Comparison of the efficacy of steroid-free versus classic steroid-containing regimens in primary membranous nephropathy.

To compare the efficacy of a steroid-free regimen with steroid-based treatment in managing primary membranous nephropathy (PMN) and investigate the potential benefits of steroid-free regimens in PMN therapy. This was a single-centre prospective cohort study. A total of 81 patients were divided into two groups according to their medication regimen: a rituximab (RTX)/tacrolimus (TAC) group (low-dose RTX combined with low-dose TAC group, without steroids, n = 31) and a prednisone (P)/TAC group (P combined with TAC group, n = 61).

Not Only Top-Down: The Dual-Processing of Gender-Emotion Stereotypes.

Is gender-emotion stereotype a "one-hundred percent" top-down processing phenomenon, or are there additional contributions to cognitive processing from background clues when they are related to stereotypes? In the present study, we measured the gender-emotion stereotypes of 57 undergraduates with a face recall task and found that, regardless of whether the emotional expressions of distractors were congruent or incongruent with targets, people tended to misperceive the fearful faces of men as angry and the angry faces of women as fearful. In particular, there was a significantly larger effect in the distractor-incongruent condition. The revised process-dissociation procedure analysis confirmed that both automatic and controlled processing have their own independent effects on gender-emotion stereotypes.

[Icodextrin improve angiogenesis of peritoneal membrane in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patients].

Objective: To observe the effect of icodextrin on peritoneal membrane angiogenesis in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients.

Methods: This was a randomized double-blind perspective study of CAPD patients at our center between January 2006 to December 2006. The patients were randomized to receive either 7.