[Analysis of the correlation between the degree of GBWT and hemodynamic changes of portal vein system].

We retrospectively collected the ultrasound imaging data of 152 patients with cirrhosis, the gallbladder wall thickness (GBWT) and portal hemodynamics parameters (portal vein diameter, portal vein mean flow velocity, portal vein blood flow) were recorded,and SPSS 11.0 software was used to analyze the correlation between them. The results revealed that there was good correlation between portal vein diameter and the degree of gallbladder wall thickening (r 0.944, P < 0.05). Portal vein mean velocity and portal vein blood flow were both negatively correlated with gallbladder wall thickness (r = -0.939 or r = -0.950, respectively; both P < or = 0.005). These indicate that gallbladder wall thickening is closely related to hemodynamic parameters. It is feasible to predict the degree of portal hypertension through the observation of gallbladder wall thickening in patients with liver cirrhosis.

SPRING: a tool for the analysis of genome rearrangement using reversals and block-interchanges.

SPRING (http://algorithm.cs.nthu.edu.tw/tools/SPRING/) is a tool for the analysis of genome rearrangement between two chromosomal genomes using reversals and/or block-interchanges. SPRING takes two or more chromosomes as its input and then computes a minimum series of reversals and/or block-interchanges between any two input chromosomes for transforming one chromosome into another. The input of SPRING can be either bacterial-size sequences or gene/landmark orders. If the input is a set of chromosomal sequences then the SPRING will automatically search for identical landmarks, which are homologous/conserved regions shared by all input sequences. In particular, SPRING also computes the breakpoint distance between any pair of two chromosomes, which can be used to compare with the rearrangement distance to confirm whether they are correlated or not. In addition, SPRING shows phylogenetic trees that are reconstructed based on the rearrangement and breakpoint distance matrixes.