Psychological distress in cancer patients in a large Chinese cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Although psychological distress is common among patients with chronic diseases, the degree of risk for developing psychological distress is not well-established. Our aim with this study is to determine the odds ratio for psychological distress in patients with cancer as compared to either 1) patients with chronic disease patients without cancer, or 2) healthy controls in a large representative sample of Chinese population. METHODS: Using a multistage, stratified cluster sampling method, 21,101 subjects 18-79 years old were interviewed face-to-face in Jilin province, China. Their psychological status was assessed with the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). A total score of ≥4 was used as the threshold for determining psychological distress. RESULTS: The prevalence of psychological distress was 14.08% across the entire sample: 10.63% in healthy controls; 14.81% in patients with chronic diseases; and 20% in patients with cancer. Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that, as compared to the health controls, both cancer (OR = 1.609, 95%CI = 1.245-2.081) and chronic disease patients (OR = 1.330, 95%CI = 1.189-1.478) were more likely to suffer from psychological distress. Moreover, cancer patients had a higher risk of psychological distress than patients with chronic diseases (OR = 1.295, 95%CI = 1.049-1.600; p = 0.016). In addition, the cancer group (2.68 ±â€¯0.114) demonstrated a higher GHQ score than the patients with chronic diseases (2.30 ±â€¯0.017) and healthy controls (1.98 ±â€¯0.029) (both p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our results showed both a higher rate and greater degree of psychological distress in patients with cancer. This suggests a need for better psychological management in cancer patients to help alleviate their distress.

[The Influence of Runoff Pollution to DOM Features in an Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant].

Combined with wastewater treatment process, the sewage in sunny and rainy day was collected from a wastewater treatment plant in Chongqing. Three-dimensional fluorescence spectra was used to investigate the characteristic fluorescence of dissolved organic matter (DOM). DOM dissolved organic carbon (DOC), chemical oxygen demand (COD), fluorescence index (ƒ450/500) and fluorescence intensity ratio γ (A, C) of fulvic acid in ultraviolet and visible region were used to analyze the impact of rain runoff pollution on sewage DOM. According to the experimental data, the DOM fluorescence fingerprints of this wastewater treatment plant were quite different from typical municipal sewage, and the main component was tryptophan with low excitation wavelength (Peak S), then the tryptophan with long wavelength excitation (Peak T) followed. A2/O process had an approximative degradation of the protein-like both in sunny day and rainy day, but had a better degradation of fulvic-like, DOC and COD in rainy day than that in sunny day. Morever, the fluorescence peaks got red-shifted after the biological treatment. The differences of DOM fluorescence fingerprint between sunny and rainy day were significant, the fluorescence center of UV fulvic (Peak A) in rainy day getting blue-shifted obviously, shifting from 240 - 248/390 - 440 to 240 - 250/370 - 400 nm. Although the DOM types in sunny and rainy day were the same, the source of fulvic got more complex by runoff and the component ratio of DOM also changed. Compared with the sunny day, the proportion of Peak S in DOM dereased by 10%, and the proportion of Peak A increased by 7% in rainy day.

Bioconversion of ethyl (R)-4-cyano-3-hydroxybutyate into (R)-ethyl-3-hydroxyglutarate via an indirect pathway by Rhodococcus boritolerans.

(R)-Ethyl-3-hydroxyglutarate, (R)-3, is an intermediate in the synthesis of the statin side chain. Here, a new two-step, indirect biotransformation pathway involving the formation of ethyl (R)-4-carbamoyl-3-hydroxybutanoate, (R)-2, as an intermediate for (R)-3 production was developed using Rhodococcus boritolerans with ethyl (R)-4-cyano-3-hydroxybutyate, (R)-1, as substrate. Maximum conversion was with 10 g (R)-1/l, 7 g cells/l (dry wt), pH 7.5 and 25°C. A yield of 98 ± 0.5% (w/w) was attained within 8 h.