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Background: The aim of this study was to explore the association between lactate/albumin ratio and the prognosis of sepsis patients. Methods: A computerized search was performed in Pubmed, EMbase, Ovid, Medline, and Google Scholar to collate relevant studies. The results were compared using standardized mean differences (SMD)/odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Prospective and retrospective cohort studies were both included in this study. Results: A total of nine studies involving 3039 participants were included. Pooled analysis revealed that survivors had substantially lower lactate/albumin ratio than non-survivors (SMD=-2.02, 95% CI: -2.76 to -1.28, I2=97.4%). Further, our results also indicated that elevated lactate/albumin ratio is an independent risk factor for mortality (OR=2.16, 95% CI: 1.58 to 2.95, I2=76.2%) and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) (OR=3.41, 95% CI: 1.78 to 6.50, I2=0.0%) in septic patients. Moreover, according to the area under curve (AUC) results, the lactate/albumin ratio also presented good discriminatory power to predict mortality (AUC=0.75, 95% CI: 0.68 to 0.84, I2=92.9%) and MODS (AUC=0.78, 95% CI: 0.68 to 0.91, I2= 65.1%) in septic patients. Begg's and Egger's tests suggested no publication bias in the included studies. Conclusion: Our results highlighted that the lactate/albumin ratio is an important prognostic factor for MODS and mortality in sepsis patients, having good capabilities in identifying MODS and mortality. Elevated lactate/albumin ratio is an independent risk factor for mortality and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) in septic patients. The lactate/albumin ratio also presented good discriminatory power to predict mortality and MODS in septic patients.

In patients with COVID-19-induced pneumonia, shear wave elasticity (SWE) was used to assess liver stiffness. This study included 48 cases of COVID-19-induced pneumonia and 48 cases of normal physical examination. Basic and clinical data, including aspartate aminotransferase (AST), were evaluated. Color ultrasonography was used to test the liver's SWE. A biopsy of the liver was also performed. In patients with COVID-19-induced pneumonia, AST and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels were higher than those in the control group. Liver SWE showed that liver stiffness is hard (8.745 [+ or -] 0.2104) compared with the control group (7.386 [+ or -] 0.1521) (P < 0.0001). Pathological biopsy showed that liver inflammation accounted for 89.58%, steatosis accounted for 81.25%, necrosis accounted for 10.42%, and fibrosis accounted for 33.33% in patients with COVID-19- induced pneumonia. ROC curve analysis showed that the SWE is highly sensitive and specific for the diagnosis of liver inflammation and steatosis. The sensitivity was 88.76% and the specificity was 77.01% for the evaluation of liver inflammation. For steatosis, the sensitivity was 90.20%, and the specificity was 78.40%. The SWE of liver is useful to assess liver function and pathological status in COVID-19 patients. Key words: COVID-19, liver, shear wave elasticity (SWE), pathological biopsy, inflammation, Introduction Coronaviruses (CoVs) belong to the Coronavirus genus of the coronaviridae family. All CoVs are pleomorphic RNA viruses containing crown-like peplomers of 80-160 nm in size (Yurdaisik 2020). The RNA [...]

In carbon allotropes, interfacial engineering of various sp2 nanocarbon building blocks has shown great promise in designing and fabricating creative nanocarbon assemblies with novel structural and functional properties. Here, a robust, flexible, metal‐like heterostructured carbon nanotube (CNT) film formed of amorphous graphene nanosheets (AGNs) on CNT networked film is demonstrated, presenting a sp3‐sp2 dominated interfacial heterostructure. Extensive characterization reveals that AGN exhibits a complete absence of long‐range periodicity with twisty six‐member rings. Such 2D graphene mailed 1D CNT structure endows the heterostructured carbon nanocomposite film with a combination of unique properties, including surface nano‐flattening (flatness fourfold of the raw CNT film), excellent anti‐wear performance, greatly enhanced modulus (enhanced by 400%), hardness (enhanced by 300 times), and conductivity (enhanced by 270%). Unlike conventional carbon‐based materials, such flexible films show distinct substantial deformability and rapid resilience over wide temperatures (−196–≈1300 °C), which facilitate the design of new‐concept lightweight high‐temperature resistant and shape‐transformable materials for advanced aerospace applications under extreme conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative thermal expansion (NTE) materials, which can act as thermal‐expansion compensators to counteract the positive thermal expansion, have great applications merit in precision engineering. However, the exploration of NTE behavior with a wide temperature range has reached its upper ceiling through traditional doping strategies due to composition limitations. In this paper, the unique sluggish characteristics and extended optimization space in empirically screened high‐entropy anti‐perovskite (HEAP) are utilized to broaden the NTE temperature range. Typically, the NTE temperature range in Mn3Cu0.2Zn0.2Ga0.2Ge0.2Mn0.2N is broadened to ΔT = 235 K (5 K ≤ T ≤ 240 K), which is two or three times wider than that of traditional low‐entropy doping systems. The neutron diffraction analysis reveals a unique sluggish characteristic in magnetic phase transition which survives in an ultra‐wide temperature range of 5 K ≤ T ≤ 350 K (ΔT = 345 K). The sluggish characteristic is further experimentally proved to come from disturbed phase transition dynamics due to distortion in atomic spacing and chemical environmental fluctuation observed by the spherical aberration‐corrected electron microscope. The demonstration provides a unique paradigm for broadening the temperature range of NTE materials through entropy engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quasi‐static tensile properties of carbon nanotube (CNT) films have been extensively investigated, yet research on their impact tensile properties at high strain rates remains scarce. In this article, CNT films prepared by floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (FCCVD) method were densely arranged by chlorosulfuric acid (CSA) under wet stretching. The Instron 3365 and miniaturized split Hopkinson tension bar (SHTB) were used to conduct tensile testing at different strain rates. The findings reveal that CSA wet‐stretching markedly enhances the density and orientation of CNT films, resulting in significant improvements in tensile properties with a notable strain rate effect. Specifically, when immersed for 60 s under a draft ratio of 40% and a strain rate of 1900 s−1, the densified CNT films exhibit maximum stress and energy absorption values of 777.44 MPa and 54.79 MJ/m3, respectively, achieving a 637.1% and 425.7% increase compared with the original film. This research provides a convenient and feasible strategy to prepare CNT films with high energy absorption tolerance across various strain rates, thus expanding the practical application potential of CNT films. Highlights: The study innovates a posttreatment way to produce superior FCCVD CNT films.CSA treatment and wet stretching enhance CNT films' mechanical properties.Dynamic fracture strength boosts over 600% and energy absorption raises over 400%.CSA can purify FCCVD‐prepared CNT films, greatly improving their properties.The Prep can be effectively integrated with the direct spinning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potatoes are typically seeded as tubers, and their slow sprouting significantly impacts production. Therefore, the effects of polyacrylamide (20 g·L−1, 30 g·L−1, and 40 g·L−1) as a seed potato dressing on sprouting, seedling growth, and biomass were investigated. The phytohormone content, respiratory intensity, and starch metabolism enzyme activity were analyzed to elucidate the physiological mechanisms involved. The sprouting rate significantly increased after 20 g·L−1 and 30 g·L−1 treatments by 40.63% and 15.63%, respectively. The sprouting energy was the highest (52.0%) at 20 g·L−1, 7.67 times higher than the control. The 20 g·L−1 and 30 g·L−1 treatments also promoted emergence and growth, with the emergence rate increasing by 18.18% and 27.27% and growth increasing by over 8.1% and 11.9%, respectively. These effects were related to changes in phytohormone content and accelerated starch conversion. After treatment, the auxin and cytokinin contents in the apical buds increased significantly at the germination initiation stage, and during the germination and vigorous growth phases, the auxin, cytokinin, and gibberellin contents increased. Polyacrylamide treatment activated α-amylase and promoted starch degradation, increasing soluble sugar content to provide nutrients and energy for sprouting. This study provides a promising approach for promoting potato tuber sprouting and seedling growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Purpose/Significance] Under the background of the rapid development of the new generation of information technology, the policy supports the smart health care industry, and all kinds of smart health care products are constantly popularized and applied. Exploring the practical issue of elderly users using smart health care products is of great significance for China to carry out smart actions to help the elderly and build a digital inclusive old-age society. [Method/Process] Based on the text information data such as news reports, product reviews and in-depth interviews, this paper adopted the grounded theory method, and formed 3 relational categories, 31 preliminary categories and 69 initial concepts through three-stage coding, and constructed a model of influencing factors of elderly users’ use of smart health care products. [Result/Conclusion] The research showed that the aging degree, product use guidelines and product safety design affect the psychological perception of elderly users, and individual characteristics will adjust their perception. The psychological perception of the elderly includes subjective norms, social support, performance expectations, effort expectations, perceived risks and emotional feelings, which influence the formation of 3 different use behaviors: trial use, persistent use and refusal to use. Finally, some feasible suggestions were put forward from 3 aspects: improving the aging degree of smart health care products, guiding the psychological perception of the elderly users, and enhancing the use skills of the elderly users.