Establishment and Verification of an Artificial Intelligence Prediction Model for Children With Sepsis.

BACKGROUND: Early identification of high-risk groups of children with sepsis is beneficial to reduce sepsis mortality. This article used artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict the risk of death effectively and quickly in children with sepsis in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). STUDY DESIGN: This retrospective observational study was conducted in the PICUs of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from December 2016 to June 2019 and Shenzhen Children's Hospital from January 2019 to July 2020. The children were divided into a death group and a survival group. Different machine language (ML) models were used to predict the risk of death in children with sepsis. RESULTS: A total of 671 children with sepsis were enrolled. The accuracy (ACC) of the artificial neural network model was better than that of support vector machine, logical regression analysis, Bayesian, K nearest neighbor method and decision tree models, with a training set ACC of 0.99 and a test set ACC of 0.96. CONCLUSIONS: The AI model can be used to predict the risk of death due to sepsis in children in the PICU, and the artificial neural network model is better than other AI models in predicting mortality risk.

Selective EZH2 inhibitor zld1039 alleviates inflammation in cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury partially by enhancing RKIP and suppressing NF-κB p65 pathway.

Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), a component of polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), is a histone lysine methyltransferase mediating trimethylation of histone H3 at lysine 27 (H3K27me3), which is a repressive marker at the transcriptional level. EZH2 sustains normal renal function and its overexpression has bad properties. Inhibition of EZH2 overexpression exerts protective effect against acute kidney injury (AKI). A small-molecule compound zld1039 has been developed as an efficient and selective EZH2 inhibitor. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of zld1039 in the treatment of cisplatin-induced AKI in mice. Before injection of cisplatin (20 mg/kg, i.p.), mice were administered zld1039 (100, 200 mg/kg, i.g.) once, then in the following 3 days. We found that cisplatin-treated mice displayed serious AKI symptoms, evidenced by kidney dysfunction and kidney histological injury, accompanied by EZH2 upregulation in the nucleus of renal tubular epithelial cells. Administration of zld1039 dose-dependently alleviated renal dysfunction as well as the histological injury, inflammation and cell apoptosis in cisplatin-treated mice. We revealed that zld1039 administration exerted an anti-inflammatory effect in kidney of cisplatin-treated mice via H3K27me3 inhibition, raf kinase inhibitor protein (RKIP) upregulation and NF-κB p65 repression. In the cisplatin-treated mouse renal tubular epithelial (TCMK-1) cells, silencing of RKIP with siRNA did not abolish the anti-inflammatory effect of EZH2 inhibition, suggesting that RKIP was partially involved in the anti-inflammatory effect of zld1039. Collectively, EZH2 inhibition alleviates inflammation in cisplatin-induced mouse AKI via upregulating RKIP and blocking NF-κB p65 signaling in cisplatin-induced AKI. The potent and selective EZH2 inhibitor zld1039 has the potential as a promising agent for the treatment of AKI.

Enterovirus D68 in hospitalized children with respiratory symptoms in Guangdong from 2014 to 2018: Molecular epidemiology and clinical characteristics.

BACKGROUND: Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) is an emerging pathogen in humans. EV-D68 causes a wide range of respiratory symptoms in children and has the propensity to cause severe complications. EV-D68 outbreaks are rarely investigated in mainland China. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of EV-D68 in children and to describe the clinical manifestations as well as the phylogeny of EV-D68 in Guangdong Province from 2014 to 2018. METHODS: Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from hospitalized children with respiratory symptoms and screened for respiratory pathogens by fluorescence quantitative PCR and culture. The EV-positive samples were subsequently typed by sequencing the 5'-untranslated region and EV-D68-specific VP1 capsid gene. A phylogenetic tree was constructed by the maximum-likelihood method based on the VP1 gene using ClustalW. RESULTS: A total of 1,498 (59.8%) out of 2,503 children were screened positive for ≥1 virus species. Among the 158 (6.31%) EV-positive samples, 17 (0.68%) were identified as EV-D68. Most EV-D68 cases (n = 14) were diagnosed with pneumonia and bronchial pneumonia. No deaths were found in EV-D68 cases. Wheezing occurred in EV-D68 cases more frequently (70.59% vs. 43.26%, P = 0.040) than that of other EVs. All the EV-D68 were of clade B3, which were highly similar to the strains circulating in China. CONCLUSION: EV-D68 was the predominant enterovirus type in hospitalized children with respiratory symptoms in Guangdong Province. All the EV-D68 strains belong to clade B3. The development of diagnostic tools is warranted in order to monitor EV-D68 infections in China.

Elevated levels of cerebrospinal fluid S100B are associated with brain injury and unfavorable outcomes in children with central nervous system infections.

PURPOSE: This work aimed to assess whether elevated levels of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) S100B are associated with brain injury and unfavorable outcomes at discharge in children with central nervous system (CNS) infections. METHODS: CSF S100B and associated clinical parameters were retrospectively analyzed in 83 children with CNS infections and 88 children without neurological pathology served as controls. Children with CNS infections were divided into an infectious encephalitis group and an infectious meningitis group based on whether cerebral parenchyma was involved, and CSF S100B levels in different age subgroups between the two groups were compared. The predictive value of CSF S100B in children with infectious encephalitis was evaluated by multivariate logistic regression analysis, and the discriminative power was investigated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. RESULTS: CSF S100B levels in the infectious encephalitis group were significantly higher than the infectious meningitis and the control group at each age range. CSF S100B ≥ 0.96 µg/L had 62.9% sensitivity and 76.2% specificity for diagnosing cerebral parenchyma injury in children with CNS infections. Increased CSF S100B levels were proven to be an independent predictor of unfavorable outcomes in children with infectious encephalitis and the optimal cut-off value (1.77 µg/L of CSF S100B) for predicting unfavorable outcomes in children with infectious encephalitis showed 61.1% sensitivity and 96.2% specificity. CONCLUSIONS: This study has demonstrated that elevated levels of CSF S100B are associated with brain injury and could be used as an independent predictor of clinically unfavorable outcomes at discharge in children with CNS infections.

Changes in enterovirus serotype constituent ratios altered the clinical features of infected children in Guangdong Province, China, from 2010 to 2013.

BACKGROUND: Enterovirus (EV)-related hand, foot, and mouth disease/herpangina (HFMD/HA) has been prevalent in Guangdong Province, China, since 2010. METHODS: Clinical data for EV-related HFMD/HA inpatients admitted to the Department of Paediatrics of Zhujiang Hospital from 2010 to 2013 were retrospectively reviewed. The corresponding EV serotypes were also determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction or BLAST analysis of the sequenced partial lengths of the viral protein1/5'-untranslated region. RESULTS: A total of 867 eligible inpatients admitted during 2010-2013 were included in the study. Of these, the serotype of the responsible EV was successfully identified in 824 cases. The incidence of enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection amongst pediatric HFMD/HA inpatients decreased dramatically from 55.5 % in 2010 to 8.1 % in 2013, with a similar decrease recorded for coxsackievirus A16 (CVA16). However, the incidence of non-EV71/CVA16 infection increased from 30.0 % in 2010 to 83.8 % in 2013. We noted that the types of infection caused by different EV serotypes varied: EV71 was responsible for 100 % of the paralysis cases (26/26), 84.6 % of the deaths (11/13), and 84.1 % of cases with severe central nervous system involvement (SCNSI) (74/88); echovirus contributed to 16.4 % of the deaths (2/13) and 4.4 % of the SCNSI cases; and coxsackievirus accounted for only 2.2 % of the SCNSI cases (2/90). The clinical features of HFMD/HA cases varied greatly during the time period examined, with drastic changes in the hospitalization rates (45.1, 63.7, 36.4, and 19.1 % for 2010, 2011, 2012, and 21013, respectively), mortality rates (2.3, 0.9, 2.5, and 0.0 %, respectively), paralysis (5.1, 1.2, 5.4, and 0.0 %, respectively), SCNSI (16.8, 7.1, 12.7, and 2.2 %, respectively), and acute respiratory infection (21.1, 22.0, 45.9, and 59.0 %, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The incidences of infection caused by different EV serotypes, along with the clinical features of HFMD/HA cases, changed drastically in Guangdong Province, China, from 2010 to 2013, with the biggest changes observed in 2013. The changed constituent ratios of the different EV serotypes might therefore be responsible for the differences in the observed clinical features of HFMD/HA during this period.

Enterovirus-related diarrhoea in Guangdong, China: clinical features and implications in hand, foot and mouth disease and herpangina.

BACKGROUND: A series of complications caused by enteroviruses, including meningitis, encephalitis, acute flaccid paralysis, acute cardiopulmonary failure, respiratory infection, and myocardial injury have been reported in hand, foot and mouth disease/herpangina (HFMD/HA). However, the complication of diarrhoea caused by enteroviruses has been neglected, and a summary of its clinical features and impact on HFMD/HA is unavailable. METHODS: We included inpatients with HFMD/HA admitted to the Paediatric Department of Zhujiang Hospital during 2009-2012. We summarised and compared clinical data for cases with and without diarrhoea, and determined enterovirus serotypes by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and genotyping based on a partial-length fragment of viral protein 1 or the 5'-untranslated region. RESULTS: There were 804 inpatients with HFMD/HA and 28 (3.5%) presented with diarrhoea. Gastrointestinal symptoms were mild in most cases of diarrhoea (82.1%), with high prevalence of no dehydration (82.1%), short duration of diarrhoea (78.6%) and watery stools (75.0%). The prevalence of multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (10.7 vs 0.40%) (p = 0.001), hepatic injury (14.3 vs 3.4%) (p = 0.019), myocardial injury (21.4 vs 6.1%) (p = 0.002) and convulsion (21.4 vs 7.2%) (p = 0.016) was significantly higher in the diarrhoea than no diarrhoea group. There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding prevalence of death, altered consciousness, paralysis, central nervous system involvement, or acute respiratory infection. CONCLUSIONS: Most patients with diarrhoea caused by enteroviruses circulating in Guangdong Province in 2009-2012 had mild or moderate gastrointestinal symptoms. Although enterovirus-related diarrhoea caused additional multi-organ dysfunction syndrome, hepatic injury and myocardial injury in children with HFMD/HA, timely intervention efficiently reduced disease severity and improved outcome.

[A preliminary study of long-term mitochondrial dysfunction in rat brain caused by lipopolysaccharide-induced sepsis].

OBJECTIVE: To preliminarily investigate the long-term structural and functional injuries of mitochondria in rat brain caused by sepsis. METHODS: Wistar rats were randomly assigned into sepsis and control groups. A rat model of sepsis was prepared by an intraperitoneal injection of 10 mg/kg lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of gram-negative bacteria, and the survival assay was performed. Eight rats in the sepsis group were sacrificed at 12, 24, 48, or 72 hours after LPS injection, while rats in the control group were sacrificed after an intraperitoneal injection of an equal volume of normal saline. Mitochondria were extracted from rat brain tissue. Mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and mitochondrial swelling level were determined by flow cytometry, and the activities of electron transport chain complexes (I-V) were measured using enzyme assay kits. Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining and electron microscopy were used to observe morphological changes in brain tissue and mitochondria. RESULTS: The sepsis group had a significantly lower survival rate than the control group (P<0.01). The MMP and activities of electron transport chain complexes (I-V) in the sepsis group, which were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.05), were reduced to the lowest levels at 48 hours and partially recovered at 72 hours. The mitochondrial swelling level in the sepsis group, which was significantly higher than that in the control group (P<0.05), increased to the peak level at 48 hours and partially recovered at 72 hours. Hematoxylin and Eosin staining revealed substantial damages in the structure of brain tissue, and electron microscopy showed mitochondrial swelling, and vacuolization in a few mitochondria. CONCLUSIONS: In the rat model of LPS-induced sepsis, both structural and functional injuries are found in cerebral mitochondria, and achieve the peak levels probably at around 48 hours.

[A Detection Technique for Gas Concentration Based on the Spectral Line Shape Function].

The methods that can rapidly and precisely measure concentrations of various gases have extensive applications in the fields such as air quality analysis, environmental pollution detection, and so on. The gas detection method based on the tunable laser absorption spectroscopy is considered a promising technique. For the infrared spectrum detection techniques, the line shape function of an absorption spectrum of a gas is an important parameter in qualitative and quantitative analysis of a gas. Specifically, how to obtain the line shape function of an absorption spectrum of a gas quickly and accurately is a key problem in the gas detection fields. In this paper we analyzed several existing line shape functions and proposed a method to calculate precisely the line shape function of a gas, and investigated the relation between the gas concentration and the peak value of a line shape function. Then we experimentally measured the absorption spectra of an acetylene gas in the wavelength range of 1,515-1,545 nm with a tunable laser source and a built-in spectrometer. With Lambert-Beer law we calculated the peak values of the line shape function of the gas at the given frequencies, and obtained a fitting curve for the line shape function in the whole waveband by using a computer program. Comparing the measured results with the calculated results of the Voigt function, we found that there was a deviation-between the experimental results and the calculated results. And we found that the measured concentration of the acetylene gas by using the fitting curve of the line shape function was more accurate and compatible with the actual situation. Hence, the empirical formula for the line shape function obtained from the experimental results would be more suitable for the concentration measurement of a gas. As the fitting curve for the line shape function of the acetylene gas has been deduced from the experiment, the corresponding peak values of the spectral lines can be immediately calculated out from the curve and used for the measurements of different concentrations of acetylene gases. Therefore, the calculation for the line shape function values is greatly simplified. The obtained data of the line shape function of the acetylene gas can be used for remote sensing of the gas, and the proposed method can also be applied for the measurements of line shape functions of other gases.

[Gas Concentration Measurement Based on the Integral Value of Absorptance Spectrum].

The absorptance spectrum of a gas is the basis for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the gas by the law of the Lambert-Beer. The integral value of the absorptance spectrum is an important parameter to describe the characteristics of the gas absorption. Based on the measured absorptance spectrum of a gas, we collected the required data from the database of HIT-RAN, and chose one of the spectral lines and calculated the integral value of the absorptance spectrum in the frequency domain, and then substituted the integral value into Lambert-Beer's law to obtain the concentration of the detected gas. By calculating the integral value of the absorptance spectrum we can avoid the more complicated calculation of the spectral line function and a series of standard gases for calibration, so the gas concentration measurement will be simpler and faster. We studied the changing trends of the integral values of the absorptance spectrums versus temperature. Since temperature variation would cause the corresponding variation in pressure, we studied the changing trends of the integral values of the absorptance spectrums versus both the pressure not changed with temperature and changed with the temperature variation. Based on the two cases, we found that the integral values of the absorptance spectrums both would firstly increase, then decrease, and finally stabilize with temperature increasing, but the ranges of specific changing trend were different in the two cases. In the experiments, we found that the relative errors of the integrated values of the absorptance spectrum were much higher than 1% and still increased with temperature when we only considered the change of temperature and completely ignored the pressure affected by the temperature variation, and the relative errors of the integrated values of the absorptance spectrum were almost constant at about only 1% when we considered that the pressure were affected by the temperature variation. As the integral value of the absorptance spectrum varied with temperature and the calculating error for the integral value fluctuates with ranges of temperature, in the gas measurement when we usd integral values of the absoptance spectrum, we should select a suitable temperature variation and obtain a more accurate measurement result.

The absence of exanthema is related with death and illness severity in acute enterovirus infection.

OBJECTIVE: To clarify whether exanthema is related to illness severity in acute enterovirus infection in children. METHODS: The data of pediatric inpatients at Zhujiang Hospital during 2009-2012 with an acute enterovirus infection were reviewed retrospectively. Enterovirus infection was determined by real-time reverse transcription PCR. Clinical data were summarized and compared between cases with and without exanthema. RESULTS: A total of 780 pediatric inpatients with an acute enterovirus infection were included in this study, of whom 83 (10.6%) presented no exanthema. The percentage of deaths in the group of patients without exanthema was significantly higher than that in the group with exanthema (7.2% vs. 1.1%; p = 0.002). Central nervous system involvement (41.0% vs. 30.0%; p = 0.041), severe central nervous system (CNS) involvement (21.7% vs. 11.0%; p = 0.005), severe CNS involvement with cardiopulmonary failure (9.6% vs. 2.3%; p = 0.002), an altered level of consciousness (15.7% vs. 7.6%; p = 0.013), and convulsions (14.4% vs. 6.3%; p = 0.007) occurred significantly more frequently in the group without exanthema. CONCLUSIONS: A considerable proportion of children with an acute enterovirus infection in Guangdong Province, China during 2009-2012 presented no exanthema, and the absence of exanthema was found to be related to death and illness severity for these acute enterovirus infections. Clinicians in China should consider enterovirus as the possible pathogen when treating children with an acute pathogen infection without exanthema.

[Accurate calculation of spectral line profiles by considering influence of varying pressure and temperature in a gas].

Accurate calculation of spectral line profiles of a gas is very important for gas sensing. As we know, a variation in pressure (temperature) of a gas will result in the corresponding variation in temperature (pressure) of the gas. In the present paper we calculated spectral line profiles of a gas by considering the changes in both temperature and pressure. The authors found that in our case the Lorentzian profile has broader applicable ranges of pressure and temperature, and the Gaussian profile is only applicable in some extreme conditions. Furthermore, the authors found that the influence of variations in pressure and temperature has to be considered in calculating the peak values of the spectral line profiles such as Gaussian, Lorentzian, and Voigt; otherwise the resultant relative errors of the calculated peak values can exceed 0.1. The similar observations were also found for other gases such as CH4, CO2, CO, and NO, although the parameters such as wavelength, coefficient of pressure-broadening, relative molecular mass, and temperature were different.

Particle sizing of colloidal suspensions by low-coherence fiber optic dynamic light scattering.

A low-coherence fiber optic dynamic light scattering technique is used to measure the particle size distributions of colloidal suspensions with different volume fractions. We detect electric field autocorrelation function of the singly backscattered light from a sample and use the CONTIN algorithm to obtain the particle size distributions. As a result, in the range of volume fractions from 0.01 to 0.10 of monodispersive colloidal suspensions, the mean particle size with the deviation within 4% and the polydispersity approximate 5% can be determined for particles of different radii. The results demonstrate that the low-coherence fiber optic dynamic light scattering technique is effective in measuring particle size of colloidal suspensions.

Diagnosis and spectrum of melamine-related renal disease: plausible mechanism of stone formation in humans.

BACKGROUND: An epidemic of urinary stones affecting children after consumption of melamine tainted milk is unfolding. We defined clinicopathological features of the disease for diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of this group of patients. METHODS: A clinicopathological study on exposed children with ultrasonographic evidence of urolithiasis was conducted. Melamine and cyanuric acid levels in the urine were determined by mass spectrometry. RESULTS: Disease severity varied from acute renal failure with hydronephrosis to symptomatic or asymptomatic stones with or without abnormal urinalysis. All cases were aged <3 y with >50% cases having predisposing urinary metabolic risk factors for urolithiasis. Most of the stones were located in the renal pelvis and measured 2.5-18 mm by ultrasonography. We found a strong correlation between renal stone size and urinary melamine concentration. For stones <10 mm, a 10 microg/mmol creatinine increase in urinary melamine concentration is associated with approximately 1 mm increase in the size of the stone. The high degree of correlation strongly suggests that melamine is related to stone formation in humans. Using ROC analysis, we propose that patients who have a persistent melamine level above the optimal cut-off value of 7.1 microg melamine/mmol creatinine in urine might have a significant exposure of melamine-tainted products. Unlike melamine, urinary cyanuric acid is not significantly different between cases and controls. Pathophysiological findings from feeding animals with melamine and cyanuric acid may not be directly applicable to humans. CONCLUSION: Both melamine and urine metabolic lithogenic factors are important for the formation of melamine-related stones. Apart from aiding with case screening and confirmation, the urine melamine level might as well be an indicator of residual melamine load in the body and thus is useful for following-up and monitoring of the confirmed cases. As the stones are small and can be passed out spontaneously, follow-up of these patients with urine melamine will be a convenient tool for monitoring the melamine load of the patients.

[Detection of angiotensin II in the maternal-fetal interface in pregnancy-induced hypertension].

OBJECTIVE: To detect angiotensin II (ANG II) in the maternal blood, umbilical cord blood, and at the maternal-fetal interface in women with pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) and explore the etiology of PIH and pathophysiologic mechanism of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). METHODS: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the concentration of ANG II in the maternal blood, cord blood, and maternal and fetal placental tissues in 30 women with PIH and 30 with normal pregnancy, and the results were analyzed with independent-sample t test and Pearson correlation analysis. RESULTS: ANG II level in the maternal placental tissue homogenate showed no significant difference between women with PIH and normal pregnant women (8.51+/- 4.01 vs 7.76+/-3.47 pg/ml, P>0.05), but women with PIH had significantly higher ANG II in the fetal placental tissue (11.82+/-3.92 vs 9.64+/-2.63 pg/ml, P<0.05). ANG II level was significantly higher in the maternal blood of women with PIH than in normal pregnant women (46.44+/-8.48 vs 32.43+/-5.87 pg/ml, P<0.001), but similar in the cord blood (68.83+/-8.68 vs 72.47+/-8.51 pg/ml; P>0.05). A positive correlation was indicated between the cord blood and maternal peripheral blood ANG II levels in women with PIH (r=0.7379, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: ANG II in the fetal placental tissue is elevated, and the cord blood and maternal peripheral blood ANG II levels are positively correlated in women with PIH.

[Incidence and risk factor analysis of neonatal apnea in the representative regions of Guangdong Province].

OBJECTIVE: To conduct an epidemiological survey of the prevalence of neonatal apnoea and and identify its risk factors in Guangdong Province. METHODS: The epidemiological data of neonatal apnea were collected by means of cluster sampling from 10 representative regions of Guangdong Province, and the risk factors for this condition were analyzed with logistic regression. RESULTS: In the representative regions chosen for this survey, the incidence of neonatal apnea was 9.85% in the newborn infants, suggesting a generally similar picture of its prevalence in Guangdong Province. Maternal heart disease and anaemia, number of miscarriages, fetal position and present, oxytocin application, vacuum extraction, prolonged second stage of labor, and number of cesarean delivery were identified as the risk factors for neonatal apnoea, whereas number of pregnancies, the last antenatal examination prior to delivery, high-level antenatal examination hospital, antenatal examination times, and number of normal deliveries were the protective factors. Abnormal amniotic fluid, premature birth, and cord around the neck were the most important risk factors for neonatal apnoea, and adequate amniotic fluid volume is the protective factors for neonatal apnoea. CONCLUSION: Rigorous control of the risk factors and enhancement of the protective factors can reduce or even prevent the incidence of neonatal apnoea.

[Continuous blood purification in the treatment of pediatric septic shock].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy of continuous blood purification (CBP) and to explore its mechanism in the treatment of pediatric septic shock. METHODS: Nine children weighted 3.1 kg - 14.0 kg with septic shock were treated with continuous veno-venous hemofiltration (CVVH) which is also referred to as CBP with blood access of double-lumen hemodialysis catheter of 6.5 to 8Fr inserted via central vein, hemofilters of Minifilter plus (for children with body weight < 5 kg) or AV400s (for children with body weight > or = 5 kg), child's type extracorporeal circuit vessel and heparin anticoagulation. The replacement solution was delivered pre-dilution after 3 to 4 hours' post-dilution. The blood gas, clinical biochemical items, medium molecule substance (MMS) concentration in blood as well as capillary refill time (CRT), BP, urine output, vasopressors dosage were examined at a set of time points from the beginning to the end of the CVVH. RESULTS: Of the 9 children, 6 had acute renal failure (ARF), 3 had acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), 5 were blood culture positive and all the 9 needed vasopressors to keep BP before CVVH. The blood pH was 7.14 +/- 0.23, base excess (BE) was -11.3 +/- 4.25 mmol/L, MMS was 3532 +/- 519 U/L, PO2/FiO2 was 188 +/- 33, CRT > 5 s, urine output was 0.85 +/- 0.52 ml/(kg.hr) and the adrenalin dosage 1.36 +/- 0.48 microg/(kg.min), and dopamine 16.35 +/- 3.27 microg/(kg.min) before CVVH. The patients' condition was improved much as demonstrated by pH 7.38 +/- 0.16, BE -0.28 +/- 1.37 mmol/L, MMS 2576 +/- 375 U/L, PO2/FiO2 285 +/- 63, CRT < 2 s, and the adrenalin dosage 0.08 +/- 0.04 microg/(kg.min) and dopamine 8.53 +/- 6.72 microg/(kg.min), urine output 2.9 +/- 1.6 ml/(kg.hr) after 24 hour treatment with CVVH. Of the 9 children, 2 died of MODS (1 intussusception complicated with intestine necrosis, 1 severe scald) and 1 was given up because of severe intestinal fistula, the other 6 children recovered at the end. CONCLUSION: CBP was effective in treatment of pediatric septic shock by improving the oxygenation, correcting metabolic acidosis, stabilizing BP, increasing the tissue perfusion and eliminating the medium molecule substances.

Self-reconstruction property of fractional Bessel beams.

We study the self-reconstruction property of a fractional Bessel beam (FBB), where the FBB is described in terms of a Bessel beam of a fractional order for both amplitude and azimuthal phase components. The simulation and experimental results show that the FBB can overcome a block of obstacles and regenerate itself after a characteristic distance. As a comparison, the propagation of a Gaussian beam and an integer-order Bessel beam (IBB) through the same obstacles are also studied.

[Expression of telomerase reverse transcriptase and its significance in human fetal lung development].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression and distribution of telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) and its significance during the development of epithelial stem cells in human fatal lungs. METHODS: Human lung tissues were obtained at abortion from 37 fetuses 10-34 weeks of gestational age with parental consent, and the expression of hTERT in these tissues was examined by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: In fetuses of 10 weeks old, hTERT was detected mainly in the epithelial cells of the proximal bronchi in the fetal lung, and migrated gradually to the distal bronchi as the lung developed. The hTERT expression level peaked at 17-20 weeks of gestation and then decreased over the period of alveolarization that occurred at about 25-26 weeks. In the later gestation period, strongly positive epithelial cells became concentrated in discrete patches near the basal membrane of the airway and scattered in only a few of the pulmonary alveoli. Morphologically, these cells resembled the basal cells and type II alveolar epithelial cells (AEC) or their progenitor cells. CONCLUSIONS: Telomerase expression and activity are hallmarks of the pulmonary stem or progenitor cells that maintain undifferentiated state and self-renewal capacity, and it plays a crucial role in the normal differentiation and regeneration of the bronchial and alveolar epithelial cells to maintain the epithelial integrity.

Practical implementation of the phase-quantization technique in an iterative Fourier-transform algorithm.

Implementation of the phase-quantization method in the design of computer-generated holograms (CGHs), especially binary CGHs, is a major influence on the diffraction efficiency of the CGHs. We describe the use of various quantization methods in the various steps of an iterative Fourier-transform algorithm and compare the root-mean-square (RMS) errors of the CGHs. As a result of the practical quantization technique, the most effective RMS value of a binary CGH should be decreased by at least 13% to retain maximum diffraction efficiency.

Experimental study of holographic generation of fractional Bessel beams.

We demonstrate the experimental generation of a fractional Bessel beam by holographic means. Such fractional modes of Bessel beams possess an intrinsic opening gap across concentric intensity rings on propagation. We also show that the opening gaps within the fractional modes are diffraction free for a working distance while a fractional helical wave front is maintained.