Presentation_1_IL-10 predicts the prognosis of patients with hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure combined with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis.ZIP

BackgroundSpontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is common in patients with hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF). The prognostic value of interleukin-related serum markers for patients with ACLF is coming to the fore. However, there is an unmet need to predict the survival of such patients. We aimed to analyze the independent predictors of 28- and 90-day mortality in HBV-ACLF patients with SBP.MethodsThis was a retrospective study that included 368 patients with HBV-ACLF. In the SBP group, logistic regression analysis was used to understand the independent predictors of mortality at 28-day and 90-day. The accuracy of prediction was analyzed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). Finally, decision curve analysis (DCA) was used to determine the clinical utility value.ResultsInterleukin 10 (IL-10) levels were statistically significantly different between the HBV-ACLF group with SBP and without. Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), serum sodium, IL-10 and vasoactive drug treatment were independent risk factors for 28-day mortality. International normalized ratio (INR), AST and IL-10 were independent risk factors for 90-day mortality. IL-10 combined with the Chinese Severe Hepatitis B Study Group-ACLF II score (COSH-ACLF IIs) had excellent performance in predicting 28- and 90-day mortality (AUCs: 0.848 and 0.823, respectively). DCA analysis suggests promising clinical utility.ConclusionIL-10 is an independent predictor of mortality at 28- and 90-day in HBV-ACLF patients with SBP and predictive performance is improved when combined with COSH-ACLF IIs.</p

The Litvinenko case and its reflection in The Daily Telegraph

This bachelor thesis studies the manner in which the case of the former Russian spy Alexander Litviněnko's poisoning was handled in 2006 by the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses have been used for that purpose. The theoretical part of the thesis explains the factors influencing the process of encoding of the meanings into mediated contents, and the process of their subsequent decoding by the public. The analytical part presents a detailed description of how the concrete news texts on the Litvinenko case published by The Daily Telegraph could have been perceived by their recipient. Hypotheses have been set for the analysis; the confirmation or denial of their validity outlines The Daily Telegraph's methods of news reporting production and the terms in which the news texts are conceived in this newspaper

Additional file 1 of CXCL10 is a prognostic marker for pancreatic adenocarcinoma and tumor microenvironment remodeling

Supplementary Material

Perioperative inhaled corticosteroids treatment is associated with decreased length-of-stay and direct medical costs in high-respiratory-risk surgeries

Aims: To examine the impact of perioperative inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) on length-of-stay (LOS) and costs among patients receiving high-respiratory-risk surgeries. Methods: Adult patients who underwent high-respiratory-risk surgeries in 2015 were identified in the Tianjin Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance database. Patients were grouped into ICS or non-ICS cohorts according to whether they received ICS during the perioperative period of the index hospitalization. Propensity Score Matching was performed to create matched pairs between two cohorts. The impact of perioperative ICS on LOS and direct medical costs was estimated by negative binomial model and generalized liner model. Results: Eight hundred and twenty-one hospital stays with high-respiratory-risk were selected in the ICS cohort and another 821 stays in the non-ICS cohort were matched. The mean LOS was 13.0 (±0.3) days in the ICS cohort, which was significantly lower than the matched non-ICS cohort. Patients with thorax and ear-nose-throat surgeries had a significant decrease in LOS in the ICS cohort compared to the non-ICS cohort, with a mean decrease of 5.5 and 1.1 days, respectively. In adjusted analyses, perioperative ICS treatment was associated with shorter LOS, lower total, and respiratory-related costs (reductions of 10.1%, 7%, and 5.3%, respectively) after controlling for demographic, clinical, and hospital characteristics. Limitations: Some respiratory risk factors such as living behavior and environment were unable to be captured and respiratory-related costs might be underestimated, limited by claim data. Lastly, caution should be taken when generalizing the results to other populations, as only patients with moderate-to-severe surgeries on the thorax and above were selected in this study. Conclusions: Perioperative ICS treatment was associated with decreased LOS and lower costs for patients undergoing high-respiratory-risk surgeries in China.</p

Additional file 2 of CXCL10 is a prognostic marker for pancreatic adenocarcinoma and tumor microenvironment remodeling

Supplementary Material

NaBu- resistant MDA-MB-231 cells displayed a high tumor initiation ability in vivo.

<p>Intact MDA-MB-231 and NaBu- resistant MDA-MB-231 cells were transplanted into NOD/SCID mouse. By the day of 28th, the tumor volume were significantly different. Moreover, tumor became palpable as early as on the 5th days in the NaBu- resistant MDA-MB-231 cell transplanted group whereas on the 10th day in the control group(A). Compared with NaBu treated intact cells, or with <i>MET</i> knock down cells, tumor volume was significantly smaller in NaBu treated <i>MET</i> knock down cell transplanted group (A). The tumor incident data were collected on the 30th day after transplanting cancer cells. The NaBu- resistant MDA-MB-231 cell transplanted group resluted in a similar tumor incident rate as the intact MDA-MB-231 group(85%). Down regulation of <i>MET</i> with a treatment of NaBu leads to decrease the tumor incident rate effectively(18%), although con siRNA teated group resulted in a similar tumor incident rate with the intact cancer cell group(83%). *P<0.05.</p

c-MET helped the survival of breast cancer cells after the treatment of NaBu.

<p>RT-PCR result illustrated that the expression level of <i>MET</i> was higher in MDA-MB-231 cell than in MCF-7 cells (A). The expression level of <i>MET</i> in MDA-MB-231 cells were decreased by the treatment of MET siRNA (B). Silencing <i>MET</i> in MDA-MB-231 cells resulted in a poor survival rate (7%) when the cells were treated by NaBu (C). For MCF-7 cells, while the <i>MET</i> expression was increased obviously by induction of <i>MET</i> activator (D), the cell survival rate were increased significantly with the presence of NaBu in culturing medium (26%)(E). *P<0.05.</p

Data_Sheet_1_Gut Microbial Dysbiosis Is Associated With Profibrotic Factors in Liver Fibrosis Mice.docx

Background and Aims: Continuous development will evolve into end-stage liver disease. Profibrotic factors NOX4 and RhoA participate in the activation of HSC and accelerate the development of liver fibrosis. Abnormal intrahepatic metabolism during liver fibrosis interferes with intestinal homeostasis through the liver—gut axis.Methods: Wild-type (WT), NOX4 knockout, RhoA expression inhibition C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into 6 groups as follows: control group, CCl4 group, NOX4−/− group, AP group, RhoAi group, and FA group.Results: The results of alpha-diversity suggest that the diversity and abundance of intestinal flora in liver fibrosis mice is lower than that in normal mice, but there is some recovery in liver fibrosis mice with NOX4 or RhoA intervention. The flora structure showed that the intestinal flora of the control group, NOX4−/− group, AP group, RhoAi group, and FA group belonged to one type, while the intestinal flora of the CCl4 group belonged to another type. In addition, analysis of the composition of the flora at the level of the phylum and genus also suggested the decline in Firmicutes and Lactobacillus caused by liver fibrosis has partially restore in the liver fibrosis mice with NOX4 or RhoA intervention. In terms of functional prediction, the “Secondary metabolites biosynthesis, transport and catabolism,” “Infectious diseases,” and “Xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism” signaling pathways are mainly enriched in liver fibrosis mice, and the “Energy production and conversion,” “Defense mechanisms,” and “Carbohydrate metabolism” signaling pathways are mainly enriched in the NOX4 and RhoA intervention groups.Conclusion: In the case of liver fibrosis, the intestinal flora is disordered, and the disorder is related to NOX4 and RhoA. This study provides theoretical support for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of liver fibrosis development.</p

Technological drought: a new category of water scarcity

In this paper, we argue that current definitions of drought, especially in the context of small-scale agricultural production, are incomplete. We introduce the concept of ‘technological drought’ to account for crop failures, reduced yields or water scarcity, which are the consequence of an inability to supplement water when there is a lack of irrigation technology and/or existing poor water management. We illustrate the diversity of causes of technological drought, which can include shortages of fuel or electricity to operate pumps, problematically high costs to access irrigation infrastructure, or constrained access to pumps that have to be shared among multiple farmers. We argue that vulnerability to technological drought can be strongly conditioned by socio-economic conditions and that its impact can be magnified when population growth and the demand for food mean that any decline in yield can have serious consequences for food security. We show that technological drought is a complex phenomenon, and can be differentiated from the more widely-recognised classes of drought (meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, and socio-economic) in multiple ways. In particular, technological drought exhibits an important dependence on the socio-economic context of agricultural production. It is perhaps most evident in developing economies, especially where agricultural output depends strongly on the capacity of individual farmers to manage crop water supply on small holdings. Technological drought can follow from even brief interruptions to monsoon rainfall during critical stages of crop growth, such that technological droughts can be distinguished from other forms of drought by their brevity

Interleukin-8 predicts short-term mortality in acute-on-chronic liver failure patients with hepatitis B-related-related cirrhosis background

Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a distinctive and severe syndrome, marked by an excessive systemic inflammatory response. In vivo, interleukin 8 (IL-8) is an essential pro-inflammatory cytokine. We aimed to investigate the value of serum IL-8 levels in predicting mortality in ACLF patients in the background of hepatitis B virus-related cirrhosis. In this study, we conducted a retrospective analysis of the clinical baseline characteristics of 276 patients with ACLF in the context of HBV-related cirrhosis. Logistic regression analysis was employed to identify independent risk factors for short-, intermediate-, and long-term mortality. Using these independent risk factors, we developed a nomogram model, which was subsequently validated. To assess the clinical usefulness of the nomogram model, we performed decision curve analysis (DCA). Out of the 276 patients with ACLF, 98 (35.5%), 113 (40.9%), and 128 (46.4%) died within 28, 90, and 180 days, respectively. Serum IL-8 levels were only an independent predictor of 28-day mortality and could simply classify ACLF patients. Conversely, mean arterial pressure (MAP), HBV-DNA, and COSHACLF IIs were independent predictors of mortality across all three observation periods. We constructed a nomogram based on IL-8 that was able to visualise and predict 28-day mortality with a C-index of 0.901 (95% CI: 0.862–0.940). Our calibration curves, Predicted Probability of Death & Actual Survival Status plot, and Confusion Matrix demonstrated the nomogram model’s strong predictive power. DCA indicated the nomogram’s promising clinical utility in predicting 28-day mortality in ACLF patients. Serum IL-8 levels predict short-term mortality in ACLF patients in the background of HBV-associated cirrhosis, and the developed Nomogram model has strong predictive power and good clinical utility. Systemic inflammatory response is a pathophysiological feature of patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure, and the serum level of interleukin-8 can predict the short-term prognosis of patients.</p