Despite impressive recent advances in the synthesis of lead chalcogenide solid nanoparticles, there are no examples of lead chalcogenide hollow nanoparticles (HNPs) with controlled diameter and shell ...thickness as current synthetic approaches for HNPs have inherent limitations associated with their complexity, inability to precisely control the dimensions, and limited possibilities with regard to applicable materials. Herein, we report on an unconventional strategy for crafting uniform lead chalcogenide (PbS and PbTe) HNPs with tailorable size, surface chemistry, and near‐IR absorption. Amphiphilic star‐like triblock copolymers polystyrene‐block‐poly(acrylic acid)‐block‐polystyrene and polystyrene‐block‐poly(acrylic acid)‐block‐poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) were rationally synthesized and exploited as nanoreactors for the formation of uniform PbS and PbTe HNPs. Compared to their solid counterparts, the near‐IR absorption of the HNPs is blue‐shifted owing to the hollow interior. This strategy can be readily extended to other types of intriguing low‐band‐gap HNPs for diverse applications.
Ein ungewöhnliche Synthesestrategie für gleichmäßige hohle Nanopartikel aus PbS und PbTe mit justierbaren Größen, Oberflächeneigenschaften und Absorptionen im nahen Infrarot‐Bereich basiert auf der Verwendung der amphiphilen sternförmigen Triblockcopolymere Polystyrol‐block‐polyacrylsäure‐block‐polystyrol (PS‐b‐PAA‐b‐PS) und Polystyrol‐block‐polyacrylsäure‐block‐poly(3,4‐ethylendioxythiophen) (PS‐b‐PAA‐b‐PEDOT) als Nanoreaktoren.
To translate the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment of voice scale（URICA-Voice） into Chinese and test its reliability and validity.
The URICA-Voice scale was converted into Chinese by ...literal translation, cultural adjustment, expert consultation, pre-investigation, and back translation. Convenience sampling was used to recruit patients at four speech therapy centers from February to May 2022. Then the Chinese version of the scale was distributed to them, and the reliability and validity of the scale were tested after data collection. Cronbach ɑ was used to evaluate the reliability. The critical ratio method and Pearson correlation coefficient were used for item analysis. Item-level content validity, scale-level content validity, and confirmatory factor analysis were used to test the validity of the scale.
A total of 247 valid questionnaires were collected. ①Item analysis: the critical ratios between a high-score and low-score groups of 32 items were all statistically significant（
<0.01） and all the
Cardiac MRI, crucial for evaluating heart structure and function, faces limitations like slow imaging and motion artifacts. Undersampling reconstruction, especially data-driven algorithms, has ...emerged as a promising solution to accelerate scans and enhance imaging performance using highly under-sampled data. Nevertheless, the scarcity of publicly available cardiac k-space datasets and evaluation platform hinder the development of data-driven reconstruction algorithms. To address this issue, we organized the Cardiac MRI Reconstruction Challenge (CMRxRecon) in 2023, in collaboration with the 26th International Conference on MICCAI. CMRxRecon presented an extensive k-space dataset comprising cine and mapping raw data, accompanied by detailed annotations of cardiac anatomical structures. With overwhelming participation, the challenge attracted more than 285 teams and over 600 participants. Among them, 22 teams successfully submitted Docker containers for the testing phase, with 7 teams submitted for both cine and mapping tasks. All teams use deep learning based approaches, indicating that deep learning has predominately become a promising solution for the problem. The first-place winner of both tasks utilizes the E2E-VarNet architecture as backbones. In contrast, U-Net is still the most popular backbone for both multi-coil and single-coil reconstructions. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the challenge design, presents a summary of the submitted results, reviews the employed methods, and offers an in-depth discussion that aims to inspire future advancements in cardiac MRI reconstruction models. The summary emphasizes the effective strategies observed in Cardiac MRI reconstruction, including backbone architecture, loss function, pre-processing techniques, physical modeling, and model complexity, thereby providing valuable insights for further developments in this field.
Selective laser melting (SLM) is one of the most popular metal additive manufacturing techniques. Materials employed for SLM are generally discrete and particulate metal matters, and thus the ...discontinuous behaviours exhibited by the powder materials cannot be simulated solely with conventional continuum-based computational approaches such as finite-element or finite-difference methods. The discrete element method (DEM) is a proven numerical method that can model discrete matters such as powder particles by tracking the motion and temperature of individual particles. Recently, DEM simulation is gaining popularity in SLM additive manufacturing study but has not been applied widely. This paper reviews existing applications of DEM in SLM processing such as powder spreading and powder fusion. Review of the existing literatures indicates that DEM is a promising approach in the study of the kinetic and thermal fluid behaviours of powder particles in SLM additive manufacturing.
In non-high-risk individuals, risk-category-based atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) screening strategies may be more cost-effective than one-size-fits-all approaches. However, current ...decisions are constrained by a lack of research evidence. We aimed to explore appropriate risk-category-based screening interval strategies for non-high-risk individuals in ASCVD primary prevention in the Chinese population.
We used data from 28,624 participants in the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB) who had completed at least two field surveys. The risk assessment tools were the 10-year ASCVD risk prediction models developed based on the CKB cohort. We constructed multistate Markov models to model disease progression and estimate transition probabilities between different risk categories. The total person-years spent unidentified in the high-risk state over a 10-year period were calculated for each screening interval protocol. We also estimated the number of ASCVD events prevented, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained, and costs saved when compared to the 3-yearly screening protocol.
When compared to the uniform 3-yearly protocol, most risk-category-based screening interval protocols would identify more high-risk individuals timely, thus preventing more ASCVD events and gaining QALYs. A few of them would reduce total health-care costs. The protocol, which used 6-year, 3-year, and 2-year screening intervals for low-risk, intermediate-low-risk, and intermediate-high risk individuals, was optimal, and would reduce the person-years spent unidentified in the high-risk category by 17.9% (95% CI: 13.1%–21.9%), thus preventing an estimated 113 thousand (95% CI: 83–138) hard ASCVD events for Chinese adults aged 30–79 over a 10-year period. When using a lower cost of statin therapy, more screening protocols would gain QALYs while saving costs.
For the primary prevention of ASCVD, risk-category-based screening protocols outperformed the one-size-fits-all approach in the Chinese population.
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (82192904, 82388102, 82192900) and grants (2023YFC2509400) from the National Key R&D Program of China. The CKB baseline survey and the first re-survey were supported by a grant from the Kadoorie Charitable Foundation in Hong Kong. The long-term follow-up is supported by grants from the UK Wellcome Trust (212946/Z/18/Z, 202922/Z/16/Z, 104085/Z/14/Z, 088158/Z/09/Z), grants (2016YFC0900500) from the National Key R&D Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China (81390540, 91846303, 81941018), and Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (2011BAI09B01).
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