Osteoma in the upper cervical spine with spinal cord compression

Osteoma is a common benign tumor. It occurs dominantly at the skull bone. Outside skull osteoma is rare, and primary intra-canal osteoma is extremely rare. To the author’s knowledge, only 14 cases of osteomas of the spine had been reported, in which only seven cases were in English literature. The authors reported two rare cases of intra-canal osteoma of the upper cervical spine with cord compression. Included are pertinent history, physical examination, rontgenographic evaluation before and after operation, surgical interventions, pathological study, and outcome. The available literature is also reviewed. On systemic examination and rontgenographic study, these two cases were found to have bone tumor in the upper cervical canal. Surgical interventions were performed, one with an en bloc excision, the other with a subtotal excision. The pathological study demonstrated a diagnosis of osteoma. After a follow-up with 20 and 15 months, the clinical symptoms of both cases significantly improved

Thoracic myelopathy caused by ossification of ligamentum flavum of which fluorosis as an etiology factor

PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical feature, operative method and prognosis of thoracic ossification of ligamentum flavum caused by skeletal fluorosis. METHODS: All the patients with thoracic OLF, who underwent surgical management in the authors' hospital from 1993–2003, were retrospectively studied. The diagnosis of skeletal fluorosis was made by the epidemic history, clinical symptoms, radiographic findings, and urinalysis. En bloc laminectomy decompression of the involved thoracic levels was performed in all cases. Cervical open door decompression or lumbar laminectomy decompression was performed if relevant stenosis existed. The neurological statuses were evaluated with the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scoring system preoperatively and at the end point of follow up. Also, the recovery rate was calculated. RESULTS: 23 cases have been enrolled in this study. Imaging study findings showed all the cases have ossification of ligamentum flavum together with ossification of many other ligaments and interosseous membranes, i.e. interosseous membranes of the forearm in 18 of 23 (78.3%), of the leg in 14 of 23 (60.1%) and of the ribs in 11 of 23 (47.8%). Urinalysis showed markedly increased urinary fluoride in 14 of 23 patients (60.9%). All the patients were followed up from 12 months to 9 years and 3 months, with an average of 4 years and 5 months. The JOA score increased significantly at the end of follow up (P = 0.0001). The recovery rate was 51.83 ± 32.36%. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the preoperative JOA score was an important predictor of surgical outcome (p = 0.0022, r = 0.60628). ANOVA analysis showed that patients with acute onset or too long duration had worse surgical result (P = 0.0003). CONCLUSION: Fluorosis can cause ossification of thoracic ligamentum flavum, as well as other ligaments. En bloc laminectomy decompression was an effective method. Preoperative JOA score was the most important predictor of surgical outcome. Patients with acute onset or too long duration had worse surgical outcome

TARBP2 promotes human breast cancer cell metastasis by degrading AKAP12 transcript

Objective To study the role and mechanism of trans-activation response RNA-binding protein 2 (TARBP2) in post-transcriptional regulation of the expression of AKAP12, a metastasis suppressor gene, in breast cancer cells. Methods The expression of TARBP2 in breast tumor tissues and potential relationship between TARBP2 expression and tumor metastasis were analyzed by bioinformatics methods. Bioinformatics methods were used to analyze the correlation between TARBP2 and AKAP12 expression in different breast cancer datasets. MDA-MB-231 cells were transfected with GFP-tagged TARBP2 plasmids by Lipofectamine 2000 and screening with G418. Lung metastasis in tumor-bearing nude mice was detected by HE staining. RT-qPCR was used to test the expression of AKAP12 and its half-life. Luciferase assay was carried out to determine whether the transcript decay was mediated through targeting the 3′UTR. EMSA assay was performed to detect the physically binding of TARBP2 with stem-loop structure of AKAP12. Results The high expression of TARBP2 in human breast tumor tissue was closely related to lymph node metastasis. TARBP2 over-expression in MDA-MB-231 cells significantly promoted tumor metastasis in vitro(P＜0.05). TARBP2 inhibited the expression of AKAP12(P＜0.01) and reduced its mRNA half-life(P＜0.05). TARBP2 significantly suppressed luciferase activity of AKAP12 3′UTR reporter(P＜0.05) and bound to the stem-loop structure. There was a significant negative correlation between TARBP2 and AKAP12 expression in human breast cancer samples(P＜0.001). Conclusions TARBP2-mediated inhibition of AKAP12 gene expression might be one of the mechanisms of TARBP2 promoting breast cancer metastasis

Construction and application of urban water system connectivity evaluation index system based on PSR-AHP-Fuzzy evaluation method coupling

The connectivity of urban water systems can enhance the connectivity of regional rivers, lakes, and water systems, which can improve the regional water environment and water ecology to a certain extent, and enhance the water disaster prevention capability. To scientifically evaluate the effect of water system connectivity in the comprehensive urban water system management project. In this study, a regional waterlogging model based on the coupling of ArcGis and SWMM is established. At the same time, the evaluation index system of water system connectivity effect of regional town water system comprehensive management project was constructed regarding PSR (“Pressure-Status-Response”) theory with structural connectivity, hydraulic connectivity and ecological and environmental improvement as the criteria, and the fuzzy evaluation method was used for analysis and evaluation. The results show that the improvement in the water environment is obvious after the water system is connected. The total length and area of rivers in the study area increased by 68.98% and 57.51%, respectively. River network density increased from 0.66 km/km2 to 0.69 km/km2, an increase of 4.55%; the regional water surface rate increased from 2.22% to 3.51%, an increase of 58.11%; the river frequency increased from 0.15/km2 to 0.29/km2, an increase of 93.33%. The water exchange capacity increased by 37.5% and the flow rate increased by 30%. All water systems have a better degree of connectivity and a better structure of river network water system. The decay rate of point source pollution increased by 40.61%, the water quality of rivers reached V standard, and the area covered by green areas increased to 32.29%. The evaluation grade of hydraulic characteristics and ecological environment indexes was “excellent”. The total evaluation set D=[0.5417,0.0791,0.2125,0] for the effect of water system connection in the study area. According to the principle of maximum affiliation, the improvement effect of the water system connection project in the study area is “excellent”

Monocyte Chemotactic Protein–Induced Protein 1 Controls Allergic Airway Inflammation By Suppressing Il-5–Producing TH2 Cells Through The Notch/Gata3 Pathway

Background: Asthmatic and allergic inflammation is mediated by TH2 cytokines (IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13). Although we have learned much about how TH2 cells are differentiated, the TH2 checkpoint mechanisms remain elusive. Objectives: In this study we investigate how monocyte chemotactic protein–induced protein 1 (MCPIP1; encoded by the Zc3h12a gene) regulates IL-5–producing TH2 cell differentiation and TH2-mediated inflammation. Methods: The functions of Zc3h12a−/− CD4 T cells were evaluated by checking the expression of TH2 cytokines and transcription factors in vivo and in vitro. Allergic airway inflammation of Zc3h12a−/− mice was examined with murine asthma models. In addition, antigen-specific CD4 T cells deficient in MCPIP1 were transferred to wild-type recipient mice, challenged with ovalbumin (OVA) or house dust mite (HDM), and accessed for TH2 inflammation. Results: Zc3h12a−/− mice have spontaneous severe lung inflammation, with an increase in mainly IL-5– and IL-13–producing but not IL-4–producing TH2 cells in the lung. Mechanistically, differentiation of IL-5–producing Zc3h12a−/− TH2 cells is mediated through Notch signaling and Gata3 independent of IL-4. Gata3 mRNA is stabilized in Zc3h12a−/− TH2 cells. MCPIP1 promotes Gata3 mRNA decay through the RNase domain. Furthermore, deletion of MCPIP1 in OVA- or HDM-specific T cells leads to significantly increased TH2-mediated airway inflammation in OVA or HDM murine models of asthma. Conclusions: Our study reveals that MCPIP1 regulates the development and function of IL-5–producing TH2 cells through the Notch/Gata3 pathway. MCPIP1 represents a new and promising target for the treatment of asthma and other TH2-mediated diseases

Forecasting of runoff in the lower Yellow River based on the CEEMDAN–ARIMA model

Runoff is one of the important hydrological variables of rivers, and its accurate prediction can provide a reliable basis for water resources system characterization and efficient utilization. In this paper, based on the advantages that the Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise (CEEMDAN) model can effectively overcome modal mixing and white noise interference, and the Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model can effectively overcome gradient disappearance and other problems, the coupled CEEMDAN–ARIMA prediction model is established, and the CEEMDAN–ARIMA model is used in the runoff prediction of the Lijin hydrological station in the lower Yellow River. The results show that the coupled CEEMDAN–ARIMA model has an R2 of 0.9398 and a Nash efficiency coefficient (NSE) of 0.918, with a prediction accuracy of Grade A. This shows that the CEEMDAN–ARIMA model has the ability to handle complex information in hydrological factor simulations, providing a new method for non-linear, non-stationary runoff prediction that has broad application prospects. HIGHLIGHTS A novel prediction model with the CEEMDAN–ARIMA method is proposed.; The highest point of the cumulative distance horizon is used as the dividing point between the training data and the predicted data.; The use of CEEMDAN to preprocess the data can effectively reduce the non-smoothness of the time series.; The prediction accuracy of the CEEMDAN–ARIMA model is better than NAR, ARIMA, and CEEMD–ARIMA models.