An effective treatment for diabetic foot necrosis with traditional Chinese and Western medicine: a case report.

Patients with diabetes who undergo a kidney transplant are at a great risk of undergoing amputations, usually associated with severe infection and necrosis. The treatment of severe diabetic foot necrosis is challenging in clinic, and the function of the limb is often hugely compromised. A 74-year-old male who had been diagnosed with severe post-renal transplant diabetic foot necrosis refused the option of below-knee amputation from previous surgeons, and requested to keep his left foot. The patient was treated with integrated traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine, with positive results. TCM therapeutic principles included 'clearing heat, removing toxicity, regulating Qi, resolving dampness, activating stagnant blood and nourishing yin as well as tonifying Qi and blood'. Treatment with Western medicine included wound debridement, internal fixation or joint fusion, and use of insulin, antibiotics and vasodilators. The patient was treated with a staged and diverse approach (i.e., a combination of TCM and Western medicine, surgical management and education for diabetic foot care), which ultimately helped the patient achieve limb salvage and regain normal function. A combination therapy of Western medicine and TCM may be a promising approach to heal diabetic foot ulcers.

Realizing Nanolime Aqueous Dispersion via Ionic Liquid Surface Modification to Consolidate Stone Relics.

After decades of research in the conservation of cultural heritage, nanolime (NL) has emerged as a potential alternative inorganic material to the frequently used organic materials. However, its poor kinetic stability in water has been a major challenge that restricted its penetration depth through cultural relics and resulted in unsatisfactory conservation outcomes. Here, for the first time, we realize NL water dispersion by modification of ionic liquid (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate) via a sample aqueous solution deposit method. Our findings indicate that the cation of the ionic liquid (IL) binds strongly to the surface of NL particles (IL-NL) by forming hydrogen bonds with Ca(OH)2 facets. The absorption of IL causes an unexpected significant alteration in the morphology of NL particles and results in a drastic reduction in NL's size. More importantly, this absorption endows NL excellent kinetic stability dispersed into water and implements NL water dispersion, which makes a breakthrough in terms of extreme poor kinetic stability of as-synthesized NL and commercial NL in water. The mechanism driving IL-NL water dispersion is explained by Stern theory. In the context of consolidating weathered stone, the presence of IL may delay carbonation of NL but the penetration depth of IL-NL through stone samples is three times deeper than that of as-synthesized and commercial NLs. Additionally, the consolidation strength of IL-NL is similar to that of as-synthesized NL and commercial NL. Moreover, IL-NL has no significant impact on the permeability, pore size, and microstructure of consolidated stone relics. Our research contributes to the field of NL-related materials and will enhance the dissemination and utilization of NL-based materials in the preservation of water-insensitive cultural heritage.

Observation of the effect of hypothermia therapy combined with optimized nursing on brain protection after cardiopulmonary resuscitation: A retrospective case-control study.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of optimized emergency nursing in conjunction with mild hypothermia nursing on neurological prognosis, hemodynamics, and complications in patients with cardiac arrest. A retrospective analysis was conducted on the medical records of 124 patients who received successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) at Fujian Provincial Hospital South Branch. The patients were divided into control and observation groups, each consisting of 62 cases. The brain function of both groups was assessed using the Glasgow Coma Scale and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale. Additionally, serum neuron-specific enolase level was measured in both groups. The vital signs and hemodynamics of both groups were analyzed, and the complications and satisfaction experienced by the 2 groups were compared. The experimental group exhibited significantly improved neurological function than the control group (P < .05). Furthermore, the heart rate in the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group (P < .05). However, no significant differences were observed in blood oxygen saturation, mean arterial pressure, central venous pressure, and systolic blood pressure between the 2 groups (P > 0.05). Moreover, the implementation of optimized nursing practices significantly reduced complications and improved the quality of life and satisfaction of post-CPR patients (P < .05). The integration of optimized emergency nursing practices in conjunction with CPR improves neurological outcomes in patients with cardiac arrest.

Discourse Context Immediately Overrides Gender Stereotypes during Discourse Reading: Evidence from ERPs.

This study investigated how local gender stereotype information interacts with discourse context during Chinese discourse reading. Event-related potentials were recorded while participants read two-sentence discourses, in which the first sentence provided the discourse context that either introduced a gender stereotype-countering attitude towards roles, such as "One should strive for the target job, and getting a job should not be restricted by gender"., or was neutral. The second sentence contained the critical clause in which the stereotypical gender of the object noun (a role name) was either consistent or inconsistent with the gender specified by the head noun (a kinship term) of the subject noun phrase, as in "Li's [daughter/son] became a nurse…". The object nouns elicited a larger N400 and a larger late negativity (LN) for the inconsistent compared to the consistent conditions in the neutral contexts. Crucially, when the discourse context offered information countering gender stereotypes, both the N400 and LN effects were reversed, with the negativities being smaller for the inconsistent compared to the consistent conditions. The reversal of the N400 effects suggests that discourse contexts can immediately override the processing of gender stereotypes, and thus readers compute discourse context and local pragmatic information simultaneously during discourse reading.

Strategic Processing of Gender Stereotypes in Sentence Comprehension: An ERP Study.

Gender stereotypes are often involved in language comprehension. This study investigated whether and to what extent their processing is under strategic control, by examining both proportion and order effects related to gender stereotypes for role nouns. We manipulated stereotypical gender consistencies, as in "Li's daughter/son was a nurse…", the relative proportions of gender-consistent and gender-inconsistent sentences (80%:20% and 50%:50% for high-proportion and equal-proportion sessions, respectively), and a between-participant factor of session order (high-proportion sessions preceding equal-proportion sessions and a reversed order for the high-equal and equal-high groups, respectively). Linear mixed-effect models revealed a larger N400 and a larger late negativity for stereotypically inconsistent compared to consistent sentences for the high-equal group only. These results indicate that even if sentence contexts have already determined the gender of target role characters, gender stereotypes for role nouns are still activated when the first half of the experiment facilitates their activation. The analyses of trial-by-trial dynamics showed that the N400 effects gradually decreased throughout equal-proportion sessions for the equal-high group. Our findings suggest that the processing of gender stereotypes can be under strategic control. In addition, readers may develop other strategies based on sentence contexts, when the processing strategy based on cue validity is not available.

Brain responses to agreement violations of Chinese grammatical aspect.

Grammatical aspect captures ways in which a language uses grammatical markers to describe the temporal structure of an event. An event-related potential experiment was conducted to investigate event-related potential correlates of agreement violations of Chinese grammatical aspect. Participants read sentences containing either aspect agreement violations, semantic violations, or no violations. Semantic violations elicited an N400, whereas aspectual violations elicited a 200-400 ms posterior and left central negativity, followed by a P600, instead of left anterior negativity or N400, suggesting that left anterior negativities may not reflect a general, rule-governed, syntactically compositional process, and that grammatical aspect processing is at least not completely semantically driven. The negativity mostly reflects a failure to bind aspect markers or the detection of aspectual errors.

When Chinese semantics meets failed syntax.

Previous event-related potential studies in Indo-European languages reported a surprising finding that failed syntactic category processing appears to block lexical-semantic integration, suggesting a functional primacy of syntax over semantics. An event-related potential experiment was conducted to test whether there is such primacy in Chinese sentence reading, using sentences containing either semantic only violations, combined syntactic category and semantic violations, or no violations. Semantic only violations elicited a centro-parietal negativity and combined violations a broadly distributed, but centro-parietally focused negativity, both in the 300-500 ms window and followed by a P600, suggesting that semantic integration proceeds even when syntactic category processing fails. Thus, there is no functional primacy of syntactic category over semantic processes during Chinese sentence reading.

The interplay between referential processing and local syntactic/semantic processing: ERPs to written Chinese discourse.

Two event-related brain potential experiments were conducted to investigate the functional interplay between discourse-level referential processing and local syntactic/semantic processing of phrases. We manipulated both the syntactic/semantic coherence of a noun phrase (NP) and the referential ambiguity of the same NP. Incoherence of the NP elicited a P600 effect in both experiments. Referential ambiguities elicited a sustained negativity (Nref) in a subset of the participants in both experiments. Crucially, among participants showing robust Nref effects to referential ambiguity in the coherent condition, Nref effects were absent when the NP was incoherent. These results provide evidence against theories in which referential processing is functionally independent of local syntactic/semantic processing of phrases. Instead, a local phrase anomaly can block aspects of referential processing concerning ambiguity.

Syntax does not necessarily precede semantics in sentence processing: ERP evidence from Chinese.

Two event-related potential experiments were conducted to examine whether the processing of syntactic category or syntactic subcategorization frame always needs to temporally precede semantic processing during the reading of Chinese sentences of object-subject-verb construction. The sentences contained (a) no anomalies, (b) semantic only anomalies, (c) syntactic category plus semantic anomalies, or (d) transitivity plus semantic anomalies. In both experiments, all three types of anomalies elicited a broad negativity between 300 and 500 ms. This negativity included an N400 effect, given its distribution. Moreover, syntactic category plus semantic anomalies elicited a P600 response, whereas the other two types of anomalies did not. The finding of N400 effects suggests that semantic integration can be attempted even when the processing of syntactic category or syntactic subcategorization frame is unsuccessful. Thus, syntactic processing is not a necessary prerequisite for the initiation of semantic integration in Chinese.

Neural dynamics of animacy processing in language comprehension: ERP evidence from the interpretation of classifier-noun combinations.

An event-related potential experiment was conducted to investigate the temporal neural dynamics of animacy processing in the interpretation of classifier-noun combinations. Participants read sentences that had a non-canonical structure, object noun +subject noun+verb+numeral-classifier+adjective. The object noun and its classifier were either (a) congruent, (b) incongruent, but matching in animacy, or (c) incongruent, mismatching in animacy. An N400 effect was observed for both incongruent conditions, but not for additional mismatch in animacy. When only data from participants who accepted the non-canonical structure were analyzed, the animacy mismatch elicited a P600 but still no N400. These findings suggest that animacy information is not used immediately for semantic integration of nouns and their classifiers, but is used in a later analysis reflected by P600. Thus, the temporal neural dynamics of animacy processing in sentence comprehension may be modulated by the relevance of animacy to thematic interpretation.

Semantics does not need a processing license from syntax in reading Chinese.

Two event-related brain potential experiments were conducted to investigate whether there is a functional primacy of syntactic structure building over semantic processes during Chinese sentence reading. In both experiments, we found that semantic interpretation proceeded despite the impossibility of a well-formed syntactic analysis. In Experiment 1, we found an N400 difference between combined syntactic category and semantic violations and single syntactic violations. This finding is inconsistent with earlier German and French studies (e.g., Friederici, Gunter, Hahne, & Mauth, 2004; Friederici, Steinhauer, & Frisch, 1999; Hahne & Friederici, 2002) showing that semantic integration does not proceed for words of the wrong syntactic category. In Experiment 2, we used a design that was very similar to that used in earlier German and French studies, but semantic violations still evoked an N400, irrespective of a simultaneous syntactic category violation. We argue against processing models that do not allow for semantic integration of a word unless it can be grammatically attached to the developing phrase structure tree. Rather, language experience may modulate the mode of interplay between syntax and semantics.

Semantic integration processes at different levels of syntactic hierarchy during sentence comprehension: an ERP study.

An event-related potential (ERP) study was conducted to investigate the temporal neural dynamics of semantic integration processes at different levels of syntactic hierarchy during Chinese sentence reading. In a hierarchical structure, subject noun+verb+numeral+classifier+object noun, the object noun is constrained by selectional restrictions of the classifier at the lower-level and of the verb at the higher-level and the classifier is also constrained by the verb at the higher-level. Semantic congruencies between verb, classifier, and noun were manipulated, resulting in five types of sentences: correct sentences, sentences with the single classifier-noun mismatch, sentences with the single verb-noun mismatch, sentences with the double-mismatch in classifier-noun and verb-noun, and sentences with the triple-mismatch in classifier-noun, verb-noun and verb-classifier. Compared with correct sentences, all four types of mismatches elicited N400 effects on the noun, with the effect in the double-mismatch equal to the effect in the single classifier-noun mismatch but larger than the effect in the single verb-noun mismatch. In addition, the single verb-noun mismatch and the double-mismatch elicited a left-posterior positivity effect and an anterior negativity effect in the 550-800 ms time window on the noun, with the effects larger in the double-mismatch than in the single-mismatch. The classifier-noun mismatch also elicited the late anterior negativity effect on the noun. Although the triple-mismatch did not induce a significant late positivity effect on the noun, it did on the classifier. The pattern of the N400 effects suggests that semantic processes at different levels of syntactic hierarchy interact in integrating the incoming word into the prior sentence context with neither process overriding the other. The late-posterior positivity effect may reflect the coordination of various semantic integration processes across hierarchical levels during sentence comprehension.

Effects of chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine in adult patients with Kaschin-Beck disease.

The purpose is to investigate the effects of chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine on adult patients with Kaschin-Beck disease (KBD). A total of 80 patients, aged over 40 years, were randomized into two groups receiving either 1,600 mg oral mixture of chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine or placebo twice daily for 8 months. Posteroanterior radiographs of bilateral knee in full extension were taken at enrollment and after 8 months. Mean joint-space width of the assigned six points on the tibiofemoral joint compartment was measured by a graduated magnifying lens. The mean joint space decreased significantly in the placebo group (4.3 +/- 1.09 versus 4.1 +/- 1.07 mm, P < 0.0001) after 8 months and was unchanged in the experimental group (P = 0.51). There was no statistical significance in the mean joint space between two groups at baseline and follow-up (P = 0.65 and P = 0.84, respectively). But the overall mean change in joint space was significant between the two groups (P < 0.0001). Knee joint space of the experimental group narrowed slowly compared to the control group. Therefore, chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine might play a protective role in preserving articular cartilage and provide evidence for therapeutic drugs in adult patients with KBD.

Detection of unsaturated disaccharides, pyridinoline, and hydroxyproline in urine of patients with Kashin-Beck disease: comparison with controls in an endemic area.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the pathologic status of adult patients with Kashin-Beck disease (KBD) in an endemic area of China through detection of 5 biochemical markers in their urine, and to study the correlations between these markers and KBD. METHODS: A total of 55 patients with KBD over age 40 years were recruited and divided into groups, Grade 1 and Grade 2, according to clinical diagnosis criteria for KBD and our inclusion criteria; 25 healthy persons were enrolled into a control group. The first-time urine of the 80 participants was collected in the morning. Three unsaturated disaccharides, pyridinoline (PYD), and hydroxyproline (HYP) were detected in urine samples with high performance liquid chromatography, ELISA, and a chemical kit. Mean levels of these markers were compared in the 3 groups. RESULTS: The mean concentrations of 3 unsaturated disaccharides and PYD in the Grade 2 group were significantly higher than levels in the Grade 1 group and controls (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between findings in the Grade 1 group and controls. Levels of 3 unsaturated disaccharides correlated with each other (p<0.01). The correlation coefficient between PYD and HYP was 0.470 (p<0.01). Except for HYP, the other markers all correlated with grade of KBD, rather than age or sex of subjects. CONCLUSION: The cartilage degradation of patients with Grade 2 KBD was more severe than that of Grade 1 patients and controls. The pathologic condition of Grade 1 patients was mild. Except for HYP, the markers we investigated specifically reflected the pathologic bone metabolism of adult patients with KBD. Trial registration number ChiCTR-TRC-00000140.