The nematode-trapping fungus Arthrobotrys oligospora detects prey pheromones via G protein-coupled receptors.

The ability to sense prey-derived cues is essential for predatory lifestyles. Under low-nutrient conditions, Arthrobotrys oligospora and other nematode-trapping fungi develop dedicated structures for nematode capture when exposed to nematode-derived cues, including a conserved family of pheromones, the ascarosides. A. oligospora senses ascarosides via conserved MAPK and cAMP-PKA pathways; however, the upstream receptors remain unknown. Here, using genomic, transcriptomic and functional analyses, we identified two families of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) involved in sensing distinct nematode-derived cues. GPCRs homologous to yeast glucose receptors are required for ascaroside sensing, whereas Pth11-like GPCRs contribute to ascaroside-independent nematode sensing. Both GPCR classes activate conserved cAMP-PKA signalling to trigger trap development. This work demonstrates that predatory fungi use multiple GPCRs to sense several distinct nematode-derived cues for prey recognition and to enable a switch to a predatory lifestyle. Identification of these receptors reveals the molecular mechanisms of cross-kingdom communication via conserved pheromones also sensed by plants and animals.

Neuroprotective and mechanistic study of GJ-4 on okadaic acid-induced memory impairment in mice / 药学学报

GJ-4 is crocin enrichments extracted from Gardenia jasminoides J. Ellis, and our previous studies have shown that GJ-4 significantly improved learning and memory impairment induced by Aβ in mice. Herein, a memory deficit model was developed by injecting okadaic acid (OA) into the lateral ventricle of mice, and the neuroprotection and underlying mechanism of GJ-4 on neuronal injury caused by Tau hyperphosphorylation were investigated. The Animal Care & Welfare Committee, Institute of Materia Medica, CAMS & PUMC has approved all procedures (No.00000318). GJ-4 at different doses was intragastric administration to mice for 16 days. Step-down test and Morris water maze test showed that GJ-4 could significantly improve OA-induced memory impairment in mice, and reduced the loss of Nissl bodies in the hippocampus of mice. GJ-4 could also decrease the phosphorylation level of Tau protein at Ser396, Thr231 and Ser404 via increasing protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) activity and inhibiting glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) activity. Besides, further researches indicated that GJ-4 could inhibit the level of oxidative stress in the brain of OA mice, reduce neuronal apoptosis and inhibit the neuroinflammation mediated by activation of astrocytes in the hippocampus of mice, and eventually achieve its effects in improving learning and memory impairment in mice. According to these findings, we anticipated that GJ-4 might be a potential therapeutic drug for Alzheimer's disease.

Effect of dexmedetomidine on agitation and hemodynamics during the recovery period in children after sevoflurane anesthesia / 中国医师进修杂志

Objective:To investigate the effect of dexmedetomidine on agitation and hemodynamics during the recovery period in children after sevoflurane anesthesia.Methods:A total of 120 pediatric patients with selective tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy admitted to Shaoxing Central Hospital from January 2019 to December 2020 were randomly divided into the control group and the observation group, with 60 cases in each group. Both groups were induced by sevoflurane inhalation, followed by endotracheal intubation with 0.6 mg rocuronium and 2 μg/kg fentanyl intravenous injection. The observation group received dexmedetomidine combined with sevoflurane to maintain anesthesia, while the control group received normal saline combined with sevoflurane to maintain anesthesia. Heart rate (HR) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were recorded at four times: before anesthesia (T 0), endotracheal intubation (T 1), the beginning of surgery (T 2) and the end of surgery (T 3). The time of anesthesia, surgery, recovery and extubation were recorded. Pediatric anesthesia emergence delirium (PAED) score, faces pain scale (FPS) score, the incidence of agitation and postoperative special events were compared between the two groups. Results:There were no significant differences in operation time, anesthesia time, extubation time and recovery time between the two groups ( P>0.05). The levels of HR and MAP in the control group were increased at T 1, T 2, T 3, and were higher than those in the observation group, the differences were statistically significant ( P<0.05). The scores of FPS, PAED and the incidence of agitation in the observation group were lower than those in the control group: (2.32 ± 0.61) scores vs. (3.66 ± 0.85) scores, (6.88 ± 1.85) scores vs. (11.75 ± 3.03) scores, 13.33% (8/60) vs. 3.33% (2/60), the differences were statistically significant ( t = 9.92, 10.63, χ2 = 3.93, P<0.05). The incidences of postoperative treatment with propofol, analgesics and respiratory tract adverse events in the observation group were lower than those in the control group: 3.33%(2/60) vs. 13.33%(8/60), 5.00%(3/60) vs. 16.67% (10/60), 3.33%(2/60) vs. 15.00%(9/60), the differences were statistically significant ( χ2 = 3.93, 4.23, 4.90, P<0.05). Conclusions:Dexmedetomidine maintenance induction of anesthesia for sevoflurane anesthesia in children can effectively reduce the incidence of agitation in the period of recovery, and has little effect on hemodynamics, with high safety.

A secondary structure-based position-specific scoring matrix applied to the improvement in protein secondary structure prediction.

Protein secondary structure prediction (SSP) has a variety of applications; however, there has been relatively limited improvement in accuracy for years. With a vision of moving forward all related fields, we aimed to make a fundamental advance in SSP. There have been many admirable efforts made to improve the machine learning algorithm for SSP. This work thus took a step back by manipulating the input features. A secondary structure element-based position-specific scoring matrix (SSE-PSSM) is proposed, based on which a new set of machine learning features can be established. The feasibility of this new PSSM was evaluated by rigid independent tests with training and testing datasets sharing <25% sequence identities. In all experiments, the proposed PSSM outperformed the traditional amino acid PSSM. This new PSSM can be easily combined with the amino acid PSSM, and the improvement in accuracy was remarkable. Preliminary tests made by combining the SSE-PSSM and well-known SSP methods showed 2.0% and 5.2% average improvements in three- and eight-state SSP accuracies, respectively. If this PSSM can be integrated into state-of-the-art SSP methods, the overall accuracy of SSP may break the current restriction and eventually bring benefit to all research and applications where secondary structure prediction plays a vital role during development. To facilitate the application and integration of the SSE-PSSM with modern SSP methods, we have established a web server and standalone programs for generating SSE-PSSM available at http://10.life.nctu.edu.tw/SSE-PSSM.

The influence of dataset homology and a rigorous evaluation strategy on protein secondary structure prediction.

The secondary structure prediction (SSP) of proteins has long been an essential structural biology technique with various applications. Despite its vital role in many research and industrial fields, in recent years, as the accuracy of state-of-the-art secondary structure predictors approaches the theoretical upper limit, SSP has been considered no longer challenging or too challenging to make advances. With the belief that the substantial improvement of SSP will move forward many fields depending on it, we conducted this study, which focused on three issues that have not been noticed or thoroughly examined yet but may have affected the reliability of the evaluation of previous SSP algorithms. These issues are all about the sequence homology between or within the developmental and evaluation datasets. We thus designed many different homology layouts of datasets to train and evaluate SSP prediction models. Multiple repeats were performed in each experiment by random sampling. The conclusions obtained with small experimental datasets were verified with large-scale datasets using state-of-the-art SSP algorithms. Very different from the long-established assumption, we discover that the sequence homology between query datasets for training, testing, and independent tests exerts little influence on SSP accuracy. Besides, the sequence homology redundancy between or within most datasets would make the accuracy of an SSP algorithm overestimated, while the redundancy within the reference dataset for extracting predictive features would make the accuracy underestimated. Since the overestimating effects are more significant than the underestimating effect, the accuracy of some SSP methods might have been overestimated. Based on the discoveries, we propose a rigorous procedure for developing SSP algorithms and making reliable evaluations, hoping to bring substantial improvements to future SSP methods and benefit all research and application fields relying on accurate prediction of protein secondary structures.

A simple strategy to enhance the speed of protein secondary structure prediction without sacrificing accuracy.

The secondary structure prediction of proteins is a classic topic of computational structural biology with a variety of applications. During the past decade, the accuracy of prediction achieved by state-of-the-art algorithms has been >80%; meanwhile, the time cost of prediction increased rapidly because of the exponential growth of fundamental protein sequence data. Based on literature studies and preliminary observations on the relationships between the size/homology of the fundamental protein dataset and the speed/accuracy of predictions, we raised two hypotheses that might be helpful to determine the main influence factors of the efficiency of secondary structure prediction. Experimental results of size and homology reductions of the fundamental protein dataset supported those hypotheses. They revealed that shrinking the size of the dataset could substantially cut down the time cost of prediction with a slight decrease of accuracy, which could be increased on the contrary by homology reduction of the dataset. Moreover, the Shannon information entropy could be applied to explain how accuracy was influenced by the size and homology of the dataset. Based on these findings, we proposed that a proper combination of size and homology reductions of the protein dataset could speed up the secondary structure prediction while preserving the high accuracy of state-of-the-art algorithms. Testing the proposed strategy with the fundamental protein dataset of the year 2018 provided by the Universal Protein Resource, the speed of prediction was enhanced over 20 folds while all accuracy measures remained equivalently high. These findings are supposed helpful for improving the efficiency of researches and applications depending on the secondary structure prediction of proteins. To make future implementations of the proposed strategy easy, we have established a database of size and homology reduced protein datasets at http://10.life.nctu.edu.tw/UniRefNR.

Epidemiological characteristics of acute lower respiratory tract infection in children in Gansu Province / 中华疾病控制杂志

Objective To analyze the pathogenic epidemiological characteristics of acute lower respiratory tract infection(ALRTI) in children in Gansu Province from 2012 to 2015. Methods The surveillance data of 458 children infected with ALRTI in 10 sentinel hospitals in Gansu province from 2012 to 2015 were collected, and infection status and epidemiological characteristics of each virus and bacteria were analyzed by descriptive study methods. Results The male to female ratio of the 458 children with ALRTI was 1.81:1, and the positive detection rate of the virus was 33.62%（95% CI：29.28%-37.97%), among which the positive detection rate of respiratory syncytial virus was the highest (12.23%).The positive detection rate of bacteria was 24.84%（95% CI：20.04%-29.65%),among which the positive detection rate of streptococcus pneumoniae was the highest (18.47%).There was significant no difference in the positive detection rate of virus and bacteria between children of different genders (P>0.05).There was significant no difference in the positive detection rate of virus among children of different age groups ( 2=5.980,P=0.050), but the positive detection rate of bacteria was different ( 2=12.078,P=0.002).Positive detection rates of virus infection and bacterial infection were different in distinct seasons (all P<0.05). By using logistics regression analysis, season, age and sentinel hospital were the influencing factors of ALRTI virus infection in children (all P<0.05), and sentinel hospital and years were the influencing factors of ALRTI bacterial infection in children (all P<0.05). Conclusion Respiratory syncytial virus, influenza virus and parainfluenza were the main causes of ALRTI virus infection in children aged 0-14 years in Gansu province, and the main bacterial infections were streptococcus pneumoniae and haemophilus influenzae, the number of virus infection was more than that of bacterial infection. Viral and bacterial infection had the same peak incidence.

Etiological analysis of surveillance cases of diarrhea syndrome in Gansu Province from 2009 to 2018 / 中华疾病控制杂志

@#Objective To understand pathogenic distribution and epidemiological characteristics of diarrhea syndrome in Gansu Province． Methods Fecal specimens from diarrhea syndrome surveillance cases at sentinel hospitals in Gansu Province from 2009 to 2018 were collected，and virus nucleic acids were detected by real－time fluorescent chain reaction，and bacteria were detected by isolation culture． Ｒesults 1 547 positive cases were detected from 4 406 stool specimens with the positive rate of 35. 11%． Among the positive samples，1 281 cases were positive for virus with the positive rate of 47. 20%; 287 ca- ses were positive for bacteria with the positive rate of 8. 57%． Top five of pathogenic spectrum were rota- virus ( 46. 04%) ，astrovirus ( 13. 37%) ，norovirus ( 13. 15%) ，Shigella ( 9. 90%) and adenovirus ( 7. 81%) ． In different age groups，statistically significant differences were found in the positive rates of rotavirus，norovirus，astrovirus，Shigella and non typhoid Salmonella ( all P＜0. 05) ． The positive rate of virus was higher from November to March of next year，and the positive rate of bacteria was higher from June to August． The epidemic seasons of pathogens were different，of which rotavirus was dominating in four seasons． Conclusions The pathogenic spectrum of diarrhea is wide relatively in Gansu Province， and viral diarrhea is more common，with obvious seasonal peak． Continuous monitoring should be strengthened to grasp characteristics and epidemic trends of pathogens，and it is helpful to take targeted and seasonal preventive measures in population at high risk．

Occupational exposure to heavy metals, alcohol intake, and risk of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes among Chinese male workers.

OBJECTIVE: Both exposure to heavy metals and alcohol intake have been related to the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). In this study, we aimed to assess the potential interactions between metal exposure and alcohol intake on the risk of T2D and prediabetes in a cohort of Chinese male workers. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 26,008 Chinese male workers in an occupational cohort study from 2011 to 2013. We assessed metal exposure and alcohol consumption at baseline in these workers who were aged ≥20 years. Based on occupations which were categorized according to measured urine metal levels, multiple logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the independent and joint effects of metal and alcohol exposure on the risk of T2D and prediabetes. RESULTS: Risks of T2D (P trend = 0.001) and prediabetes (P trend = 0.001) were significantly elevated with increasing number of standard drinks per week, years of drinking, and lifetime alcohol consumption. An adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 6.1 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.8-7.8) was observed for the smelting/refining workers (highest metal exposure levels) who had the highest lifetime alcohol consumption (>873 kg) (P interaction = 0.018), whereas no statistically significant joint effect was found for prediabetes (P interaction = 0.515). CONCLUSIONS: Both exposures to metal and heavy alcohol intake were associated with the risk of diabetes in this large cohort of male workers. There was a strong interaction between these two exposures in affecting diabetes risk that needs to be confirmed in future studies.

Total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio is a significant predictor of nonalcoholic fatty liver: Jinchang cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Some studies found out that TC/HDL-C ratio is a predictor of Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and Nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFLD) is related to CVD. And some researches have already studied that Apolipoprotein B to Apolipoprotein A1 ratio (ApoB/ApoA1) and Triglyceride to High-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (TG/HDL-C) were both related with CVD and NAFLD, but few studied the association between TC/HDL-C ratio and NAFLD. So, we suspected the ratio was also related to NAFLD. The research aims to study the predictive value of TC/HDL-C to NAFLD and to help the early detection of NAFLD. METHODS: Based on the Jinchang Cohort, the study contained 32,121 participants. We assessed the incidence of NAFLD by the quartiles of TC, HDL-C and TC/HDL-C. Then, the does-response relationship between these indicators and the risk of NAFLD was obtained. Finally, the receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) was applied to decide the predictive value of TC/HDL-C. RESULTS: Among the study participants, the cumulative incidence of NAFLD was 6.30% and the rate of dyslipidemia was 40.37%. The biochemical indicators of NAFLD had a difference with general population. The incidence of NAFLD raised with the quartiles of TC, TG and LDL-C raising, while decreased with the HDL-C' quartiles raising. After controlling confounding factors, TC and TC/HD-C had a positive relationship with NAFLD, while HDL-C had the opposite. Finally, the ROC analysis showed the area under the curve (AUC) of TC/HDL-C (0.645) was greater than TC (0.554), HDL-C (0.627) and Apolipoprotein B to Apolipoprotein A1 (ApoB/ApoA1) (0.613). CONCLUSIONS: The TC/HDL-C ratio has significant predictive value to NAFLD.

Expression of exogenous dsRNA by Lecanicillium attenuatum enhances its virulence to Dialeurodes citri.

BACKGROUND: Dialeurodes citri is an important pest in citrus-producing areas of the world. Lecanicillium attenuatum parasitizes D. citri and kills it, suggesting a potential approach for the biological control of pests. However, the low virulence of the fungus and its slow rate of killing have limited its commercial competitiveness. The objective reason for these disadvantages is immunological rejection by the host. Our strategy was to use fungi to express the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) of the host immune genes. The fungal hyphae release siRNA at the time of infection, thus interfering with the expression of immune genes in the host and facilitating fungal invasion. RESULTS: We selected prophenoloxidase (DcPPO), prophenoloxidase-activating factor (DcPPO-AF), and lysozyme (DcLZM) as target genes to construct intron-splicing hairpin RNA expression vectors and to successfully obtain transgenic fungi. Two days after infection, the immune genes of D. citri showed varying degrees of silencing compared with those in the positive control group. The median lethal concentration (LC50 ; spores mL-1 ) values of La::GFP, La::DcPPO, La::DcPPO-AF, and La::DcLZM were 9.63 × 104 , 2.66 × 104 , 1.21 × 105 , and 3.31 × 104 , respectively. The 50% lethal time (LT50 ) values of these fungi were 5.15, 3.60, 5.34, and 4.04 days, respectively. The virulence of La::DcPPO and La::DcLZM increased 3.62- and 2.91-fold, respectively, and their LT50 decreased by 30.10% and 21.55%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that this method, which uses tens of thousands of hyphae to inject dsRNA to improve the virulence of transgenic fungi, can play a greater role in the prevention and control of pests in the future. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Correlations of plasma homocysteine with cerebral white matter lesion severity and cognitive impairment in elderly patients with hypertension / 中华老年医学杂志

Objective To investigate the correlations of plasma homocysteine(Hcy)levels with cerebral white matter lesion(WML)severity and cognitive impairment in elderly hypertension patients.Methods A retrospective case-control study was conducted.Ninty-eight elderly patients with hypertension were enrolled.Based on the presence or absence of hyperhomocysteinemia(hypertension with plasma Hcy levels ≥10μmol/L was defined as H-type hypertension),patients were divided into two groups:a control group(n =48) and an H-type hypertension group(n =50).The degree of WML was rated by the Fazekas scale using magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)analysis.Neuropsychological examinations including mini-mental state examination(MMSE)and Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA)were taken to assess cognitive function.The degree of WML and cognitive impairment were compared between the two groups.Correlations of plasma Hcy levels with the degree of WML and cognitive impairment were analyzed.Results Compared with the control group,scores of the Fazekas scale(3.2 ± 1.0 vs.2.5 ± 1.0,P ＜0.05) and deep white matter hyperintensity on MRI(1.7 ± 0.8 vs.1.3±0.7,P＜0.05)increased,and scores of MMSE(24.9±3.3 vs.27.7±1.8,P＜0.05)and MoCA(18.6±3.9 vs.25.0±3.0,P＜0.05)decreased in the H-type hypertension group.Plasma Hcy levels were positively correlated with the degree of WML (r =0.430,P ＜ 0.01) and negatively correlated with cognitive function(r=-0.406 in MMSE and-0.663 in MoCA,P＜0.01).Multivariate logistic regression showed that Hcy,fasting blood-glucose,deep WML,low-density lipoprotein cholesterolin,age and systolic pressure were influencing factors for cognitive impairment (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions WML and cognitive function are worse in elderly H-type hypertension patients than in hypertension patients with normal Hcy levels.WML and cognitive impairment are aggravated with increased plasma Hcy levels.The plasma Hcy level may be an effective clinical indicator of cognitive function in elderly people with hypertension.

Influence factors and predictive ability of a risk prediction model for carotid atherosclerosis in a follow-up population / 中华疾病控制杂志

Objective To explore factors influencing the incidence of carotid atherosclerosis in different genders so as to provide reference for the specific prevention of the disease. Methods A nested case-control study was conducted to analyze factors influencing the incidence of carotid atherosclerosis in Jinchang cohort population who were randomly selected through stratified sampling by age and followed up. A risk prediction model was established and the goodness of fit was evaluated by the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC). Results The standardized incidence of carotid atherosclerosis in this follow-up population was 12.32%, and the incidence rate of males (13.65%) was greater than that of females (11.29%). The difference was statistically significant ( 2=4.267, P<0.001). Age, education, elevated systolic blood pressure, and elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were common risk factors for carotid atherosclerosis in both men and women. Elevated fasting plasma glucose (OR=2.556, 95% CI: 1.618-4.038) and elevated triglyceride (OR=1.535, 95% CI: 1.058-2.227) were only associated with men. Abdominal obesity (OR=1.414, 95% CI: 1.013-1.974) was only associated with women. The area under ROC of male and female prediction models was 0.835 (95% CI: 0.815-0.856) and 0.809 (95% CI: 0.788-0.831), respectively. The sensitivity was 78.0% and 78.9%, the specificity was 78.8% and 73.1%, and the diagnostic coincidence rate was 91.3% and 82.4%, respectively. Conclusions There are different risk factors for carotid atherosclerosis in males and females, and targeted prevention and control measures should be taken according to gender. The risk prediction model established by Logistic regression had certain guiding value.

Heavy Metal Assessment among Chinese Nonferrous Metal-exposed Workers from the Jinchang Cohort Study.

Environmental exposure to heavy metals has been linked to a wide range of human health hazards. We detected the levels of 15 metals in urine samples from 500 representative sub-samples in an ongoing occupational cohort study (Jinchang Cohort) to directly evaluate metal exposure levels. Fifteen metals, namely As, Ba, Be, Cd, Cs, Cr, Co, Cu, Pb, Mn, Ni, Se, Tl, U, and Zn, were detected by inductively coupled plasma quadruple mass spectrometry. The results showed that median creatinine adjustment and geometric mean urinary metal levels were higher in the heavy metal-exposed group, except Se and Zn, than other reported general or occupational populations. Further studies should address the effects of heavy metals on human health.

[Advances in automatic detection technology for images of thin blood film of malaria parasite].

This paper reviews the computer vision and image analysis studies aiming at automated diagnosis or screening of malaria in microscope images of thin blood film smears. On the basis of introducing the background and significance of automatic detection technology, the existing detection technologies are summarized and divided into several steps, including image acquisition, pre-processing, morphological analysis, segmentation, count, and pattern classification components. Then, the principles and implementation methods of each step are given in detail. In addition, the promotion and application in automatic detection technology of thick blood film smears are put forwarded as questions worthy of study, and a perspective of the future work for realization of automated microscopy diagnosis of malaria is provided.

Heavy Metal Assessment among Chinese Nonferrous Metal-exposed Workers from the Jinchang Cohort Study / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

Environmental exposure to heavy metals has been linked to a wide range of human health hazards. We detected the levels of 15 metals in urine samples from 500 representative sub-samples in an ongoing occupational cohort study (Jinchang Cohort) to directly evaluate metal exposure levels. Fifteen metals, namely As, Ba, Be, Cd, Cs, Cr, Co, Cu, Pb, Mn, Ni, Se, Tl, U, and Zn, were detected by inductively coupled plasma quadruple mass spectrometry. The results showed that median creatinine adjustment and geometric mean urinary metal levels were higher in the heavy metal-exposed group, except Se and Zn, than other reported general or occupational populations. Further studies should address the effects of heavy metals on human health.

Efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of influenza A (H1N1): A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: In March 2009, the first reported case infected with influenza A (H1N1) virus was identified in Mexico. The World Health Organization officially declared the outbreak to be a pandemic on June 11, 2009. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the treatment of influenza A (H1N1) infection. METHODS: We electronically and manually searched electronic databases, reference lists, and conference compilations to identify randomized clinical trials that compared the treatment of influenza A (H1N1) using TCM with a control group receiving oseltamivir or antivirus therapy. The Jadad score was used to assess trial quality. Duration of viral shedding, time to defervescence, and effective rate were taken as outcome measurements; additionally, heterogeneity analysis and meta-analysis were performed. RESULTS: A total of 30 studies were included in our investigation, and these studies together included 3444 cases. Based on the Jadad score, each of these studies were divided as follows: high-quality studies (n = 3), medium-quality studies (n = 2), and low quality studies (n = 25). A meta analysis was performed, which indicated that the time to defervescence between the TCM treatment group and the control group was statistically significant, the duration of viral [Influenza A (H1N1)] shedding in the integrated Chinese and Western medicine subgroups was statistically significant, but it was not statistically significant between the two groups, the effective rate between the two groups was not statistically significant. A total of 18 studies described adverse drug reactions. CONCLUSION: The results of our study indicated that the mean time to defervescence in the TCM treatment group was less than noted in the control group, and that the duration of viral [Influenza A (H1N1)] shedding in the integrated Chinese and Western medicine subgroups was less than that noted in the control group. However, the available evidence does not consider the fact that the difference in duration of viral shedding and effective rate between the two groups was statistically similar. No obvious adverse events were reported in the included studies.

Trend Analysis of Cancer Mortality in the Jinchang Cohort, China, 2001-2010.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the baseline data of cancers in the Jinchang Cohort, this paper examined trends in cancer mortality among adults investigated in Jinchang, Gansu province from 2001 to 2010. METHODS: Mortality data were collected from company departments through administrative documents, death certificates, etc. Trend analyses of cancer mortality were performed on the basis of 925 cancer deaths between 2001 and 2010. RESULTS: The crude mortality rate of cancer continuously increased from 161.86 per 100,000 in 2001 to 315.32 per 100,000 in 2010, with an average increase of 7.69% per year in the Jinchang Cohort (16.41% in females compared to 6.04% in males), but the age-standardized mortality rate increased only in females. Thirteen leading cancers accounted for 92.10% of all cancer deaths. The five leading causes of cancer mortality in males were lung, gastric, liver, esophageal, and colorectal cancer, whereas those in females were lung, liver, gastric, breast, and esophageal cancer. CONCLUSION: The overall cancer mortality rate increased from 2001 to 2010 in the Jinchang Cohort, with greater rate of increase in females than in males. Lung, breast, and gastric cancer, in that order, were the leading causes of increased cancer mortality in females.

Metal Exposure and Risk of Diabetes and Prediabetes among Chinese Occupational Workers.

OBJECTIVE: To study the association between metal exposure and risk of diabetes and prediabetes among Chinese workers exposed to metals. METHODS: We used data obtained from the baseline survey of the Jinchang Cohort Study of workers in Jinchang Industry, the largest nickel production company in China. A total of 42,122 workers ⋝20 years of age were included in the study. A standardized, structured questionnaire was used to collect epidemiological information. Physical examinations and laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the health status of the participants and to measure various biomarkers including blood sugar, lipids, and urinary metal concentrations. Logistic regression was used to study the association between occupational groups categorized according to the measured metal levels (office workers, low-level; mining/production workers, mid-level; and smelting/refining workers, high-level) and risk of diabetes and prediabetes. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes was 7.5% and 16.8%, respectively. The adjusted odds ratios for diabetes among mining/production workers and smelting/refining workers compared to office workers were 1.5 (95% CI: 1.3, 1.7) and 3.8 (95% CI: 3.4, 4.3), respectively. No association was observed between these occupational groups and prediabetes in this study. CONCLUSION: Occupations associated with higher levels of metal exposure were associated with an increased risk of diabetes in this cohort. More studies are needed to confirm this observed association.

Quality control of nasal sprays: Research advances / 国际药学研究杂志

It is very important to develop nasal sprays with higher bioavailability and better targeting capability by making further use of advanced technology and new methods according to its characteristics. Intensive research has been searched on nasal sprays quality control methods which have been developed in the last few years. This review discusses the critical quality attributes of nasal sprays and the research progress of the quality control methods. Clarifies the characters examine of the nasal spray (pH, osmolality, particle size distribution and viscosity), content and related substances, packaging materials compatibility studies, spray pattern and droplet distribution methods of quality control.