Objective To develop a practical image acquisition strategy using intermittent breath?hold cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). Methods A breathing phantom was used to simulate the movement of tumor near the diaphragm during free breathing and breath hold and scanned by conventional breath?hold CBCT and type Ⅰ/Ⅱ intermittent breath?hold CBCT. In the conventional breath?hold CBCT, scan paused and free breathing occurred at the break of breath hold and free breathing was not included in the scan. In the intermittent breath?hold CBCT, one scan covered several breath holds separated by free breathing in a ratio of 3 vs1. Image quality and three?dimensional registration accuracy were quantitatively compared between conventional breath?hold CBCT and type Ⅰ/Ⅱ intermittent breath?hold CBCT. Comparison of image quality parameters between conventional breath?hold CBCT and intermittent breath?hold CBCT was made by paired t test. Results Motion artifacts arose in type I and Ⅱ intermittent breath?hold CBCT scans. There were no significant differences in the reconstructed pixel value or uniformity between intermittent breath?hold CBCT and conventional breath?hold CBCT ( P>0. 05, and P= 0. 02, 0. 53 ) . Compared with conventional breath?hold CBCT images, the signal?to?noise ratios of type I andⅡintermittent breath?hold CBCT images were reduced by 30% and 60%, respectively ( P<0. 05 ) . The registration error was up to 0 . 4 cm in the anterior?posterior direction and less than 0 . 1 cm in other directions . Conclusions The phantom study shows that intermittent breath?hold CBCT does not significantly reduce image quality or registration accuracy compared with conventional breath?hold CBCT. The feasibility of intermittent breath?hold CBCT in clinical application needs to be further validated among a large number of patients.

Objective:To investigate the prevalence and clinical characteristics of pruritus in adult patients with psoriasis vulgaris, and to evaluate the effect of pruritus on sleep and quality of life.Methods:From January 2020 to December 2020, 291 patients with psoriasis vulgaris were enrolled in Lanzhou University Second Hospital, and characteristics of pruritus as well as quality of sleep and life were evaluated by physicians directly or through a questionnaire. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze risk factors for pruritus, and multivariate linear regression to analyze factors affecting sleep and quality of life.Results:Among the 291 patients with psoriasis vulgaris, 184 (63.23%) were males and 107 (36.77%) were females, with the age ( M [ Q1, Q3]) being 37.00 (28.00, 50.00) years; 258 (88.64%) had the itching symptom, and the severity of itching was usually moderate. The severity of skin lesions was the main risk factor for pruritus ( OR = 1.252, 95% CI: 1.114-1.407, P < 0.001) . Psoriasis area and severity index was positively correlated with pruritus numerical rating scale (NRS) score ( r = 0.65, P < 0.001) , 5-D′S score ( r = 0.65, P < 0.001) , Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) score ( r = 0.48, P < 0.001) and dermatology life quality index (DLQI) score ( r = 0.63, P < 0.001) , the pruritus NRS score was positively correlated with the DLQI score ( r = 0.61, P < 0.001) and PSQI score ( r = 0.55, P < 0.001) , and the 5-D′S score was positively correlated with the DLQI score ( r = 0.62, P < 0.001) and PSQI score ( r = 0.64, P < 0.001) . Conclusion:Most adult patients with psoriasis vulgaris have moderate pruritus; the severity of disease markedly affects the severity of pruritus, and pruritus exerts considerable impact on sleep and quality of life.

Diabetes retinopathy (DR) is a blinding ocular complication of diabetes, and its pathological mechanism is complex. The damage to the retinal neurovascular unit (NVU) and the imbalance of its coupling mechanism are important pathological foundations. Autophagy plays an important role in the progression of DR. Oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress, hypoxia, and competitive endogenous RNA regulatory networks can affect the occurrence of autophagy, and autophagy induced cell death is crucial in NVU dysfunction. Retinal neurocyte are non-renewable cells, and adaptive autophagy targeting neuronal cells may provide a new direction for early vision rescue in patients with DR. It is necessary that exploring the possible autophagy interrelationships between ganglion cells, glial cells, and vascular constituent cells, searching for targeted specific cell autophagy inhibitors or activators, and exploring the impact of autophagy on the NVU complex more comprehensively at the overall level. Adopting different autophagy intervention methods at different stages of DR may be one promising research directions for future DR.

Conservative endodontic access cavity (CEC) is the first step of minimally invasive endodontics. After that operation, teeth retain the dental hard tissue, such as crest and peri-cervical dentin, to a large extent. It is of great significance to reduce the tissue excision and achieve a favorable prognosis. There are a variety of approaches and corresponding cavities in CEC. The methods to determine the medullary approach include X-ray localization, micro CT/cone beam CT localization and digital guide plate localization. Among them, X-ray film and micro CT/cone beam CT are simple and commonly used in the clinic. For more complex root canal systems, the use of a digital guide plate can establish a more accurate pulp opening pathway and reduce the unnecessary loss of tooth hard tissue. However, the positioning price of a digital guide plate is high, and it has not been widely used in the clinic. The hole types of CEC include minimally invasive medullary hole type, super conservative minimally invasive medullary hole type, "Truss" hole type and cutting end hole type. The stress analysis of CEC and traditional endodontic access (TEC) cavity are mainly based on the loading of teeth by a universal mechanical testing machine in vitro, finite element analysis and clinical observation. Most scholars’ studies have shown that minimally invasive endodontics can improve the fracture resistance of teeth, but the differential capacities of CEC and TEC remain controversial. How does on balance the purpose of pulp treatment and the maximum retention of tooth tissue? Further exploration is still needed.

OBJECTIVETo explore the quantitative relationship between the intensity of psychosocial stress and the degree of overall health damages.

METHODSA multi-group case-control study was designed and implemented. The cases included two groups of out-patients (177) and in-patients (214) in a hospital in Jianyang city, and controls (587) were from the follow-up cohort in the same city. Three groups were studied on the following contents: general demographic characteristics, psychosocial factors and the degree of health damages including mental, physical, and social status. Major statistical analyses were as follows: ranks test, ANOVA, cluster analysis, multinomial logistic regression and ordered-logit regression.

RESULTSOrdered-logit regression model showed that the odds ratio of negative life-events on degree of health damages was 1.335 (P < 0.01). This result showed that there was a positive dose-effect relationship between the negative life-events score and overall health damages. The utility of social support to overall health had protective effect (OR = 0.513).

CONCLUSIONNegative life-events were the major risk factors to overall health, and there was a dose-effect relationship between negative events and health damages. Function of social support played a protective factor for health.

Analysis of Variance ; Case-Control Studies ; Cohort Studies ; Educational Status ; Health Status ; Humans ; Marital Status ; Social Class ; Stress, Psychological ; psychology

Pheretima,also called"earthworms",is a well-known animal-derived traditional Chinese medicine that is extensively used in over 50 Chinese patent medicines(CPMs)in Chinese Pharmacopoeia(2020 edi-tion).However,its zoological origin is unclear,both in the herbal market and CPMs.In this study,a strategy for integrating in-house annotated protein databases constructed from close evolutionary relationship-sourced RNA sequencing data from public archival resources and various sequencing al-gorithms(restricted search,open search,and de novo)was developed to characterize the phenotype of natural peptides of three major commercial species of Pheretima,including Pheretima aspergillum(PA),Pheretima vulgaris(PV),and Metaphire magna(MM).We identified 10,477 natural peptides in the PA,7,451 in PV,and 5,896 in MM samples.Five specific signature peptides were screened and then validated using synthetic peptides;these demonstrated robust specificity for the authentication of PA,PV,and MM.Finally,all marker peptides were successfully applied to identify the zoological origins of Brain Heart capsules and Xiaohuoluo pills,revealing the inconsistent Pheretima species used in these CPMs.In conclusion,our integrated strategy could be used for the in-depth characterization of natural peptides of other animal-derived traditional Chinese medicines,especially non-model species with poorly annotated protein databases.

Background The incidence of Legionnaires' disease is increasing globally and artificial water environment is becoming a common source of outbreaks. Molecular typing techniques can help prevent and control Legionella. Objective To understand the molecular epidemiological characteristics of Legionella pneumophila in artificial water environment of Shanghai hospitals, and provide a scientific basis for the prevention and control of Legionnaires' disease. Methods Water samples were collected from artificial water environment in 14 hospitals from May to October each year from 2019 to 2020 in Shanghai. A total of 984 water samples were collected from 8 Grade-A tertiary hospitals and 6 non-Grade-A tertiary hospitals, including 312 samples of cooling water, 72 samples of chilled water, and 600 samples of tap water. The water samples were isolated and serotyped for Legionella pneumophila and preserved, and the positive rate of Legionella pneumophila in the samples was used as an indicator of contamination. The preserved strains were resuscitated and 81 surviving strains were obtained for pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing analysis. Results A total of 124 Legionella pneumophila positive water samples were detected, with a positive rate of 12.60%. The positive rate was higher in the Grade-A tertiary hospitals (16.54%, 87/526) than in the non-Grade-A tertiary hospitals (8.08%, 37/458) (χ²=15.91, P<0.001). The positive rate of cooling water (23.40%) was the highest among different types of water samples, and the difference was statistically significant (χ²=61.19, P<0.001). The difference in positive rate of tap water was statistically significant among different hospital departments (χ²=11.37, P<0.05). The positive rate in 2019 (15.06%) was higher than that in 2020 (9.84%) (χ²=6.23, P<0.05). From May to October, August had the highest annual average positive rate (16.46%) and October had the lowest (8.54%), but the difference in positive rates among months was not statistically significant (χ²=5.39, P=0.37). The difference in positive rate among districts was statistically significant (χ²=24.88, P<0.001). A total of 131 strains of Legionella pneumophila were isolated, with serotype 1 (80.15%, 105/131) predominating. Among the 81 surviving strains of Legionella pneumophila subjected to PFGE typing, the band-based similarity coefficients ranged from 41.30% to 100%. Among the 29 PFGE band types (S1-S29) recorded, each band type included 1-10 strains, and S28 was the dominant band type. Four clusters (I-IV) of PFGE band types were identified, accounting for 66.67% (54/81) of all strains and containing 13 band types. Conclusion Legionella pneumophila contamination is present in the artificial water environment of hospitals in Shanghai from 2019 to 2020, and the contamination in tap water deserves attention. The detected serotype of Legionella pneumophila is predominantly type 1, and PFGE typing reveals the presence of genetic polymorphism. Therefore, the monitoring and control of Legionella pneumophila in hospital artificial water environment should be strengthened.

ObjectiveTo understand the presence of virulence genes， molecular typing characteristics， and antibiotic sensitivity of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli （EAEC） in children with diarrhea in Shanghai， so as to provide a scientific basis for EAEC monitoring and standardized treatment of EAEC infection. MethodsEAEC strains isolated from children （≤5 years old） with diarrhea in six districts of Shanghai were collected as the study subjects. EAEC virulence genes were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR， molecular typing was performed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis （PFGE）， and drug susceptibility tests were conducted using the microbroth dilution method. χ² test and two independent samples t-test were used to compare the differences in virulence genes and antibiotic resistance between suburban and urban EAEC strains. ResultsFrom 2019 to 2021， the overall detection rates of gene aggR， pic and astA of 59 EAEC were 30.5%， 50.8%， and 57.6%， respectively. There was no significant difference in the detection rates of virulence genes between suburban and urban EAEC strains （P>0.05）. PFGE analysis revealed that only two EAEC strains belonged to the same PFGE pattern and were collected from the same hospital， and the overall PFGE patterns were polymorphic. EAEC showed susceptibility to imipenem and colistin E， and the resistance rates to sulfamethoxazole （SXT）， ampicillin （AMP）， nalidixic acid （NAL）， and tetracycline （93.1%， 79.3%， 63.8%， and 58.6%， respectively） were higher than 50.0%. The antibiotic resistance rates of cefazolin （CFZ）， cefotaxime （CTX）， and ciprofloxacin （CIP） were significantly different between EAEC strains from suburban and urban areas （P<0.05）. A total of 47 strains exhibited multi-drug resistance， with the most common resistance spectrum being AMP-SXT-NAL. There was no statistically significant difference in the number of multidrug-resistant EAEC strains between suburban and urban areas （P>0.05）. ConclusionThe EAEC virulence gene assemblages in children with diarrhea in the six districts of Shanghai are diverse， and the molecular typing patterns are relatively scattered， indicating possible cross-infection of homologous strains. Multi-drug resistance in EAEC strains is relatively common， and there is a statistically significant difference in the resistance rates of CFZ， CTX and CIP between urban and suburban EAEC strains. Attention should be given to standardizing the use of clinical antibiotics to effectively control the dissemination of multidrug-resistant EAEC strains.

Objective: To investigate the molecular characterization of adult diarrhea cases caused by enterotoxic Escherichia coli (ETEC) and explore the practical model of epidemiology for laboratory technique and data needs based on the surveillance network. Methods: Epidemiological design and sampling targeted adult cases ETEC caused diarrhea in epidemic season. The enterotoxin type, serogroup, resistance, colonization factor and molecular type of ETEC were identified. Multiple dynamic phenotypic characteristics of ETEC were indicated by multidimensional and multivariable data. Results: From 2016 to 2018, 84 eligible ETEC strains were detected. The dominant serums/toxins were O∶6 (STh), O∶25 (LT), O∶159 (STh), O∶153 (STh). O∶6 (STh+CS21), which replaced O∶25 and O∶159 as the popular clones in 2018. Six cases of O∶153 (STh+CFA/I+CS8+PT34) in outbreak in 2017 were imported ones. The resistance rates of ETEC strains detected in adults to sulfasoxazole, naproxinic acid, ampicillin and azithromycin were more than 30%, multidrug resistance (MDR) reached 58.3%. Serum/toxin types suggested that attenuated strains were more likely to become MDR. Molecular typing confirmed that the genetic similarity of the dominant clone of O∶6 serogroup (PT20-24) was higher than O∶25 and O∶159. There was a high correlation between the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of azithromycin and the resistant gene mphA (87.5%, 28/32). O∶6 (STh+CS21+mphA) resistant clone was first detected in 2016. Conclusion A new epidemic clone in adult ETEC diarrhea cases in Shanghai was O∶6 (STh+CS21+mphA). For the first time the association between azithromycin resistance gene mphA and a serum group of ETEC was observed. Multidimensional and multivariate analysis techniques based on epidemiology can help reveal the potential transmission pattern of ETEC for the accurate surveillance and early warning of outbreaks.

ObjectiveTo provide technical support for the molecular surveillance of pathogenic bacteria strains carrying mobile colistin resistance-1 （mcr⁃1） gene isolate from inlet of wastewater treatment plants （WWTP）. MethodsThe Enterobacteriaceae strains carrying mcr⁃1 resistance gene isolate from inlet of WWTP during April 1 to June 30， 2023 in Shanghai were cultured on blood-rich and SS culture medium and were identified using a mass spectrometry analyzer. The mcr⁃1 gene and copy number were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. Drug susceptibility test was performed by microbroth dilution method. The copy numbers of Escherichia coli carrying mcr⁃1 gene isolated from wastewater and human fecel were statistically analyzed by SPSS 25.0. ResultsA total of 14 strains carrying the mcr⁃1 gene were isolated from 49 WWTP samples， and the positive isolation rate was 28.6%， including 12 non-diarrheal E. coli strains and 2 Klebsiella pneumoniae strains. The drug susceptibility results showed that all 14 strains were multi-drug resistant bacteria. They were all sensitive to imipenem and tigecycline， but were ampicillin- and cefazolin-resistant. There was no significant difference in the copy number between human-sourced diarrheal E. coli and wastewater-sourced non-diarrheal E. coli （t=0.647， P>0.05）. ConclusionThe isolation and identification of strains carrying the mcr⁃1 gene from inlet of WWTP samples were firstly established in Shanghai. The multi-drug resistance among the isolated strains is severe. To effectively prevent and control the spread of colistin-resistant bacteria， more attention should be paid to the surveillance of mcr⁃1 gene.