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Obesity is a worldwide epidemic leading to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Alterations in the liver fat fraction (LFF) assessed by MRI following bariatric surgery is a promising feature; however, few studies have been fully elucidated. To determine the alterations in the LFF features following surgery using MRI, to determine the correlation with the clinical non-alcoholic steatohepatitis score (C-NASH score), and to identify the predictive factors for postoperative score changes. Patients (n = 69) underwent MRI to measure the LFF at baseline and 3 months postoperatively. Paired sample t tests were applied to investigate the alterations in the major parameters. Univariate analyses were performed to evaluate the factors predicting C-NASH score changes after surgery. Compared with the baseline levels, the LFF significantly decreased 3 months postoperatively (P

The binary transition metal sulfides are highly desirable electrode materials for high-performance supercapacitors, thanks for their excellent electrochemical activity and electrical conductivity. Herein, the hierarchical FeCo2S4 arrays are designed and constructed on Ni foam, which consists of microsheets anchored nanosheets. The FeCo2S4 hierarchical structure provides high conductivity and abundant electroactive sites as well as facial and short ion transport paths. Therefore, the FeCo2S4 electrode achieves an excellent specific capacitance of 2488.50 F g−1 (7.66 F cm−2) at 5 mA cm−2, and a high level of cycle stability of 95.67% retention after 5000 cycles. The FeCo2S4//activated carbon (AC) device delivers the maximal energy density of 44.89 W h kg−1 and the maximal power density of 4015.56 W kg−1. The impressive electrochemical properties of hierarchical FeCo2S4 arrays make it a promising high-performance electrode for hybrid supercapacitors.

BACKGROUND The reward-related regions have been considered a crucial component in the regulation of eating behavior. Furthermore, appetite-related regions associated with reward can influence eating behaviors through altered functional activity related to food in brain areas associated with emotion, memory, sensory processing, motor function, and cognitive control. PURPOSE To investigate the key nodes in obese females of reward-related regions and, based on key nodes, to evaluate the directionality of functional connectivity between key nodes and appetite-related regions. STUDY TYPE Prospective. POPULATION Twenty-eight obese and 28 normal-weight female controls of similar age. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE 3.0 T MRI and echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence, 3D BRAVO sequence. ASSESSMENT The fMRI data preprocessing was based on the Data Processing & Analysis of Brain Imaging and Statistical Parametric Mapping 12. Degree centrality calculation was based on the GRETNA toolkit and granger causality analysis were based on the DynamicBC toolbox. Statistical Tests: Independent two-sample t-tests were used to assess the differences in demographic and clinical data between two groups. Two-sample t-tests were conducted to test the difference in degree centrality and effective connectivity of key nodes between two groups. RESULTS Compared with normal-weight controls, obese females showed an increased degree centrality in the left ventral striatum/caudate (t = 2.96808, P < 0.05) and decreased degree centrality in right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) (t = -3.3558, P < 0.05). The obese females showed directional effective connectivity between left ventral striatum/caudate and several regions (left inferior temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, postcentral gyrus, and right precentral gyrus) (P < 0.05). Directional effective connectivity was also observed between the right OFC and several regions (left middle temporal gyrus, cuneus, OFC, superior temporal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and right inferior parietal lobule) (P < 0.05). DATA CONCLUSION The left ventral striatum/caudate and right OFC are key nodes in reward-related regions. The key nodes with reward processing mainly enhance visual processing of information and further participate in cognitive, attention, and sensorimotor processing. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 1. Technical Efficacy: Stage 4. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2019;50:541-551.

Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) has become an increasingly popular metabolic surgical procedure. Alteration in motor gastric function is a fundamental feature following LSG but still remains controversial. To determine the gastric emptying time 3 month after LSG, correlations between gastric emptying time and body weight, weight loss, and glycemia levels, alongside determining predictive factors of weight loss at the 3-month follow-up. Twenty-one patients were recruited in this study. Gastric emptying time was measured using a standard solid-phase gastric emptying scan at both baseline and 3 months after LSG. Paired sample t tests and a general linear model with repeated measures were applied to investigate the alterations in major parameters after surgery. Univariate analyses were performed to evaluate the factors predicting weight loss at the 3-month follow-up. Compared with baseline levels, gastric emptying time, body weight, and HbA1c levels decreased significantly at 3 months after LSG (P

BACKGROUND Laparoscopy-assisted trans-anal TME (ta-TME), or hybrid ta-TME, inherited the advantages of both trans-anal surgery and trans-abdominal surgery, and is gaining increasing acceptance from colorectal surgeons worldwide. This research aims to make a comprehensive comparison between hybrid ta-TME surgery and traditional laparoscopic TME (la-TME) surgery regarding surgical quality and long-term survival. METHODS Cochrane Library, EMbase, Web of Science and PubMed were searched for studies comparing hybrid ta-TME with traditional la-TME. Indicators for surgical quality and long-term prognosis were extracted and pooled. Heterogeneity was assessed with I2 index and was significant when p50%. Publication bias was estimated by Egger test, where p

Abnormal activities in reward-related regions are associated with overeating or obesity. Preliminary studies have shown that changes in neural activity in obesity include not only regional reward regions abnormalities but also impairments in the communication between reward-related regions and multiple functional areas. A recent study has shown that the transitions between different neural networks are nonrandom and hierarchical, and that activation of particular brain networks is more likely to occur after other brain networks. The aims of this study were to investigate the key nodes of reward-related regions in obese males and explore the hierarchical integrated processing of key nodes. Twenty-four obese males and 24 normal-weight male controls of similar ages were recruited. The fMRI data were acquired using 3.0 T MRI. The fMRI data preprocessing was performed in DPABI and SPM 12. Degree centrality analyses were conducted using GRETNA toolkit, and Granger causality analyses were calculated using DynamicBC toolbox. Decreased degree centrality was observed in left ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and right parahippocampal/hippocampal gyrus in group with obesity. The group with obesity demonstrated increased effective connectivity between left vmPFC and several regions (left inferior temporal gyrus, left supplementary motor area, right insular cortex, right postcentral gyrus, right paracentral lobule and bilateral fusiform gyrus). Increased effective connectivity was observed between right parahippocampal/hippocampal gyrus and left precentral/postcentral gyrus. Decreased effective connectivity was found between right parahippocampal/hippocampal gyrus and left inferior parietal lobule. This study identified the features of hierarchical interactions between the key reward nodes and multiple function networks. These findings may provide more evidence for the existing view of hierarchical organization in reward processing.

In the original articles there are data errors in some of the Figure 2 tables. The corrected Figure 2 tables follow.

The concept of metabolic obesity phenotypes has been proposed, but its relevance to metabolic features is unclear. To determine a new definition of metabolic obesity phenotype, investigate the characteristics of expressing clustered normal and abnormal metabolic parameters, and analyze factors associated with metabolic abnormalities. Characteristics of 600 patients were analyzed. The definition of metabolic obesity phenotype includes elevated blood pressure, glucose, lipid, and uric acid levels and abnormal lipoprotein levels. Independent sample t test and a general linear model with repeated measures were applied to investigate the differences in metabolic parameters. A total of 108 (18.0%) participants were obese yet metabolically healthy, whereas 492 (82.0%) were obese and metabolically unhealthy. Body weight at baseline was significantly higher in metabolically unhealthy phenotype (P