Diagnosis of peritoneal metastasis in an unruptured hepatocellular carcinoma on ascitic fluid cytology: A rare scenario with brief review of literature.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver malignancy in adults occurring in a background of cirrhosis. Peritoneal dissemination of HCC is an unusual presentation with an incidence of 2%-16%. Peritoneal metastasis of an unruptured HCC is extremely uncommon. Despite low yield, ascitic fluid cytology serves as a valuable tool for diagnostic evaluation in a patient of cirrhosis with suspicion of malignant transformation. We present a rare case scenario in an elderly female with cirrhosis where the diagnosis of peritoneal metastasis was established on ascitic fluid cytology and confirmed by immunocytochemistry. This report illustrates the unique clinical presentation of an unruptured HCC with its cytological features and a brief review of literature.

Electrospun membrane of bismuth vanadate-polyvinylidene fluoride nanofibers for efficient piezo-photocatalysis applications.

The fabrication of a Poly (vinylidene fluoride) membrane (PVDF) and ceramic-assisted bismuth vanadate-polyvinylidene fluoride (BiVO4-PVDF) composite membrane was achieved through the utilization of the electrospinning technique. The composition and structure of the fabricated membranes were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, Raman analysis, scanning electron microscopy, Thermo gravimetric analyzer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and UV-Vis spectroscopy techniques. The prepared polymeric membranes were then utilized for catalytic investigation and to explore, how structure affects catalytic activity using 5 mg/L, 10 mL methylene blue (MB) dye solution. Ultrasonication, visible light irradiation, and the combination were used to study piezocatalysis, photocatalysis, and piezo-photocatalysis, moreover, degradation intermediates were also explored using scavengers. Electrospun BiVO4-PVDF (BV-PVDF) composite has been found to have better piezocatalytic and photocatalytic properties than PVDF. The experimental findings reveal that the composite of BiVO4-PVDF demonstrates the highest efficiency in dye degradation, achieving a maximum degradation rate of 61% within a processing time of 180 min. The rate of degradation was calculated to be 0.0047 min-1, indicating a promising potential for the composite in the field of dye degradation.

Review on Multicatalytic Behavior of Ba0.85Ca0.15Ti0.9Zr0.1O3 Ceramic.

Ferroelectric materials are known to possess multicatalytic abilities that are nowadays utilized for removing organic pollutants from water via piezocatalysis, photocatalysis, piezo-photocatalysis, and pyrocatalysis processes. The Ba0.85Ca0.15Ti0.9Zr0.1O3 (BCZTO) ceramic is one such ferroelectric composition that has been extensively studied for electrical and electronic applications. Furthermore, the BCZTO ceramic has also shown remarkable multicatalytic performance in water-cleaning applications. The present review explores the potentiality of BCZTO for water-cleaning and bacterial-killing applications. It also highlights the fundamentals of ferroelectric ceramics, the importance of electric poling, and the principles underlying piezocatalysis, photocatalysis, and pyrocatalysis processes in addition to the multicatalytic capability of ferroelectric BCZTO ceramic.

Comparative Study of the Effective Properties of 0-3 and Gyroid Triply Periodic Minimal Surface Cement-Piezocomposites.

In the present numerical simulation work, effective elastic and piezoelectric properties are calculated and a comparative study is conducted on a cement matrix-based piezocomposite with 0-3 and gyroid triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) inclusions. The present study compares the effective properties of different piezoelectric materials having two different types of connectivity of the inclusions namely, 0-3 inclusions where the inclusions are physically separated from each other and are embedded within the matrix and the second one is TPMS inclusions having interpenetrating phase type connectivity. Effective properties are calculated for four different materials at five different volume fractions namely, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30% volume fractions of inclusion by volume. In terms of effective properties and direct piezoelectric effect, TPMS piezocomposite is found to perform better compared to 0-3 piezocomposite. Lead-free piezoelectric material 0.5Ba(Ca0.8Zr0.2)O3 - 0.5(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3 demonstrates better performance compared to all other material inclusions studied. The present study attempts to highlight improved piezoelectric effective properties of lead-free material-based piezocomposites with TPMS inclusions.

Negative Poisson's ratio polyethylene matrix and 0.5Ba(Zr0.2 Ti0.8) O3-0.5(Ba0.7 Ca0.3)TiO3 based piezocomposite for sensing and energy harvesting applications.

Finite element studies were conducted on 0.5Ba(Zr0.2 Ti0.8) O3-0.5(Ba0.7 Ca0.3)TiO3 (BCZT) piezoelectric particles embedded in polyethylene matrix to create a piezocomposite having a positive and negative Poisson's ratio of -0.32 and 0.2. Polyethylene with a positive Poisson's ratio is referred to as non-auxetic while those with negative Poisson's ratio are referred to as auxetic or inherently auxetic. The effective elastic and piezoelectric properties were calculated at volume fractions of (4%, 8% to 24%) to study their sensing and harvesting performance. This study compared lead-free auxetic 0-3 piezocomposite for sensing and energy harvesting with non-auxetic one. Inherently auxetic piezocomposites have been studied for their elastic and piezoelectric properties and improved mechanical coupling, but their sensing and energy harvesting capabilities and behavior patterns have not been explored in previous literatures. The effect of Poisson's ratio ranging between -0.9 to 0.4 on the sensing and energy harvesting performance of an inherently auxetic lead free piezocomposite composite with BCZT inclusions has also not been studied before, motivating the author to conduct the present study. Auxetic piezocomposite demonstrated an overall improvement in performance in terms of higher sensing voltage and harvested power. The study was repeated at a constant volume fraction of 24% for a range of Poisson's ratio varied between -0.9 to 0.4. Enhanced performance was observed at the extreme negative end of the Poisson's ratio spectrum. This paper demonstrates the potential improvements by exploiting auxetic matrices in future piezocomposite sensors and energy harvesters.

Effect of Poling on Multicatalytic Performance of 0.5Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3-0.5(Ba0.7Sr0.3)TiO3 Ferroelectric Ceramic for Dye Degradation.

Ferroelectric materials with a spontaneous polarization are proven to be potential multicatalysts in water remediation applications. The composition of 0.5Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3-0.5(Ba0.7Sr0.3)TiO3 (BST-BZT) was examined for photocatalysis, piezocatalysis, and piezo-photocatalysis processes by degrading an azo dye named methylene blue (MB). Generally, dis-aligned dipoles restrict the catalytic activities due to which the BST-BZT powder sample was poled by the corona poling technique. Coupled piezocatalysis and photocatalysis process, i.e., the piezo-photocatalysis process has shown maximum dye degradation. There was a significant improvement in degradation efficiency by using a poled BST-BZT sample compared to the unpoled sample in all processes, thus the results suggest an extensive scope of poled ferroelectric ceramic powder in the catalysis field.

Clinico-pathological features in fatal COVID-19 infection: a preliminary experience of a tertiary care center in North India using postmortem minimally invasive tissue sampling.

OBJECTIVES: To study the histopathology of patients dying of COVID-19 using post-mortem minimally invasive sampling techniques. METHODS: This was a single-center observational study conducted at JPNATC, AIIMS. Thirty-seven patients who died of COVID-19 were enrolled. Post-mortem percutaneous biopsies were taken from lung, heart, liver, kidney and stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Immunohistochemistry was performed using CD61 and CD163. SARS-CoV-2 virus was detected using IHC with primary antibodies. RESULTS: The mean age was 48.7 years and 59.5% were males. Lung histopathology showed diffuse alveolar damage in 78% patients. Associated bronchopneumonia was seen in 37.5% and scattered microthrombi in 21% patients. Immunopositivity for SARS-CoV-2 was observed in Type II pneumocytes. Acute tubular injury with epithelial vacuolization was seen in 46% of renal biopsies. Seventy-one percent of liver biopsies showed Kupffer cell hyperplasia and 27.5% showed submassive hepatic necrosis. CONCLUSIONS: Predominant finding was diffuse alveolar damage with demonstration of SARS-CoV-2 protein in the acute phase. Microvascular thrombi were rarely identified in any organ. Substantial hepatocyte necrosis, Kupffer cell hypertrophy, microvesicular, and macrovesicular steatosis unrelated to microvascular thrombi suggested that liver might be a primary target of COVID-19.