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Preventing the progression of acute pancreatitis (AP) to severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) is crucial for AP patients. The use of clinical parameters in laboratory facilities for predicting SAP can be rapid, efficient, and cost-effective. This study aimed to investigate the predictive and prognostic value of collected clinical detection parameters, such as serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels, and their ratios, such as ALP-to-hemoglobin (Hb) and LDH-to-Hb ratios, for the prediction of SAP occurrence, complications, and mortality. In all, 50 healthy controls (CON), 455 patients with mild acute pancreatitis (MAP), 127 patients with moderately severe acute pancreatitis (MSAP), and 93 patients with SAP were included in the study. Thirty clinical parameters were collected, measured, compared, and analyzed. The ratios of ALP/Hb and LDH/Hb were subsequently calculated and evaluated with respect to gender and age and whether they could predict SAP occurrence, complications, and mortality. The results revealed that 15 parameters were significant for the prediction of AP. Furthermore, the following 6 indicators are associated with the occurrence of SAP: ALP, ALP/Hb, LDH, LDH/Hb, CRP, and blood glucose. Among these parameters, the predictive abilities of ALP/Hb and LDH/Hb for SAP were most effective. However, they fail to differentiate between MAP and MSAP or gender in SAP patients. Positive correlations were only observed between the levels of these indicators and age at onset of SAP. In addition, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were generated to predict SAP incidence rates, complications, and mortality. The area under the curve (AUC) values for the ALP/Hb ratio ranged from 0.7097 to 0.7837, whereas those for the LDH/Hb ratio ranged from 0.5043 to 0.7778. These findings suggest that ALP and LDH alone or in combination with Hb possess unique predictive characteristics that may serve as independent factors for predicting SAP occurrence, complications, and mortality; of these, the ALP/Hb ratio is especially predictive of SAP mortality.

The single-nucleotide polymorphisms of genes related to DNA damage repair and inflammasomes and mutated gene expression in coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) were analysed to identify the risk factors of CWP and potential biomarkers for early warning and diagnosis. Further, mutated gene pathways were analysed based on proteome and metabolome. Han Chinese male subjects were randomly selected and divided into 4 or 5 groups according to the process of CWP. MassARRAY was used to sequence single-nucleotide polymorphism genotypes. Mutated gene expression in plasma was tested using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Odds ratios (ORs) and receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) were calculated. The serum different proteins and metabolites were identified by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography Quadrupole time of flight/Mass Spectrum (UPLC-Q-TOF/MS) and analysed using bioinformation software. As CWP progressed, the CC and CA genotypes of ERCC1 rs3212986 decreased and increased significantly, respectively. AA (OR = 3.016) and CA (OR = 2.130) genotypes were identified as risk factors for stage II. ERCC1 significantly decreased in processing of CWP. The cutoff value of ERCC1 was 5.265 pg/ml, with a sensitivity of 90.0% and specificity of 86.7%. ERCC1 had an indirect interaction with activator protein-1 and insulin and its pathways were mainly made with molecules related to lipid metabolism and actin dynamics. ERCC1 is a candidate biomarker for detection and precise intervention in CWP. If it reaches the threshold, workers will change other jobs in time and will not develop and diagnose as pneumoconiosis and will help the employers spend less money. Meanwhile, the signal molecules of ERCC1 pathway could be as a candidate target for drug discovery.

ObjectiveThis study aims to examine the validity of the MFS by analyzing the electronic medical records on fall risk in obstetrics and gynecology wards and determine the optimal cut-off score of the Morse Fall Scale.DesignA retrospective survey.MethodsThe research was conducted in an Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital and a general hospital. The sample included 136 fall inpatients and 120 no-fall inpatients recruited from January 1st, 2020, to July 10th, 2022. The Morse Fall Scale was analyzed using the gold standard of patients who fell while hospitalized, assessing the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and Kappa.ResultsAt cut-off scores of 40, 45,50, and 55, the area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve was 0.772, 0.761, 0.749, and 0.763, respectively. The Youden index was 0.543, 0.521, 0.498, and 0.525, while Kappa values were 0.540, 0.518, 0.490, and 0.515. Sensitivity was 0.735, 0.713, 0.640, and 0.625; specificity was 0.808, 0.808, 0.858, and 0.900. The positive predictive values were 0.813, 0.808, 0.837, and 0.876, and the negative predictive values were 0.729, 0.713, 0.678, and 0.679. Accuracy were 0.770, 0.758, 0.742, and 0.754.ConclusionsThe Morse Fall Scale demonstrates good predictive performance for assessing fall risk in gynecology and obstetrics wards. The optimal cut-off score is 40.

A modified QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) -LC-MS/MS method was developed for the determination of hexachlorophene in fruits and vegetables. Samples were extracted by acetonitrile and then salted with an acetate buffer system. Extractants neutral alumina (Al-N), strong cation exchange silica gel bonded adsorbent (SCX) and graphitized carbon black (GCB) were used for sample purification. The method demonstrates excellent accuracy and reproducibility. Under optimized conditions, the correlation coefficients of hexachlorophene were higher than 0.995 in the range of 0.5-20 ng/mL. The limit of quantification (LOQ) was 2.0 μg/kg. The average recoveries, assessed at three spiked levels (2.0, 4.0, and 20.0μg/kg) across various matrices including cabbage, celery, tomato, eggplant, potato, radish, cowpea, chives, apple, peach, grape, citrus, bitter melon, banana and hami melon ranged from 72.0 to 100.5% with relative standard deviations from 3.2 to 9.8% (n = 6).

The TBX1 gene plays a critical role in the development of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS), a complex genetic disorder associated with various phenotypic manifestations. In this study, we performed in-silico analysis to identify potentially deleterious non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) within the TBX1 gene and evaluate their functional and structural impact on 22q11.2DS. A comprehensive analysis pipeline involving multiple computational tools was employed to predict the pathogenicity of nsSNPs. This study assessed protein stability and explored potential alterations in protein-protein interactions. The results revealed the rs751339103(C>A), rs780800634(G>A), rs1936727304(T>C), rs1223320618(G>A), rs1248532217(T>C), rs1294927055 (C>T), rs1331240435 (A>G, rs1601289406 (A>C), rs1936726164 (G>A), and rs911796187(G>A) with a high-risk potential for affecting protein function and stability. These nsSNPs were further analyzed for their impact on post-translational modifications and structural characteristics, indicating their potential disruption of molecular pathways associated with TBX1 and its interacting partners. These findings provide a foundation for further experimental studies and elucidation of potential therapeutic targets and personalized treatment approaches for individuals affected by 22q11.2DS.

BackgroundSevere acute lung failure (ALF) often necessitates veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO), where identifying predictors of weaning success and mortality remains crucial yet challenging. The study aims to identify predictors of weaning success and mortality in adults undergoing VV-ECMO for severe ALF, a gap in current clinical knowledge.Methods and analysisPubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials will be searched for cohort studies examining the predictive factors of successful weaning and mortality in adult patients on VV-ECMO due to severe ALF. Risk of bias assessment will be conducted using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale for each included study. The primary outcomes will be successful weaning from VV-ECMO and all-cause mortality. Between-study heterogeneity will be evaluated using the I2 statistic. Sensitivity, subgroup, and meta-regression analyses will be performed to ascertain potential sources of heterogeneity and assess the robustness of our results. We will use the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) tool to recommend the level of evidence.DiscussionThis study seeks to provide clinically significant insights into predictors for weaning and mortality during VV-ECMO treatment for ALF, aiming to support clinical decisions and potentially influence health policy, thereby improving patient outcomes.Ethics and disseminationGiven the absence of direct engagement with human subjects or access to personal medical records, ethical approval for this study is deemed unnecessary. The study findings will be shared at a scientific conference either at the global or national level. Alternatively, the results will be presented for publication in a rigorously peer-reviewed journal regarding critical care medicine.

ObjectiveThe relationship between the levels of the first 24-h PaCO2 and the prognosis of sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) remains unclear, and the first 24-h optimal target for PaCO2 is currently inconclusive. This study was performed to investigate the correlation between PaCO2 and all-cause mortality for SAE patients, establish a reference range of the initial 24-hour PaCO2 for clinicians in critical care, and explain the possible pathophysiological mechanisms of abnormal PaCO2 levels as a higher mortality risk factor for SAE.MethodsThe baseline information and clinical data of patients were extracted from the fourth edition Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care database (MIMIC-IV 2.0). Multivariate logistic regressions were performed to assess the relationship between PaCO2 and all-cause mortality of SAE. Additionally, restricted cubic splines, Kaplan-Meier Survival analyses, propensity score matching (PSM) analyses, and subgroup analyses were conducted.ResultsA total of 5471 patients were included in our cohort. In the original and matched cohort, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that normocapnia and mild hypercapnia may be associated with a more favorable prognosis of SAE patients, and survival analysis supported the findings. In addition, a U-shaped association emerged when examining the initial 24-hour PaCO2 levels in relation to 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day mortality using restricted cubic splines, with an average cut-off value of 36.3mmHg (P for nonlinearity8, a L-shaped relationship between PaCO2 and the three clinical endpoints emerged, in contrast to the previously observed U-shaped pattern. The findings from the subcohort of GCS>8 suggested that patients experiencing hypocapnia had a more unfavorable prognosis, which aligns with the results obtained from corresponding multivariate logistic regression analyses.ConclusionThe retrospective study revealed the association between the first 24-h PaCO2 and all-cause mortality risk (30-day, 60-day, and 90-day) for patients with SAE in ICU. The range (35mmHg-50mmHg) of PaCO2 may be the optimal target for patients with SAE in clinical practice.

Smart services are expected to solve the dilemma of development and emission reduction, but there is still no conclusive evidence on whether and how they work. This article aims to explore the relationship between smart services and sustainable green transformation and the effect mechanism. To achieve this goal, a text mining analysis is performed to assess 970 Chinese listed manufacturing enterprises' smart services development; a regression analysis is then conducted. The results show that smart services have a significant positive impact on the quality and quantity of green innovation, especially for heavily polluting enterprises. The substitution of technology and labor for capital, as well as the upgrading of human resource quality, are effective mechanisms. Smart services can assist as a management strategic tool to balance environmental protection and development, but such an effect fails to work in areas not covered by new infrastructure and is weaker for private enterprises.

Obstructive uropathy is a common kidney disease caused by elevated hydrostatic pressure (HP), but relevant molecular and cellular mechanisms have not yet been well understood. In this study, we ex vivo investigated the effects of elevated HP on human renal epithelial cells (HREpCs). Primary HREpCs were subjected to 100 cmH2O HP for 8 or 48 h. Then, the cells were cultured without HP stimulation for another 24 h or 72 h. Cell morphology showed almost no change after 8h HP treatment, but exhibited reversible elongation after 48h HP treatment. HP treatment for 8 h increased the expression of TGFB1 and VEGFA but decreased the expression of CSF2 and TGFB2. On the other hand, HP treatment for 48 h downregulated the expression of CSF2, TGFB2, PDGFB, VEGFA, and VEGFB, while upregulated the expression of TGFB3. Interestingly, all changes induced by 48 h HP treatment were detected more severe compared to 8 h HP treatment. In conclusion, elongated ex vivo HP loading to renal epithelial cells induces reversible changes on cell morphology and disturbs the expression of several growth factors, which provides novel mechanistic insight on elevated HP-caused kidney injury such as obstructive uropathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To estimate the incidence of foodborne gastroenteritis caused by nontyphoidal Salmonella enterica, Shigella, and Vibrio parahaemolyticus in China, population surveys and sentinel hospital surveillance were implemented in six provinces from July 2010 to July 2011, and a multiplier calculation model for the burden of disease was constructed. The multiplier for salmonellosis and V. parahaemolyticus gastroenteritis was estimated at 4,137 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2,320-5,663], and for shigellosis at 4,356 (95% CI 2,443-5,963). Annual incidence per 100,000 population was estimated as 245 (95% CI 138-336), 67 (95% CI 38-92), and 806 (95% CI 452-1,103) for foodborne salmonellosis, shigellosis, and V. parahaemolyticus gastroenteritis, respectively, indicating that foodborne infection caused by these three pathogens constitutes an important burden to the Chinese healthcare system. Continuous implementation of active surveillance of foodborne diseases, combined with multiplier models to estimate disease burden, makes it possible for us to better understand food safety status in China.

IntroductionCoronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has made a serious public health threat worldwide. Recent evidence has indicated that COVID-19 patients in convalescence frequently experience insomnia, which reduces their quality of life and causes unknown risks. The positive effect of cognitive behavior on insomnia has been well addressed in previous studies. Given the high infectivity and epidemicity of COVID-19, Internet-delivered intervention may be safer than face-to-face treatment. However, whether Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy can effectively improve the insomnia of COVID-19 patients in convalescence has not been completely determined yet. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis and systematic review to evaluate the effects of Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy on insomnia in COVID-19 patients in convalescence, with the aim to confer some guidance for its clinical application.Methods and analysisThis systematic review and meta-analysis has been registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO). Two researchers will retrieve the relevant literature on Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in convalescent patients with COVID-19 in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Clinical Trials gov, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) from inception to 11th of December. In addition, we will review the relevant trials and references of the included literature and manually searched the grey literature. The two researchers will independently extracted data and information and evaluated the quality of the included literature. The Review Manager software (version 5.3) and Stata software (version 14.0) will be used for data analysis. The mean difference or the standardized mean difference of 95% CI will be used to calculate continuous variables to synthesize the data. In addition, I2 and Cochrane will be used for heterogeneity assessment.Trial registrationPROSPERO registration number CRD42021271278.

BackgroundPregnancy-related low back pain (PLBP) affects the daily living activities of pregnant women, even leading to fetal agitation and threatened abortion. Kinesio taping (KT) can improve the circulation of blood and provide elastic supports, which is a reliable method to treat low back pain. At present, although many studies have been published on the effects of KT on PLBP, the results are inconsistent, and some studies even report that KT does not affect PLBP. there is still a lack of high-level clinical evidence for the treatment of PLBP with KT. Therefore, this study proposes a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis of published Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) to evaluate the efficacy and safety of KT for PLBP.MethodsThis protocol is guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols. We will search the following database sources of the RCTs: PubMed, the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Web of Science, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database (CNKI), Chinese Science, and the Wanfang Database. From the establishment of the database to April 2021. The retrieval word adopts the combination of theme words and free words. Take "Kinesiotape, Tape Athletic, Orthotic Tape, Athletic Tape, Pregnancy, Pregnancies, Gestation, low back pain" as a term for retrieval. Two independent investigators will conduct an electronic literature search, study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment to summarize and evaluate the efficacy of KT in the treatment of PLBP. Retrospective trials are not included, and the risk of bias will be assessed using the Cochrane bias risk tool. All data analysis will be conducted using Revman5.3 software.ResultsQuality outcomes in systematic review studies depend on inclusion and search criteria to obtain high-quality data, as well as how the data are processed and interpreted. Among the results, this study will objectively and comprehensively evaluate the efficacy and safety of the randomized controlled trial of KT in the treatment of PLBP, and make a detailed analysis of the effect of KT in the treatment of PLBP. The results will be analyzed by the Visual Analogue Scale of Pain and the Roland Morris Dysfunction Questionnaire. If applicable, a subgroup analysis will also be performed, which will be grouped according to the duration of pregnancy, grade of pain, etc. Finally, the results are submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.ConclusionBased on the results, this study will analyze and summarize the effect of KT on improving PLBP. It includes whether KT can improve the pain and lumbar function of PLBP, or it has adverse effects and reactions on pregnant women, then analysis and interpretation of other related issues. It is expected that the results of this study will provide a reference to the method and time of taping for clinical staff, as well as high-quality evidence to resolve the effect of KT on low back pain and provide corresponding guidance for pregnant women with low back pain. It aims to improve the status of low back pain in pregnant women and improve their physical health.Protocol registration numberPROSPERO CRD42021250373; https://clinicaltrials.gov/.

Manual proteomic sample preparation methods limit sample throughput and often lead to poor data quality when thousands of samples must be analyzed. Automated liquid handler systems are increasingly used to overcome these issues for many of the sample preparation steps. Here, we detail a step-by-step protocol to prepare samples for bottom-up proteomic analysis for Gram-negative bacterial and fungal cells. The full modular protocol consists of three optimized protocols to: (A) lyse Gram-negative bacteria and fungal cells; (B) quantify the amount of protein extracted; and (C) normalize the amount of protein and set up tryptic digestion. These protocols have been developed to facilitate rapid, low variance sample preparation of hundreds of samples, be easily implemented on widely-available Beckman-Coulter Biomek automated liquid handlers, and allow flexibility for future protocol development. By using this workflow 50 micrograms of protein from 96 samples can be prepared for tryptic digestion in under an hour. We validate these protocols by analyzing 47 Pseudomonas putida and Rhodosporidium toruloides samples and show that this modular workflow provides robust, reproducible proteomic samples for high-throughput applications. The expected results from these protocols are 94 peptide samples from Gram-negative bacterial and fungal cells prepared for bottom-up quantitative proteomic analysis without the need for desalting column cleanup and with protein relative quantity variance (CV%) below 15%.

Because of species diversity and troubling conservation status in the wild, Orchidaceae has been one of the taxa with most concern in population ecological research for a long time. Although Orchidaceae is a group with high adaptability, they have become endangered for complex and various reasons such as the germination? difficulty and habitat loss, which makes it difficult to develop an accurate protection strategy. Phaius flavus is a terrestrial orchid which used to be widely distributed in central and southern Asia; however, large populations are difficult to find in the wild. Thus, the aim of this study was to provide a new perspective for conserving endangered P. flavus by investigating the mechanisms of its population decline; we established time-specific life and fertility tables, age pyramids, survival curves, and mortality curves for this plant and then conducted Leslie matrix model. We found that both of the populations from Wuhu Mount (WM) and Luohan Mount (LM) showed declining trends and exhibited pot-shaped age pyramids, low net reproductive rates, and negative intrinsic growth rates. The population from the Beikengding Mount (BM) showed a stable status with a bell-shaped age pyramid. However, it has a significant risk of decline because of the low net reproductive rate and intrinsic growth rate. This study use time-specific life and fertility tables, age pyramids, survival curves, and mortality curves, showed that the population decline of P. flavus could be attributed to 1) the shortage of seedlings caused by the low germination rate in the wild and 2) the loss of adult individuals caused by anthropogenic disturbances. To protect this species from extinction in these areas, we suggest that human activities in these habitats should be strictly forbidden and ex situ conservation of this plant in botanical gardens is also necessary.

Biomechanical cue within the tissue microenvironment is known to play a critical role in regulating cell behaviors and maintaining tissue homeostasis. As hydrostatic pressure often increases in biliary system under pathological states, we investigated the effect of the moderate elevation of the hydrostatic pressure on biliary epithelial cells, especially on the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Human intrahepatic biliary epithelial cells were loaded to hydrostatic pressure using a commercial device. We found that loading the cells to 50 mmHg hydrostatic pressure induced obvious morphological changes and significantly upregulated vimentin, ZEB1, and pSmad2/3, fibronectin, and collagen 1α. All changes induced by hydrostatic pressure loading were effectively mitigated by either ROCK inhibitor (Y-27632) or ALK5 inhibitor (SB-431542). Our in vitro experimental data suggests that hydrostatic pressure loading induces EMT of cholangiocytes through RhoA/ROCK and TGF-β/Smad pathways. Elevated hydrostatic pressure in biliary duct system under pathological states may promote the biliary epithelial cells shifting to profibrotic and mesenchymal characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel penalty for the proportional hazards model under the interval-censored failure time data structure is discussed, with which the subject of variable selection is rarely studied. The penalty comes from an idea to approximate some information criterion, e.g., the BIC or AIC, and the core process is to smooth the ℓ0 norm. Compared with usual regularization methods, the proposed approach is free of heavily time-consuming hyperparameter tuning. The efficiency is further improved by fitting the model and selecting variables in one step. To achieve this, sieve likelihood is introduced, which simultaneously estimates the coefficients and baseline cumulative hazards function. Furthermore, it is shown that the three desired properties for penalties, i.e., continuity, sparsity, and unbiasedness, are all guaranteed. Numerical results show that the proposed sparse estimation method is of great accuracy and efficiency. Finally, the method is used on data of Nigerian children and the key factors that have effects on child mortality are found.

The sustainable development of pension systems has been investigated from a financial perspective worldwide. However, the pension adequacy and its effect on the sustainability of a national pension system are still understudied. Using actual replacement rate and modified living standards replacement rate, this study empirically evaluates whether China's New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS) grants enough livelihood protection for the rural residents in the Northwestern China. The results show that the NRPS fails to meet the basic needs of the elderly people (i.e., age of sixty years or older) or the middle-aged people (forty-five to fifty-nine years old), while it only provides limited protection for the young people (sixteen to forty-four years old). These findings suggest that the current NRPS benefits are very low in the Northwestern China and policy reforms should be further implemented to improve the sustainable development of the New Rural Pension Scheme.

Background The nursing education system has evolved with an increased emphasis on student-centred education, such as implementing flipped classroom pedagogy. Given the promising positive educational outcomes, the trend of using flipped classroom pedagogy has become increasingly popular in undergraduate nursing education. However, little is known about how these flipped classroom methods impact on nursing educational practices in limited-resource settings situated in South Asia. Objective To assess the feasibility of implementing flipped classroom pedagogy in undergraduate nursing education from the nursing students’ perspective. Methods This mixed-methods study employed a quantitative survey and six focus group discussions conducted in three state universities in Sri Lanka. The Nursing Students’ Readiness for Flipped Classroom (NSR-FC) questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data. The semi-structured focus group discussions were conducted by using 18 reflective and open-ended questions. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance methods were employed when analysing quantitative data. An inductive thematic analysis approach was used to summarize the focus group discussions. Results The questionnaire survey revealed that nursing students reported high levels of personal, technical, and pedagogical readiness across all three universities, while environmental readiness was perceived as low. The inductive thematic analysis identified three themes, namely: enablers, challenges, and benefits. Specifically, nursing students valued the student-centred approach. They were ready to utilize their own devices to overcome limited technological provision; however, a short training session about how to engage in the flipped classroom was desirable. Also, their exposure to basic educational technology was perceived as adequate and they were aware of the positive outcomes of flipped classroom pedagogy. Conclusion Nursing students were ready to enrol in a flipped classroom programme. The provision of technological resources in the education environment was identified as a great challenge for flipped classroom implementation. Overall, the findings indicate there are promising feasibilities for the flipped classroom implementation.

The Sm proteins are a conserved protein family with Sm motifs. The family includes Sm and Sm-like proteins, which play important roles in pre-mRNA splicing. Most research on the Sm proteins have been conducted in herbaceous plants, and less in woody plants such as Dimocarpus longan (longan). And the embryo development status significantly affects the quality and yield of longan. In this study, we conducted a genome-wide analysis of longan Sm genes (DlSm) to clarify their roles during somatic embryogenesis (SE) and identified 29 Sm genes. Phylogenetic analysis deduced longan Sm proteins clustered into 17 phylogenetic groups with the homologous Sm proteins of Arabidopsis thaliana. We also analyzed the gene structures, motif compositions, and conserved domains of the longan Sm proteins. The promoter sequences of the DlSm genes contained many light, endosperm development, hormone, and temperature response elements, which suggested their possible functions. In the non-embryogenic callus(NEC) and during early SE in longan, the alternative splicing(AS) events of DlSm genes indicated that these genes may influence SE development by changing gene structures and sequences. The kinetin(KT) hormone, and blue and white light treatments affected the differentiation and growth of longan embryonic callus(EC) probably by affecting the AS events of DlSm genes. Expression profiles showed the possible functional divergence among Sm genes, and different hormones and light qualities affected their expression levels. The expression trends of the DlSm genes determined by RNA sequencing as fragments per kilobase of exon model per million mapped reads (FPKM) and by real-time quantitative PCR(qRT-PCR) during early SE in longan showed that the expression of the DlSm genes was affected by the growth and differentiation of longan SE, and decreased as the somatic embryo differentiation progressed. The results will contributed to understanding the longan Sm gene family and provide a basis for future functional validation studies.

Information on the burden of disease due to foodborne pathogens in China is quite limited. To understand the incidence of foodborne gastroenteritis due to non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica and Vibrio parahaemolyticus, population survey and sentinel hospital surveillance were conducted during July 2010 to June 2011 in Shanghai, east China, and a model for calculating disease burden was established. The multiplier for gastroenteritis caused by these pathogens was estimated at 59 [95% confidence interval (CI) 30-102]. Annual incidence per 100,000 population in Shanghai was estimated as 48 (95% CI 24-83) and 183 (95% CI 93-317) cases for foodborne non-typhoidal salmonellosis and V. parahaemolyticus gastroenteritis, respectively, illustrating that bacterial gastroenteritis due to these two pathogens poses a substantial health burden. There is a significant difference between our simulated incidence and the data actually reported for foodborne diseases, indicating significant underreporting and underdiagnosis of non-typhoidal S. enterica and V. parahaemolyticus gastroenteritis in the surveillance area. The present research demonstrates basic situation of the health burden caused by major foodborne pathogens in the surveillance area. Enhanced laboratory-based sentinel hospital surveillance is one of the effective ways to monitor food safety in east China.

ObjectiveThe anatomy of the tracheobronchial tree differs among not only various races but also individual ethnic groups. Different lengths of the right mainstem bronchus (RMSB) had been described in previous publications. Since the differences in the anatomy of the RMSB and right upper lobe bronchus (RUB) may have clinical relevance when selecting devices, specifically, the right-side double lumen tube (R-DLT) for lung isolation, we revisited the anatomy of the right upper lobe in a large scale Chinese population.MethodsIn this retrospective cohort study, we reviewed 2093 consecutive adult patients undergoing thoracic computed tomography (CT) scans from data base in our hospital. Demographic characteristics were collected. The lengths, internal diameters, and angles of the RMSB and RUB were measured using reconstructive CT images. The correlations between the demographic variables and the RMSB length and diameters were also analyzed.ResultsThe incidence of the aberrant RUB originated equal or above the tracheal carina was 8.1‰. 52.3% of the patients had a length of RMSB less than 23 mm, and the incidence of RMSB length ConclusionA much higher incidence of a shortened RMSB potentially make placement of a R-DLT more difficult in Chinese population. Both the lengths and diameters of the RMSB cannot be predicted by the height. Preoperative thoracic CT scan for each patient helps optimizing the selection of a lung isolation device, and the importance of an evaluation of the CT scans preoperatively by the anesthesiologists should be emphasized.

BACKGROUND:The abnormal proliferation and migration of airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells contributes to airway remodeling during asthma. MiR-19a has been demonstrated to promote cell proliferation and angiogenesis of several cancer types by regulating the PTEN/PI3K/AKT pathway. Our previous study has shown that High-mobility group box protein 1 (HMGB1) is involved in the pathogenesis of airway remodeling using a mouse model of chronic asthma. However, the effects of HMGB1 on proliferation and migration of ASM cells and its underlying mechanisms remain unknown. METHODS:Human ASM cells were obtained by primary explant techniques. MiR-19a expression was evaluated using qRT-PCR. Cell proliferation and migration were evaluated by the CCK-8 and the transwell migration assays, respectively. Transfection studies of ASM cells were performed to identify the underlying mechanisms. RESULTS:HMGB1 stimulated ASM cell proliferation and migration in a dose-dependent manner. The expression levels of miR-19a and the PTEN and AKT signaling proteins were also modulated by HMGB1. Functional studies indicated that overexpression of miR-19a enhanced the proliferation and migration of ASM cells, whereas inhibition of miR-19a decreased the proliferation and migration of ASM cells. Western blot analysis demonstrated that miR-19a negatively regulated PTEN expression and positively regulated p-AKT expression. MiR-19 only regulates the proliferation of HASM cells induced by HMGB1, but not PDGF, EGF, TGF-β1. Furthermore, we demonstrated that miR-19 contributed to the promoting effects of HMGB1 on ASM cells by targeting PTEN 3'-UTR. CONCLUSION:Our results demonstrated that HMGB1 induced proliferation and migration of ASM cells via the miR-19a /PTEN/AKT axis and provided direct evidence on the role of HMGB1 in ASM cells proliferation in vitro. The present study further indicated that miR-19a may be explored as a potential novel therapeutic target to reverse proliferation and migration of ASM cells.

The spatial numerical association of response codes effect, referred to as the SNARC effect, reveals that small numbers elicit faster left than right responses, and conversely, large numbers elicit faster right responses. Here, we explored the development of this number-space association by assessing how 7-, 9-, 11-year-olds, and adults differed in spatial orienting of attention on Posner' paradigm. Compared with the previous research, we examined how the cues would affect the level and strength of the SNARC effect in children under the different attentional conditions. Subjects made parity decisions for endogenous attention (Experiment 1) and exogenous attention (Experiment 2). The results showed that adults displayed the SNARC effect in both experiments, relatively speaking, 7- to 11-year-old Chinese children's ability of spatial numerical association progressed gradually. With endogenous attention, the SNARC effect appeared in all age groups except for 7-year-olds for invalid cues. Compared with the endogenous attention condition, the SNARC effect was more significantly affected by cues in the exogenous attention condition. This result might be owing to the fact that the SNARC effect was not demonstrated in 7-year-olds with either valid or invalid cues. Our results suggest that the differences in the spatial orienting of attention are based on the cognitive load associated with processing number information and that this process can be affected by cues. Further, there may be cross-cultural influences on the SNARC effect, as early family training may explain the results seen in this sample of Chinese 7-year-olds. Thus, reaction times decreased with increasing age in the parity judgment task, and reaction times for valid cues were faster than for invalid cues regardless of the age group in both experiments. The SNARC effect was only present for 7-year-olds for valid cues, for endogenous attention.

Recent improvements in the speed and sensitivity of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry systems have driven significant progress toward system-wide characterization of the proteome of many species. These efforts create large proteomic datasets that provide insight into biological processes and identify diagnostic proteins whose abundance changes significantly under different experimental conditions. Yet, these system-wide experiments are typically the starting point for hypothesis-driven, follow-up experiments to elucidate the extent of the phenomenon or the utility of the diagnostic marker, wherein many samples must be analyzed. Transitioning from a few discovery experiments to quantitative analyses on hundreds of samples requires significant resources both to develop sensitive and specific methods as well as analyze them in a high-throughput manner. To aid these efforts, we developed a workflow using data acquired from discovery proteomic experiments, retention time prediction, and standard-flow chromatography to rapidly develop targeted proteomic assays. We demonstrated this workflow by developing MRM assays to quantify proteins of multiple metabolic pathways from multiple microbes under different experimental conditions. With this workflow, one can also target peptides in scheduled/dynamic acquisition methods from a shotgun proteomic dataset downloaded from online repositories, validate with appropriate control samples or standard peptides, and begin analyzing hundreds of samples in only a few minutes.

Soy protein concentrate (SPC), as a protein source, is widely used to replace partial fishmeal (FM) in aquafeeds, especially for carnivorous fish. This study investigated the effects of partial FM replacement by SPC for juvenile pearl gentian grouper. The fish were fed with diets containing six levels of SPC (SPC 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, and 75) for 6 weeks. At the end of the feeding trial, average body weight gain (BWG), specific growth ratio (SGR), and weight gain ratio (WGR) had the highest values in fish fed with diet SPC 15, followed by that of fish fed with SPC 0 while fish fed with SPC 75 had the lowest values (P < 0.05). Fish fed with diet SPC 15 and SPC 30 had the highest protein efficiency ratio (PER) while fish fed with diet SPC 15, SPC 30, and SPC 45 had the highest feed conversion ratio (FCR) (P < 0.05). Daily feed intake (DFI) was significantly decreased in fish fed with diets containing any level of SPC (P < 0.05). Survival rate was significantly higher in fish fed with diets SPC 15, SPC 30, and SPC 45 as compared to other treatments. Fish fed the diet including less than 30% FM replacement showed a higher protein content in the muscle. The ADC of dietary protein and some amino acids were significantly higher in diets SPC 0, followed by SPC 15; while SPC 75 had the lowest content (P < 0.05). Similarly, fish fed with SPC 30 and SPC 15 showed significantly higher protein and amino acid (AA) retention than other dietary treatments. The optimal FM replacement with SPC for specific growth ratio (SGR) was estimated to be 14.41% using a non-linear higher order regression model. These results indicated that pearl gentian grouper has a limited ability to utilize SPC as a protein source, and the FM replacement with SPC should be less than 30% (FM45.5 g 100g -1 and SPC18g 100g -1).

The seismic vibrator has become a main energy source for land seismic exploration. For a seismic vibrator, a piston is installed in the vertical direction in the reaction mass, and the reaction mass moves up and down along the piston. Because of vibrator dynamic disturbances in the reaction mass and baseplate system, the vibrator output force is contaminated by harmonic distortion. This distorted output force results in poor quality of seismic data. This paper studies the dynamics and disturbances of the piston as well as the reaction mass. The results show that the reaction mass disturbance is mainly caused by the horizontal oil flow inlet going to the reaction mass chamber. Precisely speaking, the ideal vertical motion of the reaction mass is disturbed by a combination of a reaction mass rotational motion along the piston and a bending motion of the piston. Changing the oil flow inlet from the horizontal direction to the vertical direction significantly reduces these disturbances. In the disturbance test of the vertical oil flow inlet, the disturbance of the reaction mass in XOZ and YOZ is reduced by 73.943% and 54.232%, respectively, and the disturbance of the vibrator is obviously weakened. The motion of the reaction mass is close to the ideal vertical direction. This change of the oil flow inlet direction further improves the accuracy and reliability of the vibrator output force.

PurposeThis study aimed to assess the effects of transitional health management on adherence and prognosis in elderly patients with acute myocardial infarction undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.MethodsWe conducted the trial from June 2016 to December 2016. A total of one hundred and fifty patients with acute myocardial infarction after PCI who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into an experimental (n = 75) group and a control (n = 75) group. The participants in the experimental group received transitional health management for three months. The two groups of patients were evaluated for treatment adherence, quality of life, clinical indicators, adverse cardiovascular events and statistics regarding readmission rates at baseline and 6 months after discharge.ResultsCompared with the controls, patients in the intervention group demonstrated better medication adherence, reexamination adherence, healthy lifestyle and clinical indicators (all PConclusionTransitional health management effectively improved adherence in elderly patients with acute myocardial infarction after PCI, ameliorated clinical indicators, and effectively reduced the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events and readmission rates. Transitional health management was an effective intervention for PCI patients after discharge.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180113.].

The lungs are highly susceptible to injury, including ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Pulmonary I/R injury can occur when correcting conditions such as primary pulmonary hypertension, and is also relatively common after lung transplantation or other cardiothoracic surgery. Methods to reduce pulmonary I/R injury are urgently needed to improve outcomes following procedures such as lung transplantation. Remote liver ischemic preconditioning (RLIPC) is an effective cardioprotective measure, reducing damage caused by subsequent cardiac I/R injury, but little is known about its potential role in pulmonary protection. Here, we analyzed the efficacy and mechanistic basis of RLIPC in a rat model of pulmonary I/R injury. RLIPC reduced lung I/R injury, lessening structural damage, inflammatory cytokine production and apoptosis. In addition, RLIPC preserved pulmonary function compared to controls following lung I/R injury. RLIPC stimulated phosphorylation of pulmonary STAT3, a component of the SAFE signaling pathway, but not phosphorylation of RISK pathway signaling proteins. Accordingly, STAT3 inhibition using AG490 eliminated the pulmonary protection afforded by RLIPC. Our data demonstrate for the first time that RLIPC protects against pulmonary I/R injury, via a signaling pathway requiring STAT3 phosphorylation.

We present a lab-in-the-field experiment to demonstrate how individual behavior in the lab predicts their ability to identify phishing attempts. Using the business and finance staff members from a large public university in the U.S., we find that participants who are intolerant of risk, more curious, and less trusting commit significantly more errors when evaluating interfaces. We also replicate prior results on demographic correlates of phishing vulnerability, including age, gender, and education level. Our results suggest that behavioral characteristics such as intolerance of risk, curiosity, and trust can be used to predict individual ability to identify phishing interfaces.

The associations between meteorological factors and mortality have been well documented worldwide, but limited evidence is available for the non-fatal health impacts of ambient temperature, particularly there are few population-based investigations on the impacts of emergency ambulance dispatches in Asia. In this study, based on 809,906 ambulance emergency call-outs (AECOs) for the total population from 2010-2016 in the subtropical city of Shenzhen, China, a Poisson regression combined with a distributed lag nonlinear model was used to simultaneously assess the nonlinear and lag effects of daily mean temperature on AECOs. Stratified analyses by age and sex were performed to identify vulnerable subpopulations. A U-shaped relationship was found between temperature and AECOs. Cold effects were delayed and persisted for 3-4 weeks, with a cumulative relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.23 (1.10-1.38) and 1.25 (1.16-1.35) over lag 0-28 when comparing the 1st and 5th percentile of the temperature distribution to the optimal (i.e. minimum AECOs) temperature, respectively. Hot effects were immediate and diminished quickly in 5 days, with an increase of 19% (RR = 1.19, 95%CI: 1.14-1.23) and 21% (RR = 1.21, 95%CI: 1.16-1.26) in AECOs over lag 0-5 when comparing the 95th and 99th percentile of temperature to the optimal temperature. Children and the elderly were more vulnerable to cold effects. The youth and middle-aged people suffered more from high temperature. The effects of temperature were similar between males and females. In summary, significant increases were observed in the frequency of AECOs during cold and hot days, and the weather-associated increases in AECOs are different among age groups. This information has valuable implications in ambulance demand prediction and service provision planning.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173277.].

Preharvest sprouting reduces the maize quality and causes a significant yield loss in maize production. vp-wl2 is a Mutator (Mu)-induced viviparous mutant in maize, causing white or pale yellow kernels, dramatically reduced carotenoid and ABA content, and a high level of zeta-carotene accumulation. Here, we reported the cloning of the vp-wl2 gene using a modified digestion-ligation-amplification method (DLA). The results showed that an insertion of Mu9 in the first intron of the zeta-carotene desaturase (ZDS) gene results in the vp-wl2 mutation. Previous studies have suggested that ZDS is likely the structural gene of the viviparous9 (vp9) locus. Therefore, we performed an allelic test using vp-wl2 and three vp9 mutants. The results showed that vp-wl2 is a novel allele of the vp9 locus. In addition, the sequences of ZDS gene were identified in these three vp9 alleles. The vp-wl2 mutant gene was subsequently introgressed into four maize inbred lines, and a viviparous phenotype was observed with yield losses from 7.69% to 13.33%.

Accumulating evidence shows that hydrogen sulfide (H2S) acts as a multifunctional signaling molecule in plants, whereas the interaction between H2S and ethylene is still unclear. In the present study we investigated the role of H2S in ethylene-promoted banana ripening and senescence by the application of ethylene released from 1.0 g·L-1 ethephon solution or H2S with 1 mM sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) as the donor or in combination. Fumigation with ethylene was found to accelerate banana ripening and H2S treatment effectively alleviated ethylene-induced banana peel yellowing and fruit softening in parallel with decreased activity of polygalacturonase (PG). Ethylene+H2S treatment also delayed the decreases in chlorophyll and total phenolics, and increased the accumulation of flavonoid, whereas decreased the contents of carotenoid, soluble protein in banana peel and reducing sugar in pulp compared with ethylene treatment alone. Besides, ethylene+H2S treatment suppressed the accumulation of superoxide radicals (·O2-), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA) which accumulated highly in ethylene-treated banana peels. Furthermore H2S enhanced total antioxidant capacity in ethylene-treated banana peels with the 2,2'-azobis(3-ethylbenz-thiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) assay. The result of quantitative real-time PCR showed that the combined treatment of ethylene with H2S down-regulated the expression of ethylene synthesis genes MaACS1, MaACS2 and MaACO1 and pectate lyase MaPL compared with ethylene treatment, while the expression of ethylene receptor genes MaETR, MaERS1 and MaERS2 was enhanced in combination treatment compared with ethylene alone. In all, it can be concluded that H2S alleviates banana fruit ripening and senescence by antagonizing the effect of ethylene through reduction of oxidative stress and inhibition of ethylene signaling pathway.

Antibody therapy against antibiotics resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae infections represents a promising strategy, the success of which depends critically on the ability to identify appropriate antibody targets. Using a target-agnostic strategy, we recently discovered MrkA as a potential antibody target and vaccine antigen. Interestingly, the anti-MrkA monoclonal antibodies isolated through phage display and hybridoma platforms all recognize an overlapping epitope, which opens up important questions including whether monoclonal antibodies targeting different MrkA epitopes can be generated and if they possess different protective profiles. In this study we generated four anti-MrkA antibodies targeting different epitopes through phage library panning against recombinant MrkA protein. These anti-MrkA antibodies elicited strong in vitro and in vivo protections against a multi-drug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae strain. Furthermore, mutational and epitope analysis suggest that the two cysteine residues may play essential roles in maintaining a MrkA structure that is highly compacted and exposes limited antibody binding/neutralizing epitopes. These results suggest the need for further in-depth understandings of the structure of MrkA, the role of MrkA in the pathogenesis of Klebsiella pneumoniae and the protective mechanism adopted by anti-MrkA antibodies to fully explore the potential of MrkA as an efficient therapeutic target and vaccine antigen.

Genomic selection has been widely used for complex quantitative trait in farm animals. Estimations of breeding values for slaughter traits are most important to beef cattle industry, and it is worthwhile to investigate prediction accuracies of genomic selection for these traits. In this study, we assessed genomic predictive abilities for average daily gain weight (ADG), live weight (LW), carcass weight (CW), dressing percentage (DP), lean meat percentage (LMP) and retail meat weight (RMW) using Illumina Bovine 770K SNP Beadchip in Chinese Simmental cattle. To evaluate the abilities of prediction, marker effects were estimated using genomic BLUP (GBLUP) and three parallel Bayesian models, including multiple chains parallel BayesA, BayesB and BayesCπ (PBayesA, PBayesB and PBayesCπ). Training set and validation set were divided by random allocation, and the predictive accuracies were evaluated using 5-fold cross validations. We found the accuracies of genomic predictions ranged from 0.195±0.084 (GBLUP for LMP) to 0.424±0.147 (PBayesB for CW). The average accuracies across traits were 0.327±0.085 (GBLUP), 0.335±0.063 (PBayesA), 0.347±0.093 (PBayesB) and 0.334±0.077 (PBayesCπ), respectively. Notably, parallel Bayesian models were more accurate than GBLUP across six traits. Our study suggested that genomic selections with multiple chains parallel Bayesian models are feasible for slaughter traits in Chinese Simmental cattle. The estimations of direct genomic breeding values using parallel Bayesian methods can offer important insights into improving prediction accuracy at young ages and may also help to identify superior candidates in breeding programs.

Dexmedetomidine is generally used for sedaton in critically ill, it could shorten duration of mechanical ventilation, ICU stay and lower basic metabolism. However, the exact mechanism of these positive effects remains unkown. Here we investigated the hypothesis that dexmedetomidine could ameliorate muscle wasting in endotoxemic rats and whether it was related to hypothalamic neuropeptides alteration and inflammation. Fourty-eight adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were intraperitoneally injected with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (5 mg/kg) or saline, followed by 50 μg/kg dexmedetomidine or saline administration via the femoral vein catheter (infusion at 5 μg·kg-1·hr-1). Twenty-four hours after injection, hypothalamus tissues and skeletal muscle were obtained. Muscle wasting was measured by the mRNA expression of two E3 ubiquitin ligases, muscle atrophy F-box (MAFbx) and muscle ring finger 1 (MuRF-1) as well as 3-methylhistidine (3-MH) and tyrosine release. Hypothalamic inflammatory markers and neuropeptides expression were also detected in all four groups. Results showed that LPS administration led to significant increase in hypothalamic inflammation together with muscle wasting. Increased hypothalamic neuropeptides, proopiomelanocortin (POMC), cocaine and amphetamine-related transcript (CART) and neuropeptides Y (NPY) and decreased agouti-related protein (AgRP) were also observed. Meanwhile dexmedetomidine administration ameliorated muscle wasting, hypothalamic inflammation and modulated the alteration of neuropeptides, POMC, CART and AgRP, in endotoxemic rats. In conclusion, dexmedetomidine could alleviate muscle wasting in endotoxemic rats, and it could also attenuate the alteration of hypothalamic neuropeptides and reduce hypothalamic inflammation.

Aspergillus niger, a saprophytic fungus, is widely distributed in soil, air and cereals, and can cause postharvest diseases in fruit. Polygalacturonase (PG) is one of the main enzymes in fungal pathogens to degrade plant cell wall. To evaluate whether the deletion of an exo-polygalacturonase gene pgxB would influence fungal pathogenicity to fruit, pgxB gene was deleted in Aspergillus niger MA 70.15 (wild type) via homologous recombination. The ΔpgxB mutant showed similar growth behavior compared with the wild type. Pectin medium induced significant higher expression of all pectinase genes in both wild type and ΔpgxB in comparison to potato dextrose agar medium. However, the ΔpgxB mutant was less virulent on apple fruits as the necrosis diameter caused by ΔpgxB mutant was significantly smaller than that of wild type. Results of quantitive-PCR showed that, in the process of infection in apple fruit, gene expressions of polygalacturonase genes pgaI, pgaII, pgaA, pgaC, pgaD and pgaE were enhanced in ΔpgxB mutant in comparison to wild type. These results prove that, despite the increased gene expression of other polygalacturonase genes in ΔpgxB mutant, the lack of pgxB gene significantly reduced the virulence of A. niger on apple fruit, suggesting that pgxB plays an important role in the infection process on the apple fruit.

Severe mental illness (SMI) represents major social and public health problem in China, especially in low- or middle-income regions. We aim to assess the prevalence and distribution of SMI in Hunan province in central China.Multistage stratified random sampling methods were used to select qualified subjects in 123 districts and counties in Hunan province. 89465 individuals were randomly identified, and 72999 (81.6%) completed the supplemental 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and Cue questionnaire of psychiatric abnormal behaviors. 6082 suspected individuals having high or moderate risk, or psychiatric cues, were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I disorders (SCID-I) by psychiatrists.720 respondents were definitely diagnosed as SMI. The 1-month and lifetime prevalence was 9.35‰ and 10.10‰, respectively. The most frequent SMI was schizophrenia, followed by bipolar disorder, intellectual disability, epileptic mental disorder, paranoid psychosis and schizoaffective disorders, with 1-month prevalence ranging from 0.11‰ to 6.50‰ and lifetime prevalence ranging from 0.24‰ to 6.86‰. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that lower education, farmer occupation, retirees or jobless/unemployed, unmarried or divorced and age of 30-64 years old were major factors that associated with the increased risk of SMI. In addition, only 33.3% of 528 patients who completed questionnaire sought help in psychiatric institutions, and up to 51.7% of 720 patients were not referred to the SMI management system in Hunan province.These findings provided a large-scale prevalence data of SMI in a provincial sample of China. The psychiatric disorders brought economical and psychological burden for family and society, which may shed light on the significance of scaling up province-wide mental health service and strengthening the SMI management.

Previous studies suggest that caesarean section (CS) may increase the risk of asthma in children, but none of them could preclude potential confounding effects of underlying medical indications for CS. We aim to assess the association between CS itself (without medical indications) and risk of childhood asthma.We conducted a hospital-based case-control study on childhood asthma with 573 cases and 812 controls in Shanghai. Unconditional logistic regression models in SAS were employed to control for potential confounders.Our study found that CS without medical indication was significantly associated with elevated asthma risk (adjusted OR = 1.58 [95% CI 1.17-2.13]). However, this risk was attenuated in children fed by exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months after birth (adjusted OR = 1.39 [95% CI 0.92-2.10]). In contrast, the risk was more prominent in children with non-exclusive breastfeeding or bottle feeding (adjusted OR = 1.91 [95% CI 1.22-2.99]).CS without medical indication was associated with an increased risk of childhood asthma. Exclusive breastfeeding in infancy may attenuate this risk.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) may provide potential resource for regenerative medicine research, including generation of insulin-producing cells for diabetes research and insulin production. Testosterone (T) is an androgen hormone which promotes protein synthesis and improves the management of type 2 diabetes in clinical studies. Concurrently, co-existed hyperandrogenism and hyperinsulinism is frequently observed in polycystic ovary syndrome, congenital adrenal hyperplasia and some of Wermer's syndrome. However, the relationship among androgens, insulin and the differentiation of pancreatic β cells is still not fully clear. Here we find that T improves the differentiation efficiency of insulin-producing cells from hiPSCs. The addition of T into routine differentiation formula for pancreatic β cells increases the differentiation efficiency from 12% to 35%. The administration of T promotes the expression of key genes associated with β cells differentiation including NGN3, NEUROD1 and INS. This finding benefits the ongoing process to optimize the differentiation protocol of pancreatic β cells from hiPSCs, and provides some degree of understanding the clinical management of T for type 2 diabetes.

The ability to predict what courses a student may enroll in the coming semester plays a pivotal role in the allocation of learning resources, which is a hot topic in the domain of educational data mining. In this study, we propose an innovative approach to characterize students' cross-college course enrollments by leveraging a novel contextual graph. Specifically, different kinds of variables, such as students, courses, colleges and diplomas, as well as various types of variable relations, are utilized to depict the context of each variable, and then a representation learning algorithm node2vec is applied to extracting sophisticated graph-based features for the enrollment analysis. In this manner, the relations between any pair of variables can be measured quantitatively, which enables the variable type to transform from nominal to ratio. These graph-based features are examined by the random forest algorithm, and experiments on 24,663 students, 1,674 courses and 417,590 enrollment records demonstrate that the contextual graph can successfully improve analyzing the cross-college course enrollments, where three of the graph-based features have significantly stronger impacts on prediction accuracy than the others. Besides, the empirical results also indicate that the student's course preference is the most important factor in predicting future course enrollments, which is consistent to the previous studies that acknowledge the course interest is a key point for course recommendations.

Smoking increases the risk of pregnancy complications such as spontaneous abortion and low birth weight (LBW). By cigarette smoke exposure (gestational day, GD3-17), normal-litter-size pregnancy with low birth weight (NP-LBW) and small-litter-size pregnancy with normal birth weight (SP-NBW) in rats were induced. The placental weight in SP-NBW was twice the weight of the normal in contrast with the smaller placenta in NP-LBW. Compared with the normal, placental efficiency (expressed as fetus-to-placenta weight ratio) and placental vascularisation were significantly decreased in smoke exposed placentas with more obvious decrease in SP-NBW. For NP-LBW, decreased placental vascularisation was due to decreased labyrinth vascularisation which was caused by both decreased number density and diameter of fetal capillary. For SP-NBW, decreased placental vascularisation was due to reduced proportion of labyrinth in placenta and decreased labyrinth vascularisation which was caused by decreased fetal capillary number density. Real time RT-PCR analysis showed a tendency for decreased placental mRNA level of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), angiopoietin-1 (Ang1) and tyrosine kinase receptor-2 (Tie2) in NP-LBW(P

OBJECTIVES: We prospectively compared the preventive effects of rosuvastatin and atorvastatin on contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS: We enrolled 1078 consecutive patients with CKD undergoing elective PCI. Patients in Group 1 (n = 273) received rosuvastatin (10 mg), and those in group 2 (n = 805) received atorvastatin (20 mg). The primary end-point was the development of CIN, defined as an absolute increase in serum creatinine ≥0.5 mg/dL, or an increase ≥25% from baseline within 48-72 h after contrast medium exposure. RESULTS: CIN was observed in 58 (5.4%) patients. The incidence of CIN was similar in patients pretreated with either rosuvastatin or atorvastatin (5.9% vs. 5.2%, p = 0.684). The same results were also observed when using other definitions of CIN. Clinical and procedural characteristics did not show significant differences between the two groups (p>0.05). Additionally, there were no significant inter-group differences with respect to in-hospital mortality rates (0.4% vs. 1.5%, p = 0.141), or other in-hospital complications. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that rosuvastatin and atorvastatin demonstrated similar efficacies for preventing CIN, after adjusting for potential confounding risk factors (odds ratio = 1.17, 95% confidence interval, 0.62-2.20, p = 0.623). A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients taking either rosuvastatin or atorvastatin had similar incidences of all-cause mortality (9.4% vs. 7.1%, respectively; p = 0.290) and major adverse cardiovascular events (29.32% vs. 23.14%, respectively; p = 0.135) during follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Rosuvastatin and atorvastatin have similar efficacies for preventing CIN in patients with CKD undergoing PCI.

The dynamical process of epidemic spreading has drawn much attention of the complex network community. In the network paradigm, diseases spread from one person to another through the social ties amongst the population. There are a variety of factors that govern the processes of disease spreading on the networks. A common but not negligible factor is people's reaction to the outbreak of epidemics. Such reaction can be related information dissemination or self-protection. In this work, we explore the interactions between disease spreading and population response in terms of information diffusion and individuals' alertness. We model the system by mapping multiplex networks into two-layer networks and incorporating individuals' risk awareness, on the assumption that their response to the disease spreading depends on the size of the community they belong to. By comparing the final incidence of diseases in multiplex networks, we find that there is considerable mitigation of diseases spreading for full phase of spreading speed when individuals' protection responses are introduced. Interestingly, the degree of community overlap between the two layers is found to be critical factor that affects the final incidence. We also analyze the consequences of the epidemic incidence in communities with different sizes and the impacts of community overlap between two layers. Specifically, as the diseases information makes individuals alert and take measures to prevent the diseases, the effective protection is more striking in small community. These phenomena can be explained by the multiplexity of the networked system and the competition between two spreading processes.

Despite Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) being one of the main apolipoproteins in the blood, the association between its genotype and the high cholesterol or blood glucose levels commonly seen in clinical practice is inconclusive. Such research is also lacking in the Han population. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between APOE genotype, diabetes, and plasma glucose and lipid levels. We included 243 community-dwelling elderly residents in this study. Participant APOE genotypes were assessed and were simultaneously tested for weight, height, blood glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, and high- and low-density lipoprotein. In addition, gender, age, years of education, cognitive function, and medical history was recorded. Subjects were divided into 3 groups based on APOE genotype: APOE ε2 group (ε2/ε2 and ε2/ε3), APOE ε3 group (ε3/ε3), and APOE ε4 group (ε2/ε4, ε3/ε4 and ε4/ε4). Comparisons between groups were conducted for the incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure, and dementia, as well as for differences in body-mass index, fasting plasma glucose, and blood lipids. The APOE ε3/ε3 genotype exhibited the highest frequency (70.4%) among the subjects. Participants in the APOE ε3 group demonstrated significantly higher levels of fasting plasma glucose than those in the APOE ε2 and APOE ε4 groups (P

Intracranial vessel wall imaging using MRI has great potential as a clinical method for assessing intracranial atherosclerosis. The purpose of the current study was to compare three 3T MRI vessel wall sequences with different contrast weightings (T1w, PD, T2w) and dedicated sagittal orientation perpendicular to the middle cerebral artery, to the reconstructed sagittal image from a transverse 3D T1w volumetric isotropically reconstructed turbo spin-echo acquisition (VIRTA), and provide a clinical recommendation.The above-mentioned sequences were acquired in 10 consecutive Chinese ischemic stroke or TIA patients (age: 68 years, sex: 4 females) with angiographic-confirmed MCA stenosis at 3T. Institutional review board approval was obtained. Two raters qualitatively scored all images on overall image quality, presence of artifacts, and visibility of plaques. Data were compared using Repeated measures ANOVA and Sidak's adjusted post hoc tests.All sequences except the T2w sequence were able to depict the walls of the large vessels of the Circle of Willis (p

Three conventional Bayesian approaches (BayesA, BayesB and BayesCπ) have been demonstrated to be powerful in predicting genomic merit for complex traits in livestock. A priori, these Bayesian models assume that the non-zero SNP effects (marginally) follow a t-distribution depending on two fixed hyperparameters, degrees of freedom and scale parameters. In this study, we performed genomic prediction in Chinese Simmental beef cattle and treated degrees of freedom and scale parameters as unknown with inappropriate priors. Furthermore, we compared the modified methods (BayesFA, BayesFB and BayesFCπ) with their corresponding counterparts using simulation datasets. We found that the modified methods with distribution assumed to the two hyperparameters were beneficial for improving the predictive accuracy. Our results showed that the predictive accuracies of the modified methods were slightly higher than those of their counterparts especially for traits with low heritability and a small number of QTLs. Moreover, cross-validation analysis for three traits, namely carcass weight, live weight and tenderloin weight, in 1136 Simmental beef cattle suggested that predictive accuracy of BayesFCπ noticeably outperformed BayesCπ with the highest increase (3.8%) for live weight using the cohort masking cross-validation.

Carcass traits of beef cattle have been genetically improved to increase yield of high quality meat. Genome-wide association study (GWAS) is a powerful method to identify genetic variants associated with carcass traits. For the 770K genotyped SNPs from 1141 Chinese Simmental cattle, we used the compressed mixed linear model (CMLM) to perform a genome-wide association study for knuckle, biceps and shank of beef carcass traits. Seventeen significantly associated SNPs were found, which are located on BTA6, BTA14 and BTA15. Interestingly, one pleiotropic quantitative trait nucleotide (QTN), named BovineHD1400007259 (p < 10-8) within the well-known gene region PLAG1-CHCHD7 on BTA14, was found to govern variation of the knuckle, biceps and shank traits. The QTN accounted for 8.6% of phenotypic variance for biceps. In addition, 16 more SNPs distributed on BTA14 were detected as being associated with the carcass traits.