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PURPOSE We investigated the effectiveness, safety and compliance of Zheng's Supine Rehabilitation Exercise (ZSRE) as a rehabilitation programme among elderly patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). PATIENTS AND METHODS About 82 elderly patients with AECOPD were divided into a rehabilitation group and control group on their admission day, and both groups received routine medical treatment. Patients in the rehabilitation group started ZSRE on the second day of admission and continued until 8 weeks after discharge. RESULTS At the 9th week after discharge, the COPD Assessment Test (CAT), 6-minute walking distance (6MWD) and Modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale (mMRC) in the rehabilitation group were all significantly better than those in the control group (P

The etiology of epilepsy remains undefined in two-thirds of patients. Here, we identified a de novo mutation of ATP1A2 (c.2426 T>G, p.Leu809Arg), which encodes the α2 subunit of Na+/K+-ATPase, from a family with idiopathic epilepsy. This mutation caused seizures in the study patients. We generated the point mutation mouse model Atp1a2L809R, which recapitulated the epilepsy observed in the study patients. In Atp1a2L809R/WT mice, convulsions were observed and cognitive and memory function was impaired. This mutation affected the potassium binding function of the protein, disabling its ion transport ability, thereby increasing the frequency of nerve impulses. Our work revealed that ATP1A2L809R mutations cause a predisposition to epilepsy. Moreover, we first provide a point mutation mouse model for epilepsy research and drug screening.

The purpose of this study was to examine the measurement properties of the Social Responsiveness Scale in an accelerated longitudinal sample of 4-year-old preschool children with the complementary approaches of categorical confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis. Measurement models based on the literature and other hypothesized measurement models which were tested using categorical confirmatory factor analysis did not fit well and were not unidimensional. Rasch analyses showed that a 30-item subset met criteria of unidimensionality and invariance across item, person, and over time; and this subset exhibited convergent validity with other child outcomes. This subset was shown to have enhanced psychometric properties and could be used in measuring social responsiveness among preschool age children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

A reactive power planning method based on improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) is presented. This method can improve the quality of initial particles and eliminate the boundary oscillation in traditional particle swarm optimization. The voltage stability margin index (VSI) is used to rank the load buses. Then reactive power compensators are installed on the buses with weak voltage stability. The maximization of voltage stability margin is included in the objective function of reactive power planning to improve system voltage stability. Its application in IEEE 30-bus system illustrates that the real power loss is depressed with voltage stability margins increased simultaneously. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Symptom severity and adaptive functioning are fundamental domains of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) phenotype. To date, the longitudinal association between these 2 domains has not been examined.To describe the developmental trajectories of autistic symptom severity and adaptive functioning in a large inception cohort of preschool children with ASD.The sample consisted of 421 newly diagnosed preschool children with ASD 2 to 4 years old (355 boys; mean age at study enrollment, 39.87 months) participating in a large Canadian multisite longitudinal study (Pathways in ASD Study). Prospective data collected at 4 points from time of diagnosis to age 6 years were used to track the developmental trajectories of children.Autistic symptom severity was indexed using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule. Adaptive functioning was indexed using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Second Edition.Two distinct trajectory groups provided the best fit to the autistic symptom severity data. Group 1 (11.4% of the sample) had less severe symptoms and an improving trajectory (P .05), whereas group 2 (88.6% of the sample) had more severe symptoms and a stable trajectory. Three distinct trajectory groups provided the best fit to the adaptive functioning data. Group 1 (29.2% of the sample) showed lower functioning and a worsening trajectory, group 2 (49.9% of the sample) had moderate functioning and a stable trajectory, and group 3 (20.9% of the sample) had higher functioning and an improving trajectory (P .05). Cross-trajectory overlap between the autistic symptom severity and adaptive functioning groups was low (φ = 0.13, P .05). Sex was a significant predictor of autistic symptom severity group membership and age at diagnosis, and language and cognitive scores at baseline predicted membership in adaptive functioning trajectories. Trajectories of both symptom severity and adaptive functioning predicted several different outcomes at age 6 years.Findings confirm the heterogeneous nature of developmental trajectories in ASD. Change in adaptive functioning suggests that improvement is possible in roughly 20% of the sample. Autistic symptom severity appears to be more stable, with roughly 11% of the sample showing a marked decrease in symptom severity. During the preschool years, there appears to be only a small amount of "yoking" of developmental trajectories in autistic symptom severity and adaptive functioning. It is imperative that a flexible suite of interventions that target both autistic symptom severity and adaptive functioning should be implemented and tailored to each child's strengths and difficulties.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by notable phenotypic heterogeneity, which is often viewed as an obstacle to the study of its etiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. On the basis of empirical evidence, instead of three binary categories, the upcoming edition of the DSM 5 will use two dimensions - social communication deficits (SCD) and fixated interests and repetitive behaviors (FIRB) - for the ASD diagnostic criteria. Building on this proposed DSM 5 model, it would be useful to consider whether empirical data on the SCD and FIRB dimensions can be used within the novel methodological framework of Factor Mixture Modeling (FMM) to stratify children with ASD into more homogeneous subgroups.The study sample consisted of 391 newly diagnosed children (mean age 38.3 months; 330 males) with ASD. To derive subgroups, data from the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised indexing SCD and FIRB were used in FMM; FMM allows the examination of continuous dimensions and latent classes (i.e., categories) using both factor analysis (FA) and latent class analysis (LCA) as part of a single analytic framework.Competing LCA, FA, and FMM models were fit to the data. On the basis of a set of goodness-of-fit criteria, a 'two-factor/three-class' factor mixture model provided the overall best fit to the data. This model describes ASD using three subgroups/classes (Class 1: 34%, Class 2: 10%, Class 3: 56% of the sample) based on differential severity gradients on the SCD and FIRB symptom dimensions. In addition to having different symptom severity levels, children from these subgroups were diagnosed at different ages and were functioning at different adaptive, language, and cognitive levels.Study findings suggest that the two symptom dimensions of SCD and FIRB proposed for the DSM 5 can be used in FMM to stratify children with ASD empirically into three relatively homogeneous subgroups.

To establish a HPLC method for measuring tashinone II(A) concentration in rabbit plasma and study the pharmacokinetics of tashinone II(A) -loaded polylactic acid nanoparticles and tashinone II(A) injection in rabbits.A single dose of TS-PLA-NP and TS II(A) injection was administered to 8 healthy rabbits via the ear-edge vein, at the set time withdrew the blood and prepared. The concentrations of tashinone II(A) in plasma were measured by HPLC with gemfibrozil as the internal standard. The pharmacokinetic parameters of TS-PLA-NP and tashinone II(A) injection were calculated by program DAS2.0.The average retention times of gemfibrozil and tashinone II(A) were 10.5 and 14.5 min, respectively. The half-life was prolonged from 2. 573 h of free tashinone II(A) to 4. 117 h and MRT(0-infinity) from 2.585 h to 6.033 h. The max concentration of tashinone II(A) was reduced from 0.21 to 0.134 mg/L.The method for the pharmacokinetic research of tshinone II A in rabbit plasma is accuracy, rapid and sensitive. TS-PLA-NP shows significant characteristic of delayed-release.

This study was designed to investigate the effects of the Chinese Yi-Qi-Bu-Shen Recipe (YB) on brain stem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) in diabetic rats and on the protection of the diabetic rat brain's functional lesion. Thirty-three male rats were randomly divided into three groups: the normal control group (NC), the diabetic group (DM), and the diabetic rats treated with YB group (DM+YB). Blood glucose and body weight were measured every three weeks. After six weeks, the serum insulin, blood biochemical indices, superoxide dismutase, malondialdehyde, monoamine neurotransmitters, and BAEP were measured. Compared with the NC group, the waves III, V PLs, and the I-III, I-V IPLs of BAEP in the DM group were significantly delayed (all P0.05). However, YB-treated diabetic rats maintained a normal brainstem function over the experimental period. Compared with the NC group, the waves I, III, V PL, and waves I-III, III-V and I-V IPLs of BAEP in the DM+YB group were very close (all P0.05). On the other hand, compared with the DM group, the III, V PLs and the I-III, I-V IPLs of BAEP in the DM+YB group were significantly improved. It was discovered that the central conduction time of rats with diabetes had a close correlation with serum insulin, blood glucose, malondialdehyde, and insulin resistance index. Our results suggest that YB extract has a beneficial effect in preserving the brain's electrophysiological function in diabetic rats, likely through its antihyperglycemic activity, ability to reduce insulin resistance, and antioxidant activity.

This study examined the phenotypic overlap between core diagnostic features and emotional/behavioral problems in a sample of 335 preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Results from principal component analysis (2 components; 49.70% variance explained) suggested substantial phenotypic overlap between core diagnostic features and emotional/behavioral problems. Component I, Emotional Behavioral Repetitive Problems, was independent of the children's intellectual, adaptive functioning, and structural language abilities. Component II, Social Communication Deficits, was negatively related to the children's intellectual, adaptive functioning, and structural language abilities. Both components were positively related to parental stress. This exploratory study contributes to our understanding of the ASD phenotype and provides further support for including emotional/behavioral problems as part of the clinical characterization of children with ASD.

This study examined the factor structure of the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised (RBS-R) in a sample of 287 preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine six competing structural models. Spearman's rank order correlations were calculated to examine the associations between factor scores and variables of interest. The 3- and 5-factor models were selected as preferable on the basis of fit statistics and parsimony. For both models, the strongest correlations were with problem behavior scores on the Child Behavior Checklist and repetitive behavior scores on the ADI-R. Developmental index standard scores were not correlated with factors in either model. The results confirm the utility of the RBS-R as a measure of repetitive behaviors in young children with ASD.