Enhanced UV photosensitivity from rapid thermal annealed vertically aligned ZnO nanowires

We report on the major improvement in UV photosensitivity and faster photoresponse from vertically aligned ZnO nanowires (NWs) by means of rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The ZnO NWs were grown by vapor-liquid-solid method and subsequently RTA treated at 700°C and 800°C for 120 s. The UV photosensitivity (photo-to-dark current ratio) is 4.5 × 103 for the as-grown NWs and after RTA treatment it is enhanced by a factor of five. The photocurrent (PC) spectra of the as-grown and RTA-treated NWs show a strong peak in the UV region and two other relatively weak peaks in the visible region. The photoresponse measurement shows a bi-exponential growth and bi-exponential decay of the PC from as-grown as well as RTA-treated ZnO NWs. The growth and decay time constants are reduced after the RTA treatment indicating a faster photoresponse. The dark current-voltage characteristics clearly show the presence of surface defects-related trap centers on the as-grown ZnO NWs and after RTA treatment it is significantly reduced. The RTA processing diminishes the surface defect-related trap centers and modifies the surface of the ZnO NWs, resulting in enhanced PC and faster photoresponse. These results demonstrated the effectiveness of RTA processing for achieving improved photosensitivity of ZnO NWs

Metastatic lymph node in gastric cancer; Is it a real distant metastasis?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Currently, the TNM staging system is a widely accepted method for assessing the prognosis of the disease and planning therapeutic strategies for cancer. Of the TNM system, the extent of lymph node involvement is the most important independent prognostic factor for gastric cancer. The aim of our study is to evaluate the survival and prognosis of gastric cancer patients with LN#12 or #13 involvement only and to assess the impact of anatomic regions of primary gastric tumor on survival in this particular subset of patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Among data of 1,008 stage IV gastric cancer patients who received curative R0 gastrectomy, a total of 79 patients with LN#12 (n = 68) and/or #13 (n = 11) were identified. All patients performed gastrectomy with D2 or D3 lymph node dissection.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In 79 patients with LN#12/13 involvement, the estimated one-, three- and five-year survival rate was 77.2%, 41.8% and 26.6% respectively. When we compared the patients with LN#12/13 involvement to those without involvement, there was no significant difference in OS (21.0 months vs. 25.0 months, respectively; P = 0.140). However, OS was significantly longer in patients with LN#12/13 involvement only than in those with M1 lymph node involvement (14.3 months; P = 0.001). There was a significant difference in survival according to anatomic locations of the primary tumor (lower to mid-body vs. high body or whole stomach): 26.5 vs. 9.2 months (P = 0.009). In Cox proportional hazard analysis, only N stage (p = 0.002) had significance to predict poor survival.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this study we found that curatively resected gastric cancer patients with pathologic involvement of LN #12 and/or LN #13 had favorable survival outcome, especially those with primary tumor location of mid-body to antrum. Prospective analysis of survival in gastric cancer patients with L N#12 or #13 metastasis is warranted especially with regards to primary tumor location.</p

Lactational coumestrol exposure increases ovarian apoptosis in adult rats

This study is the first to examine the increased apoptosis in the adult rat ovary after lactational exposure to coumestrol (COU), a potent phytoestrogen. Lactating dams were gavaged at doses of 0.01, 0.1, 1, and 10 mg/kg COU during the lactation period and the reproductive effects of female pups were investigated in young adults. Rats were sacrificed at postnatal days (PND) 81–84. Ovarian weights were reduced significantly at 0.1 and 1.0 mg/kg COU. The reduction in the ovarian weight occurred in parallel with an increase in the apoptosis at PND 135–140. A marked dose-dependent increase in the expressions of active caspase-3 and -7 was observed in ovarian granulosa cells. Immunostaining for active caspase-3 and the TUNEL staining of apoptotic cells were also increased in ovaries exposed to COU in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest new sights into the effect of lactational exposure to COU on the female reproductive health

Anaerobic digestion and gasification of seaweed

The potential of algal biomass as a source of liquid and gaseous biofuels is a highly topical theme, with over 70 years of sometimes intensive research and considerable financial investment. A wide range of unit operations can be combined to produce algal biofuel, but as yet there is no successful commercial system producing such biofuel. This suggests that there are major technical and engineering difficulties to be resolved before economically viable algal biofuel production can be achieved. Both gasification and anaerobic digestion have been suggested as promising methods for exploiting bioenergy from biomass, and two major projects have been funded in the UK on the gasification and anaerobic digestion of seaweed, MacroBioCrude and SeaGas. This chapter discusses the use of gasification and anaerobic digestion of seaweed for the production of biofuel

Deep Learning Model for Grading Metastatic Epidural Spinal Cord Compression on Staging CT

10.3390/cancers14133219Cancers14133219