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Data on sofosbuvir-based therapy for pregnant women and infants with severe chronic hepatitis C (CHC) are lacking. Two late pregnant women and one female infant with severe CHC were enrolled for treatment. Pregnant Women 1 and 2 and Infant 3 were 30, 33, and 1.2 years old, respectively; the gestational ages of pregnant Women 1 and 2 were 31 and 26 weeks, respectively. Notably, pregnant Women 1 and 2 and Infant 3 had hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA levels of 139 000, 198 000, and 8 450 000 IU/ml; alanine aminotransferase levels of 420, 781, and 220 U/L; and received sofosbuvir/ledipasvir, sofosbuvir/velpatasvir, and sofosbuvir/ledipasvir for 12 weeks, respectively. All three patients were safely cured with favorable tolerance, and two newborns were both breastfeeding and were consistently negative for the anti-HCV antibody during the 1-year follow-up after birth. Additionally, two newborns and Infant 3 had normal growth parameters during the follow-up year one. In conclusion, this case series study found that sofosbuvir-based therapy for pregnant women and infants with severe CHC is safe and effective. The data may fill the gap and provide evidence of the use of sofosbuvir-based therapy as a reference when similar severe CHC situations are encountered during clinical practice.

Data on long-term tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) therapy for pregnant women with active chronic hepatitis B (CHB) (immune clearance and reactivation phases, currently and previously diagnosed) and their infants are lacking.Pregnant women with active CHB treated with TAF and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) were enrolled in this multicenter prospective study, and infants received immunoprophylaxis. The primary outcomes were rates of adverse (safety) events in pregnant women and defects in infants and fetuses. The secondary outcomes were virologic responses in pregnant women, infants' safety, hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) status, and growth conditions.One hundred three and 104 pregnant women were enrolled and 102 and 104 infants were born in the TAF and TDF groups, respectively. In the TAF group, the mean age, gestational age, alanine aminotransferase level, and viral loads at treatment initiation were 29.3 years, 1.3 weeks, 122.2 U/L, and 5.1 logTAF administered throughout or beginning in early pregnancy is generally safe and effective for pregnant women with active CHB and their infants.

To investigate the prevalence of restless legs syndrome (RLS) in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients and its possible influencing factors. MHD patients were consecutively enrolled from five hemodialysis centers in Hefei. Clinical, demographics, and laboratory data were recorded from December 2013 to March 2014. RLS diagnosis scale, Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and kidney disease and quality of life (KDQOLTM-36) were used for analysis. A total of 269 MHD patients (81 women, 188 men) were enrolled, among which 39 patients were diagnosed as RLS. The median duration of dialysis therapy was 33 months and the prevalence of RLS was 14.5%. Compared with RLS-negative patients, RLS-positive patients had lower hemoglobin level (98.67 ± 13.50 vs 106.34 ± 17.75, P = 0.011) and higher alkaline phosphatase concentration [131.0 (98.0, 226.0) vs 94.0 (69.8, 157.5), P = 0.001]. The multivariate logistic regression showed that high hemoglobin level (OR 0.975, 95% CI 0.956–0.995, P = 0.015) was a protective factor for RLS, while high alkaline phosphatase (OR 1.003, 95% CI 1.001–1.005, P = 0.018) was an independent risk factor for RLS. RLS patients had significantly higher PSQI scores (P

With an analysis on the structure of water-soluble sodium silicate and its polymerization, it was found that the poor stability of silicate drilling fluids lies in the relevance between the inherent nature and the pH value of sodium silicate. The modification of water-soluble sodium silicate in this paper was to improve its stability and keep the inhibitive property simultaneously. The a-olefin sulfonate (AOS) was employed as the modifer agent acted on the water-soluble sodium silicate monomer and oligomers. Furthermore, the modification mechanism was discussed through FTIR, Laser particle size, Zeta potential and SEM. A stable sodium silicate drilling fluids with better inhibitive property was obtained by the comparison of modified sodium silicate and unmodified ones.

Several kinds of functional particles modified epoxy multilayer composite, which were constituted with lead acrylate/erbium oxide/epoxy and tungsten oxide/erbium oxide/epoxy layer by layer, were successfully prepared. The shielding properties under different γ-ray were tested and discussed in detail. Multilayer composite exhibited higher shielding ability to lower energy γ-ray. The radiation shielding rates of four samples were all above 80% when the energy of γ-ray was about 79.9 keV. The results also revealed that stacking sequence of layer with different functional particles will affect their radiation shielding ability when the energy of γ-ray was low.

The radiation shielding abilities of functional particles (Sm2O3, Er2O3, WO3and Bi2O3) were simulated and proved to have a stronger absorption region and a weaker absorption region respectively. Four kinds of functional particles/epoxy radiation shielding composites used for low energy γ/Xray were designed based on the edge absorption and synergistic absorption. By optimizing the proportion of functional particles in epoxy composites, the radiation shielding abilities bad been further improved. According to the results of optimal design, a kind of Sm2O3/Er2O3/WO3/Bi2O3/Epoxy composite was prepared and proved to be very efficient to shield low energy γ/X radiation.

Aluminum alloy is widely used in aerospace and shipbuilding fields, but it is microstructural and mechanical properties of weld bead are not satisfactory. In this paper, GMAW experiments under the magnetic field were carried out. The effect of magnetic field frequency on GMAW process was analyzed through taking the arc images by high-speed camera, detecting spatter rate, observing metallographic microstructural, testing tensile property and observing fracture SEM appearance. The arc shape and arc movement changed with the variation of external magnetic field frequency, which had a crucial influence on arc temperature gradient and undercooling degree and finally took effect on weld appearance and mechanical properties. The experimental results shown that the arc shape was expanded, arc temperature gradient and undercooling degree decrease, weld bead grain becomes coarse, weld appearance and mechanical properties gets worse below the magnetic field frequency of 60 Hz. The arc shape compressed, arc temperature gradient and undercooling degree increase, weld bead grain becomes refined, weld appearance and mechanical properties gets better over 60 Hz compared with conventional GMAW, the spatter rate reduced by 1.8%, the microstructural grain refined obviously and the tensile strength increased by 31.5 MPa.

This study was carried out to look for the substitute products of lead cerrobend block and determine whether the products can give more radiation dose to the tumor in the skin and superficial tumors in radiotherapy treatment. Five kinds of PbO/Er2O3/Epoxy(E-51) samples used as the cerrobend block in the electron beam radiotherapy treatment were prepared successfully by a solidified forming approach. The central axis depth dose and off-axis dose profiles in the water phantom were calculated using BEAMnrc/DOSEXYZnrc user codes. The results revealed that there were more energy deposition events induced by low energy electron beams in the surface of the water phantom. These electron beams were attributed to Compton scattering and photoemission between photons and erbium, plumbum elements. The maximum dose (Dm) and the depth at the maximum dose (Rm) were linearly dependent on the mass fraction of erbium and plumbum element in the sample. The max dose and its depth varied depending on the combined actions of new electrons and transmission electrons.

To investigate the effects of the small interfering RNA (siRNA) approach to silence the expression of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) gene expression on the expression of the protein p27.Experimental research. The specific siRNA of CTGF was designed and synthesized, then transfected into cultured bovine corneal endothelial cells by liposomes. The blank control group was only treated with the culture medium and not be transfected with siRNA. Reverse transfection-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was applied to show the effect of gene-silencing, and western blot was used to observe the protein p27 expression of bovine corneal endothelial cells, which were treated with 1.00 µg/L transforming growth factor β(2) (TGF-β(2)). The results were analyzed by one-factor analysis of variance.CTGF siRNA was successfully transfected into cultured bovine corneal endothelial cells and effectively silence the expression of CTGF mRNA. The CTGF mRNA expression decreased to 17.3%, 24.4% and 41.7% of control values at 24, 48 and 72 h after transfection, there was significant difference between these groups (F = 389.9, P0.05). Significant decrease of protein p27 expression was detected at 36 h after transfection (F = 299.3, P0.05).CTGF-specific siRNA was able to inhibit the expression of CTGF mRNA effectively and down-regulate the expression of p27.

To explore the expressions and significance of heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in the development of forestomach carcinoma in NIH mice induced with N-Nitrososarcosineethylester(NSEE).144 mice were divided into 6 groups and their stomachs were infused with NSEE. Then 24 mice were killed every two weeks and their forestomachs were used for the study of the expressions of Hsp70 and PCNA by immunohistochemical staining.With the progress of carcinogenesis, the expression pattern of Hsp70 was up-down-up, but the expression trend was still increasing. On day 56 and day 70 after NSEE treatment, the expression level of Hsp70 was higher than that of control (P0.05). On day 84, the expression level of Hsp70 was markedly higher than that of control (P0.01). The expression of PCNA increased gradually with the carcinogenesis. As compared with the control, stronger expression was found on day 42 and day 56 (P0.05) and notably stronger expression on day 84 (P0.01). The expression of Hsp70 was positively correlated to that of PCNA (r=0.98, P0.01).In the development of forestomach carcinoma of NIH mice, the expressions of both Hsp70 and PCNA increased and were positively correlated with each other.

To verify the influence of the functional elements particular size for the radiation attenuation coefficients and mechanical properties radiation shielding material based on epoxy resin, we prepare two WO3/E44 samples with different particular sizes of WO3 by a solidified forming approach. The linear attenuation coefficients of these samples are measured for γ-ray photo energies of 59.6, 121.8, and 344.1 keV, etc. using narrow beam transmission geometry. It is found that the linear attenuation coefficients would increase with the decreasing particle size of the WO3 in the epoxy resin based radiation shielding material. The theoretical values of the linear attenuation coefficients and mass attenuation are calculated using WinXcom, and good agreements between the experimental data and the theoretical values are observed. From the studies of the obtained results, it is reported that from the shielding point of view the nano-WO3 is more effective than micro-WO3 in the epoxy resin based radiation shielding material.

Biocompatible chitosan-coated ZnS quantum dots [CS-ZnS QDs] and chitosan-coated ZnS:Mn2+ quantum dots [CS-ZnS:Mn2+ QDs] were successfully fabricated via a convenient one-step γ-radiation route. The as-obtained QDs were around 5 nm in diameter with excellent water-solubility. These QDs emitting strong visible blue or orange light under UV excitation were successfully used as labels for PANC-1 cells. The cell experiments revealed that CS-ZnS and CS-ZnS:Mn2+ QDs showed low cytotoxicity and good biocompatibility, which offered possibilities for further biomedical applications. Moreover, this convenient synthesis strategy could be extended to fabricate other nanoparticles coated with chitosan.PACS: 81.07.Ta; 78.67.Hc; 82.35.Np; 87.85.Rs.