Aftercare of State Hospital Patients—The Role of the General Practitioner

Of all the problems facing patients released from a state hospital, the most serious one is adjustment. Failure here means a return to the hospital. The present aftercare program of the Department of Mental Hygiene does not and is not intended to meet all of the patient''s needs. It must rely upon other agencies to assist. It must rely upon the general practitioner to provide the continuity of care which is so important to successful rehabilitation.The general practitioner can often make return to a state hospital unnecessary by an accurate assessment of the patient''s problems, by effective intervention, by utilizing available consultation and by judicious referral. When services are not available, he can do much to make them available through the effective use of his professional channels.     

右室间隔部起搏患者起搏QRS 波时限与心功能的关系

目的:探讨右室间隔部起搏患者起搏QRS波时限与心功能的关系。方法:回顾性分析植入右室间隔部起搏的双腔起搏器患者(111例),起搏器平均植入时间(4.52±3.65)年,通过常规体表心电图测得完全起搏时QRS波时限分为四组:A组为QRS≤120ms(21例);B组为120ms180ms(26例),行心脏彩色多普勒检查获取左房内径(LAD)、收缩末期左室内径(LVESD)、舒张末期左室内径(LVEDD)、室间隔厚度(IVST)、左室后壁厚度(LVPWT)及LVEF,同时检测患者的血清氨基末端脑肭肽前体(NT-proBNP),分析起搏QRS波时限与以上各指标的关系。结果:D组患者LAD、LVEDD、LVESD、IVST及IVPWT较其他三组明显增大,同时LVEF显著下降,NT-proBNP明显升高,有统计学意义(P<0.05)。同时发现随起搏QRS时限的不断增宽,不同组别的LVEF是依次降低(中位值分别为66.5%、60.3%、52.7%和45.8%),而血清NT-proBNP水平是依次增大(中位值分别为143.7 pg/ml、261.8 pg/ml、599.4 pg/m和971.2 pg/ml)。直线相关性分析示起搏QRS波时限与LAD(r=0.141,P<0.05)、LVEDd(r=0.678,P<0.05)、LVEDs(r=0.439,P<0.05)、IVST(r=0.165,P<0.05)及LVPWT(r=0.189,P<0.05)有显著线性关系,呈正相关。起搏QRS波时限与LVEF负相关(r=-0.684,P<0.05),起搏QRS波时限与NT-proBNP的对数正相关(r=0.368,P=0.029)。结论:对于右室间隔部起搏的双腔起搏患者,起搏QRS波时限是一个可初步判断心脏结构和功能的指标,其起搏QRS波时限延长可能会恶化患者的心脏结构及功能,可结合NT-proBNP进行动态观察,对起搏器植入患者的心功能恶化和心衰的预防有一定的临床实用价值。     

Inadequate Awareness among Chronic Kidney Disease Patients Regarding Food and Drinks Containing Artificially Added Phosphate

Hyperphosphatemia is an important determinant of morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Patients with CKD are advised to consume a low phosphate diet and are often prescribed phosphate-lowering drug therapy. However, commercially processed food and drinks often contain phosphate compounds, but the phosphate level is not usually provided in the ingredient list, which makes it difficult for CKD patients to choose a correct diet. We conducted a survey of the awareness of food/beverages containing artificially added phosphate among CKD patients undergoing hemodialysis. The subjects were 153 patients (77 males and 76 females; average age 56±11 years) who were randomly selected from the Dialysis Center of Hirosaki City, Japan. The subjects were provided with a list of questions. The survey results showed that 93% of the subjects were aware of the presence of high sugar content in soda, whereas only 25% were aware of the presence of phosphate (phosphoric acid) in such drinks. Despite 78% of the subjects being aware of the detrimental effects of consumption of a high phosphate diet, 43% drank at least 1 to 5 cans of soda per week and about 17% consumed “fast food” once each week. We also assessed the immediate effects of high-phosphate containing carbonated soda consumption by determining urinary calcium, phosphate, protein and sugar contents in overnight fasted healthy volunteers (n = 55; average age 20.7±0.3 years old, 20 males and 35 females). Significantly higher urinary calcium (adjusted using urinary creatinine) excretion was found 2 h after consuming 350 ml of carbonated soda compared to the fasting baseline level (0.15±0.01 vs. 0.09±0.01, p = 0.001). Our survey results suggest that CKD patients undergoing hemodialysis are not adequately aware of the hidden source of phosphate in their diet, and emphasize the need for educational initiatives to raise awareness of this issue among CKD patients.     

The Process of Metastases,Formation by Melanoma Patients during the Aftercare – Modelling with Markov Chains and Cox's Regression

It is shown that the metastases states of patients with malignant melanoma during their (usually annual) postoperative care can be considered as a first order Markov chain if the state space is suitably extended. Thus, sojourn times in a state up to transition into another one can be analysed by means of Cox's proportional hazard model to find significant factors influencing these times.     

HL-1细胞培养及房颤细胞模型的建立

目的:利用HL-1细胞建立快速起搏模型,对心房颤动(atrial fibrillation,AF)早期的重构现象进行初步研究。方法:培养HL-1细胞,建立快速电场刺激起搏细胞模型,利用全细胞膜片钳技术记录刺激前后HL-1细胞的动作电位周期,透射电镜观察细胞超微结构的变化。结果:将细胞接种于培养皿中,72 h后细胞呈融合状态,全细胞膜片钳记录培养HL-1细胞及经电场刺激(600次/min,1 V/cm)24 h后的心房肌细胞的动作电位周期,动作电位周期分别为106 ms,45 ms,刺激前后差异有统计学意义(P0.05)。透射电镜观察到刺激后HL-1细胞超微结构发生去分化改变。结论:经快速起搏24 h后,HL-1细胞发生了电及结构重构;利用HL-1细胞建立快速起搏的房颤模型,可以对房颤早期的重构机制进行研究。     

Extra Nutritional Requirements of Artificially Aposymbiotic Crithidia deanei*

SYNOPSIS. Chloramphenicol cured Crithidia deanei of its endosymbiote. The derived aposymbiotic strain had additional growth requirements: purin (as adenine), heme, arginine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, valine, pyridoxine, riboflavin, and pantothenate and liver infusion (replaceable by high nicotinamide).     

Artificially engineered magnetic nanoparticles for ultra-sensitive molecular imaging

Successful development of ultra-sensitive molecular imaging nanoprobes for the detection of targeted biological objects is a challenging task. Although magnetic nanoprobes have the potential to perform such a role, the results from probes that are currently available have been far from optimal. Here we used artificial engineering approaches to develop innovative magnetic nanoprobes, through a process that involved the systematic evaluation of the magnetic spin, size and type of spinel metal ferrites. These magnetism-engineered iron oxide (MEIO) nanoprobes, when conjugated with antibodies, showed enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sensitivity for the detection of cancer markers compared with probes currently available. Also, we successfully visualized small tumors implanted in a mouse. Such high-performance, nanotechnology-based molecular probes could enhance the ability to visualize other biological events critical to diagnostics and therapeutics.     

Artificially induced symbiotic associations of L-form bacteria and plants

A loysius , S. K. D. & P aton , A.M. 1984. Artificially induced symbiotic associations of L-form bacteria and plants. Journal of Applied Bacteriology 56 , 465–477.
L-forms of a small but varied selection of bacteria were found to enter viable plant cells and establish novel symbiotic relationships. Evidence is presented for the ability of the L-forms to spread and to express at least some of their metabolic functions within plant tissue.     

Artificially selecting bacterial communities using propagule strategies†

Artificial selection is a promising approach to manipulate microbial communities. Here, we report the outcome of two artificial selection experiments at the microbial community level. Both used “propagule” selection strategies, whereby the best-performing communities are used as the inocula to form a new generation of communities. Both experiments were contrasted to a random selection control. The first experiment used a defined set of strains as the starting inoculum, and the function under selection was the amylolytic activity of the consortia. The second experiment used multiple soil communities as the starting inocula, and the function under selection was the communities’ cross-feeding potential. In both experiments, the selected communities reached a higher mean function than the control. In the first experiment, this was caused by a decline in function of the control, rather than an improvement of the selected line. In the second experiment, this response was fueled by the large initial variance in function across communities, and stopped when the top-performing community “fixed” in the metacommunity. Our results are in agreement with basic expectations from breeding theory, pointing to some of the limitations of community-level selection experiments that can inform the design of future studies.     

人工合成六倍体小麦醇溶蛋白遗传多样性分析

运用酸性聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳(A-PAGE)技术,对96份人工合成六倍体小麦的醇溶蛋白多样性进行了分析。结果显示,96份人工合成小麦中,共分离出65条不同的醇溶蛋白谱带,其中ω区22条,β和γ区各17条,α区9条,但各醇溶蛋白在电泳图谱中出现的频率差异较大,其变化范围为1.04%~91.67%。醇溶蛋白遗传多样性指数(H′)及多态性信息含量(PIC)分析结果显示,β、ω两个谱带区醇溶蛋白组成最为丰富,而α区最低;聚类分析结果显示,材料间的平均遗传距离为0.86,在遗传距离为0.83水平上,96份材料被划分为4个主要类群,类群间的关系基本反映了合成双二倍体的亲缘关系。研究结果表明,人工合成六倍体小麦醇溶蛋白基因位点表现出广泛的遗传变异,具有丰富的遗传多样性。     

Artificially Applied Tensions Normalize Development of Relaxed Xenopus laevisEmbryos

Relaxation of tensions of the surface of Xenopus laevisembryos at the late blastula stage leads to deep and diverse developmental defects and increased variability in mutual position and volume ratios of the axial rudiments. Here, we demonstrate that the development of such embryos was markedly normalized if the relaxed tensions were restored in one of two ways: (1) isotropic stretching of the blastocoel roof induced by the incubation of relaxed embryos in a hypotonic medium or (2) anisotropic stretching of embryos on two needles. In the latter case, we succeeded in restoring the morphological axis not only after longitudinal stretching but also after transverse stretching, and the new axis had signs of anteroposterior polarity. The role of isotropic and anisotropic tensions in organization of the early amphibian development is discussed.     

Persistence of Caliciviruses in Artificially Contaminated Oysters during Depuration

The fate of calicivirus in oysters in a 10-day depuration was assessed. The norovirus gene was persistently detected from artificially contaminated oysters during the depuration, whereas feline calicivirus in oysters was promptly eliminated. The prolonged observation of norovirus in oysters implies the existence of a selective retention mechanism for norovirus within oysters.