[Clinical observation on specific immunotherapy of allergic rhinitis with artemisia pollen].

Objective:The aim of this study is to observe the clinical efficacy of pollen specific immunotherapy with Artemisia in allergic rhinitis. Method:A total of 139 patients with allergic rhinitis who were positive for Artemisia pollen were selected for allergen skin pricking. All of them were treated with Artemisia pollen-specific immunotherapy. The patients were followed-up for 3 months, respectively before treatment (N), after treatment start interval. 3 months (D1, D2, D3) followup fill in the total score of nasal symptoms (TNSS), visual analogue scale (VAS) score, olfactory function grading, ocular symptom score (TOSS) and rhinoconjunctivitis quality of life questionnaire (RQLQ) )score. Result:TNSS：N>D1，N>D2，N>D3，D1,D2,D3 two of the three compared to no difference.VAS：N>D1，N>D2，N>D3，among D1,D2,D3, two of the three compared to no difference. Olfactory function classification:N>D1，N>D2，N>D3，among D1,D2,D3, two of the three compared to no difference.TOSS：N>D1，N>D2，N>D3，among D1,D2,D3,D1>D2,the rest had no difference. RQLQ: N>D1, N>D2, N>D3, D1>D2, D3>D1, D3>D2. Conclusion:The specific pollen immunotherapy of artemisia is effective in the treatment of allergic rhinitis, and the symptoms are obviously improved.

Impact Factors and Attitudes Toward Organ Donation Among Transplantation Patients and Their Caregivers in China.

PURPOSE: This study's purpose was to investigate the attitudes toward organ donation among renal transplantation patients and their caregivers. In addition, we sought to explore the impact factors that affect their attitudes toward deceased organ donation. DESIGN AND METHODS: A self-administrated questionnaire was used, which consisted of two parts: 1) demographic data, and 2) transplantation and donation-related data. This study was conducted in three transplantation follow-up centers in three hospitals using a cross-sectional approach. SPSS 17.0 software was used to analysis descriptive and inferential statistics for data. The responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: We received 426 effective questionnaires. The renal transplantation patients' mean age was 40.84 years. Among these patients, 67.8% were willing to accept the organ transplantation surgery for their relatives, 67.4% were willing to donate a living kidney to a close relative, 62.7% were willing to donate organs after death, 53.5% were willing to register in the national organ donation system, and 51.4% were willing to sign the organ donation consent when facing their relatives becoming a potential organ donor. Age, marriage status, education level, understanding of transplantation procedures and understanding of donation procedures had statistical significance in the difference of the attitudes toward donate their organs after death (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Renal transplantation patients in our study are more willing to donate organs after death than their caregivers, but both their attitudes toward deceased donation were not very optimistic. There is a significant relationship between participants' willingness and knowledge of organ donation; patients with more understanding of the transplantation and donation procedure were more willing to donate organs after death. Affected by traditional values such as Confucianism, many people still cannot accept registering in the national organ donation system or sign the organ donation consent when facing their relatives becoming potential organ donors. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: There is a need to give adequate training regarding donation to increase donation rates. The government must provide education from the perspective of scientific knowledge to change the traditional views of the public, which may then increase the donation rate in China.

[Influence of social support and coping style on chronic post-traumatic stress disorder after floods].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the long-term prognosis and influence of social support and coping style of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after suffering from floods. METHODS: Patients suffered PTSD due to Dongting lake flood in 1998 were selected through cluster random sampling. PTSD scale civilian version (PCL-C) was used to examine and diagnose the participants in this study. PTSD was then evaluated by the social support rating scale (SSRS) and the simple coping style questionnaire (SCSQ). RESULTS: Among all the 120 subjects, 14(11.67%) of them were diagnosed as having PTSD. Compared with the rehabilitation group, scores on subjective support, objective support, total social support and positive coping, total of coping style from the non-rehabilitation group all appeared significant low (P<0.05). Data from the multivariate logistic regression showed that social support (OR=0.281, 95% CI: 0.117-0.678) and coping style (OR= 0.293, 95% CI: 0.128-0.672) were protective factors of the chronic PTSD after the floods while disaster experience (OR=1.626, 95%CI: 1.118-2.365) appeared as a risk factor. CONCLUSION: Chronic PTSD developed after the floods called for attention. Better social support, positive coping style could significantly improve the long-term prognosis of patients with PTSD after the floods.

[Application of directed acyclic graphs in control of confounding].

Observational study is a method most commonly used in the etiology study of epidemiology, but confounders, always distort the true causality between exposure and outcome when local inferencing. In order to eliminate these confounding, the determining of variables which need to be adjusted become a key issue. Directed acyclic graph(DAG)could visualize complex causality, provide a simple and intuitive way to identify the confounding, and convert it into the finding of the minimal sufficient adjustment for the control of confounding. On the one hand, directed acyclic graph can choose less variables, which increase statistical efficiency of the analysis. On the other hand, it could help avoiding variables that is not measured or with missing values. In a word, the directed acyclic graph could facilitate the reveal of the real causality effectively.

The effect of a disastrous flood on the quality of life in Dongting lake area in China.

We carried out an epidemiological study to assess the impact of flood on the quality of life (QOL) of residents in the affected areas in China. We used a natural experiment approach, randomly selected 494 adults from 18 villages, which suffered from flooding as a result of embankments collapsing, 473 adults from 16 villages, which suffered from, soaked flood, and 773 adults from 11 villages without flood (control group). We used the Generic QOL Inventory-74 (GQOLI-74), social support scale, and questionnaires to assess the QOL of all study participants. The QOL was significantly poorer in soaked group (58.4) and (especially) in collapsed group (55.1) than in control group (59.5, p<0.001). Adjustment for potential confounding factors did not change the results. The impact of flood on QOL was stronger among farmers, seniors, persons with introvert personality, and residents with adverse life-events, whereas social support and extrovert personalities offset the negative impact of flood on QOL.

Nuclear transplantation in teleosts. Hybrid fish from the nucleus of crucian and the cytoplasm of carp.

Hybrid fish are obtained from the combination of nucleus and cytoplasm from two genera of fresh-water teleosts using the technique of nuclear transplantation (i.e. the combination of the nucleus of crucian (Carassius auratus) and the cytoplasm of carp (Cyprinus carpio]. Morphological characteristics of these hybrid fish that have been examined so far indicate that some features such as barbs, pharyngeal teeth, the number of scales along the lateral line, and the number of vertebrae are similar to those of crucian. Some of the hybrid fish grow to normal adult fish.