Search

The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism of hepatocyte apoptosis and regeneration after partial hepatectomy in obstructive jaundice (OJ) rats under different drainage methods of bile acid intervention. Forty male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups. An OJ rat model was established by the following protocols. Seven days after obstruction, an SD rats model with 70% partial hepatectomy was established by different drainage methods of OJ. Blood and liver tissue samples were collected from rats 72 h after surgery; 72 h after partial hepatectomy (PH), the liver regeneration rate, the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and the level of mitotic index (MI) in the internal biliary drainage (IBD) group were higher than those in external biliary drainage (EBD) group (P less than 0.05). Those in the EBD group were higher compared to the OJ group (P less than 0.05). There was no significant difference among the IBD group, EBD+CA group and (SO) sham operation group (P0.05). Bax expressions had the same trend as AI in the five groups. The expression of Bcl-2 was increased in the IBD group and EBD+CA group, which was statistically higher compared to the SO group (P less than 0.05). In conclusion, both internal and external drainage can relieve biliary obstruction. The difference in liver regeneration caused by external drainage and internal drainage may be attributed to the destruction of bile acid enterohepatic circulation, which increases hepatocyte apoptosis and affects liver regeneration.

Eosinophilic gastroenteritis (EG) is uncommon disease, and the pathogenesis of this disease have yet to be fully clarified.This study was to describe the clinical manifestations, endoscopic features and treatment outcomes of a cohort of patients with EG.This retrospective study was included 28 consecutive patients who were diagnosed EG between January 2011 and December 2015 in Taizhou Hospital. The patients' clinical manifestations, endoscopic features and treatment outcomes were reviewed from a prospectively maintained database.Twenty-eight patients with EG were enrolled in the study (median age 54 years). The main symptoms were abdominal pain (78.6%), abdominal distension (50.0%), nausea and vomiting (28.6%) and diarrhea (25.0%). Laboratory examinations showed the elevation of blood eosinophil count (85.7%), serum IgE (71.4%). Endoscopic findings included small patchy mucosal erythema or erosions (75.0%), mucosal fold thickening (17.9%), submucosal nodules (21.4%), small gastroduodenal ulcers (14.3%). Twenty patients were treated and responded to prednisolone but five patients (25.0%) relapsed during the follow-up. The other 8 patients were treated with loratadine, proton pump inhibitors and dietary modification, 5 patients had clinical resolution during the follow-up. The other 3 patients did not achieve clinical remission, and then were given prednisone treatment.For some patients with gastrointestinal symptoms and peripheral eosinophilia, a high suspicion of EG is necessary and multiple endoscopic examinations might be helpful in diagnosis of EG. Most patients with EG could achieve remission after with the treatment of steroid or dietary elimination therapy.

New NiCo–Pt nanopolyhedron inlay-structures with an average diameter of ∼450 nm have been synthesized through replacement deposition Co or Ni by reductive replacement with a Pt submonolayer (galvanic replacement) on NiCo hexagonal nanoplates and nanoicosahedrons. The resultant products are investigated as hydrolytic dehydrogenation catalyst for potential hydrogen energy applications. The NiCo–Pt nanopolyhedrons exhibit higher catalytic activity than NiCo nanopolyhedrons for the hydrolysis of borane in aqueous ammonia borane at ambient atmosphere and room temperature. In particular, the NiCo–Pt hexagonal nanoplates exhibit efficient catalytic activity with a lower activation energy of 45.72 kJ mol −1 than that (49.4 kJ mol −1 ) for NiCo.

The NiCo@Pt nanoallys from icosahedrons to hollow spheres are synthesized through the element lithographic process based on NiCo nanoicosahedrons. The morphology, structure, magnetic property, and its synergistic photocatalysis of nano-ZnO have been investigated by scan electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, vibration sample magnetometry measurement, and UV–vis spectroscopy. The as-prepared NiCo@Pt magnetic hollow nanospheres have the UV- and visible-light-driven synergistic photocatalysis for ZnO toward the degradation of dye wastewater. Especially the different coorporation photocatalysis can be observed under UV- and UV-filtered visible-light illumination, in which Ni45Co37@Pt18 under UV-light and Ni31Co26@Pt43 under visible-light exhibit the strongest enhancement for the photocatalytic reactivity of ZnO, respectively. The coercivity Hc and saturation magnetization Ms first decrease with the ...

New dimensional NiCo alloy icosahedral nanocrystals with controllable size have been first reported and synthesized through an Ostwald ripening process in a template-absent solvothermal reaction system. The proposed synthesis is corroborated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The as-obtained NiCo icosahedral nanocrystals exhibit the size- and component-dependent magnetic behaviors. The coercivity (H(c)) depends on both the magnetocrystalline and structure anisotropy, and the saturation magnetizations (M(s)) decided by the content of Co. H(c) decreases from 189.02 to 147.95 Oe with the increase of the icosahedral NCs size from 200 to 850 nm. Especially, the H(c) of the icosahedral NCs at 157.38 Oe is higher than that of nanospheres at 104.02 Oe. In addition, M(s) and H(c) increased with the increasing Co content. It can be an ideal building block for applications in magnetic media, sensors, and other devices.

SummaryBackground: In the concept of cloud-computing-based systems, various authorized users have secure access to patient records from a number of care delivery organizations from any location. This creates a growing need for remote visualization, advanced image processing, state-of-the-art image analysis, and computer aided diagnosis.Objectives: This paper proposes a system of algorithms for automatic detection of anatomical landmarks in 3D volumes in the cloud computing environment. The system addresses the inherent problem of limited bandwidth between a (thin) client, data center, and data analysis server.Methods: The problem of limited bandwidth is solved by a hierarchical sequential detection algorithm that obtains data by progressively transmitting only image regions required for processing. The client sends a request to detect a set of landmarks for region visualization or further analysis. The algorithm running on the data analysis server obtains a coarse level image from the data center and generates landmark location candidates. The candidates are then used to obtain image neighborhood regions at a finer resolution level for further detection. This way, the landmark locations are hierarchically and sequentially detected and refined.Results: Only image regions surrounding landmark location candidates need to be trans- mitted during detection. Furthermore, the image regions are lossy compressed with JPEG 2000. Together, these properties amount to at least 30 times bandwidth reduction while achieving similar accuracy when compared to an algorithm using the original data.Conclusions: The hierarchical sequential algorithm with progressive data transmission considerably reduces bandwidth requirements in cloud-based detection systems.

We present the results of the characterization of Mg/Co periodic multilayers and their thermal stability for the EUV range. The annealing study is performed up to a temperature of 400\degree C. Images obtained by scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy clearly show the good quality of the multilayer structure. The measurements of the EUV reflectivity around 25 nm (~49 eV) indicate that the reflectivity decreases when the annealing temperature increases above 300\degreeC. X-ray emission spectroscopy is performed to determine the chemical state of the Mg atoms within the Mg/Co multilayer. Nuclear magnetic resonance used to determine the chemical state of the Co atoms and scanning electron microscopy images of cross sections of the Mg/Co multilayers reveal changes in the morphology of the stack from an annealing temperature of 305\degreee;C. This explains the observed reflectivity loss., Comment: Published in Applied Physics A: Materials Science \& Processing Published at http://www.springerlink.com.chimie.gate.inist.fr/content/6v396j6m56771r61/ 21 pages

We have developed and elaborated a series of Mg/Co-based periodic multilayers to build efficient mirrors for the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) range. For s-polarized light and at 45° of grazing incidence, the reflectivity of as-deposited Mg/Co is 42.6% at 25.1 nm. X-ray emission spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance measurements do not indicate any noticeable interdiffusion at the interfaces between layers. Scanning transmission electronic microscopy images attest the high structural quality of the stack. X-ray reflectivity (XRR) curves in the hard x-ray and EUV domains confirm this description and estimate a weak interfacial roughness (~ 0.5 nm). Taking advantage of the magnetic character of Co, we have performed resonant magnetic reflectivity measurements by scanning the photon energy around the Co L absorption edge for opposite circular polarizations. The magnetization profile of the Co layers within Co/Mg determined with an expected depth resolution of one monolayer confirms the interface abruptness. Scanning electron microscopy images and XRR curves give evidence of the thermal stability of Mg/Co up to 300 °C. From that value, a strong change in the sample morphology due to the delamination of the multilayer from the substrate occurs. This should account for the drastic reflectivity drop observed above this temperature. Starting from Mg/Co, we have inserted a Zr layer at one or at the other interface or at both interfaces to estimate the effect of the introduction of a third material within the period. We have found that Mg/Co/Zr is more efficient (50% of reflectivity) than Mg/Zr/Co and Mg/Zr/Co/Zr (~ 40%). Through time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry depth profiling and NMR measurements, we have assigned this difference to an intermixing process when Co layers are deposited onto Zr layers.

Reprinted with permission from (J. Phys. Chem. C, 2010, 114 (14), pp 6484-6490). Copyright (2010) American Chemical Society.; International audience; We propose a new system, namely the periodic Co/Mg multilayer system, for optics applications in the EUV range. Close to the Mg L edge, i.e., around a wavelength of 25 nm or a photon energy of 50 eV, a reflectivity of about 43% is measured at 45° for s-polarized radiation. Moreover, it appears that this system is stable over a period of time of three months. The introduction of thin boron carbide interfacial layers proves disastrous contrary to simulations that show this could be beneficial. We combine X-ray reflectivity in the hard X-ray range, X-ray emission spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance to determine the thickness and roughness of the Co and Mg layers as well as the chemical state of the Co and Mg atoms at the interfaces. This reveals that in the Co/Mg system the interfaces are abrupt and there is no interdiffusion between the Co and Mg layers. Then the difference between the experimental and simulated reflectivities is ascribed to the interfacial roughness of the order of 0.4 nm. In the Co/Mg/B4C system, evidence of a large mixing of the Co and B4C layers is presented and explains the poor reflectance of this system.

We study the introduction of a third material, namely Zr, within a nanometric periodic Mg/Co structure designed to work as optical component in the extreme UV (EUV) spectral range. Mg/Co, Mg/Zr/Co, Mg/Co/Zr and Mg/Zr/Co/Zr multilayers are designed, then characterized in terms of structural quality and optical performances through X-ray and EUV reflectometry measurements respectively. For the Mg/Co/Zr structure, the reflectance value is equal to 50% at 25.1 nm and 45deg of grazing incidence and reaches 51.3% upon annealing at 200deg C. Measured EUV reflectivity values of tri-layered systems are discussed in terms of material order within a period and compared to the predictions of the theoretical model of Larruquert. Possible applications are pointed out., Comment: 19 pages

We present the results of the thermal stability of Mg/Co multilayers in the EUV range. The annealing study is performed up to a temperature of 400°C. The X-ray reflectivity at 0.154 nm is used in order to determine the structural parameters (thickness, roughness and density) of the layers. The measurements of the EUV reflectivity around 25 nm show that the reflectivity decreases when the annealing temperature increases above 300°C. X-ray emission spectroscopy is performed to determine the chemical state of the Mg atoms within the Mg/Co multilayer. The results show a small oxidation after annealing at 305°C, which increases greatly at 400°C. Scanning electron microscopy images of cross sections of the multilayer show a change of the surface morphology above 305°C. This large change of morphology and the oxidation explain the large reflectivity loss.

A new material combination namely Co/Mg multilayer designed for optics applications in the EUV range, is reported. Simulations show that reflectivity value of the Co/Mg multilayer can reach a reflectivity of 55% at 25.2 nm (49.2 eV), when the grazing incidence angle is set to 45° and s polarization is considered. The introduction of additional materials, e.g., Y and Zr can improve the reflectivity to 61%. Co/Mg and Co/Mg/B4C multilayers have been deposited following the parameters deduced from the simulations. The introduction of a B4C barrier layer would in principle increase the multilayer reflectivity to 61%. In fact the reflectivity measurements at 0.154 nm show that the introduction of B4C does not improve the structural quality of the multilayers.

In this paper, we exploit the context information embodied in an image to develop a machine learning method called context ranking machine (CRM). Specifically, we leverage two kinds of context information: identity context and metric context. The identity context of an image patch refers to its origin (e.g., from which image it is cropped), and the metric context refers to its distance to the exact surrounding box of the target object inside the image. We use these context information in two ways. First, for object localization, instead of learning classifiers to separate the whole negative pool from all positives, we separate each positive from its own negatives sharing the same identity context. Second, we rank image patches according to their resemblance to the ground truth by establishing a connection between appearance based features and metric properties of the image. The CRM learns an image-based ranking algorithm via boosting and achieves an improved localization accuracy. We performed tests on echocardiogram images to localize heart chambers, and face images for eye band localization.

Metastable transfer emission spectronmetry (MTES) has been shown to be an extremely sensitive method for the determination of trace metals. In this work it was shown that MTES can also be used as a sensitive method for the determination of SO2 EDF and capillary sampling system were employed to determine the detection limit of the flowing afterglow system on the SO2 detection. The characteristic emission lines of SO2 (~a3B1 → ~X1A1) are used to detect the concentration of SO2 and also can be used to identify SO2 from other S-containing molecules such as CS2. In addition S02 in a flowing tube has been detected down to 45μg m-3 by means of metastable N2 (A3ΣU+) energy transfer emission spectroscopy. The linear measurement range is from 0.045 to 0.8 mg m-3. The capability of metastable transfer emission spectroscopy in the quantitative determination of S02 has been evaluated. And the lowest detection limit of S02 in the dilution gas N2 has been confirmed to be about 10 times as much as that in the air because of the great consumption of N2 (A3Σu+) by 02.

To evaluate the MRI in the differential diagnosis of acute non-traumatic vertebral collapse.Sixty-eight cases were retrospected. All cases were studied with sagittal T1-weighted MR images, T2-weighted MR images, gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted MR images, and axial T1-weighted MR images. Twelve of 68 were performed extra coronal T1-weighted MR images and 22 with additional axial gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted images.The causes of vertebral collapse were: (1) osteoporosis (n = 31), their images showed retropulsion of bony fragments of collapsed vertebral body which kept the normal signal into the spinal canal as the distinctive sign; (2) metastatic tumor (n = 30), their images showed destructions of pedicles of vertebral and epidural mass as the distinctive sign, and hyperintense or mixed hyperintense signal on T2WI and enhanced T1WI of compressed vertebrae; and (3) multiple myeloma (n = 7), their images showed long T1WI and long T2WI, without destruction of pedicle and epidural mass in compressed vertebrae.MRI is useful to the differentiations of the non-traumatic vertebral collapse in aged.

It is generally believed that glycoprotein hormone exists in granules of the gonadotrophin (GTH) cells, and recent studies on the formation and secretion of glycoprotein hormones also concern much on the changes in the pituitary granules. In our previous studies, it was found that the secretion of luteinizing hormone (LH) was closely related to the morphological changes in pituitary vacuoles of rats, and the morphology of GTH cells was also closely related to the changes in vacuolar morphology. Therefore, it appears that there exists an inseparable relationship between the storage and secretion of LH and pituitary vacuoles. In order to examine whether the pituitary vacuoles contain LH in rats, and to further explore if LH is stored and released by the pituitary vacuoles, the vacuoles were separated and purified from pituitary, cortex and liver tissues by density gradient centrifugation. The vacuolar protein components, LH and glycoproteins were determined by the methods of SDS-PAGE, Western immunoblot and Con A/HRP, respectively. The results showed that (1) abundant protein components with various molecular masses were present in the vacuoles of the pituitary, cortex and liver in male, female and ovariectomized rats, and some of the protein components were similar in the molecular mass; (2) both pituitary tissues and vacuoles contained LH, and their LH levels had no significant difference by quantitative analysis of extracted protein samples; and (3) glycoproteins of various molecular masses were found in the vacuoles of the pituitary, cortex and liver, but the same position of stained glycoprotein band and LH molecular mass was only observed in the pituitary vacuoles. From the results given above, it can be concluded that LH specifically exists in the pituitary vacuoles, although there are some similar protein components in various cellular vacuoles. The possibility was further demonstrated at the molecular level that the pituitary vacuoles may have the function of storing and releasing LH due to the pituitary vacuoles containing LH with assembled glycone.

The relationship between the peak of LH release induced by exogenous LHRH and morphological change of LH cells in male rats was investigated by ABC Affinity histochemistry and qualitatively characterized by Medical Image Processing System-I. The serum LH concentration was determined by RIA. During the period of basal secretion of LH (3.76 +/- 0.39 ng/ml), the LH cells might be assigned at a storage state. Most of such cells (56.7%) are round and large, and their cross sectional areas are larger then 340 micron 2, usually containing large vacuoles, while the smaller cells of X-sectional area less then 190 micron 2 counted only 2% of the total population. Thirty minutes after injection of LHRH the serum LH level increased significantly (6.46 +/- 1.6 ng/ml, P0.01), there appeared a lot of small angular cells, the average cross sectional areas of LH cells decreased significantly (P0.0001). When LHRH was injected at sixty minutes, the LH level reached a peak (18.78 +/- 0.79 ng/ml), the number of the large cells decreased to only 4%, while the small cells increased to 66%, vacuoles were almost disapperanced and a large part of cells (52.6%) became irregular. Thereafter, the LH serum gradually subsided to its original basal level with attendant resumption of the morphology of the LH cells at storage state. It appears that the morphological changes, such as size, shape, vacuoles and so on, of the LH cells may serve as an important index for showing the effect of LHRH on LH secretion.

Uniform NiCo alloy hexagonal nanoplates were synthesized through a formaldehyde molecule controlled growth process. They are investigated as a crystal plane selective dehydrogenation catalyst for potential hydrogen energy applications and visible-light synergistic catalysts for nano-ZnO. The resultant NiCo alloy hexagonal nanoplates exert highly efficient crystal plane selective catalytic activity and long-term stability for the hydrolytic dehydrogenation of aqueous ammonia borane under ambient atmosphere at room temperature. Additionally, they exhibit crystal plane selective visible-light-driven enhanced catalysis enhancement for nano-ZnO towards the degradation of methylene blue solution. These results suggest the importance of the rational design and synthesis of NiCo alloy hexagonal nanoplates for high performance hydrogen energy and visible-light-driven catalysis applications.

We have developed Mg/Co, Mg/Zr/Co, Mg/Co/Zr, and Mg/Zr/Co/Zr periodic multilayers and measured at 25.1 nm a reflectivity (R) highly sensitive to the material order within the period. To understand why Mg/Co/Zr is a more efficient mirror (R=50%) than Mg/Zr/Co and Mg/Zr/Co/Zr (similar to 40%), we have probed the interface quality through time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance measurements. The Zr-on-Co interface is found quite sharp while a strong intermixing process is evidenced between the upper Co and lower Zr layers, responsible for the decrease in optical contrast and subsequent R loss. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3601859]

Rovibronic levels of the IF B 3Π(0+) state have been selectively excited using a cw dye laser in a crossed‐molecular‐beam experiment in which IF molecules were synthesized in the X 1∑+ ground state. Einstein A coefficients have been obtained from the fluorescence spectra. RKR potentials, Franck–Condon factors, and r centroids have been calculated using recently determined molecular constants for the X and the B state. The r‐centroid approximation was found to be valid for the B–X system of IF and the variation of the electronic transition moment with the internuclear distance was determined. Over a range of the internuclear distance, 1.9