Fast UV-Curable Zwitter-Wettable Coatings with Reliable Antifogging/Frost-Resisting Performances.

Antifogging surfaces with unique properties to migrate severe fog formation have gained extensive interest, which is of particular interest for transparent substrates to obtain high visibility and transparency. To date, a large number of strategies including superhydrophilic or superhydrophobic surfaces and titanium dioxide (TiO2)-based composite coatings have been developed based on different mechanisms. Although these surfaces exhibit effective antifogging properties, the rigid nanostructures, cumbersome preparation, and the need for UV light excitation largely limit their widespread applications. Herein, we report a zwitter-wettable antifogging and frost-resisting coating through a fast UV-curable cross-linking of copolymer with benzophenone groups. A series of random copolymers consisting of hydrophilic hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEA), hydrophobic methyl methacrylate (MMA), and benzophenone-based acrylate units are developed by thermally triggered free-radical polymerization. Upon UV light irradiation, a highly efficient antifogging/frost-resisting coating is covalently bonded on a polycarbonate plate surface, maintaining a light transmission higher than 85%, which was confirmed in both high and low temperature anti-fog tests. Moreover, the wetting behaviors reveal that the antifogging performance exhibited by the zwitter-wettable surface mainly relies on its surface water-adsorbing capability to imbibe condensed water vapor on the surface outmost layer. Notably, the antifogging/frost-resisting behaviors can be well regulated by adjusting the hydrophilic/hydrophobic units, due to the proper balance between the water-adsorption and coating stability. Owing to its simplicity, low-cost preparation and high efficiency, this UV-curable acrylate antifogging coating may find a wide range of applications in various display devices in analytical and detection instruments.

An update in clinical utilization of photodynamic therapy for lung cancer.

Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide, with nearly 1.8 million-diagnosis and 1.59 million deaths. Surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy in individual or combination are commonly used to treat lung cancers. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a highly selective method for the destruction of cancer cells by exerting cytotoxic activity on malignant cells. PDT has been the subject of numerous clinical studies and has proven to be an effective strategy for cancer therapy. Clinical studies revealed that PDT could prolong survival in patients with inoperable cancers and significantly improve quality of life. For inoperable lung cancer cases, PDT could be an effective therapy. Despite the clinical success reported, PDT is still currently underutilized to treat lung cancer and other tumors. PTD is still a new treatment approach for lung cancer mainly due to the lack of enough clinical research evaluating its' effectiveness and side effects. In this review, we discuss the current prospects and future potentials of PDT in lung cancer treatment.

Diagnostic Performance of Abnormal Nulling on Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging Look Locker Inversion Time Sequence in Differentiating Cardiac Amyloidosis Types.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the diagnostic utility of the Look Locker inversion time (TI) sequence on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in patients with suspected cardiac amyloidosis and to evaluate whether there are differences in the nulling pattern between amyloid types. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 144 patients with suspected cardiac amyloidosis who had undergone cardiac magnetic resonance imaging were included in this retrospective study. Sixty-four had cardiac amyloidosis (62.1±9.2 y, 70.3% male, 68.8% had light chain amyloid [AL], 18.8% had familial transthyretin amyloid caused by mutant genes [ATTRm], and 12.5% had wild-type transthyretin amyloid [ATTRwt]) and 80 did not have cardiac amyloidosis (61.3±13.3 y, 58.8% male). Time to myocardial and blood pool nulling on the Look Locker TI sequence was classified as normal if blood pool nulled before myocardium or abnormal if blood pool nulling was coincident with or after myocardial nulling. RESULTS: The nulling pattern was abnormal in 26 patients with cardiac amyloidosis compared with none of the patients without cardiac amyloidosis (40.6% vs. 0.0%, P<0.0001). Abnormal nulling had 40.6% sensitivity and 100% specificity for cardiac amyloidosis (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.703, 95% confidence interval: 0.642-0.764). All patients with cardiac amyloidosis with an abnormal nulling pattern demonstrated late gadolinium enhancement. Among patients with cardiac amyloidosis, there was no significant difference in abnormal nulling between AL, ATTRm, and ATTRwt amyloid types (31.8%, 58.3%, 62.5%, respectively, P=0.10). CONCLUSIONS: An abnormal nulling pattern on the Look Locker TI sequence is highly specific for cardiac amyloidosis when present. However, abnormal nulling is a late finding with low sensitivity and does not differentiate between amyloid types.

Acute poisoning in Shenyang, China: a retrospective and descriptive study from 2012 to 2016.

OBJECTIVES: Up-to-date information on the patterns of acute poisoning is crucial for the proper management of poisoning events. The objectives of this study were to analyse the characteristics of patients suffering from acute poisoning admitted to the emergency department (ED) in a tertiary medical centre in Northeast China and to compare these characteristics with those of a previous comparable study. DESIGN: Retrospective and descriptive study. SETTING: Data were collected from the hospital information system in Shengjing Hospital, China, from January 2012 to December 2016. PARTICIPANTS: All cases aged ≥11 years old with a diagnosis of acute poisoning. RESULTS: In total, 5009 patients aged ≥11 years presented to the ED with acute poisoning during the study period. The average age of the patients was 36.0±15.1 years and over half (52.7%) were in the 20-39age group. The female to male ratio was 1.2:1. Patients with acute poisoning mainly lived in rural areas rather than in urban areas. The majority of patients consumed poison as suicide attempts (56.7%). Men were more commonly poisoned by drug abuse than women, but women outnumbered men in suicidal poisoning. The most common form of poison intake was ingestion (oral intake; 86.2%). The five most common toxic agent groups, in descending order, were therapeutic drugs (32.6%), pesticides (26.9%), alcohol (20.7%), fumes/gases/vapours (11.4%) and chemicals (3.6%). Sedatives/hypnotics in the therapeutic drugs group and paraquat in the pesticides group were the most common toxic agents, respectively. The mortality rate of study participants was 1.3%, with 64 deaths. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate the need to strengthen education on the rational and safe use of drugs in Shenyang.