Noninvasive Diagnostic and Prognostic Assessment Tools for Liver Fibrosis and Cirrhosis in Patients with Chronic Liver Disease

Liver fibrosis, that is, excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix protein, occurs and is the wound‐healing response and common final pathway of various chronic liver diseases. Advanced hepatic fibrosis caused by chronic liver inflammation eventually progresses to cirrhosis, and prognosis and management of chronic liver diseases depend on the fibrotic severities. Therefore, the early and precise evaluation of severity and status of liver fibrosis provides useful information for diagnosis as well as treatment planning and treatment efficacy and prognosis. Although invasive liver biopsy is the gold standard to assess the nature and severity of hepatic fibrosis, it has several recognized limitations including sampling error and inter‐observer variability in interpretation and staging. Furthermore, the dynamic process of fibrosis resulting from progression and regression is difficult to capture with biopsy alone. Therefore, alternative, simple, reliable, and noninvasive direct and indirect serum markers able to predict the presence of significant fibrosis or cirrhosis in patients with chronic liver disease with considerable accuracy were needed. The hepatology experts are actively researching noninvasive methods of fibrosis quantification. The aims of this chapter were to review the nature and limitations of the several noninvasive methods for the assessment of presence and severity of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease

How Learner-Centered Teaching is associated with Teacher Self-Efficacy and Job Satisfaction: Analysis of Data from 31 Countries

The expansion of learner-centered teaching has been the focus of education policy makers and teachers throughout the world. While most of the attention has been given to how learner-centered teaching influences student outcomes, it is important to consider how teachers are associated with learner-centered teaching. Using data from the OECD TALIS database, this study analyzes how the use of learner-centered teaching is associated with teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction. Controlling for a wide range of teacher and classroom characteristics, as well as country and school fixed effects, we find that learner-centered teaching has a significant and positive association with both teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction

The productivity effects of profit sharing, employee ownership, stock option and team incentive plans

노트 : Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. (The rest omitted

Impaired H-Reflex Adaptations Following Slope Walking in Individuals With Post-stroke Hemiparesis

Background and Purpose: Short term adaptations in the Ia afferent-motoneuron pathway, as measured using the H-reflex, in response to altered ground reaction forces (GRFs) applied at the feet during slope walking have been observed in the non-impaired nervous system. The ability of the stroke-impaired nervous system to adapt to altered GRFs have not been examined. The purpose of this study was to examine the acute effects of altered propulsive and braking forces applied at the feet, which naturally occurs when walking on different slopes, on adaptations of the H-reflex pathway in individuals with chronic post-stroke hemiparesis

Activation of CD147 with Cyclophilin A Induces the Expression of IFITM1 through ERK and PI3K in THP-1 Cells

CD147, as a receptor for Cyclophilins, is a multifunctional transmembrane glycoprotein. In order to identify genes that are induced by activation of CD147, THP-1 cells were stimulated with Cyclophilin A and differentially expressed genes were detected using PCR-based analysis. Interferon-induced transmembrane 1 (IFITM1) was detected to be induced and it was confirmed by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. CD147-induced expression of IFITM1 was blocked by inhibitors of ERK, PI3K, or NF-κB, but not by inhibitors of p38, JNK, or PKC. IFITM1 appears to mediate inflammatory activation of THP-1 cells since cross-linking of IFITM1 with specific monoclonal antibody against it induced the expression of proinflammatory mediators such as IL-8 and MMP-9. These data indicate that IFITM1 is one of the pro-inflammatory mediators that are induced by signaling initiated by the activation of CD147 in macrophages and activation of ERK, PI3K, and NF-κB is required for the expression of IFITM1