Application of CT Image Scanning Technology Based on Iris Algorithm in Clinical Diagnosis of Patients with Hepatobiliary Stones

Objective: To investigate the value of multi-slice spiral CT in the diagnosis of extrahepatic bile duct stones using Iris algorithm. Methods: 66 cases of extrahepatic bile duct stones underwent plain and enhanced multiline spiral CT. Observe the density, size, location and number of stones during the plain scan. According to the venous phase enhanced scan, the extrahepatic bile duct wall ≥2 mm was used as the thickening criterion to evaluate the stone density, size, number, and composition ratio of the site and its relationship with tube wall thickening. Results: A total of 57 cases of stones of different densities were found on CT. Nine cases of stones of equal density were not identified. Among the 56 cases with thickened wall, 87.50% (49/56) were concentric and 12.50% (7/56) were eccentric. The wall thickening occurred 62.50% (35/56) below the stone; 17.86% (10/56) was located on the level or above the stone, and 8.93% (5/56) was above the stone. 6 cases (6/56) (10.71%) showed extensive tube wall thickening, all caused by multiple stones. Conclusion: In the study of extrahepatic bile duct stones using the Iris algorithm, it was found that most concentric circular tube wall thickening occurred on or below the stone level. When plain CT scan does not show clear bile duct stones, and this phenomenon appears in the portal vein phase of enhanced scan, the possibility of stones should be considered.

Altered Ca2+ Homeostasis in Immune Cells during Aging: Role of Ion Channels

Aging is an unstoppable process and begins shortly after birth. Each cell of the organism is affected by the irreversible process, not only with equal density but also at varying ages and with different speed. Therefore, aging can also be understood as an adaptation to a continually changing cellular environment. One of these very prominent changes in age affects Ca2+ signaling. Especially immune cells highly rely on Ca2+-dependent processes and a strictly regulated Ca2+ homeostasis. The intricate patterns of impaired immune cell function may represent a deficit or compensatory mechanisms. Besides, altered immune function through Ca2+ signaling can profoundly affect the development of age-related disease. This review attempts to summarize changes in Ca2+ signaling due to channels and receptors in T cells and beyond in the context of aging.

PSVII-21 The impact of cell culture and copper dose on copper trafficking genes in bovine liver

The objective of the current experiment was to investigate the influence of Cu dose on the relative abundance of Cu trafficking genes in cultured bovine hepatocytes. A liver sample was obtained immediately post-mortem from one healthy Angus steer. Hepatocytes were isolated, counted, and seeded at equal density into 15 separate wells, and incubated for 1 hour in culture media containing: 0.0, 0.10, 1.0, 10.0, or 100 mg Cu/L (3 replicates per Cu dose). Following incubation, cells were collected and total RNA was isolated. Quantitative RT-PCR was used to determine the abundance of transcripts for proteins involved in Cu homeostasis. The identified targets were: ALDH2, APOA1, ATOX1, ATP7A, ATP7B, BHMT, BLVRB, CA2, CCS, COX17, CTR1, ELN, GAPDH, GLUD1, GSS, LOXL1, PDIA3, SOD1, SOD3. β-Actin (ACTB) served as the endogenous control. Significant linear responses existed for ALDH2 (P < 0.001), ATOX1 (P < 0.01), PDIA3 (P < 0.05). As Cu dose increased, the relative abundance of ALDH2 increased, and ATOX1 and PDIA3 decreased. Significant quadratic responses existed for ATP7B (P < 0.001), COX17 (P < 0.05), and SOD1 (P < 0.05). The relative abundance of COX17 was lesser at 0.1 and 1.0 mg Cu/L when compared to 0.0, 10, and 100 mg Cu/L. Transcript abundance for ATP7B and SOD1 was lower at 0, 1, and 100 mg Cu/L when compared to 0.1 and 10 mg Cu/L. These data indicate that certain transcripts are differentially expressed in cultured bovine hepatocytes in response to increasing Cu dose.

There is no coincidence after all!

We show that if Dark Matter is made up of light bosons, they form a Bose–Einstein condensate in the early Universe. This in turn naturally induces a Dark Energy of approximately equal density and exerting negative pressure. This explains the so-called coincidence problem.

Two-Step Sintering of Partially Stabilized Zirconia for Applications in Ceramic Crowns

Partially-stabilized zirconia is used in ceramic crowns due to its excellent mechanical properties and bio-inertness but does not match the natural color and translucency of tooth enamel. To reduce scattering of light and improve translucency, the grain size of zirconia ceramics should be less than the wavelength of visible light (0.4–0.7 μm), and porosity should be eliminated. The aim of the present work was to study the effect of two-step sintering of a commercial powder (Zpex Smile, Tosoh Corp., Tokyo, Japan) on the grain size and translucency of zirconia for use in ceramic crowns. Samples were sintered at a first step temperature (T1) of 1300, 1375 and 1400 °C for 5 min, followed by a decrease to the second step temperature (T2) and holding at T2 for 5–20 h. Samples were also conventionally sintered at 1450 °C for 2 h for comparison. Two-step sintered samples with an almost equal density, smaller grain size and narrower grain size distribution compared to conventionally sintered samples could be sintered. However, the translucency of two-step sintered samples had lower values compared to conventionally sintered samples. This is due to the slightly higher porosity in the two-step sintered samples. Density and translucency of both conventionally and two-step sintered samples could be increased further by using a ball milled powder.

Value of Multi-slice Spiral CT in the Diagnosis and Resectability of Pancreatic Cancer

Objective: To analyze the value of multi-slice spiral CT in the diagnosis and resectability of pancreatic cancer. Method: 56 patients with pancreatic cancer treated in our hospital from January 2018 to October 2019 were selected as the research subjects. All patients underwent multi-phase scanning by multi-slice spiral CT. According to the results of the images, observe whether the pancreatic cancer has affected the blood vessels surrounding the pancreas, evaluate the resectability based on the results of the examination, and analyze the final results of the operation which was taken as the standard. Results: all the 56 cases presented slightly low density or equal density, and 28 cases had complete outline. Multi-slice spiral assessment of patients’ vascular invasion types found that 192 branches can be resected with 70 branches cannot; Multi-slice spiral assessment of the main arterial and venous invasion grades around the pancreas of the patients found that 212 branches can be resected with 50 branches cannot; Multi-slice spiral CT was used to evaluate the resectability of pancreatic cancer compared with surgical results. The accuracy of resectable types of vascular invasion was 72.52%; the accuracy of resectable vascular invasion grades was 79.39%. Conclusion: the application of multi-slice spiral CT in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer can provide a clear understanding of the condition of vascular invasion and distant metastasis, and the accuracy of assessing resection can reach more than 70.00%, which provides a reference for clinical application.

Normalization of green space as a component of ecological stability of a town

The article analyzes and compares the existing quantitative norms of green space in different cities of Ukraine and other countries. It is substantiated that the index of provision of green space per capita is significantly more informative under the condition of equal density of the urban population and must necessarily be supplemented by the indicator – the level of greening. The comparison of data relative to Ukrainian cities is complicated by the categorization of green plantings adopted in the country, rather than the green spaces, as practiced in most countries. Despite the relatively low density of settlements, the provision of green space per capita in Ukrainian cities often does not meet the requirements of EU and UN. The primary use of the recreational function of green plantations in modern conditions is appropriate to reorient to the ecological function of green spaces and sustainable urban development. We consider necessity to introduce a minimal environmental norm for the total number of green spaces within the city territory regardless of the form of ownership.<br /><br />

Stability of lubricated viscous gravity currents. Part 2. Global analysis and stabilisation by buoyancy forces

The novel viscous fingering instability recently found in the experiments of Kowal & Worster (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 766, 2015, pp. 626–655), involving two superposed currents of viscous fluid, has been shown to originate at the lubrication front when the fluids are of equal density. However, when the densities are unequal, additional buoyancy forces associated with the underlying layer act to suppress this instability and are largest at the lubrication front, which is where the instability originates. In this paper, we investigate the interaction between the mechanism of the instability and the stabilising influence of these buoyancy forces by performing a global and fully time-dependent analysis, which does not use the frozen-time approximation. We determine a critical condition for instability in terms of the viscosity ratio and the density difference between the two layers. Consistently with the local analysis of the companion paper, instabilities occur when the jump in hydrostatic pressure gradient across the lubrication front is negative, or, equivalently, when the intruding fluid is less viscous than the overlying fluid, provided the two fluids are of equal densities. Once there is a non-zero density difference, these driving buoyancy forces suppress the instability for large wavelengths, giving rise to wavelength selection. As the density difference increases, the instability criterion requires higher viscosity ratios for any instability to occur, and the band of unstable wavenumbers becomes bounded. Large enough density differences suppress the instability completely.

Study on the Effect of Graphene Oxide with Low Oxygen Content on Portland Cement Based Composites

The current study presents research into the effect of graphene oxide (GO) with a carbon to oxygen ratio of 4:1 on the fluidity, hydration, microstructure, mechanical and physical properties of Portland cement pastes and mortars. The amounts of GO investigated were 0.02%, 0.04%, and 0.06% by weight of cement, while for mortars, an extra composition with 0.1% was also prepared. According to the results, the fluidity of cement paste and mortar increased and the hydration process was slightly retarded with the addition of GO. Despite this, improvements in compressive and flexural strength were established in the mortars containing GO. The maximum effects (~22% and ~6%, respectively) were obtained with the addition of 0.06% GO. The calculation of estimated strength proportional to samples of equal density showed that for mortars cured for 7 days the gain in strength was directly related to the gain in density. For mortar samples cured for 28 days, the estimated strength was found to be significantly higher than that of the reference sample, indicating that besides density there are other factors determining the improvement in strength of mortars modified with GO. The possible structure strengthening mechanisms are discussed.