A total of 12 775 SSRs were identified from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi genomic database, accounting for 2.56% of the total genomic sequences. The result showed that S. baicalensis SSRs were based on 68.32% dinucleotide and 18.63% trinucleotide repeats; CT/GA and TTC/GAA were predominant in the dinucleotide motifs and the trinucleotide motifs respectively. Nine primers were selected to produce highly reproducible SSR bands and were used in studying the genetic diversity of S. baicalensis, 50 individuals from ten populations. 68 SSR polymorphic loci were detected, these loci were polymorphic and displayed 4 to 12 alleles per locus with a mean number of 7; the effect number of alleles was 3. Expected heterozygosities were 0.6 and were far more greater than the average in dicotyledonous plants. PIC (polymorphism information content) was 0.72, Shannon's information index was 1.32, these all proved that S. baicalensis had a high genetic diversity in general. Genetic differentiation among population Gst was 0.131, genetic variation among population accounted for 13.1% and genetic variation within population accounted for 86.9%. The cluster analysis showed that 10 populations S. Baicalensis were classified into 2 groups, but it was not associated with geographical distribution.

The DNA demethylase genes are widespread in plants. Four DNA demethylase genes (LJDME1, LJDME2, LJDME3 and LJDME4) were obtained from transcriptome dataset of Lonicera japonica Thunb by using bioinformatics methods and the proteins' physicochemical properties they encoded were predicted. The phylogenetic tree showed that the four DNA demethylase genes and Arabidopsis thaliana DME had a close relationship. The result of gene expression model showed that four DNA demethylase genes were different between species. The expression levels of LJDME1 and LJDME2 were even more higher in Lonicera japonica var. chinensis than those in L. japonica. LJDME] and LJDME2 maybe regulate the active compounds of L. japonica. This study aims to lay a foundation for further understanding of the function of DNA demethylase genes in L. japonica.

Objective To explore the clinical features of late-onset neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (LON?MOSD). Methods A retrospective analysis was performed to evaluate 61 patients with LONMOSD admitted to our hospital from January 2010 to May 2015. Results (1) The median age at onset was 57 (53, 63) years, male/female was 1∶3.7. Thirty-two patients (52.5%) had transverse myelitis (TM) and 16 patients (26.2%) had optic neuritis (ON) at the disease onset. Fifty-one patients (83.6%) experienced recurrent attacks. Forty patients (65.6%) showed abnormal brain magnetic resonance imag?ing (MRI). Spinal cord MRI showed more frequently present in thoracic regions (39.3%). (2) There were no significant differ?ences in clinical features between AQP-4 seropositive and seronegative groups. (3) By Spearman analysis, it was obvious that EDSS scores at acute phase and remission were positively correlated to AQP-4 antibody levels (rs=0.389, P<0.01;rs=0.380, P<0.01). But there was no correlation between the mean segments of spinal cord and relapse rates with AQP-4 anti?body levels (rs=0.146, P>0.05;rs=0.096, P>0.05). Conclusion LONMOSD patients are more prone to present with TM at onset and have more lesions in thoracic spinal cord and brain. The AQP-4 antibody titres can indicate the severity of disease in acute phase.

OBJECTIVE:To establish a method for simultaneous determination of ethinylestradiol and norelgestromin in hor-monal patches. METHODS:RP-HPLC method was performed on column of WondaCract ODS-2 with mobile phase of metha-nol-0.5% phosphoric acid(68∶32,V/V)at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min,the detection wavelength was 220 nm,the detection tempera-ture was 25 ℃,and sample volume was 20 μl. RESULTS:The linear relationship was 0.872-130.8 μg/ml for ethinylestradiol(r=0.999 6) and 0.880-132.0 μg/ml for norelgestromin (r=0.999 7);RSDs of precision,reproducibility and stability tests were no more than 1.03%,average recoveries were resectively 101.50%(RSD=0.99%,n=9) and 101.68%(RSD=0.95%,n=9). CON-CLUSIONS:The established method is simple and accurate,and can be used for the content determination of ethinylestradiol and norelgestromin in hormonal patches.

Objective To explore the potential connection between sympathetic response, heart rate and blood pressure modulation after caloric irrigation in order to study the role of vestibular stimuli in cardiovascular control. Method Efferent splanchnic nerve firing rates, ECG and blood pressure were recorded simultaneously during caloric stimuli on intact anesthetized(CON) rats(n=5), sinoaortic denervated (SAD)rats(n=5) and bilateral vestibular destroyed (VD) rats(n=5). Result It was found that after caloric stimulation with ice water mean blood pressure CON rats with intact reflex became lower and the mean heart rates became slower, splanchnic sympathetic nerve activities increased for a moment and then dropped significantly. SAD rats had significant stronger splanchnic sympathetic nerve activities VD rats after caloric stimulation, and their blood pressures changed to apposite directions. The coupled respiratory component on splanhnic sympathetic nerve activities were strongly affected by the caloric stimulation. Conclusion It is suggested that semicircular canal stimulation participate at least in the short-term blood pressure control mechanism and the role of central nervous system on respiratory drive may also be involved. Baro-reflex and vestibular afferent may play different role in the control of blood pressure they may work synergically in some physiological control processed.

Objective: To perform an epidemiological survey of the first case with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in Pinghu City of Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province on March 13, 2022, so as to provide insights into the management of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemics. Methods: According to the requirements of the Protocol on Prevention and Control of COVID-19 (8th Edition), epidemiological investigations were performed among 39 cases with SARS-CoV-2 infections in Pinghu City from March 13 to 20, 2022. Cases' demographics, clinical symptoms, history of immunization and exposure were collected, and close contacts were identified. Pharyngeal swabs were sampled from infected cases for detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid and whole-genome sequencing, and the source of infection and transmission route were investigated. Results: The index case for this COVID-19 epidemic was an imported case from Shanghai Municipality, who infected 6 persons via aerosol transmission when playing in the badminton venue of Pinghu National Fitness Center on March 9; subsequently, one of these infected cases infected another 18 persons when playing in the badminton venue of Jiadian Village Resident's Fitness Center in Zhapu Township on March 12. Sixteen confirmed cases were reported, and all cases were mild; another 23 asymptomatic cases were diagnosed, with no death reported. This epidemic occurred from March 11 to 20, with 3 generations of spread and a median incubation period of 3 days. The SARS-CoV-2 infected cases had a median age of 33.5 (interquartile range, 12.0) years and included 36 cases with a history of COVID-19 vaccination. There were 16 cases with fever, cough, runny nose and sore throat, and 13 cases with imaging features of pneumonia. The effective reproductive number (Rt) of the COVID-19 epidemic was 7.73 at early stage, and was less than 1 since March 21. Whole-genome sequencing identified Omicron BA.2 variant among 33 cases, which had high homology with the index cases. Conclusion This epidemic was a cluster of COVID-19 caused by imported Omicron BA.2 variant infection from Shanghai Municipality, and the COVID-19 transmission was mainly caused by indoor aerosols.

Objective:To investigate the risk factor of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with vessels encapsulating tumor clusters (VETC) and the application value of its risk scoring model.Methods:The retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted. The clinicopathological data of 149 patients with HCC who were admitted to two medical centers, including 97 cases in the Jiangnan University Medical Center and 52 cases in the Affiliated Xingtai People′s Hospital of Hebei Medical University, from January 2017 to April 2020 were collected. There were 116 males and 33 females, aged (58±12)years. There were 74 cases with VETC and 75 cases without VETC. Observation indica-tors: (1) clinical characteristics of patients with and without VETC; (2) imaging features of patients with and without VETC; (3) multivariable analysis of HCC patients with VETC; (4) construction of VETC related risk scoring model and its performance evaluation; (5) postoperative early tumor recurrence of patients with and without VETC who were confirmed by risk scoring model and histopathological examination. Measurement data with normal distribution were represented as Mean± SD, and comparison between groups was conducted using the t test. Count data were described as absolutes, and comparison between groups was conducted using the chi-square test and continuous correction chi-square test. Variables of clinical and imaging characteristics with statistically signifi-cant were included in the multivariate analysis. Multivariate analysis was conducted using the Logistic regression model of backward stepwise selection. VETC related risk scoring model was constructed based on the results of Logistic regression model. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn, and the area under curve (AUC), the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and their 95% confidence interval ( CI) were calculated. The maximizing Youden index was the optimal cutoff value for VETC prediction. The Hosmer Lemeshow goodness of fit test was used to assess the consistency between VETC risk scoring model predicted VTEC status and the true VETC status. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate survival rates and draw survival curves. The Log-rank test was used for survival analysis. Results:(1) Clinical characteristics of patients with and without VETC. Cases with postoperative albumin <36 g/L were 57 in patients with VETC, versus 68 in patients without VETC, respectively, showing a significant difference between them ( χ2=5.13, P<0.05). (2) Imaging features of patients with and without VETC. Cases with lesion imaging presence as nonperipheral washout, cases with lesion imaging presence as mosaic architecture, cases with lesion imaging presence as intratumoral hemorrhage, cases with lesion imaging presence as corona enhancement, cases with lesion imaging presence as non-smooth tumor margin, cases with lesion imaging presence as peritumoral enhancement in arterial phase, cases with lesion imaging presence as intratumoral arteries, cases with lesion imaging presence as peritumoral hypointensity in hepatobiliary phase, cases with lesion imaging enhancement type as uniform low enhancement, uniform high enhance-ment, heterogeneous enhancement with septations and heterogeneous enhancement with irregular ring-like structures, cases with intratumoral necrosis or ischemic, cases with tumor diameter >5 cm were 73, 35, 33, 15, 39, 28, 42, 27, 4, 5, 27, 38, 45, 46 in patients with VETC, versus 64, 16, 13, 3, 19, 15, 9, 13, 9, 35, 5, 26, 10, 10 in patients without VETC, respectively, showing significant differences in the above indicators between them ( χ2=8.92, 11.15, 12.97, 9.28, 11.74, 5.77, 33.14, 6.96, 41.79, 36.05, 37.86, P<0.05). (3) Multivariable analysis of patients with VETC. Results of multivariable analysis showed that lesion imaging enhancement as heterogeneous enhancement with septations, lesion imaging enhancement as heterogeneous enhancement with irregular ring-like structures, intratumoral necrosis or ischemia and tumor diameter >5 cm were independent risk factors influen-cing patients with VETC ( odds ratio=4.18, 7.62, 4.23, 4.08, 95% CI as 1.60?11.60, 2.00?31.70, 1.71?10.90, 1.60?10.80), P<0.05). (4) Construction of VETC related risk scoring model and its performance evaluation. The VETC related risk scoring model was constructed as (heterogeneous enhancement with septations, presence: 1.0, absence: 0)+(heterogeneous enhancement with irregular ring-like structures, presence: 1.5, absence: 0)+(intratumoral necrosis or ischemia, presence: 1.0, absence: 0)+(main tumor diameter >5 cm, presence: 1.0, absence: 0). The AUC, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of VETC related risk scoring model were 0.86 (95% CI as 0.80?0.92), 79.7% (95% CI as 69.2%?87.3%), 80.0% (95% CI as 69.6%?87.5%) and 79.9% (95% CI as 72.7%?85.5%), respectively. Results of Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit test showed a good consistency between VETC risk scoring model predicted VETC status and true VETC status ( P>0.05). (5) Postoperative early tumor recurrence of patients with and without VETC who were confirmed by risk scoring model and histopathological examination. All 149 patients were followed up for 29(range, 26?35)months. The time to tumor recurrence and 2-year cumulative tumor recurrence rate of 149 patients were 29(range, 24?33)months and 43.0%, respectively. The 2-year tumor cumulative recurrence rate of patients with and without VETC predicted by risk scoring model was 47.8% and 37.9%, respectively, showing a significant difference between ( χ2=3.90, P<0.05). The 2-year cumulative tumor recurrence rate of patients with and without VETC confirmed by postoperative histopathological examination was 47.4% and 38.1%, respectively, showing a significant difference between ( χ2=4.20, P<0.05). Conclusions:Lesion imaging enhancement as heterogeneous enhancement with septations or irregular ring-like structures, intratumoral necrosis or ischemia and tumor diameter >5 cm are independent risk factors influen-cing HCC patients with VETC. The proposed risk scoring model based on those three risk factors achieves an optimal preoperative diagnostic performance.

[Objective] To compare the diagnostic accuracy of three imaging modalities, inlducing CT urography (CTU), contrast-enhanced MRI (CE-MRI), and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in the qualitative diagnosis of renal space-occupying lesions. [Methods] A retrospective analysis was performed on 542 patients with renal lesions confirmed by surgical pathology in our hospital during Jan.2019 and May 2024.The diagnostic results of CTU, CE-MRI and CEUS were compared and analyzed based on the patients' clinical and pathological data. [Results] The diagnostic accuracy rate of CTU, CE-MRI and CEUS were 84.50%, 83.14% and 86.14%, respectively.For the 161 patients who underwent all three examinations, CEUS was significantly more accurate than CTU (84.16% vs. 77.02%, P=0.018), while there was no significant difference between CTU or CEUS and CE-MRI (79.81%) (P>0.05). Further analysis found that for lesions ≤4 cm, the accuracy of the three examinations was as follows: CEUS=CTU 79.55%, CE-MRI 76.14%, with no significant difference (P>0.05). However, for lesions >4 cm, CEUS ranked the first, followed by CE-MRI and CTU (89.73% vs. 84.25% vs. 73.97%), and CEUS and CE-MRI were better than CTU (P<0.05). Additionally, for the diagnosis of clear cell renal carcinoma and benign renal space-occupying lesions, there was no statistically significant difference among the three imaging modalities (P>0.05), while for the qualitative diagnosis of non-clear cell renal carcinoma, CEUS ranked the first, followed by CE-MRI and CTU (83.87% vs. 74.19% vs. 56.45%), and CE-MRI and CEUS were better than CTU (P<0.05). [Conclusion] All of them have important diagnostic value, and the appropriate selection should be based on patients' specifc conditions.CEUS and CE-MRI are more accurate in the qualitative diagnosis of renal space-occupying lesions than CTU, especially for large lesions and non-clear cell carcinoma.