BACKGROUND:The self-ligating bracket is superior to the conventional bracket in orthodontic treatment, but there are a lot of controversies. At present, researchers have different views on the function of self-ligating brackets. OBJECTIVE:To summarize the comparative study of self-ligating brackets and conventional brackest with the direction and development in recent years. METHODS:A computer-based search of PubMed (2000-2014) and CNKI (2000-2014) databases was done for relevant articles, using the key words of “self-ligating brackets; conventional orthodontic brackets” in English and Chinese, respectively. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Self-locking brackets saves chair side time, which has been confirmed and accepted. There are different views for the issue that self-ligating brackets can reduce friction in orthodontic treatment. It is widely accepted that, the self-ligating brackets using thin round wire had less friction than the conventional brackets; whether the friction of self-ligating brackets in the closed gap and fineness adjustment stages is less than the conventional brackets stil remains unclear, which need further clinical comparative studies. The self-ligating brackets showed no significant difference with the conventional brackets in arch expansion, reducing anchorage loss and root adsorption. The majority of relevant studies is performedin vitro, and cannot exactly simulate the dental conditions. A large-size experiment with the uniform criteria for therapeutic efficacy is needed to objectively evaluate self-ligating brackets.

Objective To design a private cloud storage system to guarantee intranet and internet data security and realize data sharing between multi platforms.Methods The idea and solution for building the system were proposed by analyzing the difficulty during hospital informatization.The infrastructure based on the idle computing resources in the existing virtual pool and the application platform by private cloud storage software were involved in the development of the system,and related software and hardware were integrated after adjustment and customization,and then the system came into being with easy operation and high performance-cost ratio.Results The system developed realized freely data storage and sharing,and implemented file encryption to control the applied range.Conclusion The system has the functions of malicious code scanning,cooperative office system and data auto-backup,synchronization,transmission,sharing and etc,which executes intranet and intemet data sharing based on physical isolation.

Objective To analyze the concentrations and sources of heavy metals in the soils in city parks,so as to improve the city ecological environment quality and protect the health of people.Methods In December 2007,the distribution characteristics and concentrations of heavy metals(Hg,Cd,Pb,Cu,Zn,Ni,Cr,As)were investigated by ICP-AES and mercury analyzer after the soil samples were collected from six urban parks in Pudong,Shanghai.Results The results showed that the ranges of concentration were 21.08-69.31 mg/kg for Cu,41.87-91.71 mg/kg for Pb,104.65-213.83 mg/kg for Zn,84.63-894.28 mg/kg for Cr,0.15-0.26 mg/kg for Cd,19.14-25.32 mg/kg for As,0.02-0.55 mg/kg for Hg,39.30-454.36 mg/kg for Ni,which indicated that all heavy metals,but Cd had been accumulated in varying degree compared with the soil background contents of metal elements in Shanghai. Conclusion Based on the assessment with the single contamination index,Ni and Cr is relatively in a high level of the pollution in Park 1,while the other heavy metals are in a lower risk.According to the comprehensive contamination indexes,the heavy metals pollution in Park 1 belongs to a high grade,while the other parks are in little pollution level.

ObjectiveThe clinical features, bacteria distribution and antibiotic resistance proifle of blood stream infection(BSI) were investigated in the patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis for better management of such infections.MethodsThe clinical data of BSI were collected in the patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis between January, 2012 and December, 2014, and reviewed retrospectively in terms of risk factors, diagnosis and treatment, pathogen distribution and prognosis.ResultsOf the 1 071 patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis and suspected bacterial infection, 154 (14.4%) were diagnosed as BSI evidenced by blood culture. Of these patients, the leukocyte count in the peripheral blood was higher than 10×109/L in only 48 (31.2%) patients; neutrophil proportion>0.75 in 133 patients (86.4%); serum procalcitonin level>0.5 ng/mL in 74 patients (68.5%). A total of 155 bacterial strains were isolated, including 115 strains of gram-negative bacilli and 40 strains of gram-positive cocci. Most patients (68.8%) recovered and 31.2% died or discharged from hospital voluntarily. All these BSI patients had Child-Pugh grade C liver function. Some patients also had other serious systemic diseases or repeated hospitalization.ConclusionThe prevalence of BSI is high in the decompensated liver cirrhosis patients with poor prognosis. Gram-negative bacilli are the major pathogens of such septicemia. Early diagnosis and proper use of antibiotics based on antimicrobial susceptibility testing are important to improve patient outcome.

Objective To investigate the role of PI_3 K/Akt signal pathway in Ephrin-Al gene mediated invasion,metastasis of Huh-7 cells.Methods Western blot was used to test the protein expression of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase(PI_3 K)and mitogen-activated protein kinase(MAPK)after Huh-7 cells were treated with Ephrin-A1/Fc fusion protein.According to the protein expression,LY294002 was used to block PI_3 K/Akt pathway specifically,then p-Akt protein expression,mobility and invasive ability of Huh-7 cells were examined.Results In Huh-7 cells actived by Ephrin-Al/Fc fusion protein,p-Akt expression was higher than that in control group(t=4.564,P＜0.05),but there was no difference of p-p38MAPK expression between Ephrin-Al/Fc fusion protein group and IgG/Fc fusion protein group(P＞0.05).PI_3 K/Akt pathway was specifically blocked by LY294002,the p-Akt protein expression decreased in Huh-7 cells,and the mobility and invasive ability mediated by Ephrin-Al in Huh-7 cells decreased(P＜0.05).Conclusions PI_3 K/Akt pathway effects an important role in mobility and invasive ability of Huh-7 cells mediated by Ephrin-A1.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Fluorescence ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; isolation & purification ; Paraffin Embedding ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; methods ; Retrospective Studies ; Tuberculosis, Pulmonary ; diagnosis ; microbiology ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of losartan on the expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP1) and transforming growth factor-β(1) (TGF-β(1)) in the kidney of rats with unilateral urethral obstruction (UUO) and evaluate protective effect of losartan against reanal interstitial fibrosis.

METHODSRat models of UUO were treated with losartan at the routine dose, high dose, and very high dose (50, 200, and 500 mg/kg daily, respectively), and saline was given to UUO model rats and rats with sham operation. At 7, 14, and 21 days, the tail cuff blood pressure (TCP), 24-h urine protein (Upro), serum Scr, BUN, K(+), percentage of renal damage and renal interstitial fibrosis (%INT) were measured in the rats. MCP1 protein in the renal tissues was detected using immunohistochemistry, and MCP1 and TGF-β(1) mRNA expressions were assayed using RT-PCR.

RESULTSAs the UUO prolonged, Upro, TCP, tubular damage, %INT, and MCP1 and TGF-β(1) mRNA expressions all increased significantly (P<0.05). High and very high doses of losartan, compared with the routine dose, obviously reversed these changes.

CONCLUSIONHigh-dose losartan can effectively control blood pressure, reduce renal damage and fibrosis, and inhibit MCP1 and TGF-β(1) expression in rats with UUO, and at a very high dose, losartan can more effectively reduce 24-h Upro than the high-dose group. High and very high doses of losartan offer better protective effect on the kidney in rats with UUO.

Animals ; Chemokine CCL2 ; metabolism ; Fibrosis ; etiology ; prevention & control ; Kidney ; metabolism ; pathology ; Losartan ; pharmacology ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; metabolism ; Ureteral Obstruction ; complications ; drug therapy

Objective To investigate the relationship between hypoxia and insulin resistance in males with metabolic syndrome ( MS ). Methods Parameters at physical, hematological, glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism, and insulin resistance were measured in 295 middle-aged men who took health examination. The trends of laboratory indexes grouped by hemoglobin quartile and MS components were compared. The correlation between hypoxia and insulin resistance was analyzed. Results With the increase of hemoglobin, the occurrence rates of MS, TG, INS, and HOMA-IR were also significantly increased ( P < 0. 05 ), while HDL-C and HOMA-IS reduced remarkably(P<0. 05). With the increase of MS components, hematological parameters(RBC, Hb, Hct), INS, and HOMA-IR were significantly increased( P<0. 05) while HOMA-IS were significantly decreased( P<0. 05). Blood lactate and HIF-1αwere significantly increased with the increase of hemoglobin as well as MS components(P<0. 05);Hematological parameters were positively correlated with blood lactate and HIF-1α, and Hypoxia related indicators including hematological parameters, Lac, HIF-1α showed a positive correlation with HOMA-IR and a negative correlation with HOMA-IS( P < 0. 05). Conclusion Chronic hypoxia does exist in metabolic syndrome, and the degree of hypoxia is associated with insulin resistance. Hematological parameters are also significantly correlated with insulin resistance which could be as a result of chronic hypoxia.

Objective To analyze research literature about integration of the body and the spirit; To understand the research status of this classical theory.Methods Relevant articles about integration of the body and the spirit in CNKI, Wanfang Data, VIP-Chinese Scientific and Technological Journal Data were searched, and bibliometric analysis with NoteExpress3.0, Bicomb2.0 and SPSS19.0 software was used to analyzed the data.ResultsA total of 156 efficient articles were retrieved. The number of published articles increased, but the core author group had not yet been formed. The number of cited articles was low. The study hot spots mainly focused on TCM constitution, the subject of health preservation, TCM basic theories, and psychosomatic medicine.Conclusion Domestic studies on integration of the body and the spirit are still in the initial stage. Research number should be increased, meanwhile, innovation and quality should be emphasized.

Objective To investigate the radiosensitization effects of the combination treatment of clioquinol (CQ) and zinc on human cervical cell line HeLa in vitro.Methods Cells were divided into the 4 groups:controls,drug,radiation,and combined drug and radiation group.Cytotoxic effect of CQ and zinc on cell viability was determined by CCK-8 assay.Radiosensitization effect of CQ and zinc on HeLa cells was detected by colongenic assay,and the single-hit multi-target model was used to stimulate the doseresponse curve of survival and to calculate radiosensitization parameters.The cell cycle and apoptosis of HeLa cells were analyzed with flow cytometry.Luciferase reporter assay was used to study NF-κB activity of HeLa cells.Results The combination of CQ and zinc inhibited cell growth in a dose-dependent manner (F =188.00,P ＜ 0.01).The mean lethal dose was 3.16 and 2.04 Gy for radiation group and combined drug and radiation group,respectively,and hence the SER was 1.55.Compared with the radiation group,the ratio of G2-phase cells in the combined drug and radiation group decreased(t =10.39,P ＜ 0.05),the apoptosis rate increased at 24 h post-irradiation (t =5.64,P ＜ 0.01),and the NF-κB activity decreased (t =21.42,P ＜ 0.05).Compared to the control group,the NF-κB activity increased in the radiation group(t=6.23,P＜0.05),but decreased in the drug group(t =12.48,P＜0.05).Conclusions The combination of CQ and zinc could increase the radiosensitivity of HeLa cells by decreasing the ratio of G2-phase cells,increasing apoptosis and the inhibiting of NF-κB activity.