Storgaardpacheco1401

PURPOSE To compare the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and diabetic macular edema (DME), as well as their risk factors in patients with early onset diabetes (EOD, ≤40 years) and late onset diabetes (LOD, >40 years). METHODS Patients were recruited from a community-based study, Fushun Diabetic Retinopathy Cohort Study (FS-DIRECT), conducted between July 2012 and May 2013 in China. The presence and severity of the DR and DME were determined by a modified Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) retinopathy scale of six-field fundus photographs. RESULTS A total of 1932 patients (796 male, 41.2%) with gradable fundus photography were included. The prevalence of any DR and DME was 67.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] 60.3-73.7%) and 39.3% (95% CI 32.1-46.5%) in the EOD patients respectively, which were both significantly higher than that in the LOD patients (DR 41.9%, 39.6-44.2%, p less then 0.001; DME 14.4%, 12.7-16.1%, p less then 0.001). Insulin use was associated with both presence of DR and DME in both EOD and LOD patients. Besides insulin use, high level of income (odds ratio [OR], 95% CI 0.05, 0.01-0.51) was negatively associated with DR, and higher high density lipoprotein (OR, 95% CI 4.14, 1.44-11.91) was associated with DME, among EOD patients. selleck kinase inhibitor CONCLUSION In this sample of patients with type 2 diabetes, both the prevalence of DR and DME were apparently higher in patients who developed diabetes ≤40 years of age than those who developed it later. © 2020 S. Karger AG, Basel.BACKGROUND The availability of direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) in clinical practice has transformed the health care provided to patients for the prevention and treatment of thromboembolism. Safety and efficacy data guide clinicians in the choice of the drug used. To date, no evidence is available from head-to-head trials comparing different DOAC with regard to safety and efficacy; information is mainly derived from several meta-analyses and real-life studies. Conclusions from these studies are inconsistent and unsatisfactory. The evaluation of self-reported adverse drug reactions (ADR) available from databases of drug-regulatory agencies such as the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) pharmacovigilance database represents a novel aid to guide decision-making. OBJECTIVE To analyze potential suspected ADR of DOAC using a previously described risk index (RI) in daily clinical practice in Italy. METHODS The National Pharmacovigilance Network database (from the AIFA website) was searched in order to retrieve information on all ADR related to oral anticoagulants occurring from 2013 to 2018. The ADR RI for each drug was calculated, where an RI = 1 indicates a balance between the percentage of ADR share and the percentage of market share for each DOAC; and an RI less then 1 indicates a rate of ADR lower than the rate of market share (safer DOAC). The following DOAC molecules were considered dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban, and edoxaban. RESULTS The results showed that rivaroxaban is the DOAC with the lowest RI among the 4 molecules available today in Italy. CONCLUSIONS Based on the RI, we identified rivaroxaban as the DOAC having the best safety profile. © 2020 S. Karger AG, Basel.Materials science is nowadays facing challenges in optimizing properties of materials which are needed for numerous technological applications and include, but are not limited to, mechanics, electronics, optics, etc. The key issue is that for emerging applications materials are needed which incorporate certain properties from polymers or biopolymers and metals or ceramics at the same time, thus fabrication of functional hybrid materials becomes inevitable. Routes for the synthesis of functional hybrid materials can be manifold. Among the explored routes vapor phase processing is a rather novel approach which opts for compatibility with many existing industrial processes. This topical review summarizes the most important approaches and achievements in the synthesis of functional hybrid materials through vapor phase routes with the goal to fabricate suitable hybrid materials for future mechanical, electronic, optical or biomedical applications. Most of the approaches rely on atomic layer deposition (ALD) and techniques related to this process, including molecular layer deposition (MLD) and vapor phase infiltration (VPI), or variations of chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The thus fabricated hybrid materials or nanocomposites often show exceptional physical or chemical properties, which result from synergies of the hybridized materials families. Even though the research in this field is still in its infancy, the initial results encourage further development and promise great application potential in a large variety of applications fields such as flexible electronics, energy conversion or storage, functional textile, and many more. Creative Commons Attribution license.The low-temperature electrical transport properties of the rare-earth (RE) Ce, Dy, Sm element doped Fe2VAl Heusler alloys have been investigated. A significant enhancement in the Seebeck coefficient S (peak values of about -125 to -160 µV/K) is observed as compared to the pure Fe2VAl (peak value of about 40 µV/K). It is observed that the thermal conductivity reduced by 50% in RE-doped samples. The single parabolic band model (SPB) has been used to analyze the experimental data and to understand the role of fundamental parameters like the Lorenz number. The lattice contribution to the total thermal conductivity was analyzed through the Callaway model, which in turn provided the insight into the phonon scattering in these alloys. Finally, we demonstrate a significant improvement in power factor and figure of merit at all temperatures for the RE-doped Fe2VAl alloys. © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd.An out. © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd.Polar phonon modes associated with room temperature ferroelectricity are observed in SrTiO3 single crystals irradiated with Ti ions. Quantitative strain analysis reveals that irradiation-induced out-of-plane strain drives the centrosymmetric cubic SrTiO3 to a tetragonal-like structure in the maximum damaged region. Energy transfer from ions to electrons during ion irradiation yields defects in SrTiO3 that also plays an important role for the room temperature ferroelectricity. Different from thin film techniques, the ferroelectricity in the ion irradiated SrTiO3 can occur for much larger thicknesses, depending on the energy and type of ion. © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd.Colorimetric sensing methods based on non-spherically symmetric gold nanoparticles have become a powerful tool in the field of biomedical detection because of the intriguing plasmonic properties. In this study, gold nanobipyramids (Au NBPs) were used as colorimetric sensing probes to detect ferrous ions (Fe2+) through tip etching. As Au NBPs were quickly etched along the longitudinal direction by superoxide radicals generated by the reaction of Fe2+ and H2O2, it leaded local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) to blue shift and produced vivid color change that could be used for visual inspection. Under the optimal reaction conditions, the peak shift of Au NBPs and the logarithm of the concentrations of Fe2+ had linear relationship in range of 10 nM to 10 μM with a very low detection limit of 1.29 nM. During the etching process, different end shape of gold nanoparticles results in different process of the morphology transition, which makes the degree of spectral change and detection sensitivity significantly different. So, in the presence of trace amounts of Fe2+ ( less then 1000 nM), the detection sensitivity of Au NBPs with sharp ends which rely on aspect ratio and truncation is 9 times higher than that of gold nanorods with round ends which only rely on aspect ratio. Although the color change of larger-sized Au NBPs was not clear during detection, the LSPR peak shift was more severe. Therefore, the system provides different modes for detecting Fe2+ according to Au NBPs which has different sizes and characteristics. © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd.The attainable lateral resolution of electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) in ambient air environment on dielectric materials was characterized on a reference sample comprised of two distinct, immiscible glassy polymers cut in the cross-section by ultramicrotomy. Such sample can be modeled as two semi-infinite dielectrics with a sharp interface, presenting a quasi-ideal, sharp dielectric contrast. Electric polarizability line profiles across the interface were obtained, in both lift-mode and feedback-regulated dynamic mode EFM, as a function of probe/surface separation, for different cases of oscillation amplitudes. We find that the results do not match predictions for dielectric samples, but comply well or are even better than predicted for conductive interfaces. A resolution down to 3 nm can be obtained by operating in feedback-regulated EFM realized by adopting constant-excitation frequency-modulation mode. This suggests resolution to be ruled by the closest approach distance rather than by average separation, even with probe oscillation amplitudes as high as 10 nm. For better comparison with theoretical predictions, effective probe radii and cone aperture angles were derived from approach curves, by also taking into account the finite oscillation amplitude of the probe, by exploiting a data reduction procedure previously devised for the derivation of interatomic potentials. © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd.Half-Heusler alloys possess unique and desirable physical properties due to their thermoelectricity, magnetism, superconductivity, and weak antilocalization effects. These properties have become of particular interest since the recent discovery of topological Weyl semimetal state for which the electronic bands are dispersed linearly around one pair of Weyl nodes, with opposite chirality (i.e., chiral anomaly). Here, we report the transport signatures of topological electronic state in a half-Heusler GdPtBi single crystal. We show that the non-trivial  Berry phase, negative magnetoresistance and giant planner Hall effect arise from the chiral anomaly and that the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillation frequency in GdPtBi is angle-dependent with an anisotropic Fermi surface (FS). All transport signatures not only demonstrate the topological electronic state in half-Heusler GdPtBi crystals, but also describe the shape of the anisotropy FS. Creative Commons Attribution license.Universal conductance fluctuations are usually observed in the form of aperiodic oscillations in the magnetoresistance of thin wires as a function of the magnetic field B. If such oscillations are completely random at scales exceeding xi_B, their Fourier analysis should reveal a white noise spectrum at frequencies below xi_B^-1. Comparison with the results for 1D systems suggests another scenario according to it, such oscillations are due to the superposition of incommensurate harmonics and their spectrum should contain discrete frequencies. An accurate Fourier analysis of the classical experiment by Washburn and Webb reveals a purely discrete spectrum in agreement with the latter scenario. However, this spectrum is close in shape to the discrete white noise spectrum whose properties are similar to a continuous one. © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd.