Contributions to planning and analysis of accelerated testing

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Care burden on family caregivers of patients with dementia and affecting factors in China: A systematic review

BackgroundDementia is a chronic and progressive illness characterized by severe impairment and high dependencies. Under the influence of Chinese traditional culture, 80% of patients with dementia are watched over at home by family caregivers as primary caregivers. However, long-term care brings formidable burdens to them and reduces the quality of their life. It is necessary to find out the influencing factors of caregivers’ burden.MethodsA scoping search was conducted on eight electronic databases from 1 January 2010 to 14 June 2022: PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, China VIP Database, China Biomedical Literature Database, and Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform. Research articles included in this review discussed the factors affecting Chinese dementia family caregivers’ care burden or stress, and the level of care burden was evaluated by a standardized care burden scale.ResultsA total of 1,888 related articles were found and 23 cross-sectional studies were eventually included. After quality assessment, 12 were of good quality and 11 were of fair quality. A total of 32 factors were identified that were associated with caregiver burden, and the results were grouped into three categories: patient, caregiver, and society. The severity of disease, poor self-care ability, neuropsychiatric symptoms, care time, number of helpers, poor health status, economic stress, poor psychological status, social support, and age were reported in many previous studies.ConclusionIn this review, the factors that affect the caregiver burden for people with dementia were clarified. By identifying these factors, hospitals, decision-makers, and communities can carry out special projects for these populations, provide appropriate assistance, or design corresponding intervention measures to reduce the caregiver burden and improve the quality of care for patients with dementia.Systematic review registration[https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/], identifier [CRD42022347816]

Impact of Water Scarcity on the Fenhe River Basin and Mitigation Strategies

This study produced a drought map for the Fenhe River basin covering the period from 150 BC to 2012 using regional historical drought records. Based on meteorological and hydrological features, the characteristics and causes of water scarcity in the Fenhe River basin were examined, along with their impact on the national economy and ecological environment. The effects of water scarcity in the basin on the national economy were determined from agricultural, industrial, and domestic perspectives. The impact on aquatic ecosystems was ascertained through an evolution trend analysis of surface water systems, including rivers, wetlands, and slope ecosystems, and subterranean water systems, including groundwater and karst springs. As a result of these analyses, strategies are presented for coping with water scarcity in this basin, including engineering countermeasures, such as the construction of a water network in Shanxi, and the non-engineering approach of groundwater resource preservation. These comprehensive coping strategies are proposed with the aim of assisting the prevention and control of water scarcity in the arid and semi-arid areas of China

Antitumor Agents 268. Design, Synthesis, and Mechanistic Studies of New 9-Substituted Phenanthrene-Based Tylophorine Analogues as Potent Cytotoxic Agents

Nineteen new phenanthrene-based tylophorine analogs with various functional groups on the piperidine moiety were designed, synthesized and evaluated for in vitro anticancer activity against four human tumor cell lines. Analogs 15 and 21 showed approximately two-fold enhanced inhibitory activity as compared with our prior lead compound (PBT-1). Analogs 23 and 24 with S- and R-configured substituents, respectively, at the piperidine 3’-position exhibited comparable cytotoxicity to that of PBT-1. Furthermore, mechanistic studies to investigate the effects of the new compounds on Akt protein in lung cancer cells and the NF-kB signaling pathway suggested that the compounds may exert their inhibitory activity on tumor cells through inhibition of activation of both Akt and NF-kB signaling pathway