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Aims This prospective study explored relevant factors and clinical significance of atrial 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Methods and results One hundred AF patients underwent baseline FDG imaging prior to radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA). Of those, 30 subjects underwent additional FDG imaging at 3 months post-RFCA. Voltage mapping of the left atrium was analysed as a voltage score. Patients who received RFCA were followed for 26 months (17–31 months) to assess recurrence. At baseline FDG imaging, 74% of patients with persistent AF (PsAF) and 24% of patients with paroxysmal AF showed increased atrial FDG uptake. The prevalence was higher in the right atrium (49%) than in the left atrium (15%, P  <   0.001) or left atrial appendage (21%, P  <   0.001). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that PsAF and elevated B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) were related to enhanced right atrial (RA) activity, and increased epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) activity was predictive of left atrial (LA) activity. LA activity was inversely associated with voltage score, while increased FDG uptake in the right atrium was predictive of successful AF termination by RFCA. Atrial FDG activities decreased significantly post-RFCA, but none of the FDG parameters were predictive of AF recurrence. Conclusions Enhanced RA activity was associated with elevated BNP level, whereas LA activity was related to the increased activity of EAT and inversely correlated with LA fibrosis. Increased RA activity was predictive of successful AF termination by RFCA in PsAF patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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As a major agricultural province in China, it is necessary to study the content of heavy metals in farmland soil and crop in Jilin Province and to evaluate the risks to ecology and human health. This study presented the work completed on 79 soil samples, 10 rice samples, 66 maize samples and 15 soybean samples collected from Jilin Province farmland and evaluated six heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd, Hg and As) concentrations. The results showed that the concentrations of the six heavy metals in farmland soil and crop samples from Jilin Province basically met the soil standards and food health standards of China. The agricultural soil pollution spatial distribution was the most serious in the south of Jilin Province and the lightest in the west. The non-carcinogenic risks faced by children eating crops were higher than those of adults, but the carcinogenic risks were lower than those of adults. Both of the two health risks to adults and children from eating crops were very limited. The results would help determine the heavy metals pollution in farmland soil in Jilin Province efficiently and accurately and helped decision makers to achieve a balance between production and environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This retrospective study was designed to explore the factors relevant to increased atrial 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who had undergone routine whole-body positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging. Methods and Results: Forty-eight consecutive AF patients (32 persistent, 16 paroxysmal) were identified from our routine FDG PET/CT database. Twenty-two control subjects were selected to establish the normal range of FDG uptake (maximum standardized uptake value, SUVmax) in target tissues. A target-to-background ratio (TBR) was calculated to determine abnormal uptake in the atrium and atrial appendage (AA). Univariate comparisons and multivariate regression analyses were conducted to explore the factors associated with the increased FDG accumulation in the atrium and AA. Seventeen AF patients, all with persistent AF, had increased atrial FDG uptake. Most of them (14, or 82.4%) had increased uptake in the right atrium. Eleven AF patients, 9 with persistent AF, had increased uptake in the AA, and bilateral AAs were equally involved. Multivariate logistic regression analyses identified that female gender, persistent AF, and activity in epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) were independent factors predicting the increased activity of the atrium; also, SUVmax of the left ventricle was found for the AA. In addition, multivariate linear regression analyses showed that EAT activity was the only independent variable linearly correlated with the activity of the atrium and AA. Conclusions: Atrial uptake was present in persistent AF and localized mainly in the right atrium, whereas bilateral AAs could be equally involved. Multiple factors contributed to the increased activity in atrium; in particular, the EAT activity was independently correlated with the activity of the atrium and AA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal oxide/semiconductor heterostructures exhibit great potential for high-performance electronic device applications, but the interfacial defects resulting from lattice mismatch pose significant challenges to improving the performance of these devices. In this study, we reported a construction of a single crystal Ti 2.5 O 3 /GaAs heterostructure with minimum lattice mismatch between titanium sub-oxides and GaAs substrate. Low lattice mismatch values of 0.3% or 0.6% can be achieved along different orientations. Further experimental analyses demonstrate that high crystalline Ti 2.5 O 3 (0 1 0) film can be grown layer by layer on GaAs (0 0 1) substrate with highly compatible interface. The defect-free interface significantly suppresses the diffusion of As and Ga ions, which impedes the formation of arsenic oxide and gallium oxide at the interface. Due to the high-quality Ti 2.5 O 3 layer, the integrated BaTiO 3 (250 nm)/SrTiO 3 /Ti 2.5 O 3 (5 nm)/GaAs heterostructure exhibits an enhanced hysteresis loop with a remnant polarization of 9.85 µC/cm2 at 600 kV/cm and a small leakage current density of 1 × 10−5 A/cm2 at −500 kV/cm. The considerable advantage of this Ti 2.5 O 3 /GaAs heterostructure provides an example of integrating other functional oxides for GaAs with suppressed ion diffusion. It also provides a platform for fabricating different electronic devices with higher reliability and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]