32 cases of children small cerebral abscess di-agnosed with CT scaning are reported. The maxi-mum diameter of the enhancement area was 2. 2cm. 29 cases did not give a history of infection. In30 cases, Epileptic seizures were usually the Initialand main symptoms, but local neurological signswere usually absent. All of the cases were treatedby antibiotic therapy. The duration of the therapyin most childhood patients was 2～3 months exceptthree who were over 3 months.

Objective To investigate the effect of dexmedetomidine on cognitive dysfunction after offpump coronary artery bypass grafting in patients.Methods Fifty-eight ASA physical status Ⅱt or Ⅲ patients,aged 51-63 yr,weighing 52-83 kg,undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting,were randomly divided into 2 groups (n =29 each):control group (group C) and dexmedetomidine group (group D).Anesthesia was induced with midazolam,etomidate,sufentanil and pipecuronium.The patients were thracheal intubated and mechanically ventilated.Anesthesia was maintained with propofol,sufentanil,isoflurane and pipecuronium.A loading dose of dexmedetomidine 1 μg/kg was infused over 15 min after tracheal intubation,followed by dexmedetomidine infusion at 0.5 μg· kg-1 · h-1 until the end of operation in group D,while the equal volume of normal saline was infused in group C.Cognitive function was assessed by Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) at 24 h before operation and 24,48 and 72 h after operation.The development of postoperative cognitive dysfunction was recorded within 72 h after operation.The consumption of sufentanil and extubation time after extubation was recorded.Results Compared with group C,MMSE scores at 24 and 48 h after operation were significantly increased and the incidence of postoperative cognitive dysfunction within 72 h after operation was decreased (P ＜ 0.05),and no significant change was found in the consumption of sufentanil and extubation time in group C (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion Dexmedetomidine can decrease the development of postoperative cognitive dysfunction after off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting in patients.

Objective To screen the high specific and sensitive monitoring indications in the diagnosis of intestinal barrier dysfunction.Methods A total of 70 critical patients with intestinal barrier dysfunction and acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE) Ⅱ score≥8 and over the same period 41 patients without intestinal barrier dysfunction and APACHE Ⅱ score≤6 were recruited.The general information,histories,symptoms,physical signs,24 hours urine output and the condition of mechanical ventilation treatment were recorded.The venous blood was taken for bacteria culture,white blood cell counting,creatinine level,diamine oxidase (DAO) activity,D-lactic acid,intestinal fatty acid binding protein (IFABP) and endotoxin level testing.The urine was taken for urinary IFABP level testing.Twenty-four hours urine was reserved for 24 hours total urinary IFABP testing.The factors which might influence intestinal barrier dysfunction were analyzed by univariate analysis and multivariate analysis.The measurement data were analyzed by t test and the count data were analyzed by x2 test.The factors were screened according to receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.Results The factors related with intestinal barrier dysfunction were white blood cell counting (OR=3.971,P=0.046),plasma endotoxin level (OR=7.857,P=0.005)and 24 hours total urinary IFABP (OR=11.154,P=0.001).The areas under the ROC curve (AUC)of plasma endotoxin level and 24 hours total urinary IFABP were 0.852 and 0.820 respectively (both P＜0.01).The critical value was 8.0 pg/ml and 17.12 ng respectively.The sensitivity was 97.8％ and 84.4％.The specificity was 66.7％ and 72.7％.Conclusion Once critical patients presented certain gastrointestinal symptoms and physical signs with plasma endotoxin level ＞8.0 pg/ml and or 24 hours total urinary IFABP ＞17.12 ng,which might indicate intestinal barrier dysfunction.

Brain science accelerates the study of intelligence and behavior, contributes fundamental insights into human cognition, and offers prospective treatments for brain disease. Faced with the challenges posed by imaging technologies and deep learning computational models, big data and high-performance computing (HPC) play essential roles in studying brain function, brain diseases, and large-scale brain models or connectomes. We review the driving forces behind big data and HPC methods applied to brain science, including deep learning, powerful data analysis capabilities, and computational performance solutions, each of which can be used to improve diagnostic accuracy and research output. This work reinforces predictions that big data and HPC will continue to improve brain science by making ultrahigh-performance analysis possible, by improving data standardization and sharing, and by providing new neuromorphic insights.

Objective To investigate the effects of different degrees of autophagy on the apop-tosis of GABAergic neurons in spinal dorsal horn of postherpetic neuralgia model mice. Methods Forty-eight Kunming mice,approximately 6-8 weeks of age and weighing 18-22 g,were randomly divided into four groups by a random digital generator of SPSS 19.0:resinotoxin+autoph-agy induction group (group PHN+Rapa),resinotoxin group (group PHN),resinotoxin+autophagy inhibitor group (group PHN+3-MA)and blank control group (group C),12 mice in each group. Group C was given no treatment,and the other groups were given intraperitoneal injection of 0.2 μg/g resiniferatoxin (RTX)to prepare PHN model.After successful model establishment,group PHN+Rapa was given Rapamycin (1 μg·kg-1·d-1),physiological saline was given to group PHN, group PHN+3-MA was given 2 μg·kg-1·d-1autophagy inhibitor 3-MA.The intraperitoneal injection was continued for 14 day.The mechanical withdrawal threshold (MWT)and the latent period of thermal withdrawal latency (TWL)were detected and the mice were killed after stability. The segments of L4-6spinal cord were extracted and the relative expressions of bcl-2,Bax and autoph-agy-associated protein LC3 were detected by western blot.Detection of the number of apoptotic cells in the spinal cord by fluorescence Tunel.The number of GABA intermediate neurons in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord was labeled by immunofluorescence.Results Compared with group C,the rel-ative expression level of Bax protein increased significantly,the LC3-II/I ratio and the number of ap-optotic cells increased significantly,the relative expression level of Bcl-2 protein and the number of GABA neurons in spinal dorsal horn were significantly reduced in other groups (P<0.05).Compared with group PHN,the LC3-II/I ratio and the relative expression level of Bax protein,the number of apoptotic cells increased significantly,the relative expression level of Bcl-2 protein and the number of GABA neurons in the spinal dorsal horn were significantly decreased of group PHN+Rapa (P<0.05).Compared with group PHN,the relative expression level of LC3-II/I ratio and Bax protein, the number of apoptotic cells decreased significantly,the relative expression level of Bcl-2 protein and the number of GABA neurons in spinal dorsal horn increased significantly of group PHN+3-MA,(P<0.05).Conclusion Over activation of autophagy may be one of the mechanisms leading to the ap-optosis of GABA neurons in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord in postherpetic neuralgia.

Early detection and effective monitoring of the risk signals of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) are of great importance in the prevention and management of DILI in clinical practice. However, the lack of high sensitivity and strong specificity in the detection of risk signals brings great challenges to the identification and monitoring of risk signals and causes difficulties in establishing the strategies for the prevention and control of DILI. This article analyzes the challenges in the identification of DILI risk signals, summarizes the applicability and limitations of risk signals based on commonly used indices in early recognition, prediction, and early warning of DILI, proposes an identification and monitoring model for DILI risk signals based on specific biomarkers, and elaborates on their potential clinical values, so as to provide a scientific basis for developing targeted strategies for the prevention and control of the risk of DILI.

The accelerating growth of the public microbial genomic data imposes substantial bur-den on the research community that uses such resources. Building databases for non-redundant ref-erence sequences from massive microbial genomic data based on clustering analysis is essential. However, existing clustering algorithms perform poorly on long genomic sequences. In this article, we present Gclust, a parallel program for clustering complete or draft genomic sequences, where clustering is accelerated with a novel parallelization strategy and a fast sequence comparison algo-rithm using sparse suffix arrays (SSAs). Moreover, genome identity measures between two sequences are calculated based on their maximal exact matches (MEMs). In this paper, we demon-strate the high speed and clustering quality of Gclust by examining four genome sequence datasets. Gclust is freely available for non-commercial use at https://github.com/niu-lab/gclust. We also introduce a web server for clustering user-uploaded genomes at http://niulab.scgrid.cn/gclust.

Background In recent years, the incidence of metabolic syndrome (MS) is increasing significantly in China. Some studies have found that temperature is related to single metabolic index, but there is a lack of research on associated mechanism and identifying path of the influence of temperature on MS. Objective Based on the data of Guangdong Province, to investigate the effect of temperature on MS and its pathway. Methods A total of 8524 residents were enrolled by multi-stage random sampling from October 2015 to January 2016 in Guangdong. Basic characteristics, behavioral characteristics, health status, and physical activity level were obtained through questionnaires and physical examinations, and meteorological data were obtained from meteorological monitoring sites. We matched individual data both with the temperature data of the physical examination day and of a lag of 14 d. A generalized additive model was used to explore the exposure-effect relationship between temperature and MS and its indexes, calculate effect values, and explore the effects of single-day lag temperature. Based on the literature and the results of generalized additive model analysis, a path analysis was conducted to explore the pathways of temperature influencing MS. Results The association between daily average temperature on the current day or lag 14 day and MS risk was not statistically significant. When daily average temperature increased by 1 ℃, the change values of fasting blood-glucose (FBG), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were −0.033 (95%CI: −0.040-−0.026) mmol·L⁻¹, −0.662 (95%CI: −0.741-−0.583) mmHg, −0.277 (95%CI: −0.323-−0.230) mmHg, and −0.005 (95%CI: −0.007-−0.004) mmol·L⁻¹ respectively. The effects of average daily temperature on FBG, blood pressure, HDL-C, and waist circumference lasted until lag 14 day. The effects of daily average temperature on SBP and DBP were the largest on the current day. Daily average temperature of current day had direct and indirect effects on FBG and SBP. Temperature had an indirect effect on TG, and the intermediate variables were waist circumference and FBG, with an indirect effect value of −0.011 (95%CI: −0.020-−0.002). The indirect effects of daily average temperature on SBP, FBG, and TG were weak. Conclusion There is no significant correlation between temperature and risk of MS, and daily average temperature of current day could significantly affected blood pressure and FBG with a lag effect. Daily average temperature of current day has indirect effects on FBG and TG.

Objective:There are a variety of minimally invasive interventional treatments for trigeminal neuralgia,and the efficacy evaluation is different.The preferred treatment scheme is still controversial.This study aims to investigate the differences in treatment effects between patients with primary trigeminal neuralgia(PTN)treated with percutaneous balloon compression(PBC)for the first intervention and patients with pain recurrence after radiofrequency thermocoagulation(RT)who then received PBC for PTN,and to offer clinicians and patients more scientifically grounded and precise treatment alternatives. Methods:We retrospectively analyzed 103 patients with PTN admitted to the Department of Pain Management of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from January 2020 to December 2021,including 49 patients who received PBC for the first time(PBC group)and 54 patients who received PBC for pain recurrence after RT(RT+PBC group).General information,preoperative pain score,intraoperative oval foramen morphology,oval foramen area,balloon volume,duration of compression,and postoperative pain scores and pain recurrence at each time point on day 1(T1),day 7(T2),day 14(T3),1 month(T4),3 months(T5),and 1 year(T6)were collected and recorded for both groups.The differences in treatment effect,complications and recurrence between the 2 groups were compared,and the related influencing factors were analyzed. Results:The differences of general information,preoperative pain scores,foramen ovale morphology,foramen ovale area,T1 to T3 pain scores between the 2 groups were not statistically different(all P>0.05).The balloon filling volume in the PBC group was smaller than that in the RT+PBC group,the pain scores at T4 to T6 and pain recurrence were better than those in the RT+PBC group(all P<0.05).Pain recurrence was positively correlated with pain scores of T2 to T6(r=0.306,0.482,0.831,0.876,0.887,respectively;all P<0.01). Conclusion:The choice of PBC for the first intervention in PTN patients is superior to the choice of PBC after pain recurrence after RT treatment in terms of treatment outcome and pain recurrence.

Objective:To investigate the influences of morphological characteristics of skull base ovale foramen in the puncture difficulty of percutaneous balloon compression (PBC), surgical efficacy and postoperative complications in patients with idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (ITN).Methods:One hundred and twenty-seven patients with ITN, admitted to our hospital from January 2020 to January 2021, were collected. Dyna-CT three-dimensional imaging of the oval foramen at the skull base and PBC treatment were performed on the included patients, and the morphological data of the oval foramen were measured. Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) was used to assess pain degrees before and after surgery. The differences of cross-sectional area and exposure Angle, puncture difficulty and time, NRS scores before and after surgery and incidence of complications were compared in patients with ovale foramen at different forms. The correlations of puncture time with puncture difficulty and cross-sectional area of ovale foramen in skull base were analyzed.Results:The foramen ovale in skull base of 127 patients included standard oval shape ( n=82), almond shape ( n=9), narrow and long shape ( n=13), fissure shape ( n=8) and irregular shape ( n=15). Different morphological characteristics of the skull base ovale foramen could lead to significant differences in the difficulty of puncture, exposure angle, cross-sectional area and puncture time ( P<0.05). Puncture time was positively correlated with puncture difficulty and cross-sectional area ( r=0.359, P<0.001; r=0.280, P=0.007). The patients with skull base ovale foramen of different forms showed no significant differences in the differences of NRS scores before and after PBC and occurrence of postoperative complications ( P>0.05). Conclusion:Dyna-CT three-dimensional imaging can visually display the morphological characteristics of the oval foramen at the skull base; this technique can be used to guide the puncture of the oval foramen and effectively evaluate the difficulty of puncture in PBC, but it does not affect the postoperative pain improvement and complication incidences.