PURPOSE: This study was designed to identify the degree of self-image and social support among Korean-Chinese adolescents and investigate the relationship between these variables. METHOD: A total of 621 Korean-Chinese adolescents in five middle schools in YanBian, China were recruited from March 1st to the 9th, 2005. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, t-test, and ANOVA with the SPSS 11.5 program. RESULT: In Korean-Chinese adolescents, the total self-image score was statistically different for age, parents' education status, parents' job and living with parents. In the 12 subscales, scoresof emotional tone, impulse control, sexuality, social functioning, vocational attitudes and self-reliance had significant differences between groups regarding gender. The total self-image was in the average range. However, areas of mental health and family function were lower than average and the scale of idealism washigher than average. The adolescents perceived parent's support was higher then friend's support. There was a positive correlation between self-image and social support. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest there is a need to examine self-image and social support of Korean- Chinese adolescents according to their parents' marital status and a need to develop a program to help these broken family's adolescents.
Socioeconomic Factors ; *Social Support ; *Self Concept ; Male ; Korea ; Humans ; Female ; Family ; China/ethnology ; Child ; *Adolescent Psychology ; Adolescent

To investigate the anticancer effects of ring C in 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid (GA), a series of GA derivatives featured with 9(11)-ene moiety in ring C were designed and synthesized. The structures were confirmed by IR, LC-MS and 1H NMR. Their inhibitory effects towards human prostate cancer PC-3 and leukemia HL-60 cell lines were determined. Most of the derivatives displayed stronger antiproliferative activities than GA. Particularly, compound 14 showed promising anticancer activity with the GI50 values of 4.48 µmol · L(-1) and 1.2 µmol · L(-1) against PC-3 and HL-60 cells respectively, which is worth further study.
Antineoplastic Agents ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Cell Line, Tumor ; drug effects ; Cell Proliferation ; drug effects ; Drug Design ; Glycyrrhetinic Acid ; analogs & derivatives ; chemistry ; HL-60 Cells ; drug effects ; Humans ; Male ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; pathology

OBJECTIVETo observe the effect of Salvia miltiorrhiza Injection (SMI) and Shengmai Injection (SI) on liver function and fibrosis related indexes in patients with chronic hepatitis B.

METHODSSeventy-nine chronic hepatitis B patients were randomly divided into the SMI group (n=47) and the SI group (n=32), they were treated with SMI and SI respectively on the basis of conventional treatment. The therapeutic course was 35 days for both groups. The changes of main symptoms and physical signs were observed, and indexes of liver function and fibrosis including serum hyaluronidase, laminin, III type precollagen (PC-III) and IV type collagen (IV-C) were investigated before and after treatment.

RESULTSSymptoms, physical signs and liver functions were improved obviously in both SMI and SI groups, SI showed better effect than SMI (P < 0.05). The four liver fibrosis indexes declined significantly in the SMI group after treatment (P < 0.05), but no obvious change of those was found in the SI group (P > 0.05), showing significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.05). Conclusion SMI is effective in improving liver function and inhibiting liver fibrosis, and SI has even better effect in improving liver function than SMI, though it shows no anti-liver fibrosis effect.

Adult ; Collagen Type IV ; blood ; Drug Combinations ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; administration & dosage ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; blood ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Hyaluronoglucosaminidase ; blood ; Injections, Intravenous ; Laminin ; blood ; Liver Cirrhosis ; prevention & control ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Phytotherapy ; Salvia miltiorrhiza ; Treatment Outcome

The nuclear transcription factor nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) plays a crucial role in maintaining cellular redox homeostasis. The aberrant NRF2 signaling confers enhanced antioxidant capacity, which is linked to tumor progression and therapeutic resistance. The current study investigates the biological effects and molecular mechanism of tribbles homolog 3 (TRIB3), a stress-induced protein, in regulating cell survival and apoptosis in lung cancer. This study first performed the RNA sequencing data analysis with 576 lung adenocarcinoma patients from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) database. The NRF2- antioxidant response element (ARE) signature was enriched in patients with high TRIB3 expression. Dual-luciferase reporter assay and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were used to confirm the effect of TRIB3 on the kelch-like ECH-associated protein-1 (KEAP1)-NRF2 pathway. Abrogation of TRIB3 impaired NRF2 transcriptional activity and reduced the expression of its target genes. Moreover, TRIB3 enhanced NRF2 stability via blocking KEAP1-NRF2 interaction. TRIB3-depletion promoted reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, restrained cell proliferation, and enhanced carboplatin-induced apoptosis. In addition, NRF2 overexpression recovered the tumor inhibition effect of TRIB3-depletion. Consistently, TRIB3 failed to modulate apoptosis in NRF2 depletion cells. In summary, this study shows that TRIB3 inhibits the KEAP1-NRF2 interaction and upregulates the transcriptional activity of NRF2, thereby promoting lung cancer cell proliferation and reducing the sensitivity to chemotherapy. Targeting the TRIB3-NRF2 signal axis may become a new strategy for ROS homeostasis and lung cancer treatment.

Objective To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by enterbaeterial repetitive intergenic consensus-polymerase chain reaction(ERIC-PCR)DNA fingerprint. Methods Mycobacterium tuberculosis positive sputum samples between September 2003 to May 2006 were collected and cultured.Chromosomal DNA were extracted and ERIC-PCR DNA fingerprinting was analyzed by software,such as RAPD PHYLIP and Treeview.Results A total of 42 different fingerprints were detected.Phylogenetic analysis showed that they could be classified into three clusters,the clustering rate was 72.6%.The characteristics of ERIC-PCR fingerprint patterns were related to age,drug resistance,and type of resistance.Conclusions ERIC-PCR DNA fingerprinting technique used in this study is good for epidemiological studies with its strong discrimination,simplicity and rapidness.A high level of recent transmission is found in our city.

A new teaching method was developed in the curriculum of Harmful Microorganisms Control Technology.It is characterized by students’ self-learning followed by student’s instruction.Both students and teacher have succeeded in this model after four stages of practice,in which a pleasant learning atmosphere was created in the classroom.An effective interaction between teacher and students was achieved.Students are viewed as main objects in the classroom and they are encouraged to ask questions,to formulate their own ideas,or to find things out for themselves.Thus,students’ abilities including presentation,communication,competition,and cooperation were enhanced.By adapting their role to the new teaching method,teachers have also improved their teaching skill and strategies.

Objective To analyze the relationship between body weight index (BMI) during the different pregnant weeks and the birth weight of newborns. Methods One hundred pregnant women and newborns were selected. BMI in every month during the pregnancy period, birth weight and height were observed and recorded. Then the relationship between BMI of pregnant women and birth weight of newborns was analyzed using Peas,son correlation coefficient. Results The correlation between BMI of pregnancy from the fifth month to the ninth month and the birth weight of newborns had significantly statistical meaning, especially the correlation between BMI of the fifth, the sixth and the eighth months and the birth weight of newborns were more obvious, each showing a positive correlation. Conclusions The higher the BMI of pregnant women, the higher the birth weight of newborns. Therefore the pertinent diet guidance should be given to the pregnant women in the middle to late stages of pregnancy according to the pregnant women's BMI, in order to reduce the incidence of enormous infants and premature infants.

OBJECTIVE Licorice is used throughout the world as a traditional herbal remedy. Ac-cording to Chinese traditional medicine licorice alone can be used to treat inflammation.Although there have been some studies investigated the anti-inflammatory ingredients of licorice, but for the potency of flavonoid glycoside and their aglycones on inflammation are not evaluated.This study was designed to assess the contributions of licorice flavonoid glycosides and their aglycons to its anti-inflammatory and hypnotic effects. METHODS For the flavonoid aglycone's enrichment, the extract of licorice (EL) was fermented in submerged culture of the edible fungus Grifola frondosa HB0071 mycelia which can produce β-glucosidase and catalyze the flavonoid glycosides to aglycones.EL and fermented extract of licorice (FEL) were used in this study. The anti-inflammation test was carried out in arachidonic acid (AA)-induced ear edema model and the hypnotic test was performed by using electroencephalogram (EEG)analysis method in normal freely moving SD rats.The chemicals constituents were analyzed by HPLC.RESULTS During fermentation,the falvonoid glycosides of licorice were hydrolyzed by the time process.Along with fermentation time,the concentration of the major flavonoid glycosides,liquiritin and isoliquiritin were decreased obviously, and simultaneously their aglycons, liquiritigenin and isoliquiriti-genin were remarkably increased in FEL.Moreover,the content of another major constituent glycyrrhi-zic acid and glycyrrhetinic acid were not changed after the fermentation. In AA-induced mice ear ede-ma test,after topical application,FEL(effective dose range:5-20 μg·ear-1)showed more potent inhibito-ry activity than EL(effective dose range:25-100 μg·ear-1).On the other hand,oral administration of EL and FEL exhibited the same hypnotic potency and both enhanced the total sleep time including rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep time. CONCLUSION These results suggested that the enrichment of flavonoid aglycons such as liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin enhanced the anti-inflam-matory potency of licorice extract,and this potentiation has nothing to do with glycyrrhizic acid or glycyr-rhetinic acid.In addition,enrichment of flavonoid aglycones did not alter the hypnotic effect of licorice.

Abstract: Due to the continued emergence of multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2, the ongoing pandemic has resulted in severe mortality over the past two years. After the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants, the most recent new variant of concern (VOC) strain to emerge is Omicron (B.1.1.529), which evolved as a result of the accumulation of a large number of mutations. The Omicron variant, which has a much higher transmission rate than the Delta variant, soon replaced the Delta variant and others, is now the dominant variant worldwide. The emergence of Omicron poses new challenges for the prevention and control of COVID-19 and has raised a number of concerns worldwide. Recently, cases of Omicron infection have been reported in several parts of China, and therefore this paper provides a comprehensive analysis and summary of the epidemiology and immune escape mechanisms of the Omicron variant. We also suggest some therapeutic strategies against the Omicron variant, including rapid diagnosis, genome analysis of emerging variants, ramping up of vaccination drives and receiving booster doses, updating the available vaccines, designing of multivalent vaccines able to generate hybrid immunity, up-gradation of medical facilities and strict implementation of adequate prevention and control measures need to be given high priority to handle the on-going COVID-19 pandemic successfully.

To report a case of cutaneous and subcutaneous coinfection caused by Lichtheimia corymbifera and Candida parapsilosis.A 67-year-old female peasant consulted about proliferative granuloma developing on her left forearm after topical application of a Chinese herbal drug and splint fixation for the treatment of suspected fracture of the wrist.Direct microscopic examination showed gram positive budding yeast cells in lesion secretions.Pathological study with periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) and gormori methenamine silver (GMS) staining revealed broad non-separate hyphae in the corneum and dermis.Fungal culture of lesional tissue at 35℃ grew both mould and yeast.The mould was identified as Lichtheimia corymbifera based on morphological findings and sequences of the internal transcribed space (ITS) 1-4 regions.Thermal tolerance study revealed that the isolate grew fast at 37℃ but slowly at 40℃.Under a scanning electron microscope,the acrogenous sporangia were pear-shaped with conical sporangiophores originating from the top of stolon,which were among but not opposite to the rhizoids.The yeast was identified as Candida parapsilosis by Chromagar test and D1/D2 region sequencing.As antimicrobial susceptibility test indicated,the Lichtheimia corymbifera isolate was most sensitive to terbinafine and itraconazole.The proteolytic activity of Lichtheimia corymbifera was higher than that of Candida parapsilosis.The granuloma completely subsided after surgical resection and 6-week treatment with oral itraconazole 200 mg twice a day.No recurrence was observed during a 4-year follow-up.