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Background and aim: Spontaneous rupture of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a life-threatening complication, and patients who experience it are formally assigned to stage T4 in the TNM system, while many clinicians informally assign them to stage C in the more widely used Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) system. The present study explored whether these re-staging practices are appropriate for HCC patients who suffer tumor rupture. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 1952 HCC patients who underwent hepatic resection at our hospital between January 2017 and June 2021. We compared recurrence-free and overall survival between 143 patients who had BCLC stage A or B disease at the time of spontaneous rupture and 449 patients who had BCLC stage C disease without rupture. Results: Overall survival rate was significantly higher among the 143 patients (1, 3, 5-year survival rate was 80.3%, 60.4%, 51.4%) with rupture than among the 449 (1, 3, 5-year survival rate was 69.5%, 41.5%, 32.4%) with BCLC stage C disease (hazard ratio 1.65, 95% confidence interval 1.29 to 2.12). The two groups had similar recurrence-free survival (hazard ratio 1.19, 95% confidence interval 0.92 to 1.53), but most patients with rupture were able to receive interventional and potentially curative treatments after recurrence, whereas most patients in BCLC stage C received interventional or supportive care. Similar results were obtained after propensity score matching. Conclusion: HCC patients who experience spontaneous rupture tumor while in BCLC stage A or B have better prognosis than patients in BCLC stage C without rupture. Our results suggest that HCC patients who suffer rupture in BCLC stage A or B should not be assigned to BCLC stage C.

Liuzhou river snail rice noodle is a local characteristic food of Liuzhou with fresh, spicy, sour and “smelly”. With the rapid development of pre-packaged river snail rice noodle, the concerns such as unstable quality and inconsistent standards have begun to emerge. The quality and unique flavor of Liuzhou river snail rice noodle are closely related to the flavor substances of its raw materials. The detection and analysis of its flavor substances is one of the key factors to measure the quality of river snail rice noodle. In this paper, based on the features of flavor substances of raw materials such as snails, sour bamboo shoots and chili oil in Liuzhou snail powder, the sources of its flavor substances were reviewed mainly according to the current research on river snail rice noodle and the related techniques of flavor substances detection. The effects of flavor substances of raw materials and excipients were systematically expounded. The development prospect of common detection techniques of flavor substances in the analysis of flavor substances and the key flavor substances of raw materials and excipients were further reviewed. The disadvantages of the research on the flavor substances of were pointed out, and the future research direction of its flavor substances was put forward, aming to provide theoretical support for the improvement, standardization and development of new products of Liuzhou river snail rice noodle.

In view of problem that it is difficult to measure impact frequency of pneumatic anchor drill, the paper proposed a design scheme of new type of measuring instrument of impact frequency of pneumatic anchor drill. The instrument uses pressure sensor to collect impact signal of drill, and uses voltage comparator and monostable trigger to process the signal which is input into single-chip microcomputer to count impact frequency of drill. The actual application showed that the instrument can measure impact frequency of drill accurately and easily.

Most cardiac diseases are associated with fibrosis. Calcineurin (CaN) is regulated by [Ca.sup.2+]/calmodulin (CaM). The CaN-NFAT (nuclear factor of activated T cell) pathway is involved in the process of cardiac diseases, such as cardiac hypertrophy, but its effect on myocardial fibrosis remains unclear. The present study investigates whether the CaN-NFAT pathway is involved in cardiac fibroblast (CF) proliferation induced by electrical field stimulation (EFS), which recently became a popular treatment for heart failure and cardiac tissue engineering. CF proliferation was evaluated by a cell survival assay (MTT) and cell counts. Myocardial fibrosis was assessed by collagen I and collagen III protein expression. Green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged NFAT was used to detect NFAT nuclear translocation. CF proliferation, myocardial fibrosis, CaN activity, and NFAT nuclear translocation were enhanced by EFS. More importantly, these effects were abolished by CaN inhibitors, dominant negative CaN (DN-CaN), and CaN gene silenced with siRNA. Furthermore, buffering intracellular [Ca.sup.2+] with BAPTA-AM and blocking [Ca.sup.2+] influx with nifedipine suppressed EFS-induced increase in intracellular [Ca.sup.2+] and CF proliferation. These results suggested that the CaN-NFAT pathway mediates CF proliferation, and that the CaN-NFAT pathway might be a possible therapeutic target for EFS-induced myocardial fibrosis and cardiac tissue engineering. Key words: electrical field stimulation, calcineurin, nuclear factor of activated T cells, rat, cardiac fibroblasts, proliferation. La plupart des maladies cardiaques sont associees a la fibrose. La calcineurine (CaN) est regulee par la [Ca.sup.2+]/ calmoduline (CaM). La voie CaN-NFAT (nuclear factor of activated T cell) est impliquee dans le developpement de maladies cardiaques comme l'hypertrophie cardiaque, mais son effet sur la fibrose du myocarde demeure mal defini. La presente etude vise a determiner si la voie CaN/NFAT est impliquee dans la proliferation des fibroblastes cardiaques (FC) induite par une stimulation par champ electrique (SCE), qui est recemment devenue populaire comme traitement de l'insuffisance cardiaque et dans l'ingenierie cardiaque electrique. La proliferation de FC a ete evaluee par un test de survie cellulaire (MTT) et par decompte cellulaire. La fibrose du myocarde a ete evaluee par l'expression du collagene I et du collagene III. NFAT marque par une etiquette de proteine fluorescente verte GFP a ete utilise pour detecter la translocation nucleaire de NFAT. La proliferation [d.sub.es] FC, la fibrose du myocarde, l'activite de la CaN et la translocation nucleaire de NFAT et aient augmentees par la SCE. Qui plus est, ces effets etaient abolis par des inhibiteurs de CaN, par un dominant negatif de CaN (DN-CaN) et par le silencage genique de CaN par un siARN. En outre, tant le tamponnage de [Ca.sup.2+] intracellulaire par le BAPTA-AM que le bloquage d'influx de [Ca.sup.2+] par la nifedipine supprimaient l'accroissement de [Ca.sub.2+] intracellulaire induit par la SCE et la proliferation des FC. Ces resultats suggerent que la proliferation des FC dependante de la voie CaN-NFAT et CaN-NFAT pourraient possiblement constituer des cibles therapeutiques dans la fibrose du myocarde induite par la SCE et l'ingenierie cardiaque electrique. Mots-cles: stimulation par champ electrique, calcineurine, facteur NFAT, fibroblastes cardiaques, proliferation. [Traduit par la Redaction], Introduction Most cardiac diseases are reported to be associated with fibrosis (Krenning et al. 2010). In general, fibrosis is a scarring process that is characterized by fibroblast proliferation and excess [...]