The impact of apparent temperature on the emergency visits for traumatic fractures in Hangzhou, China.

BACKGROUND: Traumatic fractures occur frequently worldwide. However, research remains limited on the association between short-term exposure to temperature and traumatic fractures. This study aims to explore the impact of apparent temperature (AT) on emergency visits (EVs) due to traumatic fractures. METHODS: Based on EVs data for traumatic fractures and the contemporary meteorological data, a generalized Poisson regression model along with a distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) were undertaken to determine the impact of AT on traumatic fracture EVs. Subgroup analysis by gender and age and sensitivity analysis were also performed. RESULTS: A total of 25,094 EVs for traumatic fractures were included in the study. We observed a wide "J"-shaped relationship between AT and risk of traumatic fractures, with AT above 9.5 °C positively associated with EVs due to traumatic fractures. The heat effects became significant at cumulative lag 0-11 days, and the relative risk (RR) for moderate heat (95th percentile, 35.7 °C) and extreme heat (99.5th percentile, 38.8 °C) effect was 1.311 (95% CI: 1.132-1.518) and 1.418 (95% CI: 1.191-1.688) at cumulative lag 0-14 days, respectively. The cold effects were consistently non-significant on single or cumulative lag days across 0-14 days. The heat effects were higher among male and those aged 18-65 years old. The sensitivity analysis results remained robust. CONCLUSION: Higher AT is associated with cumulative and delayed higher traumatic fracture EVs. The male and those aged 18-65 years are more susceptible to higher AT.

Inhibition of Methamphetamine Self-Administration and Reinstatement by Central Blockade of Angiotensin II Receptor in Rats.

The molecular mechanism and treatment of methamphetamine (METH) use disorder remain unclear. The current study aimed to investigate the role of central angiotensin II receptor (ATR) in drug taking and seeking behavior associated with METH use disorder. The effect of an ATR type 1 (AT1R) antagonist, candesartan cilexetil, on the reinforcing and motivational effects of METH was first assessed using the animal model of METH self-administration (SA) and reinstatement. The levels of dopamine D2 receptor (D2R) and AT1R were subsequently examined. Furthermore, the present study determined the expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) by comparing METH SA, METH-yoked, and Saline-yoked groups. The target miRNAs were further overexpressed in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) via a lentivirus vector to investigate the effects of target miRNAs on METH SA maintained under a fixed ratio 1, progressive ratio, and cue/drug reinstatement of METH SA. The potential role of the AT1R-PLCß-CREB signaling pathway was finally investigated. The results suggest that AT1R blockade effectively reduced METH SA and reinstatement, in conjunction with the counter-regulation of D2R and AT1R. A total of 17 miRNAs targeting Ang II in NAc were found to be associated with the voluntary intake of METH. Furthermore, overexpression of specific miR-219a-5p targeting AT1R-regulated METH SA and reinstatement. The AT1R-PLCß-CREB signaling pathway was found to be associated with the effect of AT1R on the drug-taking and drug-seeking behavior involving METH use disorder.

The effects of early exposure to MK-801 during environmental enrichment on spatial memory, methamphetamine self-administration and cue-induced renewal in rats.

OBJECTIVE: Accumulating evidence indicates an association between improved cognition and the early introduction of environmental enrichment (EE). The beneficial effect of EE has also been examined in the field of methamphetamine (METH) dependence. The present study was designed to examine whether early cognitive alterations by dizocilpine (MK-801) in adolescence can impact the effect of EE on spatial memory, METH self-administration (SA), and cue-induced renewal in adulthood. METHODS: In Experiments 1 and 2, Morris Water Maze (MWM) performance, c-Fos expression and N-methyl d-aspartate receptor subtype 2B (NMDAR2B) levels were determined in various brain regions following a change in rearing condition from EE to an isolation environment (IE) at different points (PD 41-60 or PD 51-70). In Experiments 3 and 4, MWM performance and METH SA behaviors in adulthood were tested following adolescent administration of MK-801 during different periods of adolescence (PD 41-60 or PD 51-70) under EE rearing conditions. RESULTS: The early introduction of the IE at PD 41-60 significantly decreased the beneficial effect of EE on MWM performance in adulthood as compared to IE exposure at PD 51-70. Different rearing conditions also altered c-Fos expression and NMDA2B receptor activity in a regionally specific pattern. EE induced structural and systemic changes in the hippocampus that were associated with improvements in spatial memory. Early administration of MK-801 at PD 41-60 and PD 51-70 produced distinctive effects on the behavioral outcomes of METH SA and cue-induced renewal. CONCLUSION: Early cognitive alterations have a profound impact on spatial memory and METH dependence.

Ketamine abuse potential and use disorder.

Ketamine is a noncompetitive antagonist of N-methyl-d-asparate (NMDA) receptor and has been long used as an anesthetic agent in humans and veterinary medicine. The present article reviews the epidemiology, pharmacology, neurochemistry, and treatment of ketamine abuse. Ketamine has a unique mood controlling property and a number of studies have demonstrated a significant and rapid antidepressant effect of ketamine. However, the therapeutic value of ketamine to treat psychiatric disorders faces a major challenge that ketamine also owns significant reinforcing and toxic effects. Its abuse has posted severe harms on individuals and society. Disrupted learning and memory processing has long been related with ketamine use. It is hypothesized that ketamine blocks NMDA receptors on gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurons inside the thalamic reticular nucleus, which leads to disinhibition of dopaminergic neurons and increased release of dopamine. Currently, there is no specific treatment for treating every ketamine patient presenting peripheral toxicity. Interestingly, ketamine psychotherapy has been suggested to be a promising approach to treat addiction of other drugs. Future research can continue to develop creative ways to investigate potential mechanism and treatments related to ketamine abuse that have posted severe individual and social harms.

Assessing the efficacy of an inactivated chicken anemia virus vaccine.

BACKGROUND: Chicken anemia virus (CAV) is an immunosuppressive virus that causes chicken infectious anemia (CIA) which is a highly contagious avian disease. CAV causes major economic losses in the poultry industry worldwide. The current CAV vaccine is a live attenuated strain administered in the drinking water that risks horizontal infection of other chickens. The purpose of this study was to develop a novel vaccine against CAV that can be administered safely using a highly pathogenic isolate inactivated with ß-propiolactone hydrolysis that would protect chicks from CAV. METHODS: Hens were vaccinated twice intramuscularly with a novel CAV GD-G-12 inactivated vaccine and the humoral immune responses of the hens and offspring were monitored by ELISA. A heterologous intramuscular challenge using the CAV strain GD-E-12 was conducted in the chicks hatched from vaccinated or unvaccinated hens. RESULTS: The vaccine strain, GD-G-12, was shown to be highly pathogenic prior to inactivation evidenced by thymic atrophy and bleeding, and weight loss. The inactivated vaccine was considered safe and showed no signs of pathogenicity. High titers of CAV specific antibodies were detected in the vaccinated hens and in their chicks, indicating vertical transfer of maternal antibodies. Furthermore, the chicks hatched from vaccinated hens were resistant to a heterologous CAV challenge and showed no signs of weight loss and thymic atrophy and bleeding. CONCLUSION: Our studies are proof of principle that inactivated GD-G-12 might be a novel vaccine candidate to prevent CAV infection, and highlight the utility of using an inactivated virus for this vaccine.

Phylogenetic and molecular characterization of chicken anemia virus in southern China from 2011 to 2012.

Chicken anemia virus (CAV) is an important pathogen that causes severe immunosuppression in young chickens. We have characterized 13 CAVs isolated from different commercial farms in southern China between 2011 and 2012. We discovered 92 variable residues compared to 37 other CAV complete genome sequences from other parts of the world listed in GenBank; these residues have not been previously observed. All of the Chinese CAV genomes that were characterized in this study had a glutamine at position 394, a hallmark of highly pathogenic CAVs. We also discovered that intra-group genetic recombination plays a role in generating genetic diversity in natural populations of CAV. The GD-J-12 isolate was a possible recombinant between GD-C-12 and GD-M-12 in the genomic region that encompassed both the coding and non-coding regions.

Hierarchically organized layout for visualization of biochemical pathways.

OBJECTIVE: Many complex pathways are described as hierarchical structures in which a pathway is recursively partitioned into several sub-pathways, and organized hierarchically as a tree. The hierarchical structure provides a natural way to visualize the global structure of a complex pathway. However, none of the previous research on pathway visualization explores the hierarchical structures provided by many complex pathways. In this paper, we aim to develop algorithms that can take advantages of hierarchical structures, and give layouts that explore the global structures as well as local structures of pathways. METHODS: We present a new hierarchically organized layout algorithm to produce layouts for hierarchically organized pathways. Our algorithm first decomposes a complex pathway into sub-pathway groups along the hierarchical organization, and then partition each sub-pathway group into basic components. It then applies conventional layout algorithms, such as hierarchical layout and force-directed layout, to compute the layout of each basic component. Finally, component layouts are joined to form a final layout of the pathway. Our main contribution is the development of algorithms for decomposing pathways and joining layouts. RESULTS: Experiment shows that our algorithm is able to give comprehensible visualization for pathways with hierarchies, cycles as well as complex structures. It clearly renders the global component structures as well as the local structure in each component. In addition, it runs very fast, and gives better visualization for many examples from previous related research.

Emissions investigation for a novel medical waste incinerator.

Medical waste constitutes one of the waste streams that should be dealt with special priority due to its potential negative impact on public health and on the environment. Incineration is a process that is widely used for the treatment of medical waste. However, self-supporting combustion of medical waste cannot avoid releasing many hazardous pollutants into our environment. The most favored solutions are firing additional fuels of high calorific value and direct purification by air pollution control devices (APCD). This process entails not only large first time investment but also an increase in the operation cost. A novel incinerator is proposed for better utilization of energy of the incineration process. Its originality is essentially due to combining a feeder, a rotary grate, a cylindrical gasifier and a "coaxial" secondary combustion chamber into a unique unit. The structure of the incinerator as well as the principle of the incineration process is presented in this paper. A full-scale trial of the novel incinerator with APCD was carried out from March to May 2008 to investigate how the distinct configuration influenced the incineration process. Data on PM, CO, NO(X), O(2) were recorded by a continuous emission monitoring system during the study period. Heavy metals and PCCD/Fs were also sampled and measured. Measuring results were compared with the China and U.S. EPA guidelines. The concentrations of contaminants were below their respective limits in emission control standards. Results from testing the novel medical waste incinerator confirmed that this technology has a good suitability for neutralization of medical wastes and purification of flue gases.