[Effects of occupational cadmium exposure on workers' cardiovascular system].

Objective: To investigate the effects of cadmium exposure on cardiovascular system of occupational workers. Methods: Cross-sectional study was applied to 992 workers in a nickel-cadmium battery plant in November, 2011, of which 749 were cadmium exposed workers and 243 were controls without cadmium and other expose. Urinary cadmium、electrocardiogram (ECG) and blood pressure were examined simultaneously among 992 workers. The risk factors of ECG abnormality rate and hypertension rate were analyzed by Logistic regression. Results: The level of urinary cadmium in cadmium exposed workers was significantly higher than controls (8.89±4.00 vs 1.34±1.18 µg/g creatinine, P<0.01) . Urinary cadmium level in women was significantly higher than men in both exposure and control group (P<0.05) . According to the group of working years, Urinary cadmium level raised with the increase of working years (F=28.272, P<0.001) . The ECG abnormality rate and hypertension rate of cadmium exposed workers were higher than that of control group, the differences were all statistically significant (P<0.01) . The abnormal rate of ECG and the hypertension rate increased with the prolonging of working years and demonstrated dose-response relationship. With the increase of urinary cadmium level, the abnormal rate of ECG and hypertension rate raised (OR=1.11, P<0.01) and (OR=1.15, P<0.01) respectively. Conclusion: Occupational cadmium exposure increased the abnormal rate of ECG and blood pressure and therefore damaged cardiovascular system of workers. This study provided base data for protecting health of cadmium exposed workers.

[Clinical study on modified sijunzi decoction in treating intestinal metaplasia of gastric mucosa].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of Modified Sijunzi decoction (MSJZD) in treating gastric pre-cancerous lesion. METHODS: Two hundreds and two patients with chronic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia (IM) of gastric mucosa diagnosed by gastroscopy and pathological examination of biopsy were divided into 2 groups, 117 cases of the treatment group were treated with MSJZD and 85 cases of the control group were treated with Weimeisu. For both groups, re-examination was taken after a 3-month treatment. RESULTS: The cure rate and total effective rate of IM in the treatment group were 55.6% and 87.2% respectively, while in the control group were 11.8% and 55.3% respectively (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The intestinal metaplasia process of gastric mucosa is reversible and MSJZD has good effect on it. This study provided a new way of pre-cancerous lesion treatment and gastric cancer prevention.

Reversible movement of homogenously nucleated dislocations in a beta-titanium alloy.

We demonstrate reversible movement of 1/2[11[over ]0](110) dislocation loops generated from nanodisturbances in a beta-titanium alloy. High resolution transmission electron microscope observations during an in situ tensile test found three reversible deformation mechanisms, nanodisturbances, dislocation loops and martensitic transformation, that are triggered in turn with increasing applied stress. All three mechanisms contribute to the nonlinear elasticity of the alloy. The experiments also revealed the evolution of the dislocation loops to disclination dipoles that cause severe local lattice rotations.