[en] To investigate the changes and its clinical significance of serum N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels in patients with chronic heart failure(CHF), 128 patients with decompensated CHF and 20 patients without structural heart disease were selected as CHF and control group. All subjects were evaluated heart function by New York Heart Association (NYHA) class. The serum NT-proBNP levels were assayed by electrochemiluminescence double antibody sandwich immunoassay. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was detected by color Doppler ultrasound. The results showed that the NT-proBNP levels in CHF group were significantly higher than that of in the control group (P<0.05). Further, the NT-proBNP levels showed an increased tendency accompanied by the severity of heart failure (P<0.05) and lowering of LVEF (r=-0.595, P<0.05). The serum NT-proBNP levels can reflect the state of cardiac function in patients with decompensated DHF, and useful in the diagnosis and severity assessment of CHF. (authors)

[en] Highlights: ► Thin films of Al–10 wt.% Ag were deposited onto silicon substrates by DC magnetron sputtering. ► We studied the effect of annealing on the structure and optical properties of Ag–10 wt.% Al alloy films. ► VASE was employed to characterize the dielectric functions of the silver aluminum alloy films. ► Al–10 wt.% Ag alloy films with different annealing temperature is a material for plasmonics and metamaterials. - Abstract: Metallic alloys and intermetallics are potential candidates for plasmonic materials due to the large free electron densities. In this paper, optical properties and their annealing effects of Al–10 wt.% Ag alloy films prepared by direct current magnetron sputtering were investigated. The variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE) was used to measure the dielectric function of the aluminum silver alloy films. We observe that the dissipative loss at optical frequencies of the deposited alloy films is reduced greatly by increasing the annealing temperature. The typical interband transition around 1.5 eV for the aluminum silver films is shifted to lower energy with the increase of annealing temperature. The surface topography of the alloy films was characterized using scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM). X-ray diffraction (XRD) was performed to study the phase structure and grain size. A new δ phase Ag₂Al is shown in the annealed alloy films with the temperature from 200 °C to 500 °C.

[en] With thermal Bose–Fermi mapping method, we investigate the Tonks–Girardeau gas at finite temperature. It is shown that at low temperature, the Tonks gas displays the Fermi-like density profiles, and with the increase in temperature, the Tonks gas distributes in wider region. The reduced one-body density matrix is diagonal dominant in the whole temperature region, and the off-diagonal elements shall vanish rapidly with the deviation from the diagonal part at high temperature. (paper)

[en] The designs of two deep pool reactors (DPR) for district heating are presented. Each reactor has the ability to supply power of 120 MW and hot water of 90 deg C. The reactor core is put on the bottom of a large and deep pool with activity zone of 110 cm in height and 174 cm in equivalent diameter. The core of DPR-1 is cooled by natural circulation and DPR-3 is cooled by forced circulation. This type of reactor is operated at normal pressure, and will be no accident of in-core melting. It has high reliability and good performance of safety and can be constructed by using domestic technology. The DPR could be used in commercial

[en] The structural, electronic, and elastic properties of cubic HC(NH₂)₂PbI₃ perovskite are investigated by density functional theory using the Tkatchenko–Scheffler pairwise dispersion scheme. Our relaxed lattice parameters are in agreement with experimental data. The hydrogen bonding between NH₂ and I ions is found to have a crucial role in FAPbI₃ stability. The first calculated band structure shows that HC(NH₂)₂PbI₃ has a direct bandgap (1.02 eV) at R-point, lower than the bandgap (1.53 eV) of CH₃NH₃PbI₃. The calculated density of states reveals that the strong hybridization of s(Pb)– p(I) orbital in valence band maximum plays an important role in the structural stability. The photo-generated effective electron mass and hole mass at R-point along the R–Γ and R–M directions are estimated to be smaller: $m_{\text{e}}^{\ast <!--\; ???\; -->}=0.06m_0$ and $m_{\mathrm{h}}^{\ast <!--\; ???\; -->}=0.08m_0$ respectively, which are consistent with the values experimentally observed from long range photocarrier transport. The elastic properties are also investigated for the first time, which shows that HC(NH₂)2PbI₃ is mechanically stable and ductile and has weaker strength of the average chemical bond. This work sheds light on the understanding of applications of HC(NH₂)2PbI₃ as the perovskite in a planar-heterojunction solar cell light absorber fabricated on flexible polymer substrates. (paper)

[en] Objective: To assess the diagnostic value of whole-lesion intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion weighted imaging (IVIM-DWI) in differentiating benign and malignant thyroid nodules based on turbo spin echo (TSE) sequence. Methods: Totally 57 patients with thyroid nodules diagnosed by pathology were prospectively collected at the Affiliated Lianyungang Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University from March 2019 to December 2019. A total of 62 nodules were included for analysis, including 27 benign nodules and 35 malignant nodules. All patients underwent routine MRI scan and IVIM-DWI based on TSE sequence before surgery. The regions of interest were drawn along the edge of the lesion on multiple consecutive slices to cover the entire nodule, and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), diffusivity (D), pseudo-diffusivity (D^*) and quantitation of perfusion fraction (f) values were measured, and the mean value of the multilayer measurement was recorded for further analysis. The differences of the parameters between benign and malignant thyroid nodules were analyzed using independent samples t test (normal distribution) and Mann-Whitney U test (non-normal distribution). The diagnostic efficacy of parameters with statistical significance was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve. Results: The ADC, D and D^* values in the malignant nodules were lower than those in benign nodules, the differences were statistically significant (t = 3.821, P = 0.001; t = 2.034, P = 0.046). There were no statistical differences of D^* and f values (t = -1.170, P = 0.247; Z = -0.559, P = 0.577). The optimal cut-off values of ADC and D were 1.90 × 10^-3 mm²/s and 1.10 × 10^-3mm²/s, with both sensitivity of 81.5%, specificity of 73.5% and 61.8%, respectively. The area under ROC curve of ADC and D were 0.782 and 0.688, and the statistical difference was found (Z = 2.098, P = 0.040). Conclusion: The whole-lesion IVIM parameters (ADC and D) based on the TSE sequence provide imaging features for preoperative differentiation of benign and malignant nodules of the thyroid gland. (authors)

[en] Highlights: • Phthalate esters were determined in the aquaculture fish ponds of PRD. • DEHP was the predominant compounds in the fish ponds. • DEHP content in the water sample exceeded the local environmental quality standard. • The DEHP and DBP exceeded a recommend environmental risk limit. -- Abstract: The concentrations, congener profiles and spatial distribution of 13 phthalate esters (PAEs) in the freshwater fish ponds in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region were investigated in water and sediment samples collect from 22 sites during Jul. 2016–Sept. 2017. The di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) was the predominant compounds in both water and sediment samples, accounting for 70.1% and 66.1% of ∑PAEs, respectively. The DEHP concentrations in the water samples collected from the sites of Zhongshan (35.7 μg/L), Jingmen (17.3 μg/L) and Nanhai (14.2 μg/L) were higher than that collected from other sampling sites (p < 0.05), and exceed the Chinese environmental quality standards for surface water (DEHP, 8.00 μg/L). The concentrations of ΣPAEs (mean and median were 11.8 mg/kg dw and 7.95 mg/kg dw) in sediment was higher than that in sediment of river and estuary in the PRD region (p < 0.05). The median concentrations of DEHP and di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) exceeded recommend environmental risk limit (ERL) that posed a potential risk to the aquaculture fish pond environment in the PRD.

[en] Anticoagulation therapy plays a vital role in the prevention of blood clot formation during hemodialysis and hemofiltration, especially for critical care patients. Here, we synthesized a novel argatroban (Arg)-modified polysulfone (PSf) membrane for anticoagulation. Arg was grafted onto the PSF membrane via chemical modification to increase membrane hydrophilicity. Protein adsorption, coagulation, as well as activation of platelets and complement systems were greatly reduced on the Arg-modified PSf membrane. Thus, the recalcification time and the activated partial thrombin time (APTT) were increased after the modification. In comparison with the pristine PSf membrane, the Arg-modified PSf membrane showed better hemocompatibility and anticoagulation properties, indicating its potential for applications in hemodialysis and hemofiltration.

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[en] This paper details the development of low-stress, heavily-doped polycrystalline 3C–SiC films suitable for microelectromechanical systems applications. The films were deposited on 100 mm-diameter silicon (Si) and silicon dioxide (SiO_2)-coated Si wafers in a large-volume, low-pressure chemical vapor deposition furnace using dichlorosilane (DCS) (SiH_2Cl_2) and acetylene (C_2H_2) as precursors and ammonia (NH_3) as the dopant source gas. The effects of NH_3 and deposition pressure on the deposition rate, film residual stress and electrical resistivity were studied. Deposition parameters optimized for a combination of resistivity and residual stress yielded an average resistivity of 0.02 Ω cm and a residual tensile stress of 59 MPa as measured using wafer-scale methods. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicated that the nitrogen concentration in the films was less than 0.5 at%. Variations in the flow rate of NH_3 did not affect the surface roughness of the films, but changes in deposition pressure had an obvious effect on the surface roughness. (paper)

[en] Surface micromachined resonators, stress pointers and cantilevers were used to characterize nitrogen doped polycrystalline 3C-SiC (poly-SiC) films for their suitability as structural materials for MEMS applications. The films were deposited on 100 mm diameter silicon (Si) and silicon dioxide (SiO_2) wafers using dichlorosilane (SiH_2Cl_2) and acetylene (C_2H_2) as precursors and ammonia (NH_3) as the dopant source gas in a high throughput, low-pressure chemical vapor deposition furnace. The average Young's modulus was found to be 330 GPa for the films with the best combination of resistivity and residual stress. The device level tensile stress and stress gradient measured by stress pointers and cantilevers indicated that the residual tensile stresses were significantly affected by doping gas flow rate and deposition pressure. The best films deposited on SiO_2 exhibited an average tensile stress of 74.2 MPa and an average stress gradient of 222 MPa µm"−"1. (paper)