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In hospitality industry, a contract is an agreement or promise made between two or more parties that the courts will enforce. In other words, it is a set of rules governing the relationship, content and validity of an agreement between two or more persons. Normally, it is related to the sale of goods, provision or services or exchange of interests or ownership. A valid contract can be considered as the moment that the offer is accepted. For example, you have been agreed to purchase with someone’s old cupboard for 1200 Yuan, that is mean you have a valid contract. Once you paid to them and they give you the cupboard which means the contract is complete. In general, a valid contract may be established either in writing or verbally. That is mean it can be a verbal form of contract, and it also can be a written form of contract. A verbal contract is any contract which is expressed in words by spoken. While for the written contract, it is a contract generally refers to a written document outlining an agreement. More often than not, it is usually a good idea to have a written contract if a transaction that is worth more than a limit.

Background: In operable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) patients, the utilization of bridging therapy with targeted medications prior to pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA) remains a topic of controversy, despite being common in cases of severe hemodynamic impairment. This study aims to assess the impact of riociguat as a bridging therapy on postoperative hemodynamics and outcomes., Methods: We conducted a retrospective study involving patients undergoing PEA from December 2016 to November 2023. Patients were categorized into two groups based on the use of riociguat before PEA. Pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) following riociguat administration was assessed pre-PEA. Postoperative outcomes, including mortality, complications, and hemodynamics, were compared, employing propensity score matching analysis., Results: Among the patients, 41.8% (n=56) received riociguat as bridging therapy. In patients with PVR ≥800 dynes·sec·cm -5 , riociguat resulted in a reduction in PVR {1,207 [974-1,698] vs . 1,125 [928-1,486] dynes·sec·cm -5 , P<0.01}, while no significant difference was observed in patients with PVR <800 dynes·sec·cm -5 {641 [474-740] vs . 600 [480-768] dynes·sec·cm -5 , P=0.46}. After propensity score matching, each group included 26 patients. The overall perioperative mortality rate was 2.6%. Postoperative PVR {326 [254-398] vs . 361 [290-445] dynes·sec·cm -5 , P=0.35} was similar in the riociguat group compared to the control group. The incidence of residual pulmonary hypertension (PH) and other postoperative outcomes were also comparable., Conclusions: The use of riociguat as bridging therapy demonstrated hemodynamic improvement before PEA in patients with high preoperative PVR. However, no additional benefits in postoperative mortality or hemodynamics were observed., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/jtd-24-48/coif). All authors report that this study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding, the International S&T Cooperation Program and Major New Drug Creation Special Project. The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare., (2024 Journal of Thoracic Disease. All rights reserved.)

Water submergence is an environmental stress with detrimental effects on plant growth and survival. As a wetland plant species, lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) is widely cultivated in flood-prone lowlands throughout Asian countries, but little is known about its endurance and acclimation mechanisms to complete submergence. Here, we combined a time-course submergence experiment and an RNA-sequencing transcriptome analysis on two lotus varieties of "Qiuxing" and "China Antique". Both varieties showed a low submergence tolerance, with a median lethal time of around 10 days. Differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) identified a number of key genes putatively involved in lotus submergence responses. Lotus plants under complete submergence developed thinned leaves and elongated petioles containing high density of aerenchyma. All four lotus submergence responsive ERF-VII genes and gene sets corresponding to the low oxygen "escape" strategy (LOES) were elevated. In addition, a number of lotus innate immunity genes were rapidly induced by submergence, likely to confer resistance to possible pathogen infections. Our data also reveals the likely involvement of jasmonic acid in modulating lotus submergence responses, but to a lesser extent than the gaseous ethylene hormone. These results suggest that lotus plants primarily take the LOES strategy in coping with submergence-induced complex stresses, and will be valuable for people understanding the molecular basis underlying the plant submergence acclimations., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.)

Fragmentation/disassembly of fiber-like micelles generated by living crystalline-driven self-assembly (CDSA) is usually encountered in aqueous media, which hinders the applications of micelles. Herein, we report the generation of uniform fiber-like micelles consisting of a π-conjugated oligo( p -phenylenevinylene) core and a cross-linking silica shell with grafted poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) chains by the combination of living CDSA, silica chemistry and surface grafting-onto strategy. Owing to the presence of crosslinking silica shell and the outmost PEG chains, the resulting micelles exhibit excellent dispersity and colloidal stability in PBS buffer, BSA aqueous solution and upon heating at 80 °C for 2 h without micellar fragmentation/disassembly. The micelles also show negligible cytotoxicity toward both HeLa cervical cancer and HEK239T human embryonic kidney cell lines. Interestingly, micelles with L n of 156 nm show the "stealth" property with no significant uptake by HeLa cells, whereas some certain amounts of micelles with L n of 535 nm can penetrate into HeLa cells, showing length-dependent cellular uptake behaviors. These results provide a route to prepare uniform, colloidally stable fiber-like nanostructures with tunable length and functions derived for biomedical applications., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2022 The Authors. Publishing Services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd.)

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the effects of hemodynamic monitoring using the pulse index continuous cardiac output (PiCCO) system with critically ill patients., Methods: In total, 292 patients with primary physiological abnormalities of hypotension (n = 180) or hypoxemia (n = 112) were evaluated. The attending physicians completed a questionnaire before each catheterization. After each catheterization, the attending physicians reviewed each chart to determine the possibility of altering the therapy., Results: In the hypotension subgroup, the attending physicians showed less accuracy in predicting the global end-diastolic index values (23.9%, 43/180), with a significant difference, and more accuracy in predicting the extravascular lung water index values (58.9%, 66/112), without a significant difference from the patients in the hypoxemia subgroup. In the hypotension patients, the lactate clearance rate within 6 h was significantly higher (36.4 ± 9.6 vs 21.3 ± 9.5; P <0.0001) when the hemodynamic monitoring led to therapeutic changes., Conclusions: The hemodynamic variables obtained using the PiCCO system improved the accuracy of the bedside evaluations and led to alterations in the therapeutic plans, particularly among the hypotension patients. The therapy changes showed no improvement in the overall mortality but were associated with improved tissue perfusion among the hypotension patients., Competing Interests: None., (AJTR Copyright © 2021.)