• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.171-176
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• 2016

Background: Much has been done to examine the psychological impact of cancer treatment, but it remains unclear to what extent anxiety and depression is related to symptom prevalence. The present study concerned the characteristics and frequency of distress as related to symptom prevalence in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in Malaysia. Materials and Methods: Participants were 303 consecutive adult cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in an academic medical center. The short form Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS-SF), which covers three domains of symptoms (global distress, physical- and psychological symptoms) was used to cross-sectionally measure symptom frequency and associated distress via self-reporting. One-way ANOVA and t-tests were used to test mean differences among MSAS-SF subscale scores. Results: Complete data were available for 303 patients. The mean number of symptoms was 14.5. The five most prevalent were fatigue, dry mouth, hair loss, drowsiness and lack of appetite. Overall, symptom burden and frequency were higher than in other published MSAS-SF studies. Higher symptom frequency was also found to be significantly related to greater distress in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Conclusions: Patients undergoing chemotherapy suffer from multiple physical and psychological symptoms. Better symptom control or palliative care is needed. Greater frequency of reported symptoms may also indicate a subconscious bid by patients for care and reassurance - thus tailored intervention to manage distress should be offered.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.3287-3292
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• 2012

Purpose: To study the overall treatment time (OTT) and acute toxicity of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods: This retrospective study covered all NPC patients who underwent radical IMRT treatment at the Penang General Hospital from June 2011 to February 2012. Patients of any age and stage of disease with histologically proven diagnosis were included. Information was collected on patient demographics, clinical stage, treatment received, including any neoadjuvant and/or concurrent chemotherapy, acute toxity and completion of IMRT within the OTT. Results: A total of 26 NPC patients were treated with IMRT during the study period; 88.5% had stage III/IV disease. 45.2% received neo-adjuvant chemotherapy while 50.0% were given concurrent chemo-irradiation. All patients completed the treatment and 92.3% within the 7 weeks OTT. Xerostomia was present in all patients with 92.3% having grade 2. Severe grade III/IV acute toxicity occurred in 73.1% of patients, the commonest of which was oral mucositis (57.6%). This was followed by dysphagia which occurred in 53.8%, skin reactions in 42.3% and weight loss in 19.2%. However, haematological toxicity was mild with only one patient having leucopaenia. Conclusion: IMRT treatment for NPC is feasible in our center. More importantly, it can be delivered within the 7 weeks OTT in the majority of patients. Severe grade 3/4 toxicity is very common (73.1%) and thus maximal nutritional and analgesic support is required throughout the treatment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.15
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• pp.5977-5982
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• 2014

Research over the years has progressively shown substantial broadening of the tumor necrosis factor alpha-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)-mediated signaling landscape. Increasingly it is being realized that pancreatic cancer is a multifaceted and genomically complex disease. Suppression of tumor suppressors, overexpression of oncogenes, epigenetic silencing, and loss of apoptosis are some of the extensively studied underlying mechanisms. Rapidly accumulating in vitro and in vivo evidence has started to shed light on the resistance mechanisms in pancreatic cancer cells. More interestingly a recent research has opened new horizons of miRNA regulation by DR5 in pancreatic cancer cells. It has been shown that DR5 interacts with the core microprocessor components Drosha and DGCR8, thus impairing processing of primary let-7. Xenografting DR5 silenced pancreatic cancer cells in SCID-mice indicated that there was notable suppression of tumor growth. There is a paradigm shift in our current understanding of TRAIL mediated signaling in pancreatic cancer cells that is now adding new layers of concepts into the existing scientific evidence. In this review we have attempted to provide an overview of recent advances in TRAIL mediated signaling in pancreatic cancer as evidenced by findings of in vitro and in vivo analyses. Furthermore, we discuss nanotechnological advances with emphasis on PEG-TRAIL and four-arm PEG cross-linked hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogels to improve availability of TRAIL at target sites.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.5797-5804
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• 2013

In order to enhance the bioavailability of curcumin its conjugates with piperic acid and glycine were synthesized by esterifying the 4 and 4' phenolic hydroxyls, the sites of metabolic conjugation. Antiproliferative and apoptotic efficacy of synthesized conjugates was investigated in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines. $IC_{50}$ values of di-O-glycinoyl (CDG) and di-O-piperoyl (CDP) esters of curcumin were found to be comparable with that of curcumin. Both conjugates induced chromatin condensation fragmentation and apoptotic body formation. CDP exposure to MCF-7 cells induced apoptosis initiating loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (${\Delta}{\Psi}m$) followed by inhibition of translocation of transcription factor NF-${\kappa}B$ and release of Cytochrome-C. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was evaluated by fluorescent activated cell sorter. Change in ratio of Bcl2/Bclxl was observed, suggesting permeablization of mitochondrial membrane leading to the release of AIF, Smac and other apoptogenic molecules. DNA fragmentation as a hallmark for apoptosis was monitored by TUNEL as well as agrose gel electrophoresis. Thus, it was proven that conjugation does not affect the therapeutic potential of parent molecule in vitro, while these could work in vivo as prodrugs with enhanced pharmacokinetic profile. Pharmacokinetics of these molecules under in vivo conditions is a further scope of this study.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.285-291
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• 2014

This paper is related to the improvement of efficiency for high performance centrifugal pumps by reducing leakage loss, which is achieved by applying the grooved seal as a non-contact seal to the pumps. Various combinations of grooved seal types, including the spiral and the parallel groove in the rotor and/or in the stator, were tested by the experiment. And the corresponding hydraulic performance and the magnitude of axial thrust were measured and calculated for ten cases. From the results, the type with the spiral groove(spiral angle : $0.98^{\circ}$) in both the rotor and the stator was found to be most effective. In this case, the head and the efficiency were improved from the original design by 2.1% and 2.3% respectively at design capacity($340m^3/h$), and the axial thrust was decreased by 10%.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.357-362
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• 1994

Five adult sheep were exposed to intermittent cold for 12 h (18:00-06:00) at an air temperature of $5{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ followed by 12 h (06:00-18:00) at $25{\pm}2^{\circ}C$ over a period of 8 days continuously. Carotid artery blood (Tc), mean skin (Ts) and mean body (Tb = 0.86 Tc + 0.14 Ts) temperatures, heat production rate (HP), respiratory evaporative heat loss, respiration rate (RR) and volume were measured before and after exposure. Tc during the 12 h cold period of intermittent cold exposure was similar to that during the corresponding period in the warm environment, while Tc in the $25^{\circ}C$ of intermittent cold was higher (p < 0.05) than that in the corresponding period in the warm environment. Ts during the cold period markedly decreased (p < 0.001) by about $9^{\circ}C$ when compared with that in the corresponding time period in the warm environment, while Ts during the $25^{\circ}C$ period of intermittent cold recovered to a similar level to that in the warm environment. Tb was lower (p < 0.001) during the cold period of intermittent cold, whereas a slight increase in Tb during the $25^{\circ}C$ period of intermittent cold was significant (p < 0.05) when compared with the value during the similar period in the warm environment. HP was greatly increased (p < 0.001) by cold exposure, followed by an immediate decrease during the first one hour of the 12 h warm period, reaching a similar level to that in the warm environment. A lower (p < 0.05) RR was observed during both the cold and $25^{\circ}C$ period of intermittent cold than during the corresponding periods in the warm environment. The results of the present investigation clearly show that the body temperature of sheep increased during a 12 h warm period following 12 h of exposure to cold. These results suggest that during a warm period of an intermittent cold exposure cycle, heat could be shored in the animal body.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.2307-2309
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• 2016

Background: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a malignant disease in which early lymphoid precursors proliferate and replace the normal hematopoiesis. It has distinctive clinical and biological features. In respect to adult ALL, available data from Pakistan are limited. Therefore we reviewed the demographical and clinicohematological profiles along with FAB stratification of adult patients with ALL presented at our hospital. Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional study, 51 adults (${\geq}15years$) patients with ALL were enrolled from January 2010 to December 2014. Results: The mean age was $23.8{\pm}12.9years$ with the median age of 18.0 years. The male to female ratio was 2:1. The major complaints were fever (60.7%), generalized weakness (47.0%), overt bleeding (19.6%) and weight loss (13.7%). Physical examination revealed lymphodenopathy as a predominant finding detected in 43.1% followed by splenomegaly and hepatomegaly in 23.5% and 21.5%, respectively. The mean hemoglobin level was $9.0{\pm}2.75g/dl$ with a mean MCV of $82.2{\pm}15.4fl$, a mean total leukocyte count of $31.1{\pm}64.0{\times}10^9/l$, a mean ANC of $2.1{\pm}3.0{\times}10^9/l$ and a mean platelet count of $71.7{\pm}85.7{\times}10^9/l$. According to FAB classification, 47.1% were L1 type, 45.1% L2 and 7.8% L3 variant. Conclusions: Clinico-pathological features appeared comparable to published data. Febrile illness associated with lymphodenopathy was the commonest presentation. FAB classification revealed a predominance of ALL-L1 variant in Pakistani adult patients with ALL.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3265-3269
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• 2016

Background: Around half of input data in the global burden of disease cancer collaboration (GBD-CC) and GLOBOCAN projects come from low quality sources, mainly from developing countries. This may lead to loss of precision in estimates. Our question was: Are the absolute values and trends of the GBD-CC and GLOBOCAN estimates for lung cancer (LC) in Iran consistent with available statistics?. Materials and Methods: Incidence and mortality statistics were extracted from national reports (N.IRs & N.MRs) and GBD-CC (GBD-incidence & mortality) and GLOBOCAN databases for 1990-2013 where available. Trends were analyzed and absolute values and annual percentage changes (APCs) were estimated and compared. Incompleteness of case ascertainment at the Iranian national cancer registry and Iranian national civil registration was assessed for better understanding. Results: Trends of N.IRs were significantly rising for males (APC: 19.4; 95% CI: 12.5-26.7) and females (23.2; 16.0-30.8). Trends of GBD-incidence were stable for males (-0.2; -1.5-1.1) and females (-1.0; -2.3-0.4). Absolute N.IRs were less than GBD-incidence steadily except for 2009. Trend of N.MRs was increasing up to 2004, but stable thereafter. Trends of GBD-mortality were also stable. Absolute N.MRs were less than GBD-mortality for years up to 2003 and more than GBD-mortality since 2005. The estimates of GLOBOCAN were more than N.IRs and N.MRs. Conclusions: The GBD-CC and GLOBOCAN values for LC in Iran are underestimates. Generation of data quality indices to present along with country specific estimates is highly recommended.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.777-787
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• 2017

Organic enrichment and pollution was investigated in surface sediments from Jinhae Bay and Geoje-Hansan Bay of Korea, which contain the largest oyster farms in Korean coastal areas. Geochemical indicators (chemical oxygen demand, total organic carbon, ignition loss, and acid volatile sulfide) in sediments, ammonium and nitrate in pore water, and bioluminescence inhibition test for sediment extracts were analyzed. Temporal changes of organic enrichment were also investigated using sediment core samples from Geoje-Hansan Bay. The level of organic pollution in sediments from Jinhae Bay was significantly greater than that of sediments from Geoje-Hansan Bay. Compared with other sites, Jinhae Bay was one of the most polluted coastal areas of Korea. The levels of geochemical indicators in May were comparable to, or higher than, in August. Ammonium concentrations in pore water were two orders of magnitudes greater than the nitrate concentrations, suggesting that the bays are reducing environments. The concentrations of total organic carbon in core sediment samples from shellfish-farming areas increased significantly from 2000 to the present year, and it seems to be associated with increases in anthropogenic activities.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.15 no.2 s.40
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• pp.25-31
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• 2007

The recent frequent heavy rainfall has caused an increased in soil erosion and the soil drain which drained soil has caused decreased in channel radius and environmental problems by turbidity. In this study, the optimum size of the sediment basin was tested with soil erosion estimated from the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) in the basin using by GIS data. The results show that the estimated soil erosion and the designed soil deposit are $72.1\;m^3$ and $85.0\;m^3$ respectively and the size of sediment basin is proper. In this study the water depth was calculated from the Hec-Ras model to test the stability of the bank and to prove submersion of the inside fields from stream overflow.