With the development of industrial robot technology, robotics has entered the medical field, and the research and development of new robots for many medical applications have become a significant research direction in global robotics. Robots are widely used in various aspects of dentistry, such as prosthodontics, orthodontics, implants, endodontics, and oral surgery. This article mainly introduces the application of robots in stomatology from the above five aspects.
Dental Care ; Humans ; Oral Medicine ; Orthodontics ; Robotics ; Surgery, Oral

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the survival trends and patterns of failure in patients with stage II nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treated with radiotherapy (RT) and chemotherapy over the last 20 years. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-eight hundred and eight patients diagnosed with stage II NPC between January 1990 and December 2012 were involved in this retrospective cohort study. All patients were treated with RT. According to the main imaging techniques and RT technology, we categorized these patients into four calendar periods: 1990-1996, 1997-2002, 2003-2007, and 2008-2012. Overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), locoregional relapse-free survival (LRFS), and distant metastasis–free survival (DMFS) were served as the clinical outcome. RESULTS: After a median follow-up period of 84.7 months, we observed increasing trends in survival and disease control. The 3- and 5-year OS rates increased from 87.1% and 78.7% in the first calendar period to 97.4% and 94.5% in the last calendar period, respectively (p<0.001). Additionally, significant increasing trends could be seen in the PFS and LRFS during the four calendar periods. In the subgroup analysis, the LRFS in patients older than 50 years at diagnosis showed greater improvement than younger patients. However, the rate of distant metastasis was stable and relatively low, as the 5-year DMFS ranged from 90.5% to 94.7% among the four calendar periods. CONCLUSION: The survival rates in patients with stage II NPC showed increasing trends from 1990 to 2012. The advance of RT provided excellent locoregional control and enhanced OS.
Cohort Studies ; Diagnosis ; Disease-Free Survival ; Drug Therapy ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Prognosis ; Radiotherapy ; Retrospective Studies ; Survival Rate

Objective To explore the clinical effect of Bayesian discriminant analysis in predicting the risk of macrosomia. Methods 169 fetal macrosomia and 169 non-macrosomia were enrolled in a 1:1 matched case-control study. Conditional Logistic regression was used to select the discriminant indexes,and the discriminant indexes were put into the Bayesian discriminant model to obtain the Bayesian discriminant function. The discriminant function was the retrospectively examined and externally tested. Results The results of conditional Logistic regression model indicated that mother's height, early pregnancy body mass index (BMI), gestational diabetes, gestational weeks, the height of uterine and abdominal circumference were associated with the birth of fetal macrosomia. The Bayesian discriminant function were established: Fetal macrosomia:y1=-27.802+8.420×Mother＇s height+8.719×early pregnancy BMI+10.485×gestational weeks+3.375×gestational diabetes+2.862×height of uterine and abdominal circumference; Non-macrosomia y2=-17.477+7.161×Mother＇s height+7.217×early pregnancy BMI+7.862×gestational weeks+2.036×gestational diabetes-0.085×height of uterine and abdominal circumference. Wilks′ Lambda λ=0.489, P<0.001, the Bayesian discriminant function was statistically significant. The internal and external conformity rates of the Bayesian discriminant model were all more than 80%. Conclutions The birth of fetal macrosomia is related to many factors. The Bayesian discriminant model in the present study is valuable to discriminate macrosomia and provide an objective reference for more accurate identification of macrosomia in the future.

Chitinases, a glycosidase enzyme that hydrolyzes chitin to N-acetylglucosamine, are widely found in plant cells, and they are an important part of plant antifungal defense system. The function of a Panax notoginseng chitinase gene PnCHI1 was characterized in this paper. Expression vector of PnCHI1 was constructed and transiently expressed in onion epidermal cells, and laser scanning confocal microscopy demonstrated that PnCHI1 was localized in the cell wall. Prokaryotic expression vector of PnCHI1 was also constructed, and recombinant protein of PnCHI1 was induced and purified. In vitro antibacterial assay showed that recombinant PnCHI1 protein had strong inhibitory activity on the mycelium growth of Fusarium solani, F. oxysporum and F. verticillioide. The function of PnCHI1 was further verified by reverse genetics. PnCHI1 expression vector was transferred into tobacco by Agrobacterium tumefaciens and expression of PnCHI1 was confirmed by qRT-PCR. It was found by leaf inoculation experiment that resistance of transgenic tobacco to F. solani was significantly increased. It is conclnded that: PnCHI1 is a chitinase localized in the cell wall, which inhibits several fungi which cause the root rot disease of P. notoginseng. Overexpression of this chitinase gene in tobacco greatly increased resistance to F. solani. PnCHI1 may be an important resistance gene in P. notoginseng that participates in the defense against root rot disease.

Adrenal Cortex Hormones ; metabolism ; Adrenergic beta-2 Receptor Agonists ; metabolism ; Humans ; Multiple Pulmonary Nodules ; diagnosis ; metabolism ; pathology ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive ; diagnosis ; metabolism ; pathology ; World Health Organization

Polypeptides play a vital role in physiological processes of life. The pharmacological and medical value of polypeptides has attracted the attention of researchers in recent years. Aptamers are short, single stranded DNA or RNA which developed by an in vitro process called systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment ( SELEX ) . Aptamers can bind targets with high affinity and specificity. Hence, aptamer is also called "chemical antibody" or "chemist's antibody". To date, there are two main application aspects for polypeptides-targeted aptamers. First, aptamer can be used as specific affinitive elements based on their ability of recognition, which would be applied to polypeptides detection or imaging. The other one is that aptamer can also be used as antagonists based on their ability of inhibiting, which can restrict the activity of polypeptides and block the downstream signaling pathways in vivo, thus can be used to treat the disease associated with polypeptides. In this review, we summarize the numbers of polypeptides-targeted aptamers and the related applications in vitro and in vivo. Current issues and development trends throughout the screening, characterizing and applying of polypeptides-targeted aptamers are also discussed.

Objective In view of the trend of networking development in modern high education and the characteristics of students' strong self-learning ability, Peking Union Medical College established a multimedia morphological teaching website from 2013 including human anatomy, neuroanatomy, histology and embryology.Methods According to the teaching demand, the use of the ASP script, combined with Mysql database completed the website development, from the interface design to the curriculum, the syllabus, presentations and laboratory videos uploading.Results Through the questionnaire survey, 45% of the students use website more than 3 times a week, and course content column has the highest use frequency (79%).An independent learning platform effect has been achieved.Conclusions After nearly 4 years exploration and practice, multimedia website has become an important part of morphological courses, as a kind of new teaching mode, not only popular for college teachers and students, but also widely used in clinical teaching.

Objective To explore the unmet needs and service of rehabilitation for Chinese people with disabilities. Methods The unmet needs and services of rehabilitation data from the Second National Sample Survey of Disability and 2006-2016 Statistical Bulletin on the De-velopment of People with disabilities in China issued by China Disabled Persons Federation had been analyzed. Results The unmet needs of rehabilitation for people with disabilities in China were mainly included health care and support, assistive devices, rehabilitation therapy and services, poverty alleviation, accessible facilities, accessible information, and other rehabilitation needs. The highest rate of unmet needs of rehabilitation was in the fields of health care (34.84%) and poverty alleviation (33.25%). There were significant differences in unmet needs of rehabilitation among people with different types of disabilities (χ2=40322.1, P<0.01). For all the types of disabilities, 41.46%had not re-ceived any service and support, 30.45%received health care and support, and 0.55%received accessible information. The main approaches recommended by professionals for people with disabilities were institutional rehabilitation, and community and family based services. The main services recommended by professionals to people with psychiatric (68.18%) or visual disabilities (60.28%) were health care, to people with hearing disability (51.67%) were assistive device, and to people with intellectual (57.36%) and speech disability (47.06%) were rehabil-itation therapy and training. There were significant differences both in rehabilitation approaches and contents among people with different types of disabilities preferred by professionals (χ2=12489.9,χ2=52528.93, P<0.01). Conclusion The unmet needs of rehabilitation for people with different types of disabilities were mainly included health care and assistance, assistive devices, rehabilitation training and services, and poverty alleviation. There were significant differences among people with different types of disabilities. For service delivery, the highest rate was in health care and assistance. The gap between the service and unmet needs of poverty alleviation for people with disabilities in China was the highest. There were significant differences in rehabilitation approaches and contents recommended by professionals among people with different types of disabilities. It was recommended to construct the national and local system of policy support system and rehabilita-tion service governance, to provide precision rehabilitation services based on the unmet needs of rehabilitation, to develop the comprehen-sive rehabilitation service delivery to achieve the goal of rehabilitation for all, and to conduct scientific research on rehabilitation by using International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health to provide evidence and support for the development of rehabilitation.

Objective To evaluate the effects of different ratios of medicine dosage for propofol and sevoflurane on postoperative cognitive function in elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment.Methods Ninety-six patients of both sexes,aged 65-75 yr,weighing 60-80 kg,of American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status Ⅰ or Ⅱ,scheduled for elective lower limb fracture operation under general anesthesia,with mild cognitive impairment before surgery,were assigned into 4 groups (n =24 each) using a random number table:propofol group (group P),sevoflurane group (group S) and different ratios of medicine dosage for propofol and sevoflurane groups (group PS1 and group PS2).Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were used to evaluate the cognitive function of patients at 1 day before operation (T0) and 7 days after operation (T1).Venous blood samples were collected at T0 and T1 for determination of the concentrations of plasma apolipoprotein J (ApoJ) and soluble CD14 (sCD14) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Results Compared with group S,MMSE and MoCA scores were significantly increased and plasma concentrations of ApoJ and sCD14 were decreased at T1,and the incidence of postoperative cognitive dysfunction was decreased in P,PS1 and PS2 groups (P＜0.05).Compared with group PS1,MMSE and MoCA scores were significantly decreased and the plasma concentrations of ApoJ and sCD14 were increased at T1,and the incidence of postoperative cognitive dysfunction was increased in P and PS2 groups (P＜0.05).MMSE and MoCA scores were significantly lower and plasma concentrations of ApoJ and sCD14 were higher at T1 than at T0 in S,P and PS2 groups (P＜0.05),and there was no significant difference in the parameters mentioned above between T1 and T0 in group PS1 (P＞0.05).Conclusion Combination of propofol 1.2 μg/ml given by target-controlled infusion and 0.7-1.2％ sevoflurane inhalation for maintenance of anesthesia does not aggravate the postoperative cognitive dysfunction in elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment.

Chitinases(EC3.2.1.14), which are present in various organisms, catalyze the hydrolytic cleavage of chitin and play a vital role in plant defense mechanisms against fungal pathogens.In addition, the chitinases are well known to regulate plant growth and development and are involved in programmed cell death(PCD).A chitinase expressed sequence tag(EST) was isolated from Panax notoginseng, and the full-length cDNA of this EST was cloned with the method of rapid amplification of cDNA ends and named as PnCHI1. PnCHI1 was 1 022 bp in length and contained an intact open reading frame(ORF) of 822 bp, a 26 bp 5'-untranslated region(UTR), and a 174 bp 3'-UTR.The predicted protein of PnCHI1 with 273 amino acid residues belongs to glycoside hydrolase family 19 and fell into the class IV of chitinases through phylogenetic analysis.QRT-PCR analysis showed that the expression of PnCHI1 was induced by methyl jasmonate, ethylene, H2O2, and salicylic acid.PnCHI1 was quickly induced after inoculation with Alternaria panax.Moreover, the expression level of PnCHI1 was increased after pretreatment with methyl jasmonate, and then the transcription level of PnCHI1was sharp increased after inoculation with Fusarium solani,and the highest transcription level was achieved at 4 h post inoculation.But the expression level of PnCHI1 in the sterile water pretreated P.notoginseng was increased gradually after inoculation with F.solani, and the highest expression level was achieved at 48 h post inoculation.All the results of present study indicated that PnCHI1 was involved in defense response of P.notoginseng against the F.solani and A.panax.