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Splenectomy and pericardial devascularization (SPD) is an effective treatment of upper gastrointestinal bleeding and hypersplenism in cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension. Indocyanine green retention at 15 minutes (ICGR15) was reported to offer better sensitivity and specificity than the Child-Pugh classification in hepatectomy, but few reports describe ICGR15 in SPD. The present study was to evaluate the prognostic value of ICGR15 for cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension who underwent SPD.

Boron slurry is the waste of borax manufacture. Here, the property and compositions in Boron slurry were analyzed by FTIR, TGA and XRD, which is derived from a borax factory in Dashiqiao of Liaoning Province, China. Some valuable inorganic elemental compositions in Boron slurry, such as Mg, Si, Ca, Fe and Mn were recovered by the processes of calcination, precipitation and filtration. Results have shown that the recovery of MgCO3 can be reached at 90% when the calcinations temperature is 750oC.

A much simpler and more straightforward method, alcohol interchange for the synthesis of titanium glycolate has been suggested. The method implied the reaction of tetraethyl orthosilicate with ethylene glycol on heating in air. The thermal property of titanium glycolate was characterized by thermal gravimetric (TG) and Differencial Thermal Analysis (DTA) analysis. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to confirm the conversion of crystalline phase of titanium glycolate from anatase to rutile. The characterization of titanium glycolate and products of its pyrolysis was conducted using scanning electron microscopes.

Metallic gasket seals are widely used in pressure vessels and piping. The failure of sealing systems is mostly caused not by the strength of flanges or bolts but by the leakage of the connections. The contact area of sealing surface has a major influence on the leakage of the bolted flange connections. The contact model of sealing surfaces of the flange and the metallic gasket was established on the basis of the modified M-B model, and the relationship between the contact area and the compressive stress is obtained. It’s found that the bigger the compressive stress, the bigger the contact area. When the compressive stresses are identical, the bigger fractal dimension and the less scale coefficient, the bigger the contact area. These can be used in the evaluation of sealing behavior of metallic gaskets.

Dendritic cells (DC) are special subsets of antigen presenting cells characterized by their potent capacity to activate immunologically naive T cells. By subtracting the mRNAs expressed by the mouse epidermus-derived DC line XS52 with the mRNAs expressed by the J774 macrophage line, we identified five novel genes that were expressed selectively by this DC line. One of these genes encoded a type II membrane-integrated polypeptide of 244 amino acids containing a putative carbohydrate recognition domain motif at the COOH-terminal end. This molecule, termed “dectin-1,” was expressed abundantly at both mRNA and protein levels by the XS52 DC line, but not by non-DC lines (including the J774 macrophage line). Dectin-1 mRNA was detected predominantly in spleen and thymus (by Northern blotting) and in skin-resident DC, i.e.Langerhans cells (by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction). Affinity-purified antibody against dectin-1 identified a 43-kDa glycoprotein in membrane fractions isolated from the XS52 DC line and from the dectin-1 cDNA-transfected COS-1 cells. His-tagged recombinant proteins containing the extracellular domains of dectin-1 showed marked and specific binding to the surface of T cells and promoted their proliferation in the presence of anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody at suboptimal concentrations. These in vitroresults suggest that dectin-1 on DC may bind to as yet undefined ligand(s) on T cells, thereby delivering T cell co-stimulatory signals. Not only do these results document the efficacy of subtractive cDNA cloning for the identification of unique genes expressed by DC, they also provide a framework for studying the physiological function of dectin-1.

Using a subtractive cDNA cloning strategy, we isolated previously five novel genes that were expressed abundantly by the murine dendritic cell (DC) line XS52, but not by the J774 macrophage line. One of these genes encoded a unique, DC-associated C-type lectin, termed “dectin-1.” Here we report the characterization of a second novel gene that was also expressed in a DC-specific manner. Clone 1B12 encoded a type II membrane-integrated polypeptide of 209 amino acids containing a single carbohydrate recognition domain motif in the COOH terminus. The expression pattern of this molecule, termed “dectin-2,” was almost indistinguishable from that for dectin-1; that is, both were expressed abundantly at mRNA and protein levels by the XS52 DC line, but not by non-DC lines, and both were detected in spleen and thymus, as well as in skin resident DC (i.e.Langerhans cells). Interestingly, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and immunoblotting revealed multiple bands of dectin-2 transcripts and proteins suggesting molecular heterogeneity. In fact, we isolated additional cDNA clones encoding two distinct, truncated dectin-2 isoforms. Genomic analyses indicated that a full-length dectin-2 (α isoform) is encoded by 6 exons, whereas truncated isoforms (β and γ) are produced by alternative splicing. We propose that dectin-2 and its isoforms, together with dectin-1, represent a unique subfamily of DC-associated C-type lectins.

All products are purified by recrystallization from ethanol.