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In research on membranes, the addition of co-solvents to the polymer dope solution is a common method for tuning the morphology and separation performance. For organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) applications, we synthesized polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes with high separation properties and stability by adding acetonitrile (MeCN) to the dope solution, followed by crosslinking with dibromo-p-xylene. Accordingly, changes in the membrane structure and separation properties were investigated when MeCN was added. PBI/MeCN membranes with a dense and thick active layer and narrow finger-like macrovoids exhibited superior rejection properties in the ethanol solution compared with the pristine PBI membrane. After crosslinking, they displayed superior rejection properties (96.56% rejection of 366-g/mol polypropylene glycol). In addition, the membranes demonstrated stable permeances for various organic solvents, including acetone, methanol, ethanol, toluene, and isopropyl alcohol. Furthermore, to evaluate the feasibility of the modified PBI OSN membranes, ecamsule, a chemical product in the fine chemical industry, was recovered. Correspondingly, the efficient recovery of ecamsule from a toluene/methanol solution using the OSN process with PBI/MeCN membranes demonstrated their applicability in many fine chemical industries.

To apply radiomics analysis for overall survival prediction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and evaluate the performance of the radiomics signature (RS). This study included 344 patients from the Korean Obstructive Lung Disease (KOLD) cohort. External validation was performed on a cohort of 112 patients. In total, 525 chest CT-based radiomics features were semi-automatically extracted. The five most useful features for survival prediction were selected by least absolute shrinkage and selection operation (LASSO) Cox regression analysis and used to generate a RS. The ability of the RS for classifying COPD patients into high or low mortality risk groups was evaluated with the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. The five features remaining after the LASSO analysis were %LAA−950, AWT_Pi10_6th, AWT_Pi10_heterogeneity, %WA_heterogeneity, and VA18mm. The RS demonstrated a C-index of 0.774 in the discovery group and 0.805 in the validation group. Patients with a RS greater than 1.053 were classified into the high-risk group and demonstrated worse overall survival than those in the low-risk group in both the discovery (log-rank test, < 0.001; hazard ratio [HR], 5.265) and validation groups (log-rank test, < 0.001; HR, 5.223). For both groups, RS was significantly associated with overall survival after adjustments for patient age and body mass index. A radiomics approach for survival prediction and risk stratification in COPD patients is feasible, and the constructed radiomics model demonstrated acceptable performance. The RS derived from chest CT data of COPD patients was able to effectively identify those at increased risk of mortality. • A total of 525 chest CT-based radiomics features were extracted and the five radiomics features of %LAA −950 , AWT_Pi10_6 th , AWT_Pi10_heterogeneity, %WA_heterogeneity, and VA 18mm were selected to generate a radiomics model. • A radiomics model for predicting survival of COPD patients demonstrated reliable performance with a C-index of 0.774 in the discovery group and 0.805 in the validation group. • Radiomics approach was able to effectively identify COPD patients with an increased risk of mortality, and patients assigned to the high-risk group demonstrated worse overall survival in both the discovery and validation groups.

Introduction Early detection and intervention of atrial fibrillation (AF) is a cornerstone for effective treatment and prevention of mortality. Diverse deep learning models (DLMs) have been developed, but they could not be applied in clinical practice owing to their lack of interpretability. We developed an explainable DLM to detect AF using ECG and validated its performance using diverse formats of ECG. Methods We conducted a retrospective study. The Sejong ECG dataset comprising 128,399 ECGs was used to develop and internally validated the explainable DLM. DLM was developed with two feature modules, which could describe the reason for DLM decisions. DLM was external validated using data from 21,837, 10,605, and 8528 ECGs from PTB-XL, Chapman, and PhysioNet non-restricted datasets, respectively. The predictor variables were digitally stored ECGs, and the endpoints were AFs. Results During internal and external validation of the DLM, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of the DLM using a 12‑lead ECG in detecting AF were 0.997–0.999. The AUCs of the DLM with VAE using a 6‑lead and single‑lead ECG were 0.990–0.999. The AUCs of explainability about features such as rhythm irregularity and absence of P-wave were 0.961–0.993 and 0.983–0.993, respectively. Conclusions Our DLM successfully detected AF using diverse ECGs and described the reason for this decision. The results indicated that an explainable artificial intelligence methodology could be adopted to the DLM using ECG and enhance the transparency of the DLM for its application in clinical practice.

Hot carrier injection (HCI), occurring when the horizontal electric field is strongly applied, usually affects the degradation of nanoelectronic devices. In addition, metal contacts play a significant role in nanoelectronic devices. In this study, Schottky contacts in multilayer tungsten diselenide (WSe2) field-effect transistors (FETs) by hot carrier injection (HCI), occurring when a high drain voltage is applied, is investigated. A small number of hot carriers with high energy reduces the Schottky barrier height and improves the performance of FETs effectively rather than damaging the channel. Thermal annealing at the end of the fabrication process increases device performance by causing interfacial reactions of the source/drain electrodes. HCI causes a significant enhancement in the local asymmetry, especially in the subthreshold region. The subthreshold swing (SS) of the thermally annealed FETs is significantly improved from 9.66 to 0.562 V dec-1 through the energy of HCI generated by a strong horizontal electric field. In addition, the contact resistances (RSD), also called series resistances, extracted by a four-probe measurement and a Y-function method were also improved by decreasing to a 10th through the energy of HCI. To understand the asymmetrical characteristics of the channel after the stress, we performed electrical analysis, electrostatic force microscopy (EFM), and Raman spectroscopy.

A high-performance thin carbon molecular sieve (CMS) composite membrane was prepared using a drop-coating process for dehydration of a ternary mixture (water/IPA/ECH) by a pervaporation process. The amount of polymer solution dripped onto an alumina disc was varied during the drop-coating process to optimize the formation of the desired active-carbon layer. A defect-free CMS membrane was obtained with a dripped amount of 110 μL, resulting in high gas permeance and optimized selectivity. Furthermore, the CMS membrane was carbonized at 650–800 °C, leading to higher selectivity at elevated temperature with the decrease of gas permeance due to the shrinkage of its graphene-like carbon structure. For separation of the water/IPA/ECH ternary mixture, the highest separation performance (total flux 1.05 kg m−2 h−1) and separation factor (158 692) were obtained from the CMS membrane carbonized at 700 °C. On the other hand, the CMS membrane showed a unique separation property: the water flux increased with increasing water content in the feed, without remarkable reduction of the separation factor (still >150 000). This is attributed to the rigid pore structure of the CMS membrane, which provides a molecular sieving separation mechanism. Furthermore, increasing the feed-solution temperature led to an increase of both the total flux and separation factor. The CMS membrane performance exhibited the highest separation factor (when compared with other membranes) for dehydration of the water/IPA binary mixture via pervaporation. Moreover, it was much higher than that of a polymeric membrane for dehydration of the water/IPA/ECH ternary mixture.

Aims Although heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a rapidly emerging global health problem, an adequate tool to screen it reliably and economically does not exist. We developed an interpretable deep learning model (DLM) using electrocardiography (ECG) and validated its performance. Methods and results This retrospective cohort study included two hospitals. 34 103 patients who underwent echocardiography and ECG within 1 week and indicated normal left ventricular systolic function were included in this study. A DLM based on an ensemble neural network was developed using 32 671 ECGs of 20 169 patients. The internal validation included 1979 ECGs of 1979 patients. Furthermore, we conducted an external validation with 11 955 ECGs of 11 955 patients from another hospital. The endpoint was to detect HFpEF. During the internal and external validation, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves of a DLM using 12-lead ECG for detecting HFpEF were 0.866 (95% confidence interval 0.850–0.883) and 0.869 (0.860–0.877), respectively. In the 1412 individuals without HFpEF at initial echocardiography, patients whose DLM was defined as having a higher risk had a significantly higher chance of developing HFpEF than those in the low-risk group (33.6% vs. 8.4%, P Conclusion The DLM demonstrated high performance for HFpEF detection using not only a 12-lead ECG but also 6- single-lead ECG. These results suggest that HFpEF can be screened using conventional ECG devices and diverse life-type ECG machines employing the DLM, thereby preventing disease progression.

In our previous study, we verified that a two-step process was superior to the one-pot process for the manufacture of THTCPD, assuming the pilot-scale production aspect of a comparative economic analysis by using an engineering estimation method to predict the unit manufacturing cost. Among the processes of the two-step process, our study was intended to focus on the isomerization to produce the final THTCPD products with outstanding physical properties including a specific gravity, a heat of combustion, a viscosity and a freezing point. Although HY(30) was used as an isomerization catalyst in the previous study, the catalytic activity of HY(30) did not surpass that of AlCl3 in terms of isomerization conversion, possibly due to lower exo-THTCPD selectivity by Bronsted acid sites of HY(30) than that by Lewis acid sites of AlCl3. However, AlCl3 has some drawbacks of the impossibility for the catalyst regeneration during the manufacturing process due to the difficulty of the catalyst separation and recovery after isomerization, which causes environmental problems and biological toxicity issues due to its corrosivity. Therefore, our study concentrated on catalyst regeneration assuming the real production process in a pilot scale using AlCl3 in comparison with HY(30). Then, we investigated whether the isomerization catalyst AlCl3 or HY(30) was more commercially favorable through a comparative unit production cost prediction applying an engineering estimation in this study. In conclusion, the unit production cost for AlCl3 was lower than that for HY(30) with the fresh catalyst. Reversely, unit production costs for HY(30) with increase in catalysts regeneration number (N) were lower than those for AlCl3 due to the drastic decrease in the unit material cost of HY(30) unlikely with that of AlCl3 due to its non-reusability.

Sterile filtration processes are widely used in the production of biotherapeutics for microorganism removal and product sterility. Sterile filtration processes can be applied to buffer preparation and cell culture media preparation in biotherapeutics processes, and to final sterilization or final filling in downstream processes. Owing to their broad range of applications in bioprocessing, various 0.2/0.22 μm sterile filters with different polymer materials (i.e., hydrophilic PVDF and PES) and nominal pore sizes are commercially available. The objective of this study was to evaluate two different commercial sterile filters in terms of filtration performance in various sterile filtration processes of biopharmaceutical production. The results demonstrate the importance of choosing the appropriate filter considering the process type and target removal/transport product to ensure efficient sterile filtration in the production of biotherapeutics.

Fluoropolymers exhibit very high hydrophobicity because of the presence of fluorine groups. However, they sometimes exhibit peculiar polarity—referred to as “polar hydrophobicity”—depending on thei...

Flood waste management is important for reducing the damage and secondary environmental pollution caused by delays in disaster recovery. One key issue related to flood waste management concerns estimating the precise quantity of waste to plan recovery strategies and policies. In this study, an advanced flood waste estimation technique was devised using data stratification. In total 90 flood cases in South Korea were sorted by three strata characteristics: administrative region (AR; equivalent to special city or province), urbanization rate (UR), and disaster type and coastal accessibility (DC). According to the results, such data stratification led to flood waste prediction improvement not only by the single-stage stratification but also by successive stratifications. Data stratification was effective both for identifying groups with similar contexts and for eliminating disparities in the dataset that impede accurate waste prediction. Among the stratification sequences tested, the order resulted in the most improvement in flood waste prediction was UR, AR, and DC. This stratification order yielded enhanced waste prediction in 74 cases. Since this study deals with a strategy to resolve gaps in disaster data, which is a crucial issue in many countries, it is envisaged that this strategy can be transferred to other countries.

Summary Background Anaemia is an important health-care burden globally, and screening for anaemia is crucial to prevent multi-organ injury, irreversible complications, and life-threatening adverse events. We aimed to establish whether a deep learning algorithm (DLA) that enables non-invasive anaemia screening from electrocardiograms (ECGs) might improve the detection of anaemia. Methods We did a retrospective, multicentre, diagnostic study in which a DLA was developed using ECGs and then internally and externally validated. We used data from two hospitals, Sejong General Hospital (hospital A) and Mediplex Sejong Hospital (hospital B), in South Korea. Data from hospital A was for DLA development and internal validation, and data from hospital B was for external validation. We included individuals who had at least one ECG with a haemoglobin measurement within 1 h of the index ECG and excluded individuals with missing demographic, electrocardiographic, or haemoglobin information. Three types of DLA were developed with 12-lead, 6-lead (limb lead), and single-lead (lead I) ECGs to detect haemoglobin concentrations of 10 g/dL or less. The DLA was built by a convolutional neural network and used 500-Hz raw ECG, age, and sex as input data. Findings The study period ran from Oct 1, 2016, to Sept 30, 2019, in hospital A and March 1, 2017, to Sept 30, 2019, in hospital B. 40 513 patients at hospital A and 4737 patients at hospital B were eligible for inclusion. We excluded 281 patients at hospital A and 72 patients at hospital B because of missing values for clinical information and ECG data. The development dataset comprised 57 435 ECGs from 31 898 patients, and the algorithm was internally validated with 7974 ECGs from 7974 patients. The external validation dataset included 4665 ECGs from 4665 patients. 586 (internal) and 194 (external) patients within the combined dataset were found to be anaemic. During internal and external validation, the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUROC) of the DLA using a 12-lead ECG for detecting anaemia was 0·923 for internal validation and 0·901 for external validation. Using a 90% sensitivity operating point for the development data, the sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value of internal validation were 89·8%, 81·5%, 99·4%, and 20·0%, respectively, and those of external validation were 86·1%, 76·2%, 99·2%, and 13·5%, respectively. The DLA focused on the QRS complex for deciding the presence of anaemia in a sensitivity map. The AUROCs of DLAs using 6 leads and a single lead were in the range of 0·841–0·890. Interpretation In this study, using raw ECG data, a DLA accurately detected anaemia. The application of artificial intelligence to ECGs could enable screening for anaemia. Funding None.

In this study, PVDF electrospun nanofibers impregnated with bentonite nanoclay based highly hydrophilic thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes were synthesized by interfacial polymerization of a polyamide selective layer for forward osmosis (FO) applications. It was revealed that the bentonite nanoclay can tune the properties of the PVDF nanofiber supported TFN membranes, including the key parameters, such as hydrophilicity, the β-phase fraction (polar phase), and its mechanical properties. The PVDF/bentonite nanoclay mixture resulted in a significant improvement in FO performance. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis confirmed the successful integration of bentonite nanoclay into the electrospun nanofiber. The prepared TFN membranes showed higher hydrophilicity, mechanical strength and water permeability compared to the pristine PVDF electrospun nanofiber TFN membrane due to an increase in the β-phase fraction (hydrophilicity) by the synergetic effect of electrospinning and addition of bentonite nanoclay. A TFN membrane with the highest nanoclay content (2.0 wt%) showed an exceptionally high FO water flux of 40.64 L/m2 h at 1 M NaCl draw solution, without a considerable increase in reverse solute flux (RSF).

Graphene oxide (GO) is a promising 2D material for adsorbents and membranes, in particular, for the CO2 separation process. However, CO2 diffusion and sorption in GO and its layered structures are ...

To investigate CT imaging features associated with poor clinical outcome after corticosteroid treatment in patients diagnosed with cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) and connective tissue disease–related organizing pneumonia (CTD-OP) and to assess the difference in CT findings and treatment responses between COP and CTD-OP. Chest CT images from 166 patients (COP, 131; CTD-OP, 35) with pathologically proven organizing pneumonia were reviewed by two thoracic radiologists. The type, distribution pattern, and extent of parenchymal abnormalities, along with other associated imaging features, were assessed for each patient. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify features associated with poor clinical outcomes such as residual disease (RD) and disease relapse. The differences between COP and CTD-OP were also analyzed. Consolidation involving more than 10% of parenchyma (hazard ratio [HR], 2.27), detectable bronchiectasis (HR, 3.59), and diagnosis of CTD-OP (HR, 4.31) were associated with a higher risk of RD after adjustments for patient age and sex. More than 10% consolidation involvement (HR, 2.54) and diagnosis of CTD-OP (HR, 6.42) were also associated with a higher risk of disease relapse. Compared with COP, CTD-OP demonstrated a greater extent of parenchymal abnormalities, especially consolidation, and was less likely to show a peribronchovascular distribution pattern. Bronchiectasis and a greater extent of consolidation were associated with RD, with the latter also being associated with disease relapse. Compared with COP, CTD-OP was associated with worse treatment outcomes and demonstrated a greater extent of parenchymal abnormalities, which were also less likely to show a peribronchovascular pattern. • The presence of bronchiectasis and a high parenchymal involvement of consolidation on initial chest CT were associated with a worse response to corticosteroids in patients with organizing pneumonia. • Connective tissue disease–related organizing pneumonia (CTD-OP) was associated with worse treatment outcomes than its idiopathic counterpart cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP). • Compared with COP, CTD-OP generally demonstrated a greater extent of parenchymal abnormalities, especially consolidation, and was less likely to show a peribronchovascular distribution pattern.

The membrane filtration process is the most widely used purification process in various industries due to its high separation efficiency, process simplicity, and low cost. Although there is a wide range of membrane products with diverse materials and pore sizes on the market, there is a technological gap between microfiltration and ultrafiltration membranes. Here we developed highly porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membranes with a selective skin layer with a pore size range of 20 to 80 nm by using a thermal-vapor assisted phase separation method. Porous and bi-continuous sublayers were generated from spinodal decomposition induced by cooling. The overall membrane structure and pore size changed with the dope composition, while the pore size and thickness of the selective skin layer were effectively controlled by water vapor exposure. The excellent nanoparticle removal efficiencies of the prepared PVDF membranes were confirmed, indicating their potential application in high-level purification processes to remove small trace organic or inorganic impurities from various industrial fluids.

New ceramide (CER) NPs were prepared by linking fatty acids derived from oils of Korean traditional plants to phytosphingosine (PHS). The oils of Korean traditional plants were extracted from the seeds of Panax ginseng, Camellia sinensis, Glycine max napjakong, Glycine max seoritae, and Camellia japonica as sources of diverse fatty acids.The aim of this study was to investigate signaling bioactivities of HP-C. sinensis ceramide NP that was column purified to remove any residual PHS and to evaluate the skin barrier functions of the HP-C. sinensis ceramide NP in human skin.The expressions of genes related to epidermal differentiation were analyzed in vitro by qPCR. Human studies were also performed to determine the skin barrier functions with respect to TEWL and SC cohesion.The HP-C. sinensis CER NP significantly enhanced the expressions of FLG, CASP14, and INV indicates that the signaling biological activities of oil-derived ceramide NPs could be different depend on the natural oils. The control ceramide, C18-CER NP, had no effect on the expression of the three genes. HP-C. sinensis CER NP was selected for the in vivo human studies. Application of 0.5% HP-C. sinensis CER NP cream stimulated significantly faster recovery of a disrupted skin barrier than that of the control C18-CER NP. A significant enhancement of SC cohesion of the skin treated with 0.5% HP-C. sinensis CER NP was also observed.Taken all together, our results clearly demonstrate that HP-C. sinensis CER NP, P. ginseng CER NP, and other oil-derived CER NP could be a better choice for developing moisturizers to improve skin barrier function as they more closely mimic the endogenous CER composition of the actual human skin barrier.

Doped carbon-based systems have been extensively studied over the past decade as active electrocatalysts for both the two-electron (2e–) and four-electron (4e–) oxygen reduction reactions (ORRs). H...

Heterogeneous clinical manifestations and progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affect patient health risk assessment, stratification, and management. Pulmonary function tests are used to diagnose and classify the severity of COPD, but they cannot fully represent the type or range of pathophysiologic abnormalities of the disease. To evaluate whether deep radiomics from chest computed tomography (CT) images can predict mortality in patients with COPD, we designed a convolutional neural network (CNN) model for extracting representative features from CT images and then performed random survival forest to predict survival in COPD patients. We trained CNN-based binary classifier based on six-minute walk distance results (> 440 m or not) and extracted high-throughput image features (i.e., deep radiomics) directly from the last fully connected layer of it. The various sizes of fully connected layers and combinations of deep features were experimented using a discovery cohort with 344 patients from the Korean Obstructive Lung Disease cohort and an external validation cohort with 102 patients from Penang General Hospital in Malaysia. In the integrative analysis of discovery and external validation cohorts, with combining 256 deep features from the coronal slice of the vertebral body and two sagittal slices of the left/right lung, deep radiomics for survival prediction achieved concordance indices of 0.8008 (95% CI, 0.7642–0.8373) and 0.7156 (95% CI, 0.7024–0.7288), respectively. Deep radiomics from CT images could be used to predict mortality in COPD patients.

Today, multimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) are extensively studied to search for high-performance catalysts. Unfortunately, a huge material space of NPs composed of immiscible elements has been gener...

To use adenosine-induced stress CT myocardial perfusion imaging (CT-MPI) to determine normal reference values for left ventricle (LV) wall thickness (WT) and motion parameters.This study included 106 Korean subjects (52 men and 54 women) who underwent CT-MPI due to chest pain, but were not found to have any detectable mild or severe coronary artery disease or myocardial perfusion defect. The following quantitative parameters were assessed on the CT-MPI according to a 17-segment model: LV myocardial thickness at end-systolic (WTSeptal wall (7.2 mm) and basal-level (7.7 mm) LV myocardium demonstrated significantly higher WT (p 0.001). SWT was highest in lateral (77.8%, p 0.014) and apical (78.9%, p = 0.009) myocardium, while lateral (7.7 mm) and basal (6.7 mm) myocardium exhibited the greatest WM (p 0.001). WT was significantly higher in men and younger (60 years) subjects (all, p 0.001). Hypertensive individuals presented with significantly higher SWT (79.9%, p = 0.024). LV WT exhibited statistically significant correlations (all positive, except for age) with age, height, weight, body surface area, body mass index, and systolic blood pressure (all, p 0.010).The present study provides CT-MPI reference values for LV myocardial WT, SWT, and WM measured on an adult Korean population. Knowledge of such normal reference measurements would be beneficial for the efficient interpretation of CT-MPI examinations in populations of Asian ethnicity.

Highly H+/V selective membranes are desired in high-performance vanadium redox flow batteries (VFRBs) to overcome the crossover phenomena of vanadium species. Herein, we demonstrate the molecular-s...

For osmotic power generation using the pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) process, mechanically robust membranes with high osmotic water flux are needed to obtain high power density from a given osmotic pressure difference. Particularly in the case of support-free hollow fiber membranes (HFMs), the pressure tolerance is a critical factor in maximizing power density when operating at high applied pressure with concentrated brine. Here, mechanically robust integrally-skinned asymmetric (ISA) HFMs were developed by combining the nonsolvent induced phase separation (NIPS) with the quenching, into a facile approach called the thermally assisted NIPS (T-NIPS) method, to tailor the membrane structure for PRO applications. The prepared T-NIPS membranes exhibited two distinct layers: a dense ISA outer layer and an isoporous inner layer. Compared to conventional NIPS HFMs, the T-NIPS HFMs showed much higher power density and collapse pressure, up to 5.5 W/m2 and 18 bar, respectively. The effect of pore forming agents on the membrane structure during the T-NIPS process, and on PRO performance, were studied. In addition, the power density and the pressure tolerance were further enhanced by optimizing the membrane dimensions and structure of the T-NIPS HFMs.

Numerous modified-carbon catalysts have been developed for the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide through electrochemical oxygen reduction. However, given the complex structure of most porous ca...

In this study, new type of thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane with polysulfone (PSf) support layer having highly permeable interlayer using halloysite nanotubes (HNT) and hydrophilic polydopamine (pDA) was fabricated to improve the surface wettability of the PSf support layer, and to play a positive role in the development of a PA active layer. ATR-FTIR and XPS analysis confirmed the presence of the pDA/HNTx interlayer on the PSf support layer. Contact angle measurements confirmed that the surface wettability of support layer for TFN FO membrane was enhanced with increasing HNT loading. It was revealed that a pDA/HNT nanocomposite interlayer has considerable potential for enhancing the performance of TFN FO membranes. A TFN membrane with a pDA/HNT interlayer showed outstanding FO performance, due to its superior water flux of 26.9 L/m2 h (FO mode, 1 M NaCl draw solution), without a significant increase in reverse salt flux. This was attributed to the superior hydrophilicity and permeability of the interlayer, as well as the formation of a selective PA layer on the interlayer.

Purpose Vitamin D deficiency is a condition widespread throughout the world. Recent studies have suggested that vitamin D deficiency was associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in adolescents. Methods The data were obtained from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2008–2014. A total of 3,878 adolescents were included in the study. Vitamin D deficiency was defined as a 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration 30 U/L. Results Vitamin D deficiency was noted in 78.9% of the studied population. Age, body mass index, waist circumference, and blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels were significantly higher in adolescents with suspected NAFLD than in adolescents without suspected NAFLD, while the mean vitamin D level was significantly lower in adolescents with suspected NAFLD. The multivariate-adjusted odds of suspected NAFLD were higher with increased age, male gender, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. Individuals with vitamin D deficiency were at higher risk of suspected NAFLD (odds ratio, 1.77; 95% confidence interval, 1.07–2.95) after adjusting for age, gender, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. Conclusion Vitamin D deficiency was associated with suspected NAFLD, independent of obesity and metabolic syndrome, in adolescents.

In this work, a series of mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) consisting of Pebax® 1657 as the main polymer matrix, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) derivatives with low molecular weights as additives, and graphene oxide (GO) with different loadings as a nanofiller, were prepared for CO2/N2 separation. Changes in the amorphous and crystalline regions of Pebax®/PEG blend membranes and in the free volume of GO-embedded MMMs were estimated based on differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermograms. The fractional free volume and density of the Pebax®/PEG blend membranes were investigated according to additive models. Particularly, blending poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ethyl acrylate (PEG-MEA) with the Pebax® matrix significantly improved CO2 permeability without sacrificing high CO2/N2 selectivity. Incorporating GO nanosheets up to 0.3 wt% into the Pebax®/PEG-MEA matrix was found to have a considerable impact on increasing CO2/N2 selectivity, due to largely in part to an increase in the CO2 solubility coefficients. Upon a further increase in GO loading, both CO2 permeability and CO2/N2 selectivity decreased as a result of increasing tortuosity for gas diffusion and also GO aggregation at high GO loading content. More importantly, the Pebax®/PEG-MEA blend membrane with the optimized loading of GO, i.e., 0.3 wt% indicated outstanding anti-CO2 plasticization resistance up to 10 bar as well as long-term stability over 100 days without significant deterioration of CO2/N2 separation performance.

Highly permselective and durable membrane materials have been sought for energy-efficient C3H6/C3H8 separation. Mixed-matrix membranes (MMMs) comprising a polymer matrix and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are promising candidates for this application; however, rational matching of filler-matrix is challenging and their separation performances need to be further improved. Here, we propose a novel strategy of "defect engineering" in MOFs as an additional degree of freedom to design advanced MMMs. MMMs incorporated with defect-engineered MOFs exhibit exceptionally high C3H6 permeability and maintained C3H6/C3H8 selectivity, especially with enhanced stability under industrial mixed-gas conditions. The gas transport, sorption, and material characterizations reveal that the defect sites in MOFs provide the resulting MMMs with not only ultrafast diffusion pathways but also favorable C3H6 sorption by forming π-complexation with unsaturated open metal sites, confirmed by in-situ FT-IR studies. Most importantly, the concept is also valid for different polymer matrices and gas pairs, demonstrating its versatile potential in other fields.

Artificial lung (AL) membranes are used for blood oxygenation for patients undergoing open-heart surgery or acute lung failures. Current AL technology employs polypropylene and polymethylpentene membranes. Although effective, these membranes suffer from low biocompatibility, leading to undesired blood coagulation and hemolysis over a long term. In this work, we propose a new generation of AL membranes based on amphiphobic fluoropolymers. We employed poly(vinylidene-co-hexafluoropropylene), or PVDF-co-HFP, to fabricate macrovoid-free membranes with an optimal pore size range of 30-50 nm. The phase inversion behavior of PVDF-co-HFP was investigated in detail for structural optimization. To improve the wetting stability of the membranes, the fabricated membranes were coated using Hyflon AD60X, a type of fluoropolymer with an extremely low surface energy. Hyflon-coated materials displayed very low protein adsorption and a high contact angle for both water and blood. In the hydrophobic spectrum, the data showed an inverse relationship between the surface free energy and protein adsorption, suggesting an appropriate direction with respect to biocompatibility for AL research. The blood oxygenation performance was assessed using animal sheep blood, and the fabricated fluoropolymer membranes showed competitive performance to that of commercial polyolefin membranes without any detectable hemolysis. The data also confirmed that the bottleneck in the blood oxygenation performance was not the membrane permeance but rather the rate of mass transfer in the blood phase, highlighting the importance of efficient module design.

Through time-dependent defect spectroscopy and low-frequency noise measurements, we investigate and characterize the differences of carrier trapping processes occurred by different interfaces (top/sidewall) of the gate-all-around silicon nanosheet field-effect transistor (GAA SiNS FET). In a GAA SiNS FET fabricated by the top-down process, the traps at the sidewall interface significantly affect the device performance as the width decreases. Compare to expectations, as the width of the device decreases, the subthreshold swing (SS) increases from 120 to 230 mV/dec, resulting in less gate controllability. In narrow-width devices, the effect of traps located at the sidewall interface is significantly dominant, and the 1/f 2 noise, also known as generation–recombination (G–R) noise, is clearly appeared with an increased time constant (τ i ). In addition, the probability density distributions for the normalized current fluctuations (ΔI D) show only one Gaussian in wide-width devices, whereas they are separated into four Gaussians with increased in narrow-width devices. Therefore, fitting is performed through the carrier number fluctuation-correlated with mobility fluctuations model that separately considered the effects of sidewall. In narrow-width GAA SiNS FETs, consequently, the extracted interface trap densities (N T ) distribution becomes more dominant, and the scattering parameter ( α S C ) distribution increases by more than double.

Fabrication of highly efficient oil/water separation membranes is attractive and challenging work for the actual application of the membranes in the treatment of oily wastewater and cleaning up oil spills/oil leakage accidents. In this study, hydrophilic poly(ethylene-co-polyvinyl alcohol) (EVOH) nanofiber membranes were made using an electrospinning technique for oil/water separation. The as-prepared EVOH electrospun nanofiber membranes (ENMs) exhibited a super-hydrophilic property (water contact angle 33.74°) without further treatment. As prepared, ENMs can provide continuous separation of surfactant-free and surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil emulsions with high efficiency (i.e., flux 8200 L m−2 h−1 (LMH), separation efficiency: >99.9%). In addition, their high stability (i.e., reusable, mechanically robust) would broaden the conditions under which they can be employed in the real field oil/water separation applications. Various characterization techniques (including morphology investigation, pore size, porosity, mechanical properties, and performance test) for gravity-driven oil/water separation were employed to evaluate the newly prepared EVOH ENMs.

Rapid diagnosis of myocardial infarction (MI) using electrocardiography (ECG) is the cornerstone of effective treatment and prevention of mortality; however, conventional interpretation methods has low reliability for detecting MI and is difficulty to apply to limb 6-lead ECG based life type or wearable devices. We developed and validated a deep learning-based artificial intelligence algorithm (DLA) for detecting MI using 6-lead ECG. A total of 412,461 ECGs were used to develop a variational autoencoder (VAE) that reconstructed precordial 6-lead ECG using limb 6-lead ECG. Data from 9536, 1301, and 1768 ECGs of adult patients who underwent coronary angiography within 24 h from each ECG were used for development, internal and external validation, respectively. During internal and external validation, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves of the DLA with VAE using a 6-lead ECG were 0.880 and 0.854, respectively, and the performances were preserved by the territory of the coronary lesion. Our DLA successfully detected MI using a 12-lead ECG or a 6-lead ECG. The results indicate that MI could be detected not only with a conventional 12 lead ECG but also with a life type 6-lead ECG device that employs our DLA.

Irradiation of MoS

To apply radiomics analysis for overall survival prediction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and evaluate the performance of the radiomics signature (RS).This study included 344 patients from the Korean Obstructive Lung Disease (KOLD) cohort. External validation was performed on a cohort of 112 patients. In total, 525 chest CT-based radiomics features were semi-automatically extracted. The five most useful features for survival prediction were selected by least absolute shrinkage and selection operation (LASSO) Cox regression analysis and used to generate a RS. The ability of the RS for classifying COPD patients into high or low mortality risk groups was evaluated with the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression analysis.The five features remaining after the LASSO analysis were %LAAA radiomics approach for survival prediction and risk stratification in COPD patients is feasible, and the constructed radiomics model demonstrated acceptable performance. The RS derived from chest CT data of COPD patients was able to effectively identify those at increased risk of mortality.• A total of 525 chest CT-based radiomics features were extracted and the five radiomics features of %LAA

Graphene oxide (GO) is a promising 2D material for adsorbents and membranes, in particular, for the CO

In the field of bimetallic catalysis, combinations of immiscible elements have been very limited. Here, we propose the solid-solution alloy nanoparticles (NPs) composed of Pt and Au supported on TiO 2 as an efficient catalyst for direct H 2 O 2 synthesis, although Pt and Au are entirely immiscible in the bulk phases. Pt and Au atoms were homogeneously distributed in a wide composition range of Pt x Au 100-x NPs (10≤x≤80) supported on TiO 2 . The most Au-rich Pt 10 Au 90 NPs/TiO 2 exhibits the best catalytic performances, H 2 O 2 selectivity (94.5±0.6%) and productivity (959±12 mmol H2O2 •g metal -1 •h -1 ), even under mild conditions (10 °C, 1 atm) and without halide-ion additives. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the introduction of inactive Au atoms strongly suppresses both O-O bond scission and OH hydrogenation, thereby enabling near unity selectivity. This work will stimulate active utilization of the overlooked class of immiscible elemental combinations for catalyst development.

Since the inception of membrane-based CO2 separation technology in the late 1970s, a large number of material studies have been performed to improve the material properties of membrane materials and tremendous progress has been made with regard to CO2 separation to increase the trade-off between permeability and selectivity, known as the “Robeson upper bound.” In membrane science, material properties and membrane properties are related but completely different, especially in thin-film composite (TFC) membranes. Compared to the large number of material studies, few studies have been performed on membrane properties, and very few membranes have been successfully commercialized because an extremely thin selective layer is required in CO2/N2 separation membranes for high CO2 permeance; however, defects are easily generated, deteriorating gas transport properties on a large-scale. In this study, we theoretically analyzed the effect of defects on the gas transport properties of a TFC membrane and introduced a method to control defects during the preparation of large-scale membranes. This work will provide a facile and practical approach to preparing TFC membranes and will be helpful toward extending material studies to real membrane demonstrations.

Purpose Despite the high prevalence of pulmonary vascular alterations and their substantial impact on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), tools for the direct in vivo assessment of pulmonary vascular alterations remain limited. Thus, the purpose of this study was to automatically extract pulmonary vessels from volumetric chest CT and evaluate the associations between the derived quantitative pulmonary vessel features and clinical parameters, including survival, in COPD patients. Methods This study included 344 adult COPD patients. Pulmonary vessels were automatically extracted from volumetric chest CT data. Quantitative pulmonary vessel features were obtained from various lung surface areas (LSAs), which are theoretical surface areas drawn at different depths from the pleural borders. The total number of vessels (Ntotal) and number of vessels with vessel area (VA) less than 5 mm2 (N Results The pulmonary vessels were automatically extracted with 100% technical success. Cox regression analysis showed Ntotal/LSA, N Conclusions The automated extraction of pulmonary vessels and their quantitative assessment are technically feasible. Various quantitative pulmonary vessel features demonstrated significant relationships with survival and PFT in COPD patients. Of the various quantitative features, the percentage of total VA measured at 18 mm depth from the pleural surface (%VA18mm) and the number of small vessels counted per 10 cm2 of LSA at 9 mm depth from the pleural surface (N