The volar locking plate has been widely used for unstable distal radius fractures to provide early recovery of wrist function. Volar plate prominence to the watershed line has been reported to be ...related to flexor tendon irritation, and avoid implant prominence in this area was suggested. On the other hand, marginal distal radius fracture patterns required the plate to cross the watershed line, making conflict over plate positioning on marginal distal radius fractures. This study compared functional outcomes in patients with marginal distal radius fractures treated with two different implants.
A retrospective study was conducted, all patients who received a Synthes 2.4 mm LCP or an Acumed Acu-Loc VLP between January 2015 and December 2018 were reviewed. The marginal distal radius fracture pattern was the most distal horizontal fracture line within 10 mm of the lunate fossa's joint line. The primary outcomes including patient-reported pain scores, range of motion, and grip strength were assessed. Secondary outcomes included patient-based subjective satisfaction scores of the injured wrist and hand function. The Mayo Wrist Score and the requirement for a secondary procedure related to hardware complications were also recorded.
Forty-two patients met our inclusion criteria. Twenty-one patients were treated with the Synthes 2.4 mm LCP, and 21 patients with the Acumed Acu-Loc VLP. The primary outcome revealed that post-operative range of motion (P = 0.016) and grip strengths (P = 0.014) were significantly improved in the Acu-Loc VLP group. The MAYO wrist score in the Acu-Loc VLP group was also significantly better (P = 0.006).
Despite advances in implant designs, flexor tendon irritation or rupture is still a complication following distal radius's volar plating. We believe the Acumed Acu-Loc VLP design provided better functional outcomes than the Synthes 2.4 mm LCP if appropriately and carefully placed into its designed-for position. This positioning results in promising patient satisfaction when treating marginal distal radius fractures.
Atherosclerosis is a multifactorial inflammatory disease that may progress silently for long period, and it is also widely accepted as the main cause of cardiovascular diseases. To prevent ...atherosclerotic plaques from generating, imaging early molecular markers and quantifying the extent of disease progression are desired. During inflammation, circulating monocytes leave the bloodstream and migrate into incipient lipid accumulation in the artery wall, following conditioning by local growth factors and proinflammatory cytokines; therefore, monocyte accumulation in the arterial wall can be observed in fatty streaks, rupture-prone plaques, and experimental atherosclerosis. In this work, we synthesized monocyte-targeting iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), which were incorporated with the peptides derived from the chemokine receptor C-C chemokine receptor type 2 (CCR2)-binding motif of monocytes chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) as a diagnostic tool for potential atherosclerosis. MCP-1-motif MNPs co-localized with monocytes in in vitro fluorescence imaging. In addition, with MNPs injection in ApoE knockout mice (ApoE KO mice), the well-characterized animal model of atherosclerosis, MNPs were found in specific organs or regions which had monocytes accumulation, especially the aorta of atherosclerosis model mice, through in vivo imaging system (IVIS) imaging and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We also performed Oil Red O staining and Prussian Blue staining to confirm the co-localization of MCP-1-motif MNPs and atherosclerosis. The results showed the promising potential of MCP-1-motif MNPs as a diagnostic agent of atherosclerosis.
An ideal nonbiofouling surface for biomedical applications requires both high-efficient antifouling characteristics in relation to biological components and long-term material stability from ...biological systems. In this study we demonstrate the performance and stability of an antifouling surface with grafted zwitterionic sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA). The SBMA was grafted from a bromide-covered gold surface via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization to form well-packed polymer brushes. Plasma protein adsorption on poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (polySBMA) grafted surfaces was measured with a surface plasmon resonance sensor. It is revealed that an excellent stable nonbiofouling surface with grafted polySBMA can be performed with a cycling test of the adsorption of three model proteins in a wide range of various salt types, buffer compositions, solution pH levels, and temperatures. This work also demonstrates the adsorption of plasma proteins and the adhesion of platelets from human blood plasma on the polySBMA grafted surface. It was found that the polySBMA grafted surface effectively reduces the plasma protein adsorption from platelet-poor plasma solution to a level superior to that of adsorption on a surface terminated with tetra(ethylene glycol). The adhesion and activation of platelets from platelet-rich plasma solution were not observed on the polySBMA grafted surface. This work further concludes that a surface with good hemocompatibility can be achieved by the well-packed surface-grafted polySBMA brushes.
Peracetic acid (PAA) is a widely used green antimicrobial agent of the environmental protection chemicals, whose registered applications have expanded to include in sanitation at food processing and ...pasteurizers in beverage plants, agricultural premises, wineries and breweries, as well as the disinfection of medical supplies, to prevent biofilm formation in pulp industries, and as a water purifier and disinfectant. The thermal reactivity and hazard characteristics were evaluated for PAA solutions by calorimetry analysis methodology, where the thermal reaction and kinetic data were programmed by differential scanning calorimetry. The thermal stability screening test was able to determine the self-decomposition of PAA solutions, and to observe the initial exothermic temperature (
T
i
) and heat of decomposition (Δ
H
d
). The thermokinetic parameters of PAA were also calculated according to the experimental data by temperature programming and thermal analysis model with Arrhenius equation. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the self-heating exothermic excursions associated with the various PAA solutions via C++ programming language. Understanding the thermal decomposition hazard of PAA was beneficial to proactive safety protocol for the industrial process, storage, as well as transportation.
We report on the improvement of conversion efficiency of InGaN photovoltaic (PV) cells with inverted textured surface (ITS). InGaN PV cells with ITS showed short-circuit current density and ...conversion efficiency of 0.63 mA/cm 2 and 1.01%, which are 68.17% and 73.33% higher than the characteristics of conventional InGaN PV cells, respectively. The improvement can be attributed to the reduction of both the shading effect of the electrode contact pad and surface reflection of the incident irradiation under one-sun air-mass 1.5-G illumination (100 mW/cm 2 ).
In this letter, we report on the fabrication and photovoltaic characteristics of p-i-n GaN/InGaN thin-film solar cells. The thin-film solar cells were fabricated by removing sapphire using a laser ...lift-off technique and, then, transferring the remaining p-i-n structure onto a Ti/Ag mirror-coated Si substrate via wafer bonding. The mirror structure is helpful to enhance light absorption for a solar cell with a thin absorption layer. After the thin-film process for a conventional sapphire-based p-i-n solar cell, the device exhibits an enhancement factor of 57.6% in current density and an increment in conversion efficiency from 0.55% to 0.80%. The physical origin for the photocurrent enhancement in the thin-film solar cell is related to multireflection of light by the mirror structure.
Peracetic acid (PAA) is potentially harmful because of its thermal hazards in industrial processes. Attention must be paid to the preparation, manufacturing, transportation, and storage because PAA ...may readily cause a thermal runaway reaction under various upset scenarios. PAA is classified an explosive substance in the governmental regulation in Taiwan. Here, 20 mass% of PAA was used to estimate the thermokinetic parameters by using differential scanning calorimetry. Heating rates employed were 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, and 8.0 °C min
−1
. We compared the four heating rates of thermal safety assessment with regard to process safety parameters, such as exothermic initial temperature (
T
0
) and heat of decomposition (Δ
H
d
). Finally, five kinetic analysis methods, along with differential isoconversional kinetic analysis, were used to estimate the apparent activation energy (
E
a
). The experimental results could be used helpful during the manufacturing process, transportation, and storage as the process safety parameter considerations to forestall thermal damage from happening, and to reach zero-disaster purposes as the ultimate goals.
In this letter, InGaN-based solar cells with a p-InGaN/i-InGaN/n-GaN double-heterojunction structure were fabricated and characterized. Two kinds of sapphire substrates i.e., a conventional sapphire ...substrate (CSS) and a patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) were used for epitaxial growth. Both the solar cells grown on the CSS and the PSS demonstrated a high open-circuit voltage of 2.05 and 2.08 V, respectively. However, the short-circuit current of the solar cells grown on the PSS showed an improvement of 27.6% compared with that of the cells grown on the CSS. Such observation could be attributed to low edge-dislocation density and the increase in the light-absorption path by the scattering of interface incident light between the substrate and the epitaxial layer for the solar cell grown on the PSS.
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