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Sex differences in Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression provide clues to pathogenesis and better patient management. We examined sex differences in emotional memory among AD patients, amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients, and healthy controls (HCs) as well as potential associations with altered regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF).The recognition memory task with emotional pictures was applied to evaluate enhancement of emotional memory (EEM) and 3D pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling MRI was performed to measure the rCBF in 74 AD patients (41 females), 74 aMCI patients (45 females), and 74 HCs (43 females). Group differences in EEM were tested by two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with repeated measures. The main effects of clinical group and sex as well as group × sex interactions on rCBF were assessed by two-way ANCOVA. Correlation analyses were conducted to investigate associations between EEM and rCBF.With disease progression, EEM gradually disappeared. Among aMCI patients, females exhibited a greater index of recollection (Pr) for positive/high-arousal and negative/low-arousal pictures versus neutral pictures (P = 0.005, P = 0.003), while males exhibited a greater Pr for negative/high-arousal versus neutral pictures (P = 0.001). There were significant sex × group effects on rCBF in left inferior parietal, supramarginal, superior temporal and middle temporal gyri, and rCBF of left inferior parietal gyrus was correlated with Pr for positive/high-arousal pictures among female aMCI patients (r = 0.584, q = 0.005).Males and females exhibit distinct changes in EEM associated with altered rCBF, which should be considered in future neuroimaging studies.

Background: The Cognitive Reserve (CR) theory posits that brains with higher reserve can cope with more cerebral damage to minimize clinical manifestations. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of education (CR proxy) on brain structure and function in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients and in cognitively healthy elderly (HC) individuals.Methods: Fifty-seven AD patients, 57 aMCI patients and 48 HCs were included to investigate the relationships between education years and gray matter volume (GMV), regional homogeneity (ReHo) and functional connectivity (FC) in brain regions to show associations with both structure and function. Taking the severity of the disease into account, we further assessed the relationships in AD stratified analyses. We then compared more highly (higher CR) and less highly educated (lower CR) subjects at the same level of cognitive impairment. Results: In AD group, the GMV of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and ReHo in the left inferior temporal cortex (ITC) were inversely associated with education years, after adjustment for age, sex, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and total intracranial volume or head motion parameters. Seed-based FC analyses revealed that education years were negatively correlated with the FC between the left anterior ITC and left mid frontal cortex as well as right superior frontal cortex and right angular gyrus. Stratified analyses results indicated that this negative relation between education and GMV, ReHo, FC was mainly present in mild AD, which was attenuated in moderate AD and aMCI groups. In mild and moderate AD groups, subjects with higher CR had smaller regional GMV of the dACC and lower ReHo in the left ITC than the subjects with lower CR. No significant differences were found in severe AD and aMCI groups.Conclusions: Our results support the CR theory, and suggest that CR may be protective against AD related brain pathology at the early stage of clinical dementia. These findings could provide the locus of CR-related functional brain mechanisms and a specific time-window for therapeutic interventions to help AD patients to cope better with the brain pathological damage by increasing CR.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive age-related neurodegenerative disorder that results in irreversible cognitive impairments. Nonetheless, there are numerous sex-dependent differences in clinical course that may provide clues to disease pathogenesis and more effective individualized treatments. We examined potential contributions of neurovascular coupling deficits to sex differences in AD progression. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging were acquired from 50 AD patients (28 females), 52 amnesic mild cognitive impairment patients (31 females), and 59 healthy controls (36 females). Short- and long-range functional connectivity strength (FCS) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) were calculated for all participants. Then, the CBF/FCS coupling ratio was calculated for each voxel. Two-way ANOVA was performed to identify group × sex interactions and main effects of group. Correlation analysis was used to assess associations between CBF/FCS ratios and general cognitive status as measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).There were significant group × sex interaction effects on short-range coupling ratios of right middle temporal gyrus, left angular gyrus, left infraorbital frontal gyrus, and left superior frontal gyrus as well as on the long-range coupling ratios of right middle temporal gyrus, left precuneus, left posterior cingulate, and left angular gyrus. There were significant negative correlations between MMSE scores and CBF/FCS ratios for all regions with significant interactions among all female patients, while positive correlations were found between MMSE and CBF/FCS ratios for some regions among all male patients. Our results demonstrate significant sex differences in neurovascular coupling mechanisms associated with cognitive function during the course of AD.

We investigate residential property-price effects of the spread of the Hemlock wooly adelgid infestation northward through central portions of Connecticut and Massachusetts, USA. We find that hemlock trees and the accompanying adelgid infestation within 0.1 km buffers of properties affect sale prices, but the results do not extend to buffers of 0.5 and 1.0 km's. Further, within the 0.1 km buffer, only the healthiest hemlock trees contribute positively to property values. We investigated the robustness of the results to three data interpolation methods, Kriging, Inverse Distance Weighting and Spline, and while there was some minor difference in outcomes the results are robust to these interpolation methods. Two property-price models were estimated, a traditional hedonic model with spatial fixed effects and a repeat sale model. The models provide substantially different property-price impacts and care needs to be taken when interpreting these estimates. Both approaches are limited but in different ways; the hedonic by potentially omitted variables and the repeat-sales by a limited number of observations. Our results provide some support for the repeat-sale model as the hedonic model with spatial fixed effects underperformed when both models were estimated using the same data. U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service, Southern Research Station Published version Acknowledgements This research was supported by U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service, Southern Research Station. Public domain – authored by a U.S. government employee

Oaks (Quercus spp.) are keystone species in many ecosystems and are ecologically as well as economically valuable. The objective of this study was to gather and evaluate information from a diverse group of oak experts on current and future biotic and abiotic threats to oaks in the eastern United States. Using a Delphi survey method with three iterative surveys, we found that oak decline and climate change were identified as critical current and future threats, respectively, in this region. Focusing on climate change, experts were asked a series of questions to assess its potential future temporal and spatial impact on oaks. With respect to climate change, the majority of experts surveyed believe climate change will manifest gradually, although they were generally uncertain about the geographical distribution of climate change in the future, i.e., the areas where oaks are likely to be impacted by climate change in the future. New/emerging pests and pathogens were seen as the most critical future threat by the third survey round. Results from this study can be used to better inform management practices and research priorities for ensuring resilient oak resources for the future.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the artery diameter ratio (ADR) after recanalization and clinical outcomes.Patients with middle cerebral artery occlusion confirmed by DSA from 1 January 2018, to 31 December 2019, were retrospectively analyzed. All patients confirmed TICI grade 2b or 3. The ADR was calculated as M2 segment diameter/M1 segment diameter. Multivariate regression analysis was used to describe clinical outcomes of two groups (ADR 0.6 and ≥ 0.6). ROC curves were used to compare different models and find the best cutoff.A total of 143 patients were included in the study, including 77 males and 66 females, with an average age of 67.79 ± 12 years. The NIHSS at discharge was significantly higher in the ADR 0.6 group than another group (mean, 16.37 vs. 6.19, P 0.001). At 90 days, the cases of functional independence was significantly less in the ADR 0.6 group (20.97% vs. 83.95%, OR 0.05, 95% CI 0.02-0.12, P 0.001). The ADR 0.6 group had a higher incidence of cerebral edema (P = 0.027) and sICH (P = 0.038). The ADR had the strongest power to distinguish mRS 2 (AUC = 0.851) and DC (AUC = 0.805), and the best cutoff value are 0.6 (specificity 85.19%, sensitivity 75.81%) and 0.58 (specificity 65.96%, sensitivity 100%), respectively.The low ADR is associated with poor outcomes. The decrease in ADR may be an indirect manifestation of the loss of cerebrovascular autoregulation.

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum can adapt to a variety of niches and is widely distributed in many sources. We used comparative genomics to explore the differences in the genome and in the physiological characteristics of L. plantarum isolated from pickles, fermented sauce, and human feces. The relationships between genotypes and phenotypes were analyzed to address the effects of isolation source on the genetic variation of L. plantarum. The comparative genomic results indicate that the numbers of unique genes in the different strains were niche-dependent. L. plantarum isolated from fecal sources generally had more strain-specific genes than L. plantarum isolated from pickles. The phylogenetic tree and average nucleotide identity (ANI) results indicate that L. plantarum in pickles and fermented sauce clustered independently, whereas the fecal L. plantarum was distributed more uniformly in the phylogenetic tree. The pan-genome curve indicated that the L. plantarum exhibited high genomic diversity. Based on the analysis of the carbohydrate active enzyme and carbohydrate-use abilities, we found that L. plantarum strains isolated from different sources exhibited different expression of the Glycoside Hydrolases (GH) and Glycosyl Transferases (GT) families and that the expression patterns of carbohydrate active enzymes were consistent with the evolution relationships of the strains. L. plantarum strains exhibited niche-specific characteristicsand the results provided better understating on genetics of this species.

Previous voxel-based morphometry studies have provided evidence that patients with alcohol dependence (AD) have widespread gray matter morphological abnormalities. However, brain structural asymmetry in AD has not been assessed to date. Here, we aimed to use a recently developed voxel-based morphometry-based approach to investigate global and regional gray matter asymmetry alterations in AD. A total of 39 male individuals, including 19 AD patients and 20 age-matched healthy controls, underwent high-resolution structural MRI. Global and voxel-wise gray matter asymmetries were measured separately by the Dice coefficient and the asymmetry index, which were compared between the two groups. We found no difference in the global gray matter asymmetry between AD patients and healthy controls. However, voxel-wise gray matter asymmetry analysis showed that AD patients and healthy controls had different distribution patterns of brain regions with a rightward asymmetry and a leftward asymmetry Furthermore, we observed an increased rightward asymmetry of gray matter in the hemispheric I-IV and V of the cerebellum and lingual gyrus in AD patients. These findings suggest that abnormal structural asymmetry in the cerebellum and the primary visual cortex may be the neural mechanisms contributing toward motor and visual impairments in AD.

// Xiaohu Li 1, * , Hongmin Shu 1, * , Yifei Zhang 2 , Xiaoshu Li 1 , Jian Song 1 , Junhua Du 2 , Yinfeng Qian 1 , Bin Liu 1 and Yongqiang Yu 1 1 Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China 2 Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China * These authors contributed equally to this work and co-first authors Correspondence to: Yongqiang Yu, email: yuyongqiang@hotmail.com Bin Liu, email: ayfyliubin@126.com Keywords: urinary stone; low dose; adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction; computed tomography Received: September 25, 2017 Accepted: March 24, 2018 Published: April 13, 2018 ABSTRACT Purpose: To prospectively determine the diagnostic performance of low-dose CT (LDCT) with adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) technique for the detection of urinary stone disease. Results: The average DLP and ED was 408.16 ± 119.04 mGy and 6.12 ± 1.79 mSv in CDCT, and 138.19 ± 76.87 mGy and 2.07 ± 1.15 mSv in LDCT, respectively. The dose reduction rate of LDCT was nearly 66.1% for both DLP and ED ( P 0.05), but higher than LDCT-FBP images (mean score = 2.77) ( P < 0.05). Materials and Methods: 70 consetutive patients with clinically suspected urolithiasis underwent non-enhanced CT. Followed by both conventional-dose CT (CDCT) and low-dose CT (LDCT) scans. Automatic tube current modulation (ATCM) scanning was used, with a noise index setting of 13 in CDCT and 25 in LDCT. Reconstructions were performed with filtered back projection (FBP) and different settings of adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction [ASIR(40%, 60%, 80%)]. Urinary calculi (size, location, number), image quality (scale 1–5), image noise (scale 1–3) and diagnostic confidence levels (scale 1–3) were evaluated and measured by two radiologists independently. Radiation dose was recorded by calculating dose length product (DLP) and effective dose (ED). Statistical analyses included Mann-Whitney U test and Paired t tests. Conclusions: LDCT with ASIR can reduce the radiation dose while maintain relatively high image quality in the diagnosis of urinary stone diseases.

The Ordos Block located in the center of China mainland, which is one of the oldest and most stable cratons in Asia. It is contiguous to the Yinshan Block, the North China Craton, Alex Block, Yangze Block, and Northeast Tibet. Numerous geologic and geophysical studies engaged in the mechanics of the Ordos Block deformation and evolution, but the detail structure and deformation style of the Ordos Block remains uncertain due to poor geophysical data coverage. During 2013 and 2018, China Earthquake Administration developed XMLY Seismic Array in Ordos Block and adjacent area, which operated more than 1000 broadband seismic stations with an average station spacing of 35km. Using the P-wave Travel time data recorded by the array and multi-scale seismic traveltime tomography technique, we obtained a high-resolution P-wave velocity structure beneath Ordos Block. The seismic tomography algorithm employs sparsity constrains on the wavelet representation velocity model via the L1-norm regularization. This algorithm can efficiently deal with the uneven-sampled volume, and give multi-scale images of the model. Our preliminary results can be summarized as follows: 1, the crustal and upper mantle P-wave velocity structure is strongly inhomogeneous and consistent with the surface geological setting; 2, significant low-velocity anomalies exist beneath the northwestern margin of Ordos Block, which suggested that there exist upper mantle upwelling; 3, There have obvious boundary between Alex and Ordos Block along 104ºE at upper mantle; 4, Along 38ºN tectonic line, there exist different structure between south part and north part of Ordos upper mantle, the south part of Ordos show high-velocity feature and the upper mantle show low-velocity anomalies in north part of Ordos Block. This feature can be interpreted that the two parts of the Ordos Block undergone different Tectonic evolution processes.

Background To explore patterns of brain structural alteration in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients with different levels of lung function impairment and the associations of those patterns with cognitive functional deficits using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) analyses based on high-resolution structural MRI and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Methods A total of 115 right-handed participants (26 severe, 29 moderate, and 29 mild COPD patients and a comparison group of 31 individuals without COPD) completed tests of cognitive (Montreal Cognitive Assessment [MoCA]) and pulmonary function (forced expiratory volume in 1 s [FEV1]) and underwent MRI scanning. VBM and TBSS analyses were used to identify changes in grey matter density (GMD) and white matter (WM) integrity in COPD patients. In addition, correlation analyses between these imaging parameter changes and cognitive and pulmonary functional impairments were performed. Results There was no significant difference in brain structure between the comparison groups and the mild COPD patients. Patients with moderate COPD had atrophy of the left middle frontal gyrus and right opercular part/triangular part of the inferior frontal gyrus, and WM changes were present mainly in the superior and posterior corona radiata, corpus callosum and cingulum. Patients with severe COPD exhibited the most extensive changes in GMD and WM. Some grey matter (GM) and WM changes were correlated with MoCA scores and FEV1. Conclusions These findings suggest that patients with COPD exhibit progressive structural impairments in both the GM and the WM, along with impaired levels of lung function, highlighting the importance of early clinical interventions.

The emerald ash borer (EAB) was first detected in North America in 2002, and since its introduction, this invasive pest has killed millions of ash trees. While EAB kills native North American ash trees in all settings, its impacts have been especially large in urban areas where ash has been a dominant street tree, especially in residential areas. While some management costs, such as insecticide treatment, tree removal, or tree replacement, are relatively straightforward to compute, the impact that EAB has had on residential property values is less clear. To better understand the economic cost of EAB in urban settings, we conducted a hedonic property value analysis to evaluate the impact of ash tree damages due to EAB infestation on housing sales prices. This study was conducted in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which had high stocking levels of ash trees prior to EAB&rsquo, s arrival. The objectives of the study are to investigate: (1) how EAB-infested ash trees affect property values, (2) whether the benefits from healthy ash trees to property value change after arrival of EAB, and (3) whether healthy ash trees located within infested neighborhoods provide the same benefits as the healthy ash trees located outside of infested neighborhoods. In general, our results show that the EAB outbreak has had a negative impact on home values for properties located in close proximity to the ash tree component of the urban forest. This result holds true for neighborhoods where EAB does not yet pose an imminent threat, and is amplified for neighborhoods where EAB has been detected. Our results highlight the early stages of a dynamic economic process that impacts urban residential property owners subject to the risk of EAB or other tree pests and diseases. In general, we find that forward-looking behavior of residential property owners is capitalized into property values during the process of forest pest infestation.

Synchronization is believed to play an important role in information processing of the brain. Mounting evidence supports the hypothesis that schizophrenia is related to impaired neural synchrony. However, most previous studies characterize brain synchronization from the perspective of temporal coordination of distributed neural activity, rather than network properties. Our aim was to investigate the network synchronization alterations in schizophrenia using publically available data. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) were performed in 96 schizophrenia patients and 120 healthy controls. The whole-brain functional and structural networks were constructed and analyzed using graph theoretical approaches. Inter-group differences in network synchronization were investigated. Both the binary and weighted functional networks of schizophrenia patients exhibited decreased synchronizability (increased eigenratio) than those of healthy controls. With respect to the structural binary networks, schizophrenia patients showed a trend towards excessive synchronizability (decreased eigenratio). In addition, the excessive synchronizability of the structural binary networks was associated with more severe negative symptoms in schizophrenia patients. Our findings provide novel biological evidence that schizophrenia involves a disruption of neural synchrony from the perspective of network properties.

Longmen Grottoes, one of the four major grottoes in China, has been listed on the “World Heritage List” and its excavated time was as long as four hundred years ago, which had gone through six different dynasties. Due to the different excavated times, this Buddha statue in each hole or niche has its unique features in clothing, face, body shape and other aspects. Due to climatic changes of wind, rain, frost, and snow, many of these Buddha statues have lost their original appearance. Hence, this study aims to use modern digital restoration technology to restore these grottoes in order enabling many people to appreciate these type of arts through the internet. This method will not only reduce the secondary destruction, but also may allow people to understand and appreciate better the grotto art through the internet. Furthermore, through this restoration, the complete history from a broken Buddha statue can be learned, and even more the culture of ancient China can be explored. The digital restoration of these grotto Buddha statues mainly adopts the modern technological means and detailed research materials of digital virtual restoration, the solemn dharma images that the real thing cannot be traced back are reproduced by virtual technology. The digital simulation is carried out by analyzing the apparel, face, and figure of the Buddha statues in the representative niches of different dynasties. The digital technology for restoring the Buddha statues not only avoids destruction of the Buddhas but also can be seen as efforts in restoring and protecting the grotto art.

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum can adapt to a variety of niches and is widely distributed in many sources. We used comparative genomics to explore the differences in the genome and in the physiological characteristics of L. plantarum isolated from pickles, fermented sauce, and human feces. The relationships between genotypes and phenotypes were analyzed to address the effects of isolation source on the genetic variation of L. plantarum. The comparative genomic results indicate that the numbers of unique genes in the different strains were niche-dependent. L. plantarum isolated from fecal sources generally had more strain-specific genes than L. plantarum isolated from pickles. The phylogenetic tree and average nucleotide identity (ANI) results indicate that L. plantarum in pickles and fermented sauce clustered independently, whereas the fecal L. plantarum was distributed more uniformly in the phylogenetic tree. The pan-genome curve indicated that the L. plantarum exhibited high genomic diversity. Based on the analysis of the carbohydrate active enzyme and carbohydrate-use abilities, we found that L. plantarum strains isolated from different sources exhibited different expression of the Glycoside Hydrolases (GH) and Glycosyl Transferases (GT) families and that the expression patterns of carbohydrate active enzymes were consistent with the evolution relationships of the strains. L. plantarum strains exhibited niche-specific characteristicsand the results provided better understating on genetics of this species.

An understanding of how public preferences vary among different stakeholders toward forest management policies would be helpful in the forest policy design and administration process. In this study, we investigate the preferences toward forest management policies of three stakeholder groups-woodlot owners, environmentalists, and the general public. We used a stated-preference survey to elicit information about stakeholder preferences for forest management practices at Holt Research Forest in Maine. The survey was administered to each group both before and after an on-site experience at the forest. We specifically investigated how information and experience acquired through the on-site experience would influence the preferences of each group. We also conducted a latent class analysis to further explore the preference heterogeneity among survey participants. The results show differences in preferences for forest management policies between stakeholders with the preferences of woodlot owners differing substantially from environmentalists and the general public both before and after the on-site experience. The on-site experience did not have a substantial impact on woodlot owners. In contrast, it increased the consistency of choice decisions among environmentalists and the public.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Brain areas with significant inter-group differences in GMD according to analysis of variance. Table S2. Brain areas with significant GMD decreases in severe and moderate COPD patients. Table S3. Correlation analysis between WM parameters and (MoCA scores and FEV1) in COPD.

Emotional enhancement of memory (EEM) is thought to modulate memory recollection rather than familiarity. However, the contributing factors and neural mechanisms are not well understood. To address these issues, we investigated how valence, arousal, and the amount of devoted attention influence the EEM effect on recollection. We also compared the topological properties among hippocampus- and perirhinal and entorhinal cortex-mediated emotional memory processing networks. Finally, we evaluated the correlations between emotional memory/EEM and inherent properties (i.e., amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation and node degree, efficiency, and betweenness) of the hippocampus and perirhinal and entorhinal cortices in 59 healthy young adults by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. EEM was elicited by incidental encoding, negative images, and positive high-arousal images. The hippocampus was correlated with recollection sensitivity and EEMnegative-high-arousal. The emotional memory processing network mediated by the hippocampus had higher clustering coefficient, local efficiency, and normalized characteristic path length but lower normalized global efficiency than those mediated by the perirhinal and entorhinal cortices. The entorhinal cortex was associated with both recollection and familiarity sensitivity, but showed different correlation patterns. The perirhinal cortex was highly correlated with familiarity sensitivity of negative low-arousal stimuli. These results demonstrate that the EEM effect on memory recollection is influenced by valence, stimulus arousal, and amount of attention involved during encoding. Moreover, the hippocampus and perirhinal and entorhinal cortices play distinct roles in the recollection and familiarity of emotional memory and the EEM effect.

This study examined the reciprocating role of participation in the social shopping website context. Drawing upon Foa and Foa (1974) 's resource exchange theory, this study examined social shopping website attributes as drivers of reciprocity, and positive electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) and co-shopping were positioned as behavioral outcomes of reciprocity. The results support the conclusion that entertainment and community driveness attributes were significant drivers of reciprocity increasing consumer participation (i.e., reciprocity) and eWOM/co-shopping. Implications for designing a social shopping website that increases consumer participation and positive behavioral outcomes are discussed.

This paper aims to explore the diagnostic value of noninvasive cardiac function measurement for hypertension in pregnancy. One hundred and fifty-eight cases of gestational hypertension in our hospital were analyzed retrospectively while 30 healthy pregnant women were served as normal controls. The heart function parameters in the two groups were measured with noninvasive cardiac function analyzer, such as myocardial contractive force indexes (JP, VP), impedance indexes (RTM, RS), volume load indexes (GCV, LVDP) and left heart output index (LCI). In all 158 cases of gestational hypertension, the myocardial contractive force indexes, impedance indexes and left heart output index increased unusually. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P

An important issue in the design of stated-preference surveys is whether the information provided to respondents within a survey instrument is adequate to yield valid value estimates. Providing respondents with on-site experience about forest ecosystem management alternatives may influence their expectation of the effects from new policies and programs. In the research reported here, we investigate whether preference parameters for attributes of low-impact timber harvesting programs differ between respondents to a mail survey versus respondents provided with an on-site forest experience (walk through a research forest). The empirical analysis in our application shows that stated preferences for timber harvesting attributes are not statistically different between the mail and on-site applications of the survey, and this result is robust to pretest (before experience) and post-test (post experience) applications.

Aim The CANONIC study proposed the Chronic Liver Failure Consortium acute-on-chronic liver failure (CLIF-C ACLF) prognostic model at the European Association for the Study of the Liver-CLIF diagnosis. This study aimed to develop and validate a prognostic model for predicting the short-term mortality of hepatitis B virus (HBV) ACLF as defined by the Asia-Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver. Patients and methods A retrospective cohort of 381 HBV ACLF patients and a prospective cohort of 192 patients were included in this study. Independent predictors of disease progression were determined using univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis, and a regression model for predicting prognosis was established. Patient survival was estimated by Kaplan-Meier analysis and subsequently compared by log-rank tests. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was used to compare the performance of various current prognostic models. Results Our model was constructed with five independent risk factors: hepatic encephalopathy, international normalized ratio, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, age, and total bilirubin, termed as the HINAT ACLF model, which showed the strongest predictive values compared with CLIF-C ACLF, CLIF-C Organ Failure, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment, CLIF-Sequential Organ Failure Assessment, Model for End-stage Liver Disease, Model for End-stage Liver Disease-sodium, and Child-Turcotte-Pugh scores; this model reduced the corresponding prediction error rates at 28 and 90 days by 16.4-54.5% after ACLF diagnosis in both the derivation cohort and the validation cohorts. Conclusion The HINAT ACLF model can accurately predict the short-term mortality of patients with HBV ACLF as defined by Asia-Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver.

This study proves that as the height of a person increases, his/her sense of power also increases. Moreover, in a population with heavy weight and high socioeconomic status, the height of a person significantly affects his/her sense of power. Findings have confirmed the concept emphasized by embodied cognition theory, i.e., genitive dependence on one's body, which indicates that the psychological characteristics of an individual should be organically combined with his/her biological characteristics in future studies.

Aim Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) has significant morbidity and mortality. There is no standard approach for the management of HBV-related ACLF with nucleos(t)ide analogs. Our objective was to compare the short-term mortality between entecavir (ETV) and lamivudine (LAM) in patients with HBV-related ACLF. Methods We recruited 311 inpatients with HBV-related ACLF from December 2002 to January 2015. The patients were treated with ETV (n=143) or LAM (n=168). The primary endpoint was mortality rate at week 8. Virological and biochemical responses were also studied. Results By week 8, 53 (37.06%) patients in the ETV group and 57 (33.93%) patients in the LAM group died, and the two groups had similar mortality (P=0.414). Multivariate analysis showed that age, total bilirubin, international normalized ratio, and model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score were independent factors for mortality at week 8. The best cut-off value of the MELD score was 24.5 for 8-week mortality. Twenty-nine of the 170 (17.06%) patients with MELD score less than 24.5 died at week 8, and the ETV and LAM groups had similar mortality (P=0.743). Eighty-one of the 141 (57.45%) patients with MELD score of at least 24.5 died at week 8 and the LAM group had lower mortality than the ETV group (P=0.018 at week 4; P=0.039 at week 8). Both groups showed similar virological and biochemical responses at 4 weeks. Conclusion LAM reduces the 8-week mortality rate significantly in patients with HBV-related ACLF who had MELD score of at least 24.5.

Background: Discrepancies persist regarding retainment of emotional enhancement of memory (EEM) in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. In addition, the neural mechanisms are still poorly understood, little is known about emotional memory related changes in white matter (WM). Objective: To observe whether EEM is absent in amnestic MCI (aMCI) and AD patients, and to investigate if emotional memory is associated with WM connections and gray matters (GM) of the limbic system networks. Methods: Twenty-one AD patients, 20 aMCI patients and 25 normal controls participated in emotional picture recognition tests and MRI scanning. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) methods were used to determine white and gray matter changes of patients. Fourteen regions of interest (ROI) of WM and 20 ROIs of GM were then selected for the correlation analyses with behavioral scores. Results: The EEM effect was lost in AD patients. Both white and gray matter of the limbic system networks were impaired in AD patients. Significant correlations or tendencies between the bilateral uncinate fasciculus, corpus callosum (genu and body), left cingulum bundle, left parahippocampal WM and the recognition sensitivity of emotional valence pictures, and significant correlations or tendencies between the splenium of corpus callosum, left cingulum bundle, left crus of fornix and stria terminalis and the recognition sensitivity of EEM were found. The volume of left amygdala, bilateral insula, medial frontal lobe, anterior and middle cingulum gyrus were positively correlated with the recognition sensitivity of emotional photos, and the right precuneus was positively correlated with the negative EEM effect. However, the affected brain areas of aMCI patients were more localized, and aMCI patients benefited only from positive stimuli. Conclusion: There are impairments of the limbic system networks of AD patients. Damaged WM connections and GM volumes of those networks are associated with impaired emotional memory and EEM effect in AD patients.

Resveratrol as a polyphenolic compound is naturally enriched in grapes, red wine and peanuts. Resveratrol has been reported to have potent anticancer and antioxidant properties. Most studies about the anti-cancer effect of resveratrol have been described previously when cells on the normoxia. The effect of resveratrol in hypoxia, the environment which mimics the state of tumor in vivo remains unclear. In this study, human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells were used to understand the effects and the possible mechanisms by which resveratrol acts as an anticancer agent in hypoxic conditions (1% O2). Our data show that resveratrol significantly inhibits HepG2 cell viability in hypoxia, and promotes hypoxia stress induced autophagy as well. We also found that the NAD-dependent deacetylase (Sirt1) and sphingosine kinase 1 (SPK1) might be involved in the effects of resveratrol in hypoxia. Collectively, our studies reveal the possible mechanisms of insensitive effect of the resveratrol in hypoxia, and further clarify the anticancer effect of resveratrol on solid tumor cells, providing a reference for drug development of resveratrol.

Several studies for outcomes data regarding cardiac arrest use ICD-9 codes to establish study populations; however, the accuracy of this mode of data collection is unclear. This study evaluates institutional data for patients with cardiac arrest to determine precision and accuracy of the cardiac

It is the direction of the education reform that the teaching of animation professional is combined with the regional culture in Colleges and Universities. It is expound that the animation works must keep the originality and nationality, must improve economic efficiency and the students' enthusiasm. It has proposed that the teaching reform should be carried out from two aspects of the theory teaching and practice teaching. And then it points out that the key point of the animation professional of Henan universities combined with regional culture should be the Zhengzhou airport. It is discussed that the animation works how to express the combination of the airport with "Silk Road", and how to express the combination of the airport with Henan "Yu" culture. Finally, combined with the practice reform, it has made the preliminary results.