Delayed open-heart operation to remove migrated intracardiac inferior vena cava stents in a living donor liver transplantation recipient: a case report.

Intracardiac migration of inferior vena cava (IVC) filter or stent is a rare but potentially fatal complication of endovascular venous device placement. There is no consensus whether migrated stents should be surgically removed by open cardiac surgery or retrieved by the percutaneous endovascular route and whether an intervention should be performed immediately or expectantly. Herein, we report a 39-year-old female who received emergent left lobe living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) owing to posthepatectomy liver failure.

Kefir peptides mitigate bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice through modulating oxidative stress, inflammation and gut microbiota.

Background: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and life-threatening lung disease with high mortality rates. The limited availability of effective drugs for IPF treatment, coupled with concerns regarding adverse effects and restricted responsiveness, underscores the need for alternative approaches. Kefir peptides (KPs) have demonstrated antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and antifibrotic properties, along with the capability to modulate gut microbiota.

Aldo-keto reductase family 1 member A1 (AKR1A1) exerts a protective function in alcohol-associated liver disease by reducing 4-HNE accumulation and p53 activation.

Background: The development of alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) is influenced by the amount and duration of alcohol consumption. The resulting liver damage can range from reversible stages, such as steatosis, steatohepatitis and alcoholic fibrosis, to the advanced and irreversible stage of cirrhosis. Aldo-keto reductase family 1 member A1 (AKR1A1) is a member of the aldo-keto reductase family that catalyzes the reduction of aldehyde groups to their corresponding alcohols in an NADPH-dependent manner.

A case report on multiple acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency with severe myopathy and osteoporosis.

A 35-year-old male patient presented fluctuating bilateral lower extremity weakness for 3 years. Physical examination showed grade 4 proximal muscle weakness in both lower extremities and grade 5 distal muscle weakness. Laboratory data revealed elevated creatine kinase, triglycerides, and cholesterol.

The rocker-soled shoes change the kinematics and muscle contractions of the lower extremity during various functional movement.

While rocker-shaped soles have become popular for running shoes, whether or not this type of shoe benefits other functional movements has rarely been discussed. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of rocker-soled shoes on lower extremity biomechanics during different exercises. Seventeen healthy university students were recruited.

Efficient quantum memory for photonic polarization qubits generated by cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric downconversion.

Quantum memories, for storing then retrieving photonic quantum states on demand, are crucial components for scalable quantum technologies. Spontaneous parametric downconversion (SPDC) with a nonlinear crystal is the most widely used process for generating entangled photon pairs or heralded single photons. Despite the desirability of efficient quantum memories for SPDC-generated single photons, the storage and retrieval efficiencies achieved with this approach still fall below 50%, a threshold value for practical applications.

Vascular Trauma in the Extremities: Factors Associated with the Outcome and Assessment of Amputation Indexes.

Background: Traumatic vascular injury in the extremities may be associated with a low mortality rate but can lead to limb loss that seriously affects patients' functionality. Multiple scoring systems have been designed to evaluate the prognosis, but none are 100% predictive. The management of traumatic vascular injury remains challenging and depends mostly on the surgeon's experience.

Successful Surgical Salvage for a Patient with Ruptured Coronary Sinus during Percutaneous Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation: A Case Report.

Herein, we describe the rare anatomy of an abnormal shunt from the left atrium to the coronary sinus, which ruptured during a percutaneous ablation for atrial fibrillation. The iatrogenic lesion was successfully repaired after emergent extracorporeal membrane oxygenation set up followed by surgical exploration. The patient's postoperative course was uneventful, and she was regularly followed up without any complications.

Deep Venous Thrombosis and Risk of Consequent Sepsis Event: A Retrospective Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study.

Deep vein thrombosis causes several acute and chronic vessel complications and puts patients at risk of subsequent sepsis development. This unique study aimed to estimate the risk of sepsis development in DVT patients compared with non-DVT patients. This population-based cohort study used records of a longitudinal health insurance database containing two million patients defined in Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD).

Additive Antiproliferative and Antiangiogenic Effects of Metformin and Pemetrexed in a Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Xenograft Model.

Lung cancer is heterogeneous and challenging to cope with once it has progressed. Chemotherapy is the first step once no active driver mutation has been discovered. Non-antitumor drugs have been found to be beneficial when used as adjuvants to chemotherapy.

Risk of Mortality and Readmission among Patients with Pelvic Fracture and Urinary Tract Infection: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

Patients with pelvic fractures could encounter various complications during or after treatments. This cohort study investigated the risk of mortality and readmissions in patients with pelvic fractures, with or without urinary tract infections (UTIs), within 30 days following the pelvic fractures. This retrospective cohort study examined claim records from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID2000).

Risk of Pneumonia in Pediatric Patients Following Minor Chest Trauma: A Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study.

This study investigated the association between minor chest trauma and the risk of pneumonia among pediatric patients in a Taiwanese health care setting. For this retrospective population-based cohort study, the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database was used to analyze the data of patients with a minor chest injury between 2010 and 2012. Data were analyzed through a multivariate analysis with a multiple Cox regression model.

Association Between Aspirin Use and Decreased Risk of Pneumonia in Patients With Cardio-Cerebra-Vascular Ischemic Disease: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

This study evaluated the association between long-term low-dose aspirin use and decreased risk of pneumonia in patients with cardio-cerebra-vascular ischemic diseases (CCVDs). This retrospective cohort study used records from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database of claims made between 1997 and 2013. After propensity score matching (PSM), patients who took a low dose of aspirin for more than 90 days within 1 year of diagnosis with CCVDs were identified as the exposure group ( = 15,784).

Generation of sub-MHz and spectrally-bright biphotons from hot atomic vapors with a phase mismatch-free scheme.

We utilized the all-copropagating scheme, which maintains the phase-match condition, in the spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM) process to generate biphotons from a hot atomic vapor. The linewidth and spectral brightness of our biphotons surpass those of the biphotons produced with the hot-atom SFWM in the previous works. Moreover, the generation rate of the sub-MHz biphoton source in this work can also compete with those of the sub-MHz biphoton sources of the cold-atom SFWM or cavity-assisted spontaneous parametric down conversion.

Efficient frequency conversion based on resonant four-wave mixing.

Efficient frequency conversion of photons has important applications in optical quantum technology because the frequency range suitable for photon manipulation and communication usually varies widely. Recently, an efficient frequency conversion system using a double- four-wave mixing (FWM) process based on electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) has attracted considerable attention because of its potential to achieve a nearly 100% conversion efficiency (CE). To obtain such a high CE, the spontaneous emission loss in this resonant-type FWM system must be suppressed considerably.

Exploring Potential Proteomic Biomarkers for Prognosis of Infective Endocarditis through Profiled Autoantibodies by an Immunomics Protein Array Technique.

Though infective endocarditis (IE) is a life-threatening cardiac infection with a high mortality rate, the effective diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for IE are still lacking. The aim of this study was to explore the potential applicable proteomic biomarkers for IE through the Immunome™ Protein Array system. The system was employed to profile those autoantibodies in IE patients and control subjects.

Memory-based optical polarization conversion in a double-[Formula: see text] atomic system with degenerate Zeeman states.

Optical memory based on the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in a double-[Formula: see text] atomic system provides a convenient way to convert the frequency, bandwidth or polarization of an optical pulse by storing it in one [Formula: see text] channel and retrieving it from another. This memory-based optical converter can be used to bridge the quantum nodes which have different physical properties in a quantum network. However, in real atoms, each energy level usually contains degenerate Zeeman states, which may lead to additional energy loss, as has been discussed in our recent theoretical paper (Tsai et al.

Risk of Breast Cancer in Women with Mastitis: A Retrospective Population-Based Cohort Study.

: Breast cancer is a common cancer in women and has been the fourth leading cause of death in Taiwanese women. Risk factors for breast cancer include family history of breast cancer, genetic factors, and not breastfeeding. Several studies have reported an association between repeated inflammation at a young age, especially among lactating women, and cancer; however, the number of studies about the association of mastitis and breast cancer in nonlactating women is still limited.

Predifferentiated amniotic fluid mesenchymal stem cells enhance lung alveolar epithelium regeneration and reverse elastase-induced pulmonary emphysema.

Introduction: Pulmonary emphysema is a major component of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Emphysema progression attributed not only to alveolar structure loss and pulmonary regeneration impairment, but also to excessive inflammatory response, proteolytic and anti-proteolytic activity imbalance, lung epithelial cells apoptosis, and abnormal lung remodeling. To ameliorate lung damage with higher efficiency in lung tissue engineering and cell therapy, pre-differentiating graft cells into more restricted cell types before transplantation could enhance their ability to anatomically and functionally integrate into damaged lung.

Regioselective synthesis and biological evaluation of N-substituted 2-aminoquinazolin-4-ones.

The reaction of methyl anthranilates with N-arylcyanamides in the presence of p-TsOH in t-BuOH under reflux afforded predominantly 3-arylquinazolin-4-ones. In contrast, the reaction of the same reactants with TMSCl in t-BuOH at 60 °C followed by the Dimroth rearrangement in aqueous ethanolic sodium hydroxide gave exclusively the regioisomers, 2-(N-arylamino)quinazolin-4-ones. The regioselective synthesis of N-aryl-substituted 2-aminoquinazolin-4-ones can be further applied to the synthesis of benzimidazo[2,1-b]quinazolin-12-ones.