Search

Objective To investigate the role of metabolically normal obesity in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD). Methods From 2011 to 2012, a cross-section survey with 4 757 participants enrolled from four communities in Wenzhou was conducted. Data collection was conducted through questionnaire survey, physical examination, laboratory examination, and multiple logistic regression analysis was used to comprehensively identify the risk factors of NAFLD. Results 1 068 individuals(22.4%) were diagnosed as metabolically healthy obesity. The prevalence of NAFLD was 43.5%. Among the various obesity phenotypes, the proportions ranked from high to low were metabolically unhealthy obese(MUO), metabolically unhealthy nonobese(MUNO), metabolically healthy obese(MHO) and metabolically healthy nonobese(MHNO). Obesity was defined by waist circumference and BMI, the risk of NAFLD in MHO population was 3.38 times(95% CI:2.13-5.37) and 4.69 times(95% CI:3.01-7.16) higher than that of MHNO, respectively. Conclusions MHO is associated with an increased risk of NAFLD in the Chinese population. It is necessary to screen for NAFLD in obese subjects regardless state of metabolic health.

Introduction: Hybrid rice demonstrated superior performance in enhancing yield and efficiency in rice production compared to inbred rice. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanism responsible for the increased yield and efficiency of hybrid rice in South China's double-cropping rice region remains understudied., Methods: Field experiments over two consecutive years were conducted. Firstly, yield variations among 20 inbred and 15 hybrid rice cultivars prevalent in South China's double-cropping rice system were examined. Secondly, selecting representative hybrid and inbred rice cultivars with significant yield disparities were carried out on further analyzing dry-matter production, source-sink relationships, and nutrient absorption and utilization in both rice types., Results: Hybrid rice displayed an average grain yield of 8.07 and 7.22 t hm -2 in the early and late seasons, respectively, which corresponds to a 12.29% and 13.75% increase over inbred rice with statistically significant differences. In comparison to inbred rice, hybrid rice exhibited enhanced nitrogen concentration in leaves at the heading stage (15.48-16.20%), post-heading dry matter accumulation (52.62-73.21%), post-heading dry matter conversion rate (29.23-34.12%), and harvest index (17.31-18.37%). Additionally, grain nitrogen and phosphorus uptake in hybrid rice increased by 11.88-22.50% and 16.38-19.90%. Hybrid rice mainly improved post-heading nitrogen and phosphorus uptake and transport, while not total nitrogen and phosphorus uptake. Internal nitrogen and phosphorus use efficiency enhanced by 9.83%-14.31% and 10.15%-13.66%, respectively. Post-heading dry matter accumulation, harvest index, grain nitrogen and phosphorus uptake, and internal nitrogen and phosphorus use efficiency exhibited significant positive linear correlations with grain yield., Discussion: The period from heading to maturity is critical for enhancing hybrid rice yield and efficiency. Improving photosynthetic capacity during this period and promoting nutrient transport to grains serve as crucial pathways for increasing grain yield and efficiency. This study is of great significance for further improvement grain yield and breeding rice cultivars with high-yield and high nutrients use efficiency for South China's double-cropped rice system., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Fu, Lu, Zhong, Liang, Pan, Liu, Hu, Hu, Li, Wang, Ye, Yin, Huang and Huang.)

Objectives: To evaluate the report quality, methodological quality and evidence quality of the systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SRs/MAs) of acupuncture for in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET)., Methods: The SRs/MAs of acupuncture for IVF-ET were searched electronically from databases of CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, from inception of each database to September 27th, 2022. Two reviewers independently screened the literature and extracted the data. Using PRISMA statement, the AMSTAR 2 scale and the GRADE system, the report quality, methodological quality and evidence quality of the included SRs/MAs were assessed., Results: A total of 28 SRs/MAs were included, with PRISMA scores ranging from 8.5 points to 27 points. The problems of report quality focused on protocol and registration, retrieval, risk of bias in studies, additional analysis, limitations and funding. The methodological quality of included studies was generally low, reflecting on items 2, 3, 7, 10, 12 and 16. A total of 85 outcome indexes were included in the GRADE system for evidence grade evaluation. Most of the evidences were low or very low in quality. The reasons for the downgrade were related to study limitations, inconsistency, imprecision and publication bias., Conclusions: Acupuncture therapy improves the outcomes of IVF-ET, but the methodological quality and evidence quality of related SRs/MAs are low. It is recommended to conduct more high-quality studies in the future to provide more reliable evidences.

As an indicator that measures the degree of implementation of intervention measures during the implementation process, fidelity could be used for monitoring and quality evaluation of the completion degree of intervention measures, and plays an important role in improving the degree of intervention implementation and clarifying the factors that affect intervention implementation. This article aims to introduce the connotation and significance, measurement, control, and current application status of fidelity, as well as the current application status of fidelity in acupuncture-moxibustion clinical research and its inspiration for future research. Meanwhile, based on the existing evaluation tool development methods of fidelity and the characteristics of acupuncture-moxibustion clinical research, a preliminary fidelity evaluation framework is proposed. Introducing fidelity into acupuncture-moxibustion clinical research could improve the implementation quality and compliance of acupuncture-moxibustion in clinical research, increase the credibility and effectiveness of clinical research results, and promote the transformation of acupuncture-moxibustion experience into easily learnable and promotable treatment plans.

Objective: To evaluate the report quality of Chinese and English randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture based on the CONSORT statement and STRICTA checklist., Methods: The Chinese and English RCTs of acupuncture published from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019 were searched in 7 databases including PubMed. The report quality of the included RCTs was evaluated with the CONSORT 2010 statement and STRICTA checklist., Results: A total of 506 Chinese RCTs and 76 English RCTs were included. According to the CONSORT statement, in Chinese RCTs, the items with report rate less than 50% accounted for 78.38% of all items, and the report rate of 25 items, such as background and reason, study design, outcome index, and sample size, was less than 10%. In English RCTs, the items with report rate less than 50% accounted for 35.14% of all items, and 5 items had a report rate of less than 10%. The difference of the report rate of 15 items, such as background, reason and study design, was more than 50% between Chinese and English RCTs. The report rate of all items of STRICTA checklist was relatively high in both Chinese and English RCTs. In Chinese RCTs, the items with report rate less than 50% accounted for 29.41% of all items, which included acupuncture rationale and depth of insertion. In English RCTs, only two items had a report rate less than 50%, which were acupuncture rationale, setting and context of treatment. The report rate of five items, including needle retention time, frequency and duration of treatment sessions, details of other interventions administered to the acupuncture group, setting and context of treatment, and precise description of the control or comparator in Chinese RCTs, were higher than in English RCTs., Conclusion: The report quality of Chinese acupuncture RCT needs to be improved urgently, and corresponding measures should be taken to further standardize the writing and reporting of acupuncture clinical research.

To explore the influencing factors of acupuncture curative effect in literature of experts' experience. The journal literature of experts' experience was retrieved from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and PubMed, starting from inception to September 4, 2020, and the influencing factors of acupuncture curative effect were extracted and analyzed. A total of 499 articles were included, involving 495 articles in Chinese and 4 articles in English. The influencing factors of acupuncture curative effect mainly include five aspects: diagnostic method, acupoint selection of acupuncture, acupuncture manipulation, regulating mind of acupuncture and acupuncture time, and provide reference for acupuncture protocol design in clinical trials.

The clinical evidences on acupuncture and moxibustion for the treatment of frozen shoulder were sorted and summarized systematically. The relevant articles of frozen shoulder treated with acupuncture and moxibustion were searched from PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane database of systematic review (CDSR), Cochrane database of controlled trials register (CENTRAL), China national knowledge infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, VIP, and Chinese biomedical literature databases (SinoMed), from database inception to May 31, 2021. Using AMSTAR-2, the methodological quality of the included systematic reviews was evaluated. With evidence map, the current status of clinical evidence was summarized on acupuncture and moxibustion in treatment of frozen shoulder. A total of 266 original studies and 6 systematic reviews were included finally. At present, many randomized controlled trials are designed with small sample size and the simple acupuncture and moxibustion therapy is dominant as the intervention, e.g. warm acupuncture, acupuncture with filiform needle, acupotomy and electroacupuncture. The outcomes considered in the current trials focus on clinical effective rate, the score of shoulder pain, the score of shoulder function and the score of quality of life. Most of the studies have shown that acupuncture and moxibustion is advantageous as an adjunctive therapy for frozen shoulder, but its clinical evidence is few in terms of the recurrence rate and safety. Moreover, it needs to improve the evidence quality of the relevant studies on acupuncture and moxibustion for frozen shoulder.

In this study, the effects of gypsum (FGD) on CH 4 emission and functional microbial community in paddy soil were identified under five treatments, including FGDG 0 (0 t·hm -2 ), FGDG 1 (2 t·hm -2 ), FGDG 2 (4 t·hm -2 ), FGDG 3 (8 t·hm -2 ), and FGDG 4 (16 t·hm -2 ). The methane flux was determined using static chamber and chromatography. Bacterial community structure and its effect on soil bacterial community structure, and the abundance of methanogenic and methanotrophs were measured via high-throughput sequencing and quantitative PCR. The results showed that after treatment with desulfurated gypsum, pH of the soil increased significantly ( P <0.05). Redox potential, organic carbon, and available potassium content increased, with no significant difference ( P >0.05). The average emission flux of CH 4 reduced with the increase of desulfurated gypsum content, following the following trend:FGDG 1 > FGDG 2 > FGDG 3 > FGDG 4 . They decreased by 31.56%, 57.30%, 83.60%, and 90.66%, respectively, compared with the control. Compared with the control, FGDG 1 and FGDG 2 increased the richness and variety of soil bacteria. However, when the application amount exceeds 4 t·hm -2 , the richness and variety of soil bacteria decrease. Compared with the control, the relative abundance of sulfate-reducing bacteria in paddy soil increased significantly by 6.98%-13.56%. The abundance of the methane-oxidizing bacteria pmoA gene increased by 0.3%-6.2%. The abundance of the methanogen gene, mrcA decreased significantly by 2.4%-15.8%, while the abundance ratio ( pmoA/mcrA )increased with the increase of the amount of desulfurated gypsum. Correlation analysis showed that the average emission of CH 4 was markedly negatively correlated with the relative abundance of the sulfate-reducing bacteria and pmoA/mcrA percentage in soil, and significantly positively correlated with methanogenic gene, mcrA . In summary, desulfurated gypsum can improve the diversity of bacterial communities and reduce the emission of CH 4 in the paddy soils.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical value of color Doppler in monitoring graft flow in patients who underwent simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplantation., Methods: Totally 18 patients received color Doppler ultrasonography on day 1, 3, and 7 after SPK. Volumes and arteriovenous velocities of the kidney and pancreas grafts were recorded, and resistance index (RI) was calculated., Results: Color Doppler ultrasound clearly displayed the modality, size, and flow of the kidney and pancreas grafts. Compared with the single kidney grafts, the modality, volume, and arteriovenous velocity of kidney grafts in SPK was not significantly different. Although the volume of pancreas graft was remarkably larger than the normal control pancreas early after transplantation, no difference in artery velocity was found between pancreas graft and normal pancreas. The spectrum of the portal vein in pancreas grafts showed the typical spectrum of iliac veins., Conclusion: Color Doppler ultrasound is sensitive in monitoring the graft flow of SPK recipients and can be used to identify postoperative vascular complications and evaluate tissue perfusion.

Objective: This study was designed to use urokinase (UK) in combination with batroxobin in thrombolytic therapy so as to see whether batroxobin(DF-521) would be effective for neuroprotection., Methods: The model of right middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in male SD rats was established. 120 rats were randomized into 9 groups, namely control group, sham control group, and groups that were treated with batroxobin and urokinase together or separately. Each group comprised 15 rats. Intracranial bleeding, infarct volume ratio and neurological function were observed., Results: Intracranial bleeding was found in 5 rats of the UK 5000 U/kg group, in 4 rats of the UK 5000 U/kg (2 h) + DF-521 5 BU/kg (2 h) group, and in only 1 rat of the UK 5000 U/kg (2 h) + DF-521 5 BU/kg (1 h) group. Cerebral infarct volume ratio was obviously reduced in 5 BU/kg batroxobin group. No difference was observed in neurological deficit scores., Conclusion: 5000 U/kg urokinase increased the risk of intracranial hemorrhage in rat MCAO model. Batroxobin either used separately or in combination with urokinase would not increase the risk of intracranial hemorrhage in rat MCAO model.