AIM:To investigate the risk factors for gallstone disease in the general population of Chengdu, China. METHODS:This study was conducted at the West China Hospital. Subjects who received a physical examination at this hospital between January and December 2007 were included. Body mass index, blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, serum lipid and lipoproteins concentrations were analyzed. Gallstone disease was diagnosed by ultrasound or on the basis of a history of cholecystectomy because of gallstone disease. Unconditional logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the risk factors for gallstone disease, and the Chi-square test was used to analyze differences in the incidence of metabolic disorders between subjects with and without gallstone disease. RESULTS:A total of 3573 people were included, 10.7% (384/3573) of whom had gallstone diseases. Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that the incidence of gallstone disease in subjects aged 40-64 or ≥ 65 years was significantly different from that in those aged 18-39 years (P < 0.05); the incidence was higher in women than in men (P < 0.05). In men, a high level of fasting plasma glucose was obvious in gallstone disease (P < 0.05), and in women, hypertriglyceridemia or obesity were significant in gallstone disease (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION:We assume that age and sex are profoundly associated with the incidence of gallstone disease; the metabolic risk factors for gallstone disease were different between men and women.

Fluorinated multi-walled carbon nanotubes are prepared and used as cathode materials for fabricating lithium and sodium primary batteries.

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is one among the common adverse drug reactions and the leading causes of drug development attritions, black box warnings, and post-marketing withdrawals. Despite having relatively low clinical incidence, its potentially severe adverse events should be considered in the individual patients due to the high risk of acute liver failure. Although traditional liver parameters have been applied to the diagnosis of DILI, the lack of specific and sensitive biomarkers poses a major limitation, and thus accurate prediction of the subsequent clinical course remains a significant challenge. These drawbacks prompt the investigation and discovery of more effective biomarkers, which could lead to early detection of DILI, and improve its diagnosis and prognosis. Novel promising biomarkers include glutamate dehydrogenase, keratin 18, sorbitol dehydrogenase, glutathione S-transferase, bile acids, cytochrome P450, osteopontin, high mobility group box-1 protein, fatty acid binding protein 1, cadherin 5, miR-122, genetic testing, and omics technologies, among others. Furthermore, several clinical scoring systems have gradually emerged for the diagnosis of DILI including the Roussel Uclaf Causality Assessment Method (RUCAM), Clinical Diagnostic Scale (CDS), and Digestive Disease Week Japan (DDW-J) systems. However, currently their predictive value is limited with certain inherent deficiencies. Thus, perhaps the greatest benefit would be achieved by simultaneously combining the scoring systems and those biomarkers. Herein, we summarized the recent research progress on molecular biomarkers for DILI to improved approaches for its diagnosis and clinical management.

Black phosphorus has attracted interest as a material for use in optoelectronic devices due to many favorable properties such as a high carrier mobility, field-effect, and a direct bandgap that can range from 0.3 eV in its bulk crystalline form to 2 eV for a single atomic layer. The low bandgap energy for bulk black phosphorus allows for direct transition photoabsorption that enables detection of light out to mid-infrared frequencies. In this work we characterize the room temperature optical response of a black phosphorus photoconductive detector at wavelengths ranging from 1.56 µm to 3.75 µm. Pulsed autocorrelation measurements in the near-infrared regime reveal a strong, sub-linear photocurrent nonlinearity with a response time of 1 ns, indicating that gigahertz electrical bandwidth is feasible. Time resolved photoconduction measurements covering near-and mid-infrared frequencies show a fast 65 ps rise time, followed by a carrier relaxation with a time scale that matches the intrinsic limit determined by autocorrelation. The sublinear photoresponse is shown to be caused by a reduction in the carrier relaxation time as more energy is absorbed in the black phosphorus flake and is well described by a carrier recombination model that is nonlinear with excess carrier density. The device exhibits a measured noise-equivalent power of 530 pW·Hz −1/2 which is the expected value for Johnson noise limited performance. The fast and sensitive room temperature photoresponse demonstrates that black phosphorus is a promising new material for mid-infrared optoelectronics.2

Recently, the role of vitamin D in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) has attracted a lot attention. In this study, 128 naïve CHB patients (91 with positive HBeAg, 37 with negative-HBeAg) were enrolled, and 128 volunteers without liver diseases were enrolled as controls. Compared to that of healthy controls, the mean level of 25(OH)D3 in CHB patients was significantly lower; and the percent of patients with sufficient 25(OH)D3 (≥20 ng/mL) was also significantly lower than that of healthy controls. Among those CHB patients, the level of 25(OH)D3 was negatively correlated with the serum HBV-DNA level. Additionally, the level of 25(OH)D3 was significantly lower in HBeAg-positive patients than that in HBeAg-negative patients. After the patients went through the long-term antiviral treatments, both the mean level of 25(OH)D3 and the percent of patients with sufficient 25(OH)D3 increased significantly. Additionally, patients who were HBeAg free after the treatment also had much higher 25(OH)D3 level than those with persistent positive HBeAg. All those data suggested that the low vitamin D serum level was dangerous for CHB patients, and the level of 25(OH)D3 was highly negatively correlated with HBV-DNA levels. Effective antiviral therapy might increase the level of vitamin D in CHB patients.

BackgroundThe incidence of cryptococcal meningitis (CM) and tuberculous meningitis (TBM) have gradually increased in recent years. These two types of meningitis are easily misdiagnosed which leads to a poor prognosis. In this study we compared differences of clinical features and prognostic factors in non-HIV adults with CM and TBM.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed the medical records of CM and TBM patients from January 2008 to December 2015 in our university hospital in China. The data included demographic characteristics, laboratory results, imaging findings, clinical outcomes.ResultsA total of 126 CM and 105 TBM patients were included. CM patients were more likely to present with headache, abnormal vision and hearing, and they might be less prone to fever and cough than TBM patients (P < 0.05). Higher percentage of CM patients presented with cerebral ischemia/infarction and demyelination in brain MRI than TBM patients (P < 0.05). CM patients had lower counts of WBC in CSF, lower total protein in CSF and serum CD4/CD8 ratio than TBM patients (P < 0.05). After three months of treatment, CM group have worse outcome than TBM group (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that age more than 60y (OR = 4.981, 95% CI: 1.955–12.692, P = 0.001), altered mentation (OR = 5.054, 95% CI: 1.592–16.046, P = 0.006), CD4/CD8 ratios < 1 (OR = 8.782, 95% CI: 2.436–31.661, P = 0.001) and CSF CrAg ≥ 1:1024 (OR = 4.853, 95% CI: 1.377–17.098, P = 0.014) were independent risk factors for poor prognosis for CM patients. For TBM patients, hydrocephalus (OR = 7.290, 95% CI: 1.630–32.606, P = 0.009) and no less than three underlying diseases (OR = 6.899, 95% CI: 1.766–26.949, P = 0.005) were independent risk factors, headache was a protective factor of prognosis.ConclusionsOur study provided some helpful clues in the differential diagnosis of non-HIV patients with CM or TBM and identified some risk factors for the poor prognosis of these two meningitis which could help to improve the treatment outcome. Further studies are worth to be done.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12879-016-2126-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles modified with uniformly dispersed silver (Ag) nanoparticles (Ag-ZnO) were prepared in one step by calcining precursor electrospun nanofibers. The molar ratios of Ag to Zn in the precursor solutions were 0, 1, 3, and 5%. The microstructure of the Ag-ZnO sensor was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The existence of metallic Ag was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and the gas sensing properties of Ag-ZnO were investigated. The results showed that the ZnO nanoparticles after Ag nanoparticles modification exhibited excellent gas sensing performance to ethanol and hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S). The optimal working temperature of the Ag-ZnO sensor significantly decreased for ethanol compared with pure ZnO. The 3% Ag-ZnO sensor exhibited the fastest response to ethanol with the response/recovery times of only 5 and 9 s, respectively. However, all the Ag-ZnO-based gas sensors showed a high response value to H 2 S, especially the 3% Ag-ZnO gas sensor exhibited a maximum response value of 298 at 10 ppm H 2 S. These results could be attributed to the spillover effect and electron sensitization effect of Ag nanoparticles, which led to more absorbed oxygen species and active sites, and thereby can further enhance the gas sensing performances of ZnO-based gas sensors.

A comprehensive review on designs and mechanisms of ZnO-based NO2 gas sensors operated at low temperature.