Pre-emptive treatment for asymptomatic serological reactivation in lupus nephritis patients – impact on clinical flare rate and renal function

P16 Poster Session: SLE Epidemiology and risk factors: abstract no. 428published_or_final_versio

Long-term data on sirolimus treatment in lupus nephritis patients

Poster Session: New therapies and therapeutic targets – SLE: abstract no. 109published_or_final_versio

Factorial structure of the Chinese version of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire in adolescents

Aims. To evaluate the underlying factor structure of the Chinese version of General Health Questionnaire-12 using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in Chinese adolescents and find out which factor model proposed by previous empirical research is the best-fit model. Background. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire has been extensively used with adolescents in the West. Yet, it has not been used with adolescents in a Hong Kong Chinese context. Design. A cross-sectional study was employed. Method. Chinese students between the ages of 12-19 from four secondary schools were invited to participate in the study using the multiple-stage stratified random sampling method during the period from December 2007-February, 2008. The total sample size included in the final analysed was 1883. Results. The General Health Questionnaire-12 was found to be internally consistent. The results of exploratory factor analysis showed that there are two factors underlying the General Health Questionnaire-12. Of nine factor models were tested by means of confirmatory factor analysis, only three factor model: the eight-item two-factor model, 12-item three-factor model and 10-item two-factor model, demonstrated good model fit across all model fit indices. Conclusion. This study addressed a gap in the literature by evaluating the factorial structure of the Chinese version of General Health Questionnaire-12 using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in Chinese adolescents. The findings revealed that the eight-item two-factor model is the best-fit model. Relevance to clinical practice. The adolescent mental health problem is alarming and aggravating and warrants special attention. It is essential for community nurses to differentiate psychological distress in adolescents and to identify those adolescents who are at a higher risk of suffering from mental health problems. The availability of a valid and reliable instrument that measures adolescents' psychological distress is crucial before any nursing interventions to promote their mental health can be appropriately planned, implemented and evaluated. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.postprin

Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells into Cells with Corneal Keratocyte Phenotype

Corneal transparency depends on a unique extracellular matrix secreted by stromal keratocytes, mesenchymal cells of neural crest lineage. Derivation of keratocytes from human embryonic stem (hES) cells could elucidate the keratocyte developmental pathway and open a potential for cell-based therapy for corneal blindness. This study seeks to identify conditions inducing differentiation of pluripotent hES cells to the keratocyte lineage. Neural differentiation of hES cell line WA01(H1) was induced by co-culture with mouse PA6 fibroblasts. After 6 days of co-culture, hES cells expressing cell-surface NGFR protein (CD271, p75NTR) were isolated by immunoaffinity adsorption, and cultured as a monolayer for one week. Keratocyte phenotype was induced by substratum-independent pellet culture in serum-free medium containing ascorbate. Gene expression, examined by quantitative RT-PCR, found hES cells co-cultured with PA6 cells for 6 days to upregulate expression of neural crest genes including NGFR, SNAI1, NTRK3, SOX9, and MSX1. Isolated NGFR-expressing cells were free of PA6 feeder cells. After expansion as a monolayer, mRNAs typifying adult stromal stem cells were detected, including BMI1, KIT, NES, NOTCH1, and SIX2. When these cells were cultured as substratum-free pellets keratocyte markers AQP1, B3GNT7, PTDGS, and ALDH3A1 were upregulated. mRNA for keratocan (KERA), a cornea-specific proteoglycan, was upregulated more than 10,000 fold. Culture medium from pellets contained high molecular weight keratocan modified with keratan sulfate, a unique molecular component of corneal stroma. These results show hES cells can be induced to differentiate into keratocytes in vitro. Pluripotent stem cells, therefore, may provide a renewable source of material for development of treatment of corneal stromal opacities. © 2013 Chan et al

Preparation of C2-Symmetric Biaryl Bisiminium Salts and Their Use as Organocatalysts for Asymmetric Epoxidation

Two C2-symmetric bisiminium salt species containing biphenylazepinium units and derived from two chiral diamines were prepared and tested as organocatalysts for asymmetric epoxidation

Functional MRI of postnatal visual development in normal rat superior colliculi

Theme: Engineering the Future of BiomedicineThis study employed blood oxygenation level-dependent functional MRI (BOLD-fMRI) to evaluate the visual responses in the superior colliculus of the developing rat brain from the time of eyelid opening to adulthood. Upon flash illumination to the contralateral eye, the regional BOLD response underwent a systematic increase in amplitude with age especially after the third postnatal week. However, no significant difference in BOLD signal increase was found between postnatal days 14 and 21. Our results constitute the first fMRI report in demonstrating the critical period of visual functions in the rat brain during maturation. This can be potentially useful in establishing the links between changes in relation to visual sensory development. ©2009 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe 31st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC 2009), Minneapolis, MN., 3-6 September 2009. In Proceedings of the 31st EMBC, 2009, p. 4436-443

Patient complexity and genotype-phenotype correlations in biliary atresia: a cross-sectional analysis

published_or_final_versio

Functional polymorphisms in the BRCA1 promoter influence transcription and are associated with decreased risk for breast cancer in Chinese women

Background: The BRCA1 gene is an important breast-cancer susceptibility gene. Promoter polymorphisms can alter the binding affinity of transcription factors, changing transcriptional activity and may affect susceptibility to disease. Methods and Results: Using direct sequencing of the BRCA1 promoter region, we identified four polymorphisms c.-2804T→C (rs799908:T→C), c.-2265C→T (rs11655505:C→T), c.-2004A→G (rs799906:A→G) and c.-1896(ACA) 1→(ACA) 2 (rs8176071:(ACA) 1→(ACA) 2) present in Hong Kong Chinese. Each polymorphism was studied independently and in combination by functional assays. Although all four variants significantly altered promoter activity, the c.-2265T allele had stronger binding than the C allele, and the most common mutant haplotype, which contains the c.-2265T allele, increased promoter activity by 70%. Risk association first tested in Hong Kong Chinese women with breast cancer and age-matched controls and replicated in a large population-based study of Shanghai Chinese, together totalling >3000 participants, showed that carriers of the c.-2265T allele had a reduced risk for breast cancer (combined odd ratio (OR) = 0.80, 95% Cl 0.69 to 0.93; p = 0.003) which was more evident among women aged ≥45 years at first diagnosis of breast cancer and without a family history of breast cancer (combined OR = 0.75, 95% Cl 0.61 to 0.91; p = 0.004). The most common haplotype containing the c.-2265T allele also showed significant risk association for women aged ≥45 years without a family history of breast cancer (OR = 0.64, 95% Cl 0.46 to 0.89; p = 0.008). Conclusion: This comprehensive study of BRCA1 promoter polymorphisms found four variants that altered promoter activity and with the most significant contribution from c.-2265C→T, which could affect susceptibility to breast cancer in the Chinese population. Its significance in other populations remains to be investigated.published_or_final_versio

Reduction of seafood processing wastewater using technologies enhanced by swim–bed technology

The increasing growth of the seafood processing industries considerably requires more industrial process activities and water consumption. It is estimated that approximately 10–40 m3 of wastewater is generated from those industries for processing one-tonne of raw materials. Due to limitations and regulations in natural resources utilization, a suitable and systematic wastewater treatment plant is very important to meet rigorous discharge standards. As a result of food waste biodegradability, the biological treatment and some extent of swim-bed technology, including a novel acryl-fibre (biofilm) material might be used effectively to meet the effluent discharge criteria. This chapter aims to develop understanding on current problems and production of the seafood wastewater regarding treatment efficiency and methods of treatment

Reducing combinatorial uncertainties: A new technique based on MT2 variables

We propose a new method to resolve combinatorial ambiguities in hadron collider events involving two invisible particles in the final state. This method is based on the kinematic variable MT2 and on the MT2-assisted-on-shell reconstruction of invisible momenta, that are reformulated as `test' variables Ti of the correct combination against the incorrect ones. We show how the efficiency of the single Ti in providing the correct answer can be systematically improved by combining the different Ti and/or by introducing cuts on suitable, combination-insensitive kinematic variables. We illustrate our whole approach in the specific example of top anti-top production, followed by a leptonic decay of the W on both sides. However, by construction, our method is also directly applicable to many topologies of interest for new physics, in particular events producing a pair of undetected particles, that are potential dark-matter candidates. We finally emphasize that our method is apt to several generalizations, that we outline in the last sections of the paper.Comment: 1+23 pages, 8 figures. Main changes in v3: (1) discussion at the end of sec. 2 improved; (2) added sec. 4.2 about the method's dependence on mass information. Matches journal versio