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Telocytes (TCs) are distinctive interstitial cells due to their characteristic structures and heterogeneity. They are suggested to participate in tissue repair/regeneration. TCs have been identified in many organs of various mammals. However, data on TCs in lower animals are still very limited. In this work, TCs were identified in the myocardium of the bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) by light and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The structural relationships between TCs and neighbouring cell types were measured using the ImageJ (FiJi) morphometric software. TCs with slender Tps (telepodes) were located around cardiomyocytes (CMC). TEM revealed TCs with long Tps in the stroma between CMC. The homocellular tight junctions were observed between the Tps. The Tps were also very close to the neighbouring CMC. The distance between Tps and CMC was 0.15 ± 0.08 μm. Notably, Tps were observed to adhere to the periphery of the satellite cells. The Tps and the satellite cells established heterocellular structural connections by tight junctions. Additionally, Tps were frequently observed in close proximity to mast cells (MCs). The distance between the Tps and the MCs was 0.19 ± 0.09 μm. These results confirmed that TCs are present in the myocardium of the bullfrog, and that TCs established structural relationships with neighbouring cell types, including satellite cells and MCs. These findings provide the anatomical evidence to support the note that TCs are involved in tissue regeneration., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Sensor nodes are widely distributed in the Internet of Things and communicate with each other to form a wireless sensor network (WSN), which plays a vital role in people's productivity and life. However, the energy of WSN nodes is limited, so this paper proposes a two-layer WSN system based on edge computing to solve the problems of high energy consumption and short life cycle of WSN data transmission and establishes wireless energy consumption and distance optimization models for sensor networks. Specifically, we propose the optimization objective of balancing load and distance factors. We adopt an improved sparrow search algorithm to evenly distribute sensor nodes in the system to reduce resource consumption, consumption, and network life. Through the simulation experiment, our method is illustrated, effectively reducing the network's energy consumption by 26.8% and prolonging the network's life cycle.

Whereas the presence of flowers on ornamental flowering plants is essential for their identification via traditional methods, ornamental flowering plants cannot be reliably identified in non-flowering stages likewise. Here, DBALM ( D NA Ba rcodes- L eaf M orphology), a new approach that combines DNA barcoding data with micromorphological features of the leaf epidermis and that is not limited by the flowering stage, was used to identify 16 evergreen rhododendron cultivars. First, the sequences of DNA barcodes, ITS, matK , psbA-trnH , and rbcL , were obtained from the DNA of leaves. Phylogenetic analysis was conducted to clarify the groupings among all the samples based on the four markers. Then, microscopic features of the leaf epidermis were used to further distinguish individuals from the same clade. DNA barcoding permitted the 16 cultivars to be divided into eight groups. The microscopic features of the leaf epidermis permitted cultivars within the same clade to be distinguished. The matK + psbA-trnH combination was the most effective barcode combination in this study. In addition, the new primer matK-Rh_R was designed, and it increased the amplification rate of evergreen rhododendron cultivars to 100%. In sum, DBALM was capable of accurately identifying the 16 evergreen rhododendron cultivars using data collected from a single leaf in the vegetative growth stage. This method can greatly facilitate the identification and breeding of ornamental flowering plants., (© 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Introduction: Moso bamboo is one of the important clonal plants with complex underground rhizome-root system. Ramets connected by rhizome can translocate and share nitrogen (N), which may affect the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of moso bamboo. The aims of this study were to investigate the mechanisms of N physiological integration and its relationship with NUE of moso bamboo., Methods: A pot experiment was conducted to trace the movement of 15 N between the connected ramets of moso bamboo in both homogeneous and heterogeneous N environments., Results: Results showed that N translocation within clonal fragments of moso bamboo was detected in both homogeneous and heterogeneous environments. The intensity of physiological integration (IPI) was significantly lower in homogeneous environments than that in heterogeneous environments. 15 N translocation between the connected ramtes of moso bamboo was determined by the source-sink relationship in heterogeneous environments, and the 15 N allocation of the fertilized ramet was higher than that of the connected unfertilized ramet. The NUE of connected treatment was significantly higher than that of severed treatment, which suggested that physiological integration significantly improved the NUE of moso bamboo. In addition, the NUE of moso bamboo was significantly higher in heterogeneous environments than that in homogeneous environments. The contribution rate of physiological integration (CPI) on NUE in heterogeneous environments was significantly higher than that in homogenous environments., Discussion: These results will provide theoretical basis for precision fertilization in moso bamboo forests., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Zhao and Cai.)

Herein, we report choline chloride-based deep eutectic solvents (DESs) promoted conversion of N -acetyl-d-glucosamine (GlcNAc) into nitrogen-containing compounds, i.e., 3-acetamido-5-(1',2'-dihydroxyethyl) furan (Chromogen III) and 3-acetamido-5-acetylfuran (3A5AF). The binary deep eutectic solvent choline chloride-glycerin (ChCl-Gly), was found to promote the dehydration of GlcNAc to form Chromogen III, which reaches a maximum yield of 31.1%. On the other hand, the ternary deep eutectic solvent, choline chloride-glycerol-B(OH) 3 (ChCl-Gly-B(OH) 3 ), promoted the further dehydration of GlcNAc into 3A5AF with a maximum yield of 39.2%. In addition, the reaction intermediate, 2-acetamido-2,3-dideoxy-d- erythro -hex-2-enofuranose (Chromogen I), was detected by in situ nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques when promoted by ChCl-Gly-B(OH) 3 . The experimental results of the 1 H NMR chemical shift titration showed ChCl-Gly interactions with α-OH-3 and α-OH-4 of GlcNAc, which is responsible for promoting the dehydration reaction. Meanwhile, the strong interaction between Cl - and GlcNAc was demonstrated by 35 Cl NMR., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2023 The Author(s).)

Currently, research on the evolution of heterogeneous combat networks (HCNs) mainly focuses on the modeling process, with little attention paid to the impact of changes in network topology on operational capabilities. Link prediction can provide a fair and unified comparison standard for network evolution mechanisms. This paper uses link prediction methods to study the evolution of HCNs. Firstly, according to the characteristics of HCNs, a link prediction index based on frequent subgraphs (LPFS) is proposed. LPFS have been demonstrated on a real combat network to be superior to 26 baseline methods. The main driving force of research on evolution is to improve the operational capabilities of combat networks. Adding the same number of nodes and edges, 100 iterative experiments demonstrate that the evolutionary method (HCNE) proposed in this paper outperforms random evolution and preferential evolution in improving the operational capabilities of combat networks. Furthermore, the new network generated after evolution is more consistent with the characteristics of a real network.

In this work, we report a novel MoS x /Mn 0.3 Cd 0.7 S composite catalyst that has been designed and fabricated by in situ coupling MoS x nanoclusters with 1D Mn 0.3 Cd 0.7 S nanorods for photocatalytic H 2 production. The catalyst features a 1D nanostructure with MoS x nanoclusters uniformly dispersed along the Mn 0.3 Cd 0.7 S nanorod. It was found that an intimate interface is built between MoS x nanoclusters and Mn 0.3 Cd 0.7 S nanorods thanks to the facile in situ photoreduction route, which contributes to a high-efficiency interfacial charge separation. The resulting MoS x /Mn 0.3 Cd 0.7 S photocatalyst shows a dramatically enhanced visible-light-driven photocatalytic H 2 production activity compared with the control samples, owing to more efficient spatial charge separation as well as enriched active sites. This work is expected to provide an optimized structure model for rational design and constructing novel, inexpensive, efficient and stable cocatalyst/metal sulfide photocatalyst systems for H 2 production., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

With the rapid increase of smart Internet of Things (IoT) devices, edge networks generate a large number of computing tasks, which require edge-computing resource devices to complete the calculations. However, unreasonable edge-computing resource allocation suffers from high-power consumption and resource waste. Therefore, when user tasks are offloaded to the edge-computing system, reasonable resource allocation is an important issue. Thus, this paper proposes a digital-twin-(DT)-assisted edge-computing resource-allocation model and establishes a joint-optimization function of power consumption, delay, and unbalanced resource-allocation rate. Then, we develop a solution based on the improved whale optimization scheme. Specifically, we propose an improved whale optimization algorithm and design a greedy initialization strategy to improve the convergence speed for the DT-assisted edge-computing resource-allocation problem. Additionally, we redesign the whale search strategy to improve the allocation results. Several simulation experiments demonstrate that the improved whale optimization algorithm reduces the resource allocation and allocation objective function value, the power consumption, and the average resource allocation imbalance rate by 12.6%, 15.2%, and 15.6%, respectively. Overall, the power consumption with the assistance of the DT is reduced to 89.6% of the power required without DT assistance, thus, improving the efficiency of the edge-computing resource allocation.

A major challenge in extracting high-quality DNA from bryophytes is the treatment of bryophyte material in the field. The existing and commonly used treatment methods in the field have several shortcomings. Natural drying methods can lead to DNA breaks. In addition, it is highly cumbersome to carry large quantities of silica gel in the field due to its weight and high risk of contamination among samples. In this study, we explored more convenient drying methods to treat bryophyte specimens and promote more efficient DNA recovery. The quantity and quality of genomic DNA extracted from every bryophyte species using different drying methods, including hot-air drying methods (150°C, 80°C, and 40°C), natural drying method, and silica gel drying method, were measured. Spectrophotometry, electrophoresis, and PCR amplification were performed to assess the effects of different drying methods. The results of total DNA purity, total DNA concentration, PCR success, and OD 260/230 ratios suggested that the hot-air drying (40-80°C) was the best method. The morphological comparison revealed that hot-air drying at 40°C and 80°C exerted no significant adverse effects on plant morphology and taxonomic studies. Thus, this method prevents rapid DNA degradation and silica gel pollution and saves the workforce from carrying large amounts of silica gel to the field. Several inexpensive devices, such as portable hairdryers, fan heaters, and electric blankets, are available that can be easily carried to the field for drying molecular specimens., Competing Interests: NO authors have competing interests Enter: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2022 Shen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The adsorption/desorption process of flavonoids obtained from bamboo shoots residues of Phyllostachys edulis (RPEFs) was established by resin screening, adsorption isotherms, adsorption kinetics and dynamic tests. Results indicated the Langmuir equation fairly fitted the isotherms data and the pseudo-second-order model accurately described its kinetic adsorption on HPD-500 resin. The optimal process was as follows: 2 mg/mL of solution, 2.8 BV feed volume under 2 BV/h flow rate for adsorption; 5 BV volume of 70 % ethanol with a flow rate of 2 BV/h for desorption. After enrichment, the flavonoids in RPEFs increased from 1.39 % to 37.34 %. The analysis of UPLC-TOF-MS/MS uncovered that the purified RPEFs were composed of four major flavonoids. It had potent hypoglycemic activity via PI3K/AKT pathway by upregulating the protein expression of PI3K, AKT, IRS-1, and GLUT4 in a dose-dependent manner based on HepG2-IR cells. Those results provide possible utilization of Phyllostachys edulis by-products in food additives., Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Liang He reports financial support was provided by Forestry Department of Zhejiang Province. Liang He reports financial support was provided by Zhejiang provincial science and Technology Department., (© 2022 The Author(s).)

Bamboo-fungus agroforestry management is an ecological model of sustainable production of moso bamboo forest, and Stropharia rugosoannulata has been widely planted in moso bamboo forest. However, little attention has been paid to soil fauna community in bamboo-fungus agroforestry system. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the response of soil fauna communities to agroforestry management, and to explore the relationships between soil fauna communities and soil properties. An experiment with 0, 1, 2 and 3 years of planting was carried out in an existing moso bamboo forest. The community composition of soil meso- and micro-fauna was investigated, and the soil properties were determined. Results showed that a total of 2968 individuals of soil meso- and micro-fauna, belonging to 8 classes and 13 groups were detected. The group number and density of soil fauna was highest right and then decreased. Planting Stropharia rugosoannulata in moso bamboo forest increased the density of dominant groups, but did not change its composition. Shannon-Weiner diversity index (H), Margalef richness index (D) and Density-Group diversity index (DG) were the highest one year after planting the fungus, while Simpson dominance index (C) was the lowest in the meantime. Contents of soil moisture (SMC), organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and total potassium (TK) increased first and then decreased with the increase of planting years, peaking at 1 year after planting, while the pH value continued to increase. Responses of soil fauna community were associated with soil physicochemical properties. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that SOM was the main environmental factor driving the variation of soil fauna community, followed by TP and TN. In conclusion, planting Stropharia rugosoannulata in moso bamboo increased the diversity and abundance of soil fauna communities due to its contribution to abundance of organic matter and supply of nutrients., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The objectives of this study were to investigate the allelopathic effects of sesame extracts of on seed germination of moso bamboo, and to isolate and identify the potential allelochemicals. A factorial design with three organs (root, stem and leaf) and five concentrations (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 mg mL -1 ) was carried out. Seeds of moso bamboo were soaked in sesame extracts to investigate their germination and growth. The allelochemicals were isolated and identified using the high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC) system. The germination indices of the same organ decreased with the increase of extract concentrations, while the mean germination time increased, picking at the concentration of 100 mg mL -1 . The radicle length and plumule length decreased, while the ratio of radicle length to plumule length increased. The allelopathy inhibition effect increased with the increase of extract concentrations, and it was significantly higher at the concentration of 100 mg mL -1 than that of 25 mg mL -1 . The synthesis effect increased with the increase of extract concentrations, and it was significantly higher in leaf than root and stem. Chemical analyses identified 9 allelochemicals species (mostly phenolics and alkaloids) in the aqueous extracts. These results indicated that aqueous extracts of sesame caused the delay in seed germination and growth of moso bamboo, and phenolics and alkaloids in the aqueous extracts maybe the major reasons for the observed inhibition effects of sesame., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Rhodobryum laxelimbatum (Bryophyta, Bryaceae) is one of the folk medicine resources in Southwest China, which has excellent potential for application in treating cardiovascular diseases. In this study, R. laxelimbatum was sequenced by high-throughput sequencing technology. The complete chloroplast genome is 124,632 bp in length with a quadripartite structure. Two inverted repeat regions are 9837 bp, separated by a large single copy region of 86,444 bp and a small single copy region of 18,514 bp. It encodes 118 unique genes, including 82 protein-coding genes, 32 tRNA genes, and four rRNA genes. The phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the complete chloroplast genome sequences of 18 bryophytes, downloaded from GenBank and acquired in this study. The phylogenetic analysis strongly indicated that R. laxelimbatum was the sister group of the clade which consists of Mnium marginatum , Pohlia cruda and Pohlia nutans . The R. laxelimbatum chloroplast genome sequence provides new genomic resources, which will improve its research, conservation, and application in the future., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflict of interest., (© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

The utility of elevational gradients as tools to test either ecological hypotheses and delineate elevation-associated environmental factors that explain the species diversity patterns is critical for moss species conservation. We examined the elevational patterns of species richness and evaluated the effects of spatial and environmental factors on moss species predicted a priori by alternative hypotheses, including mid-domain effect (MDE), habitat complexity, energy, and environment proposed to explain the variation of diversity. Last, we assessed the contribution of elevation toward explaining the heterogeneity among sampling sites. We observed the hump-shaped distribution pattern of species richness along elevational gradient. The MDE and the habitat complexity hypothesis were supported with MDE being the primary driver for richness patterns, whereas little support was found for the energy and the environmental factors., Competing Interests: The authors declare there are no competing interests., (© 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Mnium is the type genus of the family Mniaceae, the species' richest family of order Bryales (Bryophyte). Mnium marginatum is widely distributed worldwide. The complete chloroplast genome of M. marginatum was sequenced by high-throughput sequencing technology. The chloroplast genome is 124,935 bp in length with a quadripartite structure. The two inverted repeat regions are 9,910 bp long and separated by a large single-copy region of 86,572 bp and a small single-copy region of 18,543 bp. Based on the chloroplast genome data of 11 bryophytes downloaded from GenBank and one acquired in this study, phylogenetic trees were constructed., Competing Interests: No potential competing interest was reported by the authors., (© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

Pohlia is a genus with many taxonomic and systematic controversies. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome of Pohlia cruda (Bryales, Bryophyte) was sequenced by high-throughput sequencing technology and described. The complete chloroplast genome is 125,114 bp in length and has a quadripartite structure. The two inverted repeat (IR) regions are 9921 bp long and separated by a large single-copy (LSC) region of 86,727 bp and a small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,545 bp. Phylogenetic trees were constructed based on the complete chloroplast genome sequences of 10 bryophytes downloaded from GenBank and one acquired in this study., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors., (© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

In this work, an amino modified porous ceramic derived from municipal sludge was synthesized for the adsorption of vanadium (V) from wastewater. In this approach, a maximum vanadium (V) removal of 99.8% can be achieved by using 800 g adsorbent with a height of 800 mm when the initial concentration of vanadium (V) was 50 mg/L, pH was 4, flow rate was 5 L/h.

Background: Increased pro-brain natriuretic peptide (pro-BNP) or troponin T-hypersensitivity (TnT-HSST) levels are common in liver cirrhosis. We conducted a retrospective observational study aimed to evaluate the correlation of pro-BNP and TnT-HSST levels with the clinical characteristics, laboratory data and in-hospital outcomes of patients with liver cirrhosis., Materials and Methods: We selected cirrhotic patients admitted to our hospital between January 2011 and June 2014. All eligible patients had pro-BNP or TnT-HSST data, or both. The pro-BNP and TnT-HSST data were further divided according to the presence of cardiac diseases., Results: The prevalence of pro-BNP level >900pg/mL was 41.72% (63 of 151 patients). The prevalence of TnT-HSST level >0.05ng/mL was 11.22% (45 of 401 patients). In the overall analysis, pro-BNP level significantly correlated with red blood cell (RBC), platelet, ascites, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Cr), Child-Pugh score, model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score and in-hospital death; TnT-HSST level significantly correlated with white blood cell, ascites, albumin (ALB), BUN, Cr, Child-Pugh score, MELD score and in-hospital death. In patients with cardiac diseases, pro-BNP level significantly correlated with RBC, ascites, BUN, Cr, Child-Pugh score and MELD score; TnT-HSST level significantly correlated with sex, ascites, white blood cell, ALB, BUN, Cr, Child-Pugh score, MELD score and in-hospital death. In patients without cardiac diseases, pro-BNP level significantly correlated with ascites, RBC, platelet, BUN, Cr, MELD score and in-hospital death; TnT-HSST level significantly correlated with age, ascites, RBC, ALB, BUN, Cr, Child-Pugh score, MELD score and in-hospital death., Conclusions: Pro-BNP and TnT-HSST levels significantly correlated with the severity of liver dysfunction and in-hospital mortality in cirrhosis., (Copyright © 2017 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) with the attenuated total reflectance technique was used to identify Rhodobryum roseum from its four adulterants. The FTIR spectra of six samples in the range from 4000 cm-1 to 600 cm-1 were obtained. The second-derivative transformation test was used to identify the small and nearby absorption peaks. A cluster analysis was performed to classify the spectra in a dendrogram based on the spectral similarity. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to classify the species of six moss samples. A cluster analysis with PCA was used to identify different genera. However, some species of the same genus exhibited highly similar chemical components and FTIR spectra. Fourier self-deconvolution and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) were used to enhance the differences among the species with similar chemical components and FTIR spectra. Three scales were selected as the feature-extracting space in the DWT domain. The results show that FTIR spectroscopy with chemometrics is suitable for identifying Rhodobryum roseum and its adulterants.

Background and Aims: Umbilical hernia is a common abdominal complication in cirrhotic patients with ascites. Our study aimed to evaluate the correlation of umbilical hernia with the volume of ascites., Methods: Cirrhotic patients that underwent axial abdominopelvic computed tomography (CT) scans at our hospital between June 2012 and June 2014 were eligible. All CT images were reviewed to confirm the presence of umbilical hernia. The volume of ascites was estimated by five-point method., Results: One hundred and fifty-seven patients were enrolled into this study. Among them, 101 patients had ascites and 6 patients had umbilical hernia. Alkaline phosphatase (AKP) and serum sodium were significantly lower in patients with umbilical hernia (P = 0.008, P = 0.011, respectively). Child-Pugh scores and the volume of ascites were significantly higher in patients with umbilical hernia (P = 0.03, P < 0.0001, respectively). Correlation analysis demonstrated that the volume of ascites, Child-Pugh scores, and blood ammonia had positive correlations with umbilical hernia (r = 0.4579, P < 0.0001; r = 0.175, P = 0.03; r = 0.342, P = 0.001, respectively) and that serum sodium had a negative correlation with umbilical hernia (r = -0.203, P = 0.011). In patients with ascites ≥2000 mL, only AKP was significantly associated with umbilical hernia (P = 0.0497). No variables were significantly associated with umbilical hernia in a subgroup analysis of patients matched according to the volume of ascites., Conclusions: The volume of ascites has a positive correlation with umbilical hernia. However, the factors associated with umbilical hernia in patients with severe ascites remain unclear., (© 2016 Chinese Cochrane Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Global warming has created opportunities and challenges for the survival and development of species. Determining how climate change may impact multiple ecosystem levels and lead to various species adaptations is necessary for both biodiversity conservation and sustainable biological resource utilization. In this study, we employed Maxent to predict changes in the habitat range and altitude of Polygala tenuifolia Willd. under current and future climate scenarios in China. Four representative concentration pathways (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0, and RCP8.5) were modeled for two time periods (2050 and 2070). The model inputs included 732 presence points and nine sets of environmental variables under the current conditions and the four RCPs in 2050 and 2070. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) was used to evaluate model performance. All of the AUCs were greater than 0.80, thereby placing these models in the "very good" category. Using a jackknife analysis, the precipitation in the warmest quarter, annual mean temperature, and altitude were found to be the top three variables that affect the range of P. tenuifolia. Additionally, we found that the predicted highly suitable habitat was in reasonable agreement with its actual distribution. Furthermore, the highly suitable habitat area was slowly reduced over time., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Background: QTc interval prolongation is an electrocardiographic abnormality in liver cirrhosis. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence, risk factors and in-hospital outcomes of QTc interval prolongation in Chinese patients with liver cirrhosis., Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of a total of 1,268 patients with liver cirrhosis who were consecutively admitted to our hospital between January 2011 and June 2014. QTc interval data were collected from the medical records. QTc interval prolongation was defined as QTc interval > 440 milliseconds., Results: The prevalence of QTc interval prolongation was 38.2% (485 of 1268). In the entire cohort, the risk factors for QTc interval prolongation included an older age, a higher proportion of alcohol abuse and ascites, higher bilirubin, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, prothrombin time, international normalized ratio, Child-Pugh score and model for end-stage liver diseases score, and lower red blood cell (RBC), hemoglobin (Hb), albumin (ALB), alanine aminotransferase and calcium. The in-hospital mortality was not significantly different between patients with and without QTc interval prolongation (2.1% versus 1.3%, P = 0.276). In the subgroup analyses of patients with hepatitis B virus or alcohol alone-related liver cirrhosis, the risk factors included higher bilirubin, creatinine, prothrombin time, international normalized ratio, Child-Pugh score and model for end-stage liver diseases score, and lower RBC, Hb and ALB. In the subgroups analyses of patients with acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding or ascites, the risk factors included lower RBC, Hb and ALB., Conclusions: QTc interval prolongation was frequent in liver cirrhosis. Although QTc interval prolongation was positively associated with alcohol-related liver cirrhosis and more severe liver dysfunction, it did not significantly influence the in-hospital mortality., (Copyright © 2016 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Our study aimed to evaluate the discriminative abilities of Child-Pugh, model for end-stage liver disease (MELD), and albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) scores in predicting the in-hospital mortality in cirrhotic patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF)., Methods: Cirrhotic patients with ACLF admitted between 2010 January and 2014 June were retrospectively reviewed. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROCs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated., Results: One hundred patients were eligible for the Asia-Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) criteria. AUROCs of Child-Pugh, MELD, and ALBI scores in predicting the in-hospital mortality was 0.63 (95%CI: 0.52-0.72, P = 0.05), 0.75 (95%CI: 0.65-0.83, P < 0.0001), and 0.53 (95%CI: 0.42-0.63, P = 0.69), respectively. Eighty-eight patients were eligible for the EASL/AASLD criteria. AUROCs of Child-Pugh, MELD, and ALBI scores in predicting the in-hospital mortality were 0.59 (95%CI: 0.48-0.69, P = 0.14), 0.57 (95%CI: 0.46-0.68, P = 0.26), and 0.57 (95%CI: 0.46-0.67, P = 0.29), respectively. There was no significant difference among them., Conclusion: Child-Pugh, MELD, and ALBI scores might be ineffective in predicting the in-hospital mortality of cirrhosis with ACLF.

BACKGROUND Portal venous system thrombosis (PVST) is a life-threatening complication of liver cirrhosis. We conducted a retrospective study to comprehensively analyze the prevalence and risk factors of PVST in liver cirrhosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS All cirrhotic patients without malignancy admitted between June 2012 and December 2013 were eligible if they underwent contrast-enhanced CT or MRI scans. Independent predictors of PVST in liver cirrhosis were calculated in multivariate analyses. Subgroup analyses were performed according to the severity of PVST (any PVST, main portal vein [MPV] thrombosis >50%, and clinically significant PVST) and splenectomy. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were reported. RESULTS Overall, 113 cirrhotic patients were enrolled. The prevalence of PVST was 16.8% (19/113). Splenectomy (any PVST: OR=11.494, 95%CI=2.152-61.395; MPV thrombosis >50%: OR=29.987, 95%CI=3.247-276.949; clinically significant PVST: OR=40.415, 95%CI=3.895-419.295) and higher hemoglobin (any PVST: OR=0.974, 95%CI=0.953-0.996; MPV thrombosis >50%: OR=0.936, 95%CI=0.895-0.980; clinically significant PVST: OR=0.935, 95%CI=0.891-0.982) were the independent predictors of PVST. The prevalence of PVST was 13.3% (14/105) after excluding splenectomy. Higher hemoglobin was the only independent predictor of MPV thrombosis >50% (OR=0.952, 95%CI=0.909-0.997). No independent predictors of any PVST or clinically significant PVST were identified in multivariate analyses. Additionally, PVST patients who underwent splenectomy had a significantly higher proportion of clinically significant PVST but lower MELD score than those who did not undergo splenectomy. In all analyses, the in-hospital mortality was not significantly different between cirrhotic patient with and without PVST. CONCLUSIONS Splenectomy may increase by at least 10-fold the risk of PVST in liver cirrhosis independent of severity of liver dysfunction.

Background: Risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), may be increased in liver cirrhosis. We conducted a single-center study to explore the epidemiology, risk factors, and in-hospital mortality of VTE in Chinese patients with liver cirrhosis., Material/methods: All patients with liver cirrhosis who were consecutively admitted to our hospital between January 2011 and December 2013 were retrospectively included., Results: Of 2006 patients with liver cirrhosis included, 9 patients were diagnosed with or developed VTE during hospitalization, including 5 patients with a previous history of DVT, 1 patient with either a previous history of DVT or new onset of PE, and 3 patients with new onset of VTE (PE, n=1; DVT, n=2). Risk factors for VTE included a significantly higher proportion of hypertension and significantly higher red blood cells, hemoglobin, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, prothrombin time (PT), international normalized ratio (INR), D-dimer, and Child-Pugh scores. The in-hospital mortality was significantly higher in patients with VTE than those without VTE (33.3% [3/9] versus 3.4% [67/1997], P<0.001)., Conclusions: VTE was observed in 0.4% of patients with liver cirrhosis during hospitalization and it significantly increased the in-hospital mortality. Elevated PT/INR aggravated the risk of VTE.

Reversible and nonvolatile modulation of magnetization switching characteristic in ferromagnetic materials is crucial in developing spintronic devices with low power consumption. It is recently discovered that strain engineering can be an active and effective approach in tuning the magnetic/transport properties of thin films. The primary method in strain modulation is via the converse piezoelectric effect of ferroelectrics, which is usually volatile due to the reliance of the required electric field. Also the maximum amount of deformation in ferroelectrics is usually limited to be less than 1%, and the corresponding magnetoelastic strain energy introduced to ferromagnetic films is on the order of 10(4) J/m(3), not enough to overcome magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (Ku) in many materials. Different from using conventional strain inducing substrates, this paper reports on the significantly large, reversible, and nonvolatile lattice strain in the L10-FePt films (up to 2.18%) using nonelectrically controlled shape memory alloy substrates. Introduced lattice strain can be large enough to effectively affect domain structure and magnetic reversal in FePt. A noticeable decrease of coercivity field by 80% is observed. Moreover, the coercivity field tunability using such substrates is nonvolatile at room temperature and is also reversible due to the characteristics of the shape memory effect. This finding provides an efficient avenue for developing strain assisted spintronic devices such as logic memory device, magnetoresistive random-access memory, and memristor.

Background/aims: The albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) score is a new model for assessing the severity of liver dysfunction. In the present study, we aimed to retrospectively compare the performance of ALBI with Child-Pugh and the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) scores for predicting the in-hospital mortality of acute gastrointestinal bleeding (AUGIB) in liver cirrhosis., Materials and Methods: All cirrhotic patients with AUGIB were eligible, provided they had the data needed to determine the ALBI score. Areas under the receiving-operator characteristics curve (AUC) are reported., Results: Overall, 631 patients were included. In all the included patients, the AUC of the ALBI, Child-Pugh, and MELD scores were 0.808, 0.785 (p=0.5831), and 0.787 (p=0.7033), respectively. In patients with only hepatitis B virus-related liver cirrhosis, the AUC of the ALBI, Child-Pugh, and MELD scores were 0.865, 0.836 (p=0.6064), and 0.818 (p=0.6399), respectively. In patients with only alcohol-related liver cirrhosis, the AUC of the ALBI, Child-Pugh, and MELD scores were 0.869, 0.860 (p=0.9003), and 0.801 (p=0.5548), respectively. In patients treated with endoscopic therapy for AUGIB, the AUC of the ALBI, Child-Pugh, and MELD scores were 0.873, 0.884 (p=0.7898), and 0.834 (p=0.5531), respectively., Conclusion: The prognostic performance of the ALBI score was comparable with that of the Child-Pugh and MELD scores for predicting the in-hospital mortality of AUGIB in liver cirrhosis.

Tuning the lattice strain (εL) is a novel approach to manipulate the magnetic, electronic, and transport properties of spintronic materials. Achievable εL in thin film samples induced by traditional ferroelectric or flexible substrates is usually volatile and well below 1%. Such limits in the tuning capability cannot meet the requirements for nonvolatile applications of spintronic materials. This study answers to the challenge of introducing significant amount of elastic strain in deposited thin films so that noticeable tuning of the spintronic characteristics can be realized. Based on subtle elastic strain engineering of depositing L10-FePt films on pre-stretched NiTi(Nb) shape memory alloy substrates, steerable and nonvolatile lattice strain up to 2.18% has been achieved in the L10-FePt films by thermally controlling the shape memory effect of the substrates. Introduced strains at this level significantly modify the electronic density of state, orbital overlap, and spin-orbit coupling (SOC) strength in the FePt film, leading to nonvolatile modulation of magnetic anisotropy and magnetization reversal characteristics. This finding not only opens an efficient avenue for the nonvolatile tuning of SOC based magnetism and spintronic effects, but also helps to clarify the physical nature of pure strain effect.

A total of 38 volatile components were identified in Rhodobryum giganteum (Schwaegr.) Par. collected from two different geographic regions by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME), combined with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The volatile components included some aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes, monoterpene hydrocarbons and a sesquiterpene (alpha-farnesene), with 1-methoxy-2-propyl acetate and n-hexanal being found to be the most abundant volatile components. Analysis of the chemical constituents in the volatile oil of the two samples showed that ten compounds were shared.