The Effect of Intense Pulsed Light Treatment for Chronic Hordeolum.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of intense pulsed light (IPL) in the treatment of chronic hordeolum.

Methods: Patients with chronic hordeolum who underwent IPL treatment were enrolled in this study. According to the severity of hordeolum, the patients were treated with IPL 3 to 5 times.

Cervical Screening by Pap Test and Visual Inspection Enabling Same-Day Biopsy in Low-Resource, High-Risk Communities.

Objective: To develop an effective, low-cost, single-visit cervical screening strategy incorporating a modified Pap test and visual inspection with acetic acid and Lugol's iodine for low-income settings.

Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort trial. Two low-income Muslim Uyghur communities in China's far western Kashi Prefecture served as pilot and validation study sites, respectively, and 4,049 women (aged 30-59 years) were screened.

Low prevalence of antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii in dairy cattle from China's central region.

Background: Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular protozoan that can infect humans and other animals, including cattle. Cattle are one of the world's main sources of meat, and people who consume raw or undercooked meat and milk of cattle infected with T. gondii can become infected.

Effect of transcutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation on propofol sedation: an electroencephalogram analysis of patients undergoing pituitary adenomas resection.

Background: Transcutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation (TAES) as a needleless acupuncture has the same effect like traditional manual acupuncture. The combination of TAES and anesthesia has been proved valid in enhancing the anesthetic effects but its mechanisms are still not clear.

Methods: In this study, we investigated the effect of TAES on anesthesia with an electroencephalogram (EEG) oscillation analysis on surgery patients anesthetized with propofol, a widely-used anesthetic in clinical practice.

Overweight and obesity among low-income Muslim Uyghur women in far western China: correlations of body mass index with blood lipids and implications in preventive public health.

Background: The pandemic of obesity is a global public health concern. Most studies on obesity are skewed toward high-income and urban settings and few covers low-income populations. This study focused on the prevalence of overweight and obesity and their correlations with blood lipids/metabolites/enzymes (bio-indicators) in a rural community typical of low-income in remote western China.

A transgenerational endocrine signaling pathway in Crustacea.

Background: Environmental signals to maternal organisms can result in developmental alterations in progeny. One such example is environmental sex determination in Branchiopod crustaceans. We previously demonstrated that the hormone methyl farnesoate could orchestrate environmental sex determination in the early embryo to the male phenotype.

The application of ultrasound B-flow imaging in detection of carotid atherosclerotic micro-vessel with ischemic cerebrovascular disease.

Objective: To investigate the detection and characterization of micro-vessels within the carotid atherosclerotic plaque using B-flow imaging (BFI) ultrasound with contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEU) as the reference standard.

Methods: Between August 2008 and July 2011, 78 patients with carotid atherosclerosis that were admitted at the Department of Ultrasonography in ZhongNan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China underwent standard and BFI examination. Fifty-one patients received both BFI and CEU.

Serological thymidine kinase 1 is a biomarker for early detection of tumours--a health screening study on 35,365 people, using a sensitive chemiluminescent dot blot assay.

Serological thymidine kinase 1 (STK1) is a reliable proliferation marker for prognosis, monitoring tumour therapy, and relapse. Here we investigated the use of STK1 in health screening for early detection of pre-malignant and malignant diseases. The investigation was based on 35,365 participants in four independent health screening studies in China between 2005-2011.

Stat6 activity-related Th2 cytokine profile and tumor growth advantage of human colorectal cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.

Signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (Stat6) is critical in Th2 polarization of immune cells and active Stat6 activity has been suggested in anti-tumor immunity in animal models. The present study aims at investigating the impact of natural Stat6 activity on tumor microenvironment in human colorectal cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. Using colorectal cancer cell lines HT-29 and Caco-2 whose IL-4/Stat6 activities were known and nude mice as a model, we examined correlative relationships between Stat6 activities and gene expression profiles together with cellular behaviors in vitro and in vivo.

Natural resistance to apoptosis correlates with resistance to chemotherapy in colorectal cancer cells.

Defects in apoptotic machinery vary among individual cancer cells, and the efficacy of chemotherapy in killing cancer cells depends on the successful induction of apoptosis. This study tested the hypothesis that the intrinsic ability of a cancer cell's natural resistance to apoptosis would indicate its ability in resistance to chemotherapy. Four widely studied human colorectal cancer cell lines, SW480, HT-29, LoVo and Caco-2, were examined for their apoptotic fates in spontaneous cultures for up to 6 days using flowcytometry.

Tributyltin synergizes with 20-hydroxyecdysone to produce endocrine toxicity.

One of the great challenges facing modern toxicology is in predicting the hazard associated with chemical mixtures. The development of effective means of predicting the toxicity of chemical mixtures requires an understanding of how chemicals interact to produce nonadditive outcomes (e.g.

Regulation and dysregulation of vitellogenin mRNA accumulation in daphnids (Daphnia magna).

The induction of vitellogenin in oviparous vertebrates has become the gold standard biomarker of exposure to estrogenic chemicals in the environment. This biomarker of estrogen exposure also has been used in arthropods, however, little is known of the factors that regulate the expression of vitellogenin in these organisms. We investigated changes in accumulation of mRNA products of the vitellogenin gene Vtg2 in daphnids (Daphnia magna) exposed to a diverse array of chemicals.

Interactions of the crustacean nuclear receptors HR3 and E75 in the regulation of gene transcription.

Endocrine signal transduction occurs through cascades that involve the action of both ligand-dependent and ligand-independent nuclear receptors. In insects, two such nuclear receptors are HR3 and E75 that interact to transduce signals initiated by ecdysteroids. We have cloned these nuclear receptors from the crustacean Daphnia pulex to assess their function as regulators of gene transcription in this ecologically and economically important group of organisms.

Annotation, phylogenetics, and expression of the nuclear receptors in Daphnia pulex.

Background: The nuclear receptor superfamily currently consists of seven gene subfamilies that encompass over 80 distinct receptor proteins. These transcription factors typically share a common five-domain structure with a highly conserved DNA-binding domain. Some nuclear receptors are ubiquitous among the metazoans, while others are unique to specific phylogenetic groups.

Interactions of methyl farnesoate and related compounds with a crustacean retinoid X receptor.

While a functional role for the sesquiterpenoid hormone methyl farnesoate in arthropods has been recognized for decades, the identification of a receptor that mediates the action of this hormone remains equivocal. Luciferase reporter assays were used in the present study to evaluate the ability of methyl farnesoate and other putative ligands to activate gene transcription associated with the retinoid X receptor (RXR) and RXR:EcR heterodimeric complexes from the crustacean (Daphnia magna). The daphnid RXR constructs, transfected into HepG2 cells along with the reporter construct, significantly activated luciferase gene expression in response to tributyltin indicating that the crustacean RXR is indeed ligand activated.

Significance of coagulase-negative staphylococci isolated from a single blood culture from neonates in intensive care.

Background: Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) are the most common pathogens of late-onset bacteraemia in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Discriminating true infection from contamination is difficult.

Methods: To evaluate the significance of a single blood culture yielding CoNS from only one blood culture obtained from NICU infants between July 1999 and November 2000, paired blood cultures were obtained simultaneously from two peripheral sites from infants hospitalised in two NICUs with clinically suspected late-onset sepsis, and a single blood culture was obtained peripherally from infants hospitalised in a third NICU.

Cloning and characterization of the retinoid X receptor from a primitive crustacean Daphnia magna.

Terpenoid hormones function as morphogens throughout the animal kingdom and many of these activities are mediated through members of the retinoid X group of nuclear receptors (RXR; NR2B). In the present study, RXR was cloned from the water flea Daphnia magna, a primitive crustacean of the class Branchiopoda, and characterized with respect to phylogeny, developmental expression, and hormonal regulation. The full length daphnid RXR cDNA was cloned by initial PCR amplification of a cDNA fragment from the highly conserved DNA-binding domain followed by extension of the fragment using RACE PCR.

[Protoplast culture and plant regeneration of the methionine resistant variant of Astragalus cicer L].

A protoplast-to-plant system for the methionine resistant variant of Astragalus cicer L. has been developed. The friable calli induced from stem segments of variant plants were used as materials for protoplast isolation through enzyme digestion.

Construction and expression of a single chain antibody mimicing human ovarian cancer antigen CA125.

One concept for immune therapy of cancer involves induction of antigen mimic antibodies to trigger the immune response against tumor cells. Anti-idiotypic antibodies directed against the antigen-binding site of antibodies specific for tumor antigen may functionally and even structurally mimic antigen and induce anti-anti-idiotypic immune response. Monoclonal antibody WJ02 is one of such anti-idiotypic antibodies, which contains internal image of CA125.

Coupling parameter in synchronization of diluted neural networks.

We study the critical features of a coupling parameter in the synchronization of neural networks with diluted synapses. Based on simulations, an exponential decay form is observed in the extreme case of global coupling among subsystems and full connection in each network: there exists a maximum and a minimum of the critical coupling intensity for synchronization in this spatially extended system. For partial coupling, we present the primary result about the critical coupling fraction for various linking degrees of the networks.