The findings of the present study strongly support a required minimum of six months of abstinence before LT because duration of abstinence was found to be the strongest predictor of recidivism. Female sex, younger age at transplant and psychiatric comorbidities were also associated with relapse to harmful drinking.

Biological systems have evolved efficient sensing and decisionmaking mechanisms to maximize fitness in changing molecular environments. Synthetic biologists have exploited these capabilities to engineer control on information and energy processing in living cells. While engineered organisms pose important technological and ethical challenges, de novo assembly of non-living biomolecular devices could offer promising avenues toward various real-world applications. However, assembling biochemical parts into functional information processing systems has remained challenging due to extensive multidimensional parameter spaces that must be sampled comprehensively in order to identify robust, specification compliant molecular implementations. We introduce a systematic methodology based on automated computational design and microfluidics enabling the programming of synthetic cell-like microreactors embedding biochemical logic circuits, or protosensors, to perform accurate biosensing and biocomputing operations in vitro according to temporal logic specifications. We show that proof-of-concept protosensors integrating diagnostic algorithms detect specific patterns of biomarkers in human clinical samples. Protosensors may enable novel approaches to medicine and represent a step toward autonomous micromachines capable of precise interfacing of human physiology or other complex biological environments, ecosystems, or industrial bioprocesses.

Lymphoepithelial cysts (LECs) are rare non-neoplastic lesions that can appear as a complex cyst or a mass in the pancreas. Cytology from endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) can be helpful in making a diagnosis with the aim of avoiding unnecessary surgical resection. A case involving a 51-year-old woman with lower abdominal pain who was found to have a multiloculated cystic lesion at the junction of the pancreatic body and tail is described. Cytology from EUS-FNA was consistent with a pancreatic LEC. The lesion was managed conservatively and follow-up imaging of the cyst over the following two years was unchanged. The patient remains clinically well. Cytology from EUS-FNA can help distinguish LECs from cystic neoplasms, thus preventing radical surgical resection of this benign pancreatic cyst.

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