Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF): the 'Kyoto Consensus'-steps from Asia.

Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a condition associated with high mortality in the absence of liver transplantation. There have been various definitions proposed worldwide. The first consensus report of the working party of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) set in 2004 on ACLF was published in 2009, and the "APASL ACLF Research Consortium (AARC)" was formed in 2012.

Tumour surface regularity predicts survival and benefit from gross total resection in IDH-wildtype glioblastoma patients.

Objectives: To evaluate the ability of sphericity in glioblastomas (GBMs) for predicting overall survival (OS) and the survival benefit from gross tumour resection (GTR).

Methods: Preoperative MRI scans were retrospectively analysed in IDH-wildtype GBM patients from two datasets. After MRI preprocessing and tumour segmentation, tumour sphericity was calculated based on the tumour core region.

Silver Molybdate Nanoparticles for Enhanced Tumor Immunotherapy through Pyroptosis Conversion and Ferroptosis Induction.

Pyroptosis holds great potential in tumor therapy due to its strong immunogenicity. Several strategies, including ion interference therapy (IIT), are developed to induce pyroptosis. However, the mechanism by which metal oxoanions induced pyroptosis remained unclear.

Design and Syntheses of Proherbicides Targeting 4-Hydroxyphenylpyruvate Dioxygenase.

4-Hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD, EC 1.13.11.

[Effect of electroacupuncture on the expressions of myelin-related proteins in the hippocampus of mice with Alzheimer's disease].

Objectives: To observe the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on anxiety-like behavior, learning and memory ability and expressions of myelin-related proteins in the hippocampus of senescence accelerated mice prone 8 (SAMP8), so as to explore the mechanism of EA in improving Alzheimer's disease (AD) from the perspective of myelin sheath injury and regeneration.

Methods: Twenty-four male SAMP8 mice were randomly and equally divided into model group and EA group. Twelve male SAMR1 mice of the same age as SAMP8 mice were used as the control group.

A Bacteria-Targeting Supramolecular Nanophotosensitizer for Combating Multidrug Resistant Bacteria.

The increasing prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria is a significant global health threat. In contrast to conventional antibiotic treatments, photodynamic therapy (PDT) offers a promising alternative by reducing the bacterial adaptability to antibiotics and bactericides. However, traditional photosensitizers encounter poor antimicrobial efficacy due to poor hydrophilicity of photosensitizers, short lifespan, narrow diffusion radius of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and the risk of exacerbating inflammation.

Allogeneic chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) as an "off-the-shelf" therapy in multiple myeloma.

The success of autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells has changed the treatment landscape in relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma (MM) resulting in potential movement of CAR-T cells to the frontline treatment setting. However, one of the greatest weaknesses of this therapy is its autologous nature, which makes it time-consuming, labor intensive, and dependent on the patient's T cell fitness. The development of allogeneic CARs is critical to overcome these challenges and provide patients with an off-the-shelf alternative that is readily available.

Surface-Emanated Vertical Organic Semiconducting Nanobrushes.

Polymer self-assembly offers an important route to construct well-defined nanostructures. However, it remains challenging to assemble polymers into vertically oriented nanostructures. Here, we use a seed-induced confinement self-assembly strategy to construct vertically aligned semiconducting nanobrushes from polyfluorene-based polymers on conductive substrates.

Physiologically based pharmacokinetic model for oxcarbazepine active metabolite to predict pharmacokinetics in paediatric patients with renal impairment and adjust dosages.

Aims: Oxcarbazepine (OXC) has been approved as monotherapy or adjunctive therapy for paediatric partial seizures. There are few reports on the pharmacokinetics (PK) of OXC in paediatric patients with renal impairment (RI), especially dosage studies of RI, which are rarely conducted on paediatric patients. This study aimed to predict the PK of OXC in children with RI and to provide recommendations for dose adjustment in this population.

Analysis of the Influence of Boron Distribution on Compound Biological Effectiveness Values in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy.

Purpose: Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is an innovative cancer treatment that uses the B(n,α)Li reaction to selectively destroy cancer cells at the cellular level. In BNCT, the biological effectiveness of boron doses is typically assessed using the compound biological effectiveness (CBE) factor. This study analyzes the impact of boron distribution on CBE values based on the microdosimetric kinetic model and Monte Carlo simulations.

A real-world study on the characteristics of autoimmune gastritis: A single-center retrospective cohort in China.

Background And Aim: Autoimmune gastritis (AIG) was previously considered a rare disease in China, and its clinical characteristics were not fully understood. This study aimed to demonstrate the characteristics of AIG in China and evaluate gastric oxyntic mucosal atrophy using a modified AIG-atrophic staging.

Methods: This was a single-center retrospective observational real-world study.

Estrogen mitigates ischemia-reperfusion injury by inhibiting cardiomyocyte ferroptosis through the downregulation of PHLDA3 expression.

Ferroptosis represents a significant target for mitigating myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Existing literature indicates that estrogen (17β-estradiol, E2) can alleviate such injuries through various pathways. However, the specific mechanisms by which E2 may confer protection against myocardial I/R injury through the inhibition of ferroptosis remain to be fully elucidated.

US Geriatric Assessment Practices for Older Adults Undergoing Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation or Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell Therapy: An American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Physician Survey from the Aging Special Interest Group and Committee on Practice Guidelines.

Geriatric assessment (GA) may identify vulnerabilities and promote risk-stratification in older adults predisposed to toxicities after autologous (auto), allogeneic (allo) hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and chimeric antigen T-cell therapies (CAR T). With increased utilization cellular therapies for older adults the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT) Committee on Practice Guidelines and its Special Interest Group for Aging (SIG) conducted an online cross-sectional survey between April 2023 and August 2023 to determine transplantation and cellular therapy physicians' practice patterns regarding GA in older patients receiving HCT and CAR T-cell therapies. E-mail surveys were sent to 1168 ASTCT physician members and only 96 (8.

Minimizing serum creatinine interference in automated laboratory analyses through the implementation of urea/creatinine ratio alerting mechanisms.

Background: This study was designed to increase the precision and clinical significance of serum creatinine (Cr) measurements by refining the detection methodology through comprehensive laboratory automation and by employing the urea/creatinine ratio(UCR) to detect and mitigate drug interference.

Methods: We measured the serum Cr concentration via the Siemens sarcosine oxidase enzymatic (SOE) assay. A substantial dataset comprising nearly 2 million records from 98,377 individuals was extracted to form the foundational database for serum UCR analysis.

Recent progress in two-dimensional material/group-III nitride hetero-structures and devices.

Two-dimensional (2D) material (graphene, MoS2, MXene, etc.) /group-III nitride (GaN, AlN, and their compounds) hetero-structures have been given special attention, on account of their prospective applications in remarkable performance broadband photodetectors, light-emitting diodes, solar cells, etc. The utilization of advantages of the above two kind materials provides a solution to the dilemma of the degradation of device performance and reliability caused by carrier mobility, lattice mismatch, interface, etc.

Capacitance effects of nanopore chips on ionic current modulation and noise characteristics.

Solid-state nanopores exhibit adjustable pore size, robust chemical and thermal stability, and compatibility with semiconductor fabrication, positioning them as versatile platforms for nanofluidic applications and single-molecule detection. However, their higher noise levels compared to biological nanopores hinder their sensitivity in detecting biomolecules such as DNA and proteins. Enhancing detection sensitivity requires an in-depth understanding of noise sources and strategies for noise reduction.

Recent advances in localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensing technologies.

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) is an optical phenomenon associated with noble metal nanostructures. The resonances result in sharp spectral absorption peaks as well as enhanced local electromagnetic fields, which have been widely used in chemical and biological sensing. Over the past decade, as label-free analytical method, LSPR sensors have gained considerable interest and undergone rapid development.

Electrochemically Driven Optical Dynamics of Reflectin Protein Films.

Neuronally triggered phosphorylation drives the dynamic condensation of reflectin proteins, enabling squid to fine tune the colors reflected from specialized skin cells (iridocytes) for camouflage and communication. Reflectin, the primary component of iridocyte lamellae, forms alternating layers of protein and low refractive index extracellular space within membrane-encapsulated structures, acting as a biologically tunable distributed Bragg reflector. In vivo, reflectin condensation induces osmotic dehydration of these lamellae, reducing their thickness and shifting the wavelength of reflected light.

Correlating phylogenetic and functional diversity of the nod-free but nodulating Bradyrhizobium phylogroup.

Bradyrhizobium is a main rhizobial lineage of which most members nodulate legume plants using Nod factors synthetized by the nod genes. However, members of the Photosynthetic supergroup (phylogroup) within Bradyrhizobium are nod-free, but still capable of establishing nitrogen-fixing nodules with some tropical legumes of the Aeschynomene genus. These unusual findings are based on the genomic sequences of only 13 Photosynthetic Bradyrhizobium strains, and almost all were isolated from Aeschynomene nodules.

Ameliorating standard operating procedures could reduce the risk of needle retention after acupuncture.

Needle retention, where acupuncture needles are left in the patient following treatment, is a serious adverse event that can lead to infections, bleeding, and tissue damage. While rare, its potential complications render it a critical concern in acupuncture practice. Current research suggests that inadequate procedural safeguards contribute to the incidence of needle retention, yet there is limited investigation into the role of standard operating procedures (SOPs) in reducing such events.

Predictive value of respiratory mechanics for the risk of unilateral pulmonary edema following minimally invasive cardiac surgery: An observational study.

This study aimed to investigate the predictive effect of static lung compliance (SLC) and airway resistance (AR) in patients undergoing minimally invasive cardiac surgery (MICS) with unilateral pulmonary edema (UPE). A total of 245 patients who underwent MICS via cardiopulmonary bypass and minimal right lateral thoracic incision port access were enrolled, with immediate postoperative SLC and AR data collected upon intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Cutoff values for grouping patients into high (H-) and low (L-) compliance/resistance categories were determined using receiver-operating characteristic curves and Youden indexes.

GCLink: a graph contrastive link prediction framework for gene regulatory network inference.

Motivation: Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) unveil the intricate interactions among genes, pivotal in elucidating the complex biological processes within cells. The advent of single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) enables the inference of GRNs at single-cell resolution. However, the majority of current supervised network inference methods typically concentrate on predicting pairwise gene regulatory interaction, thus failing to fully exploit correlations among all genes and exhibiting limited generalization performance.

Polyelectrolyte Membrane Enables Highly Reversible Zinc Battery Chemistry via Immobilizing Anion and Stabilizing Water.

The integration of water-based electrolytes into zinc-ion batteries encounters challenges due to the limited voltage window of water, interfacial side reactions of mobile counterions, and the growth of zinc metal (Zn) dendrites during charge. In this study, we introduce a nonfluorinated, cation-conducting polyelectrolyte membrane (PEM) designed to alleviate these challenges by suppressing the reactivities of both water and counterions. This PEM forms hydrogen bonds with water molecules through its proton-accepting side chains, thus shifting the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy of water from -0.

Linking Metastatic Behavior and Metabolic Heterogeneity of Circulating Tumor Cells at Single-Cell Level Using an Integrative Microfluidic System.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are pivotal biomarkers in tumor metastasis, however, the underlying molecular mechanism of CTCs behavioral heterogeneity during metastasis remains unexplored. Here, an integrative workflow is developed to link behavior characteristics to metabolic profiling within individual CTCs, which simulates the metastatic process on a microfluidic system and combined with single-cell mass spectrometry (MS) detection. Spheroid-derived HCT116 cells are tracked and extracted via a temporary vascular system, revealing various arrest patterns under biomimetic vascular shear flow.

Marketing Status and Brand-Name Drug Prices: Evidence From Rx-To-OTC Switch.

This study examines the impact of marketing status on brand-name pricing by exploiting Prescription to over-the-counter (Rx-to-OTC) switches between 2001 and 2016. Using a Stacked difference-in-differences design, we find that the retail prices of brand-name drugs reduce substantially following an Rx-to-OTC switch, while accounting for potential confounding factors related to patent expiration and generic entry. We show that the reduction in branded prices is primarily driven by increases in patient price elasticity in the OTC market.