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Polyacrylic acid was firstly grafted by N-amino-4-N-methylpiperazine-1,8-naphthlimide (AMN) to prepare a amphiphilic polymer, which was self-assembled in water producing nanoparticles called as PAAMN.Then the morphology, structure and fluorescence properties of PAAMN were investigated by various methods including transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (HNMR) and fluorescence spectroscopy.MTT assay was carried out to assess the cell compatibility of PAAMN.Finally, the fluorescence from PAAMN self and HeLa cells incubated with PAAMN was observed by fluorescence microscope.The results revealed that PAAMN had spherical structure, in which naphthlimide fluorphores were immobilized in the polyacrylic acid matrix with the degree of substitution of 4.1%.Under the physiological pH condition, PAAMN excited at 390 nm could emit strong and stable fluorescence at 534 nm.In the range of pH 4.0-10.0, its excitation and emission wavelengths had no obvious change.The fluorescence intensity of PAAMN increased with the decrease of pH values, but the pH sensitivity of PAAMN was much lower than that of AMN.PAAMN had good cell compatibility.From the pictures of fluorescence imaging, it was found that both PAAMN self and cells-engulfed PAAMN could emit green fluorescence upon excited at 390 nm, indicating the potential of the developed nanoparticle for cell imaging.
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Objective To evaluate the psychometric properties and the clinical feasibility of Chinese version of the Oxford Knee Score in patients with knee osteoarthritis before total knee arthroplasty.Methods One hundred and fourteen (91 females,23 males) preoperative patients with knee osteoarthritis were recruited.Internal consistency was tested using Cronbach's alpha coefficient,and dimensionality was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis.The correlations between the scale,namely,WOMAC,SF-8 and EQ-5D were used to determine construct validity.The floor and ceiling effects were also examined.Results The scale showed acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.885) and demonstrated good convergent and divergent validity with the moderate to strong correlations between the scale and WOMAC (r=-0.80),the SF-8 physical component summary (r=0.65),and the EQ-5D usual activities (r=-0.41) and mobility (r=-0.35).Moreover,the strong correlation between the scale and the SF-8 mental component summary (r=0.58),as well as the moderate correlation between the scale and the EQ-5D anxiety/depression (r=-0.35) were observed.Divergent construct validity was supported by weak correlation between the scale and EQ-5D VAS (r=0.30).The exploratory factor analysis yielded three factors with eigenvalues ＞ 1,accounting for 66.02％ of the variance.All items had factor loadings above 0.4.Factor 1 closely relates to physical function,while factor 2 depicts pain associated with knee osteoarthritis.Factor 3 had only one item (item 8),reflecting the patient's sleep problems.No sign of floor or ceiling effect was found.Conclusion Chinese version of the Oxford Knee Score is proven to be a reliable,valid scale for knee osteoarthritis patients before total knee arthroplasty.
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Objective To evaluate the psychometric properties and the clinical feasibility of Chinese version of the Oxford Knee Score in patients with knee osteoarthritis before total knee arthroplasty.Methods One hundred and fourteen (91 females,23 males) preoperative patients with knee osteoarthritis were recruited.Internal consistency was tested using Cronbach's alpha coefficient,and dimensionality was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis.The correlations between the scale,namely,WOMAC,SF-8 and EQ-5D were used to determine construct validity.The floor and ceiling effects were also examined.Results The scale showed acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.885) and demonstrated good convergent and divergent validity with the moderate to strong correlations between the scale and WOMAC (r=-0.80),the SF-8 physical component summary (r=0.65),and the EQ-5D usual activities (r=-0.41) and mobility (r=-0.35).Moreover,the strong correlation between the scale and the SF-8 mental component summary (r=0.58),as well as the moderate correlation between the scale and the EQ-5D anxiety/depression (r=-0.35) were observed.Divergent construct validity was supported by weak correlation between the scale and EQ-5D VAS (r=0.30).The exploratory factor analysis yielded three factors with eigenvalues ＞ 1,accounting for 66.02％ of the variance.All items had factor loadings above 0.4.Factor 1 closely relates to physical function,while factor 2 depicts pain associated with knee osteoarthritis.Factor 3 had only one item (item 8),reflecting the patient's sleep problems.No sign of floor or ceiling effect was found.Conclusion Chinese version of the Oxford Knee Score is proven to be a reliable,valid scale for knee osteoarthritis patients before total knee arthroplasty.
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Plumbagin [PLB] isolated from Plumbago zeylanica L [Plumbaginaceae] was evaluated for the suppressive effect and mechanism on ADP induced rat platelet aggregation. Adult male SD rats were randomly divided into control group, clopidogrel group, PLB 25mg/kg group and PLB 50mg/kg group. Clopidogrel [13.5mg/kg per day] and PLB [25 and 50mg/kg per day] were orally given to experimental rats by gavage for seven consecutive days. The antiplatelet properties were assessed by measuring the ADP-induced platelet aggregation rate [Agg[max]]. The level of cAMP in platelets before aggregation was determined by ELISA. The protein expression of pAkt, Akt, pPLC beta 3 and PLC beta 3 in platelets was measured by western blot. Our data indicated that PLB [25 and 50mg/kg] significantly inhibited ADPinduced rat platelet aggregation as well as clopidogrel [13.5mg/kg] in a dose dependent manner compared with the control group. PLB [25 and 50mg/kg] remarkably reduced the ADP-induced PLC beta 3 phosphorylation but not Akt in platelets as compared with the control group. The present study suggests that PLB exerts a suppressive effect on ADPinduced rat platelet aggregation, at least in part, through P2Y[1]-PLC signaling pathway
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The complex multidimensional visual patterns of facial expression is particularly well sui ted for studying perception and the processes underlying perceptual integration of component parts into a meaningful whole.With the high resolution in milliseconds,event-related potential (ERP) may be an excellent technique to track the time course of cognitive processing for facial emotions.Facial affective stimuli elicit particular ERP components involved in early processing of facial expressions,including:early sensory processing of visual stimuli:the P100;early structural encoding of facial features:the N170;second-order sustained activities necessary for consequent deeper processing:the posterior P2 and decoding of facial features to identify emotional content:the N250.We reviewed above mentioned ERP components respectively,in order to add the knowledge about ERP components as indicators of neural dynamics of facial emotion processing,and to provide a point of reference for further exploration on facial emotion processing that may be useful for understanding human cognition development and pathology.
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Objective To delineate the differences in nocturnal wandering behavior between patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).Methods The study was conducted in a dementia care unit at a hospital in Osaka,Japan from September 2008 to September 2009.Twenty-four-hour movements of 27 ambulatory inpatients with AD and 7 inpatients with FTD were recorded consecutively by the IC tag monitoring system.Results There were no significant differences in the distribution of sex,duration of dementia,clinical dementia rating (CDR) and mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores between two dementia types.However,patients with FTD were much younger than those with AD [(63.43± 14.93) yr vs.(73.89 ±9.12) yr,t=5.56,P＜0.05],and age of onset were significantly different between two dementia types [(58.17±15.16) yr vs.(70.16±9.26) yr,t=6.30,P＜0.05].There was increased distances moved during 6∶ 00-23 ∶ 59 in FTD group comparing with AD group [(4842.44 ± 2617.94)m vs.(2119.39 ±2535.59)m,Z=2.66,P＜0.01],while difference in distances moved during 0 ∶ 00-5 ∶ 59,frequency and intensity of nocturnal ambulation were not significant(P＞0.05)between two groups.Further study showed that AD wanderers had longer distance moved during 0 ∶ 00-5 ∶ 59 [(85.17±142.42)m vs.(1.19±1.71)m] with shorter distance moved during 6 ∶ 00-23 ∶ 59 [(2119.39±2535.59)m vs.(4151.96±1881.35)m],and increased frequency [(0.64±0.29) vs.(0.33±0.22)] and intensity of nocturnal ambulation [(0.21±0.13) vs.(0.07±0.05)],compared with those with frontal variant FTD (all P＜0.05).Conclusions AD patients have more severe nocturnal ambulation than those with frontal variant FTD,which suggests that the increased monitoring and clinical interventions during nighttime should be taken for AD wanderers.
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Totally 613 specialized nurses in 14 specialty areas were successfully trained by the health department of Guangdong province and the Hong Kong hospital authority collaboratively from 2007 to 2010.There were three stages in the training program including candidate interview and preparations for inter-regional training,specialty nursing courses in Hong Kong (10 months of clinical practice and 300 hours of theoretical courses) and postgraduate courses in Guangdong (300 hours).The program explored the inter-regional joint training mode for specialized nurses; improvement mechanism for teaching management and the combination of scientific research training and working practice.The successful experience of the program may provide references to the training of domestic specialized nurses and clinical nursing postgraduates.