Objectives To identify the status of iodine content in drinking water,edible salt and urine of children aged 8- 10 after implementing every village project in Qingdao for providing basic reference for government's decision-making.Methods From March 2008 to July 2009,residents' living and drinking water samples were collected in 12 districts and counties of Qingdao,and iodide content was measured by cerous sulfate catalytic spectrophotometry.Urine samples of children aged from 8 to 10 were collected,in which the iodide content was quantitative tested by arsenic cerium catalytic spectrophotometry.Samples of household edible salt were collected to determine iodide content by direct titration.Results A total of 5067 water samples were measured,the median iodine content of water was 7.35 μg/L.A total of 1182 urine samples of children aged 8 - 10 were tested,and the urinary iodine content ranged from 4.6 μg/L to 5995.3 μg/L with a median of 200.6 μg/L.Besides,3504 household salt samples were tested,and the percentages of non-iodized salt,iodized salt and qualified iodized salt were 1.74％(61/3504),98.26％(3443/3504) and 96.32％(3375/3504),respectively.Conclusions Qingdao is situated in environmental iodine deficient area,and the iodine nutritional status of residents is appropriate owing to the implementation of universal salt iodization policy in Qingdao region.Comprehensive prevention and control measures to iodine deficiency disorders,including marketing iodized salt,should be implemented continually.

Contraindications ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Promethazine ; adverse effects

A bacterium which can effectively degrade LAS (Linear Sodium Alkylbenzenesulfonate) was isolated from washing powder manufacturing effluent and was preliminarily identified as Corynebacterium jeikeium GZ6. The bacterium can degrade LAS up to till 700 mg/L, and the optimum pH, temperature and concentration of LAS are 7.0, 30℃ and 400 mg/L, respectively. The biodegradation rate can reach 98.7% after 24 hours'cultivation in the suitable conditions. Experiments also showed that some heavy metal ions such as Hg2+ , Co2+ , Cd2+ can differently inhibit the degradation of LAS.

Objective To investigate the correlation between p21-actived kinase 1(PAK1) gene polymorphism and prognosis of endocrine therapy for breast cancer. Methods Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism was employed to analyze the genotype of PAK1 gene rs2298793 T→C polymorphism and rs2844327 C→T polymorphism of 105 patients with breast cancer accepting endocrine therapy. Prognostic factors such as age, state of menses, magnitude of tumor, pathological type, condition of operation, clinical stage, estrogen receptor, progesteron receptor, Her-2 and endocrine therapy drug were comprehensively considered, and Cox model was employed to analyze the relation of PAK1 genotype with the time-to-tumor progression (TTP). Results As to rs2298793C→T polymorphism, the TTP of CT genotype was shorter than TT genotype (P

Objective: To study the dynamic changes of type Th22 cell immunological response during atherosclerosis process in experimental mice in order to provide a new theoretical basis for atherosclerosis therapy. Methods: 8 weeks C57BL/6J mice were divided into 2 groups: Experiment group,n=24 ApoE-/- mice and Control group, n=24 normal mice. All animals received high fat diet and the following indexes were compared between 2 groups at 0, 4, 8, 12 weeks after treatment: aortic atherosclerotic lesions were deifned by Oil red O staining, dynamic changes of Th22 cells in spleen were measured by lfow cytometry, mRNA expressions of interleukin-22 (IL-22), IL-22R1, AhR and T-bet in aorta were examined by RT-PCR, blood levels of IL-22 was detected by ELISA. Results: Compared with Control group, Experiment group had the increased area of aortic atherosclerosis (the ratio of plaque area/lumen area) and Th22 cell (CD4+ IL-22+/CD4+T cell) amount, elevated mRNA expressions of IL-22, IL-22R1, AHR, T-bet in aorta and higher blood levels of IL-22 at all time points, the differences between each time point (except 0 week) had the statistic meaning,P<0.05. In Experiment group, the differences between 2 adjacent time points, for the area of aortic atherosclerosis and mRNA expressions of AHR, T-bet: 4 weeks vs 0 week, 8 weeks vs 4 weeks, 12 weeks vs 8 weeks all had statistic meaning; for Th22 cell amount: 4 weeks vs 0 week, 8 weeks vs 4 weeks had statistic meaning and 12 weeks vs 8 weeks had no real distinction; for mRNA expressions of IL-22, IL-22R1 and blood levels of IL-22: 4 weeks vs 0 week had statistic meaning and 8 weeks vs 4 weeks, 12 weeks vs 8 weeks had no real distinctions. Conclusion: Hyperactive immunological response of Th22 cells might be involved in atherosclerosis process, the relevant mechanism should be further studied.

Objective:To study the influence of protein transduction domain (PTD)-oligomerization domain (OD)-HA fusion proteins on apoptosis of bcr/abl-positive cell lines. Methods:bcr/abl-positive cells were treated with PTD-OD-HA protein. The apoptoses of the cells were detected by flow cytometry (FCM), DNA ladder and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and the levels of apoptosis-related genes bax and bcl-2 were detected by RT-PCR and Western blotting. Results:FCM examination demonstrated that PTD-OD-HA protein induced the apoptosis of bcr/abl-positive cells; DNA ladder showed that the classic DNA ladders appeared in BaF3-P210 and K562 cells after 48 h treatment with PTD-OD-HA proteins; the apoptoses of BaF3-P210 cells were observed by TEM; the levels of bax in mRNA and protein increased in BaF3-P210 and K562 cells, and bcl-2 decreased. Conclusion:PTD-OD-HA proteins specifically induced the apoptosis of bcr/abl positive cells.

Objectives To investigate the clinical features of pneumonia in children with elevated alanine aminotransferase(ALT). Methods Clinical and laboratory data of 3 979 children with pneumonia admitted to the hospital were collected and retrospectively analysed, and ALT was detected in all cases. Results In 3 979 children with pneumo-nia, elevated ALT (13.78%) was found in 548 cases, most of which had mildly elevated ALT and were infants less than 6 months. The average age in elevated ALT group was less than that in normal ALT group (P=0.000). Apart from the symp-toms of pneumonia, most of them had non-specific clinical symptoms, 169 cases (30.84%) with anorexia or feeding dif-ficulties. 22 cases (4.01%) with poor spirit or weak, 10 cases (1.82%) with crying or abdominal pain;6 cases (1.09%) with dark urine; 4 cases (0.73%) with skin and/or sclera jaundice, 2 cases (0.36%) with bleeding tendency. Children in mildly elevated ALT group recovered faster than in moderate-to-severe elevated ALT group. Conclusions Mildly elevated ALT was most common in pneumonia with elevated ALT which was more likely to occur in younger age group. Clinical mani-festations were often non-specific with good outcomes.

Objective To investigate the changes in the expression of GABAAα1, receptors in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in a rat model of neuropathic pain. Methods Nine male Wistar rats weighing 200-210 g were randomly divided into 3 groups ( n = 3 each): control group (group C) , sham operation group (group S) and neuropathic pain group (group P). Neuropathic pain was induced by chronic constrictive injury. The right sciatic nerve was exposed and 4 loose ligatures were placed on the sciatic nerve at 1 mm intervals with 3-0 chromic catgut. In group S, the right sciatic nerve was exposed but not ligated. The thermal and mechanical pain threshold was measured at 1 d before and 1,4,7, 10 and 14 d after operation. The animals were then sacrificed and the mPFC was removed. The expression of GABAAα1, receptors in mPFC was determined by Western blot. Results Compared with C and S groups, thermal and mechanical pain threshold were significantly decreased and the expression of GABAAα1, receptors was up-regulated in group P ( P ＜ 0.01) . There was no significant difference was in the thermal and mechanical pain threshold and expression of GABAAα1 receptors between C and S groups (P ＞ 0.05). Conclusion Up-regulation of GABAAα1 receptor expression in mPFC may be involved in the development and maintenance of neuropathic pain in rats.

OBJECTIVETo develop a new technique for assessing the risk of birth defects, which are a major cause of infant mortality and disability in many parts of the world.

METHODSThe region of interest in this study was Heshun County, the county in China with the highest rate of neural tube defects (NTDs). A hybrid particle swarm optimization/ant colony optimization (PSO/ACO) algorithm was used to quantify the probability of NTDs occurring at villages with no births. The hybrid PSO/ACO algorithm is a form of artificial intelligence adapted for hierarchical classification. It is a powerful technique for modeling complex problems involving impacts of causes.

RESULTSThe algorithm was easy to apply, with the accuracy of the results being 69.5%±7.02% at the 95% confidence level.

CONCLUSIONThe proposed method is simple to apply, has acceptable fault tolerance, and greatly enhances the accuracy of calculations.

Algorithms ; Artificial Intelligence ; China ; epidemiology ; Environmental Exposure ; adverse effects ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Models, Biological ; Neural Tube Defects ; epidemiology ; Risk Factors

The preparation and application of universal group O donor red blood cells (RBC) are a trend of future transfusion medicine. This article reviewed the technologies for producing universal RBC in recent years. One of them is modification of blood group antigens, which includes two basic methods. One of these two methods is enzymatic cleavage of the terminal immunodominant sugars from carbohydrate chains on the membrane of group A or/and group B RBC, in order to produce so-called enzyme-converted group O (ECO) RBC. ECO RBC have been produced from whole units of B RBC, which then survived normally when given to type A and O individuals in clinical trial. Because of the complexity of group A antigens, conversion of group A RBC (especially A1 RBC) to group O RBC is more difficult. Recently, a new bacterial glycosidase efficiently cleaving antigens on the surface of both A₁ and A₂ RBC has been obtained. Another method is pegylation, which camouflage the antigens on the surface of RBC with non-immunogenic molecules such as polyethylene glycol (PEG) in a non-specific way, to provide O, minor antigen negative phenotype RBC. The second technology is generating universal RBC from stem cells (such as hematopoietic stem cells, human embryonic stem cells) and human dermal fibroblasts, which will provide a new resource for blood supply. Great progress has been made, but a number of challenges still remain for using them in clinical transfusion, including scale-up, effectiveness and safety of prepared RBC. However, these researches will provide solutions for the problems in current transfusion, such as blood supply shortage, blood borne disease and emergency blood transfusion, and enhance the safety of clinical transfusions in the near future.
ABO Blood-Group System ; Cell Culture Techniques ; Embryonic Stem Cells ; Erythrocyte Count ; Erythrocyte Transfusion ; Erythrocytes ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Humans