[Application of brain functional connectivity and nonlinear dynamic analysis in brain function assessment for infants with controlled infantile spasm]. / 脑功能连接及非线性动力学分析在发作控制的婴儿痉挛症患儿脑功能评估中的应用.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the role of brain functional connectivity and nonlinear dynamic analysis in brain function assessment for infants with controlled infantile spasm (IS). METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on 14 children with controlled IS (IS group) who were admitted to the Department of Neurology, Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital, from January 2019 to January 2023. Twelve healthy children, matched for sex and age, were enrolled as the control group. Electroencephalogram (EEG) data were analyzed for both groups to compare the features of brain network, and nonlinear dynamic indicators were calculated, including approximate entropy, sample entropy, permutation entropy, and permutation Lempel-Ziv complexity. RESULTS: Brain functional connectivity showed that compared with the control group, the IS group had an increase in the strength of functional connectivity, and there was a significant difference between the two groups in the connection strength between the Fp2 and F8 channels (P<0.05). The network stability analysis showed that the IS group had a significantly higher network stability than the control group at different time windows (P<0.05). The nonlinear dynamic analysis showed that compared with the control group, the IS group had a significantly lower sample entropy of Fz electrode (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Abnormalities in brain network and sample entropy may be observed in some children with controlled IS, and it is suggested that quantitative EEG analysis parameters can serve as neurological biomarkers for evaluating brain function in children with IS.

Comparison of amino acid digestibility of soybean meal, cottonseed meal, and low-gossypol cottonseed meal between broilers and laying hens.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine and compare the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) and the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of amino acids (AA) in soybean meal (SBM), cottonseed meal (CSM), and low-gossypol cottonseed meal (LCSM) fed to broiler chickens and laying hens. METHODS: Three semi-purified diets containing the identical crude protein concentration at 20% were formulated to contain SBM, CSM, or LCSM as the sole source of N. A N-free diet was also formulated to estimate the basal ileal endogenous losses of AA for broilers and hens. A total of 300 male Ross 308 chicks at one-day-old and 144 Hy-Line Brown laying hens at 30-week-old with initial egg production rate of 88.3%±1.0% were randomly allocated into 1 of 4 dietary treatments, respectively. RESULTS: CSM and LCSM showed more Arg and Cys+Met while less Lys, Ile, Leu, and Thr relative to SBM. Significant interactions existed between species and experimental diets for AID (except for Arg, Asp, Glu, Gly, and Pro) and SID (except for Arg, His, and Phe) of most AA. Most AA in diets showed higher AID (except for Lys) and SID (except for Lys, Met, and Ser) in broilers relative to laying hens. The AID and SID of all AA were significantly different between the three diets. In broilers, the AID and SID of most indispensable AA except for Arg in SBM and LCSM was higher than CSM. In laying hens, the AID and SID of most indispensable AA except for Arg, Met+Cys, and Phe in SBM was higher than CSM and LCSM. CONCLUSION: The accurate determination of AID and SID of AA in CSM and LCSM for broilers and layers benefits the application of CSM and LCSM in chicken diets. The cottonseed by-products CSM or LCSM showed the species-specific AA digestibility values for broilers and layers.

Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood Caused by ATP1A3 Mutations: A Report of Two Cases.

Alternating hemiplegia of childhood is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder. Most cases are reported as sporadic disorder due to de novo variants, and few with family members involved. Two boys were hospitalized due to epileptic seizures occurred initially at age of six to seven months. During the course of the disease, there were repeated episodes of paroxysmal weakness or paralysis affecting one side of the body. Genetic testing showed that both patients carried heterozygous missense mutations in theATP1A3 gene (OMIM: 614820): c.3025 (exon 22) A>G (p.K1009E) and c.2443 (exon 18) G>A (p.E815K). Flunarizine can significantly improve the paroxysmal motor symptoms of pediatric patients with alternating hemiplegia.

Dietary tea polyphenol supplementation improved egg production performance, albumen quality, and magnum morphology of Hy-Line Brown hens during the late laying period.

The aim of this study was to investigate how dietary supplementation of tea polyphenols (TP) and tea catechins (TC) affect laying performance, albumen quality, ovomucin composition, and magnum morphology of laying hens in the late phase of production. Two hundred seventy Hy-Line Brown laying hens (64 wk old) were assigned to a basal diet (the control), the basal diet supplemented with 200 mg/kg tea polyphenols (TP200) or 200 mg/kg tea catechins (TC200). Each treatment had 6 replicates with 15 hens each. The feeding trial lasted 10 wks. Over the course of the trial, dietary supplementation with TP200 significantly increased the egg production (EP) and improved the feed conversion ratio (FCR) in wk 6 to 10 and wk 1 to 10 (P < 0.05). The albumen height and the Haugh unit (HU) of hens fed TP200 were higher than those of hens fed the control diet at wks 8 and 10 (P < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in the albumen height and the HU between the TP200 and TC200 groups (P > 0.05). The SDS-PAGE analysis indicated that bands of the ovomucin fractions in the TP200 group had the highest intensity compared with those of the control and TC200 groups. Compared with the control, there was a significant increase in protein sulfhydryl (SH) content of the albumen in the TP200 group at the end of experiment, while a significant decrease in protein carbonyl content and protein surface hydrophobicity (P < 0.05). There were also obvious increase in the height and width of the primary folds, epithelial cell height, and cilia height of the simple columnar epithelium in the TP200 group compared with the control and TC200 groups (P < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary supplementation with 200 mg/kg TP can improve performance, albumen quality, and magnum morphology of aged hens. In addition, TP rather than TC could improve the health status of the magnum for aged layers.

[Studies on chemical constituents from Psychotria straminea].

The chemical consituents from Psychotria straminea were separated and purified by column chromatographies on silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, ODS and RP-HPLC. The strictures of the isolated compounds were identified on the basis of physicochemical properties and spectroscopic analysis, as well as comparisons with the data in literature. Sixteen compounds were isolated and elucidated as tectochrysin (1), apigenin (2), kaempferol (3), luteolin (4), diosmetin (5), quercetin (6), kaempferol-4'-O-methylether (7), rhamnetin (8), 7-hydroxycoumarin (9), 7-methoxycoumarin (10), scopoletin (11), lupeol (12), 30-oxo-lupeol (13), lupenyl acetate (14), α-amyrin (15), and ursolic acid (16). This is the first study on the chemical composition of P. Straminea, and all compounds were isolated from P. straminea for the first time. In addition to compounds 6 and 9, the other compounds were isolated from the genus Psychotria for the first time.

[Studies on non-alkaloid constituents from Ochrosia elliptica].

The chemical consituents from Ochrosia elliptica were separated and purified by column chromatographies on silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, ODS and RP-HPLC. The structures of the isolated compounds were identified on the basis of physicochemical properties and spectroscopic analysis, as well as comparisons with the data in the literature. 18 compounds were isolated and elucidated as (+) -pinoresinol(1), (+) -medioresinol (2), (+) -lariciresinol (3), (+) -5'-methoxy lariciresinol(4), (+) -isolariciresinol (5), syringaresinol(6), episyringaresinol (7), ciwujiatone (8), zhebeiresinol (9), 7-hydroxycoumarin (10), 7-methoxycoumarin (11), scopoletin(12), isofraxidin(13), caffeic acid ethyl ester (14), ferulic acid (15), p-hydroxybenzaldehyde (16), vanillin (17), and vanillic acid(18). All compounds were isolated from the genus Ochrosia for the first time.

[Combination of acupressure and magnetic sticker improved the quality of life in patients with advanced gastroenteric tumor: a clinical observation].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical effect of combination of acupressure and magnetic sticker on the quality of life (QOL) including appetite, defecation, and sleep in patients with advanced gastroenteric tumor. METHODS: Totally 147 patients with advanced gastroenteric tumor were assigned to 4 groups according to different treatment methods, i.e., the supportive treatment group (A, 20 cases), the acupressure treatment group (B, 41 cases), the magnetic sticker treatment group (C, 40 cases), and a combination of acupressure and magnetic sticker treatment group (D, 46 cases). They were respectively treated with different methods, supportive treatment for group A, acupressure for group B, magnetic sticker for group C, and a combination of acupressure and magnetic sticker for group D. The scores of food intake, defecation frequency, sleep time, Karnofsky, and QOL were compared before treatment and at day 14 after treatment. RESULTS: After treatment, the scores of food intake, defecation frequency, and sleep time were obviously improved in B, C and D groups (P < 0.01). There was statistical difference between group D and group A (P < 0.01). In addition, in comparison with A group, both Karnofsky score and QOL score increased in B, C and D groups (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The assisted therapy of the combination of acupressure and magnetic sticker could ameliorate QOL such as the digestive functions and sleep in patients with advanced gastroenteric tumor.

[Effects of acupoint injection of autologous blood on symptoms and plasma motilin and gastrin levels of diabetic gastroparesis patients].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the curative effect of autologous blood point injection on diabetic gastroparesis and to study its underlying mechanism. METHODS: A total of 42 type-II diabetes outpatients and inpatients were randomly and equally divided into treatment group and control group according to a random digit table. Patients of the treatment group were treated by injection of the patient's own venous blood (2 mL/acupoint) into the unilateral Zusanli (ST 36), Zhongwan (OV 12) and Weishu (BL 21), once every week, 4 times together. Patients of the control group were ordered to take motilium (10 mg/time), 3 times daily for 4 weeks. Plasma motilin and gastrin were detected by radioimmunoassay before and 4 weeks after the treatment. RESULTS: Of the two 21 cases in the control and treatment groups, 3 and 7 experienced marked improvement in their symptoms, 4 and 8 were effective, 14 and 6 were failed in the treatment, with the effective rates being 33.3% and 71.4% respectively. The effective rate of the treatment group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.05). The contents of plasma motilin and gastrin in both control and treatment groups were reduced obviously after the treatment (P<0.01), and the effect of the treatment group was significantly superior to that of the control group in lowering plasma motilin and gastrin levels (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: Acupoint injection of the diabetes patients' own blood can obviously alleviate the symptoms of diabetic gastroparesis, which is closely associated with its effects in lowering plasma motilin and gastrin levels.