that the slurry conditioning is better than the foam in decreasing the cutter torque in silty sand. To achieve the same effect of soil conditioning, the injection ratios of foam and slurry should be 45% and 10%, respectively, to achieve the torque reduction ratio of 60%. These findings can provide a practical reference for engineers to determine the best-fit conditioning materials and construction parameters in the silty sand stratum.

This study aimed to examine the association of health attitudes, health appraisals and affective experience to leisure-time physical activity in adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Cross-sectional analyses were conducted with a sample of 274 adults with COPD drawn from the second wave of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS 2) Study. Chi-square analyses and independent t-tests were used to test the differences between physically active and inactive COPD patients (active group versus inactive group) for all study variables. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine the association of each study variable with leisure-time physical activity. The results showed that there were significant differences between the active and inactive groups in terms of age, education, functional limitations, health attitudes, health appraisals and affective experience. After controlling for socio-demographic variables and functional limitations, beliefs about the importance of physical fitness and strength for a good life and comparative health appraisals were significantly related to physical activity. However, neither negative nor positive affect was associated with physical activity status. Modifiable factors, such as health attitudes toward physical fitness and strength, as well as health appraisals, should be considered for developing effective physical activity promotion interventions among COPD patients.

Lung cancer has the highest global mortality rate of any cancer. Although targeted therapeutic drugs are commercially available, the common drug resistance and insensitivity to cisplatin-based chemotherapy, a common clinical treatment for lung cancer, have prompted active research on alternative lung cancer therapies and methods for mitigating cisplatin-related complications. In this study, we investigated the effect of WSG, a glucose-rich, water soluble polysaccharide derived from Ganoderma lucidum, on cisplatin-based treatment for lung cancer. Murine Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC1) cells were injected into C57BL/6 mice subcutaneously and through the tail vein. The combined administration of WSG and cisplatin effectively inhibited tumor growth and the formation of metastatic nodules in the lung tissue of the mice. Moreover, WSG increased the survival rate of mice receiving cisplatin. Co-treatment with WSG and cisplatin induced a synergistic inhibitory effect on the growth of lung cancer cells, enhancing the apoptotic responses mediated by cisplatin. WSG also reduced the cytotoxic effect of cisplatin in both macrophages and normal lung fibroblasts. Our findings suggest that WSG can increase the therapeutic effectiveness of cisplatin. In clinical settings, WSG may be used as an adjuvant or supplementary agent.

Bamboo grid packing (BGP) is a new kind of cooling packing, used in some Chinese hyperbolic cooling towers, which has excellent potential to complement or replace cooling packing made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), cement, and glass fiber-reinforced plastic. For bamboo applications, mechanical properties and service life are matters of concern; this is strongly associated with bamboo’s chemical composition and mass loss. To better understand the mechanics of mechanical property deterioration and service life reduction, this study investigated the effects of hygrothermal environments in cooling towers on the chemical and elemental composition, mass loss, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum, and color changes of BGP. The results showed that BGP that had been in service for nine years in cooling towers exhibited major decreases in content of hemicellulose and benzene-ethanol extractives, as well as a significant increases in the content of α-cellulose and lignin. Exposure to the hygrothermal environment led to a decrease of oxygen content and around 8% mass loss, as well as an increase in carbon content compared to control samples. The hot water flow in cooling towers not only hydrolyzed hemicellulose, but also degraded some functional groups in cellulose and lignin. The lightness (L*) and chromaticity (a* and b*) parameters of the used BGP all decreased, except for the a* value of the outer skin. The total color change (ΔE*) of the inner skin of used BGP exceeded that of the outer skin.

Due to its advantages of good heat-resistance, environmental-friendliness, and low cost, bamboo grid packing (BGP) has become a promising new type of cooling packing. It is being increasingly used in Chinese industrial cooling towers to replace cooling packings made of polyvinyl chloride, cement, and glass fiber reinforced plastic. However, mechanical properties and fungal resistance are a concern for all bamboo applications. In this study, the modulus of rupture (MOR), modulus of elasticity (MOE), density, crystallinity, and environment scanning electron microscope (ESEM) properties were compared between fresh BGPs and those that had been in service for nine years in the cooling towers. The results showed that the MOR, MOE, density, crystallinity, and the crystal size of the used BGPs decreased to some extent, but still met the requirements for normal use in a cooling tower. The ESEM observation showed that the used BGPs were not infected by fungi. The decrease in mechanical properties could be caused by the decrease of density, crystallinity, and the decomposition of the chemical components of bamboo, but not by fungal infection.

BACKGROUND: Small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) affects millions of individuals worldwide. Surveillance of high-risk patients increases the early detection of small HCC.

Understanding the impact of multiple genetic variants and their interactions on the disease penetrance of familial multiple prostate cancer is very relevant to the overall understanding of carcinogenesis. We assessed the joint effect of two loci on rs4242382 at 8q24 and rs10486567 at 7p15.2 to this end. We analyzed the data from a Finnish family-based genetic study, which was composed of 947 men including 228 cases in 75 families, to evaluate the respective effects of the two loci on the disease penetrance; in particular, the occurrence and number of prostate cancer cases within a family were utilized to evaluate the interactions between the two loci under the additive and multiplicative Poisson regression models. The risk alleles A at rs4242382 (OR = 1.14, 95% CI 1.08-1.19, P

BackgroundPrevious studies on the association between tuberculosis and the risk of developing ischemic stroke have generated inconsistent results. We therefore performed a population-based, propensity score-matched longitudinal follow-up study to investigate whether contracting non-central nervous system (CNS) tuberculosis leads to an increased risk of ischemic stroke.MethodsWe used a logistic regression model that includes age, sex, pre-existing comorbidities and socioeconomic status as covariates to compute the propensity score. A total of 5804 persons with at least three ambulatory visits in 2001 with the principal diagnosis of non-CNS tuberculosis were enrolled in the tuberculosis group. The non-tuberculosis group consisted of 5804, propensity score-matched subjects without tuberculosis. The three-year ischemic stroke-free survival rates for these 2 groups were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. The stratified Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate the effect of tuberculosis on the occurrence of ischemic stroke.ResultsDuring three-year follow-up, 176 subjects in the tuberculosis group (3.0%) and 207 in the non-tuberculosis group (3.6%) had ischemic stroke. The hazard ratio for developing ischemic stroke in the tuberculosis group was 0.92 compared to the non-tuberculosis group (95% confidence interval: 0.73-1.14, P = 0.4299).ConclusionsNon-CNS tuberculosis does not increase the risk of subsequent ischemic stroke.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies on the association between migraine and the risk of developing hemorrhagic stroke (HS) have generated inconsistent results. The aim of the present population-based, age- and sex- matched follow-up study was to investigate whether migraine is associated with an increased risk of HS. METHOD: A total of 20925 persons with at least two ambulatory visits in 2001 with the principal diagnosis of migraine were enrolled in the migraine group. The non-migraine group consisted of 104625, age- and sex- matched, randomly sampled subjects without migraine. The two-year HS-free survival rates for these 2 groups were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate the effect of migraine on the occurrence of HS. RESULTS: During the 2 year follow-up, 113 subjects in the migraine group (0.54%) and 255 in the non-migraine group (0.24%) developed HS. The crude hazard ratio (HR) for developing HS in the migraine group was 2.22 compared to the non-migraine group (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.78-2.77, p

OBJECTIVE: The risk of stroke in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) remains controversial. The purpose of this population-based propensity score-matched longitudinal follow-up study was to determine whether there is an increased risk of ischemic stroke after PD. METHODS: We used a logistic regression model that includes age, sex, pre-existing comorbidities and socioeconomic status as covariates to compute the propensity score. A total of 2204 patients with at least two ambulatory visits with the principal diagnosis of PD in 2001 was enrolled in the PD group. The non- PD group consisted of 2204, propensity score-matched subjects without PD. The ischemic stroke-free survival rates of the two groups were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Stratified Cox proportional hazard regression with patients matched on propensity score was used to estimate the effect of PD on the occurrence of ischemic stroke. RESULTS: During the three-year follow-up period, 328 subjects in the PD group and 156 subjects in the non-PD group developed ischemic stroke. The ischemic stroke-free survival rate of the PD group was significantly lower than that of the non-PD group (P