OBJECTIVE To investigate the potential mechanism by which Juanxiao decoction improves bronchial asthma （hereinafter referred to as “asthma”） based on the nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat and pyrin domain-containing receptor 3 （NLRP3） inflammasome signaling pathway. METHODS Female SD rats were randomly assigned to normal group， model group and Juanxiao decoction low-， medium- and high-dose groups （0.36， 0.72 and 1.44 g/kg， calculated based on crude drug weight）， as well as positive control group （Dexamethasone acetate tablets， 0.2 mg/kg）， with 10 rats in each group. Except for the normal group， asthma models were established in the remaining groups via intraperitoneal injection of ovalbumin combined with aluminum hydroxide， followed by nebulized inhalation of ovalbumin. On day 14 of the experiment， rats in each group received intragastric administration of the corresponding solution or normal saline， once a day， for 7 consecutive days. Following the final administration， the following parameters were measured in each group： lung function indexes （forced vital capacity， forced expiratory volume in 0.3 second， peak expiratory flow）， serum levels of inflammatory markers （interleukin-1β， interleukin- 18）， and the percentages of inflammatory cells （lymphocytes， eosinophils， neutrophils） in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Histopathological changes in lung tissue were observed， and the protein and mRNA expressions of nuclear factor-kappa B （NF- κB）， NLRP3 and caspase-1 in lung tissue were detected. RESULTS Compared with the normal group， pathological changes such as alveolar wall thickening and inflammatory cell infiltration were observed in rats in the model group. All pulmonary function indicators were significantly reduced in rats in the model group and the administration groups. The levels of inflammatory markers， the percentages of inflammatory cells， and the protein and mRNA expressions of NF-κB， NLRP3 and caspase-1 were significantly elevated or up-regulated （P＜0.05）. Compared with the model group， pathological changes in rats in each dosage group of Juanxiao decoction were significantly alleviated， and all quantitative indicators showed dose-dependent improvements （P＜0.05）. CONCLUSIONS Juanxiao decoction can reduce airway inflammatory responses in asthmatic rats， alleviate lung function impairment， and improve pathological changes such as inflammatory cell infiltration. Those effects may be related to the inhibition of the NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathway.

The deficiency theories of dyslexia are quite contradictory and the cross-cultural studies in recent years mainly focused on whether the dyslexics among cultures shared the same cognitive profile or just based on the language. This study used Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) imaging to measure the regional cerebral blood volume (BV) and the changes of cerebral activation in the left prefrontal cortex of 12 Chinese dyslexic children and their 12 age-matched normal controls during the Paced Visual Serial Addition Test (PVSAT). Results showed that the scores of PVSAT of dyslexic children were significantly lower than those of the normal children (t=3.33, P<0.01). The activations of the left prefrontal cortex in the normal group were significantly greater than those of dyslexic children (all P<0.01). Our results indicated that Chinese dyslexia had a general deficiency in working memory and this may be caused by the abnormal metabolic activity of brain blood volume in the left prefrontal cortex and the deficits in brain function might be the basis of neuropathology of Chinese dyslexia. Present study supports the difference on brain activation of dyslexics from different languages may be caused by the same cognitive system related to reading.

The deficiency theories of dyslexia are quite contradictory and the cross-cultural studies in recent years mainly focused on whether the dyslexics among cultures shared the same cognitive profile or just based on the language.This study used Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) imaging to measure the regional cerebral blood volume (BV) and the changes of cerebral activation in the left prefrontal cortex of 12 Chinese dyslexic children and their 12 age-matched normal controls during the Paced Visual Serial Addition Test (PVSAT).Results showed that the scores of PVSAT of dyslexic children were significantly lower than those of the normal children (t=3.33,P＜0.01).The activations of the left prefrontal cortex in the normal group were significantly greater than those of dyslexic children (all P＜0.01).Our results indicated that Chinese dyslexia had a general deficiency in working memory and this may be caused by the abnormal metabolic activity of brain blood volume in the left prefrontal cortex and the deficits in brain function might be the basis of neuropathology of Chinese dyslexia.Present study supports the difference on brain activation of dyslexics from different languages may be caused by the same cognitive system related to reading.

Inhibitory ability of children with developmental dyscalculia (DD) was investigated to explore the cognitive mechanism underlying DD.According to the definition of developmental dyscalculia,19 children with DD-only and 10 children with DD&RD (DD combined with reading disability) were selected step by step,children in two control groups were matched with children in case groups by gender and age,and the match ratio was 1∶1.Psychological testing software named DMDX was used to measure inhibitory ability of the subjects.The differences of reaction time in number Stroop tasks and differences of accuracy in incongruent condition of color-word Stroop tasks and object inhibition tasks between DD-only children and their controls reached significant levels (P＜0.05),and the differences of reaction time in number Stroop tasks between dyscalculic and normal children did not disappear after controlling the non-executive components.The difference of accuracy in color-word incongruent tasks between children with DD&RD and normal children reached significant levels (P＜0.05).Children with DD-only confronted with general inhibitory deficits,while children with DD&RD confronted with word inhibitory deficits only.

Inhibitory ability of children with developmental dyscalculia (DD) was investigated to explore the cognitive mechanism underlying DD. According to the definition of developmental dyscalculia, 19 children with DD-only and 10 children with DD&RD (DD combined with reading disability) were selected step by step, children in two control groups were matched with children in case groups by gender and age, and the match ratio was 1:1. Psychological testing software named DMDX was used to measure inhibitory ability of the subjects. The differences of reaction time in number Stroop tasks and differences of accuracy in incongruent condition of color-word Stroop tasks and object inhibition tasks between DD-only children and their controls reached significant levels (P<0.05), and the differences of reaction time in number Stroop tasks between dyscalculic and normal children did not disappear after controlling the non-executive components. The difference of accuracy in color-word incongruent tasks between children with DD&RD and normal children reached significant levels (P<0.05). Children with DD-only confronted with general inhibitory deficits, while children with DD&RD confronted with word inhibitory deficits only.

To investigate the high-risk factors for newborn heating loss and to provide information for preventing the development of hearing loss and delaying its progression, from May 2003 to June 2006, neonates who failed to pass the universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) were referred to Jinan Newborn Hearing Screening and Rehabilitation Center from 7 newborn heating screening centers in seven cities of Shandong province. One-to-one pair-matched case-control method was employed for statistical analysis of the basic features of definitely identified cases. High-risk factors relating to the bilateral hearing loss were evaluated by univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analysis. Our results revealed that 721 transferred newborns who didn't pass the heating screening received audiological and medical evaluation and 367 were confirmed to have heating loss. Of them,177 neonates with heating loss who met the matching requirements were included in the study as subjects. Univariate analysis showed that high-risk factors related to hearing loss incuded age of father, education backgrounds of parents, parity, birth weight, gestational weeks, craniofacial deformity,history of receiving treatment in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), neonatal disease, family history of otopathy and family history of congenital hearing loss. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis revealed that 4 independent risk factors were related to bilateral hearing loss, including parity (OR=16.285, 95% CI 3.379-78.481), neonatal disease (OR=34.968, 95% CI 2.720-449.534),family history of congenital hearing loss (OR=69.488, 95% CI 4.417-1093.300) and birth weight (OR=0.241, 95% CI 0.090-0.648). It is concluded that parity, neonatal disease and family history of hearing loss are the promoting factors of bilateral hearing loss in neonates and appropriate intervention measures should be taken to deal with the risk factors.

To investigate the high-risk factors for newborn hearing loss and to provide information for preventing the development of hearing loss and delaying its progression, from May 2003 to June 2006, neonates who failed to pass the universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) were referred to Jinan Newborn Hearing Screening and Rehabilitation Center from 7 newborn hearing screening centers in seven cities of Shandong province. One-to-one pair-matched case-control method was employed for statistical analysis of the basic features of definitely identified cases. High-risk factors relating to the bilateral hearing loss were evaluated by univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analysis. Our results revealed that 721 transferred newborns who didn't pass the hearing screening received audiological and medical evaluation and 367 were confirmed to have hearing loss. Of them, 177 neonates with hearing loss who met the matching requirements were included in the study as subjects. Univariate analysis showed that high-risk factors related to hearing loss incuded age of father, education backgrounds of parents, parity, birth weight, gestational weeks, craniofacial deformity, history of receiving treatment in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), neonatal disease, family history of otopathy and family history of congenital hearing loss. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis revealed that 4 independent risk factors were related to bilateral hearing loss, including parity (OR=16.285, 95% CI 3.379-78.481), neonatal disease (OR=34.968, 95% CI 2.720-449.534), family history of congenital hearing loss (OR=69.488, 95% CI 4.417-1093.300) and birth weight (OR=0.241, 95% CI 0.090-0.648). It is concluded that parity, neonatal disease and family history of hearing loss are the promoting factors of bilateral hearing loss in neonates and appropriate intervention measures should be taken to deal with the risk factors.

BACKGROUND: Dyslexia is the most common in the study of learning disabilities, it can affect various aspects of children, including behaviors,cognition, emotion, social adaptation, etc., and seriously block their obtaining of knowledge and improvement of ability in children.OBJECTIVE: To study the changing law of regional cerebral blood oxygenation in children with Chinese dyslexia in the process of recognizing Chinese characters, and investigate the neurophysiological basis of dyslexia in children.DESIGN: A case-control study.SETTING: Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Maternal Care, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology.PARTICIPANTS: The study was carried out in Huazhong University of Science and Technology from June to September in 2003. Forty-five primary students of 8 to 12 years old, who were grade 3 to 5 in Wuhan city,were enrolled in this study, including 26 dyslexic children (dyslexia group)and 19 normal readers (control group). All the enrolled children were righthanded. Informed consents were obtained from all the participants and their parents (guardians) after explanation of aims and steps of this study.METHODS: The functional near-infrared imager (fNIRI) was applied to detect the changes of cerebral blood oxygenation in left prefrontal lobe of dyslexic children and normal children in the primary processing (viewing passively, reading aloud, producing an action word) and secondary processing of Chinese characters (outputting task, action words association) of Chinese characters.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The changes of cerebral blood oxygenation in the primary processing and secondary processing of Chinese characters were observed in both groups.RESULTS: All the 26 children with Chinese dyslexia and 19 normal children were involved in the analysis of results. ① Changes of the contents of blood oxygenation in the primary processing of Chinese characters:When viewing the Chinese characters passively, the contents of blood oxygenation on channel A, B and C were all higher in the dyslexia group than in the control group (0.378 0, 0.134 6; 0.085 8, 0.051 9; 0.109 3, 0.069 2;P ＜ 0.05); there was no obvious difference on channel D between the two groups (P ＞ 0.05). When reading aloud, the contents of blood oxygenation on channel A, B, C and D were all unobviously higher in the dyslexia group than in the control group (P ＞ 0.05). In the process of generating action words, the contents of blood oxygenation on channels A and C were all higher in the dyslexia group than in the control group (0.411 2, 0.139 7;0.141 3, 0.078 4; P ＜ 0.05), and there were no obvious differences on channels B and D between the two groups (P ＞ 0.05). ② Changes of the contents of blood oxygenation in the secondary processing of Chinese characters: In the process of outputting task, the changes of blood oxygenation was lower in the dyslexia group than in the control group (-0.025 7, 0.089 0,F=16.25, P ＜ 0.01); In the process of action words association, the changes of blood oxygenation was obviously higher in the dyslexia group than in the control group (0.073 0, -0.072 1, F=15.59, P ＜ 0.01).CONCLUSION: The cortexes of left prefrontal lobe in dyslexic children are activated in the process of recognizing Chinese characters, but the degree and pattern of activation are different from those of normal children.The functional abnormalities of specific brain area may be the biological basis of Chinese dyslexia.Song RR, Wu HR.Changes of regional cerebral blood oxygenation in recognizing Chinese characters in children with Chinese dyslexia.

BACKGROUND: Mathematics ability is one of the basic abilities in human intelligence and mathematics disability is a universal type in key period of school-age children to master the mathematical concepts, perform the abstract calculation and form comprehensive mathematics ability, which is lack of a special rating scale and reference norm.OBJECTIVE: To establish a suitable evaluated norm for rating scale of pupil's basic mathematical abilities.DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of multi-phase stratified cluster random sampling.SETTING: The experiment was presided by Tongji Medical College collaborating with the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control of Beijing,Hebei province, Jiangsu province, shangdong province, Lengshuijiang,Hainan province and Hainan province, Herbin Medical University, Anhui Medical University, Sun Yat-sen University of Medical Sciences, West China University of Medical Sciences, Guiyang Medical College, Lanzhou Medical College and other units.PARTICIPANTS: Totally 22 039 people were investigated in nationwide,including 14 693 students (7 377 urban ones and 7 316 ones, respectively), who were randomly selected from Grade One to Six of urban and rural general elementary schools.METHODS: Between June and September 2003, students from Grade One to Six of general elementary schools were sampled. According to the Fifth National Population Census in 2000 and based on sex, nation, area and city or count, the Chinese Rating Scale of Pupil's Mathematic Abilities was applied in group-test on mathematic abilities of the cluster-selected students with multi-phase-stratified sampling method.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Calculative ability, logical thinking and spatial-visual abilities and so on.RESULTS: The norm samples of 14 693 subjects including 7 377 urban students and 7 316 rural students all entered the result analysis. ①The mean scores of each sub-test for the two sampled subjects gradiently increased along with grades rising; the scores of subtests among various ages from urban and rural samples (paired comparison) had significant differences (P ＜ 0.05); the scores of sub-tests of urban samples in various grades were higher than those of rural samples (t=2.234-11.766, P ＜ 0.05). The urban (n=7 377) and rural (n=7 316) norms were established, respectively.②The reference norm was composed of converted T score and percentile P,the T scores in every mid-term and final-term were estimated to calculate Z scores; finally, the probability function P under normal distribution was achieved. ③The evaluation of mathematics abilities were classified into 5 grades: it was average with the scores of (-x)±s (P=16%-84%); good if between (-x)+s and (-x)+2s (P=84%-97.5%); excellent if exceeded (-x)+2s(P ＞ 97.5%); inferior if between (-x)-s and (-x)-2s(P=16%-2.5%); worse if lower than (-x)-2s (P ＜ 2.5%).CONCLUSION: The constituent ratio of normal samples is basically consistent with the data of total population and the distribution of samples in various grades and sexes is nearly equilibrate; there are significant differences in scores of most subtests on mathematics abilities between urban and rural children, which suggest that it is necessary to establish urban and rural norm, respectively.

In order to study whether patients with schizophrenia have cerebral injury, neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and myelin basic protein (MBP)in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 33 patients with first episode schizophrenia and 9 from the control group were determined by double antibody sandwich enzyme immunoassay method. The results showed that there was significant difference in the NSE contents between the experimental group and control group (P＜0.01). The NSE contents in CSF in the experimental group were positively correlated with MBP in schizophrenia patients (P＜0.05). These findings suggested that patients with schizophrenia had cerebral injury.