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Background Despite extensive molecular epidemiological studies, the prevalence and characteristics of Mouse Mammary Tumor Virus-Like Virus (MMTV-LV) in Chinese women breast cancer are still unclear. Besides, the prevalence of MMTV-LV in women breast cancer tissue varies in different countries and its dependent factors remain inconclusive. Methods In the first part of the study, a case-control study was performed. 119 breast cancer samples (84 from Northern China and 35 from Southern China) and 50 breast fibroadenoma specimens were collected from Chinese women patients. MMTV-like env sequence and the homology to MMTV env gene were analysed by semi-nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We also explored the association of MMTV-LV prevalence with sample sources (Southern and Northern China) and patients’ clinicopathological characteristics. To investigate the dependent factors of the prevalence of MMTV-LV in breast cancer worldwide, a meta-analysis was conducted in the second part of the study. Results We found that the prevalence of MMTV-LV was much higher in breast cancer tissues (17.65%) than that in breast fibroadenoma specimens (4.00%) (P P P Conclusion The distribution of house mice may be a crucial environmental factor that explains the geographic differences in human breast cancer incidence. Our findings may provide a potential avenue of prevention, diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer.

N6-methyladenosine (m6A), the most prevalent and reversible modification of mRNA in mammalian cells, has recently been extensively studied in epigenetic regulation. YTH family proteins, whose YTH domain can recognize and bind m6A-containing RNA, are the main “readers” of m6A modification. YTH family proteins perform different functions to determine the metabolic fate of m6A-modified RNA. The crystal structure of the YTH domain has been completely resolved, highlighting the important roles of several conserved residues of the YTH domain in the specific recognition of m6A-modified RNAs. Upstream and downstream targets have been successively revealed in different cancer types and the role of YTH family proteins has been emphasized in m6A research. This review describes the regulation of RNAs by YTH family proteins, the structural features of the YTH domain, and the connections of YTH family proteins with human cancers.

To explore the effect of nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor (Nrf2) pathway activation on hippocampal neuron damage in neonatal rats with bilirubin encephalopathy.Neonatal rats were randomly assigned to a control group (Control), a model group (Model) and an Nrf2 activator TBHQ (tert-Butylhydroquinone) group (TBHQ), with 20 rats in each group. Bilirubin solution was injected through the cerebellomedullary cistern to establish the neonatal rat model of bilirubin encephalopathy. Neurobehavioral changes were observed in rats and the water content of the brain tissue was measured. Nissl staining was done to observe the damage of hippocampal neurons. TUNEL staining was used to observe the apoptosis of hippocampal neurons. Colorimetric analysis was done to determine the Caspase-3 activity in the hippocampus. The content of malondialdehyde (MDA) and reduced glutathione (GSH) and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) in the hippocampus were examined by chemical analysis. qRT-PCR and Western blot were done to measure the expression of Nrf2 and heme oxygenase-l (HO-1) mRNA and proteins in the hippocampus.After injection of bilirubin into the cerebellomedullary cistern, the young rats in the Model group and the TBHQ group showed different degrees of neurological abnormalities, while those in the control group showed no significant neurobehavioral abnormalities. Compared with the Control group, the Model group had severe neuronal damage, and the water content of brain tissue, the apoptosis of hippocampal neurons, the activity of Caspase-3 and the content of MDA content significantly increased (Activation of the Nrf2 pathway can improve hippocampal neuronal damage in neonatal rats with bilirubin encephalopathy and inhibit neuronal apoptosis and the oxidation reaction.

A sensitive and portable on-thread pre-concentration and colorimetric detection method of copper ions was proposed. Commercial cotton thread was proposed as a solid sorbent for effectively extracting copper ions (Cu2+) from solution. The adsorbed Cu2+ was converted to Cu+ by ascorbic acid. The Cu+ on the threads was visualized by horseradish-peroxidase-catalyzed color changes of a chromogenic oxidized tetramethylbenzidine substrate. The adsorption of Cu2+ on the plasma- and Na2CO3-treated thread was verified by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and zeta potential characterization. The Cu+-induced dysfunction of HRP on the thread was verified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. With optimized reaction conditions, the concentration-dependent colorimetric response plot was characterized, where the linear detection range was 2–400 nM and the detection limit was about 0.15 nM. Measurements of a group of possible interfering ions and spiked real-water samples demonstrated the good selectivity of the proposed method. The proposed on-thread pre-concentration and colorimetric detection offers a low-cost and effective alternative for detecting of copper ions in real applications.

The root system of plants is a major component of their bodies in terms of both function and bulk. The investigation of root system development is greatly assisted by microfluidic devices, which improve the spatial and temporal resolution of observations without destroying tissue. In the present study, a multi-chamber petaloid root-growth chip was developed for studying the development and physiology of root systems that have thin branching structures (i.e., fibrous root systems). The petaloid root-growth chip includes a central seed germination chamber and five root-growth chambers for observing the development of fibrous roots. The proposed device was applied for investigating the root system development of Oryza sativa. The phenotype and growth kinetics of O. sativa root systems grown in the proposed device were compared with those obtained during growth in a conventional conical flask with agar-based medium, and the results indicated that cultivation in the miniaturized device did not delay root system growth in the early stage (≤2 weeks). In addition, the transparent device enabled the non-destructive observation of the developmental and microstructural characteristics of the roots, such as the root caps, root border cells, and root hairs. Moreover, the ability to control the microenvironment in each of the five root-growth chambers individually facilitated the investigation of specific adaptations in the fibrous root growth of single O. sativa seedlings to different drought stresses. Accordingly, five polyethylene glycol (PEG)6000-induced drought stress conditions were established in the five root-growth chambers to investigate the root development of a single O. sativa seedling in the central germination chamber. In situ observations demonstrated that the different PEG6000-induced conditions affected the root growth responses and root microstructural adaptations of the single seedlings in each root-growth chamber. Therefore, the petaloid root-growth microfluidic chip can eliminate the effects of variations in different plant seeds to reveal the responses of plants to different environmental conditions more objectively while concurrently allowing for non-destructive observations at very high spatial and temporal resolution.

Myocardial dysfunction is an important manifestation of sepsis. In addition, inactivation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway has been reported to be beneficial in sepsis. The current study used gene expression profiling to demonstrate the overexpression of angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R) and activation of the MAPK signaling pathway in sepsis. In this study, we used a rat model of sepsis established by cecal ligation and puncture to explore the mechanism of AT1R silencing in relation to the MAPK signaling pathway on myocardial injury. Various parameters including blood pressure, heart rate, and cardiac function changes were observed. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure the concentration of cardiac troponin T (TnT), cardiac troponin I (cTnI), and creatine kinase isoenzyme muscle/brain (CK-MB). Myocardial enzyme, tissue antioxidant capacity, mitochondria swelling, and membrane potential were also detected. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase deoxyuridine triphosphate nick end labeling staining was applied to measure cell apoptosis, and messenger RNA and protein levels of apoptosis-related proteins (Fas ligand [Fasl], B-cell CLL/lymphoma [Bcl-2], p53) were also detected. Initially, sepsis rats exhibited decreased survival rate, but increased ejection fraction (EF), heart rate, and concentrations of TnT, cTnI, and CK-MB. Furthermore, decreased AT1R expression inactivated the MAPK signaling pathway (shown as decreased extracellular signal-regulated kinase and cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate response element binding protein expression), decreased EF, heart rate, and concentrations of TnT, cTnI, and CK-MB, but increased sepsis rat survival rate. Eventually, decreased AT1R expression inhibited myocardial cell apoptosis (shown as decreased apoptosis rate and p53 and Fasl expression as well as increased Bcl-2 expression). These findings indicated that AT1R silencing plays an inhibitory role in sepsis-induced myocardial injury by inhibiting the MAPK signaling pathway.

Cotton thread has been proposed as a new, economically affordable material for the fabrication of microfluidic circuits for use in fast, low-cost, point-of-care diagnostic testing devices. In this work, chitosan, a biocompatible polymer, was used to modify cotton thread to improve its fluidic properties for microfluidic applications. Electrostatic-interaction-mediated adsorption of chitosan on alkaline-scoured thread can effectively increase thread’s solution hydrophilicity and wicking rate. Moreover, the proposed process conserves the thread’s hydrophilicity and fluidic properties even when stored for several months. As a microfluidic platform for enzymatic-reaction-associated colorimetric measurement, the suggested chitosan modification results in the accumulation of more analyte in the detection zone because of the improved flow rate, which enhances the colorimetric signal intensity. In this study, a glucose oxidase-mediated colorimetric glucose assay was demonstrated on a chitosan-modified microfluidic thread-based analytical device (μTAD). A linear range of 1–7.5 mM, a low detection limit of 0.2 mM, and a recovery rate between 93 and 98% was achieved in detecting glucose in artificial urine samples.

A wideband dual-mode complementary dipole antenna is proposed. The antenna is composed of a wideband slotline radiator and an electric dipole. It is excited by a coaxial cable at the center. A pair...

Excessive expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a common cause of blood-brain barrier (BBB) breakdown that triggers severe complications following traumatic brain injury (TBI). It has been shown that inhibition of VEGF activities may attenuate cerebral edema in pathological conditions. Vascular endothelial growth inhibitor (VEGI; also known as TNFSF15), a cytokine produced largely by vascular endothelial cells, is capable of downregulating VEGF expression and inhibiting VEGF receptor-2 (VEGFR2) activation. In this study we found that TBI can cause breakdown of BBB and sharp increases of VEGF/VEGI and Angpt2/Angpt1 ratios in the injured tissues. VEGI treatment resulted in a marked decrease of BBB permeability and concomitant restoration of normal ratios of VEGF/VEGI and Angpt2/Angpt1. Consistently, alleviated edema, decreased neuron cell death, and improved neurological functions were observed when the experimental animals were treated with VEGI in the early phase of TBI. Our findings suggest that administration of VEGI recombinant protein at early phases of TBI is beneficial to stabilization of the disease conditions.

A moderate stress such as cold water swimming can raise the tolerance of the body to potentially injurious events. However, little is known about the mechanism of beneficial effects induced by moderate stress. In this study, we used a classic rat model of traumatic brain injury to test the hypothesis that cold water swimming preconditioning improved the recovery of cognitive functions and explored the mechanisms. Results showed that after traumatic brain injury, pre-conditioned rats (cold water swimming for 3 minutes at 4°C) spent a significantly higher percent of times in the goal quadrant of cold water swim, and escape latencies were shorter than for non-pretreated rats. The number of circulating endothelial progenitor cells was significantly higher in pre-conditioned rats than those without pretreatment at 0, 3, 6 and 24 hours after traumatic brain injury. Immunohistochemical staining and Von Willebrand factor staining demonstrated that the number of CD34+ stem cells and new blood vessels in the injured hippocampus tissue increased significantly in pre-conditioned rats. These data suggest that pretreatment with cold water swimming could promote the proliferation of endothelial progenitor cells and angiogenesis in the peripheral blood and hippocampus. It also ameliorated cognitive deficits caused by experimental traumatic brain injury.

CoSb3 thermoelectric thin films were prepared on polyimide flexible substrate by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technology using a cobalt antimony alloy target. Ti and In were added into CoSb3 thin films by co-sputtering. The influence of Ti and In on the thermoelectric properties of CoSb3 thin films was investigated. X-ray diffraction result shows that the major diffraction peaks of all the thin films match the standard peaks related to the CoSb3 phase. The sample has best thermoelectric properties when the Ti sputtering time was 1min and In sputtering time was 30 seconds.

In this study, copper selenide thin films were fabricated by ion beam sputtering deposition by using a fan-shaped target of Cu and Se. The influence of heat treatment on thermoelectric properties of copper selenide thin films was investigated. X-ray diffraction results demonstrate that the as-deposited and annealed thin films are both amorphous. The SEM images show that the thin films are discontinuous and just like island structure. The thin films are crystalline when the substrate temperature is added at the deposition process. The thin film exhibits the dominating CuSe phase at the substrate temperature of 250 °C and it transforms to single CuSe2 phase at the temperature of 300 °C. When the substrate temperature further increased to 350 °C, the mixed Cu2−xSe phase is dominated. The thin film with Cu2−xSe phase has a high electrical conductivity of 2.02 × 104 Scm−1 at 423 K and thin film with CuSe2 phase has a high Seebeck coefficient of 37.3 μVK−1 at 316 K.

Delafossite-type CuCr1−x Zn x O2 (x = 0, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07, 0.1) conductive oxides were synthesized by sol–gel method, and the effects of Zn-doping on morphology, structure, and electrical properties of the CuCr1−x Zn x O2 oxides were investigated. Based on X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectrum, the crystalline quality of the oxides is improved by the suitable substitution of Cr by Zn. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra reveal the chemical state of Zn is +2. The Hall and Seebeck coefficients of the pellet samples display a positive sign, indicating p-type conductive characteristics of the obtained oxides. The temperature-dependent resistivity of the oxides is proven to be consistent with small polaron hopping. For the three oxide samples with x = 0, 0.05, and 0.1, the activation energies for the polaron hopping between Zn2+ and Cr3+ sites are 54, 41.5, 32 meV, respectively, which is found to decrease with the increase of Zn content. The electrical conductivity can be remarkably improved by Zn-doping due to the small polaron hopping activation energy. These properties render this material promising as transparent electrode in optoelectronic industry.

Epitaxial thin films of CuFe 1 − x Sn x O 2 ( x = 0.00, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07), a transparent oxide semiconductor with delafossite structure, were grow on Al 2 O 3 (0 0 0 1) substrate by sol–gel method, The X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that the CuFeO 2 film annealed at 500 °C in air was mainly composed of amorphous phase, and after post-annealed at 900 °C in N 2 , single phase CuFe 1 − x Sn x O 2 films with high c -axis oriented were obtained. The Raman spectrum confirmed the delafossite structure of the films. The binding energy of Cu-2p 3/2 , Fe-2p 3/2 and Sn-3d 5/2 were 932 eV, 711.3 eV and 486.2 eV in CuFe 1 − x Sn x O 2 films. The chemical composition of the films was close to its stoichiometry, which was determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The films show high transmittance around 45–78% in the visible band and 78–95% in the near infrared spectral region, while the energy gaps for direct allowed transition were estimated as 3.5 ± 0.02 eV. The p-type characteristics of CuFe 1 − x Sn x O 2 thin films were determined by positive Hall coefficients. The resistivity of the film was 36.83 Ω cm for CuFeO 2 film at room temperature, significantly decreased to 1.043 Ω cm after substituting Sn 2+ for Fe 3+ . The resistivity showed a decrease at the beginning and increased with the growing of Sn ion doping ratio. These results demonstrate that the high c -axis oriented CuFe 1 − x Sn x O 2 films can be the very promising p-type transparent conductive thin films.

As an important wide bandgap p-type conductive delafossite material, CuScO2 (CSO) has been intensively investigated for its wide applications in multi-functional optoelectronic devices. In order to obtain both high infrared (IR) transparency and low resistivity, we report on, for the first time, the experimental preparation of single phase epitaxial CSO thin film by using polymer-assisted-deposition (PAD) method. As a key point in the PAD process, the used polymer materials (PEI and EDTA) not only control the desired viscosity for the process, but also bind the metal ions to prevent premature precipitation and formation of metal oxide oligomers. The technique results in a homogeneous distribution of the metal precursors in the solution as well as the formation of uniform metal organic film. Due to the uniaxial locked epitaxy mechanism, the epitaxial growth of CSO (0001) thin film on a-plane sapphire is achieved, and the orientation relationship of the film with respect to the substrate are confirmed to be CSO[3R](0001)//a-Al2O3(110). The obtained CSO thin film from the PAD technique exhibits a low electrical resistivity of 1.047 Ω cm at room temperature, and a high transmittance of 65–85% in the near-IR range and more than 85% in the mid-IR range. The presented technique does provide the possibility of preparing high-crystallinity oxide films which can be applicable over a wide wavelength range from visible band to infrared band.

Seed germination is an important means of evaluating seed quality. In the present study, a well array for a seed germination experiment was designed and fabricated by 3D printing for the first time. Each hollow cone-shaped well can hold one seed, which not only prevented the seed from falling out of the well but also ensured that part of the seed was fully exposed to the sublayer of wet filter paper, allowing it to receive water for germination. Coupled with a 3D-printed seed planter, single seeds can be quickly placed into arrayed wells. Moreover, the number of sprouts could be automatically obtained from image analysis, which greatly improved the efficiency of the entire experiment. In summary, the high-throughput, easy-to-use seed germination well array that we have developed has been shown to have potential applications in botanical seed research and agricultural production.

In this study, we investigated the effect of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and performance of the prepared membranes. Thin film composite (TFC) forward osmosis (FO) membranes were fabricated based on the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) substrate, incorporating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the active skin layer. The CNTs can improve the water flux through added the hydrophilic groups. The mean surface roughness and hydrophilicity increased with the concentration of carbon nanotubes increased. The TFC membranes incorporated CNTs (0.2 wt%) exhibited the best FO performance with water flux of 25.14 L/m2·h and reverse salt flux of 8.64 g/m2·h using 0.5 M NaCl as draw solution and DI water as feed solution during FO test. The research provides us a promising approach to fabricate the high flux FO membranes.

Transparent conductive IWO/Cu/IWO (W-doped In2O3) films were deposited on quartz substrates by magnetron sputtering of IWO and Cu in the Ar atmosphere. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns identified the cubic iron&ndash, manganese ore crystal structure of the IWO layers. The influence of the thickness of the intermediate ultra-thin Cu layers on the optical and electrical properties of the multilayer films was analyzed. As the Cu layer thickness increases from 4 to 10 nm, the multilayer resistivity gradually decreases to 4.5 &times, 10&minus, 4 &Omega, &middot, cm, and the optical transmittance in the mid-infrared range increases first and then decreases with a maximum of 72%, which serves as an excellent candidate for the mid-infrared transparent electrode.

Dairy products logistics service quality directly affect the quality of dairy products, this article first from management level, advanced technical equipment, warehousing and distribution quality, cost economy four aspects put forward the preliminary evaluation of dairy products logistics service quality, then through questionnaire survey to judge the proposed initial indicators of evaluation, through the analysis of the membership degree and the important degree of initial index screening optimization, get a more scientific and reasonable evaluation index system, lay a solid foundation for the objective evaluation of the dairy products logistics service quality.

In recent years, with the rapid development of electric power industry, the electric power equipment and technology is ongoing an unprecedented update, which leads to the demand of updating electric power employee’s knowledge. The traditional training method has a serious contradiction of engineering an learning, low training effectiveness and high cost, thus, this paper brings up a training method based on multimedia animation technology and supplemented by computer software and database technology. In practical application, the training method improved the learning efficiency of electric power employees and greatly reduced the cost of training.

It is an environment-friendly transport for high school students go to school and go home by bicycle. It’s easily cause traffic accident and traffic jam owing to the time of high school students go to school and leave school is concentration or the circumstance of traffic flow mixed motor vehicle and bicycle, and the vehicle and bicycle scrambles for roads. This paper takes high school students go to school and leave school by bicycle as objects, studies bicycle traffic conflicts in two-phase intersection and the factors of insecurity, proposes the improvement measures for security. In this paper, taking T-shaped road junction ZaoJunmiaodonglu and Zaojunmiaolu in front of High school Attached to Northern Jiaotong University as example and using empirical analysis method to study.

This paper introduces the basic properties of the explosive dangerous goods and the matters needing attention during the transport process. It also designs the monitoring system for transport process based on the technology of the Internet of things, including the route choice subsystem, the set out audit subsystem and the en-route item state supervision subsystem. Finally it analyzes the function and the operation process of the transportation monitoring system and the application of RFID in the system.

The development of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from pea has provided a useful source for mining novel simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. In the present research, in order to find EST-derived SSR markers, 18 552 pea ESTs from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database were downloaded and assembled into 10 086 unigenes. A total of 586 microsatellites in 530 unigenes were identified, indicating that merely 5.25% of sequences contained SSRs. The most abundant SSRs within pea were tri-nucleotide repeat motifs, and among all the tri-nucleotide repeats, the motif GAA was the most abundant type. In total, 49 SSRs were used for primer design. EST-SSR loci were subsequently screened on 10 widely adapted varieties in China. Of these, nine loci showed polymorphic profiles that revealed two to three alleles per locus. The polymorphism information content value ranged from 0.18 to 0.58 with an average of 0.41. Furthermore, transferable analysis revealed that some of these loci showed transferability to faba bean. Because of their polymorphism and transferability, these nine novel EST-SSRs will be valuable tools for marker-assisted breeding and comparative mapping of pea in the future.

A novel compact dual-polarized antenna is proposed. The antenna has a 1.43% impedance bandwidth which is from 1801 MHz to 1827 MHz for return loss larger than 10 dB. The isolation between the two ports is above 28 dB in the bandwidth, and the gain is 6.6 dBi. The proposed antenna not only consists of a full-planar structure, but also is easy to be fabricated for its simple structure. Additionally, a section of slots and slits is cut on the radiation patch to reduce the area of it to 54% compared with the conventional square patch.

There have been many structural and functional imaging studies of creative thinking, but combining structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) investigations with respect to creative thinking is still lacking. Thus, the aim of the present study was to explore the associations among inter-individual verbal creative thinking and both regional homogeneity and cortical morphology of the brain surface. We related the local functional homogeneity of spontaneous brain activity to verbal creative thinking and its dimensions fluency, originality, and flexibility by examining these inter-individual differences in a large sample of 268 healthy college students. Results revealed that people with high verbal creative ability and high scores for the three dimensions of creativity exhibited lower regional functional homogeneity in the right precuneus. Both cortical volume and thickness of the right precuneus were positively associated with individual verbal creativity and its dimensions. Moreover, originality was negatively correlated with functional homogeneity in the left superior frontal gyms and positively correlated with functional homogeneity in the right occipito-temporal gyms. In contrast, flexibility was positively correlated with functional homogeneity in the left superior and middle occipital gyms. These findings provide additional evidence of a link between verbal creative thinking and brain structure in the right precuneus a region involved in internally-focused attention and effective semantic retrieval and further suggest that local functional homogeneity of verbal creative thinking has neurobiological relevance that is likely based on anatomical substrates. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction Cognitive deficits associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI) reduce patient quality of life. However, to date, there have been no effective treatments for TBI-associated cognitive deficits. In this study, we aimed to determine whether electrical stimulation (ES) improves cognitive deficits in TBI rats. Methods Rats were randomly divided into three groups: the Sham control group, electrical stimulation group (ES group), and No electrical stimulation control group (N-ES group). Following fluid percussion injury, the rats in the ES group received ES treatment for 3 weeks. Potent cognitive function-relevant factors, including the escape latency, time percentage in the goal quadrant, and numbers of CD34+ cells, von Willebrand Factor+ (vWF+) vessels, and circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), were subsequently assessed using the Morris water maze (MWM) test, immunohistochemical staining, and flow cytometry. Results Compared with the rats in the N-ES group, the rats in the ES group exhibited a shorter escape latency on day 3 (p = .025), day 4 (p = .011), and day 5 (p = .003), as well as a higher time percentage in the goal quadrant (p = .025) in the MWM test. After 3 weeks of ES, there were increased numbers of CD34+ cells (p = .008) and vWF+ vessels (p = .000) in the hippocampus of injured brain tissue in the ES group compared with those in the N-ES group. Moreover, ES also significantly increased the number of EPCs in the peripheral blood from days 3 to 21 after TBI in the ES group (p

Introduction Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a leading cause of disability and death among young people in China. Unfortunately, no specific pharmacological agents to block the progression of secondary brain injury have been approved for clinical treatment. Recently, neuroprotective effects of erythropoietin (EPO) have been demonstrated in addition to its principal function in erythropoiesis, and hence it is viewed as a potential drug for TBI. In this study, we have investigated the neuroprotective effects of EPO associated with immune/inflammatory modulation in a mouse experimental TBI model. Methods EPO (5000 U/kg body weight, i.p.) was injected at 1 hr, 1, 2, and 3 days after TBI, and its effect on cognitive function, brain edema, immune/inflammatory cells including regulatory T cells (Tregs), neutrophils, CD3+ T cells, and microglia, cytokines including interleukin-10 (IL-10), transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were evaluated at different time points after treatment. Results EPO treatment significantly decreased brain edema and improved cognitive function when compared to Saline-treated mice (p

To study the efficacy of endotracheal lavage in neonatal ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).Fifty-eight neonates with VAP between January 2002 and December 2008 were randomly assigned to two groups: lavage and control (n=29 each). After withdrawal from ventilator, both groups received sensitive antibiotics therapy according to sputum culture results as well as supportive treatment. The lavage group was additionally treated with endotracheal lavage (2-3 times daily). The therapeutic effects were compared between the two groups.There were no significant differences in the average time of mechanical ventilation between the lavage and the control groups. The effective rate in the lavage group (93%) was significantly higher than that in the control group (69%; p0.05). Three percent of patients in the lavage group required twice or more mechanical ventilation compared with 24% in the control group (p0.05). Blood gas analysis results were obviously improved in the lavage group 2 hrs after treatment (p0.01).Endotracheal lavage can decrease the number in mechanical ventilation and improve therapeutic effects in neonates with VAP.