Predictive value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and MELD score for short-term survival of patients with HBV-DeCi.

Objective: The prognostic value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) combined with Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score was evaluated for hepatitis B virus-associated decompensated cirrhosis (HBV-DeCi).

Methods: The 30-day mortality of 166 hBV-DeCi patients was examined. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and multivariate regression analysis were used to assess the performance of NLR for prediction of poor outcomes.

The evaluation value of intracranial magnetic resonance angiography combined with carotid ultrasound in cerebral infarction.

Objective: To explore the evaluation value of intracranial magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) combined with carotid ultrasound (CU) in patients with cerebral infarction (CI).

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 122 patients with CI who underwent intracranial MRA combined with CU examination in Shengzhou People's Hospital from January 2021 to October 2022. Vascular stenosis rate and CU parameters of patients with different degrees of nerve damage (ND) and size of CI lesion were analyzed.

High-efficiency flexible organic solar cells with a polymer-incorporated pseudo-planar heterojunction.

Organic solar cells (OSCs) are considered as a crucial energy source for flexible and wearable electronics. Pseudo-planar heterojunction (PPHJ) OSCs simplify the solution preparation and morphology control. However, non-halogenated solvent-printed PPHJ often have an undesirable vertical component distribution and insufficient donor/acceptor interfaces.

Characterization and Antibacterial Activity of a Polysaccharide Produced From Sugarcane Molasses by CGMCC 6882.

As a by-product of the sugar industry containing many sugars, proteins, nitrogenous materials, and heavy metals, molasses is rarely used for polysaccharide production. In the present work, a CGMCC 6882 polysaccharide was produced from sugarcane molasses (CGP-SM) was successfully produced from sugarcane molasses. The yield of CGP-SM was 5.

Aircraft measurement campaign on summer cloud microphysical properties over the Tibetan Plateau.

We reported the first aircraft campaign on summer cloud microphysical properties conducted in July of 2014 over the Tibetan Plateau during the third Tibetan Plateau Atmospheric Sciences Experiment (TIPEX-III), and demonstrated that the summer clouds over the Tibetan Plateau were primarily characterized as mixed-phase cumulus clouds induced by strong solar radiation heating. Moreover, the characteristic number concentration of cloud droplets (2~50 μm in diameter) in developing cumuli was around 10 cm, which was about 1~2 orders of magnitudes lower than other continent and ocean regions, and that for large drops (>50 μm in diameter) was around 10 cm, which was also lower than other regions. The droplet spectrum distributions (DSDs) of cloud drops were much wider than other regions, indicating that the cumulus clouds over the plateau could form precipitation easier than that in other regions.

Temporal evolution of condensation and precipitation induced by a 22-TW laser.

Water condensation and precipitation induced by 22-TW 800-nm laser pulses at 1 Hz in an open cloud chamber were investigated in a time-resolved manner. Two parts of precipitation in two independent periods of time were observed directly following each laser shot. One part started around the filament zone at t < 500 μs and ended at t ≅ 1.

Corrigendum: Novel variation at chr11p13 associated with cystic fibrosis lung disease severity.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/hgv.2016.

Novel variation at chr11p13 associated with cystic fibrosis lung disease severity.

Published genome-wide association studies (GWASs) identified an intergenic region with regulatory features on chr11p13 associated with cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease severity. Targeted resequencing in n=377, followed by imputation to n=6,365 CF subjects, was used to identify unrecognized genetic variants (including indels and microsatellite repeats) associated with phenotype. Highly significant associations were in strong linkage disequilibrium and were seen only in Phe508del homozygous CF subjects, indicating a CFTR genotype-specific mechanism.

Gene expression in transformed lymphocytes reveals variation in endomembrane and HLA pathways modifying cystic fibrosis pulmonary phenotypes.

Variation in cystic fibrosis (CF) phenotypes, including lung disease severity, age of onset of persistent Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) lung infection, and presence of meconium ileus (MI), has been partially explained by genome-wide association studies (GWASs). It is not expected that GWASs alone are sufficiently powered to uncover all heritable traits associated with CF phenotypic diversity.

Meconium ileus in cystic fibrosis is not linked to central repetitive region length variation in MUC1, MUC2, and MUC5AC.

Background: Mucins are excellent candidates for contributing to the presence of meconium ileus (MI) in cystic fibrosis (CF) due to their extensive genetic variation and known function in intestinal physiology. The length of variants in mucin central repetitive regions has not been explored as "risk" factors for MI in CF.

Methods: We investigated the length polymorphisms in the central repetitive regions of MUC1, MUC2, and MUC5AC by Southern blot and tested for association with MI in CF subjects.

MUC5AC upstream complex repetitive region length polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility and clinical stage of gastric cancer.

MUC5AC was deemed to be involved in gastric carcinogenesis since aberrant MUC5AC expression has been repeatedly detected in patients with gastric cancer (GC). In this study, length polymorphisms in a complicated repetitive region adjacent to MUC5AC promoter were assessed in 230 patients with GC and 328 cancer-free controls. Alleles of 1.

Mucin variable number tandem repeat polymorphisms and severity of cystic fibrosis lung disease: significant association with MUC5AC.

Variability in cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease is partially due to non-CFTR genetic modifiers. Mucin genes are very polymorphic, and mucins play a key role in the pathogenesis of CF lung disease; therefore, mucin genes are strong candidates as genetic modifiers. DNA from CF patients recruited for extremes of lung phenotype was analyzed by Southern blot or PCR to define variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) length polymorphisms for MUC1, MUC2, MUC5AC, and MUC7.

Epidemiology and evolutionary characteristics of the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus in China between 2006 and 2010.

In 2006, an emerging highly pathogenic strain of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), which causes continuous high fever and a high proportion of deaths in vaccinated pigs of all ages, broke out in mainland China and spread rapidly to neighboring countries. To examine the epidemiology and evolutionary characteristics of Chinese PRRSV after the 2006 outbreak, we tested 2,981 clinical samples collected from 2006 to 2010 in China, determined 153 Nsp2 sequences and 249 ORF5 sequences, and analyzed the epidemiology and genetic diversity of Chinese PRRSV. Our results showed that the percentage of PRRSV-positive specimens collected from sick pigs averaged 60.

Inhibitory effects of docetaxel on expression of VEGF, bFGF and MMPs of LS174T cell.

Aim: To study the effects of non-cytotoxic concentrations of docetaxel on some important angiogenic factors of LS174T Cells.

Methods: The non-cytotoxic concentration of docetaxel and the activity of gelatinase were determined with MTT and gelatin zymography respectively, the expression of VEGF(vascular endothelial growth factor), bFGF (basic fibroblast growth factor), MMP (matrix metalloproteinase) 2 and MMP 9 was investigated with RT-PCR and Western blot.

Results: The maximum non-cytotoxic concentration of docetaxel on LS174T Cells was 1.