Consolidation effect of visual function training on children with different degrees of amblyopia

AIM: To observe the consolidation effect of visual function training in amblyopic therapy on children with amblyopia of different degrees(mild, moderate and severe)which had been normalized. <p>METHODS: Totally 78 amblyopic children were divided into two groups: visual function training group(<i>n</i>=36, 70 eyes)and control group(<i>n</i>=42, 67 eyes). The rollback situation of the two groups in 6, 12, 24 and 36 months were observed after visual acuity reached 0.9 during treatment.<p>RESULTS: The rollback rates were both 0 in visual function training group and control group with different degrees of amblyopia after 6 months. There was no significant difference in rollback rate between the 2 groups with different degrees of amblyopia after 6 and 12 months. There was no significant difference in rollback rate between the two groups with mild amblyopia after 24 and 36 months(<i>P</i>=0.269, 0.269). However, the rollback rate in training group with moderate amblyopia was significantly different from in control group after 24 and 36 months(<i>P</i>=0.004, 0.002). There was no significant difference in rollback rate between the two groups with severe amblyopia after 24 and 36 months. <p>CONCLUSION: Visual function training can reduce the rollback rate and consolidate the effect of amblyopic treatment effectively for children with moderate amblyopia. However, the effect is not as good for children with mild and severe amblyopia

Methyl 3,4-bis­(cyclo­propyl­meth­oxy)benzoate

The title compound, C16H20O4, was obtained unintentionally as the byproduct of an attempted synthesis of methyl 3-(cyclo­propyl­meth­oxy)-4-hy­droxy­benzoate. In the crystal, the mol­ecules are linked by inter­molecular C—H⋯O inter­actions

Two-year prognostic value of mean platelet volume in patients with diabetes and stable coronary artery disease undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention

Background: Mean platelet volume (MPV) is a marker of platelet size and activity, and is associated with a poor prognosis of cardiovascular disease. Studies have shown a relationship between diabetes mellitus (DM) and MPV. This study examined the relationship between admission MPV and 2-year cardiac mortality in patients with DM and stable coronary artery disease (SCAD) undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods: A total of 1389 patients were enrolled and divided into two groups according to MPV as fol- lows: lower MPV (n = 908, MPV ≤ 10.9 fL) and higher MPV (n = 481, MPV &gt; 10.9 fL). Results: Body mass index, platelet distribution width, MPV/platelet and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels were significantly higher in the higher MPV group compared with the lower MPV group (all p &lt; 0.05). The platelet count was significantly lower in the higher MPV group compared with the lower MPV group (p &lt; 0.05). MPV was positively associated with HbA1c and fasting plasma glucose levels (r = 0.073 and 0.061, p = 0.007 and 0.023, respectively) in bivariate correlation analysis. The 2-year cardiac mortality rate was 0.7%, and was significantly lower in the lower MPV group than in the higher MPV group in Kaplan-Meier analysis (p = 0.019). Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed a good diagnostic value for MPV at predicting long-term cardiac mortality (area under the curve: 0.735, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.590–0.880, p = 0.01). Elevated MPV was a significant risk factor for 2-year cardiac mortality (hazard ratio: 2.091, 95% CI: 1.075–4.070, p = 0.030) in multivariable Cox regression analysis. Conclusions: Mean platelet volume is a strong, independent prognostic factor in PCI-treated patients with DM and SCAD

Effect of binocular visual function training on the reconstruction of binocular visual function in postoperative patients with intermittent exotropia

AIM: To explore the effect of binocular visual function training on the reconstruction of binocular visual function and maintaining the stable eye position in postoperative patients with intermittent exotropia. METHODS: A total of 142 patients with intermittent exotropia underwent strabismus surgery in our hospital from January 2010 to December 2015 were enrolled. These patients were divided into two groups according to whether had binocular visual function training after surgery. The treatment group was used the DV-100 system to train the three-level visual function after surgery. For the control group, no intervention was performed after the operation. Respectively analysis the differences of binocular visual function and eye position in the two groups of patients before and 1mo after surgery, 3mo after surgery, 6mo after surgery, and 1a after surgery. RESULTS: The rate of the positive eye position in the treatment group was higher than the control group in the 6mo and 1a after surgery, and statistically significant difference was found(PCONCLUSION: The binocular visual function may have a certain degree of recovery in the patients with intermittent exotropia after surgery to obtain positive eye position. Through the postoperative visual perception learning and binocular visual function training, the binocular visual function can be better and faster recovered and reconstructed so as to obtain stereoscopic vision. It can better stabilize the eye position and help to reduce the rate of the patient's eye position fallback after surgery

Flavor Changing Effects in Family Nonuniversal Z' Models

Flavor-changing and CP-violating interactions of Z' to fermions are generally present in models with extra U(1) gauge symmetry that are string-inspired or related to broken gauged family symmetry. We study the consequences of such couplings in fermion electric dipole moments, muon g-2, and K and B meson mixings. From experimental limits or measured values, we constrain the off-diagonal Z' couplings to fermions. Some of these constraints are comparable or stronger than the existing constraints obtained from other observables.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure

Improved value and carbon footprint by complete utilization of corncob lignocellulose

Lignocellulose, as the most abundant type of inedible biomass, is considered as a promising renewable feedstock for making fuels, chemicals, and materials. However, its complex structure makes most of current biorefinery processes suffer from low resource utilization rates, high energy consumption or ill-defined market orientation of the obtained products. Here, we propose and evaluate the EXA (Ethanol, Xylose, Adhesive) biorefinery strategy based on current xylose industry. This process integrates four conversion and separation stages to consecutively produce ethanol, xylose, and adhesive with total carbon utilization of 79.6%. The key innovation is the establishment of an easy-to-operate process for direct production of high-quality adhesive from a lignin-rich liquid fraction that makes the overall process significantly more sustainable. Techno-economic analysis (TEA) shows that the revenue of proposed EXA process increases more than 110 times compares with the current process and life cycle assessment (LCA) demonstrates a much lower CO2 footprint from an environmental burden per unit of revenue perspective

Immune modulation of Th1/Th2/Treg/Th17/Th9/Th21 cells in rabbits infected with Eimeria stiedai

IntroductionDespite long-term integrated control programs for Eimeria stiedai infection in China, hepatic coccidiosis in rabbits persists. Th1, Th2, Th17, Treg, Th9, and Th21 cells are involved in immune responses during pathogen infection. It is unclear whether Th cell subsets are also involved in E. stiedai infection. Their roles in the immunopathology of this infection remain unknown. Therefore, monitoring these T-cell subsets’ immune responses during primary infection of E. stiedai at both transcriptional (mRNA) and protein (cytokines) levels is essential.MethodsIn experimentally infected New Zealand white rabbits, mRNA expression levels of their transcript—TBX2 (Th1), GATA3 (Th2), RORC (Th17), Foxp3 (Treg), SPI1 (Th9), and BCL6 (Th21)—were evaluated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), whereas Th1 (IFN-g and TNF-a), Th2 (IL4), Th17 (IL17A and IL6), Treg (IL10 and TGF-b1), Th9 (IL9), and Th21 (IL21) cytokines were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs).ResultsWe found that levels of TBX2, GATA3, RORC, SPI1, and BCL6 in the livers of infected rabbits were elevated on days 5 and 15 post-infection (PI). The concentrations of their distinctive cytokines IFN-g and TNF-a for Th1, IL4 for Th2, IL17A for Th17, IL9 for Th9, IL21 for Th21, and IL10 for Treg IL10 were also significantly increased on days 5 and 15 PI, respectively (p &lt; 0.05). On day 23 PI, GATA3 with its cytokine IL4, RORC with IL17A, Foxp3 with IL10 and TGF-b1, and SPI1 with IL9 were significantly decreased, but TBX2 with IFN-g and IL6 remained elevated.DiscussionOur findings are the first evidence of Th1/Th2/Treg/Th17/Th9/Th21 changes in E. stiedai-infected rabbits and provide insights into immune regulation mechanisms and possible vaccine development

Hydrogen Sulfide Alleviates Postharvest Senescence of Grape by Modulating the Antioxidant Defenses

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has been identified as an important gaseous signal in plants. Here, we investigated the mechanism of H2S in alleviating postharvest senescence and rotting of Kyoho grape. Exogenous application of H2S released from 1.0 mM NaHS remarkably decreased the rotting and threshing rate of grape berries. H2S application also prevented the weight loss in grape clusters and inhibited the decreases in firmness, soluble solids, and titratable acidity in grape pulp during postharvest storage. The data of chlorophyll and carotenoid content suggested the role of H2S in preventing chlorophyll breakdown and carotenoid accumulation in both grape rachis and pulp. In comparison to water control, exogenous H2S application maintained significantly higher levels of ascorbic acid and flavonoid and total phenolics and reducing sugar and soluble protein in grape pulp. Meanwhile, H2S significantly reduced the accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and superoxide anion (O2∙-) in grape pulp. Further investigations showed that H2S enhanced the activities of antioxidant enzymes ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and catalase (CAT) and decreased those of lipoxygenase (LOX) in both grape peels and pulp. In all, we provided strong evidence that H2S effectively alleviated postharvest senescence and rotting of Kyoho grape by modulating antioxidant enzymes and attenuating lipid peroxidation