The Role of Gut Dysbiosis in Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure

Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is an important syndrome of liver failure that has a high risk of short-term mortality in patients with chronic liver disease. The development of ACLF is associated with proinflammatory precipitating events, such as infection, alcoholic hepatitis, and intense systemic inflammation. Recently, the role of the gut microbiome has increasingly emerged in human health and disease. Additionally, the gut microbiome might have a major role in the development of liver disease. In this review, we examine evidence to support the role of gut dysbiosis in cirrhosis and ACLF. Additionally, we explore the mechanism by which the gut microbiome contributes to the development of ACLF, with a focus on alcohol-induced liver disease.     

Intravenous Vitamin C administration reduces fatigue in office workers: a double-blind randomized controlled trial

Background  

Studies of the efficacy of vitamin C treatment for fatigue have yielded inconsistent results. One of the reasons for this inconsistency could be the difference in delivery routes. Therefore, we planned a clinical trial with intravenous vitamin C administration.     

Effect of rhBMP-2 Immobilized Anorganic Bovine Bone Matrix on Bone Regeneration

Anorganic bovine bone matrix (Bio-Oss^®) has been used for a long time for bone graft regeneration, but has poor osteoinductive capability. The use of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2) has been suggested to overcome this limitation of Bio-Oss^®. In the present study, heparin-mediated rhBMP-2 was combined with Bio-Oss^® in animal experiments to investigate bone formation performance; heparin was used to control rhBMP-2 release. Two calvarial defects (8 mm diameter) were formed in a white rabbit model and then implanted or not (controls) with Bio-Oss^® or BMP-2/Bio-Oss^®. The Bio-Oss^® and BMP-2/Bio-Oss^® groups had significantly greater new bone areas (expressed as percentages of augmented areas) than the non-implanted controls at four and eight weeks after surgery, and the BMP-2/Bio-Oss^® group (16.50 ± 2.87 (n = 6)) had significantly greater new bone areas than the Bio-Oss^® group (9.43 ± 3.73 (n = 6)) at four weeks. These findings suggest that rhBMP-2 treated heparinized Bio-Oss^® markedly enhances bone regeneration.     

ZPL: a machine independent programming language for parallelcomputers

The goal of producing architecture-independent parallel programs is complicated by the competing need for high performance. The ZPL programming language achieves both goals by building upon an abstract parallel machine and by providing programming constructs that allow the programmer to “see” this underlying machine. This paper describes ZPL and provides a comprehensive evaluation of the language with respect to its goals of performance, portability, and programming convenience. In particular, we describe ZPt's machine-independent performance model, describe the programming benefits of ZPL's region-based constructs, summarize the compilation benefits of the language's high-level semantics, and summarize empirical evidence that ZPL has achieved both high performance and portability on diverse machines such as the IBM SP-2, Cray T3E, and SGI Power Challenge     

Rapid prototyping frameworks for developing scientific applications: A case study

In this paper, we describe a Python-based framework for the rapid prototyping of scientific applications. A case study was performed using a problem specification developed for Marmot, a project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory aimed at re-factoring standard physics codes into reusable and extensible components. Components were written in Python, ZPL, Fortran, and C++ following the Marmot component design. We evaluate our solution both qualitatively and quantitatively by comparing it to a single-language version written in C. Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration of the United States Department of Energy under contract W-7405-ENG-36, LA-UR-04-4655.     

Evaluation of Estrogenicity for 17 β-Estradiol Decomposition During Ozonation

To evaluate the decomposition and formation characteristics of estrogenic compounds during ozonation, semibatch ozonation experiments were conducted using the prototypical estrogen, 17β-estradiol (E₂). Ozonation was shown to be very effective for decomposition of E₂ and decrease of estrogenicity. An E₂ equivalent concentration index was introduced based on the estrogenicity intensity measured with Estrogen Competition Binding Assay (ECB Assay). The importance of evaluation of estrogenicity by ECB Assay was shown by the difference in removal efficiencies between E₂ equivalent concentration and the E₂ itself. Through this research, ozonation was shown to be a promising method to remove E₂ without any formation of estrogenic by-products from secondary-treated sewage, which contained E₂ of ngL level and total organic carbon (TOC) of several mgL.     

Effective control of pore water pressures on tunnel linings using pin-hole drain method

Leakage and pore water pressure are the main hydraulic factors to be considered in the design of a tunnel below the groundwater table. In particular, pore water pressure, which is the penetrating pressure, may accelerate structural deterioration and consequently increase leakage. Avoiding high water pressure is, therefore, one of the main concerns in the design of underwater tunnels. Reduction of pore water pressure is often necessary to secure structural safety, and is generally achieved by adopting peripheral filter drainage systems. The drainage system is, however, no longer valid for large and/or non-circular tunnels in deep water conditions. In addition, it is not possible to install such a drainage system for single shell tunnels. As an alternative measure, a pin-hole drain system has been increasingly used. However, there is not a great deal of information about the design of the system in the literature examined for this study. In this study, the hydraulic behavior of a pin-hole drain is investigated using the numerical method, and the applicability of the pin-hole method is evaluated by performing a numerical parametric study for various design parameters. Based on the analysis results, some design comments for the pin drainage system are made.     

Removal of endocrine-disrupting chemicals by ozonation in sewage treatment.

Treatment experiments by two laboratory scale semi-batch reactors and a demonstration scale process were both carried out to evaluate endocrine disrupting chemical removal characteristics by ozonation in sewage treatment. In the semi-batch mode experiments, secondary effluent and primary effluen of sewage treatment plants were ozonated respectively. Behaviour of brominated by-products was also evaluated. The results based on these studies indicated that estrogenicity in wastewater can be removed by ozonation effectively. The condition of ozonation until dissolved ozone concentration increased to 0.1 mg/L, which corresponded to 1 mgO3/mgC and 0.4 mgO3/mgC of ozone consumption per initial DOC for secondary effluent and primary effluent, respectively, is proposed as an appropriate operational condition for efficient removal of EDCs as well as UV254 and SUVA without production of brominated by-products.     

A regulated charge pump with small ripple voltage and fast start-up

A regulated charge pump circuit is realized in a 3.3-V 0.13-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. The charge pump exploits an automatic pumping control scheme to provide small ripple output voltage and fast start-up by decoupling output ripple and start-up time. The automatic pumping control scheme is composed of two schemes, an automatic pumping current control scheme and an automatic pumping frequency control scheme. The former automatically adjusts the size of pumping driver to reduce ripple voltage according to output voltage. The latter changes the pumping period by controlling a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). The output frequency of the VCO varies from 400 kHz to 600 kHz by controlling the input bias voltage of the VCO. The prototype chip delivers regulated 4.5-V output voltage from a supply voltage of 3.3 V with a flying capacitor of 330 nF, while providing 30 mA of load current. The area is 0.25 mm/sup 2/ and the measured output ripple voltage is less than 33.8 mV with a 2-/spl mu/F load capacitor. The power efficiency is greater than 70% at the range of load current from 1 to 30 mA. An analytical model for ripple voltage and recovery time is proposed demonstrating a reasonable agreement with SPICE simulation results.