Evaluation of the high temperature solid Oxide cells using La0.1Sr0.9Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ

The performance of the SOCs using La0.1Sr0.9Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ (LSCF1982) was characterized by I-V measurement and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The distribution function of relaxation times of EIS was used to analyze the polarization resistance of the cells. The fitting was performed using the appropriate equivalent circuit through DRT analysis. Furthermore, we co-electrolyzed CO2 and H2O to obtain H2 / CO syngas as well as water splitting. The composition of syngas was investigated by gas chromatography and controlled by varying in-let gas composition

Effect of severe neonatal morbidities on long term outcome in extremely low birthweight infants

PurposeTo assess the validity of individual and combined prognostic effects of severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), brain injury, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), and parenteral nutrition associated cholestasis (PNAC).MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 80 extremely low birthweight (ELBW) infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the Severance Children's Hospital, and who survived to a postmenstrual age of 36 weeks. We analyzed the relationship between 4 neonatal morbidities (severe BPD, severe brain injury, severe ROP, and severe PNAC) and poor outcome. Poor outcome indicated death after a postmenstrual age of 36 weeks or survival with neurosensory impairment (cerebral palsy, delayed development, hearing loss, or blindness) between 18 and 24 months of corrected age.ResultsEach neonatal morbidity correlated with poor outcome on univariate analysis. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that the odds ratios (OR) were 4.9 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0-22.6; P=0.044) for severe BPD, 13.2 (3.0-57.3; P<.001) for severe brain injury, 5.3 (1.6-18.1; P=0.007) for severe ROP, and 3.4 (0.5-22.7; P=0.215) for severe PNAC. Severe BPD, brain injury, and ROP were significantly correlated with poor outcome, but not severe PNAC. By increasing the morbidity count, the rate of poor outcome was significantly increased (OR 5.2; 95% CI, 2.2-11.9; P<.001). In infants free of the above-mentioned morbidities, the rate of poor outcome was 9%, while the corresponding rates in infants with 1, 2, and more than 3 neonatal morbidities were 46%, 69%, and 100%, respectively.ConclusionIn ELBW infants 3 common neonatal mornidifies, severe BPD, brain injury and ROP, strongly predicts the risk of poor outcome

Comparison of Clinical Efficacy of Newfactan® versus Surfacten® for the Treatment of Respiratory Distress Syndrome in the Newborn Infants

Newfactan® is a domestically developed, bovine lung-derived, semi-synthetic surfactant. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical efficacy of Newfactan® with that of Surfacten® in the treatment of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Newfactan® or Surfacten® was randomly allocated to 492 newborn infants who were diagnosed as RDS and required surfactant instillation in four participating hospitals. The comparisons were made individually in two subsets of infants by birth weight (<1,500 g group [n=253] and ≥1,500 g group [n=239]). Short-term responses to surfactant and acute complications, such as the total doses of surfactant instilled, response type, extubation rate, ventilator settings, changes in respiratory parameters, air leak, patent ductus arteriosus, pulmonary hemorrhage, and intraventricular hemorrhage, and mortality during the 96 hr after surfactant instillation were measured. Long-term outcome and complications, such as total duration of intubation, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and periventricular leukomalacia, and ultimate mortality were measured. There were no significant differences in demographic and perinatal variables, short-term responses to surfactant and acute complications, and long-term outcome and complications between Newfactan® and Surfacten® in both birth weight groups. We concluded that Newfactan® was comparable to Surfacten® in the clinical efficacy in the treatment of RDS in both birth weight groups

Family-selective detection of antibiotics using antibody-functionalized carbon nanotube sensors

The development of a rapid and sensitive detection method for well-known, yet abused, antibiotics has been an important issue for food safety and environmental protection. This paper presents a simple and sensitive method for the specific or family-selective detection of antibiotics using carbon nanotube (CNT)-based sensors. Herein, CNT-based sensor transducers were functionalized with the single-chain variable-fragment (scFv) of antibodies that can selectively bind to a specific antibiotic or the certain family of antibiotics. Our CNT-based sensors functionalized with A2 scFv or F9 scFv exhibited the specific detection of enrofloxacin or the family-selective detection of fluoroquinolone-based antibiotics, respectively, in a real-time manner. This simple but efficient strategy can be utilized for various applications in the fields of food safety and environmental protection. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Increased electrical conductivity of peptides through annealing process

Biocompatible biologically occurring polymer is suggested as a component of human implantable devices since conventional inorganic materials are apt to trigger inflammation and toxicity problem within human body. Peptides consisting of aromatic amino acid, tyrosine, are chosen, and enhancement on electrical conductivity is studied. Annealing process gives rise to the decrease on resistivity of the peptide films and the growth of the carrier concentration is a plausible reason for such a decrease on resistivity. The annealed peptides are further applied to an active layer of field effect transistor, in which low on/off current ratio (∼10) is obtained

In-Zn-Sn-O thin film based transistor with high-k HfO2 dielectric

Indium zinc tin oxide (IZTO) semiconducting thin films have been investigated as active channel layers for thin-film transistor (TFT) applications. The IZTO layer was deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering (RFMS) using a sintered IZTO ceramic target with an In:Zn:Sn metal atomic ratio of 40:50:10 on the HfO2 layer either deposited using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) or RF-MS. The annealing treatments after IZTO and HfO2 film depositions were performed in air using a tube furnace and in an oxygen atmosphere using rapid thermal annealing at 400 degrees C, respectively. Optical transparency measured by UV-Vis spectroscopy showed that the HfO2 films deposited by either RF-MS or ALD were transparent in the visible region and had a similar band gap energy of about 4.9 eV. Electrical characteristics of IZTO based TFT were comparatively evaluated for the samples with IZTO/ALD or RF-MS HfO2/n(++)-Si structure. The IZTO TFT sample with 60 nm-thick HfO2 deposited by ALD had an on/off current ratio value of 7.0 x 10(6) and a field-effect mobility value of 6.2 cm(2)/Vs, which was superior to that with RF-MS deposited HfO2