Thermal conductivity of individual silicon nanoribbons.

The thermal conductivities of two groups of silicon nanoribbons of ∼20 and ∼30 nm thickness and various widths have been measured and analyzed through combining the Callaway model and the Fuchs-Sondheimer (FS) reduction function. The results show that while the data for the ∼30 nm thick ribbons can be well-explained by the classical size effect, the measured thermal conductivities for the ∼20 nm thick ribbons deviate from the prediction remarkably, and size effects beyond phonon-boundary scattering must be considered. The measurements of the Young's modulus of the thin nanoribbons yield significantly lower values than the corresponding bulk value, which could lead to a reduced phonon group velocity and subsequently thermal conductivity.

Quantile regression to characterize solanezumab effects in Alzheimer's disease trials.

Introduction: In two solanezumab trials for mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia, 27% of patients had biomarker confirmation of amyloid status. Of these, approximately 25% of mild patients and approximately 10% of moderate patients were amyloid negative and, as a group, did not exhibit clinical progression typical of AD. This post-hoc analysis describes a statistical surrogate for amyloid status.

Geometric tuning of thermal conductivity in three-dimensional anisotropic phononic crystals.

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the thermal transport properties of a three-dimensional (3D) anisotropic phononic crystal consisting of silicon nanowires and films. The calculation shows that the in-plane thermal conductivity is negatively correlated with the out-of-plane thermal conductivity upon making geometric changes, whether varying the nanowire diameter or the film thickness. This enables the anisotropy ratio of thermal conductivity to be tailored over a wide range, in some cases by more than a factor of 20.

Developments of Anticoagulants and New Agents with Anti-Coagulant Effects in Deep Vein Thrombosis.

Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) has been known as a common medical problem all over the world. Thrombus traveling in blood vessels may lead to pulmonary embolism (PE), associated with high rates of mortality. Anticoagulant therapy is the mainstay treatment of DVT.

Effects of the multidrug resistance-1 gene on drug resistance in primary immune thrombocytopenia.

Primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune disorder that is characterized by low platelet count. Glucocorticoids (GCs) resistance is a great challenge in the treatment of ITP. P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is a widely studied protein, which is associated with drug resistance.

The role of tissue factor and autophagy in pulmonary vascular remodeling in a rat model for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.

Background: Few reports have examined tissue factor (TF) and autophagy expression in chronic pulmonary thromboembolic hypertension (CTEPH) animal models.

Objectives: To investigate the role of tissue factor (TF), autophagy and their interactions during chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) pathogenesis in a rat model.

Methods: Autologous blood clots were repeatedly injected into the left jugular vein of rats with injecting endogenous fibrinolysis inhibitor tranexamic acid (TXA).

Effect of diabetes on caregiver burden in an observational study of individuals with Alzheimer's disease.

Background: The burden on caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with the patient's functional status and may also be influenced by chronic comorbid medical conditions, such as diabetes. This post-hoc exploratory analysis assessed whether comorbid diabetes in patients with AD affects caregiver burden, and whether caregivers with diabetes experience greater burden than caregivers without diabetes. Caregiver and patient healthcare resource use (HCRU) were also assessed.

Ionic Behavior in Highly Concentrated Aqueous Solutions Nanoconfined between Discretely Charged Silicon Surfaces.

Through molecular dynamics simulations considering thermal vibration of surface atoms, ionic behaviors in concentrated NaCl solutions confined between discretely charged silicon surfaces have been investigated. The electric double layer structure was found to be sensitive to the density and distribution of surface charges. Due to the discreteness of the surface charge, a slight charge inversion appeared which depended on the surface charge density, bulk concentration, and confinement.

Amyloid status imputed from a multimodal classifier including structural MRI distinguishes progressors from nonprogressors in a mild Alzheimer's disease clinical trial cohort.

Introduction: Mild-Alzheimer's disease (AD) subjects without significant Aβ pathology represent a confounding finding for clinical trials because they may not progress clinically on the expected trajectory, adding variance into analyses where slowing of progression is being measured.

Methods: A prediction model based on structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in combination with baseline demographics and clinical measurements was used to impute Aβ status of a placebo-treated mild-AD sub-cohort (N = 385) of patients participating in global phase 3 trials. The clinical trajectories of this cohort were evaluated over 18 months duration of the trial, stratified by imputed Aβ status within a mixed-model repeated measures statistical framework.

Describing the Sequence of Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer's Disease Patients: Results from an Observational Study.

Background: Improved understanding of the pattern of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease (AD) would be useful to assist primary care physicians in explaining AD progression to patients and caregivers.

Objective: To identify the sequence in which cognitive abilities decline in community-dwelling patients with AD.

Methods: Baseline data were analyzed from 1,495 patients diagnosed with probable AD and a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score ≤ 26 enrolled in the 18-month observational GERAS study.

Direction Dependence of Resistive-Pulse Amplitude in Conically Shaped Mesopores.

Conically shaped pores such as glass pipets as well as asymmetric pores in polymers became an important analytics tool used for the detection of molecules, viruses, and particles. Electrokinetic or pressure driven passage of single particles through a single pore causes a transient change of the transmembrane current, called a resistive-pulse, whose amplitude is the measure of the particle volume. The shape of the pulse reflects the pore topography, and in a conical pore, resistive pulses have a shape of a tick point.

[Lupus anticoagulant: two cases report and literature review].

Objective: To deepen the understanding of clinical manifestations and treatment of patients with positive lupus anticoagulant (LAC).

Methods: The clinical data of 2 patients were analyzed and related literature were reviewed.

Results: Case 1, a 31-year-old female, diagnosed as lupus anticoagulant positive, secondary to undifferentiated connective tissue disease, was presented with menorrhagia and thrombocytopenia.

Protection of Nerve Injury with Exosome Extracted from Mesenchymal Stem Cell.

Objective: To investigate the protective effect of Exosomes from human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAMSCs) in neural injury induced by glutamate and its possible mechanism.

Methods: Characteristics of Exosomes from hAMSCs were identified by electron microscopy and Western blot analysis. Cytokines that might play a major role in the protective effect were tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Effect of Corilagin on the miR-21/smad7/ERK signaling pathway in a schistosomiasis-induced hepatic fibrosis mouse model.

This study sought to investigate the anti-fibrotic effect of Corilagin via interference with the miR-21/smad7/ERK signaling pathway in a schistosomiasis-induced hepatic fibrosis mouse model. Mice were infected with Schistosoma japonicum cercaria to establish the mouse model of schistosomiasis-induced hepatic fibrosis. At four weeks after infection, the groups were given different medications.

Evidence of single-nanoparticle translocation through a solid-state nanopore by plasmon resonance energy transfer.

This work proposes a gold nanoparticle (AuNP) based probe to study the single-nanoparticle translocation behavior through a silicon nitride (SiNx) solid-state nanopore. The AuNP probe is functionalized with a rhodamine derivative molecule, termed Rhod-DPA, whose fluorescence can be activated in the presence of Cu(2+) due to the binding between Rhod-DPA and Cu(2+). The Cu(2+) triggered configuration change of Rhod-DPA on the probe surface can induce the plasmon resonance energy transfer (PRET) from single AuNPs to the transformed fluorescent molecules, which can be detected by the color change of AuNP probes under dark-field microscopy (DFM) and their scattering spectra recorded on a spectrometer.

The IL-24 gene protects human umbilical vein endothelial cells against H₂O₂-induced injury and may be useful as a treatment for cardiovascular disease.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the protective effects of interleukin-24 (IL-24) on hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced vascular endothelial injury and to examine the association between IL-24 and cardiovascular disease. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were exposed to increasing concentrations of H2O2 in the presence or absence of IL-24, which was introduced via Lipofectamine® 2000-mediated transfection. The successful uptake of the IL-24 plasmid was confirmed by RT-PCR at 24 h post-transfection.

An integrated system for optical and electrical detection of single molecules/particles inside a solid-state nanopore.

Nanopore techniques have proven to be useful tools for single-molecule detection. The combination of optical detection and ionic current measurements enables a new possibility for the parallel readout of multiple nanopores without complex nanofluidics and embedded electrodes. In this study, we developed a new integrated system for the label-free optical and electrical detection of single molecules based on a metal-coated nanopore.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Cell Therapy for Bone Repair.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) represent a new therapeutic paradigm for a number of diseases because they possess unique biological characteristics such as multipotency, immunomodulation and production of cytokines. Currently, 425 MSC based clinical trials have been conducted for at least 12 kinds of pathological conditions, with many completed trials demonstrating the safety and efficacy of MSCs. Here, we provide an overview of the clinical status of MSCs by searching the public clinical trials database http://clinicaltrials.

Thermal conductivity of electrospun polyethylene nanofibers.

We report on the structure-thermal transport property relation of individual polyethylene nanofibers fabricated by electrospinning with different deposition parameters. Measurement results show that the nanofiber thermal conductivity depends on the electric field used in the electrospinning process, with a general trend of higher thermal conductivity for fibers prepared with stronger electric field. Nanofibers produced at a 45 kV electrospinning voltage and a 150 mm needle-collector distance could have a thermal conductivity of up to 9.

Detection of short single-strand DNA homopolymers with ultrathin Si3N4 nanopores.

A series of nanopores with diameters ranging from 2.5 to 63 nm are fabricated on a reduced Si3N4 membrane by focused ion beam and high energy electron beam. Through measuring the blocked ionic currents for DNA strands threading linearly through those solid-state nanopores, it is found that the blockade ionic current is proportional to the square of the hydrodynamic diameter of the DNA strand.

Structure and properties of water film adsorbed on mica surfaces.

The structure profiles and physical properties of the adsorbed water film on a mica surface under conditions with different degrees of relative humidity are investigated by a surface force apparatus. The first layer of the adsorbed water film shows ice-like properties, including a lattice constant similar with ice crystal, a high bearing capacity that can support normal pressure as high as 4 MPa, a creep behavior under the action of even a small normal load, and a character of hydrogen bond. Adjacent to the first layer of the adsorbed water film, the water molecules in the outer layer are liquid-like that can flow freely under the action of external loads.

Thermal conductivity of zinc blende and wurtzite CdSe nanostructures.

Many binary octet compounds including CdSe can be grown in either the wurtzite (WZ) or zinc blende (ZB) phase, which has aroused great interest among the research community in understanding the phase dependence of the thermal transport properties of these compounds. So far, it has been debatable whether the ZB phase possesses higher thermal conductivity than the WZ phase. In this work, we report on thermal conductivity measurements of CdSe nanowires/nanoribbons with both WZ and ZB phases via a suspended device method.

Phonon Transmission Across the Si-Ge Interface.

Interfaces play an important role in nanostructured structures, which have been widely employed to improve the efficiency of thermoelectric materials. Knowledge of how each specific phonon is scattered at an interface are desired to develop novel nanostructured materials with desired thermal properties. Phonon transmission across the interface consisting of silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge) is investigated by using lattice dynamics.