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In this paper, nanosized ZnFe 2 O 4 with different morphologies were prepared by electrospinning method. The choice of initial parameters, such as PVP concentration, metal salt concentration, electrostatic voltage, calcination temperature and calcination rate, were investigated to prepare desired morphologies. The as-prepared samples exhibited various shapes of nano-particle, nano-rods, nano-beads and nano-fiber. The relationship between microstructure and electromagnetic properties was discussed in detail. It has been found that the saturation magnetization of ZnFe 2 O 4 ferrite not changed significantly with the various morphologies and the values were nearly 13 emu/g. However, the coercivity was varied with the different morphologies, and the maximum value of 48.79 Oe was observed in the ZnFe 2 O 4 nano-fiber. Moreover, the magnetic loss capacity of ZnFe 2 O 4 was improved with the enhancement of the morphology anisotropy. The various shaped ZnFe 2 O 4 can be promising lightweight microwave absorbers and it is significant to develop novel microwave absorption mechanism of ZnFe 2 O 4 ferrite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, an Al powder was coated with antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO) to obtain an infrared-laser compatible stealth material. The composites are prepared via a coprecipitation method, characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), and measured by ultraviolet spectrophotometer and dual band infrared emissometer. The morphology and microstructure show that the flaky Al powder was coated by the ATO nanoparticles and doped into the SnO 2 rutile structure by an Sb5+ ion. The optimal Al content was 20%, and the optimized Sn/Sb molar ratio was 10: 1. Meanwhile, the reflectivity of the composites was 43.454%, and the infrared emissivity in 8–14 μm far infrared waveband range was 0.708. It may shed light on a new material design orientation to obtain high performance laser-infrared compatible stealth materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Researchers have developed several equations to predict glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in patients with chronic kidney diseases (CKD). However, there are scarcely any studies performed to discern the best equation to estimate GFR in patients with pure obstructive nephropathy. In present study, we assessed the suitability of six prediction equations and compared their performance in eGFR evaluation for Chinese patients with obstructive nephropathy., Methods: A total of 245 adult patients with obstructive nephropathy were enrolled. We evaluated the performance of the 3 Modification of Diet in Renal Disease equations (MDRD) (the original MDRD7, 7MDRD; the abbreviated MDRD, aMDRD; and re-expressed abbreviated MDRD, re-aMDRD) and 3 Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equations (CKD-EPI) (CKD-EPI equation based on creatinine alone, CKD-EPIcr; CKD-EPI equation based on cystatin C alone, CKD-EPIcys; CKD-EPI equation based on combined creatinine-cystatin, CKD-EPIcr-cys). The measured GFR (mGFR) by 99 mTc-DTPA renal dynamic imaging method was used as the reference GFR., Results: The mean age of the study population was 51.61 ± 14.17 and 131 were male (53.47 %). The mean measured GFR was 66.54 ± 23.99 ml/min/1.73 m 2 . Overall, the CKD-EPIcr-cys equation gave the best performance with the best correlation (R = 0.72) and agreement (-34.87, 40.83). CKD-EPIcr-cys equation also exhibited the highest accuracy (69.39 %, P < 0.01) and diagnostic efficacy (ROC AUC  = 0.874) with the smallest bias (2.98, P < 0.01). In the subgroup of the lowest GFR, CKD-EPIcys equation exhibited the highest accuracy (52.69 %) and the smallest bias (0.27). In the youngest age subgroup, CKD-EPIcys equation had the highest accuracy (71.64 %) and the smallest bias (-1.24). In other subgroups stratified by GFR, age and gender, CKD-EPIcr-cys equation remained the best performance., Conclusion: The 3 CKD-EPI equations performed better than the 3 MDRD equations in estimating GFR in Chinese obstructive nephropathy patients; while the CKD-EPI equation based on combined creatinine-cystatin C provided the best estimation of GFR.

Glypican-3 (GPC3) is a key member of the glypican family that is expressed on the cell surface by a glycosyl-phosphatidyl-inositol (GPI) anchor. It plays a significant role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development, angiogenesis, and metastasis. Most HCC overexpress GPC3, whereas little GPC3 can be detected in normal adult liver and benign liver lesions. Therefore, it is important to understand the function of GPC3 in HCC tumor development as the GPC3 ligand may facilitate detection of HCC. In this study, a 12-mer peptide with the sequence of DHLASLWWGTEL (denoted as TJ12P1) was identified by screening a phage display peptide library that demonstrated ideal GPC3 binding affinity. We used TJ12P1 conjugated with near-infrared fluorescent (NIFR) dye Cy5.5 for tumor imaging. After intravenous injection of the imaging agent, TJ12P1, xenografts of high GPC3 expressing hepatocellular carcinoma cell line, HepG2, demonstrated significantly higher tumor accumulation (tumor/muscle ratio: 3.98 ± 0.36) than those of low GPC3 expressing prostate cancer cell line, PC3 (tumor/muscle ratio: 2.03 ± 0.23). More importantly, GPC3 expression in tumor samples of patients could be visualized using TJ12P1, suggesting the potential use of this peptide as a probe for HCC detection. Our study has successfully identified a promising GPC3-binding peptide ligand for detecting the GPC3 expression in HCC not only in vitro but also in vivo by its noninvasive imaging.