Smoking, Alcohol, and Betel Quid and Oral Cancer: A Prospective Cohort Study

We aimed to investigate the association between smoking, alcoholic consumption, and betel quid chewing with oral cancer in a prospective manner. All male patients age ≥18 years who visited our clinic received an oral mucosa inspection. Basic data including personal habits were also obtained. A multivariate logistic regression model was utilized to determine relevant risk factors for developing oral cavity cancer. A total of 10,657 participants were enrolled in this study. Abnormal findings were found in 514 participants (4.8%). Three hundred forty-four participants received biopsy, and 230 patients were proven to have oral cancer. The results of multivariate logistic regression found that those who smoked, consumed alcohol, and chewed betel quid on a regular basis were most likely to develop cancer (odds ratio: 46.87, 95% confidence interval: 31.84–69.00). Therefore, habitual cigarette smokers, alcohol consumers, and betel quid chewers have a higher risk of contracting oral cancer and should receive oral screening regularly so potential oral cancer can be detected as early as possible

Hypolipidemic Effects of Three Purgative Decoctions

In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), purgation is indicated when a person suffers an illness due to the accumulation of evil internal heat. Obese individuals with a large belly, red face, thick and yellow tongue fur, constipation, and avoidance of heat are thought accumulates of evil internal heat, and they are also treated with purgatives such as Ta-Cheng-Chi-Tang (TCCT), Xiao-Chen-Chi-Tang (XCCT), and Tiao-Wei-Chen-Chi-Tang (TWCCT) by TCM doctors. In previous studies, our group found that TCCT has potent anti-inflammatory activity, and that XCCT is an effective antioxidant. Since rhubarb is the principle herb in these three prescriptions, we will first present a thorough review of the literature on the demonstrated effect (or lack of effect) of rhubarb and rhubarb-containing polyherbal preparations on lipid and weight control. We will then continue our research with an investigation of the anti-obesity and lipid-lowering effect of TCCT, XCCT, TWCCT, and rhubarb extracts using two animal models. TWCCT lowered the serum triglyceride concentration as much as fenofibrate in Triton WR-1339-treated mice. Daily supplementation with XCCT and TWCCT significantly attenuated the high-fat-diet-induced hypercholesterolemia in rats. In addition, TWCCT also significantly lowered the high-fat-diet-induced hypertriglycemia. Although feeding high-fat diet rats with these extracts did not cause loose stools or diarrhea or other deleterious effects on renal or hepatic function. None of these extracts lowered the body weight of rats fed on high-fat diet. In conclusion, the results suggest that XCCT and TWCCT might exert beneficial effects in the treatment of hyperlipidemia

Korean Red Ginseng Improves Blood Pressure Stability in Patients with Intradialytic Hypotension

Introduction. Intradialytic hypotension (IDH) is a common complication during hemodialysis which may increase mortality risks. Low dose of Korean red ginseng (KRG) has been reported to increase blood pressure. Whether KRG can improve hemodynamic stability during hemodialysis has not been examined. Methods. The 8-week study consisted of two phases: observation phase and active treatment phase. According to prehemodialysis blood pressure (BP), 38 patients with IDH were divided into group A (BP ≥ 140/90 mmHg, n = 18) and group B (BP < 140/90 mmHg, n = 20). Patients were instructed to chew 3.5 gm KRG slices at each hemodialysis session during the 4-week treatment phase. Blood pressure changes, number of sessions disturbed by symptomatic IDH, plasma levels of vasoconstrictors, blood biochemistry, and adverse effects were recorded. Results. KRG significantly reduced the degree of blood pressure drop during hemodialysis (P < 0.05) and the frequency of symptomatic IDH (P < 0.05). More activation of vasoconstrictors (endothelin-1 and angiotensin II) during hemodialysis was found. The postdialytic levels of endothelin-1 and angiotensin II increased significantly (P < 0.01). Conclusion. Chewing KRG renders IDH patients better resistance to acute BP reduction during hemodialysis via activation of vasoconstrictors. Our results suggest that KRG could be an adjuvant treatment for IDH

Transcriptomic analyses of regenerating adult feathers in chicken

Transcriptome Expression Data. Table of mapped reads to Galgal4 transcripts for all 15 data sets. FPKM (Fragments per kilobase of exon per million fragments mapped): normalized transcript abundance values for each gene in the indicated tissues. (CSV 1314 kb

Non-Thermal Emergence of an Orbital-Selective Mott Phase in FeTe1−x_{1-x}Sex_x

Electronic correlation is of fundamental importance to high temperature superconductivity. Iron-based superconductors are believed to possess moderate correlation strength, which combined with their multi-orbital nature makes them a fascinating platform for the emergence of exotic phenomena. A particularly striking form is the emergence of an orbital selective Mott phase, where the localization of a subset of orbitals leads to a drastically reconstructed Fermi surface. Here, we report spectroscopic evidence of the reorganization of the Fermi surface from FeSe to FeTe as Se is substituted by Te. We uncover a particularly transparent way to visualize the localization of the $d_{xy}$ electron orbital through the suppression of its hybridization with the more coherent $d$ electron orbitals, which leads to a redistribution of the orbital-dependent spectral weight near the Fermi level. These noteworthy features of the Fermi surface are accompanied by a divergent behavior of a band renormalization in the $d_{xy}$ orbital. All of our observations are further supported by our theoretical calculations to be salient spectroscopic signatures of such a non-thermal evolution from a strongly correlated metallic phase towards an orbital-selective Mott phase in FeTe$_{1-x}$Se$_x$ as Se concentration is reduced.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Measurement of t(t)over-bar normalised multi-differential cross sections in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV, and simultaneous determination of the strong coupling strength, top quark pole mass, and parton distribution functions

Peer reviewe

An embedding technique to determine ττ backgrounds in proton-proton collision data

An embedding technique is presented to estimate standard model tau tau backgrounds from data with minimal simulation input. In the data, the muons are removed from reconstructed mu mu events and replaced with simulated tau leptons with the same kinematic properties. In this way, a set of hybrid events is obtained that does not rely on simulation except for the decay of the tau leptons. The challenges in describing the underlying event or the production of associated jets in the simulation are avoided. The technique described in this paper was developed for CMS. Its validation and the inherent uncertainties are also discussed. The demonstration of the performance of the technique is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions collected by CMS in 2017 at root s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 41.5 fb(-1).Peer reviewe