Nu Shu GPS: 25°21’00.5N, 111°27’17.7E—An Interdisciplinary Cooperation between Dance, Calligraphy, and the Body in Multimedia Performance

'Nu Shu GPS: 25 °21’00.5N, 111°27’17.7E' – an interdisciplinary cooperation between dance, calligraphy, and the body in multimedia performance, began with a diary exchange between the artist and a friend, who shared their thoughts by writing in the same journal. During this ‘diary swapping’ period, they developed a semiotic system that only the two of them could understand. Later, the artist came across Nu Shu, the only written language in the world that exclusively women learned to write and read. The artist attempts to explore all the possible metaphors and meanings implied by Nu Shu. The performance 'Nu Shu GPS: 25 °21’00.5N, 111°27’17' attempts to bring this secret method of communication back to life among modern Chinese women. This interdisciplinary performance work employs a practical approach to art through a creative collaboration among experts from different fields: choreographers, dancers, lighting designers, programmers, etc. It attempts to apply the three stages of the art creation process (Praxis, Symbol, Presence) as the three different faces for a theory regarding this work

Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery: A transtracheal approach for the thoracic cavity in a live canine model

BackgroundThe present study aimed to evaluate the performance of transtracheal thoracic exploration and pericardial window creation in a canine survival model.MethodsTransthoracic exploration was performed in 14 dogs. Under general anesthesia, after an incision in the right lateral wall of the middle–lower portion of the trachea was made, a 9-mm metal tube was advanced into the thoracic cavity. For thoracic cavity exploration and pericardial window creation, a flexible bronchoscope was introduced through the metal tube into the thoracic cavity. After thoracoscopy, a Dumon stent (Novatech, Grasse, France) was used to cover the tracheal incision site and facilitate healing. Animals were evaluated by endoscopy 1 and 2 weeks later. Animals were humanely killed, and necropsy was performed 2 weeks after the transtracheal natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery.ResultsFourteen dogs underwent transtracheal thoracic exploration lasting for an average of 110 minutes (range, 80–150), with 3 perioperative deaths. At 2 weeks after pericardial window creation, endoscopy revealed normal healing of the tracheal incision sites in all 11 surviving animals. Necropsy on the 11 animals at 2 weeks showed 9 adhesions around the pericardial window and 5 adhesions around the tracheal incision region. No mediastinitis or abscesses could be identified.ConclusionsTranstracheal thoracic exploration is technically feasible. Increasing surgical experience together with improvement in endoscopic techniques will further facilitate the development of natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery for thoracic diseases

Beneficial Effect of the Traditional Chinese Drug Shu-Xue-Tong on Recovery of Spinal Cord Injury in the Rat

Shu-Xue-Tong (SXT) is a traditional Chinese drug widely used to ameliorate stagnation of blood flow, such as brain or myocardial infarction. Whether SXT may have therapeutic value for spinal cord injury (SCI), during which ischemia plays an important role in its pathology, remains to be elucidated. We hypothesized that SXT may promote SCI healing by improving spinal cord blood flow (SCBF), and a study was thus designed to explore this possibility. Twenty-five male Sprague-Dawley rats were used. SCI was induced by compression, and SXT was administrated 24 h postinjury for 14 successive days. The effects of SXT were assessed by means of laser-Doppler flowmetry, motor functional analysis (open-field walking and footprint analysis), and histological analysis (hematoxylin-eosin and thionin staining and NeuN immunohistochemistry). SXT significantly promoted SCBF of the contused spinal cord and enhanced the recovery of motor function. Histological analysis indicated that the lesion size was reduced, the pathological changes were ameliorated, and more neurons were preserved. Based on these results we conclude that SXT can effectively improve SCI

Influences of different developmental periods of taurine supplements on synaptic plasticity in hippocampal CA1 area of rats following prenatal and perinatal lead exposure

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Previous study has demonstrated that dietary taurine supplement protected rats from impairments of synaptic plasticity induced by postnatal lead exposure. However, little is known about the role of taurine in the presence of prenatal and perinatal lead exposure. We investigated the possible effect of taurine supplement on prenatal and perinatal lead-induced synaptic plasticity deficit and determined developmental periods critical for the effect of taurine.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the present study, taurine was administrated to prenatal and perinatal lead-exposed rats in different developmental periods: from prenatal to weaning (Lead+PW-Tau), from weaning to life (Lead+WL-Tau), and from prenatal to life (Lead+PL-Tau). We examined the input-output (I/O) function, paired-pulse facilitation (PPF) and the long-term potentiation (LTP) of field excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSP) in the hippocampal CA1 area of rats on postnatal days 18–25 (P18–25) or days 60–75 (P60–75). We found that (1) on P18–25, taurine had no evident effect on I/O functions and PPF ratios of lead-exposed rats but caused a 12.0% increase in the LTP amplitudes of these animals; (2) on P60–75, taurine significantly elevated lead depressed I/O functions and PPF ratios in Lead+PW-Tau and Lead+PL-Tau rats, but failed in Lead+WL-Tau rats. The amplitudes of LTP of lead-exposed rats were all significantly increased by additional taurine supplement in any developmental period compared with untreated rats. Thus, taurine appeared to have the most effect during the prenatal and lactation periods and its effects on younger rats would not be manifest until the adult life; and (3) the level of lead deposition in hippocampus was evidently reduced by additional treatment of taurine in lead-exposed rats, compared with untreated rats.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Taurine supplement can protect the adult rats from synaptic plasticity deficits following prenatal and perinatal lead exposure, and the protective effects are critical for the prenatal and lactation periods of lead-exposed rats.</p

Early Blockade of TLRs MyD88-Dependent Pathway May Reduce Secondary Spinal Cord Injury in the Rats

To determine the role of toll-like receptors (TLRs) myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) dependent pathway in the spinal cord secondary injury, compression injury was made at T8 segment of the spinal cord in adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. Shown by RT-PCR, TLR4 mRNA in the spinal cord was quickly elevated after compression injury. Intramedullary injection of MyD88 inhibitory peptide (MIP) resulted in significant improvement in locomotor function recovery at various time points after surgery. Meanwhile, injury area, p38 phosphorylation, and proinflammation cytokines in the injured spinal cord were significantly reduced in MIP-treated animals, compared with control peptide (CP) group. These data suggest that TLRs MyD88-dependent pathway may play an important role in the development of secondary spinal cord injury, and inhibition of this pathway at early time after primary injury could effectively protect cells from inflammation and apoptosis and therefore improve the functional recovery

Bioequivalence Evaluation of Two Formulations of Celecoxib 200 mg Capsules in Healthy volunteers by using a validated LC/MS/MS method

The bioequivalence study to compare a new formulation of celecoxib to its reference formulation was designed as an open-label, randomized, single-dose, two-way crossover, comparative bioavailability study by using a validated LC/MS/MS method. In order to determine the plasma concentrations of celecoxib, a sensitive LC/MS/MS method was developed. The method was validated to possess adequate specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy and stability. The linearity of calibration curve was assessed between the concentration intervals (5–2000 ng/mL) with a correlation coefficient over 0.999. Regarding pharmacokinetic investigation, the mean celecoxib AUC0-t values from the test and reference drug formulations were 7360.44 ± 1714.14 h•ng/mL and 7267.48 ± 2077.68 h•ng/mL, respectively, and the corresponding AUC0-∞ values were 8197.45 ± 2040.31 h•ng/mL and 7905.54 ± 2286.12 h•ng/mL, respectively. The Cmax of the test and reference drugs was 705.30 ± 290.63 ng/mL and 703.86 ± 329.91 ng/mL, respectively, and the corresponding Tmax was 3.4 ± 1.6 h and 2.9 ± 1.4 h. Lastly, the T1/2 values of the test and reference drugs were 13.9 ± 7.9 h and 12.9 ± 7.7 h, respectively. The 90% confidence intervals for AUC0-t, AUC0-∞, and Cmax were 97.00-108.85, 98.01-112.09, and 93.20-116.13, respectively, satisfying the bioequivalence criteria of 80-125% range. In conclusion, these results demonstrated that the bioequivalence of two formulations of celecoxib was established successfully by utilizing present developed LC/MS/MS method