Suggestions to the article: medical professionalism research characteristics and hotspots

Scientometrics - The article published on 5 July 2021 is well-written and of interest. However, some improvements could be made, such as ten Tables/Figures can be shortened to highlight the focused...     

Photocatalytic degradation and heat reflectance recovery of waterborne acrylic polymer/ZnO nanocomposite coating

This work aims to clarify the photocatalytic degradation mechanism and heat reflectance recovery performance of waterborne acrylic polymer/ZnO nanocomposite coating. To fabricate the nanocomposite coating, ZnO nanoparticles (nano-ZnO) were dispersed into acrylic polymer matrix at the various concentrations from 1 to 6% (by total weight of resin solids). The photocatalytic degradation of nanocomposite coating under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation has been investigated by monitoring its weight loss and chemical/microstructural/morphological changes. As the topcoat layer, its heat reflectance recovery has been evaluated under UV/condensation exposure by using an artificial dirty mixture of 85 wt% nanoclay, 10 wt% silica particles (1–5 μm), 1 wt% carbon black, and 2 wt% engine oil. After 108-cycle UV/condensation exposure, infrared spectra and weight loss analysis indicated that the maximal degradation for nanocomposite coating is observed at 1 wt% nano-ZnO. On the other hand, after 96 hr of UV light exposure, the nanocomposite coating with1 wt% nano-ZnO could restore effectively the reflective index of solar-heat reflectance coating (from 58.45 to 80.78%). Finally, the photodegradation mechanism of this waterborne acrylic polymer coating has been proposed as the UV-induced formation of CC CO conjugated double bonds. As a result, its self-cleaning phenomenon can be achieved as the recovery of heat reflectance.     

Analysis and architecture design of variable block-size motion estimation for H.264/AVC

Variable block-size motion estimation (VBSME) has become an important video coding technique, but it increases the difficulty of hardware design. In this paper, we use inter-/intra-level classification and various data flows to analyze the impact of supporting VBSME in different hardware architectures. Furthermore, we propose two hardware architectures that can support traditional fixed block-size motion estimation as well as VBSME with less chip area overhead compared to previous approaches. By broadcasting reference pixel rows and propagating partial sums of absolute differences (SADs), the first design has the fewer reference pixel registers and a shorter critical path. The second design utilizes a two-dimensional distortion array and one adder tree with the reference buffer that can maximize the data reuse between successive searching candidates. The first design is suitable for low resolution or a small search range, and the second design has advantages of supporting a high degree of parallelism and VBSME. Finally, we propose an eight-parallel SAD tree with a shared reference buffer for H.264/AVC integer motion estimation (IME). Its processing ability is eight times of the single SAD tree, but the reference buffer size is only doubled. Moreover, the most critical issue of H.264 IME, which is huge memory bandwidth, is overcome. We are able to save 99.9% off-chip memory bandwidth and 99.22% on-chip memory bandwidth. We demonstrate a 720-p, 30-fps solution at 108 MHz with 330.2k gate count and 208k bits on-chip memory.     

Effects of a K+ATP channel opener, lemakalim, on systemic, coronary and regional vascular dynamics in conscious dogs: comparison with nifedipine, adenosine, nitroglycerin and acetylcholine

The systemic, coronary and regional vascular responses to the K+ATP channel opener lemakalim were compared to other potent vasodilators (i.e., nifedipine, adenosine, nitroglycerin and acetylcholine). Experiments were performed in 12 conscious dogs 2 to 4 weeks after implantation of aortic catheters and flow probes on the ascending aorta, left circumflex coronary, celiac, mesenteric, renal and iliac arteries, and solid-state miniature pressure gauges in the left ventricular cavity. Dose-response curves induced by bolus injection (i.v.) were examined. For doses that reduced total peripheral resistance by 22%, lemakalim reduced celiac (-28 +/- 2%), mesenteric (-24 +/- 3%), renal (-17 +/- 3%) and iliac (-18 +/- 3%) vascular resistances (i.e., by amounts similar to those observed with the other vasodilators, except for adenosine, which increased renal resistance). At these doses, lemakalim induced a greater decrease (-52 +/- 3%) (P < .05) in coronary resistance, as compared with nifedipine (-35 +/- 3%), adenosine (-38 +/- 3%), nitroglycerin (-25 +/- 2%) and acetylcholine (-32 +/- 3%). However, when near maximal vasodilation was elicited, adenosine elicited the greatest (P < .05) decrease in coronary resistance (-81 +/- 1%), as compared with lemakalim (-74 +/- 2%), nifedipine (-67 +/- 2%), nitroglycerin (-63 +/- 2%) and acetylcholine (-72 +/- 1%). Both the time to maximal increases in regional blood flow and the time for recovery in all vascular beds were significantly prolonged for lemakalim compared with the other vasodilators. Thus, the K+ATP channel opener lemakalim dilates the coronary bed out of proportion to other vascular beds, is relatively more potent at lower doses than other vasodilators and exhibits a delayed and more prolonged action in all regional vascular beds.     

Copy number differences in the 195 bp repeated satellite DNA from Trypanosoma cruzi and Trypanosoma rangeli: potential use for epidemiologic surveys

Detection of a nondistended pyriform sinus on cross-sectional imaging studies represents a diagnostic dilemma. The finding may be an inconstant physiologic phenomenon without clinical significance, or it may be due to tissue thickening and lack of pliability related to neoplasia or inflammation. Rescanning during respiratory maneuvers may clarify the anatomy, but full patient cooperation is needed. We demonstrate a method (turning the patient's head away from the side of the nondistended sinus) that induces distention of the pyriform sinus but does not require active patient participation.     

The band areas of proteins determined by fluorescent scanning in the commercial automated gel electrophoresis apparatus

An automated gel electrophoresis apparatus, recently available commercially, allows one to follow the band during electrophoresis in real time, and lends itself therefore to an evaluation of bandwidth as a function of migration time (the dispersion coefficient), resolution and band shape. These determinations assume the constancy of band area with migration time and at various gel concentrations. The purpose of the present study was to verify these assumptions. Representative proteins and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-proteins, either natively fluorescent or fluorescein carboxylate labeled, were found to exhibit band areas which approach constancy as a function of migration time in both agarose and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, provided that (i) the protein concentration under the band was low enough to obviate self-quenching of fluorescence; (ii) the separation of the protein of interest from contaminants had progressed sufficiently during the time at which band areas were measured; (iii) the baseline under the peak was sufficiently well defined. However, band areas decrease with increasing gel concentration. Protein peaks exhibited leading and trailing tails. The ratio of the combined tail area to total area appeared to be near-constant at varying migration times. However, that ratio increases with increasing gel concentration. The tail area does not appear to be an artifact of fluorometric detection since it is reproduced upon fluorimetric analysis of the protein eluted from gel slices after electrophoresis. However, it may be due to photochemical destruction under the conditions of repetitive fluorometric peak detection.