2,580 research outputs found
Differential hepatic features presenting in Wilson disease-associated cirrhosis and hepatitis B-associated cirrhosis
© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved. BACKGROUND Cirrhosis is a chronic late stage liver disease associated with hepatitis viruses, alcoholism, and metabolic disorders, such as Wilson disease (WD). There are no clear markers or clinical features that define cirrhosis originating from these disparate origins. We hypothesized that cirrhosis is not one disease and cirrhosis of different etiology may have differential clinical hepatic features. AIM To delineate the liver features between WD-associated cirrhosis and hepatitis Bassociated cirrhosis in the Chinese population. METHODS In this observational study, we reviewed the medical data of consecutive inpatients who had WD-associated cirrhosis or hepatitis B-associated cirrhosis from January 2010 to August 2018, and excluded patients who had carcinoma, severe heart or pulmonary diseases, or other liver diseases. According to the etiology of cirrhosis, patients were divided into two groups: WD-associated cirrhosis group (60 patients) and hepatitis B-associated cirrhosis group (56 patients). The liver fibrosis degree, liver function indices, and portal hypertension features of these patients were compared between the two groups. RESULTS No inter-group differences were observed in the diagnostic liver fibrosis markers, however, clinical features clearly defined the origin of cirrhosis. WD-associated cirrhosis patients (16-29 years) had lower levels of alanine transaminase, aspartate transaminase, and bilirubin, lower prothrombin time, lower incidence of hepatic encephalopathy, and lower portal vein diameter (P < 0.05), compared to cirrhosis resulting from hepatitis B in older patients (45-62 years). Importantly, they had decreased risks of progression from Child-Pugh grade A to B (odds ratio = 0.046, 95% confidence interval: 0.006-0.387, P = 0.005) and of ascites (odds ratio = 0.08, 95% confidence interval: 0.01-0.48, P = 0.005). Conversely, WDassociated cirrhosis patients had a higher risk of splenomegaly (odds ratio = 4.15, 95% confidence interval: 1.38-12.45, P = 0.011). CONCLUSION WD-associated cirrhosis presents a higher risk of splenomegaly associated with leukopenia and thrombocytopenia, although revealing milder liver dysfunction and portal hypertension symptoms, which recommends WD patients to be monitored for associated complications
First-principles study of native point defects in Bi2Se3
Using first-principles method within the framework of the density functional
theory, we study the influence of native point defect on the structural and
electronic properties of BiSe. Se vacancy in BiSe is a double
donor, and Bi vacancy is a triple acceptor. Se antisite (Se) is always
an active donor in the system because its donor level ((+1/0))
enters into the conduction band. Interestingly, Bi antisite(Bi) in
BiSe is an amphoteric dopant, acting as a donor when
0.119eV (the material is typical p-type) and as an acceptor when
0.251eV (the material is typical n-type). The formation energies
under different growth environments (such as Bi-rich or Se-rich) indicate that
under Se-rich condition, Se is the most stable native defect independent
of electron chemical potential . Under Bi-rich condition, Se vacancy
is the most stable native defect except for under the growth window as
0.262eV (the material is typical n-type) and
-0.459eV(Bi-rich), under such growth windows one
negative charged Bi is the most stable one.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
A Duty to Forget, a Right to be Assured? Exposing Vulnerabilities in Machine Unlearning Services
The right to be forgotten requires the removal or "unlearning" of a user's
data from machine learning models. However, in the context of Machine Learning
as a Service (MLaaS), retraining a model from scratch to fulfill the unlearning
request is impractical due to the lack of training data on the service
provider's side (the server). Furthermore, approximate unlearning further
embraces a complex trade-off between utility (model performance) and privacy
(unlearning performance). In this paper, we try to explore the potential
threats posed by unlearning services in MLaaS, specifically over-unlearning,
where more information is unlearned than expected. We propose two strategies
that leverage over-unlearning to measure the impact on the trade-off balancing,
under black-box access settings, in which the existing machine unlearning
attacks are not applicable. The effectiveness of these strategies is evaluated
through extensive experiments on benchmark datasets, across various model
architectures and representative unlearning approaches. Results indicate
significant potential for both strategies to undermine model efficacy in
unlearning scenarios. This study uncovers an underexplored gap between
unlearning and contemporary MLaaS, highlighting the need for careful
considerations in balancing data unlearning, model utility, and security.Comment: To Appear in the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium
(NDSS) 2024, San Diego, CA, US
Comparative Transcriptomics of Strawberries (Fragaria spp.) Provides Insights into Evolutionary Patterns
Multiple closely related species with genomic sequences provide an ideal system for studies on comparative and evolutionary genomics, as well as the mechanism of speciation. The whole genome sequences of six strawberry species (Fragaria spp.) have been released, which provide one of the richest genomic resources of any plant genus. In this study, we first generated seven transcriptome sequences of Fragaria species de novo, with a total of 48,557–82,537 unigenes per species. Combined with 13 other species genomes in Rosales, we reconstructed a phylogenetic tree at the genomic level. The phylogenic tree shows that Fragaria closed grouped with Rubus and the Fragaria clade is divided into three subclades. East Asian species appeared in every subclade, suggesting that the genus originated in this area at ∼7.99 Mya. Four species found in mountains of Southwest China originated at ∼3.98 Mya, suggesting that rapid speciation occurred to adapt to changing environments following the uplift of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. Moreover, we identified 510 very significantly positively selected genes in the cultivated species F. × ananassa genome. This set of genes was enriched in functions related to specific agronomic traits, such as carbon metabolism and plant hormone signal transduction processes, which are directly related to fruit quality and flavor. These findings illustrate comprehensive evolutionary patterns in Fragaria and the genetic basis of fruit domestication of cultivated strawberry at the genomic/transcriptomic level
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