p14ARF ameliorates inflammation and airway remodeling in nitric acid aerosol inhalation-induced bronchiolitis obliterans.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the protective effect of p14ARF in a nitric acid (NA) aerosol inhalation-induced bronchiolitis obliterans (BO) mouse model and its potential regulatory mechanism. METHODS: A BO mouse model was established by NA aerosol inhalation. The expressions of p14ARF, phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K), and protein kinase B (AKT) were detected by quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) and western blot (WB). Hematoxylin (HE) staining, Masson staining, and periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining observed pulmonary histological changes. TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining detected pulmonary cell apoptosis, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) measured matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), MMP-9, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1), interleukon-6 (IL-6), and transforminh growth factor-ß (TGF-ß) levels in lung tissue and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). RESULTS: The expressions of p14ARF, PI3K, and AKT showed a time gradient change, with a decrease trend (*P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01). Severe inflammatory infiltration and tracheal fibrosis were found in lung tissue in the modeling group (BO group) compared with the control group (Con group). The pH, PaO2, and PaO2/FiO2 values significantly reduced, while the PaCO2 value and the number of TUNEL-positive cells increased in BO group (P < 0.05). In addition, MMP-2, MMP-9, IL-6, and TGF-ß levels remarkably increased, with an increase in the number of white blood cells, neutrophils, and lymphocytes in BO group (P < 0.05). Furthermore, p14ARF up-regulation reversed the trend of the aforementioned indexes in BO mice. CONCLUSIONS: p14ARF ameliorated the inflammatory response and airway remodeling in a BO mouse model via the PI3K/AKT pathway.

Influence factors for upper respiratory tract infection in Chinese rural children: A cross-sectional study.

Aim: The prevalence rate of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) is high in children. Influencing factors for URTI have been reported in Chinese urban children, but those have not been explored in rural children. In China, children in the rural areas are a disadvantaged group. Therefore, this study aims to explore influencing factors for URTI in Chinese rural children. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study based on the 1991-2015 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS). In total, 5,289 children were eligible for the analysis, including 3,684 rural children and 1,605 urban children. The generalized estimating equation was used to determine the influencing factors, and results were expressed as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Results: The results showed that rural children aged 7-12 and 13-17 years had lower odds of URTI than those aged 0-1 year, with OR value of 0.17 (95% CI, 0.11-0.27) and 0.12 (95% CI, 0.08-0.19), respectively. Compared with uneducated mothers, those with education level of primary school (OR: 0.59, 95% CI, 0.42-0.84), lower middle school (OR: 0.53, 95% CI, 0.38-0.73), and upper middle school and technical school (OR: 0.62, 95% CI, 0.40-0.95) were associated with the lower odds of URTI in rural children. Children, whose mothers were office workers, had 46% lower odds of URTI than those with farmer mothers (OR: 0.54, 95% CI, 0.34-0.84). Conclusions: This study found that mother's education level, children's age, and mother's occupation were significant influencing factors for URTI, which suggested the importance to improve mother's health-related knowledge and working conditions in Chinese rural areas.

A Review of Single-Source Deep Unsupervised Visual Domain Adaptation.

Large-scale labeled training datasets have enabled deep neural networks to excel across a wide range of benchmark vision tasks. However, in many applications, it is prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to obtain large quantities of labeled data. To cope with limited labeled training data, many have attempted to directly apply models trained on a large-scale labeled source domain to another sparsely labeled or unlabeled target domain. Unfortunately, direct transfer across domains often performs poorly due to the presence of domain shift or dataset bias. Domain adaptation (DA) is a machine learning paradigm that aims to learn a model from a source domain that can perform well on a different (but related) target domain. In this article, we review the latest single-source deep unsupervised DA methods focused on visual tasks and discuss new perspectives for future research. We begin with the definitions of different DA strategies and the descriptions of existing benchmark datasets. We then summarize and compare different categories of single-source unsupervised DA methods, including discrepancy-based methods, adversarial discriminative methods, adversarial generative methods, and self-supervision-based methods. Finally, we discuss future research directions with challenges and possible solutions.

Sustained release of tulobuterol from graphene oxide laden hydrogel to manage asthma.

Bronchial asthma is a chronic disease which is currently treated using various inhalants. However, the medication adherence with the inhalants is poor due to complex procedure to use them along with frequent dosing. In this paper, we have developed tulobuterol loaded Pluronic® F127-reduced graphene oxide transdermal hydrogel to sustain the release of tulobuterol to manage asthma for days. The synthesis of Pluronic® F127-reduced graphene oxide was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy. The transmission electron microscope showed wrinkled flat nano sheets. The hydrogel showed sufficient mechanical properties for topical application and was safe in the skin irritation study (rabbit model). The ex vivo release data demonstrated the ability of reduced graphene oxide to sustain the release of tulobuterol for 72 h, due to strong π-π interaction between drug and graphene oxide. The pharmacokinetic profile in Sprague-Dawley rat model confirmed the potential of tulobuterol-Pluronic® F127-reduced graphene oxide hydrogel to sustain the release of tulobuterol for effective management of asthma.

Satisfactory usage of kidneys from pediatric donors with severe hand foot mouth disease.

No studies have reported making use of kidneys from pediatric donors with severe HFMD. Here, we retrospectively analyzed the feasibility and clinical effect of six cases of kidney transplantation from four pediatric donors with severe HFMD in our center between January 2014 and December 2016. The donors' age ranged from 6 months to 3 years and 11 months. The recipients' age ranged from 18 to 41 years. Single kidney transplantation was performed in four recipients, and dual splitting kidney transplantation and en bloc kidney transplantation were performed in two recipients, respectively. During the 1.5-4 years follow-up, all recipients maintained normal kidney allograft function except for one recipient whose allograft was removed due to the allograft artery thrombosis. The survival rates of recipient and allograft were 100% and 83.3%, respectively. None of the six recipients showed any symptoms associated with HFMD. In conclusion, it is feasible to perform kidney transplantation from pediatric donors with severe HFMD to adult recipients with immunity to the pathogens. The clinical effect is satisfactory.

[Serum vitamin D levels in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the correlation between serum vitamin D levels and index of glucose and lipid metabolism in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODS: A total of 44 postmenopausal women with T2DM and 41 healthy postmenopausal women were matched with age, body mass index and menopausal duration. The serum vitamin D was detected by enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the level of 25(OH)D3 in postmenopausal women with T2DM was lower, with no statistical significance. Multiple regression analysis revealed that only BMI(bj'=-0.372, P<0.05) was independently related to 25(OH)D3 with statistical significance. The percentages of 25(OH)D3 deficiency in all subjects in the control group and in the T2DM group were 84.7%, 80.5%, and 88.6%, respectively. The 25(OH)D3 deficiency in the T2DM group was more prevalent than that in the control group, with no statistical difference (P=0.372). The binary logistic regression analysis showed the serum 25(OH)D3 level was not related to the risk of diabetes. CONCLUSION: Compared with the control group, a lower 25(OH)D3 level and a higher rate of 25(OH)D3 deficiency is found in T2DM subjects. When rectified by BMI, these is no significant difference. In postmenopausal women, hypovitaminosis D is associated with obesity and dyslipidemia, but not with the risk of T2DM.