Sodium and ultrafiltration profiling in hemodialysis: A long-forgotten issue revisited

Sodium and ultrafiltration profiling are method of dialysis in which dialysate sodium concentration and ultrafiltration rate are altered during the course of the dialysis session. Sodium and ultrafiltration profiling have been used, commonly simultaneously, to improve hemodynamic stability during hemodialysis. Sodium profiling is particularly effective in decreasing the incidence of intradialytic hypotension, while ultrafiltration profiling is suggested to decrease subclinical repeated end organ ischemia during dialysis. However, complications such as increased interdialytic weight gain and thirst due to sodium excess have prevented widespread use of sodium profiling. Evidence suggest that different sodium profiling techniques may lead to different clinical results, and preferring sodium balance neutral sodium profiling may mitigate adverse effects related to sodium overload. However, evidence is lacking on the long-term clinical outcomes of different sodium profiling methods. Optimal method of sodium profiling as well as the utility of sodium/ultrafiltration profiling in routine practice await further clinical investigation.     

Biodegradable Microparticles for Simultaneous Detection of Counterfeit and Deteriorated Edible Products

In an era of globalized trade relations where food and pharmaceutical products cross borders effortlessly, consumers face counterfeit and deteriorated products at elevated rates. This paper presents multifunctional, biodegradable hydrogel microparticles that can provide information on the authenticity and the potential deterioration of the tagged food or pharmaceutical formulations. These microparticles integrate spatially patterned authenticity code with two sensors—the first one detects possible presence of pathogenic microbes through monitoring pH while the second one identifies products stored above optimal temperatures via optical monitoring of the microparticle degradation. Particles are synthesized from a biocompatible polymer and a photoinitiator, dextran modified with 2‐hydroxyethylmethacrylate and riboflavin, respectively, using a continuous, high throughput method stop‐flow lithography. The proposed synthesis approach also enables crosslinking with visible light bringing about additional flexibility to flow lithography. Model liquid and solid food and pharmaceutical products are successfully labeled with microparticles and the functionality of the sensors in aqueous solutions is demonstrated.     

Synthesis and characterization of polyaniline/activated carbon composites and preparation of conductive films

Polyaniline was synthesized via polyaniline/activated carbon (PANI/AC) composites by in situ polymerization and ex situ solution mixing. PANI and PANI/AC composite films were prepared by drop-by-drop and spin coating methods. The electrical conductivities of HCl doped PANI film and PANI/AC composite films were measured according to the standard four-point-probe technique. The composite films exhibited an increase in electrical conductivity over neat PANI. PANI and PANI/AC composites were investigated by spectroscopic methods including UV–vis, FTIR and photoluminescence. UV–vis and FTIR studies showed that AC particles affect the quinoid units along the polymer backbone and indicate strong interactions between AC particles and quinoidal sites of PANI. The photoluminescence properties of PANI and PANI/AC composites were studied and the photoluminescence intensity of PANI/AC composites was higher than that of neat PANI. The increase of conductivity of PANI/AC composites may be partially due to the doping or impurity effect of AC, where the AC competes with chloride ions. The amount of weight loss and the thermostability of PANI and PANI/AC composites were determined from thermogravimetric analysis. The morphology of particles and films were examined by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). SEM measurements indicated that the AC particles were well dispersed and isolated in composite films.     

Phase Identification of La-Doped Hard Magnetic Barium Ferrite Using Artificial Neural Network

A model based on an artificial neural network (ANN) was designed for the simulation and estimation of 2 theta and intensity values obtained by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) of pure and La-doped barium ferrite powders which have been synthesized in ammonium nitrate melt. Its performance is evaluated by the influences of different La content, sintering temperature, Fe/Ba ratio, and washed in HCl (or not washed in HCl) samples. The XRD patterns of samples estimated by the ANN agree well with the experimental values, indicating that the model is reliable and adequate.     

Swage casting of A380 alloy

Swage casting is a new casting technique which combines the advantages of squeeze, centrifugal and semi-solid casting methods. In this new casting method, components with one rotating axis can be produced on a swage casting machine from molten metal in a one-step operation. A shape like a “bomb-body” is chosen to demonstrate the advantages of this new method by using A380 Al–Si–Cu alloy. The same alloy is also cast with centrifugal and squeeze casting methods. In this study, the swage casting method and its features are briefly described. The final microstructures, mechanical properties and amount of porosity of the cast pieces produced by squeeze, centrifugal and swage casting methods are compared. Swage cast pieces showed a different composition of microstructure that consists of fine dendritic particles at the chill ends and a mixture of spherical and rosette shaped particles at the core. The swage cast pieces also have a slightly higher mechanical strength as indicated by tensile strength and Brinell hardness values.     

In silico discovery of significant pathways in colorectal cancer metastasis using a two‐stage optimisation approach

Accurate and reliable modelling of protein–protein interaction networks for complex diseases such as colorectal cancer can help better understand mechanism of diseases and potentially discover new drugs. Different machine learning methods such as empirical mode decomposition combined with least square support vector machine, and discrete Fourier transform have been widely utilised as a classifier and for automatic discovery of biomarkers for the diagnosis of the disease. The existing methods are, however, less efficient as they tend to ignore interaction with the classifier. In this study, the authors propose a two‐stage optimisation approach to effectively select biomarkers and discover interactions among them. At the first stage, particle swarm optimisation (PSO) and differential evolution (DE) are used to optimise parameters of support vector machine recursive feature elimination algorithm, and dynamic Bayesian network is then used to predict temporal relationship between biomarkers across two time points. Results show that 18 and 25 biomarkers selected by PSO and DE‐based approach, respectively, yields the same accuracy of 97.3% and F1‐score of 97.7 and 97.6%, respectively. The stratified analysis reveals that Alpha‐2‐HS‐glycoprotein was a dominant hub gene with multiple interactions to other genes including Fibrinogen alpha chain, which is also a potential biomarker for colorectal cancer.Inspec keywords: cancer, proteins, particle swarm optimisation, evolutionary computation, support vector machines, recursive functions, Bayes methods, genetics, molecular biophysics, medical computingOther keywords: colorectal cancer metastasis, two‐stage optimisation approach, protein–protein interaction networks, biomarkers, particle swarm optimisation, differential evolution, support vector machine recursive feature elimination, dynamic Bayesian network, stratified analysis, Alpha‐2‐HS‐glycoprotein, hub gene, Fibrinogen alpha chain     

Wear behavior of as-deposited and oxidized ternary (Zr,Hf)N coatings

In the present study, the tribological performance of ternary (Zr,Hf)N coatings, whose Hf content was varied between 0 and 21 wt pct, has been systematically examined in the as-deposited and oxidized conditions. Coatings were applied on AISI D2 tool steel plates by arc physical vapor deposition (PVD). Oxidation was conducted at 400 °C for times up to 12 hours in air. Wear tests revealed pronounced improvement in the wear resistance with increasing Hf content in the as-deposited coatings. Oxidation for 12 hours yielded more than a fourfold increase in wear resistance. The beneficial effect of Hf on wear resistance decreased upon oxidation.     

Thermomechanical fatigue,oxidation, and Creep: Part II. Life prediction

A life prediction model is developed for crack nucleation and early crack growth based on fatigue, environment (oxidation), and creep damage. The model handles different strain-temperature phasings(i.e., in-phase and out-of-phase thermomechanical fatigue, isothermal fatigue, and others, including nonproportional phasings). Fatigue life predictions compare favorably with experiments in 1070 steel for a wide range of test conditions and strain-temperature phasings. An oxide growth (oxide damage) model is based on the repeated microrupture process of oxide observed from microscopic measurements. A creep damage expression, which is stress-based, is coupled with a unified constitutive equation. A set of interrupted tests was performed to provide valuable damage progression information. Tests were performed in air and in helium atmospheres to isolate creep damage from oxidation damage.     

Prevalence of idiopathic long QT syndrome in children with congenital deafness

The aim of this study was to investigate retrospectively the efficacy of expandable metallic stents (EMSs) for severe respiratory distress in patients with central airway obstruction. Twenty patients with central airway obstructions were treated with an EMS. An intraluminal stricture was present in 15 and an extraluminal stricture in 5 patients. Of the 15 patients with intraluminal stenosis, 11 exhibited symptomatic improvement. All 11 patients had tumor infiltration occupying less than 50% of the endoluminal diameter. The other four patients with intraluminal stenosis had tumor infiltration occupying > 50% of the endoluminal diameter and demonstrated no improvement. All five patients with extraluminal stenosis were improved. EMS is useful for an extraluminal stricture in the central airway and the effect of EMS for intraluminal stenosis is related to the degree of infiltration and of tumor progression itself.