Assessment of left ventricular structure and function in preeclampsia subtypes by multimodal echocardiography.

AIM: To explore left ventricular structural/functional abnormalities in preeclampsia patients by using multimodal echocardiography and to analyze the cardiac impact in preeclampsia subtypes. METHODS: A total of 103 individuals, including 64 preeclampsia patients and 39 healthy pregnant women were recruited for this study from 2019 to 2021. There were 34 patients with preeclampsia with severe features (SPE) patients and 30 with preeclampsia with nonsevere features (NSPE), including 9 with early-onset NSPE (EO-NSPE) patients, 27 early-onset SPE (EO-SPE) patients, 21 later-onset NSPE (LO-NSPE), and 7 with later-onset SPE (LO-SPE). All patients underwent multimodal echocardiography before treatment, including two-dimensional, Doppler, and speckle-tracking echocardiography, to evaluate left ventricular structure/function. Analysis of variance was used to determine statistical significance across groups. RESULTS: EO-SPE patients showed decreased left ventricular ejection fractions, peak longitudinal systolic strain at apical four-chambers, peak circumferential, and radial systolic strain at the apical and mitral annular plane systolic excursion (MAPSE), and increased mitral regurgitation compared to other preeclampsia patients. Compared to LO-NSPE and EO-SPE patients, LO-SPE patients showed increased left ventricular mass indexed to height2.7 and early diastolic left ventricular diastolic filling/mitral annular velocity, and decreased MAPSE and early/late diastolic mitral annular velocity. CONCLUSION: EO-SPE patients were characterized by left ventricular injury and systolic function reduced. LO-SPE patients were characterized by left ventricular hypertrophy and reduced diastolic function. Multimodal echocardiography can detect myocardial injury in PE patients at an early stage.

Tunable pH-dependent oxygen evolution activity of strontium cobaltite thin films for electrochemical water splitting.

Understanding the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) dependence on the reaction environment pH is important to find alternative strategies to define an optimal pH value for high electrocatalytic activity. SrCoO2.5 films with the brownmillerite phase are investigated in this study for their strain effects on the OER activity, with particular regard to the pH dependence. Pulsed laser deposited films with different thicknesses and, thus, strain conditions, are characterized in terms of long range and near-order structural properties and electrochemical OER activity. By comparison, more strained thinner films have smaller OER current at lower pH conditions, but higher sensitivity to the environment pH. Spectroscopic measurements allow us to correlate such behaviors to the Co 3d-O 2p hybridization effects of the CoO6 octahedral sites, which lead to a variation of the 3d level electronic occupation. At the same time, density functional theory calculations show that the oxygen vacancy channels of the CoO4 tetrahedral sites are stable with respect to the strain effects. These results provide new perspectives to manipulate the pH dependent OER activity through the strain effects, useful for designing water splitting-based devices with optimized performances.

Resilient Growth of a Highly Crystalline Topological Insulator-Superconductor Heterostructure Enabled by an Ex Situ Nitride Film.

Highly crystalline and easily feasible topological insulator-superconductor (TI-SC) heterostructures are crucial for the development of practical topological qubit devices. The optimal superconducting layer for TI-SC heterostructures should be highly resilient against external contamination and structurally compatible with TIs. In this study, we provide a solution to this challenge by showcasing the growth of a highly crystalline TI-SC heterostructure using refractory TiN (111) as the superconducting layer. This approach can eliminate the need for in situ cleavage or growth. More importantly, the TiN surface shows high resilience against contaminations during air exposure, as demonstrated by the successful recyclable growth of Bi2Se3. Our findings indicate that TI-SC heterostructures based on nitride films are compatible with device fabrication techniques, paving the way to the realization of practical topological qubit devices in the future.

Ningxiang Pig-Derived Microbiota Affects the Growth Performance, Gut Microbiota, and Serum Metabolome of Nursery Pigs.

The gut microbiota is crucial for maintaining the host's intestinal homeostasis and metabolism. This study investigated the effects of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from Ningxiang pigs on the growth performance, fecal microbiota, and serum metabolites of the same-old DLY pigs. The results indicated that the average daily gain of FMT pigs was significantly greater than that of the control (CON) group. Compared to the CON group, the FMT group significantly improved the apparent digestibility of crude fiber, crude ash, gross energy, and calcium of the pigs. The analysis of serum antioxidant status revealed that the activities of total superoxide dismutase and catalase in the serum of pigs in the FMT group were significantly elevated, whereas the level of malondialdehyde was significantly reduced. Furthermore, 16S rRNA sequencing analysis revealed that the Ningxiang pig-derived microbiota altered the fecal microbiota structure and modulated the diversity of the gut microbiota in the DLY pigs. Untargeted LC-MS metabolomics demonstrated that pigs in the FMT group exhibited distinct metabolomic profiles compared to those in the CON group. Significant changes were observed in key metabolites involved in amino acid, lipid, and carbohydrate metabolism. Additionally, a correlation analysis between serum differential metabolites and the gut microbiota revealed that the relative abundance of Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group and Corynebacterium was highly correlated with lipid compounds. In conclusion, Ningxiang pig-derived microbiota can alleviate oxidative stress and enhance growth performance in DLY pigs by modulating their gut microbiota and metabolic features.

Effect of aluminum and ammonium perchlorate particle sizes on the condensed combustion products characteristics of aluminized NEPE propellants.

Aluminum (Al) is usually added to solid propellants to improve the combustion performance, however the condensed combustion products (CCPs) especially the large agglomerates generated from aluminum combustion can reduce the specific impulse of the engine, and result in two-phase loss, residue accumulation and throat liner ablation. Al and ammonium perchlorate (AP), as important components of NEPE propellants, can affect the formation process of the CCPs of aluminized NEPE propellants. To clarify the effect of Al and AP particle sizes on the properties of the CCPs of aluminized NEPE propellants, a constant-pressure quench vessel was adopted to collect the combustion products of four different formulations of NEPE propellants. It was found that the condensed combustion products are mainly divided into aluminum agglomerates and oxide particles, the diameter of the aluminum agglomerates of these four different formulations of NEPE propellants at 7 MPa was smaller than that in 3 MPa, and the shells of the aluminum agglomerates were smoother and the spherical shape was more perfect. X-ray diffraction analysis of the CCPs of the four NEPE propellants under 3 MPa revealed the presence of both Al and Al2O3. With the increase of the particle size of Al and AP, the oxidation degree of aluminum particles decreases. The particle size of the CCPs of the four different formulations of NEPE propellants under 1 and 3 MPa was analyzed by using a laser particle size analyzer, it is found that the increase of AP particle size is helpful to reduce the size of condensate combustion products. Based on the classical pocket theory, establishing a new agglomeration size prediction model, which can be used to predict the agglomeration size on the burning surface. Compared with the empirical model, the new agglomeration size prediction model is in good agreement with the experimental results.

The coupling of hemin with persistent free radicals induces a nonradical mechanism for oxidation of pollutants.

Herein, we report that persistent free radicals (PFRs) based on MWCNTs significantly accelerate the pollutant removal rate. EPR measurement combined with the electrochemical test indicated that a nonradical mechanism was responsible for the enhancement, which is different from the previously reported radical pathway on PFRs.