As hepatic fibrosis and cirrhosis have chronic progressive process,the assessment of fibrosis is of great significance for making appropriate treatment.It is divided into two categories,which includes invasive and noninvasive assessing methods.As a noninvasive method,magnetic resonance shows prospect in many aspects.This article is a review of magnetic resonance imaging in the assessment of hepatic fibrosis and cirrhosis.

Objective To understand the current status of overall management and treatment of garbage and waste water in rural areas of Fujian,and to provide scientific evidence for governments at all levels to make policies in rural sanitation. Methods From September to December,2006,215 villages in 21 counties in Fujian rural areas were selected,and 10 families were sampled and investigated for garbage collection and waste water treatment from each village. Results In the investigated villages,the production of garbage amounted to 40 837.4 tons per month;and domestic and productive garbage accounted for 32.2% and 67.8% of the total,respectively. Among the domestic garbage,23.7% was randomly discharged or stacked,and only 8.5% went through harmless treatment (incineration,composting under high temperature or direct reuse). However,30.7% productive garbage was randomly discharged or stacked,and 37.1% went through harmless treatment. Every month,948 195 tons of waste water was produced in the investigated villages;57.5% of them were domestic and 42.5% were productive. Only 0.6% of the domestic waste water and 33.0% of the productive waste water were treated. Conclusion The rural public health infrastructure building is far lagged,with low rate of harmless treatment of garbage and waste water. Random littering and piling (discharging) garbage are common phenomena in rural areas. Thus,it is urgent to improve rural sanitation development.

How the hosts recognize and clear invading viruses is one of the key issues in molecular immunology. Previous studies uncovered that many early antiviral proteins, such as Type Ⅰ interferons and PKR, are strongly induced upon virus infection. These proteins not only limit virus replication and spread or cause infected cells to undergo apoptosis, but also induce consequently expression of cytokines and chemokines to initiate acquired immunity. However, the immediate-early signaling events among host and virus interaction were largely unknown. In the past few years, there are great breakthroughs in this rapidly evolving field. TLR3 and RIG-I/MDA5 signaling pathways were shown to play a crucial regulatory role in antiviral processes. These pathways are essential for the vertebrate immune system to recognize and clear RNA virus with different strategies, which are integral parts of innate immune response and directly affect later-stage acquired immunity. The recent know-how on TLR3 and RIG-I/MDA5 signal transduction pathways and their roles in antiviral immunity were summarized.

Aim To study the subtypes distribution of G-proteins and modulation by carbachol and pilocarpine on gene expression in endothelial cells.Methods The rat aorta endothelial cells were cultivated and incubated with carbachol and pilocarpine at the dose of 10~(-4) mol?L~(-1)for 6 h.Then the total RNA was extracted.The mRNA levels of G-protein ? subunits was measured by RT-PCR.Results Gq/11,Gs and Gi mRNA was detected in rat aorta endothelial cells,while G12/13 mRNA was not detected.Carbachol and pilocarpine treatment induced no changes in Gs,Gi and G11 mRNA.Gq mRNA was 72.7% up-regulated by carbachol and unchanged by pilocarpine.Conclusion In all G-protein ? subunits,only Gq mRNA was changed after activation of non-neuronal muscarinic receptor by carbachol.We can conclude that Gq-protein may play an important role in signal transduction of nonneuronal muscarinic receptor.

Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; etiology ; Birth Weight ; Electrocardiography ; Female ; Humans ; Hypocalcemia ; complications ; Infant, Newborn ; Male

Objective To explore the characteristics of prospective memory impairments in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) at the early and middle stage. Methods Fifteen PD patients at the early and middle stage and 15 normal controls matched with age, sex, education and occupation were asked to complete event-based prospective memory (EBPM) and time-based prospective memory (TBPM) tasks. Results In the EBPM task (points), there was a significant difference between PD patients (3.93±2.69) and normal controls (6.00±2.17, t =-2.318,P <0.05). In the TBPM task(points), there was no significant difference between PD patients (3.47±1.96) and normal controls (3.80±1.70, t= -0.498, P >0.05). Conclusion The EBPM is impaired and the TBPM is relatively spared in early and middle stage PD patients.

Objective To investigate whether emergency rooms in major general public hospitals are reasonably designed and convenient for patients. Methods 78 major public hospitals were selected from all over China, except Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, for emergency room convenience analysis. The standards in use were the "Standards of Hospitals" of Joint commission International Accreditation. Results The investigation found in such hospitals the following: poor road conditions outside the clinic and insufficient guides in the clinic; long-than-expected distance (normally over 50 meters) from ER to imaging departments (such as X-ray and CT scan service); ERs in provincial capital cities are significantly more convenient than those in non-capital cities; distance from ERs to CT service is significantly shorter in hospitals in eastern China than those middle and western China. Conclusions Parameters on ER's service quality from "Standards of Hospitals" could serve as a guideline to emergency medicine in China. ERs in China need to improve with conspicuous ER signs, unblocked passageways, and convenient access to inspection departments.

Locking compression plate(LCP)functions as an internal fixator in orthopedic surgery.It is a new screw-plate system developed by combining the traditional plating techniques with the principles of AO internal fixator.Compared with them,LCP omits pre-bending,avoids large-area exposure of fracture site,minimizes the damage to soft tissue,significantly reduces implant failure and decreases the incidence of infection and bone non-union.In addition,LCP can function as internal fixator with multiple anchor points to improve stability.All these properties of LCP accord with BO internal fixation principles and expand the application in the treatment of complex fracture.However,it is still not uncertain about the appropriate application of LCP including plate length,appearance,and type,and principles of screw application such as the number,type,sequence and position of screws.

The formation of macrophage-derived foam cells is a typical feature of atherosclerosis (AS). Reverse cholesterol efflux (RCT) is one of important factors for the formation of macrophage foam cells. In this study, macrophage form cells were induced by oxidized low density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) and then treated with different concentrations of ferulic acid, so as to observe the effect of ferulic acid on the intracellular lipid metabolism in the ox-LDL-induced macrophage foam cell formation, the cholesterol efflux and the mRNA expression and protein levels of ATP binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) and ATP binding cassette transporter G1 (ABCG1) that mediate cholesterol efflux, and discuss the potential mechanism of ferulic acid in resisting AS. According to the findings, compared with the control group, the ox-LDL-treated group showed significant increase in intracellular lipid content, especially for the cholesterol content; whereas the intracellular lipid accumulation markedly decreased, after the treatment with ferulic acid. The data also demonstrated that the mRNA and protein expressions of ABCA1 and ABCG1 significantly increased after macrophage foam cells were treated with different concentrations of ferulic acid. In summary, ferulic acid may show the anti-atherosclerosis effect by increasing the surface ABCA1 and ABCG1 expressions of macrophage form cells and promoting cholesterol efflux.
ATP Binding Cassette Transporter 1 ; analysis ; genetics ; ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Sub-Family G, Member 1 ; ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters ; analysis ; genetics ; Animals ; Cells, Cultured ; Cholesterol ; metabolism ; Coumaric Acids ; pharmacology ; Foam Cells ; drug effects ; metabolism ; Lipoproteins ; analysis ; genetics ; Mice

Acupuncture Therapy ; Adolescent ; Humans ; Male ; Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome ; therapy