Knowledge Mapping of Opuntia Milpa Alta Since 1998: A Scientometric Analysis

Opuntia Milpa Alta is a cactus cultivated, domesticated, hybridized and selected from the plant Opuntia ficus-indica by Mexican agricultural experts, which can be used as fruit and vegetable. Opuntia Milpa Alta leaves and fruit are superior to wild varieties and suitable for storage and transportation. In 1998, Opuntia Milpa Alta was introduced to China from Mexico by the Quality Product Development Center of the Ministry of Agriculture of China. Up to now, the Opuntia Milpa Alta has been cultivated on a certain scale in China. This study aims to identify the research progress and development trends of Opuntia Milpa Alta in China. Papers published between 1998 to 2019 from two major Chinese academic databases (CNKI and Wangfang) with a topic search related to Opuntia Milpa Alta were collected. The research progress and development trends were analyzed based on CiteSpace software of text mining and visualization. The analysis found that Opuntia Milpa Alta has gone through three obvious research phases after being introduced to China. In the first phase, the researchers paid attention to its cultivation method. Subsequently, researchers began to use extraction methods to extract some of its components, such as polysaccharides and flavonoids. Finally, these extracted ingredients began to be used in some biomedical research.     

Improvement of Opal Multiplex Immunofluorescence Workflow for Human Tissue Sections

The Opal multiplex technique is an established methodology for the detection of multiple biomarkers in one section. The protocol encompasses iterative single stainings and heating-mediated removal of the primary and secondary antibodies after each staining round, leaving untouched the Opal fluorophores which are deposited onto the antigen of interest. According to our experience, repetitive heating of skin sections often results in tissue damage, indicating an urgent need for milder alternatives to strip immunoglobulins. In this study, we demonstrate that considerable heating-related damage was found not only in skin but also in tissues of different origin, mostly characterized by low cell density. Importantly, the morphology remained fully intact when sections were repetitively exposed to β-mercaptoethanol-containing stripping buffer instead of multiple heating cycles. However, target epitopes appeared sensitive at a differential degree to multiple treatments with stripping buffer, as shown by loss in staining intensity, but in all cases, the staining intensity could be restored by increment of the primary antibody concentrations. Application of β-mercaptoethanol-containing stripping buffer instead of heating for antibody removal markedly improved the quality of the Opal multiplex technique, as a substantial higher number of differently colored cells could be visualized within a well-conserved morphological context:     

3.0 T磁共振T2×mapping成像技术定量评估膝关节骨性关节炎的临床价值及与WOMAC评分的相关性分析

摘要 目的：研究3.0 T磁共振T2×mapping成像技术定量评估膝关节骨性关节炎（OA）的临床价值及与西安大略和麦克马斯特大学骨关节炎指数（WOMAC）评分的相关性。方法：将我院于2017年4月～2019年12月期间收治的膝关节OA患者80例纳入研究。根据K-L分级标准将膝关节OA患者分成轻度组（K-L分级为Ⅰ～Ⅱ级）32例,重度组（K-L分级为Ⅲ～Ⅴ级）48例。另取同期于我院进行体检的健康者30例作为对照组。所有受试者均接受3.0 T磁共振T2×mapping扫描,比较各组膝关节不同部位软骨T2值、WOMAC评分以及血清炎症因子水平,以Pearson相关性分析膝关节OA患者膝关节不同部位软骨T2值和WOMAC评分的关系。结果：重度组膝关节不同部位软骨T2值均高于轻度组以及对照组,且轻度组膝关节不同部位软骨T2值均高于对照组（均P＜0.05）。重度组各项WOMAC评分及总分均高于轻度组以及对照组,且轻度组各项WOMAC评分及总分均高于对照组（均P＜0.05）。经Pearson相关性分析发现：膝关节OA患者膝关节不同部位软骨T2值和各项WOMAC评分及总分均呈正相关（均P＜0.05）。重度组血清白介素-1β（IL-1β）、白介素-18（IL-18）、肿瘤坏死因子α（TNF-α）均高于轻度组以及对照组,且轻度组血清IL-1β、IL-18、TNF-α均高于对照组（均P＜0.05）。结论：3.0 T磁共振T2×mapping成像技术定量评估膝关节OA的临床价值较高,且患者膝关节不同部位软骨T2值与WOMAC评分密切相关。     

Ageing Effect Evaluation on HD-sEMG Signals Using CCA Approach

ObjectivesThe objective of the proposed study is to exploit the technology of high-density surface electromyography (HD-sEMG), in order to evaluate the muscle activation in young and elderly subjects during a daily life gesture, namely, Sit To Stand (STS), using wireless connected ambulatory equipment (TMSi©) and Blind Source Separation (BSS) approach with Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA).Materials and methodsSixteen subjects participated (50% females) divided into two categories (‘H1’: young (30.62 yrs ±5.92, 23.95 kg/m² ±3.08), versus ‘H2’: old (61.87 yrs ±7.98, 23.4 kg/m² ±3.38)), in the recording of HD-sEMG signals, using 32-electrodes square grids (4×8), during Sit To Stand (STS) motion, three times at spontaneous speed. The studied muscle is the Rectus Femoris (RF) muscle. The recorded HD-sEMG signals were analyzed with CCA approach to extract correlation coefficient sets according to two age categories (young versus old), in order to evaluate its discriminating power with ageing. Statistical tests (t-test) were used to evaluate the discrimination for these two categories.ResultsThe calculation of CCA correlation coefficients showed a significant difference between young and old category concerning the mean CCA correlation coefficient (P<0.001***) and also the standard deviation of the CCA correlation coefficients (P<0.0001****).ConclusionThe obtained results are promising and indicate a clear difference between the obtained source variability using CCA method between the young and the old tested subjects during daily life motion. Furthermore, these estimated sources seem to be impacted by both anatomical and functional modifications with ageing.     

Time-dependent elastohydrodynamic lubrication analysis of total knee replacement under walking conditions

This work is concerned with the lubrication analysis of artificial knee joints, which plays an increasing significant role in clinical performance and longevity of components. Time-dependent elastohydrodynamic lubrication analysis for normal total knee replacement is carried out under the cyclic variation in both load and speed representative of normal walking. An equivalent ellipsoid-on-plane model is adopted to represent an actual artificial knee. A full numerical method is developed to simultaneously solve the Reynolds and elasticity equations using the multigrid technique. The elastic deformation is based on the constrained column model. Results show that, under the combined effect of entraining and squeeze-film actions throughout the walking cycle, the predicted central film thickness tends to decrease in the stance phase but keeps a relatively larger value at the swing phase. Furthermore, the geometry of knee joint implant is verified to play an important role under its lubrication condition, and the length of time period is a key point to influence the lubrication performance of joint components.     

An assessment of swinger techniques for the playground swing oscillatory motion

Much attention has been devoted to how playground swing amplitudes are built up by swinger techniques, i.e. body actions. However, very little attention has been given to the requirements that such swinger techniques place on the swinger himself. The purpose of this study was to find out whether different swinger techniques yield significantly different maximum torques, endurance and coordinative skills, and also to identify preferable techniques. We modelled the seated swinger as a rigid dumbbell and compared three different techniques. A series of computer simulations were run with each technique, testing the performance with different body rotational speeds, delayed onset of body rotation and different body mass distributions, as swing amplitudes were brought up towards 90°. One technique was found to be extremely sensitive to the timing of body actions, limiting swing amplitudes to 50° and 8° when body action was delayed by 0.03 and 0.3 s, respectively. Two other more robust techniques reached 90° even with the largest of these delays, although more time (and endurance) was needed. However, these two methods also differed with respect to maximum torque and endurance, and none was preferable in both these aspects, being dependent on the swinger goals and abilities.     

Nitric oxide protection against adriamycin-induced tubulointerstitial injury

It is well known that oxidative stress is related to the pathogenesis of adriamycin (ADR) nephropathy. However, it is unclear how nitric oxide (NO) is associated with the pathophysiological process after ADR administration. The NO level in a kidney homogenate was assayed by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometry using a direct in vivo NO trapping technique after ADR administration. N-(3-(aminomethyl)benzyl)acetamidine (1400W) was used as a specific, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) inhibitor. The levels of NO after ADR administration gradually increased for 6 h and then decreased until 24 h after ADR administration. The fractional excretion of Na (FE_Na) in the urine was elevated in the ADR group on day 1. Pre-treatment of the animals with 1400W attenuated the increase in NO levels despite further elevation of FE_Na. These findings suggest that iNOS-derived NO does not produce a harmful effect but rather protects the ADR-treated kidney against sodium excretion.     

Studies on Nucleoside Analogs. XXV.1) Synthesis of 5, 7-Dioxopyrimido[5,4-e]-AS-Triazine Glycosides

Abstract

The reaction of glycosyl isothiocyanates (la, b, c, d, e) with 5,6-diamino-1-3-dimethyluracil gave the respective 1-glycosyl-3-(6-amino-1, 3-dimethyl-2, 4-dioxopyrimidine-5-yl) thioureas (2a, b, c, d, e) in excellent yields. Treatment of these thioureas with NBS afforded the respective 5,7-dioxopyrimido-[5,4-e]-as-triazine glycosides (4a, b, c, d, e) in good yields.