Suchergebnisse

Food and culinary routes have been embraced by many destinations (Hjalager & Corigliano, 2000). However, these routes often include narrow geographical areas. The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges and possibilities of networking and collaboration in a food tourism project in a larger geographic area, specifically the Taste of National Tourist Routes (TNTR) in Norway. Although contacts among business operators and participants have been established, different priorities and dissatisfaction among participants suggest that building relationships and sharing knowledge as part of networking and collaboration is difficult. A lack of willingness, involvement and trust are critical factors that affect the success of a well-intentioned network-based food tourism project. Additionally, internal conflicts between government ministries and agencies may also impede the success of a project of this scale. Nevertheless, the outcomes are not solely negative, as the establishment of initial contacts may eventually lead to formal collaborative opportunities and food tourism developments in the future.

Jinman Zhong,1,* Jianke Ding,2,* Lei Deng,1 Ying Xiang,1 Duoduo Liu,1 Yanyan Zhang,1 Xin Chen,1 Quanxin Yang1 1Department of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Xi' an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, 710004, People's Republic of China; 2Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, 710032, People's Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Quanxin Yang; Xin ChenDepartment of Radiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Xi' an Jiaotong University, 157 Xiwu Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, 710004, People's Republic of ChinaEmail quanxin1962@163.com; chen_x129@163.comBackground: The sensitive and specific detection of pathogenic cells is important in tumor diagnosis at an early stage. Aptamers are short single-stranded oligonucleotides evolved from systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX). It has been proved that aptamers can interact with cognate target molecules with high affinity and specificity and have great potential in the development of medical imaging at molecular level.Purpose: To select epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) specific aptamers targeting prostate cancer and further to conjugate aptamers with GoldMag nanoparticles (a typical iron oxide core/gold shell structure) to construct magnetic molecular probes for medical imaging.Methods: EpCAM-specific aptamers were selected by Cell-SELEX. The enrichment of specific aptamer candidates was monitored by flow cytometric analysis. Aptamers were further conjugated with GoldMag nanoparticles to construct magnetic molecular probes. The affinity and specificity of aptamer candidates and aptamer-conjugated GoldMag nanoparticles were evaluated. The MR imaging of aptamer-conjugated GoldMag nanoparticles to prostate cancer was further explored in vitro and in vivo.Results: After 12 rounds of selection, aptamer candidates Eppc6 and Eppc14 could specifically target three types of prostate cancer cells, revealing a high affinity of Eppc6 and Eppc14. Moreover, aptamer-conjugated GoldMag nanoparticles not only exhibited good affinity to different prostate cancer cells but also produced strong T2WI signal intensity reduction distinguished from peritumoral tissue in MRI, indicating that the molecular probes possess both the affinity properties of EpCAM-specific aptamer and the superparamagnetic features of iron oxide.Conclusion: Our study indicates that aptamer Eppc6 and Eppc14 can recognize prostate cancer cells and tissues. The aptamer-conjugated GoldMag nanoparticles constructed in the study can be used as a molecular imaging agent for detection of PCa in MRI.Keywords: EpCAM, aptamer, Cell-SELEX, prostate cancer

Xiang Li,1,2,* Shu-Jie An,3,* Xiao-Ling Liu,1,* Ai-Ling Ji,4 Yi Cao,5 Ying Xiang,1 Xiang-Yu Ma,1 Qin Hu,1 Zhi-Quan Yuan,1 Ya-Fei Li,1 Yuan-Gang Lu,2 Tong-Jian Cai1 1Department of Epidemiology, College of Preventive Medicine, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, People's Republic of China; 2Department of Plastic & Cosmetic Surgery, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, People's Republic of China; 3Medical Department, Xijing Hospital, Air Force Medical University (Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, People's Republic of China; 4Department of Preventive Medicine & Chongqing Engineering Research Center of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chongqing Medical and Pharmaceutical College, Chongqing, People's Republic of China; 5Department of Health Economics Management, Xijing Hospital, Air Force Medical University (Fourth Military Medical University), Xi'an, People's Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yuan-Gang LuDepartment of Plastic & Cosmetic Surgery, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University, 10 Changjiang Branch Road, Daping, Chongqing, 400042, People's Republic of ChinaTel +86-23-68757597Fax +86-23-68757596Email skin515@163.comTong-Jian Cai Email ctjcsl@fmmu.edu.cnBackground: Post-adolescent acne is a common skin disease faced by adults. However, whether air pollution (AP) serves as a risk factor for post-adolescent acne remains elusive.Aim: To determine the relationship between short-term AP exposure (within 7 days) and outpatient visits for post-adolescent acne.Methods: Daily outpatient visit data for post-adolescent acne and routinely AP data between 2010 and 2013 were collected from Xi'an, China. A generalized additive regression model was used to analyze the relationship between outpatient visits for post-adolescent acne and short-term ambient AP exposure. The gender-specific analyses were conducted as well.Results: Totally, 27,190 outpatient visits for post-adolescent acne were included. The results revealed that a 10 μg/m3 increase in PM10, SO2, and NO2 at lag 0– 7 day was associated with the increase of outpatient visits for post-adolescent acne at 0.84% (95% CI: 0.53%, 1.16%), 1.61% (95% CI: 0.12%, 3.10%), and 3.50% (95% CI: 1.60%, 5.40%), respectively. The significant positive associations of PM10, SO2, and NO2 were found at both single-lag models and moving average models. The gender-specific analyses showed that the effect estimates of PM10 was stronger for females than for males, while there was no observed gender difference in the effects of SO2 and NO2.Conclusion: Short-term exposure to AP was associated with increased outpatient visits for post-adolescent acne, especially for females in the effects of PM10.Keywords: short-term, air pollution, post-adolescent acne, adult acne, time-series analysis