Relevance of the Core 70 and IL-28B polymorphism and response-guided therapy of peginterferon alfa-2a ± ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C of Genotype 1b: a multicenter randomized trial, ReGIT-J study

BACKGROUND: We conducted a multicenter randomized clinical trial to determine the optimal treatment strategy against chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) with genotype 1b and a high viral load (G1b/high). METHODS: The study subjects included 153 patients with G1b/high. Patients were initially treated with PEG-IFNα-2a alone and then randomly assigned to receive different treatment regimens. Ribavirin (RBV) was administered to all patients with HCV RNA at week 4. Patients negative for HCV RNA at week 4 were randomly assigned to receive PEG-IFNα-2a (group A) or PEG-IFNα-2a/RBV (group B). Patients who showed HCV RNA at week 4 but were negative at week 12 were randomly assigned to receive weekly PEG-IFNα-2a (group C) or biweekly therapy (group D). Patients who showed HCV RNA at week 12 but were negative at week 24 were randomly assigned to receive PEG-IFNα-2a/RBV (group E) or PEG-IFNα-2a/RBV/fluvastatin (group F). RESULTS: Overall, the rate of sustained virological response (SVR) was 46 % (70/153). The total SVR rate in the group (A, D, and F) of response-guided therapy was significantly higher than that in the group (B, C, and E) of conventional therapy [70 % (38/54) versus 52 % (32/61), p = 0.049]. Although IL28-B polymorphism and Core 70 mutation were significantly associated with efficacy, patients with rapid virological response (RVR) and complete early virological response (cEVR) achieved high SVR rates regardless of their status of IL-28B polymorphism and Core 70 mutation. CONCLUSION: In addition to knowing the IL-28B polymorphism and Core 70 mutation status, understanding the likelihood of virological response during treatment is critical in determining the appropriate treatment strategy

Thickness-dependent properties of relaxor-PbTiO3 ferroelectrics for ultrasonic transducers

The electrical properties of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O 3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT)-based polycrystalline ceramics and single crystals were investigated as a function of scale ranging from 500 μm to 30 μm. Fine-grained PMN-PT ceramics exhibited comparable dielectric and piezoelectric properties to their coarsegrained counterpart in the low frequency range (\u3c10 \u3eMHz), but offered greater mechanical strength and improved property stability with decreasing thickness, corresponding to higher operating frequencies (\u3e40 MHz). For PMN-PT single crystals, however, the dielectric and electromechanical properties degraded with decreasing thickness, while ternary Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3- Pb(Mg 1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PIN-PMN-PT) exhibited minimal size-dependent behavior. The origin of property degradation of PMN-PT crystals was further studied by investigating the dielectric permittivity at high temperatures, and domain observations using optical polarized light microscopy. The results demonstrated that the thickness-dependent properties of relaxor-PT ferro- electrics are closely related to the domain size with respect to the associated macroscopic scale of the samples. 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA

Micro/nano acoustofluidics: materials, phenomena, design, devices, and applications

Acoustic actuation of fluids at small scales may finally enable a comprehensive lab-on-a-chip revolution in microfluidics, overcoming long-standing difficulties in fluid and particle manipulation on-chip. In this comprehensive review, we examine the fundamentals of piezoelectricity, piezoelectric materials, and transducers; revisit the basics of acoustofluidics; and give the reader a detailed look at recent technological advances and current scientific discussions in the discipline. Recent achievements are placed in the context of classic reports for the actuation of fluid and particles via acoustic waves, both within sessile drops and closed channels. Other aspects of micro/nano acoustofluidics are examined: atomization, translation, mixing, jetting, and particle manipulation in the context of sessile drops and fluid mixing and pumping, particle manipulation, and formation of droplets in the context of closed channels, plus the most recent results at the nanoscale. These achievements will enable applications across the disciplines of chemistry, biology, medicine, energy, manufacturing, and we suspect a number of others yet unimagined. Basic design concepts and illustrative applications are highlighted in each section, with an emphasis on lab-on-a-chip applications