Search

This study investigated the antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of hawthorn vinegar. The antimicrobial activity was evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Bacillus subtilis using the filter paper disc method. Antioxidant capacity was assessed through DPPH, hydroxyl, and superoxide anion radical scavenging assays. The results show that hawthorn vinegar exhibited inhibitory effects against all tested microorganisms, with the most potent activity against Salmonella. The vinegar extract demonstrated considerable antioxidant potential, with maximum scavenging rates of 71%, 82.2%, and 81.3% for DPPH, hydroxyl, and superoxide anion radicals, respectively. These findings suggest that hawthorn vinegar possesses notable antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, warranting further investigation for potential applications in food preservation and health promotion.

Primary hepatic carcinosarcoma (HCS) is an extremely rare malignant tumor with carcinomatous and sarcomatous elements. Few reported cases of HCS exist, especially with sufficient records to describe imaging and pathological features, making the diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of HCS a significant challenge for physicians. Here, we report a case of HCS with spontaneous rupture as the initial symptom in a 77-year-old elderly male who was admitted with right upper abdominal pain for 8 days. The computed tomography enhancement scan revealed one intrahepatic enhancement with mixed density and a massive, enhanced shadow located mainly outside the liver. We performed a hepatectomy of segment 4 through a laparotomy. The postoperative pathology results demonstrated HCS. The patient recovered smoothly and was discharged after surgery. However, the patient experienced a recurrence and died 5 months after surgery. This case underscores the importance of identifying high-risk populations and personalized treatment strategies in HCS cases.

Automatic 3D reconstruction from spaceborne charge-coupled device (CCD) optical imagery is still a challenge as the rational functional model (RFM) based reconstruction pipeline failed to amount to the advances of pinhole based approaches in computer vision and photogrammetry. As a consequence, the accuracy and completeness of the reconstructed surface by RFM based pipeline improved slightly recent years. Though the perspective camera approximation model was explored to convert the RFM to pinhole model, it could hardly guarantee the reconstruction accuracy due to the re-projection error introduced when approximating the linear push broom camera to perspective camera. Hence, we present a refined equivalent pinhole model (REPM) for 3D reconstruction from spaceborne CCD imagery. We initially investigated the aspects that influence the re-projection error thru mathematical induction and discovered that the image size and height range of the captured area are the two key factors. To ensure the performance of the 3D reconstruction while minimizing the re-projection error, we explored the optimal image size to crop large-scale image with, while alleviated the height range effect on the image space by re-projecting the cropped images to be closed to the pseudo-image that is captured by the approximated perspective camera. The above-mentioned improvements are implemented in an image partition module and an image geometric correction module respectively, and are encompassed in the proposed REPM-based 3D reconstruction pipeline. We conducted extensive experiments on different images covering various areas from different linear-array CCD sensors to verify the proposed approach. The results indicate that our pipeline can achieve higher accuracy and completeness and exhibits great potential. The implementation of the pipeline is available at here.

Stereo matching is essential for establishing pixel-level correspondences and estimating depth in scene reconstruction. However, applying stereo matching networks to UAV scenarios presents unique challenges due to varying altitudes, angles, and rapidly changing conditions, unlike the controlled settings in autonomous driving or the uniform scenes in satellite imagery. To address these UAV-specific challenges, we propose the CSStereo network (Contrastive Learning and Feature Selection Stereo Matching Network), which integrates contrastive learning and feature selection modules. The contrastive learning module enhances feature representation by comparing similarities and differences between samples, thereby improving discrimination among features in UAV scenarios. The feature selection module enhances robustness and generalization across different UAV scenarios by selecting relevant and informative features. Extensive experimental evaluations demonstrate the effectiveness of CSStereo in UAV scenarios, and show superior performance in both qualitative and quantitative assessments.

Abstract Gangliosides play vital biological regulatory roles and are associated with neurological system diseases, malignancies, and immune deficiencies. They have received extensive attention in developing targeted drugs and diagnostic markers. However, it is difficult to obtain enough structurally defined gangliosides and analogs especially at an industrial-relevant scale, which prevent exploring structure-activity relationships and identifying drug ingredients. Here, we report a highly modular chemoenzymatic cascade assembly (MOCECA) strategy for customized and large-scale synthesis of ganglioside analogs with various glycan and ceramide epitopes. We typically accessed five gangliosides with therapeutic promising and systematically prepared ten GM1 analogs with diverse ceramides. Through further process amplification, we achieved industrial production of ganglioside GM1 in the form of modular assembly at hectogram scale. Using MOCECA-synthesized GM1 analogs, we found unique ceramide modifications on GM1 could enhance the ability to promote neurite outgrowth. By comparing the structures with synthetic analogs, we further resolved the problem of contradicting descriptions for GM1 components in different pharmaceutical documents by reinterpreting the exact two-component structures of commercialized GM1 drugs. Because of its applicability and stability, the MOCECA strategy can be extended to prepare other glycosphingolipid structures, which may pave the way for developing new glycolipid drugs.

This is a paper in the field of mineral processing engineering. Copper smelting slag is a kind of important secondary resource of copper. Crushing is the basis and prerequisite for the separation and enrichment of copper minerals in copper smelting slag. Based on the analysis of process mineralogy, the mechanical properties of the main copper minerals, natural copper and chalcocite, and the main gangue mineral glass in copper smelting slag were determined, including uniaxial compressive strength, bending strength, impact strength, and ductility. The relationship between mechanical properties of minerals and grinding were studied. The results showed that the main copper minerals, natural copper and chalcocite, in copper smelting slag were with lower uniaxial compressive strength, bending strength, and impact strength than glass, so they were both more likely to be crushed than glass.Natural copper had better ductility to be ground in the form of coarse-grained flakes and could be separated from other minerals. Poor ductility of chalcocite made it easier to be ground into fine-grained products.The grinding results of copper smelting slag were consistent with the analysis of mineral mechanical properties, which indicated that it was effective and feasible to analyze and study the mineral crushing by mineral mechanical properties.

Key Clinical Message Pulmonary sequestration is a congenital malformation of lung development in which part of the lung tissue is separated from the normal lung during the embryonic phase and develops separately and receives blood supply from an aberrant systemic artery forming a nonrespiratory mass. In brief, early in embryonic development, certain tissues that should have atrophied and been gradually absorbed are left behind due to impairment of the atrophy process and form anomalous branches of the aorta, which pull parts of the lung tissue, isolating them from normal lung tissue and bronchi, and thus forming separate lung tissue. According to the relationship of the mass to the pleural covering, pulmonary sequestration can be divided into two types, intralobar pulmonary sequestration (ILS) and extralobar pulmonary sequestration (ELS), of which approximately 75% of cases are ILS, but ELS is less common. Symptoms are not obvious in either type, making diagnosis and differential diagnosis more difficult. Here we report a 33‐year‐old patient with only insignificant abdominal distension who was eventually diagnosed with retroperitoneal ELS.

ABSTRACTEnteric bacteria need to adapt to endure the antibacterial activities of bile salts in the gut. Phospholipase A (PldA) is a key enzyme in the maintenance of bacterial membrane homeostasis. Bacteria respond to stress by modulating their membrane composition. Campylobacter jejuni is the most common cause of human worldwide. However, the mechanism by which C. jejuni adapts and survives in the gut environment is not fully understood. In this study, we investigated the roles of PldA, bile salt sodium deoxycholate (DOC), and oxygen availability in C. jejuni biology, mimicking an in vivo situation. Growth curves were used to determine the adaptation of C. jejuni to bile salts. RNA-seq and functional assays were employed to investigate the PldA-dependent and DOC-induced changes in gene expression that influence bacterial physiology. Survival studies were performed to address oxidative stress defense in C. jejuni. Here, we discovered that PldA of C. jejuni is required for optimal growth in the presence of bile salt DOC. Under high oxygen conditions, DOC is toxic to C. jejuni, but under low oxygen conditions, as is present in the lumen of the gut, C. jejuni benefits from DOC. C. jejuni PldA seems to enable the use of iron needed for optimal growth in the presence of DOC but makes the bacterium more vulnerable to oxidative stress. In conclusion, DOC stimulates C. jejuni growth under low oxygen conditions and alters colony morphology in a PldA-dependent manner. C. jejuni benefits from DOC by upregulating iron metabolism in a PldA-dependent manner.

High-entropy effect is a novel design strategy to optimize properties and explore novel materials. In this work, (La1/5Nd1/5Sm1/5Ho1/5Y1/5)NbO4 (5RNO) high-entropy microwave dielectric ceramics were successfully prepared in the sintering temperature (S.T.) range of 1210–1290 ℃ via a solid-phase reaction route, and medium-entropy (La1/3Nd1/3Sm1/3)NbO4 and (La1/4Nd1/4Sm1/4Ho1/4)NbO4 (3RNO and 4RNO) ceramics were compared. The effects of the entropy (S) on crystal structure, phase transition, and dielectric performance were evaluated. The entropy increase yields a significant increase in a phase transition temperature (from monoclinic fergusonite to tetragonal scheelite structure). Optimal microwave dielectric properties were achieved in the high-entropy ceramics (5RNO) at the sintering temperature of 1270 ℃ for 4 h with a relative density of 98.2% and microwave dielectric properties of dielectric permittirity (εr) = 19.48, quality factor (Q×f) = 47,770 GHz, and resonant frequency temperature coefficient (τf) = –13.50 ppm/℃. This work opens an avenue for the exploration of novel microwave dielectric material and property optimization via entropy engineering.

Stereo matching is a fundamental task in 3-D scene reconstruction. Recently, deep learning-based methods have proven effective on some benchmark datasets, such as KITTI and SceneFlow. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are commonly used for surface observation, and the images captured are frequently used for detailed 3-D reconstruction because of their high resolution and low-altitude acquisition. Currently, mainstream supervised learning networks require a significant amount of training data with ground-truth labels to learn model parameters. However, owing to the scarcity of UAV stereo-matching datasets, learning-based stereo matching methods in UAV scenarios are not fully investigated yet. To facilitate further research, this study proposes a pipeline for generating accurate and dense disparity maps using detailed meshes reconstructed based on UAV images and LiDAR point clouds. Through the proposed pipeline, we constructed a multiresolution UAV scenario dataset called UAVStereo, with over 34 000 stereo image pairs covering three typical scenes. To the best of our knowledge, UAVStereo is the first stereo matching dataset for UAV low-altitude scenarios. The dataset includes synthetic and real stereo pairs to enable generalization from the synthetic domain to the real domain. Furthermore, our UAVStereo dataset provides multiresolution and multiscene image pairs to accommodate various sensors and environments. In this article, we evaluate traditional and state-of-the-art deep learning methods, highlighting their limitations in addressing challenges in UAV scenarios and offering suggestions for future research.

BackgroundObturator hernia (OH) is a rare external abdominal hernia, accounting for only 0.07%–1% of all hernia cases. Because the female pelvis is wider and there is less preperitoneal adipose tissue, the obturator canal is larger, which can lead to herniation of abdominal contents when abdominal pressure increases in elderly women with thin body. The clinical symptoms of patients with obturator hernia included abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, etc., and the mass in the inguinal region could not be touched. The positive Howship-Romberg sign is a specific sign of OH. CT is the first choice for the diagnosis of obturator hernia. Since intestinal incarceration in OH patients is prone to lead to intestinal necrosis, emergency surgical treatment is often required. However, due to the lack of specificity of its clinical manifestations, the misdiagnosis rate is high, which often leads to the delay of diagnosis and treatment.MethodsWe report the case of an 86-year-old woman with a thin body and a history of multiple deliveries. The patient presented with abdominal pain, bloating, and constipation for 5 days. Physical examination revealed a positive Howship-Romberg sign on the right side, and CT examination suggested intestinal obstruction. Therefore, an urgent exploratory laparotomy was performed.ResultsAfter opening the abdominal cavity we found that the wall of the ileum was embedded in the right obturator, and the proximal bowel was significantly dilated. We restored the embedded bowel wall to its original position, resected the necrotic bowel and performed an end-to-end anastomosis of the small intestine. The right hernia orifice was sutured, and OH was diagnosed during the operation.ConclusionThis article summarizes the diagnosis and treatment of OH by sharing this case, so as to provide a more detailed plan for early diagnosis and treatment of OH.

The structural maintenance of chromosome 4 (SMC4) is a member of the ATPase family of chromosomes. The most widely reported function of SMC4, as well as the remaining subunits of whole condensin complexes, is compression and dissociation of sister chromatids, DNA damage repair, DNA recombination, and pervasive transcription of the genome. Studies have also shown that SMC4 plays an exceedingly essential role in the division cycle of embryonic cells, such as RNA splicing, DNA metabolic process, cell adhesion, and extracellular matrix. On the other hand, SMC4 is also a positive regulator of the inflammatory innate immune response, while excessive innate immune responses not only disrupt immune homeostasis and may lead to autoimmune diseases, but even cancer. To further understand the expression and prognostic value of SMC4 in tumors, we provide an in-depth review of the literature and several bioinformatic databases, for example, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx), Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC), The Human Protein Atlas and Kaplan Meier plotter tools, illustrating that SMC4 plays a vital role in the occurrence and development of tumors, and high expression of SMC4 seems to consistently predict worse overall survival. In conclusion, we present this review which introduces the structure, biological function of SMC4, and its correlation with the tumor in detail; it might provide new insight into a novel tumor prognostic marker and potential tumor therapeutic target.

Building extraction from aerial and satellite remote sensing images is a basic component of social development. Compared to traditional feature extraction strategies, deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have the advantage of extracting deep high-level semantic features and efficient image processing capabilities. However, most works focus on developing end-to-end data-driven models without considering prior information, such as edges and the structures of buildings, which would cause loss of details and blurred boundaries in the prediction results. To alleviate this problem, we constructed a prior information module (PIM) as a constraint for feature map refinement in the training phase that uses the edge information extracted by the multiscale difference of Gaussian operator. We combined this module with the main network to form a dual-output training network. The module helps optimize the feature extraction process and solves the inaccurate and adhesion phenomenon of edge points in the building extraction results of the existing CNNs. Experiments illustrate that this PIM can improve the intersection over union of a lightweight network by 2.4% and 2.0% on an aerial remote sensing dataset and a satellite remote sensing dataset, respectively. The PIM can be embedded in other networks during the training phase to improve building extraction performance without any extra computational requirements during the inference phase. At the same time, we build a U-structure network with the proposed module, which outperforms another state-of-the-art building extraction approach with the extracted edge as prior information.

Lysophospholipids (LPLs) are crucial for regulating epithelial integrity and homeostasis in eukaryotes, however the effects of LPLs produced by bacteria on host cells is largely unknown. The membrane of the human bacterial pathogen Campylobacter jejuni is rich in LPLs. Although C. jejuni possesses several virulence factors, it lacks traditional virulence factors like type III secretion systems, present in most enteropathogens. Here, we provide evidence that membrane lipids lysophosphatidylethanolamines (lysoPEs) of C. jejuni are able to lyse erythrocytes and are toxic for HeLa and Caco-2 cells. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release assays and confocal microscopy revealed that lysoPE permeabilizes the cells. LysoPE toxicity was partially rescued by oxidative stress inhibitors, indicating that intracellular reactive oxygen species may contribute to the cell damage. Our results show that especially the short-chain lysoPEs (C:14) which is abundantly present in the C. jejuni membrane may be considered as a novel virulence factor.

BackgroundAlthough laparoscopic anatomical hepatectomy (LAH) is widely adopted today, laparoscopic anatomic mesohepatectomy (LAMH) for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains technically challenging.MethodsIn this study, 6 patients suffering from solitary liver tumors located in the middle lobe of the liver underwent counterclockwise modular LAMH using combined Glissonean pedicle (Takasaki approach) and hepatic vein-guided approaches. In this process, the Glissonean pedicle approach (Takasaki approach) was first used to transect the liver pedicles of segment right anterior (G58) and segment 4 (G4). Second, the hepatic vein-guided approach was performed along the umbilical fissure vein (UFV) to sever the liver parenchyma from the caudal to cranial direction, and the middle hepatic vein (MHV) and anterior fissure vein (AFV) were then disconnected at the root. Last, the hepatic vein-guided approach was once more performed along the ventral side of the right hepatic vein (RHV) to transect the liver parenchyma from the cranial to anterior direction, and the middle lobe of the liver, including the tumor, was removed completely. The entire process was applied in a counterclockwise fashion, and the exposure or transection sequence was G58, and G4, followed by UFV, MHV, AFV, and finally, the liver parenchyma along the ventral side of RHV.ResultsThe counterclockwise modular LAMH using combined Glissonean pedicle (Takasaki approach) and hepatic vein-guided approaches was feasible in all 6 cases. The median duration of the operation was 275 ± 35.07 min, and the mean estimated blood loss was 283.33 ml. All of the 6 patients recovered smoothly. The Clavien-Dindo Grade I-II complications rate was up to 33.33%, mainly characterized by postoperative pain and a small amount of ascites. No Clavien-Dindo Grade III-V complications occurred, and the mean postoperative hospital stay was 6.83 ± 1.47 days. Follow-up results showed that the average disease-free survival (DFS) was 12.17 months, and the 21-months OS rate, DFS rate and tumor recurrent rate were 100%, 83.33% and 16.67% respectively. ConclusionsCounterclockwise modular LAMH using combined Glissonean pedicle (Takasaki approach) and hepatic vein-guided approaches takes the advantages of the two approaches, is a novel protocol for LAMH. It is thought to be technically feasible for patients with a centrally located solitary HCC. The oncologic feasibility of this technique needs to be investigated based on long-term follow-up. A multicenter, large-scale, more careful study is necessary.

Window queries are basic but important query tasks in geospatial databases. The Hilbert curve has good clustering properties, which can be used to effectively improve the execution efficiency of window queries. The ideal goal of a window query using Hilbert curve code is to quickly convert the query window to the corresponding monotonic continuous Hilbert code segments. However, existing algorithms have shortcomings in conversion calculations and Hilbert code segments properties. We propose the state vectors that are used to describe the filling rules of a three-dimensional Hilbert curve. In addition, we designed a direct generation algorithm for monotonically increasing Hilbert code segments (MI-HCS) for a three-dimensional window query. The MI-HCS algorithm is characterized by the direct generation of a monotonically increasing code segment set without the need to traverse all grid elements or the requirement of separate sorting steps. For a given query window $W\left ({{x,y,z,l,w,h} }\right)$ and a Hilbert curve of size $T\times T\times T$ , the maximum complexity of our MI-HCS algorithm is $O\left ({{\alpha _{1} \times \alpha _{2} \times \left ({{\log _{2} T+1} }\right)} }\right)$ , where $\alpha _{1} = \textrm {median}\left ({{l,w,h} }\right)$ and $\alpha _{2} = \textrm {max}\left ({{l,w,h} }\right)$ . The experimental results of the MI-HCS algorithm complexity are consistent with the specific theoretical analysis. The experimental results show that the Hilbert code segment generation efficiency of the proposed MI-HCS algorithm is 260.5% to 423.9% higher than that of existing algorithms.

Cardiac hypertrophy is a common pathological process of various cardiovascular diseases, which is often accompanied with structural and electrical remodeling, and can even lead to sudden cardiac death. However, its molecular mechanism still remains largely unknown. Here, we induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy by angiotensin II (Ang II), and found that miR-27a-3p and hypertrophy-related genes were up-regulated. Further studies showed that miR-27a-3p-inhibitor can alleviate myocardial hypertrophy and electrical remodeling. Moreover, luciferase assay confirmed that miR-27a-3p could regulate the expression of downstream Hoxa10 at the transcriptional level by targeting at its 3′UTR. At the same time, the protein expression of Hoxa10 was significantly reduced in Ang II-treated cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, overexpression of Hoxa10 can reverse myocardial hypertrophy and electrical remodeling induced by Ang II in cardiomyocytes. Finally, we found that Hoxa10 positively regulated the expression of potassium channel protein Kv4.3 which was down-regulated in hypertrophic cardiomyocytes. Taken together, our results revealed miR-27a-3p/Hoxa10/Kv4.3 axis as a new mechanism of Ang II-induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, which provided a new target for clinical prevention and treatment of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure.

Objective. To evaluate the safety and reliability of a novel technique of single-port laparoscopic-assisted percutaneous precise closure of the inguinal hernia sac in children. Methods. From September 2016 through September 2019, children with inguinal hernia(s) treated with single-port laparoscopic-assisted percutaneous extraperitoneal closure using a guide wire were enrolled in this study. Operative time, surgical complications, recurrence rate, and cosmetic results were collected. Results. A total of 917 cases with inguinal hernia(s) were collected. Among them, there were 886 (96.61%) boys and 31 girls. Their mean age was 5.2±3.7 years. There were 693 (75.57%) cases with unilateral hernia. There were 224 cases with bilateral hernias or patent processus vaginalis, including 135 (14.72%) cases with an open contralateral ring which was confirmed intraoperatively. Twenty-three (2.51%) needed another port to complete the hernia sac separation. The operation time was 24.7±5.2 min and 14.6±3.8 min in bilateral and unilateral ones. Three cases complained of numbness in the thigh region or groin pain which subsided without medication in the 2nd postoperative month. There was no recurrence, and the incision scars were nearly invisible. Conclusion. Single-port laparoscopic-assisted percutaneous extraperitoneal closure using a guide wire is a safe, less cost, and reliable technique in the treatment of inguinal hernia in children.

The membrane phospholipid composition is not a stable bacterial characteristic but can change in response to altered environmental conditions. Here we provide the dataset of the phospholipidome and transcriptome of the microaerophilic human pathogen Campylobacter jejuni under different environmental conditions. These data have been used in Cao (2020), The unique phospholipidome of the enteric pathogen C. jejuni: Lysolipids are required for motility at low oxygen availability. Here the abundance of each phospholipid is shown during the growth of C. jejuni for 0-108 h under low and high oxygen conditions (0.3 vs 10% O2). The phospholipid data were obtained by applying high performance liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The transcriptomic data obtained by RNA-seq show the differential expressed genes between logarithmic and stationary grown bacteria. In addition, our data might serve as a reference information for further in-depth investigation to understand the relation between specific phospholipids and the activity of membrane associated proteins.

Background & Aims: Current studies have indicated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) could act as tumor biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis prediction. In this study, we mainly focused on determining the expression of circulating lncRNAs in patients suffering for hilar cholangiocarcinoma (HC), aiming to reveal the potential lncRNA as a fingerprint. Methods: A total 12 lncRNAs were previously proven to be aberrantly expressed in HC tumor tissues. All of the 12 lncRNAs were selected as candidate targets for subsequent circulating lncRNA assay. The candidate lncRNAs were validated by qRT-PCR arranged in training and validation sets. The risk score analysis was employed. Data was presented with receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). Results: Circulating PCAT1, MALAT1, and CPS1-IT1 were significantly increased in plasma samples of HC patients in both the training set and validation set. Through ROC analysis, we found that the three plasmatic lncRNAs presented the area under ROC curve value (AUC) as 0.784, 0.860, and 0.677. Further combination with the three factors indicated a higher power (AUC, 0.893; sensitivity, 85.5%; specificity, 93.2%). Conclusion: This was the first time to reveal the potential circulating fingerprints for predicting HC. PCAT1, MALAT1, and CPS1-IT1 may act as novel early diagnosis biomarkers for predicting HC.

Background. Intraoperative fluid (IOF) administration plays an important role during major abdominal surgery although increased fluid intake can adversely influence postoperative outcomes. However, the effect of the IOF rate on the outcomes of pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) is unclear. Methods. 151 patients, who underwent PD at Binzhou Medical University Hospital between January 2010 and May 2017, were categorized into three groups according to IOF rates (ml/kg/hr): restricted (15, n=28). Results. The overall postoperative morbidity was 56.95%. The incidence of postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) was 11.26%. The in-hospital mortality rate was 7.28% with the most common cause being grade C POPF and secondary intra-abdominal infections. The patients in the liberal group had significantly higher incidences of POPF (25%) and respiratory complications (21.43%). The other outcome parameters such as recovery of bowel function, hospital stay, and postoperative daily drainage were similar among the groups. Multivariable analysis confirmed the IOF rate to be most strongly associated with POPF (odds ratio: 5.195, confidence interval: 1.142–23.823, P=0.023) and respiratory complications (odds ratio: 7.302, confidence interval: 0.676–58.231, P=0.025). Conclusions. The IOF rate significantly affects the incidence of POPF and respiratory complications after PD. Careful patient-oriented fluid therapy may help to prevent these complications.

Background. Periampullary tumors (PT) may rarely present as acute pancreatitis (AP) or acute recurrent pancreatitis (ARP). Unlike other cases of AP and ARP, these conditions necessitate pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD), and timely diagnosis is crucial. Materials and Methods. A retrospective review of clinical, radiological, surgical, and pathological data was conducted for patients admitted to the Binzhou Medical University Hospital during the period from January 2010 to December 2017, for AP or ARP caused by PT. All patients included in the study group had undergone PD. The perioperative data for these patients was compared with data for patients with PT but without AP or ARP who underwent PD during the same period (control group). Results. During the study period, 412 patients with AP or ARP were treated; among this group, 15 patients had PT. Compared with controls, patients in the study group were younger in age and had a longer course of disease, more frequent hospitalizations, and more severe derangements in laboratory data (P0.05). Conclusions. Neither AP nor ARP has any adverse impact on the outcomes of PD. However, in the treatment of younger patients suffering from AP or ARP, unexplained pancreatic duct dilation and weight loss should raise the suspicion of PT. EUS and EUS-FNA may be helpful in making the diagnosis.

Background/Aims: It is well documented that myocardial hypertrophy is associated with low ambient temperature. Atorvastatin (Atv) has been shown to protect against atherosclerosis, cardiac fibrosis, ischemia/reperfusion injury, etc. In this study, we aim to determine whether atorvastatin is effective in the treatment of myocardial hypertrophy induced by cold exposure and to shed light on underlying mechanism. Methods: The mice aged 4-week were randomized to Control (Ctl) group (raised at room temperature), Cold group (raised at 3-5ºC) and Atv treatment group (raised at 3-5ºC followed by 10mg/kg/day Atv infusion). Echocardiography (ECG), HE, TUNEL and Masson’s trichrome staining, and Transmission electronic microscopy were performed to analyze cardiac function, myocardial hypertrophy, cardiac fibrosis, apoptosis and cardiomyocyte ultrastructure, respectively. Western blot was carried out to determine the involvement of MAPK and apoptosis pathways. Results: Exposure of mice to low temperature induced myocardial hypertrophic growth characterized by the elevation of heart/body weight index and heart weight /tibia length index, compared with control mice. Atv treatment attenuated cardiac hypertrophy induced by cold exposure; Atv also attenuated the increase of cross-sectional area of cardiomyocytes and cardiac collagen content fraction in mice exposed to cold. ECG showed that the decline of cardiac functions including the elevated left ventricular systolic/diastolic internal dimension (LVIDs/d) and fractional shortening (FS) in mice with cold exposure was also inhibited by Atv treatment. Transmission electronic microscopy uncovered that Atv attenuated mitochondrial injury induced by cold exposure in mice. In addition, systolic blood pressure was gradually increased in mice exposed to cold temperature, and Atv treatment significantly inhibited the elevation of blood pressure in cold-treated mice. Mechanistically, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signal was not altered in mice exposed to cold, and Atv did not affect MAPK signal in cold-treated mice. But Atv mitigated the reduction of Bcl-2/Bax level in heart of cold-treated mice. Conclusion: Atv attenuated myocardial hypertrophy induced by cold exposure through inhibiting the downregulation of Bcl-2 in heart. It may provide a novel strategy for low temperature-induced myocardial hypertrophy treatment.

Design Basis Flood Level(DBFL) is one of the important parameters in nuclear power plant siting in coastal area. This paper proposes a new model of Instantaneous Sea Surface Height(ISSH) to calculate DBFL. The model is validated and compared with bivariate extreme distribution model and independent variables model, using observed series from Shidao bay in Shandong province. Results show that the model is more suitable for representing the DBFL. The joint probability model gets greater return period and smaller return level than ISSH model, because it adopts an association parameter derived from the linear correlation coefficient. Independent variables model is the most reliable in safety but wasteful in economy.

Enterocytozoon bieneusi is an obligate eukaryotic intracellular parasite that infects a wide variety of vertebrate and invertebrate hosts. Although considerable research has been conducted on this organism, relatively little information is available on the occurrence of E. bieneusi in captive Asiatic black bears. The present study was performed to determine the prevalence, genetic diversity, and zoonotic potential of E. bieneusi in captive Asiatic black bears in zoos in southwestern China. Fecal specimens from Asiatic black bears in four zoos, located in four different cities, were collected and analyzed for the prevalence of E. bieneusi. The average prevalence of E. bieneusi was 27.4% (29/106), with the highest prevalence in Guiyang Zoo (36.4%, 16/44). Altogether, five genotypes of E. bieneusi were identified among the 29 E. bieneusi-positive samples, including three known genotypes (CHB1, SC02, and horse2) and two novel genotypes named ABB1 and ABB2. Multi-locus sequence typing using three microsatellites (MS1, MS3, and MS7) and one minisatellite (MS4) revealed V, III, V, and IV genotypes at these four loci, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the genotypes SC02 and ABB2 were clustered into group 1 of zoonotic potential, the genotypes CHB1 and ABB1 were clustered into a new group, and the genotype horse2 was clustered into group 6 of unclear zoonotic potential. In conclusion, this study identified two novel E. bieneusi genotypes in captive Asiatic black bears, and used microsatellite and minisatellite markers to reveal E. bieneusi genetic diversity. Moreover, our findings show that genotypes SC02 (identified in humans) and ABB2 belong to group 1 with zoonotic potential, suggesting the risk of transmission of E. bieneusi from Asiatic black bears to humans and other animals.