Effects of β-Aescin on the expression of nuclear factor-κB and tumor necrosis factor-α after traumatic brain injury in rats

To investigate the inhibiting effect of β-Aescin on nuclear factor-κB(NF-κB)activation and the expression of tumornecrosis factor-α(TNF-α)protein after traumatic brain injury(TBI)in the rat brain,62 SD rats were subjected to lateral corticalimpact injury caused by a free-falling object and divided randomly into four groups:(1)sham operated(Group A);(2) injured(Group B);(3)β-Aescin treatment(Group C);(4) pyrrolidine dithocarbamate(PDTC) treatment(Group D).β-Aescin was ad-ministered in Group C and PDTC treated in Group D immediately after injury.A series of brain samples were obtained directly 6h,24 h and 3 d respectively after trauma in four groups.NF-κB activation was examined by Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay(EMSA);the levels of TNF-α protein were measured by radio-immunoassay(RIA);the water content of rat brain was measuredand pathomorphological observation was carried out.NF-κB activation,the levels of TNF-α protein and the water content of ratbrain were significantly increased(P＜0.0     

How can educational psychologists support the reintegration of children with an acquired brain injury upon their return to school?

This study explores the process of reintegration into school for children with an acquired brain injury (ABI) and considers the role of the educational psychologist (EP) in supporting these children. Interviews were conducted with a range of professionals in two specialist settings: a specialist rehabilitation centre and a children’s hospital with a specialism in paediatric neurology. The findings highlight a number of potential areas where EPs could contribute to the support of children with ABI including facilitating communication between professionals and providing training for school staff. The training implications for EPs are also considered.     

A new algorithm of brain volume contours segmentation

INTRODUCTIONSegmentation ,acentralissueofcomputervision ,isafundamentalprocessingstepinmostsystemsthatsupportmedicaldiagnosisorplan ningofsurgicaloperationsandradiationtreat ments (Wyattetal.,2 0 0 0 ;Wintereretal.,2 0 0 2 ;Baoetal.,1998) .Contour basedse…     

Review:Mechanism of acute pancreatitis complicated with injury of intestinal mucosa barrier

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a common acute abdomen in clinic with a rapid onset and dangerous pathogenetic condition. AP can cause an injury of intestinal mucosa barrier, leading to translocation of bacteria or endotoxin through multiple routes, bacterial translocation (BT), gutorigin endotoxaemia, and secondary infection of pancreatic tissue, and then cause systemic in- flammatory response syndrome (SIRS) or multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), which are important factors influencing AP’s severity and mortality. Meanwhile, the injury of intestinal mucosa barrier plays a key role in AP’s process. Therefore, it is clinically important to study the relationship between the injury of intestinal mucosa barrier and AP. In addition, many factors such as microcirculation disturbance, ischemical reperfusion injury, excessive release of inflammatory mediators and apoptosis may also play important roles in the damage of intestinal mucosa barrier. In this review, we summarize studies on mechanisms of AP.     

brain还是brains

在中学英语语法中,名词可能是最不受同学们重视的一个词类,其原因可能与名词在高考英语语法考题中所占比重不是很大有关——在2010年的19套高考英语试卷中,只有8套试卷的语法题直接考查了名词的用法,     

What predicts injury from physical punishment? A test of the typologies of violence hypothesis

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the power of child, perpetrator, and socio-economic characteristics to predict injury in cases of reported child physical abuse. The study was designed to assess the validity of the assumption that physically injurious incidents of child physical abuse are qualitatively different from those that do not result in injury, that their generative factors are distinctive, and that the quality of caregiving in these two types of incidents is different. METHOD: A weighted, nationally representative sample of 8,164 substantiated punishment abuse cases in Canada was used. Various models were constructed and evaluated through logistic regression. RESULTS: Of six potential predictors - child age, perpetrator sex, child functioning, parent functioning, economic stress, and social stress - none predicted injury to the child. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that injurious and non-injurious physical abuse cannot be distinguished on the basis of the personal characteristics or circumstances of the child or perpetrator. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: A common criterion for child welfare intervention into cases of suspected physical abuse is injury or risk of injury. This criterion assumes that injurious and non-injurious assaults are qualitatively different phenomena, predicted by different risk factors. In the present study an attempt was made to differentiate between injurious and non-injurious cases of punitive physical abuse on the basis of characteristics of the child, perpetrator, family, and social context. None of these factors explained the likelihood of injury, suggesting that the prediction of injury as an intervention criterion may be questionable.     

Prediction of malignancy selective neural networks degree in brain glioma using ensemble

A clustering algorithm based selective neural networks ensemble （CLUSEN） is proposed to predict the degree of malignancy in brain glioma. Since the degree prediction of malignancy is critical before brain surgery, many learning methods are used like rule induction algorithm, single neural networks, support vector machines, etc. Ensemble learning methods can improve the generalization of single learning machine, and are becoming popular in the machine learning and medical data processing communities. The procedure of CLUSEN can efficiently remove redundancy learning individuals and help improve the diversity of ensemble methods. CLUSEN is used to predict the degree of malignancy in brain glioma. Experimental results on a set of brain glioma data show that, compared to support vector machines, rule induction and single neural networks, the classification accuracy of CLUSEN is higher.     

Study progress on mechanism of severe acute pancreatitis complicated with hepatic injury

Study on the action mechanism of inflammatory mediators generated by the severe acute pancreatitis(SAP) in mul-tiple organ injury is a hotspot in the surgical field.In clinical practice,the main complicated organ dysfunctions are shock,res-piratory failure,renal failure,encephalopathy,with the rate of hepatic diseases being closely next to them.The hepatic injury caused by SAP cannot only aggravate the state of pancreatitis,but also develop into hepatic failure and cause patient death.Its complicated pathogenic mechanism is an obstacle in clinical treatment.Among many pathogenic factors,the changes of vasoac-tive substances,participation of inflammatory mediators as well as OFR(oxygen free radical),endotoxin,etc.may play important roles in its progression.     

Comparative study on glutathione transferases of rat brain and testis under the stress of phenobarbitol and β-methylcholanthrene

INTRODUCTION Glutathione transferases (GSTs; EC, 2.5.1.18) are phase II enzymes of defense that catalyze the conjugation of reduced glutathione to a wide range of electrophiles, carcinogens and other xenobiotics with genotoxic and cytotoxic activities (Mannervik and Danielson, 1988). There are eight classes of mam-malian soluble GST (alpha, mu, pi, theta, omega, zeta, sigma and kappa) and at least three membrane bound GST (MGST1, MGST2 and MGST3) have been de-scribed (Board et …     

Review： Study progress on mechanism of severe acute pancreatitis complicated with hepatic injury

Study on the action mechanism of inflammatory mediators generated by the severe acute pancreatitis （SAP） in multiple organ injury is a hotspot in the surgical field. In clinical practice, the main complicated organ dysfunctions are shock, respiratory failure, renal failure, encephalopathy, with the rate of hepatic diseases being closely next to them. The hepatic injury caused by SAP cannot only aggravate the state of pancreatitis, but also develop into hepatic failure and cause patient death, lts complicated pathogenic mechanism is an obstacle in clinical treatment. Among many pathogenic factors, the changes of vasoactive substances, participation of inflammatory mediators as well as OFR （oxygen free radical）, endotoxin, etc. may play important roles in its progression.     

Effect of Palrnatine on lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury by inhibiting activation of the Akt/NF-κB pathway

Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE B - Inflammation plays an important role in the development of acute lung injury (ALI). Severe pulmonary inflammation can cause acute respiratory distress...     

Ferulic acid prevents liver injury and increases the anti-tumor effect of diosbulbin B in vivo

The present study is designed to investigate the protection by ferulic acid against the hepatotoxicity induced by diosbulbin B and its possible mechanism, and further observe whether ferulic acid augments diosbulbin B-induced anti-tumor activity. The results show that ferulic acid decreases diosbulbin B-increased serum alanine transaminase/aspartate transaminase (ALT/AST) levels. Ferulic acid also decreases lipid peroxide (LPO) levels which are elevated in diosbulbin B-treated mice. Histological evaluation of the liver demonstrates hydropic degeneration in diosbulbin B-treated mice, while ferulic acid reverses this injury. Moreover, the activities of copper- and zinc-containing superoxide dismutase (CuZn-SOD) and catalase (CAT) are decreased in the livers of diosbulbin B-treated mice, while ferulic acid reverses these decreases. Further results demonstrate that the mRNA expressions of CuZn-SOD and CAT in diosbulbin B-treated mouse liver are significantly decreased, while ferulic acid prevents this decrease. In addition, ferulic acid also augments diosbulbin B-induced tumor growth inhibition compared with diosbulbin B alone. Taken together, the present study shows that ferulic acid prevents diosbulbin B-induced liver injury via ameliorating diosbulbin B-induced liver oxidative stress injury and augments diosbulbin B-induced anti-tumor activity.     

Happiness lies somewhere in your brain

When I was a kid,I defined happinessas being able to afford anything that was de-sired and thus I came up with the conclusionthat happiness lies in the possession of mon-ey.Time turned me tall and smart,also,able     

Diffusion tensor imaging of the brain in patients with Alzheimer＇s disease and cerebrovascular lesions

Background： Recent autopsy study showed a high incidence ofcerebrovascular lesions in Alzheimer＇s disease （AD）. To assess the impact of cerebrovascular pathology in AD, we used diffusion tensor imaging （DTI） to study AD patients with and without cerebrovascular lesions. Materials and Methods： Conventional and DTI scans were obtained from 10 patients with probable AD, 10 AD/V patients （probable AD with cerebrovascular lesions） and ten normal controls. Mean diffusivity （D） and fractional anisotropy （FA） values of some structures involved with AD pathology were measured. Results： D value was higher in AD patients than in controls in hippocampus and the cingulate gyrus. In AD/V patients, increased D value was found in the same structures and also in the thalamus and basal ganglia compared to controls. There was a significant difference of D value between AD and AD/V patients. FA value reduced in the white matter of left inferior temporal gyrus and in the bilateral middle cingulate gyrus in patients with AD/V compared with controls. The MMSE （mini-mental state examination） score significantly correlated with FA value in the right hippocampus （r=0.639, P〈0.019）, in the right anterior cingulate gyrus （r=0.587, P〈0.035） and in left parahippocampal gyrus （r=0.559, P〈0.047）. Conclusion： Cerebrovascular pathology had stronger impact on the D value than the AD pathology alone did. Elevated D value in thalamic and basal ganglia may contribute to cognitive decline in AD/V patients. Reduced FA values in AD/V patients may indicate that cerebrovascular pathology induced more severe white matter damage than the AD pathology alone did.     

Does music make your brain work?

If m usic m akes you sm arter and exercise helps you to think, surelyexercising to m usic can turn you into a genius(天才)?A group of A m eri-can researchers believe thatthis is indeed true.A team of scientists from O hio State U niversity (俄亥俄州立大学)conducted experim ents on 33volunteers (志愿者) w ho w ere recoveringfrom heart disease follow ing surgery(外科手术).A boy adds som e healthy sounds to the environm ent.They found thatpeople who exercised while listening to Italian com pose…     

From ‘brain drain’ to ‘brain bridging’: transnational higher education development and graduate employment in China

ABSTRACT

In the past few decades, the internationalisation of higher education has become an increasingly popular trend across different parts of the globe. The fierce global competition and the aggravating unemployment rate, coupled with low teaching and research quality revealed by universities in mainland China, have inevitably compelled a growing number of Chinese students, in particular the financially-able ones, to pursue higher education overseas or to enrol in transnational higher education offered in mainland China. Realising the severe problem of ‘brain drain’ and having a strong conviction to transform its higher education system to become more international for enhancing the global competitiveness of its higher education system, the Chinese government has made different attempts to enhance higher education quality by learning and incorporating new ideas and practices from overseas institutions, particularly encouraging the development of transnational higher education to change the higher education landscape. With particular reference to examining the way these students evaluate their future prospects in choosing different alternatives for further studies in higher education, this study sets out against the context briefly outlined above to critically analyse the motivation of students who choose to study abroad or enrol in Sino-foreign cooperation universities. This study also discusses the extent to which the internationalisation of higher education would affect the situations of ‘brain drain’ and graduate employment in China.     

Is there a role of TNFR1 in acute lung injury cases associated with extracorporeal circulation?

The signaling pathway for tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and its receptors is up-regulated during extracorporeal circulation (ECC), and recruits blood neutrophil into the lung tissue, which results in acute lung injury (ALI). In this study, we evaluated the role of tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1) in ECC-induced ALI by blocking TNF-α binding to TNFR1 with CAY10500. Anesthetized Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were pretreated intravenously with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) or vehicle (0.3 ml ethanol IV) or CAY10500, and then underwent ECC for 2 h. The oxygenation index (OI) and pulmonary inflammation were assessed after ECC. OI was significantly decreased, while TNF-α and neutrophil in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and plasma TNF-α increased after ECC. Pretreatment of CAY10500 decreased plasma TNF-α level, but did not decrease TNF-α levels and neutrophil counts in BALF or improve OI. Lung histopathology showed significant alveolar congestion, infiltration of the leukocytes in the airspace, and increased thickness of the alveolar wall in all ECC-treated groups. CAY10500 pretreatment slightly reduced leukocyte infiltration in lungs, but did not change the wet/dry ratio in the lung tissue. Blocking TNF-α binding to TNFR1 by CAY10500 intravenously slightly mitigates pulmonary inflammation, but cannot improve the pulmonary function, indicating the limited role of TNFR1 pathway in circulating inflammatory cell in ECC-induced ALI.     

‘Computer games can get your brain working’: student experience and perceptions of digital games in the classroom

There is considerable enthusiasm in many quarters for the incorporation of digital games into the classroom, and the capacity of games to engage and challenge players, present complex representations and experiences, foster collaborative learning, and promote deep learning. But while there is increasing research documenting the progress and outcomes of game-based learning, relatively little attention is paid to student perceptions and voice. In order to effectively target game-based learning pedagogy, it is important to understand students' previous experience, if any, of the use of games in the classroom, and what they made of these. In this paper, we present findings from a survey of 270 primary and secondary school students in Year Levels 4–9 (aged 9–14) in 6 Queensland schools at the start of a 3-year Australian Research Council project researching the use of digital games in school to promote literacy and learning.