[Research progress in the treatment of maxillary transverse deficiency with combined orthodontic-orthognathic approach].

In combined orthodontic-orthognathic treatment, the maxillary palatine suture is closed in most patients with insufficient maxillary width, and bony expansion of the maxilla cannot be achieved by dental expansion or rapid palatal expansion (RPE) which causes buccal inclination of the maxillary posterior teeth leading to unstable results. Therefore, segmental LeFort Ⅰ osteotomy and surgically assisted RPE are often used in clinical practice. In recent years, with the application of implant anchorage technology, implant anchorage assisted RPE has been gradually applied in orthognathic treatment. This article reviewed the indications, contraindications, complications, efficacy and long-term stability in different treatment approaches including segmental LeFort Ⅰ osteotomy, surgically assisted RPE and implant-supported maxillary skeletal expansion.

[Implantation of a monofocal intraocular lens after femtosecond laser intrastromal keratotomy and contralateral implantation of a trifocal IOL: a case report].

An age-related cataract patient who underwent femtosecond laser intrastromal keratotomy in the right eye for presbyopia correction 8 years ago was subjected to femtosecond laser-assisted phacoemulsification, with implantation of a monofocal intraocular lens (IOL) and a trifocal IOL in the right and left eyes, respectively. The corneal stromal ring was complementary to the monofocal IOL, which recovered the distance and near visual acuity, in the right eye postoperatively. The trifocal IOL provided good intermediate visual acuity for the left eye. The vision of the patient reached an ideal level for all visual distances. The binocular fusion was within the normal range, and the stereoscopic vision was restored. We hope that this case report can act as a reference for the treatment of cataract after presbyopia corrective surgery.

[Comparisons of clinical effects among three kinds of treatments of 1/3 displaced midshaft clavicular fractures in adults].

OBJECTIVES: To compare the clinical effects among three kinds of treatments (external fixation, plate fixation, and non-operation) of 1/3 displaced midshaft clavicular fractures in adults. METHODS: Retrospective analysis was conducted on 306 patients with clavicular fractures in Trauma Orthopedic Department in Jishuitan Hospital from March 2010 to May 2013, and 89 of these patients met the inclusive criteria.Among them, there were 29 cases of external fixation (Group A), 30 cases of plate fixation (Group B), and 30 cases of non-operation with the clavicle sling in Outpatient and Emergency Department (Group C). The average follow-up period was 32 months.The results were evaluated from four perspectives, respectively, follow-up period, Constant Shoulder Score (CSS), Disability of the Arm Shoulder and Hand Score (DASH), and imaging.There was no significant difference in demography, severity of injuries, mechanism of injury, and fracture type among the patients in the three groups. RESULTS: Among 29 cases of external fixation, 25 cases were successfully followed up, 4 were lost.60 cases of plate fixationand non-operation were all successfully followed up.Based on the pairwise comparison of CSS and DASH among the three groups, there was no significant difference between external fixation [(94.0±6.4), (15.2±3.4)Score] and plate fixation[(92.9±8.4), (15.7±3.5)Score] (both P>0.05). Mean values of CSS and DASH of non-operation group [(86.0±3.6), (18.0±3.6)Score] were lower than those of the former two groups (P<0.001). The healing time of 3 kinds of treatments were as follows: external fixation 10.4±2.32 weeks; plate fixation 12.1±2.5 weeks; and non-operation 15.7±2.2 weeks.In terms of their complications, for the external fixation group, there was 1 case of nonunion (4%); and 3 cases of angulation deformity in the 12(th) week, whose external fixations were maintained till their unions in the 16(th) week.Shortening and displacement did not appear in any cases.In the plate fixation group, there was 1 case of nonunion (3%) and no malunion in this group.The biggest complications of plate fixation were implants stimulus and to remove the plate in the second operation, accounting for 60%.In the non-operation group, there were 3 cases of nonunion (10%), and 12 cases of malunion (40%) including 10 cases without symptoms and 2 cases with symptoms.The satisfaction rates for the appearance of shoulder after these 3 kinds of treatments among the patients were 96%, 93% and 77%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: (1) In treating 1/3 displaced midshaft clavicular fractures in adults, external fixation and plate fixation are overall better than non-operation.And there is no significant difference in curative effects between the two. (2) Both external fixation and plate fixation have its advantages and disadvantages.The choice of treatment must be based on the clinical type of the fracture and the communication with patients.

Dominant factor determining the conduction-type of nitrogen-doped ZnO film.

Nitrogen-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) film has been grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The as-grown sample showed p-type conduction with a hole concentration of 3.1 x 10(17) cm(-3). After an annealing process in O2 at 600 degrees C for 30 min, p-type conduction was still remained, and the hole concentration of the film decreased to 6.8 x 10(16) cm(-3). Secondary ion mass spectroscopy revealed that the concentration of both nitrogen and hydrogen decreased after the annealing process. It is demonstrated that the intrinsic compensation source has been decreased after the annealing process. Because the variation trend of the hole concentration in the ZnO:N film is opposite to that of hydrogen and intrinsic defects, but in good accordance with nitrogen, the extrinsically substituted nitrogen (N(o)) should be the dominant factor that determines the conduction-type of the ZnO:N film.

Underlying heart disease and microbiological spectrum of adult infective endocarditis in one Chinese university hospital: a 10-year retrospective study.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: To identify the underlying heart disease and microbiological pathogen associated with infective endocarditis (IE) in Chinese patients in one university hospital over a 10-year period. METHODS: We recruited 115 adult patients admitted to Peking University First Hospital from 2002 to 2011 who were diagnosed with definite IE. Statistical analysis was performed to analyse data on demographics, clinical and laboratory findings, as well as microbiological pathogens. RESULTS: The most common underlying heart diseases for IE were congenital heart disease (24.3%) followed by degenerative valvular disease (17.4%). Aortic (44.3%) and mitral (43.5%) valves were most frequently affected. The right-sided IE cases were all found in patients with congenital heart disease. The age of patients was younger in right-sided cases than that in left-sided ones (P = 0.001). There was no difference in the mortality among groups with different underlying heart disease (P = 0.841). Forty-four (38.3%) patients were infected with viridans group streptococci. The isolation rate of staphylococci in right-sided IE was higher than that in the left-sided IE group (P = 0.021). More than 85% of streptococci were susceptible to ß-lactams. CONCLUSIONS: Congenital heart disease and degenerative valvular disease have overtaken rheumatic heart disease as the major underlying heart diseases associated with IE. Viridans group streptococci are the most common microbial cause of IE.

c-Src tyrosine kinase co-associates with and phosphorylates signal transducer and activator of transcription 5b which mediates the proliferation of normal human B lymphocytes.

c-Src is the normal human cellular protein homologue of the viral oncogene v-src. c-Src activity was reported recently to increase in CD40-activated human B lymphocytes, suggesting its involvement in proliferation. To elucidate the exact role of c-Src in this process, we investigated the effects of c-Src over-expression on normal B lymphocyte growth. B lymphocytes purified from human peripheral blood were infected with Ad5/F35 vector encoding either a constitutively active c-Src (c-Src/dominant-positive) or a dominant-negative c-Src (c-Src/DN). Little variation of B lymphocytes expansion could be observed between control enhanced yellow fluorescent protein and c-Src/dominant-positive-infected cells. In contrast, over-expression of c-Src/DN results in a 40% inhibition of B lymphocyte expansion. These results suggest that DN c-Src may compete with endogenous c-Src, resulting in partial inhibition of a transcriptional pathway involved in B lymphocyte proliferation. We demonstrate further that c-Src can phosphorylate signal transducer and activator of transcription 5b (STAT5b) on tyrosine 699 and that c-Src and STAT5b co-associate during B lymphocyte proliferation. These results confirm an important role for c-Src in the expansion of normal human B lymphocytes in vitro, in which c-Src may regulate STAT5b in the intracellular signalling pathway important for the proliferation of normal human B lymphocytes.

HIV-1 infection is facilitated in T cells by decreasing p56lck protein tyrosine kinase activity.

Several studies have suggested an important role for the protein tyrosine kinase p56lck (Lck) in HIV infection; however, the exact nature of this role remains unclear. Using a series of well characterized Jurkat-derived cell lines having a wide range of Lck kinase activity, our results showed that, while the entry of HIV-1 into these cell lines was similar, the kinetics of virus production by these cells were very different. Cells expressing a kinase-inactive Lck showed accelerated viral replication, whereas, cells expressing Lck with normal or elevated enzymatic activity showed a delay in virus replication that was proportional to the initial level of endogenous Lck activity. The cell line having the highest initial Lck kinase activity showed the slowest rate of productive HIV-1 infection. Analysis of 2-LTR circles revealed that this inhibitory effect of Lck was not due to inhibition of reverse transcription of HIV-1 genome or migration of the proviral DNA into the nuclei. This affect of Lck was confirmed in additional studies that used either the S1T cell line lacking completely Lck or where the Lck activity was altered in Jurkat cells prior to infection. S1T cells showed a 3- to 12-fold increase in the level of infection compared to Jurkat cells despite similar CD4 and chemokine coreceptor expression and cell doubling times. Pretreatment of Jurkat with an antisense lck oligodeoxynucleotide inhibited the synthesis of functional Lck and facilitated the viral replication by the cells as did expressing a dominant-negative mutant Lck which increased the productive infection>3-fold. Conversely, whereas IL-16 had no affect on productive infection in S1T cells that lack Lck, IL-16 pretreatment of Jurkat cells resulted in an immediate (within 5 min) and sustained and gradual (over 5 h) increase in Lck activity that resulted in a reduction of HIV-1 replication that paralleled the increasing Lck kinase activity. These results show that the enzymatic activity of Lck kinase can affect viral replication, that a lack of, or decreased Lck activity facilitates viral replication. Conversely, Lck can mediate a delay in HIV-1 infection that is proportional to the initial endogenous Lck enzyme activity.

A candidate live inactivatable attenuated vaccine for AIDS.

The recent discovery of long term AIDS nonprogressors who harbor nef-attenuated HIV suggests that a naturally occurring live vaccine for AIDS may already exist. Animal models have shown that a live vaccine for AIDS, attenuated in nef, is the best candidate vaccine. There are considerable risks, real and perceived, with the use of live HIV vaccines. We have introduced a conditional lethal genetic element into HIV-1 and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) molecular clones deleted in nef. The antiviral strategy we employed targets both virus replication and the survival of the infected cell. The suicide gene, herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (tk), was expressed and maintained in HIV over long periods of time. Herpes simplex virus tk confers sensitivity to the antiviral activity of acyclic nucleosides such as ganciclovir (GCV). HIV-tk and SIV-tk replication were sensitive to GCV at subtoxic concentrations, and virus-infected cells were eliminated from tumor cell lines as well as primary cell cultures. We found the HIV-tk virus to be remarkably stable even after being cultured in media containing a low concentration of GCV and then challenged with the higher dose and that while GCV resistant escape mutants did arise, a significant fraction of the virus remained sensitive to GCV.

The nef gene from a long-term HIV type 1 nonprogressor.

We examined the nef gene of HIV-1 in a long-term nonprogressor to look for evidence suggesting an attenuated virus. The nef gene was previously shown to be required for induction of AIDS. Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) deleted in nef, while infectious, fails to sustain the high viral loads necessary for the induction of AIDS in infected adult rhesus monkeys. The human subject of this report was found to harbor virus (HIV-1 Sur25) encoding open-nef reading frames. However, the nef genes of this subject bore a signature point mutation: a cysteine at amino acid 138. The sequence at this position was identical in all clones examined over a 3-year period. When this sequence was compared to the sequence database for AIDS and human retroviruses at Los Alamos, New Mexico, several isolates from other asymptomatic individuals were also found to encode nef genes with a cysteine at position 138. Furthermore, Cys-138 was found in chimpanzee immunodeficiency virus (CIV), a lentivirus that is similar to HIV but does not cause AIDS in chimpanzees. Multiple cysteines are also found in the nef gene of African green monkey virus, SVIagm, including cysteine at the position analogous to Cys-138. While seroprevalence of SIVagm is high in the wild, there is no known disease associated with this virus. The pathogenic virus isolated from Asian macaques, SIVmac, encodes a Nef protein that has few cysteines. Although the virus HIVSur25 encodes a completely open-nef gene, the virus from this individual is similar to attenuated SIVmac (SIVmac239/nef-deletion) as well as HIV deleted in nef in its growth properties in H9 cells. Nef containing a cysteine at position 138 was shown to be responsible for determining the ability to grow in H9.

[Determination of major volatile components in suhexiang wan (storax pill) using analytical supercritical fluid extraction (SFE)].

A new method based on the off-line coupling of analytical SFE and GC has been developed for qualitative and quantitative analysis of major volatile components in Suhexiang Wan, a Chinese patent medicine. The factors affecting extraction efficiency were examined to seek the optimal operating parameters. Quantitative recovery (90%) was achieved with 20 ml CO2 in ca 1 h using a self-designed analytical SFE system. Compared with the conventional methods, the SFE as an alternative technique for sample preparation will be most useful in the quality control of Chinese patent medicine.