Sustained release of hydrogen sulfide from anisotropic ferrofluid hydrogel for the repair of spinal cord injury.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in massive neuronal death, axonal disruption, and cascading inflammatory response, which causes further damage to impaired neurons. The survived neurons with damaged function fail to form effective neuronal circuits. It is mainly caused by the neuroinflammatory microenvironment at injury sites and regenerated axons without guidance. To address this challenge, a ferrofluid hydrogel (FFH) was prepared with Ferric tetrasulfide (Fe3S4), carboxymethyl chitosan, and gold. Its internal structural particles can be oriented in a magnetic field to acquire anisotropy. Moreover, Fe3S4 can release hydrogen sulfide (H2S) with anti-inflammatory effects under acidic conditions. Regarding in vitro experiments, 0.01g/ml Fe3S4 FFH significantly reduced the inflammatory factors produced by LPS-induced BV2 cells. Oriented and longer axons of the induced neural stem cells loaded on anisotropic FFH were observed. In vivo experiments showed that FFH reduced the activated microglia/macrophage and the expression of pro-inflammatory factors in SCI rats through the NF-κB pathway. Moreover, it significantly promoted directional axonal regrowth and functional recovery after SCI. Given the critical role of inhibition of neuroinflammation and directional axonal growth, anisotropic Fe3S4 FFH is a promising alternative for the treatment of SCI.

1% Tetracaine hydrochloride injection pure solution aerosol inhalation combined with oral administration of dyclonine hydrochloride mucilage as upper airway anesthesia for bronchoscopy: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: During the bronchoscopy process, successful passage of the tracheoscope through the glottis can affect the following procedure of bronchoscopy. Therefore, safer, more effective and less painful anesthesia methods are particularly important for the bronchoscopy success rate. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of 1% tetracaine hydrochloride injection pure solution aerosol inhalation combined with oral administration of dyclonine hydrochloride mucilage during bronchoscopy. METHODS: Patients who need bronchoscopy or bronchoscope treatment were randomly assigned to two groups; group A received pure tetracaine hydrochloride injection solution (3 mL of 1% tetracaine hydrochloride) aerosol inhalation combined with oral 5 mL of dyclonine hydrochloride mucilage and group B received diluted tetracaine hydrochloride injection (3 mL of 1% tetracaine hydrochloride injection + 3 mL of sterile water for injection) aerosol inhalation combined with oral 5 mL of dyclonine hydrochloride mucilage. The anesthetic effect and adverse reactions of these groups were observed and compared. RESULT: A total of 523 patients were randomized. The results showed that patient's tolerance, cough response, glottis opening during the bronchoscope into the glottis and the time required to the tracheoscope pass through the glottis were obviously significantly better in group A than in group B. Vital signs including blood pressure, heart rate and pulse oxygen saturation were more stable in group A than in group B. CONCLUSION: The 1% tetracaine hydrochloride injection pure liquid aerosol inhalation combined with oral administration of dyclonine hydrochloride mucilage as upper airway anesthesia is effective and safe for bronchoscopy. This method of local anesthesia is worthy of clinical application.

Application of three-step epitaxial process to dual trench epitaxial diode array.

The application of three-step Epitaxial (EPI) process to dual trench epitaxial diode array for high density phase change random access memory (PCRAM) was reported in this paper. With three-step EPI process condition, both vertical and lateral Arsenic auto-doping were suppressed effectively from Arsenic heavily-doped substrate. It was found that EPI layer (- 300 nm) with high-quality single crystalline and good thickness uniformity within 200 mm diameter wafer could be achieved. It was also found that both lateral and vertical Arsenic auto-doping concentration could be reduced by 2-3 orders by adding high temperature and low deposition rate EPI step before main EPI process, as compared to the conventional CVD EPI process. As a result, diode breakdown voltage was improved above 11 V and the On/Off current ratio of diode is greater than 9 orders of magnitude.

Design of side bottom-electrode-contact for high density phase-change memory array.

In this work, a high density phase-change memory (PCM) array with advanced side bottom-electrode-contact (BEC) scheme, which is highly compatible with current complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology, has been proposed. The data storage capacity has been doubled than orthodoxy PCM structure and the contact area between bottom electrode and PCM cell shrinks from 20096 nm2 to 600 nm2. The optimized titanium nitride (TiN) film as side BEC is 10 nm due to trading off between RESET current and SET resistance. As simulation results presented, the PCM cell with optimized side BEC thickness shows lower SET current of 0.06 mA, lower RESET current of 0.24 mA and higher resistance ratio of 10(3) between amorphous and crystalline phases. This side BEC process scheme is cost-effective process accompanying with tungsten via formation to minimize programming power. Meanwhile, based on the three-dimensional (3D) side BEC numerical model, it is manifested that there is cross-talk immunity in adjacent PCM cells during programming.