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Qianlabeo striatus gen. et sp. nov. is described from a stream tributary to the Beipan Jiang of the upper Zhu Jiang (Pearl River) drainage in Matou, Anshun County, Guizhou Province, China. This monotypic genus is mainly characterized by its oromadibular morphology, namely an upper lip only present in and fully adnate to the side of the upper jaw, not covered by the pendulous rostral fold; the median portion of the upper jaw lacking an upper lip but bearing a thin, flexible and cornified cutting edge that is fully covered by the pendulous rostral fold; a postlabial groove prolonged, extended anteromedially close to the anteromost point of the midline of the lower lip but not to meet with its counterpart. The type species of this genus, Q. striatus has a longitudinal dark stripe along the side of the body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Critical value reporting has been widely adopted by hospitals throughout the world, but there were few reports about neonatal critical values. This study aimed to analyze characteristics of the neonatal critical values considered at our center and to provide information on improving neonatal intensive care., Methods: A retrospective study of critical values at a newborn tertiary center in China was conducted to assess neonatal critical values according to test, distribution, reporting time, patient outcome and the impact to the therapy., Results: In total, 926 critical values were recorded. Overall, 66.52% (616/926) of the items were reported within 24 hours of admission, 50.28% (465/926) during duty times and 54.75% (507/926) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The routine coagulation test was the most frequent source of critical values. Electrocardiography, blood gas analysis and therapeutic drug monitoring of drug levels were associated with the highest rates of treatment intervention (100%); routine coagulation tests were the lowest (23.14%). Sample quality was the main cause of false-positive critical values., Conclusions: The incidence of neonatal critical values peaked during the first 24 hours post-admission and during duty periods. Each newborn center needs to enact rapid treatment guidelines to address common critical values in order to facilitate clinical interventions. Periodically reviewing critical values could help to optimize clinical practices.

Background: Cockayne syndrome (MIM #133540, Cockayne syndrome B; 216400, Cockayne syndrome A) is a rare autosomal recessive inherited disease in which the characteristic symptoms are premature aging, cachectic dwarfism, lack of subcutaneous fat, neurological alterations, light sensitivity, and failure to thrive. The mutated gene responsible for this syndrome has been identified as usually either CSA (CKN1, ERCC8) or CSB (ERCC6). In this study, we describe the case of a 7-year-old Chinese boy with characteristic symptoms of Cockayne syndrome A and the conduction of mutation screening of the CSA gene., Methods: The patient was diagnosed with Cockayne syndrome in the pediatrics clinic for growth failure and developmental delay. We collected peripheral blood samples of the patient and his parents and then extracted the genomic DNA. DNA samples from control subjects and the patient were subjected to polymerase chain reaction amplification. All exons and the flanking intron-exon boundaries of CSA were amplified; then, the polymerase chain reaction products were directly sequenced for mutation screening., Results: Two novel heterozygous CSA mutations, c.551-2A>C and c.394_398delTTACA, were identified in the patient. The c.551-2A>C mutation originates from his father and changed the splice acceptor site AG to CG, thus possibly causing alternative splicing. The c.394_398delTTACA from his mother caused a frameshift after the amino acid at position 132, thus introducing a premature stop codon in the gene sequence., Conclusions: These mutations extend the mutation spectrum of Cockayne syndrome in the context of Chinese race and provide possibilities of prenatal diagnosis for future offsprings in this family., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b gene was sequenced from 27 catfish species representing 11 families and 24 genera catfishes in China. Aligning with cytochrome b sequences of eight catfish species from North America and Africa retrieved from GenBank, and selecting Astyanax mexicanu, Cyprinus carpio, and Sardinops melanostictus as outgroups, we constructed a matrix of 38 DNA sequences. The phylogenetic trees were constructed by using Bayesian method and Maximum Parsimony (MP) method. The results showed that (1) there are three base pair deletions of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene compared with Characiformes, Cypriniformes, and Clupeiformes; (2) the representatives of Chinese catfish species form a monophyletic group; and (3) the molecular phylogenetic trees constructed with both methods suggest that the families Sisoridae, Akysidae and Amblycipitidae form a monophyletic group, and the families Clariidae, Schilbidae, Ariidae, Ictaluridae, Cranoglanididae, Pangasiidae, Siluridae, Claroteidae, and Bagridae also form a monophyletic group. The families Cranoglanididae from China and Ictaluridae from North America form a sister-group relationship, and the families Clariidae, Ictaluridae, Siluridae, and Sisoridae are obviously monophyletic groups. But the position of the family Plotosidae was not resolved by Bayesian analysis and maximum parsimony inference.