A Wireless Passive LC Resonant Sensor Based on LTCC under High-Temperature/Pressure Environments

In this work, a wireless passive LC resonant sensor based on DuPont 951 ceramic is proposed and tested in a developed high-temperature/pressure complex environment. The test results show that the measured resonant frequency varies approximately linearly with the applied pressure; simultaneously, high temperature causes pressure signal drift and changes the response sensitivity. Through the theoretical analysis of the sensor structure model, it is found that the increase in the dielectric constant and the decrease in the Young’s modulus of DuPont 951 ceramic are the main causes that affect the pressure signal in high-temperature measurement. Through calculations, the Young’s modulus of DuPont 951 ceramic is found to decrease rapidly from 120 GPa to 65 GPa within 400 °C. Therefore, the LC resonant pressure sensor needs a temperature compensation structure to eliminate the impact of temperature on pressure measurement. Finally, a temperature compensation structure is proposed and fabricated, and the pressure response after temperature compensation illustrates that temperature drift is significantly reduced compared with that without the temperature compensation structure, which verifies the feasibility the proposed temperature compensation structure

Comparison of Accelerated and Standard Hepatitis B Vaccination Schedules in High-Risk Healthy Adults: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Selecting the most efficient vaccination schedule is an important issue.To assess the beneficial and harmful effects of accelerated hepatitis B vaccination schedules in high-risk healthy adults.We searched controlled trial registers of The Cochrane Library as well as MEDLINE, EMBASE, VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals, and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases for randomized controlled trials published up to December 2013 that compared accelerated hepatitis B vaccine schedules to the standard schedule in adults. The results were presented as relative risk with 95% confidence intervals. Fixed or random effect models were used for analysis.We identified 10 randomized trials, all with one or more methodological weaknesses. Compared to the standard schedule, most accelerated schedules resulted in higher proportions of healthy vaccines more rapidly reaching anti-hepatitis B antibody levels >10 IU/L (P<0.05) initially and maintaining similar seroprotection rates after 6 months (P>0.05). Although accelerated schedules produced anti-hepatitis B levels higher than the standard schedule for the first month after the initial vaccine dose, they were significantly lower than the standard schedule after 6 months, except for an accelerated schedule that called for a fourth booster injection 12 months after the initial dose. Subjects administered accelerated vaccine schedules had similar compliance rate as those administered the standard schedule over the first 6 months of vaccination (relative risk = 1.00, 95% confidence interval: 0.84-1.21).For rapid seroconversion and almost immediate short-term protection, accelerated vaccination schedules could be useful for at-risk groups. However, additional studies on the long-term protection and effectiveness of the primary doses of accelerated schedules are necessary

Mechanical Properties, Melting and Crystallization Behaviors, and Morphology of Carbon Nanotubes/Continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polyethylene Terephthalate Composites

Carbon nanotube/continuous carbon fiber reinforced poly(ethylene terephthalate) (CNT/CCF/PET) composites are prepared by melt impregnating. The effects of CF and CNT content on the mechanical properties, melt and crystallization behaviors, and submicroscopic morphology of CNT/CCF/PET composites are studied. The tensile test results show that the increase of CF and the addition of appropriate amount of CNT improved the tensile strength and tensile modulus of the composites. When the content of CNT is 1.0 wt% and the content of CF is 56 wt%, the properties of the composites are the best, with tensile strength of 1728.7 MPa and tensile modulus of 25.1 GPa, which is much higher than that of traditional resin matrix composites. The results of dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) show that the storage modulus of the composites increased with the increase of CF and CNT content. In particular, the addition of CNT greatly reduced the loss modulus of the composites. Morphological analysis show that the addition of CNT improved the fiber–matrix interface of the composite, which changes from fiber pull-out and fracture failure to fiber matrix fracture failure, and the fiber matrix interface is firmly bonded. In addition, there are polymer coated CNT protrusions on the surface of the fiber was observed. The results of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) show that the melting temperature and crystallization temperature of the composites increased with the increase of CF content. The addition of CNT had little effect on the melting temperature of the composites, but it further improved the crystallization temperature of the composites. The effect of CNT content on the crystallization kinetics of the composites is studied. The non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of the composites is described by Jeziorny’s improved Avrami equation. The results show that CNT has a great influence on the crystallization type of the composites. As a nucleating agent, CNT has obvious heterogeneous nucleation effect in the composites, which improves the crystallization rate of PET

Derivation and characterization of a UCP1 reporter human ES cell line

Interest in human brown fat as a novel therapeutic target to tackle the growing obesity and diabetes epidemic has increased dramatically in recent years. While much insight into brown fat biology has been gained from murine cell lines and models, few resources are available to study human brown fat in vitro, which makes the need for new ways to derive and study human brown adipocytes imperative. Human ES cell based reporter systems present an excellent tool to identify, mark, and purify cell populations of choice. In this study, we detail the derivation and characterization of a novel human ES UCP1 reporter cell line that marks UCP1 positive adipocytes in vitro. We targeted a mCherry reporter to the UCP1 stop codon via CRISPR-Cas9 based gene targeting. The brown adipocytes derived from reporter cells express UCP1, display high mitochondrial content, multi-locular lipid morphology, and exhibit functional properties such as lipolysis. The mCherry positive cells purified after cell sorting show elevated expression of brown fat marker genes and a high similarity to isolated human brown fat via RNA-seq analysis. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of this reporter to real time monitor UCP1 expression upon stimulation. This reporter cell line thus presents new opportunities to study human brown fat biology by enabling future work to understand early human brown fat development, perform disease modeling, and facilitate drug screening

Overview of studies according to vaccination schedule in different at-risk populations.

<p>T = accelerated schedule, C = standard schedule.</p><p>^aAll HBsAg, HBsAb, and HBcAb tests were negative. RV = recombinant vaccine; NR = not reported.</p><p>Overview of studies according to vaccination schedule in different at-risk populations.</p

Overview of hepatitis B vaccine uptake according to vaccination schedule in different at-risk populations.

<p>T = accelerated schedule, C = standard schedule.</p><p>^aafter 22 months</p><p>^bafter 36 months.</p><p>CI = confidence interval; NR = not reported.</p><p>Overview of hepatitis B vaccine uptake according to vaccination schedule in different at-risk populations.</p

Log₁₀ antibody titer changes for different vaccination schedules according to months after initial dose.

<p>Log₁₀ antibody titer changes for different vaccination schedules according to months after initial dose.</p