BACKGROUND:Cervical rotation-traction manipulation is effective and safe in the treatment of cervical spondylotic radiculopathy,and has been widely used in clinical work.However,its effects on the biomechanics of cervical vertebra and intervertebral disc and the area of intervertebral foramen have not been systematically clarified. OBJECTIVE:Based on the finite element analysis technique,a relevant research and analysis were carried out to provide digital evidence for the mechanism of effect of cervical rotation-traction manipulation in the treatment of cervical spondylotic radiculopathy. METHODS:The CT image data of a volunteer with no neck diseases were selected as the finite element model material at its left-handed physiological limit position.The initial construction of the finite element model was completed by Mimics 19.0 software,Geomagic Studio 2013 software,Hypermash 14.0 software,and ANSYS Workbench 2020 R2 software,respectively.Based on the literature,the grid division of cervical structure and the assignment of elastic modulus and elastic coefficient were completed.Based on the previous work of the team,the mechanical effects of cervical rotation-traction manipulation were simulated on the model.Effects of cervical rotation-traction manipulation on the mechanical parameters of each vertebral body and intervertebral disc in C3-T1 segment and on the cervical lateral foramen area were analyzed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:(1)During cervical rotation-traction manipulation,the stress of bone structure was significantly higher than that of soft tissue such as intervertebral disc.(2)When operating the technique,the stress at the top of each cervical vertebra was higher,the stress at the bottom was lower,and the stress at the facet joint and transverse process was lower.The stress at the top of the intervertebral disc was lower,the stress at the bottom was higher,but the highest point of the intervertebral disc stress was outside the top.(3)In addition,after loading the lifting force,the projected area of the C6/C7 intervertebral foramen increased significantly compared with that before loading.(4)It is indicated that the cervical rotation-traction manipulation has the mechanical characteristics of changing the stress structure of the cervical spine itself,and can expand the C6/7 intervertebral cervical foramen area on the opposite side of the patient's cervical rotation,so as to achieve the purpose of treating cervical spondylotic radiculopathy.

BACKGROUND:Recent research indicates that disc degeneration is closely related to abnormal stress load,and mechanotransduction proteins play a key role in it. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the role and mechanism of mechanotransduction proteins in the mechanotransduction process induced by abnormal mechanical stimulation in disc degeneration,and to summarize the current treatment strategies targeting mechanotransduction to delay intervertebral disc degeneration. METHODS:Using"intervertebral disc,nucleus pulposus,annulus fibrosus,cartilaginous endplate,cell,mechanics,signal transduction,protein,biomechanics"as Chinese search terms,and"intervertebral disc,nucleus pulposus,annulus fibrosus,cartilaginous endplate,cell,mechanical stimulation,signal transduction,protein,biomechanics"as English search terms,relevant literature in the PubMed and CNKI databases was searched.A total of 88 articles were ultimately included for review. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:Disc cells can sense external mechanical stimulation through various mechanotransduction proteins and convert it into biological responses within the cells.These transduction proteins mainly include collagen proteins in the extracellular matrix,cell membrane surface receptors(such as integrins and ion channels),and cytoskeleton structural proteins.Their regulation of mechanotransduction processes primarily involves the activation of multiple pathways,such as the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway,nuclear factor-kB signaling pathway,and Ca2+/Calpain2/Caspase3 pathway.Mechanotransduction proteins play a key role in the mechanotransduction of disc cells.Abnormal expression of these proteins or resulting changes in the extracellular matrix environment can disrupt the mechanical balance of disc cells,leading to disc degeneration.In-depth study of the expression and regulatory mechanisms of mechanotransduction proteins in disc cells,and identification of key pathological links and therapeutic targets,is of significant importance for developing treatment strategies for disc degeneration.Current strategies to delay intervertebral disc degeneration by targeting mechanotransduction mainly include regulation of transduction proteins and improvement of the extracellular matrix.However,research in this area is still in its early stages.As research continues,new breakthroughs are expected in the regulation of disc degeneration by mechanotransduction proteins.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), as a treasure of the Chinese nation, plays a significant role in maintaining public health. In 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council proposed for the first time the establishment of a TCM registration and evaluation evidence system that integrates TCM theory, "personal experience" and clinical trials (referred to as the "Three-in-One" System) to promote the inheritance and innovation of TCM. Subsequently, the National Medical Products Administration issued several guiding principles to advance the improvement and implementation of this system. Owing to the complexity of its implementation, there are still differing understandings within the TCM industry regarding the positioning of the "Three-in-One" Registration and Evaluation Evidence System, as well as the connotation and value orientation of the "personal experience." To address this, Academician WANG Qi, President of the TCM Association, China International Exchange and Promotion Association for Medical and Healthcare and TCM master, led a group of academicians, TCM masters, TCM pharmacology experts and clinical TCM experts to convene a "Seminar on Promoting the Implementation of the ′Three-in-One′ Registration and Evaluation Evidence System for Chinese Medicinals." Through extensive discussions, an expert consensus was formed, clarifying the different roles of the TCM theory, "personal experience" and clinical trials within the system. It was further emphasized that the "personal experience" is the core of this system, and its data should be derived from clinical practice scenarios. In the future, the improvement of this system will require collaborative efforts across multiple fields to promote the high-quality development of the Chinese medicinal industry.

A three-dimensional(3D)medical image segmentation network(CA-SegResNet)which incorporates a 3D coordinate attention mechanism is proposed to address the issue of segmenting identified vertebral bones from spinal computed tomography(CT)images.The network extracts image features through a deep residual convolutional neural network and fuses the feature maps from each encoder layer with the input of the corresponding decoder layer.Subsequently,a 3D coordinate attention module is introduced to capture inter-channel relationships as well as directional and positional information,establishing long-range dependencies across different spatial directions,thereby enabling precise segmentation of the identified vertebral bones.For the segmentation tasks involving the identified cervical vertebra(the 7th cervical vertebra)and the identified thoracic vertebra(the 12th thoracic vertebra)across 105 cases,CA-SegResNet achieves average Dice similarity coefficients(DSC)of 0.934 5 and 0.918 9 on the test set,with average Hausdorff distances(HD)of 7 and 8 mm.Compared with U-Net results,the average DSC is improved by 0.014 5 and 0.0463,while average HD is reduced by 176 and 388 mm.The results demonstrate that the network can realize the precise segmentation of identified vertebral bones from CT images.

Objective:To explore the application of COVID-19-specific IgG antibody in identifying epidemic Omicron BA.5 strain infection.Method:Omicron BF.7/BA.5 naturally infected population, healthy population vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine, and Omicron BF.7/BA.5 breakthrough cases were enrolled into this study. The serum WT-S-IgG and BA.5-S-IgG were detected by indirect ELISA, and the serum-specific IgG antibody levels of different populations were compared. The application value of the two antibody titers and the ratio of the two antibodies in identifying Omicron BA.5 epidemic strain infection were explored by the ROC curve, aiming to provide technical support for pathogen diagnosis.Results:The antibody titers of WT-S-IgG and BA.5-S-IgG in the breakthrough cases were higher than those in the naturally infected population and the healthy population ( P<0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) of WT-S-IgG and BA.5-S-IgG in identifying epidemic Omicron BA.5 strain infection was 0.947 and 0.961, respectively. The AUC of BA.5-S-IgG and WT-S-IgG antibody titer ratio was 0.873. When the antibody titer ratio was 0.855, the sensitivity and specificity were 80.00% and 90.00%, respectively. According to the interval since the last infection, the AUC of the ratio of BA.5-S-IgG to WT-S-IgG antibody titer to identify the infection of epidemic strains less than 30 days and more than 30 days was 0.887 and 0.863, respectively, and the sensitivity and specificity were both above 80%. Conclusion:Both BA.5-S-IgG and WT-S-IgG, as well as the combination of these two antibodies, are of high value in the identification of epidemic strains.

Objective:To analyze the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination on virus mutation.Methods:The whole genome sequencing sequences of 2 659 local SARS-CoV-2 specimens from Jiangsu Province in 2023 were selected for analysis, and relevant information such as demographic and clinical characteristics were collected, and the effects of infection and vaccination on the genome-wide mutation rate and S gene′s selective pressure of the virus were analyzed by univariate and multivariate linear regression models.Results:The average age of these infected patients was 55.0 (31.0, 74.0) years, 1 150 cases (43.2%) in the age group of ≥60 years, 1 367 cases (51.4%) were males, 2 044 cases (76.9%) had a history of COVID-19 vaccination, and 1 629 cases (61.3%) had the first-time infection. The clinical symptoms of the infected patients were mainly mild, with a total of 2434 cases (91.5%), and 29 cases (1.1%) with severe symptoms or more. The average substitution rate of SARS-CoV-2 was 9.69 (9.38, 9.98)×10 -4 subs/site/year, and the dN/dS value of the S gene was 6.08 (5.56, 8.66), which was significantly greater than that of 1 ( P<0.001), indicating positive selection. The result of univariate and multivariate linear regression model analysis showed that the SARS-CoV-2 substitution rate was higher in those with vaccination history and reinfection, aged 20-30 years, ≥60 years, and the SARS-CoV-2 substitution rate was lower in males with moderate clinical symptoms and severe disease and above. Those with a history of vaccination and reinfection, aged 50-60 years old, ≥60 years old have smaller S gene dN/dS. Conclusions:Under the immune pressure exerted by vaccination and infection, the genome-wide mutation of SARS-COV-2 accelerated, but the non-synonymous mutation rate of the S gene decreased. The mechanism causing these phenomena needs further study.

Objective:To explore the application of COVID-19-specific IgG antibody in identifying epidemic Omicron BA.5 strain infection.Method:Omicron BF.7/BA.5 naturally infected population, healthy population vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine, and Omicron BF.7/BA.5 breakthrough cases were enrolled into this study. The serum WT-S-IgG and BA.5-S-IgG were detected by indirect ELISA, and the serum-specific IgG antibody levels of different populations were compared. The application value of the two antibody titers and the ratio of the two antibodies in identifying Omicron BA.5 epidemic strain infection were explored by the ROC curve, aiming to provide technical support for pathogen diagnosis.Results:The antibody titers of WT-S-IgG and BA.5-S-IgG in the breakthrough cases were higher than those in the naturally infected population and the healthy population ( P<0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) of WT-S-IgG and BA.5-S-IgG in identifying epidemic Omicron BA.5 strain infection was 0.947 and 0.961, respectively. The AUC of BA.5-S-IgG and WT-S-IgG antibody titer ratio was 0.873. When the antibody titer ratio was 0.855, the sensitivity and specificity were 80.00% and 90.00%, respectively. According to the interval since the last infection, the AUC of the ratio of BA.5-S-IgG to WT-S-IgG antibody titer to identify the infection of epidemic strains less than 30 days and more than 30 days was 0.887 and 0.863, respectively, and the sensitivity and specificity were both above 80%. Conclusion:Both BA.5-S-IgG and WT-S-IgG, as well as the combination of these two antibodies, are of high value in the identification of epidemic strains.

Objective:To observe the feelings of listening to music and the importance of music in the daily life of post-lingual deaf adults with cochlear implants, and to explore the relevant influencing factors.Methods:This was a cross-sectional survey study. From January 2021 to August 2021,the Music-Related Quality of Life Scale was used to evaluate the music needs and music experiences of 63 post-lingual deaf adults who met the inclusion criteria, including 27 males and 36 females, aged (40.7±12.3) years, at the time of surgery (36.8±13.1) years, and with a preoperative hearing aid ineffective time of (3.9±5.8) years. Indicators analyzed included age, duration of ineffective preoperative hearing aid wear, preoperative music preference, duration of postoperative cochlear implant use, current hearing aid modality, and auditory rehabilitation outcomes. Whether the six factors mentioned above constituted an influence on the subjects′ music listening was investigated using SPSS 25.0 statistical software.Results:All of the observations in the scale were correlated with a single factor. The two sub-dimensions of music experience section were related to the effect of auditory rehabilitation. In the importance section, the effect of auditory rehabilitation was the influential factor of the dimension of "participation importance", and the preoperative enjoyment of music was the relevant influential factor of the dimension of "perceived importance". There was a significant difference between the groups when they were grouped by the above factors ( P value<0.05), while there was no statistically significance between the groups when they were grouped by other factors ( P value>0.05). Conclusions:Post-lingual deaf adults show the need and attempt to listen to music after cochlear implantation. The effectiveness of auditory rehabilitation and the degree of music preference preoperatively are two important factors that influence music listening in implant recipients. Once the level of auditory communication has been restored to a certain degree, it is important to pay more attention to the needs of music for implant recipients and train them in time, especially for those with music preferences preoperatively.

Objective:To develop an integrated point-of-care testing (POCT) reagent for genotying respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and evaluate its performance.Methods:Specific primers and probes were designed based on the conserved sequences of the genomes of RSV A and B as well as ON1 and BA9 genotypes. The PCR reaction system and conditions were optimized. The vitrification technology of reagents and multiplex detection platform were integrated to develop the RSV genotyping POCT reagent. The sensitivity, specificity, reproducibility, and clinical performance of the product were then evaluated.Results:The sensitivity of the developed integrated RSV genotyping POCT reagent reached 500 copies/ml. It exhibited good specificity with no cross-reaction with clinically similar pathogens. The coefficient of variation of Ct values for both inter-batch and intra-batch reproducibility was less than 5%, indicating good reproducibility. In testing 53 clinical samples, the detection results showed high consistency and concordance with the reference reagent, with a positive concordance rate of up to 98.11%.Conclusions:The developed integrated RSV genotyping POCT reagent incorporates nucleic acid extraction, purification, and detection into a single process, achieving a "sample in, result out" workflow. It is simple to operate and provides accurate, reliable, and stable detection results. This product can be used for the genotyping of RSV A and B in POCT, offering support for the prevention, control, and diagnosis of RSV.

【Objective】 To explore the optimal parameters for detecting mitochondrial respiratory function (MRF) in apheresis platelets (AP) using real-time energy metabolism detection technology, and to study the change of MRF in AP during storage. 【Methods】 AP samples were collected and detected for MRF using the Seahorse XF device. Multiple parameters such as AP loading concentrations, washing conditions and mitochondrial respiratory regulatory drug concentrations were adjusted. Finally, the MRF in AP stored for 1 and 5 days were studied. 【Results】 The optimal parameters for detecting MRF in AP were as follows: The loading concentration was 5×10⁷/100 μL and basal respiration was 316±65; Basal respiration in washing group was 329±120 compared with 57±7 in unwashing group; The concentration of FCCP was 2 μmol/L. The basal respiration in AP for 1 day was 683±161, while was 140±23 for 5 days, P<0.05; The maximum respiration in AP for 1 day was 1 044±82, while was less than 200 for 5 days, P<0.05. There was a significant difference in MRF dynamic curves between the two groups. 【Conclusion】 The real-time energy metabolism detection technology was able to detect MRF in AP effectively. The MRF significantly damaged during AP storage, indicating that it may be one new mechanism of platelet storage lesion.