Objectives
To evaluate the diagnostic performance of attenuation imaging (ATI) in the detection of hepatic steatosis compared with a histopathology gold standard.
Methods
We prospectively enrolled ...108 consecutive patients (35 males; median age, 54.0 years) who underwent percutaneous liver biopsy for evaluation of diffuse liver disease between January 2018 and November 2018 in a tertiary academic center. Grayscale ultrasound examination with ATI was performed just before biopsy, and an attenuation coefficient (AC) was obtained from each patient. The degree of hepatic steatosis, fibrosis stage, and necroinflammatory activity were assessed on histopathologic examination. The significant factor associated with the AC was found by a linear regression analysis, and the diagnostic performance of the AC for the classification into each hepatic steatosis stage was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.
Results
The distribution of hepatic steatosis grade on histopathology was 53/11/22/16/6 for none/mild (< 10%)/mild (≥ 10%)/moderate/severe steatosis, respectively. The area under the ROC curve, sensitivity, specificity, and optimal cutoff AC value for detection of hepatic steatosis ranged from 0.843–0.926, 74.5–100.0%, 77.4–82.8%, and 0.635–0.745, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that the degree of steatosis was the only significant determinant factor for the AC.
Conclusions
The AC from ATI provided good diagnostic performance in detecting the varying degrees of hepatic steatosis. The degree of steatosis was the only significant factor affecting the AC, whereas fibrosis and inflammation were not.
Key Points
• Attenuation imaging (ATI) is based on two-dimensional grayscale ultrasound images that can incorporate into routine ultrasound examinations with less than 2 min of acquisition time.
• ATI provided good diagnostic performance in detecting the varying degrees of hepatic steatosis with an area under the ROC curves ranging from 0.843 to 0.926, and there was no technical failure in this study indicating high applicability of this technique.
• The degree of hepatic steatosis was the only significant factor affecting the result of ATI examination.
•Perceived enjoyment of VR is a core factor that both directly and indirectly influences the intention to use VR.•Social interactions and strength of the social ties are significant factors that ...increase the perceived enjoyment of VR.•People recognize that using VR is not difficult.•Users generally adopt VR for enjoyment rather than usefulness.
Recently, the development of virtual reality technology in the entertainment industry has applied social network capability. This study empirically analyzes how the introduction of social network characteristics as a diffusion strategy for virtual reality devices affects consumers’ intention to use. This survey was conducted with 350 people from South Korea, and TAM was used to analyze the acceptability of virtual reality. User adoption behaviors were analyzed rigorously, adding perceived enjoyment, social interactions, and strength of the social ties to the basic TAM. The results of this study indicate that social interactions and strength of the social ties increase perceived enjoyment, and perceived enjoyment has a more significant effect on intention to use than perceived usefulness, which is the main element of TAM. These results have theoretical implications for consumer adoption behavior and empirical implications for the best marketing strategies for virtual reality devices.
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•A composite electrode of Li and Ag-coated Cu powder (Li/Cu@Ag) is prepared.•Ag is coated via galvanic replacement and Li/Cu@Ag has a free-standing form.•Li plating occurs ...preferentially on Ag-coated Cu powder due to the lithiophilic Ag.•Li-dendrite growth and dead Li formation are greatly inhibited on Li/Cu@Ag.•As a result, Li/Cu@Ag shows low nucleation overpotential and stable cycling.
In this study, we fabricate a composite electrode of lithium metal powder (LMP) and Ag-coated Cu powder (Li/Cu@Ag) for lithium metal battery simply by Ag-coating on Cu powder through galvanic replacement and pelletizing their mixture. Due to the structure of the composite electrode and high surface area of LMP, local current density can be reduced. The lithiophilic Ag particles on the Cu powder lower lithium nucleation overpotential and enable uniform lithium plating. The Li/Cu@Ag electrode shows superior electrochemical performance with this synergetic effect and the reason for the improvement has been investigated. Specifically, a long lifespan of 400 h at a current density of 1 mA/cm2 is achieved with a Li||Li symmetric cell when using the Li/Cu@Ag electrode in a corrosive carbonate electrolyte. In addition, LiFePO4||Li/Cu@Ag cell shows excellent cycling stability and high-capacity retention (over 74 % after 400 cycles at 3C).
The surface of fumed nano‐silica (nano‐SiO2) was treated with an alkyl silazane to change from hydrophilic surface to hydrophobic, and the surface of aluminum trihydroxide (nano‐ATH) was treated with ...a vinyl silazane to improve electrical properties (high voltage direct current HVDC breakdown strength and tracking resistance) in silicone nanocomposites. They were prepared by mixing liquid silicone resin with the modified nano‐SiO2 and the modified nano‐ATH, and the effects of the modified nano‐ATH particles on the electrical properties were studied in order to apply them to heavy electric equipment. The surface modifications were confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis and contact angle analysis. As the nano‐ATH content increased, (±)HVDC breakdown strength increased and tracking resistance was greatly improved. As the nano‐ATH content increased, the initial generation of leakage current was delayed, and the occurrence frequency and the intensity of the leakage current decreased. The erosion weight due to the tracking also decreased.
Force touch sensors have received a great deal of attention for various applications owing to their versatile ability to detect touch and pressure. To demonstrate high‐performance force touch ...sensors, numerous studies have been performed, focusing on high sensitivity, transparency, and mechanical durability against bending. However, it is still challenging to apply force touch sensors in flexible applications, because their sensing performance is subject to change and degraded by induced mechanical stress and deformation when the device is bent. Here, a high‐performance and transparent nanoforce touch sensor with bending‐insensitivity is reported. This is achieved by developing a thin, flexible, and transparent hierarchical nanocomposite film, which is composed of a nanostructured plastic base, coplanar electrodes, and a dielectric polymer layer with silver nanoparticles. The fabrication process is simple that high manufacturing repeatability, uniformity, and reliability are achieved on a large‐area (8 in.) scale. The fabricated device shows a pressure sensitivity of 0.036 kPa−1 with high transparency (83%) in a pressure range up to 3 kPa. In particular, its thin thickness (45 µm) and the coplanar electrode enable to achieve excellent insensitivity to the bending with a radius of curvature of 4 mm more than 10 000 times.
The bending‐insensitive and transparent nanoforce touch sensor with high sensitivity is proposed by developing hierarchical nanocomposite films, composed of large‐area (7 in.) 100 nm nanograting plastic bases and dielectric polymer layer with metal nanoparticles. In particular, the proposed sensor‐device successfully shows high‐performances meeting industrial‐grade requirements such as sensitivity, reliability, transparency, uniformity, and reproducibility, owing to its simple design and semiconductor‐based fabrication process.
To develop silicone/nanosilica insulation materials for high voltage direct current (HVDC), hydrophilic surface of fumed nanosilica was changed to hydrophobic by modifying with various ratios of ...alkylsilane and alkylsilane/vinylsilane coupling agents and the effects of the modified nanosilicas on the HVDC breakdown strength under negative or positive polarities were studied. Dielectric and tensile properties were also studied. The surface modification was confirmed by Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR) analysis and the weights of the alkyl and alkyl/vinyl groups on the modified nanosilicas were measured by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Silicone rubber nanocomposites were prepared by mixing a liquid silicone rubber (LSR) and the modified nanosilicas, in which the mixing ratio of the LSR to the nanosilicas was fixed to be 20 wt%. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to observe the even dispersion of the nanosilica particles in the LSR matrix, and it was found that the surface‐modified nanosilicas were well dispersed in the form of nano‐clusters with 20–60 nm in size. Electrical properties (±HVDC breakdown strength and dielectric properties) and mechanical properties (tensile strength and elongation‐at‐break) were estimated, and it was found that ±HVDC breakdown strength and tensile strength were maximal when the surface modification ratio of alkyl: alkyl/vinyl groups was 50: 50 wt%.
Highly active and stable electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution have been developed on the basis of molybdenum compounds (Mo2C, Mo2N, and MoS2) on carbon nanotube (CNT)–graphene hybrid support via a ...modified urea-glass route. By a simple modification of synthetic variables, the final phases are easily controlled from carbide, nitride to sulfide with homogeneous dispersion of nanocrystals on the CNT–graphene support. Among the prepared catalysts, Mo2C/CNT–graphene shows the highest activity for hydrogen evolution reaction with a small onset overpotential of 62 mV and Tafel slope of 58 mV/dec as well as an excellent stability in acid media. Such enhanced catalytic activity may originate from its low hydrogen binding energy and high conductivity. Moreover, the CNT–graphene hybrid support plays crucial roles to enhance the activity of molybdenum compounds by alleviating aggregation of the nanocrystals, providing a large area to contact with electrolyte, and facilitating the electron transfer.
Summary Background D2 gastrectomy is recommended in US and European guidelines, and is preferred in east Asia, for patients with resectable gastric cancer. Adjuvant chemotherapy improves patient ...outcomes after surgery, but the benefits after a D2 resection have not been extensively investigated in large-scale trials. We investigated the effect on disease-free survival of adjuvant chemotherapy with capecitabine plus oxaliplatin after D2 gastrectomy compared with D2 gastrectomy only in patients with stage II–IIIB gastric cancer. Methods The capecitabine and oxaliplatin adjuvant study in stomach cancer (CLASSIC) study was an open-label, parallel-group, phase 3, randomised controlled trial undertaken in 37 centres in South Korea, China, and Taiwan. Patients with stage II–IIIB gastric cancer who had had curative D2 gastrectomy were randomly assigned to receive adjuvant chemotherapy of eight 3-week cycles of oral capecitabine (1000 mg/m2 twice daily on days 1 to 14 of each cycle) plus intravenous oxaliplatin (130 mg/m2 on day 1 of each cycle) for 6 months or surgery only. Block randomisation was done by a central interactive computerised system, stratified by country and disease stage. Patients, and investigators giving interventions, assessing outcomes, and analysing data were not masked. The primary endpoint was 3 year disease-free survival, analysed by intention to treat. This study reports a prespecified interim efficacy analysis, after which the trial was stopped after a recommendation by the data monitoring committee. The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT00411229 ). Findings 1035 patients were randomised (520 to receive chemotherapy and surgery, 515 surgery only). Median follow-up was 34·2 months (25·4–41·7) in the chemotherapy and surgery group and 34·3 months (25·6–41·9) in the surgery only group. 3 year disease-free survival was 74% (95% CI 69–79) in the chemotherapy and surgery group and 59% (53–64) in the surgery only group (hazard ratio 0·56, 95% CI 0·44–0·72; p<0·0001). Grade 3 or 4 adverse events were reported in 279 of 496 patients (56%) in the chemotherapy and surgery group and in 30 of 478 patients (6%) in the surgery only group. The most common adverse events in the intervention group were nausea (n=326), neutropenia (n=300), and decreased appetite (n=294). Interpretation Adjuvant capecitabine plus oxaliplatin treatment after curative D2 gastrectomy should be considered as a treatment option for patients with operable gastric cancer. Funding F Hoffmann-La Roche and Sanofi-Aventis.
Flammulina velutipes is a fungus with health and medicinal benefits that has been used for consumption and cultivation in East Asia. F. velutipes is also known to degrade lignocellulose and produce ...ethanol. The overlapping interests of mushroom production and wood bioconversion make F. velutipes an attractive new model for fungal wood related studies. Here, we present the complete sequence of the F. velutipes genome. This is the first sequenced genome for a commercially produced edible mushroom that also degrades wood. The 35.6-Mb genome contained 12,218 predicted protein-encoding genes and 287 tRNA genes assembled into 11 scaffolds corresponding with the 11 chromosomes of strain KACC42780. The 88.4-kb mitochondrial genome contained 35 genes. Well-developed wood degrading machinery with strong potential for lignin degradation (69 auxiliary activities, formerly FOLymes) and carbohydrate degradation (392 CAZymes), along with 58 alcohol dehydrogenase genes were highly expressed in the mycelium, demonstrating the potential application of this organism to bioethanol production. Thus, the newly uncovered wood degrading capacity and sequential nature of this process in F. velutipes, offer interesting possibilities for more detailed studies on either lignin or (hemi-) cellulose degradation in complex wood substrates. The mutual interest in wood degradation by the mushroom industry and (ligno-)cellulose biomass related industries further increase the significance of F. velutipes as a new model.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Amine functionalized carbon nanotube (ANCT) is applied as an inorganic potential proton conducting material embedded in a sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) matrix. The morphological, ...structural, thermomechanical, physiochemical and electrochemical properties of SPEEK/ACNT composite were investigated and compared to obtained results from bare SPEEK. The synthesized ACNT-incorporated SPEEK membrane have uniform and dense morphology and exhibit improved properties as proton exchange membrane (PEM); for example, SPEEK/ACNT possessed higher thermal stability and tensile strength than SPEEK alone. The amine functionalized structure of ACNT is assumed to be one of critical factors resulting in higher performance of SPEEK/ACNT membrane, since it can induce acid-base conducting networks between ACNT and SPEEK matrix, which would improve water uptake and proton conductivity while lowering ion exchange capacity of membrane. When used in 20% relative humidity, a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) with SPEEK/ACNT membrane is found to exhibit much higher performance than a PEFC with bare SPEEK, suggesting the potential use of SPEEK/ACNT membrane as PEM.
Proton hopping mechanism between acid-base networks in SPEEK/ACNT composite. Display omitted
•ACNT was employed as inorganic potential filler to prepare SPEEK/ACNT composite.•Addition of ACNT to SPEEK resulted in improved physiochemical and thermomechanical properties.•Optimized SPEEK/ACNT (1.5 wt%) exhibited improved PEFC performance under 20% RH while holding excellent durability compared to bare SPEEK.
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