Maintenance techniques for rechargeable battery using pulse charging

Author name used in this publication: Cheng K. W. E.Author name used in this publication: Ho Y. L.Refereed conference paper2006-2007 > Academic research: refereed > Refereed conference paperVersion of RecordPublishe

Deconstructing Fahr's disease/syndrome of brain calcification in the era of new genes

Introduction There are now a number genes, known to be associated with familial primary brain calcification (PFBC), causing the so called ‘Fahr's’ disease or syndrome. These are SCL20A2, PDGFB, PDGFRB and XPR1. In this systematic review, we analyse the clinical and radiological features reported in genetically confirmed cases with PFBC. We have additionally reviewed pseudohypoparathyroidism which is a close differential diagnosis of PFBC in clinical presentation and is also genetically determined. Methods We performed a Medline search, from 1st Jan 2012 through to 7th November 2016, for publications with confirmed mutations of SCL20A2, PDGFB, PDGFRB, and XPR1 and found twenty papers with 137 eligible cases. A second search was done for publications of cases with Pseudohypoparathyroidism or pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism, and found 18 publications with 20 eligible cases. Results SLC20A2 was the most common gene involved with 75 out of 137 cases included with PFBC (55%) followed by PDGFB (31%) and PDGFRB (11%). Statistically significant correlation was found between the presence of parkinsonism with SLC20A2 mutations, headache in PDGFB and generalised tonic-clonic seizures in patients with pseudohypoparathyroidism. Conclusion We combine statistical analysis and clinical inference to suggest a diagnostic algorithm based on the observations in this study to help with investigation of a patient with neurological features and brain calcification

Pan-RAF and MEK vertical inhibition enhances therapeutic response in non-V600 BRAF mutant cells

BACKGROUND: Currently, there are no available targeted therapy options for non-V600 BRAF mutated tumors. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of RAF and MEK concurrent inhibition on tumor growth, migration, signaling and apoptosis induction in preclinical models of non-V600 BRAF mutant tumor cell lines. METHODS: Six BRAF mutated human tumor cell lines CRL5885 (G466 V), WM3629 (D594G), WM3670 (G469E), MDAMB231 (G464 V), CRL5922 (L597 V) and A375 (V600E as control) were investigated. Pan-RAF inhibitor (sorafenib or AZ628) and MEK inhibitor (selumetinib) or their combination were used in in vitro viability, video microscopy, immunoblot, cell cycle and TUNEL assays. The in vivo effects of the drugs were assessed in an orthotopic NSG mouse breast cancer model. RESULTS: All cell lines showed a significant growth inhibition with synergism in the sorafenib/AZ628 and selumetinib combination. Combination treatment resulted in higher Erk1/2 inhibition and in increased induction of apoptosis when compared to single agent treatments. However, single selumetinib treatment could cause adverse therapeutic effects, like increased cell migration in certain cells, selumetinib and sorafenib combination treatment lowered migratory capacity in all the cell lines. Importantly, combination resulted in significantly increased tumor growth inhibition in orthotropic xenografts of MDAMB231 cells when compared to sorafenib - but not to selumetinib - treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggests that combined blocking of RAF and MEK may achieve increased therapeutic response in non-V600 BRAF mutant tumors

Epidemiology of Acute Myocarditis/Pericarditis in Hong Kong Adolescents Following Comirnaty Vaccination

BACKGROUND: Age-specific incidence of acute myocarditis/pericarditis in adolescents following Comirnaty vaccination in Asia is lacking. This study aimed to study the clinical characteristics and incidence of acute myocarditis/pericarditis among Hong Kong adolescents following Comirnaty vaccination. METHODS: This is a population cohort study in Hong Kong that monitored adverse events following immunization through a pharmacovigilance system for COVID-19 vaccines. All adolescents aged between 12 and 17 years following Comirnaty vaccination were monitored under the COVID-19 vaccine Adverse Event Response and Evaluation Programme. The clinical characteristics and overall incidence of acute myocarditis/pericarditis in adolescents following Comirnaty vaccination were analysed. RESULTS: Between 14 June 2021 and 4 September 2021, 33 Chinese adolescents who developed acute myocarditis/pericarditis following Comirnaty vaccination were identified. 29 (87.88%) were males and 4 (12.12%) were females, with a median age of 15.25 years. 27 (81.82%) and 6 (18.18%) cases developed acute myocarditis/pericarditis after receiving the second and first dose, respectively. All cases are mild and required only conservative management.The overall incidence of acute myocarditis/pericarditis was 18.52 (95% Confidence Interval [CI], 11.67-29.01) per 100,000 persons vaccinated. The incidence after the first and second doses were 3.37 (95%CI 1.12-9.51) and 21.22 (95%CI 13.78-32.28 per 100,000 persons vaccinated, respectively. Among male adolescents, the incidence after the first and second doses were 5.57 (95% CI 2.38-12.53) and 37.32 (95% CI 26.98-51.25) per 100,000 persons vaccinated. CONCLUSIONS: There is a significant increase in the risk of acute myocarditis/pericarditis following Comirnaty vaccination among Chinese male adolescents, especially after the second dose

Brain perfusion imaging with voxel-based analysis in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis patients with a moderate to severe stage of disease: a boon for the workforce

Background: The present study was carried out to evaluate cerebral perfusion in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with a moderate to severe stage of disease. Some patients underwent hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) and brain perfusion between before and after that was compared. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 25 secondary progressive (SP)-MS patients from the hospital database. Neurological disability evaluated by Expanded Disability Status Scale Score (EDSS). Brain perfusion was performed by (99 m) Tc-labeled bicisate (ECD) brain SPECT and the data were compared using statistical parametric mapping (SPM). In total, 16 patients underwent HBOT. Before HBOT and at the end of 20 sessions of oxygen treatment, 99mTc-ECD brain perfusion single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) was performed again then the results were evaluated and compared. Brain perfusion was performed by (99 m) Tc-labeled bicisate (ECD) brain SPECT and the data were compared using statistical parametric mapping (SPM). Results: A total of 25 SP-MS patients, 14 females (56 %) and 11 males (44 %) with a mean age of 38.92 ± 11. 28 years included in the study. The mean disease duration was 8.70 ± 5.30 years. Of the 25 patients, 2 (8 %) had a normal SPECT and 23 (92 %) had abnormal brain perfusion SPECT studies. The study showed a significant association between severity of perfusion impairment with disease duration and also with EDSS (P <0.05). There was a significant improvement in pre- and post-treatment perfusion scans (P <0.05), but this did not demonstrate a significant improvement in the clinical subjective and objective evaluation of patients (P >0.05). Conclusions: This study depicted decreased cerebral perfusion in SP-MS patients with a moderate to severe disability score and its association with clinical parameters. Because of its accessibility, rather low price, practical ease, and being objective quantitative information, brain perfusion SPECT can be complementing to other diagnostic modalities such as MRI and clinical examinations in disease surveillance and monitoring. The literature on this important issue is extremely scarce, and follow up studies are required to assess these preliminary results

Identification of Genes with Allelic Imbalance on 6p Associated with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma in Southern Chinese

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignancy of epithelial origin. The etiology of NPC is complex and includes multiple genetic and environmental factors. We employed case-control analysis to study the association of chromosome 6p regions with NPC. In total, 360 subjects and 360 healthy controls were included, and 233 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on 6p were examined. Significant single-marker associations were found for SNPs rs2267633 (p = 4.49×10−5), rs2076483 (most significant, p = 3.36×10−5), and rs29230 (p = 1.43×10−4). The highly associated genes were the gamma-amino butyric acid B receptor 1 (GABBR1), human leukocyte antigen (HLA-A), and HLA complex group 9 (HCG9). Haplotypic associations were found for haplotypes AAA (located within GABBR1, p-value  = 6.46×10−5) and TT (located within HLA-A, p = 0.0014). Further investigation of the homozygous genotype frequencies between cases and controls suggested that micro-deletion regions occur in GABBR1 and neural precursor cell expressed developmentally down-regulated 9 (NEDD9). Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) using 11 pairs of NPC biopsy samples confirmed the significant decline in GABBR1 and NEDD9 mRNA expression in the cancer tissues compared to the adjacent non-tumor tissue (p<0.05). Our study demonstrates that multiple chromosome 6p susceptibility loci contribute to the risk of NPC, possibly though GABBR1 and NEDD9 loss of function

Computational Analysis of mRNA Expression Profiles Identifies MicroRNA-29a/c as Predictor of Colorectal Cancer Early Recurrence

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading malignant cancers with a rapid increase in incidence and mortality. The recurrences of CRC after curative resection are sometimes unavoidable and often take place within the first year after surgery. MicroRNAs may serve as biomarkers to predict early recurrence of CRC, but identifying them from over 1,400 known human microRNAs is challenging and costly. An alternative approach is to analyze existing expression data of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) because generally speaking the expression levels of microRNAs and their target mRNAs are inversely correlated. In this study, we extracted six mRNA expression data of CRC in four studies (GSE12032, GSE17538, GSE4526 and GSE17181) from the gene expression omnibus (GEO). We inferred microRNA expression profiles and performed computational analysis to identify microRNAs associated with CRC recurrence using the IMRE method based on the MicroCosm database that includes 568,071 microRNA-target connections between 711 microRNAs and 20,884 gene targets. Two microRNAs, miR-29a and miR-29c, were disclosed and further meta-analysis of the six mRNA expression datasets showed that these two microRNAs were highly significant based on the Fisher p-value combination (p = 9.14×10−9 for miR-29a and p = 1.14×10−6 for miR-29c). Furthermore, these two microRNAs were experimentally tested in 78 human CRC samples to validate their effect on early recurrence. Our empirical results showed that the two microRNAs were significantly down-regulated (p = 0.007 for miR-29a and p = 0.007 for miR-29c) in the early-recurrence patients. This study shows the feasibility of using mRNA profiles to indicate microRNAs. We also shows miR-29a/c could be potential biomarkers for CRC early recurrence

Seroepidemiology of coxsackievirus A6, coxsackievirus A16, and Enterovirus 71 infections among children and adolescents in Singapore, 2008-2010

10.1371/journal.pone.0127999PLoS ONE105e012799

Influence of country and city images on students’ perception of host universities and their satisfaction with the assigned destination for their exchange programmes

ABSTRACT: This research focuses on the effect that country image, city image and university image has on students’ a priori satisfaction with the assigned destination for their international exchange programme (Bachelor and Master). In particular, this study establishes six hypotheses related to the causal relationships among the different typologies of image and their effects on students’ satisfaction with the assigned destination to study at least one semester in a host university. In order to contrast these hypotheses, a quantitative research was carried out in the Spanish city of Santander (Spain), by obtaining a sample of 245 international students who participated in an exchange programme at the University of Cantabria. The research findings are: (1) students’ satisfaction with the assigned destination is positively influenced by the university image; (2) the university image is positively influenced by the city image; and (3) the city image is positively influenced by the country image