An Overview of PET Radiopharmaceuticals in Clinical Use: Regulatory, Quality and Pharmacopeia Monographs of the United States and Europe

Since 1976, more and more PET radiopharmaceuticals have been developed as the clinical introduction of [18F]FDG for various medical applications. However, few of them could be involved in routinely clinical use in hospitals partly because of restrictions in regulatory and facilities. This chapter aims to provide an overview of PET radiopharmaceuticals that are common manufactured (or prepared) in industry (or hospitals) about regulatory and quality aspects, and further summarize pharmacopeia-listed PET radiopharmaceuticals and their clinical usefulness herein. Particularly, PET radiopharmaceuticals listed in latest United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and/or European Pharmacopeia (EP) are included for this chapter. Finally, this chapter would be helpful in the basic understanding of clinical PET radiopharmaceuticals for physicians or technologists

Enhancing thermoelectric figure-of-merit by low-dimensional electrical transport in phonon-glass crystals

Low-dimensional electronic and glassy phononic transport are two important ingredients of highly-efficient thermoelectric material, from which two branches of the thermoelectric research emerge. One focuses on controlling electronic transport in the low dimension, while the other on multiscale phonon engineering in the bulk. Recent work has benefited much from combining these two approaches, e.g., phonon engineering in low-dimensional materials. Here, we propose to employ the low-dimensional electronic structure in bulk phonon-glass crystal as an alternative way to increase the thermoelectric efficiency. Through first-principles electronic structure calculation and classical molecular dynamics simulation, we show that the $\pi$-$\pi$ stacking Bis-Dithienothiophene molecular crystal is a natural candidate for such an approach. This is determined by the nature of its chemical bonding. Without any optimization of the material parameter, we obtain a maximum room-temperature figure of merit, $ZT$, of $1.48$ at optimal doping, thus validating our idea.Comment: Nano Lett.201

Optimal extraction parameters of Theabrownin from Sichuan Dark Tea

Background: Sichuan Dark Tea is a popular beverage with hypolipidemic and lifting greasy properties in the minority neighborhoods of Sichuan and Tibet regions. The theabrownin, an important pigment of dark tea, has been proven for the role of the hypolipidemic property in Sichuan Dark Tea. The objective of the study investigated the extraction process of theabrownin.Materials and Methods: Theabrownin was extracted from Sichuan Dark Tea with water and organic solvents. The quadratic regression orthogonally rotational combinational design experiment was performed to obtain the optimal extraction parameters.Results: The extraction yield of theabrownin was significantly influenced by both water extraction temperature and solid-liquid ratio, and the contribution of these factors on theabrownin yield was as follows: water temperature﹥solid-liquid ratio﹥organic solvent temperature. Moreover, the polynomial regression model established could predict the experimental value accurately.Conclusion: The optimum extraction process of theabrownin from Sichuan Dark Tea was established, which water temperature at 65.69-77.88℃, organic solvent temperature at 13.65-17.48℃ and a solid liquid ratio of 1:43.58-1:50.75(g/mL).Keywords: theabrownin; extraction; optimization; Sichuan Dark TeaAbbreviations list: SDT: Sichuan Dark Tea; TB: Theabrowni

Autophagy in Plant Pathogenic Fungi

Autophagy is a ubiquitous and conserved process in eukaryotic cells from yeasts to mammals. It also appears to play vital roles in plant pathogenic fungi, impacting growth, morphology, development, and pathogenicity. In this chapter, we have introduced a new concept to delineate the role of autophagy in homeostasis of plant pathogenic fungi and in their interaction with host cells, in breach of host barrier, and in the mechanisms of plant fungal infection

Eucommia ulmoides

Cortex Eucommiae (Du-zhong) is the dried bark of the Eucommia ulmoides Oliv. The natural products identified from Du-zhong include lignans, iridoids, flavonoids, polysaccharides, terpenes, and proteins, Liu et al. (2012). Lignans, the main bioactive components, were protective against hypertensive renal injury in spontaneous hypertensive rats in our previous study, Li et al. (2012). Moreover, Eucommia lignans also diminished aldose reductase (AR) overexpression in the kidney, Li et al. (2012). However, the pathological mechanism underlying the protective effects of Eucommia lignans remains unknown. Cellular proliferation was reported to contribute to important pathological changes in hypertensive renal injuries, and increased angiotensin II (Ang II) expression was reported to be essential for target-organ damage during hypertension. Ang II is the main effective peptide in the renin-angiotensin system and is considered to be a key mediator in the development of hypertensive nephropathy, Rüster and Wolf (2011). Our preliminary results showed that Eucommia lignans had inhibitory effects on Ang II-induced proliferation of rat mesangial cells. In the present study, we investigated the effects of Eucommia ulmoides on Ang II-induced proliferation and apoptosis of rat mesangial cells. Cell cycle-related genes P21 and P27, and cell apoptosis-related genes Bax and Bcl-2, were determined

Peranan Pendidikan Dalam Perubahan Masyarakat

Social classification is always happenned in the society calledby social stratification and determine someone\u27s social class. There is a strict or curt, then to determine someone\u27s social class depends on the parents or the child\u27s birth. And it happened in India where the society consists of levels or castes or in the kingdom state, for example if wants to be a king, he must be the king\u27s child. While in the opensociety such as a state that adheres to a democracy system, to determine someone\u27s social class with any ways, means that there is always a change for someone\u27s social class in a society, namely the bottom, to the middle or up or reverse by using an objective method, subjective and reputation. Then in this open society, the education role is very influential toward the social class change in the society. That is why the education is hoped to bring the society to a change, even their incomeresult or their position in the society, which is certainly give the cognitive and psychomotoric ability or education is able to produce an inteligent human beings also expert in his field. In other words, education is hoped to create humans development that is finally able to make a change in the society, even social class change or a change from the traditional society to the modern one

OPTIMAL EXTRACTION PARAMETERS OF THEABROWNIN FROM SICHUAN DARK TEA

Background: Sichuan Dark Tea is a popular beverage with hypolipidemic and lifting greasy properties in the minority neighborhoods of Sichuan and Tibet regions. The theabrownin, an important pigment of dark tea, has been proven for the role of the hypolipidemic property in Sichuan Dark Tea. The objective of the study investigated the extraction process of theabrownin. Materials and Methods: Theabrownin was extracted from Sichuan Dark Tea with water and organic solvents. The quadratic regression orthogonally rotational combinational design experiment was performed to obtain the optimal extraction parameters. Results: The extraction yield of theabrownin was significantly influenced by both water extraction temperature and solid-liquid ratio, and the contribution of these factors on theabrownin yield was as follows: water temperature﹥solid-liquid ratio﹥organic solvent temperature. Moreover, the polynomial regression model established could predict the experimental value accurately. Conclusion: The optimum extraction process of theabrownin from Sichuan Dark Tea was established, which water temperature at 65.69-77.88℃, organic solvent temperature at 13.65-17.48℃ and a solid-liquid ratio of 1:43.58-1:50.75(g/mL)

Clinical Study Restoration of Central Programmed Movement Pattern by Temporal Electrical Stimulation-Assisted Training in Patients with Spinal Cerebellar Atrophy

Disrupted triphasic electromyography (EMG) patterns of agonist and antagonist muscle pairs during fast goal-directed movements have been found in patients with hypermetria. Since peripheral electrical stimulation (ES) and motor training may modulate motor cortical excitability through plasticity mechanisms, we aimed to investigate whether temporal ES-assisted movement training could influence premovement cortical excitability and alleviate hypermetria in patients with spinal cerebellar ataxia (SCA). The EMG of the agonist extensor carpi radialis muscle and antagonist flexor carpi radialis muscle, premovement motor evoked potentials (MEPs) of the flexor carpi radialis muscle, and the constant and variable errors of movements were assessed before and after 4 weeks of ESassisted fast goal-directed wrist extension training in the training group and of general health education in the control group. After training, the premovement MEPs of the antagonist muscle were facilitated at 50 ms before the onset of movement. In addition, the EMG onset latency of the antagonist muscle shifted earlier and the constant error decreased significantly. In summary, temporal ES-assisted training alleviated hypermetria by restoring antagonist premovement and temporal triphasic EMG patterns in SCA patients. This technique may be applied to treat hypermetria in cerebellar disorders. (This trial is registered with NCT01983670.

Lack of Association between CLEC5A Gene Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms and Kawasaki Disease in Taiwanese Children

Background. Kawasaki disease is characterized by systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology. Previous genetic studies have identified certain candidate genes associated with susceptibility to KD and coronary artery lesions. Host innate immune response factors are involved in modulating the disease outcome. The aim of this study was to investigate CLEC5A (C-type lectin domain family 5) genetic polymorphisms with regards to the susceptibility and outcome of KD. Methods. A total of 1045 subjects (381 KD patients and 664 controls) were enrolled to identify 4 tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms (tSNPs) of CLEC5A (rs1285968, rs11770855, rs1285935, rs1285933) by using the TaqMan Allelic Discrimination Assay. The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was assessed in cases and controls, and genetic effects were evaluated by the chi-square test. Results. No significant associations were noted between the genotypes and allele frequency of the 4 CLEC5A tSNPs between controls and patients. In the patients, polymorphisms of CLEC5A showed no significant association with coronary artery lesion formation and intravenous immunoglobulin treatment response. Conclusions. This study showed for the first time that polymorphisms of CLEC5A are not associated with susceptibility to KD, coronary artery lesion formation, and intravenous immunoglobulin treatment response in a Taiwanese population