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Background The diagnostic accuracy of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in predicting bacterial infection in cirrhotic patients remains unclear. The aim of this meta-analysis is to explore the potential diagnostic value of IL-6 in cirrhotic patients. Methods We systematically searched PubMed, Embase (via OvidSP), Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and Scopus for studies published from inception to October 2015. Studies were enrolled if they included assessment of the accuracy of IL-6 in the diagnosis of bacterial infection in cirrhotic patients and provided sufficient data to construct a 2 × 2 contingency table. Results Totally, 535 studies were searched in the initial database and finally 6 studies involving 741 patients were included for the final analysis. The pooled sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic odds ratio were 0.85 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.64-0.94), 0.91 (95% CI, 0.80-0.96) and 52.89 (95% CI, 15.21-183.86), respectively. The pooled positive likelihood ratio was 8.99 (95% CI, 4.13-19.55) and the pooled negative likelihood ratio was 0.17 (95% CI, 0.07-0.43). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.94 (95% CI, 0.92-0.96). Conclusion This meta-analysis suggests IL-6 has a high diagnostic value for the differentiation of bacterial infection in patients with cirrhosis.

AbstarctPatients with acute on chronic liver failure (ACLF) usually present with severe coagulopathy. Abdominal paracentesis is often performed in these patients. The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence of hemorrhagic events after paracentesis and the predictive factors of this condition

Aim To develop a simplified and fully automated synthesis procedure of 3′-deoxy-3′-[18F]fluorothymidine ([18F]FLT) using PET-MF-2V-IT-I synthesis module. Methods Synthesis of [18F]FLT was performed using PET-MF-2V-IT-I synthesis module by one-pot two-step reaction procedure, including nucleophilic fluorination of 3-N-t-butoxycarbonyl-1-[5′-O-(4,4′-dimethoxy triphenylmethyl)-2′-deoxy-3′-O-(4-nitrobenzenesulfonyl)-β- d -threopentofuranosyl]thymine (15 mg) as the precursor molecule with [18F]fluoride, and subsequent hydrolysis of the protecting group with 1.0 M HCl at the same reaction vessel and purification with SEP PAK cartridges instead of the HPLC system. Results The automated synthesis of [18F]FLT with SEP PAK purification gave corrected radiochemical yield of 23.2±2.6% (n=6, uncorrected yield: 16–22%) and radiochemical purity of >97% within the total synthesis time of 35 min. Conclusion The fully one-pot automated synthesis procedure with SEP PAK purification can be applied to the fully automated synthesis of [18F]FLT using commercial [18F]FDG synthesis module.

To investigate the effect of lutein on rat retina blue light damage.Sprague-Dawley rat were randomly separated into 6 groups: normal control, model control, solvent control, low-dose, media-dose, and high-dose. The concentration of lutein solution in the low-dose, media-dose, and high-dose groups are 0.5 mg/ml, 1.0 mg/ml, 2.0 mg/mI respectively. Mix sodium chloride and Tween 80 together at the ration of 1:9 as the solvent. Solvent and lutein solution were injected into rats' vitreous body of the solvent group and the lutein groups respectvely (the injection volume is 5 microl), dark adaptation 24h, then the rats exposed to the blue light equipment 2h to set up the light-damage animal model. After light exposure, the rats were raised in darkness for 72 hours. Then the rats were killed, the eyes were removed and were processed to paraffin section for microscopy, then we observed the changes of retina morphous, measured the thickness of the outer nuclear layer (ONL thickness), and counted the number of apoptotic photoreceptors to compare the effect of lutein on light-damage of retina among different dosages.Comparing with the model-control group, the rats of lutein group had more clearly demarcated retina structure and more ordered cells. After detected under microscopy, we found that the ONL thickness (40 x 10 times, mm) of the rats of normal control group was 21.25 +/- 1.04. And the ONL thickness of the rats of lutein groups were 15.00 +/- 5.58, 11.75 +/- 4.20 and 14.75 +/- 3.96, from low dosage to high dosage, which was significantly (P0.01) higher than those of the rats of model control group (3.25 +/- 1.48) and solvent control group (3.25 +/- 0.89). Compare the number of apopotic photoreceptors, there is no significant differences among groups.In the experiment conditions, the effect of prevention of lutein on retina light damage was significant. The result provided an important base on the application of lutein on crowd.

Lutein may be a member of the xanthophy II of carotenoids. It could be a non-provitamin A xanthophy II, which was different from other carotenoids. Lutein and zeaxanthin composed the macular pigments, which were found in the retina. The protective mechanism of lutein in the retina could possibly be in two important ways: the first function could relate to filtering blue light, and the second could consider to be the antioxidative activity that could quench and scavenge reactive oxygen species(ROS) induced by light. The structure and source of lutein, and association between lutein and retina macular pigment, and the role and mechanism of lutein in protecting the retina from light damage were reviewed.

Optimal task scheduling in a multiprocessor environment is known to be an NP-hard problem. The research efforts in this area have focused on heuristic methods for efficient distribution of tasks. This paper introduces two static task scheduling algorithms. The first algorithm, called Heavy Node First (HNF), is based on a local analysis of program graph nodes at each level. The second algorithm, called Weighted Length (WL), considers a more global view of the program graph and takes into account the relationship among the nodes at different levels. The two algorithms are compared to the classical Critical Path Method (CPM). For a given Directed Acyclic Graph of n nodes representing a program, it is shown that HNF requires O(n log(n)) steps while WL and CPM require O(n2) steps to accomplish the allocation. The nontrivial worst case performances of the three algorithms are analytically evaluated and their average case performances are evaluated through a simulation study. It is shown that the performance of the three algorithms, which is measured in terms of program execution time and processors' idle time, is almost the same. Therefore, taking into account the time complexity of the task distribution itself, we conclude that a simple and fast heuristic algorithm, such as HNF, may be sufficient to achieve adequate performance.

To study the expression of ICAM-1 in laryngeal carcinoma and it's significance.ICAM-1 were detected in 78 cases laryngeal carcinoma, 30 cases dysplasia and 5 cases normal by SP immunohistochemistry.ICAM-1 can be expressed on the lymphocytes of patients with laryngeal carcinoma, but not cells of normal, dysplasia and cancer. The first and second stages laryngeal carcinoma had stronger ICAM-1 expression than those of the third and fourth stages (P0.05). ICAM-1 expression in laryngeal carcinoma with cervical metastasis was higher than that without cervical metastasis (P0.05). Three and five years survival rate in patients with higher ICAM-1 expression were higher than those of patients with lower ICAM-1 expression (P0.05).These results implicate that the development, metastasis and prognosis of laryngeal carcinoma may be correlated to ICAM-1 expression of lymphocyte.

A (18)F-labeled fluoromisonidazole (1H-1-(3-[(18)F]fluoro-2-hydroxypropyl)-2-nitroimidazole, [(18)F]FMISO) was prepared via a one-pot, two-step synthesis procedure using a modified commercial Tracerlab FX(F-N) synthesis module. Nucleophilic fluorination of the precursor molecule 1-(2'-nitro-1'-imidazolyl)-2-O-tetrahydropyranyl-3-O-toluenesulphonylpropanediol using no-carrier-added [(18)F]fluoride, followed by hydrolysis of the protecting group with 1 mol/L HCl and purification with Sep-Paks instead of HPLC, gave [(18)F]FMISO. The overall radiochemical yield with no decay correction was greater than 40%, the whole synthesis time was less than 40 min and the radiochemical purity was greater than 95%. The new automated synthesis procedure can be applied to the fully automated synthesis of [(18)F]FMISO using a commercial FDG synthesis module.

O-(3-[ 18 F]fluoropropyl)-L-tyrosine (FPT), an analogue of O-(2-[ 18 F]fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (FET) as an amino acid tracer for tumor imaging with positron emission tomography (PET), was synthesized and evaluated. FPT was prepared by [ 18 F]fluoropropylation of L-tyrosine in a two-step procedure. Biodistribution of FPT was determined in normal mice. FPT, FET and [ 18 F]fluorine-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) uptake studies were performed in mice bearing S18 fibrosarcoma and S. aureus -inoculated mice. Also, carcinoma-bearing mice and S. aureus -inoculated mice were imaged using FPT PET imaging compared with FET and FDG PET imaging. Synthesis of FPT was accompished in about 60 min with an overall radiochemical yield of 25-30% (without decay correction) by manual operation. High uptake and long retention time of FPT and FET in kidney, liver, lung, blood, etc., and low uptake in brain were found. Furthermore, high FPT, FET and FDG uptake in tumor, and almost no FPT and FET uptake in inflammatory tissue, in contrast, high FDG uptake in inflammatory tissue, were observed. In conclusion, FPT is easy to prepare and superior to FDG in the differentiation of tumor and inflammation, and seems to be a potential amino acid tracer like FET for tumors imaging with PET.

To study the role of ICE in Laryngeal Carcinoma.Using polyclonal antibody for ICE gene protein, 73 cases of laryngeal carcinoma, 30 cases dysplasia and 5 cases normal were stained by SP immunohistochemistry.ICE protein is situated mainly in the upper of epithelium and a little in the basal layer. Compared with the normal epithelium, the expression of ICE in the dysplasia is decreased significantly (P0.01). There is a relationship between expression of ICE in laryngeal carcinoma and the degree of differentiation. The better differentiation, the much expression of ICE (P0.05).There is an intimate relationship between innormal expression protein of ICE and dysplasia, and that of between laryngeal carcinoma and prognosis. The expression of ICE may be a monitoring marker for prognosis of laryngeal carcinoma.

An easy-to-automate synthetic procedure and the kinetics and radiation dosimetry of O-(2-[18F]fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (FET), a recently developed amino acid tracer with potential applications in tumor imaging with PET, are described. FET was prepared in high radiochemical yield, 20-25% with no decay correction, and radiochemical purity of more than 95% in less than 60min synthesis time by a modified two-step procedure and manual operation. The kinetics and radiation dosimetry of FET were evaluated by using mice biodistribution data and the medical internal radiation dosimetry (MIRD) method. The bone (total) was the organ receiving the highest dose, 4.78x10(-3)mGy/MBq, and the brain and the whole body received the lowest dose, 1.6x10(-3)mGy/MBq, respectively. The effective dose was 9.0x10(-3)mSv/MBq. The data show that a 370-MBq (10mCi) injection of FET leads to an estimated effective dose of 3.3mSv and an estimated dose to the whole body of 0.6mGy. The potential radiation risks associated with this study are well within accepted limits.

Most of the existing static scheduling schemes either ignore the communication delay or use a very simple model to estimate it. The result is that when the program is actually executed, its execution timing is unpredictable due to network behavior and load. However, if one knows the timing information and communication requirements for the program tasks as well as the network topology and behavior at compile time, one can compute (not estimate) the communication delays and network routes before execution. This information can then be used at execution-time for predictable network timing requirements. The authors show that optimal network routing is NP-complete. They then propose two heuristic algorithms, with different characteristics and complexity, to compute sub-optimal routing information for static scheduling at compile time. >

In this study, we demonstrate the unconventional vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) growth of amorphous SiO2 nanooctopuses. The SiO2 nanooctopuses were successfully synthesized by a simple water-assisted reaction on Si wafers. The obtained aggregates have been systematically characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy. A novel VLS model has been proposed for the growth of SiO2 nanooctopuses based on the experimental observations and characterizations. The amorphous SiO2 nanooctopuses emit stable violet-blue light, implying their potential applications in photoelectronic devices.

We reported, for the first time, the piezoresistance behaviors of single p-type 6H-SiC nanowires. The results suggest that present p-type 6H-SiC nanowires could be an excellent candidate for the fabrication of robust and reliable stress sensors.