Ultrasound diagnosis and treatment of branchial cleft cyst and preoperative management.

OBJECTIVE: The ultrasonic diagnosis of cervical and facial cystic masses, as well as cases of missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis, was examined, to improve the diagnosis of branchial cleft anomalies. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 17 patients with branchial cleft cyst anomalies, including 11 males and 6 females, aged 12-53 years, with an average age of 33 ± 2 years, were unilateral single. All patients who underwent an ultrasound examination and image storage for retrospective analysis, and both longitudinal and transverse sections were scanned to observe the shape, size, boundary, peripheral relationship, and blood flow signal of the masses. All cases were examined with an enhanced CT scan, and pathological reports were generated. RESULTS: Among the 17 cases of branchial cleft anomalies, 15 cases were branchial cleft cysts, while one case involved fistula formation and one case involved sinus tract formation. Based on the type of branchial cleft, the first, second, and third cysts were classified in 4, 12, and 1 case, respectively. The sensitivity rate and specificity of ultrasonic diagnosis were 14/17 (82.4%) and 4/6 (66.7%), respectively. Ultrasonic characteristic analysis for the masses can be found in simple cystic masses or hypoechoic masses, most of them are of a regular shape and have a distinct boundary, and almost no blood flow signal. All patients who were misdiagnosed exhibited blood flow signals, including 1 patient with an abundant blood flow signal, 1 patient suspected of having ectopic thyroid with an abnormal function due to the rat-tail sign, 2 patients misdiagnosed as local inflammatory focus, and 1 patient misdiagnosed with tuberculous lymphadenitis. CONCLUSION: Ultrasound has a detection rate of up to 100% for cervical and facial masses, providing a fundamental determination of lesion characteristics and specific guidance for preoperative diagnosis. If the blood flow signals can be identified and carefully considered their peripheral relationship, the diagnostic rate can be improved.

Cloning and expression of circular transcript of mouse growth hormone receptor gene.

Based on reports in the literature and search results on the circBase database, 8 circular transcripts of the mouse growth hormone receptor (GHR) gene were identified. In order to confirm the existence of the circular transcripts of the GHR gene (circGHRs) and to explore their expression patterns, the Kunming mouse (Mus musculus) was used as a research animal. This study detected the existence of circGHRs by RT-PCR amplification and sequencing, one of which was selected as circGHR for detailed analysis. The circular structure of circGHR was confirmed by RNase R treatment and reverse transcription. The spatiotemporal expression of circGHR and GHR mRNA was analyzed by qRT-PCR. The results showed that the full length of mouse circGHR was 820 nt, which was formed by circularization of exons 2-8 of the transcript of the GHR gene. RNase R tolerance analysis shows that mouse circGHR has the general characteristics of circular molecules and is not easily degraded by RNase R. Compared with oligo-d(T)18 primers, random primers have higher reverse transcription efficiency for circGHR, which further shows that circGHR is a poly(A)-free cyclic structure molecule. Tissue expression profile results show that circGHR is highly expressed in the liver and kidney of 1 week-old and 7-week old Kunming mice, but is low in pectoral muscles and leg muscles. The time-series expression profile of circGHR does not show any significant difference between the liver and pectoral muscle tissue. The circGHR expression in the leg muscle was low before 5 weeks of age but increased after 7 weeks of age. This study confirmed the existence of a circular transcript circGHR of the mouse GHR gene, and initially revealed the expression pattern of circGHR. The results of the study laid a foundation for in-depth developmental studies on the biological functions of the mouse circGHR and its mechanism of action regarding the growth and development of mice.

Investigating the heat tolerance and production performance in local chicken breed having normal and dwarf size.

Heat stress significantly impairs the growth performance of broilers, which causes serious losses to the poultry industry every year. Thus, understanding the performance of indigenous chicken breeds under such environment is crucial to address heat stress problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of heat stress (HS) on production performance, tissue histology, heat shock response (HSP70, HSP90), and muscle growth-related genes (GHR, IGF-1, and IGF-1R) of Normal yellow chicken (NYC) and Dwarf yellow chicken (DYC). Seventy-two female birds from each strain were raised under normal environmental conditions up to 84 days, with birds from each strain being divided into two groups (HS and control). In the HS group, birds were subjected to high temperature at 35 ± 1 °C for 8 h daily and lasted for a week, while in the control group, birds were raised at 28 ± 1 °C. At 91 days old, bird's liver, hypothalamus, and breast muscle tissues were collected to evaluate the gene expression, histological changes, and the production performance. The Feed intake, weight gain ratio, total protein intake and protein efficiency ratio showed a significant reduction in the treatments (P < 0.01) and treatment × strain interaction (P < 0.05) with breast muscle rate significantly reducing among the treatments (P < 0.01) after 7 days of HS. Correspondingly, total abdominal fat showed significant change among treatment and strain (P < 0.01, P < 0.05), respectively. Besides, HS markedly upregulated the mRNA expression of HSP70 and HSP90 in the pectoralis major of both chicken strains, but no significant increase (P < 0.05) was found in mRNA expression of HSP90 in liver and hypothalamus tissues of both chicken strains. Moreover, HS significantly upregulated (P < 0.05) the expression of lipogenic genes (FASN, ACC) in liver tissues of NYC, while mRNA expression of these genes showed no variation in DYC. Similarly, HS downregulated the mRNA expression of muscle growth-related genes (GHR, IGF-1, and IGF-1R). Consequently, the histopathological analysis showed that histological changes were accompanied by inflammatory cell infiltration in liver tissues of both chicken strains; however, histopathological changes were more severe in NYC than dwarf chicken strain. Conclusively, this study depicted that the production performance and growth rate varied significantly between treatment and control group of NYC. However, heat treatment in DYC has not shown significant damaging consequences as compared to the control group that signifies the vital role of the dwarf trait in thermal tolerance.

Isotope effect in spin response of pi-conjugated polymer films and devices.

Recent advances in organic spin response include long polaron spin-coherence times measured by optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR), substantive room-temperature magnetoelectroluminescence and magnetoconductance obtained in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and spin-polarized carrier injection from ferromagnetic electrodes in organic spin valves (OSVs). Although the hyperfine interaction (HFI) has been foreseen to have an important role in organic spin response, no clear experimental evidence has been reported so far. Using the chemical versatility advantage of the organics, we studied and compared spin responses in films, OLED and OSV devices based on pi-conjugated polymers made of protonated, H-, and deuterated, D-hydrogen having a weaker HFI strength. We demonstrate that the HFI does indeed have a crucial role in all three spin responses. OLED films based on the D-polymers show substantially narrower magneto-electroluminescence and ODMR responses, and as a result of the longer spin diffusion obtained, OSV devices based on D-polymers show a substantially larger magnetoresistance.

Sol-gel synthesis of luminescent InP nanocrystals embedded in silica glasses.

III-V semiconductor nanocrystals rarely exist as spherical inclusions inside glasses, due to difficulties during their preparation, such as high toxic reagents or fast oxidation under usual glass technology temperatures. In this letter a sol-gel method for synthesis of InP nanocrystals embedded in silica glasses was described. Gels were synthesized by hydrolysis of a complex solution of Si(OC2H5)4, InCl3.4H2O, and PO(OC2H5)3. Then, the gels were heated at 600 degrees C in the presence of H2 gas to form fine cubic InP crystallites. Raman spectrum showed an InP longitudinal-optic mode (342 cm(-1)) and a transverse-optic mode (303 cm(-1)). The size of InP nanocrystals was found to be from 2 to 8 nm in diameter by transmission electron microscopy. A strong photoluminescence with a peak at 856 nm was observed from InP nanocrystals embedded in silica glasses. The results suggest that it might be possible to synthesize other III-V semiconductor nanocrystals embedded in silica glasses through the sol-gel process.

Organic magnetoelectroluminescence for room temperature transduction between magnetic and optical information.

Magnetic and spin-based technologies for data storage and processing provide unique challenges for information transduction to light because of magnetic metals' optical loss, and the inefficiency and resistivity of semiconductor spin-based emitters at room temperature. Transduction between magnetic and optical information in typical organic semiconductors poses additional challenges, as the spin-orbit interaction is weak and spin injection from magnetic electrodes has been limited to low temperature and low polarization efficiency. Here we demonstrate room temperature information transduction between a magnet and an organic light-emitting diode that does not require electrical current, based on control via the magnet's remanent field of the exciton recombination process in the organic semiconductor. This demonstration is explained quantitatively within a theory of spin-dependent exciton recombination in the organic semiconductor, driven primarily by gradients in the remanent fringe fields of a few nanometre-thick magnetic film.