Objective To investigate the effects of dexmedetomidine on the outcome in rats with sepsis. Methods Male SD rats, aged 10-14 weeks, weighing 260-390 g, were used in this study. Sepsis was induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). Ninety rats of successful sepsis model were randomly divided into 3 groups ( n = 30 each) : control group (group C), midasolam group (group M) and dexmedetomidine group (group D). In group C, M and D, normal saline at a rate of 1 ml/h, midazolam at a rate of 0.6 mg·kg-1·h-1 and dexmedetomidine at a rate of 5 μg·kg-1·h-1 were infused iv for 8 h after operation respectively. Ten rats of each group were selected for observation of the survival condition during 24 h after operation. Another 10 rats of each group were selected and blood samples were taken from carotid artery before operation and at 2, 4 and 5 h after operation for measurement of plasma concentrations of TNF-α and IL-6 by ELISA. The remaining 10 rats of each group were selected at 8 h after operation for determination of the renal function. The rats still alive after the determination of cytokines and renal function were killed and spleen tissues were taken for determination of the expression of caspase-3 and ubiquitin by Western blot. Results Compared with group C, the plasma concentration of TNF-α and fractional excretion of sodium (FENa+) were significantly decreased, caspase-3 expression in spleen tissues was down-regulated and abiquitin expression in spleen tissues was up-regulated in group M and D ( P < 0.05), while there were no significant differences in plasma concentration of IL-6 and creatinine clearance rate (Ccr) at 8 h after operation between group M and C and between group D and C ( P > 0.05). The plasma concentration of TNF-α was significantly lower in group D than in group M ( P < 0.05), while there were no significant differences in plasma concentration of IL-6, FE Na+ , Ccr and expression of caspase-3 and ubiquitin in splen tissues between group D and M ( P>0.05). The survival rates during 24 h after operation were 10%, 80% and 90% in group C, M and D respectively. The survival rates during 24 h after operation were signifrcantly higher in group M and D than in group C ( P > 0.05). Conclusion Dexmedetomidine can raise the survival rate during sepsis.

In recent years,thyroid cancer incidence increased year by year,after the effective prevention of iodine deficiency disorders in many countries,which caused widespread attention in academia.Whether is this increasing trend related to the implementation of policy of iodized salt in many countries? Currently,the association between iodine intake and thyroid cancer is unclear.This review article describes the metabolic and nutritional status of iodine,and the epidemiology of thyroid cancer,and further elaborates the relationship and the pathogenesis of iodine and thyroid cancer.

Objectives To compare the difference of ERG11 partial promoter sequence(-440 ～ -1)between yeast-form and hypha-form of Candida albicans, and the relation between the mutation of ERG11 promoter and the susceptibility of C. albicans to fluconazole. Methods Yeast-form and hypha-form of C. albicans genome DNA were extracted from 4 substrains C. albicans, which were isolated from a single HIV-sero-positive patient. Partial ERG11 promoters of yeast-form and hypha-form of these 4 substrains were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the PCR products were sequenced. Results There was no sequence difference between the yeast-form and the hypha-form of C. albicans in this region. Heterogeneities at position -365, -353, -328, -310, -308, -299, -295, -293, -292, 290, -289 and a single base deletion (-284 delT) were found on one allele of ERG11 promoter region of fluconazole-susceptible substrains. No heterogeneities were observed in dose-dependent fluconazole-susceptible and fluconazole-resistant substrains. Conclusions There is no difference of ERG11 partial promoter sequence between the yeast-form and the hypha-form C. albicans. The mutation of ERG11 promoter may be associated with the resistance of C. albicans to fluconazole.

The quantity of adipocytes has a direct impact on the levels of obesity,and the apoptotic factors of preadipocytes are also related to adipositas.The apoptosis of preadipocytes is influenced by many genes and other factors.Findings in the studies on the apoptosis of preadipocytes and its influencing factors have contributed a lot to the researches on obesity and many other diseases.

Ricin is a plant toxin isolated from the seed of the castor plant(Ricinus communis). As a typical II ribosome inactivating protein,ricin consists of two polypeptide chains named ricin toxin A chain(RTA)and ricin toxin B chain(RTB),linked via a disulfide bridge. RTB binds to both glycopro?tein and glycolipid at the surface of the target cell and mediates ricin to be endocytosed and transported retro?gradely to the endoplasmic reticulum. After being reduced and retrotranslocated to the cytosol,RTA mediates its toxicity due to its activity of a RNA N- glycosidases. Aside from its main toxic effect of protein synthesis inhibition,ricin also displays other properties that contribute to its toxicity such as inducing apoptosis,cytokine secreting and peroxidation. Ricin is stable and can be easily isolated. It has many routes of intoxication with no specific antidotes. Due to its natural abundance,remarkable toxicity,and the potential to be used in biological warfare as well as terrorist attacks,ricin has been classified as a Category B biothreat agent. Here we reviewed its history as a biothreat agent,constitu?tion,intoxication mechanism,detection methods and the development of specific antitodes.

Objective To learn the status of health care personnel construction of primary health institutions in Jiangsu province. Methods In July 2015, cluster sampling method was adopted in which 14 areas from Jiangsu province were selected, then one or more township health centers from each area were selected , and a total of 23 hospitals were selected. Personal interview were applied to administrators, the medical staff and residents respectively. A self-made questionnaire was performed in medical personnel from different departments. The method of descriptive statistics was used to collect data of rural health care personnel in primary health institutions. Results A total of 521 questionnaires were collected. In the town hospitals, the average age of the health professional staff was 37 years old. 68.33% (356 people) of the staff had college diploma or technical secondary school diploma and 35.12%(183 people) of them had junior title. There were 10.94%(57 people) and 14.01%(73 people) of the staff had no title and no physician practice qualification respectively. Conclusion Grass-roots health personnel construction task is still formidable. Further efforts are needed to improve the educa-tional system of health talents. And the incentive mechanism should be improved to strengthen the at-traction and stability of grass-roots health personnel. Strengthening education and training for the exist-ing staff is also needed to intensify the ability to primary health care.

Objective To compare 2 approaches with different culture media which induce hyphal form of Candida albicans.Methods Induction of hyphal form was conducted for 16 C.albicans strains with either RPMI 1640 medium or DMEM medium,at 37 ℃ for 24 h,respectively.The hyphal and yeast forms were counted separately and the ratio of hyphal form to total cells was calculated.Results The ratio of hyphal form to total cells was higher in RPMI 1640 medium than that in DMEM medium at the same incubation time for the majority of strains.The ratio was above 99% for all strains after 7-day incubation with 12 times of passages in RPMI 1640 medium at 37 ℃.Moreover the ratio of hyphal form was significantly higher for fluconazole-susceptible strains than that for fluconazole dose-dependent susceptible and resistant strains in incubation with DMEM medium at 37 ℃.Conclusion Incubation with RPMI 1640 medium at 37 ℃ for 7 days seems a favorable condition to induce hyphal form of C.albicans.

Objective To study the relation of leptin,TNF-? in serum of patients with metabolic syndrome and its components.Methods Test leptin and TNF-? level of residents over 20 years old in two communities in Harbin City,grouping case-control study base on the constitutive ratio of actual age.Results Leptin was associated with obesity,and the higher leptin levels,the higher risk of suffering from metabolic syndrome.The relationship between leptin levels and metabolic syndrome was affected by age and gender.The lower level of TNF-?,the higher risk of metabolic syndrome.The patients with lower level of TNF-? were 1.859 times more likely to suffer from disease compared with people with higher level.Conclusion The effects of high level of leptin are significant on metabolic syndrome,especially for old males,and are associated with obesity component.TNF-? is related to plasma glucose and blood presure,and is good for metabolic syndrome,but its biological mechenism should be researched continuously.

Objective To investigate whether enteric nervous system(ENS)involve in mediating the effect of short pulse gastric electrical stimulation on c-fos expression in nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS)and hypothalamus.Methods Fifteen Wistar rats were divided into control group,gastric electrical stimulation(GES)group and ENS free group with 5 rats each.A pair of electrodes was implanted on the gastric serosa.In ENS free group,0.5%benzalkonii chloridum was applied on the serosa during the surgery.A set of short pulse GES with frequency of 20 cpm,pulse width of 300 μs and amplitude of 2 mA was applied via the electrodes for 30 rain in the stimulation group and ENS free group.The c-fos expression in NTS/hypothalamus was detected 1 h after the stimulation.Results The number of neuron with c-fos expression was(71.6±7.4)/HP in NTS group and(63.4±10.8)/HP in ENS free group,both were significantly higher than those in control group(36.4±8.6/HP,P＜0.05).The number of neuron with c-fos expression in hypothalamus was higher in GES[(224.2±47.3)/HP]and ENS free groups[(249.1±44.0)/HP]compared with control group[(90.2±47.3)/HP,P＜0.05].There was no significant difference in c-fos expression in NTS/hypothalamus between GES group and ENS free group(P＞0.05).Conclusions Short pulse gastric electrical stimulation significantly increases c-fos expression in NTS/hypothalamus,which suggests that NTS/hypothalamus may participate in mediating the effect of GES on gastric function.This effect may be not mediated by ENS.

Aiming at the issue of motor imagery electroencephalography (EEG) pattern recognition in the research of brain-computer interface (BCI), a power feature method based on discrete wavelet packet decomposition is proposed for the channels C3 and C4. Firstly, a six-border Butterworth filter is used to denoise the two-channel EEG signals. Secondly, two-channel EEG signals are decomposed to five levels using Daubechies wavelet and the fourth level and the fifth level are chosen to reconstruct the signals and compute its power feature. Finally, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is utilized to classify the feature and the Kappa value is utilized to measure the accuracy of the classifier. This method is applied to the standard dataset BCICIV_2b-gdf of BCI Competition 2008, and experimental results show that this method reflect the feature of event-related synchronization and event-related desynchronization obviously and it is an effective way to classify the EEG patterns in the research of BCI.
Brain-Computer Interfaces ; Electroencephalography ; instrumentation ; methods