Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of tobacco control interventions among employees in centers for disease control and prevention (CDC) in Hebei Province. Methods Tobacoo control interventions, including health education, Quit and Win competition, and founding smokeless CDC, were carried out in CDC system in Hebei Province from May 2006 to June 2008. Surveys on smoking rate of employees and on average cigarette quantity consumed by male employee smokers were conducted at the beginning and the end of the interventions. Results In 2006, 9 931 employees in 174 centers at provincial, city, county level in Hebei Province participated in this study. The overall smoking rate was 25.69%. Male employees had a higher smoking rate (51.28%) than the females (0.68%). The smoking rate of male employees was 50.92%, 49.48% and 51.72% for provincial, city and county CDC levels, respectively. The average cigarettes consumed by one smoker in one day were 15.0. In 2008, 9 139 employees in 189 centers participated in this study. The overall current smoking rate was 25.07%. The smoking rate was 52.26% and 0.43% for males and females, respectively. The smoking rates of male employees in provincial and city CDCs were 43.93% and 46.18%, significantly lower than those in 2006. The smoking rate of male employees in county CDCs was 53.98%, much higher than that in 2006. The average cigarettes consumed by one smoker in one day in 2008 were 12.4, significantly less than that in 2006. The current smoking rate of male employees in smokeless CDCs was 48.0% , significantly lower than 56.9% in non smokeless CDCs. Conclusion Male employees in Hebei Province CDC system had a high smoking rate. Tobacco control interventions play a role in reducing smoking rate and cigarettes consumption.

Human health and public safety are being threatened while chemicals bring convenience and comfortable to our life. How to reduce and avoid the hazard of chemicals via toxicity warning is becoming more and more important. Today it is necessary to estimate new chemicals conveniently, quickly and precisely. The warning model of chemicals in toxicology has a favorable prospect of application. The toxic effect and kinds of models of chemicals and the study of quantitative structure activity relationships (QSAR) in toxicity research were reviewed in this paper.

Chronic Disease ; Heart Failure ; Humans ; Nutrition Assessment

Objective To investigate the effect of lipoxin A4 LXA4) on radicular pain caused by intervertebral disc herniation.Methods Non-compressive intervertebral disc herniation was induced into forty-eight adult male Sprague-Dawley rats,and they were divided into a sham group (sham operation + 10 μl normal saline),a control group (modeled + 10 μl normal saline),an LXA4 10 ng group (modeled + 10 ng LXA4) and an LXA4 100 ng group (modeled + 100 ng LXA4),with 12 rats in each group.The normal saline (10 μl) or LXA4 (10 μl) was administered intrathecally right after the operation and on each of the three succeeding days.General behavior was observed and the 50％ paw withdrawal threshold (50％ PWT) was measured.On postoperative day 7 all the rats were killed and the ipsilateral lumbar (L4~) segments of their spinal dorsal horns were removed for determination of the expression of p-JNK,t-JNK,p-ERK and t-ERK proteins using western blotting.TNF-α,IL-1β and TGF-β1 expression were determined using ELISA.Results There was no significant difference in the 50％PWT of the sham group before and after surgery,but the 50％ PWTs of the control group and the LXA4 10 ng group were significantly decreased after the operation compared with their values beforehand and significantly lower than the value of the sham group at all time points.Moreover,the 50％ PWT of the LXA4 10 ng group on postoperative days 3 and 5 was significantly higher than the control group;as was the value of the LXA4 100 ng group on postoperative days 2,3,4,5,6 and 7.The p-JNK and p-ERK expression in the control group,the LXA4 10 ng group and the LXA4 100 ng group were all increased significantly more than in the sham group,but their expression in the LXA4 10 ng group and LXA4 100 ng group were decreased significantly more in a dose-dependent manner compared with the control group,with the LXA4 100 ng group showing the greatest decrease.There were no significant differences in t-JNK or t-ERK expression within each group.Conclusion LXA4 can alleviate radicular pain caused by non-compressive lumbar intervertebral disc herniation.The underlying mechanism involves inhibiting the activation of the ERK and JNK pathways,reducing the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and increasing the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokines.

Objective To investigate the pathogenic mechanism of Campylobacter jejuni(C.jejuni) associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome(GBS) and provide strategy for gene modification, the cstⅡ gene from 8 GBS-associated C.jejuni strains were compared with that from 3 GBS-unrelated C.jejuni strains, getting the base and amino acid mutations, the changes of secondary structures and finding the region which may be responsible for the pathogenicity of C.jejuni inducing GBS. Methods Three GBS-associated C.jejuni strains isolated from stools of GBS patients in north China were selected and cultured, which has been confirmed as GBS-associated by animal model. After sequencing the genome of them, the nucleotide sequences of cstⅡ gene were got through sequence alignment. The nucleotide sequences and deduced amini acid sequences of 3 GBS-associated cstⅡ genes were compared with that from 3 GBS-unrelated C.jejuni strains through bioinformatics software, getting the base and amino acid mutations, the changes of secondary structures. Other 5 GBS-associated cstⅡ genes were also aligned to know whether the differences we got above makes sense. In this way the genetic differences between two kinds of C.jejuni strains may be found and speculating the gene region related to the pathogenicity of GBS became possible. Results The cstⅡgene of 3 GBS-associated C.jejuni strains were all composed of 876 base pairs. Compared with GBS-unrelated C.jejuni strains, there were 9 consistent mutation sites in cstⅡ gene of LL and QYT stains, leading to 3 consistent amino acid mutation. The amino acid mutation of 114 and 182 sites in LL and QYT stains existed in other 5 GBS-associated C.jejuni strains. The sole amino acid mutation of ZHX strain -169 site, located near the 182 site. The seventh α-helix(165-180 region)of the secondary structure of the amino acid sequence from GBS-associated strains were shorter than that from GBS-unrelated strains, and the shorter regions were opened to form β-sheet or coli, which also existed in other GBS-related strains in this study.75% of the GBS-associated cstⅡ genes were Asn-51, while 25% of the GBS-associated and all of the GBS-unrelated cstⅡ genes were Thr-51.LL strain showed highly identity to other GBS-unrelated strains in this study. Conclusion The 165-180 segment of secondary structures in cstⅡ gene from local 3 GBS-associated C.jejuni strains are probably the responsible region involved in inducing GBS. The senior structure changes in this region may affect the activity of sialyltransferase and the structures of ganglioside epitope, so that the C.jejuni can acquire the pathogenicity of GBS. This finding may give a clue to genetic modified site. The bi-functional cstⅡ of C.jejuni may be related to the pathogenicity of GBS. The cstⅡ of LL strain to some extent represents the characteristics of Asian strains, which may directs strains monitoring.

Objective To investigate the relationship between the expression of imprinted gene CDKN1C in placenta and the birth weight of neonates.Methods Twenty-nine term small for gestational age (SGA) neonates admitted to Peking University Third Hospital from January 1,2014 to December 31,2014 were recruited,and 29 appropriate for gestational age (AGA) neonates with a difference of not more than one week in gestational age served as controls.Fresh placental tissue was collected and the expression of imprinted gene CDKN1C mRNA in the placenta were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative-polymerase chain reaction,and its protein expression was estimated by Western-blot.Chi-square test,independent-sample t test,Pearson's correlation analysis were used for statistical analysis.Results The CDKN1C mRNA expression level in SGA was significantly higher than that in AGA (0.133± 0.059 vs 0.100±0.046,t=2.401,P=0.020),so was the CDKN1C protein expression (0.280±0.043 vs 0.190±0.041,t=8.410,P=0.000).The CDKN1C mRNA expression levels were negatively correlated with birth weight in both groups (SGA group,r=-0.587,P=0.001;AGA group,r=-0.569,P=0.001),and the correlation was slightly stronger in SGA (r2=0.344) than in AGA (r2=0.324).The CDKN1C protein expression levels of the two groups were negatively correlated with birth weight (SGA group,r=-0.579,P=0.001;AGA group,r=-0.497,P=0.006),the correlation being stronger in SGA group (r2=0.335) than in AGA group (r2=0.247).The CDKN1C mRNA and protein expression levels of the two groups were negatively correlated with birth weight for gender,especially in males [mRNA:r2=0.293(male)vs r2=0.185(female);protein:r2=0.730 (male) vs r2=0.601(female)].Neither CDKN1C mRNA nor protein expression level was correlated to the placenta weight (mRNA:SGA group,r=0.119,P=0.540;AGA group,r=-0.069,P=0.722;protein:SGA group,r=0.126,P=0.515;AGA group,r=-0.247,P=0.196).Conclusions The expressions of CDKN1C mRNA and protein may be related to birth weight of term SGA neonates,especially in male infants.

Objective To quantify the risk factors for aspirin resistance so as to increase the prognosis for risk of coronary heart disease,and to establish a predictive model for aspirin resistance in order to guide the clinical anti-platelet therapy.Methods A total of 938 elderly male patients with stable coronary heart disease (CHD) receiving oral aspirin therapy (＞75 mg/d) over 2 months were included in this study.Their clinical data were collected.Logistic regression analysis was performed to establish a predictive model and risk score for aspirin resistance.Hosmer Lemeshow (H-L) test and an area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (the area under the ROC curve) were performed to test the calibration and discrimination of the model.Results Seven risk factors were included in the predictive model,including serum creatinine (＞110 μmol/L:score of 1),fasting blood glucose (＞7.0 mmol/L:score of 1),hyperlipidemia (score of 1),number of coronary arteries in lesion (2 branches:score of 2,≥≥3 branches:score of 4),body mass index[(20-25) kg/m2:score of 2,＞25 kg/m2:score of 4],percutaneous coronary intervention (score of 2),smoking (score of 3).H-L test showed P≥0.05 and the area under the ROC curve＞0.70 in this model.Conclusions the risk factors for aspirin resistance,and establishing a valid predictive model for aspirin resistance,could provide an important reference for anti-platelet therapy in CHD patients.

Objective To assess the safety and the curative effect of the combination of minipercutaneous nephrolithotomy (mini-PCNL) and ureteroscopic lithotripsy (URL) in the treatment of nonhydronephrotic staghorn calculi. Methods The clinical data of 53 eases with non-hydronephrotic staghom calculi treated by mini-PCNL combined with URL were retrospectively analyzed. Results Fifty-three cases (64 renal units) were performed first-stsge operation, 9 renal units were stone free in first-stage operation, 33 renal units were stone free in second-stage operation, other 13 renal units were stone free in third-stage operation. A complete stone clearance rate of 85.9%(55/64) was achieved, and after one to three sessions of mini-PCNL and extracorpereal shock wave lithotripsy afterwards that increased to 95.3% (61/64). Blood transfusion was performed in 3 cases, no major complication was noted in the patients. Conclusions The combination of mini-PCNL and URL has more advantages, less invasions, easier recovery and less complications. It provides a new minimally invasive way for non-hydronephrotic staghorn calculi.

Objective To explore emergency treatment methods for acute renal failure caused by negative imaging ureterolith. Methods There were 36 cases of acute renal failure caused by negative imaging ureterolith, which were finally diagnosed by ureteroscope examination. The negative imaging ureterolith were broken by air pressure ballistic curve shock wave,and taken out of ureter by ureteroscope. All cases were put double-J in ureter. Results Thirty-six cases were got success relieves of ureter obstruction in 24 hours. The urine volume of them were increased, symptoms of urinemia were disappeared, BUN and creatinine were normal after operations. Conclusions The treatment and diagnosis methods by ureteroscope for acute renal failure caused by negative imaging ureterolith are quick and safety, which can treat both side ureterolith at the same time and get reliable and safe effect with less trauma. It should be the first choice to treat acute renal failure caused by negative imaging ureterolith.

OBJECTIVETo determine the distribution and sequence conservation of pagC gene in Salmonella paratyphi A isolates, and the immunogenicity and immunoprotection of its recombinant expression products (rPagC).

METHODSThe distribution of pagC gene in Salmonella paratyphi A isolates and its sequence conservation were examined by PCR and sequencing. A prokaryotic expression system of pagC gene was constructed and the expressed rPagC was extracted by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. SDS-PAGE and Bio-Rad Gel Image Analyzer were applied to examine the expression and yield of rPagC. The antigenicity and immunoreactivity of rPagC were detected by immunodiffusion test, ELISA and Western Blot assay. The immunoprotective effect of rPagC against infection of Salmonella paratyphi A in mice was determined, while the agglutinative effect of sera from rPagC-immunized mice was measured by micro-Widal's test.

RESULTSAll the Salmonella paratyphi A isolates tested had the pagC gene, the similarity of nucleotide and amino acid sequences was 99.1 %-100 % and 98.4 %-100 %, respectively. The constructed prokaryotic expression system expressed rPagC with high efficiency. The rPagC immunized rabbit produced a high level antibody and it also combined with antiserum against whole cell of S. paratyphi A to generate a positive Western hybridization signal. ELISA results indicated that 97.1 % (66/68) paratyphoid patients infected with Salmonella paratyphi A were positive for rPagC antibody in their serum specimens. When mice were immunized with 100 μg or 200 μg rPagC, the immunoprotective rates were 73.3 % (11/15) or 86.7 % (13/15), respectively. The sera from rPagC-immunized mice offered 1:10-1:40 agglutination titers with the H antigens of Salmonella paratyphi A and Salmonella typhi.

CONCLUSIONPagC gene has an extensive distribution in Salmonella paratyphi A isolates. rPagC can be used as the candidate antigen in genetic engineering vaccine due to its fine immunogenicity and powerful immunoprotective effect.

Agglutination Tests ; Animals ; Antibodies, Bacterial ; blood ; Antigens, Bacterial ; genetics ; immunology ; Bacterial Proteins ; genetics ; immunology ; Bacterial Vaccines ; Membrane Proteins ; genetics ; immunology ; Mice ; Rabbits ; Recombinant Proteins ; genetics ; immunology ; Salmonella paratyphi A ; genetics ; immunology ; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid ; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid