Bipolar plasma vaporization using plasma-cutting and plasma-loop electrodes versus cold-knife transurethral incision for the treatment of posterior urethral stricture: a prospective, randomized study

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate the efficiency and safety of bipolar plasma vaporization using plasma-cutting and plasma-loop electrodes for the treatment of posterior urethral stricture. Compare the outcomes following bipolar plasma vaporization with conventional cold-knife urethrotomy. METHODS: A randomized trial was performed to compare patient outcomes from the bipolar and cold-knife groups. All patients were assessed at 6 and 12 months postoperatively via urethrography and uroflowmetry. At the end of the first postoperative year, ureteroscopy was performed to evaluate the efficacy of the procedure. The mean follow-up time was 13.9 months (range: 12 to 21 months). If re-stenosis was not identified by both urethrography and ureteroscopy, the procedure was considered “successful”. RESULTS: Fifty-three male patients with posterior urethral strictures were selected and randomly divided into two groups: bipolar group (n=27) or cold-knife group (n=26). Patients in the bipolar group experienced a shorter operative time compared to the cold-knife group (23.45±7.64 hours vs 33.45±5.45 hours, respectively). The 12-month postoperative Qmax was faster in the bipolar group than in the cold-knife group (15.54±2.78 ml/sec vs 18.25±2.12 ml/sec, respectively). In the bipolar group, the recurrence-free rate was 81.5% at a mean follow-up time of 13.9 months. In the cold-knife group, the recurrence-free rate was 53.8%. CONCLUSIONS: The application of bipolar plasma-cutting and plasma-loop electrodes for the management of urethral stricture disease is a safe and reliable method that minimizes the morbidity of urethral stricture resection. The advantages include a lower recurrence rate and shorter operative time compared to the cold-knife technique

Shape-related optical and catalytic properties of wurtzite-type CoO nanoplates and nanorods

National Basic Research Program of China [2012CB933103]; National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation of China [50825101]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [51171157, 51171158]In this paper, we report the anisotropic optical and catalytic properties of wurtzite-type hexagonal CoO (h-CoO) nanocrystals, an unusual nanosized indirect semiconductor material. h-CoO nanoplates and nanorods with a divided morphology have been synthesized via facile solution methods. The employment of flash-heating and surfactant tri-n-octylphosphine favors the formation of plate-like morphology, whereas the utilization of cobalt stearate as a precursor is critical for the synthesis of nanorods. Structural analyses indicate that the basal plane of the nanoplates is (001) face and the growth direction of the nanorods is along the c axis. Moreover, the UV-vis absorption spectra, the corresponding energy gap and the catalytic properties are found to vary with the crystal shape and the dimensions of the as-prepared h-CoO nanocrystals. Furthermore, remarkable catalytic activities for H-2 generation from the hydrolysis of alkaline NaBH4 solutions have been observed for the as-prepared h-CoO nanocrystals. The calculated Arrhenius activation energies show a decreasing trend with increasing extension degree along the direction, which is in agreement with the variation of the charge-transfer energy gap. Finally the maximum hydrogen generation rate of the h-CoO nanoplates exceeds most of the reported values of transition metal or noble metal containing catalysts performing in the same reaction system, which makes them a low-cost alternative to commonly used noble metal catalysts in H-2 generation from the hydrolysis of borohydrides, and might find potential applications in the field of green energy

A facile approach to fabrication of well-dispersed NiO-ZnO composite hollow microspheres

A novel, facile and template-free approach was developed for the fabrication of amorphous zinc-nickel citrate hollow microspheres and crystalline well-dispersed NiO-ZnO composite hollow microspheres. In this approach, amorphous zinc-nickel citrate hollow microspheres were prepared through a simple chemical reaction and with room temperature ageing at nickel nitrate solution. The zinc-nickel citrate hollow microspheres have an average size of about 1.4 μm. The average thickness of the shell is about 300 nm. The content of Ni in the zinc-nickel citrate can be simply adjusted by changing the ageing time. The well-dispersed NiO-ZnO composite hollow microspheres can be prepared via the perfect morphology inheritance of the zinc-nickel citrate hollow microspheres, by calcination at 500 °C for 2 h. The optical absorption of the samples can extend into the visible region after the loading of NiO. The NiO-ZnO composite hollow microspheres with the high content of NiO exhibit the highest photocatalytic activity for the degradation of different organic dyes including Rhodamine-B, methylene blue and methyl orange under UV irradiation, which might be ascribed to their highest separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. In addition, these NiO-ZnO composite photocatalysts can be used repeatedly without a significant decrease of the photocatalytic activity under UV irradiation. ? 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Research Progress of Preparation and Application of Probiotic Microencapsulation in Food

Probiotics are widely used in the food field because they are beneficial to human health, while they are susceptible to adverse environmental factors such as temperature, oxygen, humidity, pressure, stomach acid and bile salts. In order to maintain high survival rate of probiotics during processing, storage and digestion, different microencapsulation technologies have been used for encapsulation and protection of probiotics. Probiotic microencapsulation technology can improve the resistance of probiotics to adverse environment by creating a physical barrier, and reduce the damage of probiotics in the protective matrix, so that they can reach the target site at full potency. The review article summarizes the source, type and efficacy of probiotics, and mainly summarizes the fundamental principles, advantages and disadvantages of the common probiotic microencapsulation technologies, including extrusion, emulsification, spray drying, freeze drying, spray chilling, complex coacervation, electrospinning, electrospraying and impinging aerosols. Furthermore, an overview of the application advantages and possibilities of probiotic microencapsulation technologies in dairy products, meat products, non-milk beverages and baked products are discussed. Although many studies in vitro digestion, there are still some limitations. As for the existing problems, it is necessary to expand the microencapsulation technologies, carry out in vivo experiments, and establish a systematic database to meet the industrial production needs of probiotic food. It provides theoretical reference for developing new probiotic food

Compression and Stretching of Confined Linear and Ring Polymers by Applying Force

We use Langevin dynamics to study the deformations of linear and ring polymers in different confinements by applying compression and stretching forces on their two sides. Our results show that the compression deformations are the results of an interplay among of polymer rigidity, degree of confinement, and force applied. When the applied force is beyond the threshold required for the buckling transition, the semiflexible chain under the strong confinement firstly buckles; then comes helical deformation. However, under the same force loading, the semiflexible chain under the weaker confinement exhibits buckling instability and shrinks from the folded ends/sides until it becomes three-folded structures. This happens because the strong confinement not only strongly reduces the buckling wavelength, but also increases the critical buckling force threshold. For the weakly confined polymers, in compression process, the flexible linear polymer collapses into condensed states under a small external force, whereas the ring polymer only shows slight shrinkage, due to the excluded volume interactions of two strands in the crowded states. These results are essential for understanding the deformations of the ring biomacromolecules and polymer chains in mechanical compression or driven transport

Control Strategy of the Pumped Storage Unit to Deal with the Fluctuation of Wind and Photovoltaic Power in Microgrid

With the development and utilization of distributed energy and microgrid, distributed energy storage has become a new development trend. However, small pumped storage units have the advantages of flexible engineering location, low investment, quick effect, low requirements on transmission lines, and a better solution to the peak load demand of the system. Therefore, it is more and more used in the microgrid, and it conducts joint dispatching with wind power, photovoltaic, and other clean energies. To solve the capacity problem of small pumped storage units within the microgrid, a new control strategy is proposed in this paper. Two pumped storage units are used for joint operations. Taking the smoothed combined output power of wind power, photovoltaic power, and pumped storage power as the target, and considering the limitations of transmission lines, the constraints of wind power and photovoltaic power fields as well as the restrictions of pumped storage power units and corresponding reservoirs are taken into account. In this paper, social particle swarm optimization (SPSO) with improved weight is used to calculate and solve the model. The effectiveness of the new control strategy is verified

Insulation Reconstruction for OPGW DC De-Icing and Its Influence on Lightning Protection and Energy Conservation

In order to satisfy demands for DC de-icing of optical fiber composite overhead ground wire (OPGW) and solve questions such as those relating to circulating current loss and liability of suffering from lightning strike, the grounding method of OPGW must be changed from the current commonly used method of being grounded at every tower to being grounded at one tower. The OPGW would be connected to the tower by an insulator, which is often shunt connected with a protective discharge clearance. The recommended value of the discharge clearance is from 70 to 80 mm. The lightning impulse discharge voltage of such a clearance is generally not more than 100 kV. However, as the transmission line is struck by lightning, over-voltage on the clearance is 885 kV at least, even up to a few MV. The clearance can be broken down reliably. The influence of insulation reconstruction for OPGW on the induced current and the power loss of the AC transmission line was studied by means of theoretical analysis and simulation calculations. Results indicate that change of the OPGW grounding mode could reduce the induced current of the ground wire to below 1 A and reduce the power loss of the line to below 1 W/km. Power loss could be reduced by over 99%. Adoption of a suitable grounding mode for OPGW is of great significance for DC de-icing, lightning protection safety, and energy savings for UHV projects

Electrochemical Behavior of NH4F-Pretreated Li1.25Ni0.20Fe0.13Co0.33Mn0.33O2 Cathodes for Lithium-ion Batteries

We report a novel method to fabricate lithium-ion batteries cathodes with the NH4F pretreatment. In this study, NH4F-pretreated Li1.25Ni0.20Fe0.13Co0.33Mn0.33O2 hollow nano-micro hierarchical microspheres were synthesized for use as cathode materials. The X-ray diffraction patterns of NH4F-pretreated Li1.25Ni0.20Co0.33Fe0.13Mn0.33O2 were analyzed with the RIETAN-FP software program, and the results showed that the samples possess a layered α-NaFeO2 structure. The effects of pretreatment with NH4F on the electrochemical performance of the pristine material were evaluated through charge/discharge cycling, the rate performance, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Pretreatment with NH4F significantly improved the discharge capacities and coulombic efficiencies of Li1.25Ni0.20Co0.33Fe0.13Mn0.33O2 in the first cycle and during subsequent electrochemical cycling. The sample pretreated with an appropriate amount of NH4F (NFCM 90) showed the highest discharge capacity (209.1 mA h g−1) and capacity retention (85.2% for 50 cycles at 0.1 C). The EIS results showed that the resistance of the NFCM 90 sample (76.32 Ω) is lower than that of the pristine one (206.2 Ω)