Publications by authors named "Hui-Lan Chen"

Measles is a highly infectious viral illness and is one of the world's most contagious diseases that can affect all people if they have not been vaccinated or have not had it before. Before measles vaccine became available in 1963, major epidemic occurred approximately every 2 to 3 years and thus 99% of the people were thought to have been infected naturally with measles virus and got immune for life. In 2000, measles was declared eliminated from the United States, and yet 1215 cases have been reported from 30 states as of August 22, 2019.

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Background: Enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection results in some severe complications with high mortality and disability in Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) in children. Recent studies have shown that cytokine genetic predispositions have associations with both the development of EV71 infection and severity of HFMD.

Objective: This study was designed to investigate whether the IL-10-592 polymorphism is associated with IL-10 levels and disease severity in Chinese children with EV71 infection.

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Prior to 2015, Zika Virus (ZIKV) outbreaks had occurred in areas of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Although a causal relationship between Zika infection during pregnancy and microcephaly is strongly suspected, such a connection has not yet been scientifically proven. In May 2015, the outbreak of ZIKV infection in Brazil led to reports of syndrome and pregnant women giving birth to babies with birth defects and poor pregnancy outcomes; the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) issued an alert regarding the first confirmed ZIKV infection in Brazil.

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Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus infection and an important cause of encephalitis in most of Asia and parts of the western Pacific. Most people infected with the JE virus (JEV) are asymptomatic or seemingly suffer from a nonspecific, flu-like illness; in others, JE can cause illness ranging from fever and headache to severe encephalitis. Although it can cause significant morbidity and mortality, JE is a vaccine-preventable disease, and vaccination programs have proven most effective in preventing and diminishing the burden of disease.

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Probiotics are proprietary formulations of specific microorganisms and quantified populations of live bacteria that are intended to confer a health benefit on the host. These different strains and combinations of microorganisms have a wide and varying range of clinical and immunologic capacities that can modify intestinal microbial populations in ways that can benefit the host. The enhanced presence of probiotic bacteria in the intestinal microbiota has been found to correlate with protection against atopy.

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Background: Enterobacter species has emerged as an important pathogen of nosocomial bacteremia. The purpose of this study is to review the clinical characteristics of bacteremia in pediatric patients.

Materials And Methods: We reviewed retrospectively the medical records of patients (under the age of 18 years) having Enterobacter bacteremia who were treated at Taipei the Veterans General Hospital from January 2001 to June 2011.

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Since the first human infection with influenza A (H7N9) viruses have been identified in Shanghai on March 31, 2013, the latest variant of the avian flu virus has spread across four Chinese provinces recently. Human infections with avian influenza are rare and this is the first time that human infection with a low pathogenic avian influenza A virus has been associated with fatal outcome. To date (May 5(th), 2013), China had reported 128 confirmed H7N9 infections in human, among 27 died.

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To optimize somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) procedures in mini-pigs, the present study was designed to examine the effects of donor cell types and aphidicolin (APC) treatment on in vitro development of reconstructed embryos. Oviduct epithelial cells (OEC), ear fibroblast cells (EFC) and cumulus cells (CC) derived from mini-pigs were treated with serum starvation only or serum starvation followed by treatment of 0.1 µg/mL APC.

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Background: Most small muscular ventricular septal defect (M-VSD) types have been diagnosed using color Doppler echocardiography. The purpose of this study was to understand the incidence of small M-VSD in the neonatal period and analyze the natural history of these M-VSDs.

Materials And Methods: All individuals in our study were neonates delivered at term who had a normal healthy appearance.

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A method for the determination and confirmation of methylene blue (MB) in aquatic products was developed. Residues of MB were extracted from homogenized tissues with acetonitrile/sodium acetate buffer solution, and simply cleaned up with dichloromethane liquid/liquid extraction. After concentration and dissolution, the sample solutions were cleaned up by the neutral alumina and weak cation-exchange solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridge, prior to LC-MS/MS analysis.

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A simple and reliable method to detect seven microcystins in hard clam and corbicula fluminea, based on liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization and tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS), was developed and validated. The sample preparation procedure includes extraction of tissue by methanol, followed by cleanup on a reversed-phase solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridge. With the optimized method, recoveries were between 43.

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A liquid chromatographic/tandem mass spectrometric method was developed and validated for the determination of chloramphenicol (CAP) in royal jelly. Royal jelly samples were first denatured with lead acetate solution, and the CAP was extracted with solid-phase extraction before separation by liquid chromatography. A triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer operated in the negative electrospray ionization and selected-reaction monitoring mode was used for the detection of CAP.

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Enthalpy and conformational volume changes induced by laser photo-dissociation reactions of mammalian oxy-hemoglobin, such as human, bovine, pig, horse and rabbit oxy-hemoglobins, are investigated by pulsed photoacoustic calorimetry. Generally, the response time of the photoacoustic calorimetry is restricted by the width of the laser pulse and the bandwidth of the acoustic detector. Considering the time window of the experimental system, the enthalpy and conformational volume changes detected should be caused by the tertiary relaxation of the heme proteins.

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The dynamics of the enthalpy and volume changes related to the photo-dissociation of oxygen from human and bovine oxyhemoglobin are investigated by nanosecond time-resolved photoacoustic calorimetry (PAC). The values of enthalpy and volume change associated with the above process are deltaH = 37.8 +/- 3 kcal/mol, deltaV = 5.

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The conserved cobalamin-binding domain of glutamate mutase exists as a separate dissociable subunit, MutS. The results obtained from BIAcore analysis indicate that MutS alone, in the absence of E component of glutamate mutase (MutE, catalytic subunit), is capable of binding hydroxocobinamide (OHCbi) with a Kd of 15.4+/-1.

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Time resolved photoacoustic calorimetry (PAC) was applied to a study of the photolysis of a coenzyme B(12) analog 2',5'-dideoxyadenosylcobalamin, which lacks an -OH group at the 2' position of ribofuranose ring. In aqueous solution, we report for the first time the quantum yield Phi(d) (0.25+/-0.

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The title compound, 3,3'-(4-pyridylimino)dipropanenitrile, C(11)H(12)N(4), has a twofold axis and consists of a pyridine ring head and two cyanoethyl tails, the three groups being linked by an N atom. The planar geometry around the amino N atom suggests conjugation with the pi-system of the pyridine ring. The molecules are stacked in a layer structure via relatively weak to very weak intermolecular C-H.

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The title complex, bis[3,3'-(pyridine-4-imino-kappaN(1))dipropanenitrile]silver(I) perchlorate, [Ag(CEAP)(2)]ClO(4) (CEAP is 4-[N,N-bis(2-cyanoethyl)amino]pyridine, C(11)H(12)N(4)), has been prepared and characterized. The unit cell consists of two crystallographically non-equivalent molecules. Cation cavities are constructed by [Ag(CEAP)(2)](+) cations through hydrogen bonds, and the ClO(4)(-) anions are incorporated into the cavities in mu(4)- and mu(2)-ClO(4)(-) bridging modes through C-H.

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The inclusion behavior between Costa-type complexes and cyclodextrins (CDs) was studied by 1H NMR in aqueous solution. The results indicated that 1:1 inclusion complex was formed, in which the alkyl group of the guest was included in the cavity of CDs. The stability constants of the inclusion complexes were determined by the quantitative 1H NMR method.

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