Association Analysis Between the Tag SNP for Sonic Hedgehog rs9333613 Polymorphism and Male Sexual Orientation

Male sexual orientation has been proposed to have genetic components, but previously suggested candidate genes have all received negative results. The human sonic hedgehog (SHH) gene is located in the 7q36 region, which was linked to male sexual orientation in a previous genome-wide association study. SHH is known to play an important role in embryo patterning, and there is evidence connecting it to sexual orientation. In this study, we performed an association analysis of the SHH tag single nucleotide polymorphism rs9333613 in 361 subjects and 319 Chinese male controls. We find a significant difference in genotype and allele distribution between identified homosexuals and heterosexual control subjects, suggesting that the SHH gene could potentially be associated with male sexual orientation.     

An attention-based hybrid deep learning framework integrating brain connectivity and activity of resting-state functional MRI data

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as a promising tool to investigate psychotic disorders can be decomposed into useful imaging features such as time courses (TCs) of independent components (ICs) and functional network connectivity (FNC) calculated by TC cross-correlation. TCs reflect the temporal dynamics of brain activity and the FNC characterizes temporal coherence across intrinsic brain networks. Both features have been used as input to deep learning approaches with decent results. However, few studies have tried to leverage their complementary information to learn optimal representations at multiple facets. Motivated by this, we proposed a Hybrid Deep Learning Framework integrating brain Connectivity and Activity (HDLFCA) together by combining convolutional recurrent neural network (C-RNN) and deep neural network (DNN), aiming to improve classification accuracy and interpretability simultaneously. Specifically, C-RNN^AM was proposed to extract temporal dynamic dependencies with an attention module (AM) to automatically learn discriminative knowledge from TC nodes, while DNN was applied to identify the most group-discriminative FNC patterns with layer-wise relevance propagation (LRP). Then, both prediction outputs were concatenated to build a new feature matrix, generating the final decision by logistic regression. The effectiveness of HDLFCA was validated on both multi-site schizophrenia (SZ, n ∼ 1100) and public autism datasets (ABIDE, n ∼ 1522) by outperforming 12 alternative models at 2.8-8.9% accuracy, including 8 models using either static FNC or TCs and 4 models using dynamic FNC. Appreciable classification accuracy was achieved for HC vs. SZ (85.3%) and HC vs. Autism (72.4%) respectively. More importantly, the most group-discriminative brain regions can be easily attributed and visualized, providing meaningful biological interpretability and highlighting the great potential of the proposed HDLFCA model in the identification of valid neuroimaging biomarkers.     

Modeling spatio-temporal patterns of holistic functional brain networks via multi-head guided attention graph neural networks (Multi-Head GAGNNs)

Mounting evidence has demonstrated that complex brain function processes are realized by the interaction of holistic functional brain networks which are spatially distributed across specific brain regions in a temporally dynamic fashion. Therefore, modeling spatio-temporal patterns of holistic functional brain networks plays an important role in understanding brain function. Compared to traditional modeling methods such as principal component analysis, independent component analysis, and sparse coding, superior performance has been achieved by recent deep learning methodologies. However, there are still two limitations of existing deep learning approaches for functional brain network modeling. They either (1) merely modeled a single targeted network and ignored holistic ones at one time, or (2) underutilized both spatial and temporal features of fMRI during network modeling, and the spatial/temporal accuracy was thus not warranted. To address these limitations, we proposed a novel Multi-Head Guided Attention Graph Neural Network (Multi-Head GAGNN) to simultaneously model both spatial and temporal patterns of holistic functional brain networks. Specifically, a spatial Multi-Head Attention Graph U-Net was first adopted to model the spatial patterns of multiple brain networks, and a temporal Multi-Head Guided Attention Network was then introduced to model the corresponding temporal patterns under the guidance of modeled spatial patterns. Based on seven task fMRI datasets from the public Human Connectome Project and resting state fMRI datasets from the public Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange I of 1448 subjects, the proposed Multi-Head GAGNN showed superior ability and generalizability in modeling both spatial and temporal patterns of holistic functional brain networks in individual brains compared to other state-of-the-art (SOTA) models. Furthermore, the modeled spatio-temporal patterns of functional brain networks via the proposed Multi-Head GAGNN can better predict the individual cognitive behavioral measures compared to the other SOTA models. This study provided a novel and powerful tool for brain function modeling as well as for understanding the brain-cognitive behavior associations.     

Menstrual blood loss and hematologic indices in healthy Chinese women

Menstrual blood loss, cyanmethemoglobin and serum ferritin were determined in 421 healthy, noncontracepting Chinese women. The range of menstrual blood loss (MBL) was 4.1-273.6 mL, the mean value was 54.2 mL, and the median was 42.9 mL. The range of hemoglobin was 8.3-16.7 g/dL, and the mean value was 13.2 g/dL. The range of ferritin was 1.2-180.0 ng/mL, the mean value was 22.8 ng/mL, and the geometric mean was 17.1 ng/mL. The upper normal limit of MBL in Chinese women was set at 80 mL.     

Menstrual regulation by intramuscular injections of 16-phenoxy-tetranor PGE2 methyl sulfonylamide or vacuum aspiration. A randomized multicentre study

Summary. A multicentre trial was conducted to compare the efficacy and side-effects of an intramuscularly administered PGE₂ analogue and vacuum aspiration in women with a delay of up to 21 days in the expected onset of menses. A total of 473 such women were randomly allocated to treatment with either 16-phenoxy-W-17, 18, 19, 20-tetranor PGE₂ methyl sulfonylamide (three intramuscular injections of 0.5 mg at 3-h intervals) or vacuum aspiration, and the outcome of therapy assessed 1, 2 and 6–8 weeks later. Retrospective analysis of hCG levels indicated that 419 (88.6%) women had been pregnant at the time of treatment. With few exceptions, administration of the PGE₂ analogue induced vaginal bleeding in both pregnant and non-pregnant women but the duration and subjectively perceived amount of bleeding were greater than after vacuum aspiration. Both treatments were equally effective. In pregnant women the overall frequency of complete abortion was 91% for prostaglandin treatment and 94% for vacuum aspiration. If non-pregnant women were included, the respective success rates (i.e. percentages of women not pregnant 2 weeks after treatment) were 92% and 95%. Gastrointestinal side-effects and lower abdominal pain requiring intramuscular analgesia were more common after prostaglandin therapy than following vacuum aspiration in both pregnant and non-pregnant women.     

Effect of pretreatment counseling on discontinuation rates in Chinese women given depo-medroxyprogesterone acetate for contraception

The study examined the effect of pretreatment counseling upon discontinuation of 150 mg depo-medroxyprogesterone acetate (Depo-Provera^® (DMPA)), given for contraception. A total of 421 chinese women participated, 204 receiving detailed structured pretreatment and ongoing counseling on the hormonal effects and probable side effects of DMPA and 217 receiving only routine counseling. The primary study endpoint was termination rate; secondary endpoints were frequency of medical events and reasons for termination.

Study termination rates were significantly lower in the intensive structured counseling group than in the routine counseling group. At one year, the total cumulative termination rates were 11% (23/204) and 42% (92/217), respectively (p < 0.0001). The most common reasons for terminating DMPA were menstrual changes. No pregnancy, serious or unexpected medical events were reported, nor were statistically or clinically significant changes in vital signs observed. We conclude that pretreatment counseling on expected side effects increases the acceptability of DMPA.     

Survey of knowledge and attitude about AIDS among six areas

<正> Objective:To explore the circumstances,influencing factors,and the extent of discrimina-tion and prejudice towards AIDS.Methods:This is a cross-sectional study.One county from each of the six provinces was se-lected.800 respondents were then chosen from each province through cluster sampling.A closed-ended questionnaire was used to study the demographic characteristics,AIDS knowledge,and re-lated attitudes towards AIDS.Results:In this survey,3,095 respondents(64.5%)feared AIDS;66.5% of respondentsthought AIDS patients or HIV infectors should be treated separately;40.1% of respondentsthought that AIDS patients or HIV carriers should have been confined in freedom;and 1,497 re-spondents(31.2%)said that they were not willing to donate to AIDS patients.Discrimination andprejudice towards AIDS among the six regions were different partially(P<0.01).Conclusion:Discrimination and prejudice commonly occur.Gender,characteristics of theregistered residence,educational level,and knowledge about AIDS are the main factors related todiscrimination and prejudice.Many respondents had prejudice against AIDS,because they werelacking correct knowledge about the transmission ways of AIDS.Among the six regions,discrim-ination and prejudice were lowest in a region in Henan province and highest in Jiangsu province.     

长效避孕皮下埋植剂对生育妇女骨质的影响

为探讨长期缓释单孕激素对妇女骨代谢的影响,测定使用国产Ⅰ、Ⅱ型长效避孕皮下埋植剂和Norplant 3年以上妇女的骨密度及骨代谢指标。采用回顾、设对照组的研究方法,测定123例妇女骨密度(BMD)及其骨代谢指标血钙(Ca)、磷(P)、碱性磷酸酶(ALP)、骨钙素(BGP)、血清雌激素(E_2),尿钙(Ca)、尿肌肝(Cr)和尿羟脯氨酸(HYP)等。结果表明国产Ⅰ、Ⅱ型和Norplant组妇女骨峰值形成期(30～40岁)使用皮埋剂的三组妇女平均E_2水平有不同程度降低,但均在正常低限水平内,与对照组间无差别。除对照组外三组妇女平均E_2水平与BMD之间不呈线性关系;Norplant组妇女BMD和Ca/Cr、HTP/Cr的变化说明骨吸收过程增强。使用国产Ⅰ、Ⅱ型皮埋剂和Norplant妇女3年后平均E_2水平在正常低水平上波动,未造成BMD的变化及其它骨代谢指标的明显变化;三组皮埋剂妇女骨峰值形成期(30～40岁),骨密度处于正常水平范围。长效LNG缓释皮埋剂对育龄妇女在骨代谢方面是安全的。     

最小剂量米非司酮配伍米索前列醇抗早孕临床预试验报告

为探索米非司酮抗早孕的最小有效剂量,对100例停经≤56天孕妇服不同剂量米非司酮进行了临床预试验。分为四组停经≤35天受试者分次服米非司酮7mg,配伍米索600μg,完全流产率95.4％;35天<停经≤56天受试者分次服米非司酮100mg,及125mg两组完全流产率均高于93％,而顿服米非司酮100mg完全流产率仅73.3％,与另三组有显著差异。提示:①米非司酮75mg分次服抗早孕具有良好的抗早孕前景,副反应小,可节省服药妇女经费。②顿服米非司酮100mg临床效果不佳。③分次服米非司酮100mg,停经天数可延长到56天,仍有良好流产效果。