AIM: To observe effects of shear stress and TNF-? on caveolin-1 expression. METHODS: Cultured human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) of passage 3-5 were used in the experiment. Cells were exposed to a laminar flow (shear stress 1.0 Pa) by using a parallel rectangular flow chamber for different time. Caveolin-1 mRNA and protein expression were measured by RT-PCR and Western blot, respectively. Caveolin-1 expression of the cells stimulated by TNF-? were also studied to elucidate the influence of this inflammatory factor. RESULTS: After 24 h of exposure to 1.0 Pa shear stress, both of caveolin-1 protein and mRNA expression decreased in HAECs, especially caveolin-1 mRNA expression (P

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the physical and mental health status of post-linguistic cochlear implantees, and then to explore the effectiveness on of different rehabilitation programs. METHOD: Mandarin hearing in noise test (MHINT), personal report of communication apprehension (PRCA-24) and Nijmegen cochlear implant questionnaire (NCIQ) were used to measure the hearing ability, mental health degree and the health related life quality in 36 post-linguistic cochlear implant users, respectively. The improvement of subjects' physical and mental health levels was compared with among different rehabilitation programs, including family training program, auditory habilitation program and psychological intervention program. RESULT: (1) Family training program only can improve the subject's hearing ability (P < 0.05), but failed to ease the communication apprehension; ((2) Auditory habilitation program can both significantly improve the subjects' hearing ability (P < 0.01) and ease the fear of talking face to face (P < 0.01); (3) Psychological intervention program can significantly increase the auditory abilities (P < 0.01), reduce the communication apprehension (P < 0.01) and improve the quality of life. CONCLUSION Post-linguistic cochlear implantees had obvious mental symptoms. It was very important to design an effective rehabilitation program to improvement the living quality of hearing loss people.
Anxiety ; Cochlear Implantation ; rehabilitation ; Cochlear Implants ; Deafness ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing Tests ; Humans ; Language ; Linguistics ; Mental Health ; Noise ; Quality of Life ; Speech ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Computer science and technology has been used to promote the development of objectification of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which is also required for international development of TCM. In this paper, on the basis of current situation of Chinese medicine tongue objective research, the analysis was made on involved computer-related technology, relevant standards, and the future trend was discussed.

Objective To observe the effect of the optimized formulas of extracts of Radix Astragali and Radix Angelicae Sinensis on the survival status of the idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) mice,and on the expression levels of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF),so as to optimize the therapeutic regimen and to explore the therapeutic mechanism.Methods One hundred and five SPF ICR male mice were randomly divided into normal group,model group and 5 Chinese medicine treatment groups (group 1,2,3,4,5 of the optimized formula of Radix Astragali and Radix Angelicae Sinensis extracts).The mice in the model group and the 5 treatment groups were intratracheally injected with bleomycin (5 mg/kg) to induce the pulmonary fibrosis model.On day 21,the lung tissues were taken out for the test.Hydroxyproline content was detected by alkaline hydrolysis method,and morphological changes of lung tissues were observed by hematoxylineosin (HE) staining and Mallory's staining methods.The expression levels of TGF-β and VEGF were detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR).Results The HE staining and Mallory's staining results showed that the pulmonary fibrosis in the 5 treatment groups was relieved as compared with that in the model group,especially in the group 1,and the alveolar structure recovered better.The 21-day overall death rate in the treatment groups were lower than those in the model group,and group 1 and group 5 had the lowest rates,the difference being statistically significant (P＜ 0.05).Compared with the model group,the content of hydroxyproline in the lung tissues of the treatment groups were decreased to some degrees,and there was significant difference (P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01).The expression levels of TGF-β and VEGF in model group were higher than those in normal group,but were deceased in the treatment groups to some degrees,except TGF-β expression in group 5,and the difference was significant(P ＜ 0.05 or P ＜ 0.01).Conclusion When the contents of Radix Astragali water-extract and Radix Angelicae Sinensis alcohol-extract were predominated,the extract formula exerts certain effects on decreasing hydroxyproline content in the lung tissues,inhibiting the expression levels of TGF-β and VEGF,and relieving the degree of pulmonary fibrosis in IPF mice.

OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed at investigating the ability of lexical tone perception in listeners with sensorineural hearing impairment and auditory. neuropathy spectrum disorder. METHOD: Three groups of subjects were recruited in this study, including 11 subjects with normal hearing, 14 subjects with sensorineural hearing impairment, and 25 subjects with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder. Ten monosyllabic syllables were selected, and combined with four lexical tones which were made up of 40 tone tokens as the original test materials. Then, these original words were recorded using one adult male and one adult female native Beijing Mandarin speaker. The speakers were asked to record these 40 monosyllabic words multiple times, and the 80 tokens in which the durations of four tones in each monosyllabic word were within 5ms precision were chosen as the test tone tokens. The subjects were asked to perform a four-alternative forced-choice study and select which tone they had heard. RESULT: The mean and standard deviation of the tone perception correct scores for normal-hearing subjects, subjects with sensorineural hearing impairment, and subjects with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder were (97.3 ± 2.8)%, (88.0 ± 9.9)%, and (65.7 ± 17.1)%, respectively. Significant differences in tone perception scores were found to be between subjects with normal hearing and subjects with sensorineural hearing impairment (P < 0.01) and between subjects with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (P < 0.01). In addition, a significant difference was found to be between subjects with sensorineural hearing impairment and auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (P < 0.05). A significantly negative correlation was observed between tone perception score and pure tone hearing thresholds for both subjects with sensorineural hearing loss (r = -0.756, P < 0.01) and subjects with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (r = -0.546, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION As the hearing loss became more severe, the ability to perceive lexical tone for both subjects with sensorineural hearing loss and auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder reduced. Subjects with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder had more degraded ability to perceive lexical tone and a larger individual difference, in comparison with subjects with sensorineural hearing loss.
Adult ; Audiometry, Pure-Tone ; Case-Control Studies ; Female ; Hearing ; Hearing Loss, Central ; physiopathology ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; physiopathology ; Humans ; Language ; Male ; Speech Perception

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the lexical tone perception and quality of life of Nurotron cochlear implant users. METHOD: Forty-nine adult cochlear implant users participated in this study. Mandarin tone identification test developed by Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology was used to evaluate the tone perception. Nijmegen cochlear im plantation questionnaire (NCIQ) was administered to quantify the quality of life. RESULT: (1) The average scores of tone perception in quiet was 67.26%. The tone perception rates under quiet condition for all cochlear implant recipients were higher than the opportunity level. (2) The average scores of tone perception under noisy condition was 51.92%. Exc ept for two recipients, the tone perception rates under noise condition for the rest recipients were better than chance. (3) The confusion patterns of tone recognition showed that Tone 3 was the easiest tone to perceive. (4) The postimplant scores for the total , basic sound perception, advanced sound perception, speech pro duction, self-esteem, activity and social interactions of NCIQ were 55.4, 72.4, 54.0, 63.4, 50.7, 47.3 and 44.7, respectively. CONCLUSION The Nurotron cochlear implant users had the ability for lexical tone perception and had an improvement in quality of life after cochlear implantation.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Cochlear Implantation ; Cochlear Implants ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Quality of Life ; Speech Perception ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: The present study was aimed to assess the ability of tone recognition performance for postlingually deafed cochlear implanted adults using no-duration tone test materials. METHOD: Sixteen cochlear implanted users have used their devices at least six months. Ten monosyllabic syllables were selected, and combined with four lexical tones which were made up of 40 tone tokens. Then, these original words were recorded using one adult male and one adult female native Beijing Mandarin speaker. The speakers were asked to record these 40 monosyllabic words multiple times, and the 80 tokens in which the durations of four tones in each monosyllabic word were within 5 ms precision were chosen as the original tone tokens. The subjects were asked to perform a four alternative forced-choice study and select the tone they had heard. RESULT: The mean score of lexical tone perception tasks for 16 cochlear implanted users is (70.7 ± 22.0)%, and Tone 4 was the easiest to perceive, while Tone 2 was the hardest for cochlear implanted subjects to perceive. Tone 1 was more often misperceived as Tone 2 relative to other tones. Tone 2 was more often misperceived as Tone 1 and 3. Tone 3 was more often misperceived as Tone 2. The tone perception performance was positively correlated with duration of hearing aid use. CONCLUSION Duration cues may impact on the ability of tone recognition performance for cochlear implant subjects, especially for tone 3. Due to the limited ability for cochlear implant subjects on pitch perception, tone l and tone 2, and tone 2 and tone 3 are most often confused with each other without duration cues. The experience of hearing aid use may benefit for postlingual deafness cochlear implant recipients on tone perception performance.
Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Cochlear Implantation ; Cochlear Implants ; Female ; Hearing ; Hearing Aids ; Humans ; Language ; Male ; Pitch Perception ; Speech Perception ; Tongue

Objective This study was aimed at investigating the ability of temporal gap detection (TGD) in listeners with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD ) .Methods The temporal gap detection thresholds were measured for subjects using a TGD program developed by University of California ,Irvine .Three groups of subjects were recruited in this study ,including 12 subjects with normal hearing ,12 subjects with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) ,and 15 subjects with ANSD .The differences of TGD thresholds among the three groups of subjects were analyzed using a one - sample ANOVA method .Results No significant difference of the TGD thresh‐old was observed between two ears for all the subjects .The mean and standard deviation of the gap - detection threshold for both ears was about 3 .9 ± 1 .1 ms ,3 .6 ± 1 .1 ms ,and 13 .7 ± 9 .9 ms for normal - hearing subjects , subjects with SNHL ,and subjects with ANSD ,respectively .The TGD threshold in subjects with ANSD was sig‐nificantly higher than those of in normal hearing group (P< 0 .01) and SNHL group (P< 0 .01) ,while no signifi‐cant difference was found in TGD thresholds between normal - hearing subjects and subjects with SNHL .Conclusion For listeners with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder ,their ability to resolve temporal information was de‐graded with a large individual variability .

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to analyze the development of musicality in children after cochlear implantation, and provide a clinical database for the evaluation of their musicality. METHOD: Twenty-six children with cochlear implants (CI group) participated in this research. They received cochlear implants at the age of 11 to 68 months with a mean of 35.6 months. Seventy-six infants as a control group aged from 1 to 24 months with a mean of 6.1 months participated in this study, whose hearing were considered normal by passing the case history collection, high-risk registers for hearing loss and hearing screening using DPOAE. The music and young children with CIs: Musicality Rating Scale was used to evaluate their musicality. The evaluation was performed before cochlear implantation and 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 months after cochlear implantation for children with cochlear implants. The evaluation was also performed at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 months for children with normal hearing. RESULT: The mean scores of musicality showed significant improvements with time of CI use for CI group (P<0.05). The mean scores of musicality also showed significant improvements with time for control group (P<0.05). There were no significant differences in mean scores between CI group and control group at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 months of hearing age by rank sum test (P>0.05). Significant difference was noted between the two groups at 24 months (P<0.05). CONCLUSION The musicality of children with cochlear implants improved significantly with time after cochlear implantation. The most rapid growth was found in the first year after cochlear implantation.
Child Development ; Child, Preschool ; Cochlear Implantation ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Music ; Postoperative Period

Objective The aim of this study is to summarize preverbal communication skills in children with cochlear implants,and to provide a clinical baseline of assessment in early stage after cochlear implantation.Methods 23 prelingually deaf children with homebred cochlear implants participated in this study.The age at cochlear im-plantation ranged from 12 to 66 months with a mean of 35 months.The evaluation was performed at switch-on ses-sion and 1,3,6,9 and 12 months after the first programming session.Tait video analysis was used to assess the preverbal communication skills including turn-taking,autonomy,eye contact and auditory awareness.CAP and SIR were used to evaluate the auditory and speech abilities.ResuIts The skills of turn-taking and auditory aware-ness increased significantly,especially in the first six months after switch-on session (P<0.05).The scores of autonomy and eye contact were relative low and there were no significant differences during the first year after surgery (P>0. 05).There was a correlation between the score of CAP/SIR and turn-taking or auditory awareness.ConcIusion Children with cochlear implants established vocal-auditory mode of early communicative behavior over time.Pre-verbal communication skills CAP and SIR have relativity and can comprehensively evaluate the auditory,speech and communication skills of children with cochlear implants.