Safflower Yellow Inhibits Progression of Hepatocellular Carcinoma by Modulating Immunological Tolerance via FAK Pathway.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the anti-tumor effect of safflower yellow (SY) against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the underlying potential mechanism. METHODS: An in vitro model was established by mixing Luc-Hepa1-6 cells and CD3+CD8+ T cells, followed by adding programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibody (Anti-mPD-1) with or without SY. The apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry and the level of inflammatory cytokines was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The protein levels of programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1), chemokine ligand (CCL5), C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 10 (CXCL10) were measured by Western blot. An in situ animal model was established in mice followed by treatment with anti-mPD-1 with or without SY. Bioluminescence imaging was monitored with an AniView 100 imaging system. To establish the FAK-overexpressed Luc-Hepa1-6 cells, cells were transfected with adenovirus containing pcDNA3.1-FAK for 48 h. RESULTS: The fluorescence intensity, apoptotic rate, release of inflammatory cytokines, and CCL5/CXCL10 secretion were dramatically facilitated by anti-mPD-1 (P<0.01), accompanied by an inactivation of PD-1/PD-L1 axis, which were extremely further enhanced by SY (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Increased fluorescence intensity, elevated percentage of CD3+CD8+ T cells, facilitated release of inflammatory cytokines, inactivated PD-1/PD-L1 axis, and increased CCL5/CXCL10 secretion were observed in Anti-mPD-1 treated mice (P<0.01), which were markedly enhanced by SY (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Furthermore, the enhanced effects of SY on inhibiting tumor cell growth, facilitating apoptosis and inflammatory cytokine releasing, suppressing the PD-1/PD-L1 axis, and inducing the CCL5/CXCL10 secretion in Anti-mPD-1 treated mixture of Luc-Hepa1-6 cells and CD3+CD8+ T cells were abolished by FAK overexpression (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: SY inhibited the progression of HCC by mediating immunological tolerance through inhibiting FAK.

Preparation and tumor-targeting evaluation of BS-CyP albumin nanoparticles modified with hyaluronic acid based on boron neutron capture therapy.

Radiation therapy has been widely used in the clinical treatment of tumors. Due to the low radiation absorption of tumors, a high dose of ionizing radiation is often required during radiotherapy, which causes serious damage to normal tissues near tumors. Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is more targeted than conventional radiotherapy. To improve the therapeutic effect of cancer, albumin was selected as the drug carrier to wrap the fluorescent tracer boron drug BS-CyP and prepare the nanoparticles. Then, we developed a novel tumor-targeting nano-boron drug by using hyaluronic acid to modify the nanoparticles. We found that BS-CyP albumin nanoparticles modified with hyaluronic acid effectively delayed drug release and enhanced the aggregation, in tumors, showing good safety with no obvious toxicity to cells and mice. This study confirmed the advantages of boron drugs modified with hyaluronic acid targeting tumors and may provide a reference for BNCT.

Joint Effects of Prenatal Folic Acid Supplement with Prenatal Multivitamin and Iron Supplement on Obesity in Preschoolers Born SGA: Sex Specific Difference.

Prenatal maternal nutrient supplementation has been reported to be associated with offspring obesity, but the reports are inconsistent and have mainly ignored the differences between the total children population and children born small for gestational age (SGA). This study aimed to examine the joint effects of folic acid, iron, and multivitamin supplementation during pregnancy on the risk of obesity in preschoolers born SGA. A total of 8918 children aged 3-6.5 years born SGA were recruited from Longhua District in Shenzhen of China in 2021. Their mothers completed a structured questionnaire about the child's and parents' socio-demographic characteristics, maternal prepregnant obesity, and mothers' prenatal supplementation of folic acid, iron, and multivitamin. In addition, the children's current weight and height were measured by trained nurses. Logistic regression models were used to analyze the associations between prenatal supplementations and the current presence of childhood obesity. After controlling for potential confounders, the results of the logistic regression analysis showed that prenatal supplement of folic acid (OR = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.55~0.93) was associated with a lower likelihood of being an obese preschooler born SGA. In contrast, the ingestion of multivitamin or iron supplements during pregnancy did not seem to be related to the likelihood of childhood obesity in preschoolers born SGA. Moreover, cross-over analysis of prenatal folic acid and multivitamin obtained significant negative associations of prenatal folic acid supplement only (OR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.55~0.97) and combination supplement of folic acid and multivitamin (OR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.50~0.90) with obesity of preschoolers born SGA; while the cross-over analysis of prenatal folic acid and iron observed significant negative associations between obesity of preschoolers born SGA and a combination supplement of folic acid and iron (OR = 0.70, 95% CI = 0.52~0.96). Furthermore, the aforementioned significant associations were only found in girls and not in boys when the analyses were stratified by sex. Our findings suggest that the prenatal folic acid supplementation may decrease the risk of obesity in preschool girls born SGA, and that this effect may be modified by prenatal multivitamin or iron supplementation.

The chain mediating role of social support and stigma in the relationship between mindfulness and psychological distress among Chinese lung cancer patients.

PURPOSE: Psychological distress greatly impaired the psychological and physical well-being of lung cancer patients. Identification of protective and risk factors is a prerequisite of developing effective psychological treatment protocol. The study aims to determine the relationship of mindfulness and psychological distress and further clarify the mechanism of mindfulness against psychological distress through perceived stigma and social support among Chinese lung cancer patients. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey study involving 441 valid Chinese lung cancer patients was conducted from September 2018 to August 2019. After all validated questionnaires that measured psychological distress, level of mindfulness, social support, and perceived stigma were returned by patients, we firstly performed correlation analysis to assess the associations between mindfulness, social support, perceived stigma, and psychological distress. Then structural equation modelling analysis was conducted to further clarify the mediating effects of perceived stigma and social support on the relationship between mindfulness and psychological distress. RESULTS: According to our hypothesis and further modification, our revised model adequately fits to data. Mindfulness (ß = - 0.107, p = 0.008) and social support (ß = - 0.513, p < 0.001) had a direct effect on psychological distress. Meanwhile, mindfulness had a direct effect on perceived stigma (ß = - 0.185, p < 0.001), and perceived stigma had a direct effect on social support (ß = - 0.373, p < 0.001). Furthermore, mindfulness had also the indirect effect on psychological distress through the chain mediating role of stigma and social support among lung cancer patients. CONCLUSIONS: Mindfulness has direct negative effect on psychological distress and has also indirectly negative psychological distress through impacting social support and perceived stigma.

Low-dose PPI to prevent bleeding after ESD: A multicenter randomized controlled study.

BACKGROUND: Although proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are widely used in the prevention of gastric bleeding caused by endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), there is no consensus on the optimal regimen for these patients. Therefore, we aim to investigate whether intermittent use of low-dose PPI is sufficient to prevent post-ESD bleeding. METHODS: This multicenter, non-inferiority, randomized controlled trial was conducted at 9 hospitals in China. Consecutive eligible patients with a diagnosis of gastric mucosal lesions after ESD treatment were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either intermittent low-dose or continuous high-dose PPIs treatment. After three days, all patients administered orally esomeprazole 40 mg once a day for 8 weeks. The primary endpoint was post-ESD bleeding within 7 days. Analysis was done according to the intention-to-treat principle with the non-inferiority margin (Δ) of 5%. RESULTS: 526 consecutive patients were assessed for eligibility from 30 September 2017 to 30 July 2019, of whom 414 were randomly assigned to low-dose (n = 209) or high-dose (n = 205) esomeprazole treatment group without dropouts within7 days. The total post-ESD bleeding is occurred in 13 (6.2 %, 95 % CI 3.3-9.6) of 209 within 7 days in the intermittent low-dose group, and 12 (5.9 %, 95 % CI 2.9-9.3) of 205 in the continuous high-dose group. The absolute risk reduction (ARR) was 0.4 % (-4.2, 4.9). One month after ESD, There are 44 patients (21.1 %, 95 % CI 15.8, 26.8) and 39 patients (19.0 % 95 % CI 13.7, 24.4) in scar stage respectively in low-dose group and high-dose group (P = 0.875).The hospital costs in the low-dose PPI group was lower than high -dose group (P = 0.005). CONCLUSION: The intermittent use of low-dose PPIs is sufficient to prevent post-ESD bleeding. It might be applied in clinical practice to prevent post-ESD bleeding and reduce the costs related to PPIs.

Progressive muscle relaxation is effective in preventing and alleviating of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting among cancer patients: a systematic review of six randomized controlled trials.

PURPOSE: Previous systematic review suggested a beneficial effect of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) for cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. However, poor quality of eligible studies which included in previous systematic review impaired the reliability and validity of findings. The aim of the present systematic review was to further assess the value of PMR in chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. METHODS: We assigned two independent investigators to search potential studies in PubMed, Cochrane Controlled Register of Trial (CENTRAL), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), China Biomedical Literature database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang Data database. We used data extraction sheet to extract essential information, and used the Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool to appraise the quality of eligible studies. Finally, we qualitatively summarized the results of all included studies. RESULTS: Six studies enrolling 288 patients were included finally. Of these 6 studies, three were labeled as moderate quality and the remaining studies were low quality. All included studies consistently suggested that PMR has a positive effect on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, especially on the incidence, frequency, and degree of delayed nausea and vomiting. CONCLUSION: Independent studies indicated that PMR was a beneficial approach of preventing and alleviating chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting among cancer patients. However, further studies enrolling other types of primary tumors should be designed in order to increase the generality of PMR because studies which were included in the present systematic review mainly considered patients with lung cancer and breast cancer. Moreover, future studies with high quality and large-scale are also warranted in order to address the limitations in the present systematic review such as poor quality and limited data of eligible studies.

Neoadjuvant Modified FOLFOX6 With or Without Radiation Versus Fluorouracil Plus Radiation for Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer: Final Results of the Chinese FOWARC Trial.

PURPOSE: In the multicenter, open-label, phase III FOWARC trial, modified infusional fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin (mFOLFOX6) plus radiotherapy resulted in a higher pathologic complete response rate than fluorouracil plus radiotherapy in Chinese patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. Here, we report the final results. METHODS: Adults ages 18 to 75 years with stage II/III rectal cancer were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to five cycles of infusional fluorouracil (leucovorin 400 mg/m2, fluorouracil 400 mg/m2, and fluorouracil 2.4 g/m2 over 48 hours) plus radiotherapy (46.0 to 50.4 Gy delivered in 23 to 25 fractions during cycles 2 to 4) followed by surgery and seven cycles of infusional fluorouracil, the same treatment plus intravenous oxaliplatin 85 mg/m2 on day 1 of each cycle (mFOLFOX6), or four to six cycles of mFOLFOX6 followed by surgery and six to eight cycles of mFOLFOX6. The primary end point was 3-year disease-free survival (DFS). RESULTS: In total, 495 patients were randomly assigned to treatment. After a median follow-up of 45.2 months, DFS events were reported in 46, 39, and 46 patients in the fluorouracil plus radiotherapy, mFOLFOX6 plus radiotherapy, and mFOLFOX6 arms. In each arm, the probability of 3-year DFS was 72.9%, 77.2%, and 73.5% (P = .709 by the log-rank test), the 3-year probability of local recurrence after R0/1 resection was 8.0%, 7.0%, and 8.3% (P = .873 by the log-rank test), and the 3-year overall survival rate was 91.3%, 89.1%, and 90.7% (P = .971 by log-rank test), respectively. CONCLUSION: mFOLFOX6, with or without radiation, did not significantly improve 3-year DFS versus fluorouracil with radiation in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. No significant difference in outcomes was found between mFOLFOX6 without radiotherapy and fluorouracil with radiotherapy, which requires additional investigation of the role of radiotherapy in these regimens.

Early enteral nutrition supplemented with probiotics improved the clinical outcomes in severe head injury: Some promising findings from Chinese patients.

BACKGROUND: The role of early enteral nutrition (ENN) supplemented with probiotics (<48 hours) in improving clinical outcomes of patients with severe head injury (SHI) remains controversial. We performed this meta-analysis to investigate the efficacy of EEN supplemented with probiotics on clinical outcomes in these patients. METHODS: Systematic searches were performed in PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature to identify potential studies. Two investigators checked citations, extracted data, appraised risk of bias, and then STATA 12.0 was used to perform statistical analysis. RESULTS: A total of 18 trials were eventually included in the present study. Meta-analysis indicated that EEN supplemented with probiotics was associated with decreased risk of infection (risk ratio [RR], 0.53; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.44-0.65), decreased risk of mortality (RR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.38-0.82), decreased risk of gastrointestinal complications (RR, 0.19; 95% CI, 0.13-0.25), and shortened stays in intensive care unit (ICU) (mean difference [MD], -4.55; 96% CI, -5.91 to -3.19). CONCLUSION: EEN supplemented with probiotics may be a promising alternative for patients with SHI because it effectively decreased the risk of infection, mortality, and gastrointestinal complications, as well as shortened the stays in ICU.

Comparative efficacy of combination of 1 L polyethylene glycol, castor oil and ascorbic acid versus 2 L polyethylene glycol plus castor oil versus 3 L polyethylene glycol for colon cleansing before colonoscopy: Study protocol of a randomized, double-blind, single-center study.

Colonoscopy has been regarded as an important method of early diagnosing and treating gastrointestinal lesions; however adequate bowel preparation is critical one of many factors needed for successful colonoscopy. Although several modified or novel regimes have been developed, desired quality of bowel preparation has not yet been generated. Scattered evidences revealed that castor oil may have potential of effectively cleansing colon. It is noted that, however, prospective trial of exploring the value of castor oil in preparing bowel before colonoscopy is lacking. The aims of this study are to test the hypotheses that low dose castor oil (30 mL) may enhance potential of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and combination of low castor oil and ascorbic acid may halve the volume of PEG.This is a randomized, double-blind (endoscopist and assessor), single center trial with three-arm design. We will randomly assign 282 adult patients (≥18 years but < 75 years), who are scheduled to undergo colonoscopy, to receive either 3 L PEG alone, 2 L PEG plus 30 mL castor oil or combination of 1 L PEG, 30 mL castor oil and 5 g ascorbic acid. The bowel preparation quality based on Boston Bowel Preparation Scale (BBPS) is the primary outcome. The secondary outcomes include the first defecation time, total number of defecation, time of cecal intubation, detection rate of polyp and adenoma, willing to repeat the same regime, tolerance to regime, and adverse events.The study protocol has been approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committees of Chongqing University Cancer Hospital & Chongqing Cancer Institute & Chongqing Cancer Hospital & Chongqing Cancer Center (2017[107]). The results from this trial will be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed journals, and will be presented at national and international conferences.

Concurrent chemo-radiotherapy with S-1 as an alternative therapy for elderly Chinese patients with non-metastatic esophageal squamous cancer: evidence based on a systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to systematically assess the effects of concurrent chemo-radiotherapy (CRT) compared with radiotherapy (RT) alone for elderly Chinese patients with non-metastatic esophageal squamous cancer. METHODS: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases. We retrieved randomized controlled trials on concurrent CRT with Gimeraciland Oteracil Porassium (S-1) compared with RT alone for aged Chinese patients with non-metastatic esophageal squamous cancer performed until August 2016. RESULTS: Eight eligible studies involving 536 patients were subjected to meta-analysis. As a response rate measure, a relative risk (RR) of 1.37 [95% confidence intervals (CIs): 1.24, 1.53; P = 0.00], which reached statistical significance, was estimated when concurrent CRT with S-1 was performed compared with RT alone. Sensitivity analysis on response rate confirmed the robustness of the pooled result. The RR values of 1.44 (95% CIs: 1.22, 1.70; P = 0.00) and 1.77 (95% CIs: 1.26, 2.48; P = 0.00) estimated for 1- and 2-year survival rate indices, respectively, were also statistically significant. The incidence of adverse events was similar in both groups. CONCLUSION: This review concluded that concurrent CRT with S-1 can improve the efficacy and prolong the survival period of elderly Chinese patients with non-metastatic esophageal squamous cancer and does not significantly increase the acute adverse effects of RT alone.

Modified FOLFOX6 With or Without Radiation Versus Fluorouracil and Leucovorin With Radiation in Neoadjuvant Treatment of Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer: Initial Results of the Chinese FOWARC Multicenter, Open-Label, Randomized Three-Arm Phase III Trial.

PURPOSE: Total mesorectal excision with fluorouracil-based preoperative chemoradiotherapy and postoperative chemotherapy is a standard treatment of locally advanced rectal cancer. This study investigated the addition of oxaliplatin with and without preoperative radiotherapy. METHODS: In this multicenter, open-label, phase III trial, we randomly assigned (1:1:1) Chinese adults (age 18 to 75 years) with locally advanced stage II/III rectal cancer to three treatments: five 2-week cycles of infusional fluorouracil (leucovorin 400 mg/m(2), fluorouracil 400 mg/m(2), and fluorouracil 2.4 g/m(2) over 48 h) plus radiotherapy (46.0 to 50.4 Gy delivered in 23 to 25 fractions during cycles 2 through 4) followed by surgery and seven cycles of infusional fluorouracil, the same treatment plus intravenous oxaliplatin 85 mg/m(2) on day 1 of each cycle (modified FOLFOX6 [mFOLFOX6]), or four to six cycles of mFOLFOX6 followed by surgery and six to eight cycles of mFOLFOX6. Random assignment was performed by using computer-generated block randomization codes. The primary end point was 3-year disease-free survival. Secondary end points of histopathologic response and toxicity are reported. RESULTS: A total of 495 patients were enrolled from June 2010 to February 2015; 475 were evaluable (fluorouracil-radiotherapy, n = 155; mFOLFOX6-radiotherapy, n = 157; mFOLFOX6, n = 163). In the fluorouracil-radiotherapy, mFOLFOX6-radiotherapy, and mFOLFOX6 groups, the rate of pathologic complete response (pCR) was 14.0%, 27.5%, and 6.6%, and downstaging (ypStage 0 to 1) was achieved by 37.1%, 56.4%, and 35.5% of patients, respectively. Higher toxicity and more postoperative complications were observed in patients who received radiotherapy. CONCLUSION: mFOLFOX6-based preoperative chemoradiotherapy results in a higher pCR rate than fluorouracil-based treatment. Perioperative mFOLFOX6 alone had inferior results and a lower pCR rate than chemoradiotherapy but led to a similar downstaging rate as fluorouracil-radiotherapy, with less toxicity and fewer postoperative complications.

Discovery of novel quinolinone adenosine A2B antagonists.

A novel series of quinolinone-based adenosine A(2B) receptor antagonists was identified via high throughput screening of an encoded combinatorial compound collection. Synthesis and assay of a series of analogs highlighted essential structural features of the initial hit. Optimization resulted in an A(2B) antagonist (2i) which exhibited potent activity in a cAMP accumulation assay (5.1 nM) and an IL-8 release assay (0.4 nM).

Influence of occupational stress on mental health among Chinese off-shore oil workers.

AIM: To explore the influence of occupational stress on mental health in off-shore oil production. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 561 Chinese off-shore oil workers. The workers were invited to fill in a self-administered questionnaire exploring their socio-demographic characteristics, occupational stress levels, and 12-item general health questionnaire. A hierarchical multiple regression procedure was used to assess the effects of occupational stress on mental health. RESULTS: After controlling for age, educational level, marital status and years of off-shore work, poor mental health was found to have a significant positive association with seven of the nine identified sources of occupational stress. They were: conflict between job and family/social life, poor development of career and achievement at work, safety problems at work, management problems and poor relationship with others at work, poor physical environment of the work place, uncomfortable ergonomic factors at work, and poor organizational structure at work. All of these occupational stress sources together explained 19.9% of the total variance. CONCLUSIONS: The results confirmed that occupational stress was a major risk factor for poor mental health among Chinese off-shore oil workers. Reducing or eliminating occupational stressors at work would benefit workers' mental health.

Direct and interactive effects of occupational stress and coping on ulcer-like symptoms among Chinese male off-shore oil workers.

BACKGROUND: Off-shore oil production is widely regarded as a stressful occupation and digestive system problems were commonly observed in off-shore oil workers. Is occupational stress from off-shore oil work associated with the occurrence of digestive problems among off-shore oil workers? And are coping styles also related to their occurrence? The aim of this study was to explore the direct and interactive association of occupational stress and coping styles with ulcer-like symptoms in Chinese male off-shore oil workers. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 561 Chinese male off-shore oil workers. They were invited to fill in a self-administered questionnaire exploring their socio-demographic characteristics, occupational stress, coping style, and ulcer-like symptoms. A stepwise multiple regression procedure was used to assess the direct and interactive effects of occupational stress and coping behaviors on ulcer-like symptoms. RESULTS: After controlling for age, educational level, marital status and years of off-shore working, the ulcer-like symptoms were significantly positively associated with occupational stress and "internal behavior" coping methods, negatively associated with external/social behavior coping methods, and positively associated with the interaction between occupational stress and internal behavior coping. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study suggest that occupational stress was associated with gastric health problems and that this association might be moderated by certain coping behaviors.

Effect of long-term intervention of soy isoflavones on bone mineral density in women: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

INTRODUCTION: A number of RCTs have examined the role of soy isoflavones on bone mineral density (BMD) and yielded inconsistent results. This meta-analyses aims to assess the overall effect of soy isoflavones on BMD. METHODS: We searched for all articles published in English from January 1990 to March, 2008. We included RCTs of soy isoflavone supplementation in women of at least one year duration. The main outcomes were BMD changes from baseline at the lumbar spine, total hip and femoral neck. RESULTS: We identified 10 eligible RCTs containing 896 women. A mean dose of 87 mg soy isoflavones for at least one year did not significantly affect BMD changes. The mean (95%CI) differences in BMD changes (in mg/cm(2)/year) were 4.1 (-1.6, 9.8) (0.4%) at the lumbar spine, -1.5 (-7.2, 4.3) (-0.3%) at the femoral neck under random-effects model, and 2.5 (-0.5, 5.4) (0.2%) at the total hip by fix-effects model, respectively. Similar results were obtained in subgroup analyses by isoflavone sources (soy protein vs. isoflavone extract), ethnic differences (Asian vs. Western). Larger dose (>or=80 mg/d), but not lower dose (<80 mg/d), of isoflavone intervention tended to have a weak beneficial effect on spine BMD (p=0.08 vs. p=0.94). CONCLUSIONS: Soy isoflavone supplementation is unlikely to have significant favorable on BMD at the lumbar spine and hip in women.

Coffee consumption and risk of coronary heart diseases: a meta-analysis of 21 prospective cohort studies.

BACKGROUND: A large amount of cohort studies addressed coffee consumption and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and yielded inconsistent results. We conducted a meta-analysis to estimate the pooling effects. METHODS: We searched for all published English articles indexed in MEDLINE or PubMed from January 1966 to January 2008. Twenty-one independent prospective cohort studies, which tested CHD risk by coffee consumption, were identified. A general variance-based method was used to pool the relative risks (RR). 15,599 cases from 407,806 participants were included in pooling the overall effects. RESULTS: As compared to the light coffee consumption (<1 cup/d in US or or=6 or >or=7 cups/d) categories of coffee consumption (all p>0.05); Moderate coffee consumption showed significantly lower CHD RR (95% CI) of 0.82 (0.73-0.92) (p<0.001) in women, and of 0.87 (0.80-0.86) (p=0.001) in men and women followed

[Antimicrobial activity and GC-MS analysis of essential oil from lavender extracted by supercritical CO2 extraction and hydrodistillation].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the antimicrobial activity in vitro and chemical composition of essential oil from lavender extracted by supercritical CO2 extraction (SFE-CO2) process and hydrodistillation. METHOD: The antimicrobial activities against 4 bacteria and 4 fungi strains of these two oils were evaluated by using the agar disc diffusion and agar dilution method to determine the inhibition zone, minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal/fungicidal concentration (MBC/MFC). A GC-MS method was established to determine the chemical components of essential oils. RESULT: These two oils presented remarkable antimicrobiat activities against all tested strains in vitro. Compared with the hydrodistillation product, SFE-CO, oil showed better antimicrobial activity against either bacteria or fungi of which MIC values were 0.63-3.33 g x L(-1) and the MBC/MFC values were 1.04-5.00 g x L(-1). By GC-MS analysis, 34 and 29 compounds identified cover 95.51% and 98. 39% of total peak area of substances appeared. The main differences between SFE-CO2 oil and hydrodistillation oil were the amounts of linalyl acetate and 5-methyl-2-(1-methylethenyl)-4-hexen-1-ol acetate. CONCLUSION: Results presented here may suggest that the essential oil of lavender extracted by SFE-CO2 possesses has better antimicrobial properties, and therefore it is a potential source of antimicrobial ingredients for pharmaceutical industry.

Association of occupational stress and social support with health-related behaviors among chinese offshore oil workers.

To explore the relationship of occupational stress and social support with health-related behaviors of smoking, alcohol usage and physical inactivity, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 561 offshore oil installation workers of a Chinese state-owned oil company. They were investigated with a self-administered questionnaire about socio-demographic characteristics, occupational stress, social support and health-related behaviors. Logistic regression analysis was used to study the association between occupational stress, social support and health-related behaviors and adjusted for age, educational level, marital status, duration of offshore work and job title. Of 561 workers, 218 (38.9%) were current smokers, 124 (22.1%) current drinkers, and 354 (63.1%) physically inactive in their leisure time. Further multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that: (1) Current smoking was significantly negatively related with perceived stress from "Safety" (OR=0.74; 95% CI=0.58-0.94) and lack of supervisors' instrumental support (OR=0.34; 95% CI=0.18-0.65); (2) Current drinking was significantly positively related to perceived stress from "Interface between job and family/social life" (OR=1.32; 95% CI=1.02-1.70) and "Organizational structure" (OR=1.35; 95% CI=1.06-1.74), but was significantly negatively related to poor emotional support from friends (OR=0.54; 95% CI=0.62-0.96); (3) Physical inactivity after work was significantly positively associated with perceived stress from "Safety" (OR=1.44; 95% CI=1.16-1.79) and lack of instrumental support from both supervisors (OR=1.74; 95% CI=1.16-2.65) and friends (OR=1.68; 95% CI=1.06-2.42). The findings suggest that psychosocial factors of occupational stress and social support at offshore oil work might affect workers' health-related behaviors in different ways.

[Reliability and validity of the Occupational Stress Scale for Chinese offshore oil platform workers].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the validity and reliability of the Occupational Stress Scale (OSS) for Chinese offshore oil platform workers. METHODS: A 51-item self-administered questionnaire developed in the light of Cooper's questionnaire and company's special situation was used to investigate 561 subjects. RESULTS: 51 occupational stress items relating to offshore oil production were subjected to factor analysis, and nine latent factors were identified, which explained 62.5% of the total variance. According to the contents described by the items included in each factor, they were respectively defined as: "the interface between job and family/social life (factor 1)", "career and achievement (factor 2)", "safety (factor 3)", "management problem and relationship with others at work (factor 4)", "physical factors of workplace (factor 5)", "platform living environment (factor 6)", "role in management (factor 7)", "ergonomics (factor 8)" and "organization structure (factor 9)". Significant difference in the score of five factors was observed among 12 different job categories by analysis of variance. After adjusting for potential confounding factors (age, educational level), hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that the score of the OSS was significantly and positively correlated with the poor mental health of the workers (P < 0.01). The consistent test between OSS and each factor showed that Cronbach's alpha were 0.72 - 0.91. CONCLUSION: The OSS is a valid and reliable tool for measuring occupational stress, and can be used to explore occupational stress and its influence on health and safety problems in offshore oil workers.