Background and purpose
Previous studies suggested that the overall burden of prior infections contributes to cardiovascular diseases and stroke. In the present study, the association between ...infectious burden (IB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) was examined.
Methods
Antibody titers to common infectious pathogens including cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV‐1), Borrelia burgdorferi, Chlamydophila pneumoniae and Helicobacter pylori were measured by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay in 128 AD patients and 135 healthy controls. IB was defined as a composite serological measure of exposure to these common pathogens.
Results
Seropositivities toward zero−two, three and four−five of these pathogens were found in 44%, 40% and 16% of healthy controls but in 20%, 44% and 36% of AD patients, respectively. IB, bacterial burden and viral burden were independently associated with AD after adjusting for age, gender, education, APOE genotype and various comorbidities. Mini‐Mental State Examination scores were negatively correlated with IB in all cases. Serum beta‐amyloid protein (Aβ) levels (i.e. Aβ40, Aβ42 and total Aβ) and inflammatory cytokines (i.e. interferon‐γ, tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin‐1β and interleukin‐6) in individuals exposed to four−five infectious pathogens were significantly higher than those exposed to zero−two or three pathogens.
Conclusions
IB consisting of CMV, HSV‐1, B. burgdorferi, C. pneumoniae and H. pylori is associated with AD. This study supports the role of infection/inflammation in the etiopathogenesis of AD.
Click here to view the accompanying paper in this issue. Videocasts of this article are available in: English: http://player.polyv.net/videos/player.swf?vid=f6ee5715d9808c7a481b7ae727da00dd_f Mandarin: http://player.polyv.net/videos/f6ee5715d98ae743a9b0509d0900c91f_f.swf
Summary
The aim of the current study was to use a Bayesian network meta-analysis to evaluate the relative benefits and risks of balloon kyphoplasty (BK), percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP), and ...non-surgical treatment (NST) for patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs). The results demonstrate that for pain and functional status, PVP was significantly better than NST, while the three treatments did not significantly differ in other outcomes.
Introduction
BK, PVP, and NST are widely used to treat OVCFs, but preferable treatment is unknown. The aim of the current study was to use a Bayesian network meta-analysis to evaluate the relative benefits and risks of BK, PVP, and NST for patients with OVCFs.
Methods
PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were screened. Based on the preplanned eligibility criteria, we screened and included randomized controlled trials that compared BK, PVP, and NST in treating patients with OVCFs. The risk of bias for individual studies was appraised. The data were pooled using a Bayesian network meta-analysis and a traditional direct comparison meta-analysis.
Results
Of the 1057 relevant studies, 15 were eligible and included. Compared with NST, PVP significantly reduced pain, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), and Roland–Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ). The comparative efficacy of BK and PVP was similar for pain (mean difference (MD) 0.51, 95% credible interval (CrI) − 0.35 to 1.4), ODI (MD 0.11, 95% CrI − 13 to 13), and RMDQ (MD 1.2, 95% CrI − 2.7 to 5.4). The European Quality of Life–5 Dimensions (EQ–5D) and Physical Component Summary subscales of the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form General Health Survey (SF-36 PCS) did not differ significantly. There were also no substantial differences in the risks of subsequent vertebral fractures, adjacent vertebral fractures, and re-fractures at the treated level across all comparators. The results of pairwise meta-analyses were almost consistent with those of network meta-analyses. The treatment ranking indicated that PVP had the highest probability of being the most effective for pain, ODI, RMDQ, and EQ-5D. BK had the highest probability of improving SF-36 PCS and of reducing the risk of subsequent vertebral fractures and re-fractures at the treated level. NST was ranked first in preventing adjacent vertebral fractures.
Conclusion
PVP was the most effective method for improving pain, functional status, and quality of life (based on EQ-5D). BK emerged as the best intervention for decreasing the risk of subsequent vertebral fractures and re-fractures at the treated level. NST could be ranked first in reducing adjacent vertebral fractures. The future directions of OVCFs treatment will depend on the outcomes of additional and larger randomized trials in comparing BK with PVP.
Double neutron star (DNS) merger events are promising candidates of short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) progenitors as well as high-frequency gravitational wave (GW) emitters. On August 17, 2017, such a ...coinciding event was detected by both the LIGO-Virgo gravitational wave detector network as GW170817 and Gamma-Ray Monitor on board NASA's Fermi Space Telescope as GRB 170817A. Here, we show that the fluence and spectral peak energy of this sGRB fall into the lower portion of the distributions of known sGRBs. Its peak isotropic luminosity is abnormally low. The estimated event rate density above this luminosity is at least Formula: see text Gpc
yr
, which is close to but still below the DNS merger event rate density. This event likely originates from a structured jet viewed from a large viewing angle. There are similar faint soft GRBs in the Fermi archival data, a small fraction of which might belong to this new population of nearby, low-luminosity sGRBs.
Summary
We investigated the secular trends of the incidence and hospitalization cost of hip fracture in Tangshan, China. The incidence of hip fracture and the hospitalization cost were both ...increasing during the observation period.
Introduction
The present study aimed to determine sex-, age-, and fracture type-specific incidence and annual changes in hip fractures in Tangshan, China, between 2007 and 2018.
Methods
We analyzed annual hip fracture incidence using urban hospital data during 2007–2018 and calculated incidence rate/100,000 person years in each age group and sex. We assessed annual changes in incidence among people aged >60 years using linear-by-linear association tests and evaluated hospitalization costs with the Kruskal–Wallis test.
Results
During the study period, we observed an increasing proportion of hip fractures in people >60 years old from 14.2 to 22.79%. Crude hip fracture incidence increased markedly from 140.87 to 306.56/100,000 in women (
p
< 0.01) and from 124.83 to 167.19/100,000 in men (
p
< 0.01) in the age group >60 years. Type-specific analysis indicated significantly increased trends in incidence of cervical and trochanteric fractures among women and cervical fracture among men (
p
< 0.01). In people aged 36–60 years, the trend of hip fracture increased significantly in both sexes. The total and cervical-to-trochanteric ratio in men increased, with significant upward trends (
p
< 0.01). The proportion of cervical fracture was higher than that for trochanteric fracture in women, with stable levels from 2007 to 2018. Hospitalization costs for cervical and trochanteric fractures increased by 51.91% and 53.20%, respectively, during 2011–2018.
Conclusion
Tangshan will have an increasing burden on health care resources attributable to a considerable rise in hip fracture incidence and the older population. Further investigation of risk factors and subsequent implementation of effective measures to prevent hip fracture are needed.
Although significant advances have recently been made in the diagnosis and treatment of cervical carcinoma, the long-term survival rate for advanced cervical cancer remains low. Therefore, an urgent ...need exists to both uncover the molecular mechanisms and identify potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of cervical cancer. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have important roles in cancer progression and could be used as either potential therapeutic agents or targets. miR-506 is a component of an X chromosome-linked miRNA cluster. The biological functions of miR-506 have not been well established. In this study, we found that miR-506 expression was downregulated in approximately 80% of the cervical cancer samples examined and inversely correlated with the expression of Ki-67, a marker of cell proliferation. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function studies in human cervical cancer, Caski and SiHa cells, demonstrated that miR-506 acts as a tumor suppressor by inhibiting cervical cancer growth in vitro and in vivo. Further studies showed that miR-506 induced cell cycle arrest at the G1/S transition, and enhanced apoptosis and chemosensitivity of cervical cancer cell. We subsequently identified Gli3, a hedgehog pathway transcription factor, as a direct target of miR-506 in cervical cancer. Furthermore, Gli3 silencing recapitulated the effects of miR-506, and reintroduction of Gli3 abrogated miR-506-induced cell growth arrest and apoptosis. Taken together, we conclude that miR-506 exerts its anti-proliferative function by directly targeting Gli3. This newly identified miR-506/Gli3 axis provides further insight into the pathogenesis of cervical cancer and indicates a potential novel therapeutic agent for the treatment of cervical cancer.
Highlights • Intrathecal injection of DHA prevents and reverses inflammatory pain. • DHA decreases carrageenan-induced microglial activation in the spinal cord. • DHA decreases p38 phosphorylation ...and inflammatory mediators’ production in microglia.
•Cellulose cleavage started at the temperature above 150°C.•Hemicelluloses removal could only reach to a certain level.•Severe degradation of cellulose occurred when hemicelluloses removal exceeded ...the certain level.•Allomorphs of cellulose conversion observed in the process of the pretreatment.
A systematic hydrothermal pretreatment of bamboo chips had been conducted with an aim to trace the cellulose degradation. The results showed that cellulose chain cleavage basically occurred when the temperature exceeded 150°C. A slightly higher DP (degree of polymerization) than starting material had been observed at low temperature pretreatment. Treatment at higher temperature (⩾170°C) caused severe cleavage of cellulose and therefore gave rise to low DP with more soluble species. DP of cellulose declined drastically without additional hemicelluloses dissolution when hemicelluloses removal reached to the limit level. Cellulose degradation under hydrothermal pretreatment generally followed the zero reaction kinetics with the activity energy of 121.0kJ/mol. Besides, the increase of cellulose crystalline index and the conversion of Iα–Iβ had also observed at the hydrothermal pretreatment.
We report a successful observation of pressure-induced superconductivity in a topological compound Bi 2 Te 3 with T c of ∼3 K between 3 to 6 GPa. The combined high-pressure structure investigations ...with synchrotron radiation indicated that the superconductivity occurred at the ambient phase without crystal structure phase transition. The Hall effects measurements indicated the hole-type carrier in the pressure-induced superconducting Bi 2 Te 3 single crystal. Consequently, the first-principles calculations based on the structural data obtained by the Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction patterns at high pressure showed that the electronic structure under pressure remained topologically nontrivial. The results suggested that topological superconductivity can be realized in Bi 2 Te 3 due to the proximity effect between superconducting bulk states and Dirac-type surface states. We also discuss the possibility that the bulk state could be a topological superconductor.
The environmental concern about diffuse pollution from nitrogen (N) fertilizers has led to increased research on the diagnosis of crop N status. The SPAD chlorophyll (Chl) meter is the most commonly ...used tool for rice (Oryza sativa L.) N status diagnosis, but measurements are conducted at a specific point and readings are affected by different leaf positions. Many measurements per plant must be taken in order to increase the accuracy of N status diagnosis, which limits its application. The present paper attempts to determine rice N status at the canopy level using Multiplex®, a new hand-held optical fluorescence sensor. The fluorescence emission of rice leaves under light excitation was utilized by Multiplex® to non-destructively assess rice leaf Chl and phenolic compound content. A field experiment was conducted in 2011 using a completely randomized split-plot design, with main-plot treatments being six N fertilizer application rates and subplot treatments being different plant densities. Leaf Chl and phenolic compounds were evaluated using the ratio of far-red fluorescence (FRF) to red fluorescence (RF) emission under red light excitation (simple fluorescence ratio, SFR_R) (R² = 0·35, P  0·70 in most cases, PÂ
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