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Bismuth + proton pump inhibitor (PPI) + amoxicillin + levofloxacin is one of the bismuth quadruple therapy regimens widely used for the eradication of H. pylori infection. The recommended dosage of levofloxacin is 500 mg once daily or 200 mg twice daily to eradicate H. pylori infection. The aim of the present open-label, randomized control trial was to compare the effectiveness, safety, and compliance of different dosages of levofloxacin used to cure Helicobacter pylori infection. Eligible patients were randomly assigned to receive esomeprazole, amoxicillin, colloidal bismuth pectin and levofloxacin 500 mg once/day (group A) or levofloxacin 200 mg twice/day (group B) for 14 days. The primary outcome was the eradication rates in the intention-to-treat (ITT) and per protocol (PP) analyses. Overall, 400 patients were enrolled. The eradication rates in group A and group B were 77.5% and 79.5% respectively, in the ITT analysis, and 82.9% and 86.4%, respectively, in the PP analysis. No significant differences were found between two groups in terms of eradication rate, adverse effects or compliance. Oral levofloxacin 200 mg twice daily was similar in efficacy for eradicating H. pylori infection to oral levofloxacin 500 mg once daily but with lower mean total costs.

A new concept-based lithography with use of spatially controlled oxygen inhibition of photopolymerization in acrylate-based materials as a micropatterning technique and its application in high-performance top- and bottom-gated organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) on flexible substrates are demonstrated. This process does not rely on any surface/interfacial chemistry or adhesives and thus can be used in the patterning of a broad range of materials for printed organic electronics. It is also capable of achieving high resolution (3 μm), which is sufficient in OTFT-based organic electronics applications. The bottom-gated pentacene transistors show a remarkably high mobility of 1.02 cm2 V−1 S−1, which is among the highest mobilities in flexible transistors fabricated by low-cost patterning processes.

A dramatic, ∼20-fold, reduction in the contact resistance of the bottom-contact poly(3,3‴-didodecylquaterthiophene) (PQT-12) thin-film transistors was achieved through a simple treatment of gold (Au) source and drain electrodes. The Au electrode treatment involved simply immersing the Au electrodes into Piranha solution prior to the deposition of the organic semiconductor. This treatment led to significant improvement of device performance. Channel length scaling analysis indicates that the contact resistance is reduced by about one order of magnitude, resulting in enhancement of estimated field-effect mobility by about a factor of five. Transport characteristic analysis suggests that the improved efficiency of charge carrier injection is probably due to increased dopant density of PQT-12 at the electrode/PQT-12 interface.

Self-supported Bi2S3 nanowire arrays with sizes up to several millimeters were prepared by a facile hydrothermal method. In our work, the oriented nanowire arrays were supported on a self-generated nanowire networked substrate. The as-prepared Bi2S3 nanowire exhibited nonlinear current−voltage (I−V) characteristics and excellent photoresponse. It is suggested that the rectifying behavior comes from the Schottky contact between the Bi2S3 nanowire and the Au electrodes. As the light source was switched on and off, the nanowire could be reversibly switched between low and high conductivity, indicating its potential applications in optoelectronic nanodevices.

Nanocomposites have attracted great research and development interests. Lactate oxidase (LOD) in the presence of lactate was used to initiate the polymerization of pyrrole monomer with and without carbon nanotube (CNT) presence to produce a 2- or 3-component nanocomposite. We found that the formation mechanisms for the 2- and 3-component nanocomposites were differentfrom network assembly to film growth. Enzyme molecules served as the seeds for polymerization without CNT presence and preferentially resulted in the formation of nanoparticles. In this case, an interesting self-assembly of the nanoparticles was observed. However, when CNTs were introduced into the reaction system, they functioned as the seeds for the polymerization and a CNT-networked nanocomposite film was formed. The morphology, components, and the thickness of the composite film could be easily tailored by the reaction time, the ratio of pyrrole to CNTs, and the amount of enzyme. The application of the nanocomposite for the lactase biosens...

Oleic acid capped barium strontium titanate (OA-BST) nanoparticles were synthesized for solution-prepared dielectrics in organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). The as-synthesized nanoparticles were well-dispersed in organic solvents to deposit very homogeneous dielectric films by direct spin coating. Bottom-gate pentacene TFTs fabricated using these nanoparticle dielectric films showed high mobilities of 1-2 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) with on/off ratios of 10(3) under a low driven voltage of -2.5 V. Top-gate poly(3,3'''-didodecylquaterthiophene) (PQT-12) TFTs with nanoparticle dielectrics also exhibited a low-voltage operation (-5 V) performance with mobilities of 0.01-0.1 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) and on/off ratios of 10(3)-10(4). Detailed studies on the gate voltage-dependent mobility of the devices showed that only a low gate electric field needed to achieve the saturated mobility for the OA-BST-based pentacene OTFTs could be attributed to the low trapped-state densities (3.9 x 10(11) cm(-2)) at the dielectric/semiconductor interfaces for these devices.

In this paper, the problem of how to realize an multi-channel receiver with various bandwidth is discussed in details. After a channel spectrum partition is given, a mathematic model of channelized receiver is derived, based on polyphase filter. Then a simulation system is designed. All the simulation results show that the presented model is valid and practical.

Patients who need both capsule endoscopy (CE) and colonoscopy often undergo both examinations on the same day to avoid repeated bowel preparation and fasting. Sedation can relieve pain and is commonly used for colonoscopies but may influence the CE completion rate. To determine whether sedation with propofol influences the completion rate and small-bowel transit time (SBTT) of CE. From July 2014 to December 2014, patients (18–65 years old) who needed both CE and colonoscopy were assessed consecutively for enrollment in our study. Colonoscopies were performed with or without sedation based on patient preferences on the day of capsule ingestion. The completion rate, SBTT, and diagnostic yield of CEs were recorded. Patients’ satisfaction and pain scores were also recorded. Sedation with propofol had no significant effect on CE completion rates (83.3% sedation group vs 81.8% nonsedation group, P = 0.86) but was associated with increased SBTT (403.6 ± 160.3 sedation group vs 334.5 ± 134.4 nonsedation group, P = 0.006). The diagnostic yields in the sedation and nonsedation groups were 69.4% and 65.9%, respectively (P = 0.74). The median satisfaction scores were 8.6 in the sedation group and 3.5 in the nonsedation group (P

In this paper we report on thin film transistors based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) composite active materials. Single walled CNTs were dispersed into P3HT chloroform solution. By drop casting, the composite solution was deposited onto the pre-fabricated device and formed thin active layer. The effect of different concentrations of CNTs to the charge carrier mobility of the composite was studied. Very little amount of CNT added into the active material can improve the carrier mobility while the on/off ratio is not reduced.

Free electrons and holes bounded by weak interactions in organic molecules must be generated from excitons to produce photocurrent in organic solar cells. Free charge carriers, in either small molecule- or polymer-based solar cells, are generated so far by dissociation of excitons at the donor-acceptor interface through injecting electrons (holes) from a donor (acceptor) into an acceptor (donor) while leaving holes (electrons) in the donor (acceptor). Here we report a new way, intermolecular exciton recombination, to generate free carriers from organic semiconductors. Unlike the exciton dissociation between donor and acceptor, the recombination of electrons from perfluorinated hexadecafluorophthalo-cyaninatozinc (F16ZnPc) with holes from fullerene (C(60)) frees their counterpart carriers. A new organic solar cell based on this intermolecular exciton recombination at the interface is fabricated to clearly demonstrate this new way to produce free carriers and then harvest electricity from sunlight.

Organic field-effect transistors with large-area coverage on flexible plastic substrates are fabricated by ultraviolet transfer embossing printing method. The source and drain electrodes are formed on the plastic substrate with gold by means of transfer embossing. The active layer is spin coated from 5wt% poly(3-hexylthiophene)-chloroform solution. Poly(4-vinylphenol) is used as the dielectric layer and a thin layer of silver paste is applied to cover the channel area as the gate electrode. The device shows good saturation behavior and gives an on/off ratio of 102 and the extracted field-effect mobility of the transistor is 0.0016cm2∕Vs.

Functionalization of carbon nanotubes is very challenging for their applications. The paper here describes a new method to functionalize multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as specific affinity adsorbents. MWCNTs were acid purified and pretreated with (3-aminopropyl)-triethoxysilane (APTES) in order to introduce abundant amino groups on the surface of MWCNTs. After the conversion of amino groups to carboxyl groups by succinic acid anhydride, MWCNTs were attached to protein A or aminodextran using 1-ethyl-3,3' (dimethylamion)-propylcarbodiimide as a biofunctional crosslinker. The incorporation of aminodextran as a spacer arm noticeably increased the binding capacity of the APTES-modified MWCNTs for protein A. The application of affinity MWCNTs for purification of immunoglobulin G was then evaluated. The affinity of MWCNTs with AMD spacer exhibited a high adsorption capacity of ~361??g IgG/mg MWCNT (wet basis). About 75% of bound IgG was eluted from affinity MWCNTs (ANT-I and ANT-II) and ELISA confirmed that the biological activity of IgG was well preserved during the course of affinity separation. The functionalized MWCNTs could be potentially used in affinity chromatography.

Thin film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated from poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) composite as the active materials. Single walled CNTs were dispersed into a P3HT/chloroform solution. By drop casting, the composite solution was deposited onto the pre-fabricated device and formed a thin active layer for a TFT. The effect of different concentrations of CNTs on the charge carrier mobility of the composite was studied. A low ratio of CNT to the active material could significantly improve the carrier mobility while the on/off ratio was not reduced.

A method of impedance frequency response analysis (FRA) with template multilayer organic capacitor was studied to evaluate printable materials for all-printed organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). The new method allows us not only to characterize simultaneously dielectric and conductive behaviors of the materials but also to distinguish contributions to electrical conduction or to polarization from different sources such as dielectric layer, semiconductor layer, and different interfaces for OFETs. As a dielectric layer for OFETs, Urathan is preferred because of lower conductivity, nonmetallic conduction behavior at high temperature, and lower interfacial resistance. Conductivity and dielectric enhancement of Urathan can be realized by heating. The critical temperature for conductivity and dielectricity transition was calculated from FRA from temperature dependent experiments. The method could be a standard for fast screening and assessing printable materials for OFETs.