Efficacy and Safety of Intra-articular Injections of Hyaluronic Acid Combined With Polydeoxyribonucleotide in the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis

Objective To assess the clinical efficacy and safety of intra-articular injection of hyaluronic acid (HA) combined with polydeoxyribonucleotide (PDRN) in patients with knee osteoarthritis in comparison with that of HA alone. Methods The current single-center, prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled study was conducted in 36 patients with knee osteoarthritis at our medical institution. All the eligible patients (n=30) were equally assigned to two treatment arms (trial group ‘HA+PDRN’ and control group ‘HA’). For efficacy assessment, the patients were evaluated for the visual analogue scale (VAS) scores, the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and the Knee Society Scores (KSS), all of which served as efficacy outcome measures. We monitored time-dependent changes in efficacy outcome measures at baseline and 1, 3 and 6 months. Subsequently, we compared differences in changes in efficacy outcome measures at 6 months from baseline between the two groups. Moreover, we assessed the safety based on the treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs), adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and any other complications serving as safety outcome measures. Results There were significant differences in changes in the VAS scores, the WOMAC scores in all domains, except ‘Stiffness’, the total WOMAC scores, and the KSS scores in all the domains at 6 months from baseline between the two groups (p<0.05). In our series, there were no TEAEs, ADRs, and any other complications. Conclusion Intra-articular injections of HA combined with PDRN can also be considered in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. However, further large-scale and multi-center studies are required to demonstrate the potential of the proposed combination

Conformal and Ultra Shallow Junction Formation Achieved Using a Pulsed-Laser Annealing Process Integrated With a Modified Plasma Assisted Doping Method

Recently, a shallow and conformal doping profile is required for promising 3D structured devices. In this study, we deposited the dopant phosphorus (P) using modified plasma assisted doping (PaD) followed by an annealing process to electrically activate the dopants. A rapid thermal annealing process (RTP) was the first approach tested for activation but it resulted in a deep junction ( &gt; 35 nm). To reduce the junction depth, we tried the fiash lamp annealing process (FLP) to shorten the annealing time. We also predicted the annealing temperature by numerical thermal analysis, which reached 1,020 degrees C. However, the FLP resulted in a deep junction (similar to 30 nm), which was not shallow enough to suppress short channel effects. Since an even shorter annealing process was required to form a ultra-shallow junction, we tried the laser annealing process (LAP) as a promising alternative. The LAP, which had a power density of 0.3 J/cm(2), increased the surface temperature up to 1,100 degrees C with a shallow isothermal layer. Using the LAP, we achieved a USJ with an activated surface dopant concentration of 3.86 x 10(19) cm(-3) and a junction depth of 10 nm, which will allow further scaling-down of devices.1

Quantitative local probing of polarization with application on HfO 2 ‐based thin films

Owing to their switchable spontaneous polarization, ferroelectric materials have been applied in various fields, such as information technologies, actuators, and sensors. In the last decade, as the characteristic sizes of both devices and materials have decreased significantly below the nanoscale, the development of appropriate characterization tools became essential. Recently, a technique based on conductive atomic force microscopy (AFM), called AFM‐positive‐up‐negative‐down (PUND), is employed for the direct measurement of ferroelectric polarization under the AFM tip. However, the main limitation of AFM‐PUND is the low frequency (i.e., on the order of a few hertz) that is used to initiate ferroelectric hysteresis. A significantly higher frequency is required to increase the signal‐to‐noise ratio and the measurement efficiency. In this study, a novel method based on high‐frequency AFM‐PUND using continuous waveform and simultaneous signal acquisition of the switching current is presented, in which polarization–voltage hysteresis loops are obtained on a high‐polarization BiFeO3 nanocapacitor at frequencies up to 100 kHz. The proposed method is comprehensively evaluated by measuring nanoscale polarization values of the emerging ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 under the AFM tip

Correlation between Geometrically induced oxygen octahedral tilts and multiferroic behaviors in BiFeO3 films

The equilibrium position of atoms in a unit cell is directly connected to crystal functionalities, e.g., ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism, and piezoelectricity. The artificial tuning of the energy landscape can involve repositioning atoms as well as manipulating the functionalities of perovskites (ABO3), which are good model systems to test this legacy. Mechanical energy from external sources accommodating various clamping substrates is utilized to perturb the energy state of perovskite materials fabricated on the substrates and consequently change their functionalities; however, this approach yields undesired complex behaviors of perovskite crystals, such as lattice distortion, displacement of B atoms, and/or tilting of oxygen octahedra. Owing to complimentary collaborations between experimental and theoretical studies, the effects of both lattice distortion and displacement of B atoms are well understood so far, which leaves us a simple question: Can we exclusively control the positions of oxygen atoms in perovskites for functionality manipulation? Here the artificial manipulation of oxygen octahedral tilt angles within multiferroic BiFeO3 thin films using strong oxygen octahedral coupling with bottom SrRuO3 layers is reported, which opens up new possibilities of oxygen octahedral engineering

The IPIN 2019 Indoor Localisation Competition—Description and Results

IPIN 2019 Competition, sixth in a series of IPIN competitions, was held at the CNR Research Area of Pisa (IT), integrated into the program of the IPIN 2019 Conference. It included two on-site real-time Tracks and three off-site Tracks. The four Tracks presented in this paper were set in the same environment, made of two buildings close together for a total usable area of 1000 m 2 outdoors and and 6000 m 2 indoors over three floors, with a total path length exceeding 500 m. IPIN competitions, based on the EvAAL framework, have aimed at comparing the accuracy performance of personal positioning systems in fair and realistic conditions: past editions of the competition were carried in big conference settings, university campuses and a shopping mall. Positioning accuracy is computed while the person carrying the system under test walks at normal walking speed, uses lifts and goes up and down stairs or briefly stops at given points. Results presented here are a showcase of state-of-the-art systems tested side by side in real-world settings as part of the on-site real-time competition Tracks. Results for off-site Tracks allow a detailed and reproducible comparison of the most recent positioning and tracking algorithms in the same environment as the on-site Tracks

Characterization of adsorbed organic matter on mineral surfaces

Humic substances (HS) are the major components of soil organic matter (SOM), which are by far the most abundant organic materials in the environment. Advances on structural characterization of HS and their interaction with clay minerals will provide a more fundamental understanding of HS functions in such important roles as sorption of anthropogenic organic contaminants, stabilization of soil aggregates, and C sequestration. The objectives of this research were to determine any variation in structure and sorption properties of humic acids (HAs) and humins sequentially extracted from a soil and investigate characterization and fractionation of HA and relatively small carboxylic acids upon adsorption on clay minerals. In a phenanthrene sorption study of sequentially extracted HAs and humins, there were significant chemical and structural differences among the HA fractions and humins, and sorption was greatly affected by chemical structure and composition of humic substances, even from the same soil. A positive trend was observed between the sorption coefficient and the aliphaticity. Humin fractions with the highest aliphatic C contents and the lowest polarity showed the highest sorption capacity and nonlinearity as compared with the HAs. A negative relation was shown between the sorption capacity and polarity of HAs. The aliphatic-rich SOM in this study had less polar moieties, but had relatively high Koc. Therefore, the polarity of SOM is likely one of the important parameters controlling sorption of hydrophobic organic chemicals (HOCs). Adsorption of SOM onto clay minerals modifies their surfaces and reactivity and strongly influences the fate of organic contaminants and other species in soils and sediments. For investigation of the structural and conformation changes of HA and clay-HA complexes after sequential adsorption by goethite, kaolinite, and montmorillonite, UV-Visible spectroscopy, high performance size exclusion chromatography (HPSEC), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy were employed. Aliphatic rich HA fractions with polar functional moieties readily adsorb to the goethite surface, while aromatic fractions were left in solution. Similar to HA fractionation onto goethite, paraffinic fractions and polar aliphatic fractions sorbed preferentially on montmorillonite, but aromatic functional moieties likely remained in solution. However, paraffinic fractions were observed on kaolinite surfaces although the adsorbed proportion of these fractions was low. Because of high broken edge areas, kaolinite has more adsorption sites for carboxylic and carbonyl rich fractions than montmorillonite. With respect to MW fractionation after sorption, relatively low molecular weight (MW) HA fractions had a greater affinity for the goethite surface from the analysis and inference of the HPSEC chromatograms, which differs from the reported results in the literature. The low MW HA fractions might be intercalated into the interlayer of montmorillonite and high MW HA fractions adsorbed on external surfaces, which results in the adsorption of relatively wide range of MW HA fractions. The binding mode of small HA fractions on the clay minerals may be ligand exchange and/or electrostatic interaction, which gives HA-clay complexes new hydrophobic sorption sites for high MW HA fractions. To obtain information on the nature of the interactions between SOM and clay mineral surfaces, the adsorption of dicarboxylic acids by kaolinite and montmorillonite at different pH conditions was investigated using in situ attenuated total reflectance Fourier transformed infrared (ATR-FTIR) and ex situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transformed (DRIFT) spectroscopy. The sorption was highly pH dependent and related to the surface characteristics of minerals; adsorption of dicarboxylic acids (succinic acid, glutaric acid, adipic acid, and azelaic acid) was the highest at pH 4 as compared with those at pH 7 and 9, and the sorption capacity of montmorillonite was greater than that of kaolinite. Furthermore, the complexation types, inner- or outer-sphere, depended upon dicarboxylic acid species, pH, mineral surfaces, and solvent conditions. Most samples tend to have outer-sphere adsorption with the mineral surfaces at all tested pHs. However, inner-sphere coordination between the carboxyl groups and mineral surfaces at pH 4 was dominant with freeze-dried complex samples. Therefore, organic acids in an aqueous environment prefer to adsorb onto kaolinite and montmorillonite by outer-sphere complexation, but inner-sphere complexation is favored under dry conditions. These results imply that organic acid binding onto clay minerals under dry conditions is stronger than that under wet conditions. The stable NOM/mineral complexes formed by frequent wetting-drying cycles in nature may resist chemical/microbial degradation of the NOM, which will affect carbon storage in the environment and influence the sorption of organic contaminants