Feasibility and acceptability of a multiple risk factor intervention: The Step Up randomized pilot trial

Background  

Interventions are needed which can successfully modify more than one disease risk factor at a time, but much remains to be learned about the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of multiple risk factor (MRF) interventions. To address these issues and inform future intervention development, we conducted a randomized pilot trial (n = 52). This study was designed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the Step Up program, a MRF cognitive-behavioral program designed to improve participants' mental and physical well-being by reducing depressive symptoms, promoting smoking cessation, and increasing physical activity.     

A case-control study of maternal recreational physical activity and risk of gestational diabetes mellitus

Despite the maternal and infant morbidity associated with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), few modifiable risk factors have been identified. We explored the relation between recreational physical activity performed during the year before and during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy and the risk of GDM. 155 GDM cases and 386 normotensive, non-diabetic pregnant controls provided information about the type, intensity, frequency, and duration of physical activity performed during these time periods. Women who participated in any recreational physical activity during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, as compared with inactive women, experienced a 48% reduction in risk of GDM (odds ratio [OR] = 0.52; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.33-0.80). The number of hours spent performing recreational activities and the energy expended were related to a decrease in GDM risk. No clear patterns related to distance walked and pace of walking emerged. Daily stair climbing, when compared with no stair climbing, was associated with a 49-78% reduction in GDM risk (P for trend <0.011). Recreational physical activity performed during the year before the index pregnancy was also associated with statistically significant reductions in GDM risk, but women who engaged in physical activity during both time periods experienced the greatest reduction in risk (OR = 0.40; 95% CI 0.23-0.68). These data suggest that recreational physical activity performed before and/or during pregnancy is associated with a reduced risk of GDM.     

阿托伐他汀联合氯吡格雷治疗短暂性脑缺血发作的疗效及对患者血浆超敏C反应蛋白与脂蛋白相关磷脂酶A2的影响

摘 要 目的:观察阿托伐他汀联合氯吡格雷治疗短暂性脑缺血发作(TIA)的临床疗效,以及对患者血浆超敏C反应蛋白(hs-CRP)和脂蛋白相关磷脂酶A₂(Lp-PLA₂)的影响。方法：80例TIA患者根据住院号分为观察组与对照组,每组各40例。两组患者均予常规治疗;观察组在此基础上加用阿托伐他汀片20 mg,po qd,氯吡格雷片75 mg,po qd。两组疗程均为4周。观察两组疗效及药品不良反应,比较两组患者治疗前后血浆hs-CRP及Lp-PLA₂水平。结果：治疗4周后,两组患者血浆hs-CRP、Lp-PLA₂水平均较治疗前降低(P＜0.05或P＜0.01),且观察组降低幅度大于对照组(P＜0.05);观察组总有效率高于对照组(P＜0.05)。两组药品不良反应发生率比较,差异无统计学意义(P＞0.05)。结论：阿托伐他汀联合氯吡格雷治疗TIA能提高临床疗效,且安全性好,其作用机制与降低血浆hs-CRP与Lp-PLA₂水平密切相关。     

Association Between Serum Albumin Level and All-Cause Mortality in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease: A Retrospective Cohort Study

BackgroundThe association between serum albumin and all-cause mortality (ACM) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is presently unclear.MethodsThe study subjects included 201 patients diagnosed with CKD, eliminating those with end-stage renal disease, who were admitted to our hospital from January 2014 to January 2015. The patients were divided into 4 groups according to serum albumin level (Q1: 1.60–3.88 g/dL; Q2: 3.89–4.13 g/dL; Q3: 4.14–4.43 g/dL, and Q4: 4.44–5.51 g/dL). The clinical outcome was ACM, and the difference was compared using odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI).ResultsAfter a median follow-up of 1480 days, 32 patients died (15.92%). The ACM was found to be 28.00%, 20.00%, 8.00%, and 7.84% in the 4 groups (P = 0.012). Pearson correlation analysis revealed a positive association between the serum albumin level and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (r = 0.22, P = 0.001). Once the potential confounding factors were adjusted, the results indicated that decreased serum albumin was a risk factor for ACM (Q2 vs Q1: OR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.17–1.47; Q3 vs Q1: OR = 0.12, 95% CI: 0.03–0.48; Q4 vs Q1: OR = 0.26, 95% CI: 0.07–0.98). The receiver operating characteristic curve indicated that the optimum threshold of serum albumin to predict ACM was 4 g/dL, and the area under the curve was 0.69 (95% CI: 0.60–0.79).ConclusionsDecreased serum albumin is a risk factor for ACM in patients with CKD, with the optimal threshold being 4 g/dL.     

Regular arrangement of collecting venules under endoscopy for predicting a Helicobacter pylori-negative stomach: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background and aimsThe regular arrangement of collecting venules (RAC) refers to the appearance of multiple regular tiny veins in the body of the stomach and is considered to be very effective for identifying gastric mucosa with non-Helicobacter pylori infection. This meta-analysis was conducted to systematically evaluate the value of the sign in predicting a Helicobacter pylori-negative stomach and the relevant factors that may affect the performance of this prediction.MethodsTwo biomedical databases (PubMed and EMBASE) were systematically searched through April 20, 2020. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and area under the SROC curve (AUC) were calculated.ResultsFourteen articles with 4070 patients were included. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, PLR, NLR, DOR and AUC for the RAC in predicting non-Hp infection were 0.80 (0.67–0.89), 0.97 (0.93–0.98), 24.8 (12.2–50.8), 0.21 (0.12–0.36), 120 (47–301) and 0.97 (0.19–1.00), respectively.ConclusionsThe RAC is a valuable endoscopic feature for the prediction of patients without Hp infection.     

HBsAg疫苗冲击树突状细胞联合乙肝免疫球蛋白对慢性乙型肝炎及HBV携带者的疗效

目的:观察HBsAg疫苗冲击的树突状细胞与乙肝免疫球蛋白联合应用对慢性乙型肝炎的疗效．方法:慢乙肝患者66例每月1次注射HBsAg疫苗(106／次)冲击的树突状细胞,乙肝免疫球蛋白200 U／次,6次为1疗程,共2疗程,治疗结束后检查肝功能,HBV DNA定量及乙肝标志．结果:HBeAg阳性慢乙肝27例治疗后有7例显示完全应答,14例显示部分应答．HBeAg阴性的慢乙肝15例中有4例出现完全应答,8例显示部分应答．慢性HBV携带者13例中5例显示完全应答,2例表现为部分应答．11例非活动性 HBsAg携带者中2例出现完全应答．结论:HBsAg疫苗冲击的树突状细胞与乙肝免疫球蛋白联合可试用于慢乙肝的治疗．     

General 2.5 power law of metallic glasses

Metallic glass (MG) is an important new category of materials, but very few rigorous laws are currently known for defining its “disordered” structure. Recently we found that under compression, the volume (V) of an MG changes precisely to the 2.5 power of its principal diffraction peak position (1/q₁). In the present study, we find that this 2.5 power law holds even through the first-order polyamorphic transition of a Ce₆₈Al₁₀Cu₂₀Co₂ MG. This transition is, in effect, the equivalent of a continuous “composition” change of 4f-localized “big Ce” to 4f-itinerant “small Ce,” indicating the 2.5 power law is general for tuning with composition. The exactness and universality imply that the 2.5 power law may be a general rule defining the structure of MGs.Metallic glasses (MGs) possess many unique and superior properties, such as extremely high strength, hardness, and corrosion resistance, etc., making them promising metallic materials with widespread applications (1, 2). Thousands of MGs with a wide range of compositions and properties have been synthesized over the past decades. However, so far the development of MGs is mainly based on tedious composition mapping in multicomponent space to pinpoint the combination of elements with optimized glass-forming ability (GFA). This method for development of MGs is a time- and resource-intensive strategy of trial and error which highlights the need for the guidance of a general theory (2, 3). Intensive research effort has been devoted to finding general rules in various MGs to understand the fundamentals and to guide the development of new MGs (4, 5). Quantitative correlations between their properties have been observed. For instance, compressive yield strength and elastic moduli of MGs are found to be intimately connected with their glass transition temperature T_g (6–10), and the ductility, fragility (11, 12), and Poisson’s ratio of MGs are closely related (13–16). The extensive correlations in properties suggest that the disordered MGs may share general rules in their structure. To clarify this scenario, detailed and accurate structural information spanning short range to long range is required. However, the current experimental probes and theories are limited to local structure in MGs (17). Therefore, understanding how the atoms efficiently fill up the 3D space and how this controls the bulk properties of MGs remains a long-standing theoretical challenge (18–23). To date, few general and exact rules regarding structure–property relationships have been established in MGs (23).Encouraging progress on understanding structure–property relationships in MGs has recently been made through the discoveries of the noncubic (2.3 or 2.5) power laws that correlate the principal diffraction peak (PDP) position q₁ with the bulk density ρ or average atomic volume, V_a, i.e., ρ∝(q₁)^D or V_a∝(1/q₁)^D, where D equals ∼2.3 with varying the composition of MGs at ambient pressure (19) or ∼2.5 for tuning the density of MGs with pressure (22, 24). Whereas composition and pressure show similar exponents in the power laws in MGs, composition and pressure are two independent variables for controlling the density (volume) of materials; they usually have dramatically different effects on MGs. For example, pressure is thought to cause only elastic densification in MGs without obvious structural change because of their already densely packed structure; the structure and properties of MGs are very sensitive to even minor compositional variations (25, 26). In addition, to achieve composition change, different samples usually have to be synthesized. And, many other variables are thought to be inevitably involved, making the compositional change complex (23). Therefore, some basic questions have been perplexing to the glass community: Why do “complex” compositional and “simple” pressure power laws show similar exponents? Is there any connection between them? These questions remain unanswered and have been the major obstacle in understanding the nature of these noncubic power laws.To address these questions, a systematic study in the 2D pressure-composition space seems to be required. However, the consistency of the data in this kind of study will be questionable. Alternatively, in the present study, we choose the polyamorphous Ce₆₈Al₁₀Cu₂₀Co₂ MG as a model system. It is well known that Ce-based MG systems show a polyamorphic transition between ∼2 GPa and ∼5 GPa caused by the pressure-induced 4f electron localized-to-itinerant transition (27, 28). During this polyamorphic transition, both the atomic size and the electronegativity of Ce are significantly changed (29). Composition tuning in MGs mainly means the variation of atomic size and electronegativity of components, which controls the formation of MGs (30). Therefore, although nothing changes in the nucleus, for MGs this pressure-induced polyamorphic transition is equivalent to a continuous “composition” change with the 4f-localized “big Ce” gradually substituted by 4f-itinerant “small Ce.” As a result, we are able to vary both pressure and composition of a MG in a well-controlled way for the first time, to our knowledge.