OBJECTIVE: The current study examines the association between religious affiliation and suicidality among college students in six provinces in China.
METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 11,407 college students from six universities in Ningxia, Shandong, Shanghai, Jilin, Qinghai, and Shaanxi. We collected the data between October 2017 and March 2018 using self-report questionnaires. They included self-report measures of depression, psychache, hopelessness, self-esteem, social support, and life purpose.
RESULTS: Participants with a Christian affiliation had 1.5 times (95% CI: 1.14, 1.99, p = 0.004) higher odds of indicating an elevated suicide risk, 3.1 times (95% CI: 1.90, 5.04, p<0.001) higher odds of indicating a previous suicide attempt, and increased overall suicidality (B = 0.105, p < 0.001) after accounting for demographic and risk/protective factors. Christians also scored the highest in depression, psychache, hopelessness, and the lowest social support, self-esteem, and purpose in life. Muslims reported decreased suicidality (B = -0.034, p = 0.031). Buddhism/Daoism yielded non-significant results in the multivariate analyses.
CONCLUSIONS: Christian college students reported increased suicidality levels, perhaps due to public policies on religion. The decreased suicidality levels among Muslims may be attributed to higher perceived social support. The associations between religious affiliation and suicidality, depression, and hopelessness contrast sharply with US samples. This finding may be influenced by interactions between the religious denomination, individual, and social/political factors. This conclusion includes the possibility of anti-religious discrimination, which this paper did not investigate as a possible mediator and therefore remains a conjecture worthy of future investigation.
METHODS: Patients aged 30-75 years who had severe ischemic stroke (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale [NIHSS] score of 10-35) involving the MCA territory were recruited within 2 months of stroke onset. Using permuted block randomization, patients were assigned to receive 2 million BMMSCs per kilogram of body weight (treatment group) or standard medical care (control group). The primary outcomes were the NIHSS, modified Rankin Scale (mRS), Barthel Index (BI) and total infarct volume on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 12 months. All outcome assessments were performed by blinded assessors. Per protocol, analyses were performed for between-group comparisons.
RESULTS: Seventeen patients were recruited. Nine were assigned to the treatment group, and eight were controls. All patients were severely disabled following their MCA infarct (median mRS = 4.0 [4.0-5.0], BI = 5.0 [5.0-25.0], NIHSS = 16.0 [11.5-21.0]). The baseline infarct volume on the MRI was larger in the treatment group (median, 71.7 [30.5-101.7] mL versus 26.7 [12.9-75.3] mL, P = 0.10). There were no between-group differences in median NIHSS score (7.0 versus 6.0, P = 0.96), mRS (2.0 versus 3.0, P = 0.38) or BI (95.0 versus 67.5, P = 0.33) at 12 months. At 12 months, there was significant improvement in absolute change in median infarct volume, but not in total infarct volume, from baseline in the treatment group (P = 0.027). No treatment-related adverse effects occurred in the BMMSC group.
CONCLUSIONS: Intravenous infusion of BMMSCs in patients with subacute MCA infarct was safe and well tolerated. Although there was no neurological recovery or functional outcome improvement at 12 months, there was improvement in absolute change in median infarct volume in the treatment group. Larger, well-designed studies are warranted to confirm this and the efficacy of BMMSCs in ischemic stroke.
METHODS: review of thirty-nine public opinion surveys on the death penalty carried out in five Asian countries which retain the death penalty for drugs or are considering re-introducing it. The review was conducted by analysing and comparing design, methodology, findings, and the relationship between these elements.
RESULTS: all but two surveys recorded a majoritarian support for the death penalty, driven by beliefs in (a) deterrent effect of the death penalty, and (b) perfect justice - both disproven. Complex surveys found a low intensity of support, and a limited interest and knowledge by the public in capital punishment. Support for capital punishment is lower for drug offences specifically, and it decreases significantly when expressed with reference to real-life cases. Limited data suggest that the public in the focus countries has reservations on the effectiveness of the death penalty to reduce drug offences, and prefers a discretionary system of punishment. The analysis also revealed correlations between the framing of survey questions and their findings.
CONCLUSION: Public opinion surveys conducted in China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand suggest that the public knows little and has little interest in the death penalty. Although majoritarian, its support is based on a faulty understanding of key facts related to capital punishment, and an increase in knowledge is correlated to a decrease in support. More rigorous polling exercises demonstrate that public support for capital punishment - both in general and for drug offences specifically - is instinctive, abstract, elastic, and contextual.
METHODS: The venoms of DrSL and DrI were decomplexed with C18 high-performance liquid chromatography and SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under reducing conditions. The proteins fractionated were identified through nano-ESI-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS/MS). The immunological studies were conducted with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The neutralization of the venom procoagulant effect was evaluated in citrated human plasma. The neutralization of the venom lethality was assessed in vivo in mice adopting the WHO protocol.
RESULTS: DrSL and DrI venom proteomes showed comparable major protein families, with phospholipases A2 (PLA2) being the most abundant (> 60% of total venom proteins) and diverse (six protein forms identified). Both venoms were highly procoagulant and lethal (intravenous median lethal dose in mice, LD50 = 0.24 and 0.32 µg/g, for DrSL and DrI, respectively), while lacking hemorrhagic and anticoagulant activities. VPAV was immunoreactive toward DrSL and DrI venoms, indicating conserved protein antigenicity in the venoms. The high molecular weight venom proteins were, however, more effectively immunorecognized than small ones. VPAV was able to neutralize the coagulopathic and lethal effects of the venoms moderately.
CONCLUSION: Considering that a large amount of venom can be injected by Russell's viper during envenomation, the potency of antivenom can be further improved for optimal neutralization and effective treatment. Region-specific venoms and key toxins may be incorporated into the immunization procedure during antivenom production.
Case presentation: A 48-year-old woman presented with worsening dyspnoea and orthopnoea for one week. She had also experienced weight loss, minimal dry cough and right-sided pleuritic chest pain for several weeks. A chest radiograph showed a right lower zone pleural effusion with no apparent lung consolidation. Lung ultrasound showed a right apical consolidation and right lower zone septated pleural effusion. Pleural fluid investigations showed exudative features of mixed lymphocytic, mesothelial and neutrophilic cellular components. Tuberculin skin test was strongly positive. She was subsequently treated for pleural tuberculosis. One month after treatment, her symptoms had improved considerably.
Discussion: Lung ultrasound has been found to be more effective than chest radiograph in detecting consolidation and diagnosing pneumonia. The portability and efficacy of today's ultrasound machines, including the handheld types, show that lung ultrasound is a practical, reliable and valuable diagnostic tool in managing pulmonary conditions including tuberculosis, provided that the operators are adequately trained.
Conclusion: Lung ultrasound in tuberculosis is the next frontier for clinicians and researchers.
Methods: a total of 53 cases of endometrioid type of EC were selected within a six-year period comprising of 22 cases of grade 1, 25 cases of grade 2 and six cases of grade 3 carcinoma. The selected whole tumour tissue sections were immune-stained with HER2 antibody. The scoring was semi-quantitatively analyzed based on 2013 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)/College of American Pathologists (CAPs) guidelines for the scoring of HER2 in breast cancer.
Results: all cases regardless of grades of endometrioid carcinoma showed negative expression of HER2 (score 0).
Conclusion: there was no significant HER2 expression in endometrioid carcinoma. However, a follow-up study with a larger number of samples from different type of endometrial carcinoma is needed. Testing of several tumour tissue blocks to assess possible tumour heterogeneity, as well as correlation with HER2 gene amplification status by in-situ-hybridisation, are also recommended.