Enhancing pediatric asthma management through multifaceted health education.

BACKGROUND: Pediatric asthma is a significant public health issue that impacts the quality of life of children globally. Traditional management approaches focus on symptom control and medication adherence but often overlook the comprehensive educational needs of patients and their families. A multifaceted health education approach may offer a more holistic strategy in managing pediatric asthma, especially in outpatient settings. AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of a comprehensive health education strategy in improving disease management, medication adherence, and quality of life among children with asthma in outpatient settings. METHODS: In total, 100 pediatric patients with severe asthma were enrolled from January 2021 to November 2022 and randomly allocated to a control group (n = 50) or an observation group (n = 50). The control group received standard nursing care, including basic nursing interventions and health education upon admission. In contrast, the observation group was exposed to a broad spectrum of health education methodologies, including internet-based hospital systems, social media channels, one-on-one verbal education, informational brochures, slide presentations, telephone check-ins, animated videos, and illustrated health education manuals. Data on asthma management knowledge, symptom control, quality of life [St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ)], treatment adherence, and nursing satisfaction were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: The scores of the observation group in knowledge areas, such as medication, home care, disease understanding, symptom management, prevention strategies, and nutritional guidance, were significantly higher than those of the control group (P < 0.05). In addition, the observation group exhibited greater symptom control, improved quality of life based on their SGRQ scores, and higher treatment adherence post-intervention (P < 0.05). Nursing satisfaction was also rated higher in the observation group across all evaluated areas (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Implementing a diversified health education approach in pediatric asthma management significantly enhances disease understanding, symptom management, and treatment adherence, leading to improved quality of life for affected children. These findings underscore the importance of multifaceted clinical health education in augmenting disease awareness and facilitating continuous improvements in asthma control rates, highlighting the potential benefits of incorporating comprehensive educational strategies into pediatric asthma care protocols.

NRTPredictor: identifying rice root cell state in single-cell RNA-seq via ensemble learning.

BACKGROUND: Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) measurements of gene expression show great promise for studying the cellular heterogeneity of rice roots. How precisely annotating cell identity is a major unresolved problem in plant scRNA-seq analysis due to the inherent high dimensionality and sparsity. RESULTS: To address this challenge, we present NRTPredictor, an ensemble-learning system, to predict rice root cell stage and mine biomarkers through complete model interpretability. The performance of NRTPredictor was evaluated using a test dataset, with 98.01% accuracy and 95.45% recall. With the power of interpretability provided by NRTPredictor, our model recognizes 110 marker genes partially involved in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. Expression patterns of rice root could be mapped by the above-mentioned candidate genes, showing the superiority of NRTPredictor. Integrated analysis of scRNA and bulk RNA-seq data revealed aberrant expression of Epidermis cell subpopulations in flooding, Pi, and salt stresses. CONCLUSION: Taken together, our results demonstrate that NRTPredictor is a useful tool for automated prediction of rice root cell stage and provides a valuable resource for deciphering the rice root cellular heterogeneity and the molecular mechanisms of flooding, Pi, and salt stresses. Based on the proposed model, a free webserver has been established, which is available at https://www.cgris.net/nrtp .

High-throughput flowing upstream sperm sorting in a retarding flow field for human semen analysis.

In this paper, we propose a microfluidic device capable of generating a retarding flow field for the sorting and separation of human motile sperm in a high-throughput manner. The proposed sorting/separation process begins with a rapid flow field in a straight-flow zone to carry sperm into a sorting zone to maintain the sperm's mobility. The sorting zone consists of a diffuser-type sperm sorter to differentiate sperm with different motilities based on the flowing upstream nature of human sperm in a retarding flow field. The dead sperm will then be separated from the live ones by passing through a dumbbell flow field to the outlet for disposal. The proposed flowing upstream sperm sorter (FUSS) is designed to imitate the selection mechanism found in the female body when sperm swim into the uterus. The experimental results demonstrate the utility of this device with regard to throughput (approximately 200 000 sperm per minute and a maximum of 200 million cells per mL), efficiency (90% of selected sperm are mobile), and the ability to select sperm with high motility (∼20% of sperm with a velocity exceeding 120 µm s-1). The proposed device is suitable for intrauterine insemination as well as in vitro fertilization thanks to the highly efficient sorting process not interfering with the natural function and energy resource of human sperm.

Blood supply classification and varied clinical manifestations of skeletal muscle infarction.

BACKGROUND: Muscle infarction is a rare complication of spontaneous ischemic necrosis occurring in skeletal muscle. It is particularly common in patients with diabetes who have impaired sugar regulation. However, muscle infarction is frequently misdiagnosed due to varied clinical manifestations. METHODS: We presented 3 cases of muscle infarction reported during April 2009 to April 2014. After a comprehensive literature review, we selected 147 muscle infarction cases from the literature, first investigating the relationships between type of muscle blood supply and infarcted muscle. RESULTS: The result indicated that muscle infarction 25.85% belonged to type I vascular supply and 61.21% belonged to type II vascular supply, according to the definition by Mathes and Nahai. CONCLUSIONS: Poor glucose regulation, intense exercise without adequate hydration, vascular disease, and type I and II muscular blood supply were critical predisposing factors. For preventing muscle infarction, we recommend strict glucose regulation and a gradual increase in exercise with adequate hydration.

Improved inflammatory balance of human skeletal muscle during exercise after supplementations of the ginseng-based steroid Rg1.

UNLABELLED: The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of ginseng-based steroid Rg1 on TNF-alpha and IL-10 gene expression in human skeletal muscle against exercise challenge, as well as on its ergogenic outcomes. Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled crossover trials were performed, separated by a 4-week washout. Healthy young men were randomized into two groups and received capsule containing either 5 mg of Rg1 or Placebo one night and one hour before exercise. Muscle biopsies were conducted at baseline, immediately and 3 h after a standardized 60-min cycle ergometer exercise. While treatment differences in glycogen depletion rate of biopsied quadriceps muscle during exercise did not reach statistical significance, Rg1 supplementations enhanced post-exercise glycogen replenishment and increased citrate synthase activity in the skeletal muscle 3 h after exercise, concurrent with improved meal tolerance during recovery (P<0.05). Rg1 suppressed the exercise-induced increases in thiobarbituric acids reactive substance (TBARS) and reversed the increased TNF-alpha and decreased IL-10 mRNA of quadriceps muscle against the exercise challenge. PGC-1 alpha and GLUT4 mRNAs of exercised muscle were not affected by Rg1. Maximal aerobic capacity (VO2max) was not changed by Rg1. However, cycling time to exhaustion at 80% VO2max increased significantly by ~20% (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Our result suggests that Rg1 is an ergogenic component of ginseng, which can minimize unwanted lipid peroxidation of exercised human skeletal muscle, and attenuate pro-inflammatory shift under exercise challenge.

Addition of dexmedetomidine to ropivacaine improves cervical plexus block.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the sensory block onset time, duration time, and side effects of adding dexmedetomidine to ropivacaine for cervical plexus block. METHODS: Forty American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Class I or II adult patients who were scheduled to undergo thyroid surgery were randomly allocated to the following groups to receive cervical plexus block: 30 mL of 0.375% ropivacaine combined with 1 µg kg(-1) of dexmedetomidine; 30 mL of 0.375% ropivacaine combined with saline (control). The sensory block onset time, duration of analgesia, mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), and the incidences of side effects, such as hypotension, bradycardia, and hypoxemia were recorded. RESULTS: The addition of dexmedetomidine to ropivacaine (Group D) shortened the sensory block onset time compared with the ropivacaine group (Group C) (95% confidence interval [CI] 4.18-5.26; p < 0.05). The duration of analgesia of cervical plexus block in Group D was significantly longer than that in Group C (95% CI 295.96-311.12; p < 0.05). The Ramsay sedation score at 5, 10, 20, 40, 60, 90, and 120 minutes after local anesthetic administration in Group D was significantly higher than that in Group C (p < 0.05). MAP level and HR level in Group D were significantly lower than that in Group C (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The addition of 1 µg kg(-1) dexmedetomidine to ropivacaine for cervical plexus block could shorten the sensory block onset time and extend the duration of analgesia, and increased the quality of analgesia, with the patients being sedated and arousable.

Low dose oral desmopressin for nocturnal polyuria in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia: a double-blind, placebo controlled, randomized study.

PURPOSE: We evaluated the long-term efficacy and safety of low dose oral desmopressin in elderly patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia with more than nocturnal voids and nocturnal polyuria more than 30% of total daily urine volume. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eligible patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia older than 65 years with nocturia, nocturnal polyuria and International Prostate Symptom Score 14 or greater were included in the study. All patients received placebo or 0.1 mg desmopressin orally at bedtime. Patients were required to visit the outpatient clinic from the first visit, and after 1, 3, 6 and 12 months of treatment. Patients maintained flow volume charts and used diaries to record voiding data throughout the study. During followup urinalysis, urine sodium, urine osmolality, serum electrolytes, prostate specific antigen, International Prostate Symptom Score, quality of life, transrectal ultrasonography of prostate, uroflowmetry and post-void residual urine volume were performed at each visit. RESULTS: A total of 115 patients were enrolled in the study and randomized as 58 in the placebo group and 57 in the desmopressin group. Desmopressin significantly decreased nocturnal urine output and the number of nocturia episodes, and prolonged the first sleep period (p < 0.01). Compared to before treatment desmopressin gradually decreased serum sodium and induced statistically but not clinically significant hyponatremia after 12 months of treatment. No serious systemic complications were found during medication. CONCLUSIONS: Low dose oral desmopressin is an effective and well tolerated treatment for nocturnal polyuria in the lower urinary tract symptoms of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia. Long-term desmopressin therapy gradually decreases serum sodium and it might induce hyponatremia even in patients without initial hyponatremia. For long-term desmopressin administration serum sodium should be assessed carefully, at least at 1 week after treatment.