Observation of clinical efficacy of pattern scan laser photocoagulation on diabetic retinopathy

AIM: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of pattern scan laser photocoagulation(Pascal)on proliferative diabetic retinopathy(PDR).<p>METHODS: A total of 93 patients with retinopathy(186 eyes)were randomly divided into treatment group(96 eyes of 48 patients)who treated with panretinal photocoagulation(PRP)using Pascal at one time and control group(90 eyes of 45 patients)who treated with PRP using multi-wavelength krypton laser in 4-5 times. The visual acuity, FFA, OCT, visual field will be evaluated of each patient before and after the treatment.<p>RESULTS: The visual acuity findings were stated as below: the overall effective rate of visual acuity in treatment group is 85.4% while it is 82.2% in control group. The overall effective rate in two groups has no significant difference. The retinal sensitivity has no significant decrease in the treatment group while which decreased significantly in the control group.<p>CONCLUSION: The clinical efficacy of Pascal on treating the PDR is better than which of the regular argon laser. The field of vision has no significant narrowed after the Pascal treatment which can efficiently shorten the length of treatment and reduce the pain sensation

The contribution of Alu exons to the human proteome.

BackgroundAlu elements are major contributors to lineage-specific new exons in primate and human genomes. Recent studies indicate that some Alu exons have high transcript inclusion levels or tissue-specific splicing profiles, and may play important regulatory roles in modulating mRNA degradation or translational efficiency. However, the contribution of Alu exons to the human proteome remains unclear and controversial. The prevailing view is that exons derived from young repetitive elements, such as Alu elements, are restricted to regulatory functions and have not had adequate evolutionary time to be incorporated into stable, functional proteins.ResultsWe adopt a proteotranscriptomics approach to systematically assess the contribution of Alu exons to the human proteome. Using RNA sequencing, ribosome profiling, and proteomics data from human tissues and cell lines, we provide evidence for the translational activities of Alu exons and the presence of Alu exon derived peptides in human proteins. These Alu exon peptides represent species-specific protein differences between primates and other mammals, and in certain instances between humans and closely related primates. In the case of the RNA editing enzyme ADARB1, which contains an Alu exon peptide in its catalytic domain, RNA sequencing analyses of A-to-I editing demonstrate that both the Alu exon skipping and inclusion isoforms encode active enzymes. The Alu exon derived peptide may fine tune the overall editing activity and, in limited cases, the site selectivity of ADARB1 protein products.ConclusionsOur data indicate that Alu elements have contributed to the acquisition of novel protein sequences during primate and human evolution

Perovskite heterojunction based on CH3NH3PbBr3 single crystal for high-sensitive self-powered photodetector

Perovskite single crystals exhibit extraordinary optoelectronic performances due to their advantages such as low trap-state densities, long carrier diffusion, and large absorption coefficient, and thus, photodetectors based on perovskite single crystals have attracted much research interest. Unlike the reported one-component single-crystal perovskite photodetectors, here, we have developed a facile two-step approach to fabricate a core-shell heterojunction based on the CH3NH3PbBr3 single crystal. A photodetector made of the as-prepared perovskite heterojunction renders the feature of self-power attributed to a built-in electric field in the junction and exhibits a wavelength-dependent responsivity with a peak responsivity up to 11.5 mA W−1 under 450 nm irradiation at zero bias, which is one order of magnitude higher than the CH3NH3PbBr3 single crystal and shows a maximum external quantum efficiency of 3.17%, also higher than the reported 0.2% of the CH3NH3PbBr3 single crystal. Our work may lead to more efficient self-powered heterojunction systems based on perovskite single crystals.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Myricetin ameliorates cognitive impairment in 3×Tg Alzheimer’s disease mice by regulating oxidative stress and tau hyperphosphorylation

Background: Alzheimer's disease is characterized by abnormal β-amyloid (Aβ) plaque accumulation, tau hyperphosphorylation, reactive oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction and synaptic loss. Myricetin, a dietary flavonoid, has been shown to exert neuroprotective effects in vitro and in vivo. Here, we aimed to elucidate the mechanism and pathways involved in the protective effect of myricetin. Methods: The effect of myricetin was assessed on Aβ42 oligomer-treated neuronal SH-SY5Y cells and in 3×Tg mice. Behavioral tests were performed to assess the cognitive effects of myricetin (14 days, ip) in 3×Tg mice. The levels of beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP), synaptic and mitochondrial proteins, glycogen synthase kinase3β (GSK3β) and extracellular regulated kinase (ERK) 2 were assessed via Western blotting. Flow cytometry assays, immunofluorescence staining, and transmission electron microscopy were used to assess mitochondrial dysfunction and reactive oxidative stress. Results: We found that, compared with control treatment, myricetin treatment improved spatial cognition and learning and memory in 3×Tg mice. Myricetin ameliorated tau phosphorylation and the reduction in pre- and postsynaptic proteins in Aβ42 oligomer-treated neuronal SH-SY5Y cells and in 3×Tg mice. In addition, myricetin reduced reactive oxygen species generation, lipid peroxidation, and DNA oxidation, and rescued mitochondrial dysfunction via the associated GSK3β and ERK 2 signalling pathways. Conclusions: This study provides new insight into the neuroprotective mechanism of myricetin in vitro in cell culture and in vivo in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease

Automated Three-dimensional Warehouse in the Field of Grain Storage Application Prospects

The development of grain storage warehouses has low high-tech coverage because of the special features of grain products. Traditional grain warehouses are facing problems including limited land resources, increased labor costs, and poorer health indicators. Accompanied by the development of information technology and the Internet of Things, automated three-dimensional warehouses have been widely used in industry with the advantages of unmanned, informationized, intensive, high-speed and seamless. In the field of grain warehousing, the finished grain three-dimensional warehouse based on mechatronics, automation, control and logistics is expected to solve the problem of grain warehousing. The traditional grain storage industry will be driven by new technology to ensure national food security

Scientometric trends and knowledge maps of global health systems research

Background: In the last few decades, health systems research (HSR) has garnered much attention with a rapid increase in the related literature. This study aims to review and evaluate the global progress in HSR and assess the current quantitative trends. Methods: Based on data from the Web of Science database, scientometric methods and knowledge visualization techniques were applied to evaluate global scientific production and develop trends of HSR from 1900 to 2012. Results: HSR has increased rapidly over the past 20 years. Currently, there are 28,787 research articles published in 3,674 journals that are listed in 140 Web of Science subject categories. The research in this field has mainly focused on public, environmental and occupational health (6,178, 21.46%), health care sciences and services (5,840, 20.29%), and general and internal medicine (3,783, 13.14%). The top 10 journals had published 2,969 (10.31%) articles and received 5,229 local citations and 40,271 global citations. The top 20 authors together contributed 628 papers, which accounted for a 2.18% share in the cumulative worldwide publications. The most productive author was McKee, from the London School of Hygiene \& Tropical Medicine, with 48 articles. In addition, USA and American institutions ranked the first in health system research productivity, with high citation times, followed by the UK and Canada. Conclusions: HSR is an interdisciplinary area. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries showed they are the leading nations in HSR. Meanwhile, American and Canadian institutions and the World Health Organization play a dominant role in the production, collaboration, and citation of high quality articles. Moreover, health policy and analysis research, health systems and sub-systems research, healthcare and services research, health, epidemiology and economics of communicable and non-communicable diseases, primary care research, health economics and health costs, and pharmacy of hospital have been identified as the mainstream topics in HSR fields. These findings will provide evidence of the current status and trends in HSR all over the world, as well as clues to the impact of this popular topic; thus, helping scientific researchers and policy makers understand the panorama of HSR and predict the dynamic directions of research

Association of SOX11 Polymorphisms in distal 3 ' UTR with Susceptibility for Schizophrenia

Background Diverse and circumstantial evidence suggests that schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Genes contributing to neurodevelopment may be potential candidates for schizophrenia. The human SOX11 gene is a member of the developmentally essential SOX (Sry-related HMG box) transcription factor gene family and mapped to chromosome 2p, a potential candidate region for schizophrenia. Methods Our previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) implicated an involvement of SOX11 with schizophrenia in a Chinese Han population. To further investigate the association between SOX11 polymorphisms and schizophrenia, we performed an independent replication case-control association study in a sample including 768 cases and 1348 controls. Results After Bonferroni correction, four SNPs in SOX11 distal 3 ' UTR significantly associated with schizophrenia in the allele frequencies: rs16864067 (allelic P = .0022), rs12478711 (allelic P = .0009), rs2564045 (allelic P = .0027), and rs2252087 (allelic P = .0025). The haplotype analysis of the selected SNPs showed different haplotype frequencies for two blocks (rs4371338-rs7596062-rs16864067-rs12478711 and rs2564045-rs2252087-rs2564055-rs1366733) between cases and controls. Further luciferase assay and electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) revealed the schizophrenia-associated SOX11 SNPs may influence SOX11 gene expression, and the risk and non-risk alleles may have different affinity to certain transcription factors and can recruit divergent factors. Conclusions Our results suggest SOX11 as a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia, and SOX11 polymorphisms and haplotypes in the distal 3 ' UTR of the gene might modulate transcriptional activity by serving as cis-regulatory elements and recruiting transcriptional activators or repressors. Also, these SNPs may potentiate as diagnostic markers for the disease