Evaluation of Ecosystem Services in Strategic Environmental Assessment for River Basin Planning

Water Resources Planning and Managemen

Antiviral therapy effectively improves liver hemodynamics as evidenced by serum biomarker and contrast-enhanced ultrasound examinations in patients with hepatitis B cirrhosis

Background and Aims To prospectively evaluate the effects of antiviral therapy on liver hemodynamics in patients with hepatitis B cirrhosis. Methods Seventy consecutive eligible HBV-related cirrhotic inpatients were enrolled in the prospective study. Fifty-two received different nucleoside analogs monotherapy and 18 denied antiviral therapy. Their liver biochemistry profiles and HBV-DNA were measured at the baseline and every 3 months. Peripheral blood vWF and sCD163, as well as liver ultrasound Doppler parameters including portal vein diameter (PVD), portal vein velocity (PVV), portal vein congestion index (PV-CI), hepatic vein damping index (HV-DI), hepatic arterial arrival time (HAAT), hepatic vein arrival time (HVAT) and intrahepatic cycle time (HV-HA), were measured at the baseline and the follow-up periods. Results In the antiviral group, all patients achieved complete virologic and liver biochemical responses after 3-month antiviral treatment. Furthermore, the response states were maintained till the follow-up endpoint. However, in the non-antiviral group, HBV DNA replication resulted in higher levels of ALT and AST compared to the baseline values (P < 0.05). In the antiviral group, PVD, PV-CI, HV-DI, vWF-Ag and sCD163 were all significantly reduced than the baseline values (P < 0.05), and PVV was significantly increased than the baseline value (P < 0.05). Conclusions Antiviral therapy could effectively suppress hepatocyte inflammation and alleviate the dysfunction of intrahepatic vascular endothelial and hepatic macrophages, which might improve hepatic hemodynamic function in HBV-related cirrhosis

Evidence in the Japan Sea of microdolomite mineralization within gas hydrate microbiomes

This study was conducted under the commission of AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan) from 2013–2015 as part of the methane hydrate research project funded by METI (the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan). Ongoing work is currently being carried out thanks to a Grant-in-aid provided by the JSPS and MEXT (Kaken Project # 17K05712). The authors also would like to acknowledge laboratory assistance provided by A. Hiruta, T. Oi, N. Ishida, and R. Warabi (GHRL, Meiji University), Y. Kusaba (AORI, University of Tokyo), S. Motai (Kochi Inst. Core Sample Research, JAMSTEC), and Y. Nakajima (Joetsu Environmental Science Centre).Peer reviewedPublisher PD