Background Dysregulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been reported to be involved in the neuroinflammatory pathogenesis of PD. This study aimed to investigate the serum expression of microRNA‐150 (miR‐150) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and further uncover the regulatory effect of miR‐150 on neuroinflammation. Methods Quantitative Real‐Time PCR was used to measure the expression of miR‐150. A receiver operating characteristic curve was applied to evaluate the diagnostic value of miR‐150. The effect of miR‐150 on neuroinflammation was analyzed by examining its correlation with proinflammatory cytokines and gain‐of‐function experiments in microglia treated with LPS. Results Serum miR‐150 expression was downregulated in PD patients compared with the healthy controls, and served as a candidate diagnostic biomarker for the screening of PD cases. Negative correlation was found between miR‐150 levels and the levels of procytokines in PD patients. By the treatment of LPS, microglia BV2 cells had a reduced expression of miR‐150, and the enhanced neuroinflammatory responses were inhibited by the overexpression of miR‐150. AKT3 was verified as a target of miR‐150 in BV2 cells. Conclusion All the data of this study revealed that the decreased serum miR‐150 serves as a potential diagnostic biomarker. The methods to increase miR‐150 expression may have a beneficial effect in PD via suppressing the neuroinflammation by targeting AKT3.

The purpose of this article is to address a major gap in the instructional sensitivity literature on how to develop instructionally sensitive assessments. We propose an approach to developing and evaluating instructionally sensitive assessments in science and test this approach with one elementary lifescience module. The assessment we developed was administered to 125 students in seven classrooms. The development approach considered three dimensions of instructional sensitivity; that is, assessment items should: represent the curriculum content, reflect the quality of instruction, and have formative value for teaching. Focusing solely on the first dimension, representation of the curriculum content, this study was guided by the following research questions: (1) What science module characteristics can be systematically manipulated to develop items that prove to be instructionally sensitive? and (2) Are the instructionally sensitive assessments developed sufficiently valid to make inferences about the impact of instruction on students' performance? In this article, we describe our item development approach and provide empirical evidence to support validity arguments about the developed instructionally sensitive items. Results indicated that: (1) manipulations of the items at different proximities to vary their sensitivity were aligned with the rules for item development and also corresponded with pre-to-post gains; and (2) the items developed at different distances from the science module showed a pattern of pre-to-post gain consistent with their instructional sensitivity, that is, the closer the items were to the science module, the larger the observed gains and effect sizes. ß 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 2012

Background:Bibliometric analysis is an approach to evaluate the circumstances and trends in specific research field over time and to provide inspiration in future research and policy. Researches have a tremendous increase focus on the role of the microbiota in the development of diabetes in recent years; however, there is no published literature conducting a bibliometric analysis to explore the tendency. The aim of this study was to provide a detailed evaluation of the hundred most cited articles in microbiota of diabetes research.Methods:The database of the Web of Science was utilized for identification of articles. The top 100 were selected for further analysis of authorship, number of citations, article type, source journal, geographic origin, and interactions.Results:The articles selected were published from 2007 to 2015. The total citations ranged from 1289 to 35, citation density ranged from 163.75 to 6.5. The article type included basic science (n = 32), review (n = 29), expert opinion (n = 19), cross-sectional study (n = 12), RCT (n = 3), and others (n = 5). The study content included pathogenesis (n = 58), risk factor (n = 11), modifying of intestinal microbiota (n = 10), prebiotic treatment (n = 8), antibiotic treatment (n = 4), diet control (n = 4), and others (n = 5). The 100 most cited articles were published in 59 journals. Among them, Diabetes (n = 7), Diabetologia (n = 7), and Plos one (n = 7) published the most T100 articles. In total, 24 countries and 174 scientific research institutions participated in those researches. USA (n = 32) and Belgium (n = 22) were the leading countries in this field, followed by France (n = 18) and Finland (n = 16). Patrice D. Cani contributed the most top cited articles (n = 15).Conclusion:This bibliometric study is likely to include a list of intellectual milestones focused on microbiota of diabetes research in the past decade, which provides insights into the circumstances and trends in preventing and treating diabetes from a new perspective.