Nurses' knowledge of and attitude toward postoperative patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) and the associated factors.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative pain control is pivotal for surgical care; it facilitates patient recovery. Although patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) has been available for decades, inadequate pain control remains. Nurses' knowledge of and attitude toward PCA may influence the efficacy on clinic application. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate nurses' knowledge of and attitude toward postoperative PCA and investigate the associated factors. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study. We enrolled registered nurses from a 2200-bed medical center in northern Taiwan within one year. The participants completed an anonymous self-reported PCA knowledge inventory and PCA attitude inventory. Data were analyzed descriptively and associated were tested using logistic regression. RESULTS: With 303 participants enrolled, we discovered that nurses had limited knowledge of and a negative attitude toward PCA. Under half of the participants know how to set up a bolus dose and lockout intervals. The majority held misconceptions regarding side effect management for opioids. The minority agree to increase the dose when a patient experienced persistent pain or suggested the use of PCA. Surprisingly, participants with a bachelor's or master's degree had lower knowledge scores than those with a junior college degree. Those with 6-10 years of work experience also are lower than those with under 5 years of experience. However, the participants with experience of using PCA for patient care had higher knowledge scores and a more positive attitude. CONCLUSIONS: Although postoperative PCA has been available for decades and education programs are routinely provided, nurses had limited knowledge of and a negative attitude toward PCA. A higher education level and longer work experience were not associated with more knowledge. The current education programs on PCA should be revised to enhance their efficacy in delivering up-to-date knowledge and situation training which may convey supportive attitude toward clinical application of PCA.

Protective Effect of Hawthorn Fruit Extract against High Fructose-Induced Oxidative Stress and Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress in Pancreatic ß-Cells.

Hyperglycemia has deleterious effects on pancreatic ß-cells, causing dysfunction and insulin resistance that lead to diabetes mellitus (DM). The possible causes of injury can be caused by glucose- or fructose-induced oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida) fruit has been widely used as a hypolipidemic agent in traditional herbal medicine. The study aimed to investigate whether high fructose-induced pancreatic ß-cell dysfunction could be reversed through amelioration of ER stress by the treatment of polyphenol-enriched extract (PEHE) from hawthorn fruit. The extract was partitioned using ethyl acetate as a solvent from crude water extract (WE) of hawthorn fruits, followed by column fractionation. The results showed that the contents of total polyphenols, flavonoids and triterpenoids in PEHE could be enhanced by 2.2-, 7.7- and 1.1-fold, respectively, in comparison to the original obtained WE from hawthorn fruit. In ER stress studies, a sharp increase in the inhibitory activity on the gene expression levels of GRP79, ATF6, IRE1α and CHOP involved in ER stress was evident when dosages of PEHE at 50-100 µg/mL were used against high-fructose (150 mM)-treated cells. HPLC-MS/MS analysis showed that polyphenols and flavonoids collectively accounted for 87.03% of the total content of PEHE.

Dynamics of immune responses are inconsistent when trauma patients are grouped by injury severity score and clinical outcomes.

The injury severity score (ISS) is used in daily practice to evaluate the severity of trauma patients; however, the score is not always consistent with the prognosis. After injury, systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and compensatory anti-inflammatory response syndrome (CARS) are related to the prognosis of trauma patients. We aimed to evaluate the associations between the immune response and prognosis in trauma patients. Patients who admitted to the Trauma Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were eligible. Whole blood samples were collected at admission, and then 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 h after admission. Natural killer (NK) cells, lymphocyte subset population and cytokines release were identified using flow cytometry. We grouped patients by their ISS (≤ 25 and > 25 as very severe injury) and ICU stay (≤ 10 days as a short ICU stay and > 10 days as a long ICU stay) for evaluation. Fifty-three patients were enrolled. ICU stay but not ISS was close correlated with activity daily living (ADL) at discharge. Patients with a long ICU stay had an immediate increase in NK cells followed by lymphopenia which persisted for 48 h. Immediate activation of CD8+ T cells and then exhaustion with a higher programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) expression and suppression of CD4+ T cells with a shift to an anti-inflammatory Th2 phenotype were also observed in the patients with a long ICU stay. When the patients were grouped by ISS, the dynamics of immune responses were inconsistent to those when the patients were grouped by ICU stay. Immune responses are associated with the prognosis of trauma patients, however the currently used clinical parameters may not accurately reflect immune responses. Further investigations are needed to identify accurate predictors of prognosis in trauma patients.

Metabolic status and vascular endothelial structure in obese hypertensive patients treated with non-pharmacological therapies: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the efficacy of non-drug treatment on metabolism and vascular endothelium in obese hypertension. METHODS: Relevant publications were searched in the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases for clinical studies on the effects of non-pharmacological treatments in obese hypertensive patients published from inception to April 2022. After searching and screening the literature, information was extracted, and the quality of the literature was evaluated by the investigators. Data processing was performed using Rev Man 5.3 statistical analysis software, while the TSA 0.9 software was used for sequential analysis of blood pressure and endothelial-related indicators. RESULTS: A total of 8 literature articles with 480 patients were included. The analysis showed that non-pharmacological treatment effectively reduced systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, body weight, body mass index, glucose levels, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule 1, triglycerides, triglycerides, Low-density lipoprotein. For tumor necrosis factor α, soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule 1, high-density lipoprotein, C-reactive protein, high-sensitive C-reactive protein, and total antioxidant status by dietary supplements mainly. In contrast, no significant treatment effect was observed for Endothelin-1. Sequential analysis of the trial showed definitive evidence for improvement in blood pressure and inflammation. CONCLUSION: Non-pharmacological treatment of obese hypertensive patients may reduce blood pressure, body weight, and blood glucose, control inflammatory factor release and improve vascular endothelium to some extent.

Engineering Amorphous/Crystalline Structure of Manganese Oxide for Superior Oxygen Catalytic Performance in Rechargeable Zinc-Air Batteries.

Although amorphous materials are popular in oxygen electrocatalysis, their performance requires further improvement to meet the need for rechargeable zinc-air batteries. In this work, an amorphous/crystalline layered manganese oxide (ACMO) was designed, and its unique amorphous/crystalline homogeneous structure activated its oxygen reduction activity with a positive half-wave potential of 0.81 V and oxygen evolution activity with a moderate overpotential of 407 mV at 10 mA cm-2 . Moreover, the amorphous/crystalline structure endowed ACMO with excellent stability. While employed as the air-electrode material for rechargeable zinc-air batteries, ACMO overcame the poor cycling stability of manganese oxide and cycled stably for 1000 cycles (≈17 days) at 10 mA cm-2 . Besides, it delivered a high power density of 159.7 mW cm-2 and a narrow voltage gap of 0.66 V. This work gives an insight into designing oxide materials with amorphous/crystalline structure and feasible guidance for harmonizing electrochemical activity and stability.

Stroke Risk Prediction With Hybrid Deep Transfer Learning Framework.

Stroke has become a leading cause of death and long-term disability in the world with no effective treatment. Deep learning-based approaches have the potential to outperform existing stroke risk prediction models, but they rely on large well-labeled data. Due to the strict privacy protection policy in health-care systems, stroke data is usually distributed among different hospitals in small pieces. In addition, the positive and negative instances of such data are extremely imbalanced. Transfer learning can solve small data issue by exploiting the knowledge of a correlated domain, especially when multiple source of data are available. In this work, we propose a novel Hybrid Deep Transfer Learning-based Stroke Risk Prediction (HDTL-SRP) scheme to exploit the knowledge structure from multiple correlated sources (i.e., external stroke data, chronic diseases data, such as hypertension and diabetes). The proposed framework has been extensively tested in synthetic and real-world scenarios, and it outperforms the state-of-the-art stroke risk prediction models. It also shows the potential of real-world deployment among multiple hospitals aided with 5 G/B5G infrastructures.

Complementary effects of pine bark extract supplementation on inattention, impulsivity, and antioxidative status in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A double-blinded randomized placebo-controlled cross-over study.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the complementary effects of polyphenolic compounds from pine bark extract (PE) as a strong antioxidative substrate on the symptoms of inattention and impulsivity in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This was a randomized, double-blind, crossover, placebo-controlled study that included two experimental units (4 weeks with PE supplementation and 4 weeks with placebo supplementation) separated by a 2-week washout period. ADHD participants were supplemented with 25 mg or 50 mg PE. We recruited 20 participants (17 boys and 3 girls) with a mean age of 10.0 ± 2.1 years. PE supplementation caused a significant reduction in the inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity items of SNAP-IV. During the period of PE supplementation, the item of commissions in the Continuous Performance Test III (CPT III) significantly decreased, which was used to evaluate the symptoms of inattention and impulsivity. In addition, the erythrocytic reduced glutathione/oxidized glutathione ratio significantly increased, and the plasma TBARs level significantly decreased after 4 weeks of PE supplementation. However, there was no significant correlation between CPT III (commission) and antioxidative status indictors. PE supplementation may have potential effects of ameliorating inattention and impulsivity, and elevating the antioxidative status in children with ADHD.

Applications of Long-Length Carbon Nano-Tube (L-CNT) as Conductive Materials in High Energy Density Pouch Type Lithium Ion Batteries.

Lots of lithium ion battery (LIB) products contain lithium metal oxide LiNi5Co2Mn3O2 (LNCM) as the positive electrode's active material. The stable surface of this oxide results in high resistivity in the battery. For this reason, conductive carbon-based materials, including acetylene black and carbon black, become necessary components in electrodes. Recently, carbon nano-tube (CNT) has appeared as a popular choice for the conductive carbon in LIB. However, a large quantity of the conductive carbon, which cannot provide capacity as the active material, will decrease the energy density of batteries. The ultra-high cost of CNT, compared to conventional carbon black, is also a problem. In this work, we are going to introduce long-length carbon nano-tube s(L-CNT) into electrodes in order to design a reduced-amount conductive carbon electrode. The whole experiment will be done in a 1Ah commercial type pouch LIB. By decreasing conductive carbon as well as increasing the active material in the positive electrode, the energy density of the LNCM-based 1Ah pouch type LIB, with only 0.16% of L-CNT inside the LNCM positive electrode, could reach 224 Wh/kg and 549 Wh/L, in weight and volume energy density, respectively. Further, this high energy density LIB with L-CNT offers stable cyclability, which may constitute valuable progress in portable devices and electric vehicle (EV) applications.

Chondroitin sulfate synthase 1 enhances proliferation of glioblastoma by modulating PDGFRA stability.

Chondroitin sulfate synthases, a family of enzyme involved in chondroitin sulfate (CS) polymerization, are dysregulated in various human malignancies, but their roles in glioma remain unclear. We performed database analysis and immunohistochemistry on human glioma tissue, to demonstrate that the expression of CHSY1 was frequently upregulated in glioma, and that it was associated with adverse clinicopathologic features, including high tumor grade and poor survival. Using a chondroitin sulfate-specific antibody, we showed that the expression of CHSY1 was significantly associated with CS formation in glioma tissue and cells. In addition, overexpression of CHSY1 in glioma cells enhanced cell viability and orthotopic tumor growth, whereas CHSY1 silencing suppressed malignant growth. Mechanistic investigations revealed that CHSY1 selectively regulates PDGFRA activation and PDGF-induced signaling in glioma cells by stabilizing PDGFRA protein levels. Inhibiting PDGFR activity with crenolanib decreased CHSY1-induced malignant characteristics of GL261 cells and prolonged survival in an orthotopic mouse model of glioma, which underlines the critical role of PDGFRA in mediating the effects of CHSY1. Taken together, these results provide information on CHSY1 expression and its role in glioma progression, and highlight novel insights into the significance of CHSY1 in PDGFRA signaling. Thus, our findings point to new molecular targets for glioma treatment.

[Explanation on Evidence-based Guidelines of Clinical Practice with Acupuncture and Moxibustion: Periarthritis of Shoulder].

The Evidence-based Guidelines of Clinical Practice with Acupuncture and Moxibustion: Periarthritis of Shoulder (Guidelines for short) was officially published as a standard of China Association of Acupuncture and Moxibustion in 2015. From the purpose, methodology, scope, indication, recommended protocol, etc., this was explained to provide convenience for clinical use of acupuncturists. This Guidelines was developed based on Guidelines comprehensive search of literature regarding acupuncture for periarthritis of shoulder, the adoption of best evidence, expert experience, patient value across the world, methods of evidence quality and GRADE, references of clinical experience of famous acupuncturists in the ancient and modern time and expert consensus in the national level, which was hoped to provide solid evidence of acupuncture clinical treatment for periarthritis of shoulder to ensure the safety and effectiveness. In this Guidelines, the stage-by-stage treatment principle of acupuncture for periarthritis of shoulder was recommended. In the acute stage, the treatment aim was to relieve the pain, and distal acupoints along the meridians were selected with strong stimulation; the local acupoints were combined. In the chronic stage and rehabilitation stage, the treatment aim was to improve the dysfunction of shoulder joint, and acupuncture treatment was based on syndrome differentiation of etiology and meridian; the local acupoints were mainly selected, combined with acupoints based on etiology and acupoints along meridians.

Effectiveness of Essence of Chicken in Improving Cognitive Function in Young People Under Work-Related Stress: A Randomized Double-Blind Trial.

Work-related stress (WS) can result in considerable and extensive changes in physiological and psychological performance. WS beyond the optimal levels induces anxiety, confusion, exhaustion, and burnout. Chronic WS affects neurocognitive performance, particularly attention and visuospatial memory. Essence of chicken (EC) has been reported to improve neurocognitive function after mental stress.To investigate the beneficial effects of EC in improving neurocognitive performance under WS, we conducted a randomized, double blind trial. Total 102 young workers in New Taipei City with high WS, evaluated using the Individual Subjective Perception Job Stress Scale scores (>36 for job leaders and 33 for nonleaders) were recruited. Fifty-one participants received 70 mL of EC and 51 received a placebo daily for 2 weeks. Blood tests and neurocognitive assessment were performed before treatment, at the end of treatment, and 2 weeks after treatment.EC improved the performance of participants with high depression scores in the form-color associative memory test, used for assessing short-term memory. Although creatinine and glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (GPT) levels increased in week 2, but the levels returned to the baseline in week 4. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels decreased in week 4.EC significantly improved short-term memory in participants with high WS and concomitant depressive mood, although it slightly increased GPT and creatinine levels and reduced BUN levels. The long-term treatment effects of EC warrant further investigation.

[Aging law on anti-hypertensive effect of scrapping therapy on primary hypertension].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the aging law on anti-hypertensive effect of scrapping therapy on primary hypertension so as to provide the reference evidence for the best treatment frequency of scrapping therapy. METHODS: Eighty-nine patients of primary hypertension complied with inclusive criteria were treated with scrapping therapy according to syndrome differentiation. The stimulated sites included the courses of the governor vessel and the bladder meridian on the neck and back region, the line from Quchi (LI 11) to Shousanli (LI 10) and that from Zusanli (ST 36) to Fenglong (ST 40). The strong stimulation for reducing attempt was applied to the case of excessi syndrome, determined by subcutaneous capillary rupture and subcutaneous blood stasis. The mild stimulation for reinforcing attempt was applied to the case of deficiency syndrome, determined by subcutaneous capillary hyperemia and skin flush. Each site was scrapped for 10 times, about 5 cm in width, for 15 min. One scrapping treatment was required. The blood pressure was taken as the observation index separately, named 2:00 pm, 2:30 pm, 3:00 pm, 3:30 pm, 4:00 pm, 5:00 pm, 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm one day before scrapping, the time before scrapping in the afternoon on the day of treatment, the moment (2:00 pm), 2:30 pm, 3:00 pm; 3:30 pm, 4:00 pm, 5:00 pm, 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm after scrapping, in 24 h and 48 h after scrapping. RESULTS: (1) After one scrapping, the blood pressure was reduced to be (137. 51±10. 24)/(81. 06±10. 56) mmHg half a hour after scrapping from (149. 00±10. 19)/(85. 30±10. 96) mmHg (1mmHg~0. 133 kPa) before scrapping (P<0. 01). (2) The differences were significant in blood pressure at each time point after scrapping as compared with that before scrapping (all P<0. 01). (3) Through nonlinear regression analysis, the systolic blood pressure after scrapping was increased up to 140 mmHg in 47. 2 h after scrapping. CONCLUSION: Scrapping therapy achieves the apparent immediate anti-hypertensive effect on primary hypertension. It is suitable to apply scrapping treatment once every other day.

[Acupuncture for premature ovarian failure: a prospective cohort study].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical efficacy and action mechanism of acupuncture for premature ovarian failure (POF). METHODS: According to prospective cohort study design, 30 cases were included. Based on theory of regulating Chong and Conception Vessels as well as soothing the liver and calming the nerves, acupuncture at Guanyuan (CV 4), Dahe (KI 12), Taixi (KI 3), Taichong (LR 3), Baihui (GV 20) was applied, three times per week and 3 months were considered as one session. Totally two sessions were performed. The menstruation condition, estradiol (E2), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and scores of the clinical perimenopausal symptoms were taken as treatment outcomes. RESULTS: The total effective rate was 86.7% (26/30) and the cured rate was 16.7% (5/30). The recovery rate of menstruation was 16.7% (5/30) and the regain rate of menstruation was 56.7% (17/30). After the treatment, the level of E2 was significantly increased from (45.41 +/- 18. 09) pmol/L to (59.07 +/- 24.21) pmol/L (P < 0.05), and the score of perimenopausal symptoms was obviously reduced from 14.28 +/- 8. 30 to 4.04 +/- 3.28 (P < 0.01). However, no statistical differences could be seen in FSH before and after treatment (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Acupuncture has certain effect on improving menstruation and perimenopausal symptoms in POF patients, which is likely to he related with increasing the level of E2.

[Development of researches on acupuncture-assisted fertilization outside of China].

Increasing evidence shows that acupuncture therapy may have a role in promoting fertilization. Authors of the present paper collected the related articles in English published from January 2003 to May 2013 in databases of Ovid Medline, Maternity and Infant Care and Medline (Pubmed), and made an analysis. Results of many randomized controlled clinical trials (RCT) indicated that acupuncture intervention had a positive role in raising pregnancy rate, fetus surviving rate of the transplanted embryo, and increasing the neuropeptide Y content in the ollicular fluid in patients experiencing embryo transplantation, and in raising survival rate of zygote, conception rate of embryo transplantation, and in improving azoospermia in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization. But many systematic reviews and Meta-analysis did not support the above-mentioned conclusion of acupuncture therapy about promoting fertilization. The authors hold that despite of dominated positive outcomes of RCT for acupuncture-assisted fertilization, further well designed RCT are still warranted for providing further definite and convincing evidence.

Analyzing the study of using acupuncture in delivery in the past ten years in china.

The use of acupuncture in inducing delivery has a long history in China. With progress over time, it has been applied in many aspects. For further study of acupuncture in delivery, this paper analyzed the papers using acupuncture in delivery in the past ten years in mainland China. 87 literatures were picked out by searching relevant electronic databases and bibliographies of relevant journals. The analysis showed randomized controlled trials that were the major type of research, while preclinical researches and literature reviews only account for around ten percent, respectively. Clinical researches indicated that acupuncture can relieve labor pain, promote maternal uterine contraction, shorten birth process, and treat postpartum disorders. Preclinical researches found that acupuncture can adjust certain hormones and improve uterus contraction of late-stage pregnant rats. However, due to lack of large multicenter randomized controlled clinical trials, standardized evaluations of clinical effects in clinical researches and detailed mechanism study in preclinical researches and unequivocal conclusions about the effectiveness, efficacy, and mechanisms of acupuncture in this field cannot be obtained from those researches yet. Further clinical and preclinical studies about the use of acupuncture in delivery with improved methodology is still needed.

Effect of acupuncture on premature ovarian failure: a pilot study.

To investigate the effect of acupuncture on women with premature ovarian failure (POF), prospective consecutive case series study was applied. 31 women with POF were included; all patients were treated with acupuncture once every other day, three times a week for three months. Acupoints, GV 20, GV 24, GB 13, CV 3, CV 4, BL 23, BL 32, ST 25, ST 28, ST 29, ST 36, SP 6, KI 3, and LR 3, were selected. Serums FSH, E2, and LH level, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and Kupperman score were measured at baseline and at the end of treatment; the menstrual cycle was recorded during one-month follow-up. Compared with baseline, patients' serums FSH and LH were decreased, E2 was increased, and SAS score and Kupperman score were decreased. Four patients resumed menstrual cycle after treatment and two resumed during follow-up. No serious adverse events were found in all patients. The results indicate that acupuncture may decrease serums FSH and LH level, raise serum E2 level, relieve anxiety, reduce mental stress, and improve the menopausal symptoms.

[Progress of researches on specificity of acupoints in China in recent 10 years].

After searching for literature about the specificity of acupoints from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database (in Chinese) and MEDLINE (in English), published by Chinese scholars from June 2003 to June 2012, the authors made a systemic analysis on the retrieved papers. It was found that most Chinese scholars took a positive viewpoint about the specificity of acupoints in morphological structure, biophysical characters, pathological reactions, acupuncture stimulation-induced responses in different brain regions and therapeutic effects. However, the research methods and comprehensive analysis of abundant research results need being improved, and the conclusion should be validated extensively. Moreover, the research on the affecting factors of specificity of acupoints will be one of the major directions.

[Influence of electroacupuncture stimulation of delivery-facilitating acupoints with different stimulating parameters on serum endocrine hormones of late-stage pregnant rats].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the influence of electroacupuncture (EA) stimulation of "Hegu" (LI 4) and "Sanyinjiao"(SP 6; a classical delivery-facilitating acupoint recipe) at different parameters on endocrine hormone levels of late-stage pregnant rats, so as to find the better stimulation parameters for delivery facilitation. METHODS: Ninety-six female Wistar rats were randomly divided into eight groups: normal control (normal), pregnancy (model), EA-15 Hz, EA-30 Hz, EA-50 Hz, EA-2 Hz/ 15 Hz, EA-2 Hz/30 Hz and EA-2 Hz/50 Hz, with 12 rats in each group except EA-30 Hz group (n = 10). EA stimulation (0.2 to 0. 3 mA) was delivered to bilateral LI 4 for 20 min and then bilateral SP 6 for 5 min (25 min). The contents of serum estradiol (E2), progesterone (P) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) were detected by ELISA. RESULTS: Compared with the normal group, serum E2, P and PGE2 contents were significantly increased in the pregnancy model group (P<0.01), and E2/ P level was downregulated mildly (P>0.05). Compared with the model group, the contents of serum E2 in the EA-15 Hz, EA-30 Hz, EA-50 Hz, EA-2 Hz/15 Hz and EA-2 Hz/50 Hz groups, serum PGE2 contents in the EA-15 Hz, EA-30 Hz and EA-2 Hz/50 Hz groups, and E2/P levels in the EA-15 Hz, EA-30 Hz, EA-50 Hz and EA-2 Hz/50 Hz groups were significantly increased (P<0.01, P<0.05), whereas serum P contents in the EA-15 Hz, EA-30 Hz, EA-50 Hz and EA-2 Hz/50 Hz groups were significantly down-regulated (P<0. 01, P<0. 05). The effects of EA-2 Hz/50 Hz group were significantly superior to those of EA-2 Hz/15 Hz and EA-2 Hz/ 30 Hz groups in raising serum E2 and E2/P levels (P<0.05, P<0.01). No significant differences were found among the EA-15 Hz, EA-30 Hz, EA-50 Hz and EA-2 Hz/50 Hz groups in raising serum E2, PGE2 and E2/P levels, and among the EA-30 Hz, EA-50 Hz and EA-2 Hz/50 Hz groups in lowering serum P levels (P>0. 05). It displayed that the effects of EA at 15 Hz, 30 Hz and 2 Hz/50 Hz on the abovementioned 4 indexes were relatively better. CONCLUSION: EA of LI 4 and SP 6 at 15 Hz, 30 Hz and 2 Hz/ 50 Hz can effectively up-regulate serum E2, PGE2 and E2/P levels and down-regulate serum P content in pregnancy rats, which may contribute to its effect in promoting labor.

Sex-specific correlations of individual heterozygosity, parasite load, and scalation asymmetry in a sexually dichromatic lizard.

Heterozygosity-fitness correlations (HFCs) provide insights into the genetic bases of individual fitness variation in natural populations. However, despite decades of study, the biological significance of HFCs is still under debate. In this study, we investigated HFCs in a large population of the sexually dimorphic lizard Takydromus viridipunctatus (Lacertidae). Because of the high prevalence of parasitism from trombiculid mites in this lizard, we expect individual fitness (i.e., survival) to decrease with increasing parasite load. Furthermore, because morphological asymmetry is likely to influence individuals' mobility (i.e., limb asymmetry) and male biting ability during copulation (i.e., head asymmetry) in this species, we also hypothesize that individual fitness should decrease with increasing morphological asymmetry. Although we did not formally test the relationship between morphological asymmetry and fitness in this lizard, we demonstrated that survival decreased with increasing parasite load using a capture-mark-recapture data set. We used a separate sample of 140 lizards to test the correlations between individual heterozygosity (i.e., standardized mean d(2) and HL based on 10 microsatellite loci) and the two fitness traits (i.e., parasite load and morphological asymmetry). We also evaluated and excluded the possibility that single-locus effects produced spurious HFCs. Our results suggest male-only, negative correlations between individual heterozygosity and parasite load and between individual heterozygosity and asymmetry, suggesting sex-specific, positive HFCs. Male T. viridipunctatus with higher heterozygosity tend to have lower parasite loads (i.e., higher survival) and lower asymmetry, providing a rare example of HFC in reptiles.