Organolead halide perovskites (e.g., CH3NH3PbI3) have caught tremendous attention for their excellent optoelectronic properties and applications, especially as the active material for solar cells. ...Perovskite crystal quality and dimension is crucial for the fabrication of high‐performance optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices. Herein the controlled synthesis of organolead halide perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 nanoplatelets on SiO2/Si substrates is investigated via a convenient two‐step vapor transport deposition technique. The thickness and size of the perovskite can be well‐controlled from few‐layers to hundred nanometers by altering the synthesis time and temperature. Raman characterizations reveal that the evolutions of Raman peaks are sensitive to the thickness. Furthermore, from the time‐resolved photoluminescence measurements, the best optoelectronic performance of the perovskite platelet is attributed with thickness of ≈30 nm to its dominant longest lifetime (≈4.5 ns) of perovskite excitons, which means lower surface traps or defects. This work supplies an alternative to the synthesis of high‐quality organic perovskite and their possible optoelectronic applications with the most suitable materials.
High‐quality organic–inorganic perovskite nanoplatelets can be well‐controlled synthesized from few‐layers to hundred nanometers on Si/SiO2 substrate. Raman characterizations reveal that the evolutions of Raman peaks are sensitive to the thickness. Furthermore, under the thickness‐dependent photoresponse and time‐resolved photoluminescence measurements of perovskite devices, the results indicate the most suitable thickness for their possible optoelectronic applications.
•DHPM changes the morphology and crystallinity of RS.•DHPM pretreatment facilitates OSA modification of RS.•DHPM-OSA modification notably alters pasting and emulsion properties of RS.
Octenyl ...succinic anhydride (OSA) modified starch is widely used in food industries. In this study, rice starch (RS) was pretreated by dynamic high-pressure microfluidization (DHPM) and subsequently modified by OSA. The influence of DHPM on OSA modification of rice starch was investigated. Results showed that DHPM pretreatment enhanced the degree of substitution by changing the morphology and crystallinity of rice starch. Compared with the rice starch modified by OSA without DHPM pretreatment (OSA-RS), the DHPM-pretreated OSA starch (DHPM-OSA-RS) presented higher peak viscosity and lower pasting temperature. DHPM-OSA-RS also exhibited better emulsifying activity and emulsion stability. This study suggested that DHPM will provide an opportunity to change the physicochemical properties of starch, with the resulting starch being more suitable for chemical modification.
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•Carnosine alleviated HG-induced inflammation and pyroptosis in MPC5 cells.•Carnosine prevented podocyte inflammation and pyroptosis in the STZ-induced type 1 diabetes mouse ...model.•Carnosine attenuates inflammation and pyroptosis in DN via a caspase-1-dependent pathway.
Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a main complication of diabetes and often develops into end-stage nephropathy. Histologically, DN progresses as the gradual loss of podocytes with the loss of glomerular podocytes being the earliest sign of DN. Pyroptosis is a new type of programmed cell death and has been mechanistically correlated with podocyte injury in DN. The current study aimed to evaluate the protective effects of carnosine on glomerular podocytes in DN, both in vivo and in vitro. Using high glucose-treated cultured MPC5 cells and a streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mouse model, we evaluated the effects of carnosine on alleviating podocyte injury in DN. We found that carnosine significantly reversed albuminuria and histopathological lesions and alleviated renal inflammatory and pyroptosis responses in STZ-induced diabetic mice for 12 weeks. The results also showed that carnosine strongly inhibited podocyte inflammation and podocyte pyroptosis in vitro. Cellular Thermal Shift Assay (CETSA) and molecular docking results revealed that mechnaistically caspase-1 was the target of carnosine. We then found that silencing caspase-1 eliminated the protective effect of carnosine. Interestingly, we also found that caspase-1 and gasdermin D expression were increased in renal biopsy tissue of patients with DN. Our study is the first to demonstrate the novel role of carnosine in alleviating podocyte injury by inhibiting pyroptosis via the targeting of caspase-1. Carnosine may have potential as a therapeutic agent in treating DN by targeting caspase-1.
A novel wearable human machine interface based on mechanomyogram (MMG) signals was presented in this study. A three-axis accelerometer was fixed to a customized watch strap to measure the MMG signals ...that were generated by the end of the extensor digitorum muscle. Eight gaming gestures, including clapping, index figure flicking, finger snapping, coin flipping, shooting, wrist extension, wrist flexion and fist-making, were identified in real time. This study extracted the features from both the time signals and the coefficients of the wavelet packet decomposition (WPD), and sequential forward selection (SFS) was used to identify the significant features to improve the classification accuracy and reduce the processing time. The performances of the classifiers such as the k-nearest neighbors (KNN), the support vector machine (SVM), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and deep neural network (DNN) were compared. After testing the system on 35 subjects aged from 16 to 55 years old, the proposed system has advantages with respect to its convenient portability, stable signal acquisition, low power consumption, and high classification accuracy.
To identify predictors of carotid artery stenosis (CAS) progression in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients after radiation therapy (RT).
We included 217 stroke-naïve HNC patients with mild carotid ...artery stenosis after RT in our hospital. These patients underwent annual carotid duplex ultrasound (CDU) studies to monitor CAS progression. CAS progression was defined as the presence of ≥50% stenosis of the internal/common carotid artery on follow-up CDU. We recorded total plaque score (TPS) and determined the cut-off TPS to predict CAS progression. We categorized patients into high (HP) and low plaque (LP) score groups based on their TPS at enrolment. We analyzed the cumulative events of CAS progression in the two groups.
The TPS of the CDU study at enrolment was a significant predictor for CAS progression (adjusted odds ratio aOR = 1.69, p = 0.002). The cut-off TPS was 7 (area under the curve: 0.800), and a TPS ≥ 7 strongly predicted upcoming CAS progression (aOR = 41.106, p = 0.002). The HP group had a higher risk of CAS progression during follow-up (adjusted hazard ratio = 6.15; 95% confident interval: 2.29-16.53) in multivariable Cox analysis, and also a higher trend of upcoming ischemic stroke (HP vs. LP: 8.3% vs. 2.2%, p = 0.09).
HNC patients with a TPS ≥ 7 in any CDU study after RT are susceptible to CAS progression and should receive close monitoring within the following 2 years.
An artificial intelligence system of Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) is newly developed for the diagnosis of metastatic lymph node (LN) in rectal cancer patients. The ...primary objective of this study was to comprehensively verify its accuracy in clinical use.
Four hundred fourteen patients with rectal cancer discharged between January 2013 and March 2015 were collected from 6 clinical centers, and the magnetic resonance imaging data for pelvic metastatic LNs of each patient was identified by Faster R-CNN. Faster R-CNN based diagnoses were compared with radiologist based diagnoses and pathologist based diagnoses for methodological verification, using correlation analyses and consistency check. For clinical verification, the patients were retrospectively followed up by telephone for 36 months, with post-operative recurrence of rectal cancer as a clinical outcome; recurrence-free survivals of the patients were compared among different diagnostic groups, by methods of Kaplan-Meier and Cox hazards regression model.
Significant correlations were observed between any 2 factors among the numbers of metastatic LNs separately diagnosed by radiologists, Faster R-CNN and pathologists, as evidenced by rradiologist-Faster R-CNN of 0.912, rPathologist-radiologist of 0.134, and rPathologist-Faster R-CNN of 0.448 respectively. The value of kappa coefficient in N staging between Faster R-CNN and pathologists was 0.573, and this value between radiologists and pathologists was 0.473. The 3 groups of Faster R-CNN, radiologists and pathologists showed no significant differences in the recurrence-free survival time for stage N0 and N1 patients, but significant differences were found for stage N2 patients.
Faster R-CNN surpasses radiologists in the evaluation of pelvic metastatic LNs of rectal cancer, but is not on par with pathologists.
www.chictr.org.cn (No. ChiCTR-DDD-17013842)This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0.
The incidence and severity of acute kidney injury (AKI) is increased yearly in diabetic patients. Although the mechanisms for this remain unclear, the prevention of AKI in diabetic nephropathy is ...feasible and of value. As we detected highly activation of TGF-β/Smad3 signaling in both human biopsy and mouse model of diabetic nephropathy, we hypothesized that Smad3 activation in diabetic kidneys may increase AKI sensitivity. We tested our hypothesis in vitro using TGF-β type II receptor (TGF-βRII) disrupted tubular epithelial cells (TECs) and in vivo in mice with streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic nephropathy before the induction of ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. We found that high glucose (HG)-cultured TECs showed increased inflammation, apoptosis and oxidative stress following hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) injury. Disruption of TGF-βRII attenuated cell injury induced by H/R in HG-treated TECs. Consistently, Smad3 knockdown in diabetic kidney attenuated I/R-induced AKI. Mechanistically, Smad3 binds to p53 and enhances p53 activity in cells treated with HG and H/R, which may lead to TECs apoptosis. Additionally, ChIP assay showed that Smad3 bound with the promoter region of NOX4 and induced ROS production and inflammation. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that Smad3 promotes AKI susceptibility in diabetic mice by interacting with p53 and NOX4.
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•Smad3 activation in diabetic kidneys may increase AKI sensitivity.•Blockade of Smad3 in diabetic kidney may both prevent AKI and CKD progression.•Smad3 interacts with p53 to enhance TECs apoptosis.•Smad3 binds with promoter region of NOX4 to induce ROS production and inflammation.
Aim
To identify fathers' perceptions and experiences of caring for their children with congenital heart disease.
Design
A qualitative systematic review.
Data sources
PubMed, Clinical Key, the Joanna ...Briggs Institute Evidence‐based practice database, CINAHL Complete, Embase and PsycINFO were searched for all journal articles published before May 2020.
Review methods
After applying the selection criteria, five studies were identified reporting on fathers with children between 1 month and 12 years. The quality of the articles was evaluated.
Results
Six main themes regarding fathers' perceptions and experiences of caring for their children with congenital heart disease were identified: (1) lack of disease knowledge, (2) responsibility to the family and emotional suppression, (3) gratitude for the sustained life of their children, (4) acceptance of being different from others, (5) regrouping and planning for the future and (6) the struggles of father–child relationships.
Conclusion
In caring for their children with congenital heart disease, fathers are akin to a suffering warrior, full of hardship. With a self‐imposed sense of responsibility and suppressed emotions, fathers may feel lonely and hurt, but they must fight for their families and children.
Summary statement
What is already known about this topic?
Congenital heart disease is one of the most common chronic illnesses in childhood.
Parents of children with congenital heart disease face cardiac‐related medical problems, decision‐making and economic circumstances throughout their healthcare experience including impact on their physiological and psychological health.
Previous studies have focused on the roles of mothers of children with congenital heart disease.
What this paper adds:
This systematic review identifies six themes regarding fathers' perceptions and experiences of caring for their children with congenital heart disease: (1) lack of disease knowledge, (2) responsibility to the family and emotional suppression, (3) gratitude for the sustained life of their children, (4) acceptance of being different from others, (5) regrouping and planning for the future and (6) the struggles of father–child relationships.
In caring for their children with congenital heart disease, fathers are akin to a suffering warrior, full of hardship.
With a self‐imposed sense of responsibility and suppressed emotions, fathers may feel lonely and hurt, but they must fight for their families and children.
The implications of this paper:
The findings about fathers' perceptions and experiences of caring for their children with congenital heart disease can be beneficial in improving nursing practice.
Health care professionals need to actively involve and support fathers in caring for their children with congenital heart disease.
•We propose a dynamic stroke classification approach, named DyGAT, for online handwritten documents and sketches. Different from previous methods, it can make real-time prediction during writers' ...writing process.•DyGAT is featured by a novel graph construction algorithm, which enables graph neural networks to better exploit the contextual information under the time constraint.•To evaluate the effectiveness and generality of DyGAT, we apply it to sketch semantic segmentation, document layout analysis, and diagram recognition. Extensive experiments have been conducted to analyze our method and demonstrate its superiority.
Online handwriting is widely used in human-machine interface, education, office automation, and so on. Stroke classification for online handwritten documents and sketches aims to divide strokes into several semantic categories and is a necessary step for document recognition and understanding. Previous methods are essentially static in that they have to wait for the user to finish the whole sketch before making prediction. However, in practice, the more user-friendly way is to make real-time prediction as the user is writing. In this paper, we introduce Dynamic Graph ATtention network (DyGAT) to solve the dynamic stroke classification problem. The core of our method is to formalize a document/sketch into a multi-feature graph, in which nodes represent strokes, edges represent the relationships between strokes, and multiple nodes are applied to one stroke to control the information flow. The proposed method is general and is applicable to online handwritten data of many types. We conduct experiments on popular public datasets to perform sketch semantic segmentation, document layout analysis and diagram recognition, and experimental results show competitive performance. Particularly, the proposed method achieves stroke classification accuracies which are only slightly lower than those of static classification.
The flexible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensor, which has the bionic 3D nanoarray structure of a beetle-wing substrate (BWS), was successfully prepared by replicated technology and ...thermal evaporation. The bionic structure was replicated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and then silver (Ag) nanoisland thin films were deposited by thermal evaporation. The deposition times and thicknesses (25-40 nm) of the Ag thin films were manipulated to find the optimal SERS detection capability. The Ag nanoisland arrays on the surface of the bionic replicated PDMS were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and contact angle, which can generate strong and reproducible three-dimensional hotspots (3D hotspots) to enhance Raman signals. The water pollutant, rhodamine 6G (R6G), was used as a model molecule for SERS detection. The results show that 35 nm Ag deposited on a PDMS-BWS SERS substrate displays the strongest SERS intensity, which is 10 times higher than that of the pristine BWS with 35 nm Ag coating, due to the excellent 3D bionic structure. Our results demonstrate that bionic 3D SERS sensors have the potential to be applied in wearable devices and sensors to detect biomolecules and environmental pollutants, such as industrial wastewater, in the future.
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