OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of safflower polysaccharide （SPS） on ischemic stroke （IS） in rats by regulating the growth arrest-specific protein 6 （Gas6）/Axl receptor tyrosine kinase （Axl） signaling pathway. METHODS The modified suture-occluded method was employed to establish a rat model of middle cerebral artery occlusion （MCAO） for IS. The rats were then randomly divided into the model （Model） group， SPS low- and high-dose （SPS-L， SPS-H， 50 and 100 mg/kg） groups， and integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine （SPS-H+Nim， SPS 100 mg/kg+Nim 15 mg/kg） group， with 10 rats in each group. Another 10 rats were selected as the sham operation （Sham） group. Rats in each group were administered corresponding doses of medication or an equal volume of normal saline intragastrically， with continuous intervention for 14 days. The neurological function of rats in each group was evaluated 24 hours after drug administration. The morphological changes in hippocampal tissue were observed. The contents of interleukin-6 （IL-6）， IL-1β， and tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α） in serum， the percentage of cerebral infarction area， the neuronal apoptosis rate， as well as the contents of malondialdehyde （MDA）， superoxide dismutase （SOD）， and brain-derived neurotrophic factor （BDNF） in hippocampal tissue， and the relative protein expression levels of Gas6， phosphorylated Axl （p-Axl）， Axl， B-cell lymphoma-2 （Bcl-2）， and Bcl-2 associated X protein （Bax） were measured. RESULTS Compared with Model group， the neurological function of rats in SPS-L group， SPS-H group and SPS-H+Nim group improved significantly， while serum contents of IL-6， TNF-α， and IL-1β， the percentage of cerebral infarction area， the apoptotic rate of neurons as well as MDA content and relative protein expression of p-Axl and Bax were decreased significantly （ P ＜0.05 or P ＜0.01）. The contents of SOD and BDNF， as well as the relative protein expression of Gas6， Axl， and Bcl-2 in hippocampal tissue， were significantly increased （ P ＜0.05 or P ＜0.01）， and the ischemic injury in hippocampal tissue imp roved to varying degrees. CONCLUSIONS SPS can reduce neuroinflammation， oxidative stress， and neuronal apoptosis in IS rats， alleviate nerve injury， and improve neurological function， which may be achieved by activating the Gas6/Axl signaling pathway.

Objective:To explore the effects of Undaria pinnatifida polysaccharides(UPPs)on depressive-like behavior,neurotransmitter content,oxidative stress,and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal(HPA)axis in rats treated with chronic unpredictable mild stress(CUMS).Methods:A rat model of depression was prepared using the CUMS method,and rats were treated with normal saline(NS)or different doses of UPPs by gavage.The general condition of the rats was observed,and depressive-like behavior was detected by the open field test(OFT),sucrose preference test(SPT),and forced swimming test(FST).The activity or levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine(5-HT),dopamine(DA)and norepinephrine(NE),malondialdehyde(MDA),superoxide disidase(SOD)and catalase(CAT),adrenocorticotrop-ic hormore(ACTH),corticosterone(CORT)in the hippocampus or serum of rats were detected using commercial kits.Western Blot was used to detect the expression level of hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor(GR)protein,and hema-toxylin-eosin(HE)staining was used to observe the tissue structure of hippocampus of rats.Results:The depressive-like behavior of rats in the UPPs medium and high dose groups was significantly improved(P＜0.05).In the UPPs high dose group,the contents of 5-HT,DA,and NE in the hippocampus of rats increased(P＜0.05),while the con-tents of MDA in both serum and hippocampus decreased(P＜0.05),and the activities of SOD and CAT increased(P＜0.05).The contents of ACTH and CORT in serum decreased(P＜0.05).In the UPPs medium dose group,the levels of hippocampal MDA and CAT,as well as serum SOD,ACTH,and CORT were improved(P＜0.05).The expression level of GR protein in the hippocampus increased(P＜0.05),and the pathological changes in the hipp-ocampal dentate gyrus were significantly improved.Conclusion:UPPs can alleviate depressive-like behavior in CUMS rats,and its mechanism may be related to increasing the content of monoamine neurotransmitters in the hippocampus,reducing oxidative stress damage,and HPA axis hyperfunction.

Objective To apply a phantom for dose measurement in interventional therapy for pediatric vascular diseases, and calculate the effective dose (E) and conversion coefficient of dose area product (DAP) to E, and to provide a dose reference for studying radiation dose and radiation protection in children. Methods Thermoluminescent dosimeters were placed in the organs of the phantom. Low-, medium-, and high-dose groups were set for three types of vascular anomalies based on the duration of fluoroscopy. Digital subtraction angiography was used to simulate exposure conditions at different dose levels. The organ dose was measured, and the effective dose was calculated. Results For the three groups of vascular anomalies in the head and face, the red bone marrow doses were 8.15, 30.34, and 43.53 mGy, respectively, the effective doses were 12.88, 47.84, and 73.12 mSv, respectively; and the average conversion coefficient of DAP to E was 2.16. For the three groups of vascular anomalies in the trunk, the red bone marrow doses were 2.11, 15.62, and 31.21 mGy, respectively; the effective doses were 12.39, 70.56, and 134.60 mSv, respectively, and the average conversion coefficient of DAP to E was 3.03. For the three groups of vascular anomalies in the lower extremities, the red bone marrow doses were 3.58, 6.50, and 12.28 mGy, respectively, the effective doses were 3.64, 7.04, and 14.85 mSv, respectively, and the average conversion coefficient of DAP to E was 0.73. Conclusion Patient dose and DAP-to-E conversion coefficient are in the following order: vascular anomalies in the trunk > vascular anomalies in the head and face > vascular anomalies in the lower extremities. The dose data obtained can be used to estimate children’s radiation exposure.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to remove occlusal veneers of varied thicknesses and compositions by Er:Yag laser in vitro and analyze the interfacial microstructure between veneers and tooth that irradiated by laser, by which experimental evidence could be provided to support the non-invasive removal of occlusal veneerby laser. METHODS: Fresh mandibular premolars extracted for orthodontic requirements were collected for tooth preparation. Three kinds of ceramic materials (Vita Suprinity, Vita Mark Ⅱ, and Upcera Hyramic) were selected to fabricate occlusal veneer with different thicknesses (1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mm). One week later, Er:Yag laser (2.5 W and 3.5 W) was used to irradiate and remove the occlusal veneer and recorded the timespan. After the removal operation, the micro-morphologies of samples were examined by scanning electron microscope. RESULTS: Upcera Hyramic veneer failed to be removed (>20 min); the operation span at 2.5 W, Vita Suprinity (96.0 s±16.0 s) was longer than Vita MarkⅡ(84.5 s±19.5 s) in the 1.0 mm group (P<0.05), and Vita Suprinity (246.5 s±13.5 s) was longer than Vita MarkⅡ(170.0 s±14.0 s) in the 1.5 mm group (P<0.05). At 3.5 W, Vita Suprinity (381.0 s±24.0 s) was longer than Vita MarkⅡ(341.5 s±26.5 s) in the 2.0 mm group. CONCLUSIONS Increasing laser power could shorten the operation span and facilitate the removal of occlusal veneers with the same thickness and composition. The occlusal veneer was sustained when insufficient laser power was applied. With the same laser power and ceramic thickness, laser penetration could interfere with the integral of the ceramic structure when the laser interacted with the bonding layer. With the same ceramic composition and laser power, the operation span and laser power increased with the thickness of the occlusal veneer. However, the laser was incapable of removing occlusal resin veneer directly.
Lasers, Solid-State ; Materials Testing ; Dental Porcelain/chemistry* ; Ceramics/chemistry* ; Bicuspid ; Dental Veneers

The finite element method is a new method to study the mechanism of brain injury caused by blunt instruments. But it is not easy to be applied because of its technology barrier of time-consuming and strong professionalism. In this study, a rapid and quantitative evaluation method was investigated to analyze the craniocerebral injury induced by blunt sticks based on convolutional neural network and finite element method. The velocity curve of stick struck and the maximum principal strain of brain tissue (cerebrum, corpus callosum, cerebellum and brainstem) from the finite element simulation were used as the input and output parameters of the convolutional neural network The convolutional neural network was trained and optimized by using the 10-fold cross-validation method. The Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Square Error (MSE), and Goodness of Fit ( R ²) of the finally selected convolutional neural network model for the prediction of the maximum principal strain of the cerebrum were 0.084, 0.014, and 0.92, respectively. The predicted results of the maximum principal strain of the corpus callosum were 0.062, 0.007, 0.90, respectively. The predicted results of the maximum principal strain of the cerebellum and brainstem were 0.075, 0.011, and 0.94, respectively. These results show that the research and development of the deep convolutional neural network can quickly and accurately assess the local brain injury caused by the sticks blow, and have important application value for understanding the quantitative evaluation and the brain injury caused by the sticks struck. At the same time, this technology improves the computational efficiency and can provide a basis reference for transforming the current acceleration-based brain injury research into a focus on local brain injury research.
Brain ; Brain Injuries ; Computer Simulation ; Finite Element Analysis ; Humans ; Neural Networks, Computer

Insomnia symptom is one of the most common types of sleep disturbances.Apart from being a risk factor for psychiatric disorders, insomnia symptom has been found to affect the course of psychiatric disorders and increase the relapse rate of psychiatric disorders.Therefore, insomnia treatment is beneficial to mitigate the psychiatric symptoms among chronic insomnia patients, which may help prevent mental health disorders.On the other hand, insomnia treatment for psychiatric patients is conductive to reduce the harm consequence in social function, which can help improving the prognosis of psychiatric disorders.Cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is a first-line treatment for chronic insomnia.This paper reviews the research progress on the efficiency of CBT-I on the psychiatric symptoms of chronic insomnia patients, as well as its application in comorbid psychiatric conditions.Findings from previous research suggested that CBT-I is effective to improve the psychiatric symptoms of insomnia patients through insomnia improvement, and it can also promote the remission of depression and anxiety symptoms, reduce the risk of substance disorder and suicide behaviors, and reduce the impairment of life quality and costs of treatment through insomnia improvement among psychiatric patients comorbid with insomnia, which indicated that CBT-I is a safe and effective treatment for insomnia symptoms in psychiatric patients.Moreover, this paper listed the contraindications and the decision-to-treat algorithm of CBT-I among psychiatric patients, as well as the CBT-I availability and adherence that limited the clinical application.More understanding of CBT-I is beneficial to provide support for a broad clinical application in mental health services.

Objective:To quantitatively analyze the clinical and drug resistance feature of diarrhea of adults patients in 2016 and 2019 induced by the Escherichia coli (diarrheagenic Escherichia coli, DEC), and to reveal the difference of DEC′s epidemiological features of before and after measuring to strengthen food hygiene and safety in Beijing. Methods:A total number of 3 408 patients with food-borne adult diarrhea were received diagnosis and treatment in the intestinal clinic department of Beijing Tongren Hospital in 2016 and 2019.There were 1 926 patients in 2016 and 1 482 in 2019, respectively. The clinical information of patient were entered into the intestinal early warning system and were carefully preserved. The clinical specimens (the stool samples) were isolated and the DECs were identified by culturing. The colony of DECs was identified by matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry. Five pathogenic types of Escherichia coli were classified by multiplex PCR methods. The drug-susceptibility test was performed according to the standards of the American Society for Clinical and Laboratory Standardization in 2019. The categorical data were analyzed by χ 2 test or Fisher′s exact test to verify the statistical difference. Results:A total number of 581 DECs strains were detected in 3 408 specimens. Among the subtypes of E Coli, the Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) accounted for 53.36% (310/581), and Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) was detected. In 2016, the total detection rate of DEC was 14.54% (280/1 926), enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) accounted for 18.21% (51/280), and ETEC accounted for 71.79% (173/280). In 2019, the total detection rate of DEC was 20.31% (301/1 482), EAEC accounted for 41.23% (116/301), and ETEC accounted for 48.93% (137/301). Compared with 2016, the detection rate of EAEC in 2019 increased significantly (χ2=29.26, P<0.001), followed by EPEC (χ2=9.37, P=0.002), and ETEC decreased (χ2=15.43, P<0.001). Compared with other pathogenic types, EAEC can easily cause nausea(χ2=32.72, P<0.001).The red blood cells(χ2=16.44, P=0.001) or the white blood cells (χ2=26.82, P<0.001) could be easily observed in stool specimens of patients infected with enteroinvasive Escherichia coli (EIEC). The resistance rates of EIEC to ampicillin, ampicillin/sulbactam and gentamicin were 80.95% (17/21), 66.67% (14/21) and 57.14% (12/21), respectively. Three strains of EAEC resistant to carbapenem antimicrobials were discovered in 2019 and of which two strains were resistant to ertapenem and imipenem, and the other one strain was only resistant to ertapenem. The whole genomic sequencing showed that there are multiple resistance mechanisms: including the mainly drug-resistant nodular cell differentiation family efflux pump, penicillin binding site mutation, and New Delhi metal-β-lactamase 5 production. Conclusions:The detection rate of DECs in adult patients with food-borne diarrhea is high, and the foremost subtype of DECs is ETEC. Compared with 2016, the detection rates of ETEC in clinical specimens decreased in 2019, and the detection rate of EAEC increased significantly, respectively. In 2019, a carbapenem-resistant antibacterial drug-resistant Escherichia coli strain was isolated. It is of great significance to focus on the biological characteristics and epidemiological changes of DEC.

Objective:To explore and evaluate a appropriate suitable method for detection of Campylobacter and antibiotic sensitivity test for foodborne diarrhea in clinical laboratories. Methods:Pre-experiment:a total number of 400 fecal samples of patients with foodborne diarrhea were prospectively collected from the intestinal disease clinic of Beijing Tongren Hospital from September 2017 to January 2018. Double-hole filtration culture method and modified cefoperazone charcoal deoxycholate (CCD) agar culture method were used for fecal culture in micro-aerobic environment for 48 hours, and then suspicious colonies were identified by matrix assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry. Meanwhile, C. jejuni and C. coli were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction(qPCR). Large sample verification: 2 062 fecal samples of patients with foodborne diarrhea in three hospitals of different levels in different areas of Beijing were collected for qPCR detection and culture from April 2018 to March 2019. The antimicrobial sensitivity test (AST) of C. jejuni and C. coli was performed according to the disk diffusion method and agar dilution method recommended by Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute and National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System for Enteric Bacteria. The results of the three detection methods and the consistency of the two antibiotic sensitivity tests were compared. Results:In the pre-experiment, the positive rates of Campylobacter ( jejuni/coli) detected of qPCR, double-hole filtration culture and modified CCD agar culture were 9.0% (36/400), 5.0% (20/400)and 3.5% (14/400), and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.01). The samples with negative result of qPCR were negative by both culture methods. The total positive rates of Campylobacter detected by qPCR was 8.1% (168/ 2 062)including 7.0% (144/2 062) for C. jejuni and 1.2% (24/2 062) for C. coli. The samples with positive qPCR results were cultured by double-hole filtration culture method and the positive rate was 61.9%(104/168), among which, the positive rate of C. jejuni and C. coli were 58.3%(84/144) and 83.3%(20/24) respectively, which was not significantly different from the detection rate and culture positive rate in the pre-test ( P>0.1). The resistance rates of C. jejuni and C. coli to ciprofloxacin were 94.0%(94/100) and 100.0%(24/24) and to erythromycin were 6.0%(6/100) and 33.3%(8/24). The results from two antibiotic sensitivity test methods were consistent (Kappa>0.75). Conclusions:qPCR is rapid, sensitive and easy to operate, so it is suitable for routine development in clinical laboratories. The double-hole filtration culture method is beneficial to the acquisition of strains and is essential for the further study of Campylobacter. There was no significant difference between agar dilution method and disk diffusion method in antibiotic sensitivity test. Campylobacter showed a very high resistance rate to quinolones, which was no longer suitable for the treatment of Campylobacter foodborne diarrhea in Beijing area. Macrocyclic lipid antibiotics should be preferred.

Strain-resource engineering is often considered as an important infrastructure of microbiology related research and industry. The western developed countries took the lead in establishing the classical microbial resource utilization method, and continuously improved the preservation system, species annotation technology and global sharing mechanism, which realized the expansion and reserve of biological resources since end of the 19th century. The rich and diversified germplasm resources, standard strains and production strains not only have important economic values, but also maintain the advantages of scientific research, bioeconomy (such as antimicrobial agents, vaccines, detection reagent development and standard development, etc.) and national security. Although there has been a lot of progress in related research in recent years, compared with developed countries, there is still a big gap in related fields in China. The investment and top-level design in this area lag far behind the western developed countries, and it is not commensurate with the current level of economic and social development in my country. Drawing lessons from the practice of WFCC and WDCM (World Data Center for Microorganisms, Global microbial data Center, affiliated to WFCC), for the purpose of collecting new clinical species/strains, this paper puts forward some suggestions on the identification, preservation and upload system of isolates.