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Let α , β ∈ (0 , 1) such that at least one of them is irrational. We take a random walk on the real line such that the choice of α and β has equal probability 1/2. We prove that almost surely the αβ -orbit is uniformly distributed module one, and the exponential sums along its orbit have the square root cancellation. We also show that the exceptional set in the probability space, which does not have the property of uniform distribution modulo one, is large in the terms of topology and Hausdorff dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different parts of an image have a strong or weak guiding effect on emotions. The key to emotion recognition of images is to fully exploit the regions associated with emotions. Therefore, this paper proposes a visual sentiment classification model with two branches based on visual transformer, termed as Enhanced Effective Region and Context-Aware Vision Transformers (EERCA-ViT). This model includes a primary branch and an auxiliary branch. The primary branch simulates interdependencies between patches by squeezing and stimulating patches (P-SE), thereby highlighting effective region features in the global feature. The auxiliary branch removes feature patches that have been tagged by the primary branch through the context-aware module (CAM), forcing the network to discover different sentiment discriminative regions. At the same time, a two-part loss function is constructed to improve the robustness of the model. Finally, extensive experiments on six benchmark datasets show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art image sentiment analysis methods. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the different modules of the framework (P-SE and CAM) has been well demonstrated through extensive comparative experiments. • Removing focused regions can guide the network to capture effective contextual sentiment features. • Fully mining the features of sentiment-related regions is one of the key approaches to sentiment classification. • The method's effectiveness and generalisability were confirmed through extensive experiments on eight datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic differentiation between the north and the south of China, as a long-standing phenomenon of unbalanced regional economic development, is aggravating, and has gradually become a resistance to the construction of a new development pattern and regional coordinated development. Most of the existing studies focus on the comparison of differences between the Eastern, Central and Western regions of China, but there is little discussion on the economic gap between China's North-South economy. In addition, through the literature review, no attention has been paid to the environmental regulation factor that leads to the economic gap between the North and the South. In view of this, the study constructs a benchmark regression model and a non-linear regression model based on the balanced panel data of 285 cities in China from 2004 to 2019, explores the role that environmental regulation plays in the widening of China's North-South economy gap. The results show that, firstly, environmental regulation is significantly conducive to narrowing the economic gap between the North and the South; In addition, with the greater intensity of environmental regulation, the economic gap shows a trend of "narrowing first, expanding then", that is, There exists positive U-shaped nonlinear relationship between them. Finally, the heterogeneity of urban scale leads to significant differences in the position and shape of the positive U-shaped curve, which exists between environmental regulation and China's North-South economy gap. The test results shows that the inflection point level of the U-shaped curve in the North is higher than that in the South. Based on this, the study proposes to adjust environmental policies accordingly under regional differentiated conditions, increase financial investment in improving environmental regulation tools and promote coordinated environmental governance in the North and South regions, to promote regional coordinated and sustainable development, provide empirical evidence and theoretical reference to improve people's livelihood and well-being and ultimately achieve the goal of common prosperity. • Based on the balanced panel data of 285 cities in China from 2004 to 2019, the study constructs a benchmark regression model and a non-linear regression model to explore the impact of environmental regulation on the economic gap between the North and the South. • From the perspective of direct effect, environmental regulation has a significant positive impact on narrowing the economic gap between the North and the South; From the perspective of nonlinear effect, there is a positive U-shaped relationship between the intensity of environmental regulation and the trend of the North-South economic gap, that is, the North-South economic gap shows an evolution trend of convergence and expansion with the increase of the intensity of environmental regulation. • The heterogeneity of urban scale leads to significant differences in the position and shape of the positive U-shaped curve between environmental regulation and the economic gap between the North and the South. • The inflection point level of the U-shaped curve in the North is higher than that in the South. Based on this, the study proposes to formulate differentiated environmental regulation policies according to local conditions, with a view to providing empirical evidence and theoretical reference for promoting regional coordinated and sustainable development, improving people's well-being, and ultimately achieving the goal of common prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Nucleophosmin (NPM)/B23 is an important nucleolar phosphoprotein involved in the regulation of assorted cellular signaling pathways. In the present study, we revealed a critical role of NPM in liver insulin resistance. NPM is markedly upregulated in insulin-resistant liver tissues and palmitic acid (PA)-exposed HepG2 cells both at mRNA and protein levels. Ectopic expression of NPM in hepatocytes aggravated PA-induced insulin resistance, lipid droplet accumulation, glucose intake impairment as well as the expression of gluconeogenic genes. Coinciding with these results, interference of NPM using small interfering RNA (siRNA) oligos ameliorated PA-induced insulin resistance, as revealed by increased phosphorylation of AKT and GSK3β following insulin treatment. As predicted, PA-triggered alterations in glucose intake and the expression of gluconeogenic enzymes were attenuated following NPM depletion. Finally, we showed that NPM plays an indispensible role in PA-induced activation of NF-κB pathway. Both of NF-κB p65 phosphorylation and nuclear translocation were impeded by NPM interference in PA-treated HepG2 cells. Taken together, these findings explicitly demonstrate that NPM participates in the development of liver insulin resistance, suggesting that NPM may serve as a potential therapeutic target of type 2 diabetes. Highlights • NPM is upregulated in insulin resistant mice livers and hepatocytes • NPM aggravates PA-induced hepatic insulin resistance • Depletion of NPM ameliorates PA-triggered insulin resistance • NPM is required for NF-κB activation in PA-induced insulin resistance condition [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxidative stress is an important pathogenesis of insulin resistance (IR) and Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Studies have shown that knockdown of PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 (PINK1) causes oxidative stress and mitophagy. In db/db mice, PINK1 protein level is down-regulated. However, little is known regarding the mechanism by which PINK1 modulates IR in response to reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced stress. In our study, PINK1 expression decreased during palmitate (PA) induced IR in HepG2 cells and the hepatic tissues of high fat diet (HFD) fed mice. Additionally, free fatty acids (FFAs) could increase ROS and suppress insulin signaling pathway, which was indicated by reduced phosphorylation of protein kinase B (AKT) and glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β). In addition, insulin induced glucose uptake decreased and the expression of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase), two key gluconeogenic enzymes, was up-regulated after PA treatment. Intriguingly, PINK1 overexpression could lead to opposite results. Moreover, PA induced hepatic IR through C-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathways, which were rescued by PINK1 overexpression. In summary, our results demonstrate that PINK1 promoted hepatic IR via JNK and ERK pathway in PA treated HepG2 cells, implying a novel molecular target for the therapy of diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study found water-absorbing scales (WASs), which could absorb unsaturated atmospheric water (UAW), in the leaves of Reaumuria soongorica , a super-xerophytic desert plant. WASs were a complex cellular structure surmounted by four to seven valves that formed an inverted cone pore. The base of the cone comprised three or four flat, thin-walled, living cells. Under low humidity, the valves of WASs contracted, becoming nearly closed and leaving a small central opening, thus forming a more or less impermeable lid. Under high humidity, the valves of WASs absorbed UAW from the atmosphere and swelled, gradually expanding and forming a larger central opening. The basal cells raised the lid of the scale and allowed water to flow by capillary action over the cuticle. At a relative humidity of 75–95% with a wetting period of 3 h in duration, the valve opened fully, the central opening expanded to form a polygonal structure, and the water content of the leaves increased from 47.8% to 54.2%. An EDS analysis with a scanning electron microscope found more chloride, sulfate and potassium in the valves of WASs than in normal leaf epidermis. This chemical composition may facilitate the absorption of water from unsaturated air by WASs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the nonexistence result of the following nonlinear elliptic equation with Robin boundary condition { − Δ u = | u | p − 1 u in R + N , ∂ u ∂ ν + c u = 0 on ∂ R + N . Under some assumptions on c and p , we will show that this problem does not possess nontrivial bounded solution with finite Morse index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Soil-derived B. subtilis JCL16 shows antibacterial activity against N. seriolae. • Bacillus subtilis JCL16 contains srf , bac and sbo gene clusters. • Surfactin, bacilysin and subtilosin A synergistically inhibit N. seriolae. • A synergistic mechanism model of the three metabolites above is proposed. Nocardia seriolae is one of the major causative agents of fish nocardiosis, responsible for large-scale fish die-offs and economic losses in the aquaculture industry worldwide. Therefore, research efforts towards developing efficacious alternatives to aquatic antibiotics, such as vaccines, immunomodulatory additives including aquatic probiotics, to control this disease are of high importance. Recently, we isolated a soil-derived strain of Bacillus subtilis JCL16, and the 21-day challenge tests results showed that the addition of B. subtilis JCL16 culture to the basal control diet significantly increased the survival rate of largemouth bass with nocardiosis from 21.67% to 68.3%. To reveal the putative functional factors, we determined the genome sequence of B. subtilis JCL16 using PacBio RS II and Illumina HiSeq 4000 platform, and predicted its secondary metabolites using antiSMASH, which showed that it contains 11 functional gene clusters, three of which, srf , bac and sbo , have previously been verified to have antagonistic bacterial functions. Subsequently, mutants Δsrf , Δbac , Δsbo were constructed using homologous recombination techniques, and HPLC results further elucidated that the three gene clusters are responsible for the synthesis of surfactin, bacilysin and subtilosin A, respectively. To our surprise, a significant reduction in the inhibition of N. seriolae occurred in all three mutants compared to the wild type, so we speculated that surfactin, bacilysin and subtilosin A might have adopted a synergistic strategy. Next, we prepared their pure products and further confirmed our inference by Oxford Cup and MIC assays. In summary, the good biocontrol effect of B. subtilis JCL16 against fish Nocardia is likely due to the synergistic strategy among surfactin, bacilysin and subtilosin A. Here we propose a synergistic mechanism among them, which provides some insight into the powerful biocontrol mechanisms of Bacillus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Zebrafish has gained increased popularity as an aquatic model species in various research fields, and its widespread use has led to numerous mutant strains and transgenic lines. This creates the need to store these important genetic materials as frozen gametes. Sperm cryopreservation in zebrafish has been shown to yield very low post-thaw survival and many protocols suffer from great variability and poor reproducibility. The present study was intended to develop a freezing protocol that can be reliably used to cryopreserve zebrafish sperm with high post-thaw survival. In particular, our study focused on cooling protocol optimization with the aid of cryomicroscopy. Specifically, sperm suspended in 8% DMSO or 4% MeOH were first incubated with live/dead fluorescent dyes (SYBR14/PI) and then cooled at various rates from 4°C to different intermediate stopping temperatures such as −10, −20, −30 and −80°C before rewarming to 35°C at the rate of 100°C/min. %PI-positive (dead) cells were monitored throughout the cooling process and this screening yielded an optimal rate of 25°C/min for this initial phase of freezing. We then tested the optimal cooling rate for the second phase of freezing from various intermediate stopping temperatures to −80°C before plunging into liquid nitrogen. Our finding yielded an optimal intermediate stopping temperature of −30°C and an optimal rate of 5°C/min for this second phase of freezing. When we further applied this two-step cooling protocol to the conventional controlled-rate freezer, the average post-thaw motility measured by CASA was 46.8±6.40% across 11 males, indicating high post-thaw survival and consistent results among different individuals. Our study indicates that cryomiscroscopy is a powerful tool to devise the optimal cooling conditions for species with sperm that are very sensitive to cryodamage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing sodium in cereal products has become a health trend, and low-sodium salt is considered as a promising sodium substitute; however, its technical roles in dough formation have not been well understood. Effects of low-sodium salt on the physicochemical and rheological properties of dough were investigated in the present study compared with that with NaCl and KCl. Addition of low-sodium salt significantly increased stability, development time and extensional area of dough, and reduced water absorption. Wheat gluten extractability and free SH content gradually decreased with low-sodium salt additions increased, indicating that salt affected gluten macromolecular aggregation. Zeta potential measurements indicated that salt promoted the interactions between gluten molecules. Overall, low-sodium salt effectively changed physicochemical and rheological properties of dough in a manner very similar to NaCl and KCl. Therefore, addition of low-sodium salt may be a feasible approach to alleviate high sodium in the process of dough formation. [Display omitted] • Addition of low-sodium salt increase gluten strength and extensional area. • Addition of low-sodium salt decreased free SH group content. • Low-sodium salt may induce the aggregation of gluten in dough. • Low-sodium salt increases salt-gluten interaction, to some extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The present study employed cryomicroscopy to derive an optimal sperm freezing protocol for guppy (Poecilia reticulata) sperm. Evaluation criteria during the freezing–thawing process were assessed for nucleation temperature (Tn), temperature when more than 50% of sperm display bending mid-piece (Tb), temperature when more than 80% of sperm stop moving (Tm), thawing temperature (Tt), and post-thaw motility. We compared four different cryoprotectants: 5% N-dimethyl formamide (DMF), 6% methanol (MEOH), 10% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and 14% glycerol, as well as glycerol at different concentrations of 7–50%; cooling and rewarming rates ranged from 5 to 100°C/min. The protocol that yielded the highest post-thaw motility was samples suspended in 14% glycerol, cooled at 25°C/min, and thawed at 100°C/min, which was in complete agreement with our previous findings derived from a controlled-rate freezer. In addition, Tb and Tm were found to be negatively correlated with post-thaw motility, suggesting their possible role in predicting freezing success. The present study for the first time demonstrated the usefulness of cryomicroscopy in deriving an optimal sperm freezing protocol for aquatic species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We prove that the self-similar sets with the strong separation condition are all quasisymmetrically equivalent. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A Whitney modification set in is a set of the form , where E is a nonempty closed set in , is a Whitney decomposition of , and consists of centers of intervals in . We prove that a measure on a Whitney modification set is doubling if and only if it is the Whitney modification of a doubling measure on . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Water channel proteins, known as aquaporins, are transmembrane proteins that mediate osmotic water permeability. In a previous study, we found that acetazolamide could inhibit osmotic water transportation across Xenopus oocytes by blocking the function of aquaporin-1 (AQP1). The purpose of the current study was to confirm the effect of acetazolamide on water osmotic permeability using the human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells transfected with pEGFP/AQP1 and to investigate the interaction between acetazolamide and AQP1. The fluorescence intensity of HEK293 cells transfected with pEGFP/AQP1, which corresponds to the cell volume when the cells swell in a hyposmotic solution, was recorded under confocal laser fluorescence microscopy. The osmotic water permeability was assessed by the change in the ratio of cell fluorescence to certain cell area. Acetazolamide, at concentrations of 1 and 10μM, inhibited the osmotic water permeability in HEK293 cells transfected with pEGFP/AQP1. The direct binding between acetazolamide and AQP1 was detected by surface plasmon resonance. AQP1 was prepared from rat red blood cells and immobilized on a CM5 chip. The binding assay showed that acetazolamide could directly interact with AQP1. This study demonstrated that acetazolamide inhibited osmotic water permeability through interaction with AQP1. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract This paper focuses on the issue of recognition of facial emotion expressions in video sequences and proposes an integrated framework of two networks: a local network, and a global network, which are based on local enhanced motion history image (LEMHI) and CNN-LSTM cascaded networks respectively. In the local network, frames from unrecognized video are aggregated into a single frame by a novel method, LEMHI. This approach improves MHI by using detected human facial landmarks as attention areas to boost local value in difference image calculation, so that the action of crucial facial unit can be captured effectively. Then this single frame will be fed into a CNN network for prediction. On the other hand, an improved CNN-LSTM model is used as a global feature extractor and classifier for video facial emotion recognition in the global network. Finally, a random search weighted summation strategy is conducted as late-fusion fashion to final predication. Our work also offers an insight into networks and visible feature maps from each layer of CNN to decipher which portions of the face influence the networks' predictions. Experiments on the AFEW, CK+ and MMI datasets using subject-independent validation scheme demonstrate that the integrated framework of two networks achieves a better performance than using individual network separately. Compared with state-of-the-arts methods, the proposed framework demonstrates a superior performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have identified that PKM2 is related to the development of glucose intolerance and insulin resistance in rodents and humans. However, the underlying mechanism remains largely unknown. In the present study, we found that PKM2 expression was significantly elevated in insulin-resistant hepatic tissues and hepatocytes, implicating an association between PKM2 expression and hepatic insulin resistance (IR). In vitro study revealed that overexpression of PKM2 impaired the insulin signaling pathway by decreasing the phosphorylation of protein kinase B (Akt) and glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK3β). Furthermore, PKM2 overexpression enhanced the effects of PA on the lipid accumulation, the expression of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) and hepatic glucose uptake. Intriguingly, PA-induced insulin resistance was suppressed following by the ablation of PKM2 in HepG2 cells. We also found that STAT3 was significantly activated by PKM2 overexpression. Moreover, we identified that PKM2 could interact directly with STAT3. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that PKM2 may promote hepatic IR via STAT3 pathway and would provide a new insight into dissecting the molecular pathogenesis of hepatic insulin resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of fungicide mixture is one of the most important measures to extend the service life of highly selective fungicides. Pyraclostrobin (PYR), which has been extensively used to control plant diseases by inhibiting mitochondrial respiration of pathogenic fungi, is at a high risk of resistance development. In this study, the potential of PYR alone or in combination with cystamine, an inhibitor of microbial transglutaminase, to suppress Fusarium graminearum was tested in vitro and in vivo. A synergistic effect of PYR/CYS mixture was observed both in vitro and when applied to etiolated wheat coleoptile. The control effect of PYR/CYS mixture on F. graminearum was better than that of PYR alone, which was reflected by the increased protection effect. The discrepancies of membrane permeability and the redox-physiological state were observed between PYR and PYR/CYS treatments, suggesting that an increased PYR availability in F. graminearum mycelia could be related with the observed synergistic action. Moreover, a synergistic profile was observed between PYR and CYS in regard of massive autophagosomes in mycelia, indicating that enhanced autophagy could be involved in the mode of action of PYR/CYS mixture. The differential content of mitochondrial metabolites between PYR and PYR/CYS treatments also provided evidence for CYS contribution to the fungicidal action of PYR/CYS mixture. The results provide insight into the synergistic mechanism of action of PYR/CYS mixture and an effective way to enhance the efficiency of PYR to combat F. graminearum. [Display omitted] • Cystamine (CYS) exhibits synergistic action with pyraclostrobin (PYR) against F. graminearum. • Autophagy and membrane permeability are involved in mode of action of PYR/CYS combination. • PYR/CYS combination induces severe mitochondrial dysfunctions in F. graminearum. • PYR/CYS combination provides a potential strategy by reducing PYR use to combat F. graminearum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cisplatin is effective against various types of cancers. However, its clinical application is limited owing to its adverse effects, especially acute kidney injury (AKI). Dihydromyricetin (DHM), a flavonoid derived from Ampelopsis grossedentata , has varied pharmacological activities. This research aimed to determine the molecular mechanism for cisplatin-induced AKI. A murine model of cisplatin-induced AKI (22 mg/kg, I.P.) and a HK-2 cell model of cisplatin-induced damage (30 μM) were established to evaluate the protective function of DHM. Renal dysfunction markers, renal morphology and potential signaling pathways were investigated. DHM decreased the levels of renal function biomarkers (blood urea nitrogen and serum creatinine), mitigated renal morphological damage, and downregulated the protein levels of kidney injury molecule-1 and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin. It upregulated the expression levels of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase and catalase expression), nuclear factor-erythroid-2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and its downstream proteins, including heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), glutamate-cysteine ligase catalytic (GCLC) and modulatory (GCLM) subunits, thus eventually reducing cisplatin-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Moreover, DHM partially inhibited the phosphorylation of the active fragments of caspase-8 and -3 and mitogen-activated protein kinase and restored glutathione peroxidase 4 expression, which attenuated renal apoptosis and ferroptosis in cisplatin-treated animals. DHM also mitigated the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome and nuclear factor (NF)-κB, attenuating the inflammatory response. In addition, it reduced cisplatin-induced HK-2 cell apoptosis and ROS production, both of which were blocked by the Nrf2 inhibitor ML385. DHM suppressed cisplatin-induced oxidative stress, inflammation and ferroptosis probably through regulating of Nrf2/HO-1, MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways. • DHM protects against cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury (AKI). • DHM may protects against kidney injury through regulating Nrf2/HO-1, MAPK and NF-κB pathways. • DHM may have therapeutic value for AKI treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this work, we demonstrated the preparation of the carbonized montmorillonite/carboxymethyl cellulose (MMT/CMC) hybrids and their application as an adsorbent for efficient removal of 17β-Estradiol (βE2). X-ray diffractometer (XRD) results showed that CMC intercalation reached saturation at a CMC to MMT weight ratio of 1; transmission electron microscope (TEM) measurements clearly revealed that carbonization caused graphenes distribute on the MMT surfaces; pyrolysis temperature at 600 °C yielded novel MMT/CMC sample of high surface areas as reflected by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area. The adsorbed amount of βE2 under various conditions decreased in the order MMT/CMC 1:1 (600) > MMT/CMC 1:1 (450) > MMT/CMC 1:1 (300) ∼ MMT/CMC 2:1 (600) ∼ MMT > MMT/CMC 5:1 (600). The removal of βE2 by MMT/CMC 1:1 (600) occurred very quickly, and the adsorption kinetics could be well fitted by the Ritchie nth-order kinetic model; the best-fit adsorption isotherm model was Freundlich model. The MMT/CMC 1:1 (600) also exhibited good regeneration performance after five adsorption/desorption cycles. The experimental results also showed that the adsorption of βE2 on the MMT/CMC 1:1 (600) composite could contribute to hydrophobic partitioning, π−π staking interaction, H-bond interaction, pore-filling effect and simple van der Waals interaction. This highly effective and novel adsorbent can be easily synthesized and regenerated, indicating its great potential in drinking and wastewater purification for endocrine disruptor compounds. Highlights • The carbonized montmorillonite/carboxymethyl cellulose hybrid was prepared. • The prepared MMT/CMC 1:1 (600) showed high surface area and well-developed porosity. • The adsorption property was characterized by kinetics and isotherm analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Pain caused by liver tumors can be alleviated by cryoablation, but little is known about the analgesic effects and duration of pain alleviation. We retrospectively reviewed the changes in the severity of pain before and after percutaneous cryoablation of hepatic tumors. Each patient enrolled in this study had a single hepatic tumor; patients with large tumors (major diameter, ⩾5cm) underwent transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) first and then cryoablation. Severe abdominal pain that was not controlled with long-lasting oral analgesics was treated with opioid injections. In all 73 study patients, severe abdominal pain was gradually eased 5days after cryosurgery, completely disappeared after 15days and did not recur for more than 8weeks. There were no differences in analgesic effects between patients with hepatocellular carcinomas and those with liver metastasis (P >0.05). The patients were divided into four groups depending on their pain outcomes: (i) immediate relief (n =6), severe abdominalgia was no longer present after cryosurgery; (ii) delayed relief (n =11), severe abdominalgia disappeared gradually within 15days after the cryosurgery; (iii) always pain-free (n =39), severe abdominalgia was not present before or after treatment; and (iv) new pain (n =17), abdominalgia developed after treatment and disappeared within 15days. In summary, percutaneous cryoablation of hepatic tumors caused short-term pain in some patients, but this pain disappeared within 15days. Moreover, the pain-relieving effect of this treatment was sustained for at least 8weeks, without severe side effects. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]