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Objectives An increased incidence of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) has been described worldwide over the years. In this study, we aimed to investigate the epidemiologic characteristics of CH, the iodine status in Guangzhou, China and to investigate which factors might influence the CH incidence during the period 2010–2020. Methods We retrospectively reviewed all cases of CH detected by newborn screening during the period 2010–2020. CH was classified as either suspected thyroid dyshormonogenesis (SDH) or thyroid dysgenesis (TD) based on thyroid ultrasound at first diagnosis. Patients were re-evaluated after 4 weeks of L-thyroxine withdrawal at age of 2–3 years to confirm the diagnosis of permanent CH (PCH) or transient CH (TCH). Results From 2010 to 2020, 1,655 patients with CH were confirmed from 2,400,383 newborns (1:1,450). The CH incidence increased from 1:2,584 in period [2010–2014] to 1:1,086 in period [2015–2020]. Among the 1,337 patients with thyroid ultrasound, 84.29% were SDH whereas 15.71% had TD. Further analysis revealed that more SDH (78.32%) were TCH whereas more TD (87.12%) turned to be PCH. The proportion of blood spot thyrotropin values >5 mIU/L ranged from 8.03 to 20.46%, indicating iodine deficiency. The prevalence of preterm infants increased from 5.50% in period [2010–2014] to 7.06% in period [2015–2020] (p Conclusions In the past decade, the CH incidence has increased progressively. SDH was the majority of CH, most of which were TCH, while most patients with TD were PCH. The increased incidence might be mainly due to iodine deficiency and increased rates of preterm infants in our study.

The layer-by-layer assembly technique was used to synthesize novel multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on magnetic carbon (Fe

Scutellariae Radix (SR), the root of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, is used as an antipyretic drug and has been demonstrated to have anti-inflammatory activity. SR is divided into two specifications, "Ku Qin" (KQ) and "Zi Qin" (ZQ), for use against different symptoms (upper energizer heat or lower portion of the triple energizer), according to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). However, differences in the efficacies of these two specifications have not been determined. In the present study, we aimed to characterize the differences in the anti-inflammatory activities between KQ and ZQ and to explore how their differences are manifested in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced macrophages. Our results showed that, in RAW264.7 cells (a mouse macrophage cell line derived from ascites), KQ and ZQ displayed anti-inflammatory effects by inhibiting the release of nitric oxide (NO), inducible NOS (iNOS), and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) in a dose-dependent manner without distinction. In NR8383 cells (a rat alveolar macrophage cell line), KQ and ZQ displayed similar effects on NO, iNOS, and NF-κB as seen in RAW264.7 cells, but KQ showed a higher inhibition rate for NO and iNOS than that shown by ZQ at the same concentration. These results indicated that there were differences in efficacy between KQ and ZQ in treating lung inflammation. Our findings provided an experimental evidence supporting the different uses of KQ and ZQ in clinic, as noted in ancient herbal records.

Quantifying and mapping heavy metals’ concentrations in the soil are important in monitoring and managing heavy metal pollution in the mining areas. However, the cover on the soil acts as a balk when retrieving information from soil. In order to retrieve heavy metal pollution precisely and quickly from hyperspectral images, this study presents a new method to remove non-soil information based NDVI from hyper-spectral and multi-spectral images. The method assumed that the mixed objects in each pixel of remote sensing images are composed only of soil and vegetation-based non-soil end-generational endmembers, then, the soil information of each pixel can be compensated with the non-soil information removed based on its NDVI. Thus, the soil DN value can be corrected to retrieve soil information more precisely. The method has been used on the Hyperion image in June 8, 2002 and the Gaofen-2 (GF-2) image in February 14, 2016 to retrieve the heavy metals’ contents in Bai-ma and De-sheng mining areas, Miyi County, Sichuan Province. From the non-soil information removed images, the R2 and RMSE of the models of estimating Cr, Ag, Cu and Ba in soil are 0.68, 0.724, 0.71, 0.695 and 75.96, 0.03, 52.88, 284.70 respectively. From the original images, the R2 and RMSE of the models of estimating Cr, Ag, Cu and Ba in soil are 0.67, 0.385, 0.425, 0.406 and 80.11, 0.18, 53.43, 396.49 respectively. The retrieval results show that the non-soil information removed images are superior to original images in soil heavy metals’ contents retrieval. This indicates that this method is feasible, and it can be used in soil information retrieval.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the characteristics of DUOXA2 gene mutation and the genotype-phenotype relationship in children with congenital hypothyroidism (CH) in Guangzhou, China. METHODS: A total of 20 CH patients with suspected thyroid dyshormonogenesis who had no DUOX2 gene mutation were enrolled. These patients who were born between 2011 and 2012 were screened and diagnosed with CH in the Guangzhou Newborn Screening Center. PCR and direct sequencing were used to analyze DUOXA2 gene mutation. RESULTS: Among the 20 patients, 2 had p.Y246X/p.Y246X homozygous mutation; 4 had monoallelic heterozygous mutation, among whom 2 carried the known pathogenic mutation c.413-414insA, 1 carried p.Y246X, and 1 carried a novel mutation, p.G79R. Reevaluation was performed at the age of 2-3 years, and the results showed that the two patients with p.Y246X/p.Y246X homozygous mutation were manifested as transient and mild permanent CH, respectively. Among the four patients with monoallelic heterozygous mutation, the one who carried p.Y246X mutation was manifested as typical permanent CH, and the other three were manifested as transient CH. CONCLUSIONS: DUOXA2 gene mutation is a common molecular pathogenic basis for CH children with suspected thyroid dyshormonogenesis in Guangzhou, and most of them are manifested as transient CH. There is no association between DUOXA2 genotypes and phenotypes. The novel mutation p.G79R is probably a pathogenic mutation.

A modified acid-fast staining method was developed for rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its L forms, wherein carbol fuchsin and dioxogen were mixed into the sputum smear. With this method, the dyeing time is shortened and heating is not required. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, positive rate, and diagnostic efficiency of the new method were compared to those obtained by PCR using 50 clinical samples. Further, 468 clinical samples were analyzed using the new method, the modified intensified Kinyoun (IK) acid-fast staining method, and the traditional Ziehl-Neelsen acid-fast staining method. Differences among the positive detection rates of the three methods were analyzed using Student's t-test, and no significant differences were found between the new method and the modified IK acid-fast staining method, while the rates of both these methods were higher than that of the traditional acid-fast staining method. Additionally, the dyeing time in the new method was markedly less than that in the modified IK acid-fast staining method (5 min and 24 h, respectively).

In this paper, dry farming area in northern Shaanxi unique geographical and natural environment and industrial restructuring brought about great changes in the background. Analyzed and summarized in Ansai area landscape to the status of rural settlements. From a rational land use and agricultural landscape planning, rural communities to create green, ecological environmental protection three aspects of green rural landscape to create a strategy, And proposed the establishment of green rural landscape of the "production - Living - ecology" compound operation mechanism.

Recently, natural disasters happen frequently and people are more aware of the importance of building a safe living environment. While giving concern on safety precaution of city architectures, people should also bring the factor of natural disasters into the design of city public facilities since they belong to the design of safety precaution. For example, city public facilities will take effect when disasters happen.