The evaluation of the bone graft survival status in titanium cervical cages by radionuclide bone CT scan

To find a better way to evaluate the bone graft survival status in cervical cages, forty-one patients suffering from one-level cervical spondylosis were enrolled in this study. All underwent anterior cervical decompression and fusion with titanium cage and plate. When followed up, another 21 patients were confirmed as one-level cervical spondylosis without operation and were enrolled as control group. "Bolus" injection of radioactive 99mTc methylene diphosphonate (99mTc-MDP) with a dose of 25 ~ 30 mCi was performed through cubital vein, and radionuclide distribution images of cervical spine were obtained by single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT). In sagittal view, bone graft was positioned accurately. By “region of interest” (ROI) technique, the same regions in bone graft and thoracic vertebra with the same level of suprasternal fossa were selected. Radioactive count ratio was then obtained. In the control group, “bone graft” was chosen on the inferior vertebra of the lesion segment, and the ratio was similarly gotten. Statistical difference was shown between bone graft group and control group by t test (t = 2.713, P < 0.05). The bone graft survival rate was 100% by SPECT/CT and bony fusion rate was 92.7% by CT scan. It indicated that in all bony fusion cases, bone graft survived; however, the bone survival was not surely together with bony fusion.Key words: Bone graft, titanium cervical cage, radionuclide bone CT

Artificial Topological Superconductor by the Proximity Effect

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Perceptions of malaria control and prevention in an era of climate change: a cross-sectional survey among CDC staff in China

Published online: 31 March 2017Background: Though there was the significant decrease in the incidence of malaria in central and southwest China during the 1980s and 1990s, there has been a re-emergence of malaria since 2000. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted amongst the staff of eleven Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in China to gauge their perceptions regarding the impacts of climate change on malaria transmission and its control and prevention. Descriptive analysis was performed to study CDC staff’s knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and suggestions for malaria control in the face of climate change. Results: A majority (79.8%) of CDC staff were concerned about climate change and 79.7% believed the weather was becoming warmer. Most participants (90.3%) indicated climate change had a negative effect on population health, 92.6 and 86.8% considered that increasing temperatures and precipitation would influence the transmission of vector-borne diseases including malaria. About half (50.9%) of the surveyed staff indicated malaria had re-emerged in recent years, and some outbreaks were occurring in new geographic areas. The main reasons for such re-emergence were perceived to be: mosquitoes in high-density, numerous imported cases, climate change, poor environmental conditions, internal migrant populations, and lack of health awareness. Conclusions: This study found most CDC staff endorsed the statement that climate change had a negative impact on infectious disease transmission. Malaria had re-emerged in some areas of China, and most of the staff believed that this can be managed. However, high densities of mosquitoes and the continuous increase in imported cases of malaria in local areas, together with environmental changes are bringing about critical challenges to malaria control in China. This study contributes to an understanding of climate change related perceptions of malaria control and prevention amongst CDC staff. It may help to formulate in-house training guidelines, community health promotion programmes and policies to improve the capacity of malaria control and prevention in the face of climate change in China.Michael Xiaoliang Tong, Alana Hansen, Scott Hanson, Easey, Scott Cameron, Jianjun Xiang, Qiyong Liu, Xiaobo Liu, Yehuan Sun, Philip Weinstein, Gil, Soo Han, Craig Williams and Peng B

Evaluating the effective numbers of independent tests and significant p-value thresholds in commercial genotyping arrays and public imputation reference datasets

Current genome-wide association studies (GWAS) use commercial genotyping microarrays that can assay over a million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The number of SNPs is further boosted by advanced statistical genotype-imputation algorithms and large SNP databases for reference human populations. The testing of a huge number of SNPs needs to be taken into account in the interpretation of statistical significance in such genome-wide studies, but this is complicated by the non-independence of SNPs because of linkage disequilibrium (LD). Several previous groups have proposed the use of the effective number of independent markers (Me) for the adjustment of multiple testing, but current methods of calculation for Me are limited in accuracy or computational speed. Here, we report a more robust and fast method to calculate Me. Applying this efficient method [implemented in a free software tool named Genetic type 1 error calculator (GEC)], we systematically examined the Me, and the corresponding p-value thresholds required to control the genome-wide type 1 error rate at 0.05, for 13 Illumina or Affymetrix genotyping arrays, as well as for HapMap Project and 1000 Genomes Project datasets which are widely used in genotype imputation as reference panels. Our results suggested the use of a p-value threshold of ~10−7 as the criterion for genome-wide significance for early commercial genotyping arrays, but slightly more stringent p-value thresholds ~5 × 10−8 for current or merged commercial genotyping arrays, ~10−8 for all common SNPs in the 1000 Genomes Project dataset and ~5 × 10−8 for the common SNPs only within genes

MRI of Auto-Transplantation of Bone Marrow-Derived Stem-Progenitor Cells for Potential Repair of Injured Arteries

This study was to validate the feasibility of using clinical 3.0T MRI to monitor the migration of autotransplanted bone marrow (BM)-derived stem-progenitor cells (SPC) to the injured arteries of near-human sized swine for potential cell-based arterial repair.The study was divided into two phases. For in vitro evaluation, BM cells were extracted from the iliac crests of 13 domestic pigs and then labeled with a T2 contrast agent, Feridex, and/or a fluorescent tissue marker, PKH26. The viability, the proliferation efficiency and the efficacies of Feridex and/or PKH26 labeling were determined. For in vivo validation, the 13 pigs underwent endovascular balloon-mediated intimal damages of the iliofemoral arteries. The labeled or un-labeled BM cells were autotransplanted back to the same pig from which the BM cells were extracted. Approximately three weeks post-cell transplantation, 3.0T T2-weighted MRI was performed to detect Feridex-created signal voids of the transplanted BM cells in the injured iliofemoral arteries, which was confirmed by subsequent histologic correlation.Of the in vitro study, the viability of dual-labeled BM cells was 95-98%. The proliferation efficiencies of dual-labeled BM cells were not significantly different compared to those of non-labeled cells. The efficacies of Feridex- and PKH26 labeling were 90% and 100%, respectively. Of the in vivo study, 3.0T MRI detected the auto-transplanted BM cells migrated to the injured arteries, which was confirmed by histologic examinations.This study demonstrates the capability of using clinical 3.0T MRI to monitor the auto-transplantation of BM cells that migrate to the injured arteries of large animals, which may provide a useful MRI technique to monitor cell-based arterial repair

The problem of sharp notch in microstructured solids governed by dipolar gradient elasticity

In this paper, we deal with the asymptotic problem of a body of infinite extent with a notch (re-entrant corner) under remotely applied plane-strain or anti-plane shear loadings. The problem is formulated within the framework of the Toupin-Mindlin theory of dipolar gradient elasticity. This generalized continuum theory is appropriate to model the response of materials with microstructure. A linear version of the theory results by considering a linear isotropic expression for the strain-energy density that depends on strain-gradient terms, in addition to the standard strain terms appearing in classical elasticity. Through this formulation, a microstructural material constant is introduced, in addition to the standard Lamé constants . The faces of the notch are considered to be traction-free and a boundary-layer approach is followed. The boundary value problem is attacked with the asymptotic Knein-Williams technique. Our analysis leads to an eigenvalue problem, which, along with the restriction of a bounded strain energy, provides the asymptotic fields. The cases of a crack and a half-space are analyzed in detail as limit cases of the general notch (infinite wedge) problem. The results show significant departure from the predictions of the standard fracture mechanics

Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay

The decay channel $\psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p})$ is studied using a sample of $1.06\times 10^8$ $\psi^\prime$ events collected by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is observed in the $p\bar{p}$ invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit with an $S$-wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of $M=1861^{+6}_{-13} {\rm (stat)}^{+7}_{-26} {\rm (syst)} {\rm MeV/}c^2$ and a narrow width that is $\Gamma<38 {\rm MeV/}c^2$ at the 90% confidence level. These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics

Environmental Adaptation: Genomic Analysis of the Piezotolerant and Psychrotolerant Deep-Sea Iron Reducing Bacterium Shewanella piezotolerans WP3

Shewanella species are widespread in various environments. Here, the genome sequence of Shewanella piezotolerans WP3, a piezotolerant and psychrotolerant iron reducing bacterium from deep-sea sediment was determined with related functional analysis to study its environmental adaptation mechanisms. The genome of WP3 consists of 5,396,476 base pairs (bp) with 4,944 open reading frames (ORFs). It possesses numerous genes or gene clusters which help it to cope with extreme living conditions such as genes for two sets of flagellum systems, structural RNA modification, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) biosynthesis and osmolyte transport and synthesis. And WP3 contains 55 open reading frames encoding putative c-type cytochromes which are substantial to its wide environmental adaptation ability. The mtr-omc gene cluster involved in the insoluble metal reduction in the Shewanella genus was identified and compared. The two sets of flagellum systems were found to be differentially regulated under low temperature and high pressure; the lateral flagellum system was found essential for its motility and living at low temperature

Efficient control of atmospheric sulfate production based on three formation regimes

The formation of sulfate (SO₄²⁻) in the atmosphere is linked chemically to its direct precursor, sulfur dioxide (SO₂), through several key oxidation paths for which nitrogen oxides or NO_x (NO and NO₂) play essential roles. Here we present a coherent description of the dependence of SO₄²⁻ formation on SO₂ and NO_x under haze-fog conditions, in which fog events are accompanied by high aerosol loadings and fog-water pH in the range of 4.7–6.9. Three SO₄²⁻ formation regimes emerge as defined by the role played by NO_x. In the low-NO_x regime, NO_x act as catalyst for HO_x, which is a major oxidant for SO₂, whereas in the high-NO_x regime, NO₂ is a sink for HO_x. Moreover, at highly elevated NO_x levels, a so-called NO₂-oxidant regime exists in which aqueous NO₂ serves as the dominant oxidant of SO₂. This regime also exists under clean fog conditions but is less prominent. Sensitivity calculations using an emission-driven box model show that the reduction of SO₄²⁻ is comparably sensitive to the reduction of SO₂ and NO_x emissions in the NO₂-oxidant regime, suggesting a co-reduction strategy. Formation of SO₄²⁻ is relatively insensitive to NO_x reduction in the low-NO_x regime, whereas reduction of NO_x actually leads to increased SO₄²⁻ production in the intermediate high-NO_x regime

Deep Brain Stimulation of Nucleus Accumbens Region in Alcoholism Affects Reward Processing

The influence of bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the nucleus nucleus (NAcc) on the processing of reward in a gambling paradigm was investigated using H2[15O]-PET (positron emission tomography) in a 38-year-old man treated for severe alcohol addiction. Behavioral data analysis revealed a less risky, more careful choice behavior under active DBS compared to DBS switched off. PET showed win- and loss-related activations in the paracingulate cortex, temporal poles, precuneus and hippocampus under active DBS, brain areas that have been implicated in action monitoring and behavioral control. Except for the temporal pole these activations were not seen when DBS was deactivated. These findings suggest that DBS of the NAcc may act partially by improving behavioral control