Thunder-fire wonder moxibustion is one of pressing moxibustion therapies and has a very good therapeutic effect on limb pains, furuncle-carbuncle and cold syndrome. To reveal the mechanism of clinical action of ancestors’ thunder-fire wonder moxibustion and seek the physical basis of its therapeutic advantage, this study, by a series of experiments, compared heat transfer regularities of thunder-fire wonder moxibustion versus pure moxa stick in simulated biological tissues under different conditions, preliminarily revealed heat radiation and heat transfer regularities of thunder-fire wonder moxibustion, tried to find pressing strength suitable for clinical operation of pressing moxibustion and had thoughts about changes in the clinical operation of past dynasties.

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are generally associated with respiratory and enteric infections and have long been recognized as important pathogens of livestock and companion animals. Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) is a widely studied model system for Coronavirus replication and pathogenesis. In this study, we created a MHV-A59 temperature sensitive (ts) mutant Wu"-ts18(cd) using the recombinant vaccinia reverse genetics system. Virus replication assay in 17C1-1 cells showed the plaque phenotype and replication characterization of constructed Wu"-ts18(cd) were indistinguishable from the reported ts mutant Wu"-ts 18. Then we cultured the ts mutant Wu"-ts 18(cd) at non-permissive temperature 39.5℃, which "forced" the ts recombinant virus to use second-site mutation to revert from a ts to a non-ts phenotype. Sequence analysis showed most of the revertants had the same single amino acid mutation at Nsp16 position 43. The single amino acid mutation at Nsp16 position 76 or position 130 could also revert the ts mutant Wu"-ts 18 (cd) to non-ts phenotype, an additional independent mutation in Nsp13 position 115 played an important role on plaque size. The results provided us with genetic information on the functional determinants of Nsp16. This allowed us to build up a more reasonable model of CoVs replication-transcription complex.

OBJECTIVETo analyze the relationship between the pathological features and 64-multislice spiral computed tomography (64-MSCT) findings of pulmonary nodules in autopsies from patients with coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP), to investigate the optimal imaging method for the distribution of pulmonary nodules, and to provide data for the establishment of CT diagnostic criteria for CWP.

METHODSCadaveric lung specimens were collected from 7 CWP patients. All of them were men, aged 42∼77 years (mean, 60.00±13.00 years), and their dust exposure time was 5∼30 years (mean, 15.4±8.01 years). The cadaveric lung specimens were treated by aeration, sectioning, and immobilization and were then examined by coronary 64-MSCT. The primitive images were reconstructed into the maximumintensity projection (MIP) images (slice thickness: 3 mm, 5 mm, and 8 mm). The sensitivities of imaging methods with different slice thickness were evaluated based on the pathology and anatomy of local pulmonary nodules, and the correlation between pathological results and radiological findings was analyzed.

RESULTSThere were significant differences between the stages determined by pathological examination and high-kV chest radiography (before death) (χ(2) = 4.667, P < 0.05; kappa value = 0.167, P < 0.05). A total of 271 nodules were found in all pathological sections, including peribronchovascular nodules (27, 9.9%), centrilobular nodules (67, 24.6%), interlobular nodules (65, 24.3%), nodules within 5 mm from the pleura (45, 16.5%), pleural plaque-like nodules on the lateral chest wall (45, 16.5%), and nodules on the interlobar pleura (22, 8.1%). The likelihood ratio was the highest (0.981) between 5-mm MIP images and pathological results according to the chi-square test.

CONCLUSIONThe stage of pulmonary nodules determined by pathological examination is significantly different from that determined by high-kV chest radiography. The 5-mm MIP images of 64-MSCT provide a good reflection of the local pathology and anatomy of pulmonary nodules in CWP patients.

Aged ; Anthracosis ; pathology ; Coal ; Coal Mining ; Dust ; Humans ; Lung ; pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pleural Diseases ; pathology ; Tomography, Spiral Computed

We report a complete genomic sequence of rare isolates (minor genotype) of the SARS-CoV from SARS patients in Guangdong, China, where the first few cases emerged. The most striking discovery from the isolate is an extra 29-nucleotide sequence located at the nucleotide positions between 27,863 and 27,864 (referred to the complete sequence of BJ01) within an overlapped region composed of BGI-PUP5 (BGI-postulated uncharacterized protein 5) and BGI-PUP6 upstream of the N (nucleocapsid) protein. The discovery of this minor genotype, GD-Ins29, suggests a significant genetic event and differentiates it from the previously reported genotype, the dominant form among all sequenced SARS-CoV isolates. A 17-nt segment of this extra sequence is identical to a segment of the same size in two human mRNA sequences that may interfere with viral replication and transcription in the cytosol of the infected cells. It provides a new avenue for the exploration of the virus-host interaction in viral evolution, host pathogenesis, and vaccine development.
Base Sequence ; China ; Cluster Analysis ; Gene Components ; Genetic Variation ; Genome, Viral ; Genotype ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Phylogeny ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; SARS Virus ; genetics ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ; genetics