Characterization of research trends and prospects on hepatic echinococcosis over the past forty years: a bibliometric analysis.

BACKGROUND: The distribution of hepatic echinococcosis (HE) is extensive, significantly impacting public health and economic development. Therefore, analyzing global collaboration networks and tracking developmental trends over the past four decades are crucial. This study aimed to demonstrate collaboration in the field of HE and explore key topics and future directions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Bibliometric analyses were conducted using CiteSpace, Bibliometrix package of R, and VOSviewer software on HE-related studies from the Web of Science Core Collection published before 1 August 2023. RESULTS: This study identified 2605 records published in 196 journals by 9860 authors from 2607 institutes in 90 countries. Publications significantly notably increased in 2021. Developing countries like Turkey and China made notable contributions, while developed countries like the USA had higher average citation rates. The largest nodes in every cluster of the collaboration network were Hacettepe University, Tehran University, Xinjiang Medical University, Salford University, and the University of Pavia, and the top-producing authors were Wen H, Vuitton DA, Gottstein B, and Craig PS. Keyword co-occurrence analysis suggested that surgical techniques and novel drugs targeting combined immune checkpoints are the main therapeutic approaches in the future. CONCLUSION: Although developing countries had significantly contributed to publications on HE, the citation rate for individual articles from developed countries was significantly higher. Additionally, advancements in surgical techniques and novel drugs targeting combined immune checkpoints may emerge as the next research focus and developmental direction.

Radical resection of hepatic alveolar echinococcosis combined with cystic echinococcosis: A case report.

RATIONALE: Hepatic Echinococcosis, is a zoonotic Parasitic disease with a worldwide distribution. Clinical cases of alveolar echinococcosis combined with cystic echinococcosis infection are extremely rare. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 58-year-old patient had found liver occupying lesions for more than 2 years. A left hepatic alveolar hydatid was found, occupying the entire left half of the liver, with a size of approximately 6.7 cm × 10.9 cm × 8.1 cm. The size of the right liver is about 9 × 8 cm cystic hydatid, mainly located in the S5 segment of the liver. Abdominal examination: the upper abdomen is swollen, and a hard mass can be touched under the right rib margin, with tenderness and no rebound pain. The bowel sounds are normal. DIAGNOSES: Abdominal MR shows an increase in liver volume and irregular morphology, with patchy abnormal signal shadows visible in the left lobe of the liver, with a range of approximately 6.7 cm × 10.9 cm × 8.1 cm, low signal on T1WI, low signal on T2WI and FS-T2WI, slightly high signal on diffusion weighted imaging, high signal on apparent diffusion coefficient, no significant enhancement of the lesion after enhancement. In addition, there is a clump like abnormal signal shadow visible in the right lobe of the liver, with a size of approximately 7.9 cm × 7.3 cm × 7.9 cm, low signal on T1WI, mixed high signal on T2WI, high signal on diffusion weighted imaging, mixed signal on apparent diffusion coefficient. Consider: Left lobe alveolar echinococcosis, and right lobe cystic echinococcosis (CE III type). INTERVENTIONS: A radical resection was performed, including expanded left hemi-hepatectomy, cholecystectomy, right hepatic lesion resection, partial right hepatic duct resection with right hepatic duct jejunostomy. OUTCOMES: The wound healed well after resection. There was no recurrence of TC after 4 years follow-up. LESSONS: The co-infection of alveolar echinococcosis and cystic echinococcosis in a patient is an exceedingly rare occurrence. Radical resection is the only curative treatment.

New Analysis Method for Adsorption in Gas (H2, CO)-Solid (SnO2) Systems Based on Gas Sensing.

The chemisorption phenomenon is widely used in the explanation of catalysis, gas-solid reactions, and gas sensing mechanisms. Generally, some properties of adsorbents, such as adsorption sites and dispersion, can be predicted by traditional methods through the variation of the chemisorption capacity with the temperature, pressure, and gas-solid interaction potential. However, these methods could not capture the information of the interaction between adsorbents, the adsorption rate, and the competitive adsorption relationship between adsorbents. In this paper, metal oxide semiconductors (MOSs) are employed to study the adsorption behavior. The gas sensing responses (GSRs) of MOSs caused by the gas adsorption process are measured as a new method to capture some adsorption behaviors, which are impossible for the traditional methods to obtain. The following adsorption behaviors characterized by this new method are presented for the first time: (1) distinguishing the adsorption type using an example of two reducing gases: the adsorption type of the two gases is single-molecular layer adsorption in this work; (2) detecting the interaction between different gases: this will be a promising method to provide original characterization data in the fields of gas-solid reaction mechanisms and heterogeneous catalysis; and (3) measuring the adsorption rate based on the GSR.

Opposite Sensing Response of Heterojunction Gas Sensors Based on SnO2-Cr2O3 Nanocomposites to H2 against CO and Its Selectivity Mechanism.

Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) gas sensors show poor selectivity when exposed to mixed gases. This is a challenge in gas sensors and limits their wide applications. There is no efficient way to detect a specific gas when two homogeneous gases are concurrently exposed to sensing materials. The p-n nanojunction of xSnO2-yCr2O3 nanocomposites (NCs) are prepared and used as sensing materials (x/y shows the Sn/Cr molar ratio in the SnO2-Cr2O3 composite and is marked as SnxCry for simplicity). The gas sensing properties, crystal structure, morphology, and chemical states are characterized by employing an electrochemical workstation, an X-ray diffractometer, a transmission electron microscope, and an X-ray photoelectron spectrometer, respectively. The gas sensing results indicate that SnxCry NCs with x/y greater than 0.07 demonstrate a p-type behavior to both CO and H2, whereas the SnxCry NCs with x/y < 0.07 illustrate an n-type behavior to the aforementioned reduced gases. Interestingly, the SnxCry NCs with x/y = 0.07 show an n-type behavior to H2 but a p-type to CO. The effect of the operating temperature on the opposite sensing response of the fabricated sensors has been investigated. Most importantly, the mechanism of selectivity opposite sensing response is proposed using the aforementioned characterization techniques. This paper proposes a promising strategy to overcome the drawback of low selectivity of this type of sensor.

Small extracellular ring domain is necessary for CD82/KAI1'anti-metastasis function.

The peptide mimicking small extracellular loop of CD82/KAI1 has been reported to inhibit tumor cell migration and metastasis. This provides an evidence that small extracellular loop domain should be important for the function of CD82/KAI1. In this paper, to investigate the structure basis for the function of EC1 mimic peptide, we systematically analyzed the effects of each amino acid residue in EC1 mimic peptide on its bioactivity. We found that the interfering with the folding of secondary structure with proline, a potent breaker of secondary structure, completely abolished the migration and metastasis-inhibitory activity of EC1 mimic peptide. This means that the bioactivity of EC1 mimic peptide was conformation-dependent. Next, we substitute with proline for amino acid residues in the small extracellular ring region of CD82/KAI1 by the site-specific mutations to disrupting secondary structure and detected its effect on the function of CD82/KAI1. The results showed that the disturbing the secondary structure of small extracellular ring completely abolished the migration and metastasis-inhibitory activity of CD82/KAI1. These results further provide direct evidence that the small extracellular ring is an important function region of CD82/KAI1.

The peptide mimicking small extracellular ring domain of CD82 inhibits tumor cell migration in vitro and metastasis in vivo.

BACKGROUND: Tetraspanin KAI1/CD82, a tumor metastasis suppressor, has emerged as a promising molecular target for the management of metastatic disease. However, the peptide mimicking small extracellular ring domain (EC1) of CD82 has not been fully investigated for the function of inhibiting cell migration in vitro and tumor metastasis in vivo. METHODS: Different cancer cells were treated with EC1 mimic peptide in order to detect migration and invasion by the healing assay and transwell. Cell aggregation and adhesion assays were used to investigate the function of homotypic cell-cell aggregation and adhesion to tissue culture plates. Then, we established syngeneic and xenograft animal models to assess the metastasis inhibitory effect of EC1 mimic peptide in vivo. RESULTS: In vitro studies, the EC1 mimic peptide had been showed to promote homotypic cell-cell aggregation, suppress cell migration, invasion and adherence in multiple tumor cell types. In vivo metastasis assays, the EC1 mimic peptide could strongly inhibit the pulmonary metastasis of LCC in syngeneic mice model and SW620 and H1299 in xenograft mice model. CONCLUSION: This novel finding will improve our understanding of the mechanism by which CD82 inhibits metastasis, and suggests that EC1 mimic peptide may be a promising candidate for developing anti-metastasis drugs.

The peptide mimicking small extracellular ring domain of CD82 inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition by downregulating Wnt pathway and upregulating hippo pathway.

We have previously demonstrated that the peptide mimicking small extracellular ring domain of CD82 (CD82EC1-mP) could inhibit tumor cell motility and metastasis. However, its acting mechanism is not understood. Here, we reported that the cell motility-inhibitory function of CD82EC1-mP was involved in the downregulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Both vimentin and E-cadherin are EMT makers. We found that CD82EC1-mP could inhibit the expression of vimentin, but promot the expression of E-cadherin, suggesting that CD82EC1-mP suppressed EMT. Hippo/YAP and Wnt/ß-catenin are both key signal pathways that regulate the EMT process. The futher studies showed that CD82EC1-mP couled activate GSK3ß, promote the phosphorylation of ß-catenin, and inhibit the ß-catenin nuclear location. Moreover, CD82EC1-mP couled activate Hipoo kinase cascade, promote the phosphorylation of YAP, and inhibit the YAP nuclear location. These results suggested that CD82EC1-mP inhibited invation and matestasis via inhibiting EMT through downregulating Wnt pathway and upregulating Hippo pathway.

Associations of nicotine dependence and fat distribution in Chinese male adults: a cross-sectional study in Lanxi, China.

INTRODUCTION: Previous studies have showed association between smoking and central fat distribution. However, the impact of smoking on whole body fat distribution, particularly peripheral fat distribution remains unclear. METHODS: Nicotine dependence was assessed in a total of 1264 male adults aged 18-80 years using the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND). Smoking status was categorised as non-smokers, former and current smokers with very low, low/moderate, or high FTND scores. Body fat distribution was determined using the dual energy X-ray absorptiometry and anthropometric measurements. Multivariable linear regression models were applied to examine the adjusted associations between body fat distribution and smoking in all participants, and its association with FTND scores in the current smokers. RESULTS: Greater waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), trunk fat percentage (%TF), android fat percentage (%AF) and android-to-gynoid fat mass ratio (AOI); but lower legs fat percentage (%LegF), limb fat percentage (%LimbF) and gynoid fat percentage (%GF) were found in current smokers with high FTND scores compared with non-smokers. In current smokers aged 60 years or older, FTND scores had positive associations with WC, WHR, WHtR, %TF, %AF and AOI, and negative associations with %LegF, %LimbF and %GF. CONCLUSIONS: Nicotine dependence was positively associated with central fat distribution and negatively associated with peripheral fat distribution in Chinese male adults, particularly in those older or heavy smokers, and these associations were independent from body mass index, which might be due to long exposure to smoking.

Pressureless glass crystallization of transparent yttrium aluminum garnet-based nanoceramics.

Transparent crystalline yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG; Y3Al5O12) is a dominant host material used in phosphors, scintillators, and solid state lasers. However, YAG single crystals and transparent ceramics face several technological limitations including complex, time-consuming, and costly synthetic approaches. Here we report facile elaboration of transparent YAG-based ceramics by pressureless nano-crystallization of Y2O3-Al2O3 bulk glasses. The resulting ceramics present a nanostructuration composed of YAG nanocrystals (77 wt%) separated by small Al2O3 crystalline domains (23 wt%). The hardness of these YAG-Al2O3 nanoceramics is 10% higher than that of YAG single crystals. When doped by Ce3+, the YAG-Al2O3 ceramics show a 87.5% quantum efficiency. The combination of these mechanical and optical properties, coupled with their simple, economical, and innovative preparation method, could drive the development of technologically relevant materials with potential applications in wide optical fields such as scintillators, lenses, gem stones, and phosphor converters in high-power white-light LED and laser diode.

Duration of television viewing and bone mineral density in Chinese women.

Studies on the relationship between television (TV) viewing and bone mineral density (BMD) in adults are limited. The purpose of this study was to examine whether longer duration of TV viewing increased the risk of lower BMD in Chinese women. A total of 626 female adults were voluntarily recruited into the study. Anthropometric measurements were obtained using standard procedures. Body composition including total body and regional BMD was estimated using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. The duration of TV viewing was categorized into 4 groups: <1 h, 1 to <2 h, 2 to <3 h, and ≥3 h. Multiple linear regression models were applied to analyze the associations between duration of TV viewing and total and regional BMD in all subjects and in subjects stratified by age of 45 years, respectively. After adjusting for age, BMI, alcohol use, smoking, education, income, urbanicity, leisure time physical activity, occupational physical activity, and menopause, the significant trend of pelvic BMD across categories of TV viewing was observed in all subjects (p < 0.05). Further analysis revealed that women aged <45 years, the 1 to <2 h group, the 2 to <3 h group, and the ≥3 h group were significantly associated with lower total body and regional BMD compared to women aged <45 years in the <1 h group. We concluded that the duration of TV viewing was negatively associated with BMD in Chinese women, especially in those aged 18-44 years. It might be sensible to reduce TV viewing time to prevent bone loss in young women.

Isothermal crystallization of short polymer chains induced by the oriented slab and the stretched bundle of polymer: a molecular dynamics simulation.

Information on the interfacial interaction is vital in understanding the crystallization of short polymer chains around oriented nuclei. However, this interaction is difficult to observe at the atomic level. Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the structural formation of polymer chains induced by the highly oriented slab or the stretched bundle of polymer chains. The results show that the surface-induced crystallization of polymer chains is greatly influenced by the foreign surface on the crystal structure and the morphology of the polymers, hence providing molecular-level support for previous experimental observations [Lotz et al. Macromolecules 1993, 26, 5915 and Yan et al. Macromolecules 2009, 42, 9321]. The order parameter S and the configurations show that the ability of the polypropylene (PP) slab to induce the polyethylene (PE) melt crystallization is weaker than that of the PE slab and that the short PE chains display multiple orientations on the PP slab. In addition, the crystallization rate was found to be dependent on the lattice matching between the free chains and the substrates on the contact lattice planes.

A retrospective study of q-switched alexandrite laser in treating nevus of ota.

BACKGROUND: The Q-switched alexandrite laser (QSAL) has been clinically proven to be effective in treating nevus of Ota, but a large-scale retrospective study with long-term follow-up has never been performed. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of the QSAL in treating nevus of Ota, the laser's long-term side effects, complications associated with the treatments, and the recurrence rate. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eight hundred six patients (651 female, 155 male) with a diagnosis of nevus of Ota who had received a series of QSAL (wavelength 755 nm) treatments were recruited. The typical settings were fluences of 3.8 to 4.8 J/cm(2) and a spot size of 3 mm. Follow-ups were conducted via questionnaire with 590 patients who had completed the treatment at least 3 years earlier. RESULTS: Overall, 93.9% of patients achieved complete clearance after an average of 5.2 sessions. All recurrences (0.8%) appeared beyond the previously treated sites. No long-term adverse effects, including hypopigmentation, hyperpigmentation, textural changes, and malignant transformation, were observed. CONCLUSION: The QSAL is a safe and effective modality for treating nevus of Ota. Recurrence was rare and appeared beyond the previously treated sites. The authors have indicated no significant interest with commercial supporters.

Influence of time delay and channel blocking on multiple coherence resonance in Hodgkin-Huxley neuron networks.

Toxins such as tetraethylammonium (TEA) and tetrodotoxin (TTX) may reduce the number of working potassium and sodium ion channels by poisoning and making them blocked, respectively. In this paper, we study how channel blocking (CB) affects the time delay-induced multiple coherence resonance (MCR), i.e., a phenomenon that the spiking of neuronal networks intermittently reaches the most ordered state, in stochastic Hodgkin-Huxley neuron networks. It is found that potassium and sodium CB have distinct effects. For potassium CB, the MCR occurs more frequently as the CB develops, but for sodium CB the MCR is badly impaired and only the first coherence resonance (CR) holds and, consequently, the MCR evolves into a single CR as sodium CB develops. We found for sodium CB the spiking becomes disordered at larger delay lengths, which may be the reason for the destruction of the MCR. The underlying mechanism is briefly discussed in terms of distinct effects of potassium and sodium CB on the spiking activity. These results show that potassium CB can increase the frequency of MCR with time delay, but sodium CB may suppress and even destroy the delay-induced MCR. These findings may help to understand the joint effects of CB and time delay on the spiking coherence of neuronal networks.

Actinic skin damage and mortality--the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Epidemiologic Follow-up Study.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to sunlight may decrease the risk of several diseases through the synthesis of vitamin D, whereas solar radiation is the main cause of some skin and eye diseases. However, to the best of our knowledge, the association of sun-induced skin damage with mortality remains unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Subjects were 8472 white participants aged 25-74 years in the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Epidemiologic Follow-up Study. Cardiovascular disease mortality, cancer mortality, and all-cause mortality were obtained by either a death certificate or a proxy interview, or both. Actinic skin damage was examined and recorded by the presence and severity (absent, minimal, moderate, or severe) of overall actinic skin damage and its components (i.e., fine telangiectasia, solar elastosis, and actinic keratoses). Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier methods were applied to explore the associations. A total of 672 cancer deaths, 1500 cardiovascular disease deaths, and 2969 deaths from all causes were documented through the follow-up between 1971 and 1992. After controlling for potential confounding variables, severe overall actinic skin damage was associated with a 45% higher risk for all-cause mortality (95% CI: 1.22, 1.72; P<0.001), moderate overall skin damage with a 20% higher risk (95% CI: 1.08., 1.32; P<0.001), and minimal overall skin damage with no significant mortality difference, when compared to those with no skin damage. Similar results were obtained for all-cause mortality with fine telangiectasia, solar elastosis, and actinic keratoses. The results were similar for cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality. CONCLUSIONS: The present study gives an indication of an association of actinic skin damage with cardiovascular disease, cancer and all-cause mortality in white subjects. Given the lack of support in the scientific literature and potential unmeasured confounding factors, this finding should be interpreted with caution. More independent studies are needed before any practical recommendations can be made.

Non-Gaussian noise optimized spiking activity of Hodgkin-Huxley neurons on random complex networks.

In this paper, we numerically study how the NGN's deviation q from Gaussian noise (q=1) affects the spike coherence and synchronization of 60 coupled Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) neurons driven by a periodic sinusoidal stimulus on random complex networks. It is found that the effect of the deviation depends on the network randomness p (the fraction of random shortcuts): for larger p (p>0.15), the spiking regularity keeps being improved with increasing q; while, for smaller p (p< 0.15), the spiking regularity can reach the best performance at an optimal intermediate q value, indicating the occurrence of "deviation-optimized spike coherence". The synchronization becomes enhanced with decreasing q, and the enhancing extent for a random HH neuron network is stronger than for a regular one. These behaviors show that the spike coherence and synchronization of the present HH neurons on random networks can be more strongly enhanced by various other types of external noise than by Gaussian noise, whereby the neuron firings may behave more periodically in time and more synchronously in space. Our results provide the constructive roles of the NGN on the spiking activity of the present system of HH neuron networks.