We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To send content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about sending content to .
To send content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about sending to your Kindle.
Note you can select to send to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be sent to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
This book gives an up-to-date overview of methodological and data-analytical issues of cross-cultural studies. Written by leading experts in the field, it presents the most important tools for doing cross-cultural research and outlines design considerations, methods, and analytical techniques that can improve ecological validity and help researchers to avoid pitfalls in cross-cultural psychology. By focusing on the relevant research questions that can be tackled with particular methods, it provides practical guidance on how to translate conceptual questions into decisions on study design and statistical techniques. Featuring examples from cognitive and educational assessment, personality, health, and intercultural communication and management, and illustrating key techniques in feature boxes, this concise and accessible guide is essential reading for researchers, graduate students, and professionals who work with culture-comparative data.
Higher intakes of Na may contribute to weight gain. The primary aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to examine the relationship between dietary Na intake and measures of adiposity in children and adults. Given the previous link between Na intake and the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), which are a known risk factor for obesity, a secondary aim examining the relationship between Na intake and SSB consumption was assessed. A systematic literature search identified cross-sectional and longitudinal studies and randomised controlled trials (RCT) which reduced dietary Na (≥3 months). Meta-analysis was performed for outcomes with ≥3 studies. Cross-sectionally higher Na intakes were associated with overweight/obesity in adults (five studies; n 11 067; OR 1·74; 95 % CI 1·43, 2·13) and in children (three studies; n 3625, OR 3·29; 95 % CI 2·25, 4·80), and abdominal obesity (five studies; n 19 744; OR 2·04; 95 % CI 1·72, 2·42) in adults. Overall, associations remained in sensitivity analyses which adjusted for energy. Findings from longitudinal studies were inconsistent. RCT in adults indicated a trend for lower body weight on reduced-Na compared with control diets (fifteen studies; n 5274; −0·29 kg; 95 % CI −0·59, 0·01; P = 0·06); however, it is unclear if energy intakes were also altered on reduced-Na diets. Among children higher Na intakes were associated with higher intake of SSB (four studies, n 10 329, b = 22, 16 and 26 g/d); no studies were retrieved for adults. Overall, there was a lack of high-quality studies retrieved. While cross-sectional evidence indicates Na intake was positively associated with adiposity, these findings have not been clearly confirmed by longitudinal studies or RCT.
Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a disease with a high case-fatality rate that is caused by infection with the SFTS virus (SFTSV). Five electronic databases were systematically searched to identify relevant articles published from 1 January 2011 to 1 December 2019. The pooled rates with 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated by a fixed-effect or random-effect model analysis. The results showed that 92 articles were included in this meta-analysis. For the confirmed SFTS cases, the case-fatality rate was 0.15 (95% CI 0.11, 0.18). Two hundred and ninety-six of 1384 SFTS patients indicated that they had been bitten by ticks and the biting rate was 0.21 (95% CI 0.16, 0.26). The overall pooled seroprevalence of SFTSV antibodies among the healthy population was 0.04 (95% CI 0.03, 0.05). For the overall seroprevalence of SFTSV in animals, the seroprevalence of SFTSV was 0.25 (95% CI 0.20, 0.29). The infection rate of SFTSV in ticks was 0.08 (95% CI 0.05, 0.11). In conclusion, ticks can serve as transmitting vectors of SFTSVs and reservoir hosts. Animals can be infected by tick bites, and as a reservoir host, SFTSV circulates continuously between animals and ticks in nature. Humans are infected by tick bites and direct contact with patient secretions.
Klebsiella pneumoniae is a common pathogen associated with nosocomial infections and is characterised serologically by capsular polysaccharide (K) and lipopolysaccharide O antigens. We surveyed a total of 348 non-duplicate K. pneumoniae clinical isolates collected over a 1-year period in a tertiary care hospital, and determined their O and K serotypes by sequencing of the wbb Y and wzi gene loci, respectively. Isolates were also screened for antimicrobial resistance and hypervirulent phenotypes; 94 (27.0%) were identified as carbapenem-resistant (CRKP) and 110 (31.6%) as hypervirulent (hvKP). isolates fell into 58 K, and six O types, with 92.0% and 94.2% typeability, respectively. The predominant K types were K14K64 (16.38%), K1 (14.66%), K2 (8.05%) and K57 (5.46%), while O1 (46%), O2a (27.9%) and O3 (11.8%) were the most common. CRKP and hvKP strains had different serotype distributions with O2a:K14K64 (41.0%) being the most frequent among CRKP, and O1:K1 (26.4%) and O1:K2 (17.3%) among hvKP strains. Serotyping by gene sequencing proved to be a useful tool to inform the clinical epidemiology of K. pneumoniae infections and provides valuable data relevant to vaccine design.
The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical effect of the removal of nasal vestibular cysts through a modified longitudinal incision via a transoral sublabial approach.
Method
In 28 cases, a nasal vestibular cyst was removed through a modified longitudinal incision via a transoral sublabial approach. A visual analogue scale score was used to evaluate the numbness of the nasal alar and upper lip. Post-operative complications were recorded. Medical photographs were used for assessment.
Results
For all patients, incisions reached clinical primary healing one week after surgery. All patients were free of post-operative haematoma, infection, oronasal fistula and malformation. In the first week and the first month after surgery, numbness of the nasal alar and upper lip was recorded in few cases. The patients were followed up for 2–57 months without recurrence.
Conclusion
Removal of nasal vestibular cysts via a transoral sublabial approach with a modified longitudinal incision is a minimally invasive and simple surgical method with few complications and a quick recovery.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global health threat. A hospital in Zhuhai adopted several measures in Fever Clinic Management (FCM) to respond to the outbreak of COVID-19. FCM has been proved to be effective in preventing nosocomial cross infection. Faced with the emergency, the hospital undertook creative operational steps in relation to the control and spread of COVID-19, with special focuses on physical and administrative layout of buildings, staff training and preventative procedures. The first operational step was to set up triaging stations at all entrances and then complete a standard and qualified fever clinic, which was isolated from the other buildings within our hospital complex. Secondly, the hospital established its human resource reservation for emergency response and the allocation of human resources to ensure strict and standardised training methods through the hospital for all medical staff and ancillary employees. Thirdly, the hospital divided the fever clinic into partitioned areas and adapted a three-level triaging system. The experiences shared in this paper would be of practical help for the facilities that are encountering or will encounter the challenges of COVID-19, i.e. to prevent nosocomial cross infection among patients and physicians.
In this paper, we characterize a high repetition-rate regenerating plasma mirror produced by the thin film of liquid formed when two laminar streams collide. The use of a flowing liquid film is inexpensive and the interaction surface refreshes automatically, avoiding buildup of on-target debris. The composition of the liquid material and the relative angle of the film-generating nozzles was optimized for this application. Spectra measured in reflection from a water-based plasma mirror showed a blue shift but an optical reflectivity of up to 30%. The thickness of the film was found to be of the order of 2
${\rm \mu}$
m, and the stability of the reflected spot was
${\approx }1$
mrad. The reflected beam profile was highly distorted but stable. Further optimization of the nozzles to affect the fluid flow should enable significant improvements in control of the fluid films and increase in the reflectivity of these mirrors.
The conventional repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has some inadequate of efficacy weak and inadequate for the treatment of depression, easy symptomatic recurrence when stop the treatment. Ours invented the device of sleep electroencephalogram-modulated rTMS (SEM-rTMS) were safe and effective by proved of the animal experiments and clinical pre-test for the treatment of depression. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy and safety of SEM-rTMS for the treatment of depression.
Methods
After 7 days without psychoactive medication, 164 patients with clinically defined depression, were randomly assigned to receive SEM-rTMS (N = 57), conventional rTMS (C-rTMS (N = 55), or sham-rTMS (N = 52) for 30 minutes/time/day for 10 days. Before and after scores on the 24-item Hamilton rating scale for depression (HAMD-24) and the clinical outcome at the 10th-day of therapy for all subjects were analyzed.
Results
Twenty two cases in the SEM-rTMS group improved mood as compared to 6 in the C-rTMS group and 2 in the sham-rTMS group (c2 = 15.89, p = 0.0004). After completion of the rTMS phase of the protocol, a (51 ± 5) % reduction of HAMD-24 scores from the baseline in the SEM-rTMS group compared with a (34 ± 4)% in the C-rTMS group ((q = 26.09, p = 0.001) and a (14 ± 3)% in Sham-rTMS group (q = 57.53,p = 0.000). The 88% total efficacy ratio in the SEM-rTMS group was significant higher than 68% in the C-rTMS group and 20% in the sham-rTMS group (c2 = 12.01, p = 0.0025). No significant side effects were noted.
Conclusion
It is efficient and safe to treat depression with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. (The registration. No: ChiCTR-TRC-00000438).
Depression and anxiety disorders are prevalent mental disorders in China. But some those patients do not seek help from psychiatrists firstly but see internists first.
Objectives and aims
This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of depressive - anxiety disorders in gastroenterology outpatients and assess the detection rate provided by physicians in China.
Methods
A multicenter, hospital-based cross-sectional study was carried on in the 15 large general hospitals of five cities cross China. A total of 1995 gastroenterological outpatients were screened by Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Subjects whose HADS scores ≥ 8 were interviewed by psychiatrists, using Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I) to make further diagnoses. Physicians’ diagnoses and treatment were recorded.
Results
The adjusted prevalence of depressive disorder and anxiety disorders was 14.39% and 9.42% respectively.
Conclusions
The prevalence of depressive-anxiety disorder is high in gastroenterology outpatients in China, which suggests the related training of detecting these mental disorders is needed to gastroenterologists.
Aside from medications, no effective physical methods of treatment for insomnia have been reported. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect on primary insomnia of sleep electroencephalogram modulated repetitive transcranial-magnetic stimulation (SEM-rTMS) compared with the effect of routine repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (R-rTMS).
Methods
The 126 patients who volunteered for this study were diagnosed by DSM-IV criteria. Patients were divided randomly into an SEM-rTMS group (44 cases), an R-rTMS group (42 cases), and a sham therapy group (40 cases). Each case was treated for 10d with consecutive rTMS for 30 min once a day with both patient and therapist being blind to conditions. The Krakow sleep score, electroencephalogram, and blood pressure were recorded before treatment, after the 10d treatment, and 30 days after treatment.
Results
During therapy with rTMS, a portion of the patients felt sleepy and their EEG pattern showed signs of sleep. The efficiency of producing sleep signs in the SEM-rTMS group was 79.5% and in the R-rTMS group was 45.2%, with the former being significantly higher (c2 = 9.4065, P = 0.0022). At 30d after completion of therapy, the efficiency of sleep production in the SEM-rTMS group was still higher than in the R-rTMS group (c2 = 16.7998, P = 0.0000). No obvious side effects were observed in any of the three groups during the observation period.
Conclusion
SEM-rTMS therapy for insomnia appears to be more effective and more stable than routine rTMS therapy and appears to be a safe treatment for primary insomnia.
Prion diseases, or Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs), are a group of fatal neurodegenerative disorders associated with a conformational transformation of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) into a self-feplicating and proteinase K (PK)-resistant conformer, scrapie PrP (PrPSc). Aggregates of PrPSc around neurons lead to neuropathologyical change including neuronal loss, astrogliosis, spongiform degeneration and deposition of amyloid plaques. Currently no effective treatment for prion disease exists. The development of novel therapeutic strategies against prion diseases has become a priority. Several reports have demonstrated that passive and active immune-based therapy can significantly prolong the incubation period of prionoses in vivo, and also some anti-PrP monoclonal can prevent PrP peptide toxicity in vitro. In this study, we have first time identified and purified anti-PrP antibodies from human intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) by using PrP peptide affinity chromatography column. The ratio of anti-PrP antibody and IVIG is about 1:1200. In vitro study indicates these anti-PrP antibodies strongly block PrP A117V peptide fibril formation and disrupt formation of fibrillar structures. Furthermore, these antibodies almost completely prevented neurotoxicity of PrP A117V peptide in cultured rat cerebellar granule neuron cultures (CGN). In contrast, immunoglobulins depleted of anti-PrP antibodies had little effect on PrP fibril formation or protection of neuronal cells. Our study suggests that human anti-PrP antibodies may interfere with the pathogenesis of prion disease and these purified antibodies may be a potential therapeutic agent to prevent or slow prion disease progression.
Multiple neurotrophic factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-2, nerve growth factor (NGF) and insulin-like growth factor(IGF)-1, have been shown to play important roles in the pathophysiology of mood disorders. However, insufficient clinical data supporting the importance of these neurotrophic factors in mood disorders, especially manic episode, have made inconclusive to make a connection between these factors and the disorder.
Objectives:
This study intended to investigate possible peripheral biomarkers in serum of manic episode of bipolar disorder.
Aims:
We aimed to investigate whether or not serum levels of VEGF, FGF-2, NGF and IGF-1 varied in manic state.
Methods:
Serum levels of VEGF, FGF-2, NGF and IGF-1 were examined in 70 drug-naïve patients with manic episode of bipolar disorder (BM) as well as 50 healthy controls, using an ELISA method.
Results:
The mean serum levels of VEGF, FGF-2, NGF and IGF-1 were 168.13±225.61pg/ml, 279.09±378.62pg/ml, 61.38±171.67pg/ml and 162.01±72.00ng/ml in BM patients, and 140.80±143.71pg/ml, 275.46±235.29pg/ml, 36.34±15.14pg/ml and 138.90±80.11ng/ml in healthy controls, respectively. Serum levels of FGF-2, NGF and IGF-1 in patients were significantly higher than those in healthy controls (Z=−2.896, P=0.004; Z=− 2.050, P=0.040; Z=−2.188, P=0.029; respectively), although there was no statistical difference in the serum levels of VEGF between two groups (Z=-0.468, P=0.639). Moreover, serum levels of NGF in patients correlated with the duration of disorder (rs=−0.241, P=0.044).
Conclusions:
The increase in serum levels of FGF-2, NGF and IGF-1 in manic state may reflect a neuroprotective role for these factors, and these factors may be considered biological markers for manic episode.
The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene is related to dopamine degradation and has been suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (MDD). However, how this gene affects brain function properties in MDD is still unclear.
Methods:
Fifty patients with MDD and 35 cognitively normal participants underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. A voxelwise and data-drive global functional connectivity density (gFCD) analysis was used to investigate the main effects and the interactions of disease states and COMT rs4680 gene polymorphism on brain function.
Results:
We found significant group differences of the gFCD in bilateral fusiform area (FFA), post-central and pre-central cortex, left superior temporal gyrus (STG), rectal and superior temporal gyrus and right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC); abnormal gFCDs in left STG were positively correlated with severity of depression in MDD group. Significant disease × COMT interaction effects were found in the bilateral calcarine gyrus, right vlPFC, hippocampus and thalamus, and left SFG and FFA. Further post-hoc tests showed a nonlinear modulation effect of COMT on gFCD in the development of MDD. Interestingly, an inverted U-shaped modulation was found in the prefrontal cortex (control system) but U-shaped modulations were found in the hippocampus, thalamus and occipital cortex (processing system).
Conclusion:
Our study demonstrated nonlinear modulation of the interaction between COMT and depression on brain function. These findings expand our understanding of the COMT effect underlying the pathophysiology of MDD.
The primary aim of the Guangzhou Twin Eye Study (GTES) is to explore the impact that genes and environmental influences have on common eye diseases. Since 2006, approximately 1300 pairs of twins, aged 7–15 years, were enrolled at baseline. Progressive phenotypes, such as cycloplegic refraction, axial length, height and weight, have been collected annually. Nonprogressive phenotypes such as parental refraction, corneal thickness, fundus photo, intraocular pressure and DNA were collected once at baseline. We are collaborating with fellow international twin researchers and psychologists to further explore links with general medical conditions. In this article, we review the history, major findings and future research directions for the GTES.
Crystal structure and electronic structure of YMnO3 were investigated by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy related techniques. According to the density of states (DOS), the individual interband transitions to energy loss peaks in the low energy loss spectrum were assigned. The hybridization of O 2p with Mn 3d and Y 4d analyzed by the partial DOS was critical to the ferroelectric nature of YMnO3. From the simulation of the energy loss near-edge structure, the fine structure of O K-edge was in good agreement with the experimental spectrum. The valence state of Mn (+3) in YMnO3 was determined by a comparison between experiment and calculations.
The COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins) project is a large international collaborative effort to analyze individual-level phenotype data from twins in multiple cohorts from different environments. The main objective is to study factors that modify genetic and environmental variation of height, body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) and size at birth, and additionally to address other research questions such as long-term consequences of birth size. The project started in 2013 and is open to all twin projects in the world having height and weight measures on twins with information on zygosity. Thus far, 54 twin projects from 24 countries have provided individual-level data. The CODATwins database includes 489,981 twin individuals (228,635 complete twin pairs). Since many twin cohorts have collected longitudinal data, there is a total of 1,049,785 height and weight observations. For many cohorts, we also have information on birth weight and length, own smoking behavior and own or parental education. We found that the heritability estimates of height and BMI systematically changed from infancy to old age. Remarkably, only minor differences in the heritability estimates were found across cultural–geographic regions, measurement time and birth cohort for height and BMI. In addition to genetic epidemiological studies, we looked at associations of height and BMI with education, birth weight and smoking status. Within-family analyses examined differences within same-sex and opposite-sex dizygotic twins in birth size and later development. The CODATwins project demonstrates the feasibility and value of international collaboration to address gene-by-exposure interactions that require large sample sizes and address the effects of different exposures across time, geographical regions and socioeconomic status.
Abnormal Ca homeostasis has been associated with impaired glucose metabolism. However, the epidemiological evidence is controversial. We aimed to assess the association between circulating Ca levels and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) or abnormal glucose homeostasis through conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eligible studies were identified by searching electronic database (PubMed, Embase and Google Scholar) and related references with de novo results from primary studies up to December 2018. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed to estimate the weighted relative risks (RR) and 95 % CI for the associations. The search yielded twenty eligible publications with eight cohort studies identified for the meta-analysis, which included a total of 89 165 participants. Comparing the highest with the lowest category of albumin-adjusted serum Ca, the pooled RR was 1·14 (95 % CI 1·05, 1·24) for T2DM (n 51 489). Similarly, serum total Ca was associated with incident T2DM (RR 1·25; 95 % CI 1·10, 1·42) (n 64 502). Additionally, the adjusted RR for 1 mg/dl increments in albumin-adjusted serum Ca or serum total Ca levels was 1·16 (95 % CI 1·07, 1·27) and 1·19 (95 % CI 1·11, 1·28), respectively. The observed associations remained with the inclusion of a cohort study with ionised Ca as the exposure. However, data pooled from neither case–control (n 4) nor cross-sectional (n 8) studies manifested a significant correlation between circulating Ca and glucose homeostasis. In conclusion, accumulated data from the cohort studies suggest that higher circulating Ca levels are associated with an augmented risk of T2DM.
Triploid and pentaploid breeding is of great importance in agricultural production, but it is not always easy to obtain double ploidy parents. However, in fishes, chromosome ploidy is diversiform, which may provide natural parental resources for triploid and pentaploid breeding. Both tetraploid and hexaploid exist in Schizothorax fishes, which were thought to belong to different subfamilies with tetraploid Percocypris fishes in morphology, but they are sister genera in molecule. Fortunately, the pentaploid hybrid fishes have been successfully obtained by hybridization of Schizothorax wangchiachii (♀, 2n = 6X = 148) × Percocypris pingi (♂, 2n = 4X = 98). To understand the genetic and morphological difference among the hybrid fishes and their parents, four methods were used in this study: morphology, karyotype, red blood cell (RBC) DNA content determination and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR). In morphology, the hybrid fishes were steady, and between their parents with no obvious preference. The chromosome numbers of P. pingi have been reported as 2n = 4X = 98. In this study, the karyotype of S. wangchiachii was 2n = 6X = 148 = 36m + 34sm + 12st + 66t, while that the hybrid fishes was 2n = 5X = 123 = 39m + 28sm + 5st + 51t. Similarly, the RBC DNA content of the hybrid fishes was intermediate among their parents. In ISSR, the within-group genetic diversity of hybrid fishes was higher than that of their parents. Moreover, the genetic distance of hybrid fishes between P. pingi and S.wangchiachii was closely related to that of their parental ploidy, suggesting that parental genetic material stably coexisted in the hybrid fishes. This is the first report to show a stable pentaploid F1 hybrids produced by hybridization of a hexaploid and a tetraploid in aquaculture.