Riociguat treatment in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension: Final safety data from the EXPERT registry

Objective: The soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator riociguat is approved for the treatment of adult patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and inoperable or persistent/recurrent chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) following Phase

A combined experimental and theoretical analysis of Fe-implanted TiO2 modified by metal plasma ion implantation

Photocatalyst titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films were prepared using sol-gel process. To improve the photosensitivity of TiO2 at visible light, transition metal of Fe was implanted into TiO2 matrix at 20 keV using the metal plasma ion implantation process. The primary phase of the Fe-implanted TiO2 films is anatase, but X-ray diffraction revealed a slight shift of diffraction peaks toward higher angles due to the substitutional doping of iron. The additional band gap energy levels were created due to the formation of the impurity levels (Fe-O) verified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, which resulted in a shift of the absorption edge toward a longer wavelength in the absorption spectra. The optical band gap energy of TiO2 films was reduced from 3.22 to 2.87 eV with an increase of Fe ion dosages from 0 to 1 x 10(16) ions/cm(2). The band gap was determined by the Tauc plots. The photocatalysis efficiency of Fe-implanted TiO2 was assessed using the degradation of methylene blue under ultraviolet and visible light irradiation. The calculated density of states for substitutional Fe-implanted TiO2 was investigated using the first-principle calculations based on the density functional theory. A combined experimental and theoretical Fe-implanted TiO2 film was formed, consistent with the experimentally observed photocatalysis efficiency of Fe-implanted TiO2 in the visible region. (C) 2010 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved

Improving conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells by metal plasma ion implantation of ruthenium ions

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) are based on the concept of photosensitization of wide-band-gap mesoporous oxide semiconductors. At present DSSC have ventured into advanced development and pilot production. Our current research emphasizes on improvements on titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) photosensitivity under visible light irradiation by using metal plasma ion implantation (MPH). The anatase TiO(2) electrode was prepared via a sol-gel process and deposited onto indium-tin oxide glass substrates. Subsequently, the as-deposited TiO(2) films were subjected to MPII at 20 key in order to incorporate ruthenium (Ru) atoms onto the TiO(2) surface layer. The Ru-implanted TiO(2) thin film possessed nanocrystalline Ru clusters of 20 nm in diameter and distributed in near surface layer of TiO(2) films. The Ru clusters showed effective in both prohibiting electron-hole recombination and generating additional Ru-O impurity levels for the TiO(2) band gap structure. A significant reduction of TiO(2) band gap energy from 3.22 to 3.11 eV was achieved, which resulted in the extension of photocatalysis of TiO(2) from UV to Vis regime. A small drop of photoelectric performance of 8% was obtained due to the incorporation of Ru atoms in the surface layer of TiO(2), a similar side effect as observed in the Fe-implanted TiO(2). However, the overall retention of the photocatalysis capability is as high as 92% when switch from UV to Vis irradiation. The improvement of the photosensitivity of TiO(2) DSSC by means of metal plasma ion implantation is promising. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Characterization and photocatalytic activity of Fe- and N-co-deposited TiO2 and first-principles study for electronic structure

Titanium dioxide (TiO2), co-deposited with Fe and N, is first implanted with Fe by a metal plasma ion implantation (MPII) process and then annealed in N-2 atmosphere at a temperature regime of 400-600 degrees C. First-principle calculations show that the (Fe, N) co-deposited TiO2 films produced additional band gap levels at the bottom of the conduction band (CB) and on the top of the valence band (VB). The (Fe, N) co-deposited TiO2 films were effective in both prohibiting electron-hole recombination and generating additional Fe-O and N-Ti-O impurity levels for the TiO2 band gap. The (Fe, N) co-deposited TiO2 has a narrower band gap of 1.97 eV than Fe-implanted TiO2 (3.14 eV) and N-doped TiO2 (2.16 eV). A significant reduction of TiO2 band gap energy from 3.22 to 1.97 eV was achieved, which resulted in the extension of photocatalytic activity of TiO2 from UV to Vis regime. The photocatalytic activity and removal rate were approximately two-fold higher than that of the Fe-implanted TiO2 under visible light irradiation. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Exploring metal vapor vacuum arc implanted copper to catalyze electroless-plated copper film on a TaN/FSG/Si assembly

This work attempted to implant a Cu catalyst into a TaN (500 Angstrom)/FSG (1200 Angstrom)/Si assembly using a metal vapor vacuum arc ion implanter. The range of the copper dose was between 5.0 x 10(15) and 1.0 x 10(17) cm(-2) and the accelerating voltage ranged from 30 to 50 kV Both blanked and patterned specimens were subsequently deposited with an electroless-plated Cu film. The specimens as a whole were characterized by secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). The sheet resistance was measured by a four-point probe. A noticed relationship between SIMS depth profiles and the ion energy was established. The XRD spectra also showed that electroless-plated copper film possessed a strongly characteristic peak of Cu(111) preferred orientation. An excellent gap filling in a 0.2-mum-width (AR 7:1) trench/via was observed by FESEM. The sheet electric resistivity of the specimens was decreased to 1.93 muOmegacm after annealing at 500 degreesC for 1.5 h under an atmosphere of 10%H-2-90%N-2. (C) 2003 American Vacuum Society

Corrosion resistance of chromium nitride on low alloy steels by cathodic arc deposition

The electrochemical behavior of deposited chromium nitride (CrN) coatings on steel has been investigated in this study. The CrN coatings were prepared by using a reactive cathodic arc plasma deposition technology in an industrial scale. The microstructure and its crystallinity of the chromium nitride have been studied using x-ray diffraction and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy. The CrN coatings exhibit a microcolumnar morphology. The aqueous corrosion behavior of the coatings was evaluated in a saline (3% NaCl solution) environment in terms of open-circuit potentials and polarization resistance (RP) resulting from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results indicated that the CrN coatings are nobler than the uncoated steel and the R-p of the CrN coatings is at least one order of magnitude higher than that of uncoated steel. However, the R-p of the CrN coatings tend to decrease with immersion duration, showing that the corrosion changes from charge transfer to diffusion controlled, especially when the immersion time is long enough. (C) 2001 American Vacuum Society

Recombinant core proteins of Japanese encephalitis virus as activators of the innate immune response

Nitric oxide (NO) has been shown to suppress Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) RNA synthesis, viral protein accumulation, and virus release from infected cells. In this article, the potential viral structural proteins as the activators of NO product were studied at the molecular level. First, the genomic region encoding the JEV structural proteins was cloned into a prokaryotic expression vector pET for high-level expression. After purification, these JEV recombinant proteins were added to macrophages to examine the productions of NO and pro-inflammatory mediators. In this study, the recombinant core protein, but not envelope (E), could trigger NO and pro-inflammatory mediators (TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IL-12) productions on macrophages. And their effects were about 85-95% relative to LPS-stimulated macrophages in a dose-dependent manner. Meanwhile, the rCore-2D could up regulate promoters of IL-8 and TNF-alpha via EGFP expression in reporter plasmid (IL-8p-EGFP and TNF-alpha p-EGFP)-transfected cells by flow cytometric analysis. These results suggest that JEV core protein could regulate pro-inflammatory mediators and NO production, and may play a crucial role in the innate immunity for the host to restrict the initial stage of JEV infection