Should chronic hepatitis B mothers breastfeed? a meta analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hepatitis B virus (HBV) exists in the breast milk of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) mothers. The authors use a meta-analytic technique to quantify the evidence of an association between breastfeeding and risk of CHB infection among the infants vaccinated against HBV.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Literature search is performed up to 2010 on the relationship between infantile CHB infection within one-year follow up after immunization with the third-dose hepatitis B vaccine and breastfeeding. Two reviewers independently extract the data and evaluate the methodological quality. A random-effects model is employed to systematically combine the results of all included studies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Based on data from 32 studies, 4.32% (244/5650) of infants born of CHB mothers develop CHB infection. The difference in risk of the infection between breastfed and formula-fed infants (RD) is -0.8%, (95% confidence interval [CI]: -1.6%, 0.1%). Analysis of the data from 16 of the studies finds that RD for mothers who are positive for the HBeAg and/or the HBV DNA, 0.7% (95%CI: -2.0%, 3.5%), is similar to that for those who are negative for these infectivity markers, -0.5% (95%CI: -1.7%, 0.6%).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Breast milk is infectious; yet, breastfeeding, even by mothers with high infectivity, is not associated with demonstrable risk of infantile CHB infection, provided that the infants have been vaccinated against HBV at birth.</p

Diagnosis and management of vaginal leiomyoma: A case report and literature review

Objectives: Leiomyomas are benign mesenchymal tumors that consist of smooth muscle cells and varying amounts of fibrous stroma. Uterine leiomyomas are the most common, affecting 20% to 30% of reproductive-age women, but vaginal leiomyomas are rare. Treatments gradually diversify with increased awareness of vaginal leiomyoma, but transvaginal fibroid resection remains the commonly used scheme. Case report: Herein, we present the case of a 50-year-old asymptomatic woman who had a mass in the left anterior wall of the vagina discovered by gynecological examination and ultrasound. We used oxytocin diluent injection during surgery to create a water pad in the tissue space and then performed a transvaginal myomectomy. There was little or negligible intraoperative bleeding and no peripheral tissue injury, early or late postoperative complications, incision dehiscence, and no surgical site infection. Conclusions: Transvaginal ultrasonography is the preferred examination for vaginal leiomyomas, and transvaginal myomectomy is the classic treatment method. The formation of a water pad with oxytocin dilution can effectively reduce intraoperative bleeding and shorten surgery time

Nonlinear Oxidation Behavior in Pure Ni and Ni-Containing Entropic Alloys

We performed a combined experimental and theoretical investigation of the oxidation behavior of pure Ni and of the following multi-component Ni-containing alloys with nearly equiatomic compositions: FeNi, CoFeNi, CoCrFeNi, and CoCrFeMnNi. The materials were exposed to air at ambient pressure and at a temperature of 800°C for 150 min, their weight-gain due to oxidation was continuously monitored and the products of oxidation were subsequently characterized by XRD. The most common oxides formed have spinel or halite structure and the materials resistance to oxidation increases as: FeNi &lt; CoFeNi &lt; Ni &lt; CoCrFeMnNi &lt; CoCrFeNi. We found further that the oxidation-resistance of the materials does not correlate linearly with the number of elements present, instead the type of elements impacts significantly the materials susceptibility to oxidative damage. Cr is the element that imparted higher resistance to oxidation while Mn and Fe worsened the materials performance. In order to better understand the mechanisms of oxidation we employed thermodynamic equilibrium calculations and predicted the phase stability of oxides of the elements that are present in the materials, in different ranges of temperature, composition and oxygen activity. Additionally, we determined the phase compositions for the thermodynamically stable oxides at 800°C. The results from the thermodynamic modeling are in good agreement with the experimental finds. The alloys with low resistance to oxidation such as CoFeNi and FeNi, form the Fe3O4 spinel phase which tends to dominate the phase diagram for these materials. The presence of Cr increases the resistance to atomic rearrangement due to slow diffusion in the complex structure of Cr containing spinel phases. This causes the extremely high resistance to oxidation of the CoCrFeNi alloy. The presence of Mn in CoCrFeNi stabilizes the Mn3O4 spinel, which reduces the oxidation-resistance of the alloys due to the high mobility of Mn

Localized High-Concentration Electrolytes Get More Localized Through Micelle-Like Structures

Liquid electrolytes in batteries are typically treated as macroscopically homogeneous ionic transport media despite having complex chemical composition and atomistic solvation structures, leaving a knowledge gap of microstructural characteristics. Here, we reveal a unique micelle-like structure in a localized high-concentration electrolyte (LHCE), in which the solvent acts as a surfactant between an insoluble salt in diluent. The miscibility of the solvent with the diluent and simultaneous solubility of the salt results in a micelle-like structure with a smeared interface and an increased salt concentration at the centre of the salt-solvent clusters that extends the salt solubility. These intermingling miscibility effects have temperature dependencies, wherein an exemplified LHCE peaks in localized cluster salt concentration near room temperature and is utilized to form a stable solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) on Li-metal anode. These findings serve as a guide to predicting a stable ternary phase diagram and connecting the electrolyte microstructure with electrolyte formulation and formation protocols to form stable SEI for enhanced battery cyclability