Effect of aflibercept combined with triamcinolone acetonide on aqueous humor growth factor and inflammatory mediators in diabetic macular edema

AIM:To investigate the efficacy of aflibercept combined with sub-tenon injection of triamcinolone acetonide(TA)in treating diabetic macular edema(DME)and to examine changes in growth factors and inflammatory mediator levels in aqueous humor after injection.METHODS:Totally 67 DME patients(67 eyes)and 30 cataract patients(32 eyes)were enrolled as the DME group and the control group,respectively.The DME group was divided into the aflibercept group(34 cases)and the aflibercept combined with TA group(combined group,33 cases).The aqueous humor of both groups was collected during the study period.The aqueous levels of vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF),monocyte chemoattractant protein-1(MCP-1),interleukin-6(IL-6),interleukin-8(IL-8),and interleukin-1β(IL-1β)were detected using a microsphere suspension array technology(Luminex 200TM).Aqueous cytokines,best-corrected visual acuity(BCVA),central macular thickness(CMT),and complications before and after treatment were compared between the aflibercept group and combined group.RESULTS:The concentrations of VEGF,MCP-1,IL-6,and IL-8 in the aqueous humor were significantly higher in the DME group than those of the control group(all P<0.01).After 1mo of surgery,the concentrations of VEGF,MCP-1,IL-6,and IL-8 in the aqueous humor were significantly lower in the combined group than those of the aflibercept group(all P<0.01).The BCVA and CMT values of the two groups were statistically different after 1 and 2mo of treatment(P<0.01).However,the difference was not statistically significant after 3mo of treatment(P>0.05).CONCLUSION:The cytokines VEGF,MCP-1,IL-6,and IL-8 in the aqueous humor of DME patients are significantly increased.Aflibercept and aflibercept combined with TA have good efficacy in DME patients,can effectively reduce CMT,improve the patient’s vision,and have high safety.Aflibercept combined with TA can quickly downregulate the aqueous humor cytokines and help to relieve macular edema rapidly.However,the long-term efficacy is comparable to that of aflibercept alone.

Research progress on the correlation between aqueous humor components and pathogenesis and postoperative complications in patients with different types of cataracts

Aqueous humor provides the necessary nutrition for the lens and transports the metabolites in the eye.It was a liquid that can directly reflect the microenvironment in the eye'and it can be easily obtained during the operation.This review intended to analyze the components of aqueous humor in patients with different types of cataracts'so as to reflect the pathogenesis and development of the disease'evaluate the incidence of postoperative complications and provide reference value for the surgical design of sequential cataract surgery.The aqueous humor components of different types of cataracts showed different degrees of inflammation'oxidative stress and extracellular matrix remodeling.The biomarker of early neuropathy in diabetic cataract was neural cell adhesion molecule-1(NCAM1).Transforming growth factor-β(TGF-β)was the evaluation factor of disease development in patients with pseudoexfoliation syndrome.The relationships between postoperative complications of different types of cataracts and aqueous humor components were as follows:Macular edema after diabetic cataract surgery was associated with tumor necrosis factor-alpha;capsular contraction after high myopic cataract surgery was related to monocyte chemoattractant protein-1(MCP-1)and TGF-β2;Klotho and glutathione S-transferase P 1(GSTP1)were associated with high intraocular pressure after primary open-angle glaucoma complicated by cataract surgery;capsular contraction after retinitis pigmentosa complicated by cataract surgery was associated with matrix metalloproteinases;pro-inflammatory cytokines and fibroblast growth factor 4 in the aqueous humor of congenital cataracts were associated with posterior capsular opacification after surgery.Granulocyte colony stimulating factor 3 and MCP-1 were the main cytokines mediating the pain of the second eye in the binocular sequential cataract surgery short interval(1 wk)'while MCP-1 mediated pain in the long interval(6 wk).The second eye after binocular sequential cataract surgery had a higher level of proinflammatory factors.The components of aqueous humor in patients with different types of cataracts were related to the pathogenesis and postoperative complications of the disease.Monitoring the components of the aqueous humor could help better understand the intraocular microenvironment of different types of cataracts and provide a reference for predicting the development of the disease and implementing relevant targeted therapy.

Humoral Response and Tolerance of Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in Adults Senegalese Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis: A Multicenter Prospective Study

Introduction: Following the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination has been proposed in several countries as the main preventive measure despite very limited data, particularly in dialysis patients. We conducted this study to assess the immunological response to vaccination in Senegalese hemodialysis patients. Patients and Methods: We conducted a prospective study, in two dialysis centers in Dakar from March 30th to August 30th, 2021 including patients on hemodialysis for >6 months, vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 according to the vaccination schedule recommended by WHO. A vaccine response was considered positive when seroconversion was observed after one dose of vaccine. The clinical efficacy of immunization was defined as the absence of new COVID-19 infection in patients who received a complete vaccination. Results: Among the 81 patients included in the study, 7.4% had anti-Spike IgM antibodies before their first vaccination. Seroprevalence of IgM antibodies was 38.3% one month after the first vaccine dose (at M1) and 8.6% one month after the second dose (at M4). Anti-Spike IgG antibodies were present in 40.3% of patients before vaccination, in 90.1% at M1, and in 59.7% at M4. Among patients previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, 10.2% had IgM antibodies at M0, 31.6% at M1, and 10.5% at M4 post-vaccination. Similarly, seroprevalences of IgG antibodies in this subgroup were 31.5%, 61.3%, and 50.0% respectively at M0, M1, and M4 post-vaccination. A comparison of seroconversion rates between M0 and M4 showed significant differences only for IgG in COVID-19 naive patients. Mean duration in dialysis and the existence of previous COVID-19 infection were associated with patients’ vaccinal response after the two doses. Age, gender and the use of immunosuppressive treatment did not influence post-vaccinal antibody production. Conclusion: Vaccination against COVID-19 in Senegalese hemodialysis patients induced a low seroconversion rate but it was well tolerated. Moreover, the induced protection was neither strong nor durable, particularly in patients with longer duration in dialysis.

A Linguistic Analysis of Humorous Discourses between the English and Mandarin Language

The paper is divided into Five Chapters,aiming to explain the humorous effect in our daily discourse in the perspective of linguistic analysis.It is another new discovery.Two languages have their own distinct features.When translating,we will find a lot of humorous effect created by these language differences.The analysis of the topic is undergoing through term definition and case study.The paper might be of some help to further the humorous research in literature,art,academic circles or daily conversations.More methods of analysis,at the same time,are appreciated.

On Translating Strategies of Humorous Language

This paper makes a systematical study on the translating strategies of humorous language,with linguistic and cultural factors taken into consideration in the discussion.It should be pointed out that whatever strategy is chosen in translation,it is workable so long as it can reach the best humorous effect.

Factors Affecting the Humorous Language Style of Mark Twin

As we all know,Mark Twain is an expert in handling humor.The formation of his language style has close connection with three aspects.Local literature influences Mark Twain very much.Western humor is another influential element.And his personal experience is also contributed to his humorous language style.

Cooperative Principle and English Humorous Utterance

Humorous utterances,especially those in the form of conversation in life,have distinctive pragmatic features.There is a close relationship between humor and pragmatics,which can be found in various books on pragmatics.In those books,humorous utterances function as examples for pragmatic analysis.Effective humorous languages often reflect one or several pragmatic features.This paper specifically introduces one of the important theories of pragmatics:cooperative principle,by which the paper analyzes the humorous utterance and explores the relationship between pragmatic rules and humorous utterance.The purpose is to make people know humorous utterance is a matter of pragmatics. The reality of the humor especially depends on implication of the language and the context.

A Probe into Humorous Effects of TV Programs from the Perspective of Cooperative Principle——A Case Study on If You Are the One

This paper probes into the dialogues in If You Are the One based on the theoretical framework of Grice's Cooperative Principle, with a view to discovering humorous effects and conversational implicature in a certain context. Through the analysis of representative dialogues which obey and violate the maxims respectively, this paper concludes that speakers, by appropriately violating the maxims and unconsciously observing the maxims of the CP, manage to achieve humorous effects and conversational implicature. Meanwhile, this paper aims to help people express themselves appropriately to avoid pragmatic failures and achieve the goal of communication.

Cooperative Principle and Humorous Conversation

By exploring cooperative principle and conversation,especially from the semantic and pragmatic way,this article tries to explore how the cooperative principle makes effect in humorous conversations.It turns out that the humor comes out more from the semantic as pect.Hence it is proposed that it should focus more on the semantic meaning to achieve humor.At last,the significance of applying humor ous conversation in teaching spoken English is also discussed.

Mark Twain's Humorous Satire in Running for Governor

Mark Twain, a mastermind of humor and realism, is seen as a giant in world literature. His humorous satire had great impact on the following men of letters; critics also attached significant importance to it and put forward various interpretations. Noticeably, his humor ous satire finds full expression in his famous short story, Running for Governor. In it, with humor and satire, he exposed the true features and hypocrisy of American democracy. The paper tries to analyze the basic elements which affected Mark Twain's humorous satire, aiming at offering rational analysis of this humorous satire in Running for Governor as well as making Twain's works readily understood.

The Effect of Humorous Stimuli on Alleviating Pain during Mammography: A Preliminary Study

Mammography is widely performed as a standardized procedure for breast cancer screening;however, women often feel some degree of pain during this procedure. Currently, there are limited options available for alleviating pain related to mammography. A non-medicinal approach to the alleviation of pain involves the effects of laughter on physical and psychological wellbeing. We therefore examined the possibility that humorous stimuli would alleviate the physical burden on women undergoing mammography. We assessed 29 women, 15 women received only conventional mammography (neutral group), while 14 women (humor group) watched a funny video during the same examination. The intensity of pain experienced during mammography was assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS) and the VAS results showed a statistically significant difference (P = 0.007) between the two groups, with the humor group experiencing less pain. In an additional experiment, 14 women in the humor group also underwent conventional mammography without exposure to the funny video and pain was assessed by VAS. We found that the pain experienced during conventional mammography without the funny video was significantly greater than the pain experienced during the same mammography but with the funny video (P = 0.047). These findings suggested the possibility of alleviating pain during mammography by humorous stimuli.

Humorous Communication and Comprehension:Manipulation and Epistemic Vigilance

This paper takes an integrative approach to the communication and comprehension of humor from the perspectives of the humorist’s manipulation and the recipient’s vigilance informed by relevance theory.It is proposed that,in order to communicate humor,the humorist manipulates the recipient’s expectation of relevance in the setup and in the punchline in two different but related ways:misleading and guiding.It is also proposed that,in order to comprehend and appreciate humor,the recipient exercises vigilance against his/her own shallow processing in the setup and exercises vigilance for special cognitive effects in the punchline.On this approach,humorous communication and comprehension is viewed as an interaction between manipulation and epistemic vigilance.Strategies of manipulation and vigilance are described,and some essential issues arising from the relevance-theoretic approach to humor are reconsidered with some implications drawn.This paper contributes to enhancing the explanatory power of relevance theory for the communication and comprehension of humor.

Violating Cooperative Principle to Achieve Humorous Effect

Humor is a kind of literature that can be found everywhere in our daily life. It is also a kind of language art that can be created by various reasons. This essay will analyze humor from a knowledge of pragmatics—cooperative principle (CP) and show how the humorous effect achieved ascribed to the breaking the four maxims of the cooperative principle. It also provides a lot of examples to show how to achieve humorous effect by applying Grice’s cooperative principle. The creation of humor and violation of CP have close relationship. Violating CP in the surface may create humor. A better understanding about humor will be achieved under an analysis of CP. As a linguistic phenomenon, humor has its own charm. It’s good medicine,that can improve interpersonal relationships and make others feel comfortable.

The Humorous but Coherent Characterization of the Little Man in "The Egg", "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" and "Shiloh"

Though with different times and backgrounds,these three masterpieces-"The Egg","The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"and"Shiloh"all humorously characterize the same type protagonist-the"little man".Penetrating the humorous characterization,the three works on the one hand present the rational question of the mainstream society and the serious critique of the dominant forces,on the other hand,they also offer the humanistic affirm and concern of the marginalized little man.Thus,bundle these three master pieces together,this paper makes an effort to analyze the humorous characterization of the little man;the comic gender relationships so as to figure out the coherent thematic significance as well as the philosophical seriousness of humor in these three masterpieces.

A Humorous Answer

Denkon was a famous woman dancer.She was very beau-tiful and successful in dancing,but she wasn’t bright.Bernard Shaw was a world-famous writer and humorist,but he was an ordinary-looking man.

On the Translation of Humorous Elements in British Sitcom-A Case Study of the Subtitle Translation of Black Books

Chinese audience love British comedy for its unique humorous effect, and the interlingual communication of humorous effects has become a major problem affecting the audience's viewing experience. Taking the subtitle translation project of Black Books as an example, this paper analyzes the subtitle translation of humorous elements in the sitcom Black Books from the per?spective of functional equivalence theory, combining the characteristics of British comedies, explains how humor in sitcoms tran?scends regional, cultural and linguistic barriers to make the target audience feel the effect of humor in sitcoms, and provides cor?responding subtitle translation strategies. Through this research, the author hopes to achieve the transmission effect of humor, op?timize the viewing experience of the target language audience to a certain extent, and promote cultural exchanges.

Differential analysis of aqueous humor cytokine levels in patients with macular edema secondary to diabetic retinopathy or retinal vein occlusion

AIM:To evaluate the difference and the correlation between the concentrations of cytokines in the aqueous humor of eyes with macular edema secondary to diabetic retinopathy(DR)or retinal vein occlusion(RVO).METHODS:This is a retrospective case control study.The aqueous humor samples were collected during intravitreal injection of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF)for patients diagnosed with macular edema secondary to DR(DME)or RVO(RVO-ME)at Xijing Hospital from August 2021 to July 2022.Meanwhile,aqueous humor samples during vitrectomy from patients with idiopathic macular hole(IMH)were also collected and served as controls.The aqueous humor concentrations of VEGF,platelet-derived factor(PDGF),interleukin(IL)-6,IL-8,IL-18,tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α)and monocyte chemoattractant protein 1(MCP-1)were measured with Human Premixed Multi-Analyte Kit(Luminex).The difference of the aqueous cytokines and the correlation between the two diseases were analyzed.RESULTS:A total of 40 eyes of 38 patients were enrolled in the study,including 13 eyes of 11 DME patients(DME group),16 eyes of 16 RVO-ME patients(RVO-ME group)and 11 eyes of 11 IMH patients(control group).The VEGF,PDGF,IL-6,IL-8,and MCP-1 levels of the aqueous humor were higher in both DME and RVO-ME groups compared with the control group(all P<0.05),the levels of TNF-αwas higher in the DME group than in the control group(P<0.05).The VEGF,IL-6,MCP-1,and TNF-αlevels in the aqueous humor were significantly higher in the DR group than those in the RVO group(all P<0.05).Correlation analyses revealed that there were complex positive correlations between IL-6,IL-8,IL-18,MCP-1,and TNF-αlevels in the aqueous humor of eyes with two diseases.CONCLUSION:Although ischemic and inflammatory factors are similarly involved in the pathogenesis of DME and RVO-ME,the roles of these factors are more significant or more likely to be activated in DR patients,suggesting different treatment strategies should be considered for the two diseases.

Effects of Combined Application of NRTUAs and ABP on Growth and Humoral Immunity of Chicks

[Objectives]The paper was to study the effects of combined application of nonreplicating Toxoplasma uracil auxotrophs(NRTUAs)and Agaricus blazei Murill polysaccharide(ABP)on growth and humoral immunity of chicks.[Methods]A total of 120 one-day old female Hyline brown laying hens were randomly divided into 4 groups,30 hens for each group.The chicks in group 1 were subcutaneously injected with NRTUAs and fed on the diet containing with ABP;the chicks in group 2 were subcutaneously injected with NRTUAs;the chicks in group 3 were subcutaneously injected with equal volume of PBS,and fed on the diet containing with ABP;the chicks in group 4 were subcutaneously injected with equal volume of PBS.The body weight of chicks in each group was counted at the 21^(st),42^(nd),84^(th)and 112^(th)week.During this period,blood samples were collected from chicks in each group at 0,7,14,21,28 and 35 d post immunization against Newcastle disease(ND),and serum was separated to detect the antibody titer of ND.[Results]The combined application of NRTUAs and ABP had no effect on growth of chicks,but promoted the humoral immune response of chicks,significantly improved the ND antibody level of chicks,and could maintain high levels of antibodies in the body for a long time.[Conclusions]The study lays a theoretical foundation for further developing the clinical application of NRTUAs and ABP.

Retrospective Analysis of External Quality Assessment Data of Humoral (Except Feces) Morphology in Guangxi from 2010 to 2022

[Objectives] The study aims to improve the ability of inspectors to recognize humoral morphology and provide data reference for the improvement of EQA work of humoral morphology by Guangxi Clinical Laboratory Center. [Methods] A retrospective analysis was made on the EQA of humoral morphology by Guangxi Clinical Laboratory Center from 2010 to 2022, and the number of participating laboratories, the rate of return, sample types and maps of EQA of humoral morphology such as urine sediment, vaginal secretions and so on(except feces), and the reasons for the high error rate of the results of the participating laboratories were analyzed. [Results] The number of laboratories participating in the assessment of humoral morphology increased from 98 in 2010 to 371 in 2022. Except for 2011(90.98%), the rate of return was more than 94%, and the highest rate of return was up to 100%. A total of 119 pictures of EQA of humoral morphology were studied, including 101 urine sediment smears, 13 vaginal secretions smears and 5 other smears. The types of specimens were relatively comprehensive. The distribution of the maps was basically reasonable. The urinary sediment was mainly composed of crystalline salts, followed by tubes, and cells and fungi ranked third. The coverage was relatively complete. The error rate of return results from high to low were bacteria(error rate was equal to 40%), tubes and crystalline salts(error rate was close to 29%), and cells and fungi(error rate was about 14%). The main cases with high error rate of return results are as follows: the difference between different tubes was not clear, and the diversity of crystal morphology was not understood enough;the phase division of cells in the same system was wrong. [Conclusions] The analysis and summary of the reasons for the high error rate of the data and results of Guangxi's EQA of humoral morphology is helpful for laboratory physicians to improve their awareness of morphological examination and identify clearly the error type and blurred concept, and lays a foundation for Guangxi Clinical Laboratory Center to carry out EQA of humoral morphology more specifically.

Conceptual Blending and Meme Humor on the Internet:The Example of COVID-19 Publicity Posters in Chinese Microblogging

Internet memes,as multimodal cultural products disseminated through the Internet,usually take the form of short videos or images that express humor or satire.The creation and dissemination of humor in memes are both creative and complex,and the successful perception of meme humor reflects humans’universal thinking capacity.Based on the theoretical framework of conceptual blending,this paper selects a set of COVID-19 publicity posters from the official Weibo account of China Guangzhou Fabu(Guangzhou Internet Information Office),analyses the multi-level structure of Internet memes,and explores the dynamic cognitive process in the interpretation of humorous memes to reveal people’s ability to make simultaneous analogies and integration between elements in different mental spaces.