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Background: Coordinated control between the bilateral ankle joints plays an important role in performing daily life functions, such as walking and running. However, few studies have explored the impact of stroke on movement disorders that decrease the coordination control of the bilateral extremities and may decrease daily activities that require coordination control of the bilateral ankles. This study aimed to investigate the coordination control of the bilateral ankles using a novel bilateral ankle measurement system and evaluate the relationship of bilateral movement coordination control deficits with motor and functional performances of the lower extremities in patients with stroke. Methods: Twenty-one healthy adults (36.5 ± 13.2 y/o) and 19 patients with chronic stroke (58.7 ± 10.5 y/o) were enrolled. A novel measurement device with embedded rotary potentiometers was used to evaluate bilateral ankle coordination control. Participants were asked to move their dominant (non-paretic) foot from dorsiflexion to plantarflexion position and non-dominant (paretic) foot from dorsiflexion to plantarflexion position (condition 1) simultaneously, and vice versa (condition 2). Alternating time and angle for coordination control with movements of both ankles were calculated for each condition. Motor and functional performance measurements of the lower extremities included the lower-extremity portion of the Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA-LE), Berg Balance Test (BBS), Timed Up and Go Test (TUG), and Barthel Index (BI). Results: Compared with the healthy group, alternating time was shorter in the stroke group by 8.3% (p = 0.015), and the alternating angles of conditions 1 and 2 were significantly higher than those of the healthy group by 1.4° (p = 0.001) and 2.5° (p = 0.013), respectively. The alternating angle in condition 2 showed moderate correlations with TUG (r = 0.512; p = 0.025), 10-m walk (r = 0.747; p < 0.001), gait speed (r = − 0.497 to − 0.491; p < 0.05), length (r = − 0.518 to − 0.551; p < 0.05), and BI (r = − 0.457; p = 0.049). Conclusion: Stroke decreases alternating time, increases alternating angle, and shows bilateral ankle coordination control deficits temporally and spatially. A higher alternating angle is moderately to highly associated with motor function and lower limb function in patients with stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Oct4 is a major transcription factor related to stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. To fulfill its functions, it must be able to enter the nucleus and remain there to affect transcription. KPNA2, a member of the karyopherin family, plays a central role in nucleocytoplasmic transport. The objective of the current study was to examine the association between Oct4 and KPNA2 expression levels with regard to both the clinicopathological characteristics and prognoses of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Methods: Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression profile of Oct4 and KPNA2 in NSCLC tissues and adjacent noncancerous lung tissues. Real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blotting were used to detect the mRNA and protein expression profiles of Oct4 and KPNA2 in lung cancer cell lines. Small interfering RNAs were used to deplete Oct4 and KPNA2 expressions. Double immunofluorescence was used to detect Oct4 expression in KPNA2 knockdown cells. Co-immunoprecipitation was used to detect the interaction of Oct4 and KPNA2.Results: Oct4 was overexpressed in 29 of 102 (28.4%) human lung cancer samples and correlated with differentiation (P = 0.002) and TNM stage (P = 0.003). KPNA2 was overexpressed in 56 of 102 (54.9%) human lung cancer samples and correlated with histology (P = 0.001) and differentiation (P = 0.045). Importantly, Oct4 and KPNA2 expression levels correlated significantly (P < 0.01). Expression of Oct4 and KPNA2 was associated with short overall survival. In addition, depleting Oct4 and KPNA2 expression using small interfering RNAs inhibited proliferation in lung cancer cell lines. Real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blotting analysis indicated that reduction of KPNA2 expression significantly reduced mRNA and nucleoprotein levels of Oct4. Double immunofluorescence analysis revealed that nuclear Oct4 signals were reduced significantly in KPNA2 knockdown cells. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments revealed that KPNA2 interacts with Oct4 in lung cancer cell lines.Conclusion: Oct4 and KPNA2 play an important role in NSCLC progression. Oct4 nuclear localization may be mediated by its interaction with KPNA2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Outbreak detection algorithms play an important role in effective automated surveillance. Although many algorithms have been designed to improve the performance of outbreak detection, few published studies have examined how epidemic features of infectious disease impact on the detection performance of algorithms. This study compared the performance of three outbreak detection algorithms stratified by epidemic features of infectious disease and examined the relationship between epidemic features and performance of outbreak detection algorithms. Methods: Exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA), cumulative sum (CUSUM) and moving percentile method (MPM) algorithms were applied. We inserted simulated outbreaks into notifiable infectious disease data in China Infectious Disease Automated-alert and Response System (CIDARS), and compared the performance of the three algorithms with optimized parameters at a fixed false alarm rate of 5% classified by epidemic features of infectious disease. Multiple linear regression was adopted to analyse the relationship of the algorithms' sensitivity and timeliness with the epidemic features of infectious diseases. Results: The MPM had better detection performance than EWMA and CUSUM through all simulated outbreaks, with or without stratification by epidemic features (incubation period, baseline counts and outbreak magnitude). The epidemic features were associated with both sensitivity and timeliness. Compared with long incubation, short incubation had lower probability (β* = −0.13, P<0.001) but needed shorter time to detect outbreaks (β* = −0.57, P<0.001). Lower baseline counts were associated with higher probability (β* = −0.20, P<0.001) and longer time (β* = 0.14, P<0.001). The larger outbreak magnitude was correlated with higher probability (β* = 0.55, P<0.001) and shorter time (β* = −0.23, P<0.001). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the MPM is a prior algorithm for outbreak detection and differences of epidemic features in detection performance should be considered in automatic surveillance practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]