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The present study designed to compare the effect of plasmapheresis (PPH) versus standard treatment (STD) in preventing recurrent AP in Chinese patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia. Chinese patients aged 18 to 65 years who had history of hypertriglyceridemia (>1000mg/dl) induced acute pancreatitis were assigned to plasmapheresis (up to 1.5 ml daily TG level reaches 500 mg/dl or less) or standard treatment (1:1). Standard treatment (STD) includes limited oral intake (pancreatic rest), intravenous hydration and pain management. Primary endpoint was incidence of recurrent acute pancreatitis. A total of 14% of patients in PPH group (N=50) had experienced recurrent pancreatitis as compared to 24% of patients in STD group (N=50). Also, TG clearance rate in 24 hours was substantially higher in PPH group as compared to STD. Time required to reach target TG was significantly lower in patients treated with PPH as compared to STD. Lower incidence of local complications was observed in PPH group as compared to STD. Length of stay was significantly shorter in patients of plasmapheresis group as compared to standard treatment. The results of this study recommend the use of plasmapheresis as a better alternative in preventing recurrent AP in Chinese patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and objective Recently, the detectable rate of ground-glass opacity (GGO) was significantly increased, a appropriate diagnosis before clinic treatment tends to be important for patients with GGO lesions. The aim of this study is to validate the ability of the mean computed tomography (m-CT) value to predict tumor invasiveness, and compared with other measurements such as Max CT value, GGO size, solid size of GGO and C/T ratio (consolid/tumor ratio, C/T) to find out the best measurement to predict tumor invasiveness. Methods A retrospective study was conducted of 129 patients who recieved lobectomy and were pathological confirmed as atypical adenomatous pyperplasia (AAH) or clinical stage Ia lung cancer in our center between January 2012 and December 2013. Of those 129 patients, the number of patients of AAH, AIS, AIS and invasive adenocarcinoma were 43, 26, 17 and 43, respectively. We defined AAH and AIS as noninvasive cancer (NC), MIA and invasive adenocarcinoma were categorized as invasive cancer(IC). We used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to compare the ability to predict tumor invasiveness between m-CT value, consolidation/tumor ratio, tumor size and solid size of tumor. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the independent variables for prediction of pathologic more invasive lung cancer. Results 129 patients were enrolled in our study (59 male and 70 female), the patients were a median age of (62.0±8.6) years (range, 44 to 82 years). The two groups were similar in terms of age, sex, differentiation (P>0.05). ROC curve analysis was performed to determine the appropriate cutoff value and area under the cure (AUC). The cutoff value of solid tumor size, tumor size, C/T ratio, m-CT value and Max CT value were 9.4 mm, 15.3 mm, 47.5%, -469.0 HU and -35.0 HU, respectively. The AUC of those variate were 0.89, 0.79, 0.82, 0.90, 0.85, respectively. When compared the clinical and radiologic data between two groups, we found the IC group was strongly associated with a high m-CT value, high Max CT value, high C/T ratio and large tumor size. Gender, solid tumor size, tumor size, C/T ratio, m-CT value and MaxCT value were selected factor for multivariate analysis, when using the preoperatively determined variables to predict the tumor invasiveness, revealed that tumor size, C/T ratio, m-CT value and Max CT value were independent predictive factors of IC. Conclusion The measurements of Max CT value, GGO size, solid size of GGO and C/T ratio were significantly correlated with tumor invasiveness, and the evaluation of m-CT value is most useful measurement in predicting more invasive lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of tetraalkyammonium chlorides (TAACs) with different numbers of long alkyl chain (-C8H17) on zinc electrodeposits in the ammoniacal media was systematically investigated by voltammetric measurements, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. It was found that the inhibition effect of TAACs on mossy zinc deposits increases with increasing their hydrophobicity. The hydrophobic TAACs can improve the smoothness and crystallinity of zinc deposits and change the most preferred orientation. Meanwhile, the inhibition effect of hydrophilic octyltrimethylammonium chloride (OTAC) on mossy zinc deposits can be enhanced with increase of OTAC concentration. The improvement on the smoothness of zinc deposits with hydrophobic methyltrioctylammonium chloride (TOAC) is dependent on the pH of electrolyte. The presence of saturated TOAC at pH 7.5 can produce better zinc deposits with higher smoothness. The inhibition mechanism of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic TAACs on mossy zinc deposits has been elucidated. These results will allow the morphology of metal deposits to be better controlled by the specific organic additives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation demonstrates a novel electrochemical route for the production of bright, compact, dense and high purity Ni-NbOx nano-composite coatings on Cu, from glycol-based electrolytes consisting of NbCl5, NiCl2 ⋅ 6H2O and propylene glycol. The effects of both cathodic current density and metal electrodeposition bath concentrations on the surface morphology and composition of the coating were examined. The highest relative metal percentage of co-deposited Nb was 14.3 at% obtained at a current density of 400 mA/cm². Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) revealed a nanocrystalline FCC Ni structure without any significant lattice distortion, as well as an as-yet-unidentified compound. STEM X-ray mapping suggests Nb and O were uniformly distributed in the Ni matrix, without any significant phase segregation, which is consistent with XPS compositional depth profiling. Also, according to the XPS spectra, a 0.7 eV shift to lower binding energy for the Nb (V) species may suggest the partial chemical reduction of Nb2O5 due to possible Ni-Nb bonding. It is thus proposed that a Ni-NbOx deposit was formed by two parallel electrochemical reduction routes: 1) deposition of Ni metal; 2) deposition of a Ni-Nb-O compound as nano-clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nitrogen and phosphorus removal behaviours under high agitation level in non-aeration tank were studied on bench-scale experiments with reversed A2/O (anoxic/ anaerobic/aerobic) process. The results show that low detectable dissolved oxygen and high efficiency mass transfer caused by intensive stirring obviously improved N and P removal from highly concentrated synthetic wastewater. With synthetic wastewater containing 400 mg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/L, 40 mg ammonia nitrogen (NH4-N)/L and 6 mg orthophosphate (PO4-P)/L and a reflux ratio of 300%, the average ammonium, nitrate and phosphate concentrations of the effluent in the reactor achieved 0.28 mg/L, 2.91 mg/L and 0.30 mg/L, respectively. Meanwhile, the level of dissolved oxygen (DO) in non-aeration tank was detected to be within 0.28-0.50 mg/L. Bench scale tests indicated that stirring intensity significantly affected the simultaneous nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal in biological N and P removal process. Moreover, experiments of the bench scale tests suggested that simultaneous nitrification, denitrification and P removal had been achieved with high agitation rate. With a standard oxygen transfer rate (SOTR) of 7.8×10-5 kg O2/h in the bench experiment, 29.9% of the ammonium and 97.3% of the phosphate were removed after 3-h stirring without nitrate and nitrite accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasingly severe micro-pollution of drinking water sources, the traditional water treatment technology cannot meet current drinking water quality requirements. At the same time, there are a lot of technical difficulties in ultrafiltration membrane treatment. This research adopted powdered activated carbon (PAC) in the pilot-scale study of micro-polluted water treatment to enhance the efficiency of organic matter (OM) removal and ameliorate membrane pollution in an immersed flat ultrafiltration membrane (IFM-UF) system. The results showed that when PAC level was 80 mg/L, chemical oxygen demand and organic removal efficiency with PAC/IFM-UF process can, respectively, rise up to 64.5% and 61.8 % (increase by 27.8% and 48.5% compared with IFM-UF process solely). Dosing of AC in IFM-UF system can reduce pollution of the ultrafiltration membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological nutrient removal processes tend to give phosphate release the priority in getting volatile fatty acids to assure high phosphate removal efficiency and develop denilrifying phosphate removal. In this study, the effect of giving the priority to denitrification on phosphate removal was studied on pilot and bench scale experiments. Laying the anoxic zone in front of the anaerobic one, nitrogen was removed more quickly and thoroughly, and the phosphate removal efficiency was increased by 10%. Bench scale experiments indicated that, denitrifying phosphate removal has caused nitrite accumulation and inefficient Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) consumption. More available PHAs and higher ratio of more reduced PHAs (i.e. poly-β-hydroxyvalerate and poly-β-hydroxy 2-methyl valerate) have helped to enhance total phosphate removal during Oxic stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlorine dioxide (ClO2) is widely used as disinfectant in tertiary sewage treatment process. In order to identify the impact of disinfection with ClO2 on treated water quality, secondary effluent pretreated by coagulation was disinfected by ClO2, and the characteristic of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and the biological toxicity of the water before and after disinfection were investigated. The results showed that ClO2 could remove part of DOM and the removal rate of hydrophobic (HO) component by ClO2 was higher than that of hydrophilic (HI) fraction, resulting in the ratio of HI/HO increased. ClO2 could reduce the substitution degree of aromatic ring of DOM which could lead to the decrease of trihalomethane formation potential. After treated by ClO2, amount of DOM in every molecular weight (MW) interval dropped, implying that micro-organisms regeneration potential decrease. Furthermore, ClO2 could decrease the biological toxicity of urban wastewater. These findings may be useful in evaluating the feasibility of the ClO2 disinfection of tertiary sewage treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Siberian tiger ear marginal tissue fibroblast cell line (STF34) from 34 samples was successfully established using primary explants technique and cell cryoconservation technology. STF34 cells were adherent, with a population doubling time of 24 h. Chromosome analysis showed that 90.2%-91.6% of cells were diploid (2n=38). Isoenzyme analyses of lactate dehydrogenase and malate dehydrogenase showed that STF34 cells had no cross-contamination with other species. Tests for cell line contamination with bacteria, fungi, viruses, and mycoplasmas were all negative. Every index of the STF34 cell line meets all the standard quality controls of American Type Culture Collection. Not only has the germline of this important Siberian tiger species been preserved at the cell level, but also valuable material had been provided for genome, postgenome, and somacloning research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reliability of fine pitch Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu flip chip solder joints with three different pads, i.e., bare pads, pads with solder masks, and pads with microvia, on printed circuit boards (PCBs) was studied through thermal cycling. After assembly, (Au,Ni)Sn4 intermetallics (IMCs) formed both in the bulk solder and at the interfaces due to the immersion-Au finish on the PCB side. The (Au,Ni)Sn4 IMCs formed in the solder joints on the pads with microvia were more abundant than those formed in the solder joints on the pads without microvia. The results showed that the solder joints on the pads with a microvia had poor reliability due to the insufficient solder volume and the formation of large amounts of (Au, Ni)Sn4 IMCs. The main crack initiation position was the corner of solder joint at the chip side. For the pads with microvia, the main location of failure was at the (Au, Ni)Sn4/solder interface on the chip side, and for the solder joints on bare pads and pads with solder mask, the possible failure location was in the bulk solder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]