Effect of hydrothermal carbonization on storage process of woody pellets: Pellets' properties and aldehydes/ketones emission.

Effect of hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) on the hydrochar pelletization and the aldehydes/ketones emission from pellets during storage was investigated. Pellets made from the hydrochar were stored in sealed apparatuses for sampling. The energy consumption during pelletization and the pellets' properties before/after storage, including dimension, density, moisture content, hardness, aldehyde/ketones emission amount/rate and unsaturated fatty acid amount, were analyzed. Compared with untreated-sawdust-pellets, the hydrochar-pellets required more energy consumption for pelletization, and achieved the improved qualities, resulting in the higher stability degree during storage. The species and amount of unsaturated fatty acids in the hydrochar-pellets were higher than those in the untreated-sawdust-pellets. The unsaturated fatty acids content in the hydrochar-pellets was decreased with increasing HTC temperature. Higher aldehydes/ketones emission amount and rates with a longer emission period were found for the hydrochar-pellets, associated with variations of structure and unsaturated fatty acid composition in pellets.

Genetic epidemiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Genetic studies have shown that C9orf72, SOD1, TARDBP and FUS are the most common mutated genes in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Here, we performed a meta-analysis to determine the mutation frequencies of these major ALS-related genes in patients with ALS. METHODS: We performed an extensive literature research to identify all original articles reporting frequencies of C9orf72, SOD1, TARDBP and FUS mutations in ALS. The mutation frequency and effect size of each study were combined. Possible sources of heterogeneity across studies were determined by meta-regression, sensitivity analysis and subgroup analysis. RESULTS: 111 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The overall pooled mutation frequencies of these major ALS-related genes were 47.7% in familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FALS) and 5.2% in sporadic ALS (SALS). A significant difference was identified regarding the frequencies of mutations in major ALS genes between European and Asian patients. In European populations, the most common mutations were the C9orf72 repeat expansions (FALS 33.7%, SALS 5.1%), followed by SOD1 (FALS 14.8%, SALS 1.2%), TARDBP (FALS 4.2%, SALS 0.8%) and FUS mutations (FALS 2.8%, SALS 0.3%), while in Asian populations the most common mutations were SOD1 mutations (FALS 30.0%, SALS 1.5%), followed by FUS (FALS 6.4%, SALS 0.9%), C9orf72 (FALS 2.3%, SALS 0.3%) and TARDBP (FALS 1.5%, SALS 0.2%) mutations. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrated that the genetic architecture of ALS in Asian populations is distinct from that in European populations, which need to be given appropriate consideration when performing genetic testing of patients with ALS.

Worry about ill consequences in cancer patients and its relationship with depression / 重庆医学

Objective To understand the worry situation about ill consequences in cancer patients and its relationship with depression.Methods The inpatients with cancer were extracted from 4 general hospitals of Wuhan and Beijing city by the cluster sampling.The self-designed questionnaires were adopted to survey the worry situation about ill consequences in cancer patients.The self-rating depression scale (SDS) was used to assess the patients' depression status.Results A total of 485 cancer patients were surveyed,including 204 males (42.1 ％),281 females(57.9 ％),and the mean age was (56.59 ± 11.19)years old.More than half of the patients usually or always worried about medical expenses.Worries about not taking care of their children,losing their lives,physical disability,leaving sequela and losing life ability also happened a lot.Patients worried more about losing their life,the possibility appearing depression was greater (P＜0.05).The younger the patients were,the greater the depression possibility was;the company staffs had lower risk of depression compared with those whose occupation was others (P＜0.05).Conclusion Cancer patients have different degrees of worries about ill consequences such as medical expenses,not taking care of their children and losing their lives and their worries about losing their lives could affect their depression status.

Worry about ill consequences in cancer patients and its relationship with depression / 重庆医学

Objective To understand the worry situation about ill consequences in cancer patients and its relationship with depression.Methods The inpatients with cancer were extracted from 4 general hospitals of Wuhan and Beijing city by the cluster sampling.The self-designed questionnaires were adopted to survey the worry situation about ill consequences in cancer patients.The self-rating depression scale (SDS) was used to assess the patients' depression status.Results A total of 485 cancer patients were surveyed,including 204 males (42.1 ％),281 females(57.9 ％),and the mean age was (56.59 ± 11.19)years old.More than half of the patients usually or always worried about medical expenses.Worries about not taking care of their children,losing their lives,physical disability,leaving sequela and losing life ability also happened a lot.Patients worried more about losing their life,the possibility appearing depression was greater (P＜0.05).The younger the patients were,the greater the depression possibility was;the company staffs had lower risk of depression compared with those whose occupation was others (P＜0.05).Conclusion Cancer patients have different degrees of worries about ill consequences such as medical expenses,not taking care of their children and losing their lives and their worries about losing their lives could affect their depression status.