A sedimentation procedure for the detection of binding to concanavalin A and heparin to lipoproteins.

Specific enzymatic bands in disc gel electrophoresis are generally determined by either of two methods: (i) Gel is sliced and the enzymatic activity is assayed on each slice or (ii) gel is stained histochemically, if the product of the enzymatic reaction and the dye can form an insoluble precipitate, and the activity band is located on the gel by a color band. The former is laborious and often inaccurate in the calculation of electrophoretic mobility. The latter, often nonspecific, is not applicable when the enzymatic product cannot form an insoluble precipitate with the dye. Staining with tetrazolium salt has been widely employed for amine oxidase (1–6). However, this method has limitations: (i) Tetrazolium salt is nonspecific for amine oxidase and may show artifacts (6,7), and (ii) the use of tetrazolium salt is limited only to substrates containing indolamine such as tryptamine or serotonin (8). Other substrates, like benzylamine, the most active substrate for plasma amine oxidase, do not form a color band with tetrazolium salt.This communication reports a simple spectrophotometric method for the identification of the enzymatic activity band for amine oxidase on disc gel electrophoresis. Neither slice and assay nor staining is needed. This method may possibly also be used generally for other enzyme systems which have a specific absorption at ultraviolet or visible range.     

湖南蓝山县端午药市的瑶药调查

中国南方一些少数民族地区民间“端午药市”流传至今,体现了民族医药的独具特色及其深远影响。为了解瑶族端午药市交易现状和发掘民族医药传统知识,采用民族植物学等方法对湖南省蓝山县端午药市进行调查,完成包括基原、地方名、药用部位、用途和用法、出现频度等内容的药用植物编目。结果表明:蓝山县端午药市药用植物种类丰富,共收集鉴定103科 222属262种,药用植物种类广泛分布于各科和各属中,其中种类较多的科有五加科(11种)、茜草科(11种)、菊科(11种)、百合科(10种)、唇形科(9种)、蝶形花科(8种)、芸香科(7种)。药市药浴植物畅销且种类多样,达94种,占总数的35.9%,体现瑶族在治疗疾病上以预防保健为主的理念。经统计药市上均未被国家药典和地方标准收录的药用植物有131种,占总数的50.2%,成为发掘新药源、新用途的潜在资源。对端午药市售药者年龄的调查发现,售药者的年龄主要集中在50～59岁间,占总人数的67%,40岁以下的仅占总人数的3%,可见民族药用传统知识的传承存在传承人老龄化、潜在传承人数量锐减的现象。此外,还对药市交易药用植物的种类组成和民族药用特色进行分析,探讨了端午药市对药用传统知识保护与传承的影响,并对蓝山端午药市的可持续发展提出了建议。     

格网尺度下青海玛多县土地利用及生态系统服务价值空间自相关分析

开展黄河源区土地利用和生态系统服务价值空间量化评估,对于保障黄河流域生态安全具有重要意义。以黄河源区玛多县为例,基于3 km×3 km网格单元,应用空间自相关方法构建生态系统服务价值评价模型,定量评价了2015年玛多县土地利用/覆被空间自相关格局特征,可视化表达了玛多县生态系统服务价值空间信息。结果表明: 在3 km×3 km格网尺度下,不同覆盖度草地覆盖范围广阔;水域网格占总网格数的42.9%,在玛多县西北部分布密集;建设用地呈东北-西南走向的“线条式”分布;未利用土地体现为西南多、东北少的分布格局。在空间上,玛多县土地利用类型网格之间相互影响,表现为正相关性和聚集分布。水域的全局Moran I和局部Moran I值均最大,空间聚集性最强,局部连片度较高。建设用地的全局Moran I和局部Moran I值分别为0.293和0.127,空间自相关性最弱,在小范围内呈聚集特点。2015年,玛多县生态系统服务价值(ESV)为938.87亿元,网格的ESV平均值为3.20×10⁷元,最大值为19.96×10⁷元,水域分布网格是ESV的高值区。玛多县ESV分布格局整体上呈显著的空间正向自相关,ESV在网格之间为聚集分布。不同土地利用类型ESV网格总体呈高高、低低聚集,在局部零星为高低、低高聚集。可采取的国土空间规划与用途管制策略包括:水域、未利用土地采用强调生态溢出价值的“集中连片式”保护模式,高、中、低覆盖度草地采取主次分明、划区管理的“组团式”生态治理模式,建设用地在“廊道式”分布格局中采取小范围集约化开发利用模式。     

四川黑竹沟地区非飞行小型兽类物种多样性与群落组成

四川黑竹沟国家级自然保护区位于生物多样性丰富的凉山山系, 在保护和维持区域生物多样性方面具有极其重要的地位, 然而对该自然保护区兽类群落的研究却极为缺乏。为了了解该自然保护区及周边的小型兽类群落,本文作者在2018年4-10月调查了该区域的非飞行小型兽类物种多样性及其群落组成。在海拔1,537-3,830 m间共设置样方184个, 布设鼠夹9,016铗日, 捕获小型兽类536只, 隶属4目7科13属21种。包括滇攀鼠(Vernaya fulva)和等齿鼩鼹(Uropsilus aequodonenia)两个稀有物种在内的共计9个物种为该地区首次报道, 丰富了物种分布记录。结合历史资料, 黑竹沟地区共记录小型兽类43种, 隶属4目9科28属。在43种小型兽类中, 东洋界物种37种, 占绝对优势(86%), 分布型以喜马拉雅-横断山型占优, 为18种(占东洋界48.6%)。本次调查捕获的21种小型兽类中, 群落优势种为中华姬鼠(Apodemus draco, 33.2%)、北社鼠(Niviventer confucianus, 21.3%)和中华绒鼠(Eothenomys chinensis, 12.7%)。随着海拔上升, 群落优势种组成发生变化, 由北社鼠 + 中华姬鼠 + 针毛鼠(Niviventer fulvescens) + 短尾鼩(Anourosorex squamipes)群落, 转变为中华绒鼠 + 中华姬鼠 + 凉山沟牙田鼠(Proedromys liangshanensis) + 西南绒鼠(Eothenomys custos)群落。群落物种区系的分布型组成随着海拔升高而发生变化, 喜马拉雅-横断山型物种随海拔升高所占比例增大; 分布于喜马拉雅-横断山的特有种分布的下限、中点和上限平均海拔都高于非特有种, 且特有种和非特有种的中点和下限平均海拔差异显著(n = 21, df = 19, P = 0.013; n = 21, df = 19, P < 0.01), 说明该区域物种具有明显的东洋界特征, 中高海拔主要由特有种构成。本研究丰富了黑竹沟地区小型兽类及群落多样性的数据资料, 有利于该地区物种多样性的研究和保护。     

Development of unit cost for the health services offered at King FAHD Central hospital Jazan,Saudi Arabia

BackgroundEfficiency remains one of the most important drivers of decision making in health care system. Fund allocators need to receive structured information about the cost healthcare services from hospitals for better decisions related to resource allocation and budgeting. The objective of the study was to estimate the unit cost for health services offered to inpatients in King Fahd Central hospital (KFCH) Jazan during the financial year 2018.MethodsWe applied a retrospective approach using a top-down costing method to estimate the cost of health care services. Clinical and Administrative departments divided into cost centres, and the unit cost was calculated by dividing the total cost of final care cost centres into the total number of patients discharged in one year. The average cost of inpatient services was calculated based on the average cost of each ward and the number of patients treated.ResultsThe average cost per patient stayed in KFCH was SAR 19,034, with the highest cost of SAR 108,561 for patients in the Orthopedic ward. The average cost of the patient in the Surgery ward, Plastic surgery, Neurosurgery, Medical ward, Pediatric ward and Gynecology ward was SAR 33,033, SAR 29,425, SAR 23,444, SAR 20,450, SAR 9579 and SAR 8636 respectively.ConclusionThis study provides necessary information about the cost of health care services in a tertiary care setting. This information can be used as a primary tool and reference for further studies in other regions of the country. Hence, this data can help to provide a better understanding of tertiary hospital costing in the region to achieve the privatization objective.     

Effects of Age,Sex, Index Admission,and Predominant Polarity on the Seasonality of Acute Admissions For Bipolar Disorder: A Population-Based Study

Bipolar disorder seasonality has been documented previously, though information on the effect of demographic and clinical variables on seasonal patterns is scant. This study examined effects of age, sex, index admission, and predominant polarity on bipolar disorder seasonality in a nationwide population. An inpatient cohort admitted to hospital exclusively for mental illness was derived from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database for 2002–2007. The authors identified 9619 inpatients with bipolar disorder, who had generated 15 078 acute admission records. An empirical mode decomposition method was used to identify seasonal oscillations in bipolar admission data, and regression and cross-correlation analyses were used to quantify the degree and timing of bipolar admission seasonality. Results for seasonality timing found that manic or mixed episodes peak in spring or summer, and depressive episodes peak in winter. Analysis for degree of seasonality revealed that (1) the polarity of patients' index admission predicted the seasonality of relapse admissions; (2) seasonality was significant in female admissions for depressive episodes and in male admissions for manic episodes; (3) young adults displayed a higher degree of seasonality for acute admissions than middle-aged adults; and (4) patients with predominantly depressive admissions displayed a higher degree of seasonality than patients with predominantly manic admissions. Demographic and clinical variables were found to affect the seasonality of acute admissions for bipolar disorders. These findings highlight the need for research on identification and management of seasonal features in bipolar patients. (Author correspondence: ccyang@physionet.org)     

湖南通道侗族端午节中的民族植物学

通过长期的民族植物学调查,我们发现通道侗族端午节文化习俗古老,保留有传统的祭祀、药浴、配戴饰品、食用保健野菜等习俗.在端午节中,人们利用的植物种类丰富,用于悬挂门户的植物有4种,涉及4科4属;用于药浴的植物有31种,涉及20科28属;用于保健的野生植物有47种,涉及33科44属.这些植物大多为野生药用植物,它们作用不一,用法也不尽相同,而其中一些能用来悬挂、药浴及保健的植物未见有相关报道,它们所包含的科学知识需要进一步去揭示.通道侗族聚居区的民族植物学知识蕴藏丰富,值得仔细深入地发掘和全面研究.     

Cook双球囊联合改良B-Lynch缝合术对产后出血的治疗效果观察

目的:探讨Cook双球囊联合改良B-Lynch缝合术对产后出血的治疗效果。方法:选取2015年6月～2018年6月在我院经剖宫产术分娩并发生产后出血的产妇81例进行回顾性分析。根据术中止血方法的不同分为两组,对照组40例采用Cook双球囊进行止血,观察组41例在对照组的基础上应用改良B-Lynch缝合术进行止血。对两组患者的手术相关指标、止血成功率、子宫切除率、术后恢复情况和并发症发生情况进行比较。结果:观察组的术中出血量、术后24 h出血量和输血量显著低于对照组(P0.05),止血时间显著短于对照组(P0.05);观察组患者的止血成功率显著高于对照组(P0.05),子宫切除率和切口恢复时间显著低于对照组(P0.05),两组患者的住院时间和并发症发生率比较无统计学差异(P0.05)。结论:Cook双球囊联合改良B-Lynch缝合术对剖宫产产后出血患者的临床效果显著优于单用Cook双球囊,且安全性较高。     

Porphyromonas gingivalis promotes the motility of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by activating NF-κB signaling pathway

Esophageal carcinoma, with a increasing incidence, is one of the most aggressive carcinomas in gastrointestinal tract. Epidemiologic studies demonstrate an association of oral pathogens with multiple diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and gastrointestinal malignancies. Nevertheless, a causal relationship between oral pathogens and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has not been elucidated. Here, we found that Porphyromonas was significantly enriched in the saliva of patients with ESCC, compared with that in normal human. In vitro studies showed that Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) promoted the proliferation and motility of ESCC cells, as evidenced by up regulated expression of key molecules implicated in NF-κB signaling pathway. These findings, for the first time, demonstrated a role of oral pathogens in inducing ESCC tumorigenesis and metastasis, which might involve regulation of NF-κB signaling pathway.