The concept of culture: A core issue in health disparities

Contemporary discourse contains numerous examples of use of the concept of culture by social and behavioral scientists. Simple reification, where the speaker makes culture into a thing capable of action exemplifies one usage in public discourse. Some quantitative social scientists attempt to characterize people’s cultural identities by means of a single categorical variable, which often “lumps” people into categories such as “Hispanic” or “Black” that in fact have numerous culturally bounded subcategories. Approaches that emphasize cultural process are preferable to those who attempt to categorize; more complex measures of acculturation help investigators to make convincing analyses of circumstances in which health disparities occur. Examples in which investigators make appropriate use of cultural characterizations demonstrate their utility in investigating health disparities in Haitian American women, injecting and noninjecting drug users, Hispanic youth, and adult Hispanics at risk of HIV infection. Focus on culture in the study of health disparities can identify entanglements between structural factors such as poverty and lack of education and cultural factors such as beliefs about health. Qualitative methods coupled with quantitative methods have great potential to improve investigators’ grasp of cultural nuance while capturing the distribution of qualitatively derived behaviors.     

赤芍总苷对沙土鼠全脑缺血再灌注损伤的保护作用

OBJECTIVE: To study the protective effects of the total paeony glycoside (TPG) against global cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in gerbils. METHODS: Gerbils models of global cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury were prepared by bilateral common carotid artery ligation for 12 min followed by 24-hour reperfusion. The effects of TGP on brain edema index, superoxide dismatase (SOD) activity and malonaldehyde (MDA) concentration of the cerebral tissue homogenate and pathology of the brain were examined 24 h after model establishment. RESULTS: Compared with the model group, TPG at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg could significantly relieve brain edema, enhance SOD activity and lower MDA concentration in the gerbils. Pathological examination showed that the gerbils with TPG treatment had milder injury of the cells in the hippocampal CA1 region. CONCLUSIONS: TPG has obvious protective effects against global cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury.     

载瘤动脉闭塞术治疗颅内巨大动脉瘤的探讨

目的总结和探讨脑血管造影和载瘤动脉闭塞在治疗颅内巨大动脉瘤上的作用及特点。方法60例颅内巨大动脉瘤患者,根据其脑血管造影的特点采取血管内介入方法[可脱式球囊和(或)弹簧圈]闭塞载瘤动脉近端53例、闭塞载瘤动脉两端后孤立动脉瘤7例;其中23例闭塞前先行颅内-外血管搭桥术。结果出院时Rankin评分分级:单纯血管内介入治疗组37例中轻残3例,合并颅内-外血管搭桥术组23例中死亡1例、重残2例。1-6年的影像学随访动脉瘤无复发。结论血管内介入结合颅内-外血管搭桥术闭塞载瘤动脉是治疗颅内巨大动脉瘤的方法之一。     

Wall-eyed bilateral internuclear ophthalmoplegia from lesions at different levels in the brainstem.

Wall-eyed bilateral internuclear ophthalmoplegia (WEBINO) is a rarely reported syndrome. There is dispute about whether WEBINO is caused by a pontine or a midbrain lesion and whether the medial rectus subnuclei are implicated. In a study of the clinical and imaging features of four patients with WEBINO, we found that that three of four lesions involved the midbrain but not necessarily the medial rectus subnuclei.     

Discussing options between patients and health care professionals in genetic diagnosis: ethical and legal criteria

The specific characteristics of genetic data lead to ethical-legal conflicts in the framework of genetic diagnosis. Several international organisations, including UNESCO and the Council of Europe, have enacted rules referring to the use of genetic information. This paper discusses possible legal and ethical criteria that could be used in genetic testing.     

糖尿病患者腹部手术后消化道功能的观察

目的了解糖尿病患者腹部手术后消化道功能恢复情况,为临床进行有针对性的护理提供依据.方法对72例糖尿病患者腹部手术后消化道功能恢复情况进行观察,并随机抽取70例非糖尿病腹部手术患者作对照.结果在肠鸣音恢复及肛门排气时间、进流质饮食后食欲状况、恶心呕吐、腹胀发生情况5个方面进行比较,两组消化道功能恢复差异明显(P均＜0.01).结论糖尿病患者腹部手术后消化道功能恢复延迟,临床护理中应予重视.     

协同学——中医药科学性的理论基础

通过深入分析我国中医药科学性研究中所存在的问题，依据协同学理论，提出了中医药科学性的理论基础是协同学的观点。基于此，阐释了中医药科学性的协同学解释，这在一定意义上为中医药科学性的研究提供了新的视角和有益的启示。     

Serine hydroxymethyltransferase isoforms are differentially inhibited by leucovorin: characterization and comparison of recombinant zebrafish serine hydroxymethyltransferases.

Serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) provides activated one-carbon units required for the biosynthesis of nucleotides, protein, and methyl group by converting serine and tetrahydrofolate to glycine and N(5),N(10)-methylenetetrahydrofolate. It is postulated that SHMT activity is associated with the development of methotrexate resistance and the in vivo activity of SHMT is regulated by the binding of N(5)-CHO-THF, the rescue agent in high-dose methotrexate chemotherapy. The aim of this study is to advance our understanding of the folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism in zebrafish by characterizing zebrafish mitochondrial SHMT. The cDNA encoding zebrafish mitochondrial SHMT was cloned, overexpressed in Escherichia coli, and purified with a three-step purification protocol. Similarities in structural, physical, and kinetic properties were revealed between the recombinant zebrafish mitochondrial SHMT and its mammalian orthologs. Surprisingly, leucovorin significantly inhibits the aldol cleavage of serine catalyzed by zebrafish cytosolic SHMT but inhibits to a lesser extent the reaction catalyzed by the mitochondrial isozyme. This is, to our knowledge, the first report on zebrafish mitochondrial folate enzyme as well as the differential inhibition of leucovorin on these two SHMT isoforms. Western blot analysis revealed tissue-specific distribution with the highest enrichment present in liver for both cytosolic and mitochondrial SHMTs. Intracellular localization was confirmed by confocal microscopy for both mitochondrial and cytosolic SHMTs. Unexpectedly, the cytosolic isoform was observed in both nucleus and cytosol. Together with the previous report on zebrafish cytosolic SHMT, we suggest that zSHMTs can be used in in vitro assays for folate-related investigation and antifolate drug discovery.