Heteroatom doped graphitic carbon nanotubes as freestanding anodes for advanced potassium-ion batteries.

Owing to its higher earth element reserve and similar chemical properties to lithium, potassium ion batteries (PIBs) have been regarded as a potential alternative to lithium-ion batteries. And considering the relatively larger ionic radius of potassium, available electrode materials need to be equipped with enough space for volume expansion during charge-discharge cycles, thus graphitic carbon nanomaterials with adjustable layer spacing gradually come into researcher's version. Here with copper nanowires serving as growth template and organic polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) providing carbon source, freestanding and ultra-light graphitic carbon nanotube (GCNT) aerogels were simply assembled and annealed, which were directly used as anodes of PIBs. Annealing parameters (temperature and atmosphere) were adapted to regulate the lattice order and interlayer spacing of GCNTs, and N, O heteroatoms derived from PVP were directly doped into the carbon lattice during thermal annealing, to optimize and enhance the cycle capacity and rate performance of GCNT anodes. The electrochemical potassium storage mechanism of GCNTs was also quantitatively analyzed. Most of the potassium ions are reversibly stored by squeezing into and escaping from the carbon lattice, and simultaneously oxygen-containing functional groups with different chemical states also offer active redox sites and dedicate partial capacity. Therefore, our assembled GCNTs with large lumen are expected to sandwich-like load with active substances efficiently, further constructing next-generation PIBs with excellent performance.

Clinical analysis of sirolimus therapy in children with refractory nephrotic syndrome.

To investigate the clinical efficacy of sirolimus in treating children with refractory nephrotic syndrome, the clinical data for 22 children from the Children's Hospital of Hebei Province were analyzed retrospectively. There were 16 boys and six girls, and the treatment period was from September 2015 to April 2021. There were two patients with steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome (SDNS), six patients with frequently relapsing nephrotic syndrome (FRNS), and 14 patients with steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS). All patients were defined as having refractory nephrotic syndrome. There were 12 patients (including nine SRNS patients and three FRNS patients) with minimal change disease (MCD), three patients (three SRNS patients) with focal segmental glomerular sclerosis (FSGS), one FRNS patient with mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (MsPGN), and six patients without a kidney biopsy. Compared with levels before sirolimus treatment, 24-hour urine protein (24-h UP), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), urea (Ur) and serum creatinine (SCr) levels were significantly lower (all p < 0.05). Moreover, albumin (Alb) was significantly increased (p < 0.05), and there were no significant differences in total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglyceride (TG), immunoglobulin A (IgA), immunoglobulin G (IgG) or immunoglobulin M (IgM) (all p > 0.05) at the first follow-up. Sirolimus is effective as the first treatment of some children with refractory nephrotic syndrome, but its long-term efficacy and adverse reactions still require follow-up.

Real-Time Cardiac Abnormality Monitoring and Nursing for Patient Using Electrocardiographic Signals.

INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular disease nursing is a critical clinical application that necessitates real-time monitoring models. Previous models required the use of multi-lead signals and could not be customized as needed. Traditional methods relied on manually designed supervised algorithms, based on empirical experience, to identify waveform abnormalities and classify diseases, and were incapable of monitoring and alerting abnormalities in individual waveforms. METHODS: This research reconstructed the vector model for arbitrary leads using the phase space-time-delay method, enabling the model to arbitrarily combine signals as needed while possessing adaptive denoising capabilities. After employing automatically constructed machine learning algorithms and designing for rapid convergence, the model can identify abnormalities in individual waveforms and classify diseases, as well as detect and alert on abnormal waveforms. RESULT: Effective noise elimination was achieved, obtaining a higher degree of loss function fitting. After utilizing the algorithm in Section 3.1 to remove noise, the signal-to-noise ratio increased by 8.6%. A clipping algorithm was employed to identify waveforms significantly affected by external factors. Subsequently, a network model established by a generative algorithm was utilized. The accuracy for healthy patients reached 99.2%, while the accuracy for APB was 100%, for LBBB 99.32%, for RBBB 99.1%, and for P-wave peak 98.1%. CONCLUSION: By utilizing a three-dimensional model, detailed variations in electrocardiogram signals associated with different diseases can be observed. The clipping algorithm is effective in identifying perturbed and damaged waveforms. Automated neural networks can classify diseases and patient identities to facilitate precision nursing.

Preparation of amphiphilic poly(divinylbenzene-co-N-vinylpyrrolidone)-functionalized polydopamine magnetic nanoadsorbents for enrichment of synthetic cannabinoids in wastewater.

Concerns have been raised about synthetic cannabinoids (SCs), which are among the most often trafficked and used illegal substances. An analytical method that holds promise for determining illicit drug use in the general population is wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). Unfortunately, the concentration of SCs in wastewater is often extremely low on account of their hydrophobic nature, thus presenting a significant obstacle to the accurate detection and quantification of SCs using WBE. In this study, we present novel magnetic nanomaterials as amphiphilic adsorbents for pretreatment of wastewater using magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE). Polydopamine-modified Fe3O4 nanoparticles were used as the magnetic core and further functionalized with poly(divinylbenzene-N-vinylpyrrolidone). Coupled with UHPLC-MS/MS analysis, an analytical method to simultaneously detect nine SCs at trace-levels in wastewater was developed and validated, enriching 50 mL wastewater to 100 µL with limits of detection (LOD) being 0.005-0.5 ng L-1, limits of quantification (LOQ) being 0.01-1.0 ng L-1, recoveries ranging from 73.99 to 110.72%, and the intra- and inter-day precision's relative standard deviations less than 15%. In comparison to the time-consuming conventional column-based solid phase extraction, the entire MSPE procedure from sample pre-treatment to data acquisition could be finished in one hour, thus largely facilitating the WBE method for drug surveillance and control.

Adult classic Bartter syndrome: a case report with 5-year follow-up and literature review.

Bartter syndrome (BS) is a rare, inherited salt-losing renal tubular disorder characterized by secondary hyperaldosteronism, hypokalemia, hypochloremia, metabolic alkalosis, and low-to-normal blood pressure. Classic BS, or BS Type 3, the most common subtype in the Asian population, is caused by a molecular defect in ClC-Kb, a voltage-gated chloride channel in renal tubules, due to CLCNKB gene mutation. Because the onset of BS is more common in children than in adults, the diagnosis, treatment outcomes, genotype/phenotype association, and follow-up of adult-onset BS Type 3 are limited. This case report describes the findings in a 20-year-old man who was admitted with hypokalemic paralysis, with clinical manifestations were similar to those of Gitelman syndrome (GS); however, the patient was later diagnosed to have BS Type 3 through genetic testing (NM_000085.4 (CLCNKB): c.1052G>T). A literature review showed that no homozygous mutations have been reported to date. After 5 years of treatment and follow-up, we found that this genotype requires high levels of potassium and is prone to urinary protein and metabolic syndrome. Distinguishing adult-onset BS from GS is challenging in clinical practice. However, genetic diagnosis can help solve this problem effectively, and genotypes play a guiding role in treatment planning.

UFPS: A unified framework for partially annotated federated segmentation in heterogeneous data distribution.

Partially supervised segmentation is a label-saving method based on datasets with fractional classes labeled and intersectant. Its practical application in real-world medical scenarios is, however, hindered by privacy concerns and data heterogeneity. To address these issues without compromising privacy, federated partially supervised segmentation (FPSS) is formulated in this work. The primary challenges for FPSS are class heterogeneity and client drift. We propose a unified federated partially labeled segmentation (UFPS) framework to segment pixels within all classes for partially annotated datasets by training a comprehensive global model that avoids class collision. Our framework includes unified label learning (ULL) and sparse unified sharpness aware minimization (sUSAM) for class and feature space unification, respectively. Through empirical studies, we find that traditional methods in partially supervised segmentation and federated learning often struggle with class collision when combined. Our extensive experiments on real medical datasets demonstrate better deconflicting and generalization capabilities of UFPS.

A mini-review on gene delivery technique using nanoparticles-mediated photoporation induced by nanosecond pulsed laser.

Nanosecond pulsed laser induced photoporation has gained increasing attention from scholars as an effective method for delivering the membrane-impermeable extracellular materials into living cells. Compared with femtosecond laser, nanosecond laser has the advantage of high throughput and low costs. It also has a higher delivery efficiency than continuous wave laser. Here, we provide an extensive overview of current status of nanosecond pulsed laser induced photoporation, covering the photoporation mechanism as well as various factors that impact the delivery efficiency of photoporation. Additionally, we discuss various techniques for achieving photoporation, such as direct photoporation, nanoparticles-mediated photoporation and plasmonic substrates mediated photoporation. Among these techniques, nanoparticles-mediated photoporation is the most promising approach for potential clinical application. Studies have already been reported to safely destruct the vitreous opacities in vivo by nanosecond laser induced vapor nanobubble. Finally, we discuss the potential of nanosecond laser induced phototoporation for future clinical applications, particularly in the areas of skin and ophthalmic pathologies. We hope this review can inspire scientists to further improve nanosecond laser induced photoporation and facilitate its eventual clinical application.

Spatial self-phase modulation excited by fractional-order linearly polarized vector fields.

Compared to the integer-order vector field, the fractional-order vector field has an additional degree of control freedom, which will bring rich photophysical properties and what we believe to be novel nonlinear optical phenomena. In this work, we theoretically and experimentally investigate the focusing, propagation, and spatial self-phase modulation (SSPM) of fractional-order linearly polarized vector fields (FLPVFs). It is shown that the weak focusing field of FLPVF exhibits an asymmetric intensity distribution. Intriguingly, its state of polarization (SoP) has a hybrid polarization distribution. When this focused FLPVF propagates to the far field in free space, its SoP degenerates into a localized linearly polarization distribution. However, after the focused FLPVF passes through an isotropic nonlinear Kerr medium, its SoP exhibits a hybrid polarization distribution. Additionally, unlike the self-diffraction intensity pattern of integer-order linearly polarized vector field (ILPVF) with a concentric multi-ring structure, the SSPM pattern of FLPVF is a symmetry broken self-diffraction intensity pattern. The presented work provides a nonlinear optics approach for manipulating both the SoP and intensity distributions of the light field.

Surveillance of ticks on a tropical island with introduced ungulates.

The abundance of hard ticks can be determined by abiotic factors and the presence of suitable hosts. Since deer represent important hosts for many tick species, it is imperative to investigate whether deer introduction will increase the number of ticks, which can transmit a wide variety of pathogens. The sika deer (Cervus nippon) was introduced to Green Island, Taiwan, to supply velvet antlers, a traditional Chinese medicine. However, they were later released into the wild after a steep decline in antler prices. We conducted surveys for questing ticks, ticks on rodents and shrews, and the fecal pellet groups of ungulates (deer and goats) in 31 transects within 3 habitat types (forest, grassland, and roadside) on Green Island every 2 months in 2019. A total of 5,321 questing ticks were collected. All collected ticks were Haemaphysalis mageshimaensis Saito and Hoogstraal, a species first identified on an island with an abundance of sika deer. Additionally, 48 ticks collected from 126 trapped rodents and shrews were almost invariably Ixodes granulatus (except for 1 larval Haemaphysalis sp.). We did not find a positive correlation between the number of questing ticks and the number of fecal pellet groups, suggesting that factors other than ungulate abundance affect tick abundance. Nevertheless, large populations of questing ticks along some roadsides suggest a high risk of tick-borne diseases to tourists on this tropical island.