Clinical outcomes of laser hemorrhoidoplasty with feeding vessels suture ligation: a retrospective study in a single center.

BACKGROUND: Laser hemorrhoidoplasty has demonstrated significant therapeutic effectiveness. To diminish postoperative bleeding and enhance overall outcomes, we have additionally adopted suture ligating the feeding vessels. This study aimed to understand the treatment outcomes and any associated complications. METHODS: This study comprised patients with symptomatic grade II-III hemorrhoids who underwent laser hemorrhoidoplasty with feeding vessel suture ligation and Milligan-Morgan hemorrhoidectomy between 1 September 2020, and 31 August 2022. Surgical-related details, postoperative pain, discomfort after discharge, hemorrhoid recurrence, and any complications were collected from inpatient records, outpatient follow-ups, and telephone interviews. Initially, we will analyze the distinctions between the laser group and the traditional group, followed by an investigation into complications and satisfaction within the laser surgery subgroup. RESULTS: The study included 323 patients, with 173 undergoing laser hemorrhoidoplasty (LHP) and 150 undergoing Milligan-Morgan hemorrhoidectomy. Regarding pain assessment, the LHP group exhibited superior performance compared to traditional surgery at postoperative 4 h, before discharge, and during the first and second outpatient visits, with statistically significant differences. Additionally, the LHP group had a lower rate of urinary retention and experienced significantly less pain, with statistically significant differences. CONCLUSIONS: Laser hemorrhoidoplasty with feeding vessels suture ligation has been shown to reduce postoperative pain and appears to be a promising minimally invasive treatment option for symptomatic grade II and III hemorrhoids.

Sustainable Participation in Community Health Programs to Promote a Healthy Lifestyle and Prevent and Protect against Dementia among Rural Taiwanese Middle-Aged and Older Adults.

BACKGROUND: Resource and economic constraints limit access to health care in rural populations, and consequently, rates of chronic illnesses are higher in this population. Further, little is known about how rural populations adopt active and healthy lifestyle behavior for dementia prevention. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore the impact of modification in lifestyle behaviors on changes in cognitive function among middle-aged and older adults living in a rural area of Taiwan. DESIGN: In this prospective longitudinal study, changes in lifestyle and cognitive function were compared between the experimental and control groups. SETTING: Six rural community care stations were randomly cluster sampled in southern Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 155 participants were enrolled and classified into two groups according to their community activity participation rate (CAPR). The control group (n=68) had a CAPR < 1x/month, and the experimental group (n=87) had a CAPR ≥ 1x/month. MEASUREMENTS: Cognitive function of the participants was measured using the MMSE scale. Lifestyle behaviors were measured using a self-designed questionnaire based on the Transtheoretical Model. RESULTS: From 2018-2020, the experimental group successfully maintained a healthy lifestyle. The MMSE score in the experimental group was significantly higher in the 3rd year than that in the control group (25.37 vs 22.56, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Sustainable community participation and adopting a healthy lifestyle could effectively maintain the cognitive function of the study participants. However, more needs to be done to support rural older adults to maintain a healthy diet and control their weight.

Impact of chemotherapy on surgical outcomes in ileostomy reversal: a propensity score matching study from a single centre.

PURPOSE: In patients with chemotherapy, there is no consensus on the timing of ileostomy closure. Ileostomy reversal could improve the quality of life and minimise the long-term adverse events of delayed closure. In this study, we evaluated the impact of chemotherapy on ileostomy closure and searched for the predictive factors for complications. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed 212 patients with rectal cancer who underwent ileostomy closure surgery during and without chemotherapy and were consecutively enrolled between 2010 and 2016. As a result of the heterogeneity of the two groups, propensity score matching (PSM) was performed with a 1:1 PSM cohort. RESULTS: A total of 162 patients were included in the analysis. The overall stoma closure-related complications (12.4% vs. 11.1%, p = 1.00) and major complications (2.5% vs. 6.2%, p = 0.44) were not significantly different between the two groups. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that chronic kidney disease and bevacizumab use are risk factors for major complications. CONCLUSION: Patients with oral or intravenous chemotherapy can safely have ileostomy closure with an adequate time delay from chemotherapy. When patients use bevacizumab, major complications related to ileostomy closure should still be cautioned.

Clinical outcomes of patients undergoing a cardiac implantable electronic device implantation following a recent non-device-related infection.

BACKGROUND: Clinical outcomes of patients undergoing a cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) implantation following a recent non-device related infection are unknown. AIM: To evaluate the clinical outcomes of patients with recent infection before CIED implantation. METHODS: Consecutive patients (N = 1237) were classified as patients with recent infection (N = 72) and without recent infection (N = 1165). A recent infection was established by reviewing medical records, including symptoms and clinical manifestations, diagnosis of systemic inflammatory response syndrome, and quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score. Multiple stepwise logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent predictors of in-hospital all-cause mortality. FINDINGS: During nearly three years of follow-up, 17 patients had CIED infection (1.4%), and the incidence of CIED infection did not significantly differ between patients with and without recent infection according to symptoms and clinical manifestations (2.8% vs 1.3%, respectively; not significant). However, patients with recent infection had a significantly higher in-hospital mortality rate compared to those without recent infection (22.2% vs 0.9%, respectively; P < 0.05). In multivariate analysis, predictors of in-hospital mortality were recent infection before CIED implantation (odds ratio: 20.3; 95% confidence interval: 8.4-49.3; P < 0.001) and end-stage renal disease (4.3; 1.4-12.8; P = 0.009). CONCLUSION: A CIED implantation is feasible in patients with recent infection if the patient is afebrile and has received an adequate duration of antibiotic therapy. Participants in shared decision-making before implant should be advised that recent infection increases in-hospital mortality risk, especially in patients with a qSOFA score of ≥2.

Orally administered resveratrol enhances the therapeutic effect of autologous transplanted adipose-derived stem cells on rats with diabetic hepatopathy.

Stem cell therapy is a promising treatment for hepatopathy due to diabetes mellitus (DM); oral resveratrol treatment exhibits protective effects. We investigated whether protective effects could be produced in liver of diabetic rats receiving autologous adipose-derived stem cell transplantation (ADSC) plus oral resveratrol administration. Male rats were divided into four groups: sham group; streptozotocin induced DM group; DM + ADSC group, in which DM rats were treated with 106 stem cells/rat; and DM + R + ADSC group, in which DM rats were treated with ADSC and oral resveratrol. The DM group exhibited apoptosis, inflammation and fibrosis, whereas Sirt-1 and survival signaling were suppressed. Pathological conditions other than survival signaling were improved in the DM + ADSC group. All pathological conditions were improved in the DM + R + ADSC group. Also, the oxidative stress level in the blood was reduced in the DM + R + ADSC group compared to the sham group. Oral resveratrol administration appears to reduce oxidative damage and enhances survival signaling in diabetic liver. The therapeutic response in the DM + R + ADSC group was better than in the DM + ADSC group.

Near-infrared light and glucose dual-responsive cascading hydroxyl radical generation for in situ gelation and effective breast cancer treatment.

A general therapeutic strategy to treat breast cancer is attractive as different subtypes of breast cancers often exhibit distinct response to existing cancer therapeutics. To this end, we prepare a catalyst couple of glucose oxidase (GOx) and gallic acid-ferrous (GA-Fe) nanocomplexes, a type of near-infrared (NIR) absorbing Fenton catalyst, to enable NIR-trigger in-situ gelation and enhanced chemodynamic/starvation therapy that appears to be effective for different types of breast cancer cells. In this system, GOx is mixed with GA-Fe in a solution of N,N-dimethylacrylamide (DMAA) and poly (ethylene glycol) double acrylate (PEGDA). Upon intratumoral injection and NIR laser exposure, such GA-Fe show rapid temperature increase, which would simultaneously increase the catalytic efficiencies of GA-Fe and GOx. The cascade production of hydroxyl radicals (•OH) from glucose is then initiated to enable polymerization of DMAA and PEGDA to form a hydrogel at the injection site within the tumor. The continuous production of cytotoxic •OH together with glucose depletion by the intratumorally fixed catalyst couple would further confer effective destruction of breast cancer tumors by such chemodynamic/starvation therapy. Our work presents a hydrogel-based therapeutic strategy for local treatment of solid tumors with high tumor destruction efficacy and low systemic toxicity.

Quantum Interference between Light Sources Separated by 150 Million Kilometers.

We report an experiment to test quantum interference, entanglement, and nonlocality using two dissimilar photon sources, the Sun and a semiconductor quantum dot on the Earth, which are separated by ∼150 million kilometers. By making the otherwise vastly distinct photons indistinguishable in all degrees of freedom, we observe time-resolved two-photon quantum interference with a raw visibility of 0.796(17), well above the 0.5 classical limit, providing unambiguous evidence of the quantum nature of thermal light. Further, using the photons with no common history, we demonstrate postselected two-photon entanglement with a state fidelity of 0.826(24) and a violation of Bell inequality by 2.20(6). The experiment can be further extended to a larger scale using photons from distant stars and open a new route to quantum optics experiments at an astronomical scale.

Bundled skin antiseptic preparation for complex cardiac implantable electronic device infection: a propensity-score matching cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) infection, a major complication of a CIED implant procedure, can prolong hospitalization and cause mortality. AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of a bundled skin antiseptic preparation for preventing infection after implantation of a complex CIED. METHODS: This study analysed 1163 consecutive patients who had received a bundled skin antiseptic preparation before CIED implantation from July 2012 to December 2017. According to the complexity of the CIED implant procedure, the patients were divided into a complex CIED group (N = 370) and a non-complex CIED group (N = 793). A complex procedure was defined as a pacemaker replacement, implantation of implantable cardioverter defibrillator and cardiac resynchronization therapy, device upgrade, or lead revision. FINDINGS: During a mean follow-up of 2.9 ± 1.7 years, CIED infection developed in 15 patients (1.3%), and the incidence of minor and major infection was 1.1% and 0.2%, respectively. The incidence of CIED infection did not significantly differ between the complex CIED group and the non-complex CIED group (1.1% vs 1.4%, respectively; non-significant). Multivariate analysis indicated that procedural complexity was not an independent predictor of CIED infection. After 2:1 propensity score matching, the matched non-complex CIED group and the matched complex CIED group still showed no significant difference in the incidence of CIED infection. CONCLUSION: Bundled skin antiseptic preparation is an effective and widely applicable strategy for decreasing infection risk after a complex CIED implantation.

Study on ceramide modulates EAAT-2 participation in the immunoinflammatory response in schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: Abnormal immunoinflammatory responses play important roles in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are still unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, the ceramide agonist daunorubicin (DNR) was injected into the lateral ventricles to induce ceramide accumulation. The behavioral tests were used to observe schizophrenia-like behavioral changes. Changes in the mRNA levels of the proinflammatory cytokines and the protein levels of the glutamate transporter excitatory amino acid transporter-2 (EAAT-2) were detected. After inhibition of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), the above indices were detected again. Nissl staining was used to assess neuronal damage. RESULTS: After intracerebroventricular injection of DNR, ceramide significantly accumulated in the hippocampus, and behavioral tests revealed negative schizophrenia symptoms accompanied by induced learning and memory dysfunction. Furthermore, the hippocampus demonstrated increased mRNA levels of the proinflammatory cytokines including interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß), IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and significantly decreased EAAT-2 protein levels. Nissl staining revealed neuronal damage after ceramide accumulation. The NF-κB inhibitor pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC) reduced the behavioral abnormalities caused by ceramide accumulation, downregulated CONCLUSIONS: The experimental results suggest that ceramide reduces EAAT-2 expression through the NF-κB/TNF-α pathway and causes neuronal excitotoxicity in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, leading to neuronal damage.

KHC-4 inhibits ß-catenin expression in prostate cancer cells.

KHC-4 is a 2-phenyl-4-quinolone analogue that exhibits anticancer activity. Aberrant activation of ß-catenin signaling contributes to prostate cancer development and progression. Therefore, targeting ß-catenin expression could be a useful approach to treating prostate cancer. We found that KHC-4 can inhibit ß-catenin expression and its signaling pathway in DU145 prostate cancer cells. Treatment with KHC-4 decreased total ß-catenin expression and concomitantly decreased ß-catenin levels in both the cytoplasm and nucleus of cells. KHC-4 treatment also inhibited ß-catenin expression and that of its target proteins, PI3K, AKT, GSK3ß and TBX3. We monitored the stability of ß-catenin with the proteasomal inhibitor, MG132, in DU145 cells and found that MG132 reversed KHC-4-induced proteasomal ß-catenin degradation. We verified CDK1/ß-catenin expression in KHC-4 treated DU145 cells. We found that roscovitine treatment reversed cell proliferation by arresting the cell cycle at the G2/M phase and ß-catenin expression caused by KHC-4 treatment. We suggest that KHC-4 inhibits ß-catenin signaling in DU145 prostate cancer cells.

[A mini-incision on the anterior hip for pediatric femur neck fractures of type Delbet â ¡].

Objective: To investigate the early clinical outcomes of hip anterior short incision and open reduction and internal fixation for the treatment of children with Delbet Ⅱ femoral neck fracture. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 12 children with DelbetⅡ femoral neck fractures was performed with the anterior short incision approach at Department of Pediatric Orthopaedic, Children's Hospital, Nanjing Medical University from January 2014 to August 2016. There were 7 males and 5 females including 8 cases at left side and 4 cases at right side,aged (11.5±0.8) years (range: 8-14 years).Patients underwent surgery in (12.0±0.9) hours (range: 6-20 hours) after the injury. Displaced fractures were treated by open reduction if closed reduction failed.The surgical incision was performed with the anterior inferior iliac spine centered on, extending along the groin crease, and the length was 3 to 4 cm. The interval between the sartorius and the tensor fascia latae was applied, and the direct and indirect head of rectus femoris were resected to visualize the hip joint capsule. T-shaped incision was made in the capsule. After the reduction was obtained, two or three compression canulated screws were used to fix the fracture site. The healing time, complications and corresponding record outcome by X-ray and clinical examination were recorded. At the latest follow-up,the results were analyzed using the Ratliff criteria and clinical outcomes were assessed by pain, restrictive hip movement, normal activity or the avoidance of games, and the femoral neck in the radiograph. Results: Twelve patients had been followed-up for (30.0±4.1)months(range: 24-36 months). X-ray showed the fractures' healing time was (8.0±0.4) weeks(range: 7-9 weeks). Ten of the 12 fractures healed after one operation and were associated with no evidence of osteonecrosis of the femoral head. One case occurred premature physeal closure. There were no cases with fracture relocation, coaxvara, delayed union and nonunion or any significant postoperative complications. There was no infection, flexible internal fixation or ruptures. According to Ratliff grade, 9 cases of 12 patients were fine and 3 cases was acceptable. Conclusions: Satisfactory short-term effects can be achieved by a mini-incision on the anterior hip for Delbet Ⅱ pediatric femur neck fractures. The anterior incision has the advantage of less trauma, smaller incision scar, better fracture reduction and fixation, and less wound complications.

Antibacterial activity against Ralstonia solanacearum of the lipopeptides secreted from the Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain FJAT-2349.

AIMS: The aims of this study were to identify the structure of antibacterial lipopeptide (LP) produced by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain FJAT-2349, to analyse the effects of the culture medium and temperature on LP production and to assess the biocontrol efficiency of the LPs against tomato bacterial wilt. METHODS AND RESULTS: Lipopeptides were extracted by acid precipitation and resolved in methanol and their structure was identified through LC-QTOF-MS/MS method. The antibacterial activities of the LPs were evaluated through inhibition zone experiments. The biocontrol efficiency of the LPs against tomato bacterial wilt was examined by a pot test. The LPs were composed of iturin (C14 -C17 iturin A), fengycin (C14 /C16 fengycin A, C14 fengycin B2 , C16 fengycin A2 /B2 , C16 -C17 fengycin B, C15 fengycin A derivatives and C15 fengycin B derivatives) and surfactin (C12 -C16 surfactin A). Moreover, the composition of the LPs was significantly influenced by the culture medium and temperature; the contents of iturin, fengycin and surfactin varied within the range from 0·41-5·89, 4·54-181·67 and 2·05-19·65 mg l-1 in the different culture media and from 0·39-11·04, 1·45-215·14 and 7·79-24·43 mg l-1 under different culture temperatures respectively. The results indicated that the contents of the LP mixture, fengycin and surfactin secreted from FJAT-2349 all decreased along with an increasing culture temperature. The fermentation supernatants and LP extracts had the strongest inhibition activities of Ralstonia solanacearum when strain FJAT-2349 was incubated at 25°C using potato dextrose broth as the culture medium among all the assayed culture conditions. The purified fengycin was found to be the active antibacterial compound against R. solanacearum, but the purified surfactin was not. The pot experiments demonstrated that the LPs secreted from the strain FJAT-2349 could effectively control the tomato bacterial wilt with a biocontrol efficiency of 97·6%. CONCLUSIONS: The LPs secreted from strain FJAT-2349 could serve as potential biocontrol agents against tomato bacterial wilt. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: The LPs exhibited good potential applications in the biocontrol of tomato bacterial wilt.

Toward Scalable Boson Sampling with Photon Loss.

Boson sampling is a well-defined task that is strongly believed to be intractable for classical computers, but can be efficiently solved by a specific quantum simulator. However, an outstanding problem for large-scale experimental boson sampling is the scalability. Here we report an experiment on boson sampling with photon loss, and demonstrate that boson sampling with a few photons lost can increase the sampling rate. Our experiment uses a quantum-dot-micropillar single-photon source demultiplexed into up to seven input ports of a 16×16 mode ultralow-loss photonic circuit, and we detect three-, four- and fivefold coincidence counts. We implement and validate lossy boson sampling with one and two photons lost, and obtain sampling rates of 187, 13.6, and 0.78 kHz for five-, six-, and seven-photon boson sampling with two photons lost, which is 9.4, 13.9, and 18.0 times faster than the standard boson sampling, respectively. Our experiment shows an approach to significantly enhance the sampling rate of multiphoton boson sampling.

The prevalence and influencing factors for child neglect in a rural area of Anhui province: a 2-year follow-up study.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the current study was to identify the change of prevalence and influencing factors for child neglect in a rural area of Anhui province through the 2-year follow-up study. STUDY DESIGN: Longitudinal study with 2-year follow-up. METHODS: Analyses were based on data from a longitudinal study, performed in five elementary schools and three secondary schools in Changfeng County. A total of 816 children aged between 7 and 16 years completed the three assessments during the period of 2009-2011. Generalized estimating equations (GEEs) were applied to identify the influencing factors of child neglect. RESULTS: The prevalence of child neglect was 67.8%, 56.6%, and 57.7% at the three assessments, respectively. There were 272 children (33.3%) having consistently experiencing neglect during three assessments and 106 (13.0%) children had not suffered from neglect during three assessments. Among 553 participants who experienced neglect at the first assessment, 105 (19.0%) children no longer met the diagnosis at the next two assessments. Fifty-two children who did not suffer from neglect at the first assessment experienced neglect at the final assessment. The results of GEEs showed that child neglect was clearly associated with age (odds ratio [OR] = 0.95, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.92-0.99, P = 0.016), male gender (OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.00-1.43, P = 0.047), siblings (OR = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.03-1.55, P = 0.028), parental marital disruption (OR = 2.02, 95% CI = 1.09-3.78, P = 0.027), left-behind status (OR = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.06-1.49, P = 0.008), severe family dysfunction (OR = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.03-2.07, P = 0.035), quality of life (OR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.98-0.99, P < 0.001), positive coping styles (OR = 0.97, 95% CI = 0.94-0.99, P = 0.001), and negative coping styles (OR = 1.03, 95% CI = 1.02-1.05, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our studies detected the decreased prevalence of child neglect across the three assessments. Additionally, some sociodemographic, psychosocial and family risk factors of child neglect were identified, which will be helpful for child neglect prevention strategies development and implementation in China.

[Effects and mechanism of allogeneic platelet rich plasma on collagen synthesis in wound healing].

Objective: To investigate the effects and mechanism of allogeneic platelet rich plasma (PRP) on collagen in wound surface at different time. Methods: A total of 50 clean 7-week rats were selected for this study, including 10 rats for platelet-rich blood plasma preparation, 20 rats for PRP group and 20 rats for control group, 0.1 ml allogenic PRP and 0.1 ml saline were smeared respectively on wound surfaces of PRP and control group, wound regeneration and healing were examined. Cellular and histological morphology alteration was observed via Masson staining, type Ⅰ and type Ⅲ collagen protein and mRNA expression level were detected by Western blot and real-time PCR. T test was applied for comparison between two samples and one-way ANOVA was utilized for comparison between two groups. Results: The wound healing rate of PRP group was higher than that of control group on 3(rd,) 6(th,) 10(th) and 15(th) day (30.33±3.35 vs.18.35±2.04, 55.51±2.74 vs.36.83±2.34, 79.64±1.40 vs.56.92±1.44, 86.88±2.12 vs.65.80±1.76) after wound surface formation, there were statistic differences (t=13.66-50.48, all P<0.05). The wound collagen of PRP group form faster and coarser, and the fibers arrayed more densely in Masson staining. The protein expression of type Ⅰ collagen(1.92±0.09 vs.1.18±0.11) and type Ⅲ collagen(1.16±0.05 vs.0.74±0.11) of PRP group were higher than that of control group (t=22.99, P<0.01; t=17.62, P<0.05); the mRNA expression of type Ⅰ collagen(5.17±0.11 vs.1.79±0.18, 6.97±0.09 vs.1.96±0.08, 6.00±0.26 vs.2.10±0.05, 4.95±0.11 vs.3.58±0.09)and type Ⅲ collagen(2.35±0.08 vs.1.44±0.05, 3.08±0.05 vs.1.84±0.06, 3.48±0.07 vs.2.36±0.09, 4.42±0.07 vs.2.77±0.10) were higher than that of control group on 3(rd,) 6(th,) 10(th) and 15(th) day after wound surface formation, there were significant differences (t=43.37-188.37, all P<0.05). Conclusion: The allogeneic platelet rich plasma may promote fibroblasts secreted collagen by activated and releasing all kinds of growth factors, especially type Ⅰ and type Ⅲ collagen to accelerate the wound healing.

Phosphorylation of cofilin-1 by ERK confers HDAC inhibitor resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma cells via decreased ROS-mediated mitochondria injury.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer. Despite the availability of several treatment strategies, resistance to chemotherapeutic agents, which limits the effectiveness of anticancer drugs, is a major problem in cancer therapy. In this study, we used a histone deacetylases inhibitor (HDACi) to establish drug-resistant HCC cells and further analyzed the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of resistance in HCC cells. Compared with the parental cells, HDACi-resistant cells showed high metastatic and pro-survival abilities. Two-dimensional electrophoresis data showed that the cofilin-1 (CFL-1) protein was altered in HDACi-resistant cells and was highly expressed in resistant cells compared with parental cells. The molecular function of CFL-1 is actin depolymerization, and it is involved in tumor metastasis. In this study, we showed that CFL-1 inhibition decreased cell migration and increased cell apoptosis in HDACi-resistant cells. We observed that HDACi induced ROS accumulation in cells and apoptosis via promotion of the CFL-1 interaction with Bax and CFL-1 translocation to the mitochondria, resulting in cytochrome C release. Importantly, phosphorylation of CFL-1 by activated extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) confers strong protection against HDAC inhibitor-induced cell injury. p-CFL-1 shows a loss of affinity with Bax and will not translocate to mitochondria, stably remaining in the cytoplasm. These results indicate that phosphorylation to inactivate CFL-1 decreased the chemosensitivity to HDAC inhibitors and resulting in drug resistance of HCC cells.

Determination of the thermal, oxidative and photochemical degradation rates of scintillator liquid by fluorescence EEM spectroscopy.

The thermal, oxidative and photochemical stability of the scintillator liquid proposed for the SNO+ experiment has been tested experimentally using accelerated aging methods. The stability of the scintillator constituents was determined through fluorescence excitation emission matrix (EEM) spectroscopy and absorption spectroscopy, using parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) as an multivariate analysis tool. By exposing the scintillator liquid to a well-known photon flux at 365 nm and by measuring the decay rate of the fluorescence shifters and the formation rate of their photochemical degradation products, we can place an upper limit on the acceptable photon flux as 1.38 ± 0.09 × 10-11 photon mol L-1. Similarly, the oxidative stability of the scintillator liquid was determined by exposure to air at several elevated temperatures. Through measurement of the corresponding activation energy it was determined that the average oxygen concentration would have to be kept below 4.3-7.1 ppbw (headspace partial pressure below 24 ppmv). On the other hand, the thermal stability of the scintillator cocktail in the absence of light and oxygen was remarkable and poses no concern to the SNO+ experiment.

[Analysis of the influence factors of school-age children's refractive status].

Objective: To analyze the influence of the eye biological parameters, height, and weight on the school-age children's refractive status. Methods: Cross-sectional study. A total of 1 656 children (1 656 eyes), aged from 7 to 14 years, were selected from 8 schools in Wenzhou during June 2012 and June 2013. The height and weight of each child were measured, and the body mass index (BMI) was calculated. The eye biological parameters, including axial length (AL), corneal power (C=1/CR), anterior chamber depth (ACD), and white to white (WTW), were measured by IOLMaster (version 5.0, Carl Zeiss, Germany), and the AL/CR was calculated. Refraction was measured by fast cycloplegic retinoscopy, and the spherical equivalent (SE) was calculated. Only right eyes were included in the analysis. SPSS16.0 was used to analyze the data. The correlations of the equivalent spherical power, the eye biological parameters, height, weight, and BMI were evaluated. Linear regression analysis was used for the SE, AL, and AL/CR. Results: The prevalence of myopia in 7- to 14-year-old school-age children was 50.2% on the average, 48.4% in boys, and 51.7% in girls. The average SE was (-1.07±1.74) D. With adjustment of the age, gender, urban and rural areas, there was an association between the SE and AL, AL/CR, ACD, height and weight. The correlation coefficient was -0.663, -0.730, -0.416, -0.365, and -0.281, respectively (P<0.05). There was no significant correlation between the SE and WTW, corneal power and BMI. Regarding the different refractive statuses, there was a stronger correlation between the SE and AL, AL/CR in children with hyperopia, moderate myopia or high myopia than those with emmetropia or mild myopia (P< 0.01). In the older children, the correlation between the SE and AL, AL/CR was stronger. Linear regression analysis showed SE= 26.55-9.11·AL/CR and 23.0-1.02·AL. Conclusions: There was an association between the SE and AL, AL/CR, ACD, height and weight in school-age children. In children with hyperopia, moderate myopia, high myopia or at an older age, the correlation was more significant between the SE and AL, AL/CR. (Chin J Ophthalmol, 2016, 52:831-835).