Treatment of infants with congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction

AIM: To explore the different ages of congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction in infants, take different treatment methods at different times. <p>METHODS:The 87 cases of 102 children were divided into three different age groups: the first group of 25d-3mo of age 21 cases 26 eyes; The second group >3mo-7mo 31 cases 36 eyes; The third group >7-24mo of age 35 cases 40 eyes. For the first group of infants, the implementation of the lacrimal sac nasolacrimal duct massage + eye drops; for the second group of infants, carry lacrimal pressure washing treatment; for the third group of infants, the implementation of the nasolacrimal duct probing treatment. <p>RESULTS:The first group of children through the nasolacrimal duct sac massage + drops tobramycin eye drops treatment unobstructed 12, the cure rate was 46.2%; The second group of children through pressurized irrigation treatment lacrimal patency by 33, the cure rate was 91.7%; The third group of children through the nasolacrimal duct probing unobstructed 36 treatment, the cure rate was 90.0%. The second and third group were better than the first group(<i>χ</i>²=15.71, <i>P</i><0.01; <i>χ</i>²=15.27, <i>P</i><0.01); the treatment effect of the second and third groups was no significant difference(<i>χ</i>²=0.02, <i>P</i>>0.05).<p>CONCLUSION:Infants with congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction should distinguish between ages, taking different treatments, in order to obtain a better therapeutic effect, and lacrimal pressure washing is the preferred way of treating infants with congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction

Microbial characterization based on multifractal analysis of metagenomes

IntroductionThe species diversity of microbiomes is a cutting-edge concept in metagenomic research. In this study, we propose a multifractal analysis for metagenomic research.Method and ResultsFirstly, we visualized the chaotic game representation (CGR) of simulated metagenomes and real metagenomes. We find that metagenomes are visualized with self-similarity. Then we defined and calculated the multifractal dimension for the visualized plot of simulated and real metagenomes, respectively. By analyzing the Pearson correlation coefficients between the multifractal dimension and the traditional species diversity index, we obtain that the correlation coefficients between the multifractal dimension and the species richness index and Shannon diversity index reached the maximum value when q = 0, 1, and the correlation coefficient between the multifractal dimension and the Simpson diversity index reached the maximum value when q = 5. Finally, we apply our method to real metagenomes of the gut microbiota of 100 infants who are newborn and 4 and 12 months old. The results show that the multifractal dimensions of an infant's gut microbiomes can distinguish age differences.Conclusion and DiscussionThere is self-similarity among the CGRs of WGS of metagenomes, and the multifractal spectrum is an important characteristic for metagenomes. The traditional diversity indicators can be unified under the framework of multifractal analysis. These results coincided with similar results in macrobial ecology. The multifractal spectrum of infants’ gut microbiomes are related to the development of the infants

Current Reversals in a inhomogeneous system with asymmetric unbiased fluctuations

We present a study of transport of a Brownian particle moving in periodic symmetric potential in the presence of asymmetric unbiased fluctuations. The particle is considered to move in a medium with periodic space dependent friction. By tuning the parameters of the system, the direction of current exhibit reversals, both as a function of temperature as well as the amplitude of rocking force. We found that the mutual interplay between the opposite driving factors is the necessary term for current reversals.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Further understanding the nature of Ω(2012)\Omega(2012) within a chiral quark model

In our previous works, we have analyzed the two-body strong decays of the low-lying $\Omega$ baryon states within a chiral quark model. The results show that the $\Omega(2012)$ resonance favors the three-quark state with $J^P=3/2^-$ classified in the quark model. With this assignment, in the present work we further study the three-body strong decay $\Omega(2012)\to \Xi^*(1530)\bar{K} \to \Xi\pi\bar{K}$ and coupled-channel effects on $\Omega(2012)$ from nearby channels $\Xi \bar{K}$, $\Omega\eta$ and $\Xi^*(1530)\bar{K}$ within the chiral quark model as well. It is found that the $\Omega(2012)$ resonance has a sizeable decay rate into the three-body final state $\Xi\pi\bar{K}$. The predicted ratio $R_{\Xi\bar{K}}^{\Xi\pi\bar{K}}=\mathcal{B}[\Omega(2012)\to \Xi^*(1530)\bar{K}\to \Xi\pi\bar{K}]/\mathcal{B}[\Omega(2012)\to \Xi\bar{K}]\simeq 12\%$ is close to the up limit $11\%$ measured by the Belle Collaboration in 2019, however, our predicted ratio is too small to be comparable with the recent data $0.97\pm 0.31$. Furthermore, our results show that the coupled-channel effects on the $\Omega(2012)$ is not large, its components should be dominated by the bare three-quark state, while the proportion of the molecular components is only $\sim 16\%$. To clarify the nature of $\Omega(2012)$, the ratio $R_{\Xi\bar{K}}^{\Xi\pi\bar{K}}$ is expected to be tested by other experiments.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

FSD-C10, a Fasudil derivative, promotes neuroregeneration through indirect and direct mechanisms.

FSD-C10, a Fasudil derivative, was shown to reduce severity of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS), through the modulation of the immune response and induction of neuroprotective molecules in the central nervous system (CNS). However, whether FSD-C10 can promote neuroregeneration remains unknown. In this study, we further analyzed the effect of FSD-C10 on neuroprotection and remyelination. FSD-C10-treated mice showed a longer, thicker and more intense MAP2 and synaptophysin positive signal in the CNS, with significantly fewer CD4(+) T cells, macrophages and microglia. Importantly, the CNS of FSD-C10-treated mice showed a shift of activated macrophages/microglia from the type 1 to type 2 status, elevated numbers of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) and oligodendrocytes, and increased levels of neurotrophic factors NT-3, GDNF and BDNF. FSD-C10-treated microglia significantly inhibited Th1/Th17 cell differentiation and increased the number of IL-10(+) CD4(+) T cells, and the conditioned medium from FSD-C10-treated microglia promoted OPC survival and oligodendrocyte maturation. Addition of FSD-C10 directly promoted remyelination in a chemical-induced demyelination model on organotypic slice culture, in a BDNF-dependent manner. Together, these findings demonstrate that FSD-C10 promotes neural repair through mechanisms that involved both immunomodulation and induction of neurotrophic factors

Homology-Driven Proteomics of Dinoflagellates with Unsequenced Genomes Using MALDI-TOF/TOF and Automated De Novo Sequencing

This study developed a multilayered, gel-based, and underivatized strategy for de novo protein sequence analysis of unsequenced dinoflagellates using a MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometer with the assistance of DeNovo Explorer software. MASCOT was applied as the first layer screen to identify either known or unknown proteins sharing identical peptides presented in a database. Once the confident identifications were removed after searching against the NCBInr database, the remainder was searched against the dinoflagellate expressed sequence tag database. In the last layer, those borderline and nonconfident hits were further subjected to de novo interpretation using DeNovo Explorer software. The de novo sequences passing a reliability filter were subsequently submitted to nonredundant MS-BLAST search. Using this layer identification method, 216 protein spots representing 158 unique proteins out of 220 selected protein spots from Alexandrium tamarense, a dinoflagellate with unsequenced genome, were confidently or tentatively identified by database searching. These proteins were involved in various intracellular physiological activities. This study is the first effort to develop a completely automated approach to identify proteins from unsequenced dinoflagellate databases and establishes a preliminary protein database for various physiological studies of dinoflagellates in the future

C/EBP-α, involvement of a novel transcription factor in leptin-induced VCAM-1 production in mouse chondrocytes

AbstractLeptin and vascular cell adhesion molecules-1 (VCAM-1) are two important mediators in obesity-related osteoarthritis, while the molecular mechanism linking leptin to VCAM-1 production is still obscure. Here we show that leptin upregulates VCAM-1 mRNA and protein levels in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Mechanistically, leptin induces VCAM-1 promoter activity by increasing the expression of C/EBP-α and facilitating its binding to a newly identified element in the VCAM-1 gene. Gain or loss of function studies reveal a regulatory role of C/EBP-α on VCAM-1 expression. Finally, elevated plasma leptin level correlates to increased C/EBP-α and VCAM-1 production in chondrocytes from obese mice