Post-procedural and long-term functional outcomes of jailed side branches in stented coronary bifurcation lesions assessed with side branch Murray law–based quantitative flow ratio

IntroductionIn coronary bifurcation lesions treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) using a 1-stent strategy, the occurrence of side branch (SB) compromise may lead to long-term myocardial ischemia in the SB territory. Murray law–based quantitative flow ratio (μQFR) is a novel angiography-based approach estimating fractional flow reserve from a single angiographic view, and thus is more feasible to assess SB compromise in routine practice. However, its association with long-term SB coronary blood flow remains unknown.MethodsA total of 146 patients with 313 non-left main bifurcation lesions receiving 1-stent strategy with drug-eluting stents was included in this retrospective study. These lesions had post-procedural Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) flow grade 3 in SBs, and documented angiographic images of index procedure and 6- to 24-month angiographic follow-up. Post-procedural SB μQFR was calculated. Long-term SB coronary blood flow was quantified with the TIMI grading system using angiograms acquired at angiographic follow-up.ResultsAt follow-up, 8 (2.6%), 16 (5.1%), 61 (19.5%), and 228 (72.8%) SBs had a TIMI flow grade of 0, 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The incidences of long-term SB TIMI flow grade ≤1 and ≤2 both tended to decrease across the tertiles of post-procedural SB μQFR. The receiver operating characteristic curve analyses indicated the post-procedural SB μQFR ≤0.77 was the optimal cut-off value to identify long-term SB TIMI flow grade ≤1 (specificity, 37.50%; sensitivity, 87.20%; area under the curve, 0.6673; P = 0.0064), and it was independently associated with 2.57-fold increased risk (adjusted OR, 2.57; 95% CI, 1.02–7.25; P = 0.045) in long-term SB TIMI flow grade ≤1 after adjustment.DiscussionPost-procedural SB μQFR was independently associated with increased risk in impaired SB TIMI flow at long-term follow-up. Further investigations should focus on whether PCI optimization based on μQFR may contribute to improve SB flow in the long term

Explaining Valence Asymmetries in Value Learning: A Reinforcement Learning Account

To understand how acquired value impacts how we perceive and process stimuli, psychologists have developed the Value Learning Task (VLT; e.g., Raymond & O’Brien, 2009). The task consists of a series of trials in which participants attempt to maximize accumulated winnings as they make choices from a pair of presented images associated with probabilistic win, loss, or no-change outcomes. Despite the task having a symmetric outcome structure for win and loss pairs, people learn win associations better than loss associations (Lin, Cabrera-Haro, & Reuter-Lorenz, 2020). This asymmetry could lead to differences when the stimuli are probed in subsequent tasks, compromising inferences about how acquired value affects downstream processing. We investigate the nature of the asymmetry using a standard error-driven reinforcement learning model with a softmax choice rule. Despite having no special role for valence, the model yields the asymmetry observed in human behavior, whether the model parameters are set to maximize empirical fit, or task payoff. The asymmetry arises from an interaction between a neutral initial value estimate and a choice policy that exploits while exploring, leading to more poorly discriminated value estimates for loss stimuli. We also show how differences in estimated individual learning rates help to explain individual differences in the observed win-loss asymmetries, and how the final value estimates produced by the model provide a simple account of a post-learning explicit value categorization task

The complete mitochondrial genome of Omei Treefrog (Rhacophorus omeimontis)

In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of Rhacophorus omeimontis was obtained and described. The sequenced mitogenome is total 19,604 base pairs (bp) in length, which contained 13 protein-coding genes (PCGS), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNA), 2 ribosomal RNA genes (rRNA), and 2 control regions (D-loop). The overall base composition of the mitochondrial DNA is 32.5% for A, 30.5% for T, 23.3% for C, and 13.7% for G, and the percentage of GC content is 37.0%. The complete mitochondrial genome information of R. omeimontis will contribute to revealing the phylogenetic relationships among species of family Rhacophoridae

The complete mitochondrial genome of Amphiesma optatum

In this study, we obtained and described the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Amphiesma optatum. The total length is 17,259 base pairs. Similar to most Colubridae mitochondrial genomes, there are 37 genes including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNA), and 2 ribosomal RNA genes (rRNA). In addition, it contains two control regions (D-loop) rich in A–T base. The total base composition of mitochondrial DNA is 34.3% for A, 26.5% for C, 12.8% for G, and 26.4% for T, and the percentage of GC content is 39.3%. These data further reveal the phylogenetic relationship between Amphiesma optatum and other species in the Colubridae family

Complete mitochondrial genome and phylogenetic analysis of Schizothorax sinensis (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae)

This study describes the first sequencing of the complete mitochondrial genome of Schizothorax sinensis, a species of cyprinid snowtrout from the Jialing River and Fujiang River basins in China’s Sichuan Province. The total length is 16,571 base pairs. Similar to most Schizothoracinae mitochondrial genomes, there are 37 genes including 13 protein coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and 2 ribosomal RNA genes. In addition, it contains a control region rich in A-T nucleotides. The overall nucleotide composition is 29.6% for A, 27.1% for C, 17.9% for G and 25.4% for T, and the percentage of GC content is 45.0%. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that Schizothorax sinensis and Schizothorax prenanti clustered together in a clade. This work provides additional molecular information for studying Schizothorax sinensis conservation genetics and evolutionary relationships

Oral phage therapy with microencapsulated phage A221 against Escherichia coli infections in weaned piglets

Abstract Background Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a common pathogen that often causes diarrhea in piglets. Since bacteria are becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics, phages have become a promising alternative therapy. However, the therapy of oral phage often fails to achieve the desired effect. A novel phage named A221 was isolated by using E. coli GXXW-1103 as host strain, characterized by electron microscopy, genomic sequencing and analyzed by measuring lysis ability in vitro. Results Phage A221 was identified as a member of Ackermannviridae, Aglimvirinae, Agtrevirus with 153297 bp genome and effectively inhibited bacterial growth in vitro for 16 h. This study was conducted to evaluate the therapeutic effect of oral microencapsulated phage A221 on E. coli GXXW-1103 infections in weaned piglets. The protective effect of phage was evaluated by body weight analysis, bacterial load and histopathological changes. The results showed that with the treatment of phage A221, the body weight of piglets increased, the percentage of Enterobacteriaceae in duodenum decreased to 0.64%, the lesions in cecum and duodenum were alleviated, and the bacterial load in the jejunal lymph nodes, cecum and spleen were also significantly different with infected group (P < 0.001). Conclusions The results showed that phage A221 significantly increased the daily weight gain of piglets, reduced the bacterial load of tissues and the intestinal lesions, achieved the same therapeutic effect as antibiotic Florfenicol. Taken together, oral microencapsulated phage A221 has a good therapeutic effect on bacterial diarrhea of weaned piglets, which provides guidance for the clinical application of phage therapy in the future