Oral Cyclosporine Treatment for Four Pediatric Patients With Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis That Showed No Response to High-dose Corticosteroids in Combination With Intravenous Immunoglobulin: A Case Series.

Background: Immunosuppressive agents like cyclosporine have proven effective in some pediatric cases, although there are limited case reports considering potential risks such as secondary infections.

Objective: This study investigated the safety and efficacy of Cyclosporine A in children who did not respond to high-dose corticosteroids combined with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG).

Methods: We reported four pediatric patients diagnosed with toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) received treatment at our institution.

Surface reconstruction of wide-bandgap perovskites enables efficient perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells.

Wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells (WBG-PSCs) are critical for developing perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. The defect-rich surface of WBG-PSCs will lead to severe interfacial carrier loss and phase segregation, deteriorating the device's performance. Herein, we develop a surface reconstruction method by removing the defect-rich crystal surface by nano-polishing and then passivating the newly exposed high-crystallinity surface.

Suppressing Halide Segregation via Pyridine-Derivative Isomers Enables Efficient 1.68 eV Bandgap Perovskite Solar Cells.

Light-induced phase segregation is one of the main issues restricting the efficiency and stability of wide-bandgap perovskite solar cells (WBG PSCs). Small organic molecules with abundant functional groups can passivate various defects, and therefore suppress the ionic migration channels for phase segregation. Herein, a series of pyridine-derivative isomers containing amino and carboxyl are applied to modify the perovskite surface.

Efficient Semi-Transparent Wide-Bandgap Perovskite Solar Cells Enabled by Pure-Chloride 2D-Perovskite Passivation.

Wide-bandgap (WBG) perovskite solar cells suffer from severe non-radiative recombination and exhibit relatively large open-circuit voltage (V) deficits, limiting their photovoltaic performance. Here, we address these issues by in-situ forming a well-defined 2D perovskite (PMA)PbCl (phenmethylammonium is referred to as PMA) passivation layer on top of the WBG active layer. The 2D layer with highly pure dimensionality and halide components is realized by intentionally tailoring the side-chain substituent at the aryl ring of the post-treatment reagent.

Automated screening of COVID-19 using two-dimensional variational mode decomposition and locally linear embedding.

In order to aid imaging physicians to effectively screen chest radiography medical images for presence of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel computer aided diagnosis technology for automatic processing of COVID-19 images is proposed based on two-dimensional variational mode decomposition (2D-VMD) and locally linear embedding (LLE). 2D-VMD algorithm is used to decompose normal and COVID-19 images, and then feature extraction of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) using Gabor filter. To better extract low-dimensional parameters which are useful for COVID-19 diagnosis, the performance of two dimensionality reduction techniques of principal component analysis (PCA) and LLE are compared, and the LLE is shown to offer satisfactory effect of dimension reduction.

Comparison of Vibration-Assisted Scratch Characteristics of SiC Polytypes (3C-, 4H- and 6H-SiC).

Single-crystal silicon carbide (SiC) is widely used because of its excellent properties. However, SiC is a typical hard and brittle material, and there are many challenges in realizing its high efficiency and high-precision machining. Grinding is the main method used to achieve the high-efficiency processing of SiC, but the contradiction between processing quality and processing efficiency is prominent.

Ablation characteristics and material removal mechanisms of a single-crystal diamond processed by nanosecond or picosecond lasers.

The microstructures on a diamond surface have attracted extensive attention in microelectronics, ultra-precision machining tools, and optical elements, etc. In this work, microgrooves were fabricated on a single-crystal diamond surface using ultraviolet nanosecond or infrared picosecond laser pulses. The surface and internal morphologies of the microgrooves were characterized.

Focused Ion Beam Milling of Single-Crystal Sapphire with A-, C-, and M-Orientations.

Sapphire substrates with different crystal orientations are widely used in optoelectronic applications. In this work, focused ion beam (FIB) milling of single-crystal sapphire with A-, C-, and M-orientations was performed. The material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (Sa) of sapphire with the three crystal orientations after FIB etching were derived.

Piezo1 activates the NLRP3 inflammasome in nucleus pulposus cell-mediated by Ca/NF-κB pathway.

Studying and understanding the mechanism of inflammation in nucleus pulposus is the key to understand and prevent intervertebral disc degeneration. We propose a model of mechanical sensitive ion channel Piezo1 mediated inflammation of nucleus pulposus cells. Piezo1 can up-regulate the level of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) in nucleus pulposus cells once it is activated.

Model-free determination of the birefringence and dichroism in c-cut crystals from transmission ellipsometry measurements.

In this work, we derive closed-form expressions for determination of the linear birefringence and linear dichroism of uniaxial crystals utilizing transmission ellipsometry measurements at small angles of incidence in $ c $c-cut crystal substrates. The model-free method we use is an algebraic generalization of the method reported in Appl. Opt.

Proactive crash risk prediction modeling for merging assistance system at interchange merging areas.

Ramp drivers have to merge into the through traffic in a limited time and space at interchange merging areas. Different merging decisions are made due to drivers' various perception abilities of potential danger, which might significantly increase the crash risk. Driving assistance technology (DA) is expected to be an effective way of mitigating the crash risk.

Model Establishment of a Co-Based Metal Matrix with Additives of WC and Ni by Discrete Element Method.

A metal matrix is an indispensable component of metal-bonded diamond tools. The composition design of a metal matrix involves a number of experiments, making costly in terms of time, labor, and expense. The discrete element method (DEM) is a potential way to relieve these costs.

Percent Reduction in Transverse Rupture Strength of Metal Matrix Diamond Segments Analysed via Discrete-Element Simulations.

The percent TRS reduction, D, which is the percent reduction of the transverse rupture strength of metal matrix diamond segments with or without diamonds, is a key metric for evaluating the bonding condition of diamonds in a matrix. In this work, we build, calibrate, and verify a discrete-element simulation of a metal matrix diamond segment to obtain D for diamond segments with various diamond-grain sizes, concentrations, and distributions. The results indicate that D increases with increasing diamond-grain concentration and decreases with increasing diamond-grain size.

FEM Modeling of the Relationship between the High-Temperature Hardness and High-Temperature, Quasi-Static Compression Experiment.

The high-temperature hardness test has a wide range of applications, but lacks test standards. The purpose of this study is to develop a finite element method (FEM) model of the relationship between the high-temperature hardness and high-temperature, quasi-static compression experiment, which is a mature test technology with test standards. A high-temperature, quasi-static compression test and a high-temperature hardness test were carried out.

The Synthesis of the Core/Shell Structured Diamond/Akageneite Hybrid Particles with Enhanced Polishing Performance.

In this study, the synthesis of the core/shell structured diamond/akageneite hybrid particles was performed through one-step isothermal hydrolyzing. The hybrid particle was characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectra. The test results overall reveal that the akageneite coating, phase β-FeO(OH), was uniformly coated onto the diamond surface.

Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring to protect the facial nerve during microsurgery for large vestibular schwannomas.

Objective: Microsurgery is the preferred treatment for large vestibular schwannomas (VSs). However, anatomical and functional preservation of the facial nerve (FN) remains a challenge during this surgery. The aim of this study was to determine whether it is beneficial to the preservation rates of the FN during microsurgical treatment of large VSs using intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM).

Preparation and Characterization of Zirconia-Coated Nanodiamonds as a Pt Catalyst Support for Methanol Electro-Oxidation.

Zirconia-coated nanodiamond (ZrO₂/ND) electrode material was successfully prepared by one-step isothermal hydrolyzing from ND-dispersed ZrOCl₂·8H₂O aqueous solution. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy reveals that a highly conformal and uniform ZrO₂ shell was deposited on NDs by this simple method. The coating obtained at 90 °C without further calcination was mainly composed of monoclinic nanocrystalline ZrO₂ rather than common amorphous Zr(OH)₄ clusters.

Inhibiting the oxidation of diamond during preparing the vitrified dental grinding tools by depositing a ZnO coating using direct urea precipitation method.

Oxidation of diamond during the manufacturing of vitrified dental grinding tools would reduce the strength and sharpness of tools. Zinc oxide (ZnO) coating was deposited on diamond particles by urea precipitation method to protect diamond in borosilicate glass. The FESEM results showed that the ZnO coating was formed by plate-shaped particles.