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By directing at the current situation of excessive midspan deflection in prestressed concrete continuous bridge during the past few years, this paper raised a calculation method to elevate the pre-camber. Factors that affect bridge alignment after the bridge is completed were treated as uniform load, test data about the existing bridge were set as the basis, quartic polynomial function was adopted to fit the pre-camber of bridge under construction, and the following conclusions were gained through simulation analysis on the bridge: 1) During calculation for construction pre-camber, this method can overcome or weaken the situation of excessive midspan deflection when the bridge is at operation stage; 2) It can reduce detail analysis on displacement caused by concrete creep and automobile load after the bridge is completed; 3) Relevant parameters are introduced to calculate predicted value of midspan deflection and make calculation for empirical pre-camber more rigorous; 4) Its feasibility has been verified through calculation to guarantee load carrying safety in bridge construction and operation process, so it has relatively high promotion and application values.

Deposition behavior of Al-Si particles coated on magnesium alloy by Supersonic Particles Deposition (SPD) was investigated by numerical stimulation. The results demonstrated that critical velocity for Al-Si particle to deposit successfully on ZM5 magnesium alloy was about 700m/s; At collision interface, the temperature gradient increased, effective plastic strain change suddenly and stress reduce rapidly to zero. The compression ratio of deposited particles increased. Contacting area at interface enlarged with particle initial velocity increasing. Meanwhile, experimental observation of surface and cross-section morphology of Al-Si coating on magnesium alloy exhibited that, intact particles, fragmented particles and fine particles co-existed in the coating. And the coating was formed by mechanical bonding and metallurgical bonding.

Shear keys have been widely used to control the damage in abutments and piles during earthquakes. To investigate the dynamic response of bridge girder and traverse shear keys subjected to pounding, a three dimensional model of continuous girder bridge is developed in this study. With the assistance of the finite element method program ANSYS and the package LS-DYNA, the pounding between bridge girder and shear keys is simulated. Subsequently, the stress and displacement responses of the model are analyzed, and the movement characteristics are presented.

The forming behavior of Al-Si coating on magnesium alloy fabricated by supersonic particles deposition was investigated by numerical stimulation. The results indicated that the later deposited particles generated horizontal spread effect at interface and interlocked mechanically with metal jet produced by the former deposited particles, which promoted the formation of mechanical bonding of Al-Si coating. Temperature of deposited particles at bottom of Al-Si coating was higher obviously than that on the top layer, the maximum value was about 498°C at the collision contacting points among deposited particles at bottom of the coating, which would promote metallic bonding and physical bonding, proved that magnesium alloy and Al-Si particles were matched pair suited for supersonic particles deposition.

Freshwater turtle courtship is an exciting and potentially phylogenetically important field of study. Scattered data exist from the past century of research, yet no recent summary is available. Courtship in freshwater turtles includes a number of common behaviors, which usually involve visual, tactile, olfactory, and auditory signals. These signals function in both species and sex recognition and in the seduction of potential mates. Specific behavioral sequences are required to facilitate successful copulation, and these behaviors presumably play a role in mate choice. We performed a series of meta-analyses to investigate the evolution of courtship behavior in freshwater turtles. Biting, an aggressive form of courtship behavior, is plesiomorphic, conserved only in the Chelydridae, Kinosternidae, subfamily Emydinae and South American species in the Pleurodira. Head movement and foreclaw display are apparently apomorphic and evolved independently in the Geoemydinae, Deirochelyinae, and Australian s...

Effect of Supersonic Particles Deposition processing parameters on porosity and bonding strength of Al-Si coating on the surface of ZM5 Magnesium alloy was studied. The result shows that the porosity rates of Al-Si coating are all below 0.6% and the bonding strength is all above 35MPa. With air pressure increasing, the porosity of Al-Si coating reduces to below 0.3% and the bonding strength increases to above 40MPa. With spray distance increasing, the average percent voids of Al-Si coating tends to increase and the bonding strength is better between 160mm and 200mm. The minimum porosity and the maximal bonding strength of the coating can be reached when the speed of feeding powders is at 6r/s.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the most prevalent chemicals in daily-use materials, therefore, human exposure to BPA is ubiquitous. We found that low concentrations of BPA stimulate the spermatogonial GC-1 cells proliferation by G protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30)-mediated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-extracellular regulated kinase (ERK)-c-Fos pathway. However, through the same pathway GPR30 expression has been shown to be induced by EGF, an EGFR ligand. Thus, we want to know if low concentrations of BPA are able to induce the GPR30 expression and the possible mechanism(s) in GC-1 cells. By transient transfection with expression plasmids, 10(-9)M BPA significantly transactivates the Gpr30-5'-flanking region through activating the GPR30, cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG), estrogen receptor-α (ER-α), and EFGR-ERK pathways. Furthermore, an activator protein-1 (AP-1) site located within this region is found to be responsible for the transactivation of BPA. Expectedly, through the same pathways, BPA significantly induces the gene and protein expression of GPR30. c-Fos is further observed to be strongly recruited to the AP-1 site in a chromatin immunoprecipitation assay and its dysfunction on the AP-1 site markedly suppresses the expression of GPR30, p-ERK1/2, p-Ser118-ER-α and cell proliferation by BPA. Our results demonstrate that a low-concentration BPA induces GPR30 expression through the GPR30-EFGR-ERK-c-Fos, ER-α, and PKG pathways, presumably boosting the cells proliferation via a regulatory loop. The present study provides a novel insight into the potential role of GPR30 in the initiation and progression of male germ cell cancer induced by environmentally relevant BPA.

Quinolones (QNs)-induced arthropathy is an important toxic side-effect in immature animals leading to the restriction of their therapeutic use in pediatrics. Ofloxacin, a typical QN, was found to induce the chondrocytes apoptosis in the early phase (12–48 h) of arthropathy in our previous study. However, the exact mechanism(s) is unclear. Microencapsulated juvenile rabbit joint chondrocytes, a three-dimensional culture system, is utilized to perform the present study. Ofloxacin, at a therapeutically relevant concentration (10 μg/ml), disturbs the interaction between β1 integrin and activated intracellular signaling proteins at 12 h, which is inhibited when supplementing Mg 2 + . Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) significantly increases in a time-dependent manner after exposure to ofloxacin for 12–48 h. Furthermore, ofloxacin markedly enhances the level of activated Rac1 and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) phosphorylation, and its inhibition in turn reduces the ROS production, apoptosis and Rac1 activation. Silencing Nox2, Rac1 or supplementing Mg 2 + inhibits ROS accumulation, apoptosis occurrence and EGFR phosphorylation induced by ofloxacin. However, depletion of Nox2, Rac1 and inhibition of EGFR do not affect ofloxacin-mediated loss of interaction between β1 integrin and activated intracellular signaling proteins. In addition, ofloxacin also induces Vav2 phosphorylation, which is markedly suppressed after inactivating EGFR or supplementing Mg 2 + . These results suggest that ofloxacin causes Nox2-mediated intracellular ROS production by disrupting the β1 integrin function and then activating the EGFR-Vav2-Rac1 pathway, finally resulting in apoptosis within 12–48 h exposure. The present study provides a novel insight regarding the potential role of Nox-driven ROS in QNs-induced arthropathy.

Cordyceps sinensis has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. It has been demonstrated to have a variety of biological activities, and an extract of it has been demonstrated to possess a protective effect in occlusion-induced focal cerebral ischemia of the middle cerebral artery in rats. It could be explored as an agent for treatment of ischemic stroke, and the mechanisms need to be studied further.The study intended to investigate the protective effects of the Cordyceps sinensis oral liquid (CSOL) against damage induced by oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD) in SH-SY5Y cells. DESIGN • The research team designed an in vitro study.The study occurred at the Naval Medical Research Institute in Shanghai, China.SH-SY5Y cells were exposed to CSOL in doses of 0.01, 0.03, 0.10, 0.30, and 1.00 mg/mL, creating 5 intervention groups. The OGD condition was induced by transfer of the cells from high-glucose Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) in a box gassed with air containing 5% CO2 to glucose-free DMEM in a box gassed with 94% N2, 5% CO2, and 1% O2. Like the cells for the interventions groups, the cells for a model group were cultured with high-glucose DMEM and were transferred to the OGD, but they received no dose of COSL. Cells in a control group were cultured with high-glucose DMEM, were not transferred to the OGD condition, and did not receive any dose of COSL.Cell viability was assayed using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) method. The apoptosis and the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) were detected by flow cytometry, and the protein expression of caspase-3 was observed by western blot.After exposure to OGD, the cell viability of cells treated with 0.01, 0.03, 0.10, 0.30, and 1.00 mg/mL of CSOL increased in a dose-effect relationship. Compared with the cells in the model group, the treatment of CSOL at all the experimental concentrations significantly inhibited both the cell apoptosis (P.01) and the capase-3 activation (P.01). The MMP dissipation in the cells of the model group increased significantly compared with those of the control group (P.01). The treatment with all doses of CSOL significantly inhibited the MMP dissipation (P.01).CSOL protects against the damage induced by OGD through inhibiting the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway in SH-SY5Y cells.

During the last decade, multilocus analysis has gradually become a powerful tool for the studies of population genetics and phylogeography. The double-striped cockroach,Blattella bisignata, is endemic to southeast Asia, and there is currently little genetic information available for the species. We chose it as the target species to investigate a biodiversity hotspot in southwest China. Here, we report the identification and characterization of 11 single-copy anonymous nuclear markers with an average length of 378bp. These loci, isolated from a genomic library ofB. bisignata, can amplify in two additionalBlattellaspecies (B. germanicaandB. lituricollis). While testing these markers in representative species of Blattellidae, Blattidae and Epilampridae, some of them can cross-amplify successfully. After sequencing 30 individuals collected from southern China per locus, we found relatively high variability (approximately 3.6 SNPs per 100bp). Finally, a small-scale study was also performed to show that these markers do indeed fulfill the expectations as phylogeographic markers.

Bisphenol (BPA) is one of the highest-volume chemicals produced worldwide, and human exposure to BPA is thought to be ubiquitous. Various rodent and in vitro studies have shown that thyroid hormone (TH) function can be impaired by BPA. However, it is still unknown if low concentrations of BPA can suppress the thyroid hormone receptor (TR) transcription. The present study aims to investigate the possible suppressing effects of low concentrations of BPA on TR transcription and the involved mechanism(s) in CV-1 cells derived from cercopithecus aethiops monkey kidneys. Using gene reporter assays, BPA at concentrations as low as 10(-9)M suppresses TR or steroid receptor coactivator-1(SRC-1)-enhanced TR transcription, but not reducing TR/SRC-1 interaction in mammalian two-hybrid and glutathione S-transferase pull-down studies. It has been further shown that both nuclear receptor co-repressor (N-CoR) and silencing mediator for retinoid and thyroid hormone receptors (SMRT) are recruited to the TR-β1 by BPA in the presence of physiologic concentrations of T3 or T4. However, the overexpression of β3 integrin or c-Src significantly reduces BPA-induced recruitment of N-CoR/SMRT to TR or suppression of TR transcription. Furthermore, BPA inhibits the T3/T4-mediated interassociation of the β3 integrin/c-Src/MAPK/TR-β1 pathways by the co-immunoprecipitation. These results indicate that low concentrations of BPA suppress the TR transcription by disrupting physiologic concentrations of T3/T4-mediated β3 integrin/c-Src/MAPK/TR-β1 pathways, followed by recruiting N-CoR/SMRT to TR-β1, providing a novel insight regarding the TH disruption effects of low concentration BPA.

Objective.To investigate the risk factors of DR in Chinese T2DM patients.Methods.2009 patients with T2DM were included in this cross-sectional study. All patients underwent eye examination, and the DR stage was defined by an ophthalmologist. Correlation analysis was performed to evaluate the relation between DR and clinical variables. Logistic regression models were used to assess risk for those factors associated with DR.Results.A total of 597 T2DM patients (29.7%) had DR, of which 548 (27.3%) were nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy and 49 (2.4%) were proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Positive correlations were found between DR and duration of diabetes, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure, glycated hemoglobin, glycated albumin, 24 hurinary albumin excretion, peripheral atherosclerosis (PA), diabetes nephropathy (DN), diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and anemia. Negative correlations were found between DR and C-peptide and glomerular filtration rate. Logistic regression analysis revealed that duration of diabetes, SBP, DN, anemia, PA, and C-peptide were each independent risk factors of DR.Conclusion.The duration of diabetes, SBP, DN, anemia, and PA are positively associated with DR in Chinese T2DM patients, while C-peptide is negatively associated with DR. Monitoring and evaluation of these related factors will likely contribute to the prevention and treatment of DR.

In this paper, a singing evaluation approach based on pitch and rhythm accuracy is proposed. A comparative study was first carried out between speech and singing voice, which demonstrated the characteristic of consonant and vowel in singing voice. A phoneme boundary detector was adopted to perform note segmentation in a high time resolution by using characteristics of consonant and vowel. As for singing skill evaluation, relative pitch interval between reference score and actual sung pitch was adopted to estimate pitch deviation while difference between absolute position and expected position of beats served as rhythm consistency measure. Experiments on a solfege corpus demonstrated a noticeable improvement in the performance of onset detection. A detailed subjective evaluation showed great consistency between the proposed evaluation approach and experts’ judgment.

In return for the collision response of bridge girder with shearkey subjected to seismic loads, a simplified dynamic model has been built by using the finite element analysis program Ansys/Ls-dyna. Based on the analysis of calculation results, the motion feature of this model is unfolded. Also, the stress response and characteristic at the bottom of shearkeys are analyzed, which are the most important parameters reflecting the cracking of shearkeys. Furthermore, the deformation of rubber bearing is elaborated to illustrate the collision of bridge girder with shearkeys. Finally, other key properties about the bridge girder of this collision system are addressed.

A four span curved HcontinuousH HboxH-girder bridge is used as an engineering example to investigate the effect of radius of curvature on the seismic response of curved bridge. Numerical models with different radii of curvature are created using the finite element analysis program Midas/Civil. The calculation results obtained from response spectrum method show that radius of curvature is an important parameter to curved bridge. When the radius of curvature is large enough, the relationship between seismic response of main girder and radius is approximately linearity, while nonlinear variation is obtained when theradius is not too large. Finally, conclusions are made that seismic design of Hstraight bridgeH unHfoldHed from curved bridge which radius of curvature is specified could Hsatisfy the engineering Hrequirement.

We sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of Massicus raddei, which is the first beetle sequenced in Cerambycinae to date. The complete mitochondrial genome is 15,585 bp in length with an A + T content of 71.82%, and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNAs, 22 tRNAs and a control region. The gene order and orientation are similar to that of typical insect species. These data will provide useful molecular information for phylogenetic relationships among the suborders of Coleoptera. By using 13 protein-coding genes as phylogenetic markers, the results support that the suborder Archostemata is a sister group to the remaining beetles and the most primitive suborder in any case; the suborder Myxophaga is sister to the suborder Adephaga.

To construct an ethogram of Sacalia quadriocellata and introduce coding system into chelonian behavior research for quantitative comparison, 15 captive S. quadriocellata (eight females and seven males) were observed for one year using a digital surveillance system, and an ethogram constructed. Fourteen types of states and 84 types of events were recorded. Seventy-five behaviors were defined and described, and these were classified into eight categories of behavior: Feeding, Elimination, Conflict, Alert, Rest, Locomotion, Courtship, and Other. Feeding, Elimination, and Locomotion are frequent behaviors, whereas Conflict and Other behaviors are seldom observed. Mainly, this may be caused by environmental conditions that eliminate these plastic behaviors (e.g., Conflict and Other behaviors) and keep the nonplastic behaviors (e.g., Feeding, Elimination, and Locomotion). Finally, the comparison between S. quadriocellata and other chelonian species indicate that the behavioral patterns are similar on the whole, but the Conflict behaviors of S. quadriocellata are milder than other species.

A total of 168 courtship sequences from 12 male and 18 female adult captive Sacalia quadriocellata were recorded on video. Thirty male and four female discrete motor patterns were defined and described. The behavioural sequences were summarized in an intra-individual dyadic transition matrix and analyzed using chi-square and kappa analyses. Courtship behaviour models and a flow diagram were constructed for this species. The male display patterns involved tactical and visual signals to induce female receptivity to mating. In response, females may emit olfactory signals for gender recognition. Female rejection of male suitors resulted in a male success rate of 4.17%. Only seven copulations were observed. Copulation only occurred when a female became quiescent and relaxed her tail for coition.

Damage detection by the wavelet transform of the fundamental vibration mode receives much attention recently. However, the higher vibration modes were hardly discussed in past literatures. As we know they are more sensitive to the crack comparing with the fundamental mode, which bring abundant damage information. The objective of this study is to show that the first four modes are available using wavelet transform for crack parameter identification. Specially, using the higher mode could result in an excellent quality of crack identification when the mode data was contaminated by noise. But too higher modes have possibly adverse effects on the quality of crack detection.

The cockroach Periplaneta americana is a notorious pest and threat to health worldwide, with a high reproductive ability. However, a limited amount of data is available on the developmental stage-specific transcriptomes of P. americana. To identify genes involved in developmental processes and to develop additional SSR markers in P. americana, we carried out de novo assembly of the P. americana transcriptome using Illumina sequencing. After removing low-quality sequences, we obtained 64,954,709 contigs, which were further assembled into 125,390 unigenes with an average length of 711 bp. Based on similarity searches against known proteins, we identified 48,300 unigenes based on a cut-off E-value of 10−5. The assembled sequences were annotated according to gene descriptions, gene ontology and clusters of orthologous groups. A total of 14,195 potential SSRs were identified and 41 of 63 randomly chosen primer pairs successfully amplified the predicted SSR markers, seven of which were polymorphic in size in P. americana. Furthermore, the Spag6 gene was confirmed to be testes specific and the fru and RPSA genes were related to the development of the testis. This is the special report of a P. americana transcriptome obtained using Illumina sequencing technology and a large number of molecular markers were developed.

The ubiquitous distribution coupled with their carcinogenicity has raised public concerns on the potential risks to both human health and the ecosystem posed by the halogenated aromatic compounds (XAr). Recently, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have been increasingly favored as an "environmentally-green" technology for the remediation of such recalcitrant and highly toxic XAr. Here, we show that AOPs-mediated degradation of the priority pollutant pentachlorophenol and all other XAr produces an intrinsic chemiluminescence that directly depends on the generation of the extremely reactive hydroxyl radicals. We propose that the hydroxyl radical-dependent formation of quinoid intermediates and electronically excited carbonyl species is responsible for this unusual chemiluminescence production. A rapid, sensitive, simple, and effective chemiluminescence method was developed to quantify trace amounts of XAr and monitor their real-time degradation kinetics. These findings may have broad biological and environmental implications for future research on this important class of halogenated persistent organic pollutants.

To evaluate the potential association of anemia with micro- and macrovascular complications in Chinese patient with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).A total of 1997 patients with T2DM were included in this cross-sectional study. Patients were defined as anemic, if hemoglobin (Hb) levels were13 g/dL in males and12 g/dL in females. Data on demographics, anthropometric parameters, and co-morbidities were extracted for each patient.Twenty two percent of T2DM patients (439/1997) had anemia, and those patients with higher rates of micro- and macrovascular complications had higher rates of anemia. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that anemia was a risk factor of microvascular complications (OR = 1.83, 95% CI: 1.45 - 2.31; P0.001) and macrovascular complications (OR = 2.10, 95% CI: 1.63 - 2.71; P0.001). After adjusting for conventional risk factors, anemia remained positively associated with microvascular complications (OR = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.17 - 1.99), but lost its association with macrovascular complications (OR = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.73 - 1.41). Anemia was also independently associated with diabetic retinopathy, nephropathy, and peripheral neuropathy.These findings suggest that anemia was related to both micro- and macrovascular complications in Chinese patients with T2DM, but was only an independent risk factor of microvascular complications. Assessment of Hb levels in T2DM patients may help to prevent subsequent diabetic micro- and macrovascular complications.

Geographic distance and geographical barriers likely play a considerable role in structuring genetic variation in species, although some migratory species may have less phylogeographic structure on a smaller spatial scale. Here, genetic diversity and the phylogenetic structure among geographical populations of the yellow-spined bamboo locust, Ceracris kiangsu, were examined with 16S rDNA and amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs). In this study, no conspicuous phylogeographical structure was discovered from either Maximum parsimony (MP) and Neighbor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic analyses. The effect of geographical isolation was not conspicuous on a large spatial scale.At smaller spatial scales local diversity of some populations within mountainous areas were detected using Nei's genetic distance and AMOVA. There is a high level of genetic diversity and a low genetic differentiation among populations in the C. kiangsu of South and Southeast China. Our analyses indicate that C. kiangsu is a monophyletic group. Our results also support the hypothesis that the C. kiangsu population is in a primary differentiation stage. Given the mismatch distribution, it is likely that a population expansion in C. kiangsu occurred about 0.242 Ma during the Quaternary interglaciation. Based on historical reports, we conjecture that human activities had significant impacts on the C. kiangsu gene flow.

Trichloro-1,4-benzoquinone (TriCBQ) has been recently identified as a new chlorination disinfection byproduct in drinking water and swimming pool water. We found previously that the highly reactive and biologically important • OH can be produced by halogenated quinones and H 2 O 2 independent of transition metal ions. However, it is not clear whether DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) can be induced by TriCBQ in the presence of H 2 O 2 ; and if so, whether TriCBQ/H 2 O 2 induced DNA DSBs can be protected by thiol-containing drugs? Here we show that DNA DSBs can be generated only when pBR322 DNA was treated with the combination of both TriCBQ and H 2 O 2 , while either TriCBQ or H 2 O 2 alone cannot. Typical ● OH scavengers such as dimethyl sulfoxide and ethanol can markedly inhibit TriCBQ/H 2 O 2 -induced DSBs, and a good correlation was observed between DNA DSBs and ● OH generation by TriCBQ/H 2 O 2 as measured by ESR spin-trapping method. DNA damage induced by TriCBQ/H 2 O 2 could be inhibited by several thiol-containing drugs such as captopril, penicillamime, N -acetyl-cysteine and 2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid. The protection was found to be due to their direct interactions with TriCBQ to form the less reactive quinone-thiol conjugates.

A novel poly[di(4-heptyl) vinylterephthalate] has been synthesized based upon a free radical polymerzation from a newly designed monomer having a nonmesogenic template with two double-swallow-tailed 4-heptyl (Y-shaped) groups. The resulting polymer consists of a polyethylene backbone and a 2,5-bis(4-heptyloxycarbonyl)phenyl lateral substitutent on every second carbon atom of the backbone. Although neither the backbone nor the pendent template exhibits liquid crystalline (LC) behavior, they couple together to form a supramolecular hexagonal columnar LC phase on a scale of greater than 1.5 nm in the polymer. Therefore, it is deduced that this supramolecular LC structure is constructed via a cooperative assembly of a helical arrangement of the backbones with the pendent templates.

The effect of Ho2O3 doping on the electrical properties and microstructure of ZnO base varistor was investigated. It was found that Ho2O3 is an effective dopant for increasing the breakdown electric filed. The Ho2O3 doping can also improve the nonlinear performance both in low and high current area. But excessive doping of Ho2O3 will decrease the withstanding surge current. With 0.8mol% Ho2O3 doping, the varistor samples exhibit a breakdown voltage of about 400V/mm, a nonlinear coefficient of 80 and the withstanding surge current of 8/20μs, waveshape is higher than 5kA. Ho2O3 dopant can hinder ZnO grain growth and make the crystal grains more uniform.

Aim The aim was to investigate the association between human insulin and cancer incidence and mortality in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods We recruited 8,774 insulin-naïve diabetes patients from the Shanghai Diabetes Registry (SDR). The follow-up rate was 85.4%. All subjects were divided into the insulin use cohort (n = 3,639) and the non-insulin use cohort (n = 5,135). The primary outcome was the first diagnosis of any cancer. The secondary outcome was all-cause mortality. Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the relative risk (RR) of cancer and mortality. Results We observed 98 cancer events in the insulin use cohort and 170 in the non-insulin use cohort. Cancer incidence rates were 78.6 and 74.3 per 10,000 patients per year in the insulin users and the non-insulin users, respectively. No significant difference in cancer risk was observed between the two cohorts (adjusted RR = 1.20, 95% CI 0.89–1.62, P = 0.228). Regarding site-specific cancers, only the risk of liver cancer was significantly higher in the insulin users compared to that in the non-insulin users (adjusted RR = 2.84, 95% CI 1.12–7.17, P = 0.028). The risks of overall mortality (adjusted RR = 1.89, 95% CI 1.47–2.43, P, published_or_final_version

It is known that psychological stress affects reproduction in women, but it is unknown whether the effect is by impairing implantation. Although studies suggest that long periods of auditory or restraint stress may inhibit implantation in rats and mice, the exact stage of pregnancy at which stress impairs implantation is unclear. Furthermore, whether stress impairs implantation by decreasing the heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor (HB-EGF), estrogen and/or progesterone and whether by acting on embryos or on the uterus need further investigations. In this study, a 24-h restraint stress was initiated at 15:30 of day 3 (regimen 1) or at 07:30 (regimen 2) or 15:30 of day 4 (regimen 3) of pregnancy (vaginal plug = day 1) to observe effects of restraint stress applied at different peri-implantation stages on implantation. Among the three regimens, whereas regimens 1 and 3 affected neither term pregnancy nor litter size, regimen 2 reduced both. Further observations indicated that regimen 2 of restraint stress also delayed blastocyst hatching and the attachment reaction, decreased serum concentrations of progesterone and estradiol, and down regulated the expression of HB-EGF in both the endometrium and blastocysts. Taken together, the results suggested that restraint stress inhibited mouse implantation in a temporal window-dependent manner and by impairing blastocyst activation and hatching and uterine receptivity via down-regulating HB-EGF, estrogen and progesterone. Thus, the stress applied within the implantation window impaired implantation by acting on both embryos and the uterus.

Although the predatory stress experimental protocol is considered more psychological than the restraint protocol, it has rarely been used to study the effect of psychological stress on reproduction. Few studies exist on the direct effect of psychological stress to a female on developmental competence of her oocytes, and the direct effect of predatory maternal stress on oocytes has not been reported. In this study, a predatory stress system was first established for mice with cats as predators. Beginning 24 h after injection of equine chorionic gonadotropin, female mice were subjected to predatory stress for 24 h. Evaluation of mouse responses showed that the predatory stress system that we established increased anxiety-like behaviors and plasma cortisol concentrations significantly and continuously while not affecting food and water intake of the mice. In vitro experiments showed that whereas oocyte maturation and Sr(2+) activation or fertilization were unaffected by maternal predatory stress, rate of blastocyst formation and number of cells per blastocyst decreased significantly in stressed mice compared to non-stressed controls. In vivo embryo development indicated that both the number of blastocysts recovered per donor mouse and the average number of young per recipient after embryo transfer of blastocysts with similar cell counts were significantly lower in stressed than in unstressed donor mice. It is concluded that the predatory stress system we established was both effective and durative to induce mouse stress responses. Furthermore, predatory stress applied during the oocyte pre-maturation stage significantly impaired oocyte developmental potential while exerting no measurable impact on nuclear maturation, suggesting that cytoplasmic maturation of mouse oocytes was more vulnerable to maternal stress than nuclear maturation.

Twenty eight trace elements in the sediment of Lop Nur in different latitude and longitude were tested by ICP-MS. The results showed that the metal contents in the soil profile followed a growing trend from the surface to the bottom. And the essential element P for living body in each sample was very low, and was the lowest on the surface, while was matched in the other four layers. The results will help to understand the ecosystem evolution of Lop Nur drying up after the sediment deposition.

Studies in both humans and animals suggest detrimental effects of psychological stress on reproduction. Although our recent study shows that maternal-restraint stress diminishes oocyte developmental potential, the mechanism behind this effect is unknown. This prompted us to study the potential role of maternal-restraint stress in the genesis of aneuploidy during meiosis I. At 24 h after equine chorionic gonadotropin injection, mice were subjected to restraint stress for 24 h. After the restraint, some mice were killed to recover immature oocytes for in vitro maturation, while others were injected with human chorionic gonadotropin to recover in vivo matured oocytes. Analysis on chromosome complements of both mature oocytes and parthenotes confirmed that maternal restraint increased aneuploidy in both in vivo and in vitro matured oocytes and that the percentage of aneuploid oocytes were three times higher in the earlier matured oocytes than in the later matured ones. Further observations indicated that maternal restraint 1) impaired metaphase I (MI) spindle assembly while inhibiting MAPK activities, 2) accelerated progression of anaphase I while down-regulating the expression of spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) proteins, and 3) induced intraoocyte oxidative stress. The following possible model was proposed to explain the results. Maternal-restraint stress increased oocyte aneuploidy by impairing MI spindle assembly and decreasing the SAC. Whereas abnormal spindles would affect centromere attachments, a reduction in SAC would accelerate the anaphase I progression. Failure of centromere attachment, together with the hastened anaphase, would result in nondisjunction of the unattached chromosomes. Furthermore, maternal-restraint stress might also impair spindle assembly and SAC function by inducing intraoocyte oxidative stress, which would then reduce MAPK activity, a critical regulator of microtubule assembly and the establishment and maintenance of the SAC during oocyte maturation.

Studies in both humans and animals suggest detrimental effects of psychological stress on reproduction. Although our recent study shows that maternal-restraint stress diminishes oocyte developmental potential, the mechanism behind this effect is unknown. This prompted us to study the potential role of maternal-restraint stress in the genesis of aneuploidy during meiosis I. At 24 h after equine chorionic gonadotropin injection, mice were subjected to restraint stress for 24 h. After the restraint, some mice were killed to recover immature oocytes for in vitro maturation, while others were injected with human chorionic gonadotropin to recover in vivo matured oocytes. Analysis on chromosome complements of both mature oocytes and parthenotes confirmed that maternal restraint increased aneuploidy in both in vivo and in vitro matured oocytes and that the percentage of aneuploid oocytes were three times higher in the earlier matured oocytes than in the later matured ones. Further observations indicated that maternal restraint 1) impaired metaphase I (MI) spindle assembly while inhibiting MAPK activities, 2) accelerated progression of anaphase I while down-regulating the expression of spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) proteins, and 3) induced intraoocyte oxidative stress. The following possible model was proposed to explain the results. Maternal-restraint stress increased oocyte aneuploidy by impairing MI spindle assembly and decreasing the SAC. Whereas abnormal spindles would affect centromere attachments, a reduction in SAC would accelerate the anaphase I progression. Failure of centromere attachment, together with the hastened anaphase, would result in nondisjunction of the unattached chromosomes. Furthermore, maternal-restraint stress might also impair spindle assembly and SAC function by inducing intraoocyte oxidative stress, which would then reduce MAPK activity, a critical regulator of microtubule assembly and the establishment and maintenance of the SAC during oocyte maturation.

Hui-lin Tu, Dong Zhang, Xin-hua Wan, Xiao-fang Chen, Yu-xiang Liu, Hai-liang Zhang,Qi-Feng Zhou*Department of Polymer Science & Engineering, College of Chemistry, Peking University, Beijing 100871,Chinaqfzhou@pku.edu.cn(Received: April 24, 1999; revised: June 21, 1999)SUMMARY: For the first time the flexible cyclopentyl ring is used to build mesogenic units, and thus anovel mesogen-jacketed liquid crystalline polymer (MJLCP) poly(dicyclopentyl vinylterephthalate) is syn-thesized. The polymer forms a stable mesophase which changes to an isotropic phase at 267

The synthesis and characterization of a new series of mesogen-jacketed liquid crystal polymers, poly{2,5-bis[(para-substituted phenyl)oxycarbonyl]styrene}s, based on 2-vinylterephthalic acid are reported. These polymers formed very stable liquid crystal phases above the glass transition temperatures. A brief comparison of the properties of the new polymers with those of some previously reported counterparts is included.

To investigate the patterns of pulmonary function in severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients during three-year convalescent period, and to investigate the changes and the medium and long term effects on pulmonary function of SARS patients.Pulmonary function tests were conducted for four times in 37 SARS patients during three-year convalescent period. They were discharged from hospital within one month, three months, one year and three years respectively. At the same time, pulmonary function of 15 healthy persons was examined as controls to be used for comparison.Compared with the healthy controls, there were significant decrease in forced vital capacity (FVC), vital capacity (VC), one second forced expiratory volume (FEV1), 25%-75% forced expiratory flow (25%-75%FEF) of SARS patients within three years after their discharge from hospital (all P0.05). There were no significant differences in FEV1/FVC, total lung capacity (TLC), diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO) between the two groups (all P0.05). Abnormality rate of DLCO in the SARS patients within three years after discharge was significantly decreased (32.4% vs. 5.4%,P0.05), but no significant differences in FVC, VC, 25%-75%FEF among SARS patients discharged one month and three years from the hospital (all P0.05). Ten SARS patients showed lower FVC (mild degree in 9 cases, severe degree in 1 case) three years later, 2 patients showed mildly lowered DLCO.The lung diffusion function of the SARS patients had recovered after they were discharged from hospital within three years, but in 20%-30% patients there is still mild or moderate restrictive ventilation function abnormality and small airway function impairment. The lung functions of most patients have recovered gradually, but in a minority of patients they may be impaired.

To evaluate the bowel control of the anus-preserving operation for elderly patients over 75 years with low rectal cancer.Thirty-nine elderly patients over 75 years with low rectal carcinoma (4-7 cm from anal verge) were treated during the study period. The patients were divided into different groups according to the surgical procedures and anastomotic locations. The bowel control and patients satisfaction were compared.The time of recovering normal defecation frequency was (9.8+/- 2.9) months. There were no differences in bowel control and anorectal manometric findings between the lower anastomosis group and super-lower anastomosis group, the lower anastomosis group and anorectal anastomosis group. The patients in anorectal anastomosis group displayed significantly better bowel control and anorectal manometric findings than those in the super-lower anastomosis group (P0.05). The time of recovering normal defecation frequency in colonic J-pouch-anal anastomosis group was (7.7+/- 1.7) months, shorter than (10.6+/- 2.8) months in direct anastomosis group (P0.01). The complication rate of I degree incontinence was 36.1%, but there was no difference between the two groups. The anorectal manometric findings were better in J-pouch-anal anastomosis group than those in direct anastomosis group (P0.05).Colonic J-pouch-anal anastomosis for lower rectal carcinoma can significantly improve the bowel control in a short term without increasing the complication rate.