Atorvastatin correlates with decreased risk of esophageal cancer: A population-based casecontrol study from Taiwan

Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore the association between the use of statins and esophageal cancer in Taiwan.Methods: We designed a casecontrol study using database from the Taiwan National Health Insurance program. In all, 549 patients (cases) aged 20 years or older diagnosed recently with esophageal cancer, from 2000 to 2009, and 2,196 subjects (controls) without esophageal cancer participated in this study. The association between esophageal cancer and the use of statins and other co-morbidities was measured.Results: After adjustment for covariates, multivariate logistic regression showed that patients with a cumulative duration of ]12 months of using atorvastatin might have a reduced risk of esophageal cancer, compared with those who did not use statins (odds ratio [OR] 0.14, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.040.56). The other statins could not show a significant association with esophageal cancer. Age (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.001.01), alcoholism (OR 3.83, 95% CI 3.014.89), and esophageal diseases (OR 4.60, 95% CI 3.466.12) were independent factors significantly associated with esophageal cancer.Conclusions: Use of atorvastatin ]12 months may correlate with an 86% reduction of esophageal cancer risk.Keywords: atorvastatin; esophageal cancer; stati

Atorvastatin correlates with decreased risk of esophageal cancer: A population-based casecontrol study from Taiwan

Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore the association between the use of statins and esophageal cancer in Taiwan.Methods: We designed a casecontrol study using database from the Taiwan National Health Insurance program. In all, 549 patients (cases) aged 20 years or older diagnosed recently with esophageal cancer, from 2000 to 2009, and 2,196 subjects (controls) without esophageal cancer participated in this study. The association between esophageal cancer and the use of statins and other co-morbidities was measured.Results: After adjustment for covariates, multivariate logistic regression showed that patients with a cumulative duration of ]12 months of using atorvastatin might have a reduced risk of esophageal cancer, compared with those who did not use statins (odds ratio [OR] 0.14, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.040.56). The other statins could not show a significant association with esophageal cancer. Age (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.001.01), alcoholism (OR 3.83, 95% CI 3.014.89), and esophageal diseases (OR 4.60, 95% CI 3.466.12) were independent factors significantly associated with esophageal cancer.Conclusions: Use of atorvastatin ]12 months may correlate with an 86% reduction of esophageal cancer risk.Keywords: atorvastatin; esophageal cancer; stati

Second-order Direct Analysis of Steel Structures made of tapered members

[EN] Mild steel hot-rolled sections are commonly prismatic because of the rolling process with a furnace, but welded sections made from steel plates do not have such a constraint, especially when robotic welding machines are used. The weight saving could be very significant by, say, using wide flanged section at mid-span and a small flanged section at ends of a simply supported beam. However, design codes do not provide formulae for buckling check of tapered members. This paper proposes a code-free second-order direct analysis for stabilty design of steel frames made of tapered members. The design is further applied to a single layered mega space frame of 136m span. In the whole design process based on the concept of Second-order Direct Analysis, no uncertain effective length and independent member buckling checking are required.The authors are grateful to the financial supports by the Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong SAR Government on the project “Second-Order Analysis of Shallow Dome Structures Made of Tapering Members (PolyU 152047/17E)” and Second-Order Analysis of Flexible Steel Cable Nets Supporting Debris (PolyU 152008/15E)” and support by Innovation and Technology Fund of the Hong Kong SAR Government for the project “Development of an energy absorbing device for flexible rock-fall barriers (ITS/059/16FP)” and by the Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Centre for Steel Construction of The Innovation and Technology Fund of the Hong Kong SAR Government for the project Advanced Numerical Analysis for Building Structures using High Performance Steel Materials".Chan, S.; Liu, S.; Liu, Y. (2018). Second-order Direct Analysis of Steel Structures made of tapered members. En Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Advances in Steel-Concrete Composite Structures. ASCCS 2018. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 75-82. https://doi.org/10.4995/ASCCS2018.2018.7221OCS758

Mirizzi syndrome associated with hepatic artery pseudoaneurysm: a case report.

INTRODUCTION: This is the first case report of Mirizzi syndrome associated with hepatic artery pseudoaneurysm. CASE PRESENTATION: A 54-year-old man presented with painful obstructive jaundice and weight loss. Computed tomography showed a hilar mass in the liver. Following an episode of haemobilia, angiography demonstrated a pseudoaneurysm of a branch of the right hepatic artery that was embolised. At surgery, a gallstone causing Mirizzi type II syndrome was found to be responsible for the biliary obstruction and a necrotic inflammatory mass and haematoma were found to be extending into the liver. The mass was debrided and drained, the obstructing stones removed and the bile duct drained with a t-tube. The patient made a full recovery. CONCLUSION: This case highlights another situation where there may be difficulty in differentiating Mirizzi syndrome from biliary tract cancer.Published versio

Neuroprotective effects of minocycline on double-stranded RNA-induced neurotoxicity in cultured cortical neurons

1. Minocycline, memantine,and glycoconjugate were assessed for their ability to protect cultured primary cortical neurons against double-stranded RNA-induced neurotoxicity. 2. Minocycline but not memantine or glycoconjugate protected cultured cells and warrants further investigation.published_or_final_versio

Validity and Reliability of Curl-Up Test on Assessing the Core Endurance for Kindergarten Children in Hong Kong

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the test-retest reliability and the criterion validity of a curlup test (CUT) as a measure of core stability, core endurance and dynamic stability in kindergarten children. CUT performance was also compared to half hold lying test (HHLT) and walking time on course (WTC) among without obstacle, with low obstacle and high obstacle measures of core stability, core endurance and dynamic stability. Methods: To estimate reliability, 33 males and 27 female kindergarten children (M aged=4.5 years old) performed the CUT on 2 different days. In the validity phase of the study, scores of all participants were obtained on three field test measures of core stability, core endurance and dynamic stability (CUT, HHLT and WTC). Results: Results indicate that the MCU test has no significant correlation on intra-class test-retest reliability (R=0.13, p>0.01). The criterion validity of the CUT for kindergarten children has is comparable to that of the HHLT(r=0.98, p<0.01) and WTC without obstacle(r=0.96, p<0.01), with low obstacle (r=0.96, p<0.01) and with high obstacle (r=0.98, p<0.01). Result indicates that the CUT test cannot produces reasonably accurate and stable measures of core stability, core endurance and dynamic stability. Conclusion: These preliminary findings provide evidences into the CUT test cannot produces reasonably accurate and stable measures of core stability, core endurance and dynamic stability for kindergarten children

Anode modification of polyfluorene-based polymer light-emitting devices

A glycerol-modified poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) (PEDOT): poly(styrene sulfonate) (PSS) layer was used as an anode buffer layer in polymer light-emitting devices using poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (F8) as the emitter. Devices with a configuration of indium tin oxide/PEDOT:PSS (with or without glycerol)/F8/CsF/Al were fabricated. It was found that the glycerol-modified device showed a much larger current density than the unmodified device. At an operating voltage of 6 V, the glycerol-modified device showed a luminance of 1300Cd/m 2 and a current efficiency of 1.7 Cd/A compared to the corresponding values of 500Cd/m 2 and 1.3 Cd/A in the unmodified device. Analysis by ultraviolet spectroscopy suggests that the two devices have the same energy level structure and the performance improvement should not be due to change in the PEDOT/polymer interface. It was further found that incorporating a suitable amount of glycerol into the PEDOT:PSS layer can increase its conductivity by six times. This leads to a better balance in the hole and electron currents and thus improved device efficiency. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

Single channel wireless EEG device for real-time fatigue level detection

© 2015 IEEE. Driver fatigue problem is one of the important factors of traffic accidents. Recent years, many research had investigated that using EEG signals can effectively detect driver's drowsiness level. However, real-time monitoring system is required to apply these fatigue level detection techniques in the practical application, especially in the real-road driving. Therefore, it required less channels, portable and wireless, real-time monitoring and processing techniques for developing the real-time monitoring system. In this study, we develop a single channel wireless EEG device which can real-time detect driver's fatigue level on the mobile device such as smart phone or tablet. The developed device is investigated to obtain a better and precise understanding of brain activities of mental fatigue under driving, which is of great benefit for devolvement of detection of driving fatigue system. This system consists of a Bluetooth-enabled one channel EEG, a regression model, and smartphone, which was a platform recording and transforming the raw EEG data to useful driving status. In the experiment, this was a sustained-attention driving task to implement in a virtual-reality (VR) driving simulator. To training model and develop the system, we were performed for 15 subjects to study Electroencephalography (EEG) brain dynamics by using a mobile and wireless EEG device. Based on the outstanding training results, the leave-one-subject-out cross validation test obtained 90% fatigue detection accuracy. These results indicate that the combination of a smartphone and wireless EEG device constitutes an effective and easy wearable solution for detecting and preventing driver fatigue in real driving environments

Incidence and predictors of upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients receiving low-dose aspirin for secondary prevention of cardiovascular events in patients with coronary artery disease

Aim: The use of low-dose aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease events is well established. However, the incidence and predictors of upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) with its use are unknown. We studied prospectively the incidence and outcome of peptic ulceration in low-dose aspirin users. Methods: A total of 991 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) on low-dose aspirin were prospectively followed-up for two years for the occurrence and clinical features of first hospitalized episode of UGIB. Results: UGIB had a bimodal presentation with 45% occurring within four months of aspirin initiation and had an overall prevalence of 1.5% per year. There was no UGIB-related death. Hypertension (OR = 4.6, 95%CI 1.5 - 14.7, P = 0.009), history of peptic ulceration (OR = 3.1, 95%CI 1.1 - 9.0, P = 0.039), tertiary education (OR = 3.08, 95%CI 1.1 - 9.0, P = 0.039) and higher lean body mass (P = 0.016) were independent factors associated with UGIB. Use of nitrate did not reduce UGIB. Conclusion: The incidence of UGIB in patients with CAD on long-term low-dose aspirin is low, but is accompanied with significant morbidity. With prolonged use of aspirin, UGIB continues to be a problem for those with risk factors and especially in patients with a history of peptic ulcers, in which UGIB tends to occur early after aspirin therapy. © 2006 The WJG Press. All rights reserved.published_or_final_versio