Search

Background To explore the neural difference between children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and healthy controls, together with the relation between this difference and clinical severity indicator of children with OSA. Methods Twenty-seven children with OSA (7.6 ± 2.5 years, apnea hypopnea index [AHI]: 9.7 ± 5.3 events/h) and 30 healthy controls (7.8 ± 2.6 years, AHI: 1.7 ± 1.2 events/h) were recruited and matched with age, gender, and handedness. All children underwent 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and cognitive testing evaluating. Volumetric segmentation of cortical and subcortical structures and voxel-based morphometry were performed. Pearson's correlation analysis was performed between these features of gray matter volume (GMV) and obstructive apnea index (OAI) among children with OSA. Results In the comparison of children's Wechsler test scores of full-scale intelligence quotient and verbal intelligence quotient, the OSA group was significantly lower than the control group (p Conclusion Children with OSA presented abnormal neural activities in some brain regions and impaired cognitive functions. This finding suggests an association between the OSA and decreased GMV in children.

Lin Mei,1,* Xiaodan Li,1,* Shengcai Wang,1,* Run Si,2 Tingting Ji,1 Zhifei Xu,3 Yun Peng,4 Yue Liu,4 Hongbin Li,1 Jie Zhang,1 Yongli Guo,5 Jinghong Tian,6 Guifei Zhou,2 Huifang Huang,2 Jun Tai,1,7,* Jiangang Liu,8,9 Xin Ni1 1Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Surgery, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children’s Health, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Computer and Information Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Respiration, Beijing Children′s Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children′s Health, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Radiology, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children’s Health, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 5Beijing Key Laboratory for Pediatric Diseases of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Pediatric Research Institute, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children’s Health (NCCH), Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Neurorehabilitation, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children’s Health, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 7Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Children’s Hospital, Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 8Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Big Data-Based Precision Medicine, School of Engineering Medicine, Beihang University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 9Key Laboratory of Big Data-Based Precision Medicine (Beihang University), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Jiangang LiuBeijing Advanced Innovation Center for Big Data-Based Precision Medicine, School of Medicine and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail jgliu@buaa.edu.cnXin NiDepartment of Otolaryngology, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children’s Health, No. 56 Nanlishilu, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-139-1011-1999Email nixin@bch.com.cnObjective: To investigate the impacts of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on white matter (WM) integrity and cognitive functions of pediatric patients with different levels of OSA severity.Methods: Fifty-eight children with OSA and thirty-four healthy controls (HC) were recruited. All participants underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) examination, polysomnography (PSG), and neurocognitive assessments. Patients were divided into mild OSA (MG) and moderate-severe OSA (SG) groups. WM integrity, PSG data, and neurocognitive assessment scores were compared among those groups.Results: For apnea hypopnea index (AHI), obstructive apnea hypopnea index (OAHI), arousal index, SpO2 nadir, and attention, SG was worse than both MG and HC with MG worse than HC. For baseline SpO2 and intelligence, SG was worse than both MG and HC with no significant difference between MG and HC. Impaired WM integrity was observed in bilateral anterior thalamic radiation, bilateral inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, bilateral inferior longitudinal fasciculus, right superior longitudinal fasciculus, right hippocampus, left cingulate gyrus, right uncinate fasciculus, callosum forceps major, and callosum forceps minor only for SG than for HC. WM integrity was significantly correlated with OSA severity and neurocognitive assessment scores only for SG, but not for MG.Conclusion: Decreased baseline SpO2, WM impairment, and intelligence decline were all observed only for SG, but not for MG, implying an associated relationship among decreased SpO2, WM impairment and WM impairment. Thus, for SG, additional assessments of brain damage and cognitive function decline are needed for prognostic evaluation of OSA.Keywords: diffusion tensor imaging, obstructive sleep apnoea, children, tract-based spatial statistics, white matter

ObjectiveHospital workplace violence is one of the most frequently reported types of workplace violence in the world, and it harms the mental and physical health of medical staff. Existing research on workplace violence focused more on cross-sectional studies, than longitudinal studies. Therefore, this study examined the dynamic impact of hospital workplace violence on the mental health of medical staff, with the aim of providing appropriate countermeasures and suggestions for hospitals to develop targeted psychological intervention measures in time for medical staff who experience workplace violence.DesignA prospective cohort study.ParticipantsA total of 112 medical staff who had experienced workplace violence in the hospital for the first time were chosen.SettingAn unconditional latent variable growth curve model was established based on the average value of the general health scale scores of medical staff, and gender and violence types (intimidation threats, physical violence) as control variables. Each medical staff was assessed for depression and anxiety at 4 different time points and the changes in the trajectories was observed.ResultsThere were significant differences in the incidence of mental health and anxiety among medical staff at different observation times. There were significant individual differences in the initial mental health status, growth rate of anxiety and depression of medical staff.ConclusionsHospitals should undertake various psychological intervention strategies based on the staff's mental health to safeguard those who have experienced workplace violence.

Additional file 1: Supplement Fig 1. Age dependency of creatinine and urea by sex in the PRINCE data. Supplement Fig 2. Decision tree for age partitioning of creatinine in the PRINCE data. Supplement Fig 3. Data cleaning and outlier detection of the PRINCE data and the LIS data. Supplement Fig 4. Original distributions of the PRINCE data and the LIS data. Supplement Fig 5. Density curves of three clusters partitioned by GMM from the LIS data. Supplement Fig 6. Density curves of three clusters partitioned by SOM from the LIS data. Supplement Table 1. Distribution parameters of three clusters partitioned by GMM from the LIS data. Supplement Table 2. Distribution parameters of three clusters partitioned by SOM from the LIS data

Additional file 1: eTable 1. Descriptive statistics of the study population in depression among the validation cohort, NHANES, 2011���2012. eTable 2. Descriptive statistics of the study population among the training cohort and validation cohort, NHANES, 2007���2012. eTable 3. Drug use and depression among the training cohort, NHANES, 2007���2010, (n = 7076). eTable 4. Evaluation of the differential diagnosis ability of predictive models under different weighted random sampling and different diagnostic criteria for depression in the validation cohort. eFig. 1. Flow diagram of the study participants.

Different newborn screening (NBS) programs have been practiced in many countries since the 1960s. It is of considerable interest whether next-generation sequencing is applicable in NBS. We have developed a panel of 465 causative genes for 596 early-onset, relatively high incidence and potentially actionable severe inherited diseases in our Newborn Screening with Targeted Sequencing (NESTS) program to screen 11,484 babies in eight Women and Children’s hospitals nationwide in China retrospectively. The positive rate from preliminary screening of NESTS was 7.85% (902/11,484). With 45.89% (414/902) follow-up of preliminary positive cases, the overall clinically confirmative diagnosis rate of monogenic disorders was 12.07% (50/414), estimating an average of 0.95% (7.85% × 12.07%) clinical diagnosis rate, suggesting that monogenic disorders account for a considerable proportion of birth defects. The disease/gene spectrum varied in different regions of China. NESTS was implemented in a hospital by screening 3,923 newborns to evaluate its clinical application. The turn-around time of a primary report, including the sequencing period less than 7 days, was within 11 days by our automatic interpretation pipeline. Our results suggest that NESTS is feasible and cost-effective as a first-tier NBS program, which will change the status of current clinical practice of NBS in China.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a highly heterogeneous neurodevelopmental condition characterized by atypical social interaction and communication together with repetitive behaviors and restricted interests. The prevalence of ASD has been increased these years. Compelling evidence has shown that genetic factors contribute largely to the development of ASD. However, knowledge about its genetic etiology and pathogenesis is limited. Broad applications of genomics studies have revealed the importance of gene mutations at protein-coding regions as well as the interrupted non-coding regions in the development of ASD. In this review, we summarize the current evidence for the known molecular genetic basis and possible pathological mechanisms as well as the risk genes and loci of ASD. Functional studies for the underlying mechanisms are also implicated. The understanding of the genetics and genomics of ASD is important for the genetic diagnosis and intervention for this condition.

A hybrid pharmacophore approach was used to design and synthesize a series of coumarin derivatives bearing 2-methylbiphenyl moiety, which were evaluated for their in vitro anticancer activities against four cancer cell lines(MCF-7, A549, H460 and HT29) and PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitory activities. Moreover, several compounds with excellent anticancer activities were selected to evaluate the cytotoxicities against one normal cell line(HEK-293). The most promising compound 11o showed the best anticancer activities against the four tested cancer cell lines with the IC50 values of 6.45, 8.65, 6,57 and 8.13 μmol/L, respectively, and displayed weak cytotoxicity on the normal cell(HEK-293). Furthermore, screening of PD-1/PD-L1inhibitory activity revealed that compound 11o could effectively inhibit the binding of PD-1/PD-L1, and the binding interactions of compound 11o with PD-L1 protein were explored by molecular docking. All above evidences showed that compound 11o might be worthy of further study as a valuable leading compound for the treatment of cancer.

A series of semicarbazone derivatives bearing phenyl moiety were synthesized and evaluated for the vitro anticancer activities in four human cancer cell lines (human colon cancer (HT29), human neuro-blastoma (SK-N-SH), human breast cancer (MDA-MB-231), and human gastric cancer (MKN45)). Biological evaluation led to the identification of 11q and 11s, which showed excellent anticancer activities against tested cancer cell lines with IC50 values ranging from 0.32 to 1.57 µM, respectively, while exhibiting weak cytotoxicity on the normal cells (human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC)). Flow cytometric assay for cell cycle and apoptosis revealed that 11q and 11s caused an arrest in the Sub-G1 cell cycle and inhibited proliferation of cancer cells by inducing apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. Further enzymatic assay suggested that 11q and 11s could significantly activated procaspase-3 to caspase-3. Metabolic stability study indicated that 11q and 11s showed moderate stability in vitro in human and rat liver microsomes. In view of promising pharmacological activities of 11q and 11s, which had emerged as the valuable lead for further development in the treatment for cancer.

Three series of compounds were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro anticancer activity against a procaspase-3 over-expression cancer cell line (U937) and a procaspase-3 no-expression cancer cell line (MCF-7) to rule out off-target effects. Biological evaluation led to the identification of a series of benzothiazole derivatives bearing a pyridine-semicarbazone moiety, 8j and 8k, with promising anticancer activity and remarkable selectivity. Further mechanism studies revealed that compounds 8j and 8k could induce apoptosis of cancer cells by activating procaspase-3 to caspase-3, and compound 8k exhibited the strongest procaspase-3 activation activity. Structure–activity relationships (SARs) revealed that the presence of benzothiazole and an N,N,O-donor set is crucial for the anticancer activity and selectivity, and reducing the electron density of the N,N,O-donor set results in a dramatic decline in the anticancer activity and selectivity. Furthermore, toxicity evaluation (zebrafish) in vivo and metabolic stability studies (human, rat and mouse liver microsomes) were performed to provide reliable guidance for further PK/PD studies in vivo.

Development of synbiotic yogurt having multiple health benefits has become a new trend. The purpose of this study was to obtain the optimum stachyose concentration of the goat yogurt fermented by probiotics including Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA) or Lactobacillus casei (LC) besides Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus by measuring pH, acidity, viable counts and the change of stachyose content. The optimal stachyose concentration of goat LA-yogurt and goat LC-yogurt were 0.4% and 0.8%. Under the above concentrations, the total bacteria number and the viable counts of LA were 2.02×109cfu/mL, 3×107cfu/mL, respectively; the total bacteria number and the viable counts of LC were 2.55×109cfu/mL, 2.53×108cfu/mL, respectively. The results indicate that stachyose can effectively improve the vitality and the viable counts of strains in goat yogurt.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Pathological structure of each subtype of LM. Figure S2. Schematic diagram of the bioinformatics pipeline to analyze the targeted deep sequencing data. Figure S3. Transfection rate quantified by qPCR. Table S1: The coverage of each sample and average depth.

Objective: While most studies on Central Sleep Apnea (CSA) have focused on breathing and metabolic disorders, the neuronal dysfunction that causes CSA remains largely unknown. Here, we investigate the underlying neuronal mechanism of CSA by studying the sleep-wake dynamics as derived from hypnograms. Methods: We analyze sleep data of seven groups of subjects: healthy adults (n = 48), adults with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) (n = 29), adults with CSA (n = 25), healthy children (n = 40), children with OSA (n = 18), children with CSA (n = 73) and CSA children treated with CPAP (n = 10). We calculate sleep-wake parameters based on the probability distributions of wake-bout durations and sleep-bout durations. We compare these parameters with results obtained from a neuronal model that simulates the interplay between sleep- and wake-promoting neurons. Results: We find that sleep arousals of CSA patients show a characteristic time scale (i.e., exponential distribution) in contrast to the scale-invariant (i.e., power-law) distribution that has been reported for arousals in healthy sleep. Furthermore, we show that this change in arousal statistics is caused by triggering more arousals of similar durations, which through our model can be related to a higher excitability threshold in sleep-promoting neurons in CSA patients. Conclusions: We propose a neuronal mechanism to shed light on CSA pathophysiology and a method to discriminate between CSA and OSA. We show that higher neuronal excitability thresholds can lead to complex reorganization of sleep-wake dynamics. Significance: The derived sleep parameters enable a more specific evaluation of CSA severity and can be used for CSA diagnosis and monitor CSA treatment.

Additional file 1: Table S1. The cases with AGPAT2 or BSCL2 mutations we collected were from these articles in the table. Table S2. Phenotypical information of adult patients by BSCL type.

Additional file 1.

Auditory and verbal abilities of children with early cochlear implant (CI) surgery usually take some time to develop, and a reference index of early development for horizontal comparisons is urgently needed to guide the mapping process and adjust rehabilitation programs. Therefore, the aim of this study was to establish a reference value for early auditory preverbal skills development in children with CI and investigate the developmental curve and influencing factors for these children. The LittlEARS® Auditory Questionnaire (LEAQ) scores of 287 eligible Chinese participants were obtained at 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 28, and 36 months interval after CI activation. The median and standard deviation of the LEAQ score of each hearing stage for these children with different activation ages were calculated to establish the reference values. Quadratic regression was conducted to fit the expected developmental curve of the LEAQ score ([Formula: see text] [0 to 20 months]). With a linear mixed-effects model, we found that the receptive auditory behavior increased rapidly after CI activation, while expressive language skills developed at a steady rate. We also found that the following factors all significantly influenced the LEAQ: the duration of CI use, the development quotient, age of implantation and activation, and the presence of large vestibular aqueduct syndrome or auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder. The reference values and the expected developmental curve for the LEAQ in children with CI established by the present study provides guidance to clinicians and parents as well as realistic expectations regarding language and speech outcomes.

Background Antioxidant peptides can scavenge excessive free radicals produced by the metabolism, main- tain a free radical balance and prevent aging and disease. Therefore, finding natural resources with strong antioxidant activity has become a new focus for research. Methods Single-factor experiments were used to investigate the effects of various factors (hydrolysis temperature, pH, substrate concentration, enzyme to substrate ratio (E/S), ratio of compound protease (EAlcalase/Epapain) and time on the preparation of antioxidant peptides by compound protease (Alcalase and papain) hydrolysis of goatrs milk casein. Then, a Plackett-Burman design was used to determine the sig- nificant factors for the preparation of antioxidant peptides by hydrolysis of goatrs milk casein with compound protease. Results The results of the single-factor experiments indicated that the highest anti-oxidative activity of pep- tides would be obtained at a hydrolysis temperature of 55dC, a pH of 7.5, a substrate concentration of 3.0%, an E/S of 4.0%, a ratio of compound protease of 1/3 and a hydrolysis time of 180 min. Conclusions The main factors affecting the activity of anti-oxidative peptides hydrolyzed from goatrs milk casein with compound protease were determined by Plackett-Burman design and the results showed that temperature, E/S ratio and the ratio of compound protease had significant influences on the production of antioxidant peptides. This could provide a basis and reference for further optimization.

BACKGROUND The intake of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE, EC 3.4.15.1) inhibitory peptides from food has become a promising method for treating hypertension. Lactic acid producing bacteria are widely used to produce ACE inhibitors during fermentation. METHODS Several factors which promote the production of ACE inhibitory peptides in Lacto- bacillus bulgaricus LB6 (inoculum size, incubation temperature, goat’s milk powder, sterilization time, whey powder, casein hydrolyses and calcium lactate) and media (casein peptone, soybean peptone, glucose, casein, ascorbic acid, Ca(H2PO4)2 and lactose) were investigated to optimize and increase ACE inhibitory activity during the fermentation of goat’s milk by using a Plackett-Burman design, in accordance with previous tests. RESULTS The results indicated that incubation temperature, whey powder, calcium lactate, soybean peptone,glucose and casein had significant effects on both ACE inhibition rate and viable counts. In addition, the effects of incubation temperature, whey powder, calcium lactate and glucose were found to increase ACE inhibition rate, while soybean peptone and casein caused it to decrease. CONCLUSIONS This investigation of conditions which promote the production of ACE inhibitory peptides and media for LB6 was performed using a Plackett-Burman design. The results indicated that incubation tem- perature, whey powder, calcium lactate, soybean peptone, glucose and casein had a significant impact on the ACE inhibition rate and viable counts of LB6, which provide the basis and reference for further optimization.

Antioxidant peptides can inhibit lipid peroxidation and scavenging free radicals, maintain the balance of free radicals, and against a variety of diseases. Response surface methodology was used to optimize process conditions for producing antioxidative peptides from goat’s milk casein hydrolysate with Alcalase. The results suggested that the optimal process parameters were: temperature at 62.5°C, pH 8.9, E/S ration at 2.5%, substrate concentration at 4.4% and hydrolysis time was 173min). Metal-chelating effect, superoxide anion radical scavenging activity and 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity were shown to be 87.21±0.88%, 49.18±1.42% and 69.07±1.26% respectively under the optimal condition. The actual and predicated value were closely which indicated the optimized data fit well to model and the optimized parameters are reliable.

Optical frequency combs (OFCs) at Mid-Infrared (MIR) wavelengths are essential for applications in precise spectroscopy, gas sensing and molecular fingerprinting, because of its revolutionary precision in both wavelength and frequency domain. The microresonator-based OFCs make a further step towards practical applications by including such high precision in a compact and cost-effective package. However, dispersion engineering is still a challenge for the conventional chi-3 micro-ring resonators and a MIR pump laser is required. Here we develop a different platform of a chi-2 optical superlattice box resonator to generate MIR OFC by optical parametric down conversion. With near-material-limited quality factor of 2.0*10^7, broadband MIR OFC can be generated with over 250 nm span around 2060 nm, where only a common near-infrared laser is necessary as pump. The fine teeth spacing corresponds to a measurable radio frequency beat note at 1.566 GHz, and also results in a fine spectroscopy resolution. Its linewidth is measured to be 6.1 kHz, which reveals a low comb noise that agrees well with the clean temporal waveforms. With high output power of over 370 mW, such MIR OFC is capable for long distance sensing and ranging applications.

Final Version of Questionnaire. (DOCX 25 kb)

Osmoreception is essential for systemic osmoregulation, a process to stabilize the tonicity and volume of the extracellular fluid through regulating the ingestive behaviour, sympathetic outflow and renal function. The sensation of osmotic changes by osmoreceptor neurons is mediated by ion channels that detect the change of osmolarity in extracellular fluid. However, the molecular identity of these channels remains mysterious. AtCSC1and OSCA1,two closely related paralogues from Arabidopsis, have been demonstrated to form hyperosmolarity activated ion channels, which makes their mammalian orthologues-the members of TMEM63 proteins, possible candidates for osmoreceptor transduction channel. To test this possibility, we cloned the cDNAs of all the three members of the mouse TMEM63 family, TMEM63A, TMEM63B and TMEM63C from the mRNA from mouse brain. When all of the three subtypes of TMEM63 proteins were co-expressed in HEK293 cells, we recorded membrane currents evoked by hypertonic stimulation in these cells. However, the cells expressing the combinations of any two subtypes of TMEM63 proteins could not exhibit any hyperosmolarity evoked currents. Thus, all the three members of TMEM63 proteins are required to constitute a hyperosmolarity activated ion channel. We propose that the TMEM63 proteins may serve as an osmolarity sensitive ion channel for the osmoreception. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Importance: Cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase deficiency (PORD) is a rare disease exhibiting a variety of clinical manifestations. This condition specifically leads to disordered steroidogenesis, which can affect the development of the reproductive system, skeleton, and other parts of the body. The severe form of PORD is difficult to differentiate with Antley–Bixler syndrome (ABS). The genetic characters and clinical evaluation of PORD are still unclear in China. Objective: To perform an exome analysis and identify the pathogenic cause in order to assist clinicians to obtain a proper evaluation on the genetic condition. Methods: The proband underwent detailed physical evaluations. DNA of the proband and his parents was isolated and whole-exome sequencing (WES) was performed. Variants were analyzed and evaluation according to the ACMG guideline. Results: A 1-year-old Chinese boy with midface hypoplasia, choanal stenosis, multiple joint contractures, micropenis and right cryptorchidism was misdiagnosed with Crouzon syndrome. By trio-whole-exome sequencing, we identified an unreported compound heterozygous mutation (c.667C>T, p.R223* and c.1370G>A, p.R457H) in POR in the proband. This mutation was inherited from healthy heterozygous parents, supporting the diagnosis of PORD, which was further confirmed by biochemical characteristics. Interpretation: We have identified a pathogenic variant with an unreported compound heterozygous POR mutation, which expands the clinical and genetic spectra of PORD and emphasizes the usefulness of WES for genetic diagnosis. Key words: Compound heterozygous mutation; Cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase; Disordered steroidogenesis; POR deficiency; Whole-exome sequencing

Supplemental material for The clinical characteristics and long-term prognosis of pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia by Wen Li, Chang-ming Xiong, Qing Gu, Xiao-tong Wang, Xiao-ling Cheng, Li Huang, Tao Yang, Qin Luo, Zhi-hui Zhao, Xin-hai Ni, Zhi-hong Liu and Jian-guo He: ATS Committee on Proficiency Standards for Clinical Pulmonary Function Laboratories in Pulmonary Circulation

Additional file 1. Additional figures.

The large, publicly accessible online product reviews have become a significant information resource for enterprise to discover preferences of the public and market trend. In this paper, we propose the text mining driven information gain model for identifying notable product features to enable enterprise understand what product features determine the customers' satisfaction about the given products. This paper collects a large scale online product reviews about the automobile to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed mathematical model.

The purpose is to determine the value of preoperative evaluation on developmental levels using Gesell score in predicting the postoperative outcome in pediatric cochlear implantation (CI) recipients. 78 children who underwent CI were included in our study. Age at the time of CI ranged from 6 to 67 months. The Gesell score including adaptability, fine motor, gross motor, language, and social skill was used for evaluating the patients’ developmental levels before the CI, and a developmental quotient (DQ) was calculated by the following formula: (developmental age/actual age) × 100. The auditory perception and speech production abilities were evaluated using the categories of auditory performance (CAP) and speech intelligibility rating (SIR) before CI and at 1 year after CI. The associations between the preoperative Gesell score/DQ and the improvement of postoperative CAP/SIR outcomes were analyzed. Preoperative developmental evaluation of CI candidates suggested that the developmental delay was common in children with profound hearing loss. The mean of language DQ (46.72 ± 17.59) was significantly decreased than the mean of others’ ability DQ in the enrolled children. The older the pediatric CI candidates were, the lower the DQ were. Age/adaptability DQ and improvement of postoperative CAP/SIR 1 year after CI were related. Age was negative correlation with the CI outcome and adaptability DQ was positive correlation with the CI outcome. The mean of CAP 1 year after CI was 4.16, and the mean of SIR 1 year after CI was 2.03. The first logistics regression equation was Y1 = exp (−18.123 + 0.199 × adaptability DQ − 0.163 × age), and Y1 was the possibility which CAP was lower than 5 1 year after CI. The sensitivity of first regression equation was 84.2% and specificity was 70.8%. The second logistics regression equation was Y2 = exp (−23.347 + 0.268 × adaptability DQ − 0.164 × age), and Y2 was the possibility which SIR was lower than 3 1 year after CI. The sensitivity of second regression equation was 85.7% and specificity was 72.7%. Preoperative Gesell score may be value in predicting the postoperative outcome in pediatric CI recipients. The older children are more serious developmental delay occur, so the CI operation should be finished as early as possible. Adaptability DQ combined with age has predictive effect on the postoperative outcome of cochlear implantation in children.

Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) of epithelium origin in children and adolescents is an uncommon malignancy with an excellent prognosis. However, pediatric DTC always presents at advanced stages and with higher rates of recurrence. This review aims at the current findings of etiology, diagnosis and therapeutic approach for pediatric DTC. Radiation exposure is the only established risk of pediatric DTC, which was first discovered more than half a century ago. Research uncovers family history of thyroid carcinoma and nonthyroid malignant tumors may also be a risk factor in children DTC. Conventional diagnostic methods including palpation, ultrasonography and fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), may provide definitive diagnoses for many patients. For patients cannot be confirmed, molecular markers such as BRAF V600E and RAS mutations as well as RET-PTC rearrangements maybe improved diagnosis of thyroid nodules. Although recurrence is common, the outcome is favorable when appropriately treated. To minimize the risk of recurrence, total thyroidectomy, central compartment dissection, with or without lateral compartment dissection should be the surgical procedure for most pediatric DTC. Furthermore, suppression of serum thyroid stimulating hormone, radioactive iodine therapy for remnant ablation and a long-term follow-up should be done for most pediatric DTC.

A new chemical liquid vaporization deposition (CLVD) is used on carbon–carbon (C/C) composites to prepare hydroxyapatite (HA) coating. The heating frequencies of the CLVD and induction heating method are 330 kHz and 30 kHz, respectively. The phases, morphologies, and compositions of these coatings are characterized using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and electronic data systems; the adhesion of the coatings to the C/C substrates was evaluated by a scratch test. The results demonstrate that the critical loads of HA coatings prepared through CLVD and induction are 47 N and 18 N, respectively. Although these coatings have no significant phase differences, the CLVD HA coating has abundant CO32−, which improves the adhesion, multiplication, and differentiation of external osteoblasts.

The tissue kallikrein-related peptidase family (KLK) is a group of trypsin- and chymotrypsin-like serine proteases that share a similar homology to parent tissue kallikrein (KLK1). KLK1 is identified in heart and has anti-hypertrophic effects. However, whether other KLK family members play a role in regulating cardiac function remains unknown. In the present study, we demonstrated for the first time that KLK8 was expressed in myocardium. KLK8 expression was upregulated in left ventricle of cardiac hypertrophy models. Both intra-cardiac adenovirus-mediated and transgenic-mediated KLK8 overexpression led to cardiac hypertrophy in vivo. In primary neonatal rat cardiomyocytes, KLK8 knockdown inhibited phenylephrine (PE)-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, whereas KLK8 overexpression promoted cardiomyocyte hypertrophy via a serine protease activity-dependent but kinin receptor-independent pathway. KLK8 overexpression increased epidermal growth factor (EGF) production, which was blocked by the inhibitors of serine protease. EGF receptor (EGFR) antagonist and EGFR knockdown reversed the hypertrophy induced by KLK8 overexpression. KLK8-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy was also significantly decreased by blocking the protease-activated receptor 1 (PAR1) or PAR2 pathway. Our data suggest that KLK8 may promote cardiomyocyte hypertrophy through EGF signaling- and PARs-dependent but a kinin receptor-independent pathway. It is implied that different KLK family members can subtly regulate cardiac function and remodeling.

In this paper, a genetic algorithm-support vector regression (GA-SVR) coupled approach was proposed for investigating the relationship between fingerprints and properties of herbal medicines. GA was used to select variables so as to improve the predictive ability of the models. Two other widely used approaches, Random Forests (RF) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) combined with GA (namely GA-RF and GA-PLSR, respectively), were also employed and compared with the GA-SVR method. The models were evaluated in terms of the correlation coefficient between the measured and predicted values (Rp), root mean square error of prediction, and root mean square error of leave-one-out cross-validation. The performance has been tested on a simulated system, a chromatographic data set, and a near-infrared spectroscopic data set. The obtained results indicate that the GA-SVR model provides a more accurate answer, with higher Rp and lower root mean square error. The proposed method is suitable for the quantitative analysis and quality control of herbal medicines. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper indicates the possibility to use near infrared (NIR) spectral similarity as a rapid method to estimate the quality of Flos Lonicerae. Variable selection together with modelling techniques is utilized to select representative variables that are used to calculate the similarity. NIR is used to build calibration models to predict the bacteriostatic activity of Flos Lonicerae. For the determination of the bacteriostatic activity, the in vitro experiment is used. Models are built for the Gram-positive bacteria and also for the Gram-negative bacteria. A genetic algorithm combined with partial least squares regression (GA-PLS) is used to perform the calibration. The results of GA-PLS models are compared to interval partial least squares (iPLS) models, full-spectrum PLS and full-spectrum principal component regression (PCR) models. Then, the variables in the two GA-PLS models are combined and then used to calculate the NIR spectral similarity of samples. The similarity based on the characteristic variables and full spectrum is used for evaluating the fingerprints of Flos Lonicerae, respectively. The results show that the combination of variable selection method, modelling techniques and similarity analysis might be a powerful tool for quality control of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

ObjectiveTo systematically investigate and validate the survey methodology for the epidemiological study of childhood sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in mainland China using the Mandarin version of the Pediatric Sleep Questionnaire-Sleep-Related Breathing Disorder (PSQ-SRBD).DesignA cross-sectional study using randomised, stratified, multistage, cluster sampling method.SettingA total of 11 kindergartens, 7 primary schools and 8 middle schools from 7 districts of Beijing, China.ParticipantsA total of 9198 children with valid questionnaires (4736 boys and 4462 girls; age range 3.0–14.4 years) were included.Primary and secondary outcome measuresData on sociodemographic characteristics and PSQ-SRBD were collected. The score on PSQ-SRBD and the included factors were calculated with the effective data after data cleaning. Logistic regression and factor analysis with the principal components method were used to evaluate the validity of the questionnaire; reliability was assessed by retesting 5% of the respondents after 2±4 weeks of the initial test, and the intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated.ResultsThe effective response rate of80.54% matched the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents with respect to age group ratio and sex ratio in Beijing. With regard to construct validity of the PSQ-SRBD, the item score, except that of ‘delayed growth’, was highly correlated to the SRBD score as assessed by the logistic regression model. The exploratory factor analysis displayed a credible construct validity, with majority of the items grouped as the original dimensions. The test–retest reliability coefficient of each dimension’s score ranged from 0.758 to 0.901, with an SRBD score of 0.730 indicating significant retest reliability.ConclusionsThis study conducted and validated a successful survey methodology for investigation of childhood SDB in Beijing, China. The questionnaire demonstrated credible construct validity and retest reliability, thereby supporting the applicability and generalisability of the PSQ-SRBD in a large epidemiological survey of childhood SDB in China.

Fumigations were conducted using a continuous flow-through laboratory process to maintain constant concentrations of ethyl formate and low levels (

The objective of this clinical paper is to demonstrate an effective process to achieve relative long-term functional and aesthetic stability after the treatment of skeletal tongue source open bites. This therapy consisted of applying Delaire's architectural analysis as the cephalometry to make treatment plan corresponding to the patients' own craniomaxillofacial integral architectural structure to achieve the optimal skeletal anteroposterior and vertical position. In addition, glossoplasty and transverse matching of upper and lower arches must be under consideration in the goal of achieving integral biomechanical functional balance and aesthetic harmony. Little relapse of both skeleton and occlusion was found more than 3 years posttreatment. The effect of pararthria correction coursed by lingual functional impediment is also attained.

Excessive autophagy aggravates myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (IR) injury. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been shown to possess a strong cardioprotective effect due to its anti-necrosis, anti-apoptosis, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Our previous study showed that H2S could also protect the myocardium against IR injury through its anti-autophagy effect in vivo, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to determine whether PI3K/SGK1/GSK3β signaling pathway was involved in the anti-autophagy effect of H2S against myocardial hypoxia/reoxygenation (HR) injury in vitro. Autophagy was significantly increased in cardiomyocytes subjected to HR, but it was down-regulated by H2S (NaHS donor). Blocking PI3K by LY294002 (a PI3K inhibitor) or knocking down SGK1 by SGK1 siRNA augmented autophagy and attenuated the anti-autophagy effect of H2S. However, blocking GSK3β by tws119 (a GSK3β inhibitor) produced an opposite effect. In addition, while treatment of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes with HR reduced cell viability and augmented cell injury, H2S significantly reversed it. Blocking PI3K or knocking down SGK1 aggravated HR injury and weakened the protective effect of H2S, while blocking GSK3β produced an opposite effect. In conclusion, H2S can inhibit autophagy in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes exposed to H/R and exert a cardioprotective effect at least partly by regulating PI3K/SGK1/GSK3β signaling pathway.

Most herbal medicines could be processed to fulfill the different requirements of therapy. The purpose of this study was to discriminate between raw and processed Dipsacus asperoides, a common traditional Chinese medicine, based on their near infrared (NIR) spectra. Least squares-support vector machine (LS-SVM) and random forests (RF) were employed for full-spectrum classification. Three types of kernels, including linear kernel, polynomial kernel and radial basis function kernel (RBF), were checked for optimization of LS-SVM model. For comparison, a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) model was performed for classification, and the successive projections algorithm (SPA) was executed prior to building an LDA model to choose an appropriate subset of wavelengths. The three methods were applied to a dataset containing 40 raw herbs and 40 corresponding processed herbs. We ran 50 runs of 10-fold cross validation to evaluate the model's efficiency. The performance of the LS-SVM with RBF kernel (RBF LS-SVM) was better than the other two kernels. The RF, RBF LS-SVM and SPA-LDA successfully classified all test samples. The mean error rates for the 50 runs of 10-fold cross validation were 1.35% for RBF LS-SVM, 2.87% for RF, and 2.50% for SPA-LDA. The best classification results were obtained by using LS-SVM with RBF kernel, while RF was fast in the training and making predictions.

[1] Popkin BM. The nutrition transition and obesity in the developing world. J Nutr 2001;131:871S–3S. [2] Popkin BM. The shift in the stages of the nutrition transition in the developing world differs from past experiences. Public Health Nutr 2002;5:205–14. [3] Ghassemi H, Harrison G, Mohammad K. An accelerated nutrition transition in Iran. Public Health Nutr 2002;5:149–55. [4] Janghorbani M, Amini M, Willet WC, et al. First nationwide survey of prevalence of overweight, underweight, and abdominal obesity in Iranian adults. Obesity 2007;15:2797–808. [5] Azizi F, Salehi P, Etemadi A, Zahedi-Asl S. Prevalence of metabolic syndrome in an urban population: Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study. Diab Res Clin Pract 2003;61:29–37. [6] Kelin S, Sheard NF, Pi-Sunyer X, Daly A, Wylie-Rosett K, Clark NG. Weight management through life style modification for the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes: rationale and strategies. Diab Care 2004;27:2067–73. [7] National Cholesterol Education Program. Second report of the expert panel on detection, evaluation, and treatment of high blood cholesterol in adults. Bethesda, MD: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; 2002. NIH Pub. No. 93-3065. [8] Raynor HA, Jeffery RW, Ruggiero AM, Clark JM, DelahantyM. LOOK Ahead Research group.Weight loss strategies associated with BMI in overweight adults with type 2 diabetes at entry into Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) Trial. Diab Care 2008;31:1299–304. [9] Wing RR, Marcus MD, Epstein LH, et al. Type II diabetic subjects lose less weight than their overweight non-diabetic spouses. Diab Care 1987;10:563–6. [10] Wadden TA, West DS, Neiberg RH, et al. One year weight losses in the Look AHEAD study: factors associated with success. Obesity 2009;17:713–22. [11] Shewan LG and Coats AJ. Ethics in the authorship and publishing of scientific articles. Int J Cardiol 2010;144:1–2.

Australian Standard White wheat, Triticum aestivum L. (a marketing grade with mixed grain hardness),with a moisture content of 12.5% was fumigated with a new ethyl formate formulation (95% ethyl formate plus 5% methyl isothiocyanate) identified and developed by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Entomology, Canberra, Australia. Wheat was fumigated with the formulation at a calculated application rate of 80 g/m3 in two 50-tonne sealed metal vertical silos located at Fisherman Islands, Queensland, Australia. Access was gained through the top of the silo where the application of the formulation was completed within a few minutes by pouring it onto the top of the wheat. After 2 h of recirculation, using a 0.5-kW fan, the in-bin concentrations of ethyl formate achieved equilibrium with a concentration variation7%. The ethyl formate concentration, in both silos 1 and 2, during the first day's exposure period remained above 10 g/m3. The concentration of ethyl formate by time product achieved was 790 and 650 g h/m3 in silos 1 and 2, respectively. In silo 1, the formulation was sufficient to kill all life stages of mixed age cultures of Sitophilus oryzae (L.), Rhyzopertha dominica (F.), and Tribolium castaneum (Herbst). In silo 2, control was 100% for R. dominica and T. castaneum and 99.4% for S. oryzae. After 5 d fumigation, the silo top-hatch was opened but no forced aeration was initiated. The in-bin concentration of ethyl formate was lower than the Australian experimental threshold limit value of 100 ppm. The ethyl formate and methyl isothiocyanate residues in the grain had declined to below the Australian experimental maximum residue limit of 0.2 and 0.1 mg/kg, respectively. The workspace and environmental levels of ethyl formate and methyl isothiocyanate were less than the detection limit of 0.1 ppm. The treatment with ethyl formate formulation had no affect on the wheat germination and seed color compared with untreated controls.

Past efforts to develop measurement-based models of the UWB propagation channel have focused on residential, office, and industrial environments. However, with its confined volume and cylindrical structure, the geometry of the passenger cabin of a jet aircraft is fundamentally different from those environments considered previously. Here, we characterize large-scale aspects of UWB propagation within the passenger cabin of a typical mid-size airliner. Our measurement database consists of hundreds of frequency responses over the range 3.0 - 10.6 GHz that we collected aboard a Boeing 737-200 aircraft. The data were collected in a point-to-multipoint configuration in which a biconical UWB transmitting antenna was mounted at one of three locations near the cabin ceiling and an identical receiving antenna was mounted at headrest, armrest, and footrest level at over 50 locations throughout the cabin. We have accounted for the effects of human presence by collecting this data with the cabin empty, with passengers occupying half of the seats, and with passengers occupying virtually all of the seats. Our initial data reduction efforts have focused on the manner in which human presence and/or receiving antenna mounting location affects five large scale aspects of UWB propagation, i.e., those that affect coverage and reliability: (1) the distance dependence of path loss, (2) the frequency dependence of path loss, (3) the ratio of the energy in the line-of-sight component to the scattered components of the channel impulse response, (4) the RMS delay spread, and (5) the locations and distribution of the poles of the corresponding autoregressive frequency domain model.

The CM 1-8 UWB statistical channel impulse response (OR) models adopted by the IEEE 802.15.4a task group are widely used to fairly compare the performance of alternative UWB signaling schemes under representative line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight conditions in four different environments: residential, office, industrial, and outdoor. However, with the advent of MB-OFDM and related schemes, channel frequency response (CFR) models are becoming more pertinent than CIR models. Here, we analyze the CM 1-8 models using autoregressive frequency domain (AR-FD) modeling techniques with four aims. First, we use the Akaike information criterion (AIC) to determine the order of the AR-FD model most appropriate to each case. Second, we use the distribution of the poles in the equivalent AR-FD model to interpret both the physical significance and diversity of each of the CM models. Third, we determine the probability distribution that best describes the pole locations and other parameters of the AR-FD model so that we may specify a set of frequency domain alternatives to the IEEE 802.15.4a models which we refer to as CFR 1-8. Finally, we assess the suitability of the AR-FD approach in each of the eight cases by comparing the envelope distribution and RMS delay spread predicted by the AR-FD models to those of the original CIR data.

To translate the original English version of oral health impact profile (OHIP)-14 into Chinese version and to test the psychometric properties of the Chinese version for use among the Chinese adults.The original English version of OHIP-14 was translated into Chinese, and pre-tested and cross-cultural adapted. Subsequently the Chinese version with a general questionnaire was administered to adults aged 18 approximately 65 years by a trained interviewer. Reliability of the translated scale was assessed in terms of internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha and corrected item-total correlation. Construct validity was evaluated by factor analysis and criterion-related validity was evaluated by examining the associations between perceived oral health status, perceived need for dental care and OHIP-14 scores. Formal psychometric properties were tested according to the standard procedure of the international quality of life assessment (IQOLA) project.A total of 592 adults were surveyed. There were 550 valid questionnaires involving 38 ones with missing data. Cronbach's alpha of the translated scale was 0.93, corrected item-total correlation ranged from 0.53 to 0.71. The 14 items were divided into four domains. There was certain logical relation between the items in the same domains. There was highly significant association between perceived oral health status, perceived need for dental care and OHIP-14 scores.The translated Chinese version of OHIP-14 demonstrated good reliability and validity. Its good psychometric properties provide the theoretical evidence for further use in Chinese population. It is available for use by researchers in oral health related quality of life studies in Chinese adults.

Because of their superior characteristics, carbonaceous materials, which are still at their early stage of development, have garnered significant interest. Because of their low atomic number, carbonaceous orthopedic implants possess radiation properties similar to biological tissues and, therefore, they are more suitable to patients in need of radiotherapy. The effects of stainless steel, titanium, and carbon plates on radiation dose distributions were investigated in this work using Monte Carlo simulations and TLD measurements for 6 MV photon beams. It is found that carbon plates will neither increase the incident surface dose, nor lead to the decrease of exit surface dose (the effect of a second build‐up). Carbon fiber orthopedic implants have a good prospect for radiotherapy patients because they have minimal perturbation effects on the radiotherapy dose distribution. PACS number: 87.55.K‐,87.55.Gh, 87.55.ne