Diagnostic value of combined serum biomarkers for the evaluation of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C infection: A multicenter, noninterventional, observational study

Background/Aims: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is important cause of chronic hepatitis. Liver biopsy is considered the gold standard for assessment of fibrosis but this procedure is an invasive procedure. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of non-invasive serum biomarkers, separately and in combinations, on liver fibrosis in treatment-naive chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients. Materials and Methods: Two hundred and sixteen treatment-naive CHC patients were enrolled from 32 locations across Turkey in this open-labelled, non-interventional prospective observational study. FibroTest®, aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index(APRI), aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase ratio (AAR), fibrosis index based on four factors (FIB-4), Age-platelet(AP) index and Forns index were measured and compared with Metavir scores got from liver biopsies. Results: Data from 182 patients with baseline liver biopsy were suitable for analysis. One hundred and twenty patients (65.9%) had F0-F1 fibrosis and 62 patients (34.1%) had F2-F4 fibrosis. APRI 0.732 area under the curve(AUC) indicated advanced fibrosis with 69% sensitivity and 77% specificity. FIB-4 0.732 AUC and FibroTest 0.715 AUC indicated advanced fibrosis with 69% and 78.4% sensitivity, and 75% and 71.4% specificity, respectively. The combined use of tests also led to an increase in AUC and specificity. Combinations of FibroTest with APRI and/or FIB-4, and FIB-4 with APRI were optimal for the evaluation of liver fibrosis. Conclusion: Fibrotest, FIB-4, APRI, AP index and Forns index exhibit good diagnostic performance for determining liver fibrosis in CHC patients, and the use of at least two tests together will increase their diagnostic value still further. © Copyright 2018 by The Turkish Society of Gastroenterology

Histological evidence for a supraspinous ligament in sauropod dinosaurs

Supraspinous ossified rods have been reported in the sacra of some derived sauropod dinosaurs. Although different hypotheses have been proposed to explain the origin ofthis structure, histological evidence has never been provided to support or reject any of them. In order to establish its origin, we analyse and characterize the microstructure of thesupraspinous rod of two sauropod dinosaurs from the Upper Cretaceous of Argentina. The supraspinous ossified rod is almost entirely formed by dense Haversian bone. Remains ofprimary bone consist entirely of an avascular tissue composed of two types of fibre-like structures, which are coarse and longitudinally (parallel to the main axis of the element) oriented. These structures are differentiated on the basis of their optical properties under polarized light. Very thin fibrous strands are also observed in some regions. These small fibres are all oriented parallel to one another but perpendicular to the element main axis. Histological features of the primary bone tissue indicate that the sacral supraspinous rod corresponds to an ossified supraspinous ligament. The formation of this structure appears to have been a non-pathological metaplastic ossification, possibly induced by the continuous tensile forces applied to the element.Fil: Cerda, Ignacio Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro; ArgentinaFil: Casal, Gabriel. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia; ArgentinaFil: Martínez, Rubén Darío. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia ; ArgentinaFil: Ibiricu, Lucio Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; Argentin

Fabrication of exchange coupled hard/soft magnetic nanocomposites: Correlation between composition, magnetic, optical and microwave properties

This paper studied the exchange coupling performance beside structural and microwave properties of SrFe12O19 (SFO) and x(CoTm0.01Tb0.01Fe1.98O4) (CoTmTb) (x ≤ 3.0) hard/soft ferrites nanocomposites (NCs). The structure and morphology of NCs were investigated by XRD, SEM, TEM and HR-TEM. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopic (DRS) measurements were applied on hexagonal ferrite, on spinel ferrite nanoparticles and on hard/soft NCs to specify the optical properties. Estimated Eg data are in a range between 1.32 and 1.79 eV. The magnetic properties were also inspected via measurements of magnetization (M) against magnetic field (H) at 300 K (RT) and 10 K (LT). The measurements performed at RT along with the plots of dM/dH versus H indicated that the NCs display good magnetic properties (exchange coupling behavior). The magnetic parameters such as (Ms, Mr, and Hc) show an enhancement in their values with an increasing the soft content at RT. Similarly, the maximum energy product (BH)max rises and reaches its max value for SFO/3(CoTmTb) NCs. Microwave properties of the SFO/x(CoTmTb) NCs were measured in the frequency range 33–50 GHz. From measured S11 and S21 parameters the main electrodynamic characteristics – permittivity and permeability (real and imaginary parts) were computed. © 2021 The Author(s)This work was financially supported by the Deanship for Scientific Research (Project application No. 2020-164-IRMC) of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU ? Saudi Arabia). Microwave characterization was partially supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Agreement No. 19-72-10071 from 06 Aug. 2019)

Controlled mobility in stochastic and dynamic wireless networks

We consider the use of controlled mobility in wireless networks where messages arriving randomly in time and space are collected by mobile receivers (collectors). The collectors are responsible for receiving these messages via wireless transmission by dynamically adjusting their position in the network. Our goal is to utilize a combination of wireless transmission and controlled mobility to improve the throughput and delay performance in such networks. First, we consider a system with a single collector. We show that the necessary and sufficient stability condition for such a system is given by ρ<1 where ρ is the expected system load. We derive lower bounds for the expected message waiting time in the system and develop policies that are stable for all loads ρ<1 and have asymptotically optimal delay scaling. We show that the combination of mobility and wireless transmission results in a delay scaling of Θ([1 over 1−ρ]) with the system load ρ, in contrast to the Θ([1 over (1−ρ)[superscript 2]]) delay scaling in the corresponding system without wireless transmission, where the collector visits each message location. Next, we consider the system with multiple collectors. In the case where simultaneous transmissions to different collectors do not interfere with each other, we show that both the stability condition and the delay scaling extend from the single collector case. In the case where simultaneous transmissions to different collectors interfere with each other, we characterize the stability region of the system and show that a frame-based version of the well-known Max-Weight policy stabilizes the system asymptotically in the frame length.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CNS-0915988)United States. Army Research Office. Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (Grant W911NF-08-1-0238

Constraints on Energy Intake in Fish: The Link between Diet Composition, Energy Metabolism, and Energy Intake in Rainbow Trout

The hypothesis was tested that fish fed to satiation with iso-energetic diets differing in macronutrient composition will have different digestible energy intakes (DEI) but similar total heat production. Four iso-energetic diets (2×2 factorial design) were formulated having a contrast in i) the ratio of protein to energy (P/E): high (HP/E) vs. low (LP/E) and ii) the type of non-protein energy (NPE) source: fat vs. carbohydrate which were iso-energetically exchanged. Triplicate groups (35 fish/tank) of rainbow trout were hand-fed each diet twice daily to satiation for 6 weeks under non-limiting water oxygen conditions. Feed intake (FI), DEI (kJ kg−0.8 d−1) and growth (g kg−0.8 d−1) of trout were affected by the interaction between P/E ratio and NPE source of the diet (P<0.05). Regardless of dietary P/E ratio, the inclusion of carbohydrate compared to fat as main NPE source reduced DEI and growth of trout by ∼20%. The diet-induced differences in FI and DEI show that trout did not compensate for the dietary differences in digestible energy or digestible protein contents. Further, changes in body fat store and plasma glucose did not seem to exert a homeostatic feedback control on DEI. Independent of the diet composition, heat production of trout did not differ (P>0.05). Our data suggest that the control of DEI in trout might be a function of heat production, which in turn might reflect a physiological limit related with oxidative metabolism

Tandem synthesis of alternating polyesters from renewable resources

The vast majority of commodity materials are obtained from petrochemical feedstocks. These resources will plausibly be depleted within the next 100 years, and the peak in global oil production is estimated to occur within the next few decades. In this regard, biomass represents an abundant carbon-neutral renewable resource for the production of polymers. Here we report a new strategy, based on tandem catalysis, to obtain renewable materials. Commercially available complexes are found to be efficient catalysts for alternating polyesters from the cyclization of dicarboxylic acids followed by alternating copolymerization of the resulting anhydrides with epoxides. This operationally simple method is an attractive strategy for the production of new biodegradable polyesters

Predicting Academic Performance: A Systematic Literature Review

The ability to predict student performance in a course or program creates opportunities to improve educational outcomes. With effective performance prediction approaches, instructors can allocate resources and instruction more accurately. Research in this area seeks to identify features that can be used to make predictions, to identify algorithms that can improve predictions, and to quantify aspects of student performance. Moreover, research in predicting student performance seeks to determine interrelated features and to identify the underlying reasons why certain features work better than others. This working group report presents a systematic literature review of work in the area of predicting student performance. Our analysis shows a clearly increasing amount of research in this area, as well as an increasing variety of techniques used. At the same time, the review uncovered a number of issues with research quality that drives a need for the community to provide more detailed reporting of methods and results and to increase efforts to validate and replicate work.Peer reviewe