Efficacy of 0.01% Atropine Eye Drops in Controlling Myopia Progression and Axial Elongation in Children: A Meta-analysis Based on Randomized Controlled Trials

To clarify the preventive effects of 0.01% atropine eye drops against myopia progression and axial elongation in children, a meta-analysis was carried out based on data obtained from PubMed and Web of Science as of August 1, 2021. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that enrolled myopic children who had received atropine for at least one year were included in this study, Key search terms included myopia, children, and 0.01% or low-dose atropine. Heterogeneity was quantified by I2 statistics, and meta-analyses were performed using the fixed-effect model. Five RCTs involving 809 unique children were analyzed. One trial was excluded because of a poor Jadad score and markedly rapid myopia progression in controls. The mean effect sizes for 12 months in myopia progression and axial elongation synthesized from the remaining 4 RCTs were 0.20 (95% CI: 0.13 to 0.27) D and −0.08 (−0.11 to −0.04) mm, respectively (p<0.0001). The corresponding inhibition ratios were 28% and 19%. I2 statistics were 6% or less. Sensitivity analysis and funnel plots demonstrated the robustness of the estimation. The 0.01% atropine-induced inhibition ratio for myopia progression in Asian children was roughly half of that originally reported and did not reach the minimum requirement for clinical treatment

A análise dos erros de alunos de língua materna chinesa na aprendizagem dos conjuntivos do português e o discurso metodológico do ensino

Dissertação de mestrado em Estudos Interculturais Português/Chinês - Tradução, Formação e Comunicação EmpresarialO ensino da língua portuguesa nas universidades chinesas, com uma história de apenas 40 e poucos anos, está longe de ser sistemático por falta de experiência e normalização em comparação com o ensino do inglês. Originário da família linguística indo-europeia, o português difere muito do chinês, que pertence ao ramo sino-tibetano, especialmente em relação ao modo conjuntivo, que não tem correspondência concreta no chinês. Por isso, o modo conjuntivo constitui sempre uma grande dificuldade na aprendizagem dos alunos de língua materna chinesa, sendo difícil transferir o dito conceito e o respetivo uso. Nesta tese, faz-se primeiro uma breve apresentação relativamente à análise do erro para que os leitores tenham uma ideia geral do seu processo e funções. Apresenta-se depois um conjunto dos erros típicos de alunos de língua materna chinesa na aprendizagem dos conjuntivos do português, investigando os possíveis fatores que os causam, a fim de perceber o porquê dos mesmos. Analisam-se ainda os manuais e métodos de ensino dos conjuntivos do português atualmente utilizados na China, revelando tanto os seus pontos fortes como os fracos. Quanto à prática, apresentam-se sugestões que pretendem completar os ditos métodos para que correspondam melhor às caraterísticas dos alunos chineses, tornando as aulas mais profícuas.作为国内一门新兴的小语种，葡语的教学远未达到系统教学的要求。教学经验相对 缺乏，也无统一教材及教学方法。且葡语本身源于印欧语族中的拉丁语系，与汉语相差 甚大——尤其是虚拟式在汉语中无对应的语法范畴，对中国学生来说难以有直观概念， 是葡语学习中的一大难点。 本文先介绍了语言学习中的一种重要手段：错误分析。随后，通过分析若干中国学 生学习葡语虚拟时的典型错误，力图找出可能导致错误的原因，从根本上理解错误。 本文亦分析了国内虚拟式教学中现有的教材与方法，指出其优点及不足之处，并从 实用的角度提出一些改进的方法，力求使虚拟式教学更切合中国学生的学习与心理特点， 达到更好的课堂教学效果。Compared to English teaching, Portuguese teaching is relatively new in China and lacks relevant experience and uniformity of pedagogical methods, thus can hardly be considered systematic. Originated from Indo-European linguistic family, Portuguese differs greatly from Chinese (belonging to Sino-Tibetan branches), especially in relation to conjunctive mode, which has no concrete correspondence in Chinese. Therefore, conjunctive mode has always been a great obstacle for Chinese-speaking students, with difficulty to transfer the mentioned concept. The essay starts with a brief introduction of error analysis in order that the readers can have a general idea of its function and process. Then, by analyzing a group of typical errors made by Chinese students in conjunctive learning, the essay tries to investigate possible factors that cause these errors. The dissertation also analyzes pedagogical materials and methods currently used in conjunctive teaching in China, intending to reveal their advantages as well as disadvantages. Some suggestions are brought up at the same time, which aim to improve the conjunctive teaching and make it more correspondent to characteristics of Chinese students

Endogenous Bacterial Endophthalmitis Caused by Iliopsoas Abscess

A 79-year-old woman presented to our hospital with a 10-day history of gradually worsening binocular vision and severe backache. Further investigations revealed poor bilateral best-corrected visual acuities (BCVA), bilateral vitreous opacities, gray-white lesions scattered throughout the retina, and a left iliopsoas abscess on CT that later grew out methicillin-sensitive S. aureus. The abscess was drained and intravenous antibiotics were initiated, but the left eye additionally required intravitreal vancomycin. BCVA for both eyes normalized within 1 year. Intramuscular abscess should be considered as a possible primary lesion in cases of endogenous bacterial endophthalmitis

Editing out five Serpina1 paralogs to create a mouse model of genetic emphysema

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease affects 10% of the worldwide population, and the leading genetic cause is alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency. Due to the complexity of the murine locus, which includes up to six Serpina1 paralogs, no genetic animal model of the disease has been successfully generated until now. Here we create a quintuple Serpina1a-e knockout using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing. The phenotype recapitulates the human disease phenotype, i.e., absence of hepatic and circulating AAT translates functionally to a reduced capacity to inhibit neutrophil elastase. With age, Serpina1 null mice develop emphysema spontaneously, which can be induced in younger mice by a lipopolysaccharide challenge. This mouse models not only AAT deficiency but also emphysema and is a relevant genetic model and not one based on developmental impairment of alveolarization or elastase administration. We anticipate that this unique model will be highly relevant not only to the preclinical development of therapeutics for AAT deficiency, but also to emphysema and smoking research

De novo sequencing of circulating miRNAs identifies novel markers predicting clinical outcome of locally advanced breast cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been recently detected in the circulation of cancer patients, where they are associated with clinical parameters. Discovery profiling of circulating small RNAs has not been reported in breast cancer (BC), and was carried out in this study to identify blood-based small RNA markers of BC clinical outcome.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The pre-treatment sera of 42 stage II-III locally advanced and inflammatory BC patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) followed by surgical tumor resection were analyzed for marker identification by deep sequencing all circulating small RNAs. An independent validation cohort of 26 stage II-III BC patients was used to assess the power of identified miRNA markers.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>More than 800 miRNA species were detected in the circulation, and observed patterns showed association with histopathological profiles of BC. Groups of circulating miRNAs differentially associated with ER/PR/HER2 status and inflammatory BC were identified. The relative levels of selected miRNAs measured by PCR showed consistency with their abundance determined by deep sequencing. Two circulating miRNAs, miR-375 and miR-122, exhibited strong correlations with clinical outcomes, including NCT response and relapse with metastatic disease. In the validation cohort, higher levels of circulating miR-122 specifically predicted metastatic recurrence in stage II-III BC patients.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study indicates that certain miRNAs can serve as potential blood-based biomarkers for NCT response, and that miR-122 prevalence in the circulation predicts BC metastasis in early-stage patients. These results may allow optimized chemotherapy treatments and preventive anti-metastasis interventions in future clinical applications.</p

MicroRNA-520b Inhibits Growth of Hepatoma Cells by Targeting MEKK2 and Cyclin D1

Growing evidence indicates that the deregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) contributes to the tumorigenesis. We previously revealed that microRNA-520b (miR-520b) was involved in the complement attack and migration of breast cancer cells. In this report, we show that miR-520b is an important miRNA in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our data showed that the expression levels of miR-520b were significantly reduced in clinical HCC tissues and hepatoma cell lines. We observed that the introduction of miR-520b dramatically suppressed the growth of hepatoma cells by colony formation assays, 5-ethynyl-2-deoxyuridine (EdU) incorporation assays and 3-(4,5- dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays. Moreover, ectopic expression of miR-520b was able to inhibit the growth of hepatoma cells in nude mice. Further studies revealed that the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase 2 (MEKK2) and cyclin D1 were two of direct target genes of miR-520b. Silencing of MEKK2 or cyclin D1 was able to inhibit the growth of hepatoma cells in vitro and in vivo, which is consistent with the effect of miR-520b overexpression on the growth of hepatoma cells. In addition, miR-520b significantly decreased the phosphorylation levels of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (p-JNK, a downstream effector of MEKK2) or retinoblastoma (p-Rb, a downstream effector of cyclin D1). In conclusion, miR-520b is able to inhibit the growth of hepatoma cells by targeting MEKK2 or cyclin D1 in vitro and in vivo. Our findings provide new insights into the role of miR-520b in the development of HCC, and implicate the potential application of miR-520b in cancer therapy

Single cell atlas for 11 non-model mammals, reptiles and birds.

The availability of viral entry factors is a prerequisite for the cross-species transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Large-scale single-cell screening of animal cells could reveal the expression patterns of viral entry genes in different hosts. However, such exploration for SARS-CoV-2 remains limited. Here, we perform single-nucleus RNA sequencing for 11 non-model species, including pets (cat, dog, hamster, and lizard), livestock (goat and rabbit), poultry (duck and pigeon), and wildlife (pangolin, tiger, and deer), and investigated the co-expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2. Furthermore, cross-species analysis of the lung cell atlas of the studied mammals, reptiles, and birds reveals core developmental programs, critical connectomes, and conserved regulatory circuits among these evolutionarily distant species. Overall, our work provides a compendium of gene expression profiles for non-model animals, which could be employed to identify potential SARS-CoV-2 target cells and putative zoonotic reservoirs