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Background: Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is a life-saving option for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the expanded OLT criteria remain controversial. Objective: The study aimed to explore whether expanded OLT criteria can be applied to Chinese cirrhotic patients with HCC. Methods: This retrospective study analyzed risk factors for HCC recurrence and death and compared patients' tumor characteristics and outcomes in groups of Milan, "Up-to-seven," and Hangzhou criteria, and groups between met and unmet the combinative criteria of "Up-to-seven" and AFP of < 1000 ng/mL. Results: Among 153 patients who underwent OLT for HCC from January 2015 to February 2019 in 4 years of follow-up, 20 (13.1%) patients had HCC recurrence, and 11 (7.2%) had HCC-related death. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that preoperative alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) of > 1000 ng/mL (hazard ratio [HR]: 10.05, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.45-41.13, P = 0.001) was an independent risk factor for HCC recurrence and HCC-related death (HR: 6.63, 95%CI: 1.31-33.52, P = 0.022). Patients who did not meet Milan criteria but satisfied the "Up-to-seven" criteria had no differences in overall survival (OS) (P = 0.69) and disease-free survival (DFS) (P = 0.35) than patients who met the Milan criteria. The combination of "Up-to-seven" criteria and AFP of < 1000 ng/mL differed significantly (HR: 18.9; 95% CI: 4.0-89.2; P < 0.001). Patients with HCC who met the "Up-to-seven" criteria and AFP of < 1000 ng/mL (n = 121) had excellent survival with 4-year OS of 91.6% (P < 0.001) and DFS of 90.8% (P < 0.001), which is significantly better compared to the other group (n = 32) (OS of 67.5% and DFS of 46.5%) and patients who met the Milan criteria (n = 108, OS of 89.8%, DFS of 89.6%), allowing 28.9% (13/45) of patients who did not meet the Milan criteria to benefit from OLT. Conclusion: Chinese cirrhotic patients with HCC who met the combinative criteria of "Up-to-seven" and AFP of < 1000 ng/mL had better survival than those who met the Milan criteria, and these combinative criteria benefited more patients and may become a better option for OLT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Clinical and laboratory data were collected and analysed from patients with Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Jui Government Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where patients with EVD were received and/or treated from October 1, 2014 to March 21, 2015 during the West Africa EVD outbreak. Methods: The study admitted 285 patients with confirmed EVD and followed them up till the endpoint (recovery or death). EVD was confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR assays detecting blood Ebola virus (EBOV). Results: Among the 285 lab-confirmed EVD cases in Jui Government Hospital, 146 recovered and 139 died, with an overall survival rate of 51.23 %. Patients under the age of 6 years had a lower survival rate (37.50 %). Most non-survivors (79.86 %) died within 7 days after admission and the mean hospitalization time for non-survivors was 5.56 ± 6.11 days. More than half survivors (63.69 %) turned blood EBOV negative within 3 weeks after admission and the mean hospitalization time for survivors was 20.38 ± 7.58 days. High blood viral load (≥106 copies/ml) was found to be predictive of the non-survival outcome as indicated by the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The probability of patients' survival was less than 15 % when blood viral load was greater than 106 copies/ml. Multivariate analyses showed that blood viral load (P = 0.005), confusion (P = 0.010), abdominal pain (P = 0.003), conjunctivitis (P = 0.035), and vomiting (P = 0.004) were factors independently associated with the outcomes of EVD patients. Conclusions: Most death occurred within 1 week after admission, and patients at the age of 6 or younger had a lower survival rate. Most surviving patients turned blood EBOV negative within 1-4 weeks after admission. Factors such as high blood viral load, confusion, abdominal pain, vomiting and conjunctivitis were associated with poor prognosis for EVD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explain some phenomena existing generally in the timing residuals: amplitude and sign of the second derivative of a pulsar's spin-frequency (?), some sophisticated residual patterns, which also change with the time span of data segments. The sample is taken from Hobbs et al., in which the pulsar's spin-frequency and its first derivative have been subtracted from the timing solution fitting. We first classify the timing residual patterns into different types based on the sign of ? . Then we use the magnetic field oscillation model developed in our group to fit successfully the different kinds of timing residuals with the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. Finally, we simulate the spin evolution over 20 years for a pulsar with typical parameters and analyse the data with the conventional timing solution fitting. By choosing different segments of the simulated data, we find that most of the observed residual patterns can be reproduced successfully. This is the first time that the observed residual patterns are fitted by a model and reproduced by simulations with very few parameters. From the distribution of the different residual patterns in the P-?P diagram, we argue that (1) a single magnetic field oscillation mode exists commonly in all pulsars throughout their lifetimes; (2) there may be a transition period over the lifetimes of pulsars, in which multiple magnetic field oscillation modes exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

XTE J1810-189 underwent an outburst in 2008, and was observed over ~100 d by RXTE. Performing a time-resolved spectral analysis on the photospheric radius expansion burst detected on 2008 May 4, we obtain the source distance in the range 3.5-8.7 kpc for the first time. During its outburst, XTE J1810-189 did not enter into the high/soft state, and both the soft and hard colours decreased with decreasing flux. The fractional rms remained at high values (~30 per cent). The RXTE/PCA spectra for 3-25 keV can be described by an absorbed power-law component with an additional Gaussian component, and the derived photon index V increased from 1.84 ± 0.01 to 2.25 ± 0.04 when the unabsorbed X-ray luminosity at 3-25 keV dropped from 4 x 1036 to 6 x 1035 erg s-1. The relatively high flux, dense observations and broad-band spectra are strong evidence that the softening behaviour detected in the outburst of XTE J1810-189 originates from the evolution of a non-thermal component rather than the thermal component (i.e. neutron star surface emission). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This communication reports an approach to fabricate large-scale ultrathin open-ended porous TiO2 membranes (UOP-TMs) with ordered straight-through pores. Bi nanodot arrays on Si substrates are obtained by using the UOP-TMs as surface patterning masks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of O2 and H2O vapor on the Nitric oxide (NO) removal rate, the NO2 generation rate and the discharge characteristics were investigated using the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor at 1 atm pressure and at room temperature (20°). The results showed that the O2 present in the flue gas always hampered the removal of NO and the generation of N2O, but that the O2 could enhance the generation of NO2 in the NO/N2/O2 mixtures. Furthermore, with the increase of oxygen, the average discharge current gradually decreases in the reactor. The H2O present in N2/NO hindered the removal of NO and the generation of NO2 but had no impact on the average discharge current in the reactor in the NO/N2/H2O mixtures in which the HNO2 and HNO3 was detected. The energy efficiency of the DBD used to remove the NO from the flue gas was also estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we fabricate ordered pore array (OPA) Ag film coated glass with the aid of polystyrene sphere (PS) array templates. This kind of OPA Ag coated glass has optical advantages of visible transparency, blue and near-infrared resistance. The average visible transmittance is 68%, including a transmission peak of 78% located at 570 nm, and low average transmittance of 48% in the blue light region that is not damaging to the eyes. The near-infrared light blocking rate is 67%, among which 40% light is reflected directly, indicating the reflection domination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-dimensional noble-metal Ag nanoparticle chains have been prepared by electrodepositing Ag/Bi superlattice nanowires in a porous anodic alumina oxide (AAO) template and following an annealing process in vacuum. It is found that Bi, as a sacrificial metal, can be removed completely after annealing at 450 °C with a vacuum degree of 10−5 Torr. The regulation of particle size, shape and interparticle spacing of Ag NP chains has been realized by adjusting the segment length of the Ag/Bi superlattice nanowires and the annealing condition. With an extension of the annealing time, it is observed that Ag particles display the transform trend from ellipsoid to sphere. Our findings could inspire further investigation on the design and fabrication of metal nanoparticle chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]