Rehabilitation psychological experience of the elderly within 6 months of initial disability: a qualitative study.

PURPOSE: To explore the rehabilitation psychological experience of the Chinese elderly within 6 months of initial disability, understand and analyse their real feelings and thoughts to help caregivers in providing support. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We adopted the descriptive phenomenology method to purposefully select elderly with initial disability within 6 months from neurorehabilitation departments of 2 hospitals in China, who were able to cooperate with researchers to conduct interviews. The data were collected from semi-structured interviews and analysed using Colaizzi's analysis method. RESULTS: fifteen participants with an average age of 73.7(±9.0) years and an average disability time of 3.2 (±1.5) months were interviewed. Four themes were identified: (1) the discomfort of losing the sense of self; (2) feeling trapped over unmet needs; (3) ambivalence towards rehabilitation; (4) expectations and hopelessness for the future. Traditional Chinese thoughts such as family concepts played an important role in the generation of complex emotions. CONCLUSION: The elderly had the desire and motivation to recover and return to the families and society. However, due to personal, family and social factors, they still felt ambivalence towards rehabilitation, self-worth and life, which hindered rehabilitation. Therefore, carers should focus on the elderly's psychological states, taking corresponding measures to satisfy their complex demands and motivate long-term recovery.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONChinese elderly with initial disability often had a strong sense of ambivalence towards self-worth, rehabilitation and life, among which the influence of the traditional Chinese family concept counts.Health care personnel should improve the positive coping ability of the elderly to promote their harmonious coexistence with disability, rebuild their personal values, develop their rehabilitation potential.Health care departments need to provide support to the elderly and their families to maximize the positive role of the family in the rehabilitation process of the elderly.In order to alleviate the discomfort of disabled elderly in rehabilitation and enhance compliance, there is a need to improve the hard environment (rehabilitation technologies, etc.) and soft environment (rehabilitation concept and service quality, etc.).

Tracing the potential pollution sources of the coastal water in Hong Kong with statistical models combining APCS-MLR.

In this study, variety of statistical methods were performed to reveal the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of pollutants and parsing pollution sources of the coastal water in Hong Kong. The temporal-spatial distribution characteristics of the water pollution were various among the three distinct areas, which might be ascribed to the different dominant pollution sources. Cluster and network analysis showed preliminary pollution sources in these areas, and also indicated the temporal characteristics of Deep Bay water pollution, which could divided into two parts before and after 2010. According to the principal component analysis/factor analysis results, three factors in Deep Bay, Tolo Harbour and Victoria Harbour could explained 68.72%, 54.87% and 72.28% of the total variances, respectively. The contribution rate of different pollution source on water quality variables in each area had calculated by absolute principal component score-multiple linear regression model. The contribution rate was roughly ranked as: point source pollution > non-point source pollution > overland runoff > river input. It is the first time to combine multivariate statistical methods, network analysis and regression model to profoundly analyze spatiotemporal variation of seawater quality and parsing the pollution sources. This novel analysis method can provide reference for the water quality evaluation and management of other water bodies.

Note: A novel experimental setup for high-pressure abrasive liquid nitrogen jet.

A high-pressure abrasive liquid nitrogen (L-N2) jet is considered as an efficient rock-breaking technology due to its unique low-temperature characteristic. In order to experimentally investigate the impact of an abrasive L-N2 jet on rock breakage, a new setup, which considers the low temperature and high expansibility of L-N2, is put forward in this note. The setup is composed of four units: the power system, nitrogen-gas pressurization system, particle mixing system, and impingement system. Both a pre-mixed abrasive L-N2 jet and a post-mixed abrasive L-N2 jet can be achieved by this equipment. Moreover, it can also be used to investigate the influences of injection parameters and particle parameters on rock breakage. A series of experiments have been carried out based on the setup. The results further promote the application of an abrasive L-N2 jet.

HSP47 is associated with the prognosis of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma by inhibiting cell viability and invasion and promoting apoptosis.

Heat shock protein 47 (HSP47) is a 47 kDa collagen binding protein that has a close relationship with the development and progression of tumours. However, little is known concerning the expression profile of HSP47 in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) patients and there is still insufficient data concerning the underlying mechanisms. The aim of the present study was to explore the expression of HSP47 in LSCC and provide an overview of its association with tumourigenicity and clinical prognosis. The expression of HSP47 in LSCC and adjacent non-cancerous laryngeal tissues was assessed via western blotting and immunohistochemical studies. The prognostic significance of HSP47 expression was analysed using a Kaplan-Meier survival curve. To investigate the influence of HSP47 on the viability, invasion and apoptosis of a LSCC cell line, we performed an in vitro analysis with plasmid vectors and small interfering RNA (siRNA). Our results showed that HSP47 protein expression in the LSCC tissues was markedly decreased compared to that noted in the adjacent non-cancerous tissues, and low expression of HSP47 was correlated with poor prognosis in LSCC patients. Upregulation of HSP47 via plasmid vectors inhibited the proliferation, reduced the invasive ability, increased the sensitivity to cisplatin chemotherapy, promoted apoptosis, and induced the G1 phase arrest of LSCC cells in vitro. The expression of apoptosis-regulating proteins was also altered when HSP47 was upregulated, involving increased expression of cleaved caspase-7/-8/-9, PARP, and Bax and decreased expression of Bcl-2. Our present data suggest that HSP47 is an important prognostic factor and an attractive therapeutic target in LSCC due to its influence on the biological behaviour of LSCC cells.

Recent advances in the study of 11ß-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (11ß-HSD2)Inhibitors.

11ß-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11ß-HSD), which interconverts hormonally active cortisol and inactive cortisone in multiple human tissues, has two distinct isoforms named 11ß-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1 (11ß-HSD1) and 11ß-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 2 (11ß-HSD2). 11ß-HSD2 is an NAD+-dependent oxidase which lowers cortisol by converting it to cortisone while 11ß-HSD1 mainly catalyzes the reduction which converts cortisone into cortisol. Selective inhibition of 11ß-HSD2 is generally detrimental to health because the accumulation of cortisol can cause metabolic symptoms such as apparent mineralocorticoid excess (AME), fetal developmental defects and lower testosterone levels in males. There has been some advances on the study of 11ß-HSD2 inhibitors and we think it necessary to make a summary of the characteristics and inhibiting properties of latest 11ß-HSD2 inhibitors. As another review on 11ß-HSD2 inhibitors has been issued on 2011 (see review (Ma et al., 2011)), this mini-review concerns advances during the last 5 years.

[Effects of Rhodiola rosea on level of 5-hydroxytryptamine, cell proliferation and differentiation, and number of neuron in cerebral hippocampus of rats with depression induced by chronic mild stress].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of Rhodiola rosea on the level of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), cell proliferation and differentiation, and number of neuron in cerebral hippocampus of rats with depression induced by chronic mild stress. METHOD: Fifty rats were divided into 5 groups: normal control, untreated, negative control, positive control and Rhodiola rosea-treated groups. There were 10 rats in each group. Except for normal control group, depression was induced in rats by chronic mild stress. The depressive rats in the other four groups were intragastrically administered with 0.5% sodium carboxymethycellulose, fluoxetine and Rhodiola rosea for 3 weeks. After the treatment, the content of 5-HT in the hippocampus was detected by high-performance liquid chromatography. The proliferating cells and differentiated cells in the hippocampus were labeled by bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) or/and beta-tubulin III immunohistochemistry, and the number of hippocampal neurons was counted by morphometry. RESULT: Compared with the normal control group, the content of 5-HT, number of BrdU positive cells, percentage of BrdU and beta-tubulin III double labeled cells and number of neurons in cerebral hippocampus in the Rhodiola rosea-treated group were increased and recovered to normal level. CONCLUSION: Rhodiola rosea may enhance the level of 5-HT and promote the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells in the hippocampus of the depressive rats, and may play a role in saving injured neurons of the hippocampus.