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The aim of the present study was to delineate the radiographic and clinical features of primary hepatic lymphoma (PHL). Four histopathologically confirmed cases of PHL were analyzed with respect to the radiological, clinical and pathological characteristics. The main clinical manifestations included upper right quadrant pain and lymphoma-associated B symptoms, such as fever, night sweating and weight loss. All the patients had elevated serum levels of lactate dehydrogenase. Furthermore, all the patients underwent plain and enhanced computed tomography examinations, which identified low-density lesions without marked enhancement. Solitary masses were observed in two cases, while multiple focal lesions were noted in one case and diffuse multi-speckled nodules were observed in one case. Two patients underwent abdominal magnetic resonance imaging, which revealed lesions that were hyperintense on T1-weighted imaging (WI) scans and hypointense on T2WI scans, and exhibited slight to moderate enhancement with a dynamic contrast-enhanced protocol. In one case, vessels were visible within the lesion. Therefore, the present study concluded that PHL is a rare condition that exhibits non-specific clinical and radiological features. A combination of imaging results and clinical manifestations can be used to facilitate a diagnosis of PHL.

Domain walls in ferroelectric materials attract great interest since they can possess fascinating functionalities. Therefore, it is very important to modulate domain structures. Our recent experiments showed that oxygen vacancy plates could induce charged domain walls with different types. However, the detailed transition behavior between different charged domain walls was not explored. In this work, systematical phase field simulations were performed to reveal the evolution of domain structures with the size and charge density of the oxygen vacancy plate. These results could provide a route to build complex patterns of charged domain walls.

Quantum system is inevitably affected by the external environment in the real world. Two controlled quantum dialogue protocols are put forward based on logical χ-type states under collective noise environment. One is against collective-dephasing noise, while the other is against collective-rotation noise. Compared with existing protocols, there exist several outstanding advantages in our proposed protocols: Firstly, the χ-type state is utilized as quantum channels, it possesses better entanglement properties than GHZ state, W state as well as cluster state, which make it difficult to be destroyed by local operations. Secondly, two kinds of logical χ-type states are constructed by us in theory, which can be perfectly immune to the effects of collective noise. Thirdly, the controller can be offline after quantum distribution and permission announcement, without waiting for all the participants to complete the information coding. Fourthly, the security analysis illuminates that our protocols can not only be free from the information leakage, but also resist against the intercept-and-resend attack, the entanglement-and-measure attack, the modification attack, the conspiring attack, and especially the dishonest controller’s attacks.

In this work, representative semiconductors CdS, V2O5, WO3 and P25 (Degussa TiO2 consisting of 80 wt% anatase and 20 wt% rutile) were chosen as the photocatalysts, and the common phenol along with its derivatives (p-nitrophenol, p-chlorophenol and hydroquinone) were designated as the probe pollutants. The energy levels of the frontier molecular orbitals (EHOMO and ELUMO) of organics, and the valence band (VB) and conduction band (CB) energy levels (EVB and ECB) of photocatalysts were obtained through experiments and calculations. By correlating the photocatalytic activities of photocatalysts for the degradations of the organic pollutants under the irradiation of a 300 W xenon lamp with their above-mentioned energy levels, some new findings can be acquired. To be specific, the more positive EHOMO of an organic pollutant leads to its easier photodegradation by photocatalysts. Meanwhile, the more negative VB position for a photocatalyst results in the higher photocatalytic activities for the degradations of organic pollutants. Therefore, the matching correlation between the EHOMO of an organic pollutant and the EVB of a photocatalyst is of great importance to the efficiency of photocatalytic degradation.

The aim of this study was to determine whether low dose doxycycline as an anti-inflammatory agent could improve glucose metabolism in diabetic animals. Therefore, doxycycline was supplemented in drinking water to 6-week-old male db/db mice for 10 weeks. Doxycycline reduced perirenal/epididymal fat, Lee’s index, and liver cholesterol. Blood HDL-cholesterol increased, but total cholesterol and aspartate transaminase decreased. Glucose and insulin tolerances were improved, accompanying with reduced fasting blood glucose, insulin, HOMA-IR and advanced glycation end products. Islet number, β-cell percentage and mass increased, while islet size decreased. Consistently, less apoptosis but more β-cell proliferation were found in islets of treated mice. Freshly isolated islets from treated mice showed higher insulin content and enhanced glucose stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS). In addition, purified islets of Balb/c mice showed increased GSIS after cultivation in vitro with doxycycline, but not with chloramphenicol and levofloxacin. Inflammation markers, including lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in serum as well as CD68-positive cells in treated islets, decreased significantly. Finally, LPS stimulated the production of inflammatory factors but inhibited GSIS of MIN6 cells; however, the effects were completely reversed by doxycycline. The results support further study of possible long-term usage of sub-antimicrobial doxycycline in diabetic patients.

Supercavitating vehicle in high speed is covered by supercavity substantially or wholly. The collision between fin of vehicle and supercavity always results in the generation of nonlinear planning force, which brings vibration and shock. To ensure stable movement of underwater supercavitating vehicle, the effects of cavitation number on the motion characteristics of a supercavitating vehicle are analyzed based on dynamic simulation tools such as numerical simulation, phase track diagram and Lyapunov exponent spectra and so on. Results demonstrated that the motion of supercavitating vehicle has nonlinear dynamic characteristics. As cavitation number varies, some physical phenomena such as Hopf bifurcation, periodic bifurcation, and chaos occured. Moreover, vibration and shock can be effectively suppressed by adjusting fin's control law, then a stable movement of the supercavitating vehicle can be achieved.

Background Clinical-radiological correlation of myocardial bridge (MB) remains unclear. Purpose To correlate clinical symptoms and outcomes of MBs with computed tomography (CT) coronary angiography findings. Material and Methods A total of 2092 patients with CT coronary angiography were collected. Patients were divided into symptomatic and asymptomatic groups, adverse heart events (AHE) and non-AHE groups, MB and non-MB groups, as well as left anterior descending (LAD)-MB and non-LAD-MB groups. Statistical analyses were performed to identify inter-group differences, and clinical-radiological correlations of MBs or mural coronary arteries (MCAs). Results The prevalence of MB, the MCA stenosis either in systole or in diastole, and the ratio of LAD-MB were significantly higher in the symptomatic group than in the asymptomatic group, and higher in the AHE group than in the non-AHE group ( P all Conclusion Measurements of MB-MCA by CT predict the presence of clinical symptoms and outcomes of AHE, with diastolic MCA stenosis possessing the greatest performance.

Both preoperative computed tomography (CT) staging and postoperative surgical Masaoka clinical staging are of great clinical importance for diagnosing thymomas. Our study aimed to investigate the relationships between these two staging systems.This was a retrospective review of 129 patients who had undergone thymoma surgery. Helical CT and 16-slice CT were performed preoperatively. Surgical findings were evaluated according to the Masaoka clinical staging system.A significant association was shown between Masaoka clinical staging and CT staging, especially of features including tumor size (P = .004), tumor shape (P.001), tumor density (P.001), capsule completeness (P.001), and involvement of surrounding tissues (P.001). Based on the CT findings, there were 35.09% of Masaoka stage I patients who had a tumor size5 cm as compared to 14.81% of stage IV patients. Only 8.77% of Masaoka stage I patients had a tumor size ≥10 cm as compared to 40.74% of stage IV patients. In stages III and IV, most tumors were irregularly shaped with an uneven density and incomplete capsule. Invasive tumors were more frequently found in stages III (81.48%) and IV (88.89%) than in stages I (0%) and II (38.89%). The incidence of myasthenia gravis was comparable in different stages. Consistency between CT and Masaoka clinical stages was higher in stage I (37.98%) than other stages (approximately 10%).This study documented a close relationship between preoperative CT thymoma staging and postoperative Masaoka clinical staging. Thus, preoperative CT findings can be beneficial for determining the proper management and prognosis of thymoma patients.

Objectives We previously found niacin receptor GPR109A was expressed in murine islet beta-cells, and signaling through GPR109A inhibited glucose stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS). However, the expression of GPR109A in human islets and its functional relevance is still not known. Methods The expression of GPR109A was examined by antibody staining and in situ hybridization on pancreatic paraffin sections. GPR109A was cloned and expressed in INS-1 islet beta-cells. Intracellular cAMP and GSIS were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results The expression of GPR109A was confirmed in murine islet beta-cells and further detected in human counterparts by using commercially available polyclonal antibodies. In situ hybridization study detected the transcripts of GPR109A, but not that of closely related GPR109B. Furthermore, GPR109A was significantly reduced in islets from diabetic individuals and animal model of db/db mice as compared to their respective controls. Further, GPR109A levels in insulinoma were also reduced dramatically as compared to islets found in corresponding non-tumor normal tissues. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis demonstrated that GPR109A transcripts were severely down-regulated in rodent insulinoma cell lines as compared to that of freshly isolated islets from mice. Finally, human and murine GPR109A expression cassettes were transfected into INS-1 cells, which resulted in reduced accumulation of cAMP and insulin secretion after incubation with niacin. The effect could be completely abrogated by pretreatment with pertussis toxin. Conclusions These results demonstrate that GPR109A is functionally expressed in both human and murine islet beta-cells. However, the role of GPR109A in the prevention of diabetes or insulinoma needs further study.

Selective synthesis of carbamates from amines and dimethyl carbonate were studied in the presence of various ionic liquids as catalysts. The –SO3H-functionalized ionic liquid was found to be the most active catalyst among the applied ionic liquids, and nearly 100% conversion and 95% selectivity were achieved when using 1,6-hexanediamine as reactant. The acid functional ionic liquid catalyst system is also readily separable and reusable after reaction.

Linwu mallard is an excellent native breeds from Hunan province in China. This is the first study to determine the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of L. mallard using PCR-based amplification and Sanger sequencing. The characteristic of the entire mitochondrial genome was analyzed in detail, with the base composition of 29.19% A, 22.19% T, 32.83% C, 15.79% G in the L. mallard (16,605 bp in length). It contained 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and a major non-coding control region (D-loop region). The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of L. mallard will be useful for the phylogenetics of poultry, and be available as basic data for the genetics and breeding.