In order to improve the precision and robustness in determination of soluble solids content ( SSC) of ‘Fuji ’ apple by NIR spectroscopy and eliminate the effect of origin variability on the accuracy of NIR calibration models for the SSC, sample set partitioning based on joint x-y distances ( SPXY) was used to select representative subset from the apple samples of 4 different origins. As a comparison, partial least square ( PLS) was used to establish local origin and hybrid origin models for the prediction of SSC in apple. Competitive adaptive reweighted sampling ( CARS ) and successive projections algorithm ( SPA ) were implemented to select effective variables of the NIR spectroscopy of SSC of apple. The results indicated that the PLS model established based on the 4 origin apple samples performed better than local origin and other hybrid origin models. The model could be effectively simplified using 16 characteristic variables selected by CARS-SPA method from full-spectrum which had 3112 wavelengths. The correlation coefficient (Rp) and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) were 0. 978 and 0. 441 oBrix, respectively for SSC. It was found that the model developed by more samples of different origins combined with effective wavelengths showed good prediction ability for apple sample of unknown origin, which indicated that it could significantly reduce the origin effect on the robustness of NIR models for SSC of apple.

BACKGROUNDLung cancer has become the leading cause of the cancer death in China. Population-based lung cancer screening is still in controversy. The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of annual chest radiography and sputum cytological screening conducted in high lung cancer risk population who were exposed to work related carcinogens.

METHODSA retrospective analysis was conducted to evaluate the screening results of the lung cancer cases diagnosed from 1992 to 2001 in the miners of Yunnan tin mine.

RESULTSA total of 9317 miners had been screened annually from 1992 to 1999. A total of 46 779 chest radiography and 45 672 sputum cytological examinations had been conducted, and 793 cohort subjects had at least one positive result. The annual positive detection rate ranged from 1214.1/100 000 to 3482.7/100 000. By December 31, 2001, 433 lung cancer cases had been confirmed, 371 cases out of them had cytological/pathological evidence, and 55.0% were squamous cell carcinoma followed by adenocarcinoma and small cell carcinoma. Stage I or II accounted for 24%. 62.1% of the cases had at least one positive screening result, while 165 cases were detected by chest radiography alone, 56 were detected by sputum cytology, and 48 were detected by both screening modalities. 64.2% of X-ray detected cases were squamous/adenous carcinomas and 75.0% of cytological detected cases were squamous carcinoma. 80.8% of early stage cases had at least one previous positive finding from screening.

CONCLUSIONSAnnual lung cancer screening with combination of chest radiography and sputum cytology play some extent role in early detection of lung cancer in high risk population. The results may provide some primary data for lung cancer screening in special population who are at high risk of lung cancer in China.

OBJECTIVETo detect potential mutation in a Chinese family affected with succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase deficiency.

METHODSGenomic DNA was extracted from the peripheral blood samples of the proband, her family members and 100 healthy controls. All exons and flanking intronic regions of the ALDH5A1 gene were amplified by PCR and subjected to direct sequencing.

RESULTSThe proband was found to have compound heterozygous mutations of the ALDH5A1 gene, namely c.398_399delAA (p.N134X) and c.638G>T (p.R213L), for which her parents were both heterozygous carriers. The same mutations were not found among the 100 healthy controls.

CONCLUSIONThe novel mutations of the ALDH5A1 gene probably underlie the pathogenesis of the disease in the infant, which also enriched the mutation spectrum of the ALDH5A1 gene.

Amino Acid Metabolism, Inborn Errors ; ethnology ; genetics ; Amino Acid Sequence ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; genetics ; Base Sequence ; China ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; methods ; Developmental Disabilities ; ethnology ; genetics ; Exons ; genetics ; Family Health ; Female ; Heterozygote ; Humans ; Infant ; Introns ; genetics ; Male ; Mutation ; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid ; Succinate-Semialdehyde Dehydrogenase ; deficiency ; genetics

Objective To understand the infection status, epidemiological characteristics and genetic evolution of adenovirus in children with diarrhea in Tianjin. Methods A total of 1609 fecal specimens were collected from hospitalized children with diarrhea from July 2017 to July 2018 in Tianjin Children's Hospital. Viral nucleic acid was extracted and amplified by the hexon gene fragment. Positive specimens were used for nucleic acid sequence determination and sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree analysis with known sequences in GenBank. Rotavirus in the stool specimens was detected by gold standard method, and campylobacter was detected by latex agglutination method. Bocavirus, Norovirus and Clostridium difficile were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results A total of 69 specimens with adenoviruses were detected in 1609 cases, with a positive rate of 4.3％, in which 82.6％adenovirus-positive children were between 7 and 48 months old. The positive rate of adenovirus peaked in the summer and autumn, and the differences of this value among seasons were statistical significance (χ2=11.467,P=0.009). In these cases, the mixed infection rate of adenovirus was 26.1％(18/69), in which 7 cases were mixed with Norovirus, 7 cases were mixed with rotavirus and 4 cases were mixed with Clostridium difficile. A total of 39 adenovirus-positive PCR products were randomly selected for gene sequence detection, and 7 adenovirus genotypes were detected. Results showed that these viruses were mainly the type 41 enteric adenovirus (46.1％, 18/39), followed by type 31, type 3 and type 7 non-intestinal adenovirus, while types 1, 5 and 6 were relatively rare. Conclusions There are diverse types of adenovirus in children with diarrhea in Tianjin. The adenovirus-infected diarrhea mostly happen in summer and autumn, and is common in children.