Surgical treatment of a distal radius and ipsilateral metacarpal hemophilic pseudotumor without recurrence or functional deficit: a case report

BackgroundDistal hemophilic pseudotumor (HP) occurring distal to the wrist appear to be secondary to intraosseous hemorrhage, which develops rapidly and should be treated primarily with long-term replacement therapy and cast immobilization. Surgical removal or even amputation is indicated when conservative management fails to prevent progression. Here, a practical strategy was described for those patients who cannot afford the cost of routine coagulation factor replacement therapy, namely immediate surgical curettage and bone grafting as well as continuous follow-up.Case descriptionA 7-year-old boy with a history of mild hemophilia A was admitted to our medical center because of a 2-year history of progressive swelling and pain around right forearm and hand. Coagulation factor VIII level was 11.1% of normal with no inhibitor. Radiographs revealed expansile swelling, bone destruction, and deformity of the distal right radius and the second metacarpal bone. He was diagnosed with distal HP. Surgical procedure of curettage and bone grafting was performed. The function and appearance of the right wrist were almost normal without discomfort at the 101-month follow-up. Significantly, the same patient was hospitalized again because of a year-long progressive swelling and pain around the left hand when he was 14 years old. X-ray showed multiple bone destruction of the left proximal phalanges of left thumb, middle finger and little finger with local pathological fractures. Surgical procedure of HPs including curettage and bone grafting was performed. Postoperative recovery was good, and the last clinical follow-up at 18 months after the operation displayed a satisfactory shape and functional outcomes.ConclusionsCurettage and bone grafting prove to be safe and feasible for patients with distal HP and continuous follow-up of patients with distal HP is very vital for timely finding and then treating successive HP in developing countries

Melittin promotes dexamethasone in the treatment of adjuvant rheumatoid arthritis in rats

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an erosive-destructive inflammation of the joints, and the chronic, long-term stiffness and deformation induced by RA are some of the symptoms of arthritis that are difficult to treat. Dexamethasone (DEX) and melittin (MLT) are two interesting anti-inflammatory substances, both of which possess anti-inflammatory effects exerted through the suppression of the immune system. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of MLT in the treatment of RA by DEX as well as to clarify the influence of MLT on the efficacy and side effects of DEX.Method: The rats were injected with Complete Freund’s Adjuvant (CFA) to induce arthritis, followed by treatment with different doses of DEX and/or MLT. The relevant indexes of paw inflammation were determined, and the appetite, growth status, arthritis status, cytokine levels, and organ coefficient of the rats were evaluated. In addition, the paraffin sections of the joint tissues were prepared to analyze the pathological changes.Result: DEX exhibited side effects, notably hindering feed intake and growth, and inducing immune organ lesions in the rats. MLT significantly reduced the side effects of DEX and promoted its efficacy. DEX in combination with MLT demonstrated a synergistic efficacy in RA treatment, showing advantages in detumescence reduction, pro-inflammatory cytokine inhibition, and joint internal pathological improvement.Conclusion: Thus, MLT promoted the efficacy of DEX in adjuvant RA treatment in rats, offering an approach to reduce the use dosage and side effects of DEX

An isotope study of the Shule River Basin, Northwest China: Sources and groundwater residence time, sulfate sources and climate change

Isotopes (δ18O and δD, δ34SSO4 and δ18OSO4, tritium and 14C) were employed to reveal moisture sources in precipitation and sources of surface water and groundwater, as well as groundwater residence times and sulfate sources in the Shule River Basin (SRB). Groundwater originates in the Qilian Mountains as high-altitude precipitation and meltwater from ice archives. The local meteoric water line (LMWL) is δD = 7.8δ18O + 18.1. Precipitation from westerly circulation has a characteristic annual cycle of δ18O and δD, high (δ18O > −5‰) in summer and low (δ18O < −10‰) at other times. This pattern was interrupted by an incursion of the Indian summer monsoon in August 2018, resulting in abnormally low δ18O and δD values. Surface water in the upper SRB yields an evaporation trend of slope near 5, with an origin near δ18O = −10‰ on the LMWL. Other catchments of similar altitude in the Qilian Mountains have evaporation trends with different origin points, indicating different input fractions of meltwater from ancient ice for each catchment. Groundwater δ18O and δD data plot along mixing trends, different in each sub-basin, between three water types: (1) recent Shule River runoff; (2) water like that archived in the Dunde ice sheet, representing precipitation over the last 12 ka; and (3) evaporated water that cannot be explained as precipitation from the last 12 ka. Type (3) water originated as water with δ18O values between −14 and −20‰ on the LMWL, and may represent incursion of monsoonal circulation prior to 12 ka. Tritium and 14C data identify post-bomb recharge, but 14C is of limited use in dating older groundwater mixtures. Sulfate isotopes (δ34SSO4 and δ18OSO4) in dissolved sulfate from groundwater and surface water indicate mixing of sulfur derived from evaporite and sulfide, but do not identify sulfate pollution from fertilizer. Future climate change may lead to water shortage as ancient ice is consumed by melting.24 month embargo; available online: 16 June 2022This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Effects of harvest and sowing time on the performance of the rotation of winter wheat-summer maize in the North China Plain

Rotation of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and summer maize (Zea mays L.) is the prevailing double-cropping system in the North China Plain. Typically, winter wheat is planted at the beginning of October and harvested during early June. Maize is planted immediately after wheat and harvested around 25th of September. The growing season of maize is limited to about 100-110 days. How to rectify the sowing date of winter wheat and the harvest time of summer maize are two factors to achieve higher grain yield of the two crops. Three-year field experiments were carried out to compare the grain yield, evapotranspiration (ET), water use efficiency (WUE) and economic return under six combinations of the harvest time of summer maize and sowing date of winter wheat from 2002 to 2005. Yield of winter wheat was similar for treatments of sowing before 10th of October. Afterwards, yield of winter wheat was significantly reduced (P &lt; 0.05) by 0.5% each day delayed in sowing. The kernel weight of maize was significantly increased (P &lt; 0.05) by about 0.6% each day delayed from harvest before 5th of October. After 10th of October, kernel weight of maize was not significantly increased with the delay in harvest because of the lower temperature. The kernel weight of maize with thermal time was in a quadratic relationship. Total seasonal ET of winter wheat was reduced by 2.5 mm/day delayed in sowing and ET of maize was averagely increased by 2.0 mm/day delayed in harvest. The net income, benefit-cost and net profit per millimetre of water used of harvest maize at the beginning of October and sowing winter wheat around 10th of October were greater compared with other treatments. Then the common practice of harvest maize and sowing winter wheat in the region could be delayed by 5 days correspondingly. &copy; 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

An attempt and issues to measure workers' aptitude toward assembly tasks in production cells

Major studies on cell production have put the emphasis on technical factors (machine order/layout, family part grouping, workflow sequence, etc.), it is still insufficient to investigate how workers' aptitude affect the productivity of production cells. In this paper, we make an experimental study on the impact of workers' aptitude in cell production system. Our study is different from researches reported so far in that we carry out a laboratory experiment of cell production to measure the productivity of the workers in production cells. Meanwhile we designed a self-evaluation sheet to measure the workers' aptitude. It was clarified that only two of 11 self-evaluation items have significant relations to productivity of the production cells, and there are some issues to be dealt to measure the workers' aptitude objectively

Research on Real Estate Unit Unified Identifier Model Based on GeoSOT Code

It is a spatial uncertainty for existing real estate unit identifier. So, in order to reflect the spatial position based on real estate unit identifier directly, it proposes a real estate unit code model based on GeoSOT code, encoding method, and the spatial location information transformation scheme between this model and spatial location, after we study the existing real estate unit identifier model. The test shows that it is very useful and direct to show the spatial location with the real estate unit identifier based on GeoSOT code

Water sources of major plant species along a strong climatic gradient in the inland Heihe River Basin

Aim Knowledge on vegetation water sources is crucial to understand the ecohydrological processes and ecological management of arid and semi-arid ecosystems. The identification and quantification of plant water uptake from precipitation, soil and groundwater remain challenging along large climatic gradient. Methods Stable oxygen isotope compositions of xylem water, soil water and groundwater were analyzed to assess seasonal and spatial patterns of water uptake of 11 major plant species along the Heihe River Basin. Conclusions In the upper reaches, soil water recharged by precipitation was the main plant water source, and plants extracted water from the shallow soil water in wet season while used more deep soil water in dry season. In the middle reaches of desert-oasis ecotone, the water sources of shrubs shifted between soil moisture and groundwater depending on variations of precipitation and groundwater level, while shrubs at Gobi relied on deep soil water and shallow soil water after rainfall. In the lower reaches, the driest part of the region, groundwater and deep soil water were main water sources for the riparian plants. Groundwater was stable water source for shrubs growing on the planted shrubland, and soil water was stable water sources for shrubs growing at Gobi. Our results also revealed that water use strategies of the same species were plastic under different groundwater level and precipitation. This study identified water use patterns of different plant species along a climatic gradient and provided scientific implication for water management of different ecosystems of the arid and semi-arid ecosystems

Identification of Functional Genes in Pterygium Based on Bioinformatics Analysis

Purpose. The competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network regulatory has been investigated in the occurrence and development of many diseases. This research aimed at identifying the key RNAs of ceRNA network in pterygium and exploring the underlying molecular mechanism. Methods. Differentially expressed long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs), and mRNAs were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and analyzed with the R programming language. LncRNA and miRNA expressions were extracted and pooled by the GEO database and compared with those in published literature. The lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was constructed of selected lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs. Metascape was used to perform Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses on mRNAs of the ceRNA network and to perform Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) Network analysis on the String website to find candidate hub genes. The Comparative Toxicogenomic Database (CTD) was used to find hub genes closely related to pterygium. The differential expressions of hub genes were verified using the reverse transcription-real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). Result. There were 8 lncRNAs, 12 miRNAs, and 94 mRNAs filtered to construct the primary ceRNA network. A key lncRNA LIN00472 ranking the top 1 node degree was selected to reconstruct the LIN00472 network. The GO and KEGG pathway enrichment showed the mRNAs in ceRNA networks mainly involved in homophilic cell adhesion via plasma membrane adhesion molecules, developmental growth, regulation of neuron projection development, cell maturation, synapse assembly, central nervous system neuron differentiation, and PID FOXM1 PATHWAY. According to the Protein-Protein Interaction Network (PPI) analysis on mRNAs in LINC00472 network, 10 candidate hub genes were identified according to node degree ranking. Using the CTD database, we identified 8 hub genes closely related to pterygium; RT-qPCR verified 6 of them were highly expressed in pterygium. Conclusion. Our research found LINC00472 might regulate 8 hub miRNAs (miR-29b-3p, miR-183-5p, miR-138-5p, miR-211-5p, miR-221-3p, miR-218-5p, miR-642a-5p, miR-5000-3p) and 6 hub genes (CDH2, MYC, CCNB1, RELN, ERBB4, RB1) in the ceRNA network through mainly PID FOXM1 PATHWAY and play an important role in the development of pterygium

Precipitation stable isotope composition, moisture sources, and controlling factors in Xi'an, Northwest China

Seasonal and interannual variations in precipitation stable isotopes are crucial for clarifying complex moisture sources at the inland margins of the summer monsoon such as Northwest China. Stable hydrogen and oxygen isotope data (δD, δ18O) of totally 317 event-based precipitation samples from 2016 to 2020 in Xi'an show a consistent annual cycle in which, maximum δD and δ18O values occur in the pre-monsoon season (April–June), and minimum in the late monsoon to post-monsoon (November–March) seasons. Values of d-excess are lowest in the monsoon season. The local meteoric water line is δD = 7.5δ18O + 9.7. Precipitation δ18O in monthly time scale correlates weakly with relative humidity in the monsoon season, and with precipitation amount in the pre-monsoon season. Maps of potential water sources and wind fields, considered with monsoon intensity indices and the isotope data, are consistent with moisture sources as follows: during the monsoon, moisture advected by air flow mainly from the Bay of Bengal or recycled from land surfaces along this path; during the pre-monsoon, moisture advected in westerly circulation passing north of the Tibetan Plateau; and during the post-monsoon, recycled monsoon moisture advected from the south or southwest of Xi'an, and influenced by the intensity of the preceding South Asian Summer Monsoon (SASM). Moisture recycled from land surfaces is important in all seasons. The SASM index controlled the variation of mean seasonal δ18O, but not precipitation amount in the monsoon season. The westerly index (WI) controlled the precipitation amount in the pre-monsoon season and mean seasonal δ18O in the post-monsoon season. Seasonal change in moisture sources is the main reason of the seasonal variation of mean precipitation δ18O.National Natural Science Foundation of China24 month embargo; available online: 8 September 2022This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]