The role of handwriting in English word acquisition among elementary students.

In order to investigate whether handwriting has an advantage in learning word form, sound, and meaning, this study randomly selected 40 elementary school student participants (20 males, 20 females, aged 11.4 ± 1.34 years). Using an experimental approach, we compared the learning outcomes of word sound matching, word meaning matching, and word form judgment tasks under two conditions: handwriting and visual learning. After three consecutive days of learning and testing, we found that handwriting generally outperformed visual learning in terms of accuracy and response time in word form, sound, and meaning learning. Additionally, we observed differences in the timing of significant discrepancies in learning outcomes between the two methods across the three tasks. Specifically, in terms of accuracy, discrepancies first appeared in the word sound matching task on the first day, followed by the word form judgment task, and lastly the word meaning matching task. Regarding response time, significant differences between learning methods first emerged in the word form judgment task, followed by the word sound and word meaning tasks. Thus, combining accuracy and response time data, we conclude that handwriting is more advantageous than visual learning for word acquisition, with a differential impact on word form, sound, and meaning, where word form and sound are prioritized over meaning.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for chronic diabetic foot ulcers: An overview of systematic reviews.

OBJECTIVES: Hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcer has been widely used in medical practice, but its clinical effect is not clear. The purpose of this overview of systematic reviews is to evaluate the clinical evidence of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers. METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Knowledge, Embase, MEDLINE, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, the Chongqing VIP Database, Chinese Biomedical Database, and Wanfang Database were searched in 1st December 2020. Systematic reviews (SRs) evaluating the effects of Hyperbaric oxygen therapy in people with diabetic foot ulcer were included. Methodological quality of the included SRs was assessed using the AMSTAR-2 tool. The quality of evidence of the primary studies was assessed using GRADE. The integrity of the included SRs was assessed using PRISMA. The bias risk of each SR was assessed using ROBIS evaluation tool. RESULTS: Eleven SRs/MAs met all inclusion criteria. According to the results of the AMSTAR-2, only 1 included review were rated critically as being of high quality, 6 included review were rated critically as being of medium quality. With PRISMA, the reporting checklist was relatively complete, but some reporting weaknesses remained in the topics of the protocol and registration, search strategy, and additional analyses. Based on the ROBIS tool, only five SRs/MAs had a low risk of bias. With the GRADE system, no high-quality evidence was found, and only 13 outcomes provided moderate-quality evidence. CONCLUSIONS: There is limited clinical evidence to support hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers, it is not recommended to routinely apply hyperbaric oxygen therapy to all patients with diabetic foot ulcers, especially those with non-ischemic diabetic foot ulcers. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has certain potential to promote ulcer healing and reduce amputation rate in patients with ischemic diabetic foot ulcers, but due to the low quality and small quantity of the SRs/MAs supporting these results, high-quality studies with rigorous study designs and larger samples are needed before widespread recommendations can be made.

Primary characterization of the immune responses in Tibetan pigs infected with Chinese Tibet isolate of Trichinella spiralis.

BACKGROUND: Trichinellosis, caused by Trichinella spiralis, is a serious foodborne parasitic zoonosis. Tibetan pig is an infrequent, endemic plateau pig species, mainly distributed in Tibet Plateau, China. Because of the free-range system, Tibetan pigs are at risk of infection with Trichinella. The present study aimed to primarily profile the characteristics of T. spiralis infection in Tibetan pigs, including IgG levels, larvae burdens, and cytokines. RESULTS: The immune responses to Chinese Tibet T. spiralis isolate infection in Tibetan pigs with different doses were investigated in a tracking duration of 49 days. The muscle larvae per gram (lpg) were evaluated at 105 days post-infection (dpi). The results showed that the mean larval number of T. spiralis in Tibetan pigs increased with infective dose, with average lpg values of 3.5, 50.4 and 115.6 for Tibetan pigs infected with 200, 2,000, and 20,000 muscle larvae (ML) of T. spiralis. The anti-Trichinella IgG increased with inoculum dose and dpi, and peaked at 49 dpi. The kinetics of cytokines in the sera was detected by microarray, including interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin (IL)-1ß, IL-8, IL-12, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, Granulocyte-macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and transforming growth factor (TGF)-ß1. The Th1/Th2 mixed cytokines were detectable in all samples. Interleukin-12 demonstrated the highest concentration compared to other cytokines and peaked at 42 dpi. Almost all cytokines were maintained at a high level at 42 dpi. Additionally, we also report a Trichinella seropositive rate of 43.9 % (18 out of 41) from field samples of Tibetan pigs. CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed an increased Th1/Th2 mixed cytokines in Tibetan pigs elicited by T. spiralis. The high seroprevalence of Trichinella infection in field samples of Tibetan pigs further raises serious concern for the prevention and control of trichinellosis in this host for public health safety.

Management of pediatric urolithiasis induced by melamine-contaminated powdered formula (report of 619 cases).

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical features and therapeutic efficacy in children with urolithiasis caused by ingestion of melamine-contaminated powdered formula. METHODS: The clinical presentation, laboratory data, ultrasound findings, and treatment methods used for 619 children with melamine-induced urolithiasis were retrospectively recorded and analyzed. The efficacy of the treatment in these children was summarized and evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 619 children aged 1-88 months were included in the present study (mean age 16.32 months). The male/female ratio was 1.9:1. Of the 619 patients, 577 received conservative treatment and 454 became stone free (78.7%). Of the 151 patients with renal and/or ureteral stones, 1-6 sessions of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy were performed in 81 patients (61 successful [35.5%] of 172 sessions) and retrograde ureteral catheterization in 70 patients (56 successfully treated [80.0%]). In centers without expertise in minimally invasive medical techniques, 5 patients with bilateral obstructive renal failure were successfully treated with ureteral lithectomy (n = 4) and percutaneous nephrostomy (n = 1). For the remaining 27 children with refractory renal or ureter stones, 9 were successfully treated with percutaneous nephrolithotomy and 18 children underwent ureteroscopic lithotripsy to become stone free. A total of 22 bladder and/or urethral stones were successfully treated with cystoscopic lithotripsy. CONCLUSIONS: Most children with melamine-induced urolithiasis were treated successfully with an infusion of fluids, urine basification, and diuresis. Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy is a safe and effective technique for patients in whom conservative treatment fails. However, for patients who have presented with obstructive renal failure, surgical intervention should be considered as early as possible to relieve the obstruction.

The association of the PAX4 gene with type 1 diabetes in Han Chinese.

AIMS: In present study, we aimed to evaluate whether the paired box gene 4 (PAX4) may play a role in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in Chinese Han population. METHODS: One hundred and thirty-four cases with T1D and 324 non-diabetic control subjects were selected randomly from Han Chinese. Three tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, rs712701, rs2233580, rs2233575) according to HapMap data were selected to analyze. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used to genotype. RESULTS: No difference was found in genotype or allele frequencies between patients and non-diabetic controls in all three SNPs. No difference was found in common haplotypes constructed by these three SNPs, either. For the SNP rs2233575, in non-diabetic controls, the carriers with AA and GA genotypes had lower plasma insulin level than the subjects with GG genotype (P=0.048). CONCLUSIONS: The present study identified that the PAX4 gene was not associated with the risk of T1D in a Han Chinese sample, suggesting that it is unlikely to have a major effect on the susceptibility to T1D in this population. This is the first study on the PAX4 gene in a Chinese population.