Effects of Smart City Construction on the Quality of Public Occupational Health: Empirical Evidence From Guangdong Province, China

This article takes the Guangdong Province of China as the research object and uses the difference-in-difference model to evaluate the impact of smart city construction on the quality of public occupational health and intercity differences. The obtained results show that smart city construction significantly improves the quality of public occupational health, and it is still valid after a series of robustness tests. The effect of this policy is stronger in cities that belong to the Pearl River Delta region or sub-provincial level cities. This study indicates that the central government should improve the pilot evaluation system and the performance appraisal mechanism of smart cities from the perspective of top-level design during the process of promoting smart city construction, which aims to correctly guide local governments to promote the construction of smart cities. To achieve the full improvement effect of smart city construction on the quality of public occupational health, local governments should implement smart city strategies in a purposeful and planned way according to the actual situation of the development of the jurisdiction.

Combined therapy of intensive statin plus intravenous rt-PA in acute ischemic stroke: the INSPIRE randomized clinical trial

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the safety and efficacy of intensive statin in the acute phase of ischemic stroke after intravenous thrombolysis therapy.

METHODS

A total of 310 stroke patients treated with rt-PA were randomly scheduled into the intensive statin group (rosuvastatin 20 mg daily × 14 days) and the control group (rosuvastatin 5 mg daily × 14 days). The primary clinical endpoint was excellent functional outcome (mRS ≤ 1) at 3 months, and the primary safety endpoint was symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) in 90 days.

RESULTS

The intensive statin users did not achieve a favorable outcome in excellent functional outcome (mRS ≤ 1) at 3 months compared with controls (70.3% vs. 66.5%, p = 0.464). Intensive statin also not significantly improved the overall distribution of scores on the modified Rankin scale, as compared with controls (p = 0.82 by the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test). The incidence of primary safety endpoint events (sICH) in 90 days did not significantly differ between the intensive statin group and control group (0.6% vs. 1.3%, p > 0.999).

CONCLUSION

The INSPIRE study indicated that intensive statin therapy may not improve clinical outcomes compared with the low dose of statin therapy in AIS patients undergoing intravenous thrombolysis, and the two groups had similar safety profile.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION

URL: http://www.chictr.org . Unique identifier: ChiCTR-IPR-16008642.

Liraglutide Ameliorates β-Amyloid Deposits and Secondary Damage in the Ipsilateral Thalamus and Sensory Deficits After Focal Cerebral Infarction in Rats

Focal cerebral infarction causes β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition and secondary neuronal degeneration in the ipsilateral thalamus. Thalamus is the subcortical center of sensory, the damage of thalamus could cause sensory deficits. The present study aimed to investigate the protective effects of liraglutide, a long-acting glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP)-1 receptor agonist, on Aβ deposits and secondary damage in the ipsilateral thalamus after focal cerebral infarction. In addition, this study was conducted to investigate whether liraglutide could improve sensory function after focal cerebral infarction. Forty-two male Sprague–Dawley rats were subjected to distal middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and then randomly divided into liraglutide and vehicle groups, and 14 sham-operated rats as control. At 1 h after MCAO, rats in the liraglutide and vehicle groups were subcutaneously injected with liraglutide (100 μg/kg/d) and isopyknic vehicle, respectively, once a day for 7 days. Sensory function and secondary thalamic damage were assessed using adhesive-removal test and Nissl staining and immunostaining, respectively, at 7 days after MCAO. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase 2’-deoxyuridine 5’-triphosphate nick end labeling and Western blot were used to detect neuronal apoptosis. The results showed that liraglutide improved sensory deficit compared to the controls. Liraglutide treatment significantly reduced Aβ deposition compared with the vehicle treatment. Liraglutide treatment decreased the neuronal loss, astroglial and microglial activation, and apoptosis compared with the vehicle treatment. Liraglutide significantly down-regulated the expression of Bcl-2 and up-regulated that of Bax in the ipsilateral thalamus compared with the vehicle group. These results suggest that liraglutide ameliorates the deposition of Aβ and secondary damage in the ipsilateral thalamus, potentially contributing to improve sensory deficit after focal cerebral infarction.

Association of aquaporin‑1 with tumor migration, invasion and vasculogenic mimicry in glioblastoma multiforme

The present study aimed to assess the expression and functional role of aquaporin-1 (AQP1) in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) migration, invasion and vasculogenic mimicry (VM). In the primary human gliomas and human glioma‑derived cell lines tested, it was observed that the expression of AQP1 was upregulated. In addition, it was demonstrated that silencing of AQP1 expression resulted in decreased migration and invasion, in addition to vasculogenic mimicry in vitro. It was additionally observed that silencing of AQP1 expression resulted in in vivo inhibition of tumor growth, a decrease in the expression of invasion‑associated protein, and suppression of VM formation. Based on these data, it was concluded that AQP1 may serve a role in GBM migration, invasion and VM formation, and that it may serve as a novel diagnostic/prognostic biomarker and a potential therapeutic target.

Arginyltransferase suppresses cell tumorigenic potential and inversely correlates with metastases in human cancers

Arginylation is an emerging post-translational modification mediated by arginyltransferase (ATE1) that is essential for mammalian embryogenesis and regulation of the cytoskeleton. Here, we discovered that Ate1-knockout (KO) embryonic fibroblasts exhibit tumorigenic properties, including abnormally rapid contact-independent growth, reduced ability to form cell-cell contacts and chromosomal aberrations. Ate1-KO fibroblasts can form large colonies in Matrigel and exhibit invasive behavior, unlike wild-type fibroblasts. Furthermore, Ate1-KO cells form tumors in subcutaneous xenograft assays in immunocompromised mice. Abnormal growth in these cells can be partially rescued by reintroduction of stably expressed specific Ate1 isoforms, which also reduce the ability of these cells to form tumors. Tumor array studies and bioinformatics analysis show that Ate1 is downregulated in several types of human cancer samples at the protein level, and that its transcription level inversely correlates with metastatic progression and patient survival. We conclude that Ate1-KO results in carcinogenic transformation of cultured fibroblasts, suggesting that in addition to its previously known activities Ate1 gene is essential for tumor suppression and also likely participates in suppression of metastatic growth.

Disruption of cytochrome c oxidase function induces the Warburg effect and metabolic reprogramming

Defects in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation complexes, altered bioenergetics and metabolic shift are often seen in cancers. Here we show a role for the dysfunction of electron transport chain component, cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) in cancer progression. We show that genetic silencing of the CcO complex by shRNA expression and loss of CcO activity in multiple cell types from the mouse and human sources resulted in metabolic shift to glycolysis, loss of anchorage dependent growth and acquired invasive phenotypes. Disruption of CcO complex caused loss of transmembrane potential and induction of Ca²⁺/Calcineurin-mediated retrograde signaling. Propagation of this signaling, includes activation of PI3-kinase, IGF1R and Akt, Ca²⁺ sensitive transcription factors and also, TGFβ1, MMP16, periostin that are involved in oncogenic progression. Whole genome expression analysis showed up regulation of genes involved in cell signaling, extracellular matrix interactions, cell morphogenesis, cell motility and migration. The transcription profiles reveal extensive similarity to retrograde signaling initiated by partial mtDNA depletion, though distinct differences are observed in signaling induced by CcO dysfunction. The possible CcO dysfunction as a biomarker for cancer progression was supported by data showing that esophageal tumors from human patients show reduced CcO subunits IVi1 and Vb in regions that were previously shown to be hypoxic core of the tumors. Our results show that mitochondrial electron transport chain defect initiates a retrograde signaling. These results suggest that a defect in CcO complex can potentially induce tumor progression.

[An autopsy study of 7 sudden death cases due to acute hemorrhagic enteritis]

7 sudden death cases due to acute hemorrhagic enteritis were analyzed to investigate the age, sex, clinical symptoms, medical diagnosis and anatomic results. The results showed that, because the pathological changes were not typical and clinical symptoms were varid, It was easy to come to erroneous diagnosis and cause medical disputes.