Parents’ experience with child safety restraint in China

BACKGROUND: Child safety restraints are effective measures in protecting children from an injury while traveling in a car. However, the rate of child restraint use is extremely low in Chinese cities. Parent drivers could play an important role in promoting child safety restraint use, but not all of them take active responsibility. METHODS: This study used a qualitative approach and included 14 in-depth interviews among parents with a child, under the age of 6, living in Shantou City (7 child safety restraint users and 7 non-users). Purposive sampling was used to recruit eligible parent drivers who participated in a previous observation study. Interview data were collected from March to April 2013. The audio taped and transcribed data were coded and analyzed to identify key themes. RESULTS: Four key themes on child safety restraint emerged from the in-depth interviews with parents. These included 1) Having a child safety restraint installed in the rear seat with an adult sitting next to the restrained child is ideal, and child safety restraint is seen as an alternative when adult accompaniment is not available; 2) Having effective parental education strategies could help make a difference in child safety restraint use; 3) Inadequate promotion and parents’ poor safety awareness contribute to the low rate of child safety restraint in China; 4) Mandatory legislation on child safety restraint use could be an effective approach. CONCLUSION: Inadequate promotion and low awareness of safe traveling by parents were closely linked to low child safety seat usage under the circumstance of no mandatory legislation. Future intervention efforts need to focus on increasing parents’ safe travel awareness combined with CSS product promotion before the laws are enacted

Transcriptome Analysis Revealed the Dynamic Oil Accumulation in \u3ci\u3eSymplocos paniculata\u3c/i\u3e Fruit

Background Symplocos paniculata, asiatic sweetleaf or sapphire berry, is a widespread shrub or small tree from Symplocaceae with high oil content and excellent fatty acid composition in fruit. It has been used as feedstocks for biodiesel and cooking oil production in China. Little transcriptome information is available on the regulatory molecular mechanism of oil accumulation at different fruit development stages. Results The transcriptome at four different stages of fruit development (10, 80,140, and 170 days after flowering) of S. paniculata were analyzed. Approximately 28 million high quality clean reads were generated. These reads were trimmed and assembled into 182,904 non-redundant putative transcripts with a mean length of 592.91 bp and N50 length of 785 bp, respectively. Based on the functional annotation through Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) with public protein database, the key enzymes involved in lipid metabolism were identified, and a schematic diagram of the pathway and temporal expression patterns of lipid metabolism was established. About 13,939 differentially expressed unigenes (DEGs) were screened out using differentially expressed sequencing (DESeq) method. The transcriptional regulatory patterns of the identified enzymes were highly related to the dynamic oil accumulation along with the fruit development of S. paniculata. In addition, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) of six vital genes was significantly correlated with DESeq data. Conclusions The transcriptome sequences obtained and deposited in NCBI would enrich the public database and provide an unprecedented resource for the discovery of the genes associated with lipid metabolism pathway in S. paniculata. Results in this study will lay the foundation for exploring transcriptional regulatory profiles, elucidating molecular regulatory mechanisms, and accelerating genetic engineering process to improve the yield and quality of seed oil of S. paniculata. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-016-3275-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Production of Biodiesel Using a Vegetable Oil from Swida wilsoniana Fruits

Energy demand is increasing dramatically due to the fast industrial development, rising population, expanding urbanization, and economic growth in the world and large amount of fossil fuels are widely used. The depletion of fossil fuel reserves and the environmental pollution caused by burning of fossil fuels stimulate development of alternative fuels. Biodiesel today is the most popular and promising biofuel and vegetable oils are one of the potential feedstocks for biodiesel production. In order to explore the wild oil plant sources in China, the fruit oil of Swida wilsoniana, a wild woody oil plant widely distributed in the mountainous regions of calcareous sandstone, was used to produce the biodiesel by transesterification method. The reaction parameters were optimized by an orthogonal experimental design. The results showed that Swida wilsoniana fruit oil (SWO) could be conversed to biodiesel at a wide range of reaction conditions. The optimum conditions for the reaction process were determined as: methanol/oil mole ratio 5:1, catalyst dosage 1.1%, reaction temperature 60 °C, and reaction time 120 min. The characteristics of Swida wilsoniana biodiesel (SDBD) were analyzed, which was similar to that of 0# diesel. Moreover, SDBD has the advantages of higher flash point (>105) and lower ash content (<0.003). Therefore, SDBD is a safe and clean biodiesel and a promising alternative biofuel

Preoperative pelvic floor muscle exercise for continence after radical prostatectomy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ObjectiveWe performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of preoperative pelvic floor muscle exercise on urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy.MethodsWe searched the literature for randomized controlled trials evaluating the diagnostic analysis of preoperative pelvic floor muscle exercise (PFME) and postprostatectomy incontinence in the MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PsycINFO, China Biomedical Literature Database, China Journal Full-text Database, Wanfang Database and Weipu Database. The retrieval time limit is from the establishment of the database to January 2023. We used a risk ratio with accompanying 95% confidence interval (CI) to express estimates. Reviewer Manager (RevMan) 5.1.0 was used to complete all statistical analyses.ResultsTwelve studies were included based on the selection criteria. The total number of patients included in the final analysis was 1,365. At 1th month, there was no difference in continence rates between the groups [odds ratio (OR): 0.47; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.22–1.02, p = 0.06]. At 3th month, there was statistically significant difference in PFME group before operation (OR: 0.61; 95% CI, 0.37–0.98, p = 0.04). At 6th and 12th months, there was no difference between groups (OR: 0.57; 95% CI, 0.28–1.17, p = 0.13), (OR: 0.56; 95% CI, 0.27–1.15, p = 0.12).ConclusionPreoperative pelvic floor muscle exercise can improve postoperative urinary incontinence at 3rd months after radical prostatectomy, but it cannot improve urinary incontinence at 6th months or longer after surgery, which indicates that preoperative PFME can improve early continence rate, but cannot improve long-term urinary incontinence continence rate

Rod genesis driven by mafba in an nrl knockout zebrafish model with altered photoreceptor composition and progressive retinal degeneration

Neural retina leucine zipper (NRL) is an essential gene for the fate determination and differentiation of the precursor cells into rod photoreceptors in mammals. Mutations in NRL are associated with the autosomal recessive enhanced S-cone syndrome and autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa. However, the exact role of Nrl in regulating the development and maintenance of photoreceptors in the zebrafish (Danio rerio), a popular animal model used for retinal degeneration and regeneration studies, has not been fully determined. In this study, we generated an nrl knockout zebrafish model via the CRISPR-Cas9 technology and observed a surprising phenotype characterized by a reduced number, but not the total loss, of rods and over-growth of green cones. We discovered two waves of rod genesis, nrl-dependent and -independent at the embryonic and post-embryonic stages, respectively, in zebrafish by monitoring the rod development. Through bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing, we characterized the gene expression profiles of the whole retina and each retinal cell type from the wild type and nrl knockout zebrafish. The over-growth of green cones and mis-expression of green-cone-specific genes in rods in nrl mutants suggested that there are rod/green-cone bipotent precursors, whose fate choice between rod versus green-cone is controlled by nrl. Besides, we identified the mafba gene as a novel regulator of the nrl-independent rod development, based on the cell-type-specific expression patterns and the retinal phenotype of nrl/mafba double-knockout zebrafish. Gene collinearity analysis revealed the evolutionary origin of mafba and suggested that the function of mafba in rod development is specific to modern fishes. Furthermore, the altered photoreceptor composition and abnormal gene expression in nrl mutants caused progressive retinal degeneration and subsequent regeneration. Accordingly, this study revealed a novel function of the mafba gene in rod development and established a working model for the developmental and regulatory mechanisms regarding the rod and green-cone photoreceptors in zebrafish

The splicing factor DHX38 enables retinal development through safeguarding genome integrity

DEAH-Box Helicase 38 (DHX38) is a pre-mRNA splicing factor and also a disease-causing gene of autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (arRP). The role of DHX38 in the development and maintenance of the retina remains largely unknown. In this study, by using the dhx38 knockout zebrafish model, wedemonstrated that Dhx38 deficiency causes severe differentiation defects and apoptosis of retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) through disrupted mitosis and increased DNA damage. Furthermore, we found a significant accumulation of R-loops in the dhx38-deficient RPCs and human cell lines. Finally, we found that DNA replication stress is the prerequisite for R-loop-induced DNA damage in the DHX38 knockdown cells. Taken together, our study demonstrates a necessary role of DHX38 in the development of retina and reveals a DHX38/R-loop/replication stress/DNA damage regulatory axis that is relatively independent of the known functions of DHX38 in mitosis control

Retinal degeneration in rpgra mutant zebrafish

Introduction: Pathogenic mutations in RPGRORF15, one of two major human RPGR isoforms, were responsible for most X-linked retinitis pigmentosa cases. Previous studies have shown that RPGR plays a critical role in ciliary protein transport. However, the precise mechanisms of disease triggered by RPGRORF15 mutations have yet to be clearly defined. There are two homologous genes in zebrafish, rpgra and rpgrb. Zebrafish rpgra has a single transcript homologous to human RPGRORF15; rpgrb has two major transcripts: rpgrbex1-17 and rpgrbORF15, similar to human RPGRex1-19 and RPGRORF15, respectively. rpgrb knockdown in zebrafish resulted in both abnormal development and increased cell death in the dysplastic retina. However, the impact of knocking down rpgra in zebrafish remains undetermined. Here, we constructed a rpgra mutant zebrafish model to investigate the retina defect and related molecular mechanism.Methods: we utilized transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN) to generate a rpgra mutant zebrafish. Western blot was used to determine protein expression. RT-PCR was used to quantify gene transcription levels. The visual function of embryonic zebrafish was detected by electroretinography. Immunohistochemistry was used to observe the pathological changes in the retina of mutant zebrafish and transmission electron microscope was employed to view subcellular structure of photoreceptor cells.Results: A homozygous rpgra mutant zebrafish with c.1675_1678delins21 mutation was successfully constructed. Despite the normal morphological development of the retina at 5 days post-fertilization, visual dysfunction was observed in the mutant zebrafish. Further histological and immunofluorescence assays indicated that rpgra mutant zebrafish retina photoreceptors progressively began to degenerate at 3-6 months. Additionally, the mislocalization of cone outer segment proteins (Opn1lw and Gnb3) and the accumulation of vacuole-like structures around the connecting cilium below the OSs were observed in mutant zebrafish. Furthermore, Rab8a, a key regulator of opsin-carrier vesicle trafficking, exhibited decreased expression and evident mislocalization in mutant zebrafish.Discussion: This study generated a novel rpgra mutant zebrafish model, which showed retinal degeneration. our data suggested Rpgra is necessary for the ciliary transport of cone-associated proteins, and further investigation is required to determine its function in rods. The rpgra mutant zebrafish constructed in this study may help us gain a better understanding of the molecular mechanism of retinal degeneration caused by RPGRORF15 mutation and find some useful treatment in the future