Objective To explore the effects of salmeterol/fluticasone propionate complicated or combined with N-acetylcysteine on the pulmonary function and arterial blood gas analysis of the patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and to evaluate its curative effect.Methods 84 cases of COPD patients were randomly divided into combination treatment group (n=44)and simple treatment group (n=40).The patients in combination treatment group were treated with salmeterol/fluticasone propionate combinated with N-acetylcysteine while the patients in simple treatment group were treated only with salmeterol/fluticasone propionate, both of which were followed up for 6 months.The changes of pulmonary function (FEV1%FVC,FEV1%Pred,PEF daily variation rate:ΔPEF%)and the arterial blood gas analysis indexes (PaO2 and PaCO2 )of the patients in two groups were recorded before treatment, 3 months after treatment, and 6 months after treatment. Results The FEV1%FVC,FEV1%Pred and PaO2 of the patients in combination treatment group and simple treatment group were obviously increased 3 and 6 months after treatment compared with before treatment (P<0.01 ), and the PaCO2 were obviously decreased (P<0.01).And there were significant differences of the indexes mentioned above of the patients between two groups (P<0.05 );but the indexes of each group had no significant differences between 3 months and 6 months after treatment (P>0.05).TheΔPEF% of the patients in two groups had no significant differences between inter-group and intra-group before and after treatment (P > 0.05 ). Conclusion Combination of salmeterol/fluticasone propionate and N-acetylcysteine can obviously improve the pulmonary function and arterial blood gas analysis indexes of the COPD patients, which is superior to the simple application of salmeterol/fluticasone propionate and has definite and lasting curative effect on the treatment of COPD.

Objective To examine the changing levels of serum iron and hemoglobin in Streptococcus pneumoniae-induced rat pneumonia model and the relationship among infection severity,serum iron and hemoglobin.Methods Sixty Sprague Dawley (SD)rats were randomly assigned to one of the four groups,1 5 SD rats in each group,including three treatment groups and one control group. Low, medium and high doses of bacteria were administered to the animals in the treatment groups respectively through tracheal cannula.The severity of pneumonia was indicated by the level of bacterial load.The animals in the control group did not receive bacterial challenge.The mean serum iron and hemoglobin levels were calculated on day 3,5, and 7 to analyze the relationship between bacterial dose and serum iron or hemoglobin levels.Results The serum iron level in the animals receiving medium or high doses of bacteria was significantly lower compared with that in control group on day 3 (P=0.009,P=0.005).The serum iron level in the animals receiving low dose of bacteria showed significant difference compared with that in the control group on day 5 (P=0.007).The hemoglobin level in the animals receiving medium or high doses of bacteria was significantly different from that in the control group on day 5 (P=0.031,P=0.046).The hemoglobin level in the animals receiving low dose of bacteria did not show significant difference compared with that in the control group on day 3,5 or 7.The bacterial dose level was negatively correlated with the mean level of serum iron (correlation coefficient r=-0.65,r=-0.53,r=-0.61,respectively).There was no definite correlation between the bacterial dose and the mean hemoglobin level.Conclusions Streptococcus pneumoniae infection may be associated with lower serum iron and hemoglobin levels in rats.The severity of infection is negatively correlated with serum iron level,but not hemoglobin level.

Objective To study the important virulence regulation genes of Brucella,and to understand their function.Methods Quantitative RT-PCR was used to quantify their relative transcription profiles under stress conditions and during macrophage cell infection.Results These genes were activated at different levels under these conditions and during cell infection,indicating their roles in pathogenesis at different srage of infection.Conclusion The transcription profiles of these genes have different effects about their functions.

Objective To investigate the role and mechanism of sulforaphane (SFN) in vascular calcification induced by oxidative stress.Methods The uremic vascular calcification model was established by treating rat vascular smooth muscle cells (RASMCs) with β-glycerophosphate.RASMCs were divided into 6 groups:normal control (NC) group,1 μmol/L SFN group,5 μmol/L SFN group,calcification group,1 μmol/L SFN+calcification group,5 μmol/L SFN+calcification group,and were all cultured for 72 h.Cell viability was measured by MTT.RASMCs calcification was visualized by Von Kossa staining.Calcium content was quantified by the microplate test,and mRNA level of FGF-23 was tested by real-time PCR.The expressions of OPN,Runx-2,Nrf-2 and Sirt-1 were evaluated by Western blotting.Confocal microscope was employed to observe mitochondria damage in RASMCs and the production of ROS in RASMCs was measured by reactive oxygen species assay.Results (1) SFN did not affect cell viability of the NC group,but both low dosage and high dosage increased the cell viability of calcification group (all P ＜ 0.05).(2) Compared with calcification group,SNF treatment decreased the calcium concentration,intracellular calcium deposition and the mRNA level of FGF-23 (all P ＜ 0.05).(3) Compared with calcification group,SNF treatment decreased the fluorensence intensity,mitochondria injury and the protein expressions of OPN and Runx-2,but increased the protein expressions of Nrf-2,Sirt-1 and cleaved caspase-3 (all P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion SNF can effectively protect RASMCs against vascular calcification induced by oxidative stress,since it prevents the ROS production and mitochondria dysfunction through Nrf-2 and Sirt-1.

Objective:To offer a revised Chinese version of the object attachment questionnaire(OAQ), and to examine its reliability and validity in Chinese college students.Methods:Totally 1 350 college students were tested with the Chinese version of OAQ, Chinese version of the saving inventory-revised scale(SI-R), experiences in close relationships inventory(ECR) and emotion attachment questionnaire(EAQ). A total of 100 college students from the sample were followed to complete the Chinese version of OAQ after 4 weeks.Item analysis, correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis and reliability test were conducted by SPSS 24.0 software, while confirmatory factor nalaysis and convergent validity were conducted by AMOS 21.0.Results:The exploratory factor analysis showed that Chinese version of OAQ included two factors and twelve items.Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the two-factor model fitted well( χ2/ df=3.76, GFI=0.93, CFI=0.90, TLI=0.87, IFI=0.90, RMSEA=0.08). The OAQ positively correlated with SI-R, ECR and EAQ ( r=0.22, 0.34, 0.63, all P<0.01, CR=0.74-0.85, P<0.01.AVE=0.29-0.39, P<0.01). The OAQ had good internal reliability with Cronbach’s α coefficients from 0.78 to 0.83, retest reliability coefficients from 0.87 to 0.97 and split-half reliability coefficients from 0.60 to 0.76(all P<0.01). Conclusion:The Chinese version of OAQ has acceptable reliability and validity.

We propose a novel palm-vein recognition model based on the end-to-end convolutional neural network. In this model, the convolutional layer and the pooling layer were alternately connected to extract the image features, and the categorical attribute was estimated simultaneously via the neural network classifier. The classification error was minimized via the mini-batch stochastic gradient descent algorithm with momentum to optimize the feature descriptor along with the direction of the gradient descent. Four strategies including data augmentation, batch normalization, dropout, and L2 parameter regularization were applied in the model to reduce the generalization error. The experimental results showed that for classifying 500 subjects form PolyU database and a self-established database, this model achieved identification rates of 99.90% and 98.05%, respectively, with an identification time for a single sample less than 9 ms. The proposed approach, as compared with the traditional method, could improve the accuracy of palm vein recognition in clincal applications and provides a new approach to palm vein recognition.
Algorithms ; Databases, Factual ; Hand ; blood supply ; diagnostic imaging ; Humans ; Neural Networks (Computer) ; Veins ; diagnostic imaging

In the original publication Fig. 1D and supplementary material is incorrect. The correct figure and supplementary material is provided in this correction.

Recently we have established a new culture condition enabling the derivation of extended pluripotent stem (EPS) cells, which, compared to conventional pluripotent stem cells, possess superior developmental potential and germline competence. However, it remains unclear whether this condition permits derivation of EPS cells from mouse strains that are refractory or non-permissive to pluripotent cell establishment. Here, we show that EPS cells can be robustly generated from non-permissive NOD-scid Il2rg mice through de novo derivation from blastocysts. Furthermore, these cells can also be efficiently generated by chemical reprogramming from embryonic NOD-scid Il2rg fibroblasts. NOD-scid Il2rg EPS cells can be expanded for more than 20 passages with genomic stability and can be genetically modified through gene targeting. Notably, these cells contribute to both embryonic and extraembryonic lineages in vivo. More importantly, they can produce chimeras and integrate into the E13.5 genital ridge. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of generating EPS cells from refractory mouse strains, which could potentially be a general strategy for deriving mouse pluripotent cells. The generation of NOD-scid Il2rg EPS cell lines permits sophisticated genetic modification in NOD-scid Il2rg mice, which may greatly advance the optimization of humanized mouse models for biomedical applications.

One major strategy to generate genetically modified mouse models is gene targeting in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells, which is used to produce gene-targeted mice for wide applications in biomedicine. However, a major bottleneck in this approach is that the robustness of germline transmission of gene-targeted ES cells can be significantly reduced by their genetic and epigenetic instability after long-term culturing, which impairs the efficiency and robustness of mouse model generation. Recently, we have established a new type of pluripotent cells termed extended pluripotent stem (EPS) cells, which have superior developmental potency and robust germline competence compared to conventional mouse ES cells. In this study, we demonstrate that mouse EPS cells well maintain developmental potency and genetic stability after long-term passage. Based on gene targeting in mouse EPS cells, we established a new approach to directly and rapidly generate gene-targeted mouse models through tetraploid complementation, which could be accomplished in approximately 2 months. Importantly, using this approach, we successfully constructed mouse models in which the human interleukin 3 (IL3) or interleukin 6 (IL6) gene was knocked into its corresponding locus in the mouse genome. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of using mouse EPS cells to rapidly generate mouse models by gene targeting, which have great application potential in biomedical research.