ObjectiveTo investigate the visual condition and causes of blindness and low vision of ov er 60 years old people found by routine physical examination. Methods A total of 892 cases over 60 years old people took a yearly routine examinatio n, such as far and near vision in daily life, anterior segment and fundus of the eye and intraocular pressure. If the vision were under 0 3, the refractive vis ion needs to be corrected. The blindness and low vision patients were selected a nd taken further related examinations to analyse statistically the causes of bli ndness. Results Among 892 cases investigated, blindness together with low vision were 42 cases (4 71%). The morbidity rate of blindness and low vision were 1 01% (9 cases) a nd 3 70% (33 cases) respectively. Diseases caused blindness were macular lesio ns (57 14%), glaucoma(11 91%), cataract (9 52%), retinal diseases, optic nerv e atrophy, keratopathy etc. Refractory eye diseases were obviously more than t he eye diseases which can be treated. The morbidity rate of over 80 years old pe ople were obviously more than that of under 80 years group. Conclusions With ageing, the old people easily suffer from eye diseases and results in bli ndness. For the prevention and treatment of blindness for the elderly, much atte ntion to treatment of eye diseases should not only paid, active training is also important.

Objective To investigate the vision and the eye conditions of the longevous aged 90 years or over Methods The vision was examined by Snellen chart, and the outer eye, anterior segment, fundus and intraocular pressure were examined by slit lamp, funduscope and non contact tonometer in 135 longevous cases Some related examinations were adopted on suspective cases The refractive errors were corrected in 53 cases who were cooperative to examination Results The visions of right eyes were 0 01～1 0 with the average of 0 46?0 50, and the left eyes were 0 03～1 0, with the average of 0 49?0 50. The probabilities of blindness and low vision were 5 93% and 10 27% respectively. In 43 cases (81 13%)the vision increased by 1～5 lines (the average in 3 lines)after optometry compared with pre optometry ( P

Filamentous fungi are widely used in industrial fermentation. Particular fungal morphology acts as a critical index for a successful fermentation. To break the bottleneck of morphological analysis, we have developed a reliable method for fungal morphological analysis. By this method, we can prepare hundreds of pellet samples simultaneously and obtain quantitative morphological information at large scale quickly. This method can largely increase the accuracy and reliability of morphological analysis result. Based on that, the studies of Aspergillus niger morphology under different oxygen supply conditions and shear rate conditions were carried out. As a result, the morphological responding patterns of A. niger morphology to these conditions were quantitatively demonstrated, which laid a solid foundation for the further scale-up.
Aspergillus niger ; cytology ; Fermentation ; Industrial Microbiology ; Reproducibility of Results

Carbon-limited continuous culture was used to study the relationship between the growth of Aspergillus niger and the production of glucoamylase. The result showed that when the specific growth rate was lower than 0.068 h(-1), the production of glucoamylase was growth-associated, when the specific growth rate was higher than 0.068 h(-1), the production of glucoamylase was not growth-associated. Based on the result of continuous culture, the Monod dynamics model of glucose consumption of A. niger was constructed, Combining Herbert-Pirt equation of glucose and oxygen consumption with Luedeking-Piret equation of enzyme production, the black-box model of Aspergillus niger for enzyme production was established. The exponential fed-batch culture was designed to control the specific growth rate at 0.05 h(-1) by using this model and the highest yield for glucoamylase production by A. niger reached 0.127 g glucoamylase/g glucose. The black-box model constructed in this study successfully described the glucoamylase production by A. niger and the result of the model fitted the measured value well. The black-box model could guide the design and optimization of glucoamylase production by A. niger.
Aspergillus niger ; metabolism ; Batch Cell Culture Techniques ; Carbon ; Culture Media ; Glucan 1,4-alpha-Glucosidase ; biosynthesis ; Glucose ; Industrial Microbiology ; methods ; Oxygen

Objective To detect the volume changes of cerebral gray and white matter in patients with maintaining hemodialysis using voxel-based morphometry(VBM) and to correlate these changes with cognitive function. Methods Forty-two patients with maintaining hemodialysis and 41 age and sex matched normal subjects were recruited in this study. MMSE was obtained to evaluate their neuropsychiatric conditions. Whole brain high-resolution T1WI was performed on 3.0 T MR scanner in both patients and normal controls. The data were analyzed by VBM based on SPM8, using analysis of functional neuroimages (AFNI) software package with the Monte Carlo simulation method(AlphaSim method) for multiple cluster level comparisons correction. Independent sample t test analysis was used to compare the volume of gray and white matter between the patients and normal controls. In addition, Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis was performed to explore the correlation between the voxel value of cerebral volume changes area and dialysis duration and clinical laboratory examination, and Spearman correlation analysis was used for the correlation between the left insula voxel values and neuropsychological test scores. Results Compared with normal controls, patients showed significantly decreased volume in the grey matter of the right putamen, the left putamen, the left insula (numbers of voxel in clusters were 455, 561, 162, t=-9.5681,-5.9516,-5.7185,P<0.001, AlphaSim-corrected). There was negative correlation between decreased grey matter volume of the right putamen[(0.53 ± 0.12)mm3]and the left putamen[(0.48 ± 0.12)mm3] and dialysis duration [19.0(1.5-114.0)months] (r=-0.330,-0.307,P<0.05). MMSE score of patients[29(21-30)score] was significantly lower than normal controls[30(28-30)score] (Z=-30.58,P<0.01). Decreased grey matter volume of the left insula [(0.39 ± 0.12) mm3] was positively correlated with MMSE(r=0.320, P<0.05). Conclusions The patients with maintaining hemodialysis show grey matter atrophy which is associated with neurocognitive dysfunction. Dialysis duration may be an important risk factor for decreased gray matter in patients with maintaining hemodialysis.

Objective To compare the detection performance of the modified serum test (TRUST) method and the traditional method in syphilis screening.Methods A series of TRUST high titer syphilis serum was diluted,and the positive rate of each method was calculated by using the improved method and the traditional method.Comparison of two detection methods of C50,C5 ～ C95 interval,as well as the accuracy of the density curve,and the consistency of the two methods were compared,and diagnostic performance were compared.Results The improved method of C50 was less than the traditional method of C50,and the improved method of C5 ～ C95 range was narrower than the traditional method,compared with the traditional method.The improved method of the non precision density curve was steeper than the traditional method,and the two confidence interval of the consistency degree of the 95％ methods was 73.4％ to 95.8％.The diagnostic sensitivity (SEN),diagnostic specificity (SPE),positive predictive value (PPV),negative predictive value (NPV) and diagnostic efficiency(DF) of the improved method were 64.29 ％,99.1％,85.71％,97.05 ％ and 96.39 ％,respectively.The SEN,SPE,PPV,NPV and DF of the traditional methods were 3.75 ％,98.49 ％,75 ％,96.18 ％ and 95 ％,respectively.The improved method was superior to the traditional methods in the two aspects of SEN and PPV (x2 =8.25,10.03,all P＜0.05),with the statistically significant difference.The improved method was slightly higher than the traditional method in SPE,NPV and DF (x2 =2.39,3.45,4.03,all P＞0.05),with the no statistically significant difference.Conclusion The precision,diagnostic sensitivity and diagnostic specificity of the improved method was higher than that of the traditional method,and it can be applied to the detection of large batch samples with the aid of the full automatic enzyme immunoassay instrument.The improved method can be used to replace the traditional method for syphilis screening.

Due to the ability of overcoming both the dimensionality and the collinear problems of the spectral data, partial least squares ( PLS ) is in ever increasingly used for quantitative spectrometric analysis, especially for near-infrared spectrum, mid-infrared spectrum and Raman spectrum. In this work, an improved PLS algorithm is proposed for efficient information extraction and noise reduction. The spectral variables are clustering to several subsets, and several sub-models are built for each subset. Then, the sub-models are re-weighted and ensemble to the final model. Experiments on two near-infrared datasets ( octane number prediction in gasoline and nicotine prediction in tobacco leafs ) demonstrate that the new method provides superior prediction performance and outperformed the conventional PLS algorithm, and the root mean square error of prediction ( RMSEP) is reduced by 32% and 22%, respectively.

ObjectiveTo investigate the activation of MAPK signal pathway in multiple myeloma and the regulation of BLyS expression levels through MAPK signal pathway; preliminarily study the role of MAPK signal pathway in the up-regulation of BLyS expression levels induced by IFN-γ.MethodsActivated MAPK pathway were detected by Western blot,while the expression of BLyS were detected with RT-PCR and Western blot,and Western blot investigated the effect of MAPK pathway on BLyS expression levels induced by IFN-γ.ResultsIn addition to the expression of ERK,JNK,p38,p-JNK was also expressed in MM cell lines,the MAPK pathway inhibitor targeting JNK SP600125 can down-regulate the expression of BLyS,and its activator anisomycin can up-regulate the expression of BLyS.SP600125 restrained the proliferation and survival of MM cells.ConclusionJNK/SAPK pathway was activated in MM cells; The activated degree of JNK/SAPK pathway and the expression level of BLyS was positively correlated.JNK/SAPK pathway play an important role in the up-regulation of BLyS expression levels induced by IFN-γ.

OBJECTIVETo detect plasma concentrations of vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF) and tissue factor (TF) in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and explore their clinical significance in ALL.

METHODSThirty-three children with newly diagnosed ALL, including 18 cases of low risk, 7 cases of moderate risk and 8 cases of high risk, were enrolled in this study. Twenty-five patients received a complete remission and 8 cases were in non-remission after conventional remission induction chemotherapy. Plasma concentrations of VEGF and TF in the patients were detected using ELISA before and after treatment. Sixteen healthy children served as normal control group.

RESULTSPlasma concentrations of VEGF and TF in ALL patients before treatment were significantly higher than those in normal controls (P < 0.01). Plasma concentrations of VEGF and TF in the non-remission group before treatment were significantly higher than those in the remission group (P < 0.05) and the control group (P < 0.01). After treatment the plasma concentrations of VEGF and TF in the non-remission group were not significantly reduced and higher than those in the remission and the control groups (P < 0.01). There were significant differences in plasma concentrations of VEGF and TF among the low-risk, moderate-risk and high-risk groups before and after treatment (P < 0.05). Plasma concentrations of VEGF and TF in the high risk group were not significantly reduced after treatment and higher than those in the control group (P < 0.01). A linear correlation was noted between plasma VEGF and TF concentrations in ALL patients before treatment (r=0.50, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSVEGF and TF play an important role in the development of ALL and may be useful to the evaluation of the severity and the outcome in ALL.

Adolescent ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma ; blood ; etiology ; Thromboplastin ; analysis ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A ; blood

[Objective] To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of propranolol in treating infantile hemangiomas.[Methods] Ninety children with hemangioma collected from July 2010 to November 2011 were recruited in this study.Oral propranolol was given at a dose of 1.5-2.0 mg/kg per day,and the dose was adjusted according to the growth of body weight.Patients were revisited every month for the observation of appearance of hemangioma.The following parameters,including blood glucose,alanine transarninase,aspartate aminotransferase,urea nitrogen,creatinine,creatine kinase,heart rate,blood pressure,electrocardiogram and ultrasound image of hemangioma,were monitored before and after the administration of propranolol.[Results] A rapid halt in haemangioma proliferation was seen in 91.1％ (82/91) of the patients within 24-48 hours after the administration of popranolol.After 1-10 months of treatment,haemangioma shrunk by 0-25％ with a lightening of lesional color in 8.0％ (7/88) of the patients,by 26％-50％ with an obvious lightening of lesional color in 39.8％ (35/88),by 51％-75％ with a marked lightening of lesional color in 26.1％ (23/88),and 26.1％ (23/88)of the patients achieved a shrinkage of more than 75％ or fading of lesional color.The 7-8 months of treatment leaded to the best outcome,followed by 5-6 months,3-4 months,and 1-2 months,of treatrnent.No rebound was observed in patients who stopped the treatment at 10 months to l year and 4 months of age.Usually during early stage of the therapy,some of the patients suffered from reduced diastolic blood pressure,sleep disorder,loose stools,hypoglycemia,cold extremities,bronchial hyperreactivity,elevated alanine transaminase/aspartate aminotransferase or creatine kinase isoenzyme,most of which were tolerable and relieved with or without symptomatic treatment.[Conclusion]s Propranolol can suppress the growth and accelerate the regression of hemangiomas in proliferative phase,and also can promote the subsidence of hemangiomas in regressive phase.The side effects of propranolol are usually mild,but still need close monitoring.