Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Genotype and Peripheral Arterial Disease in Diabetic Patients

We investigated the effect of traditional risk factors (hypertension, dyslipidemia and smoking) on the association between angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism and peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in 945 (454 men and 491 women) Taiwanese type 2 diabetic patients with a mean age of 63.5 (SD: 11.4) years. Among them, 81 (31 men and 50 women) had PAD (ankle-brachial index <0.9). The adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 2.48 (1.18–5.21), 1.69 (1.00–2.85) and 1.64 (1.12–2.39), respectively, for recessive (DD versus II + ID), dominant (DD + ID versus II) and additive (II = 0, ID = 1 and DD = 2) models. While analyzing the interaction between DD and the individual risk factor of hypertension, smoking and dyslipidemia, patients with the risk factor and with DD had the highest risk compared to referent patients without the risk factor and with II/ID. The respective adjusted odds ratios were 5.41 (2.05–14.31), 7.38 (1.87–29.06) and 4.64 (1.70–12.64). We did not find a significant interaction between DD and any of the risk factors under multiplicative or additive scale. In conclusion, traditional risk factors (hypertension, smoking and dyslipidemia) play an important role in the association between ACE genotypes and PAD. Patients with DD genotype and traditional risk factors are at the highest risk

Location-based Data Analysis of Visitor Structure for Recreational Area Management

This work presents a location-based data analysis framework for profiling visitors structures. In terms of recreational area management, understanding visitors’ structure and popularity is important. Traditionally, visitors monitoring with automatic counting devices has drawbacks of inaccurate visitors counting. In this work, compared to automatic counting devices, we use Wi-Fi tracking as the main method to count visitors, which provides a fairly precise picture of visitor structures. Moreover, we deliver rich analytic functions in this framework and we present the functionality with visitor data collected from Guanyinshan Visitor Center. This framework not only standardizes visitor counting process but also facilitates a profound analysis of visitor structures. Key Words: Guanyinshan Visitor Center, Wi-Fi trackin

Transcriptome analysis of Dnmt3l knock-out mice derived multipotent mesenchymal stem/stromal cells during osteogenic differentiation

Multipotent mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) exhibit great potential for cell-based therapy. Proper epigenomic signatures in MSCs are important for the maintenance and the subsequent differentiation potential. The DNA methyltransferase 3-like (DNMT3L) that was mainly expressed in the embryonic stem (ES) cells and the developing germ cells plays an important role in shaping the epigenetic landscape. Here, we report the reduced colony forming ability and impaire

Levitation by a dipole electric field

The phenomenon of floating can be fascinating in any field, with its presence seen in art, films, and scientific research. This phenomenon is a captivating and pertinent subject with practical applications, such as Penning traps for antimatter confinement and Ion traps as essential architectures for quantum computing models. In our project, we reproduced the 1893 water bridge experiment using glycerol and first observed that lump-like macroscopic dipole moments can undergo near-periodic oscillations that exhibit floating effects and do not need classical bridge form. By combining experimental analysis, neural networks, investigation of Kelvin force generated by the Finite element method, and exploration of discharging, we gain insights into the mechanisms of motion. Our discovery has overturned the previous impression of a bridge floating in the water, leading to a deeper understanding of the new trap mechanism under strong electric fields with a single pair of electrodes.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Isolation and Characterization of Novel Murine Epiphysis Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells

BACKGROUND: While bone marrow (BM) is a rich source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), previous studies have shown that MSCs derived from mouse BM (BMMSCs) were difficult to manipulate as compared to MSCs derived from other species. The objective of this study was to find an alternative murine MSCs source that could provide sufficient MSCs. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this study, we described a novel type of MSCs that migrates directly from the mouse epiphysis in culture. Epiphysis-derived MSCs (EMSCs) could be extensively expanded in plastic adherent culture, and they had a greater ability for clonogenic formation and cell proliferation than BMMSCs. Under specific induction conditions, EMSCs demonstrated multipotency through their ability to differentiate into adipocytes, osteocytes and chondrocytes. Immunophenotypic analysis demonstrated that EMSCs were positive for CD29, CD44, CD73, CD105, CD166, Sca-1 and SSEA-4, while negative for CD11b, CD31, CD34 and CD45. Notably, EMSCs did not express major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC I) or MHC II under our culture system. EMSCs also successfully suppressed the proliferation of splenocytes triggered by concanavalin A (Con A) or allogeneic splenocytes, and decreased the expression of IL-1, IL-6 and TNF-α in Con A-stimulated splenocytes suggesting their anti-inflammatory properties. Moreover, EMSCs enhanced fracture repair, ameliorated necrosis in ischemic skin flap, and improved blood perfusion in hindlimb ischemia in the in vivo experiments. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCES: These results indicate that EMSCs, a new type of MSCs established by our simple isolation method, are a preferable alternative for mice MSCs due to their better growth and differentiation potentialities

Women with endometriosis have higher comorbidities: Analysis of domestic data in Taiwan

AbstractEndometriosis, defined by the presence of viable extrauterine endometrial glands and stroma, can grow or bleed cyclically, and possesses characteristics including a destructive, invasive, and metastatic nature. Since endometriosis may result in pelvic inflammation, adhesion, chronic pain, and infertility, and can progress to biologically malignant tumors, it is a long-term major health issue in women of reproductive age. In this review, we analyze the Taiwan domestic research addressing associations between endometriosis and other diseases. Concerning malignant tumors, we identified four studies on the links between endometriosis and ovarian cancer, one on breast cancer, two on endometrial cancer, one on colorectal cancer, and one on other malignancies, as well as one on associations between endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome, one on links with migraine headache, three on links with pelvic inflammatory diseases, four on links with infertility, four on links with obesity, four on links with chronic liver disease, four on links with rheumatoid arthritis, four on links with chronic renal disease, five on links with diabetes mellitus, and five on links with cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, etc.). The data available to date support that women with endometriosis might be at risk of some chronic illnesses and certain malignancies, although we consider the evidence for some comorbidities to be of low quality, for example, the association between colon cancer and adenomyosis/endometriosis. We still believe that the risk of comorbidity might be higher in women with endometriosis than that we supposed before. More research is needed to determine whether women with endometriosis are really at risk of these comorbidities

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Exuberance or Bubble? Study of Nano-Based Herbal Medicine Patents in the PR China

225-234The growing economic and therapeutic importance of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has prompted the governments of East Asian countries to develop it into an industry. The current research on the application of nanotechnology in CHM is deemed a new field of study. This article focuses on the issue of overly broad patent applications and assignments in the PR China by examining a case in which a patentee successfully registered more than 900 nano-based CHM patents in China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), all of which were based on the same preparation process. This article further shows that the proliferation of nano-based CHM patents in China is due to the illusion of biomedical technological progress and that the current irrational exuberance for patents not only is a bubble that will burst, but also presents barriers to innovation and invention in the emerging biopharmaceutical ind ustry and the nano-based CHM market

Observation of peptide differences between cancer and control in gastric juice

Biomarkers for various diseases have been extensively searched for the past 5 years. Nevertheless, most efforts were focused on the search for protein biomarkers from serum samples. In this work, we tried to look for peptide biomarkers from gastric juice samples with MALDI-TOF-MS. More than 200 gastric juice samples from healthy people, gastric ulcer patients, duodenal ulcer patients, and cancer patients were examined. There were clear pattern differences of mass spectra among samples from healthy people and patients with different gastric diseases. We found five peptides for gastric cancer diagnosis with high sensitivity and specificity. Sequences of these five peptides, including two pepsinogen fragments, leucine zipper protein fragment, albumin fragment, and a-1-antitrypsin fragment, have been identified by mass spectrometric analysis and immuno-deplete assay with antibodies