Diatoms are important primary producers in the marine ecosystem. Currently it is difficult to genetically transform diatoms due to the technical limitations of existing methods. The ...promoter/terminator of the nitrate reductase gene of the model diatom
was cloned and used to drive chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene expression. The construct was transferred by electroporation into
grown in medium lacking silicon. CAT expression was induced in transformed diatoms in the presence of nitrate, enabling growth in selective medium, and was repressed when ammonium was the only nitrogen source. Expression of CAT transcript and protein were demonstrated by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis, respectively. Our study is the first to report a successful genetic transformation of diatom by electroporation in an economical and efficient manner and provides a tightly regulated inducible gene expression system for diatom.
Aims To investigate whether education level of family members predicts all-cause and cardiovascular death and initial-episode peritonitis in patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD). Methods A total of ...2264 patients on chronic PD were collected from seven centers affiliated with the Socioeconomic Status on the Outcome of Peritoneal Dialysis (SSOP) Study. All demographic, socioeconomic and laboratory data of patients and the education level of all family members were recorded at baseline. Multivariate Cox regression was used to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, and initial-episode peritonitis with adjustments for recognized traditional factors. Results There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics between patients with (n = 1752) and without (n = 512) complete education information. According to the highest education level of patients' family, included 1752 patients were divided into four groups, i.e. elementary or lower (15%), middle (27%), high (24%) and more than high school (34%). The family highest education (using elementary school or lower group as reference, hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval of middle school group, high school group and more than high school group was 0.680.48-0.96, 0.640.45-0.91, 0.660.48-0.91, respectively) rather than their average education level or patients' or spouse's education was significantly associated with the higher mortality. Neither patients' nor family education level did correlate to the risk for cardiovascular death or initial-episode peritonitis. Conclusions Family members' education level was found to be a novel predictor of PD outcome. Family, as the main source of health care providers, should be paid more attention in our practice.
A solution-processed CuOx film has been successfully integrated as the hole-transporting layer（HTL） for inverted planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells（PVSCs）. The CuOx layer is fabricated by ...simply spin-coating a copper acetylacetonate（Cu（acac）2） chloroform solution onto ITO glass with high transparency in the visible range. The compact and pinhole-free perovskite film with large grain domains is grown on the CuOx film. The inverted PVSCs with the structure of ITO/CuOx/MAPbI3/PC（61）BM/ZnO/Al are fabricated and show a best PCE of 17.43% under standard AM 1.5G simulated solar irradiation with a VOCof 1.03 V, aJ（SC） of 22.42 mA cm~（-2）, and a fill factor of 0.76, which is significantly higher and more stable than that fabricated from the often used hole-transporting material PEDOT：PSS（11.98%） under the same experimental conditions. The enhanced performance is attributed to the efficient hole extraction through the CuOx layer as well as the high-quality CH3NH3PbI3 films grown on the CuOx. Our results indicate that low-cost and solution-processed CuOx film is a promising HTL for high performance PVSCs with better stability.
碩士
國立清華大學
材料科學工程學系
94
HfO2, due to its high k value, is the leading candidate as a gate dielectric for SiO2 in the Si technology, which with the rapid shrinkage of its transistor feature size has ...forced the SiO2 gate oxide thickness to reduce to 1.0nm, the quantum tunneling limit. There are three known structures of HfO2: monoclinic, cubic, and tetragonal with the dielectric constants being ~20, ~30, and ~70, respectively, as obtained from the first-principles calculation. The common structure of HfO2 thin films from sputtering, atomic layer deposition, and MBE is monoclinic phase. Moreover, the MBE oxide films are epitaxially grown on GaAs with four domains and atomically sharp interface without any interfacial layer.
In this work, HfO2 doped with Y2O3 have been grown on various semiconductors substrates, such as GaAs (100) and Si (111) etc., in a multi-chamber MBE system with electron beam evaporation from two separate charges of HfO2 and Y2O3. The oxide films were found to grow epitaxially on the semiconductors, again with very sharp interfaces. Furthermore, the structure of the oxide films was found to change from the monoclinic phase with a low dielectric constant to the cubic phase with a dielectric constant above 30. The structure transformation of HfO2 by doping yttrium increases the dielectric constant of it. The structural characteristics of these thin oxide films were studied using high-resolution x-ray diffraction conducted at BL17B1 wiggler beamline in Taiwan’s National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center.
AIM: To evaluate the clinical effects of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) vs endoscopic variceal sclerotherapy (EVS) in the management of gastric variceal (GV) bleeding in terms ...of variceal rebleeding, hepatic encephalopathy (HE), and survival by meta-analysis.METHODS: Medline, Embase, and CNKI were searched. Studies compared TIPS with EVS in treating GV bleeding were identified and included according to our predefined inclusion criteria. Data were extracted independently by two of our authors. Studies with prospective randomized design were considered to be of high quality. Hazard ratios (HRs) or odd ratios(ORs) were calculated using a fixed-effects model when there was no inter-trial heterogeneity. Oppositely, a random-effects model was employed.RESULTS: Three studies with 220 patients who had at least one episode of GV bleeding were included in the present meta-analysis. The proportions of patients with viral cirrhosis and alcoholic cirrhosis were 39% (range 0%-78%) and 36% (range 12% to 41%), respectively. The pooled incidence of variceal rebleeding in the TIPS group was significantly lower than that in the EVS group (HR = 0.3, 0.35, 95% CI: 0.17-0.71, P = 0.004). However, the risk of the development of any degree of HE was significantly increased in the TIPS group (OR = 15.97, 95% CI: 3.61-70.68). The pooled HR of survival was 1.26(95% CI: 0.76-2.09, P = 0.36). No inter-trial heterogeneity was observed among these analyses. CONCLUSION: The improved effect of TIPS in the prevention of GV rebleeding is associated with an increased risk of HE. There is no survival difference between the TIPS and EVS groups. Further studies are needed to evaluate the survival benefit of TIPS in cirrhotic patients with GV bleeding.
Despite the adoption of the optimized Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol, postoperative ileus (POI) severely impairs recovery after colorectal resection and increases the burden on the ...health care system.
To assess the efficacy of electroacupuncture (EA) in reducing the duration of POI with the ERAS protocol.
This multicenter, randomized, sham-controlled trial was conducted in China from October 12, 2020, through October 17, 2021. There was a 1:1 allocation using the dynamic block random method, and analyses were by intention to treat. Patients 18 years or older undergoing laparoscopic resection of colorectal cancer for the first time were randomly assigned to treatment group by a central system.
Patients were randomly assigned to 4 sessions of EA or sham electroacupuncture (SA) after surgery. All patients were treated within the ERAS protocol.
The primary outcome was the time to first defecation. Secondary outcomes included other patient-reported outcome measures, length of postoperative hospital stay, readmission rate within 30 days, and incidence of postoperative complications and adverse events.
A total of 249 patients were randomly assigned to treatment groups. After the exclusion of 1 patient because of a diagnosis of intestinal tuberculosis, 248 patients (mean SD age, 60.2 11.4 years; 153 men 61.7%) were included in the analyses. The median (IQR) time to first defecation was 76.4 (67.6-96.8) hours in the EA group and 90.0 (73.6-100.3) hours in the SA group (mean difference, -8.76; 95% CI, -15.80 to -1.73; P = .003). In the EA group compared with the SA group, the time to first flatus (median IQR, 44.3 37.0-58.2 hours vs 58.9 48.2-67.4 hours; P < .001) and the tolerability of semiliquid diet (median IQR, 105.8 87.0-120.3 hours vs 116.5 92.0-137.0 hours; P = .01) and solid food (median IQR, 181.8 149.5-211.4 hours vs 190.3 165.0-228.5 hours; P = .01) were significantly decreased. Prolonged POI occurred in 13 of 125 patients (10%) in the EA group vs 25 of 123 patients (20%) in the SA group (risk ratio RR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.27-0.95; P = .03). Other secondary outcomes were not different between groups. There were no severe adverse events.
Results of this randomized clinical trial demonstrated that in patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery for colorectal cancer with the ERAS protocol, EA shortened the duration of POI and decreased the risk for prolonged POI compared with SA. EA may be considered as an adjunct to the ERAS protocol to promote gastrointestinal function recovery and prevent prolonged POI after surgery.
Chinese Clinical Trial Registry Identifier: ChiCTR2000038444.
Bacterial infection especially caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria still endangers human life. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) can effectively kill bacteria, and nanofiber-based PDT can effectively ...reduce damage to normal tissues. However, current photosensitizers coated on the surfaces of fibers would release to the wound, causing some side effects. And nanofibers prepared by traditional method exhibit poor adhesion on the wound, which severely reduces the PDT effect due to its short-range effect. Herein, core–shell curcumin composite nanofibers are prepared by in situ electrospinning method via a self-made portable electrospinning device. The obtained composite nanofibers show superior adhesiveness on different biological surface than that of traditional preparation method. Upon 808-nm irradiation, these composite nanofibers effectively produced singlet oxygen (
1
O
2
) without curcumin falling off. After these composite nanofibers’ exposure to drug-resistant bacteria, they exhibit dual antibacterial behaviors and efficiently kill the drug-resistant bacteria. These dual antibacterial nanofiber membranes with excellent adhesiveness may benefit the application of wound infection as antibacterial dressing.
A bithiophene−alkyne‐based compound was synthesized and first utilized as a ligand for the selective hydrosilylation of allenes with primary and secondary phenylsilanes. It shows high selectivity ...towards the production of branched allylsilanes with a wide range of allenes. It is worth mentioning that the catalytic loading of the palladium can be reduced to 500 ppm. This work opens a new front of using bidentate thiophene ligand as a reaction promoter in transition‐metal‐catalyzed organic reaction.
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