Light-Concentrating Plasmonic Au Superstructures with Significantly Visible-Light-Enhanced Catalytic Performance

Noble metals are well-known for their surface plasmon resonance effect that enables strong light absorption typically in the visible regions for gold and silver. However, unlike semiconductors, noble metals are commonly considered incapable of catalyzing reactions via photogenerated electron–hole pairs due to their continuous energy band structures. So far, photonically activated catalytic system based on pure noble metal nanostructures has seldom been reported. Here, we report the development of three different novel plasmonic Au superstructures comprised of Au nanoparticles, multiple-twinned nanoparticles and nanoworms assembling on the surfaces of SiO₂ nanospheres respectively via a well-designed synthetic strategy. It is found that these novel Au superstructures show enhanced broadband visible-light absorption due to the plasmon resonance coupling within the superstructures, and thus can effectively focus the energy of photon fluxes to generate much more excited hot electrons and holes for promoting catalytic reactions. Accordingly, these Au superstructures exhibit significantly visible-light-enhanced catalytic efficiency (up to ∼264% enhancement) for the commercial reaction of p-nitrophenol reduction

The utilization of critical care ultrasound to assess hemodynamics and lung pathology on ICU admission and the potential for predicting outcome

<div><p>Aim</p><p>Critical care ultrasound (CCUS) has been used by many Intensive Care Units(ICUs) worldwide, so as to guiding the diagnosis and the treatment. However, none of the publications currently systematically describe the utilization of CCUS to analyze the characteristics of hemodynamics and lung pathology upon the new admission to ICU and its potential role in patients’ prognosis prediction. In this retrospective clinical study, we have demonstrated and analyzed the characteristics of hemodynamics and lung pathology assessed by CCUS and investigated its potential to predict patient outcome.</p><p>Methods</p><p>We have described and analyzed the epidemic characteristics of hemodynamics and lung pathology assessed by CCUS on ICU admission, which based on our database of 451 cases from the biggest medical center in Western China, between November 2014 and October 2015. The patients’ demographics, clinical characteristics, prognosis and ultrasonic pattern of hemodynamics and lung pathology had been analyzed. A bivariate logistic regression model was established to identify the correlation between the ultrasonic variables on admission and the ICU mortality.</p><p>Results</p><p>The mean age of the 451 patients was 56.7±18.7 years; the mean APACHE II score was 19.0±7.9, the ICU mortality was 30.6%. Patients received CCUS examination of pericardial, right ventricle (RV) wall motion, left ventricle (LV) wall motion, LV systolic function, LV diastolic function, lung and volume of inferior vena cava (IVC) were 423(93.8%), 418(92.7%), 392(86.9%), 389(86.3%), 383(84.9%), 440(97.6%), 336(74.5%), respectively; The univariate analysis revealed that length of mechanical ventilation was significantly correlated with the diameter of IVC, tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion(TAPSE), mitral annular plane systolic excursion(MAPSE), early diastolic transmitral velocity to early mitral annulus diastolic velocity(E/e’) (p = 0.016, 0.011, 0.000, 0.049, respectively); The TAPSE, ejection fraction(EF), MAPSE, lung ultrasound score (LUS score) (p = 0.000, 0.028, 0.000, 0.011, respectively) were significantly related to ICU mortality. The multivariate analysis demonstrated that APACHE II, age, TAPSE, E/e’ are the independent risk factors for ICU mortality in our study.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>CCUS examination on ICU admission which performed by the experienced physician provide valuable information to assist the caregivers in understanding the comprehensive outlook of the characteristics of hemodynamics and lung pathology. Those key variables obtained by CCUS predict the possible prognosis of patients, hence deserve more attention in clinical decision making.</p></div

Multivariate analysis between the cardiorespiratory ultrasonic variables and clinical indexes and ICU mortality.

<p>Multivariate analysis between the cardiorespiratory ultrasonic variables and clinical indexes and ICU mortality.</p

Completion proportion and findings of ultrasound examination on admission.

<p>Completion proportion and findings of ultrasound examination on admission.</p

Facile Ultrasonic Synthesis of CoO Quantum Dot/Graphene Nanosheet Composites with High Lithium Storage Capacity

In this paper, we report a facile ultrasonic method to synthesize well-dispersed CoO quantum dots (3–8 nm) on graphene nanosheets at room temperature by employing Co₄(CO)₁₂ as cobalt precursor. The prepared CoO/graphene composites displayed high performance as an anode material for lithium-ion battery, such as high reversible lithium storage capacity (1592 mAh g^–1 after 50 cycles), high Coulombic efficiency (over 95%), excellent cycling stability, and high rate capability (1008 mAh g^–1 with a total retention of 77.6% after 50 cycles at a current density of 1000 mA g^–1, dramatically increased from the initial 50 mA g^–1). The extraordinary performance arises from the structure advantages of the composites: the nanosized CoO quantum dots with high dispersity on conductive graphene substrates supply not only large quantity of accessible active sites for lithium-ion insertion but also good conductivity and short diffusion length for lithium ions, which are beneficial for high capacity and rate capability. Meanwhile, the isolated CoO quantum dots anchored tightly on the graphene nanosheets can effectively circumvent the volume expansion/contraction associated with lithium insertion/extraction during discharge/charge processes, which is good for high capacity as well as cycling stability. Moreover, regarding the anomalous behavior of capacity increase with cycles (activation effect) observed, we proposed a tentative hypothesis stressing the competition between the conductivity increase and the amorphorization of the composite electrodes during cycling in determining the trends of the capacity, in the hope to gain a fuller understanding of the inner working of the novel nanostructured electrode-based lithium-ion batteries

Cardiorespiratory ultrasonic variables on admission.

<p>Cardiorespiratory ultrasonic variables on admission.</p

Univariate correlation analysis: Correlation coefficients (r) and p values.

<p>Univariate correlation analysis: Correlation coefficients (r) and p values.</p

Admission diagnoses and the proportion.

<p>Admission diagnoses and the proportion.</p

Demographic and clinical characteristics on admission and the outcome of the studied subjects.

<p>Demographic and clinical characteristics on admission and the outcome of the studied subjects.</p

Combining metaphase cytogenetics with single nucleotide polymorphism arrays can improve the diagnostic yield and identify prognosis more precisely in myelodysplastic syndromes

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) encompass a group of heterogeneous haematopoietic stem cell malignancies characterised by ineffective haematopoiesis, cytological aberrations, and a propensity for progression to acute myeloid leukaemia. Diagnosis and disease prognostic stratification are much based on genomic abnormalities. The traditional metaphase cytogenetics analysis (MC) can detect about 40–60% aberrations. Single-nucleotide polymorphism arrays (SNP-A) karyotyping can detect copy number variations with a higher resolution and has a unique advantage in detection of copy number neutral loss of heterozygosity (CN-LOH). Combining these two methods may improve the diagnostic efficiency and accuracy for MDS. We retrospectively analysed the data of 110 MDS patients diagnosed from January 2012 to December 2019 to compare the detection yield of chromosomal abnormalities by MC with by SNP-A, and the relationship between chromosomal abnormalities and prognosis. Our results showed that SNP-A improved the detection yield of chromosomal aberrations compared with MC (74.5 vs. 55.5%, p 65 years, bone marrow blasts ≥5%, with acquired CN-LOH, new aberrations detected by SNP-A, TGA value > the median (81.435 Mb), higher risk by IPSS-R-MC, higher risk by IPSS-R-SNP-A all had poorer prognosis. More critically, multivariable analysis showed that age >65 years and higher risk by IPSS-R-SNP-A were independent predictors of inferior OS in MDS patients. The combination of MC and SNP-A based karyotyping can further improve the diagnostic yield and provide more precise prognostic stratification in MDS patients. However, SNP-A may not completely replace MC because of its inability to detect balanced translocation and to detect different clones. From a practical point of view, we recommend the concurrent use of SNP-A and MC in the initial karyotypic evaluation for MDS patients on diagnosis and prognosis stratification.KEY MESSAGESSNP-A based karyotyping can further improve the MDS diagnostic yield and provide more precise prognostic stratification in MDS patients.Acquired CN-LOH is a characteristic chromosomal aberration of MDS, which should be integrated to the diagnostic project of MDS.The concurrent use of SNP-A and MC in the initial karyotypic evaluation for MDS patients can be recommended. SNP-A based karyotyping can further improve the MDS diagnostic yield and provide more precise prognostic stratification in MDS patients. Acquired CN-LOH is a characteristic chromosomal aberration of MDS, which should be integrated to the diagnostic project of MDS. The concurrent use of SNP-A and MC in the initial karyotypic evaluation for MDS patients can be recommended.</p