Buckminster fullerene (C60) based hybrid metal oxide materials are receiving considerable attention because of their excellent fundamental and applied aspects, like semiconducting, electron transfer, luminescent behaviors, etc. and this work briefly discusses the successful fabrication of C60 decorated ZnO tetrapod materials and their detailed structure-property relationships including device sensing applications. The electron microscopy investigations indicate that a quite dense surface coverage of ZnO tetrapods with C60 clusters is achieved. The spectroscopy studies confirmed the identification of the C60 vibrational modes and the C60 induced changes in the absorption and luminescence properties of the ZnO tetrapods. An increased C60 concentration on ZnO results in steeper ZnO bandgap absorption followed by well-defined free exciton and 3.31 eV line emissions. As expected, higher amounts of C60 increase the intensity of C60-related visible absorption bands. Pumping the samples with photons with an energy corresponding to these absorption band maxima leads to additional emission from ZnO showing an effective charge transfer phenomenon from C60 to the ZnO host. The density of states model obtained from DFT studies for pure and C60 coated ZnO surfaces confirms the experimental observations. The fabricated C60-ZnO hybrid tetrapod based micro- and nanodevices showed interesting ethanol gas sensing characteristics.

DLT for HCC is feasible and achieves equivalent results to cadaveric LT. The benefit of expanding the donor pool must be balanced against higher morbidity and a real risk of disease transmission.

This study reinforces the importance of baseline liver function (Child-Pugh classification and MELD score) in the survival of patients with HCC, although staging systems allowed the stratification of patients in different prognostic groups. Ascites, bilirubin and PVT were independent pretreatment predictors of survival. All treatments influenced the patient's outcome, whether in early or advanced stages.

This study sought to evaluate the potential impact of domino liver transplantation (DLT) on initial graft function and early postoperative outcome in patients with cirrhosis in a Portuguese liver transplantation center. A retrospective comparative analysis was performed between 77 domino recipients (from familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy donors) and 91 deceased donor recipients, all submitted to primary elective whole liver transplantation, using the piggyback technique, in a 42-month period. Outcome parameters included graft dysfunction (defined as either primary nonfunction or initial poor function, according to the Ploeg-Maring criteria) and Clavien II-IV complications in the first postoperative week. Domino and deceased donor recipients had similar preoperative severity indices (Child-Pugh classification and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score) and immediate postoperative severity scores (APACHE II [Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II] and SAPS II [Simplified Acute Physiology Score II]). In DLT, donors were younger, cold ischemia time was shorter, and intraoperative transfusion requirements of packed red blood cells and fresh-frozen plasma were significantly lower. Graft dysfunction incidence was 3.4-fold lower in DLT: 5.2% (only 4 cases of initial poor function) versus 18.0% (1 primary nonfunction and 15 cases of initial poor function), P ¼ 0.010. Postoperative bleeding was the most frequent early Clavien II-IV complication (n ¼ 29, 17.3%), with an incidence 2.2-fold lower in domino recipients. A statistically significant difference was not found in the other analyzed Clavien II-IV complications, intensive care unit stay, mechanical ventilation time, intensive care unit mortality, and 1-year survival rate. In conclusion, in this study the younger donors and shorter ischemic time associated with DLT may provide a protective role in regards to graft dysfunction and perioperative bleeding, which are 2 important determinants of early morbidity after liver transplantation. Liver Transpl 17:270-278, 2011. V C 2011 AASLD.Received May 11, 2010; accepted October 2, 2010.The sequential or domino liver transplantation (DLT), using the morphologically normal liver from a familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy (FAP) patient, was first performed in 1995. 1,2 The DLT created a new category of donors and expanded the donor pool, but also raised new technical and ethical issues. 3,4 A technical difficulty arose because domino donors and recipients must share a relatively short segment of the suprahepatic vena cava. Regarding this technical issue, the conventional technique (retrohepatic vena cava excision and venovenous bypass) has been traditionally used in the FAP patient, nonetheless with potential complications. 3,5 A modified piggyback technique, 6 with reconstruction of the suprahepatic venous outflow of the domino graft, allowed FAP hepatectomy to be performed with inferior vena cava preservation and became the standard domino technique in our center. The DLT has also created an ethical dilemma conce...

Simulations of nematic and smectic mesophases based on a dissipative particle dynamics approach are discussed. Mesogenic units are built in the form of standard semirigid bead-spring chains. It is shown that nematic phases can be formed for chains containing at least eight beads, provided that the conservative soft-repulsive potential between nonconnected beads is sufficiently strong. Smectic phases are observed only by modifying the repulsive interaction between the main-chain and terminal beads. The simulations indicate that the smectic-nematic and smectic-isotropic phase transitions take place through the buckling of the smectic layering in the system.