Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; China ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Motor Activity ; Urban Population ; Young Adult

Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Humans ; Tuberculosis ; genetics

AIMTo evaluate the in vitro/in vivo correlation for three kinds of self-designed sustained-release nitrendipine formulations using deconvolution method.

METHODSThe characteristics of in vivo release were calculated by deconvolution method using the data of plasma concentration of three kinds of self-designed sustained-release nitrendipine formulations in healthy dogs, in which the in vivo results of nitrendipine solution after oral administrated to dogs were used as weight function. It was the compared with characteristics of in vitro release to assess the in vitro/in vivo correlations.

RESULTSThe good correlations of in vitro/in vivo were shown in three kinds of self-designed sustained-release nitrendipine formulations using deconvolution method.

CONCLUSIONThe deconvolution method exhibited advantage in evaluation of in vitro/in vivo correlation for self-designed sustained-release nitrendipine formulations.

Administration, Oral ; Animals ; Delayed-Action Preparations ; Dogs ; Methylcellulose ; analogs & derivatives ; Microspheres ; Nitrendipine ; administration & dosage ; blood ; pharmacokinetics ; Powders ; Silicone Gels ; Technology, Pharmaceutical ; methods

OBJECTIVETo understand the determinants and epidemiology of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in rural area.

METHODSAll the diagnosed TB patients in a county with directly observed treatment (DOTS) short-course program in 2002 and a sample of patients in another county without DOTS program located in northern Jiangsu province were surveyed with questionnaires. Drug susceptibility testing (DST) for positive cultures were performed by standardized proportion method. Univariable analysis and multivariate nonconditional logistic regression modeling were applied for data analysis.

RESULTSAmong the 152 patients with DST results, 32.9% of the cases showed resistance to at least one of the first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs with 26.3% to isoniazid, 18.4% to rifampin and 17.1% to both isoniazid and rifampin respectively. Previous treatments for TB and residence in the county without DOTS program were independent risk factors for isoniazid and rifampin resistance. TB patients showing indifferent to their health and delayed health seeking for more than 1 month were more likely to have rifampin resistance. Independent predictors of multidrug-resistant TB would include delayed health seeking for more than 1 month (OR = 4.66, 95% CI: 1.26 - 17.24), residing in the county without a DOTS program (OR = 3.01, 95% CI: 1.10 - 8.22), indifference to their health condition (OR = 5.13, 95% CI: 1.06 - 24.90) and suffering from chronic diseases (OR = 0.22, 95% CI: 0.05 - 0.87).

CONCLUSIONDrug-resistant TB was quite serious in this rural areas, mainly associated with man-made factors but partly due to the availability of the transmission.

Adult ; Antitubercular Agents ; pharmacology ; China ; epidemiology ; Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Drug Resistance, Multiple ; Ethambutol ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Incidence ; Isoniazid ; therapeutic use ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Middle Aged ; Rifampin ; therapeutic use ; Rural Health ; Streptomycin ; therapeutic use ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary ; epidemiology ; microbiology

Objective: To investigate whether diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and motor evoked potentials (MEP) can be used as biomarkers to assess the degree of motor dysfunction of stroke survivors. Methods: Sixty partially-paralyzed stroke survivors were given Fugl-Meyer assessments (FMAs) and MEP tests and assessed using DTI seeking any correlations among the results. The receiver operating characteristics curves (ROCs) were prepared to determine the tests′ efficacy in assessing severe motor dysfunction. Results: ① Asymmetry in the fractional anisotropy (aFA) of the peduncles cerebra as measured by DTI was negatively correlated with the FMA scores of the upper and lower limbs on the affected side. The aFA values of the posterior limb of the internal capsule (PLIC) were negatively correlated with the FMA scores of the affected upper limb, but not with the FMA scores of the affected lower limbs. The abnormalities in central motor conduction time and motor threshold, which are MEP parameters, were negatively correlated with the FMA scores of the affected limbs. ② The ROCs showed that the aFA value of the PLIC was the best indicator for assessing severe upper limb motor dysfunction, with a cut-off value of 0.167 giving the best discrimination. MEP waveform loss could also be used. It has high sensitivity but low specificity. ③ A combination of DTI and MEP can improve specificity in assessing severe motor dysfunction in the upper limbs. Conclusion DTI and MEP can both be used to evaluate motor dysfunction in stroke survivors. They have high clinical value for assessing severe motor dysfunction of the upper limbs.

Conventional medical experiments can hardly simulate cardiac excitation propagation and observe the evolvement of cardiac electrical activities firsthand as is possible with computer simulation. Based on the anatomic structure of the heart, simulation of cardiac electrical activity mainly consists of the emulation of the excitation process among the cardiac cells and calculation of the electrical activities of individual cardiac cells. In this study we establish a geometric ventricular structure model demonstrating the direction of the cardiac muscle fibers and the layers of the ventricular cells, and endow different action potential models to the ventricular cells of different layers, and observe the activation process of the ventricular parts in view of the three-dimensional anatomy. This method gives attention to both enough calculation amounts and efficiency, which achieves satisfactory simulation results of ventricular electrical activity based on the anatomic structure and cell electrophysiology through an improved algorithm on personal computer.
Algorithms ; Computer Simulation ; Electrophysiology ; Heart ; anatomy & histology ; physiology ; Humans ; Models, Anatomic ; Models, Cardiovascular

Objective To investigate the status of Cryptosporidium infection in the population in Nanjing City so as to pro-vide the evidence for the prevention and control of cryptosporidiosis. Methods A total of 100 fecal samples were collected from each of three districts(Liuhe,Qixia and Gaochun)and one hospital(Nanjing Zhongda Hospital)in 2015 and 2016 respective-ly. The fecal samples were detected for Cryptosporidium with microscopy(by using the gold amine phenol-modified acid-fast staining)and the positive samples were detected again for the molecular biology confirming by using the fluorescence quantita-tive PCR. Results During the two years,581 cases of normal population who lived in the city were surveyed and no Cryptospo-ridium infection was found. Among 202 cases of outpatients with chronic diarrhea,there were 9 Cryptosporidium positive cases with the microscope scanning method (4.46％),and among the 9 cases,7 cases showed obvious logarithmic amplification curves showing positive Cryptosporidium nucleic acid,but 2 cases without the obvious logarithmic amplification curves,and the Cryptosporidium nucleic acid positive rate was 3.47％. Conclusions Cryptosporidium infection is not found in the normal popu-lation of Nanjing City,but the Cryptosporidium infection is found in the chronic diarrhea patients. The results imply that we should strengthen the detection of Cryptosporidium in the chronic diarrhea patients,so as to provide the evidence for improving the diagnosis and treatment of cryptosporidiosis.

Objective To analyze the difference of teaching modes of course of digital signal processing for the undergraduates and postgraduates.Methods The teaching modes were compared from the aspects of educational objective,teaching content, teaching method,examination mode and etc.Results Differentiated teaching modes contributed to the satisfactory education of the undergraduates and postgraduates. Conclusion The differentiated teaching modes for the undergraduates and postgraduates provide references for the high-level education in universities and colleges of science and technology. [Chinese Medical Equipment Journal,2018,39(5):87-89,102]

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the protective efficacy of plague subunit vaccine, BALB/c mice, guinea pigs and rabbits were used in this study.

METHODSGroups of mice (10 per group), guinea pigs (14 per group) and rabbits (6 per group) were immunized with F1 + rV270 vaccine, EV76 vaccine and alum adjuvant by intramuscular route, respectively. Serum antibody titres of mice, guinea pigs and rabbits were determined by ELISA and the immunized animals were challenged with 10(6) CFU of Y. pestis strain 141 at the 8th week after the primary immunization.

RESULTSThe immunized mice, guinea pigs or rabbits with subunit vaccine developed anti-F1 IgG titre of 41 587.3 +/- 2.1, 11 543.7 +/- 2.1 or 522.4 +/- 22.4 and elicited statistical anti-F1 IgG titre difference among them (F = 17.58, P < 0.01). The immunized mice, guinea pigs or rabbits with subunit vaccine had anti-rV270 IgG titre of 15 748.7 +/- 1.6, 12.6 +/- 1.4 or 1648.0 +/- 5.0 and induced statistical anti-rV270 IgG titre difference among them (F value was 16.34, P < 0.01). There was significant anti-F1 IgG titre difference among mice, guinea pigs and rabbits immunized with EV76 vaccine that developed anti-F1 IgG titre of 913.4 +/- 4.5, 937.0 +/- 2.0 or 342.0 +/- 12.0 (F = 23.67, P < 0.01), whereas the immunized mice, guinea pigs and rabbits with EV76 vaccine developed anti-rV270 IgG titre of 12.0 +/- 1.0, 447.0 +/- 10.0, 40.0 +/- 11.0 and there was no anti-rV270 IgG titre difference between them (F = 2.20, P = 0.1314). The immunized mice with subunit vaccine developed significantly higher anti-F1 IgG titres than immunized guinea pigs and rabbits (q value was 30.57 and 19.04, respectively, P < 0.01), and there were no anti-F1 IgG titre differences between the immunized guinea pigs and rabbits (q = 0.04, P = 0.8485). The immunized mice with subunit vaccine developed significantly higher anti-rV270 IgG titres than immunized guinea pigs and rabbits (q value was 27.10 and 19.49, respectively, P < 0.01), and there were no anti-rV270 IgG titre differences between the immunized guinea pigs and rabbits with the subunit vaccine (q = 0.25, P = 0.6187). The immunized mice with EV76 elicited higher anti-F1 IgG titres than immunized guinea pigs and rabbits (q value was 40.67 and 29.10, respectively, P < 0.01), whereas there was no difference of F1 IgG titer between immunized guinea pigs and rabbits (q = 0.06, P = 0.8098). The immunized mice, guinea pigs and rabbits with subunit vaccine provided 100% (10/10), 86% (12/14) and 100% (5/5) protection against 10(6) CFU Y. pestis of challenge, respectively. The immunized mice, guinea pigs and rabbits with EV76 vaccine gave 100% (6/6), 93% (13/14) and 100% (6/6) protection against 10(6) CFU Y. pestis of challenge respectively.

CONCLUSIONBALB/c mice is the best small animal model for valuation of protective efficacy of plague subunit vaccine. The guinea pigs showed a high individual variation for this purpose. The rabbits can be used as an alternative model for evaluating plague subunit vaccine.

Animals ; Antibodies, Bacterial ; blood ; Dose-Response Relationship, Immunologic ; Female ; Guinea Pigs ; Immunization ; Immunoglobulin G ; blood ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Models, Animal ; Plague ; prevention & control ; Plague Vaccine ; immunology ; Rabbits ; Vaccines, Subunit ; immunology

OBJECTIVELcrV is an important component for the development of a subunit vaccine against plague. To reduce immunosuppressive activity of LcrV, a recombinant LcrV variant lacking amino acids 271 to 326 (rV270) was prepared by different methods in this study.

METHODSA new strategy that produced non-tagged or authentic rV270 protein was designed by insertion of rV270-thrombin-hexahistidine fusion gene into the vector pET24a, or by insertion of hexahistidine-enterokinase-rV270 or hexahistitine-factor Xa-rV270 fusion gene into the vector pET32a. After Co(2+) affinity chromatography, a purification strategy was developed by cleavage of His tag on column, following Sephacryl S-200HR column filtration chromatography.

RESULTSRemoval of His tag by thrombin, enterokinase and factor Xa displayed a yield of 99.5%, 32.4% and 15.3%, respectively. Following Sephacryl S-200HR column filtration chromatography, above 97% purity of rV270 protein was obtained. Purified rV270 that was adsorbed to 25% (v/v) Al(OH)₃ adjuvant in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) induced very high titers of antibody to rV270 in BALB/c mice and protected them (100% survival) against subcutaneous challenge with 10⁶ CFU of Y. pestis virulent strain 141.

CONCLUSIONThe completely authentic rV270 protein can be prepared by using enterokinase or factor Xa, but they exhibited extremely low cleavage activity to the corresponding recognition site. Thrombin cleavage is an efficient strategy to prepare non-tagged rV270 protein and can be easily operated in a large scale due to its relatively low cost and high cleavage efficacy. The recombinant rV270 can be used as a key component to develop a subunit vaccine of plague.

Amino Acid Sequence ; Animals ; Antibodies, Bacterial ; blood ; Antigens, Bacterial ; genetics ; immunology ; Blotting, Western ; Cloning, Molecular ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; Female ; Genetic Vectors ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred BALB C ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Plague ; immunology ; prevention & control ; Plague Vaccine ; genetics ; immunology ; Plasmids ; Pore Forming Cytotoxic Proteins ; genetics ; immunology ; Protein Engineering ; methods ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins ; genetics ; immunology ; Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization ; Survival Analysis ; Vaccines, Subunit ; genetics ; immunology ; Yersinia pestis ; growth & development ; immunology