Virus-like particles encapsulating HBV-RNA represent a serum biomarker for assessing viral replication activity in clinical practice. However, baseline levels of serum HBV-RNA and their associations with viral replicative intermediates and liver disease in phases of chronic hepatitis B remain unknown. In this cross-sectional study, 102 patients were categorized into immune-tolerant (IT), HBeAg-positive immune active (HBeAg+IA), inactive carrier (IC) and HBeAg-negative immune active (HBeAg-IA) phases. HBV-RNA in serum samples and in 66 paired liver biopsies were quantified and correlated with serum ALT levels, histopathological scores and the levels of other viral replicative intermediates. Mean levels of serum HBV-RNA differed among phases, with the highest levels among IT (6.78 ± 0.83 log copies mL ) patients, followed by HBeAg+IA (5.73 ± 1.16 log copies mL ), HBeAg-IA (4.52 ± 1.25 log copies mL ) and IC (2.96 ± 0.40 log copies mL ) patients. Serum HBV-RNA levels correlated with HBV DNA in all phases, although correlations with other viral replicative intermediates weakened or disappeared when cases were stratified into phases. Distinct compositions of viral products were found among phases: the ratio of HBsAg to serum HBV-RNA was highest in IC patients, while the ratio of serum HBV-RNA to intrahepatic HBV-RNA and the ratio of intrahepatic HBV-DNA to intrahepatic HBV-RNA were significantly higher in IT patients. In conclusion, baseline levels of HBV-RNA and the composition of viral replicative intermediates differ significantly across the natural course of chronic HBV infection. These findings shed light on the nature of viral replication and pathogenesis of disease among different phases of chronic HBV infection.

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Crystalline Er2O3 thin films were epitaxially grown on Si (001) substrates. The dielectric constant of the film with an equivalent oxide thickness of 2.0nm is 14.4. The leakage current density as small as 1.6×10−4A∕cm2 at a reversed bias voltage of −1V has been measured. Atomically sharp Er2O3∕Si interface, superior electrical properties, and good time stability of the Er2O3 thin film indicate that crystalline Er2O3 thin film can be an ideal candidate of future electronic devices.

4 CFU, most of the clinical isolates and H37Ra (an avirulent strain) exhibited no intracellular survival on day 10, while the three hypervirulent strains together with H37Rv (a virulent strain) showed on average a two-to fourfold rise in CFU count. These three hypervirulent strains belonging to a non-Beijing family were isolated from patients suffering from tuberculosis meningitis. Cytokines secreted by gamma interferon-activated macrophages were measured daily after challenge with selected strains of M. tuberculosis. The levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha were elevated after 24 h of infection among all strains, but the levels were significantly lower among the three hypervirulent strains, whereas interleukin 10 (IL-10) and IL-12 were not detected. Results were concordant with the differential expression of the corresponding cytokine genes in activated macrophages, as monitored by real-time PCR. Our findings highlighted that these three hypervirulent strains may possess an innate mechanism for escaping host immunity, which accounts for their characteristic virulence in patients presenting with a more severe form of disease.

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Spatial time series is a common type of data dealt with in many domains, such as economic statistics and environmental science. There have been many studies focusing on finding and analyzing various kinds of events in time series; the term 'event' refers to significant changes or occurrences of particular patterns formed by consecutive attribute values. We focus on a further step in event analysis: finding and exploring events that frequently co-occurred with a target class of similar events having occurred repeatedly over a period of time. This type of analysis can provide important clues for understanding the formation and spreading mechanisms of events and interdependencies among spatial locations. We propose a visual exploration framework COPE (Co-Occurrence Pattern Exploration), which allows users to extract events of interest from data and detect various co-occurrence patterns among them. Case studies and expert reviews were conducted to verify the effectiveness and scalability of COPE using two real-world datasets.

Patients with patellar cartilage lesions have an increased tendon length/patellar length ratio. The abnormal patella height is significantly correlated with chondral lesions and can be used as a potential diagnostic marker.

Thin high-k dielectric HfO2 films are deposited on Si(100) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy using Hf and atomic oxygen source. The composition of the film is determined to be stoichiometric HfO2. The very flat surface of the deposited film with a root mean square roughness less than 0.16nm without any visible pin holes down to the nanometer size can be reached. The film maintains good thermal stability after annealing at 900°C for 15min in N2 ambient. The refractive index of the film is 1.89 with a negligible extinction coefficient in the visible wavelength region and the dielectric constant is around 19. A low leakage current of 1.61×10−3A∕cm2 at −2V bias is achieved for a film with the equivalent oxide thickness of 2.4nm after annealing.