Risk of liver cancer in patients with hepatitis B or C

Key Messages1. Among hepatitis B virus carriers, infection with genotype C significantly increases the risk of developing hepatocellular cancer compared to those without this genotype.2. Among hepatitis C virus carriers, infection with genotype 1b increases the risk of hepatocellular cancer two fold compared to controls without this genotype.3. Such increased risk should be explained as risk over and above the existing risk associated with each infection.4. Hepatitis C virus genotypes1a and 2a are associated with decreased risk of hepatocellular cancer.published_or_final_versio

Temperature dependent distinct coupling and dispersions of heavy- and light-hole excitonic polaritons in ZnO

Distinct coupling behavior of heavy- and light-hole excitonic polaritons in ZnO was unveiled by investigating the optical reflectance spectra of a high quality ZnO single crystal as a function of temperature both experimentally and theoretically. A resonance like coupling region was found at a temperature of around 50 K at which several relevant physical quantities such as the transverse exciton transition energy, polarizability, and damping parameters of the two kinds of excitonic polaritons were revealed to overturn. Calculated dispersions correctly reflect the nature of coupled photon and exciton and reproduce the spectral structures of the interacting polaritons. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

Localized surface optical phonon mode in the InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum- wells nanopillars: Raman spectrum and imaging

An interesting phonon mode at around 685-705 cm -1 was clearly observed in the Raman spectra of InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-wells nanopillars with different diameters at room temperature. The Raman peak position of this mode is found to show a distinct dependence on the nanopillar size, which is in well agreement with theoretical calculation of the surface optical (SO) phonon modes of nanopillars. Moreover, this kind of SO phonon was evidenced to be located on the pillar surface by using scanning confocal micro-Raman microscopy. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

Superconducting charge qubits : the roles of self and mutual inductances

2000-2001 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Landauer-Büttiker formula for time-dependent transport through resonant-tunneling structures : a nonequilibrium Green’s function approach

2000-2001 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Do patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia respond differently to Helicobacter pylori eradication treatments from those with peptic ulcer disease? A systematic review

Aim: It is controversial whether patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD) respond differently to Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) eradication treatment than those with peptic ulcer disease (PUD). To review the evidence for any difference in H pylori eradication rates between PUD and NUD patients. Methods: A literature search for full articles and meeting abstracts to July 2004 was conducted. We included studies evaluating the efficacy of a proton pump inhibitor (P) or ranitidine bismuth citrate (RBC) plus two antibiotics of clarithromycin (C), amoxicillin (A), metronidazole (M), or P-based quadruple therapies for eradicating the infection. Results: Twenty-two studies met the criteria. No significant difference in eradication rates was found between PUD and NUD patients when treated with 7-d RBCCA, 10-d PCA or P-based quadruple therapies. When the 7-d PCA was used, the pooled H pylori eradication rate was 82.1% (431/525) and 72.6% (448/617) for PUD and NUD patients, respectively, yielding a RR of 1.15 (95%CI 1.01-1.29). However, the statistically significant difference was seen only in meeting abstracts, but not in full publications. Conclusion: There is no convincing evidence to suggest that NUD patients respond to H pylori eradication treatments differently from those with PUD, although a trend exists with the 7-d PCA therapy. © 2005 The WJG Press and Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.published_or_final_versio

Inner surface enhanced femtosecond second harmonic generation in thin ZnO crystal tubes

2010-2011 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Head-to-head comparison of H2-receptor antagonists and proton pump inhibitors in the treatment of erosive esophagitis: A meta-analysis

Aim: To systematically evaluate the efficacy of H2-receptor antagonists (H2RAs) and proton pump inhibitors in healing erosive esophagitis (EE). Methods: A meta-analysis was performed. A literature search was conducted in PubMed, Medline, Embase, and Cochrane databases to include randomized controlled head-to-head comparative trials evaluating the efficacy of H2RAs or proton pump inhibitors in healing EE. Relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated under a random-effects model. Results: RRs of cumulative healing rates for each comparison at 8 wk were: high dose vs standard dose H2RAs, 1.17 (95%CI, 1.02-1.33); standard dose proton pump inhibitors vs standard dose H2RAs, 1.59 (95%CI, 1.44-1.75); standard dose other proton pump inhibitors vs standard dose omeprazole, 1.06 (95%CI, 0.98-1.06). Proton pump inhibitors produced consistently greater healing rates than H2RAs of all doses across all grades of esophagitis, including patients refractory to H2RAs. Healing rates achieved with standard dose omeprazole were similar to those with other proton pump inhibitors in all grades of esophagitis. Conclusion: H2RAs are less effective for treating patients with erosive esophagitis, especially in those with severe forms of esophagitis. Standard dose proton pump inhibitors are significantly more effective than H2RAs in healing esophagitis of all grades. Proton pump inhibitors given at the recommended dose are equally effective for healing esophagitis. © 2005 The WJG Press and Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.published_or_final_versio

Scalp acupuncture for acute ischemic stroke: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Scalp acupuncture (SA) is a commonly used therapeutic approach for stroke throughout China and elsewhere in the world. The objective of this study was to assess clinical efficacy and safety of SA for acute ischemic stroke. A systematical literature search of 6 databases was conducted to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of SA for acute ischemic stroke compared with western conventional medicines (WCMs). All statistical analyses were performed by the Rev Man Version 5.0. Eight studies with 538 participants were included in the studies. The studies were deemed to have an unclear risk of bias based on the Cochrane Back Review Group. Compared with the WCM, 6 RCTs showed significant effects of SA for improving neurological deficit scores (P < 0.01); 4 RCTs showed significant effects of SA for favoring the clinical effective rate (P < 0.01) However, the adverse events have not been documented. In conclusion, SA appears to be able to improve neurological deficit score and the clinical effective rate when compared with WCM, though the beneficial effect from SA is possibly overvalued because of generally low methodology of the included trials. No evidence is available for adverse effects. Rigorous well-designed clinical trials are needed.published_or_final_versio

Dynamics and quantum Zeno effect for a qubit in either a low- or high-frequency bath beyond the rotating-wave approximation

Laboratory of Physical Sciences; National Security Agency; Army Research Office; National Science Foundation [0726909]; JSPS-RFBR [09-02-92114]; MEXT; Funding Program for Innovative R&D on ST (FIRST); National Natural Science Foundation of China [10904126We use a non-Markovian approach to study the decoherence dynamics of a qubit in either a low- or high-frequency bath modeling the qubit environment. This is done for two separate cases: either with measurements or without them. This approach is based on a unitary transformation and does not require the rotating-wave approximation. In the case without measurement, we show that, for low- frequency noise, the bath shifts the qubit energy toward higher energies (blue shift), while the ordinary high-frequency cutoff Ohmic bath shifts the qubit energy toward lower energies (red shift). In order to preserve the coherence of the qubit, we also investigate the dynamics of the qubit subject to measurements (quantum Zeno regime) in two cases: low- and high-frequency baths. For very frequent projective measurements, the low- frequency bath gives rise to the quantum anti-Zeno effect on the qubit. The quantum Zeno effect only occurs in the high-frequency-cutoff Ohmic bath, after counterrotating terms are considered. In the condition that the decay rate due to the two kinds of baths are equal under the Wigner-Weisskopf approximation, we find that without the approximation, for a high-frequency environment, the decay rate should be faster (without measurements) or slower (with frequent measurements, in the Zeno regime), compared to the low- frequency bath case. The experimental implementation of our results here could distinguish the type of bath (either a low- or high-frequency one) and protect the coherence of the qubit by modulating the dominant frequency of its environment