Objective:To investigate the current status of hospitalized neonatal death of different gestational ages in Shaanxi Province.Methods:All neonatal deaths in six hospitals in Shaanxi Province from 2016 to 2020 were retrospectively analyzed, and the differences in perinatal complications, the causes of death, and the age at death were compared using Chi-square (or Fisher's exact ) test. Results:(1) Totally, 220 488 neonates were delivered in the obstetric department of the six hospitals during the study period; 71 782 out of them were admitted to the neonatal department. While 424 neonatal death was reported, giving the total hospitalized neonates mortality rate of 5.5‰ (394/71 782), which included 152 deaths of transferred patients ( n=9 103, 16.7‰), 226 premature (53.3%), 196 term (46.2%), and two post-term infants (0.5%). (2) Among mothers of dead neonates, 73.6% were found to have at least one perinatal complication. The most common one was fetal distress (146 cases, 34.4%), followed by gestational diabetes mellitus (113 cases, 26.7%), amniotic fluid abnormalities ( n=73, 17.2%), maternal infectious diseases ( n=71, 16.8%), and hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDP) ( n=52, 12.3%). The lower the gestational age, the higher the proportion of multiple pregnancies and assisted reproduction technology applied (Fisher exact test, P<0.05). On the contrary, the higher the gestational age, the higher the cesarean section rate ( χ 2=26.69, P<0.001). HDP was more likely to occur in the gestational age of 28-31 +6 and 32-34 +6 weeks ( χ 2=37.16, P<0.001), and amniotic fluid abnormalities were more likely to occur in those over 37 weeks ( χ 2=27.47, P<0.001). (3) The five leading causes of neonatal death were neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS, n=100, 23.6%), neonatal asphyxia ( n=88, 20.8%), maternal infectious diseases ( n=80, 18.9%), and birth defects ( n=54, 12.7%), and pulmonary hemorrhage ( n=22, 5.2%). The first three causes of death in term and post-term infants were neonatal asphyxia ( n=65, 32.8%), birth defects ( n=42, 21.2%), and infectious diseases ( n=26, 13.1%). NRDS ( n=83, 36.7%), infectious diseases ( n=54, 23.9%), and neonatal asphyxia ( n=23, 10.2%) were the three leading causes of death of premature babies. (4) Out of the 326 (76.9%) neonatal deaths within seven days after birth, 162 (38.2%) died within 24 h after birth and 164 cases (38.7%) between one to seven days after birth. Conclusions:Most neonatal deaths occurred among preterm ones and within seven days after birth, whose mothers suffered perinatal complications. The causes of neonatal death vary among different gestational age groups.

Objective:To explore the repeatability of ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE) in evaluating the Young′s modulus (E) of the lumbar multifidus (LM) and the difference in E of the bilateral LM, and to analyze the E′s change ratio of LM and its impact factors at upright and 90° forward bend positions.Methods:A total of 60 healthy volunteers, selected from interns, standardized training residents and refresher doctors in department of diagnostic ultrasound of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine from July to December in 2020, were examined twice by SWE to estimate the E value of LM at prone, upright and 90° flexion positions, respectively. Firstly, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was applied to test the reliability between the two repeated measurements.Secondly, the differences in E of the bilateral LM were discussed. The discrepancies in the E value of male and female volunteers at prone, upright and 90° flexion positions and the change ratio of the E value at upright and 90° forward bend positions were also discussed, respectively. Finally, Spearman correlation coefficient was utilized to evaluate the correlations of E and its change ratio with gender, age, BMI and activity level at upright and 90° forward bend positions, respectively.Results:The ICC value in LM measured by SWE was in the range of 0.691 to 0.951. No obvious change in bilateral E values of the same posture was observed for an individual(all P>0.05). The change ratios of E at upright and 90° flexion positions were approximate to 2 and 7, respectively. Moreover, at prone position, the E value exhibited negative correlation with age and activity level of self-assessment ( rs=-0.300, P=0.020; rs=-0.383, P=0.002). The E in female was higher compared with that in male. At active states the change ratio in E was positively correlated with age and activity level ( rs=0.278, P=0.031; rs=0.495, P<0.001), and the E′s change ratio in male was higher than that in female. Conclusions:SWE possesses excellent repeatability in evaluating the E value of LM with no significant difference in E of bilateral LM. The E′s change ratio in LM varies with different contraction strategies and changes with age, sex and self-reported activity level.

Objective:To investigate the status of hope level, psychological consistency and self-concept of clinical nurses and to analyze the mediating effect of hope level between psychological consistency and self-concept of clinical nurses.Methods:Using the cross-sectional survey method, the convenient sampling method was used to select 920 clinical nurses from 3 Class Ⅲ Grade A hospitals in Henan Province as research objects from March to April 2020. General data questionnaire, Herth Hope Index (HHI) , Sense of Coherence-13 (SOC-13) and Nurses' Self Concept Questionnaire (NSCQ) were used to investigate. The structural equation model was used to analyze the mediating effect of hope level between psychological consistency and self-concept of nurses. In this study, a total of 920 questionnaires were distributed and 853 effective questionnaires were collected, with an effective recovery rate of 92.72%.Results:The total score of HHI of 853 clinical nurses was (35.05±6.28) , the total score of SOC-13 was (52.52±8.44) and the total score of Nurses' Self Concept Questionnaire was (221.76±34.56) . The results of Pearson correlation analysis showed that psychological consistency of clinical nurses was positively correlated with hope level and self-concept ( P<0.05) . The results of the structural equation model showed that psychological consistency has direct and indirect predictive effects on self-concept of nurses, and the path coefficients were respectively 0.31 and 0.14. Hope level had a mediating effect between psychological consistency and self-concept. Conclusions:Hope level plays a mediating role between psychological consistency and self-concept of nurses. Nursing managers should take effective measures to improve psychological consistency and hope level of nurses, so as to improve self-concept level of nurses to promote their mental health.

Blastocystis sp. is a kind of protozoa living in the intestinal tract of human and animals, which will cause intestinal diseases such as diarrhea, abdominal distension and vomiting. This paper was aimed to understand the infection of Blastocystis sp. In golden monkeys and the transmission path in North China. Thirty-seven feces samples from golden monkeys and 116 cockroach samples from Shijiazhuang Zoo were collected from July to October 2019 for PCR analysis of Blastocystis sp. Genetic diversity analysis was further conducted on the samples with positive PCR results. The results showed that the infection rate was 48.7% (18/37) in golden monkeys and 82.8% (96/116) in cockroaches, respectively. The genetic evolution analysis based on small subunit ribosomal RNA demonstrated that three subtypes (ST) of Blastocystis sp. including ST1, ST2, and ST3 existed in the intestinal tract of golden monkeys, while only ST2 was detected in the intestinal tract of cockroaches. This paper may provide supports for the quarantine and control of Blastocystis sp. for the zoo in Northern China.

OBJECTIVE:To improve medication compliance of patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) to warfarin and its influential factors,and to provide reference for guaranteeing the safety and effectiveness of therapy.METHODS:A questionnaire survey was conducted among NVAF patients receiving warfarin anticoagulation in our hospital,MMAS-8 and WRKS were adopted to evaluate medication compliance of patients to warfarin and the understanding of patients to the knowledge of anticoagulation treatment.Related influential factors for medication compliance of patients to warfarin were investigated by x2 test,t test and Logistic multiple regression analysis.RESULTS:Totally 129 questionnaires were sent out,and 112 were effectively received with effective recovery of 86.82％.The mean score of MMAS was (6.54 ± 1.61),and 42.86％ patients had good medication compliance.The mean score of WRKS was (7.95 ± 1.65);that of patients with good medication compliance was (9.31 ± 0.83),and that of patients with poor medication compliance was (6.92 ± 1.34).Single factor analysis showed that there was statistical significance in gender,age,occupation,educational level,the number of compliance,WRKS score between patients with good medication compliance and those with poor medication compliance (P＜0.05).Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that WRKS score,gender,educational level and the number of compliance were significantly correlated with medication compliance (P＜0.05).CONCLUSIONS:Poor medication compliance of NVAF patients to warfarin is related to multiple influential factors.The knowledge of warfarin anticoagulation is an important factor.

Objective There are different degrees of angiogenesis in the tissues and organs of the patient with diabetic chron -ic vascular disease , and it is somehow difficult to observe angiogenesis .This study was to construct an experimental model of angiogen-esis in the diabetic rat in vivo. Methods Twelve SD rats were equally randomized into a normal control and a diabetes mellitus ( DM) group, the DM model constructed by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin .At 8 weeks after modeling , matrigel was planted under the abdominal skin of the control and model rats and removed 2 weeks later .Then the structure of the new vessels was observed by HE staining and the expressions of aminopeptidase P (JG12) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) detected by immunohisto-chemistry and immunofluorescence . Results Compared with the control rats , the DM models showed significant increases in the blood glucose level ([6.15 ±3.02] vs [35.08 ±6.92] mmol/L), 24-hour urine volume ([5.33 ±1.53] vs [105.00 ±20.82] mL), and 24-hour urinary protein level ([7.78 ±2.12] vs [47.70 ±9.63] mg/24 h) (P<0.01).The matrigel plug was white and transparent in the controls but red with a visible tiny vessel-like structures in the model rats .The vessel-like structures were found oc-casionally in the matrigel plug of the control animals but in large numbers with many erythrocytes in that of the DM models .In compari-son with the normal controls , the model rats exhibited significantly upregulated expressions of JG12 (7.76 ±1.85 vs 27.36 ±3.75, P<0.01) and α-SMA (10.22 ±2.64 vs 36.85 ±4.28, P<0.01) in the matrigel plug , and a vessel-like reticular distribution was ob-served. Conclusion Hyperglycemia may induce angiogenesis in the matrigel plug .The DM rat model of subcutaneous matrigel angio-genesis may contribute to the study of angiogenesis in diabetes .

Purpose To investigate the expression of miR-200a and PTEN in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and their relationships with clinicopathologic features. Methods In situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry ( EnVision method) for miR-200a and PTEN were performed in 87 CRCs and normal colorectal tissues distant from tumors. Relationship between expression of miR-200a and PTEN and clinicopathologic parameters of CRC was also analyzed. Results The in situ hybridization showed that the positive expression rate of the miR-200a in CRC was higher than those in normal colorectal mucosa (P<0. 01). The expression of miR-200a was correlated with the degree of tumor differentiation (rs =0. 503, P<0. 01). The immunohistochemistry showed that the positive expression rate of the PTEN in CRC was lower than those in normal colorectal mucosa (P<0. 01). The expression of miR-200a was correlated with the degree of tumor differentiation (rs = -0. 493, P<0. 01). Expression of miR-200a and PTEN was not correlated with age, sex, tumor size, depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage (P>0. 05). The expression of miR-200a had a close negative correlation to that of PTEN in CRC (P<0. 01). Conclusions Overexpression of miR-200a might be associated with the occurrence and development by targeting PTEN, and they could be the indicators in the early diagnosis,treatment and prognosis of CRC.

This study is to investigate the effect of the major chemical composition in rhizome of Pterocypsela elata, lactuside B, on expression of bcl-2, bax mRNA and their protein in rats' cerebral cortex after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury. First, middle cerebral artery ischemia-reperfusion injury model was established, and each group was treated with the corresponding medicines. Animals were separately sacrificed at 24 h and 72 h. The brain infarct volumes were detected by TTC dye, bcl-2 and bax mRNA expression was checked by RT-PCR, and the proteins of bcl-2 and bax were explored by two-step immunohistochemistry in cerebral cortex of rats. Lactuside B can reduce brain infarct volume of cerebral cortex of rats, increase the expression of bcl-2 mRNA and decrease that of bax mRNA. Moreover, the ratio of bcl-2 to bax mRNA is higher in 12.5 and 25 mg kg(-1) dose group, respectively, which is significantly different from that of model group (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). Generally, either 12.5 or 25 mg kg(-1) dose group is better than positive control medicine nimodipine (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). In addition, the expression of bcl-2 and bax protein is consistent with their gene expression. Infarct volume and the ratio of bcl-2 to bax mRNA expression are significantly different (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01) between 72 h and 24 h group. The results demonstrated that lactuside B could play a good role in resisting cerebral ischemia by upregulating the expression of bcl-2 mRNA and protein and downregulating that of bax mRNA and protein.

Multiscale pyramid image enhancement algorithm is an usual way to enhance the Digital Radiography (DR) images. However, the process of enhancement takes much of time because of the fine resolution of DR images. A new method of accelerating DR image enhancement based on Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) is presented in this paper. This method completes a large amount of convolution operations in spatial domain involved in the multiscale pyramid image enhancement algorithm by using the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU). The experimental results show that the proposed method is very efficient for accelerating DR image enhancement.
Algorithms ; Humans ; Radiographic Image Enhancement ; methods ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted

BACKGROUND: Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a non-inflammatory, bilaterally progressive, retinal degeneration characterized by loss of photoreceptor cells via an apoptotic mechanism, and it eventually leads to blindness.Research shows that the traditional Chinese medicines of Astragalus has great prospect on blocking the progression of RP disease.OBJECTIVE: To observe the protective effect of Astragalus on N-methylN-nitrosourea (MNU)-induced retinal damage in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats and provide the optimal treatment for RP in humans.DESIGN: Randomized controlled experiment.SETTING: School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Xinxiang Medical College.MATERIALS :The experiment was completed in Pharmacological Laboratory of Zhongshan Ophthalmic Centre, Sun Yat-sen University between March to December 2004. Totally 114 female SD rats were purchased from the Animal Center of Zhongshan Medical College, Sun Yat-sen University.MNU was purchased from Sigma Company of America. Astragalus injection was purchased from Chengdu Diao Jiuhong Pharmaceutical Factory (Batch No. Z99060535, 2 mL/ampoule, main ingredient: Astragalus).METHODS: Among 114rats, 30 were for morphometric analysis of retinal layers, 30 were for detection of apoptosis and 54 were for detection of NF-κB p65 activity. All of them were randomly divided into different groups and each group had 6 rats. Astragalus at doses of 2.5, 5 and 10 g/kg were injected intraperitoneally into 47-day rats once a day. Meanwhile, a single intraperitoneal injection of 60 mg/kg MNU was given to 50-day rats in model and Astragalus groups. At different intervals after MNU treatment,the animals were sacrificed. Retinal damage was evaluated based on retinal thickness, the apoptotic index of the photoreceptor cells was detected by TUNEL labeling and the DNA-binding activity of NF-κB p65 was analyzed according to transcription factor assay kit.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Comparison of retinal thickness, apoptotic index and the activity of nuclear NF-κB p65.RESULTS: Totally 114 rats entered the result analysis. Pretreatment with Astragalus could dose-dependently suppress MNU-induced photoreceptor cell loss and decreased the apoptotic index. Astragalus at dose of 10 g/kg also time-dependently up-regulated the activity of nuclear NF-κB p65.However, protective effect of Astragalus on MNU-induced central retinal damage was not found.CONCLUSION: Astragalus partially protects against MNU-induced retinal damage by up-modulating the activity of nuclear NF-κB p65 to inhibit apoptosis of photoreceptor cells in a dose-dependent manner.