Uncovering the Roots of the Nationwide Counterpublic Sphere in China.

My dissertation addresses a puzzle: Why has a nationwide counterpublic sphere, in which citizens formulate oppositional discourse to challenge the state, emerged and persisted in China? Existing studies, mostly based on experiences in Western Europe, theorize that a robust civil society is indispensable for a flourishing public sphere. Contrary to the theory, however, a nationwide counterpublic sphere has risen in China in the absence of a well-developed civil society. This anomaly in relation to the dominant theory of the public sphere makes the Chinese case a negative case in comparative historical sociology. Rather than completely abandoning the dominant theory, I identify its central proposition – namely, that a social-cultural foundation is needed for a public sphere to grow and persist, and examine how this foundation came to exist in China. Through a multi-faceted, comparative, and historical analysis that draws on a variety of sources, I argue that, whereas theorists examining the emergence of the public sphere in Western contexts emphasize the role of civil society, in the Chinese case it is the state that is – unintentionally and paradoxically – the architect of the counterpublic sphere. While continuing to suppress public opinion and civil society, the Chinese state responded to the legitimation crisis it faced in the late 1970s by creating legal institutions and transitioning to a market economy connecting China with the rest of the world. In doing so, it inadvertently contributed to the social-cultural foundation for a counterpublic sphere. To develop my central argument, I first establish the existence of a flourishing nationwide counterpublic sphere. Next, I show that in the process of institution-building to address the state’s crisis, the Chinese state established a shared symbolic structure based on laws and rights. Then, I examine how the state’s use of media to disseminate law unwittingly led to the formation of collaborative networks that connected media and legal professionals. I show how these professionals appropriated the symbolic structure of laws and rights to produce critical news reports and promote civic culture. Finally, I examine the processes by which these initially limited liberalization effects escalated into a nationwide counterpublic sphere.PHDSociologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102493/1/yawenlei_1.pd

Clinical observation on treating evaporative dry eye with the tonifying kidney pill combining with mingmuwuzi

AIM: To observe the clinical effect of the tonifying kidney pills with mingmuwuzi treating evaporative dry eyes.METHODS: This study adopted the positive drug control, prospective study, random number remainder grouping method to 65 cases of outpatient patients diagnosed with evaporative dry eyes which were divided into the treatment group 32 cases(64 eyes)and the control group 33 cases(66 eyes). The treatment group took the decoction of kidney pills with mingmuwuzi, combined with sodium hyaluronate eye drops. The control group simply use sodium hyaluronate eye drops, both group were set to 4wk for a course of treatment. To observe the symptoms and signs of two groups before and after the treatment, the change of the evaluation index and curative effect were evaluated.RESULTS: The effectiveness of the treatment group was 87.5%, the control group was 78.8%, the difference was statistically significant(z=-3.149, PCONCLUSION: The treatment of the kidney pills with mingmuwuzi combined with sodium hyaluronate eye drops to evaporative dry eyes is more effective than the simple use of sodium hyaluronate eye drops

No safe renal warm ischemia time—The molecular network characteristics and pathological features of mild to severe ischemia reperfusion kidney injury

Ischemic acute kidney injury (AKI) has always been a hot and difficult research topic in the field of renal diseases. This study aims to illustrate the safe warm ischemia time of kidney and the molecular network characteristics and pathological features of mild to severe ischemia reperfusion kidney injury. We established varying degrees of renal injury due to different ischemia time (0 min, 16 min, 18 min, 20 min, 22 min, 24 min, 26 min, 28 min, and 30 min) on unilateral (left kidney) ischemia-reperfusion injury and contralateral (right kidney) resection (uIRIx) mouse model. Mice were sacrificed 24 h after uIRIx, blood samples were harvested to detect serum creatinine (Scr), and kidney tissue samples were harvested to perform Periodic Acid-Schiff (PAS) staining and RNA-Seq. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identificated, time-dependent gene expression patterns and functional enrichment analysis were further performed. Finally, qPCR was performed to validated RNA-Seq results. Our results indicated that there was no absolute safe renal warm ischemia time, and every minute of ischemia increases kidney damage. Warm ischemia 26min or above in mice makes severe kidney injury, renal pathology and SCr were both significantly changed. Warm ischemia between 18 and 26 min makes mild kidney injury, with changes in pathology and renal molecular expression, while SCr did not change. No obvious pathological changes but significant differences in molecular expression were found less than 16min warm ischemia. There are two key time intervals in the process of renal ischemia injury, 0 min–16 min (short-term) and 26 min–28 min (long-term). Gene expression of immune-related pathways were most significantly down-regulated in short-term ischemia, while metabolism-related pathways were the mainly enriched pathway in long-term ischemia. Taken together, this study provides novel insights into safe renal artery occlusion time in partial nephrectomy, and is of great value for elucidating molecular network characteristics and pathological features of mild to severe ischemia reperfusion kidney injury, and key genes related to metabolism and immune found in this study also provide potential diagnostic and therapeutic biomarkers for AKI

Missed opportunities for screening congenital syphilis early during pregnancy: A case report and brief literature review

Congenital syphilis is a significant public health problem. Pregnant women infected with Treponema pallidum present with various clinical manifestations, mainly including skin or visceral manifestations. The extensive clinical manifestations of T. pallidum infection mimic those of many other diseases during pregnancy, which may lead to delayed diagnosis and serious consequences. We report a case of fetal T. pallidum infection and premature delivery in a woman whose syphilis screening was negative at 16 weeks of gestation. Despite presenting to the dermatologist at 24 weeks of gestation with maculopapular rash which is usually associated with secondary syphilis, the diagnosis of syphilis was not considered. This case shows that even if early syphilis screening of pregnant women is negative, they may still get infected with T. pallidum later on in pregnancy. Therefore, in patients presenting with a rash without an obvious cause, T. pallidum infection should be excluded. The health status of patients' spouses should be assessed during pregnancy. Additionally, perinatal health education is necessary for women and their spouses during pregnancy. The abovementioned factors could reduce the probability of T. pallidum infection in pregnant women and their infants

Increased serum myeloid-related protein 8/14 level is associated with atherosclerosis in type 2 diabetic patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Myeloid-related protein 8/14 (MRP8/14) is a stable heterodimer formed by two different calcium-binding proteins (MRP8 and MRP14). Studies have identified that MRP8/14 regulates vascular inflammation and serves as a novel marker of acute coronary syndrome. In this study, we evaluated the correlation between serum levels of MRP8/14, hsCRP, endogenous secretory receptor for advanced glycation end-products (esRAGE) and the occurrence of coronary artery disease (CAD), or carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) when CAD was not yet developed in diabetic patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Serum levels of MRP8/14, esRAGE and hsCRP were measured in 375 diabetic patients. Then the results of those who had CAD were compared against who had not. Also, we investigated the associations between above-mentioned indicators and IMT of subjects without CAD in both diabetic group and non-diabetic one.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Serum MRP8/14 was significantly higher in CAD than in non-CAD group (9.7 ± 3.6 ug/ml vs. 8.2 ± 3.0 ug/ml, <it>P </it>< 0.001). It was associated with severity of CAD (<it>r </it>= 0.16, <it>P </it>= 0.026). In non-CAD group, MRP8/14 was associated with IMT in patients with (<it>r </it>= 0.30, <it>P </it>< 0.001) or without diabetes (<it>r </it>= 0.26, <it>P </it>= 0.015). The areas under the curves of receiver operating characteristic for CAD were 0.63 (95% CI 0.57-0.68) for MRP8/14, 0.76 (95% CI 0.71-0.81) for hsCRP and 0.62 (95% CI 0.56 -0.67) for esRAGE.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In summary, we report that diabetic patients with CAD had elevated plasma MRP8/14 levels which were also positively correlated with the severity of CAD and carotid IMT in patients without clinically overt CAD.</p

An ammonium iron(II) pyrophosphate, (NH4)2[Fe3(P2O7)2(H2O)2], with a layered structure

Diammonium diaquabis(phosphato)triferrate(II), (NH4)2[Fe3(P2O7)2(H2O)2], was synthesized under solvo­thermal conditions at 463 K. The crystal structure, isotypic to its Mn and Ni analogues, is built from iron pyrophosphate layers parallel to (100), which are linked by ammonium ions sitting in the inter­layer space via O—H⋯O and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. There are two crystallographic Fe sites in the crystal structure, one at a special position (2a, ), the other at a general position (4e, 1). The former Fe atom on the inversion centre is coordinated by six O atoms, forming an FeO6 octa­hedron, while the latter is coordinated by five phosphate O atoms and one water mol­ecule, forming an FeO5(H2O) octa­hedron. Each FeO6 octa­hedron shares trans edges with two FeO5(H2O) octa­hedra, forming a linear trimeric unit. These trimers share the lateral edges of FeO5(H2O) with other trimers, forming a zigzag chain running along [010]. The zigzag chains are further linked by P2O7 groups into a layered structure parallel to (100)

Tetra­aqua­tetra­manganese(II) catena-[germanodihydroxidodi(hydrogen­phosphate)diphosphate]

The title compound, Mn4(H2O)4[Ge(OH)2(HPO4)2(PO4)2], was synthesized by the solvothermal method. Its crystal structure is isotypic with the iron and cobalt analogues [Huang et al. (2012 ▶). Inorg. Chem. 51, 3316–3323]. In the crystal structure, the framework is built from undulating manganese phosphate sheets parallel to (010) inter­connected by GeO6 octa­hedra (at the inversion center), resulting in a three-dimensional network with eight-membered ring channels into which all the protons point. The undulating manganese phosphate sheet consists of zigzag manganese octa­hedral chains along [10-1], built from MnO4(OH)(OH2) octa­hedra and MnO5(OH2) octa­hedra by sharing their trans or skew edges, which are inter­connected by PO3(OH) and PO4 tetra­hedra via corner-sharing. The crystal structure features extensive O—H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter­actions

Exploring the Interaction between Vancomycin/Teicoplanin and Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2

The recent pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has spread to over 100 countries, infected more than 47 million people and resulted in more than 1.2 million deaths worldwide until October. It is well known that, the SARS-CoV-2 starts an infection by binding its Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) of spike protein to human Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, and strenuous efforts had been made to prevent the infection. However, no successful drugs or vaccines have appeared. Herein, molecular docking and molecular simulations were carried out to study the interaction between RBD and two glycopeptide antibiotics (Vancomycin and Teicoplanin). Key residues in binding pocket were highlighted and the binding free energies were calculated. Our results suggested that Vancomycin and Teicoplanin, as natural and accepted antibiotics, could block the interaction between RBD of spike protein and human ACE2 receptor, which might be developed to potential drugs against the SARS-CoV-2