[en] Objective: To evaluate the clinical efficacy and adverse reactions for long-term application of recombinant human endostatin with concurrent hormone and radiation therapy for advanced prostate cancer. Methods: 28 patients with histologically confirmed advanced prostate cancer were divided into experimental (18 patients) and control groups (10 patients). The experimental group was treated with endostatin combined with concurrent hormone and radiation therapy, and the control group was treated with hormones and radiotherapy. The efficacy and adverse reactions for both groups were observed. Results: The serum levels of PSA and TPSA in experimental group and control group after treatment were lower than that of pretreatment (P < 0.01), This indicated that two treatments were effective for prostate cancer. The serum levels of FPSA and TPSA in both experimental group and control group were decreased by a big margin in two months after treatment (P < 0.01). The serum levels of FPSA and TPSA in experimental group at different times were lower than that of control group (P < 0.01). The bone marrow suppression in experimental group mainly in white blood cells as the most important was significantly higher than that of control group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The combined Endostatin with hormone and radiotherapy for prostate cancer treatment are superior to single treatment. The serum levels of FPSA and TPSA decline rapidly and maintaining a lower level for longer duration. (authors)

[en] AWO₄:Tm³⁺ (A = Ca, Sr and Ba) blue phosphors were prepared via a mild and facile hydrothermal route. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), photoluminescence excitation and emission spectra and decay curve were used to characterize the AWO₄:Tm³⁺ phosphors. By analyzing the excitation and emission spectra of AWO₄:Tm and undoped AWO₄ samples, the result indicates that there exists the energy transfer from the WO₄^2- group to the Tm³⁺ ion only in CaWO₄:Tm phosphor. The luminescence decay curves from the ¹D₂ state of Tm³⁺ in AWO₄ phosphors show bi-exponential characteristics when excited directly to the ¹D₂ state, implying that there exist two luminescence centers in AWO₄:Tm phosphors. Because AWO₄:Tm³⁺ phosphors exhibit intensive blue emission and high color purity under UV excitation, it is considered to be a new promising blue phosphor for field emission display application.

[en] La_2-xEu_x(WO₄)₃ red phosphors have been synthesized by a hydrothermal process with further sintering treatment. X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry (TG), the field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), photoluminescence excitation and emission spectra and decay curve were used to characterize La_2-xEu_x(WO₄)₃ phosphors. The results showed that La_2-xEu_x(WO₄)₃ phosphor exhibits intensive red emission under 395 nm excitation. The strongest line (395 nm) in excitation spectra of these phosphors matches with the output wavelength of UV InGaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) chip. Hence, it is considered to be a new promising phosphor for generating white light devices.

[en] In this study, a new bagel-like graphene aerogel composed of graphene sheets is reported. This bagel-like graphene aerogel was fabricated by a droplet containing graphene oxide sheets, which had an impact on the coagulation bath of the mixed ethanol and hydrochloric acid. During the impact process, the graphene oxide droplet locked the ripple of the coagulation bath while forming a special structure with the stagnating ripple, which was gradually transformed into a bagel-like graphene oxide hydrogel. Then, this graphene oxide hydrogel was processed by reduction and freeze drying to obtain a small and light-weight bagel-like graphene aerogel. As characterized by Raman spectrum, XRD and XPS, we confirmed that graphene oxide sheets were effectively reduced. The excellent electrical conductivity and stable mechanical properties of this bagel-like graphene aerogel were experimentally measured. We found that it could be applied as piezoresistive pressure sensors with high sensitivity at low pressure, wide measurement range and good stability. As confirmed by SEM, this outstanding sensing property was attributed to the aerogel’s special lamellar multi-layered microstructure, which played a key role in the piezoresistive working mechanism. (paper)

[en] Highlights: • Os/Si has a thermodynamically favorable hydrogen adsorption free energy. • Os/SiNW composites show a low Tafel slope of −24 mV dec⁻¹. • The performance of Os/SiNW catalysts exceeds Pt/C at high overpotentials. The development of highly efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction is a fundamental undertaking of the hydrogen economy. Herein, we investigated the electrocatalytic performance of M/Si (M = Os, Rh, Pt, Pd, Re, Ru, Au or Ag) nanocomposites for hydrogen evolution reaction. The results show that Os/Si nanocomposites exhibit the best catalytic efficiency with a negligible onset overpotential (−25 mV), a small Tafel slope of −24 mV dec⁻¹ and remarkable long-term stability. Of most importance, at a current density of the typical industrial production (−1000 mA cm⁻²), the energy conversion efficiency of the Os/Si nanocomposite is 29.3% higher than that of the commercial 40 wt% Pt/C. The density functional calculations reveal that such outstanding catalytic activity of the Os/Si catalyst arises from the thermodynamically more favorable hydrogen adsorption free energy (ΔG_H* = −0.03 eV) at the osmium/silicon interfaces than that on platinum (ΔG_H* = −0.09 eV) or osmium (ΔG_H* = −0.26 eV).

[en] The exploration and optimization of electrodes in capacitors with high capacitance, excellent rate capacity and considerable energy density without sacrificing power density remain a great challenge at a high mass loading. Herein, a simple and novel strategy is presented to activate carbon cloth via chemical oxidation and then followed by gamma-ray irradiated reduction process for removing the oxygen functional groups bonded on the surface of carbon cloth. Activated carbon cloth with extensive pore distribution and high surface area was made up into electrodes to measure its energy storage performance Despite only 5.6% change in surface area from oxidized to gamma irradiated carbon cloth (118 and 124.6 m²/g), the electrode based on gamma irradiated carbon cloth shows an obvious 74.6% enhancement of area capacitance (from 402 to 702 mF/cm²) critically due to the removal of the oxygen functional groups boned on the surface of carbon cloth by the gamma reduction process. It also provides a desirable rate performance of 86% (610 mF/cm² at 20 mA/cm²) and 110.5% of its original capacitance after 30000 cycles. In order to further corroborate the prospect of the activated carbon cloth, a symmetric device based on the activated carbon cloth was assembled and it shows a maximum energy density of 0.556 mW h/cm³ and a supreme power density of 1016 mW/cm³. The promising energy and power characteristics and excellent cycling stability of the activated carbon cloth have high potential for low-cost, high-performance, and flexible supercapacitors.

[en] The effect of gamma ray irradiation on silicon nanowires was investigated. Here, an additional defect emerged in the gamma-ray-irradiated silicon nanowires and was confirmed with electron spin resonance spectra. ²⁹Si nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy showed that irradiation doses had influence on the Q⁴ unit structure. This phenomenon indicated that the unique core/shell structure of silicon nanowires might contribute to induce metastable defects under gamma ray irradiation, which served as a satisfactory model to investigate defects at the interface of Si/SiOx