Background This study aimed to develop and validate the Food and Nutrition Literacy Questionnaire for Chinese School-age Children (FNLQ-SC). Methods A comprehensive literature review and qualitative study were initially performed to identify the dimensions and core components of food and nutrition literacy. A cross-sectional survey of 4359 school-age children was conducted, and junior middle school students were used to analyze the reliability and validity of the questionnaire (n = 2452). The reliability of the questionnaire was determined by internal consistency, the construct validity was assessed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and the content validity was assessed by the Pearson correlation coefficient. Results From the literature review and qualitative methods, 19 core components of the FNLQ-SC were developed, including one dimension of food and nutrition knowledge and understanding, and four skill dimensions (ability of access, selection, preparing food and healthy eating). The overall FNLQ-SC questionnaire had acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.698). The EFA of skill components extracted 5 factors that were included in the conceptual framework in a slightly different model, and the cumulative contribution of variance accounted for 50.60% of the overall variance. The CFA of skill components showed an acceptable fit in general and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was 0.070 (between 0.50 to 0.80). The communality was greater than 0.20 for all components. The Pearson correlation coefficients between each dimension and the overall questionnaire ranged from 0.370 to 0.877. The average FNLQ-SC score of all 4395 participants was 61.91 ± 9.22, and the score for the knowledge and understanding dimension was higher than that for the skill dimensions. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that not only social demographic characteristics (being a girl, being an only child, living someplace other than at school, having an urban registered permanent residence status, being from an affluent family, and being cared for by parents/grandparents with a higher education level) but also the home food environment were predictors of food and nutrition literacy in school-age children (R2 = 0.226, F = 81.401, P<0.05). Conclusion The Food and Nutrition Literacy Questionnaire (FNLQ-SC) developed here had good reliability, and it can potentially be a useful instrument for assessing food and nutrition literacy among Chinese school-age children.

Background The clinical characteristics and treatment of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 after recovery remained elusive. Effective antiviral therapy is important for tackling these patients. We assessed the efficacy and safety of favipiravir for treating these patients. Methods This is a multicenter, open-label, randomized controlled trial in SARS-CoV-2 RNA re-positive patients. Patients were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to receive either favipiravir, in addition to standard care, or standard care alone. The primary outcome was time to achieve a consecutive twice (at intervals of more than 24 hours) negative RT-PCR result for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in nasopharyngeal swab and sputum sample. Results Between March 27 and May 9 2020, 55 patients underwent randomization; 36 were assigned to the favipiravir group and 19 were assigned to the control group. Favipiravir group had a significantly shorter time from start of study treatment to negative nasopharyngeal swab and sputum than control group (median 17 vs. 26 days); hazard ratio 2.1 (95% CI [1.1 - 4.0], p =0.038). The proportion of virus shedding in favipiravir group was higher than control group (80.6% [29/36] vs. 52.6% [10/19], p =0.030, respectively). C-reactive protein decreased significantly after treatment in the favipiravir group ( p =0.016). The adverse events were generally mild and self-limiting. Conclusion Favipiravir was safe and superior to control in shortening the duration of viral shedding in SARS-CoV-2 RNA recurrent positive after discharge. However, a larger scale and randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial is required to confirm our conclusion.

Traffic sign recognition (TSR) is a key technology of intelligent vehicles, which is based on visual perception for road information. In view of the fact that the traditional computer vision identification technology cannot meet the requirements of real-time accuracy, the TSR algorithm has been proposed on the basis of improved Lenet-5 algorithm. Firstly, we performed picture noise elimination and image enhancement on selected traffic sign images. Secondly, we used Gabor filter kernel in the convolution layer for convolution operation. In the convolution process, we added normalization layer Batch Normality (BN) after each convolution layer and reduced the data dimension. In the down-sampling layer, we replaced Sigmoid with the Relu activator. Finally, we selected the expanded GTSRB traffic sign database for the comparison experiment on the Caff platform. The experimental results showed that the proposed improved Lenet-5 network test set had the recognition accuracy of 96%, which was better than the method that combined Gabor with Support Vector Machine (SVM) in terms of recognition accuracy and real-time performance.

Background: Cervical cancer (CC) is a highly prevalent cancer and one of the main causes of death among women worldwide. The miR-181 family has turned out to be associated with tumorigenesis in a variety of tumors by regulating the expression of tumor-related genes. However, the mechanisms and biological function of miR-181c-5p in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) have not been well elucidated. Materials and Methods: SiHa cell lines with specific gene overexpression vectors were constructed. Targetscan was used to predict the binding site of miR-181c-5p and GSKIP. MTT assay was used to detect the clone formation rate. Flow cytometry was used to detect the apoptosis rate and to separate the cell markers. The Transwell test was used to detect cell invasion. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect protein expression in tumor tissues. Western Blotting was used to detect the expression levels of related proteins. Results: GSKIP was predicted to be the target gene of miR-181c-5p in cervical SCC. MiR-181c-5p overexpression suppressed SiHa cells proliferation and promoted apoptosis; the protein expressions of Ki67 and PCNA were decreased, but the expressions of Caspase-3 and Bax/Bcl-2 were increased. The overexpression of miR-181c-5p inhibited the stem-like properties of SiHa cells; the expressions of SOX2, OCT4 and CD44 were decreased. Furthermore, miR-181c-5p upregulation limited the invasion of SiHa cells; the expression of E-cadherin was higher, but the expressions of N-cadherin and Vimentin were lower. MiR-181c-5p overexpression inhibited tumorigenesis in cervical SCC tissues; the expressions of Ki67, Caspase-3, CD44 and Vimentin in vivo were consistent with those in vitro. Conclusion: Taken together, miR-181c-5p was able to mitigate the cancer cell characteristic and invasive properties of cervical SCC through targeting GSKIP gene.

Objective. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) on lung function and quality of life of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients by meta-analysis. Methods. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) related to TCM and IPF were searched on PubMed, EMBASE Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database, Chin VIP Information (VIP), and Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) until December 2018. Standard mean difference (SMD) and 95% CI were calculated for the measurements related to lung function (FEV1/FVC, FVC%, FEV1%, TLC%, DLCO% or DLCO, and VC%) and other parameters (PO2, 6MWD, and SGRQ) when comparing TCM treatment to the control group. Relative risk (RR) and 95% CI of adverse events (AEs) were calculated to assess the safety of TCM. Results. A total of 40 RCTs comparing TCM to western medicine (WM) and involving 3194 IPF patients were eligible for the meta-analysis. The pooled results showed that TCM treatment improved significantly PO2 (SMD = 0.80, 95% CI 0.54 to 1.06, p<0.001), FEV1% (SMD = 0.57, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.71, p<0.001), DLCO% (SMD = 0.38, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.48, p<0.001), 6MWD (SMD = 0.70, 95% CI 0.56 to 0.84, p<0.001) and other measurements and reduced SGRQ scores (SMD = −0.51, 95% CI −0.70 to −0.22, p<0.001). Subgroup analysis of different study durations (3 months, ≥ 6 months) and comparison models (TCM vs. WM, TCM + WM vs. WM or TCM vs. placebo) showed similar results. No significant difference of risk of AEs was observed between both groups (RR = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.27–1.60, p=0.352). There was no obvious publication bias, and the pooled results were stable according to sensitivity analysis. Conclusion. To the best of our knowledge, the present study had the largest sample size. Our results indicated that TCM treatment may help provide benefit to the lung function, exercise capacity, and quality of life of IPF patients, alone or combined with WM, when compared to WM. More rigorous RCTs were needed in the future.