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Sustained release of anesthesia has shown great promise in the treatment of chronic pain in patients. In this research, we used neutralized ropivacaine as an anesthesia and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) with different architectures to systematically study how these architectures affect the release of ropivacaine. After optimizing the parameters of the preparation of microspheres, ropivacaine-loaded 1-PCL microspheres and 4-PCL microspheres were obtained. Fourier Transform infrared spectra (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction spectra (XRD) confirmed that ropivacaine was encapsulated within the microsphere rather than inserted on the surface of the microsphere. Ropivacaine was found to be buried deeper in the 1-PCL microsphere than in the 4-PCL microsphere. In vitro release assay revealed that small crystalline grains interfered with ropivacaine release in 4-PCL microspheres during the initial release period, but then two kinds of microspheres showed a similar ropivacaine release rate. We basically proved that the architecture of PCL has a negligible effect on ropivacaine release. Cell proliferation test revealed that the release of products from the microspheres resulted in insignificant toxicity towards mammalian cells.

Objective. The present study aimed to explore the association between SUA and NAFLD in women with different menstrual statuses. Methods. A total of 6043 women were selected from the Jidong and Kailuan communities for inclusion in the present study. The SUA levels of participants were divided into quartiles. NAFLD was determined by abdominal ultrasonography. Data from laboratory tests and clinical examination were collected, and basic information was obtained from standardized questionnaires. The menstrual status was stratified into menstrual period, menopause transition period, and postmenopause. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine the relationship between menstrual status, SUA, and NAFLD. Results. The levels of SUA in subjects with NAFLD in the menstrual period, menopause transition period, and postmenopause were 268.0 ± 71.1, 265.6 ± 67.8, and 286.7 ± 75.8 (mmol/L), respectively, and were higher than those in subjects without NAFLD. The adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for NAFLD among participants in the menopause transition period and postmenopausal period were 1.10 (0.89–1.37) and 1.28 (1.04–1.58), respectively, compared with the menstrual period women. Compared to the lowest quartile of SUA, the adjusted ORs with 95% CI of the highest quartile for NAFLD were 2.24 (1.69–2.99) for females in the menstrual period, 1.92 (1.10–3.37) for females in the menopause transition period, and 1.47 (1.06–2.03) for females in postmenopause. Conclusions. Menstrual status was significantly correlated with NAFLD. High levels of SUA were associated with NAFLD in females during the three menstrual periods.

Styrene-butadiene-styrene- (SBS-) modified asphalts were prepared by mixing different base asphalts, SBS modifier, extracting oil, and stabilizing agents. The contact angles between SBS-modified asphalt and distilled water, glycerol, and formamide were detected by the sessile drop method. Based on the surface energy theory, the surface free energy and cohesive power of SBS-modified asphalt were calculated. The influence of the raw materials composition, such as the virgin asphalt and SBS modifier types as well as the extracting oil and stabilizing agent contents, on the cohesive characteristics of SBS-modified asphalt was discussed. The results showed that virgin asphalt was compatible with SBS modifiers to improve cohesiveness. The cohesive power of branched SBS-modified asphalt was larger than that of linear SBS-modified asphalt. The cohesion of SBS-modified asphalt was improved as the SBS modifier and stabilizer contents increased but was reduced for excessive extraction oil contents. The cohesive characteristics of the SBS-modified asphalt were improved by the formation of stable three-dimensional network structures by cross-linking, winding, and grafting among different raw materials.

In this study, we developed a suite of spatially and temporally scalable Water Cycle Indicators (WCI) to examine the long-term changes in water cycle variability and demonstrated their use over the contiguous US (CONUS) during 1979–2013 using the MERRA reanalysis product. The WCI indicators consist of six water balance variables monitoring the mean conditions and extreme aspects of the changing water cycle. The variables include precipitation (P), evaporation (E), runoff (R), terrestrial water storage (dS/dt), moisture convergence flux (C), and atmospheric moisture content (dW/dt). Means are determined as the daily total value, while extremes include wet and dry extremes, defined as the upper and lower 10th percentile of daily distribution. Trends are assessed for annual and seasonal indicators at several different spatial scales. Our results indicate that significant changes have occurred in most of the indicators, and these changes are geographically and seasonally dependent. There are more upward trends than downward trends in all eighteen annual indicators averaged over the CONUS. The spatial correlations between the annual trends in means and extremes are statistically significant across the country and are stronger for P, E, R, and C compared to dS/dt and dW/dt.

Background. The aim of this study was to detect the effect of the laryngeal mask airway (LMA) versus the endotracheal tube (ETT) on postoperative nasal bleedings in and outside the operation room (OR) after intranasal surgery. Methods. 134 patients undergoing elective intranasal surgeries were randomly allocated to receive LMA or ETT during general anesthesia. The incidence, episodes, and severity of nasal bleeding were evaluated in the OR and within the postoperative 24 hours in the ward. Furthermore, medical assistance and severe complications were assessed. Results. The overall incidence of postoperative nasal bleeding throughout the observation period was similar between the two groups. The LMA reduced nasal bleeding in the OR. However, outside the OR, the incidence of the first episode of postoperative nasal bleeding in the LMA group was higher than that in the ETT group (difference: −26.5%; 95% CI: −42.2% to −10.7%; P

Background. This research is aimed at establishing a scoring system alpha-fetoprotein+alkaline phosphatase (A-A score) based on preoperative serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels and to investigate its clinical significance in patients with ruptured hepatocellular carcinoma (rHCC) after hepatectomy. Methods. 175 ruptured hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients treated with hepatectomy were included. Survival analysis was assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method. Prognostic factors were analyzed in a multivariate model. Preoperative serum AFP and ALP values are assigned a score of 1 if they exceed the threshold value and 0 if they are below the threshold value, A-A score is obtained by summing the scores of two variables (AFP, ALP), and the predictive values of AFP, ALP, and A-A score were compared by receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis, and subgroup analyses were performed to further evaluate the power of A-A scores. Results. Of the 175 patients, 67 (38.3%) had an A-A score of 0, 72 (41.1%) had an A-A score of 1, and 36 (20.6%) had an A-A score of 2. In multivariate analysis, the A-A score, the BCLC stage, and the extent of resection were independent predictors of OS in patients with rHCC. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS and RFS in patients with an A-A score of 1 were better than those with an A-A score of 0 and worse than those with an A-A score of 1 (all p < 0.05). Based on the results of ROC analysis, the A-A score is superior to AFP or ALP alone in predicting the prognosis of patients with ruptured HCC. In subgroup analysis, A-A score could accurately predict the prognosis of patients with or without microvascular invasion (MVI) and with different Child-Pugh grades or gender. Conclusions. The A-A score can effectively predict the prognosis of patients after hepatectomy of ruptured hepatocellular carcinoma. At the same time, it also has good evaluation ability in different subgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims. Conflicting results are often observed in the prognosis of patients with ruptured hepatocellular carcinoma (rHCC), and there are currently very few studies on the long-term postoperative outcomes of ruptured hepatocellular carcinoma patients. This study aimed to distinguish between the postoperative prognosis of rHCC patients with cirrhosis (rHCC-C) and those without cirrhosis (rHCC-NC) using some serum markers. Methods. We collected the data of 151 rHCC patients treated at our centers from January 2010 to March 2021. 62 had no cirrhosis, and 89 had cirrhosis. The prognosis of rHCC-C and rHCC-NC groups was compared using the Kaplan-Meier method. We used multivariate Cox regression to analyze prognostic factors in rHCC patients, and subgroup analysis was performed on the two groups of patients. Results. The long-term prognosis of rHCC-NC patients was better than that of rHCC-C patients. Tumor diameter, Barcelona clinic liver cancer (BCLC) stage, HBsAg, positive Hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies, elevated creatinine, and elevated T-bilirubin were prognostic factors for overall survival (OS) in rHCC-C patients. However, only alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) > 92 ng/mL was a prognostic factor for OS in rHCC-NC patients. In noncirrhotic patients, HBsAg positivity was only associated with OS. Similarly, the presence or absence of microvascular invasion (MVI) also had different results in the two groups. Conclusions. There are differences in serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels, the presence of microvascular invasion (MVI), and HBsAg positivity between rHCC-C and rHCC-NC patients, indicating that the analysis of these prognostic factors may help improve the management of rHCC patients and provide a direction for future treatment options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the passage of Typhoon Nida, the raindrop size distribution parameters, the raindrop spectra, the shape and slope (μ–Λ) relationship, the radar reflectivity factor, and rain rate (Z–R) relationship were investigated based on a two-dimensional (2D) video disdrometer in Guangdong, China, from August 1 to 2, 2016. Due to the underlying surface difference between the ocean and land, this process was divided into two distinct periods (before landfall and after landfall). The characteristics of raindrop size distribution between the period before landfall and the period after landfall were quite distinct. The period after landfall exhibited higher concentrations of each size bin (particularly small drops) and wider raindrop spectral width than the period before landfall. Compared with the period before landfall, the period after landfall had a higher average mass-weighted mean diameter Dm that was smaller than those of other TCs from the same ocean (the Pacific). The μ–Λ relationship and Z–R relationship in this study were also compared with other TCs from the same ocean (the Pacific). This investigation of the microphysical characteristics of Typhoon Nida before landfall and after landfall may improve radar quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) products and microphysical schemes by providing useful information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citation is a universally acknowledged way for scientific impact evaluation. However, due to its easy manipulability, simply relying on citation cannot objectively reflect the actual impact of scholars. Instead of citation, we utilize the academic networks, in virtue of their available and abundant academic information, to evaluate the scientific impact of scholars in this paper. Through the collaboration among scholars in academic networks, we notice an interesting phenomenon that scholars in some special positions can access more kinds of information and connect researchers from different groups to promote the scientific collaborations. However, this important fact is generally ignored by the existing approaches. Motivated by the observations above, we propose the novel method AIRank to evaluate the scientific impact of scholars. Our method not only considers the impact of scholars through the mutual reinforcement process in heterogeneous academic networks, but also integrates the structural holes theory and information entropy theory to depict the benefit that scholars obtain via their positions in the network. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of AIRank in evaluating the impact of scholars more comprehensively and finding more top ranking scholars with interdisciplinary nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socially aware networking (SAN) provides a new paradigm for intermittently connected networks which exploits social properties of mobile users to guide the design of protocols. In SAN, data forwarding performance will be degraded dramatically due to the existence of users' selfish behaviors. To address the selfishness problem, barter-based incentive scheme is a fair approach in which two encounter nodes exchange the same amount of data with one another. However, it is a challenging issue for nodes to decide when two nodes contact and how many messages they will exchange for their next contacts. We consider this problem as a resource allocation problem and propose a community-based Barter incentive scheme for SAN paradigm (Com-BIS). In this method, network nodes are grouped into communities and they allocate their forwarding services for different communities optimally using 0-1 knapsack algorithm. The simulation results show that Com-BIS stimulates selfish nodes to cooperate in data delivery for other nodes effectively which improves the forwarding performance considerably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]