[Effects of humic acid water-soluble fertilizer on growth and physiological characteristics of Bupleurum chinense seedlings].

The effects of humic acid water-soluble fertilizer on the growth and physiological characteristics of Bupleurum chinense seedlings(Zhongchai No.1) were studied by using a single factor experiment design. When the seedling age was 60 days, the humic acid water-soluble fertilizer was diluted 1 200 times(T1), 1 500 times(T2), 1 800 times(T3), and 2 100 times(T4) for seedling treatment, respectively, and water was used as the control(CK). The effects of different treatments on growth indexes, biomass accumulation, root activity, antioxidant enzyme activity, membrane lipid peroxidation, and photosynthetic characteristics of B. chinense seedlings were analyzed after 30 days. The results showed that compared with CK, stem height, leaf number, root diameter, and root length of the B. chinense seedlings under T3 treatment were significantly increased by 36.82%, 37.03%, 42.78%, and 22.38%, respectively. Root fresh weight, leaf fresh weight, root dry weight, and leaf dry weight under T3 treatment were significantly increased by 90.36%, 98.68%, 123.84%, and 104.38%, respectively. In addition, humic acid water-soluble fertilizer also enhanced TTC reducing activity of the root of B. chinense seedlings, inhibited malonaldehyde(MDA) content, increased superoxide dismutase(SOD), peroxidase(POD), and catalase(CAT) enzyme activities, improved chlorophyll content, and enhanced P_n, G_s, T_r, and other photosynthetic parameters. In conclusion, the application of humic acid water-soluble fertilizer diluted 1 800 times can significantly promote the growth of B. chinense seedlings, enhance root vitality, improve seedling stress resistance, and enhance photosynthesis. The results of this study can provide a theoretical basis for fertilization of B. chinense seedlings.

Clinical effect of ultrasound-guided nerve block and dexmedetomidine anesthesia on lower extremity operative fracture reduction.

BACKGROUND: Lower extremity fractures are mainly treated by surgical reduction, but this operation is often affected by the patient's level of agitation and the type of anesthesia used. The main treatment for lower-extremity fractures is operative reduction. However, operations can often be affected by both agitation and the degree of anesthesia. Therefore, it is of great importance to develop an effective anesthesia program to effectively ensure the progress of surgery. AIM: To discuss the effect of ultrasound-guided nerve block combined with dexmedetomidine anesthesia in lower extremity fracture surgery. METHODS: A total of 120 hospital patients with lower extremity fractures were selected for this retrospective study and divided into an observation group (n = 60) and a control group (n = 60) according to the anesthesia scheme; the control group received ultrasound-guided nerve block; the observation group was treated with dextromethomidine on the basis of the control group, and the mean arterial pressure, heart rate (HR), and blood oxygen saturation were observed in the two groups. RESULTS: The mean arterial pressure of T1, T2 and T3 in the observation group were 94.40 ± 7.10, 90.84 ± 7.21 and 91.03 ± 6.84 mmHg, significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05). The observation group's HR at T1 was 76.60 ± 7.52 times/min, significantly lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05); The observation group's HR at T2 and T3 was 75.40 ± 8.03 times/min and 76.64 ± 7.11 times/min, significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05). The observation group's visual analog score at 2 h, 6 h and 12 h after operation was 3.55 ± 0.87, 2.84 ± 0.65 and 2.05 ± 0.40. the recovery time was 15.51 ± 4.21 min, significantly lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05). Six hours post-anesthesia, epinephrine and norepinephrine in the observation group were 81. 10 ± 21.19 pg/mL and 510. 20 ± 98.27 pg/mL, significantly lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05), and the mini-mental state exam score of the observation group was 25. 51 ± 1.15, significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Ultrasound-guided nerve block combined with dexmedetomidine has a good anesthetic effect in the operation of lower limb fractures and has little effect on the hemodynamics of patients.

Serum C-C Motif Ligand 11/eotaxin-1 May Serve as a Candidate Biomarker for Postmenopausal Osteoporosis.

BACKGROUND: The chemokine C-C motif ligand 11, also known as eotaxin-1, has been identified as a novel mediator of inflammatory bone resorption. However, little is known regarding a potential role for CCL11/Eotaxin-1 in postmenopausal osteoporosis. OBJECTIVE: The scope of this study was to explore the relationship between serum CCL11/Eotaxin-1 concentrations and disease progression of postmenopausal females with osteoporosis. METHODS: A total of 83 postmenopausal women diagnosed with osteoporosis were enrolled. Meanwhile, 82 postmenopausal women with normal bone mineral density (BMD) and 85 healthy controls inner child-bearing age were enrolled as control. The Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to examine the BMDs at the femoral neck, lumbar spine 1-4 and total hip of all participants. Serum CCL11/Eotaxin-1 levels were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We also included inflammation marker interleukin-6 (IL-6) as well as a serum marker of bone resorption C-telopeptide cross-linked collagen type 1 (CTX-1). The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) were recorded to evaluate the clinical severity in POMP females. RESULTS: Serum CCL11/Eotaxin-1 levels were significantly elevated in postmenopausal osteoporotic patients PMOP patients compared with PMNOP and healthy controls. We observed a significant negative correlation of serum CCL11/Eotaxin-1 levels with lumbar spine, femoral neck and total hip BMD. Furthermore, serum CCL11/ Eotaxin-1 concentrations were also positively related to the VAS and ODI scores. Last, serum CCL11/ Eotaxin-1 concentrations were positively associated with IL-6 and CTX-1 levels. These correlations remain significant after adjusting for age and BMI. Multivariate linear regression analysis demonstrated that CCL11/Eotaxin-1 could serve as an independent marker. CONCLUSIONS: Serum CCL 11/Eotaxin-1 may serve as a candidate biomarker for postmenopausal osteoporosis. Therapeutics targeting CCL11/Eotaxin-1 and its related signalling way to prevent and slow progression of PMOP deserve further study.

[Early-middle stage effect of percutaneous spinal endoscopic BEIS technique for lumbar spinal stenosis].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical early-middle stage clinical effect of percutaneous spinal endoscopic with the technique of Broad Easy Immediate Surgery(BEIS) for lumbar spinal stenosis. METHODS: The clinical data of 57 patients with lumbar spinal stenosis treated by surgery from June 2015 to June 2016 were retrospectively analyzed, including 32 cases treated by percutaneous spinal endoscopic with the technique of BEIS (minimally invasive group) and 25 cases by posterior approach of lumbar pedicle screws internal fixation and intervertebral disc excision with bone graft fusion surgery (open surgery group). The pre-operative general data such as age, Body Mass Index (BMI) and etc. were analysed and compared. The operation time, intraoperative blood loss, hospitalization time of the two groups were analyzed. Visual analogue score(VAS), Oswestry Disability Index(ODI), Japanese Orthopedic Association Score(JOA) of preoperative and at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months after surgery were used to evaluate the clinical outcome of the two group. RESULTS: All the operations were successful and all the patients recovered smoothly without severe complications, all the wounds got good healing. The pain of the lumbar and lower limb had been improved after surgery. All the patients were followed up more than 6 months with an average of(10.65±3.38) months. There was no significant difference in general data such as age, BMI, and etc. between two groups(P>0.05). There were significant differences in VAS, ODI between two groups at 1 week, 1, 3, 6 months after surgery(P<0.05). The postoperative lumbar pain of the minimally invasive group had been better improved than the open surgery group. However, there was no significant difference in JOA between two groups at 1 week, 1, 3, 6 months after surgery(P>0.05). Intraoperative blood loss and hospitalization time of minimally invasive group was less than that of open surgery group. CONCLUSIONS: BEIS technique has the advantage of less trauma, less bleeding for lumbar stenosis when compared to open surgery. It can better alleviate the postoperative local lumbar pain, and early-middle clinical effect is equivalent to open surgery, so it can be used as a safe and effective surgical treatment for lumbar spinal stenosis.

[Comparative analysis on seedling growth dynamics and physiological indices of Bupleurum smithii var. parvifolium and B. scorzonerifolium].

With Bupleurum smithii var. parvifolium and B. scorzonerifolium as test objects, in order to provide a theoretical basis for the introduction and domestication of B. smithii var. parvifolium, the growth and development dynamics of seedlings, biomass accumulation, the content of malonaldehyde(MDA), the activity of antioxidase such as SOD, POD, CAT and APX between them were comparatively analyzed by direct sowing culture in the open field. The results indicated that the morphological index and the biomass accumulation of B. smithii var. parvifolium such as root diameter, root length, plant height and leaf number were inferior to B. scorzonerifolium, the antioxidase SOD and POD activity of B. smithii var. parvifolium was significantly inferior to B. scorzonerifolium (P<0.05), the antioxidase CAT and APX activity of B. smithii var. parvifolium was inferior to B. scorzonerifolium but the difference wasn't significant, while MDA content was superior to B. scorzonerifolium(P<0.05). Thus, compared with cultivated B. scorzoneri folium, the plant growth velocity of wild B. smithii var. parvifolium was relatively slower and its resistance was relatively weaker after introduction and domestication.

Semiautomatic Segmentation of Glioma on Mobile Devices.

Brain tumor segmentation is the first and the most critical step in clinical applications of radiomics. However, segmenting brain images by radiologists is labor intense and prone to inter- and intraobserver variability. Stable and reproducible brain image segmentation algorithms are thus important for successful tumor detection in radiomics. In this paper, we propose a supervised brain image segmentation method, especially for magnetic resonance (MR) brain images with glioma. This paper uses hard edge multiplicative intrinsic component optimization to preprocess glioma medical image on the server side, and then, the doctors could supervise the segmentation process on mobile devices in their convenient time. Since the preprocessed images have the same brightness for the same tissue voxels, they have small data size (typically 1/10 of the original image size) and simple structure of 4 types of intensity value. This observation thus allows follow-up steps to be processed on mobile devices with low bandwidth and limited computing performance. Experiments conducted on 1935 brain slices from 129 patients show that more than 30% of the sample can reach 90% similarity; over 60% of the samples can reach 85% similarity, and more than 80% of the sample could reach 75% similarity. The comparisons with other segmentation methods also demonstrate both efficiency and stability of the proposed approach.

Serum CX3CL1/fractalkine concentrations are positively associated with disease severity in postmenopausal osteoporotic patients.

BACKGROUND: The chemokine (C-X3-C motif) ligand 1 (CX3CL1), also called fractalkine (FKN), has recently been reported to be involved in osteoclastogenic process and pathological bone destruction. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the link between serum CX3CL1/FKN levels with disease progression of postmenopausal osteoporotic patients. METHODS: A total of 53 women with postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP group), 51 postmenopausal non-osteoporotic female patients (PMNOP group) and 50 premenopausal non-osteoporotic healthy women of childbearing age (control group) were enrolled in the study. The bone mineral density (BMD) for all subjects was determined via dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry of the lumbar spine, femoral neck, internal trochanter, total hip, greater trochanter and Ward's triangle. The levels of FKN in the serum were examined using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. The serum bone resorption markers TRACP-5b, NTX levels, inflammation markers IL-1ß and IL-6 as well as oestrogen-2(E2) were also detected in all participants. The visual analogue scores (VAS) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) for low back pain were recorded in PMOP females for evaluation of osteoporotic pain and function. RESULTS: FKN levels were significantly higher in postmenopausal osteoporotic patients compared with postmenopausal non-osteoporotic females (139.8 ± 44.3 pg/mL VS 116.5 ± 23.1 pg/mL, p < 0.05) and healthy controls (139.8 ± 44.3 pg/mL VS 109.7 ± 19.4 pg/mL, p < 0.05). Serum FKN concentrations were negatively associated with BMD at femoral neck (r = -0.394, p = 0.004), total hip(r = -0.374, p = 0.006), internal trochanter(r = -0.340, p = 0.013), greater trochanter(r = -0.376, p = 0.006), Ward's triangle(r = -0.343, p = 0.012), L1-L4 lumbar spine(r = -0.339, p = 0.013) and positively associated with VAS (r = 0.321, p = 0.019) and ODI (r = 0.377, p = 0.005) scores, bone turnover makers (TRACP-5b:r = 0.341, p = 0.012; NTX:r = 0.364, p = 0.007)as well as inflammation markers (IL-1ß: r = 0.396, p = 0.003; IL-6:r = 0.355, p = 0.009) in postmenopausal osteoporotic patients. CONCLUSIONS: Serum FKN may serve as a novel biomarker for assessing disease progression and a new potential therapeutic target for anti-resorptive treatment in osteoporosis patients.

Endogenous CSE/H2 S system mediates TNF-α-induced insulin resistance in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.

Tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF- α)is a major contributor to the pathogenesis of insulin resistance associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes. It has been found that endogenous hydrogen sulfide (H2 S) contributes to the pathogenesis of diabetes. We have hypothesized that TNF-α-induced insulin resistance is involved in endogenous H2 S generation. The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of endogenous H2 S in TNF-α-induced insulin resistance by studying 3T3-L1 adipocytes. We found that treatment of 3T3-L1 adipocytes with TNF-α leads to deficiency in insulin-stimulated glucose consumption and uptake and increase in endogenous H2 S generation. We show that cystathionine γ-lyase (CSE) is catalysed in 3T3-L1 adipocytes to generate H2 S and that CSE expression and activity are upregulated by TNF-α treatment. Inhibited CSE by its potent inhibitors significantly attenuates TNF-α-induced insulin resistance in 3T3-L1 adipocytes, whereas H2 S treatment of 3T3-L1 adipocytes impairs insulin-stimulated glucose consumption and uptake. These data indicate that endogenous CSE/H2 S system contributes to TNF-α-caused insulin resistance in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Our findings suggest that modulation of CSE/H2 S system is a potential therapeutic avenue for insulin resistance.

[Radial artery recurrent branch of styloid process bone flap transfer for treatment of scaphoid nonunion].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical efficacy of radial artery recurrent branch of the styloid process bone flap transfer for treatment of scaphoid nonunion. METHODS: From 2002 to 2007, 18 patients with scaphoid nonunion included 12 males and 16 females with an average age of 31.2 years old ranging from l8 to 51 years. Time from injury to operation was 8 to 26 months (averaged 12.5 months). Radial bone flap blood supply by radial artery recurrent branch of styloid process was embedded in retrograde scaphoid shift distance at both ends, Kirschner wire fixed on the bone flap and bone fractures, and the radial styloid process was resected. Cast gypsum immobilization in a neutral place of wrist were performed for 6 to 8 weeks, the rehabilitation of physical therapy and functional exercise were performed after removal. Kirschner wire were removed after X-ray showed fracture healing. RESULTS: Among them, 15 cases were followed-up for from 8 to 25 months (means 13 months). All fractures healed. The healing time was 8 to 12 weeks. According to adult forearm fracture evaluation of Anderson the results were excellent in 14 cases, good in 1. CONCLUSION: The radial artery recurrent branch of styloid process bone flap has a wealth of blood circulation, can make free grafting of the creeping substitution process directly into the healing process.

[Responses of litter decomposition and nutrient release to simulated nitrogen deposition in an evergreen broad-leaved forest in southwestern Sichuan].

An in situ experiment was conducted in an evergreen broad-leaved forest in southwestern Sichuan to study the responses of litter decomposition and nutrient release to simulated nitrogen deposition. Four treatments were installed, i.e., null level (CK), low nitrogen level (LN, 50 kg N x hm(-2) x a(-1)), moderate nitrogen level (MN, 100 kg N x hm(-2) x a(-1)) and high nitrogen level (HN, 150 kg N x hm(-2) x a(-1)). The results showed that it would take 4.72-6.33 years to decompose 95% of litter mass, with the highest decomposition rate in CK and the lowest one in HN. After 365 days, the litter decomposition rate in N-amended treatments was lower than that in CK, but significant difference was only observed between HN and CK (P < 0.05). The remained C was higher, and the remained N and K were significantly higher in N-amended treatments than in CK (P < 0.05). The remained P was also higher in N-amended treatments than in CK, but significant difference was only observed between LN and CK (P < 0.05). Compared with CK, all N-amended treatments had a 3.9%-23.7% increase of litter C/N ratio. During litter decomposition, element N featured a pattern of accumulation at early stage and release later, while C, P and K released all the time. Nitrogen deposition inhibited both the nutrient release from the litter and the decomposition of its lignin and cellulose. The effects of nitrogen deposition on litter decomposition in the forest changed from positive to negative as time passed, and the negative effect could be strengthened with the increase of deposited nitrogen concentration.