Ultracold field-linked tetratomic molecules.

Ultracold polyatomic molecules offer opportunities1 in cold chemistry2,3, precision measurements4 and quantum information processing5,6, because of their rich internal structure. However, their increased complexity compared with diatomic molecules presents a challenge in using conventional cooling techniques. Here we demonstrate an approach to create weakly bound ultracold polyatomic molecules by electroassociation7 (F.D. et al., manuscript in preparation) in a degenerate Fermi gas of microwave-dressed polar molecules through a field-linked resonance8-11. Starting from ground-state NaK molecules, we create around 1.1 × 103 weakly bound tetratomic (NaK)2 molecules, with a phase space density of 0.040(3) at a temperature of 134(3) nK, more than 3,000 times colder than previously realized tetratomic molecules12. We observe a maximum tetramer lifetime of 8(2) ms in free space without a notable change in the presence of an optical dipole trap, indicating that these tetramers are collisionally stable. Moreover, we directly image the dissociated tetramers through microwave-field modulation to probe the anisotropy of their wavefunction in momentum space. Our result demonstrates a universal tool for assembling weakly bound ultracold polyatomic molecules from smaller polar molecules, which is a crucial step towards Bose-Einstein condensation of polyatomic molecules and towards a new crossover from a dipolar Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superfluid13-15 to a Bose-Einstein condensation of tetramers. Moreover, the long-lived field-linked state provides an ideal starting point for deterministic optical transfer to deeply bound tetramer states16-18.

Effective Potential and Superfluidity of Microwave-Shielded Polar Molecules.

We analytically show that the effective interaction potential between microwave-shielded polar molecules consists of an anisotropic van der Waals-like shielding core and a modified dipolar interaction. This effective potential is validated by comparing its scattering cross sections with those calculated using intermolecular potential involving all interaction channels. It is shown that a scattering resonance can be induced under microwave fields reachable in current experiments. With the effective potential, we further study the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer pairing in the microwave-shielded NaK gas. We show that the superfluid critical temperature is drastically enhanced near the resonance. As the effective potential is suitable for exploring the many-body physics of molecular gases, our results pave the way for studies of the ultracold gases of microwave-shielded molecular gases.

Investigating influencing factors on premenstrual syndrome (PMS) among female college students.

BACKGROUND: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) affects women's physical and mental health. Depression, stress, sleep disturbance, and eating attitude problems have been known to influence PMS. Furthermore, restrictions of daily life due to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to changes in sleep patterns and eating attitudes. Thus, it is necessary to closely examine how these factors affect PMS. This study aimed to examine the levels of PMS, stress, depression, sleep disturbance, and eating attitude problems among female college students who experience dysmenorrhea and determine the factors associated with PMS. METHODS: A cross-sectional online survey design was conducted using a convenience sample of 143 female college students in C City, South Korea. Data were collected from September 1 to 19, 2021 in South Korea using an online self-administered survey. Differences in participants' level of PMS according to physical health variables (e.g., smoking, water intake, menstrual pain intensity) and psychological issues (i.e., stress, depression, sleep disturbances, and eating attitude problems) were assessed with independent sample t-tests and one-way ANOVAs. Correlational analyses between these variables were also conducted. Additionally, multiple regression was performed to identify the factors influencing PMS. RESULTS: PMS severity was between normal (27.3%) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) (72.7%). PMS was associated positively with depression (r = .284, p = 001), stress (r = .274, p = .001), sleep disturbance (r = .440, p < .001), and eating attitude problems (r = .266, p = .001). Additionally, menstrual pain intensity (ß = 0.204), sleep disturbances (ß = 0.375), and eating attitude problems (ß = 0.202) were found to influence PMS. The regression model was significant (F = 16.553, p < .001) with an explanatory power of 24.7%. CONCLUSIONS: Considering the influencing factors of PMS identified in this study, interventions for participants experiencing PMS should be made. We propose that further study should be conducted to examine whether the severity of PMS changes according to menstrual pain, the pattern and degree of its change, and the paths through which sleep quality and eating attitude problems affect PMS.

Clinical features and diagnostic approaches for abdominal tuberculosis: five-year experience from a non-tuberculosis-designated hospital in China.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: abdominal tuberculosis (TB) is a common form of extrapulmonary TB but it is still a diagnostic dilemma in clinical practice. This study aimed to highlight the clinical features and diagnostic approaches for abdominal TB. METHODS: seventy cases of diagnosed abdominal TB were retrospectively collected between August 1st, 2015 and June 30th, 2020. They were classified as peritoneal TB, lymph node TB, gastrointestinal TB, visceral TB or mixed TB. RESULTS: eighteen patients were diagnosed with peritoneal TB, nine with lymph node TB, five with gastrointestinal TB, two with visceral TB and 36 with mixed TB. More than 65 % of the patients had tuberculosis of other sites except the abdomen. The median diagnosis time was 60 days. Ascites (58.6 %), abdominal distension (48.6 %), weight loss (44.3 %) and fever (42.9 %) were the most common symptoms. The overall microbiological and histological detection rates were 70.0 % and 38.6 %, respectively. The non-ascite samples yielded a higher microbiological confirmation rate (63.6 %) than the total samples (40.8 %). Diagnosis was confirmed histologically in 18 patients (69.2 %). Forty-five cases (64.3 %) were clinically diagnosed. Invasive procedures such as surgery (6/7), percutaneous biopsy (7/7) and endoscopy in lymph node TB (4/5) had high confirmation rates. CONCLUSIONS: the diagnosis of abdominal TB should be reached by a combination of clinical, laboratory, radiological, microbiological and pathological findings.

Diffusion kurtosis imaging in evaluating gliomas: different region of interest selection methods on time efficiency, measurement repeatability, and diagnostic ability.

OBJECTIVES: Comparing the diagnostic efficacy of diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) derived from different region of interest (ROI) methods in tumor parenchyma for grading and predicting IDH-1 mutation and 1p19q co-deletion status of glioma patients and correlating with their survival data. METHODS: Sixty-six patients (29 females; median age, 45 years) with pathologically proved gliomas (low-grade gliomas, 36; high-grade gliomas, 30) were prospectively included, and their clinical data were collected. All patients underwent DKI examination. DKI maps of each metric were derived. Three groups of ROIs (ten spots, ROI-10s; three biggest tumor slices, ROI-3s; and whole-tumor parenchyma, ROI-whole) were manually drawn by two independent radiologists. The interobserver consistency, time spent, diagnostic efficacy, and survival analysis of DKI metrics based on these three ROI methods were analyzed. RESULTS: The intraexaminer reliability for all parameters among these three ROI methods was good, and the time spent on ROI-10s was significantly less than that of the other two methods (p < 0.001). DKI based on ROI-10s demonstrated a slightly better diagnostic value than the other two ROI methods for grading and predicting the IDH-1 mutation status of glioma, whereas DKI metrics derived from ROI-10s performed much better than those of the ROI-3s and ROI-whole in identifying 1p19q co-deletion. In survival analysis, the model based on ROI-10s that included patient age and mean diffusivity showed the highest prediction value (C-index, 0.81). CONCLUSIONS: Among the three ROI methods, the ROI-10s method had the least time spent and the best diagnostic value for a comprehensive evaluation of glioma. It is an effective way to process DKI data and has important application value in the clinical evaluation of glioma. KEY POINTS: • The intraexaminer reliability for all DKI parameters among different ROI methods was good, and the time spent on ROI-10 spots was significantly less than the other two ROI methods. • DKI metrics derived from ROI-10 spots performed the best in ROI selection methods (ROI-10s, ten-spot ROIs; ROI-3s, three biggest tumor slices ROI; and ROI-whole, whole-tumor parenchyma ROI) for a comprehensive evaluation of glioma. • The ROI-10 spots method is an effective way to process DKI data and has important application value in the clinical evaluation of glioma.

Discovery of pyrazolones as novel carboxylesterase 2 inhibitors that potently inhibit the adipogenesis in cells.

Carboxylesterase 2 (CES2) is one of the most important Phase I drug metabolizing enzymes in the carboxylesterase family. It plays crucial roles in the bioavailability of oral ester prodrugs and the therapeutic effect of some anticancer drugs such as irinotecan (CPT11) and capecitabine. In addition to the well-known roles of CES2 in xenobiotic metabolism, the enzyme also participates in endogenous metabolism and the production of lipids. In this study, we synthesized a series of pyrazolones and assayed their inhibitory effects against CES2 in vitro. Structure-activity relationship analysis of these pyrazolones reveals that the introduction of 4-methylphenyl unit (R1), 4-methylbenzyl (R2) and cyclohexyl (R3) moieties are beneficial for CES2 inhibition. Guided by these SARs results, 1-cyclohexyl-4-(4-methylbenzyl)-3-p-tolyl-1H- pyrazol-5(4H)-one (27) was designed and synthesized. Further investigations demonstrated that the compound 27 exhibited stronger CES2 inhibition activity with a lower IC50 value (0.13 µM). The inhibition kinetic study demonstrated that compound 27 inhibited the hydrolysis of CES2-fluorescein diacetate (FD) through non-competitive inhibition. In addition, the molecular docking showed that the core of pyrazolone, the cyclohexane moiety, 4-methylbenzyl and 4-methylphenyl groups in compound 27 all played important roles with the amino acid residues of CSE2. Also, compound 27 could inhibit adipocyte adipogenesis induced by mouse preadipocytes. In brief, we designed and synthesized a novel pyrazolone compound with a strong inhibitory ability on CES2 and could inhibit the adipogenesis induced by mouse preadipocytes, which can be served as a promising lead compound for the development of more potent pyrazolone-type CES2 inhibitors, and also used as a potential tool for exploring the biological functions of CES2 in human being.

The role of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) family in tumors.

The corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) family is widely distributed among the central nervous system and peripheral tissues, such as the digestive, cardiovascular, immune, reproductive, endocrine systems. The CRH family members are widely involved in the regulation of human cell biological processes, immune response, and regulation of inflammatory processes that can affect the occurrence and development of tumors. At present, CRH family members and their receptors can be detected in many tumor tissues, and some people think that members of the CRH family may be potential tumor treatment targets as they can affect cellular processes, such as proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis. However currently, there is no systematic introduction to the relationship between the CRH family and various tumors. This review introduces the molecular regulation of the CRH family in tumor formation and seeks further targeted therapy.

Direct and Label-Free Determination of Human Glycated Hemoglobin Levels Using Bacteriorhodopsin as the Biosensor Transducer.

Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels are an important index for the diagnosis and long-term control of diabetes. This study is the first to use a direct and label-free photoelectric biosensor to determine HbA1c using bacteriorhodopsin-embedded purple membranes (PM) as a transducer. A biotinylated PM (b-PM) coated electrode that is layered with protein A-oriented antibodies against hemoglobin (Hb) readily captures non-glycated Hb (HbA0) and generates less photocurrent. The spectra of bacteriorhodopsin and Hb overlap so the photocurrent is reduced because of the partial absorption of the incident light by the captured Hb molecules. Two HbA0 and HbA1c aptasensors that are prepared by conjugating specific aptamers on b-PM coated electrodes single-step detect HbA0 and HbA1c in 15 min, without cross reactivity, with detection limits of ≤0.1 µg/mL and a dynamic range of 0.1-100 µg/mL. Both aptasensors exhibit high selectivity and long-term stability. For the clinical samples, HbA0 concentrations and HbA1c levels that are measured with aptasensors correlate well with total Hb concentrations and the HbA1c levels that are determined using standard methods (correlation gradient = 0.915 ± 0.004 and 0.981 ± 0.001, respectively). The use of these aptasensors for diabetes care is demonstrated.

Factors Influencing Suicidal Ideation Among Adolescents: The Serial Mediating Effect of Depression and Sleep Quality on Attitude Toward Mental Health Services.

The purpose of the current study was to examine the serial mediating effect of sleep quality and depression on the relationship between attitude toward mental health services and suicidal ideation among adolescents attending middle and high school in Daejeon City, South Korea. A total of 151 of 200 surveys were used for serial multiple mediation analysis. Suicidal ideation was positively associated with depression (r = 0.706, p < 0.001) and sleep quality (r = 0.173, p = 0.034), and negatively associated with age (r = -0.19, p = 0.02). Suicidal ideation was positively influenced by attitude toward mental health services (ß = 0.261, p = 0.039), which was also influenced by depression (ß = 2.805, p < 0.001). Depression was shown to have a significant mediating effect on the relationship of attitude toward mental health services for suicidal ideation (indirect effect = -0.828); however, sleep quality did not have an effect. Regular assessment of and interventions for depression are a priority for overall prevention of adolescent suicide. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 58(11), 29-36.].

Efficient Generation of Many-Body Entangled States by Multilevel Oscillations.

We generate high-fidelity massively entangled states in an antiferromagnetic spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) by utilizing multilevel oscillations. Combining the multilevel oscillations with additional adiabatic drives, we greatly shorten the necessary evolution time and relax the requirement on the control accuracy of quadratic Zeeman splitting, from microgauss to milligauss, for a ^{23}Na spinor BEC. The achieved high fidelities over 96% show that two kinds of massively entangled states, the many-body singlet state and the twin-Fock state, are almost perfectly generated. The generalized spin squeezing parameter drops to a value far below the standard quantum limit even with the presence of atom number fluctuations and stray magnetic fields, illustrating the robustness of our protocol under real experimental conditions. The generated many-body entangled states can be employed to achieve the Heisenberg-limit quantum precision measurement and to attack nonclassical problems in quantum information science.

Comparative analysis of the diffusion kurtosis imaging and diffusion tensor imaging in grading gliomas, predicting tumour cell proliferation and IDH-1 gene mutation status.

INTRODUCTION: Few studies have applied diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) for the comprehensive assessment of gliomas [tumour grade, isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH-1) mutation status and tumour proliferation rate (Ki-67)]. This study describes the efficacy of DKI and DTI to comprehensively evaluate gliomas, compares their results. METHODS: Fifty-two patients (18 females; median age, 47.5 years) with pathologically proved gliomas were prospectively included. All cases underwent DKI examination. DKI (mean kurtosis: MK, axial kurtosis: Ka, radial kurtosis: Kr) and DTI (mean diffusivity: MD, fractional anisotropy: FA) maps of each metric was derived. Three ROIs were manually drawn. RESULTS: MK, Ka, Kr and FA were significantly higher in HGGs than in LGGs, whereas MD was significantly lower in HGGs than in LGGs (P < 0.01). ROC analysis demonstrated that MK (specificity: 100% sensitivity: 79%) and Ka (specificity: 96% sensitivity: 82%) had the same and highest (AUC: 0.93) diagnostic value. Moreover, MK, Ka, and Kr were significantly higher in grade III than II gliomas (P ≦ 0.01). Further, DKI and DTI can significantly identify IDH-1 mutation status (P ≦ 0.03). Ka (sensitivity: 74%, specificity: 75%, AUC: 0.72) showed the highest diagnostic value. In addition, DKI metrics and MD showed significant correlations with Ki-67 (P ≦ 0.01) and Ka had the highest correlation coefficient (rs = 0.72). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with DTI, DKI has great advantages for the comprehensive assessment of gliomas. Ka might serve as a promising imaging index in predicting glioma grading, tumour cell proliferation rate and IDH-1 gene mutation status.

[Predictive value of red blood cell distribution width for acute kidney injury in children with sepsis].

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical value of red blood cell distribution width (RDW) in the early prediction of acute kidney injury (AKI) in children with sepsis. METHODS: A total of 126 children with sepsis were divided into an AKI group (n=66) and a non-AKI group (n=60) according to the presence or absence of AKI. These patients were also classified into high-RDW and low-RDW groups according to the mean RDW. The groups were compared in terms of age, male-to-female ratio, body mass index (BMI), Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score, serum blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Cr), uric acid (UA), serum C-reactive protein (CRP), and routine blood test results. Independent factors associated with RDW were analyzed by multiple linear regression. RESULTS: Age, male-to-female ratio, BMI, CRP, SOFA score, and APACHE II score did not differ significantly between the AKI and non-AKI groups (P>0.05), but the AKI group had significantly higher BUN, Cr, UA, and RDW levels than the non-AKI group (P<0.05). Age, male-to-female ratio, and BMI did not differ significantly between the high-RDW and low-RDW groups (P>0.05), but the high-RDW group had significantly higher BUN, Cr, UA, CRP, SOFA score, APACHE II score, Hb, and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) than the low-RDW group (P<0.05). The multiple linear regression analysis showed that age, sex, APACHE II score, Cr, Hb, and MCV were independent factors associated with RDW. CONCLUSIONS: RDW has a certain clinical value in the early prediction of AKI in children with sepsis.

Duality between cooperation and defection in the presence of tit-for-tat in replicator dynamics.

The prisoner's dilemma describes a conflict between a pair of players, in which defection is a dominant strategy whereas cooperation is collectively optimal. The iterated version of the dilemma has been extensively studied to understand the emergence of cooperation. In the evolutionary context, the iterated prisoner's dilemma is often combined with population dynamics, in which a more successful strategy replicates itself with a higher growth rate. Here, we investigate the replicator dynamics of three representative strategies, i.e., unconditional cooperation, unconditional defection, and tit-for-tat, which prescribes reciprocal cooperation by mimicking the opponent's previous move. Our finding is that the dynamics is self-dual in the sense that it remains invariant when we apply time reversal and exchange the fractions of unconditional cooperators and defectors in the population. The duality implies that the fractions can be equalized by tit-for-tat players, although unconditional cooperation is still dominated by defection. Furthermore, we find that mutation among the strategies breaks the exact duality in such a way that cooperation is more favored than defection, as long as the cost-to-benefit ratio of cooperation is small.

Combination with anti-tit-for-tat remedies problems of tit-for-tat.

One of the most important questions in game theory concerns how mutual cooperation can be achieved and maintained in a social dilemma. In Axelrod's tournaments of the iterated prisoner's dilemma, Tit-for-Tat (TFT) demonstrated the role of reciprocity in the emergence of cooperation. However, the stability of TFT does not hold in the presence of implementation error, and a TFT population is prone to neutral drift to unconditional cooperation, which eventually invites defectors. We argue that a combination of TFT and anti-TFT (ATFT) overcomes these difficulties in a noisy environment, provided that ATFT is defined as choosing the opposite to the opponent's last move. According to this TFT-ATFT strategy, a player normally uses TFT; turns to ATFT upon recognizing his or her own error; returns to TFT either when mutual cooperation is recovered or when the opponent unilaterally defects twice in a row. The proposed strategy provides simple and deterministic behavioral rules for correcting implementation error in a way that cannot be exploited by the opponent, and suppresses the neutral drift to unconditional cooperation.

Mechanical force and tensile strain activated hepatic stellate cells and inhibited retinol metabolism.

OBJECTIVES: Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), the principal producers of extracellular matrix proteins, play a major role in the development of liver fibrosis which is accompanied with elevated sinusoidal pressure and portal hypertension. We have isolated primary rat HSCs and investigated the effect of mechanical pressure and tensile strain on retinol metabolism in the cells. RESULTS: Mechanical force and tensile strain significantly increased the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and collagen I, and notably inhibited the expression of cellular retinol-binding protein I (CRBP-I), lecithin-retinol acyltransferase (LRAT), retinyl ester hydrolase (REH), retinoic acid receptor-ß (RAR-ß) and retinoid X receptor-α (RXR-α). Such effects were partially reversed by the retinoid X receptor antagonist, HX531, and the retinoic acid receptor antagonist, LE135. CONCLUSION: Mechanical force and tensile strain significantly activate HSCs by regulating the retinoid metabolic pathway. Activation of HSCs can therefore be manipulated through mechanical force and tensile strain in vitro.

Finite-time and finite-size scaling of the Kuramoto oscillators.

Phase transition in its strict sense can only be observed in an infinite system, for which equilibration takes an infinitely long time at criticality. In numerical simulations, we are often limited both by the finiteness of the system size and by the finiteness of the observation time scale. We propose that one can overcome this barrier by measuring the nonequilibrium temporal relaxation for finite systems and by applying the finite-time-finite-size scaling (FTFSS) which systematically uses two scaling variables, one temporal and the other spatial. The FTFSS method yields a smooth scaling surface, and the conventional finite-size scaling curves can be viewed as proper cross sections of the surface. The validity of our FTFSS method is tested for the synchronization transition of Kuramoto models in the globally coupled structure and in the small-world network structure. Our FTFSS method is also applied to the Monte Carlo dynamics of the globally coupled q-state clock model.

Gapless topological Fulde-Ferrell superfluidity in spin-orbit coupled Fermi gases.

Topological superfluids usually refer to a superfluid state which is gapped in the bulk but metallic at the boundary. Here we report that a gapless, topologically nontrivial superfluid with an inhomogeneous Fulde-Ferrell pairing order parameter can emerge in a two-dimensional spin-orbit coupled Fermi gas, in the presence of both in-plane and out-of-plane Zeeman fields. The Fulde-Ferrell pairing-induced by the spin-orbit coupling and in-plane Zeeman field-is responsible for this gapless feature. This exotic superfluid has a significant Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature and has robust Majorana edge modes against disorder owing to its topological nature.

Tunable stochastic memristors for energy-efficient encryption and computing.

Information security and computing, two critical technological challenges for post-digital computation, pose opposing requirements - security (encryption) requires a source of unpredictability, while computing generally requires predictability. Each of these contrasting requirements presently necessitates distinct conventional Si-based hardware units with power-hungry overheads. This work demonstrates Cu0.3Te0.7/HfO2 ('CuTeHO') ion-migration-driven memristors that satisfy the contrasting requirements. Under specific operating biases, CuTeHO memristors generate truly random and physically unclonable functions, while under other biases, they perform universal Boolean logic. Using these computing primitives, this work experimentally demonstrates a single system that performs cryptographic key generation, universal Boolean logic operations, and encryption/decryption. Circuit-based calculations reveal the energy and latency advantages of the CuTeHO memristors in these operations. This work illustrates the functional flexibility of memristors in implementing operations with varying component-level requirements.

Does better taxon sampling help? A new phylogenetic hypothesis for Sepsidae (Diptera: Cyclorrhapha) based on 50 new taxa and the same old mitochondrial and nuclear markers.

We here present a phylogenetic hypothesis for Sepsidae (Diptera: Cyclorrhapha), a group of schizophoran flies with ca. 320 described species that is widely used in sexual selection research. The hypothesis is based on five nuclear and five mitochondrial markers totaling 8813 bp for ca. 30% of the diversity (105 sepsid taxa) and - depending on analysis - six or nine outgroup species. Maximum parsimony (MP), maximum likelihood (ML), and Bayesian inferences (BI) yield overall congruent, well-resolved, and supported trees that are largely unaffected by three different ways to partition the data in BI and ML analyses. However, there are also five areas of uncertainty that affect suprageneric relationships where different analyses yield alternate topologies and MP and ML trees have significant conflict according to Shimodaira-Hasegawa tests. Two of these were already affected by conflict in a previous analysis that was based on the same genes and a subset of 69 species. The remaining three involve newly added taxa or genera whose relationships were previously resolved with low support. We thus find that the denser taxon sample in the present analysis does not reduce the topological conflict that had been identified previously. The present study nevertheless presents a significant contribution to the understanding of sepsid relationships in that 50 additional taxa from 18 genera are added to the Tree-of-Life of Sepsidae and that the placement of most taxa is well supported and robust to different tree reconstruction techniques.

[Role of procalcitonin in the diagnosis of acute pyelonephritis in children].

OBJECTIVE: To study the role of procalcitonin (PCT) in the diagnosis of acute pyelonephritis (APN) in children. METHODS: Retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical records of children aged under 3 years who were diagnosed with primary urinary tract infection (UTI) from September 2011 to February 2012. These children were divided into those with upper UTI (UUTI) (APN) and those with lower UTI (LUTI) (non-APN) based on 99mTc-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) renal scan results as a gold standard. The UUTI and LUTI groups were compared in terms of serum levels of PCT and C-reactive protein (CRP). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn to evaluate the diagnostic values of serum PCT and CRP. RESULTS: Sixty-five children with UTI, including 39 cases of APN and 26 cases of LUTI, were included in this study. The APN cases had significantly higher serum levels of PCT (3.08 ng/mL vs 0.37 ng/Ml; P<0.01) and CRP (6.25 mg/L vs 3.01 mg/L; P<0.01) than the LUTI cases. The sensitivity and specificity of serum PCT level for APN were 84.6% and 88.5%, respectively, with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.873 (95%CI=0.781-0.965) and an optimal threshold point of 1.03 ng/mL. The sensitivity and specificity of serum CRP level for APN were 71.8% and 69.2%, respectively, with an AUC of 0.735 (95%CI=0.612-0.858) and an optimal threshold point of 3.91 mg/L. CONCLUSIONS: As a result of its high sensitivity and specificity for the disease, serum PCT can be used as a marker in the early diagnosis of APN in children.