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The paper reports a successful case of unilateral oculomotor palsy treated with acupuncture in a Chinese boy aged 5 years and 3 months. Filiform needles were applied for ptosis, ocular motility impairment and blurred vision of the left oculomotor palsy after arachnoid cyst surgery. Two stages of treatment with acupuncture were composed. Acupuncture in the first stage focused on resolving stasis, unblocking meridians and activating qi and blood circulation, especially at the acupoints around the eye, combined with the distal points (four gate points) to enhance qi movement and activate blood circulation, once daily. Besides, the western medicines for nerve nutrition were added. One month later, all the symptoms were alleviated, and the eyelid could be lifted. Then, the second stage of acupuncture started, during which, the western medicine for nerve nutrition was withdrawal, acupuncture was continued with the same acupoints as the first stage, once every two days. Besides, the thumb-tack needle was used to maintain the effect of filiform needle, and Zusanli (ST36) was added to replenish qi of spleen and stomach and promote circulation of meridians. Another month later, the lift of the left eyelid and the ocular motility were basically symmetrical to the right eye, and the left eye vision returned normal. Follow-up until the time of publication, the motility and function of the affected eye were basically the same as those of the healthy side. This case suggests that the staged intervention with acupuncture could be effective in child with unilateral oculomotor palsy after arachnoid cyst surgery and were acceptable for child. Further studies are needed to confirm the effect and mechanism of acupuncture intervention on postoperative oculomotor palsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Vitamin D3 has been known to have an anticancer effect, but the mechanisms underlying this is poorly explored. The present study aimed to investigate the antitumor role of vitamin D3 on gastric cancer and mechanisms. Methods: The Roche Elecsys platform was applied in retrospective studies to detect the role of 25-hydroxylvitamin D3 in adenocarcinoma and colony formation assay was conducted to verify the effect of 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 on the proliferation of gastric cancer cells. After the identification of hypermethylation of BMP3 CpG islands by bisulfite genomic sequencing (BGS), we further investigated the relationship of BMP3 expression and gastric carcinogenesis by Western blot analysis and gel electrophoresis mobility shift assay (EMSA). Results: Here we show that low concentration of 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 links to cancerization and significantly inhibits proliferation of undifferentiated gastric cancer cell lines SGC-7901 and BGC-823. BMP3 promoter hypermethylation was highly correlated with gastric tumor. Moreover, BMP3 expression was regulated by its promoter methylation in gastric cells. The further exploration of the relationship between 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and BMP3 by EMSA results that 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 stimulates BMP3 expression by the inhibition of BMP3 promoter methylation in gastric tumor cells. Conclusion: In combination with the data from clinical research, bioinformatics analysis and experimental verification, we propose that 1, 25-hydroxylvitamin D3 affects gastric cancer progression by repressing BMP3 promoter methylation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Planting without mulching can eliminate the residual film pollution caused by the long-term use of plastic film covers, but it will increase soil moisture evaporation and heat loss and severely reduce water use efficiency and cotton productivity in cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.) fields in arid regions. It is unclear whether the advantages of subsurface drip irrigation and nighttime irrigation can be leveraged to reduce the amount of irrigation applied in fields, improve the soil and leaf hydrothermal environments, and increase the synchronicity of yield and water use efficiency (WUE)., Methods: Therefore, in a two-year field experiment (2019-2020), cotton was grown under different irrigation treatments (I5, 3753 m 3 ha -1 ; I4, 3477 m 3 ha -1 ; I3, 3201 m 3 ha -1 ; I2, 2925 m 3 ha -1 ; and I1, 2649 m 3 ha -1 ). The soil volumetric moisture content, soil temperature, leaf relative water content (RWC), daily changes in gas exchange parameters, lint yield, and WUE were evaluated., Results and Discussion: The results showed that reducing irrigation can reduce the soil volumetric moisture content (0-40 cm soil layer), increase the soil temperature and soil temperature conductivity, and increase the leaf temperature, intercellular carbon dioxide concentration (Ci), and WUE; however, reducing irrigation is not conducive to increasing the leaf RWC, net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), or transpiration rate (Tr). There was no significant difference in WUE between the I3 and I4 treatments from 8:00 to 20:00, but the lint yield in these treatments increased by 2.8-12.2% compared to that in the I5 treatment, with no significant difference between the I3 and I4 treatments. In addition, a related analysis revealed that the positive effects of the leaf hydrothermal environment on the Pn and soil temperature on the WUE occurs during the same period (10:00-16:00). Overall, an irrigation amount of 3201-3477 m 3 ha -1 applied with a subsurface nighttime irrigation system without mulching can enhance the soil moisture content and soil temperature, maintain a high photosynthetic capacity, and increase the lint yield and WUE. These results revealed that the negative impacts of plastic film contamination in arid areas can be alleviated., 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. The reviewer AK declared a past co-authorship with the author H-hL to the handling editor., (Copyright © 2024 Li, Li, Shi, Shi, Tian, Wang, Hao, Luo and Wang.)

In order to explore the physiological responses of root system of different drought-resistant cotton varieties to drought and their relationships with biomass, we examined the effects of drought stress on root vigor, antioxidant enzyme activities and anatomic structure (duct diameter, number) and biomass of different drought-tolerant varieties, including the drought-inolerant variety 'Xinluzao 17' (L17) and the drought-tolerant variety 'Xinluzao 22' (L22). Both varieties were grown under soil column cultivation conditions, with conventional irrigation (CK), mild drought (W 1 ) and moderate drought (W 2 ) treatments. The results showed that drought stress caused significant reductions in soluble protein (SP) content, root vigor (RV), the number of cork layers, the number of rhizome ducts, the diameter of the ducts in both varieties. The higher root MDA content, CAT, POD and SOD activities in response to drought led to reduction of aboveground dry mass. Compared with that of L17, SP content, 0-40 cm and 80-120 cm soil layer RV, the number of cork layers, the number of rhizome ducts, the diameter of ducts, and the aboveground dry mass of L22 all signi-ficantly increased. Under the W 2 treatment, the RV decrease of L22 was 26.2% lower than that of L17, and CAT, POD, SOD activities and the thickness of cortex were 43.6%, 6.9%, 25.4%, 19.9% higher than that of L17. There were positive correlations between dry mass and RV, SOD, POD, the number of cork layers, the diameter and number of rhizome ducts. Therefore, cotton variety with strong drought tolerance could maintain higher root activity, cork layer number, the diameter of rhizome ducts, and number under drought conditions, and thus promote the accumulation of aboveground biomass, which was the physiological mechanism for their stronger drought tolerance.

An anaerobic sequencing batch reactor(ASBR)was used to treat low-substrate simulated wastewater with NH 4 + -N and NO 2 - -N concentrations of (25.00±0.40) mg·L -1 and (33.00±0.60) mg·L -1 , respectively. The COD concentrations were controlled at 5.00, 15.00, 30.00, and 50.00 mg·L -1 by adding sodium acetate, and its effects on start-up of anaerobic ammonia oxidation (ANAMMOX) were investigated under the temperature of 30℃. The results showed that ① The start-up of ANAMMOX could be achieved successfully after 74, 94, 106, and 129 days. The nitrogen removal efficiency was optimum when the COD concentration was between 15.00 and 30.00 mg·L -1 . In the steady phase, the average effluent concentrations of NH 4 + -N were 1.98 and 1.89 mg·L -1 , the average effluent concentrations of NO 2 - -N were below 0.62 mg·L -1 , and the average effluent concentrations of TN were 2.37 and 2.28 mg·L -1 . ② The average contribution of heterotrophic denitrification to nitrogen removal decreased to 4.78%, 9.59%, 10.21%, and 36.50%, respectively, during start-up process. The average contribution of ANAMMOX to nitrogen removal gradually increased to 95.22%, 90.41%, 89.79%, and 63.50%, respectively. ③ The activities of ANAMMOX exceeded denitrification activities at 44, 76, 86, and 114 days, respectively, which finally reached 0.700, 0.690, 0.670, and 0.510 mg·(g·h) -1 , and the denitrification activities were 0.110, 0.130, 0.240 and 0.410 mg·(g·h) -1 , respectively. Thus, the research results have provided references for the application of ANAMMOX to engineering.

Background: Vitamin D 3 has been known to have an anticancer effect, but the mechanisms underlying this is poorly explored. The present study aimed to investigate the antitumor role of vitamin D 3 on gastric cancer and mechanisms., Methods: The Roche Elecsys platform was applied in retrospective studies to detect the role of 25-hydroxylvitamin D 3 in adenocarcinoma and colony formation assay was conducted to verify the effect of 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D 3 on the proliferation of gastric cancer cells. After the identification of hypermethylation of BMP3 CpG islands by bisulfite genomic sequencing (BGS), we further investigated the relationship of BMP3 expression and gastric carcinogenesis by Western blot analysis and gel electrophoresis mobility shift assay (EMSA)., Results: Here we show that low concentration of 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D 3 links to can-cerization and significantly inhibits proliferation of undifferentiated gastric cancer cell lines SGC-7901 and BGC-823. BMP3 promoter hypermethylation was highly correlated with gastric tumor. Moreover, BMP3 expression was regulated by its promoter methylation in gastric cells. The further exploration of the relationship between 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D 3 and BMP3 by EMSA results that 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D 3 stimulates BMP3 expression by the inhibition of BMP3 promoter methylation in gastric tumor cells., Conclusion: In combination with the data from clinical research, bioinformatics analysis and experimental verification, we propose that 1, 25-hydroxylvitamin D 3 affects gastric cancer progression by repressing BMP3 promoter methylation., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Objective: To explore the change in serum adiponectin levels and its significance in children with Kawasaki disease (KD)., Methods: Forty-five KD patients were enrolled in this study, including 18 with coronary artery lesions (CAL group) and 27 without coronary artery lesions (NCAL group). Twenty healthy children were recruited to the control group. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure serum adiponectin levels, and an automatic biochemical analyzer was used to measure the levels of triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)., Results: The serum adiponectin levels in the CAL and NCAL groups were significantly lower than in the control group during the acute phase, subacute phase, and recovery phase (P<0.01), with lower levels observed during the acute phase and subacute phase (P<0.01). Compared with the NCAL group, the CAL group had significantly higher serum levels of adiponectin during the acute phase and recovery phase (P<0.05). The levels of TC, HDL, and LDL in the NCAL and CAL groups were significantly lower than in the control group (P<0.05). The levels of serum adiponectin in KD patients were positively correlated with the levels of TC, TG, and C-reactive protein and the occurrence of CAL (r=0.31, 0.30, 0.34, and 0.35, respectively; P<0.05)., Conclusions: Children with KD have metabolic disorders of blood lipids and reduced serum adiponectin levels. Reduced serum adiponectin levels may be the result of systemic inflammation, while increased adiponectin levels may be closely associated with the occurrence of CAL.

Objective: To evaluate the abilities of population-based birth defects surveillance system (PBBDSS) and hospital-based birth defects surveillance system(HBBDSS)., Methods: We used capture-mark-recapture method(CMR) to analyze the data of the two kinds of birth defects surveillance systems from 1 Oct. 2006 to 31 Dec. 2006 in a county of Hunan province. Data from PBBDSS were defined as the first source and data from HBBDSS were defined as the second source., Results: 49 and 28 birth defect cases were found from PBBDSS and from HBBDSS respectively. Among these cases, 20 were marked. With the method of CMR, the estimated birth defects cases were 68 (95% CI: 56-70). The coincident rates of PBBDSS and HBBDSS were 72.1% and 41.2%, while the total coincident rates was 83.8% and the coincident rates from different sources was 57.1%. The unreported rates of PBBDSS and HBBDSS were 27.9% and 58.8%., Conclusion: Not only the HBBDSS but also the PBBDSS appeared to have had high unreported rates, suggesting that we could use CMR to adjust the rate of birth defects from the birth defects surveillance data.