The present study investigated the relationship between Chinese reading skills and metalinguistic awareness skills such as phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness for 101 Preschool, 94 Grade-1, 98 Grade-2, and 98 Grade-3 children from two primary schools in Mainland China. The aim of the study was to examine how each of these metalinguistic awareness skills would exert their influence on the success of reading in Chinese with age. The results showed that all three metalinguistic awareness skills significantly predicted reading success. It further revealed that orthographic awareness played a dominant role in the early stages of reading acquisition, and its influence decreased with age, while the opposite was true for the contribution of morphological awareness. The results were in stark contrast with studies in English, where phonological awareness is typically shown as the single most potent metalinguistic awareness factor in literacy acquisition. In order to account for the current data, a three-stage model of reading acquisition in Chinese is discussed.

Maternal antibodies contribute to the protection of young infants from infectious diseases during the early life. However, vaccinations for women of child-bearing age are not routine in China. Therefore, we investigated the level of protective immunity against vaccine preventable diseases in pregnant women and newborns in China. A total of 194 paired maternal and cord blood samples were collected in Beijing from 2016 to 2017. Antibodies specific for the antigens covered by diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) and measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine were determined by ELISA (Euroimmun, Lübeck, Germany). The cut off value of ≥0.1 IU/ml (anti-diphtheria), >0.1 IU/ml (anti-tetanus), >40 IU/ml (anti-pertussis toxin), ≥200 IU/l (anti-measles), ≥45 RU/ml (anti-mumps) and ≥10 IU/ml (anti-rubella) were used to assess the percentage of newborns with protective IgG concentrations, respectively. The results revealed that 61.3%, 73.2%, 97.4%, 30.4%, 65.5% and 17.0% of newborns had no protection against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps and rubella. Only 1.0% and 23.7% of newborns had protection against all three components of DTP or MMR, respectively. The finding suggested that most of newborns were susceptible to diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and mumps, almost one-third of this population had no immune protection against measles, and about one-sixth of them were under threat of rubella infection. These data supported the immunization program for DTP and MMR vaccine in women at child-bearing age.

Background: Biliary complications represent a major problem associated with liver transplantation. This report represents the first study to use high-throughput 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing to assess bile microbiota within bile samples of liver transplant recipients with biliary complications. Our goal in this report was to identify the species and abundance of microbes and examine the potential for microbial involvement of bile in liver transplantation patients with biliary complications.Methods: Liver transplant recipients treated at our center over the period from September 2015 to June 2017 were enrolled in the study. Patients satisfying the inclusion criteria were divided into two groups, control (N=13) and symptom (N=10). Sequencing of 16s rDNA was then performed on bile samples from both groups. Results:The main bacterial phyla of bile samples in the symptom group included Proteobacteria (55.19%), Firmicutes (32.36%), Actinobacteria (10.24%) and Bacteroidetes (1.23%) and the main bacterial genera were Pseudomonas (23.31%), Klebsiella (18.42%), Lactococcus (9.61%), Rhodococcus (9.59%) and Rhizobium (5.08%).Proteobacteria and Staphylococcus were enriched in the symptom group (P<0.05), whereas Firmicutes (P<0.05) and Enterococcus (P<0.01) were enriched in the control group. Pathways involved as determined with use of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), revealed that metabolism pathways of glyoxylate and dicarboxylate, porphyrin and chlorophyll, arginine and proline, glycine, serine and threonine, as well as the bacterial secretion system were all enriched in bile samples from the symptom group (P<0.05).Conclusions: Clear differences exist in microbial species distribution in bile samples from the symptom versus control group. The species and pathways enriched in bile samples within the symptom group may be involved in the pathogenesis of biliary complication after liver transplantation.

BackgroundProgressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) is an autosomal recessive inherited disease that disrupts the genes for bile formation. Liver transplantation (LT) is the only effective treatment for PFIC patients with end-stage liver disease. We describe our experience in terms of clinical characteristics, complications, and outcome of LT for PFIC.Case ReportThe data of 5 pediatric PFIC patients recipients (3 PFIC1, 1 PFIC2, and 1 PFIC3) who received LT at our Liver Transplant Center from June 2013 to February 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Four patients received liver transplantation from donation after cardiac death (DCD) donors. One patient received a living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). All the LT recipients received an immunosuppressive regimen of tacrolimus (FK 506) + methylprednisolone + mycophenolate mofetil (MMF). Diarrhea did not improve in 2 PFIC1 patients after LT, and they both developed steatohepatitis several months after LT. The other PFIC1 patient received ABO blood group incompatible LT and developed biliary complications and a severe Epstein-Barr virus infection; this patient underwent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. She recovered after treatment with ganciclovir and reduction of tacrolimus dosage. The PFIC2 patient had abnormal liver function 19 months after LT, and recovered after administration of increased dosage of immunosuppressant agents. Liver function in the PFIC3 patient was normal during 2-year follow-up.ConclusionsLiver transplantation is an effective treatment in PFIC patients. However, PFIC1 patients may develop aggravated diarrhea and steatohepatitis after LT. PFIC2 and PFIC3 patients have good outcomes after LT.

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Our objective was to observe the effectiveness of the calcium ionophore A23187 or strontium chloride on the activation and subsequent embryonic development of 3-day-old human unfertilized oocytes after in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). A total of 279 3-day-old unfertilized oocytes after IVF or ICSI were randomized to be activated by the calcium ionophore A23187 (n=138) or strontium chloride (n=141). The activated oocytes were cultured in vitro for 3-5 days. Activation rate, pronucleus formation, cleavage rate, and developmental potential of parthenotes during culture were evaluated. A total of 170 unfertilized oocytes were activated; 65 developed to cleavage stage, 19 developed to greater than the eight-cell stage, and five blastocysts were obtained. The activation rate of the calcium ionophore A23187 group was higher than that of the strontium chloride group (75.4% and 46.8%, respectively; p<0.05); there was significant difference between two groups (p<0.05). Among the 44 cleaved oocytes in the calcium ionophore A23187 group, eight developed to the two- to four-cell stage, 17 developed to the five- to eight-cell stage, 15 developed to greater than the eight-cell stage, and four blastocysts were obtained. Among the 21 cleaved oocytes in the strontium chloride group, six developed to the two- to four- cell stage, 10 developed to the five- to eight-cell stage, four developed to greater than the eight-cell stage, and one blastocyst was obtained. Three-day-old unfertilized human oocytes after IVF or ICSI could be activated by the calcium ionophore A23187 or strontium chloride, and a small part of parthenogenetic embryos developed into blastocysts. The treatment with the calcium ionophore A23187 was better than that of strontium chloride in respect to the activation rate of 3-day-old unfertilized human oocytes after IVF or ICSI.

Background The high misdiagnosis rate of asymptomatic neurosyphilis (ANS) has long challenged infectious disease clinicians. We aim to develop a model for diagnosing ANS in asymptomatic syphilis (AS) patients without CSF indicators. Results 277 AS patients with HIV-negative and underwent lumbar puncture were enrolled in this horizontal study.The area under the curve for predicting ANS by CSF leukocytes and protein was 0.643 and 0.675 [95% CI, 0.583–0.699VS.0.616–0.729]. Through LRM, the AUC increased to 0.806 [95% CI, 0.732–0.832], and the Youden's index was 0.430. If the score is ≤ 0.159, ANS can be excluded with a predictive value of 92.9%; we can identify ANS while the score is over 0.819, with a predictive value of 91.7% and a specificity of 99.25%. This study showed that the LRM can diagnose ANS in AS patients effectively. Conclusion Given a large number of misdiagnosis ANS patients and CSF results' insufficiency, the model is more practical. Our research will help clinicians track suspected syphilis, especially those who cannot accept the CSF test.

BackgroundNormothermic machine perfusion (NMP) is a novel strategy used for organ preservation. We aimed to determine the overall efficacy of NMP for liver preservation versus traditional static cold storage (CS).Material/MethodsWe performed a meta-analysis of the literature to evaluate the efficacy of NMP in experimental pig models of liver preservation. We use the standardized mean difference and 95% confidence intervals (CI) to calculate statistics and used the random effects model for the combined analysis of the results.ResultsA total of 16 studies from 12 published articles were included. The combined results showed that NMP significantly decreased alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and hyaluronic acid levels in serum or perfusate, significantly increased bile production, and had a similar 5–7-days survival rate after liver transplantation compared with the CS group.ConclusionsNMP provides superior graft preservation compared with CS in the pig model.