Antiviral treatment alters the frequency of activating and inhibitory receptor-expressing natural killer cells in chronic Hepatitis B virus infected patients

Natural killer (NK) cells play a critical role in innate antiviral immunity, but little is known about the impact of antiviral therapy on the frequency of NK cell subsets. To this aim, we performed this longitudinal study to examine the dynamic changes of the frequency of different subsets of NK cells in CHB patients after initiation of tenofovir or adefovir therapy. We found that NK cell numbers and subset distribution differ between CHB patients and normal subjects; furthermore, the association was found between ALT level and CD158b+ NK cell in HBV patients. In tenofovir group, the frequency of NK cells increased during the treatment accompanied by downregulated expression of NKG2A and KIR2DL3. In adefovir group, NK cell numbers did not differ during the treatment, but also accompanied by downregulated expression of NKG2A and KIR2DL3. Our results demonstrate that treatment with tenofovir leads to viral load reduction, and correlated with NK cell frequencies in peripheral blood of chronic hepatitis B virus infection. In addition, treatments with both tenofovir and adefovir in chronic HBV infected patients induce a decrease of the frequency of inhibitory receptor+ NK cells, which may account for the partial restoration of the function of NK cells in peripheral blood following treatment

Automatically extracted Antarctic coastline using remotely-sensed data: an update

The temporal and spatial variability of the Antarctic coastline is a clear indicator of change in extent and mass balance of ice sheets and shelves. In this study, the Canny edge detector was utilized to automatically extract high-resolution information of the Antarctic coastline for 2005, 2010, and 2017, based on optical and microwave satellite data. In order to improve the accuracy of the extracted coastlines, we developed the Canny algorithm by automatically calculating the local low and high thresholds via the intensity histogram of each image to derive thresholds to distinguish ice sheet from water. A visual comparison between extracted coastlines and mosaics from remote sensing images shows good agreement. In addition, comparing manually extracted coastline, based on prior knowledge, the accuracy of planimetric position of automated extraction is better than two pixels of Landsat images (30 m resolution). Our study shows that the percentage of deviation (7 km2 (2005) to 1.3537 × 107 km2 (2010) and 1.3657 × 107 km2 (2017). We have found that the decline of the Antarctic area between 2005 and 2010 is related to the breakup of some individual ice shelves, mainly in the Antarctic Peninsula and off East Antarctica. We present a detailed analysis of the temporal and spatial change of coastline and area change for the six ice shelves that exhibited the largest change in the last decade. The largest area change (a loss of 4836 km2) occurred at the Wilkins Ice Shelf between 2005 and 2010

Eye acupuncture for pain conditions: a scoping review of clinical studies.

Chinese eye acupuncture, focuses on treating different diseases by applying needle stimulation around the orbit of the eye. Since 1970, it has been used in China for the management of pain-related disorders. This scoping review systematically collected clinical studies on the use of eye acupuncture to treat pain conditions and identify any adverse events. Six databases including PubMed, the Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP, Wan Fang Data and SinoMed were searched from 1970 to March 2019. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), clinical controlled trials (CCTs) and case series on eye-acupuncture for pain conditions meeting the inclusion criteria were identified. Data were extracted on patients, interventions, details of eye acupuncture, control treatments and outcomes. Searches identified 81 clinical studies and a trend demonstrating an increasing number of published studies. All studies were conducted in China and published in Chinese. These included, 45 (55.6%) RCTs, 5 (6.2%) CCTs, and 31 (38.3%) case series, treating 7113 patients with 44 different pain-related diseases or symptoms. The most frequently reported conditions were headache (18, 16.2%), acute lumbar pain (7, 6.3%) and lumbar disc herniation (7, 6.3%). Treatment using small needles (φ0.25 × 13 mm), retained ≤30 min, needling the horizontal outer orbital edge and the avoidance of manipulation during treatment were the most frequent descriptions of the interventions used. Eye acupuncture was used alone in about half of the studies and of the remaining studies it was combined with other treatment. All studies suggested some beneficial effects including: pain relief, improved quality of life and mental health, and 18 (22.2%) adverse events. Eye acupuncture, predominantly studied in China, may be a promising intervention for managing diverse pain conditions. However, given the variety of study designs and reported treatment outcomes, conclusions about the evidence for eye acupuncture for specific conditions are not possible at this stage

Optimized Formation of Benzyl Isothiocyanate by Endogenous Enzyme and its Extraction from Carica Papaya Seed

Purpose: To use endogenous myrosinase in Carica papaya seed to convert benzyl glucosinolate (BG) to benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC) and then extract it for further studies.Methods: Process variables including seed powder particle size, sample-to-solvent ratio, pH of buffer solution, enzymolysis temperature, enzymolysis time were investigated using single-factor experiments and response surface methodology coupled with Box-Behnken design for further optimization of conversion conditions. The formed benzyl  isothiocyanate was extracted by steam distillation method and purified by thin-layer chromatography (TLC). Relevant process variables were also studied. Finally, the purified benzyl isothiocyanate was analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) and compared to BITC standard.Results: Optimum enzymolysis conditions were seed powder particle size, 90 - 120 µm; sample-tosolvent ratio, 1:20; pH of buffer solution, 4.8; enzymolysis temperature, 40 0C; and enzymolysis time, 27 min.  Enzymolysis liquid was steam-distilled for 2 h, extracted twice using  dichloromethane (DCM) (using 3 times the volume of distillate each time) as extractant. Finally, 1:20 was adopted as the optimal dichloromethane-petroleum ether (DCM-PE) elution proportion to wash out the unnecessarycompounds.Conclusion: The result showed that benzyl isothiocyanate was formed under the optimized conditions and was no doubt the basic component of the extraction.Keywords: Carica papaya, Benzyl isothiocyanate, Endogenous myrosinase, Enzymolysis, Extractio

Dexmedetomidine Inhibits TLR4/NF-κB Activation and Reduces Acute Kidney Injury after Orthotopic Autologous Liver Transplantation in Rats

published_or_final_versio

Dexmedetomidine Pretreatment Attenuates Kidney Injury and Oxidative Stress during Orthotopic Autologous Liver Transplantation in Rats

published_or_final_versio

Formation and evolution of epitaxial Co5Ge7Co5Ge7 film on Ge (001) surface by solid-state reaction in an in situ ultrahigh-vacuum transmission electron microscope

A thin metallic cobalt (Co) layer was deposited on a single-crystal Ge (001) surface at room temperature by the electron-beam evaporation of a pure Co metal source in an ultrahigh-vacuum transmission electron microscope. The formation and epitaxial growth of a cobalt germanide Co5Ge7Co5Ge7 phase on the Ge (001) surface was studied in situ by gradually heating the sample from room temperature to ∼ 350 °C∼350°C. The occurrence of an epitaxial hexagonal-close-packed Co and the reaction between Co and Ge were observed at ∼ 225 °C∼225°C. After annealing at ∼ 300 °C∼300°C for 26.5 h, a continuous epitaxial Co5Ge7Co5Ge7 film formed on the Ge (001) substrate. With further annealing at a higher temperature, the continuous Co5Ge7Co5Ge7 layer broke up and formed three-dimensional islands in order to relieve the strain energy in the epitaxial Co5Ge7Co5Ge7 layer. Two epitaxial relationships between Co5Ge7Co5Ge7 and Ge, i.e., Co5Ge7〈110〉(001)//Ge〈100〉(001)Co5Ge7〈110〉(001)∕∕Ge〈100〉(001) and Co5Ge7〈001〉(110)//Ge〈100〉(001)Co5Ge7〈001〉(110)∕∕Ge〈100〉(001) were found by electron diffraction.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87837/2/211909_1.pd

Superconductivity induced by Ni doping in BaFe2_2As2_2

A series of 122 phase BaFe$_{2-x}$Ni$_x$As$_2$ ($x$ = 0, 0.055, 0.096, 0.18, 0.23) single crystals were grown by self flux method and a dome-like Ni doping dependence of superconducting transition temperature is discovered. The transition temperature $T_c^{on}$ reaches a maximum of 20.5 K at $x$ = 0.096, and it drops to below 4 K as $x$ $\geq$ 0.23. The negative thermopower in the normal state indicates that electron-like charge carrier indeed dominates in this system. This Ni-doped system provides another example of superconductivity induced by electron doping in the 122 phase.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, revised version, added EDX result, accepted for special issue of NJ

A balanced homodyne detector for high-rate Gaussian-modulated coherent-state quantum key distribution

We discuss excess noise contributions of a practical balanced homodyne detector in Gaussian-modulated coherent-state (GMCS) quantum key distribution (QKD). We point out the key generated from the original realistic model of GMCS QKD may not be secure. In our refined realistic model, we take into account excess noise due to the finite bandwidth of the homodyne detector and the fluctuation of the local oscillator. A high speed balanced homodyne detector suitable for GMCS QKD in the telecommunication wavelength region is built and experimentally tested. The 3dB bandwidth of the balanced homodyne detector is found to be 104MHz and its electronic noise level is 13dB below the shot noise at a local oscillator level of 8.5*10^8 photon per pulse. The secure key rate of a GMCS QKD experiment with this homodyne detector is expected to reach Mbits/s over a few kilometers.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figure