Efficacy of Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing for Patients with Posttraumatic-Stress Disorder: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

[[incitationindex]]SCI[[booktype]]電子

Yin-yang Balance Therapy on Regulating Cancer Stem Cells

AbstractsResearches have shown that cancer stem cells, regulated by the niche where they reside, are the roots of oncogenesis, relapse and metastasis. To date, very few treatments have targeted on cancer stem cells. The authors study that the regulated factors in the niche share the characteristics of yin-yang in the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, which has confirmed its therapeutic effects in the prevention and treatment of cancer. So the authors presume that the mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine on the prevention and treatment of cancer may be related to the yin-yang balance of the niche of cancer stem cells

Polythiophenes comprising conjugated pendantstoward long-term air-stable inverted polymer solar cellswith high open circuit voltages

A series of polythiophenes (PTs) functionalized with bulky conjugated side chains comprising tert-butylsubstituted carbazole (tCz) as an electron donor pendant and bisbenzothiazolylvinyl (DBT) as anelectron acceptor pendant were synthesized via Stille copolymerization for polymer solar cell (PSC)applications. We use the descriptors PTtCz, PT(tCz)0.9(DBT)0.1, PT(tCz)0.64(DBT)0.36, PT(tCz)0.45(DBT)0.55,and PTDBT to identify each of these conjugated polymers, with the names denoting the compositionsof the bulky pendants. The tunable energy levels of the PTs were accomplished by incorporating bothtCz as a donor pendant and DBT as an acceptor pendant, while retaining the low-lying HOMO levels( 5.26 to 5.39 eV). Furthermore, lower bandgaps were observed for the DBT-derived PTs because ofstronger donor–p–acceptor characteristics and more efficient intramolecular charge transfer.Conventional PSCs were fabricated by spin-coating the blend of each PT and the fullerene derivative(PC71BM). The conventional PSC devices exhibited high open circuit voltages (Voc) of around 0.79–0.91 V. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the PSCs based on PTtCz : PC71BM (w/w ¼ 1 : 2.5)reached 2.48% with a Voc of 0.91 V, short circuit current (Jsc) of 6.58 (mA cm 2) and fill factor (FF) of41% under the illumination of AM1.5, 100 mW cm 2. Furthermore, a PTtCz/PC71BM-based inverted PSCwith ZnOx and MoO3 as an electron extraction layer and a hole extraction layer respectively was capableof retaining ca. 80% of its original efficiency after storage under ambient conditions (withoutencapsulation) for 1032 h, according to the ISOS-D-1 shelf protocol. The highly durable inverted PSCaccompanied by a large Voc value was achieved for the PT-type polymers

Sex-Specific Correlations of Individual Heterozygosity, Parasite Load, and Scalation Asymmetry in a Sexually Dichromatic Lizard

Heterozygosity-fitness correlations (HFCs) provide insights into the genetic bases of individual fitness variation in natural populations. However, despite decades of study, the biological significance of HFCs is still under debate. In this study, we investigated HFCs in a large population of the sexually dimorphic lizard Takydromus viridipunctatus (Lacertidae). Because of the high prevalence of parasitism from trombiculid mites in this lizard, we expect individual fitness (i.e., survival) to decrease with increasing parasite load. Furthermore, because morphological asymmetry is likely to influence individuals\u27 mobility (i.e., limb asymmetry) and male biting ability during copulation (i.e., head asymmetry) in this species, we also hypothesize that individual fitness should decrease with increasing morphological asymmetry. Although we did not formally test the relationship between morphological asymmetry and fitness in this lizard, we demonstrated that survival decreased with increasing parasite load using a capture-mark-recapture data set. We used a separate sample of 140 lizards to test the correlations between individual heterozygosity (i.e., standardized mean d2 and HL based on 10 microsatellite loci) and the two fitness traits (i.e., parasite load and morphological asymmetry). We also evaluated and excluded the possibility that single-locus effects produced spurious HFCs. Our results suggest male-only, negative correlations between individual heterozygosity and parasite load and between individual heterozygosity and asymmetry, suggesting sex-specific, positive HFCs. Male T. viridipunctatus with higher heterozygosity tend to have lower parasite loads (i.e., higher survival) and lower asymmetry, providing a rare example of HFC in reptiles

Successful treatment of an early invasive oral squamous cell carcinoma with topical 5-aminolevulinic acid-mediated photodynamic therapy

Our previous studies showed successful treatment of a series of 36 oral verrucous hyperplasia lesions and of an extensive oral verrucous carcinoma with a topical 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA)-mediated photodynamic therapy (topical ALA-PDT) protocol (with a fluence rate of 100 mW/cm2 and a light exposure dose of 100 J/cm2) using a 635-nm light-emitting diode (LED) light source. In this case report, we tested whether an enhanced topical ALA-PDT protocol (with a fluence rate of 200 mW/cm2 and a light exposure dose of 200 J/cm2) could be used to treat an early invasive oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) with a verrucous appearance of the left lower posterior edentulous alveolar mucosa of a 67-year-old male former areca-quid chewer and ex-smoker. The main verrucous lesion showed complete regression after eight treatments with PDT. However, 10 extra treatments were needed to eradicate the multiple residual leukoplakia lesions on the edentulous alveolar mucosa. Moderate to severe post-PDT pain was noted during the initial eight treatments, and the patient needed analgesics (codeine phosphate, 30 mg three times daily) to control the pain. No recurrence of the OSCC lesion was found after a follow-up period of 4 years. We suggest that our enhanced topical ALA-PDT protocol may have good potential to be used as a treatment of choice for a superficially invasive OSCC without regional or distant metastasis before the commencement of other effective therapies