[Effective prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents].

Myopia prevention and control is an important health issue related to children and adolescents, general public physical fitness and national defense security. In 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping gave instructions on students' myopia. Ministry of Education and other seven ministries and commissions issued the Implementation Plan of the Myopia Prevention and Control for Children and Adolescents. As the myopia prevalence continues to develop into an urgent situation, myopia prevention and control has become a national strategy. In the battle fighting against prevalent myopia, medical and scientific researchers, as professionals, play a key role in guiding the effective implementation of the project and coordinating among five parties including government, schools, medical institutions, families and individual students. It is of great significance to effectively prevent and control myopia for children and adolescents and to achieve the overall goal of prevention and control. This article summarizes the potential effective methods in myopia prevention and control, hoping to provide useful reference and help for the national prevention and control work. (Chin J Ophthalmol, 2019, 55: 81-85).

[Nail fold microcirculation in patients with chest malignancy].

Nail fold microcirculation was observed in 90 patients suffering from chest malignancies. 33 were patients with esophageal cancer, 41 cancer of gastric cardia, 4 esophageal and cardiac cancer, 11 lung cancer and 1 malignant neurogenic tumor in the posterior mediastinum. The results indicate that, in cancer patients, marked microcirculatory disturbances are present in the form of marked exudation, cloudy visual field, abnormal and dilated capillary loops, granular and slow blood flow. There is no obvious difference in the various kinds of malignancies. Nor is there any difference between the operable and inoperable cases. Indication of operation is not predicted by this method. The probable cause and clinical significance of microcirculatory disturbances are discussed.

Wig-1 regulates cell cycle arrest and cell death through the p53 targets FAS and 14-3-3σ.

Wig-1, also known as ZMAT3, is a p53 target gene that encodes an RNA-binding zinc-finger protein involved in the regulation of mRNA stability through binding to AU-rich elements (AREs). We have used microarray analysis to identify novel Wig-1 target mRNAs. We identified 2447 transcripts with >fourfold differential expression between Wig-1 and control small interfering (si)RNA-treated HCT116 cells. Several p53 target genes were among the deregulated transcripts. We found that Wig-1 regulates FAS and 14-3-3σ mRNA independently of p53. We show that Wig-1 binds to FAS mRNA 3'-UTR and decreases its stability through an ARE in the 3'-UTR. Depletion of Wig-1 was associated with increased cell death and reduced cell cycle arrest upon DNA damage. Our results suggest a role of Wig-1 as a survival factor that directs the p53 stress response toward cell cycle arrest rather than apoptosis through the regulation of FAS and 14-3-3σ mRNA levels.

HLA-G polymorphism in a Chinese Han population with recurrent spontaneous abortion.

Reproduction is an important biological phenomenon posing an immunological paradox because the semiallogeneic fetus survives by evading maternal immune recognition. The detailed mechanisms behind this maternal-fetal immunotolerance remain elusive. Human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-G, a non-classical HLA class I antigen, initially identified as a molecule selectively expressed on extravillous cytotrophoblasts and first studied in the context of pregnancy, has long been supposed to play a critical role in fetal-maternal immunotolerance. To investigate the role of HLA-G polymorphism in this process and whether the HLA-G genotype is associated with an increased risk for a subsequent miscarriage, 69 women with three or more recurrent spontaneous abortions (RSA) and 146 fertile control women were genotyped for the HLA-G locus in this study. To our knowledge, this is the first report on HLA-G polymorphism in RSA and in normal fertile women from a Chinese Han population. Nine HLA-G alleles were detected in the fertile control group; however, the allele HLA-G*0103 was absent in the RSA group. No statistical significance was observed in the distribution of HLA-G alleles between the two groups. The frequency of the null allele HLA-G*0105 N in the RSA group and in normal fertile women is 0.7% and 1.4%, respectively. Our data suggested that there was no association of HLA-G polymorphism with RSA.

A decision support system for AIDS intervention and prevention.

In recent years, the importance of information systems has been identified as a vital issue to continuing success in AIDS intervention and prevention (AIP). The advances in information technology have resulted in integrative information systems including decision support systems (DSS). The concept of DSS for AIP was created at the intersection of two trends. The first trend was a growing belief that AIP information systems are successful in automating operations in AIP programs. The second was a continuing improvement in modeling and software development in the AIP area. This paper presents an integrated DSS for AIP. The system is integrated with a database and achieves its efficiency by incorporating various algorithms and models to support AIP decision processes. The application examples include screening AIDS-risky behaviors, evaluating educational interventions, and scheduling AIP sessions. The implementation results present evidence of the usefulness of the system in AIP.

An integrated rule- and case-based approach to AIDS initial assessment.

The traditional approach to the development of knowledge-based systems (KBS) has been rule-based, where heuristic knowledge is encoded in a set of production rules. A rule-based reasoning (RBR) system needs a well constructed domain theory as its reasoning basis, and it does not make substantial use of the knowledge embedded in previous cases. An RBR system performs relatively well in a knowledge-rich application environment. Although its capability may be limited when previous experiences are not a good representation of the whole population, a case-based reasoning (CBR) system is capable of using past experiences as problem solving tools, therefore, it is appropriate for an experience-rich domain. In recent years, both RBR and CBR have emerged as important and complementary reasoning methodologies in artificial intelligence. For problem solving in AIDS intervention and prevention, it is useful to integrate RBR and CBR. In this paper, a hybrid KBS which integrates a deductive RBR system and an inductive CBR system is proposed to assess AIDS-risky behaviors.

An integrated information system for the intervention and prevention of AIDS.

The epidemic of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and its causative agent, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), are serious and spreading. In response to the epidemic, a variety of intervention and prevention programs have been instituted. In such AIDS intervention and prevention (AIP) activities, the role played by information systems becomes more and more important. The applications of information systems technology in AIP mostly seem to fall within a spectrum of databases, decision support systems and expert systems. This paper describes the implementation of an information system in a regional AIDS intervention and prevention program. In this integrative information system, the database is integrated with both decision support systems and expert systems, and decision support systems are integrated with expert systems. The implementation results of the system present evidence of the usefulness of the system in AIDS intervention and prevention.

Application of information systems to AIDS risk reduction.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a specific group of diseases which are indicative of severe immunosuppression related to infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In response to the epidemic, a variety of intervention and prevention has been instituted. In such intervention and prevention activities, the role played by information systems becomes more and more important. This paper describes the design and implementation of an information system for AIDS intervention and prevention.