Geometric bionics: Lotus effect helps polystyrene nanotube films get good blood compatibility

Various biomaterials have been widely used for manufacturing biomedical applications including artificial organs, medical devices and disposable clinical apparatus, such as vascular prostheses, blood pumps, artificial kidney, artificial hearts, dialyzers and plasma separators, which could be used in contact with blood^1^. However, the research tasks of improving hemocompatibility of biomaterials have been carrying out with the development of biomedical requirements^2^. Since the interactions that lead to surface-induced thrombosis occurring at the blood-biomaterial interface become a reason of familiar current complications with grafts therapy, improvement of the blood compatibility of artificial polymer surfaces is, therefore a major issue in biomaterials science^3^. After decades of focused research, various approaches of modifying biomaterial surfaces through chemical or biochemical methods to improve their hemocompatibility were obtained^1^. In this article, we report that polystyrene nanotube films with morphology similar to the papilla on lotus leaf can be used as blood-contacted biomaterials by virtue of Lotus effect^4^. Clearly, this idea, resulting from geometric bionics that mimicking the structure design of lotus leaf, is very novel technique for preparation of hemocompatible biomaterials

The Side-Effects of the Space Charge Field Introduced by Hollow Electron Beam in the Electron Cooler of CSRm

Electron cooler is used to improve the quality of the beam in synchrotron, however it also introduces nonlinear electromagnetic field, which cause tuneshift, tunespread and may drive resonances leading to beam loss. In this paper the tuneshift and the tunespread caused by nonlinear electromagnetic field of the hollow electron beam was investigated, and the resonance driving terms of the nonlinear electromagnetic field was analysed. The differences were presented comparing with the solid electron beam. The calculations were performed for $^{238}U^{32+}$ ions of energy 1.272MeV stored in CSRm, using the parameters given in table1. The conclusion is that in this situation nonlinear field caused by the hollow electron beam do not lead to serious resonances

Topological Dirac states beyond π\pi orbitals for silicene on SiC(0001) surface

The discovery of intriguing properties related to the Dirac states in graphene has spurred huge interest in exploring its two-dimensional group-IV counterparts, such as silicene, germanene, and stanene. However, these materials have to be obtained via synthesizing on substrates with strong interfacial interactions, which usually destroy their intrinsic $\pi$($p_z$)-orbital Dirac states. Here we report a theoretical study on the existence of Dirac states arising from the $p_{x,y}$ orbitals instead of $p_z$ orbitals in silicene on 4H-SiC(0001), which survive in spite of the strong interfacial interactions. We also show that the exchange field together with the spin-orbital coupling give rise to a detectable band gap of 1.3 meV. Berry curvature calculations demonstrate the nontrivial topological nature of such Dirac states with a Chern number $C = 2$, presenting the potential of realizing quantum anomalous Hall effect for silicene on SiC(0001). Finally, we construct a minimal effective model to capture the low-energy physics of this system. This finding is expected to be also applicable to germanene and stanene, and imply great application potentials in nanoelectronics.Comment: 6 Figures , Accepted by Nano Letter

Non-traditional CD4+CD25−CD69+ regulatory T cells are correlated to leukemia relapse after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Background: Non-traditional CD4+CD25-CD69+ T cells were found to be involved in disease progression in tumor-bearing mouse models and cancer patients recently. We attempted to define whether this subset of T cells were related to leukemia relapse after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Methods: The frequency of CD4+CD25-CD69+ T cells among the CD4+ T cell population from the bone marrow of relapsed patients, patients with positive minimal residual disease (MRD+) and healthy donors was examined by flow cytometry. The CD4+CD25-CD69+ T cells were also stained with the intracellular markers to determine the cytokine (TGF-beta, IL-2 and IL-10) secretion. Results: The results showed that the frequency of CD4+CD25-CD69 + T cells was markedly increased in patients in the relapsed group and the MRD + group compared to the healthy donor group. The percentage of this subset of T cells was significantly decreased after effective intervention treatment. We also analyzed the reconstitution of CD4+CD25-CD69+ T cells at various time points after allo-HSCT, and the results showed that this subset of T cells reconstituted rapidly and reached a relatively higher level at +60 d in patients compared to controls. The incidence of either MRD+ or relapse in patients with a high frequency of CD4+CD25-CD69+ T cells (>7%) was significantly higher than that of patients with a low frequency of CD4+CD25-CD69+ T cells at +60 d, +90 d and +270 d after transplant. However, our preliminary data indicated that CD4+CD25-CD69+ T cells may not exert immunoregulatory function via cytokine secretion. Conclusions: This study provides the first clinical evidence of a correlation between non-traditional CD4+CD25-CD69+ Tregs and leukemia relapse after allo-HSCT and suggests that exploration of new methods of adoptive immunotherapy may be beneficial. Further research related to regulatory mechanism behind this phenomenon would be necessary.Medicine, Research & ExperimentalSCI(E)[email protected]

Development of compress air transportation (CAT) for alternative energy utilization

Compress Air Transportation (CAT) is a new concept of transportation that utilizes air as the source of energy. Work on alternative power system for vehicle is becoming very important for the future due to combination of high prices on fuel, emission factor and also the source of the current energy will eventually run out. Several advantages for utilizing air as the source of energy compared to other alternative energy sources makes it become the subject for this project. In this project, a simple transportation utilizing air as the source of energy has been developed. The main component of the engine of the CAT is a device called the "Air Impact Wrench" which can be purchased from local stores. The CAT was tested and analyzed for further studies on expanding this new technology

Scaling Behavior and Variable Hopping Conductivity in the Quantum Hall Plateau Transition

We have measured the temperature dependence of the longitudinal resistivity $$ of a two-dimensional electron system in the regime of the quantum Hall plateau transition. We extracted the quantitative form of scaling function for $\rho_{xx}$ and compared it with the results of ordinary scaling theory and variable range hopping based theory. We find that the two alternative theoretically proposed scaling functions are valid in different regions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Clinical analysis of kasabach-merritt syndrome in 17 neonates

BACKGROUND: Kasabach-Merritt syndrome (KMS) is characterized by giant hemangiomas and severe thrombocytopenia, which may result in life-threatening multi-organ hemorrhage. This study evaluated the clinical characteristics, treatments, and outcomes in neonates with KMS, in order to find out the optimal therapy. METHODS: The clinical data of 17 patients treated for KMS in the Department of Neonates, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, China from January 2007 to January 2012 were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: The patients were 13 males and 4 females, aged 17 hours to 28 days at admission. Four patients had visceral hemangiomas and 13 had cutaneous hemangiomas. All had thrombocytopenia and coagulation disorders. Intravenous steroid therapy was initially effective in 6 patients (of which 3 relapsed) and ineffective in 11. The 11 patients with a poor response to steroids and the 3 who relapsed underwent arterial embolization therapy, which was effective in 9 patients (of which 1 relapsed), ineffective in 4, and discontinued before completion in 1. Subsequently, four patients in whom arterial embolization therapy was ineffective and one with relapse were treated with vincristine. This was effective in four patients, and the other died of disseminated intravascular coagulation. Steroid therapy was effective in 35.3% of patients, but the relapse rate was 50%. Arterial embolization was effective in 64.3% of patients and vincristine was effective in 80%. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with neonatal KMS, steroid therapy has a low rate of effectiveness and high rate of relapse. Arterial embolization has a good rate of effectiveness. Combined steroid and embolization therapy should be considered for first-line treatment of neonatal KMS. If this approach is ineffective, vincristine may be useful