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Abstract Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a leading cause of mortality in postoperative patients. Numerous PE prevention clinical practice guidelines are available but not consistently implemented. This study aimed to develop and validate a novel risk assessment model to assess the risk of PE in postoperative patients. Patients who underwent Grade IV surgery between September 2012 and January 2020 (n = 26,536) at the Affiliated Dongyang Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University were enrolled in our study. PE was confirmed by an identified filling defect in the pulmonary artery system in CT pulmonary angiography. The PE incidence was evaluated before discharge. All preoperative data containing clinical and laboratory variables were extracted for each participant. A novel risk assessment model (RAM) for PE was developed with multivariate regression analysis. The discrimination ability of the RAM was evaluated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, and model calibration was assessed by the Hosmer–Lemeshow statistic. We included 53 clinical and laboratory variables in this study. Among them, 296 postoperative patients developed PE before discharge, and the incidence rate was 1.04%. The distribution of variables between the training group and the validation group was balanced. After using multivariate stepwise regression, only variable age (OR 1.070 [1.054–1.087], P

In this study, a flexible hybrid electronic (FHE) material with enhanced conductivity was developed and successfully applied to electromyograms (EMG) and electrocardiograms (ECG) of smart clothing. The FHE material comprises a highly stretchable patterned circuit with dry flexible electrodes. The pre-stretched circuit was obtained by mixing three-dimensional (3D) dendritic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with two-dimensional (2D) reduced graphene oxide (rGO) in a thermoplastic elastomer and patterning the resultant as wires using steel plate stencil printing. Based on the nano-dispersion principle, the geometrical differences of nanomaterials could be exploited to form a 3D continuous phase conductive network with improved tensile properties. A highly stretchable and bendable conductive film with a resistance of 1.4 × 10−2 ohm/sq was obtained by mixing 80 wt% of 3D dendritic AgNPs and 1 wt% of rGO to produce pre-strained nanowires with a horseshoe pattern. Furthermore, the conductive film could be coated with a polyurethane (PU) layer to achieve good stability in the washing test. In the tensile fatigue test, the resistance variation ΔR of horseshoe patterned nanowire was only 1.9 ohm under 500 stretches. Additionally, a low-resistance film (∼103 ohm.cm) was fabricated by adding 7 wt% of carbon black and 2D graphene nanoplatelets (CB/GNPs, 4:1) and styrene maleic anhydride-amide (SMA-amide, 10:1 ratio with carbon material), yielding superior fatigue resistance. Finally, a design combining the pre-stretched circuit pattern with dry sensing flexible conductive electrodes was developed and successfully applied for EMG and ECG of smart clothes.

Sustained hyperlipidemia contributes to fatty liver and liver cirrhosis. Red yeast rice (RYR) effectively improved the lipid profile; however, the effects of RYR on the risk of incident liver cirrhosis remain to be elucidated. We aimed to evaluate the beneficial effects of RYR use on the risk and outcome of liver cirrhosis. Patients and methods: We identified 156,587 adults who had newly diagnosed hyperlipidemia in 2010– 2016 from health insurance data in this retrospective cohort study. Using propensity score matching, we selected 34,367 patients who used RYR and 34,367 patients who used lovastatin. Events of incident liver cirrhosis that occurred in the two cohorts during the follow-up period of 2010– 2019 were identified. We calculated adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (Cis) for liver cirrhosis risk associated with RYR use in the multiple Cox proportional hazard model. Results: Compared with patients who used lovastatin, patients who used RYR had a decreased risk of liver cirrhosis (HR 0.60, 95% CI 0.57– 0.63), and this association was significant in various subgroups. A biological gradient relationship between the frequency of RYR use and decreased liver cirrhosis was observed (p for trend < 0.0001). Reduced postcirrhosis jaundice (HR 0.56, 95% CI 0.43– 0.72), ascites (HR 0.37, 95% CI 0.28– 0.50), hepatic coma (HR 0.36, 95% CI 0.26– 0.50), and mortality (HR 0.48, 95% CI 0.38– 0.61) were also associated with RYR use. Conclusion: We demonstrated the beneficial effects of RYR use on the risk and outcome of liver cirrhosis; however, the lack of compliance data should be considered. However, our study did not infer causality or claim the superiority of RYR over lovastatin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, high-resolution atomic force microscopy and scanning electrochemical microscopy are used to investigate the electron transfer behaviour of layered MoS2 flakes in organic solutions, offering insights on the electronic band alignment at the solid-liquid interface.

Here, the authors develop a self-capping vapour-liquid-solid reaction to fabricate large-grain continuous MoS2 films, whereby an intermediate liquid phase-Na2Mo2O7 is formed through a eutectic reaction of MoO3 and NaF, followed by sulphurisation into MoS2.